Abstract: A hot-wire deposition device with an extended focal-zone laser beam includes a laser, a lens assembly, a deposition working surface and a wire feeding system. The laser is configured to emit a laser beam; the lens assembly is configured to transform the laser beam into an extended focal-zone laser beam, which transitions from an annular light spot to a continuous solid light spot in a space. The deposition working surface is configured to receive a projection of the extended focal-zone laser beam to obtain a solid or annular light spot and a molten pool formed by sustained heating of the light spot. The wire feeding system is configured to feed a wire along a preset path, making a tail end of the wire connected to the molten pool in the form of a liquid bridge after being preheated by the continuous solid light spot.

Abstract: Various methods, apparatuses/systems, and media for implementing a payment application module for searching billets are disclosed. A plurality of data sources include customer profile data, customer payment history data, biller information data, and biller directory data. A processor operatively coupled to the plurality of data sources via a communication network builds a customer profile service area popularity model based on the customer profile data, customer payment history data, biller information data, and biller directory data; receives search query data for searching a biller; builds a biller search machine learning model to optimize weights applied to the search query data; and ranks search results by utilizing the machine learning model in response to the search query data.

Abstract: Various methods, apparatuses/systems, and media for implementing a payment application module for searching billets are disclosed. A plurality of data sources include customer profile data, customer payment history data, biller information data, and biller directory data. A processor operatively coupled to the plurality of data sources via a communication network builds a customer profile service area popularity model based on the customer profile data, customer payment history data, biller information data, and biller directory data; receives search query data for searching a biller; builds a biller search machine learning model to optimize weights applied to the search query data; and ranks search results by utilizing the machine learning model in response to the search query data.

Abstract: Systems and methods for machine-assisted document input are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method may include a data extraction application executed by a computer processor: receiving an image of a document/email; generating a transcript of the document/email, wherein the transcript comprises a plurality of text groups from the document/email and a location for each text group in the document/email; identifying a vendor associated with the document/email based on contents of one of the text groups and/or one of the locations of the one of one of the text groups; retrieving a vendor-specific machine learning model for the vendor; associating each of the plurality of locations in the document/email with a billing field using the vendor-specific machine learning model; extracting each of the text groups into one of the billing fields based on the association; and transmitting the billing fields with the extracted data to a user electronic device.