Abstract:
Systems, methods, and platforms can be configured to provide services and devices that powers, controls and authenticates 3-D printed objects, such as through an adaptive control module for unique 3-D printer products. Secure processing of product specifications can also be performed to help maintain the anonymity of confidential user information used in the manufacture of products.

Description:
PRIORITY 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/004,616 filed May 29, 2014, entitled “3-D Printing Platforms, Systems, and Methods.” The entire contents of the aforementioned application is expressly incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
       [0002]    This patent application disclosure document (hereinafter “description” and/or “descriptions”) describes inventive aspects directed at various novel innovations (hereinafter “innovation,” “innovations,” and/or “innovation(s)”) and contains material that is subject to copyright, mask work, and/or other intellectual property protection. The respective owners of such intellectual property have no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent disclosure document by anyone as it appears in published Patent Office file/records, but otherwise reserve all rights. 
       FIELD 
       [0003]    The present innovations are directed generally to instant manufacturing, and more particularly to 3-D printing systems and methods. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0004]    3-D printing is growing in popularity as it promises instant manufacturing in such locations as the home or small office. As more products move to 3-D printing, it will be more difficult for designers to take a share in revenue generated by their designs. Ensuring secure utilization of their designs may be an issue for designers and users. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    Embodiments disclosed herein provide services and devices that powers, controls and authenticates 3-D printed objects, such as through an adaptive control module for unique 3-D printer products. Also disclosed herein is a comprehensive environment for instant manufacturing, such as for secure instant manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. 
         [0006]    As another example, systems and methods are disclosed for creating a unique, encrypted finger-print for each 3D printer controller that require decryption in order to print select products. This enables manufactures to send product specifications without running the risk of those specifications being pirated. 
         [0007]    As still another example, systems and methods are disclosed for secure instant manufacturing. A product specification is transmitted that contains instructions to an instant manufacturing controller for manufacturing a product. Encrypted fingerprints are stored that are unique to the instant manufacturing controller. The securing processing involving the product specification includes decryption of a unique, encrypted finger-print being required for an instant manufacturing controller to manufacture the product based on the product specification. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]    The accompanying appendices and/or drawings illustrate various non-limiting, example, innovative aspects in accordance with the descriptions below. 
           [0009]      FIGS. 1-4  depict various embodiments of 3-D printing environments. 
           [0010]      FIGS. 5 and 6  are block diagrams depicting embodiments of secure approaches for device components, such as those used within 3-D printers. 
           [0011]      FIGS. 7 and 8  are block diagrams depicting 3-D printing services. 
           [0012]      FIGS. 9 and 10  depict example computer and software components that can be used with the operations described herein. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0013]      FIG. 1  depicts at  100  a 3-D printing networked environment where users  102 , such as consumers and suppliers of 3-D product specifications, can interact over one or more networks  104 . Consumers can use the networked environment to search for the designers&#39; printing specifications that best suit their needs in producing products within their homes or offices. Once located, the designer&#39;s specifications can be provided over the network to the consumer so that they can be printed/manufactured via 3-D printers or other similar type devices  106 . A centralized repository  108  can be used within the networked environment for supplying information needed by the specifications for generating such products. 
         [0014]    There are many uses for such a 3-D printing networked environment  100 . Homes can be equipped with instant manufacturing capability, such as with 3-D printing capability. Example products that can be generated from 3-D printers include toys, household goods, pharmaceuticals, clothes, food, books, etc. Essentially, anything three-dimensional can be manufactured with such technology. The benefits of 3-D printing are shown, for example, in parents&#39; willingness to use 3-D printing for their children&#39;s toys. With such direct manufacturing capability, parents know what materials are being utilized in the toys they give their children. 
         [0015]      FIG. 2  illustrates that the centralized repository  108  can store many different types of data, such as biometric information  202  needed by a designer&#39;s specification  204 . The centralized location can allow users to provide their information (e.g., biometric information  202 ) to the repository for use within a marketplace type environment. Such information can be collected and assembled to provide manufacturing capability for designers. Examples of biometric data for customizing product specifications  204  includes: physical details (e.g., weight, height, etc.) as well as user&#39;s preferences, such as typically preferred user colors. This approach also allows information to be maintained as private since the designers (e.g., designer  206 ) will not have access to people&#39;s private information (e.g., biometric information, buying preferences, etc.). Rather the designers can supply specifications  204  to direct a 3-D printer to manufacture a particular product, and information can be retrieved separately from the centralized repository and sent to the user&#39;s 3-D printer where the information is used in conjunction with the designer&#39;s specification  204  for printing a particular product. In this way, the user does not have to provide their personal information to a designer so that a product can be produced. 
         [0016]      FIG. 3  depicts a portal  302  for managing access and retrieval operations with respect to the centralized repository  108 . This helps to ensure that information is protected by controlling access and retrieval to this sensitive information. This includes regulating how designers&#39; specifications and the users&#39; personal information can be managed so that the user&#39;s information can be protected. 
         [0017]    An approach can include the user receiving the designer&#39;s specification  204 , and based upon the data requirements of the specification  204 , the user&#39;s 3-D printer system sends the request to the portal so that the proper information can be retrieved and sent back to the user&#39;s 3-D printer system. Thereupon, the desired product can be produced by a 3-D printer system. In this way, the maintainer of the centralized repository  108  operates as an identity broker within the 3-D printing networked environment. Other embodiments can include the central repository  108  storing both the personal user information as well as different design specifications. The portal  302  can examine any requested design specifications for what additional information is needed or at least can be used to assist in determining what preferences (e.g., color-wise, etc.) the consumer might wish when manufacturing the product via their 3-D printer. 
         [0018]    By operating as an identity broker, the maintainer of the centralized repository  108  can assist in creating a fully integrated product specification that incorporates: physical design, documentation, instructions, electronic component design. The portal  302  can also operate as a product marketplace that provides easy and affordable access to the product specifications for manufacturing items using a 3-D printer or other instant manufacturing systems. 
         [0019]    The repository  108  can include one or more databases for storing user information for use in printing products securely. The repository  108  can be structured as a relational database management system wherein the information of each user is stored separately. However, storage approaches other than relational database management systems can be used, such as object-oriented databases. Additionally, the data can be compressed in the sense that a significant amount of biometric and personal data will be common to a number of people. In these embodiments, a wireframe type data structure can be utilized to store data common to most people (e.g., most people have 10 fingers and toes) and the differences are what is stored for each user. 
         [0020]    3-D printing can produce multiple parts that need to be assembled. This can introduce complexity into the assembly process. For simple products, assembly should not be a significant concern. However, products that have multiple interconnecting parts can require multi-step, complicated assembly. To facilitate assembly, a community environment can be established through the comprehensive 3-D printing environment depicted at  400  in  FIG. 4 . People within the community may acquire specialty 3-D printing and assemble knowledge as their experience grows with the 3-D printing process over time. The designers operating within the community can be their own advertisers as well as operate as merchants in selling product specifications. 
         [0021]    Security in 3-D printing can be accomplished in different ways. For example,  FIG. 5  shows a secure 3-D printer controller system at  500 . The system  500  creates a unique, encrypted finger-print  502  for each controller associated with a 3D printer and would require decryption to print select products. This would enable manufactures to send product specifications  504  without running the risk of those specifications being pirated. Such security would increase the number of people using the system since security is an issue in 3-D printer networked applications. 
         [0022]    The product specification generation process  510  can include at random intervals in the product specifications  504  inert commands (e.g., commands that instruct the machine to do nothing) to further obscure the final product specification. 
         [0023]    A security approach can include product specification processing  512  of a specification transmitted by server(s)  514  over a cloud network  516 . The product specification processing processes specific equations  506  for the 3-D printer  508 , such as but not limited to processing chaotic maps that are sensitive to parameter misspecifications. 
         [0024]      FIG. 6  depicts another example of a secure environment where, control and power modules of a device  602  can be adapted to a unique product (to be manufactured) as derived off of a base product configuration  604 . This control module could contact the service of the identity broker once a product has been assembled to download control codes. These control codes could be unique and encrypted on the device  602  to ensure the commands are not transferred. Once the device&#39;s uniqueness is verified by the identity broker, its custom code could be transmitted and “branded” into the control unit  606 . 
         [0025]    Each subcomponent for a product could be unique such that the device  602  will not work properly unless the generated command set is uploaded. The component&#39;s variation works as an encryption key  608 . To copy a design, one would have to receive the control codes and regenerate them for the new device. Networked systems can also deactivate stolen or lost components remotely. The control units could be generic and modular. A user can swap out controllers from products no longer being used. 
         [0026]    The types of acceptable variations of the products can be authenticated by the identity broker. The adaptive controller system of the identity broker can be designed to work fully in encrypted space. Similar to secure multiple-party encryption, only set operations and computations may be performed. For example, the base device might specify rotating left to right but due to the uniqueness of the device in question the corrected rotation is right to left. Another example could be modification of the products dimensions which change a start/stop position for the motor. Without the proper start position the motor could not operate. 
         [0027]    With reference to  FIG. 6 , the base module control commands from the base controller system  606  could be encrypted to reconcile at  610  the devices uniqueness with the base commands. This creates a product whose behavior would be difficult to replicate. 
         [0028]    The following shows an example of encoding/decoding a device controller commands and the python code used to create the example: 
         [0029]    Example of unique device control functions. 
         [0030]    Settings 
         [0031]    Device Equation: x*z[1]−z[2]+z[3] 
         [0032]    Controller functions: x(t)−x(t−1) 
         [0033]    Input/Output 
         [0034]    Inputs: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4] 
         [0035]    Expected Output: [1.0, 0.5, 1.5, 1.0, 2.0] 
         [0036]    Tests 
         [0037]    Using correct id, id=1. 
         [0038]    [1.0, 0.5, 1.5, 1.0, 2.0] 
         [0039]    Using incorrect id, id=2. 
         [0040]    [−1.0, 0.5, −0.5, 1.0, 0.0] 
         [0041]    Below is the python code used to generate the example: 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 parameter = { 1:{1:.5 , 2:7 , 3:8 } , 2:{1:.5 , 2:2 , 3:1 } } 
               
               
                   
                 devicefnc = lambda x, y ,z: x*z[1] − z[2] + z[3] 
               
               
                   
                 def movement_fnc(device_id , parameter , inputs ): 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 movements = [ ] 
               
               
                   
                 for ipos, val in enumerate(inputs): 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 res = devicefnc(val, ipos ,parameter[device_id] ) 
               
               
                   
                 if len(movements) &gt;= 1: 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 res = res − movements[ipos −1] 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 movements.append(res) 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 return movements 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 inputs = [0,1,2,3,4] 
               
               
                   
                 exp_outputs = [1.0, 0.5, 1.5, 1.0, 2.0] 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0042]    ## Test 1—Correct Key 
         [0043]    device_id=1 
         [0044]    print movement_fnc(device_id, parameter, inputs) 
         [0045]    ## Test 2—Incorrect Key 
         [0046]    device_id=2 
         [0047]    print movement_fnc(device_id, parameter, inputs) 
       ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES 
       [0048]    The following shows examples of unique print control functions without using the chaotic maps equation for clarity by encoding/decoding a 3-d printer document and the python code used to create the example. In these examples only the x,y,z coordinates are encoded. 
         [0049]    Printer Equation and Parameters 
         [0050]    Parameters 
         [0051]    {1:{1:0.5, 2:7, 3:8}, 2:{1:0.5, 2:2, 3:1}} 
         [0052]    Encoding 
         [0053]    def encoding (x, y, z, p):
       return x*p[1]+p[1], y*p[2]+p[2], z*p[3]+p[3]       
 
         [0055]    Decoding 
         [0056]    def decoding (x, y, z, p):
       return (x−p[1])/p[1], (y−p[2])/p[2], (z−p[3])/p[3]       
 
       Example 1 
       [0058]    Simple example encoding then decoding vertex 
         [0059]    Original values: 1.0, 0.0, 0.0 
         [0060]    Uniquely Encoded values: (1.0, 7.0, 8.0) 
         [0061]    Decoded values: (1.0, 0.0, 0.0) 
         [0062]    POC Example with specs to generate cube. 
       Example 2 
       [0063]    The following examples use the ASCII STL (STereoLithography) file format. The first example is a un-encoded product spec. The second is the same spec encoded for a particular priner. 
         [0064]    Base Product Specs 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 solid cube_corner 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 −1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.577 0.577 0.577 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endsolid 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0065]    Uniquely Encoded Product Specs 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 solid cube_corner 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 −1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 7.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 16.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 14.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 7.0 8.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 16.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 14.0 8.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.577 0.577 0.577 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 7.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 14.0 8.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.5 7.0 16.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endsolid 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0066]    The following code was used to generate these examples: 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 parameter = { 1:{1:.5 , 2:7 , 3:8 } , 2:{1:.5 , 2:2 , 3:1 } } 
               
               
                   
                 devicefnc = lambda x, y ,z: x*z[1] − z[2] + z[3] 
               
               
                   
                 product_specs = ″″″ 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  solid cube_corner 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 −1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.0 0.0 −1.0 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
               
                   
                 facet normal 0.577 0.577 0.577 
               
               
                   
                  outer loop 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0 
               
               
                   
                 vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endloop 
               
               
                   
                 endfacet 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  endsolid 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 ″″″ 
               
               
                   
                 parameter = { 1:{1:.5 , 2:7 , 3:8 } , 2:{1:.5 , 2:2 , 3:1 } } 
               
               
                   
                 def deviceenc (x, y, z, p): 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 return x*p[1] + p[1] , y*p[2] + p[2] , z*p[3] + p[3] 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 def devicefnc (x, y, z, p): 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 return (x − p[1])/p[1] , (y − p[2] )/p[2] , (z − p[3])/p[3] 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 print ‘Example encoding then decoding vertex\n′ 
               
               
                   
                 print ′Original values : 1.0 , 0.0, 0.0 ′ 
               
               
                   
                 val = deviceenc(1.0 , 0.0, 0.0 , parameter[1]) 
               
               
                   
                 print ′Uniquely Encoded values : ′ ,val 
               
               
                   
                 print ′Decoded values : ′ , devicefnc(val[0], val[1], val[2] ,  
               
               
                   
                 parameter[1]) 
               
               
                   
                 final_specs = [ ] 
               
               
                   
                 for line in product_specs.split(′\n′): 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 print line.rstrip(′\n′) 
               
               
                   
                 if line.find(′vertex′) &gt; −1: 
               
               
                   
                  vals = line.replace(′vertex′, ″).strip( ) 
               
               
                   
                  avals = vals.split(′ ′) 
               
               
                   
                  enc_vals = deviceenc( float(avals[0]) , float(avals[1]), 
               
               
                   
                  float(avals[2]), 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 parameter[1]) 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                  final_specs.append(′ vertex ′ + str(enc_vals[0]) + ′ ′ + 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 str(enc_vals[1]) + ′ ′ + str(enc_vals[2]) ) 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 else: 
               
               
                   
                  final_specs.append(line.rstrip(′\n′) ) 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 for line in final_specs: 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 print line.rstrip( ) 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0067]    These security techniques can be used in many different applications, such as for secure instant pharmaceutical manufacturing which is shown in  FIG. 4 . This can be used to perform rapid customization and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals in a safe, secure and cost effective manner. 
         [0068]    The identity broker could provide a service that would enable prescriptions to be transmitted encoded based upon a patient&#39;s DNA or similar biometrics. This could operate as a cloud service that would check the prescriptions against patient&#39;s biometric data, and an instant manufacturing system that would provide a safe and anonymous means of creating prescriptions. 
         [0069]    In this embodiment, the networked system as shown in  FIG. 3  can include:
       A database (e.g., within the centralized repository  108 ) of biometrics of individuals, including allergies.   A device to log medical prescriptions   An instant manufacturing device designed for “printing” medicine   A tracking system allowing users to input usages and biometric changes       
 
         [0074]    The networked system of  FIG. 3  can be used in the following manner. A doctor or medical personal prescribes a medication using a secure device. A secure device can be a computer, smart phone, or dedicated input device. 
         [0075]    The prescription is encrypted using the patient&#39;s biometrics and transmitted to the identity broker&#39;s portal and database, which can be offered as cloud service. Biometrics keys could include:
       DNA   Finger print   Face   Hair Sample   Random Number (if patient requests)       
 
         [0081]    This service could scan the prescription against a patient&#39;s biometrics to look for items such known allergies. If prescriptions pass the check it would be routed based on available instant manufacturing facilities. Users can show up at any of the designated facilities and have their prescription printed out 24/7 in a completely anonymous fashion. 
         [0082]    An instant manufacturing device (e.g., a 3-D printing device) could have a repository of the most commonly prescribed drugs and the base components for manufacturing additional drugs in an ad hoc fashion. Such a system could also customize prescription based on patients biometrics. A backend could provide alerts by monitoring the patients biometrics. The 3-D printing device can be secured using the techniques described herein. 
         [0083]      FIG. 7  illustrates another embodiment for securing a 3-D printer system by such methods as specially designing specifications  652  for that individual printer (e.g., printer  654 ). In this embodiment, a 3-D printing service  650  can be established that would enable people to operate as manufactures, such as by allowing them to create highly unique and personalized consumer products  656  which can be printed on the end user&#39;s home 3D printer. 
         [0084]    Individuals can implement instant manufacturing wherein they can purchase a one-time use of an existing design to ‘print’ out their consumer good of choice. A design may originate from a major company or from another individual. In addition, “personalization” can be added to the end-user which would greatly enhance the offering. 
         [0085]    As shown in  FIG. 8 , the service  650  stores in database  660  personal information about user preferences in design selection for their customized products. Stated differently, the system would allow a user to customize a product to a degree that the template, even if shared would have less or no value to anyone else. Also, user features to be stored in database  660  can include, for example body dimensions, color preferences, preferred materials and the service would combine this data with the manufacture base template without revealing this information to the manufacture. This provides anonymity for the user but allows a manufacture to still create highly customized products. The company providing the 3-D printing service  650  could be a product broker and personal data anonymizer. The manufacture would not have to worry about consumer privacy concerns, and consumers can feel safe providing high personal data as the company stores the confidential information. 
         [0086]    For computers or servers used within the approaches disclosed herein,  FIGS. 9 and 10  depict example systems.  FIG. 9  depicts an exemplary system  700  that includes a computer architecture where a processing system  702  (e.g., one or more computer processors located in a given computer or in multiple computers that may be separate and distinct from one another) includes software being executed on the processing system  702 . The processing system  702  has access to a computer-readable memory  707  in addition to one or more data stores  708 . The one or more data stores  708  may include user preferences  710 . The processing system  702  may be a distributed parallel computing environment, which may be used to handle very large-scale data sets. 
         [0087]      FIG. 10  depicts a system  720  that includes a client-server architecture. One or more user PCs  722  access one or more servers  724  running software  737  on a processing system  727  via one or more networks  728 . The one or more servers  724  may access a computer-readable memory  730  as well as one or more data stores  732 . 
         [0088]    In  FIGS. 9 and 10 , computer readable memories (e.g., at  707 ) or data stores (e.g., at  708 ) may include one or more data structures for storing and associating various data used in the example systems. For example, a data structure stored in any of the aforementioned locations may be used to store device-specific data for use in secure operations. 
         [0089]    Each of the element managers, real-time data buffer, conveyors, file input processor, database index shared access memory loader, reference data buffer and data managers may include a software application stored in one or more of the disk drives connected to the disk controller, the ROM and/or the RAM. The processor may access one or more components as required. 
         [0090]    A display interface may permit information from the bus to be displayed on a display in audio, graphic, or alphanumeric format. Communication with external devices may optionally occur using various communication ports. 
         [0091]    In addition to these computer-type components, the hardware may also include data input devices, such as a keyboard, or other input device, such as a microphone, remote control, pointer, mouse and/or joystick. 
         [0092]    Additionally, the methods and systems described herein may be implemented on many different types of processing devices by program code comprising program instructions that are executable by the device processing subsystem. The software program instructions may include source code, object code, machine code, or any other stored data that is operable to cause a processing system to perform the methods and operations described herein and may be provided in any suitable language such as C, C++, JAVA, for example, or any other suitable programming language. Other implementations may also be used, however, such as firmware or even appropriately designed hardware configured to carry out the methods and systems described herein. 
         [0093]    The systems&#39; and methods&#39; data (e.g., associations, mappings, data input, data output, intermediate data results, final data results, etc.) may be stored and implemented in one or more different types of computer-implemented data stores, such as different types of storage devices and programming constructs (e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash memory, flat files, databases, programming data structures, programming variables, IF-THEN (or similar type) statement constructs, etc.). It is noted that data structures describe formats for use in organizing and storing data in databases, programs, memory, or other computer-readable media for use by a computer program. 
         [0094]    The computer components, software modules, functions, data stores and data structures described herein may be connected directly or indirectly to each other in order to allow the flow of data needed for their operations. It is also noted that a module or processor includes but is not limited to a unit of code that performs a software operation, and can be implemented for example as a subroutine unit of code, or as a software function unit of code, or as an object (as in an object-oriented paradigm), or as an applet, or in a computer script language, or as another type of computer code. The software components and/or functionality may be located on a single computer or distributed across multiple computers depending upon the situation at hand. 
         [0095]    While the disclosure has been described in detail and with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover the modifications and variations of this disclosure.