Abstract: A method and apparatus which enables customers to remotely order goods from a merchant and receive the goods without revealing customer identity or address to the merchant, nor revealing what is bought to the bank or payment agency, and more generally to preserve as much anonymity as required such that no party except the customer has complete information about a transaction. The method uses clearing houses or encryption to break links between customer information and the merchant.

Abstract: Spinal modeling is based on a concept called spinal energy which assumes that the spine assumes a shape to minimize spinal energy. Spinal energy depends on parameters called stiffness coefficients. These parameters can be determined from human data which, by hypothesis, are universal for a large class of humans. The method adapts Newton's method to the manifold SO(3)n to find a solution of model of the human spine. Where basins of attraction are small in Newton's method, homotopy methods are introduced to move from known solutions to unknown solutions. By setting the gradient of the spinal energy to zero, Newton's method is used to solve the inverse problem of finding stiffness coefficients from human data. A new approach to improving deformed spines uses the modeling method based on spinal energy. This approach preserves maximally the range of motion of the spine. The technique used is vertebraplasty; i.e.

Abstract: In general, distilled water dispensers used in commercial establishments such as drug and convenience stores are unimaginative, coin operated and often messy devices. A relatively simple substitute for such dispensers includes a large housing similar in size and shape to a soft drink dispenser, a smaller housing in the large housing with essentially only the door of the inner housing extending out of the center of the larger housing. A one, three or five gallon bottle is placed in the inner housing and the door is closed. These two actions close two switches which cause a dispensing head to descend from a rest position into the open mouth of the bottle. Movement of the dispensing head to the dispensing position closes a third switch, which causes a solenoid valve to open permitting the flow of distilled water to the bottle.