An improved interface technology is provided that may be applied to PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) devices connected to a southbridge. Requests are received from at least one requestor. The request require responses to be sent back to the respective requestor. The requests are placed by the respective requestor by asserting a request signal, and the request signal is deasserted by the respective requestor when a response is sent back. A retry request may be sent to the current requestor...

Affordable methods and apparatus are disclosed for inputting position, attitude (orientation) or other object characteristic data to computers for the purpose of Computer Aided Design, Painting, Medicine, Teaching, Gaming, Toys, Simulations, Aids to the disabled, and internet or other experiences. Preferred embodiments of the invention utilize electro-optical sensors, and particularly TV Cameras, providing optically inputted data from specialized datum's on objects and/or natural features of obj...

A holographic HMI allows data and commands to be entered into electronic equipment. The HMI involves no tangible physical contact between the human operator and the control elements because the input devices are holographic images of keys or other customarily touch-activated tangible input elements. Operator interaction is detected through electromagnetic means, obviating the need for direct physical contact with any solid input object or surface. Such HMIs generate a holographic image of a tang...

At least one of a valve body, a sealing tip and a vessel or conduit includes at least one space formed therein between an interior of the vessel or conduit and an internal cavity of the valve. The space includes an active or passive thermal insulation forming at least a partial barrier to the flow of heat between the internal cavity and the interior of the vessel or conduit.

Methods and apparatus implementing a technique for adding an interface to a boss object at run-time. A boss object includes one or more interfaces and each interface has a corresponding implementation class. In general, in one aspect, the technique includes: reading a first boss class having a first interface, defined in a first software component; reading a second interface, defined in a separate second software component; and binding the second interface to the first boss class, so that instan...

The present invention provides an apparatus and method which facilitates the use of a printed or scribed document as an interface with a computer. The apparatus in one aspect comprises: a printed or scribed document bearing specialized calibration marks, the document being positioned on a work surface; a camera focused on the document for generating video signals representing the document in electronic form; and a processor linked to the camera for processing an image captured by the camera and ...

A prefetching technique for a network interface is provided to give the network interface the opportunity to prefetch data out-of-order into send queues in the network interface, rather than prefetching data in the order produced and deposited into main memory. That allows, the state of the send queues to be taken into consideration when deciding an appropriate order to prefetch data.

A system for preparing mail for submission to a postal service is described, the system comprising: a mail finishing system of the mailer for generating items of mail for inclusion in a submission of mail by the mailer to the postal service; an announcement system of the mailer for analyzing the items of mail generated by the mail finishing system and generating an electronic statement based on the composition and value of the items of mail in the submission and transmitting the electronic state...

Provided is a method for interfacing with storage units, including a backplane, at least one slot in the storage enclosure for receiving one storage unit, and two physical interfaces on the backplane for at least one slot. The storage unit is capable of being positioned in the slot to mate with one of the two physical interfaces for the slot, wherein each physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures.

A portable end device, such as a bar code scanner, may be equipped with auxiliary interfaces. The auxiliary interfaces may be easily added to the end device as a replaceable cover, such as a replaceable battery door. A signal path conducts signals to and from the replaceable cover. One auxiliary interface is a Bluetooth radio. Data integrity protocols may be selected to guarantee delivery and guarantee no duplicate deliveries. Host pairing algorithms may provide standard or strong pairing with a...