Abstract: A method, information handling system and/or computer program product provides a cookie to a user. The method comprises: analyzing data in a consolidated set of the user's internet activities; generating a server side cookie for a website based on the analyzed data; in response to the user visiting the website with a first client, providing the server side cookie to the first client; merging the server side cookie with a client side cookie at the first client; and using the merged cookie to provide personalized recommendations to the user.

Abstract: A method, information handling system and/or computer program product provides a cookie to a user. The method comprises: analyzing data in a consolidated set of the user's internet activities; generating a server side cookie for a website based on the analyzed data; in response to the user visiting the website with a first client, providing the server side cookie to the first client; merging the server side cookie with a client side cookie at the first client; and using the merged cookie to provide personalized recommendations to the user.

Abstract: Methods, computer program products, and systems for use in near field communications systems for authenticating at a near field communications receiver, a user of a near field communications transmitter. The system includes a data receiver for receiving a signal comprising a first unique identifier from a near field communications transmitter. The system also includes a received signal strength indicator for measuring a signal strength of the received signal. The system further includes a signal strength tracker for tracking a variation with time of the signal strength of the received signal and converting the variation with time into a second unique identifier. The system further includes a comparator for comparing the received first unique identifier and the tracked and converted second unique identifier and for outputting a signal indicating the result of the comparison. The user is authenticated if the signal indicates that the first and second identifiers correlate correctly.

Abstract: An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system includes a speech-responsive application and a recognition engine. The ASR system generates user prompts to elicit certain spoken inputs, and the speech-responsive application performs operations when the spoken inputs are recognized. The recognition engine compares sounds within an input audio signal with phones within an acoustic model, to identify candidate matching phones. A recognition confidence score is calculated for each candidate matching phone, and the confidence scores are used to help identify one or more likely sequences of matching phones that appear to match a word within the grammar of the speech-responsive application. The per-phone confidence scores are evaluated against predefined confidence score criteria (for example, identifying scores below a ‘low confidence’ threshold) and the results of the evaluation are used to influence subsequent selection of user prompts.

Abstract: A personalized audio and/or video (AV) stream is created for a user. A first stream of AV data is selected by reference to predetermined user preferences. One or more further data streams having a predetermined relation to the first stream are selected. Portions of the first stream are identified and captured by reference to identifying predetermined indicia in a group of streams consisting of the first stream and the one or more further data streams, where the capturing comprises capturing one or more time stamps from the group of streams. The personalized AV stream, comprising a captured portion of the first stream and data selected by reference to the predetermined indicia from at least one of the further data streams is generated, where the data selected is based on each captured timestamp.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program is disclosed for managing a user interface (UI) for an application program in which a plurality of user interface methods are provided for a given application program function, one or more of the more frequently used UI options being maintained in the UI while one or more of the less frequently used UI options are removed.

Abstract: A method, information handling system and/or computer program product provides a cookie to a user. The method comprises: analyzing data in a consolidated set of the user's internet activities; generating a server side cookie for a website based on the analyzed data; in response to the user visiting the website with a first client, providing the server side cookie to the first client; merging the server side cookie with a client side cookie at the first client; and using the merged cookie to provide personalized recommendations to the user.

Abstract: A method, information handling system and/or computer program product provides a cookie to a user. The method comprises: analyzing data in a consolidated set of the user's internet activities; generating a server side cookie for a website based on the analyzed data; in response to the user visiting the website with a first client, providing the server side cookie to the first client; merging the server side cookie with a client side cookie at the first client; and using the merged cookie to provide personalized recommendations to the user.

Abstract: A transaction is received containing a plurality of sub-transactions. Each of the plurality of sub-transactions is associated with a category and a value. Each of the sub-transactions is assigned to one of a plurality of groups based on the associated category. A total value of the sub-transactions for each group is calculated. A dominant group is calculated based on the calculated total value of the sub-transactions for each group. The merchant identification descriptor associated with the dominant group is assigned to the transaction. The transaction is submitted to a payment merchant with the assigned merchant identification descriptor. The transaction may be split into multiple transactions with each assigned a merchant identification descriptor.

Abstract: An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system includes a speech-responsive application and a recognition engine. The ASR system generates user prompts to elicit certain spoken inputs, and the speech-responsive application performs operations when the spoken inputs are recognised. The recognition engine compares sounds within an input audio signal with phones within an acoustic model, to identify candidate matching phones. A recognition confidence score is calculated for each candidate matching phone, and the confidence scores are used to help identify one or more likely sequences of matching phones that appear to match a word within the grammar of the speech-responsive application. The per-phone confidence scores are evaluated against predefined confidence score criteria (for example, identifying scores below a ‘low confidence’ threshold) and the results of the evaluation are used to influence subsequent selection of user prompts.

Abstract: A personalized audio and/or video (AV) stream is created for a user. A first stream of AV data is selected by reference to predetermined user preferences. One or more further data streams having a predetermined relation to the first stream are selected. Portions of the first stream are identified and captured by reference to identifying predetermined indicia in a group of streams consisting of the first stream and the one or more further data streams, where the capturing comprises capturing one or more timestamps from the group of streams. A personalized AV stream, comprising a captured portion of the first stream and data selected by reference to the predetermined indicia from at least one of the further data streams is generated, where the data selected is based on each captured timestamp.

Abstract: A private browsing function of a web browser application program may be triggered for a browser by a browser or by a URL provider. Upon receipt of the URI by a web browser, the URI is inspected for the presence of a private browsing indicator. When the URI is found to contain a private browsing indicator, operation of the private browsing function for the web browser application program is triggered.

Abstract: A private browsing function of a web browser application program may be triggered for a browser by a browser or by a URL provider. Upon receipt of the URI by a web browser, the URI is inspected for the presence of a private browsing indicator. When the URI is found to contain a private browsing indicator, operation of the private browsing function for the web browser application program is triggered.

Abstract: A method controls one or more attributes of a secondary video stream for display in combination with a primary video stream. The method comprises: identifying a primary video stream; identifying a secondary video stream; assigning one or more settings for one or more attributes of said secondary video stream to a predetermined set of one or more user identifiers; identifying the user identifier associated with a given video processing module; determining the one or more attribute settings assigned to the user identifier; and processing the secondary video stream for display in combination with the primary video stream in accordance with the one or more attribute settings for the user identifier.

Abstract: An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system includes a speech-responsive application and a recognition engine. The ASR system generates user prompts to elicit certain spoken inputs, and the speech-responsive application performs operations when the spoken inputs are recognized. The recognition engine compares sounds within an input audio signal with phones within an acoustic model, to identify candidate matching phones. A recognition confidence score is calculated for each candidate matching phone, and the confidence scores are used to help identify one or more likely sequences of matching phones that appear to match a word within the grammar of the speech-responsive application. The per-phone confidence scores are evaluated against predefined confidence score criteria (for example, identifying scores below a ‘low confidence’ threshold) and the results of the evaluation are used to influence subsequent selection of user prompts.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program is disclosed for managing a user interface (UI) for an application program in which a plurality of user interface methods are provided for a given application program function, one or more of the more frequently used UI options being maintained in the UI while one or more of the less frequently used UI options are removed.

Abstract: Provided are methods, data processing systems and computer program product for monitoring user activity and monitoring the effectiveness of objects within a virtual environment such as an immersive, computer-simulated 3D environment. An embodiment of the invention monitors the attention given to a virtual object by one or more avatars, by associating a viewing region with each object that requires attention monitoring, and detecting when an avatar is within the viewing region of the object simultaneously with the object being within an attention region (typically a clipped field of view) of the avatar. The viewing region is a 3D volume within which a surface of the virtual object is deemed to be effectively viewable.

Abstract: Methods, computer program products, and systems for use in near field communications systems for authenticating at a near field communications receiver, a user of a near field communications transmitter. The system includes a data receiver for receiving a signal comprising a first unique identifier from a near field communications transmitter. The system also includes a received signal strength indicator for measuring a signal strength of the received signal. The system further includes a signal strength tracker for tracking a variation with time of the signal strength of the received signal and converting the variation with time into a second unique identifier. The system further includes a comparator for comparing the received first unique identifier and the tracked and converted second unique identifier and for outputting a signal indicating the result of the comparison. The user is authenticated if the signal indicates that the first and second identifiers correlate correctly.

Abstract: A method for identifying relevant shared resources for a requested browser criterion, the method comprising the steps of: receiving browser monitoring data for a shared resource, the browser monitoring data including an identification of a browser criterion; recording the browser monitoring data to a monitoring data store; parsing the monitoring data in the monitoring data store to identify relevant monitoring data for the requested browser criterion; and identifying shared resources associated with the relevant monitoring data.

Abstract: A speech recognition system prompts a user to provide a first utterance, which is recorded. Speech recognition is performed on the first user utterance to yield a recognition result. The user is prompted to provide a second user utterance, which is recorded, processed and compared to the first utterance to detect a plurality of acoustic differences for each acoustic parameter. The acoustic model used by the speech recognition engine is modified as a function of the acoustic difference.