Abstract: A system that assures a user that two specific devices have exchanged information correctly over an insecure communication channel. In a typical application, the channel would be a wireless network connection and the information would consist of the public keys of the two devices. The exchanged public keys would subsequently be used to secure any further communication between the two devices. The system requires that both devices have an output modality interpretable by a human. One of the devices must have an input modality that can be operated by the user. The input and output modalities can be very simple e.g., they can consist of a button and LEDs. The users would press the button multiple times. On each press, the LEDs on both devices display a color and the user compares the colors and that they are synchronous. A noticeable delay or color difference signifies a security threat.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method to make effective use of non rectangular display space for displaying a collage. In an embodiment of the invention, a heterogeneous set of images can be arranged to display the region of interest of the images to avoid overlapping regions of interest. The background gaps between the regions of interest can be filled by extending the regions of interest using a Voronoi technique. This produces a stained glass effect for the collage. In an embodiment of the present invention, the technique can be applied to irregular shapes including circular shapes with a hole in the middle. In an embodiment of the present invention, the technique can be used to print labels for disks.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention introduce a novel recursive assembly process to automatically create a library of components. It starts with simple components used as building blocks and proceeds by repeatedly combining these randomly into more complex ones. The utility and quality of these random combinations of components are measured against a set of functional goals. Useful combinations then become new components in the library that can be used as building blocks for further random combination. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.

Abstract: The present invention relates to techniques for supporting organizational, labeling and retrieval tasks on an electronic tabletop, wall or large display. In various embodiments of the invention, a dynamic visualization is used to show a current working set of documents. In an embodiment of the invention, the rest of the collection is represented in the background as small dots. In an embodiment of the invention, when a user moves objects into groups or creates a label, relevant objects in the background are automatically retrieved and moved into the foreground. In an embodiment of the invention, retrieved objects along with relevant objects in the current set are highlighted and decorated with arrows pointing to their relevant groups. In an embodiment of the invention, the movement is animated to provide user feedback when objects must travel long distances on a large display.

Abstract: A system that assures a user that two specific devices have exchanged information correctly over an insecure communication channel. In a typical application, the channel would be a wireless network connection and the information would consist of the public keys of the two devices. The exchanged public keys would subsequently be used to secure any further communication between the two devices. The system requires that both devices have an output modality interpretable by a human. One of the devices must have an input modality that can be operated by the user. The input and output modalities can be very simple e.g., they can consist of a button and LEDs. The users would press the button multiple times. On each press, the LEDs on both devices display a color and the user compares the colors and that they are synchronous. A noticeable delay or color difference signifies a security threat.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method to make effective use of non rectangular display space for displaying a collage. In an embodiment of the invention, a heterogeneous set of images can be arranged to display the region of interest of the images to avoid overlapping regions of interest. The background gaps between the regions of interest can be filled by extending the regions of interest using a Voronoi technique. This produces a stained glass effect for the collage. In an embodiment of the present invention, the technique can be applied to irregular shapes including circular shapes with a hole in the middle. In an embodiment of the present invention, the technique can be used to print labels for disks.

Abstract: The present invention relates to techniques for supporting organizational, labeling and retrieval tasks on an electronic tabletop, wall or large display. In various embodiments of the invention, a dynamic visualization is used to show a current working set of documents. In an embodiment of the invention, the rest of the collection is represented in the background as small dots. In an embodiment of the invention, when a user moves objects into groups or creates a label, relevant objects in the background are automatically retrieved and moved into the foreground. In an embodiment of the invention, retrieved objects along with relevant objects in the current set are highlighted and decorated with arrows pointing to their relevant groups. In an embodiment of the invention, the movement is animated to provide user feedback when objects must travel long distances on a large display.

Abstract: A provably correct computer program can be generated using genetic programming techniques. A desired behavior is used to define a formal specification. An initial population of programs is created where each program has a meaning that can be defined using a formalization technique. A fitness function is applied to measure a distance between the meaning of a program, i.e., its actual behavior, and the specification. Any program having a zero value as the measure of distance between the meaning of the program and the specification is determined to be provably correct. After the fitness of some or all of the programs in the current generation of programs has been computed, a provably correct program has not yet been found in the current generation, mutation and/or crossover techniques are performed on at least some of the fittest individuals in the current generation to create the programs of a next generation.

Abstract: A dependency action system uses redundant sets of dynamically reconfigurable functional components to achieve robustness and fault tolerance, and to achieve self-optimization by learning and planning techniques that use time-stamps and or computation stamps as a key indicator. The dependency action system is based on functional components, or actions, which act on data values that are stored in stamped storage locations. Data is read and written to these storage locations, updating the stamps as appropriate. The execution of an action is controlled by the stamps of its enabling and disabling storage locations. The dependency action system specifies an action as enabled if new data has arrived in the enabling storage locations. Updating the stamp of the disabling storage locations disables the action. If an alternative action succeeds and produces a value, the other alternative actions become disabled.