Abstract: A catalyst system including at least one metal and an oxide support, said oxide support including at least one of Al2O3, MnxOy, MgO, ZrO2, and La2O3, or any mixtures thereof; said catalyst being suitable for catalyzing at least one reaction under supercritical water conditions is disclosed. Additionally, a system for producing a high-pressure product gas under super-critical water conditions is provided. The system includes a pressure reactor accommodating a feed mixture of water and organic matter; a solar radiation concentrating system heating the pressure reactor and elevating the temperature and the pressure of the mixture to about the water critical temperature point and pressure point or higher. The reactor is configured and operable to enable a supercritical water process of the mixture to occur therein for conversion of the organic matter and producing a high-pressure product fuel gas.

Abstract: Authentication information (125) obtained by a device (100) at one level of a transformation sequence is securely communicated to another device (200) at another level of the transformation sequence. To assure that the communicated authentication information (125) is not merely a copy of previously communicated authentication information, each communication (145) includes an item (255) that the receiving device (200) can verify as having been recently generated.

Abstract: A security system assesses the response time to requests for information to determine whether the responding system is in physical proximity to the requesting system. Generally, physical proximity corresponds to temporal proximity. If the response time indicates a substantial or abnormal lag between request and response, the system assumes that the lag is caused by the request and response having to travel a substantial or abnormal physical distance, or caused by the request being processed to generate a response, rather than being answered by an existing response in the physical possession of a user. If a substantial or abnormal lag is detected, the system is configured to limit subsequent access to protected material by the current user, and/or to notify security personnel of the abnormal response lag.

Abstract: A system and method determines the proximity of the target node to the source node from the time required to communicate messages within the node-verification protocol. The node-verification protocol includes a query-response sequence, wherein the source node communicates a query to the target node, and the target node communicates a corresponding response to the source node. The target node is configured to communicate two responses to the query: a first response that is transmitted immediately upon receipt of the query, and a second response based on the contents of the query. The communication time is determined based on the time duration between the transmission of the query and receipt of the first response at the source node and the second response is compared for correspondence to the query, to verify the authenticity of the target node.

Abstract: A system and method determines the proximity of the target node to the source node from the time required to communicate messages within the node-verification protocol. The node-verification protocol includes a query-response sequence, wherein the source node communicates a query to the target node, and the target node communicates a corresponding response to the source node. The target node is configured to communicate two responses to the query: a first response that is transmitted immediately upon receipt of the query, and a second response based on the contents of the query. The communication time is determined based on the time duration between the transmission of the query and receipt of the first response at the source node and the second response is compared for correspondence to the query, to verify the authenticity of the target node.

Abstract: Data items are selected for inclusion in a data set so as to discourage a transmission of the entire set. Each data item includes section(s) which constitute(s) the complete data set. Each section contains a watermark that includes an identifier of the section, and an identifier of the data set. The identifier of the section may be the address of the section, and the identifier of the data set may be the serial number and an indicator of the total size of the data set. The presence of the data set is confirmed by checking the watermarks of randomly selected sections to verify that the original section that formed the data set is present. If a section is discovered to be missing or altered, subsequent processing of data items of the data set is prevented. The identifiers may be stored as a combination of robust and fragile watermarks.

Abstract: The invention includes methods and software tools for acquiring data from diverse sources, and structuring the data in a form that may be used to determine object equivalence. Practice of the invention includes one or more of the following tools: a data acquisition web agent creator, a web agent created by the web agent creator, an agent manager for deploying said web agent, and ontology-directed classifier, an ontology-directed extractor, and an ontology-directed matcher. The tools are example driven through a graphical user interface.

Abstract: A video game controller that can be configured using a set of video game control switch modules for single hand usage (left or right). The controller is comprised of a controller housing having a base receptacle containing circuitry and a top enclosure which contains several module slots in which removable video game control switch modules can to be inserted and connected to the game controller circuitry via a parallel bus. The removable video game control switch modules which contain the game controls themselves, such as analog joysticks and triggers, can be inserted into any module slot allowing a game player to arrange the controller as desired and have a high level of customization on a per-game or per-user basis.

Abstract: A system and method to protect content material enforce copy protection by establishing a secure link (130-230) between two components (100, 200) that process the protected content material in different forms. This secure link (130-230) is used to communicate security information derived at a first component material from a source (101) to a second component (200) that derives corresponding security information from the material in a transformed form. If the security information from both components is not consistent, the second component (200) prevents subsequent rendering of the content material.

Abstract: A security system assesses the response time to requests for information to determine whether the responding system is in physical proximity to the requesting system. Generally, physical proximity corresponds to temporal proximity. If the response time indicates a substantial or abnormal lag between request and response, the system assumes that the lag is caused by the request and response having to travel a substantial or abnormal physical distance, or caused by the request being processed to generate a response, rather than being answered by an existing response in the physical possession of a user. If a substantial or abnormal lag is detected, the system is configured to limit subsequent access to protected material by the current user, and/or to notify security personnel of the abnormal response lag.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of determining a proximity between a root node (301) and a leaf node (303) in a network. The method comprises computing a link proximity value between any two mutually connected nodes in the network, at an initial node, sending a proximity computation request message containing a proximity counter to an intermediate node to which said initial node is connected, at an intermediate node (302) being connected to a first node and to a second node, upon receipt of the proximity computation request message containing a proximity counter from the first node, adding the computed link proximity value to the proximity counter and passing on the proximity computation request message to the second node, at a final node, upon receipt of the proximity computation request message, determining the proximity between the root node and the leaf node as the value indicated by the proximity counter.

Abstract: A lint collector for a dryer in which clothes are dried by heated air supplied to a rotating drum.

Abstract: An authoring tool supporting the creation, editing and use of a “Mobile Media Documentary” (MMD) is discussed. An MMD is an interactive tour of physical and virtual locations that is accompanied by multimedia content mapped to spatial data for a known path. The multimedia content includes character-driven audio narrative supplemented by graphics, text, video and interactive content.

Abstract: Content material is protected with a variety of watermarking processes. Different subsets of the protected content material are submitted to different watermarking processes. At the rendering device, a watermark detector is configured to detect one or more different watermarks. Only if the particular watermark(s) that the rendering device is configured to detect is removed from the protected content material will the rendering device permit the rendering of the protected material. If the particular watermark(s) that the rendering device is configured to detect is unpredictable, or if the particular segment that is protected by a particular watermark is undetectable, a wholesale removal of specific watermarks from the watermarked material will neither be efficient nor economically viable.

Abstract: Authentication information (125) obtained by a device (100) at one level of a transformation sequence is securely communicated to another device (200) at another level of the transformation sequence. To assure that the communicated authentication information (125) is not merely a copy of previously communicated authentication information, each communication (145) includes an item (255) that the receiving device (200) can verify as having been recently generated.

Abstract: An approach to abstracting the circuit switched nature of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by using VoIP to provide voice actuated services is disclosed. By carrying a telephone call using VoIP technology for a short distance (frequently within a server room) significant benefits to call handling and capacity management can be obtained. Specifically, a PSTN-to-IP gateway is used to receive (and place) calls over the PSTN and route those calls internally to servers over an IP network in a packet switched format. A number of computer systems can receive and handle the calls in the IP format, including: translating the packets into an audio format suitable for speech recognition and creating suitable packets from computer sound files for transmission back over the PSTN.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for random number generation, including a plurality of cross-connected latches 210, 215, 220, 225, providing at least two latch outputs (latch1, latch0) is provided. A first XOR 261 receives the at least two latch outputs (latch0, latch1) as an input, and generates a mistake signal “E” when its inputs do not match from the at least two latch outputs (latch0, latch1) being at different logic states. The mistake signal is compared with a previously stored mistake signal by a second XOR 265 to determine whether to obtain a random bit from a pseudo random stream of bits.

Abstract: Subsets of a video image (101) are analyzed to determine whether unauthorized playback-protected image is contained within the subsets. Regions of subsequent video images are prevented (210) from being displayed based upon whether the unauthorized playback-protected image is contained within the subsets. When a watermark is detected (220) within a video image, select areas (240) of the video image are included or excluded from subsequent watermark detection operations. When the inclusion/exclusion of an area results affects the ability to detect the watermark (260), a region that includes/excludes the area is identified (270) as a region that should not be displayed (210). The detection of other areas that affect the watermark detection results causes a redefinition (270) of the region to include/exclude the other areas.