US07645678B2
The present invention discloses a process of manufacturing an STI for avoiding bubble defects, in which, after the shallow trench is formed by etching, substance containing carbon or oxygen on the bottom of the shallow trench is removed, and then the process is continued to accomplish the STI. Alternatively, the removal of substance containing carbon or oxygen may be performed after the oxide liner and the silicon nitride liner are formed on the bottom surface of the shallow trench. The present invention also discloses a process of treating bottom surface of the shallow trench. After the bottom surface of the shallow trench is treated, the bubble defects due to the use of the silicon nitride liner can be avoided.
US07645673B1
A method for the design and layout for a patterned deep N-well. A Tile is specified as a fundamental building block for the deep N-well pattern. The tile comprises a first element on a first layer and may comprise a second element on a second layer. A two dimensional region is covered with an array of contiguous tiles, with the elements on each layer connecting with elements of adjacent tiles to form extended shapes. The array may be converted to a collection of sub-arrays through the removal of tiles. The array or collection of sub-arrays may be merged to produce a first layer pattern and second layer pattern. Design rule checks may be applied to verify the pattern. The first layer shapes and second layer shapes may be edited. The first layer shapes and the second layer shapes may then be combined to produce a deep N-well pattern.
US07645656B2
A field effect transistor (“FET”) is provided which includes a gate stack overlying a single-crystal semiconductor region of a substrate, a pair of first spacers disposed over sidewalls of said gate stack, and a pair of regions consisting essentially of a single-crystal semiconductor alloy which are disposed on opposite sides of the gate stack. Each of the semiconductor alloy regions is spaced a first distance from the gate stack. The source region and drain region of the FET are at least partly disposed in respective ones of the semiconductor alloy regions, such that the source region and the drain region are each spaced a second distance from the gate stack by a first spacer of the pair of first spacers, the second distance being different from the first distance.
US07645653B2
A process for manufacturing a semiconductor device having a polymetal structure includes patterning a bottom electrode layer by using a sacrificial layer pattern oxidizing the side surface of the patterned bottom electrode layer, forming a sidewall oxide film on both the patterned bottom electrode layer and the sacrificial layer pattern, removing the sacrificial layer pattern, and forming a top electrode layer on the exposed bottom electrode layer and the side surface of the sidewall oxide film.
US07645649B1
A pixel structure fabricating method is provided. A gate and a gate insulation layer covering the gate are formed on a substrate. A channel layer is formed on the gate insulation layer. A conductive layer is formed on the channel layer and gate insulation layer. A black matrix having a color filer layer accommodating opening is formed on the conductive layer. The black matrix includes a first block and a second block which is thicker than the first block. The conductive layer is patterned with the black matrix as a mask to form a source and a drain on the channel layer. A color filter layer is formed within the color filter layer accommodating opening through inkjet printing. A dielectric layer is formed on the black matrix and color filter layer. The dielectric layer is patterned to expose the drain. A pixel electrode electrically connected to the drain is formed.
US07645647B2
A thin film transistor includes a multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit including a plurality of coaxial silicon nanowires on a substrate, the multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit including a central portion and end portions of the central portion; a gate electrode on the central portion; and a source electrode and a drain electrode on the respective end portions, respectively, so as to electrically connect to the multi-coaxial silicon nanowire unit.
US07645644B2
In one aspect, a semiconductor device is provided which includes a data block including M parallel and sequentially arranged data lines numbered {0, 1, 2, . . . n, n+1, . . . , m−1, m}, where M, n and m are positive integers, and where n
US07645641B2
An integrated circuit package includes: a substrate; an electronic circuit located on the substrate, the electronic circuit comprising a topography of at least one level; a cooling device located over the electronic circuit; a compliant interface disposed between the electronic circuit and the cooling device, wherein the compliant interface comprises a first surface and a second surface and wherein the first surface is in thermal contact with the electronic circuit, and wherein the compliant interface is preformed from a compliant material such that the first surface substantially conforms to the topography of the electronic circuit.
US07645621B2
Inspection methods. A method includes adhering an optical blocking layer directly onto and in direct mechanical contact with a semiconductor process wafer, the blocking layer being substantially opaque to a range of wavelengths of light; applying at least one layer over the blocking layer; and inspecting optically at least one wavelength at least one inspection area, the blocking layer extending substantially throughout the inspection area. An inspection method including adhering an optical absorbing layer to a semiconductor process wafer, where the absorbing layer is configured to substantially absorb a range of wavelengths of light; applying at least one layer over the absorbing layer; and inspecting optically at least one wavelength at least one inspection area of the process wafer. A manufacturing method including ascertaining if a defect is present within a photoresist layer, and changing a semiconductor manufacturing process to prevent the defect, if the defect is present.
US07645616B2
Methods and compositions for identifying and treating obesity and obesity-induced metabolic disorders are provided. One aspect provides a method for the evaluation of risk and progression of glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes in mammalian subjects. The method includes measuring the concentration of circulating lipocalin-2 in a subject and comparing the measured level to lipocalin-2 to a reference level. Another aspect provides methods of treating insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and other related complications by administering to a patient a composition that can reduce the circulating levels of lipocalin-2, for example a lipocalin-2 antagonist.
US07645615B1
Methods and devices for improved chemical and biological detection assays combined well defined microstructures having independently addressable electrodes with various surface immobilization electrochemical assays. Combining known chemical detection immobilization assays, electrochemically active moieties with microstructures having independently addressable electrodes provides for vastly improved methods of detecting microorganisms, chemical compounds, and measuring membrane transport.
US07645612B2
The invention is related to different embodiments of a kit for the simultaneous qualitative and/or quantitative determination of a multitude of analytes comprising a sensor platform comprising an optical thin-film waveguide with a layer (a) transparent at least at an excitation wavelength on a layer (b) with lower refractive index than layer (a), also transparent at least at said excitation wavelength, and at least one grating structure (c) modulated in said layer (a), for the incoupling of said excitation light into layer (a), at least one array of biological or biochemical or synthetic recognition elements immobilized in discrete measurement areas (d) directly or by means of an adhesion-promoting layer on layer (a), for specific recognition and/or binding of said analytes and/or for specific interaction with said analytes, means for laterally resolved referencing of the excitation light intensity available in the measurement areas, and optionally means for the calibration of one or more luminescences generated in the near-field of layer (a) as a consequence of the binding of one or more analytes or of the specific interaction with one or more analytes, wherein a liquid sample to be analyzed for said analytes is brought into contact with said measurement areas on said sensor platform either directly or after mixture with further reagents. The invention is also related to analytical systems based on a kit according to the invention and to methods for the determination of one or more analytes, based on said kit, and to use thereof.
US07645609B2
The invention provides media and methods for culturing mammalian cells whereby the sialylation of a protein produced by the cells is increased. The medium can contain N-acetylmannosamine and, optionally, galactose. The medium may also comprise fructose and mannose. Alternatively, the medium can contain galactose and fructose and, optionally, can also comprise mannose and/or N-acetylmannosamine. The methods can be practiced along with other methods for culturing cells so as to increase the quantity or quality of a protein produced by the cells, including culturing the cells at a temperature below 37° C.
US07645605B2
The present invention provides: a protein having an improved nitrile hydratase activity, whereby heat resistance has been improved when compared with a wild-type nitrile hydratase activity, wherein the amino acid sequence of a nitrile hydratase is modified; a gene DNA encoding the above protein; a recombinant vector having the above gene DNA; a transformant or transductant having the above recombinant vector; a nitrile hydratase collected from a culture of the above transformant or transductant, and a production method thereof; and a method for producing an amide compound.
US07645604B2
The present invention relates to Δ9 elongases, which have the ability to convert linoleic acid [18:2, LA] to eicosadienoic acid [20:2, EDA]. Isolated nucleic acid fragments and recombinant constructs comprising such fragments encoding Δ9 elongase along with methods of making long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) using these Δ9 elongases in plants and oleaginous yeast are disclosed.
US07645590B2
Follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA) is distinguished from follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) by comparing amount of an expression product of at least one gene selected from the group consisting of DDIT3, ARG2, ITM1, C1orf24, TARSH, and ACO1 in a test follicular thyroid specimen to a normal control thyroid specimen. The test follicular thyroid specimen is identified as FTA if the amount of expression product of TARSH is equal to or greater in the test follicular thyroid specimen than in the normal control thyroid specimen. The test follicular thyroid specimen is identified as FTC if the amount of expression product of DDIT3, ARG2, ITM1, C1orf24, or ACO1 is greater in the test follicular thyroid specimen than in the normal control thyroid specimen.
US07645583B2
Disclosed are screening processes for identification of compounds that may inhibit complex formation between C-reactive protein and fibronectin. Compounds identified by the disclosed methods may be utilized to inhibit the target analytes that are known to occur during skin aging as well as during the course of several diseases. Accordingly, inhibitory compounds identified by the disclosed methods may be utilized to prevent and treat damaged tissue, inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular conditions, renal conditions, periodontal conditions and obesity, among other conditions. For example, the compounds identified by the disclosed methods may be utilized to treat tissue that has suffered trauma, e.g., burns or wounds, as well as tissue that is inflamed due to any of several causes. The disclosed compounds may also be utilized to improve the accuracy of assays designed to assess CRP or Fn levels in a sample, for instance in a plasma sample, as a risk assessment tool in certain medical conditions and to discover new treatments.
US07645580B2
The invention provides allelic ladder mixtures and individual alleles suitable for use in such mixtures. The allelic ladder mixtures give improved identification and distinguishing capabilities, particularly suitable in forensic investigations.
US07645577B2
This invention provides isolated nucleic acids encoding polypeptides comprising amino acid sequences of streptococcal matrix adhesion (Ema) polypeptides. The invention provides nucleic acids encoding Group B streptococcal Ema polypeptides EmaA, EmaB, EmaC, EmaD and EmaE. The present invention provides isolated polypeptides comprising amino acid sequences of Group B streptococcal polypeptides EmaA, EmaB, EmaC, EmaD and EmaE, including analogs, variants, mutants, derivatives and fragments thereof. Ema homologous polypeptides from additional bacterial species, including S. pneumoniae, S. pyogenes, E. faecalis and C. diptheriae are also provided. Antibodies to the Ema polypeptides and immunogenic fragments thereof are also provided. The present invention relates to the identification and prevention of infections by virulent forms of streptococci. This invention provides pharmaceutical compositions, immunogenic compositions, vaccines, and diagnostic and therapeutic methods of use of the isolated polypeptides, antibodies thereto, and nucleic acids. Assays for compounds which modulate the polypeptides of the present invention for use in therapy are also provided.
US07645570B2
Methods for detecting BoNT/A activity in a sample, methods for screening molecules able to compete with BoNT/A receptor binding, methods for reducing BoNT/A activity in a human and methods of marketing a neurotoxin capable of selectively binding to FGFR3 to a governmental or regional regulatory authority.
US07645563B2
The present invention is to obtain without any trouble a photosensitive resin composition, a photosensitive layer and a photosensitive resin printing original plate, which are developable with an aqueous developer, resistant to an aqueous ink and a cosolvent ink, and assured of good image reproducibility. The present invention relates to a photosensitive resin composition comprising (A) hydrophobic polymers obtained from at least two or more water dispersion latexes, (B) a photopolymerizable compound and (C) a photopolymerization initiator, wherein the two or more hydrophobic polymers each is present in a fine particle state.
US07645551B2
Disclosed herein are toner particles generated by emulsion/aggregation processes. The processes are conducted under conditions that shorten the time for coalescence and post-formation washing, thereby increasing efficiency of the processes as compared to conventional processes.
US07645548B2
A coating composition having a polymer resin composition containing at lest an acid catalyst and a masking agent, wherein the masking agent is selected from the group consisting of compound A, compound B, and the acylated derivatives of compound A, where compound A is given by the structural formula (I): where X represents a substituent selected from the group consisting of —OR and —NR′R″, wherein R, R′, and R″ each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbyl group; and compound B is given by the structural formula (II): where Y and Z independently represent —OH or —NH2.
US07645547B2
An electrophotographic photosensitive member is provided which has a photosensitive layer formed on a support. The electrophotographic photosensitive member has a surface layer containing a silicon-containing compound or a fluorine-containing compound. The surface layer has a plurality of depressed portions which are independent from one another, on the surface. When the major axis diameter of the depressed portion is represented by Rpc and the distance between the deepest part and the opening surface of the depressed portion is represented by Rdv, Rdv is 0.1μ or more to 10.0 μm or less, and the ratio of the depth (Rdv) to the major axis diameter (Rpc), Rdv/Rpc, is more than 0.3 to 7.0 or less.
US07645542B2
An active material for positive electrode for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprises a lithium-metal composite oxide that is expressed by the general formula of Lix(Ni1-yCoy)1-zMzO2 (where 0.98≦x≦1.10, 0.05≦y≦0.4, 0.01≦z≦0.2, and where M is at least one metal element selected from the group of Al, Mg, Mn, Ti, Fe, Cu, Zn and Ga), and where the SO4 ion content is in the range from 0.4 weight % to 2.5 weight %, and the occupancy rate of lithium found from the X-ray diffraction chart and using Rietveld analysis is 98% or greater, and the carbon amount measured by way of the high frequency heating-infrared adsorption method is 0.12 weight % or less, and that the Karl Fischer water content due to heating at 180° C. be 0.2 weight % or less.
US07645538B1
The present invention is directed to any electrochemical cell casing design having an electrolyte fill aperture. The electrolyte fill aperture receives and directs the electrolyte into the casing. A fill plug has at least two components—an insert section detachably connected to a placement unit. The placement unit allows a user to properly position the insert section into the electrolyte fill aperture. Once this is done, the placement unit is detached from the insert section. The insert section in then hermetically sealed to the casing. If desired, the fill plug can be used for filling the electrolyte in the casing.
US07645535B2
A method and related bonding compositions for use in assembling a solid oxide fuel cell (“SOFC”) stack having thermally and chemically stable and electrically conductive bonds between alternating fuel cells and interconnect components in the stack. The improved method and materials allow for the assembly of solid oxide fuel cells having a stronger and more reliable bond with good electrical contact in situ between the SOFC interconnect layers (plates) and the electrodes. The bonding materials and method according to the invention provide good electrical performance while maintaining the mechanical and electrical integrity of SOFC stacks without requiring excessive mechanical compression of the stack as exemplified by prior art systems. The preferred bonding agents comprise a primary phase that provides the electrical conduction path during fuel cell operation, as well as the mechanical strength necessary to insure a reliable connection between the interconnect and the relevant anode or cathode surfaces of the fuel cell. Secondary phases can be added in small amounts to the primary phase to improve adhesion. An exemplary method according to the invention also contemplates various different steps for pre-treating the surfaces of the interconnect plates and electrodes to improve their surface bonding properties.
US07645528B2
An AFC magnetic recording medium having a three-layered ferromagnetic structure capable of reducing noises without deteriorating thermal stability is provided in order to achieve ultra-high recording density. In one embodiment, the AFC magnetic recording medium has a magnetic recording layer formed on a substrate via an underlayer, the magnetic recording medium consisting of a first ferromagnetic layer formed on the underlayer, a second ferromagnetic layer formed on the first ferromagnetic layer via a nonmagnetic layer inducing the antiferromagnetic interaction, and a third ferromagnetic layer formed on the second ferromagnetic layer, wherein the center of gravity G of the magnetic recording medium is defined using the distance tg from the upper surface of the third ferromagnetic layer as: tg=(Mst)eff/(2MS3); when the center of gravity G is at the third ferromagnetic layer, tg=((Mst)eff/2−MS3t3)/MS2+t3; when the center of gravity G is at the second ferromagnetic layer, and when the total film thickness of the magnetic recording layer is ttotal, the value tg/ttotal is lower than about 0.33.
US07645520B2
The present invention provides an endless belt containing a conductive agent and a polyimide resin whose imidation ratio at an outer circumference surface of the belt and that at an inner circumference surface of the belt are mutually different, and a method of producing the endless belt, an intermediate transfer belt having the endless belt, and an image forming apparatus having the endless belt.
US07645509B2
The present invention provides a method for producing a high-quality capillary tube used in an electrophoresis apparatus in a safe and inexpensive manner. A polymer coating on a capillary tube is converted into gas and removed through an oxidative reaction with oxygen radicals resulting from ozone decomposition, thereby providing tapered polymer coating. The material of the polymer may be polyimide.
US07645479B2
A thermal management process for enabling the restoration of a surface of a metallic detail in the presence of at least one bonding material, comprising preparing at least one damaged area on a metallic detail; disposing at least one thermal management component upon a bonding material or a surface area proximate to the bonding material to which the metallic detail is joined; masking at least the surface area and the bonding material with a masking agent; and dimensionally restoring a surface of the metallic detail disposed on the article at a processing temperature lower than a temperature which would degrade the bonding material, the substrate, or the bondment interface therebetween.
US07645461B2
The invention relates to the use of the hydrogenation products of frankincense (olibanum), its hydrogenated ingredients as well as physiologically acceptable salts and derivatives thereof and hydrogenated frankincense extracts for the production of a medicament for the prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of cerebral ischemia, cranial/brain trauma and/or Alzheimer's disease. The use of frankincense, frankincense extract, substances contained in frankincense, their physiologically acceptable salts, their derivatives and the physiological salts thereof, pure boswellic acids, tirucallic acids or other triterpenes, their physiologically acceptable salts, derivatives of the salts thereof for the production of a medicament for the prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of cerebral ischemia and/or cranial/brain trauma is also provided according to the invention.
US07645449B2
The invention refers to the use of a cytokine antagonist which modulates the expression and/or the function of a cytokine, particularly a Th2 helper cell cytokine, in a cell and causes the down-regulation of anti-apoptotic proteins in said cell through the cytokine modulation for sensitizing cells for apoptosis. In particular, the cells that can be treated with the cytokine antagonists are drug-resistant cancer cells which fail to undergo apoptosis.
US07645441B2
The present invention relates to novel sequences for use in diagnosis and treatment of carcinomas, especially breast cancers. In addition, the present invention describes the use of novel compositions for use in screening methods. The invention provides compositions and methods associated with altered expression of PRLR in cancer.
US07645434B2
A process for the preparation of alkali metal cyanoborates, the further conversion thereof into salts comprising cyanoborate anions and organic cations, these salts, and the use thereof as ionic liquids are described.
US07645416B2
A thermoforming methodology for laminated thermoplastic sheets which preserves the class “A” finish and high gloss thereof. In a thermoforming process including heating followed by vacuum and opposing air pressure application, and then followed by application of chilled compressed air, control of spherulite formation using any of: addition of a nucleating agent to the paint film, using the chilled compressed air at a temperature of substantially about 32° F., heating to no more than about 311° F., selecting a paint film having a high melting point temperature, and selecting a paint film that is non-crystalline.
US07645412B2
A sliding portion between a seal lip (7) and the circumference of a shaft (3) is made of a sliding face (10) so that the facial pressure at the initial action time can be lowered to suppress the proceeding of the wear of the seal lip (7) thereby to elongate the lifetime of a sealing device (1). Moreover, screw ridges (12) are formed from an atmospheric side slope (11) to a sliding face (10) so that satisfactory sealing properties can be exhibited initially and endurably for a long time.
US07645410B2
Curved surfaces of a preform of thermoplastic adhesive provide improved regulation of heating and exclusion of gas as surfaces to be bonded are heated and pressed against the thermoplastic adhesive preform. Particulate or filamentary materials can be added to the thermoplastic adhesive for adjustment of coefficient of thermal expansion or further increase of heat transfer through the adhesive or both. The preform is preferably fabricated by molding, preferably in combination with die-cutting of a preform of desired volume from a web of approximately the same thickness as the completed bond.
US07645409B2
The present invention is directed to an expandable polymer link hybrid stent for implantation in a body lumen, such as a coronary artery along with a method of making the stent. The stent generally includes a series of metallic cylindrical rings longitudinally aligned on a common axis of the stent and interconnected by a series of polymeric links. The polymer links are formed by applying polymer layers between the rings and laser ablating the excess material. The polymeric material forming the polymeric links, provides longitudinal and flexural flexibility to the stent while maintaining sufficient column strength to space the cylindrical rings along the longitudinal axis. The metallic material forming the rings provides the necessary radial stiffness.
US07645408B2
A process for manufacturing an elastomeric sleeve of a joint for electrical cables. The sleeve has an electric field-control element, an electrical insulating element surrounding the electric field-control element, and at least a semiconductive element having two stress control screens. The process includes providing the electric field-control element and the two stress control screens on a supporting element; introducing the supporting element into a mold provided for molding the electrical insulating element; filling with the electrical insulating material the space radially external to the electric field-control element and the stress control screens, the step of filling being carried out during the step of introducing; curing the electrical insulating material to obtain the electrical insulating element of the elastomeric sleeve. An apparatus for carrying out the process for manufacturing is also disclosed.
US07645405B2
A solid surface sheet includes visible, elongated, shredded cuttings uniformly distributed throughout a matrix wherein the cuttings and the matrix have substantially the same specific weight and wherein a majority of the cuttings are substantially elongated. Related methods are also disclosed including shredding a first mix while in a gel state, curing the cuttings, sorting by size, and using as a filler in a base material to form a blend having a unique appearance and high internal strength. The preferred material is polyester or acrylic. The solid surface sheet can be used as a countertop, floor or wall panel, furniture, and in similar applications.
US07645392B2
A method for preparing an oxidized surface of a first wafer for bonding with a second wafer. The method includes treating the oxidized surface with a solution of NH4OH/H2O2 at treatment parameters sufficient to etch about 10 Å to about 120 Å from the wafer surface, followed by treating the etched surface with hydrochloric acid species at a temperature below about 50° C. for a duration of less than about 10 minutes to remove isolated particles from the oxidized surface. This method cleans the wafer surface without increasing roughness or creating rough patches thereon, and thus provides a cleaned surface capable of providing an increased bonding energy between the first and second wafers when those surfaces are bonded together. This cleaning process is advantageously used in a thin layer removal process to fabricate a semiconductor on insulator structure.
US07645389B2
Process for water purification and for the separation of beneficial materials that are obtained from an aqueous solution, comprising determining a turbidity index and adding to the water or to said solution a composition comprising one or more natural or mixtures of natural substances, chosen from the group consisting of substances having a cationic molecular charge and substances having an anionic molecular charge, in an amount determined as a function of said turbidity index, thereby, allowing water purification and the aggregation of said beneficial materials.
US07645387B2
Method of maximizing resin utilization and optimizing reverse osmosis performance to polish an aqueous or radwaste fluid. The method provides resin scavenging of targeted isotopes and exposes filter media and resin to a higher influent activity concentration to enable higher waste loading and longer life of resin while protecting downstream reverse osmosis system from high concentration of contaminants.An aqueous waste feedstream is processed through steps of filtering, demineralizing, and reverse osmosis; and the feedstream is separated into permeate and reject streams for recycling and evaluation, respectively. The permeate stream is recycled in ways that permit it to return to a supply area for recycle reuse or discharge. One of the steps in the invention reduces concentration of undesirable constituents in the reject stream which may adversely affect waste classification for packaging, shipping and disposal and protect personnel from radiation exposure by reducing the overall dose rate of the processed reject stream and reverse osmosis system.
US07645382B2
A method of converting biological material into energy resources includes transmitting biological material to a pulsed electric field (PEF) station, and applying a PEF to the biological material within a treatment zone in the PEF station to generate treated biological material. The method also includes transmitting the treated biological material to a biogenerator, and processing the treated biological material in the biogenerator to produce an energy resource. A converter may carry out this process, and may include the PEF station and the biogenerator.
US07645377B2
A system for transferring blood product between a blood storage bag and a processing bag. The system includes an airtight containment chamber for supporting therein one or more blood storage bags. A door is provided for access to the chamber and there is included an airtight fixture that allows tubing from the blood storage bag to exit the chamber. A fluid pump is coupled to the containment chamber for establishing either pressure or vacuum within the containment chamber. A controller controls the air pump to, in turn, control the transfer of a blood product.
US07645375B2
Delayed coking process for producing free-flowing coke using low molecular weight aromatic additives
A delayed coking process for making substantially free-flowing coke, preferably shot coke. A coker feedstock, such as a vacuum residuum, is heated in a heating zone to coking temperatures then conducted to a coking zone wherein volatiles are collected overhead and coke is formed. A low molecular weight additive is added to the feedstock prior to it being heated in the heating zone, prior to its being conducted to the coking zone, or both.
US07645371B2
A process of ceramic coatings on silver or silver-plated articles is developed in order to prevent surface tarnish, which is employed as ornaments on bags, garments or accessories such as necklaces, earrings, etc. The process comprises the steps of: forming a beryllium film on the surface of the article by fixing a stainless steel plate to an anode, fixing the silver or silver-plated article to a cathode and plating the surface of the silver or silver-plated article with beryllium in an electrolyte containing beryllium sulfate (BeSO4.4H2O) by an electroplating method; buffing the article coated with the beryllium film; washing and drying the buffed article using a surfactant; forming the resultant ceramic coating by dipping the dried article in ceramic coating solution which includes 20 to 80 cc of glass water No. 1 (liquid sodium silicate), 5 to 60 g of sodium metasilicate, 5 to 30 g of sodium tungstate, 5 to 10 g of molybdic acid in 1 liter of water; and drying the wetted article.
US07645366B2
The invention provides an improved contact ring and an improved workpiece support, each of which is useful alone or jointly with the other in a workpiece holder for electrochemically treating microelectronic workpieces. Several embodiments of the invention provide a composite contact ring having a dielectric base carrying a conductor which delivers electric power to a microelectronic workpiece. The dielectric base may be rigid and define a plurality of rigid fingers, each of which carries a separate electrical contact of the conductor. Such a contact ring is expected to have a long service life and enhance uniformity of electrochemical treatment. Several embodiments of the invention provide a workpiece support which induces a control the flexure of a microelectronic workpiece without damaging the workpiece. This controlled flexure can ensure more uniform contact between the workpiece and a contact assembly despite variations in the workpiece and/or the contact assembly.
US07645362B2
Methods for pretreating and improving coking coal quality for producing blast-furnace coke by: (a) rapid-heating the coal charge in a fluidized-bed to a temperature range between not lower than 300° C. and not higher than the temperature at which the coal charge begins to soften, at a rate of 30 to 103 ° C./min., (b) classifying the rapid-heated coal charge to fine- and coarse-size coal, and then (c-1) briquetting the fine-size coal or (c-2) rapid-heating the fine- and coarse-size coal individually in a pneumatic preheater to a temperature range between not lower than 300° C. and not higher than the temperature at which the coal charge begins to soften, at a rate of 103 to 105 ° C./min., and (d) forming the fine-size coal.
US07645355B2
A method of making a repositionable transfer adhesive is provided. The method includes the steps of (a) providing a release liner having opposing first and second surfaces, the first surface having a release value of at least 10 grams per inch, as measured according to the Tape Release Test, lower than the second surface; (b) providing an adhesive composition comprising microsphere adhesive and a binder adhesive; (c) coating the adhesive composition on the first surface of the release liner such that the microspheres protrude from the binder adhesive; (d) drying the adhesive composition to yield a microsphere transfer adhesive; (e) winding the release liner such that the microsphere transfer adhesive is wound inwardly and the second surface of the liner contacts the microspheres; and (f) applying pressure to the second surface of the liner.
US07645354B1
A musical instrument having strings, a wooden body and a granite veneer bonded to the wooden body. The granite has a density of at least 1.7 thousand kilograms per cubic meter and optionally can have a thickness in the range from about 7/64th of an inch to 44/64th of an inch. The musical instrument can be a having a granite sound board that is solid granite or a laminate of granite and wood. Additionally, the musical instrument can be a stringed instrument such as a guitar, bass, violin, viola, dulcimer or cello.
US07645351B2
An explosive material composition containing, as an active ingredient, particles of a water-soluble reactive ingredient having an uniform particle size. Each particle is coated with an oil ingredient and/or a thickener. The coated particles form an agglomerate.
US07645350B1
A class of high-density bulk metallic glass hafnium alloys, having copper, nickel, aluminum and titanium or niobium as alloying elements is disclosed. This class includes alloys having higher densities and a higher reduced glass-transition temperature than other known metallic glass alloys.
US07645347B2
A mobile chemical mixing and injection unit adapted for use during the extraction of an oil/water/sand slurry from an oil field storage tank wherein said tank has a body of accumulated sand therein. The unit comprises a motorized truck body having a flat bed with a water storage tank and two mixing tanks mounted thereto. A high pressure injection pump pumps water from the water storage tank to the oil field storage tank and creates a slurry. The slurry is pumped to an adjacent settlement tank hopper where the oil, water and sand will stratify. An effective amount of a flocculating agent, coagulating and surfactant are mixed in each of the water filled mixing tanks and then pumped into the slurry to facilitate separation of oil, sand and water. The high pressure injection water and the water for the mixing tanks are replenished by pumping water from the settlement tank hopper thereby ensuring a continuous process until the field storage tank is cleaned.
US07645343B2
Systems and methods for promoting a substantially uniform cavitation field. With system (100) including a diaphragm (109) dividing a container (103), a second energy pulse corresponding to a first energy pulse arising from collapse of a cavity C is produced and is used to determine whether to adjust a corresponding transducer 121-k. In system (16), a cavity creating unit (11), including an assembly of transducers 15-i, is moveable from a test liquid to a particle removal (PR) liquid after transducer testing. In another system, a sensor plate (170) having an array of sensors 171-j provides a virtual wafer. A substantially uniform field of cavitation may be maintained by a cavity enhancement liquid, or adjustment of transducer energy. Mechanisms of holding an object produce substantially uniform cavitation. Opposed transducers in a container having monotonically decreasing and/or increasing cavitation density produce substantially uniform cavitation density.
US07645340B2
A method for growing a crystal of an Al-containing III-V group compound semiconductor by the conventional HVPE method, characterized in that it comprises a step of reacting Al with hydrogen halide at a temperature of 700° C. or lower to form a halide of Al. The method has allowed the suppression of the formation of aluminum chloride (AlCl) or aluminum bromide (AlBr) reacting violently with quartz, which is the material of a reaction vessel for the growth, resulting in the achievement of the vapor phase growth of an Al-containing III-V group compound semiconductor at a rate of 100 microns/hr or more, which has lead to the mass-production of a substrate and a semiconductor element having satisfactory resistance to adverse environment.
US07645335B2
Aqueous dispersion which comprises hydrophobized silicon dioxide powder with a content of between 5 and 50 wt. % and which comprises at least one compound of the general formula R & supl; —COO—(CH2-CH(Ph)—O)a-(CnH2n-xR2x-O)b-R3 (I). It is prepared by dispersing the hydrophobic silicon dioxide powder, dispersing agent and optionally pH-regulating substances and further additives in an aqueous medium. It can be employed as an additive to waterborne fillers in the automobile industry, as a coating constituent in can and coil coating processes, as an additive in water-based UV-curable formulations e.g. for wood preservation and as a constituent of protective lacquer films.
US07645334B2
The invention relates to a method for producing barium sulphate having an organically modified surface, barium sulphate produced according to said method and to the use thereof.
US07645331B2
In one embodiment, a corrosion inhibiting composition is formed by combining: (a) an inorganic phosphate; (b) a water soluble polyelectrolyte polymer dispersant; (c) a tri or tetracarboxylic acid; and (d) at least one additional component comprising at least one of a C4-C22 aliphatic or aromatic mono- or dicarboxylic acid, a silicate and at least one of a silicone or a silicate stabilizing siloxane compound, and mixtures thereof. Also disclosed are heat transfer fluids that include about 5% to about 99% by weight of freezing point-depressing agent; about 1% to about 95% by weight of water; and the disclosed corrosion inhibitor composition. A method of reducing corrosion in a heat transfer system containing one or more components that contain magnesium or a magnesium alloy requires that the system and the magnesium containing components be in contact with the disclosed heat transfer fluid.
US07645327B2
Systems and methods for achieving filtration are provided that utilize agglomerates or granules of nanoparticles. The agglomerates or granules of nanoparticles may be used as and/or incorporated into a HEPA filtration system to remove solid or liquid submicron-sized particles, e.g., MPPS, in an efficient and efficacious manner. The filtration systems and methods are provided that utilize agglomerates or granules in a size range of about 100-500 microns. The agglomerates or granules of nanoparticles exhibit a hierarchical fractal structure. In the case of agglomerates of nanoparticles, porosities of 0.9 or greater are generally employed, and for granules of nanoparticles, porosities that are smaller than 0.9 may be employed. Filter media formed from the agglomerates or granules may be formed from materials such as carbon black and fumed silica, and may be employed in baffled or non-baffled filtration apparatus.
US07645306B2
This invention relates to the use of a copper oxide adsorbent to remove mercury from a feed stream. When the feed stream is low in sulfur content, a sulfidation agent such as hydrogen sulfide should be added to the feed stream.
US07645305B1
Improved highly stable formulation for aqueous fuel emulsion compositions with a water continuous phase, having reduced NOx emissions. The fuel emulsion formulation includes diesel fuel, purified water, and an additive package that includes one or more surfactants, lubricity additive, cetane improver, anti-corrosion additive, and an alcohol or other suitable antifreeze, the emulsion having an average droplet size of less than 10 microns.
US07645304B2
The subject of the present invention is the use, for dyeing in particular human keratin materials, of a specific direct azomethine dye, by dry thermal transfer. Its subject is furthermore a method for dyeing keratin materials, in which at least one direct azomethine dye contained in a dry composition, is applied to or close to the keratin materials, and a source of heat is applied, causing the thermal transfer of the direct dye(s) at the surface and/or inside the keratin materials. It relates furthermore to the dry composition and a method for preparing it.
US07645303B2
The subject of the invention is a composition for the oxidation dyeing of human keratinous fibers and in particular hair comprising, in a cosmetically acceptable medium based on water and at a basic pH, at least one oxidation dye and an alkalinizing agent consisting of sodium metasilicate and aqueous ammonia, and the dyeing method using this composition.
US07645289B2
A surgical instrument for harvesting vessels from the body includes an elongated shaft (12) having distal and proximal ends and a plurality of lumens (150a, 150b) disposed therethrough. The shaft also includes a tip having a dissecting portion disposed at a distal end thereof and a cradle section (114). The tip is movable from a first position proximate the distal end of the shaft to at least one additional position distally further from the distal end of the shaft to expose the cradle section. The instrument also includes an endoscope (162) disposed in one of the plurality of lumens and at least one additional surgical instrument (132) disposed in one of the remaining lumens. Methods are disclosed for utilizing the surgical instrument.
US07645286B2
Devices, systems and methods for retracting, lifting, compressing, supporting or repositioning tissues, organs, anatomical structures, grafts or other structures within the body of human or animal subjects for the purpose of treating a diseases or disorders and/or for cosmetic or reconstructive purposes and/or for research and development purposes or other purposes.
US07645283B2
A medical retrieval device is used to retrieve and/or fragment stones (and/or other objects) from the body of a patient. The device has a retrieval basket with a releasable tip. The tip release is designed to release in a controlled pre-determined manner and under a pre-determined force before any other component of the device fails due to a force exerted on the basket.
US07645282B2
A method and device for cutting orthopedic cable including tensioning and crimping the cable in a desired position within a surgical cavity. A free end of the cable is inserted a device with two coaxial members having coordinating shearing faces. The shearing faces are moved along the cable to a position proximate a portion of the cable to be cut. Cutting is achieved is by rotating the coaxial members with respect to one another.
US07645278B2
A coagulating cutter according to the present invention comprises: a transmitting member for transmitting energy, for treating living body tissue, to the living body tissue; an outer sheath through which the transmitting member is passed; and a grasping section supported at the tip end portion of the outer sheath so as to be capable of turning with respect to the transmitting member, which allows the living body tissue to be grasped against the transmitting member. With such an arrangement, upon turning the grasping section toward the transmitting member to be in a closed state, the faces of the transmitting member and the grasping section, which face each other, provide a contact portion, where the transmitting member and the grasping section are in contact with each other over a predetermined length, for incising the living body tissue grasped between the transmitting member and the grasping section, and a non-contact portion, where the transmitting member and the grasping section are provided with a predetermined interval on both sides of the axis extending in the direction of the predetermined length of the contact portion so as not to be in contact with each other, for coagulating the living body tissue.
US07645268B2
A needle having a shaft with a distal end defining a distal opening. The shaft has a longitudinal axis that extends through the distal opening and the distal opening has a projected area that is smaller than a cross-sectional area of a section of the shaft proximal to the distal end of the shaft. Also provided are methods of directly delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site using a Huber needle or pencil-point needle.
US07645262B2
The invention is directed to a method of bonding a hermetically sealed electronics package to an electrode or a flexible circuit and the resulting electronics package that is suitable for implantation in living tissue, such as for a retinal or cortical electrode array to enable restoration of sight to certain non-sighted individuals. The hermetically sealed electronics package is directly bonded to the flex circuit or electrode by electroplating a biocompatible material, such as platinum or gold, effectively forming a plated rivet-shaped connection, which bonds the flex circuit to the electronics package. The resulting electronic device is biocompatible and is suitable for long-term implantation in living tissue.
US07645246B2
A method for generating power from an exerted energy associated with muscles acting across a joint is provided. The method including: absorbing energy during one or more periods of a periodic motion of the joint in which energy is absorbed by the muscles; and at least partially returning the absorbed energy to one of an energy storage device or power consuming device.
US07645245B2
An endoscopic lithotripsy probe apparatus includes a probe, ultrasonic-vibration source, mechanical shock generation source, and switch-mechanism. The ultrasonic-vibration source is detachably attached to the probe to transmit an ultrasonic-vibration to the probe in a state in which the proximal end of the probe is connected to the ultrasonic-vibration source. The mechanical shock generation source, which is disposed on the side of the proximal end of the probe, applies a force to the ultrasonic-vibration source in a state in which the ultrasonic-vibration source is detached from the proximal end of the probe, and allows the ultrasonic-vibration source to collide with the proximal end of the probe so that a mechanical shock is applied to the probe. The switch-mechanism switches a state in which the ultrasonic-vibration from the ultrasonic-vibration source is transmitted to the probe and a state in which the mechanical shock from the mechanical shock generation source is transmitted.
US07645244B2
A method of treating tissue within a body includes aiming an ultrasound transducer towards target tissue, and delivering ultrasound energy towards the target tissue to thereby reduce pain at the target tissue. A method of treating tissue within a body includes aiming an ultrasound transducer towards target tissue, and delivering ultrasound energy towards the target tissue to increase nitric oxide at the target tissue. An ultrasound system includes a first ultrasound transducer for emitting ultrasound energy from outside a patient, and drive circuitry coupled to the first ultrasound transducer, wherein the drive circuitry is configured to generate a drive signal at a frequency that is between 20 kHz and 100 kHz for the first ultrasound transducer.
US07645242B1
The present invention is directed to an intracorporeal device, preferably a guidewire, and method for making the device. The guidewire of the present invention is formed, at least in part, of a composite elongate core formed, at least in part, of precipitation hardened material. The elongate core members of the present invention will have an ultimate tensile strength and modulus of elasticity greater than the same for an identically dimensioned elongate member formed from superelastic NITINOL alone.
US07645241B2
A bodily fluid sampling device comprising a lancet which can be advanced against a skin-piercing site to produce a droplet of bodily fluid. A transport medium is positioned sufficiently close to the lancing medium to retain a droplet of bodily fluid therebetween by capillary action. One of the two mediums has hydrophobic material on its surface and the other hydrophilic. Various mechanisms are provided for relatively displacing the lancing and transport medium to move the droplet of bodily fluid away from the skin-piercing end. Furthermore, multiple lancet assemblies may be provided in a barrel or disk configuration and indexed to the displacing mechanisms for sampling a skin site.
US07645238B2
A system and method for regional anesthesia using ultrasound to assist in locating the anesthetic needle are disclosed. One or more piezo-electric crystal transducers is placed either at the tip of the needle or near the tip of the needle on a stylet which is inserted into the lumen of the needle. The transducer(s) are pulsed with ultrasonic frequency, the reflected ultrasonic signals from structures are detected and converted into a digital signal and may be displayed in an oscilloscopic format to indicate anatomical structures forward to the needle and allow the medical professional to avoid errors and/or increase efficiency and accuracy. An array of transducers can be pulsed in a phased array fashion to generate a 2D image, or a single transducer can be pulsed to generate a 1D image.
US07645234B2
A system and method assists an emergency medical dispatcher in responding to emergency calls. A computer implemented emergency medical dispatch protocol includes interrogatories for a dispatcher to ask a caller to generate an appropriate response. A diagnostic tool is provided to determine a vital sign of a patient based on a timer and caller relayed information about the patient. An intervention tool is provided to administer assistance and determine a compression rate based on a timer and caller relayed information.
US07645233B2
The present invention relates to a sensor assembly arranged to be disposed in a body for measuring a physiological variable. A basic idea of the present invention is to provide a sensor and guide wire assembly which communicates with an external unit by an inductive coupling between a first coil provided in the sensor assembly and a second, external coil which is disposed in or connected to the external unit. The external unit is preferably the same unit that is used to numerically or graphically display the physiological variables that are measured with the sensor and guide wire assembly. With the terminology introduced above, it should here be clear that both the signal transfer from the sensor as well as the energy feeding from the external unit to the sensor may be accomplished through the inductive coupling between the first and second coils.
US07645231B2
An endoscopic fluid supply conduit system for use with an endoscope having an insertion tube and a universal cable connected to and from a manipulating head assembly. A fluid conduit is provided internally of the insertion tube to supply a fluid from a fluid feed port on the manipulating head assembly toward a fluid jet injection port feed port which is provided on a rigid tip end section at the fore distal end of the insertion tube. In addition, a second fluid conduit is provided internally of the universal cable and toward the manipulating head assembly. A fluid supply channel selector is provided at the fluid feed port to which a fluid feed adaptor is to be disconnectibly connected. The fluid supply channel selector is adapted to block a fluid flow toward the second fluid conduit when a fluid is supplied to the first fluid conduit from the fluid feed port on the manipulating head assembly, and to bring the second fluid conduit into communication with the first fluid conduit when the fluid feed port on the manipulating head assembly is closed.
US07645230B2
An over-tube for use in an endoscopic treatment in an abdominal cavity using an endoscope includes an over-tube main body which is inserted from a distal portion thereof via a natural opening in a patient's body to access the inside of the abdominal cavity from the distal portion through a lumen wall, and an internal cover which is disposed in a passage of the endoscope disposed in an inner cavity of the over-tube main body and which is extractible from a proximal portion of the over-tube main body.
US07645225B2
In a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) a rotodynamic blood pump (10) is powered by a brushless DC motor (12). A power supply (14) supplies power to the motor (12). Three feedback channels, one for each of voltage, current, and motor speed lead to a microcontroller or microprocessor (18). The three feedback waveforms are analyzed, and from these waveforms, motor input power, patient heart rate, current pump flow rate, and systemic pressure are determined. The microprocessor (18) then calculates a desired flow rate proportional to the patient heart rate. The microprocessor communicates a new power output to a commutation circuit (16), which regulates power to the motor (12). The pump (10) also includes safety checks that are prioritized over desired pump flow. These include prevention of ventricular suction, low pulsatility, minimum and maximum pump speed, minimum speed-relative pump flow, minimum absolute pump flow, minimum and maximum motor input power.
US07645223B2
A handheld centrifuge includes an inertia body having an axle and a pair of inertia wheels coupled to the axle. The inertia wheels are coupled to the axle in substantially perpendicular direction to the axle, and spaced apart from each other. A string is connected to the axle. At least one closed vessel is detachably installed on an outer face of the inertia wheel to contain a substance to be centrifuged. The closed vessel is installed in substantially radial direction of the inertia wheel.
US07645214B2
An exercise device including a first monoarm treadle assembly supporting a first tread belt and a second monoarm treadle assembly supporting a second belt. The tread belt is supported on a tread deck between a front roller on each treadle assembly, and a rear roller, which may be a distinct rear roller on each treadle assembly or a single rear roller for both treadle assemblies. The monoarm structure of each treadle assembly supports a plurality of deck supports in a cantilever fashion. The treadmill deck and the belt are supported on the deck supports. Further, the treadles are coupled with one or more hydraulic resistance structures, which may also function as an interconnect structure to coordinate pivotal movement of the treadle assemblies.
US07645202B2
A golf tee includes an anchoring device, which has a flat top head with a coupling portion and vertical through holes around the coupling portion and a nail body downwardly extending from the flat top head for fastening to the ground in a golf course, a receptacle member, which has a cup-like receptacle head for holding a golf ball for hitting and a shank downwardly extending from the bottom side of the cup-like receptacle head and provided with a transverse wire hole and a bottom coupling portion connectable to the coupling portion of the anchoring device, and a cord member inserted through the wire hole of the receptacle member and the through holes of the anchoring device to link the receptacle member to the anchoring device in such a manner that the cord member will not be tangled or jammed during installation of the anchoring device and the receptacle member is collectable for a repeated use.
US07645201B2
A golf club head having a multiple material face is disclosed herein. The golf club head has a coefficient of restitution value greater than 0.83 and a characteristic time value of less than 257 milliseconds. The golf club head is preferably composed of a titanium alloy with a polymer layer disposed over a titanium alloy front wall. A preferred polymer is a polyurethane polymer.
US07645196B2
An apparatus for transmitting torque from a motor to a compressor comprises a hub connecting with a compressor shaft and a pulley rotatably supported on the compressor housing, the pulley and the hub connected with one another by a device for vibration clamping and for load limiting and the load limiting is implemented so that the connection between the pulley and hub is discontinued if a specific torque is exceeded. The load limiting device comprises a catch and a limiter ring (b) comprised of metal including pegs directed radially to the center and, through radial form fitting with hub, transmits the torque onto the compressor shaft and catch is made of a synthetic material encasing the limiter ring and catch and limiter ring can be axially displaced on hub and the limiter ring is preferable made of sintered metal.
US07645192B2
The present invention provides a game device with which a moving direction and an attack direction of a game character can be easily inputted. The invention provides a game device 10 that executes game processing relating to a game character holding attack means, the game device comprising: a signal input unit 50 for inputting a direction instruction signal and an attack instruction signal; an attack instruction signal input determining unit 52 for determining whether or not the attack instruction signal is inputted by the signal input unit 50; a game character moving unit 54 for moving the game character in virtual space on the basis of the direction instruction signal inputted by the signal input unit 50 while the attack instruction signal is not being inputted by the signal input unit 50; and an attack direction changing unit 56 for changing an attack direction resulting from the attack means on the basis of the direction instruction signal inputted by the signal input unit 50 while the attack instruction signal is being inputted by the signal input unit 50.
US07645186B1
A chemical mechanical polishing pad manufacturing assembly is provided having a subpad layer having a top surface and a bottom surface; a backing plate having a top side and a bottom side; a sacrificial layer having at least two recessed areas designed to facilitate attachment of a subpad layer to the backing plate; wherein the subpad layer is disposed on the top side of the backing plate and the sacrificial layer is disposed on the bottom side of the backing plate, and wherein the at least two wrap around tabs extend to the bottom side of the backing plate. Also provide is a method of manufacturing a chemical mechanical polishing pad using the chemical mechanical polishing pad manufacturing assembly.
US07645185B2
A substrate delivery mechanism comprises a top ring, a substrate loader for loading a substrate, and a pusher mechanism, wherein the substrate loader comprises a top ring guide and the pusher mechanism comprises a top ring guide lifting table, in which the top ring guide and the top ring guide lifting table together form a sealed space below the substrate held by the top ring in a condition where the substrate loader is moved up by the pusher mechanism, wherein the substrate is detached from the top ring by exhausting the sealed space while at the same time injecting a fluid from through-holes provided in a substrate holding surface of the top ring.
US07645171B2
Disclosed herein are a method and an apparatus for providing a high efficiency seal in an electrical connector. The seal provides an impediment to the passage of fluid at one end of the electrical connector to the environment at the other end of the electrical connector. The electrical connector may be incorporated into an over-mold that contains other components. The electrical connector achieves the highly efficient seal through a combination of a dual torturous path design, incorporation of melt ribs, and may further involve the technique of impregnation.
US07645167B2
Methods and apparatuses presented herein control antenna connectivity for a wireless communication device as a function of rotation of a connector assembly plugged into the device, such as where an external antenna or cable includes the connector assembly. Assuming the device has a mating connector for the external antenna that changes the connections of internal and external antennas as a function of the connector mating depth, the method comprises configuring the wireless communication device and/or the external antenna with a mechanical feature that changes the mating depth between the device's and the antenna's mating connectors responsive to external antenna rotation. In one embodiment, a body portion of the external antenna retains the mating connector and includes a cam feature or other mechanical feature that engages an edge or surface of the device as the antenna is rotated, thereby pushing the antenna out from the device.
US07645161B2
A connector or termination assembly for a mini-coaxial cable in different embodiments is made up of an extension tip which is preassembled in a connector body to receive the inner conductor pin on the cable, a first inner sleeve which fits over an exposed end of the dielectric layer, a second outer sleeve which surrounds a compression ring, and a crimping ring is mounted on the outside of the outer sleeve to force the sleeves to be radially contracted into crimping engagement with the cable so as to avoid creating impedance which will downgrade the signal passing through the cable into the connector. In alternate embodiments, variations of the connector body may be employed for different lengths and forms of connectors with a compression tool or crimping ring assembly in further combination with color bands to signify the size of cable and intended application.
US07645149B2
An electrical receptacle includes a front cover having a rib and a protrusion connected thereto, a back housing secured to the front cover and a tamper resistant assembly disposed between the front cover and the back housing. The tamper resistant assembly includes a slide pad member, first and second shutter members, a first spring disposed between and biasing the first and second shutter members toward closed positions thereof, and a second spring disposed between and biasing the first shutter member away from the front cover. The slide pad member is connected to the back housing. The first shutter member is slidably disposed on the slide pad member and has first and second arms extending from a first cam surface. A second shutter member is slidably disposed on the slide pad member and has a blocking body connected to a second cam surface. The first and second shutter members are movable between open and closed positions.
US07645148B2
An electrical receptacle includes a front cover having a rib and a protrusion connected thereto, a back housing secured to the front cover and a tamper resistant assembly disposed between the front cover and the back housing. The tamper resistant assembly includes a base member, first and second shutter members, a first spring disposed between and biasing the first and second shutter members toward closed positions thereof, and a second spring disposed between and biasing the first shutter member away from the front cover. The base member is connected to the back housing. The first shutter member is slidably disposed on the base member and has first and second arms extending from a first cam surface. A second shutter member is slidably disposed on the base member and has a blocking body connected to a second cam surface. The first and second shutter members are movable between open and closed positions.
US07645143B2
An electrical plug and receptacle relying on magnetic force to maintain contact are disclosed. The plug and receptacle can be used as part of a power adapter for connecting an electronic device, such as a laptop computer, to a power supply. The plug includes electrical contacts, which are preferably biased toward corresponding contacts on the receptacle. The plug and receptacle each have a magnetic element. The magnetic element on one or both of the plug and receptacle can be a magnet, which is preferably a permanent rare earth magnet although electromagnets may also be used. The magnetic element on the plug or receptacle that does not include a magnet is composed of ferromagnetic material. When the plug and receptacle are brought into proximity, the magnetic attraction between the magnet and its complement, whether another magnet or a ferromagnetic material, maintains the contacts in an electrically conductive relationship.
US07645141B2
An arrangement and method for auscultation training is provided including a transmitter associated with an audio device for transmitting an audio signal to an auscultation device. The auscultation device may include a receiver for receiving the audio signal from the transmitter and a speaker for relaying the sound to the end user. The arrangement may allow for the broadcast of simulated medical sounds to a generally, normal appearing auscultation device for the purposes of teaching or testing using simulated patient scenarios, while allowing for normal person-to-person interaction between the simulated patient and physician.
US07645135B2
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for making articles made of polyester, preferably polyethylene terephthalate (PET), having coated directly to at least one of the surfaces thereof one or more layers of thermoplastic material with good gas-barrier characteristics. In one preferred method and apparatus, preforms are injection molded, barrier-coated immediately thereafter, and remain on a mold portion for a time to speed cooling of the completed preform. Preferably the barrier-coated articles take the form of preforms coated by at least one layer of barrier material and the containers are blow-molded therefrom. Such barrier-coated containers are preferably of the type to hold beverages such as soft drinks, beer or juice. The preferred barrier materials have a lower permeability to oxygen and carbon dioxide than PET as well as key physical properties similar to PET. The materials and methods provide that the barrier layers have good adherence to PET, even during and after the blow molding process to form containers from preforms. Preferred barrier coating materials include poly(hydroxyamino ethers).
US07645132B2
Disclosed are a mold stack of a molding machine. A cavity insert is provided. The cavity insert comprises a body having: an internal surface defining, in use, at least a body portion of a molding cavity; an external surface defining, in use, at least a first portion of a cooling channel configured, in use, to direct a flow of coolant; and a mounting flange configured to support, in use, the body relative to a front face of a cavity plate, the mounting flange including a member configured to define, in use, a second portion of the cooling channel.
US07645130B2
A scroll compressor that has reduced leakage loss and high efficiency includes an orbiting scroll that has spiral teeth on two surfaces, and a fixed scrolls that face the surfaces of the orbiting scroll and that have spiral teeth that intermesh with the spiral of the orbiting scroll. Tip seals are mounted only to a spiral tooth of one of the fixed scrolls that intermeshes with a spiral tooth of the orbiting scroll and a spiral tooth of the orbiting scroll.
US07645128B2
The invention relates to a dividing device, comprising an outer housing with an inlet and at least two outlets, at least two pump chambers placed adjacently of each other in the outer housing, each with a pump chamber infeed connected to the inlet and each with a pump chamber discharge connected to the outlet, at least two vane-type rotors, one in each pump chamber and with a rotation axis in line, each vane-type rotor comprising a hub provided with continuous vanes which are slidable through the hub along their longitudinal axis and almost perpendicularly of the axis of the hub, wherein the outer housing is divided into outer housing segments.
US07645123B1
A turbine blade having a squealer tip rail forming a squealer pocket on the blade tip, and a row of blade tip peripheral film cooling holes on the pressure side and suction side of the blade for cooling the blade tip rails. A TBC is applied to the pressure side and suction side walls of the blade up to the row of tip peripheral film cooling holes, leaving these surfaces uncovered. The squealer pocket is covered with TBC while the top surfaces of the tip rails are uncovered. The surface of the airfoil wall above the row of tip peripheral cooling holes is without a TBC so that the metal surface will be exposed to the layer of film cooling holes discharged from the tip peripheral cooling holes.
US07645120B2
A flow-guiding member unit used for assembling a flow-guiding member comprising pluralities of vanes, an outer platform and an inner platform, the unit comprising an integral body member comprising one vane portion, an outer platform portion, and an inner platform portion, a first elastic member attached to a step of the outer platform portion, and a second elastic member attached to a step of the inner platform portion, the body member being formed by the thermal compression of sheet-molding compounds or fiber-reinforced resin pellets, and the first and second elastic members being made of a thermoplastic elastomer.
US07645117B2
A rotary machine includes a rotor, a stationary machine casing extending around the rotor, and a bling assembly extending between the casing and the rotor. The machine also includes at least one rotor tip seal assembly and at least one shaft seal assembly. The seal assemblies have a groove configured to receive at least one seal ring band. A method of assembling a rotary machine is also provided. The method includes fabricating the bling assembly by providing two identical members comprising a mating surface and having a semi-circular profile. The method also includes coupling the two members together at their mating surfaces such that a circular ring is formed and such that the mating surfaces define a horizontal joint. The method further includes machining concentric, circular and annular radially inner and outer and airfoil portions within predetermined radial portions of the bling assembly. The method also includes forming at least one abradable layer over a plurality of seal ring bands and inserting the plurality of seal ring bands into the rotor tip and shaft seal ring grooves.
US07645116B2
A turbo vacuum pump of the present invention includes a suction part for sucking gas in an axial direction; a discharge section in which rotating impellers and stationary impellers are alternately arranged; a rotating shaft for rotating the rotating impellers; and a turbine impeller part fixed to the suction side end face of the rotating shaft. The rotating impellers include one or more turbine impellers for discharging the sucked gas in the axial direction, and one or more centrifugal impellers, located downstream of the one or more turbine impellers, for further discharging the discharged gas by a centrifugal drag effect. The one or more centrifugal impellers are fixed to the rotating shaft passing therethrough. The one or more turbine impellers are included in the turbine impeller part.
US07645111B2
A method for putting a glass plate to a target position includes (a) putting the glass plate at a preliminary position above an air table that discharges air upwardly, by moving a suction member that supports the glass plate through suction; (b) releasing suction of the suction member, while air is discharged upwardly from the air table, thereby floating the glass plate at the preliminary position above the air table; and (c) moving a pressing member in a horizontal direction, while the pressing member is in abutment with a top surface of the glass plate and while air is discharged upwardly from the air table, thereby moving the glass plate in the horizontal direction from the preliminary position above the air table to the target position above the air table by a frictional force generated between the pressing member and the glass plate.
US07645094B2
A piping transport structure for use with a deployment vehicle to provide for improved efficiencies in laying temporary or semi-permanent piping structures. There is also a system for having one or more deployment vehicles smoothly lay piping and to allow for long pipe lays to be carried out in less time.
US07645087B1
An expander nut is for being assembled to an upper end of a steering tube of a bicycle. The expander nut includes a base nut, two wedge halves having interlocking tapered surfaces and assembled to the base nut, a top cap mounted on the wedge halves, and a bolt screwed to the base nut for controlling the wedge halves to slide relatively along the tapered surfaces so that the wedge halves move outward to wedge an inner surface of the steering tube.
US07645082B2
According to a dot head of the invention, an armature structure for moving a printing needle forward and backward has the efficiency that the magnetic characteristics is excellent and mechanical intensity is high. The armature structure is manufactured in a manner that an arm member, which is formed by subjecting a plate-shaped material excellent in abrasion resistance performance and having a high intensity to a plating processing using born etc., is sandwiched at a portion thereof from both sides in a stacked manner by two armature members each of which is formed by subjecting a plate-shaped material excellent in magnetic characteristics to a plating processing using born etc. A pin formed by subjecting a piano wire to a plating processing using boron etc. is inserted with a small pressure into common through holes of the two armature members and the arm member thus stacked thereby to provisionally assemble them. A pair of electrodes are made in contact to the portions including the slightly-pressed-in pin near the pin of the provisionally assembled two armature members and the arm member, and a current is supplied to the electrodes in a state that the portions are sandwiched by the electrodes thereby to melt and harden the plated portions using boron etc. to integrate the two armature members and the arm member.
US07645080B2
A digital camera system is composed of a digital camera and a lens unit detachable to this digital camera. The digital camera includes a first taking lens and a first CCD image sensor to convert subject light into image data. The first taking lens is surrounded by a detachable decorative ring. When a hook release button is pressed to detach the decorative ring, a camera-side mount appears. The lens unit is attached to this camera-side mount, and photographing can be performed with a second taking lens and a second CCD image sensor in the lens unit.
US07645076B2
A coupling structure for coupling optical radiation, i.e., light, between an optical fibre and an optical device, e.g., a laser diode or a photodiode. The coupling structure has an optical through-via which guides the optical radiation to or from the optical fibre. Light exiting the fibre travels through a guidance channel so it remains substantially confined to a narrow optical path that mimics the fibre core. Conversely, light enters the fibre after having traveled through the guidance channel. The guidance channel has a first core region, the “channel core”, having first refractive index surrounded by a second region, the “channel cladding” having a second refractive index smaller than the first refractive index. The coupling structure, including the guidance channel, is preferably made of semiconductor-based material, more preferably of silicon-based material. The guidance channel is preferably silicon oxide. The coupling structure further has a fibre drive-in element, which facilitates insertion and alignment of the optical fibre to the guidance channel.
US07645069B1
A method of detecting energetic materials, such as explosives, includes energizing a sample area that contains particles of energetic materials. In the method, temperature characteristics from the sample area are monitored, and a temperature released from exothermic decomposition of the particles is detected. The method further includes analyzing the detected temperature to determine the presence of the exothermic compound which caused the decomposition.
US07645067B2
A homogenizer is disclosed, which can produce an emulsion with a grain diameter as extremely fine as approximately 1 μm without using large-scale equipment such as a high-pressure pump, and in which a grain diameter distribution of the produced emulsion exhibits sharp characteristics in the vicinity of a target grain diameter. A fixed portion and a disc-shaped agitation rotor are arranged in an opposing manner through a predetermined clearance to constitute a thrust hydrodynamic bearing, and while supporting a rotation of the agitation rotor with respect to the fixed portion by the thrust hydrodynamic bearing, a plurality of mutually incompatible raw liquids A and B are introduced into the bearing clearance to be mixed and agitated in the bearing clearance in accordance with the rotation of the agitation rotor.
US07645066B2
A mixing assembly for mixing bone cement includes a housing, a lid, a handle, and two mixing paddles, a first and a second mixing paddle. The lid is removably attachable to the housing. The handle has a portion that extends through the lid and that is rotatable in a first rotational direction. The first mixing paddle is operatively coupled to the portion of the handle. As a result, the first mixing paddle rotates with the portion of the handle in the first rotational direction. The second mixing paddle is operatively coupled to the first mixing paddle for rotating opposite the portion. As such, when the portion of the handle and the first mixing paddle rotate in the first rotational direction, the second mixing paddle rotates in a second rotational direction that is opposite the first rotational direction.
US07645057B2
An optical sheet includes a substrate onto which light is incident, and a convex part protruded from the substrate by a predetermined thickness. A thickness of the convex part increases from an edge to a center thereof.
US07645053B2
A rotationally symmetrical anti-collision light (100, 200) for an aircraft utilizing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is mounted to the fuselage of an aircraft. The LEDs (10, 10′, 20, 20′) may be configured in one or more concentric rings. The anti-collision light includes a reflector (30, 30′) configured to redirect the light emitted by at least one of the rings, so that the light pattern satisfies predetermined specifications.
US07645042B2
A light conducting unit is disposed between a light source and a region which is to be illuminated. In addition, a light conducting unit includes a polygonal prism made from a first medium with a first coefficient of refraction, a first light conducting unit which directs light to be incident upon a first surface of the polygonal prism, and a second light conducting unit upon which light emitted from a second surface of the polygonal prism is incident, wherein the polygonal prism includes a reflective device which reflects light which is incident into the polygonal prism from the first surface towards the second surface, and a second medium with a second coefficient of refraction which is less than the first coefficient of refraction is provided at the first surface and the second surface.
US07645023B2
A printer is provided having a printhead assembly and a capping mechanism. The printhead assembly has two confronting pagewidth printheads and a plurality of nozzles located along each printhead and arranged in use to deliver ink onto opposite surfaces of print media as it is transported past the printheads. The capping mechanism has capping members having a length corresponding substantially to that of the printheads and actuating means arranged to effect linear movement of the capping members in a first direction and linear movement of the printheads in a second direction to a position at which nozzle capping engagement is effected between the capping members and respective ones of the printheads. The first and second directions are non-parallel.
US07645021B2
A device spray cleans an inkjet print head. The purpose of the device is to avoid the formation of stalagmites during spray cleaning and therefore also to improve the print quality as a result of the fact that the transport device for the print carriers or items of mail is soiled as little as possible. This is achieved by a relative movement of a baffle element in a flat space or in a plane parallel to the nozzle surface of the at least one inkjet print head in conjunction with the spray cleaning.
US07645014B2
Embodiments for use with infrared light absorbent dyes are disclosed.
US07645013B2
In an image recording apparatus, reference patterns are provided on a surface of a transport belt that transports a recording medium such as paper attracted thereto to image recording sections defined by recording heads. It is arranged such that the reference patterns are detected while being transported as the transport belt is driven, and a speed change of the transport belt and a position shift in a direction perpendicular to the transporting direction of the transport belt are calculated based on information resulting from the detection, thereby controlling ejection timing and ejection position of ink droplets ejected from the recording heads.
US07645003B2
A refrigeration appliance includes a thermally insulating housing and a thermally insulating door. At least one of the housing and the door define an evacuated interspace and have an evacuated thermal insulation filling the interspace, a shaped, thermoplastic, substantially gas and water vapor impermeable outer cladding, and a shaped, thermoplastic, substantially gas and water vapor impermeable inner cladding. The inner cladding and the outer cladding substantially surround the interspace in a vacuum-tight manner. The cladding can be formed from polyolefins, polyvinylidene chloride, perfluoroalkoxy polymers. For reducing gas permeability, the cladding can be formed from ethylene/vinyl alcohol copolymer, polyacrylonitrile, and polyamide. The claddings can have co-extruded and/or laminated layers. The cladding can include a sputtered metal layer and/or a plastic/metal composite foil. The cladding can be formed from a thermoformed or blow-molded plastic. The insulation can have pressed silica or aerogel plates with a density of between 100 and 150 kg/m3.
US07645001B2
A shelf having two telescoping plates secured by a toothed crank is provided for locker users. The plates have a generally rectangular shape with perimeter edges reinforced by lips and pads to engage the locker walls. Friction between the pads and the walls holds the present invention at a desired elevation. This shelf has a toothed rack upon a first plate and a crank with teeth upon the second plate. The teeth upon the crank engage the rack and turning of the crank secures the second plate relative to the first plate longitudinally at a desired width for fitting against the inner walls of a locker.
US07644987B2
A vehicle seat assembly that includes a seatback frame and an active head restraint system operatively supported by the seatback frame. The active head restraint system includes an upper armature moveably mounted to the seatback frame and a head restraint mounted to the upper armature. The active head restraint system also includes a lower armature operatively attached to the upper armature. The lower armature is operable to move toward the upper armature in response to a predetermined force applied to the lower armature and act on the upper armature to move the head restraint toward the occupant.
US07644983B2
An evaporatively pre-cooled seat assembly comprising a seat cushion, an auxiliary cooler, and an evaporative cooler. The evaporative cooler includes a plurality of parallel tubular dry channels and a plurality of tubular wet channels. The dry channels and wet channels are arranged such that they alternate from dry channel to wet channel from channel to channel. Each of the channels is defined by two parallel side walls, a top, and a bottom. A first plurality of dry channels defines a plurality of apertures in the side walls thereof for conveying air out of the respective dry channel and into an adjacent wet channel. A second plurality of dry channels alternates with the first plurality and is disposed between two wet channels and defines a plurality of cooler apertures in the tops thereof for conveying cooled air out of the second plurality of alternating dry channels and to the auxiliary cooler.
US07644974B2
Disclosed is a hood (1) for a convertible (2), comprising a tail end/roof segment (6), a front roof segment (8) and at least one central roof segment (7). The roof segments (6, 7, 8) comprise opposite roof frame profiles (9, 10, 11) which are symmetrical in relation to a longitudinal axis (33) of the vehicle and can be folded together in a Z-shape by means of a folding mechanism. In order to reduce the packing height of the hood (1), the roof segments (9, 10, 11) lie substantially on top of each other in a parallel manner in a folded position when the hood is open (1) and the outer roof frame profiles (10) of the at least one central roof segment (7) are rotated about the axis, which is at least approximately parallel to the longitudinal axis (33) of the motor vehicle, by means of a guide device (21) in relation to a position when the hood is closed and are displaced in the direction of the center of the vehicle.
US07644958B2
The compression fitting (10) for a heating and/or sanitary pipe comprises a fitting body (12) including a supporting sleeve (16) adapted to have a pipe end (66) slid thereonto, and a conical abutment face (20). The compression fitting (10) further comprises a complementary part (24) for the fitting body (12), which is provided with a conical receiving face (22) for abutment by the abutment face (20) of the fitting body (12). The compression fitting (10) is provided with a clamping ring (40) encompassing the pipe end (66) which can be slid on the supporting sleeve (16), and with a lock nut (42) having an inner thread (44) and being adapted to be screwed to the complementary part (24), for pressing the clamping ring (40) against the fitting body (12) and for clamping abutment on the pipe end (66) in the condition when the pipe end has been slid onto the supporting sleeve (16). The fitting body (12) comprises radially protruding fixing projections (46) for axially fixing the fitting body (12) inside the lock nut (42) to the inner thread (44) or to other internal face structures thereof, to prevent the lock nut (42) from being inadvertently detached before it is screwed to the complementary part (24).
US07644952B2
A seat belt is secured to an anchor at one side of a seated person and extends across the seated person's body to a second anchor at an opposite side of the seated person to which the belt is also secured. A belt retention device is operable, when actuated in response to a sudden, rapid deceleration of the vehicle, to grip the belt between the anchors at a point of engagement adjacent to the one side of the seated person to cooperate with the second anchor in taking up any slack in a section of the belt between the point of engagement and the second anchor and also maintaining such section of the belt tightly engaged across the person's body.
US07644951B2
This invention pertains to an energy absorption device for a motor vehicle steering column in which there is mounted an adjustment slide, the adjustment slide including a female part, provided with an entry orifice, connected respectively either to a steering wheel or to a rack system, and a male part connected respectively either to the rack system or to the steering wheel, the male part sliding in the female part upon adjustment of the depth of the steering column, wherein at least one sleeve is fixed on the male part in a manner to absorb the energy by coming into contact at least partially with the entry orifice of the female part in the case of violent impact.
US07644943B2
A gas spring assembly that is suitable for use on a vehicle suspension system includes a first end member and a second end member that is spaced from the first end member. A flexible wall is secured between the first and second end members and at least partially defines a first gas chamber therebetween. A confinement at least partially forms a second gas chamber that is in communication with the first gas chamber. A porous flow restrictor is operatively disposed between the gas chambers. A suspension system including such a gas spring assembly as well as a method is also included.
US07644942B2
An active suspension system for a rigid beam tractor axle in which the axle is connected to the chassis by two orthogonally oriented pivot points and axle movement is controlled by double-acting suspension actuators managed by a control system to improve the ride and handling characteristics of the tractor.
US07644932B2
A gap-clearing mechanism for attachment to a wheelchair is disclosed. The gap-clearing mechanism has a lower member for attachment to the wheelchair, and an upper member spaced from and parallel to the lower member and being moveable relative thereto. The upper member has at least one support column securely attached thereto and depending therefrom. The at least one support column is slideably mounted relative to the lower member. There is a wheel assembly at a lower end of the at least one support column. The wheel assembly is moveable between a retracted position and an extended position. A wheelchair fitted with two such gap-clearing mechanisms is also disclosed.
US07644926B2
Embodiments pertain to a game for entertainment in which players draw cards to select game pieces and then place those pieces on a game board. In one embodiment, players place their game tiles next to tiles on the board, matching pips (spots) to pips, similar to the game of dominos. Players are assessed points for every pip that's on a light-colored square of the board. The game ends when all tiles have been placed on the board. The player with the fewest points wins the game. In other embodiments players place tiles in other ways, or score points in other ways, or do not score points at all. Also, in other embodiments, there are alternative ways in which the game ends, and/or alternative ways to determine the winner.
US07644922B2
The invention relates to a method and system for operating a gaming terminal where the gaming terminal cabinet itself is an active feature or element of the wagering game. The method and system of the invention involve a gaming terminal cabinet that is transformable from a primary external configuration to a secondary external configuration. The transformation of the gaming terminal cabinet may be based on an outcome of a basic wagering game, a bonus wagering game, or both. The secondary external configuration may involve a single transformation or it may involve multiple transformations. At the end of the wagering game, the gaming terminal cabinet may be transformed back into the primary external configuration. The transformation of the gaming terminal cabinet may also be used to attract the attention of passersby when the gaming terminal is idle to thereby generate interest in the gaming terminal.
US07644914B2
A bill deposit/withdrawal machine including a deposit/withdrawal port for delivering the bills deposited by users and discharging bills to users. The deposit/withdrawal port includes a bill hopper for accepting bills deposited by users and discharging bills to users, a delivering mechanism for delivering bills deposited by users, and a push plate operation mechanism for moving a push plate which forms an accepting unit and which supports bills. The bill hopper is movable by rotation operations with a bill delivering side as a fulcrum, and the delivering mechanism includes at least a gate controller which does not rotate in a delivering direction.
US07644912B2
An apparatus and method for leading together a number of printed webs is disclosed. Using a device for leading together several printed webs into a multi-layer web sandwich with a harp formed by the deflection rolls assigned to the individual printed webs, the inclusion of air between the webs can be prevented, in that a deflecting web sandwich guide is provided in the exit area of the harp and lies at right-angles to the running direction of the web sandwich.
US07644910B2
A method and an apparatus for generating gas bubbles, which can generate a large amount of micro gas bubbles having diameters of less than 15 μm, specifically less than 10 μm, in a liquid. The apparatus comprises a tube 2 having a closed end 14 at one end and an open end 15 at the other end, and a rotating bladed wheel 3 installed in the tube 2 and rotating coaxially or substantially coaxially with the tube 2. The rotating bladed wheel 3 has one or more blades 4. The face of each blade 4 is substantially parallel to the axis of a rotating shaft 5 of the rotating bladed wheel 3. Ventilation resistance between the interior of the tube 2 on the side near the closed end 14 and the outside gas is equal to or larger than that of a ventilation port 7 having an inner diameter of 0.36 time an average width d of the blades and a length of 3 mm. At least the open end 15 of the tube 2 and the rotating bladed wheel 3 are immersed in a liquid 20 and the rotating bladed wheel 3 is rotated at a peripheral speed of 5.8 m/sec or higher.
US07644901B2
A dive tank support device for supporting a dive tank while a diver is attempting to attach the dive tank to the diver's body immediately before jumping from a vessel and beginning a dive. The dive tank support device may be formed from a body having a bottom support adapted to support a dive tank and at least one sidewall extending up from the bottom support and configured to limit tilting of the dive tank relative to the bottom support. The body supports the dive tank and the recess enables the dive tank to be easily pulled from the dive tank support device once a diver has attached the dive tank to himself.
US07644892B1
A capped winglet comprising a helical portion having a smooth vertical curvature of 180°±approximately 20° from the plane of the unbounded end of a wing, and a generally planar cap contiguous with the helical portion of the winglet at the end of its curvature away from the wing, the cap having a free inboard end and a chord tapered toward the free end.
US07644891B2
Systems and methods for releasing a spacecraft payload at a substantially constant velocity are disclosed. A linear actuator is used that includes a spring loaded and fluid filled chamber. The spring drives against a piston within the chamber that includes a control orifice that restricts the fluid flowing from one side of the piston to the other and results in a substantially constant damped motion of the piston. The piston drives a rod from the chamber that is attached to a capture device that holds a flange of the spacecraft payload. The capture device moves along a linear guide toward an open end. Spring loaded latches are held in a closed position by the side walls of the guide as the capture device moves. The latches release the flange as exit the open end of the guide.
US07644890B2
A low-energy locking hinge mechanism operable with a spacecraft to support a deployable device, and to facilitate the deployment and locking of the deployable device, the hinge mechanism comprising: (a) a support base configured to couple to a structure of the spacecraft; (b) means for securing a deployable device to the support base, the deployable device being configured to rotate about a pivot axis; (c) a one-way clutch supported about the support base and operable with the means for securing, the one-way clutch being configured to facilitate one-way rotation of the deployable device from a stowed position to a deployed position, and to lock the deployable device in the deployed position, the one-way clutch having an inherent actuatable locking function configured to prevent backward motion; and (d) an actuation member operable with the one-way clutch to deploy the deployable device from the stowed position to the deployed position, the actuation member comprising an actuation energy sufficient to actuate the locking function of the one-way clutch within a zero-gravity environment.
US07644887B2
A yaw control system and a method of controlling yaw for an aircraft are provided. The yaw control system includes a first wing set and a second wing set which are rotatable in opposite directions. Each of the wing sets includes at least two wings each including a pivotable flap forming a trailing edge of its respective wing. A flap control assembly controls the pivotable flaps of the first wing set and of the second wing set such that when the pivotable flaps of the first wing set are pivoted in a first direction by a first set angle, the pivotable flaps of the second wing set are simultaneously pivoted by a second set angle in an opposite direction, thereby providing yaw control for the aircraft.
US07644885B2
A towel roll holder and dispenser has a housing for receiving a towel roll therewithin. The housing has a pair of sidewalls, a base connected to the sidewalls for mounting the housing on a support surface, and a pair of cover members pivotable between a closed position and an open position. One of the cover members has an opening through which towels may be dispensed from the towel roll. The cover members are releasably fastened to the sidewalls of the housing.
US07644883B2
A lid for a bowl of a food processor for processing a relatively large size or large volume of foodstuff including a top lid wall and a feed tube extending from the top lid wall along a feed axis. The feed tube including an inner feed surface defining a feed cavity and a mouth for accessing the feed cavity. A feed tube lid is movably secured to the mouth of the feed tube. A food pusher is movably mounted to the feed tube lid. The food pusher and feed tube lid cover the mouth of the feed tube when the feed tube lid and food pusher are in a working position. The food pusher is movable relative to the feed tube in first and second directions in the working position. The first direction is generally parallel to the feed axis and the second direction is generally perpendicular to the feed axis.
US07644873B2
A fuel transfer system having a nozzle with an inlet in communication with a source of pressurized fuel in a portion of a fuel tank, and an outlet through which the fuel is discharged. A restrictor is arranged between the source of pressurized fuel and the nozzle. A first venturi receives fuel dispensed from the nozzle, and a second venturi receives fuel dispensed from the first venturi. The second venturi has an outlet in fluid communication with the portion of the fuel tank housing the source of pressurized fluid.
US07644863B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for monitoring and predicting various data related to an inventory. A data processing apparatus interacts with one or more business computers to obtain one of replenishment and consumption activity data related to an inventory. A model for variations in the inventory is created. The model is used to determine estimates of variation for one of currently planned replenishment activities and currently planned consumption activities. The estimates of variation are used to predict future inventory levels. A system including one or more agent computers is also described.
US07644861B2
Systems and methods for controlling access to wireless gaming devices and networks are provided. For example, access is controlled through one or more levels of security check, such as a hard security check instead of or in addition to a soft security check. In a hard security check, the user employs an apparatus such as a card or other physical token that can be used to access the wireless gaming device. Such an apparatus may communicate information that identifies the user to the device or may simply be used to produce a signal without which the device is locked to users.
US07644855B2
In conventional Sn/Sb type brazing filler metals, there are disadvantages that large grains in a β′ phase are likely to deposit and that cracks are likely to occur in the elements and the bonded portion, and that voids are formed when the above described special coating is provided on the die bonding plane of the semiconductor element. The brazing filler metal of the present invention comprises 5 to 20 weight % of Sb and 0.01 to 5 weight % of Te, with the balance being Sn and incidental impurities, or a brazing filler metal comprises 5 to 20 weight % of Sb, 0.01 to 5 weight % of Te, 0.001 to 0.5 weight % of P, with the balance being Sn and incidental impurities.
US07644854B1
A method of making porous shapes from unit structures such as beads involves coating the beads with two or more layers of material deposited such that it forms an energetic material. These bi-layer energetic materials are formed from a variety of materials including, but not limited to: Ti & B, Zr & B, Hf & B, Ti & C, Zr & C, Hf & C, Ti & Si, Zr & Si, Nb & Si, Ni & Al, Zr & Al, or Pd & Al, all of which can be deposited from vapor. Pressure is applied to prevent the components from moving and the solid-state reaction between the alternating layers produces exothermic heat. Heat from the reaction alone or in conjunction of an applied brazing compound joins the beads forming a porous shape that is desired. The reaction in the materials may be activated with a small pulse of local energy that can be applied using optical, electrical, or thermal sources. Common examples include an electrical pulse, spark, hot filament, a laser beam, etc. The method reduces energy consumption and the need for specialized equipment. The reactive materials and optional brazing material are preferably applied in a fluidized CVD furnace.
US07644850B2
A stapling device (1) with at least two stapling heads (4, 5) attached to a stapling head unit (2) for stapling sheet-like material, in particular paper, cardboard or the like, is provided, wherein the distance between at least two stapling heads (4, 5) can be adjusted relative to each other. In a stapling device (1) according to the invention, the retrofitting necessary for various products is to be simplified. This is achieved in the invention by moveably arranging the stapling heads (4, 5) relative to each other, and providing a drive unit (9, 10) for setting the stapling head distance.
US07644835B2
A hand-held vessel has a bottom wall, a sidewall and a supportive strap attached to the bottom wall and the sidewall. The bottom wall and sidewall have an inner and outer surface. The sidewall extends from the bottom wall, whereby the inner surfaces of the bottom wall and sidewall define a cavity for holding fluids or loose materials therein. The strap has a first end and a second end, whereby the first end is fixedly attached to the sidewall and the second end is selectively secured to the bottom wall. The strap is adaptable to accept a user's hand disposed between the strap and the outer surface of the sidewall. The strap urges the hand against the outer surface of the sidewall to secure the vessel to the hand and stabilize the vessel with respect to movement relative to the hand.
US07644828B1
A container has an open top end and a closed bottom end. A chamber is provided between the top and bottom ends. The top end is formed as a neck. The bottom end is formed as a recess. The neck and recess are essentially cylindrical. The neck and recess have a common axis and an essentially common length and diameter. The recess is adapted to receive a neck of another similarly configured bottle/container system. The neck is adapted to be coupled to a recess of another similarly configured bottle/container system.
US07644827B2
A gravity feed. display rack for supporting and displaying merchandise features a merchandise channel support structure, and at least one merchandise channel. The channel has a merchandise support, a left wall and a right wall, the left wall and right wall adjustably located in spaced apart relationship upon the merchandise channel support structure to accommodate varying sizes of merchandise. Thus the display rack may be adjustably assembled to accommodate specific sizes of merchandise.
US07644818B2
A plaster dispenser (1) for removing plasters (3) individually from a plaster pack (2) that includes a number of plasters (3), each inserted in a plastic or paper pocket, wherein the pockets are directed in mutually the same direction, and are together surrounded by a folded plastic or paper sheet (4a, 4b) whose first edge (5) extends at right angles to the longitudinal direction of respective plaster accommodating pockets, the plaster pack (2) being widened from the first edge (5) in a direction towards two mutually opposing second edges (19a, 19b) of the sheet parts, and wherein the dispenser (1) including a box-shaped space (6).
US07644817B2
A wrap-around carrier has side end panels that facilitate erection of the carrier and closure of the carrier ends.
US07644813B2
A freewheel coupling (1) is provided having clamping bodies (4), which are arranged between an inner ring (2) and an outer ring (3) and which have a narrow section (5). A single cage (9) is arranged between the inner ring (2) and the outer ring (3) with a plurality of pockets (10). Each of the pockets (10) has an area (12) that is narrower in the axial direction and an area (11), which is adjacent to this narrower area, which is wider in the axial direction, and which is provided for holding a clamping body (4). A spring band (6), which is arranged radially within the cage (9), has an original curvature in the unloaded state, wherein the curvature radius exceeds a radius of the cage (9), and spring tongues (13), which are provided for spring mounting of the clamping bodies (4), are directed radially inwardly.
US07644810B2
A sports equipment bag with an integrated stool for storing, carrying and transporting sporting equipment while providing a foot support to aide a user in donning their sporting equipment. The foot support can be utilized by a single person alone to aid in putting their own equipment on or the foot support can be used in combination with the integrated stool to assist a first person in aiding a second person in donning equipment. The stool and foot support are integrated into the bag and the foot support is positioned within the bag's internal compartment. Along the bottom portion of the bag are a pair of spaced apart ground engaging wheels rotatably and a telescopic handle may be extendable from the bag, thus making the bag, stool and foot support easily storable and transportable.
US07644801B2
A membrane (2) for an electroacoustic transducer (1) is disclosed, wherein a thickness (d) of said membrane (2) and an average Young's modulus (Eavg) of said membrane (2) are chosen in such a way that the critical load (Fbc), which causes the membrane (2) to buckle and/or crinkle, is increased compared to a reference membrane. The reference membrane made of Polycarbonate has the same shape, dimension, and stiffness in its direction of movement (MOV) as said membrane (2). According to the result of investigations on buckling and/or crinkling, said effect occurs with different critical buckling/crinkling loads for membranes of the same shape and dimension, but made of different materials, even when the stiffness of the membranes in their direction of movement—and hence their resonant frequency—is identical.
US07644793B2
An automotive heat exchanging system has a heat exchanger comprising a condenser and a radiator, an electric fan located in the front of an engine and an automatic transmission. A shroud is attached to and covers peripheral portions of the electric fan and the heat exchanger to prevent air from bypassing the shutter. The shroud forms an air passage inside of it for allowing airflow through the heat exchanger to flow toward the automatic transmission. A shutter is disposed in the shroud and attached at a periphery of the shroud. The shutter is controlled to open and close the air passage by a controller based on oil temperature.
US07644791B2
Various embodiments of reduced-size vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and utility vehicles (UVs) are disclosed herein. In at least some embodiments, the vehicles include frames that are wider near the front and rear sections of the vehicles than within the mid-sections of the vehicles. This, in combination with the use of shock-absorbers that are substantially vertically oriented, allows for the opening-up of large interior cavities within the front and rear sections of the vehicles within which can be positioned large front and rear internal compartments that can provide storage/carrying capacity as well as added buoyancy for the vehicle, among other things. Also, in at least some embodiments, the vehicles can include special cooling and/or exhaust systems having components that are positioned substantially within the mid-sections of the vehicles, thus further increasing the amounts of space available for the cavities/compartments within the front and rear sections of the vehicles.
US07644788B2
A trailer that includes a belts that each encompass a front wheel and a rear wheel and have a ground engaging surface and a wheel engaging surface, the wheel engaging surface having lugs thereon for mating with the apertures in the front wheel and the rear wheel such that when the at least one of the front wheel or the rear wheel rotates, the belt is positively driven and at least one belt tensioning system for maintaining tension on the plurality of belts, the at least one belt tensioning system includes a track tension cylinder operatively mounted between an axle of the at least one of the front wheel or the rear wheel and the main frame, wherein the track tension cylinder maintains tension on the belt by moving the axle of the at least one of the front wheel or the rear wheel in a horizontal.
US07644787B2
A vehicle having a chassis comprises a turbofan engine mounted on the chassis for providing thrust to propel the vehicle over a surface, and four wheels located about and mounted on the chassis wherein at least two of the wheels are substantially spherical or partially spherical in shape. Braking systems, steering systems and stabilizing mechanisms may be provided in accordance with various aspects of the invention.
US07644784B1
A transport floor connected to the transport watercraft. An elevated drilling floor integrally connected to the transport floor; supporting a derrick comprising at least two rails for supporting a traveling top drive supported by a crown block. The crown block is connected to the derrick. The elevated drilling floor has a control panel comprising a power throttle for operating the top drive.
US07644780B2
A folding marker for connection to an agricultural implement toolbar with a marker shoulder pivot, an inner arm and a double acting hydraulic cylinder both pivotally connected to the shoulder pivot. A middle arm bracket is pivotally connected to the inner arm and the cylinder. A middle arm is connected to the middle arm bracket, with two beams extending from the bracket and terminating at an outer arm pivot, with a third beam connected between the bracket and a crossbrace. An outer arm pivot bracket is pivotally connected to the outer arm pivot, an outer arm connected thereto and having two legs connected between the outer arm pivot bracket and a plate assembly. The legs define a channel therebetween, and an adjustable arm is slidably connected within the channel. An extension element is insertable within the channel and lockable with the plate assembly, with a marking element connected thereto.
US07644767B2
A safety valve with a flapper/flow tube friction reducer. A safety valve for use in a subterranean well includes a closure assembly, an operating member which engages the closure assembly, and at least one of the closure assembly and the operating member including a friction reducing device which provides rolling contact between the closure assembly and the operating member. Another safety valve includes a flapper which rotates about a pivot relative to a seat, a flow tube which engages the flapper to rotate the flapper, and a friction reducing device which with rolling contact biases the flow tube toward the pivot when the flow tube engages the flapper. Yet another safety valve is described in which at least one of the flapper, the seat and the flow tube has a friction reducing device attached thereto which provides rolling contact between the flapper and the flow tube, or between the flow tube and the seat.
US07644765B2
Methods for treating a tar sands formation are described herein. Methods may include heating at least a section of a hydrocarbon layer in the formation from a plurality of heaters located in the formation. A pressure in the majority of the section may be maintained below a fracture pressure of the formation. The pressure in the majority of the section may be reduced to a selected pressure after the average temperature reaches a temperature that is above 240° C. and is at or below pyrolysis temperatures of hydrocarbons in the section. At least some hydrocarbon fluids may be produced from the formation.
US07644756B2
Equipment for oil recovery can include three systems: a steam system, a carbon dioxide system and a nitrogen system. The three systems can include one or more of a steam pressure regulator, a steam thermometer, a steam pressure gauge, a steam flowmeter, a carbon dioxide pressure regulator, a carbon dioxide compressor, a carbon dioxide thermometer, a carbon dioxide pressure gauge, a nitrogen compressor, a nitrogen pressure regulator, a nitrogen thermometer, a nitrogen pressure gauge, assembled valves, a gas injection tube and a chemical agent valve. The three systems can be connected into a heavy oil well via the assembled valves, the gas injection tube and a down-hole tube. The equipment can integrate three pressurizing and metering systems of steam, carbon dioxide and nitrogen together. With the equipment, one, two or three of the gases may be injected into oil wells to achieve favorable results of output increase.
US07644736B2
A flexible tubing having a PEX inner core is surrounded by a reinforcing structure, such as a braid. The reinforced flexible tubing meets NFPA Standards for the Installation of Sprinler Systems (13/13R/13D) in both residential and commercial buildings. The reinforced flexible tubing is suitable for a variety of other high temperature/high pressure applications. The tube's flexible characteristics facilitate its installation at a greatly reduced cost, especially in retrofitting existing structures. An adhesive can be used to improve the overall strength and stability of the reinforcing structure surrounding the PEX core. Optionally, a protective outer layer can be applied over the reinforcing structure.
US07644735B2
There is provided an insert to be sealingly mounted into a plug hole of a pipe having a sealing area surrounding the plug hole. The insert comprises an internal unit and a fastener. The internal unit and the fastener have corresponding cooperating sealing portions and mounting portions. The sealing portion of the internal unit is formed with a flange adapted to be forced into the plug hole. The flange and the sealing portion of the fastener have corresponding sealing surfaces. These surfaces are adapted to sealingly clamp therebetween the sealing area of the pipe, when the insert is mounted into the plug hole. One of the sealing surfaces being in the form of a sealing edge and the other being in the form of a conical surface. When the fastener is mounted onto the internal unit, the sealing portions of the internal unit and the fastener form therebetween a chamber. The chamber is in fluid communication with the outside environment, allowing atmospheric pressure within the chamber.
US07644734B2
The present invention is a male and female safety cap to protect hose and liquid transport fittings and the hand of the operator. The male safety cap has a circular disk with a diameter larger than the female fitting and a loop handle. The female safety cap has raised parallel ridges to protect the cam arm and a loop handle. A T-handle cam is provided to improve handling. In one embodiment, the safety caps are covered in a resilient material to reduce shock. In another embodiment, the safety caps are molded from an electrical dissipative material to prevent static electricity buildup and discharge when removing the safety cap. The loop handle forms a continuous arcuate structure to provide protection to the operator's hand. The safety caps can be color coded or affixed with labels to prevent product cross contamination. Safety caps can be adapted to threaded couplings and fittings.
US07644729B2
A capacity control valve has a communication path (31) for communicating a discharge chamber (11) and a control chamber (12); one valve chamber (36) in the middle of the communication path (31); communication paths (32, 31b) for communicating a suction chamber (13) and the control chamber (12); the other valve chamber (36) in the middle of the communication path (32); a valve body (40) including a first valve section (41) that opens and closes the communication path (31) and a second valve section (42) that opens and closes the communication path (32), the first and second valve sections being placed in the valve chamber (36) and performing the opening and closing operation in a manner opposite to each other; and a solenoid (60) for moving the valve body (40). The valve body (40) has a pressure receiving section (44) at its end section that is across the second valve section (42) from the first valve section (41), and the pressure receiving section (44) receives pressure in the control chamber. The pressure receiving area S3 of the pressure receiving section (44) is substantially the same as the difference between the pressure receiving area S2 of the second valve section (42) and the pressure receiving area S1 of the first valve section. The valve is reduced in size, an influence of the pressure in the control chamber is minimized, and stable capacity control with excellent response is enabled.
US07644728B2
A splitter for faucets includes a body in which a control unit is received. The control unit includes a collar in which a ceramic disk is received. The ceramic disk has a plurality of through holes and a number of the through holes is equal to a number of the outlets of the body. A ceramic plate is connected to the ceramic disk so as to cover some of the through holes in the ceramic disk. The ceramic disk is connected with a control shaft which has a resilient member on a radial portion thereof. An end member is mounted to radial portion and includes a plurality of gaps so that when the control shaft is rotated, the protrusion on the resilient member is removably engaged with one of the gaps so as to generate a sound.
US07644724B2
The invention relates to an assembly comprising an electromechanical device and a self-sealing valve, and in particular, to any inflatable device that includes the assembly. In one embodiment, the assembly comprises a valve housing defining an opening through which fluid can be provided to the inflatable device, a flexible diaphragm assembly that is configured to self-seal the opening with sufficient fluid pressure in the inflatable device and to open under sufficient fluid pressure from a fluid moving device, to provide fluid through the opening to and seal the inflatable device. The assembly further comprises an electromechanical device including an actuating arm, having a first position in which the actuating arm urges open the self-sealing valve and a second position in which the actuating arm does not act upon the self-sealing valve, so as to regulate an amount of fluid within the inflatable device. With this arrangement, a small, low power, low duty cycle electromechanical device can be used.
US07644720B2
The invention relates to a retractable rod and a tent made from the rod. The retractable rod comprises a multitude of rigid skeleton joints having two axial end surfaces and side surfaces. The joints are connected through the convex-concave connection by two flexible ropes passing through the holes of the joints to form a rod. There is a storage compartment locating at one end of the rod which winds and stores the rod therein. The storage compartment comprises a shaft, a rod storage sleeve which is in an intermittent drive mode fixed to the shaft; one end of the two flexible ropes passes through the rod storage sleeve and is fixed to the shaft. The rod storage sleeve is supported and rotates between two rope-protecting boards. A tension part locates at the other end of the rod and the other end of the two flexible ropes is fixed to the tension part. The advantage of the invention is that the tent made from the retractable rod occupies a small storage space.
US07644717B2
A hair clip and hairpin combining device includes a pin member pivotally coupled to a plate with a pivot axle and for allowing the plate to be rotated relative to the pin member between an open working position and a folded clamping position, and a spring member coupled between the ears and the flaps for maintaining the plate and the pin member either at the open working position as a hairpin or at the folded clamping position as a hair clip, and thus for allowing the hair clip and hairpin combining device to be changeable between the hair clip and the hairpin or for being used as either a hair clip or a hairpin.
US07644716B2
Apparatus for manufacturing a carbonaceous heat source chip, capable of drying an extrusion-molded carbonaceous heat source rod to proper hardness and supplying the same to a heat insulating material-wrapping device. The apparatus includes a hollow pipe that forms a conveying path for transporting the carbonaceous heat source rod continuously extrusion-molded by an extrusion molding machine, to the heat insulating material-wrapping device. The apparatus forms an airflow running through the hollow pipe by means of an air amplifier, and transports the carbonaceous heat source rod while drying the rod by using the airflow.
US07644709B2
A wrist strap for use with a bow string release assembly, including a pair of interconnected fabric limbs extending angularly from a common central area and a fabric covered magnet in the free end of each limb; the magnets being arranged to attract one another when the free end of one limb is placed proximate the free end of the other limb; and a connector strap with a connector member thereon fixed to the first limb and another connector strap with a cooperating second connector member thereon, the connector members being releasably locked together to affix the wrist strap to the wrist of a user; and a tether strap fixed to the common area, and including means to attach the tether to a bow trigger assembly.
US07644708B2
A bow maintenance press and method provides operation adaptable to various bow designs using adaptable bow press fingers that apply force to the bow limb ends. The bow limb end fingers may be interchangeable to supply different shapes or sizes and/or may provide adjustment in at least a limb end width or length, such that substantially equal force is applied to the bow limb ends of a bow having at least one split limb end. The fingers may be tiltable to adjust for differing limb end lengths and may be spring-loaded to ease in initial placement and retention of a bow before it is compressed.
US07644701B2
A preset waiting period is previously set on the basis of a signal in correspondence to a detection of a start point of a detection of a no-tooth portion of a signal rotor. In the case of a control for injecting a fuel after the preset waiting period has elapsed, an output of a signal indicating a start point of an actual detection of the no-tooth portion by a waveform shaping portion is delayed due to the existence of the no-tooth portion. A control computer corrects the preset waiting period to be shorter by an amount corresponding the delay. Accordingly, an accuracy of a fuel injection start timing control is improved.
US07644700B2
The fuel injection system has at least two electrically actuated control valves for controlling the fuel injection; the control valves are each connected via electric lines to an electric control unit. In the fuel injection system, terminal elements for connection of the electric lines are provided. For a first of the control valves, a structural element is provided, on which the terminal elements for all the control valves are disposed, and which can be secured to a housing part of the fuel injection system. At least one electric connecting line from the terminal elements to the second control valve disposed inside a housing part of the fuel injection system is integrated with the structural element.
US07644696B2
An embodiment of the invention relates to an engine system, and a method in an engine system comprising an internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder (2) at which a piston (3), at least one inlet valve (5), at least one exhaust valve (7), and fuel injection means (11), for injection of fuel directly into the cylinder (2), are provided. The method comprises performing the following steps in at least one of the at least one cylinder: controlling (204) at least one of the at least one intake valve (5) so as to introduce air into the cylinder (2), performing (203, 206) at least one main combustion fuel injection (P21, P22) for a main combustion with air introduced into the cylinder (2), controlling (201), during an exhaust stroke and an intake stroke, the intake and exhaust valves (5, 7) so as to form a negative valve overlap (NVO) to capture main combustion residues, and performing (202) at least one pilot fuel injection (P1) during the negative valve overlap. The amount of fuel in the at least one pilot fuel injection (P1) is at least partly dependent on said introduction of air and at least one of the at least one main combustion fuel injection (P21, P22).
US07644685B2
A unitized receiver-housing bearing planar collar for a pet wherein the bottom end of the receiver housing is integrally formed with the collar, the bottom perimetrical edge of the receiver housing being oriented substantially parallel to the plane of the collar. The collar is overmolded, free of independent connectors or fasteners, on the receiver housing adjacent the bottom end of the receiver housing such that when the collar is affixed to the neck of a pet, for example, there is established and maintained a pre-selected orientation of the receiver housing relative to the pet.
US07644681B2
A push bar serves to nudge or urge cows to leave a milking parlor and move to an exit alley. The push bar is mounted on extendible support members, which may have an inner tube and an outer tube, and which is mounted by a journal onto an overhead pivot. There is one air cylinder to rotate the assembly, and additional air cylinders to extend and retract the support members. A programmed controller ensures that the push tube travels in a generally straight, horizontal path to push the cows out, and then lifts the push tube so it is over the cows' heads on the return.
US07644671B2
A system (10) for manufacturing a mattress (300) comprises multiple modules or stations (12, 132, 188, 200) used to sew together multiple components into a casing (252). A spring or other core (270) is inserted into the casing (252) before a top (274) is secured to the casing (252) to complete the mattress (300). Two or more flanges (261, 266) may be incorporated into the casing (252) for securing the core (270) inside the casing (252), The system (10) provides an operator flexibility to manufacture different types of mattress with minimal changes.
US07644666B2
A pallet includes parallel channels or corrugations in an upper surface of the deck. Perpendicular lower channels or corrugations are formed on a lower surface of the deck. The upper and lower channels or corrugations support one another and provide increased stiffness to the deck. The pallet is designed such that it can be rotomolded.
US07644662B2
An elastic retention ring for the combustible casing of a piece of ammunition with respect to a base, the ring including two concentric substantially ring-shaped portions, one internal the other one external. The portions are linked by radial arms, and are continuous or not and have different diameters. The external portion incorporates at least one plane part and the radial arms form an angle with respect to the plane of plane part.
US07644652B2
The invention relates to a device (15) for foaming milk by means of external suction equipment (35), used as in accessory for espresso machines or similar domestic appliances. Said device comprises a fixed part that can be connected to the steam supply conduit (1) of said machines and an easily interchangeable disposable part (26) containing all parts that come into contact with the milk. The invention is characterised in that components of the disposable parts and in some embodiments of the invention even the entire disposable part consist(s) of thin-walled plastic tubes of the drinking straw type, which can be produced in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner by extrusion and subsequent thermoplastic forming. The use of the inventive device obviates the need for the inconvenient cleaning of conventional foaming nozzles and eliminates hygiene problems.
US07644650B2
The invention provides an improved water heater and coffee maker for use in an aircraft. A water heater 1 of an aircraft has a water tank 20 to which water from a water tank 10 of the aircraft is fed via a solenoid valve 14 and a flowmeter 16. The water tank 20 is opened to the atmosphere, and it does not form a pressure vessel. The hot water heated by a rapid heating boiler 40 is sent to a coffee server 100, and sprinkled via a hot water shower head 170 into a coffee brewing cup 180. The brewed coffee is pooled in a coffee server 200. An electrostatic level sensor 260 senses the liquid surface level of the coffee, based on which power supply to the boiler is turned off and supply of hot water is stopped.
US07644646B1
A three position servo system. The servo system has a servo housing that has first and second control ports disposed therein in a cavity in fluid communication with the first and second control ports. A servo piston having at least one pressure chamber disposed therein is then used to communicate the pressure within the first and second ports into the first end of the cavity. Thus, when pressure is applied below a threshold pressure to both ports a first position is achieved, when pressure is applied above the threshold pressure in only one port a second position is achieved, and when pressure is applied above the threshold pressure in both ports a third position is achieved. Therefore, the servo system provides three different operating positions.
US07644643B2
A steering shaft (12) has an end toward a driver of the vehicle and is arranged to turn about an axis (27) to steer a vehicle. A hub (14) of a steering wheel assembly (13) is fastened to that end of the shaft. A spoke pattern of one or more spokes (15) extends away from the hub to a rim (17) that when grasped by the driver and turned, turns the shaft to steer the vehicle. With the rim turned to a position that steers the vehicle in a straight line of travel, the spoke pattern assumes a position of at least approximate symmetry with respect to a vertical plane through the axis. An escutcheon (24, 26) covers the one or more spokes to prevent the driver from having an unobstructed view of the one or more spokes and is positionable within a range of positions relative to the one or more spokes. The escutcheon is secured in a position within that range that presents to the driver an appearance of having essentially exact symmetry with respect to the vertical plane when the rim is in the position that steers the vehicle in a straight line of travel.
US07644622B2
The present micro-electro-mechanical pressure sensor includes a substrate, a dielectric isolation layer, at least two electrodes, and a vibrating membrane. The substrate includes an acoustic cavity. The dielectric isolation layer is formed on the substrate, and the dielectric isolation layer includes a through hole corresponding to the acoustic cavity. The at least two electrodes are separately formed on the dielectric isolation layer. The vibrating membrane covers the through hole, and the vibrating membrane includes at least one carbon nanotube structure with two opposite ends. The two opposite ends of the carbon nanotube are respectively connected to at least a given one of the at least two electrodes.
US07644607B2
There is described a method for monitoring the load condition of a variable speed engine. Said method shows a determination of an actual speed and an actual load moment during operation. A warning signal is emitted when the actual load moment remains outside a monitoring range, predetermined depending on the speed, for the duration of a predetermined delayed reaction time.
US07644604B2
A synchronous signal processing circuit for a dual-axis vibratory rotation-rate sensor uses a hybrid analog/digital design to provide correction for parasitic quadrature errors by the addition of synthesized correction signals in the analog domain prior to digitization. Error correction, signal demodulation and data conversions are synchronized with a signal phase-locked to the measured motion of the vibratory mass. Similarly, cross-axis error correction signals are synthesized directly from the cross axis signals. Use of these precise phase references provides for various benefits in signal noise and error matching (tracking) over wide operation conditions.
US07644602B2
A sensor obtains transverse sensitivity in a sensitivity matrix of an acceleration sensor with a uniaxial vibration generator. The acceleration is measured by vibrating the table 12. As the measurement of the main axis sensitivity, transverse sensitivity Szx associated with the X-axis is obtained from measured results of the acceleration sensor 5 and measured results of a measuring instrument for measuring the surface motion of the table 12 independently. Likewise, transverse sensitivity Szy associated with the Y-axis is obtained by fixing on the table 12 the cubical block on which the acceleration sensor 5 is mounted in such a manner that the Y-axis direction defined with respect to the acceleration sensor 5 aligns with the vibration direction of the table 12.
US07644597B2
An apparatus 10 for producing a plate glass, comprising a bath 14 for float-forming for reserving a molten metal 16 for forming a band-shaped plate glass having a predetermined thickness by feeding a molten glass ribbon 20 in a predetermined direction on the molten metal 16, and a pair of partition walls 46 provided substantially above left and right edges 22 of the molten glass ribbon 20 and substantially along the edges 22 to partition a space above a bath surface of the molten metal into an upper space A above a region covered with the molten glass ribbon 20 and upper spaces B above regions not covered with the molten glass ribbon 20; wherein the partition walls 46 each has a vertically dividable structure dividable into an upper partition wall 46A and a lower partition wall 46B, and the lower partition wall 46B is constituted by strip-shaped lower strip members 58 provided continuously to each other in a lateral direction, and the strip members 58 are configured to be removable or openable from the upper partition wall 46A.
US07644596B2
A short-arc discharge lamp capable of reducing the likelihood of cracks starting at an end face of a reflection mirror neck unit. Such cracks can be caused by heat generated from the discharge lamp. The short-arc discharge lamp includes a glass reflection mirror having a reflection surface of an even-order function on an inner surface thereof and formed by embossing. The short-arc discharge lamp is arranged with respect to an optical axis of the reflection mirror. A base of the discharge lamp is fixed to an insertion hole in a hollow neck unit formed in a bottom center of the reflection mirror. Furthermore, a base peripheral portion on the inner surface of the insertion hole in the hollow neck unit has a cylindrical shape with a narrow portion formed to extend from the cylindrical shape toward the reflection surface. Finally, an embossed portion extends from the narrow portion toward the reflection surface while diverging to contact the reflection surface.
US07644592B2
A cooling apparatus comprises one or more cooling stations for installation in a support structure to provide a chilled surface for supporting a receptacle holding a comestible product. Each cooling station has a housing for being installed in the support surface and a cooling disc assembly mounted on the housing. The chilled surface is formed by a top disc of the cooling disc assembly in direct contact with a chilled fluidic cooling medium circulated through a cooling chamber of the cooling disc assembly. The housing provides a thermal barrier around the cooling disc assembly. The chilled surface provides heat transfer between the comestible product and the fluidic cooling medium in the cooling chamber to maintain the comestible product in a cooled state.
US07644590B2
A control system for a refrigeration system having a refrigeration compartment and a quick chill/thaw pan. A main controller board, electrically connected to a temperature adjustment board and a dispenser board through the serial communications bus, controls the temperature of the refrigeration compartment and the quick chill/thaw pan. The control system accepts a plurality of inputs to determine a refrigeration mode and to execute a plurality of software algorithms to control the refrigeration compartment as both a chill pan to rapidly chill food and beverage items without freezing and a thaw pan to timely thaw frozen items at controlled temperature levels.
US07644577B2
A reducing agent metering system for delivering reducing agent to a lean burn internal combustion engine. The reducing agent metering system includes a metering system housing, a system for metering vaporized reducing agent to the internal combustion engine, the system positioned within the metering system housing and a system for delivering an atomized stream of liquid reducing agent to the lean burn internal combustion engine, the system positioned within the metering system housing, wherein the reducing agent metering system is operable to transition from metering vaporized reducing agent to delivering an atomized stream of liquid reducing agent to the lean burn internal combustion engine.
US07644568B2
A bed knife for a mower includes a cutting implement for cutting a material. The bed knife includes a mounting portion that mounts to the mower, and a cutting area at which the cutting implement cooperates with the bed knife to cut the material. The bed knife further includes a serrated portion including a plurality of teeth.
US07644563B2
A round baler is disclosed having a bale forming chamber. A duck bill, which comprises a pair of elongate plates that are biased towards one another to grip the wrapping material between them, is movable between an advanced position and a retracted position to introduce the free end of a wrapping material drawn from a supply roll into the bale forming chamber of the baler. A cutting device is located between the retracted position of the duck bill and the bale forming position for severing the length of wrapping material wrapped around the bale in the bale forming chamber at the end of a bale wrapping cycle from the supply roll. In the invention, a clamping device is provided to apply an additional force to urge the plates of the duck bill towards one another while the duck bill is in the retracted position in order for the wrapping material to be gripped more firmly between the plates of the duck bill between bale wrapping cycles.
US07644550B2
A precast under floor air delivery construction is provided which includes a plurality of precast concrete system having an upper base floor surface and a lower surface, a plurality of floor panel support means bearing directly to the upper base floor surface capable of an under floor air delivery between the floor panels and the upper surface, a plurality of access floor panels connected to the support means, and a fire protection barrier applied between the concrete slabs.
US07644546B2
Disclosed is a utility pipe tape to act as a termite barrier and a support for a waterproof membrane to prevent gaps from forming between pipe and slab that lets ground termites in through the slab.
US07644537B1
An apparatus is provided for unattended watering of plants over an extended period of time utilizing a watering system that regulates a partial vacuum to control the discharge of water to the roots of the plants. A water reservoir is provided having an encapsulated interior cavity and an exterior exposed to ambient air, and having upper and lower ends. The reservoir is located above the root level of a plant to be watered. At least one drain opening is defined in the lower end of the reservoir. The upper end of the reservoir is closed and is provided with an adjustable valve, preferably a pinch valve, and an air conduit, preferably a flexible tube, that passes through the valve and extends between the interior and the exterior of the reservoir. The valve thereby interacts with the conduit to partially obstruct air flow through it, so as to maintain a partial vacuum in the upper end of the reservoir as water drains from the lower end of the reservoir.
US07644536B2
Sanitizing container and display is a sealed but ventable container for removably placing demonstrable objects such as plants, cut flowers, inside the container, living creatures and the like in hospitals, home or other environments where immunocompromised or allergic patients live. This sealed container and display is provided with a ventilation system that establishes adequate air circulation to the inside the container while clearing the outflow air from any potentially harmful microbes, allergens (small particles that cause allergy) or chemical fumes that would be dangerous for those patients who lack normal immune protection or are allergic. This enclosed chamber can optionally be provided with an artificial light source for illumination of the displayed object if desired.
US07644532B2
A fish net and a method of netting a fish are provided. The fish net includes a pair of elongate members. A first of the elongate members includes a handle portion, a net assembly, and a body extending therebetween. The net assembly includes a frame including a mating surface, and a net coupled to the frame. A second of the elongate members includes a handle portion, a net assembly, and a body extending therebetween. The net assembly includes a frame including a mating surface, and a net coupled to the frame. The first and second elongate members are pivotally coupled together such that the net assemblies are moveable from a closed position wherein a first of the net assemblies is positioned in contact against the second of the net assemblies, to an open position wherein the two net assemblies are positioned a distance apart.
US07644530B2
For a firearm sighting device with an electrical illumination device that can be turned on and off by means of a switch, the switch is embodied and arranged in or on the sighting device such that, for the conventional attachment of the sighting device on the firearm, the switch is activated mechanically to turn on the illumination device by the activation of an actuator provided in or on the firearm for setting the firearm into the armed state. By disabling the firearm, the switch is activated mechanically to turn off the illumination device. Preferably, the activation of the switch is performed using a non-contact method, for which, in particular, the configuration of the switch as a reed contact is suitable. The switch can also be part of a retrofit kit, by means of which a sighting device for a firearm can be equipped at a later time with the previously mentioned function. Here, the switch of the retrofit kit replaces a standard switch operated by hand separately from the firearm.
US07644528B2
Machine guns having detachable barrels and methods of operating the same are disclosed. An illustrated example firearm includes a housing; a removable barrel; a latch to releasably secure the barrel in the housing, the latch having a released state and a secured state; and a carrying handle movable between a rest position and a carry position. The carrying handle cooperates with the latch such that the latch can only be moved into the released state to permit removal of the barrel when the carrying handle is at least substantially in the carry position.
US07644524B2
A walk-behind trenching vehicle incorporating a trenching boom with an endless trenching chain. The trenching boom may be connected to a forward end of the vehicle via a pivot joint that is offset from a drive axis of the trenching chain. The boom may be movable between an operating position and a transport position via a single actuator, e.g., hydraulic cylinder.
US07644521B2
Footwear includes a sole with a forefoot region, a heel region, and a mid-sole region positioned between the forefoot region and the heel region. A support structure is positioned within the mid-sole region. The support structure is configured to engage an object to facilitate resistance to gravitational pull.
US07644515B2
A lint filter assembly for a laundry dryer is provided. In the lint filter assembly, a door is provided, a lint filter has a filter housing installed at the rear of the door and a filter main body inserted into the filter housing, and at least one securing member is provided to secure the filter main body to the filter housing.
US07644512B1
A method of drying a surface of a substrate is provided. The method includes supporting and rotating a substrate; applying a liquid to the substrate surface at or near a rotational center point via a liquid dispenser (so that a film of the liquid is formed on the surface); applying a drying fluid to the substrate surface at a predetermined distance from the rotational center point via one or more drying fluid dispensers; and manipulating the drying fluid dispenser(s) so that the location at which the drying fluid is applied to the substrate is moved in a direction toward the rotational center point, while at the same time manipulating the liquid dispenser so that the location at which the liquid is applied to the substrate is moved in a direction outward from the rotational center point. The liquid dispenser and drying fluid dispenser(s) noted above can be located on and/or within an assembly. The assembly can include a first dispenser, a second dispenser, and a third dispenser. The first dispenser supplies liquid while the second and third dispensers supply drying fluid, where the second dispenser has a larger opening than the third dispenser. The second and third dispensers are positioned on the assembly next to one another and spaced from the first dispenser. Further, the second dispenser is located between the third dispenser and the first dispenser, such that the first dispenser is capable of linearly leading the second and third dispensers during movement.
US07644493B2
The application discloses an adjustable head stack comb having adjustable first and second comb plates. The adjustable comb plates include at least one tooth segment which cooperatively form a comb having at least one tooth. The first and second comb plates are adjusted to adjust dimensions of the at least one tooth cooperatively formed by the tooth segments of the first and second comb plates. In the embodiments disclosed, a relative position of the first and second comb plates is adjusted to adjust a thickness dimension of the at least one tooth formed by the at least one tooth segments of the first and second comb plates. Also in illustrated embodiments, the comb plates are cooperatively adjusted to adjust an elevation or z-height of the at least one tooth of the comb.
US07644489B2
A passive nanomagnet alignment method is described to self-align a membrane to another surface. The membrane and the surface each have a plurality of nanomagnets patterned on it, wherein the nanomagnets are magnetized based on an applied external magnetic field. The membrane is brought into close proximity and coarse alignment to the surface by a positioning mechanism (e.g., an actuation force), such that the nanomagnets on the membrane attract to and self-align with the nanomagnets on said surface based on the nanomagnet magnetizations.
US07644479B2
A lower electrode 3 including a low-temperature melting layer 3A and a high-temperature melting layer 3B having mutually different melting-start temperatures is provided between a vibration plate 2 and a piezoelectric layer 4. In a calcination step of calcinating the lower electrode 3, the calcination is performed at a low temperature at which only the low-temperature melting layer 3A melts, and in an annealing-process step of the piezoelectric layer 4, the annealing process is performed at a high temperature at which the high-temperature melting layer 3B melts. At this time, in the calcination step, the melting of platinum nano-particles occurs in the low-temperature melting layer 3A, rendering the adhesion and diffusion-preventive effect. Further, in the annealing step, in the high-temperature melting layer 3B, platinum particles are melted, rendering the adhesion and diffusion-preventive effect. The degradation of piezoelectric characteristics of the piezoelectric actuator can be suppressed by the annealing process.
US07644472B2
A hinge structure is described. A hollow cylinder has a positioning slot in an inner wall thereof. A movable part has a positioning convex portion and a plurality of engraved portions. The positioning convex portion engages with the positioning slot such that the movable part slides within the hollow cylinder. A cover is fixed to the hollow cylinder to secure the movable part and the resilient part within the hollow cylinder. A resilient part is disposed between the cover and the movable part so as to provide the movable part a resilient recovery force. The engraved portions of the movable part are for engaging a rotatable member.
US07644463B1
The method of retrieving a pig which is stuck in a pipeline including the steps of piercing the pig, establishing a circulation from the near end to the far end of the pig, gripping the central portion of the pig, and pulling the pig back to the proximate end of the pipeline.
US07644459B1
A cushion or pillow device may comprise first and second tubular members joined at respective lateral portions to define valleys between the tubular members. The tubular members may comprise an outer covering and an inner portion comprising a pliable filler. The outer covering may be fabric that is joined to define the tubular members. The outer covering may be closed to contain the pliable filler. The outer cover may also have open ends for receiving inserts containing pliable filler that are placed within the outer covering. The cushion or pillow device may be manufactured in a number of manners, such as by joining of a fabric or another material to define sleeves, or by molding. The cushion or pillow device may be inserted in a case having an elongate portion for tucking between the frame and mattress of a gurney, hospital bed or the like. The elongate portion may be provided with a cutaway or slit defining separate arms, or a perforation that allows tearing to form the arms.
US07644456B2
A bed frame or other structural construction having a locking mechanism to allow two structural members to be affixed and locked together. A first structural member sits atop of the second structural member and has a pair of posts that interfit into a pair of holes formed in the second structural member. The locking mechanism is located at an end of the first structural member and includes a slide that is movable along the longitudinal axis of the first structural member to slide between a retracted, unlocked position and an extended, locked position where the slide contacts the lower surface of the second structural member to sandwich the second structural member between the first structural member and the slide to block the structural members from moving with respect to each to withdraw the posts from the holes, thereby locking the first and second structural members together.
US07644452B2
A hydrotherapy jet comprising a jet body having a water inlet and an air inlet to allow water and air to flow into the jet body from water and air conduits, respectively. A diffuser is housed within that jet body and is rotatable within the jet body to control the amount of water flowing into the jet body. The water and air inlets are rotatable about the longitudinal axis of the jet body to align the water and air inlets with the water and air conduits, respectively.
US07647646B2
In an information input/output system, a user device inputs and outputs information to and from external sources including a key management device. The system includes the key management device that securely outputs invalid-device information specifying an invalid device unit that has been made invalid for use, and the user device that includes an input/output unit and a host unit. Via the input/output unit, input and output of information is enabled between the host unit and the external sources. The host unit securely receives, via the input/output unit, the invalid-device information outputted by the key management device and judges whether or not the input/output unit is an invalid device unit by referring to the received invalid-device information. When judging, that the input/output unit is an invalid device, the host unit thereafter prohibits input and output via the input/output unit. Due to this construction, the host unit can correctly judge whether or not the input/output unit is an invalid device unit.
US07647645B2
The present invention described secures a computer account against unauthorized access caused as a result of identity-theft, and insider-espionage using artificial intelligence and behavioral modeling methods. The present invention has the ability to detect intruders or impersonators by observing “suspicious” activity under a computer account. When it sees such suspicious behavior, it uses artificial intelligence to authenticate the suspect by interrogation. The present invention asks the suspect questions that only the legitimate computer account owner can verify correctly. If the suspect fails the interrogation, that proves that he/she is an impersonator and therefore further access to the computer account is denied immediately. On the other hand if the suspect passes, access to the computer account is restored. The present invention uses a Programmable Artificial Intelligence Engine (PAIE) to interact with computer users in human natural language. The PAIE can also be programmed to suit other applications where natural language interaction with humans is helpful.
US07647643B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product for producing and processing template access control lists (ACLs) is presented. The method, apparatus and computer program product obtain a first ACL having a first rule set, the first rule set including a peer Internet Protocol (IP) address. The first rule set is copied into the template ACL. The occurrences of a peer's IP address within the rule set of the template ACL are determined and are replaced with an indicator indicating that the peer's IP address is used in place of the indicator when the ACL is evaluated.
US07647638B2
An authentication section comparing a characteristic included in a user's input into an input section with a characteristic of a person registered in memory, to determine an authentication result. An authentication control section including a function for (i) storing a value indicating a likelihood of being the person, (ii) controlling the value indicating a likelihood of the user being the person, based on (i) the authentication result of the authentication section and (ii) a passage of time. In response to an instruction to begin a process which requires authentication, the authentication control section controls whether or not to permit execution of the process depending on a the stored value Thus, unauthorized use of a device is prevented, while the trouble of asking a user to make a special input for authentication is resolved when a process requiring authentication is executed.
US07647629B2
A host operating in a managed environment intercepts a call from a managed caller to a particular callee and determines whether the call is permissible according to the host's prior configuration of a plurality of callees. The particular callee, which provides access to a resource that the host can be protecting, can have been previously configured by the host to always allow the call to be made, to never allow the call to be made, or to allow the call to be made based upon the degree to which the host trusts the managed caller.
US07647626B2
A data server of a data processing system is operably coupled to a database and in communication with a middleware server. A connection between the data server and the middleware server is established and managed. A set of attributes identifying trusted middleware servers is instituted with the data server. The middleware server transmits a connection request to the data server. The connection request has request attributes including identifying the connection request as being for a new connection or reuse of an existing connection with different connection request attributes. A connection with the middleware server is established by the data server based on the connection request. A connection status message is received by the middleware server from the data server indicating a status of the connection request. A trust indicator for the connection is established at the data server according to a trust status identified by the set of attributes for the middleware server.
US07647622B1
Risk events occurring on a computer system are logged over time and a risk profile is dynamically generated and updated based on the logged risk events. In one embodiment, a security policy is dynamically set and updated based on the risk profile.
US07647620B2
Graphic images that overlay a transmitted video signal are provided in the form of bitmaps that allow any character or font size to be displayed. A color-look-up-table (CLUT) at a receiver is defined that maps “m” inputs to a combination of color and luminance values for display. One or more map tables are provided that allow pixel colors to be encoded using fewer than “m” bits, the map tables providing an “m” bit output for accessing the CLUT. The provider of the graphic images can also specify a required minimum number of CLUT colors for rendering the images; if this minimum is greater than “m”, the image is not rendered. The use of map tables provides compatibility between a variety of encoding techniques and a variety of rendering devices, without requiring different CLUTs to be transmitted for each different color encoding format.
US07647618B1
The invention relates to video distribution systems and, more particularly, to a system that blanket transmits video/audio content such as movies (for example, via satellite downlink transmission) to each customer's recording, storage and playback system. Customers may preselect from a list of available movies or other content in advance using an interactive screen selector, and pay for the video/audio content that is actually viewed.
US07647617B2
A method for user assisted association between a television and a telephony device is provided. A set-top box requests an identification code from a server. The server identifies the set-top box, generates the code and transmits it to the set-top box. The set-top box displays the code and a user transmits the code back to the server via a telephony device. The server identifies the telephony device, and using the code, associates between the set-top box and the telephony device.
US07647612B1
Disclosed is a set-top box capable of delivering television, internet service, video phone service, video-on-demand, and other media services to a consumer. One portion of the set-top box interacts with a CDMA network for the purpose of receiving wireless internet, video-on-demand, videophone and other IP services. Another portion of the device is satellite-enabled. The satellite portion of the device enables the user to also receive satellite service. Because the set-top box works to receive satellite programming and wireless CDMA network communications, it is not terrestrially-bound. This means it is not bound to be included within a cable, telephone, or other wired circuit network.
US07647610B2
The present invention provides a system and method for interfacing between a digital TV and a plurality of remote controllers, remote controller thereof, and remote controller signal transmitting method thereof, by which Java API enabling to support a plurality of remote controllers is defined to enable interfacing between the digital TV and a plurality of the remote controllers. In interfacing between a digital TV and a plurality of remote controllers, the present invention includes the steps of defining an event class including remote controller identifiers enabling to identify a plurality of the remote controllers, respectively and identifying a plurality of the remote controllers using the event class including the remote controller identifiers, respectively and controlling the digital TV according to a signal received from the identified remote controller.
US07647609B2
This invention discloses a method for displaying advertisements transmitted to a user unit, the method includes receiving, at the user unit, at least one advertisement tagged with a delay tag indicating whether display of the at least one advertisement can be delayed and only if the delay tag allows delaying display of the at least one advertisement, storing the at least one advertisement at the user unit, retrieving the at least one advertisement and displaying the at least one advertisement. A billing system for reporting a commercial broadcast to a multiplicity of users is also disclosed.
US07647608B2
A digital broadcast signal for use in a digital television receiver includes a rating region table carrying rating information for multiple geographical regions, and a master guide table carrying information related to the rating region table. The master guide table includes a version number field defining a version number of the rating region table and at least one effective time field defining an effective time of the version number. The effective time represents a time after which a use of the rating region table is permitted. For example, it may be represented by a number of global positioning system (GPS) seconds since a coordinated universal time (UTC). The effective time field is included in a descriptor within the master guide table.
US07647597B2
A system and method for interacting with an object is provided. The system includes a method call interceptor that intercepts a method call made on an object and that routes the method call to a proxy. The method call interceptor is accessible to application code. The system also includes an application code generic proxy that after overriding a base class invocation method can receive intercepted method calls, can invoke methods on the object that the proxy images, can receive results from the object that the proxy images and can pass results to the entity that generated the intercepted method call.
US07647591B1
A method for scheduling tasks in a computer operating system comprises a background task creating at least one registered service. The background task provides an execution presence and a data present to a registered service and ranks the registered services according to the requirements of each registered service. The background task also allocates an execution presence and a data presence according to each of the registered services such that each of the registered services is given an opportunity to be scheduled in the dedicated pre-assigned time slice.
US07647580B2
The subject invention relates to systems and methods that provide null capabilities within the context of programming languages. In one aspect, a system is provided that facilitates null-support in various programming languages. The system includes one or more types associated with at least one programming language. A type modifier is provided to signal that the type is nullable. The type modifier enables a multi-element structure to be automatically created in association with the type wherein, the multi-element structure includes the type and a Boolean element indicating whether or not the variable is null.
US07647578B2
System and method for programmatic creation of a task specification in a graphical program. A graphical program is programmatically analyzed. The graphical program implements a task, and includes a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually indicate functionality of the graphical program, including a function node that requires a task specification as input. The task specification includes hardware and/or software specifications for performing the task. The task specification is programmatically generated in response to the analyzing, and programmatically provided to the function node as input, where the function node operates to execute in accordance with the generated task specification to perform at least a portion of the task. The analyzing, generating, and providing are performed at run-time of the graphical program, e.g., during execution of the graphical program, and may be invoked or performed by a graphical program execution system, by a node in the graphical program, or both.
US07647577B2
Provides methods for transforming a flowchart to an equivalent tree diagram, methods for transforming an equivalent tree diagram to a flowchart, methods for verifying reorganization of a flowchart, methods for editing a flowchart, methods for creating a flowchart and a flowchart editor. A flowchart includes one or more logic structures and one or more processing activities in said one or more logic structures. The method for transforming a flowchart to an equivalent tree diagram comprises: traversing said flowchart; transforming said one or more logic structures in said flowchart to one or more branching nodes in said tree diagram; and transforming one or more processing activities in said logic structures of said flowchart to one or more leaf nodes below corresponding branching nodes in said tree diagram. Further, edition of a flowchart and verification of reorganization of a flowchart are performed by utilizing an equivalent tree diagram.
US07647574B2
The basic cell design method of the present invention is a method for carrying out: extended pattern formation for extending the patterns of input wiring and output wiring in the longitudinal direction, forming first extended patterns that extend with a prescribed dimensional width in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction at the ends of the extended patterns, and forming second extended patterns that extend with the prescribed dimensional width from the input wiring and the output wiring at the center of the cell in the longitudinal direction; and dummy pattern formation for subsequently arranging dummy patterns in vacant areas within the cell.
US07647561B2
A system, method and computer program product are provided for generating an application. An interaction with a first application is recorded for capturing a functionality of the first application. An interaction with a second application is also recorded for capturing a functionality of the second application. A pattern is generated based on the recorded interactions. An application is generated based on the pattern. The interactions recorded in the pattern are repeated upon replay of the pattern for providing the functionalities of the first and second applications. A method for executing the pattern-based application is provided. Upon receiving a request for data, a pattern for retrieving the requested data is selected. The pattern is replayed. The recorded interaction is conducted as specified in the pattern for obtaining the requested data. The requested data is received.
US07647559B2
A method and computer-readable medium are provided for navigation between attachments to electronic mail messages. According to the method, a list of e-mail messages is displayed that includes header information associated with each of the messages. When one of the messages in the list is selected, a determination is made as to whether the selected message has attachments. If the selected message has attachments, an identifier is displayed adjacent to the header information for each attachment. The identifier indicates that the attachment is associated with the selected message and may provide other information such as the type and size of the attachment. The identifiers are displayed in a manner to indicate clearly to a user that the attachments are associated with the selected e-mail message. The identifiers may be selected to preview the corresponding attachment.
US07647555B1
Recorded video is accessed from printed notes or summaries derived from the video. Summaries may be created automatically by analyzing the recorded video, and annotations are made by a user on a device for note-taking with digital ink and video. The notes and/or summaries are printed along with data glyphs that provide time based indexes or offsets into the recorded video. The indexes or offsets are retrieved by scanning the glyph on the printout. The glyph information can be embedded in the printouts in many ways. One method is to associate block glyphs with annotations or images on the printed pages. Another method is to provide an address carpet in an annotated timeline. Yet another method is to provide a two-dimensional address carpet with X-Y position mapped to time which can be used to provide selected access to the video. The accessed video may be played back on the note-taking device on a pen computer, or on a summary interface on a Web browser-type device.
US07647552B2
Disclosed is a method (900) for communicating at least part of a structure of a document (104) described by a hierarchical representation (102). The method identifies (902) the hierarchical representation (eg. the tree structure) of the document (104). The identification is preferably performed using XML tags. The representation is then packetized (906) into a plurality of data packets. At least one link is then created (908) between a pair of the packets, the link acting to represent an interconnection between corresponding components (eg. structure and content) of the representation. The packets are then formed (910) into a stream for communication. The links maintain the hierachical representation within the packets.
US07647550B1
Preloading of web pages is described. In an implementation, an apparatus comprises a processor and storage. The storage includes program instructions that are executable by the processor to load a first web page in response to a selection by an operator and identify a link in the first web page pointing to a second web page. The program instructions are further executable to automatically preload the second web page based on the identified link, the second web page preloaded for later presentation.
US07647548B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for decoding codes that can be described using bipartite graphs having interconnected bit nodes and check nodes. A magnitude of a check-to-bit node message from check node j to bit node i is computed based on a sum of transformed magnitudes of bit-to-check node messages for a plurality of bit nodes connected to the check node j, less a transformed magnitude of the bit-to-check node message for bit node i and check node j. A sign of the check-to-bit node message from check node j to bit node i can also be computed by multiplying a product Sj of the sign of bit-to-check node messages among a plurality of bit nodes connected to the check node j by the sign of the bit-to-check node message for bit node i and check node j. A decoder architecture is also disclosed for decoding a code that can be described using a bipartite graph having interconnected bit nodes and check nodes. The disclosed decoder can be concatenated with a soft output detector.
US07647546B2
A digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) reception apparatus receives DMB service in a mobile communication system. In the DMB reception apparatus, a Reed-Solomon (R-S) decoder receives a coded broadcast signal and outputs an error symbol with a transport error indicator bit, if all data bits in the symbol are ‘0’. A moving picture experts group (MPEG) decoder discards the error symbol.
US07647545B2
A transmitter for a dog training system, the transmitter having a command input device for inputting a training command input into the transmitter, and a transmitter controller connected to the command input device. The transmitter controller translates the training command input into identification data and command data. The transmitter controller also generates at least one forward error correction codeword from the identification data and the command data.
US07647542B2
If a large minimum data unit for recorded data is used to record a small data amount of management information, the recording time is long, and furthermore when a WO (write once) is used as the recording medium, the number of recording operations is restricted. To solve the above problems, the present invention records data in a management area in units smaller than ordinary units for recorded data to suitably record information in a limited management area and thereby efficiently use the user data area. At that time, the present invention simplifies interleave processing usually applied to ordinary recorded data, and performs the simplified interleave processing on a data structure (for data of small size) of the present invention so as to ensure the signal processing compatibility between the ordinary data and data having the data structure according to the present invention.
US07647540B2
Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems used to generate test patterns for testing integrated circuits. Embodiments of the disclosed technology can be used to provide a low power test scheme and can be integrated with a variety of compression hardware architectures (e.g., an embedded deterministic test (“EDT”) environment). Certain embodiments of the disclosed technology can reduce the switching rates, and thus the power dissipation, in scan chains with no hardware modification. Other embodiments use specialized decompression hardware and compression techniques to achieve low power testing.
US07647537B2
The present invention provides a programmable logic device including a main circuit unit capable of variably building desired user logic, based on configuration data inputted from a storage device, and a configuration data monitor unit for monitoring configuration data stored in the storage device.
US07647534B2
A method for assisting a user to connect a problem with a device, such as a printer includes extracting, from records comprising user actions on the device, string of user actions on the device. The string of user action is compared with at least one predetermined sequence of user actions for correction of predefined problem with the device. Based on the comparison, an evaluation is made as to whether at least one prior user has attempted the predetermined sequence and, if so, a procedure is implemented to avoid a user repeating the prior attempt.
US07647525B2
Handling failure of a primary group at a first data center that is part of plurality of data centers providing triangular asynchronous replication includes creating a data mirroring relationship between at least one storage volume at a second data center having a synchronous backup group that is part of the plurality of data centers and at least one storage volume at a third data center having an asynchronous backup group that is part of the plurality of data centers and resuming work at the third data center. Handling failure of a primary group at a first data center may also include synchronizing the at least one storage volume at the second data center with the at least one storage volume at the third data center prior to resuming work at the third data center.
US07647518B2
In one embodiment, a processor comprises a scheduler configured to issue a first instruction operation to be executed and an execution core coupled to the scheduler. Configured to execute the first instruction operation, the execution core comprises a plurality of replay sources configured to cause a replay of the first instruction operation responsive to detecting at least one of a plurality of replay cases. The scheduler is configured to inhibit issuance of the first instruction operation subsequent to the replay for a subset of the plurality of replay cases. The scheduler is coupled to receive an acknowledgement indication corresponding to each of the plurality of replay cases in the subset, and is configured to inhibit issuance of the first instruction operation until the acknowledge indication is asserted that corresponds to an identified replay case of the subset.
US07647510B2
A method is disclosed that includes receiving a classification voltage at a powered device from a network. The classification voltage includes a baseline voltage level that is below an operating voltage range of the powered device and includes a sequence of distinct signal elements derived from the classification voltage. The method further includes detecting a number of signal elements of the sequence of distinct signal elements. A current is drawn until the number of signal elements exceeds a predetermined number.
US07647508B2
Embodiments of methods and apparatus for providing integrity protection for management and control traffic of wireless communication networks are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07647500B2
Synchronous validation and acknowledgment of electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions. A connection session on a communication network is established for handling EDI transactions from a source. A collection of EDI transactions is received via the communication network. A receipt acknowledgement is returned to the source indicating the EDI transactions have been received. The EDI transactions are validated as the EDI transactions are received. A validation acknowledgement is transmitted via the communication network to the source before the connection session is terminated. The validation acknowledgement indicates the EDI transactions have been validated.
US07647497B2
Provided is a storage system for solving the problem in that, when the registration of a nonexistent user is deleted, only a system administrator can access files that the user left, so that a load placed on the administrator increases at the time of an audit. The authentication program for permitting a user, who is attempting to log in to a storage system, to access a file recorded in the storage system, the program including: a first step for receiving a user name and a password from the user; a second step for referring to a validity term corresponding to a pair of the user name and the password recorded in the storage system; and a third step for permitting access by the user to a file corresponding to the validity term based on a result of the second step, the first to third steps being executed by a processor.
US07647486B2
A method and system for controlling timing in a processor is disclosed. In one aspect of the present invention, the method comprises fetching a plurality of instructions, wherein each instruction has a first default execution time during a first condition, and wherein each instruction has a second default execution time during a second condition; during a first mode, executing the plurality of instructions within a same execution time regardless of whether a condition is the first condition or the second condition; and during a second mode, executing the plurality of instructions within random execution time regardless of whether a condition is the first condition or the second condition. According to the system and method disclosed herein, the method effectively modifies the timing of a processor by controlling and/or minimizing variations in the execution times of instructions.
US07647485B2
A data processing device for debugging code for a parallel arithmetic device that includes a plurality of data processing circuits arranged in a matrix and that causes, for each operating cycle, successive transitions of operation states in accordance with object code includes: operation execution means for causing the parallel arithmetic device to execute state transitions by means of the object code; device halt means for temporarily halting the state transitions for each operating cycle; a result output means for reading and supplying as output at least a portion of held data, connection relations, and operation commands of the plurality of data processing circuits of the halted parallel arithmetic device; a resume input means for receiving as input a resume command of the state transitions; and an operation resumption means for causing the operation execution means to resume the state transitions upon input of a resume command.
US07647483B2
A processor system and a processor readable medium, which implement a method for implementing multiple contexts on one or more SPE are disclosed. Code and/or data for a first and second contexts may be respectively stored simultaneously in first and second regions of an SPE's local memory, storing code and/or data for a second context in a second region of the local memory, the SPE may execute the first context while the second context waits. Code and/or data for the first context may be transferred from the first region to the second and code and/or data for the second context may be transferred from the second region to the first, and the SPE may execute the second context during a pause or stoppage of execution of the first context. Alternatively, the code and/or data for the second context may be transferred to another SPE's local memory.
US07647476B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having multiple processor cores to execute instructions, with each of the cores including dedicated digital interface circuitry. The processor further includes an analog interface coupled to the cores via the digital interface circuitry. The analog interface may be used to communicate traffic between a package including the cores and an interconnect such as a shared bus coupled thereto. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07647475B2
A processor includes a coprocessor interface unit that couples a coprocessor that executes instructions in-program order to an execution unit that executes instructions out-of-program order. The coprocessor interface unit includes a coprocessor store data queue. If data stored in a register of the coprocessor is to be stored in a register file of the execution unit, the data is transferred from the coprocessor to the coprocessor store data queue. A graduation unit coupled to the coprocessor is also provided. The graduation unit provides a signal to the coprocessor that determines whether an instruction executed by the coprocessor is permitted to alter an architectural state of the processor.
US07647474B2
Embodiments of a method and system for saving system context after a power outage are disclosed herein. A power agent operates to reduce the possibility of data corruption due to partially written data during an unexpected power outage. The power agent can determine an amount of time remaining before a power store is depleted. Based on the amount of time, the power agent can store system context information. Correspondingly, the power agent can operate to save complete system context, partial system context, or flush (I/O) buffers. Once power is restored, the power agent can restore the system context based on the nature of the save. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07647467B1
On the fly tuning of parameters used in an interface between a memory (e.g. high speed memory such as DRAM) and a processor requesting access to the memory. In an operational mode, a memory controller couples the processor to the memory. The memory controller can also inhibit the operational mode to initiate a training mode. In the training mode, the memory controller tunes one or more parameters (voltage references, timing skews, etc.) used in an upcoming operational mode. The access to the memory may be from an isochronous process running on a graphics processor. The memory controller determines whether the isochronous process may be inhibited before entering the training mode. If memory buffers for the isochronous process are such that the training mode will not impact the isochronous process, then the memory controller can enter the training mode to tune the interface parameters without negatively impacting the process.
US07647461B2
An architecture provides the ability to create and maintain multiple instances of virtual servers, such as virtual filers (vfilers), within a server, such as a filer. A vfiler is a logical partitioning of network and storage resources of the filer platform to establish an instance of a multi-protocol server. Each vfiler is allocated a subset of dedicated units of storage resources, such as volumes or logical sub-volumes (qtrees), and one or more network address resources. Each vfiler is also allowed shared access to a file system resource of a storage operating system. To ensure controlled access to the allocated and shared resources, each vfiler is further assigned its own security domain for each access protocol. A vfiler boundary check is performed by the file system to verify that a current vfiler is allowed to access certain storage resources for a requested file stored on the filer platform.
US07647447B2
A data bus of a DVD+RW recorder between a DSP and a SDRAM usually needs a multilayer wiring board. In order to simplify the layout of the wiring board of the data bus there is provided a method for connecting at least a first and a second integrated circuit by providing the first integrated circuit having a plurality of first logical I/O ports physically arranged in a first order at the periphery, and providing the second integrated circuit having a plurality of second logical I/O ports physically arranged in a second order at the periphery, wherein each first I/O port is to be connected to one of said second I/O ports. The first and second I/O logical ports are connected independently from the first and/or second physical order, so that connection lines do not cross each other.
US07647437B2
Systems, methods, and software products for moving and/or resizing a producer-consumer queue in memory without stopping all activity is provided so that no data is lost or accidentally duplicated during the move. There is a software consumer and a hardware producer, such as a host channel adapter.
US07647430B2
A robust device messaging framework is disclosed that enables a user to send commands to a device. A provisioning service is used to provision unique device identities and maps user web identities to device identities. The provisioning service also limits device per day provisioning attempts to limit denial of service attacks. A command service allows remote users to issue commands to a device, synchronize outgoing commands with incoming results, receive accurate feedback about whether a command was received, and maintain state information about the device. A device layer encrypts and stores device identities, authenticates itself with the command service, establishes a high-availability Internet connection to receive alerts that a command has issued, and reports results to the server-based command service.
US07647425B2
The invention relates to the routing of data packets in a packet-switched network, e.g. in an autonomous system, having traffic distribution. According to the invention, the forwarding or the routing of data packets occurs via the access interface based on an item of information and via the output interface of the data packet based on an item of information. Both these items of information are, for example at the input interface, placed in front of the data packet in the form of information fields or labels. The invention enables, with a moderate expense and limited degree of complexity, a flexible and loop-free routing under the terms of a traffic distribution.
US07647423B2
A flexible metadata driven and workflow based report generation system is disclosed. According to various embodiments, the system comprises at least one client application on a client terminal and a report manager system. The client application allows a user to run a report from a user interface having the flexibility to choose various parameters that affect the content of the generated report. The report manager system comprises a metadata service and a workflow controller service. The metadata service is for retrieving report metadata (report name, parameter(s) and their parameter values) to be displayed on the user interface to allow the user to choose parameter values and run a report job. The controller is for receiving messages from the client terminal upon submission of a report job and, based on the received messages, sending messages to one or more service components for executing the report job in a sequence of determined discrete steps. A report workflow defines the steps to be invoked in the execution of a report and is stored in tables in a database accessible via the metadata service. The services components may include data accessors, formatting services, language translation services, bundling services, distribution services and/or scheduling services.
US07647421B2
A method and apparatus for controlling header compression and decompression for a link of a packet data network, wherein a predetermined header extension size for the link is initially set, and wherein a packet which will not be used as reference for subsequent decompression is transmitted from the compressor to the decompressor, if an extension header list of a size larger than the predetermined header extension size has been received. At the decompressing side, the transmission of an acknowledgement is suppressed, if an extension header list of the size larger than a predetermined header extension size configured at the decompressor has been received. Thereby, inconsistency of compression context between compressor and decompressor is prevented and a higher compression efficiency is achieved since there is no need to repair the context and correctly decompressed packets can be delivered to upper network layers without discarding any packets.
US07647420B2
A method and apparatus for controlling a transmission of data from a first storage device to a second storage device. The first storage device includes a recording unit for recording the data, a buffer for temporarily storing the data read from the recording unit, and a transmission unit for transmitting the data read from the buffer. It is determined that sufficient buffer space in the buffer is not available for the transmission of the data in a predetermined time interval. It is ascertained whether a transmission error exists in a communication line connecting the first storage device to the second storage device. If the transmission error exits, then the transmission unit is controlled to not perform the transmission of the data from the first storage device; otherwise the transmission unit is not controlled to not perform the transmission of the data from the first storage device.
US07647418B2
Systems and method for measuring parameters of a media stream are disclosed. Some example systems include a data collection agent that selectively couples with at least one user-designated media stream and collects data associated with the media stream. The example systems may further include a web server that communicates with at least one data collection agent. The web server may obtain a request from a user for measurement of a user-designated media stream, the user request including an identification of the media stream and a list of one or more performance parameters of said stream to be measured. The data collection agent receives from the web server a parameter set defining a measurement of the user-designated media stream, collects and measures media stream data according to the parameter set, and provides the user with real-time performance characteristics.
US07647413B2
A system and method are provided for on-demand media streaming from a user's own media library to a user's receiving device that may be located in a different location from that where the media library is stored. The present invention provides an out-of-the box on-demand media server device that may be used by itself, in conjunction with a personal computer, or in conjunction with a personal home stereo system or video system. The on-demand media server includes security mechanisms that allow a user to establish a private server that only the user may communicate with and gain access to the user's media library. In one particular embodiment, a smart card or other removable media are used as a security device to ensure that access to the media files on the user's personal on-demand media streaming server is limited to the user. In addition, the system and method provides an on-demand conversion of the media in the user's personal media library to an appropriate format.
US07647412B2
Within the scope of the method for management and/or administration of access authorizations in a network, especially of access authorizations for internet and/or network main portals, the user administration is designed as a standardized, web protected and a decentralized process. For each main portal, a separate application is required and it is made possible for the user to seek possible internet and/or network main portals.
US07647401B1
A system and associated method for managing resources of a network load balancer. The method begins with registering the network load balancer with the presence server. Next the network load balancer notifies the presence server when an end user requests resources from an application server connected to the network load balancer. The network load balancer then provides the end user access to the application server and subscribes to an information feed pertaining to the end user and supplied by the presence server. After receiving a notification from the presence server that the end user changed their presence information, the network load balancer updates their records pertaining to the end user in a database. Finally, the network load balancer determines whether to continue providing the end user with access to the application server or purge the end user's records from the database.
US07647400B2
Techniques for providing information about a current state modeled with multiple attributes is described. The providing of information can include receiving from a first source an indication of an ability to supply values for one of the state attributes of the modeled current state, and supplying to a client a value for the one attribute received from the first source. After the supplying of the value, the providing can include receiving from a second source a value supplying ability for the one attribute and supplying of a value for the one attribute based on values received for the one attribute from the first and second sources. After the supplying of that value, the providing can include receiving from the first source an indication of a value supplying inability for the one attribute and supplying a value for the one attribute received from the second source.
US07647394B2
Disclosed is a method for scaling and extending the reach of UPnP device discovery and eventing by leveraging the use of a peer-to-peer network infrastructure. Peer-to-peer networking allows for the organization of a set of nodes into a group for efficient exchange of information and the group has an efficient and scalable mechanism for flooding data to all members in it. In one embodiment one PC in a peer group can receive device discovery announcements and subscribe for device event notifications. A discovery proxy and an eventing proxy running on the PC package the announcement and/or notification in a record and proceed to flood it to the group. The group flooding semantics route the notification to the subscribed controllers, which can subsequently take suitable action. Ultimately, this method produces a result whereby device discovery and eventing tasks can be fulfilled by locating the closest peer and obtaining the device announcements and notifications from that peer.
US07647392B2
The Device Model Agent (DMA), the device side technology module in Device Centric Services (DCS) system, is the main focus of this invention. DMA is a thin, efficient applications/services execution environment. DMA provides an embedded services platform for enabling system management applications and services. This allows a flexible, extensible, dynamic services management module allowing networked services to be designed, added, and managed within the system without modifications to devices, DCS system, or DMA itself. While this invention specifically describes the integration of benefits from DMA into document system devices, the concepts are equally applicable in other domains. The DMA runtime environment is a thin software interface layer that resides on a document system device between the Java runtime environment and embedded web server.
US07647390B2
An automatic Internet access method using a digital subscriber line includes: upon receiving an automatic Internet access program install request from a user, installing a PPPoE device driver including a PPPoE adapter and an NDISWAN (Network Driver Interface Specification Wide Area Network) miniport driver, and an ADSL monitoring tool which is an application program for informing the user whether ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) is connected, in a user PC; upon power on of the user PC, attempting automatic Internet access by the PPPoE device driver on WINDOWS™ over a device driver, and interposing between TCP/IP and the PPPoE device driver a PPP/PPPoE module for informing the user of a current connection state through the ADSL monitoring tool under the control of the device driver; receiving a user ID and a password input by the user through a user interface while installing the PPPoE device driver in the user PC, and storing the received user ID and password in a registry; and upon power on of the user PC, attaining by the device driver user authentication from a NAS server on the Internet using the user ID and the password stored in the registry, and performing Internet access.
US07647389B2
In the method for configuration negotiation in a data communication system, an access network receives an access request and a token from an access terminal. The token includes at least one bit associated with a parameter group type, and the bit indicates whether the access terminal is operating according to a default parameter group for the associated parameter group type. The access network sends information to and receives information from the access terminal according to the default parameter group without negotiating a parameter group of the associated parameter group type when a portion of the access network communicating with the access terminal operates according to the default parameter group for the associated parameter group type and the bit indicates the access terminal operates according to the default parameter group for the associated parameter group type.
US07647388B2
A controlled device (12) sends a signal to a intermediary server (21) at a predetermined time interval, and the intermediary server (21) receives the signal from the controlled device (12) with a private address allocated by a router (11) and changes an operation mode from a passive mode to an active mode. The operation of the controlled device (12) is changed to the passive mode. The intermediary server (21) continuously establishes a communication path with the controlled device (12). The intermediary server (21), which receives control information from a control terminal (41), relays data transmitted via two communication paths, that is, a communication path established with the control terminal (41) and a communication path established with the controlled device (12), to allow the control terminal (41) to control the controlled device (12) operating in the passive mode.
US07647384B2
A method and system are disclosed for managing fragmented information packets in a computer network. In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention, an information packet is transmitted from a client to a plurality of servers via a switch, wherein the information packet is fragmented within the computer network into at least a first fragment and a second fragment. The switch forwards the first fragment to a first server of the plurality of servers using a computer network address contained in the first fragment. The switch forwards the second fragment to a second server of the plurality of servers using connection information contained in the switch. The first server transmits to the switch a fragment fabricated by the first server, wherein the fragment fabricated by the first server contains a computer network address to which the second fragment is to be sent. The switch forwards the fragment fabricated by the first server to the second server. The second server forwards the second fragment to the computer network address contained in the fragment fabricated by the first server.
US07647383B1
In accordance with certain aspects of the intelligent message deletion, a system includes a message queue and an intelligent deletion module. The intelligent message deletion module adds a newly received message to the message queue and deletes a previously received message from the message queue based at least in part on a sender of the newly received message.
US07647377B2
A data transmission device, method and program capable of increasing work efficiency in data transmission during multi-destination delivery by unifying transmission method. According to the data transmission device, method and program, a user's instruction is received to designate for each destination one of a first transmission mode in which a file is sent attached to an e-mail message, a second transmission mode in which a file is sent to a file transfer server, and a third transmission mode in which a file is sent to a file transfer server and an e-mail message having a text string including address information of the file transfer server is sent, it is determined whether or not the destinations include those for which the first transmission mode is designated as well as those for which the second transmission mode is designated, and then the third transmission mode is set for the destinations for which the first transmission mode is designated in place of the first transmission mode when it is determined that the destinations include those for which the first transmission mode is designated as well as those for which the second transmission mode is designated.
US07647374B2
The invention relates to a management of sessions between parties being connectable with a network. Thereby a first party registers to the network and invites a second party to a session. It is determined from a session information whether said session is to be retained by the network. The retaining comprises storing at least part of the session information for a subsequent re-establishment or release of the session by the network on behalf of said first party, releasing said retained session by the network towards the second party on behalf of the first party, when the first party deregisters from the network or loses connection to the network, re-establishing the retained session by the network towards the second party on behalf of the first party, when the first party repeatedly registers to said network or re-establishes connection with said network. Furthermore, the invention relates to methods and a network element for managing multiple simultaneous sessions between parties participating in one or a plurality of calls and to a corresponding terminal.
US07647372B2
Systems and methods for carrying on marketing dialogues are disclosed. Specifically, embodiments of the systems and methods presented may allow marketing dialogues to be carried on with a set of participants by sending a communication to each of the participants. Another set of participant may be assembled from the initial participants and an action may then be taken with respect to this second set of participants.
US07647361B2
A technology for automatically saving an original copy of an image file in a location hidden from a user is disclosed. The technology accesses metadata associated with an image file and determines whether an original copy of the image file exists. Provided an original copy of the image file exists, an edited version of the image file along with an identifier is saved. If an original copy of the image file does not exist, an original copy of the image file is created, the original copy of the image file is stored, and an edited version of the image file along with an identifier is saved.
US07647347B2
The present invention provides method and apparatus for supporting a legacy application programming interface (API) set between a component and a color management system. The legacy API set supports both the new capabilities as well as the legacy capabilities. The color management system determines the format type for an object that is referenced by an API call. If the object is associated with a legacy format, the API call is processed by a legacy processing module. If the object is associated with an advanced format, the API call is processed by an advanced processing module. If a plurality of objects is associated with an API call with mixed formats, the color management system converts some of the objects so that the objects have a consistent format. A common structure supports an object that may have either a legacy format or an advanced format.
US07647346B2
Automatic rules-based synchronization of digital files on a source device and a target device coupled to it. A source computer executes a synchronization engine for managing transfer of files from a source database to a target device coupled to the computer as a function of a defined storage capacity of the device. The synchronization engine is configured to receive user-defined rules for selecting which of the files are to be transferred to the device and assigning priorities to the files. The synchronization engine builds a designated list of the files to be transferred according to the priorities defined by the rules.
US07647344B2
The present invention provides a system, method and software for linking persistent and unique business identifiers, associated with business entities, for associating corresponding business records without a loss of historical records, regardless of subsequent changes, updates, and mergers. In the various embodiments, a first business record, of the plurality of business records, is associated with a first business identifier; and a second business record, which does not match the first record, is associated with a second business identifier. Subsequently, when the first business identifier and the second business identifier are determined to correspond to a singular business entity, the first business identifier and the second business identifier are linked, and respective associations of the first business record and the second business record with the linked first business identifier and second business identifier are maintained, with corresponding source references, and collectively utilized in subsequent search and match determinations.
US07647343B2
An information presentation system that simplifies entry of information relating to a package media of a user. The information presentation system includes a playback apparatus, a library information management apparatus, and a terminal apparatus. The playback apparatus reads an identifier identifying a content from a portable recording medium in which the content is recorded, and transmits the read identifier to the library information management apparatus via a network. The library information management apparatus receives the identifier, acquires attribute information, generates library information including the attribute information and the identifier, and stores the library information. Upon request by the terminal apparatus, the library information management apparatus generates presentation information based on the library information, and transmits the presentation information.
US07647334B2
The present invention provides a system, a method, and a program for checking index consistency online in a database that includes a main database storing a plurality of data segments and an index database storing a plurality of index segments. A system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a record creating unit for sequentially reading out the index segments from the index database and creating a pointer record that contains a pointer value and a key value and for sequentially reading out the data segments from the main database and create a segment record that contains a storage address and an indexed field value of an index target segment to be indexed among the read out segments, a scan point setting unit for setting scan points that indicate progress of creation of the pointer record and the segment record.
US07647321B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for use in filtering electronic messages using business heuristics. In one aspect, a method includes determining whether the electronic message is associated with a desirable business, and adjusting the likelihood of delivering the electronic message to an intended recipient of the message if the electronic message is determined to be associated with the desirable business. In a more specific embodiment, the method further includes assigning a spam-score to the electronic message based on a likelihood that the electronic message is not unwanted by the intended recipient, blocking delivery of the electronic message to the intended recipient when the spam-score does not cross an overall threshold, and delivering the electronic message to the intended recipient based on the adjusted likelihood when the electronic message is determined to be associated with the desirable business.
US07647315B2
A tabular set provider is provided for processing a data agnostic business intelligence query with relational set operations, herein called a relational query against a multidimensional datasource. The tabular set provider comprises a query interceptor, a query decomposer, an OLAP query provider interface, and an operation module. The query interceptor is provided for detecting and intercepting a data agnostic Business intelligence query that has relational set operations that is issued against one or more multidimensional data sources. The query decomposer is provided for decomposing the operands of the set operation in the input query into one or more sub-queries. The OLAP query provider interface is provided for sending the OLAP supported sub-queries to an OLAP query provider and receiving results. The operation module is provided for using set operation functionality provided by a relational query provider that performs the set operations locally on the results of the OLAP data extraction.
US07647305B2
The inventive technology enables the search engine operator to charge the advertisers who place their links on the search engine only if the user uses the search results to visit the advertiser's web portal(s) and generates revenue for the advertiser. This concept is especially attractive to the advertisers because it eliminates the risk, which the advertisers face in conventional search engines, when they are changed by the search engine per user click irrespectively of whether the user's visit resulted in advertiser's revenue.
US07647302B2
Enables search and test for at least one value in layers of audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific values per layer. The word “audience” for the purposes of this specification means a group of document consumers such as people or computers that are associated with a language, country, region, regulation, culture or any other user defined division. A search utilizing at least one embodiment of the invention occurs with respect to data that makes use of rule-based inheritance. Testing multiple audience layers for all values that meet a specific fine or coarse grained search criteria allows quality assurance testing across all target audiences for a document before publication.
US07647299B2
Advertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on, or to serve ads in association with, various content such as search results pages, Web pages, e-mail, etc., without requiring the advertiser to enter and/or maintain certain targeting information, such as keyword targeting. This may be accomplished by using a searchable data structure, such as an inverted index for example, of available advertiser Web information. The advertiser Web information may include terms and/or phrase extracted from the advertiser's Website. In particular, a search query may be used to search for matching advertisers, and therefore matching ads. For example, the search query can be used to search an inverted index including words and/or phrases extracted from advertiser Websites. The advertiser Web page, or some other identifier, can be used as a key to search for an associated ad.
US07647293B2
A system and method of discovering dependencies between relational database column pairs and application of discoveries to query optimization is provided. For each candidate column pair remaining after simultaneously generating column pairs, pruning pairs not satisfying specified heuristic constraints, and eliminating pairs with trivial instances of correlation, a random sample of data values is collected. A candidate column pair is tested for the existence of a soft functional dependency (FD), and if a dependency is not found, statistically tested for correlation using a robust chi-squared statistic. Column pairs for which either a soft FD or a statistical correlation exists are prioritized for recommendation to a query optimizer, based on any of: strength of dependency, degree of correlation, or adjustment factor; statistics for recommended columns pairs are tracked to improve selectivity estimates. Additionally, a dependency graph representing correlations and dependencies as edges and column pairs as nodes is provided.
US07647289B2
We describe an apparatus for learning to predict moves in games such as chess, Go and the like, from historical game records. We obtain a probability distribution over legal moves in a given board configuration. This enables us to provide an automated game playing system, a training tool for players and a move selector/sorter for input to a game tree search system. We use a pattern extraction system to select patterns from historical game records. Our learning algorithm learns a distribution over the values of a move given a board position based on local pattern context. In another embodiment we use an Independent Bernoulli model whereby we assume each moved is played independently of other available moves.
US07647285B2
A tool for providing health and/or wellness services is described herein. Not necessarily clean or unclean data about a plurality of self-selected or non-selected or unselected subjects is received. The data can be aggregated and mined at least in part by employing a statistical algorithm, a data-mining algorithm and/or a machine-learning algorithm. The data can be further employed to provide health and/or wellness services to participants.
US07647283B2
A method, system, and computer program product are described for adaptively learning user preferences for smart services. According to an exemplary embodiment, a method for adaptively learning user preferences for smart services includes modeling an availability of a subscriber for responding to an event associated with a service in terms of probability values associated with attributes of the event and subscriber context information available to determine a current situation of the subscriber related to the service, the subscriber context information based on private information of the subscriber. The availability of the subscriber for responding to the event is determined using a probability value associated with an event attribute and a probability value associated with at least a portion of the subscriber context information. At least one of the probability values associated with the event attribute and the portion of the subscriber context information is updated based on feedback received from the subscriber in response to being presented a response to the event.
US07647276B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for facilitating online storage of files (e.g., audio tracks, video, etc.) for playback/access or sale/exchange by the owners of the files without violating copyrights that copyright holders have in the files. For example, by providing a playback service that does not store additional versions of an audio file when the file is transmitted to, and immediately played on, a user device without buffering, the present invention avoids violating copyright laws by not making copies of the file. Numerous other aspects are disclosed.
US07647274B2
A system and method for matching a loan consumer with lenders via the Internet includes receiving loan consumer application information. The application information is stored in a database. An internally specified filter is applied to the information to determine if the loan consumer meets a set of loan criteria. A subset of the information is submitted to a credit bureau. A credit report is generated based on the subset of information. A lender database is searched to match the customer information and credit report to ranked lenders. A query is transmitted to one of the lenders. A response is generated and received based on the query. Subsequent query and response steps are repeated only after receipt of the previous response, until all lenders have been queried. Only lenders who responded with an approval are presented for review by the customer.
US07647270B2
Systems and methods for conducting an auction of securities on the Web. The system and methods provide a bid mechanism whereby bidders are rewarded for priority of anonymously revealing their bids and provide an allocation of the securities which allows winning bidders to pay a single market-clearing price that sells out the securities. In addition, the systems and methods allow all participants to monitor the auction in real time.
US07647262B2
A transaction control system generates presentation objects which reside on front-end terminals. The control system also comprises a business rules layer, a transaction layer, and an external interface layer. A transaction processing module is created by a control system generating a presentation object and transferring it to a relevant front-end terminal and also instantiating a business object, a transaction object, and an external interface object. Development of transaction processing modules is therefore very simple and the module is versatile and may be easily modified.
US07647257B2
A web application that enables access to a client's specific account transaction detail. The charge transaction detail can include anything related to charge or credit card transactions including travel transaction detail, corporate card detail and corporate purchasing card detail. The transaction detail can be captured from many sources and can include third party data. The clients can use a web application and web page to access the account data and create report views of the information. The system can also includes a create a report capability, which allows users to add filters and data elements to an existing report format and create a report specific to their needs and data.
US07647244B2
The present invention relates to a method for providing a certificate for an online product. A certificate comprising an authorization code is provided. The authorization code is unique and associated with characteristics that are recorded for tracking purposes. A purchaser receives the certificate, such as by purchasing a physical certificate. The certificate is provided to a user from the purchaser. The user then connects to a system of networked computers and finds the web site indicated on the certificate. The user enters the authorization code on the web site where indicated on the web site. In response to entering the authorization code, the user is provided with an online product at no fee, a reduced fee, or at a standard price.
US07647235B1
A method and system for performing a clinical trial having a reduced placebo effect is disclosed. The method includes randomizing study participants into three or more treatment groups and performing a first phase of testing on the groups. In a typical embodiment, the first phase of testing includes administering an active treatment to a first group, and administering a placebo to a second group and to a third group. Responders and non-responders are determined for each group. A second phase of testing is then performed. The second phase of testing includes administering the placebo to non-responders in the first group, administering the active treatment to non-responders in the second group, and administering the placebo to non-responders in the third group. The data from the first phase of testing and from the second phase of testing is pooled and analyzed to determine response rates to active treatment and placebo.
US07647232B2
A method routes a predefined number of entities (200) through a predetermined area for scanning the content of the predetermined area. The method comprises the steps of: partitioning the predetermined area into a first set of cells (100); grouping the first set of cells (100) into a number of corridors (201) equal to the number of entities (200); determining a starting cell for each entity (200) in each corridor (201); initiating a scan of cells of each of the corridors (201) from the starting cell of each of the entities (200) and determining the content of each of the scanned cells; and determining a total cost for each entity (200) to travel to each of the scanned cells scanned by each entity (200) and performing a scan from each of the scanned cells by each entity (200).
US07647229B2
A method and related apparatus comprising: buffering an encoded audio input signal comprising at least one combined signal of a plurality of audio channels and one or more corresponding sets of side information parameters describing a multi-channel sound image; changing the length of at least one audio frame of said combined signal by adding or removing a segment of said combined signal; modifying said one or more sets of side information parameters with a change corresponding to the change in the length of said at least one audio frame of said combined signal; and transferring said at least one audio frame of said combined signal with a changed length and said modified one or more sets of side information parameters to a further processing unit.
US07647220B2
A high accuracy method for transistor-level static timing analysis is disclosed. Accurate static timing verification requires that individual gate and interconnect delays be accurately calculated. At the sub-micron level, calculating gate and interconnect delays using delay models can result in reduced accuracy. Instead, the proposed method calculates delays through numerical integration using an embedded circuit simulator. It takes into account short circuit current and carefully chooses the set of conditions that results in a tight upper bound of the worst case delay for each gate. Similar repeating transistor configurations of gates in the circuit are automatically identified and a novel interpolation based caching scheme quickly computes gate delays from the delays of similar gates. A tight object code level integration with a commercial high speed transistor-level circuit simulator allows efficient invocation of the simulation.
US07647214B2
A method for graphically simulating stable but non-dissipative water in real-time includes steps for modeling multiphase materials with grid of nodes, suppressing numerical dissipation for getting rid of loss of mass of material, and suppressing numerical diffusion for reducing dampening of the fluid motion of materials in liquid phase. The step of modeling multiphase materials includes steps of describing liquid and gas with a set of nonlinear partial differential equations, representing the liquid-gas interface as an implicit surface, and determining properties of the materials, from the information about the liquid-gas interface, including the surface curvature and the surface tension. The set of nonlinear partial differential equations includes multiphase incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The step of representing the liquid-gas interface includes a level set method.
US07647207B2
The present invention relates to methods and systems of tracking enterprise gas emissions such as greenhouse gas emissions. The systems and methods relate to collecting or entering data relating to one or more emissions source of an enterprise or an enterprise location, calculating emissions totals, and, according to certain embodiments, generating emissions reports.
US07647205B2
A method for determining a preferred operating gradient for use in attaining a life objective for an electrical energy storage device is disclosed. A present state-of-life of the electrical energy storage device is provided and a life target for the electrical energy storage device is established as a predetermined limit in a predetermined metric at a predetermined state-of-life of the electrical energy storage device. A state-of-life gradient is then determined with respect to the predetermined metric which converges the state-of-life of the electrical energy storage device to the life target.
US07647182B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for logging an earth formation and acquiring subsurface information wherein a logging tool is conveyed in borehole to obtain parameters of interest. The parameters of interest obtained may be density, acoustic, magnetic or electrical values as known in the art. The parameters of interest may be transmitted to the surface at a plurality of resolutions using a multi-resolution image compression method. Parameters of interest are formed into a plurality of Cost Functions from which Regions of Interest are determined to resolve characteristics of the Features of interest within the Regions. Feature characteristics may be determined to obtain time or depth positions of bed boundaries and borehole Dip Angle relative to subsurface structures, as well borehole and subsurface structure orientation. Characteristics of the Features include time, depth, and geometries of the subsurface such as structural dip, thickness, and lithologies.
US07647180B2
System for preventing vehicle accidents at intersections includes a positioning system arranged in a vehicle for determining the absolute position thereof, a memory unit within the vehicle for storing data relating to edges of at least one lane of the roadway on which the vehicle may travel and the edges of at least one intersecting lane at an intersection, a receiver arranged in the vehicle for receiving position information about another vehicle in an intersecting lane, a processor coupled to the positioning system, the receiver and the memory unit for predicting a collision between the vehicles based on the position and optionally speed thereof and optionally map data, and a reactive component or system arranged in one or both vehicles and coupled to the processor. The component or system is arranged to initiate an action or change its operation if a collision is predicted.
US07647179B2
A bounded diagram having latitude and longitude points is identified. Two lines of latitude and two lines of longitude contained within the bounded diagram are identified. The points of where the lines of latitude and the lines of longitude intersect with the boundary of the bounded diagram are determined. Two latitude connecting lines and two longitude connecting lines are determined from the intersection. A latitude coordinate and a longitude coordinate of a latitude/longitude point is obtained. Latitude and longitude points corresponding to the latitude and longitude coordinates are determined along each of the connecting lines. Latitude and longitude position lines are determined by the points along the connecting lines. An intersection point of the latitude position line and the longitude potion line is determined and an object representing the latitude/longitude point is placed at the intersection point.
US07647174B2
A navigation system with a function of one-touch map matching correction, and a method thereof. The navigation system includes a GPS module for receiving each position signal, and measuring self position and driving direction; a map database for storing map data; a storage unit for storing a candidate designation index, road information, a guidance stop flag, a flag activating a map-matching correction button, and voice data for road sequence guidance; a display unit for displaying the map data, activating or deactivating the map-matching correction button, and generating a coordinate value of a position; and a controller for indexing the parallel roads, generating a candidate road array, activating the map-matching correction button, and sequentially selecting candidate roads while performing the map matching correction.
US07647168B2
The map-display-area determining unit determines an area in which a map is to be displayed. The road-information obtaining unit obtains, from map data transmitted from a map-data distributing server, curved-point coordinate information and name information of a traffic route. A map-display-data generating unit determines a display position for each of a character or symbol included in a character/symbol string in the name information so that the character or symbol is positioned along the traffic route without interfering with another character or symbol, and generates map display data for displaying the character or symbol at the determined display position.
US07647162B2
A fuel control system for an internal combustion engine includes a first module that determines a corrected injected fuel mass based on an engine temperature and a measured burned fuel mass and a second module that determines a raw injected fuel mass based on the corrected injected fuel mass and the engine temperature. A third module regulates fueling to a cylinder of the engine based on the raw injected fuel mass.
US07647158B2
An apparatus and method for diagnosing an airflow control system of an internal combustion engine, the method comprising: determining if a valve is in a stable position; commanding the valve of the airflow control system to move from a first position to a second position; determining a period of time for the valve to move from the first position to the second position; providing a first signal if the period of time is greater than or less than a predetermined period of time, the predetermined period of time corresponding to an amount of time necessary to move the valve from the first position to the second position under predetermined conditions; and providing a second signal if the period of time is within a range defined by the predetermined period of time.
US07647156B2
A method and system for using exhaust temperature anomalies to detect fugitive fueling of a reciprocating internal combustion engine compares an exhaust temperature attribute with a predetermined threshold value for such attribute, which is a function of either the combustion of fugitive fuel within the engine, or an indicator of an operating condition leading to fugitive fueling. If the value of the attribute exceeds the threshold value, remedial action will be taken to avoid engine damage resulting from fugitive fueling.
US07647155B2
A device and method for calculating the work load of an engine more efficiently and accurately. The device for calculating the work load of an engine comprises a means for determining a desired frequency component to calculate the work load of the engine obtained through frequency decomposition of the volume variation rate of the engine. The device further comprises a first calculating means for calculating a first correlation coefficient between the volume variation rate and a reference signal composed of a frequency corresponding to the determined component, and a second calculating means for calculating a second correlation coefficient between the cylinder inner pressure of the engine and a reference signal composed of a frequency corresponding to the determined component. The work load of the engine is calculated using the first and second correlation coefficients.
US07647151B2
A vehicle seat, an adjusting system and a method for moving at least one vehicle seat arranged in a vehicle cabin, particularly an aircraft seat, comprising seat components that are coupled or guided together, such as a seat part, a backrest and a leg rest, the location and/or inclination of which can be adjusted by means of at least one or more adjusting units. The adjusting system allows a separation of the basic functions from driving devices, with an electronic device for collision-free movement and for adjusting custom-designed functions and facilitating the adaptation of the custom-designed functions. The movement sequences and movements of the respective individual seat components and the seat components in relation to one another and the movements of the components or seats within an environment or group of seats are accomplished by means of a movement model in a coordinate system.
US07647136B2
The present application is directed to an apparatus and method of managing transport of fluid commodities in a pipeline network. The method includes obtaining operational settings, which include equipment settings and measured parameters, associated with a pipeline network as a fluid commodity is transported through the pipeline network. From the operational settings, a recommendation is generated concurrently with the transport of the fluid commodity through the pipeline network to optimize at least one of the operational settings. The recommendation comprises revised equipment settings associated with equipment disposed along the pipeline network. The equipment settings in the recommendation may be based on empirical data from previous experience with the transport of fluid commodities through the pipeline network and/or based on theoretical data from modeling of the transport of the fluid commodity through the pipeline network.
US07647135B2
A robotic data storage library comprising a virtual port and a method for providing a virtual port for a robotic data storage library are disclosed. The virtual exit port, for example, comprises one or more storage locations of the library that are defined as a virtual port. In one embodiment, for example, the virtual port comprises a virtual exit port for holding a data storage element that is to be exported from the library. In this embodiment, for example, the virtual exit port is defined prior to the library receiving a command to export a data storage element. In another embodiment, the virtual port comprises an entry port, an exit port or an entry/exit port. In yet another embodiment, a method for transferring a data storage element directly between an actual port (entry and/or exit) of a robotic data storage library and another location within the robotic data storage library not defined as the virtual port is disclosed.
US07647134B2
There are provided a method of operating a temperature management device. For example, there is disclosed a method of operating a temperature management device. The method comprises transmitting towards the temperature management device a probe, the probe having a pre-determined format; receiving a probe response, the probe response being representative of at least one dynamic operational characteristic of the temperature management device; analyzing the probe response to obtain a control parameter suitable for controlling operation of the temperature management device.
US07647127B2
As preset component data to perform processing on components for signal processing in a mixer engine, data for PC and data for transfer to be transferred to the mixer engine to cause the engine to perform signal processing are stored on the PC side, and data for engine is stored on the mixer engine side. When being directed to upgrade the preset component data on the mixer engine side, the PC compares the ID of each component included in the data for PC stored in the PC with the ID of each component included in the data for engine stored in the mixer engine, and, when detecting an ID existing only in the former, transfers the aforementioned data for transfer on the component corresponding to the ID to the mixer engine and causes the engine to store the data as the data for engine.
US07647121B2
Techniques for selectably providing either constant voltage or constant current stimulation are described. A programming device provides a user interface by which a user selects either constant voltage or constant current stimulation, and selects either a voltage or current amplitude based on the selected stimulation mode. The programming device configures a medical device to provide the selected mode of stimulation at the selected amplitude. For example, when a medical device has constant voltage stimulation circuitry, e.g., circuitry including a voltage source, and the user selects constant current stimulation, the programming device configures the medical device to adjust the voltage amplitude based on a measured impedance to provide substantially constant current amplitude.
US07647115B2
A method and apparatus for treatment of heart failure, hypertension and renal failure by stimulating the renal nerve. The goal of therapy is to reduce sympathetic activity of the renal nerve. Therapy is accomplished by at least partially blocking the nerve with drug infusion or electrostimulation. Apparatus can be permanently implanted or catheter based.
US07647106B2
It has been discovered that a change in posture that results in an increase in orthostatic stress, when followed by a withdrawal of sympathetic nervous activity, may indicate a future onset of vasovagal syncope (VVS). The invention is directed to devices and techniques for early detection of an episode of VVS so that therapies may be applied in advance of the episode to prevent the episode from occurring. Detection of a posture transition triggers a device such as an implanted pacemaker to determine an indicator of an autonomic nervous system activity of the patient. As a function of this determination, the device estimates a probability that the patient will experience VVS. When the probability exceeds a threshold, preventative therapy may be applied to address the VVS and to reduce the risk that the patient will faint.
US07647101B2
Various system embodiments comprise a neural stimulator and a controller. The neural stimulator is adapted to generate a stimulation signal adapted to elicit sympathetic activity at a neural target. The controller is adapted to control the neural stimulator to provide a physical conditioning therapy. The controller is adapted to control the neural stimulator to intermittently elicit sympathetic activity at the neural target. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein.
US07647093B2
The invention is related to a device and method for cordless recording, telecommunication transmission, and processing of three special ECG leads by the means of the mobile device (1) and diagnostic-calibration center (2) where the reconstruction of standard ECG leads is performed. Reconstruction parameters are determined previously by calibration for each patient. In urgent situation, a patient (3) performs recording of three special ECG leads with the mobile device (1), and sends the memorized data to the diagnostic-calibration device (2) via a cellular telephone (4). The patient can trace the process of recording and sending the data with the help of sound and light indicators. Diagnostic-calibration center (2) is equipped with a PC computer (6) connected to a receiving cellular telephone (7) and calibration ECG device (8) with 14 electrodes. Ten electrodes are grouped into a standard 12-channel ECG cable, while the remaining four are used for recording of three special ECG leads and are grouped into a separate box (9) with integrated electrodes arranged identically as the integrated electrodes on the mobile device (1).
US07647088B2
Projection views of the moving heart and stationary background tissues are acquired and processed to provide corresponding moving tissue projection views. An average image is reconstructed in a conventional manner and a moving tissue image is reconstructed using a highly constrained backprojection method and a composite image formed from selected moving tissue projection views. The average image is then combined with the moving tissue image. The method is disclosed in a cardiac gated MRI scan.
US07647074B2
In one embodiment, a print control system is provided for use in a cellular telephone. A printing logic is configured to generate printer-ready data from a selected data to be printed. A viewing logic is configured to interpret and display the printer-ready data to simulate a printed state of the printer-ready data.
US07647072B2
The invention provides an IP switching based radio network controller. The radio network controller comprises a plurality of functional modules, at least comprising: an ATM interface module, an interface management module, a radio signaling management module and a radio bearer processing module, characterized in that, the radio network controller replaces an ATM switch with an IP switching network to achieve data and signaling exchange among the above functional modules in the radio network controller. Said functional modules respectively comprise at least one functional board, and the functions of each of the functional modules are respectively achieved in different functional boards. The radio network controller of the invention has the advantages of low cost, simple configuration and management, and easy to achieve the system.
US07647066B2
A transmission power control apparatus is adapted to control a reference value for controlling a transmission power of a mobile terminal equipment based on a reception quality of a plurality of radio access bearers at a base station apparatus, with respect to a physical channel to which the plurality of radio access bearers are mapped, when making a radio connection between the mobile terminal equipment and the base station apparatus in a mobile communication system. The transmission power control apparatus includes a judging part configured to judge whether or not a radio access bearer that is a monitoring target of the reception quality is an audio transmission radio access bearer in a silent state, based on multiplexed information; and a switching part configured to switch the radio access bearer that is the monitoring target of the reception quality to a radio access bearer other than the audio transmission radio access bearer in the silent state, if the judging part judges that the radio access bearer than is the monitoring target of the reception quality is the audio transmission radio access bearer in the silent state. The reference value for controlling the transmission power of the mobile terminal equipment is controlled based on a reception quality of the radio access bearer other than the audio transmission radio access bearer in the silent state.
US07647060B2
A wireless communications system includes a base station and multiple mobile stations performing wireless communication with the base station in a DS-CDMA scheme. Each of the mobile stations has a transmission unit configured to transmit a timing difference detection packet to the base station, prior to transmitting packet data. The base station has a transmission timing control unit configured to detect a difference in signal receive timing from the mobile stations based on the timing difference detection packet, produce transmission timing control information for each of the mobile stations based on the detection result, and supply the transmission timing control information to each of the mobile stations to cause the mobile stations to adjust the transmission timing of the packet data.
US07647059B2
A communication system in which circuits for generating transmitting-end synchronizing signals and receiving-end synchronizing signals can be realized easily even in the case of a data transmission rate being high and in which power consumption is low. A transmitting-end synchronizing signal selector in a transmitter selects one of a plurality of transmitting-end synchronizing signals with different phases outputted from a transmitting-end synchronizing signal generator on the basis of code-spread data to be transmitted. A transmitting-end signal output unit outputs a radio signal in synchronization with the selected transmitting-end synchronizing signal. A receiving-end synchronizing signal selector in a receiver selects one of a plurality of receiving-end synchronizing signals which are outputted from a receiving-end synchronizing signal generator and which are the same as the plurality of transmitting-end synchronizing signals on the basis of a despreading code. A receiving-end signal output unit outputs a correlation-detected signal which is synchronized with the selected receiving-end synchronizing signal and with which the correlation of the radio signal is detected. A correlator detects a correlation between the radio signal transmitted from the transmitter and the correlation-detected signal.
US07647052B2
A gateway (111, 200) and method for routing calls for a wireless communication unit (113) via a selected network (105, 124, 131) comprises an access point (217) supporting a wireless LAN and a modem (203, 229) for wireless connections to a wireless WAN and an interface 227 with a wired local loop (105). The methodology involves using a first network, such as a local loop if available and a second network, such as a packet data WAN 131 otherwise as well as maintaining the busy status of the first network via the second network.
US07647051B2
A method and apparatus are provided for call setup in a communication network that comprises at least one mobile station to facilitate the hand-off of a wireless headset from a mobile station that has been docked to a landline base unit that includes a radio front end operable to communicate with the wireless headset. Generally, the embodiments of the invention include establishing a first voice path through at least one switching element between a calling party and a called party in a communication network where at least one of the called and calling parties is communicating with the mobile station or, more generally, with a wireless telephone. Thereafter, a first wireless headset communication link is established between the wireless telephone and the wireless headset unit.
US07647050B2
A method of adjusting a power level of communications over a channel in a wireless communications network. In the method, a determination (e.g., by a radio network controller (RNC)) is made regarding a number of base stations actively communicating with a mobile station. For example, the determination may indicate whether the mobile station is engaged in soft handoff or simplex mode. One of a plurality of power control algorithms (e.g., a fixed offset power control algorithm, a channel quality indicator (CQI) power control algorithm, etc.) is selected based on the determination. A power level of communications over the channel (e.g., a downlink communications channel to the mobile station) is then adjusted in accordance with the selected power control algorithm.
US07647044B2
The present disclosure relates to a switching device having a display that allows an operator to readily visually assess the signal strength of both a primary signal and a back-up signal. In certain embodiments, the information relating to the signal strength of the primary and back-up signal is provided on a graphic display. In certain other embodiments, the signal strength of the back-up signal is displayed relative to the signal strength of the primary signal.
US07647039B2
A base station control portion selects one or multiple signals in accordance with the state of radio waves from signals received through multiple communication paths. A wireless communication apparatus communicates with a wireless terminal and a wired communication network at multiple frequencies. In response to a request for software upgrading from a network management device, the wireless communication apparatus selects one frequency, controls the state of transmission waves of a wireless interface such that a communication path in which a communication service is being provided can be switched to another communication network without interruption, rewrites software for each wireless interface to software received through a wired interface in advance, and returns the state of transmission waves of the wireless interface. Thus, the software can be upgraded without blackouts of the communication service to the wireless terminal.
US07647029B2
In a controller-assisted device for determining a characteristic of a compensation element in a level control circuit, the compensation element is serially mounted inside the level control circuit for a high-frequency signal (S
US07647019B2
A method is provided for receiving a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal by a mobile terminal in a DMB system including a satellite for transmitting a satellite DMB signal directly to the mobile terminal, a gap filler for repeating the satellite DMB signal received from the satellite and transmitting a terrestrial DMB signal to the mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal capable of receiving both the satellite DMB signal and the terrestrial DMB signal. The method includes receiving at least one DMB signal; determining if there is a satellite DMB signal among the at least one DMB signal; if there is the satellite DMB signal calculating a reception frequency of the satellite DMB signal for a stated time; and if the reception frequency is less than or equal to a threshold providing a user with a message recommending detachment of an antenna used for receiving the satellite DMB signal.
US07647017B2
Fixing device includes a first cylindrical rotating member having an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface; a second rotating member which is brought into contact with the first rotating member; magnetic field generation units for generating a magnetic field, the magnetic field generation units being provided at a predetermined distance from the inner or outer peripheral surface of the first rotating member; and a heat generation member that generates heat by a magnetic field, the heat generation member being provided so as to be opposed to the magnetic field generation units across the first rotating member and to be in contact with the first rotating member, having a thickness larger than a skin depth, and containing a magnetic metal material.
US07647010B2
The present invention provides a toner cartridge of replaceable type that is removably loaded into an apparatus main body, the toner cartridge including: a first section that is substantially cylindrical shape and at which a toner conveying member is disposed; and a second section that is provided at a substantially central portion in a longitudinal direction of the toner cartridge, the substantially central portion being a portion other than an upstream side in a toner conveyance direction of the first section and a downstream side in the toner conveyance direction of the first section at which a toner supply opening.
US07647003B2
An image forming device is provided that may have a housing with an opening, a drawer component that may be drawn out in a substantially horizontal direction through the opening, a holding portion on the housing to be held at a time when the drawer component is drawn out, and a drawer lock that can be switched between a locked state in which movement of the drawer component is locked in the direction of being drawn out at least at the beginning of being drawn out, and a released state in which there is no prohibition against moving in the direction of being drawn out.
US07647002B2
A device for detaching a drum from a printer cartridge, the drum including a drum flange that attaches the drum to the printer cartridge, the device including a pressure transmitting device; and a rod operatively connected to the pressure transmitting device, wherein the pressure transmitting device and the rod are configured to apply pressure to the drum flange and cause the drum to be detached from the printer cartridge.
US07646998B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form a developer image on a medium, a heating body to heat the developer image formed on the medium, a heat source provided in the heating body to heat the heating body, and a pressing body arranged opposite to the heating body to permit the medium to pass between the pressing body and the heating body, thereby pressurizing the developer image. The image forming apparatus further includes a controller to drive the heat source, even if the heating body is heated from the room temperature state, and the temperature of the heating body rises higher than the fixing temperature, and then the temperature of the heating body is higher than the fixing temperature.
US07646997B2
A toner replenishing device of a toner consumption calculating portion calculates a toner consumption using a gray scale value of each pixel in a multiple-value image inputted from an image data input portion. The calculated toner consumption is corrected by a corrected consumption calculating portion, and is then accumulated by a cumulative consumption calculating portion, and thereby a cumulative toner consumption is calculated. A main replenishing amount control portion controls a replenishing roller driving motor so as to replenish a predetermined first replenishing amount of a toner to a developing tank when the cumulative toner consumption reaches a reference consumption or more. Further, an auxiliary replenishing amount control portion controls the replenishing roller driving motor so as to start to replenish a predetermined second replenishing amount of a toner to the developing tank when a toner concentration obtained by a toner concentration obtaining portion reaches less than a start concentration.
US07646995B2
A waste toner transfer device of an image forming apparatus includes a waste toner transfer unit which is disposed in proximity to a cleaning member to transfer waste toner removed from a photoconductive medium by the cleaning member, and includes a plurality of protrusions at one end, a driving unit which horizontally reciprocates the waste toner transfer unit, and a plurality of ribs which constrain the plurality of protrusions when the waste toner transfer unit moves, so that the waste toner transfer unit vibrates vertically.
US07646994B2
An image forming apparatus, for example, that is capable of accurately writing information into a developing unit or the like having an element is achieved. An image forming apparatus comprises: an attach/detach section to and from which a developing unit having an element into which information can be written and a developer containing section can be attached and detached; a photoconductor on which a latent image can be formed; a writing member for writing information into the element; and an AC voltage supply section for supplying an AC voltage. During a period from a start to an end of an image forming process, the writing member writes information into the element of the developing unit attached to the attach/detach section when the AC voltage supply section is not supplying an AC voltage.
US07646993B2
In a method for outputting data of a diagnosis data stream of a printer or copier, the diagnosis data stream comprises first data of a first data type and at least second data of the second data type, the first data and the second data each including structure date and use data corresponding to the respective data type. The diagnosis data stream is supplied to an evaluation program of an evaluation unit for evaluating the first and the second data. The structured data of the first data is analyzed with aid of the evaluation program, a first identification which is characteristic of the first data type being determined. Upon the determination of the first identification, selecting a first evaluation instruction from a plurality of evaluation instructions with aid of the evaluation program and loading it, the use data of the first data being evaluated with aid of the first evaluation instruction. With aid of the evaluation program it is verified whether the evaluated first data include further data areas comprising the second data which can be evaluated with aid of a further second evaluation instruction which can be selected from the plurality of evaluation instructions. The second data is analyzed with aid of the evaluation program, a second identification which is characteristic of the second data type being determined. Upon the determination of the second identification, the second evaluation instruction is selected from said plurality of evaluation instructions with aid of the evaluation program and loading it. The second data is evaluated and output with aid of the second evaluation instruction.
US07646984B1
Embodiments of an integrated circuit are described. This integrated circuit includes: a clock-generator circuit configured to provide a clock signal; an optical clock path coupled to the clock-generator circuit; and a latch coupled to the optical clock path. This optical clock path is configured to distribute an optical signal corresponding to the clock signal. Furthermore, the optical clock path is configured to optically set a skew value for the optical signal, and is configured to selectively gate distribution of the optical signal to the latch based on activity of the latch. Note that the selective gating is performed optically.
US07646982B2
A chromatic dispersion compensator of present invention includes a high-refractive-index VIPA plate, a three-dimensional mirror, and a control unit. The high-refractive-index VIPA plate is made of a material such as silicon having a refractive index higher than that of optical glass and is able to output incident lights toward different directions according to wavelength. The three-dimensional mirror reflects the light of each wavelength emitted from the high-refractive-index VIPA plate, at a predetermined position and returns the light to the VIPA plate. The control unit controls a temperature of the high-refractive-index VIPA plate at a constant level while controlling the position of the three-dimensional mirror corresponding to a chromatic dispersion compensation amount. Thereby, larger chromatic dispersion can be compensated while a decrease in transmission bandwidth is suppressed.
US07646963B2
An information processing apparatus comprises an extracting means for extracting main information including first copy control information and auxiliary information representing attributes of the main information from input information; a first generating means for generating second copy control information based on the auxiliary information extracted by the extracting means; and an adding means for adding the second copy control information generated by the first generating means to the main information extracted by the extracting means. As a result, even an apparatus not capable of analyzing first copy control information is capable of executing copy control.
US07646961B2
A recording time setting process, performed by a data recording and reproduction apparatus capable of readily setting a recording start time and a recording finish time, includes: the step of detecting execution of a meter recording setting mode, the step of detecting an input of recording start position, the step of calculating a time from the recording start position, the step of storing the recording start time in a memory, the step of detecting an input of recording finish position, the step of calculating a time from the recording finish position, the step of calculating a recording time period when the recording finish position is determined, and the step of storing the recording finish time in the memory if the recording time period has not yet been selected for another recording and if the required capacity does not exceed the storage capacity of the HDD.
US07646959B2
A POF (12) comprises a core (65) having a radius of R1, an outer shell (66) and an outermost shell (67). The core (65) includes concentric layers. A first layer (61) is at the periphery side and an nth layer (64) is at the center of the core (65). The refractive index increases from the first layer (61) to the nth layer (64). The refractive index N(r) at a position where a distance r apart in a radius direction from the center of the core (65) having a radius of R1 is satisfied following equations (1) and (2) when the center of a cross-sectional circle of the core (65) has the refractive index of N1, the outermost part of the core (65) has the refractive index of N2, and a refractive index distribution coefficient is shown as g: N(r)=N1[1−2Δ(r/R1)g]1/2 [Equation (1)] Δ=(N12−N22)/(2N12). [Equation (2)]
US07646957B2
A multiple-core optical waveguide comprises: a substrate; lower and upper waveguide core layers; a waveguide core between the upper and lower waveguide core layers; upper and lower cladding; and middle cladding between the upper and lower waveguide core layers substantially surrounding the waveguide core. Each of the lower, middle, and upper claddings has a refractive index less than refractive indices of the lower waveguide core layer, the upper waveguide core layer, and the waveguide core. Along at least a given portion of the optical waveguide, the upper and lower waveguide core layers extend bilaterally substantially beyond the lateral extent of a propagating optical mode supported by the optical waveguide, the lateral extent of the supported optical mode being determined at least in part by the width of the waveguide core along the given portion of the optical waveguide.
US07646952B2
Disclosed is an optical fiber cable that includes optical fibers and a deformable coupling element enclosed within a buffer tube. The coupling element is formed from a deformable yet substantially incompressible material and features a number of raised members projecting toward the optical fibers. The design of the coupling element layer permits coupling of the optical fibers to the buffer tube without the use of a compressive cushioning layer. This arrangement distributes the compressive force applied to discrete points along the outer perimeter of the optical fiber element.
US07646946B2
A strain sensor includes an optical fiber with at least one optical fiber, a reflector body with a reflective surface, a housing affixed to the optical fiber probe and to the reflector body. The reflective surface is spaced apart at a distance d from the ends of the probe's fibers and receives light from the end of the fiber and to reflect at least a portion of the light into the end of the fiber. The housing is attached to the fiber probe at a first end of the housing and attached to the reflector body at a second end of the housing. The housing is affixed to the material to be measured, and in the material causes a change in gap between the fiber end and the reflective surface, modulating the amount of light received in the receiving fiber, detectable by a photodetector connected to the receiving fiber.
US07646940B2
A unique system and method that facilitates indexing and retrieving electronic ink objects with improved efficiency and accuracy is provided. Handwritten words or characters are mapped to a low dimension through a process of segmentation, stroke classification using a neural network, and projection along directions found using OPCA, for example. The employment of OPCA makes these low dimensional representations robust to handwriting variations or noise. Each handwritten word or set of characters is stored along with neighborhood hyperrectangle that represents word variations. Redundant bit vectors are used to index the hyperrectangles for efficient storage and retrieval. Ink-based queries can be submitted in order to retrieve at least one ink object. To do so, the ink query is processed to determine its query point which is represented by a (query) hyperrectangle. A data store can be searched for any hyperrectangles that match the query hyperrectangle.
US07646937B2
The present invention provides an image display method for downloading an image of large longitudinal and transverse size and displaying it on a viewer with less latency time.The image display method may be used to divide an image larger than a display region of a viewer into a plurality of areas where each divided image is provided beforehand in a server. The viewer determines the plural divided images of which at least a part of each is contained in the display region of the viewer in accordance with a relative position between the image and the display region of the viewer and makes a preferential request of the viewer for the divided images. The viewer rearranges and displays the received divided images in their original form.
US07646936B2
Disclosed are systems for and methods of registering (i.e., aligning) a deformable image with a reference image subject to a spatially variant flexibility model and/or a non-Gaussian smoothing model. These systems and methods allow for the consideration of differences between the ways in which structures of interest may move within a patient. The registration includes modifying the deformable image to match similar features in the reference image. The systems include a deformation engine configured for performing a deformation algorithm subject to the spatially variant flexibility and/or smoothing models.
US07646931B2
Techniques and tools for analyzing and adjusting the exposure of digital images are described. For example, a computer processes a digital image by analyzing exposure data, assigning an image classification (e.g., StretchNeeded, UnderExposed, OverExposed, or Normal) based on the analysis, and selecting an exposure compensation technique (e.g., histogram stretch, positive gamma curve, negative gamma curve, or no adjustment) based on the image classification. The exposure data can be luminance values for pixels in the digital image represented in a histogram. The computer can produce transform data comprising a transformation of the exposure data according to the selected exposure compensation technique. The computer can store transform data in a look-up table and can store the look-up table in the digital image file. The described techniques and tools can be implemented as a feature of an operating system environment and can be activated responsive to user action via a user interface.
US07646930B2
A plurality of bandpass filters extract high frequency components of a digital image signal sampled every predetermined unit, thus generating a plurality of high frequency signals. The high frequency signals are added to produce a resultant high frequency signal. On the basis of the value of the resultant high frequency signal, the maximum value or minimum value detected from the high frequency signals is selected. The resultant high frequency signal and the selected maximum or minimum value are added according to determined weights, so that an enhancement signal is generated. Edge enhancement is performed using the enhancement signal.
US07646923B2
A method of and apparatus for compressing a stream of data, such as video data, is disclosed. First, data in the video stream are classified in accordance with their values. Data with values equal to zero are classified in a first class. Data with values less than a predetermined positive number but greater than a predetermined negative number, and not equal to zero, are classified in a second class. All other data are classified in a third class. Data in the first class is compressed using a run length encoding technique. Data in the second class is compressed by reducing the size of the data value and by adding a constant. Data in the third class is not compressed, but is modified by adding a constant. The data can be decompressed by determining the class of the compressed value and reversing the compression process. The compression method disclosed is easy to implement and results in a significant reduction in the amount of data that needs to be transmitted.
US07646921B2
Techniques for shape clustering and applications in processing various documents, including an output of an optical character recognition (OCR) process.
US07646911B2
An image conversion method and an apparatus for converting a digital image obtained by a scanning unit into a converted digital image includes the steps of acquiring statistics for at least some pixels of the digital image, extracting characteristic values of a background color using the acquired statistics, operating a selection of pixels in the digital image, and converting the selected pixels. Each pixel in the digital image is sequentially set as a target pixel, and the selection of the target pixel depends on a representative color distance determined between a number of pixels located in a vicinity of the target pixel and the background color.
US07646908B2
A defect detection apparatus (1) comprises an image pickup part (3) for picking up an image of a substrate (9) to acquire a grayscale target image, from which pixel values of the target image are sequentially outputted to a defect detector (43). The defect detector (43) compares the target image with a reference image to generate a defect region image representing regions of defects included in a plurality of predetermined inspection regions, to be stored in a defect region image memory (44). A computer (5) obtains an area and a barycentric position of each of the defects in the defect region image to specify an inspection region including the defect and performs limitation (i.e., selection) of defects on the basis of a defect detection condition set for each inspection region on the area of defect. It is possible to detect defects with high efficiency by using a defect detection condition on a different area of defect for each inspection region.
US07646907B2
When “0” indicating that intensity of a stereoscopic effect is the lowest is applied as a stereoscopic effect tag, a stereoscopic image is allowed to be displayed as it is. On the other hand, when “1, 2, and 3” are applied as the stereoscopic effect tag, a reduction ratio is determined depending on a value of the stereoscopic effect tag (one-half, one-third, etc.). On the basis of this reduction ratio, the stereoscopic image is displayed and letters of “warning” are displayed. A user selects whether to display the stereoscopic image according to a producer's intention or to maintain the size-reduced stereoscopic image. If an operation requiring for a display of the stereoscopic image as it is intended by the producer is performed, an original stereoscopic image is displayed.
US07646902B2
A method for using computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) for digital tomosynthesis mammograms (DTM) including retrieving a DTM image file having a plurality of DTM image slices; applying a three-dimensional gradient field analysis to the DTM image file to detect lesion candidates; identifying a volume of interest and locating its center at a location of high gradient convergence; segmenting the volume of interest by a three dimensional region growing method; extracting one or more three dimensional object characteristics from the object corresponding to the volume of interest, the three dimensional object characteristics being one of a morphological feature, a gray level feature, or a texture feature; and invoking a classifier to determine if the object corresponding to the volume of interest is a breast cancer lesion or normal breast tissue.
US07646900B2
The invention relates to a method for the reconstruction of a three-dimensional model of a vascular tree from two-dimensional X-ray projection images (A, B, C) that are taken from different spatial directions. On a first projection image (A) at least one reference point (CA) is specified. The gray-value profiles along the epipolar lines (EB, EC) for said reference point (CA) in other projection images (B, C) are then projected on the projection line (L) of the reference point (CA) and added there punctiformly to form a sum profile (S). The sum profile (S) has an extreme, for example, a gray-value minimum, at the position of the space point (C3D) belonging to the reference point (CA). In this way, it is possible to reconstruct semiautomatically a vascular tree from X-ray projections.
US07646894B2
A Bayesian competitive model integrated with a generative classifier for unspecific person verification is described. In one aspect, a competitive measure for verification of an unspecific person is calculated using a discriminative classifier. The discriminative classifier is based on a Bayesian competitive model that is adaptable to unknown new classes. The Bayesian competitive model is integrated with a generative verification in view of a set of confidence criteria to make a decision regarding verification of the unspecific person.
US07646887B2
Disclosed is a system and method for using optical flow to detect objects moving past a camera and to select images of the moving objects. A shopping cart, for example, may be detected by subdividing an image into a plurality of image blocks; comparing the blocks to a preceding image to determine the motion of the portion of the object pictured; associating the most common motion with the shopping cart. The motion of the cart may also be integrated over time for purposes of tracking cart motion and selecting a subset of the captured images for object recognition processing. Detection of the cart and image selection improves computational efficiency an increase merchandise throughput.
US07646886B2
A method and system, for detecting closely spaced objects with data from an imaging sensor. A CFAR detector performs detection on the image data at a threshold level. A processor runs a first algorithm on exceedances above the CFAR threshold. The first algorithm is for single target detection and includes a local-max algorithm that identifies multiple exceedances within a 2×2 matrix of image data and only keeps exceedance with the maximum value. All other exceedances in image are single target detections. The processor runs a second algorithm that identifies multiple exceedances (single target detections) within a local regional area across the whole image. The regional area size may be a 3×3, 4×4, or 5×5 matrix depending on the specified CSO separations. This algorithm may use a regional moving window across the whole image. An alternative method using the indices of all the exceedances' (x,y) coordinates is also disclosed.
US07646881B2
Data to be impressed upon the average value of a chrominance portion of a block, is replicated at least once. The original and each replica is impressed on blocks in the same block position of separate frames. The frames that have like-positioned blocks that are carrying the same data are considered to be a group. Specific blocks of the frame may be embedded with a particular known data sequence rather than user data. Each group may employ a different known sequence. Instead of simply repeating the data for each like-positioned block of a group, the amount added to the average value for each such block may be changed slightly from frame to frame in group, even when the complexity of the blocks is the same. At a receiver, the multiple instances of the same data bit are extracted and combined to form a single received bit.
US07646880B2
A texture word map is produced by selecting a plurality of texture words to express the makeup textures; classifying the plurality of selected texture words into two types; producing a texture word map by arranging one characteristic in the ordinate and the other characteristic in the abscissa and arranging positional correlations of the texture words one another in the coordinates of the ordinate and the abscissa. A texture image map is produced by overlapping individual images on the texture word map and makeup with a texture is done based on the texture image map.
US07646878B2
The hearing device comprises a housing with electronic components and a battery compartment with an opening in the housing. The battery compartment comprises means for removeably engaging a battery door. The hearing device further comprises a set of battery doors, each comprising mechanical means for detachably receiving a battery, the shells of each battery door of the set of battery doors having different shapes and sizes, each adapted to the size of the assigned specific battery type.
US07646874B2
The invention provides for installing encryption keys on a device not having any previous security credentials. An installation authority generates a security token to be used by the device for secure communications, and an installation credential for the device, and stores them in association with one another. A user of the device is provided with the installation credential, whereby the user inputs the installation credential into the device. The device utilizes the installation credential as a temporary security key, establishes a secure communication channel with the installation authority and requests provision of the security token. The installation authority provides the security token associated with the installation credential to the device over the established secure communication channel, and the device installs the security token, after which the device erases the installation credential from the device. The installation authority may also certify the security token and provide a certified token and a root verification certificate to the device.
US07646868B2
Methods for encrypting a clear text message into hidden cipher text are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention may be used to encrypt clear text into a contextual altered form that does not appear to an observer to be cipher text. Embodiments of the present invention produce encrypted text without using a mathematical model of prime number factorization. Embodiments of the present invention provide better security by producing better quality cipher text output than known linguistic steganography approaches.
US07646864B2
A telephone headset system having a network interface device, a head set including a headphone and a microphone, and a foot operated, hands free call answering and call ending element. The network interface device, headset, and call answering and call ending element are electronically in communication with each other.
US07646860B2
A method and apparatus for identifying a caller who does not provide caller identification on an unanswered call. The caller is asked to record his/her name (or some other characteristic utterance). If the call is unanswered, the record is retained and can be accessed by the called party when that party requests his/her stored voice mail. Advantageously, even on unanswered calls, the identity of the caller can be presented to the called party when that called party requests stored voice mail messages, even if the calling party has private service.
US07646845B2
A method for single photon counting transmission computed tomography (CT) is described. The method is based on an apparatus consisting of a radiation source and detectors on an opposite side of the subject from the source. The radiation source is for example an X-ray tube. The detectors are independently connected to parallel, fast, low-noise processing electronics capable of recording and counting individual X-ray photons at very high rate. In one embodiment of the invention, said detector is made of a scintillator coupled to a photodetector. The photodetector can be an avalanche photodiode (APD). The method comprises the steps of: directing the low energy radiation source toward the subject; detecting the radiation transmitted through the subject towards the detectors and recording the position and energy of each individual X-ray photon; rotating the radiation source and detectors around the subject; recording data for each position of the radiation source and detectors around the subject to form projections; and creating a CT image from the recorded projection data. The proposed method allows enhancing CT image contrast and reducing radiation dose to the patient by counting individual X-ray photons.
US07646839B2
A unified, unidirectional serial link is described for providing data across wired media, such as a chip-to chip or a card-to-card interconnect. It consists of a transmit section and a receive section that are operated as pairs to allow the serial data communication. The serial link is implemented as part of a VLSI ASIC module and derives its power, data and clocking requirements from the host modules. The logic transmitter portion contains a phase locked loop (PLL), a dibit data register, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter and a transmit data register. The phase locked loop comprises both a digital coarse loop and an analog fine loop. The digital receiver portion contains a PLL, an FIR phase rotator, a phase rotator control state machine, and a clock buffer. The transmitter and the receiver each preferably utilize a pseudo-random bit stream (PRBS) generator and checker.
US07646835B1
A method for automatically calibrating intra-cycle timing relationships between command signals, data signals, and sampling signals for an integrated circuit device. The method includes generating command signals for accessing an integrated circuit component, accessing data signals for conveying data for the integrated circuit component, and accessing sampling signals for controlling the sampling of the data signals. A phase relationship between the command signals, the data signals, and the sampling signals is automatically adjusted to calibrate operation of the integrated circuit device.
US07646818B2
In the video signals provided by broadcasting media, advertising sections are inserted between normal programs, thus causing interruption. An end portion of the normal program will be repeated before an advertising section ends. The invention determines the continuity of two adjacent frames, to search for frame discontinuity to find out if there is a frame similar to a next given frame. If a similar frame is found to have an advertising frame, an advertisement is detected.
US07646817B2
An accelerated video decoding system utilizes a graphics processing unit to perform motion compensation, image reconstruction, and color space conversion processes, while utilizing a central processing unit to perform other decoding processes.
US07646797B1
Current channels, blocking areas, or strips in a semiconductor laser are used to channel injected current into the antinodal region of the optical standing wave present in the optical cavity, while restricting the current flow to the nodal regions. Previous devices injected current into both the nodal and antinodal regions of the wave, which is fed by the population inversion created in the active region by the injected electrons and holes, but inversion created in the nodal regions is lost to fluorescence or supports the creation of undesirable competing longitudinal modes, causing inefficiency. Directing current to the antinodal regions where the electric field is at its maximum causes a selected longitudinal mode to preferentially oscillate regardless of where the longitudinal mode lies with respect to the gain curve. In one embodiment, exacting fabrication of the Fabry-Perot cavity correlates the current channels to antinodal regions, vis-a vis current blocking areas, strips or segmented layers.
US07646788B2
A method and system for executing a protocol for tunneling of transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) packets over a tactical link. The tunneling protocol includes interfacing to a host software on a node of a tactical network using a TAP interface; breaking up ethernet packets from the TAP interface into J16.0 messages that include payload data from the ethernet packet and header information that uniquely identifies the J16.0 message for deterministic reassembly of the ethernet packet from the stream of J16.0 messages in which it is included. The J16.0 messages may be transmitted using a fighter data link over a tactical network link. At the destination node of the link, the J16.0 messages may be reassembled into ethernet packets, allowing the tactical network to be implemented as virtual private network having (internet protocol) IP addresses for each node.
US07646779B2
A hierarchical packet scheduler using hole-filling and multiple packet buffering. Packet references are enqueued into a hierarchical packet scheduler, wherein the hierarchical packet scheduler includes one or more levels, each level including one or more schedulers being served by one or more threads, wherein the number of threads serving a particular level is not dependent on the number of schedulers on the particular level. Packet references are dequeued from the hierarchical packet scheduler at a root level scheduler of the one or more schedulers.
US07646778B2
In one embodiment, a Provider Backbone Edge Bridge (BEB) IEEE 802.1ah compliant apparatus includes a B-component having one or more provider backbone ports, and a first I-component coupled with the B-component, the first I-component being configured to support a S-tagged interface. A second I-component is also coupled with the B-component, the second I-component being configured to support a C-tagged interface, thereby facilitating direct connection to a device operating in compliance with IEEE 802.1Q specification. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.
US07646774B2
A digital broadcast transmitting/receiving system and a method for processing data are disclosed. The method for processing data may enhance the receiving performance of the receiving system by performing additional coding and multiplexing processes on the traffic information data and transmitting the processed data. Thus, robustness is provided to the traffic information data, thereby enabling the data to respond strongly against the channel environment which is always under constant and vast change.
US07646771B2
An improvement in the compilation of classification tables from across control lists increases the efficiency of memory utilization by fragments in the lower level tables and using the classification ID's from a pair of higher-level tables as pointers to the fragments and as indicators of the depth of the entries in the fragments. A further improvement makes use of aggregate bit vectors, thereby simplifying construction of the lower-level tables. The bit-vector sections preferably coincide with the cache lines of the processing, thereby maximizing the speed with which the relevant bits in the bit vector can be identified from the aggregate bit vectors.
US07646768B2
Techniques are provided for re-mapping and interleaving transport packets of multiple transport streams for processing by a single transport demultiplexor. At least one PID re-map table is employed having re-map values indexed by n possible PID values of transport packets associated with at one transport stream of the multiple transport streams. The n possible PID values is less than or equal to the number of PID values which can be handled by the single transport demultiplexor, and is less than all possible PID values of transport packets within the multiple transport streams. The PID values within at least one transport stream are compared with the n possible PID values of the PID re-map table, and when a match is found, the table is indexed using the matching entry and a re-map value is generated therefrom. The re-map value replaces the original PID value within the transport packet.
US07646761B2
A communications system that supports multimedia components is easily adapted to existing network elements. Voice components arriving at or coming from a user having multimedia capabilities are referred from a telephony server serving the user to a multimedia server. A determination is made as to whether the other party supports multimedia capabilities. If that determination is negative, the component is passed back to the telephony server with an indication that the session is coming from the multimedia server to avoid an infinite loop. If the determination is positive, a parallel multimedia component is established between the parties while the multimedia server remains aware of the bearer path.
US07646759B2
A method and apparatus for configuring data plane behavior on network forwarding elements are described. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving, within a network element control plane, protocol configuration information extracted from a protocol application utilizing a network protocol application programming interface (API). Once the protocol configuration information is received, the protocol configuration information is processed using a control interface corresponding to the network protocol implemented by the protocol application. Once the protocol configuration information is processed, the control interface programs one or more data plane forwarding elements of the network element according to protocol configuration information. Accordingly, by providing similar control interfaces for multiple, network protocols, inter-operability between components from multiple vendors is enabled.
US07646754B2
In a mobile ad hoc network, a method of routing data and a mobile unit for use according to the method are arranged to find the relay capacity of a node and the lifetime of the node, and thereby determine whether the node can relay the data. The method and unit can find the relay efficiency of nodes and this information is used to route data traffic efficiently through a number of nodes along a route.
US07646749B2
A downlink beamforming apparatus and a transmission apparatus including the same includes a subcarrier based user identifier for dividing subcarriers according to users, a beamforming weight buffer for storing first beamforming weights for the subcarriers by each of transmitting antennas, an interpolator for outputting second beamforming weights for each transmitting antenna by interpolating the first beamforming weights, and a signal reproducer for reproducing the signal for each transmitting antenna. Subcarriers are allocated to the signal by each user; and a complex multiplier multiplies the signal for each transmitting antenna by the second beamforming weights.
US07646745B2
Methods and systems are disclosed to enable users of mobile devices to have an easy out of the box experience. In some examples, during the initial powering on of a mobile device, subsequent powering on of the mobile device, or at user direction, the device queries a user about connecting to an alternate wireless access network supported by the mobile device and upon receiving an indication from the user of the mobile device to proceed with the connection to the alternate wireless access network, connects the mobile device to an alternate wireless access network.
US07646741B2
A messaging client and associated method for client-based multicast message transmission is provided. In one embodiment, the messaging client includes a message origination process with an input device, message buffer, recipient list, new message area, and multicast message transmission process. In one embodiment, the method includes: a) receiving a message content to be transmitted in a message, b) receiving delivery information for first and second recipients to whom the message is to be transmitted, c) receiving an instruction to begin the message transmission, d) transmitting the message from the client to the first recipient, and e) transmitting the message from the client to the second recipient. The messaging client and associated method relate to short message service (SMS), enhanced message service (EMS), multimedia message service (MMS), and other types of similar message services.
US07646739B2
Various systems and methods are disclosed for performing multicast routing over unidirectional links. For example, one method involves maintaining a multicast adjacency state, which is associated with an interface that is coupled to receive messages from a network device via a unidirectional link. The multicast adjacency state identifies a network address of the network device. The method also involves sending a multicast protocol control message to the network device via a bidirectional path. The destination address of the network multicast protocol control message is the network address in the multicast adjacency state.
US07646737B2
An apparatus and method are disclosed for system provisioning in a multimode wireless communication device. A multimode wireless communication device may store multiple system provision information internally, or combine system provision information stored internally with removable memory devices, which store additional system provision information. The multimode wireless device may simultaneously have access to a plurality of valid system provision information for a plurality of systems. The wireless device attempts to validate one of the plurality of stored system provision information using a hierarchy. The hierarchy may be established by a phone manufacturer or may be programmed by a service provider or a user. The wireless device attempts to validate system provision information based on the hierarchy. Once a system provision is validated, the device activates service or registers in the system. If a less desirable system is acquired, the device may periodically attempt to validate preferred systems.
US07646727B2
An IP broadcast transmitting device comprises means for acquiring and collecting channel tuning information and program-related information from broadcast signals of each broadcasting station from which the broadcast signals are distributed, means for updating and managing the information, means for distributing the information independently from IP multicast-distributions of the broadcast signals, and means for distributing a service area tuning list with IP multicast-distribution information of the broadcast signals and distribution positions of the channel tuning information and the program-related information of the broadcast signals described therein.
US07646726B2
A system is disclosed for detecting packetization delay of packets in a network. The system includes a router to receive at least one packet containing data. A detection system, which is in communication with the router, extracts a codec information and a packet length information from the packet. A management system, which is in communication with the router, receives the codec information and the packet length information and determines packetization delay based on the codec information and the packet length information.
US07646721B2
Hardware faults location in a data communications network of a parallel computer. Such a parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes and a data communications network that couples the compute nodes for data communications and organizes the compute node as a tree. Locating hardware faults includes identifying a next compute node as a parent node and a root of a parent test tree, identifying for each child compute node of the parent node a child test tree having the child compute node as root, running a same test suite on the parent test tree and each child test tree, and identifying the parent compute node as having a defective link connected from the parent compute node to a child compute node if the test suite fails on the parent test tree and succeeds on all the child test trees.
US07646718B1
A switching device comprises M ports, N bandwidth tracking modules, a mapping memory, and a rate limiting module. The N bandwidth tracking modules each have an adjustable first threshold, an adjustable rate, and a fullness level, wherein M and N are integers that are greater than one. The mapping memory contains a map for each of the M ports, wherein each map assigns a set of the N bandwidth tracking modules to a corresponding one of the M ports, wherein each of the sets is individually modifiable to include zero to N of the N bandwidth tracking modules. The rate limiting module that selectively performs an action on a packet received at one of the M ports based on the fullness levels of the set of N bandwidth tracking modules identified by the map for the one of the M ports.
US07646714B2
Queues are provided, which are a high-speed small-capacity queue disposed in a high-speed small-capacity medium inputting and outputting online form messages at high speed and a low-speed large-capacity queue disposed in a low-speed large-capacity medium inputting and outputting batch form messages at a speed slower than the high-speed small-capacity medium. A residence rate detection unit detects a residence rate of the form messages in the high-speed small-capacity queue. When the form message is received, a storage control unit stores the form message into the high-speed small-capacity queue or the low-speed large-capacity queue determined based on the priority, the availability of the high-speed small-capacity medium and the residence rate. A dynamic allocation change unit transfers the form messages between the queues based on the residence rate of the high-speed small-capacity queue 30-1 and the availability of the high-speed small-capacity medium.
US07646710B2
The present invention provides a terminal capable of establishing multiple communication sessions with a public network proxy through different access networks. The terminal actively communicates with the public network proxy to control which of the multiple communication paths are active, as well as control the transition from actively using one communication path to using another. The public network proxy facilitates data and voice sessions between the terminal and any number of other communication devices. In one embodiment, the communication sessions are reserved tunneling sessions, and the terminal cooperates with the public network proxy to effectively control how many tunneling sessions are established, how many tunneling sessions are active at any given time, and the transition from one tunneling session to another for active communications. Each of the communication or tunneling sessions may be established over different access networks using different communication technologies and protocols.
US07646700B2
A transmitting device for transmitting data symbols and pilot symbols in an OFDM transmission system; the device comprising symbol generating means for generating said data symbols and said pilot symbols, means for transmitting said data symbols and pilot symbols respectively by using a plurality of subcarriers of said OFDM transmission system, wherein said symbol generating means is designed to selectively generate a first type pilot symbol and a second type pilot symbol being orthogonal to said first type pilot symbol so that a pilot symbol pattern in the frequency dimension comprises at least said first type pilot symbol to be transmitted by using a predefined subcarrier and second type pilot symbol to be transmitted by using other predefined subcarrier, and wherein said pilot symbol pattern has a different pattern from a succeeding pilot symbol pattern in time dimension.
US07646695B2
A molecular data storage device and method thereof are disclosed. In an aspect, the molecular data storage device includes a laser source for providing a photon beam, a beam splitter for splitting the photon beam to provide a first and second coherent beams, a data page modulator for encoding with the first beam to provide a signal beam and a storage material disposed such that the first beam and the second beam enters orthogonal faces thereof.
US07646691B2
An S-curve discriminating portion discriminates that a recording face of an optical disk is opposed to a pickup when a normal S-curve appears in a waveform of a focus error signal Fe that appears when an objective lens fluctuates vertically, while discriminates that a label face is opposed when the waveform of the focus error signal is distorted and two S-curves with large and small magnitudes appear. A signal indicating this discriminated result is supplied to a control portion for controlling respective portions of an optical disk drive.
US07646690B2
A BCA (Burst Cutting Area) code including a unique disk code indicating the type of a disk is written in a BCA code area of the disk. If the disk is mounted into the optical disk player, the optical disk player reads data written in the BCA code area, extracts the disk code contained in the read data, and confirms the type of the disk corresponding to the extracted disk code by retrieving a disk code table in which disk codes corresponding to the types of disks are mapped.
US07646688B2
A disc with a temporary defect management information area and a defect management area includes a defect management area that is present in at least one of a lead-in area, a lead-out area, and an outer area, a temporary defect information area which is formed in the data area and in which temporary defect information is recorded, and a temporary defect management information area which is present in at least one of the lead-in area, and the lead-out area. Accordingly, it is possible to record user data in a recordable disc, especially, a write-once disc, while performing defect management thereon, thereby enabling efficient use of a defect management area having a limited recording capacity.
US07646687B2
A method for determining recording laser power on a super-resolution optical recording medium, on which information is recorded on a super-resolution optical recording medium by irradiating a laser beam modulated into a recording pulse train according to recording data to thereby form a recording mark train including recording marks and spaces smaller than the resolution limit of a reproduction optical system and recording marks and spaces equal to or larger than the resolution limit, is provided. At the time of recording, the method determines a minimum value and a maximum value of recordable laser powers determined by test-writing before recording, and determines a maximum value of a recordable range of laser power by adding to the minimum value one-third of a difference between the maximum value of the recordable laser powers and the minimum value. The method determines an optimal range of recording laser power from the minimum value of recordable laser powers to the maximum value of the recordable range.
US07646671B2
Marine towed streamer seismic data are combined from a first survey and a second survey, wherein the first survey and the second survey are shot with a bin size of L×L and the second survey is shot with a shooting direction rotated 90° relative to the shooting direction of the first survey. The combined seismic data from the first and second surveys are binned on a bin grid with a bin size of L 2 × L 2 and with a bin grid orientation rotated 45° relative to the shooting directions of the first and second surveys. Then, seismic data processing is applied to the binned seismic data to create an image of the Earth's subsurface.
US07646665B2
There are provided a semiconductor memory device and a burn-in test method thereof. A semiconductor memory device according to an aspect of the invention includes a plurality of memory cell blocks, each of which includes a plurality of memory cells that are respectively coupled to a plurality of word lines and a plurality of bit lines, a word line control unit activating word lines in memory cell blocks that correspond to row address signals and word lines in memory cell blocks that do not correspond to the row address signals, during a test operation, and a write circuit writing data in the memory cell blocks that correspond to the row address signals and not writing data in the memory cell blocks that do not correspond to the row address signals, during the test operation.
US07646659B2
A semiconductor device temperature sensor produces a reference level for temperature detection from two or more reference levels of different temperatures to detect a temperature. The temperature sensor is applied for detecting the temperature of a semiconductor storage device having a memory unit which requires a refresh action. A refresh cycle control circuit provided in the semiconductor storage device controls the cycle of the refresh action for the memory unit in response to an output of the temperature sensor.
US07646656B2
A semiconductor memory device includes: an input pad set configured to receive an external input signal and a reference voltage; an input buffer set configured to detect and transmit the input signal to an internal circuit of the semiconductor memory device by comparing the input signal with the reference voltage; and a reference voltage generation circuit configured to generate the reference voltage to supply the reference voltage to the input pad set and the input buffer set during a test operation, the reference voltage generation circuit being deactivated after the semiconductor memory device is packaged.
US07646654B2
An address strobe latches a first address. A burst cycle increments the address internally with additional address strobes. A new memory address is only required at the beginning of each burst access. Read/Write commands are issued once per burst access eliminating toggling Read/Write control line at cycle frequency. Control line transition terminates access and initializes another burst access. Write cycle times are maximized thereby allowing increases in burst mode operating frequencies. Logic near sense amplifiers control write-data drivers thereby providing maximum write times without crossing current during I/O line equilibration. By gating global write-enable signals with global equilibrate signals locally at sense amps, local write-cycle control signals are provided and valid for essentially the entire cycle time minus an I/O line equilibration period in burst access memory. For nonburst mode, write begins following end of equilibration cycle to provide maximum write time without interfering with subsequent access-cycle address setup time.
US07646645B2
A method and apparatus for testing correct operation of a page decoder in a memory is provided. In one implementation, the method includes erasing the memory to reset all memory cells associated with each of the N pages in the memory, and iteratively generating a unique bit sequence of M bits and programming the unique bit sequence into a plurality of the N pages at a given time until each of the N pages contains a unique bit sequence relative to other pages in the memory. Responsive to each of the N pages having a unique bit sequence, the method further includes using the page decoder to read out each unique bit sequence associated with the N pages to verify correct operation of the page decoder.
US07646643B1
Techniques are described to monitor charging of an integrated circuit during manufacturing processes. In one example, an integrated circuit includes first and second pads adapted to be charged by charge carriers during manufacture of the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit also includes a reference nonvolatile memory cell comprising a floating gate and a control gate, wherein the control gate is coupled to the first pad. The integrated circuit further includes a charging protection device coupled to the control gate of the reference memory cell and adapted to limit the gate voltage of the control gate induced by the charge carriers. In addition, the integrated circuit includes a charging monitor nonvolatile memory cell comprising a floating gate and a control gate, wherein the control gate is coupled to the second pad but not to a charging protection device adapted to limit the gate voltage of the control gate.
US07646641B2
NAND flash memory cell array having control gates and charge storage gates stacked in pairs arranged in rows between a bit line diffusion and a common source diffusion, with select gates on both sides of each of the pairs of stacked gates. The gates in each stacked pair are self-aligned with each other, and the charge storage gates are either a nitride or a combination of nitride and oxide. Programming is done by hot electron injection from silicon substrate to the charge storage gates to build up a negative charge in the charge storage gates. Erasing is done by channel tunneling from the charge storage gates to the silicon substrate or by hot hole injection from the silicon substrate to the charge storage gates. The array is biased so that all of the memory cells can be erased simultaneously, while programming is bit selectable.
US07646640B2
A semiconductor memory device includes first and second memory cell blocks, a block decoder, and first and second block switches. The first and second memory cell blocks have a plurality of memory cells connected in a string structure and are respectively disposed in neighboring planes. The block decoder outputs first and second block select signals in response to pre-decoded address signals and first and second plane select signals, which are respectively enabled according to an enable state of the planes. The first and second block switches connect global word lines to word lines of the first and second memory cell blocks in response to the first and second block select signals, respectively.
US07646634B2
Method of magnetization reversal of the magnetization (M) of at least one first magnetic memory element of an array of magnetic memory elements comprising the steps of: applying a first magnetic field pulse to a first set of magnetic memory elements, and applying a second magnetic field pulse to a second set of magnetic memory elements, such that during the application of the first and second magnetic field pulse the magnetization (M) of said first magnetic memory element which is to be reversed upon the field pulse decay performs approximately an odd number of a half precessional turns, wherein the magnetization (M) of at least one second magnetic memory element which is not to be reversed upon the field pulse decay performs approximately a number of full precessional turns. The underlying concept of the invention is to improve the bit addressing in an array of magnetic memory cells by reducing the ringing of the magnetization of the free layer of the magnetic cells which are not selected for reversal but which are nevertheless subject to the application of a magnetic field pulse. This can be achieved by applying a field pulse to these cells which induces approximately a full precessional turn of the magnetization of the free layer of the cells. After the full precessional turn the magnetization is oriented very near the initial orientation along the easy axis of magnetization and the magnetic ringing after application of the half select field pulse is reduced.
US07646632B2
An integrated circuit includes an array of resistance changing memory cells and a first circuit. The first circuit is configured to set a selected memory cell to a crystalline state by applying a decreasing stair step pulse to the selected memory cell. The pulse is based on a reset current distribution for the array of memory cells.
US07646628B2
A toggle magnetic random access memory includes a first memory array, a second memory array and a controller. The first memory array includes a plurality of first memory cells including magnetoresistive elements. The second memory array includes a plurality of second memory cells including magnetoresistive elements and differs from the first memory array in write wirings used for writing. The controller controls the first memory array and the second memory array such that a first state in which a first burst write operation in the first memory array is executed and a second state in which a second burst write operation in the second memory array is executed are alternately executed in a continuous burst write mode. Accordingly, the continuous burst write operation can be executed at the high speed without any drop in the reliability and any increase in the circuit area.
US07646624B2
In a method of providing an operating characteristic of a resistive memory device, material of an electrode thereof is selected to in turn provide a selected operating characteristic of the device. The material of the electrode may be reacted with material of an insulating layer of the resistive memory device to form a reaction layer, the selected operating characteristic being dependent on the presence of the reaction layer.
US07646610B2
A DC-DC converter comprising a soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate provided with a laminated coil constituted by connecting pluralities of conductor lines, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a switching device and a control circuit, which are mounted on the soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate; the semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising an input terminal, an output terminal, a first control terminal for controlling the ON/OFF of the switching device, a second control terminal for variably controlling output voltage, and pluralities of ground terminals; the soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate comprising first external terminals formed on a first main surface, first connecting wires formed on the first main surface and/or on nearby layers, second connecting wires formed between the side surface of the multi-layer substrate and a periphery of the laminated coil, and second external terminals formed on a second main surface; and terminals of the semiconductor integrated circuit device being connected to the first external terminals on the multi-layer substrate, at least part of the first external terminals being electrically connected to the second external terminals through the first and second connecting wires, and the input or output terminal being connected to the second external terminals via the laminated coil.
US07646608B2
An apparatus for coupling a heat-generating device to a heat-removing device. The apparatus includes a thermally-conductive plate having a first side and a second side. The apparatus also includes a plurality of first channels that intersect with a plurality of second channels formed on at least one of the first side and the second side. The formation of the first channels and the second channels weaken the thermally-conductive plate. The apparatus further includes a plurality of protrusions formed by the intersection of the first channels and the second channels. The protrusions are deformable by coupling the thermally-conductive plate between the heat-generating device and the heat-removing device.
US07646605B2
An electronic module packaging system and an electronic module packaging apparatus are disclosed. The electronic module packaging system includes an exterior packing box, an electronic module packaging apparatus, and antistatic packing foam holding the electronic module packaging apparatus within the exterior packing box. The electronic module packaging apparatus includes a top component made of an antistatic material, and a bottom component made of a conductive material. The bottom component includes multiple support members to hold an electronic module in a stable position. The top component and the bottom component may be coupled with multiple securing clips.
US07646604B2
A heat dissipation device for at least a heat-generating electronic component includes a heat sink, a fan for providing an airflow through the heat sink and a fan holder coupling the fan to the heat sink. The heat sink has a first locking part and a second locking part opposite to the first locking part. The fan holder has a first engaging part engaging with the first locking part at one side of the heat sink and a second engaging part engaging with the second locking part of the heat sink at an opposite side thereof. The first engaging part has a horizontally extending fixing arm and a barb extending downwardly from the fixing arm and hooking with a top side of the heat sink.
US07646600B2
A method and incorporated assembly is provided to enhance structural integrity and prevent interface deflection in a computer rack having a midplane and capable of housing a plurality of nodes. The assembly comprises at least one structural filler book capable of being disposed above or below said midplane where any node may be disposed having geometry and material properties to resist and counteract the plugging force of said node an causing a cancellation effect. The filler book have at least two horizontal supports being connected to one another via a vertical support and a plenum an air for directing air flow. The filler book is being secured to said rack or midplane via an engagement component disposed on one of its horizontal supports. The engagement component has a complementary air duct such that when said filler book and said engagement compartment are engaged and disposed in the rack, the air duct and the plenum align to provide a tuned path of air to be delivered to electronic components plugged to said rack and midplane.
US07646599B2
A latch mechanism for fixing a cover unit to a base unit of a foldable electronic device in a closed position is provided. The cover unit includes two locking portions. The base unit defines two slots. The latch mechanism includes a locking member, and at least one resilient member. The locking member is configured for being slidably received in the base unit. The locking member includes two protrusions. The locking portions of the cover unit extend through the corresponding slots of the base unit, and engage with the corresponding protrusions of the locking member for fixing the cover unit in the closed position. The resilient member is engagable with the locking member, for keeping the locking member in a locked position.
US07646591B2
A support mechanism includes a support member which has a tab slidable along a groove, and can be fixed at a desired position when an engagement teeth array in the tab engages with an engagement hook. Also, a pressing member with a presser portion is movable along the engagement teeth array, and can be fixed at a desired position when an engagement hook engages with an engagement teeth array. Thus, a single front panel can be used for a number of flat display panels of different sizes.
US07646588B2
A carbon nanotube film includes a first carbon nanotube group that is an aggregate of carbon nanotubes crosslinked to each other to form a network structure and a second carbon nanotube group that is an aggregate of carbon nanotubes having a diameter different from a diameter of the carbon nanotubes in the first carbon nanotube group, wherein the first carbon nanotube group and the second carbon nanotube group are in admixture.
US07646584B2
A capacitor body of a multilayer feedthrough capacitor is arranged with grounding inner electrodes and signal inner electrodes. The grounding inner electrodes include first and second grounding main electrode portions, grounding connection electrode portions having no areas opposing the signal inner electrodes, and first and second grounding lead electrode portions. The signal inner electrodes include first and second signal main electrode portions, signal connection electrode portions having no areas opposing the grounding inner electrodes, and first and second signal lead electrode portions.
US07646581B2
An electrostatic chuck capable of widening a temperature range and reducing a variation in thermal conductivity between the electrostatic chuck and the flat substrate over time is provided. The chuck includes: a body that has an internal electrode for attracting a flat substrate by an electrostatic force provided therein, a plurality of protrusions formed on one surface of the body serving as an electrostatic attraction surface, and projections provided on the top surfaces of some or all of the plurality of protrusions. In the electrostatic chuck, a region of the top surface of each of the minute projections on which the flat substrate is loaded is referred to as a mounting surface, and the total area of the mounting surfaces of the minute projections is equal to or larger than 0.01% and equal to or smaller than 2% of the area of the electrostatic attraction surface.
US07646575B2
A circuit protection system includes a normal mode and a maintenance mode. A current sensor senses current in the circuit. An enclosure includes an access panel that is movable between a closed position and open position. A circuit breaker is mounted within the enclosure. An electronic trip unit is in communication with the current sensor and controls interruptions of the current by the circuit breaker based on a trip setting. An interface device is accessible when said access panel is closed and allows selections of the normal and maintenance modes. A display, which is in communication with both of the user interface device and the electronic trip unit, monitors the interface device and transmits data to the trip unit that is based on the selected mode. The display receives data from the trip unit and displays information based on the received data. The display is viewable when the access panel is closed. The trip unit changes the trip setting when said maintenance mode is selected to reduce potential arc flash energy.
US07646573B2
An apparatus for protecting an integrated circuit from electrostatic discharge (ESD) includes an RC trigger device configured between a pair of power rails, a first control path coupled to the RC trigger device, and a second control path coupled to the RC trigger device. A power clamp is configured between the power rails for discharging current from an ESD event, the power clamp having an input coupled to outputs of the first and second control paths, the power clamp independently controllable by the first and second control paths. The first and second control paths are further configured to prevent the power clamp from reactivating following an initial deactivation of the power clamp.
US07646572B2
A system is for an aircraft including a plurality of rows of seats. The system includes a plurality of monitors, a plurality of arc fault circuit interrupters each of which includes three poles having a line terminal and a load terminal. Each of a plurality of electronic enclosures is capable of being energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the AFCIs. A panel holds the AFCIs. A single-phase power source powers the line terminals of the poles of the AFCIs. Each of the poles corresponds to one row of the aircraft. Each of the electronic enclosures corresponds to one of a plurality of zones. Three of the rows are disposed in each of the zones. One of the AFCIs is associated with a corresponding one of the zones.
US07646570B2
Current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) read sensors having constrained current paths made of lithographically-defined conductive vias with surrounding oxidized metal sublayers, and methods of making the same, are disclosed. In one illustrative example, at least part of a sensor stack structure which includes an electrically conductive spacer layer is formed. A metal (e.g. Ta) sublayer is then deposited over and adjacent the spacer layer, followed by one of an oxidation process, a nitridation process, and an oxynitridation process, to produce an insulator (e.g. TaOx) from the metal sublayer. The metal sublayer deposition and oxidation/nitridation/oxynitridation processes are repeated as necessary to form the insulator with a suitable thickness. Next, a resist structure which exposes one or more portions of the insulator is formed over the insulator. With the resist structure in place, exposed insulator materials are removed by etching to form one or more apertures through the insulator down to the spacer layer. Electrically conductive materials are subsequently deposited within the one or more apertures to form one or more lithographically-defined conductive vias of a current-constraining structure. Advantageously, the lithographically-defined conductive vias increase the current density of the read sensor in the region of the sensing layers to thereby simultaneously increase its resistance and magnetoresistance. With use of the process of oxidation, nitridation, or oxynitridation on each metal sublayer, degradation of the spacer layer is reduced or eliminated such that the desirable soft magnetics of the sensing layers in the read sensor are maintained.
US07646561B2
Embodiments of the present invention efficiently perform servo correction for prevention of propagation of a position error in a radial direction in self servo write (SSW). According to one embodiment, in SSW, a target position of a reference track TO in writing a servo write track TN is corrected. The target position is represented as a target value of a position signal calculated from a signal read by a read element. A signal indicating a deviation (a position error) from the target position (the target value) is referred to as PES. The SSW in this example performs correction of target positions in respective tracks using an impulse response of a servo system. Consequently, it is possible to efficiently and effectively prevent the propagation of position error in the SSW.
US07646555B2
A system includes a hard disk controller (HDC) module that controls a hard disk and a read channel (RC) device that communicates with the HDC module via a read bus and a write bus. The RC device includes a loopback circuit that selectively loops back the write bus to the read bus. The RC device generates a write clock for the HDC module to write data on the write bus and a read clock for the HDC module to read the data on the read bus, wherein the write clock is independent of the read clock.
US07646545B2
An optical element includes an airtight container having opposing face walls in a thickness direction, and side walls connecting the end face walls; a first liquid sealed in the container and having polarity or conductivity; a second liquid sealed in the container and not mixed with the first liquid so as to define an interface between the first liquid and the second liquid; and voltage applying means for applying a voltage to the first liquid. Further, the first liquid and the second liquid have the same specific gravity and substantially the same refractive index, and minute particles made of a material that does not transmit light are mixed in the first liquid, such that the first liquid has less light transmittance than the second liquid. In a state in which the voltage is applied to the first liquid, the interface between the first liquid and the second liquid deforms, and a transmitting path of light is formed that passes through the end face walls and propagates in the thickness direction of the container.
US07646541B2
The invention relates to a backlighting system for a liquid-crystal display screen, comprising: an illumination source producing an illumination beam; an objective illuminated by said illumination beam; at least one folding mirror illuminated by the illumination beam coming from the objective; and a Fresnel lens capable of collimating and redirecting the illumination beam reflected by said at least one folding mirror, the beam transmitted by the Fresnel lens being intended to back-light said display screen.
US07646539B2
An optical device includes a substrate, a plurality of optical elements formed in an element formation region of the substrate, a plurality of lenses formed over the element formation region so as to correspond to the plurality of optical elements, and a protective layer formed so as to cover the plurality of lenses. A holding member is formed on the protective layer in a region outside the element formation region. The holding member holds a bottom surface of a transparent member. A gap between the protective layer and the transparent member is filled with an adhesive.
US07646533B2
A relatively high spectral bandwidth objective employed for use in imaging a specimen and method for imaging a specimen is provided. The objective includes a lens group having at least one focusing lens configured to receive light energy and form focused light energy. The focused light energy forms an intermediate image. The objective further includes at least one field lens located in proximity to an intermediate image, and a catadioptric arrangement positioned to receive the intermediate light energy from the at and form controlled light energy. The catadioptric arrangement may include at least one Mangin element and can include a meniscus lens element.
US07646532B2
An optical signal processor device (14) intended to be fitted to means (10) for optically transmitting an information-carrying signal (S) comprises means (20, 22) for suppressing backscattered signals (RS) in the optical transmission means (10), an optical propagation medium (16) intended to be connected in parallel with the optical transmission means (10), divertor means (18, 20) for diverting the backs-propagated signals (P, RS) in the optical transmission means (10) into the optical propagation medium (16), and signal discrimination means (22) connected to the optical propagation medium (16).
US07646530B2
In particles for image displaying used in an image display device, in which one or more kind of particles are sealed between opposed substrates, at least one substrate being transparent, and, in which the particles are made to fly and move so as to display an image, each particle has a micro-irregularity at its surface. Moreover, in an image display device, in which one or more kind of particles are sealed between opposed substrates, at least one substrate being transparent, and, in which the particles, to which an electrostatic field produced by two kinds of electrodes having different potentials is applied, are made to fly and move so as to display an image, use is made of each particle having a micro-irregularity at its surface.
US07646529B2
A multi-state light modulator comprises a first reflector 104. A first electrode 142 is positioned at a distance from the first reflector 104. A second reflector 14 is positioned between the first reflector 104 and the first electrode 142. The second reflector 14 is movable between an undriven position, a first driven position, and a second driven position, each having a corresponding distance from the first reflector 104. In one embodiment, the light modulator has latch electrodes 17 and 143, which hold the light modulator in a driven state. In another embodiment the latch electrodes 17 and 143 are used to alter the actuation and release thresholds of the light modulator.
US07646526B1
One exemplary embodiment of an electrochromic thin-film material comprises an alloy of antimony and one or more base metals; and/or an alloy of antimony, one or more base metals, and lithium; and/or an alloy of antimony, one or more base metals, lithium, and one or more noble metals. Another exemplary embodiment of an electrochromic thin-film material comprises a multilayer stack, the multilayer stack comprising at least one layer comprising one of antimony, antimony-lithium alloy, antimony-one or more base metals alloy, antimony-one or more base metals-lithium alloy, antimony-one or more base metals-one or more noble metals alloy, and antimony-one or more base metals-one or more noble metals-lithium alloy; and at least one alternating layer comprising one of a base metal and a base-metal alloy. One or more of the base metals comprise Co, Mn, Ni, Fe, Zn, Ti, V, Cr, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, W, Cd, Mg, Al, Ga, In, Sn, Pb, and Bi, and alloys thereof.
US07646525B2
An electro-wetting display panel including a first substrate, an insulator layer, a second substrate, partitioning structures, and electro-wetting display mediums. The first substrate has a plurality of first electrodes. The insulator layer is disposed on the first substrate to cover the first electrodes. The second substrate located above the first substrate and has a plurality of second electrodes. The partitioning structures are disposed on the insulator layer and each defines a pixel region, respectively. At least one of the partitioning structures has a flow channel surrounding the pixel regions, and the flow channel is connected to one of the pixel regions correspondingly. The electro-wetting display mediums are disposed within the pixel regions and the flow channels. When the electro-wetting display mediums are driven by the electric charge between the first electrodes and the second electrodes, the electro-wetting display mediums move between the pixel regions and the flow channels.
US07646524B2
Materials and structures whose index of refraction can be tuned over a broad range of negative and positive values by applying above band-gap photons to a structure with a strip line element, a split ring resonator element, and a substrate, at least one of which is a photoconductive semiconductor material. Methods for switching between positive and negative values of n include applying above band-gap photons to different numbers of elements. In another embodiment, a structure includes a photoconductive semiconductor wafer, the wafer operable to receive above band-gap photons at an excitation frequency in an excitation pattern on a surface of the wafer, the excitation patterns generating an effective negative index of refraction. Methods for switching between positive and negative values of n include projecting different numbers of elements on the wafer. The resonant frequency of the structure is tuned by changing the size of the split ring resonator excitation patterns.
US07646522B2
An optical pattern uses a single rotating component. The rotating component includes a number of deflection sectors. Each sector deflects an incident optical beam by a substantially constant angular amount although this amount may vary from one sector to the next. The rotating component may be combined with an imaging lens group that produces, for example, image points, spots, or lines displaced along a line locus.
US07646518B2
A two dimensional image forming device includes a laser light source which is a coherent light source; a prism array that changes the traveling direction of a beam exiting from the laser light source; a driving portion that rotates the prism array; a rod integrator that guides the exiting beam deflected on the prism array while allowing the beam to undergo internal reflection; a projection optical system that projects the exiting end face of the rod integrator onto a two dimensional spatial light modulation element; and a projection lens that projects light exiting from the two dimensional spatial light modulation element onto a specific plane within a space.
US07646507B2
A calibration system includes: an image formation unit that outputs a patch sheet having a plurality of patch patterns based on different gradation values for each color of color material that is used; a selection unit that receives an instruction to select a device from among a plurality of color measurement devices comprising a first color measurement device and a second color measurement device of a lower color measurement accuracy than that of the first color measurement device; a color measurement unit that receives data of a color measurement result for the patch sheet that is color-measured by the color measurement device selected by the selection instruction; a color measurement value determination unit that acquires color measurement values for each of the patch patterns on the basis of the color measurement result data received; and a color adjustment unit that generates color correction information of the image formation unit on the basis of the color measurement values acquired. In the system, the output patch sheet is common irrespective of the color measurement device selected by the selection instruction and, when the second color measurement device is selected by the selection instruction, the color measurement value determination unit acquires, by averaging a plurality of the color measurement result data that exist in the patch pattern, the color measurement values for each of the patch patterns.
US07646505B2
Approaches for the optimized printing of electronic documents are provided. The approaches are applicable to a wide variety of contexts and implementations and include generating an estimated processing time for an electronic document and reporting the estimated processing time back to a client device. Generating an estimated time to process includes processing at least a portion of the print data. Further, the approaches include re-ordering a processing queue based on the estimated processing time for the electronic document, and additionally based on an in-queue time for each print data in the processing queue. Further, any user-designated priority may be factored into the re-ordering of print data in the processing queue, or in the alternative, bypass the optimization process entirely. These approaches may be implemented on a printing device, a print server, a client device or any other device capable of utilizing these approaches.
US07646504B2
In an image data processing device, correcting of input color image data, converting the input data to monochrome image, and judging whether the image expressed by the input color image data is a color image or a monochrome image, are all performed simultaneously; the corrected color image data and the converted monochrome image data are stored; and based on the judgment, any one of the color image data and the monochrome image data stored are transmitted to an external device via a communicating unit.
US07646502B2
A driver program is provided for causing a host apparatus to execute a processing of generating color-converted image data and transferring it to a printing apparatus, this program making it possible to decrease the volume of image data to be stored in the host apparatus and to conduct data transfer without delaying the printing completion. A driver program causes a host apparatus to execute a processing of generating image data comprising data of a plurality of colors and transferring it to a printing apparatus. When the transfer of the image data of one plane is conducted, the driver program causes the host apparatus to execute a transfer processing conducted by intermingling a step of transferring by each band of the bands obtained by dividing the image data of one plane at the prescribed height, and a step of transferring by each color of the plurality of colors.
US07646500B2
An image formation assisting device calculates layout information such as allocation and pasting position of each page by a BEP from a file size with reference to the orientation tag of image file data in a TIFF produced by an RIP and cuts image data electronically according to the result of the calculation and makes the upper portion and lower portion of each page correspond with those of the other papers and rearranges each electronically cut page according to an instruction of collation or face-down, when the instruction is provided, and activates a print engine to start and specifies predetermined paper automatically and outputs the image data to the print engine. As a result, there is provided an image formation assisting device capable of using image data for CTP for on-demand printing.
US07646499B2
An authentication code detecting unit detects data addition authentication information from a print job. An upper apparatus specifying unit specifies a transmitting source of the print job. A RAM stores the data addition authentication information, the transmitting source of the print job, and the print job. An operating unit receives print request authentication information. An elapsed time measuring unit measures an elapsed time from the reception of the print job having the data addition authentication information. An erasure extension necessity inquiry unit requests an answer about the necessity of extension of an erasing time from the transmitting source when the measurement result indicates the elapse of a predetermined time. When the erasure extension is necessary, an erasure/extension decision processing unit extends the elapsed time until the erasure of the print job after its reception.
US07646495B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for computing focus information prior to scanning digital microscope slides with a line scan camera. The methods include a point-focus procedure that works by moving the slide to the desired measurement location, moving the objective lens through a predefined set of height values, acquiring imagery data at each height, and determining the height of maximum contrast. The methods also include a ribbon-focus procedure whereby imagery data are acquired continuously, while the slide and objective lens are in motion. Both methods may be applied with either a static or a dynamic implementation.
US07646487B2
A reflectance measuring apparatus is provided in the present invention. In addition to measuring the intensity of light directly reflected from a sample, the apparatus is further capable of collecting large-angle reflected light scattered from the sample through a reflecting cover disposed over the sample and measuring the intensity thereof. In one embodiment, the reflecting cover has a parabolic surface for modulating the large-angle reflected light to become parallel light projecting onto a photo-detector. In another embodiment, the reflecting cover has an elliptic surface for modulating the large-angle scattered light to focus on the photo-detector.
US07646484B2
A method of determining an optical parameter or function thereof for a liquid, the method comprising: flowing the liquid through a flow cell; transmitting a pulse of light into the liquid in the flow cell; generating a signal responsive to energy that the material emits responsive to a portion of the light from the light pulse that is absorbed by the liquid; and using the signal to determine the optical parameter or function thereof.
US07646481B2
A method and a microscope, in particular a laser scanning fluorescence microscope, for high spatial resolution examination of samples, the sample (1) to be examined comprising a substance that can be repeatedly converted from a first state (Z1, A) into a second state (Z2, B), the first and the second states (Z1, A; Z2, B) differing from one another in at least one optical property, comprising the steps that the substance in a sample region (P) to be recorded is firstly brought into the first state (Z1, A), and that the second state (Z2, B) is induced by means of an optical signal (4), spatially delimited subregions being specifically excluded within the sample region (P) to be recorded, are defined in that the optical signal (4) is provided in such a way that a standing wave with defined intensity zero points (5) is formed in the sample region (P) to be recorded.
US07646472B2
Provided are an off-axis illumination apparatus, an exposure apparatus, and an off-axis illumination method. The off-axis illumination apparatus may include a mask, a light source for emitting light to the mask, and an incident angle varying section for varying an incident angle of the light. The exposure apparatus may include the off-axis illumination apparatus in addition to a wafer stage and an optical detector. The off-axis illumination method may include irradiating light from the light source to a mask, and moving positions of the light source and the mask to vary an incident angle of the light to the mask.
US07646465B2
Liquid crystal displays and fabrication methods thereof are provided. The liquid crystal display includes first substrate and second substrate facing the first substrate, and liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The first substrate includes a peripheral part spacer of which a surface includes a transparent conductive material, the peripheral part spacer being connected to a common voltage connector of the second substrate. A common voltage is applied to the first substrate through the common voltage connector and the peripheral part spacer. The peripheral part spacer is formed in the same process step with a display part spacer. To provide the peripheral part spacer with conductivity, the surface of the peripheral part spacer is covered with a transparent conductive material in the same process step in which the common electrode is formed on the first substrate. Accordingly, the peripheral part spacer configured to apply a common voltage to a common electrode can be formed without additional processing.
US07646463B2
A pixel structure including a first active device, a second active device, a first pixel electrode electrically connecting the first active device, a second pixel electrode electrically connecting the second active device and a first capacitance lower electrode is provided. Both the first active device and the second active device electrically connect a scan line and a data line. The first pixel electrode has a first interlacing pattern and first stripe patterns connected thereto. The second pixel electrode has a second interlacing pattern and second stripe patterns connected thereto. The first capacitance lower electrode located under the first interlacing pattern has a first region and second regions. The first pixel electrode substantially shields the first region but does not shield the second regions. An area ratio of the first region to the second regions is about 10:1˜300:1.
US07646459B2
The liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposed to the first substrate, and a vertically aligned liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrates, and has a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix having rows and columns. Each pixel includes a first electrode formed on the first substrate, a second electrode formed on the second substrate, and the liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second electrodes. The first substrate has a shading region in gaps between the plurality of pixels, and a wall structure is placed regularly on the surface of the first substrate facing the liquid crystal layer in the shading region. The first and second electrodes have at least one opening formed at a predetermined position in the pixel. At least an arbitrary row or column of pixels is composed of first pixels each having the first electrode to which a voltage of positive polarity with respect to the potential at the second electrode as the reference potential is supplied and second pixels each having the first electrode to which a voltage of negative polarity is supplied, arranged alternately, in a given vertical scanning period. At least one liquid crystal domain having axisymmetric alignment is formed when at least a predetermined voltage is applied across the liquid crystal layer, and the center axis of the axisymmetric alingment of the at least one liquid crystal domain is formed in or near the at least one opening.
US07646458B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing an LCD device in which alignment films are formed by a method of printing non-contact alignment films on substrates. Print control patterns are provided between a sealing member and each of display regions. Each of the print control patterns is formed of a highly water-repellent region as well as any one of fine concave structures, fine convex structures and pillar-shaped bodies. The print control patterns control the spreading as liquid of alignment film materials to make the film thickness of each of the alignment film materials uniform.
US07646454B2
A transflective Liquid Crystal Display device has a liquid crystalline (LC) cell with reflective portions (101 R) and transmissive portions (101 T). The LCD device has a dual cell-gap design, the cell gap (dT) for the transmissive portions differs from the cell gap (dR) for the reflective portions. According to the invention, this cell gap difference is effected by means of an optical retarder (120) inside the LC cell. A thickness of said optical retarder (120) is such as to compensate the difference in cell gaps. Preferably, the optical retarder is a patterned retarder extending essentially only over the reflective portions (101 R) of the cell, and having quarter wave retardance.
US07646453B2
A reflective polarizer contains: (a) a light-entrance medium having a light-entrance surface and a microstructured surface with a series of prismatic structures, wherein first and second sidewalls of each prismatic structure have an inclination angle of more than 53 degrees with respect to the light-entrance surface; (b) a polarization-selective thin film optical coating on the series of prismatic structures, for transmitting a first polarization of light and reflecting a second polarization; and (c) a light-exit medium on the polarization-selective thin film optical coating that provides a smooth light-exit surface.
US07646452B2
A production method for a display panel according to the present invention is production method for a display panel 100 including a display panel 101 and a plurality of microlenses 107 provided on a light-incident side of the display panel 101, including: (a) a step of providing a display panel having a plurality of pixels in a matrix arrangement, wherein each of the plurality of pixels has a plurality of picture elements, including a first picture element 104B transmitting first color light and a second picture element 104R (104G) transmitting second color light which is different from the first color light; (b) a step of forming a photocurable material layer 105 on one of a pair of principal faces, being opposite to each other, of the display panel; (c) a step of exposing the photocurable material layer to light via the display panel, wherein the photocurable material layer is at least partially cured with light which has been transmitted through at least the first picture element; and (d) a step of removing an uncured portion of the photocurable material layer 105′ having been exposed to light, thereby forming a plurality of microlenses 107.
US07646444B2
A TFT array panel includes an insulating substrate, a gate line and a storage electrode line formed thereon. The gate line and the storage electrode line are covered with a gate insulating layer, and a semiconductor island is formed on the gate insulating layer. A pair of ohmic contacts are formed on the semiconductor island, and a data line and a drain electrode are formed thereon. The data line and the drain electrode are covered with a passivation layer having a contact hole exposing the drain electrode. A pixel electrode is formed on the passivation layer and connected to the drain electrode through the contact hole. The TFT array panel is covered with an alignment layer rubbed approximately in a direction from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the TFT array panel or the pixel electrodes. The pixel electrode has approximately a rectangular shape and overlaps the gate line and the data line. The pixel electrode has an expansion located near the upper left corner of the pixel electrode to increase the width of the corresponding overlapping area between the pixel electrode and the gate line and/or the data line.
US07646420B2
A digital camera comprises two photographing systems which are independent of and substantially identical to each other, and each of which includes a photographing optical system and an image pickup device. The photographing optical system is configured to include a photographing lens, a focusing lens and an aperture stop. The focusing lens of one of the photographing systems is driven stepwise from a first predetermined position at which it is to be located when a focusing position lies at an infinite distance, toward a second predetermined position at which it is to be located when the focusing position lies at the closest distance, while the focusing lens of the other photographing system is driven stepwise from the second predetermined position toward the first predetermined position every step width. The contrasts of images formed by the respective photographing systems are evaluated while the two focusing lenses are being moved, and a position corresponding to the maximum value of the contrasts is determined as the focusing position.
US07646412B2
A dc level control method for holding a dc level of a clamp portion in an electric signal to be a prescribed value is disclosed, wherein the method comprises the steps of: comparing a dc level of a sampling interval in said electric signal with a predetermined reference value to obtain a difference between said dc level and said reference value using an A/D converting section for dc level comparison which has a lower bit resolution than an A/D converting section for digital signal processing of said electric signal; and feeding back a clamp signal to said electric signal so that said obtained difference between said dc level and said reference value substantially becomes zero. This method is suitable for applying to a signal processing system for a solid state imaging apparatus.
US07646411B2
To reliably obtain a captured image expected by a user, such as an image precisely showing the shades of a blue sky or a flower, or an image captured under flat illumination and having high contrast, an apparatus comprises an aperture, shutter, CCD, and an AGC, and applies gamma correction to an image signal using gamma correction values. Maximum reflectance, being an index of the amount of incident light according to the maximum output from the CCD, is increased or decreased in multiple levels depending on the subject being photographed, and the exposure amount is accordingly adjusted, thereby changing a dynamic range. A microcomputer revises the gamma correction values in response to changes in maximum reflectance so as to substantially maintain a relationship between an incident light reference amount being a reference for appropriate exposure and the corresponding gamma corrected output value.
US07646410B2
Provided are a solid state image sensing device and method for sub-sampling using inter-column analog domain signal summation, where, in the solid state image sensing device, a CDS unit receives reset signals from neighboring columns of the same color in an APS array, receives video signals from pixels generating the reset signals, and generates modulation signals respectively corresponding to the differences between the reset signals and the video signals, the modulation signals are activated according to activation of the previous modulation signals, and a digital signal output circuit generates a corresponding digital signal based on the final modulation signal corresponding to the sum of inter-column analog video signals among the modulation signals.
US07646407B2
Automatic exposure adjusting device considers the image on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Each pixel is characterized according to its most significant bits. After the pixels are characterized, the number of pixels in any particular group is counted. That counting is compared with thresholds which set whether the image is over exposed, under exposed, and can optionally also determine if the image is seriously over exposed or seriously under exposed. Adjustment of the exposure is carried out to bring the image to a more desired state.
US07646398B2
A three-color pixel element for a display comprises a blue emitter disposed at the origin of a rectangular coordinate system having four quadrants, a pair of red emitters and a pair of green emitters spaced apart from the blue emitter and symmetrically disposed about the origin of the rectangular coordinate system in a first and a second pair of opposing quadrants.
US07646388B2
A method and system for controlling the algorithmic elements in 3D graphics systems via an improved 3D graphics API is provided. In one aspect, in a 3D graphics system having privatized formats with privatized drivers used to increase the efficiency of display, existing problems are eliminated that are associated with multiple redundant copies of the publicly formatted graphics data made in host system memory pursuant to various graphics operations e.g., lock and unlock operations. The ability to make a system copy of publicly formatted data is exposed to the developer, eliminating the creation of unnecessary, and redundant copies. Efficient switching between the privatized and public format remains hidden from the developers so that applications execute efficiently while removing consideration thereof from the developers. Thus, developers are free to consider other tasks. In the event that a developer wishes to make a copy of the data, the data is copied pursuant to an operation that the developer calls and over which the developer has control, ensuring that multiple redundant copies of the graphics data are not made in host system memory.
US07646383B1
Embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems to deform a computer-generated three-dimensional surface using a lattice of rigid bone segments driven by an interpolation algorithm to define a muscle. Such embodiments allow a realistic presentation of subdermal muscle mass. In one embodiment, each end of a curve, created by an interpolation function, is attached to a corresponding bone. One or more muscle segments are attached along the curve. The curve along with the attached muscle segments defines a muscle. As the bones move and rotate the curve is expanded or contracted due to the endpoints of the curve being fixed to distinct bones. The attached muscle segments will experience corresponding expansion and contraction thus providing a realistic presentation of skin deformation. For one embodiment, the position of each muscle segment is determined in reference to a standard Bezier interpolation function.
US07646382B2
A power control system comprises a plurality of point-of-load (POL) regulators each adapted to convey regulated power to a load, a serial data bus operatively connecting the plurality of POL regulators, and a digital power manager connected to the data bus. The digital power manager includes a controller adapted to execute stored instructions to program operational parameters of the plurality of POL regulators via the serial data bus and receive monitoring data from the plurality of POL regulators via the serial data bus. The digital power manager further comprises a user interface, such as an I2C interface, adapted to receive programming data therefrom and send monitoring data thereto. The digital power manager further comprises a non-volatile memory containing a plurality of registers, including a digital power manager configuration register containing data values defining a configuration of the power control system, a POL set-up register containing data values reflecting programming state of one of the POL regulators, a POL monitor register containing data values reflecting status of operating conditions within one of the POL regulators, and a user-definable space. The digital power manager is adapted to program voltage margining of each of the POL regulators.
US07646376B2
The invention relates to an electronic device (10) for providing predetermined functions for a user (1) of the device, with a man-machine interface of the device for allowing function-related inputs by the user and function-related outputs from the device, a processor-controlled computer device for processing the inputs of the user and generating the outputs from the device, and coupling means for the electrical and/or mechanical connection of the device to a device support (14) associated with the device. To achieve simpler operation and a wider scope of application for such a device, provision is made according to the invention for the device to have means of detection for detecting the presence of a connection of the device (10) to the device support (14), and for the processor-controlled computer device to effect a modification of the man-machine interface (12) in the presence of the connection. A particular advantage consists in the fact that the modification of the man-machine interface (12′) can be specifically adapted, taking into consideration the application environment concerned (e.g. in the motor vehicle, in the home, etc.), in that during this modification the “device support type” is detected and taken into consideration by the device (10).
US07646372B2
A method for detecting direction when interfacing with a computer program is provided. The method includes capturing an image presented in front of an image capture device. The image capture device has a capture location in a coordinate space. When a person is captured in the image, the method includes identifying a human head in the image and assigning the human head a head location in the coordinate space. The method also includes identifying an object held by the person in the image and assigning the object an object location in coordinate space. The method further includes identifying a relative position in coordinate space between the head location and the object location when viewed from the capture location. The relative position defines a pointing direction of the object when viewed by the image capture device. The method may be practiced on a computer system, such as one used in the gaming field.
US07646370B2
The level of a storage capacitor line changes between two types, an H level and an L level. As a result of this change, the voltage applied to a liquid crystal is shifted so that a sufficient voltage is applied to the liquid crystal to perform a display operation. Then, by changing the voltage value of the difference between a first level and a second level, the contrast and screen brightness are adjusted. Furthermore, the capacitances generated at the locations where the two storage capacitor lines and the data line intersect are set to be substantially the same.
US07646368B2
Embodiments of the invention include a method, device and/or system for spoke recovery. A method for spoke recovery in a sequential multi-primary color display may include producing a primary color image component corresponding to a first primary color during a display period including at least a portion of a spoke period of the first primary color and a second primary color.
US07646367B2
When a resistance load inverter is used to control lighting/non-lighting of a pixel, in accordance with characteristic variations of a transistor forming the resistance load inverter, variations occur in light emission of each pixel. As an inverter in a pixel, an N channel transistor and a P channel transistor are used to apply a CMOS inverter. Even when characteristics of the transistor forming the CMOS inverter vary and inverter transfer characteristics vary, there is little effect on controlling lighting/non-lighting of the pixel, therefore, light emission variations of each pixel can be eliminated. Further, a signal potential of a scan line is used as one power source of a potential of the inverter, therefore, an aperture ratio of the pixel can be increased.
US07646366B2
A driving circuit of an organic light emitting display includes: a first PMOS transistor turned on in response to a driving signal to transfer a data signal; an OLED (organic light emitting diode) where an amount of light emitted is controlled by a control current; a second PMOS transistor for supplying the control current to the OLED; a third PMOS transistor connected to a node to which the first and second PMOS transistors are connected; a first capacitor connected between the first PMOS transistor and the third PMOS transistor; and a second capacitor connected between the second PMOS transistor and the first PMOS transistor.
US07646364B2
A pixel circuit, display device, and driving method thereof are provided. The pixel circuit which is disposed in a place where a signal line through which a signal current is caused to flow, and scanning lines through which control signals are supplied, respectively, cross each other and which includes an electroluminescence element, a drive transistor for supplying a drive current to the electroluminescence element, and a control portion adapted to operate in accordance with the control signals for controlling the drive current of the drive transistor based on the signal current, the control portion including first sampling unit for sampling the signal current being caused to flow through the signal line, second sampling unit for sampling a predetermined reference current being caused to flow through the signal line just before or after the signal current, and difference unit for generating a control voltage corresponding to a difference between the sampled signal current and the sampled reference current. The drive transistor receives the control voltage at its gate and supplies a drive current being caused to flow through its source and drain to the electroluminescence element to make the electroluminescence element emit light.
US07646359B2
There is disclosed a flat display unit which can obtain color signals adapted to a pixel arrangement. The unit has a gate drive circuit and a source drive circuit. Among R, G, B input video signals, a G signal is regarded as a color signal of a reference, R and B signals are regarded as second and third color signals, a plurality of samples of the R signal are multiplied by coefficients and synthesized to generate a first interpolation color signal R′, a plurality of samples of the B signal are multiplied by coefficients and synthesized to generate a second interpolation color signal B′. The R′, B′ and G signal are successively selected and supplied to the source drive circuit.
US07646336B2
A system and method is provided for tracking and maintaining a highly accurate inventory of shipping containers that are stored within container storage facilities. The invention includes using multiple complementary real-time and post-processing positioning techniques associated with various positioning sensors that are associated with inventory pieces or equipment. Examples of such positioning techniques are DGPS, GPS with RTK, DGPS loosely-coupled with INS, DGPS tightly-coupled with INS, and DGPS deeply-coupled with INS. Data correction and fusion techniques are applied to these positioning stages to re-compute a calibrated position with an improved accuracy. An additional trajectory can be iteratively determined using the fusing technique until the position data becomes statistically trustworthy. Further, combinations of multiple real-time positioning techniques combined with past position error correction algorithms provide a high accuracy needed for inventory tracking.
US07646334B1
A radar signal processing system utilizing a specialized neural network generative topographic mapping method which employs an alternative method for characterizing multiple radar signatures wherein specialized phased-codes and wavelet waveform modulations are used. The invention comprises three layers each including a plurality of nodes: input layer, mapping layer, and output presentation layer. The input layer takes the collected signals and congregates them into groups of linear data points. The mapping layer provides a method for projecting the data into points of lower dimensions. The data is assumed to arise by first probabilistically picking a point in a low-dimensional space, mapping the point to be observed in high-dimensional input space, then adding noise. The result is a system in which radar data with multiple reflections in close proximity is manipulated into multiple signatures in systematic ways for use in downhole structure signatures.
US07646332B2
Apparatus and method for real-time determination of radar cross sections is disclosed using interleaved gridding. Radar cross section calculations are amenable to an implementation on parallel processors wherein the shooting window is subdivided into smaller areal units that are assigned to the parallel processors in an alternating fashion, such that the calculations performed by a single processor are not localized to a single area of the shooting window.As further disclosed, the shooting and bouncing ray technique for calculating radar cross sections is implemented using the apparatus and method disclosed herein.
