Abstract: An in-memory storage manager represents XML-compliant documents as a collection of objects in memory. The collection of objects allows the storage manager to manipulate the document, or parts of the document with a consistent interface and to provide for features that are not available in conventional XML documents, such as element attributes with types other than text and documents that contain binary rather than text information. In addition, in the storage manager, the XML-compliant document is associated with a schema document which defines the arrangement of the document elements and attributes. The schema data associated with a document can contain a mapping between document elements and program code to be associated with each element. The storage manager further has methods for retrieving the code from the element tag. The retrieved code can then be invoked using attributes and content from the associated element and the element then acts like a conventional object.

Abstract: An in-memory storage manager represents XML-compliant documents as a collection of objects in memory. The collection of objects allows the storage manager to manipulate the document, or parts of the document with a consistent interface and to provide for features that are not available in conventional XML documents, such as element attributes with types other than text and documents that contain binary rather than text information. In addition, in the storage manager, the XML-compliant document is associated with a schema document which defines the arrangement of the document elements and attributes. The schema data associated with a document can contain a mapping between document elements and program code to be associated with each element. The storage manager further has methods for retrieving the code from the element tag. The retrieved code can then be invoked using attributes and content from the associated element and the element then acts like a conventional object.

Abstract: A pneumatic sheet feeder is selectively actuable to acquire a sheet from a stack and transport the sheet towards a take-away nip. The feeder includes a feedhead having an acquisition surface substantially aligned with the take-away nip. A sensing apparatus detects three separate distances between the stack and the acquisition surface at three separate locations over the stack. The stack is then tilted based upon the distances sensed by the sensors. In embodiments, the feedhead has two sensors, and moves so that the third distance can be measured by one of the sensors. In other embodiments, the feedhead includes three sensors for measuring each of the distances.

Abstract: An arm sling assembly is disclosed for supporting at least one of the arms of a patient in an angled orientation against the torso. The assembly includes a sleeveless vest dimensioned to be worn on the torso of the patient. The vest is openable at the front to facilitate donning of the assembly. Moreover, attached to the one or both of the front portions of the vest is an arm support cuff. In particular, the support cuff is stitched to the front left or right portion of the vest along vertically spaced upper and lower attachment zones and is detached from the front portion between the zones so as to define an open-sided arm passageway in which the arm is inserted and supported. An alternative embodiment is also disclosed wherein the arm cuff is adjustably and removably attached to the vest at the upper attachment zone.

Abstract: A speech synthesizer and a method for synthesizing speech are disclosed. The synthesizer has an output stage for converting a phonetic description to an acoustic output. The output stage includes a database of recorded utterance segments. The output stage operates: a. to convert the phonetic description to a plurality of time-varying parameters; and b. to interpret the parameters as a key for accessing the database to identify an utterance segment in the database. The output stage then outputs the identified utterance segment. The output stage further comprises an output waveform synthesizer that can generate an output signal from the parameters. Therefore, in the event that the parameters describe an utterance segment for which there is no corresponding recording in the database, the parameters are passed to the output waveform synthesizer to generate an output signal.

Abstract: Systems and methods consistent with the present invention manage balance transfer accounts associated with customer pre-existing debt accounts. The system first creates a balance transfer account for the customer, which may include opening the balance transfer account to allow the customer to activate it. The method then determines whether a payment to the balance transfer account received from the customer meets a payment threshold criteria. If the received payment meets the payment threshold criteria, then a credit bureau is notified of the balance transfer account and the balance transfer account remains open. If the received payment does not meet the payment threshold criteria, then the balance transfer account is closed without notification to the credit bureau.

Abstract: An entertainment system receives entertainment programming interposed with commercials. The entertainment system selectively renders the commercial in accordance with characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment programming. In one embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received versions of a commercial. In another embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received commercials.

Abstract: An entertainment system receives entertainment programming interposed with commercials. The entertainment system selectively renders the commercial in accordance with characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment programming. In one embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received versions of a commercial. In another embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received commercials.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus to collect and provide viewer feedback to broadcasts. According to one aspect of the present invention, a rating is generated for a broadcast by a server system. The rating is based at least in part on viewer feedback to the broadcast, and the rating indicates a likelihood of interest in the broadcast for potential subsequent viewers. Access to the rating is then provided so that predications can be made as to whether or not the broadcast will be of interest to potential subsequent viewers. According to another aspect of the present invention, the rating is provided from the server system to an entertainment system, and the broadcast can be selected for viewing at an entertainment system based on the rating generated by the server system. In one embodiment, the viewer feedback is received at the entertainment system in response to a feedback questionnaire.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method and apparatus for providing signals for a synthetic voice by way of derived voice-representative data. In embodiments of the invention, the derived data is derived by combination of data representative of first and second (and maybe more) voices of a base repertoire, the combined data including selected parameters of a formant-type voice synthesiser. Combination may take place by interpolation between or extrapolation beyond the voices of the base repertoire. Individual parameters within the derived data may contain different proportions of corresponding parameters of the base repertoire. The invention is applicable either directly to control parameters of a synthesiser or to tables for these parameters.

Abstract: A human-machine interface apparatus for providing an output from a computer. The human-machine interface apparatus comprises a three-dimensional form shaped to represent a communications agent, the three-dimensional form having a display surface, an input interface for accepting image data from a computer, a display apparatus for displaying an image with which a user can engage on the display surface corresponding to the input image data, an input apparatus for receiving non-manual inputs from a user who is engaging with an image on the display apparatus, and an output interface for providing to a computer data derived from inputs received by the input apparatus.

Abstract: An entertainment system receives entertainment programming interposed with commercials. The entertainment system selectively renders the commercial in accordance with characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment programming. In one embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received versions of a commercial. In another embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received commercials.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus to collect and provide viewer feedback to broadcasts. According to one aspect of the present invention, a rating is generated for a broadcast by a server system. The rating is based at least in part on viewer feedback to the broadcast, and the rating indicates a likelihood of interest in the broadcast for potential subsequent viewers. Access to the rating is then provided so that predications can be made as to whether or not the broadcast will be of interest to potential subsequent viewers. According to another aspect of the present invention, the rating is provided from the server system to an entertainment system, and the broadcast can be selected for viewing at an entertainment system based on the rating generated by the server system. In one embodiment, the viewer feedback is received at the entertainment system in response to a feedback questionnaire.

Abstract: A paper-based gasket is impregnated with a silicone resin to improve resistance to water/antifreeze mixtures. The gasket is made from paper essentially free from amine-containing material such as wetting agent and is bonded with a sulphur-free or sulphur donor free rubber binder.

Abstract: An instruction pipeline for a data processor is disclosed, in which instruction execution is carried out in a sequence of phases which include fetching the instruction from an instruction storage, computing a data storage address from the fetched instruction, accessing the data storage at the computed address to obtain a datum operand, and then carrying out the logical or arithmetic operation on the accessed datum in accordance with the fetched instruction. Branch and stack instructions and return instructions are accommodated by providing a return address stack in the data storage, which stores the next instruction store address to be returned to after a return operation has been completed.

Abstract: In apparatus for electrostatographic reproduction of an original document having an electrostatographic recording member supported on a rotatable drum or belt, a developing station, a copy sheet supply station and a transfer roller at which developed toner images are transferred by an applied electric field from the recording member to the copy sheet, the transfer roller is arranged to operate in timed relationship to the operation of the copy sheet supply station and rotation of the drum or belt so that the leading edge of each copy sheet passes through the transfer zone before the electric field is applied. The copy sheets therefore separate or strip cleanly from the drum or belt. The apparatus may be a duplicator in which the recording member is imaged at a relatively slow speed in a first cycle of the drum or belt and the image is preserved for use in subsequent high speed cycles of the drum or belt.

Abstract: Television apparatus for producing signals for displaying simultaneously a succession of separated images of an object moving over a selectable time period in an otherwise substantially static scene so that the trajectory of the object can be viewed. The effect is achieved by storing, at the start of the selectable time period, a television frame in a suitable storage device and periodically comparing the stored frame with television frames arriving subsequently during the selectable time period, and upon detection of differences between corresponding picture elements of the stored and subsequently arriving frames, substituting the picture elements that caused the detected difference in the stored frame. The system identifies such substituted picture elements and ensures that the same picture elements are not again substituted during the selectable time period.

Abstract: A system for reducing noise in a color video signal which utilizes frame store integration and includes a delay or storage device for storing a single television frame, a summing device for adding a fractional amplitude portion of the signal stored in the storage device to a fractional amplitude portion of the present video signal, and a chrominance corrector circuit for altering the chrominance component of the stored signal so as to be in the proper phase relationship to be summed with the chrominance component of the present video signal. The system is operative automatically to change the fractional amplitude portion of the stored signal fed back to the summing device as a function of the difference between stored and present signals thereby to change the integration time constant of the system to accommodate for motion between the present signal and the stored frames.