US08256466B2
A sewer water treatment system having a septic tank and drain field is protected from freezing and becoming nonfunctional with a thermal insulation blanket. A plurality of stakes connected to the borders of the blanket extend into the ground to hold the blanket on the ground above the sewer water treatment system.
US08256465B2
A microfluidic valve structure is provided. The valve structure includes a valve body having a fluid flow passage formed therein for allowing fluid to flow therethrough. A valve boss is configured to move relative to a valve seat to open and close the fluid flow passage. A plurality of flexible support arms extend between a wall of the valve body and the valve boss for supporting the valve boss relative to the valve body such that the valve boss engages and disengages the valve seat to close and open the passage.
US08256464B2
A backflow-prevention system that substantially prevents contaminant backflow at a treatment site. The system includes a fluid ejector tube for insertion into the patient's mouth and a backflow prevention device that receives fluid from the fluid ejector tube. The backflow prevention device includes an internally positioned valve member. The valve member limits contaminant backflow. The valve member is movable between open and closed positions based on a vacuum pressure condition in the system.
US08256463B2
A faucet spout having an adjustable height relative to a stationary base or surface to which it may be mounted. A spout tube is slideably engaged within a spout body in which a support member is housed. The support member is received within the spout tube and provides a positive stop at a lowest position. A ratchet assembly within the support member engages the end of the spout tube at any one of a series of ratchet teeth providing a variety of additional stops/heights at which the spout tube may be retained for operation. A release button withdraws the ratchet arm and permits the spout tube to return to the first stop at its lowest point.
US08256455B1
A valve and method allows efficient closure for a pipe containing liquid. The valve in the preferred form is operated by a float in a sump pit should the sump pump fail to operate. The float is lifted by rising water and an arm attached to the float is supported on rollers when the valve is normally open turns to disengage from the rollers to close the valve. A shaft positioned in the conduit is attached to a cap which reacts to the expansion of a spring to thus close the end of the conduit and prevent further liquid flow therethrough. An audible alarm system sounds as the rising liquid level reaches a water sensor on the valve to warn a homeowner or building occupant. The alarm also sounds when a manual test switch is closed or if the smoke sensor is activated.
US08256450B2
A butterfly valve with an undulating sealing surface, which has an inflatable annular seal mounted in a housing. A disk is pivotally mounted in the housing and has an edge with an undulating sealing surface and a peripheral sealing edge. The undulating sealing surface of the disk and a sealing face of the annular seal have non-mating profiles when the valve is in an unsealed condition. Pressure in a chamber proximate the annular seal causes the face of the annular seal to expand and deform and the face forms a high-pressure seal between the sealing ridge and the annular seal. Also includes a method for stopping delivery of a conduit transportable material through a butterfly valve.
US08256448B2
A butterfly valve for handling materials where the temperature of the materials flowing through the butterfly valve can exceed the breakdown temperature of the sealing member with the butterfly valve inhibiting contact of hot transportable materials with the sealing member to isolate the hot transportable materials from the sealing member. Cooling conduits maintain at least portions of the valve that contacts the sealing member at a temperature below the breakdown temperature of the sealing member to prevent seal failure.
US08256447B2
A pressure relief device (100) for an inflatable tire comprises a body (102) having a chamber (116) therein and pressure relief mechanism for releasing air when the air pressure in the chamber exceeds a first predetermined pressure level. A conduit (108; 208) inter-connects an air inlet (110; 210) with an air outlet (112; 212). The conduit (108; 208) is provided in a pin (104; 204) arranged to slide axially in a passageway (106) in the body, the pin (104; 204) extending from the air inlet (110; 210) to the air outlet (112; 212) and being slidable between a first position in which it cannot release a stem of the tire, and a second position, in which it can release the stem.
US08256438B2
A hair holder includes a tube formed of a sheet in such a design as to allow a hair bundle to be inserted from a one-end opening at one end of the tube toward an other-end opening at the other end thereof. The tube includes an integration mechanism in the vicinity of the one-end opening. The integration mechanism is for a clip-type fixing member having a pair of pinchers. The one-end opening is openable and closable by operating the clip-type fixing member having been integrated with the tube.
US08256435B2
A hair extension element for extending a strand of hair is securable to the strand of hair through a flexible holding member. The holding member comprises a through hole for guiding and clamping the strand of hair. The holding member and the hair extension element are integrated so as to provide the hair extension element as an integrated part to the strand of hair. Furthermore a holding member which is provided with at least an ornament comprises at least two through holes extending substantially parallel to each other for guiding strands of hair there through. A holding member comprising at least one through hole is provided with at least two ornaments on its outer side.
US08256425B2
An airway implant device for maintaining and/or creating an opening in air passageways is disclosed. Methods and devices for removing, the device are also disclosed. Methods of treating airway disorders such as sleep apnea and snoring with the airway implant device are disclosed herein.
US08256416B2
A device for dispensing individual doses of powder from respective pockets of a disc-shaped carrier by outwardly rupturing a lidding foil by means of pressure on an opposite side surface, the device providing individual respective deaggregation flow paths for each pocket, split airstreams allowing improved entrainment of powder, a cam mechanism for outwardly rupturing the pockets, an indexing mechanism linked to the cam mechanism and a dose counter.
US08256411B2
A bottle warmer includes a flexible tubular sleeve having a closed lower end and an open upper end. The open upper end is to receive a bottle therethough, and the closed lower end is to receive a bottom of the bottle thereagainst. An elastic band is carried by a medial portion of the flexible tubular sleeve to secure the medial portion to an adjacent portion of the bottle, and permit the open upper end to be folded back adjacent the closed lower end to define a pocket. A chemical heat source element is to be received by the pocket for warming the bottle.
US08256410B2
A barbecue grill for cooking an object. The barbecue grill includes a first resistive element subassembly energizable for generating heat to cook the object, and a second resistive element subassembly energizable for generating heat to cook the object.
US08256406B1
Embodiments disclosed herein include systems and methods for regulating pneumatic gas propulsion. More specifically, some embodiments include a first spring that exerts a spring force, where the spring set point increases as the first spring is compressed. Similarly, some embodiments include a piston that is in physical communication with the first spring and a valve. The valve mechanism may receive the gas, where upon the gas being received by the valve mechanism at a pressure that meets the spring set point, the gas causes the piston to move in the longitudinal direction. Further, movement of the piston creates a cylinder space between the piston and the valve mechanism, where a volume of the cylinder space is defined by a position of the piston. The pressure causes the piston to compress the first spring until an equilibrium exists between the gas force and the spring force.
US08256402B2
Three or more independent passages are coupled to respective cylinders which are different from each other, and a collective portion where the independent passages collect is provided. An exhaust turbocharger is arranged downstream of the collective portion. Rotary throttle valves are arranged respectively in the independent passages upstream of the collective portion. At least two of the throttle valves are supported by a common rotary axis. The independent passages with the throttle valves supported by the common rotary axis are coupled to cylinders which have exhaust strokes which are not adjacent to each other. Accordingly, the exhaust gas can be supplied to the exhaust turbocharger efficiently.
US08256400B2
A piston pump, especially for supplying high-pressure fuel to a direct-injection internal combustion engine, including a pump housing (2) and a drive shaft (3a to 3i) for actuating one or several pump plungers (5) which are radially oriented relative to the drive shaft in the pump housing. The drive shaft is rotatably mounted on one or several bearings (11, 31, 49) extending between a shaft inlet (15) of the pump housing and a rear housing wall (20) located opposite the shaft inlet. One bearing (11) extends between an internal surface (17) of a hollow cylindrical section (10) of the drive shaft and an external surface (18) of a journal (19) that runs from the rear housing wall into the hollow cylindrical section.
US08256393B2
An internal combustion engine in which the variable cam timing controls for a variable cam timing mechanism include a variable force solenoid mounted within a hollow portion of the camshaft. The variable force solenoid is maintained in place within the hollow camshaft by a tubular shaft fixed to the engine and a bearing between the solenoid and the variable cam timing mechanism.
US08256389B2
An open deck type cylinder block (10) that is one embodiment of the present invention is configured as follows. A shallow portion (21) and a deep portion (22) are provided in a water jacket (20). The shallow portion (21) is provided in a portion that is comparatively far from a head bolt hole (17), while on the other hand the deep portion (22) is provided in a portion that is comparatively close to the head bolt hole (17). A hollow portion (18) in which a block outer wall is hollowed toward a cylinder center side is provided between a bottom wall portion of the shallow portion (21) and a skirt portion (14) used as a crank case.
US08256383B2
A collapsible barrel is provided for use in training for equine barrel racing. The collapsible barrel is configured and sized to approximate the dimensions of a conventional barrel used in the sport of equine barrel racing, but is constructed of sturdy, lightweight materials that enable the barrel to be transformed between a fully deployed state and a collapsed state. The collapsible barrel of the present invention is sufficiently lightweight and dimensioned, when in a collapsed state, to be easily transported, deployed for training and later stored. The flexibility of the collapsible barrel makes training ideal because it eliminates injury to the legs of the rider and the body of the horse.
US08256381B2
Embodiments of a method and system are described for tracking and managing animals and/or food products. Identification data and location data for animals is entered into a computer system. A data service provider may collect this data and transmit it to a data trustee. The data trustee may filter the data into official and non-official data, and send official data to an official database. When a public health issue arises, the government may use an identifier for a diseased animal or a location identifier to request a trace report. The data trustee may then use the official data to provide a report showing, for example, which animals have commingled with the diseased animal. Based on this report, other animals can be treated, quarantined, or slaughtered. The disclosed embodiments also may be used to facilitate commercial transactions by providing data that validates an animal's health and food quality.
US08256373B2
The present invention relates to a device (100) for depositing a layer based on polycrystalline silicon onto a substantially plane, elongate, moving support (4) having two longitudinal faces (43, 44) and two longitudinal side edges (41, 42), the device comprising: a crucible (1) containing a bath (2) of molten silicon, said support (4) being designed to be dipped at least in part in the bath and to pass substantially vertically in its long direction through the equilibrium surface (21) of the bath; and at least one edge control element (5, 5′), each edge control element being maintained substantially vertically close to one of the two longitudinal side edges (41, 42); each edge control element comprising walls (51 to 53′) defining a longitudinal slot (54, 54′) beside the corresponding longitudinal side edge, each slot being dipped in part in the bath (2) so as to raise the level of the bath by capillarity in the vicinity of the corresponding longitudinal side edge, the device being characterized in that at least one of the walls (51 to 52′), referred to as an “insertion” wall, facing part of one of the longitudinal faces, is substantially plane.
US08256371B2
An application liquid supply apparatus supplying an application liquid to an application roller, includes: a space forming member which is abutted against an outer circumferential surface of the application roller and of which a recess section is formed along a breadthways direction of the application roller in a surface which abuts against the application roller, and a frame-shaped abutting section is provided in a projecting fashion so as to surround a perimeter of the recess section, the abutting section being abutted against the outer circumferential surface of the application roller so as to cover an opening of the recess section with the outer circumferential surface of the application roller in such a manner that an application liquid holding space is created along the breadthways direction on the outer circumferential surface of the application roller; at least one groove which has a length in a direction of rotation of the application roller and is formed in the abutting section on an upstream side in terms of the direction of the rotation of the application roller; an application liquid supply port which is formed in the space forming member and via which the application liquid is supplied to the application liquid holding space; and an application liquid supply device which supplies the application liquid to the application liquid holding space via the application liquid supply port.
US08256370B2
A coating apparatus includes a liquid film forming mechanism configured to form a liquid film of a process liquid for preventing a contaminant derived from a coating liquid from being deposited or left on a back side peripheral portion of a substrate. The liquid film forming mechanism includes a counter face portion facing the back side peripheral portion of the substrate and a process liquid supply portion for supplying the process liquid onto the counter face portion. The coating apparatus further includes a posture regulating mechanism disposed around the substrate holding member and configured to damp a vertical wobble of the peripheral portion of the substrate being rotated. The posture regulating mechanism includes delivery holes arrayed in a rotational direction of the substrate and configured to deliver a gas onto a back side region of the substrate on an inner side of the peripheral portion.
US08256364B2
A tufting machine for forming tufted carpet having means for inserting loops of at least two different yarns into a backing material moving through the tufting machine and means for controlling the deviation of the ratio of different yarns projecting from a top surface of the backing material. It is contemplated that the tufting machine can be used to maintain the color of the tufted carpet at a desired color during the operation of the tufting machine.
US08256355B2
An improved rail car is pulled by an engine for transporting coal or other porous dust bearing materials. The car has opposing long sidewalls and opposing shorter end walls, which together define an initially open interior, a bottom and an open top. The open top of the car is covered by at least one pair of main doors in the form of opposing hinged A-frame sections which are pivotable between a closed, transport position and an open loading position which exposes the rail car interior for loading. The A-frame sections also have longitudinally spaced edges which are spaced apart to form a discharge door opening. A discharge door is located in each of the discharge door opening and is pivotally hinged within the respective door opening so that it opens under the influence of gravity in a rotary dumping operation. The discharge doors, together with the A-frame sections, form a door-within-a-door operating configuration.
US08256354B2
A railroad car may comprise a frame comprising a first side and a second side laterally opposing each other. The railroad car may further comprise a first elastomeric mat and a second elastomeric mat supported by a plurality of reinforcement cables, the first and second elastomeric mats forming a load-carrying receptacle. Each elastomeric mat may have an outer edge and an inner edge, the inner edge of the first elastomeric mat abutting the inner edge of the second elastomeric mat when the load-carrying receptacle is in a closed configuration. The railroad car may further comprise a first pulley connected to the first side of the frame and a second pulley connected to the second side of the frame, the first pulley and second pulley each having a respective axis of rotation parallel to a direction of travel of the railroad car.
US08256351B1
A non-lethal projectile used to immobilize, impair, disorient, or distract a live target. The non-lethal projectile can also be used as a signaling device. In one embodiment, a non-lethal payload carrying projectile that is detonated at a set distance determined and, set by the operator. The distance is electronically controlled and can be set in the field seconds before the projectile is fired.
US08256337B2
An initiator for initiating detonation in a detonation cord of a perforating system, where the initiator comprises a modular electronic igniter that quick connects into a portion of high explosive. The high explosive is disposed in a housing having an end of detonation cord crimped therein. The electronic igniter may be shipped to the field and/or stored separate from the high explosive then the two may be assembled just prior to deploying the perforating gun assembly in a wellbore. Various methods of quick connecting the electronic igniter to the high explosive may be used.
US08256332B2
A method for the automatic and contact-free relative approach between a specimen (6) and a knife (7) of a microtome (1). A first light beam bundle (9′) forms a detector-side zero point and a last light beam bundle (9″) forms a detector-side end point of a light band (8), the light band (8) being arranged perpendicular to the second spatial direction (Y) and in the direction thereof spaced from the knife, a zero point (X0) being assigned to a reference position of the knife blade (XBlade). The specimen (6) is guided through the light band (8) by way of a cutting movement. The position of the highest point of the specimen (XSpecimen) in the first spatial direction (X) is determined from the number of shaded light beam bundles (9).
US08256331B2
A guarded surgical knife handle includes a handle portion with a blade holder, a chamber within the handle portion, and a slot. The guarded surgical knife handle also includes a guard having an open distal end slidably mounted within the handle portion that can slide longitudinally between an unguarded position and a guarded position. The guard is sized to surround the blade in the guarded position. The guarded surgical knife handle also includes a latch that latches the guard when the guard is slid into the guarded position and a first button that disengages the latch. The guarded surgical knife handle includes a bias member that forces the guard in a proximal direction to an unguarded position when the latch is disengaged along with a second button extending through the slot used to slide the guard in a distal direction into the guarded position.
US08256325B1
A wheel is for use in manually turning a shaft on rolling stock, such as for a handbrake. The wheel has a hub and a rim. The hub is made of a first material and has an opening that is structured and arranged to receive the shaft. The opening has a rotational axis. The hub has an exterior around the rotational axis, with the hub having drive surfaces relative to the rotational axis. The rim is coupled to the hub so as to engage the drive surfaces. The drive surfaces include flat surfaces and corners of a tube portion of the hub, a radially extending plate with holes therethrough and teeth in an outer edge and gussets coupled between the tube portion and the plate. The rim has an outer periphery structured and arranged to be gripped by a human hand for rotating the wheel. The rim is made of a second material that is softer than the first material.
US08256320B2
A device for handling and/or performing work operations on objects comprises: at least a first arm (2) comprising a first end (2a) for supporting a tool (3) for moving or working; means for supporting and moving (4) the first arm (2) which comprise at least a first linear electric motor (5), developing on a closed path (P), for moving the first arm (2) along a circular trajectory (91), and at least a second linear electric motor (6), to which the first arm (2) is directly connected, developing in an arched trajectory (92). The first (5) and the second (6) linear electric motors cooperate to move the first arm (2).
US08256319B2
Medical, surgical, and/or robotic devices and systems often including offset remote center parallelogram manipulator linkage assemblies which constrains a position of a surgical instrument during minimally invasive robotic surgery are disclosed. The improved remote center manipulator linkage assembly advantageously enhances the range of instrument motion while at the same time reduces the overall complexity, size, and physical weight of the robotic surgical system.
US08256317B2
A transmission device that transmits rotation of a drive cable to a screw shaft is provided. The transmission device includes a worm gear attached to the drive cable, a helical gear attached to the screw shaft, a gear case, a pair of first bearing wall portions, and a pair of second bearing wall portions. The gear case has an opening on one side so as to accommodate the worm gear and the helical gear. The first bearing wall portions are integrally formed with the gear case so as to face each other along the axial direction of the drive cable, and rotatably support both ends of the worm gear. The second bearing wall portions are integrally formed with the gear case so as to face each other along the axial direction of the screw shaft, and rotatably support both ends of the helical gear.
US08256314B2
The invention relates to a rack-and-pinion steering gear with a steering housing, which is tubular and has a housing axis, wherein in the steering housing a rack is mounted in bearings displaceably towards a longitudinal axis, and with a steering pinion, which is mounted in a pinion housing rotatably about an axis and has a pinion gearing, which engages with a gearing of the rack, in which at least one bearing is formed as an eccentric sliding bearing, which can rotate relative to the steering housing, so that the rack can be pressed towards the steering pinion.
US08256311B2
An actuator mounting assembly includes a cap, a rod, a spring mechanism, and a switch assembly. The cap is adapted to couple to an actuator. The rod extends through the cap and includes a first end adapted to extend through the actuator and a second end adapted to attach to a fixed location. The spring mechanism is disposed in the cap cavity, is compressible, and has a predetermined preload. The switch assembly is disposed in the cap and adapted to sense relative positioning between the rod and the cap and to provide signals based on the sensed relative positioning. When the rod and the cap are in a first relative position, the switch assembly provides a first signal to the actuator to allow the cap to move axially relative to the rod, but when in a second relative position, the switch assembly discontinues providing the first signal to the actuator.
US08256308B2
A metering capillary and method for providing at least one defined volume of a target constituent of a sample is provided, the method comprising providing at least one metering capillary having at least two openings; at least partly filling the metering capillary with the sample; carrying out a constituent separation for the at least partial separation of at least two constituents of the sample inside the metering capillary; and dividing the metering capillary into at least two partial pieces, wherein at least one of the partial pieces contains the defined volume of the target constituent.
US08256307B2
Testing of engine particulate matter production during a transient is made more accurate by selecting an appropriate sized opening for a test probe of the sampling system located in the exhaust line upstream from a particulate trap. By examining the pressure signature at the test probe location and utilizing that information in conjunction with a desired volumetric flow rate into the sampling system, a flow opening size for the test probe can be selected that reduces potential oversampling which may be otherwise induced due to the back pressure increases in the exhaust line caused by the presence of the particulate trap. The flow opening into the test probe of the sampling system behaves relative unrestricted when pressure differentials at the test probe location are relatively low, such as during steady state operating conditions, but restricts flow into the sampling system when pressure differentials are relatively high, such as at a pressure during a transient event.
US08256306B1
A high-capacity low-profile load cell for measuring compression force. The load cell comprises a support ring, a diaphragm supported by the support ring, and first and second pluralities of strain gages arranged under the diaphragm for detecting strain produced by application of a load from above. The diaphragm comprises a slug portion and a plate portion that surrounds and supports the slug portion. The slug portion has a height greater than a thickness of the plate portion. The first plurality of strain gages is disposed on a bottom surface of the slug portion, while the second plurality of strain gages is disposed on a bottom surface of the plate portion. These strain gages are electrically connected to form a Wheatstone bridge.
US08256293B2
Devices usable as sensors, as transducers, or as both sensors and transducers include one or more nanotubes or nanowires. In some embodiments, the devices may each include a plurality of sensor/transducer devices carried by a common substrate. The sensor/transducer devices may be individually operable, and may exhibit a plurality of resonant frequencies to enhance the operable frequency bandwidth of the devices. Sensor/transducer devices include one or more elements configured to alter a resonant frequency of a nanotube. Such elements may be selectively and individually actuable. Methods for sensing mechanical displacements and vibrations include monitoring an electrical characteristic of a nanotube. Methods for generating mechanical displacements and vibrations include using an electrical signal to induce mechanical displacements or vibrations in one or more nanotubes. Methods for adjusting an electrical signal include passing an electrical signal through a nanotube and changing a resonant frequency of the nanotube.
US08256292B2
An acceleration sensor has a pair of main surface protection members arranged at one end of both main surfaces of a piezoelectric oscillation element, and spaced from the main surfaces through a pair of main surface spacer members. An end surface protection member is arranged on an end surface at the other end of the main surface protection members by having an interval between the end surface protection member and the piezoelectric oscillation element, through a pair of end surface spacer members. A pair of side surface protection members is arranged at one end of the both side surfaces of the piezoelectric vibration element, the pair of main surface protection members, the end surface protection member, the pair of main surface spacer members, and a pair of side surface spacer members arranged on both side surfaces of the end surface spacer members.
US08256283B2
A downhole characterization apparatus for formation fluids is provided. The apparatus comprises a downhole tool including a flowline for flowing the formation fluids capable of isolating a quantity of the formation fluids in a portion thereof; and a pump unit for depressurizing the isolated formation fluids; and a measurement controller which controls the downhole tool. The measurement controller includes a rough value estimation unit which estimates a rough value of the bubble point pressure of the formation fluids; and a speed controller which controls the depressurizing speed of the pump unit such that the isolated formation fluids are depressurized at a first speed to a certain pressure which is a predetermined value higher than said estimated rough value, and the isolated fluids are depressurized at a second speed which is slower than said first speed in order to measure a precise value of the bubble point pressure.
US08256282B2
The critical desorption pressure is determined by pumping out an area within a well bore. As the pressure in that area is decreased, formation fluid from the surrounding rock matrix is drawn into the area. As the local pressure is decreased further, gaseous bubbles within the formation fluid will begin to form. The formation fluid is observed, and the formation of the gaseous bubbles is detected. The critical desorption pressure is determined based upon the presence of gas within the formation fluid. The concentration of gas within the formation fluid can then be determined based on the determination of the critical desorption pressure.
US08256271B2
A viscometer for molten plastic has a housing having first and second relatively displaceable parts with generally complementary and substantially planar faces. The first part is formed with a throughgoing melt passage adapted for connection in a flow system of the molten plastic. A hinge interconnects the parts. An outgoing conduit extends from the melt to a pump intake and from a pump output to an opening on the face of the first housing part. A plurality of sensors on one of the parts are connected to respective openings on the face of the one part. A return conduit extends from another opening on the face of the first housing part offset from the opening of the outgoing line. An exchangeable metal foil formed with a slot into which all of the openings open is engaged tightly between the two faces.
US08256265B2
The present invention provides, as one aspect, an apparatus for inspecting a sensor module including at least one held sensor in a housing having a plurality of outer surfaces. The held sensor detects acceleration or angular velocity. The apparatus includes a holding unit that has an apparatus-side surface and holds the housing in a state where one of the outer surfaces of the housing serving as a housing-side surface contacts the apparatus-side surface, a driving unit that moves the holding unit, a first obtaining unit that, in a state where the housing-side surface contacts the apparatus-side surface, obtains an output from the held sensor, at least one reference sensor that has a detection axis and is provided such that a direction of the detection axis matches a direction of a reference axis of the held sensor, and a second obtaining unit that obtains an output from the reference sensor.
US08256249B2
The present invention relates to laundry machines, and, more particularly, to a safe laundry machine which enables a user to open/close a door easily, and can prevent an accident caused by opening/closing of the door from taking place.The laundry machine includes a cabinet, a drum rotatably mounted in the cabinet, a door having a latch for being opened/closed selectively to expose an inside of the drum to an outside of the laundry machine, and a door switch assembly provided for enabling opening/closing of the door, wherein the door switch assembly includes a switch unit for making selective connection to the latch, and an opening operation unit spaced from the switch unit for the user to enable to disconnect the connection between the latch and the switch unit.
US08256245B2
The invention concerns a method for melting a composition of raw materials including introducing the composition in an oven to form a layer (2) at the surface of the molten pool (4). An oxycombustion burner (10) is arranged above the pool and directed towards the composition layer (2) to produce a melting front (3). Parameters of the burner are adjusted to produce a large covering flame (12) causing an essentially radiation-based thermal transfer. Additionally, a plane containing a longitudinal section of the flame (Z-Z) and a horizontal direction perpendicular to the axis of the oven (X-X) intersects the melting front (3) at a height (h) included ranging between one third and half of the thickness of the composition (e). Such a method provides for a stable operation of the oven and is particularly adapted to a large-capacity oven.
US08256242B1
An insulated cooler with two (2) separate independent storage compartments and lids allowing for compartmentalized transportation and storage of items is herein disclosed. The separate compartments eliminate possible cross-contamination as well as provide different thermal conditioning of the contents. The compartments are completely independent of each other having an interior divider wall extending completely through the body of the cooler and continuing into a lid area, thereby sealing independent compartments. Additionally, each compartment is also provided with a draining means.
US08256239B2
A power unit for air conditioning systems installed on boats, including at least one compressor, of the mass produced type used in the automobile industry, connected to the circuit of the refrigeration device, at least one mechanical pump for circulation of a heat exchange fluid along a circuit and one or more rotating electrical machines. Operation of the power unit is ensured during navigation by an internal combustion engine for marine propulsion, in particular a four stroke gasoline engine, with vertical motor axis, normally used for outboard marine propulsion, mass produced at low costs, while when the boat is in port it is ensured by an electric motor. The fan coils are also of the mass produced type used in the automobile industry.
US08256238B2
An air conditioning system for a vehicle has a refrigerant cycle device which has an evaporator and a compressor and in which refrigerant is discharged from the compressor to be evaporated in the evaporator so that air passing the evaporator is cooled to be blown into a passenger compartment of the vehicle. The control unit drives the compressor at a control value which is determined based on at least one of a pressure of the refrigerant in the refrigerant cycle device and an outside-air temperature outside the passenger compartment, when the control unit actuates the compressor.
US08256237B2
A refrigerating device is provided that includes an evaporator and a compartment that is cooled by air circulating air from and to the evaporator, wherein a diffusion layer can be displaced between a first position, in which air passage openings distributed in a wall separating the compartment from a distribution chamber are covered by the diffusion layer, and a second position, in which the diffusion layer is positioned so as to allow air to flow from the evaporator through the distribution chamber into the compartment while bypassing the diffusion layer.
US08256230B2
A method for reliquefying boil-off gas generated in a cargo tank of a liquefied natural gas ship generally includes the steps of compressing boil-off gas generated in the cargo tank with a compressor, sub-cooling the compressed boil-off gas in a heat exchanger, feeding the liquefied gas to a gas phase separator, venting flash gas generated in the gas phase separator through a first pipe, feeding the vented flash gas from the gas phase separator to a gas combustion unit of the ship via the first pipe, oxidizing the vented flash gas in the gas combustion unit, diverting a portion of the compressed boil-off gas from the compressor through a second pipe, feeding the diverted portion of compressed boil-off gas from the compressor to an upper region of the gas-phase separator and returning liquefied gas from the gas-phase separator to the cargo tank.
US08256218B2
A compressor comprises an impeller wheel mounted within a housing defining an inlet and an outlet. The wheel has a plurality of vanes and is rotatable about an axis. The housing has an inner wall defining a surface located in close proximity to radially outer edges of the impeller vanes which sweep across said surface as the impeller wheel rotates about its axis. The inlet comprises a tubular wall extending away from the impeller wheel in an upstream direction. An enclosed chamber is defined between said inner wall and an outer wall and in communication with at least one opening in said in said inner wall. The outer wall is penetrated by at least one ventilation aperture that is designed to be connected via a conduit to a location upstream of the inlet and downstream of an air filter. The arrangement maintains the advantages of a conventional MWE structure and further improves the surge margin. In addition, the risk of debris being drawn into the compressor via the opening is eliminated.
US08256208B2
According to one representative embodiment, an apparatus for reducing NOx emissions in an engine exhaust gas stream of an engine system having a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system with an SCR catalyst positioned downstream of a reductant injector includes a NOx reduction target module and a reductant module. The NOx reduction target module is configured to determine a NOx reduction requirement, which includes an amount of NOx in the exhaust gas stream to be reduced on the SCR catalyst. The reductant module is configured to determine the amount of reductant added to the exhaust gas stream to achieve the NOx reduction requirement. The amount of reductant added to the exhaust gas stream is a function of at least one ammonia storage characteristic of the SCR catalyst, at least one reductant-to-ammonia conversion characteristic, and a conversion capability of an AMOX catalyst in exhaust receiving communication with the SCR catalyst.
US08256203B1
The present disclosure generally pertains to rocket based combined cycle (RBCC) propulsion units. In one exemplary embodiment, at least one rocket thruster is integrated with a jet engine but is external to the flow path of the jet engine, forming an altitude compensating plug nozzle. Since the rocket thruster is external to such flow path, the rocket flow from the rocket thruster interacts with the jet flow from the jet engine aft of the nozzle of the jet engine. Such interaction occurs without a significant performance penalty in the operation of the jet engine. In fact, it is possible that the interaction of the rocket flow with the jet flow may actually improve the efficiency of the jet engine under some conditions. Moreover, having the rocket thrusters positioned external to the flow path of the jet engine helps to avoid many of the problems plaguing conventional RBCC propulsion units.
US08256193B1
A pet pad storage system having an open frame body having a bottom wall and four sidewalls extending upwards therefrom. One pair of sidewalls, opposite each other, terminates slightly before a centerline that runs across their length; hence, no sidewall extends upwards at a center portion of the bottom layer for two of the four edges. A length of strip runs across the inside edge at a top of the remaining pair of sidewalls. In this manner, a stack of sheets can be laid across the interior portion of the frame body. Two perforated edges run across a length of the bottom wall where the sidewalls terminate. A third perforated edge runs across the centerline between the other two. The outer sidewalls of the frame are pulled upwards towards one another to fold the frame member closed. The sheet is rollably folded therein so that the storage system can stand upright in a closet space.
US08256191B2
Methods of automatically package an object in a covering material such as casing and/or netting include: (a) automatically pushing at least one object through a product chute; (b) pulling a covering material upstream of the product chute off an exterior surface of the product chute to automatically enclose the object in the covering material as the object exits the product chute; and (c) applying a clip to the covering material to secure the object in the packing material.
US08256190B2
A method for introducing at least one substance into a sealed enclosure holding at least one product. The sealed enclosure having at least one conduit through which one of gas or fluid may flow into or out of the sealed enclosure. Air is evacuated from the sealed enclosure through the at least one conduit to create a predetermined pressure within the sealed enclosure and a predetermined quantity of the at least one substance is injected into the sealed enclosure through the at least one conduit.
US08256180B2
A roof tile with a central brim and at least one lateral cover or water beading and a watercourse located between them, in whose region a water stop is disposed. This water stop is partially pressed with its edges in the region of the watercourse, of the central brim and of the lateral beading into the material of the roof tile blank. Such water stop is comprised of a flexurally elastic, thin small plate, and specifically of a material which does not conform to the material of the roof tile.
US08256176B2
A support frame of glass brick wall has multiple horizontal beams, multiple vertical beams and multiple side bars. Each of the horizontal beams and the vertical beams has a body, two side wings respectively and longitudinally formed on and protruding from two edges of the body, and two lamp slots respectively and longitudinally formed on and recessed from two sides of the body. Each of the vertical beams is securely mounted between two adjacent glass bricks in a corresponding row of glass bricks with adhesive. Each of the horizontal beams is securely mounted on a top of a corresponding row of glass bricks with adhesive. Two of the side bars are securely mounted on two edge sides of the glass brick wall. Each of the side bars has openings to replace light strips mounted in the lamp slots. Accordingly, the support frame provides a clean and easy lamp replacement solution.
US08256167B2
A solar-shading assembly for fastening to a support mullion, comprises an elongate louver member having longitudinal front and rear edges, an elongate cap element for extending along and covering the rear edge, a bracket which is connectable to the support mullion, and a fastening device for connecting the bracket to the rear edge of the louver member. The in use fastening device is coverable by the cap element so as to hide the fastening device from view. Preferably, at least part of the bracket is also coverable by the cap element so as to hide the said part of the bracket from view.
US08256164B2
A safety hatch and safety railing assembly in unitary form which incorporates the fabrication of a roof or deck scuttle with safety guard rails as required by the Occupation Safety Hazards Act (OSHA) around the roof or deck opening of a building. The safety hatch or safety hatch and safety railing assembly of the present invention preferably employs safety railing mounting bracket components that are welded to hatch flashing or to bracket hanger members and are designed to receive and provide for safe and efficient mounting of vertical posts and rails of a safety railing assembly around a roof or deck access opening. The safety hatch and safety railing assembly provides an improved base flashing that additionally functions to hold the roofing membrane to the scuttle curb. Lateral elongate safety members have one end connected to the hatch cover and another end connected to safety railing support posts and being moveable to personnel protecting position upon opening movement of the hatch cover and a collapsed position upon closing of the hatch cover.
US08256159B2
A hydraulically-applied mulch matrix comprising non-porous particles, porous particles and mixtures thereof combined with a mechanically and or chemically bonded fiber mulch mixed within a high viscosity slurry to keep the particles in suspension for dispersion onto soil surfaces with mulch spraying equipment for enhanced erosion control and higher level plant establishment.
US08256155B1
A simulated fowl swimming apparatus includes a pump conduit, a pump disposed in fluid communication with the pump conduit, a decoy motion assembly disposed in fluid communication with and rotatable with respect to the pump conduit, at least one discharge opening in the decoy motion assembly and at least one water fowl decoy carried by the decoy motion assembly.
US08256149B2
The invention relates to an ironing shoe (10) comprising a garment contact surface (15) and having a means for accommodating a garment care agent such as an anti microbial agent, wherein accommodating the means is formed at least by the garment contact surface accommodating the garment care agent, which garment contact surface is capable of transferring the garment care agent to a piece of garment. By contacting the garment contact surface with the piece of garment, as is done during ironing, the agent is transferred to the garment. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing an ironing shoe.
US08256148B2
Couplers for attaching an accessory to an excavator arm of an excavator. Couplers having a first side for attaching the coupler to the excavator arm and a second side onto which the accessory will be coupled. The coupler includes a latch for selectively securing and releasing an attachment pin of the accessory in a jaw, groove, hook or slot in the second side of the coupler. The coupler is fully controllable from within the cab of the excavator and it allows improved security in the securement of the accessory to the coupler, i.e. preventing accidental decouplings, but while still allowing intentional decoupling operations to be carried out without undue burden.
US08256145B2
Articles of manufacture and articles of wear may include one or more traction elements. Portions of the traction elements may be extendable and/or retractable. The traction elements have at least a two-plate construction that is designed to moderate a force that is applied to one of the plates. This construction may be used in articles of footwear having cleats or other traction elements. force applied by a wearer's foot may be moderated by the two-plate construction.
US08256138B2
A method for controlling an automatic dryer is disclosed, which can determine a dryness level based on information relating the laundry by an initial average value of a sensing means, to thereby achieve stability and reliability in a drying process, the method comprising sensing whether the amount of laundry is small or large by using an average output value in a preset time period of an initial drying stage; detecting a saturation voltage generating point of the sensor; and performing a drying cycle based on each dryness level by using information for the amount of laundry and the saturation voltage generating point.
US08256132B2
A silent hair dryer and a silencer for a hair dryer includes at least one casing with an inlet end and an outlet end and enclosing at least one turbine sucking in air via at least one admission orifice upstream of the turbine and expelling it downstream via at least one outlet orifice. The silent hair dryer includes at least one chamber upstream of the admission orifice and an inlet orifice for aspiration of air upstream of the chamber; the diameter of the chamber being greater than the diameter of the admission orifice and the diameter of the inlet orifice, the length and the diameter of the chamber being of such a size so as to define a volume turned as a function of the sound frequencies to be attenuated by the silencer.
US08256131B2
Method and device for drying circuit substrates (13), in particular semiconductor substrates, in which a circuit surface (30) of the circuit substrate is flushed using a flushing liquid (10) in a flushing step and the circuit surface is dried in a subsequent drying step, the circuit substrate being moved in the flushing step in the direction of its planar extension transversely and in relation to a liquid level (28) of the flushing liquid in such a way that a liquid meniscus forms at a transition area between the circuit surface and the liquid level, which changes because of the relative movement, and thermal radiation (36) is applied to the transition area wetted by the liquid meniscus in the drying step.
US08256130B2
A way to safely fry turkeys by minimizing the hazard of overfilling oil, the Turkey Frying Oil Gauge (TFOG) comprises a device and method to properly pre-measure the frying oil used to fry whole turkeys. The Turkey Frying Oil Gauge is duel scale selectable for pot diameter and turkey weight. The turkey frying pot rim is measured and the size is selected on the gauge bottom. The mast is then slid out to view the weight of the turkey to be fried. The gauge is then placed in the bottom of the pot and frying oil is placed in the pot to the top of the gauge. The oil gauge is removed, the oil heated and the turkey introduced without overflowing the oil onto the heating flames.
US08256124B2
A tilt sensor comprises a multi-layer circuit board, a holder, a first light-sensing component, a second light-sensing component, a light-emitting component, and a movable component. The multi-layer circuit board comprises a first layer board and a second layer board disposed on the first layer board. The second layer board comprises first, second, and third holding spaces each of which exposing a respective portion of the first layer board. The holder is disposed on the second layer board and has a containing recess connecting the first, second, and third holding spaces. A bottom surface of the containing recess is reflective. The first and second light-sensing components and the light-emitting component are disposed on the first layer board and in the first, second, and third holding spaces, respectively. The light-emitting component emits a light beam toward the bottom surface of the containing recess. The movable component is disposed in the containing recess.
US08256120B2
A vegetation trimmer (10) having a motor (20) with a motor output shaft (30), a cutting head (22) for cutting vegetation, and a gear mechanism (26, 34, 36, 38) for transmitting power from said motor output shaft (30) to the cutting head (22). The motor output shaft (30) has a gear mechanism with a pinion wheel and a fan (28) mounted thereon. The gear mechanism (26, 34, 36, 38) further comprises an internal gear wheel (26) engaging with the pinion wheel (34) and connected to the cutting head (22), whereby the cutting head (22) rotates in the same direction (B) as the fan does (D) during operation of the motor (20).
US08256119B2
A method of manufacturing forks for lift trucks comprises the steps of: providing a straight metal bar designed to make the fork, heating the bar at a segment thereof where the fork knee is to be formed, bending the bar at the heated segment in order to form the knee by carrying out bending in a closed-die press provided with containment walls that, when bending has been completed, enclose the knee so as to define the surface contours of the latter.
US08256110B2
The invention provides a method of manufacturing an electronic connector including the steps of: (a) providing an insulating body made of a fiberboard having a thermal deformation degree which is close to the printed circuit board, and a plurality of terminal receiving apertures penetrating a top surface and a under surface of the insulating body being deposed on the insulating body; (b) forming a plurality of conducting terminals respectively comprising a soldering portion soldering to the printed circuit board and a contacting arm electrically contacting with an electronic device; and (c) setting the conducting terminals into the insulating body. In the method of manufacturing an electronic connector according to the invention, because the thermal deformation degrees of the materials used in the insulating body and the printed circuit board are substantially same, a false soldering phenomenon between the conducting terminals located at four corners of the insulating body and the printed circuit board can be prevented.
US08256107B2
An electronic-parts package includes a base member, a conductive member extending through the base member, the conductive member having the insulating substance on the surface removed by polishing, electronic parts disposed on one surface of the conductive member through a connection portion, an exterior electrode disposed through a metal film on the opposite surface of the surface of the base member on which the electronic parts is disposed, and a cap member that protects the electronic parts on the base member.
US08256104B2
A blind fastener installation tool comprises a structural housing which features a mechanism for securing a fastener installation assembly in position relative to the structural housing during the blind installation of a fastener; and a mechanism for reciprocating the fastener installation assembly relative to the structural housing at the conclusion of blind installation. The blind fastener installation tool also comprises a fastener installation assembly. This assembly comprises (1) a pull rod assembly comprising a mechanism for pulling a first portion of a fastener; (2) an annular, piston-actuated, piston-decoupled pull rod actuation assembly to translate the pull rod assembly; and (3) a nose assembly comprising a fastener receptacle for securing the position of a fastener; and one or more optional pull rod translation dampening assemblies to smoothly and effectually dampen the sudden translation of said pull rod assembly after pintail break.
US08256100B2
An stator manufacturing apparatus including an substantially cylindrically-shaped insertion jig from which the rectangular wire is axially detachable, and having protrusions respectively provided at positions aligned with the slots on an outer peripheral surface thereof to protrude radially, and one end-side restricting members respectively provided at positions offset from the protrusions formed in the circumferential direction on an inner diameter side of an inscribed circle of teeth each located between adjacent ones of the slots so as to protrude toward one axial end side. With the linear portions and the slots being aligned with each other, the insertion jig is inserted into the stator core from the one end side of the insertion jig, and is removed from the stator core toward the other end side, so as to respectively dispose the linear portions at predetermined positions in the slots.
US08256096B2
Using a beam of xenon ions together with a suitable mask, a stack is ion milled until a part of it, no more than about 0.1 microns thick, has been removed so that a pedestal having sidewalls, including a vertical section and a shortened taper portion, has been formed. This is followed by formation of conductive lead layers as needed. Using xenon as the sputtering gas enables the point at which milling is terminated to be more precisely controlled.
US08256095B2
An example method for manufacturing a magneto-resistance effect element includes forming a free magnetization layer and forming a spacer layer. The spacer layer is formed, for example, by forming a non-magnetic first metallic layer and forming a second metallic layer on a surface of the non-magnetic first metallic layer. A first irradiating process includes irradiating, onto the second metallic layer, first ions or plasma including at least one of oxygen and nitrogen and at least one selected from the group consisting of Ar, Xe, He, Ne, Kr, so as to convert the second metallic layer into an insulating layer and to form a non-magnetic metallic path penetrating through the insulating layer and containing elements of the non-magnetic first metallic layer. A second irradiating process includes irradiating second ions or plasma onto the insulating layer. A non-magnetic third metallic layer is formed on the non-magnetic metallic path.
US08256094B2
A method is provided for shaping an electric wire for a stator coil of an electric rotating machine. The electric wire to be shaped includes a plurality of straight portions and a plurality of turn portions. Each of the turn portions includes a specific part and all of the specific parts of the turn portions are identical to each other. The method includes clamping the specific part of one of the turn portions of the electric wire in a width-wise direction thereof, holding two different sections of the specific part in a thickness-wise direction thereof, and moving one of the first and second holders relative to the other in the thickness-wise direction of the specific part, thereby shaping the specific part to form a crank-shaped portion therein.
US08256093B2
An acoustic mirror of alternately arranged layers of high and low acoustic impedances is manufactured in that a basic material having a first layer of the layer sequence is initially provided, on which a second layer of the layer sequence is created on the first layer such that the second layer of the layer sequence partially covers the first layer. Subsequently, a planarization layer is applied onto the layer sequence, and the planarization layer is removed in an area which in the common layer plane projects laterally beyond the second layer so as to result in a residual planarization layer. Finally, a termination layer is applied onto the layer sequence and the residual planarization layer.
US08256088B2
A stem (34) extends from a second part (30) through a hole (28) in a first part (22). A groove (38) around the stem provides a non-threaded contact surface (42) for a ring element (44) around the stem. The ring element exerts an inward force against the non-threaded contact surface at an angle that creates axial tension (T) in the stem, pulling the second part against the first part. The ring element is formed of a material that shrinks relative to the stem by sintering. The ring element may include a split collet (44C) that fits partly into the groove, and a compression ring (44E) around the collet. The non-threaded contact surface and a mating distal surface (48) of the ring element may have conic geometries (64). After shrinkage, the ring element is locked onto the stem.
US08256083B2
A device for assembling and disassembling a bicycle chain comprises a mounting seat, an actuating member, an assembling member, a rod member, a spring, and a pulling member. The rod member, the pulling member and the spring are connected to one another to guide a positioning member to be assembled into the assembling holes in a balance manner, so that the device for assembling and disassembling a bicycle chain makes the assembly of the chain more convenient and simple.
US08256077B2
A method for forming a capacitor dielectric includes depositing a tantalum oxide layer over a substrate, performing a post-treatment on the tantalum oxide layer to provide the tantalum oxide layer with a tetragonal phase, and depositing a zirconium oxide layer over the tantalum oxide layer such that the zirconium oxide layer has a tetragonal phase.
US08256075B2
A grid for a battery plate is made by forming a metal sheet is formed into a grid-like shape. Rupture due to torsion or stress concentration does not occur in a basal portion of a wire which is drawn out from a node of the grid, thereby preventing corrosion due to electrolyte from advancing so as not to cause a crack of corrosion in an early stage. The invention provides also a battery using the grid for a battery plate, a method of producing the grid for a battery plate, and a battery using it.
US08256074B2
A grid for a battery plate is made by forming a metal sheet is formed into a grid-like shape. Rupture due to torsion or stress concentration does not occur in a basal portion of a wire which is drawn out from a node of the grid, thereby preventing corrosion due to electrolyte from advancing so as not to cause a crack of corrosion in an early stage. The invention provides also a battery using the grid for a battery plate, a method of producing the grid for a battery plate, and a battery using it.
US08256071B2
A main body holder has a base wall with a through-hole, a holding portion, and a pivotally attached clip piece. A stopper member is movably disposed within the base wall through-hole for movement between a restricting position and a releasing position. In the restricting position, the stopper member projects from the base wall and is configured to engage and securely hold the main body of a portable apparatus on the holding portion so that the apparatus main body is only partially disposed over the base wall through-hole in a state in which the apparatus main body is fully received by the holding portion. In the releasing position, the stopper member extends into the through-hole and does not project from the base wall so that the apparatus main body is allowed to be slid relative to the holding portion. An urging member urges the clip piece into contact with the holding portion and urges the stopper member to the restricting position.
US08256064B2
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and/or freezer with a door or flap for closing the appliance interior, with a hinge, by means of which the door or flap can be swivelled relative to the body of the appliance, wherein the hinge includes means for producing a closing force acting in closing direction of the door or flap, and with a damper which at least over a part of the closing movement of the door or flap applies a force directed against the closing movement of the door or flap, wherein the means for producing a closing force include an eccentric and means which exert a force that acts on the eccentric and is dependent on the opening angle of the door or flap.
US08256062B2
A device comprising a guide having a first pair of substantially parallel running surfaces, which are placed along a first track at a lateral distance apart, and a second pair of substantially parallel running surfaces, which are placed along a second track at a lateral distance apart. The second pair of running surfaces extends, at a crossing or junction, transversely to the first pair of running surfaces. A carrier is displaceable over at least the running surfaces and has a bearing axle, extending transversely to the running surfaces, for fastening of a load, which bearing axle extends between the running surfaces. The device, close to the crossing/junction, has a transport mechanism. The transport mechanism is movable between a take-up position in the first track, for load-bearing engagement with the carrier, and a delivery position in the second track, for release of the carrier. The invention further relates to a rail system and a transport mechanism.
US08256060B2
The present disclosure relates to a pulse cleaner for cleaning a diesel exhaust aftertreatment device. The pulse cleaner includes a cabinet, a diesel exhaust aftertreatment device mount positioned within the cabinet for mounting the diesel exhaust aftertreatment device during pulse cleaning, and a collection filter positioned within the cabinet for collecting material displaced from the diesel exhaust aftertreatment device during cleaning. The pulse cleaner can be equipped with features such as an exhaust aftertreatment device core temperature sensor, an air flow concentrator or an air swirling vane. The pulse cleaner can also include adapters for providing system compatibility with different styles of exhaust aftertreatment devices.
US08256053B2
An apparatus for wheeling a vehicle onto a truck or trailer includes a ramp. The apparatus includes a mounting portion attached to the ramp that mounts to the truck or trailer. The apparatus includes a transition piece the pivotally attaches to the ramp and contacts ground when the mounting portion is mounted to the truck or trailer. A method for placing a vehicle onto a truck or trailer includes the steps of attaching a mounting portion of a ramp to the truck or trailer. There is the step of moving a transition piece attached to the ramp so the transition piece contacts ground. There is the step of wheeling the vehicle across the transition piece, up the ramp and onto the truck or trailer.
US08256048B2
A bed with a leg assembly coupled to a support link assembly by a joint, the joint comprising a slot having at least two paths. A support link assembly defining a length that automatically varies as the support link assembly moves relative to the leg assembly.
US08256047B2
A combination of a treatment device and an anterior support device is disclosed. The combination includes a treatment device having an edge and an attachment member movably secured thereto and an anterior support device having an elongated member which interacts with the attachment member. The anterior support device has first and second pivotable connectors, one being secured to the elongated member and the other to a padded rest. The anterior support device also includes first and second movable rods secured to the first and second pivotable connectors. A second end of the first movable rod is rotatably connected to a second end of the second movable rod and an actuating mechanism is connected to both of the second ends of the rods. The actuating mechanism enables the first and second rods to be locked in a set position to maintain the padded rest in a desired orientation relative to the treatment device.
US08256046B2
The present invention relates to a sanitary product in the form of a disposable sheet or the like, consisting of a web-shaped material comprising a top comfort layer and a bottom barrier layer that are joined together by gluing or embossing without any intermediate layer, wherein the barrier layer is a breathable barrier layer, and said comfort layer is formed from a non-woven material, the basis weight of the comfort layer being equal to or greater than the basis weight of the barrier layer.
US08256043B2
A support element for a cushion cover for seating and lying areas includes a baseplate that can be fixed to a base, and at least one spring element formed by a plurality of spring arms and extending upward from the baseplate in the direction of the cushion cover.
US08256035B1
A toilet seat handle including a substantially L-shaped handle main body formed with a handle member and a base member having a receiving section, an elongated hook element slidably provided inside the base member of the handle main body and formed at its tip end with a claw, and an adjustment screw screw-engaged with the base end of the hook element. The toilet seat handle is mounted on a toilet seat by sandwiching a part of the seat with the claw of the hook element and the receiving section of the base member with the tightened adjustment screw.
US08256031B2
A safety gripping device for use by a passenger riding a vehicle in tandem behind a vehicle operator. The device is in the form of a discrete article with ergonomically inclined handles at either end to be manually positioned by the passenger generally in front of the vehicle operator's torso. Rather than depending on straps or belts worn by the operator or handles directly affixed to the vehicle, the gripping device affords a convenient, comfortable and natural way of gripping, generally avoiding a personal hugging engagement with, or distracting pressure upon, the vehicle operator. This facilitates longer journeys with prolonged enjoyment on a shared vehicle. This portable safety device helps the passenger to better and more safely balance and steady him/herself with respect to the vehicle and its operator. The device may be fabricated or molded from a flexible material, and conveniently include an integral storage container with removable cap.
US08261355B2
Techniques are disclosed for preventing malicious attacks or other exploits on a computer server. A network manager may be configured to determine a topology of a plurality of network devices and deploy an intrusion prevention system in one or more of the network devices to mitigate attacks against the vulnerable servers. The one or more network devices may be identified based on the topology and one or more constraints for optimizing the deployment of the intrusion prevention systems.
US08261348B2
A reception apparatus in accordance with the present invention is provided with a reception unit (11, 12) to receive a stream including a data signal, a display unit 17 for performing display based on the stream received, an authentication process unit 13 for authenticating a sender of the stream received, a signal separating unit 14 for separating the data signal from the stream received, a script detection unit 16 for detecting a script by analyzing the data signal separated, and a control unit 23 for controlling the display unit 17 to perform display based on the stream received, wherein the control unit 23 prohibits an input related to execution of the script in a case where the script is detected by the script detection unit 16 during an authentication of the stream. Thereby, the reception apparatus plays contents appropriately without inflicting either a disadvantage or stress on a user.
US08261347B2
A security system for a computer network that has a plurality of devices connected thereto comprises a security subsystem, a master system and a secure link. The security subsystem is connected to at least some of the devices in the network. The security subsystem is configured to monitor activities of the at least some devices on the network and detect attacks on the at least some devices. The master system monitors the integrity of the security subsystem and registers information pertaining to attacks detected by the security subsystem. The secure link is connected between the security subsystem and the master system. The master system monitors the integrity of the security subsystem and receives the information pertaining to the attacks through the secure link.
US08261335B2
An online application enables an end user to navigate to a web site, upload digital images, and to combine those images with words in a stylized template to create a user-generated story. A story is a web page, typically a collection of photos and words that are brought together by a stylized template that can be customized by the end user. Preferably, a given story is available from the site at a given location (at a URL) that may be private or public. A given story may be shared with other end users, published to other web sites or web logs, or maintained solely for one's own use. The invention also provides for multiple end users to collaborate to create a “shared” story.
US08261328B2
A method for using shared vulnerability to provide trusted communication services between systems is disclosed. For example, a server may deny access to a service which renders it vulnerable to an untrusted client unless access to a useful vulnerability is received from the client. That is, the server may trust the client because any misuse by the client may result in the server exploiting the shared vulnerability. A system may request access to a service on another system to perform some transaction. Upon receiving this request, the server may determine a vulnerability of the client useful in deterring or stopping unwanted actions. The server may request access to this vulnerability. Once this vulnerability has been granted to the server, the server may then grant access to the requested service to the client.
US08261327B2
With the proliferation of wireless devices, seamless authentication of devices at distributed locations (e.g., so-called Wi-Fi hotspots) may be essential for convenient use of various devices at these locations. Previous methods for authentication relied on an account-based method using a username and a password inputted from a user. This method may be awkward for mass-distribution of devices. Various embodiments disclosed may provide an authorization client that communicates with one or more servers that relies on client software and message authentication codes for authorization of network access.
US08261324B2
A system and method for identifying and verifying a client to access a secure network. Timing characteristics are acquired from the client, such as a peripheral device, and further verified and identified via a policy enforcement points and a policy decision points, or a measurer device in the secure network.
US08261316B2
A system (1) for storing and/or retrieving a data-set is proposed, wherein the data-set comprises a plurality of data-files, the system comprising: storage(3) for storing the data-set; at least one client(2) being operable to write the data-set to the storage and/or to read the data-set from the storage; to receive an access-request from the client for accessing at least one data-file of the data-set in the storage, wherein the storage master(5) is operable to send an access-message to the storage, wherein the storage is operable to cache further data-files or blocks thereof of the same data-set and/or to allocate storage space for further data-files or blocks thereof of the same data-set as a reaction on the access-message.
US08261315B2
A method and apparatus for a multicasting multimedia content distribution system. A content server creates a schedule of transmission times for data streams and assigns the streams to multicast groups. DVRs receive the schedule from content server that contains content descriptions for each data stream along with the transmission times of each particular content description. The content server transmits the content across the Internet according to the published schedule via a multicast transmission designated for a particular multicast group. Each DVR determines the content for which it has an interest, finds the scheduled time for transmission for the content, schedules a recording time in its recording schedule, and joins the associated multicast group at the scheduled time. The DVR receives the multicast stream for the group and stores the stream on its local storage device for use by the DVR or for viewing by a user.
US08261314B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a gateway including a controller adapted to transmit media content to a group of set top boxes that are associated with a premises and that each have a presentation device connected thereto where the presentation devices are in proximity to each other, receive a plurality of streams of the media content from a media server where the streams are of the same media content, and apply a delay compensation to delivery of the plurality of streams to one or more set top boxes of the group of set top boxes to synchronize presentation of the media content at each of the presentation devices, where the delay compensation is based on a transmission delay and a receipt delay, where the transmission delay is between each of the group of set top boxes and the gateway, and where the receipt delay is between the gateway and the media server. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08261313B2
A mobile communication terminal and method of transmitting broadcast viewing information thereof are disclosed. The mobile communication terminal includes a broadcast module configured to receive a broadcast program, an information collecting unit configured to collect and manage the broadcast viewing information for the received broadcast program, a transmitting unit configured to transmit the broadcast viewing information to a broadcast managing server according to a transmission cycle, a receiving unit configured to receive a change request message for the transmission cycle from the broadcast managing server, and a control unit configured to change the transmission cycle according to the change request message, and control the transmitting unit to transmit the broadcast viewing information to the broadcast managing server in the changed transmission cycle.
US08261303B2
A display device and method for displaying images are discussed. According to an embodiment, the display device includes at least one first tuner configured to tune to a plurality of different broadcast channels; a display screen configured to display a multi-window including a plurality of sub-windows, each of the plurality of sub-windows configured to display images from a different one of the plurality of broadcast channels; an input unit configured to receive a user's input for editing a channel list including the plurality of broadcast channels; and a controller configured to control the at least one first tuner, the input unit and the display screen.
US08261300B2
Methods and apparatuses for presenting targeted advertisements to DVR users are described. After a DVR has finished playing a recorded television program, or in response to other specified events, the DVR presents a screen which comprises a “save or delete” menu. In addition to the “save” and “delete” options, the menu additionally comprises one or more other options. Each of these other options may correspond to a separate promotional item. For example, a user's selection of such an option may cause the DVR to display or play an advertisement on the user's television set. Additionally or alternatively, these other options, when selected by a user, may cause the DVR to display a user interface through which the user can actually purchase a product or service. The product or service advertised or offered may be one that was featured or referenced in the television program that the user was just watching.
US08261288B2
An object is to provide an application platform in which, before a screen of an application is displayed, another application can display any screen by an optional determination standard. When the screen of a first application is to be displayed, if a second application exists monitoring a function of an image forming apparatus included in the first application, the second application is notified of the function information before the screen of the first application is displayed. Then, for realizing the above, the use function of the image forming apparatus is registered for each of the first applications, and the monitor function is registered for each of the second applications.
US08261281B2
A method, system and computer program product for optimizing allocation of resources to partitions of a data processing system are disclosed. The method includes creating a first virtual central processing unit and a second virtual central processing unit, wherein at least one of the set of the first virtual processing unit and the second virtual processing spans across a first physical processing unit and a second physical processing unit. One or more resources from the first and second virtual central processing units are allocated to a first partition and a second partition. Whether one or more processes running on the first partition can utilize additional resources is determined. One or more resources from the first virtual central processing unit and resources from the second virtual central processing unit are reallocated to the first partition, wherein at least one of the resources was previously allocated to the second partition.
US08261273B2
A computer program having threads and data is assigned to a processor having a processor cores and memory organized over hardware locality groups. The computer program is profiled to generate a data thread interaction graph (DTIG) representing the computer program. The threads and the data of the computer program are organized over clusters using the DTIG and based on one or more constraints. The DTIG is displayed to a user, and the user is permitted to modify the constraints such that the threads and the data of the computer program are reorganized over the clusters. Each cluster is mapped onto one of the hardware locality groups. The computer program is regenerated based on the mappings of clusters to hardware locality groups. At run-time, optimizations are performed to improve execution performance, while the computer program is executed.
US08261261B2
An electronic mobile communication device is configured to install a computer program onto a computing device that is different than the mobile communication device. The installation process includes the electronic mobile computing device communicating with the computing device to obtain information for use in installing the computer program, and the electronic mobile computing device executing an installer for the computer program. The installer uses the information to install the computer program on the computing device.
US08261251B2
An error handling operation for checking of an array access in program code is modified during compilation thereof. A sequentially arranged null checking operation and array bounds checking operation for the array access are located. The array bounds checking operation has a corresponding error handling operation operable for setting an array bounds error. The located sequentially arranged null checking operation is removed. The corresponding error handling operation for the located sequentially arranged array bounds checking operation is modified to perform the removed null checking operation during execution of the program code.
US08261250B2
A single-chip multiprocessor system and operation method of this system based on a static macro-scheduling of parallel streams for multiprocessor parallel execution. The single-chip multiprocessor system has buses for direct exchange between the processor register files and access to their store addresses and data. Each explicit parallelism architecture processor of this system has an interprocessor interface providing the synchronization signals exchange, data exchange at the register file level and access to store addresses and data of other processors. The single-chip multiprocessor system uses ILP to increase the performance. Synchronization of the streams parallel execution is ensured using special operations setting a sequence of streams and stream fragments execution prescribed by the program algorithm.
US08261248B2
In one embodiment the present invention includes a first virtual machine that executes a non-dynamic program, that implements a second virtual machine that executes a dynamic program. The dynamic program operates in the structured environment of the non-dynamic programming language via various allowed interaction pathways. In this manner, dynamic programs may be executed in a robust business applications environment.
US08261244B2
A target function is identified during runtime. Instrumentation is applied to the target function during runtime that includes determining target function information associated with the target function, wherein the target function information includes a call signature of the target function. The target function is executed.
US08261236B2
The present invention comprises utility capable of detecting various issues with plug-ins and fragments in Eclipse and Eclipse-based products. In order to find issues, the utility first seeks information about the sites available in the given product. Once the sites have been located, the utility seeks information about the plug-ins and fragments in each site that are expected to resolve in the product. Once the utility has determined what particular plug-ins and fragments are expected to resolve in each site, it parses both the text and XML manifest of each candidate plug-in and fragments in order to gather the following information: Once the above information of each candidate plug-in and fragment has been gathered, the utility analyzes the particular information in details and performs a series of tests to find whether the candidate plug-ins and fragments have issues. For each issue that the utility finds, a detailed explanation regarding the particular issue, cause and details leading to resolution of the issue is provided in an interactive HTML based report which is given to the user at the end of the investigation.
US08261234B1
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for compiling code adapted to execute utilizing a first processor, for executing the code utilizing a second processor. In operation, code adapted to execute utilizing a first processor is identified. Additionally, the code is compiled for executing the code utilizing a second processor that is different from the first processor and includes a central processing unit. Further, the code is executed utilizing the second processor.
US08261220B2
Partitioning of a design allows static timing analysis (STA), signal integrity, and noise analysis to be performed in parallel on multiple, less demanding, and more available hardware resources. Therefore, runtime and throughput of the analysis can be significantly shortened. Notably, the partitioning can include redundancy. That is, partitions are allowed to share objects in order to preserve the timing path completeness and design structural integrity. Due to this redundancy, these partitions can account for many constraints specifically imposed by STA and ensure minimal inter-partition data dependency during the analysis. Once these partitions are populated, analysis can be performed on those partitions in parallel to generate the same timing results as if the design had been analyzed flat as a single unit. Therefore, the performance of the analysis can be optimized without compromising the accuracy and quality of results.
US08261217B2
A pattern forming method including modifying design data subjected to a first design rule check in design data of a pattern to be formed in a semiconductor substrate, performing the first design rule check to the modified design data again, outputting the modified design data which does not violate the first design rule as pattern forming design data used in actual pattern formation, and performing a second design rule check having an allowable range wider than that of the first design rule to the modified design data which violates the first design rule, and outputting the modified design data which does not violate the second design rule as the pattern forming design data, and redesigning the pattern to satisfy the second design rule or adjusting the modification guideline such that the modified design data which violates the second design rule satisfies the second design rule.
US08261211B2
Apparatus and methods for improving touch-screen interface usability and accuracy by determining the trajectory of a pointer as it approaches the touch-screen and modifying the touch-screen display accordingly. The system may predict an object on the display the user is likely to select next. The system may designate this object as a Designated Target Object, or DTO. The system may modify the appearance of the DTO by, for example, changing the size of the DTO, or by changing its shape, style, coloring, perspective, positioning, etc.
US08261210B2
An example television Widget movement method involves receiving a dedicated command from a remote controller that activates the plurality of Widget programs, when in Display mode, display Widget representations on a display; receiving a command that establishes one of the plurality of displayed Widget programs as the Widget program that is currently in focus; and receiving a command that places the Widget program currently in focus in Move Mode. The Widget can be moved about the display while in Move Mode, where when the Widget is in Move Mode, the Widget representation is responsive to navigation commands to move about the display. Such movement is animated using a 3 dimensional graphics engine and accompanied by an audio sound effect. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08261207B2
A technique to navigate through one or more menus of a handheld computer is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique uses a handheld device having a first button to cause a cursor to navigate through a plurality of menu items and to highlight a desired menu item. The device also has a second button to cause the cursor to navigate through a plurality of menus when the cursor is highlighting one of the menus or a first menu item, and to cause the cursor to highlight a previous menu item when the cursor is highlighting a menu item other than the first menu item.
US08261198B2
Embodiments can include instructions or steps, which when carried out, detect that copy operations are being performed on website data displayed to a user. Further to this detection, a co-browsing query for display to a user may be generated, an instruction to associate a co-browsing invitation with website data copied by the user may also be generated and a co-browsing invitation and pasted website data may be sent to an invitee.
US08261197B2
Methods and systems for managing To do items and/or notes and/or emails (or other electronic messages) are described. On exemplary method includes receiving an input to create a To do item based on a portion of an email record, such as a received email, and creating, in response to the input, the To do item. Another exemplary method includes storing a note having a To do item in the note, the note being stored as an entry in a note database which is separate from a To do database and storing the To do item in the To do database and receiving an input within either a note view or a To do view to edit the To do item and causing the note to be edited and causing the To do item to be edited in response to the input.
US08261193B1
A computer system includes a display interface, a user input device interface, and a processor cooperatively operable with the display interface and the user input device interface. The processor is configured to facilitate displaying, via the display interface, a mashup or service; interacting with the user to input, via the user input device interface, an indication to take a snapshot of the mashup or service being currently displayed via the display interface; and storing a snapshot artifact of live data from the mashup or service at the instant the snapshot is taken.
US08261192B2
A method includes recognizing an item within a first document based on a pattern associated with the item but not the exact content of the item. The method further includes identifying a link for the item and providing a second document that includes information associated with the item when the link for the item is selected.
US08261189B2
Method, article of manufacture and apparatus for playing back recorded database activity in a graphical user interface. Chronologically ordered database event information is dynamically displayed in a user interface having user-selectable graphical elements associated with predefined playback controls.
US08261188B2
A computer-implemented method is provided for preparing a document for editing. The document includes a first graphical object and at least one variable field or property in a second graphical object that is associated with a property of the first graphical object. The first graphical object has a plurality of properties. A user interface display screen is provided that allows a user to design a document that includes a plurality of graphical objects. Then, a document is created on the user interface display screen. A first graphical object and a second graphical object are added to the document. At least one variable field or property in the second graphical object is identified. The identified field or property in the second graphical object is associated with a property of the first graphical object. In this manner, a document is prepared for editing.
US08261187B2
Document fragments are managed by the use of fragment objects. Fragment objects contain a reference to a portion of a source document. Referencing documents contain a reference to a fragment object which delivers the content of the fragment of the source document to the referencing document. The source document can be directly updated through updating the fragment of the source document contained in the referencing document via the use of the fragment object. Source document deletion is controlled by storing the references to the source document by fragment objects so that no fragment object has a reference to a non-existent source document. A process for organizing document fragments within a document management system wherein source documents comprise duplicates of the document fragments includes replacing a duplicate fragment with a reference to a single fragment object the fragment object including a reference to a fragment of a source document and an object class method for deletion of the fragment object including instructions to remove the reference to the fragment object from the metadata of the source document to which the fragment object refers.
US08261184B2
A method for encoding and displaying documents includes identifying multiple characteristics, such as characters, and scenery, about text of a document, creating a key for correlating the characteristics with multiple unique indicia such as color, and placing corresponding indicia to the characteristics present in a line of text in columns adjacent the line of text on the basis of the key. A system for encoding and displaying documents includes a memory containing multiple characteristics about text of a document, the document, a key for correlating the characteristics with each unique indicia, and a display showing at least some of the unique indicia adjacent at least some lines of text in the document, the unique indicia placed adjacent the line of text corresponding to the characteristics in the line of text based on the key. An encoded document has various lines of text with multiple characteristics, multiple unique indicia in a margin adjacent at least some lines of text, and the unique indicia in the margin corresponds to the multiple characteristics in the associated line of text.
US08261181B2
Persistent annotations are created on a scorecard that combines multi-dimensional as well as fixed value data. The annotations uniquely defined by the scorecard view definition and by the retrieved scorecard data, are independent of the data's dimensionality enabling persistence of the annotations with the data and definition even when the scorecard is reconfigured. The annotations may include a “bubble-up” feature, where a hierarchical structure of the scorecard is inherited by the annotations. Threaded discussions and updated document lists are enabled around the annotations with appropriate permissions and/or credentials.
US08261172B1
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for decoding data stored on a data storage medium. A disclosed decoding method and decoder include a radial incoherence (RI) detector that increases the probability of detecting RI and improves the decoding performance in terms of the bit error rate of the decoded signal. RI is detected by comparing an input signal to the decoder against a RI threshold value and generating a RI-type signal. The RI detector may include a filter for filtering out noise and error in the RI-type signal, an adaptive threshold unit that adjusts the RI threshold value based upon the RI-type signal, a transition-based threshold unit that adjusts the RI threshold value based upon each transition in the input signal, or a path-based threshold unit that adjusts the RI threshold value based upon a best surviving path corresponding to the input signal, in combination or alone.
US08261152B2
A method and apparatus for generating Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes of various block lengths from a structured LDPC code in a communication system is provided. To support various block lengths, predefined rules are applied to a parity check matrix of an LDPC code, and then shortening is selectively applied to the parity check matrix. Subsequently, if information data bits are input, the input data information bits are encoded into an LDPC codeword by using the parity check matrix according to a preset encoding scheme, and then the encoded LDPC codeword is transmitted after puncturing is selectively applied.
US08261143B2
A system comprises a plurality of components, scan chain selection logic coupled to the components, and override selection logic coupled to the scan chain selection logic. The scan chain selection logic selects various of the components to be members of a scan chain under the direction of a host computer. The override selection logic detects a change in the scan chain and, as a result, blocks the entire scan chain from progressing.
US08261140B2
An apparatus having a memory module and an initialization module is disclosed. The initialization module may be configured to (i) mark a particular location in the memory module as an uninitialized location by writing a predetermined word into the particular location in response to an occurrence of an event, (ii) read a read word from an address in the memory module in response to a read cycle and (iii) generate an interrupt signal by analyzing the read word, the interrupt signal being asserted where the read word indicates that the address is the uninitialized location in the memory module.
US08261136B2
A method and device for selectively refreshing a region of a non-volatile memory of a data storage device is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes comparing a time stamp received from a host device to a first time stamp retrieved from a data storage device for a first region of a non-volatile memory, the first region including a least recently accessed region of a memory array within the data storage device. The method also includes selectively refreshing the first region based on a comparison of a difference between the time stamp received from the host device and the first time stamp as compared to a threshold, where the threshold is adjusted based on a first error count corresponding to a number of errors detected by an error correction code (ECC) engine with respect to data retrieved from the first region.
US08261128B2
A data processing system includes an input/output (I/O) host bridge to which at least one I/O adapter is coupled by an I/O link. In a register of the I/O host bridge, a configuration partitionable endpoint (PE) field is set to identify a PE to be used for an I/O configuration operation. Thereafter, the host bridge initiates the I/O configuration operation on the I/O link and determines if an error occurred for the I/O configuration operation. In response to a determination that an error occurred for the I/O configuration operation, an error state is set in the I/O host bridge only for the PE indicated in the configuration PE field of the register in the I/O host bridge, wherein I/O configuration errors are isolated to particular PEs.
US08261122B1
In some embodiments, a method is provided and a computer accessible medium comprising instructions which, when executed, implement the method is also provided. A recovery time for recovery of at least one asset is estimated responsive to at least one metric represented in metric data. The metric data is accumulated prior to the estimation. In various embodiments, data protection operations may include one or more of asset copy operations, recovery operations, etc. The estimated recovery time may be reported to a user. In other embodiments, metric data may be used to validate recoverability. In still other embodiments, recovery metrics may be calculated and displayed to the user along with corresponding recovery targets and objectives.
US08261108B2
An information handling system (IHS) is provided which includes a system processor and a wireless section coupled to the system processor. While the system processor remains in a reduced power state, the wireless section is operable to be powered up to detect the presence of a wireless network external to the IHS and determine if that detected wireless network matches a network included in profile information stored in a memory that is accessible by the wireless section. An indicator is coupled to the wireless section and is operable to provide an indication that a wireless network is present.
US08261107B2
A printing device controller provided with a first computational processing unit that performs overall control of the device as a whole and a second computational processing unit that consumes less power than the first computational processing unit, the printing device controller including: a RAM (Random Access Memory) having a self-refresh mode; a main control unit whose main processing constituent is the first computational processing unit; and a sub control unit whose main processing constituent is the second computational processing unit. When an instruction to enter a power-saving state is inputted, the main control unit causes the first computational processing unit to store information necessary for returning from the power-saving state into a storage unit and then causes the RAM to enter the self-refresh mode, and the sub control unit then powers off the first computational processing unit.
US08261106B2
A portable electronic device includes a main power supply, a power management unit (PMU) connected to the main power supply, and a receiver unit connected to the PMU. The main power supply supplies electric power to the portable electronic device through the PMU. The receiver unit includes a processor module connected to the PMU. The processor module stores a lock code, the processor module directs the PMU to prevent the main power supply from providing electric power to the portable electronic device when the receiver unit receives wireless signals corresponding to the lock code.
US08261101B1
A suspend mode is provided that can be asserted using an Internal Configuration Access Port (ICAP) of an integrated circuit such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), as supposed to a dedicated external suspend pin typically accessed by a device external to the FPGA. The ICAP is designed to assert the suspend mode through a configuration block to maintain the state of the configuration memory array while lowering power, in a similar manner to when an external suspend pin is accessed. Internal circuits can, thus, be used to assert a suspend mode through the ICAP.
US08261099B1
Method and system for storing data in a storage device accessible through a storage area network is provided. The method includes receiving data from a host system; generating a first encryption key for encrypting data information that describes the received data; generating a second encryption key that encrypts the first encryption key and the encrypted data information; generating an encryption packet that includes the second encryption key, the first encryption key and the data information; storing the encryption packet at one or more memory locations; and periodically refreshing the encryption packet without periodically encrypting the received data for securely storing the received data.
US08261089B2
There is provided a method for authenticating a mobile device user against an authenticating system connected to a client computer accessible to said user. The authenticating system uses a communication channel to send to the client computer a logon screen. This logon screen contains a 2D-code embedding, a URL of the authenticating system and a challenge generated by the authenticating system. With a 2D-code reader in the user's mobile device the URL and the challenge are decoded. The user then inputs a password and a response to the challenge is computed. The response is sent together with the user ID to the authenticating system. The authenticating system is able to ascertain that the response to the challenge necessarily comes from the user thereby verifying his identity. Once the user is authenticated, the authenticating system pushes to the client computer (identified by the challenge) a welcome screen.
US08261083B2
A CPU of a navigation apparatus stores public keys to which priorities are set and which are published by an information distribution center in a public key storage section. The CPU of the navigation apparatus extracts an electronic signature of distribution data which is distributed from the information distribution center and verifies the electronic signature by using only ‘valid’ public keys among the public keys in order of the priorities. The CPU of the navigation apparatus determines that the distribution data is valid information which is distributed from the information distribution center when the electronic signature passes verification.
US08261080B2
A system and method for managing a digital certificate associated with a remote device is provided. The method includes providing a Web Service Application Programming Interface (API) and communicating digitally between the Web Service API and a remote device, including one of requesting the remote device to perform a task associated with managing digital certificates, and responding to a request from the remote device for performing a task associated with managing digital certificates.
US08261078B2
A method and arrangement is disclosed for providing a user, not previously having an individual subscription with a network operator, with credentials for secure access to network services. The arrangement includes a gateway, associated with a subscription for network services, having means for generating and exporting to a user entity personalized user security data derived from security data related to the subscription. In particular, the derivation of credentials is based on a function that is shared between network and gateway and further conveniently makes use of bootstrapping on keying material from the subscription authentication. Pre-registered user identities are assigned trusted users who, thereafter, can download credentials and authenticate for service access. The invention may be implemented at a public place for providing temporary visitors network access whereby trust may exemplary be established by presenting a credit card.
US08261076B2
Based on security parameters previously agreed upon by first and second communication devices, a first security value is determined by the second communication device and transmitted to the first communication device. The first communication device determines second and third security values based on the security parameters and the first security value and transmits the second and third security values to the second communication device. The second communication device determines a fourth security value based on the security parameters and, if the second security value matches the fourth security value, authenticates the first communication device. Upon successful authentication of the first communication device, a shared key is determined by both communication devices based on the third security value and the security parameters.
US08261063B2
Processing apparatus, such as a trusted platform, is provided with an access-control arrangement for handling a tree-structured hierarchy such as a key hierarchy. The access-control arrangement only permits access to a particular node of the hierarchy upon receiving a reliable indication that a mechanism expected to resist subversion will attempt to enforce appropriate access restrictions on that node. Such a mechanism is, for example, a protected process executing in a benign environment in the apparatus. The indication that the mechanism is in place is provided by a trusted source, such as a hardware root of trust responsible for initiating the mechanism. Access to the particular node opens the way to revealing that node, and any descendants, to the protected process.
US08261062B2
To allow down-level devices to participate in a network controlled by a protocol including CGAS or ECGAs, the CGA or ECGA authentication may be made optional to allow the down-level devices to execute non-CGA or non-ECGA versions of network protocols, while at the same time allowing the use of CGA- and/or ECGA-authenticated versions of the same protocols. To identify non-cryptographic addresses (e.g., non-CGA and non-ECGA), the address bits of a non-CGA or non-ECGA such that the address cannot be or is probably not an encoding of the hash of a public key. In this manner, a receiving node may properly identify the capabilities of the sending node, perform an appropriate authentication of the message containing the non-cryptographic address, and/or prioritize processing of information contained in the message with the non-cryptographic address.
US08261058B2
A system, method and apparatus are disclosed for protecting sensitive data by extracting the sensitive data from a data storage on a client, sending the extracted data to a server for storage, receiving a pointer indicating where the extracted data has been stored and replacing the sensitive data on the data storage on the client with the pointer. The pointer may include random data that is of a same data type as the sensitive data. Furthermore, the pointer is subsequently used to access the sensitive data after proper authentication.
US08261050B2
Selectively recollecting vital product data during an initial program load at data processing system power on is provided. In response to receiving an input to power on a data processing system, a resource location code array table is accessed within a set of selected tables for the data processing system based on machine type. The selected set of tables is located in firmware within a service processor. An entry for a resource in the resource location code array table is read to determine whether the entry includes a no recollect tag. Then, in response to determining that the entry for the resource in the resource location code array table does include a no recollect tag, vital product data for the resource is not recollected during the initial program load.
US08261044B2
The distributed data handling and processing resources system of the present invention includes a) a number of data handling and processing resource nodes that collectively perform a desired data handling and processing function, each data handling and processing resource node for providing a data handling/processing subfunction; and, b) a low latency, shared bandwidth databus for interconnecting the data handling and processing resource nodes. In the least, among the data handling and processing resource nodes, is a processing unit (PU) node for providing a control and data handling/processing subfunction; and, an input/output (I/O) node for providing a data handling/processing subfunction for data collection/distribution to an external environment. The present invention preferably uses the IEEE-1394b databus due to its unique and specialized low latency, shared bandwidth characteristics.
US08261043B2
A method and apparatus are provided to perform efficient merging operations of two or more streams of data by using SIMD instruction. Streams of data are merged together in parallel and with mitigated or removed conditional branching. The merge operations of the streams of data include Merge AND and Merge OR operations.
US08261035B1
A method and system for changing storage drive contents, including installing a redirection driver in a computer system, wherein the redirection driver redirects access requests directed to a main storage of the computer system to one of the main storage and a temporary storage; copying files from the main storage to the temporary storage; restoring files from a source storage into the main storage by overwriting corresponding files in the main storage; and redirecting, to the temporary storage, requests for access directed to files of the main storage that have been copied to the temporary storage.
US08261034B1
A method for moving data in a memory system of a cascading region-based filter is disclosed. The method generally includes steps (A) to (C). Step (A) may load a first portion of the data from a buffer to the memory system at a start of a given cycle using a control circuit. The memory system generally has multiple first memories. A first region of a particular first memory may receive the first portion of data. Step (B) may copy the data in a second region of the particular first memory to a third region of the particular first memory at an end of the given cycle. Step (C) may copy the data in an output region of the particular first memory to an input region of a next first memory at the end of the given cycle. The output region generally overlaps both the first region and the second region.
US08261033B1
A method and system for migrating massive amounts of data in a secure and traceable fashion using a distributed storage system is described. Data shuttle storage devices moves large quantities of content from one source location to one or more target locations by first acting in local communication with the source location, then being physically moved to a location where a shuttle storage device may be in local communication with the target location. This migration does not compromise data accessibility, reliability, or security. Dynamic configurable policy-driven data placement specifies the number and location of multiple copies of each digital data object. Each digital data object replica remains traceable even as the hardware onto which it is stored is being relocated. The content remains accessible at any time.
US08261032B2
A storage system comprises a plurality of control modules having a plurality of cache memories respectively. One or more dirty data elements out of a plurality of dirty data elements stored in a first cache memory in a first control module are copied to a second cache memory in a second control module. The one or more dirty data elements stored in the second cache memory are backed up to a non-volatile storage resource. The dirty data elements backed up from the first cache memory to the non-volatile storage resource are dirty data elements other than the one or more dirty data elements of which copying has completed, out of the plurality of dirty data elements.
US08261030B2
A storage stack delete notification can be received at a storage stack filter. The delete notification can indicate deletion of primary data in a primary storage region. Secondary data that is taking up storage resources managed by the storage stack filter can be identified. The secondary data can be associated with the primary storage region, and the storage resources can be resources other than the primary storage region. It can be determined whether it is useful to have the secondary data continue taking up the storage resources. If having the secondary data continue taking up the storage resources is not useful, then the storage resources can be freed.
US08261023B2
A data processor includes a cache memory control section which includes: a hit/miss determination section which is supplied with a request for data processing to determine whether data to be processed is present in a cache memory and outputs a cache hit/miss determination result and, if having determined that the data is not present in the cache memory, feeds a read command to make an upper memory control section read the data from the upper memory; a FIFO storage which stores the cache hit/miss determination result and the in-block read position information according to a FIFO system; and a cache memory read/write section which reads the hit/miss determination result and the in-block read position information from the FIFO storage and reads the data from the cache memory, or writes the data from the upper memory control section into the cache memory and outputs the data.
US08261019B2
A system for conveying critical and non-critical words of multiple cache lines includes a first node interface of a first processing node receiving, from a first processor, a first request identifying a critical word of a first cache line and a second request identifying a critical word of a second cache line. The first node interface conveys requests corresponding to the first and second requests to a second node interface of a second processing node. The second node interface receives the corresponding requests and conveys the critical words of the first and second cache lines to the first processing node before conveying non-critical words of the first and second cache lines.
US08261014B2
A system and method for controlling a memory card are provided. The system may include a memory card and a host. The memory card may have a plurality of data transceiving channels, and the host may selectively activate the data transceiving channels in the memory card and transmit a plurality of commands to the activated data transceiving channels.
US08261012B2
A non-volatile semiconductor memory is disclosed comprising a first memory device having a memory array including a plurality of memory segments, and a data register for storing write data prior to being written to one of the memory segments. A memory controller comprises a microprocessor for executing access commands received from a host. Interface circuitry generates control signals that enable the microprocessor to communicate with the first memory device. Power fail circuitry transmits a flush command to the first memory device through the interface circuitry in response to a power fail signal, wherein the first memory device responds to the flush command by transferring the write data stored in the data register to the memory segment.
US08261003B2
Methods and apparatus for expanded capacity virtual volumes in a virtualized storage system. A storage controller of the storage system parses a SCSI command block as it is received to generate a tag value indicating a segment of a virtual volume to which the command block is directed. The tag value is used to select one of a plurality of mapping segment objects stored in a memory of the controller. Each mapping segment objects maps logical block addresses of a corresponding segment of a corresponding virtual volume to physical storage addresses on the physical storage devices that comprise the virtual volume. An I/O processing circuit of the controller then processes the SCSI command block in accordance with the mapping information in the selected mapping segment object. In one exemplary embodiment, each segment of a virtual volume comprises 2 terabytes of storage capacity of the virtual volume.
US08260997B1
In one embodiment, a method comprises initiating shutdown of network traffic of a line card while the line card is coupled to a connector chassis and exchanging network traffic, the initiating shutdown in response to actuation of a magnetic switch associated with the line card, the magnetic switch being actuated in response to movement of actuating structure that unlocks the line card for removal from the connector chassis; and completing the shutdown of network traffic in the line card prior to permitting complete removal of the line card from the connector chassis.
US08260996B2
Technologies are described herein for allocating interrupts within a multiprocessor computing system. Information communicated to an interrupt controller module can support allocating interrupt response resources so as to maintain processor affinity for interrupt service routines. This affinity can support caching efficiency by executing a specific interrupt handler on a processor that previously executed that interrupt handler. The caching efficiency may be balanced against the benefits of assigning execution of the interrupt hander to another processor that is currently idle or currently processing a lower priority task.
US08260987B2
Disclosed are methods and systems for variable width data input to a pattern-recognition processor. A variable width data input method may include receiving bytes over a data bus having a first width and receiving one or more signals indicating the validity of each of the one or more bytes. The valid bytes may be sequentially provided to a pattern-recognition processor in an 8-bit wide data stream. In an embodiment, a system may include one or more address lines configured to provide the one or more signals indicating the validity of the bytes transferred over the data bus. The system may include a buffer and control logic to sequentially process the valid bytes.
US08260981B2
A direct memory access controller including: a transfer module that transfers data from several data sources to at least one addressee for these data, through several buffer memories each including a predetermined number of successive elementary memory locations; a read management module that reads data stored in the buffer memories and that transfers them in sequence to the addressee; and a storage module that stores read pointers associated respectively with each buffer memory, each read pointer indicating an elementary location of the buffer memory with which it is associated and in which data can be read, wherein the buffer memories are associated respectively with each data source, and for each buffer memory, the controller includes means for executing a firmware that reads data and updates a read pointer associated with this buffer memory, and for synchronising execution of the firmwares as a function of a predetermined order of data originating from buffer memories required in a data sequence to be transferred to the addressee.
US08260980B2
Disclosed is a method that simultaneously transfers DMA data from a peripheral device to a hardware assist function and processor memory. A first DMA transfer is configured to transfer data from the peripheral to a peripheral DMA engine. While receiving the data, the DMA engine simultaneously transfers this data to processor memory. The DMA engine also transfers a copy of the data to a hardware assist function. The DMA engine may also simultaneously transfer data from processor memory to a peripheral device while transferring a copy to a hardware assist function.
US08260973B2
The present disclosure includes methods and devices for a memory controller. In one or more embodiments, a memory controller includes a plurality of back end channels, and a command queue communicatively coupled to the plurality of back end channels. The command queue is configured to hold host commands received from a host. Circuitry is configured to generate a number of back end commands at least in response to a number of the host commands in the command queue, and distribute the number of back end commands to a number of the plurality of back end channels.
US08260970B2
A communication device includes an RF transceiver for communicating first data with a first remote communication device via a first protocol and a first frequency band in a first mode of operation, wherein the first data is communicated via indirect wireless communication. A millimeter wave transceiver communicates second data with a second remote communication device via a second protocol and a 60 GHz frequency band in a second mode of operation. A communication control module coordinates the communication of the first data and the second data with the at least one of the plurality of remote communication devices. A graphical interface device selects the first remote communication device and the second remote communication device and selects at least one of the first mode of operation and the second mode of operation, based on actions of a user.
US08260969B2
A high performance computer system has compute nodes interconnected by an inter-node communication network. The compute nodes include local packetized interconnects. Shared memory between compute nodes is emulated by tunneling packetized interconnect packets between the compute nodes. A memory region on one of the compute nodes is used as a window into a memory region in another compute node. Special registers may be provided to expedite remote operations on small amounts of data.
US08260968B2
A network processor system includes a network processor 1, which is provided with a number of interfaces 9, 11, 13, 15, 19, including one or more Ethernet interfaces 9, 11 and a UART interface 19, which can be used to load a software package into the network processor 1. The software package can thus be modified when required, or when the software package previously stored in the network processor system is corrupted. The Ethernet data packets received on the Ethernet interfaces 9, 11 are in a special format, which the network processor 1 can recognize, to distinguish them from conventional Ethernet packets. Thus, the network processor 1 does not have to be programmed to handle the full range conventional Ethernet data packets. The network processor 1 is provided with a second external non-volatile data storage device 7 in the form of a EEPROM memory 7. The EEPROM memory 7 provides a writable extension of the internal ROM memory of the network processor. It can, for example, be used to store the parameters of other components of a network processor system (e.g. a flash memory 5) so that the network processor 1 can be used in conjunction with components of a wide range of types.
US08260960B2
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for supporting non-delivery notification between a switch and device in a network. A login with a switch is initiated including a test service parameter requesting a non-delivery notification service to cause the switch to return a non-delivery notification in response to a test path request indicating a destination node that is unavailable. Indication is made that the test service is available for the login in response to receiving a reply from the switch that the switch accepts the login with the non-delivery notification service. The test path request is sent to the switch to determine whether the destination node is available in response to determining that the non-delivery notification service is available for the switch login. The non-delivery notification is received from the switch in response to the switch determining that the destination node to which the test path request is directed is unavailable.
US08260959B2
A method of selecting a suitable service for the delivery of a communication across an integrated network is disclosed. Before now, users had to select the service that best suited their needs at the time of each delivery. By providing a computer programmed to act as a purchasing agent with data indicating the desirability of stability in the network service (that data representing the price the user is prepared to pay for stability) an automatic selection of the service to be provided to the communication is enabled. An embodiment is described in which different degrees of stability are given to different content file deliveries in dependence on the importance attached to the recipient by a content provider. The invention could equally be used to provide an appropriate services for many different types of network traffic.
US08260956B2
In a distributed computer system, data to be communicated is assigned to one of a plurality of virtual queues. The plurality of virtual queues includes a first representative virtual queue associated with a first fault group and a second representative virtual queue associated with a second fault group. The data to be communicated is assigned to one of the plurality of virtual queues prior to transmission based on fault group information associated with the data.
US08260955B2
A video signal and an audio signal are TMDS transmitted from a source device to a sink device. Through a reserved line and a HPD line provided separately from a TMDS transmission line, an Ethernet™ signal is bidirectionally transmitted, and also, a SPDIF signal is transmitted from the sink device to the source device. The Ethernet™ signal bidirectionally transmitted between Ethernet™ transmitter/receiver circuits is differentially transmitted by an amplifier and is received by the amplifier. The SPDIF signal from a SPDIF transmitter circuit is common-mode transmitted from an adder and is received by the adder to be supplied to the SPDIF receiver circuit.
US08260952B2
The described implementations relate to distributed network management and more particularly to enhancing distributed network utility. One technique selects multiple trees to distribute content to multiple receivers in a session where individual receivers can receive the distributed content at one of a plurality of rates. The technique further adjustably allocates content distribution across the multiple trees to increase a sum of utilities of the multiple receivers.
US08260948B2
A radio frequency identification (RFID) component receives a data stream from at least one RFID tag. A controller can integrate and/or embed at least one of the following, 1) middleware that filters the data stream associated with the RFID component, 2) RFID software that provides RFID component software functionality, and 3) a smart component that connects to the RFID component.
US08260946B1
A method for sending a notification message using a modified form of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multicast notification system in a client-server architecture that otherwise allows only client initiated messages. The method includes: identifying information at a server that has potential for inclusion in a notification message, wherein the server is a Download and Configuration Management (DCM) engine; querying a database for one or more clients that have registered for a particular type of notification by a UDP broadcast processor; receiving identifiers for the one or more clients that have registered for the particular type of notification from the database; and sending notification to the one or more clients.
US08260939B2
A system and method are provided for enabling and performing scheduling for wireless devices supporting multiple users or devices. The system has a wireless subscriber device that is enabled to support multiple users or devices. The wireless system may operate accordingly to a wireless air interface such as WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, or other wireless technology. The wireless device has a message generator, which is configured to generate a multi-user message. The device transmits the multi-user message to the network. The network receives the multi-user message and begins to schedule network resources to the device as a device supporting multiple users.
US08260920B2
According to some embodiments, a registry is displayed. The registry may, for example, indicate resources available from a plurality of remote network access devices via a communications network. Moreover, a personal network address may be associated with each available resource, the personal network address including an destination address portion and an application program identifier portion. A direct communications link may then be established between a first network access device hosting an available resource and a second network address device using the personal network address associated with the resource.
US08260912B2
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: soliciting, based at least in part on a hypothesis that links one or more objective occurrences with one or more subjective user states and in response at least in part to an incidence of at least one objective occurrence, subjective user state data including data indicating incidence of at least one subjective user state associated with a user; and acquiring the subjective user state data including the data indicating incidence of at least one subjective user state associated with the user. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08260907B2
Methods, systems and computer program products for collecting data processing system status information monitoring network communications with the data processing system to observe transaction(s) associated with the data processing system. The transaction(s) is analyzed to determine if the transaction(s) complies with a quality standard and a trigger is generated based on the analysis of the transaction(s). System status information is collected responsive to the generation of the trigger. The collection of system status information may be provided by collecting system status information so that collection of the system status information automatically time correlates the collected system status information with the trigger.
US08260903B2
A system and method for accessing the usability and accessibility of a website includes generating a checklist of accommodations corresponding to an accessibility metric of the website, selecting one or more profiles of the website, and selecting Web 2.0 features of the website. The method may further include investigating tradeoffs of accommodations of different sets of Web 2.0 features and determining one or more accommodations necessary for a particular group of users.
US08260892B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.
US08260889B2
A method of using a computer network for Dynamic Discovery of Quality of Service Nodes is provided. The method comprises requesting for a level of Quality of Service (QoS) of communication for a service of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) by a Application Service Provider (ASP). The request is based on a Quality of Service by Reference (QoSbyR) information that is received by the ASP from a user. The QoSbyR information comprises a ISP location information and a level of Quality of Service information.
US08260888B2
An address configuration method, apparatus, and system are disclosed. The method includes: after receiving a neighbor solicitation message sent by a terminal and inclusive of a Link-Local Address (LLA), comparing the LLA with addresses in an Internet Protocol (IP) address cache, and judging whether any address in the IP address cache matches with the LLA; and sending a proxy neighbor advertisement message to the terminal if an address in the IP address cache matches with the LLA, where the message indicates that the LLA is a duplicate address. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, after a neighbor solicitation message is received, duplicate addresses are detected for the LLA; after the Duplicate Address Detection (DAD), an IPv6 address is generated and delivered. In this way, IPv6 stateless address auto-configuration is realized on the terminal.
US08260879B2
In one example, a device includes a display, an interface configured to exchange data with external devices, a control unit configured to execute an application to cause the display to display a current visual representation of the application, determine a current application state of the application, wherein the current application state includes at least a portion of the current visual representation of the application, and means for sending, without user intervention, an indication of the determined current application state from the device to a second, different device via the interface, wherein the indication of the determined current application state comprises information for recreating at least the portion of the current visual representation of the application, wherein the control unit is configured to prevent subsequent indications of the current application state from being sent to the second device in response to an indication that a third device is executing the application.
US08260878B2
The user of a mobile station which is prepared to receive information providing services from unspecified IP (Information Providers) accesses a gateway server and performs a pre-registration procedure (S71). When an IP server has information to provide to users, it constructs the information in the form of electronic mail, appends user attribute data, and sends this to the gateway server (S72). Upon receiving electronic mail with attribute data, the gateway server stores the electronic mail in a third mailbox, makes a comparison of the user attributes, and calls the mobile stations of relevant users (S73). A user who has received a call requests a download of the electronic mail from the gateway server (S74). The gateway server sends electronic mail to the mobile station which made the request (S75, S76).
US08260876B2
A computing device has one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors. The computing device initializes a main application on a first thread. The main application has a first synchronous connection with a target application. After the main application performs one or more operations at the target application through the first synchronous connection, the computing device initializes an assistant process on a second thread. The assistant process has a second synchronous connection with the target application and an asynchronous connection with the main application. After receiving a request from the main application through the asynchronous connection, the assistant process performs one or more operations at the target application through the second synchronous connection.
US08260873B1
A method and system for grouping user devices based on dual proximity. Avatars in a virtual environment are determined to be in virtual world proximity of one another. User devices associated with the avatars are determined to be in communications proximity of one another, and the user devices are grouped into a client cluster. One of the user devices is designated as a master client and the other user devices are designated as slave clients. Communications between the user devices in the client cluster and a server are handled by the master client. Lag and jitter are reduced or eliminated and network utilization is decreased.
US08260868B2
An efficient article and method for automating the process of changing the status of a voicemail (or other multimedia message or object) that is stored in a multimedia server (such as a voicemail server), when the voicemail has been associated with an email, and the email has been opened by the intended recipient.
US08260846B2
A system and method for providing targeted content to a surfer is disclosed. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention seek to provide novel solutions for determining which content object, taken from a group of content objects, will be best suited for presentation in association with a link on a web page that has been requested by a certain surfer. Exemplary types of content objects may comprise the text, topic, font, color or other attribute of an external advertisement or internal advertisement. Still other content objects may comprise the specific design of the object, an image, the design of the page in which the object is presented, etc. The decision process for selecting a content object can be based on predictive information that is associated with the request, such as a common HTTP request, or historical information about the surfer. Exemplary associated predictive information may include the day and time of receipt of the request for the web page, the IP address and\or domain from which the request was sent, the type and the version of the browser application that is used for requesting the web page, or the URL used by a surfer for requesting the web page with the parameters that are attached to the URL.
US08260845B1
A method, system, Web-environment and computer program product for automatically generating proxies and meta-proxies for script code in an HTML document. The invention preferably operates with a system that allows for JavaScript to be utilized on the server-side.
US08260843B2
An apparatus and method for providing an image-based remote user interface (UI) using a web browser are provided. A server includes an user interface (UI) application which provides a dynamic image; a server communication module which, if the dynamic image is updated, transmits an image update event for the updated dynamic image; and a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server which receives a request corresponding to the image update event and transmits the updated dynamic image in response to the received request. The method includes if an image in a remote user interface (UI) is updated, transmitting an image update event for the updated image; receiving a request corresponding to the image update event; and transmitting the updated image in response to the received request.
US08260838B2
A programming model allows application programmers to extract Web services from various types of resources. The programming model defines relationships between various resource types and methods for each resource type to extract a Web service or another linked resource. The programming model also provides caching capability to store previously extract resources for future requests.
US08260836B2
The present invention provides a method and device for generating a filter coefficient in real time. The method includes: looking up a converted window function value in a converted window function table based on a current coefficient index; generating a current cut-off angular frequency; generating a look-up table address based on the current coefficient index, the filter order and the current cut-off angular frequency and looking up a sine value in a sine table based on the look-up table address; and multiplying the converted window function value by the sine value to obtain the filter coefficient. The device includes a first memory, a second memory, a look-up table address generation module and a first multiplier. The present invention is easily implemented with low hardware resource consumption and high flexibility, and is particularly applicable for the hardware implementation of high-order finite impulse response filters.
US08260835B2
A random number generator includes a ring oscillator having an EX-OR gate and four inverters together forming a loop. This loop enters stable state for a start signal having the low level and oscillates for the start signal having the high level. When the start signal has a pulse of a width shorter than the loop's delay time, output nodes responsively, sequentially enter metastable state hovering between the high and low levels. The metastable waveform becomes smaller with time and finally disappears. As metastable state cannot be controlled in longevity, it disappears at any random number node. A counter thus outputs a signal serving as true random number data depending on the longevity of the metastable state. A random number generator miniaturized and having reduced power consumption, and of high performance can thus be implemented.
US08260834B2
A method and a generator for generating a pseudo-random data sequence (3), including combining means for combining data belonging to a plurality of initial data sequences (9a, 9b, 9c) using a procedure for searching for at least one search pattern.
US08260829B2
A system and method for a block based differencing algorithm which includes the ability to limit memory requirements regardless of source file sizes by splitting the source file into optimally sized blocks. The invention allows the blocks to be processed in any order allowing in-place operation. Further, the present invention allows a second stage compressor to match the compressor blocks to those used by the differencing algorithm to optimize compressor and decompressor performance.
US08260824B2
Mechanisms are provided for mapping objects and object-relationships in an object-oriented programming language to a nested relational database. Entity metadata constructs for an object relational mapping framework are obtained, the entity metadata constructs mapping fields in entities of an object model to fields in a data table of the nested relational database and identifying relationships between entities in the object model. A nested relational data model of the nested relational database is obtained, the nested relational data model specifying tables and sub-tables of the nested relational database. Tables and sub-tables of the nested relational database are mapped to a plurality of separate entities of the object model. Data in the nested relational database is accessed using the plurality of separate entities. The mapping is performed without normalizing the data of the tables and sub-tables of the nested relational database to a non-nested representation.
US08260822B1
A system and method for processing both Type 1 and Type 2 effective dated slowly changing dimension (SCD) date attributes. Two sets of date fields may be provided, an effective from/effective to set for dimensions with effective date logic; and an effective start date/effective end date for all dimensions. A current indicator is used to indicate a currently valid dimension. By processing and setting the date fields, both Type 1 and Type 2 dimensions can be processed and queried similarly. This enables generating an accurate and consistent report of information representing information in a data warehouse as it is now, or as it was at any point in time. The methods also enable for reporting and analysis of historical and trends, as well as future forecasting.
US08260816B1
Read-only access to data in a file system on shared storage is obtained. The data may be in a file in the file system and the file may be protected by a lock, so that the lock must be acquired to enable read/write access to the file. A host may be allowed to open the file for non-exclusive read only access by establishing a limited lease on the file, without acquiring the lock for the file. In some embodiments, the files for which such a limited lease may be obtained may be restricted based on one or more criteria, such as the type of file and/or the length of the file. In some embodiments, such limited leases may only be retained for a certain period of time, which may be referred to as a timeout period. In some embodiments, a limited lease may be extended beyond the timeout period if one or more conditions are met. In some embodiments, there is a state machine for enabling the limited lease on the file.
US08260810B2
Case images are registered so as not to cause bias (or partiality or imbalance) in amounts of feature of the case images included in a database of a similar image search system for image diagnosis. Since registration of the case images to the database is controlled according to degrees of similarity of the amounts of feature, it is possible to prevent a lot of similar case images from being included in the search result. Thus, it is possible to reduce possibility of representing a similar search result which may interfere with an accurate diagnosis by a diagnostician.
US08260807B2
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: identifying, in response to reception of one or more solicitations, one or more relevant reported aspects associated with one or more source users that are relevant to achieving one or more target outcomes, the identification of the one or more relevant reported aspects being based, at least in part, on relevancy of the one or more relevant reported aspects with respect to achieving the one or more target outcomes; and providing the one or more relevant reported aspects. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08260806B2
Consumers may centrally store, manage and distribute information using an information account stored in a central data repository. The information account is accessible from any client device, without the need to permanently store or install proprietary software thereon. The information account comprises a plurality of consumer information elements stored in a tagged data format. A host server hosts a database management system for accessing the information account. A client-side application may manage communications with host server. Alternatively, the client device may interact with a vendor server that executes a server-side application for managing communications with the host server. In response to a request from the consumer, the host server may filter selected consumer information elements from the information account and transmit the filtered consumer information elements to the client-side or server-side application. The filtered consumer information elements may then be automatically integrated into a vendor business process on behalf of the consumer, if desired.
US08260802B2
Disclosed herein are embodiments of a system and method for the provisioning of dynamically generated content. One embodiment can interface a content delivery system and a content management system at the fragment level. Depending upon how a page is organized, a fragment may refer to a block within the page, a portion of the page, or a content item presented on the page. When a content item is updated and published onto the content management system, one embodiment of the invention can operate to track dependencies of managed pages and invalidate/validate fragment(s) affected by the change(s) accordingly. The updated fragment(s) may then be dynamically assembled on-the-fly or on-demand. The updated fragment(s) may or may not be cached. In this way, changes made to a piece of content can be reflected in all pages which utilize this content almost simultaneously with the changes to the content itself.
US08260786B2
A method for providing search results to a user is disclosed. The method includes receiving a first set of information associated with a plurality of web pages. A second set of information associated with a user preference, determining a commercial score for each web page is also received. A subset of the first set of information is determined based on the second set of information. A visual indicator for the subset of the first set of information is generated in accordance with a commercial score, and the subset and the visual indicator are displayed on a display.
US08260777B1
A listing creation application provides functionality for a listing provider to create a listing to be displayed on web pages, and to associate this listing with a content descriptor that specifies the type of content to which the listing is to be matched. The content descriptor may, for example, be a topic selected from a hierarchy of topics, a keyword, or a keyword phrase. Upon selecting a particular content descriptor, the listing provider is presented with a corresponding list of user classes with which the listing may be associated. A real time matching engine uses a listing's associations with specific content descriptors and user classes to match the listing to web page requests, such that the listings selected for presentation to a user are dependent upon both the profile of the user and the type of content being requested.
US08260775B2
Computer-readable media and a computing device are described for providing geotemporal search and a search interface therefor. A search interface having a location portion and a timeline portion is provided. A geographic area is selected in the location portion by adjusting the visible area of a map. A temporal window is selected in the timeline portion by adjusting sliders along a timeline to a desired start and end time. The start and end times can be in the past, present, or future. A geotemporal search is executed based on the selected geographic area and temporal window to identify search results having associated metadata indicating a relationship to the selected geographic area and temporal window. One or more search terms are optionally provided to further refine the geotemporal search.
US08260770B2
Method and systems for editing data from a query result include requesting a query result using a unique collection identifier for a collection of individual files and a unique identifier for a configuration file that specifies a data structure for the query result. A query result is generated that contains a plurality of fields as specified by the configuration file, by combining each of the individual files associated with a unique identifier for a collection of individual files. The query result data is displayed with a plurality of labels as specified in the configuration file. Edits can be performed by querying a collection of individual files using the configuration file, editing a portion of the query result, and transmitting only the edited information for storage back into a data repository.
US08260769B1
A search server system having one or more processors and memory receives, from a client, a current search query including a query cursor corresponding to a prior search query. The query cursor corresponds to a location in a first set of index portions used to perform the prior search query. In response to the current search query, the server decomposes the query cursor into a plurality of components and generates a translated query cursor corresponding to the received search query using one or more of the components. The server subsequently identifies a location in a second set of index portions to start performing the current search query based the translated query cursor. The server generates a set of search results corresponding to the current search query by searching in the second set of index portions starting at the identified location and sends search results to the client.
US08260744B1
A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for taking snapshots of a storage volume. According to aspects of one method, each snapshot is represented as a unique sequence number. Every fresh write access to a volume in a new snapshot lifetime is allocated a new section in the disk, called a provision, which is labeled with the sequence number. Read-modify-write operations are performed on a sub-provision level at the granularity of a chunk. Because each provision contains chunks with valid data and chunks with invalid data, a bitmap is utilized to identify the valid and invalid chunks with each provision. Provisions corresponding to different snapshots are arranged in a linked list. Branches from the linked list can be created for storing writable snapshots. Provisions may also be deleted and rolled back by manipulating the contents of the linked lists.
US08260742B2
Data associated with the services in a service oriented architecture are stored in a primary repository and replicated across secondary repositories. Functionality can be implemented to efficiently synchronize data across the primary repository and the secondary repositories. Data synchronization can comprise calculating and comparing hash values of one or more nodes, based in part on concatenated hash values of child nodes and data that comprise the one or more nodes, of a tree structure representing data stored in the repositories.
US08260733B2
A system and method for controlling information output based on user feedback about the information is provided. At least one neural network module selects one or more of a plurality of objects to receive information from a plurality of information sources based at least in part on a plurality of inputs and a plurality of weight values during an epoch. The information sources may include electronic mail providers, chat participants, or page links. Recipients of the objects provide feedback about the information during an epoch. At the conclusion of an epoch, the neural network takes the feedback and generates a rating value for each of the plurality of objects. Based on the rating value and the selections made, the neural network redetermines the weight values within the network. The neural network then selects the objects to receive information during a subsequent epoch using the redetermined weight values and the inputs for that subsequent epoch.
US08260729B2
Systems and articles of manufacture for implementing a method that includes, but is not limited to: acquiring objective occurrence data including data indicating occurrence of at least one objective occurrence; soliciting, in response to the acquisition of the objective occurrence data, subjective user state data including data indicating occurrence of at least one subjective user state associated with a user; acquiring the subjective user state data and correlating the subjective user state data with the objective occurrence data. In some implementations, the soliciting of the subjective user state data may involve soliciting the data from the user by requesting a selection of a subjective user state from a plurality of indicated alternative subjective user states. In the same or different implementations, the correlating of the subjective user state data with the objective occurrence data may involve determining at least one sequential pattern associated with occurrence of the at least one subjective user state and occurrence of the at least one objective occurrence. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08260725B2
In one embodiment, a method of conducting operations for a social network application, comprises: generating a notification list of recent activities of users of the social network application, wherein the notification list includes (1) at least one activity within the social network application of a first user and (2) at least one hyperlink to an offer involving an activity that is directly related to at least one activity of the first user, wherein an account of the first user defines at least one notification rule for controlling visibility of the at least one activity to other users of the social network application; and providing the notification list to a second user, that is a friend of the first user within the social network application, according to the at least one notification rule of the first user.
US08260721B2
Methods and systems are provided for use with digital data processing systems to control or otherwise limit access to networked resources based, at least in part, on transactional artifacts and/or derived artifacts.
US08260718B2
A method for authenticating an end user. The method begins by generating a login field in response to receiving an authentication request from an end user. The login field comprises a plurality of colored nodes containing a first subset of nodes matching both color and location to a second subset of nodes residing in a transparent credit card being controlled by the end user. Next the method determines the authenticity status of the end user by comparing data received from the end user with the first subset of nodes. The end user having generated the data by overlaying the transparent credit card on top of the login field and selecting at least one colored node. Each node being selected according to a function utilizing both static and dynamic variables. Finally, the method sends the determined authenticity status to the end user via an output device.
US08260716B2
Herein is described a tokenless biometric method for processing electronic transmissions, using at least one user biometric sample, an electronic identicator and an electronic rule module clearinghouse. The steps for processing of the electronic transmissions comprise of a user registration step, wherein a user registers with an electronic identicator at least one registration biometric sample taken directly from the person of the user. A formation of a rule module customized to the user in a rule module clearinghouse, wherein at least one pattern data of a user is associated with at least one execution command of the user. A user identification step, wherein the electronic identicator compares a bid biometric sample taken directly from the person of the user with at least one previously registered biometric sample for producing either a successful or failed identification of the user. In a command execution step, upon successful identification of the user, at least one previously designated rule module of the user is invoked to execute at least one electronic transmission. The above-mentioned steps are conducted in a manner wherein a biometrically authorized electronic transmission is conducted without the user presenting any personalized man-made memory tokens such as smartcards, or magnetic swipe cards.
US08260714B2
A terminal apparatus is provided which guarantees operation of a use condition bytecode while securing a degree of freedom for a service provider generating the use condition bytecode. A terminal apparatus (300), in which a license (1200) includes a use condition determining logic code (1204) and a version number (1202), includes a license obtainment unit (304) obtaining the license (1200), a use condition verification unit (302) determining, based on the version number (1202), whether or not an operation of the use condition determining logic code (1204) has been confirmed, a use condition bytecode execution unit (303) executing the use condition determining logic code (1204) when the operation of the use condition determining logic code (1204) has been determined to have been confirmed, and a content playback unit (306) playing back content based on the use condition determining logic code (1204).
US08260713B2
A computer-implemented system providing Web-based royalty processing and reporting is described. In one embodiment, for example, a computer-implemented method of the present invention for automatic identification of media items subject to royalty obligations, includes steps of: receiving sales input from a user comprising media items subject to royalty obligations; parsing the sales input to extract for each media item a set of fields characterizing that media item; deriving a plurality of signatures for each media item, based on different combinations of the fields for that media item; comparing the derived signatures for each media item against a database storing signatures of known media items; based on the comparison, automatically identifying media items present in the sales input; and reporting the automatically identified media items to the user.
US08260704B1
Computer-implemented methods and systems for managing consumer transactional accounts provides a temporary line of credit with an installment option that a consumer can use for specific occasions or life events. The account remains open for only a limited period of time during which interest does not accrue. Thereafter, the account automatically expires, interest begins to accrue on the amount charged on the account, and an invoice is sent to the consumer with a number of payment options.
US08260701B2
Systems and methods are provided for trading and calculating the composition of foreign currencies indexed financial instruments. The compositions of the financial instruments are determined by calculating a geometric average of the exchange rates of foreign currencies with corresponding competitive weights. The competitive weights for each of the foreign currencies reflects competition between the goods of the United States and a country corresponding to the foreign currency in the markets of third countries.
US08260693B2
Visual cues for identifying financial accounts. A distinctive visual cue, such as a specific color, is applied to an account from among a plurality of accounts, such as associated joint and individual checking accounts. The designation can be applied to statements, and optionally also checks, check/ATM cards, and other materials can be identified at a glance. Additionally confidential flag can be applied to an account as part of the designation, to provide extra notice to both personnel and various systems that an individual account is confidential within the associated accounts. A system for assigning distinctive visual cues to accounts can include a customer or account information database for storing plurality of possible distinctive visual cues, and one or more fulfillment subsystems for providing bank statements, checks, deposit slips, check cards, and the like.
US08260689B2
A method and system displaying and managing images of consumer products. Plural consumer products are selected to display in a virtual display environment. A layout for the selected plural consumer products is determined. An image of a shelf layout on which consumer products are displayed is created. The created image allows progressive resolution on the selected plural consumer products that appear in the image. The created image is displayed via a communications network. The created image provides a virtual shopping experience is similar to a shopping experience in an actual retail store.
US08260686B2
A method and system for creating and ordering from a Custom Catalog via an Internet catalog website is disclosed. A customer who is interested in only certain products included in a company's Internet product catalog can create a Custom Catalog that includes information about only those products in which the customer is interested. The customer provides certain identifying information, including the customer's e-mail address and a password that is linked to the e-mail address. Once the Custom Catalog is created, the customer can browse the company products displayed at the website and add them to his Custom Catalog. The purchaser can select products in the Custom Catalog and view detailed images of the selected products that include pricing and purchasing information for the products. The customer can also delete from his Custom Catalog those products no longer of interest.
US08260683B2
A method for completing an electronic commerce transaction, involving receiving security information associated with a real identity of a buyer, receiving virtual security labels corresponding to security information associated with the real identity of a buyer, storing the security information and the virtual security labels in an isolated entity of a dedicated payment system, transferring the virtual security labels to a virtual world entity of the dedicated payment system, wherein the virtual world entity is operatively connected to a first network using which the buyer connects to the dedicated payment system, and executing the electronic commerce transaction via the first network using the virtual security labels and the security information associated with the real identity of the buyer, wherein the isolated entity is communicatively disjoined from the virtual world entity and the first network, and wherein security information associated with the real identity of the buyer is not transmitted via the first network during execution of the electronic commerce transaction.
US08260665B2
Disclosed are systems, computer-readable medium and a method for delivering advertisements to user devices. The method includes storing first data associated with online and physical activity of plurality of customers, storing second data associated with current status of plurality of advertisers, matching a customer with an advertiser based on analysis of the first data and the second data and delivering an advertisement to a device associated with the matched customers online and physical activity. The on-line and physical activity is captured by a plurality of devices including a mobile device via a plurality of sensors.
US08260656B1
A computer-implemented service recommends works to a user based on works currently or previously played or downloaded by the user on a player device or based on playlists stored on the player device. The works may be, for example, music files, video files, electronic books, or other digital content for playing by users. A user may thus obtain personalized recommendations that are based on works obtained from sources (web sites, physical CDs, etc.) that are independent of the recommendations system. In one embodiment, the service identifies pairs of works that are related to each other by virtue of the relatively high frequency with which they co-occur on playlists or within play histories of users. The resulting mappings of works to related works are in-turn used to select works to recommend to users.
US08260651B2
The present invention provides a method, system and computer program product for estimating resource factors for a steady state execution of a project. The resource factors are associated with a second set of resources. A required effort associated with a first set of resources executing the project is received. Thereafter, a primary effort estimate is calculated. Subsequently, first pre-defined parameters and second pre-defined parameters are assigned corresponding weights. A value corresponding to each of the resource factors is then generated on the basis of the primary effort estimate, weighted first pre-defined parameters and weighted second pre-defined parameters and available time associated with the second set of resources.
US08260649B2
Various embodiments of a system and method for determining staffing requirements or other resource requirements for a plurality of contact channels are disclosed. A contact volume forecast may be performed at a beginning of a season. The contact volume forecast may predict variability in contact volume over a plurality of time periods in the season for each of the contact channels. A resource plan may be determined based on the contact volume forecast. The resource plan may indicate an amount of resources required for each contact channel for each of the plurality of time periods in the season. For at least one time period, the resource plan may specify that resources are to be shifted into a first contact channel from one or more other contact channels.
US08260637B2
A data processing system and method that, in some cases, include an EMR system and a web server. In some cases, the EMR system includes a plurality of electronic medical records for a plurality of patients. One or more of the electronic medical records may include a URL or HTTP Post message that defines a path to a web-based resource, such as a treatment algorithm or medical calculator. In some embodiments, the URL and/or HTTP Post message is constructed based on information in a patient's medical record.
US08260618B2
Methods and systems for remotely controlling a device through a wireless headset of a cellular phone are provided. In one implementation, the method includes storing a lookup table in a memory, in which the lookup table includes a digitized voice input and a corresponding control signal for the device. The method further includes receiving a voice input through a microphone, converting the voice input into a corresponding digital signal using an analog-to-digital converter, a voice recognition circuit recognizing the digital signal including matching the digital signal to the digitized voice input stored in the memory, and responsive to the digital signal matching the digitized voice input stored in the memory, a processor transmitting the corresponding control signal through the transceiver to the device.
US08260616B2
A system and method for generating audio content. Content is automatically retrieved from an original website according to a predetermined schedule to generate retrieved content. The retrieved content is converted to one or more audio file. A hierarchy is assigned to the one or more audio files to provide an audible website that mimics a hierarch of the retrieved content as represented at the original website. The audible website is stored in a database for retrieval by one or more users. A first user input is received indicating an attempt to access the original website. The audible website is indicated as being associated with the original website in response to the user selection. Portion of the audible website are played in response to a second user input.
US08260612B2
An enhancement system improves the estimate of noise from a received signal. The system includes a spectrum monitor that divides a portion of the signal at more than one frequency resolution. Adaptation logic derives a noise adaptation factor of the received signal. A plurality of devices tracks the characteristics of an estimated noise in the received signal and modifies multiple noise adaptation rates. Weighting logic applies the modified noise adaptation rates derived from the signal divided at a first frequency resolution to the signal divided at a second frequency resolution.
US08260609B2
Speech encoders and methods of speech encoding are disclosed that encode inactive frames at different rates. Apparatus and methods for processing an encoded speech signal are disclosed that calculate a decoded frame based on a description of a spectral envelope over a first frequency band and the description of a spectral envelope over a second frequency band, in which the description for the first frequency band is based on information from a corresponding encoded frame and the description for the second frequency band is based on information from at least one preceding encoded frame. Calculation of the decoded frame may also be based on a description of temporal information for the second frequency band that is based on information from at least one preceding encoded frame.
US08260606B2
A basic idea of the invention is to ascertain information on the course of the bit rate switching during an active speech phase. According to the invention, during the speech phase, information on the percentage proportion of broadband active speech frames in comparison to narrowband active speech frames is compiled on the part of the decoder. A high percentage proportion of broadband active speech frames indicates that a broadband use is preferred on the part of the codec and therefore a need exists for synthesizing noise information in broadband form during a DTX phase.
US08260589B1
Methods and systems for modeling a porous physical object for layered manufacturing are provided. A model of an object includes geometric and material porosity models, each of which are divided into two-dimensional layer representations. Each two-dimensional layer represents a cross-section of the geometric model and material porosity model of the object, respectfully. The material porosity layer representations specify a material porosity variation for the layer. Geometric and material porosity contours of the model are created by iso-Z surface extraction for each layer. Using the contours, a boundary constrained line representation of each two-dimensional layer representation is generated using continuous space-filling fractal curves to characterize the material porosity variation for each two-dimensional layer.
US08260585B2
A computer-implemented land planning system is designed to generate at least one conceptual fit solution to a user-defined land development problem. The system electronically creates at least one candidate solution to the land development problem. The candidate solution incorporates a number of engineering measurements applicable in development of an undeveloped land site. A fitness function quantitatively evaluates the candidate solution based on its fitness. A heuristic problem-solving strategy manipulates the engineering measurements of the candidate solution to achieve a more quantitatively fit solution to the land development problem. A computer output device outputs to a user documentation illustrating the fit solution to the land development problem.
US08260571B2
An analysis apparatus includes an assignor assigning a physical property value corresponding to the kind of a material to each of regions formed by dividing a structural data representing a structure of a multilayer substrate, a determiner determining whether or not the each of the region belongs to a predetermined region in a layer of a predetermined kind, and a physical property value changer changing the physical property value of the region belonging to a predetermined region in a layer of a predetermined kind.
US08260566B2
An apparatus and method relating to screening radioactive waste are disclosed for ensuring that at least one calculated parameter for the measurement data of a sample falls within a range between an upper limit and a lower limit prior to the sample being packaged for disposal. The apparatus includes a radiation detector configured for detecting radioactivity and radionuclide content of the of the sample of radioactive waste and generating measurement data in response thereto, and a collimator including at least one aperture to direct a field of view of the radiation detector. The method includes measuring a radioactive content of a sample, and calculating one or more parameters from the radioactive content of the sample.
US08260558B2
Methods and apparatus for providing data processing and control for use in a medical communication system are provided.
US08260557B2
A system for determining occurrence factors of particles includes a user interface device, and an apparatus for detecting the occurrence factors of particles. The apparatus for detecting the occurrence factors of particles includes a storage unit that stores a program for executing a calculation method for calculating a likelihood of each of the occurrence factors of particles in the form of a score; and a calculation unit for calculating the score for each of the occurrence factors of particles based on particle distributions at least on a surface of a substrate using the stored program. The user interface device displays the calculated score for each of the occurrence factors of particles.
US08260552B2
System and methods of increasing reliability of determined location information by using two integration filters are provided. An exemplary embodiment integrates inertial navigation system information and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) information in a real time Kalman filter; determines a real time location of the aircraft with the real time Kalman filter based upon the INS information and the GNSS information; delays the GNSS information by an interval; integrates the INS information and the delayed GNSS information in a delay Kalman filter; determines a predictive location of the aircraft with the delay Kalman filter based upon the INS information, the delayed GNSS information, and the interval; and in response to an inaccuracy of the real time location determined from the real time Kalman filter, selects the predictive location determined from the delay Kalman filter as a new real time location of the aircraft.
US08260550B2
A navigation system is provided for instructing an operator of a vehicle. The navigation system includes a navigation processor configured to obtain a destination location, and to generate a proposed route to the destination location. The navigation system also includes a presentation element coupled to the navigation processor, the presentation element configured to provide navigation instructions to the operator. A selection module is coupled to or incorporated into the navigation processor, and the selection module is configured to select a cartographic resolution from a plurality of different cartographic resolutions, resulting in a selected cartographic resolution. The presentation element provides navigation instructions for at least a portion of the proposed route, using the selected cartographic resolution.
US08260549B2
Dehydration of routes enables transmitting a description of a route requiring much less space than full specification of the route. A series of “breadcrumbs” and hints are used for dehydration. A breadcrumb includes coordinates of a point, a heading at which the route enters the breadcrumb, and a heading at which the route leaves the breadcrumb. A dehydration module places a breadcrumb at the location marking the beginning of the route, and having a leaving heading identifying the link in the original route. The node at the end of each link in the original route is examined. If the link leaving the node is the most parallel link to the link entering the node, nothing is added to the dehydrated route. If not, a breadcrumb is added to the dehydrated route, specifying the coordinates of the point, the entering heading of the breadcrumb and the leaving heading of the breadcrumb.
US08260526B2
A method and a device, a computer program and a computer program product for implementing a method for calibrating a fuel injector of an internal combustion engine, including the following: a) Specifying a first relationship between an injection quantity and an actuating variable of the fuel injector for implementing the injection quantity, b) Specifying a setpoint injection quantity, c) Specifying at least one setpoint value for the actuating variable of the fuel injector according to the first relationship, or implementing the setpoint injection quantity, d) Determining an indicated work resulting from the implementation of the at least one setpoint value for the actuating variable, e) Comparing a variable as a function of the determined resulting indicated work to an expected value, f) Correcting the at least one setpoint value for the actuating variable of the fuel injector as a function of the comparison result.
US08260510B2
When there is a shift command for the transmission (3) during or immediately after clutch touch point learning, a shift operation value for the transmission (3) is reduced compared to what it normally is (steps ST11 and ST12). Reducing the shift operation value in this way enables the change in the rotation speed of an input rotating body at the time of a gear shift operation to be gradual if that gear shift operation is during or immediately after clutch touch point learning. As a result, inertia torque, and thus shift shock, can be suppressed.
US08260504B2
A saddle riding type vehicle includes a balancer beam rotatably mounted on a vehicle body to cause a right wheel and a left wheel to move up and down in opposite directions, and is capable of making turns by leaning the vehicle body. The saddle riding type vehicle also includes a headlight, a drive mechanism arranged to rotate the headlight, a front detector arranged to detect a rotation angle of the balancer beam relative to the vehicle body, and a controller programmed to control the drive mechanism based on a result of detection by the front detector. The rotation angle detected by the front detector corresponds to an angle of the vehicle body leaning sideways relative to a traveling surface (relative lean angle). The controller controls the drive mechanism based on such result of detection by the front detector. The headlight can therefore illuminate directions of movement properly.
US08260502B2
An active safety system for a machine and a process for operating the active safety system are disclosed. The active safety system an active ultrasonic array having a plurality of ultrasonic transducers. The plurality of ultrasonic transducers can propagate a plurality of sound waves, receive a plurality of echo waves and transform the plurality of echo waves into a plurality of electrical pulses. The plurality of electrical pulses can be transmitted to and received by a three-dimensional imaging circuit. The three-dimensional imaging circuit can generate a 3D image from the plurality of electrical pulses and an electrical control unit can determine a location, size and geometric orientation of the 3D image. The electronic control unit can also provide an occupant safety parameter as a function of the location, size and geometric orientation of the 3D image and transmit the occupant safety parameter or an instruction related to the occupant safety parameter to an occupant safety system and/or an occupant warning system.
US08260500B2
The electric power steering apparatus is provided with: a steering torque detector that detects steering torque of a steering wheel; an electric motor that applies steering assist force to the steering wheel; a current detector that detects an actual current actually supplied to the electric motor; a target current setting unit that sets a target current to be supplied to the electric motor, on the basis of the steering torque detected by the steering torque detector; a feedback controller that performs feedback control so that the target current and the actual current coincide with each other; and a feedforward controller that performs feedforward control for increasing the actual current detected by the current detector if the target current increases, the feedforward controller including a frequency compensator that provides a smaller amount of increase in the actual current as a frequency of a variation in the target current is lower.
US08260492B2
A method and system for redundancy management is provided for a distributed and recoverable digital control system. The method uses unique redundancy management techniques to achieve recovery and restoration of redundant elements to full operation in an asynchronous environment. The system includes a first computing unit comprising a pair of redundant computational lanes for generating redundant control commands. One or more internal monitors detect data errors in the control commands, and provide a recovery trigger to the first computing unit. A second redundant computing unit provides the same features as the first computing unit. A first actuator control unit is configured to provide blending and monitoring of the control commands from the first and second computing units, and to provide a recovery trigger to each of the first and second computing units. A second actuator control unit provides the same features as the first actuator control unit.
US08260479B2
A method for developing software as a layered, segmented system having diverse functionalities, based on a software architecture and an aerial vehicle utilizing the software architecture are provided. The software architecture for the aerial vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes an electrical segment, a propulsion segment, a flight management segment, a navigation segment, a data link segment, and perhaps a payload segment. Each segment includes a number of software modules and objects, and each segment interfaces with or controls one or more devices. The software architecture also includes a number of layers, including an executive layer for managing execution rates of the segments, a vehicle controller layer for coordinating activities across segments, and various layers providing utilities, common services, and computing support including operating system support. Rules of engagement guiding interaction between software entities within the software architecture are specified.
US08260476B2
A Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system guides navigation of a vessel enabled to extract energy from wind and/or water currents primarily in offshore marine environments. An exemplary SCADA system could embody server and client software applications running on microprocessor systems at a remote control central service logging and energy distribution facility, and the vessel itself. The remote control service facility runs Human Machine Interface (HMI) software in the form of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) allowing choices to maximize system performance. The central server accesses information to control vessel position based on transmitted Global Position Satellite (GPS) data from the vessel, and weather information from the Geographic Information System (GIS) provided by multiple spatial temporal data sources. A server-side optimization algorithm fed the parameters delivered from vessel aerodynamic/hydrodynamic performance simulation software models, the vessel onboard sensor data, and integrated real-time weather and environmental data determines an optimal navigation through weather systems and presents choices to the HMI.
US08260473B1
A system for managing the operation of a semiconductor device in accordance with varying load conditions that affect the power being dissipated by the semiconductor device, includes a sensor for measuring a temperature related to the junction temperature of an operating semiconductor device; electronic components for measuring the real-time operating load conditions of the operating semiconductor device; and a computer that is adapted by computer executable program instructions to perform the steps of: (a) determining the power being dissipated by the operating semiconductor device in accordance with the measured real-time operating load conditions of the semiconductor device; (b) determining a dynamic temperature cutback threshold for the operating semiconductor device in accordance with the determination of the power being dissipated; and (c) managing the operation of the semiconductor device in accordance with the measured temperature and the dynamic temperature cutback threshold.
US08260468B2
The invention broadly encompasses a system including a database to store demand response data, the demand response data including demand response agreement parameters, demand response load and energy demand characteristics of one or more demand response customers, the demand response load characteristics including power consumption capacity of each of one or more demand response loads, an aggregator to aggregate the demand response loads based on the demand response data and forecast data into a demand response portfolio, a monitor to monitor power demand of one or more demand response customers and one or more power grids, and a dispatcher to notify the one or more demand response customers of the demand response portfolio and to notify a utility of a response from the one or more demand response customers whether to control the demand response load to return the power consumption capacity of the demand response load back to the one or more power grids.
US08260466B2
A device for controlling an irrigation system includes an interrupter for interconnection in a serial manner between a solenoid return common line and a preexisting irrigation timer, a controller for operating the interrupter in a periodic fashion is provided as well as an adjuster, in communication with the controller, for changing the periodicity of the interrupter operation.
US08260456B2
An inventory shelf monitoring system includes a plurality of track systems located on at least one shelf of a retail or warehouse establishment. Each track system includes a sensor and actuator that determines the position of a product pusher. The identity and location of the product pusher, for each track system on the at least one shelf, is sent to a data acquisition and transmitter circuit that assembles, formats, and transmits pusher position data to a central receiver, which receives corresponding data from all shelves employing the system in the retail or warehouse establishment. The data is then transmitted to a central processing unit in a user device that maintains data corresponding to product count, availability, and activity associated with each track unit of each shelf employing the system in the retail or warehouse establishment. Inventory control, the prevention of out-of-stock situations, and the assessment of activity indicative of theft or accident is thus monitored in real time for prompt remedial action.
US08260455B2
An address label rework station according to the invention includes a conveyor which can simultaneously transport a series of spaced parcels along a conveyor path in a substantially horizontal stream. The station includes a camera, A work space, a microphone is usable by an operator in the work space, a targeting device directing a human operator in the work space. Station also includes a sensor system, a labeler and a printer to print shipping information. The station also includes a computer configured to receive and recognize image and voice data, generate a label with a recognized shipping address, and control the conveyer to apply a new label to the parcel by the labeler at the position selected using the targeting device.
US08260452B2
A system and method of tracking location and orientation of power tools utilized in the assembly and maintenance of complex systems is disclosed. The system can facilitate collaboration between maintenance and alert maintenance personnel to complete complex system activities.
US08260450B2
An eyeglass lens processing apparatus for forming a hole on an eyeglass lens to attach a rimless frame to the lens, includes: a lens chuck that holds the lens; a drilling tool; a designating unit that designates a position of a hole; a unit that measures or inputs an inclined angle of a refractive surface of the lens at the designated hole position; an arithmetic unit that obtains a hole angle with respect to a predetermined reference axis based on the inclined angle; a control unit that controls a positional relationship between the held lens and the drilling tool based on the obtained hole angle to perform a drilling; and an input unit that inputs a modified hole angle based on the obtained hole angle. The control unit controls the positional relationship between the held lens and the drilling tool based on the modified hole angle to perform a re-drilling.
US08260447B2
In a method of providing a material amount for a generative manufacturing method, a three-dimensional object (2) is formed by selectively solidifying layers of a material at locations corresponding to the cross-section of the object (2) in the respective layers. The quality of the manufactured objects is reproducibly recorded, thus, improving the method. At least one first material amount of a powder is provided, which is characterized by at least one feature. Data is detected, which relates to the at least one feature of the first material. Then, the data is stored, which relates to the at least one feature of the first material. Thus, the method can provide an identifiable powder amount used in manufacturing each layer of the object.
US08260434B2
A paddle lead includes a paddle body with a plurality of electrodes disposed on the paddle body. The plurality of electrodes includes a first electrode and a second electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode are disposed laterally around the circumference of the paddle body. At least one connecting wire is disposed on, or within, the paddle body to electrically couple the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08260432B2
Electrical energy is transcutaneously transmitted from an external charger to an implanted medical device. The external charger includes a charging head that is selectively shapeable to conform to the surface of a patient to enhance charge efficiency and patient comfort. An alternating current charging coil is housed in the charging head and configured for transcutaneously transmitting electrical energy to the implanted medical device. The shape of the coil is changeable as the charging head is shaped, and at least one sensor determines changes in the shape of the charging coil and causes the charge of the coil to be adjusted based on the coil shape.
US08260429B2
In one aspect of the invention, a cochlear implant constructed and arranged to successively generate stimulation signals each comprising at least one stimulus pulse such that said successive stimulation signals incrementally build a neural excitation pattern that accurately reflects a received sound. In one embodiment, each said successive stimulation signal is generated based on the cumulative effect of all previous stimulus pulses, thereby compensating for finite spatial spreading of individual stimulus pulses as well as for the temporal integration of the neural excitation pattern along the neural pathways.
US08260425B2
A stimulation system can have a first sensor to generate a first reading and a second sensor to generate a second reading. An analysis module of a programmer such as a patient programmer, which programs a stimulation signal to be delivered to a patient, conducts an evaluation of the patient based on the first and second readings. Evaluations may include determinations such as range of motion determinations, posture determinations, physical task-specific brain activity determinations, cognitive task-specific brain activity determinations, and brain activity-specific movement determinations.
US08260423B2
A method of collecting patient event information from a cardiac rhythm management system (CRM system) is described, where the CRM system includes a cardiac rhythm management device (CRM device) and an external interface device. The method includes the steps of initiating a transmission session wherein the interface device communicates with the CRM device, prompting a user of the CRM system to select a reason for the transmission session, inputting the selected reason for the transmission session to the interface device, and storing the selected reason for the transmission session and timestamp information for the transmission session.
US08260415B2
An implantable medical device for monitoring tissue perfusion that includes a light source emitting a light signal and a light detector receiving emitted light scattered by a volume of body tissue. The light detector emits a signal having an alternating current component corresponding to the pulsatility of blood flow in the body tissue volume. A processor receives the current signal and determines a patient condition in response to the alternating component of the current signal.
US08260414B2
A device and method for defrosting a defibrillation electrode are provided. This includes an automated external defibrillator that is capable of defrosting one or more frozen electrodes. The device is includes a portable housing containing a battery powered energy source and a controller as well as at least a pair of electrodes which are operably coupled to the housing. The electrodes are designed for attachment to the chest of a patient in need of resuscitation and contain a conductive interface medium that has temperature dependent properties. A controller is configured to selectively heat the conductive interface medium by applying limited electrical impulses and raise the electrode temperature to a desired temperature range.
US08260412B2
Electrical crosstalk between two implantable medical devices or two different therapy modules of a common implantable medical device may be evaluated, and, in some examples, mitigated. In some examples, one of the implantable medical devices or therapy modules delivers electrical stimulation to a nonmyocardial tissue site or a nonvascular cardiac tissue site, and the other implantable medical device or therapy module delivers cardiac rhythm management therapy to a heart of the patient.
US08260411B1
A medical device having incorporated electrodes that can be used for delivering drugs or other therapeutic fluids at a uniform rate over an extended area to an internal anatomical location of a patient's body. The device can also be used for aspirating excess fluid from an internal anatomical location of a patient's body.
US08260408B2
Post-exercise arrhythmias are detected by an implantable medical device. In some aspects, post-exercise arrhythmia may be prognostic of a worsening cardiovascular condition. Thus, the detection of post-exercise arrhythmia may be used as an indicator for adjusting the therapy prescribed for a patient. In some aspects post-exercise arrhythmia are detected if a patient is exercising at a level that equals or exceeds a threshold exercise level. In some aspects, therapy for a patient is modified if the detected post-exercise arrhythmia exceeds a threshold arrhythmia level. In some aspects therapy for a patient is modified if ischemia is detected in conjunction with post-exercise arrhythmia.
US08260406B2
A system and a method for analysis of ECG curvature, which system involves a mathematical analysis comprising the following features where a number of different parameters are isolated and stored in a computer, where a first number of parameters are selected from at least one main group, where the selected parameters are combined in at least a first mathematical analysis. It is the object of the invention to improve mathematical analysis of ECG curvature particular for complex parts of the curvature such as notches or concavities. This can be achieved by selecting parameters from groups of symmetry, flatness, duration and/or complexity, using the parameters as input to an algorithm, where concavity intervals are evaluated on subsegments of the ECG segment and form the basis of up and downwards concavity quantification, where the system based on an algorithm detects and quantifies concavity on ECG curvatures.
US08260399B2
A deflectable tip catheter that is safe and effective for use in a magnetic resonance imaging environment. The deflectable tip catheter is configured such that it includes a built-in antenna, such as a loopless antenna or a loop antenna. The built-in antenna permits the deflectable tip catheter to be actively tracked and/or visualized. Depending upon the specific configuration of the deflectable tip catheter, the catheter may be tracked and/or visualized as a single unit, it may be tracked and/or visualized separate and independent of other components or instruments associated with the catheter, such as pull wires, injection needles, surgical instruments, and the like. The catheters described herein include injection type catheters and/or guidance type catheters.
US08260393B2
Systems and methods for detecting noise episodes and processing analyte sensor data responsive thereto. In some embodiments, processing analyte sensor data includes filtering the sensor data to reduce or eliminate the effects of the noise episode on the signal.
US08260391B2
A sensor may be adapted to reduce motion artifacts by damping the effects of outside forces and sensor motion. A sensor is provided with a motion damping structure adapted to reduce the effect of motion of a sensor emitter and/or detector. Further, a method of damping outside forces and sensor motion is also provided.
US08260390B2
Systems and methods are provided for probing an occluded body lumen, including a flexible conduit insertable into the body lumen, at least one delivery waveguide and at least one collection waveguide integrated with the flexible conduit and arranged to deliver and collect radiation about a distal end of said flexible conduit, at least one radiation source connected to a transmission input of the at least one delivery waveguide, at least one optical detector connected to a transmission output of at least one collection waveguide, a spectrometer connected with the at least one optical detector, and constructed and arranged to scan radiation and perform spectroscopy, and a controller programmed to process data from said spectrometer and provide information for directing said flexible conduit through obstacles within the occluded body lumen.
US08260383B2
A slide mechanism includes a rear cover, a front cover slidably attached to the rear cover, a resilient member for creating an elastic force to make the front cover slide relative to the rear cover, and an operating module. The resilient member is connected between the rear cover and the front cover. The operating module includes a first latching member rotatably connected to the rear cover, a tension spring, an operating member, and a second latching member fixed to the front cover. The operating member is sleeved by the tension spring and includes a pressing portion at an end for pressing the first latching member to rotate. The second latching member is latched with the first latching member after the first latching member is rotated by an elastic force created by the tension spring and unlatched with the latching member after the latching member is rotated by the operating member.
US08260364B2
A method of controlling a mobile communication terminal, and which includes projecting display information via a projector module onto an external surface; detecting, via a sensor included in the terminal, a motion of the mobile communication terminal; calculating, via a controller, an amount of the detected motion of the mobile communication terminal; and moving, via the controller controlling the projector module, the display information projected onto the external surface based on the calculated amount of the detected motion.
US08260360B2
A multiple mode RF transmitter a baseband section, a transmitter section, and a configurable antenna circuit. The transmitter section is couple to convert a first outbound symbol stream into first outbound RF beamforming signals in accordance with a first beamforming setting and convert a second outbound symbol stream into second outbound RF beamforming signals in accordance with a second beamforming setting. The configurable antenna circuit is coupled to provide a first antenna assembly for transmitting the first outbound RF beamforming signals and provide a second antenna assembly for transmitting the second outbound RF beamforming signals.
US08260354B2
A device and method for operating a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) are provided. The method includes selecting a first data type based application by a mobile terminal, and transceiving data by converting data transceived between the first data type based application and a first application module into data of a second data type set in the UICC, while the mobile terminal communicates with the UICC storing the first application module for supporting the first data type based.
US08260352B1
The communication device which includes a voice communicating implementer, a downloaded video game implementer, an auto time adjusting implementer, a moving picture replaying implementer, a calculating implementer, a bold font displaying implementer, a stereo audio data output implementer, a photo quality setting implementer, a multiple language implementer, and a caller's information displaying implementer.
US08260347B2
One embodiment relates to a circuit for efficient wireless communication. The circuit includes a communication port adapted to be coupled to an antenna feed. Multiple communication paths stem from the communication port, where different communication paths are associated with different frequency bands. Multiple phase shift selection circuits are respectively associated with the multiple communication paths. The phase shift selection circuits have different respective impedances relative to the communication port and the respective impedances vary for the different frequency bands. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.
US08260340B2
Methods of reverse link power control are provided. A first example method includes first measuring a first type of interference, second measuring a second type of interference, determining a ratio between the first and second measurements and broadcasting the determined ratio to a plurality of mobile units. A second example method includes receiving a broadcasted ratio indicating a ratio between two different types of interference and calculating a power level for reverse link transmissions based on the received broadcasted ratio. A third example method includes first adjusting OFDMA transmission power based on first feedback signals during an OFDMA transmission and second adjusting OFDMA transmission power based on second feedback signals during periods between OFDMA transmissions. A fourth example method includes receiving a plurality of interference indicating signals from different base stations and determining whether to adjust a maximum transmit power threshold based on the plurality of interference indicating signals, the maximum transmit power threshold indicating the maximum permitted transmission power level below which transmissions are constrained.
US08260333B2
Two or more received SMS messages can be aggregated into a single consolidated SMS message. The consolidated SMS message can be conveyed across a boundary in accordance with SMS protocols. A fee per SMS message can be incurred for conveying SMS messages across the boundary. The fee can be minimized by use of the consolidated SMS message in lieu of having to convey multiple SMS messages. Once the consolidated SMS message have been conveyed across the boundary, the consolidated SMS message can be parsed or decomposed into its constituent SMS messages, each of which can be conveyed to an intended recipient.
US08260330B2
This publication discloses a method and system for delivering messages in a telecommunications network (1, 2, 6, 11, 12). In the method a voice-message call attempt is received (43), or a connection is formed to a potential user of a service, on the basis of a voice-message call attempt. According to the invention, as a response to the voice-message connection formed or to the call attempt, to the second part (41) of the connection is sent a text-form message, which initiates a long, logically continuous, temporally discontinuous session N, in such a way that the sender address (e.g., the A number) is converted to correspond to the session number N and the session stage J at the time, and in the message there is at least one selection query.
US08260320B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products communicate location information associated with a device, such as a mobile device, to a server. Content identified by the server is received at the device, from the server and/or from a content service. The content can include an application associated with the location information. The content received at the device is displayed on the device only while the device is at or near a particular location identified by the location information.
US08260314B2
A delivery period for delivering messages including a notification is determined. A location of a mobile station user is identified. A time zone difference between the location of the mobile station user and a location of a server for delivering the messages is calculated. The delivery period for the notification message is adjusted based on the time zone difference so that the mobile station user receives and confirms the messages at his or her best-acceptable time.
US08260308B2
The present invention relates to a method of optimizing a data format selection procedure (E-TFC) for up link communication between a terminal and a base station on a cellular communication network in which the base station transmits to the terminal a signal including at least one piece of update information of at least one predetermined parameter intervening the data format selection. The method in accordance with the present invention further includes the step of optimizing a period of time required to detect the signal transmitted from the base station.
US08260306B2
An apparatus and method of determining a mobility state is provided. A user equipment determines a size of a cell to be reselected by performing cell reselection, and determines the mobility state on the basis of the number of cell reselections and a size of the cell. Unnecessary cell reselection can be avoided even if the user equipment enters an area where a micro cell and a macro cell coexist.
US08260303B2
By providing an indicator outside a message element the content of the message element is indicated. This is particularly applicable to indication of a dual transfer mode handover command.
US08260300B2
Disclosed is a handover method in radio communication. A base station apparatus monitors the receiving state of a terminal, detects, based upon the receiving state, whether the terminal is one in which there is a possibility that loss of a call or a decline in quality will occur or one in which loss of a call or a decline in quality has occurred, and hands over the terminal to another base station apparatus having a carrier frequency different from that of the present base station apparatus.
US08260298B2
A method of preventing call drop in a mobile terminal when a serving radio network subsystem SRNS relocation to a target RNC from a source RNC is performed includes (a) receiving a control message in accordance with start of the SRNS relocation from the target RNC, (b) performing a RLC configuration procedure, (c) transmitting a complete message in accordance with the RLC configuration procedure to the target RNC, and (d) retransmitting the complete message to the target RNC in case that RLC reset is performed after the complete message is transmitted. As a result, call drop by exceptional case while the SRNS relocation is performed may be prevented.
US08260297B2
An efficient uplink timing synchronization procedure performed with a target cell upon handover of a User Equipment (UE) in active mode in a mobile communication system is provided, in which a cell transmitter signals to the UE that the uplink timing synchronization procedure is not required in the target cell, and the UE carries out uplink transmission to the target cell at an uplink timing used in a source cell without the uplink timing synchronization procedure.
US08260290B2
A system and method for enabling a UE to roam to a visited IMS-based network from a home network that does not have an IMS infrastructure. A visiting UE sends to an Intelligent Roaming Application Server (I-RAS) in the visited network, a first SIP Registration message that includes a SIP URI identifying the UE as a visitor from a home network that does not have an IMS infrastructure. The I-RAS rejects the registration, but includes a temporary Tel URI in the rejection message. The UE sends a second Registration message using the temporary Tel URI, which is forwarded to a Visited S-CSCF for authentication. The S-CSCF returns authentication vectors, which the UE uses to compute ciphering parameters and establish an IPSEC connection with a Visited P-CSCF. The UE then sends a third Registration message, which is accepted, and registration in the visited network is complete. The I-RAS acts as a pseudo Visited MSC/VLR and performs an update location procedure with the visiting UE's home network.
US08260282B2
Updating data between the mobile devices belonging to a given user group is shown. In a mobile device (301, 302), there can be recorded information (406) of the members of a given user group, and a connection can be established from the device (301, 302) to other devices (303, 304, 401) of the user group members. In addition, the device includes means for defining the changing information as update data (407) related to said user group, and means for transmitting (303, 304, 401) the update data automatically to each device belonging to the user group through a defined connection bus. The device also includes means for receiving (303, 304, 401) the data defined to be updated, and means for saving (406, 407) the received update data in the device.
US08260277B2
The invention relates to a method and a system for controlling an arrangement of a configuration comprising two or more user devices (multi-device configuration) of telecommunication user devices in a public telecommunication network. According to the invention, the supplementary services of the public telecommunication network associated with the first user device or with an identification chip connected to the first user device are activated in such a manner that changes of the supplementary services are effective in the other user devices or the identification chip connected to the respective additional user device of the multi-device configuration at the same time or with a temporal delay. In this manner, when one or more parallel calls are switched to one or more user devices of the multi-device configuration, before delivery of the call, the kind of the call request resulting in a reservation of resources required for completing the call, the system states of the user devices to be called or of or of the identification chips connected to the user devices and the exchange devices involved therein are determined using an intelligent call control and the call can be delivered in a resource-saving manner.
US08260276B2
The present invention relates to method and system for releasing terminal switching between a mobile terminal and a telematics terminal, and the method according to the present invention comprises receiving from the mobile terminal a terminal switching release request including an identification code representing terminal switching release; restoring information of the mobile terminal by inactivating information of the telematics terminal set as information of the mobile terminal in a home location register and activating information of the mobile terminal based on the identification code; and transmitting a mobile terminal activation command to a first switching center, where the mobile terminal is located, to allow a mobile communication service of the mobile terminal.
US08260275B2
A sending method includes supplying a material to a plurality of audio channels that send an entirety of a music title repeatedly for a certain unit of time. The method also includes supplying digital data for forming an audio information screen associated with an audio channel being sent. The method additionally includes supplying audio data for downloading, which is compressed in a certain compression format. Further, the method includes multiplexing the entirety of the music title repeatedly sent using the plurality of audio channels, which is supplied in the supplying the material step, the digital data for forming the audio information screen associated with the audio channel being sent, which is supplied in the supplying the digital data step, and the audio data for downloading supplied in the supplying the audio data step. In addition, the method includes sending the multiplexed data.
US08260274B2
Information or items that otherwise might be carried in a person's wallet or purse may be managed and stored on a mobile phone. Embodiments include a software application loaded on a mobile phone and an Internet website through which certain information can be transmitted to the phone by the user, third parties, or both. A user may be alerted to certain information or changes in information that meet certain criteria. The website may provide secure storage for information, filter information, and send encrypted and compressed nuggets or fractions of information to the phone for storage based on topic. E-mails may be searched for information, information may be sent to different parties, and signals may be sent locally to exchange information. Personal information may include account information, credit information or credit related information, financial information, or travel information, for example.
US08260266B1
A system and method for third-party discovery of proximity-based services are provided. In general, a mobile device of a proximity user collects service metadata or information from service providers within its proximity via, for example, local wireless communication. The service metadata is then published to one or more third-party users. More specifically, in one embodiment, the mobile device provides the service metadata to a service discovery system. In response, the service discovery system provides the service metadata or some representation thereof to a client device of a third-party user subscribed to the service metadata. The third-party user may then be enabled to generate a service request. For example, if the service metadata is an advertisement, the third-party user may generate a service request that is provided either directly or indirectly to the mobile device asking that the advertised product or service be purchased on behalf of the third-party user.
US08260265B1
A secondary wireless communication device may send and receive instant messages by causing a primary wireless communication device to send and receive the messages on behalf of the secondary wireless mobile communication device through a cellular communication system. To accomplish this, the primary and secondary devices may wirelessly communicate with one another through a connection other than the cellular communication system. Synchronization of instant messages between the primary and secondary devices may be maintained whenever the devices are in communication.
US08260263B2
A video messaging service is compatible with multiple transport technologies (such as 2G and 3G networks), and operable to render an integrated video message having voice and corresponding video in a matter consistent with the capabilities of the recipient device. The video messaging service receives a voice (audio) and identifies a video component, computes a video format compatible with an intended recipient device, and generates an integrated video message renderable on the recipient device. The video messaging service identifies the initiator and recipient as 2G or 3G network conversant, and identifies the rendering capabilities of the recipient device, such as memory and mailboxes. The system employs MMS (Multimedia Message Service) to encapsulate independent audio and video components as an integrated message including a voice message and a video source. Depending on the capabilities of the recipient device, a .gif ( ) video rendering or a so-called 3GP rendering is also provided.
US08260261B2
A method, system and devices for enabling secure pairing between two communication devices equipped with a minimal user interface includes determining a verification pattern based upon security information exchanged between the two communication devices and presenting the verification pattern in a manner that can be perceived by a user who can determine whether the verification patterns are the same. The verification patterns may be presented as flashing light displays, such as flashing sequences of a light emitting diode, or as sounds, such as tones or click patterns emitted by a speaker. If a user perceives that the verification patterns emitted by both communication devices are the same, the user may so indicate by pressing a button on each of the devices. Obtaining such user confirmation of the verification patterns enables establishing a secure pairing between the two communication devices that is protected from active and passive eavesdropping.
US08260255B2
In an example method of configuring an adaptive module for an offline charging system, a selection is received which selects one of a plurality of charging functions. In an example, the selection is received in response to a user prompt. In another example, the plurality of charging functions includes a charging data function (CDF), a charging gateway function (CGF), an integrated CDF/CGF without Ga interface support and an integrated CDF/CGF with Ga interface support. An adaptive module is configured to conform with the selected charging function. The adaptive module has the capacity to conform to any one of the plurality of charging functions. For example, the adaptive module includes a number of program modules and the configuring step selects which of the program modules are enabled and an order in which the enabled program modules are to be executed. The configured adaptive module is executed at a physical entity (e.g., a CDF, a CGF, etc.) within the offline charging system.
US08260244B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a mixer circuit to receive and generate a mixed signal from a radio frequency (RF) signal and a master clock signal, a switch stage coupled to an output of the mixer circuit to rotatingly switch the mixed signal to multiple gain stages coupled to the switch stage, and a combiner to combine an output of the gain stages.
US08260239B2
A system and method is provided for using location information associated with wireless devices. The system includes a wireless device, a location system, and a feature server. The wireless device includes any wireless apparatus having wireless communications capabilities. The location system can generate location information pinpointing the location of the wireless device. The feature server can use the location information to determine whether to execute an action in accordance with subscriber rules. A large number of applications may be implemented to execute the action via a number of communication channels, including without limitation, a wireless communications network, a computer network, and a public switched telephone system, for example.
US08260236B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for determining process corner information of an integrated circuit (IC) and controlling at least one analog current for at least one analog circuit of the IC based on the process corner information. More specifically, if the process corner information is indicative of a fast corner IC, the analog current may be scaled down. At the same time that the analog current is scaled down, a current consumption level of digital circuitry of the IC may increase. In this way, overall power consumption of the IC may be reduced to the extent that the analog current(s) are scaled.
US08260226B1
A method in a transmitter including a transmission chain and a Power Amplifier (PA), includes storing calibration data relating a plurality of specified output power levels of the transmitter to respective PA control voltages for application to the PA and respective gain levels for application to the transmission chain that cause the transmitter to output signals at the specified output power levels. A target output power level is specified, and an actual control voltage is applied to the PA. The actual control voltage is derived from a specified target control voltage depending on the target output power. A modified gain level which, when applied to the transmission chain while the PA is controlled with the actual control voltage, causes the transmitter to output the signals at the target output power level, is computed based on the calibration data. The modified gain level is applied to the transmission chain.
US08260223B2
The present invention relates to a mixer circuit and method of frequency transformation, wherein an input signal is switched in accordance with a first local oscillator signal and in accordance with at least one second local oscillator signal having a smaller duty cycle than said first local oscillator signal, or having a respective predetermined phase shift with respect to said first local oscillator signal. Output signals obtained by the switching in accordance with the first and at least one second local oscillator signals are summed and the polarity of one of said first local oscillator signal and said at least one second local oscillator signal is switched in response to a control input, to thereby switch between a harmonic-rejection mode and a sub-harmonic mixing mode.
US08260215B2
A communications system includes a radio frequency (RF) element (104) for transforming an input RF signal into at least one of a first conditioned RF input signal associated with a first frequency range and a second conditioned RF input signal associated with a second frequency range higher than the first frequency range. The system also includes a local oscillator (LO) circuit (106) for generating at least a first LO signal, the LO circuit having an operating frequency range spanning at least a portion of a first inclusive frequency range defined by a lowest frequency of the first frequency range and a highest frequency of the second frequency range. The system further includes a mixer (108) for generating a first intermediate frequency (IF) signal based on one of the first and the second RF input signals and the first LO signal, and an IF element (110) for conditioning the first IF signal.
US08260206B2
A method for inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) by a home evolved NodeB (HeNB) is described. A portion of bandwidth is reserved for a user equipment (UE). Notification of the reserved portion of bandwidth is sent to at least one potentially interfering evolved NodeB (eNB). A data exchange is performed with the UE using the reserved portion of bandwidth. Notification is sent to the potentially interfering eNBs releasing the reserved portion of bandwidth.
US08260202B2
In a case where an access point lies outside the direct radio transmission range of a first radio station of a radio communications system, and a routing runs between the first radio station and the access point that includes at least one additional radio station is known to the first radio station and the access point, information can be transmitted from the first radio station to the access point and from the latter to the first radio station via the routing. When the access point receives information relating to an interruption in the known routing from a radio station in the routing, the first radio station downstream of the access point is informed of the interruption in the known routing and subsequently initiates a process for determining a new routing between the first radio station and the access point.
US08260201B2
RFID tag designs and sensors are disclosed that include a dispersive antenna and exhibit greater detection ranges relative to conventional designs. The designs include, for example a transponder having including a rectifier, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) circuit for receiving and responding to interrogation signals, and a frequency dispersion element for receiving a multi-phase input signal and creating a pulse therefrom for input to the rectifier. Frequency-dispersive elements (e.g., antennas) and compatible interrogation waveforms can be used so that the rectifying diodes receive high peak voltage levels relative to the average voltage levels.
US08260194B2
An information communication method includes transmitting a millimeter-band radio wave from a reception side, reflecting the transmitted radio wave at a transmission side while vibrating the transmitted radio wave corresponding to first information transmitted by the transmission side, and receiving the reflected radio wave at the reception side and reconstructing the first information based on a phase difference between the transmitted radio wave and the received radio wave.
US08260188B2
An image erasing apparatus includes a stacking tray stacking the recording medium, a heater heating the recording medium to a temperature equal to or higher than the temperature at which developer on the recording medium is erased, a detector disposed downstream in a recording medium carrying direction from the heater to detect an image on the recording medium, a recording medium carrying mechanism picking up the recording medium, from the stacking tray sheet by sheet and carrying the picked-up recording medium, a storage box storing the image-erased recording medium by size, a lateral aligning mechanism disposed in the storage box so as to align the recording medium in the lateral direction, and a controller controlling the alignment operation of the lateral aligning mechanism.
US08260187B2
An image forming device is disclosed. The device includes a toner-image forming unit which forms a toner image; a transfer unit; a fixing unit; a paper-output unit; a drive unit; a first drive-power transmission gear; a second drive-power transmission gear; a gear housing; a first positioning unit which positions the fixing unit relative to a device body; and a second positioning unit. The second positioning unit positions the paper-output unit relative to the device body in the direction of a gap between the first drive-power transmission gear and the second drive-power transmission gear by engaging the gear housing with the device body.
US08260185B2
A laser fixing apparatus includes a laser light generator that generates laser light to be projected onto a recording medium; and a first condenser that reflects and condenses light reflected at an irradiation position of the laser light, such that the reflected light reenters at the irradiation position or near the irradiation position. The first condenser has a concave cylindrical surface and is arranged such that a center axis position of the cylindrical surface is located at the irradiation position of the laser light or near the irradiation position, and a reflecting surface of the first condenser is covered by a light transmitting body.
US08260181B2
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a moving body which moves in a moving direction; a plurality of formation units which are provided to oppose the moving body, respectively, and align in an alignment direction, and which sequentially form images directly on the moving body or an image forming medium transported on the moving body; a detection section which outputs a detection signal corresponding to a position of a mark which is formed directly on the moving body or the image forming medium by each of the formation units; and a measurement section which specifies a positional relationship between marks formed by at least two formation units based on the detection signal from the detection section, and which measures a deviation angle between the moving direction of the moving body and the alignment direction of the formation units based on the specified positional relationship.
US08260178B2
According to one embodiment, a toner cartridge includes a cartridge body, a stirring member configured to stir toner contained in the cartridge body, and a scraping member having elasticity. The stirring member includes a rotation shaft contained in the cartridge body, and plural stirring rods protruded from the rotation shaft and arranged in an axial direction of the rotation shaft. The stirring rods have tips opposite to an inner surface of the cartridge body. The tips of the stirring rods are separate from each other. The scraping member extends in the axial direction of the rotation shaft to scrape toner adhered to the inner surface of the cartridge body, and includes plural elastically deformable strips divided along the axial direction of the rotation shaft.
US08260167B2
Provided is a high-voltage power supply including a board having at least one bent portion separating a first region of the board from a second region of the board, the first region not being coplanar with the second region of the board; a first circuit, on the first region of the board, generating a second voltage according to a first voltage; and a second circuit, on the second region of the board, amplifying the second voltage and then rectifying the amplified second voltage.
US08260166B2
A thermoelectric conversion element converts thermal energy of a user into electric power. A holding unit holds the electric power converted by the thermoelectric conversion element, and outputs the electric power. A switching unit switches between a first mode in which electric power is supplied to all units of an image forming apparatus and a second mode in which electric power is supplied to a part of units of the image forming apparatus. When the image forming apparatus is in the second mode, the switching unit switches from the second mode to the first mode upon receiving the electric power output from the holding unit.
US08260165B2
An image forming apparatus includes a halogen heater in a fixing unit; an AC source applying an alternating voltage to the halogen heater; a half-wave control unit that performs the heater half-wave control to control the halogen heater on the half-wavelength basis, according to a heater-on/off pattern set for each control cycle having a predetermined length; a heater-off-time measuring unit that measures heater-off period of time; a phase-control-execution determining unit that determines, based on the measured heater-off period of time, whether the heater phase control is to be performed on the alternating voltage, the phase control being performed by shifting phase of the alternating voltage; and a phase control unit that performs, when the phase control is determined to be performed, the phase control only for a period of time depending on the measured heater-off period of time after switch-on of the heater and before execution of the half-wave control.
US08260158B2
A recording sheet processing device includes a stack tray used, when a recording sheet gets jammed inside a subsequent finishing device, for collecting recording sheets left inside a preceding image forming device and recording sheets left inside a recording sheet feeding unit of the image forming device before those recording sheets reach the finishing device. A portion of a conveying path in the recording sheet processing device is opened so that the recording sheet that has jammed at the finishing processing side can freely fall down into a stack tray. Then, a conveying path switching claw is switched to a position for collecting subsequent recording sheets into the stack tray. Thus, subsequent recording sheets are collected in the stack tray without stoppage in conveyance.
US08260154B2
Disclosed are a digital equalization apparatus for a coherent optical receiver and a digital equalization method for a coherent optical receiver, capable of compensating for chromatic dispersion and polarization impairment through a digital signal processing, and capable of performing a clock recovery and a data recovery through a digital symbol synchronization. The digital equalization apparatus and the method compensate for various impairments occurring on an optical path in a digital manner and achieve synchronization through a simple structure.
US08260152B2
A signal detection method used in an optical receiver apparatus detects the variation of an optical input level from the presence or absence of a clock signal and appropriately controls a dispersion compensator, thereby enabling the presence or absence of an input signal to be correctly determined. The signal detection method includes: detecting the level of input light of an optical amplifier, storing the level of the detected input light, comparing the level of the stored previous input light with the level of current input light, detecting the level variation of the input light by the comparison to detect the state change of the presence or absence of an optical signal, performing a dispersion compensation on the input light, and extracting a clock from an optical input. When the level variation of the input light is detected, the presence or absence of the optical signal of the input light is determined from the presence or absence of the clock signal. When the clock signal is not extracted, the dispersion amount is swept.
US08260151B2
An integrated circuit die has a transistor circuitry section for implementing information handling operations. Optical circuitry is within the single semiconductor die. The optical circuitry includes a laser transmitter and is operably coupled to the transistor circuitry section. The transistor circuitry section originates information. The optical circuitry transmits the information in a laser beam through a wave guide to the edge of the integrated circuit die.
US08260148B2
A transmitting device includes a housing, a multichannel transmitter optical subassembly, a microcontroller, and a DVI connector. The housing has only one optical port, where the only one optical port is adapted to receive only one optical fiber. The multichannel transmitter optical subassembly is mechanically associated with the housing. The microcontroller is electrically associated with the multichannel transmitter optical subassembly. The DVI connector is mechanically associated with the housing. The transmitting device is adapted to convert at least four electrical TMDS signals into optical paths that are transmittable over the only one optical fiber. A receiving device is similar to the transmitting device, however, in contrast to the transmitting device, the receiving device includes a multichannel receiver optical subassembly, and wherein the receiving device is adapted to convert multiple colored wavelengths into at least four electrical TMDS signals.
US08260139B2
Conventional dispersion compensators were not sufficient to satisfy a demand to set a different dispersion value for each WDM wavelength in a ring-mesh type network that utilizes wavelength selective switches or the like. The devices were insufficiently reduced in size and power consumption and used with difficulty to change dispersion characteristics for each wavelength flexibly in a simple manner. A dispersion compensator of the present invention uses general-purpose optical components including a spatial light modulator for providing discrete phases to set appropriately the relationship between the focusing beam radius and the spatial light modulator pixel, thereby providing various dispersion compensation characteristics. Attention is focused on the correspondence between multiple pixels on the spatial light modulator providing discrete phases and a communication channel band, thereby allowing for changing the flexible dispersion characteristics and realizing the setting of an independent dispersion value for each WDM wavelength.
US08260131B2
Background blurring is provided when capturing an image using an image capture device. Input is received for initiating an image capture process for capturing an image at an image capture device. A background is automatically blurred based on a depth of field automatically adjusted towards the image capture device for capturing the image with background blurring in response to receiving the input for initiating the image capture process.
US08260125B2
A method for an apparatus including an acquisition unit for acquiring moving image data, and a recording unit for recording the acquired moving image data in a loaded recording medium, includes determining whether the recording medium is a recordable and non-erasable recording medium, and if the recording medium is a recordable and non-erasable recording medium, controlling the recording unit so as to automatically stop recording of the moving image data according to the fact that a predetermined time has elapsed from the recording start of the moving image data, and if the recording medium is not a recordable and non-erasable recording medium, controlling the recording unit so as not to automatically stop recording of the moving image data, even if the predetermined time has elapsed from the recording start of the moving image data.
US08260123B2
In a system in which DVD contents authored in the past is to be downloaded and saved into a recording disk, such DVD contents are authored in such manner that they can be recorded into the recording disk without being re-authored, and copyright protection of the downloaded DVD contents can be strengthened. In this system, a disk image file is produced including data to be handled as main data among sectors, and header information of each of the sectors. The data of the DVD contents is divided into packets of a transport stream, and identification codes for the content and for a distribution destination of the content are added to each of the packets, thus enabling identification on a basis of the individual sectors. In a recording apparatus, the DVD contents can be recorded into a large-capacity optical disk or a hard disk based on these identification codes.
US08260120B2
A stream on a recording medium is divided into parts, and is subjected to rearrangement editing while the compatibility with a playback-only device is maintained.By adopting a division processing procedure of a play item, rearrangement processing of a stream for each chapter is achieved. In a product specification, a plurality of real play lists are put together into a series of chapter groups to be presented to the user, and thus there are cases where rearrangement of chapters are closed in the same play list, and cases where the rearrangement extends over a plurality of play lists. Moreover, rearrangement editing, which moves a chapter between real play lists, between virtual play lists, and further from a real play list to a virtual play list, is performed.
US08260119B2
Provided is a content editing apparatus which, while selecting and deselecting a plurality of contents, edits the plurality of contents such that selected contents are appropriately associated with each other so as to be simultaneously reproduced. Moving image shooting information which identifies a shooting time of a moving image content, individual shooting information which indicates shooting times of a plurality of other contents, and the moving image content, are acquired. The moving image content is reproduced and displayed. A moving image shooting time corresponding to the moving image content is outputted based on the moving image shooting information, and such individual shooting information that an individual time indicated by the individual shooting information is within a predetermined time period including the outputted moving image shooting time, is retrieved. When the individual shooting information is retrieved, the reproduction of the moving image content is paused, and a user is made select whether or not an other content, which corresponds to each of the retrieved individual shooting information, is to be displayed in link with the moving image content. An other content selected to be displayed in link is acquired, and stored in association with the moving image content, together with information indicating a time for a link display.
US08260114B2
A video recording and playback equipment which plays video data of a program memorized in an MXF file without playback delay is provided. It has a receiver, an analyzer, a playback information table, a program data memory and a decoder. The receiver receives the MXF file which includes the video data and metadata including information about an identification tag to identify the video data and data size of the video data. The analyzer judges whether the data contained in the file is the video data. If it is the video data, the analyzer analyzes a memory location where the video data is memorized in the file and memorize it on the playback information table as playback information, and also memorize the file to the program data memory. Only the video data is played by the decoder from the file based on the playback information.
US08260111B2
A method of button routing editing for a storage medium menu containing at least one button is provided. The method includes steps of (a) displaying a routing reminder on a button with an incorrect routing status; (b) selecting at least one button; (c) displaying a routing controller on the selected button, wherein the routing controller comprises a first control button, a second control button, a third control button and a fourth control button; and (d) selecting one of the above-mentioned control buttons, and then selecting a target button to set a routing direction target for the selected control button to the target button, wherein after the steps (b)-(d) are performed, if there exists any button with an incorrect routing status, the routing reminder is displayed thereon, and if there exists any button with a correct routing status, no routing reminder is displayed thereon.
US08260107B2
A disk apparatus includes a disk section, a process, section, a disk start control device, and a disk start mode setting device. At the time when power ON operation is carried out, in the case (1) when the disk start mode setting device is set in the disabling mode, the disk start control device carries out control so as to start the processing section without starting a hard disk. And in the case (2) when the disk start mode setting device is set in the enabling mode, the disk start control device carries out control to start the hard disk and the processing section.
US08260097B2
Alignment of one or more lenses with one or more opto-electronic devices in an opto-electronic system is aided by an aligner device having a substantially cylindrical body with a base and an outer ring. The base has one or more openings, one of which is a first opto-electronic device opening. The first opto-electronic device opening has a substantially circular shape coaxial with the outer ring and coaxial with a central axis of the aligner device.
US08260089B2
A method (700) of determining an image value at a sample position of an output image, is disclosed. The method (700) comprises the steps of determining orientation of an isophote (e.g., 1010) passing through the output sample position and determining a period of intensity variation along the isophote (1010). The method (700) determines the image value at the sample position of the output image based on the period of intensity variation and outputs the determined image value at the sample position of the output image.
US08260087B2
An upscaling (upsampling) technique for digital images and video for presentation on a display. An image at a first resolution may be separated into a plurality of channels. Each channel may be upsampled to a higher resolution. The plurality of channels may then be combined to form an image at the higher resolution.
US08260079B2
Systems and techniques for processing sequences of video images involve receiving, on a computer, data corresponding to a sequence of video images detected by an image sensor. The received data is processed using a graphics processor to adjust one or more visual characteristics of the video images corresponding to the received data. The received data can include video data defining pixel values and ancillary data relating to settings on the image sensor. The video data can be processed in accordance with ancillary data to adjust the visual characteristics, which can include filtering the images, blending images, and/or other processing operations.
US08260059B2
The present invention provides a system and method for detecting deformable objects in images even in the presence of partial occlusion, clutter and nonlinear illumination changes. A holistic approach for deformable object detection is disclosed that combines the advantages of a match metric that is based on the normalized gradient direction of the model points, the decomposition of the model into parts and a search method that takes all search results for all parts at the same time into account. Despite the fact that the model is decomposed into sub-parts, the relevant size of the model that is used for the search at the highest pyramid level is not reduced. Hence, the present invention does not suffer the speed limitations of a reduced number of pyramid levels that prior art methods have.
US08260052B1
The technology described herein includes a system and/or a method for identifying an object. The technology includes determining an alpha parameter that is associated with a fusion function. The technology includes determining a beta parameter that is associated with a degree of expected independence of a received set of data and the received set of data including information associated with a classification of the object. The technology includes fusing the received set of data based on the alpha parameter and the beta parameter. The technology includes generating a probability of identification of the classification of the object based on the fused data.
US08260048B2
A digital image can be processed by an image processing method that calculates a gradient map for the digital image, calculates a density function for the gradient map, calculates a modified gradient map using the gradient map, the density function and the selected scale level, and segments the modified gradient map. Prior to segmenting the modified gradient map, a sub-image of the digital image can be segmented at the selected scale level to determine if the selected scale level will give the desired segmentation.
US08260044B2
A technique is disclosed for calculating a value for a second color for a particular pixel. The technique selects a first set of neighboring pixels situated on a first side of the particular pixel, and a second set of neighboring pixels situated on an opposite side of the particular pixel. Based upon color values from the first set of neighboring pixels, the technique determines a first representative relationship, and based upon color values from the second set of neighboring pixels, the technique determines a second representative relationship. Based upon these representative relationships, the technique determines a target relationship between the value for the second color for the particular pixel and a value for a first color for the particular pixel. Based upon the target relationship and the value for the first color for the particular pixel, the technique calculates the value for the second color for the particular pixel.
US08260042B2
An elevator control system (18) provides elevator dispatch and door control based on passenger data received from a video processing device (12). The video processing device (12) includes a video processor (14) connected to receive video input from at least one video camera (10) and memory (16). The video processor (14) anonymously monitors passengers using color index analysis of each passenger. Based on the monitored position of each passenger, video process (14) calculates passenger data parameters such as location, direction, speed and estimated time of arrival at an elevator door, and provides one or more of the passenger data parameters to elevator control system (18). Based in part on the passenger data received, elevator controller (18) provides elevator dispatch, elevator door control, and security functions.
US08260034B2
A technique for identifying a defect in an object produced by a controllable process. A first type of data generated as a result of production of the object by the controllable process is obtained. A second type of data generated as a result of production of the object by the controllable process is obtained. The first type of data and the second type of data are jointly analyzed. A defect is identified in the object based on the joint analysis of the first type of data and the second type of data. By way of example, the controllable process comprises a semiconductor manufacturing process such as a silicon wafer manufacturing process and the object produced by the semiconductor manufacturing process comprises a processed wafer. The first type of data comprises tool trace data and the second type of data comprises wafer image data. The tool trace data is generated by a photolithographic tool.
US08260032B2
A system receives a mask pattern and a first image of at least a portion of a photo-mask corresponding to the mask pattern. The system determines a second image of at least the portion of the photo-mask based on the first image and the mask pattern. This second image is characterized by additional spatial frequencies than the first image.
US08260031B2
A pattern inspection apparatus includes a magnification conversion unit to convert first sample optical image data to higher resolution second sample optical image data, a low-pass filter configured to filter first design image data which has a resolution N times that of the first sample optical image data, an optical filter which calculates third design image data by convolving the second design image data with an optical model function, a coefficient acquisition unit configured to acquire a coefficient of the predetermined optical model function using the second sample optical image data and the third design image data, an optical image acquisition unit configured to acquire actual optical image data of an inspection target workpiece, a reference image data generation unit configured to generate reference image data corresponding to the actual optical image data, and a comparison unit configured to compare the actual optical image data with the reference image data.
US08260029B2
This invention relates to a pattern shape inspection method and an apparatus thereof for conducting a first step of irradiating wideband illuminating light which contains far ultraviolet light to a sample from a perpendicular direction, inspecting a shape of the pattern based on a spectral waveform of reflecting light detected from the sample, and detecting an edge roughness of the pattern based on the spectral waveform of the reflecting light detected from the sample, and a second step of irradiating a laser beam to the sample from an oblique direction, and detecting the edge roughness of the pattern based on scattered light detected from the sample.
US08260023B2
The present technology relates to the generation of a CT image under an arbitrary energy spectrum based on the results of a dual energy scan. In certain embodiments, a dual energy scan is conducted of an object and material basis decomposition is used to decompose the scanned object into two basis materials with known attenuation properties resulting in material density images. Along with knowledge of other imaging system information, forward projection is done under an arbitrary kV spectrum to generate an image as if the scanned object was scanned under this different kV spectrum. This prevents users from conducting unnecessary additional scans.
US08260020B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media are provided for image based CT Number and volume corrections for thin objects in computed tomography systems. For example, in one embodiment a method is provide which computes an average computed tomography (“CT”) value and volume of voxels that are part of an object. Thereafter, a surface area and a surface CT Number, a boundary area and a boundary CT Number, and a corrected CT Number and a corrected volume for the object are computed. Embodiments of the invention also include other methods, computer-readable mediums, apparatuses, and systems that contain features similar to the features in the above described method.
US08260007B1
Systems and methods for generating a depth tile are provided. In some aspects, a system includes an alignment module configured to map each pixel of a depthmap to a corresponding pixel of a map tile. Each pixel of the depthmap includes a depth value, and each pixel of the map tile is associated with a terrain elevation value. The system also includes a transform module configured to adjust the depth value of each pixel of the depthmap based on a corresponding terrain elevation value. The system also includes a depth tile module configured to generate the depth tile. Each pixel of the depth tile includes a corresponding adjusted depth value.
US08259995B1
Displaying a tag icon is disclosed. Displaying includes receiving a tag for an object that has been detected from an image, designating the object as the tag icon, and displaying the tag icon, wherein the tag icon is a graphical representation of the tag.
US08259991B2
An image processing apparatus embedding information in an image by combining multiple predetermined patterns with the image is disclosed that includes a level determination part configured to determine at least one of the levels of conditions to be added regarding the disposition of the predetermined patterns, to which at least one of the levels the information to be embedded belongs; and a pattern combining part configured to combine the predetermined patterns with the image in accordance with the condition corresponding to the information to be embedded at the determined at least one of the levels. If the information to be embedded belongs to two or more of the levels, the pattern combining part combines the predetermined patterns so that the conditions corresponding to the information to be embedded are satisfied at the two or more of the levels.
US08259990B2
A monitoring and operation image integrating system include: a display signal synthesizing unit to which a display signal from a plurality of safety equipments and that from non-safety equipment are inputted, and which synthesizes a display signal from the plural safety equipments and a display signal from the non-safety equipment; display signal switching unit to which a state signal showing an operation state of whether or not each monitoring and operation screen image of the plural safety equipments displays an operating device of the equipment, is inputted, and which switches a display signal from a safety equipment to be synthesized by the display signal synthesizing unit based on the inputted state signals; and an integrated monitoring and operation screen display that displays a display signal synthesized by the display signal synthesizing unit as an integrated monitoring and operation screen of a plant.
US08259988B2
It is an object to provide an image processing system, an information processing apparatus and a computer program, capable of utilizing a data protection function possessed by the image processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus connected to a communication network together with one or more image processing apparatuses acquires from each of the image processing apparatuses a protection function information which indicates whether or not an image processing apparatus has a data protection function for protecting data by encrypting or the like, and intensity information representing an intensity of data protection of the data protection function. The information processing apparatus outputs a list of the image processing apparatuses together with a key mark and security level representing the intensity of data protection in numeral about each image processing apparatus having the data protection function so as to accept selection of the image processing apparatus by which an image is processed.
US08259984B2
A headset including a body configured to be affixed to an ear of a user, and a speaker for reproducing an audio signal, the speaker representing part of the body such that when the body is affixed to the ear, the speaker is positioned proximate the ear canal of the user. The headset further includes at least one sensor for producing an output indicative of whether the body is affixed to the ear. In addition, the headset includes an analyzer, operatively coupled to the at least one sensor, for analyzing whether the body is affixed to the ear based on the output of the at least one sensor.
US08259968B2
A thermoacoustic device. The thermoacoustic includes a carbon nanotube structure. The carbon nanotube structure is at least partly in contact with a liquid medium. The thermoacoustic device is capable of causing a thermoacoustic effect in the liquid medium.
US08259966B2
An acoustic system includes a sound-electro converting device, a electro-wave converting device, and a sound wave generator. The electro-wave converting device is connected to the sound-electro converting device. The sound wave generator is spaced from the electro-wave converting device and includes a carbon nanotube structure. The sound-electro converting device converts a sound pressure to an electrical signal and transmits the electrical signal to the electro-wave converting device. The electro-wave converting device emits an electromagnetic signal corresponding to the electrical signal and transmits the electromagnetic signal to the carbon nanotube structure. The carbon nanotube structure converts the electromagnetic signal into heat, and the heat transfers to a medium causing a thermoacoustic effect.
US08259965B2
A loudspeaker device comprising: a loudspeaker and a reflecting member positioned opposite to the loudspeaker, the loudspeaker comprising an electromagnet actuator, a dish-like frame and a vibrating drum, the electromagnetic actuator being attached on one side of the frame, the vibrating drum adhered to an inner side of the dish-like frame, the electromagnetic actuator being configured for driving the vibrating drum to vibrate, the vibrating drum being configured for generating sound of different frequencies and intensities; and the reflecting member shaped in a bowl configuration, comprising a concave shaped reflecting surface opposite to the vibrating drum; wherein the area of the reflecting surface is larger than an area of the vibrating drum.
US08259962B2
An audio system configured to fade audio outputs and method thereof are provided, wherein the audio system includes a first speaker, a second speaker, a low-frequency output speaker, wherein the low-frequency output speaker is proximate the at least one second speaker, and a receiver configured to alter a signal communicated to the first speaker, the second speaker, and the low-frequency output speaker, such that the audio outputs thereof are faded. The audio system further includes a filter in communication between the receiver and the first speaker, wherein the filter is configured to limit a frequency of the signal communicated from the receiver to the first speaker, and a processor configured to alter a frequency limit of the filter, such that a low frequency portion of the signal is received by the first speaker, and a low-frequency output of the first speaker is increased approximately proportionately to the fade of the second speaker, the low-frequency output speaker, or a combination thereof.
US08259958B2
An engine sound control apparatus capable of arranging a sound of a frequency that is lower than the fundamental-order frequency of the engine. The engine sound control apparatus detects the frequency of the engine sound and generates a sound signal of a frequency that is in accordance with a control signal and outputting the sound signal generated by the oscillator. Through the interaction between the sound generated by the apparatus and the engine sound, occupants in the passenger compartment will perceive a sound of a frequency that is equal to the difference between the generated sound and the fundamental-order sound. This yields a sound that is lower in frequency than the fundamental-order sound without actually generating a sound of a frequency that is lower than that of the fundamental-order sound.
US08259947B2
Embodiments describe a method and/or system whereby a secret key in a cryptographic system may be replaced without revealing the secret key. One embodiment comprises creating a first private key and corresponding first public key. A second private key associated with the first private key and a second public key corresponding to the second private key are also created. The second private key is output once such that it can be re-created and the second public key is output when outputting the first public key. The first private key is used for authentication. The method further comprises re-creating the second private key; and using the second private key for authentication. Another embodiment comprises creating a private key and corresponding public key with associated system parameter; outputting the system parameter when outputting the public key; and using the private key for authentication. The method may further comprise creating a new private key using the previous key and the system parameter.
US08259946B2
There is provided a communication apparatus including a non-contact communication unit for performing a non-contact communication with a reader/writer; a storage unit for storing data for every logic system corresponding to at least one encryption method, and retransmission interval information of each communication command transmitted from the reader/writer for every encryption method; and a selection unit for selecting the retransmission interval information of each communication command in the encryption method to which the logic system specified by the reader/writer corresponds from the storage unit. The retransmission interval information selected by the selection unit is transmitted from the non-contact communication unit to the reader/writer.
US08259943B2
A method for decrypting a serial transmission signal includes the following steps. First, the serial transmission signal including a serial data signal and a serial clock signal is received. Then, m bits are sequentially read from the serial data signal according to the serial clock signal. Next, values corresponding to the m bits are generated. Thereafter, each value is added to a content value of a register by an addition operation to obtain an addition result, and then the addition result replaces the content value and is stored in the register.
US08259932B2
Systems and methods for computing modular polynomials modulo large primes are described. In one aspect, the systems and methods generate l-isogenous elliptic curves. A modular polynomial modulo a large prime p is then computed as a function of l-isogenous elliptic curves modulo p. In one aspect, the modular polynomial may be used in a cryptosystem.
US08259928B2
A communication end device of a two-way communication system is shown. The device includes an audio signal capture device for capturing local audio to be transmitted to another end device, an audio signal rendering device for playing remote audio received from the other end device, and buffers for buffering the captured and rendered audio signals. The device also includes an audio echo canceller operating to predict echo from the rendered audio signal at a calculated relative offset in the captured audio signal based on an adaptive filter, and subtract the predicted echo from the signal transmitted to the other end device The calculated relative offset that is used by the audio echo canceller for a current signal sample is adjusted if a difference between it and an adjusted relative offset of a preceding sample exceeds a threshold value.
US08259925B2
A system for communicating service information to a potential customer is provided. The system includes one or more potential customer devices, one or more session initiation protocol (SIP) client devices, and a SIP server. The SIP server is operable to determine an estimated service wait time based on information received from the one or more SIP client device and communicate the estimated wait time to the one or more potential customer devices.
US08259924B2
A communications center system includes unsolicited inbound transaction traffic for routing to agents, one or more channels engaging visitors to the communication center other than interaction with a live agent, a profiling function for gathering information about the visitors to the communications-center, during the time the visitors are engaged in other than interaction with a live agent, a ranking function for ranking the visitors as to desirability for interaction, according to the information gathered, and an invitation function for sending invitations to transact to the visitors according to the ranking. The system monitors agent availability and the unsolicited inbound transaction traffic, and manages the invitation function to balance total traffic with agent availability.
US08259921B2
A method of processing a number portability call, the method including: transmitting a call request message to a donor network server based on dialed number information of a called terminal; receiving a response message according to number portability of the called terminal from the donor network server, in correspondence to the call request message; detecting routing number information of the called terminal based on the dialed number information, according to reception of the response message; and performing call setup to a recipient network server associated with the called terminal based on at least one of the dialed number information and the routing number information is provided.
US08259918B2
An approach is provided for placing a real-time communication session (e.g., a voice call or a video call) on hold before the called party answers the call. After receiving a communication session request, the communication session is placed on hold until a predetermined time period expires, the called party answers the communication session, or the calling party elects to be directed to an answering service.
US08259916B2
An incoming call prompting method is provided. The method receiving an incoming call decoding the phone number of the incoming call so as to obtain a digit set from the phone number stored in the data storage system. The method further includes determining a call number character of the incoming call and assigning musical notes associated with the numbers of the digit set according to the musical note table. Furthermore, the method includes obtaining corresponding audio clip of each note from an audio clip database and outputting the audio clips with the corresponding rhythm of the call number character of the incoming call through a music output apparatus.
US08259910B2
A transcribing method may include receiving an audio message from a customer via a telephone, determining whether one of the agent transcribers is available, storing the audio message when an agent transcriber is not available, continuing to determine whether a transcriber is available, streaming in real time a streamed portion of the audio message to a first available agent transcriber for facilitating the transcription of the streamed portion of the audio message into a first portion of a transcription text file, providing subsequently a pre-streamed recorded portion of the audio message to a subsequently available second agent transcriber for facilitating the transcription of the pre-streamed recorded portion of the audio message into a second portion of the transcription text file while the streaming in real time is continuing with the first agent transcriber, and combining the first and second portions of the transcription text file into a consolidated text file.One embodiment of the system and method relates to streaming in one portion of the audio message to a first available agent transcriber for transcription purposes, and to providing a pre-streamed recorded portion of the same audio message to a subsequently available second agent transcriber to provide rapid transcription of the audio message.
US08259909B2
An emergency notification system. The system includes a first server for receiving a communication from a telecommunications network and for transmitting a message to a subscriber of the notification system. The system also includes a second server in communication with the first server, the second server for supplying the first server with information associated with a subscriber.
US08259906B2
A handset test adapter includes a telephone jack operable to receive a cord for testing a communications connection. The communications connection being POTS or DSL service. The handset test adapter includes a switch in communication with the telephone jack and a telephone plug in communication with the switch. The telephone plug is operable to communicate with a handset tester for testing the DSL service. The handset test adapter includes electrical plugs in communication with the switch. The electrical plugs are operable to communicate with the handset tester for testing the POTS. The switch is operable to receive a user selection of POTS or DSL service. The switch connects the telephone jack to the telephone plug in response to the user selection indicating DSL service, and the switch connects the telephone jack to the electrical plugs in response to the user selection indicating POTS.
US08259903B1
Presented is a system and method for dynamically adjusting X-ray power levels to achieve consistent image quality. The method comprises estimating power and photon density based on current process parameters, comparing those estimates with reference values associated with desirable image quality, adjusting the X-ray power level in response to the operation of comparing, and then performing the operations of estimating, comparing, and adjusting so that the estimates approach the reference values. In embodiments, the estimating, comparing, and adjusting operations are performed dynamically as process parameters, such as X-ray spot size and distance to the target, dynamically change. The system comprises a database for storing the reference values and a processor for estimating the photon and power density based on current process parameters, comparing the reference values with the estimates, and outputting a signal to adjust one of the current process parameters such as X-ray power level.
US08259894B2
A formic acid aqueous solution that contains Fe (II) ions is produced by dissolving metal iron in a formic acid aqueous solution. Nitrogen is supplied from a nitrogen supply device to a chemical liquid tank and then discharged from a discharge line to reduce the dissolved oxygen concentration in the aqueous solution. The chemical liquid tank is filled with the formic acid aqueous solution sealed with nitrogen, and transferred from a factory to a nuclear reactor building designated as radiation-controlled areas. Inside the nuclear reactor building, the chemical liquid tank is installed in a film deposition apparatus connected to a reactor water recirculation pipeline. The formic acid aqueous is supplied from the chemical liquid tank to the inside of the reactor water recirculation pipeline, and then a ferrite film is formed on the inner surface of the reactor water recirculation pipeline.
US08259891B2
A digital video interface receiver adjusts a transfer function of a phase-locked loop circuit having a programmable charge pump, a programmable phase-locked loop filter, or a programmable gain voltage controlled oscillator. The digital video interface receiver monitors and detects errors in a data stream associated with the phase-locked loop circuit. Moreover, the digital video interface receiver changes the transfer function of the phase-locked loop circuit, in response to the detected errors, by changing parameters associated with the programmable charge pump, the programmable phase-locked loop filter, or the programmable gain voltage controlled oscillator of the phase-locked loop circuit so as to change the transfer function of the phase-locked loop circuit.
US08259885B2
In the case that periodical transmission of transmission signal number-of-sequence quality indicative signal cannot be performed, the number of transmission signal sequences is clarified in association with reception quality information that is generated immediately after the case, and the base station apparatus performs appropriate communication resource allocation. A mobile station apparatus has a feedback information control section 65 that generates feedback information including reception quality information, transmission signal preprocessing information and transmission signal number-of-sequence information, and a radio transmission section 51 that periodically transmits the generated feedback information to the base station apparatus, where when the radio transmission section 51 does not transmit the transmission signal number-of-sequence information with communication resources periodically allocated from the base station apparatus so as to transmit the transmission signal number-of-sequence information, the radio transmission section 51 transmits the transmission signal number-of-sequence information to the base station apparatus with communication resources enabling transmission of the feedback information allocated from the base station apparatus subsequently to the communication resources.
US08259883B2
In the implementation of timing recovery in conventional communication systems, significant errors are generated from modulo operations under certain extreme conditions by taking input signals of a slicer as datum points. In order to prevent such errors, the input signal of a modulo processing circuit is taken as the datum point in place of the input signal of a slicer. This technique could also be applied to communication systems adopting the minimum mean-square error algorithm, the zero-forcing algorithm, or other relevant algorithms.
US08259882B2
An apparatus and method for parallel symbol cancellation in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system supporting spatial multiplexing. The method includes selecting one of four quadrants representing all points on a constellation having normalization distribution, selecting a single reference point in the selected quadrant and generating a reference value corresponding to the single reference point, generating addition values for representing other points than the single reference point using a difference of a size of each of the points having the normalization distribution, and summing up the reference value and the addition values. The apparatus includes modules configured for performing the parallel symbol cancellation with reduced complexity.
US08259872B2
A non-linear post-processor for estimating at least one source of signal-dependent noise is disclosed. The post processor may receive a set of preliminary decisions from a sub-optimal detector along with the sampled data signal. The post-processor may then compute the transition jitter and white noise associated with each preliminary decision in the set and assign a cost metric to each decision based on the total signal noise. The post-processor may output the decision with the lowest cost metric as the final decision of the detector.
US08259867B2
Certain embodiments provide methods and apparatus for decoding a string of data bits, encoded with a turbo encoding scheme, in a wireless communication system. One or more a-priori bit values corresponding to expected bit values at one or more identified bit locations in the string of data bits may be identified. One or more branch metrics used in a turbo decoding scheme may be manipulated to effectively remove decoding paths, from a collection of possible decoding paths, based at least on the identified one or more a-priori bit values, resulting in one or more remaining decoding paths. The string of data bits may be decoded by selecting a decoding path from the one or more remaining decoding paths.
US08259865B2
Methods and apparatus for adapting a channel estimation scheme in a transceiver in a communication system are disclosed to adapt channel estimation to the transceiver environment, particularly for high Doppler environments. The disclosed methods and apparatus effect determination of an estimate of a power delay profile of a channel or a time correlation of the channel, or both. A channel estimation scheme is then determined based on at least one of the determined power delay profile and time correlation of the channel. By basing determination of a channel estimation scheme on the power delay profile and/or the time correlation of the channel, the channel estimation scheme is adapted to the particular environment of the transceiver by accounting for the delay spread of the channel and/or the speed of the transceiver.
US08259861B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing bandwidth adjustment. The disclosed systems and methods may include receiving an input signal having at least one attribute and an input bandwidth. Furthermore, the disclosed systems and methods may include producing a first adjusted signal. The first adjusted signal may comprise the input signal with a first adjusted bandwidth. The first adjusted bandwidth may comprise the input bandwidth adjusted based on the at least one attribute and at least one first preference. In addition, the disclosed systems and methods may include providing the first adjusted signal to a first end use device.
US08259859B2
Systems and methods of carrier frequency acquisition or recovery in a receiver. The receiver is able to achieve carrier acquisition when a frequency offset is large (e.g., near a decision boundary). The receiver includes a demodulator, an equalizer, and a carrier recovery module. The carrier recovery module includes a decision device and phase detector, a phase error differentiator, a frequency direction confidence module, and a frequency and phase combiner module. The carrier recovery module calculates a phase error differential between a phase error at a first time and a phase error at a second time. Based on the phase error differential, the frequency direction confidence module generates a frequency offset confidence number. The frequency offset confidence number provides an indication of the direction of a frequency offset and a degree of certainty related to a detected direction (e.g., positive or negative) of the frequency offset. If the confidence number is greater than a threshold value, a joint frequency and phase lock loop (“FPLL”) is used for carrier acquisition. If the confidence number is less than the threshold value, a phase lock loop (“PLL”) is used for carrier acquisition.
US08259858B2
A method of detecting an on-channel signal and synchronizing signal detection with correcting for DC offset errors in a direct conversion receiver is presented. A received signal is digitized, and a state machine operates to detect the presence of an on-channel signal. If the signal is not detected, a mixed mode training sequence is initiated in which the DC offset errors in both an analog and digital received signal path are corrected. While training, processing of the digitized samples by a digital signal processor and a host controller is suspended (while they are put into battery save mode) and the gain provided to subsequently received signals is minimized. The DC offset correction circuitry is bypassed and put into battery save mode at predetermined periods when DC offset correction is not performed.
US08259836B2
A method and system for generating a number of candidate beamforming vectors for transmission of data over a wireless medium, is provided. One implementation involves determining the number (N) of transmitter antennas; determining the number (n) of candidate beamforming vectors to be constructed as an algebraic function of N; providing a Fourier transform matrix W comprising (n+1) rows and (n+1) columns; selecting N rows from the Fourier transform matrix W; and generating an abridged matrix using the selected N rows, wherein each column of the abridged matrix is configured to be used as a candidate beamforming vector for transmission of a data signal, such that the abridged matrix comprises a N×n sub-matrix of the Fourier transform matrix W.
US08259832B2
Filtering and modulating a first bit rate signal into a Gaussian filtered Gaussian Minimum Shift Keyed (GMSK) modulated signal and a second bit rate signal into a Quadrature Amplitude Modulated (QAM) signal. A method for nonlinearly and linearly amplifying GMSK and QAM signals. A diversity receiver and demodulator method for receiving and demodulating transmitted modulated signals. Processing, transmit baseband filtering and modulating signals for providing cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase Gaussian filtered Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) and other cross-correlated modulated signals and spread spectrum Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated signals. Transmit processing and filtering for providing time division multiplexed (TDM) Gaussian filtered baseband signal and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) in-phase and quadrature-phase baseband modulated signal to a cellular network and to separate wireless network. Diversity receiver and demodulator method with multiple antennas for providing demodulated cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase filtered signals.
US08259831B2
Methods and systems for indexing subband selections are disclosed. The selected subbands can be represented as a binary sequence and the index can be determined by employing a choose function, where a choose function value for a particular selected bit position is defined by a selection occurrence count of the selected bit position that is chosen from a bit position count of the selected bit position. In particular, the index can be the summation of choose function values for each selected bit position.
US08259827B2
Methods and apparatus by which receiving stations or other communication network nodes can receive quick paging code words assigned by transmitting stations to the receiving stations. A receiving station can estimate the characteristics of the channel to the transmitting station based on a downlink-frame's preamble and use correlation to detect the presence of an assigned code word. The receiving station can suppress interference from other transmitting stations in the correlation operation based on the nature of the interference signal. When the receiving station knows an interfering signal from another transmitting station, the receiving station can subtract the interfering signal before carrying out the correlation operation.
US08259819B2
The present invention relates to method and apparatus for improving video quality. The present invention provides a unified loop filter including: a pixel determining unit which determines the type of a pixel based on boundary strength; a similarity transforming unit which transforms a nonlinear filter into a nonlinear similarity-ordered statistics filter; and an integrating unit which integrates the nonlinear similarity-ordered statistics filter with a linear image filtering portion. The unified loop filter is applicable to filter reconstructed frames when an encoder or a decoder is processing a video signal.
US08259816B2
Systems and methods for streaming video information to a hand-held device include dynamically modifying video image properties of captured video frames to generate video data packets of a size suitable for transmission over a low bit-rate channel to a hand-held device for viewing. The systems and methods may dynamically and automatically control image properties via a hardware capture card device driver to produce a video data packet of a desired maximum data size such that subsequent compression and coding strategies produce a data packet suitable for transmission to the hand-held device for decoding and decompression to display the streaming video in near real-time.
US08259814B2
In one embodiment, a method that includes receiving a single video stream, wherein the video stream includes plural processed representations of a video signal, wherein each of the plural processed representations of the video signal (PPROTVS) includes a respective sequence of processed latticed pictures, wherein each processed latticed picture of each of the PPROTVS represents a corresponding respective picture of the video signal, wherein each respective picture of the video signal is represented by at most one processed latticed picture in each of the PPROTVS, wherein plural consecutive non-overlapping segments of one of the PPROTVS are received in a single video stream, each separated by one or more consecutive, non-overlapping segments of the other PPROTVS received in the single video stream; and outputting the plural segments in decompressed format in output picture order.
US08259813B2
A method in a decoding process for determining full-resolution chroma pixel information (Cx) corresponding to a spatial fraction of a still-image or a video-frame represented by full-resolution luma pixel information (Y) and decimated chroma pixel information (Cxd) decimated by a decimation process, including: receiving the full-resolution luma pixel information at video or image processing apparatus; decimating, at the video or image processing apparatus, the full-resolution luma pixel information (Y) by said decimation process resulting in a decimated spatial luma fraction (Yd); determining, with the video or image processing apparatus, if the decimated chroma pixel information (Cxd) at least approximately can be expressed by {(Yd+shift1)*scale−shift2}; storing, in an electronic memory of the video or image processing apparatus, values of scale, shift1, and shift2 that result in a minimum deviation between {(Yd+shift1)*scale−shift2} and Cxd; and calculating, with the video or image processing apparatus, {(Y+shift1)*scale−shift2} as a first candidate (Cx1) for the full-resolution chroma pixel information (Cx).
US08259808B2
A low complexity video decoder includes: a fast variable length decoding (VLD) and inverse quantization module arranged to perform fast VLD and inverse quantization on an input bit stream to generate inverse quantization results; an inverse transform unit arranged to perform inverse transform on the inverse quantization results to generate inverse transform results; a motion compensation module arranged to perform motion compensation according to the input bit stream and generate associated prediction outputs, wherein the motion compensation module includes a temporal/spatial prediction unit arranged to perform temporal/spatial prediction to generate at least a portion of the prediction outputs; an arithmetic unit arranged to sum up the inverse transform results and the prediction outputs to generate compensated outputs; a reconstructed frame output unit arranged to generate reconstructed frames according to the compensated outputs; and a frame storage arranged to store some reconstructed frames.
US08259802B2
A video encoder using inter-frame differential coding has a store (3) for containing a plurality of reference pictures. For each incoming picture it chooses one (or more) of the stored reference pictures to use. Control means (10) select which locally decoded pictures are to be entered into, and removed from, so that the store always contains at least one relatively older picture that lies within a defined time window and at least one relatively younger picture that is more recent than the time window. When it receives an error message from a receiver, it switches the coder from its normal a state (in which it is allowed to choose any picture as predictor) into a state in which it is permitted to choose only a said relatively older picture for prediction. The beginning of the time window is preferably set according to the estimated (or observed) round trip time between the encoder and decoder such that at least one of the relatively older pictures always predated the error message.
US08259801B2
A method for encoding digital media data includes deriving a portion of prediction information and a portion of prediction error information of the digital media data, and encoding the digital media data into a bit stream. The bit stream comprises a first bit stream section and a second bit stream section that respectively carry the portion of prediction information and the portion of prediction error information. In addition, within the bit stream, the portion of prediction information and the portion of prediction error information are not carried in the same macroblock (MB) or the same sub-unit of an MB. A method for decoding encoded digital media data and a method for coding digital media data and a method for processing bit stream of digital media data are also provided.
US08259797B2
A method for converting an encoded digital video signal from a decoded relatively lower frame rate to a decoded relatively higher frame rate, including the following steps: deriving, from the encoded video signal, at the relatively lower frame rate, a decoded high resolution component and a decoded low resolution component; increasing the frame rate of the decoded low resolution component by interpolating successive frames of the decoded low resolution component; increasing the frame rate of the decoded high resolution component by duplicating frames of the decoded high resolution component; and obtaining an output relatively higher frame rate video signal by combining the increased frame rate low resolution component and the increased frame rate high resolution component.
US08259785B2
An adaptive equalizer includes: an adaptive filter; and a control unit. The adaptive filter performs an adaptive equalization processing for an input signal modulated by a modulation method that produces a modulation signal with constant amplitude characteristics so as to make an amplitude of an equalized output signal constant. The control unit controls stop and execution of the adaptive equalization processing of the adaptive filter in accordance with characteristics of at least one of the input signal and the output signal.
US08259778B2
The present invention provides a method for transmitting paging information in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems as well as the transmitter and receiver apparatus for its application. The method features itself in the following aspects: An auxiliary paging channel is employed dedicatedly for spread-spectrum modulation or digital modulation of the paging information. When the receiver is in a standby state, paging information can be obtained by means of spread spectrum demodulation or digital demodulation with no need to conduct FFT. This leads to a great reduction in power consumption and less power is consumed when the receive devices are in standby state, hence achieving aim to lengthen the usable time of a battery in a mobile phone.
US08259777B2
Rapid uplink synchronization is enabled by reducing a 2D search problem to two 1D search problems, which can generally be performed in less time. Advantage is taken of fact that a mobile device sends a ranging code on multiple sub-carriers. Using the assumption that adjacent sub-carriers will have approximately equivalent channel characteristics, phase ambiguity can be removed by differentially combining pairs of adjacent sub-carriers. Once the phase ambiguity is removed, the code, timing, and power level may be determined relatively quickly. In one embodiment, the values of correlations between received signals and possible codes are compared with a threshold.
US08259770B2
Electrophotographic print system, comprising a photosensitive medium, and a laser array being provided with a plurality of laser diodes arranged to emit light onto the photosensitive medium for varying an electrical potential on a surface of the photosensitive medium, and a plurality of heat dissipation diodes, each heat dissipation diode being arranged in proximity to a corresponding laser diode, wherein each laser diode and the corresponding heat dissipation diode are coupled to a common drive circuit and are arranged in opposite current flow directions with respect to each other, so that in use the current flows either through the laser diode or through the heat dissipation diode depending on the current flow direction in the drive circuit.
US08259763B2
A laser gain medium includes an optical medium configured to transmit a laser beam and having an incident face, a first face, a second face opposing to the first face; and gain media configured to amplify the laser beam while reflecting the laser beam. At least one of the gain media is joined on a first face of the optical medium as a first face gain medium, and at least one of the remaining gain media is joined on a second face of the optical medium as a second face gain medium. The laser beam is incident into the optical medium, and is amplified by the first face gain medium and the second face gain medium while being alternately reflected by the first face gain medium and the second face gain medium.
US08259759B2
A system and method for calculating and applying a metric that is calculated over a binary interval that corresponds in length to a preamble. The value of the metric reflects the likelihood that the interval is the preamble. A lower value for the metric suggests that the interval is more likely to be the preamble. In an embodiment, the metric is calculated beginning at an initial location in the bitstream, and then recalculated beginning at each of several successive locations in the bitstream. This results in a set of calculated metrics. The start of the preamble is considered likely to be the initial location of the interval that corresponds to the metric having the lowest value.
US08259758B2
Provided are a network slave node and a time synchronization method using precision time protocol-like (PTP-like) in a network. The network slave node includes a packet detection unit for detecting whether the slave node receives or sends a synchronization protocol packet and recording a synchronization protocol packet receiving time and a synchronization protocol packet sending time; a hardware clock; and a control unit controlling the packet detection unit and the hardware clock. The control unit reads out the packet receiving time and the packet sending time from the packet detection unit and informs a local master node. The local master node calculates a time offset between the local master node and the slave node, and informs the control unit. The control unit adjusts the hardware clock based on the time offset so that the local master node and the slave node are time synchronized.
US08259753B2
A method transmitting a message over at least one of a plurality of channels of a communications network is provided. The method comprises the steps of detecting a presence of jamming pulses in the at least one of the plurality of channels. The characteristics of the jamming pulses in the at least one of the plurality of channels is determined wherein the determined characteristics define at least interstices between the jamming pulses. The message is transmitted over the at least one of the plurality of channels wherein the message is transmitted within the interstices of the jamming pulse determined from the step of determining characteristics of the jamming pulses.
US08259740B2
The present invention discloses a packet processing method, which applies to a high-performance and scalable flow processing system architecture. The service board performs security processing for packets received from external devices by using the firewall function before sending them to the main CPU; similarly, the service board also performs security processing for packets sent from the main CPU by using the firewall function before the main CPU sends them to external devices. The methods of the present invention utilize high performance and good scalability of the new architecture. In a network with heavy and high-speed traffic, the service board performs security processing for packets by using the firewall function and then transmits the valid packets to the main CPU. Thus, the main CPU is protected by the firewall function against attack packets.
US08259735B2
A method of media transmission. The method includes providing at least one variable bit rate (VBR) video stream and multiplexing the at least one VBR video stream together with auxiliary data related to the at least one VBR video stream, in a constant bit rate (CBR) stream. The stream is transmitted to a first receiving unit, which is adapted to discard the auxiliary data as padding and use the at least one VBR stream and to a second receiving unit, which is adapted to extract the auxiliary data and use it in further handling of the at least one VBR stream.
US08259727B2
A communication infrastructure includes an intermediate routing node that routes a plurality of packets between a source device and a plurality of destination devices, a plurality of templates stored on the intermediate routing node and a service function. The intermediate routing node, e.g., a switch, router, access point, bridge, or gateway, identifies packets containing requests for a webpage, the requests being a service attack attempt by comparing the packet with the plurality of templates. Then, the intermediate routing node denies service attack by interacting with the server and client devices. That is, the intermediate routing node sends messages with challenge mechanism to the server, based on the response or otherwise, sends messages and anti-service attack downloads to the client devices and receives response.
US08259726B2
A LAN includes a router that is connected to two or more racks of servers and each of the servers can support a plurality of virtual machines. The router is configured to forward data packets based on IP destination addresses or based on destination MAC addresses and builds and maintains forwarding tables in support of data packet forwarding in the layer 3 and the layer 2 network environment. In support of layer 2 forwarding, the router builds and maintains an aggregated MAC switching table that is comprise of a subset of the table entries typically needed to switch packets to their destination, and in support of layer 3 forwarding, the router or switch builds and maintains an aggregated ARP forwarding table that is comprised of a subset of the table entries typically needed to forward packets to their destination.
US08259725B2
The present invention discloses a method, system and device for removing Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. The method includes: sending, by a first User-facing Provider Edge (UPE), a MAC Address Withdraw message, when a handover happens on an access network; receiving, by a network provider edge (NPE), the MAC Address Withdraw message; and removing, by the NPE, a Backbone Media Access Control (B-MAC) address table corresponding to a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) network and forwarding the MAC Address Withdraw message, if the message carries no specific identifier; or directly forwarding, by the NPE, the MAC Address Withdraw message, if the message carries a specific identifier. In the present invention, a specific identifier is added to a MAC Address Withdraw message so as to avoid unnecessary MAC address learning by NPE and UPE devices and to reduce the impact, caused by MAC address learning, on network devices.
US08259701B2
A wireless communication system is provided for reducing the probability that latency before data transmission increases when a mobile station that is actually in sync is judged to be out of sync. A base station causes the timing calculation part to calculate the timing advance (TA) of a transmit timing from the mth mobile station; causes the timer adaptive control part to obtain the traveling speed or the time variation in TA of the mth mobile station and, adaptively determines and outputs as the timer update information the length of the mth first timer within an M number in total of synchronization timers and the length of the second timer of the mth mobile station and update the length of the mth first timer; and transmits from the downlink transmission part a downlink signal which contains timer update information.
US08259694B2
A method of registering a multi mode communications device for service can include registering a multi-mode communications device by receiving and transmitting registration information over separate communications networks.
US08259688B2
Systems and methods of pre-allocating identifiers to wireless devices for use in requesting resources over a random access channel are described. A wireless communication system includes a random access channel over which wireless devices can anonymously send requests for resources. The base stations receiving and processing the anonymous requests reduces the probability of random access channel collisions and conserves the resources needed to support the anonymous requests by pre-allocating one or more codes to select wireless devices. The wireless devices having the pre-allocated codes can transmit a particular code over the random access channel as a request for resources that uniquely identifies the requester.
US08259687B2
A code division multiple access (CDMA) user device configured to dynamically allocating at least at least one wireless communication channel to permit a more efficient allocation of wireless communication channels when providing high speed data service. The CDMA user device is configured to receive data traffic from at least one data buffer in a base station. The CDMA user device is dynamically allocated at least one wireless communication channel based on an urgency factor. The urgency factor indicates the urgency of traffic data to be transmitted from the at least one data buffer in the base station to the CDMA user device.
US08259682B2
This application describes, among other things, a framework of Media-independent Pre-Authentication (MPA), a new handover optimization mechanism that has a potential to address issues on existing mobility management protocols and mobility optimization mechanisms. MPA is a mobile-assisted, secure handover optimization scheme that works over any link-layer and with any mobility management protocol. This application also shows, among other things, an initial implementation of MPA in our testbed and some performance results to show how existing protocols could be leveraged to realize the functionalities of MPA.
US08259680B2
A method and apparatus facilitating efficient handover by a wireless communications device is provided. The method may comprise obtaining at least two handover metrics for a target cell and for a serving cell, wherein the at least two handover metrics are determined by a request received from the serving cell, determining if all the obtained handover metrics for the target cell are greater than or equal to corresponding threshold values, wherein the corresponding threshold values for the at least two handover metrics are determined by the request received from the serving cell, determining if at least one of the obtained handover metrics for the serving cell is less than the corresponding threshold value, and generating a measurement report indicating the target cell as a handover candidate cell.
US08259675B2
When a network pages the temporary user mobile identifier of a mobile station, the mobile station sends a response to the network. Next, the network checks the authenticity of the user using a ciphering key, corresponding to the temporary user mobile identifier and a random number. If the temporary user mobile identifier is authenticated, a normal incoming call acceptance procedure is executed. If the mobile station is authenticated although the temporary user mobile identifier is wrong, the network reassigns a new temporary user mobile identifier to the mobile station and stops the current communication. In communication, the network and the mobile station mutually notify encipherment-onset time and negotiate about encipherment manner with each other. In addition, diversity handover is commenced upon a call attempt. Furthermore, if a branch replacement is necessary, the current branch is replaced by new branches capable of executing the diversity handover. Additionally, when a new call occurs to or from the mobile station capable of treating a plurality of calls simultaneously, the mobile station uses the same branch structure and the same communication frequency band for all of calls. Additionally, when a new call occurs to or from the mobile station capable of treating a plurality of calls simultaneously, a branch structure and a communication frequency band, which can continue all of the calls, are selected and used. Therefore, the mobile communications system is suitable for transmission of various sorts of data in accordance with the development of multimedia.
US08259668B2
A transmission method for use in a multi-hop wireless communication system is provided. The system includes a source apparatus, a destination apparatus and one or more intermediate apparatuses, said source apparatus being operable to transmit information in a communication direction along a series of links forming a communication path extending from the source apparatus to the destination apparatus via the or each intermediate apparatus, and the or each intermediate apparatus being operable to receive information from a previous apparatus along the path and to transmit the received information to a subsequent apparatus along the path, the system having access to a time-frequency format for use in assigning available transmission frequency bandwidth for transmission in the communication direction during a discrete transmission interval, said format defining a plurality of transmission windows within such an interval, each window occupying a different part of that interval and having a frequency bandwidth profile within said available transmission frequency bandwidth over its part of that interval, each said window being assignable for such a transmission interval to one of said apparatuses for use in transmission. The method includes transmitting reservation information for use in a particular such transmission interval from a first one of said apparatuses to a second one of said apparatuses, the second apparatus being the or one of the intermediate apparatuses, and the reservation information specifying at least one transmission window to be reserved of the particular transmission interval. The method also includes, in the second apparatus, reserving the specified window(s) of the particular transmission interval in dependence upon the received reservation information.
US08259661B2
Mechanisms, in a transmission channel shared by 802.11 systems and HIPERLAN/2 systems are provided to prevent 802.11 terminals from transmitting during time periods allocated to HIPERLAN, so that a single channel can be shared between the two standards. In a particular embodiment, a “super frame” format is used where HIPERLAN transmissions are offered the highest level of protection possible within 802.11, which is needed within the 802.11 Contention Free Period (CFP).
US08259660B2
A method and apparatus according to the technique wherein support of a quality of service is provided for transmissions between at least one node (N) and at least one mobile station (MS1) in a multihop communication environment. Support is ensured by checking the quality of service class of each transmission prior to transmission. Once the checking has been performed, depending on the class of the checked transmission a multihop transmission or a direct transmission is selected for the transmission to the at least one mobile station, whereby a transmission having a quality of service class belonging to a first class of quality of service classes is transmitted using the direct transmission, whereas a transmission having a quality of service class belonging to a further class of quality of service classes is transmitted using the multihop transmission.
US08259657B2
A channel quality measurement method that accomplishes efficient channel quality measurement for each mobile station is presented. In a frequency band including a plurality of frequency blocks, a base station measures the channel quality of each of a plurality of mobile stations. With respect to each mobile station, when a pilot resource for demodulation is not allocated in at least one of the frequency blocks, the base station allocates a specific pilot resource for channel quality measurement in that frequency block. The channel quality of each mobile station in the plurality of frequency blocks is measured by using one or both of the pilot resource for demodulation and the dedicated pilot resource for channel quality measurement.
US08259654B2
A wireless base station apparatus includes a path detecting unit configured to detect a preamble signal sent from a terminal and obtain a back-diffusion timing; a back-diffusion unit configured to execute back-diffusion processing on a message signal sent from the terminal, by using the back-diffusion timing reported from the path detecting unit; and a calculating unit configured to calculate a frequency deviation of the message signal that has been subjected to the back-diffusion processing, based on a pilot signal of the message signal that has been subjected to the back-diffusion processing. The path detecting unit includes an information detecting unit configured to detect a frequency deviation of the preamble signal when detecting the preamble signal and supply the frequency deviation of the preamble signal to the calculating unit as initial value information. The calculating unit includes an information adding unit that calculates the frequency deviation of the message signal by using the initial value information.
US08259651B2
A wireless communication network comprising a plurality of base stations capable of wireless communication with a plurality of subscriber stations within a coverage area of the network, wherein at least one of the plurality of base stations is capable of: determining a multiplexing scheme for multiplexing a frequency-selective channel quality information/precoding matrix index (FS CQI/PMI) feedback report with a wideband channel quality information/precoding matrix index (WB CQI/PMI) feedback report and a rank information (RI) report on a physical uplink control channel; transmitting the multiplexing scheme to a subscriber station; and receiving, from the subscriber station, an FS CQI/PMI feedback report multiplexed with a WB CQI/PMI feedback report and a RI report on the physical uplink control channel according to the multiplexing scheme.
US08259641B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for feeder link configurations to layered modulation. One feeder link system employs feeder link spot beam to antennas in distinct coverage areas to enable frequency reuse. Another system employs narrow beam width feeder link antenna to illuminate individual satellites also enabling frequency reuse. Yet another system uses layered modulation in the feeder link. Another feeder link system employs a higher order synchronous modulation for the satellite feeder link than is used in the layered modulation downlink signals.
US08259633B2
A wireless LAN communication device is provided for making it possible to set beacons including DTIM information elements not to be synchronous in the case that the timing for generating the beacons including DTIM information elements is the same among access points, so that it is avoidable that only a terminal device under a specific access point among access points using the same channel is subjected to a delay and jitters, while anxiety about mutual interference of the terminal devices is removed in the case of broadcast and multicast service, so that a fair broadcast and multicast service can be received. In the device, a wireless LAN control unit (202) detects beacons of other stations received in a prescribed period of time before the transmission of its own station (200). A beacon analyzing unit (203) analyzes the beacons of the other stations and adjusts transmission intervals of its own DTIM beacon.
US08259632B2
A protocol for a peer power save mode (PPSM) in a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) wireless network and a system therefor are provided. A station (STA) set up a TDLS link can send a frame having a power management bit set to a peer STA to enter into a power save mode (PSM). In this case, the station entering into the PSM operates in a PPSM client mode. When the peer STA operates in the PPSM client mode, the STA can operate in the PPSM access point (AP) mode or can enter into the PPSM client mode. The STA operating in the PPSM AP mode buffers data for the STA operating in the PPSM client mode and informs the peer STA of information indicating that there is buffered data by the use of a peer traffic indication frame or the like. In principle, a U-APSD procedure can be applied to the transmission of data through a direct link from the STA operating in the PPSM AP mode to the STA operating in the PPSM client mode.
US08259630B2
A method and system for assigning subcarrier frequency resource for a relay enhanced cellular communication system including a base station, one or more mobile stations and one or more relay stations, is provided. Subcarrier assignment involves allocating subcarriers to one or more relay communication links between the base station and relay stations, to accommodate minimum data rate requirements of the access communication links; and allocating subcarriers to one or more access communication links between relay stations and mobile stations to approximate the data rates achieved on the corresponding relay communication links, wherein allocating subcarriers to one or more access communication links includes reusing subcarriers among access communication links in different relay cells.
US08259623B2
A content capability clearing house that can act as a trusted and neutral mediator among network providers to manage rich content capabilities among multiple networks is provided. Content capabilities that can be brokered include, but are not limited to, quality of service and content screening. In an embodiment, a content capability clearing house includes a receiver that receives content capability request messages and other messages from network providers. A content capability request message includes a quality of service request and/or a subscriber profile request for use with content screening and subscriber specific advertisements. The present invention includes a series of methods for determining content capabilities for data transmission over a transaction between a content provider and a subscriber in which a content capability clearing house is used to efficiently broker and manage the capability among multiple network providers.
US08259621B2
A method and a system for simultaneously supporting network sharing and data synchronization are provided for a first operating system (OS) and a second OS, wherein the first OS is connected to a network. The present method establishes a virtual network between the first OS and the second OS. Then, the second OS is connected to the first OS through the virtual network, so as to connect to the network through the first OS. The virtual network can also be used for synchronizing data of the first and second OS. As a result, the convenience of using different OS at the same time can be improved.
US08259620B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing protocols for building and maintaining multiple trees in a network and using the trees to route messages through the network. A node in the network initiates the building of a tree having itself as the root, and nodes in the network generally maintain representations of multiple trees, each tree having a distinct node as its root. A node can use the trees to route messages to the root nodes by sending the messages through root-ward ports for the respective trees.
US08259617B2
Aspects of a method and system for timely delivery of multimedia content via a femtocell are provided. In this regard, a femtocell may receive data via an upstream path and transmit data via a downstream path. One of the upstream path and downstream path may comprise a cellular path and the other may comprise a non-cellular path. One or both of the upstream path and the downstream path may be audio video bridging (AVB) paths. Data may be stored in the femtocell based on timing characteristics of one or both of the upstream path and the downstream path. Data may be delivered to the femtocell utilizing best effort delivery and the data may be forwarded by the femtocell with guaranteed quality of service. Resources in the femtocell may be reserved and/or synchronized, utilizing AVB protocols, for communication of one or more data streams.
US08259616B2
A method of configuring a networking device comprises: collecting data regarding the networking device; conveying the data to a remote server; selecting configuration slice instances based on the data using the server, wherein templates for the slice instances are stored on the server; compiling the configuration slice instances using the server; and delivering the compiled configuration slice instances to the networking device; wherein the slice instances are coherent sub-sections of configuration settings for the networking device.
US08259615B2
A method, apparatus and system for displaying topology information of a wireless sensor network includes a plurality of sensor nodes. The method typically includes: receiving node information collected and extracted from the sensor nodes; comparing the received node information with stored node information; computing, when the received node information is unequal to the stored node information, visualization information on a sensor node whose information is not present in the stored node information; and displaying the sensor nodes on concentric circles using the visualization information.
US08259614B2
A personal network, being associated with a user, and a method for securing it are disclosed. The personal network has a plurality of personal devices associated with the user, wherein the personal devices are configured to be interconnected with each other via one or more communication connections, to allow data communication there between; and at least one personal network control unit and/or service configured to control access to the personal network. The control unit and/or service is operable to be in a first mode that allows all of the personal devices to access the personal network, and a second mode wherein at least one of the personal devices has restricted or no access to the personal network.
US08259608B2
A method and apparatus for calculating a cost index in a communication network. In one embodiment, a plurality of first cost factors associated with a first set of network elements is obtained. Subsequently, a plurality of second cost factors associated with a second set of network elements is obtained. A first cost index is then determined based on the plurality of first cost factors associated with the first set of network elements. Similarly, a second cost index is determined based on the plurality of second cost factors associated with the second set of network elements. Afterwards, the first cost index is compared to the second cost index to determine a point in time when a service provider should minimize new investment in the first set of network elements.
US08259605B2
The present invention relates to a data packet header comprising a first bit field consisting of a first sequence of bits with identical values and a second bit field consisting of a second sequence of bits, the second sequence of bits being subject to a run-length restriction, and located immediately after the first sequence of bits in the order of transmission. The number of bits in the first sequence is equal to or exceeding the run-length restriction and the bits of the second sequence have opposite identical values to the value of the first bit of the second sequence of bits. The invention equally relates to a correlator for detecting a data stream and arranged to determine a correct clock phase for the data stream.
US08259600B1
A throughput of an air interface is recorded during a plurality of intervals to produce a set of recorded throughputs. A slot utilization is also recorded during each of the plurality of intervals to produce a set of recorded slot utilizations. A slot is an allocation of time and frequency. A linear regression on the data points of the set of recorded throughputs and the set of recorded slot utilizations is performed to produce a regression line of throughput versus slot utilization. An indicator of air interface quality is calculated based on the slope of the regression line.
US08259599B2
In accordance with a method for distributed beamforming based on carrier to caused interference, a base station may receive channel state information from users. The base station may select a codeword from a codebook. The codeword may be selected so as to maximize a utility function that is based on a signal-to-caused-interference-plus-noise ratio. The base station may use the codeword for beamforming.
US08259598B2
Apparatus and method for accessing a wireless telecommunications network by transmitting a random access signal. The random access signal includes a cyclic prefix signal and a guard interval. The cyclic prefix signal and the guard interval are adapted to optimize random access channel coverage in a telecommunications cell. The disclosed method for transmitting a random access signal includes transmitting a cyclic prefix signal. The duration of the cyclic prefix signal is approximately the sum of a maximum round trip delay duration of the telecommunications cell and a maximum delay spread duration. The method further includes providing a guard interval. The guard interval duration being approximately the duration of the maximum round trip delay of the telecommunications cell.
US08259596B1
Disclosed are systems and methods for managing Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses in a network gaming environment comprising a plurality of electronic gaming machines, having one or more in-game network devices. In particular an in-game switch is provided, which is configured to receiving an external IP address from a centrals DHCP server and to determine a scope of internal IP addresses associated with the one or more in-game network devices. Once the scope is determined, the in-game switch is configured to lease IP addresses from the address scope block to the associated in-game network devices.
US08259593B2
A gateway is used to segment a network, such as a FAULT TOLERANT ETHERNET (FTE) network, into islands. The gateway receives traffic from a first island, forwards part of the traffic to a second island, and blocks another part of the traffic from being forwarded to the second island. The forwarded traffic could include unicast traffic. The blocked traffic could include broadcast or multicast traffic, including diagnostic messages from one or more nodes in the first island.
US08259591B2
A signal reception method and apparatus for a communication system. One input unit and dc−1 delay nodes each receive one input message. A comparison unit compares magnitudes of the input messages being input to the dc−1 delay nodes, and outputs an input message having a minimum magnitude as an output message. After the comparison unit outputs the output message, a controller cyclic-shifts the input messages being input to the one input unit and the dc−1 delay nodes according to a control signal.
US08259590B2
The present invention provides scalable and rapid Ethernet fault detection which eliminates the requirement to contiguously send heartbeat frames at regular intervals to detect connectivity faults for each Ethernet Path. The present invention generates Continuity Check Message (CCM) frames only when a fault occurs, continues generating CCM frames while the fault remains, and discontinues when the fault clears. The present invention can be utilized with Ethernet Protection Switching to rapidly detect faults. Additionally, the present invention can be used in any Ethernet topology including point-to-point, rings, and the like.
US08259585B1
Techniques are described for load balancing packet flows across parallel data paths. For example, a network device includes a plurality of parallel network interfaces and a control unit that applies each of a first set of hash functions to a packet and one of a second set of hash functions to the packet. Bins of each of the first set of hash functions are mapped to bits of a bit vector. Bins of each of the second set of hash functions are mapped to the plurality of parallel network interfaces. The control unit selects the one of the second set of hash functions to apply to the packet based on values of the bits of the bit vector. The control unit forwards the packet through the network interface that is identified by applying the selected one of the second set of hash functions to the packet.
US08259584B2
In an example embodiment, a method is provided that receives a broadcast of available bandwidth from a first routing device. A congestion of traffic is detected along a downstream path to a second routing device. This second routing device is an immediate downstream neighbor. As such, an alternate path is established to the second routing device by way of the first routing device based on the available bandwidth in the network and a portion of the traffic is transmitted along the alternate path.
US08259579B2
The invention relates to a method for controlling the flow of data between an RNC (R) and a base station (BS) of a UMTS mobile communications system with HSDPA capability via an lub interface (I2), where an HS-DSCH Frame Protocol mechanism is implemented in the lub interface (I2) to provide control and data services for the communication of HSDPA user data between the RNC and the base station, wherein a capacity overload control entity (COCU) monitors information about actual lub interface data transport flow (IDF), and when a determined lub interface (I2) transport capacity value is reached, the data transport flow is reduced in the lub interface (I2).
US08259572B2
An IF unit to an RF unit generate a packet signal containing a control signal and a data signal and transmits the thus generated packet signal. A radio control unit performs a first retransmission control or a second retransmission control on the packet signal transmitted. The radio control unit causes the IF unit to the RF unit to have first control information for the first retransmission control contained in the control signal and have second control information for the second retransmission control contained in the data signal.
US08259571B1
Systems, methods and apparatus for tunneling in a cloud based security system. A multi-tenant cloud-based security system that can distinguish between client computing devices with overlapping private IP addresses is disclosed. Client devices communicate through a processing node to which a tunnel is established. The processing node is able to detect the client devices and apply security policies to the device.
US08259570B2
The invention provides a method of controlling transmission of packets from a transmitter to a receiver via a channel, and a corresponding transmitter and receiver. The method comprises: transmitting packets from a queue, each packet having a packet size based on data in the packet; determining a transmission time for each packet, based on a transmission clock; determining a reception time of each packet, based on a reception clock; supplying to an estimation function successive sets of observations including in each set transmission time, reception time and packet size, the estimate function being arranged to provide an estimate of bandwidth for the channel using the relationship between the bandwidth, the amount of data in the queue, packet size and the delay between transmitting successive packets from the queue; and using the estimated bandwidth to control transmission of packets.
US08259566B2
A close-loop quality of service system is provided that collects real-time network performance indicators at the physical, data link and network layers. Using those indicators, the system dynamically controls the network traffic in order to achieve improved performance according to the priority and policy defined by a data user or system/network administrator. Several features of this quality of service system includes (1) dynamic maximum bandwidth reallocation, (2) dynamic maximum packet sizing, (3) adaptive policing, and/or (4) real-time link status feedbacks to make more efficient use of available bandwidth and adjust to transmission requirements.
US08259561B2
A wireless communication network includes a plurality of base stations capable of wireless communication with a plurality of subscriber stations within a coverage area of the network. At least one of the plurality of base stations is capable of selecting up to four orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a subframe of a physical uplink shared channel. The up to four OFDM symbols are selected starting from the bottom a resource grid of the physical uplink shared channel in a bottom-up manner, and one or more rank information (RI) coded bits are repeated in each of the selected up to four OFDM symbols.
US08259560B2
A communication system may include a wireless communications device having a wireless transceiver and a controller cooperating therewith, and a wireless base station having a wireless transceiver and a controller cooperating therewith for communicating with the wireless communications device using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based upon pilot sub-carriers. The controller of the wireless base station may randomly allocate the pilot sub-carriers over time.
US08259557B2
By avoiding the problem that in a hybrid optical disc, an optical pickup suitable for a standard-density recording area cannot operate as desired in a high-density recording area, damage to the disc drive or optical disc is prevented and optimal control is enabled. Access operation identification information such as reproducing identification information indicating whether or not information recorded in the user data area of the optical disc can be reproduced under the reproducing conditions of the optical disc driving apparatus is recorded in the lead-in area. The optical disc driving apparatus reads this type of access operation identification information, compares it with access operation identification information possessed by the optical disc driving apparatus, and if they do not correspond, does not carry out access operations by the optical head to the user data area, because reproducing or recording compatibility with the optical disc is lacking.
US08259542B1
A gain calibration method for optical storage servo systems in which, plant gain calibration is used by injecting a reference sine wave r into an optical storage servo system, obtaining an effort signal m at the input of the servo plant and an error signal y at the output of the servo plant, using a DFT (Discrete Fourier Transformation) to translate the time domain signals m and y into frequency responses M and Y, calculating a Y-to-M ratio, and using the magnitude of the Y-to-M ratio as the plant gain K of the servo system. The servo system's sensor gain K1 at the outermost layer of a disk may be calibrated by, e.g., the conventional peak-to-peak measurement. Since K=K1·K2, the servo system's actuator gain K2 at the outermost layer of the disk may be obtained. Because the actuator gain K2 is the same for all layers of a disk, the variation of the sensor gain K1 at an inner layer may follow that of the plant gain K at that layer. Accordingly, the sensor gain K1 may be calibrated for each layer of a multilayer disk, and the calibration is independent from the compensator C.
US08259528B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a first anti-fuse element and a second anti-fuse element, respectively composed of a transistor, wherein the first anti-fuse element and the second anti-fuse element are configured so as to be concomitantly programmable, respectively formed in P-wells on a substrate, and the adjacent P-wells are isolated by N-wells of an opposite conductivity type, formed therebetween.
US08259522B1
An integrated circuit is provided with built-in-self test circuitry. The integrated circuit may have multiple blocks of memory. The memory may be tested using the built-in-self test circuitry. Each memory block may include a satellite address generator that is used in generating test addresses for the memory blocks. Each memory block may also include failure analysis logic and output response analyzer logic. Stalling logic may be used to individually stall memory block testing on a block-by-block basis during memory tests. Address buffer circuitry such as first-in-first-out buffers may be used to provide randomized memory addresses during testing.
US08259521B2
A method and circuit for testing a multi-chip package is provided. The multi-chip package includes at least a memory chip, and the memory chip includes a number of memory cells. The method includes performing a normal read operation on the memory cells to check if data read from the memory cells is the same with preset data in the memory cells; and performing a special read operation on the memory cells to check if data read from the memory cells is the same with an expected value, wherein the expected value is independent from data stored in the memory cells.
US08259517B2
A Random Access Memory (RAM) and method of using the same are disclosed. The RAM includes a plurality of memory cells arranged in columns and in rows with each memory cell coupled to at least one word line and at least one bit line. The RAM includes a plurality of switches with at least one of the switches coupled between two of the memory cells to allow data to be copied from one of the two memory cells to the other of the two memory cells. In another aspect, the two memory cells can be considered a dual bit cell that contains a copying mechanism. There are two interleaved memory planes, assembled from bit cells that contain two bits of information. One bit is the primary bit that corresponds to the normal RAM bit. The second bit is able to receive a copy and hold the primary value. When the copying mechanism is over, the two memory planes may act as two completely independent structures.
US08259516B2
Provided is a memory circuit including: memory cells (A) arranged in columns and rows; memory cells (B) each provided for each of the rows for storing information indicative of whether writing into the memory cells (A) of the each of the rows has been completed or not; and a circuit for selecting one of the rows by utilizing the information stored in the memory cells (B). The memory circuit writes information into the memory cell (B) upon completion of writing into the memory cells (A) of a given one of the rows. By utilizing a change in the information stored in the memory cell (B), the given one of the rows is switched from a selected state to a non-selected state, and a next row is switched from the non-selected state to the selected state so that writing is enabled. The operation is repeated to thereby sequentially select a row to be written.
US08259508B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to receive an external erase command at a control circuit coupled to an erasable memory array located on a substrate. A global select gate voltage may thereafter be enabled for application to wordline transistors coupled to the erasable memory array after a voltage applied to the substrate has reached a preselected initiation voltage level between about zero volts and an ultimate erase voltage.
US08259507B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes an array of rows and columns of memory cells and a plurality of word lines and bit lines associated with the memory cells. The memory device further includes a word line booster circuit coupled with the word lines for supplying a selected word line with a specific voltage as a drive voltage during an operation of the memory device. The word line booster circuit includes a first boosting capacitor and a second boosting capacitor connected in parallel to generate a boosting voltage and a first precharge circuit for precharging the first and second boosting capacitors. The word line booster circuit further includes a third boosting capacitor operatively connected to the first and second boosting capacitors via a charge-sharing transistor, the third boosting capacitor being connected to one end of a load resistor to generate an output signal at the other end of the load resistor when the charge sharing transistor is enabled.
US08259500B2
A non-volatile memory (NVM) circuit is provided, that includes at least a first and second NVM sub-array. The first sub-array is built from first memory cells. The second NVM sub-array is built from second memory cells that are constructed differently from the first memory cells. The NVM sub-arrays share a support circuit. In some embodiments the sub-arrays can be constructed, so that they exhibit different characteristics tailored to their intended use. For example one sub-array might be tailored for data retention, while the next sub-array for programming endurance, still another for write disturb immunity.
US08259492B2
A method of reading a dual-bit memory cell includes a controlling terminal, a first terminal, and a second terminal. The dual-bit memory cell has a first bit storage node and a second bit storage node near the first terminal and the second terminal respectively. First, a controlling voltage and a read voltage are applied to the controlling terminal and the first terminal respectively. The second terminal is grounded to measure a first output current value of the first terminal. Then, the controlling voltage and the read voltage are applied to the controlling terminal and the second terminal respectively. The first terminal is grounded to measure a second output current value of the second terminal. Afterward, the bit state of the first bit storage node and the bit state of the second bit storage node is read simultaneously according to the first output current value and the second output current value.
US08259482B2
A power adapter apparatus and a power management method thereof are disclosed in the invention. The power adapter includes an output interface and a power modulation unit. The power adapter can be electrically connected with an electronic device through the output interface. There is a detective structure disposed on the output interface. The power management method includes steps of: 1) detecting whether the power adapter apparatus is electrically connected with the electronic device by the detective structure; and 2) when the output interface is detected to be disconnected from the electronic device, switching the power modulation unit to a standby state, so as to reduce a total power consumption of the power modulation unit.
US08259470B2
A control circuit, a control method, and a power supply device are provided. The control circuit includes an obtaining sub-circuit, adapted to obtain a voltage signal from a reverse surge current when the reverse surge current appears on a primary side of a switch power circuit of a synchronous rectification circuit; a maintaining sub-circuit, adapted to continuously output a first control signal in a preset first time period when the voltage signal is greater than a preset first voltage threshold; and a control sub-circuit, adapted to control and switch off switch tubes of the secondary side of the switch power circuit of the synchronous rectification circuit according to the first control signal. Thus, a reverse current surge of the switch power circuit of the synchronous rectification circuit can be effectively suppressed, and the safety of a switch power supply of the synchronous rectification circuit can be effectively protected.
US08259458B2
A battery cover assembly for a portable electronic device includes a housing, a battery cover, and a pivot member. The housing forms a first latch portion and a second latch portion, the first latch portion and the second latch portion being arranged at a circle. The battery cover forms a first engaging portion and a second engaging portion engaging with the first latch portion and a second latch portion to allow the battery cover to releasably latch to the housing. The pivot member rotatably connects the battery cover to the housing.
US08259448B2
An image display device is provided with a chassis supporting a display panel on its front surface, circuit boards arranged within a specific region of the back surface of the chassis, a back cover having an edge portion that covers the outside of the specific region of the back surface of the chassis and a projecting portion that accommodates the circuit boards, and a fan arranged inside the space defined by projecting portion. The projecting portion includes a main wall and a peripheral wall, and the peripheral wall is provided with an air inlet and an air outlet. The edge portion is provided with a sound absorbing material on its outer wall surface in the vicinity of the air outlet.
US08259445B2
A computing device that includes a housing, an accessory interface, and a self-closing enclosure mechanism for the accessory interface. The self-closing enclosure mechanism is positioned over the accessory interface and is pivotable to move between a closed and open position.
US08259442B2
A computer bezel includes a main body, a door secured to the main body, a pushing member slidably secured to the main body, and a driving member rotatably secured to the main body. The main body defines a through opening. The door is rotated between a closed position, where the door covers the through opening, and an open position, where the door is rotated away from the main body to expose the through opening. The pushing member is slid between a first position, where the pushing member is disengaged from the driving member, and a second position, where the pushing member rotates the driving member. When the driving member is slid from the first position to the second position, the driving member is capable of sliding a tray of a disk drive out of the disk drive, and the door will rotate from the closed position to the open position.
US08259439B2
A computer mouse is provided and has a mouse main body, a rubber cover and a foot pad. The mouse main body has engagement holes. The rubber cover is covered on the mouse main body and formed with an opening. The foot pad has a flat foot-pad main body which has engagement members, each of which has a connection portion. The connection portion has a first end connected to the engagement member and having a height matched with that of the engagement hole, and a second end protruded to form an umbrella-like engagement portion. When installing the computer mouse, the connection portion passes through the opening and is then received in the engagement hole, and the engagement portion is engaged against an inner edge of the engagement hole, so that the foot pad is firmly mounted on the computer mouse. Thus, the computer mouse has simpler installation and aesthetic appearance.
US08259438B2
A button locking mechanism includes a latch for being pushed in a first direction by a driving component, and a blocking component connected to the latch. A first incline structure is formed on the blocking component for contacting against a button when the blocking component moves in the first direction so that the blocking component moves in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. The button locking mechanism further includes a first elastic component connected to the blocking component for pushing the blocking component to move in a third direction opposite to the second direction so as to prevent the button from being pressed down.
US08259437B2
Technologies are generally described for an adjustable display screen such as for a notebook computer or other portable device. In some examples, at least one display screen rail may be rotatably coupled to a back edge of a notebook computer base unit at a hinge rod. The display screen of the notebook computer may slide along and/or pivot on the at least one display screen rail in a direction to bring the display screen toward a user of the notebook computer while leaving room for the user to access a keyboard located on a top surface of the base unit. Mechanisms may be coupled to the notebook computer to transmit motion of the display screen along a first display screen rail to motion of the display screen along a second display screen rail, thereby mitigating binding of the display screen as it slides along the display screen rails.
US08259433B2
In a ceramic electronic component having a thin structure, the occurrence of cracks due to stress applied when the ceramic component is being mounted or in a mounted state are prevented. Each of first and second external terminal electrodes has a substantially rectangular region on a principal surface of a ceramic element body, the principal surface being directed to the mounting surface side. An end of the first external terminal electrode, which is arranged in contact with a gap region, and an end of the second external terminal electrode, which is positioned in contact with the gap region, each preferably have a concave-convex shape on the principal surface.
US08259422B2
By using switching power supplies a, b, and n, which have detection function of over-current, over-voltage and low voltage, in the case where a short-circuit occurred in a load which is connected to output of a switching power supply, and in the case where a MOSFET of the switching power supply is in a short-circuit state and broken, a main power is forced to be off, and a failure log of the switching power supply is stored in a non-volatile memory unit EEPROM; and also in the case where the main power was turned off and on, even if an abnormal log of the switching power supply logged in the non-volatile memory unit, reclosing of the main power is suppressed and which of the switching power supply occurred failure is notified to the outside.
US08259420B2
A composite free layer having a FL1/insertion/FL2 configuration where a top surface of FL1 is treated with a weak plasma etch is disclosed for achieving enhanced dR/R while maintaining low RA, and low λ in TMR or GMR sensors. The weak plasma etch removes less than about 0.2 Angstroms of FL1 and is believed to modify surface structure and possibly increase surface energy. FL1 may be CoFe, CoFe/CoFeB, or alloys thereof with Ni, Ta, Mn, Ti, W, Zr, Hf, Tb, or Nb having a (+) λ value. FL2 may be CoFe, NiFe, or alloys thereof having a (−) λ value. The thin insertion layer includes at least one magnetic element such as Co, Fe, and Ni, and at least one non-magnetic element selected from Ta, Ti, W, Zr, Hf, Nb, Mo, V, Cr, or B. When CoFeBTa is selected as insertion layer, the CoFeB:Ta ratio is from 1:1 to 4:1.
US08259418B2
According to one embodiment, a head suspension assembly includes an arm includes upper and lower surfaces, a suspension extending from the arm, a head supported by the suspension, and restriction plates bonded on the upper and lower surfaces of the arm. The restriction plates includes extending portions projecting from the arm to a downstream side of an airflow, respectively, and the extending portions are bent in a direction in which the extending portions approach each other.
US08259414B2
Embodiments of the invention provide patterned media in which the center and the direction of the disk can be detected. According to one embodiment, patterned media has a bit pattern including convex portions of a magnetic material on one surface or both surfaces of a nonmagnetic substrate having a central hole. A diffraction grating pattern is formed as an alignment pattern in the inner circumference (or outer circumference) of the patterned media. The diffraction grating pattern is a pattern having a repetitive configuration, and includes a pattern with a repetitive pitch different from that in other portions, or a portion having no pattern, at least one region on a circumference. The diffraction grating pattern is irradiated with detection light and diffracted light is detected, thereby a center and a direction of the disk can be detected.
US08259411B2
A method for forming a magnetic write pole with a trapezoidal cross-section is described. The method consists of first forming a magnetic seedlayer on a base followed by depositing a removable material layer on the seedlayer, and then a resist layer on the removable material layer. A trench is then formed in the resist, and the resist is heated to cause the cross-sectional profile of the trench to assume a trapezoidal shape. The resist is then capped with another resist layer and further heated to cause the width of the trapezoidal trench to become narrower. The cap layer and removable material layer at the bottom of the trench are then removed and the trench filled with magnetic material by electroplating. The resist and seedlayer external to the trench are finally removed to form a write pole with a trapezoidal cross-section.
US08259406B2
A disk drive including a sensor element that senses contact between a head slider and a disk, a head integrated circuit (IC) comprising an amplification circuit section that amplifies a signal of the head slider, a controller IC comprising a controller that accesses a register of the head IC for controlling the head IC, and an identification section, within the head IC, that determines a contact frequency of the contact by the sensor element by using a timing control signal of the controller IC.
US08259403B2
An objective comprises: a first group including a plurality of lens groups arranged at a predetermined interval; a second group composed of a single lens-group; a pressing ring which is screwed in, the pressing ring being for fixing the first group; and an outer frame accommodating the first group, the second group, and the pressing ring, wherein the outer frame includes a first hole at a position facing the second group.
US08259397B2
A wide angle zoom lens system in a three lens group N-P-P configuration wherein the first lens group, the second lens group, and the third lens group are arranged in an order from an object side to an image side, and wherein, when variable power operation is performed from a wide angle to a telephoto position, the distance between the first lens group and the second lens group is reduced, and the second lens group is moved toward the object side, and the distance between the second lens group and the third lens group is increased, and wherein the zoom lens has a large view angle at the wide angle position.
US08259394B2
A diffusing plate is formed so as to have a surface having a larger surface roughness than a predetermined wavelength and having an aperiodic roughness shape. A plurality of fine concave/convex portions are formed on the surface so as to be arranged within a cycle equal to and smaller than a predetermined wavelength.
US08259379B2
An optical scanning device, which scans a surface to be scanned by light, includes a light source, a coupling optical system, which changes light from the light source into approximately parallel light, a light control reflection member which is disposed in an optical path of the light from the coupling optical system, the light control reflection member defining a diameter of a beam of the light which scans the surface to be scanned, and reflecting a part of the light which is not used for the scanning toward the coupling optical system, and a light detector which receives the light reflected by the light control reflection member via the coupling optical system.
US08259376B2
A system, method, and apparatus for delayed optical logic gates based on slow light and enhanced nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes, where a single or multiple delayed optical routers are utilized for dark resonance interactions in which two-color lasers interact with a three-level nonlinear optical medium comprised of two ground states and one excited state through the nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes. The delayed optical logic mechanism is based on combination of single or multiple dark resonance-induced two-photon coherence conversion via slow light phenomenon. The two-photon coherence induced on the ground states is optically detected via nondegenerate four-wave mixing processes. The nondegenerate four-wave mixing generation is enhanced owing to dark resonance or electromagnetically induced transparency. The gating time and bandwidth of the present delayed optical logic gates is invariant to the delayed time of the delayed optical router because IN and OUT bandwidth across the nonlinear medium must be same.
US08259358B2
A method for eliminating moire in scanned digital image comprises the steps of using an average circuit for taking weighted average and error diffusing a gray level difference between an error diffusion pixel Gij and neighbor pixels to neighbor to obtain output image pixel Y′ij; using a second adder for subtracting the error diffusion pixel Gij from the output image pixel Y′ij to obtain a neighbor image error dij; using a error filter H(z) to process the neighbor image error dij to obtain a corrected pixel error H(d(i,j)); and using a first adder for adding the corrected pixel error H(d(i,j)) and the input image pixel Yij to obtain the corrected error diffusion pixel Gij, and then jumping to first step until all pixels being processed. The method provides real time treatment for eliminating moire and provide smooth image.
US08259355B2
A device for converting a color image including multiple character images into a monochrome image is disclosed. The device includes a color conversion unit configured to reduce the image density of black character images included in the color image to a level lower than the image density of specific color character images included in the color image and having a specific color other than black during the conversion of the color image into the monochrome image.
US08259352B2
An image generating device comprises an extraction unit that extracts parameters (specifying an elliptical shape and a gradation pattern) from an instruction for drawing an elliptical radial gradation, a transformation matrix generating unit that generates a transformation matrix for transforming the elliptical shape into a perfect circular shape based on the parameters, an inverse matrix calculating unit that calculates an inverse matrix of the transformation matrix, a perfect circle parameter calculating unit that calculates perfect circle parameters specifying each perfect circle (drawn with a uniform color value inside the perfect circular shape) based on the parameters, an ellipse parameter calculating unit that calculates ellipse parameters specifying each ellipse (drawn with a uniform color value inside the elliptical shape) by inversely transforming the perfect circle parameters using the inverse matrix, and a gradation generating unit that generates the elliptical radial gradation from the ellipse parameters and the gradation pattern parameters.
US08259345B2
An image processing apparatus retrieves attribute values of image data in a storing unit for storing image data read by a reading unit or image data received from an external unit, and sets the retrieved attribute values as at least a part of read settings for document reading to be performed by the reading unit.
US08259343B2
The present invention provides an image processing device which is capable of avoiding disappearance of print data such as thin lines by increasing probability in which an original image is stored even after resolution conversion processing is executed to a binary image. In order to achieve this, the present invention may leave the pixels in any of the two lines halftone-processed with same threshold value row after the resolution conversion in a given ratio.
US08259336B2
In this invention, a combined job obtained by combining a plurality of jobs is authenticated as a single job. According to the arrangement of this invention, when print jobs are to be spooled, these jobs are transferred from a dispatcher to a spooler where the jobs are combined. Upon reception of a print instruction, the print job is read out from a spool file, transferred from a despooler to a graphic engine again, and transferred from the dispatcher to a printer driver. At this time, the printer driver issues an authentication request in printing to a job accounting client. Thus, only one authentication request suffices for one combined job.