Method for managing wireless telecommunication bills
Patent 7,986,936
A method manages wireless telecommunication bills for end user subscribers. The method includes complete bill management for the wireless subscribers including, for example, establishing a baseline report, receiving and analyzing a subscriber bill, and requesting and posting credits from wireless telecommunication providers. The method includes the creation of the baseline report in order to manage common billing components across all wireless carriers and carrier plans.
Inventors: Kae Kimberly Zulager (Richmond); Ronald Vaiden Carpenter (Richmond)
Assignee: The Bill Police, LLC (Richmond)
July 26, 2011 [private]
Method and system for financial advising
Patent 7,991,675
A method of providing financial advice to a client that provides sufficient confidence that their goals will be achieved or exceeded but that avoids excessive sacrifice to the client’s current or future lifestyle and avoids investment risk that is not needed to provide sufficient confidence of the goals a client personally values. The method comprises obtaining typical client background information, as well as a list of investment goals, and ideal and acceptable values in dollar amounts and timing for each goal. The client is then asked to provide their preferences for goals on the list compared to other goals in the list. A recommendation is then created using the portfolio value, and the client goal preferences and the ideal and acceptable values of goals, by simulating models of the relevant capital markets.
Inventors: David B. Loeper (Midlothian)
Assignee: Wealthcare Capital Management IP, LLC (Richmond)
Aug. 2, 2011
Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection
Patent 7,986,776
In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service provider would be placed in hold while waiting to speak to a customer service representative. The method and system of the invention would recognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system. If this call is the first time the caller has ever called, the caller would be presented with an audible listing of listening choices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, the weather (of the caller’s location), financial headlines, or a selection of music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would then speak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection would be played. If the caller does not like the selection, the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection as many times as the caller prefers. The caller selection is recorded in a caller preference database. Finally, when the same customer calls one or more additional times, the system would retain the caller’s number and preferred listening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selection would automatically be played on subsequent calls.
Inventors: Rick Allen Hamilton II (Charlottesville); Carl Phillip Gusler (Austin, Texas); Timothy Moffett Waters (Richmond); Harry Schatz (McLean, Va.)
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, N.Y.)
July 26, 2011
Smoking article with bypass channel
Patent 7,987,856
A smoking article having a tobacco rod of a smokable material and a filter system attached to the tobacco rod of smokable material. The filter system includes a first filter portion and a second filter portion, the second filter portion concentrically positioned with respect to the first filter portion and having a lower resistance to draw than the first filter portion during an initial puff on the smoking article. The second filter portion closes upon contact with the mainstream smoke of the initial puff, such that after the initial puff, the first filter portion has the lower resistance to draw.
Inventors: Shalva Gedevanishvili (Richmond); Mohammad R. Hajaligol (Glen Allen)
Assignee: Philip Morris USA Inc. (Richmond)
Aug. 2, 2011
Compositions and methods for storing holographic data
Patent 7,989,488
In one aspect, the present invention provides a novel thiophene-containing polynitrone compound having structure (II) ##STR00001## wherein R.sup.1 is independently at each occurrence a C.sub.1-C.sub.20 aliphatic radical, a C.sub.3-C.sub.20 cycloaliphatic radical, or a C.sub.2-C.sub.30 aromatic radical; R.sup.2 is independently at each occurrence hydrogen, deuterium, a C.sub.1-C.sub.20 aliphatic radical, a C.sub.3-C.sub.20 cycloaliphatic radical, or a C.sub.2-C.sub.30 aromatic radical; and “a” is an integer from 2 to 4.
Inventors: Christoph Georg Erben (Los Gatos, Calif.); Michael Jeffrey Mclaughlin (Richmond); Kathryn Lynn Longley (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.); Shantaram Narayan Naik (Bangalore, India); Mahesh Kisan Chaudhari (Jalgaon, India); Jyoti Balkrishna Shet (Ponda, India); Varadarajan Sundararaman (Chennai, India); Yogendrasinh Bharatsinh Chauhan (Vadodara, India); Gary Charles Davis (Albany, N.Y.); Sumeet Jain (Niskayuna, N.Y.); Moitreyee Sinha (Niskayuna)
Assignee: General Electric Company (Niskayuna)
Aug. 2, 2011
Device for supporting an object
Patent D642,447
Claims the ornamental design for a device for supporting an object.
Inventors: Michael Bucci (Glen Allen)
Aug. 2, 2011
Synthesis of columnar hydrogel colloidal crystals in water-organic solvent mixture
Patent 7,989,505
The compositions of hydrogel colloidal crystals are made from mixing an aqueous suspension of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (“PNIPAM”)-co-allylamine microgels with dichloromethane, forming a PNIPAM-co-allylamine/dichloromethane mixture. The PNIPAM-co-allylamine/dichloromethane mixture is incubated for a period of time at a given temperature, forming the colloidal crystal material. The colloidal crystals can be stabilized by diffusing a glutaric dialdehyde solution into the colloidal crystal material. The concentration of polymer matrix microgels can determine the orientation of random or columnar crystals.
Inventors: Zhibing Hu (Denton, Texas); Jun Zhou (Denton); Tong Cai (Denton); Shijun Tang (Denton); Manuel Marquez (Midlothian)
Assignee: University of North Texas (Denton)
Aug. 2, 2011
Methods and systems for biological treatment of flue gas desulfurization wastewater
Patent 7,985,576
Systems and methods of treating flue gas and wastewater generated by treating the flue gas are disclosed and include introducing the flue gas, a flue gas treatment fluid that removes sulfur dioxide from the flue gas; and an organic acid conditioning agent into a wet-oxidation scrubber/absorber; introducing FGD scrubber wastewater generated by the wet-oxidation scrubber/absorber into an anoxic biological reactor to substantially denitrify the FGD scrubber wastewater; and introducing resulting substantially denitrified FGD scrubber wastewater into an anaerobic biological reactor to substantially reduce the amount of sulfate and/or selected heavy metals in the FGD scrubber wastewater.
Inventors: Robert F. Kelly (Chesterfield); Michael Pudvay (Midlothian); Antonio Lau (Richmond)
Assignee: Infilco Degremont Inc. (Richmond)
July 26, 2011
[/private]
Method for managing wireless telecommunication bills
Patent 7,986,936
A method manages wireless telecommunication bills for end user subscribers. The method includes complete bill management for the wireless subscribers including, for example, establishing a baseline report, receiving and analyzing a subscriber bill, and requesting and posting credits from wireless telecommunication providers. The method includes the creation of the baseline report in order to manage common billing components across all wireless carriers and carrier plans.
Inventors: Kae Kimberly Zulager (Richmond); Ronald Vaiden Carpenter (Richmond)
Assignee: The Bill Police, LLC (Richmond)
July 26, 2011 [private]
Method and system for financial advising
Patent 7,991,675
A method of providing financial advice to a client that provides sufficient confidence that their goals will be achieved or exceeded but that avoids excessive sacrifice to the client’s current or future lifestyle and avoids investment risk that is not needed to provide sufficient confidence of the goals a client personally values. The method comprises obtaining typical client background information, as well as a list of investment goals, and ideal and acceptable values in dollar amounts and timing for each goal. The client is then asked to provide their preferences for goals on the list compared to other goals in the list. A recommendation is then created using the portfolio value, and the client goal preferences and the ideal and acceptable values of goals, by simulating models of the relevant capital markets.
Inventors: David B. Loeper (Midlothian)
Assignee: Wealthcare Capital Management IP, LLC (Richmond)
Aug. 2, 2011
Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection
Patent 7,986,776
In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service provider would be placed in hold while waiting to speak to a customer service representative. The method and system of the invention would recognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system. If this call is the first time the caller has ever called, the caller would be presented with an audible listing of listening choices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, the weather (of the caller’s location), financial headlines, or a selection of music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would then speak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection would be played. If the caller does not like the selection, the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection as many times as the caller prefers. The caller selection is recorded in a caller preference database. Finally, when the same customer calls one or more additional times, the system would retain the caller’s number and preferred listening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selection would automatically be played on subsequent calls.
Inventors: Rick Allen Hamilton II (Charlottesville); Carl Phillip Gusler (Austin, Texas); Timothy Moffett Waters (Richmond); Harry Schatz (McLean, Va.)
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, N.Y.)
July 26, 2011
Smoking article with bypass channel
Patent 7,987,856
A smoking article having a tobacco rod of a smokable material and a filter system attached to the tobacco rod of smokable material. The filter system includes a first filter portion and a second filter portion, the second filter portion concentrically positioned with respect to the first filter portion and having a lower resistance to draw than the first filter portion during an initial puff on the smoking article. The second filter portion closes upon contact with the mainstream smoke of the initial puff, such that after the initial puff, the first filter portion has the lower resistance to draw.
Inventors: Shalva Gedevanishvili (Richmond); Mohammad R. Hajaligol (Glen Allen)
Assignee: Philip Morris USA Inc. (Richmond)
Aug. 2, 2011
Compositions and methods for storing holographic data
Patent 7,989,488
In one aspect, the present invention provides a novel thiophene-containing polynitrone compound having structure (II) ##STR00001## wherein R.sup.1 is independently at each occurrence a C.sub.1-C.sub.20 aliphatic radical, a C.sub.3-C.sub.20 cycloaliphatic radical, or a C.sub.2-C.sub.30 aromatic radical; R.sup.2 is independently at each occurrence hydrogen, deuterium, a C.sub.1-C.sub.20 aliphatic radical, a C.sub.3-C.sub.20 cycloaliphatic radical, or a C.sub.2-C.sub.30 aromatic radical; and “a” is an integer from 2 to 4.
Inventors: Christoph Georg Erben (Los Gatos, Calif.); Michael Jeffrey Mclaughlin (Richmond); Kathryn Lynn Longley (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.); Shantaram Narayan Naik (Bangalore, India); Mahesh Kisan Chaudhari (Jalgaon, India); Jyoti Balkrishna Shet (Ponda, India); Varadarajan Sundararaman (Chennai, India); Yogendrasinh Bharatsinh Chauhan (Vadodara, India); Gary Charles Davis (Albany, N.Y.); Sumeet Jain (Niskayuna, N.Y.); Moitreyee Sinha (Niskayuna)
Assignee: General Electric Company (Niskayuna)
Aug. 2, 2011
Device for supporting an object
Patent D642,447
Claims the ornamental design for a device for supporting an object.
Inventors: Michael Bucci (Glen Allen)
Aug. 2, 2011
Synthesis of columnar hydrogel colloidal crystals in water-organic solvent mixture
Patent 7,989,505
The compositions of hydrogel colloidal crystals are made from mixing an aqueous suspension of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (“PNIPAM”)-co-allylamine microgels with dichloromethane, forming a PNIPAM-co-allylamine/dichloromethane mixture. The PNIPAM-co-allylamine/dichloromethane mixture is incubated for a period of time at a given temperature, forming the colloidal crystal material. The colloidal crystals can be stabilized by diffusing a glutaric dialdehyde solution into the colloidal crystal material. The concentration of polymer matrix microgels can determine the orientation of random or columnar crystals.
Inventors: Zhibing Hu (Denton, Texas); Jun Zhou (Denton); Tong Cai (Denton); Shijun Tang (Denton); Manuel Marquez (Midlothian)
Assignee: University of North Texas (Denton)
Aug. 2, 2011
Methods and systems for biological treatment of flue gas desulfurization wastewater
Patent 7,985,576
Systems and methods of treating flue gas and wastewater generated by treating the flue gas are disclosed and include introducing the flue gas, a flue gas treatment fluid that removes sulfur dioxide from the flue gas; and an organic acid conditioning agent into a wet-oxidation scrubber/absorber; introducing FGD scrubber wastewater generated by the wet-oxidation scrubber/absorber into an anoxic biological reactor to substantially denitrify the FGD scrubber wastewater; and introducing resulting substantially denitrified FGD scrubber wastewater into an anaerobic biological reactor to substantially reduce the amount of sulfate and/or selected heavy metals in the FGD scrubber wastewater.
Inventors: Robert F. Kelly (Chesterfield); Michael Pudvay (Midlothian); Antonio Lau (Richmond)
Assignee: Infilco Degremont Inc. (Richmond)
July 26, 2011
[/private]