PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem, wherein it is impossible for an electronic content information provider to provide commercially secure and effective method, for a configurable general-purpose electronic commercial transaction/distribution control system. SOLUTION: In this system, having at least one protected processing environment for safely controlling at least one portion of decoding of digital information, a secure content distribution method comprises a process for encapsulating digital information in one or more digital containers; a process for encrypting at least a portion of digital information; a process for associating at least partially secure control information for managing interactions with encrypted digital information and/or digital container; a process for delivering one or more digital containers to a digital information user; and a process for using a protected processing environment, for safely controlling at least a portion of the decoding of the digital information. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a423264.pdf

Systems and Methods for Secure Transaction Management and Electronic Rights Protection

This survey characterizes an emerging research area, sometimes called coordination theory, that focuses on the interdisciplinary study of coordination. Research in this area uses and extends ideas about coordination from disciplines such as computer science, organization theory, operations research, economics, linguistics, and psychology.A key insight of the framework presented here is that coordination can be seen as the process of managing dependencies among activities. Further progress, therefore, should be possible by characterizing different kinds of dependencies and identifying the coordination processes that can be used to manage them. A variety of processes are analyzed from this perspective, and commonalities across disciplines are identified. Processes analyzed include those for managing shared resources, producer/consumer relationships, simultaneity constraints, and task/subtask dependencies.Section 3 summarizes ways of applying a coordination perspective in three different domains:(1) understanding the effects of information technology on human organizations and markets, (2) designing cooperative work tools, and (3) designing distributed and parallel computer systems. In the final section, elements of a research agenda in this new area are briefly outlined.

/pdf/the-interdisciplinary-study-of-coordination-22jsxamy1h.pdf

The interdisciplinary study of coordination

Groupware reflects a change in emphasis from using the computer to solve problems to using the computer to facilitate human interaction. This article describes categories and examples of groupware and discusses some underlying research and development issues. GROVE, a novel group editor, is explained in some detail as a salient groupware example

/pdf/groupware-some-issues-and-experiences-3o63d5bi23.pdf

Groupware: some issues and experiences

AspectJ? is a simple and practical aspect-oriented extension to Java?. With just a few new constructs, AspectJ provides support for modular implementation of a range of crosscutting concerns. In AspectJ's dynamic join point model, join points are well-defined points in the execution of the program; pointcuts are collections of join points; advice are special method-like constructs that can be attached to pointcuts; and aspects are modular units of crosscutting implementation, comprising pointcuts, advice, and ordinary Java member declarations. AspectJ code is compiled into standard Java bytecode. Simple extensions to existing Java development environments make it possible to browse the crosscutting structure of aspects in the same kind of way as one browses the inheritance structure of classes. Several examples show that AspectJ is powerful, and that programs written using it are easy to understand.

/pdf/an-overview-of-aspectj-159di7yz43.pdf

An Overview of AspectJ

Ubiquitous computing is the method of enhancing computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user. Since we started this work at Xerox PARC in 1988, a number of researchers around the world have begun to work in the ubiquitous computing framework. This paper explains what is new and different about the computer science in ubiquitous computing. It starts with a brief overview of ubiquitous computing, and then elaborates through a series of examples drawn from various subdisciplines of computer science: hardware components (e.g. chips), network protocols, interaction substrates (e.g. software for screens and pens), applications, privacy, and computational methods. Ubiquitous computing offers a framework for new and exciting research across the spectrum of computer science.

/pdf/some-computer-science-issues-in-ubiquitous-computing-59kpy3d30s.pdf

Some computer science issues in ubiquitous computing

A system and method for providing a topic-directed search is provided, which advantageously harnesses user-provided topical indexes and an ability to characterize indexes according to how articles fall under their topical organizations. A corpus of articles and an index that includes topics from the articles is maintained. For each topic, a coarse-grained topic model is built, which includes the characteristic words included in the articles relating to the topic and scores assigned to the characteristic words. A search query is executed against the index. The topics that match the search terms are chosen by their scores. The topics that match the coarse-grained topic models and the articles corresponding to the search query are presented. In contrast to conventional search engines, search results are organized according to topic and search results can be offered across multiple indexes, where part of returned results are selected from most-relevant indexes with their most-relevant topics.

System and method for providing a topic-directed search

The most widely understood goal of artificial intelligence is to understand and build autonomous, intelligent, thinking machines. A perhaps larger opportunity and complementary goal is to understand and build an interactive knowledge medium.

The next knowledge medium

WYSIWIS (What You See Is What I See) is a foundational abstraction for multi-user interfaces that expresses many of the characteristics of a chalkboard in face-to-face meetings. In its strictest interpretation, it means that everyone can see the same written information and also where anyone else is pointing. We present several examples of multi-user interfaces that start from the WYSIWIS abstraction. In our attempts to build software support for collaboration in meetings, we have discovered that WYSIWIS is at once crucial and too inflexible in its strictest sense. WYSIWIS must be relaxed for all our software tools to better accommodate important interactions in meetings. Relaxations to WYSIWIS are characterized in terms of constraints on its four key dimensions: display space, time of display, subgroup population, and congruence of view.

WYSIWIS revised: early experiences with multi-user interfaces

This invention is an input device, or stylus, for entering hand drawn forms into a computer comprising a writing instrument, a pressure switch for determining whether the instrument is in contact with the writing surface, an acoustic transmitter for triangulating the position of the stylus on the surface, and a wireless transmitter for transmitting data and timing information to the computer. In operation, the stylus transmits an infra red signal which the system receives immediately, and an ultra sound pulse which two microphones receive after a delay which is a function of the speed of sound and the distance of the stylus from each microphone. From this information the system can calculate the position of the stylus. Switches for indicating functions are mounted on the stylus. Multiple stylusses can be used, each transmitting a distinctive identification code so that the system can determine which stylus is the signal source.

Ultrasound position input device

A centralized server-based system and method for managing and reserving parking spaces capable of charging an EV, that is, a plug-in hybrid or fully electric vehicle, treats sets of parking spaces as interchangeable pooled resources. An EV motorist can book a reservation with charging of the EV by specifying parking in a desired location. Parking spaces serve dual uses for parking alone or parking with charging. The parking spaces are handled as a common parking pool, such as on one side of a city block, and each space has equal access to a charging station. The server determines charging capacity availability within a time window and the motorist can choose a parking time up to or beyond, if permitted, the maximum charging time needed to charge the EV. Non-EV motorists can similarly reserve parking within a parking pool with the server ensuring optimal use of charging capacity and parking spaces.

Mark J. Stefik

Papers

System and method for providing a topic-directed search

The next knowledge medium

WYSIWIS revised: early experiences with multi-user interfaces

Ultrasound position input device

Computer-Implemented System And Method For Managing Interchangeable EV Charging-Capable Parking Spaces