Other Computer Engineering Commons^™

Controlling Virus Infections In Internet And Web Servers A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The viruses not only infect the stand-alone machines or client machines but also infect the web servers. When the web servers are infected with viruses, they disseminate infected content and thereby infect the client computers. The conventional anti-virus programs can run only on one machine. There is no way that an anti-virus in the client machine can determine whether the content of a website is virus safe or not. Hence, different methods are implemented to prevent the client computer from being infected by the infected content of a web server.

One proposed efficient method is to get scanned by the …

Inventions On Generic Detection Of Computer Viruses -A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The conventional methods of signature scanning and heuristic testing depend on prior knowledge of individual virus signatures and virus behaviors. Hence these methods are capable of detecting only the known viruses or viruses behaving in known ways. Hence, these methods cannot detect the viruses unless they are created, released and infected the innocent users. This situation creates the need for generic detectors that can detect even the new and unknown viruses.

The generic scanning methods, in contrast, don’t depend on individual virus signatures or behaviors. Hence they are better applicable to detect the new and unknown viruses and viruses of …

Implementing Virus Scanning In Computer Networks, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Some viruses exploit the features and capabilities of computer networks to spread, operate and damage network environments. For example, the virus may copy itself to other computers in the network or may increase network activities congesting the network traffic. The conventional anti-viruses are not efficient enough to detect and control viruses in a network environment. As they are file based they cannot scan the data while being downloaded from the server.

Most of the drawbacks of conventional scanning are taken care by a firewall-based virus scanning. But this method requires high-end machines to withstand the load of centralized scanning. There …

Overcoming Limitations Of Signature Scanning -Applying Triz To Improve Anti-Virus Programs, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A virus signature is a sequence of bytes that may be found in a virus program code but unlikely to be found elsewhere. Signature scanning is a method of detecting a virus by scanning a target program to detect the presence of any virus signature. If the signature is found then the target program is deemed infected, otherwise the target program is deemed uninfected.

Signature scanning is the most popular method of virus scanning and is adopted by all anti-virus programs. Signature scanning is capable of detecting more than 80% of viruses. It uses a simple logic and uses less …

Solving Virus Problems By Anti-Virus Developers- A Triz Perspective, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The anti-virus developers play a very significant role in dealing with the computer viruses. They analyze the problems of different levels of users and find solutions for each of those problems. Their goal is not just to sell the product and make profit out of it. They undertake much greater responsibility to ensure that their product meets the expectations of the users and deals with the viruses efficiently.

Different levels of users dealing with computer face different types of problems. The developer must ensure that the product meets the needs of various levels of users and network administrators. The developer …

Detecting Macro Viruses - A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The macro viruses are easy to create but difficult to detect. Even for a virus scanner it is difficult to decide which macro is a virus and which macro is not, as a user macro may also create files, send emails and do all such activities that a macro virus can do. It is difficult to differentiate a genuine macro and a virus macro as both of them do similar type of jobs. Suspecting a macro to be virus just because it is “writing to a file” may result in false positives. It is necessary to improve the emulation method, …

Improving Speed Of Virus Scanning- Applying Triz To Improve Anti-Virus Programs, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

As the number of viruses increases the amount of time to scan for those viruses also increase. This situation is worsened because of the increasing number of files typically stored in a computer system. Besides more complex tests are required to detect the modern day’s intelligent viruses. Thus a combination of all these factors makes a full virus scan very lingering and resource consuming. With thousands of types of viruses and gigabytes of storages, a typical virus scanning may take several hours. Because of this reason many users don’t like to virus scan their computers unless so required.

This article …

Detecting Boot Sector Viruses- Applying Triz To Improve Anti-Virus Programs, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The boot sector virus infects the boot record of the hard disk or floppy disks. It gets loaded onto the memory every time the computer is booted and remains resident in the memory till the computer is shut down. Once entered it alters the boot sector of the hard disk and remains in the hard disk permanently until the system is totally damaged and fails to boot.

While analyzing the problem from TRIZ prospective we try different possibilities to avoid boot sector viruses, such as, Can we do away with boot record? Can we avoid booting from floppies? Can we …

Solving Problems Of Virus Definition Files - A Triz Perspective, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Signature scanning is the most popular method of virus scanning and is adopted by all anti-virus programs. Signature scanning is capable of detecting more than 80% of viruses. It uses a simple logic and uses less memory and system resources. Although it has a lot of advantages, it has one big disadvantage. It requires the virus signature to be extracted by the experts and stored in a database called “virus signature database”. This virus signature database has to be updated by the anti-virus developers and the end users periodically in order to deal with the latest viruses.

A typical virus …

Solving Virus Problems By System Administrators- A Triz Perspective, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The computer virus is not only a problem to the end user but also a problem to everybody whoever is associated with computers, including systems administrators, corporate managers and even anti-virus manufacturers. In the previous article we discussed on how to use TRIZ for analyzing and solving virus problems of an end user. In this article we will focus on the problems faced by the systems administrators.

An analysis of virus scenario finds that the same situation of virus infection creates different problems to people at different levels, such as, a computer user, a system administrator, a corporate manager and …

Solving Virus Problems By Computer Users- A Triz Perspective, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The knowledge on TRIZ helps us analyzing a problem. Analysis is an important step in problem solving because the same event may be causing different problems (or benefits) to different people under different conditions. Some solutions may be addressing a problem in a short term or narrow perspective while giving rise to other problems or disadvantages. A good solution should be ideal and holistic in approach and should lead to no other problems or negative consequences.

When we analyze the problem of computer virus we find that different types of computer users face different types of problems and seek to …

An Introduction To Virus Scanners, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The main functions of an anti-virus program are, (i) Virus prevention and file protection, (ii) Virus scanning and detection, (iii) Removing virus from infected files, and (iv) Recovering damaged files and objects.

An anti-virus program employs various methods to detect and remove viruses. The two popular methods of detecting viruses are signature scanning and behavior monitoring. However each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses.

As the detection gets more sophisticated so are the virus programmers. The virus programmers also try to go one step beyond the anti-virus mechanism and create intelligent viruses which pose more and more difficult …

An Introduction To Computer Viruses, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The computer virus is a problem to computer users at all levels including students, home users, corporate users, system administrators, corporate managers and even the anti-virus manufacturers. The viruses are written by people with malefic intentions to trouble the innocent users.

There are many types of viruses are boot sector viruses, file viruses, worms, Trojan horses, macro viruses etc. Each of these has many different variants. The older viruses were transmitting through floppies. Some older viruses like boot sector viruses are very rare nowadays as nobody boots from floppies. The modern day viruses transmit more through networks and emails. Macro …

Methods Of Virus Detection And Their Limitations, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

An anti-virus program typically employs various strategies to detect and remove viruses. The popular methods of detecting virus are signature scanning, heuristic scanning and integrity checking. However each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Signature scanning (or searching of known virus patterns) is the most common method of virus detection. But it cannot detect viruses whose signatures are not available in the virus database. The other popular method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method can be complex, but it has the ability to detect unknown or new viruses. …

Using Triz For Maximizing Information Presentation In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The modern software tools provide numerous graphic elements in their GUI, which demand more and more screen space. As the size of a display screen cannot be extended beyond a limit, it is typically seen as a constraint in a graphical user interface.

Looking from a TRIZ perspective, the computer screen should display all the information that the user needs (Ideal Final Result). There are various methods of addressing the problem of screen space, some of which are, ”using icons for windows”, “the desktop metaphor”, “the large virtual workspace metaphor”, “multiple virtual workspaces”, “overlapping windows” and “increasing dimensions” etc.

There …

Using Triz To Improve Navigation In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A typical user interface consists of several buttons, menus, windows, trees and other type of controls. The increased number of GUI elements and complexities of the GUI controls necessitate the user to acquire certain level of skill and efficiency in order to operate the GUI. There are many situations which further make the navigation difficult. Ideally the user should face no difficulties in navigating through the user interface. Any operation in the graphical user interface should require minimum pointer operations from the user (Ideal Final Result). This objective of a graphical user interface has led to several inventions trying to …

Using Triz For Minimizing Cursor Movements In Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Although a GUI is a revolutionary development over its predecessors, it suffers from a typical shortcoming that it requires a lot of pointer movements. As pointer movement is a slow process it affects the overall performance of a GUI operation. Besides too much pointer movement can frustrate a user. Hence, it is desirable to reduce the pointer movements while performing any action through a typical GUI. Ideally the user need not move the pointer to initiate a GUI based operation. In other words the pointer itself should automatically move onto the desired location on the graphical user interface (Ideal Final …

Using Triz To Design Error-Free Gui, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A graphical user interface has a lot of advantages over its predecessors. Its beauty, simplicity, adaptability, user-friendliness, visual clarity, speed and ease of operation have made it popular and suitable to a broad range of users. But a GUI also has certain limitations. Like any other type of user interface, a GUI can also be operated wrongly which may yield undesirable results. A good GUI should be intelligent to determine user’s intention and disallow him doing wrong operations. A less error-prone GUI is certainly more effective and efficient. Ideally the GUI should prevent users from doing any mistake while operating …

Arranging Display Of Gui Elements- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

One of the biggest drawbacks of the graphical user interface is that it consumes the active display area associated with the device. Whether the display screen is a part of a television, computer, or any other consumer device, the graphical user interface appears on the active area of the display screen. As a result the GUI masks a part of the display screen and the amount of information that can be viewed on the screen is reduced. Ideally the GUI should offer all its features without blocking any part of the display screen. The features should be readily available and …

Inventions On Three Dimensional Gui- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The graphical user interface has become popular because of its simplicity and user friendliness. The user can do very complex operations through GUI by simple pointer movements. One of its major drawbacks is that it consumes active display area. Every icon, every window and every other GUI element occupies some amount of screen space. It is desirable to display more GUI features within the limited amount of display screen. Adding another dimension to a graphical user interface can yield tremendous benefits such as improving aesthetics, data presentation, screen-space utilization and user friendliness. The user can easily locate the objects in …

Inventions On Auto-Configurable Gui-A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A GUI is intended for the end user but designed by the developer. Even the experienced developer cannot realistically anticipate what options will be required by the users at a future point of time. Besides, even a well-designed GUI may not be felt convenient to all categories of users as the skill, expertise and requirement of the users vary from each other.

Although the user can best describe his requirement and therefore can best configure the GUI, it is not advisable for the user to spend time and effort to configure the GUI. The user interface needs to be customized …

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes-Part-1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The objective of this article is to know how is LDAP used for applications in e-commerce and Policy Management. The analysis of patents shows which Inventive Principles have been used to solve those inventions. Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for …

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes-Part-3, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for “Network Management” and “Telecommunications”. The third part of the article includes 11 patents using LDAP for “World Wide Web” and “Java and CORBA”. This is the third part of the article which analyses patents …

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes (Part-2) - A Triz Based Analysis Of Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The objective of this article is to know how is LDAP used for Network Management and Telecommunications. The analysis of patents shows which Inventive Principles have been used to solve those inventions. Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for “Network Management” …

Inventions On Ldap- A Study Based On Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an IETF open standard to provide directory services in the network. LDAP is based on X.500 directory architecture, intended to provide directory services in Internet compatible environments. LDAP is used to provide directory services to applications ranging from e-mail systems to distributed system management tools. LDAP is becoming more and more popular with its wider usage in the Internet.

This report on LDAP is based on a study of 60 selected patents on LDAP from US patent database. The objective of this article is to present the distribution of patents according to different features …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired- Part 2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, a person with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. People having hearing problem, visual challenge etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to specially design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces, which can be used by the physically challenged people.

This article analyses the types of visual disabilities, different assistive technologies for different visual disabilities, guidelines for developing user interfaces for the visually impaired, software products available for …

Patentability Of Software Inventions, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Software is very expensive to develop but very inexpensive to copy. Just by copying a software you create an exact duplicate of the original software and all with the same functionality. There is no difference between the original (which is bought) and the copy (pirated). The worse is when the source code is copied. The copier can even claim to have developed the software where the credit of the developer might go. The software developers use various methods to protect their source code such as copyright, trade secrets etc. but each having limitations. The developers are keen on finding legal …

Can A Triz Software Help You Inventing?, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A software on TRIZ and/or Innovation can certainly supplement human brain and memory in order to speed up an innovation job. There are various TRIZ and Innovation software available in market. Some are too complex to use, some deal with only limited number of TRIZ techniques and some are having good features of innovation without much emphasis on TRIZ. An obvious task remains to evaluate them and find which software can help you best in inventing.

This article does not recommend or reject any TRIZ software per se. It only describes the expected features of a good TRIZ software and …

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The first part of the article analyzed five patents on menu interfaces. This part analyses five more patents from TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs, Contradictions and which Inventive Principles have been applied to achieve those solutions.

Inventions On Selecting Gui Elements, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Selecting an object or element is a fundamental operation in any graphic user interface. It is necessary to select an object before doing any operation (such as, dragging, copying, opening, deleting etc.) on that object. The GUI may provide features to select any single object or even multiple objects. The feature of selecting multiple objects can provides tremendous power to the GUI as the user can do complex operations on multiple objects in one go. However, the process of selection is not as simple as it appears to the user of a GUI. The internal logic of a selection mechanism …