US07789585B2

A control barrier includes a barrier wall having a front face and an opposing back face each extending between a top end and an opposing bottom end, a first recess being formed on the front face at the bottom end of the barrier wall. A first slot extends through the barrier wall from the first recess to the back face. A first foot coupled with the barrier wall and being movable between a first position wherein the first foot is at least partially disposed within the recess of the barrier wall and a second position wherein the first foot is rotated a least 45° relative to the first position and is removably positioned within the slot extending through the barrier wall.
US07789579B2

Provided is a stamp having a housing defining an opening, and a printhead and ink cartridge arrangement housed within the housing. The printhead is displaceable between a protected position within the housing and a printing position in which the printhead is exposed via the opening. The stamp also includes control circuitry configured to control the printhead for printing preprogrammed indicia on a print media, the control circuitry including a memory for storing said indicia. The stamp further includes a mechanical arrangement with a governor for displacing the printhead from the protected position to the printing position, said governor regulating motion of the printhead during printing.
US07789564B2

A linear rolling bearing, which has a guide carriage that is mounted by rolling bearings on a guide rail, and which has a scraper arranged at least one end side of the guide carriage for scraping foreign objects such as chips, dust and cooling liquids from the guide rail. The scraper is in scraping contact, by its scraping system, preferably by a sealing lip or sealing edge, with the guide rail. The scraper has a first stop for abutment against the guide rail, with the abutment of the first stop indicating an impermissible position of the scraper on the guide rail.
US07789563B2

A bag evacuation valve mechanism which can be used with suction devices having suction nozzles of different diameters and does not damage tightly closed bag stacked thereon to form a flat and stable shape of packing. A suction connector attached to the outer surface of a bag having a hole formed therein, and having a vent formed in its center has a generally flat shape, and a valve base on the inner surface of the bag has a recessed shape in cross-section. Such a valve mechanism can be used with suction devices having different nozzle diameters by placing the nozzle in contact with the suction connector to covering its vent, and as it has no projection on the outer side of a tightly closed bag, it does not damage any other, for example, tightly closed bag stacked on its outside or placed adjacent to it.
US07789562B2

For calibrating a multi-plane X-ray unit, an internal matrix mapping coordinate system internal to the unit onto coordinate system of a first radiographic plane is predefined in a reference projection geometry. An external matrix mapping coordinate system external to the unit onto coordinate system of the first plane is determined from image data captured by the first plane at calibration points and coordinates of the calibration points. An external matrix mapping coordinate system external to the unit onto coordinate system of a second radiographic plane is determined from image data captured by the second plane at the calibration points and the coordinates of the calibration points. A measure of position of the second plane with respect to coordinate system internal to the unit or with respect to the first plane is determined from the internal and external matrix of the first plane and the external matrix of the second plane.
US07789561B2

A method and apparatus for verifying radiation beam alignment in an image guided stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) delivery system such as the Cyberknife™. This invention achieves precise verification of radiation beam alignment with a radiation beam detection apparatus mounted on a gimbal assembly. The radiation beam detection apparatus houses an alignment fixture of varying geometric shape, such as a metallic ball or can be an array of radio-opaque markers positioned symmetrically at the gimbal assembly's common rotation center. The radiation detection apparatus comprises a radiation detector such as film and an alignment mirror, which are parallel to each other on opposite sides of the alignment fixture. The radiation detector is used to capture a radiographic image of the alignment fixture and the circular radiation field. The resulting image is analyzed to determine the eccentricity of the radiation field and whether adjustment of node positions is required to eliminate any eccentricity.
US07789558B2

Methods, systems and thermal sensing apparatus are provided that use bandgap voltage reference generators that do not use trimming circuitry. Further, circuits, systems, and methods in accordance with the present invention are provided that do not use large amounts of chip real estate and do not require a separate thermal sensing element.
US07789554B2

A double temperature sensor is provided for measuring a near-surface temperature of the ambient air and the temperature of the skin surface (9). A heat flux insulation block (4) is made of an insulation material in one piece as a housing. Two temperature sensor elements (2, 3) with respective electric connections (6) belonging to them are arranged in the heat flux insulation block (4) one on top of another at spaced locations from one another and near the surface.
US07789553B2

Circulation systems for ponds, lakes, or other bodies of water using a flotation platform, dish, and impeller. One embodiment has a connecting arrangement between the drive motor and the impeller that permits the two to be easily and quickly coupled and uncoupled. The connecting arrangement also is designed to accommodate slight misalignments between the shafts. An arrangement to adjust and calibrate the depth of the inlet to the draft tube is disclosed. The system further includes solar panels that can be pivotally swung outwardly to open positions, angularly adjusted about a horizontal axis, and mounted to face toward the central axis of the flotation platform rather than away from it. Arrangements are further provided to monitor and control the components of the system including remotely from shore.
US07789548B2

An optical diffusion structure includes an optical diffusion structure comprising a plurality of convex portions and a plurality of concave portions. Each convex portion is adjacent to a plurality of concave portions and each concave portion is adjacent to a plurality of convex portions. The convex portions, the concave portions and each junction of the convex and concave portions have a curvature different from 0. The optical diffusion structure further includes a diffusion plate having a first surface, wherein the optical diffusion structure is formed on the first surface, and the convex portions are arranged in a two dimensional array along a first direction and a second direction, and the concave portions are arranged in a two dimensional array along a third direction and a fourth direction.
US07789544B1

A modular light rack assembly for off-road vehicles having a plurality of individual pieces that can be selectively connected to form a substantially linear assembly for attaching a variety of headlight subassemblies. In each embodiment, there is a common left hand mounting configuration and common right hand mounting configuration, so that each piece of the modular light rack assembly having one or both of these configurations on its end or ends is selectively connectable to any other piece to form a substantially linear assembly of any desired configuration.
US07789536B2

The present invention relates to a lighting device in the form of a matrix illumination system, comprising a transparent carrier plate (11) provided with a plurality of LEDs (3, 5), arranged thereon. The LEDs may be arranged in a pattern with rows and columns and each LED may be optically connected to a collimating optical component (13, 15) in the form of an optical transparent body which collimates light generated by the respective light emitting diode by means of total internal reflection. In order to make the overall system transparent, so that objects behind the system may be visible therethrough, the space between the optical elements of the individual LEDs is filled with a filling material (29) that has a refractive index which is higher than the refractive index of air. A gap is maintained between the filling material and the surfaces of the optical components in order to maintain the TIR lens property.
US07789520B2

An article of apparel, or household fabric, having a power source, a switch and at least one electroluminescent or fabric strip for illuminating the article of apparel, or household article. In addition, the present invention can be used in a peer to peer network. The article may have a communication system including a transmitter and a receiver. Furthermore, the present invention can have electric circuitry that can be integrated with the electrical components so as to create different visual effects in response to signals from the communication system. The electroluminescent strips of the present invention can be designed to follow the contour of a trademark, logo, or character. Also, the electroluminescent strips can be designed to follow the stitching of the sneaker and follow the sneaker lace path. Switches of the present invention can include, preferably, a toggle switch, or if desired a pressure switch, a reed switch, or the like. The power source implemented is preferably a rechargeable battery.
US07789514B2

A method for measuring the dynamic behavior of an optical system is aimed at rendering the dynamic behavior of the optical system objectively detectable. To this end, the optical system to be measured is stimulated by stimuli whereby causing it to react, and the reaction is detected by means of a wave front analysis.
US07789512B2

A diagnostic and therapeutic contact lens is provided for use with the slit lamp or other biomicroscope for the examination and treatment of the structures of the eye including that of the fundus and anterior chamber. The lens comprises a contacting portion adapted for placement on the cornea of an examined eye, two reflecting surfaces and a refracting portion. Light rays emanating from structures within the eye pass through the cornea and contacting portion of the lens and first reflect from the anterior reflecting surface as a positive reflection in a posterior direction. Following the first reflection the light rays reflect as a positive reflection in an anterior direction from the posterior reflecting surface to a refracting portion through which the light rays exit the lens. The lens focuses the light rays to produce a real image of the examined structures of the eye anterior of the lens or within the lens or element of the lens while optimally directing the light rays to the objective lens of the slit lamp or other biomicroscope for stereoscopic viewing and image scanning.
US07789509B2

The present invention relates to an intraocular lens which exhibits reduced or eliminated glistenings when implanted into the eye of a patient in need thereof and to a method of preparing such lens.
US07789507B2

This invention includes methods and systems for processing hydrogel biomedical devices, such as ophthalmic lenses using polyethylene glycol to facilitate release of the devices from a mold part.
US07789505B2

The present invention provides a roll for charging a belt for inkjet recording, in which the roll has a surface layer including a fluororesin and having a nip resistance of 104 to 108 Ω at 23° C. and 55% RH formed on a roll having an underlayer formed on the outer peripheral surface of a metal core material, and an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with the roll for charging a belt for inkjet recording.
US07789470B2

Illuminated display case for collectibles that can simulate the look and feel of a collectible's theme. The display case can be modular in design, such that one case can serve as the basis for the joining of additional case modules to form a larger illuminated display. Through the use of a specialized alignment structure, display cases can be lined up one next to the other to form a continuous track around a room.
US07789459B1

A wooden octagonal picnic table and bench system with integral wooden umbrella and accessory platforms is herein disclosed. The table comprises eight (8) equal sides with four (4) separated seat benches with a centrally oriented umbrella-shaped roof assembly. The benches are attached at their base using a plurality of supports for stability. A cup holder platform is located at the tabletop surface and encircles the center vertical post. At an intermediate location up the post is a tray with a containment lip to hold bottles, condiments or other similar containers around the post. A wine glass holder is provided near the top of the post facing in all directions for holding stemware in an inverted position. The table also provides roof-mounted lighting and electricity thereto appliances and accessories via a pair of duplex outlets mounted thereto an upper portion of the center post.
US07789453B2

A trailer fairing for reducing aerodynamic drag from trailer landing gear and/or wheel assembly is disclosed. The fairing may be directly connected to the forward facing structural supports of the landing gear, and an air tank may be located between the fairing and the cargo storage area. A single fairing may be used to reduce the drag from both the trailer landing gear and wheel assembly. The fairing may include a tapered front section and/or a rear section. The fairing may have rounded, oval, angled, and/or tapered sections. A plurality of fairings may also be used.
US07789440B2

Vehicle door latch, in which the catch comprises a casing made of sound-proofing material, the casing containing a buffer pocket, situated behind the primary position in clockwise direction and the buffer pocket being stretched around up to the area of the primary position, forming an overtravel stop cooperating with the pawl.
US07789438B2

A battery cover latching mechanism used in portable electronic device (10) is described including a cover member (11), a housing member (12), a latch base (14), a latch member (13), and a return member (15). The latch base can be securely attached to the housing member. The latch member is mounted on the latch base and movable relative to the latch base to latch the cover member to the housing member. The return member drives the latch member to move in such a manner that the movement of the latch member detaches the cover member away from the housing member.
US07789431B2

A pipe coupling (1) includes a pipe-shaped sleeve (2) being provided with a protruding flange (4) at least in one end, said flange having a tapering end face (6). The pipe coupling further including an annular gripping ring (13) divided into ring segments (17), an annular resilient sealing ring (12) provided between the flange (4) and the gripping ring (13), a pressure ring (8) and tightening means of the bolt/nut type (26, 27). The pressure ring (8) is divided into a number of separate, mutually interspaced ring segments (10) each provided with an abutment face (9) adapted to displaceably abut the end face (6) of the flange (4). The bolts (26) extend through elongated, radially extending openings (30) in the flange (4) and through clearance holes (32) in the pressure ring segments (10).
US07789429B2

The invention relates to a suspension strut top mounting (1) in a body structure of a motor vehicle. The suspension strut top mounting (1) consists of two half-shells (2, 3) which are connected together in a rigid manner on the outer edge thereof (4, 5) and form a cavity (4) therebetween and are placed on top of each other in the support region (7) of the suspension strut top mounting (8). The suspension strut top mounting (1) is integrated into the body structure as a connecting node for adjacent hollow profiles (10, 12) of the body structure such that it reinforces and delivers a positive contribution to the crash behavior of the vehicle structure.
US07789423B2

The present invention relates to a device for delaying a passenger air bag expansion, including a winding, shaft which is partially wound by a rear end of a tether. A support bracket rotatably supports both ends of winding shaft and is fixed to a bottom of an air bag housing. Winding shaft and support bracket are connected to each other through at least a pin to fix the winding shaft. Pin is broken by expansion force of the tether after a predetermined time period at an early stage of expansion of an air bag. Therefore, the expansion of the airbag cushion is delayed for a predetermined time. Since initial expansion force of airbag cushion is not strong, it prevents a child on a passenger seat from being struck by the airbag cushion.
US07789414B2

A vehicle occupant protection system (180) includes an inflatable vehicle occupant restraint device (202) positioned in the vehicle, and a gas generating system (8) coupled to the inflatable restraint device (202) for providing inflation fluid to inflate the vehicle occupant restraint device. The gas generating system (8) is secured to the vehicle by a mounting mechanism (10) having a first strap (12) wrapped around a portion of the gas generating system (8) and a second strap (14) coupled to the first strap (12) and wrapped around a portion (24) of the vehicle.
US07789411B2

An extended forward tow, single rail saddlemount or tow bar is disclosed. The tow bar allows a first towing truck to mount a second truck, facing forward, behind the first truck, in order to tow the second truck. The tow bar allows the towed truck to face forward during transport, thus allowing for normal loads and stresses of movement on the towed truck, rather than the much higher high wind loads and unusual stresses imposed by a rear-ward facing tow. The saddlemount is also designed to minimize the required vertical rise on the towed truck, which also avoids additional stresses during loading and unloading onto the towing truck. Lower stress is achieved by using a pivot pin nearer the towed truck rather than the usual pivot pin or king pin on the towing truck.
US07789407B2

A vehicle suspension system for large vehicles includes at least one elastomeric bearing. The bearing includes at least one substantially cylindrical elastomeric portion, at least one substantially frustospherical elastomeric portion, and at least one non-extensible shim disposed between and bonded to the substantially cylindrical elastomeric portion and the substantially frustospherical elastomeric portion.
US07789388B2

A sheet conveying apparatus according to the invention includes a first conveying path; a sheet reverse conveying portion; a second conveying path; a third conveying path; and a movable guide portion configured to guide the conveyed sheet. The guide portion is moved to a position where the sheet can pass when the sheet is guided from the first conveying path to the second conveying path, and the guide portion is moved to a position where the guide portion guides the sheet to the third conveying path while blocking between the first and second conveying paths such that the sheet can not intrude from the second conveying path into the first conveying path when the sheet conveyed by the sheet reverse conveying portion is conveyed in the second direction.
US07789371B2

A piezoelectric microvalve employs a valve element formed of hermetically sealed and opposed plates flexed together by a cross axis piezoelectric element. Large flow modulation with small piezoelectric actuator displacement is obtained by perimeter augmentation of the valve seat which dramatically increases the change in valve flow area for small deflections.
US07789362B2

A stand for an image display device includes a supporting member that can support an image display device, a rear base is rotatably connected to the supporting member, and a front base that is connected to the rear base. The front base is rotatable with respect to the rear base in the same direction as the rear base is rotatable with respect to the supporting member such that the front base is foldable to a rear side of the image display device.
US07789344B2

An aircraft engine mounting device attachment arrangement includes a fitting perforated with two orifices, and two ball joints respectively housed in the orifices. The arrangement also includes two anti-rotation systems used to lock the ball joints in their orifices, the system including a main plate traversed by an external ring of the ball joint and including tappets cooperating with notches provided on the ring, the system including a main plate traversed by a main plate of the ball joint and including tappets cooperating with notches provided on the ring. In addition, the plates are connected rigidly to each other.
US07789342B2

A vehicle including a fuselage, at least one lift-producing propeller carried by the fuselage on each side of its transverse axis a pilot's compartment formed in the fuselage between the lift-producing propellers and substantially aligned with the longitudinal axis, and a pair of payload bays formed in the fuselage between the lift-producing propellers and on opposite sides of the pilot's compartment. Many variations are described enabling the vehicle to be used not only as a VTOL vehicle, but also as a multi-function utility vehicle for performing many diverse functions including hovercraft and ATV functions.
US07789333B2

This invention relates to the preparation of particle dispersions in a media mill using plastic, substantially cubic media to effect particle size reduction and/or dispersion of the particles.
US07789327B2

A system, in certain embodiments, may include a spray coating device leaving a plurality of casings coupled together to define an exterior contour and a hollow interior of the spray coating device. The spray coating device also may include a plurality of modular components disposed in the hollow interior, wherein the plurality of modular components are configured to cooperate with one another output a spray coating.
US07789326B2

A handheld showerhead with a showerhead portion and a handle portion. The showerhead portion may include at least two fluid channels. The handle portion may be operatively associated with the shower portion. The handle portion may include at least one fluid inlet or fluid passage. The handle portion may further include a movable mode selector. Movement of the mode selector may selectively place the fluid inlet or fluid passage in fluid communication with at least one of the two fluid channels in the showerhead portion.
US07789307B2

A memory tag has a memory. Associated with the memory tag there is a readable structure. The readable structure can be read to generate an identifier. However, the readable structure cannot be provided so as to encode a predetermined identifier.
US07789306B2

A voting method. A ballot paper is received. The received ballot paper includes a recorded vote. The recorded vote includes candidate/party information for an election held on a voting day in a jurisdiction. The ballot paper includes a burnable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag including an on-tag fuse that is not blown. The recorded vote is not revealable while the fuse is not blown and is revealable in response to the fuse being subsequently blown. After the ballot paper is received, the ballot paper is authenticated and the fuse is blown to reveal the recorded vote, followed by counting the ballot paper and directing the ballot paper to a candidate box.
US07789299B1

An automatic banking machine includes a card reader for reading user cards, and a cash dispenser. A movable camera is positionable within the ATM housing. The automated banking machine carries out transactions related to user accounts based on information read from cards. Service personnel are enabled to direct the camera toward regions of machine components while conducting service activities that are not directly visible by a servicer. A camera assembly includes a microphone to sense sounds associated with machine components during test operations. The generated data may be used by an on-site servicer, or sent to an entity at a remote location. The visual images may be used to enhance diagnostic and servicing capabilities.
US07789290B2

A portfolio includes a body having a receiving space therein, a backside of the body having at least one sliding groove, an upper cover being a foldable sheet for sealing the receiving space; and a connecting unit passing through the sliding groove of the body and the upper cover so that the upper cover is slidable along the body. The connecting unit is a T rod and a washer; the T rod passes through a through hole of the upper cover and the sliding groove of the body, an enlarged end of the T rod resists against an upper side of the through hole; a size of the enlarged end of the T rod is greater than the size of the through hole and the sliding groove so that the T rod is retained upon the rear surface; and another end of the T rod is engaged with a washer.
US07789285B2

In one embodiment, a method is provided. The method comprises filling a microvia formed in a bond pad with solder paste comprising solder balls of the first size; and coating the bond pad with solder paste comprising solder balls of the second size, wherein the second size is greater than the first size.
US07789284B2

There is provided an electronic component mounting apparatus including: a component holder which holds an electronic component; a pressing unit which applies pressure to the held electronic component through the component holder; and an ultrasonic transducer which applies ultrasonic vibration to the held electronic component through the component holder. The component holder includes a horn at one end of which is mounted the ultrasonic transducer and a holding tool which is fixed to the other end of the horn by using bolts and holds the electronic component. The horn has a surface A1 and a surface A2 at the other end and the holding tool has a surface B1 in intimate contact with the surface A1 and a surface B2 in intimate contact with the surface A2.
US07789282B2

A nailer device has a housing containing a motor and a striking device arranged in a compact manner. A transmission mechanism is mounted in the housing for translating the rotating motions of the motor into the periodic impact motions upon the striking device. The transmission mechanism includes an impact assembly which imparts the periodic impact motions upon the striking device.
US07789275B2

A noncontainer pressurizing pump sprayer includes a body, which defines a chamber. A piston is positioned within the container and is coupled to a shaft. The piston divides the chamber into an upper section and a lower section. An inlet valve is positioned on the body and permits flow of fluid into the lower section but restricts flow out of the lower section. The shaft of the piston is coupled to a handle. A spray nozzle includes an actuator that is coupled to a control valve and a discharge outlet that is in fluid communication with the lower section of the chamber. In one embodiment, a tube extends continuously from a point upstream of the control valve to a point downstream of the control valve. In another embodiment, a tube is coupled to the piston and extends through the handle. In another embodiment, the tube extends continuously from the spray nozzle and is coupled to the piston.
US07789274B2

A fluid dispenser member having a dispensing wall defining an outside surface and inside surface, the wall being provided with a through dispensing orifice connecting the inside surface to the outside surface. The inside surface forming a leaktight slide cylinder for a piston suitable for moving in leaktight contact inside the cylinder for selectively unmasking the dispensing orifice. The piston forming a wall element of a fluid chamber inside which fluid is selectively put under pressure. The inside surface, at the slide cylinder, forming a fluid swirl system immediately upstream from the dispensing orifice. The dispensing wall is formed by a substantially cylindrical skirt further provided with a guide wall defining an inside surface whose inside diameter is greater than the inside diameter of the slide cylinder.
US07789261B2

A open can end of laminated steel sheet has a score formed thereon by a scoring die. The scoring die has a scoring edge having a sectional shape of an inverted triangle. The scoring edge includes a tip formed of a curve having a radius of curvature of 0.2 mm or more and 0.4 mm or less. Two sides sandwiching the tip are tangent to the curve. A function tan θ of an angle of elevation θ of each of the sides with respect to a surface of the can end is 0.3 or more and 1.0 or less. The resultant a can end being an easy open can end.
US07789257B2

For a wall cut-out (100) defining a void (101) within a wall (102) for receiving a utility receptacle (104) wherein the cut-out has a perimeter edge (103) surrounding the void (101), the frame (10) includes an insert-flange (12) dimensioned to be inserted into and to sit within the void (101) adjacent the perimeter edge (103). The insert-flange (12) defines a frame opening (14) between opposed sides of the insert-flange (12). A wall-shelf (20) is secured to the insert-flange (12), and the wall-shelf defines a plane that is parallel to a plane defined by the wall (102). A mud-ridge (22) is secured to the wall-shelf (20) adjacent to and surrounding an interior perimeter (24) of the frame opening (14) and extends away from the wall-shelf (20) to facilitate application of a bonding compound and secure mounting of a receptacle component (106) within the utility receptacle (104).
US07789254B2

A tamper-evident, re-closable container is disclosed, comprising a container body, having a neck portion with a cammed projection, and a mouth rimmed by a lip and a closure having a top portion with a groove to rotatably engage and seal against the lip of the container, and a bottom portion having a contour formed therein to rest under the cammed projection. A breakable tamper-evident section circumferentially connects the top portion of the container to the bottom portion of the container and connecting means connects the top portion to the bottom portion. Rotation of the closure around the mouth of the container causes the cammed projection to force the bottom portion downwardly to break the tamper-evident section. A tamper-evident closure is also described for use with a re-closable container, having a top portion that can be rotated around a mouth of the container to cause a tamper-evident section to break.
US07789234B2

A display package for scissors consists of an elongated, generally flat member having a top and bottom end, a raised hollow pedestal means mounted adjacent to said bottom end of said member, the pedestal means having a top portion with means operable to secure a finger ring of a pair scissors thereto and support the scissors horizontally above the card with arch means located adjacent to said top end of said member operable to restrain the swing of at least one of the blades of a pair of scissors mounted on the top portion of the pedestal when the handles of such scissors are manipulated by a customer. It is preferred that the top of the pastel include means for rotation of the connection with the scissors so that a greater range of manipulation is available to a prospective customer. In addition the card can include a clear cover if desired.
US07789220B2

A skirt for a material transport system, eg conveyor belt (104), includes liner plates (111, 112) mounted on the conveyor side of body (200). Removal of certain plates (112) only requires access via the side of body (200) away from conveyor (104). To remove plate (112) requires removal of its support member (210) as well and so provides an aperture through which a workman can insert his hand to remove further plates (111, 112). Member (210) may be hel to body (200) using wedges inserted through eyes and this member (210) may be positioned with the aid of tabs and guides. Rubber dust seals are also provided which are clamped in place using plates and wedge arrangements. These seals must be removed prior to removal of liner plates (111, 112).
US07789218B2

Opposite end sections (20, 26) of a piston/cylinder drive unit (14) are clamped to longitudinally spaced apart transverse mounting beams (10, 12), by a fixed clamp parts connected to the mounting beams (10, 12) and removable clamp parts that are connected by bolts to the fixed clamp parts. The piston rod end sections (20, 26) include longitudinal passageways having outer end openings that project outwardly from the clamps. Manifolds are secured to the mounting beams (10, 12) outwardly of the end openings in the piston rod end sections (20, 26). A detachable coupling connects ports in the manifold with the end openings in the piston rod end sections (20, 26). The piston cylinder drive unit (14) can be detached from the frame by first detaching the fluid couplings and then detaching the clamps which clamp the piston rod end sections (20, 26) to the mounting beams (10, 12).
US07789205B2

A linkage positioner for a drum brake for adjusting braking-related wear, especially on brake linings, has an overload clutch and a one-directionally rotating or one-way clutch, including a ball ramp clutch, which is biased with the aid of a pressure spring, and a bevel clutch.
US07789200B2

A sump housing for scavenging lubricant is disclosed herein. The sump housing includes an outer wall defining a chamber. A lubricated structure operable to rotate can be disposed within the sump housing. The sump housing also includes an out-take for lubricant scavenging. The out-take extends across a chordal arc of the chamber. The out-take includes an upstream first portion of the outer wall diverging away from the chordal arc at a first rate. The out-take also includes a downstream second portion of the outer wall opposite the first portion. The second portion diverges away from the chordal arc toward the first portion at a second rate greater than said first rate to define a blunt wall facing the first portion for reducing the likelihood that windage will limit lubricant scavenging.
US07789195B2

A variable muffler corresponds to a muffler of an internal combustion engine including a variable valve that controls the flow of exhaust gas. The variable muffler includes a muffler body forming a muffler chamber, an inlet pipe with an opening at the muffler chamber to direct the flow of exhaust gas from the opening towards the muffler chamber, and a muffler-in pipe arranged in the muffler chamber. The muffler-in pipe includes an opening facing the opening at the muffler chamber, and into which the exhaust gas output from the opening flows in a predetermined direction. The muffler-in pipe further includes a slope inclining vertically downwards towards the opening, and extending in a direction different from the predetermined direction. By such a configuration, a muffler of an internal combustion engine having proper driving of the valve ensured can be provided.
US07789182B2

A vehicle having one or more small vehicle-mounted electricity generating wind turbines located within an area of wind recirculation. The electricity generated is used to recharge vehicle batteries, partially power an auxiliary electric propulsion motor, or supply vehicle parasitic loads.
US07789179B2

The invention is a method to make compression molded motor vehicle parts from a charge of composite material with resin and fibers, such as sheet molded compound. The parts have voids, such as holes and gaps, that form in the compression mold under heat and pressure and not in secondary processing steps. The resin in the charge is melts in a reservoir in the mold to form resinous material from the charge. A flow front of resinous material is allowed to flow into a flow path around a restriction corresponding to the shape of the void from the reservoir. The flow front carries sufficient reinforcing fibers into the flow path. At least part of a border for the void forms in the flow path. The configuration is allowed to at least partially set.
US07789175B2

A wheel assembly for a small-scale machine includes a pair of opposing, individually-driven wheels, associated motors and possibly one or more gear assemblies. The motors receive separate drive signals from a control electronics subsystem of the wheel assembly. The motors can be connected to the wheels via the gear assemblies. Because the wheels are separately driven, driving the two wheel assemblies at similar or different speeds drives the wheel assembly over straight or curved paths. An orientation assembly allows the orientation of the wheels to the machine to be controllably altered. A height adjusting assembly allows the distance between the wheels and a point on the machine where the wheel assembly is attached to be adjusted. The rotational axis that the wheel assembly rotates about when re-oriented need not pass through either wheel of the wheel assembly. The wheels can be driven by control signals generated by on-board control electronics.
US07789169B2

A tool with a driver and a motor assembly for selectively translating the driver along an axis. The driver has a driver blade and a driver body that is coupled the driver blade. The driver body can be formed of titanium and can include an engagement surface with a plurality of teeth that matingly engage respective teeth that are formed on the edge of a flywheel that is associated with the motor assembly.
US07789168B2

The disclosure describes a handle assembly for a power tool that includes attachment means for attaching the assembly to a housing of a power tool. The handle means is adapted to be held by a user of the power tool and the handle means is mounted to the attachment means and is capable of limited movement relative to the housing of the power tool. The vibration damping means acts between said housing and said handle means. The vibration damping means can also comprise elastomeric material. The attachment means can be mounted in use to the housing via a bolt on one of the attachment means and the housing passing through a respective aperture in the other of said attachment means and the housing. At least some of the elastomeric material is arranged in use between at least one said bolt and a corresponding said aperture. The handle means can be pivotable and/or slidable relative to said attachment means. The vibration damping means can comprise at least one spring (e.g., compression/spring or torsion spring).
US07789166B2

A root-crop harvester is configured to temporarily store tubers by recirculating tubers on the conveyor system of the harvester. The conveyor system has selectable first and second operating configurations. In the first operating configuration the conveyor system transports tubers from the digger bed to an outlet where tubers are unloaded from the harvester (e.g., onto a truck). In the second operating configuration the conveyor system transports tubers along the conveyor system for a period of time and then diverts tubers to an earlier position within the conveyor system, thereby recirculating tubers on the harvester. After a period of time, the harvester operator selects the first operating configuration and the recirculating tubers along with newly dug tubers are unloaded from the harvester.
US07789165B1

A cooker system, comprising a relatively wide pan containing cooking oil at high temperatures, the pan extending longitudinally, for cooking edibles located longitudinally, single or multiple row water mist producing nozzles supported above the pan, there being one or more laterally spaced nozzles at longitudinally spaced locations above the pan, each nozzle producing mist substantially covering an area of at least about one square foot, at oil surface level in the pan, and control means to control pressurized water delivery to the nozzles, in the event of fire in or associated with oil in the pan.
US07789162B2

Methods for installing tubulars into a highly deviated wellbore may include a) drilling the well to the planned total depth of the interval, b) placing a first fluid into the wellbore below a prescribed measured depth in the high-angle portion of the wellbore, c) placing a second fluid into the wellbore above the prescribed measured depth, d) plugging the distal port ion of the tubular with a lower plug and an upper plug, e) as the tubular is run into the wellbore, placing a lightweight fluid into the plugged section of tubular and a heavy fluid above the plugged section of tubular, and f) running the tubular into the wellbore to the planned total depth. The first fluid has a density that causes the portion of the tubular that extends into the first fluid to become substantially neutrally buoyant, and the second fluid has a density less than the first fluid.
US07789161B2

A seal assembly, for sealing between a stationary conduit and a rotating conduit, comprises an upper gland assembly, a washpipe, and a lower gland assembly. The upper gland assembly is operable to engage the stationary conduit. A washpipe partially disposed within the upper gland assembly. An upper seal member is disposed within the upper gland assembly around a periphery of the washpipe. An upper packing ring is engaged with the upper gland assembly so as to compress the upper seal member into sealing engagement with the washpipe. A lower gland assembly is disposed about the washpipe and operable to engage the rotating conduit. A lower seal member is disposed within the lower gland assembly and is compressed into sealing engagement with the washpipe by a lower packing ring that is engaged with the lower gland assembly. The engagement of the packing rings with their respective gland assemblies is independent of the engagement of the gland assemblies and the conduits.
US07789155B2

An apparatus having a modular support frame with a top deck. The top deck has a passage therein. A tower is mounted on the top deck. A moveable plate and a track are positioned within the passage. The movable plate is slidingly attached to the track. A support rotary table is disposed within the modular support frame and suspends jointed tubulars. A coiled tubing injector head interface plate is operatively attached to the movable plate, and positioned over the first aperture of the movable plate. The first aperture is positioned over the well in a first position. A rotary table is positioned over the well in a second position. Well intervention work is conducted with the coiled tubing and jointed tubulars.
US07789147B2

A method of fracturing using deformable proppants minimizes proppant pack damage, without compromising the fracturing fluid's proppant transport properties during pumping, by use of deformable proppants. Selection of proppant is dependent upon the mechanical properties of the formation rock. The strength of the deformable proppant is dependent upon the modulus of the formation rock being treated such that the proppant is capable of providing, at the very least, a minimum level of conductivity in in-situ stress environments. The maximum elastic modulus of the deformable proppant is less than the minimum modulus of the formation rock which is being treated. The method is particularly applicable in fracturing operations of subterranean reservoirs such as those comprised primarily of coal, chalk, limestone, dolomite, shale, siltstone, diatomite, etc.
US07789140B2

A system for radially expanding an expandable tubular within a wellbore to form a wellbore casing. In some embodiments, the system includes a support member insertable within and displaceable relative to the expandable tubular, an expansion cone coupled to the support member, a tubular sleeve translatably disposed about the support member, an annular chamber between the tubular sleeve and the expandable tubular, and a tubular piston disposed in the annular chamber, the tubular piston dividing the annular chamber into a first chamber and a second chamber. The support member has a tubular body with an axial flowbore, a first radial passage, and a second radial passage. The tubular sleeve has a third and a fourth radial passage. The flowbore is in fluid communication with the first chamber when the first and third radial passages are aligned, and with the second chamber when the second and fourth radial passages are aligned.
US07789132B2

An adapter comprises a generally cylindrical adapter, engagement member bores, retention member bores, and an attachment structure configured for allowing the adapter to be fixedly attached to a mating portion of the drilling head equipment. The engagement member bores extend effectively parallel to the central bore. The retention member bores are each adjacent a respective one of the engagement member bores. The retention member bores are positioned such that the engagement pin bores and retention member bores intersect. The retention member bore is configured for having a retention member engaged therein in a manner allowing the retention member to be selectively displaced along a length of the retention member bore. The adapter includes a central bore to accommodate a down hole tubular. The attachment structure includes a surface adjacent the central bore comprising fastener bores substantially parallel to the central bore for facilitating connection of the adapter to the drilling head equipment.
US07789128B2

The invention relates to a plate-type heat exchanger for drying a gaseous medium, especially air, comprising a stack of plates which are interconnected to define flow spaces between the plates, a gas-gas heat exchanger being formed in one portion of the stack, with a moist inlet gas stream flowing away from an inlet gas connection and a dried outlet gas stream flowing towards an outlet gas connection, both flowing next to each other through separate flow spaces to exchange thermal energy, and a gas-coolant heat exchanger being formed in another portion of the stack, with a coolant and the moist inlet gas stream flowing next to each other through further separate flow spaces for cooling purposes, and a flow connection being formed between an outlet of the gas-coolant heat exchanger and the gas-gas heat exchanger, in-cluding an overflow member to guide the dried outlet gas stream through the overflow member from the gas-coolant heat exchanger to the gas-gas heat exchanger The overflow member is formed of a stack of adjacent plates which are interconnected to define overflow spaces between the adjacent plates, contact zones being established between side surfaces facing each other of the adjacent plates.
US07789118B2

A device to be fitted on a vehicle wheel in order to increase the friction between the wheel and the road surface during winter conditions, comprises a belt that can encircle the tread of the wheel and be held in place by means of flexible inner and outer side portions. The inner side portion is tightened on the inner side of the wheel by means of an elastic member. The internal circumference of the belt is at least 4% larger, preferably 5-6% larger than the largest circumference of the wheel. The belt can be made substantially of a woven polyamide material. The outer side portion of the device can be fully covering or be provided with one or more openings, and may in addition be provided with radially extending straps in order to facilitate fitting the device to the vehicle wheel or removing it therefrom. A method for such fitting without lifting the wheel from the road surface is also disclosed.
US07789116B2

A wheel unit (10) comprises a wheel rim (12), a pneumatic tyre (14) receivable on the wheel rim (12) and a runflat assembly (16) adapted to be seated on the wheel rim (12) to close off a well (22) provided in the wheel rim (12). The runflat assembly (16) includes an annular support body (24) which is radially expandable to an expanded condition and contraction means (28,30) adapted to be operated via an opening (78) formed in the wheel rim (12). The contraction means (28, 30), when activated, is operable on the support body (24) to cause the support body (24) to be contracted to a radially contracted condition. The contraction mean is accessible through the opening (78) to cause the support body (24) to be radially contracted to seat the runflat assembly (16) on the wheel rim (12) to close off the well (22). The support body (24), when in its contracted condition, has a diameter greater than that of the wheel rim (12).
US07789115B2

A slide out tray is housed in a rigid sleeve attached to an inside of a purse. Items placed in the purse through the top of the purse are supported by the sleeve. The sleeve allow the tray to slide in and out of the purse through an opening in a wall of the purse. A hinged cover over the opening pivots to admit the tray therethrough. A tensioned tray holding mechanism associated with the hinged cover secures the tray in any of a variety of locations extending out of the purse to access items in the tray.
US07789109B2

An expansible and collapsible tubular conduit, which is especially adapted for use in supplying pre-conditioned air to an aircraft while the aircraft is located upon the ground and is being serviced, comprises a plurality of annular fabric membranes which are connected to the opposite sides of a plurality of annular structural dividers or frame members in a continuously repetitive alternating manner. The structural combination or assembly comprising the fabric membranes and the structural dividers or frame members renders the tubular conduit readily expansible and contractible in the form of a spring or accordion so as to be capable of being easily and rapidly deployed and stowed, as well as to be capable of being stored in a relatively compact state or mode.
US07789102B2

An air compressor utilizing an electronic control system. A pneumatically controlled regulator is provided for controlling output pressure for an air compressor. Digital gauges are provided on the air compressor to replace conventional mechanical gauges. A variable speed motor is used, which in turn varies the speed of the pump. Tools are provided for an air compressor that are capable of transmitting a signal to the air compressor indicating a desired pressure and/or motor speed at which the air compressor is to operate.
US07789098B2

An easy to use, simple, lightweight, compact, portable, quiet, quick setup, hunting ground blind. The hunting ground blind includes novel methods of tightening the skin on a cover to reduce movement and noise. Methods include using the full human body, from hands to feet, and its strongest muscle groups to rapidly set up the hunting ground blind with tighter skin. Methods for setting up a fast setup frame with the human body in a seated row position. Improved fast setup frames are comprised of novel simpler components such as plates with single anchor connections. The components are easier to make, less costly using less material, yet yielding stronger, more durable frames.
US07789085B2

A presentation arrangement for presenting an oxygen mask or pull flag including an inflatable lever wherein for presenting the oxygen mask or pull flag at a preset first location, the inflatable lever is inflated such that the oxygen mask or pull flag is located at the first location.
US07789081B2

A household cooking range comprises a housing defining a cooking cavity, the housing being selected from one of multiple housings with different configurations, and a modular frame chassis supporting the selected housing and cooking cavity.
US07789071B2

A pulsation damper is provided between and in series with a low pressure fuel system pipe and a high pressure pump of a fuel supply system. During startup of an engine, low pressure fuel supplied via the low pressure fuel system pipe is injected from an intake passage fuel injector. When the fuel pressure is equal to or less than a fuel pressure at which good startability can be maintained, the pulsation damper closes off communication between the high pressure fuel system pipe and the low pressure fuel system pipe using the spring force of a spring.
US07789066B2

A valve assembly is disclosed that includes a first and a second valve assembly parts that collectively define a duct. The valve assembly also includes a valve unit that includes a housing defining a fluid flow path therethrough. The valve unit is coupled to the first valve assembly part such that the fluid flow path is in fluid communication with the duct. A control valve is also included for controlling flow of fluid in the flow path. Furthermore, the valve assembly includes a sealing member that seals a space between the first valve assembly part and the second valve assembly part, that seals a space between the first valve assembly part and the valve unit, and that dampens vibration transmitted to the valve unit.
US07789064B2

A piston engine (10), in particular in a motor vehicle, has a plurality of cylinders (3) whose combustion chambers (4) are connected to a fresh gas system (5). The fresh gas system (5) has two gas paths, namely a full-load path (9) and a partial-load path (10), for at least one of the cylinders (3), through which the fresh gas (6) can be supplied to the respective combustion chamber (4). To this end, a valve arrangement (11) at the intake end is provided for controlling the fresh gas stream through the gas paths (9, 10) into the respective combustion chamber (4). For actuation of the valve arrangement (11), a control unit (13) is provided, the control unit being designed so that it permanently blocks the full-load path (9) through appropriate control of the valve arrangement (11) at partial load and actuates the partial-load path (10) for controlling the fresh gas stream and through appropriate control of the valve arrangement (11) at full load, it actuates at least the full-load path (9) for controlling the fresh gas stream.
US07789063B2

A method for operating an engine having a first injector for injecting a first fuel into a cylinder of the engine and a second injector for injection a second fuel into said cylinder of the engine, the engine further having at least an exhaust gas oxygen sensor, the method comprising of varying an amount of said first fuel injection in response to said sensor under a first operating condition, and varying an amount of said second fuel injection in response to said sensor under a second operating condition.
US07789059B2

An intake control device for an air intake system includes one or more stationary intake pipes that communicate with one or more intake ports of an engine. One or more movable intake pipes are movable relative to the stationary intake pipes and, in one position, cooperate with the stationary intake pipes to define engine air intake passages. An actuator applies a force tending to move the movable intake pipes in a first direction. A controller controls the actuator. The movable intake pipes are inhibited from moving beyond a first position in the first direction. The controller directs the actuator to apply a force to the movable intake pipes when the movable intake pipes are in the first position.
US07789056B2

A sleeve allows insertion of an oil control valve, and is used by being inserted to an installation hole provided in a cylinder head cover. An outer surface of a sleeve main body of the sleeve is covered by a rubber-like elastic body layer. The rubber-like elastic body layer has a protrusion provided in the periphery of an oil hole provided in the sleeve main body in such a manner as to surround the oil hole. In accordance with the sleeve, it is possible to install the oil control valve to the cylinder head cover at a high oil tightness.
US07789053B2

A continuous variable valve lift apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a camshaft, an input cam disposed to the camshaft, a variable lever that is rotably connected to the camshaft and includes a first arm including a first connecting shaft and a second arm including a second connecting shaft, a first link rotating around the first connecting shaft corresponding to a rotation of the input cam, an output cam rotating around the camshaft, a valve opening/closing portion that is opened and closed corresponding to a rotation of the output cam, and a connecting portion that is disposed for the output cam to rotate corresponding to a rotation of the first link.
US07789052B2

A variable valve actuator for a power system is provided. The variable valve actuator may have a hydraulic piston extendable to interrupt cyclical movement of an engine valve. The variable valve actuator may also have a pin member pivotally received by the hydraulic piston, and a retaining ring configured to axially align the pin member with the hydraulic piston as the hydraulic piston is retracted.
US07789044B2

A level folding enclosure is provided for the secure containment and transport of a household pet. Self-tensioning, self-guided, frame members allow for the easy and taut assembly of the rigid support frame. Level folding allows for easy storage and transport when not in use. The frame is assembled and used within a machine washable fabric cover. Tent-style stake peg loops on the exterior corners of the cover and zipper locks ensure the pet's safety and well being. The fabric cover includes numerous pockets and retention devices for the storage of pet supplies. Access to the enclosed pet is possible through three sides of the six sided enclosure. For convenience a carrying case is provided.
US07789043B2

A floating habitat designed to be renewably buoyant, self-sustaining and optionally specialized for waterfowl nesting. The first embodiment comprises one or more flotation units, a source of compressed air, and a means for connecting the source of compressed air to the flotation units. Each flotation unit comprises an individual supply hose, an inflatable bladder, a relief valve, a diffusing manifold, bottom mesh, top mesh, and buoyant growth medium. An alternative embodiment comprises a self-compensating buoyancy system. In the waterfowl nesting embodiment, the floating habitat includes one or more waterfowl nesting structures and construction material selected to optimize the nesting habitat. The floating habitat can be comprised of scrap pieces or layers of polyester mesh material. The floating habitats can be combined to provide safe habitat for juvenile waterfowl, encourage colony nesting, or allow a variety of waterfowl or shore bird species to enjoy suitable habitat on the same floating habitat.
US07789038B2

An ejection inspection device includes: an inspection stage on which an inspection sheet is sucked and mounted; a sheet feeding mechanism which feeds the inspection sheet wound in a roll form onto the inspection stage; a sheet taking-up mechanism which takes up the fed inspection sheet from the inspection stage; a suction air valve unit which controls the suction air of the inspection stage; a floating air valve unit which controls the floating air of the inspection stage; and a control unit which controls the suction air valve unit, the floating air valve unit, the sheet feeding mechanism, and the sheet taking-up mechanism. The control unit floats the inspection sheet for performing the feeding operation of the inspection sheet and the taking-up operation thereof.
US07789037B2

The invention relates to a device serving both to lay thin layers of powder and to compact them, the device being suitable for being located inside an apparatus containing a powder or powder mixture while it is subjected to the action of a laser. The device comprises a circular cylinder (12) provided with a longitudinal groove (15) formed in an outside surface of the cylinder (12). The cylinder also has a surface (12a) adapted to compact the powder that has been deposited on a deposition zone. By moving the cylinder in rotation and translation, the powder is brought to and deposited on a tray, on which the powder is then compacted by rotating the cylinder in the opposite direction. The invention enables very thin layers of ceramic or metallic powder to be laid in accurate and uniform manner inside a sealed thermal enclosure at a temperature lying between ambient temperature and about 1200° C.
US07789034B1

A suspension system for an airboat is disclosed. The suspension system may support a seating system on an airboat and may be configured to absorb forces from waves, running over dry ground, et cetera. The suspension system may include one or more dampers configured to absorb forces to smooth out the ride on the airboat. In at least one embodiment, the suspension system may include adjustable dampers that enable the amount of dampening to be adjusted to accommodate different loads, such as more or less people seated on the airboat.
US07789028B2

A chain-stitch multi-needle quilting machine and method provide for driving needles and loopers independently or out of phase, particularly during the starting of stitching sequences. Separate drive motors drive needles separately from their loopers. Alternatively, a single motor drives needles and loopers linked through a differential drive or variably-controllable linkage. At the beginning of a stitch sequence, needles and loopers are separately driven in a split start manner by which stitches can be reliably formed by advancing the loopers ahead of the needles so the looper enters a needle thread loop before the needle enters a looper thread loop. Then the needle and looper can be brought into phase later in the first stitch cycle. The split drive can solve other stitch or thread control problems.
US07789025B2

A desk or table assembly includes a support member such as a worksurface, and an upright member, which may be in the form of a privacy screen, adjacent an edge of the worksurface. The upright member is interconnected with the support member using a mounting arrangement including a spring to apply a constant upward biasing force on the upright member. The spring resists downward forces applied to the upright member, and assist upward forces applied to the upright member. The spring counterbalances the weight of the upright member so that the upright member is retained at a desired position when moved to the desired position thereto by either a downward or upward external force applied to the upright member.
US07789002B2

A table saw having a brake mechanism configured to engage and stop a blade is disclosed. The table saw includes a brake positioning system configured to adjust the position of the brake mechanism to maintain the brake mechanism in an operative position relative to the blade as the blade is raised and lowered.
US07788998B2

A precision machining system with a variable projected machining width of the cutting surface of the machining tool, including: a workpiece holder to hold a workpiece; a machining tool holder to hold the machining tool such that the Z axis is substantially parallel to the tool's centerline; a Z translation stage and an X translation stage each coupled to one of the workpiece holder or the machining tool holder; a workpiece spindle coupled to the workpiece holder to rotate the workpiece about the workpiece axis that is parallel to the Z axis; a machining path controller electrically coupled to the X translation stage and the workpiece spindle; and a tool spindle coupled to the machining tool holder. The tool spindle rotates the machining tool about the centerline of the machining tool, which varies the width of the cutting surface of the machining tool projected perpendicular to the machining path.
US07788996B2

A generally cylindrical shaped tool handle holds multiple sizes of tools. The handle includes one or more holding slots each positioned on one of multiple outer surface faces into which tools are inserted and held. Each holding slot includes one or more contoured compartments in which tools rest when engaged with the handle. Each contoured compartment is of a size and dimension which corresponds to one or more tool sizes. In the preferred embodiment of the tool handle, three of its outer surface faces have a continuous holding slot with multiple receiving holes for inserting therein hexagonal wrenches of multiple sizes. The continuous holding slots of the preferred embodiment of the handle include multiple contoured compartments for holding an inserted hexagonal wrench. Each contoured compartment is formed about a corresponding receiving hole. A lock is positioned over the contoured compartment to irremovably confine the short leg of the hexagonal wrench within the contoured compartment. Hexagonal shaped tools other than wrenches may be used with the handle of the present invention such as screwdrivers and socket wrenches. A tool holder of the present invention is designed to slide over the handle and to hold multiple sizes of tools which may be used with the handle. The tool holder includes a tool holding member having a plurality of cavities for inserting therein appropriately sized tools and a tool handle holding member having a cavity with an inner hollow shape corresponding to a shape of the handle.
US07788992B2

A unitary fiber reinforced plastic aerodynamic bicycle handlebar is molded with a one piece base bar having tubes that slidably receive forward handlebar extensions, the extensions being either locked in place with binder collars, or telescopingly mounted, and either the extensions receiving arm pad brackets or the arm pad brackets being mounted to the base bar, the base bar extending outwardly and terminating in grips, the extensions permitting the rider to assume an aerodynamic position and the grips enabling control while maneuvering, an improved stem permitting a light weight, aerodynamic mounting of the bar to a bicycle.
US07788990B2

A lever device for operating a hydraulic actuator for a motorcycle comprises a support, a hydraulic actuator connected to the support, a main lever pivotally connected to the support for movement toward or away from the hydraulic actuator, and a timing lever pivotally connected to the support and connected to the main lever so as to operate the hydraulic actuator. An adjusting member is interposed between the main lever and the timing lever defines the relative position between the levers. An electric actuator changes the position of the adjusting member as a function of an electric power supplied to the actuator from a manually adjustable power supply.
US07788988B2

A drive assembly for providing two outputs from a motor to actuators or the like has a first drive shaft connected with the motor via a torque limiter and a reduction gear. A high efficiency spur gear also connects the motor with a second, parallel drive shaft via a second torque limiter and a reduction gear. The two drive shafts are also interconnected by a low efficiency gear provided by worm pinions on the shafts and a worm gear wheel engaging both pinions, which only transfers load between the drive outputs if there is uneven torsional loading in excess of the settings of the torque limiters.
US07788986B2

A hybrid manual-electronic pipette combines a manually driven piston with real-time electronic measurement of liquid volume and piston displacement while compensating for both pipette-specific and pipette model-specific variations. The hybrid nature of the pipette facilitates increased accuracy and improved ease of use, and enables additional functionalities not practicable with traditional manual pipettes.
US07788977B2

A physical quantity sensor comprises a sensor circuit that converts an externally applied physical quantity to an electrical signal and outputs a detection signal; an adjustment circuit that adjusts the detection signal, which is received from the sensor circuit, to a predetermined signal; and an output circuit that forms an output signal from the signal of the adjustment circuit wherein the sensor circuit and the output circuit are driven by a common power supply voltage. The adjustment circuit comprises a pulse generation circuit that generates a pulse modulation signal based on the power supply voltage; and an amplifier circuit that amplifies the detection signal, which is received from the sensor circuit, with a gain made variable by the pulse modulation signal, wherein the detection sensitivity of the output signal is made variable according to the power supply voltage. This configuration enables the amplifier circuit, provided in the adjustment circuit, to output a sensor output that has high linearity characteristics and, as a result, implements a physical quantity sensor with highly accurate sensor detection sensitivity and allows the physical quantity sensor to have good detection-sensitivity ratiometrics characteristics, high linearity, and desired-characteristic detection sensitivity.
US07788970B2

A wireless sensor probe for use in environmental monitoring and control includes a separable probe body and sensor mast. The probe body includes a void configured to house the sensor mast including one or more sensor devices for sensing a soil property surrounding the probe body when the probe body is inserted partially into the ground. The probe body includes a probe top part for encapsulating the probe body and the sensor mast. The sensor mast is inserted into the probe body to form the sensor probe. In another embodiment, a wireless sensor probe includes a housing containing one or more sensor devices. The probe further includes a collar situated near a top portion of the housing being used to anchor the housing to the top of the ground and a gasket formed on the outside perimeter of the housing for securing the housing in the ground.
US07788968B2

A system to first verify an adequate degree of hermeticity of a hermetic container in providing safe storage of a commodity by retaining sufficient hermeticity in a closed container and if satisfactory, loading a commodity in the container to self-verify the continued safe storage of the commodity by retaining sufficient hermeticity to protect the commodity from the effects of at least one of oxygen, humidity, insects and microflora in a hermetic container on the commodity therein. The hermetic container has at least one self-verifying component for measuring a parameter internal to the container, during and after manufacture, before and after placement of a commodity therein, and for providing the measurement externally to the container.
US07788966B2

A device to diagnose a vacuum system comprises a pipe with a first opening that can be closed by a hingable cover, and a second opening that is designed to establish a pressure-proof connection to the vacuum system. The diagnostic device may be operated in a volume-flow mode in which the cover is open in order to determine a volume flow in the base body, and in a negative-pressure mode in which the cover is closed so as to allow to draw conclusions about the available pressure difference.
US07788961B2

A system and method are described for ballizing and measuring a workpiece bore hole. In one embodiment, a ballizing unit having a distal end removably coupled to a ballizing member moves the ballizing member from a first position within the bore hole to a second position. A metrology unit having a distal end removably coupled to the ballizing member moves the ballizing member from the second position back to the first position. A sensor detects a force exerted on the ballizing member by the workpiece at a third position, which is located between the first and second positions.
US07788952B2

The invention provides a fabric (10) comprising a porous layer (15) that is porous in the direction along the layer, the porous layer including fibers (16) extending across the layer, whereby, in use, fluid (A) is arranged to be driven along the porous layer in the general extent of the layer. The fabric allows heat from a body in contact with the fabric to be carried along the porous layer, thereby efficiently cooling the body. The invention also provides articles comprising the fabric, such as clothing. Advantageously, the fabric is lightweight, flexible and non-bulky, and provides efficient cooling of the body.
US07788949B2

A method of making a closed-cell silica foam glass is provided which can include diffusing a substance into a porous glass substrate to form an impregnated substrate, sealing the impregnated glass substrate and heating to a first temperature, wherein the pressure is greater than one atmosphere, heating the container to a second temperature, wherein the second temperature is higher than first temperature, removing the solid glass, non-porous substrate, and heating the solid glass, non-porous substrate to a third temperature to soften the solid glass, non-porous substrate and thereby expand the solid glass, non-porous substrate. A closed-cell silica foam product is provided which can have a closed-cell structure and high temperature insulating property.
US07788948B2

To provide a process for producing a reliable substrate in good yield, by suppressing bleeding of boric acid from a green sheet comprising a powder of borosilicate glass to improve printability of a conductive pattern thereby to prevent disconnection.A process for producing a substrate which comprises firing a green sheet comprising a powder of borosilicate glass, wherein the powder is one prepared by holding borosilicate glass before pulverization, at a temperature higher by at least 30° C. than the glass transition temperature and lower by at most 50° C. than the softening point of the borosilicate glass for at least 3 hours in the atmosphere, followed by pulverization.
US07788942B2

A helium management control system for controlling the helium refrigerant supply from a common manifold supplies a plurality of cryogenic refrigerators with an appropriate helium supply. The system employs a plurality of sensors to monitor and regulate the overall refrigerant supply to deliver an appropriate refrigerant supply to each of the cryogenic refrigerators depending on the computed aggregate cooling demand of all of the cryogenic refrigerators. An appropriate supply of helium is distributed to each cryopump by sensing excess and sparse helium refrigerant and redistributing refrigerant accordingly. If the total refrigeration supply exceeds the total refrigerant demand, or consumption, excess refrigerant is directed to cryogenic refrigerators which can utilize the excess helium to complete a current cooling function more quickly. Similarly, if the total refrigeration demand exceeds the total refrigeration supply, the refrigerant supply to some or all of the cryogenic refrigerators will be reduced accordingly so that detrimental or slowing effects are minimized based upon the current cooling function.
US07788936B2

Adaptive intelligent circulation control methods and systems are used to help increase the comfort and/or reduce energy usage and equipment wear. In one illustrative embodiment, the circulation and/or ventilation time is adjusted based on one or more environmental conditions inside or outside the building structure. In another illustrative embodiment, the circulation and/or ventilation time may be adjusted based on the current time of day, current time of year, and/or the current schedule period. In another illustrative embodiment, the circulation and/or ventilation time is randomized over time. The start time, end time, and/or length of a circulation and/or ventilation cycle may be randomly set.
US07788924B2

A stack system and method for in-line geothermal and hydroelectric generation from recovered natural gas-fired water/steam process waste heat. The stack system and method is a new way of reusing natural gas fired water/steam process waste heat to make more electricity from the same Btu inputs. The stack system and method uses warm industrial demineralized water from various sources, a micro-managed combined stack flue system and specific terrain to ring out every bit of energy possible from traditional, heretofore, acceptable wastes. The stack uses two marginal waste heat sources to make one significant heat source for additional fossil fuel-free generation. This stack is unique in that it incorporates tandem, geothermal and hydroelectric generators. The stack can be applied to closed-loop (Power Stack) and open-loop (Desalination Stack) processes.
US07788921B2

To provide a shape memory alloy actuator using a shape memory alloy that mechanically restrains a moving body in position to prevent oscillation, the actuator has a moving body pushing member adapted to be capable of abutting to the moving body, a bias spring for the moving body pushing member that exerts an external force on the moving body pushing member in the direction opposite to the direction of change in the shape of a shape memory wire caused by heating, a bias spring for the moving body that exerts an external force on the moving body in the direction same as the direction of change, a first stopper that restricts the movement of the moving body to a predetermined position upon cooling. One end of the shape memory wire is fixed, the other end is mechanically linked with the moving body pushing member. The moving body pushing member and the moving body are moved by deformation caused by heating, and the moving body and the moving body pushing member are separated, when the moving body is stopped at the position of the first stopper.
US07788920B2

A hydraulic motor is driven by a fixed displacement, three stage gear-type pump. The three equal displacement sections provide 3 equally-stepped flows so that the hydraulic motor can have three speeds. Valving and controls are provided for remote on-the-fly shifting of the speeds, automatic pump unloading in neutral, and adjustable maximum pressure. A closed loop system permits use of a relatively small reservoir. The contamination tolerance of the system is greater than that of variable displacement piston-type pumps typically used. Direct recirculation of hydraulic fluid is provided for unused speeds to permit hydraulic fluid to recirculate in the pump without doing work. A unique control circuit is provided to control the first speed valve in conjunction with a logic cartridge which controls hydraulic motor direction to permit fluid flow to the hydraulic motor to be stopped when coming to neutral without slamming the hydraulic motor and rotating drill pipe to a stop. The first speed valve also acts as a relief valve to provide a mechanism for adjusting maximum system pressure.
US07788917B2

A method of controlling a motor includes monitoring a pressure in a circuit supplying a pressurized fluid to the motor, determining a difference between the monitored circuit pressure and a desired circuit pressure, and determining an actuator command for an actuator that is capable of adjusting a pressure of the pressurized fluid supplied to the motor. The actuator command is determined based on the difference between the monitored circuit pressure and the desired circuit pressure, and is independent of a position of the actuator. The method also includes operating the actuator based on the actuator command.
US07788904B2

The invention relates to an exhaust system for an internal combustion engine on a vehicle, comprising an exhaust catalyst and a probe arrangement in the region of the exhaust catalyst as component of a lambda regulation device in which the engine is alternately switched between a lean and rich operating region, depending on the probe signals recorded by the probe device. According to the invention, the probe arrangement is embodied as a single, lambda probe, continuously providing probe signals, arranged downstream of the exhaust catalyst, by means of which, in cooperation with the lambda regulation device, the increase of the oxygen content in the exhaust gas flow over the whole duration of the lean operation phase and the decrease in oxygen content in the exhaust gas flow over the whole duration of the rich operation phase are each recorded in relation to an oxygen content comparison value (U0), whereby in both the lean operation phase and the rich operation phase a switching threshold value (U1, U2; U1′) U2′) dependent on oxygen content is given, which, on reaching said value, the lambda regulation device is switched into the other operating region.
US07788903B2

An air-fuel ratio control apparatus of an internal combustion engine includes first and second catalysts 10 and 12, first air-fuel ratio acquiring means 8 provided up-stream of the first catalyst, for acquiring an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas; second air-fuel ratio acquiring means 11 for acquiring an air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the second catalyst, and air-fuel ratio controlling means 13 for controlling an air-fuel ratio according to the air-fuel ratios acquired by the first and second air-fuel ratio acquiring means, and the air-fuel ratio controlling means is provided with lean control means 13 for controlling an air-fuel ratio until the second catalyst becomes lean after completion of a fuel quantity increasing operation of the engine, and intermediate lean control means 13 for performing control to change the air-fuel ratio to a lean air-fuel ratio within the range enough to make the first catalyst lean and not enough to make the second catalyst lean, between the fuel quantity increasing operation and the air-fuel ratio control by the lean control means.
US07788901B2

A method and apparatus for regenerating exhaust treatment devices. Incomplete combustion products may be selectively provided in at least one cylinder of multi-cylinder internal combustion engine. This may then be followed by directing the products to an engine exhaust treatment device. The temperature of the engine exhaust treatment device may then be increased due to exposure to the products of incomplete combustion. The catalyst in the converter may then be regenerated due to the temperature increase.
US07788899B2

A thrust augmentation system for a mixed exhaust turbofan engine comprises an augmentation duct, a combustion system and a fixed area exhaust nozzle. The augmentation duct receives primary and secondary air of the turbofan engine and is positioned co-axially with an exhaust case of the turbofan engine. The combustion system increases the thrust produced by the mixed exhaust of the turbofan. The fixed area exhaust nozzle has a throat area larger than that which would maximize the non-augmented thrust.
US07788898B2

A system for transferring mechanical torque variably between a plurality of rotating machines in a turbofan engine. Two devices are used, where the first device relies upon magnetic properties of a planetary magnetic gearbox to couple the magnetic machines. The second device is used to variably control the torque transfer between the magnetic machines. The system couples rotating shafts rotating at differing speeds within a turbofan engine for controllably transferring power. To transfer power in the system, a fixed gear ratio is obtained by coupling the relatively high- and low-speed engine shafts to an epicyclic magnetic gearbox.
US07788891B2

A cutting platform for use with an agricultural harvester includes at least one platform section. Each platform section includes a frame, a cutterbar assembly defining a leading edge of the platform section, an endless belt, and a plurality of float arms pivotally attached to the frame. The cutterbar assembly is movable in a localized manner in upwards and downwards directions. At least one float arm carries a roller which supports the endless belt and is positioned within a loop of the endless belt. Each roller is pivotable or removable relative to the corresponding float arm.
US07788890B2

A corn stalk roll, a corn stalk head, and a corn stalk machine suitable for harvesting cobs and separating the stalk or stem of the cob plant is described. The machine requires low cutting power and is not susceptible to jamming.
US07788888B2

Self-propelled work vehicle for harvesting fruit, with a front axle, a rear axle, a steering column, an engine, a control pedal, a seat mounted in a driving position and a plurality of tools, with a control system for controlling the engine, the tools, the control pedal. The control system comprises an electronic joystick, which controls the progress of the self-propelled work vehicle for harvesting fruit so that acceleration and braking are proportional with respect to the angle is maintained when the electronic joystick is released.
US07788871B2

A flooring includes rectangular floorboards with long sides and short sides, the floorboards being joined in a herringbone pattern, long side to long side and long side to short side, wherein the floorboards have a surface layer of laminate, and the long sides of the floorboards have pairs of opposing mechanical connectors which at least allow locking-together both horizontally and vertically by inward angling.
US07788869B2

A clip assembly secures standing seam skylight or roofing panels to substrates and allows for a full range of movements by the panels while eliminating or reducing frictional noises. The clip assembly may also be used with wall panel systems. The clip assembly includes a first clip member and a second clip member each having an upright member and an upper flange member and a lower flange member extending therefrom. The assembly further includes a gap formed between the upright member of the first clip member and the upright member of the second clip member. In one aspect the clip assembly includes a base which allows the assembly to slide.
US07788863B2

An astragal boot is mounted onto a lower end of an astragal disposed on a free end of a semi-active door in a double-door set disposed over a threshold. The astragal boot includes a platform and a pair of lateral fins spaced from one another and being flexible and projecting downwardly from the platform to seal against the threshold. Primary fins are flexible and project downwardly from the platform a greater distance than the lateral fins and are joined to and extend between the lateral fins. The lateral fins are joined to the primary fins and hold the primary fins into sealing engagement with the threshold to prevent the penetration of water between the astragal boot and the threshold. The lateral fins hold the primary fins against the threshold because the primary fins are thinner thereby minimizing the effort required to close the semi-active door over the threshold.
US07788862B2

In a door constructed of spaced apart skins mounted on a rectangular frame and reinforced with the core between the skins filled with a plastic foam, a window or door light frame system consists of a two part frame system with a window light permanently installed in one part of the system and the other part releasably adapted to register with the frame part with the window light installed during shipping and rotated when installed to bring the locking elements of the several parts into registry to permanently lock the frame system in an aperture formed in a door with stop means in the locking arrangements to prevent damage to the frame system or the door on which the frame system is installed from excessive compressive forces on the frame parts.
US07788852B2

A door seal includes an elongated mounting strip adapted to be secured to a door frame and a flexible sealing strip adapted to be positioned between the mounting strip and the door frame for sealing the space between the door and the frame thereby to reduce transmission of noise and air through that space. The flexible sealing strip is formed from a series of individual separate strip segments aligned next to each other along the mounting strip.
US07788846B2

An artificial soil and a method for growing vegetation on a sloped surface using the same are disclosed. The artificial soil is produced by mixing peat or grass peat, paper chip or pulp chip, saw dust or bark, fermented animal waste or dried animal waste, and a microbe activator, frisol; and by adding clay or Silt(SILT) or granular to the mixture. The method comprises forming a vegetation base layer by applying the artificial soil to a sloped surface; waiting until the vegetation base layer has a crack by a shrinkage; and applying a seed mixture of artificial soil over the vegetation base layer, the seed mixture of artificial soil obtained by adding a myocardium catalyst, a microbe activator, a material binder, an evaporation prevention material, and grass seeds, weed seeds, and tree seeds to the artificial soil with water.
US07788840B2

An apparatus comprises a motor, a traverse support beam, a first support rod, and a second support rod. The motor is operative to rotate an axle. The traverse support beam is rotationally coupled to this axle and has a first end and a second end. The first support rod is coupled to the first end of the traverse support beam and is adapted to support a first decoy. Finally, the second support rod is coupled to the second end of the traverse support beam and is adapted to support a second decoy.
US07788838B2

A waterfowl decoy has a body with a motor rotatably driving a shaft. A support rod is movably and eccentrically connected to the shaft. The support rod extends outwardly through an orifice in the body, rotation of the shaft causing the support rod to move inwardly and outwardly of the body through the orifice, and to swing upwardly and downwardly about the orifice. A foot on the outer end of the support rod performs a kicking action when the decoy floats in water. There may be two support rods extending through the belly portion of the waterfowl and reciprocating out of phase with each other.
US07788834B2

The present invention provides a wearable article such as clothing, backpacks, hats, and the like that include a backlit lenticular lens display that emits light to allow animation and special effects. The array of interlaced images can be printed directly onto the electroluminescent panel, onto a removable support sheet, or onto the back surface of the lenticular. The electroluminescent panel is laminated to form a flange portion that is radio frequency welded to bond the lenticular display device to an article that is impregnated with a bonding material. A backing material having a fabric layer and a water impenetrable layer can be affixed to the assembly such that the fabric layer contacts the skin. Alternatively, the article may have a surface a display compartment or envelope with a transparent outer surface for enclosing the electroluminescent layer, a removable image sheet, and a lenticular lens layer.
US07788831B2

A calendar that is easy to learn and is more efficient for remembering calendar events in both commercial and non-commercial applications. A method for making a calendar that is easy to learn and is more efficient for remembering calendar events in both commercial and non-commercial applications, as disclosed in this disclosure. A method for using a calendar that is easy to learn and is more efficient for remembering calendar events in both commercial and non-commercial applications.
US07788826B2

Various embodiments of this invention disclose a dynamically responsive shock attenuation system for footwear that comprises two or more materials with different, narrowly prescribed physical properties, which, when used together, produce a dynamic, continuous, and proportional response over a wide range of impact forces. In various embodiments of the invention, the two materials comprise a first material that exhibits generally Newtonian behavior to impact forces and a second material that exhibits generally non-Newtonian behavior to impact forces.
US07788820B2

A probe head having a probe head base and a stylus is provided for contacting a surface point on a workpiece. The stylus is moveable relative to the probe head base and has a defined rest position relative to the probe head base. For the contacting, the probe head is moved relative to the workpiece until the stylus touches the surface point with a defined contacting force. A correction data record representing a hysteresis behavior of the stylus with respect to the rest position is provided, and the contacting force is determined using the correction data record.
US07788816B2

A coordinate transformer that includes foldable horizontal and vertical members utilizes GPS provided map coordinates to assist with location determination on a handheld map. Typically, GPS receivers provide accurate location information but their display size, memory and battery life prohibit the amount of topographic information that can be displayed in context, to a user. Through the use of the coordinate transformer, an ambulatory user is provided with an accurate location indication displayed within the context of a large portion of an actual topographic map, and the user is also able to determine the coordinates of a location of interest on the map for transfer to an internal or external unit.
US07788815B2

A prism pole has a tubular housing having an open top, a flange at the open top, a bottom portion for contacting ground soil, a height-adjustable rod insertable into the tubular housing with an outer diameter less than inner diameter of the tubular housing to provide a slidable friction fit therebetween for positioning the height-adjustable rod with respect to the tubular housing, a lip at the top of the rod, a laser sensor mounted on the tubular housing for emitting a laser toward the lip to measure distance between the laser sensor and the lip, an electronic control unit in electrical communication with the laser sensor for receiving height measurements and providing height reference data corresponding to the height measurements, an electronic display in electrical communication with the electronic control unit for receiving the height reference data and displaying the height reference data, an audio device in electrical communication with the electronic control unit for emitting an alarm in response to receipt of a signal from the electronic control unit indicating movement of the height-adjustable rod with respect to the tubular housing, and an output device in electrical communication with the electronic control unit for sending the height reference data to a data collection device.
US07788809B2

A disposable safety razor having an integral shaving conditioner dispenser includes a neck to which a blade cartridge is affixed at a top end thereof and a handle extends downwardly therefrom. The handle is ergonomically shaped and has an exterior wall that defines a pressure cavity therein for receiving a shaving conditioning compound and a pressurized dispensing gas. The handle has an opening at its bottom and a valve received in the opening. The valve is configured to dispense the shaving conditioning compound downwardly through the valve with the razor held upright. A dispensing cap covers the valve and is engaged therewith such that movement of the dispensing cap causes release of the shaving conditioning compound downwardly through the valve and out from a discharge opening in the cap while holding the razor upright with the blade cartridge and neck positioned higher than the handle bottom and dispensing cap.
US07788806B2

A process for manufacturing an integrally bladed disk for a turbomachine rotor by friction welding is disclosed. The manufacturing process includes arranging a plurality of blades in the form of a ring in a mold having symmetry of revolution; casting a degradable material, preheated to a temperature above its melting point, onto the ring of blades in the mold; extracting the molded ring which is obtained after the degradable material has solidified; welding the molded ring onto a disk; and eliminating the degradable material.
US07788802B2

A method for creating an electrical earth contact to electrically couple a contact shoe to an electrical contact stud using a polymeric material cap nut includes creating an external thread on a shank of the stud. A contact flange is fixed to the stud such that the contact flange faces the shank. The cap nut is selected from a non-conductive polymeric material and from a plurality of sizes of cap nuts. The cap nut is threaded onto the shank until the cap nut engages the contact flange. A torque is applied to the cap nut, the torque selected from a torque range operating to prevent pullout of the shank to electrically engage the contact shoe between the cap nut and the flange.
US07788797B2

A method for making a perpendicular magnetic recording write head that has a write pole, a trapezoidal-shaped trailing shield notch, and a gap between the write pole and notch uses a reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) process in CHF3 that removes filler material at the side edges of the write pole and thus widens the opening at the side edges. The gap is formed of a nonmagnetic mask film, such as alumina, a nonmagnetic metal protective film and a nonmagnetic gap layer. The nonmagnetic metal film is substantially less reactive to CHF3 than the filler material and protects the underlying mask film and write pole during the widening of the opening. The gap layer and trailing shield notch are deposited into a widened opening above the write pole, so the sides of the notch diverge to cause the generally trapezoidal shape.
US07788789B2

The present invention provides a method of fabricating a crystal oscillator with pedestal for surface mounting, which is provided on a base surface of a crystal oscillator from which a pair of lead wires extends and which is formed by injection molding using a mold with a liquid-crystal polymer as raw material; wherein protrusions that follow the shape of said mold are provided on at least a corner around the outer periphery of the surface of the oscillator pedestal facing said base surface of said crystal oscillator; a non-defective product is assumed to be one in which the upper surface of each of said protrusions is a flat surface, but a defective product is assumed to be one in which the flat surface of said protrusion is ridged; and only a non-defective product is mounted onto the base surface of the crystal oscillator. This makes it possible to provide a method of fabricating a crystal oscillator by which reliability is increased while the strength of the oscillator pedestal is maintained.
US07788776B2

Grooves are formed in a supporting plate around element-arrangement areas in which a plurality of piezoelectric elements are to be arranged respectively. After forming the grooves, the piezoelectric elements are formed in the element-arrangement areas respectively by making particles of a piezoelectric material to be deposited on the element-arrangement areas in an amount which is more than an amount of the particles of the piezoelectric material made to be deposited on areas formed with the grooves. Accordingly, there is provided a method of producing a piezoelectric actuator and a piezoelectric actuator which make it possible to easily form the piezoelectric elements arranged densely.
US07788773B2

A double-sided engaging element for a slide fastener, comprising a central elevated portion elevated from a coupling base surface; and a pair of right and left projecting portions formed to project from a body portion toward the central elevated portion and to be elevated from the coupling base surface, wherein a central elevated portion of a mating element is detachably coupled in a dent surrounded by the central elevated portion, the right and left projecting portions and a stepped surface. A dimension (T0) between inside elevation startup edges of the right and left projecting portions is set smaller than a dimension (R0) between right and left elevation startup edges of the central elevated portion, and a first missing portion is formed on an outside corner of an end portion of each of the right and left projecting portions opposing the central elevated portion.
US07788772B2

A shoulder strap holder for a garment that can be worn on a shoulder of a jacket, a coat or any clothing which is aesthetically pleasing and can be worn as is. The shoulder strap holder comprising two monocoque parts; a top plate with a grooved design, a cylindrical portion with an interior cavity having a screw thread formed therein and terminating at one end thereof in a flange comprising a plurality of apertures; a bottom plate comprising a pin screw extending outwardly therefrom and a plurality of apertures representing the sewing holes, the pin screw being screwed in the cylindrical portion through an eyelet fixed on the shoulder portion of a garment leaving an holding space to hold on any strap, the eyelet catching and protecting the fabric or material thus forming a shoulder strap holder for a garment.
US07788771B2

In an apparatus on a spinning room machine for depositing fiber sliver, a stationary delivery device for delivering fiber sliver and a substantially flat receiving support surface for receiving and collecting the fiber sliver as a can-less fiber sliver package are present. The receiving support surface, which is substantially unenclosed, is movable during the depositing process back and forth in the horizontal direction by a drive arrangement. In order to improve the production of the can-less fiber sliver package, the speed of the receiving support surface with the sliver package is alterable substantially on a reversal path such that a gradual braking to speed value zero to the speed of the back and forth movement are effected.
US07788767B2

An automatic door shutter includes a stationary plate and a pressing plate pivotally combined together and with a resilient body located therebetween. Additionally, a pivot of the stationary plate has a sliding notch accepting an S-shaped resilient sheet abutting the pressing plate. By attaching the stationary plate and the sliding base to a door frame and a door respectively, the resilient body pushes the pressing plate to shut the door automatically. When the door is pushing to fully open, the pressing plate pivots to the stationary plate, and the S-shaped resilient sheet slides in the sliding recess and is compressed to deform to become U-shape. Until the door is fully open, the resilient sheet which is U-shaped causes an outward pushing force to the pressing plate to keep the door open constantly.
US07788764B2

A suction device for cleaning jobs comprising a bladed impeller (1) actuated by a motor and suitable for being housed inside a carcass provided with an inlet opening for an airflow and an outlet opening, where said impeller (1) comprises a first series of blades (2) and a second series of blades (3), which rotate firmly fixed together, coaxial to each other and distributed in a staggered manner, suitable for respectively generating an axial flow and a radial flow, said second series of blades (3) being arranged downstream of the first series of blades (2), with respect to the inlet opening, so that the air sucked in is transmitted from the first series of blades (2) to the second series of blades (3) before it reaches the outlet opening.
US07788763B2

A vacuum cleaner includes a fan motor generating air current, a main body receiving the fan motor, a wheel allowing the main body to smoothly move, a flexible connecting hose extending from the main body, an expandable extending tube connected to the connecting holes, a suction nozzle connected to an end of the extending tube to suck outer air, an inner sound absorption member disposed around the fan motor to absorb noise generated by the fan motor, a casing disposed around the inner sound absorption member to enclose the fan motor, the casing being provided with an air hole through which the air is exhausted in a side direction of the fan motor, and an outer sound absorption member disposed around the casing to absorb the noise generated by the fan motor.
US07788755B2

A method for sensing a type of an unbalance of a washing machine is provided. The method may include detecting a vibration amount of a tub using a multi-axis acceleration sensor; detecting a vibration amount of an rpm of a motor; and judging a type of an unbalance based on the vibration amount and the rpm vibration amount. The method may also include detecting a vibration amount of a tub at a plurality of positions of the tub using a plurality of multi-axis acceleration sensors; detecting a time difference of vibration occurrence at the plurality of positions, and thereby calculating a vibration phase difference; and judging a type of an unbalance based on the vibration amount detected at the plurality of positions and the vibration phase difference.
US07788750B2

A multi-function pillow for therapeutic neck and head support is provided. The pillow generally includes first and second pillow sides united so as to form a sealable pillow cavity, and fluid retaining and neck support elements receivable within the cavity. The first pillow side includes a chamber containing a fill material therethrough. The second pillow side includes at least two chambers, at least one chamber of the at least two chambers containing a fill material therethrough, and one chamber of the at least two chambers defining a central depression for the second pillow side. The fluid retaining element, which is substantially co-extensive with the pillow sides, includes a fluid chamber circumscribing a central region thereof which is to underlie the central depression of the second pillow side.
US07788748B2

A vehicle for use in hospitals, and the like, giving better mobility, steering, braking and passenger handling while providing comfort to the passengers from the time they lay down until they are standing on the side through the rotation and tilting ability of the frame.
US07788743B2

A drain cover adapted for engagement in a cavity above the drain aperture in the surface forming a pool or spa and below a top component. The top component features a substantially transparent center section which provides a view of a display component housed in a display cavity formed between the drain aperture and the center section of the top component. The display component is easily changed by removal of the top component, replacing the display component, and remounting the top component.
US07793355B2

A system and method of owner control of an electronic device are provided. Owner identification information, such as data integrity and source authentication information, is stored on the electronic device. Received owner control information is stored on the electronic device where the integrity of the received owner control information is verified and/or the source is authenticated using the owner identification information. In one embodiment, owner identification information comprises an owner signature private key.
US07793352B2

For optimizing Internet access resources, an apparatus and computer-like readable medium for sharing network access capacities across Internet service providers is disclosed. According to an apparatus comprising means adapted for carrying out a method for sharing network access capacities between a master Internet service provider, the method of the invention, a client service provider (CSP) may hire accesses to points of presence belonging to a master service provider (MSP) while maintaining a constant security level and providing connection accounting means. When a CSP's subscriber sends an access request to a MSP, the MSP analyzes the subscriber's realm and checks the capacities allocated to the subscriber's CSP. If connection is allowed, the MSP sends an authentication request to the CSP. If the subscriber is authenticated, the MSP launches an accounting process based on the subscriber's realm while the CSP may launch an accounting process associated with the subscriber identifier. Thus, the MSP does not need to maintain a database comprising information relative to the CSP's subscribers.
US07793348B2

Method and apparatus for protecting a data processing system such as an Internet server from attack by a vandal who uses an offensive vulnerability scanner to find an externally visible vulnerability of the data processing system. The method includes determining an externally visible vulnerability using a defensive vulnerability scanner, configuring an intrusion detection system to detect a network flow associated with the vulnerability, and blocking that flow by a firewall or a router. The apparatus includes a defensive vulnerability scanner that finds an externally visible vulnerability and provides a description of the vulnerability, an intrusion detection system that detects a network flow that satisfies the description, and a firewall or a router that blocks the flow responsive to detection of the flow by the intrusion detection system.
US07793333B2

An authorization engine is provided in a remote device for mobile authorization using policy based access control. To ensure that remote devices can enforce consistent authorization policies even when the devices are not connected to the server, the remote device downloads the relevant authorization policies when the business objects are downloaded and enforces the policies when operations are invoked. The memory footprint of downloadable authorization policies is reduced to fit onto a resource-constrained remote device. A policy evaluation engine interprets and enforces the downloaded policies on the remote device using only the limited computational resources of the remote device.
US07793331B2

Method for communication between a central server and a computerized juke-box which operates in a conference mode, including: sending a header before any transaction, which includes the identity of the destination together, the identity of the emitter, and the size of the packets; responding from the server in the form of a data packet, each packet sent by the server being encoded using the identification code of the juke-box software; and receiving a data packet by the juke-box, which decodes the packet, simultaneously performs a check on the data received by the CRC method and sends an acknowledgment of receipt to the server indicating the accuracy of the information received, to allow it to prepare and send another packet to the juke-box.
US07793329B2

Method and system for reducing switching delays between digital video feeds using multicast slotted transmission technique. Method, system, computer program stored on a computer readable medium for reducing switching delays between digital video feeds or different video or data channels using a slotted distribution and transmission technique. Method and system for performing a fast channel change operation. A computer propagated data signal. An article of manufacture comprising a digital video signal set.
US07793325B2

An entertainment head-end provides broadcast programming, video-on-demand services, and HTML-based interactive programming through a distribution network to client terminals in subscribers' homes. A number of different features are provided, including novel user interfaces, enhanced video-on-demand controls, a variety of interactive services (personalized news, jukebox, games, celebrity chat), and techniques that combine to provide user experiences evocative of conventional television.
US07793320B2

A method for receiving a broadcasting signal and a broadcasting signal receiver are disclosed. Even when a cell is changed while an emergency alert is output, the emergency alert can be continuously output using emergency alert table information included in the broadcasting signal and channel information of the cell. The emergency alert table information may include a cell identifier and the channel information of the cell may include virtual channel information of the cell.
US07793308B2

An efficiency-based workload manager samples multiple actual resource use characteristics while a process executes, where the actual resource use characteristics designate a portion of a total amount of system resources available to the process that are utilized by the process at multiple times over a sampling period. Next, responsive to detecting the conclusion of the sampling period, the efficiency-based workload manager determines an operation based resource utilization threshold for the process based on a maximum resource use within the multiple samplings of actual resource use characteristics. Then, the efficiency-based workload manager stores the operation based resource utilization threshold for access by a workload manager, where the workload manager uses the operation based resource utilization threshold to restrict the process to resource use up to the operation based resource utilization threshold within an execution environment managed by the workload manager.
US07793299B2

A system for scheduling tasks for execution includes a queue of tasks ordered by scheduled time for execution. A timer thread monitors status of tasks in the queue and selectively dispatches tasks. A guard thread monitors status of tasks in the queue and selectively creates timer threads. The guard thread is responsive to a next task in the queue becoming ready for execution while a first timer thread is still processing a prior task to create a new timer thread to dispatch the next task and mark the first timer thread for closure. Thereafter, the first timer thread closes responsive to the prior task completing.
US07793295B2

Task management methods. A plurality of GBL (global bandwidth limiter) classes is provided. One of the GBL classes is selected based on the priority of a first task, in which the first task is from a MCU (micro-controller unit) bus. A system GBL class is selected based on the highest GBL class which has been selected among the GBL classes. A bandwidth limiter of a DMA (direct memory access) unit is assigned according to the system GBL class and the priority of a second task if the DMA unit is activated by the second task. The second task is from a DMA bus, and the cycle between the DMA and MCU buses is determined according to the bandwidth limiter.
US07793287B2

A virtual machine monitor can be used to commence virtualization of an I/O device of a computer at runtime. The virtual machine monitor can also be used to devirtualize an I/O device of a computer at runtime.
US07793273B2

System and method for implicit downcasting at compile time in a data flow program. A first data flow function in an object-oriented dataflow program is identified, where the first function includes an input of a parent data type and an output of the parent data type. The first function is analyzed to determine if the output preserves the run-time data type of the input. A second dataflow function in the object-oriented data flow program is identified, where the second function includes a program element that calls the first function, passing an input parameter of a child data type of the parent data type as input. If the analysis determines that an output parameter returned by the output of the first function will always be of the child data type, the program element is automatically configured at compile time to always downcast the output parameter from the parent data type to the child data type at run-time.
US07793264B2

A system, method and computer program product for providing command-line warnings are disclosed. The method includes receiving a command as input at a command prompt and, in response to determining that said command is not entered in a structurally correct manner, providing to a user an opportunity to correct said command at said command prompt. In response to determining that said command is entered in an erroneous manner, warning and corrected usage data is shown, and in response to determining that said command is not likely to be safe, said command and said warning and corrected usage data are shown in a blinking yellow text. In response to determining that said command is critical, a final warning is displayed by employing a blinking red text and playing a sound.
US07793252B2

A lithography simulation method includes: taking in design data of a pattern to be formed on a substrate and mask data to prepare a mask pattern used in forming a latent image of the pattern on the substrate by transmission of an energy ray; obtaining the latent image of the pattern by calculation of an intensity of the energy ray; locally changing, at least in a portion corresponding to a pattern to be interested, a relative position in a direction of the intensity of the energy ray between a latent image curve and a reference intensity line in accordance with a distance between the pattern to be interested and a pattern of a neighboring region, the latent image curve being an intensity distribution curve of the energy ray constituting the latent image, the reference intensity line being defined to specify a position of an edge of the pattern to be interested; and calculating a distance between intersections of a portion of the latent image curve corresponding to the pattern to be interested and the reference intensity line in the changed relative position to define an interested line width of the pattern to be interested.
US07793236B2

A substrate device is designed by identifying one or more criteria for handling of a transient electrical event on the substrate device. The one or more criteria may be based at least in part on an input provided from a designer. From the one or more criteria, one or more characteristics may be determined for integrating VSD material as a layer within or on at least a portion of the substrate device. The layer of VSD material may be positioned to protect one or more components of the substrate from the transient electrical condition.
US07793234B1

A tool (30) for graphically defining an expression is disclosed. The tool comprises a graphic user interface (GUI) component (31) and an expression generator component (32) adapted to read a graphic definition of an expression provided by a user through the GUI component. The GUI component is responsive to user input to define one or more tree structures comprising a hierarchical series of nodes, and one or more lists comprising a plurality of items, each list item being associated with respective node of an associated tree. The expression generator component analyzes the graphic definition and generates an expression based on the structure of the or each tree and any list items associated with respective nodes of a tree.
US07793231B2

A method for providing a primary window overlay includes providing a primary window on a desktop and designating an overlay window. The method further includes implanting the overlay window on the primary window, receiving activity input to the primary window, and maintaining the overlay window on top of the primary window. A system for providing a primary window overlay includes providing a primary window on a desktop, designating an overlay window, implanting the overlay window on the primary window, receiving activity input to the primary window, and maintaining the overlay window and receiving activity input to the overlay window on top of the primary window. A computer readable medium can include computer readable code for executing the method steps.
US07793228B2

A computer-implemented method for text entry includes receiving entered text from a user, selecting a set of candidate sequences for completing or continuing the sequence, and presenting the candidate sequences to the user, wherein the candidate sequences include partial words. The candidate sequences are identified based on usage frequency weights stored in a tree data structure. A graphical user interface for text entry includes displaying a current input sequence of characters and the identified partial words.
US07793227B2

An embodiment of the invention provides for one or more customizable buttons, used with a downloadable toolbar for an Internet browser. The method may comprise directing an Internet browser user, using a computer, to a button modification medium, receiving modification information from the Internet browser user and loading the modified buttons on the computer.
US07793225B2

A graphical user interface in an electronic device includes one or more user-interface objects associated with a second user-interface state. While the device is in a first user-interface state, the one or more objects transition in optical intensity to indicate progress towards satisfaction of a user input condition needed to transition to the second user-interface state.
US07793224B1

A content formatting process receives identification of selected content within an original document, and identifies formatting information associated with the selected content, but not contained within the selected content. The identified formatting information is applied to the selected content when the selected content is copied to a revised document. During the content formatting process, the original document is scanned to identify formatting characters within the document. The various types of formatting identified by the content formatting process are presented to the user, and the user is prompted to choose which types of formatting should be applied to a new, revised document. The content formatting process receives the selection(s) of the formatting types, from the user, and the chosen formatting types are applied to the selected content in the new, revised document.
US07793221B1

The present invention provides a system for providing administrative support for a military unit. The invention includes a server-side database containing information about the military unit and a client-side browser application that provides a secure network connection to the database. Unit members can access the application to retrieve and edit the administrative information, wherein unit members can access administrative information specific to their respective responsibilities. These areas may include personnel, security, training and operations, logistics, communications and Information Systems, and chaplain services. Unit administrative information also includes information for a family support group for family members of personnel assigned to the military unit.
US07793219B1

Novel techniques and tools for authoring multimedia compositions are presented. The novel techniques and tools allow an author of a multimedia composition to create a multimedia composition by dragging assets from a first window containing a project's unused assets and placing the assets into a structural relationship in a second window. The author may also remove assets from the structural relationship in the second window and return the assets to the first window of unused assets. The novel techniques and tools allow an author of a multimedia composition to better keep track of the assets to be used in the multimedia composition.
US07793216B2

A method and system for implementing a document processor and re-aggregator is described herein. A document is divided into one or more sections and formatting is removed. A condensed document is generated that includes one or more links to the one or more sections. The condensed document is transmitted to a mobile device to be displayed for a user. The user may choose to download one or more of the sections by selecting one or more of the links. Once downloaded, a section may be modified by the user. The one or more modified sections may be transmitted from the mobile device. The one or more modified sections may then be re-aggregated with the unmodified sections to form a revised document.
US07793206B2

A system (10) for downloading digital content (5) to a video-enabled portable media player (20), the digital content (5) being published in a media channel (30) by a content creator, the system (10) comprising: a data receiver module (11) to receive the digital content (5) from the media channel (30) via a communication medium; a conversion module (12) to convert the received digital content to at least one video file (40) of a predetermined video format; and a download module (13) to copy the at least one video file (40) to the portable media player (20); wherein the video file (40) ensures the digital content is consumed in the same order that the digital content (5) is published in the media channel (30) by the content creator.
US07793202B2

It is possible to save storage resources. A loss compensation device for compensating a loss in periodical signals when the loss occurs in an arbitrary section of the periodical signals which are divided into predetermined sections and received in time series, includes: a periodical signal storage which stores one or more sections of newly received periodical signals for a predetermined period of time; a loss detector which detects a loss of each section of the periodical signals; and an element periodical signal generator which generates a plurality of element periodical signals for interpolation having different waveforms, in accordance with the periodical signals stored in the periodical signal storage, at time of detection of the loss if the loss is detected by the loss detector. The plurality of element periodical signals generated by the element periodical signal generator are synthesized, and a result of the synthesizing is arranged at the section where the loss in the periodical signals has occurred.
US07793201B1

An iterative decoder includes at respective variable nodes, that is, at nodes that correspond to the bits of the code word, bit error detectors that after convergence determine if the respective hard decision bit values have changed from the bit values provided by the channel. The change in value for a given bit indicates that a bit error has been corrected. The bit error detector, for message-passing decoders that perform calculations by addition rather than multiplication, can be readily implemented as an XOR gate. Thus, a bit error is detected at the variable node by XOR'ing the sign bits of the input symbol and the variable node sum. After convergence, the output values produced by the bit error detectors at the respective variable nodes are added together using an adder tree that accumulates the detected bit errors for an entire date block, or ECC code word. Alternatively, the system may group the bits into respective code word symbols and combine the bit error values into symbols-with-errors values using, for example, XOR sub-trees that produce, for each symbol, a single error value. The error value for a given symbol indicates that the symbol is either error-free or includes one or more bit errors, and a total count of the symbols with errors is produced by adding the error values together.
US07793197B2

One set of syndromes is calculated from a first data string from among a plurality thereof including at least 2t+1 pieces of symbols as a parity string, and coefficients of an error locator polynomial from the one set of the syndromes. Whether or not a correction is successful is judged by using the coefficients of the error locator polynomial and the same calculation is performed for a second data string if a correction failure is judged. Contrarily, if a correction success is judged, an error of the first data string is corrected by using the aforementioned set of the syndromes and the coefficients of the error locator polynomial.
US07793196B2

Methods and associated structures for improved erasure correction and detection in digital communication channels utilizing modified Reed-Solomon decoding of encoded digital data. Methods and associated apparatus in accordance with features and aspects hereof perform Galois Field element generation in descending order for Reed-Solomon erasure detection and correction. Real time computation of Galois Field elements in descending order as required for erasure detection and correction features and aspects hereof eliminates the need for costly, complex, large, high speed lookup tables as previously practiced in the art for storing Galois Field element values pre-computed in the same ascending order of reception of the encoded code words. Features and aspects hereof may thus be applied in digital read channel applications including, for example, digital telecommunications receive/read channels and digital data storage read channels.
US07793194B2

The present invention provides for applying a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to a data signal. The present invention includes attaching a first CRC to a first data signal block having a first length, segmenting the first data signal block attached with the first CRC into a plurality of second data signal blocks having a length shorter than the first length, respectively generating a second CRC for each second data signal block, and attaching the generated second CRC to the respective second data signal block. Moreover, the first CRC and second CRC may be generated from respectively different CRC generating polynomial equations.
US07793188B2

Apparatus and method suitable for improving reliability of collected sensor data over a network. One or more transient errors are predicted and corrected using correlation of collected data. For example, sensor data can be collected from one or more sensor nodes in a network. A device other than a sensor node can use the data to develop a predictive model based upon inherent redundancy in the sensor data, and correct one or more later-received values deemed unreliable.
US07793186B1

An integrated circuit (IC), a method of testing an IC and a method of reading test results from an IC containing built-in self-test (BIST) circuitry. In one embodiment, the IC includes: (1) an external test bus interface, (2) read-write memory coupled to the external test bus interface, (3) other circuitry and (4) BIST circuitry, coupled to the external test bus interface, the read-write memory and the other circuitry and configured to test the read-write memory to identify a good data block therein, store in a predetermined data block in the read-write memory multiple instances of a pointer to the good data block, conduct a test of at least the other circuitry and store at least some results of the test in the good data block.
US07793185B2

The invention relates to an integrated circuit for a data transmission system comprising a) a plurality of functional units, b) a TAP controller, according to IEEE 1149, having a JTAG interface, and c) a test unit for testing the functionality of the functional units, whereby the test unit has at least two operating modes and at least one gate terminal for switching between the operating modes and is designed to connect circuit points, assigned to a specific operating mode, of the functional units to terminals of the integrated circuit, when the test unit is operated in the specific operating mode. According to the invention, the at least one gate terminal of the test unit is connected to the TAP controller and the integrated circuit is designed to switch between the operating modes depending on the internal states of the TAP controller. The invention relates furthermore to a receiving device of a data transmission system.
US07793184B2

A method, system and computer readable medium for on-chip testing is presented. In one embodiment, the method, system or computer readable medium includes identifying which LBIST channels of a plurality of LBIST channels do not contribute to a particular test and excluding from that particular test each LBIST channel that does not contribute to that particular test.
US07793179B2

Systems, structures and methods for generating a test clock for scan chains to implement scan-based testing of electronic circuits are disclosed. In one embodiment, a test clock control structure includes a programmable test clock controller. The programmable test clock controller includes a test clock generator for generating a configurable test clock. It also includes a scan layer interface to drive a scan chain portion with the configurable test clock, and a control layer interface configured to access control information for controlling the scan chain portion. In another embodiment, a method effectuates scan-based testing of circuits. The method includes performing at least one intra-domain test and performing at least one inter-domain test using implementing dynamic fault detection test patterns, which can include last-shift-launch test patterns and broadside test patterns.
US07793177B2

A chip testing device having a plurality of testing units is provided. Each testing unit comprises a selector, a flip-flop unit, a first buffer and a second buffer. The selector is controlled by a control signal and has a first input terminal, a feedback input terminal, and a first output terminal. The flip-flop unit has a second input terminal coupled to the first output terminal, a clock signal input terminal for receiving a reference clock signal, and a second output terminal outputting an output data. The first buffer is coupled to the flip-flop unit to convert the output data to a high voltage data, and outputs the high voltage data. The second buffer is coupled to the first buffer to convert high voltage data to low voltage data and transmit the low voltage data to the feedback input terminal.
US07793175B1

A controller for scan testing a memory. The controller includes a control state machine for controlling the scan process, a test sequence stored in a random access memory used by the control state machine for controlling an actual memory test, a pattern generation data unit responsive to the control state machine for generating a test pattern that is written to and read from a memory under test, a configuration register read by the control state machine for configuring the controller and a fault location register written to by the control state machine for storing locations of defects in the memory. The controller is used to auto scan a memory in real time, interleaved with other processes accessing the memory. The controller has several modes of operation including operating in a periodic burst mode to conserve power and in a background mode so as not to interfere with other processes accessing the scanned memory.
US07793170B2

A novel technique for combining deinterleaving operation with Fast Fourier Transformer (FFT) modules and other post FFT modules in a receiver to reduce processing time. In one example embodiment, the deinterleaving operation, in the post FFT module, is combined with FFT and demapper operations to reduce the processing time and complexity.
US07793169B2

The present invention comprises an interleaver that uses a reduced interleaving table to generate interleaved output data blocks from input data blocks. By iteratively applying the reduced interleaving table to bits in the input data blocks, the interleaver generates output data blocks equivalent to those that would have been generated using a full-size interleaving table. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the interleaving circuit includes a grouping circuit, a permuting circuit, and a mapping circuit. The grouping circuit groups the bits of each data block into a plurality of sub-blocks, while the permuting circuit independently permutes the data bits in each sub-block using the reduced interleaving table to generate permuted sub-blocks. The mapping circuit maps the bits from each permuted sub-block to one or more output data blocks, where the bits in each output data block may comprise bits from different sub-blocks and/or different input data blocks.
US07793167B2

Methods are provided for detecting and correcting dropped writes in a storage system. Data and a checksum are written to a storage device, such as a RAID array. The state of the data is classified as being in a “new data, unconfirmed” state. The state of written data is periodically checked, such as with a timer. If the data is in the “new data, unconfirmed” state, it is checked for a dropped write. If a dropped write has occurred, the state of the data is changed to a “single dropped write confirmed” state and the dropped write error is preferably corrected. If no dropped write is detected, the state is changed to a “confirmed good” state. If the data was updated through a read-modified-write prior to being checked for a dropped write event, its state is changed to an “unquantifiable” state.
US07793154B2

A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for automating processes using data driven pre-recorded transactions. A process server comprising process modeling tools creates workflows comprising activities linked together based on a set of rules. A test script server connected to one or more activities in a workflow receives requests from the one or more activities to automate an activity. A remote test script agent connected to the test script server receives instructions from the test script server to play back a robotic test script of the activity, wherein the robotic test script is driven by a set of input parameters obtained from recording the activity, and wherein the robotic test script interacts with an application under test to perform the activity as an automated task.
US07793151B2

Events experienced by resources are locally processed by secondary autonomic managers into consolidated events. These consolidated events are then transmitted to a primary autonomic manager, which recognizes symptoms of conditions found in a computer system that utilizes the resources. The primary autonomic manager is thus able to leverage information in a symptom catalog to process the consolidated events to recognize such symptoms.
US07793148B2

Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for using virtual copies in a failover and failback environment. Updates are copied from a primary first storage at the primary site to a secondary first storage at the secondary site during system operations. A second storage is maintained at at least one of the primary and secondary sites. A failover is performed from the primary site to the secondary site after a failure at the primary site. The at least one second storage is used after recovery of the primary site to synchronize the secondary site to the primary site. Only updates made to the secondary site during the failover are copied to or from the at least one second storage in response to the recovery at the primary site.
US07793145B2

The verification of fault-tolerant connections between redundant controller pairs and nodes is provided. In particular, a node identifier seen at one port of the controllers is compared to the node identifier seen at another port of the controllers. In response to determining that proper connections have not been made, an error or warning signal may be generated. In addition, where supported by dynamic port configuration, the ports of the controllers may be reconfigured in response to the comparison to effect proper connections. In response to determining that proper connections have been made, a signal verifying that proper connections have been made may be generated.
US07793141B1

Techniques for notifying customers when an outage of an eCommerce system has been resolved are disclosed. An e-commerce on-line platform detects the functional outage of a transaction entity when customers are trying to access an associated service from the transaction entity. Consequently, customers are routed to an outage web page, where customers are requested to provide contact information. When the functional outage is resolved, customers are notified using the contact information. Contact information may be the e-mail address or the phone number of the customer. A contact list is formed and a batch of notification requests is sent by an eCommerce on-line platform through an alerting vendor for notifying customers when a functional outage has been resolved. Notification requests may be partitioned into a plurality of batches so that customers are alerted in waves for controlling traffic on the associated transaction entity.
US07793138B2

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for detecting anomalies in a storage area network (SAN). Provided are one or more anomaly type(s) and corresponding actions to be performed when the one or more anomaly types are detected. Traffic in the SAN is then inspected in order to detect the one or more provided anomaly type(s). When a one of the provided one or more anomaly type(s) is detected, one or more of the corresponding action(s) is performed. The provided anomaly type(s) may include one or more of the following: a read or write access pattern anomaly, excessive login or control requests, a bandwidth usage anomaly, a configuration anomaly, and a hardware anomaly. The provided corresponding actions may include logging and/or publishing the detected anomaly, enabling capture of the detected anomaly by an analysis device, re-authentication of a host that is responsible for the anomaly, disable access control for a host that is responsible for the anomaly, rate control of an anomalous link, and shut down of an anomalous link.
US07793130B2

System and method for providing power to integrated circuitry with good power-on responsive time and reduced power-on transient glitches. A preferred embodiment comprises a daughter switch coupled to a circuit block, a first control circuit coupled to the daughter circuit, a second control circuit coupled to the first control circuit, and a mother circuit coupled to the circuit block and to the second control circuit. After the daughter switch is turned on by a control signal, the mother switch is not turned on until the daughter switch has discharged (charged) the voltage potential across power rails of the mother circuit to a point where glitches are minimized. The second control circuit turns on the mother circuit when the reduced voltage potential is reached, with a signal produced by the first control circuit reflects the voltage potential. Furthermore, a bypass circuit can be used to reduce leakage current.
US07793124B2

A power sourcing equipment (PSE) device is disclosed that includes an interface adapted to communicate with a powered device via wire pairs of a cable, a power supply circuit adapted to provide power to the interface, and device detection logic to detect the powered device coupled to the interface. The PSE device further includes power classification logic coupled to the interface and adapted to provide a power classification signal to the powered device. The power classification signal includes a first power classification signal and a second power classification signal to identify a power classification associated with the powered device. The power classification logic monitors the interface to detect a device classification response from the powered device and determines the power classification associated with the powered device based on the device classification response.
US07793118B2

An electronic device with several charging modes includes a transmission module, a central control module, an interface module, and a power module. The transmission module includes a first connecting terminal for connecting an external electronic product and produces a corresponding identification signal according to each external electronic product. The central control module supplies different power supplies to each external electronic product and produces a corresponding power setting signal. The interface module obtains a different power supply for each external electronic product through the transmitting module and converts each different power supply into a same charging power according to the power setting signal and identification signal. The power is stored in the power module to charge the power module, so that the electronic device just needs a transmitting module to obtain the power from any external electronic product, and thus greatly improve the convenience of charging the electronic device.
US07793103B2

An ad hoc network includes a first node, a second node, and a third node. The first node and second node share a first shared secret key, and the first node and third node share a second shared secret key. The second node and third node share a temporal key. The first node generates a unique key, encrypts the unique key with a first shared secret key to generate a first encrypted unique key and transmits the first encrypted unique key to the second node. The first node encrypts the unique key with a second shared secret key to generate a second encrypted unique key and transmits the second encrypted unique key to the third node. To establish the temporal key, the second node decrypts the first encrypted unique key and the third node decrypts the second encrypted unique key thereby each generating the unique key.
US07793099B2

The present invention provides a method of integrating existing strong encryption methods into the processing of a .ZIP file to provide a highly secure data container which provides flexibility in the use of symmetric and asymmetric encryption technology. The present invention adapts the well established .ZIP file format to support higher levels of security and multiple methods of data encryption and key management, thereby producing a highly secure and flexible digital container for electronically storing and transferring confidential data.
US07793097B2

A technique permitting an X.509 certificate to simultaneously support more than one cryptographic algorithm. An alterative public key and alternative signature are provided as extensions in the body of the certificate. These extensions define a second (or more) cryptographic algorithm which may be utilized to verify the certificate. These are not authenticated by the primary signature and signature algorithm in the primary cryptographic algorithm. These newly defined extensions are reviewed by a receiving entity if the entity does not support the cryptographic algorithm of the primary signature.
US07793094B2

An intrusion detection system and method for a computer network includes a processor and one or more programs that run on the processor for application inspection of data packets traversing the computer network. The one or more programs also obtaining attribute information from the packets specific to a particular application and comparing the attribute information against a knowledge database that provides a baseline of normal network behavior. The processor raises an alarm whenever the attribute information exceeds a predetermined range of deviation from the baseline of normal network behavior.
US07793092B2

Configuration codes for implementing a plurality of circuits having different attributes are generated and stored in a memory for each task executed in a reconfigurable device. When the reconfigurable device is operated, an appropriate circuit to be executed by the reconfigurable device is selected in accordance with an operation state of the system from among a plurality of circuits having different attributes, and the configuration code for implementing the selected circuit is loaded from the memory into the reconfigurable device.
US07793090B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for executing a first code portion of a pre-boot environment from a first non-volatile memory, authenticating a trusted hypervisor in the first non-volatile memory using the first code portion, executing the trusted hypervisor if the trusted hypervisor is authenticated, and authenticating a basic input/output system (BIOS) present in a second non-volatile memory with the trusted hypervisor and transferring control from the trusted hypervisor to the BIOS if the BIOS is authenticated. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07793089B2

A method comprises obtaining connectivity information from a plurality of electrical devices. Each such electrical device is separately coupled to a backplane, and at least one electrical device comprises a plurality of electrical interfaces adapted to be selectively coupled to each of multiple other electrical devices. Based on connectivity information from the at least one electrical device, the method further comprises providing configuration information to the at least one electrical device to cause the at least one electrical device to electrically couple to a target other electrical device via the backplane.
US07793080B2

One or more processor cores of a multiple-core processing device each can utilize a processing pipeline having a plurality of execution units (e.g., integer execution units or floating point units) that together share a pre-execution front-end having instruction fetch, decode and dispatch resources. Further, one or more of the processor cores each can implement dispatch resources configured to dispatch multiple instructions in parallel to multiple corresponding execution units via separate dispatch buses. The dispatch resources further can opportunistically decode and dispatch instruction operations from multiple threads in parallel so as to increase the dispatch bandwidth. Moreover, some or all of the stages of the processing pipelines of one or more of the processor cores can be configured to implement independent thread selection for the corresponding stage.
US07793079B2

A method of expanding a conditional instruction having a plurality of operands within a pipeline processor is disclosed. The method identifies the conditional instruction prior to an issue stage and determines if the plurality of operands exceeds a predetermined threshold. The method expands the conditional instruction into a non-conditional instruction and a select instruction. The method further executes the non-conditional instruction and the select instruction in separate pipelines.
US07793076B1

A digital signal processor uses a number of independent sub-processors that may be controlled by a master programmable controller. For example, a specialized input processor may process input signals while a specialized output processor may process output signals. Each of these processors may also accomplish math functions when input and output processing is not necessary. The various processors may communicate with one another through general purpose registers which receive data and provide data to any of the processors in the system. Math processors may be added as needed to accomplish desired mathematical functions. In addition, a RAM processor may be utilized to hold the results of intermediate calculations in one embodiment of the present invention. In this way, an adaptable and scaleable design may be implemented that accommodates a variety of different operations without requiring redesign of all the components.
US07793071B2

Disclosed is a system and method for storing a plurality of data packets in a plurality of memory buffers in a cache memory for reducing cache conflicts. The method includes determining size of each of a plurality of data packets; storing a first data packet of the plurality of data packets starting from a first address in a first memory buffer of the plurality of memory buffers; determining an offset based on the size of the first data packet; and storing a second data packet in a second buffer starting from a second address based on the offset.
US07793061B1

Described are techniques for managing data in a data storage system. While the data storage system is operating in a first mode, portions of cached write data not yet destaged to a data storage device are copied from the volatile memory cache to a first area in a flash-based memory. In response to a vault operation event, the data storage system operates in a second mode in which all remaining portions of cached write data from the volatile memory cache not currently included in the first area are copied to a second area of the flash-based memory.
US07793053B2

The design of nonblocking linked data structures using single-location synchronization primitives such as compare-and-swap (CAS) is a complex affair that often requires severe restrictions on the way pointers are used. One way to address this problem is to provide stronger synchronization operations, for example, ones that atomically modify one memory location while simultaneously verifying the contents of others. We provide a simple and highly efficient nonblocking implementation of such an operation: an atomic k-word-compare single-swap operation (KCSS). Our implementation is obstruction-free. As a result, it is highly efficient in the uncontended case and relies on contention management mechanisms in the contended cases. It allows linked data structure manipulation without the complexity and restrictions of other solutions. Additionally, as a building block of some implementations of our techniques, we have developed the first nonblocking software implementation of load-linked/store-conditional that does not severely restrict word size.
US07793052B2

A hybrid Single-Compare-Single-Store (SCSS) operation may exploit best-effort hardware transactional memory (HTM) for good performance in the case that it succeeds, and may transparently resort to software-mediated transactions if the hardware transactional mechanisms fail. The SCSS operation may compare a value in a control location to a specified expected value, and if they match, may store a new value in a separate data location. The control value may include a global lock, a transaction status indicator, and/or a portion of an ownership record, in different embodiments. If another transaction in progress owns the data location, the SCSS operation may abort the other transaction or may help it complete by copying the other transactions' write set into its own right set before acquiring ownership. A hybrid SCSS operation, which is usually nonblocking, may be applied to building software transactional memories (STMs) and/or hybrid transactional memories (HyTMs), in some embodiments.
US07793049B2

A system and method for cache replacement includes: augmenting each cache block in a cache region with a region hint indicating a temporal priority of the cache block; receiving an indication that a cache miss has occurred; and selecting for eviction the cache block comprising the region hint indicating a low temporal priority.
US07793037B2

Systems and methods of managing memory provide for detecting a request to activate a memory portion that is limited in size to a partial page size, where the partial page size is less than a full page size associated with the memory. In one embodiment, detecting the request may include identifying a row address and partial page address associated with the request, where the partial page address indicates that the memory portion is to be limited to the partial page size.
US07793025B2

A flexible interrupt controller circuit and methodology are provided which use an interrupt circuit (300) that multiplexes (324) a plurality of interrupt priority registers (321, 322) based on the current context of the system that is identified in mode control selector (326). By using the mode control selector (326) to selectively couple different priority level assignments to a priority encoding module (330), context sensitive switching of the priority levels assigned to each interrupt request can be implemented with reduced latency. The context switch could be based on an OS context ID, power management modes, security modes, and other system defined modes where priority levels would differ. The selected priority level information is used to provide an interrupt request signal (332) which will cause an interrupt to occur in the data processing system.
US07793024B2

A method for command transmission between systems is introduced. The command transmission between the systems, such as a north bridge chip, a south bridge chip and a central processing unit (CPU), employs the signals transmission specified by a PCI Express bus originally for the communication between system chips or peripheral devices. The signals transmission includes an interrupt or a system management instruction specified by the PCI Express bus, which further defines the specific addresses of a memory packet and a system message packet. In the preferred embodiment, the method thereof comprises the steps of transmitting an INTA command first, then a second system chip upstreams an INTR/system-management command to a first system chip. After that, the first system chip downstreams an EOI/system-management command to the second system chip.
US07793023B2

An exclusion controller which allows an information processing unit to acquire a contended resource to the exclusion of the other information processing units includes a plurality of non-prioritized information processing units mutually exclusively acquiring a non-prioritized exclusion right, which indicates a candidate for acquiring the contended resource, by a first process. The exclusion controller further includes a prioritized information processing unit acquiring the contended resource by a second process, which requires a shorter processing time than the first process, to the exclusion of the non-prioritized information processing unit having acquired the non-prioritized exclusion right.
US07793021B2

A method for synchronizing a transmission of information over a bus, and a device having synchronization capabilities. The device includes: a bus that includes multiple bus lines, a bus transmitter connected between an information source and the bus, a bus receiver connected between the bus and an information target; wherein the information source and the information target are mutually asynchronous; wherein the device is characterized by including a bus receiver control circuit that controls the bus receiver circuit and a bus transmitter control circuit that controls the bus transmitter circuit; wherein the bus transmitter control circuit enables to transmit information from the information source to the bus in response to a change in a value of a feedback signal sent from the bus receiver control circuit and wherein the bus receiver control circuit enables to provide information from the bus to the information target in response to a change in a value of a delayed strobe signal provided by a delay unit connected between the bus receiver control circuit and the bus transmitter control circuit.
US07793017B2

A connector module for the connection of a sensor, such as an optoelectronic sensor, to a fieldbus, having a sensor interface for the connection of the connector module to an interface of the sensor, a bus interface for the connection of the connector module to an interface of a fieldbus and a circuit for the exchange of data to receive data from the sensor interface and to convert them with respect to their format and to output the converted data at the bus interface. The circuit for the exchange of data includes a memory for the intermediate storage of a sensor-specific control file or description file received from the sensor interface, with the control file or description file being able to be processed in the circuit such that the connector module shows the behavior of the respective connected sensor with respect to the fieldbus.
US07792999B2

Disclosed is an image data server which transmits image data through a communication network to a client apparatus for displaying an image on a display screen, the image data server including: an obtainment section to obtain aspect ratio information of the display screen from the client apparatus through the communication network; a specification section to specify a display screen area where the image based on the image data is not displayed in the display screen of the client apparatus when the image is output to the client apparatus according to the aspect ratio information obtained by the obtainment section; a creation section to create combined data by combining background image data corresponding to the display screen area specified by the specification section with the image data; and a transmission section to transmit the combined data created by the creation section through the communication network to the client apparatus.
US07792992B2

A system and method for serverless distributed monitoring anomaly detection for a service oriented architecture is provided. The method includes selecting a number of nodes, e.g. super peers, to form an overlay network which is configured to facilitate bidirectional information flow creating a peer-to-peer monitoring framework through replication chains. The method continues with mapping the overlay network to data by assigning each of the selected nodes to a data region related to its surroundings. The method continues with distributing the data regions among the nodes via the aforementioned replication chain, where each replication chain is sensitive to the type of application that requests data duplication in monitoring the data by collecting information from each of those nodes that correspond to an assigned or distributed data region. This method may also include taking corrective action if the node detects an anomaly.
US07792986B2

The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers who have a precisely formulated need for the information. This targeting may be based on information which is inaccessible to other communications protocols. The targeting also includes a time element. Information can be brought to the attention of the consumer precisely when it has become applicable, which may occur immediately upon receipt of the message, but may also occur long after the message arrives. The communications process may operate without intruding on consumers who do not exhibit the precisely-specified need for the information, and it may operate without compromising the security or privacy of the consumers who participate.
US07792983B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for restarting pseudo terminal streams. In one embodiment, a device associated with a file descriptor in a set of file descriptors is opened. The set of file descriptors are identified in checkpoint data for restarting the pseudo terminal streams. In response to identifying the device as a pseudo terminal slave device, an entry for the identified pseudo terminal slave device is added to a list of open pseudo terminal slave devices. The entry for the identified pseudo terminal slave device is marked as an open pseudo terminal slave device. The list of open pseudo terminal slave devices permit pseudo terminal master devices and pseudo terminal slave devices to be restored and restarted in random order during a restart of the pseudo terminal streams.
US07792979B1

A request to access a content management related service is obtained, where the request is associated with an object tree. The object tree is walked to obtain information associated with the object tree. A set of one or more service context rules associated with the content management related service is determined. The object tree is processed using the set of service context rules so that the content management related service is able to properly operate using the processed information.
US07792968B2

A method of maintaining a peer-to-peer relay network includes sending a maintenance message from a peer computer system to each of one or more connected peer computer systems connected to the peer computer system and evaluating any responses received from the one or more connected peer computer systems. The connection between the peer computer system and a connected peer computer system is closed when the response from that connected peer computer system is not acceptable. Each peer computer system is connected to a number of other peer computer systems that is less than or equal to a connection limit and each peer computer system is configured to relay data to peer computer systems connected to that peer computer system according to a set of one or more relay rules.
US07792966B2

A method and apparatus are provided for performing zone entity modifications to entities in a network wherein a set of generic zone entity modification commands with an estimated lower processing cost is selected for each modification. Prior zone entity modifications in the network and the associated quantity of entities and processing time associated therewith are stored in a data structure. In response to a zone entity modification request, data associated with the current request is evaluated in view of processing time for prior zone entity modifications. An estimate of processing time for the zone entity modification request is calculated for at least two sets of generic zone entity modification commands. The set of generic commands with an estimated lower processing cost is selected and applied to the current zone entity modification request.
US07792964B2

In various embodiments, applications that are configured to interact with the Internet in some way are executed in a restricted process with a reduced privilege level that can prohibit the application from accessing portions of an associated computing device. For example, in some embodiments, the restricted process can prohibit applications from read and write access to portions of a system's computer-readable media, such as the hard disk, that contains administrative data and settings information and user data and settings. In these embodiments, a special portion of the disk, termed a “containment zone”, is designated and used by applications in this restricted process.
US07792960B2

In general, in one aspect, a method is described that includes monitoring data received from input devices. The received data from the input devices associated with an application is copied when the application is active. The data is converted to user commands. Commands used to update the application are received from the application. The converted user commands are compared to the commands from the application. Mismatching commands are reported to a remote server.
US07792959B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products for extracting port-level information of Web services with flow-based network monitoring. Exemplary embodiments include a method for extracting port-level information of Web services with flow-based network monitoring, the method including identifying a registry machine, coupling the registry machine to a traffic meter and flow monitor dynamically configuring the traffic meter, including exporting a first n bytes of a traffic payload exporting a sub-second traffic flow start and end times, extracting service provider information from traffic flow exports, including analyzing the exported n bytes of the traffic payload to extract port-level information at the flow monitor, extracting a value of an access point element, mapping a logical service provider address to a physical address and inserting the service into a Web Service Provider Registry within the flow meter, thereby populating the Web Service Provider Registry.
US07792958B1

The systems and methods described herein relate to a system for documenting transactions. A filter is provided that captures content associated with transactions. The filter may be configured to start and stop the capture at predetermined times, and may be further configured to specify what content is to be captured during a transaction. The system may store any documents or data associated with a transaction, including dynamic content and user selections and inputs. A document repository may be provided for storing unstructured data representing data, text, forms, and so forth presented to a party during a transaction. A viewer may be provided for displaying data stored in the document repository.
US07792956B2

A packet-based wireless network visualization system includes a data store, an input/output subsystem including a display device, and a processing subsystem. The system is configured to receive network topology data, packet flow record data, and measurements data over the input/output subsystem and store the network topology data, packet flow record data, and measurements data in the data store. Based on the stored data, the system generates a visual representation of a network topology on the display based on the network topology data, generates a visual representation of packet flows within the network topology based on the packet flow records, and selectively displays measurement data related to the packet flows and network topology based on the measurements data. The visual representation of the network topology including device objects and associations of device objects and includes a plurality of layer representations.
US07792954B2

Systems and methods of tracking activity over networks and, in particular, tracking web activity over the Internet are described. Exemplary systems and methods may include a receiver for receiving a request from a visitor for a data object, a processor for providing a cookie to track the visitor's web activity, and a transmitter for transmitting the cookie to the visitor in response to the request. The cookie may comprise tracking information for a plurality of web sites visited by the visitor.
US07792936B2

A method and apparatus for managing communications for collaborative applications. Middleware uses, network, application, and middleware resource information together with user information to facilitate communications between the application resources and the users via a hierarchical control structure that implements a communication overlay tree. That overlay tree is implemented in view of network constraints, and on the users and on their communication constraints. The middleware provides user index identifiers that inform the application that specific users have communication interests in specific parts of the application space. To send data to users that are interested in a specific part of the application space the application sends that data with a list of user index identifiers. The middleware then associates the user index identifiers with individual users and routes sent data to the individual users along the overlay tree.
US07792933B2

A design verification system for developing electronic systems and methods for manufacturing and using same. The design verification system comprises a plurality of system elements, including at least one physical (or hardware) element and/or at least one virtual (or software) element, which are coupled, and configured to communicate, via a general communication system. Since the system elements may be provided on dissimilar development platforms, each system element is coupled with the communication system via a co-verification interface, which is provided as a layered protocol stack to assure portability and flexibility. Through use of the co-verification interface, the design verification system can be configured to support a wide variety of mixed physical/virtual systems.
US07792932B2

A method for automatically configuring an apparatus is provided by an apparatus configuration system including a plurality of apparatuses connected to a network, wherein the apparatuses include at least setting processing source apparatuses in which configuration information for configuring apparatus operation is stored, and a setting processing target apparatus for which the configuration information is to be set, and wherein at least one of the apparatuses has a setting processing execution unit that selects an apparatus being used by a user of the setting processing target apparatus among the setting processing source apparatuses and sets the configuration information about the setting processing target apparatus based on the configuration information stored in the selected apparatus.
US07792928B2

A method and apparatus that provides means for remotely accessing a device over a network. The method and apparatus includes connecting, by a first device, to a server over a network for communication with a second device over the network, sending a request for remote access from the first device to the second device over the network by utilizing information provided by the server, storing, by the second device, remote access data in an image file, wherein the remote access data stored includes information to remotely access the second device or resources of the second device over the network, sending the image file with the remote access data to the first device over the network and accessing, by the first device, the second device or resources connected to the second device over using the remote access data stored in the image file.
US07792924B2

Systems and methods are described for using a mobile phone to remotely control a computing device. In one implementation, a communication channel between the mobile phone and the computing device uses an overlay network, such as an instant messaging (IM) service, to exchange communication data packets. An exemplary system includes a flexible layered architecture—which allows tailoring the system for remote control of various applications using various network configurations. Based on the overlay protocol used, a transport protocol layer can provide helpful application programming interfaces (APIs). On top of the transport protocol layer, a remote control protocol defines a framework for packet exchange of extensible commands, customizable for remote control of diverse applications. Use of paired-key encryption, IM accounts, and buddy lists ensure that communications between mobile phone and remote computer are secure.
US07792922B2

A method and system for monitoring the health of a networked client computer node include health service agent software that scans the client computer node upon which the agent is installed. The health service agent software transmits data to a health service data manager identifying the type of client node upon which the agent is installed to permit retrieval by the manager of a health service task list specifying rules and executables applied by the health service agent to an associated client node.
US07792921B2

A system and method for creating a metadata endpoint for a generic data service provided by a first Service Oriented Environment (SOE) is disclosed. The first SOE is an SOE in which a process that hosts the runtime environment of the data service normally exposes a data endpoint for the data service but does not normally expose a metadata endpoint for the data service. In accordance with one embodiment, the metadata endpoint is created as part of a separate process than the process that exposes the data endpoint. The system and method advantageously enables the data service of the first SOE to be utilized by data services in a second SOE in which both a data endpoint and a metadata endpoint are normally exposed for a data service.
US07792920B2

A content management (CM) system is provided to centrally control operation of one or more connected devices by issuing control requests and/or data requests. In some situations the connected device(s) include devices that control presentation of television programming-related content, such as digital video recorder (“DVR”) devices and media center devices, and in other situations may include other types of media devices and/or other electromechanical (“E/M”) devices that may be centrally controlled, such as E/M devices for home automation that may operate independently or in conjunction with the media devices. In some situations, the CM system communicates with the connected devices via a network and using appropriate protocol(s), and may be accessed remotely via a network so as to allow a user to remotely operate the CM system. The CM system may further control searching, identification, selection, and presentation of pieces of media content by the connected device(s).
US07792907B2

A system that monitors for an initiation of the sending of an electronic message. The user is alerted or warned that the message is about to be sent. The alert includes a list of the addressees of the message. The list includes addressee aliases where available. The sender can then verify that the addressees are correct and change or delete those on the list, or erase the message. The system also provides such an alert when a computer initiates the sending of an unauthorized message and allows the user to delete the unauthorized message.
US07792901B2

An event management system is configured to host a collaboration event that includes first and second event endpoints that provide respective first and second sets of audio/visual (A/V) media streams to respective first and second sets of attendees during the first event. The event management system is configured to, while hosting the collaboration event, reconfigure the collaboration event to cause a third event endpoint to provide a third set of audio/visual (A/V) media streams to at least one of the first set of attendees.
US07792900B2

In an overlay network system in which at least one node is mapped in a hash space by distributed hash table techniques, each node having a nods identifier obtained by hashing identification information of the own node, at least one service concerning all the nodes is provided. Each node includes a storage unit and a controller. The storage unit stores a service name and a service body of the service. The controller searches for a current service provider node using a service key obtained by hashing the service name, checks whether the own node is allowed to take over the service if a distance between the node identifier of the own node and the service key is less than a distance between the node identifier of the current service provider node and the service key, and invokes the service body to provide the service if the takeover is permitted.
US07792899B2

Providing announcements for communication sessions includes facilitating the communication sessions among endpoints comprising a half-duplex push-to-talk endpoint. It is established that a trigger event has occurred at the half-duplex push-to-talk endpoint, where the trigger event indicates an activity status of the half-duplex push-to-talk endpoint. One or more announcements associated with the trigger event are identified. The one or more announcements are provided to at least a subset of the endpoints.
US07792884B2

The system provides for a web-based user-interactive interface for providing focused tailored searches from various available databases. The interface permits a user to select search terms of interest, and to choose a database from various available databases. The system then provides the user with customized resources as the search result. Selectable terms are presented to the user through the interface using non-technical language. The system optionally enables registered users to receive monthly updates on their preferred search terms and may also provide users with a list of resources available from various databases.
US07792877B2

A minimal perfect hash function can be created for input data by dividing the input data into multiple collections, with each collection comprising fewer elements that the input data as a whole. Subsequently, minimal perfect hash functions can be created for each of the collections and the resulting hash values can be offset by a value equivalent to the number of input data in preceding collections. The minimal perfect hash function can, thereby, be derived in parallel and can consume substantially less storage space. To further save storage space, the internal state of each individual minimal perfect hash function can be further compressed using algorithms exploiting a skewed distribution of values in a lookup table comprising the internal state.
US07792872B1

Various embodiments include systems, methods, and user interfaces that provide abilities to administer data in a workflow system. In some embodiments, the workflow system is a portion of a larger system, such as a document management system.
US07792866B2

A method and system for querying a structured document stored in its native format in a database, where the structured document includes a plurality of nodes that form a hierarchical node tree, is disclosed. The method includes providing at least one child pointer in each of the plurality of nodes, where the at least one child pointer points to a corresponding child node of the plurality of nodes, and storing a hint in each of the at least one child pointers. The hint is then utilized to navigate the hierarchical node tree during query evaluation.
US07792859B2

The media/data card is a computer readable medium for storing data files, and in particular, media files. The device may be a flash media memory card or other conveniently sized, portable storage device. The media/data card stores a data structure for controlling access to data files stored on the computer readable medium. The data structure includes a media storage substructure for storing the data files, a file system directory substructure containing the locations of the data files stored in the media storage substructure; and a security substructure for describing allowed access to the data files stored in the media storage substructure. The data files may be multimedia files, such as compressed audio or video files. The data files may be encrypted to provide enhanced security.
US07792853B2

Disclosed herein is a method for presenting data flow in legacy programs from one device to another by representing the relation between blocks of code in the legacy program and multiple data variables present in the program. The method and system disclosed herein defines the grammar of the legacy language and builds the relational database of the legacy programs based on the grammar. The method defines the action of a block of code within the legacy programs by identifying data variables and mapping the relation between the actions and the data variables.
US07792851B2

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for defining queries in terms of data objects. A simplified query syntax is introduced for querying across a set of data objects which does not require the duplication of data object shape information. A data object is first defined by providing a name for the data object. Attribute and relationship information is added to the data object, wherein the information defines the shape of the data object. When a query is created, it is defined in terms of data objects. The query is processed, wherein processing the query includes extracting the shape of the data objects using the attribute information in the query. The query is expanded by adding additional syntax to the query based on relationship information defined for the data objects and then executed in its expanded form.
US07792848B2

A method for performing a modularization of an arbitrary structured hypertext with a physical structure and an organizational structure description is disclosed. The hypertext is decomposed into a set of separate modules with specific definable boundaries based on both, the physical structure and the organizational structure description, each module of the set of modules is computed methodically and gradually with respect to coaction with the other modules until forming a completed functional unit reusable and invocable separately. Furthermore, a corresponding hypertext, a module, a computer system, a computer program product and a computer program are disclosed.
US07792846B1

A training procedure for N-gram based statistical document classification has been disclosed. In one embodiment, a set of N-grams is selected out of a second set of N-grams, each of the N-grams having a sequence of N bytes, where N is an integer. Then a statistical content classification model is generated based on occurrences of the N-grams, if any, in a set of training documents and a set of validation documents. The statistical content classification model is provided to content filters to classify content.
US07792844B2

Node sequence data, such as website visitation records, are filtered, analyzed, and summarized in reports. An administrator can designate particular target paths of interest in terms of a checkpoint node sequence. Node sequences are filtered based on the checkpoint node sequence, without regard to any additional or tangential nodes appearing in the sequences. In addition, node sequences can be specified in terms of specific nodes of interest along with wild cards. Reports depict the relative frequency of occurrence of node sequences using visual indicators such as line thickness and/or color.
US07792843B2

Tools and techniques are provided to obtain web analytics data, identify data events likely to be of interest to a user, rank identified data events, summarize data events in a form suitable for transmission to a cell phone or other limited-display mobile device, and interacting with a user of such a mobile device by sending data event summaries to the user, receiving commands from the user, and so on. Data normally presented on a computer display can be summarized into a audible format for presentation over a mobile phone speaker. Methods, systems, and other embodiments are described.
US07792840B2

Disclosed relates to a structure of two-level n-gram inverted index and methods of building the same, processing queries and deriving the index that reduce the size of n-gram inverted index and improves the query performance by eliminating the redundancy of the position information that exists in the n-gram inverted index.The inverted index of the present invention comprises a back-end inverted index using subsequences extracted from documents as a term and a front-end inverted index using n-grams extracted from the subsequences as a term. The back-end inverted index uses the subsequences of a specific length extracted from the documents to be overlapped with each other by n−1 (n: the length of n-gram) as a term and stores position information of the subsequences occurring in the documents in a posting list for the respective subsequences. The front-end inverted index uses the n-grams of a specific length extracted from the subsequences using a 1-sliding technique as a term and stores position information of the n-grams occurring in the subsequences in a posting list for the respective n-grams.
US07792832B2

A computer system, method, and storage medium with embedded code automate search for products that potentially infringe patents or similar rights of exclusion. The computer system receives an identifier of the patent, retrieves the patent's text, parses the text to identify contextually important terms of a claim, and then formulates queries that include these key terms. The system launches the queries and receives search results. If the number of results is excessive, the queries are reformulated more restrictively. The system determines contextual relevance of the results and arranges the results in order of their relevance.
US07792831B2

An apparatus, system, and method for extracting the structure of song lyrics using a repeated pattern thereof are provided. The apparatus includes a lyric extractor extracting lyric information from metadata related to an audio file, a character string information extractor extracting an interlude section and a repeated character string based on the extracted lyric information, a paragraph extractor extracting a paragraph based on the repeated character string and then a set of paragraphs having the same repeated pattern among the extracted paragraphs, and a lyric structure generator arranging an interlude section, a character string, and a paragraph related to the audio file in a tree structure.
US07792825B2

A method for fetching an ordered first N rows of a table, includes: reading a row in the table; determining that the read row qualifies as the first N rows of the table for rows read so far, and storing data of the read row; and determining an order of data of qualifying rows and storing the order. Only data in rows that qualify to be among the first N rows are ordered and stored. This provides a significantly more efficient processing. It eliminates tournament tree sorts, corresponding work file read and write I/O's, and associated CPU time. This reduces the time for the running of a query and improves the performance of other applications sharing the use of work files. Further, the improved performance is particular significant when the buffer sizes are within a page of records or rows, although multiple pages may be used.
US07792816B2

Methods and systems for text data analysis and visualization enable a user to specify a set of text data sources and visualize the content of the text data sources in an overview of salient features in the form of a network of words. A user may focus on one or more words to provide a visualization of connections specific to the focused word(s). The visualization may include clustering of relevant concepts within the network of words. Upon selection of a word, the context thereof, e.g., links to articles where the word appears, may be provided to the user. Analyzing may include textual statistical correlation models for assigning weights to words and links between words. Displaying the network of words may include a force-based network layout algorithm. Extracting clusters for display may include identifying “communities of words” as if the network of words was a social network.
US07792812B1

A search engine device that supports a Patricia trie arrangement of search keys includes an array of comparator cells that supports parallel decoding of the Patricia trie. This array of comparator cells processes a plurality of distinguishing bit identifiers for nodes in the Patricia trie in parallel with a corresponding plurality of bits of an applied search key during a search operation. In response to this processing, the array generates a match signal that identifies a location of a matching search key candidate within the Patricia trie.
US07792810B1

Surrogate hashing is described, including a repository configured to store a standardized address and data associated with the standardized address, and a processor configured to parse an address associated with a host to generate a standardized address in a format used to compare the standardized address to one or more addresses stored in a collection, to determine if the standardized address is listed in the collection, and to process the standardized address.
US07792809B2

There is provided a parallel database system 1. System 1 includes a storage device 2 for maintaining a plurality of rows 3. System 1 also includes a plurality of access modules 4 for accessing in parallel a respectively assigned one or more of rows 3. An interface 5 receives data 6 indicative of a table 7 defined by a selection 8 of rows 3. A processor 9 is responsive to data 6 for selectively designating table 7 to be a single-module table. In this single module table, selection 8 is collectively assigned to an owning one of modules 4, indicated by reference numeral 10.
US07792806B2

A system and methods provide handling of variable rate playback in a multimedia computer architecture. The systems and methods provide data structures and interfaces that enable a computer architecture and components therein with the ability to playback data at speeds faster and slower than real-time, to playback data in reverse, and to change the rate of playback at any point during playback. One embodiment is a method for providing low-latency, glitch-free changes in a multimedia architecture. Other embodiments are directed to defining multimedia component responsibilities for making rate changes, allowing rate changes to work with standard playback types, coder-decoders, and renderers. The methods include determining a minimum of the maximum reported playback rates and determining minimum and maximum playback rates in a set of modes including: reverse skip mode, reverse key frame mode, reverse full mode, forward full mode, forward key frame mode, and forward skip mode.
US07792800B1

Upgrading an original repository of data is disclosed. A repository is defined by a set of schema structures and data contained therein. A copy of the original repository is exported. The set of schema structures of the original repository is modified to create a set of schema structures of the upgraded repository. Schema structures that are not present after the upgrade are deleted after data migration is completed. Data is migrated to the set of schema structures of the upgraded repository. Data includes existing data from the original repository and seed data for the upgraded repository. Existing data is copied into the appropriate schema structures of the upgraded repository. Seed data is inserted into new schema structures of the upgraded repository. The set of schema structures of the upgraded repository are validated against a standard set of schema structures corresponding to a properly upgraded standard repository to detect any errors.
US07792798B2

A method and system for optimizing data redistribution in a database. In one embodiment, the method includes moving, during a first scan, outgoing records from a sending partition to one or more receiving partitions, where free space is created in the sending partition due to the outgoing records leaving the sending partition. The method also includes filling, during the first scan, some of the free space with remaining records that do not leave the sending partition.
US07792796B1

Methods, systems, and computer program products for optimizing resource allocation in a host-based replication environment are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for optimizing resource allocation in a host-based replication environment. The method includes assigning a weight to each of a multiple of file system entities to be replicated. The method also includes creating a list of available transfer agents for replicating file system entities, the list having first and second ends and the list including at least one entry representing each transfer agent. The method also includes alternating between starting from the first end of the list and moving through the list until the second end of the list is reached and starting from the second end of the list and moving through the list until the first end of the list is reached, and, while moving through the list, assigning in order of weight each of the file system entities to the transfer agent represented by the current entry in the list.
US07792793B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for exporting data from a number of data sources using a number of corresponding data exporters, and importing the exported data into a destination data repository using a data importer. In various embodiments, the data exporters may be automatically generated using a data exporter generator adapted to generate the data exporters in view of data schemas of the data sources.
US07792790B2

A data synchronizing method between a server and a client is provided. The server and the client manage database changed after a previous synchronization of data shared by them. The database includes a sync anchor field for each data item. When a sync session is initiated upon request of the client, a last anchor is detected from the database stored in the client and a last anchor from the database stored in the server. The last anchor of the client is compared with the last anchor of the server. A client change log and a server change log are generated according to a comparison result based on a database change that occurred after the last anchor of client or server when the last anchor of the client is identical to the last anchor of the server. The databases are updated according to the client change log and the server change log.
US07792784B2

A data warehouse comprises a multidimensional data storage area to store multidimensional data and a transactional data storage area to store underlying transactional data from which the multidimensional data is generated. The data warehouse also comprises a multidimensional query processor to provide one or more interfaces to issue a first set of queries conforming to one or more multidimensional query languages to retrieve the multidimensional data from the multidimensional data storage area. Furthermore, the data warehouse comprises a dynamic query engine to provide an additional interface to issue a second set of queries that bypass the interfaces provided by the multidimensional query processor to retrieve the transactional data from the transactional data storage area, wherein the second set of queries do not conform to any of the one or more multidimensional query languages.
US07792783B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for determining aggregate values of health data items from heterogeneously coded databases containing heterogeneously coded medical data. The data, in heterogeneous databases, is queried using a series of semantic layers including i) cascaded asymmetric association tables and ii) semantic search. The heterogeneously coded medical data items are translated into conformal dimensions and denominator files of combinations of disease data are derived. The denominator files of combinations of disease are aggregated based on a mapping of the coded medical and demographic conditions. The data is stored in a target data repository.
US07792782B2

This invention relates to the method and system of producing/composing user's own music (musical composition, arrangement, and performance) on the web site. The system creates musical patterns out of all kinds of music, recommends the ideal patterns in accordance with genres selected by users, and ultimately enables ordinary internet users without musical knowledge to compose their own music simply by selecting and assembling the patterns. The system of invention is composed of a DB server including a music database storing a music data specifically patterned from a plurality of music and a lyrics database storing lyrics data patterned from a plurality of lyrics and various kinds of texts; an user PC for downloading the music and lyrics data through a music file real-time player; a web site; and a music pattern automatic control server for controlling the files suitable for music by allowing the user to select and combine the patterned music and lyrics data of the said DB server in accordance with acoustics and harmonics.
US07792776B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for inferring a probability of a first inference absent from a database at which a query regarding the inference is received. The first inference relates to identifying a potentially violent person or group. Each datum of the database is conformed to the dimensions of the database. Each datum of the plurality of data has associated metadata and an associated key. The associated metadata includes data regarding cohorts associated with the corresponding datum, data regarding hierarchies associated with the corresponding datum, data regarding a corresponding source of the datum, and data regarding probabilities associated with integrity, reliability, and importance of each associated datum. The query is used as a frame of reference for the search. The database returns a probability of the correctness of the first inference based on the query and on the data.
US07792775B2

A filtering rule analysis system for analyzing the rules of a packet filtering process that is set in network devices includes: a rule storage for storing sets of rules for which an order of priority has been established; a matrix generator for generating matrix spatial data that contains information of the order of priority and that indicates the correspondence relation between a minimum region identified by starting points and end points of ranges of packet attributes described in each rule as the condition of application of that rule and those rules; and an overlap analyzer for referring to the matrix spatial data to analyze overlap between the rules.
US07792774B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for inferring a probability of a first inference absent from a database at which a query regarding the inference is received. Each datum of the database is conformed to the dimensions of the database. Each datum of the plurality of data has associated metadata and an associated key. The associated metadata includes data regarding cohorts associated with the corresponding datum, data regarding hierarchies associated with the corresponding datum, data regarding a corresponding source of the datum, and data regarding probabilities associated with integrity, reliability, and importance of each associated datum. The query is used as a frame of reference for the search. The database returns a probability of the correctness of the first inference based on the query and on the data.
US07792773B2

A system for routing an interaction request based on skill presence reporting has a routing application for determining best routing for the interaction request, a data store for storing and reporting skills data, and an object-oriented interface for presenting skills views including state information of those skills. The system is characterized in that it determines any skills requirements of the interaction request to be routed and discovers which skills of considered routing destinations are available at the time of routing, and routes the interaction according to the available skills discovered and matching the skills requirement, the available skills intrinsic to one or more than one routing destination selected to process the interaction.
US07792772B2

A method and system to minimize to redundancy in testing a new software system by utilizing a knowledge base is provided. The knowledge base may be represented in a form of a decision tree including leaf nodes which store previously tested optimal configurations. When the knowledge base does not contain an optimal configuration for the new software, an optimal solution for the new software system may be determined by adding a further decision tree branch to the initial decision tree. A desirable tree branch may be selected from a table including a predetermined set of desirable tree branches for each category of software. As a result, the number of solutions to be tested on the input software may be limited and cost and effort to run redundant tests on a software system may be reduced.
US07792770B1

The invention is a computer implemented technique for id entifying anomalous data in a data set. The method uses cascaded k-Means clustering and the ID3 decision tree learning methods to characterize a training data set having data points with known characterization. The k-Means clustering method first partitions the training instances into k clusters using Euclidean distance similarity. On each training cluster, representing a density region of normal or anomaly instances, the invention builds an ID3 decision tree. The decision tree on each cluster refines the decision boundaries by learning the sub-groups within the cluster. A test data point is then subjected to the clustering and decision trees constructed form the training instances. To obtain a final decision on classification, the decisions of the k-Means and ID3 methods are combined using rules: (1) the Nearest-neighbor rule, and (2) the Nearest-consensus rule.
US07792769B2

In one general aspect, a method of deriving information about behavior of a target system is disclosed. The method includes accessing one or more temporal variables for the target system, providing an identifier node at the top of a hierarchy of a tree-structured belief network, and assigning a different sub-tree in the network to each of the accessed temporal variables. The method also involves accessing evidence data, and deriving information about the behavior of the target system for the evidence data based on the tree-structured belief network.
US07792767B2

A system for routing business-to-business (“B2B”) messages includes a cyclical neural network. The cyclical neural network contains neurons for determining a needed destination of a message based on content type of the message, for example. Neurons are monitored to establish a “state of understanding” of the network during processing, and tags may be applied to messages upon a determination of the needed destination.
US07792758B2

A computer-implemented mechanism for granting rights is described. A license may be used to identify one or more principals, resources, rights and conditions. The license also identifies a license format scheme and a license format modification scheme. An access control module or other entity may interpret the license in accordance with the license format scheme and license format modification scheme.
US07792754B2

A financial document item processing system processes checks transported from an upstream end of a check transport path to a downstream end of the check transport path. Endorsement data is transmitted to an RFID tag of a check transported along the check transport path from the upstream end to the downstream end. Alternatively, encoded data is transmitted to an RFID tag of a check transported along the check transport path from the upstream end to the downstream end. In some financial document item processing applications, both endorsement data and encoded data are transmitted to an RFID tag of a check transported along the check transport path from the upstream end to the downstream end.
US07792752B1

A video of a negotiable instrument may be provided from a user to a financial institution so that an image of the negotiable instrument may be obtained from the video and deposited in a user's bank account. In an implementation, a user may use a device such as a video camera, a web camera, or a video-enabled phone to convert an endorsed check into a video data file by making a video of the check and storing the video in a video data file. The user may send the video data file to the financial institution, where it may be processed and deposited in an account associated with the user. Any technique for sending a video data file to the financial institution may be used.
US07792750B2

The present invention provides a system and method for providing requests using linguistic terms to describe importance and degrees of satisfaction. For example, a user may submit a bid invitation for items and use linguistic terms to describe the importance of each item and of attributes of the items. Linguistic terms may also be used to describe degrees of satisfaction with possible values of attributes of the items. The system and method of the present invention use fuzzy logic to evaluate the offers. The evaluation provides a degree of satisfaction based on the information provided by the user.
US07792744B2

According to some embodiments, systems and methods are provided to facilitate a distribution of bank accounts via an educational institution. For example, information associated with a student, faculty member, or alum may be received from a university. A soft bank account may then be established based on the received information. If an indication of acceptance is received (e.g., via a Web site), the soft bank account may be activated. The activated bank account may then be used to process banking transactions.
US07792738B2

According to various embodiments of the present invention, geographic information about the location of a user is utilized to select a grouping of additional securities to display to the user. When the user navigates to a portion of a web site related to displaying financial information, a listing of securities that might be interesting to the user may be displayed. As a result, the user is more likely to find out more information relating to one or more of these additional securities, and therefore generate more page views on the system.
US07792737B2

Techniques are described for securitizing, administrating and trading various index shares securitized by derivative, cash-settled instruments on the underlying index. In some aspects, a tradable index share is backed by a fractional interest in a creation unit. The creation unit includes a derivative financial instrument and an amount of cash that secure the tradable index receipt.
US07792736B2

The present method and software provides a display for a trader in tradable instruments that shows the market price and market depth. The display dynamically updates with data received from an electronic exchange and centers on the market price. Upon the trader moving a cursor over a trade entering portion of the screen to make a trade, the price is held stationary and no longer centers on the market price so as to permit the trader to select a price and quantity for trading. The displayed data is still being updated in the stationary screen, however. The trade is made by the trader selecting a price and quantity on the display. Movement of the cursor away from the trade selecting area results in the display again automatically centering on the market price in the dynamic display mode.
US07792726B2

A reception management system for handling transactions includes a plurality of ACMs (Automated Contract/Consulting Terminals) for receiving procedure requests for predetermined transactions from customers, a plurality of ROTs (Remote Operation Terminals) to be employed by an operator for handling the procedure requests, a server for storing information for managing the operators for each transaction skill, and information about queues formed for each transaction skill upon a procedure request accepted from an ACM, and a queue monitoring terminal for monitoring the queues by receiving information from the SACD server.
US07792725B2

Methods and apparatus are provided to administer an investment company. The investment company issues one or more classes of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the investment company at a net asset value. The investment company also issues one or more classes of shares that are listed for trading on a securities exchange and that are bought and sold in a secondary market at negotiated market prices. One or more computers maintain information regarding portfolio holdings of the investment company and outstanding shares in the investment company. Dividends are periodically declared at a first time interval for the outstanding shares that are bought from and redeemed with the investment company at a net asset value. The amount of dividends to declare is calculated from the information maintained in the one or more computers. Dividends are periodically declared at a second time interval that is different from the first time interval for the outstanding shares that are exchange-traded. Again, the amount of dividends to declare is calculated from the information maintained in the one or more computers.
US07792723B2

An apparatus includes a computer network including at least one auction server, at least one seller client and at least one buyer client. The at least one auction server, the at least one seller client and the at least one buyer client are executing on a computer system a synthetic continuous double auction having contingent bidding on a plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. The synthetic continuous double auction includes a composite reverse auction, defined to include a bid set including a first contingent bid on a first of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions and a second contingent bid on a second of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions, is ended when i) the first contingent bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second contingent bid from the bid set is withdrawn as a remaining bid.
US07792717B1

The invention comprises a system and method for “waterfall” type payment processing using multiple alternative payment sources. A payor provides account information for multiple payment sources, such as a bank checking account, savings account, first credit card account, second credit card account, and so forth. The multiple payment sources are prioritized so that one is a primary payment source, another is a secondary payment source, another is a tertiary payment source, and so forth. After setting up the waterfall payment arrangement, when a bill becomes due a payee or third party payment administrator submits transactions against the payment sources in their order of priority until the payment is satisfied. Other variations and enhancements are disclosed.
US07792710B2

Provided herein are systems and methods for influencing shoppers while they consider making purchasing decisions in a retail establishment. Specifically, the systems and methods for influencing shoppers may occur during a shopper's first moment of truth by transmitting through a communication network one or more influential messages to a handheld wireless electronic device or intelligent shopping cart, which is in close proximity to a shopper during a shopping trip throughout a retail establishment.
US07792702B1

In a remote communication environment, a method for real-time presentation of information to one or more users accessing one or more websites using an electronic communications device. Various aspects of the method comprise at least the following. Communication is established via the electronic communications device between the user and the website to conduct one or more primary transactions. One or more electronic identifiers associated with the user are obtained. One or more further or additional data elements related to the user are obtained from a third party using the at least one electronic identifier. Based at least on the electronic identifier and the further data element, the information is selected for presentation to the user in real time with the primary transaction. The information is presented to the user in real time with the primary transaction.
US07792699B2

A retailing method executable by a computer system, includes sending a page to a prospective purchaser in response to a request, the page being associated with a specific product; receiving a purchase proposal from the prospective purchaser for direct purchase of the product at a fixed price, the purchase proposal including identifier information of persons nominated by the prospective and purchase term information selected at least in part by the prospective purchaser, the nominated persons being nominated to contribute to purchase of the product at the fixed price.
US07792687B2

A method for controlling healthcare costs comprising creating associational databases in a computer system containing physician, hospital, patient and payer information; cross-referencing and searching said databases for specific occurrences of treatment, discharge, or transfers with characteristics leading to higher medical costs, and providing statistical information to payers on specific physicians and hospitals such that payer's can determine whether to retain such providers services for specific procedures.
US07792671B2

Outputs of an automatic probabilistic event detection system, such as a fact extraction system, a speech-to-text engine or an automatic character recognition system, are matched with comparable results produced manually or by a different system. This comparison allows statistical modeling of the run-time behavior of the event detection system. This model can subsequently be used to give supplemental or replacement data for an output sequence of the system. In particular, the model can effectively calibrate the system for use with data of a particular statistical nature.
US07792670B2

A method and apparatus for prediction in a speech-coding system is provided herein. The method of a 1st order long-term predictor (LTP) filter, using a sub-sample resolution delay, is extended to a multi-tap LTP filter, or, viewed from another vantage point, the conventional integer-sample resolution multi-tap LTP filter is extended to use sub-sample resolution delay. This novel formulation of a multi-tap LTP filter offers a number of advantages over the prior-art LTP filter configurations. Particularly, defining the lag with sub-sample resolution makes it possible to explicitly model the delay values that have a fractional component, within the limits of resolution of the over-sampling factor used by the interpolation filter. The coefficients of such a multi-tap LTP filter are thus largely freed from modeling the effect of delays that have a fractional component. Consequently their main function is to maximize the prediction gain of the LTP filter via modeling the degree of periodicity that is present and by imposing spectral shaping.
US07792660B2

Provides methods, systems and apparatus for generating alerts for a system process that obtains raw channel data over time from one or more monitored channel of the system process. An example method includes processing the raw channel data to form time dependent signals based one or more user specified processing rules. The method produces alerts based on the deviation in behavior in one or more channels, where the deviation is quantified by a numeric level computed by comparing signals for varying time intervals with historically normal baseline signals. The method may include filtering the alerts to selectively form reportable alerts that are presented to the user based on user specified filtering rules.
US07792657B2

A pressure display apparatus that includes a detected signal processor for processing a detected signal Si obtained from a pressure detector for detecting a pressure P, a pressure value display for displaying a detected pressure value Pd at least based on a processed signal Dd obtained from the detected signal processor, and a reference point adjuster for adjusting the display for a given reference pressure value Ps. The reference point adjuster has a reference pressure value setting function to set the reference pressure value Ps for a given magnitude, a deviation value setting capability for obtaining and setting a detected pressure value Pd corresponding to the reference pressure value Ps and the deviation value Ed of the reference pressure value Ps, and a correction capability for correcting at least the detected pressure value Pd regarding the pressure P and displayed on the display based on the deviation Ed.
US07792655B2

A computer-implemented method for scanning and obtaining points of an object is provided. The method includes defining a measuring distance between two points of an object and scanning the measuring distance according to an optimal measuring position. If coordinate values of each of the scanned points are valid, then the method send the obtained coordinate values to an electronic device if the obtained coordinate values are valid.
US07792648B2

A system determines pedaling effort of a bicycle and includes a first detector to generate a first sensor signal responsive to passage of a force transmission chain across a first frame-fixed point located in proximity to the force transmission trajectory of the force transmission chain, a second detector for generating a second sensor signal responsive to passage of a force transmission chain across a second frame-fixed point located in proximity to the force transmission trajectory of the force transmission chain, and a controller configured to receive the first and second sensor signals and configured to determine a first pedaling parameter proportional to tension of the force transmission chain by using the first and second sensor signal. A corresponding method for determining pedaling effort of a bicycle, and a computer program distribution medium including instructions for executing a computer process in a digital processor are also disclosed.
US07792646B2

A measuring arrangement of the invention includes: At least one measuring device, which generates, repeatedly during operation, measured values, especially digital, measured values, representing the at least one measured variable to be registered; as well as an electronic data processing system superordinated to the at least one measuring device, especially a data processing system which is spatially distributed and/or spatially remote from the measuring device. Measuring device and data processing system are connected together by means of at least two line-pairs, through each of which an electrical current flows, at least at times, during operation. According to the invention, the measuring device transmits the internally generated, measured values to the data processing system via both line-pairs. In this way, it is then possible to transmit a plurality of measured values simultaneously, when each of the two line-pairs is embodied as part of a two-conductor current-loop.
US07792643B2

Integrated computing systems and methods for applying sub-surface material location and composition information to engineering plans for designing, highways and other roadways, are provided. Utilizing the described systems and methods, surfaces, highways, may be more efficiently designed in a timely fashion, requiring less format conversion for inputs and outputs to be compatible throughout the design process. Additionally, adjustments for changes in alignments for the desired surfaces are more easily taken into account than in conventional design systems, permitting quicker design corrections and more accurate results.
US07792639B2

Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide a host based positioning system. The host based positioning system includes a tracker hardware interface that connects to a dedicated hardware space vehicle tracker. The tracker hardware interface receives positioning information from the space vehicle tracker. The host based positioning system also includes a memory that includes a GPS library having a user interface, a tracker interface, and an operating system interface. A processor runs functions provided by the interfaces.
US07792638B2

The present invention relates to a method of loading 3-D image data in a navigation system. In the method, whether a vehicle enters an intersection while traveling is determined. A mask array based on a travel path of the vehicle is selected. An object to be displayed at the intersection is selected and a level-of-detail array of the object is selected according to a distance between the vehicle and the object. The level-of-detail array of the object overlaps the mask array. The object is displayed according to a level of detail of the object obtained from the level-of-detail array overlapping the mask array. According to the method, real-time 3-D image data can be loaded in a simple and efficient manner.
US07792636B2

A navigation system includes a processing unit for generating route data relating to a route along which a vehicle has actually traveled, from position data acquired by a position acquiring unit, an image data acquiring section for acquiring image data, a first storage section for storing the image data acquired by the image acquiring unit according to groups of respective destinations, and a second storage section for storing the route data generated by the processing unit. A link data generating section is provided for correlating the respective destinations with the respective route data via link data. An outputting unit is configured to extract a group linked to a destination by the link data in response to a manual designation of a route data stored in the second storage section or to a manual or automatic designation of a designation included in that route data and then to output the image data included in that group from the first storage section to an outputting section.
US07792635B2

A multi-function navigation system provides an electronic map to guide the user to destinations and provides information of scenic spots stored in an electronic book. The navigation system includes: a scenic spot information searching module for searching scenic spots within the selected scope of electronic map and identifying the scenic spots included in the electronic book; a traveling information note module for providing a interface to the electronic book of the scenic spots including the electronic book; and a display module for displaying the electronic map and marks of the interface linking to the electronic book of the scenic spots.
US07792628B2

In a hybrid electric vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine that produces torque and an electric machine that produces torque, a method for operating the electric machine to produce electric assist to the engine includes determining a magnitude of power requested by the vehicle operator, determining a minimum power limit and a maximum power limit of the engine that will produce a response to a torque request within a desired period following the torque request, using the magnitude of power requested, the minimum and maximum power limits of the engine to determine the upper and lower limits of the electric power assist such that the requested torque will be provided within the desired period, and operating the electric machine to provide electric power assist within said upper and lower limits.
US07792625B2

A traction control system adjusts powertrain output to reduce wheel slip, where a relationship between powertrain output and pedal actuation is adjusted in response to environmental conditions.
US07792618B2

A concrete vehicle is described herein which includes a chassis, a concrete handling system, a vehicle subsystem control system, and a wireless communication system configured to communicate with an off-board electronic device. The subsystem control system includes status information for a plurality of vehicle parameters. The wireless communication system is used to communicate status information pertaining to at least one vehicle parameter to the off-board electronic device when the vehicle parameter breaches a threshold.
US07792617B2

A control system for controlling a safety system of an automotive vehicle having a transmission and a differential. The system includes left and right wheel speed sensors associated with respective vehicle wheels and generating left and right wheel speed signals, and a transmission output shaft speed sensor generating a transmission output shaft speed signal. A controller is coupled to the wheel speed sensors and the transmission output speed sensor, and determines a reference wheel speed for one of the left or right wheels as a function of the other of the left or right wheel speed signal and the transmission output shaft speed signal. The controller controls the safety system in response to the determined reference wheel speed.
US07792616B2

A system for computing car switching solutions in a railway switch yard. The system is computer based and has an input for receiving data conveying information about one or more arrival trains arriving at the switch yard and data conveying information about departure trains to depart the switch yard. A processing entity processes the data and computes car switching solutions for the railcars.
US07792612B2

An expandable irrigation controller for controlling a plurality of watering stations in an irrigation system includes a removable front panel and an inner housing, connected to the front panel. The removable front panel includes a plurality of manual controls operable to input instructions for a watering program, a memory operable to store the input instructions and a controller operable to execute the watering program. The inner housing includes a circuit board including control connectors which are connected electrically to the controller and a station module operable to provide an ON/OFF signal to at least one watering station of the irrigation system. The station module is electrically connected to the circuit board via the control connectors and the ON/OFF signal is provided based on instructions from the controller in accordance with the watering program. The control connectors are positioned in a substantially continuous line extending across the inner housing such that the station module is connectable to the control connectors at substantially any desired location. Multiple modules of different sizes may be mounted in the inner housing as desired. Control information may be provided via a radio frequency supply and received by a radio frequency module to be provided to the station modules and to external station modules in an external housing.
US07792604B2

The present invention relates to navigation of a path by a moving object, and, more particularly, to motion control systems for computer-controllable machine tools.
US07792601B2

A control apparatus comprises: a job processing section for acquiring, on input of selection application information into a multi-functional apparatus, setting condition corresponding to the selection application information from the multi-functional apparatus, and carrying out predetermined data processing corresponding to the setting condition; a job result transmission section for outputting to the multi-functional apparatus a process result given by the job processing section; and a display switch-over determining section for controlling the multi-functional apparatus to enable the multi-functional apparatus to accept input of a user ID and selection application information from another user during the data processing by the job processing section. In this way, the present invention realizes a multi-functional apparatus control system capable of accepting a job from a user when another user is using the application program.
US07792600B2

A system for assembling a rotor stack having a plurality of rotor disks may include a measurement system for measuring characteristics of the rotor disks, a computer electronically connected to the measurement system for capturing data from the measurement system, and solid modeling software for creating a virtual stack of the rotor disks optimized for concentricity.
US07792591B2

The disclosure describes an introducer for facilitating implantation of therapy elements into a patient. The introducer has an elongated body that defines a lumen for advancement of a therapy element to an implant site, and includes a curved portion medially located between substantially straight proximal and distal portions. As an example, the shape of the introducer may allow a clinician to more easily, and without substantially damaging surrounding tissue, find the correct tissue depth and follow that tissue depth to the implant site. For example, the introducer may facilitate implantation of a therapy element within or between desired layers of tissue of the patient. In some embodiments, fluid may be injected through the introducer to create a space within the tissue to implant the therapy element. Fluid may also be evacuated through the introducer prior to implantation.
US07792587B2

An implantable fixation structure includes at least one implantable holding element. The holding element is connected to an implantable cochlear implant element and maintains the cochlear implant element in a desired position relative to the middle ear of a patient user.
US07792582B2

An active implantable medical device, preferably a device for pacing, resynchronization, defibrillation and/or cardioversion of a patient, that includes functionality that assists in the diagnosis of the patient's clinical status. This devices comprises circuits (10, 12) for measuring one physiologic parameter, preferably minute ventilation (VE), and circuits (14, 16) for measuring a physical parameter, preferably acceleration (G), control logic (18) for discriminating between activity and rest phases of the patient, and analysis circuits (20-28), to process and combine these signals and memorize (store in memory) the obtained results in the form of a data history. The analysis will establish characteristics providing, for successive dates, representative values, for a given period of time, of the physical signal and physiologic signal during activity phases of the patient, and/or of the physiologic signal during rest phases. These circuits search for remarkable dates for each of the characteristics and allocate specific indices of clinical status respective to each of the periods comprised between the remarkable dates, then combined the specific thus obtained into one single composite index.
US07792569B2

The invention provides materials, devices and methods for marking biopsy sites for a limited time. The biopsy-marking materials are ultrasound-detectable bio-resorbable powders, with powder particles typically between about 20 microns and about 800 microns in maximum dimension, more preferably between about 300 microns and about 500 microns. The powders may be formed of polymeric materials containing cavities sized between about 10 microns and about 500 microns, and may also contain binding agents, anesthetic agents, hemostatic agents, and radiopaque markers. Devices for delivering the powders include tubes configured to contain the powders and to fit within a biopsy cannula, the powders being ejected by action of a syringe. Systems may include a tube containing powder, and a syringe containing sterile saline. The tube may be configured to fit within a biopsy cannula such as a Mammotome® or SenoCor 360™ cannula.
US07792565B2

A method and system are provided for effecting interactive, three-dimensional renderings of selected body organs for purposes of medical observation and diagnosis. A series of CT images of the selected body organs are acquired. The series of CT images is stacked to form a three-dimensional volume file. To facilitate interactive three-dimensional rendering, the three-dimensional volume file may be subjected to an optional dataset reduction procedure to reduce pixel resolution and/or to divide the three-dimensional volume file into selected subvolumes. From a selected volume or subvolume, the image of a selected body organ is segmented or isolated. A wireframe model of the segmented organ image is then generated to enable interactive, three-dimensional rendering of the selected organ.
US07792539B2

A method and system provide interactive participation during activity occurring at a college campus venue. Enjoyment for a plurality of enrolled participants is enhanced. Participants employ wireless interactive devices that present a promotional message and include user input and output interfaces. Participants are queried, and enter answers via the user input interface. The promotional messages are preferably related to businesses and other organizations associated with the college campus venue.
US07792533B2

A cellular communication system comprises a set of base stations (201,203) which transmit downlink resource exchange discovery messages to remote terminals in resource allocations of a Media Access Control, MAC, frame structure. The discovery messages may indicate that a base station has resource available for reallocation to another base station or that a base station is seeking resource to be allocated from another base station. A remote terminal (205) comprises a receiver (401, 403) which receives a first message of the downlink resource exchange discovery messages from at least a first base station (201). A discovery message transmit processor (407) generates a second message, which is an uplink resource exchange message comprising resource exchange data determined from the first message, and transmits this to a second base station (203). The second base station (203) then initiates a temporary air interface resource reallocation with the first base station in response to receiving the second message.
US07792530B2

Facilitating use of a restricted base transceiver station is disclosed. To a first set of subscribers associated with a mobile network operator, access to a mobile network is provided via base transceiver stations associated with a first mobile network identifier associated with the mobile network operator but not via base transceiver stations associated with a second mobile network identifier associated with the mobile network operator. To each of a second set of subscribers associated with the mobile network operator, access to the mobile network is provided via a corresponding subset of a set of base transceiver stations associated with the second mobile network identifier, the subset including for each subscriber in the second set one or more base transceiver stations with respect to which that subscriber is an authorized user.
US07792526B2

In a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), roaming from one access point to another by a mobile station without interruption to network service may be facilitated by frequently performing background scans to find neighboring access points while the mobile station is associated to the WLAN. Frequent background scanning, however, depletes battery life. By dynamically adjusting the background scanning interval during the mobile station's association to the WLAN, the mobile station's immediate need for network connectivity performance may be met, while simultaneously prolonging battery life. For example, by using a shorter background scanning interval during a telephone conversation, network connectivity performance may be maintained throughout the call. Longer background scanning intervals may be used during periods when interruptions to network connectivity may be better tolerated.
US07792525B2

The invention concerns a method which consists, in a radio communication system comprising a core network, at least one radio network controller connected to the core network and configured to control radio communications with terminals and at least one operation center capable of supervising said radio network controller, in: transmitting from the operating center to a radio network controller, a coded list of terminal identifiers; transmitting the coded list to the control network from the radio network controller; decoding the coded list at the core network; detecting at the core network a radio communication under the control of the radio network controller, with a terminal identified in the decoded list; and instructing the radio network controller, from the core network, to start a recording of events concerning the detected communication.
US07792524B2

A multi-zone audio system is provided that is portable to a handheld audio device at a plurality of locations. The system includes a multi-zone audio system controller having an audio input/output selection circuit for selectively regulating the source and distribution of audio signals. A plurality of handheld connector docks are distributed about the multi-zone system. Each connector dock is in communication with the audio system controller. The connector docks include a connector port, engagable to the handheld device, for communicating music/data/commands between the handheld device and the system controller. A plurality in-wall audio controllers are also distributed about the multi-zone system. Each in-wall controller is in communication with the audio system controller, and includes an input circuit for selective input of commands to regulate operation of the system controller and/or the handheld device. The handheld connector docks are operative to transfer music/data/commands between the audio system controller and a handheld device disposed within the connector dock.
US07792514B2

A receiver for receiving an amplitude modulated (AM) signal may include a first and a second detector for detecting the maximum and minimum envelope values, respectively, of the received AM signal and an equalizer for periodically equalizing the maximum and minimum envelope values. A method for receiving an AM signal may include unidirectionally increasing a first output signal up to the maximum envelope value, unidirectionally decreasing a second output signal down to the minimum envelope value, and periodically equalizing the first and the second output signals.
US07792509B2

Transceivers for use in time division telecommunication units in a transmitting mode, include switching a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) driven phase locked loop (PLL) into a modulating state and supplying a modulation signal to the DDS and switching in the PLL a first filter, thus allowing the generation of an improved modulated signal. In a receiving mode, the DDS driven PLL is switched into an oscillating state including supplying a non-modulation signal to the DDS and switching in the PLL a second filter, thus allowing demodulation with reduced phase noise. A transmitter part and a non-transmitter part share a single DDS driven PLL.
US07792504B2

A receiver, in particular for mobile radio, includes a receiver branch with a mixer, downstream of an analog/digital converter. A reference generator generates a reference clock, which is fed to the converters or PLL synthesizers of the mixer by integral multiplication or division. As a result, a particularly energy-saving and space-saving circuit configuration is realized, which has a low level of mutual interference between the signals and is suitable (in particular for Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS). In a preferred embodiment, the receiver is developed into a transceiver by providing a transmission path.
US07792503B2

A high frequency module includes: a line substrate having a first high-frequency signal line on a first surface thereof and a second high-frequency signal line on a second surface being a surface on the opposite side of the first surface, the second high-frequency signal line being electrically connected with the first high-frequency signal line; and a base substrate which is provided to the second surface of the line substrate, and which is formed in a manner that the base substrate is located away from the second high-frequency signal line.
US07792501B2

An apparatus and method for attenuating a leakage signal of a transmitter in a communication system is provided. The apparatus includes a local oscillator, a mixer, and a leakage signal attenuator. The local oscillator outputs a reference frequency signal. The mixer adds the reference frequency signal to an IF signal to convert the IF signal into an RF signal, and outputs the RF signal, a leakage signal and an image signal. The leakage signal attenuator extracts a partial signal from the reference frequency signal output from the local oscillator, adjusts the amplitude of the extracted signal, shifts the phase of the extracted signal, and combines the resulting signal and the output signal of the mixer, to remove the leakage signal.
US07792494B2

The present invention provides a method for wide-range microwave communications. In an exemplary embodiment, a wide-range transceiver is made having pre-calibrated modular units including an IF radio processing card, an RF transmitter module, and an RF receiver module. Calibration factors are loaded into a memory (e.g., EEPROM) in each module during production. Certain additional calibration factors may also be loaded upon installation, such as a one time calibration for the type and length of cable connecting the RF unit to a remote SPU (signal processing unit). A processor in the RF unit is responsive to control signaling indicating a desired transmitter or receiver configuration (e.g., a particular frequency, bandwidth and modulation), to attenuate the signal in the transmitter/receiver path based on the predetermined calibration factors from the applicable modules. A method for calibrating the modules is also disclosed.
US07792491B2

A method and system for using a mobile computing device to wirelessly print data includes establishing a first wireless link with a printer system and establishing a second wireless link with a central computer system. User account data is transmitted to the central computer system via the second wireless link for verification. Upon verification, a mobile print package is generated and transmitted to the printer system via the first wireless link for printing. Depending on the level of service selected by the user, advertisement content can be included in the mobile print package.
US07792489B2

To provide a light emitting device that has a structure in which a light emitting element is sandwiched by two substrates to prevent moisture from penetrating into the light emitting element, and a method for manufacturing thereof. In addition, a gap between the two substrates can be controlled precisely. In the light emitting device according to the present invention, an airtight space surrounded by a sealing material with a closed pattern is kept under reduced pressure by attaching the pair of substrates under reduced pressure. A columnar or wall-shaped structure is formed between light emitting regions inside of the sealing material, in a region overlapping with the sealing material, or in a region outside of the sealing material so that the gap between the pair of substrates can be maintained precisely.
US07792487B2

A satellite communication system is disclosed which provides at least one satellite employing multiple beams to a plurality of user terminals. A gateway is employed to connect to either a PSTN or an Internet communicating with the user terminal over the system so that the users within a given frequency range are distinguished one from the other employing orthogonal codes. The user terminal has the capability of either initiating or receiving packet data messages.
US07792486B2

A band translation method and device for selecting two or more desired frequency bands of data and bandstacking the two or more desired frequency bands of data into a single output.
US07792484B2

A mobile telephone is easy to carry around but has a small keypad and a small display. A normal deskphone has a big keypad and display and has a convenient handset, but is stationary. A stationary telephony terminal is described which is connected to a mobile telephony network via a mobile telephone. The mobile and the stationary terminal have each a bluetooth radio transceiver and are interconnected via a bluetooth link. The stationary terminal lacks identity in the mobile network. A subscriber, owning the mobile, can call on the stationary terminal and can move to another network having another stationary terminal, on which he can make a call. Another subscriber with a mobile can call on the terminal. To prevent misuse the subscribers take an authentication code for his respective mobile on the stationary terminal, and the authentication can be made valid for a predetermined period by taking a service code.
US07792481B2

In order to provide a method for interface adaptation of a hardware baseband receiver in satellite communication systems, an interface adapter, as well as a corresponding computer program and a corresponding computer-readable storage medium that provide a flexible interface for a hardware baseband receiver to a RF front end, where the flexible interface allows different RF front ends to be operated on such a hardware baseband receiver, an interface adapter (100) is inserted between a RF front end (102) and the correlators (101) of the hardware baseband receiver (104); the interface adapter (100) adjusting the sampling rate, intermediate frequency, quantization, and/or signal representation of a baseband-receiver interface of the RF front end (102) to specifiable values.
US07792478B2

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit configured to remove toner on an image bearing member, a container adapted to contain the removed toner that is recovered, a screw configured to convey the removed toner toward the container, a spherical moving member configured to be moved by the rotation of the screw in the direction of the rotation axis of the screw, and a driving unit configured to rotate the screw in a first direction for conveying the moving member toward the container and in a second direction opposite from the first direction for conveying the moving member.
US07792474B2

An image forming apparatus, including an image forming section, a fixing unit, a memory section and a control section having a cleaning mode, wherein after the sheet is conveyed to the image forming section, the control section controls the image forming section not to form an image on the sheet, and the sheet is conveyed to the fixing unit, after which the control section controls to clean the fixing member by removing remaining toner, and when sheet jamming is caused at the fixing unit while the cleaning mode is practiced, the control section controls the memory section to store at least one characteristic of the sheet that causes the sheet jamming, and when a succeeding cleaning mode is practiced, the control section prohibits selection of the sheet having the characteristic stored in the memory section, and selects the sheet having other characteristics to practice the cleaning mode.
US07792467B2

An apparatus and method for distributed mixing and transport of toner and powders in an electrostatographic printer containing at least powder and magnetic carrier. The apparatus includes a powder conveying apparatus for transporting powder in a developer station including a development station housing having two or more auger assemblies, each auger assembly including two or more screw augers supported in a channel profile. The two or more screw augers having multiple intermeshed screw blades and controlled by a conveyance controller. The conveyance controller is in communication with the powder the one or more augers, such that each auger preferentially mixes and transports in a first or second direction as the powder conveying device conveys the powder in the developer sump of a print engine.
US07792462B2

An image formation apparatus which includes a rotating image-bearing body, a charging section, an exposure section, a developing section, a transfer section, and a residue toner-charging section. The charging section charges the image-bearing body. The exposure section forms an electrostatic latent image on the image-bearing body that has been charged. The developing section develops the electrostatic latent image and forms a toner image. The transfer section transfers the toner image to a transfer body. The residue toner-charging section is provided upstream of the charging section and downstream of the transfer section and, after the transfer, charges transfer residue toner to a normal polarity. The transfer residue toner that has been charged to the normal polarity by the residue toner-charging section is recycled at the developing section. The residue toner-charging section is provided with a nonwoven fabric, which features conductivity and touches against the image-bearing body.
US07792457B2

The present invention provides an original conveying apparatus, an original conveying program, and an original conveying method that can change a conveying angle of an original with respect to a scanning point of a scanning apparatus to an angle suitable for removing a foreign matter on the scanning point and an angle suitable for scanning. An original conveying apparatus that can convey an original to a scanning point where a scanning apparatus scans the original includes a conveying unit that conveys the original and a conveying-angle changing unit that can change a conveying angle of the original conveyed by the conveying unit with respect to the scanning point.
US07792456B2

An image forming apparatus to which a developer storage container can be detachably mounted, includes: a reception unit arranged to receive information from the developer storage container; a first temperature detection unit provided in an inside of the image forming apparatus and arranged to detect a temperature of the inside of the image forming apparatus; a cooling unit arranged to cool the inside of the image forming apparatus; and a control unit arranged to determine on the basis of the received information whether second temperature detection unit is provided to the developer storage container, control the cooling unit on the basis of the detection result of the first temperature detection unit when the second temperature detection unit is not provided, and control the cooling unit on the basis of the detection results of the first and second temperature detection units when the second temperature detection unit is provided.
US07792445B2

In a drive detection device for a fixing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, a non-paper passing area of a heat roller is formed by a surface where a metal conductive layer is exposed and a surface where a silicon rubber layer is exposed. The drive detection device has an infrared temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the non-paper passing area. When a detection result of the infrared temperature sensor is fluctuated a fixed amount or more in a predetermined time, the drive detection device determines that the heat roller is rotating. Otherwise, the drive detection device determines that the heat roller is not rotating.
US07792435B2

A control device with a switchable bandwidth including: an integrating element with a first capacitance, which is charged and discharged by at least one current; at least one second capacitance, which can be connected in parallel with the first capacitance via a first switch; and at least one voltage follower, via which the voltage present at the first capacitance can be fed to the second capacitance. In this case, the first switch is open if the voltage present at the first capacitance is fed to the second capacitance by means of the voltage follower. The first switch is closed if the second capacitance is connected in parallel with the first capacitance. The invention enables a further capacitance to be supplementary connected without a disturbance signal arising.
US07792425B2

Out-of-band data communication of diagnostic and/or configuration data is performed using transceivers in a data or communication network. A light beam or other carrier is modulated with high-speed data and out-of-band diagnostic and/or configuration data to create a double modulated data signal. A physical layer signal is created that includes modulations of the double modulated signal. The physical layer signal is transmitted onto a physical link. The diagnostic and/or configuration data can be transmitted in the out-of-band signal without substantially reducing or otherwise interfering with the transmission rate of the high-speed data.
US07792422B2

A lens barrel comprises: a first focus ring used for either one of instruction types of focus operation of a relative position instruction type focus operation for moving a position of the focus lens for focus control and an absolute position instruction type focus operation for moving it in an absolute positional relation; a second focus ring used for the focus operation of the instruction type different from that of the first focus ring between the relative position and the absolute position instruction type focus operation; a support device which slidably supports the first focus ring; a connecting device which brings the first focus ring and the second focus ring from an unconnected state into a connected state when the first focus ring is slid from a first position to a second position; and a cover member covering the outer circumference portion of the second focus ring.
US07792417B2

In a drive loadable with storage media of different types, a data stream is recorded directly on a given storage medium at a write rate and in a recording format associated with the storage medium.When loaded with a storage medium on which a data stream representing standard resolution video is recordable and when receiving a data stream representing high resolution video, the data processor converts the high resolution video into the standard resolution video and record it on the storage medium. In this case, since the format of the data stream received is different from that of the data stream recordable on the storage medium, a data stream in a format compatible with the storage medium is generated. On the other hand, when loaded with a storage medium on which a data stream representing high resolution video is recordable, the data stream is recorded on the storage medium as it is without converting its resolution or format.
US07792413B2

During recording of an MPEG information signal on a record carrier, transport packets (Pk) are stored in signal blocks in a track on the record carrier. x transport packets of the MPEG information signal are stored in the second block sections (SB) of y signal blocks, where x and y are integers, x≧1 and y>1, more specifically, y>x. Further, third block sections (TB) are present in one or more of the second block sections in the y signal blocks of a group for storing additional information, this additional information relating to the specific application of recording and reproducing the MPEG information signal on/from the record carrier.
US07792405B2

A method for making a Fiber deployment assembly includes creating a curvature in a conduit; pumping one or more fibers into the conduit; and securing at least one of the one or more fibers to a shortest pathway within the conduit and Fiber deployment assembly.
US07792404B2

A method for manufacturing an optical assembly comprises providing a first substrate having a first surface, providing a second substrate having a second surface facing the first surface, and forming a patterned microbump on at least a select one of the first surface and the second surface. The method further comprises applying an adhesive to the at least select one of the first surface and the second surface in a region proximate the patterned microbump, and attaching the first substrate to the second substrate by placing the first surface and the second surface in close proximity to one another such that the adhesive contacts both the first surface and the second surface, and wherein the adhesive is held within a preselected area by the patterned microbump.
US07792396B2

Method and apparatus for utilizing a probe card for testing in-wafer photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising a plurality of in-wafer photonic integrated circuit (PIC) die formed in the surface of a semiconductor wafer where each PIC comprises one or more electro-optic components with formed wafer-surface electrical contacts. The probe card has a probe card body with at least one row of downwardly dependent, electrically conductive contact probes. The probe body is transversely translated over the surface of the wafer to a selected in-wafer photonic integrated circuit (PIC) die. Then, the contact probes of the probe card are brought into engagement with surface electrical contacts of the selected photonic integrated circuit (PIC) die for testing the operation of electro-optic components in the selected in-wafer photonic integrated circuit (PIC) die.
US07792388B2

A source image having a foreground section and a background section is segmented into a first image corresponding to the foreground section and a second image corresponding to the background section. Using size information of the source image, a pixel size of the first image and a pixel size of the second image are determined. The determined pixel sizes of the first image and the second image are used to generate a formatting file of a compound image.
US07792385B2

A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by providing the video decoding block with an in-loop filter and a scratch pad memory, so that the in-loop filter may efficiently perform piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion which is a much more efficient algorithm than the frame-based method.
US07792383B2

Creating a blur in a digital image by receiving original pixel values in a frame of image data, and for each pixel position in the digital image being blurred, calculating a blurred pixel value by applying a box filter having a plurality of elements with unity multiplier values to original pixel values for pixel positions that include the pixel position and pixel positions that are nearby to it. The output of the first box filter can be sequentially applied as inputs to a second box filter.
US07792381B2

An apparatus for removing a noise of a video signal is disclosed, by which a noise level can be effectively estimated to enhance an image quality of the video signal, by which the noise can be removed in a manner of effectively estimating a noise level though motion adaptive filtering, and by which blurring is prevented in the process of removing the noises. The present invention includes a temporal noise level estimation unit estimating a level of a temporal noise included in the video signal using a difference between two temporally consecutive videos, a noise correction unit correcting a noise estimated by the temporal noise level estimation unit, and a noise removal unit removing the noise included in the video signal using a level of the corrected noise.
US07792380B2

A user interface unit sets a parameter based on operations of a user, and outputs to a parameter correction unit. The parameter correction unit extracts the feature quantity of pixels in an observation region that corresponds to the value of the parameter, and based on the maximal value of that feature quantity, corrects the parameter specified by the user as the correction parameter. A blurring correction unit corrects input image data based on the correction parameter, and generates image data of the image wherein the blurring has been corrected. The present invention can be applied, for example, to a digital camera.
US07792371B2

A method and device for generating and decoding an image code without a direction finder pattern are provided. In the method of generating an image code, a two-dimensional image is generated by encoding the configured basic information and the error correction information, and disposing the encoded basic and error correction information in predetermined regions, respectively. It is determined whether the two-dimensional image can be decoded for directions which are different from a basic direction of the two-dimensional image, respectively, and the two-dimensional image is output as a physical or electronic image code when a result from decoding for the directions which are different from the basic direction of the two-dimensional image is the same as a decoding result for the basic direction, or when decoding cannot be performed for a direction which is different from the basic direction. In the method of decoding an image code, a physically or electronically represented image code is received as an input, and a decoding result for a direction for which the decoding result has the least number of errors from among the results decoded for each direction is output. Accordingly, a direction of an image code can be detected without any overhead or with a minimal overhead.
US07792367B2

According to the present invention, a polarized image is captured, a variation in its light intensity is approximated with a sinusoidal function, and then the object is spatially divided into a specular reflection area (S-area) and a diffuse reflection area (D-area) in Step S402 of dividing a reflection area. Information about the object's refractive index is entered in Step S405, thereby obtaining surface normals by mutually different techniques in Steps S406 and S407, respectively. Finally, in Steps S410 and S411, the two normals are matched to each other in the vicinity of the boundary between the S- and D-areas.
US07792361B2

A digital image that includes first and second regions is processed. An intrinsic color of a given pixel located in an area of interest that is adjacent to at least one of the first and second regions is estimated by extrapolating from colors of multiple pixels in one of the first and second regions and multiple pixels in the other of the two regions.
US07792351B1

One embodiment pertains to a method for reviewing a potential defect on a substrate from one electron image. An image of an area containing the potential defect is obtained using a charged-particle apparatus. At least three image segments within the image are determined. The three segments are transformably identical to each other, and one of said three segments includes the potential defect. Another embodiment pertains to a method for reviewing a potential defect on a substrate by obtaining an electron-beam image of a relatively large field of view containing a first image segment. The first image segment is substantially smaller than the field of view and includes a location of the potential defect. A comparison image segment within the field of view is determined. The comparison image segment is transformably identical to the first image segment. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US07792350B2

A number of wafer center finding methods and systems are disclosed herein that improve upon existing techniques used in semiconductor manufacturing.
US07792349B2

Method and device for inspecting a string of packs. Each of the packs contains drugs, and consumer data such as patient data are provided on the packs. Specific characteristics of the drugs to be scanned are fed into a central processing unit. These characteristics are compared with the drugs present in the actual pack. According to the invention, a graphic image of the pack, the drugs and the patient data is produced and stored. To optimize scanning of a group of drugs spreading is proposed by means of a resilient cam which rotates in a plane essentially parallel with the plane of the carrier. Such cam is mounted in a bush and can move resiliently in said bush at right angles to the plane of the carrier and said bush is caused to rotate. It is possible to provide a number of such constructions adjacent to one another.
US07792345B2

A method for processing an image of a microfluidic device. The method includes receiving a first image of a microfluidic device. The first image corresponds to a first state. Additionally, the method includes receiving a second image of the microfluidic device. The second image corresponds to a second state. Moreover, the method includes transforming the first image and the second image into a third coordinate space. Also, the method includes obtaining a third image based on at least information associated with the transformed first image and the transformed second image, and processing the third image to obtain information associated with the first state and the second state.
US07792339B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for appropriately performing the intra-cerebral hemorrhage lesion segmentation by determining a higher scale level image by means of a scale space filtering on an X-ray CT image of a head with the onset of intra-cerebral hemorrhage, determining the region of interest which corresponds to a contour of brain based on the higher scale level image, performing an unsupervised classification on the image in the region of interest of the X-ray CT image of the head, and recognizing the intra-cerebral hemorrhage lesion by means of an expert system from the result of the unsupervised classification.
US07792338B2

A method and apparatus for creating a magnified composite image of a microscope specimen comprises making error corrections for imprecise movements of the specimen relative to an objective lens when capturing data for first and second images. A correction offset is computed based on a comparison of data for overlapped portions of the first and second images and then the specimen is moved through a distance modified by the correction offset for capture of a subsequent tiled image. Image center portions are retained as the data structure tile. The area about the center portion is used to align images and to compensate for stage inaccuracies and to provide a feedback signal for a drive system. Differences in X, Y coordinates for macro and micro view images may be used as navigation offsets to view a selected point for the micro image marked on the macro image.
US07792337B2

The imaging apparatus for authenticating a user can quickly perform matching step of the inputted biometric data. This apparatus for authenticating the user includes an imaging unit for imaging a guided finger and a guided palm, a matching data storing unit for storing the determined finger image and the determined palm image, and a matching unit for matching the imaged finger image and the imaged palm image with the stored finger image and the stored palm image. The matching unit selects the finger image having the similar feature amount based on the imaged finger image and authenticates a user based on the result of matching of the palm image corresponding to the selected finger image with the imaged palm image.
US07792334B2

Several systems and methods for locating blood vessels are described in the present disclosure. One of the implementations of a blood vessel locating system comprises an image capture device and processing circuitry. The image capture device is configured to capture a first image of a region of the skin of a subject when the region is illuminated by a first light and to capture a second image of the region of the skin when the region is illuminated by a second light. The processing circuitry is configured to calculate the difference between the first image and the second image to obtain a differential image. The processing circuitry is further configured to enhance the differential image to obtain an enhanced image of blood vessels located under the surface of the skin of the subject.
US07792328B2

A computer-implemented method, system, and program product includes a behavior processing system for capturing a three-dimensional movement of an operator of a vehicle, wherein the three-dimensional movement is determined by using at least one image capture device aimed at the operator, and identifying at least one behavior of the operator from the captured three-dimensional movement. An operator monitoring system for a vehicle determines whether the predicted behavior and the current operational state of the vehicle indicate unsafe operation of the vehicle and the operator monitoring system notifies the operator when unsafe operator of the vehicle is indicated by the operator's behavior for the current operational state of the vehicle.
US07792327B2

A roadway boundary detecting apparatus has an imaging device for taking picture images ahead of a vehicle, a picture image memory connected to the imaging device for storing the picture images, and a control unit connected to the picture image memory. The roadway boundary detecting apparatus further has a program executable on the control unit for calculating speed information for pixels of consecutive picture images taken by the imaging device, detecting lowest point positions in regions in which pixels having speed components continuously exist along a vertical direction, based on the speed information for the pixels, and determining whether a straight line that connects the lowest point positions is a roadway boundary.
US07792305B2

A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio.
US07792302B2

Disclosed is a mechanism for securely coupling a security IC and an FPGA. This mechanism creates a shared secret key; creates a password key; generates an encrypted shared secret key by encrypting the “shared secret key” with the password key; incorporates the “encrypted shared secret key” into an FPGA net list; programs the FPGA using the “FPGA net list”; transmits the “password key” from the security IC to the FPGA; allowing the FPGA to: obtain the “shared secret key” by decrypting the “encrypted shared secret key”; and store the “shared secret key” in at least one volatile memory location.
US07792299B2

Disclosed a digital-broadcasting receiving apparatus including: a scramble judgment member, a decode judgment member, a first registration member to register the sub-channel as a viewable channel when the decode judgment member judges that the broadcast data can be decoded, a second registration member to register the sub-channel as a viewable channel when the scramble judgment member judges that the broadcast data is not scrambled, a judgment member, a channel registration control member to register the sub-channel by the first registration member when the judgment member judges that the scramble judgment does not accord with the decode judgment in all kinds of the scramble judgment data, and refers to one of a plural kinds of scramble judgment data and registers the sub-channel by the second registration member when it judged that the scramble judgment obtained by referring to the one scramble judgment data accords with the decode judgment.
US07792290B2

A device coupled to a smart card reader may request random data from a smart card inserted into the smart card reader, and the smart card reader may incorporate the random data into its randomness pool. A device having a source of random data may have a driver installed thereon for the smart card reader. The device may generate a random session key to encrypt traffic between the device and the smart card reader. The device may send an encrypted version of the random session key to the smart card reader. The smart card reader may decrypt the encrypted version and incorporate the random session key into its randomness pool. A smart card reader may incorporate random data received from a smart card inserted therein into its randomness pool.
US07792283B2

According to one embodiment, a panel attachment assembly comprises a housing including a first wall with an opening, a cover panel fitted in the opening, and a built-in component fixed in the housing. The housing includes a first end edge defined by the first and second walls, and a second end edge defined by the first and third walls. The cover panel includes a first end face aligned with the first end edge and seen from the outside, a second end face aligned with the second end edge and seen from the outside, and flanges projecting from side edges. The built-in component has engagement sections at positions corresponding to ends of the flanges. These ends of the flanges contact the engagement sections, and the other ends contact the housing between the first wall and built-in component.
US07792271B2

A method and system for optimizing a configuration of mediation devices in a telecommunications central office. Specifications associated with mediation devices are provided. A configuration of mediation devices and legacy devices in a central office is generated. A specification is compared to an attribute of a mediation device in the configuration. The attribute is one of: (1) a distance between the mediation device and a legacy device to be connected to the mediation device, (2) an amount of data to be received by the mediation device from one or more legacy devices to be connected to the mediation device, and (3) a count of one or more legacy devices to be connected to the mediation device. The configuration is updated in response to the comparing of the specification to the attribute. The updating of the configuration provides an optimized number of mediation devices.
US07792265B2

If an attempt by a first user to contact another party fails, a callback server sets a flag. The callback server monitors terminals that have such flags set and is arranged to transmit an alert to the calling party when the called party next becomes available. However, if at the time when the called party becomes available, the calling party is himself no longer available, being now switched off or busy, an additional flag in the store, indicative of activity by the calling party, prevents a callback alert from being generated until the monitoring process can obtain availability indications in respect of both parties simultaneously. Availability may be determined by factors such as available bandwidth or terminal capabilities. A callback may be initiated when a predetermined number of called parties become available to participate in a conference call.
US07792263B2

The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for displaying images of conference call participants. A method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes receiving a call from a user to join a conference call, obtaining a phone number of the user, matching the phone number to a stored graphical representation, and distributing and displaying the matching graphical representation to a predetermined set of users. A voice identification/recognition process can also be used to match the user to a stored graphical representation.
US07792242B2

There are provided an X-ray CT system and an X-ray CT method in which a subject can be brought as close as possible to an X-ray source at all times while preventing interference of the subject with the X-ray source at the time of rotation, without confirmation by an operator by rotating a rotary stage before CT projection.A subject W placed on a rotary stage 3 is captured by an optical camera 6, and information about a shape, a size and a position relative to a rotational axis R, of the subject W, are acquired by image processing using captured data. Then, interference between the subject W and an X-ray source 1 is monitored on the basis of the information, or the rotary stage 3 is automatically positioned at a location where the subject approaches most closely to the X-ray source 1 without interference.
US07792238B2

A method for generating an image of an object is provided. The method comprises acquiring projection data at one or more projection views along a circular scan trajectory and generating a corrected projection dataset based upon a weighted derivative applied to a subset of the projection data. The method further comprises backprojecting the corrected projection dataset along one or more projection rays associated with one or more of the projection views, to generate a reconstructed image of the object.
US07792234B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for improving the performance of second order CDR systems. The integral state of the CDR system is initialized to a value that is based on an expected frequency profile that may be known a priori for certain applications. One or more quality of lock (QOL) metrics are also monitored that are derived from the integral register state value. A quality of a locking between a received signal and a local clock generated by a Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) system is evaluated by monitoring a state value of an integral register in a digital loop filter of the CDR system; evaluating one or more predefined criteria based on the integral register state value; and identifying a poor lock condition if the one or more predefined criteria are not satisfied.
US07792229B2

A communication system for pulse based communication using a sequence acquisition system using the correlation method in UWB communications which generates a pulse detection signal differing in phase by exactly a predetermined period (τ) from the transmission information of a pulse signal of a predetermined period at the transmission side and reception side, uses the pulse detection signal to establish synchronization at the reception side, then generates transmission information at the reception side by making its phase different by exactly a predetermined time from the synchronized pulse detection signal so as to establish synchronization between the reception signal and the transmission information, whereby it is possible to enable synchronization acquisition and shorten the synchronization acquisition time without complicating the hardware and even without the presence of information in the transmission signal.
US07792214B2

Provided is a transmitter circuit capable of operating with low distortion and high efficiency even in a modulation method using wide modulation bandwidth. In the transmitter circuit, a signal generation section (11) generates an amplitude signal and an angle-modulated signal. Based on a predetermined characteristic, a compensating filter (12) wave-shaping-processes the amplitude signal. A regulator (14) outputs a signal in accordance with a magnitude of the signal which has been wave-shaping-processed by the compensating filter (12). An amplitude modulator section (15) amplitude-modulates the angle-modulated signal by using the signal outputted from the regulator (14). A characteristic of the compensating filter (12) is an inverse of a transfer characteristic between an input at the regulator (14) and an output at the amplitude modulator section (15).
US07792212B2

A method for establishing a cyclic shift sequence to provide against the frequency offset is disclosed. The method calculates a distance between a channel response position of the sequence and an alias channel response position caused by a frequency offset, calculates the number of cyclic shifts per group according to the calculated distance, and establishes the cyclic shift (CS)-applying interval. This method easily establishes a cyclic shift (CS) interval at a specific location having no overlapping by considering a channel response of a reception (Rx) sequence and an alias location of this reception (Rx) sequence, although a reception (Rx) signal is shifted by a channel delay spreading or a propagation delay irrespective of categories of a domain generating a sequence, so that it can greatly reduce the number of the detection errors and the false alarm rate. And, if a sequence of the cyclic shift (CS) is allocated to a cell having a frequency offset of more than a predetermined level, the present invention can minimize the influence of a frequency offset on a high-mobility cell.
US07792206B2

A method includes receiving a reference signal and at least one delayed space-time encoded signal via at least two beams in which a time delay is associated with at least one of the at least two beams; determining channel state information based on the received reference signal and the received at least one delayed space-time encoded signal; and segmenting the channel state information into a plurality of channel state information segments.
US07792203B2

An equalization method and apparatus for a Time domain synchronous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TDS-OFDM) receiver. The equalization method includes estimating a channel impulse response (CIR) based on a baseband sampled complex signal and locally stored pseudo-noise; eliminating the pseudo-noise from the baseband sampled complex signal based on the CIR; computing channel information including first channel information and second channel information from the CIR; performing pre-fast Fourier transform (FFT) compensation of a pseudo-noise eliminated signal based on the first channel information; performing FFT of a pre-FFT compensated signal; and equalizing a fast Fourier transformed signal based on the second channel information.
US07792201B2

An apparatus and method for determining a pilot pattern in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system are provided. In the pilot pattern determining method, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) demodulator generates frequency-domain data by fast-Fourier-transform (FFT)-processing a received signal. A pilot pattern decider calculates a coherence bandwidth and a coherence time using subcarrier values received from the OFDM demodulator, and selects one of a plurality of pilot patterns according to the ratio of the coherence bandwidth to the coherence time.
US07792196B2

A driver is coupled to a single conductor wire that may be electromagnetically shielded to drive serial signals on the wire, and a receiver is coupled to the wire and to the driver to receive serial signals from the wire at the same time.
US07792194B2

A more efficient and less memory-access intensive post-processing architecture to substantially reduce blocking and ringing artifacts from decompressed video image data is provided. The post-processing architecture in accordance with the present invention implements a “pipelined” filtering process wherein a filter buffer, a blocking filter, and a ringing filter are serially connected to each other. The serial connection allows decompressed video image data to be first provided to a blocking filter for substantially reducing blocking artifacts and then the de-blocked video image data can be provided directly to a ringing filter for de-ringing without the need of an extra memory access.
US07792190B2

A high resolution still image is inserted into a stream of lower resolution video. The lower resolution video stream is a compressed video stream having I-frames. One of the I-frames is a lower resolution version of which a higher resolution image is desired. The I-frame is decoded and decompressed and zoomed up in size to the high resolution size. The zoomed up I-frame is subtracted from the original high resolution still image to generate a difference frame called an X-frame. The X-frame is compressed and inserted into the video stream. The high resolution image can be recovered by extracting the X-frame from the hybrid video stream, and reversing the process used to generate the X-frame. The functionality for regenerating the high resolution image can be realized in software as part of a viewer program, or can be realized as part of a camera, television, or other video display device.
US07792181B2

An evaluation method for linearity evaluations neither performing calculations of error vectors at multiple sampling points nor using a demodulator corresponding to a desired modulation scheme. Measuring devices (164 and 165) measure the input signal and the output signal of an evaluation object (1), to which a predetermined evaluation signal has been inputted. An evaluation unit (166) uses the input signal and the output signal of the evaluation object (1), to determine at least one of an amplitude distortion or a phase distortion of the output signal. An integration unit (169) uses the distortions to perform the integrations weighted by the probability density function of the power-to-average ratio of a predetermined modulated signal. A linearity index calculation unit (170) calculates a linearity index from the results of processing by the integration unit (169).
US07792180B2

A data transceiver that determines according to signal strength of a received radio wave whether a receiving operation should be continued. A measurement unit counts demodulation clocks of a demodulator and supplies a measurement result indicating instability of reception data until the count reaches a predetermined target count value, and supplies a measurement result indicating stability of the reception data after the count value is reached. A determinator receives the result of measurement indicative of instability, and outputs a determination result indicative of stopping a receiving operation regardless of signal strength. When the determinator receives the result of measurement indicative of stability, the determinator outputs a determination result corresponding to the signal strength of the reception data. Thus, receiving operation is advanced after reception data is sufficiently stable.
US07792174B2

A surface-emitting semiconductor laser component is disclosed, having a resonator (3, 9), a semiconductor body (5) which comprises a layer sequence (4) which is intended for radiation production, a transparent, frequency-selective thermally conductive element (6) which makes thermal contact with a surface (5a) of the semiconductor body (5) through which radiation passes, and an optical bandpass filter (8) which is suitable for suppression of predeterminable resonator modes.
US07792171B2

A nitride semiconductor laser device has a group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure. The group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure includes an n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer and a light emitting layer held between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer, and the p-type semiconductor layer is formed by successively stacking a p-side guide layer, a p-type electron blocking layer in contact with the p-side guide layer and a p-type cladding layer in contact with the p-type electron blocking layer from the side closer to the light emitting layer. The p-side guide layer is formed by stacking a layer made of a group III nitride semiconductor containing Al and a layer made of a group III nitride semiconductor containing no Al. The p-type cladding layer is made of a group III nitride semiconductor containing Al, and the p-type electron blocking layer is made of a group III nitride semiconductor having a larger Al composition than the p-type cladding layer.
US07792169B2

A nitride semiconductor light emitting device includes a first coat film of aluminum nitride or aluminum oxynitride formed at a light emitting portion and a second coat film of aluminum oxide formed on the first coat film. The thickness of the second coat film is at least 80 nm and at most 1000 nm. Here, the thickness of the first coat film is preferably at least 6 nm and at most 200 nm.
US07792153B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to multi-source messaging and provide a method, system and computer program product for sequencing multi-source messages for delivery to multiple destinations. In one embodiment, a multi-source message synchronization data processing system can be provided. The system can include a common clock and a message server configured for communicative coupling to a multiple message sources, each message source including a corresponding clock synchronized with the common clock. Multi-source message sequencing logic can be coupled to the message server and can include program code enabled to concatenate different message sequences produced by different ones of the message sources into a unified message sequence based upon timestamps applied by the message sources to messages in respective ones of the message sequences.
US07792150B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing transcoder-free operation in a media gateway are disclosed. In one method, first and second lists of media encoding rates and corresponding indices used by first and second media endpoints of a media stream connection are received. It is determined whether transcoder-free operation is possible for the media stream connection based on the first and second lists. In response to determining that transcoder-free operation is possible for the media stream connection, a transcoder-free connection is established in the media gateway between the first and second endpoints using a single digital signal processor to monitor and map between indices and encoding rates used by the first and second endpoints during the media stream connection.
US07792148B2

A system for using a virtual switch in a network. In response to a switch connecting to a network, network configuration data is read to determine whether the switch is part of a virtual switch. In response to determining that the switch is part of the virtual switch, a priority number for the switch is sent to other switches connected to the network. Priority numbers are received from the other switches. It is determined whether the switch has a highest priority number. In response to determining that the switch does have the highest priority number, the switch is selected to be a master switch for the virtual switch. Then, domain identification data for the virtual switch is sent to the other switches. Afterward, the switch and the other switches respond to requests over the network as one domain identified by the domain identification data.
US07792140B2

A method for indicating bandwidth for a virtual network interface card (NIC) includes receiving a bandwidth trigger for a bandwidth of a first virtual NIC operatively connected to a NIC, wherein the NIC is associated with a network bandwidth, obtaining a bandwidth allocation stored in the first virtual NIC in response to the bandwidth trigger, wherein the bandwidth allocation corresponds to the bandwidth of the first virtual NIC, and wherein the bandwidth allocation corresponds to a portion of the network bandwidth, and returning the bandwidth allocation to a component associated with the virtual NIC.
US07792130B2

The method provides buffer status reporting for the transmission of uplink data from a wireless device to a base station. Uncompressed data is stored in a first buffer of the wireless device. A buffer status report is transmitted from the wireless device to the base station, where the buffer status report contains information indicating an amount of the uncompressed data to be transmitted from the wireless device. The information is dependent on the amount of the uncompressed data stored in the first buffer.
US07792128B2

Maintaining a content category cache includes storing the content category cache at a gateway. The content category cache includes content category mappings, where a content category mapping associates content with one or more categories describing the content. A request requesting content for a user is received. One or more categories associated with the requested content are determined from a content category mapping of the content category cache. The requested content is filtered in accordance with the categories.
US07792126B1

A distributed monitoring and control system includes a plurality of nodes forming a redundant communication network. Each of the nodes includes a processor, a memory and a transceiver. At least one of the nodes includes a sensor for acquiring information. At least one of the nodes includes an actuator. At least one of the processors is programmed with a control algorithm to receive information acquired from the sensors, calculate a control command and communicate the control command to the actuators for execution.
US07792125B2

A system and method for provisioning a virtual network is provided. Virtual networks can be automatically formed including switches in networks, such as local and private networks. Once the virtual networks are formed, virtual computing devices can be provisioned in place of physical computing devices that are connected to the switches. A system for provisioning a virtual network including a first virtual subnet and a second virtual subnet is provided. The system includes a first switch; a second switch; a first software process associated with first switch for provisioning the first virtual subnet; a second software process associated with the second switch for provisioning the second virtual subnet; and a communication link connecting the first switch and the second switch.
US07792116B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and device for interworking between Internet Protocol (IP) networks of. The method includes: judging whether the home network of a called UE supports the IP version of a calling UE, and forwarding a message sent from the calling UE to a home calling state control device of the called UE if yes, otherwise, performing an IP version transformation of the message and sending the message to the home calling state control device of the called UE; judging whether the called UE supports the IP version of the message, forwarding the message to the called UE if yes, otherwise, performing an IP version transformation of the message and sending the message to the called UE. The method and device can reduce unnecessary transformation between different IP versions and improve the interworking between IP networks when the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is employed.
US07792115B2

A fiber channel switch element with an alias cache is provided for routing and filtering frames. The alias cache includes plural entries including a control word having plural fields including an action code for routing frames; an alias word that is compared to incoming frame data using a frame byte compare block; and a bit mask generator for filtering bit combinations from the frame byte compare block; and a depth match block for determining equality between a control word depth field and incoming frame depth field. Frame data comparison is performed on a bit by bit or byte-by-byte basis. An alias cache entry also includes prerequisite data to determine if results of a different entry are to be used to determine an entry match. The action code routes a frame to a processor, discards a frame, sets a status for inspecting a frame or routes a frame based on a standard Fiber Channel addressing scheme.
US07792112B2

The present invention discloses a method for controlling multicast flow in passive optical network includes: receiving multicast data from the optical line terminal, determining whether the received multicast data satisfies a multicast right control condition, transmitting the multicast data to the user side if the received multicast data satisfies the multicast right control condition, or discarding the multicast data if the received multicast data does not satisfy the multicast right control condition. The present invention also discloses an optical network terminal, an optical line terminal, and a system consisting of an optical network terminal and an optical line terminal and an optical distribute network, which implement the above mentioned method. The present invention could prevent the optical network terminal from receiving illegal multicast data and enhance the multicast security of the whole passive optical network system.
US07792102B2

In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method of this embodiment provides generating one or more packets of data, the one or more packets of data being associated with a connection; and associating the one or more packets with one of a plurality of transmit queues based, at least in part, on the connection associated with the one or more packets.
US07792101B1

A rapid method and apparatus for remapping the type of service (TOS) and source address information from an incoming communications packet according to the desired Quality of Service (QoS) required for the communications flow into a switch or router are described. The input source address field of the packet header is used to access a lookup table of corresponding source autonomous system (AS) labels. The appropriate AS label is combined with the input TOS yielding an intra-switch TOS optimized for the QoS appropriate to the received flow. Alternatively, the netID, a subset of the source address, may be used directly without resort to a lookup table. As a further alternative, the destination address may be used in conjunction with the above. The resulting intra-switch TOS expedites packet management and throughput in the switch/router, facilitating the efficient delivery of the required Quality of Service for that flow.
US07792100B2

An edge Bridge (2A) executes Ethernet encapsulation. Even when redundant MAC addresses are used in the network of a customer, the MAC address of the customer is not referred to in a backbone network (1). Since forwarding is done on the basis of a MAC address added by the edge Bridge (2A), correct forwarding is possible. Additionally, in the edge Bridge (2A), a Service VLAN ID based on the customer-facing port which has received a customer MAC frame and the VLAN ID in the customer MAC frame is added to the customer MAC frame, thereby building a completely closed network for each customer. The customer can belong to a plurality of Service VLANs through a single customer-facing port and select, by a VLAN ID, a Service VLAN to which he/she should belong.
US07792099B2

A method of establishing a multicast transfer route is disclosed that can reduce the cost of entire route under a constraint on delay incurred between starting point and ending points. The method includes the steps of: computing the shortest route with respect to delay connecting the starting point and the plural ending points based on measurement result; computing delay from a node on the shortest route to each ending point and the greatest delay; removing, if the greatest delay satisfies a delay condition, the greatest-cost route from the shortest route in accordance with selection criteria effective for cost reduction; dividing the multicast transfer route into two route trees; and establishing separately computed route as a complementary route that complement the removed route for connecting the two route trees. A method of multicast label switching for realizing the above method is also disclosed. A multicast label switching route is established using hierarchical labels by establishing a common multicast label switching route using a first layer label and establishing plural partial multicast label switching routes for subgroup destinations using lower layer labels. A relay node recognizes the hierarchical labels thereby to label-switch using all hierarchical labels.
US07792090B2

Methods for determining an inter-slot power level are disclosed. In one example embodiment, the inter-slot is positioned between first and second timeslots capable of transmitting modulated signals. A first timeslot power level and a second timeslot power level are first acquired. A power level of the inter-slot is then determined using the first and second timeslot power-levels. In this example embodiment, the inter-slot power level is maintained within a predetermined deviation from a specific range. The specific range is defined by the first and second timeslot power-levels.
US07792088B2

Disclosed is a method for partitioning resource spaces, and allocating physical channels and power in an OFDMA-based cellular system. A resource within a slot is partitioned into resource spaces in common in a plurality of adjacent cells, and the partitioned resource spaces are partitioned into resource sets according to sizes of physical channels in the adjacent cells. The physical channels classified by predetermined characteristics are respectively assigned to the partitioned resource sets within the resource space. Further, the resource space for transmitting traffic channels between two different cells is partitioned into resource spaces so that the traffic channels in the same subspace may be collided with each other, and a power control is applied between the collided channels to control the interference from the adjacent cells.
US07792085B2

A method for mapping first coded TFCI symbols and second coded TFCI symbols to a radio frame in a transmission apparatus of a mobile communication system for encoding k first TFCI bits and (10−k) second TFCI bits, a sum of the first coded TFCI symbols and the second coded TFCI symbols being 32. The method comprises multiplexing the coded symbols such that the first coded TFCI symbols and the second coded TFCI symbols are uniformly distributed according to a transmission mode and a data rate of the radio frame, and outputting 32 coded symbols; and mapping the 32 multiplexed coded symbols to the radio frame to satisfy the number of the coded symbols that can be mapped to one radio frame, determined according to the transmission mode and the data rate of the radio frame.
US07792084B2

A MIMO antenna apparatus receives a plurality of radio signals modulated and transmitted by a sender-side radio station apparatus using a MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) communication method with a number of data streams and a modulation and demodulation method. The MIMO antenna apparatus includes a plurality of antenna elements, detection means, MIMO demodulation means, radio transmission means, and control means. The control means controls the sender-side radio station apparatus by making the radio transmission means transmit the control signal, and controlling the MIMO demodulation means, so as to change, based on the received signal levels and the signal quality, at least one of the number of data streams and the modulation and demodulation method for the MIMO communication method used by the sender-side radio station apparatus and the MIMO demodulation means.
US07792075B2

A method and apparatus to perform persistence tests for a mobile station in a network are described. The apparatus includes a random number generator, a timer module, and a processor coupled to the random number generator and the timer module. A counter for the random number generator configured to count access slots is initialized. One or more random numbers are successively generated, until a value of a generated random number is lower than a first predetermined value. At the same time, the counter is successively incremented based on the number of generated random numbers. When the counter value is higher than or equal to a second predetermined value of successive iterations, or, in the alternative, when the value of the generated random number is lower than the first predetermined value, the mobile station is deactivated for a predetermined number of access slots equal to the counter value. A timer interrupt further runs subsequent to the expiration of the predetermined number of access slots. Finally, if an access probe needs to be transmitted to the network, the timer interrupt is disabled and a random access number is generated in preparation for transmission of the access probe to enable access to the network.
US07792072B2

When mobile node is connected to an access point outside the private network, a tunnel is formed between the mobile node and a home agent on the private network for the transfer of packets. When, the mobile node roams into a region accessible to the private network, the mobile node is connected to the private network using a private network access point while maintaining the tunnel between the mobile node and the home agent.
US07792068B2

This specification discloses a satellite transmission system for transmission of TCP/IP compatible packets from a head end computer through a satellite uplink, an extraterrestrial satellite, a satellite downlink, and an integrated satellite receiver/router for outputting of the TCP/IP compatible packets through a port on the receiver/router onto a computer LAN or WAN. The system may include an Internet or telecommunications backchannel. The receiver becomes router enabled by means of a removable insertion Ethernet/Router insertion card inserted into a slot in the receiver, although the transmission system may be used to simultaneously transmit a variety of other services through the receiver by use of other service slots in the receiver. The Ethernet/Receiver supports the IGMPv2 Multicasting (querier and non querier modes), standard TCP/IP (including UDP and Telnet), and SNMP protocols.
US07792065B2

Embodiments include a method directed to a first proxy detecting that a secure data connection between a first and second client should be created on a secure data connection setup path. A first secure connection can be established with the first client. If a second proxy can reach the second client and the second proxy supports secure data connection setup paths, a second secure connection can be established with the second proxy causing the second proxy to establish a third secure connection with the second client. A session key indicating the secure data connection setup path can be received from the second client via the second proxy and forwarded to the first client. A request and session key can be received from the first client to initiate the secure data connection. The request is forwarded to the second client via the first and second proxies based on the session key.
US07792063B2

A conferencing Gatekeeper configured to be adjusted so as to forward a conferencing media stream to be recorded to an appropriate streaming/archiving server, or alternatively to have streaming and archiving modules incorporated. Further, a method and computer program product for archiving or streaming media data between a plurality of endpoints through said gatekeeper.
US07792044B2

An optical network and method for managing a service across an optical network over a dedicated circuit between first and second service termination points include generating a service performance report message (PRM) at each service termination point. Each service PRM has service-specific information related to a performance of the service as determined by the service termination point generating that service PRM. Each service PRM identifies the service to which the service-specific information in that service PRM pertains. Each service termination point transmits the service PRM generated by that service termination point across the optical network over the dedicated circuit to the other service termination point through a service management channel of an optical transport facility. Either of the first and second service termination points is accessed to evaluate an end-to-end performance of the service based on a comparison of the service PRM generated by the first service termination point with the service PRM generated by the second service termination point.
US07792042B2

In an embodiment, a system and method which monitors a signaling plane for error events among one or more network nodes in a converged network. The system and method classifies and calculates, based on user defined parameters, a threshold value or percentage of error events which occur within a desired amount of time and automatically triggers an alert in the network that a potential network connectivity problem exists in the transport plane. In an embodiment, the trigger automatically initiates troubleshooting procedures to solve the network connectivity problem.
US07792039B2

A system and method for establishing a plurality of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections between a transmitting host and a receiving host and for sending data from the transmitting host to the receiving host. Congestion control is performed for the plurality of TCP connections using one congestion window on the transmitting host, wherein the congestion control for the plurality of TCP connections is performed by transmitting a selected number of TCP segments at a transmit time.
US07792028B2

The present invention discloses a two-tier call admission control algorithm in IEEE 802.11 WLAN. The two-tier call admission control algorithm is given to improve the overall system throughput and guarantee the quality of service of every single user in the WLAN.
US07792024B1

An application and audio driver communicate audio data via a ring buffer using a system interface. An application reads or writes data from the buffer in a unit of data. Positions within the buffer correspond to a particular time. To write data to the buffer at a particular position in the buffer that corresponds to a particular time, an application is awaken a period of time (“client-side offset”) before the driver reaches the position. The period of time is computed based on a variety factors. One factor is the amount of time the system interface assumes an application uses to write the unit of data to the buffer. For operations that entail the application inserting data into the buffer, the application may specify a weight value to apply to the factor to reduce it and the latency period.
US07792022B2

A de-rate matching device in a communication system divides received data into a plurality of blocks, and simultaneously de-rate-matches data in the respective blocks.
US07792019B1

A system may include a destination device that receives information about a caller via a first outgoing leg and exchanges content with the caller via the first outgoing leg. The system may further include a network device that receives an incoming call from the caller, establishes the first outgoing leg, connects the incoming call to the first outgoing leg so the content can be exchanged, monitors the first outgoing leg, selectively establishes a second outgoing leg in response to the monitoring, and connects the incoming call to the second outgoing leg.
US07792016B2

In the case of detection of failure on a direct link interconnecting Master and Backup upstream switches, a control module of the Master upstream switch sends a partial failure message representing the occurrence of partial failure in the Master upstream switch via any of multiple lines connected to multiple ports of the Master upstream switch to the Backup upstream switch. Upon reception of the partial failure message from the Master upstream switch, a control module of the Backup upstream switch identifies partial failure occurring in the Master upstream switch and keeps the Backup operating status of the Backup upstream switch. Upon no reception of the partial failure message from the Master upstream switch, on the other hand, the control module of the Backup upstream switch identifies total failure occurring in the Master upstream switch and switches over the operating status of the Backup upstream switch from Backup to Master. In the event of failure occurring in the Master upstream switch, this arrangement effectively prevents unintentional interruption of data communication but ensures normal data communication in a network without causing the double-master state and the control loop in the network.
US07792009B2

A ferroelectric polarization pattern with differing feedback signals. An apparatus including a ferroelectric layer and a polarization pattern configured in the ferroelectric layer to represent position data. The polarization pattern has a first switchable polarization state domain and a second switchable polarization state domain that are both switchable by an applied signal. The first switchable polarization state domain has a first feedback signal in response to the applied signal that is different than a second feedback signal of the second switchable polarization state domain at the applied signal.
US07792001B2

User information is encoded on a record carrier in accordance with a first record carrier standard, the encoding of the user information also being in accordance with a second record carrier standard. Also, format information is provided on the record carrier for presenting the user information in a predetermined manner, at least a portion of the format information being according to the second standard and not in accordance with the first standard so that a player in accordance with the first standard and not in accordance with the second standard can not play the user information in the predefined manner.
US07791996B2

A PLL circuit includes a wobbling detector for detecting a wobbling signal based on reflection light of an optical disk having a wobbled track, and a VCO that an oscillation frequency of its output varies according to its input. The PLL circuit controls the VCO based on a phase error between the output of the wobbling signal and the output of the VCO. In the PLL circuit, the phase error is detected by executing an arithmetic operation to the delta-sigma modulated wobbling signal at a predetermined clock and the output of the VCO.
US07791994B2

An apparatus and method for demodulating an input signal modulated from a reference signal and a data signal are disclosed. The apparatus includes a determining unit, a first calculating unit, and a comparing unit. The determining unit is utilized for determining a plurality of first calculating timings of changing different calculating modes according to the input signal. The first calculating unit is coupled to the determining unit and utilized for generating a first calculating result of the input signal according to the first calculating timings and the calculating modes thereof. The comparing unit is coupled to the first calculating unit and utilized for generating a comparing result according to the first calculating result of the input signal and a threshold setting, and for outputting a demodulated data of the input signal according to the comparing result.
US07791987B2

An optical disc medium (10) is provided with a data recording area (12) having the spiral recording track (11) and a lead-in area (13) composed of an embossed pit. In the lead-in area (13), information indicating a characteristic range of a signal detected by an optical head from a groove track is previously recorded. In accordance with a kind of the optical disc medium (10), even when the characteristic range of the signal detected by the optical head from the groove track is different, since the information indicating the characteristic range is previously recorded on the optical recording medium (10), tracking operation of the recording track can be performed under conditions within the characteristic range. Therefore, the tracking operation of the recording track (11) can be accurately performed to any kind of optical disc medium (10).
US07791983B2

The invention concerns a timepiece movement of the type including a fixed support (23), fitted with a display module (24) including a central bridge (26) secured to said support (22) and an annular display member (28) with an axis AA, mounted to rotate freely substantially around the bridge (26), abutting on the support (22). The display member (28) includes a contact surface (37) and the bridge (26) includes at least one positioning surface (40) cooperating with the contact surface (37) so as to position the display member (28) axially on the support (22).
US07791980B2

A method includes: interpolating a set of crossline seismic data from a set of acquired multicomponent seismic data; predicting a multiple in the interpolated and acquired seismic data from the combined interpolated and acquired multicomponent seismic data; and suppressing the predicted multiple. Other aspects include a program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing device, perform such a method and a computing apparatus programmed to perform such a method.
US07791967B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a semiconductor memory, an auto-operation control circuit which outputs a clock signal, a sync read control circuit which outputs a sync read address in sync with the clock signal, a read control circuit which selects a read address of the semiconductor memory in accordance with an address of the sync read address, a read sense amplifier circuit which outputs a data read signal that is produced by sensing data that is read out of the semiconductor memory in accordance with the read address, and a determination circuit which compares the data read signal with an expectation value.
US07791966B2

An apparatus includes a memory device. The memory device includes a first memory cell column which includes a plurality of first memory cells, a second memory cell column including a plurality of second memory cells, a detector which detects a delay of a memory cell signal outputted from at least one of the first memory cells, and a selector which selects the second memory cell column instead of the first memory cell column when the delay exceeds a predetermined criteria.
US07791965B2

A ringing masking device includes a data strobe buffer unit buffering a data strobe signal and outputting a rising pulse and a falling pulse synchronized with a buffer signal. A buffer control unit latches a burst end signal to generate a buffer control signal and outputs the buffer control signal according to a control of a pulse signal generated in synchronization with the buffer signal.
US07791963B2

Semiconductor memory device and operation method thereof includes an output enable signal generator configured to synchronize a read command to a data clock signal to generate an output enable signal according to a CAS latency, a sampling control signal generator configured to generate a sampling control signal that is activated during a period corresponding to an activation timing of the output enable signal and an end timing of data output, a read clock signal generator configured to sample the data clock signal in response to the sampling control signal to generate a read clock signal and a data output circuit configured to output data according to the read clock signal.
US07791959B2

A memory integrated circuit device may include a first temperature sensing unit, a first voltage adjusting unit, and a MOS back bias voltage outputting unit. The first voltage adjusting unit may be configured to output a voltage based on an output signal of the temperature sensing unit such that the voltage output changes based on changes in a sensed temperature. The MOS back bias voltage outputting unit may be configured to receive the voltage output by the voltage adjusting unit and configured to output the MOS back bias voltage based on the voltage output by the first voltage adjusting unit.
US07791958B2

An output buffer includes first and second input transistors, first and second output loads and a current source. The first and second input transistors have first current electrodes that are commonly coupled to each other and control electrodes that are respectively coupled to a first differential input signal and a second differential input signal. The first and second output loads are coupled between a first power supply voltage and the first and second input transistors, respectively, wherein an output terminal is coupled to a node where the first output load is coupled to the first input transistor. The current source is coupled between the first current electrodes of the first and second input transistors and a second power supply voltage, wherein the second output load has an impedance value substantially one half of an impedance value of the first output load. Therefore, a differential output signal may be outputted through a single output terminal.
US07791954B2

Flash memory systems and methodologies are provided herein for facilitating a single logical cell erasure and dynamic erase state. The single logical cell erasure can be accomplished on a basis of a single program and erase entity which is a combination of neighboring drain/source regions of two adjacent physical memory cells. The dynamic erase state can involve an indicator bit that indicates an erase direction of a low voltage state or a high voltage state. The single logical cell erasure can be performed by changing a voltage state of a single program and erase entity according to the indicated erase direction. By employing the indicator bit with the single program and erase entity decoding scheme, the methods and systems can reduce erase time and/or a number of cycles, thereby increasing system reliability, efficiency, and/or durability.
US07791950B2

NVM arrays include rows and columns of NVM cells comprising a floating gate and a four transistor storage element. Supply voltage for selected storage elements is turned off during a programming and an erase mode. Isolation transistors for each NVM cell or for each row of NVM cells may be used to control the supply voltage.
US07791949B2

A refresh method for a non-volatile memory for preventing disturb phenomenon includes reading data of a memory unit of the non-volatile memory at a first time point within a predefined period and storing the data in a buffer, determining whether data of the memory unit and data of the buffer are identical at a second time point within the predefined period, so as to generate a determination result, and refreshing the memory unit according to the determination result.
US07791947B2

The present disclosure adjusts the voltage threshold values of select gates of NAND strings. The select gates of the NAND string can be read, erased, and programmed.
US07791931B2

A method and system for providing and using a magnetic memory is described. The method and system include providing a plurality of magnetic storage cells. Each magnetic storage cell includes a magnetic element and a selection device coupled with the magnetic element. The magnetic element is programmed by write currents driven through the magnetic element in a first or second direction. In one aspect, the method and system include providing a voltage supply and a voltage pump coupled with the magnetic storage cells and the voltage supply. The voltage supply provides a supply voltage. The voltage pump provides to the selection device a bias voltage having a magnitude greater than the supply voltage. Another aspect includes providing a silicon on oxide transistor as the selection device. Another aspect includes providing to the body of the transistor a body bias voltage that is a first voltage when the transistor is off and a second voltage when the transistor is on.
US07791927B1

A memory circuit includes a latch having a first node and a second node, a MIS transistor having a gate node, a first source/drain node coupled to the first node of the latch, and a second source/drain node, and a control circuit configured to control the gate node and second source/drain node to make a lingering change in a threshold voltage of the MIS transistor in a first operation and to cause the latch in a second operation to store data responsive to whether a lingering change in the threshold voltage is present, wherein the MIS transistor includes diffusion regions, a gate electrode, and sidewalls, wherein a metallurgical junction of each of the diffusion regions is positioned under the gate electrode, and a lateral boundary of a depletion layer in the diffusion region serving as a drain is positioned under a corresponding one of the sidewalls in the first operation.
US07791926B2

An SEU hardening circuit and method is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes providing a semiconductor memory component having a pair of pMOS transistors and a pair of nMOS transistors, tying a first pMOS body terminal of a first pMOS transistor of the pair of pMOS transistors to a second pMOS gate terminal of a second pMOS transistor of the pair of pMOS transistors, and tying at least a first pre-designated body terminal of at least one transistor selected from the group including essentially of a pair of pMOS transistors and a pair of nMOS transistors to at least a second pre-designated terminal of at least one pre-designated transistor selected from the group including essentially of the pair of pMOS transistors and the pair of nMOS transistors.
US07791924B2

Provided are a memory device that undergoes no structural phase change, maintains a uniform thin film, and can perform a high-speed switching operation, and a method of operating the same. The memory device includes a substrate, an abrupt MIT material layer, and a plurality of electrodes. The abrupt MIT material layer is disposed on the substrate and undergoes an abrupt metal-insulator transition by an energy change between electrons. The plurality of electrodes are brought into contact with the abrupt MIT material layer and are melted by heat to form a conductive path on the abrupt MIT material layer.
US07791917B2

A content-addressable random access memory having magnetic tunnel junction-based memory cells and methods for making and using same. The magnetic tunnel junction has first and second magnetic layers and can act as a data store and a data sense. Within each cell, registered data is written by setting a magnetic orientation of the first magnetic layer in the magnetic tunnel junction via current pulses in one or more current lines. Input data for comparison with the registered data can be similarly set through the magnetic orientation of the second magnetic layer via the current lines. The data sense is performed by measuring cell resistance, which depends upon the relative magnetic orientation of the magnetic layers. Since data storage, data input, and data sense are integrated into one cell, the memory combines higher densities with non-volatility. The memory can support high speed, reduced power consumption, and data masking.
US07791912B2

Among many embodiments, a power converter and a method for operating a power converter are disclosed. The power converter may include a pair of switches connected in series, an output transformer connected to a common node between the switches and a protection apparatus for protecting each switch from being hard driven, each switch being enabled by a gate signal and turning ON in alternating half cycles so as to drive transformer current in alternate directions through the transformer. The protection apparatus may include: a detector configured to detect whether an intrinsic diode in a first switch is conducting the transformer current; and a gate signal disabler configured in response to the detector blocking an ON gate pulse from reaching a second switch in the pair of switches so that the second switch is not turned ON while the intrinsic diode of the first switch is conducting.
US07791910B2

Disclosed is a flyback converter with a synchronous rectifier, in which the synchronous rectifier includes a synchronous switch, a current transformer connected in series between a drain terminal of the synchronous switch and an output terminal, and a secondary synchronous rectification driver connected to the gate terminal of the synchronous switch. Furthermore, a shunt resistor is connected in parallel with the current transformer for providing a current bypass path for a secondary current flowing through the synchronous switch and the current transformer, and thereby reducing the current flowing through the current transformer. Thus, the overall efficiency of the flyback converter can be enhanced and the life of the current transformer can be prolonged.
US07791909B2

The present invention relates to a quasi-resonant converter. In the quasi-resonant converter according to the present invention, a predetermined first period and a second period following to the first period are set. In the second period, a switch is turned on at a time point where voltages at both ends of the switch fall to the minimum if the second period includes the time point, and the switch is turned on at the end of the second period if the second period does not include the time point. Therefore, the switching frequency of the switch can be restricted within a predetermined range.
US07791903B2

A DC-DC flyback converter, includes a three-winding transformer; a primary power circuit having a first MOSFET connected to a first winding of the transformer; a secondary power circuit connected to a second winding of the transformer terminals; and a self-driven circuit connected to a third winding of the transformer. The secondary power circuit includes a synchronous rectifier in the form of a second MOSFET and the self-driven circuit further includes a delay drive circuit, an isolation differential circuit, a negative removal circuit having a third MOSFET and a synchronous rectifier trigger switch-off circuit for switching the synchronous rectifier to an off condition.
US07791896B1

A circuit board includes power reference layers and a capacitor provided between the power reference layers such that a shorter dimension of the capacitor defines a space between the power reference layers. The capacitor has plural conductive plates and plural dielectric layers.
US07791889B2

One embodiment includes an electronic assembly having a first printed circuit board (PCB) and a second PCB. The second PCB has at least two processors and is coupled to and disposed on a first side of the first PCB. A thermal dissipation device dissipates heat away from the processors. First and second power modules are coupled to and disposed on a second side of the first PCB, the first and second power modules providing redundant power to the two processors on the second PCB.
US07791887B2

The present invention provides a cooling device including a heat generating device having a device surface with a device surface contour on at least a portion of the device surface and a base having a base surface with a base surface contour on at least a portion of the base surface. The device surface contour and the base surface contour are substantially similar such that at least a portion of the device surface and the base surface fit in close proximity to each other.
US07791881B2

A heat-dissipating mechanism includes a first heat-dissipating device, a first positioning device, a second heat-dissipating device and a second positioning device. The first heat-dissipating device is contacted with a memory module. The first positioning device is disposed on the first heat-dissipating device and includes a protrusion. The second heat-dissipating device is connected with the first heat-dissipating device. The second positioning device has a positioning rail formed in the second heat-dissipating device and corresponding to the protrusion. The second heat-dissipating device is connected with the first heat-dissipating device when the protrusion of the first positioning device is embedded into the positioning rail second positioning device.
US07791877B2

A portable apparatus includes a display housing, a main housing, and a sound output device. The display housing has a pivot side. The main housing includes a pivot portion that defines a pivot axis and that is coupled to the pivot side of the display housing such that the display housing is pivotable relative to the main housing about the pivot axis. The pivot portion is formed with a receiving space. The sound output device is disposed in the receiving space of the pivot portion and outputs sound in a sound propagating direction substantially parallel to the pivot axis.
US07791876B2

A hinge for moving two parts of an electronic apparatus relative to each other is disclosed. The hinge includes two coolant flow paths helically arranged between inlet and outlet connections as portions of the hinge are rotated relative to each other. Guide plates within the hinge independently rotate to suitably position the conduits of the coolant flow paths in a position of minimum twisting and stretching. The hinge can be incorporated into any electronic apparatus, for example a portable computer.
US07791870B2

An electronic device includes a main body, a touch panel positioned on the main body, a shielding member movably connected to the main body adjacent to the touch panel, and a locking module assembled in the main body. The shielding member is configured to move from a first position on top of the touch panel to a second position at a side of the touch panel automatically. The locking module is configured to lock the shielding member in the first position.
US07791868B2

A display panel stand holding portion for supporting the display panel in the standing position is formed at the upper end portion of the back cabinet as a part of the casing of the display device. The display panel stand holding portion includes the display panel stand mount portion, and the display panel support members. This makes it possible to support the display panel vertically when it is mounted on the display panel stand mount portion. The connector cables extending from the power supply circuit board is clamped to the temporary holding portion to be formed on the back cabinet before assembly of the display panel to be inclined at the predetermined position. The deterioration in the working efficiency caused by entanglement of the connector cables may be prevented.
US07791855B2

The voltage surge protection device comprises at least one input designed to be connected to an electric power supply system, at least one output designed to be connected to an electric circuit to be protected, and voltage surge limiting means connected between the inputs and outputs to protect said electric circuit against voltage surges able to be applied on the inputs. The voltage surge limiting means comprise bidirectional series electronic limiting means comprising at least two inputs/outputs connected in series with at least one of said inputs, and which are turned on when a low voltage drop occurs when a circulating current is lower than a current limiting value, and limiting said circulating current by increasing a voltage drop between said inputs/outputs.
US07791849B2

A redundant trip activation scheme whereby at least one pre-trip condition must be satisfied before a trip signal is sent to a trip solenoid of a motor circuit protector. To provide a layer of protection against spurious or nuisance tripping caused by software errors or external events such as EMF effects, a trip module sets a trip variable upon detection of a trip signal. Instead of tripping the MCP, the trip module requires at least an additional trip signal to be detected. The next time a trip signal is detected, the trip module checks whether the trip variable has been set, and, if so, sends a trip signal to a trip circuit, causing the solenoid to be activated. To ensure that a trip actually occurs, the solenoid can be tripped from the microcontroller via the trip circuit or from an over-voltage protection circuit in the event of a system failure, which operates independently of the trip circuit.
US07791830B2

A signal processing circuit performs processing for an analog signal output from a head. The signal processing circuit includes: a conversion section that generates a digital signal based on the analog signal; a first filter that equalizes the output of the conversion section; a demodulation section that demodulates data from the output of the first filter; a modulation section that modulates a waveform based on the data demodulated by the demodulation section; a second filter that equalizes the output of the modulation section; and an adaptation section that adapts the response of the second filter such that the output of the second filter becomes equal to the output of the conversion section.
US07791828B2

An O-ring 12 is disposed on an image-side second outer peripheral surface 11—1b, which is subjected to a smoothing process, of a taking lens 11—1. The O-ring 12 is pressed by an inner surface 13a of a lens frame 13 toward the second outer peripheral surface 11—1b.
US07791819B2

A zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a positive third lens group, in this order from the object. Upon zooming from the short focal length extremity to the long focal length extremity, the distance between the negative first lens group and the positive second lens group decreases, and the distance between the positive second lens group and the positive third lens group increases. The negative first lens group includes a negative first lens element, a negative second lens element having a weaker negative refractive power, and a positive third lens element, in this order from the object. The second lens element of the negative first lens group satisfies the following condition: 0<(ra−rb)/(ra+rb)<0.3  (1) wherein ra designates a radius of curvature of the object-side surface of the second lens element of the negative first lens group; and rb designates a radius of curvature of the image-side surface of the second lens element of the negative first lens group.
US07791810B2

Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, time averaged Moiré patterns may be utilized in a scanned beam display having a Gaussian beam profile or the like in order to tailor uniformity of the image by controlling both the near field and far field regions of the display to result in a stable and uniform scanned beam display image. Consideration is made regarding the light source parameters of focus numerical aperture, profile, shape, and/or wavelength to achieve higher uniformity and stability without resulting in significant visible coherent artifacts such as tiled intensity patterns and/or Moiré.
US07791805B2

A multifocal lens array and a three-dimensional stereoscopic image display apparatus, which has a low cost, simple structure. A two-dimensional image is displayed on a display apparatus and is incident on a multifocal lens array. The array includes a plurality of lenses arranged on a planar surface, respective focal distances of the lenses being selected so that a focal point-containing surface is formed at a surface inclined relative to the planar surface. A stereoscopic diffusing panel including six transparent panels is disposed at the focal point-containing surface, and is moved periodically in a depth direction, so that sectional images of a three-dimensional stereoscopic image are rendered on the stereoscopic diffusing panel through image light from the apparatus, and hence a person viewing light reflected from the stereoscopic diffusing panel can see the three-dimensional stereoscopic image due to an after-image effect.
US07791796B2

A motorized table apparatus comprises: a support unit for supporting a movement table so as to allow it to move in a single axis direction relative to a stationary unit which is fixed to the movement table; a slide member which is equipped on the movement table and which has a length equivalent to, or more than, a moving range of the movement table; an ultrasonic oscillators which is equipped on the stationary unit, which moves the movement table, and which comprises a single piezoelectric body and two drive elements; and a pressure application unit for supporting so that the two drive elements of the ultrasonic oscillator and the slide member are pressed by a constant force, wherein a plurality of the ultrasonic oscillators are equipped.
US07791791B2

The present invention provides a rare-earth ions doped, especially erbium and ytterbium doped transparent electro-optic gain ceramic material consisting lead, zirconium, titanium and lanthanum. The electro-optic gain ceramic material either has a linear electro-optic coefficient or a quadratic electro-optic coefficient, which is greater than about 0.3×10−16 m2/V2 for the latter, a propagation loss of less than about 0.3 dB/mm, and an optical gain of great than 1.5 dB/mm at a wavelength of about 1550 nm while optically pumped by a 1.4 watts diode laser at a wavelength of 970 nm at 20° C. The present invention also provides electro-optic devices including a rare-earth ions doped, especially erbium and ytterbium doped, transparent electro-optic gain ceramic material consisting lead, zirconium, titanium and lanthanum. The present invention also provides lossless optical devices and amplifiers with an operating wavelength in the range of 1450 nm to 1700 nm while optically pumped at a wavelength in the range of 880 nm to 1020 nm. The materials and devices of the present invention are useful in light intensity, phase and polarization control at a wavelength of about 1550 nm.
US07791789B2

Novel addressing schemes for controlling electronically addressable displays include a scheme for rear-addressing displays, which allows for in-plane switching of the display material. Other schemes include a rear-addressing scheme which uses a retroreflecting surface to enable greater viewing angle and contrast. Another scheme includes an electrode structure that facilitates manufacture and control of a color display. Another electrode structure facilitates addressing a display using an electrostatic stylus. Methods of using the disclosed electrode structures are also disclosed. Another scheme includes devices combining display materials with silicon transistor addressing structures.
US07791786B2

An afocal beam system corrects excess diffraction from phase error in microelectromechanical mirror offsets. One invention aspect interposes an opposing phase difference, between rays reflected at adjacent mirrors, varying the difference with mirror angle to make it roughly an integral number of waves. Mirror-array (not one-mirror) dimensions limit diffraction. Another aspect sharpens by generating and postprocessing signals to counteract phase difference. A third has, in the optical path, a nonlinear phase-shift device introducing a phase shift, optically convolves that shift with others from mirrors, then deconvolves to extract unshifted signals. A fourth varies mirror position in piston as a function of mirror angle to hold phase difference to an integral number of waves. A fifth aspect has, in the path, at least one delay element—whose delay varies as a function of mirror angle. A sixth has another mirror array in series with the first, matching their angles to introduce opposing phase difference.
US07791779B2

A hologram recording apparatus that records a hologram on a recording layer of a hologram recording medium by causing interference between signal light modulated in accordance with record data and reference light from the same light source as that of the signal light is provided. The apparatus includes: a signal light spatial light modulating section that displays a signal light pattern for causing the signal light; a reference light spatial light modulating section that displays a reference light pattern for causing the reference light; a control section that controls the form of the signal light pattern to be displayed on the signal light spatial light modulating section and the form of the reference light pattern to be displayed on the reference light spatial light modulating section and controls optical energy of the signal light and reference light; and a temperature sensor that senses the temperature of the hologram recording medium.
US07791771B2

An image reading apparatus includes: a light source configured with an array of plural point light sources; a light receiving sensor that receives reflected light from a document to which light has been applied from the light source; and shading members that shade main light in irradiation light applied to a position of document reading by the light receiving sensor from the plural point light sources constituting the light source.
US07791768B2

An image scanning device with a time authentication requesting function enables documents, not subject to be converted into e-documents, to be easily converted into e-documents at a later date, and reduces costs required for assigning a timestamp. When a user instructs an account book e-document temporary scan, an original is scanned and stored. An account book temporary file name is assigned to the scanned original, and stored in an account book temporary folder. When the user instructs an estimate e-document temporary scan or a purchase order e-document temporary scan, scanned data of the original is assigned with a file name and stored in a temporary folder of each document type. Documents not subject to be converted into e-documents are stored under the same format as the e-document, and a timestamp is assigned collectively to necessary documents at a later date. Accordingly, costs required for the timestamp can be reduced.
US07791764B2

An image processing apparatus includes an automatic document type discrimination section for estimating a type of input image data. The automatic document type discrimination section is capable of detecting whether each of plural types of halftone dot areas exists or not in the image data, and the automatic document type discrimination section estimates the type of the image data. Therefore, the image processing apparatus can exactly estimate the type of the image.
US07791762B2

An image forming apparatus and an image forming system of the invention have: a discriminating section which discriminates necessity of a security pattern for suppressing illegal use of image creation data on the basis of a security level; a security pattern forming section which forms security pattern data on the basis of attribute data when it is determined that the security pattern is necessary; and an image forming section which forms the security pattern onto a record medium together with an image on the basis of the formed security pattern data. A consumption amount of a coloring agent which is consumed when the security pattern to suppress the illegal use of the image creation data is formed can be reduced.
US07791760B2

Color appearances do not satisfactorily match between recording paper sheets with different gloss characters even using a colorimetric matching process. Hence, the differences between the gloss characters of the recording paper sheets are obtained as correction amounts, and a media profile indicating correspondence between color signals of an image forming apparatus and calorimetric signals corresponding to recording paper is corrected on the basis of the obtained correction amounts.
US07791759B2

An image processing method includes the steps of detecting the dynamic range of input image data, performing edge enhancement processing to increase the number of grayscale levels of the input image data, and performing dithering processing to reduce the number of grayscale levels of each pixel of the input image data. The number of pseudo grayscale levels is determined based on a parameter indicating the level of the dynamic range and a parameter indicating the level of the edge enhancement processing.
US07791757B2

The present invention concerns a system or a procedure for the production of photograph albums, coffee-table books, albums and the like, with a mobile camera for recording and storing digital images, in which are integrated transmitting means for wireless remote radio transmission, an image-processing unit for manipulating and/or processing digital images with a receiver unit for receiving images transmitted by the camera and a printing device for printing out the images processed in the image-processing unit, with the image-processing unit and camera fitted out such that instructions for manipulating and/or processing the images are sent by the transmitting means of the camera to the image-processing unit directly.
US07791749B2

A printer 10 provided with communication section 11 for obtaining print information necessary to print, from plural host devices 30 through transmission route 50, is characterized by comprising; a host ID getter 12 to get host ID able to distinguish host device which outputted said print information from other host device, with using the print information itself obtained; a trouble detector 14 able to detect trouble with judging whether printing based on said print information is possible or not; a presenter 16 to present said host ID obtained by said host ID getter 12 when printing was not judged possible by said trouble detector 14.
US07791747B2

A method, system and apparatus for improving the security of printed documents through end user presence sensing. In this regard, a system for improving the security of printed documents through end user presence detection can include a data store having records correlating end users with print jobs for a workgroup printer, presence detection circuitry disposed in proximity to the workgroup printer, and security management logic coupled to the data store and the presence detection circuitry. Notably, the security management logic can be programmed to determine when end users associated with print jobs recorded in the data store have not come into proximity of the workgroup printer.
US07791740B2

A method and system are presented for determining a line profile in a patterned structure, aimed at controlling a process of manufacture of the structure. The patterned structure comprises a plurality of different layers, the pattern in the structure being formed by patterned regions and un-patterned regions. At least first and second measurements are carried out, each utilizing illumination of the structure with a broad wavelengths band of incident light directed on the structure at a certain angle of incidence, detection of spectral characteristics of light returned from the structure, and generation of measured data representative thereof. The measured data obtained with the first measurement is analyzed, and at least one parameter of the structure is thereby determined. Then, this determined parameter is utilized, while analyzing the measured data obtained with the second measurements enabling the determination of the profile of the structure.
US07791739B2

A system and method that replaces safety requirements of a laser detection system by shifting the wavelength of a detection laser. An optical wavelength converter that shifts the optical wavelength of a detection laser from a first wavelength within the Infrared “A” portion of the spectrum to a more eye-safe wavelength. The detection laser is directed to the surface of a remote target. Ultrasonic displacements at the surface scatter the filtered detection laser. Collection optics then gather phase modulated light scattered by the surface and direct the phase modulated light to an optical processor that produces a signal representative of the ultrasonic displacements. Signal processors then determine the internal structure of the remote target based on the signal.
US07791733B2

A semiconductor ring laser gyro comprises: a semiconductor laser for emitting light from each of both ends thereof; a splitting means for splitting and guiding the light emitted from the semiconductor laser into two axis directions; a plurality of reflecting means for reflecting the light split and guided by the splitting means into the two axis directions; two optical circuits, in each of which the plurality of reflecting means cause the light to travel in a plane and to enter an end of the semiconductor laser opposite to the end from which the light is emitted; and a blocking means for blocking light traveling in one of the two optical circuits.
US07791723B2

Optical measurement method and systems employing a fixed polarizer are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes providing at least one optical detection system having a fixed polarizer having a first type polarization; providing a first target on a substrate and a second target on the substrate; optically measuring the first target and the second target using the at least one optical detection system with the first target being positioned at a right angle relative to the second target to obtain a first measurement with the first type polarization and a second measurement with a second type-equivalent polarization; and combining the first measurement and the second measurement to obtain the optical measurement.
US07791722B2

A spectrophotometer is provided capable of reducing the influence of the vibration as much as possible when a wavelength dispersion element is rotationally driven and capable of increasing the analysis accuracy. When a fluorescence signal is obtained from the fluorescence detector, the central control unit A/D converts the fluorescence signal at sampling intervals of T1 for vibration convergence determination, and provides the result data to the data processor (S1). At the timing of performing the vibration convergence determination (S2), the data processor performs a predetermined signal processing to the digital signals obtained (S3), and determines whether all the data that have been obtained within a given period of time from the latest data are equal to or smaller than a specified value (S4). If all the data are equal to or smaller than the specified value, it is determined that the diffraction grating's vibration is converged, and the vibration convergence determination operation is terminated. After that, the central control unit changes the A/D conversion sampling interval to the interval T2 for obtaining the analysis data, and performs a spectrofluorometric measurement.
US07791721B2

A semiconductor wafer, which is an inspection object, is stuck by vacuum on a chuck and this chuck is mounted on an inspection object movement stage consisting of a rotational stage and a translational stage, located on a Z-stage. The rotational stage provides a rotational movement and the translational stage provides a translational movement. And when a foreign particle or a defect on an inspection object surface is detected, the parameter of digital filtering is dynamically changed during inspection, and the foreign particle or the defect is differentiated using the result after removing a low frequency fluctuation component to be a noise component.
US07791719B1

An optical system measures scene inhomogeneity. The system includes a mirror for receiving radiance of a field-of-view (FOV) of a scene, and reflecting a portion of the radiance to an optical detector. A controller is coupled to the mirror for changing the FOV. The optical detector provides a signal of the reflected portion of radiance of the scene. A processor determines scene inhomogeneity, based on amplitude of the signal provided from the optical detector. The controller is configured to modulate the FOV at a periodic interval, using a sinusoidal waveform, a pulse code modulated waveform, or a pseudo-random waveform.
US07791714B2

A recording device for distance images becomes multi-target-enabled by means of the arrival of light pulses reflected at object regions at different distances being temporally resolved. This is done using extrema of the gradient of a correlation function between the received light pulses and a time window during which sensor elements of a camera are activated.
US07791708B2

A lithographic apparatus includes an illumination system constructed and arranged to condition a radiation beam, and a support constructed and arranged to support a patterning device. The patterning device is capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam. The apparatus also includes a substrate table constructed and arranged to hold a substrate, and a projection system constructed and arranged to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate. The substrate table includes a chuck having a plurality of protrusions constructed and arranged to support corresponding parts of a bottom surface of a wafer. The top surface of at least one of the protrusions includes a plurality of elements that define a reduced contact area between the substrate and the top surface of the protrusion.
US07791707B2

An exposure apparatus includes an illumination optical system configured to illuminate an original with exposure light from an exposure light source, a projection optical system configured to project a pattern of the original onto a substrate, and a measuring unit configured to measure a relative position between the original and the substrate via the projection optical system using the exposure light as measurement light. The exposure apparatus exposes the substrate using the exposure light with a plurality of wavelengths or a broadband wavelength upon aligning the original and the substrate based on the measurement result obtained by the measuring unit, and the measuring unit switches a wavelength of the exposure light as the measurement light to a specific wavelength or a narrow-band wavelength in measuring the relative position between the original and the substrate.
US07791702B2

A display panel includes a substrate, a plurality of data lines, a driver integrated circuit, and a plurality of connecting lines. The data lines of the display panel are disposed on a display area of the substrate for signal transmission. The driver integrated circuit is electrically connected to the data lines for providing driving signals required for panel operations. Each data line of the display panel is electrically connected to the driver integrated circuit via a corresponding connecting line. A first connecting line of the connecting lines includes a first section and a second section, wherein a thickness of the second section is substantially thinner than that of the first section.
US07791701B2

A circuit film comprises a first circuit formed on a film substrate for outputting a driving signal to a display device, and a plurality of input lines formed on the film substrate. The display device includes a display panel which has first and second signal lines, a second-circuit film which has a second circuit for outputting a driving signal to the second signal line, and a control board for controlling the first and second circuits. The plurality of input lines include a first input line for inputting a control signal to the first circuit and a second input line for inputting a control signal to the second circuit. The film substrate is connected to the control board and the display panel such that a driving signal is input from the control board to the first and second circuits through the first and second input lines, respectively.
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