US08424677B2

A carton for carrying a plurality of articles that includes a top panel and at least one side panel foldably connected to the top panel. The least one side panel has a first retention feature for retaining a first portion of at least one of the plurality of articles, and a second retention feature for retaining a second portion of the at least one of the plurality of articles. The first retention feature comprises at least two first openings and the second retention feature is spaced apart from the first retention feature. The second retention feature comprises at least two second openings respectively aligned with a respective one of the at least two first openings, and at least two retention flaps foldably connected at a respective fold line. The at least two retention flaps are positioned between the at least two second openings.
US08424662B2

A multi-plate clutch system includes: a pressure plate which is biased by a clutch spring in a direction in which driving friction plates and driven friction plates are brought into pressure contact with each other; and at least one of assist device configured to increase a pressure contact force when torque is changed for acceleration and the slipper device configured to decrease the pressure contact force when the torque is changed for deceleration. A ring member whose inner peripheral surface is put in sliding contact with an outer peripheral surface of one cam plate out of paired cam plates, which are included in at least one of the assist device and the slipper device, is fixed to a clutch inner, and oil discharging passages for guiding oil to a sliding contact portion between the one cam plate and the ring member are provided in outer peripheral edge portions of concave cams formed in the one cam plate. Accordingly, it is possible to supply a sufficient amount of oil to a sliding contact portion between the clutch inner and the outer periphery of the cam plate in a state where the clutch inner is centered together with the cam plate by being supported in sliding contact with the outer periphery of the cam plate.
US08424658B2

An extension valve for an impact dispersal system that includes an extendable member. The extension valve includes an actuating port that operates a first piston connected to a second piston. The second piston has a seat that isolates an inlet and an outlet. When a fluid with a specified pressure is applied to said actuating port, the first piston overcomes a preset bias and causes said second piston to move to an unseated position, which allows fluid communication between the inlet and outlet ports. With a pressurized tank connected to the inlet port, actuation of the extension valve causes a pressurized fluid to flow through the extension valve, through a check valve, and into a fluid chamber in a cylinder, thereby causing a cylinder piston to extend into an impact ready position.
US08424656B2

A rotary vane magnetorheological energy absorber, which enables a longer stroke capability in a more compact configuration than conventional magnetorheological devices, is disclosed. This novel device design is attractive for applications where long stroking capability, high force dynamic range, device size, and device weight are important. The improved magnetorheological energy absorber comprises an internal or external flow valve and a hollow body enclosing fixed and rotary vanes as well as magnetorheological fluid. Fluid flow in the valve is restricted as a solenoid is activated, thus adjusting the capability of the device to react torque. Various flow valve configurations are disclosed, as well as various motion translation mechanisms for translating linear motion to rotary motion for use of the rotary vane magnetorheological energy absorber. The improved design minimizes the amount of magnetorheological fluid required as compared to conventional linear stroke energy absorbers, thus minimizing device weight.
US08424648B2

A tool for use in a lubrication system having an oil-containing sump for supplying lubricating oil to a mechanical device and an oiler device connected to the sump for delivering a supply of oil to the sump, the oiler device comprising a base for supporting an oil reservoir and an adjustable element movably disposed within the base for predetermining a level of oil to be maintained within the sump. The tool has a first portion configured to extend into the base for engagement with the adjustable element and a second portion disposed exteriorly of the base to visually indicate the disposition of the adjustable element relative to the oil-containing sump, preferably in the form of a pointing device, optimally a laser beam generating instrument, for representing the disposition of the adjustable element.
US08424646B2

A lubrication system for a turbine engine or other application includes a first or primary branch 12 and a second or secondary branch 14, a main pump 16, a lubricant distributor 18 for receiving lubricant from the main pump and distributing the lubricant to the branches, and a auxiliary pump 30 in the second branch downstream of the distributor. The system is operable in a normal mode of operation in which lubricant flows from a lubricant source into the primary and secondary branches 12, 14 and is also operable in a backup mode of operation in which lubricant backflows from the primary branch into the secondary branch.
US08424645B2

A treestand including a support platform that defines a bow holder hole within which a cam post is located. The bow holder hole accommodates a cam and/or a limb of a compound archery bow inserted therein. The cam post projects at least partially through the cam while a limb of the compound archery bow rests on a forward edge of the bow holder and/or a forward edge of the support platform to generally support the compound archery bow in an upright position, ready for use by an archer. A related method of use also is provided.
US08424643B1

A portable support system for a work platform is provided which is particularly adapted for use on and around boats in order to provide safe access to the superstructure of the boat.
US08424641B2

A barrier assembly includes an upright frame that supports a barrier including a pair of slidably coupled barrier members that are adjustable in length and are supported by a stirrup as well as the frame. The frame attached to the barrier members to support the barrier members is able to attach to a supporting surface. The frame extends upwardly from the supporting surface to support the barrier members at a position spaced from the supporting surface. The frame has a clamp device that engages the members to prevent sliding movement between the barrier members and thereby removably fixes the barrier members at a desired length and fixes the barrier members to the frame.
US08424638B1

A swivel anchor point for fall protection. The swivel anchor point includes a ring element and a housing element. The ring element defines a closed attachment aperture. The housing element is adapted to receive and retain the ring element such that the ring element can be freely rotated through a swivel angle of at least 180 degrees about a swivel axis, and freely rotated through a pivot angle of at least 90 degrees about a pivot axis that is perpendicular to the swivel axis and that substantially intersects the swivel axis. The ring element includes two spaced apart leg members, the leg members having foot portions extending inwardly, toward the swivel axis. The foot portions have respective, spaced apart relatively enlarged ends. The housing element includes apertures corresponding to these ends, the apertures being suitably sized, closer to the swivel axis, for pivotally receiving the ends, while being of a sufficiently smaller size, farther from the swivel axis, to prevent passage of the ends therethrough.
US08424636B2

A muffler assembly including one or more exhaust pipe(s), a polymeric housing carried by at least one of the exhaust pipe(s); a thermal insulating layer lining the housing interior surface and extending between the housing and exhaust pipe at the housing-exhaust pipe interface; wherein the thermal insulating layer includes a nonwoven fabric; wherein when the fabric is exposed to heat, the fabric increases in thickness to seal the muffler assembly at the housing-exhaust pipe interface and provides thermal insulation to the polymeric housing.
US08424635B1

A firearm suppressor includes an outer housing and a baffle stack mounted inside the outer housing. The baffle stack includes baffles and spacers. The baffles and spacers are configured to allow a projectile to pass through while causing exhausted gas to flow through various chambers and channels in different directions.
US08424633B2

A continuously variable transmission device (1) for a vehicle with a variator (3), a planetary gear unit (4) and a manual gear unit (9) arranged in a transmission housing. The variator (3) is connected with the planetary gear unit (4) and with the manual gear unit (9) in the area of a first shaft (14) and in the area of a second shaft (15). The variator (3) and the planetary gear unit (4) form a module (2) and are arranged on a common carrier plate (19).
US08424626B2

A technique for enabling reduction of fuel consumption without greatly changing an engine structure and without impairing a feeling of operation of a vehicle as a motorcycle. An engine includes a crankshaft and a primary gear integrated with the crankshaft that is attached such that the power of the engine is transmitted to a wheel. A one-way clutch transmits the power from the crankshaft to the primary gear but does not transmit the power from the primary gear to the crankshaft. The one-way clutch is provided between the crankshaft and the primary gear with a regenerative brake motor being provided on the primary gear. The engine is non-swingable mounted on the vehicle body with a cylinder extending in a substantially horizontal direction and a crankshaft provided to be oriented in a vehicle width direction. An electric motor is located in front of and above the crankshaft of the engine.
US08424625B2

A transaxle includes an axle and a multiple motor generator unit for driving the axle. The multiple motor generator unit includes a common rotor shaft drivingly connected to the axle, armature windings serving as a first stator and a second stator aligned opposite each other in the axial direction of the rotor shaft, a common rotor member fixed on the rotor shaft, and permanent magnets provided on the common rotor member so as to serve as a first rotor facing the first stator, and as a second rotor facing the second stator. The first stator and the first rotor constitute a first motor generator. The second stator and the second rotor constitute the second motor generator. A total motor output torque of the first and second motor generators for rotating the rotor member and the rotor shaft can be changed in correspondence to a load applied from the axle to the rotor shaft.
US08424624B2

The charge-discharge power demand is set to the charging power, when the state of charge of the battery is less than the reference value or when the state of charge of the battery is more than or equal to the reference value and less than the reference value while the vehicle power demand is less than reference value. The charge-discharge power demand is set to the discharging power, when the state of charge of the battery is more than or equal to the reference value or when the state of charge of the battery is more than or equal to the reference value and less than the reference value and while the vehicle power demand is more than or equal to the reference value. The charge-discharge power demand is set without change in value to the last set the charge-discharge power demand, when the state of charge of the battery is more than or equal to the reference value and less than the reference value while the vehicle power demand is more than or equal to the reference value and less than the reference value. The engine and the motors are so controlled as the battery is charged or discharged with the charge-discharge power demand and the vehicle is driven with vehicle power demand.
US08424622B2

A hybrid drive unit includes a power distribution mechanism for distributing a power from an engine to a first electric motor and to an output shaft; a transmission, which is arranged between the output shaft and a second electric motor in a manner to transmit a torque therebetween, and which is capable of setting an overdrive ratio where a speed of the output shaft is higher than that of a predetermined input element; and an engagement mechanism for connecting the engine selectively with the input element of the transmission, and for setting a speed change ratio of the transmission to the overdrive ratio. The hybrid drive unit is capable of setting an overdrive mode and is easy to be downsized.
US08424621B2

The present invention is an omni traction wheel system, which adopts an integrated differential mechanism to generate longitudinal and lateral traction forces. The omni traction wheel system may include a rotary device that delivers two individually controllable rotational forces, the differential output of which may drive a plurality of peripheral wheels to rotate laterally, and the common output of which may drive a pair of longitudinal plates to rotate longitudinally. Accordingly, the omni traction wheel system may travel in all directions.
US08424618B2

The present disclosure relates to an auger boring machine for boring through the earth. The auger boring machine includes a cutting head for engaging a working face of the earth to cut a bore. The cutting head is rotatable about a drive axis so as to cut the earth at the working face. The auger boring machine further includes an auger that is rotatable about the drive axis for transporting spoil resulting from the operation of the cutting head away from the cutting head. Additionally, the auger boring machine includes a casing housing the auger which is urged to move into the bore behind the cutting head. The cutting head and the auger are movable along the drive axis relative to the casing. Furthermore, the auger boring machine includes a steering member positioned near the cutting head for directing movement of the casing into the bore in a steered direction transverse to the drive axis.
US08424610B2

A flow control arrangement includes a housing defining one or more openings therein. A valve structure is alignable and misalignable with the one or more openings in the housing. Further included in the flow control arrangement is one or more plugs, one each in each of the one or more openings. Each plug is reducible by one or more of exposure to downhole fluids and applied dissolution fluids. A method for carrying out a series of downhole operations includes running the flow control arrangement to a target depth, carrying out a downhole operation requiring the housing to be radially permeability fluid restricted, reducing the plug, carrying out a downhole operation requiring fluid pressure communication through the one or more openings, and mechanically intervening to close the valve structure thereby rendering the one or more openings of the arrangement radially impermeable.
US08424605B1

A casing string is augmented with one or more variable flow resistance devices or “vibrating tools” to facilitate advancement of the casing and distribution of the cement in the annulus once the casing is properly positioned. The method includes vibrating the casing string while advancing the casing down the wellbore or while the cement is pumped into the annulus, or both. After the cementing operation is completed, the devices may be drilled out to open the casing string for further operations. The casing string assembly may include a vibrating tool at the end in place of a conventional float shoe or float collar. Multiple vibrating tools can be employed in the casing string, and they may be combined with conventional float shoes and collars. Additionally, vibrating tools in the form of plugs can be pumped down and landed inside the casing string.
US08424597B2

Separating gas from liquid down hole in a well by a downhole gas separator, gas is separated and passed to the well annulus and liquid is passed to a submersible pump at a calibrated flow rate at which liquid is vacated from a separation chamber, the length of the separation chamber providing sufficient space for gas separation as the liquid is pumped from the separator. The gas separator, limiting the amount of fluid passed to the separation chamber at less than the pumping rate of the submersible pump, creates a fluid vortex causing the separated liquid to move to the periphery and separated gas to pass near the axial center of the separation chamber. The separated gas passes to the well annulus and the liquid passes to the inlet of the submersible pump.
US08424593B2

A pressurized-gas cooler has a housing having a cylindrical side wall centered on an axis, an axially open outer end, and an axially closed inner end. A cover fitted to and closing the open outer end carries a bundle of tubes inside the housing between the housing ends. The tubes all extending parallel to one another at an angle of between 2° and 10° to a diametral plane including the housing axis such that the bundle is closer in a direction perpendicular to the plane to the side wall of the housing at one end of the housing than at the opposite end of the housing. Pressurized-gas inlet and outlet fittings open into the housing, with at least the gas inlet fitting opening into the housing to a side of the plane where the tube bundle at the respective end of the housing is more widely spaced.
US08424589B2

An oil cooler for a motorcycle includes a heat exchanger residing within a primary drive between an engine pulley and a clutch pulley. A fan within the primary drive pushes or pulls air through the heat exchanger. The fan may be electrically or mechanically operated and mounted to one of a base plate or a cover plate of the primary drive. Alternatively, the fan may be formed as a mechanical portion of one of the primary drive components. Vectoring blades may assist in directing an air flow within the primary drive to the heat exchanger, and vents may be formed in the cover plate for air intake and/or exhaust.
US08424586B2

An apparatus for producing hot-rolled products in a combined casting-rolling installation designed to bridge a planned or unplanned interruption in production downstream of the cutting-up and delivering device. The installation cuts off a strand portion of the continuously produced preliminary material using first shears; raises the tail part of the strand portion from the roller table using a raising device; breaks up the preliminary material passing the first shears into pieces of scrap using the first shears into pieces of scrap using the first shears; delivers the pieces of scrap and removes the strand portion unit the operational readiness of the combined casting-rolling installation is restored.
US08424577B2

A finger joint in a joint assembled of at least mainly woody parts (1, 2), such as sawn timber, glued wood, plywood, fiberboard, LVL, LSL, comprises at least one finger. The finger shapes needed complementarily have been milled with a cutting tool, such as a milling curser, to the both parts (1, 2). The height of at least one complementary pair of fingers varies along the length of the interlocking finger pair.
US08424575B2

An apparatus for filling containers with liquid and in particular viscous media, comprising a filling element which can be introduced at least partially into a mouth of the container to be filled, wherein a filling body of this filling element is configured in such a way that the medium is directed at least also onto a wall of the container, comprising a connecting line for conveying the liquid medium from a reservoir for the liquid medium to the container, wherein the filling element is movable relative to the container in a longitudinal direction (L) of the container. According to the invention, the filling element is movable in the longitudinal direction (L) of the container.
US08424574B2

A compressed gas transfer system comprising at least one first pressure vessel able to hold a volume of gas; and a first gas line to allow gas to pass out of the at least one first pressure vessel wherein the volume of the first pressure vessel is able to be varied to maintain the gas within the pressure vessel at a constant pressure.
US08424572B2

A method for controlling an amount of material transferred in a system having a plurality of material feeds and concurrent material transfer periods. The method comprising steps of: supplying each of a primary material having a target weight and a secondary material, to a receiving vessel; determining a decision threshold; feeding the primary material to the receiving vessel, feeding the secondary material into the receiving vessel as or after the primary material begins feeding and before the decision threshold, determining a feed status of the primary and secondary materials at the decision threshold; changing the feed status of one of the primary or secondary materials at the decision threshold; and feeding only the primary material within a feed alone time period until the target weight amount is fed.
US08424566B2

A fluid transfer system includes a fluid supply source. The fluid supply source includes at least one wall extending from a floor. The fluid transfer system also includes at least one fluid transfer apparatus positioned within the fluid supply source. The fluid transfer system further includes a fluid control system. The fluid control system includes a plate coupled within the fluid supply source at least partially between the wall and the at least one fluid transfer apparatus. The fluid control system also includes at least one partition extending from the plate between the wall and the at least one fluid transfer apparatus. The at least one partition cooperates with the plate to at least partially direct fluid flow into the at least one fluid transfer apparatus.
US08424564B2

A distributor 6 includes a distributor body 40 and outlet pathways 42 each formed above the distributor body 40 and along a flow direction of a fluid in the distributor body 40. The distributor body 40 has a liquid pan 40a formed on the lower side, and an outlet 40b on the upper side, and the outlet 40b is internally divided to spaces by a partition plate 45, each of the spaces 45a being associated with the corresponding outlet pathway 42.
US08424563B2

A system for indicating the status of a valve may include an encapsulation with electronic circuitry disposed at least partially therein, a communication sub-system, a sensor, an indicator and a power source. The encapsulation may be zero volume, and the indicator may include a color changing skin. A method of indicating the status of a valve may include providing a valve, providing a status indicating system, changing a status of the valve, sensing a status of the valve, and indicating a status of the valve. A method of encapsulating a status indicating system may include providing an encapsulant and coupling at least a portion of the system with the encapsulant.
US08424562B2

A diaphragm device for a check valves is provided. The diaphragm device comprises a diaphragm, adapted to cover at least one orifice, and an operation device, adapted to enable movement of the diaphragm substantially along a length axis of the orifice. The operation device comprises at least one first operation organ and at least one second operation organ. The first and second operation organ in turn each comprises a first portion, and a second portion. The first portion of the first operation organ is adapted to be connected to a check valve housing, and the second portion of the first operation organ is connected to the second portion of the second operation organ. Furthermore the first portion of the second operation organ is connected to the diaphragm and the second portion of the second operation organ is connected to the second portion of the first operation organ. The first operation organ is movable in relation to the second operation organ, and the second operation organ is movable in relation to the diaphragm, for enabling movement of the diaphragm, substantially along the length axis of the orifice. This embodiment could enable the check valve to open a relatively long way by means of a relatively low pressure or flow, at the same time as the deformation of the resilient material could be relatively small since it is deformed in a multiplicity of points and along a relatively long extension of resilient material.
US08424561B1

A pressure regulator is capable of automatically regulating the inlet water pressure to a compressed air foam system (CAFS), thereby allowing direct connection between a high-pressure water source, such as a hydrant, and the CAFS. The pressure regulator includes an inlet, a valve that regulates flow from the inlet, and an annular piston that circumscribes the inlet and which is linked to the valve. The relative area of the inlet and the piston determine the maximum pressure that may be attained at the CAFS water inlet, due to pressure on the piston forcing the valve closed.
US08424557B1

A downspout water collection and overflow system employs a downspout water diversion and overflow device which includes a body displacing a downspout section, and a plate supported in the body. The body, being hollow, has upper, lower and side portions defining top, bottom and side openings. The plate is inclined to extend laterally across the body between the upper and lower portions and through the side opening of the side portion. The plate blocks flow of water directly from the top to bottom opening of the body, diverting water flow through the side opening to a storage tank. The plate divides the side opening into upper and lower passages which allows inflow of water from the upper body portion through the upper passage above the plate to the tank and overflow of water from the tank through the lower passage below the plate to the lower body portion.
US08424556B2

A device for regulating the flow in a heating and cooling system. The flow is controlled by a complete valve realized as a combination of a difference pressure valve (5) and a flow controlling valve (6) where the complete valve construction allows flushing of the tube system where the valve is mounted. A first static pressure (P1) in the inlet (2), a second static pressure (P2) in the intermediate chamber (4) and a third static pressure (P3) in the outlet (3) are measured by the measuring nipples (27a, 27b) and the difference between the second and the third static pressures (P2, P3) is adjustable during operation.
US08424551B2

A heat transfer apparatus and related methods are provided. The heat transfer apparatus and related methods more evenly distribute fluid flow in two-phase heat exchange systems by restricting fluid flow to one or more tube.
US08424548B2

A combination ambulatory assistance and electrical shock defensive device includes an elongated body of adjustable length and having a hand grip at one end thereof and a foot pad at a generally opposite end thereof. A high-voltage power unit is associated with the body and actuated by a trigger mechanism. Conductive contacts extend through the foot pad and are conductively coupled to the high-voltage power unit.
US08424545B2

A washing unit for turboprops of aircraft is disclosed, which comprises a hydropneumatic accumulator suitable for supplying, at a controlled pressure, a washing fluid contained therein, and a filling member, motorized and manual, for feeding the washing fluid into the accumulator. The accumulator may be connected alternatively to the motorized filling member or to the manual filling member. A manually actuated device is also provided for pressurization of the accumulator, so that the washing unit can be used both in areas equipped for this operation and in areas not so equipped.
US08424541B2

Provided is a tobacco-free oral flavor delivery pouch product that provides and engaging and flavorful experience to a user. The pouch product includes a porous pouch wrapper and an inner filling material. The inner filling material can include a non-tobacco, botanical component, at least one functional ingredient and a solid flavor component dispersed throughout the inner filling material. The pouch product delivers multiple textures to the user's mouth.
US08424540B2

A smoking article filter includes a valved flow restrictor and a cavity downstream of the flow restrictor. The flow restrictor includes an orifice or flow channel for directing smoke into the cavity. The filter is attached to the tobacco rod with tipping paper and includes an air-admissible ventilating zone at a location downstream of the restrictor. The valved restrictor can be used to isolate a sorbent bearing component of the filter from a flavor bearing component.
US08424537B2

A vaporizing device with two concentric tubes for volatizing and inhaling one or more constituents of various vaporizable substances, such as medicines and plant materials. Devices may be successfully operated using the flame from a standard butane cigarette lighter or the like as the sole heat source. Concentric tubes, an inner tube with two open ends and an outer tube with one closed end provide a serpentine pathway for an airflow. An additional embodiment of the device provides a substitute for a standard slider-bowl allowing for the conversion of a standard water pipe into a vaporizing device. Other embodiments allow for vaporization of cigarettes.
US08424535B2

A surgical stapler comprising a handle assembly, an elongated body portion extending distally from the handle assembly, and a head portion disposed adjacent a distal portion of the elongated body portion and including an anvil assembly and a shell assembly. The anvil assembly is movable in relation to the shell assembly between spaced and approximated positions. The anvil assembly has an anvil head and a plurality of projections extending proximally of the anvil head, the projections engageable with a portion of the shell assembly.
US08424534B2

A loading dilator for positioning a medical apparatus across a stoma formed in a body wall of a patient. The medical apparatus, such as a tracheotomy tube, is sized to fit over a portion of the loading dilator during positioning of the apparatus across the stoma. The loading dilator includes an elongated dilator body having a tapered distal end for facilitating entry into the stoma. The dilator body has an inflatable balloon disposed along an outer surface at the distal end. The balloon is inflatable to a configuration such that a generally smooth diametrical transition is formed between the elongated dilator body and a leading end of the medical apparatus when the medical apparatus is fit over the loading dilator.
US08424533B2

A strait jacket is disclosed, which is adapted to fit wearers of more than one clothing size. The strait jacket has a jacket torso body comprising at least two panels, each panel terminating at a lower edge located adjacent to but below the wearer's underarms. Sleeves extend from the torso body to distal ends, and each sleeve has a length greater than the length of the wearer's arms. The distal end of each sleeve includes a fastening device to permit the sleeve to be fastened to the opposite sleeve and to a belt by suitable fasteners at a position behind the wearer's back. An annular jacket collar is located above the jacket torso body, and a strap extends downwardly from the collar. In one embodiment of the invention, the strap extends under the wearer's crotch. A belt strap is adapted to be secured about the wearer's mid rib cage and is further adapted to be attached to the chest strap at a posterior position; and, if desired, at an anterior position.
US08424528B2

A device used for ventilation includes a ventilation mask that can be connected to a respiratory gas hose. The ventilation mask has a respiratory gas hose coupling that is movably connected by a joint with the base of the ventilation mask. The joint is a ball-and-socket joint, which has an inner part that is shaped like a spherical segment and an outer shell for guiding the inner part. The outer shell is constructed from at least two shell segments that can be connected with each other.
US08424527B1

The present invention is related to a device for acoustically monitoring a subject's airway to determine airway obstruction(s) and their location(s). The device is particularly useful when performing sleep analysis and sleep therapy, but is also highly useful in determining airway obstructions of any subject when the subject is sleeping or otherwise unconscious, and can further be used in certain applications when the subject is awake or conscious. The device, in its simplest form, is comprised of a supporting body (e.g. a mask, mouthpiece, or nasal cannula) used to position at least one acoustic generator and at least one acoustic sensor at a location essentially proximal to a subject's airway, the acoustic generator and acoustic sensor generating and/or sensing sound waves useful in determining obstruction(s) and their location(s) within the airway of a subject.
US08424526B2

A holder for a nasal air filtration device or dilation device. A holder for a nasal device may be a thin, generally “Z” or “S” shaped device that holds a nasal device in a substantially secure and stable position. Each of a nasal device's nasal bases can be placed or secured on a placement limb of the holder while a connecting member of the nasal device can be secured on the opposite side of the holder from where the nasal bases are positioned along a vertical portion of the holder relative to the placement limbs. There may be securing notches in the holder that help secure a nasal device at generally the point where the bases of the nasal device attach to the connecting member of the nasal device. The notches may allow a nasal device to be securely attached to the holder.
US08424523B2

This disclosure describes systems and methods for ventilating a patient with a system that includes an accumulator for storing a gas mixture. This disclosure describes systems and methods for ventilating a patient with a system that includes an accumulator located away from the flow path that reduces/eliminates pockets of an undesirable gas mixture from entering the gas flow path and reaching the patient after a gas mixture change by utilizing a purge valve.
US08424518B2

A breath-powered, dry powder inhaler, a cartridge, and a pulmonary drug delivery system are provided. The dry powder inhaler can be provided with or without a unit dose cartridge for using with the inhaler. The inhaler and/or cartridge can be provided with a drug delivery formulation comprising, for example, a diketopiperazine and an active ingredient, including, peptides and proteins such as insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 for the treatment of diabetes and/or obesity. The dry powder inhaler is compact; can be provided in various shapes and sizes, colors, and comprises a housing, a mouthpiece, a cartridge placement area, and a mechanism for opening and closing the medicament cartridge. The device is easy to manufacture, provides a pre-metered single unit dose, it is relatively easy to use, and can be reusable or disposable.
US08424517B2

The invention relates to improvements in or relating to medicament delivery devices. In particular, this invention relates to a communications device which may be fitted to an electronic medicament delivery device. The invention may be particularly suitable for use with electronic medicament inhalers such as those used for the treatment of diabetes, or respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and bronchiectasis.
US08424516B2

A ventilation system and method with a ventilating tube, a stylet removably disposed within the ventilating tube, and a proximal housing. A proximal housing includes a proximal end that connects to the ventilating tube, a distal end that connects to a ventilating machine, a lumen between the proximal end and distal end, an external wall between the proximal end and distal end, a filter contained within the external wall, surrounding the lumen, and connecting the proximal end and distal end, and a cavity between the filter and the external wall. A proximal housing contains at least one detection element and can be sensitive to carbon dioxide. The same proximal housing contains at least one treatment element to heat, cool, humidify, dehumidify, or provide medication to the lumen of the proximal housing.
US08424505B2

The subject of the invention is a variable-volume rotary device with a housing (1) comprising an inner spherical cavity, inlet and exhaust ports and a bypass flow path. Within the housing (1) a rotary displacement member with spherical outer configurations capable of revolving around the center point of the spherical inner surface of the housing is mounted. Said rotary displacement member is equipped with a centrally disposed, disc-shaped partition (6) that forms a mutually isolated division in the spherical inner cavity of the housing (1) and has two pivot vanes (7, 8), splitting the housing cavity further into four isolated quadrants, the volume of which vary during gyration. Vanes (7, 8) are similar in shape to orange segments. Vanes (7, 8) are connected to opposing sides of and along the diameters of the central disc (6), and extend in mutually perpendicular planes, allowing for rotary movement. Inlet- and exhaust ports are arranged on the housing (1) so that, when the rotary displacement member is in motion, the inlet port connects only to a quadrant represented by the smaller spherical projection of the disc (6) within the inner spherical cavity of the housing (1), whereas the exhaust port only meets a quadrant indicated by the larger spherical projection of the disc (6) within the inner spherical cavity of the housing (1).
US08424500B2

Improved stiffening and minimized distortion of a housing for an eVCP achieved by forming a plurality of radial housing stiffeners into the housing around the motor mount end and into the eVCP's hub. A back plate is press fit into the rear of the housing, and a straight axial knurl is applied to the surface of the back plate or housing, which knurl permits a larger tolerance-higher press fit class to be used without resulting in significant deformation of the housing. The knurled back plate is harder than the housing, causing the high points of the knurl to plastically deform or plow the housing material during assembly, resulting in less radial deformation of the bore and the journal bearing. An interface between the housing and the hub provides a journal bearing interface to improve axial stability between the hub and housing.
US08424497B2

A water pump adaptor and water pump adaptor kit for adapting a conventional electrical and mechanical water pump to an engine block having at least one rectangular coolant entry port and at least one circular coolant exit port, such as a GM LS engine. A method for installing a water pump adaptor kit to adapt a water pump to an engine having at least one rectangular coolant entry port and at least one circular coolant exit port.
US08424495B2

A cover assembly is disclosed for holding and maintaining a protective sleeve in place on a dog's leg. The assembly includes a harness portion with a dorsal support member, a belly support member, and a chest support member, a sleeve portion with an end having an inner face and a first gripping member mounted on the inner face, and a connecting member engaged on the dorsal, belly and chest support members with a second gripping member arranged to engage the first gripping member and join the sleeve portion to the harness portion.
US08424484B2

Paint-metering cylinder for supplying a paint discharge nozzle with a paint material for painting plants, painting plants, and method for rinsing paint-metering cylinder. The paint-metering cylinder includes at least one rinsing device having at least two rinsing agent outlet openings.
US08424470B2

A unique foldable table comprises a collapse-preventing tabletop assembly, a plurality of extendable-leg assemblies releasably attached to the tabletop assembly, and a plurality of scissoring-arm assemblies attached to the extendable-leg assemblies, respectively. The collapse-preventing tabletop assembly has an automatic collapse-preventing system of clamps for automatically cross-interlocking the tabletop and the extendable-leg assemblies to prevent the unique foldable table from folding inwards and collapsing. The extendable-leg assemblies have: an automatic button-latching and button-releasing system of spring-loaded latches for automatically latching and automatically releasing the release buttons to simplify the cumbersome, two-handed table operation into an easy, one-handed table operation to eliminate the risk of personal injury; and an automatic leg-centering system of leg-centering clamps for automatically centering and clamping the extendable-leg assemblies to lock them in place.
US08424468B2

A new pallet rail that is light weight, strong and environmentally friendly is part of an alternative modular pallet assembly. The rail includes a recessed portion with projections extending thereinto. A method of making the pallet rails and assembly is also disclosed.
US08424457B2

A sabot projectile with a subcaliber projectile body and a sabot, which includes a propulsion element that acts on the rear end of the projectile body and a segmented, essentially cylindrical metal guide cage, which is located at the front end of the propulsion element. The guide cage has a central opening that extends in the axial direction, through which the projectile body is passed. So that the sabot projectile is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, has a low weight, and ensures good detachment of the sabot from the projectile body after discharge, the guide cage is a hollow cylinder, on whose inside wall preferably several radial transverse ribs are arranged, which are spaced some distance apart and extend both in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the sabot and in the direction of the projectile body.
US08424452B2

A dough dividing apparatus includes a dough discharge member (26) having a front end surface (30) having a recessed surface (28) extending substantially horizontally and having a circular arc-shaped cross-section and dough discharge holes (34) having outlets (32) opening on the front end surface, cutters (38) having cutting edges (36) extending in the longitudinal direction of the recessed surface (28), and a cutter driving device (40) that causes the cutting edges (36) to perform circular motion while keeping the cutters in a fixed posture so that the cutting edges periodically slide along the recessed surface downward from above it to cut and divide dough continuously extruded from the outlets (32).
US08424444B2

Embodiments of a pyrotechnically-gimbaled targeting unit are provided. In one embodiment, the targeting unit includes a targeting unit housing, a countermeasure payload carried by the targeting unit housing, and a plurality of thrusters coupled to the targeting unit housing. The plurality of thrusters is configured to be selectively activated to rotate the targeting unit housing about first and second substantially orthogonal axes to provide controlled pointing of countermeasure payload prior to the deployment thereof. Embodiments of a countermeasure system including a pyrotechnically-gimbaled targeting unit are also provided, as are methods for equipping a vehicle with a countermeasure system of the type that includes at least one pyrotechnically-gimbaled targeting unit.
US08424443B2

An armor structure for a vehicle underbody. The armor structure includes an inner plate that is mounted proximate to the vehicle underbody, the inner plate having a plurality of first openings; and an outer plate that is mounted distal to the vehicle underbody, the outer plate having a plurality of second openings. The inner plate and the outer plate are substantially parallel and separated by a spacing. The inner plate and the outer plate each have substantially equal V bends at an obtuse angle, and the V bends in the inner plate and the outer plate are aligned. The first openings and the second openings are (i) aligned across the spacing from each other, and (ii) substantially equal in area. When an underbody blast event is encountered by the vehicle, the outer plate is forced towards, and substantially against the inner plate such that there is no longer fluid communication through the first openings.
US08424422B2

An adjustable socket structure contains a body including a first groove, a second groove, a first notch, a number of slots; a plurality of paws, each including a sliding block, and the sliding block including a first hole; a number of connecting rods, each being movably fixed in the second groove and including a first axial shank and a second axial shank; a driving shaft including an axial portion and a disk portion, wherein the axial portion includes a square bore, and the disk portion is rotated in the first groove and includes an outer diameter larger that the axial portion and three second holes so that the driving shaft is rotated to actuate the paws to move in the slots respectively by using the connecting rods; a helical retaining ring retained in the first notch to abut against a rear end of the disk portion of the driving shaft.
US08424420B2

A feeder assembly is provided for a fastener tool, such as a screw driver, structured to install a number of fasteners, such as screws, in a work piece. The screw driver includes a driver assembly having a driver bit. The screws have a predetermined shape. The feeder assembly includes a nose assembly operatively coupled to the driver assembly, and a conduit. The nose assembly receives the screws and retains them in a predetermined orientation below the driver bit. The conduit is coupled to the nose assembly, and includes a passageway. The passageway aligns and delivers the screws to the nose assembly in the predetermined orientation. The passageway has a predetermined shape substantially similar to the predetermined shape of the screws. A fastener tool and an associated method of using the fastener tool are also disclosed.
US08424403B2

A multi-gear powershift transmission for a working machine, in particular a forklift truck, which has a driveshaft (2) driven by a torque converter (1) such that, by way of fixed wheels (8, 13, 18, 23), loose wheels (10, 15, 20, 27) and shift clutches (4, 9, 19) arranged on countershafts (7, 12, 22) in a first transmission, at least two forward gears and two reverse gears can be engaged. The powershift transmission can be supplemented with a further countershaft (24) having a fixed wheel (25), a clutch (26) and a loose wheel (27) in order to produce a second powershift transmission in which three gears in the forward driving direction and three gears in the reverse driving direction are engageable.
US08424401B2

A ball screw unit includes a screw shaft that includes a screw groove, a ball screw nut that is screwed to the screw shaft via balls and that rotates to move the screw shaft linearly in an axial direction of the screw shaft, a hollow shaft that rotates together with the ball screw nut, a housing that rotatably supports the hollow shaft via a rolling bearing, and an elastic member that is provided at a position between the rolling bearing and the housing.
US08424397B2

The invention relates to a particle counter apparatus for counting particles in a fluid flowing in a pipe or a pipeline. The particle counter apparatus comprises a pipe portion through which the fluid flows, where the pipe portion is provided with a fluid sample outlet for withdrawal of a fluid sample. Furthermore the particle counter apparatus also comprises a first fluid transfer body extending from the fluid sample outlet to a particle counter, and a second fluid transfer body extending from the particle counter to a fluid return outlet mounted in the pipe portion downstream of the fluid sample outlet. In the pipe portion there is mounted a propeller unit comprising a propeller and a generator, with the result that particles are distributed uniformly in the fluid before the withdrawal of fluid samples, and electric power is provided for operation of the particle counter apparatus.
US08424383B2

A 3-dimensional MEMS sensor, comprising: a first axis fixed electrode; a second axis fixed electrode; a third axis fixed electrode; a movable electrode frame including a first axis movable electrode, a second axis movable electrode, a third axis movable electrode, and a connection part connecting the movable electrodes, wherein the first axis movable electrode and the first axis fixed electrode form a first capacitor along the first axis, the second axis movable electrode and the second axis fixed electrode form a second capacitor along the second axis, and the third axis movable electrode and the third axis fixed electrode form a third capacitor along the third axis, the connection part including a center mass, wherein the center mass is at least connected with one of the first, second and third axis movable electrodes, and has an outer periphery and a first interconnecting segment connecting at least two adjacent sides of the outer periphery; at least one spring connecting with the movable electrode frame; and at least one anchor connecting with the spring, wherein the first, second and third axes are not parallel to one another such that they define a 3-dimensional coordinate system.
US08424380B2

A corrosion resistant flow sensor apparatus includes a flow sensor including a micromachinable substrate mounted on a package substrate that includes electrically conductive traces and substrate bond pads. The flow sensor includes a MEMS sensing structure for sensing a mass flow parameter and sensor bond pads coupled to the sensing structure. The sensor bond pads include a top metal layer on a metal diffusion barrier layer including a metal diffusion barrier layer sidewall. Bond wires couple the sensor bond pads to the substrate bond pads. A housing including sides and a top portion is around the flow sensor and includes a flow channel having an inlet and an outlet. A multi-layer corrosion protection coating includes a nm scale adhesion layer and a self assembled monolayer (SAM) is on the adhesion layer. The protection coating covers the sensor bond pads including the metal diffusion barrier layer sidewall.
US08424372B2

A method of establishing a mass flow rate of air entering an engine includes establishing an input voltage by an energy supply device to energize a mass-air-flow sensor. The method also includes generating an output frequency via the mass-air-flow sensor in response to the mass flow rate of air entering the engine and determining the flow rate using the generated output frequency. The method additionally includes comparing the generated output frequency with a predetermined threshold output frequency that corresponds to the established input voltage. Additionally, the method includes selecting the determined flow rate as the established flow rate if the generated output frequency is at or below the predetermined threshold output frequency. Furthermore, the method includes selecting a predetermined alternative algorithm to generate the established flow rate if the generated output frequency is above the predetermined threshold output frequency. A system for establishing the mass flow rate is also provided.
US08424370B2

A method for analyzing liquid samples may comprise applying a liquid to a cMUT device having a plurality of sensors, drying the plurality of sensors, electronically detecting an agent bound to each of the plurality of sensors, wherein the electrical circuit provides a sensor output responsive to a mechanical resonance frequency of the sensor, wherein the mechanical resonance frequency of the sensor is responsive to the binding of an agent to the functionalized membrane, and determining the mass of the agent bound to each of the plurality of sensors.
US08424363B2

A gyroscopic system comprises at least four vibratory gyroscopes capable of changing vibration position. A first measurement is provided by a gyroscope to be calibrated and a second measurement is provided by a combination of the respective measurements from the other gyroscopes of the system, these first and second measurements being carried out along the same measurement axis. The determination (12) of a measurement drift value between the first measurement and the second measurement is followed by a command (13) to change the vibration position of the gyroscope to be calibrated to another vibration position and a drift value is again determined. The vibration position change command and the determination of a drift value are repeated (14) K times, K being a positive integer. Then, a drift model is generated (15) as a function of the vibration position of the gyroscope to be calibrated on the basis of the drift values obtained.
US08424359B2

The invention describes a manufacturing device (1) and a method for bending blanks (4) or workpieces (5), having a bending press (2) and having a manipulator (3), which can be displaced in a raceway parallel to a longitudinal extent of a table and bending beam (10, 14), for workpiece transfer between a feeding or removal apparatus for the blanks (4) or the workpieces (5) and a forming region between bending tools (21). The manipulator (3) has an articulated-arm arrangement (33) having preferably three arms (34, 35, 36) which can be pivoted via pivoting bearing arrangements (37) about pivot axes (39) which are oriented parallel to the raceway, and said manipulator has a rotary unit (41), having a rotational axis (42) which extends perpendicularly with respect to the pivot axes (39), at one distal end of the articulated-arm arrangement (33). At least one detection device (50) which has a communications link to the control and monitoring device (25) is arranged on the articulated-arm arrangement (33), for a physical value which brings about a state change of an arm (34, 35, 36) of the articulated-arm arrangement (33) upon loading.
US08424347B2

A washer dryer including a DC power supply generator that generates a DC power supply from an AC power supply; a heat pump that circulates refrigerant between a compressor, a condenser and an evaporator; an air circulatory path that circulates air between the condenser and the evaporator; a first inverter circuit that receives the DC power supply to drive a compressor motor; a rotary tub disposed rotatably within an exterior tub; a rotary tub motor that directly drives the rotary tub at least during dehydration; a second inverter circuit that receives the DC power supply having an output terminal connected to windings of the rotary tub motor; a voltage detector that detects DC voltage occurring between the second inverter circuit and a power supply bus; a brake controller that controls the DC voltage within a predetermined range by controlling a regenerative electric power when braking is applied.
US08424345B2

There are provided a conductivity sensor of a washing water, an installation construction of the conductivity sensor, and a method for controlling the washing machine, which are capable of controlling the washing machine by calculating a hardness of a washing water from a measured conductivity of the washing water.
US08424344B2

An optical glass comprising, by mol %, 0.1 to 40% of SiO2, 10 to 50% of B2O3, 0 to 10% of total of Li2O, Na2O and K2O, 0 to 10% of total of MgO, CaO, SrO and BaO, 0.5 to 22% of ZnO, 5 to 50% of La2O3, 0.1 to 25% of Gd2O3, 0.1 to 20% of Y2O3, 0 to 20% of Yb2O3, 0 to 25% of ZrO2, 0 to 25% of TiO2, 0 to 20% of Nb2O5, 0 to 10% of Ta2O5, over 0.1% but not more than 20% of WO3, 0 to less than 3% of GeO2, 0 to 10% of Bi2O3, and 0 to 10% of Al2O3, the mass ratio of the content of SiO2 to the content of B2O3, SiO2/B2O3, being 1 or less, the optical glass having a refractive index nd of 1.86 to 1.95 and an Abbe's number νd of (2.36−nd)/0.014 or more but less than 38.
US08424338B2

A vapor compression refrigerating cycle apparatus includes a compressor, a radiator, first and second throttle devices, a flow distributor, an ejector, a suction passage, and first and second evaporators. The flow distributor separates refrigerant decompressed through the first throttle device into a first passage and a second passage. The first passage is in communication with a nozzle portion of the ejector. The second passage is in communication with a suction portion of the ejector through the suction passage. The second throttle device and the second evaporator are disposed on the suction passage. The flow distributor is configured to be capable of adjusting a ratio of a flow rate of refrigerant passing through the second passage to a flow rate of refrigerant passing through the first passage in accordance with a heat load of at least one of the radiator, the first evaporator and the second evaporator.
US08424334B2

Disclosed is an ice making apparatus for a refrigerator, the apparatus comprising a frame having an accommodating space therein, and at least an ice tray detachably installed in the frame and configured to provide a space for containing water to make ice, whereby the ice making apparatus can be easily cleaned up and ice can be easily handled.
US08424332B2

An object is to improve an assembly operability while enhancing disconnecting and connecting properties between a main body and a refrigerating unit of a refrigerating device, and there is disclosed a refrigerating device (showcase) which is provided with a refrigerating unit including a refrigerant circuit constituted of a compressor, a radiator as a high-pressure-side heat exchanger, an evaporator as a low-pressure-side heat exchanger and the like and which supplies, by a blower, cold air subjected to heat exchange with the evaporator to a storage chamber as a space to be cooled constituted in a main body by a blower to cool the chamber, wherein a mechanical chamber is constituted under a bottom surface of the main body, the compressor and the radiator are installed on a unit base on the bottom surface of the mechanical chamber, and a refrigerating box in which the evaporator and the blower are stored is attached to the bottom surface of the main body via hooks so as to communicate with the storage chamber.
US08424324B2

An pulse electro thermal defrost evaporator system has multiple refrigerant tubes formed from an electrically conductive metal and connected in parallel for refrigerant flow. These tubes are, however, connected electrically in series. A controller is capable of detecting ice accumulation and connecting the tubes to a source of electrical power for deicing when it is necessary to deice the tubes. Embodiments having a manifold having multiple conductive sections insulated from each other are disclosed for coupling tubes electrically in series. Alternative embodiments with a single, long, wide-bore, tube are disclosed, as are embodiments having an evaporating pan coupled in series or parallel with the tubes, and embodiments with thermal cutoff and electrical safety interlocks.
US08424315B2

A cooling system is disclosed including a first heat exchanger, a second heat exchanger, a means for regulating a flow of a fluid, and a thermoelectric device for cooling a fluid, wherein a difference in temperature between a hot side and a cold side of the thermoelectric device is minimized and an efficiency of the thermoelectric device is maximized.
US08424311B2

A fuel/air mixing disk for use in a fuel/air mixing combustor assembly is provided. The disk includes a first face, a second face, and at least one fuel plenum disposed therebetween. A plurality of fuel/air mixing tubes extend through the pre-mixing disk, each mixing tube including an outer tube wall extending axially along a tube axis and in fluid communication with the at least one fuel plenum. At least a portion of the plurality of fuel/air mixing tubes further includes at least one fuel injection hole have a fuel injection hole diameter extending through said outer tube wall, the fuel injection hole having an injection angle relative to the tube axis. The invention provides good fuel air mixing with low combustion generated NOx and low flow pressure loss translating to a high gas turbine efficiency, that is durable, and resistant to flame holding and flash back.
US08424307B2

An ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) system includes a working fluid pump, an evaporator, a turbine, a condenser, and a working fluid. The evaporator is connected to the working fluid pump. The turbine is connected to the evaporator. The condenser is respectively connected to the turbine and the working fluid pump, and located in a sea area below sea surface. The condenser includes a condenser main body and a deep sea water pipe. The condenser main body is respectively connected to the turbine and the working fluid pump. The deep sea water pipe is connected to the condenser main body, and has an inlet end and an outlet end. The deep sea water pipe is connected to the condenser main body via the outlet end. The working fluid flows between the working fluid pump, the evaporator, the turbine, and the condenser under the driven of the working fluid pump.
US08424305B2

A turbocharger unit (18) for an internal combustion engine (10) with at least one exhaust line (15, 16) for conducting exhaust gases away from the combustion chamber (11) of the engine and at least one inlet line (12) for supplying air to the combustion chamber. The turbocharger unit includes a turbine (17) which interacts with a compressor (19) for extracting energy from the exhaust gas flow of the engine and pressurizing the inlet air of the engine. The compressor (19) is of radial type and provided with an impeller with backswept blades (35) where the blade angle (βb2) between an imaginary extension of the center line of the blade between root section and tip section in the direction of the outlet tangent and a line (36) which connects the center axis of the impeller to the outer tip of the blade is at least roughly 45°. The turbine (17) which drives the compressor (19) is of radial type.
US08424304B2

A turbine assembly for an exhaust gas turbocharger has separate first and second volutes that are sequentially activated via a valve that receives exhaust gases from an engine. In a first position of the valve, only the first volute receives exhaust gas; in a second position, both volutes receive exhaust gases. In a third position, a bypass passage is also opened so that some exhaust gas bypasses the turbine wheel. Unlike conventional twin-scroll turbines, each volute receives exhaust gases from all engine cylinders, and the first volute feeds gas into the B-width portion of the wheel, while the second volute feeds gas into the wheel after the contour portion.
US08424301B2

A hydraulic flow sharing system for excavating and pipe laying work is provided, which can prevent the abrupt change of a traveling speed during traveling through compulsory sharing of the flow rate applied to a working device and a traveling apparatus when a combined operation, in which the traveling apparatus and the working device such as a boom are simultaneously driven, is performed.
US08424299B2

A large hydraulic excavator permits an easy change from a machine mode corresponding to a backhoe excavator to a machine mode corresponding to a loader excavator, and vice versa. A hydraulic circuit is provided with hydraulic pumps and directional control valves, solenoid valves for controlling the hydraulic pumps and the directional control valves, and a controller for controlling the solenoid valves in accordance with operation of control lever devices and control pedal devices. The controller performs its control in a backhoe mode or loader mode selectively instructed by a mode instruction unit. Control of the solenoid valves in the backhoe mode makes the hydraulic circuit function as a backhoe hydraulic drive circuit, while control in the loader mode makes the hydraulic circuit function as a loader hydraulic drive circuit.
US08424297B2

An AI pipe (1) is formed with a first housing (11) and a second housing (21). The first housing (11) is made from a thin metal sheet and has a clamp portion (C1) that was left remaining. The second housing (21) is also made of a thin metal sheet and also has a clamp portion (C2) that was left remaining. When fitted together, the first housing (11) and the second housing (21) form a pipe portion (31). With this AI pipe (1), a through-hole (H) which is punched out by press working is formed in at least one of the clamping portion (C1) and the clamping portion (C2).
US08424296B2

An annular heat exchanger for cooling hot gases comprises an inner shell, an intermediate shell and an outer shell. Where the heat exchanger is integrated with a catalytic converter for treatment of hot exhaust gases in a motor vehicle, the inner shell contains a catalyst for treatment of the exhaust gases. Inner and outer gas flow passages are provided between the shells, and a coolant flow passage is provided, either on the outer surface of the outer shell, or between the intermediate and outer shells. The exhaust gases change direction twice as they pass through the heat exchanger, and the annular structure of the heat exchanger provides a large surface area, and a large flow section, relative to volume, and thereby provides effective heat exchange without significantly increasing space requirements.
US08424292B2

A system for the monitoring and/or controlling emission levels of nitrogen oxide and a reductant from a stream of combustion exhaust, wherein the internal combustion engine includes a SCR unit disposed in the stream of combustion exhaust between an upstream conduit and a downstream conduit, the SCR unit having a catalyst that is configured to catalytically reduce nitrogen oxides contained in the combustion exhaust to elemental nitrogen in the presence of a reductant and oxygen, and wherein the internal combustion engine further includes a reductant injector; the system comprising: a laser absorption spectroscopy unit that is disposed in the downstream conduit and configured to measure the concentration level of at least nitrogen oxide and the reductant in the exhaust; and a control unit.
US08424282B2

A combined cycle power plant (10) has a gas turbine (11), a heat recovery steam generator (16) which is connected downstream to the gas turbine (11) and delivers steam to a steam turbine (19), an exhaust gas recycling line (28) which returns some of the exhaust gases, which flow from the exhaust of the gas turbine (11) through the heat recovery steam generator (16), to the inlet of the gas turbine (11), and also a CO2 separating plant (25) which separates from the non-returned part of the exhaust gases the CO2 which is contained therein and delivers it to a CO2 outlet. A reduction of the equipment cost or a flexible adaptation of the operation can be achieved by a supplementary firing (17) being associated with the heat recovery steam generator (16), which by combusting a carbonaceous fuel produces additional exhaust gases with CO2 content and transmits them through the heat recovery steam generator (16).
US08424275B2

A sealed plastic container and a method for producing it are provided. The method for producing the sealed plastic container includes the steps of providing a container body having an end, providing a closure member having a skirt, inserting the closure member into the container body, heating the closure member skirt and container body end, and rolling the closure member skirt top and container end inward thereby fusing the closure member to the container body.
US08424269B2

A method and apparatus for creating a reinforced vertical multi-sided monopole tower for supporting equipment including a multi-sided monopole, a plurality of holes on three equally spaced sides of the multi-sided monopole tower and tower reinforcement apparatus mounted to the holes. The tower reinforcement apparatus includes bolts supporting a first flat bar and a second flat bar on each side of the tower. The upper end of the first flat bar abuts a lower end of the second bar and a plate is bolted over adjacent ends connecting the first and second flat bar such that the first and second flat bars are sandwiched between the plate and a side of the perimeter of the monopole.
US08424268B2

Grid members, namely a runner (10) and wall angle (400) for suspended ceiling grids, are disclosed. Certain embodiments of the runner and the wall angle have two web portions (28, 30) and at least one distinct indent portion (62) to define a space between the web portions. An adhesive (56) may be disposed within one or more of the indent portions (62) to adhere the two web portions (28, 30) to each other. Certain embodiments of the runner or wall angle have flange portions (32, 34) that may have indent portions as well. One or more of these indent portions may contain adhesive. Some embodiments of the runner or wall angle have overturned cap portions on the flange portions, and an adhesive may be placed between the overturned cap portions and upwardly facing surfaces of the flange portions.
US08424263B2

A lightweight floor slab comprises a meshy shuttering (1), a metal mesh (3) and cement mortars (2), wherein the meshy shuttering (1) and the metal mesh (3) are formed to a whole by filing the cement mortars (2).
US08424260B2

The present disclosure is directed generally towards floor panels and flooring drainage systems utilizing two or more interconnected improved floor panels. In some embodiments, the disclosure includes a floor panel having a top surface, a bottom surface, a first longitudinal surface, a second longitudinal surface, a first transverse surface, and a second transverse surface. One or more drainage assemblies are located on either the first transverse surface and/or the second transverse surface. Each of the drainage assemblies include one or more drainage slots and one or more drainage notches. Further aspects are directed towards flooring drainage systems comprising two or more interconnected floor panels according to embodiments of the disclosure.
US08424258B2

The present invention relates generally to green roof, deck and patio apparatuses, also known as roof, deck and patio landscaping apparatuses and roof, deck and patio gardens, that are suitable for supporting live plant growth on building decks, rooftop and patio surfaces.
US08424254B2

This loading bay comprises a compact structure carrying at least one fold-away ramp and a shelter for closing off the space between the shed and the truck box body at the side and at the top during loading or unloading operations. Said compact structure adjoins the wall (P) of the shed on the outside and is set up with the possibility of being removed longitudinally on guide means for positioning the movable assembly in a position opposite any one of the openings (H) providing access to the shed. The loading bay comprises, additionally, motorized actuating means, at least one bar of sensors for detecting the position of the truck while said truck is being moved closer into position, a light-signalling device and a light and/or acoustic signal warning of the approach of a truck.
US08424251B2

Panels for use in building construction (partitions, walls, ceilings, floors or doors) which exhibit improved acoustical sound proofing in multiple specific frequency ranges and also present improved structural integrity, are provided. The improved performance is achieved through the use of one or more layers of glue such that at least one layer of glue includes a viscoelastic material in a first pattern and a structural adhesive in a second, non-overlapping pattern. The viscoelastic material may have a varied shear moduli and functions as a glue and energy dissipating layer. In some embodiments, one or more constraining layers separating one layer of glue may be included. The constraining layer may be formed of a material such as gypsum, cement, metal, cellulose, wood, or petroleum-based products such as vinyl, plastic, or rubber. In some embodiments, standard wallboard, typically gypsum, comprises the external surfaces of the laminated panel.
US08424247B2

An oscillating-mount split-hinge device is provided that is designed to be fitted on a heavy door having at least one panel mounted to pivot on a frame. The split-hinge device includes at least one lower split-hinge configured to support at least the bulk of the load of the panel of the door, and at least one upper split-hinge configured to form an anti-tilting holding point and axial guide of the panel. Each of the lower split-hinge and the upper split-hinge includes a stationary split-hinge part integrated with the frame, and a movable split-hinge part integrated with the flap. Each of the lower split-hinge and the upper split-hinge also includes a pivoting shaft integrated with one of the frame and the panel, the pivoting shaft being configured to enable rotatably guiding the movable split-hinge part relative to the stationary split-hinge part around said pivoting shaft.
US08424243B1

Disease, sunburn and insect damage to fruit and vegetable crops is significantly reduced by treatment of both fruit and foliage with a preventative amount of a protective agent (such as copper sulfate or hydroxide) and an optional amount of thixotropic smectic clay material, chemically altered to render its surface lipophilic, which are combined with a wax emulsion comprising a matrix of complex hydrocarbons, an emulsifying agent and water. In the practice of this disclosure the disease, sunburn, and insect protective composition is further diluted in an aqueous solution that is sprayable by commercial applicators.
US08424237B2

An angling rig comprises a pebble of natural stone and, secured to the pebble, an attachment ring for attaching the pebble to a fishing line. The attachment ring is secured to the pebble by means of a swivel bonded by epoxy resin adhesive in a bore formed in the pebble. The invention provides an alternative to a lead weight which is non-toxic (and therefore ecologically desirable) and also of natural form (and therefore not perceived as threatening by fish), whereby anglers may both help the environment and expect better catches.
US08424224B2

A shoe heel cover is designed to be selectively positioned and removed from a heel of a shoe. The heel cover is configured as a resilient flexible compressible hollow body having a plurality of concave indentations formed in its outer wall. A plurality of concave parts, each corresponding to the concave indentations extends inwardly toward the center of the opening formed in the hollow body. In one aspect, the heel cover body has an hour-glass cross-section. The middle portion of the body has the smallest diameter opening, such that the convex parts exert a bias and gripping action on the heel, preventing the heel cover from slipping from the shoe heel.
US08424222B2

An insole especially advantageous for arthritic or diabetic patients comprises three layers and is shaped in a form which provides and arch support and an integral heel receiving area. It is made from a generally foot-shaped bottom layer having a length extending from a heel area to a toe area, a top surface and a bottom surface. The bottom surface of the bottom layer preferably further comprises one to three indentations formed integrally therein. Insert layers are secured to each of said indentations. Preferably, the bottom layer is made from an EVA foam. A middle layer having a first and second side is secured to the top surface of the bottom layer adjacent the middle layer's second side. The middle layer is preferably made of a synthetic rubber layer. The middle layer takes the shape of the bottom layer. A top layer is coextensive with and secured to the first side of the synthetic rubber layer. The top layer composition is selected according to the intended use. In use, the foot of the wearer, with or without a sock or stocking thereon, rests upon the top layer in the foot-receiving compartment of the shoe.
US08424220B2

A dryer and a method for controlling the same are provided. The method for controlling a dryer includes supplying steam generated in a steam generator to a drum, and supplying hot air generated in a hot air heater to the drum. The method has an advantageous effect of removing wrinkles efficiently.
US08424214B2

A plane that includes a plane body having an opening positioned in a bottom surface of the plane body; an angled support structure carried by the plane body; a blade supported by the angled support structure, the blade having an edge positionable to protrude from the opening; a blade adjuster operatively connected with the blade; and a lateral stabilizer is provided. The lateral stabilizer is selectively adjustable to prevent or permit a lateral movement of the blade and the lateral stabilizer is configured to prevent lateral movement of the blade without preventing longitudinal adjustability of the blade. When the lateral stabilizer is configured to prevent lateral movement of the blade, the lateral stabilizer does not engage the blade.
US08424212B2

A specialized wood splitting tool and chopping block, used together, enable cutting kindling from ordinary firewood in an effective and safe manner. The splitting tool uses leverage in addition to downward momentum of the cutting head to split wood. The metal handle and metal cutting head are preferably formed from a single piece of steel, in a perpendicular configuration similar to an adze. A splitting wedge blade within the handle exerts transverse shear forces to enhance splitting, and flat upper surfaces of the cutting head and the handle near the joint provide a striking surface. A complimentary chopping block for bracing logs of various diameters in a steady upright position has a V-shaped recess that is open on one end. The chopping block provides resistance to the unique leverage of the splitting tool during the splitting action.
US08424208B2

Provided is a manufacturing method of an outer ring (3) of a back-to-back arrangement double-row angular ball bearing from a raw material (10) comprising a upsetting (A to B), a backward extrusion process (C to D), a punching (D to E), a rolling (E to F) and a finishing, wherein an outer diameter of a first intermediate material (11a) produced by the upsetting is equal to or smaller than an inside diameter of an inner periphery large diameter portion (18) of the inner circumference of a die (13) used in the backward extrusion process and larger than an inside diameter of an inner periphery small portion (19) of the die (13), and in a condition with the first intermediate material (11a) sitting on the inner periphery inclined portion (20) of the die (13), the intermediate material (11a) is pushed toward a base of the die (13) by a punch (14), to thereby the middle metal material (29) with the highest cleanliness of the raw material (10) is exposed to the two outer ring raceways (2) of the outer ring (3).
US08424199B1

A circuit chip mounting system incorporates a carrier having a socket for receiving a circuit chip. The socket includes a plurality of contacts for contacting pads on the chip and includes pins extending therefrom for insertion into terminals in a PCB. Secondary spacers each having a configuration corresponding to a portion of the shape of the carrier are provided with holes arranged to receive the pins and permit the pins to pass therethrough for insertion in PCB terminals. The secondary spacers are soluble to be removed in a washing procedure during processing.
US08424197B2

Twist pin z-axis interconnectors are assembled in columns of aligned vias in stacked printed circuit boards of a circuit module in automated assembly cycles. Each assembly cycle involves singulating a single twist pin from a plurality of twist pins, inserting the twist pin into the via column, gripping a leader portion of the twist pin, pulling the gripped leader portion until a connection portion moves into contact with the vias of the column, severing the leader portion from the connection portion, extracting the severed leader portion, and automatically repeating assembly cycles until interconnectors have been assembled into a substantial majority of the via columns of the circuit module.
US08424194B2

An apparatus for assembling a press-fit modular work piece is described that includes a surface member having a central opening. A hatch member is disposed on one side of the surface member, and is moveable between a first position where it does not cover the opening and a second position covering the opening. A work piece receiving member is disposed proximate the other side of the surface member across from the central opening for receiving components of the press-fit modular work piece. An actuator moves the work piece receiving member toward the opening so components of the work piece press against the hatch member when the hatch member is moved into the second position. The actuator moves the work piece receiving member to a position to receive components of the work piece when the hatch member is in the first position.
US08424193B2

A wiring assembly having a conductor positioned about an axis in a helical-like configuration to provide a repetitive pattern which rotates around the axis. In one embodiment, when a current passes through the conductor, a magnetic field having an orientation orthogonal to the axis changes direction as a function of position along the axis.
US08424186B2

A method for manufacturing an electric machine, made up of a housing, a stator accommodated in the housing, which is formed from a stator body and stator windings, a rotor, which is supported in the housing so as to be rotatable about a rotor axis, and a bearing support fastened on the housing, includes a housing foam part manufactured from at least three individual foam parts and a housing cast blank manufactured using the housing foam part in accordance with a lost foam casting method. Individual foam parts are made up of a center disk having an essentially hollow-cylindrical design and forming an intermediate piece of a housing foam part, an annular disk having an essentially hollow-cylindrical design and forming another intermediate piece of the housing foam part, and a bearing support disk having an essentially cup-shaped design and forming an end of the housing foam part.
US08424182B2

A fitting device and a fitting method, by which the fitting process can be carried out without damaging workpieces, even when a sufficient moment cannot be detected by pressing the workpiece in the fitting direction. The device includes a fitting status judging part adapted to judge whether a second workpiece is in motion in a fitting direction relative to a first workpiece; a workpiece orientation searching part adapted to change a current orientation of the second workpiece when it is judged that the second workpiece is not in motion in the fitting direction, and search a proper orientation for the second workpiece based on a detected force or speed of the second workpiece in the fitting direction, during the change of the orientation; and a fitting motion commanding part adapted to command a robot which grips the second workpiece to continue the fitting operation, by using the searched proper orientation.
US08424180B2

Objects of the present invention provide an attachment for power tools that places and set wedge anchors. One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a new and improved attachment apparatus for a rotary-hammer type drill, the attachment including a first anchor setting end, a second attachment end, and a handle portion connecting the setting end to the attachment end. The attachment apparatus can be efficiently and easily mounted to the rotary-hammer type drill to simplify the installation of wedge anchors.
US08424177B2

A method of forming a metal-insulator-metal capacitor having top and bottom plates separated by a dielectric layer, one of the top and bottom plates having at least one protrusion extending into a corresponding cavity in the other of the top and bottom plates, the method including the steps of growing one or more nanofibers on a base surface.
US08424168B2

By way of example, a cam assembly and strap based closure system using a spiral is configured for bringing two sides of an article together. When the user inserts the strap into the cam assembly and turns a knob, the strap is driven into the cam assembly and the strap pins engage one or more cam spirals. The system is configured such that strap pins are engaged at a constant angle which may be self-locking. The system is infinitely adjustable and the torque felt by the knob is constant. The system is configured to be a quick release system and allows rapid insertion of the strap for faster operation.
US08424167B2

Connecting the two band ends 10, 18 of a hose clamp is done by means of a guide hook 16 disposed on an inner band portion and engaging a guide hook receiving means 12 on the outer band end 10, and a support hook 17 also formed on the inner band portion and engaging a support hook receiving means 13 on the outer band portion. The support hook receiving means 13 is an embossment formed from the band material by cold deformation and being continuous with the band material on all sides, the inner surface of the support hook receiving means 13 having a support portion 25 adjacent to the outer band end 10 and extending at right angles with respect to the band surface. The support hook 17 has a nose 26 which faces away from the inner band end 18 and has a cut edge which nicks into the support portion 25 of the support hook receiving means 13 when the hose clamp is tightened. Since the support hook receiving means 13 is entirely continuous with the band material, it has a much higher stability then conventional cut-outs or windows formed in the band.
US08424160B2

An asymmetrical resistant hinge set includes at least a resistant hinge and an elastic element coaxially positioned. The resistant hinge is hinged on a first pivotal means located on the bottom side of a body. The elastic element provides action forces on the resistant hinge and one-way resistance to generate an asymmetrical hinge effect with a greater resistance in one direction and a smaller resistance in another direction when a support lid is flipped in forward and reverse directions to reduce the resistance of the resistant hinge. As a result, when the support lid is flipped to a selected angle it still can bear the weight of the body of a portable electronic device at the anchored position without drifting.
US08424154B2

A vacuum cleaner having a housing with a dust container having an inlet for dust laden air, a filter unit comprising a flexible filter body, a motor fan unit for generating a flow of air through the inlet and through the filter unit, and a dust removing means configured to agitate the flexible filter body in response to a force applied to the dust removing means.
US08424152B2

An electrical appliance including a housing containing an electric motor and a storage battery pack for energizing the electric motor at an operating voltage of more than 42 volts. The storage battery pack includes a plurality of storage battery cells electrically connected so as to form at least two cell groups having a cell voltage of less than 42 volts. A connector assembly includes a bridge circuit configured to electrically connect the cell groups with each other so as to provide the operating voltage of more than 42 volts while establishing electrical connection between the storage battery pack and the electric motor.
US08424149B2

The invention is based on a wiper blade (10) comprising a wiper strip (12), in the lateral longitudinal grooves (20) of which two parallel spring rails (24) are inserted as a supporting element in the head strip (16), wherein a spoiler (30) and end caps (32, 48) are provided on the rails. The end caps (32, 48) each connect with a flow profile (34) to the spoiler (30) and extend at the front sides facing the ends of the wiper blade (10) toward a wiper lip (14) over the spring rails (24). It is proposed that at least one end cap (32, 48) comprises a closeable assembly opening (38) in the region overlapping the spring rails (24) and the head strip (16).
US08424148B1

A floor wipe is provided in a symmetrical shape wherein a human foot may easily fit with toes of the foot at a desired end of the floor wipe and the heel of the foot at the opposing end. Floor wipe has a floor contact side and a foot contact side where a user would place their foot on the foot contact side of the device and manipulate the device about the floor to clean an area of the floor. The device has a first cleaning area, having a first characteristic, such as absorbency, at one end of the device and a second cleaning area, having a second characteristic, such as scouring, which is unique from the characteristic of the first cleaning area, at an opposing end of the device. The foot contact side has structural configuration elements which resist the foot of the user from slipping there along during usage.
US08424138B1

A portable infant seat that rests between opposing sides of a shopping cart includes a sling made of flexible material and shaped to cradle an infant or an infant car seat. The ends of the sling cover a top rail portion of the shopping cart and stiffening means prevent the sling from folding over on itself when in use. The sling also includes attachment means that easily and releaseably secure the sling to the top rail the cart without any need for adjustment. The attachment means may be a J-style hook extending the entire length of each end. A safety strap may be provided at each end of the sling to provide a redundant or secondary level of safety should one or both of the attachment means fail.
US08424134B2

A medical bed has developed, comprising a lifting unit extended to the lower body unit with an insertion unit mounted on an elastic spring for applying pressure to a lifting member, a water collection unit positioned at inner room of the bed frame forming sloped bottom surface, an angle adjustment unit installed at the bed frame for angular movement of the bed frame, a plural of the loess bed units, a separation preventing unit for preventing separation of the loess bed unit and a support plate for supporting the loess bed unit. The body unit extends the lower head unit and guides vertical movement of the loess bed. The lifting member installed on a fastening bar for controlling the lifting unit. The elastic spring is arranged inside of the lifting member, and an inlet-outlet for injecting and discharging pneumatic and hydraulic pressure formed at the upper lifting member.
US08424133B1

An improved medical procedure table has motorized elevation, Trendelenburg tilt, floating tabletop with both longitudinal and lateral travel, multi-caster control, and an iso-roll device for the tabletop. The iso-roll device is connected between a roll plate and a cross plate. The iso-roll device includes a pair of iso-roll guide plates, which are mounted laterally to a bottom of the roll plate. Each iso-roll guide plate has an arcuate guide channel therein having an upwards concave shape. A set of cam followers are positioned in both guide channels and travel therein and also fixedly mounted to a base on the cross plate. A center of radius of the arcuate guide channel is approximately 5 inches above the tabletop. Further, mounted between the iso-roll guide plates and to the roll plate is a support guide plate having an arcuate bottom surface.
US08424131B2

Bassinet assemblies and related methods are disclosed. An example bassinet assembly includes an upper frame, a first support arm and a second support arm coupled to the upper frame and a floorboard coupled or adjacent to the first support arm and the second support arm. The example bassinet assembly also includes a support liner coupled between the floorboard and the upper frame and a cover disposed over at least a portion of each of the upper frame, the support liner and the floorboard.
US08424127B2

The present invention relates to a massage apparatus with a music player for use in the bathroom. More particularly, the present invention relates to a massage apparatus for use in the bathroom which is equipped with a massager that sprays water through a plurality of nozzles to provide a massage effect, said massage apparatus comprising: a bathtub with the massager installed in the lower portion thereof, having a bottom surface tilted upwards; a transfer pipe, one end of which is arranged vertically to the bottom surface of the bathtub and the other end of which is bent toward the ears of a user; a music box having an interior into which the transfer pipe is inserted, and in which a music player is embedded, and a lower portion with an outlet hole; and a drain pipe, one end of which communicates with the outlet hole and the other end of which is connected to a drain. The massage apparatus prevents the music player installed in the bathtub from contacting water, thereby preventing the failure or erroneous operation of the music player, and improves the quality of life of a user by enabling the user to enjoy massages while listening to music.
US08424121B2

An odor extraction device (1) for a toilet having a pan (2) and a cistern (4) is disclosed. The extraction device (1) includes an inlet (3) and an outlet (5). The inlet (3) is adapted for gas communication with an interior of the toilet pan (2) above the water level in the pan (2). The outlet (5) is in gas communication with the inlet (3). The outlet (5) is also adapted for gas communication with a sewerage pipe (6). A suction means, in the form of an impeller fan (7), is provided intermediate the inlet (3) and the outlet (5) for drawing gas from within the pan (2) in through the inlet (3) and out through the outlet (5). To prevent backflow of unpleasant odors from the sewerage pipe (6) to the pan (2), a one way valve (8) is provided between the inlet (3) and the outlet (5).
US08429755B2

A method and system for conducting a transaction involving digital content is provided. The system includes, a first user of a first mobile device connected to a network; a second user of a second mobile device connected to the network; a MNO that is functionally coupled to the first mobile device and the second mobile device and to a digital content provider and a rights issuing authority. The MNO receives a request for digital content from the first user, searches for the requested digital content and if the second user has the requested digital content, then the MNO obtains any rights to re-distribute/access the requested digital content; and the second user, the digital content provider and the MNO are compensated for distributing the requested digital content from the second mobile device to the first mobile device.
US08429754B2

Methods for a control technique for object production rights include but are not limited to receiving at the duplication control system a digital rights management code, the digital rights management code associated with one or more object data files; generating an authorization status based on the digital rights management code; and configuring one or more manufacturing machines to operate as a function of the authorization status.
US08429752B2

A system and accompanying method for Digital Rights Management (DRM) are disclosed that permit arbitrary forms of digital media to be vended in a networked environment. Special purpose renderers are distributed with each particular instance of digital media. Each renderer may include a tailored set of controls allowing the owner of the digital media to restrict the use thereof.
US08429751B2

A system and method for protection of Web based applications are described. Anomalous traffic can be identified by comparing the traffic to a profile of acceptable user traffic when interacting with the application. Phishing and leeching are one type of anomalous traffic that is detected. The anomalous traffic, or security events, identified at the individual computer networks are communicated to a central security manager. Various responsive actions may be taken in response to detection of phishing or leeching.
US08429747B2

Disclosed is a flood attack detection method, wherein the total number of keywords of a source packet is acquired, and the number of feature parameters corresponding to the source packet is acquired. A ratio of the number of feature parameters to the total number of keywords is compared with a preset threshold, and if the ratio is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, it is determined that a flood attack occurs.
US08429743B2

Online risk mitigation techniques are described. In an implementation, a service is queried for a reputation associated with an object from an online source in response to selection of the object. A backup of a client that is to receive the object is stored prior to obtaining the object when the reputation does not meet a threshold reputation level.
US08429737B2

An IMS system includes an IMS initiator user entity. The system includes an IMS responder user entity that is called by the initiator user entity. The system includes a calling side S-CSCF in communication with the caller entity which receives an INVITE having a first protection offer and parameters for key establishment from the caller entity, removes the first protection offer from the INVITE and forwards the INVITE without the first protection offer. The system includes a receiving end S-CSCF in communication with the responder user entity and the calling side S-CSCF which receives the INVITE without the first protection offer and checks that the responder user entity supports the protection, inserts a second protection offer into the INVITE and forwards the INVITE to the responder user entity, wherein the responder user entity accepts the INVITE including the second protection offer and answers with an acknowledgment having a first protection accept. A method for supporting a call by a telecommunications node.
US08429729B1

An apparatus includes a receiver circuit, a key module, and a decryption module. The receiver circuit is configured to receive a first wireless packet from a wireless access point. The first wireless packet includes (i) a destination address and (ii) a payload. The destination address is a multicast media access control (MAC) address. The multicast MAC address includes at least a portion of an encrypted wireless network security string. The key module is configured to (i) decrypt the encrypted wireless network security string using a device key of the apparatus and (ii) produce a wireless network security key in response to the decrypted wireless network security string. The decryption module is configured to decrypt payloads of packets from the wireless access point using the wireless network security key.
US08429724B2

An access control system and method are provided, which include a plurality of authorities, a plurality of access control elements and an access control list. Each authority associates at least one of a plurality of proof of knowledge operations with at least one of a plurality of proof of knowledge credentials. Each access control element identifies a Boolean combination of at least one of the authorities. The access control list identifies one or more of the access control elements by which a method to be executed can be authenticated.
US08429723B2

A computer system and method for distributed legal workflow security provides role-based access control to a collaborative online workflow tool. The system includes a computer network having one or more computers operably programmed and configured to receive input defining computer system access privileges for a plurality of distributed legal workflow participants. The system receives input associating one or more legal workflow role types defined by users with one or more of the distributed legal workflow participants to define the role-based access. Permission privileges are input and associated with a plurality of legal workflow graphical interface functions based on the one or more legal workflow role types. Based on the permission privileges associated with the role type of the participant, the system provides legal workflow graphical interface functionality to the one or more distributed legal workflow participants.
US08429713B2

A method and structure for establishing faster transmission of Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) commands between first and second HDMI-compatible devices. The first and second devices may transmit CEC commands via a shared alternate interface, a signaling path distinct from a standard HDMI CEC interface between the first and second devices. Authentication may furthermore be performed prior to use of the alternate interface to confirm that the communication is authorized.
US08429706B2

This method of transmitting coded data, representing a digital video, from a server to a plurality of clients, at least one subset of the clients using congestion control algorithms, uses a plurality of signals for passing from a coded representation of the video at a given quality level to a coded representation at least one quality level different from the given level. The sending (E618) of at least one of the passage signals at least to the subset of clients depends on information representing the behavior of the congestion control algorithms used by the subset of clients.
US08429701B2

A method of delivering video content includes identifying a television program scheduled to be broadcast at a time during a peak viewing period, and identifying a recipient multimedia storage device that is to receive video content associated with the television program. The method also includes sending the video content associated with the television program to the recipient multimedia storage device during a non-peak viewing period that precedes the peak viewing period. The video content includes data to prevent viewing of the video content prior to the time when the television program is scheduled to be broadcast.
US08429699B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides a system and method for adaptive video decoding. A method for adaptive video decoding includes determining whether a resource constrained mode is to be initiated, and responsive to a determination that the resource constrained mode is to be initiated, initiating the resource constrained mode, including foregoing the decoding of portions of received video input. For example, adaptive video decoding may include foregoing the decompression and reconstruction of selected video frames during intervals of high demand for memory and/or bus bandwidth resources.
US08429688B1

A system and method for generating a broadcast programming guide. Based on either designation by or a habit of a user, a programming guide comprising one or more favorite channels of the user is created by a microcomputer of a receiver. The programming guide comprises programming information. Preferably, the programming information is obtained from one or more external sources. The programming guide preferably also comprises one or more suggested channels based on the favorite channels. The programming guide is presented to the user when the receiver is powered on or when the programming guide is requested by the user.
US08429687B2

Techniques for transmission and preparation for display of real-time audio-visual content of a plurality of TV programs over electronic communications network channels and display of the audio-visual signals as a part of a TV Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) are disclosed herein. In particular, the use of video coded using a layered codec, and stored in a layered format, allows a properly configured system to present to an end user a live preview of multiple TV channels, along with EPG information (e.g., the channel, time, title and genre of video content, a list of programs scheduled in the future, as well as the ability to, for example, set parental controls, order pay-per-view programs, to search for programs based on theme or category, and to set recordings for the future when combined with a recording system), on his/her TV screen, without taking significantly more resources (e.g., in terms of bandwidth, system complexity) than the traditional digital TV transmission.
US08429677B2

Technologies for an operating system identifying SSD and CSSD devices based on a corresponding descriptor, and for optimizing operating system functionalities with respect to the SSD/CSSD device. Optimizations include disabling non-SSD/CSSD functionalities, such as HDD defragmentation, and by enabling SSD/CSSD specific functionalities, such as write optimization storage functionalities.
US08429676B2

A system and method that provides a JPeX client that opens up a socket on which it listens for connections from the local host. External applications on the desktop are able to connect to the server socket in the client and use XML to execute commands on the client.
US08429674B2

Methods, program products, and systems of maintaining data states upon forced exit are disclosed. In one aspect, an application program executing on the mobile device can maintain a connection to a remote data store and retrieve and cache data from the data store. When the mobile device receives an event that forces the application program to terminate, the mobile device can provide a time window in which the mobile device can perform various state preservation actions. During the time window, the mobile device can store data states, including states of the connection and states of the cached data. When the application program is re-launched, the mobile device can use the stored data states to restore a connection and a displayed view.
US08429671B2

A method of communicating between hydrocarbon management-related computer programs having non-identical data formats. Tools associated with each of the computer programs are obtained. Each tool represents a functionality of its respective computer program. Representations of the tools are displayed in a toolbox. A plurality of the displayed representations are selected such that the displayed representations are placed in a displayed workspace to establish a graphical representation of a workflow. Displayed representations from more than one computer program are selected. The displayed representations are positioned in the graphical representation of the workflow in a sequence corresponding to a desired workflow sequence. The workflow is executed according to the desired workflow sequence. Inter-program communications is facilitated between the computer programs to enable the workflow to execute by transferring messages and data between the computer programs in a common data format.
US08429663B2

Even if a multiprocessor includes an uneven performance core, an inoperative core or a core that does not satisfy such a performance as designed but if the contrivance of task allocation can satisfy the requirement of an application to be executed, the multiple processors are shipped. In a task group allocation method for allocating, to a processor having a plurality of cores, task groups included in an application for the processor to execute, a calculation section measures performances and disposition patterns of the cores, generates a restricting condition associating the measured performances and disposition patterns of the cores with information indicating whether the application can be executed, and, with reference to the restricting condition, reallocates to the cores, the task groups that have previously been allocated to the cores.
US08429651B2

A virtual machine is migrated between a source cloud and a destination cloud. A temporary storage is mounted to a partition management firmware of the source cloud and to a partition management firmware of the destination cloud. A first storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the source cloud to the at least one temporary storage. A second storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the at least one temporary storage to final destination storage of the destination cloud. The temporary storage is then unmounted from the partition management firmware of the source cloud and from the partition management firmware of the destination cloud.
US08429647B2

Methods, systems and computer programs for migrating a virtual machine (VM) executing on a first host to a second host are presented, where the first host and the second are on different networks. One embodiment of a method includes assigning to the VM a VM address (VMA) belonging to a VM network and publishing a first route to an associated network (AN) via a first virtual router executing on the first host. The method further includes migrating the VM from the first host to the second host, the VM maintaining the assigned VMA after migrating, and publishing a second route to the AN via a second virtual router executing on the second host. The first and second virtual routers have addresses belonging to the VM network, and network packets to and from the VM flow through the virtual router where the VM is executing. A temporary tunnel between the virtual routers allows traffic to flow to the VM while the new route to AN is propagated throughout the network. The use of the associated network, which is associated with the VM, and the publishing of a new route to the VM allow the VM to keep the original VMA network address after the migration.
US08429645B2

An exemplary method (which can be computer implemented) for enhancing migration of software applications from a source system environment to a destination system environment includes the steps of translating needs into requirements for the destination system, capturing deployment and configuration of the software applications in the source system environment and the destination system environment in a centralized model, analyzing dependencies between the systems in the source and destination systems to construct a mapping between the requirements and elements of the model, and generating enhanced migration rules, based, at least in part, on the mapping.
US08429639B2

State data can be separated from an existing software stack stored in one or more computer storage units in a computer system. The existing software stack can include operating system software and application software, and the state data can represent one or more states of the existing software stack. An image can be stored in one or more computer storage units in the computer system, and the stored image can form an updated software stack including operating system and application software. In addition, the updated software stack can be configured using the state data.
US08429633B2

Embodiments of the invention describe systems and methods for application level management of virtual address space. A static analysis application can model and analyze a large and complex source code listing to determine whether it has vulnerabilities without exhausting the virtual memory resources provided to it by the operating system. In one embodiment of the invention, the method includes analyzing the source code listing to create a call graph model to represent the expected sequences of routine calls as a result of the inherent control flow of the source code listing. The method also includes monitoring the amount of virtual memory resources consumed by the dynamic state, and swapping out to a storage medium a portion of the dynamic state. The method includes reusing the virtual memory resources corresponding to the swapped out portion of the dynamic state to continue analyzing the source code listing.
US08429630B2

In at least one embodiment, the computing network may include multiple different data centers and/or server grids which are deployed different geographic locations. In at least one embodiment, at least some of the 20 server grids may be operable to provide on-demand, grid and/or utility computing resources for hosting various types of distributed applications. In at least one embodiment, a distributed application may be characterized as an application made up of distinct components (e.g., virtual appliances, virtual machines, virtual interfaces, virtual volumes, virtual network connections, etc.) in separate runtime environments. In at least one embodiment, different 25 ones of the distinct components of the distributed application may be hosted or deployed on different platforms (e.g., different servers) connected via a network. In some embodiments, a distributed application may be characterized as an application that runs on two or more networked computers.
US08429627B2

System and method for analyzing a graphical program. A graphical program is displayed on a display. A semantic edit operation is performed on the graphical program in response to user input. The semantic edit operation is performed by a first process. Semantic analysis of the graphical program is performed by a second process in response to performing the semantic edit operation, where the second process is asynchronous with respect to the first process. Results from the semantic analysis of the graphical program are displayed in response to completion of the semantic analysis. If during the semantic analysis, another semantic edit operation is performed on the graphical program, the semantic analysis may be preemptively terminated and re-initiated. Displaying results from the semantic analysis of the graphical program may then include displaying results from the re-initiated semantic analysis of the graphical program in response to completion of the re-initiated semantic analysis.
US08429619B2

An executable high-level trace file generation system provides reduced debugging effort and time, particularly on initial startup of new or modified hardware. An executable program invokes high-level application programming interfaces (APIs), to perform various tasks. Instructions within the APIs generate a trace file documenting the invoked sequence of APIs by writing a line to a trace file that documents the API and input parameters received by the API. Upon completion of execution of the API, the return value may be documented as a comment line in the trace file. The resulting trace file is then re-executable as a script and may be edited to alter the sequence of APIs invoked and/or the arguments provided. The script interpreter may be a command line interface through which the APIs are invoked, and trace files may be similarly generated that document sequences of manually entered commands.
US08429610B2

A computer implemented method and apparatus for providing dependency traceability in software configuration management. Per configuration of a subject software program formed of one or more artifacts, a version history of each artifact is maintained. For each artifact, coupled to the respective version history of the artifact is an indication of status of traceability relationship for each indicated version. One implementation employs a traceability object to maintain and provide such status indications. The status indications are view independent and enable dependency traceability relationship of each artifact to be determinable in each configuration employing the artifact.
US08429609B2

A method and system for presenting an enterprise change and configuration report are provided. In accordance with one embodiment of the present application, a method for presenting an enterprise change and configuration report includes identifying at least one datasource that stored change management information, collecting change management information from the datasource and integrating the change management information into a change management report that is accessible via a web browser. A plurality of datasources that include change management data may be identified and change management data from each datasource of the plurality of datasources may be collected and integrated to provide the change management report.
US08429608B2

A method and apparatus for providing variability rules for component model and architecture design are provided. The apparatus includes a category-determination unit which determines a category of implicit variability rules with respect to variability-set component model elements and elements associated with the variability-set component model elements; and an implicit-variability-rule-application unit which applies the implicit variability rules, which are given to the category, to the elements associated with the variability-set component model elements.
US08429607B2

Provided are a method and apparatus for managing variability points that represent variability of components of software. The method includes connecting variability points of components to each other and also connecting at least one variability point of the components to a corresponding variability point of at least one of source code and build script; receiving an input having a predetermined value and setting the predetermined value to a variability point of the components; reflecting corresponding values of the predetermined value to the connected variability point of at least one of the source code and build script.
US08429601B2

Techniques for developing database applications are described herein. According to one embodiment, an object-relational mapping (ORM) query language (OQL) statement is received via a first window which is entered from a user for querying an underlying database, where the OQL statement is written in a customized query language that is incompatible with the underlying database. In response, a SQL statement compatible with the underlying database is dynamically displayed in a second window, where the SQL statement is automatically translated from the OQL statement displayed in the first window. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08429591B2

Methods and apparatus useful for improving the performance of testing and diagnostic operations on user circuit designs potentially across multiple phases of the development lifecycle and across multiple implementation technologies are described. As one example, a single testing and diagnostic stimulus source can variously provide test pattern data to different potential instantiations of the user circuit design by supporting and selectively utilizing a number of DUT-facing communication channels.
US08429581B2

A method for verifying functional equivalence between a reference integrated circuit (IC) design and a modified version of the reference IC design includes simulating a reference IC design using a simulation stimulus on a test bench and saving the simulation output. The reference IC design corresponds to an IC design model having visibility to comprehensive internal device state. The method may also include simulating a modified version of the reference IC design using the same simulation stimulus on the same test bench, and saving the modified version simulation output. In addition, the simulation outputs of the reference IC design and the modified version are compared to create a comparison result. Lastly, the method may include determining whether the modified version of the reference IC design is functionally equivalent to the reference IC design based upon the comparison result.
US08429579B2

Some embodiments provide a method of monitoring the implementation of a user design in a configurable integrated circuit (IC). The method receives a user design for an IC and optimizes the user design to produce a second IC design. The optimization results in the elimination of circuit element(s). The method defines the second IC design for the configurable IC and generates output data for the eliminated circuit element(s) to allow for monitoring the user design.
US08429570B2

Exemplary embodiments include a method for edge correction in pattern recognition, the method including receiving a design layout, receiving a sample plan based on the design layout, receiving user-generated edge input and generating a recipe output from the design layout, the sample plan and the user-generated edge input. The incorporation of the edge input results in SEM recipes that are much more successful in recognizing patterns that have tendency to deviate in appearance from design by, for example, moderate to severe sidewall angle.
US08429567B2

A process for enabling objects displayed on a multi-input display device to be grouped together is disclosed that includes defining a target element that enables objects displayed on a multi-input display device to be grouped together through interaction with the target element. Operations are invoked that establish a relationship between a particular displayed object and a position on the target element and that causes transformations applied to the target element also to be applied to the particular displayed object while maintaining the relationship between the particular displayed object and the position on the target element.
US08429559B2

A method and user interface for eliciting and processing user feedback includes displaying on a computing device display a digital asset, wherein the digital asset has an associated list having at least one keyword; displaying on the computing device display a user feedback interface, the user feedback interface comprising at least one input component configured to receive user generated input; receiving a keyword replacement pair via the at least one input component; storing the keyword replacement pair; analyzing the stored keyword replacement pair; and producing results indicting potential changes to the digital asset based upon the analyzing. Based upon the results of the analysis, an updated version of the digital asset may be produced including any user suggested changes.
US08429557B2

At least certain embodiments of the present disclosure include an environment with user interface software interacting with a software application. A method for operating through an application programming interface (API) in this environment includes transferring a set bounce call. The method further includes setting at least one of maximum and minimum bounce values. The set bounce call causes a bounce of a scrolled region in an opposite direction of a scroll based on a region past an edge of the scrolled region being visible in a display region at the end of the scroll.
US08429555B2

Disclosed is an apparatus and method of providing items based on scrolling.An apparatus for processing data of a non-volatile memory according to an aspect of the invention includes a scrolling detecting unit detecting scrolling for one or more items that are displayed on a screen, a screen region control unit dividing the screen into one or more regions according to the detected scrolling, and controlling the sizes of the divided regions, and an item control unit controlling at least one of the sizes and the number of items according to the sizes of the divided regions.
US08429552B2

System and method for accessing properties of a pre-defined object in a graphical program (GP) operable to perform first functionality. A node icon is displayed in the GP and coupled to the pre-defined object in response to user input, and is associated with program instructions executable to only provide access to a plurality of properties corresponding to the object, and specifying configuration of the object, where the object is associated with a subset of the first functionality. Available properties of the object are displayed, and user input indicating the plurality of properties received. The GP is executed, including executing the property node to: receive input specifying modification of a property, and modify the property to configure the object to perform the subset of the first functionality; and/or to read the property from the pre-defined object, and provide the property to a graphical program element of the GP, e.g., for display.
US08429549B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, computer-readable medium and a method for transforming a color scheme. A processor is configured to retrieve from storage data including content elements defining a user interface screen in response to a user selection of a source color and a replacement color. For each content element of the user interface screen, a color of the content element is compared the source color. Based on the comparison, if the color of the content element falls within a predetermined threshold distance of the source color along a color palette, the color of the content element can be converting to the replacement color. After the processing of the content elements, the user interface is displayed on a display device, including the converted color element(s).
US08429545B2

A system, method, and computer program product comprise presenting a plurality of search results within a graphical user interface. Further, an indicia of risk is presented that reflects an analysis in association with at least one of the plurality of search results within the graphical user interface.
US08429540B1

A computer-implemented method includes: receiving a command from a first workspace participant to create a new workspace and creating a workspace identifier for the workspace, where an application container having a user interface can instantiate the workspace; receiving one or more applications to execute in the workspace and creating an application identifier for each application that refers to an application provider for the application, and where each application is configured to execute in the application container and where each executing application has a visual representation in the user interface. A command to publish the workspace as a shared workspace is received. A command is received from a second workspace participant to join the shared workspace. A workspace definition is stored. Commands are received to create and store a private view of the shared workspace. A command is received to add a customization to the private view of the shared workspace.
US08429532B2

In one embodiment, the method includes, receiving at least one text subtitle stream from an external source. Each text subtitle stream includes a style segment and at least one presentation segment associated with the style segment. The style segment includes at least one set of style information, and each set of style information provides region positioning information for positioning a region in an image and a text box including information for positioning a text box in the region. The presentation segment includes at least one region subtitle information, and the region subtitle information includes text subtitle data and a region style identifier. The region style identifier identifies one of the sets of style information in the style segment to apply to the text subtitle data. The text subtitle stream is decoded using style information including region positioning information and text box positioning information.
US08429526B2

A technique for differencing XML documents is provided. An edit graph is generated for computing the cost of possible edits that may be applied to a first XML document in order to generate a second XML document. A hash value is assigned to nodes included in the axes of the edit graph, where one axis includes nodes in the first XML document and the other axis includes nodes in the second XML document. The hash value may be generated based on a particular node's name and attributes, and the hash value of the name and attributes of each child node of the particular node. A technique for patching an XML document is also provided. Events are generated for each node in the input document and for at least one operation specified in the edit script. The edit script is applied to the input document by performing one or more operations specified in the operation events on one or more node events.
US08429525B2

A method and system for transforming versions of a design tree and transforming identity-descriptions relating to the versions of a design tree. The transformation system provides a pipeline of transforms for sequentially transforming versions of a design tree and transforming identity-descriptions relating to the versions of the design tree. Each transform may provide a command interface for manipulating the input version of the design tree or for setting parameters to control the transformations of a transform.
US08429518B2

An integrated system is described that allows a user to easily mine and report data maintained by a customer relationship management (CRM) application. In general, the system automates the process of creating electronic reports, such as an electronic worksheet, in a format that can be directly manipulated and viewed from spreadsheet application. In one embodiment, the report is automatically generated to include a pivot table for displaying the data. The system includes a database adapted to store the CRM data. First and second reporting modules execute within the CRM software application and the worksheet software application, respectively. The reporting modules cooperate in order to integrate CRM application and spreadsheet application, thereby automating the process of generating a worksheet based on the CRM database.
US08429515B2

An apparatus and a method for transmitting and receiving control information in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system are provided. A method of a base station for transmitting control information to a terminal in the MIMO system includes transmitting first control information for every transmission mode except for a Multiple-User (MU)-MIMO mode, to the terminal over a control channel of a subframe, and transmitting second control information for the MU-MIMO mode to the terminal over a data channel of the subframe.
US08429505B2

An error-correction data generation apparatus for correcting data to be protected in which an error has occurred, the apparatus includes an input unit configured to input data to be protected and a generation unit configured to generate first correction data to be used in correcting first data to be protected.
US08429503B2

Disclosed are an encoding device and a decoding device which can effectively reduce the decoding failure frequency in LDPC encoding/decoding. A loss correction encoding device (120) includes a padding unit (121) which adds a padding packet to an information packet sequence; an interleave unit (122) which rearranges the padding packet and the information packet; and a loss correction encoding unit (123) which performs loss correction encoding for the packet string after the interleave. The interleave unit (122) rearranges the padding packet and the information packet according to variable nodes constituting a minimum stopping set of the inspection matrix which defines a low-density parity inspection code. The interleave unit (122) uses such a rearrangement pattern that avoids a loss correction failure by the minimum stopping set of the LDPC inspection matrix so as to reduce the probability of the loss correction failure by the minimum stopping set.
US08429498B1

A decoding apparatus includes a decoder and a control unit. The decoder includes circuitry that is configured to decode an Error Correction Code (ECC) by operating in one of a first operational mode having a first power consumption, and a second operational mode, in which at least part of the circuitry that is active during the first operational mode is deactivated and which has a second power consumption that is lower than the first power consumption. The control unit is configured to evaluate a criterion with respect to an input code word, to select one of the first and second operational modes responsively to the criterion, and to invoke the decoder to decode the input code word using the selected operational mode.
US08429489B2

One or more methods and systems of effectively retrieving data stored in a media of a storage device are presented. The one or more methods and systems are implemented by way of correcting and detecting errors using a multi-stage decoding process. In one embodiment, the storage device comprises a magnetic hard drive. In one embodiment, the system and method applies an encoding/decoding technique that allows error correction and detection to be performed over a number of successive decode stages or processing stages. Use of the system and method increases the maximum number of symbol errors that may be corrected in an encoded codeword, providing an improvement in data recovery.
US08429488B1

A memory system including a memory and, to perform a writing operation to store user data among a plurality of cells of the memory, a pilot generator module, a multiplexer module, and a write module. The pilot generator module is configured to randomly alternate between selection of a first scheme by which pilot data is to be stored, along with the user data, among the plurality of cells of the memory, and a second scheme by which the pilot data is to be stored, along with the user data, among the plurality of cells. The pilot data comprises a known predetermined sequence. The multiplexer module is configured to combine the pilot data and the user data in accordance with the selection of the first scheme and the second scheme. The write module is configured to write the pilot data and the user data among the plurality of cells.
US08429485B2

A method and apparatus for detecting a free page of a memory device, and a method and apparatus for decoding an error correction code by using the method and apparatus for detecting a free page are provided. Free page data read from the memory is converted into a converted codeword for inclusion as an element of an error correction code field. The converted codeword is compared to an initially set target codeword to detect an amount of non-identical bits. A page read from the memory is determined to be a free page when the amount of non-identical bits is equal to or less than an initially set threshold value.
US08429478B2

A method of supporting packet transmission in a mobile communication system is disclosed according to the present invention. A method of transmitting packets at a user equipment in a mobile communication system comprises transmitting a first packet to a network and transmitting a second packet to the network regardless of a reception status signal for the first packet, when control information for the second packet is received from the network.
US08429472B2

Provided are a generation device to reduce launch switching activity, yield loss risk, and power consumption of testing, even in the at-speed scan testing, even with a small number of don't-care (X) bits in input bits as in test compression, without any impact on test data volume, fault coverage, performance, and circuit design, by putting focus on internal lines in the circuit. The generation device includes a target internal line selection unit, a target internal line distinction unit, an identification unit that identifies a bit to be an unspecified bit and a bit to be a logic bit in the input bits, and an assignment unit that assigns a logic value 1 or a logic value 0 to unspecified bits in the input bits. The identification unit includes an unspecified bit identification unit and an input logic bit identification unit.
US08429469B2

A device and method for verifying the integrity of a memory in a remote device are provided. An exemplary memory integrity verification method compares, based on a verification parameter received from a verifier, the time for retrieving data block of a memory of a remote device with a maximum threshold time allowed to read the memory, and transmits to the verifier a remote verification code and a data status according to the result of comparison so that the verifier can verify the integrity of the memory. Instead of relying on the verifier, the remote device provides data status information for integrity verification by using the memory retrieval time. As a result, accurate integrity verification is provided, and no independent hardware is required to verify integrity.
US08429465B2

A method, device and system for managing resources in networks are provided, which relate to the field of data communication. The method includes the following steps. A resource manager (RM) sends a first request message according to a received resource request message, to request an access node (AN) to perform admission control. After receiving an admission control result indicating whether a resource requested by the resource request message is admitted, the RM sends a response message of the resource request message. Therefore, when multicast/unicast connection admission control (CAC) that supports shared bandwidth is realized, flow fusions of user line configuration between the AN and a broadband remote access system (BRAS, and policy distribution between a resource and admission control subsystem (RACS) and the BRAS are guaranteed; and sharing of bandwidth resources is realized to avoid waste of the bandwidth resources.
US08429458B2

A system analyzing method for analyzing a transaction system includes firstly extracting a transaction, which is processed by a plurality of servers cooperating with each other in the transaction system, from a message log in which parameters of messages have been subjected to name merge, by using a transaction model which is generated from a set of messages transmitted between the servers during processing of the transaction, and secondly extracting a transaction from a message log from which no transaction is extracted in the firstly extracting, by using a value of a parameter inherited between the servers among parameters in messages included in the message log.
US08429448B1

Systems and methods may include providing a first silo configured to operate a first set of event-driven processing stages, and a second silo configured to operate a second set of event-driven processing stages; arranging at least one shared transaction cache between the first set of processing stages and the second set of processing stages of the respective first and second silos, where each processing stage of the first and second sets of processing stages can obtain or receive one or more transactions from the at least one shared transaction cache for processing, and where when a distressed processing stage in the first silo fails to process a first transaction designated for the distressed processing stage in a predefined amount of time, a non-distressed processing stage in the second silo obtains or receives the first transaction from the at least one shared transaction cache to process the first transaction on behalf of the distressed processing stage.
US08429445B1

A method, system and program product for group policy backup management in a network having a plurality of domains including components and modules for steps of retrieving a list of group policy objects for a domain, generating a configuration initialization file including a domains section identifying a plurality of domains that are to be backed up and a setup section specifying a plurality of values that control the backup of each policy object in each domain, determining a digital signature for each policy object on a list of policies for the domain, comparing the digital signature for each policy object with a corresponding previous digital signature for each policy, determining if a current digital signature for each policy object matches the corresponding previous digital signature for a policy, and backing up a policy object having a current digital signature that does not match the corresponding previous digital signature.
US08429441B2

A method, computer program product and system for controlling the maximum turbo mode of a processor in a turbo boost state. The method comprises limiting a maximum turbo mode available to the processor by over-reporting the amount of current drawn by the processor to the current monitoring feedback line to the processor, wherein the processor uses the over-reported current to maintain operation of the processor within performance specifications of the processor. An automatic calibration routine may be used to determine nominal amounts of current over-reporting that may be used to prevent the processor performance from exceeding the maximum turbo mode. In one embodiment, a digital potentiometer is included in the voltage regulator circuit to over-report the current as instructed.
US08429436B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing power consumption in a data storage device. An audit module monitors a power consumption rate of the data storage device relative to a power consumption target. A throttle module adjusts execution of one or more operations on the data storage device in response to the power consumption rate of the data storage device failing to satisfy the power consumption target. A verification module verifies whether the power consumption rate of the data storage device satisfies the power consumption target in response to adjusting the execution of the one or more operations.
US08429432B2

A power supply system includes a power supply coupled to a load via a main power rail, and a switch coupled between the power supply and the load on an auxiliary power rail. A controller controls the switch to couple the auxiliary power rail to the load in response to a startup command, and the controller controls the switch to uncouple the load from the auxiliary power rail in response to a shut down command and a low power mode being enabled.
US08429429B1

A method is provided for protecting a computer system, comprising: attaching a security descriptor to a process running on a processor of the computer system; associating with the security descriptor an isolation indicator that indicates the process runs in an isolation mode; calling a system routine by the isolated process that is also callable by a process that is not running in isolation mode; attempting to write to an object of a disk or a registry by the system routine called by the isolated process; determining whether the system routine is requesting the write on behalf of the isolated process or not; if the write is requested on behalf of the isolated process, then performing the write in a pseudo storage area; and if the write is requested on behalf of the non-isolated process, then performing the write in an actual storage area in which the disk or registry resides.
US08429426B2

A method for data storage includes supplying data to and from a host to a storage memory via a secure data path. A first CPU is employed to control operation of the storage memory, and a second CPU is employed to control operation of the secure data path.
US08429423B1

A method of porting of trust data includes a computer system extracting trust data from the trust module using a manufacturer key. The trust data and the manufacturer key are then stored, encrypted with a control key, on a removable storage medium.
US08429419B2

A method and device for authorized data entry and securing the authenticity of such data when entering cryptographic operations in a computer requiring authorized data entry, sends a specific command to an STM module which defines a template of input data intended to be cryptographically processed. The STM module is switched over to a secure typing mode, the STM module autonomously controls the typing of required data items of the data template by recording characters typed on the connected entry device, and the recorded characters are arranged by the STM module in its internal memory in requested data structures defined by the input data template, and such created data are sent by the STM module directly to a token where the requested cryptographic operation is called, the result of which is sent to the computer by the STM module, and subsequently the STM module switches back to the transparent mode.
US08429411B2

A system and method for the creation and automated selection and inclusion an automated signature text with an electronic message, wherein the automated selection of the automated signature text is dependent on attributes of the message, the designated recipients, or attributes of the designated recipients as compared to the sender's attributes, such as the encoding type and/or transport method selected for the electronic message or the location of the recipient without the need for multiple user profiles or manual editing by the sender. At least one of a plurality of automated signature texts is associated with at least one encoding type of a plurality of encoding types, at least one message transport type, or with at least one predeterined recipient attribute or the outcome of a comparison of the recipient attribute with the sender's attributes. The appropriate automated signature text is inserted prior to encoding of the message for transport.
US08429404B2

A system and method for discovery and/or authentication of clients to a network, particularly a managed network, substantially without requiring the client and/or access device to transmit an unencrypted address or identification.
US08429399B2

A method and apparatus is provided for detecting the start of a secure mode by a user terminal (12) without explicit signaling. After the network (30) commands the user terminal to switch to secure mode and receives a data packet from the user terminal, the receiving network node (22) determines the security mode of the user terminal by determining whether valid security has been applied to the received data packet by the user terminal.
US08429397B2

A character string not to be referred to which is included in structured document data is extracted, and an XML generation unit generates a random code table. Then, the XML generation unit generates a conversion font by converting character codes of a font using the table. The character codes of a document are converted in accordance with the table. The XML generation unit embeds the font and the conversion font.
US08429394B1

A reconfigurable computing system for enabling high performance computing includes a host platform running an operating system (OS), a reconfigurable processing kernel module, a plurality of drivers interacting with the OS, one or more reconfigurable hardware modules, and a software stack interacting with the OS and providing access to the reconfigurable hardware. The reconfigurable processing kernel module manages reconfigurable processes and coordinates data transfer to and from host. In addition, the reconfigurable processing kernel modifies the OS to utilize the software stack, thereby enabling the use of reconfigurable hardware modules through the use of hardware specific driver instructions.
US08429390B2

A method for performing a quick boot and a general boot at a basic input output system (BIOS) stage is described. A computer is powered on. An embedded controller firmware or a BIOS determines whether a quick boot key is pressed. If the quick boot key is not pressed, a boot flag is changed from Quick Boot to General Boot. If the quick boot key is pressed, the BIOS determines whether the boot flag is set to Quick Boot. If it is determined that the boot flag is set to Quick Boot, an initialization of drivers preset by the quick boot is performed, and uninitialized drivers are initialized at a stage when an operating system is started. If it is determined that the boot flag is set to General Boot, an initialization of all drivers is performed.
US08429388B2

A method for express execution of internet service accessing with a touch-control interface for a computer system is provided. A computer system is installed with a first operating system in a data storage therein. The method includes the following steps: the computer system executing the BIOS of the computer system; before loading and executing the first operating system, the computer system detecting and activating a touch-control display device; the touch-control display device displaying executive item icons representing internet service accessing programs; detecting the executive item icon selection by the user; based on the selection, loading and executing the first operating system; and executing the internet service accessing program corresponding to the selected executive item icon.
US08429387B2

A method and system for remote configuration of a computing device includes generating initialization code configured to initialize a memory and/or processor of the computing device dependent on initialization data. The initialization data is generated based on platform data, which is validate based on predetermined criteria. The platform data identifies platform-specific parameters and may be received over a network from a platform manufacturer. In response to validation of the platform data, the initialization data is generated and transmitted to the platform manufacturer for incorporation into the computing device. Upon a processor reset, the initialization code is configured to use the initialization data to perform initialization procedures to initialize the memory and/or processor of the computing device. The platform data may be updated periodically by an end-user of the computing device.
US08429380B2

A processor includes a plurality of subfunctional units provided corresponding to respective slots of one or more pieces of operation result data including a plurality of slots for an SIMD operation; and an enable generating unit configured to, in each of the one or more pieces of the operation result data, compare a value of a predetermined slot with a value of a slot other than the predetermined slot, and disable one or more subfunctional units to which the value equal to the value of the predetermined slot is inputted, and the processor outputs the value of the predetermined slot as the value of the one or more subfunctional units which have been disabled.
US08429377B2

A system and method for accessing memory are provided. The system comprises a lookup buffer for storing one or more page table entries, wherein each of the one or more page table entries comprises at least a virtual page number and a physical page number; a logic circuit for receiving a virtual address from said processor, said logic circuit for matching the virtual address to the virtual page number in one of the page table entries to select the physical page number in the same page table entry, said page table entry having one or more bits set to exclude a memory range from a page.
US08429376B2

A translation look-aside buffer (TLB) is described. The TLB may include a memory populated with pointers to collections (e.g., tables) of virtual-to-physical address translations. The memory may be populated by, for example, a page fault logic in response to resolving a page fault. The TLB may also include a signal logic to receive a virtual address and to selectively provide either a miss signal or a pointer to a collection of virtual-to-physical translations. The signal may provide the miss signal upon determining that the virtual address is not associated with a stored pointer and may provide a pointer upon determining that the virtual address is associated with the pointer.
US08429374B2

System, method, and program to perform simultaneous read and write operations in a NAND-type memory device, including: assigning a first partition in a NAND-type memory device, wherein the first partition is configured to perform read operations on high priority read content; assigning a second partition in the NAND-type memory device, wherein the second partition is configured to perform read operations and write operations, wherein the read operations are performed on non-high priority read content; and controlling the first partition and second partition to operate in a simultaneous manner.
US08429373B2

A method for implementing on-demand configuration of a logical volume, wherein the method monitors the amount of available storage capacity of the logical storage volume and determines whether the available storage capacity exceeds a predetermined threshold, such as a percentage of available logical storage space. If the method determines that the storage capacity of the logical storage volume is nearing full capacity, the method determines whether configured physical storage space is available. If the method determines that configured physical storage space is available, the method then reconfigures the logical storage volume to include the configured physical storage space. If configured physical storage space is not available, the method locates unconfigured physical storage space, configures the available physical storage space, and reconfigures the logical volume using the configured physical storage space.
US08429371B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for managing free chains of compute resources. A system configured to practice the method divides a free chain of compute resources into a usable part (UP) which contains resources available for immediate allocation and an unusable part (UUP) which contains resources not available for immediate allocation but which become available after a certain minimum number of allocations. The system sorts resources in the UP by block number, and maintains a last used object (LUO) vector, indexed by block number, which records a last object in the UP for each block. Each time the system frees a resource, the system adds the freed resource to a tail of the UUP and promotes an oldest resource in the UUP to the UP. This approach can manage free chains in a manner that is both flaw tolerant and has relatively high performance.
US08429366B2

A memory control device according to an example of the invention comprises an allocation section allocating a plurality of memory regions of a memory module, an available space storage section storing data in available space of a first memory region that is one of the plurality of memory regions and, when no more space becomes available in the first memory region, store data in available space of a following second memory region, and a copying section copying a plurality of items of to-be-copied data that is stored in the first memory region but not in the second memory region to the second memory region after no more space becomes available in the first memory region in such a manner that a copying operation is divided into a plurality of times.
US08429354B2

A fixed length memory block management apparatus has a plurality of processors which execute applications, a memory which is shared by the plurality of processors, an application program, an initialization program, and an access right allocation program being stored in the memory. The apparatus has an application execution unit which starts up the application program to execute the application, an initialization unit which starts up the initialization program to set a memory block management area including a plurality of sub-blocks at the memory, and an access right allocation unit which starts up the access right allocation program to allocate an access right of a memory block of the sub-block set by the initialization unit to the application execution unit.
US08429348B2

A novel and useful mechanism and method for writing data updates to a data cache subsystem of a storage controller. Updates received by the storage controller requiring storage allocation on a repository volume are delayed prior to being written to the data cache subsystem. The delay is based on the storage utilization of the repository volume. As the utilization of the repository volume increases, the cache write delay increases, thereby limiting the possibility that there will still be any updates in the data cache subsystem waiting to be destaged to the repository volume when the repository volume is fully utilized. When the repository volume is fully utilized all writes to the data cache of updates that will cause destage of tracks in the repository volume are stopped, thereby causing an infinite delay.
US08429347B2

A wireless communication device transfers instructions to a host device over a USB connection responsive to being connected to the host device over the USB connection. The instructions direct the host device to enumerate the wireless communication device as a USB MSC device. The wireless communication device wirelessly transfers a device identifier for the wireless communication device to a wireless communication network responsive to being connected to the host device over the USB connection. The wireless communication network processes the device identifier to limit communication service for the wireless communication device to communications with a particular data storage system.
US08429346B1

Methods and systems are disclosed for relocating data in a physical storage pool comprising a plurality of storage tiers having differing performance characteristics, the physical storage pool being mapped into one or more logical units, each logical unit comprising a plurality of logical slices of data storage. The methods and systems can involve receiving a relocation list, the relocation list including, for each of a plurality of logical slices, a slice identifier, a temperature value, and a current physical location, determining a destination tier for each logical slice on the relocation list, evaluating for each logical slice on the relocation list a performance gain expected to be achieved by moving the logical slice from its current physical location to a new location in the destination tier, and relocating data in a logical slice from its current physical location to the new location based on the evaluation.
US08429345B2

A method, corresponding control logic, and a correspond system for detecting a virtual storage volume. The method includes: determining a first access pattern for a read operation of a target storage volume; monitoring a second access pattern of at least one other storage volume of a computer system during the read operation; determining a correlation between the first access pattern and the second access pattern; and deriving that the target storage volume is a virtual storage volume if the determined correlation is above a predefined threshold.
US08429337B2

The apparatus includes: a register unit in which a start address of a macro-command to be executed, is selected from macro-commands included in a command script in which at least one macro-command in which a plurality of micro-commands for controlling a unit operation of NAND flash memory are arranged in an array shape, is recorded; a command fetch unit accessing first memory connected based on the start address of the macro-command to be executed and sequentially reading the plurality of micro-commands from the start address of the macro-command to be executed; a command interpretation unit interpreting the read micro-commands and outputting the result of interpretation including types of the micro-commands and command parameters; and a command execution unit generating interface signals for controlling an operation of NAND flash memory according to each of the micro-commands based on the result of interpretation.
US08429336B2

A method of changing a program for controlling a disk drive that includes an EEPROM. The method includes storing a program block to a disk area such that the program block is associated with a second area for storing the program block that is not utilized for a read operation from the disk area. The method also includes storing a program block that is associated with a first area to an area that includes at least a portion of the second area in the EEPROM such that the first area contained a program block that is utilized for a read operation from the disk area. In addition, the method includes changing the program block in the first area after storing to the second area. Moreover, the method includes storing to the second area the program block that is not utilized for a read operation from the disk area after storing to the first area.
US08429333B2

A controller includes an identification information management table that manages identification information indicating, for each of addresses in second-management unit, whether one or more data in first management unit belonging to the addresses is stored in the second or the third storing area. When the controller executes a process of flushing data from the first storing area to the second storing area or the third storing area, the controller updates the identification information in the identification information management table. The controller executes a process of reading data from the second storing area or the third storing area by referring to the identification information. As a result, the speed of searches conducted in the management table is increased.
US08429327B2

Present invention relates to a mapping apparatus and method for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types, and more particularly, to a mapping apparatus and method for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types capable of mapping a logical address to a physical address in the non-volatile memory supporting different cell types in which bits represented by unit cells are different from each other.A mapping apparatus for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types according to an embodiment of the invention includes: a user request unit used for a user to request a predetermined operation by using a logical address; a non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of memory areas having different cell types; and a mapping management unit determining a physical address to be mapped to the logical address of one of the plurality of memory areas on the basis of the logical address used for the requested operation.
US08429324B2

A bus-protocol converting device includes: a command detecting unit that detects a command sent from an external-memory control device, connected to a primary bus, to a primary bus interface controller; a command converting unit that converts the detected command into a command to be sent from a secondary bus interface controller to an external memory device through a secondary bus; a status detecting unit that detects a status sent from the external memory device; a status converting unit that converts the detected status into a status to be sent from the primary-bus interface controller to the external-memory control device through the primary bus; and a data transfer controller that is provided between the primary bus interface controller and the secondary bus interface controller to perform data transfer between the external-memory control device and the external memory device through a DMA bus.
US08429322B2

A method and system for hotplug removing a device in a virtual machine system. A computer system hosts a virtual machine that runs a guest. A hotplug manager in the computer system sends a request to the guest for hotplug removal of a device associated with the guest. The hotplug manager detects an indication of reboot of the guest, and completes the hotplug removal in response to detection of the reboot.
US08429321B2

A request controller for controlling processing of requests by one or more semiconductor data processing unit. The resource controller includes a controller input for receiving a request for the processing unit to switch a context of the processing unit or to switch the processing unit from a current an operation to another operation. The resource controller includes a resource budget memory in which one or more budget value can be stored. The budget value represents an amount of a resource of the processing unit. The resource controller further has a budget controller which includes a first budget controller input connected to the request controller input. A second budget controller input is connected to the memory. A comparator is connected to the first budget controller input and the second controller input, for comparing a consumption value associated with the request with the budget value. The comparator includes a comparator output for outputting a request grant signal when the comparison satisfies a predetermined grant criterion and outputting a request reject value when the comparison meets a predetermined reject criterion. A data controller is connected to the resource budget memory and the comparator output, for adjusting the budget value when the request grant signal is outputted.
US08429312B2

The invention relates to a method, a system and a computer program for archiving of data. An announcement signal, which identifies the data, which have to be archived, is sent from a source system to a destination system. A feedback signal, which identifies the announcement signal received by the destination system, is sent from the destination system to the source system, wherein it is determined from the feedback signal whether the announcement signal has been received by the destination system correctly. If it has been determined that the announcement signal has not been correctly received, at least parts of the announcement signal are resent from the source system to the destination system. The data identified by the announcement signal are sent from the source system to the destination system for archiving of data.
US08429302B2

The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can actively regulate associated gateways in connection with lossless application-level compression. In particular, the architecture can monitor a flow of messages that enter and/or traverse a gateway in order to determine a bandwidth utilization of an associated network due to the messages. The architecture can also monitor the aggregate messages load for the associated network due to all gateways. In particular, the architecture can regulate lossless application-level compression at that gateway or all of the gateways in the set as a function of the bandwidth utilization and/or the aggregate message load. Accordingly, compression features can be activated or deactivated based upon a utilization threshold parameter, and gateways can be regulated uniformly or independently from one another.
US08429295B2

One example embodiment provides a method and system where a node in a utility network registers with one or more access point devices associated with one or more local area utility networks. The utility node generates a unique network address using a network address prefix of a network address associated with the access point device. The utility node registers with a DNS server. Messages sent to the utility node are routed through the access point corresponding to the received prefix used to generate the unique network address for the utility node. The network address for the utility node and access point may be IPv6 addresses and the network address prefix may be an IPv6 prefix, or may be an IPv4 address.
US08429293B2

A method includes, first, communicating by first and second devices, to a server, network contact information; and thereafter, communicating data from the first device to the second device by communicating, by the first device, a request to the server to engage in communications with the second device, communicating, by the server, the request received from the first device, communicating, by the second device, acceptance to the server of the request to engage in communications with the first device, communicating connection information, by the server, to one or more of the first and second devices for enabling an open network connection between the first and second devices, using virtualized network capabilities of a virtual machine of the first device, establishing a network connection with the second device using the connection information, and communicating data, from the first device using the virtualized network capabilities of the virtual machine, to the second device.
US08429286B2

The present invention includes apparatuses, methods, computer readable media and systems comprising means for rapid data acquisition from a server are discussed herein. This rapid data acquisition can be achieved using a combination of bulk data requests and small data requests. A hybrid approach that uses simultaneous bulk and small data requests can provide random access to data files while achieving the high download speeds of a large data transfer.
US08429282B1

A computer system that provides services to clients may adaptively throttle incoming service requests in order to reach and then maintain operation at an ideal request rate. An ideal request rate may be a maximum rate at which incoming service requests can be serviced such that client-specified quality of service (QoS) expectations are met for most or all incoming service requests, or a rate within a range of rates defined by that maximum rate. Determining whether the system is operating at an ideal request rate may include determining the minimum difference between the expected and actual QoS for a group of recently serviced requests. The system may gradually modify a throttle multiplier value in order to reach or maintain an ideal request rate. Maintaining operation at an ideal request rate may allow the system to avoid entering an overloaded state, and/or oscillating between an overloaded state and a non-overloaded state.
US08429278B2

A broadcasting receiver and method of interfacing resource information between a host device and a POD, sending host device resource information and obtaining host device resource information are disclosed. A POD sends a resource information requesting message. And a host device receives the resource information requesting message and responds with a resource information message including a resource identifier defined in a resource information table which includes information indicating whether the host device supports A-mode. Using a “conditional access” feature provided by a conventional cable security card, content received through any type of transport protocol (including an IP protocol) including a wired/wireless network can be protected and A-mode resource information can be systematically defined together with other-mode IP communication resource and the resource information of different modes can be integrated and transmitted to the host device.
US08429273B2

A method, a system, and a computer program product associated with a network management system are disclosed. The method includes storing event data associated with a system event in a network as an event item at a database. The method also includes processing the event item at a control system of a collection server when a fast track flag is identified in the stored event item of the database. Processing the event item by the control system includes generating processing data to send a first notification associated with the event item to a first client. The first notification includes an identifier enabling the first client to obtain the stored event data from the database. Processing the event item by the control system also includes purging the processing data from the control system after sending the first notification.
US08429271B2

A method, system, and program product for communicating with machines and end users connected to a network. Information sent to or from the machines is transmitted using electronic mail or a via a direct connection. The electronic mail may be transmitted over the Internet to a service center or from a service center to a resource administrator, but also may remain within a local or wide area network for transmission between a machine and an end user or a resource administrator. E-mail messages may be transmitted from a computer which is attached to a device which is being monitored or controlled and include information regarding the status, usage or capabilities of the attached device. The device may send status messages and usage information of the device by an end user to either a resource administrator or to a service center on the Internet through a firewall.
US08429268B2

A method implemented by a policy server operating on a network to which is connected a device that performs a data packet inspection function, the method involving: sending a first message over the network from the policy server to the device, the first message instructing the device to detect an occurrence of a particular network traffic or service taking place over a connection on the network and to send a notification to the policy server upon detecting the occurrence of that particular network traffic or service; at the policy server receiving a notification from the device that the device has detected the occurrence of that particular network traffic or service; and in response to receiving the notification, sending a second message over the network from the policy server to a network component, the second message containing information associated with the notification.
US08429260B2

Systems and techniques for managing a user persona presented in a communication session. In response to a request from an originating user for a communication session, a persona manager for the originating user is invoked, examining request details and the nature and context of the requested communication session and selecting a persona for the user, selection of the persona being employed to indicate services associated with the communication. Similarly, in response to a request from an originating user for a communication session, a persona manager for the receiving user to whom the request is directed examines details of the request and the nature and context of the communication session and makes decisions relating to persona selection for the receiving user. The decision may involve accepting a persona indicated in the originating user's request, or selecting a different persona and creating routing a request to be routed to the receiving user.
US08429258B2

Mechanisms are provided for assigning addresses for use in communications between computing devices. With these mechanisms, a centralized domain name registrar server assigns a unique global identifier to a domain of a site such that the unique global identifier uniquely identifies the domain. The unique global identifier is received in a data processing system from the centralized domain name registrar server. The site is divided into a plurality of sub-domains and a unique sub-domain identifier is assigned to each sub-domain in the site such that the unique sub-domain identifier uniquely identifies a corresponding sub-domain in the site. The global identifier for the domain of the site and the sub-domain identifiers of the sub-domains in the plurality of sub-domains are provided by the data processing system to routers of the site for use in associating addresses with devices of the site.
US08429251B2

For the consistent provision of configuration data in an industrial automation system comprising a plurality of networked control units, components of a service are combined by a local service configuration unit using a standard configuration interface to form a service. Services are configured by configuration data and activated, where the configuration data comprise information relating to the attribution of services to control units and dependencies between services. The configuration data are accepted from a control and monitoring unit in the industrial automation system by a system configuration service, checked and transmitted to destination control units. The transmitted configuration data are checked by local service configuration units associated with the destination control units for changes in comparison with previously used configuration data. The local service configuration units use detected changes in the configuration data to ascertain lists of operations for performing configuration changes, where the lists are optimized to minimize service downtimes.
US08429243B1

Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer program products are described for formatting and sending data corresponding to web page events and user interactions with content displayed by on a web page to a web analytics system for storage and reporting.
US08429237B2

A method, a system and a computer program product for managing an electronic mail in a communication network is disclosed. A plurality of recursive parameters in a command list of a communication protocol associated with the electronic mail is provided. At least one of the recursive parameters is a DATA parameter specifying information of the electronic mail. The command list is partitioned into a plurality of command sub-lists using the plurality of recursive parameters. At least one property corresponding to each of the command sub-lists is preserved. An interface for selecting each of the command sub-lists is provided and at least one of the command sub-lists is selected. At least one property corresponding to each of the command sub-lists is identified.
US08429233B2

A method and system is provided for efficient journaling and management of electronic messages, wherein a copy of a first message sent from or received on a mail server is received, the copy of the first message is then recorded by a journal service, wherein the journal service comprises determining whether the first message contains an identification for which a second message has already been recorded and adding only metadata of the first message to the metadata of the second message when for the identical identification the second message has already been recorded.
US08429225B2

A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a first authoring user in connection with a particular item of an electronic document, acquiring a second inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a second authoring user in connection with the particular item of the electronic document; comparing the first inference data with the second inference data; and presenting data indicative of an extent of congruity between the inferred mental state of the first authoring user and the inferred mental state of the second authoring user based, at least in part, on said comparing. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08429221B2

A method of redirecting content requests among content distribution network peers. In operation, a client sends a request for content to a content distribution network (CDN). When this CDN does not currently have the capacity to deliver the content, the CDN refers to one or more content distribution tables to see if the neighbor peers are able to provide this content. The content distribution table is populated at the time of distribution of the content. When the neighbor peer has this content, the request is redirected to the neighbor peer. In redirecting request, an address of the neighbor peer is appending to the previous address such that each peer receiving the request knows where the request came from and where it has been previously.
US08429217B2

A mechanism for executing fixed point divide operations using a floating point multiply-add pipeline are provided. With the mechanism, the floating point execution unit in a processor is modified to include elements that may be used to perform fixed point divide operations. These additional elements include a leading zero counter, a leading one counter, an estimate table unit, and a state machine. The fixed point divide operands are converted to a floating point format and an estimate of the reciprocal of the divisor is generated using estimate tables. These values are used in multiple passes through the floating point unit for calculating estimates of the quotient and corresponding error values. The estimates of the quotient are based on previous estimates of the quotient in a prior pass through the floating point unit and a corresponding error value. The final quotient estimate is truncated.
US08429207B2

Embodiments of archival storage system are disclosed. The archival storage system includes one or more removable disk drives that provide random access and are readily expandable. One or more application servers can store archival data to the one or more removable disk drives. Further, the archival storage system provides an audit trail that stores information about actions taken on the archival data. The audit trail data providing a list of the actions and information about the actions that can be used to determine changes to the archival data.
US08429204B2

Short POI titles are generated by removing unnecessary administrative area prefixes from existing POI titles and replacing necessary administrative area prefixes with shorter aliases. Administrative area prefixes are identified and analyzed to determine whether they are necessary. The analysis includes determining (1) whether the remainders with the prefixes excluded include a common suffix as a prefix, and (2) whether the remainders are unique in an applicable metropolis area. If a remainder does not include as a prefix a common suffix and is unique in the applicable metropolis area, the corresponding prefix is determined unnecessary and removed from the existing POI title to generate a short POI title. Otherwise, the corresponding prefix is determined necessary and replaced with a shorter alias to generate a short POI title.
US08429203B2

The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for automatically selecting at least one service for use with a modeled user interface (UI). One process includes operations for identifying a modeled UI at design time in an integrated development environment (IDE) and collecting a set of information associated with the modeled UI. At least one service repository storing a set of services is searched based at least in part on the collected set of information associated with the modeled UI. At least a portion of the set of services is presented via a graphical user interface associated with the IDE. A selection of at least one of the presented set of services is received, and an augmented version of the modeled UI is generated based on the received selection.
US08429195B2

The invention generally relates to enabling the management of survey data. One embodiment includes providing an upload description that describes characteristics of survey data to be uploaded, assigning a thread to process a group of files that store aspects of the survey data, dividing the file into data chunks, deriving from a given data chunk a corresponding data-integrity value and respectively associating the same with the given data chunk, communicating the data chunks to a remote storage device, utilizing the corresponding data-integrity values to ensure successful communication of the data chunk, and spatially storing the survey data such that it is retrievable upon a request that describes a geographic area of interest.
US08429193B2

A system and a method are provided. The method includes assigning an entity to a ticket group associated with an ID thereof, displaying to the entity reports, which are each organized with an associated security access control, in accordance with the ticket group, determining whether the entity is authorized to access any selected one or more of the reports in accordance with a result of a comparison between an access level associated with the entity ID and the security access control associated with each of the one or more of the stored reports, and granting or denying the access in accordance with the determination.
US08429192B2

System, method and computer program product for supporting a plurality of Access Control List types for a file system in an operating system in a data processing system. An Access Control List supporting system for managing access to a file system in a data processing system has at least one file system in an operating system of the data processing system, and an Access Control List management framework in the operating system and external to the at least one file system for managing access to the at least one file system. The Access Control List supporting system of the invention removes ACL management and access check-related functions from the at least one file system to an external Access Control List management framework, thus enabling an operating system to support a plurality of Access Control List types using the same Access Control List management framework and enabling new Access Control List types to be added to the operating system dynamically while the operating system is running.
US08429189B1

A method includes generating at a client, operating on a user computer, a URL request having URL parameters according to a representational state transfer (REST) protocol, transmitting the URL request from the client to a gateway, which is operating on a server computer, and extracting via the gateway the URL parameters according to the REST protocol. The method further includes generating via the gateway a query for hosted content identified by the URL parameters, transmitting the query to the database, generating a search report for the query, and transmitting the search report from the database to the gateway. The method further includes encoding via the gateway the search report in an XML representation according to the REST protocol, and transmitting the search report in the XML representation from the gateway to the client where the client decodes the search report in the XML representation via the REST protocol for display.
US08429184B2

A computer-implemented method includes receiving from a user a first search query consisting of one or more first query terms, and receiving from the user an indication of a desired level of personalization of refinement options for the first search query. Responsively to the first search query, a set of one or more refinement terms is generated at least in part responsively to the indication, and is presented to the user. Responsively to a selection of at least one of the refinement terms by the user, the selected at least one refinement term is added to the first search query to generate a second search query. Search results are presented to the user responsively to the second search query.
US08429183B2

A search engine server supports delivery of search results using an international search string option by identifying websites that provide support in English as well as the language of the international search string. The international search string is a search string in any of the languages that are listed/supported by the search engine server. The search engine server delivers web links of websites that provide support in both English as well the language of the international search string by identifying conjugate English terms, strings or phrases for the international search string, that provide exact or approximate equivalent meaning for searching. In addition, the search engine server also provides web links of websites that provide international language support by utilizing a thesaurus in English that provides synonyms for the conjugate English terms. The search engine server also translates websites where there is no support in the language of the search string.
US08429178B2

In a single-signature duplicate document system, a secondary set of attributes is used in addition to a primary set of attributes so as to improve the precision of the system. When the projection of a document onto the primary set of attributes is below a threshold, then a secondary set of attributes is used to supplement the primary lexicon so that the projection is above the threshold.
US08429170B2

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for discovering story trends. The method and system according to one embodiment includes receiving a fixed size data stream, identifying a first set of words within the data stream and electronically determining which words in the first set of words are present in a word cache. The method and system then identifies a second set of words within the data stream for each word present within the word cache and electronically determines which words in the second set of words are present in a subword cache, updating the subword cache based on the determination and identifying a third set of words based on the determination. The method and system then electronically determines at least one story trend associated with the third set of words and electronically generating a story hash associated with the third set of words. Finally, the method and system stores the third set of words in a story lookup table and stores the story hash in a story trend cache.
US08429166B2

A density-based data clustering method executed by a computer system is disclosed. The method includes a setup step, a clustering step, an expansion step and a termination step. The setup step sets a radius and a threshold value. The clustering step defines a single cluster on a plurality of data points of a data set, and provides and adds a plurality of first boundary marks to a seed list as seeds. The expansion step expands the cluster from each seed of the seed list, and provides and adds at least one second boundary mark to the seed list as seeds. The termination step determines whether each of the data points is clustered, wherein the clustering step is re-performed if the determination is negative.
US08429164B1

A system automatically creates a list from items in existing lists. The system receives one or more example items corresponding to the list and assigns weights to the items in the existing lists based on the one or more example items. The system then forms the list based on the items and the weights assigned to the items.
US08429160B2

A database of user preference information is extracted and compiled from multiple websites by web-crawling robots without cooperation or specific participation by users. Users who interact with a website are frequently required to register and create a login or userID name that uniquely identifies them. Thereafter, when an individual rates an item, it is often recorded and published under their userID name such that other users can see how a specific individual rated the item. Although there is no requirement that a specific user register on different websites utilizing the identical userID, it is extremely common that this practice occurs and the use of identical userIDs on multiple sites is used herein to expand preference analysis beyond a single site. Once the database exists, users can request or be passively offered suggestions that result from preference associations across multiple websites as performed by a preference analysis and suggestion function.
US08429159B1

A system and method for information navigation and filtration is provided. One or more query terms are received from a user. A preliminary relevance of one or more objects associated with an enterprise system is determined based on the query terms. The preliminary relevance may be propagated between objects. At least one rating is assigned to the one or more objects based on the preliminary relevance. An overall relevance of the one or more objects is established based on the at least one rating. The one or more objects are ranked according to the overall relevance. Data is provided as search results comprised of the one or more objects according to the ranking to the user. The search results may then be filtered based on at least one selected, dynamically generated filter. The filtered search results may be dynamically generated and provided to the user.
US08429157B2

A computer-implemented system and methods of re-ranking sponsored search results by a search engine in response to a search query include: retrieving one or more organic search results and a plurality of sponsored search results (“search results”), along with their respective rankings, associated with a search query; determining a degree of association between each sponsored search result and the other search results through analyzing web links between the plurality of sponsored search results, the one or more organic search results, and other web documents to or from which the search results are at least indirectly linked; re-ranking the plurality of sponsored search results based on the degree of association between each respective sponsored search result and the other search results; and storing in memory the plurality of re-ranked sponsored search results in relation to the search query.
US08429151B2

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for determining at least one algorithm from a pool of algorithms to optimize a query. An embodiment includes building optimization blocks for the subplan, determining the complexity of the subplan based on the optimization blocks and selecting an algorithm from a pool of search space generation algorithms based on complexity of the subplan and characteristics of the selected algorithm, and optimizing the subplan with the selected algorithm.
US08429137B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for identifying duplicate data. In one exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method for identifying duplicate data. The method may include identifying one or more reference fields that include one or more data values. The method may include retrieving the one or more reference fields and one or more data values. The method may also include transforming the one or more reference fields into one or more reference fingerprint patterns. The method may also include identifying one or more target fields that include one or more target field values. The method may also include retrieving the one or more target fields. The method may also include transforming the one or more target field values into one or more target fingerprint patterns. The method may also include comparing the one or more reference fingerprint patterns with the one or more target fingerprint patterns. The method may further include determining an overlap between the one or more reference fingerprint patterns and the one or more target fingerprint patterns.
US08429136B2

A first node apparatus included in a distributed data store acquires first operation information and a first timestamp corresponding to target data. The first operation information specifies a first operation to be executed on the target data. The first timestamp indicates a first receipt time of the first operation information. The first node apparatus determines whether the first receipt time is earlier than some of second receipt times on the basis of second timestamps and the acquired first timestamp. The second timestamp indicates the second receipt time of second operation information. The second operation information specifies a second operation executed on the target data. The first node apparatus re-executes the second operations together with the first operation on the target data in the order of the receipt time when it is determined that the first receipt time is earlier than some of the second receipt times.
US08429121B2

A method of processing data includes identifying a capture redo byte address, initiating a capture process at the capture redo byte address, creating a clone of a source database to a logical change number, and initiating an apply process at a target database.
US08429120B1

Embodiments may include a system configured to, for each of multiple database partitions, generate a respective value of commit latency dependent on the latency of one or more previous commit operations directed to that database partition. The system may also be configured to, for a given work item that includes a commit operation to be initiated on a given database partition of said multiple database partitions, determine whether the value of the commit latency for the given database partition exceeds a configurable commit latency threshold. The system may be configured to, in response to determining that the value of the commit latency for the given database partition exceeds the commit latency threshold, postpone the given work item to reduce load on the database partitions and perform the given work item after the postponement. If the commit latency does not exceed the threshold, the work may be performed without the postponement.
US08429115B1

An analytic network process (ANP) storage memory stores an ANP weighted supermatrix representing an ANP model. A processor is in communication with the ANP storage memory. The processor fixes each one of plural nodes one at a time in the ANP model and measures a row sensitivity of each of the nodes as it is fixed, the row sensitivity being measured using one or both of (i) a predetermined increase value and (ii) a predetermined decrease value. Also, it scores how much synthesized alternatives scores found by doing ANP row sensitivity on each of the fixed nodes change from original values thereof, to generate a value indicating a change distance for each of the nodes. A same proportionality is maintained in the stored ANP weighted supermatrix as the fixed node is changed by the predetermined increase and/or decrease values.
US08429112B2

A system is disclosed that provides a goal based learning system utilizing a rule based expert training system to provide a cognitive educational experience. The system provides the user with a simulated environment that presents a business opportunity to understand and solve optimally. Mistakes are noted and remedial educational material presented dynamically to build the necessary skills that a user requires for success in the business endeavor. The system utilizes an artificial intelligence engine driving individualized and dynamic feedback with synchronized video and graphics used to simulate real-world environment and interactions. A robust business model provides support for realistic activities and allows a user to experience real world consequences for their actions and decisions and entails realtime decision-making and synthesis of the educational material. The system is architectured around a table of components to manage and control the system.
US08429110B2

A pattern tree is constructed based on a plurality of key-value pairs representing portions of a data set. In some implementations, the pattern tree may be used for learning one or more rules for interacting with a source of the data set.
US08429106B2

Techniques are described for determining and using information related to domains of interest, such as by automatically analyzing documents and other information related to a domain in order to automatically determine relationships between particular terms within the domain. Such automatically determined information may then be used to assist users in obtaining information from the domain that is of interest (e.g., documents with contents that are relevant to user-specified terms and/or to other terms that are determined to be sufficiently related to the user-specified terms). For example, recommendations may be automatically generated for a user by using information about specified preferences or other interests of the user with respect to one or more terms and identifying other particular terms that are sufficiently probable to be of interest to that user, such as based on a generated probabilistic representation of relationships between particular terms for the domain.
US08429105B2

A genetic algorithm architecture implements a two-stage completion genetic algorithm with respect to an evolving current population data set. The two-stage completion genetic algorithm that includes genotype and phenotype completion loops. The genotype completion loop operates to compete the current population data set based on genotype field fitness scores. The genotype completion loop also implements a phenogenesis operator used to generate a current phenotype set. The phenotype completion loop operates, concurrently with the genotype completion loop, to evaluate the current phenotype set, constrained relative to the current population data set, against a fitness function to produce phenotype fitness scores. The phenotype completion loop implements a genotype reduction operator that then determines corresponding genotype fitness scores for use as the basis for competition in the genotype completion loop.
US08429104B2

A genetic algorithm architecture implements a two-stage completion genetic algorithm with respect to an evolving current population data set. The two-stage completion genetic algorithm that includes genotype and phenotype completion loops. The genotype completion loop operates to compete the current population data set based on genotype field fitness scores. The genotype completion loop also implements a phenogenesis operator used to generate a current phenotype set. The phenotype completion loop operates, concurrently with the genotype completion loop, to evaluate the current phenotype set, constrained relative to the current population data set, against a fitness function to produce phenotype fitness scores. The phenotype completion loop implements a genotype reduction operator that then determines corresponding genotype fitness scores for use as the basis for competition in the genotype completion loop.
US08429102B2

Frequency features to be used for binary classification of data using a linear classifier are selected by determining a set of hypotheses in a d-dimensional space using d-dimensional labeled training data. A mapping function is constructed for each hypothesis. The mapping functions are applied to the training data to generate frequency features, and a subset of the frequency are selecting iteratively. The linear function is then trained using the subset of frequency features and labels of the training data.
US08429096B1

Systems and methods for providing resource isolation in a shared computing environment using reinforcement learning (RL) techniques are disclosed. A resource isolation mechanism may be applied in a shared storage system, or database service, that limits the resource utilization of each namespace to its specified allocation. For example, the resource isolation mechanism may be used to limit the I/O utilization of database applications in a shared computing system (e.g., a system supporting a database service) to a specified limit. In such embodiments, RL techniques may be applied to the system to automatically control the rate of queries made by an application. RL techniques, such as those based on the State-Action-Reward-State-Action (SARSA) method may be effective in controlling the I/O utilization of database applications for different workloads. RL techniques may be applied globally by the service, or may be applied to particular subscribers, applications, shared resources, namespaces, or query types.
US08429091B2

Systems and methods for the display and navigation of a social network or set forth. According to one embodiment a method comprising identifying a first profile in a social network, identifying associated profiles associated with the first profile, ranking the associated profiles, wherein ranking is not based exclusively on a degree of separation, and outputting the associated profiles based at least in part on the ranking is set forth. According to another embodiment a method comprising identifying a user profile, identifying a member profile, determining an association path for the user profile and the member profile, and outputting the association path is set forth.
US08429090B1

Systems and methods for controlling access to relationship information in a social network are described. One described method comprises receiving a request from an observer for relationship information indicating at least a first relationship between a target in a social network and a second entity in the social network, identifying at least a first privacy rule for the first relationship, and outputting at least part of the relationship information to the observer if the first privacy rule is satisfied.
US08429087B2

The present disclosure introduces a technique for achieving the optimal time to launch or withdraw products on a webpage. In one aspect, a method includes: storing information to be collected from a webpage for one or more items corresponding to a first product; collecting data related to the one or more items in each time section of a plurality of time sections; calculating a respective value score for each time section of the plurality of time sections based on a respective number of occurrences of the one or more items in each time section; determining the optimal time to launch or withdraw the first product based on value scores of the first product for the plurality of time sections; and rendering launch or withdrawal of the first product on the webpage in the optimal time. Implementation of the technique will conveniently allow a merchant's product website to automatically complete a product launch or withdrawal in the optimal time.
US08429085B2

There is provided a card or token for use in financial transactions. The financial transaction token or card has an onboard energy storage device that enables onboard electronics to operate when the card is not in the proximity of a merchant Point-Of-Service (POS) terminal. In one implementation, the onboard energy storage device includes a capacitor such as a thin-film capacitor that stores sufficient energy to power onboard electronics without the need for an onboard battery. The card may be incorporated within various conventional apparatus such as a see-through and/or protective substrate, an item of clothing, an item of jewelry, a cell phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a credit card, an identification card, a money holder, a wallet, a personal organizer, a keychain payment tag, and like personality.
US08429084B1

Exemplary embodiment of the present invention would provide systems, including Internet-based systems, and computer-implemented methods, for providing online Buyers and Sellers who physically transact an exchange of an item at a local meeting place, indicia of confirmation of the exchange on which to base a background online payment. In particular, exemplary embodiments of the present invention would provide a way for Buyers and/or Sellers to input an identifier for online authentication to confirm that a physical exchange of an item sold had been transacted and that would accordingly provide an online system with a basis to charge the relevant Buyer's account for a sale amount and pay the Seller for the item sold.
US08429067B1

A system for detecting changes in business stability is provided. The system includes a merchant system that receives periodic payment data from one or more users, such as credit card transaction data. A credit processor coupled to the merchant system receives the periodic payment data from the merchant system and stores the periodic payment data, such as when the credit processor is compiling the credit card transaction data for submission to a credit card company. A merchant credit/risk system coupled to the credit processor generates business stability data from the periodic payment data, such as by determining when changes in the periodic payment data exceed allowable variations for such changes.
US08429064B2

Effective selection of trade execution strategies using a multi-dimensional model is disclosed. A relationship exists between order difficulty and execution strategy. Execution strategy depends on order difficulty, and order difficulty has many dimensions. The multi-dimensional model classifies trade orders according to the dimensions, and then maps these classified trade orders into suitable execution strategies. For each trade order, one or more appropriate strategies are automatically selected and presented to the trader to assist the trader in making an informed and timely decision.
US08429053B2

An information processing apparatus includes: a rating threshold calculating unit obtaining a probability psk of transition from a rating s to a rating k stored in the storage device, and calculating a rating threshold θir at which the rating of a obligor i becomes a rating r or lower based on the obtained psk, a conditional probability calculating unit obtaining a constant ai of each obligor i stored in the storage device, and calculating a probability psir(z) that the rating of the obligor i becomes the rating r or lower under a condition that z is fixed based on the obtained ai, z calculated in the z calculating unit, and the θir calculated in the rating threshold calculating unit, and a wir calculating unit calculating a difference wir in exposure value between adjacent ratings of the obligor i based on an exposure value Vir of the obligor i when transition from a current rating to the rating r occurs, which is stored in the storage device.
US08429052B2

A computer-implemented method of administering income distributions from an employer-sponsored retirement plan having a participant account value provides an option to a plan participant to elect a lifetime payout funded by at least a portion of the participant's account value. The lifetime payout may be funded by a Plan Distributed Annuity (“PDA”) or through the plan. An access period may be provided in the latter case, during which a participant maintains access to, and control over, the account.
US08429049B2

A method for operating a commissioned e-commerce service provider provides services to businesses on a computerized network such as the Internet in exchange for a small commission on the commercial transactions generated using those services. Unlike most ISPs that provide services to individuals and businesses, the commissioned e-commerce service provider preferably provides Internet services for businesses operating web sites or other application that generate e-commerce transactions for the business. Instead of paying a monthly fee for the Internet services required to host a web site or operate and e-commerce site, the business contracts with the commissioned e-commerce service provider to provide these services based on receiving a percentage commission of the commercial transactions generated using these services. Preferably, the commission percentage is tiered in accordance with the amount of traffic at the site to provide a nominal level of service at a lower commission rate, yet allow for an exceptional volume of traffic to be accommodated by the site at a higher commission rate without having the site fail or the service become overwhelmed.
US08429046B2

A service transaction provider for administering a plurality of accounts for a client includes a computer having a processor, a data storage medium, and a network port. The storage medium is configured to store the clients' personal information, account information, and transactional information. The processor configured to create a database of client information including the client's personal information, account information corresponding to a plurality of accounts associated with the client, and transactional information corresponding to a plurality of transactions conducted by the client; designate as confidential a predetermined first portion of the database client information; designate as non-confidential a predetermined second portion of the database of client information non-confidential; and provide the client with access to the first and second portions of the database of client information via the network port.
US08429040B2

Systems and methods for data brokering, and more specifically, data brokering regarding a data provider's search-related activities, are described. In particular implementations, various aspects of facilitating a compensation arrangement between a data provider and a data consumer regarding one or more data-provider-related search activities are described.
US08429034B2

Methods for managing the distribution of samples in support of activities of field representatives which differentiate on-hand and in-storage inventories of samples that have been previously allocated from a master inventory, for example, from the inventory of a pharmaceutical company. Field representatives are assisted in managing an inventory of samples known to a database through an interface including one or more charts or tables that distinguish an on-hand quantity from an in-storage quantity, and a mechanism to identify a quantity of a particular product in the chart or table for distribution, with the database being updated to track changes at least in the on-hand quantity information. The interface can be further configured to capture the signature of a sample recipient over that person's name, presented in a signature block as a watermark in a cursive-font to deter unauthorized sample acceptance.
US08429031B2

A system for providing supplementary product sales is provided in which a central controller receives a purchase from a card authorization terminal. The purchase includes at least one purchase parameter, such as a customer account identifier, product identifiers for specifying items purchased or product price. The central controller determines a supplementary product to offer that is based on the at least one purchase parameter. A product identifier for specifying the supplementary product is transmitted to the card authorization terminal, where the customer chooses whether to accept the offered supplementary product. The card authorization terminal generates and transmits to the central controller a selection signal indicative of whether the supplementary product is accepted. If the selection signal indicates that the supplementary product is accepted, the central controller adjusts a balance of a financial account in dependence on an adjustment value associated with the supplementary product.
US08429029B2

A system for providing supplementary product sales is provided in which a central controller receives a purchase from a card authorization terminal. The purchase includes at least one purchase parameter, such as a customer account identifier, product identifiers for specifying items purchased or product price. The central controller determines a supplementary product to offer that is based on the at least one purchase parameter. A product identifier for specifying the supplementary product is transmitted to the card authorization terminal, where the customer chooses whether to accept the offered supplementary product. The card authorization terminal generates and transmits to the central controller a selection signal indicative of whether the supplementary product is accepted. If the selection signal indicates that the supplementary product is accepted, the central controller adjusts a balance of a financial account in dependence on an adjustment value associated with the supplementary product.
US08429027B2

Particular embodiments extract a plurality of users, a plurality of establishments, and a plurality of items from dining information provided by at least one of the plurality of users, each of the plurality of establishments sells food or beverage; construct a user-establishment matrix, a user-item matrix, and an establishment-item matrix using the plurality of users, the plurality of establishments, and the plurality of items; generate a user latent representation for the plurality of users, an establishment latent representation for the plurality of establishments, and an item latent representation for the plurality of items; and compute one or more correlations using the user latent representation, the establishment latent representation, or the item latent representation, wherein each of the one or more correlations is between two users, two establishments, two items, one user and one establishment, one of user and one item, or one establishment and one item.
US08429026B1

A system and method for creating and submitting for a user an electronic shopping list. The system presents to the user a meal list and a shopping list of ingredients contained in the meal list. The meals are preferably selected based on the food preferences of the user. The user accepts the meal list and the shopping list, causing an order request with the ingredients to be automatically created and submitted to a retailer. The user may alternatively decide to manually exclude certain ingredients in the list that the user has already purchased prior to accepting the shopping list. The exclusion may also be automatic based on past purchase information contained in the user's home inventory database. The retailer fulfills the order and delivers the ingredients to the user based on a pre-determined delivery time.
US08429024B1

A system and method for recording and tracking charitable donations over a period of one or more years, and for determining the tax consequence associated with such donations based upon taxing authority guidelines applicable to the time period in which such donations were made. Additionally, a method implemented by software for tracking charitable donations over a period of years whereby a user is prompted to select a donation and a year in which the donation was made for a memory. The software retrieves a tax deduction valuation associated with that donation and stores the donation and value in the memory in association with each other. Another aspect is directed to a system for determining the tax deduction value of charitable donations whereby a partner server electronically captures sales data of items and sends the sales data to a system server that stores such data in memory.
US08429022B2

A method of and system for authorizing a transaction remotely is disclosed. A customer uses a computer to browse for a product displayed on the internet. The customer may enter a unique number into the computer. The unique number is authorized and an authorization code is sent to the customer's communication device. The customer enters the authorization code into the computer to complete the transaction.
US08429020B2

A method and a system for currency weighted cross border listing exposure utilize a favorability factor that may be determined between a first and a second currency. A search may be executed that returns listings in both currencies. A subset of those listings in the second currency may then be presented in accordance with the favorability factor.
US08429013B2

Online behavior of users related to a product is captured. Also, offline sales for the product is also captured. Geo-location parameters are also determined for the captured online and offline data. Using the geo-location parameters and captured data for the product, a smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance for estimating an impact of the online behavior on offline sales is determined.
US08429005B2

Interactive electronic representations of advertising images published in visual media sources enable data about interest in an object or objects appearing in the advertising images to be collected. From comparing against aggregated data from interactions with interactive electronic representations, the effectiveness of displaying an object, such as representing a product or service, in a particular advertising image can be relatively measured.
US08429002B2

Approaches for employing computerized processes to conform the behavior of users to a set of best practices and policies is provided. In an approach, a tool for use in performing a desired task may be identified. A plurality of characteristic values is stored, on a machine-readable medium, for each of a plurality of tools. Each of the plurality of characteristic values identifies a number that reflects how much the tool associated with the characteristic value supports a particular characteristic. A score for each of the plurality of tools is computed. The score for each tool is the sum of the characteristic values that are associated with each tool. Thereafter, display data that describes how to render a pictorial representation, which uses the scores in depicting a relative measure of how appropriate each of the plurality of tools is for the desired task, may be transmitted to a client.
US08429001B2

A system and method for conducting a lottery for at least one item are provided. The method includes, for each of a plurality of buyers, receiving a buyer's declared valuation for each of at least one item being offered in a lottery by a seller, the item having an assigned non-deterministic probability of being allocated to the buyer, providing insured prices for outcomes of the lottery which are a function of the buyer's declared valuation of the at least one item, randomly drawing an allocation of each of the at least one item to a respective one of the buyers, based on its assigned non-deterministic probability, and allocating the insured prices to the buyers based on respective outcomes of the random drawing.
US08428996B2

This invention provides for a method of (or apparatus for) facilitating the display of items of multiple transaction types in a commingled listing. The display of items of multiple transaction types in a commingled listing may include items which are being offered by a specific Seller at a network based commerce facility.
US08428995B2

Computer systems and methods are disclosed for improving professional services delivery, such as services in a data management environment. In certain examples, computer systems comprise portals for transmitting and receiving information from parties involved in the performance and receipt of professional services. For instance, a first portal can receive data (e.g., from sales personnel) descriptive of a customer's product environment. A manager module populates a record with the data, and a second portal provides the customer with access to the record for review, correction and/or validation prior to the generation of a Statement of Work or other like project description. The second portal can also request additional information from the customer regarding the product environment. The manager module compares the data received through the first portal with the customer-entered information to identify and/or address discrepancies between the sets of data and customize the generation of the Statement of Work.
US08428989B2

A cross-functional area service identification method and system. The method includes reading by a computing system, processes. The computing system processes process elements associated with the processes. The computing system identifies a first functional area associated with a first current process element of the process elements and a second functional area associated with a first parent process element of the first current process element. The computing system compares the first functional area to the second functional area and determines if the first functional area comprises a same functional area as the second functional area. The computing system generates and stores results indicating if the first functional area comprises a same functional area as the second functional area.
US08428987B2

A system and method is disclosed for estimating demand of a supply chain including accessing a probability distribution of order lead time of the supply chain. The supply chain has nodes including a starting node and an ending node and a path from the starting node to the ending node. The probability distribution of order lead time describes ending node demand of the ending node versus order lead time. The path is divided into order lead time segments which are associated with the probability distribution of order lead time by associating each order lead time segment with an order lead time range of the probability distribution of order lead time. A demand percentage is estimated for each order lead time segment in accordance with the probability distribution of order lead time, such that each demand percentage describes a percentage of a total ending node demand of an order lead time segment.
US08428977B1

Method and apparatus to facilitate managing a lifetime security and protection scheme for one or more cooperative members and one or more health care providers; the apparatus controls a computer system with a processor programmed so as to facilitate managing a captive insurer arrangement where each cooperative member retains ownership in a separate and independent captive risk insurance pool from which each owner cooperative member acquires annuity income benefits, health insurance, or other security or protection insurance; where the system facilitates by providing payment calculations to be made from one cooperative member's captive risk insurance pool to another cooperative member's captive risk insurance pool or to the one or more health care providers to meet the value and purpose of the cooperating entity and provide each cooperative member with lifetime security and protection; and some of the output data includes the calculated payments.
US08428967B2

A spot check credit system advantageously includes various embodiments for obtaining authorization or payment for each measurement, groups of measurements, times of measurement or the like. In an embodiment, the system utilizes a server that communicates web pages over a computer network. In an embodiment, the system utilizes a digital communication device such as a photocommunicative key.
US08428964B2

A system and method for providing both healthcare service providers and healthcare product providers a forum for marketing their services directly to healthcare consumers with the system facilitating the payments from the consumers to the providers.
US08428958B2

A method of encoding an audio signal, where signals including two or more channel signals are downmixed to a mono signal, the mono signal is divided into a low-frequency signal and a high-frequency signal, the low-frequency signal is encoded through algebraic code excited linear prediction (ACELP) or transform coded excitation (TCX), and the high-frequency signal is encoded using the low-frequency signal. A method of decoding of an audio signal, a low-frequency signal encoded through ACELP or TCX is decoded, a high-frequency signal is decoded using the low-frequency signal, the low-frequency signal and the high-frequency signal are combined to generate a mono signal, and the mono signal is upmixed by decoding spatial parameters regarding signals including two or more channel signals.
US08428955B2

A portion of audio content of a multimedia program, such as a television program, is captured from a network. An audio fingerprint is generated based on the portion of audio content, and the audio fingerprint is matched to one of multiple theme song fingerprints stored in a database. An expected theme song time offset associated with the matched theme song fingerprint is retrieved from the database. It is determined whether the program is running on-schedule, based on the time the portion of audio content occurred, a scheduled start time of the program, and/or the expected theme song time offset. If it is determined that the program is running off-schedule, an adjusted start time and/or an adjusted end time of the program are calculated. The program is recorded by a recorder based on the adjusted start time and/or the adjusted end time.
US08428954B2

An environmental condition detector emits only safe, validated verbal messages recorded in a user's voice to help occupants of a building respond safely to sensed environmental conditions. The message emitted in the user's voice is generally a familiar voice to other building occupants to better capture their attention, and only certain, safe, user messages are validated for use thereby eliminating the chance that the user may unknowingly record an unsafe message to be emitted during a sensed environmental condition. The verbal message is recorded by a user and is analyzed through speech recognition to determine if the user-recorded message can be validated as containing safe content. A user-recorded message found to match manufacturer preprogrammed message content is validated and selected to be audibly emitted in the user's voice when an environmental condition is sensed. Various embodiments include single station units, interconnected units, or centrally controlled security systems.
US08428951B2

A speech recognition apparatus includes a speech recognition dictionary and a speech recognition unit. The speech recognition dictionary includes comparison data used to recognize a voice input. The speech recognition unit is adapted to calculate the score for each comparison data by comparing voice input data generated based on the voice input with each comparison data, recognize the voice input based on the score, and produce the recognition result of the voice input. The speech recognition apparatus further includes data indicating score weights associated with particular comparison data, used to weight the scores calculated for the particular comparison data. After the score is calculated for each comparison data, the score weights are added to the scores of the particular comparison data, and the voice input is recognized based on total scores including the added score weights.
US08428948B1

It is possible to provide meaningful responses to queries using systems which consider usage of words in the queries when analyzing those queries and determining what information is possibly relevant. This approach can be applied in online shopping systems by identification of nouns or noun phrases reflecting products available through the system.
US08428945B2

A system classifies the source of an input signal. The system determines whether a sound source belongs to classes that may include human speech, musical instruments, machine noise, or other classes of sound sources. The system is robust, performing classification despite variation in sound level and noise masking. Additionally, the system consumes relatively few computational resources and adapts over time to provide consistently accurate classification.
US08428943B2

Quantization matrices facilitate digital audio encoding and decoding. An audio encoder generates and compresses quantization matrices; an audio decoder decompresses and applies the quantization matrices. The invention includes several techniques and tools, which can be used in combination or separately. For example, the audio encoder can generate quantization matrices from critical band patterns for blocks of audio data. The encoder can compute the quantization matrices directly from the critical band patterns, which can be computed from the same audio data that is being compressed. The audio encoder/decoder can use different modes for generating/applying quantization matrices depending on the coding channel mode of multi-channel audio data. The audio encoder/decoder can use different compression/decompression modes for the quantization matrices, including a parametric compression/decompression mode.
US08428928B1

A system for dynamically representing repetitive loads of a circuit during simulation includes a simulator module having one or more computer programs for 1) identifying one or more driver circuits for driving a plurality of repetitive receiver circuits, where each driver circuit has an output port and each repetitive receiver circuit has an input port, 2) creating a branch node driver for connecting the input ports of the plurality of repetitive receiver circuits and the output ports of the one or more driver circuits, 3) creating a shared load for representing aggregated input port loads of the plurality of receiver circuits having a substantially same isomorphic behavior, 4) creating a port connectivity interface for communicating changes of signal conditions between the output ports of the one or more driver circuits and the corresponding input ports of the plurality of repetitive receiver circuits, and 5) simulating the one or more driver circuits and the plurality of repetitive receiver circuits in accordance with the branch node driver, the shared load and the port connectivity interface.
US08428918B2

A system generates occupancy estimates based on a Kinetic-Motion (KM)-based model that predicts the movements of occupants through a region divided into a plurality of segments. The system includes a controller for executing an algorithm representing the KM-based model. The KM-based model includes state equations that define each of the plurality of segments as containing congested portions and uncongested portions. The state equations define the movement of occupants based, in part, on the distinctions made between congested and uncongested portions of each segment.
US08428917B2

A signal processing device includes a transformer simulator for simulating transfer characteristic of a transformer which changes in frequency characteristic depending on a load connected to the transformer and processing an input signal with the transfer characteristic to output the processed signal, and a load impedance simulator for simulating impedance characteristic of a predetermined load to output the impedance characteristic. The transformer simulator simulates the transfer characteristic of the transformer to which the load having the load impedance which is simulated by the load impedance simulator is connected.
US08428913B2

A system for locating and tracking an object is provided. The system includes a measuring device configured to determine a property of a paving-related material, a locating device configured to determine a location of the measuring device, a tracking system configured to store tracking information associated with the measuring device and one or more properties determined by the measuring device, and a communications system configured to transfer, to a remote device, the location of the measuring device and the tracking information associated with the measuring device.
US08428911B2

A testing method for carrying out an accuracy testing operation on a system time signal of a computer device under test includes the following steps. First, first and second clock cycle parameters of an operation clock signal (CPU clock) are respectively recorded in response to first and second triggering edges triggered by an external reference time signal. Next, a reference clock cycle parameter is determined according to the first and second clock cycle parameters. Then, third and fourth clock cycle parameters of the operation clock signal are respectively recorded in response to third and fourth triggering edges triggered by the system time signal. Next, a to-be-measured clock cycle parameter is obtained according to the third and fourth clock cycle parameters. Thereafter, error information of the system time signal is obtained according to the to-be-measured clock cycle parameter and the reference clock cycle parameter.
US08428908B2

Aspects relate to a cognitive agent that performs functions associated with a desired result. The functions performed by cognitive agent supplement other activities performed at a same time. In such a manner, the cognitive agent can function as a surrogate for a user. A performed activity can trigger implementation of another activity that is an extension of the performed activity. Cognitive agent can perform functions that can be represented as an avatar. Further, cognitive agent can be associated with a diagnostics component that evaluates an operating condition. Based on the operating condition cognitive agent can implement automatic actions associated with mitigating failures and/or prolonging the life of machinery.
US08428907B2

A path of a signal extends from an initial point through first and second cells to an end point. The signal is supplied as a first signal to the first cell and outputted therefrom as a second signal. The signal is supplied as a third signal to the second cell and outputted therefrom as a fourth signal. First delay amounts of the signal in the first cell and a transition time of the second signal are calculated based on a transition time of the first signal and a voltage supplied to the first cell. Second delay amounts of the signal in the second cell and a transition time of the fourth signal are calculated similarly. Here, the transition time of the second signal is set to be a transition time of the third signal. Jitter values in the end point are calculated based on the first and second amounts.
US08428899B2

Apparatus for testing a conducted energy weapon includes analyzer to produce characteristic signals representative of characteristics of electrical current pulses delivered by the weapon into a resistive load when the weapon is discharged. Risk estimation device responsive to the characteristic signals produces a risk estimate representative of a risk of injury to a targeted subject due to electrical stimulation, or alternatively representative of a risk of failure to incapacitate the targeted subject. Indicator device responsive to the risk estimate indicates the risk of injury, or alternatively the risk of failure to incapacitate, and warns the user of the apparatus when the risk exceeds a predetermined threshold.
US08428897B2

The present invention relates to a machine implemented method for spectral analysis that determines a measure of cross coherence between application of two spectral estimation filters to data; and identifies a spectral feature of the measure of cross coherence. One example embodiment of the present invention provides a complete statistical summary of the joint dependence of the Bartlett and Capon power spectral statistics, showing that the coupling is expressible via a 2×2 complex Wishart matrix, where the degree coupling is determined by a single measure of cross coherence defined herein. This measure of coherence leads to a new two-dimensional algorithm capable of yielding significantly better resolution than the Capon algorithm, often commensurate with but at times exceeding finite sample based MUSIC.
US08428896B2

A malfunction detecting apparatus for detecting a malfunction of a voltage detecting device accurately, including a low-voltage-system CPU which controls voltage detecting circuits to detect voltage between both terminals of one unit cell from among unit cells included in blocks corresponding to voltage detecting circuits. When variation of the voltage between both terminals detecting by the low-voltage-system CPU is at least an allowable error determined by a detection accuracy of the voltage detecting circuits, an abnormal condition of the voltage detecting circuits is detected.
US08428890B2

A system for measuring normal load and deflection of a material that includes a portable load deflection device and a method of using the same is disclosed. The system includes a support arm having a first end and a second end opposite said first end. The first end can be attached to a base surface. The support arm can provides at least three degrees of freedom of movement and includes at least one sensor for determining a position of the second end. A uniaxial load cell can be operably attached to the second end. The system can also include a processing system operable to receive position data and corresponding force data when the support arm is used to apply a non-normal compression force to the test surface. The data can be used to calculate normal force versus deflection data for the test surface.
US08428885B2

The present invention relates to the screening of molecules, for example for candidates for the development of new drugs. In more detail, the invention relates to a method for searching molecules among a number of molecules to be screened that are similar to a given set of query molecules.
US08428882B2

There is provided a method and system for processing and/or mapping ditag nucleotide sequence(s) to a genome, the ditag sequence comprising the 5′ terminal tag and the 3′ terminal tag of a nucleic acid molecule or fragment thereof or genomic fragment. The method of processing comprises preparing a database or file comprising at least one ditag sequence. The method of mapping comprises preparing a database or file of ditag(s), and mapping the ditag sequence(s) to the genome, comprising matching the 5′ and the 3′ terminal tags of the ditag sequence to at least a portion of the genome.
US08428871B1

Driving directions are presented where a maneuver in the driving directions includes a road symbol and an action symbol. A road symbol identifies the road involved in the particular maneuver, and an action symbol identifies an action to be performed to execute the particular maneuver. In one example, a road symbol, an action symbol and narrative text may be presented in displayed or printed driving directions. In another example, a road symbol and an action symbol may be used to describe a maneuver presented by an on-board or mobile navigation system when the vehicle in which the navigation system is present approaches the point at which the maneuver is to be taken. The road symbol and the action symbol may be presented with, or without, narrative driving directions.
US08428869B2

A system allows a user to select an individual address from the multiple addresses for additional information on that particular address. Multiple addresses can be viewed together on a map for selection purposes. Selection of a particular address can trigger new GUIs for presentation of context information for a particular location to a user. Context information can include differing map views, e.g., map view, satellite view, terrain view, etc., landmarks, photos taken from that particular address, local businesses, telephone numbers for that particular address, etc. Presentation of context information can assist a user in making a more informed decision as to which addresses from multiple presented possible addresses to select. Context information provide criteria to select and/or rule out a particular address.
US08428867B2

A method to define a three-dimensional geographical zone that is utilized with a movable entity having at least one attached transponder is disclosed. The method comprises allowing a user to enter at least one waypoint, and loading at least one waypoint on at least one transponder. In one or more embodiments, a waypoint is defined by a geographical coordinate and a radius. The geographical coordinate is represented by a latitude value, a longitude value, and an elevation value. And, the radius is represented by a distance magnitude. In some embodiments, the method further comprises regulating the movable entity by monitoring, controlling, and/or visualizing the movement, non-movement, or position of the movable entity. The transponder determines whether the transponder is located inside the three-dimensional geographical zone by obtaining global positioning coordinates, and calculating whether or not the global positioning coordinates are located inside at least one waypoint.
US08428863B2

A Guided Soft Target (GST) system and method provides a versatile test system and methodology for the evaluation of various crash avoidance technologies. This system and method can be used to replicate the pre-crash motions of the CP in a wide variety of crash scenarios while minimizing physical risk, all while consistently providing radar and other sensor signatures substantially identical to that of the item being simulated. The GST system in various example embodiments may comprise a soft target vehicle or pedestrian form removably attached to a programmable, autonomously guided, self-propelled Dynamic Motion Element (DME), which may be operated in connection with a wireless computer network operating on a plurality of complimentary communication networks. Specific DME geometries are provided to minimize ride disturbance and observability by radar and other sensors. Computer controlled DME braking systems are disclosed as well as break-away and retractable antenna systems.
US08428860B2

A vehicle (2) comprises sensor units (10) for collecting sensor data, and a processing unit (11) for processing the sensor data. A method of providing driving assistance information comprises the steps of: determining the cost (c) of pairs (30, 31, 32) of acceleration values on the basis of the sensor data, each pair of acceleration values representing a longitudinal (a lon) and a lateral (a lat) acceleration of the vehicle, —selecting a pair (32) of least cost acceleration values, and—providing driving assistance information including the pair of least cost acceleration values. The processing unit (10) may be arranged for providing visible, audible and/or haptic driving assistance information to the driver of the vehicle, and/or for providing steering assistance.
US08428853B2

A malfunction diagnostic apparatus for intake air temperature sensors includes a coolant temperature sensor; a first determination portion that determines that a precondition for performing a malfunction diagnosis is satisfied when a process of starting an engine is started, if a detected coolant temperature is determined to be equal to an intake air temperature detected by an intake air temperature sensor provided at a portion that is likely to be cooled, and a decrease amount, by which the detected coolant temperature decreases, is equal to or larger than a preset value; a second determination portion that makes a tentative determination based on a difference between the detected intake air temperatures, if the precondition is satisfied; and a third determination portion that determines whether the tentative determination is an invalid determination or a valid determination, based on a change in the detected intake air temperatures during a given time period.
US08428845B2

Provided is a vehicle control apparatus which can prevent drivability from being deteriorated. The vehicle control apparatus comprises an ECU adapted to determine whether or not a brake is “off” or the state of the hysteresis width of an accelerator opening degree exceeding a predetermined hysteresis width is continued for a predetermined period of time during the execution of an engine torque reduction control process. When the ECU determines that the brake is “off” or that the state of the hysteresis width of an accelerator opening degree exceeding a predetermined hysteresis width is continued for a predetermined period of time, the ECU performs an engine torque restoration process of the engine. Therefore, the vehicle control apparatus can allow the continued execution and non-execution of the reduction control to be switched therebetween in accordance with the driver's travel intention, thereby making it possible to prevent the drivability from being deteriorated.
US08428838B2

A transmitting apparatus includes a disengaging device that disengages a driving force from a front-wheel differential device to a first driving-force transmitting direction converting unit and a multi-plate clutch mechanism provided between an output of a rear-wheel differential device and a right-rear wheel and capable of successively adjusting a fastening force. Drag torque when the fastening of the multi-plate clutch mechanism is released is set smaller than friction torque of a rear-wheel drive system between the first driving-force transmitting direction converting unit and a second driving-force transmitting direction converting unit. A controller unconnects the disengaging device and releases the fastening of multi-plate clutch mechanism when switching to a two-wheel drive mode, thereby stopping the rotation of the rear-wheel drive system.
US08428835B2

A method for controlling operation of a power unit group of a vehicle including at least one driving engine, a manual gearbox with plural gears and a clutch, in which a control system with a computer determines the target power to be supplied by the power unit group depending on information corresponding to an intention of the driver and displayed on an input of the computer. During a gear change, the information on the driver's intention is frozen during the clutch opening time so that the control system does not take into account a potential disturbing information, such as a quick foot release, displayed on the input between the clutch opening moment and the clutch closing moment to determine the target power to be supplied. The method can be applied particular to a manual gearbox having a system for displaying the recommended gear ratio on the dashboard.
US08428826B1

A method of actuating an external active safety system for a vehicle is used for cushioning the impact on the vehicle generated in an accident to effectively reduce injury and death as well as vehicle damage rates after an accident. The present invention mainly installs multiple sets of shock absorption devices (for example, airbags) outside the vehicle, for example, on front and rear bumpers, respectively, and the sets of shock absorption devices is able to function in advance in a segmental manner, so that the shock absorption devices installed outside the vehicle function before and during a collision in a segmental manner, so as to cushion an impact on the vehicle body when impacting or being impacted, and the shock absorption devices have an automatic release function, which, when activated, automatically releases an inflated condition of airbags in a very short time.
US08428819B2

An analytical methodology for the specification of progressive optimal compression damping of a damper of a suspension system to negotiate a multiplicity of severe events, yet provides very acceptable ride quality and handling during routine events. The damping response of the damper is optimized based upon a progressive optimal constrained events damping function derived from a low envelope curve incorporated with a predetermined damper force acting on the wheel center below a predetermined wheel center velocity, u1, based on ride and handling considerations for a given vehicle or vehicle model according to the prior art methodology, whereby the low envelope curve is constructed utilizing a one degree of freedom nonlinear mechanical system model or a quarter car nonlinear mechanical system model.
US08428816B2

A method to monitor integrity of a signal generated and communicated in a distributed control module system for a hybrid powertrain system includes generating and verifying signal within an originating control module. A message is generated based upon the signal. The message is transmitted and received at a receiving control module. The signal is extracted from the message and its integrity is verified.
US08428813B2

A diagnostic tool and a computer-implemented method for generating testing and diagnosis procedures for vehicle diagnosis include determining if a first procedure remains to be performed, if a first procedure remains to be performed, then determining whether: there is a second procedure dependent on the first procedure, or the first procedure can run in parallel to the second procedure, if there is a second procedure dependent on the first procedure, then performing the first procedure, if the first procedure can run in parallel to the second procedure, then performing the first procedure, and determining if the second procedure remains to be performed.
US08428811B2

A voice activated vehicle diagnostic system provides for hands free operation of the system. Using such a system it is possible for the diagnostic system to be used safely in a test drive of the vehicle with the operator of the system not required to physically touch the system to implement one or more tests as required.
US08428808B2

An engine fuel diagnosis device is disclosed that diagnoses whether an unexpected fuel is being used in an internal combustion engine. The fuel diagnosis device includes an inclination detecting section, a first estimating section, an acceleration detecting section, and a diagnosing section. The first estimating section computes a first estimated acceleration, which is a vehicle acceleration obtained when fuel injection is executed in the internal combustion engine while the vehicle is traveling uphill or downhill, based on an engine power, which is estimated based on the engine operation state on the assumption that a previously expected fuel is being used, and the inclination detected by the inclination detecting section. The diagnosing section computes a first deviation degree indicating the degree of deviation between the first estimated acceleration and the actual acceleration detected when the first estimated acceleration is computed. The diagnosing section diagnoses the usage state of the unexpected fuel based on the first deviation degree.
US08428807B2

Process for determining at least one state of motion of a vehicle body (10) of a vehicle (1), which has at least one wheel (2) spring-mounted on the vehicle body (10) via a wheel suspension (6), wherein an inward deflection (zrel) of the wheel (2) is measured by means of a path or angle sensor (21), an inward deflection velocity (żrel) of the wheel (2) is determined by differentiating the inward deflection (zrel) of the wheel (2) over time, a vertical acceleration ({umlaut over (z)}wheel) of the wheel (2) is measured by means of an acceleration sensor (22), a vertical velocity (żwheel) of the wheel (2) is determined by integrating the vertical acceleration ({umlaut over (z)}wheel) of the wheel (2) over time, and a vertical velocity (żbody) of the vehicle body (10) is calculated by forming a difference of the vertical velocity (żwheel) of wheel (2) and the inward deflection velocity (żrel) of wheel (2).
US08428801B1

A marine vessel propulsion system includes first and second propulsion devices, a first operation lever arranged to be operated by a marine vessel maneuvering operator to control the first propulsion device, a second operation lever arranged to be operated by the marine vessel maneuvering operator to control the second propulsion device, a first lever position sensor arranged to detect a position of the first operation lever, a second lever position sensor arranged to detect a position of the second operation lever, and a control unit. The control unit is programmed to set a target pivoting speed according to the positions of the first and second operation levers relative to each other and set a target travel speed according to amounts of displacement of the first and second operation levers with respect to neutral positions.
US08428795B2

Method and system for predicting the possibility of complete stoppage of an aircraft on a landing runway. According to the invention: a) the altitude (H) of the aircraft (2) is measured and the horizontal distance (D) separating said aircraft (2) from the proximal end threshold (4) of the landing runway (1) is calculated; b) an estimated finishing position (21) of said aircraft on said landing runway (1) is calculated on the basis of the altitude (H) and of the horizontal distance (D) determined in a), as well as on the basis of the angle of approach (α); and c) said estimated finishing position (21) calculated in b) is utilized to determine said possibility.
US08428785B2

The preferred embodiments described herein relate to enterprise energy automation. In one preferred embodiment, a method for enterprise energy automation is provided. In another preferred embodiment, a method for delivering ancillary services to an energy supply and delivery system by a group of buildings is provided. In yet another preferred embodiment, a method for integrating an energy automation system is provided. Other preferred embodiments are also provided.
US08428782B2

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a system and method includes a location reporting device identified with a site and a proximity detection module configured to alter an operating condition of the site in response to a location of the location reporting device. The proximity detection module is further configured to detect the location of the location reporting device at a modifiable detection interval.
US08428780B2

An external force target generating device of a legged mobile robot uses virtual surfaces S3a, S2a, and S2b to approximate a plurality of surfaces to be contacted FL, WL1, and WL2 in an operating environment of a robot 1, and determines provisional values of translational forces (required virtual surface translational forces) to be applied from the virtual surfaces S3a, S2a, and S2b to the robot 1 in order to implement a compensation total translational external force related to a translational motion of the robot 1. Further, in order to implement a compensation total moment external force related to a rotational motion of the robot 1, the external force target generating device determines moment compensation amounts to be combined with the provisional values of the required virtual surface translational forces and then determines the desired external forces to be applied from the surfaces to be contacted to the robot 1 and the desired external force action points on the basis of the combinations of the provisional values of the required virtual surface translational forces and the moment compensation amounts.
US08428778B2

An autonomous cleaning apparatus includes a chassis, a drive system disposed on the chassis and operable to enable movement of the cleaning apparatus, and a controller in communication with the drive system. The controller includes a processor operable to control the drive system to steer movement of the cleaning apparatus. The autonomous cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning head system disposed on the chassis and a sensor system in communication with the controller. The sensor system includes a debris sensor for generating a debris signal, a bump sensor for generating a bump signal, and an obstacle following sensor disposed on a side of the autonomous cleaning apparatus for generating an obstacle signal. The processor executes a prioritized arbitration scheme to identify and implement one or more dominant behavioral modes based upon at least one signal received from the sensor system.
US08428776B2

A method of establishing an area of confinement and an autonomous robot for performing a task within the area of confinement. In one aspect, the invention can be a method of defining an area of confinement comprising: positioning the autonomous robot at a starting point P0 and recording the starting point P0 as a reference point within a memory device; moving the autonomous robot from the starting point P0 about a perimeter of the area of confinement, wherein said movement of the autonomous robot is controlled by a user; continuously tracking location of the autonomous robot relative to the reference point P0 during said movement using a distance-traveled measuring mechanism and a directional indicating instrument; recording the tracked location as a map in the memory device; and upon detecting that the map includes a closed-geometry, defining the closed-geometry as the perimeter of the area of confinement within the memory device.
US08428765B2

An optimal process determining system executes a step of calculating a temporary process that includes information of a plurality of individual processes. According to an example, each process includes a tooling including of a tool, a holder, a tool projection length, and a sequence of the plurality of individual processes. A similarity between the toolings of two individual processes is calculated. In addition, a calculation is performed relating to a plurality of integrated processes for which the tooling of one of the individual processes having a high similarity is integrated into the tooling of the other one of the individual processes. In addition, an optimal process is determined from the plurality of integrated processes on the basis of an actual machining time in each of the integrated processes, a unit integration reduction time reduced as one of the toolings of the individual processes is integrated, and the number of the individual processes integrated.
US08428764B2

A multi-needle sewing machine includes a plurality of needle bars having lower ends to which needles are attached, respectively, a needle bar selecting unit selectively switching one of the needle bars to a needle location, a stitch number obtaining unit and an allotting unit. An embroidery pattern including a plurality of partial patterns is sewn by the use of needle threads of colors differing per partial pattern, while the needle bars are selectively switched. The stitch number obtaining unit obtains the number of stitches necessary for sewing the partial patterns for every partial pattern. The allotting unit allots the needle threads to the needle bars so that the needle bars are prevented from being one-sided in the number of stitches, based on the obtained number of stitches, in order that one of the needle bars to be used for the sewing of each partial pattern may be determined.
US08428759B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing predictive pre-recording of audio for voice input. In one aspect, a method includes establishing, as input data, state data that references a state of a mobile device and sensor data that is sensed by one or more sensors of the mobile device, applying a rule or a probabilistic model to the input data, inferring, based on applying the rule or the probabilistic model to the input data, that a user of the mobile device is likely to initiate voice input, and invoking one or more functionalities of the mobile device in response to inferring that the user is likely to initiate voice input.
US08428758B2

Various dynamic audio ducking techniques are provided that may be applied where multiple audio streams, such as a primary audio stream and a secondary audio stream, are being played back simultaneously. For example, a secondary audio stream may include a voice announcement of one or more pieces of information pertaining to the primary audio stream, such as the name of the track or the name of the artist. In one embodiment, the primary audio data and the voice feedback data are initially analyzed to determine a loudness value. Based on their respective loudness values, the primary audio stream may be ducked during the period of simultaneous playback such that a relative loudness difference is generally maintained with respect to the loudness of the primary and secondary audio streams. Accordingly, the amount of ducking applied may be customized for each piece of audio data depending on its loudness characteristics.
US08428757B2

Disclosed herein is a reproducing apparatus including: an interface section configured to have a plurality of ports each connectable with a portable player including a storage medium; an integrated content management data creation section configured to identify the portable players; a reproduction content designation section configured to designate the content data to be reproduced in accordance with the integrated content management data; a content access section configured to gain access through the interface section; and a reproduction section configured to reproduce the accessed content.
US08428752B2

An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity.
US08428751B2

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an automatic external defibrillator configured to deliver electrical pulses and/or shocks to a heart of a patient during a cardiac emergency is provided and includes a housing supporting an electrical connector; a defibrillator electrode delivery system supported on the housing; and a pair of defibrillation electrode pads supported by the defibrillator electrode delivery system. Each of the pair of defibrillation electrode pads is pre-connected to the electrical connector of the housing. A hydrogel layer of each defibrillation electrode pad is retained by the defibrillator electrode delivery system in such a manner so as to reduce a moisture vapor transmission rate thereof.
US08428743B2

A method is described for generating electrode stimulation signals for an implanted electrode array. An acoustic audio signal is processed to generate band pass signals each representing an associated band of audio frequencies. Stimulation information is extracted from the band pass signals to generate stimulation event signals defining electrode stimulation signals. The stimulation event signals are mapped according to independent channel-specific loudness functions to produce a set of electrode stimulation signals within channel-specific minimum and maximum threshold levels. The electrode stimulation signals are developed into a set of output electrode pulses to the electrodes in the implanted electrode array.
US08428740B2

Apparatus is provided including an external device including, a mount, which is placed in front of an eye of a subject. A power source is coupled to the mount and emits energy toward the eye. An intraocular device is implanted entirely in the subject's eye, and includes a control unit, a plurality of stimulating electrodes, and an energy receiver, which receives the energy from the power source and generates a voltage drop in response. A plurality of photosensors detect photons and generate a signal in response. Driving circuitry is coupled to the energy receiver and to the photosensors, and drives the electrodes to apply electrical charges to a retina in response to the signals from the photosensors. The external device modulates the emitted energy, and the control unit demodulates the modulated energy to regulate an operation parameter of the intraocular device. Other embodiments are also described.
US08428736B2

Apparatus and methods for muscle stimulation and control of muscle stimulators are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, an electrical muscle stimulator includes a belt having a plurality of stimulator pads, a pulse width modulator controlled by a feedback loop, the PWM providing output to control voltages of the stimulator pads, and a control unit to control the PWM and feedback loop. In various embodiments, the control unit monitors PWM output values during a rest phase of a cycle of the muscle stimulator, provides a contraction phase, and following a sag after the contraction phase, uses PWM values from the rest phase to set a voltage for a subsequent rest phase of a next cycle.
US08428735B2

An apparatus for producing analgesia in a patient through electrical signals applied through electrodes to a patient's body, and methods of treating patients using the apparatus. The apparatus comprises a signal generator arranged to generate a biphasic waveform comprising successive cycles each containing a positive and negative pulse.
US08428734B2

A device is for the electrotherapeutic treatment of headaches such as tension headaches and migraines. An electrode support (10) has a shape and is size selected so as to allow, independently from the subject, the excitation of the afferent paths of the supratrochlear (2) and supraorbital (3) nerves of the ophthalmic branch (1) of the trigeminal nerve. An electrical circuit includes a programmable signal generator suitable for creating pulses of a duration of between 150 and 450 microseconds with a maximum increase in intensity of 0 to 20 milliamperes at a rate of less than or equal to 40 microamperes per second and with a step up in intensity not exceeding 50 microamperes.
US08428727B2

In one embodiment, a method for maintaining patency of an upper airway of a patient to treat obstructive sleep apnea may include delivering an electrical stimulation to a portion of a superior laryngeal nerve via a nerve cuff when the nerve cuff is adjacent an external surface of the superior laryngeal nerve, the nerve cuff having a plurality of electrodes, wherein the nerve cuff is configured to be connected to an electrical stimulator via a stimulation lead.
US08428726B2

Described herein are methods and systems for improving or adapting a breathing pattern of a patient with disordered breathing toward a more helpful state, as well as systems and devices for adapting breathing. These methods and systems may be used for improving sleep in patients with sleep disordered breathing and a system by which to implement devices for performing these methods.
US08428723B2

An external coil assembly for a transcutaneous system is disclosed. The assembly comprises: a housing having a skin-adjacent surface, an opposing exposed surface and a threaded shaft open to the exposed surface and extending toward the skin-adjacent surface; an external coil secured within the housing; and a magnet with a threaded exterior surface to threadingly engage the threaded shaft, wherein at least one of either the shaft thread or the magnet thread has at least one transverse channel forming discontinuities in the thread.
US08428716B2

A method of left ventricular pacing including automated adjustment of a atrio-ventricular (AV) pacing delay interval and intrinsic AV nodal conduction testing. It includes—upon expiration or reset of a programmable AV Evaluation Interval (AVEI)—performing the following: temporarily increasing a paced AV interval and a sensed AV interval and testing for adequate AV conduction and measuring an intrinsic atrio-ventricular (PR) interval for a right ventricular (RV) chamber. In the event that the AV conduction test reveals an AV conduction block condition then a pacing mode-switch to a bi-ventricular (Bi-V) pacing mode occurs and the magnitude of the AVEI is increased.
US08428714B2

An active implantable medical device with atrial pacing for the treatment of diastolic heart failure. This device comprises circuits and leads for collecting right and left atrial events (16,18) and pacing the left atrium (18) and a sensor detecting myocardium contractions, preferably an endocardial acceleration sensor (20), delivering a signal representative of the myocardium contractions. Analysis of the signal allows a determination of the presence or absence of a detectable left atrial contraction distinguishable from the ventricular contraction. An interatrial delay is applied between the collection of a right atrial depolarization and the delivery of a left atrial pacing pulse. In the absence of left atrial contraction, the interatrial delay is iteratively reduced in successive cardiac cycles from an initial value to an adjustment value ensuring that a left atrial contraction appears, and then so maintained while the presence of a left atrial contraction continues.
US08428709B1

Devices, systems and methods for controlling the application of current and/or voltage to deliver drug from patient contacts of an electrotransport drug delivery device by indirectly controlling and/or monitoring the applied current without directly measuring from the cathode of the patient terminal. In particular, described herein are electrotransport drug delivery systems including constant current delivery systems having a feedback current and/or voltage control module that is isolated from the patient contacts (e.g., anodes and cathodes). The feedback module may be isolated by a transistor from the patient contacts; feedback current and/or voltage control measurements may be performed at the transistor rather than at the patient contact (e.g., cathode).
US08428708B1

Electrotransport drug delivery devices, system and methods of using configured to determine if a current is present between the anode and cathode when drug is not intended to be delivered by the device. These devices/systems may include an off-current module to determine that any current (e.g., which may be inferred by measuring potential difference between the anode and cathode of the device) flowing between the anode and cathode is below a threshold value when the device is not supposed to be delivering drug, thereby preventing unintended delivery of drug and/or alerting a user that unintended delivery of drug may occur.
US08428704B2

A heart monitor is disclosed. The monitor computes ST segment deviations and stores the results in heart rate based histograms. Periodically, the monitor analyzes the histogram data to determine heart rate dependent acute ischemia detection thresholds. If the statistical distribution associated with a heart rate range is insufficient, the threshold for that heart rate range is set as a function of the threshold for a neighboring heart rate range. Thresholds are also increased for heart rate ranges associated with statistical distributions that are sufficient but that have a relatively small number of entries.
US08428696B2

Apparatus for monitoring vital signs of one or more living subjects comprises a monitoring station and at least one sensor in communication with the monitoring station. The sensor comprises an antenna system, an ultra wideband radar system coupled to the antenna system, a signal processor and a communication system. The signal processor is connected to receive a signal from the ultra wideband radar system and configured to extract from the signal information about one or more vital signs of a person or animal in a sensing volume corresponding to the antenna system. The communication system is configured to transmit the information to the monitoring station.
US08428687B2

Systems and methods for matching a characteristic of multiple sectors of a moving tissue to verify an overlap thereof are disclosed herein. In an exemplary method, tissue data for at least a first sector and a second sector of a moving tissue is acquired. A characteristic of at least a portion of the first and second sectors is estimated from the acquired tissue data, and the estimated characteristics are matched to verify whether a portion of the first sector overlaps with a portion of the second sector. Estimating can include estimating a displacement such as an axial displacement and/or lateral displacements. Estimating can further include estimating a strain, a velocity, a strain rate and/or a stiffness or equivalent.
US08428686B2

A system and method for monitoring a physiological parameter includes a garment that includes a fabric that exhibits both a light transmission property and a light reflection property. The amount of light transmitted through the fabric relative to the amount of light reflected by the fabric changes when the fabric stretches in response to motion, such as the motion induced by physiological activity (e.g., heart rate). The system includes at least one source of radiation having wavelength(s) in the range of 400 to 2200 nanometers and at least one detector responsive to such incident radiation. The source and detector are associated with the fabric such that the reception of incident radiation by the detector is directly affected by a change in the amount of light transmitted through the fabric relative to the amount of light reflected by the fabric when the fabric stretches. A signal processor converts a signal from the detector into a signal representative of at least one predetermined physiological parameter of a wearer of the garment.
US08428681B2

Embodiments relate to methods and systems for monitoring bioelectric potentials. In some instances, an electrode is applied to a patient's skin. The electrode may be at least partly inserted into the patient's skin, such as by inserting at least part of one or more teeth underneath the skin.
US08428677B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to determining a likelihood of possible retinopathy of prematurity and alerting a caregiver of such likelihood. According to certain embodiments, an apparatus for displaying an indication of a risk of retinopathy of prematurity in a patient may include a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to determine whether an oxygen saturation history of the patient places the patient at risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity. The apparatus may also include a display unit configured to present an indication of a risk of prematurity in the patient when the processing unit determines that the oxygen saturation history of the patient places the patient at risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity, the indication comprising at least one of a number associated with the risk, an audible alarm, or a visual alarm.
US08428667B2

A potable terminal device comprises an upper housing including a display unit on the surface thereof and a lower housing including a hard key on the surface thereof and relatively slidably coupled to the upper housing. Bothe of the housings are movable between a closed position in which all hard keys of the lower housing is covered with the upper housing, at least one intermediate position in which part of the hard keys are uncovered with the upper housing, and a full open position in which all of the hard keys are uncovered with the upper housing. In the intermediate position, in response to pressing any of part of the hard keys which are uncovered, a soft key for complementing part of the hard keys which are uncovered is displayed in a position starting from the edge of the display unit adjacent to the hard keys.
US08428666B2

A wireless headset and multi-point pairing method for the same are disclosed. The wireless headset can be easily paired with multiple wireless-enabled devices. The method includes establishing a wireless connection to a first wireless device during a wireless connection mode, requesting a mode transition to a pairing mode during the wireless connection mode, making a mode transition from the wireless connection mode to the pairing mode without turning off the headset, performing a pairing procedure with a second wireless device during the pairing mode, and establishing a wireless connection to the second wireless device in addition to the first wireless device after the pairing procedure is completed.
US08428661B2

The present invention is directed to improved speech intelligibility in telephones with multiple microphones. Such a telephone includes a first microphone, a second microphone, a voice activity detector (VAD), a receiver module, and a signal processor. The first microphone outputs a first audio signal, which comprises a voice component when a near-end user talks and a background noise component. The second microphone outputs a second audio signal. The VAD generates a voice activity signal responsive to a ratio between the first audio signal and the second audio signal. The voice activity signal identifies time intervals in which the voice component of the near-end user is present in the first audio signal. The receiver module receives a third audio signal, which comprises a voice component of a far-end user. The signal processor modifies the third audio signal responsive to the voice activity signal.
US08428655B2

A mobile communication terminal having a phonebook replays a stored message when an entry of the phonebook is selected using a speed dial number and the stored message is associated with the selected phonebook entry. The message may be the spoken name of the person associated with the selected phonebook entry thereby enabling the terminal user to have an audio confirmation of the party being called. The message may be recorded by the terminal microphone or may be captured from a connected call. Alternatively the message may be a text message that is synthesized to a voice message by a text-to-speech function.
US08428647B2

Aspects relate to provision of enterprise call capabilities to mobile devices. For example, a mobile device can indicate, over a data channel, that a PBX is to make a call on its behalf to a called party. The PBX can call back the mobile device, call the called party, and bridge those call legs to establish the call. The mobile device can employ mechanisms that a particular incoming call is made by the PBX. These mechanisms can include using ANI information, sending, and receiving audible verification codes over the voice channel established after answering the incoming call. The verification codes can be selected based on different behaviors of the mobile devices and the network or networks used by the device(s).
US08428646B2

Methods and systems for a software defined power amplifier for multi-band, multi-standard applications are disclosed and may comprise configuring a single programmable output stage of a multi-band, multi-standard transmitter to handle transmission of a signal according to multiple wireless communication protocols and frequency ranges. The output stage may be configured by coupling a power amplifier (PA) within the programmable output stage to a switch or a duplexer, which may be coupled to one or more of multiple antennas, each of which may handle signals in a different frequency range. Each antenna may be impedance matched with the power amplifier using transformers, and may be coupled by activating at least one integrated transistor. The PA may be biased to operate in one of a plurality of classes of operation comprising Class A, AB, C and F associated with the wireless communication protocols, which may comprise EDGE, GSM, WCDMA and wireless LAN.
US08428639B2

In a wireless communication system including a wireless terminal, a first wireless base station, a second wireless base station which supports a wireless channel which is not supported by the first wireless base station and an upper level apparatus which accommodates the wireless base stations, the upper level apparatus monitors interference power in the wireless base station and carries out, where a result of the monitoring exceeds a predetermined threshold value, suppression control of transmission power of the wireless terminal which communicates with the second wireless base station using the wireless channel which is not supported by the first wireless base station.
US08428636B2

A radio communication system comprises a secondary station (110) having a plurality of communication channels (226a,226b,226c) with a plurality of primary stations (100a,100b,100c). Separate closed loop power control is performed for each of the communication channels (226a,226b, 226c). This enables the optimum primary station for transmission of data to the secondary station (110) to be selected. Parameters derived from operation of each power control loop enable optimum setting of channel parameters for each primary station (100a,100b,100c).Such an arrangement is particularly suitable for a high speed downlink data service, where the fast selection of the optimum primary station and/or channel parameters improves link robustness and system throughput.
US08428631B2

The invention relates to a method in a base station for handling a request from a user equipment for accessing a service in a radio communications network, the method comprising the steps of receiving a first wide time interval (305) of an incoming signal (300) comprising a first signal sent from the user equipment, the first signal extending along a first narrow time interval (310) being a part of the first wide time interval, the first narrow time interval of the first signal being a possible service access request message; searching the first wide time interval (305) and detecting that the first signal is a possible service access request message; and identifying how the first narrow time interval (310) of the first signal relates to the first wide time interval (305). The relationship will be the same for subsequent time intervals of the incoming signal (300).
US08428621B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a location-based audio service. According to one embodiment, a request for a desired audio stream having an inactive segment is received from a user operating a mobile device. Furthermore, geographic data may be monitored while the audio stream is being rendered on the mobile device. The location-based audio service is configured to determine relevant location-based information based on the geographic data, and then transmit the relevant information to the mobile device during the inactive segment of the desired audio stream.
US08428617B2

A system and method selects secondary base stations to task that provide geo-location information used to geo-locate a mobile station. A network overlay location system may be co-located at base station sites of a wireless communications network. The location measurement units of the network overlay system provide location information of the mobile station, which may be determined via one or more geo-location techniques, for example: time of arrival (TOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), uplink time difference of arrival (UTDOA), angle of arrival (AOA), signal power, radio fingerprinting etc. Selecting secondary base stations to task using various selection criteria may provide optimum results when geo-locating a mobile station.
US08428616B2

The disclosed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate and/or transmit notifications based upon device presence techniques in connection with a wireless communications network. For example, when certain mobile devices register with a particular network entity (e.g., a femtocell) that services a particular target location (e.g., place of residence), then such registration can be leveraged to indicate presence at the target location. Accordingly, notifications can be delivered to custodian devices that indicate the presence information if certain predetermined conditions or criteria are satisfied.
US08428609B2

A system and method for managing communication in a cellular communication system are provided. The method includes measuring communication conditions within at least one communication cell of the communication system and estimating congestion within the at least one communication cell of the communication system based on the measured communication conditions. The method further includes adjusting communication links within the at least one communication cell based on the estimated congestion.
US08428608B2

A method and system for allocating resources for a relay enhanced cellular communication system including a base station, one or more mobile stations and one or more relay stations, is provided. Resource allocation involves allocating subcarriers to one or more access communication links between mobile stations and their serving stations, to meet proportional data rate constraints for the access communication links while improving subcarrier spectrum utilization, and allocating subcarriers to one or more relay communication links between the base station and relay stations to meet proportional data rate constraints for the relay communication links while improving subcarrier spectrum utilization. Further, communication periods are scheduled for access links in access zones and relay links in relay zones. Balancing of communication resources allocated to the access links and relay links may be performed by balancing both subcarrier allocation and scheduling periods.
US08428607B2

In a telecommunications network including a plurality of mobile terminals in communication with a network base station, and a plurality of relay nodes configured to assist the base station with data transmissions between the base station and one or more of said plurality of mobile terminals, a method of enabling communication resource reuse amongst the plurality of said relay nodes, the method comprising: predefining a plurality of communication resource sets, each resource set comprising one or more communication resource elements, the communication resource sets arranged so that each relay node can receive data in a predefined receiving resource set and transmit data in a predefined transmission resource set; determining which of two or more relay nodes are spatially separated from one another; and configuring at least two of the two or more spatially separated relay nodes to use the same communication resource sets.
US08428603B2

A system and method for performing paging in an area where a macro Base Station (BS) and a femto Access Services Network (ASN) are linked in a mobile network are provided. The method includes, during handover of a Mobile Station (MS) between a macro ASN and a femto ASN, a first gateway of a current ASN acquires paging group information of a previous ASN. Upon request for paging from the MS in the current ASN, the first gateway requests a BS of the previous ASN to transmit paging information to the MS based on the paging group information of the previous ASN. By doing so, paging success rate may be improved for an MS in coverage of a macro ASN linked to a femto BS, and the high paging success rate may be guaranteed regardless of whether the handover scheme is a controlled handover scheme or an uncontrolled handover scheme.
US08428600B2

A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes: transmitting, from a mobile station (100) to an access node (200) in a first radio access technology, a connection request signal including a desired call type for communication and a radio access capability of the mobile station (100); determining, at the access node (200) in the first radio access technology, whether or not to perform handover to a second radio access technology on the basis of the desired call type for communication and the radio access capability of the mobile station included in the connection request signal; and transmitting, from the mobile station (100) to an access node in the second radio access technology, a connection request signal, when it is determined that the handover to the second radio access technology is to be performed.
US08428599B2

A system and method for mobility restriction in wireless communications systems is provided. A method for base station operations includes receiving a request for service from a terminal, sending a request for authorization of the terminal to a controller, receiving in response to the request for authorization, an indication that the terminal is authorized, and granting access to the terminal. The indication includes a mobility restriction classification associated with the terminal.
US08428597B2

The present invention relates to a method of a serving Radio Access Network (RAN) node for facilitating communication between a communication terminal and a core network in view of a handover of the communication terminal from said serving RAN node. The method comprises receiving a first message from the communication terminal, the message comprising a first message sequence number. The method also comprises producing a sequence number synchronization indicator (SNSI) arranged to indicate to a second RAN node to adjust a message sequence number of any future message from the communication terminal before forwarding said future message to the core network, such that the message sequence number of said future message is synchronized with a corresponding expected message sequence number of the core network. The method further comprises sending an update message to the second RAN node, wherein the update message comprises the SNSI.
US08428589B2

The present invention relates to a method for UE context setup in an eNodeB for a UE subscriber in an infrastructure network. The network comprises at least one eNodeB providing radio access for the UE and an MME connected to the eNodeB. The eNodeB/-s comprises an inactivity timer releasing the UE context being setup in the eNodeB after a defined time period. The network for each UE context setup performs the steps of: the UE sending a setup request to the eNodeB, wherein the eNodeB in response to said request sends an initial UE message to the MME to initiate the UE context setup, the UE message identifying the UE sending the setup request; the MME in response to said UE message sending an initial UE context setup request to the eNodeB, wherein the eNodeB responds to the MME with an initial context response complete to finalize the UE context setup; and the MME in the setup request sending timer setup information for said UE, on which basis the eNodeB configures the time period of the inactivity timer for the UE context being setup. The present invention also relates to a MME and an eNodeB adapted for the same purpose.
US08428585B2

A method for scanning in a wireless network 3 comprises determining attributes for an on-going service of a mobile station, MS 5 and allocating scanning intervals for the MS depending on the determined attributes. The attributes for the ongoing service may include at least one of: type of service; and quality of service requirements. In one method, scanning intervals for the MS are allocated by a base station 4 also depending on the size of the neighbor cell list. The wireless network may, for example, be a WiMAX network.
US08428582B2

A method and apparatus for transferring a user data profile from a user's home terminal to a visiting terminal is disclosed. User or network configuration settings are transferred from a home telephony adapter to a visiting telephony adapter. In accordance with one embodiment, a computer readable medium, such as a flash drive is inserted into the home telephony adapter and, either with or without authentication, user or network configuration settings are transferred from the home telephony adapter to the medium. In another embodiment, the medium is then inserted into the visiting telephony adapter.
US08428571B2

Techniques for uninterrupted usage and access to physically unreachable handheld devices are provided. A physically unreachable handheld device includes an automated agent that is configured to authenticate a message received without manual intervention and to forward information from the handheld device to another remote and different handheld device.
US08428567B2

A main phone of a cordless telephone unit has i) a cordless communicator for establishing cordless communications with a cordless handset; and ii) a voice generator for converting called-party information received from a cordless handset into voice data. On the other hand, a cordless handset has voice-data output section for reading out the voice data. Called-party information received from the cordless handset is converted into voice data at the voice generator then returned to the cordless handset. Receiving the voice data from the main phone, the cordless handset reads it out prior to placing a call. Sharing the voice generating function of the main phone with the cordless handset can thus provide the handset with a voice-generator-free structure.
US08428565B2

Interfacing a wireless device with web services is described, including social networking web services. For example, a system for interfacing a wireless device with a plurality of web services comprises a web service proxy having an API to allow other modules to interface with the web service proxy; a plurality of web services adapters interfaced with the web services proxy through the API, each one of the web services adapters to communicate with a particular web service using the specific communication formats for the web service; where the web services adapters and the web services proxy convert between the communication formats employed to communicate with each of the web services and a wireless communication format, the wireless communication format being a different format than the communication formats for each of the web services, thereby enabling bi-directional communication between the wireless device and the plurality of web services.
US08428563B2

A device receives, from a user device, a request to use a visual voicemail (VVM) application, directs the user device to a self provisioning server based on the request, and receives, from the self provisioning server, a selected VVM subscription plan and information associated with a user of the user device. The device also provides, to a billing system, a feature code associated with the selected VVM subscription plan, receives, from one or more voicemail servers, pre-existing voicemail messages associated with the user, and provides, to the user device, the pre-existing voicemail messages.
US08428562B2

A provisioning system configured to retrieve a voicemail password and/or a pilot number for a voicemail account, create a first service request directed to an over-the-air system, and send the first service request to the over-the-air system, if the provisioning system determines that the voicemail account has been initialized. The first service request instructs the over-the-air system to format a first message including the voicemail password and/or the pilot number for delivery to a mobile device. The provisioning system is further configured to create a second service request directed to the over-the-air system and send the second service request to the over-the-air system, if the provisioning system determines that the voicemail account has not been initialized. The second service request instructs the over-the-air system to format a second message including a default voicemail password and/or a default pilot number for delivery to the mobile device.
US08428557B2

In one embodiment, there is provided an electronic device. The device includes: a lock controller configured to lock control of the electronic device so that a specific operation cannot be performed on the electronic device; a lock deactivation region registration module configured to register a region where the operation lock should be deactivated if the electronic device has been locked; a location detector configured to detect a location of the electronic device; and an operational lock deactivation module configured to compare the detected location of the device against the registered region where the operation lock should be deactivated, and configured to deactivate the operational lock of the electronic device when the electronic device is located within the registered region where the operation lock should be deactivated.
US08428555B2

A wireless network system and method to secure Quality of Service (QoS) according to a type of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) service in a WLAN communication system based on IEEE 802.11 includes: an authentication server adapted to set a priority for an access category of a wireless network service requested by a user to perform an authentication procedure in response to a user terminal requesting authentication for access to a wireless network; and an Access Point (AP) adapted to receive and store access category information of the user terminal authenticated by the authentication server and to compare access category information contained in a packet received from the user terminal to the previously stored access category information of the user terminal to control access to the wireless network.
US08428552B1

A system is provided comprising processor, memory, and a provisioning application that receives a first message from a rating engine, the first message providing a first rating of a prepaid subscription account associated with a portable electronic device. The system also configures a first setting to a first index wherein the first setting is based on the first rating and wherein the first setting is associated with the device receiving access to services without further contact with the rating engine. The system also receives a second message from the rating engine, the second message providing a second rating of the account. The system also configures a second setting to the first index based on the second rating wherein the second setting replaces the first setting and the second setting is associated with contacting the rating engine before receiving access to services.
US08428541B2

A method for choosing at least one signal path is disclosed and may include determining a power level characteristic for each of a plurality of signal paths. The determined power level characteristic for each of the plurality of signal paths may be modified. At least one of the plurality of signal paths may be selected for receiving a signal. The selecting may be based on at least one of the modified power level characteristics. The method may also include cycling through at least one of the signal paths. The power level characteristic for each of the plurality of signal paths may be biased. The power level characteristic for each of the plurality of signal paths may be increased by a fixed amount.
US08428539B2

An apparatus comprising a functional circuitry on a first die. Said function circuitry configured to drive an RF voltage isolation link with an RF signal responsive to receipt of a logic signal at a first logic state. Control circuitry modifies the frequency of the RF signal to spread harmonics to other than a fundamental frequency.
US08428536B2

A receiver (100) includes a first element (110) with a signal input, a control input, a signal output, and gain steps of a first magnitude, a signal processing circuit (120-168) with a signal input coupled to the first element, and a signal output, a second element (180) that has a signal input coupled to signal processing circuit, a control input, a signal output, and gain steps of a second magnitude smaller than the first magnitude, and a controller (180) that has a control output coupled to the first element (110), a control output coupled to the second element (180), and that adjusts receiver (100) gain by changing the first element (110) gain by a first magnitude, changing the second element (180) gain by substantially an inverse first magnitude, and subsequently changing the gain of the second element (180) by steps of the second magnitude to achieve a desired gain.
US08428528B2

The invention relates to methods by which radio signals can be transmitted to, and received by, a radio receiver such that the receiver consumes very little power from a battery or energy source. The invention also relates to methods by which radio signals, modulated with data information, can be produced by a transmitter that consumes very little power. The invention is applicable not only to medical implants, but any application requiring a radio receiver to operate with very low power consumption.
US08428519B2

In one embodiment, a method of mitigating uplink inter-carrier interference (ICI) from macrocell mobile stations at a dedicated channel femtocell base station is provided that includes: determining a timing offset for a femtocell uplink symbol timing that reduces the ICI based upon an expected spatial distribution for the macrocell mobile stations with respect to the femtocell base station; communicating the timing offset to at least one femtocell mobile station; and at the femtocell base station, receiving an uplink symbol transmission from the at least one femtocell mobile station according to the timing offset.
US08428515B1

Apparatus and method for generating a rectified output signal in a RFID tag from first and second alternating signals. A dual-terminal rectifier device has first and second input terminals to which the first and second alternating signals are applied, and further has a gate configured to form a conductive channel to electrically couple the first and second input terminals to the output terminal in response to a gate voltage. The dual-terminal rectifier device is configured to rectify a combination of the alternating input signals applied to the input terminals of the semiconductor device to generate a rectified output signal at an output terminal.
US08428510B2

One embodiment is directed to a distributed antenna system in which a setting for automatic gain control functionality in at least one unit included in the system (for example, in a hub unit or a remote unit) is determined by interpolating between two detected levels measured at that unit while the automatic gain control functionality is operating in two respective predetermined configurations and by interpolating between two target levels that are associated with the two respective predetermined configurations. In one example, the intersection of the two resulting interpolations is used to determine the setting for the automatic gain control functionality.
US08428494B2

A driving device to be used in an image forming apparatus includes an input gear; a partly non-toothed gear having a toothed portion engageable with the input gear and having a non-toothed portion; a holding member capable of placing the partly non-toothed gear in a holding state in which the non-toothed portion opposes the input gear and the partly non-toothed gear is not engaged with the input gear and capable of placing the partly non-toothed gear in a released state in which the holding state is released; a cylindrical member rotatable by receiving a rotational force; and an entering portion which is rotatable together with the partly non-toothed gear and which is capable of entering an inside of the cylindrical member and capable of receiving the rotational force from the cylindrical member by a frictional force between the entering portion and the cylindrical member.
US08428492B2

A connection assembly of the photo-conductor drum is applied for linking a driving shaft. The connection assembly of the photo-conductor drum includes a drum gear and a connector. A first connection part arranged at an end of the drum gear. An end of the connector forms a second connection part corresponding to the first connection part. Another end of the connector forms a joint end. The joint end includes a central pillar, and a plurality of protrusions extending from a periphery of the central pillar. The second connection part could detachably connect to the first connection part. The joint end is detachably connected to the driving shaft. Therefore, by replacing the damaged drum gear or damaged connector only, the costs, quantity of the waste and the maintenance expend would be reduced.
US08428490B2

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes cartridge mounting portions for dismountably mounting cartridges and an intermediary transfer member onto which developed images formed on electrophotographic photosensitive drums are transferred. The apparatus also includes an image forming unit comprising the cartridge mounting portions and the intermediary transfer member. The unit is movable between a transfer position for transferring, onto a sheet, the developed images transferred onto the intermediary transfer member from the drums, a cartridge mounting and dismounting position for mounting and dismounting the cartridges relative to the cartridge mounting portions, and an intermediary transfer member mounting and dismounting position for mounting and dismounting the intermediary transfer member relative to a main assembly.
US08428488B2

A cleaning roller cleaning a surface of a cleaning component, wherein the cleaning roller is provided in a roller configuration having a cylindrical shape and has a portion in contact with the cleaning component, the portion being made of a melamine resin foam having a continuous foam structure, the melamine resin foam being provided by heating compression from an original configuration in a radial direction, and wherein the portion in contact with the cleaning component has a continuous foam structure and a tensile strength in a range of 1.7±0.5 kg/cm2, and an image forming apparatus incorporating the same.
US08428483B2

An image forming apparatus including: an image forming section; and a control section allowing the image forming section to form a belt-shaped pattern on sheets in such a way that a formation starting position of the belt-shaped pattern is shifted for a distance, obtained by dividing a measurement-distance by a number of sheets to be used, in a main-scanning direction sheet by sheet; collecting, sheet by sheet, pieces of density information each of which indicates the density of the belt-shaped pattern at a measurement position of measurement positions; creating data in which the pieces of density information respectively correspond to the measurement positions arranged in the main-scanning direction on each of the sheets; and correcting density unevenness of image data in the main-scanning direction based on the created data, wherein the image forming section forms an image based on the image data of which the density unevenness is corrected.
US08428477B2

An image forming apparatus includes a toner carrying member for supplying toner to an image bearing member to visualize the latent image; a rotatable toner supply member, contacted to the toner carrying member, for supplying toner to the image bearing member; a voltage applying device for applying voltages to the toner carrying member and the toner supply member; and a controller for controlling the voltage applying device to control voltages applied to the toner carrying member and the toner supplying member.
US08428476B2

An image forming apparatus is disclosed that includes an image carrier, a driving source, a rotation detection unit, and a control unit that performs fluctuation pattern recognition processing, control pattern construction processing, speed fine-adjustment processing, and remaining pattern recognition processing. The control unit is configured to perform control pattern correction processing for setting a frequency band of a remaining speed fluctuation to be detected by the remaining pattern recognition processing narrower than a frequency band of a speed fluctuation to be detected by the fluctuation pattern recognition processing and correcting the speed control pattern so as to be a pattern capable of reducing even the remaining speed fluctuation based on a remaining speed fluctuation pattern recognized by the remaining pattern recognition processing.
US08428474B2

A developing device for developing with developer an electrostatic image formed on an image bearing member includes a developer carrying member; a developing chamber in which the developer carrying member is provided; a developer accommodating chamber, for accommodating developer to be fed to the developing chamber; a shaft rotatably supported in the accommodating chamber; a developer feeding member, mounted on the shaft; a light transmitting member for permitting light to pass into the accommodating chamber to detect an amount of the developer in the accommodating chamber; and a developer scattering preventing member provided on an inner wall of the accommodating chamber so as to overlap with the light transmitting member with respect to an axial direction of the shaft as seen in a direction perpendicular to the developer scattering preventing member, an upper end of the developer scattering preventing member being located below the light transmitting member.
US08428467B2

An optical fiber communication method for communication between a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal includes the steps of: providing an optical fiber to be coupled to the transmitting terminal and including a core that is provided with at least one second-order Bragg grating structure and a cladding that surrounds the core; configuring the transmitting terminal to output a data-carrying optical signal to one end of the core of the optical fiber for subsequent wireless transmission of the data-carrying optical signal via radiation through the second-order Bragg grating structure of the optical fiber; and configuring the receiving terminal to receive the signal radiated by the second-order Bragg grating structure of the optical fiber. A transmitting device is also disclosed.
US08428448B2

A walking beam type heat treatment apparatus including a heating furnace having a heating body to heat a substrate by radiation, a pair of first beams that are rod-like and provided in the heating furnace and a second beam disposed between the pair of the first beams, one of the pair of the first beams and the second beam relatively moving alternately in longitudinal and vertical directions repeatedly to the other of the pair of the first beams and the second beam, to cause to deliver and receive the substrate between the pair of the first beams and the second beam, and accordingly, to convey the substrate through the heating furnace, includes a side edge support protrusion that protrudes from each of the pair of the first beams such that the side edge support protrusion can horizontally support the substrate in abutting contact with a side edge of the substrate; and a front edge support protrusion and a rear edge support protrusion that protrude from the second beam such that the front edge support protrusion and the rear edge support protrusion can horizontally support the substrate in abutting contact with a front edge and a rear edge of the substrate.
US08428438B2

A television has an encoder, a random access memory buffer, and a decoder in addition to components of a conventional television receiver. The encoder encodes television signals to a digital format and the random access memory buffer stores the encoded television signal in response to activation of a pause function. The random access memory buffer outputs the stored digital television signal and the decoder decodes the digital television signal output from the random access memory buffer in response to deactivation of the pause function.
US08428435B2

To provide a content playback device that can use content appropriately by avoiding output of content not permitted to be used according to contract information. A playback control unit 102 extracts a content name from playback control information in a playback path information table 210, and inquires of a rights management unit 108 whether content identified by the extracted content name is playable or not. If the content is judged as being unplayable, the playback control unit 102 extracts an alternative playback number from the playback control information, and extracts a content name from playback control information whose playback number matches the alternative playback number. The playback control unit 102 then instructs a decryption unit 103 and a playback unit 107 to decrypt and play back encrypted content identified by the extracted content name.
US08428431B2

With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08428430B2

An image processing system for simultaneously displaying one or more images includes an obtaining unit, a playback unit, and a display control unit. The obtaining unit obtains an information presentation level specified by a viewer. The playback unit plays, at a predetermined playback speed, the one or more images recorded on a predetermined recording medium. The display control unit changes, in according with the information presentation level, an amount of information of the one or more images to be displayed on a predetermined display unit.
US08428428B2

A playback apparatus plays back video data recorded on a recording medium such as a BD-ROM. The playback apparatus includes (i) an interface in which a removable medium such as an SDRAM is inserted, (ii) a detection module detecting that the removable medium is inserted, and (iii) a virtual file system. The virtual file system is used if the removable medium is detected to be inserted, if additional content such as subtitles is recorded on the removable medium, and furthermore if the additional content is associated with the video data recorded on the BD-ROM, etc. The virtual file system dynamically combines the video data recorded on the BD-ROM, etc. and the additional content of the removable medium so as to play back a virtual package.
US08428412B2

An optical fiber includes a cladding with a material having a first refractive index and a pattern of regions formed therein. Each of the regions has a second refractive index lower than the first refractive index. The optical fiber further includes a core region and a core ring having an inner perimeter, an outer perimeter, and a thickness between the inner perimeter and the outer perimeter. The thickness is sized to reduce the number of ring surface modes supported by the core ring.
US08428410B2

The present invention embraces a multimode optical fiber that includes a central core having an alpha-index profile, an inner cladding, a depressed trench, and an outer cladding (e.g., an outer optical cladding). Typically, the central core's alpha-index profile has a minimum refractive index at the central core's radius that corresponds to a refractive index difference with respect to the outer cladding. The optical fiber achieves reduced bending losses and a high bandwidth with a reduced cladding effect for high-data-rate applications.
US08428404B1

A hybrid integrated module includes a semiconductor die mechanically coupled face-to-face to an integrated device in which the substrate has been removed. For example, the integrated circuit may include an optical waveguide that conveys an optical signal, which is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer in which the back-side silicon substrate or handler has been completely removed. Moreover, an optical device may be disposed on the bottom surface of an oxide layer (such as a buried-oxide layer) in the integrated device, and the geometry and materials in the integrated device may be selected and/or defined so that the optical signal is evanescently coupled between the optical waveguide and the optical device.
US08428401B2

Systems and methods according to these exemplary embodiments provide for on-chip optical waveguides, methods of making on-chip optical waveguides, and devices including such on-chip optical waveguides. A dielectric layer formed from, e.g., transparent spacer dielectric material, forms a waveguide core and can be surrounded or substantially surrounded by a metal cladding layer. The metal cladding layer can be formed in the chip using backend metallization techniques, e.g., Damascene processing.
US08428396B2

An image interpolation method includes: obtaining pixel values of integer pixel points and/or sub-pixel points in the row, column or any other directions of pixel points; obtaining pre-calculated interpolation coefficients, and interpolating the pixel points. A method for obtaining image interpolation coefficients includes: solving a one-dimensional Wiener-Hopf equation to obtain needed interpolation coefficients in different directions. An image interpolation apparatus performs interpolation filter processing on pixel points by using a first obtaining module, a second obtaining module, and a first calculating module. With the image interpolation method and apparatus, and the method for obtaining interpolation coefficients, the interpolation filter accuracy of the pixel points may be improved, the search accuracy of pixel points may be improved, and thus a more accurate matching block may be obtained in a reference image.
US08428392B1

An improvement of measuring geometry parameters of a geometry object from an image with a reference object whose thickness can not be ignored. A hidden point on the plane with which geometry object contacts is computed from visible points. The computed hidden point combined with other points in the same plane is used to compute a homography matrix between a known size shape and its projection in the image. With the computed homography matrix and enough valid points in the image, the geometry parameters of the geometry object are determined. With the geometry parameters of the geometry objects, useful information can be calculated from.
US08428391B2

A system for providing stitched video from a first camera and a second camera to an electronic display system includes a processing circuit configured to associate a view a first camera with an approximate location. The processing circuit is further configured to build relationship data between the first camera and a second camera using the approximate location. The processing circuit is further configured to transform video from the first camera relative to video from the second camera, the transformation based on the relationship data. The processing circuit is further configured to use the transformed video to cause the stitched video to be provided to the electronic display system.
US08428373B2

In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a decoder. The decoder is configured to obtain first and second motion vectors of a block other than the current block. The other block neighbors the current block at one of a left, top and top right position. The decoder is configured to obtain a direction of the first and second motion vectors of the neighboring block. The decoder is configured to determine first and second prediction motion vectors of the current block using the first and second motion vectors of the neighboring block such that the first prediction motion vector of the current block has the obtained direction of the first motion vector of the neighboring block and the second prediction motion vector of the current block has the obtained direction of the second motion vector of the neighboring block.
US08428371B2

The present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method of identifying spatial image modifications. The method includes receiving a original image and a adjusted image. The method also includes identifying a first subset of pixels comprising pixels in the original image that have a same first color value. The method also includes determining whether a second subset of pixels in the adjusted image all have a same second color value, wherein the second subset of pixels spatially correspond with the first subset of pixels. A spatial adjustment is identified if the second subset of pixels do not all have the same second color value.
US08428368B2

Systems and methods of generating device commands based upon hand gesture commands are disclosed. An exemplary embodiment generates image information from a series of captured images, generates commands based upon hand gestures made by a user that emulate device commands generated by a remote control device, identifies a hand gesture made by the user from the received image information, determines a hand gesture command based upon the identified hand gesture, compares the determined hand gesture command with the plurality of predefined hand gesture commands to identify a corresponding matching hand gesture command from the plurality of predefined hand gesture commands, generates an emulated remote control device command based upon the identified matching hand gesture command, and controls the media device based upon the generated emulated remote control device command.
US08428363B2

An image is segmented into superpixels by constructing a graph with vertices connected by edges, wherein each vertex corresponds to a pixel in the image, and each edge is associated with a weight indicating a similarity of the corresponding pixels, A subset of edges in the graph are selected to segment the graph into subgraphs, wherein the selecting maximizes an objective function based on an entropy rate and a balancing term. The edges with maximum gains are added to the graph until a number of subgraphs is equal to some threshold.
US08428356B2

There are provided an image processing device, an image processing method and a program that generate an electronic document in a format specification that is optimal for many purposes of electronic documents. A table region is discriminated from an input image, and a table structure in the table region is analyzed. A table line determination is made on the analyzed table structure as to whether or not each ruled line is representable in the format, and ruled line information and a vector line object are created according to the determination result. The created ruled line information and vector line object are used to generate the electronic document.
US08428353B2

A calculation apparatus for amount of characteristic that calculates an amount of characteristic based on a histogram of an amount of characteristic of input data includes: a buffer for holding a portion of the input data; a memory, having a plurality of banks, for holding calculation results of the histogram; a generation unit for generating a table in which a position of a target data on the buffer of which the amount of characteristic is to be calculated corresponds to a position on the memory to which a category of the calculated amount of characteristic is voted; and a vote unit that determines a category of the amount of characteristic of the target data and that performs a vote to the position on the memory shown on the table.
US08428342B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, means for generating a disparity map based on a depth map, means for determining accuracy of pixels in the depth map where the determining means identifies the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate based on a confidence map and the disparity map, and means for providing an adjusted depth map where the providing means adjusts inaccurate pixels of the depth map using a cost function associated with the inaccurate pixels. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08428341B2

Provided is a digital photographing apparatus including: an image acquiring unit that acquires images by photographing a subject; a sensor information acquiring unit that acquires positional information, directional information, and posture information of the digital photographing apparatus at the time of photographing a subject; a device information acquiring unit that acquires device information of the digital photographing apparatus at the time of photographing a subject; and a spatial coordinates calculator that calculates 3D spatial coordinates for photographed images using the acquired positional information, directional information, posture information, and device information.
US08428334B2

A system for inspecting a product that includes a scanner to scan across the product and generate an image of the product, the image including a matrix of pixels each having a grayscale value, and an analyzing device electrically coupled with the scanner to receive and analyze the image of the product, the analyzing device including a microprocessor to calculate a reference grayscale value associated with each of the pixels in the image, wherein the reference grayscale value includes an average of the grayscale values of pixels located adjacent to the each pixel, a memory to store the reference grayscale value associated with each of the pixels and at least one threshold associated with the reference grayscale value, and a comparing module to compare the grayscale value of each of the pixels in the image with the at least one threshold associated with the each pixel.
US08428333B2

The invention pertains to a apparatus for performing operations, in particular cutting, embossing, creasing, folding and/or sealing, on a moving web provided with a series of identical images, which apparatus comprises a sensor for at least partially detecting the images on the web, and a processing unit which, dependent on a comparison of the data obtained with the sensor and a reference, generates an output signal to be used for one or more of the said operations. The processing unit comprises a memory and is arranged to select at least part of the detected data, store the selected data in the memory, and utilize the selected data as the reference. The invention further pertains to module for performing operations on a moving web and method of generating an output signal.
US08428330B2

A region of interest in the image is determined and for each pixel in each location (x,y) in that region of interest a value hint(x,y) is computed representing the amount of dense tissue below said pixel as h int ⁡ ( x , y ) = 2 μ fat ⁡ ( E ) - μ int ⁡ ( E ) ⁢ ( Log ⁡ ( p ⁡ ( x , y ) ) - Log ⁡ ( p fat ) ) wherein p(x,y) represents the pixel value of a pixel at location (x,y) in said digital mammographic image, pfat is a reference fat pixel value, μfat,μint are the linear attenuation coefficients of fat tissue and dense tissue and E is the mono-energetic energy value of the x-ray source at image recording, whereby E and pfat are derived from said digital mammographic image representation.
US08428327B2

The invention relates to segmenting blood vessels in perfusion MR images, more particularly, the invention relates to automated vessel removal in identified tumor regions prior to tumor grading. Pixels from a perfusion related map from dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE) MR images are clustered into arterial pixels and venous pixels by e.g. a k-means class cluster analysis. The analysis applies parameters representing the degree to which the tissue entirely consists of blood (such as relative blood volume (rBV), peak enhancement (ΔR2max) and/or post first-pass enhancement level (ΔR2p)) and parameters representing contrast arrival time at the tissue (such as first moment of the area (fmAUC) and/or contrast arrival time (T0)). The artery and venous pixels are used to form a vessel mask. The invention also relates to a computer aided diagnostic (CAD) system for tumor grading, comprising automated tumor segmentation, vessel segmentation, and tumor grading.
US08428326B2

Systems and methods for ultrasound simulation using depth peeling are disclosed. In one disclosed embodiment, a method includes the steps of receiving a sensor signal including a position and an orientation of a simulated ultrasound device, the position and orientation associated with a virtual physical environment comprising a first virtual object; determining a first peel associated with the first virtual object; determining a second peel associated with the first virtual object; determining a first characteristic of a pixel located between the first peel and the second peel; generating a display signal based on the first characteristic, the display signal configured to cause a visual display of the virtual physical environment; and outputting the display signal to a display device.
US08428323B2

A method of processing a blood vessel image is provided. The method includes (a) sharpening an original blood vessel image using a Gabor filter in consideration of various directions and thicknesses of blood vessels included in the blood vessel and (b) detecting edges according to a change in brightness in a blood vessel domain and a non-blood vessel domain of the original blood vessel image and the blood vessel image on which the Gabor filtering step is completed, using an edge extraction method based on a first-order differentiation or second-order differentiation.
US08428319B2

Automatic measurement of morphometric and motion parameters of a coronary target includes extracting reference frames from input data of a coronary target at different phases of a cardiac cycle, extracting a three-dimensional centerline model for each phase of the cardiac cycle based on the references frames and projection matrices of the coronary target, tracking a motion of the coronary target through the phases based on the three-dimensional centerline models, and determining a measurement of morphologic and motion parameters of the coronary target based on the motion.
US08428315B2

A system and method for pre-operatively obtaining a prediction of a post-operative image of at least part of a body is disclosed. A 3D pre-operative description is determined of at least part of a body, and a pre-operative 2D photograph is acquired of the at least part of the body from any viewing position. The 3D pre-operative description is matched with the pre-operative 2D photograph, and a deformation field is determined for deforming the 3D pre-operative description. A predicted post-operative image of a 3D post-operative description of the at least part of the body is derived by means of the deformation field and the pre-operative 2D photograph.
US08428314B2

A fingerprint-initiated navigating method is to be implemented using a navigating device, and includes the steps of: associating a kth set of fingerprint data with corresponding destination information, where k is an integer ranging from 1 to n, and n is not less than 1; receiving a fingerprint signal conforming with the kth set of fingerprint data; and showing a destination indicated by the destination information corresponding to the kth set of fingerprint data.
US08428308B2

A method for determining image capture settings for an electronic image capture device, comprising: capturing at least two preview images of a scene; analyzing the preview images to determine a combined motion velocity; determining one or more image capture settings responsive to the combined motion velocity; and capturing an archival image according to the determined image capture settings. The determination of the combined motion velocity includes: defining a plurality image regions; determining local motion velocities for each of the image regions; and combining the local motion velocities to determine the combined motion velocity.
US08428305B2

A method for detecting a clear path of travel for a vehicle wherein the detecting includes a fusion of a plurality of analyses including monitoring an image from a camera device includes analyzing the image through clear path detection analysis to determine a clear path of travel within the image, analyzing an area in front of the vehicle utilizing a topographical variation analysis to determine a flat surface upon which the vehicle can travel, combining the clear path of travel and the determined flat surface to describe an enhanced clear path of travel, and utilizing the enhanced clear path of travel to navigate the vehicle.
US08428298B2

A speaker has high sound quality by reducing resonance of curved parts in a speaker damper without decreasing sound pressure and by providing high linearity characteristic. In a damper for a speaker formed by including at least two curved parts, an elastic member is provided at least on one side or on both sides of a peripheral part in a movable part of the damper or provided in the material.
US08428294B2

A slim speaker includes a casing having an enlarged front opening and a rear end with a magnetic circuit mounted thereto; a voice coil located over a central area of the magnetic circuit; a diaphragm located between the enlarged front opening of the casing and the voice coil; and a damper located behind the diaphragm to space from the latter. The diaphragm has at least one V-shaped bent section provided at a middle portion for bearing on a corresponding position on the damper. With these arrangements, the diaphragm not only has an effectively reduced overall height to largely reduce the assembled volume of the slim speaker and allow the slim speaker to be easily mounted in the limited inner space of an electric product, but also stabilizes the vibration of the voice coil to enable good resonance of sound.
US08428292B2

A vehicle audio system includes an interior trim panel having an opening with a speaker module removably secured therein and having a speaker electrically connected to the vehicle audio system when the speaker module is positioned within the opening. The speaker module includes an interface for receiving an audio signal from a linked portable electronic device for playing the audio signal through the speaker when the speaker module is removed from the interior trim panel opening and electrically disconnected from the vehicle audio system, and for playing the audio signal through the vehicle audio system when the speaker module is positioned within the interior trim panel. The speaker module may include an energy storage device and/or generator, such as a dynamo or solar cell, to power the speaker and play audio from a linked digital media player and/or recharge an electronic device, such as a media player or cell phone.
US08428286B2

A method for producing a microphone module includes arranging a MEMS microphone structure on a first surface of a first substrate, the first substrate further including a second surface, which is opposite to the first surface. Furthermore, a cap is arranging on the first surface of the first substrate such that the cap and the first surface enclose the MEMS microphone structure. A readout device for the MEMS microphone structure is arranged on a first surface of a second substrate which further includes a second surface, which is opposite to the first surface. The second surface of the first substrate is attached to the second surface of the second substrate.
US08428274B2

An acoustic-feedback detection apparatus includes: a first level detecting section configured to detect a signal level of sound signals obtained from a position in a sound-signal system in which a microphone and speaker are connected; a first extracting section configured to extract, from the sound signals of which the signal level is detected, signals in a band having a bandwidth predetermined for each of at least one predetermined center frequency; a second level detecting section configured to detect a signal level of the signals in each band, the signals being extracted by the first extracting section; and a determining section configured to determine whether or not acoustic feedback is occurring, on the basis of a threshold determined according to the signal level detected by the first level detecting section and a waveform of each signal level detected by the second level detecting section.
US08428272B2

In a masking sound generating apparatus, a band divider divides a target sound signal into a plurality of frequency bands to generate a plurality of band signals. An envelope signal generating part generates a plurality of envelope signals representing respective envelopes of the plurality of the band signals. A signal converter segments each of the plurality of the envelope signals into a plurality of frames, then specifies frames of segmented envelope signals which have an amplitude greater than a first threshold and less than a second threshold, and changes an order of the specified frames in an arrangement of the plurality of the frames. A multiplier multiplies each of the plurality of the envelope signals by a noise signal, each envelope signal having the order of the frames changed by the signal converter, and outputs the plurality of the envelope signals multiplied by the noise signal as individual band masking signals. An adder adds the individual band masking signals to output a masking sound signal capable of masking the target sound signal.
US08428271B1

A device is disclosed to provide balanced distortion in a musical instrument and to emulate the sound of a tube amplifier when overdriven. The device distorts, clips, and limits, selectively, an input audio signal. The circuit includes: an input stage to receive the input audio signal, remain linear, and maintain balanced outputs, and to split the input audio signal into an inverting, negative path and a non-inverting, positive path; an inverting, negative path balanced distortion circuit to receive an inverting, negative path input; a non-inverting, positive path balanced distortion circuit to receive a non-inverting, positive path input; and an output stage, wherein the output stage combines a pair of differential inputs to produce an output audio signal. The audio distortion circuit cancels incoming asymmetries in the output stage from the combined pair of differential inputs and produces the output audio signal as symmetric.
US08428269B1

A spatial audio system for implementing a head-related transfer function (HRTF). A first stage implements a lateral HRTF that reproduces the median frequency response for a sound source located at a particular lateral distance from a listener, and second stage implements a vertical HRTF that reproduces the spectral changes when the vertical distance of a sound source changes relative to the listener. The system improves the vertical localization accuracy provided by an arbitrary measured HRTF by introducing an enhancement factor into the second processing stage. The enhancement factor increases the spectral differentiation between simulated sound sources located at different positions within the same “cone of confusion.”
US08428267B2

A method for processing an audio signal, comprising: receiving a downmix signal, a first multi-channel information, and an object information; processing the downmix signal using the object information and a mix information; and, transmitting one of the first multi-channel information and a second multi-channel information according to the mix information, wherein the second channel information is generated using the object information and the mix information is disclosed.
US08428266B2

A method and terminal for implementing hot-plug of a smart card are disclosed. The method includes: during the process of playing mobile multimedia, a descrambling library sending request information for obtaining a program key to a smart card driving module, which judges whether a smart card is in a plug-in state or a pull-out state after receiving the request information: if in the plug-in state, the smart card driving module forwarding the request information to the smart card, receiving response information returned by the smart card, forwarding the response information to the descrambling library, and meanwhile forwarding the response information to a virtual smart card module to save; if in the pull-out state, the smart card driving module forwarding the request information to the virtual smart card module, which returns the saved response information to the smart card driving module, which forwards the response information to the descrambling library.
US08428265B2

Disclosed are an apparatus and method of de-duplicating at least one data file. One example method may include requesting a list of data rows stored in a database to be de-duplicated, receiving the list of the data rows based on a single filekey associated with the at least one data file, copying the at least one data file to a data storage memory, and deleting the data rows entries from a file registry of the database.
US08428255B2

A sink may be to used to process multimedia digital data. The sink may include a plurality of input ports, an output port, a switchably-enabled selector to select an input port from a plurality of HDMI input ports to couple to an output port, a control circuit to detect encrypted data in a channel of the input ports; and a plurality of decryption engines. Each of the decryption engines may be coupled to respective input ports to synchronize with a corresponding encryption engine of a data source after the control circuit detects encrypted data in the channel of the respective input port. Additional circuitry may be included to operate the sink in a power saving mode. Also, methods for processing the data in both power saving and non-power saving modes.
US08428251B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for performing data encryption and decryption using a stream or block cipher with internal random states. The method includes splitting the input data into a predetermined number of blocks and processing each block. The processing includes creating sub-blocks, permuting the sub-blocks, replacing bytes using a lookup table, rotating bits, performing expansion and combining sets of bits. The element of randomness employed in this process allows for the same input to yield the same output, with differing internal states.
US08428249B2

An automatic slide cover opening/closing device includes a slide member formed with a guide slot, a base seat slidably connected with the slide member and a power member connected with a conductive contact. An engagement section is disposed on one side of the guide slot. The base seat is formed with a guide hollow intersecting the guide slot. An electrical conductor is disposed on one side of the guide hollow and connected to an external power supply. The power member serves to rotate an engagement member positioned at an intersection of the guide hollow and the guide slot. At least one elastic member is disposed on one side of the power member for elastically keeping the engagement member in abutment with the engagement section. The conductive contact can contact the electrical conductor during a stage of sliding travel of the slide member to power on the power member.
US08428241B2

A method of semi-supervised synonym inference for a call handling application, such as automated directory assistance or call routing, is described. In one embodiment the method comprises examining a database of caller interaction results from a directory assistance system that includes an automated directory assistance engine, detecting a specified characteristic in the caller interaction results, and using the detected characteristic to automatically train a destination map, where the destination map is for use by the automated directory assistance engine in automatically mapping human speech to a destination. The detecting of the specified characteristic in the caller interaction results may include a statistical analysis of the caller interaction results for each of one or more speech recognition strings.
US08428239B2

A method for playing a local ringback tone is disclosed. A second party device is called from a calling party device. An alert message indicating that the calling party device is to play a network ringback tone is received. It is determined whether to play a pre-stored local ringback tone instead of the network ringback tone. The local ringback tone or the network ringback tone is played based on the determination. At any time before call connection or call release, the local ringback tone and the network ringback tone are switched between based on user input.
US08428230B2

A communication apparatus that enables to appropriately perform IP filtering even when communication via a network is performed by a user inputting a destination phone number. An IP filter permits or rejects communication on the basis of a set IP address. An input unit inputs a phone number. An acquisition unit acquires an IP address corresponding to the phone number inputted by the input unit from a server connected to the network. A setting unit sets the IP filter so that communication using the IP address acquired by the acquisition unit is permitted.
US08428229B2

An automatic message escalation system includes attaching an acknowledgement flag to a message after it is received in the message mailbox of an identified message recipient. The status of the acknowledgement flag indicates whether or not the message has been retrieved. After a given or specified period of time, the acknowledgement flag is checked to see if the message was retrieved. If the message was retrieved, the message will not be escalated. If the message was not retrieved, the message will be sent to the next message recipient on an escalation list.
US08428222B2

An x-ray tube target and method of repairing a damaged x-ray tube target. The x-ray tube target includes an original substrate and a portion of the original substrate that includes a new portion of a substrate and a new target track that is attached to a void in the original substrate. The method includes removal and replacement of damaged materials on used anode targets of x-ray tubes, thereby enabling recovery of used anode targets without the use of expensive and time consuming layer deposition methods. The method also avoids the high costs and long development cycles associated with known repair and refabrication methods for anode targets of x-ray tubes.
US08428221B2

A medical x-ray acquisition system has an x-ray source and an x-ray detector, the x-ray source having at least one field emission radiator with at least one field emission cathode. The field emission cathode can be formed by a nanostructured material with carbon nanotubes.
US08428217B2

This specification is directed towards finding, locating, and confirming threat items and substances. The inspection system is designed to detect objects that are made from, but not limited to, special nuclear materials (“SNM”) and/or high atomic number materials. The system employs a dual energy CT scanning first stage inspection system and advanced image processing techniques to analyze images of an object under inspection (“OUI”), which includes, but is not limited to baggage, parcels, vehicles and cargo.
US08428210B2

A method of operating a master/slave system includes the step of identifying a master receive data phase value to coordinate the transfer of data from a slave device without phase alignment circuitry to a master device with a universal phase aligner. Data is transferred from the slave device to the master device in accordance with the master receive data phase value. The master device characterizes a master transmit data phase value to coordinate the transfer of data from the master device to the slave device. Subsequently, the master device routes data to the slave device in accordance with the master transmit data phase value.
US08428204B2

In one aspect, a method to recover digital data includes receiving a distorted digital data stream and processing the distorted digital data stream to remove distortions. The processing includes detecting state changes, removing noise and identifying valid pulses. The processing also includes forming an undistorted data stream based on the processing.
US08428201B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for selecting receiver gain adjustment values. In one aspect, a method includes receiving aggregate signal characteristic values (“aggregate values”) for a plurality of signals being received over active channels of a power line communications network, the aggregate values being computed based on signal characteristic values for each of the signals being received over the active channels. Using the aggregate values, a determination is made that one or more of the aggregate values have been outside of a valid range of signal characteristic values over a specified period. In response to determining that the aggregate values have been outside of the valid range, a receiver gain adjustment value is selected based on the aggregate values and a receiver gain of a receiver that receives the signals is adjusted.
US08428188B2

Systems and methods are described that may be used to detect and correct carrier phase offset in a signal. A phase offset corrector receives an equalized signal representative of a quadrature amplitude modulated signal and derives a phase-corrected signal from the equalized signal. The equalized signal is sliced to obtain real and imaginary sequences and a frame synchronizer performs a correlation of the real and imaginary sequences with corresponding parts of a stored frame-sync pseudo-random sequence. Phase correction is based on the maximum real and imaginary values of the correlation. The signal is typically quadrature amplitude modulated signal is modulated using punctured trellis codes. Quadrature phase shift keying modulation, 16-QAM, 64-QAM and other QAM schemes may be used.
US08428186B1

A method and apparatus for decoding a baseband signal of a radio signal removes, from the baseband signal, low-frequency and long-term noise that increases the possibility of decoding errors. The removal of low-frequency and long-term noise is performed by accumulating differences between the actual signal levels of the baseband signal and the expected signal levels for the baseband signal and subtracting the accumulated difference from the baseband signal before decoding. In one scheme, the baseband signal contains a predetermined training sequence of signal levels, where the differences between the actual signal levels of the baseband signal and the expected signal levels for the predetermined training sequence are accumulated. At the end of the training sequence, the accumulated training sequence difference is used as the accumulated difference and subtracted from the baseband signal, thereby providing stable operation for decoding signal levels that follow the training sequence.
US08428183B2

I/Q data skew in a QPSK modulator may be detected by sending identical or complementary data streams to I and Q channel PSK modulators, setting the relative carrier phase between I and Q to zero or π, and monitoring the average QPSK output power, where the data streams sent to the I and Q channels include pseudorandom streams of ones and zeroes.
US08428180B1

Briefly, some embodiments of the invention may provide devices, systems and methods of in-phase and quadrature mismatch analysis and correction. For example, a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention may include re-encoding an estimated symbol of an input signal having an in-phase component and a quadrature component, based on an analysis of a mismatch between said in-phase component and said quadrature component.
US08428174B2

A method for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) collaborative communication in a wireless communication system includes at least one user equipment and M base stations performing collaborative communication with the user equipment. Here, M is an integer that is greater than or equal to 2. The method includes the following processes for each user equipment: a first level of MIMO pre-coding process is performed for each base station to acquire each first level of pre-coding matrix corresponding to each base station; a second level to the X-th level of MIMO pre-coding process is performed sequentially to acquire the second level to the X-th level of pre-coding matrices of the corresponding base stations. Here, X is an integer that is greater than or equal to 2. A pre-coding device, a user equipment and a wireless communication system related to the method are also provided.
US08428164B2

A method and a radio base station for interleaving control channel data to be transmitted in a telecommunications system are described. The method comprises grouping the control channel elements CCE1-CCEn into a first order of control channel symbol groups, determining a number of available symbol group positions of control channel transmission resources, adding symbol groups comprising “dummy” values or zeros to the first order of control channel symbol groups, interleaving the first order of the control channel symbol groups resulting in an a second order, cyclic shifting the second order and mapping the cyclic shifted second order of control channel symbol groups to the control channel transmission resources.
US08428160B2

The present invention discloses a multi-carrier digital multimedia broadcast system and the digital information transmission method thereof. After RS encoding and byte interleaving, LDPC encoding, bit interleaving and constellation mapping to an upper layer of data streams in turn, the obtained data symbol is multiplexed with scattered pilots and continual pilots which include the system information to form an OFDM frequency domain symbol and scrambled; an OFDM time domain symbol is generated by IFFT transforming, and after inserted with the frame head to build a time slot, it is connected to form a signal frame of the physical layer; the signal frame of the physical layer is transmitted after being low-pass filtered and orthogonal upconverted. The system and method thereof provide wireless broadcast with high quality such as audio, video and multimedia data and the like for mobile, fixed and portable receivers, and can use the satellite transmission and terrestrial transmission method for transmitting. The method utilizes the LDPC OFDM scheme, and the system applies the microwave and large scale integrated circuit technologies while fulfills the needs for low cast and high performance.
US08428152B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of wireless video communication. Some embodiments include an apparatus including a downlink receiver to receive a wireless downlink video transmission from a video source module, and an uplink transmitter to transmit to the wireless video source module a wireless uplink transmission. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08428149B2

A structure outputting a decoded video stream includes a processing block and a range modification circuit. The processing block decodes an input stream to generate and store a decoded stream in a decoded picture buffer, wherein the decoded stream comprises a luminance component and a chrominance component a decoded stream. The range modification circuit receives the decoded stream, and modifies, if required, a luminance range of the luminance component and a chrominance range of the chrominance component. The range modification circuit further outputs a video stream. The video stream comprises the modified luminance component when the luminance modification signal is true, and the video stream comprises the luminance component when the luminance modification is false. Similarly, the video stream comprises the modified chrominance component when the chrominance modification signal is true, and the video stream comprises the chrominance component when the chrominance modification signal is false.
US08428147B2

There are provided method and apparatus for detecting and concealing reference and non-reference video frames. A video decoder includes an entropy decoder, an error detector, and an error concealer. The entropy decoder is for decompressing a video bitstream intended to have a fixed frame rate and parsing the decompressed video bitstream to find picture order counts for frames of the decompressed video bitstream. The error detector is for determining that a particular frame of the decompressed video bitstream is missing based upon the picture order counts. The error concealer is for concealing the particular frame. The method is accomplished by decompressing and parsing the video bitstream to find picture order counts for frames of the decompressed video bitstream and then determining that a particular frame of the decompressed video bitstream is missing based upon comparison of their associated picture order counts, and then concealing that particular frame.
US08428142B2

A system and method transcodes an input video bit stream having a first encoding profile into an output video bit stream having a second encoding profile. The system includes a first module and a second module. The system further includes a memory module. The first module decodes the input video bit stream for generating pixel data and macroblock specifications. The second module encodes the pixel data and the macroblock specifications for constructing the output video bit stream. The memory module includes a first buffer module and a second buffer module. The first buffer module stores the pixel data and the second buffer module stores the macroblock specifications.
US08428137B2

In motion search using a PE array, a technique is provided for enabling high-speed calculation while avoiding bank conflict without increasing a memory for storing pixels outside the screen. When pieces of pixel data of a plurality of lines to be read from the memory 3 (reference image memory 30) exist in a same bank, the conflict bank anticipatory read control unit 10 reads pixel data of a line in advance, and a read data holding circuit 20 holds the data until timing for inputting to a PE array unit 4. Accordingly, bank conflict can be avoided when reading pixel data from the memory 3, so that smooth pipeline processing by the PE array unit 4 can be realized.
US08428133B2

This disclosure describes techniques for coding of header information of video blocks. In particular, the techniques of this disclosure select one of a plurality of prediction modes for use in generating a prediction block of a video block of a coding unit, the plurality of prediction modes including unidirectional prediction modes and multi-directional prediction modes that combine at least two unidirectional prediction modes. An encoding device encodes the prediction mode of the current video block based on prediction modes of one or more previously encoded video blocks of the coding unit. Likewise, a decoding unit receives encoded video data of a video block of a coding unit and decodes the encoded video data to identify one of a plurality of prediction modes for use in generating a prediction block of the video block based on prediction modes of one or more previously decoded video blocks of the coding unit.
US08428129B2

A scalable video bitstream may have an H.264/AVC compatible base layer and a scalable enhancement layer, where scalability refers to color bit depth. The H.264/AVC scalability extension SVC provides also other types of scalability, e.g. spatial scalability where the number of pixels in BL and EL are different. According to the invention, BL information is upsampled in two logical steps, one being texture upsampling and the other being bit depth upsampling. Texture upsampling is a process that increases the number of pixels, and bit depth upsampling is a process that increases the number of values that each pixel can have, corresponding to the pixels color intensity. The upsampled BL data are used to predict the collocated EL. The BL information is upsampled at the encoder side and in the same manner at the decoder side, wherein the upsampling refers to spatial and bit depth characteristics.
US08428128B2

Provided is a method for prediction coding using scalable video codec, which can support various chrominance spaces. A method for prediction coding includes setting a target layer based on corresponding device information on a specific image service request, performing a chrominance space conversion on an image signal of a base layer using a chrominance space conversion equation preset in a scalable video codec selectively according to whether a chrominance space conversion is necessary in prediction coding between the base layer and the target layer, and performing inter-layer prediction coding through an additional signal conversion based on necessary any one of spatial scalability, chroma-format scalability and bit-depth scalability.
US08428114B2

Transmit equalization over high speed digital communication paths may be compensated in a receiver for a probe on that path. In one example, a probe input provides a signal from an electronic communications path, the signal having been processed by a transmit equalizer. A filter circuit processes the signal to compensate for the transmit equalizer, and a decoder decodes the processed signal and produces an output for use by test equipment.
US08428111B2

Various embodiments are disclosed relating to crosstalk emission management. In an example embodiment, an amplitude of a main tap of a transmit equalizer may be determined to limit crosstalk emitted from a local channel to one or more other channels to be less than a threshold. A ratio of an amplitude of at least one secondary tap of the transmit equalizer to the amplitude of the main tap may be determined to provide equalization to the local channel.
US08428109B2

A communication device wirelessly coupled to another communication device. The communication device includes a first transmitter and a first receiver. The first transmitter is configured to transmit first power control bit information to the base station over a reverse link. The first transmitter has a timeline manager, configured to transmit the first power control bit information at a first rate according to a first pattern within a frame. The first receiver is configured to receive second power control bit information from the another communication device over a forward link. The first receiver has an adaptive controller, configured to determine the first rate and the first pattern. The first rate and the first pattern are selected from a plurality of rates and patterns available for transmission of the first power control bit information and the second power control bit information.
US08428107B1

A method for estimating an unknown spreading code in a received signal by using a set of genetic algorithms. The method comprises: selecting at least one seed of the unknown spreading code for initialization purposes, wherein the unknown spreading code comprises a plurality of chips, and performing a breeding process of the unknown spreading code by executing a breeding algorithm.
US08428101B1

Systems and methods of interference-triggered frequency hopping in a wireless communication system. A master is provided in the wireless communication system in wireless communication with slave nodes each configured to use different preselected communication frequencies to permit frequency hopping. A current channel is selected from among multiple channels in the wireless communication system in which the master and at least some of the slave nodes send and receive wireless communications. Each of the channels uses different ones of the preselected communication frequencies. In the current channel, interference with communications between the master and a selected one of the slave nodes that use the current channel is detected. A new channel is selected only in response to detecting the interference. The system switches from the current channel to the new channel such that communications between the master and the selected slave node use the new channel.
US08428095B2

One embodiment of a laser resonator comprises one or more laser resonator components, a container and an ozone generator. The laser resonator components include a non-linear crystal, a beam polarization combiner, an optical lens, a mirror and/or an optical grating. The container encloses the one or more laser resonator components. The ozone generator is configured to introduce ozone gas into the container.
US08428079B1

An integrated circuit configured to operate in a mobile device includes a discovery generator module. The discovery generator module is configured to generate a corresponding random value for each beacon interval. A discovery control module is configured to determine a duration of time of a given beacon interval in which the mobile device is to operate in at least one of an active mode and a sleep mode. The duration of time is based on the corresponding random value generated for the given beacon interval. A physical layer (PHY) device is configured to wirelessly transmit a discovery request signal during the time the mobile device is operating in the active mode. The mobile device is partially powered down or fully powered down during the time the mobile device is operating in the sleep mode.
US08428078B2

A mobile communication apparatus includes a storage unit that stores therein correspondence information correlating area and transmission resource; an area deducing unit that deduces in which area the mobile communication apparatus is located; a selecting unit that selects the transmission resource correlated, in the correlation information stored by the storage unit, with the area deduced by the area deducing unit; and a transmitter that using the transmission resource selected by the selecting unit, transmits data to a second mobile communication apparatus.
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