Abstract: A system receives information for a plurality of invoices having invoice amounts owed by a debtor-buyer to a plurality of creditor-suppliers, a cash pool amount for a cash pool available by the debtor-buyer for early payment of at least some of the invoice amounts, and a desired return rate, receives a plurality of offers, each offer from a corresponding creditor-supplier and comprising an offer return rate, determines whether each of the plurality of offers is eligible for acceptance based on each offer return rate from each offer and the desired return rate for the buyer and selects one or more invoices each having an invoice amount, and transmits award information to the debtor-buyer.

Abstract: A virtual reality vehicle simulator has a seat for supporting a person in a sitting position. The person wears goggles that present to the person an image of a virtual vehicle, as well as a virtual image of the person's hand and any objects, such as coffee cups, that the person may grasp in his hand. A position sensing system senses the position of a marker that is attached to a marked portion of the person's hand, e.g., the back of the hand. The person may be tasked to manipulate a virtual object, e.g., a virtual pushbutton, with a contact portion of his hand, e.g., the index finger. To calibrate the distance between the marked and contact portions so that a virtual image of the hand accurately may be displayed, a control surface is positioned adjacent the seat such that the person can manipulate the control surface. Based on the manipulation, the distance between the marked and contact portions is determined, thus calibrating the size of the virtual hand to accurately model the person's actual hand.

Abstract: In the manufacture of a semiconductor device, e.g. a bipolar or MOS transistor, a narrow beam (4) of ions is deflected across a major surface of a semiconductor device body (1,2) to implant ions, e.g. a boron, into a region (3) of the body. In accordance with the invention a resist mask (5a) is obtained autoregistered with the implanted region (3) by effecting the implantation through a layer (5) of ion-sensitive resist thus exposed by the ion beam (4) in the area (5a) overlying the implanted region (3) at the same time as the implantation occurs into the body region (3). The non-exposed area of the layer (3) is afterwards removed by developing the resist, and the ion-exposed area (5a) is then used as a mask during a subsequent processing step, e.g. an etching or doping step, in the device manufacture. The implanted region (3) may be, e.g., a peripheral base region portion of a bipolar transistor or a parasitic-channel stopper below a field insulating layer (2) of an MOS integrated circuit.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a microminiature solid-state device includes first and second exposure steps in which radiation-sensitive material on a solid-state substrate is exposed radiation through a mask pattern to define locations for localized processing. A local processing step between the first and second exposure steps causes an undesired dimensional distortion of the substrate surface in the plane of the substrate surface. This dimensional distortion is then reduced by adjusting the relative sizes of the area of the substrate surface and the area of the mask used in the second exposure step in an substantially uniform manner prior to the second exposure step. By adjusting the relative sizes of the substrate surface and mask areas in such a way as to compensate for the planar dimensional distortion induced in the first exposure step, such dimensional distortion can be substantially reduced.