Patent Application
20200151624
Some transportation services may provide transportation on demand, drawing from a transportation provider pool to meet the needs of those requesting transportation services as the needs arise. However, fluctuating demand for transportation services may result in an unacceptable amount of time spent by transportation providers waiting to be matched with transportation requestors, wasted transportation supply resources, a lack of sufficient transportation supply to meet transportation demand, a fluctuation in the level of available transportation providers, or other suboptimal results. For example, a transportation service may experience a fluctuation in transportation requests within areas which have a high concentration of transportation requests resulting in potential delays and inefficiencies in matching transportation providers with transportation requests. The performance of an on-demand transportation service may depend on prompt fulfillment of transportation requests without wasting transportation provider resources. Accordingly, decisions about when and how to fulfill transportation requests may pose costly trade-offs for on-demand transportation services and consumers of on-demand transportation services.
The accompanying drawings illustrate a number of exemplary embodiments and are a part of the specification. Together with the following description, these drawings demonstrate and explain various principles of the instant disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference characters and descriptions indicate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. While the exemplary embodiments described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. However, the exemplary embodiments described herein are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the instant disclosure covers all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims.
The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system. Matching decisions between transportation requestors and transportation providers made by a dynamic transportation matching system within areas having a high concentration of transportation demand may pose tradeoffs between maintaining an acceptable level of available transportation providers and managing the amount of time a transportation provider must wait for a transportation match when the number of transportation providers is higher than the number of transportation requests.
Transportation providers may have varying needs and tolerances in terms of the amount of time the transportation provider is willing to wait for a transportation match. In addition, a transportation network may have times of varying transportation demand and a varying supply of transportation providers within areas having a high concentration of transportation demand (e.g., airports, train stations, and other public transportation hubs or event venues). Due to the variations and lack of accurate predictability of transportation provider supply and transportation requestor demand there may be times when transportation providers may wait in a pool until a transportation match is made.
As will be explained in greater detail below, a dynamic transportation matching system that allows transportation providers to check-in to (e.g., enter) a transportation provider pool remotely without having to enter a physical queuing area may provide benefits to transportation providers, transportation requestors, and the dynamic transportation network. The benefits a dynamic transportation matching system allowing remote check-in to the pool may include, without limitation, decreasing the transportation provider wait time in the pool, increasing the transportation provider satisfaction with the transportation service, increasing the number of transportation matches, increasing throughput for each transportation provider, and increasing efficiencies for the dynamic transportation network.
In some examples, the transportation provider pool may be a virtual queue and/or include a virtual queue that includes a group and/or groupings of transportation providers. The transportation provider pool may include a number of transportation providers. The transportation providers in the pool may be associated with a priority level and/or an ordering which may determine the transportation providers position within the virtual queue. The priority level and/or ordering within the pool may determine when the transportation provider is matched.
A dynamic transportation matching system may match transportation provider devices with transportation requestor devices for transportation services by collecting data from multiple sources including, without limitation, transportation provider devices, transportation requestor devices, transportation provider vehicles, external and internal databases, sensors (e.g., traffic, weather, public safety, highway, etc.). The collected data may be associated with the past, present and future movement and locations of transportation provider devices and transportation requestor devices. A dynamic transportation matching system may further use the collected data in generating predicted data. The collected and predicted data may be used by the dynamic transportation matching system to make real-time decisions associated with matching transportation provider devices with transportation requestor devices. The dynamic transportation matching system may continuously collect and predict data in order to maximize the efficiency of matching transportation provider devices with transportation requestor devices.
Accordingly, as may be appreciated, the systems and methods described herein may improve the functioning of a computer that implements remote check-in in dynamic transportation matching. For example, these systems and methods may improve the functioning of the computer by improving dynamic transportation matching results. Additionally or alternatively, these systems and methods may improve the functioning of the computer by reducing the computing resources consumed to identify appropriate transportation matchings (and, e.g., thereby freeing computing resources for other tasks, such as those directly and/or indirectly involved in dynamic transportation matching). In some examples, these systems and methods may improve the functioning of a computer by reducing repeated transportation provider queries from a transportation provider device (e.g., which may otherwise be submitted by potential transportation requestors who would monitor price fluctuations in the absence of a pool).
Furthermore, for the reasons mentioned above and to be discussed in greater detail below, the systems and methods described herein may provide advantages to field of dynamic transportation management and/or the field of transportation. In addition, these systems and methods may provide advantages to vehicles (whether piloted by a human driver or autonomous) that operate as a part of a dynamic transportation network. For example, the vehicles may complete transportation tasks more quickly, more efficiently (e.g., in terms of fuel, vehicle wear, etc.), and/or more safely (e.g., by driving, on average, shorter distances to complete the same transportation objective).
In some examples, transportation providers may be removed from the pool by the dynamic transportation matching system when matched to a transportation request. For example, as shown in
In some examples, transportation matching by the dynamic transportation matching system within the transportation match area may only be available to transportation providers that have a reserved time slot and/or have dropped off a transportation requestor within the matching area and are available for another transportation match.
As described above, remote check-in management module 204 may send notification 216 to the transportation provider over network 210 to reserve a time slot. Notification 216 may be sent by remote check-in management module 204, without limitation, on a daily basis, a weekly basis, or other time period basis. In some examples, message 217 is sent to the transportation provider over network 210 to indicate that time slots are available to reserve for future transportation services. Remote check-in management module 204 may send a message indicating specific future times slots 218 which are available for the transportation provider to reserve. The time slots available for reservation may be, without limitation, on an hourly basis, a half hour basis and/or another time period basis. A transportation provider may reserve time slot(s) by choosing the time slots on a graphical user interface of a computing device (e.g., smartphone).
In some examples, system 200, which allows a transportation provider to reserve a time slot, may be available to all transportation providers within the dynamic transportation network. In some examples, system 200 may only be available to a set of transportation providers having certain characteristics (e.g., transportation providers having a history of dependable performance).
In some examples, transportation matching within the transportation match area may only be available to transportation providers that have a reserved time slot, have remotely checked-in to the pool, and/or have dropped off a transportation requestor within the matching area and are available for another transportation match. Transportation providers that have dropped off a transportation requestor in the transportation matching area may be available for rematch. Otherwise, they may enter the pool with a low priority. In some examples, transportation providers may enter the pool by entering the transportation matching.
In some examples, transportation provider 530(1) may be assigned a highest priority level by the dynamic transportation matching system and therefore will be matched to the next transportation request within the area of high transportation demand. Transportation provider 530(2) may be assigned the second highest priority level and therefore will be matched to the second transportation request within the area of high transportation demand. The priority levels may decrease for each transportation provider in the pool with transportation provider 530(n) having the lowest priority level. As transportation providers are matched by the dynamic transportation matching system they are removed from the pool and the transportation providers remaining in the pool each have their priority level updated. Transportation provider matching area 515 may have matched transportation providers 520 providing a transportation service after being matched with a transportation request. Transportation provider matching area 515 may also have unmatched transportation providers 525 within transportation provider matching area that are not in the pool.
In some examples, transportation providers may reserve a time slot as described with respect to
In some examples, a transportation provider that is in proximity to an area of high transportation demand may be arbitrarily chosen by the dynamic transportation matching system and requested to join the pool with a high priority when the number of transportation requests is high. If the transportation provider chooses to join the pool with a high priority, the transportation provider is pre-dispatched by the dynamic transportation matching system from their current location to the area of high transportation demand for a transportation match.
In some examples, transportation providers at physical queueing area 410 without a reserved time slot may have their priority level in the pool decreased as a result of transportation providers with a reserved time slot arriving and being assigned a higher priority level. In some examples, transportation providers with a reserved time slot may have an adjustment of the priority levels. In some examples, the amount of priority level adjustment may be computed by Equation (1) below:
Priority level adjustment amount=average pool wait time in hours*number of check in periods/hour*time slots/check in period (1)
Transportation providers may be provided with an estimated wait time in the pool by the dynamic transportation matching system based on their priority level in the pool and the expected demand for transportation services. A transportation provider's estimated wait time may be adjusted by the dynamic transportation matching system to account for the expected arrival of transportation providers with a reserved time slot and a higher priority. In some examples, the number of transportation providers in the pool seen by other transportation providers may be adjusted.
The priority level in the pool may be based on a status of the transportation provider. In some examples, transportation providers that have recently had their transportation request cancelled and/or recently provided a transportation service over a short distance may have the highest priority level. Transportation providers that pre-scheduled a transportation request may have the second highest priority level. Transportation providers that have reserved a time slot and/or have remotely checked in may have the third highest priority level. Transportation providers that have arrived at physical queueing area 410 may have the fourth highest priority level. Transportation providers arriving at physical queueing area 410 may have their priority level determined based on arrival time with those arriving later having a lower priority level.
As an example, transportation demand determination module 620 may determine the level of demand for transportation services within a transportation provider matching area. The level of demand may be determined for different times periods during a day in which demand for transportation services varies. Transportation providers may provide requests for remote check-in 640 and/or reserved time slot to priority determination module 622. Priority determination module 622 may assign a priority level to transportation providers that have provided requests for remote check-in and may modify the priority level until the transportation provider is matched to a transportation request. Maximum remote check-in slots 650 may provide priority determination module 622 with a maximum number of remote check-in slots that will be accepted. When the maximum number of check-in slots is reached no additional remote check-in requests will be accepted by priority determination module 622. Priority determination module 622 may assign priority levels to transportation providers which have remotely checked into the pool or have entered the pool by entering the physical queuing area. Virtual queuing module 624 may use the priority levels determined by priority determination module 622 to manage transportation provider pool 610. Virtual queuing module 624 may adjust the priority levels of the transportation providers based on any of a variety of factors, including, e.g., their arrival time to the physical queuing area and/or Equation (1) above. In some examples, transportation providers entering the pool may limit the necessity of the system for queueing and matching transportation requests in the dynamic transportation network to identify and match transportation provider resources within a geographic area, thereby decreasing processing, network, and memory resources which are used to identify the best possible transportation matches. Balancing the number of transportation requests and transportation providers in the geographic area may result in more efficient overall operation of the system. As transportation providers are removed from transportation provider pool 610 they are provided to matching module 626 for matching the request to a transportation provider in the pool. Matching module 626 may determine a match between the transportation providers in the pool and the active requests. Matching module 626 may then issue matches 645.
In one example, a computer-implemented method may include receiving, by a dynamic transportation system, a request from a transportation provider device outside a transportation provider matching area to enter a pool associated with the transportation provider matching area. In some examples, the method may further include increasing a priority level of the transportation provider in the pool for a transportation match, thereby increasing a priority for the transportation match over one or more other transportation providers within the pool. In some examples, the method may further include matching a request to the transportation provider for the transportation service based on the pool.
In some examples, the method may further include reserving, by the transportation provider device, a time slot for the transportation match within the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the method may further include receiving, by the transportation provider device, a notification indicating a time of departure for travel to the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the method may further include joining, by the transportation provider device, a transportation provider pool for the transportation match within the transportation provider matching area while the transportation provider device is located outside the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider is removed from the pool when the transportation provider travels outside a second geographic area, and the second geographic area is determined based on an estimated time of arrival to the geographic area.
In some examples, the method further includes receiving, by the transportation provider device, an estimated time of arrival to the geographic area.
In some examples, a supply of transportation requestors is increased in the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider matching area comprises at least one of an airport or an event venue.
In some examples, the transportation provider is matched to other transportation requests while waiting for the transportation match in the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider does not wait in a physical queueing area.
In one example, a system may include one or more physical processors and one or more memories coupled to one or more of the physical processors, the one or more memories may include instructions operable when executed by the one or more physical processors to cause the system to perform operations including receiving, by a dynamic transportation system, a request from a transportation provider device outside a transportation provider matching area to increase a priority level of a transportation provider for a transportation match. In some examples, the method may further include increasing the priority level of the transportation provider for the transportation match based upon the request to increase the priority level when the transportation provider is within the transportation provider matching area, thereby increasing a priority for the transportation match over one or more other transportation providers. In some examples, the method may further include matching a transportation requestor to a transportation provider for the transportation service based on the increased priority level.
In some examples, the system may further include reserving, by the transportation provider device, a time slot for the transportation match within the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the system may further include receiving, by the transportation provider device, a notification indicating a time of departure for travel to the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the system may further include joining, by the transportation provider device, a transportation provider pool for the transportation match within the transportation provider matching area while the transportation provider device is located outside the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider is removed from the pool when the transportation provider travels outside a second geographic area, and the second geographic area is determined based on an estimated time of arrival to the geographic area.
In some examples, the system further includes receiving, by the transportation provider device, an estimated time of arrival to the geographic area.
In some examples, a supply of transportation requestors is increased in the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider matching area comprises at least one of an airport or an event venue.
In some examples, the transportation provider is matched to other transportation requests while waiting for the transportation match in the transportation provider matching area.
In some examples, the transportation provider does not wait in a physical queueing area.
In one example, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may include computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to receive, by a dynamic transportation system, a request from a transportation provider device outside a transportation provider matching area to increase a priority level of a transportation provider for a transportation match. In some examples, the instructions may further cause the computing device to increase the priority level of the transportation provider for the transportation match based upon the request to increase the priority level when the transportation provider is within the transportation provider matching area, thereby increasing a priority for the transportation match over one or more other transportation providers. In some examples, the instructions may further cause the computing device to match a transportation requestor to a transportation provider for the transportation service based on the increased priority level.
Embodiments of the instant disclosure may include or be implemented in conjunction with a dynamic transportation matching system. A transportation matching system may arrange rides on an on-demand and/or ad-hoc basis by, e.g., matching one or more ride requestors with one or more ride providers. For example, a transportation matching system may provide one or more transportation matching services for a ridesharing service, a ridesourcing service, a taxicab service, a car-booking service, an autonomous vehicle service, or some combination and/or derivative thereof. The transportation matching system may include and/or interface with any of a variety of subsystems that may implement, support, and/or improve a transportation matching service. For example, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers.
In some embodiments, identity management services 904 may be configured to perform authorization services for requestors and providers and/or manage their interactions and/or data with transportation management system 902. This may include, e.g., authenticating the identity of providers and determining that they are authorized to provide services through transportation management system 902. Similarly, requestors' identities may be authenticated to determine whether they are authorized to receive the requested services through transportation management system 902. Identity management services 904 may also manage and/or control access to provider and/or requestor data maintained by transportation management system 902, such as driving and/or ride histories, vehicle data, personal data, preferences, usage patterns as a ride provider and/or as a ride requestor, profile pictures, linked third-party accounts (e.g., credentials for music and/or entertainment services, social-networking systems, calendar systems, task-management systems, etc.) and any other associated information. Transportation management system 902 may also manage and/or control access to provider and/or requestor data stored with and/or obtained from third-party systems. For example, a requester or provider may grant transportation management system 902 access to a third-party email, calendar, or task management system (e.g., via the user's credentials). As another example, a requestor or provider may grant, through a mobile device (e.g., 916, 920, 922, or 924), a transportation application associated with transportation management system 902 access to data provided by other applications installed on the mobile device. In some examples, such data may be processed on the client and/or uploaded to transportation management system 902 for processing.
In some embodiments, transportation management system 902 may provide ride services 908, which may include ride matching and/or management services to connect a requestor to a provider. For example, after identity management services module 904 has authenticated the identity a ride requestor, ride services module 908 may attempt to match the requestor with one or more ride providers. In some embodiments, ride services module 908 may identify an appropriate provider using location data obtained from location services module 906. Ride services module 908 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 908 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers. In some embodiments, ride services module 908 may use rule-based algorithms and/or machine-learning models for matching requestors and providers.
Transportation management system 902 may communicatively connect to various devices through networks 910 and/or 912. Networks 910 and 912 may include any combination of interconnected networks configured to send and/or receive data communications using various communication protocols and transmission technologies. In some embodiments, networks 910 and/or 912 may include local area networks (LANs), wide-area networks (WANs), and/or the Internet, and may support communication protocols such as transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), Internet packet exchange (IPX), systems network architecture (SNA), and/or any other suitable network protocols. In some embodiments, data may be transmitted through networks 910 and/or 912 using a mobile network (such as a mobile telephone network, cellular network, satellite network, or other mobile network), a public switched telephone network (PSTN), wired communication protocols (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), Controller Area Network (CAN)), and/or wireless communication protocols (e.g., wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies implementing the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication (NFC), Z-Wave, and ZigBee). In various embodiments, networks 910 and/or 912 may include any combination of networks described herein or any other type of network capable of facilitating communication across networks 910 and/or 912.
In some embodiments, transportation management vehicle device 918 may include a provider communication device configured to communicate with users, such as drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and/or other users. In some embodiments, transportation management vehicle device 918 may communicate directly with transportation management system 902 or through another provider computing device, such as provider computing device 916. In some embodiments, a requestor computing device (e.g., device 924) may communicate via a connection 926 directly with transportation management vehicle device 918 via a communication channel and/or connection, such as a peer-to-peer connection, Bluetooth connection, NFC connection, ad hoc wireless network, and/or any other communication channel or connection. Although
In some embodiments, devices within a vehicle may be interconnected. For example, any combination of the following may be communicatively connected: vehicle 914, provider computing device 916, provider tablet 920, transportation management vehicle device 918, requestor computing device 924, requestor tablet 922, and any other device (e.g., smart watch, smart tags, etc.). For example, transportation management vehicle device 918 may be communicatively connected to provider computing device 916 and/or requestor computing device 924. Transportation management vehicle device 918 may establish communicative connections, such as connections 926 and 928, to those devices via any suitable communication technology, including, e.g., WLAN technologies implementing the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC, Z-Wave, ZigBee, and any other suitable short-range wireless communication technology.
In some embodiments, users may utilize and interface with one or more services provided by the transportation management system 902 using applications executing on their respective computing devices (e.g., 916, 918, 920, and/or a computing device integrated within vehicle 914), which may include mobile devices (e.g., an iPhone®, an iPad®, mobile telephone, tablet computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA)), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., smart watch, smart glasses, head mounted displays, etc.), thin client devices, gaming consoles, and any other computing devices. In some embodiments, vehicle 914 may include a vehicle-integrated computing device, such as a vehicle navigation system, or other computing device integrated with the vehicle itself, such as the management system of an autonomous vehicle. The computing device may run on any suitable operating systems, such as Android®, iOS®, macOS®, Windows®, Linux®, UNIX®, or UNIX®-based or Linux®-based operating systems, or other operating systems. The computing device may further be configured to send and receive data over the Internet, short message service (SMS), email, and various other messaging applications and/or communication protocols. In some embodiments, one or more software applications may be installed on the computing device of a provider or requestor, including an application associated with transportation management system 902. The transportation application may, for example, be distributed by an entity associated with the transportation management system via any distribution channel, such as an online source from which applications may be downloaded. Additional third-party applications unassociated with the transportation management system may also be installed on the computing device. In some embodiments, the transportation application may communicate or share data and resources with one or more of the installed third-party applications.
As shown in
As shown in
While various embodiments of the present disclosure are described in terms of a ridesharing service in which the ride providers are human drivers operating their own vehicles, in other embodiments, the techniques described herein may also be used in environments in which ride requests are fulfilled using autonomous vehicles. For example, a transportation management system of a ridesharing service may facilitate the fulfillment of ride requests using both human drivers and autonomous vehicles.
As detailed above, the computing devices and systems described and/or illustrated herein broadly represent any type or form of computing device or system capable of executing computer-readable instructions, such as those contained within the modules described herein. In their most basic configuration, these computing device(s) may each include at least one memory device and at least one physical processor.
In some examples, the term “memory device” generally refers to any type or form of volatile or non-volatile storage device or medium capable of storing data and/or computer-readable instructions. In one example, a memory device may store, load, and/or maintain one or more of the modules described herein. Examples of memory devices include, without limitation, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid-State Drives (SSDs), optical disk drives, caches, variations or combinations of one or more of the same, or any other suitable storage memory.
In some examples, the term “physical processor” generally refers to any type or form of hardware-implemented processing unit capable of interpreting and/or executing computer-readable instructions. In one example, a physical processor may access and/or modify one or more modules stored in the above-described memory device. Examples of physical processors include, without limitation, microprocessors, microcontrollers, Central Processing Units (CPUs), Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that implement softcore processors, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), portions of one or more of the same, variations or combinations of one or more of the same, or any other suitable physical processor.
Although illustrated as separate elements, the modules described and/or illustrated herein may represent portions of a single module or application. In addition, in certain embodiments one or more of these modules may represent one or more software applications or programs that, when executed by a computing device, may cause the computing device to perform one or more tasks. For example, one or more of the modules described and/or illustrated herein may represent modules stored and configured to run on one or more of the computing devices or systems described and/or illustrated herein. One or more of these modules may also represent all or portions of one or more special-purpose computers configured to perform one or more tasks.
In addition, one or more of the modules described herein may transform data, physical devices, and/or representations of physical devices from one form to another. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the modules recited herein may transform a processor, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and/or any other portion of a physical computing device from one form to another by executing on the computing device, storing data on the computing device, and/or otherwise interacting with the computing device.
In some embodiments, the term “computer-readable medium” generally refers to any form of device, carrier, or medium capable of storing or carrying computer-readable instructions. Examples of computer-readable media include, without limitation, transmission-type media, such as carrier waves, and non-transitory-type media, such as magnetic-storage media (e.g., hard disk drives, tape drives, and floppy disks), optical-storage media (e.g., Compact Disks (CDs), Digital Video Disks (DVDs), and BLU-RAY disks), electronic-storage media (e.g., solid-state drives and flash media), and other distribution systems.
The process parameters and sequence of the steps described and/or illustrated herein are given by way of example only and can be varied as desired. For example, while the steps illustrated and/or described herein may be shown or discussed in a particular order, these steps do not necessarily need to be performed in the order illustrated or discussed. The various exemplary methods described and/or illustrated herein may also omit one or more of the steps described or illustrated herein or include additional steps in addition to those disclosed.
The preceding description has been provided to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize various aspects of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein. This exemplary description is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the instant disclosure. The embodiments disclosed herein should be considered in all respects illustrative and not restrictive. Reference should be made to the appended claims and their equivalents in determining the scope of the instant disclosure.
Unless otherwise noted, the terms “connected to” and “coupled to” (and their derivatives), as used in the specification and claims, are to be construed as permitting both direct and indirect (i.e., via other elements or components) connection. In addition, the terms “a” or “an,” as used in the specification and claims, are to be construed as meaning “at least one of.” Finally, for ease of use, the terms “including” and “having” (and their derivatives), as used in the specification and claims, are interchangeable with and have the same meaning as the word “comprising.”
