US08448477B2
Reciprocating laundry treating appliances are disclosed. An example laundry treating appliance includes a motor to rotate a drum about the horizontal axis of rotation and an axial drive mechanism to reciprocate the drum relative to the horizontal axis of rotation. The drum may be reciprocated to distribute laundry within the drum. The rotation and reciprocation may be independent and/or simultaneous.
US08448472B2
An I. S. Machine includes a blow station having a blow mold which closes to support a parison with the supported parison undergoing reheat and then being blown into a bottle. When reheat takes place air at low pressure is supplied to the blow tube to pressurize the interior of the parison to prevent the formation of a birdswing in a blown bottle. Air at a second pressure is supplied to the blow tube for blowing the parison into a bottle following reheat.
US08448464B2
A set consisting of several pairs of rings (1, 2), wherein each ring has a single raised pattern (11, 21) enabling it to fit together with one other ring of the set. The raised pattern is, for example, arranged on the edge (10, 20) of each ring. The ring is mounted on an adaptation ring (3, 4) so that it can be adapted to the diameter of the wearer's finger. The individual ring pairs are manufactured with the aid of a cutting program on a digitally controlled machine.
US08448462B2
A system and method for making ice is provided. The system for making ice may include a tray for containing water to be used for making ice, and an ice-making pipe positioned so that at least a portion thereof is submerged in the water contained in the tray. A refrigerant of relatively low temperature flows through the ice-making pipe during an ice-making process, while a refrigerant of relatively high temperature flows through the ice-making pipe during an ice-releasing process.
US08448460B2
A chiller bypass system is provided for deployment onboard a vehicle that includes a battery pack through which a first coolant is circulated. In one embodiment, the chiller bypass system comprises a chiller, a chiller bypass duct fluidly coupled to the battery pack and configured to supply the first coolant thereto, and a chiller bypass valve. The chiller bypass valve includes: (i) a valve inlet fluidly coupled to the battery pack and configured to receive the first coolant therefrom, (ii) a first valve outlet fluidly coupled to the chiller and configured to supply the first coolant thereto, and (iii) a second valve outlet fluidly coupled to the chiller bypass duct and configured to supply the first coolant thereto. The chiller bypass valve selectively directs coolant flow between the first valve outlet and the second valve outlet to adjust the volume of the first coolant cooled by the chiller.
US08448447B2
A gas turbine engine including a compressor section, a combustor section including a combustor, a turbine section, a gaseous fuel supply conduit with an upstream section and a downstream section, a fuel booster, and a heat exchanger is provided. The fuel booster is located in the gaseous fuel supply conduit. The fuel booster has a driving expander with a driving fluid inlet and a driving fluid outlet for discharging expanded air and a fuel compressor with a low pressure fuel inlet connected to the upstream section of the gaseous fuel supply conduit and a high pressure fuel outlet connected to the downstream section of the gaseous fuel supply conduit. The heat exchanger is located between the driving fluid on the one side and the gaseous fuel on the other side so that a heat transfer between the air and the gaseous fuel is possible.
US08448446B2
An actuating device for opening and closing at least one shutter in a gas turbine engine, such as a turbojet engine, includes at least one actuator made of a two-way shape memory alloy having a first stable state at a first temperature in which state it actuates either the opening or the closing of the shutter, and a second stable state at a second temperature, in which state it actuates either the closing or the opening of the shutter, respectively.
US08448445B2
A method is described for the start-up of a gas turbine comprising the phases of effecting a preliminary purging cycle of the discharge duct (28) of the turbine (20), establishing a predetermined minimum value (FSR1) for the flow of gaseous fuel entering the combustor (14) for a period of time which is adequate for effecting a first attempt at ignition and effecting a first attempt at ignition, effecting an intermediate purging cycle of the discharge duct (28), interrupting the flow of gaseous fuel to the combustor (14), and progressively increasing the value (FSRn) of the flow of gaseous fuel entering the combustor (14), effecting further attempts at ignition until the mixture of air/gaseous fuel has been ignited and the consequent start-up of the turbine (20), or until a predetermined maximum value (FSRmax) of the flow of gaseous fuel has been reached.
US08448444B2
A bracket for a combustor, and a method for mounting a transition piece in a combustor, are disclosed. The combustor has an impingement sleeve at least partially surrounding a transition piece and an outer casing at least partially surrounding the impingement sleeve. The bracket is mounted to the transition piece and connected to the outer casing. The method includes mounting a bracket to the transition piece, extending the bracket through an impingement sleeve, the impingement sleeve at least partially surrounding the transition piece, and connecting the bracket to an outer casing, the outer casing at least partially surrounding the impingement sleeve.
US08448443B2
A gas turbine combustor liner has at least one circumferential row of air holes adapted to supply air in a radial direction into a combustion chamber within the liner. One or more of the air holes have a thimble fixed therein, the thimble having a substantially circular body and a pair of lips extending from an interior end of the thimble in diametrically opposed upstream and downstream directions.
US08448439B2
An electric power plant supplies steam generated to a high-pressure turbine and a low-pressure turbine. The steam discharged from the low-pressure turbine is condensed with a condenser. Water generated with the condenser is heated with a low-pressure feed water heater and a high-pressure feed water heater. The steam extracted from the high-pressure turbine is supplied to the high-pressure feed water heater. The steam extracted from the low-pressure turbine is compressed with a steam compressor, and the steam whose temperature has been increased is then supplied to the high-pressure feed water heater. The feed water is heated in the high-pressure feed water heater by the steam extracted from the high-pressure turbine and the steam compressed with the steam compressor. Because the feed water is heated by the extracted steam and the compressed steam in the high-pressure feed water heater, the amount of power consumed by the steam compressor can be reduced.
US08448427B2
Systems, methods, and computer readable storage media are described in which exhaust gas is routed to a hydrocarbon retaining device during starting, and purged to the engine intake manifold. Various alternative approaches are described for controlling operation and diagnosing degradation. Further, various interrelated configurations are described.
US08448415B2
A halter having a continuous headstall strap that fits over the poll of the horse's head and includes a lead attachment ring at the bottom of the headstall strap.
US08448410B2
The present invention provides an improved building block formed of recycled straw stalks, a mold for forming the block, and a method of forming the block. The improved block provides a moisture and pest resistant building block having high dimensional tolerances and being capable of long term use without structural degradation.
US08448406B2
A method and system is provided for constructing a multilevel structure using a hybrid top chord bearing floor framing system. The method and system may include a top chord bearing floor truss positioned on a first frame structure. The top chord of the truss may include a load-bearing interface with a top surface and a bottom surface. The truss may be wholly supported by the load-bearing interface of the top chord. The method and system may further include a second frame structure on the top surface of the truss. The first frame structure may be secured to the second frame structure via a fastener that extends through both the second bottom load bearing member and load-bearing interface of the truss into the first top load bearing member of the first frame structure.
US08448405B2
A variety of roof mount sealing assemblies are disclosed. The roof mount sealing assemblies allow a user to mount rails for solar panels, signs, satellite dish or any other desired item on the roof and have the mounting location sealed against water. The roof mount sealing assemblies has a body with a recess for a flexible washer, which is attached to a bolt body (or formed with the bolt body) and threaded either down in a base plate or directly into the roof. The bolt body and body form a double stud assembly, which also holds a flashing onto the roof to provide further water proofing.
US08448403B1
A housing structure comprising a plurality of hollow blocks having an interlocking opening at the top and bottom; an interlocking handle at the front face; and a receiving cut-out at the rear face, left side, or right side; and wherein the plurality hollow blocks are configured to be vertically stacked to a desirable height and horizontally interconnected to form the base of the housing structure. The housing structure further comprising a plurality of gutter-like sections having an interlocking nozzle at the bottom; and an interlocking system at the left and right ends; and wherein the plurality of gutter-like sections are configured to be interlocked to the top of the housing structure to trap rain water or fill the hollow blocks. A tent-like section can be assembled in the center of the housing structure for forming the roof of the housing structure and aiding in the collecting of rain water.
US08448398B2
A vent includes an outer element including an outer perforated area having at least one perforation and an inner element having at least one perforation and a peripheral portion. The outer element and the inner element are separated by a distance to define a plenum between the outer element and the inner element.
US08448397B2
A cast concrete wall panel is secured to a concrete foundation by an anchor system which includes a steel base plate embedded adjacent the bottom surface of the wall panel and welded to a tapered channel projecting upwardly adjacent the inner surface of the wall panel to define a cavity. Reinforcing bars have bottom ends welded to the base plate and project upwardly into the concrete wall panel, and a hole is formed in the base plate at the bottom of the cavity. The hole receives a self-tapping concrete anchor bolt which is driven into a hole drilled within the foundation at an acute angle less than twelve degrees and preferably about six degrees from vertical. The channel has a removable cap to prevent concrete from entering the cavity during casting of the wall panel and to provide a decorative inside cover for the cavity after installing the anchor bolt.
US08448390B1
A system of suspended photovoltaic modules relative to a surface wherein modules are suspended generally parallel and spaced apart along the length of dual pairs of catenary cables. A hanger assembly permits initial attachment of a module during installation as the cables are mounted to the rear surfaces of the modules via mid clamp assemblies. End clamp assemblies attach the modules to the cables proximate stanchions having two spaced posts joined by cross beams, a top cross beam angled to define an inclined plane. The respective pairs of cables supporting the modules are joined with cable cross ties to form a catenary shape. The modules may be suspended in a generally consistent inclined plane or a slightly concave curve. The catenary cables and clips are sized and shaped to allow the modules limited sway movement as necessary to reduce stresses and forces during wind or other adverse weather events.
US08448389B2
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an acoustic laminate suitable for use in wall, floor and ceiling assemblies and other dividing structure assemblies, the laminate including: a viscoelastic acoustic barrier being in the form of discrete, spaced apart sections or a continuous layer; and a construction panel, the barrier affixed to one or more panel faces of the construction panel.
US08448377B1
A method and semi-permanent system for applying various pesticides within an interior space of a building structure includes a pipeline having a plurality of solenoid valves, each valve controlled by a microcontroller so that a predetermined amount of pesticide is distributed according to a predetermined, sequential timed firing sequence. The pipeline is installed external to an interior wall surface and may extend to areas far removed from the wall. A second pipeline supplies air to the solenoid valves and the microcontroller controls the flow of air to the valves so that an effective wet spray-cold aerosol fogging may be achieved. One or more sensors may be used to monitor the interior space of the building for purposes of safety. The entire system may be controlled through a computer interface, a network interface controller, a web-based interface, or a wireless device interface.
US08448375B1
The present disclosure is a bobber that has a front hollow cavity, a rear hollow cavity, and a middle hollow cavity separating the front cavity from the rear cavity, the middle hollow cavity having a first opening in a top portion of the middle hollow cavity and a second opening in a bottom portion of the middle hollow cavity. In addition, the bobber has an arm comprising a first end and a second end, the arm extending through the first opening and the second opening and fixedly connected to the middle hollow cavity, the arm attached at a first end to fishing line such that when water pressure is applied to the second end of the arm extending from the second opening the arm moves vertically causing bait attached to the fishing line to move vertically in a body of water.
US08448374B2
A gun sight base which is designed to allow the user to quickly adjust the elevation of the attached gun sight as a means to affect the trajectory of a projectile discharged from the host firearm. Provided is a removable, pre-calibrated adjustment cam which is in operational contact with the attached gun sight. A distance indicator is visible to the user to allow for rapid elevation adjustments without the need for tools.
US08448372B2
A method for shooting a projectile weapon involves determining the inclination of a line of sight from a vantage point to a target and a line-of-sight range to the target, then predicting a trajectory parameter at the line-of-sight range, for a preselected projectile. Using the trajectory parameter, an equivalent horizontal range may then be determined, wherein the equivalent horizontal range is the range at which the trajectory parameter would be expected to occur if the projectile were shot from the vantage point toward a theoretical target located in a horizontal plane intersecting the vantage point. The equivalent horizontal range may be utilized to compensate for ballistic drop when shooting the projectile weapon. The method may be embodied in a handheld laser rangefinder including a memory for storing ballistic data. Systems for automatic hold over adjustment in a weapon aiming device are also disclosed.
US08448370B2
Embodiments of the application can include a cleaning kit for a firearm and methods for using the same. Embodiments of a cleaning kit can include an elongated (e.g., flexible) shaft and different cleaning tips releasably attachable to and detachable from the shaft. First and second universal couplings can be respectively attached to ends of the shaft and cleaning tips to releasably attach the cleaning tips to the shaft. An adapter can have the first or second universal coupling on a first end and a retrofit coupler (e.g., internal or external threaded bore) on the second opposite end.
US08448368B2
The present invention is related to weapons systems. In particular, the present invention is directed to accessory attachment systems for rifles and small arms weapons that enable attached accessory devices to draw power from a central power source and communicate with the user and/or other devices.
US08448360B2
The interactive flap sensor activated greeting card of the present invention contains an audio module and a series of “window flaps” across the inside of the greeting card. When the greeting card is opened, a short audio prompt instructs the user to open a series of flaps inside the card to hear further audio messages or sound clips that correlate with the art work inside the card. When each flap is opened, a different audio file is played. The sound module is programmed to react to the card opening and then to trigger additional individual sounds each time one of the flaps of the card is opened. In another embodiment, the greeting card contains a series of flaps wherein opening one flap reveals another flap, and so on. Once the last flap is opened, a short audio recording is activated.
US08448352B2
A sole of a shoe for triple time walks and walking reform has a bottom surface which includes a front rolling portion, a middle rolling portion and a rear rolling portion, wherein the front, the middle and the rear rolling portions of the sole are slanted upwards at a predetermined angle of inclination and thereby form a substantially arc shape. The middle rolling portion is made of a rigid material having a rigidity substantially greater than the front and the rear rolling portions and the middle rolling portion protrudes from the bottom surface of the sole beyond the front and the rear rolling portions.
US08448337B2
A device for positioning a motor vehicle bodywork part, the bodywork part intended to be juxtaposed with a door of the vehicle, it being possible for the door to adopt an open position and a closed position on the vehicle. The positioning device includes elastic means capable of defining: a first position for the positioning device when the door is in the open position, and a second position for the positioning device when the door is in the closed position, during which the elastic means are deformed.
US08448336B2
An endless electrophotographic member, such as a developer roller, which indicates an improved resistance to nip banding. The improvement to nip banding may be provided by the use of an organic salt within a roller surface region. The roller may provide, at a nip location, a resistive surface layer having an electrical resistance that avoids the development of nip banding and relatively dark regions on printed media.
US08448332B2
Electronic modules are transported with respect to equipment for manipulating and testing electronic modules. The transport is formed from a thin support having openings for receiving electronic modules. A locating mechanism associated with the thin support serves to locate the support relative to transport and testing equipment. A mechanism is further provided for holding the received electronic modules within the openings during transport and testing.
US08448326B2
An electret accelerometer is provided in which a diaphragm, an electret, a back plate and an electronic circuit are placed in a casing and the casing is sealed to isolate the diaphragm from external acoustic signals.
US08448324B2
A method is disclosed for forming corrosion-resistant joints in a plurality of overlapping thin metal sheet workpieces, at least one of which comprises at least 85% by weight of magnesium sheets. The fastener is a fiber-reinforced polymer rod shaped and sized for insertion into a coaxial opening formed in each sheet and subsequently upset on each end to form a head. The workpiece sheets are deformed to form mechanically-interfering features which cooperatively complement the strength of the fastener, under at least some joint loading patterns. The method may be used for other workpiece and fastener compositions.
US08448316B1
A tool that can be held and operated with one hand to attach a corner bead to an outside corner of drywall includes a substantially V-shaped member having a pair of interior surfaces disposed at an angle of less than 100° and a frame or handle attached thereto. The handle may be sized and shaped to fit comfortably in the palm of a human hand. A pair of opposed pincers having pointed tips are pivotally mounted relative to the V-shaped member so as to allow the tips to move in a converging direction. A mechanical linkage system translates force applied to the handle into a converging motion of the pincers.
US08448309B2
The present invention relates to an aramid nonwoven fabric showing more improved tenacity and superior heat-insulating property, and a method of preparing the same.The aramid nonwoven fabric is what includes 10 to 100 wt % of para-aramid staple fibers and 0 to 90 wt % of meta-aramid staple fibers, and has an air permeability of 40 to 200 cm3/cm2/sec and an average pore size of 20 to 50 μm. Such aramid nonwoven fabric can be prepared by carding aramid fibers including the para-aramid staple fibers and the meta-aramid staple fibers so as to form a web, needle-punching the same, and water-punching the same with a prescribed water pressure.
US08448306B2
A tool accessory (10) for clamping a pair of multimeter probes allowing the probes to pivot relative to each other or separate from each other to be used separately for testing electrical components. The tool accessory (10) behaves as a pair tweezers. The tool accessory (10) utilizes a lock (16) that adjusts the angle of the probes. The lock (16) also biases the probes via pushing a pair of legs (12, 14) of the tool accessory (10).
US08448295B2
A vacuum cleaner having a base to move on a surface, an intermediate member having a first and second passages, and a first joint connecting the base to the intermediate member to permit relative rotation between the base and the intermediate member about a first axis that is generally parallel to the surface and perpendicular to a direction of movement. An air passage connects a base inlet to the first intermediate member passage. A second joint connects a handle to the intermediate member and permits rotation between the intermediate member and the handle about a second axis that is parallel to a nominal direction of movement of the vacuum. The handle has a grip a dirt collector to receive and separate dirt from air. First and second passages connect the intermediate member passages to the dirt collector inlet and outlet. A vacuum fan draws air into the base air inlet, through the intermediate member, through the dirt collector, through the second handle air passage, and back into the intermediate member. At least one of the first and second passages jointing the intermediate member to the dirt collector is a flexible hose that is offset from the second axis and is adapted to flex to permit the handle to rotate relative to the intermediate member.
US08448293B2
A wet extraction floor cleaning device having a base assembly adapted for movement on a surface being cleaned, an operating handle pivotally attached to the base assembly, a supply tank having a supply tank outlet, and a recovery tank having a recovery tank inlet and a recovery tank outlet. The base assembly has an inlet nozzle that extends from an inlet slit proximal the surface being cleaned to a nozzle outlet. The device further includes a fluid deposition assembly that can be selectively placed in fluid communication with the supply tank outlet, a vacuum source, and first and second external pockets. The supply and recovery tanks are adapted to be selectively placed in the first and second external pockets, thereby placing the supply tank outlet in fluid communication with the fluid deposition system, the recovery tank inlet in fluid communication with the nozzle outlet, and the recovery tank outlet in fluid communication with the vacuum source inlet.
US08448287B2
A toothbrush with a replaceable head formed to permit ready removal and attachment preferably without the use of a tool. The replaceable toothbrush head may advantageously be formed for coupling with a power toothbrush, particularly, a power toothbrush with a power element that protrudes from the toothbrush head. The replaceable toothbrush head thus preferably is formed to accommodate the power element. In a preferred embodiment, the replaceable toothbrush head is rotated about a rotation axis into engagement with the head of the toothbrush main unit. The replaceable toothbrush head may be moved axially along the rotation axis for alignment with an alignment axis. Preferably, the replaceable toothbrush head is moved axially into engagement with the power element for alignment for coupling with the toothbrush main unit.
US08448282B2
The mouthpiece (10) includes receiving portions for receiving teeth from the upper and lower jaws. The teeth receiving portions includes two side portions (26, 28) which are joined by flexible members (32, 34) to a front portion (30). The two side portions move laterally relative to the front portion by the flexible members to accommodate a variety of dental arch configurations.
US08448280B2
A bridge replacement method is disclosed. The bridge includes a deck supported by a pair of abutments, each abutment having wing walls. The deck is removed, footings are cast in holes dug behind each abutment and a pier is provided on each footing. Substantially parallel and coplanar cambered beams are provided. Each beam spans between and is supported by the piers. A brace assembly reinforces the beam camber. On each adjacent pair of beams, precast deck elements are placed, such that each element of said plurality spans the beam pair, to define at least transverse gaps between the elements and put the upper surfaces of the elements in compression in a transverse direction. The gaps are grouted. After grout curing, the brace is adjusted to reduce the beam camber and cause the upper surface of the elements to also be put into compression in a direction parallel to the beams.
US08448275B1
A pillow assembly with multiple configurations. The pillow assembly comprises a first elongate bolster pillow and a second pillow that is either a short cylindrical pillow or a wedge-shaped pillow. The two pillows are connected by an elastic panel, and the bolster pillow can be rolled up inside the elastic panel and snugged up to the side or end of the second pillow in a stowed position.
US08448268B2
A pool cover hanging assembly includes a plurality of pool cover hanging devices. Each pool cover hanging device includes a rim engaging element including a pool wall abutting portion, a horizontally adjustable member coupled to the pool wall abutting portion at a first end, and a vertically adjustable connecting member coupled to the horizontally adjustable member. Each device also includes a vertically extending rod having a top end and a bottom end, the rod lying parallel to the exterior surface of the pool sidewall and being coupled at the top end to the vertical member of the rim engaging element. A rack arm is removably coupled to the vertically extending rod, wherein the removable rack arm is adapted to support a pool cover in a stored position.
US08448266B2
A helmet having a first helmet portion and a second helmet portion disposed adjacent to said first helmet portion, with the portions being slidably connected to one another and slidable relative to each other. The second helmet portion has a restraint defining a passage. The first helmet portion has an opening exposing a portion of the restraint. A securing member is received in the opening of the first helmet portion and slidable between engaged and disengaged positions. A portion of the securing member extends through the opening toward the second helmet portion and is received in the passage when in the disengaged position. The securing member engages the restraint and prevents relative movement of the first and second helmet portions when in the engaged position.
US08453261B2
This microcircuit card includes means for detecting an attack on the card, command means (130) capable of charging a charge pump (120) capable of applying a programming voltage (UP) to command a write operation into a cell (110) of a nonvolatile memory when an attack is detected, and a capacitor (140) arranged so as to be supplied with power during normal operation and to supply said charge pump (120) with power only when an attack is detected. The card (100) being characterized in that said capacitor (140) also supplies power to the command means (130) when an attack is detected.
US08453256B2
An approach receives a request from a user, typically a change implementer, on a computer system. The request includes a user identifier and a requested action. A current timestamp corresponding to a computer system clock is retrieved. Scheduled changes are retrieved from a data store accessible by the processor. The current timestamp is compared to the scheduled change periods. The requested action is allowed if the comparison reveals that the current timestamp is within one of the retrieved scheduled changes, and the requested action is denied if the comparison reveals that the current timestamp is outside of the retrieved scheduled change periods.
US08453250B2
This invention provides an option management system, an option management method and a recording medium for a digital device which can charge expenses when an optional function is added, and is superior in the convenience and security. The option management system comprises a user terminal, a client terminal, and a digital device connected via a network to the user terminal and the client terminal, which performs a control process for validation or invalidation if a license key purchased by the user for an optional function of each software for monitoring, controlling and maintaining the device itself is inputted from the user terminal.
US08453244B2
A server, a user device, and a malware detection method thereof are provided. The server connects with the user device via a network, and records execution records of the user device. Based on the history of the execution records of the user device, the server can detect whether the user device has malwares or not accordingly.
US08453238B2
A method for protecting a key used, by an electronic circuit, in a symmetrical algorithm for ciphering or deciphering a message, including the steps of complementing to one the key and the message; executing the algorithm twice, respectively with the key and the message and with the key and the message complemented to one, the selection between that of the executions which processes the key and the message and that which processes the key and the message complemented to one being random; and checking the consistency between the two executions.
US08453233B2
In a method of and circuit for identifying and/or verifying the hardware and/or software of an appliance and of a data carrier, for example a smartcard, cooperating with the appliance, it is provided that a first unit (E1) for verifying the hardware and/or software of the appliance, in particular a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and a second unit (E2) for verifying and/or identifying and authorizing the external data carrier, in particular a Secure Application Module (SAM), are coupled for direct data exchange via a communication interface (17) of the central arithmetic units (2, 10), in order to reduce or eliminate the possibility of attack or manipulation.
US08453203B2
Methods and apparatus are described for facilitating communication among a plurality of entities via an interoperability network. Each entity has policy data corresponding thereto governing interaction with the entity via the interoperability network. A message is transmitted from a first one of the entities to a second one of the entities. The first entity has first policy data corresponding thereto and the second entity has second policy data corresponding thereto. The transmitted message was handled in the network according to combined policy data representing a combination of the first and second policy data.
US08453201B2
Methods and apparatus are described for facilitating communication among a plurality of entities via an interoperability network. Each entity has policy data corresponding thereto governing interaction with the entity via the interoperability network. A message is transmitted from a first one of the entities to a second one of the entities. The first entity has first policy data corresponding thereto and the second entity has second policy data corresponding thereto. The transmitted message was handled in the network according to combined policy data representing a combination of the first and second policy data.
US08453195B2
A program replacing method capable of updating a program by executing a temporarily downloaded program without deleting an existing program, as well as being capable of easily restoring such existing program. When a function not equipped to the existing program is required to be added, the program replacing method downloads a program so that it can be executed concurrently with the existing program.
US08453190B2
A user can create a video segment or employ an existing video segment, upload the segment to a server, indicate an advertisement to be associated with the video, and then send it to a recipient over a computer network. The user provides an indication that one or more particular video segments and advertisements are to be shared over the network. An identifier for the video segment is automatically created and the segment and the identifier are automatically uploaded to a host computer over the network such as the Internet. The video segment, the identifier (optionally with other identifying material such as an identity of the sender, and an advertisement selected by the sender can be stored at the direction of the host computer.
US08453180B2
A client-side multimedia content targeting system schedules the recording, storing, and deleting of multimedia content on a client system storage device. The invention accepts as input a prioritized list of program viewing preferences which is compared with a database of program guide objects that indicate when programs of interest are actually broadcast. The viewer may request that certain content be captured, which results in the highest possible priority for those content. The viewer may also explicitly express preferences using appurtenances provided through the viewer interface. Preferences may additionally be inferred from viewing patterns. The viewer's client system locally retains the viewer's preferences and other personal information that the viewer has entered and is sent targeting information relating to program guide objects by a server. Using the viewer's preferences and personal information, the client system creates a viewer profile, which is used with the targeting information by the client system to record content that is within the viewer profile. The invention's client-based form of targeting can be applied to almost any multimedia situation, including, but not limited to: TV shows, movies, advertisements, product and service offerings, music, radio, audio, etc.
US08453174B2
A television schedule system and method for displaying television schedule information on a television screen includes a program guide having a schedule information area that depicts the programs that are being presented on each channel at each time during the day. An input device allows the viewer to browse through the schedule information area and/or obtain more information about programs of particular interest. In one aspect, the viewer may watch a program on the currently-tuned channel, while browsing through the other channels on a portion of the television screen. In another aspect, the viewer may watch programs currently being shown on the television, while he or she browses through the program guide. In yet another aspect, the system includes a database, a processor and associated software for automatically customizing the television schedule guide to an individual viewer or a group of viewers, e.g., a family, to facilitate use of the television schedule.
US08453169B2
According to one embodiment, a video output device includes a receiver, a program guide obtaining module, an output signal processor, a user identification module, a view history storage module, and a program advice module. The receiver receives a broadcast signal of a program. The program guide obtaining module obtains program guide data. The output signal processor outputs a video signal of the broadcast signal to an output module. The user identification module identifies a user who is viewing the program. The view history storage module stores the program as view history in association with the user. The program advice module searches the program guide data for a recommended program similar to programs viewed by the user in the past using a keyword based on the view history and creates a program advice message suggesting the recommended program. The output signal processor outputs the program advice message to the output module.
US08453161B2
This disclosure describes a method and system that may enable fast, hardware-assisted, producer-consumer style communication of values between threads. The method, in one aspect, uses a dedicated hardware buffer as an intermediary storage for transferring values from registers in one thread to registers in another thread. The method may provide a generic, programmable solution that can transfer any subset of register values between threads in any given order, where the source and target registers may or may not be correlated. The method also may allow for determinate access times, since it completely bypasses the memory hierarchy. Also, the method is designed to be lightweight, focusing on communication, and keeping synchronization facilities orthogonal to the communication mechanism. It may be used by a helper thread that performs data prefetching for an application thread, for example, to initialize the upward-exposed reads in the address computation slice of the helper thread code.
US08453159B2
A system and method for monitoring information events partitions sets of information and processing steps into one or more workspaces. The workspaces include sharable portable specifications for implementing event monitoring by a plurality of users or computer systems. Workspaces may be bindable computing resources to establish controls between the computing resources and the workspaces.
US08453154B2
A method and system for managing one or more memory resources of a wireless handheld computing device is described. The method and system may include receiving a request to initiate a web browser module and receiving input for a web address. The method and system may also include receiving a file corresponding to the web address and reviewing one or more objects present within the file. The method and system may determine if an object already exists in the one or more memory resources. And if the object does not exist in the one or more memory resources, then the method and system may calculate a priority for the object. The priority of the object may then be assigned and stored. It may also be determined if the current object will exceed the threshold of the one or more memory resources, and discarding other objects with lower priority as needed.
US08453152B2
A scheduler receives at least one flexible reservation request for scheduling in a computing environment comprising consumable resources. The flexible reservation request specifies a duration and at least one required resource. The consumable resources comprise at least one machine resource and at least one floating resource. The scheduler creates a flexible job for the at least one flexible reservation request and places the flexible job in a prioritized job queue for scheduling, wherein the flexible job is prioritizes relative to at least one regular job in the prioritized job queue. The scheduler adds a reservation set to a waiting state for the at least one flexible reservation request. The scheduler, responsive to detecting the flexible job positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a selection of consumable resources available to match the at least one required resource for the duration, transfers the selection of consumable resources to the reservation and sets the reservation to an active state, wherein the reservation is activated as the selection of consumable resources become available and has uninterrupted use of the selection of consumable resources for the duration by at least one job bound to the flexible reservation.
US08453151B2
A method for executing an application on multiple nodes includes synchronizing a first clock of a first node and a second clock of a second node, configuring a first hypervisor on the first node to execute a first application domain and a first privileged domain, and configuring a second hypervisor on the second node to execute a second application domain and a second privileged domain. Configuring the hypervisor includes allocating a first number of cycles of the first clock to the first privileged domain. Configuring the second hypervisor includes allocating the first number of cycles of the first clock to the second privileged domain. The method further includes executing the application in the first application domain and the second application domain. The first application domain and the second application domain execute semi-synchronously and the first privileged domain and the second privileged domain execute semi-synchronously.
US08453147B2
Techniques for processing requests from a processing thread for a shared resource shared among threads on one or more processors include receiving a bundle of requests from a portion of a thread that is executed during a single wake interval on a particular processor. The bundle includes multiple commands for one or more shared resources. The bundle is processed at the shared resource(s) to produce a bundle result. The bundle result is sent to the particular processor. The thread undergoes no more than one wake interval to sleep interval cycle while the bundle commands are processed at the shared resource(s). These techniques allow a lock for shared resource(s) to be obtained, used and released all while the particular thread is sleeping, so that locks are held for shorter times than in conventional approaches. Using these techniques, line rate packet processing is more readily achieved in routers with multiple multi-threaded processors.
US08453146B2
A technique includes providing data indicative of a counted value acquired by a hardware counter of a processing core during a time segment in which a plurality of tasks are active on the core and, in a processor-based machine, determining a likelihood that the counted value is attributable to a given task of the tasks during the time segment and attributing a portion of the counted value to the given task based at least in part on the determined likelihood.
US08453142B2
A method comprises receiving a request for data from a client computer. The method further comprises obtaining an identifier of a virtual machine. The virtual machine identifier is associated with the requested data. The method further comprises providing the virtual machine identifier to the client computer.
US08453130B2
Memory management for object oriented applications during run time includes loading an object oriented application into a computer memory. The object oriented application includes a plurality of nodes in a classification tree, the nodes including key value pairs. The nodes are aggregated in the classification tree by a computer. The aggregating includes eliminating redundant keys and creating a composite node. The composite node is loaded into the computer memory. The plurality of nodes in the classification tree are removed from the computer memory in response to loading the composite node into the computer memory.
US08453125B2
The present invention provides a system, computer program product, and a computer implemented method for analyzing a set of two or more communicating applications. The method begins with receiving a first second application that communicates with each other during execution. Next, an initial input for executing the first application and the second application is received. The initial input is added to a set of inputs. An iterative execution loop is performed at least once. The loop begins with selecting inputs out of the set of inputs for execution. Next, using the selected inputs, the first and/or the second application is executed while information regarding the execution and information communicated to the other application are recorded. A set of one or more new application inputs for either applications is generated based the second application recorded information and the first application information. These new inputs are added to the set of inputs.
US08453121B2
A method and system for the management of tracing data of interest in a data processing system comprises identifying the location and length of one or more such units of interest as each unit is stored in main memory during execution of the program and recording a logical assignment of each unit of interest to a slot in a wrap around trace buffer. Copying of the units of interest to the trace buffer is deferred unless one or more predefined events occur. Such events may include an attempt to overwrite the data which has been logically assigned or a request for information stored in the trace buffer. The recorded assignments are discarded whenever it is calculated that the capacity of the trace buffer would be exceeded resulting in the corresponding units never needing to be copied to the trace buffer.
US08453116B2
In one embodiment, a computer system identifies a portion of software code that is to be verified using invariants. The computer system infers invariants from the software code portion at a join point. The linear inequalities of the invariants include a first abstract domain that includes linear equalities among variables, and a second, different abstract domain that includes intervals for variables. The computer system selects variables that are to be applied within the linear inequalities to form a linear equality and an interval based on the linear inequality and performs a reduction operation on the variables to determine the substantially tightest numerical bounds for the variable's interval. The computer system also performs a join operation of the first and second abstract domains, where the join results in a precise abstraction of various possible software program states at the join point in the software program.
US08453087B2
An approach is provided for preemptive design verification via partial pattern matching. Data corresponding to one or more problematic layout patterns associated with an integrated circuit manufacturing process is received. Data corresponding to a block of intellectual property including a layout design is received. At least a boundary of the layout design is scanned against the one or more problematic layout patterns. One or more partial matches of the one or more problematic layout patterns are identified at least at the boundary. Results are generated indicating the one or more partial matches.
US08453086B2
The invention described here is the methods of using a hardware-based functional verification system to mimic a design under test (DUT), under intended application environment and software, to record or derive the transition activities of all circuits of the DUT, then calculate the total or partial power consumption during the period of interest. The period of interest is defined by the user in terms of “events” which are the arbitrary states of the DUT. Furthermore, the user can specify the number of sub-divisions required between events thus vary the apparent resolution of the power consumption profile.
US08453083B2
A memory is encoded with data that represents a reference IC design, a retimed IC design, and logical relationships, wherein at least one logical relationship describes combinational logic without reference to structural information, such as actual cells that have been instantiated in the IC designs. The logical relationships are used to instantiate logic described therein, and to define one or more black boxes as being functionally inverse of the logic. Each instantiated logic and its functionally inverse black box are thereafter added to the reference IC design to obtain a transformed reference IC design. A transformed retimed IC design is also obtained by addition of the instantiated logic(s) and functionally inverse black box(es) to the retimed IC design. These two transformed IC designs are then supplied to an equivalence checker, for formal verification.
US08453079B2
Methods and systems for performing automated conversion of synchronous circuit design to asynchronous circuit design representations are described. A synchronous netlist may be generated from a synchronous circuit design. The synchronous netlist may include combinational logic gates and state-holding elements. The synchronous netlist may be converted to an asynchronous circuit design. The converting may include grouping the combinational logic gates by operations into functions.
US08453068B2
Some embodiments provide a credibility system including an interface portal for presenting a holistic view of entity credibility. To provide the holistic view, the credibility system aggregates credibility data from multiple data sources. The aggregated credibility data is processed and ordered to present different dimensions of entity credibility, with each dimension graphically presented in the interface portal through an interactive credibility module. In some embodiments, the credibility data associated with each credibility module is processed to produce at least one value that quantifiably represents the credibility data. In some embodiments, the credibility data associated with each credibility module is hierarchically ordered to present the credibility data in a drill-down fashion with each hierarchical layer presenting more detailed credibility data for better understanding the credibility data presented in the preceding layer.
US08453051B1
Tools and techniques for creating presentations via dynamic digital content (DDC) tools using a display dependent markup language interface facilitating dynamic content are described. The markup language, “DXyml”, identifies content elements, including dynamic content elements, for display and specifies pixel locations at which to position the content elements on a client device. Pixel locations are selected for particular screen configurations, allowing the presentations to be created in advance of being served to specific types of devices with the particular screen configurations.
US08453045B2
An apparatus for document conversion that are capable of facilitating conversion of document image data to an electronic document having table of contents data even with a limited storage resource. The document image analysis section 302 extracts character regions from a document image 301. The contents/index/footer conversion section 307 generates table of contents data based on the extracted character regions and page numbers of the character regions. An electronic document having a table of contents is generated based on the document image 301 and the generated table of contents data. Link information is added to respective ones of items in the generated table of contents data for linking the items in the generated table of contents data with corresponding positions in the electronic document in which the items are described.
US08453041B2
Obscuring information in messages to be exchanged over a communications network. In one aspect, the information comprises path name information and parameters for use in a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). In another aspect, the information comprises links and parameters used in forms, where hidden parameters are removed from a form and used as URL parameters. A compression dictionary is used to create a compressed form of the information. An identifier of the dictionary and an error detection code (such as a checksum) computed over the compressed information are concatenated with the compressed information, and this is encoded for sending on an outbound message. The original information is then recovered from an inbound message which contains the obscured information by reversing the processing used for the obscuring.
US08453038B2
A method for decoding an Error Correction Code (ECC) includes accepting coefficients, including at least first and second coefficients, of an Error Locator Polynomial (ELP) that is defined over a vector space and has at least one root that is indicative of a location of an error in a set of bits, which represent data that has been encoded with the ECC. The first coefficient is represented using a first basis of the vector space, and the second coefficient is represented using a second basis of the vector space, different from the first basis. Using processing circuitry, the root of the ELP is identified by applying algebraic operations to the coefficients, such that the algebraic operations are applied to the first coefficient using the first basis, and to the second coefficient using the second basis. The error is corrected responsively to the identified root of the ELP.
US08453035B1
The generation of Fletcher/Alder partial checksums are transformed from a space that requires integer multiplications and additions to a space that requires only integer additions and shifts on a single SIMD pipeline capable processor. This transformation permits the use of Fletcher/Alder checksums on processors where the performance of SIMD instructions are sub-optimal, on CMT processors that support a single SIMD pipeline as well as other processors that can be configured by executing software to implement SIMD operations for a single SIMD pipeline. The implementation of the process with this transformation on a general-purpose computer system transforms that general-purpose computer system into a special-purpose computer system that uses a single SIMD pipeline to generate a Fletcher/Alder checksum. The elimination of integer multiplications in the generation of the partial checksums results in a significant improvement in performance.
US08453030B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate transmitting low-density parity-check encoded communications in a wireless communications network and incrementing such codes in response to requests from receiving devices. The LDPC codes can have associated constraints allowing the codes to be error corrected upon receipt. The requests for incremented codes can be in cases of low transmission power or high interference, for example, where the original code can be too error-ridden to properly decode. In this case, additional nodes can be added to current and/or subsequent communications to facilitate adding a more complex constraint to the LDPC code. In this regard, the large codes can require less validly transmitted nodes to predict error-ridden values as the additional constraint renders less ambiguity in possible node value choices.
US08453025B2
A Scan-BIST architecture is adapted into a low power Scan-BIST architecture. A generator 102, compactor 106, and controller 110 remain the same as in the known art. The changes between the known art Scan-BIST architecture and the low power Scan-BIST architecture involve modification of the known scan path into scan path 502, to insert scan paths A 506, B 508 and C 510, and the insertion of an adaptor circuit 504 in the control path 114 between controller 110 and scan path 502.
US08453022B2
A method for generating a set of at least one row-specific reading threshold for reading at least portions of pages of data within an erase sector of a flash memory device, the method comprising predetermining at least one initial reading threshold; performing the following steps for at least one current logical page: generating bit error characterizing information regarding at least one corresponding bit error within at least one cell representing at least a logical portion of at least one successfully reconstructed previous logical page; and computing at least one row-specific reading threshold based on said bit error characterizing information and on a previous threshold initially comprising said initial threshold and subsequently comprising a row-specific reading threshold computed for a successfully reconstructed previous logical page; and reading at least a portion of said current logical page using said at least one row-specific reading threshold.
US08453019B2
A method of receiving data. A plurality of data signals and clocking signals are received over a source synchronous communication channel. The plurality of data signals is strobed with the clocking signal at a plurality of coarse time offset delays (e.g., time offset delays spanning over a data bit period). The plurality of error rates associated with the strobing at the plurality of coarse time offset delays is determined. Strobing design of a transmitting component (e.g., edge-strobed, center-strobed, etc.) may be determined based on the plurality of error rates. The error rates of the plurality of data signals strobed with a plurality of time offset delays close to the determined strobing design of the transmitting component is calculated. A time offset delay is selected based on the error rates. The plurality of data signals can be strobed with the selected time offset delay to recover the transmitted data signals.
US08453009B2
A storage apparatus connected to a storage device includes a storage module, a memory for storing data to be copied to the storage device, buffers for temporarily saving the data, redundantly, the saved data stored in one of the buffers being recoverable by the data stored in the rest of the buffers, and a control module for executing, storing the data of write request to the storage module and the memory, copying the data to the storage device, saving the data to the buffer when an using rate of the memory is greater than a predetermined rate, writing the saved data stored in the buffer to the memory when an using rate of the memory is not greater than the predetermined rate, detecting a failure of the buffers, and rebuilding the saved data stored in the one of the buffers based on an using state of the buffers.
US08453007B2
A storage device including a plurality of storage units for storing data dispersively among the storage units, includes: a processor for controlling boot-up of the storage units; and a memory for storing operation history indicative of the sequence of any failure causing any of the storage units to become inoperative, the processor controlling reboot-up of the storage units, when a plurality of the storage units becomes inoperative on account of a plurality of failures, in accordance with process including: determining the order of the reboot up of the storage units that is reversal of the sequence of the failures causing the storage units to become inoperative in reference to the operation history in the memory; rebooting the inoperative storage units successively in accordance with the determined order.
US08452982B2
A system can comprise a processor and a memory embodying an application. The application can comprise code that causes the processor to identify a client key embedded or hard-coded in the application (i.e., included as part of the code comprising the application). Additional code causes the processor to identify data to be accessed according to an encrypted license accessible through use of a machine key. The application can maintain the machine key in an encrypted state using the client key. The application can include code that causes the processor to determine if an encrypted version of the machine key accessible by the processor can actually be decrypted using the client key. If so, the client key can be used to access the machine key. If not, the processor can request a differently-encrypted version of the machine key from a migration service.
US08452981B1
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented method for author verification and authorization of object code. In one embodiment, program object code is linked with a plurality of data blocks to create linked object code and a MAP file. Thereafter, author verification is performed by executing a plurality of comparisons between the linked object code and the MAP file. In another embodiment, a digital signing procedure is performed on linked object code by creating a signature data block. The signature data block is then encrypted and written to the linked object code to create digitally-signed object code. In another embodiment, an application program embodied in linked object code generates a data packet. The data packet is then compared to a previously-generated signature data packet from the linked object code to determine if the linked object code is authorized.
US08452973B2
A method for generating a digital signature with respect to an electronic document, the method including: inputting a target electronic document and a corresponding digital signature σ; dividing the target electronic document into a plurality of partial documents mi; and when a revision of the partial documents is to be performed, in a case where deletion of the one partial document is to be performed, when sanitization is not prohibited, exponentiating the digital signature σ twice with a hash value Gi, when sanitization is prohibited, exponentiating σ with the Gi; in a case where sanitization is to be performed, replacing a partial document by Gi; in a case where deletion is to be prohibited, exponentiating σ with a hash value Hi; in a case where the sanitization is to be prohibited, exponentiating σ with Gi; and updating σ.
US08452972B2
Systems and methods are provided for protecting and managing electronic data signals. In one embodiment a strong watermark is inserted in a data signal that is divided into a sequence of blocks, and a digital signature for each block is embedded in the signal via a watermark. The signal is then stored and distributed. When attempts are made to use or access the signal, the signal is checked for the presence of a watermark containing the digital signature for the desired portion of the signal. If the watermark is found, the digital signature is extracted and used to verify the authenticity of the desired portion of the signal. If not found, the signal is checked for the presence of the strong watermark, which if found causes the system to inhibit further use of the signal, and if not found further use of the signal is allowed.
US08452961B2
A method and system for authentication between electronic devices with reduced user intervention is provided. An authentication process for electronic devices (e.g., CE devices) establishes ownership for secure communication, with reduced user involvement. Device ownership trust establishment allows secured/authenticated communication between electronic devices. The process binds a device to an owner such that the authentication only verifies the authenticity of a device, and verifies the ownership of the device to ensure authentication. This ensures that a device is a valid device that has not been tampered with, and ensures a device has a trusted owner. Ownership binding to a device can be verified and established by trusted third parties without user intervention.
US08452949B1
Booting an operating system from an externally attached storage device without forcing the user to change the boot order in the BIOS of a personal computer. The computer is booted from either an internal or external drive with removable media. A program that is resident on the removable media scans the computer system for any attached storage device with a bootable operating system. The user is shown a list of partitions on all attached devices with bootable operating systems and a user is prompted to pick one of the operating systems to boot. The software program then loads the boot loader from the master boot record of the selected partition and transfers control of the microprocessor to the boot loader allowing it to complete the boot sequence.
US08452944B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a first pipeline having first nodes, and moving data held in each first node to a first node located in a first direction; a second pipeline having second nodes corresponding to the first nodes, and moving data held in each second node to a second node located in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction; a first comparison unit arranged to compare data held in a node of interest with data held in a second node corresponding to the node of interest, where the node of interest is one of the first nodes; and a second comparison unit arranged to compare the data held in the node of interest with data held in a second node located one node on an upstream or downstream side of the second node corresponding to the node of interest.
US08452942B2
An instruction is provided to perform invalidation of an instruction specified range of segment table entries or region table entries. The instruction can be implemented by software emulation, hardware, firmware or some combination thereof.
US08452941B2
This disclosure provides a method for assigning data in an information handling system including a plurality of physical storage resources comprising a first tier and a second tier which has a lower performance and cost relative to capacity than the first tier. A tier manager may be hosted on the information handling system and in electronic communication with the plurality physical storage resources. The tier manager may, for each page: determine a seek distance value, determine an operation rate, determine an operation size value, determine an elapsed time value, and calculate a relative randomness value using the seek distance value, operation rate, operation size value, and elapsed time value determined for each page. A classification module may assign a physical location for each page such that the relative randomness value for each page in the first tier is greater than in the second tier.
US08452937B2
A data storage device includes a controller and a non-volatile memory coupled to the controller. The non-volatile memory includes executable boot code that is executable by a processor associated with the data storage device. The controller is configured to read a first portion of the executable boot code from a first region of the non-volatile memory, and in response to detecting a condition, move a second portion of the executable boot code in a second region of the non-volatile memory to a third region of the non-volatile memory.
US08452934B2
A method of controlling data access to non-volatile memory is disclosed. The method includes storing a data file in a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory includes a memory array including a plurality of address ranges one or more of which corresponding to a protected portion of the memory array and one or more of which corresponding to an unprotected portion of the memory array. The method also includes communicating to a host device an indication that a memory request with respect to the protected portion of the memory array is denied. The indication is communicated for instructing the host device to avoid a timeout when the memory request is denied.
US08452918B2
A Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) controller for controlling read and write operations of a DRAM includes a storage unit and a control unit. The storage unit stores a first predetermined size of data including data written into the DRAM in response to a previous partial write request, and stores the corresponding store addresses of the first predetermined size of data in the DRAM. The control unit, in response to a read request, determines whether there exists any address in the store addresses equal to a read address of the read request, and read data corresponding to the read address from the storage unit when there exists same address in the store addresses equal to the read address.
US08452908B2
A device applies synchronous clocking across a first component and a second component of the device, and designates a particular serial link, from a group of serial links, as a master serial link. The device also designates the remaining serial links as slave serial links, provides, via the master serial link, an encoded data stream, and provides, via the slave serial links, un-encoded and scrambled data streams.
US08452906B2
The disclosure provides an HVAC data processing and communication network and a method of manufacturing the same. In an embodiment, the network includes a system device and a subnet controller. The system device is adapted to provide a service and publish a message including a device status vector representing an availability of the system device to provide the service. The subnet controller is adapted to receive the message from the system device including the device status vector via a data bus.
US08452895B2
A control unit assigns an IP address to a new terminal apparatus which has approved of the participation. When a server, to which an IP address is assignable, is contained in the ad-hoc network, the control unit instructs the new terminal apparatus to access the server. When the server, to which an IP address is assignable, is not contained in the ad-hoc network and when the new terminal apparatus is capable of assigning an IP address on its own, the control unit instructs the new terminal apparatus to assign an IP address. When the server, to which an IP address is assignable, is not contained in the ad-hoc network and when the new terminal apparatus is not capable of assigning an IP address on its own, the control unit assigns an IP address to the new terminal apparatus.
US08452892B2
According to one embodiment, a scheduling apparatus sends queries to communication modules in buildings and receives facility information measured at monitor-control points from the communication modules. As for each communication module, a network address, a waiting time to receive the facility information after sending a query, and a connection with the monitor-control points, are stored. When a service request indicating at least one monitor-control point is received, queries each including the network address of a communication module connected with a monitor-control point indicated by the service request, are generated. A priority of each query is decided based on the waiting time corresponding to the communication module. Each query is added to a first send queue or a second send queue based on the priority. When queries are sent, a timing to send from the first send queue is same as or earlier than a timing to send from the second send queue.
US08452889B2
Various embodiments of network performance assessment apparatus, systems and processes collect performance information pertaining to a current capacity utilization of a network, identify an occurrence of a capacity constraint on a portion of the network that is communicating the program to at least one presentation device, and modify at least one characteristic of the program and/or the communication thereof over the network so that a total capacity utilization of the network is less than a peak capacity of the network.
US08452888B2
A message flow controller limits a process from passing a new message in a reliable message passing layer from a source node to at least one destination node while a total number of in-flight messages for the process meets a first level limit. The message flow controller limits the new message from passing from the source node to a particular destination node from among a plurality of destination nodes while a total number of in-flight messages to the particular destination node meets a second level limit. Responsive to the total number of in-flight messages to the particular destination node not meeting the second level limit, the message flow controller only sends a new packet from among at least one packet for the new message to the particular destination node while a total number of in-flight packets for the new message is less than a third level limit.
US08452887B1
Disclosed are system, methods and computer program products for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio recordings. In one example embodiment, the system includes an audio management server that stores and distributes through various third-party websites audio clips, such as voice, music, sounds, and other recordings made by system users. The audio clips can be recorded by system users directly through a central website hosted by the server. Alternatively, the audio clips can be recorded on various third-party websites using audio widgets provided by the audio management server. In addition, the recorded audio clips can be shared on various other third-party websites, such as blogs, social networking sites, celebrity sites and the like, using the audio widget provided by the server.
US08452874B2
Generally described, the present disclosure is directed to managing request routing functionality corresponding to resource requests for one or more resources associated with a content provider. The processing of the DNS requests by the service provider can include the selective filtering of DNS queries associated with a DNS query-based attack. A service provider can assign DNS servers corresponding to a distributed set of network addresses, or portions of network addresses, such that DNS queries exceeding a threshold, such as in DNS query-based attacks, can be filtered in a manner that can mitigate performance impact on for the content provider or service provider.
US08452864B1
Techniques are described which simplify and/or automate many of the tasks associated with the configuration, deployment, and management of network resources to support cloud-based services.
US08452855B2
A system and method for presentation of media related to a context. A request is received over a network from a requesting device for media related to a context, wherein the request comprises at least one criteria. A query is formulated based on the context criteria so as to search, via the network, for user profile data, social network data, spatial data, temporal data and topical data that is available via the network and relates to the context and to media files so as to identify at least one media file that is relevant to the context criteria. A playlist is assembled via the network containing a reference to the media files. The media files on the playlist are transmitted over the network to the requesting device.
US08452852B2
A presence system provides information services, such as lottery information, stock quotes, entertainment information, travel information and delivery information, to users. The presence system includes a presence server for collecting and storing presence information on an information provider that provides an information service to users. The presence information includes real-time service information enabling the information provider to provide the information service to the users. Upon receiving updated presence information including the real-time service information from the information provider, the presence server provides the real-time service information to the users.
US08452845B2
Compute nodes of a parallel computer organized for collective operations via a network, each compute node having a receive buffer and establishing a topology for the network; selecting a schedule for a broadcast operation; depositing, by a root node of the topology, broadcast data in a target node's receive buffer, including performing a DMA operation with a well-known memory location for the target node's receive buffer; depositing, by the root node in a memory region designated for storing broadcast data length, a length of the broadcast data, including performing a DMA operation with a well-known memory location of the broadcast data length memory region; and triggering, by the root node, the target node to perform a next DMA operation, including depositing, in a memory region designated for receiving injection instructions for the target node, an instruction to inject the broadcast data into the receive buffer of a subsequent target node.
US08452843B2
A data communication system performs transmission and reception of data by token passing and updates data by an arithmetic process of data transmitted to and received from a slave station. The data communication system includes a management master station that updates data of slave stations, and a local station that updates data of slave stations. The management master station performs a data update when a token frame destined to the management master station is received, and the local station determines a destination of token frames transmitted from the slave stations, and performs a data update when a destination is the management master station.
US08452838B2
A multimodal service establishing method is provided which is capable of achieving flexible combinations of a plurality of service contents. At least one integrated server is installed between a plurality of terminal devices and service servers of a plurality of types. A session establishment processing unit and service linking processing unit are mounted in the integrated server. The session establishment processing unit establishes multimodal service session between terminals and service servers. After the establishment of multimodal service session, the service linking processing unit provides new service obtained by linking and integrating service to be provided by service servers, that is, multimodal service to terminal devices.
US08452825B2
The invention comprises methods for manipulating floating point numbers on a microprocessor where the numbers are sortable. That is, the numbers obey lexicographical ordering. Hence, the numbers may be quickly compared using bit-wise comparison functions such as memcmp( ). Conversion may result in a sortable floating point number in the form of a sign, leading bits of the exponent, and sets of digit triples in the form of declets (sets of 10 bits). In a variable-length version, numbers may be compressed by storing the number of trailing zero declets in lieu of storing the zero declets themselves.
US08452817B1
Example embodiments provide various techniques for updating an old data structure configured to store metadata associated with database systems. In this method, a temporary data structure is created. Additionally, a new data structure representing an update of the old data structure is created. The metadata from the old data structure are copied to the temporary data structure, and the temporary data structure is transformed to match the new data structure. The metadata from the transformed temporary data structure are copied to the new data structure. The transformation of the temporary data structure instead of the old data structure may enable an application that is not being updated to be operational and to access the old data structure during the update. After the metadata is copied to the new data structure, a new version of the application is then able to access the new data structure.
US08452814B1
Applications can be localized by localization experts to allow them to be used by a broader customer base. The localization can be done given interface context to produce more applicable results. Context information showing the actions captured as the application is in use can be given to a localization expert by providing the localization expert multiple snapshots of the application in use. The multiple snapshots can convey more information than other forms of context information as they can show use over time. A localization edit based on the multiple snapshots can be used to localize an application.
US08452812B2
A system for accessing, by a resource, a setting in a virtualized user profile includes an isolation environment, a resource, and a filter driver. The resource executes outside an isolation environment on a local machine and requests access to a setting in a user profile. The filter driver intercepts the request for access and identifies one of the isolation environment and a remote machine, responsive to an application of a rule to the request. The filter driver redirects the request to the one of the isolation environment and the remote machine. A method includes intercepting an instruction from a resource to modify a setting on a local machine, the resource provided by a local machine and executing outside of an isolation environment. The method includes identifying the isolation environment, responsive to an application of a rule to the instruction. The method includes redirecting the instruction to the isolation environment.
US08452811B2
A method for creating networking database containing a plurality of records for different individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the database by mutual recognition of a relationship. This mutual recognition of a relationship is inferred by the possession of the Guest Key of one member by the other member. This paradigm for network expansion allows users to proactively grow their networks both using the site features and using tools they may be more familiar with, such as email, messaging, talking, etc.
US08452801B2
The disclosed embodiments relate to a multimedia data encoding/decoding method and apparatus. In some aspects, a decoding method comprises receiving multimedia data which comprises a file type area including information regarding a format of a file, a media area including a video data area and a audio data area, a media information area including a video track area and a audio track area respectively corresponding to the video data area and the audio data area, a file information area including identification information and position information regarding media data in the media area, and a menu description area including description data for displaying a menu, the menu providing an interface between a user and media data in the media area; displaying the menu using the description data; and decoding media data extracted from the media area based on the menu, wherein the media information area further comprises a media meta area which includes creation information regarding a plurality of media contents included in the media area and is on a same level as the video track area and the audio track area, the creation information comprising information regarding at least one of a title, an artist, a clip description, a user comment, and a file date of each of the media contents, and the media area, the media information area and the menu description area are incorporated into a single file. The disclosed embodiments include a multimedia data encoding/decoding method and apparatus can construct a multi media data file including a plurality of video/audio contents and description data for a menu between a user and media data. Thus, a time taken to process and transmit the multimedia data can be reduced.
US08452799B2
A system receives a search query, determines whether the received search query includes an entity name, and determines whether the entity name is associated with a common word or phrase. When the entity name is associated with a common word or phrase, the system generates a link to a rewritten query, performs a search based on the received search query to obtain first search results, and provides the first search results and the link to the rewritten query. When the entity name is not associated with a common word or phrase, the system rewrites the received search query to include a restrict identifier associated with the entity name, generates a link to the received search query, performs a search based on the rewritten search query to obtain second search results, and provides the second search results and the link to the received search query.
US08452797B1
This disclosure describes systems and associated processes for generating recommendations for users based on usage, among other things. These systems and processes are described in the context of an interactive computing system that enables users to download applications for mobile devices (such as phones) or for other computing devices. Users' interactions with applications once they are downloaded can be observed and tracked, with such usage data being collected and provided to the interactive computing system. The interactive computing system can include a recommendation system or service that processes the usage data from a plurality of users to detect usage patterns. Using these usage patterns, among possibly other data, the recommendation system can recommend applications to users for download.
US08452792B2
Techniques for defocusing queries over big datasets and dynamic datasets are provided to broaden search results and incorporate all potentially relevant data and avoid overly narrowing queries. An analytic component can receive queries directed at one region of a dataset and analyze the queries to generate inferences about the queries. The queries can then be defocused by a defocusing component and incorporate a larger dataset than originally searched to broaden the queries. The larger dataset can incorporate all, or a part of the original dataset and can also be disparate from the original dataset. Clusters of queries can also be merged and unified to deal with ‘local minima’ issues and broaden the understanding of the dataset. In other embodiments, dynamic data can be monitored and changes tracked, to ensure that all portions of the dataset are being searched by the queries.
US08452784B2
An approach is provided for presenting search information based on search parameters including a specified search region. Input parameters graphically specifying a search region on an image of a map are received. The input parameters include a height parameter and the search region corresponds to one or more search criteria. A search based on the criteria is caused, at least in part, according to the specified search region to output a search result. Presentation of the search result is caused, at least in part, within the search region.
US08452782B2
Provided is a text mining device that performs an analysis properly with respect to a difference between plural related document data. Equipped are an element extracting section 140 that extracts language elements from related two or more document data respectively; a differential processing section 150 that extracts a difference between the document data by comparing the elements between the document data which were extracted by the element extracting means 140; and a statistical processing section 170 that performs statistical processing on the difference extracted by the differential processing section 150. The differential processing section 150 has: element associating section 151 that associates respective elements which are in identical, similar, synonymous, or analogous relation by comparing the elements of the document data between the document data which were extracted by the element extracting section 140; and differential element extracting section 152 that extracts an element with no corresponding element of a pair in the association by the element association section 151.
US08452780B2
A context-aware targeted information delivery system comprises a mobile device, an MMR matching unit, a plurality of databases for user profiles, user context and advertising information, a plurality of comparison engines and a plurality of weight adjusters. The mobile device is coupled to deliver an image patch to the MMR matching unit which in turn performs recognition to produce recognize text. The recognized text is provided to a first and second comparison engines to produce relevant topics and relevant ads. The relevant topics and relevant ads are adjusted with information from a user context database including information such as location, date, time, and other information from a user profile. The third comparison engine compares the relevant topics and relevant ads to produce a set of final ads that are most related to the topics of interest for the user and delivered for display on to the mobile device.
US08452778B1
A classifier training system trains adapted classifiers for classifying videos based at least in part on scores produced by application of text-based classifiers to textual metadata of the videos. Each classifier corresponds to a particular category, and when applied to a given video indicates whether the video represents the corresponding category. The classifier training system applies the text-based classifiers to textual metadata of the videos to obtain the scores, and also extracts features from content of the videos, combining the scores and the content features for a video into a set of hybrid features. The adapted classifiers are then trained on the hybrid features. The adaption of the text-based classifiers from the textual domain to the video domain allows the training of accurate video classifiers (the adapted classifiers) without requiring a large training set of authoritatively labeled videos.
US08452777B2
Indicating preference for a content contribution is disclosed. A request for information associated with the content contribution is received from a first entity. The status of the content contribution is determined. A response is provided to the first entity. Determining the status of the content contribution includes determining whether a submission of the content contribution was previously received.
US08452774B2
A method and system for splitting a text document into individual sentences using sentence boundary detection, and establishing co-relationships between terms which are present in the same sentence. A document corpus, or collection of text records, is provided, containing text with terms to be extracted. The text records in the document corpus are divided into individual sentences, using a set of rules for sentence boundary detection. The individual sentences are then analyzed to extract and correlate terms, such as parts and symptoms, symptoms and actions, or parts and failure modes. The correlated terms are then validated based on frequency of occurrence, with term pairs being considered valid if their frequency of occurrence exceeds a minimum frequency threshold. The validated term correlations can be used for fault model development, document classification, and document clustering.
US08452766B1
An improved duplicate detection technique that uses query-relevant information to limit the portion(s) of documents to be compared for similarity is described. Before comparing two documents for similarity, the content of these documents may be condensed based on the query. In one embodiment, query-relevant information or text (also referred to as “snippets”) is extracted from the documents and only the extracted snippets, rather than the entire documents, are compared for purposes of determining similarity.
US08452765B2
An electronic communication system is controlled by a content service provider to return relevant information from a content specific database in response to a user query. The content service provider compiles a plurality of content specific databases, each dedicated to a category of information of interest to the user. The user registers a user profile with the content service provider. A query, including the selected content specific database, is transmitted from the user to the content service provider. The selected content specific database is searched for the first level query within context of the user profile. A menu of matches is generated from the content specific database for the first level query. The menu is organized by relevance scores assigned to the matches based on correspondence to the first level query. The menu is transmitted from the content service provider through the electronic communication network to the user.
US08452764B2
A computer-based search engine for performing a search for a keyword, comprising a result responsive to a search, a database comprising a plurality of terms organized by categories wherein at least one of the categories includes the keyword, and relational ones of the plurality of terms to the keyword; a heuristic engine comprising a plurality of rules which, when executed by a processor, applies the rules in accordance with the relational ones of the plurality of terms to a networked site to assess the keyword as a primary subject of the networked site.
US08452760B2
According to one embodiment, a relevancy presentation apparatus includes a storage, an extraction unit, a first expansion unit, a second expansion unit, a determination unit and a generation unit. The storage stores topic networks. The extraction unit extracts subject keywords. The first expansion unit acquires first relevant words from the topic networks. The second expansion unit searches an ontologies for the subject keywords. The determination unit extracts common relevant words, and determines whether frequencies of appearances of relevant words are stationary. The generation unit generates search queries based on whether the frequencies of appearances are stationary, and generates search results.
US08452754B2
A tool facilitating static analysis for database applications, such that the static analysis tool (SAT) can significantly enhance the ability for developers to identify security, correctness and performance problems in database applications during the development phase of an application lifecycle. A static analysis tool for database applications presents a framework for database applications using the ADO.NET data access APIs. The SAT framework consists of a core set of static analysis services upon which verticals such as workload extraction, SQL injection detection, identifying data integrity violations, and SQL performance analysis are built using the core services.
US08452752B2
Methods, systems, and computer-storage media having computer-usable instructions embodied thereon, for prioritizing crawl lists based on social networking rankings are provided. Various scores are associated with users based on a variety of factors including activity levels with respect to social networking services, activity levels with respect to search engines, and interactions with other users in a social networking environment. The scores are used to compute a ranking for the users and, based on the rankings, a crawl list is prioritized such that content associated with the social networking environment is crawled at an appropriate time.
US08452748B1
A method for search engine optimization of a website includes analyzing a website component of the website, making a determination that the website component lacks the search engine optimization, obtaining, from a financial application of a user, a first attribute specific to the user specified by a rule for search engine optimization, generating, using the rule, a suggestion comprising the first attribute based on the determination that the website component lacks search engine optimization, and presenting the suggestion to the user. The method further includes receiving an acceptance of the suggestion from the user, and updating the website component with the suggestion in response to the acceptance.
US08452744B2
Systems and methods for scanning files for pestware on a protected computer are described. In one variation, when a file on a storage device is inaccessible via an operating system of the protected computer, a listing of a plurality of pointers for the file is located on the storage device. Each of the plurality of pointers in the listing points to a corresponding one of a plurality of locations on the storage device, and the storage device stores each of a plurality of portions of data for the file at a corresponding one of each of the plurality of locations. One or more of the plurality of portions for the data are accessed and analyzed, while the operating system continues to limit access to the file via the operating system, so as to determine whether the file is a pestware file.
US08452734B2
A computer device (2010) has a file system having clusters and meta data. The computer device (2010) includes a processor (1030) and a storage (1025) coupled to the processor and having physical representations of instructions so that the processor is operable to reserve (230) at least one of the clusters and to create a log record when meta data for the file system is to be updated by a write (240) of such meta data beforehand to such a reserved cluster, and then set (250) at least one state entry to substantially represent readiness to write the meta data to the file system.
US08452730B2
A method of archiving a set of source tables in a database system. Each source table has a plurality of rows. Initially, a consistency point for the set of source tables is established. The database system creates a log record for each change (insert, modify, or delete) effected to a row of the source tables subsequent to the consistency point. Substantially all source table rows are copied to an archive (a data storage object that is external to the database system). Then the accumulated log records for the affected source tables are distilled and appended to the archive.
US08452725B2
The present invention discloses methods, systems, and tools for knowledge processing by building maps of ontological subjects for compositions or the contents accompanying a request for service by a user. In one embodiment of the invention the method assigns and calculates an ontological subject power spectrum to each composition or ontological subject. The resulting power spectrum and the adjacency matrix of the map are used to evaluate the merits of the compositions in the context of reference universes. It is also used as a research guiding tool for knowledge discovery. The invention serves knowledge seekers, knowledge creators, inventors, discoverer, as well as general public by assisting and guiding users to assess their work, identify their unknowns, optimize their research trajectory, and provide higher quality contents. The method and system, thereby, is instrumental in increasing the speed and efficiency of knowledge acquisition, discovery, retrieval, as well as faster learning and problem solving.
US08452724B2
Techniques for generating reports from cached data are provided. When a report is requested, a date and time when data in the report data cache was generated is compared with a date and time when data was collected by each of one or more data collectors that gather data used to generate the report data. If one of the data collectors has collected data since the data for the report in the report data cache has been updated, the data for the requested report will be regenerated from the data collected from each of the data collectors associated with the report and the regenerated data inserted into the report data cache. Subsequent requests for the report can be satisfied by generating the report using the data stored in the report data cache rather than regenerating the report data each time a request for a report is received.
US08452723B2
Disclosed is a user interface on a display for editing data transformations comprising an ETL process. A first display area presents a data representation of a data transformation. A second display area presents a view of input data, and a third display are presents a view of output data. User input to modify the data transformation is received. In response to receiving the user input, the third display area is updated with output data generated by applying the modified data transformation to the input data.
US08452720B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for facilitating user interaction in web-related activities. In one embodiment, the method comprises monitoring a user's current interaction with a browser, predicting a task a user is likely to take based on a current interaction context associated with the user's current interaction and one or more rules previously generated based on one or more previously recorded browser interactions, and generating, based on the prediction, and displaying a user interface component with the browser, the user interface component selectable by the user and representing an interaction (or a sequence of interactions) that the user can select to occur.
US08452717B2
A collaborative work environment is provided that supports collaboration among users for performance of a people service that is associated with ad-hoc activities. An information base is provided that includes information relating to responsibilities of the users and work items for the ad-hoc activities. An interactive guidance structure is presented in the collaborative environment to guide actions of the users with respect to the work items. Materials produced as a result of the actions to update the information base are collected.
US08452708B1
A computerized universal payment method to allow merchants with differing risk tolerance, transaction fee tolerance, and payment time tolerance to optimize customer payment transactions that have different risks, transaction fees, and transaction times. Here customer payments are converted to a synthetic financial account (a universal payment account) that acts somewhat like a financial marketplace between a plurality of merchants and customers. The method adjusts for the risks, transaction fee, and payment times associated with a customer's particular mode of payment, as well as adjusting for the merchant's tolerance for risks, transaction fees, and payment times, as well as optionally the merchant's knowledge about the customer. Thus, given permission, a customer paying by a high commission credit card, may upon merchant election have this payment converted to a low commission electronic check, and vice versa. Various electronic transaction headers, point-of-service, electronic market, and customer permission factors are also discussed.
US08452705B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which a method includes attributing a value to a pre-paid payment instrument, determining an expiration time associated with the pre-paid payment instrument, and automatically return an un-used portion of value associated with the pre-paid payment instrument at the expiration time to the purchaser.
US08452700B2
Systems and methods are provided that allow a financial instrument to be structured so that the underlying borrowed principal is callable, putable, or both. In one example, a Range Accrual Mortgage is structured so that the underlying borrowed principal is a mortgage that is callable, putable, or both by embedding into the loan structure a rate put option, and by permitting correlative adjustments to the outstanding loan principal. The invention lends symmetry to the interest rate behavior of certain borrowings by making explicit the pricing and market value of options that were previously only implicit in the borrowing structure. For example, a mortgage in accordance with the invention should provide incentives for either the homeowner or the bank to refinance the mortgage and should do so whether interest rates rise or fall, and no matter what path interest rates follow from the inception of the instrument until its maturity.
US08452697B2
Computer-implemented options can be negotiated between two parties, addressing a financial term of a transaction, which financial term is subject to change before it becomes a fixed obligation of the parties. Disclosed embodiments implementing the options include a template for associating data indicating a desired price lock with data indicating a customer identity; a data structure; a database recorded on a computer readable medium; a programmed computer system; a self-executing option agreement; a method or machine for establishing a price lock for a future transaction; methods for calculating and hedging risk exposure resulting from accepting a portfolio of such options; and a computer-aided method for producing an asset-backed security backed by a multiplicity of loans.
US08452694B2
The present disclosure is directed to facilitating pricing, sales and delivery of a commodity. In one embodiment, a Fuel Offer Generator facilitates the purchase and management of fuel offerings. The Fuel Offer Generator allows Customers interested in securing fuel to obtain an offer for fuel at lock-in prices for various tenors. Fuel Customers may later exercise the fuel offers so their fuel costs are locked-in at desired levels. The Fuel Offer Generator may generate hedges to counteract fuel related risks stemming from fuel offer purchases. A customer that purchases a fuel offering can exercise their fuel offering order at a specified price and redeem any difference between the market price for their purchased fuel and the price specified in their fuel offering order. The Fuel Offer Generator employs a geographical fuel pump location metric as well as consumer purchasing behavior to establish the pricing of fuel offerings.
US08452691B2
Electronic commerce over a computer network is facilitated by a computer system that forms a community of computers that enable the users to buy and sell items in an online marketplace. To list the item on an online marketplace website, for example, the selling user posts an item with a seller marketplace item management website by completing an online-item marketplace item creation form. The form requires input related to the item, such as a description, sale price or minimum bid, shipping instructions, and the like, and an image file or image file location illustrating the marketplace item. The seller marketplace item management server provides a marketplace administrator server the marketplace item data including original image file or image file location. The server contains a random image size generator that generates at least two additional images of the marketplace item for display in a seller marketplace item web page to advertise the marketplace item.
US08452685B2
A process for enrolling individual participants in financial products or services or a means of determining knowledge of and competency regarding service provider advice using performance scores from a psychometric testing instrument to determine whether individual participants understand the risks of their choices. As an individual's score increases on the test, a larger array of choices become available allowing greater opportunity for financial product, service or advise customization. This screening process benefits the individual by limiting choices where risks are not properly understood. Additionally, the use of the test as a screener to curtail unsuitable choices affords investment custodians, investment advisors or other providers a mechanism to demonstrate that they have properly exercised their fiduciary duty.
US08452672B2
The invention discloses a method for managing the hardware device including the hardware device manufacture and management. Steps of the manufacture: Get the RFID internal serial number; Generate the hardware ID number according to the said RFID internal serial number; Generate the external sequence number of hardware according to the said RFID internal serial number; Manufacture the hardware device with RFID internal serial number, hardware ID number and external sequence number. Steps of management: Create the user database by the said RFID internal serial number; Manage the hardware device by indexing RFID internal serial number, hardware ID number or external sequence number. In the present invention, the RFID internal number is read directly by the RFID reader. The operation is simplified by ignoring the copy and online read. RFID is used for managing the hardware device; which improves the anti-counterfeit capability of the information security device as well.
US08452668B1
There is disclosed a system functional for operating and updating an interactive voice response self care system which utilizes various types of models. The system is capable of improving the performance of the self care system through updating the models used in that system in a closed loop manner. The system is also potentially configured to utilize input from a human agent, such as a customer service representative, to which a customer call is transferred by a self care system.
US08452666B2
A system and method enables sellers to define a secret shared with an on-line payment provider when listing an item or service for purchase. Consumers deposit funds into an on-line escrow or holding account before committing to a financial on-line transaction or purchase. Once an item is located, the consumer may contact the seller for additional information. By placing funds in escrow, the seller may be more willing to spend the time and effort to deal with the consumer. The consumer, in turn, receives more information to make a purchasing decision. If the transaction is to be completed, the consumer instructs the payment provider maintaining the escrow account to release the funds to the seller's account. The seller is notified by the payment provider, where the notification includes the secret. This enables the seller to authenticate the confirmation message.
US08452664B2
The present invention provides a method for verifying customer addresses before using those addresses in an asset tracking system. More specifically, the enhanced asset tracking system can accept multiple characteristics of the location. An operator or GIS system can check that these descriptors are identifying the same location. If descriptors do identify a same location, then the operator or GIS system can allow the location information to pass to the assets.
US08452663B2
Embodiments of the present invention improve data processing, and in particular, improve rule engines for data processing and improve processing auto-ID data. In one embodiment, the present invention includes a gateway layer between a auto-ID device layer and an auto-ID node layer for processing data. The gateway layer may incorporate a rule engine for processing data. In another embodiment, the present invention includes a rule processor where rules are activated and deactivated automatically to reduce system overhead. In another embodiment, the rule engine is composed of multiple services that can be omitted if they are not needed for the processing of a given rule set to reduce the footprint and resource consumption of the rule engine.
US08452662B2
A prepaid card processor receives data for a line of credit for a prepaid card from a lending institution computer. The prepaid card processor makes available draws to the line of credit line on behalf of the lending institution computer in an authorization stream for a proposed purchase using the prepaid card as payment. When the line of credit is accessed, the processor loads the prepaid card with an additional value equal to one or more preselected loan increments so that the prepaid card then has a new amount totaling a previous amount plus the amount of value of the one or more preselected loan increments and so that the new amount exceeds or equals the value of a proposed purchase. Then the processor notifies the lending institution so that the line of credit balances on the lending institution computer and the prepaid card processor are kept in sync.
US08452660B2
A system and method for enhanced security for a self-checkout system is disclosed where predicted weights of items are used to predict the total order weight. The predicted total order weight is compared to an actual weight of the order based on a weighing of the total order, and an output provided indicating whether the comparison is within acceptable limits or if a security alert or attendant assistance is needed.
US08452656B2
Ads are reviewed manually once they have reached a certain expected revenue threshold (instead of attempting to review manually all incoming ads as was done in the past). This review process considers the fact that the many advertisers submit hundreds or even thousands of ads with each individually returning relatively little revenue. Such a review process should greatly reduce the number of ads, or at least to prioritize the order of ads, pending manual approval. The threshold may be set to the approximate cost of manually approving an ad, thereby reducing ad reviews pending manual review significantly. A classification of the ad (e.g., forbidden, suspicious, unchecked, an ad category, etc.), which may be determined by automated means for example, may also be used when prioritizing the order of ads pending manual approval. Revenue-based scores may also be used to control a review of an advertisement. For example, such scores may be used to select one of a plurality of review protocols.
US08452655B2
Methods and systems to facilitate real time communications and commerce via a social network. In one embodiment, a social network is used to provide information about an advertiser to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the advertiser to potential customers. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request from a customer for a document; and providing the customer with an advertisement embedded in the document, the advertisement including information to identify an advertiser of the advertisement based on a social network. In one embodiment, the presentation of the advertisement or the advertiser is at least partially based on the social network. In one embodiment, communication references are provided to facilitate the requests for real time communications with a member of the social network via a connection provider, which performs scheduling, filtering, payment processing, etc. for the member of the social network.
US08452647B2
A system and method for operating a reward points accumulation and redemption program wherein a user earns reward points from a plurality of independent reward points issuing entities, with each tracking the user's earned reward points in a user reward point account stored on a multi-function card (such as a frequent flyer account or a credit card loyalty account). The multi-function card is adapted to aggregate some or all of the user's earned reward points from the reward accounts and credit the aggregated points into a single reward exchange account on the multi-function card. The user may then select an item for purchase with the accumulated reward points from the multi-function card. The item is provided to the user in exchange for a subset or all of the reward points from the multi-function card.
US08452644B2
A radio beacon for a wireless road toll system including a transceiver, which is arranged for packet-type radio communication with onboard units of passing vehicles; at least one camera for recording an image of a passing object; and a control device connecting to the transceiver and the camera. The control device is configured to measure, in conjunction with the transceiver, the number of data packets received per unit time from a specific onboard unit and to actuate the camera to record an image of the object carrying this onboard unit, in the case of a number exceeding a threshold value.
US08452640B2
Systems and methods are provided that record details and analytics about a sales call presentation. Presentation materials are stored in the form of digital content in a memory. A first user interface is provided to allow a presenter to select a presentation, and a second user interface is provided to allow a presenter to enter details about the sales call. Analytical data of the presentation is recorded in real-time and the analytical data is stored in a memory, wherein the analytical data is used in part to assess the success of the presentation.
US08452625B2
Provided herein are systems, methods and machine-readable media for interfacing with computer flight systems. For example, one embodiment is described wherein an unknown and/or changing inventory of aircraft, potentially including aircraft owned or operated by third parties, is managed to provide flight schedules, fare structures, and reservation inventories to computer flight systems. Another embodiment is described wherein aircraft inventory is allocated dynamically and/or adjusted in real-time in response to bookings of seats on aircraft flights in the flight schedule. Another embodiment is described wherein aircraft inventory may be changed by suppliers of aircraft, including changes to costs for using a portion of the inventory (e.g., using an aircraft for a day), and a management system may modify booking class inventories on one or more flights in the flight schedule in response.
US08452623B2
A computer system accesses payroll-related insurance premium data at an individual employee level and provides the data at the individual employee level, including cost of insurance at the individual employee level, on a client device. A computer system compares stored data with payroll data and identifies employees lacking occupation classification information for payroll-based premium determination. The computer system provides a fillable form on a user device for the user to provide occupation classification data, and receives the occupation classification data. The computer system provides fillable forms on a user device for a user to provide payroll data for receipt by the system, runs business rules on the received payroll data, determines premiums for payroll-based insurance coverage.
US08452622B1
A pension insurance plan method involves administering claims made against a pension debt coverage policy provided in the plan. The policy protects an outstanding balance of a defined contribution plan loan secured by participant's plan assets, eliminating adverse tax consequences to the plan beneficiary in the event of the death or disability of the participant and ensuring that the full plan account balance passes intact to beneficiary in such event.
US08452621B1
A system, method and computer readable storage medium for receiving, from a user, a selection of a model to perform a loss reserve calculation, receiving, from the user, a selection of actual data directly from a workbook of a spreadsheet application to be input into the model selected to perform the loss reserve calculation, performing a model fitting calculation based on the model selected and the actual data to generate model fitted results, performing a plurality of simulations, wherein each simulation is based on the model fitted results and random re-sampling with replacement for the actual data and generating loss reserve statistics based on the plurality of simulations.
US08452620B1
The provision of parametric D&O insurance and reinsurance policies is afforded by systems and methods for determining one or more parametric indices of the risk arising from aggregate litigation activity, which risk is correlated with the financial exposures (e.g., payment cash flows) of the insureds' exposed to such claims, and of the insurers who provide primary D&O insurance coverage. A parametric index is for a given policy is determined from a set of parameters that define the type, scope, timing of litigation activity for the index, as well as details how the index values are determined from the underlying litigation exposure. The system and method further determine whether payments are due under such a policy and their amounts.
US08452619B2
A computer based method and system for masked data record access are presented in which data masks are applied to sensitive personal information so that non-masked portions of that information can be used in the selection of products, services and service providers for a consumer. In one application the method and system are utilized in the selection of healthcare products, services and providers based on pangenetic (genetic and epigenetic) and non-pangenetic information associated with the consumer.
US08452616B1
A site computer includes a database for manipulating and handling health care records. A communication device, coupled to the site computer and the database, receives commands, which are provided to the site computer and the database to perform various functions, including creating, displaying, modifying, and initiating organization of the health care records. The health records can be automatically transmitted to interested persons upon creation of the health records. Upon detection of the occurrence of threshold events as indicated in the health records, the site computer automatically transmits notifications to interested persons.
US08452609B2
Among other things, the preferred embodiments provide a computer system whereby Coders can quickly and efficiently review, manage and modify patient record documentation electronically via a graphical user interface (GUI) provided on a computer display or monitor. In this manner, the Coder(s) can create electronic data files and Charge Reports that are used, e.g., by facilities to effect billing to patients and to prepare documentation to seek reimbursement from medical facilities.
US08452604B2
Recognizable visual and/or audio artifacts, such as recognizable sounds, are introduced into visual and/or audio content in an identifying pattern to generate a signed visual and/or audio recording for distribution over a digital communications medium. A library of images and/or sounds may be provided, and the image and/or sounds from the library may be selectively inserted to generate the identifying pattern. The images and/or sounds may be inserted responsive to one or more parameters associated with creation of the visual and/or audio content. A representation of the identifying pattern may be generated and stored in a repository, e.g., an independent repository configured to maintain creative rights information. The stored pattern may be retrieved from the repository and compared to an unidentified visual and/or audio recording to determine an identity thereof.
US08452602B1
A spoken utterance includes at least a first level of a multi-level command format, in which the first level identifies an application. The spoken utterance may also include a second level of the multi-level command format, in which the second level identifies an action. In response to receiving the spoken utterance at a computing device, a representation of the application identified by the first level is displayed on a display of the computing device. If the spoken utterance includes the second level of the multi-level command format, the action identified by the second level is initiated. If the spoken utterance does not include the second level of the multi-level command format, the computing device waits for a predetermined period of time and provides at least one of an audible or visual action prompt if the second level is not received within the predetermined period of time.
US08452600B2
An electronic reading device for reading ebooks and other digital media items combines a touch surface electronic reading device with accessibility technology to provide a visually impaired user more control over his or her reading experience. In some implementations, the reading device can be configured to operate in at least two modes: a continuous reading mode and an enhanced reading mode.
US08452598B2
The system and method described herein may provide advertisements in an integrated voice navigation services environment. In particular, one or more advertisements may be identified based on affinities among a current location associated with a navigation device and shared knowledge and information used to interpret natural language utterances that relate to a navigation context, wherein the one or more advertisements may then be presented via a multi-modal output. As such, the shared knowledge and the information relating to the navigation context may provide the system and method with dynamic awareness relating to context, available information sources, domain knowledge, and user behavior and preferences, among other things, which may be used to deliver targeted and contextually relevant advertisements in the integrated navigation services environment.
US08452594B2
A method and a system for processing dictated information into a dynamic form are disclosed. The method comprises presenting an image (3) belonging to an image category to a user, dictating a first section of speech associated with the image category, retrieving an electronic document having a previously defined document structure (4) associated with the first section of speech, thus associating the document structure (4) with the image (3), wherein the document structure comprises at least one text field, presenting at least a part of the electronic document having the document structure (4) on a presenting unit (5), dictating a second section of speech and processing the second section of speech in a speech recognition engine (6) into dictated text and associating the dictated text with the text field.
US08452593B2
A projection apparatus with speech indication and a control method thereof are provided. The projection apparatus comprises a storage unit, a transmission interface, a process unit, and an output unit. The storage unit is configured to store a plurality of speech data. The transmission interface is configured to connect to an external apparatus for accessing the storage unit. The process unit is configured to select at least one of the speech data according to the present state of the projection apparatus. The output unit is configured to output the selected speech datum to broadcast the speech indication.
US08452592B2
Provided are a signal separating apparatus and a signal separating method capable of solving the permutation problem and separating user speech to be extracted. The signal separating apparatus separates a specific speech signal and a noise signal from a received sound signal. First, a joint probability density distribution estimation unit of a permutation solving unit calculates joint probability density distributions of the respective separated signals. Then, a classifying determination unit of the permutation solving unit determines classifying based on shapes of the calculated joint probability density distributions.
US08452589B2
An embodiment of the present invention is a method of storing a speed contour for use in playback of at least a portion of an audio or audio-visual work including: (a) generating one or more speed contours and/or average speed contours and/or democratic speed contours for the audio or audio-visual work; (b) storing the one or more speed contours and/or average speed contours and/or democratic speed contours in a database; and (c) associating retrieval information with the one or more stored contours in the database.
US08452587B2
Provided is an encoder which can decode a high-quality stereo signal while keeping the amount of information in the bit allocation information to a minimum when a scalable coding technique is used for a stereo signal. In the encoder, a principal component analysis (PCA) converter converts the left signal and the right signal of the stereo signal and generates the main signal of the first layer and the sub-signal of the first layer. In the first layer to the M-th layer (where M is a natural number, 2 or greater), an adaptive residual encoder compares the importance of the main signal of the m-th layer, where m is a natural number from 1 to M, and the importance of the sub-signal of the m-th layer, selects the signal having the higher importance, encodes the selected signal, and generates the encoded data of the m-th layer. From the first layer to the M−1-st layer, the adaptive residual encoder generates the signal obtained by subtracting the decoded signal of the encoded data of the m-th layer from the selected signal as the main signal of the m+1-st layer, and generates the unselected signal as the sub-signal of the m+1-st layer.
US08452583B2
A method and associated apparatus for using visual separators to indicate additional character combination choices from a disambiguation function on a handheld electronic device.
US08452581B2
A method for estimating power consumption of a design block of an integrated circuit includes obtaining power consumption data from designs of older-generation microprocessors, selecting a set of power consumption parameters, applying a curve-fitting technique on the obtained power consumption data for the selected set of power consumption parameters, creating a new power consumption model based on the curve-fitting technique and one or more of the power consumption parameters, using the model at a register transfer level of a newer-generation microprocessor to represent estimates of register transfer level power consumption of the newer-generation microprocessor, and outputting the register transfer level power consumption estimates based on the model.
US08452580B2
A computer-implemented method and system for simulating reservoir property trends, including petrophysical trends within facies geobodies, is provided. One embodiment includes discretizing a range of values of the reservoir property to be modeled into at least two categories and utilizing the categories to discretize the associated well data and training image into categorical well data and a categorical training image. An embodiment includes applying MPS simulation using the categorical training image on a stratigraphic grid of nodes discretizing the reservoir volume to create a categorical property model. The embodiment additionally includes applying variogram-based simulation in each sub-region of the categorical property model to create a reservoir property model that reproduces the category histogram of each associated sub-region and models the reservoir property trends.
US08452573B2
An emission estimation apparatus running a program configured to perform a method of calculating the amount of carbon generated during the life span of a structure by displaying a graphical user interface stored in the memory of the apparatus which is configured to gather structural information pertaining of the structure, receiving structural information from the graphical user interface into the memory of the apparatus which includes information pertaining to the size, types of material used in the structure and structural aspects of the structure, generating an estimated amount of carbon generated from the use of each type of material to construct the structure and the labor used to construct the structure based on the structural information received by the processor, estimating, by the processor, the types and amounts of material and labor required to repair the structure after a destructive event occurs based on a calculated probability and magnitude of a destructive event occurring, generating an estimated amount of carbon emitted as a result of the materials used and the labor required to repair the structure after the destructive event occurs, and displaying the total estimated amount of carbon emitted due the construction and repair of the structure on a display unit.
US08452569B2
A simulation system for predicting a likelihood of whether a target object positioned in an environment will be detected by a detection system when illuminated by a laser source. The simulation system may be used for a laser rangefinder application and a laser designator application. The simulation system may provide a detection probability of the target object at a specified range to the detection system or a plurality of detection probabilities as a function of the range to the detection system. The simulation system may provide an indication of an overlap of the beam provided by the laser source on the target object. The simulation system may determine the effect of vibration on the detection of the target object at a specified range.
US08452565B2
A method for calibrating a high frequency measurement device having N measurement ports, where N is an integer ≧1, in particular a vector network analyzer, for determining scattering parameters of a measurement object with an n-port measurement, where n is an integer ≧1, wherein a high frequency test signal is fed into a first electrical lead connected to the measurement object or to a circuit having the measurement object, wherein for each port, an HF signal running on a second electrical lead, connected to the measurement object is coupled out from the second electrical lead at a first coupling position and at a second coupling position placed at a distance from the first coupling position, wherein from the two HF signals coupled out, in each port, for each measuring site or coupling site, an amplitude and/or a phase, relative to the HF test signal, of an HF signal running on the second electrical lead to the measurement object and of an HF signal running on the second electrical lead away from the measurement object are determined and therefrom, scattering parameters of the measurement object are calculated.
US08452554B2
Various methods and apparatus report energy usage status by a networked device. In response to a request, a set of power usage data is retrieved from a non-volatile memory located within the networked device, the power usage data having been previously stored in the non-volatile memory in advance of positioning the networked device for normal use. The set of power usage data includes information related to energy usage of the networked device. The networked device calculates a best estimate of the energy usage status of the networked device based on the set of power usage data retrieved from the non-volatile memory, without measuring electrical parameters of a power source of the networked device during normal use. The best estimate of the energy usage status by the networked device is then sent over the network as a reply to the energy usage status request.
US08452550B2
Disclosed herein is a method of analyzing load-settlement characteristics of a top-base foundation. The method includes the step of inputting properties of a material of a top base, a basic size of footing configuration, and a load of a structure, the step of inputting the kind of ground and a base ground thickness, the step of determining an influential depth and a load dispersion angle depending on the kind of ground, the step of inputting properties of the ground, the step of determining an immediate settlement amount of the ground, and the step of determining a total settlement amount. The method according to the present invention can precisely determine settlement taking into account footing configuration. Furthermore, the method calculates the settlement taking into account consolidation settlement when the ground is cohesive soil ground or top-cohesive-soil and bottom-sandy-soil ground. Thus, the settlement can be precisely determined.
US08452540B2
An earthquake damage spread reducing method and an earthquake damage spread reducing system, for use in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, which can predict occurrence of an earthquake and prevent fall down of a boat, thus minimizing damage by the earthquake. An earthquake damage spread reducing system includes a receiving unit for receiving urgent earthquake information, based on preliminary tremors, distributed via a communication network, or alternatively, includes a preliminary tremors detection unit for directly detecting the preliminary tremors. A control unit performs a first step of stopping operation of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, based on the urgent earthquake information received or on the preliminary tremors detected, as well as performs a second step of holding a boat in order to prevent fall of the boat, in which objects to be processed are loaded in a multistage fashion.
US08452528B2
An object of the invention is to provide a visual recognition area estimation device that can accurately estimate an area recognized by a driver in real time. The visual recognition area estimation device of the present invention calculates the visual recognition area recognized by the driver by means of the visual recognition area calculation portion 11 based on the eyes of the driver, and estimates a time series visual recognition area as the area currently recognized by the driver by means of the visual recognition time space map creation portion 14 based on histories of a plurality of visual recognition areas calculated from the past to the present for a predetermined time. In this manner, by estimating the time series visual recognition area also including the past visual recognition area, the area currently recognized by the driver can be accurately estimated, and the eyes of the driver are not correlated with the obstacle but based on the standard area. Thus, it is possible to prevent the throughput from becoming too large, whereby the estimation processing in real time is possible.
US08452524B2
A method is presented for recognizing traffic-related information (I) in a driving motor vehicle, in which sensor data (B) from a sensor and map data (K) from a navigation system are interpreted for recognition purposes, wherein the sensor data (B) is inspected in a first scene interpretation for the presence of traffic-related information (I) and is compacted to relevant sensor data (Br), the map data (K) is inspected in a second scene interpretation for the presence of traffic-related information (I) and is compacted to relevant map data (Kr), and the relevant sensor data (Br) and relevant map data (Kr) is fed to a regulator for interpreting the sensor and map data, wherein the regulator evaluates the sensor data (Br) and the map data (Kr) and then issues an output signal which corresponds to the evaluation.
US08452511B2
A motorized wheelchair includes left and right drive wheels, left and right motors, rate-of-turn sensor, first and second speed sensors, and controller arranged to combine signals from the sensors in a manner that detects drift. Alternatively, the motorized wheelchair includes left and right drive wheels, left and right motors, first and second rate-of-turn sensors, and controller arranged to combine signals from the sensors in a manner that compensates for voltage offset errors. In another arrangement, the motorized wheelchair includes left and right drive wheels, left and right motors, first and second rate-of-turn sensors, input device, and controller arranged to combine signals from the sensors and input device in a manner that controls the motors using an integrated turn rate error. Several methods for controlling each wheelchair configuration are also provided. These methods process signals associated with desired, expected, or actual turn rate to determine if the wheelchair is off course.
US08452508B2
An assembly controls brakes on beds for use in healthcare facilities. The bed comprises at least one caster device supporting a base frame in relation to a supporting surface. The caster device has a caster brake. A brake control assembly is operatively engageable with the caster brake to engage the caster brake. The brake control assembly comprises a sensor for sensing a status condition of the caster brake. A controller is connected to the sensor. The controller causes engagement of the caster brake when the sensor senses the status condition for a predetermined period of time.
US08452504B2
A vehicle drivetrain can include various structures, such as a multi-ratio transmission, a two-speed final drive assembly connected in series with the multi-ratio transmission and including a low speed final drive ratio and a high speed final drive ratio, a pair of front driveshafts driven by the two-speed final drive assembly, a pair of rear driveshafts, a rear differential assembly connected to the two-speed final drive assembly, and a control assembly including. The control assembly can include a controller in electrical communication with portions of the rear differential assembly, such as a variable displacement pump and purge valve. An input array can be in electrical communication with the controller and can include a plurality of sensors, and at least one switch accessible to an operator of the vehicle. Various related methods can also be executed for control and operation of such a drivetrain. The methods can incorporate a number of variables in order to control the drivetrain, and the variables can include but are not limited to road grade, vehicle acceleration, vehicle speed, presence of towing apparatus, road surface conditions, switch condition(s), etc.
US08452503B2
In a transmission control device with a control unit, to eliminate a tooth-on-tooth position in a transmission shifting unit, a transmission clutch is adjusted to a nominal clutch value. In at least one operating mode, the control unit is designed to specify a prescribed clutch value, which is independent of any intermediate clutch value setting.
US08452496B2
A system and method for automatically identifying, locating, and tracking a cotton module that eliminates the necessity of physically marking or tagging the cotton module, such system and method using information such a location of the cotton module and a heading of a harvesting vehicle and a transport vehicle.
US08452494B2
Method and system for improving curtain air bag deployment using an actuator attached to a headliner
The present invention is a method and system for improving curtain air bag deployment using an actuator attached to a headliner. The present invention can include an automobile having a roof, a headliner, an actuator, a curtain air bag, a door, a sensor, and/or a processor. The roof can also include a roof rail. The roof rail and the headliner enclose the curtain air bag. The actuator is attached to the headliner. The sensor is located within the door and detects collision data. The processor analyzes the collision data to determine when to deploy the curtain airbag. In deploying the curtain airbag, the processor activates the actuator, which reduces the overlap between the headliner and the roof rail. The curtain airbags deploys by either pushing through the reduced overlap between the headliner and the roof rail or by easily forming through a gap between the headliner and the roof rail.
US08452491B2
An in-vehicle apparatus is disclosed. The in-vehicle apparatus is configured to perform a timer operation, acquire vehicle state information, and control the timer operation of the timer means in such manner that: the in-vehicle apparatus starts the timer operation when determining based on the vehicle state information that a condition for starting the timer operation is satisfied; and the in-vehicle apparatus stops the timer operation when determining based on the vehicle state information that a condition for stopping the timer operation is satisfied.
US08452488B2
A memory readout system comprised of a vehicle control device and a readout device to be detachably connected to the vehicle control device. The readout device reads out dialogue information stored in a built-in nonvolatile memory in the vehicle control device when connected to the vehicle control device and a predetermined certification condition is satisfied. The vehicle control device is comprised of the built-in nonvolatile memory and a dialogue information readout unit. In particular, the nonvolatile memory has a un-rewritable area which allows a dialogue information writing, but inhibits a dialogue information deletion. The dialogue information readout unit reads out the dialogue information stored in the un-rewritable area when a password certification judges that the readout device is an authorized one, and then transfers the dialogue information to the readout device.
US08452485B2
A method for preparing error entries of the user of a data bus in a motor vehicle is provided. When an error is detected, the detecting user is put into an error state and outputs an error message to a second user, a request to prepare an error entry is output by the second user to the detecting user after receiving such an error message as a function of at least one predefined condition, and an error entry is instigated by the detecting user in case of receiving such a request.
US08452483B2
A cell-based vehicle driving control system includes a local server for obtaining road environment information on roads within a cell and target vehicle information on a target vehicle within the cell and generating local waypoints based on the road environment information and the target vehicle information; a global server for monitoring the target vehicle information, the road environment information and local server information on the local server received from the local server; and a vehicle control terminal, mounted in the target vehicle, for receiving the local waypoints from the local server and controlling the target vehicle based on the local waypoints. The road environment information is obtained by using at least one sensor installed on the roads.
US08452471B2
A process for operating a hybrid vehicle in an internal-combustion-engine-driven mode and/or in an electric-motor-driven mode, wherein, on a route section to be traveled and considered for driving in the electric-motor-driven mode, a change to the electric-motor-driven mode will take place only when a threshold value is exceeded which represents, or correlates with the efficiency advantage achievable on the route section by a change from the internal-combustion-engine-driven mode to the electric-motor-driven mode. Starting from the instantaneous position of the hybrid vehicle, the route is examined in an anticipatory manner with respect to such a route section, wherein the threshold value is adapted when such a route section was recognized and a driving through the route section in the electric driving mode would likely lead to a lowering of the state of charge of an electric energy accumulator into a critical state of charge range.
US08452470B2
The present invention relates to a system and a method for starting control of a hybrid vehicle which secures robust drivability when the hybrid vehicle starts. A method for starting control of a hybrid vehicle according to another aspect of the present invention may include: deciding a target torque according to starting demand; analyzing an engaging state of a clutch; calculating a clutch slip torque in a case that the clutch slips; requesting correction of an engine output torque according to the clutch slip torque; and correcting the engine output torque through control of air amount and feedback control of ignition timing according to the correction request of the engine output torque.
US08452466B2
A method for detecting railway vacancy is provided. The method includes sensing, at a remote sensing unit positioned proximate to a railway, a presence of a railcar traversing the railway. The method also includes storing, in real-time, at the remote sensing unit, a sensing event indicative of the sensed presence of the railcar traversing the railway and transmitting, asynchronously from the time at which the presence of the railcar was sensed at the remote sensing unit, the stored sensing event to a master accumulation unit.
US08452463B2
A computing system has a thermal manager that changes a power consuming activity limit in the device based on an estimate of temperature of a target location in the system. There are several temperature sensors that are not at the target location. An estimator computes the target location temperature estimate using a thermal model and, as input to the thermal model, data from the sensors. The thermal model produces different estimates of the target location temperature at different ambient temperatures but without computing or measuring the ambient temperatures. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08452457B2
The current application is directed to intelligent controllers that continuously, periodically, or intermittently calculate and display the time remaining until a control task is projected to be completed by the intelligent controller. In general, the intelligent controller employs multiple different models for the time behavior of one or more parameters or characteristics within a region or volume affected by one or more devices, systems, or other entities controlled by the intelligent controller. The intelligent controller collects data, over time, from which the models are constructed and uses the models to predict the time remaining until one or more characteristics or parameters of the region or volume reaches one or more specified values as a result of intelligent controller control of one or more devices, systems, or other entities.
US08452449B2
A position control method for controlling a position of a movable portion, includes: performing control of allowing the movable portion to approach a predetermined position by moving the movable portion; and performing control of moving the movable portion to the predetermined position by moving the movable portion and detecting a relative position of the movable portion with respect to the predetermined position by using an imaging unit.
US08452447B2
Telerobotic, telesurgical, and surgical robotic devices, systems, and methods selectively calibrate end effector jaws by bringing the jaw elements into engagement with each other. Commanded torque signals may bring the end effector elements into engagement while monitoring the resulting position of a drive system, optionally using a second derivative of the torque/position relationship so as to identify an end effector engagement position. Calibration can allow the end effector engagement position to correspond to a nominal closed position of an input handle by compensating for wear on the end effector, the end effector drive system, then manipulator, the manipulator drive system, the manipulator/end effector interfacing, and manufacturing tolerances.
US08452428B2
Aspects of a method and system for detecting and identifying electronic accessories or peripherals utilizing a hardware audio CODEC are provided. In this regard, a hardware audio CODEC may be operable to compare one or more voltages on one or more biased pins of an accessory or peripheral port to one or more reference voltages and generate one or more digital representations of the one or more voltages on the biased one or more pins. An accessory or peripheral attached to the accessory or peripheral port may be identified based on the comparison and/or the generated one or more digital representations. The one or more bias voltages may be controlled based on a result of the comparison and/or the generated digital representations. The one or more bias voltages may be reduced after an attached accessory or peripheral has been identified.
US08452416B2
An assembly includes a medical implantable lead adapted to be attached with a distal end of the lead to an organ inside a human or animal body, the medical implantable lead being formed with an inner lumen extending along essentially the entire length of the lead. The assembly also includes a support core that has a desirable stiffness and a suitably cross sectional dimension such that it is insertable into the lumen (7) in order to increase the stiffness of the lead along its length during its working life when being implanted into a body. A method for implanting a medical implantable lead into a human or animal body makes use of such an assembly.
US08452403B2
A system comprising an implantable medical device that comprises a memory circuit, a radiation detector circuit configured to detect a condition correlative to a high-energy radiation level that exceeds a background radiation level, and a controller circuit. The control circuit checks memory locations for errors using a first rate of error checking per time period during a normal operation mode and, in response to the radiation detector circuit indicating a high-energy radiation level, initiates a memory scrubbing mode, wherein the memory scrubbing mode has an increased rate of error checking substantially all memory locations per time period in the memory circuit to check for any errors and correct any such errors.
US08452401B2
A method and apparatus for delivering therapy to treat ventricular tachyarrhythmias is described. In one embodiment, neural stimulation, anti-tachycardia pacing, and shock therapy are employed in a progressive sequence upon detection of a ventricular tachycardia.
US08452386B2
The electrocardiograph (200) of the invention is suitable for capturing a twelve-lead electrocardiogram from signals representative of the cardiac activity of a patient and acquired with the help of at least nine electrodes. The electrocardiograph comprises a body (210) having a front face (211) and at least one arm (212, 213) suitable for being folded beside the body and pivotable about an axis that is substantially parallel to the front face. Each arm is adapted to form a variable dihedral angle with the front face so that the substantially concave surface (214) formed by the front face and the or each arm and having six precordial electrodes (201-206) distributed thereon, is capable of adapting to the patient's morphology so as to enable the precordial electrodes to be properly positioned on the patient's chest. The electrocardiograph also includes means enabling said good positioning of the precordial electrodes on the patient's chest to be maintained.
US08452385B2
The present invention provides a method and system of auditory evoked heart rate variability analysis having advantage of simply analytical process and portability. The disclosed method mainly includes the following steps of: stimulating the auditory system of a person by a sound through a sound transmission device, capturing an electrocardiogram signal of the person, performing analog-to-digital conversion of the electrocardiogram signal, selecting the peaks of the electrocardiogram signal and transforming the qualified peaks to a consecutive peak signal, and performing spectrum analysis to the peak signal in frequency domain, and obtaining the difference of the spectral parameters before and after the evoked sounds. Moreover, the sound further is selected from the group consisting of noise, short tone burst, click, and any other sound with the intensity of 30 dB to 100 dB. By comparing the heart rate variability analysis before or after sound stimulation in order to get the differences, the disclosed method and system of auditory evoked heart rate variability analysis can evaluate a changing index of stimulated autonomic functions.
US08452381B2
A apparatus particularly well suited for use in medical imaging includes radiation sensitive detectors (40, 50) which detect gamma radiation indicative of radionuclide decays in an examination region (30). The detectors (40, 50) are supported by generally c-shaped support (70) for rotation about a detector rotation axis (35). The support (70) is farther attached to a pivot joint (77) which allows adjustment of the detector rotation axis (35). The support (70) may also be translated in two degrees of freedom to so that the detectors (40, 50) orbit the examination region (20) in a non-circular orbit.
US08452375B2
Systems and methods for locating and defining a target location within a human body. The system can include at least one marker, a probe, and a detector for use in locating the markers by providing information to a surgeon that is representative of changes in proximity between the probe and the marker. The marker can have various detection characteristics, e.g., gamma radiation, that are detectable by an associated probe and detector. The tissue volume is removed by manipulating a cutting tool based on the proximity information provided by the detector, which can be used by the surgeon to define the boundary of the tissue volume. The systems and methods of the invention are particularly useful in locating and then removing a tissue volume or other target location from amorphous, pliable tissue (e.g., breast tissue) or other body parts.
US08452374B2
Apparatus and methods are described for substantially immobilizing a breast for use in medical imaging. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus for substantially immobilizing a breast is provided, including a first support member connected to a first and second base, the bases capable of engagement with the torso of a patient, the first support member defining an inner area substantially covered by a first membrane. A corresponding second support member, defining a second inner area substantially covered by a second membrane, is engageable to the first support member such that the inner areas are substantially aligned to substantially immobilize a breast, the membranes defining a pocket to receive a breast.
US08452370B2
Several configurations for single and multi-needle electromyographic (EMG) recording electrodes for intraoperative nerve integrity monitoring are disclosed, one of which may concern a multi-needle electrode including one or more cables that are connected directly or indirectly to a nerve integrity monitor, a single hub connected to the one or more cables, and at least two needle electrodes connected to the single hub each having first and second bends along the line of insertion into a patient, wherein the first bend occurs at the hub connection in a downward direction and the second bend occurs in an upward direction from the first bend creating a proximal needle segment from the hub to the second bend and a terminal needle segment from the second bend to the end of each needle.
US08452367B2
Forehead oximetry sensor devices and methods for determining physiological parameters using forehead oximetry sensors. One method includes placing an oximetry sensor on the forehead of a patient, such that the sensor is placed on the lower forehead region, above the eyebrow with the sensor optics placed lateral of the iris and proximal the temple; and operating the pulse oximeter to obtain the physiological parameter. In one aspect, the method also includes providing and placing a headband over the oximetry sensor, or alternately, the sensor is a headband-integrated sensor. The headband has an elastic segment sized to fit around the patient's head. The headband also includes a non-elastic segment that is smaller than and attached with the elastic segment. The non-elastic segment is sized to span a portion of the elastic segment when the elastic segment is stretched. In addition, the non-elastic segment is larger than the portion of the elastic segment it spans when the elastic segment is not stretched. When the headband or the headband-integrated sensor is sufficiently tight, it delivers a pressure in the range higher than the venous pressure and lower than the capillary pressure to the forehead of the patient.
US08452364B2
A method and apparatus for affixing a sensor adjacent a tissue site is disclosed. In an embodiment, the spectrophotometric sensor comprises, a sensor body, one or more light emitters, one or more photodetectors, and a light scattering medium capable of increasing at least one of the effective detection area of the one or more photodetectors or the effective emission area of the one or more light emitters.
US08452362B2
A device for measuring a hydration status based on an analyte concentration in a subject. The device includes: a light source configured for illuminating at least a portion of an anterior region of an eye of the subject with incident light having a substantially broad illumination spectrum at an angle substantially tangential to the surface of the eye; an optical collector configured for detecting reflected light from the at least a portion of the anterior region of the eye; an analyzer configured for analyzing the detected reflected light; and a processor configured to determine the analyte concentration level in the subject based on the analyzed reflected light, wherein the processor determines a hydration status of the subject based on the analyte concentration level and reference data.
US08452359B2
A system for determining the concentration of an analyte in at least one body fluid in body tissue comprises an infrared light source, a body tissue interface, a detector, and a central processing unit. The body tissue interface is adapted to contact body tissue and to deliver light from the infrared light source to the contacted body tissue. The detector is adapted to receive spectral information corresponding to infrared light transmitted through the portion of body tissue being analyzed and to convert the received spectral information into an electrical signal indicative of the received spectral information. The central processing unit is adapted to compare the electrical signal to an algorithm built upon correlation with the analyte in body fluid, the algorithm adapted to convert the received spectral information into the concentration of the analyte in at least one body fluid.
US08452358B2
A physiological sensor assembly includes a physiological sensor having at least one light source and at least one optical receiver. A substantially transparent barrier layer is disposed between the physiological sensor and the patient's skin such that the barrier layer is removably adhered to the physiological sensor and removably adhered to the patient's skin.
US08452351B2
A base station may be configured so that it operates in accordance with certain MAP transmission rules that may enable mobile stations to save battery power in certain situations. Upon receiving a MAP message, a mobile station may determine whether there is a burst allocated for the mobile station in the current frame by determining the value of at least one of the following: an idle users bit in the SUB-MAP pointer information element (IE), and a sleep users bit in the SUB-MAP pointer IE. The mobile station may discontinue processing of the MAP message and power down one or more components of the mobile station if there is not a burst allocated for the mobile station in the current frame.
US08452341B2
An input processing method of a mobile terminal and a device performing the same are disclosed. Information on a user facility performed by a touch event generated at an area of the mobile terminal is compared with voice sensing data collected through a microphone to perform a specific user facility. As a result, erroneous touch event and imprecision generated during the voice sensing are improved.
US08452337B2
A method of controlling a navigation apparatus and which includes determining whether a phone call mode has been selected on the navigation terminal, displaying phone call information corresponding to the phone call mode when the determining step determines the phone call mode has been entered, and displaying traveling route guidance information on the phone call information during the phone call mode.
US08452336B2
A method for operating a mobile terminal, and which includes performing voice recognition on call content to produce recognized call content, converting the recognized call content into one or more units of character information, registering the one or more units of character information to one or more particular functions of the mobile terminal based on a type of the character information or a field of the character information, inputting a search parameter, searching one of a plurality of file types and identifying a file related to both the search parameter and the one or more registered units of character information, and displaying or automatically executing the identified file.
US08452335B2
Network entity, method and computer-readable storage medium for use in a network that includes an arrangement of cell sites, each cell site configured to provide wireless services within a respective coverage region. The network entity may include an input configured to receive position information regarding occurrence of an event at an event site, and a processing entity configured to determine, based on the position information regarding occurrence of the event and policy information regarding the network, whether the event warrants coverage region reconfiguration and, if so, to generate a message commanding an adjustment to the coverage region of at least one cell site. An output is configured to release the message towards the at least one cell site, whereby application of the adjustment to the coverage region of the at least one cell site enables an increase in traffic to be accommodated in a vicinity of the event site.
US08452329B2
A profiling engine is disclosed. The profiling engine collects information from a variety of sources in real time and stores the information in a profile. The profile may have a number of layers, each layer having a number of categories. The profile is made available for use by applications and services.
US08452325B2
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for providing NP-HLR functionality. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a system for providing scalable NP-HLR. The system includes an NP front end node for receiving requests for routing information for ported-in and non-ported foreign mobile subscribers, for making portability determinations in response to the requests, for processing or routing the requests based on the portability determinations, and for receiving and responding to provide roaming number requests for ported-out mobile subscribers. The system further includes at least one HLR back end node for performing HLR functions for ported-in foreign mobile subscribers including receiving, from the NP front end node, the requests for routing information for the ported-in foreign mobile subscribers and for responding to the requests with the routing information for the ported-in foreign mobile subscribers.
US08452319B2
Provided are an ad-hoc wireless communication method using a sector antenna, a recovery method in ad-hoc wireless communication, and an ad-hoc wireless communication system. The ad-hoc wireless communication method using a sector antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, includes: transmitting a requesting message for setting a communication link while changing transmission power to each sector of the sector antenna; receiving a response message corresponding to the requesting message from a receiving node of each sector; configuring a routing table for the transmission power for each sector based on the received response message; and transmitting data at the transmission power for each sector by referring to the routing table.
US08452315B1
An apparatus, method and computer-readable medium for controlling dispatch voice communications between fleets in a network are provided. The apparatus includes a multi-fleet dispatch console configured to receive a request for a dispatch group call including dispatch stations in a plurality of fleets and to establish the dispatch group call based upon the request. The multi-fleet dispatch console has a higher priority than any other dispatch console in the network. According to the method, the multi-fleet dispatch console may also determine whether a requestor of the dispatch group call is authorized to establish the requested dispatch group call and output an authorization denial message, if the requestor is not authorized to establish the dispatch group call. Additionally, the multi-fleet dispatch console may drop unavailable dispatch stations from existing group calls, if a priority of the request exceeds a priority of the existing group calls.
US08452309B2
A method and a system for sending a ring setting reminder to one or more mobile devices within a predetermined area are provided. The ring setting reminder may be a reminder signal sent to cell phones and other mobile devices within a movie theater complex or other predetermined area to remind the users of the mobile devices to silence the ringers of the mobile devices before the start of the movie or other event. The identification of the mobile devices may occur at the predetermined area or through a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network may be configured to identify the predetermined area within the wireless communication network, identify one or more of the mobile devices located within the predetermined area, and send the reminder signal to correspond with the start of an event at the predetermined area.
US08452295B2
Apparatus, methods, computer program products, systems and circuits are provided that allow for persistent uplink and downlink resource allocations. A method includes: allocating resources to a user equipment for a data flow over a plurality of time intervals with a single signaling event at a wireless network radio network layer; and informing the user equipment of the allocated resources.
US08452293B2
In a system including one or more femtocells within a service area of a macrocell, a method includes: (a) receiving from a base station information regarding available resources at each femtocell; (b) measuring a signal-interference-to-noise ratio (SINR) at a mobile station relative to the macrocell and each femtocell; and (c) selecting for the mobile station one of the femtocells for a hand-off, wherein the femtostation is selected based on the combined capacity of the macrocell and the femtocells after the hand-off.
US08452289B2
A method and system for performing peer-to-peer wireless communication between stations (STAs) within a basic service set (BSS) while maintaining connectivity with an access point (AP) in the BSS are disclosed. A source STA, an AP and a destination STA negotiate a direct link setup (DLS) channel for performing peer-to-peer communication between the source STA and the destination STA. The DLS channel may be different from a BSS channel used for communication between the AP and each of the STAs. The source STA and the destination STA then perform peer-to-peer communication on the negotiated DLS channel.
US08452279B2
The present invention is directed towards a method for directing roaming traffic associated with a subscriber of an HPMN. The method includes detecting a location update message from the subscriber at a non-preferred VPMN. The subscriber has an established data context with the non-preferred VPMN. The method further includes sending one or more location update messages to one or more elements associated with the non-preferred VPMN, thus causing the subscriber to associate with a preferred VPMN.
US08452267B2
A method and system for granting access to a service is based on a received request and a communication between a subscriber, client and a service provider.
US08452260B2
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for unlocking an electronic device. In an embodiment, a process causes a device such as a smartphone to receive a sound input from a fixed position microphone and determine if the device should be unlocked based on a comparison of the sound input with a previously defined sound input.
US08452255B2
A field device for use in an industrial process control or monitoring system includes terminals configured to connect to a two-wire process control loop configured to carry data and to provide power. In one embodiment, RF circuitry in the field device is configured for radio frequency communication having variable power consumption. In another embodiment, the RF circuitry is coupled to the field device through a separate digital communication bus. A method of modulating the power of RF communication based upon a process communication signal is also provided.
US08452246B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to techniques for automatically measuring antenna mismatching conditions for a given mobile phone with a given antenna in a given environment and on a given frequency. In particular, some embodiments use a two way directional coupler coupled between a radio frequency (RF) transmitter output (e.g., analog front end) and an antenna tuner. This two-way directional coupler is coupled to a mismatch calculator, which is often implemented as a software algorithm, to accurately tune an antenna tuner to limit impedance mismatch. Consequently, changes in impedance mismatch can be tracked and compensated for so the user will not experience degradations in signal quality, thereby helping reduce the number of dropped calls, for example. Also, because power is tracked and radiated more accurately, these techniques save battery energy relative to conventional solutions and can stay on-line longer with optimum transmitting conditions.
US08452238B2
A problem that a loss of signal occurs due to switching of a modulation scheme using an adaptive modulation scheme is solved. A radio transmission device (10a, 10b) having an automatic transmission power control function of controlling transmission power of its own station so as to maintain received power of a counter station at a preset constant value and a function of an adaptive modulation scheme for automatically switching over a modulation scheme depending on quality of a radio transmission path includes a modulation scheme determining circuit (14a, 14b) for switching over the modulation scheme by using the adaptive modulation scheme in consideration of a transmission power margin and the received power.
US08452228B2
A media device including includes a broadcast receiver that receives broadcast media from a plurality of broadcast sources where the broadcast receiver is tunable to a first broadcast source. The media device also includes a data store that stores a list of contact identifiers where each contact identifier is associated with a broadcast source. The media device includes a user interface that: i) provides a prompt to a user to enable the user to initiate contact with the first broadcast source, and ii) receives a user indication to initiate contact with the first broadcast source. The media device further includes a transceiver that initiates the contact with the first broadcast source by sending a communications session request via a communications network to the first broadcast source that includes a contact identifier associated with the first broadcast source.
US08452223B2
Provided is an image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member bearing a toner image formed by an image forming portion; a transfer part transferring the toner image formed on the image bearing member onto a sheet; a separation/feeding part separating sheets stacked on a sheet stacking member and feeding the sheet while nipping the sheet; and a transport part transporting the sheet fed by the separation/feeding part to the transfer part, in which a transporting operation of the transport part is changed according to a length of the sheet to be transported in a transport direction of the sheet.
US08452222B2
An image-bearing member protecting agent including a fatty acid metal salt, and an inorganic lubricant, wherein the image-bearing member protecting agent is a solid formed by compression molding a particulate or granulated raw material containing the fatty acid metal salt and the inorganic lubricant, and applied or adhered to a surface of an image bearing member, and wherein the image-bearing member protecting agent has a front surface which is a side of the image-bearing member protecting agent to be used at the beginning, and a rear surface which is a side thereof to be left when most of the image-bearing member protecting agent is used up, and the image-bearing member protecting agent has a density decreasing from the front surface toward the rear surface.
US08452215B2
A developing device and an image forming apparatus which suppress unevenness of image density are provided. A developing device includes a developer tank storing a developer, a first conveying member and a second conveying member conveying the developer, and a developing roller bearing the developer thereon. In the developing device, the first conveying member is constituted by a first rotating shaft and a plurality of first conveying blades provided along a first imaginary spiral surrounding the outer periphery of the first rotating shaft and advancing in the axial direction of the first rotating shaft at a predetermined lead angle θX. The individual first conveying blades are separated from each other in the axial direction and are provided along the portion of less than one cycle of the first imaginary spiral.
US08452214B2
A developing apparatus includes: a developer accumulation portion; a developer drawing-up portion that draws up the liquid developer accumulated in the developer accumulation portion; a developing roller that supplies the liquid developer to the image supporting body in a region facing the image supporting body; a developer removing portion that is disposed to contact a predetermined position on a surface of the developing roller on a downstream side to the region facing the image supporting body in a rotational direction of the developing roller, and removes the liquid developer remaining on the surface of the developing roller; and an accumulated developer delivery portion that delivers the liquid developer accumulated in the developer accumulation portion to a predetermined region on the surface of the developing roller between the region facing the image supporting body and the predetermined position contacting the developer removing portion.
US08452206B2
An image-forming apparatus includes: a housing; a first cover attached to the housing; a belt-shaped intermediate transfer body; a rotating member; a support member that contacts an inner surface of the intermediate transfer body at a position opposed to the rotating member to form an image transfer portion where an image is transferred from the intermediate transfer body onto a recording medium; a first supporting unit provided to the housing to support a first end of the support member, a positioning mechanism that determines a position of the first cover relative to the housing when the first cover is closed; and a second supporting unit provided to the first cover to support a second end of the support member, such that a pressure generated between the support member and the rotating member is increased when the first cover is closed than when the first cover is opened.
US08452201B2
Multi-color document processing systems and operating methods are disclosed to control retransfer by providing a user-selected secondary operating mode in which marking devices not needed for a particular print job are disabled and one or more required devices are operated at reduced transfer field levels for the first transfer of marking material onto an intermediate transfer structure.
US08452200B2
An image forming apparatus includes: photosensitive members; an endless belt facing the photosensitive members; developing rollers respectively supplying, to the photosensitive members, developer of different colors which is charged to a first polarity; cleaning rollers adjacent to the photosensitive members; a separating mechanism separating the developing roller from the photosensitive member in a single color printing. If in a multi color printing, a control unit applies a cleaning bias whose polarity is a second polarity opposite to the first polarity and which holds a first electric potential to each cleaning roller. If in the single color printing, the control unit executes a bias reduction control in which a cleaning bias applied to the cleaning roller not used in the single color printing is given the second polarity and is made to hold a second electric potential whose absolute value is smaller than that of the first electric potential.
US08452198B2
An Image Forming Apparatus has a controller for controlling a second bias, which is applied to a cleaning member, based on a value of electric current measured by a current sensor. The controller controls the second bias on based on the value of the current measured when a predetermined measurement range of a transport belt is in contact with the cleaning member. The measurement range is a range in which conditions, under which the first bias and the second bias are applied, are identical.
US08452193B2
An optical receiver for receiving a wavelength channel signal light separated out of a wavelength division multiplexed signal light including a plurality of wavelength channel signal lights, the optical receiver includes an optical amplifier for amplifying the wavelength channel signal light, a cyclic filter having a transmission wavelength characteristic of periodically changing transmittance property for a wavelength interval between a wavelength of an adjacent wavelength channel signal light and a wavelength of the wavelength diversion multiplexed signal light, the cyclic filter passing the wavelength channel signal light amplified by the optical amplifier, and a demodulator operably connected to the cyclic filter for demodulating the wavelength channel signal light output from the cyclic filter into an electrical signal.
US08452188B2
A Visible Light Communication (VLC) method in a VLC terminal, in which the VLC terminal requests initial access to an Access Point (AP) on a selected mini-slot among a plurality of mini-slots constituting a control slot, based on control information in a frame, sends an association request to the AP on an allocated uplink time slot, if the uplink time slot allocated to correspond to the selected mini-slot exists in control information in a next frame, and transmits data at a data rate appointed to the VLC terminal included in control information in the current frame using an association Identifier (ID) included in a response received in reply to the association request and the allocated uplink time slot.
US08452187B2
An apparatus for simulating radio frequency (RF) signal propagation characteristics in a wireless communication network is disclosed. The apparatus includes a first RF terminal and a second RF terminal. A first optical modulator is in electrical communication with the first RF terminal. An optical delay line is in optical communication with the first optical modulator. A first optical demodulator is in optical communication with the optical delay line and in electrical communication with the first RF terminal. A second optical demodulator is in optical communication with the optical delay line and in electrical communication with the second RF terminal. A second optical modulator is in electrical communication with the second RF terminal and in optical communication with the optical delay line.
US08452182B2
A data center for executing a data processing application includes processing units, sub-units or servers. Each of the processing units, sub-units or servers can execute a part or all of the data processing application. The processing units, sub-units or servers are electrical disjoint with respect to data communications, but can communicate with each other over free space optical links.
US08452175B2
An apparatus comprising a network element (NE) configured to support routing-associated signal compatibility constraint information that is associated with the NE using Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) and an open shortest path first (OSPF) routing protocol, wherein the signal compatibility constraint information comprises a modulation type list, a Forward Error Correction (FEC) type list, a bit rate range list, and an acceptable client signal list, and wherein the signal compatibility constraint information is associated with a resource block (RB) pool for a plurality of NEs. Also disclosed is a network component comprising a transmitter unit configured to transmit signal compatibility constraints via GMPLS OSPF routing, wherein the signal compatibility constraints comprise a modulation type list, a FEC type list, a bit rate range list, and an acceptable client signal list.
US08452169B2
Motion of an image of a scene being captured by a digital image acquisition device is detected and used to control parameters of illumination of the scene by a flash lamp that is typically built into the device. Parameters that may be controlled include the intensity, duration and timing of light emitted by the flash lamp. Such control of the flash illumination is preferably performed in conjunction with adjusting one or more exposure parameters used to capture an image. Such exposure parameters include duration, aperture and sensor gain. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters and flash light characteristics.
US08452168B2
A distance measurement and photometry device includes a pair of distance measurement sensors each of which is a two-dimensional image sensor, a photometry sensor, which includes a two-dimensional image sensor, a pair of distance measurement lenses arranged to correspond to the pair of distance measurement sensors, a photometry lens arranged to correspond to the photometry sensor, a photometry process unit that calculates a brightness value of a subject, an exposure state setting unit that sets an exposure state correspond to at least the pair of distance measurement sensors, a distance measurement unit that measures a distance to the subject, wherein the exposure state setting unit alternates an exposure state of at least the pair of distance measurement sensors corresponding to a result of the photometry process unit.
US08452165B2
A plurality of video streams and STN_table are recorded in the local storage 200. Each of the plurality of video streams is a secondary video stream to be played together with a primary video stream, and includes picture data representing a child image to be displayed in Picture in Picture that is composed of a parent image and the child image. In the STN_table, entries of secondary video streams that are permitted to be played are described in the order of priority.
US08452162B2
A method of recording an encoded bit stream that represents video objects includes recording a collection of contiguously arranged video objects and management information about recorded video objects. The collection is partitioned into adjacent recordings that represent playable titles, where a playable title is defined as a playback sequence of all complete cells or a subset of complete cells of a recording in the order of allocation within the video object storage area on the disc. The method further includes generating a title list of titles sorted in the order of arrangement within the video object area on the disc. The method further includes defining a free space title that represents free space within the video object area and includes the free space title in the title list.
US08452158B2
Disclosed herein is a recording apparatus including: an input section configured to input main data and added data attached to the main data; and a recording control section configured such that when the main data and the added data input through the input section have each reached a predetermined data amount, the recording control section temporarily stores the main data and the added data in units of the predetermined data amount; and that when the sum of the amounts of the temporarily stored data has reached a specific data amount, the recording control section transfers the temporarily stored data to recording media for recording thereto in a single file; the recording control section further registering management data about the recorded data to a file system of the recording media in such a manner that the management data is sorted by the data type of the recorded data.
US08452152B2
A fiber-to-fiber connector system that includes a first connector for housing a portion of a first fiber, where the first fiber is terminated by a first end-face. The fiber-to-fiber connection system also includes a second connector for housing a portion of a second fiber, where the second fiber is terminated by a second end-face, where the first connector and the second connector permit the first fiber and the second fiber to be interconnected to form an air gap interface between the first end-face and the second end-face; the air gap interface defines a spacing between the first end-face and the second end-face; and the air gap interface enables, based on the defined spacing, an optical signal to be transmitted between the first fiber and the second fiber with a fixed quantity of attenuation.
US08452148B2
Fiber optic equipment that supports independently translatable fiber optic modules and/or fiber optic equipment trays containing one or more fiber optic modules is disclosed. In some embodiments, one or more fiber optic modules are disposed in a plurality of independently translatable fiber optic equipment trays which are received in a tray guide system. In this manner, each fiber optic equipment tray is independently translatable within the guide system. One or more fiber optic modules may also be disposed in one or more module guides disposed in the fiber optic equipment trays to allow each fiber optic module to translate independently of other fiber optic modules in the same fiber optic equipment tray. In other embodiments, a plurality of fiber optic modules are disposed in a module guide system disposed in the fiber optic equipment that translate independently of other fiber optic modules disposed within the module guide system.
US08452125B2
A system, including a computer system running image processing software, receives an identification of a desired area to be imaged and collected into an oblique-mosaic image, creates a mathematical model of a virtual camera having a sensor higher in elevation from which the source oblique images were captured and looking down at an oblique angle, the mathematical model having an oblique-mosaic pixel map for the sensor of the desired area encompassing multiple source images, determines geographic coordinates for pixels, and selects source oblique images of the geographic coordinates captured at an oblique angle and compass direction similar to the oblique angle and compass direction of the virtual camera. The computer system reprojects at least one source oblique image pixel of the area to be imaged for each pixel included in the oblique-mosaic pixel map to create the oblique-mosaic image.
US08452119B2
The present invention provides an image processing device and an image display system achieving image quality improvement in moving picture by suppressing a motion blur in a hold-type display device, while maintaining low cost. The image processing device processes image data provided from outside and outputting the image data to a hold type display device. The image processing device includes a correction processing section performing a correction process to correct a pixel value in the image data for each pixel through performing a spatial LPF (low pass filter) process on the image data in a frame to be displayed in the display device according to a magnitude of a motion vector in the image data, the spatial LPF process allowing a slope of a changing edge portion in the image data to be more gentle.
US08452118B2
A noise filter according to an embodiment includes: a first filter that functions as an edge detector to detect a high-frequency component area of an image; a second filter that performs a noise filtering function for the remaining areas of the image while conserving the high-frequency component area detected by the first filter; and a function processor that controls operations of the first filter and the second filter. According to an embodiment, since noise filtering for only a noise component area is performed by dividing the image into a high-frequency component area and a noise component area, it is possible to minimize deterioration of the high-frequency area and improve the resolution and quality of the image.
US08452114B2
A decoding apparatus for decoding an encoded image signal and its control method. The decoding apparatus decodes the encoded image signal and inverse-quantizes decoded information. The apparatus inverse-orthogonal transform an inverse-quantized information to obtain a decoded image signal. A quantization error estimator estimates a maximum square error of the inverse-quantized information and a second inverse-orthogonal transformer inverse-orthogonal transforms the quantization error from the quantization error estimator. An image-quality enhancing signal generator generates an image-quality enhancing signal based on the quantization maximum error and the decoded image signal, and an image synthesizer generates a high-quality image signal by synthesizing the image-quality enhancing signal with the decoded image signal.
US08452106B2
Images in a database or collection of images are each divided into multiple partitions with each partition corresponding to an area of an image. The partitions in an image may overlap with each other. Min-hash sketches are generated for each of the partitions and stored with the images. A user may submit an image and request that an image that is a partial match for the submitted image be located in the image collection. The submitted image is similarly divided into partitions and min-hash sketches are generated from the partitions. The min-hash sketches are compared with the stored min-hash sketches for matches, and images having partitions whose sketches are matches are returned as partial matching images.
US08452104B2
An image determination apparatus includes a first extraction unit, a second extraction unit, a calculation unit, and a correction unit. The first extraction unit extracts a first set from an image including linear components that are line-shaped components. The first set includes a linear component extending along a first direction and a linear component extending along a second direction intersecting the first direction. The second extraction unit extracts a second set including a linear component extending along a direction different from the first and second directions. The calculation unit calculates a likelihood for the first set extracted by the first extraction unit in accordance with a relationship between linear components included in the first set. The likelihood is a likelihood of a table being formed. The correction unit corrects the likelihood calculated by the calculation unit in accordance with a relationship between the first set and the second set.
US08452103B2
A scene matching reference data generation system inputs a set of probe data. The set of the probe data includes captured images sequentially obtained by a plurality of probe cars and the vehicle positions of the probe cars. The system temporarily stores the captured images, evaluates accuracy reliability degrees of the image-capturing positions of the captured images, and assigns the accuracy reliability degrees to the captured images. The system selects, as a plurality of processing target captured images, a plurality of the captured images having accuracy reliability degrees equal to or higher than a first predetermined degree, extracts image feature points from the selected processing target captured images, and generates image feature point data based on the extracted image feature points. The system generates reference data for scene matching by associating the generated image feature point data with a reference image-capturing position corresponding to the generated image feature point data.
US08452102B2
The present invention is directed to an image managing apparatus allowing a user to acquire an image shot by other user participated in an event that the user participated in when a user shot images with the user's own camera but there was a period of time in which the user could not shoot due to some reason. The image management apparatus of the present invention is configured to sort a plurality of images shot by the user's camera based on a shooting time, calculate a non-shooting time period, extract an image shot by a camera of other user, which has a shooting time included in the non-shooting time period of the user. Further, the image management apparatus extracts an image having keywords, a shooting position, and object information, which are the same as an image shot by the camera of the user.
US08452096B2
A device and method for processing an image to create appearance and shape labeled images of a person or object captured within the image. The appearance and shape labeled images are unique properties of the person or object and can be used to re-identify the person or object in subsequent images. The appearance labeled image is an aggregate of pre-stored appearance labels that are assigned to image segments of the image based on calculated appearance attributes of each image segment. The shape labeled image is an aggregate of pre-stored shape labels that are assigned to image segments of the image based on calculated shape attributes of each image segment. An identifying descriptor of the person or object can be computed based on both the appearance labeled image and the shape labeled image. The descriptor can be compared with other descriptors of later captured images to re-identify a person or object.
US08452074B2
A pattern inspection apparatus includes a light source, a stage configured to mount thereon a substrate with a pattern formed thereon, a first laser measuring unit configured to measure a position of the stage by using a laser beam, a sensor configured to capture a pattern image obtained from the pattern, formed on the substrate, irradiated by light from the light source, an optical system configured to focus the pattern image on the sensor, a second laser measuring unit configured to measure a position of the optical system by using a laser beam, a correction unit configured to correct a captured pattern image by using a difference between the position of the stage and the position of the optical system, and an inspection unit configured to inspect whether there is a defect of the pattern by using a corrected pattern image.
US08452072B2
A method and apparatus for accurately detecting the shape of a tire side by performing an image processing of removing a knurled region from the tire side. An actual image of a tire side having a knurled region obtained by a light-section method is Fourier-transformed into a Fourier-transformed image by a Fourier-transformed image creating unit of an image processing means. Cross-shaped peaks appearing discretely at predefined frequency intervals on a straight line in the Fourier-transformed image are identified as peaks attributable to the knurled region by a knurled component identifying unit. The cross-shaped peaks are removed from the Fourier-transformed image by a knurl component removing unit, and the Fourier-transformed image from which the peaks are removed is inverse-Fourier-transformed into an actual image by an inverse-Fourier-transforming unit. And the acceptability of the shape of the tire side is determined using the actual image.
US08452061B2
A method for electronically cleansing a virtual object formed from acquired image data converted to a plurality of volume elements is provided. The present method allows individual volume elements, or voxels, to represent more than one material type. The method includes defining a partial volume image model for volume elements representing a plurality of material types based, at least in part, on the measured intensity value of the volume element. The material mixture for each of the volume elements representing a plurality of material types can be estimated using the observed intensity values and the defined partial volume image model. The volume elements representing a plurality of material types can then be classified in accordance with the estimated material mixture. For electronic colon cleansing, the method includes removing at least one classification of volume elements when displaying the virtual object.
US08452057B2
A method controls a projection of a projector. The method predetermines hand gestures, and assigns an operation function of an input device to each of the predetermined hand gestures. When an electronic file is projected onto a screen, the projector receives an image of a speaker captured by an image-capturing device connected to the projector. The projector identifies whether a hand gesture of the speaker matches one of the predetermined hand gestures. If the hand gesture matches one of the hand gestures, the projector may execute a corresponding assigned operation function.
US08452055B2
A method of estimating a time to collision (TTC) of a vehicle with an object comprising: acquiring a plurality of images of the object; and determining a TTC from the images that is responsive to a relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object.
US08452038B2
A horn coupled to multiple acoustic transducers includes first and second throat portions and a mixing area integrally formed with the first and second throat portions. The first throat portion has a first throat opening adjacent to a first transducer, and the second throat portion has a second throat opening adjacent to a second transducer. The mixing area includes a common mouth opening shared by the first and second throat portions for at least one of transmitting or receiving acoustic signals. At least one dimension of the first throat portion is different from a corresponding dimension of the second throat portion, so that a first cutoff frequency corresponding to the first throat portion is different from a second cutoff frequency corresponding to the second throat portion.
US08452030B2
An external equipment controlling apparatus includes: a connecting unit, connected to an external equipment via an interface to input/receive data into/from the external equipment, the external equipment to which audio data is input and which performs an acoustic process to a sound corresponding to the audio data and causes a speaker to emit the sound; an audio data outputting unit, operable to generate the audio data, and operable to output the audio data to the external equipment; an identification information acquiring unit, configured to acquire identification information for specifying the external equipment from the external equipment; a program acquiring unit, configured to acquire a control program corresponding to the external equipment specified by the identification information from a server via a network; a video data outputting unit, operable to generate video data for displaying a setting screen for setting the acoustic process on a displaying unit, and operable to output the video data to the displaying unit; and a controlling unit, by executing the control program, configured to control a content of the video data and to control the external equipment by setting the acoustic process in response to command information to be input.
US08452028B2
A dynamic surround channel volume control applies a variable gain control to the surround channels of a multi-channel system. Thus the levels of the surround channels are related to the main volume control of the system. This maintains a predictable relationship between the surround channels and the main or front channels.
US08452024B2
For headphone subsystems that employ common ground switches for speaker outputs (for example), there can be a significant issue with cross-talk and ground noise. Here, configurations for an amplifier and switch network are provided, which generally cancel noise from the “ground switch,” so as to provide an improvement over conventional configurations with little overhead. Additionally, the cross-talk for these configurations are not generally dependent on the “ground switch” or speaker impedance.
US08452018B2
An apparatus and method for encoding/decoding a multi-channel signal may be provided. The apparatus of encoding a multi-channel signal may insert information about whether to encode a phase parameter indicating phase information of a plurality of channels, included in the multi-channel signal, in a bitstream of the multi-channel signal. The apparatus of decoding a multi-channel signal may determine whether to up-mix a mono signal using the phase parameter based on the information about whether to encode.
US08452013B2
Systems, methods, and software for providing digital security to a child message transmitted from a mobile device to a messaging server, where the mobile device typically does not transmit the parent message with the child message to the messaging server. Whether to apply digital security, such as encryption or a digital signature, or both, is determined, and if the mobile device does not include a complete copy of a parent message for insertion into the child message, the mobile device selectively downloads the parent message from the messaging server prior to the computation of a digital signature or prior to encryption. The systems and methods may also provide a check of the child message size, when the child message includes inserted parent content, to ensure that the child message does not exceed any prescribed limits on message size.
US08452009B2
A method for processing a set of control messages used to access an encrypted stream by a multimedia unit. These messages include a discrimination parameter having a different value for at least three consecutive non-redundant messages in the stream. The method includes the steps of receiving a current control message; reading the discrimination parameter from the current control message; retrieving from a memory the discrimination parameter from the message processed previously; comparing the current and previous discrimination parameters; and blocking said current control message if the comparison step indicates that the discrimination parameters are identical. The method is characterized in that the discrimination parameter is unique and different for each message in the set of control messages, such that, during the filtering step, the current message and the previously processed message can be non-consecutive in the ordered subset of messages.
US08452004B2
A mobile media device case can include: (a) a first portion, the first portion comprising a first back wall and one or more first sidewalls, the first back wall and the one or more first sidewalls at least partially define a first interior of the first portion and a first exterior of the first portion, the first interior is configured to receive and partially cover at least a first part of the back section and the one or more side sections of the mobile media device; and (b) a second portion, the second portion comprising a second back wall and one or more second sidewalls, the second back wall and the one or more second sidewalls at least partially define a second interior of the second portion and a second exterior of the second portion. Other embodiments and related methods are also disclosed herein.
US08451999B2
A system and method may include processing of a signaling message, that includes a called number, requesting establishment of a communication session to the called number, determining that the called number is associated with an account comprising a member profile having an active forward-to number, and generating signals for producing an announcement associated with the account. The system and method may further include receiving a response to the announcement, and determining whether the response is associated with the member profile having the active forward-to number.
US08451996B2
A system and methodology for managing a mute function muting a connection to a conference call is disclosed. The system is implemented when the mute function is activated on a line connected to a conference call through a telecommunications network. The method includes receiving a sound, determining whether the sound meets predetermined criteria and if the sound meets predetermined criteria then performing a mute status operation.
US08451989B2
Methods of playing audio commercials to telephone users while waiting for a connection to be completed are known. This disclosure relates to better targeting such commercials. In the proposed telephone network, the service provider makes use of data relating to the personal profile of any contacting subscriber, previously collected during a registration process. A database is used to select the commercial best matching the profile.
US08451978B2
A method includes selecting a first set of digital subscriber lines (DSLs) supported by a digital subscriber line access multiplexor (DSLAM). The DSLs of the first set exhibit reduced performance based on historical performance data. The method includes sending a request to the DSLAM for a first performance parameter for each of the DSLs of the first set. The method includes receiving the first performance parameters. The method includes removing DSLs from the first set that have suitable performance based on the first performance parameters to create a second set of DSLs. The method includes selecting a line profile to apply to the second set of DSLs. The method also includes sending a second request to the DSLAM to apply the line profile to the DSLs of the second set and then to determine a second performance parameter for each of the DSLs of the second set.
US08451973B2
A compression unit of a mammography apparatus includes an arrangement to tension at least one compression band in a first fixing unit and second fixing unit arranged on both sides of a subject table.
US08451967B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for clock checking, to solve the problem of high resource occupation in existing clock checking methods. The method includes: a programmable device for performing frequency division on the source clock signal to obtain a reference clock signal; treating the source clock signal as a counting work clock to determine the counting value of rising edges and counting value of high levels of a clock signal being checked during each high level period out of N continuous high levels of the reference clock signal; and determining whether the clock signal being checked is valid according to the magnitude relationship between the counting value of the high levels of the clock signal being checked during each high level period and a first expected value, as well as the magnitude relationship between the counting value of the rising edges and a second expected value.
US08451965B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor integrated device includes a digitally controlled oscillator, a counter, a time to digital converter, an adder, and a control signal generator. The time to digital converter includes a frequency-divider, a plurality of impedance elements, and a phase difference detector. The frequency-divider is configured to frequency-divide the oscillation signal to generate a plurality of frequency-divided signals. The plurality of impedance elements is configured to voltage-divide the frequency-divided signals to generate a plurality of delay signals of the oscillation signal. The phase difference detector is configured to output the third digital signal corresponding to the phase difference between the reference signal and the oscillation signal by comparing the reference signal with each of the delay signals.
US08451963B2
Systems and methods for interference cancellation at a receiver in a wireless communication system are provided. In one aspect, a method for interference cancellation is provided. The method comprises providing total received chips received from a plurality of cells. The method also comprises successively estimating received chips for each of the plurality of cells in a plurality of iterations, wherein each of the plurality of iterations after a first iteration comprises canceling previously estimated received chips for one or more of the plurality of cells from the total received chips, and estimating received chips for one of the plurality of cells using the total received chips with the previously estimated received chips for the one or more of the plurality of cells cancelled out.
US08451962B2
In some embodiments a method is disclosed for detecting periodic interference and predicting future interference times. The method can include detecting an arrival time of a first occurrence of interference and detecting an arrival time of a second occurrence of interference. The method can include transmitting preemptive interference mitigation control signals that anticipate future arrival times of interference. A system is disclosed that includes a periodicity detector, an interference profiler and a mitigation control module. The system can provide interference mitigation features to a data recovery system. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08451955B2
A reception unit receives data from communication apparatuses. A transmission unit transmits data to the communication apparatuses. A control unit determines, in an adaptive way, which modulation and coding schemes to use to transmit and receive data. At a first stage, a modulation and coding scheme with a low transmission rate or a modulation and coding scheme that minimizes power requirements is selected from among a plurality of candidates therefor. At a second stage, the modulation and coding scheme of at least one of the communication apparatuses is changed to another scheme having a higher transmission rate, when it is impossible to allocate sufficient resources for the modulation and coding schemes selected at the first stage.
US08451945B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting data having time diversity and data having time-frequency diversity, and a pattern generating method for the same are disclosed. The apparatus enables Tx data to have time diversity or time frequency diversity using a predetermined pattern multiplied by Tx data of a time domain or Tx data of time and frequency domains. The apparatus makes a cyclic delay diversity (CDD) scheme to have the diversity of time and frequency domains, and may acquire an additional diversity gain by a combination of the above-mentioned methods.
US08451940B2
There is provided a method of interactive compression using multiple compression state information entries. The method comprises receiving a request for data from a communicating party; retrieving the data; identifying, for use in compressing the data, at least two compression state information entries shared between the parties to the communication; compressing the data with each of the at least two compression state information entries; determining, from the set of compression state information entries, a preferred compression state information entry that provides a greatest compression ratio; and transmitting the data, compressed in accordance with the preferred compression state information entry to the communicating party.
US08451936B2
A method is provided for enabling a device function at a local device based on distance information, comprising: establishing a communication link with a remote device over a UWB medium using a multiple access protocol; determining a distance between the local device and the remote device; and controlling a device function for the remote device based on the determined distance, wherein the operation of controlling the device function enables the device function when the determined distance is below a set distance threshold, and wherein the operation of controlling the device function disables the device function when the determined distance is above the set distance threshold.
US08451935B2
A transmission device of the present, invention includes a baseband waveform generator to generate a transmission signal by using a transfer function H0(f) that is in a relation of a matched filter with a transfer function H1(f) in an analog domain of a transmission side and a reception side connected through a wireless channel, and transmits the transmission signal generated by the baseband waveform generator.
US08451922B2
Disclosed is a signal processing method and apparatus in MIMO system. In a mobile communication system having a plurality of transmitting antennas, the present invention includes the steps of receiving a feedback signal including status information of at least one channel, segmenting one of the first data blocks to segment into at least one or more of the second data blocks, attaching a CRC to each of the at least one or more of the second data blocks, allocating the at least one or more second data blocks to a plurality of the transmitting antennas, respectively, and transmitting the at least one or more of the second data blocks. In a mobile communication system having a plurality of receiving antennas, the present invention includes the steps of receiving at least one data block including a CRC or dummy bits, acquiring channel status information using the CRC or dummy bits, and transmitting the channel status information.
US08451912B2
Methods are described for configuring a quantizer to achieve improved end-to-end distortion performance when transmitting encoded source data over a noisy channel. The codebook and partitioning are selected using an iterative process of determining an updated codebook and an updated partition space, where the updated codebook is based, in part, on the average symbol error probability of the channel. Complete knowledge of the transitional probabilities of the channel is not required. Variants of the iterative process are described.
US08451905B1
Systems and methods are presented for processing sequences of video frames in a distributed video coding environment. Video frames chosen as key video frames are encoded in their entirety on a sending device, and the encodings are forwarded to a receiving device. Non-key video frames are partitioned into blocks of pixels which are individually processed at the sending device. Some pixel blocks are designated for reconstruction at the receiving device using a similar corresponding pixel block from a previous video frame, and the sending device does not encode those pixel blocks. Other pixel blocks are compressed at the sending device into representations that are sent to the receiving device to facilitate reconstruction of the other pixel blocks at the receiving device. Exceptional efficiency and accuracy may be achieved by employing spatiograms and singular value decompositions in processing pixel blocks of the non-key video frames at the sending device.
US08451903B2
Encoding data includes: computing a first set of coefficients based on a plurality of transforms each computed over a different portion of an array of data, and a second set of coefficients based on a transform computed over the array of data; choosing a set of coefficients to represent the array of data from a group of multiple sets of coefficients, the group including the first set of coefficients and the second set of coefficients; and encoding the chosen coefficients and one or more parameters related to the chosen coefficients.
US08451896B2
The invention relates to adjusting the quantization parameter in digital video coding. A shift value (QP Shift) is used to adjust the quantization parameter. The shift value is determined in a determining step 101. The video nature is determined and compared with a threshold in a comparing step 102 to adjust the shift value adaptively according to the frame type in an adjusting step 103. The shift value shifts the quantization parameter in a shifting step 104.
US08451894B2
By using parallax compensation which performs prediction by using parallax between video images, the video images are encoded as a single video image. Reference parallax for a target image to be encoded is set, wherein the reference parallax is estimated using a reference image; area division in an image frame is set; parallax displacement for each divided area is set, wherein the parallax displacement is the difference between the reference parallax and parallax for the parallax compensation; data of the area division is encoded; and data for indicating the parallax displacement is encoded. During decoding, reference parallax for a target image to be decoded is set, wherein it is estimated using a reference image; data for indicating area division, which is included in encoded data, is decoded; and data of parallax displacement, which is included in the encoded data, is decoded for each area indicated by the area division data.
US08451891B2
A rate control method per block for a video encoder, includes estimating an average bit rate of a block; and determining a variation of a quantization coefficient such that an objective function based on the difference between an objective bit rate and the estimated average bit rate is minimized.
US08451888B2
An impulse communication apparatus includes an impulse train generating part generating an impulse train from one modulated pulse by on-off keying, and an impulse train sending part sending the impulse train generated by the impulse train generating part.
US08451887B2
A multi-channel regulator system includes serially connected PWM integrated circuits, each of which determines a PWM signal for a respective channel to operate therewith, and individually controls its operation mode according to whether or not an external clock is detected. Therefore, each channel will not be limited to operate under a constant mode and could become a master channel or a slave channel. Additionally, each of the PWM integrated circuits generates a phase shifted synchronous clock for its next channel during it is enabled, and thus all the channels operate in a synchronous but phase interleaving manner.
US08451881B2
Peripheral components of a wireless radio system can be controlled by a wireless transceiver. The transceiver stores parallel or serial bit patterns in memory, each bit pattern corresponding to a particular control configuration for one or more peripheral components. A further control device, such as baseband controller, issues an address corresponding to the desired functional operation of the peripheral components to the transceiver. A memory sub-system of the transceiver uses the address to output the appropriate bit pattern. The bit pattern can be provided in parallel to statically control individual control lines, or can be converted into a serial bitstream decodable by a command decoder. The command decoder can then decode the bitstream and locally issue the appropriate control signals for the peripheral components.
US08451880B2
A method for providing correction values for phase based measurements. Where averaging techniques are employed for exploiting redundancy in multiple measurements, by constraining the phase ambiguity in a correction value to be an integer multiple of the carrier wavelength, carrier phase based measurements can be used.
US08451875B2
A VCSEL with nearly planar intracavity contact. A bottom DBR mirror is formed on a substrate. A first conduction layer region is formed on the bottom DBR mirror. An active layer, including quantum wells, is on the first conduction layer region. A trench is formed into the active layer region. The trench is formed in a wagon wheel configuration with spokes providing mechanical support for the active layer region. The trench is etched approximately to the first conduction layer region. Proton implants are provided in the wagon wheel and configured to render the spokes of the wagon wheel insulating. A nearly planar electrical contact is formed as an intracavity contact for connecting the bottom of the active region to a power supply. The nearly planar electrical contact is formed in and about the trench.
US08451872B2
A wavelength tunable filter and a wavelength tunable laser module are a codirectional coupler type whose characteristics do not vary significantly with a process error. They are structured so as to include a semiconductor substrate which has a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide. The first and the second optical waveguides are extended from a first side of the semiconductor substrate to an opposing second side thereof. The first optical waveguide includes a first core layer, which has a planar layout having periodic convexes and concaves, and a pair of electrodes, which vertically sandwich the first core layer. The second optical waveguide includes a second core layer, which has a lower refractive index than the first core layer. Further, a layer having the same composition and film thickness as the second core layer is placed under the first core layer.
US08451870B1
A method and system for multiplexing data signals is provided. A first circuit is operable to generate a plurality of serialized data signals and is operable to adjust a phase of at least one of the serialized data signals to adjust bit and byte alignment. A second circuit is coupled to the first circuit to receive the plurality of serialized data signals from the first circuit. The second circuit has a multiplexer operable to generate a multiplexed output signal from the received serialized data signals. The first circuit is further coupled to the second circuit by a back channel operable to carry information regarding bit alignment and byte alignment of the received serialized data signals.
US08451866B2
An apparatus and a method for composing a subchannel in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes performing a subband-based permutation on resources for composing a subchannel; selecting one or more subbands as resources for a band selection subchannel from the resources passing through the subband-based permutation; composing the band selection subchannel using at least one of the selected subbands; performing a resource allocation unit based permutation on resources not selected for the band selection subchannel; composing a resource allocation unit based diversity subchannel using subband remained in the selected subbands after the band selection subchannel is composed and at least one of the resource allocation units of the resources passing through the resource allocation unit based permutation; and composing a tone-based diversity subchannel by performing a tone-based permutation on resources remained after the resource allocation unit based diversity subchannel is composed.
US08451860B2
Switchless deterministic data bus networks and interfaces are disclosed. In one embodiment, a network includes a switchless shared bandwidth data bus; a plurality of nodes in communication with the shared bandwidth data bus; and a deterministic transport layer hosted on each node of the plurality of nodes, the deterministic transport layer providing message scheduling and flow control, the message scheduling using a bandwidth allocation and physical layer prioritization access protocol for scheduling a packet. An embodiment of an interface includes a packager that packages data received from the host processor into packets compatible with a switchless shared bandwidth network; an un-packager that un-packs data packets received from the network, removes payload data, and transmits the payload data to the host processor; and a deterministic bus scheduler and controller that controls and schedules the transmission of data over the switchless shared bandwidth network such that the network is a deterministic network.
US08451859B2
A packet type retransmission system for DMB services includes a DMB device for receiving multimedia data from a content provider, for converting the multimedia data to DMB data for DMB transmission, and for transmitting the DMB data. A broadcasting transfer medium transfers the DMB data transmitted through the DMB device. A DMB-IP converter receives the DMB data transferred through the broadcasting transfer media and converts the DMB data to packet based data. An IP based multimedia transmitting device outputs the packet based multimedia data converted through the DMB-IP converter to user devices.
US08451852B2
A system provides congestion control and includes multiple queues that temporarily store data and a drop engine. The system associates a value with each of the queues, where each of the values relates to an amount of memory associated with the queue. The drop engine compares the value associated with a particular one of the queues to one or more programmable thresholds and selectively performs explicit congestion notification or packet dropping on data in the particular queue based on a result of the comparison.
US08451851B2
Wireless gateway nodes are enabled to support mobile node services, such as content based billing, when a data treatment server is present in the system. Using one of a defined Content Flow Label (CFL), an Application Program Interface (API), and a compression protocol header, content based billing is provided such as by exchanging content and byte count information with the data treatment server.
US08451844B2
A method of receiving a data packet from an IPv4 domain in an IPv6 domain, the data packet comprising an IPv4 destination address and a destination port number. The method comprises the following steps: constructing an IPv6 destination address by concatenating an operator prefix, the IPv4 destination address, and the destination port number; generating an IPv6 data packet from the IPv6 constructed destination address and the received IPv4 data packet; and routing the generated IPv6 data packet in the IPv6 domain using the IPv6 constructed destination address, the constructed address belonging to a range of IPv6 addresses routable to an interconnection equipment of the IPv6 domain with the IPv4 destination address.
US08451831B2
A network, including: a first tile having a processor, a first top brick connected to the processor, a first bottom brick, and a first intermediate brick; a second tile having a second intermediate brick and a second bottom brick; multiple connections connecting the first top brick with the second intermediate brick and the first intermediate brick with the second bottom brick using a passthrough on an intermediate tile between the first and second tiles, where the first, the intermediate, and the second tiles are positioned in a row; and a third tile having a plurality of caches connected to a third bottom brick, where the second and third tiles are positioned in a column, and the first bottom brick, the second bottom brick, and the third bottom brick belong to a bottom layer of the network, and where the first and second intermediate bricks belong to an intermediate layer of the network.
US08451829B2
A method and system for routing a call connection signal and corresponding contextual information to an appropriate destination is provided. A call center and at least one user may exchange signals, and/or contextual information during a call set-up phase. Relevant contextual information and other detailed information may be identified and collected from their corresponding sources. Based on the relevant contextual information and other detailed information, one or more appropriate routed destinations may be determined. In addition, contextual information may be tailored for each of the determined routed destinations. The call connection signal and the tailored contextual information are routed to each routed destination. In this manner, necessary contextual information may be readily available for the routed destination at the time of the call connection and thus the routed destination can provide a faster service.
US08451827B2
A circuit and method are presented for signal processing and routing of digital voice telephony signals, using a specialized high-density integrated circuit voice processor. The voice processor performs several essential functions required for telephony processing, including echo cancellation, protocol conversion, and dynamic range compression/expansion. These functions are traditionally performed by multiple circuits or modules. By combining these capabilities in a single device, power and circuit board area requirements are reduced. The embodiment of the circuit and method disclosed herein include novel implementations of a time-slot interchange circuit and a telephony signaling circuit. Both of these circuits are designed to minimize demands on the signal processing engines incorporated within the voice processor, and account for very little of the on-chip circuitry.
US08451818B2
Radio protocol for a next generation mobile communication system is disclosed including a radio link control layer for connecting to an upper layer through a service access point provided in advance and for connecting to a lower layer through a plurality of logic channels provided in advance The radio link control layer includes at least one radio link control entity for transmission/reception of data to/from up-link or down-link according to a form of a data transmission mode.
US08451815B2
The present invention relates to a method for a first coordinator operating at a first channel frequency in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), the WPAN further comprising a second coordinator operating a second channel frequency, the method comprising the steps of transmitting a message at a plurality of channel frequencies including the second channel frequency, requesting the second coordinator to change from the second channel frequency to the first channel frequency, and communicating with the second coordinator using the first channel frequency. As discussed above, advantages with the present invention includes that no priority based mechanism is needed due to the fact that the coordinator that initiates (e.g. starts) communication-decides on used frequency. Furthermore, every coordinator is able to have the coordinator it wants to communicate with to change to its decided frequency. The present invention also relates to a corresponding method for a second coordinator, a first and a second coordinator, a system comprising at least a first and a second coordinator, and a corresponding computer program.
US08451812B2
C2X communication is made possible efficiently via WLAN by apparatuses and a method for filtering data frames received by a vehicle from a receiver via a WLAN connection, wherein a frame type indicated in a received data frame is used to decide that device to which data in the data frame are transmitted. The C2X communication can be used for recognizing pedestrians. It is also possible to use a plurality of transmission paths and/or UDP.
US08451806B2
The intranet IP address management solution of the appliance and/or client described herein provides an environment for efficiently assigning, managing and querying virtual private network addresses, referred to as intranet IP (IIP) addresses of virtual private network users, such as a multitude of SSL VPN users on an enterprise network. The appliance provides techniques and policies for assigning previously assigned virtual private network addresses of a user to subsequent sessions of the user as the user logs in multiple times or roams between access points. This technique is referred to IIP stickiness as the appliance attempts to provide the same IIP address to a roaming VPN user. The appliance also provides a configurable user domain naming policy so that one can ping or query the virtual private network address of a user by an easily referenceable host name identifying the user. The appliance and/or client agent also provide techniques to allow applications to seamlessly and transparently communicate on the virtual private network using the virtual private network address of the user or client on the private network.
US08451805B2
A radio wave detecting apparatus that can perform carrier sense of radio waves subjected to spread spectrum with a simple configuration, in which a spread code is multiplied by an information signal, the band is spread, and a spread information signal is generated. A beacon signal in a predetermined band is synthesized with the spread information signal, and a synthesized signal is transmitted as a radio wave. Furthermore, only a signal component in a predetermined band is extracted from a received radio wave, so that a beacon signal is separated. The presence of a radio wave is detected based on the receiving power of the separated beacon signal. If the presence of the radio wave is detected, the transmission of the radio wave is stopped.
US08451793B2
A wireless terminal involving small redundancy that can be reconfigured to a configuration compatible with a plurality of systems using the hardware resources compatible with one system is provided. A wireless terminal 100A is compatible with an OFCDM system and has a signal processing section 151, a synchronous detection section 162, etc. The signal processing section 151 performs Fourier transform when the wireless terminal is compatible with the OFCDM system; the signal processing section 151 performs Fourier transform and inverse Fourier transform compatible with an OFDM system when the wireless terminal is compatible with the OFDM system and a CDMA system. When the wireless terminal is compatible with the OFCDM system, the synchronous detection section 162 uses taps used in the systems when the wireless terminal is compatible with the OFDM system and the CDMA system. When the wireless terminal 100A is placed out of the area in the OFCDM system, it is switched to a configuration compatible with the OFDM system and the CDMA system.
US08451792B2
The object is achieved by providing a base station apparatus for performing time and frequency scheduling in uplink packet access with: an interference amount measurement part configured to measure an uplink interference amount for each interference amount measurement unit which comprises a predetermined period and a predetermined number of frequency blocks; an interference amount determination part configured to determine whether the uplink interference amount satisfies a predetermined condition; and an overload indicator reporting part configured to report an overload indicator to a neighboring cell when the predetermined condition is satisfied.
US08451785B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting data to a remote node via each of two or more transmitted carrier signals, wherein a distinct outbound packet data traffic channel is mapped to each transmitted carrier signal. In an exemplary method, aggregated control channel data is formed by combining control channel data corresponding to each of two or more received carrier signals, simultaneously transmitting traffic channel data to the remote node on each of the two or more outbound packet data traffic channels, and transmitting the aggregated control channel data using one or more physical control channels mapped to a first one of the transmitted carrier signals. In particular, these methods and apparatus may be applied to a multi-carrier High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) system.
US08451783B2
A method of transmitting a scheduling reference signal (SRS) for uplink scheduling is provided. The method includes transmitting a SRS on a first partial SRS transmission band in a first transmitting time, and transmitting the SRS on a second partial SRS transmission band in a second transmitting time, wherein the first and the second partial SRS transmission bands are parts of a full SRS transmission band and have exclusive positions with each other in the full SRS transmission band, the full SRS transmission band selected for uplink scheduling, the full SRS transmission band comprising a plurality of partial SRS transmission bands.
US08451781B2
A method for transmitting a random access preamble using a random access procedure in a mobile communication system. The random access preamble transmission method includes selecting, upon triggering of the random access procedure, one of random access preamble sets predefined between a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved Node B (ENB) according to whether a radio channel condition is greater than a radio channel condition threshold and a size of a message that the UE will transmit after transmission of the random access preamble is greater than a minimum message size, randomly selecting a random access preamble from the selected random access preamble set, and transmitting the selected random access preamble to the ENB over a random access channel.
US08451779B2
A device receives, from an emergency call server (ECS), a query that includes a telephone number, a femto global positioning system (GPS) identifier, and an Internet protocol (IP) address associated with a user equipment (UE) placing an emergency call. The device obtains a serving cell E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) of the UE based on the query, and determines whether the ECGI is a macro ECGI associated with a base station or a femto ECGI associated with a femto cell.
US08451773B2
System(s) and method(s) that facilitate dynamic remote management of consumer premise devices comprising femtocells integrated into broadband gateways are presented. A communication network platform is associated with a consumer premise device(s) and can include a remote management component that facilitates dynamic and remote management of consumer premise devices in a wireless communication network. The remote management component monitors and measures desired parameters respectively associated with a consumer premise devices and employs remote controls to remotely adjust parameters based on predetermined optimization criteria. The remote management component calculates channel capacity based on measured channel signal-to-noise ratio to facilitate determining whether to hand off a current cell to another cell, wherein at least one cell is associated with a consumer premise device. The remote management component can generate and store Quality of Service profiles respectively associated with the consumer premise devices to facilitate remote management of the consumer premise devices.
US08451772B2
A base station includes a center frequency setting unit, a local oscillator, a baseband processor, and an RF processor. In the event of a frequency band change, the center frequency setting unit sets a center frequency of a use frequency channel to have a predetermined offset value with respect to a center frequency before the frequency band change. The local oscillator generates an LO frequency signal according to the center frequency set by the center frequency setting unit. The baseband processor generates a downlink baseband signal. The RF processor uses the LO frequency signal to convert the downlink baseband signal into an RF signal prior to transmission.
US08451764B2
The present invention discloses a system structure for supporting Evolved Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (Evolved MBMS), comprising: a Broadcast/Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) for initiating control signaling and bearer services for Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); a System Architecture Evolved Gateway (SAE GW) for receiving MBMS service data and MBMS control signaling or service data from another network, and forwarding the received service data and control signaling; a Broadcast/Multicast Management Entity (BME) for receiving, processing and forwarding the MBMS control signaling, and determining, for each item of the service data for MBMS, an enhanced Node B (eNB) which needs to receive the control signaling; and an multicast User Plane Entity (mUPE) for receiving the MBMS service data, processing the received MBMS service data in Evolved Packet System Architecture Evolution, and forwarding the processed MBMS service data to a downstream node.
US08451754B2
Example methods, apparatus and articles to manage routing in networks are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes obtaining a first interior gateway routing protocol route selection metric associated with a first router and a second interior gateway routing protocol route selection metric associated with a second router communicatively coupled to the first router, detecting whether a mismatch exists between the first and second first interior gateway routing protocol route selection metrics, determining, using a Bellman-Ford algorithm, a target interior gateway routing protocol route selection metric when the mismatch is detected, and transmitting the target interior gateway routing protocol route selection metric to at least one of the first and second routers.
US08451753B2
Systems and methods for the configuration of substation remote terminals with a central controller are provided. A message identifying a current status of a remote terminal unit (“RTU”) associated with a remote power substation may be received by a central controller associated with a power system. Based upon an analysis of the received message, a request for configuration data associated with the RTU may be communicated by the central controller to the RTU. In response to the request, the configuration data may be received by the central controller from the RTU. Based upon the received configuration data, the central controller may update a configuration database comprising information associated with the configuration of the RTU. In this regard, supervisory control and data acquisitions operations with the RTU by the central controller may be facilitated.
US08451748B2
Method and system for configuring a device that has failed to obtain a network address. In one aspect of the invention, a method for remotely configuring a device includes attempting to obtain a network address from a network server over a network, and receiving a valid network address over the network from a remote device connected to the network in response to failing to obtain the network address from the network server.
US08451743B2
A method is provided for determining a transmission rate of a control response frame for acknowledging data receipt in a wireless local area network. The method includes obtaining transmission parameters of a transmitting station from a data transmission frame received from the transmitting station, searching a receiving station for transmission parameters which correspond to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station, determining the transmission rate of the control response frame according to transmission parameters of the receiving station if the transmission parameters corresponding to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station are found in the receiving station, and determining a maximum rate among a set of basic transmission rates to be the transmission rate of the control response frame if the transmission parameters corresponding to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station are not found in the receiving station.
US08451737B2
A method for processing information reporting, including: obtaining event information when an REFE detects an event; and processing reporting of event information according to a control policy. An information reporting device, which is configured with: an event detecting unit, adapted to detect an event; a policy controlling unit, adapted to obtain a control policy corresponding to the event, and instruct a reporting processing unit to perform processing according to the control policy; and a reporting processing unit, adapted to generate and send the information report.
US08451730B2
A network device for implementing a high speed transmission protocol. The network device includes a plurality of high speed modules which are connected by a plurality of high speed links. Each of the plurality of high speed modules implements the high speed transmission protocol and each of the plurality of high speed modules being implemented in an Ethernet ring topology. A medium access control layer in each of the plurality of high speed modules is modified in a manner that is transparent to a switching entity in each of the plurality of high speed modules. The high speed transmission protocol comprises a plurality of aspects including an in-banding messaging mechanism for efficient and responsive traffic management and network operation.
US08451729B2
An embedded device includes a wide area network (WAN) port, a plurality of local area network (LAN) ports, and a packet forwarding module to forward packets from the LAN ports to the WAN port. The packet forwarding module detects whether any packets are being dropped in the WAN port, and turns on a bandwidth classification mechanism if the packets are being dropped. The packet forwarding module classifies packets from the LAN ports into different types, and determines the amount of traffic for each type of packet in a fixed time period. The packet forwarding module further compares whether the traffic of each type of packet exceeds a predefined threshold, regards the packets within the predefined threshold as normal packets, and the packets exceeding the predefined threshold as abuse packets. The packet forwarding module drops the abuse packets, and forwards the normal packets to the WAN port.
US08451723B2
A method of packetizing digital audio information for packet-switched communications includes separating a digital audio sample into at least one most significant bit and at least one least significant bit. The at least one most significant bit of the digital audio sample is placed into a variable-length most significant bit packet having a high transmission priority for transmission over a packet-switched network in which at least one node receives the packet and independently determines how to route the packet. The at least one least significant bit of the digital audio sample is placed into a variable-length least significant bit packet having a low transmission priority for transmission over the packet-switched network. Prioritization of packets as having a high transmission priority or low transmission priority is independent of speech characteristics of digital audio samples with elements contained therein.
US08451720B2
Disclosed herein is a wireless transmission system including a plurality of antenna pairs; a demodulation functional unit; and a transmission characteristic correction unit. The plurality of antenna pairs each including a transmission antenna and a reception antenna. A wireless signal transmitted from a transmission antenna directly arrives as a desired wave at a corresponding reception antenna. Meanwhile, a wireless signal transmitted from a different transmission antenna directly arrives as an unnecessary wave at the reception antenna. The demodulation functional unit corresponding to each antenna pair demodulates a modulation signal received by the reception antenna. The transmission characteristic correction unit carries out correction calculation based on a transmission characteristic of a transmission space between the transmission and reception antennae based on demodulation signals demodulated by the demodulation functional units to acquire an output signal corresponding to a transmission subject signal.
US08451716B2
Methods and systems for routing call signaling messages are disclosed. One such method is performed in a session router. The method includes: maintaining a telephony route information base (TRIB) stored in the session router as a result of participation of the session router in telephony routing over internet protocol (TRIP). The TRIB allows multiple routes to the same destination. The method further comprises: using the TRIB to route the received call signaling messages to another session router. One such system includes memory and a processor. The processor is configured by instructions retrieved from the memory to: build and maintain, as a result of participation of the router in telephony routing over internet protocol (TRIP), a telephony route information base (TRIB) that allows multiple routes to the same destination; and use the TRIB to route a received call signaling message to another router.
US08451701B2
A system and method for suppressing jitter in a digital data signal in a signal processor system. The digital data signal has spaced apart byte allocation units wherein such spacing is increased such that unallocated bytes can be identified and removed from the digital data signal. The byte allocation units of the digital data signal are suppressed with a digital data signal being outputted from the signal processor system having suppressed byte allocation units to suppress the occurrence of jitter.
US08451699B2
The present invention accurately operates a tilt servo even if a gap servo is operated with a small gap. A condensing unit (102) generates a near-field light and condenses a laser beam on an optical disk (1), a light quantity detection unit (104) detects light quantity of return light from an area where the near-field light is generated, a gap control unit (105) controls a gap between the condensing unit (102) and the optical disk (1) based on the light quantity of the return light, a tilt calculation unit (106) calculates, in a state of controlling the gap, an inclination amount between the condensing unit (102) and the optical disk (1) based on the light quantity of the return light, a tilt error signal generation unit (107) generates from the inclination amount a tilt error signal, which is a signal from which a fluctuation component of the return light generated due to decentering of the optical disk (1) is removed, and a tilt control unit (108) controls the inclination between the condensing unit (102) and the optical disk (1) based on the tilt error signal.
US08451694B2
An ultrasonic sensor unit includes a transmission base plate and a reception base plate. The transmission base plate includes an ultrasonic transmission sensor configured and arranged to transmit ultrasonic waves. The reception base plate includes an ultrasonic reception sensor configured and arranged to receive the ultrasonic waves. One of the transmission base plate and the reception base plate define a through-hole at a position corresponding to one of the ultrasonic transmission sensor and the ultrasonic reception sensor provided in the other of the transmission base plate and the reception base plate so that the one of the ultrasonic transmission sensor and the ultrasonic reception sensor is exposed through the through-hole.
US08451688B2
Methods and apparatus to combine monopole and multipole acoustic logging measurements to determine shear slowness are disclosed. An example method to determine shear slowness of a formation from acoustic logging data disclosed herein comprises determining a plurality of mixed coherence values corresponding to a respective plurality of possible shear slowness values, each mixed coherence value determined by combining a monopole coherence value determined from monopole logging data and a multipole coherence value determined from multipole logging data, the monopole and multipole coherence values each being determined for a particular possible shear slowness value corresponding to the mixed coherence value, and using the particular shear slowness value corresponding to a maximum mixed coherence value in the plurality of mixed coherence values to represent the shear slowness of the formation.
US08451679B1
In one embodiment, a memory is provided that includes: a write driver for selectively driving a driven pair of bit lines selected from a plurality of bit line pairs during a write operation; a first stage clamping circuit operable to clamp a pair of internal nodes to a clamping voltage, wherein the first stage clamping circuit is further operable to unclamp the pair of internal nodes during the write operation; a bit line multiplexer for selectively coupling the driven bit line pair to the pair of internal nodes; and a second stage clamping circuit operable to clamp the plurality of bit line pairs to the clamping voltage, wherein the second stage clamping circuit is further operable to unclamp the driven bit line pair during the write operation.
US08451678B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit device has a negative voltage generation circuit provided at each power supply circuit unit for six memory macros. Therefore, the response with respect to variation in a negative voltage is increased. In a standby mode, a negative voltage supply line for the six memory macros is connected by a switch circuit, and only a negative voltage generation circuit of one power supply circuit unit among six negative voltage generation circuits of the six power supply circuit units is rendered active. Thus, increase in standby current can be prevented.
US08451672B2
A memory cell stores therein data, a dummy cell replicates an operation of the memory cell, a write control unit makes the dummy cell to perform writing in synchronization with write timing of the memory cell, and a row decoder performs opening and closing of a word line that performs a row selection of the memory cell based on a monitored result of a write condition of the dummy cell.
US08451670B2
Adaptive and dynamic stability enhancement for memories is described. In one example, the enhancement includes a plurality of sensors each located near a plurality of memory cells to provide a sensor voltage, a controller to receive the sensor voltage and provide a control signal based thereon, and a read/write assist circuit coupled to the controller to adjust a parameter applied to reading from and writing to a memory cell of the plurality of memory cells in response to the control signal.
US08451658B2
A method and system for programming and reading data with reduced read errors in a memory device. In one approach, date to be written to the memory device is scrambled using a first pseudo random number which is generated based on a number of a page of the memory device to which the data is to be written and a second pseudo random number which is generated based on a number of a block of the memory device to which the data is to be written. This avoids bit line-to-bit line and block-to-block redundancies which can result in read errors. The data may also be scrambled based on a number of a section within a page.
US08451652B2
Static random access memory (SRAM) cells are disclosed. In one example embodiment the SRAM cell includes a latch having a first node and a second node for storing bit information at the first node and a complement of the bit at the second node. The SRAM cell further includes a first switch controlled by a write operation signal, connected between a supply voltage and a first pull-up transistor of the latch and a third switch controlled the write operation signal, connected between the second node and a ground voltage. The SRAM cell further includes a second switch controlled by the write operation signal, connected between the supply voltage and a second pull-up transistor and a fourth switch controlled by the write operation signal, connected between the second node and the ground voltage. The write operation signals are generated by a first complex gate and a second complex gate.
US08451651B2
An object is to provide a semiconductor device with a novel structure, which can hold stored data even when not powered and which has an unlimited number of write cycles. A semiconductor device is formed using a material capable of sufficiently reducing the off-state current of a transistor, such as an oxide semiconductor material that is a widegap semiconductor. The use of a semiconductor material capable of sufficiently reducing the off-state current of a transistor allows data to be held for a long time. In addition, the timing of potential change in a signal line is delayed relative to the timing of potential change in a write word line. This makes it possible to prevent a data writing error.
US08451641B2
A memory array including a plurality of memory cells, a plurality of word lines, a dummy word line, and a plug is provided. Each word line is coupled to corresponding memory cells. A dummy word line is directly adjacent to an outmost word line of the plurality of word lines. The plug is located between the dummy word line and the outmost word line.
US08451640B2
A content addressable memory (CAM) system configured for reduced power consumption and increased speed includes a plurality of bit cells implementing a stacked architecture. Each bit cell comprises a pair of stacked storage elements in a first column and a compare circuit, coupled to the pair of stacked storage elements and a matchline of the CAM system, situated in a second column. The stacked architecture results in a reduced matchline length, thereby reducing CAM system power consumption and increasing CAM system speed. In a further embodiment, a content addressable memory (CAM) system configured for reduced power consumption and increased speed includes storing encoded data in a pair of stacked storage elements.
US08451634B2
A circuit and method of determining the power output for a converter circuit includes determining a time averaged voltage from a rectified voltage of a winding of the transformer and multiplying the time averaged voltage by a constant determined at least in part by an average current of a winding of the transformer. By one approach, a rectified voltage from a primary side of the transformer is time averaged using a filter circuit. The current can be known or preset or controlled by the converter circuit such that the time averaged voltage reading, assuming a constant current, can be compared to a preset voltage such that the voltage reading approximates a power reading for the transformer. By another approach, the time averaged voltage is multiplied by the current to obtain a power output reading.
US08451628B2
Switching converter systems are provided to control output voltage across a load by means of a converter forward path and a converter feedback path. The forward path preferably includes a transistor, an inductive element, a diode and a capacitor arranged to switchably exchange energy with the capacitor to thereby generate the output voltage. The feedback path preferably extends from the capacitor and is configured to digitally control a duty cycle of the transistor in response to the output voltage. In a system embodiment, the feedback path includes at least one comparator arranged to provide a digital error signal in response to a comparison of the output voltage to a reference voltage; a first isolation channel configured to isolatably transport a clock signal to digitally gate the error signal; a second isolation channel configured to isolatably transport the error signal; and a controller coupled to the first and second isolation channels and configured to control the duty cycle in response to the error signal. A transformer is preferably inserted into the first and second isolation channels to enhance isolation and, preferably, the first and second isolation channels respectively include first and second digital gates that each have an output port coupled to an input port of the other.
US08451614B2
According to one embodiment, a module includes a circuit substrate having a circuit pattern which is formed of a first conductor and which includes a signal circuit, a bonding member formed of a second conductor different from the first conductor, a passive element and an active element bonded to the circuit pattern with the bonding member to implement the circuit substrate, and a detection circuit provided separately from the signal circuit on the circuit substrate. The detection circuit includes a detector having the first conductor and the second conductor which are provided on the circuit substrate and which are electrically connected to each other, a power source configured to supply current to the detector, and a measuring instrument interposed between one of the first and the second conductors in the detector and the power source and configured to measure electrical characteristics between the first and the second conductors.
US08451609B2
The invention relates to a cooling device for a plurality of power modules (16), comprising a heat-conducting body (15) through which a coolant flows. The cooling device comprises external cooling ribs (14) on a first housing shell of the body through which a coolant flows for receiving the plurality of power modules adjacent to each other. Each individual cooling rib is aligned to come into fixed heat-conducting contact on at least one upper or lower side of one of the plurality of power modules, and the housing shell, on the inner side in the region of the respective cooling rib(s), comprises means for the fluidic communication with the volume of the coolant in the inside the body through which the coolant flows.
US08451601B2
In embodiments of double hinge axial cams, a portable device includes a first housing integrated with a display device, and a second housing movably coupled to the first housing. The first housing is operable to open and close relative to the second housing, and the first and second housings can be rotated from a closed position at approximately zero degrees (0°) to an open position at approximately one-hundred and eighty degrees (180°), as well as rotated through approximately three-hundred and sixty degrees (360°). Double hinges are operable to movably couple the first housing and the second housing. The double hinges include axial cams that apply a holding torque in the open position that resists the first and second housings closing.
US08451597B2
An electronic device includes a housing, at least one expansion card, a motherboard and a fixing member. The motherboard is assembled into the housing, and includes at least one socket member. The socket member defines at least one expansion slot to receive the expansion card. The housing includes a bottom plate and a side plate extending substantially perpendicular to the bottom plate. The fixing member is rotatably connected to the side plate. The fixing member resists an end of the expansion card away from the motherboard, such that the fixing member and the motherboard cooperatively defining an airflow channel therebetween.
US08451592B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device (69) including: a liquid crystal display panel unit (49); a backlight unit (59); and a front bezel (BZ1) and a rear bezel (BZ2) for housing the liquid crystal display panel unit and the backlight unit. The liquid crystal display panel unit includes an FPC board (1) which winds around side walls (WL2) and a bottom surface (31) of the rear bezel so as to cover the side walls (WL2) and the bottom surface (31). Outer claw sections (CW1) projecting inward from the side walls (WL1) of the front bezel and inner claw sections (CW2) projecting outward from the side walls of the rear bezel are engaged with each other through openings (HL) provided in the FPC board, thereby integrating the front bezel and the rear bezel.
US08451586B2
A wet electrolytic capacitor that contains an anode and a fluid electrolyte that are positioned within a casing is provided. The capacitor also contains a sealing assembly that employs a bushing having opposing inwardly facing, tapered surfaces between which an orifice is defined. To help inhibit leakage from the orifice, a liquid sealing member is also employed that contains a protrusion having outwardly facing, tapered surfaces that are configured to mate with the inwardly facing surfaces of the bushing. At least one outwardly facing surface of the sealing member is tapered at an angle greater than a respective inwardly facing surface of the bushing.
US08451578B1
A hard drive particle cleaning system includes an air source, an ionizer module coupled to the air source via upstream tubing, a mechanical shock system configured to secure a hard drive and apply a mechanical shock to the hard drive to dislodge particles inside the hard drive, and an exhaust system. The ionizer module includes a shell and an inlet nozzle arranged in a first end of the shell and coupled to the upstream tubing for supplying a stream of air from the air source into the shell.
US08451575B2
Provided is a lightning arrester capable of previously discharging charges charged depending on an approach of lightning before the lightning occurs, thereby preventing the lightning. The lightning arrester includes: a conductive rod installed at an upper part of an object to be protected from lightning and connected to a ground part; an insulator coupled with one end of the rod; a charge pipe having a cylindrical shape with pin-shaped projections extending inward therefrom and in which space charges are charged; and a charge rod inserted into the charge pipe and connected in the middle of the rod.
US08451569B2
In an active clamp implemented in a 5V complementary BiCMOS process, the footprint of the active clamp, which includes at least one NMOS clamp stack, is reduced by introducing a BJT into the circuit to allow the number of NMOS clamp stacks to be reduced.
US08451558B2
A disk drive device includes: a base member; a hub on which a recording disk is placed; a bearing unit arranged on the base member for rotatably supporting the hub; and a spindle drive unit for rotationally driving the hub, wherein the spindle drive unit includes a stator core having salient poles, a coil wound around each of the salient poles, and a magnet having a plurality of magnetic poles arranged in a circumferential direction opposed to the salient poles, the hub includes an outer cylindrical portion formed of a magnetic material and engaged with an inner periphery of the recording disk, and an inner cylindrical portion fixing an outer periphery of the magnet, the number of magnetic poles is an even number in a range of 10 to 16, and the number of salient poles is a multiple of 3 in a range of 12 to 24.
US08451556B1
A method and system for providing energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) heads are described. The heads include sliders and lasers coupled with the sliders. The method and system include molding an enclosure layer. The enclosure layer has a laser-facing surface and a top surface opposing the laser-facing surface. The laser-facing surface has a cavity including a concave section. The method and system further includes providing a reflective layer on the cavity. A portion of the reflective layer resides on the concave section, collimates light from the laser, and provides the collimated light to the EAMR transducer. The method and system further includes aligning the concave section of the cavity with a light emitting portion of the laser. The enclosure layer is also bonded to the slider.
US08451553B2
Disclosed is a lens driving apparatus. The lens driving apparatus includes a base, a yoke coupled to the base, having an upper surface formed with a hole, a closed side surface, and an opened bottom surface, a bobbin movably installed in an inner portion of the yoke, a lens module coupled to the bobbin to go in and out the hole according to movement of the bobbin, a magnet fixed to an inner portion of the yoke, a coil fixed to an outer portion of the bobbin while facing the magnets, and springs coupled to the bobbin to provide restoration force to the bobbin.
US08451552B2
A lens driving device which can stably support a lead screw, and furthermore, can reduce driving load while maintaining a centering function for stabilizing a lens stop position. The lens driving device comprises a lens for holding member holding a photographic lens, a lead screw for moving the lens holding member forward and backward in a photographic optical axis direction, and a first support member and a second support member for rotationally supporting the lead screw. The second support member has a support concave portion having an apex for supporting the lead screw, and the lead screw has a support portion that is in point contact with the support concave portion having the apex.
US08451550B2
The projection lens comprises: the first of the components of negative power, facing with its concave surface to the object and cemented of negative and positive menisci, the second component comprising a positive meniscus, having the concave surface facing an object side, the third one being a biconvex lens, the forth one being a positive meniscus, having the concave surfaces facing an image side, the fifth one being negative, faced with its concave surface to the image and being cemented of biconvex and biconcave lenses. The technical objective is that relative aperture (1:1.8) is increased, brightness at the image edge field is enhanced against that in the centre (0.91), in the image, formed by the lens, the required value of negative distortion is provided (−3%), an image quality is enhanced, conditions of lens operating are provided for the object, located at the finite distance.
US08451547B2
An easily manufacturable wide angle lens with less possibility of distortion even using a small number of lenses has a first lens which is a spherical meniscus lens having negative power and whose convex surface faces an object; the second lens which is an aspherical meniscus lens having negative power along an optical axis and has positive power off the optical axis and whose convex surface faces the object side; the third lens having positive power in order from an object side, and an aperture. The Abbe number of the second lens is 30 or less; the ratio between the diagonal length of an imaging device placed on an image plane and the focal length of the whole lens system is 0.26 or less; and the ratio between the focal length of the third lens and the focal length of the whole lens system is less than 1.5.
US08451537B2
A video viewing facility is provided. A circularly polarized light source is provided outside a self-luminous display. The self-luminous display includes a first wave plate having a function of converting circularly polarized light into linearly polarized light; a polarizing film; a second wave plate having a function of converting circularly polarized light into linearly polarized light; a circularly polarized light separating film; and a self-luminous panel, in this order from a visible side of the self-luminous display.
US08451535B2
A display apparatus that may generate a high density light field image is provided. The display apparatus may identify an eye position of a user and set a virtual viewing window around the eye of the user. The display apparatus may generate a directional light corresponding to the viewing window and generate a high density light field image.
US08451529B2
A cA crystal configured to change a frequency of a laser through an optical parametric oscillation (OPO) process and a difference frequency generation (DFG) process is provided. The crystal includes: an OPO-DFG segment that is quasi-periodically poled to yield (i) a conversion of a laser pump light applied thereto, to a first signal and an idler, and (ii) a conversion of a first signal applied thereto, to a second signal and to the idler, by phase-matching a difference frequency generation (DFG) process and an OPO process therein simultaneously, wherein the laser pump light has a frequency that equals a sum of a frequency of the first signal and a frequency of the idler and wherein the frequency of the first signal equals a sum of a frequency of the second signal and the frequency of the idler.
US08451527B2
A shutter includes micro-optics having first and second concentrator arrays. A transducer laterally displaces one of the first and second concentrator arrays between transmissive and shuttered modes. In the transmissive mode, the arrays of concentrators are optically aligned to permit electromagnetic energy passing through the first array of concentrators to pass through the second array of concentrators. In the shuttered mode, the electromagnetic radiation is blocked from passing through the second array of concentrators. The concentrators may be compound parabolic concentrators, or lenslets positioned on opposing plates with pinholes printed therethrough. The shutter may increase f-number of radiation passing therethrough, and may be used in a limited f-cone radiation source with shuttering abilities, for example reducing f-cone of radiation output from the radiation source.
US08451524B2
Modifying the output of a laser to achieve a flat top in the laser's Gaussian beam intensity profile
A laser beam is periodically deflected before being directed into a sample volume. The beam is deflected at a frequency such that the beam makes one or more passes through the sample volume while data are collected from the sample volume. The amplitude of motion of the beam, the dwell time of the beam at any given point, and the Gaussian intensity profile of the beam cooperate to produce an effective flat topped illumination profile for the light that is incident on specimens in the sample volume. The total photon exposure at any given point in the sample volume is a function of both the beam intensity and the dwell time at that location. Therefore, a longer dwell time and lower intensity at the edge of the profile are in balance with a shorter dwell time and higher intensity at the center of the profile.
US08451521B2
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for converting a set of L*a*b* values to CMYK color space in which all CMYK formulations that produce each L*a*b* value are found and enumerated. The CMYK formulations are found through a search algorithm starting with the lightest L*a*b* values then visiting neighboring L*a*b* values until the entire L*a*b* color set has been processed. The CMYK space is tessellated into a set of pentahedrons, and for each L*a*b* value, an enclosing pentahedron is found and the CMYK values corresponding to where the locus of this point penetrates each surface is recorded. Adjacent pentahedrons are then visited and this process continues until the gamut boundary is reached. The result is a piecewise linear representation of the CMYK locus containing all values that will give the target L*a*b* value. The present method provides a flexible and powerful approach for solving color management problems.
US08451511B2
A method and device for optically scanning an object is provided. A detection device optically scans a scanning region of the object by displacing the detection device and the object relative to one another into successive scanning positions spaced apart by a scanning step size along a scanning direction in an object plane. An optical imaging device generates a plurality of scanned images by imaging a partial scanning region from the object plane onto a detection surface in an image plane in the scanning positions. The plurality of scanned images are broken down into scanned part images and are combined to generate combined result images. At least one object measurement image is selected from the combined result images in accordance with one or more predetermined selection criteria.
US08451510B2
An image processing method of an image processing apparatus, the method includes: discerning pixels to be processed on the basis of a preset reference pixel value in a scanned image that comprises plural pixels; drawing a pixel area including the pixels to be processed from the scanned image on the basis of a preset condition; and selecting whether to apply an image process to the pixels to be processed or the drawn pixel area on the basis of a percentage of the pixels to be processed in the drawn pixel area.
US08451509B2
When data of large capacity compared with the capacity of a recording medium used for storing a backup is divided into sections of data and backed up on recording media, a unit configured to divide data and generate sections of the data in order to record the data on recording media, the sections having an order, and a unit configured to generate representative images for each of the recording media, on which the sections of the data are recorded, are provided. Representative images assigned to a certain recording medium include a representative image generated using one of the sections of the data to be recorded on the certain recording medium and a representative image generated using at least one of a previous section and a next section of the data regarding the section of the data, whereby the relationship between the recording media can be easily recognized.
US08451507B2
An image-reading apparatus includes a gain correction processing portion, and a gain setting control portion including a setting portion that sets a gain condition, the gain setting control portion: repeatedly sets the gain condition in the setting portion at predetermined time intervals, and records the set gain condition in the recording portion, in an idling state from when the power supply portion switches to an on state until a reception portion receives a read instruction; stops setting the gain condition in the setting portion in a reading state after the reception portion receives the read instruction; and implements gain correction on electrical signals output from an imaging element in the gain correction processing portion by applying the gain condition recorded in the recording portion just before the reception portion receives the read instruction.
US08451504B2
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for banding defect detection and analysis in digital imaging systems. The present method utilizes the gray levels of image regions and a collection of sequence of user images to improve the banding analysis. One embodiment hereof includes: segmenting images into regions; determining banding information for each page over a given sequence of images and detecting problem banding defect frequencies; estimating the banding amplitude(s) and average gray levels for each segmented region for each identified banding frequency(ies); and determining, through a process of interpolation, the banding amplitude for the image or sequence of images based on the banding amplitude and average gray levels of each region. Thereafter, notification can be provided to a key operator when the amplitude(s) are expected to exceed pre-determined levels over the course of a production run. The method demonstrates advantages in banding detection over whole-page methods.
US08451500B2
Provided are methods, apparatus and systems related to watermark encoding via pixel spacing modulation. According to one exemplary embodiment, a method modulates the pixel spacing associated with an image to encode a watermark.
US08451487B2
A reception controller receives print data. A volatile memory stores program information for performing image formation. An image forming unit forms an image based on the print data. An image formation controller receives the program information and controlling the image forming unit. A power supply stops supply of power to the volatile memory, image forming controller and image formation unit during supply power to the reception controller when a normal mode is switched to a power saving mode. An auxiliary volatile memory is supplied with power. An information saving path is for saving information in the volatile memory to the auxiliary volatile memory. In response to a detection of the switching from the power saving mode to the normal mode, the reception controller instructs the power supply to supply power to the image formation controller, volatile memory and image forming unit, and transfers the program information in the auxiliary volatile memory to the volatile memory.
US08451486B2
An image forming apparatus having a duplex automatic document feeding (DADF) function, and a control method thereof includes a DADF unit to feed a document along a duplex path, an image scanning unit to scan the document and output scan data, a storage unit to temporarily store the output scan data, and a controller to control the DADF unit to re-scan a first side of the document using the duplex path, if a full memory error occurs while the first side of the document is scanned.
US08451485B2
There is provided a data writing device, comprising: a plurality of connection slots to which a plurality of external storage devices are detachably attachable; an acceptance unit configured to accept a writing command inputted to the data writing device through a user operation; and a write control unit configured to write data to a plurality of external storage devices attached to the plurality of connection slots in response to acceptance of the writing command by the acceptance unit.
US08451475B2
A method for routing a confirmation of receipt of a facsimile or portion thereof according to one embodiment of the present invention includes analyzing text of a facsimile for at least one of a meaning and a context of the text; and routing one or more confirmations to one or more destinations based on the analysis. A method for routing one or more confirmations according to another embodiment of the present invention includes analyzing a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile; correlating the pattern to one or more forms; and routing one or more confirmations to one or more destinations based on the correlation. Additional systems and methods are also presented.
US08451471B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a power-saving-mode determining unit configured to determine, on the basis of at least an operation state of a processor, to which power saving mode of a sleep mode in which power supply to at least a fixing device is stopped and a super sleep mode in which a power supply for the processor is turned off and power consumption is lower than that in the sleep mode the image forming apparatus transitions. The power-saving mode determining unit performs the determination if predetermined processing is not executed for time set in advance or if an instruction for executing transition processing to a power saving mode in which power consumption is lower than that in a normal operation mode in which power supply to at least the fixing device is performed is received; and a power-saving-mode control unit configured to execute, on the basis of a determination result of the power-saving-mode determining unit, processing for transition to one power saving mode of the sleep mode and the super sleep mode.
US08451465B2
A system and methodology are described herein that enable a network with a plurality of independent computers, with differing print drivers having generated various otherwise potentially incompatible page description language print jobs, to successfully interface with a centralized printer system through a plurality of lines by virtue of on-the-fly adaptation of the page description language stream job headers before the jobs go to a subsequently designated print device. The header is consumed and parsed to mitigate print-stream header differences by transforming the header commands into page description language commands and imbedding the page description language commands in the original page description language data, and therefrom sending on a resulting pure page description language stream. The resulting pure page description language stream is necessarily a modification of the original page description language data, designed to produce a result compliant with the request as manifest in the originating header.
US08451459B2
A method for use in inspecting a blade tip clearance is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of rotor blades including tips, wherein the plurality of rotor blades are rotatably mounted within a casing such that a blade tip clearance is defined between the rotor blade tips and the casing. The method also includes providing a system for use in inspecting the blade tip clearance by emitting electromagnetic energy toward the tips and detecting electromagnetic energy reflected by the tips. The method further includes positioning the system to facilitate inspection of the blade tip clearance, rotating the plurality of rotor blades within the casing, and simultaneously blending the tips using a blending apparatus and inspecting the blade tip clearance using the system.
US08451458B2
An imaging microoptics, which is compact and robust, includes at least one aspherical member and has a folded beam path. The imaging microoptics provides a magnification |β′| of >800 by magnitude. Furthermore, a system for positioning a wafer with respect to a projection optics includes the imaging microoptics, an image sensor positionable in the image plane of the imaging microoptics, for measuring a position of an aerial image of the projection optics, and a wafer stage with an actuator and a controller for positioning the wafer in dependence of an output signal of the image sensor.
US08451457B2
A system comprising a substrate having thereon a multiphoton curable photoreactive composition, a light source that emits a light beam comprising a plurality of wavelengths onto at least one region of the composition on the substrate, and a detector that detects a portion of light reflected from the composition to obtain a location signal with respect to the substrate, wherein the location signal is based at least on a wavelength of the reflected light.
US08451454B2
A position measurement system to measure a position of a movable stage includes a reference plate; a plurality of sensors arranged such that, depending on a position of the movable stage relative to the reference plate, at least a subset of the plurality of sensors is configured to cooperate with the reference plate to provide for each of the sensors in the subset respective sensor signals representative of a position of the respective sensor relative to the reference plate; and a processor arranged to determine from the sensor signals a stage position, the processing device configured so as to, when the stage is in a position where an over-determined number of sensor signals is provided by at least the subset of the sensors that are in operational cooperation with the reference plate, (a) determine the stage position from a subset of the over-determined number of sensor signals, and (b) correct a sensor signal of one or more of the sensors from a discrepancy between the determined stage position and a remainder of the sensors signals.
US08451430B2
According to one embodiment, an illumination optical system comprises an optical integrator which forms a secondary light source on an illumination pupil plane in an illumination optical path of the illumination optical system with incidence of exposure light from a light source device thereinto; a first transmission filter arranged in an optical path of the exposure light emitted from a first surface illuminant of the secondary light source and having a transmittance characteristic varying according to angles of incidence of the exposure light; a second transmission filter arranged in an optical path of the exposure light emitted from a second surface illuminant of the secondary light source and having a transmittance characteristic varying according to the angles of incidence of the exposure light; and a rotation mechanism which rotates the first and second transmission filters so as to vary an angle of inclination thereof relative to the optical axis of the illumination optical system.
US08451425B2
An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate with exposure light via a liquid. The exposure apparatus includes: an optical member which has an emission surface from which the exposure light is emitted; a movable object which is able to move in a predetermined surface including a position facing the emission surface; and a predetermined component which is able to move between, the optical member and the movable object and which is able to form a space between which and the optical member a liquid is held.
US08451420B2
An easy process of producing a substrate for liquid crystal display device, which contribute to reducing the viewing angle dependence of color of a liquid crystal display device, which comprises the following steps [1] and [2] in this order: [1] subjecting a substrate having at least one optically anisotropic layer and at least one photosensitive polymer layer on a support to light exposure; [2] removing partial or entire part of the optically anisotropic layer and the photosensitive polymer layer by a physical mean.
US08451417B2
A color filter display plate includes a substrate, a light blocking member on the substrate, a color filter on the substrate, a covering layer covering the light blocking member and the color filter, a common electrode on the covering layer, a plurality of support members on the common electrode at locations corresponding to the light blocking member, and a main column spacer, a middle column spacer, and an auxiliary column spacer, each of which is on a corresponding one of the support members, the column spacers having different heights and area ratios.
US08451413B2
An array substrate for FFS type LCD panel includes a transparent substrate, gate lines, a gate insulating layer, data lines, pixel electrodes, a passivation layer and a common electrode. The gate lines are disposed on the transparent substrate. The gate insulating layer is disposed on the transparent substrate and covers the gate lines. The data lines are disposed on the gate insulating layer. The pixel electrodes are disposed on the gate insulating layer, wherein the pixel electrodes and the data lines are located on the same level. The passivation layer is disposed on the gate insulating layer and covers the pixel electrodes and the data lines. The common electrode is disposed on the passivation layer.
US08451403B2
A transflective display device includes a display panel and a light-gathering unit. The display panel includes a plurality of transmission regions and reflection regions, and has an upper surface and a lower surface. The light-gathering unit is directly disposed and positioned on the upper surface of the display panel, and includes a plurality of light-gathering elements, which are corresponding to the reflection regions respectively.
US08451401B2
To attain a high color reproducibility as a whole image without impairing the brightness of the entire image. A color image display device comprising a combination of light shutters, a color filter having color elements of at least three colors of red, green and blue corresponding to the light shutters, and a backlight for transmission illumination, wherein a light source to be used for the backlight comprises a combination of a blue or deep blue LED and a phosphor, and the relationship between the NTSC ratio W as a color reproduction range of the color image display element and the light use efficiency Y is represented Y≧−0.38 W+51 (wherein W≧87).
US08451388B2
An audio processing apparatus includes: a transmission signal input/output unit that inputs or outputs a video signal, an audio signal, and a control signal; a reproduction processing unit that reproduces the audio signal inputted to the transmission signal input/output unit or an audio signal inputted to any other audio signal input unit; an output unit that outputs the audio signal, which is processed by the reproduction processing unit, through a loudspeaker; and a control unit that when detecting that a control signal signifying that a predetermined mode concerning the display image quality represented by the video signal should be designated is inputted to the transmission signal input/output unit, instructs the reproduction processing unit to perform predetermined sound-field processing or sound-quality processing during the reproduction.
US08451384B2
A computer implemented method for automatically identifying shot changes in a video sequence in real-time or near-real-time is disclosed. Optical flow energy change differences between frames, sum-of-square differences between optical-flow-compensated frames, and hue histogram changes within frames are analyzed and stored in frame buffers. A feature vector formed from a combination of these measurements is compared to a feature vector formed from thresholds based on tunable recall and precision to declare the presence or absence of a shot change.
US08451380B2
A method for use with content includes analyzing a sequence of frames of the content, determining whether an area exists in a scene depicted by the sequence of frames where additional content such as advertising can be inserted without obstructing activity in the scene, for any such area, determining an amount of time that the area is available when the sequence of frames is being played, and for any such area, determining a size of the area. A storage medium storing a computer program for causing a processor based system to execute these steps and an apparatus for use with content are also disclosed.
US08451375B2
A video signal and an audio signal are transmitted from a source device to a sink device in conformity with respective predetermined interfaces through respective transmission channels. The respective interfaces include bidirectional interface such as an HDMI and an IEEE1394. A controller acquires delay information (TLv) representing the total delay time of the devices connected to the transmission channels conforming to the bidirectional interface and corrects the difference in reproduction time between the video and audio signals by using the acquired delay information (TLv).
US08451374B2
In an apparatus and a method for executing generation and reproduction processing of picture data suitable for picture display devices having differing processable frame rates, low frame rate picture data is generated on the basis of a plurality of temporally continuous pictures having a high frame rate to provide picture data having a plurality of layers. Decimated data may be set as the high frame rate layer data. In this manner, the quantity of data to be transmitted or stored is reduced.
US08451373B2
An input unit writes, into a memory unit, frames successively input from the outside. An interpolated frame generating unit reads multiple original frames from the memory unit, generates an interpolated frame between the original frames, and writes the interpolated frame into the memory unit. An output unit retrieves original frames and an interpolated frame from the memory unit and outputs to the outside the frames in the order in which the frames are to be displayed. The input unit, interpolated frame generating unit, and output unit operate in parallel to perform pipeline processing. Operation timing of each of the input unit and the interpolated frame generating unit is determined so that the timing at which the input unit writes an original frame into the memory unit differs from the timing at which the interpolated frame generating unit writes an interpolated frame into the memory unit.
US08451367B2
An imaging system uses optical modules to capture images of a subject. The optical modules are fixed on a bearing plate of the imaging system by a fastening element of the imaging system. The fastening element is removable and fixed on the support plate. Each of the optical modules has an optical surface. The fastening element has a bevel attached to all the optical surfaces of the optical modules so that all the optical surfaces are coplanar.
US08451366B2
An image capturing device includes an image capturing unit, a detection unit, an area setting unit, and a focusing unit. The image capturing unit captures an image. The detection unit detects a shape of an image area of an observed subject to be focused in the captured image. The area setting unit sets one or more contrast evaluation areas according to the shape of the detected image area. The focusing unit causes the image capturing unit to focus based on image data in the set contrast evaluation areas.
US08451360B2
A solid-state imaging apparatus that shortens a time for reading out pixel signals of all pixels and improves the aperture ratio of pixels is provided. The solid-state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of pixels (3) arranged in a matrix along a plurality of rows and columns, in which each of the pixels includes a photoelectric conversion element and a color filter; a plurality of buffers (2) arranged with each one corresponding to a plurality of pixels; and a plurality of vertical output lines (1) arranged such that two or more of the vertical output lines (1) are arranged correspondingly to one of the columns of the pixels; in which an input node of each of the buffers is connected commonly to a plurality of pixels having color filters of different colors, and output nodes of the plurality of buffers are connected alternately to a plurality of vertical output lines.
US08451355B2
An image sensor that supplies a control signal together with an address specifying each of a plurality of pixels arrayed in a pixel array with predetermined rows and columns to thereby perform an electronic shutter operation on a pixel corresponding to the address or perform reading of a pixel signal of a pixel corresponding to the address, is disclosed. The sensor includes: address generating means for generating a shutter row address specifying a row of pixels, on which an electronic shutter operation is to be performed within one horizontal period, among the pixels arrayed in the pixel array and a read row address specifying a row of pixels on which reading of a pixel signal is to be performed within the same one horizontal period; first storage means for storing the shutter row address; and second storage means for storing the read row address.
US08451351B2
An image processor which is capable of performing correction of defective pixels without degrading image quality when synthesizing a plurality of still images. When a plurality of image data items are synthesized, a first reference value which is smaller than a second reference value for use in determining whether or not to correct pixel data forming the image data is compared with a pixel value indicated by each of synthesized pixel data items forming the synthesized image data, and first correction processing is performed in which the synthesized pixel data of the synthesized image data is corrected according to a result of comparison.
US08451349B2
A device stores in ROM white spot addresses, white spot levels, an OB level median, sensitivity, and time-in-second under dark shooting, a temperature coefficient correcting the white spot level according to the temperature under normal shooting, a sensitivity coefficient for the sensitivity-based correction, and a time-in-second coefficient for the exposure time-in-second-based correction. A temperature difference during shooting a subject is obtained according to the difference between OB level median during normal shooting and that during dark shooting. A correction value for the white spot level due to temperature is obtained from temperature difference and temperature coefficient, and similarly, correction value due to sensitivity is obtained from sensitivity difference and sensitivity coefficient, and correction value due to time-in-second is obtained from time-in-second difference and time-in-second coefficient for correction. Dark current is corrected by subtracting OB level median during shooting a subject from the video signal during shooting a subject.
US08451348B2
An image sensor that has a plurality of pixels within a pixel array coupled to a control circuit and to one or more subtraction circuits. The control circuit may cause an output transistor coupled to a pixel to provide a first reference output signal, a common reset output signal, and a first sense-node reset output signal, between which a subtraction circuit may form a weighted difference to create a noise signal. The control circuit may cause the output transistor to provide a second sense-node reset output signal, a light response output signal and a second reference output signal, between which a subtraction circuit may form a weighted difference to create a normalized light response signal. The light response output signal corresponds to the image that is to be captured by the sensor. The noise signal may be subtracted from the normalized light response signal to generate a de-noised signal.
US08451336B2
A distortion correction portion includes a distortion calculation portion which calculates a distortion based on a movement of an image sensing apparatus in the image sensing operation, a distortion adjustment value calculation portion which calculates a distortion adjustment value based on a generation situation of an input image, and a distortion correction processing portion which performs a distortion correction process for correcting the distortion in the input image based on the distortion and the distortion adjustment value. The distortion adjustment value calculation portion decreases the distortion adjustment value in accordance with a generation situation of the input image, so that the degree of the correction in the distortion correction process by the distortion correction processing portion is decreased.
US08451334B2
A calibration pattern is provided with a central portion and a frame pattern provided outside thereof, the central portion being provided with a rectangular light area in the central portion of the calibration pattern. The frame pattern has a horizontal pattern and a vertical pattern, the horizontal pattern extending to two horizontal sides centering the central portion and alternately provided with a light area and a dark area at a predetermined interval different from an equal interval, the vertical pattern extending to two vertical sides centering the central portion and alternately provided with a light area and a dark area at a predetermined interval different from an equal interval. The horizontal pattern and the vertical pattern include edges, each being positioned equally distant from a predetermined position in the central portion to the two sides, and the edges have an identical change direction of a gray value.
US08451330B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a media processor that includes a memory and a controller coupled with the memory. The controller can be operable to provide an electronic program guide for display on a video display device, where the electronic program guide includes a surveillance entry associated with a security system in communication with the controller. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08451327B2
An endoscope system comprising an imaging device, an input block, and a signal processing block, is provided. The imaging device has first, second, third, and fourth pixels. The first, second, third, and fourth pixels are covered with first, second, third, and fourth color filters, respectively. The first, second, third, and fourth color filters can be penetrated by first, second, third, and fourth light components, respectively. The first light component reaches a depth, predetermined according to the location of an object, under an organ. The second light component belongs to an identified color of the first light component. Further, a band of the second light component is different from that of the first light component. The input block detects a user's input for selecting one of a number of predetermined display modes. The signal processing block carries out edge enhancement processing for a pixel signal generated by the first pixel. The edge enhancement processing for the pixel signal is carried out when a narrow band image display mode is selected.
US08451325B2
A disclosed projection system includes a display that renders a video representing a sequence of original images each having a corresponding frame interval, and one or more viewing device(s). During each frame interval, multiple subimages are displayed that, in some cases, average together to approximate an original image corresponding to that frame interval. The viewing device(s) attenuate each of the subimages by a respective coefficient to synthesize a target image for each frame interval. The system may include additional viewing device(s) that apply attenuation coefficients to the subimages to synthesize a second, different target image for each frame interval. A described projection method includes displaying multiple subimages in each frame interval, and transmitting attenuation coefficients to the viewing device(s). A disclosed movie customization system includes software that causes processor(s) to process each of multiple original video images to determine the corresponding subimages and weight coefficients.
US08451321B2
An image processing apparatus includes a receiving unit receiving communication data including L and R images, an attribute information acquisition unit acquiring, from the communication data, attribute information including a photographing time, and an output control unit analyzing the images and the attribute information and switching between three-dimensional image display and two-dimensional image display. If L and R images photographed at the same photographing time have been acquired, the control unit performs three-dimensional image display. If not, the control unit determines whether or not an object imaging position error occurring in three-dimensional image display using L and R images photographed at different photographing times does not exceed a preset permissible object imaging position error, performs three-dimensional image display using the L and R images photographed at different photographing times if the error does not exceed the permissible error, and performs two-dimensional image display if the error exceeds the permissible error.
US08451318B2
A system and method for obtaining images having an ultra-wide field of view angle. A panoramic camera includes two subsystems: an optical subsystem and an image sensor. The optical subsystem includes at least a three-aspheric mirrors for producing an image of objects in the ultra-wide field of view. The produced images are correctable by a standard optical element to produce on an image plane an image having an optical resolution approximately equal or exceeding the Nyquist sampling criterion for the image sensor. A first mirror provides a sharp, compressed, virtual image using a convex paraboloidal or hyperboloidal mirror. Second and third mirrors redirect light onto the correction element through a folded optical path. The standard optical element projects a virtual image onto the image sensor. Image processing software can be used to decompress and unwrap the ultra-wide angle image captured by the image sensor.
US08451317B2
A method of indexing a data stream is disclosed. The method includes initiating the data stream in the video conference, recording the data stream, indexing the data stream by generating a transcript of the recorded data stream, linking the transcript with a video portion of the data stream and storing the indexed data stream onto a data storage medium.
US08451315B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a system and method for distributed meeting capture. According to one embodiment, the system includes a plurality of personal devices configured to capture video data and audio data associated with at least one operating user. A media hub includes a plurality of I/O ports and is configured to receive video and audio data from the plurality of personal devices. In addition, the media hub is configured to collect the video data and/or audio data from the plurality of personal devices and output at least one audio-visual data stream for facilitating video conferencing over a network.
US08451313B2
A communication terminal 100 capable of communicating among a plurality of communication terminals includes a reception unit 14 for receiving image data from the plurality of communication terminals, a display unit 16 for displaying the image data from the plurality of communication terminals received by the reception unit 14, an input unit 17 for accepting a choice of at least one image data among the image data of the plurality of communication terminals displayed on the display unit 16 and a control unit 19 for controlling to transmit information indicating that the communication terminal corresponding to the image data chosen by the input unit 17 has been designated as the party of another communication separate from the communication being executed among the plurality of communication terminals.
US08451311B2
In order to permit a video telephone call to be set up between at least one first video telephone terminal and at least one second video telephone terminal in a telephone network, a service center is adapted to connect with the first and second terminals over the telephone network. A telephone call is first set up between the first terminal and the second terminal in order to exchange availability signals between the terminals to seek availability to hold a video telephone call therebetween. If such availability is confirmed, the telephone call between the first and second terminals is released, and telephone calls are established between the service center and the first and second terminals, whereby the first and second terminals are connected to one another over the telephone network via the service center. A video telephone call is then set up between the first and the second terminals via the service center.
US08451308B2
An image forming apparatus includes an optical scanning unit, a measurement unit, a first adjustment unit and a second adjustment unit. The optical scanning unit includes a plurality of light sources to emit laser beams, a single oscillating mirror deflector to deflect the laser beams used for scan processing in a main scanning direction, and a scan-focusing member to focus the deflected laser beams onto a plurality of photoconductors. The measurement unit measures a resonance frequency of the oscillating mirror deflector. The first adjustment unit adjusts a speed of the photoconductors in a sub-scanning direction. The second adjustment unit adjusts a magnification ratio of image data in the sub-scanning direction. The first adjustment unit and the second adjustment unit adjust the image magnification ratio of image data in the sub-scanning direction depending on the resonance frequency as measured by the measurement unit.
US08451294B2
A video encoder/adapter comprises a virtual display module for partial rendering of a software application image. The virtual display module presents to the software application a virtual display device upon which the software application window is displayed. From the virtual display device, the user identifies one or more portions of the virtual software application window that are to be rendered on the actual display device.
US08451291B2
Provided is a method for displaying information in a mobile terminal having an Electro-Luminescence (EL) region. The method includes determining whether a request for setting an item to be displayed on the EL region is input in a state in which the mobile terminal is in an EL display mode; if a request is input, setting an item to be displayed on the EL region; and displaying contents corresponding to the set item on the EL region in the EL display mode. The method allows information related to a mobile terminal to be consistently displayed at a preset position while performing a specific function of the mobile terminal, thus enabling simultaneous display of the specific function and of information stored in the mobile terminal.
US08451289B2
Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems and methods for creation, modification and implementation of dither pattern structures. The dither pattern structures may be at least one of spatially interrelated, chromatically interrelated, or temporally interrelated using feedback.
US08451286B2
The present invention provides an image display method including the steps of displaying an image printed on a front surface of a first recording medium; generating a transmissive image which represents an image that is printed on a front surface of a second recording medium which is laid under the first recording medium and seen through the first recording medium; and displaying the transmissive image superimposed on the image printed on the front surface of the first recording medium.
US08451280B2
A display control device (1) comprises: a plurality of display devices (16a) and (16b); a display output section (18) which supplies image data to the display devices (16a) and (16b); a frame buffer (22) which temporarily stores the image data; and a buffer control section (24) which controls the frame buffer (22). The display output section (18) transmits the image data stored in the frame buffer (22) to the plurality of display devices (16a) and (16b), and reads, from an image data storage section (12), image data not stored in the frame buffer (22), so as to transmit the read image data to the display devices (16a) and (16b), and to write the read image data in the frame buffer (22). The buffer control section (24) is configured to prevent that image data, which are stored in the frame buffer (22) and which are not yet read, are overwritten by the image data read from the image data storage section (12). Thereby, it is possible to reduce the amount of memory access at low cost.
US08451279B2
A display refresh system, method and computer program product are provided. In use, at least one aspect of a display of content is identified by monitoring commands. Based on such identified aspect(s), a refresh rate of a display utilized for the display of the content may be adjusted.
US08451266B2
Interactive three-dimensional augmented realities from item markers for on-demand item visualization
A system that provides interactive three-dimensional (3D) augmented realities can include an augmented reality item marker (ARIM), a network-enabled mobile computing device, an augmented reality item lookup service (ARILS), and an augmented reality item viewer (ARIV). The ARIM can be a two-dimensional graphic conforming to a standardized encoding specification that can encode data elements about a product item. The network-enabled mobile computing device can include a camera configured to digitally capture the ARIM. The ARILS can be configured to provide a data response that includes augmented reality item data to the network-enabled mobile computing device. The ARIV can be configured to present an interactive 3D augmented reality visualization of the product item utilizing the augmented reality item data provided by the ARILS. A presented view of the interactive 3D augmented reality visualization can be automatically and dynamically changed to reflect planar position changes of the network-enabled mobile computing device.
US08451261B2
Disclosed is an LCD driver IC including: a POR (Power On Reset) circuit; and a counter, which receives a signal from the POR circuit to delay time and releases a RESETB of the POR circuit after power of a gate driver IC is stabilized.
US08451259B2
An emission driver includes a plurality of stages, each including: a first driver for outputting an emission control signal through a corresponding emission control line in accordance with either the emission control signal and an inverse emission control signal output from a previous stage of the plurality of stages or a start signal and an inverse start signal; and a second driver for outputting an inverse emission control signal in accordance with the emission control signal and the inverse emission control signal output from the previous stage or the start signal and the inverse start signal, wherein odd numbered stages of the plurality of stages coupled to corresponding odd numbered emission control lines are configured to be driven by a first clock signal, and even numbered stages of the plurality of stages coupled to corresponding even numbered emission control lines are configured to be driven by a second clock signal.
US08451255B2
A method includes detecting, at a first time, a first touch associated with a first touch value that meets one of a first touch threshold and a second touch threshold, detecting, at a second time, a second touch associated with a second touch value that meets one of the first touch threshold and the second touch threshold, providing first tactile feedback at the first time, and providing second tactile feedback at the second time when the time period between the first time and the second time meets a time threshold.
US08451250B2
The present invention relates to a capacitive touch panel. In one embodiment, the capacitive touch panel includes a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes spatially arranged in a matrix, and a driver electrically coupled to the touch sensor matrix and configured to generate a driving signal to synchronically drive one or more driving electrodes and the sensing electrodes, such that at least one sensing electrode is not driven by the driving signal. The remaining driving electrodes are grounded. The not-driven sensing electrodes sense and transmit a sensing signal of a touch.
US08451246B1
Systems and methods for swipe gesture classification are provided. Method includes receiving indication of swipe gesture. Indication of swipe gesture includes data representing a starting location and data representing first direction. Method includes determining whether indication of swipe gesture is associated with a hold time at starting location exceeding first threshold time. Method includes determining whether first direction is within set of possible directions associated with first command. Method includes, if first direction is within set of possible directions associated with first command and indication of swipe gesture is not associated with hold time at starting location exceeding first threshold time: providing for execution of first command. Method includes, if first direction is not within set of possible directions associated with first command or indication of swipe gesture is associated with hold time at starting location exceeding first threshold time: providing for execution of second command.
US08451229B2
A cross key is mounted on a headphone. When a support arm and a connection section are pivoted 180 degrees from the (a)-state to change the position of wearing the headphone between left and right, a head-mounted display is set for use by the right eye, and this turns the cross key upside down. Correspondingly, a function allocated to the upper key is allocated to the lower key and a function allocated to the lower key is allocated to the upper key to obtain the (b)-state. In the (b)-state, the functions are changed such that the function allocated to the upper key is allocated to the upper key and the function allocated to the lower key is allocated to the lower key. A cross key does not require any change in key functions and left as is.
US08451228B2
An input module for an electronic device includes a key and a touch sensing unit. The touch sensing unit includes a substrate, a sensing circuit, and a conductive member protruding from the substrate. The conductive member has a connection portion and a sensing portion. The connection portion is electronically connected to the sensing circuit, and the sensing portion is movable with respect to the substrate and connected to the key for detecting a contact on the key.
US08451223B2
Provided is a pointing apparatus, a pointer control apparatus, a pointing method, and a pointer control method to a pointing apparatus, a pointer control apparatus, a pointing method, and a pointer control method capable of recognizing image codes included in an image frame using an image sensor to determine a pointing direction, and continuously updating the gain between the displacement of the motion of the pointing apparatus and the displacement of the motion of a displayed pointer. The pointing apparatus includes an image receiving unit sensing image patterns that exist in a sensed region, among all of the image patterns arranged in a display region; an inertial sensor sensing an input motion using at least one of the acceleration and angular velocity that are generated due to the motion; and a coordinate determining unit determining moving coordinates that are moved from the central coordinates of the sensed image pattern by coordinate displacement corresponding to the sensed motion.
US08451221B2
An instruction device is provided for communicating an instruction and an icon in an image area, and includes a motion sensing unit and a processing unit. The motion sensing unit senses a first motion to generate a corresponding first signal. The processing unit generates a first trajectory to determine a first region in the image area in response to the corresponding first signal for a decision whether the icon shall be or has been selected according to a relationship between the first region and a second region where the icon is displayed in the image area.
US08451216B2
A user interface device (1) includes: a detection unit (3) which detects a position of a user; a display unit (2) which displays a work space; and a control unit (4) which controls display of an independent object which belongs to no user. The control unit (4) moves the independent object in a mode which varies between when the independent object is in a face-to-face space of the display unit (2) which is face to face with the position of the user and when the independent object is outside the face-to-face space. The control unit (4) also stops the moving independent object in a workspace assigned to the user when the user obtains the independent object.
US08451203B2
A pixel arrangement method for a liquid crystal display includes the steps of: inputting data signals with different driving polarities to odd data lines and even data lines respectively; and changing connections between a gate of thin film transistor and gate lines and connections between a source of thin film transistor and data lines in every pixel area whereby the driving polarity is inverted every two pixel areas in a transverse direction and is inverted every pixel area in a longitudinal direction. The present invention further provides a liquid crystal display.
US08451197B2
An information display apparatus includes a matrix of thin-film light-emitting diodes (LEDs) disposed on a transparent substrate. The thin-film LEDs are epitaxially grown on a semiconductor substrate, then transferred in strips to the transparent substrate, anchored by intermolecular forces, and separated into individual LEDs by photolithography and etching. The anodes and cathodes of the thin-film LEDs are connected to anode and cathode driving circuits by a matrix of thin-film electrical paths formed on the transparent substrate. The matrix of LEDs and interconnections is dense enough to display images of high quality, and provides enough pixels for the display of useful text and graphics on even small information display devices.
US08451190B2
Described is an apparatus and method for reducing noise in an information bearing signal is provided. A feeding element receives dual-polarized wideband electromagnetic signals. The feeding element is coupled to a Non-Cutoff Frequency Selective Surface ground plane. The Non-Cutoff Frequency Selective Surface ground plane allows for a line-of-sight signal and a surface wave to cancel. The Non-Cutoff Frequency Selective Surface ground plane can be a metal plate with a plurality of corrugations. The corrugations can be concentric rings, each corrugation having a predetermined height and a predetermined spacing from adjacent corrugations.
US08451188B2
According to one embodiment, a data sending and receiving terminal includes a first body, a second body connected to the first body, the second body forming an opening and closing mechanism for the first body, a plurality of first antennas embedded in the first body, and a plurality of second antennas embedded in the second body. According to another embodiment, a method of configuring a data sending and receiving terminal having a first body and a second body is disclosed. The method includes: embedding a plurality of first antennas in the first body; embedding a plurality of second antennas in the second body; and coupling the first body and the second body such that the second body has an open state and a closed state relative to the first body.
US08451185B2
A multi-feed dipole antenna and method. Provides a volumetrically efficient antenna with wide radiation pattern bandwidth and wide impedance bandwidth that are relatively independent. Driving the antenna at multiple locations provides for a half wavelength dipole antenna with a wider frequency range than any other known fat dipole of similar volume. The apparatus is constructed from brass or any other suitable metal without requiring dielectric loading and without requiring direct coupling on the outside of the tubes. The apparatus utilizes a parasitic center tube with two end tubes that are driven by a collinearly mounted metal rod that is driven from the midpoint. Insulators hold the parasitic tube to the end tubes. The parasitic tube allows for induced currents to flow on the surface of the tube which allow for operation of the dipole over a wide frequency range.
US08451174B1
Technologies are described herein for locating and tracking objects of interest within a field of regard (FOR). Aspects include using a phased array to scan the FOR and receive signals emitted from an object of interest. The object of interest may then be located and tracked by processing the signals emitted from the object of interest.
US08451164B2
In one embodiment, a radar communication system includes a plurality of radars having a communication range and being capable of operating at a sensing frequency and a reporting frequency, wherein the reporting frequency is different than the sensing frequency, each radar is adapted for operating at the sensing frequency until an event is detected, each radar in the plurality of radars has an identification/location frequency for reporting information different from the sensing frequency, a first radar of the radars which senses the event sends a reporting frequency corresponding to its identification/location frequency when the event is detected, and all other radars in the plurality of radars switch their reporting frequencies to match the reporting frequency of the first radar upon detecting the reporting frequency switch of a radar within the communication range. In another embodiment, a method is presented for communicating information in a radar system.
US08451153B1
The present invention pertains to calibration in current sensing applications. Power conversion systems such as those used in computer architectures may employ step down converters such as buck converters or other types of converters. The present invention provides calibration processes and devices to account for various parasitic resistances which are found in such systems. A calibration circuit may be coupled to the buck converter or other power conversion to determine a calibrated voltage signal for the output of the power converter. An effective DC resistance may be determined and programmed for use by a control device used. In this way, the parasitic resistances are taken into account to obtain an accurate estimate of the actual current. In turn, this enables power converters and other devices to operate within specification requirements.
US08451151B2
A capacitance mismatch calibrating method for a successive approximation register ADC which includes at least one array of capacitors is provided. The method includes the following steps: firstly, at least two compensating capacitors are configured. A capacitor from the array of capacitors is selected as a capacitor-under-test. Then, the terminal voltages on the terminals of the array of capacitors and on the terminals of the compensating capacitors are determined. A first comparison voltage is outputted based on the determined terminal voltages. Afterwards, a sequence of comparisons is controlled based on the first comparison voltage and a second comparison voltage to output a sequence of corresponding digital bits. Finally, a calibration value is calculated to calibrate the value of a capacitor-under-test according to the digital bits.
US08451142B2
A meter-less remote parking monitoring system, incorporating a plurality of vehicle detector and Radio Frequency Identification Reader (RFID) units deployed in individual parking spaces; a plurality of Cellular Gateway Radios, each Cellular Gateway Radio being connected to one of said plurality of vehicle detector and Radio Frequency Identification Units; a Command and Control Server; the plurality of Cellular Gateway Radios being connected to said Command and Control Server via the internet.
US08451139B2
A system and method for positioning a transport vehicle relative to a harvester is disclosed. The system includes an imaging device mounted on the transport vehicle and a control system for analyzing image data and executing a computer program to provide commands to position the transport vehicle in an acceptable predetermined condition relative to the harvester for discharge operations.
US08451135B2
An anti-masking system and method for a motion detector includes a plurality of anti-masking components such as a spreading lens, at least one reflector located outside a housing of the motion detector, and a retroreflector located on the housing proximate to a lens. The system and method uses the plurality of anti-masking components to determine whether the lens of the motion detector has been masked by an object.
US08451134B2
A computer implemented method and system includes using information provided from sensors to monitor a wind turbine generator and provide signals representative of operation of the wind turbine generator, extracting signal level features from the signals, extracting model based features from the signals, calculating signal based conclusions, model based conclusions and spectral feature reinforcement based conclusions, andfusing the conclusions to provide a fault detection indication.
US08451122B2
An RFID card includes a smartcard controller that receives power from a host device. The RFID card also includes a small inductive device capable of inductive coupling with an RFID reader. The small inductive device is small enough to fit in the form factor of a memory card or SIM card. Enhancement circuits enhance the usable read and write distance of the RFID card.
US08451118B2
Theft increases the average product cost to consumers. A mentoring system is presented that can help to reduce or prevent the inventory from lost or theft. Theft is a serious concern in the consumer market place. Industry loses billions per year on theft of merchandise. According to a Reuters report, last year, thefts by employees of U.S. retail merchandise accounted for $15.9 billion, or 44 percent of theft losses at stores, more than shoplifting and vendor fraud combined. Thus,total thief by the customers and store employees during the year 2008 amounted to $36 billion. Several embodiments of ways to control or reduce the thefts in the market place are presented.
US08451104B2
A user input attachment (201) is configured to selectively attach to an electronic device (100) such as a mobile telephone. The electronic device (100) includes a plurality of electrode nodes (205), which can be configured separately from each other across one or more surfaces of the electronic device (100). A controller (105), which is operable with the plurality of electrode nodes (205), is configured to sense current flowing through (or voltage across) the electrode nodes (205). The sensed voltage or current establishes an engagement signature (771) dependent upon pressure from compressible conductive elements (207) against electrode nodes (205) from the user input attachment (201), and where included, one or more protuberances (206). The controller (105) is configured to identify the user input attachment (201) from the engagement signature (771), and to detect user input by detecting changes from the engagement signature (771) due to variations in the current (770) in, or voltage across, each of the electrode nodes (205) caused by user manipulation of the user input attachment (201).
US08451101B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a communication system for care providers and a method of managing patient care utilizing same. The system comprises a patient communication unit configured to be positioned proximate to a patient and operable to capture a patient call that includes speech input of the patient, a central console communicably coupled with the patient communication unit for receiving the call from the patient communication unit, and a portable communication unit configured to be carried by a care provider and communicably coupled with the central console, the portable communication unit operable to receive the call from the central console, to capture speech input of the care provider, and to play at least a portion of the patient speech input, the portable communication unit further operable to convert at least a portion of the care provider speech input into at least one command associated with the call.
US08451100B2
Described is the use of a transponder in a commercial installation, particularly a power plant, which allows problems and dangerous situations existing in this context to be avoided and the attainable occupational safety in a commercial installation, particularly a power plant, to be increased. The transponder includes a reception element, a transmission element, a visual display unit and a memory element and also a control element which is operatively connected to these, in a commercial installation, particularly a power plant, in an arrangement or positioning on or in proximity to a component or at a switching or measuring point associated with the component for the purpose of visually displaying an operating state for the component or the switching or measuring point associated therewith using the visual display unit of the transponder.
US08451095B2
A multi-document read-write station provides the ability to read/write to a stack of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags within a small area. Specifically, the station provides the ability to read from and write to a tall stack of RFID tagged sheets with the RFID tags stacked one on top of the other. The station and capability described herein is the result of and comprises several components including a closed chamber comprising a document slot, an antenna system, and a power management system.
US08451087B2
A passive entry system for an vehicle door requires no active operator input to gain entrance to the vehicle. A door module recognizes the signal transmitted by an authorized key fob to identify the operator of the vehicle. The authentication of the operator coupled with the operator touching a sensor on the door to be opened actuates a release actuator that unlatches the selected door. The spring-load provided by the door seal will pop the door open from the closed position. A key cylinder, which can be located substantially anywhere on the door, is coupled mechanically to the release latch for use if the battery is weak and cannot activate the release actuator. An LED signals the state of the opening sequence for the door. The fixed door handle can incorporate a membrane switch or a capacitive sensor to indicate the selection of the door by the operator when touched.
US08451084B2
A laminated SMD-type thermistor has a conductive module, a left and a right conductive metal layer. The conductive module includes a core conductive module coated with an insulating layer on the upper and lower surface, and the left and right side. The core conductive module includes at least one conductive unit piled up in sequence, two conductive units are separated by an insulating material layer. The conductive unit includes an upper metal foil, a conductive polymer chip and a lower metal foil which are laminated in sequence from top to bottom. A left and right conductive metal layer are coated on the left and right part of the conductive module respectively, and penetrate the insulating layer partially, to connect with two metal foils of the conductive unit respectively. The laminated SMD-type thermistor can further comprise two plating resistant films coated on the upper and lower surface of the conductive module.
US08451076B2
A current path in an installation switching device includes first and second contact points, which respectively include first and second levers. The second lever is arranged in an air gap in a magnetic circuit. In case of a short circuit, an electrodynamic force, which leads to rapid opening of the second contact point, can act on the second lever due to interaction of current flow with magnetic flux within the air gap. A switching mechanism acts via a first connecting line on the first lever to open and/or keep open the first contact point. In case of overcurrent tripping, an overcurrent release acts through the switching mechanism and a second connecting line on the switching mechanism to open and keep open the first contact point. In case of short-circuit tripping, the second lever acts via a third connecting line on the switching mechanism to keep the first contact point open.
US08451067B2
A variable modulus sigma delta (ΣΔ) modulator for a fractional-N frequency synthesizer in accordance with the present invention may include an integer division unit; a pulse-width modulation (PWM) generator, a ΣΔ noise-shaping unit, a first input FRAC for receiving a first programmable integer, and a second input MOD for receiving a second input, wherein the integer division unit is configured to perform a translation from the first input and the second input into a first output FRAC′ and a second output R, the PWM generator is configured to receive the second input MOD and the second output R, and generate a modulated pulse signal, and the ΣΔ noise-shaping unit is configured to receive the first output and the modulated pulse signal, and generate a sequence whose average equals approximately the first input over the second input.
US08451061B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a radio frequency (RF) at an antenna; generating negative feedback to linearize an amplifier by resistively or transformer coupling an output signal of a transistor of the amplifier to the input of the transistor; generating a rectified voltage by rectification of the output signal of the transistor; generating a constant reference voltage; and outputting a control voltage or a control current to the transistor based on the sum of the reference voltage and a first voltage derived from the rectified voltage. The output of the control voltage or control current facilitates control of an operating point of the transistor.
US08451059B1
The present disclosure relates to a capacitively-coupled distributed amplifier (DA) having an input line and an output line that are coupled to one another through a broadband interface network and DA segments. The input line receives an input signal and the output line provides an output signal based on amplifying the input signal. The broadband interface network includes a group of capacitive elements coupled between the input line and the DA segments to extend a gain-bandwidth product of the DA. The broadband interface network further includes a resistor divider network coupled between the input line and the DA segments to extend a lower end of an operating bandwidth of the DA. As such, the operating bandwidth of the DA may extend from baseband frequencies to microwave frequencies.
US08451058B2
There is presented a high bandwidth circuit for high-speed transceivers. The circuit may comprise an amplifier combining capacitor splitting, inductance tree structures, and various bandwidth extension techniques such as shunt peaking, series peaking, and T-coil peaking to support data rates of 45 Gbs/s and above while reducing data jitter. The inductance elements of the inductance tree structures may also comprise high impedance transmission lines, simplifying implementation. Additionally, the readily identifiable metal structures of inductors and t-coils, the equal partitioning of the load capacitors, and the symmetrical inductance tree structures may simplify transceiver implementation for, but not limited to, a clock data recovery circuit.
US08451051B2
The present invention provides a dual mode sigma delta analog to digital converter (ADC), which only in one hardware implementation, used for low IF and near zero IF receiver. The dual mode sigma delta ADC comprises a first switched-capacitor integrator; a second switched-capacitor integrator; a quantizer; a feedback circuit and a mode device. By switching the mode device on or off, one could easily change the configuration of the disclosed ADC to decide the receiving signal falling in low-IF or near zero IF.
US08451048B2
A bandgap sensor which measures temperatures within an integrated circuit is presented. The sensor may include a first transistor having an emitter node coupled in series to a first resistor and a first current source, wherein a PTAT current flows through the first resistor, and a second transistor having a base node coupled to a base node of the first transistor, and a collector node coupled to a collector node of the first transistor, further wherein the first and second transistors are diode connected. The sensor may further include a first operational amplifier providing negative feedback to the first current source, wherein the negative feedback is related to a difference in the base-emitter voltages of the first and second transistors, and a second operational amplifier which couples the base-emitter voltage of the second transistor across a second resistor, wherein a CTAT current flows through the second resistor.
US08451043B2
The present disclosure relates to on-chip self calibrating delay monitoring circuitry.
US08451041B2
A flip-flop circuit includes a charge injection module, a sense amp module, and a latch module. The charge injection module is configured to, in response to a clock signal, selectively provide electrical charge from a power supply to a first node. The sense amp module is configured to adjust a voltage of a second node in response to detecting a voltage of the first node crossing a threshold while the charge injection module is providing the electrical charge to the first node. The latch module is configured to in response to the clock signal, store a value based on a voltage of the second node. The latch module is also configured to provide the value as an output of the flip-flop circuit.
US08451036B2
A pulse signal generation circuit includes a transfer path configured to receives and transfer a first pulse signal, a pulse adjustment unit configured to adjust a pulse width of the first pulse signal by applying charges to the transfer path in response to a control signal, and a pulse output unit configured to output a second pulse signal of the adjusted pulse width in response to an output of the transfer path.
US08451034B2
A second latch latches the output data of a first latch using a third clock having the same frequency as that of a first clock. A third latch latches the output data of the second latch using a second clock having a frequency N (N represents an integer) times that of the first clock and the third clock. The second clock and the third clock have a frequency division/multiplication relation therebetween.
US08451031B2
Apparatus and methods are provided for generating output signals representative of bits of serial data. A transmitter includes driver circuitry configured to generate an output signal at an output node and an allocation control module coupled to the driver circuitry. The driver circuitry includes a plurality of driver legs configured to generate the output signal based on a plurality of data bits. The allocation control module is configured to allocate a respective subset of the plurality of driver legs to a respective data bit of a plurality of data bits, wherein the each subset generates a component of the output signal that is influenced by its respective data bit.
US08451030B2
An output device includes a main driver that outputs an output signal in accordance with an input signal input thereto, a noise driver that outputs a noise signal containing a noise waveform, a combiner that outputs a combined signal obtained by combining together the output signal and the noise signal, and a controller. The noise driver (i) sets an output end thereof at high impedance when not supplied with an enable signal, and (ii) varies an voltage level of the noise signal to be output therefrom in accordance with how a control signal supplied thereto varies when supplied with the enable signal. The controller controls the noise driver to output the noise signal containing the noise waveform that occurs when the output signal travels through a predetermined transmission line, by controlling a timing at which the control signal varies and a timing at which the enable signal is switched.
US08451026B2
An integrated circuit, a method of generating a layout of such an integrated circuit using standard cells, and a standard cell library providing such standard cells, are disclosed. The method of generating the layout comprises forming a plurality of rows, and populating each row with a plurality of standard cells chosen in dependence on the functional components required by the integrated circuit, each standard cell having its abutment area abutting the abutment area of at least one adjacent standard cell in the row. Within each row, each standard cell in that row is arranged to have a voltage connection area that is aligned with a common routing track, but with each standard cell having its voltage connection area configured so as not to extend across the entire width of the standard cell. Within each row, for each standard cell in the row, the voltage connection area of that standard cell is then connected to one of a plurality of voltage supplies having regards to a voltage requirement of the corresponding functional component defined by the standard cell, and independent of the voltage supply to which each adjacent cell in the row is connected. This provides a particularly flexible mechanism for placing standard cells during the layout operation, since standard cells that are required to run off the same voltage supply no longer need to be placed together.
US08451025B2
An advanced repeater with duty cycle adjustment. In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, an advanced repeater includes an output stage for driving an output signal line responsive to an input signal and a plurality of active devices for selectably adjusting a duty cycle of the signal. The advanced repeater may further include circuitry for producing a delayed version of the signal.
US08451005B2
A device for detecting a fault of at least one street lamp of a plurality of street lamps which are connectable in common to an AC power supply is proposed. The proposed device allows detecting whether a fault has occurred based on obtaining measures representative of the total active and reactive power supplied by the AC power supply to the plurality of street lamps, and detecting variations in these measures. Optionally, also the type of fault can be determined based on detected variations in the power measures.
US08451002B2
A magnetic field sensor includes a compensation loop coupled in series with normal circuit couplings in order to reduce a transient signal that would otherwise be generated when the magnetic field sensor experiences a high rate of change of magnetic field. In some embodiments, the magnetic field sensor is a current sensor responsive to a magnetic field generated by a current-carrying conductor.
US08450991B2
This disclosure describes an invention that is a basic charge recycling gate 70 that includes a precharge node 75, a output charging network 78, an output pre-charge and null propagate network 77, an evaluation network 76, a first time varying power supply TVS0, a second time varying power supply TVS2, and a keeper circuit 79. Additionally, this disclosure describes an invention that is a time varying power supply 130 that includes a resonator circuit 131, an amplitude and power check circuit 135, one or more overshoot and an undershoot voltage clamps 1105 and 112, exciter circuits 137 and 136, and current monitor circuits 138 and 139. In addition, the invention includes frequency self tuning with the amplitude and power check circuit 135, capacitor banks 132 and 134, and the inductor tap select controller 133. Amplitude self tuning is provided by the amplitude sample and compare circuit 144. Further, a phase shift control circuitry 150 is also provided. And, distributed control switching circuitry 160 for power management is also provided.
US08450986B2
Provided is a voltage regulator capable of setting an accurate short-circuit current. Used as a circuit for determining a current value of a short-circuit current of an overcurrent protection circuit is not a resistor for converting current into voltage but a circuit for controlling in the form of current, that is, a circuit of an N-channel depletion type transistor including a gate and a drain that are connected to each other and operating in a non-saturated state. The N-channel depletion type transistor has process fluctuations that are linked with those of a detection transistor, and hence an accurate short-circuit current may be set without trimming.
US08450984B2
A system and method for diagnosis and prognosis of thermal sensitivity in a rotor of an electrical machine. A first system is provided for evaluating thermal sensitivity in a rotor of an electrical machine and includes: an input system for obtaining vibration data and field current from the rotor and for obtaining a set of operating parameter; a system for calculating a relationship between vibration and field current; an evaluation system for determining whether the relationship is significant; and a system for issuing a notification of thermal sensitivity in response to a determination of a significant relationship. A second system includes a system for calculating a series of relationships between vibration and field current over a period of time; an evaluation system for determining whether a change in the series of relationships over the period of time is significant; and a system for issuing a notification of thermal sensitivity in response to a determination of a significant change in the series of relationships.
US08450981B2
In order to widen an operational input voltage range of a power conversion apparatus and obtain a maximum efficiency value comparable to that in a case where the operational input voltage range is not widened by changing software but not hardware, provided is a power conversion apparatus, in which a control section (5) controls a current input to an inverter circuit (14) to cause a DC output voltage from an AC/DC converter section (10) which is a voltage across a smoothing capacitor (22) to follow a target voltage and to cause an input power factor from an AC power supply (1) to approach one, to thereby maintain a DC voltage from a single-phase inverter (14a), and adjusts the target voltage for the DC output voltage from the AC/DC converter section (10) in accordance with a voltage of the AC power supply (1).
US08450979B2
An adapter including an associated battery capable of powering an electronic device. The power adapter typically includes the battery as an integral component that is connected to a plug or other interface capable of mating with a power source, such as a wall socket. Thus, the adapter battery may provide power either to operate the device or charge a battery within (or otherwise associated with) the device even if the adapter is not connected to a power source.
US08450973B2
A lithium battery module with multiple-cells connected in parallel is disclosed. The lithium battery module comprises a battery management unit, a power converter (optional) and each cell with an individual charging control switch and a discharging control switch in series connected with the cell and is independent controlled by the battery management unit so that a charger is capable of charging the designate cell or more or disable one among them.
US08450966B2
A method of charging a rechargeable battery pack installed in an electric vehicle is provided in which the charging system includes a switching circuit that is operable in at least a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode the switching circuit couples the power supply and an external power source to both a heater and the charging circuit, the heater providing a voltage divider circuit within the charging circuit. In the second mode the switching circuit couples the power supply and the external power source only to the charging circuit, bypassing the heater.
US08450953B2
Controller assemblies and packaging for electronic control systems of electric motors utilized in utility vehicles or other power equipment are disclosed. The controller assemblies are packaged for robust design and heat dissipation, while collectively housing the controllers, switches and sensors needed to operate multiple motors performing different functions, or the same function in serial.
US08450946B1
A zone addressing circuit is provided for an electronic ballast having a boost inductor with an auxiliary winding. The zone addressing circuit includes a first circuit branch coupled to a first addressing input terminal, a second circuit branch coupled to a second addressing input terminal, and a third (common) branch coupled on a first end to a third addressing input terminal and on a second end to the auxiliary winding of the boost inductor for providing a high frequency input pulse signal to excite the first and second branches. The first branch generates a first digital output for the zone addressing circuit when coupled to the common branch, and the second branch generates a second digital output for the zone addressing circuit when coupled to the common branch. A controller adjusts a dimming level of the ballast based on the first and second digital outputs from the zone addressing circuit.
US08450937B2
A first waveform (a rectangular waveform, for example) is applied as the waveform of the alternating current supplied to a high-pressure discharge lamp for a predetermined time from the beginning of lighting of the lamp and a second waveform (a staircase waveform, for example) is applied as the waveform of the alternating current after the elapse of a predetermined time (100 [s], for example). The alternating current with the first waveform has a lower absolute instantaneous value in a final section of each half-cycle period thereof than in the other sections and the alternating current with the second waveform has a higher absolute instantaneous value in a final section of each half-cycle period thereof than in the other sections.
US08450929B2
Provided is a light-emitting device which can reduce grainy texture, suppress color unevenness and luminance unevenness. A light-emitting device according to the present invention includes: a board; a plurality of light-emitting parts each of which includes (i) a LED chip mounted on the board and (ii) a phosphor-containing resin including a light wavelength converter and covering the LED chip. Further, the light-emitting device includes a light-guiding member provided on the board, between the light-emitting parts which are adjacent to each other. Furthermore, the light-guiding member is formed to cover part of the phosphor-containing resin.
US08450928B2
Provided is an organic light emitting device, which is flexible and is capable of effectively preventing permeation of oxygen or moisture. The organic light emitting device includes a substrate; a metal sheet that faces the substrate; an organic light emitting unit that is interposed between the substrate and the metal sheet; an adhesive unit that is interposed between the substrate and the metal sheet to adhere the substrate and the metal sheet to each other and that is located around at least the organic light emitting unit; and an adhesive layer that is formed at a location on the metal sheet where the metal sheet contacts the adhesive unit and that is formed of a metal oxide or a metal nitride.
US08450917B2
A high-definition CRT is provided having an electron gun to produce high beam current without increasing spot size and to provide lower electrical power requirements at high beam-modulation frequencies. The electron gun includes beam-forming electrodes and a lens. Each beam-forming electrode has several aperture clusters operable to form several collimated beams of electrons. In addition, the lens is operable to focus the several collimated beams of electrons onto a display screen.
US08450914B2
An electro-optical device includes: a supporting unit that includes a first heat release member; a second heat release member that is provided at both of two sides with respect to the supporting unit, at least a part of the second heat release member being in contact with the first heat release member; an electro-optical panel that is provided at both of the two sides with respect to the supporting unit in such a manner that at least a part of a surface of the electro-optical panel opposite to a surface thereof from which light is emitted is in contact with a surface of the second heat release member; and a transparent film sheet that covers the surface of the electro-optical panel from which light is emitted.
US08450910B2
An ultrasound transducer element includes a piezoelectric layer, a front end body, and a backing layer assembly. The piezoelectric layer extends between opposite front and back sides and is configured to transmit acoustic waves from the front side. The front end is body disposed proximate to the front side of the piezoelectric layer and is configured to emit the acoustic waves out of a housing. The backing layer assembly is disposed proximate to the back side of the piezoelectric layer. The backing layer assembly includes a first thermally conductive mesh disposed in a matrix enclosure. The first thermally conductive mesh is positioned to conduct thermal energy away from the piezoelectric layer. In one aspect, the first thermally conductive mesh is a grid of elongated strands of a metal or metal alloy material oriented in at least one of transverse or oblique directions.
US08450908B2
A multi-layer piezoelectric element having high durability of which amount of displacement is suppressed from varying even when operated continuously over a long period of time with a higher electric field under a high pressure is provided. The multi-layer piezoelectric element comprising a multi-layer structure in which a plurality of piezoelectric material layers and a plurality of metal layers are stacked alternately one on another, wherein the plurality of metal layers comprises internal electrodes and low-rigidity metal layer that has rigidity lower than those of the piezoelectric material layer and the internal electrode, wherein the low-rigidity metal layer comprises a plurality of metal parts that are separated from each other, and wherein at least one of the metal parts is bonded with only one piezoelectric material layer among the two piezoelectric material layers that adjoin in the stacking direction.
US08450897B2
A rotor for motor may include a rotation shaft, a permanent magnet structured in a tube-like shape and fixed to an outer peripheral side of the rotation shaft, and a sleeve which is structured in a tube-like shape, disposed between an outer peripheral face of the rotation shaft and an inner peripheral face of the permanent magnet, and press-fitted and fixed to the outer peripheral face of the rotation shaft. The sleeve is retreated from an end part of the permanent magnet on one side in an axial direction to the other side in the axial direction so that a first ring-shaped recessed part is formed between the rotation shaft and the permanent magnet and the rotation shaft and the permanent magnet are fixed to each other with a first adhesive in the first ring-shaped recessed part. The rotor may be applied to a motor, preferably to a stepping motor.
