US08474344B1
A controllable composite clutch device limited torque while in a released state includes a clutch capable of being controlled for performing engaging/releasing function and a limited torque device having relatively smaller torque installed between an input/output shaft and an output shaft, or radially installed between an input shaft and a cylindrical outputting rotation part, so that when the clutch is controlled to be in an engaged state, the rotary kinetic energy between the input shaft and the output shaft is transferred through the clutch, and so that when the clutch is controlled to be in a released state, the limited torque device performs limited torque coupling and the rotary kinetic energy between the input shaft and the output shaft can continue to be transferred, or a slip rotational speed differential is generated due to over-torque.
US08474341B2
A transmission includes an input member, an output member, first and second shafts, first and second countershafts, a plurality of co-planar gear sets, and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. The torque transmitting devices include a plurality of synchronizer assemblies and a dual clutch assembly. The transmission is operable to provide at least one reverse speed ratio and a plurality of forward speed ratios between the input member and the output member.
US08474334B2
The invention relates to a process valve (10) comprising a valve seat (14), a flow restrictor (12), a valve rod (16) and a drive unit (18) acting thereon, with a force measuring device (20, 44) being connected between said drive unit (18) and said flow restrictor (12). The invention is characterized in that said force measuring device (49) includes a spring (30, 46), and said force measuring device (29, 44) comprises a travel measuring device (38, 42, 50, 52) so as to allow the force acting on it to be determined based on the change in the deflection of the spring (30, 46) caused by the force acting on it.
US08474333B2
An industrial roll is provided, comprising a transverse force transducing fiber Bragg sensor that is embedded in the roll cover and/or located in-between the roll cover and the roll core of the industrial roll. The transverse force transducing fiber Bragg sensor comprises a fiber optical waveguide having a fiber core and a fiber cladding, and a stud element being nonpositively joined to a partial area of the circumferential surface of the fiber optical waveguide. The fiber optical waveguide comprises a Bragg grating located in the fiber core, whereby the dimension of the partial area in the longitudinal direction of the fiber is longer than a grating spacing of the Bragg grating. The partial area is located at a section of the fiber optical waveguide housing the Bragg grating, and at least a first component of the stud element is formed from a first material having a Young's modulus of less than 10 kN/mm2.
US08474330B1
A system for use in measuring an end play of a wheel hub assembly includes a cap attachable to a shaft of a wheel hub assembly. A frame has a cavity receiving a measurement probe extending outwardly from the cavity. The probe contacts the cap and is configured to measure movement of the cap to determine endplay of the bearing assembly on the shaft. The frame includes a plurality of legs extending from the frame to mount on the shaft. The legs contain torque sockets and torque limiters which are threadably engaged and tightened onto lugs of the wheel hub assembly without exceeding a preselected torque. The torque sockets allow the frame and system to be used on hub assemblies having wheels thereon without removal of the wheels from the hub assemblies or lug nuts from the lugs supporting the wheel.
US08474328B2
A device measuring the speed or the direction of the wind, characterized in that it consists of the main body (1), which is hollow and can be divided into two parts and an electronic circuit (9) can be placed into the inside part thereof, and of the rotor (2) or the vane tail (3). The main body (1) is of curved shape and has a tall neck so as the rotor (2) or the vane tail (3) to be placed in such a position in order for the measurements not to be affected and it is divided into two parts the lower part (6) and the upper part (7). The upper part (7) of the main body (1) is hollow and the axle (8) is placed into the inside part thereof, where the rotor (8) or, alternatively, the vane tail (9) are mounted, depending on the measurement we wish to achieve. The device is mounted in the meteorological station of a supporting arm.
US08474320B2
An electrical pulse fed into an electrical cable, e.g. a power transmission or distribution cable buried underground, produces an acoustic signal, e.g. an arc-over or discharge noise, at a fault in the cable. This acoustic signal is detected and used to locate the fault. But the acoustic signal has interference noise superimposed on it, which makes it difficult to identify the acoustic signal in the noise-burdened received signal, and thus also makes it difficult or impossible to accurately locate the fault. To minimize or avoid the influence of interference noises, the relevant acoustic signal is identified in the received signal by comparing the received signal with predetermined sample data, such as signal patterns, characteristics or characteristic sets.
US08474319B2
A piezoelectric cantilever sensor includes a piezoelectric layer and a non-piezoelectric layer, a portion of which is attached to the piezoelectric layer. In one embodiment, one end of the non-piezoelectric layer extends beyond the end of piezoelectric layer to provide an overhang. The overhang piezoelectric cantilever sensor enables increased sensitivity allowing application of the device in more viscous environments, such as liquid media, as well as application in liquid media at higher flow rates than conventional piezoelectric cantilevers. In another embodiment, the sensor includes first and second bases and at least one of the piezoelectric layer and the non-piezoelectric layer is affixed to each of the first and second bases to form the piezoelectric cantilever sensor. In this embodiment, the sensor is robust and exhibits excellent sensing characteristics in both gaseous and liquid media, even when subjected to relatively high flow rates.
US08474313B2
An apparatus and process for testing a sample of a hydraulic fracturing fluid is provided. A small quantity of a fracturing fluid sample to be observed and/or tested is placed in a chamber designed with suitable heat and pressure simulation apparatus. With the sample chamber, the efficacy of the fracturing fluid can be ascertained, improper fracturing fluid compositions and/or mixtures, e.g., caused by human error, can be detected, and contamination of the frac-tank can be determined. The overall apparatus is portable and can be transported to the site of the fracturing fluid tank, thereby allowing testing immediately prior to introduction into the well. The samples in the test chamber can be observed for quality control and quality assurance prior to, or during stimulation and water shutoff treatments in the field.
US08474312B2
A tire pressure monitor enables the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) in a tire to detect and send a tire pressure signal from an air faucet to the outer side of the wheel rim by an antenna connecting line, and uses an insulation sleeve to isolate an electrical transmission between the air faucet and an external air faucet so that the whole external air faucet becomes an insulating and independent transmitting antenna which can be unaffected by the serious shield from the wheel rim or steel wire annulus. Therefore, the tire pressure can be measured directly by the tire pressure detector inside of the tire and the transmitting signal can be sent accurately to the receiver in the vehicle in order to enhance the reliability of measuring tire pressure and driving safety.
US08474304B2
A device for determination of solid particle concentration includes a primary diluter (6), a downstream heated evaporator (7), a secondary diluter (8) downstream of the evaporator (7) and a particle counter (5). The secondary diluter (8) is a porous tube diluter and is mounted between the outlet of the evaporator (7) and a stabilization chamber (14), from which the sample flow is diverted to the particle counter (5).
US08474303B2
A chromatographic measurement apparatus for measuring a color development state of an insoluble carrier with a sample solution and a label solution developed thereon to test a test article, the insoluble carrier including a test detection area where a material that binds specifically to a test article is immobilized and a control detection area used for determining an end of measurement. The chromatographic measurement apparatus includes: a determining unit for carrying out determination of validity and determination of necessity of amplification of a test result of the test article; and an amplifying unit for amplifying the color development state according to the result of the determination of necessity of amplification by the determining unit. The amplification is carried out only when it is determined that amplification is necessary.
US08474293B2
The invention relates to a method of increasing the dynamic pressure resistance of a metal component with a tubular inner space, in which a hard metal ball is forced under high pressure through the interior of the tubular inner space, wherein the hard metal ball has a diameter that is greater than the inside diameter of the tubular inner space before the hard metal ball is forced through.
US08474288B2
The method comprises the phases of: knitting at least one part (5 A, 5B) of the body (1) with reciprocating motion of the two cylinders of a double-cylinder machine; —knitting the leg pieces (9A, 9B) with a continuous rotational motion of the two cylinders (11, 13), a first leg piece being knitted by a first of said cylinders and a second leg piece being knitted by a second of said cylinders. It is provided for an arc of needles (C) to be maintained temporarily inactive on each of said two cylinders while knitting said at least one part (5 A, 5B) of the body (1) with reciprocating motion. Furthermore, it is provided that the temporarily inactive needles are set to work at the end of the knitting of said at least one part (5 A, 5B) of the body (1) with reciprocating motion, thus forming an interknitting line (CC) for joining the two leg pieces (9A, 9B), then continuing the knitting with continuous rotary motion with all the needles (15) of both the cylinders (11, 13).
US08474278B2
A method is provided and may include generating a high-side signal indicative of an operating condition of a high-pressure side of a refrigeration circuit and generating a low-side signal indicative of an operating condition of a low-pressure side of the refrigeration circuit. The method may further include processing by a processor the high-side signal and the low-side signal to determine a non-measured system condition and determining by the processor an efficiency of the refrigeration circuit based on the non-measured system condition.
US08474276B2
Direct expansion ammonia refrigeration system and a method of direct expansion ammonia refrigeration
A direct expansion ammonia refrigeration system and a method of direct expansion ammonia refrigeration is described and which includes a source of liquid ammonia refrigerant which is delivered in fluid flowing relation to a plurality of evaporator tubes which incorporate wicking structures, and which through capillary action facilitated by the wicking structures are effective for drawing liquid ammonia refrigerant along the inside facing surface of the evaporator tubes so as to substantially reduce any stratified and/or wavy flow patterns of the liquid ammonia refrigerant within the evaporator tubes. The invention further includes a novel accumulator vessel and heat exchanger vessel which are coupled in fluid flowing relation relative to the direct expansion ammonia refrigeration system and which facilitate the removal of water from the ammonia refrigerant in order to enhance the operation of the direct expansion ammonia refrigeration system.
US08474275B2
A passive heat sink for cooling an electronic component such as a high-performance processor. The heat sink includes a shell with a surface that is positionable adjacent a heat generating surface of the electronic component. The shell includes a heat exchanger portion with cooling fins extending outward and positioned in a fan-provided airflow. A generator compartment is provided within the shell with a generator vessel for containing an absorbent, and the generator compartment is maintained at a pressure lower than ambient. The generator compartment conducts heat away from the electronic component to the absorbent in the generator vessel. An absorber compartment, at a pressure lower than the generator compartment, is provided within the shell above the generator compartment, and, in use, an absorption refrigeration cycle contained within the shell is activated by heat from the electronic component. A bubble pump moves absorbent from the generator compartment to the absorber compartment.
US08474270B2
A method of assembling an ejector is provided, wherein the method includes providing a motive nozzle tip having a centerline axis and including a nozzle tip edge having at least one protrusion extending through a plane substantially normal to the centerline axis. The method also includes coupling the motive nozzle tip to the ejector.
US08474269B2
A method of detecting a partial flame failure in a gas turbine is provided. The method includes a gas duct to guide a propulsion gas and several combustors, each combustor leads into the gas duct and includes a burner. The method includes measuring a first temperature over time at each of at least two probing points located downstream from the combustors in the gas duct, measuring a second temperature over time in each of at least two of the burners, and detecting a partial flame failure from the first temperature measurements and the second temperature measurements, wherein the detecting of a partial flame failure includes determining a first detection parameter, the first detection parameter is determined from a rate of change of a variation between the first temperature measurements at different probing points. A gas turbine including temperature sensors to detect a partial flame failure is also provided.
US08474268B2
A method of managing transient events regularly seen during gas turbine operation that may cause undesirable operation and hardware damage. During certain transient operations, a lag may be seen between reference exhaust temperature and actual turbine exhaust temperature. This lag can result in an under-fired condition within the combustion system of variable magnitude and duration. Either fuel split schedules or a control algorithm can be positioned during these transients to prevent combustion dynamics or loss of flame. Combustion dynamics are known to cause damage that may require hardware replacement. Once the transient has completed, normal control operation is resumed.
US08474260B2
A system and method is disclosed for generating power from thermal energy stored in a fluid extracted during the recovery of heavy oil. The method includes the steps of vaporizing a working fluid in a binary cycle using thermal energy stored in the extracted fluid, converting the vaporized working fluid total energy into mechanical power using a positive displacement expander, and condensing the vaporized working fluid back to a liquid phase.
US08474258B2
A stoichiometric compression ignition engine has a turbocharger coupled to it so that the exhaust from the engine feeds the turbine and the compressor provides combustion air past a throttle and intercooler to the engine intake manifold. An exhaust after treatment device is positioned before the exhaust of the engine. A power turbine is connected in parallel relation to the turbocharger turbine and is controlled by a valve to operate the power turbine whenever either the turbocharger compressor boost or the turbocharger turbine back pressure exceed given limits. The power turbine is connected by a power transmission device to either couple to the engine output or to an electrical generator. An EGR loop may be driven by a pump also connected to the power turbine to lower in cylinder pressures.
US08474254B2
A system and method for performing a floating function in an earthmoving implement of an earthmoving machine without physically connecting chambers within a hydraulic actuator that is adapted to raise and lower the earthmoving implement. The system includes a device for delivering a pressurized fluid to and receiving pressurized fluid from the actuator, a valve for compensating for differences in volume between chambers of the actuator, and an electronic control circuit that includes electronic sensors for sensing the pressures in the chambers of the actuator, and a controller for receiving outputs of the sensors. The controller calculates an amount of the pressurized fluid that, when delivered to or received from the actuator, achieves a substantially constant pressures in the chambers of the actuator and enables the earthmoving implement to float regardless of motion of the actuator.
US08474249B2
A diesel particulate filter (DPF) configured to separate a particulate from an engine exhaust is provided. The DPF comprises a downstream filtration stage including a plurality of downstream channels, an upstream filtration stage disposed upstream of and in fluidic communication with the downstream filtration stage, and including a plurality of upstream channels, and a shell at least partly enclosing the downstream filtration stage and the upstream filtration stage, the shell including an inlet configured to conduct the engine exhaust to the upstream filtration stage and an outlet configured to release the engine exhaust from the downstream filtration stage. The plurality of upstream channels may include a plurality of open upstream channels, the arrangement of which disperses the particulate more evenly over the plurality of downstream channels, as more flow is directed away from the major axis of the filter. In this way, during regeneration, it is possible to reduce one or both of longitudinal and radial thermal gradients, and thereby improve structural integrity of the filter.
US08474246B2
In a method of operating a particle filter in an exhaust system of a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, wherein the particle filter is reconditioned, in intervals, by a soot-burn-off procedure, the amount of noncombustible ashes also collected in the particle filter is reduced by heating the particle filter and supplying to the particle filter, together with the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine, a reducing agent which reacts with the ash deposits so as to chemically convert the ash deposits such that at least non-metallic ash components are decomposed and carried out of the particle filter by the exhaust gas.
US08474240B1
Systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed that overcome the deficiencies of traditional steam engines and internal combustion engines. In an embodiment, a system is disclosed for generating reaction products having elevated temperature and pressure. The system comprises a first chamber including a reactor to decompose hydrogen peroxide to generate oxygen and water vapor. The system further comprises a second chamber including a reactor to catalytically combust a mixture of the generated oxygen and a fuel to generate reaction products having elevated temperature and pressure. The system further comprises a passageway to receive reaction products exiting the second chamber and to channel the reaction products to come into contact with external surfaces of the first and second chambers to thereby transfer heat to the first and second chambers, and an outlet to allow the reaction products to exit the system.
US08474239B1
An industrial gas turbine engine capable of operating at higher temperatures than air cooled nickel based alloy airfoils in the turbine. The engine burns stoichiometric or rich to produce a hot gas stream that is mostly without oxygen, and the turbine airfoils are made from a high temperature resistant material such as a refractory material that also has poor oxidation resistance. A second small gas turbine engine is used to compress nitrogen gas that is used to pass through the turbine airfoils for cooling where the film cooling nitrogen gas is injected into the hot gas stream but without igniting the fuel rich gas stream.
US08474235B2
A device and method for manufacturing a metal cord with three concentric layers, rubberized in situ, of M+N+P construction, wherein the method comprises the following steps which are performed in line: an assembling step by twisting N wires around a first layer to form, at a point named the “assembling point”, an intermediate cord named a “core strand” of M+N construction; downstream of the assembling point, a sheathing step in which the M+N core strand is sheathed with a rubber composition named “filling rubber” in the uncrosslinked state, an assembling step in which P wires of the first layer are twisted around the core strand thus sheathed, and a final twist-balancing step.
US08474233B2
An optoelectronic device has a substrate and a first window layer on the substrate with a first sheet resistance, a first thickness, and a first impurity concentration. A second window layer has a second sheet resistance, a second thickness, and a second impurity concentration. A semiconductor system is between the first window layer and the second window layer. The second window layer has a semiconductor material different from the semiconductor system, and the second sheet resistance is greater than the first sheet resistance. A method for manufacturing is provided, having the steps of providing a substrate, forming a semiconductor system on the substrate, and forming a window layer on the semiconductor system. The window layer has a semiconductor material different from the semiconductor system. Selectively removing the window layer forms a width difference greater than 1 micron between the window layer and semiconductor system.
US08474226B2
A thermal seal packaging systems and methods thereof. In one implementation a thermal sealing packaging system has a container transfer unit for transferring a container which is to contain a package item, a measuring unit for measuring the weight of the item that is loaded in the container being transported before it is loaded into the container, a capping film supply unit for a capping film to cover the opening area of the container, an indication means for indicating the measurement data of the measurement unit on the capping film, and a sealing unit for heat-sealing an opening area of the container, into which the package item is loaded, with the capping film, the opening area of the container into which the item is loaded is covered by the capping film on which the corresponding measurement data is indicated.
US08474222B2
A large bale transporter and an accompanying bale wrapper create a system for wrapping plastic around large bales retrieved by the transporter. The transporter has a loading apparatus that deposits large bales onto the load bed of the transporter until filled. The transporter is then manipulated to connect to a bale wrapper physically and operatively so that the bales can be moved into the wrapping apparatus. The frame of the transporter is pivotally connected to the axle to allow the rear end of the frame to be lowered to the ground to engage the bale wrapper and/or retrieve previously wrapped bales. The wrapping apparatus is powered by the drive mechanism of the transporter and is automatically disengaged when a pusher member placed at the end of the bales being discharged engages the drive coupler. An endless chain drive is drivable in opposite directions to move the bales on the transporter.
US08474218B2
A modular interlocking exterior wall system comprises one or more laminated panels formed of a paper product core sandwiched between two cementitious skins, two vertical posts having laterally extending flanges which interlock in vertical grooves formed in the sides of the panels, and a top rail having a downwardly opening top groove which receives and reinforces the horizontal top edge of the top panel, wherein bottom portions of the posts are anchored below ground. An optional bottom rail has an upwardly opening groove for receiving and supporting the bottom edge of the bottom panel, and laterally extending flanges of an optional mid rail are received in top and bottom grooves, respectively, of bottom and top panels to interlock and reinforce the panels.
US08474213B2
A frame member is provided for a structure. The frame member includes a generally flat, elongated first surface having an elongated slot therein extending along an axis. The slot is defined by first and second converging sidewalls lying in corresponding planes which are at acute angles to the first surface. A first diverging outer abutment wall is generally perpendicular to the first converging sidewall and a second diverging outer abutment wall is generally perpendicular to the second converging sidewall. A first diverging inner abutment wall is generally perpendicular to the second converging sidewall and a second diverging inner abutment wall is generally perpendicular to the first converging sidewall.
US08474206B2
The present disclosure resides in a post, configured to be removably securable in an aperture and having a predetermined first cross-sectional area. The post includes an end portion having an angled face and a wedge, having a complementary angled face arranged against the angled face of the end portion. The wedge is configured to be slidably movable at the end portion to adjust a second cross-sectional area, defined by the wedge and the end portion. The angled face of the wedge is slidably movable relative to the angled face of the end portion to increase the second cross-sectional area relative to the first cross-sectional area to tightly secure the end portion (14) within an aperture. The post may further comprise a mechanism connected to the wedge for slidably moving the angled face of the wedge relative to the angled face of the end portion to increase the second cross-sectional area relative to the first cross-sectional area to tightly secure the end portion within an aperture. The mechanism may be a drawbar having a threaded portion, which is engageable with the wedge whereby rotation of the drawbar causes the wedge to slidably move.
US08474205B1
A foundation footing (30) has a support framework (32) encased within concrete (38). The support framework (32) includes elongate members (34) formed of timber, such as telephone poles, which extend the full length of the footing (30). Brackets (36) rigidly securing terminal ends (42) and intermediate portions (44) of the elongate members (34) in fixed relation. The brackets (36) have steel plates (46) disposed beneath the elongate members (34) and binding chains (48) secured to the steel plates (46). The binding chains (48) are preferably loosely secured around the elongate members (34) until being encased within the concrete (38), which rigidly secures the binding chains (48) to the elongate members (34) and the elongate members (34) to the steel plates (46). Grooves (86) are formed into the elongate members (34) to increase the bonding between the elongate members (34) and the concrete (38).
US08474204B2
This invention presents a modified reinforced concrete structure, which has a steel structure composed of a beam steel box unit, column steel box unit, and beam-column joint steel box unit with lap jointing reinforced steels. The side plate and/or end plate of the steel box has through holes for concrete flowing therebetween. In this way, the workability of concrete grouting and tamping are improved, and the phenomena of hive, segregation, or floating can be avoided. It can also enhance the performance of beam-column joints (e.g. with better confinement ability, etc.). Applying the invention, the efficiency and accuracy of constructing beam-column joints can be increased, and in addition to better ensure the structural safety, it can also reduce construction manpower and schedule.
US08474203B1
A multistory residential building provides private access to each unit in order to eliminate breezeways and common stairwells. If a unit is located on the first level, private access is provided by a privately used front door disposed on an end wall of the residential building. Units that are located on the second and third floors are accessed by privately used front doors on internal stairways, wherein said stairways are secluded and inaccessible to other residents and guests. The front doors of the third-floor units are located on intermediate landings wherein access to each landing is provided by a semi-private monumental stairway. The front doors located on the second and third floors are disposed on end wall opposite the end wall having the first floor doors. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to provide breezeways and common stairways connecting all the floors of each building to provide access to each unit.
US08474202B2
A seal plate for building panels includes an elongate body having a first side and a second side. The first side of the elongate body includes first and second seals and a recessed channel. The first and second seals and the recessed channel extend at least a portion of the length of the elongate body. The recessed channel is positioned between the first and second seals.
US08474198B2
Sound insulating glazing device for aircrafts, ground or maritime transportation vehicles, buildings, or others, including glazing, a sealing joint in a shape and size corresponding to the edge of the glazing and designed for assembly on said edge, sound insulation, made of at least two materials, a first resilient material and a second material with less resilience than the first, the sound insulation being used against the field of said glazing, between the glazing and the sealing joint. The invention is also for aircrafts that are equipped with at least a glazing device and a soundproofing method for glazing.
US08474197B2
The panel includes a water resistant barrier layer secured atop its outward facing surface. The water resistant barrier layer includes a skid resistant surface. The panels are made of lignocellulosic material. The water resistant and skid resistant surface may include indicia for aligning strips of tape or for aligning fasteners. A method for manufacturing the water resistant building panels is also disclosed and includes the steps of feeding paper onto a forming belt, depositing lignocellulosic material and the binding agent onto the forming belt so as to form a lignocellulosic mat, applying heat and pressure so as to impart the skid resistant surface on the paper, and cutting panels to predetermined sizes.
US08474196B2
A modular decking system includes a plurality of elongated deck members for placement across a subsurface. Each plurality of elongated deck members has a top deck portion, opposed first and second downwardly extending sides having outwardly and laterally extending longitudinal flanges, and a plurality of laterally spaced and longitudinally extending leg members extending downwardly from the top deck portion between the first and second sides. An elongated connector, connecting adjacent first and second deck members of the plurality of deck members, has a horizontal base portion having first and second laterally spaced and upwardly extending sidewalls and an interconnecting wall extending between the first and second sidewalls forming an upwardly opening channel adapted to receive the first and second longitudinal flanges of the first and second deck members, respectively, and forming a longitudinal gutter disposed between the top deck portions of the first and the second deck members.
US08474191B2
A motion simulator theater equipped with a passenger carrying apparatus. Passengers move into a boarding space where they board the passenger carrying apparatus, while the passenger carrying apparatus is in a first or boarding position. The theater may be designed so that when in the boarding space, the passengers see no indication that they are in a motion simulation theater. After the passengers have boarded, the carrying apparatus is moved into a second or viewing position, where passengers view 2D or 3D visual images displayed on a screen. This movement may be achieved by lifting or lowering the passenger carrying apparatus from cables or chains attached to a lifting system near the top of the theater. In this design, the movement is substantially vertical. The passenger carrying apparatus typically has multiple rows of seats, which may tilt front to back.
US08474182B2
A planter capable of being hung from an elevated support includes an open-topped container for containing dirt or potting soil placed therein and a plurality of suspension elements, or cords, which are disposed about and are attached to or act upon the container for suspending the container from an elevated support. The suspension elements extend upwardly from the peripheral edge of the container top and are joined together at a common point disposed above the container for suspension of the planter from the elevated support. In addition, a spacer member is arranged and spaced above the top of the container and cooperates with the suspension elements for preventing the suspension cords from converging toward one another for a distance above the container which corresponds with the spaced distance between the container top and the spacer member.
US08474177B2
Reflecting device (1) for adjustably reflecting light, such as sunlight, comprising a transparent first wall (3), a transparent second wall (40), which is arranged substantially parallel to and at a distance from the first wall (3), and a regulating layer (7), which is provided with a duct (10), which is bounded between the first wall (3) and the second wall (40), and which regulating layer (7) substantially allows light which impinges on the first wall (3) through to the second wall (40) if the duct (10) is filled with a transparent liquid (9) and reflects light which impinges on the first wall (3) if the duct (10) is empty, the regulating layer (7) being provided with a structure (11) which is prismatic in cross section, characterized in that, the reflecting device is provided with a third wall (41), which is arranged substantially parallel to and at a distance from the second wall (40), and a second regulating layer (7′), which is provided with a second duct (10′), which is bounded between the second wall (40) and the third wall (41), the second regulating layer (7′) being provided with a second structure (12) which is prismatic in cross section.
US08474163B2
A greeting bag is described that is includes a gift bag and a greeting card. The gift bag and greeting card connect together to form the integrated assembly of the greeting bag that has a purposefully coordinated single decorative style. The gift bag and greeting card have individual decors that define alternative aspects of that particular theme of a decorative style. An attachment mechanism can also be included in the greeting bag that further fixes the greeting card to the gift bag. The attachment mechanism can have a third decor as well as a size and dimensions that can include an image or sentiment. A method is described wherein a greeting bag is selected by selecting a gift bag from a set of one or more gift bags that share a common decorative style. A greeting card is selected from a set of one or more greeting cards that share the same common decorative style with the gift bag. The optional attachment mechanism is selected from a set of one or more attachment mechanisms that share the same common decorative style with the gift bag and greeting card. The gift bags, greeting cards and attachment mechanisms can be selectively mixed and matched from different sets within the decorative style.
US08474162B1
An ornament gift card holder that includes a removably attached gift card, a slot for inserting the gift card into the holder after removal for loading at the point of purchase, a loop, hook or similar means for hanging the holder upon a Christmas tree or other desired location, and audio circuitry for recording and playing sound such as music and/or a message from the gift giver.
US08474160B1
A center pivot pin support bearing assembly to provide rotatable center restraint for a dragline excavator machine. Multiple center pin bearing support fittings imparts stabilization and additional bearing wear surfaces for increased pin useful service life before replacement. An axially center pin bore receiving fitting is provided for longitudinal spaced multiple support fits combination with a center pin receiving stabilization base and fit.
US08474148B2
Apparatus for a co-ordinate positioning machine is described that comprises an articulating probe head for supporting a measurement probe. The articulating probe head comprises at least one electric motor. Heating means are provided for generating heat in the articulating probe head. The heating means may be the motors or discrete heating elements. Temperature sensing means, such as one or more temperature sensors, is also provided for determining the temperature at the articulating probe head. The apparatus allows the temperature of the articulating probe head to be controlled.
US08474142B2
A razor and trimmer combination assembly includes an elongated handle, a razor blade, a trimmer and a motor. The razor blade is disposed at or adjacent a first end of the handle. The trimmer mounts on the handle and includes a moving blade. The motor drives the moving blade.
US08474140B2
Grinding a machine component such as a valve component during remanufacturing, includes seating one end of the valve component in a chuck of the grinding apparatus, then contacting a steady rest with a reference surface on an outer diameter of the valve component while rotating the valve component, and then reseating the one end of the valve component in the chuck. A first valve surface on an outer diameter of the valve component is ground while contacting the steady rest with the reference surface, then a second, different valve surface on the outer diameter of the valve component is ground also while contacting the steady rest with the reference surface. The valve component is then reassembled with a hydraulically actuated device for service therein.
US08474116B2
A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element, includes: a heating step of heating a piezoelectric film to a temperature not lower than a temperature at which a coercive electric field of the piezoelectric film becomes not higher than 0 V; an electric field application step of applying, to the piezoelectric film, an applied electric field in an opposite direction to a direction of orientation of the piezoelectric film while maintaining the temperature to which the piezoelectric film is heated in the heating step; and a temperature lowering step of lowering a temperature of the piezoelectric film to a temperature, in degrees Celsius, not higher than ⅓ of the Curie temperature while maintaining the applied electric field of a magnitude not lower than the coercive electric field applied to the piezoelectric film after the electric field application step, and then releasing the applied electric field applied to the piezoelectric film.
US08474114B2
The invention relates to a method for a shaping step completing a process for producing a tampon (1) which is produced of an absorbent material. At least one groove (12, 13) is embossed onto the peripheral surface by radially compressing, preferably under thermal influence, at least one region of the tampon (1) extending along a peripheral surface of the tampon (1), the groove plane substantially extending normal to the longitudinal extension of the tampon.
US08474107B2
An attachment arrangement is provided. The attachment arrangement includes a mounting structure having an opening, an attachment element to be inserted into the opening for attaching a part to the mounting structure, and a locking element of the attachment element for locking the attachment element to the mounting structure. The locking element is inserted as a part of the attachment element along an insertion direction into the opening in the mounting structure up to an end position and engages behind the opening in the end position such that it prevents removal of the attachment element from the opening and thus locks the attachment element to the mounting structure. The locking element has at least a first section and a second section that rest against the edge of the opening in succession when the attachment element is inserted through the opening.
US08474097B2
A hardware system for mounting a structure includes at least one roller assembly and a base surface. A roller assembly includes a substantially round outer ring, a substantially round inner ring, and a frame that structurally engages at least a portion of a side surface of the inner ring. The frame and the side surface of the inner ring remain stationary with respect to each other when the outer ring rotates about its axis of rotation. One or more roller assembl(ies) may be included within a hardware system for mounting a structure such as a door panel, a window panel, a window covering, a decoration or the like that is able to be rolled along a base surface by the roller assembly.
US08474081B2
A suction type turbine-driven pool-cleaners utilizing vortex turbines to propel and steer the pool cleaner is disclosed. The cleaner includes a housing for one or more vortex-turbine mechanisms, each with a chamber and a turbine, tracks for movement over submerged surfaces, a differential mechanism for steering purposes, a reverse of inlet flow mechanism, a cam design for engagement of steering and reversing mechanisms, a means of controller inlet flow for steering purposes, and a means of controlling flow for reversing direction of cleaner movement.
US08474073B2
A patient support apparatus includes a frame, a patient support coupled to the frame, a plurality of casters and a wheel coupled to the frame, a motor coupled to the wheel and operable to rotate the wheel to propel the patient support apparatus along a floor, and an electrical system comprising a controller configured to signal operation of the motor to rotate the wheel to propel the patient support apparatus along the floor. The electrical system further includes user inputs adjacent at least one end of the frame and adjacent at least one side of the frame. The user inputs including forward and reverse switches that are engaged to determine whether the patient support apparatus is propelled in a forward direction or a rearward direction, respectively.
US08474069B1
A shower pan (10), preferably having rectangular planform includes a central drain (20) that is centered in a floor portion that inclines at a shallow angle (i.e., 3 degrees or so) to front and back sides and opposite ends. The floor portion and includes a shallow channel (46) along the front edge of the shower pan (10) into which all or substantially all water is drained to a second channel (48) into a central drain (20). An apertured grill or cover plate assembly (36) is mounted in the channels and serves as a cover for the various channels. The shower pan (10) is typically installed so that a sill surface (50) is at the same elevation as the pre-existing floor (52) to provide an entry that does not have any type of ‘trip’ points or obstructions that could pose a hazard to the user or impede assistive aids, such as walkers or wheeled chairs.
US08474066B2
The cotton pants 1 as a pair of pants with the L pocket is that the front and the reverse edge 3Ab of the storing part 3A is perpendicular against the length direction of the belt part 3. Also because the upper edge of the raw fabric which does not have the rectangle expansion and contraction inside the elongating part 3B is sewn on and the lower edge of the raw fabric which does not have expansion and contraction is sewn on the lower edge of the belt part 3, one part of the raw fabric 6 which does not have expansion and contraction can be seen even if the one who wears it turns over the lower edge of the elongating part 3B by curiosity and the inner structure of the stretch stopper material 11 etc. can not be seen.
US08474064B2
An ear hole cover secures to an ear hole in headgear, such as baseball and football helmets. The ear hole cover has a body having an inner surface and a planar outer surface. Means are included for securing the body to the ear hole in the headgear. At least one hole extends through the body from the outer surface to the inner surface, the at least one hole for passing sound through the body to an ear of a wearer of the headgear. An indicia surface extends across the planar outer surface for displaying an indicia, such as a team logo or mascot.
US08479310B2
A dynamic probe detection system (29,32) is for use with a scanning probe microscope of the type that includes a probe (18) that is moved repeatedly towards and away from a sample surface. As a sample surface is scanned, an interferometer (88) generates an output height signal indicative of a path difference between light reflected from the probe (80a,80b,80c) and a height reference beam. Signal processing apparatus monitors the height signal and derives a measurement for each oscillation cycle that is indicative of the height of the probe. This enables extraction of a measurement that represents the height of the sample, without recourse to averaging or filtering, that may be used to form an image of the sample. The detection system may also include a feedback mechanism that is operable to maintain the average value of a feedback parameter at a set level.
US08479309B2
Provided are methods and systems for high resolution imaging of a material immersed in liquid by scanning probe microscopy. The methods further relate to imaging a material submersed in liquid by tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM), wherein the AFM has a microfabricated AFM probe comprising a nanoneedle probe connected to a cantilever beam. The nanoneedle probe is immersed in the liquid, and the rest of the AFM probe, including the cantilever beam to which the nanoneedle probe is attached, remains outside the liquid. The cantilever is oscillated and the nanoneedle probe tip taps the material to image the material immersed in liquid. In an aspect, the material is supported on a shaped substrate to provide a spatially-varying immersion depth with specially defined regions for imaging by any of the methods and systems of the present invention.
US08479301B2
Systems and techniques to provide offline access in a document control system. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving a request from a client, and pre-authorizing the client, in response to the request, to allow actions by a user as a member of a group of users by sending to the client offline access information including a first key associated with the group, the first key being useable at the client to access an electronic document by decrypting a second key in the electronic document. Receiving a request can involve receiving a request from the client to take an action with respect to a second document. The technique can also include verifying the user at the client as an authenticated user, and the offline access information can include user-specific keys, group-specific keys, a policy, and a document revocation list.
US08479298B2
A method for accessing a remote network includes identifying a content server associated with the remote network, generating a uniform resource locator, embedding additional data in the uniform resource locator, encrypting the uniform resource locator, and accessing a server in the remote network identified by the uniform resource locator. The method further includes wherein the additional data comprises authentication data, a delivery session identification, a time stamp, or comprises subscriber identification data. The URL may provide access to the content server for a time period indicated by the time stamp. The method includes wherein at least the subscriber identification data prevents unauthorized sharing of the URL.
US08479297B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating composite priority factors. The system automates prioritization of assets based on metrics across many dimensions, allowing security and risk managers to uses a logical framework that is scalable for thousands of assets.
US08479296B2
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of computer security and, in particular, to systems for detecting unknown malware. A method comprises generating genes for known malicious and clean objects; analyzing object genes using different malware analysis methods; computing a level of successful detection of malicious objects by one or a combination of malware analysis methods based on analysis of genes of the known malicious objects; computing a level of false positive detections of malicious objects by one or a combination of malware analysis methods based on analysis of genes of known clean objects; measuring effectiveness of each one or the combination of malware analysis methods as a function of the level of successful detections and the level of false positive detections; and selecting one or a combination of the most effective malware analysis methods for analyzing unknown object for malware.
US08479290B2
A method of remotely treating malicious mobile terminals connected to a mobile communications network. In one embodiment, when a malicious mobile terminal is detected by the intrusion-detection services of the network, the network changes the subscriber profile associated with the mobile terminal to operate the latter in a quarantine mode. The packet-switched subsystem of the network then links the quarantined mobile terminal to a remediation manager. The remediation manager remotely treats the mobile terminal, e.g., to repair or reinstall any corrupted software, terminate any active malicious processes, delete or quarantine any malware, and restore the operating system, configuration, and/or memory of the mobile terminal to a clean operational state. After the treatment, the network reverts the subscriber profile back to the initial state and removes the mobile terminal from the quarantine.
US08479289B1
A method and apparatus for minimizing the effects of rogue security software leverages the fact that virtually all rogue security software generates malware alerts to scare the user/victim into submitting their payment information, and the fact that the malware alerts generated by rogue security software are almost never changed. In one example, a user computing system is monitored/scanned for any alerts being presented to the user. Once an alert is detected, the alert content is sampled and analyzed for defined keywords that indicate the alert is a malware alert and any alert including the defined keywords is considered a malware alert and is treated as being potentially generated by rogue security software. All malware alerts are therefore subjected to an initial malware alert analysis before the user is allowed to see, and/or respond, at least without a warning, to the malware alert. If it is determined that the malware alert is suspicious for any reason, then the malware alert is determined to be potentially generated by rogue security software and the user is prevented from seeing, and/or responding to, at least without a warning, the malware alert until a more definitive analysis can be performed.
US08479287B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product for spam message detection. The method includes collecting time domain transmission characteristic of a message source; computing frequency domain transmission characteristic of the message source with the time domain transmission characteristic of the message source; and identifying the message source to be a spammer in response to the frequency domain transmission characteristic of the message source satisfying predefined criteria; wherein the steps of the method are carried out using a computer device. An apparatus and computer program product for carrying out the above method is also provided.
US08479283B2
A security program code generator is configured to automatically generate program code used to perform one or more validation checks of components operating in user mode. In one implementation, for example, the program code generator receives one or more files that include declarative values and parameters regarding one or more function calls made by any user mode component. The program code generator then takes the file of declarative call descriptions and automatically generates a user mode stub and a kernel mode stub for each function call of interest to be handled by a kernel mode component. The file(s) that include the user mode stub and the kernel mode stub can then be compiled and linked into the operating system components.
US08479282B2
A monitoring device is provided on a LAN to which a communication device that is a target of a denial-of-service attack is connected, and monitors a packet transmitted to the communication device via an ISP network. A restricting device is provided on the ISP network, and restricts a packet to the LAN. The monitoring device detects an attack by the packet on the communication device, and transmits protection request information indicating a request for protection against the attack to the restricting device. The restricting device restricts a packet transmitted to the communication device via the ISP network based on the protection request information.
US08479277B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a connecting section; an information storage; a request accepting section; a searching section; a setting information storage; a determining section; and a process executing section.
US08479273B2
An information processor is disclosed that includes an authentication part configured to authenticate a user based on predetermined information; an information obtaining part configured to obtain first information to be used to authenticate the user from an external device; and an authentication control part configured to cause the authentication part to authenticate the user by inputting information based on the first information to the authentication part as the predetermined information. The information obtaining part is configured to obtain the first information using a program module whose correlation with the information obtaining part is recorded in a recording medium.
US08479262B2
Various embodiments pertain to managing electronic devices using an electronic device as a root of trust. According to one embodiment, registration information for an electronic device 150 is received 220. The registration information identifies the electronic device 150 and an environment 130 that the electronic device 150 is trusted in. The electronic device150 is specified 230 as a root of trust device 150 for the trusted environment 130 based on the registration information. The root of trust device 150 is specified 240 as the root of trust for a new electronic device 170 based on new information that identifies the root of trust device 150 and identifies the new electronic device 170. The new electronic device 170 is managed 250 using the root of trust device 150 without requiring the user of the root of trust device 150 and the new electronic device 170 to configure any electronic devices.
US08479258B2
A garage management and monitoring system defines and manages each operational event in a parking facility. Access events, management events, equipment operation events, equipment malfunction events, security events and defined anomaly events are labeled and parsed into a relational database, which is used for generating reports, creating logs, making management decisions, reconstructing accidents, and so on. The equipment includes a computer terminal, a reader, an identifying item or code capable of being read by the reader to control access to the facility, an IP camera, and a garage door or vehicle gate with safety sensors. Each defined event can be codified on the server and/or local controller to create an event library that is downloaded to the controller.A distributed intelligent system includes: units that gather information about garage, ingresses, and egresses; units that send data to the central server; the central server parses data sent from units and inserts it into a database; the central server formats data and presents it to users; units use unique keys to relate information from several actions the unit has taken to accomplish a task.
US08479257B1
An as-built network is evaluated by analyzing a model of the network by the steps of determining zones within the network, computing the access between zones, summarizing the access between zones to produce a dataset, then inputting a policy set comprising a collection of approvals, typically in the form of simple white-lists of approvals, then comparing the dataset and particularly the access between zones with the policy set of approvals (white-lists) to determine which access fall outside the approvals, and producing therefrom as an output to an end user a report of compliance and noncompliance, and then repeating the steps of determining, computing, and summarizing, and then the comparing step, after a period or after the network has changed. Thus a network operator or auditor can readily and interactively assess whether the infrastructure is in compliance with regulatory or other design requirements.
US08479240B2
Method for remote management of at least one audiovisual information reproduction device comprising a host server connected to each audiovisual information reproduction device, the host server comprising a database containing management information for each audiovisual information reproduction device, wherein the host server also comprises a site manager communicating with the database, and comprising a number of screens, at least one first screen comprising a menu displaying the list of audiovisual information reproduction systems, validating the choice of each audiovisual information reproduction device causing the display of a first series of screens that the operator can use to modify the operating parameters of at least one selected audiovisual information reproduction device and/or a second series of screens that the operator can use to order at least one song for downloading onto the audiovisual information reproduction systems from a chosen list of devices or to delete at least one song, and/or a third series of screens displaying information about the use of an audiovisual information reproduction device.
US08479239B2
A user may utilize a “home video on demand (HVOD)” service to distribute a video recorded using, e.g., a conventional camcorder, to desired viewers who have access to a broadband communications network, e.g., a cable TV network. The inventive system providing the HVOD service may receive from the user the video recording via email, postal mail, the Internet, computer transfer, etc. The inventive system converts the received video recording from its original video format to a uniform format, e.g., an MPEG-2 format. The converted video recording is stored in storage and made available to authorized viewers through the cable TV network.
US08479224B2
A disk drive that includes (i) a main chassis, (ii) a tray that is configured to have a disk removably mounted thereon and that is installed to slide into/out of the main chassis, and that includes a pickup transporting unit configured to move a pickup base back and forth in a radial direction of the disk, and (iii) a lock releasing unit that is arranged on the tray, that is driven by the pickup transporting unit, and that releases a lock of the tray from the main chassis.
US08479213B2
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments healthcare imaging processing applications are allocated to computing resources in reference to criteria.
US08479206B2
A method for scheduling execution of a work unit in a data processing system comprises assigning to the work unit an expected execution duration; executing the work unit determining an actual execution duration of the work unit; determining a difference between the actual execution duration and the expected duration; and conditionally adjusting the expected execution duration assigned to the work unit based on the measured actual execution duration, wherein the conditionally adjusting includes preventing the adjustment of the expected execution duration in case said difference exceeds a predetermined threshold. The method further includes associating to the work unit a parameter having a prescribed value adapted to provide an indication of unconditional adjustment of the expected execution duration: in case said parameter takes the prescribed value, the expected duration assigned with the work unit based on the measured actual execution duration even if the difference in durations exceeds the predetermined threshold.
US08479195B2
Autonomous selection between multiple virtualization techniques implemented in a virtualization layer of a virtualized computer system. The virtual machine monitor implements multiple virtualization support subsystems that each provide for the comprehensive handling of potential virtualization exceptions. A virtual machine monitor resident performance monitor computes relative virtualization overhead costs that are and would be incurred in using different virtualization support subsystems for virtualization exceptions that occur in executing a guest operating system within a defined interval. Dependent on the relative virtualization overhead costs determined, the virtual machine monitor resident virtualization selection control switches the virtual machine monitor to use the optimal virtualization support subsystem for handling virtualization exceptions that occur over a second defined interval.
US08479190B2
There is provided a management system having a terminal device and a management server for managing terminal firmware of the terminal device. The terminal device includes: storing means storing the firmware to be capable of being updated by a user of the terminal device, and storing firmware version information to be incapable of being updated by the user; firmware updating means updating, on the basis of the version information, the firmware stored in the storing means with newer version firmware; and version information updating means updating the version information stored in the storing means with that of the updated firmware updated, and the management server includes: judging means judging, on the basis of the terminal firmware version information, a need or not to update the firmware; and transmitting means transmitting the newer version firmware to the terminal device if the firmware needs to be updated.
US08479183B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for emitting a live range statement into a program for a memory variable to be cached during run-time that has at least one simulation state variable if the memory variable is dynamically mapped, and defining the simulation state variable at a first execution path of the program. In such manner, the program may be optimized using the live range statement and the simulation state variable. Also, a debugger may use the simulation state variables in obtaining and displaying the memory variable from a cache.
US08479181B2
Techniques for performing capacity planning for applications running on a computational infrastructure are provided. The techniques include instrumenting an application under development to receive one or more performance metrics under a physical deployment plan, receiving the one or more performance metrics from the computational infrastructure hosting one or more applications that are currently running, using a predictive inference engine to determine how the application under development can be deployed, and using the determination to perform capacity planning for the applications on the computational infrastructure.
US08479180B2
Disclosed is a system and method for maintaining software instructions stored in a wireless communications device memory. The software is organized using code sections, where each code section is in a contiguous portion of memory and relocatable independently of other code sections. Maintenance includes the ability to run a unique software component called a compactor while the normal system is not in executable form. The compactor expands, compresses, and relocates code sections to allow downloaded code to be incorporated into the system code base.
US08479179B2
A method for compiling a program including a loop is provided. In the program, the loop includes K instructions (K>2) and repeats for M times (M>2). The compiling method comprises following steps: performing resource conflict analysis to the K instructions in the loop; dividing the K instructions in the loop into a first combined instruction section, a connection instruction section and a second combined instruction section, wherein there is no resource conflict between the instructions in the first combined instruction section and the instructions in the second combined instruction section respectively; and compiling the program, wherein the instructions in the first combined instruction section in the cycle N (N=2, 3, . . . M) and the instructions in the second combined instruction section in the cycle N−1 are combined to be compiled respectively. A compiling apparatus and a computer system for realizing the above-mentioned compiling method are further provided.
US08479172B2
A system for testing a base machine includes the base machine that has a base feature set (BFS) and a testing module. The system also includes a test case generator, configured to: select a prior level of the base machine, the prior level having a legacy architecture; determine a feature set of the legacy architecture based on the BFS; generate a set of test instructions based on the feature set; and provide the set of test instructions to the testing module.
US08479171B2
In one embodiment, constructing one or more sets of variables corresponding to one or more input variables of a software module respectively; for each one of the sets of variables, computing an average branching depth that is affected by the set of variables; selecting a first one of the sets of variables that has the smallest average branching depth; assigning a first symbolic value to the input variable of the first set of variables; symbolically executing the software module to generate a first set of test cases for the first set of variables; optionally compacting the first set of test cases by removing the redundant tests that do not increase test coverage and selecting a minimal subset of the first set of test cases that cover all the covered conditional branch points; and validating the software module using the first set of test cases.
US08479170B2
In one embodiment, analyze client-tier source code of a client-server software application to extract one or more software modules that handle user-input data of the software application. For each one of the software modules, extract from the software module one or more user-input constraints placed on the user-input data, comprising: analyze source code of the software module to determine one or more failure points in the source code; perform symbolic execution on the software module to extract one or more first expressions that cause the software module to reach the failure points, respectively; obtain a second expression as the disjunction of all the first expressions; obtain a third expression as the negation of the second expression; and extract the user-input constraints from the third expression. Determine one or more user-input data that satisfy all the user-input constraints.
US08479165B1
A system for implementing a method for processing test results from testing operation of software. A test result of pass, fail status, or unperformed is received for each test case of a test performed for each release of the software. A group to which each test belongs is ascertained. A test result stability index is calculated for each test case as being proportional to a total number of consecutive releases that include and are prior to the last release of the software such that the test result for each of the consecutive releases denotes a pass. A module stability index is calculated for each test case as being a summation over a product of a weight at each release and a binary stability indicator of 0 at each release for which the test result is changed from that of the immediately prior release and 1 at every other release.
US08479156B2
Providing target specific information for textual code at edit time. Input specifying textual code or the textual code itself may be received. The textual code may be specified for a target device. The textual code may be analyzed to determine information regarding execution of the textual code on the target device. The information may regard at least one statement of the textual code. The information may be provided for display. The analysis and provision of information may be performed at edit time.
US08479151B2
System and method for converting a statechart from a first statechart development environment to a second statechart development environment. A first statechart may be received. The first statechart may be created in a first statechart development environment. The first statechart may implement a first functionality. The first statechart may be parsed to determine a plurality of elements of the first statechart. A markup language representation of the first statechart may be generated. The markup language representation may represent the plurality of elements of the first statechart. A second statechart may be generated based on the markup language representation. The second statechart may be in a second statechart development environment. The second statechart may implement the first functionality. The second statechart may be stored.
US08479150B2
The compositional event based modeling of integrated applications (CINEMA) tool provides a way to extend a modeling environment using legacy event based applications, such as Graphical User Interface (GUI) APplications (GAPs). CINEMA allows modelers to extend the toolbox of the modeling environment by creating modeling elements that represent GUI objects of GAPs. CINEMA generates source code that allows an integrated system to control and manipulate the GUI objects of GAPs represented by the modeling elements used to create a model of the integrated system.
US08479146B2
System and method for providing computer resources to users. The system includes a plurality of co-located computing systems, e.g., blade computers, comprising a hierarchy of computer resources based on performance, and located at a first location, each computing system including a processor, a memory medium coupled to the processor, and a plurality of human interface systems, each located at a second location remote from the first location, and each including an interface device, and one or more human interface devices coupled to the interface device, where each human interface system is coupled to the co-located computing systems over a network, such as a LAN or a WAN, via the interface device. Computer resources are provided to users of the plurality of remote human interface systems over the network in accordance with the computer resource performance needs of the users. Charges may be assessed for usage of the computer resources.
US08479143B1
Methods and apparatus are described for electronic design automation (EDA) that effects the identification, and possibly removal, of certain duplicate circuit components. A signature value representing a circuit component is used to help identify potential duplicates. A signature table stores information about one or more components that share a corresponding signature value. The table is populated during the course of processing the design for duplicate extraction. As each component in the design is encountered, a signature for the component is determined and used to access the signature table information. The current component is compared to any component found by using the signature table and a circuit design modification is indicated to consolidate the components if they are duplicative. The signature table is maintained to reflect the most recent component encountered for a given signature.
US08479139B1
A system automatically routes interconnect of an integrated circuit design using variable width interconnect lines. For example, a first automatically routed interconnect may have a different width from a second automatically routed interconnect. The system will vary the width of the interconnect lines based on certain factors or criteria. These factors include current or power handling, reliability, electromigration, voltage drops, self-heating, optical proximity effects, or other factors, or combinations of these factors. The system may use a gridded or a gridless (or shape-based) approach.
US08479137B2
A congestive placement preventing apparatus for modifying a circuit layout includes an analyzing module, a defining module and an extension module. The analyzing module performs a congestion analysis on the circuit layout to generate an analysis result. The defining module defines a congestion region and a share region adjacent to the congestion region on the circuit layout according to the analysis result. A density of electronic cells of the congestion region is higher than that of electronic cells of the share region. The extension module arranges a plurality of electronic cells in the congestion region to the congestion region and the share region, thereby reducing the density of electronic cells in the congestion region.
US08479135B2
In an embodiment, a methodology for automating the generation of a programmable logic device implementation of at least a portion of an integrated circuit is contemplated. The methodology may operate on one or more hardware description language (HDL) files which describe the integrated circuit as an input. Additionally, one or more user-generated control files may be input to the methodology. The methodology may process the one or more HDL files, generating a bitstream to program one or more programmable logic devices to implement the described design. The methodology may include automated modification of the HDL files to prepare them for programmable logic device implementation, automated pad ring generation, automated pin multiplexing, daughter card definition, partitioning, etc.
US08479126B1
Techniques are presented for improving parametric yield. As part of an automatic sizing process for a circuit, one set of techniques receives a target value for a performance goal and then optimizes, with respect to the number of standard deviations, the distance by which the mean value of a distribution of the performance goal differs from the target value. In a second set of techniques, as part of an automatic sizing process during a circuit design process, the operation of the circuit is simulated to determine the distribution of a performance goal for a first design point. It is then determined whether a second design point is sufficiently close to the first design point and, if so, the simulation for the first design point is used for evaluating the second design point in an optimization process.
US08479124B1
A graphical user interface (GUI) used to program complex hardware elements is provided that allows a variety of files to be used to control subsequent content displayed by the GUI. The control includes dynamic updating of actual GUI elements, as well as rule checking based upon data entered into the GUI. Configuration, rule, and GUI files can be used to control the eventual programming of the complex hardware elements. Graphical metaphors are established to enable the viewing of performance information and using that information to control the programming of the complex hardware elements.
US08479123B2
A terminal providing one or more features to a user is disclosed. The terminal comprises a control unit, a user input unit, display unit. The control unit provides, on a standby image of the terminal, an option to select type of an inputted character, an option to select one or more menus to execute features associated with the inputted character, or both. The user input unit enables the user to input the character and select type of the character or select one or more of the menus. The display unit displays the inputted character according to the selected type of the character and also displays the menus.
US08479120B2
Disclosed herein is a navigation apparatus for displaying maps on a display section based on map data held in a recording section, the navigation apparatus including: a current position detection section configured to detect the current position of the navigation apparatus; a touch-sensitive panel configured to be installed on a display screen of the display section; and a control section configured to control changes in what is displayed on the display section in response to operations performed by a user on the touch-sensitive panel.
US08479119B2
Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are e.g. “unselected”, “selected” or “activated”. According to the invention, the menu may contain buttons that can be selected through the keys on the remote control, but that don't have any images or text associated. This allows creating “invisible buttons” that automatically execute commands upon selection. Further, a sound or sound sequence, e.g. melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. Such menu data may be stored e.g. on a Blu-ray disc.
US08479114B2
Methods, system, and computer program products for browsing content with a display area and input system that may be limited in comparison to more traditional browsing systems. Movement between and selection of interactive elements generally occurs in a navigation mode, whereas interaction with a single interactive element generally occurs in an edit mode. In navigation mode, a direction input selects the next interactive element in the direction indicated. If no interactive element is at least partially visible in the direction indicated or if a selected interactive element is only partially visible, the display scrolls. Switching between navigation mode and edit mode is based on the input received, in view of the input supported, by a particular interactive element. Interactive elements may be limited to the width of available display area.
US08479109B2
A system and method for programmatically generating a graphical program or a portion of a graphical program in response to receiving user input. The user input may specify functionality of the graphical program or graphical program portion to be generated. In response to the user input, a graphical program (or graphical program portion) that implements the specified functionality may be programmatically generated. Thus, different graphical programs may be generated, depending on the user input received.
US08479101B2
A method and device for providing a single consistent user interface based on replacing disparate user interface constructs (components) with equivalent constructs (components) from a “synonym” database of user interface constructs (components). The database is initiated with a set of foundational “synonym” constructs (components) and extended with user interface constructs (components) as they are discovered during reduction of an inconsistent user interface to a consistent state.
US08479096B2
A content display device for displaying content items on a screen includes: an operation instruction receiving section (70d) for receiving, from a user, a switching instruction to switch the content items; a content list analyzing and choosing section (40) for, based on an order prescribed in a content list, choosing a content item that is displayed on the screen, in accordance with the switching instruction received by the operation instruction receiving section (70d); and a content acquisition and display section for causing the content item chosen by the content choosing section (40) to be displayed on the screen. This provides a content display device whose operationality has been improved by comprehensively optimizing a user's content browsing operation from the viewpoint of regarding, as a series of operations, access to the URL of a desired content item and an operation for controlling the display range of a displayed content item.
US08479090B2
A tangible computer-readable storage medium having encoded on it data that represents a model of a document, the document model including a one-dimensional character string that includes characters of the document in an order in which they appear in the document; a map of styles that includes markers that correspond to changes in styles in the document, and pointers to the character string, wherein the pointers define locations along the character string at which the changes in styles are to occur and define style runs between matched markers; and one or more external references to objects outside the document model, the external references including identifiers for the objects and pointers to the character string indicating where in the character string the object will appear.
US08479089B2
The present invention is an apparatus and method for constructing a Constraint-Choice-Action Matrix for making decisions based on constraints. Columns (in one matrix orientation) state conditions. The column header presents a partial boolean expression. Such variable expression may be any object or type, e.g., a number, string, or list. An entry in a cell, selected using a GUI pick-list, combines with the column header, to complete the boolean expression. The set of boolean expressions in a row may be combined into an action boolean statement. If that statement evaluates to true, some action, represented as a row header, is recommended or executed. The matrix is applied to an instance of a context domain, for decision-making. The context domain may be represented in a model representing an instance of that domain (e.g., a product specification for configuration of a machine) in data and rules.
US08479084B2
A method and system are provided for forward error correction. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a strong FEC algorithm that performs similarly to RS(255,239) when a simple decoder is used, and scales up linearly to a full-scale decoder that outperforms all 7% algorithms currently in G.975.1. The Forward Error Correction code is suitable for use in optical transport networks (OTN) and other applications requiring high decode performance and high code rate. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an FEC code that is a cyclically interleaved dual BCH, with simultaneous decode and per-codeword maximum likelihood reconciliation.
US08479081B2
A user may easily confirm a relationship between an edited packet and the output serial data derived from the edited packet. The user may edit a packet with known method (step 104) to display a packet structure of the edited packet (step 106). A signal generator converts the packet to serial data through striping, scramble and 8b/10b conversion to display a serial data bar corresponding to the serial data derived from the packet (step 116). The user may designate a range on the serial data bar to distinctively display portions of the packet structure corresponding to the designated range (step 120).
US08479080B1
A method for data storage includes, in a memory that includes multiple memory blocks, specifying at a first time a first over-provisioning overhead, and storing data in the memory while retaining in the memory blocks memory areas, which do not hold valid data and whose aggregated size is at least commensurate with the specified first over-provisioning overhead. Portions of the data from one or more previously-programmed memory blocks containing one or more of the retained memory areas are compacted. At a second time subsequent to the first time, a second over-provisioning overhead, different from the first over-provisioning overhead, is specified, and data storage and data portion compaction is continued while complying with the second over-provisioning overhead.
US08479079B2
A method for integrating data and header protection in tape drives includes receiving an array of data organized into rows and columns. The array is extended to include one or more headers for each row of data in the array. The method provides two dimensions of error correction code (ECC) protection for the data in the array and a single dimension of ECC protection for the headers in the array. A corresponding apparatus is also disclosed herein.
US08479078B2
A distributed storage network generates a plurality of data segments from a data object and stores each of the plurality of data segments as a plurality of encoded data slices generated from an error encoding dispersal function. When the distributed storage network receives a modification request for the data object, it determines a size of the plurality of data segments of the data object from a segment size field and identifies one of the plurality of data segments requiring modification. The identified data segment is reconstructed from the plurality of encoded data slices and modified in accordance with the modification request.
US08479065B2
A remotely-accessible electronic circuit is provided, which, in wireless communication with a maritime pilot's Personal Pilot Unit (PPU), or other remote computer, is able to identify a common mis-wiring of an Automatic Identification System (AIS) Pilot Port in a maritime vessel. The circuit then is remotely controlled to electronically manipulate the connections that provide raw transmit and receive signals from the AIS Pilot Port. The electronic manipulation corrects the common mis-wiring without actual physical intervention of the pilot with the AIS Pilot Port, or other mechanical interface between that port and the pilot's PPU.
US08479064B2
A safety input device includes an input controller to control transmission of an input signal to an arithmetic device, an output controller to instruct output of preset first self-diagnosis pattern data, a test pattern generating unit to encode the first self-diagnosis pattern data into a pulse train signal having a pulse width equal to or below a predetermined value and output the pulse train signal, a combination input unit to combine the pulse train signal with the input signal, an input interface unit, a pattern reconfiguration unit to decode an output signal from the combination input unit into second self-diagnosis pattern data, and a comparator to compare the first and second self-diagnosis pattern data to judge the presence or absence of a difference between the first and second self-diagnosis pattern data.
US08479049B2
A method for detecting a power failure type of an electronic device sets a shutdown flag as a first value when the electronic device is turned on, modifies the shutdown flag to a second value if a shutdown status of the electronic device is detected, and modifies the shutdown flag to a third value when the electronic device keeps the shutdown status for a predetermined time. The method further determines the power failure type of the electronic device according to a value of the shutdown flag when the electronic device is turned on the next time.
US08479047B2
A computer implemented method, computer program product and system for monitoring a plurality of hardware or software system resources for identifying hidden trends in the behavior of the system resources, includes: collecting metrics of at least one system resource indicative of the behavior of at least one system resource; for each of the at least one system resource, determining a spectrum representative of a time-based signal of the collected metrics; performing a wavelet transform on each of the at least one spectrum; and analyzing the result of the wavelet transform to identify possible linear trends in the behavior of the at least one system resource.
US08479031B2
Disclosed is a hybrid-system computer comprising a first system, a second system and a power supply unit, wherein the power supply unit is connected to the first system and the second system, respectively, and wherein power consumption in an operating state of the second system is lower than that in an operating state of the first system; the hybrid-system computer further comprises: a triggering unit configured for obtaining a switching command when the first system is in an operating state and the second system is in a non-operating state; and a switching unit connected to the triggering unit, the first system and the second system, respectively, and configured for receiving the switching command and controlling the first system to enter a non-operating state and the second system to enter an operating state based on the switching command. With the hybrid-system computer, in the case that only low power consumption applications are required, the first system is caused to enter a non-operating state, and the second system is put into an operating state. Therefore, the overall power consumption can be effectively reduced.
US08479023B2
A detection system to detect disconnection of a powered device from a link of a power over Ethernet system is disclosed. The detection system can include closed-loop control configured to supply a predetermined test current to an electrically conductive path that includes at least a portion of the link via which the powered device is connectable for receiving power. A detector is configured to monitor the closed-loop control, the loop detector providing a disconnect signal if the closed-loop control is outside of expected operating parameters, thereby indicating that the powered device has been disconnected from the link.
US08479021B2
A method for generating an n-bit result includes a secured containment device (SCD) receiving a request to generate the n-bit result. The request includes an n-bit generator input and a master secret identifier. The request is sent from an application executing on a host system using an input/output (I/O) interface. The SCD disables all I/O interfaces on the SCD between the host system and the SCD. After disabling all the I/O interfaces on the SCD between the host system and the SCD, the SCD provides the n-bit generator input and the master secret identifier to a secured hardware token over a second I/O interface, receives the n-bit result from the secured hardware token over the second I/O interface, enables at least the first I/O interface after the n-bit result is generated, and provides, after enabling the first I/O interface, the n-bit result to the application using the first I/O interface.
US08479020B2
A process may be utilized by a device to implement public key asymmetric encryption. The process encrypts a data set with a symmetric encryption key to form an encrypted data set. Further, the process encrypts the symmetric encryption key with a public key component of an asymmetric encryption key to form an asymmetric encrypted cookie. Finally, the process stores the encrypted data set and the asymmetric encrypted cookie in a non-secure area of a storage medium.
US08479018B2
An obfuscating apparatus creates a table for inputting the same number of arguments for multiplying and squaring operations, and sets the output values of the table so that the outputs may depend on the arguments. With regard to the squaring operations, there are added and tabulated adding operations using the arguments necessary only for the multiplications, so that the number of arguments is equal to that of the multiplication operations. The outputs depend on all the arguments, so that the presence or absence of the added arguments is unknown unlike the case in which dummy arguments that are not processed are added.
US08479013B2
A portable data transport device that provides security to data stored therein, and is configured to communicate data with a host computer for securing and transporting data. The portable data transport device includes a first processor and a biometric identification system. Upon successful biometric identification of an enrolled user, the first processor permits mounting of the data transport device to a host computer. However, prior to the commencement of read/write operations, cross-checking of stored identification codes of components of the portable data transport device occurs, including the use of a hash function. If any identifier does not match, no read/write data operations are permitted. The portable data transport device includes a file security program that includes a DLL encryption/decryption program having a self-check feature. Upon self check, if any changes were made to the encryption/decryption program, no read/write operations are permitted.
US08479010B2
Successful logins are distinguished from unsuccessful logins, and only when a login is successful are the user's login credentials stored and associated with the appropriate login page. Attempts by a user to login to a login page with a set of login credentials are identified. It is determined whether an attempt to login to a given login page with a set of login credentials is successful. If the attempt by the user to login to the login page with the set of login credentials is successful, the set of login credentials can be stored and associated with the login page. If the attempt fails, the credentials are not saved.
US08478994B2
One network protocol (RTP) each, having data packets (dp) comprising an expandable header (KE) is provided for a data stream (ds1 . . . n) encoded in a manner individual to said data stream, and the key information (si1 . . . n) formed in a data stream manner individual to said data stream is inserted into an expandable header (RTPH) of a data packet (dp) of the respective data stream (ds1 . . . n) and transmitted. The key information (sp1 . . . n) is selected in a manner individual to said data stream from the expanded headers (KE) of received data packets (dp) of the respective data stream (ds1 . . . n), and the associated encoded data stream (ds1 . . . n) is decoded by means of at least one piece of selected data stream individual key information (si1 . . . n). The forming and inserting of key information (si1 . . . n) into standard expanded headers (KE) can be performed with little additional expense, thus significantly reducing the expenditure for the analysis or diagnosis of the simultaneously transmitted encoded data streams (ds1 . . . n). Advantageously, the insertion of key information (si1 . . . n) can be activated or initiated only if the diagnosis or analysis and/or the recording of the data streams is currently being performed.
US08478991B2
A management apparatus for managing a wireless parameter is configured to obtain a certificate from a certificate authority by using a timing related to a setting processing based on a wireless parameter setting method as a trigger and send the obtained certificate to a wireless communication apparatus as well as the wireless parameter.
US08478988B2
A system and method for authentication of a communication device is disclosed. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a communication device having a controller element to compute a shared secret key based at least in part on a communication device (CD) private key and a cryptography algorithm, wherein the CD private key is stored in an identity module of the communication device and is unknown to an authentication center, and wherein the communication device is authenticated by the authentication center based at least in part on the shared secret key. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08478984B2
A RAID system includes a RAID controller that sends to a disc apparatus data to be encrypted by a data relay apparatus connected to the RAID controller and the disk apparatus. When receiving a data transfer request packet indicating a first receivable size, the data relay apparatus establishes a second receivable size that is equal to or greater than the first receivable size and that is a multiple of an encryption data size. When the RAID controller receives a data transfer request packet containing the established second receivable size, and in response to the data transfer request packet thus received, the data relay apparatus receives data of the second receivable size sent from the RAID controller. The data relay apparatus also encrypts the received data in units of the encryption data size, and then the encrypted data is sent to the disk apparatus in units of the first receivable size.
US08478977B1
A system and method for securely and automatically moving a resource, such as a server, between secure network environments include a secure auto-migration control program. The secure auto-migration program may automatically reconfigure a computing resource used in a first secure network environment to be used in a second secure network environment and logically move the computer resource from the first secure network environment to the second secure network environment.
US08478976B2
A system and method of storing a default function from among possible functions to be executed by a device, and executing the default function after a pre-defined interval, if during the interval a user does not respond to a notification of the upcoming execution of the default function, through the user's providing a signal of his desire not to execute the default function.
US08478974B2
Methods for reducing the impact of malware during a booting sequence for an interrupt driven computing device are disclosed. One or more parameters associated with an interrupt vector table (IVT) are manipulated to force the computing device into a clean state following a system level portion of the booting sequence. In another embodiment, occurring prior to the loading of an operating system or a call to a non-returnable main( ) function, one or more unused interrupt vectors in an IVT are replaced. A function filter is implemented for one or more interrupt vectors in the IVT to disallow unnecessary interrupt functions from being executed. One or more required interrupt vector functions are replaced with one or more corresponding custom vector functions. One or more memory locations are wiped if the one or more memory locations do not hold at least a portion of the IVT and/or the interrupt vector functions.
US08478965B2
Accelerator functions are cascaded, such that a result of one accelerator function is directly forwarded to another accelerator function, bypassing the processor requesting the functions to be performed. The cascading may be provided during compilation of a program specifying the functions to be performed, but can be dynamically reversed during runtime of the program.
US08478960B2
A memory protection method of dividing the address space of a memory into two or more protection regions, and protecting the memory from an unauthorized access to a protection region by a program includes a definition step of defining the relation between protection regions, a determination step of, when the relation between the protection regions is an inclusion relation, determining that an included protection region cannot directly access an including protection region and the including protection region can directly access the included protection region, and a step of, when an access to the protection region determined to be able to be directly accessed is requested, permitting a direct access to the protection region determined to be able to be directly accessed, and prohibiting a direct access to the protection region determined to be unable to be directly accessed.
US08478954B2
A method which prioritizes the subgroups in a consistency group by usage and/or business process. Thereafter, in case of abnormal operation of the process for copying the consistency group from primary storage to secondary storage, only a portion of the subgroups of the consistency group are copied from primary storage to secondary storage.
US08478947B2
A method of controlling a memory and a memory controller are disclosed. The memory controller is operable to control a memory, the memory being operable in a plurality of modes, the memory controller comprising: memory interface logic configurable to interact with the memory in each of the plurality of modes; and memory mode change logic operable, in response to a memory mode change request instruction specifying a predetermined one the plurality of modes being issued by the memory interface logic to the memory, to request the memory interface logic to be configured to interact with the memory in the predetermined one of the plurality of modes and to prevent interaction between the memory interface logic and the memory until the memory interface logic confirms that it is configured to interact with the memory in the predetermined one of the plurality of modes. In this way, it will be appreciated that both the memory and the memory controller can be reconfigured to operate in a different mode using a single instruction which provides performance benefits, increases reliability and reduces infrastructure requirements.
US08478941B2
Methods and apparatus relating to gather or scatter operations in a multi-level cache are described. In some embodiments, a logic may determine whether to perform gather or scatter operations at a first memory or a second memory, based in part on a relative performance of performing the gather or scatter operations at the first memory and the second memory. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08478938B2
A first and a second physical disk identifier, a physical Logical Block Address (LBA), a data length, and a span identifier are calculated from a data write operation. A first request command frame is created for retrieving the existing data block from the storage array, the first request command frame including at least one of the calculated parameters. At least one second request command frame is created for retrieving the at least one existing parity data block from the storage array, the at least one second request command frame including the calculated at least one second physical disk identifier and at least one of the calculated parameters. At least one new parity data block is calculated utilizing the existing data block, the new data block, and the at least one existing parity data block.
US08478937B2
A method begins by a processing module receiving data for storage. The method continues with the processing module determining storage metadata regarding the data the method continues with the processing module. The method continues with the processing module determining memory device capabilities based on the storage metadata. The method continues with the processing module identifying memory devices based on the memory device capabilities to produce identified memory devices. The method continues with the processing module encoding the data into a plurality of data slices in accordance with an error coding dispersal function. The method continues with the processing module storing the plurality of data slices in the identified memory devices.
US08478927B2
A super-speed USB3.0 hub is described to which, after configuration, there are more high-speed devices than super-speed devices connected. The difference in the numbers is recognized and logic is provided that responds to an upstream host that there is an equal or balanced number of super-speed and high-speed ports active. This is accomplished by providing a number of “dummy” ports that make up any actual difference. The “dummy” ports are never active and are never connected to any device.
US08478922B2
The conditions under which adapter interruptions are made pending are controlled. Responsive to an interruption being presented to an operating system, subsequent interruptions are suppressed on all central processing units in the configuration. The operating system processes the interruption, including examining and processing indicators of reported events until the operating system discontinues the suppression. This enables the operating system to control the number of pending interruptions and the number of processors processing those interruptions.
US08478918B2
According to one embodiment, an interface comprises establishing a connection to a communicatee device, transmitting a connection maintenance signal to the communicatee device, and decreasing a maximum amplitude of the connection maintenance signal from a first amplitude, establishing a connection to the communicatee device again when communication is disabled, and transmitting the connection maintenance signal to the communicatee device, and setting the maximum amplitude of the connection maintenance signal to a second amplitude which is larger than the maximum value of the connection maintenance signal obtained when the communication is disabled by a predetermined value.
US08478914B2
Provided is a display apparatus including a first signal receiving unit that receives a non-compressed video signal from an external device via a first transmission path through a plurality of channels by means of a differential signal, an image display unit that displays images by processing the video signal received by the first signal receiving unit, a second signal receiving unit that receives a compressed video signal of a same video source as the non-compressed video signal by using a bi-directional communication path configured by predetermined lines of the first transmission path, and a signal transmitting unit that transmits a compressed video signal corresponding to the compressed video signal received by the second signal receiving unit to another external device different from the external device.
US08478910B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided an instruction method for providing an instruction from a supply device to a processing device via an HDMI cable, the method comprising detecting a signal from an operating switch in the supply device, generating a packet signal in which instruction information according to the detected signal is described, in an ASCII description area of source product description (SPD) of a packet signal for use in the HDMI standard, in the supply device, supplying the packet signal from the supply device to the processing device via the HDMI cable, and detecting the instruction information from the ASCII description area of SPD of the packet signal in the supply device, and performing a desired operation accordingly.
US08478908B2
A fieldbus gateway using a virtual serial fieldbus port and a data transmission method thereof are provided. By receiving a fieldbus frame containing target data through a virtual serial fieldbus port connected to a source device or a target device via a fieldbus gateway and sending another fieldbus frame containing the target data via other fieldbus port to target devices or source devices, the system and the method can provide two or more remote devices to control one controlled device at the same time. The invention also achieves the effect of using one virtual serial fieldbus port to transmit data between multiple source devices and target devices concurrently.
US08478898B2
A system and method are provided for routing directory service operations in a directory service network. A router may be included in a directory service network. The router may include a server knowledge list that maintains information about one or more directory servers in the directory service network. Directory service operations may be received by the router and may be routed to an appropriate directory server based on availability one or more of the directory servers.
US08478894B2
Method and system for centralized control of data transfers between a Web client and a Web application by receiving a response from the Web application. After determining an offending character is present, cloaking the response from the Web application to a request from a Web client, and sending the cloaked response to the Web client through a security product which otherwise rejects the offending character.
US08478892B2
A device receives a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) response that includes a load header associated with a downstream Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device. The device also determines an amount of traffic to send to the downstream Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device based on the load header. The device further sends the determined amount of traffic to the downstream Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device.
US08478890B2
An improved system and method are disclosed for reliable virtual bi-directional data stream (RVBDDS) connections. In one example, two communication devices create and exchange streaming data packets that are encapsulated in connection-less transport layer packets. The streaming data packets contain information used in managing the RVBDDS connection between the two devices.
US08478888B2
Systems, methods and computer readable media that provide stateless fault tolerance and load balanced data collection using overlay namespaces are described. A cluster is used. Each node of the cluster may be a monitoring system. A data provider process may run on each node in the cluster. Each node has an overlay namespace which comprises one or more links to namespaces on other nodes, and local viewpoints of those linked namespaces. When a node detects a resource waiting to be monitored, it queries other nodes to determine whether object creation for that resource is allowed. It creates an object only if no other node is creating or has created an object for that resource.
US08478887B2
A geographic-based communications service system has a mobile unit for transmitting/receiving information, and access points connected to a network. The access points are arranged in a known geographic locations and transmit and receive information from the mobile unit. When one of the access points detects the presence of the mobile unit, it sends a signal to the network indicating the location of the mobile unit and the information requested by the mobile unit. Based on the signal received from the access point, the network communicates with information provides connected to the network and provides data to the mobile unit through the access point corresponding to the location of the mobile unit.
US08478886B2
A mobile communication system that utilizes multiple access technologies achieves multiple session registrations by deriving a plurality of extended unique device identifications from a specific unique device identification (e.g., private user identification (PIID) stored on a subscriber identity module (SIM)) assigned to a user equipment. Each of the plurality of extended unique device identifications have the benefit of allowing multiple registrations with one or more access networks while allowing a home subscriber system to detect the one unique device identification embedded in the extended unique device identifications for authentication purposes. Thereby, a large population of deployed UEs and access network infrastructure may benefit without replacement by allowing a UE to maintain session continuity when transitioning between access networks, to select a preferred access technology when in overlapping coverage areas without session interruption, or to maintain multiple sessions (e.g., simultaneous Voice over IP (VoIP) and media streaming) with different access networks.
US08478885B2
An image photographic apparatus which includes an information recording medium capable of communicating by use of a communication protocol and recording an image of a subject, and is configured to function as a server to transmit the image of the subject stored in the information recording medium to a client connected to a network by establishing communication based on a request for communication start from the client, the image photographic apparatus including a detection device to detect the request for communication start from the client, a display unit to display other client who transmits a request for communication start based on detection results of the detection device, and a selection-input device to select and input whether allowing communication to the other client transmitting the request for communication start based on the display of the display unit.
US08478881B2
A system and associated method for web service data for a web service transaction are disclosed. A client program that employs the web service transaction invokes a pair of web service calls to transfer the web service data to and from a web service program that executes the web service transaction. The web service program establishes a user session between the web service program and a web interface program. During the user session, the web service transaction is performed as a user of the client program directly interacts with the web service program through the web interface program. When the user session is completed, the client program retrieves the web service data resulting from the web service transaction from the web service program.
US08478876B2
A dynamic data management and distribution system to interact with network computing devices of a user is provided. The user has memory allocated in the system. The system includes an ingest module for automatically uploading content from every network computing device and storing the content in the memory allocated to the user. Further, the system includes a sourcing module to retrieve information from user subscribed external information management services and storing the information in the allocated memory. The system includes a share module to share data with one or more users from a contact list of the user. Data includes part or whole of the information and content. The system also includes a self adaptive module, for proactively transferring data to one or more users from the contact list of the user based on the past behavior of the user.
US08478870B2
A terminal apparatus that comprises a request obtaining unit that obtains a processing request made to a processing execution apparatus, a generating unit that generates a relay-use processing request containing the processing request obtained by the request obtaining unit and address information of the processing execution apparatus, an address obtaining unit that obtains address information indicating a relay apparatus connected to each of a first communication path and a second communication path, the processing execution apparatus being connected to the first communication path, the terminal apparatus being connected to the second communication path, the first communication path being not access directly to the terminal apparatus, and a transmitting unit that transmits the relay-use processing request generated by the generating unit to the relay apparatus indicated by the address information obtained by the address obtaining unit.
US08478869B2
An information processing device communicable with a server device and a name resolution server includes a sending and receiving system that sends a device name of the server device to the name resolution server, and receives an IP address corresponding to the device name from the name resolution server, an IP address storing system that stores at least one IP address, an access system that accesses application programs stored in the server device, an access control system that controls the access system to access the application programs according to the at least one IP address, a communication protocol storing system that stores the communication protocol corresponding to the IP address used for a previous access, and an access control instructing system that instructs the access control system to control the access system to access the application programs according to the at least one IP address.
US08478868B2
A method and system for customizing web sites for visitor to increase the likelihood a visitor becomes deepens the relationship with the web site or becomes a customer is disclosed. A progression level design defines levels and conditions for moving between those levels. At each level, the web site is customized in predetermined ways commensurate with that level. Information on the visitor is gathered to evaluate their level and possibly upgrade or downgrade that level. Reports detail flow of visitors between levels for various time periods. Where that flow is not desired, the progression level design can be changed by adding, removing or changing levels and conditions.
US08478866B2
A device management apparatus that enables an information obtaining apparatus to obtain device information from a device management apparatus connected to a first network other than a second network to which the information obtaining apparatus is connected, and manage devices. A communication protocol that can be used by the information obtaining apparatus is extracted from a device information obtaining request from the information obtaining apparatus. When a device connected to the first network is not operating using the communication protocol and is able to activate the communication protocol, the device is requested to activate the communication protocol. When the communication protocol has been successfully activated, and it is necessary to change access settings for the device, the device is requested to change the access settings. When the access settings have been successfully changed, a response concerning device information is created and sent to the information obtaining apparatus.
US08478865B2
A gateway module translates access requests from client computers into commands for a plurality of slice servers storing data for a dispersed data storage network. The gateway program maintains a plurality of gateway modules, each providing a different access protocol to the dispersed data storage network, and each also maintaining one or more virtual storage vaults.
US08478850B2
An event management system, comprising a server comprising a platform component architecture (PCA) and a software engine, wherein the PCA is configured to provide runtime discovery and display of system components. The system also comprises a data source for storing user define data objects and applications; at least one system component; and at least one client for administering and monitoring user-defined events, wherein the PCA provides a common interface between the server, the data source, and the at least one client.
US08478832B2
An email, which includes a header and historical information, is created. The header comprises a destination email address, which comprises a name of an addressed recipient of the email and a domain name of the destination email address. The historical information in the email comprises an approved address for a previously exchanged email with the addressed recipient. The first approved address is compared to a corresponding portion of the first destination email address. In response to the corresponding portion of the first destination email address being different from the first approved address as stored in the storage unit, a warning is outputted. The warning comprises both the approved address, and an unapproved address list that comprises the first destination email address.
US08478827B1
A digital media resource messaging system provides a convenient digital media resource viewing, managing, organizing, and editing platform that facilitates enhanced resource exchange by storing and forwarding digital media resources via a server between multiple resource-sharing partners designated by the user. In one embodiment, the digital media resource messaging system includes services to view, manage, organize, edit, and exchange digital images and video sequences.
US08478826B2
A text communication, such as an email or blog posting from a user, is monitored to identify an issue. A score(s) of the text communication is determined by analyzing words/phrases in the text communication. A score can be based on various factors such as annoyance, language precision, help-ability, a communication length, and the like. A range for the score(s) is determined. When a response to the text communication is generated, a score(s) of the response to the text communication is determined. If one or more of the score(s) of the response is outside the range for the score(s), the response is rejected. Words/phrases are identified in the response to the text communication that can be changed in order to get the score(s) of the response within the range of the score(s) of the text communication. This information is displayed to an agent so an appropriate response can be formulated.
US08478822B2
A device and method of sharing contents based on time synchronization are provided. A first device may generate a time stamp with respect to contents being replayed by a second device and transmit the time stamp to the second device. In response, the second device may generate a contents list based on the time stamp and transmit the contents list to the first device. The first device may request contents selected by a user from among the contents list, and the second device may provide the requested contents to the first device.
US08478791B2
Interoperability across two or more heterogeneous clinical medical error taxonomies can be improved by associating categories in various taxonomies with one or more categories in a master taxonomy. These associations can be expressed using a unique identifier, e.g., a number that identifies one or more categories in the master taxonomy. Various aspects of the associations and/or one or more master taxonomies can be modified by users of a system employing embodiments of the technologies described herein. Searches of clinical medical error records can also be aided using the technologies described herein.
US08478787B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for name detection. A method includes generating a raw name detection model using a collection of family names and an annotated corpus including a collection of n-grams. The method includes applying the raw name detection model to a collection of semi-structured data to form annotated semi-structured data identifying n-grams identifying names and n-grams not identifying names and applying the raw name detection model to a large unannotated corpus to form a large annotated corpus data identifying n-grams of the large unannotated corpus identifying names and n-grams not identifying names. The method includes generating a name detection model, including deriving a name model using the annotated semi-structured data identifying names and the large annotated corpus data identifying names, deriving a not-name model using the semi-structured data not identifying names, and deriving a language model using the large annotated corpus.
US08478784B2
A system receives output geographic information en masse from a server. The output geographic information corresponds to input geographic information provided to the server en masse. The system builds a database that indexes at least some of the output geographic information to at least some of the input geographic information, attempts to locate specific output geographic information in the database, and determines the specific output geographic information by calculation if the specific output geographic information cannot be located in the database.
US08478783B2
Ordering content in social networking applications is described. A plurality of shared content pieces are received, that are viewable and accessible by at least one viewer, wherein the shared content pieces are configured for display in an initial order, wherein the shared content pieces are accessed in a viewer order determined by an individual viewer. The viewer order and the identity of the individual viewer are received and stored in a data store, and the initial order is changed based at least in part upon at least one of the viewer order and the identity of the individual viewer, thereby providing an adjusted order. The changing of the initial order is performed after a predetermined period of time and is based at least in part upon at least one of viewer orders and identities of individual viewers for a plurality of viewers in the data store.
US08478775B2
The subject disclosure relates to querying of column based data encoded structures enabling efficient query processing over large scale data storage, and more specifically with respect to complex queries implicating filter and/or sort operations for data over a defined window. In this regard, in various embodiments, a method is provided that avoids scenarios involving expensive sorting of a high percentage of, or all, rows, either by not sorting any rows at all, or by sorting only a very small number of rows consistent with or smaller than a number of rows associated with the size of the requested window over the data. In one embodiment, this is achieved by splitting an external query request into two different internal sub-requests, a first one that computes statistics about distribution of rows for any specified WHERE clauses and ORDER BY columns, and a second one that selects only the rows that match the window based on the statistics.
US08478772B2
A database system of a mobile device that includes an on-device database service is provided. The on-device database service accepts a connection request from an application, and receives a database command from the application. The on-device database service translates the database command into a structured query language command, and transmits the structured query language command to an embedded database. After a database operation is performed by the embedded database, the on-device database service receives a result of the structured query language command that is transmitted from the embedded database, and the on-device database service transmits the result to the application.
US08478762B2
Ranking systems are described. In an embodiment a large scale data center has peta bytes of items and a query engine is provided to find the top k most frequently occurring items. In embodiments, samples are taken from the data center at least until a specified number of samplings is met, or until a stopping rule is met. In examples, the samples form a sample sketch which is used to find the top k most frequently occurring items without the need to examine every item in the data center. In other examples, the number of samplings or stopping rule is varied to provide ranks or frequencies. In other embodiments the ranking system operates on items having values to find separators which divide the items into bins such that the proportion of the items in each bin is different. For example, a data set may be apportioned to different types of processor.
US08478760B2
Commonly searched nodes of complex data types contained in a collection of XML documents can be projected to, and their values can be stored in, corresponding columns in XML Table Index tables in a database system. In one embodiment, those columns stores logical pointers, rather than raw values, of the complex data types. Domain indexes are further provided to index at least one of the columns of complex data types in XML Table Indexes. The inclusion of complex data types and domain indexes provide a more efficient mechanism for searching domain specific data, such as audio, video, text stored in the collection of XML documents. Query optimizer logic of the database system can prepare one or more query execution plans for a submitted query including a plan that leverages XML Table Indexes and domain indexes and select a query execution plan based on cost information.
US08478758B2
A content management and delivery system that works with a publisher website to deliver access to advertising content within Microsites relevant to content accessed by the user on the publisher website. The system includes a computer program product for determining relevance of the advertising content with regard to a selected item of editorial content, and for creating a link to the advertising content in accordance with the relevance thereof. The computer program product ensures that when a user navigates to the advertising content using the link, the user is not caused to exit from a publisher environment.
US08478748B2
The present invention provides methods for improving a ranking model. In one embodiment, a method includes the step of obtaining queries, documents, and document labels. The process then initializes active sets using the document labels, wherein two active sets are established for each query, a perfect active set and an imperfect active set. Then, the process optimizes an empirical loss function by the use of the first and second active set, whereby parameters of the ranking model are modified in accordance to the empirical loss function. The method then updates the active sets with additional ranking data, wherein the updates are configured to work in conjunction with the optimized loss function and modified ranking model. The recalculated active sets provide an indication for ranking the documents in a way that is more consistent with the document metadata.
US08478745B1
A first set of search results responsive to a first query during a search session is identified. A snippet is identified for each search result related to the first query. The snippet can be selected based on the location the search tokens from the query in the search result. A second set of search results responsive to a second query during a search session is identified. Repetitive search results can be identified. A second snippet for the repetitive search result is identified. The second snippet can be selected based on the location of the second search tokens in the repetitive search result and the content of the first snippet.
US08478736B2
A pattern matching accelerator (PMA) for assisting software threads to find the presence and location of strings in an input data stream that match a given pattern. The patterns are defined using regular expressions that are compiled into a data structure comprised of rules subsequently processed by the PMA. The patterns to be searched in the input stream are defined by the user as a set of regular expressions. The patterns to be searched are grouped in pattern context sets. The sets of regular expressions which define the pattern context sets are compiled to generate a rules structure used by the PMA hardware. The rules are compiled before search run time and stored in main memory, in rule cache memory within the PMA or a combination thereof. For each input character, the PMA executes the search and returns the search results.
US08478735B1
There is described a method and system for obtaining ranked search results including names of experts who are members of a social network and presenting the ranked search results to a user performing a search from a user interface of a user device. The user is registered on the social network and has connections thereon. The method comprises: indexing data representative of activities of the members on the social network to produce indexed activity data; receiving a search query relative to a subject along with a user identifier from the user device; using the search query and the user identifier, ranking members from the user's connections based on their activities on the social network related to the subject to obtain ranked experts for the subject; returning the names of ranked experts for the subject to the user device for presentation on the user interface.
US08478730B2
For scalable data deduplication working with small data chunks in a computing environment, for each of the small data chunks, a signature is generated based on a combination of a representation of characters that appear in the small data chunks with a representation of frequencies of the small data chunks. The signature is used to help in selecting the data to be deduplicated.
US08478729B2
A storage control system including an overlap retrieval arrangement for retrieving overlap files, which are stored in at least one storage area of a plurality of storage areas, and which overlap one another, and a storage controlling arrangement for storing data of at least one overlapped part of the retrieved overlap files in a storage area having reliability that is greater than that of the storage area in which the data of this overlapped part is stored. A large number of files are stored in a plurality of storage areas, and the overlap retrieval arrangement retrieves overlap files from among a number of files, which is smaller than the number of stored files.
US08478718B1
A method for replicating data in cluster environments may include (1) identifying a cluster of nodes configured to replicate common storage of the cluster, (2) identifying a first write operation issued by a first node to the common storage, (3) identifying a second write operation issued by a second node to the common storage after the first write operation, (4) identifying a completion time of the first write operation, (5) identifying a start time of the second write operation, (6) identifying a maximum potential skew between the first system clock and the second system clock, (7) determining that the first and second write operations are mutually independent by determining that the start time of the second write operation precedes the completion time of the first write operation by a span greater than the maximum potential skew, and then (8) replicating the first and second write operations in parallel.
US08478707B1
An initial rule set in a table, such as a packet forwarding table, including a plurality of rules each having a key, an action, and a priority, may be reduced to a reduced rule set. Such reduction may include identifying relationships among the plurality of rules in the initial rule set, reassigning priority to each rule in the initial rule set based on its action and the identified relationships, duplicating all rules from each priority into each lower priority to produce an expanded rule set, and for each priority, replacing one or more of the rules with fewer inclusive rules, thereby producing a reduced rule set. Reduction may further include determining whether to perform additional rule processing on the reduced rule set, removing any redundant rules from the reduced rule set, converting any of the rules meeting a predetermined condition into don't care rules, and for each priority, replacing one or more of the rules in the reduced rule set with fewer inclusive rules.
US08478705B2
Embodiments for methods, systems, and computer program products for creating and managing a portable data rule using an electronic computing device are presented including: causing the electronic computing device to create a rule definition including, defining an expression by a user, where the expression defines a logic of a rule, causing the electronic computing device to parse the expression into a logical variable associated with the expression, causing the electronic computing device to identify the logical variable, and causing the electronic computing device to store the rule definition, where the rule definition includes the expression and the logical variable. In some embodiments, the causing the electronic computing device to identify the logical variable includes: causing the electronic computing device to return a name of the logical variable; and causing the electronic computing device to return an expected type of the logical variable.
US08478702B1
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for determining an individual's sentimental baseline, based on a plurality of data items and characteristics. The data items may include objective and quantitative data, as well as subjective and qualitative data. The system, apparatus, or method may obtain a number of relationships between information atoms, identify sentiments associated with the relationships, and calculate sentimental baselines for those relationships. Differences from any baseline may also be calculated, to determine true changes in sentiment. Relationships between those differences and other data or relationships may also be calculated, to determine how a change in sentiment is related to other changes in behavior. For example, relationships between a particular difference and changes in any metric, sub-metric, group of characteristics, data item, data source, characteristic, sentiment, or groups thereof may be determined. These relationships may also be used to predict future behavior or sentiment.
US08478699B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining query suggestions from multiple correlation measures. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a first query and second queries, each of the first and second queries including one or more terms; for each second query and a linear model, receiving correlation scores measuring the correlation between the first query and the respective second query, each correlation score received from a respective correlation process, and each respective correlation process being different from the other respective correlation processes, and applying the linear model to the plurality of correlation scores to determine a combined correlation score that quantifies a combined correlation between the first query and the respective second query based on the plurality of correlation scores. The second queries are ranked in an order according to their respective combined correlations scores.
US08478696B2
A service plan product providing a tangible representation of a service plan includes a support backer and a tag removably coupled with the backer. The tag includes service plan account identification means corresponding to a service plan account stored in a database and plan administrator contact indicia. The tag is configured to be removed from the backer and applied to a primary product for which the service plan is provided, and wherein only the service plan account identification means is required for the service plan administrator to access the database to identify details regarding the service plan account. Related systems and methods are also disclosed and provide additional advantages.
US08478694B2
An arrangement is provided where a media server temporarily stores a DRM license that is associated with downloaded media content prior to copying the DRM license to a physical archival medium such as an optical disc. When the media server confirms that the DRM license is successfully copied to the physical archival medium, it destroys the temporarily stored DRM license.
US08478684B2
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 determines which metrics are relevant to pricing the fuel offering and then employs those determined metrics to establish the pricing of fuel offerings.
US08478679B2
In various embodiments, a computerized system and method manages custody and mitigates counterparty credit risk exposure associated with a trade of a financial instrument. A custodian computer system is established that receives an initial margin payment from a pledgor and electronically posts the initial margin payment in a custody account record maintained in the database. A control agreement is established between the pledgor and a secured party with agreement details stored in the database. The dual-custody control agreement gives control of the custody account to the pledgor if the secured party defaults on trade obligations, and gives control of the custody account to the secured party if the pledgor defaults on trade obligations. During the life of the trade, the custodian may invest a current margin deposit in the custody account directly through the network into one or more investment vehicles to achieve a greater return.
US08478671B1
A method for community-based tax deduction advice involves displaying a suggestion input control in a networked tax preparation application, obtaining tax deduction suggestions from taxpayers using the suggestion input control, and displaying a live feed of tax deduction suggestions to a user of the networked tax preparation application.
US08478669B1
In one of many possible embodiments, a system is provided for modeling telecommunication switch investments. The exemplary system includes a telecommunication switch modeling application configured to determine equipment quantities having capacity to satisfy switch design parameters descriptive of at least one model telecommunication switch, and calculate model investments associated with the equipment quantities. The exemplary system also includes a telecommunication switch investment modeling application configured to weight the model investments in accordance with at least one of a network parameter descriptive of an actual telecommunication switch and a “what-if” input descriptive of a hypothetical telecommunication switch configuration to form weighted investments that are specific to at least one of the actual telecommunication switch and the hypothetical telecommunication switch configuration.
US08478661B1
A system for purchasing and delivering a specific gift, in which, at the time of the purchase, the buyer, instead of being provided with the gift, is provided with a gift proxy or special package which includes a gift token which includes an authentication device. The gift proxy also includes a picture of the specific gift. The buyer delivers the gift proxy to the recipient. At a future time and place, not necessarily pre-determined, the recipient provides the gift proxy to the seller, the seller authenticates the gift proxy, and the recipient receives the gift from the seller. A centralized and networked order management system monitors the gift tokens. The system can be online and/or store oriented, and can be used to transact in goods and/or services other than gifts.
US08478660B2
A method and a system for improving the selection of a group of services, in an exchange services environment, by a user of a telecommunication network. The following steps are comprised by the invention: defining a first set of requirements in a selection criteria manager module to be fulfilled by the services; performing a search among all services available, according to services functionalities defined in a service catalog and matching the first set of requirements; discarding services which do not fulfilled the first set of requirements; defining a second set of requirements in the selection criteria manager module, the second set of requirements indicates user preferences; assigning weights to the services taking into account the second set of requirements, data from an historical information module of previous selections of the user, data from a profile of the user with previous preferences; arranging all service combination according to the weights obtained, being the first one an optimal selection; storing the selection of the user at the historical information module.
US08478655B2
Disclosure includes selecting a merchant from a plurality of merchants, enabling a trial mode for the merchant, during the trial mode, receiving an indication of a first order for the merchant, forwarding the indication of the first order to the merchant, allocating a first payment for the first order to the merchant, requesting an acceptance of a membership status from the merchant, and receiving an indication of the payment for the first order.
US08478650B2
A method and apparatus for displaying search results while generating a media campaign from information about available units stored in a central database, including a set of media formats for the available units and associated ancillary information. Selective criteria is entered at a remote computer coupled to the central computer database via a network and web server for a search of the information stored in the database, and a search is generated based upon the selective criteria. Results of the search are displayed at the remote computer, the results constituting matching media format information and associated ancillary information the results displayed according to the associated ancillary information, which preferably constitutes time periods for which the corresponding formats are available. The search results are preferably displayed in a timeline, preferably organized in daily or weekly views.
US08478648B2
Method and apparatus for automated inventory tracking and authentication using device identity-containing information associated with at least one device that is part of an inventory. The method includes accepting initial device identity-containing information from an inventory origination point to a first sales distribution point and accepting additional device identity-containing inventory from each instance of a new and successive sales distribution point as inventory moves through a supply chain. This information is stored and then later compared to a device ID of the at least one device. An authentication action is performed upon the at least one device based upon said accepted initial and additional information. The device identity-containing information includes MAC address information, device serial number information.
US08478645B2
Disclosed are a system, method and software to allow individuals or groups of individuals to view personalized digital media narrative. A personal attribute profile is created and stored for each individual and the profile is retrieved each time the individual enters the network or site. The digital media narrative contains digital media assets having attributes selected based upon the individual's or group's profile. The digital media narrative provides an enhanced, more impacting, and more personal narrative experience to the individual.
US08478640B2
A system and method for operating a reward points accumulation and redemption program wherein a user earns rewards from a plurality of independent reward issuing entities, with each tracking the user's earned rewards. A trading server accumulates some or all of the user's earned rewards from the reward servers and credits the accumulated rewards into a single reward exchange account associated with the user. The user may then select an item for purchase with the accumulated rewards. The item is provided to the user in exchange for a subset or all of the rewards. Reward points may also be redeemed in exchange for services, such as the playing of a video game or Internet access.
US08478635B2
Methods for overseeing and assessing a locate and marking operation. A ticket is received including ticket information regarding the operation, and a first locate technician is dispatched to perform the operation pursuant to the ticket information. A locate manifest is received that includes at least one digital image associated with a dig area in which the locate technician performed the operation. The locate manifest is compared to the ticket information, and a determination is made if the operation is 1) satisfactory, 2) unsatisfactory and requires further quality control assessment and/or at least partial re-performance, or 3) satisfactory but the first locate technician requires coaching. One or more electronic indications of one of 1), 2) and 3) are provided so as to generate an electronic record of a quality assessment of the locate and marking operation.
US08478634B2
This disclosure provides apparatus and methods for rehabilitating an underperforming service center operated by an entity. The service center may be included in a plurality of service centers. A service center may be characterized as underperforming based on a calculated health score. The health score may be based on a technology malfunction that occurred at the service center. The health score may be based on an intensity score. The health score may be based on an incident count. The health score may be based on a network count. The health score may be compared to a threshold. If the health score is below the threshold, the service center may be characterized as underperforming. A service center characterized as underperforming may be included in a chronic list. The chronic list may be mined for patterns characteristic of an underperforming service center.
US08478625B2
The present invention relates to a method for operating a gas storage power plant (1) with at least two turbines (3), with at least two compressors (2) and with at least one gas reservoir (4). The compressors (2) are activated for charging the gas reservoir (4) and are at the same time driven by at least one electric motor (7). The turbines (3) are activated for discharging the gas reservoir (4) and at the same time drive at least one generator (12). In order to improve the operating profitability of the gas storage power plant (1), the number of instantaneously activated compressors (2) and/or turbines (3) depends on the current price at the particular time.
US08478618B2
A method of predicting compensation data includes obtaining compensation data, associated with a job category, with at least one datum being associated with each of a plurality of characteristics associated with the job category, determining values of factors, associated with respective ones of the characteristics, and a base value that when used as operands of a function yield estimates of the obtained data such that relationships between the estimates and corresponding obtained compensation data satisfy at least one criterion, and using a portion of the values of factors and the base value by a computer to automatically obtain estimates of compensation data.
US08478611B2
A system and method of distributing pharmaceutical prescriptions within a network of pharmacies based on the review of prescription claim data and patient medical state to enable stratification of patients, wherein each pharmacy within the network has been established to handle one or more particular patient medical states.
US08478609B2
Systems and methods provide for the preemptive determination of the potential of atypical clinical event occurrence related to administering of medications to a person. One method involves receiving a list of possible medications that may be administered to the person during a medical procedure. Subsequently, the medication list is compared to information in the person's medical record. Based on this comparison, a determination is made as to whether one or more matches exist between any of the medications included in the list and the medical record information, the match relating to the potential of an atypical clinical event occurring if the associated medication were to be administered to the person. If a match in fact exists, a response is outputted relating to each match.
US08478599B2
An embodiment of the present invention is a method of presenting a media work which includes: detecting media work content properties in a portion of the media work; associating a presentation rate of the portion with the detected media work content properties; and presenting the portion at the presentation rate; wherein the media work content properties include one or more of: (a) indicia of a number of syllables in utterances; (b) indicia of a number of letters in a word; (c) indicia of the complexity of grammatical structures in portions of the media work; (d) indicia of arrival rate of newly presented objects; (e) indicia of temporal proximity of between events in portions of the media work or (f) indicia of number of phonemes per unit of time in portions of the media work.
US08478595B2
A fundamental frequency pattern generation apparatus includes a first storage including representative vectors each corresponding to a prosodic control unit and having a section for changing the number of phonemes, a second storage unit including a rule to select a vector corresponding to an input context, a selection unit configured to select a vector from the representative vectors by applying the rule to the context and output the selected vector, a calculation unit configured to calculate an expansion/contraction ratio of the section of the selected vector in a time-axis direction based on a designated value for a specific feature amount related to a length of a fundamental frequency pattern to be generated, the designated value of the feature amount being required of the fundamental frequency pattern to be generated, and an expansion/contraction unit configured to expand/contract the selected vector based on the expansion/contraction ratio to generate the fundamental frequency pattern.
US08478590B2
The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method for correcting words in transcribed text including receiving speech audio data from a microphone. The method further includes sending the speech audio data to a transcription system. The method further includes receiving a word lattice transcribed from the speech audio data by the transcription system. The method further includes presenting one or more transcribed words from the word lattice. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the presented transcribed words. The method further includes presenting one or more alternate words from the word lattice for the selected transcribed word. The method further includes receiving a user selection of at least one of the alternate words. The method further includes replacing the selected transcribed word in the presented transcribed words with the selected alternate word.
US08478586B2
A coded code string from an input terminal 110 is demultiplexed by a demultiplexer circuit 101, normalization coefficient information in the code string is sent to a normalization coefficient information increasing/decreasing circuit 102, addition or subtraction of a positive value is performed, and level adjustment of a signal is performed. A normalization coefficient information cutoff amount calculating circuit 103 calculates the cutoff amount for a case where the subtraction amount of normalization coefficient information is larger than normalization coefficient information and normalization coefficient information after subtraction is cut off at the minimum possible value. A gain control function generation information modifying circuit 104 modifies gain control function generation information according to the cutoff amount.
US08478585B2
Methods, systems, and machine-readable media are disclosed for processing a signal representing speech. According to one embodiment, processing a signal representing speech can comprise receiving a region of the signal representing speech. The region can comprise a portion of a frame of the signal representing speech classified as a voiced frame. The region can be marked based on one or more pitch estimates for the region. A cord can be identified within the region based on occurrence of one or more events within the region of the signal. For example, the one or more events can comprise one or more glottal pulses. In such cases, cord can begin with onset of a first glottal pulse and extend to a point prior to an onset of a second glottal pulse. The cord may exclude a portion of the region of the signal prior to the onset of the second glottal pulse.
US08478583B2
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for automation of auditing claims. Data indicative of an insurance company name is received, the data comprising one or more words. The data is processed through one or more processing steps to generate processed data comprising one or more processed words. One or more candidate word strings are selected based on the one or more processed words. Matching information is associated with each of the one or more candidate word strings. Analysis information is generated for each of the one or more candidate word strings based on the associated matching information. An insurance company identifier is associated with received data based on the analysis information and one or more matching rules.
US08478581B2
An embodiment provides (a) a method and system for representing natural languages in a common machine-readable form, including the thorough design of the lexicon and grammar, the resulting representation called interlingua, (b) a method and system for using a computer to convert a text of a natural language into and out of a coded text of said interlingua representation, including a programming framework which is independent of other languages, said system is called interlingua engine, and (c) a method and system of machine translation using said interlingua engine, said system called interlingua machine translation system. Alternative embodiments are described.
US08478577B2
Methods and systems are provided for modeling a multiprocessor system in a graphical modeling environment. The multiprocessor system may include multiple processing units that carry out one or more processes, such as programs and sets of instructions. Each of the processing units may be represented as a node at the top level of the model for the multiprocessor system. The nodes representing the processing units of the multiprocessor system may be interconnected to each other via a communication channel. The nodes may include at least one read element for reading data from the communication channel into the nodes. The node may also include at least one write element for writing data from the nodes into the communication channel. Each of the processing unit can communicate with other processing unit via the communication channel using the read and write elements. Code may be generated to simulate each node and communication channel in the modeled multiprocessor system. The generated code may then be executed to simulate the model. Based on the results of the simulation, one or more processes may be automatically reassigned to nodes within the model to optimize the performance of the model.
US08478571B1
Systems and methods reduce development, integration and testing time of a spacecraft implemented with one or more reconfigurable processor boards. Mission spacecraft design tools design, configure, simulate and analyze the spacecraft based upon constraints of the mission requirements. The mission spacecraft design tools utilize a database of defined module specifications and firmware components. One or more RPBs are programmed based upon the configuration and interfaced to other end item components defined by the configuration to form the spacecraft.
US08478569B2
A baseline adjusting technique allows automatically adjust the baselines of metrics affected by a configuration change a monitored system. If a configuration change is detected, a performance management system retrieves linkages between the changed configuration parameter and one or more metrics. The performance management system then adjusts the baselines of the metric using the baseline adjusting algorithm retrieved from the linkage.
US08478557B2
Methods, system and devices for providing improved calibration accuracy of continuous glucose monitoring system based on insulin delivery information are provided.
US08478553B2
A method for calculating resistive values of an electronic circuit represented in the form of masks and connections includes defining the circuit in the form of a first list of electrical components and connections between them, identifying circuit entry and exit ports, selecting part of the resistive components of the circuit alone, producing a matrix of resistances of the resistive components alone selected in the previous step, and calculating equivalent resistances.
US08478543B2
Described herein are systems and processes for designing the sequence of one or more interacting nucleic acid strands intended to adopt a target secondary structure at equilibrium. The target secondary structure is decomposed into a binary tree and candidate mutations are evaluated on leaf nodes of the tree. During a process of leaf optimization, defect-weighted mutation sampling is used to select each candidate mutation position with a probability proportional to its contribution to an ensemble defect of the leaf. Subsequences of the tree are then merged, moving up the tree until a final nucleotide sequence of interest is determined that has the target secondary structure at equilibrium.
US08478542B2
The activity state classification method of the present invention employs a kernel-based modeling technique, and more specifically a set of similarity-based models, which have been created using example data, to process an input observation or set of input observations, each comprising a set of sensor readings or “features” derived there from or other data, to predict the activity state of a person from whom the sensor data was obtained. A model is created for each class of activity. The input data is processed by each model and the resulting predictions are combined to yield a final prediction of which state of activity is represented by the input data.
US08478540B2
A mineral water producing method includes the steps of inputting basic data to obtain data about human mineral intake and data about average mineral intake from food; selecting a water supply area to obtain data about mineral intake from daily water intake; selecting an eating habit and a physical/mental condition; inputting personal body weight and calculating mineral intake; setting a daily water intake and calculating a daily mineral supplement; and outputting mineral water. A mineral water producing apparatus includes a water inlet and a water outlet; a first filter being connected at a first end to the water inlet and at a second end to the water outlet; at least one mineral substance container being located between and connected to the second end of the filter and the water outlet; and a controller for controlling the mineral substance container to supply a mineral substance.
US08478533B2
A method of passive surveying comprises generating one or more detected signals by passively detecting a signal generated within a subsurface earth formation due to a seismoelectric response or an electroseismic response in at least one porous subsurface earth formation containing at least one fluid, and processing the one or more detected signals to determine at least one property of the subsurface earth formation.
US08478522B2
A map-updating-data creating apparatus performs, for each old map file, creating a map-updating file for rewriting the map file to a new map file, determining the serial number of each of the updated map files, creating a serial number management file in which marks are respectively written at positions corresponding to the serial numbers, and generating, as map-updating data, the map-updating file and the serial number management file. A navigation apparatus performs map-updating processing and determines, by referring to the serial number management file, whether a map file has already been updated. The navigation apparatus uses the map-updating file to execute navigation control if the map file has already been updated, and updates the map file and subsequently executes the navigation control if the map file has not been updated.
US08478503B2
A vehicle controlling apparatus that performs vehicle body vibration-damping control to suppress vibration occurring in a vehicle body by changing wheel torque of driving wheels by controlling output torque of an engine, wherein an electronic control unit is provided with a vehicle body vibration-damping control inhibiting unit that inhibits the vehicle body vibration-damping control such that a drive system of a vehicle, which transmits power of the engine, does not resonate with execution of the vehicle body vibration-damping control, or/and a vehicle body vibration-damping control adjusting unit that adjusts a control amount of the vehicle body vibration-damping control in a direction to suppress a vibration-damping suppression effect of the vehicle body vibration-damping control.
US08478502B2
The invention provides a method for controlling the motor of a hybrid vehicle comprising the steps of detecting states of a plurality of motors and planetary gear sets; deciding total demand torque of the motors in a case that the plurality of motors operates under a predetermined condition; determining whether the total demand torque of the motors is smaller than a sum of continuous rated torque of each motor; deciding torque of each motor by using a torque distribution map according to rotation speed of each motor and the total demand torque in a case that the total demand torque of the motors is smaller than the sum of continuous rated torque of each motor; and controlling each motor based on the decided torque of each motor.
US08478501B1
Methods, software codes, and devices for determining an emission flow rate of one or more CO2 equivalent gases from an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine of a vehicle and a method of determining a vehicle efficiency factor of the vehicle are provided. The vehicle efficiency factor is compared in real time to the corresponding point on a vehicle efficiency map based on at least one of current vehicle conditions, driving conditions, environmental conditions, and energy flow visualization data to derive a driver efficiency factor.
US08478497B2
During a non-shift operation when a predetermined gear of an automatic transmission is kept, a hydraulic control unit increases an engagement hydraulic pressure to a friction engagement device associated with the gear formation by a predetermined hydraulic pressure with respect to a line hydraulic pressure. Therefore, in comparison with a case where a hydraulic pressure equivalent to the line hydraulic pressure is set as an engagement hydraulic pressure to the friction engagement device for obtaining a hydraulic pressure equivalent to the line hydraulic pressure, shift response (hydraulic pressure response) variations when shifting from a non-shift state (steady state) into a shift state are suppressed by the margin of the predetermined hydraulic pressure. In addition, in comparison with a case where the engagement hydraulic pressure to the friction engagement device is set to a maximum hydraulic pressure to reduce the response variations, power consumption of each linear solenoid valve is suppressed.
US08478496B2
The invention relates to a transmission synchronisation method and a transmission synchronisation device for at least two transmission units (T1, T2). The synchronisation takes place in that in each case an output revolution speed (n1, n2) of an axle drive shaft arranged in a transmission (T1, T2) is adjusted by means of a first and second adjustment unit (ADU1, ADU2). The synchronisation of the first and second transmissions (T1, T2) takes place by a result value (cal_out) of an arithmetic logic unit (140) being conducted to the second adjustment unit (ADU2) arranged at the second transmission (T2), dependent on the first transmission (T1) and on the reference value (v_set) of a preselection unit (100).
US08478493B2
The illustrative embodiments provide a computer program product for processing sensor data and controlling the movement of a vehicle. In an illustrative embodiment, an operating environment around the vehicle is identified and sensor data is selected from a set of sensors. A dynamic condition is identified using a plurality of different types of sensors on the vehicle. In response to the dynamic condition being identified, the movement of the vehicle is controlled. In another illustrative embodiment, an environment around the vehicle is identified to form an operating environment. Sensor data is selected from a set of sensors in a plurality of redundant sensors based on the operating environment.
US08478490B2
A control device of an inverted pendulum type vehicle capable of controlling fluctuation of a traveling velocity of a vehicle according to operating state of the vehicle. A traveling motion unit controlling element 50 of an inverted pendulum type vehicle 1 includes a first processing mode and a second processing mode. In the first processing mode, determines a manipulated variable for control so as to bring a tilt angle of a payload supporting part 3 and a traveling velocity of a representative point of the vehicle 1 closer to a desired value. In the second processing mode, the traveling motion unit controlling element 50 determines the manipulated variable for control while making a sensitivity to change of the manipulated variable for control with respect to a measured value of the traveling velocity of the representative point to be relatively lower than that in the first processing mode.
US08478489B2
A fuel vapor treatment apparatus includes a fuel tank, a canister, a passage forming member, a pressure-regulating valve, an acceleration detector, and a controller. The fuel tank is for a storage of fuel to be supplied to an internal combustion engine for a vehicle. The canister recovers fuel evaporated from the fuel tank. The passage forming member defines a passage through which the fuel tank and the canister communicate with each other. The pressure-regulating valve is provided in the passage forming member to connect or disconnect the fuel tank and the canister. The acceleration detector detects an acceleration value of the vehicle, and the controller controls the pressure-regulating valve based on the acceleration value detected by the acceleration detector.
US08478486B2
A vehicle control device (10) is provided that can predict a driving operation of a driver earlier to respond to the driving operation quickly. The vehicle control device (10) includes: a posture measuring unit (11) to measure a posture indicating a state of at least one of the buttock region, the upper pelvic region, and the driver's leg opposite to the other leg with which the driver operates a brake or an accelerator; a posture change detection unit (12) to detect a posture change measured; a preparatory movement identification unit (13) to identify whether the posture change is caused by the driver's preparatory movement spontaneously made before the brake or accelerator operation, based on whether the posture change detected satisfies a predetermined condition; and a vehicle control unit (14) to control the vehicle when it is identified that the posture change has been caused by the preparatory movement.
US08478483B2
In an apparatus for detecting a skid occurred on a four-wheel drive vehicle having a prime mover and a transmission, an actual rear right/left wheel speed ratio between the rear right/left wheel speeds is calculated based on detected front and rear wheel rotational speeds, a front/rear wheel slip ratio during grip-driving is calculated by retrieving characteristics of a front/rear wheel slip ratio set with respect to a rear right/left wheel speed ratio using the calculated actual rear right/left wheel speed ratio, an actual front/rear wheel slip ratio is calculated based on the detected front wheel rotational speed and the rear wheel rotational speed, and occurrence of skid is then determined based on a difference between the calculated front/rear wheel slip ratio during grip-driving and the calculated actual front/rear wheel slip ratio.
US08478479B2
A method and system for predictive maintenance of electronic equipment on board an aircraft (1). To produce a prognosis, the following are provided: a step (48) of modeling the equipment (3) with a model (53) for damage by an external aggression; a step (49) of simulating the damage up to failure; a learning step (64); a step (65) of classifying calculated and normalized values; and a fusion step (61) giving the real prognosis of the time to maintenance in units of time. The invention applies in particular to a rotary wing aircraft (1), e.g. a helicopter drone.
US08478466B2
A control system for a hybrid vehicle controls the various operating modes of the hybrid vehicle. Operating modes of the hybrid vehicle include an electric-only power mode, a series hybrid mode, a series hybrid dual-power mode, and a parallel hybrid tri-power mode. The control system selects one of the operating modes for the hybrid vehicle based on one or more inputs and comparisons. Examples of inputs for the control system include a gear-mode, a present battery storage capacity, a present velocity of the hybrid vehicle, and the previous operating mode of the hybrid power system. The control system may also take into account whether a user has selected the electric-only power mode. The control system may also control the operations of one or more components of the hybrid vehicle while operating in one of the operating modes.
US08478465B2
An automatic trim system for a jet propulsion watercraft is provided. Control electronics are in communication with a steering angle sensor to monitor the steering angle of the watercraft, and evaluate a target setting for the trim taking the steering angle into consideration. Control signals are sent to an appropriate actuating device for adjusting the trim angle accordingly.
US08478460B2
A system includes a means of acquiring the position of the aircraft on the runway and its speed in the taxiing phase, a means of storing data concerning the runway and a predefined deceleration law, a function for calculating the distance that the aircraft will have traveled on the runway when it has reached a certain speed and/or the speed that it will have reached when it has traveled a certain distance: the calculated distance makes it possible to adapt the braking by comparison with the distance remaining to reach the end of the runway; the calculated distance makes it possible to adapt the braking by comparison with the distance remaining to reach the end of the runway; the calculated speed makes it possible to adapt the braking by comparison with the maximum speed to take the exit.
US08478455B2
According to one embodiment, a control station having a station processing system, a control system, a data link computing unit, a second data link and a back-up VSM (a second vehicle computing unit) is operable to communicate via an RF link with an unmanned vehicle having a first data link, a vehicle processing system, a first vehicle computing unit and a route control system. The control station being operable to communicate with the unmanned vehicle using a first protocol for messaging under normal operating conditions as well as through the use of a second protocol for messaging, initiated via the second vehicle computing unit, when either the vehicle processing system is inoperable, the vehicle computing unit is inoperable or when the second vehicle computing unit in the control station is directed to use the second protocol for messaging.
US08478452B2
Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for charging and discharging an energy storage device connected to an electrical power distribution system. In one exemplary embodiment, a controller monitors electrical characteristics of an electrical power distribution system and provides an output to a bi-directional charger causing the charger to charge or discharge an energy storage device (e.g., a battery in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV)). The controller can help stabilize the electrical power distribution system by increasing the charging rate when there is excess power in the electrical power distribution system (e.g., when the frequency of an AC power grid exceeds an average value), or by discharging power from the energy storage device to stabilize the grid when there is a shortage of power in the electrical power distribution system (e.g., when the frequency of an AC power grid is below an average value).
US08478446B2
A method of configuration of combustion process control. The method includes providing a combustion system having a plurality of burner elements, a plurality of gas injection points and a controller. The gas injection points are configured to provide a support gas. One or more tasks for operation of the combustion system are determined. A plurality of groupings of the gas injection points are determined for each of the one or more tasks. An individual ranking for each of the plurality of groupings is determined in response to the one or more tasks. A composite ranking of injection points in response to the individual rankings and the controller is configured to operate the plurality of gas injection points in response to the composite ranking. A combustion system and a method for operating a combustion system are also disclosed.
US08478441B2
A method and automated apparatus (1) for dispensing pharmaceutical products in unit doses or administration units wherein the unit doses (2) suitably arranged and/or separated within the apparatus (1) can be dispensed into the compartments (5) of an associated cart (4), to fill patient-specific medication prescriptions for patients of a ward. A telescopic manipulator unit (6, 106, 206) has elements (16) adapted to select and pick up the doses required to fill patient-specific medication prescriptions from a matrix (10) of unit doses (2) and elements (7, 107) for coupled interaction with the compartments (5) to directly release the picked up doses (2) therein.
US08478438B2
A main control process is made common to all machine tools by describing in a NC program a tool trajectory including a change in posture in a coordinate system (30) fixed to a machining object (W), fixedly arranging a preparatory reference coordinate system (20) on a machine table (2), representing an installation position of the machining object (W) and a position of a spindle (91) on which a tool (11) is mounted in the preparatory reference coordinate system (20), and containing portions relating to a configuration of axes in a conversion function group of correlation between the position (q) of the spindle (91) and an axis coordinate (r). Thus, the processes of reading the NC program, correction of the tool trajectory and conversion into the trajectory of a spindle position based on the installation position of the machining object, the tool shape, and tool dimensions are made completely common.
US08478435B2
A digital data set representing a pre-scanned tooth geometry, including generic crown data, is merged with data representing a scanned patient tooth crown image, which lacks sufficient data to completely represent a complete tooth crown.
US08478432B2
A method of affecting metabolic function is presented which utilizes a conductive coating, film, or covering on a body tissue to distribute electrical charge, either passively or in conjunction with applied electrical energy.
US08478431B2
A fixation device for retaining a leadless medical implant to tissue includes an array of elongate tines having self-expanding distal portions. The fixation tines may be advanced between an implant body and an outer jacket to deploy the tines from a delivery configuration in which the tines are constrained by the outer jacket to an expanded configuration in which the distal end portions of the tines are released from the outer jacket. The implant and fixation device are contained within a sheath for delivery to the treatment site and a pusher within the sheath advances the fixation device relative to the implant body and deploys the tines. A distal end of the implant having an electrode may form a distal tip of the delivery system, and a potential implantation site may be tested prior to deployment of the fixation device to allow for easy repositioning of the implant.
US08478429B2
An implantable lead having a distal assembly including a coupler, a fixation helix secured to the coupler, a housing in which the fixation helix and the coupler are disposed, and a resilient seal that is fixedly secured to the coupler between proximal and distal ends thereof and able to translate with the coupler relative to the housing. The seal is positioned to sealingly engage an internal surface of the housing. When the coupler is translated such that the fixation helix is in a fully extended position, the seal is positioned to substantially seal off the housing to prevent tissue ingrowth.
US08478421B2
An electrical lead including a conductor assembly, an electrode, and a thermally sensitive material. The conductor assembly has one or more conductors. The electrode is in electrical communication with one of the conductors and has an outer contact adapted for contacting adjacent body tissue of a patient. The thermally sensitive material is electrically connected between the one conductor and the electrode outer contact, and is configured to exhibit high impedance in the presence of currents considered unsafe to the patient, thereby preventing the unsafe currents from flowing through the thermally sensitive material and through the electrode outer contact potentially causing the adjacent body tissue to increase in temperature to an unsafe level. The unsafe currents cause the thermally sensitive material to increase in temperature, thereby causing the material to transition to a high impedance state.
US08478419B2
A system including an implantable neurostimulator device capable of modulating cerebral blood flow to treat epilepsy and other neurological disorders. In one embodiment, the system is capable of modulating cerebral blood flow (also referred to as cerebral perfusion) in response to measurements and other observed conditions. Perfusion may be increased or decreased by systems and methods according to the invention as clinically required.
US08478415B1
A method for controlling heat dissipated from a prosthetic retinal device is described. A heat transfer device employs the Peltier heat transfer effect to cool the surface of the retinal device that faces the retina by dissipating/transferring collected heat away from the retina and towards the iris or front of the eye. According to one embodiment, a heat pump is formed in a second substrate on the retinal device. The heat pump is controlled by a temperature sense device that activates the heat pump, when a first predetermined temperature limit is exceeded. The temperature sense device deactivates the heat pump, when a temperature of the retinal device drops below a second predetermined temperature. According to another embodiment, a supply current of the retinal device may pass through the heat pump and a direction of heat transfer by the heat pump can be reversed, when the first predetermined temperature is exceeded.
US08478414B2
Systems and methods provide baroreflex activation to treat or reduce pain and/or to cause or enhance sedation or sleep. Methods involve activating the baroreflex system to provide pain reduction, sedation, improved sleep or some combination thereof. Systems include at least one baroreflex activation device, at least one sensor for sensing physiological activity of the patient, and a processor coupled with the baroreflex activation device(s) and the sensor(s) for processing sensed data received from the sensor and for activating the baroreflex activation device. In some embodiments, the system is fully implantable within a patient, such as in an intravascular, extravascular or intramural location.
US08478408B2
Various configurations of systems that employ leadless electrodes to provide pacing therapy are provided. In one example, a system that provides multiple sites for pacing of myocardium of a heart includes wireless pacing electrodes that are implantable at sites proximate the myocardium using a percutaneous, transluminal, catheter delivery system. Each of the electrodes contains a source of electrical energy for pacing the myocardium and is adapted to receive electromagnetic energy from a source outside the myocardium. The system also includes a source adapted for placement outside the myocardium and that uses locally measured electrocardiograms to synchronize pacing of the heart by sending electromagnetic commands to the electrodes to pace the myocardium surrounding the electrodes. Also disclosed is various configurations of such systems, wireless electrode assemblies, and delivery catheters for delivering and implanting the electrode assemblies.
US08478407B2
Cardiac pacing methods for an implantable single chamber pacing system, establish an offset rate for pacing at a predetermined decrement from either a baseline rate (i.e. dictated by a rate response sensor), or an intrinsic rate. Pacing maintains the offset rate until x of y successive events are paced events, at which time the offset rate is switched to the baseline rate for pacing over a predetermined period of time. Following the period, if an intrinsic event is not immediately detected, within the interval of the offset rate, the rate is switched back to baseline for pacing over an increased period of time. Some methods establish a preference rate, between the offset and baseline rates, wherein an additional criterion, for switching from the offset rate to the baseline rate, is established with respect to the preference rate.
US08478399B2
An implantable medical device and method are provided for determining if a patient is in a substantially horizontal position and delaying a programmed cardioversion/defibrillation shock therapy in response to determining the patient is in a substantially horizontal position. In various embodiments, the shock therapy may be delayed by adjusting tachycardia detection criteria or scheduling the shock therapy after a maximum tachycardia episode duration.
US08478392B2
Systems and methods for rhythm discrimination using the motion of an implantable lead are described. In an example, an implantable medical device can include a receiver circuit configured to be electrically coupled to an implantable lead and be configured to obtain information indicative of a movement of the implantable lead due at least in part to a motion of a heart. The device can include an arrhythmia detection circuit configured to determine an arrhythmia status using the information indicative of the movement of the implantable lead and an arrhythmia classification circuit configured to determine one or more of a location or a type of an arrhythmia, using the information indicative of the movement of the implantable lead, when the arrhythmia status indicates that an arrhythmia is occurring or has occurred.
US08478391B2
An apparatus for outputting heart sounds includes an implantable system and an external system. The implantable system includes a sensor for generating sensed signals representing detected heart sounds, an interface circuit and a control circuit for receiving the sensed signals, generating data representing the heart sounds therefrom, and transmitting the data to the external system via the interface circuit. The external system includes an interface circuit for communicating with the implantable system, and a control circuit for receiving the data representing the heart sounds and for generating control signals that cause an output device to generate outputs representing the sounds. The implantable system may also include a sensor(s) for detecting cardiac electrical signals. In this case, outputs representing the cardiac electrical signals are also output.
US08478390B2
Systems and methods for determining the coronary sinus vein branch location of a left ventricle electrode are disclosed. The systems and methods involve detecting the occurrence of electrical events within the patient's heart including sensing one or more of the electrical events with the electrode and then analyzing the electrical events to determine the electrode's position. The determination of electrode position may be used to automatically adjust operating parameters of a VRT device. Furthermore, the determination of electrode position may be made in real-time during installation of the electrode and a visual indication of the electrode position may be provided on a display screen.
US08478384B2
Intravascular optical coherence tomography system with pressure monitoring interface and accessories
An optical coherence tomography system and method with integrated pressure measurement. In one embodiment the system includes an interferometer including: a wavelength swept laser; a source arm in communication with the wavelength swept laser; a reference arm in communication with a reference reflector; a first photodetector having a signal output; a detector arm in communication with the first photodetector, a probe interface; a sample arm in communication with a first optical connector of the probe interface; an acquisition and display system comprising: an A/D converter having a signal input in communication with the first photodetector signal output and a signal output; a processor system in communication with the A/D converter signal output; and a display in communication with the processor system; and a probe comprising a pressure sensor and configured for connection to the first optical connector of the probe interface, wherein the pressure transducer comprises an optical pressure transducer.
US08478383B2
A method, including: receiving an input indicative of respective apparent locations of a plurality of points disposed along a length of a probe inside a body of a subject, and applying a model of known mechanical properties of the probe to the respective apparent locations so as to minimize a first cost function with respect to shapes that can be assumed by the probe in the body. The method further includes choosing a shape responsively to the minimized first cost function and determining preliminary coordinates of the apparent locations responsively to the shape, minimizing a second cost function with respect to differences between the apparent locations and the preliminary coordinates, and generating corrected coordinates of the points along the length of the probe based on the minimized second cost function.
US08478362B2
A method of performing actions related to handover by a mobile station (MS) in a wireless mobile communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the MS receives information from a base station (BS), wherein the information includes at least one action for performing handover and at least one condition corresponding to the at least one action. Furthermore, the MS transmits a request message to perform the at least one action based on the received information from the BS and receives a response message in response to the request message. Lastly, the MS performs the at least one action according to the received response message.
US08478358B2
An in-vehicle apparatus having a handsfree function is disclosed, which includes an incoming mail reception determination section, a mode determination section and a control section. The incoming mail reception determination section determines whether a cellular phone receives an incoming mail. The mode determination section determines which one of a handset communication mode and a handsfree communication mode is selected in the cellular phone. The control section performs control regarding whether a mail reception notice should be issued to a user. The control section prohibits the mail reception notice from being issued to the user when the incoming mail reception determination section determines that the cellular phone receives the incoming mail and when the mode determination section determines that the cellular phone is in the handsfree communication mode.
US08478356B2
An audio amplifier (3) for a mobile telephone (1) is disclosed. The audio amplifier (3) comprises first and second output stages (11, 12), each for coupling to a respective one of first and second loudspeakers (4, 5), and switching circuitry (10) adapted to respond to a switching signal by switching an output signal from a common input stage (7, 8, 9) to the first output stage (11) when the switching signal is in a first state and to the second output stage (12) when the switching signal is in a second state.
US08478350B2
A distribution method and an operation method and system of application system in mobile communication network are disclosed. The methods are adapted to mobile information field, which include: a mobile communication terminal establishes connection with an application system distribution platform through a mobile communication network; the mobile communication terminal uses the application system by an application system human-computer interaction module installed on the application system distribution platform; the application system and the human-computer interaction module run; an output process module of the application system distribution platform obtains a screen display image data of the human-computer interaction module, and sends it to the mobile communication terminal; the mobile communication terminal displays the screen display image of the human-computer interaction module, and sends an input information to the human-computer interaction module; step C and step E are repeated until the mobile communication terminal exit from the operation of the application system. The present invention can make an application system distributed on a mobile communication terminal, therefore, the network requirement is little, and the experience of the user is high.
US08478345B2
A system and method for providing a user interface that allows users to change the active line on which an outgoing call may be placed. In example embodiments, a direction to display a line selection menu on the call screen is received from the user, where the line selection menu is comprised of data identifying one or more of the multiple communication lines accessible at the mobile device. In response to the direction received from the user, the line selection menu is displayed on the call screen, and an input identifying a user-selected communication line is received. A display field in which data identifying the active line is displayed is updated accordingly.
US08478344B2
A power recovery system includes a transmission line that is coupled to transfer an RF signal received via an antenna. The RF signal generates a partial standing wave in the transmission line and the transmission line has at least one standing wave anti-node. A power recovery circuit converts an anti-node signal from the at least one standing wave anti-node to a power signal.
US08478341B2
A mobile device includes multiple subscriber identification module (SIM) cards. When a user of the mobile device requests to call a phone number, the mobile device determines a mobile telecommunications service provider of the phone number, based on service provider information received for the phone number from a service mapping server. The mobile device selects for the call a SIM card from the multiple SIM cards that is associated with the determined service provider of the phone number. The mobile device places the call to the phone number using the selected SIM card.
US08478337B2
A navigation device (a vehicle-mounted navigation device 1) is connected, via a mobile communication network 3, to a server 5 by way of a telephone 2 connected thereto via cable 1a or radio 1b, and includes a communication control unit 12 for communicating with the server 5 by using the telephone 2 to measure parameter information about a command support status of the telephone 2 or a communication connection environment, and a main control unit 10 for transmitting the parameter information measured by the communication control unit 12 to an external storage medium 21 or the server 5, and for controlling subsequent communications according to the parameter information transmitted to the external storage medium 21 or the server 5.
US08478336B2
Analog signal paths are utilized between a baseband processor and a radio front end to support high throughput communications for a multiple in multiple out radio transceiver that support communications over two or more antennas. Specifically, analog differential I and Q path communication signals are exchanged between a radio front end core and a baseband processor to maximize throughput capacity for high data rate signals. Along the same lines, the impedances of traces and the interface are matched to reduce I/Q imbalance.
US08478334B2
A first casing and a second casing movably connected to the first casing are provided. PAs amplify a transmit signal. FET switches are provided between the ground and respective transmission paths connecting the PAs and an antenna. When an intermediate voltage is applied, the FET switch has a capacitance according to the applied intermediate voltage. An open or close detection unit acquires the impedance of the antenna corresponding to the positional relationship of the first casing and the second casing. A control unit turns one of a plurality of switches ON and applies the intermediate voltage to the FET switches to achieve a capacitance whereby the impedance of the PA arranged on the transmission path where the switch is ON and the impedance of the antenna are matched based on the impedance of the antenna acquired by the open or close detection unit.
US08478329B2
In a communication control method, a target SIR setting part controls downlink transmission power from a base station so that the T-SIR will be equal to the SIR measured in a known inner loop, by increasing a target signal interference ratio (T-SIR) by a first predetermined value when a reception field level of a common pilot channel before the establishment of synchronization of a dedicated control channel, which is provided by the quality measurement part, falls below a first threshold selected by a target quality setting part depending on the reception quality of a DPDCH, and decreasing the target signal interference ratio (T-SIR) by a second predetermined value when the reception field level of the common pilot channel exceeds a second threshold selected by the target quality setting part depending on the reception quality of the DPDCH.
US08478328B2
A wireless communication entity schedulable in a wireless communication network include a radio receiver that receives radio resource assignment information including a bandwidth allocation, a controller communicably coupled to the power amplifier, wherein the controller varies an operational maximum power level of the schedulable wireless communication entity based on whether the schedulable wireless communication entity is communicating time-critical traffic or non-time-critical traffic, and wherein the operational maximum power level limits an instantaneous power at which the schedulable wireless communication entity may transmit on the radio resource assigned.
US08478327B2
The invention relates to a method for controlling feedback of mobile terminals receiving via an air interface of a mobile communication system a multicast or broadcast service transmitted or forwarded by a feedback control entity and to a mobile terminal, the feedback control entity using this method. Further, a system comprising a feedback control entity and a mobile terminal receiving a multicast or broadcast service is provided. To enable configurable and adaptive feedback for multicast or broadcast services provided via an air interface maintaining the end-to-end session concept the invention suggests selecting a subset of the mobile terminals of the mobile communication system and which receive the multicast or broadcast service for providing feedback to a feedback control entity. In one embodiment of the invention the terminals may decide whether to provide feedback based on a probabilistic experiment performed based on parameters determined and provided by the feedback control entity.
US08478326B2
A communication system includes: an RF/IF/BB unit (21) for receiving, in a mobile station device (20), a transmission signal from a base station device; a received power calculation unit (221) for obtaining received power thereof; a communication rate modification unit (23) for changing a communication rate by changing a modulation scheme used by the base station device to modulate the transmission signal in a predetermined case; and a communication rate increase limit unit (27) for limiting the communication rate to be increased by the communication rate modification unit (23), according to received power required for the mobile station device (20) to demodulate the transmission signal and according to the received power obtained when receiving the transmission signal after the communication rate is changed by the communication rate modification unit (23) and predicted based on the received power obtained by the received power calculation unit (221) and based on a decrease amount of a transmission power of a transmission signal decreased by the base station device according to increase of the communication rate by the communication rate modification unit (23).
US08478325B2
Peak power reduction in transmit chains of radiocommunication devices is performed using a low sample rate. Filtering and, optionally, interpolation of a signal being processed for peak power reduction can be performed only in an error signal path or in both an error signal path and a primary signal path.
US08478321B2
An apparatus and method for allocating a channel and power by a Base Station (BS) in a communication system are provided. The method includes, performing one of a first scheduling, which uses inter-cell cooperation information received from at least one neighboring BS and a data rate received from each User Equipment (UE), and a second scheduling, which uses both an average data rate for each subchannel computed by accumulating the data rates for a preset time period and the inter-cell cooperation information, selecting a UE to be allocated each subchannel in each subframe based on results of the performed scheduling, computing a power metric for each of the selected UE and a non-selected UE by using the inter-cell cooperation information, the average data rate, an amount of performance change of the selected UE, and the results of the performed scheduling; and allocating power to all UEs including the selected UE and the non-selected UE by preset subframe periods by using the computed power metric.
US08478317B2
A Femtocell Access Point (FAP) is used to provision a ticket number service. Customers approach the FAP and are given a ticket number indicating their place in the queue through an SMS message. Follow up SMS messages are sent updating the customer of their current position in line, as well as when it is their turn. Statistics may be generated from information gathered at the FAP and sent to an external client module.
US08478307B1
In general, this disclosure describes techniques for providing a user of a source computing device with the ability to communicate with a destination communication device, while using a navigation application that provides directions to a geographical location associated with the destination communication device. Specifically, the source computing device may provide within the navigation application a mechanism, such as a selectable item, that upon selection allows the user to communicate with the destination communication device without exiting the navigation application that is providing directions to the geographical locations associated with the destination communication device.
US08478305B2
A system and a method for integrating the receipt and transmission of location information into VoIP phone systems. The system may include a location device that includes a SATPS receiver and an antenna together with one or more connectors that allow connection of the location device to other devices, such as a VoIP telephone and a router, that are connected to and made a part of a VoIP phone system. A method of operating such a system is also disclosed.
US08478303B1
A method and system for use in determining a current location of a data storage system is disclosed. A current location of a mobile portable device is determined in response to the device being positioned local to the data storage system. The mobile portable device comprises a position determining module for determining the current location of the device. The determined current location of the device is associated with the data storage system local thereto. The determined current location is stored in connection with the data storage system.
US08478301B2
The present invention aims to enable appropriate selection of data to be transmitted/received based on the distance between communication devices. A communication device including, a memory unit that stores a plurality of data, a distance information obtaining unit that obtains distance information on a distance from a radio communication device and a data selection unit that selects data from the plurality of data stored in the memory unit based on the distance information obtained by the distance information obtaining unit is provided. The distance information obtaining unit may estimate and obtain the distance information based on a field intensity of a radio signal determined to satisfy a predetermined condition about a noise component among radio signals received from the other radio communication device.
US08478291B2
A large volume of high accuracy location data is determined in many commercial wireless networks from location based services (LBS) and, in the United States, for E911. Uplink-Time-Difference-of-Arrival (UTDOA) and Assisted GPS (AGPS) are the predominant geolocation technologies providing these high accuracy locations. In the US alone over 10 million wireless subscribers are located every month because they dial the national emergency number “911” on their mobile phones. This rich set of location data provides an a priori distribution of the location of subscribers in the wireless network. All digital wireless communications networks have a mechanism for the subscribers to time synchronize their handsets to the network. This mechanism provides a band of ranges from the serving cell site to the handset. An a posteriori location estimate can be determined very quickly by considering the a priori distribution of callers in the range band that the current subscriber is in.
US08478290B2
A location system and method operable to locate mobile units has a mobile unit operable to transmit wireless signals. A wireless network is used to receive the wireless signals and to report data used to estimate the location of the mobile unit. A location server is used to process the data reported by the wireless network. The location server generates a plurality of location reports for the mobile unit. A preprocessing component is operable to communicate with the location server. The location reports generated by the location server are transferred to the preprocessing component. A location application is operable to communicate with the preprocessing component, and interfaced to a database operable to store data records related to the mobile unit. The preprocessing component processes the location report and stores the data records only if the data in the data records meets a specified criteria.
US08478287B2
A method for positioning a target terminal while protecting the privacy of a user of the target terminal is provided. To this end, the real Identification (ID) of the target terminal is managed only by a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Center (SLC) with which the target terminal make a contract for positioning thereof, so that the real ID is prevented from being exposed to the outside. In this way, even when a plurality of SLCs that can be managed by different network operator performs positioning of a target terminal by using an SUPL Positioning Center (SPC) existing in an external network, the real ID of the target terminal is not transferred to the SPC, and thus the privacy of a user of the target terminal can be protected.
US08478278B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for location based call routing to a subject matter specialist. A call request is obtained from a computing device. The call request pertains to a topic and includes a current location of the computing device. A topic specialist for the topic is identified based at least in part upon the current location of the computing device. The call request is completed by establishing a call between the computing device and a computing device used by the topic specialist.
US08478276B1
A method for transferring a communication session between companion devices includes connecting to a communication session over a communication system using a current set of session parameters and an identifier for a portable wireless communication device. The portable wireless communication device is in an active mode for the communication session. The method also includes: detecting that the portable wireless communication device is within a range of a companion wireline communication device that is configured with the identifier for the portable wireless communication device; and synchronizing with the companion wireline communication device, wherein the synchronizing includes transferring the current set of session parameters to the companion wireline communication device. Additionally, the method includes receiving an indication that the companion wireline communication device is in the active mode for the communication session and, responsive to the indication, transitioning the portable wireless communication device to an inactive mode for the communication session.
US08478272B2
Systems and methods for real time allocation of radio devices in a femtocell that includes a plurality of software-defined radios (SDRs) are provided. The SDRs can be reconfigured in real time based on the changing network conditions and/or changes to contractual obligations of the femtocell provider. The femtocell can be reconfigured in real time either remotely from a network operations center (NOC) or the femtocell can be configured to automatically detect changing usage patterns and to automatically reconfigure the SDRs. The femtocell can also be configured to receive emergency override signals from the NOC to cause the femtocell to reconfigure one or more of the SDRs for use by emergency responders.
US08478263B1
A performance indicator for uplink traffic is measured a plurality of times under a plurality of conditions to generate a set of uplink performance indicators. The performance indicator for downlink traffic is measured a plurality of times under the plurality of conditions to generate a set of downlink performance indicators. The performance indicator for bidirectional traffic is measured a plurality of times under the plurality of conditions to generate a set of bidirectional performance indicators. The plurality of conditions comprise: a set of center frequency parameters; a set of attenuation factor parameters for each one of the set of center frequency parameters; a set of channel model parameters for each one of the combinations of attenuation factor parameters and center frequency parameters; and, a set of modulation coding scheme parameters for each one of the combinations of channel model parameters, attenuation factor parameters, and center frequency parameters.
US08478259B2
A wireless communication system includes a plurality of mobile stations and a base station configured to connect the mobile stations wirelessly, wherein the base station includes a response request signal transmission module configured to transmit a response request signal to the mobile stations, and a first wireless connection control module configured to disconnect the wireless connection between the mobile stations when a response signal is not received from at least one of the mobile stations to which the response request signal has been transmitted.
US08478258B2
A method and system of reducing false detection of control channel messages in a wireless communication system. This facilitates blind detection of control channel messages in the wireless communication network. In one embodiment of the invention, the control messages in the wireless communication system are randomized or scrambled to minimize or lower the probability of false detection of the control channel messages. The control channel message includes, but is not limited to, an Assignment Advanced Media Access Protocol (A-A-MAP) Information Element (IE) and the like. In one embodiment of the invention, the contents of the A-A-MAP IE are randomized or scrambled before encoding into A-A-MAP symbols.
US08478256B1
The system comprising a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein when the door is locked by the first communication device, a door locked message is operable to be displayed on the first communication device and/or the second communication device, wherein when the door is unlocked by the first communication device, a door unlocked message is operable to be displayed on the first communication device and/or the second communication device, and wherein when a phone call is implemented by the first communication device, a phone call making log data is produced.
US08478252B2
Limits are placed on the number of free and/or discounted communications (such as voice calls and text messages) available to a user, based on the number of communications received by the user. A user is given an allotment of credits, each worth one or more free and/or discounted communications. A credit balance is established and is continually adjusted as follows: it is increased whenever qualifying communications of a given type are received, and is decreased whenever free and/or discounted communications of the given type are initiated by the user. Once the credit balance has been depleted, the user may be blocked from initiating additional free or discounted communications, until the credit balance is increased. In at least one embodiment, different types of credits can be earned and/or used for different types of communications. In at least one embodiment, exchanges between the different types of credits may be permitted.
US08478239B2
A method for operating a voicemail system can include receiving a call at the voicemail system, wherein the call originates from a calling party device, determining if the calling party device is compatible with a video greeting feature, sending a video greeting to the called party device if it is determined that the calling party device is compatible with the video greeting feature, and recording a voicemail message received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device. Another method can include sending a video greeting identifier to the called party device, the video greeting identifier being used to identify a video greeting stored on the calling party device. Methods for operating a mobile device and a voicemail system are also disclosed.
US08478236B2
An access device receives content from a broadband IP network to be communicated to a wireless handset over a radio access network (RAN). The access device acquires a user profile utilized in the radio network for the wireless handset. Based on the acquired user profile, the access device determines transmission parameters utilized for communicating the received content to the wireless handset using an air interface protocol over the radio access network. A security level and/or a security protocol, a transcoding mechanism, and/or transmission bit rate are determined based on the acquired user profile. A resolution, transmission bit rate, coding structure, security protocol and/or security level for transmitting the received content to the wireless handset are adjusted based on the acquired user profile. Alternately, the access device is enabled to receive content from the wireless handset using a transmission profile determined based on user profile of the wireless handset.
US08478234B1
A system for controlling, monitoring, and recording of telecommunications services associated with penal institutions is provided. The system comprises processor, memory, and application that receive a first transmission from a telephone number, the first transmission requesting a voice communication session with a portable electronic device associated with a penal institution. The system analyzes a first file containing a listing of at least one telephone number authorized to originate communication with the device, analyzes a second file describing authorized days and time periods for the device to engage in communication originated by the telephone number, and determines, based on the analysis of the first and second files, that the device is authorized to engage in the requested communication. The system also originates a second transmission to the device and connects the first and second transmissions with the second transmission, wherein the application monitors, records, and analyzes communications by the device.
US08478213B2
Various embodiments include a method for controlling power in a transmitter, the method comprising measuring an indication of an output power of the transmitter, comparing a first value corresponding to the indication of the output power to a second value corresponding to a desired output power; and adjusting a bias of at least one component in the transmitter in order to bring the output power closer to the desired output power. Embodiments also include various methods, systems and apparatus.
US08478209B2
A multimedia content dissemination system is provided for mobile vehicles. A wireless vehicle communication network provides communication among mobile vehicles in the network. At least one host vehicle within the wireless vehicle communication network is selected by an authorized entity for disseminating multimedia content received by the authorized entity. The at least one host vehicle transmits an inquiry to target vehicles in the wireless vehicle communication network. The inquiry comprises a content profile that includes descriptors associated with the multimedia content for allowing target vehicles to determine whether an interest exists in the multimedia content. The at least one host vehicle transmits the multimedia content in encrypted form to an interested target vehicle for sampling the multimedia content. The interested target vehicle requests ongoing use of the multimedia content from the authorized entity in response to sampling the multimedia content. The authorized entity provides to the interested target vehicle a decryption key for authorizing ongoing use of the multimedia content.
US08478206B2
An integrated circuit (IC) includes a baseband processing module, a GPS receiver, and an RF section. The baseband processing module is coupled to process voice signals and data signals. The global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver module is coupled to process GPS signals. The radio frequency (RF) section id coupled to: transceive the voice signals as RF voice signals; transceive the data signals as RF data signals; and convert GPS RF signals into the GPS signals.
US08478202B2
Techniques for adjusting transmit power to mitigate both intra-sector interference to a serving base station and inter-sector interference to neighbor base stations are described. The amount of inter-sector interference that a terminal may cause may be roughly estimated based on the total interference observed by each neighbor base station, channel gains for the serving and neighbor base stations, and the current transmit power level. The transmit power may be decreased if high interference is observed by a neighbor base station and increased otherwise. The transmit power may be adjusted by a larger amount and/or more frequently if the terminal is located closer to the neighbor base station observing high interference and/or if the current transmit power level is higher, and vice versa. The intra-sector interference is maintained within an acceptable level by limiting a received SNR for the terminal to be within a range of allowable SNRs.
US08478200B2
Disclosed is a wireless communication system and terminal for providing a wireless communication service, and more particularly, a method of transmitting a measurement log from a terminal to a network when a RRC connected terminal has not found a RRC connectable network, although a wireless dedicated channel is not allocated between the terminal and the network, in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) evolved from a UMTS, Long Term Evolution (LTE) System or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system.
US08478196B1
A user is authenticated to a mobile computing device using an NFC tag. The NFC tag may be initially associated when an NFC reader of the device senses the NFC tag and wirelessly retrieves a tag identifier from the tag. The tag identifier is stored for subsequent retrieval. The authentication process begins after receiving a valid password and then positioning the device proximate the object such that the NFC reader of the device retrieves the tag identifier from the NFC tag without receiving input at the mobile computing device. In the event that the retrieved tag identifier matches the stored tag identifier, the mobile computing device is unlocked and the user may access the mobile computing device. If the retrieved tag identifier does not match the stored tag identifier, the user is not authenticated and the mobile computing device remains locked.
US08478185B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for serving fresh media content while minimizing Internet traffic by periodically checking content freshness between a local server and a remote server; if a stale content exists on the local server, replacing the stale content with a fresh content from the remote server; and serving the fresh content from the local server.
US08478170B2
Methods are provided for operating a development station. A method comprises the steps of applying a first force at a first end of an auger and applying a second force at a second end of the auger with the first force and the second force being sufficient to rotate the auger against a drag exerted by a developer and a replenishment toner being moved by rotation of the auger; and, tensioning the auger along a length of the auger by urging the first end of the auger away from the second end and by urging the second end of the auger away from the first end.
US08478167B2
An image forming apparatus is provided with an image forming station including photoconductive drums and adapted to form toner images on surfaces of the respective photoconductive drums, and a drive control unit for rotating and driving the photoconductive drums. The image forming station includes a reference pulse output section for generating a reference pulse having a cycle equal to or an integral multiple of a rotation cycle of the photoconductive drums and outputting the reference pulse to the drive control unit. The drive control unit includes a phase peak detector for detecting phase peaks of surface speeds of the photoconductive drums, a phase difference detector for detecting phase differences between an edge of the reference pulse and the phase peaks, and a phase synchronization controller for synchronizing phases of the surface speeds of the photoconductive drums by controlling rotation speeds of the photoconductive drums according to the phase differences.
US08478162B2
A protruding portion that protrudes further toward a process cartridge than a contact portion coming in contact with a recording medium is provided at a contact terminal. A slide contact surface portion of the process cartridge is in a state of being in sliding contact with the protruding portion of the contact terminal by action of inserting the process cartridge, and the protruding portion is pressed in a direction being apart from the recording medium to limit contact between the contact terminal and the recording medium. The protruding portion fits in a fitting concave portion at a predetermined mounted position to make the contact terminal come in contact with the recording medium. The protruding portion is pulled out from the fitting concave portion by action of taking out the process cartridge to be in sliding contact with the slide contact surface portion.
US08478160B2
Methods and devices for remanufacturing printer cartridges are provided where the printer cartridges comprise a photoconductive drum, the photoconductive drum comprises a drum gear end, and the drum gear end of the photoconductive drum is configured to be attached to a laser printer via a rotational force transmitting assembly. In an embodiment, the method comprises removing the rotational force transmitting assembly from the photoconductive drum, providing a replacement photoconductive drum, and attaching the rotational force transmitting assembly to the replacement photoconductive drum.
US08478151B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a first image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet using a first colorant to be heat-fixed on the sheet; a second image forming unit configured to form an image on the sheet using a second colorant that is erasable by heating; and a fixing device arranged further on a downstream side in a sheet conveying direction than the first image forming unit and further on an upstream side in the sheet conveying direction than the second image forming unit and capable of executing fixing processing for heat-fixing the image, which is formed on the sheet by the first image forming unit, on the sheet and executing erasing processing for heating the sheet, on which the image is formed with the second colorant, to erasing temperature to thereby erase the second colorant on the sheet.
US08478145B2
A printer is provided for forming a durable combination of printed receivers having a printer controller cooperating with a print engine, a receiver transport system, an overlap positioning system and a fuser to cause a first toner image on a first side of a first receiver with toner in an overlap area proximate to a first edge of the first receiver to overlap the first edge of the first receiver with a second edge of the second receiver having a thickness and to fuse the overlapped first receiver and second receiver to cause the toner in the overlap area to bond to the receivers. A toner edge shield forms a first end confronting a second edge that extends from a first side of the first receiver to at least about 50% of the thickness and that has a deflection surface that slopes toward a second end.
US08478143B2
A heating device includes: a heat generating unit generating heat in response to energization of an alternating-current power supply; a zero-crossing signal generating circuit generating a zero-crossing signal in synchronization with a zero-crossing time of the alternating-current power supply; an energization regulating unit regulating an energization period of the heat generating unit by the alternating-current power supply; a voltage change rate detecting unit detecting whether a rate of voltage change of the alternating-current power supply at the zero-crossing time is equal to or larger than an predetermined value; a switching unit switching on and off a connection between the alternating-current power supply and the heat generating unit; and an energization disabling unit disabling energization of the heat generating unit by controlling the switching unit when the rate of voltage change is equal to or larger than the predetermined value.
US08478142B2
An image forming apparatus which comprises a developing unit having a toner and a developer therein, the apparatus includes a toner sensor to receive a control voltage and to generate an output voltage corresponding to a remaining amount of the toner in the developing unit, a pulse width modulator to supply the control voltage to the toner sensor corresponding to a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal and a controller to control the pulse width modulator to supply the control voltage to the toner sensor to adjust a duty ratio of the PWM signal and make the output voltage reach a target value.
US08478136B2
In various embodiments, electronic apparatus, systems, and methods include electronic compensation of nonlinearity in optical communication. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08478131B2
An optical communication system combines strong electrical pre-filtering of data at the transmitter and digital feedback equalization (DFE) at the receiver to enhance spectral efficiency. The system can be applied to optical networking and digital communication systems, including binary modulated systems optical network systems.
US08478124B1
The present invention is a device including a wavelength division multiplexer for multiplexing a plurality of optical carrier signals on an optical fiber. A mission processor, including an optical line terminal (OLT) is communicatively coupled to a wavelength division multiplexor branch unit via an optical fiber for generating a plurality of fiber optic branches. A plurality of fiber optic branches communicatively coupled with the wavelength division multiplexor branch unit for communicating one or more signals to at least one optical network unit, wherein the mission processor transmits a first signal having at least one downstream wavelength to the wavelength division multiplexor branch unit, and wherein the plurality of fiber optic branches are configured for transmitting a branch signals having a plurality of wavelengths.
US08478122B2
An image taking system includes an optical path splitting element that splits beams coming from an object into transmitted beams and reflected beams and first and second lens apparatuses into which the two bundles of beams split by the optical path splitting element enter. Each of the first and second lens apparatuses has an image blur reduction unit that shifts an object image in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis, a vibration detector that detects vibration of the lens apparatus, a command signal generator that generates a command signal for driving the image blur reduction unit, a driving unit that drives the image blur reduction unit, and a communication unit that sends/receives image stabilization information to/from the other lens apparatus. The command signal generator of the second lens apparatus generates a command signal based on the image stabilization information obtained from the first lens apparatus through the communication unit.
US08478114B1
A distributed database management system provides a central database resident on a server that contains database objects. Objects, e.g., program guide data, to be replicated are gathered together into distribution packages called “slices,” that are transmitted to client devices. A slice is a subset of the central database which is relevant to clients within a specific domain, such as a geographic region, or under the footprint of a satellite transmitter. The viewer selects television programs and Web content from displayed sections of the program guide data which are recorded to a storage device. The program guide data are used to determine when to start and end recordings. Client devices periodically connect to the server using a phone line and upload information of interest which is combined with information uploaded from other client devices for statistical, operational, or viewing models.
US08478113B2
According to one embodiment, a video server includes a plurality of processors and a log data integration unit. Each of the plurality of processors includes a generation module, a storage module, and a transmission module. The generation module generates the log data including at least an event occurrence time. The storage module stores the log data. The transmission module transmits the log data stored in the storage module to the log data integration unit via the common bus. The log data integration unit includes a reception module and an integration module. The reception module receives the log data from the plurality of processors via the common bus. The integration module integrates the received log data in an occurrence time order.
US08478111B2
Systems and methods for optimizing properties of objects within a scene or achieve a visual goal.
US08478108B2
An apparatus determines whether a combination of a certificate type of a content certificate recorded on a source recording medium and a medium type of the source recording medium is a proper combination. If the combination is a proper combination, the apparatus requests a license server, which is connected to the apparatus via a network, to give approval to record content on a target recording medium. If the apparatus is a legitimate DVD recorder, the license server sends to the content recording apparatus a content certificate including on the source recording medium as the certificate type. The apparatus records the content together with the received content certificate on the target recording medium.
US08478101B2
A recording apparatus includes a recording unit which records image data to a recording medium or reproduces image data from the recording medium, and a control unit which enables a first control mode for controlling the recording unit in response to a request from an external device if the apparatus can communicate with the external device, and disables the first control mode and enables a second control mode for controlling the recording unit in response to a request from a user. If the first control mode is disabled and the second control mode is enabled, the control unit determines whether a state of the recording medium is changed. If the state of the recording medium is changed, the control unit controls the recording unit so as to read the recording medium.
US08478099B2
There is described a line card rack assembly for line cards, and an optical backplane and optical fiber guide for installation to a frame adapted to receive line cards of which at least one has an optical connector at a front portion thereof. The rack assembly comprises a frame having a front opening, for receiving the line cards and providing access to a front end of the line cards, and a back opening opposite the front opening; an optical backplane at least partially covering the back opening, the optical backplane comprising connections for connecting the line cards upon insertion in the frame; and optical fiber cable having two ends, a first one of the two ends being for coupling to the optical backplane, and a second one of the two ends for coupling to the optical connector of the at least one of the line cards.
US08478095B2
This optical fiber cable is provided with a covering resin including an outermost layer. The outermost layer is formed by a resin composition including: (a) a base resin prepared by adding at least one copolymer selected from an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and an ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer to a high density polyethylene; (b) 25 to 90 parts by weight of a phosphate salt with respect to 100 parts by weight of the base resin; and (c) 0.75 to 15 parts by weight of either a silicone dispersed polyethylene or a silicone grafted polyethylene with respect to 100 parts by weight of the base resin.
US08478094B2
An optoelectronic transmission device includes an optical signal source, a light detector, a solar cell unit, and a power storage unit. The reflector covers the light detector and the optical signal source. The reflector is configured to internally totally reflect first light emitted from the optical signal source to a first optical fiber and reflect a first part of the second light from a second optical fiber to the light detector and reflect a second part of the second light to the solar cell unit. The light detector receives and converts the first part of the second light into electrical signals. The solar cell unit receives and coverts the second part of the second light into electrical energy. The power storage unit is electrically connected to the solar cell unit for storing the electric energy. The power storage unit powers the light detector and the optical signal source.
US08478090B2
A 90-degree optical hybrid interferometer having an optical path length difference to a pair of the optical signal waveguide arm and the local oscillator optical waveguide arm at either the I phase side or the Q phase side at the TE optical signal side and the TM optical signal side respectively thus giving a phase delay to output interference signals of the I phase side and the Q phase side. The 90-degree optical hybrid interferometer has eight output ports arranged in order of Ip, In, Qp, and Qn at both the TE side and the TM side respectively, by setting the output phase difference which is the sum of the phase difference according to the optical path length difference and phase conversion characteristics of each optical coupler at the I phase side and the Q phase side and the phase delay, as +π/2.
US08478088B2
The object is to provide an optical switch capable of efficient operation and a manufacturing method thereof. The optical switch according to the present invention is a Mach-Zehnder interferometer type optical switch composed of a line defect waveguide of a photonic crystal. Further, the optical switch according to the present invention includes two directional couplers 20 and 23, and two paths of waveguides 30 and 32 therebetween. Furthermore, between the two paths, group velocity of guided light differs in the first path waveguide 20 and the second path waveguide 32.
US08478086B2
An apparatus for imaging light from a plurality of laser diodes (504) onto a multi-channel light valve (6) includes a plurality of laser diodes each coupled to at least one fiber waveguide (508). A planar lightwave circuit (408) is coupled to at least one waveguide on a first side (508), and to the multi-planar light valve (6) on a second side.
US08478082B2
A fiber-based, magneto-optic (MO) optical modulator or switch based on Sagnac interferometry is provided. The system uses a magneto-optic Faraday rotator (MOFR) to produce optical modulation with low magnetic fields. The Sagnac geometry allows for increased modulation at lower fields than traditional MO modulators. This switch uses the MOFR to create different states of polarization in counter-propagating waves, which results in interference at the output port. A magnetic field is used to control the amount of rotation in the state of polarization (SOP), and therefore, the ON-OFF extinction ratio.
US08478076B2
Image alignment operations particular suited for High Dynamic Range (HDR) image generation are described. Image pyramids may be generated using reference and source images. Difference bitmaps, based on a number of pixel shift combinations in the x and y directions, can be divided into tiles and analyzed and, for each pyramid level, an optimal shift direction determined. The tiles can then be pruned using a threshold such that only those tiles contributing up to the threshold are projected to a subsequent pyramid level. The alignment vector for each level can be aggregated to determine a final alignment vector which can be used to shift the source image. This process may be repeated for another source image, and the two source images and reference image, once aligned, may be merged to generate an HDR image.
US08478075B2
An image processing apparatus and an image processing method processing a graphic image are provided. An image processing apparatus including: a display unit; a first image output unit which outputs a first image signal; a second image output unit which outputs a second image signal and a transparency information with respect to the second image signal; an image mixing unit which outputs a third image signal mixing the first image signal and the second image signal by using the transparency information; an image processing unit which processes the third image signal to output to the display unit; and a control unit which extracts the transparency information from the second image output unit, and outputs a position information about which the second image signal is displayed in the display unit based on the extracted transparency information to the image processing unit.
US08478068B2
An image processing device includes a weighted image generation section that generates a weighted image in which at least one of an object-of-interest area of an input image and an edge of a background area other than the object-of-interest area is weighted, a composition grid generation section that generates a composition grid that includes grid lines that are weighted, and a composition evaluation section that performs composition evaluation calculations on the input image based on the weighted image and the composition grid.
US08478061B2
A method for reducing dimensionality of hyperspectral images may include receiving a hyperspectral image having a plurality of pixels. A basis vector set including a number of members may then be established, wherein each of the members comprises a basis vector. For each of the plurality of pixels, a spectral vector for the pixel may be read and decomposed with the members of the basis vector set to derive a residual vector for the pixel. A basis vector for the pixel may then be added to the members of the basis vector set if the residual vector for the pixel has a magnitude exceeding a predetermined threshold, and the basis vector set may then be optimized to eliminate one of the members of the basis vector set, whereby the optimized basis vector set includes the number of members. A system configured to perform the method may also be provided.
US08478046B2
A system and method for detection of signature marks in documents are provided. The method includes selecting candidate text objects in document pages and identifying a sequence of elements therein. The sequence has a numbering pattern including an incremental part and optionally a fixed part. Missing elements between two detected elements of the sequence are permitted. For an identified sequence, a model of the sequence is generated, which includes the numbering pattern of the sequence, an increment, which is computed based on the distance between pages on which consecutive elements of the sequence are identified, a valid sequence having an increment of greater than 1, and a first page, which corresponds to a page of the document on which the sequence starts. The sequence is then validated with the model, allowing elements of the sequence in the pages of the document to be identified as signature marks.
US08478044B2
A method for segmenting an object in a digital image includes computing, for each point vi in the image, weights wijk of a curvature clique vjvivk for each successive pair of edges eij, eik incident on point vi, decomposing each curvature clique into pairwise edge weights to form a new set of edges by adding, for all points vj, vk, an edge eij with weight wij, an edge eik with weight wik, and an edge ejk with weight wjk, where weight wij equals weight wik equals ½ wijk, and weight wjk equals −½ wijk, computing an indicator function of the points of the image indicative of whether each point belongs to an object of interest by minimizing a functional of the indicator function, and segmenting the object of interest from the image based on the value of the indicator function x at each image point.
US08478034B2
A method for foreground detection using multi-modality fusion graph cut includes the following steps. A video frame of a video sequence is inputted. A foreground region in the video frame is designated using adaptive background Gaussian Mixture Model and a threshold value. The foreground region is segmented using a multi-modality fusion graph cut procedure. A computer program product using the method and a system for foreground detection using multi-modality fusion graph cut are also disclosed herein.
US08478027B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storage unit, a judgment unit and a conversion unit. The storage unit stores a reference color characteristic. The judgment unit judges as to whether or not a difference between an input color characteristic that is a color characteristic of input image data and the reference color characteristic is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value. The conversion unit converts the input image data into a color characteristic that can be reproduced by an image reproducing apparatus, based on the reference color characteristic if the difference is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value.
US08478022B2
A failure analysis method for a semiconductor integrated circuit includes deriving a coordinate in a device coordinate system in analysis data for abnormal signal data included in the analysis data of a semiconductor integrated circuit, deriving a correspondence between a coordinate in the device coordinate system and a coordinate in a design coordinate system in design data of the semiconductor integrated circuit for a plurality of reference points in the semiconductor integrated circuit, deriving a coordinate conversion formula between the device coordinate system and the design coordinate system, deriving a position error between a coordinate in the device coordinate system converted by the coordinate conversion formula and a coordinate in the design coordinate system, and extracting a circuit related to an abnormal signal in the design data based on coordinates of the abnormal signal in the device coordinate system using the coordinate conversion formula and the position error.
US08478018B2
A method includes carrying out at least a first processing of a sample (2), the processing being adapted to mark pathological cells among the sample cells; and carrying out several image acquisitions of the sample (2) provided on an analysis plate (6) in order to obtain images each representing an area of the analysis plate (6) wherein the images set side by side define an image (20) of the entire sample. The method further includes automatically running all the acquired images of the sample (2) on a display at a predetermined running speed, the speed being adapted for enabling an observer to analyze the image and to determine if the represented sample area includes potentially pathological cells or not; and stopping the running if at least one abnormality is detected that may indicate the presence of a pathological cell.
US08478013B2
As an illustration of generating a motion map, although the cardiac CT is described for selecting an optimal phase, the disclosure is not limited to the cardiac CT. For the cardiac CT, the cardiac phase map is efficiently generated based upon helical scan data, and the optimal phase is selected within a reasonable time. At the same time, the optimal phase is accurately determined based upon complementary rays as indexes for minimal movement so as to select the projection data for minimizing artifacts in reconstructed cardiac images. The helically scanned data reflect motion within the same cardiac cycle or over the continuous cardiac cycles. The application of the complementary ray technique to the helically scanned data is accomplished by three-dimensionally determining a pair of the complementary rays in order to take into account motion within the same cardiac cycle or over the continuous cardiac cycles. The absolute sum of the differences for the top ray and or the bottom ray is determined in order to determine the amount of cardiac motion.
US08477992B2
The present subject matter relates to controlling of mail processing equipment. More specifically, the present subject matter allows for unique recognition of a printed document from all other similar documents, without the inclusion of additional purposeful identifying marks, data or barcodes. A document processing system, such as an inserter, printer, postage meter, sorter or other document processing system is controlled based on document identification which does not depend on unique identifiers. Similarly if a document is identified with a unique identifying mark on the first page, the present subject matter allows for identification of each subsequent page in the document without requiring identifying marks on each page. The identification data is then used to control the processing of the printed document based upon the recognition and enables the performance of quality checks. Further, each subsequent page in the document, as part of a quality check, can be verified without requiring identifying marks on each page.
US08477983B2
A microphone system implements multiple microphones on a single base. To that end, the microphone system has a base, and a plurality of substantially independently movable diaphragms secured to the base. Each of the plurality of diaphragms forms a variable capacitance with the base and thus, each diaphragm effectively forms a generally independent, separate microphone with the base.
US08477979B2
A loudspeaker driver 100 with new horn throat configuration 120 has a phase plug summation plane radius that is also the effective throat of the driver. The selected plane “D” where the elements of the horn that provide directional information to the wave front are implemented is made part of the geometry of the magnetic return circuit back plate 108. The portion of the back plate that is coincident with the selected plane “D” has a lumen or opening that is made equal to the radius of the circle defined by the phase plug summation plane. The geometry of the back plate's lumen controls projected sound's radiation pattern.
US08477978B2
An improved hearing aid device adapted for use within the ear canal of the CIC (Completely In the ear) and of the partially exposed ITC (In The Canal) type. This aid consists of a system of integrated parts allowing an air gap to substantially surround the hearing aid shell and air passages which communicate with the inner ear minimizing occlusion sensations and providing the user with an enhanced natural hearing experience. A key aspect of this device is the provision of air passages in the mounting insert which securely positions the hearing aid shell in the wearer's canal. These passages are designed to stay open after insertion of the aid in the ear canal. In use, unamplified sound from the outside passes around the hearing aid shell, through the air passages in the mounting insert blending with the amplified sound emanating from the receiver. The area of air passages in the mounting insert can be tailored by the technician adapting to the hearing loss characteristics of the user. Surprisingly, acoustic feedback is mitigated in spite of the openness of this novel design.
US08477968B2
A thermal acoustic speaker comprises a body and a thermoelectric converter. The body comprises a shell with at least one hole and a side with a sound hole. The shell defines a sound cavity in the body. The thermoelectric converter, disposed around at least a part of the shell, comprises a circuit and a conductive membrane and covers at least a part of the at least one hole. The circuit receives at least one electrical audio signal. The conductive membrane contacts a part of the circuit so that the thermoelectric converter heats air in the sound cavity to emit sound.
US08477962B2
A microphone signal compensation apparatus includes a plurality of audio input units to respectively receive a target signal, each audio input unit of the plurality of audio input units including a microphone; a constant filter unit to selectively apply a constant filtering calibration scheme to signals output by the plurality of audio input units to compensate for a difference in at least one characteristic among the audio input units, the constant filtering calibration scheme being estimated from an average value of a ratio of a desired signal to a reference signal among the signals output by the plurality of audio input units; and a noise remover to remove noise from the signals processed by the constant filter unit, and to separate the target signal from the signals from which the noise has been removed.
US08477959B2
A apparatus and method for enabling signals representing a first audio channel and a second audio channel to be conveyed to a first earpiece and a second earpiece, respectively, regardless of which of the first and second earpieces a cable providing both the signals representing the first and second audio channels is coupled to, wherein a first acoustic driver of the first earpiece acoustically outputs the first audio channel and a second acoustic driver of the second earpiece acoustically outputs the second audio channel.
US08477958B2
A sound masking system for shaping the ambient noise level in a physical environment. The sound masking system comprises a networked and distributed system having a number of master units coupled together and to a control unit. One or more of the master units may include satellite sound masking units which function to reproduce the sound masking signal generated by the master sound masking unit. Each of the master units is addressable over the network by the control unit enabling the control unit to program the contour, spectral band, and gain characteristics of the sound masking output signal. The system may also include a remote control unit which provides the capability to tune and adjust each master sound masking unit in situ without requiring physical access through the ceiling installation.
US08477951B2
A front surround reproduction system improving the stereo effect of mid and low frequency signals by using a psychoacoustic model, and a method thereof. An audio reproducing system to reproduce multi-channel audio signals by using a plurality of speakers includes a split unit to copy the input multi-channel signals and to split the signals into two groups of multi-channel signals, a virtual sound processing unit to generate a virtual sound signal based on a head related transfer function (HRTF) from the one group of the multi-channel signals split in the split unit, a beam forming processing unit to generate a sound beam signal by adjusting the delays and levels of the multi-channel signals belonging to the other group split in the split unit, and a crossover network unit to adjust the characteristics of the virtual sound signal and the sound beam signal generated in the virtual sound processing unit and the beam forming processing unit, respectively, and to provide the virtual sound signal and the sound beam signal to mid and low frequency speaker arrays and high frequency speaker arrays, respectively.
US08477944B2
An identifier generator generates a second identifier containing information on contents. The second identifier is different from a first identifier used to grant a connection request sent from a terminal apparatus. A beacon transmitter transmits the second identifier, generated by the identifier generator, as a beacon. A connection processing unit permits the connection request by the first identifier stored beforehand in the terminal apparatus, and rejects the connection request by the second identifier. A base station apparatus generates the first identifier containing address information used to access a server apparatus, as an identifier used to permit a connection request sent from the terminal apparatus. The base station apparatus transmits, as beacons, a first identifier and a second identifier used to identify the base station itself. The terminal apparatus acquires the address information contained in the received first identifier, conveys the second identifier to the server apparatus identified by the address information, and acquires information on the contents distributed by the base station apparatus.
US08477943B2
A system and method for facilitating automatic detection of a type of wireless network is provided. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, wireless network client(s) can automatically detect the “type” of a network (e.g., method of authentication and encryption) without requiring input from the user. For example, unencrypted network, WEP encrypted network requiring a WEP key, WPA encrypted network requiring a pre-shared key, an IEEE 802.1x enabled network supporting WPA and/or an IEEE 802.1x enabled network not supporting WPA. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a wireless network detection system having a connection component and a detection component is provided. The connection component facilitates connection of a client system to at least one of a plurality of wireless networks. The detection component identities a type of an available wireless network. Identification can be based for example, upon information received in an information element and/or iterative probing of the wireless network beacon.
US08477940B2
A device uses a user authentication factor to generate a symmetric key for use in symmetric cryptography. The user authentication factor is encrypted and stored for authentication during decryption.
US08477934B2
There is provided a pairing computation device provided with a CPU which computes pairing e(S,Q) with SεG1, QεG2, χ being a given integer variable, and F being a rational function calculated using Miller's algorithm with respect to multi-pairing (MMA). An order r, a trace t of the Frobenius endomorphism φp are specified preliminarily using the integer variable χ according to an embedding degree k. The CPU performs pairing computation by means of: an input unit which inputs the integer variable χ, the rational point S, and the rational point Q into respective predetermined registers; a computation unit which computes F; a computation unit which computes a value at a rational point Q(xQ, yQ) of a straight line passing through given rational points; a computation unit which computes f′ χ,S(Q) using the aforementioned F and the value; and a computation unit which computes the pairing e(S,Q) using aforementioned f′ χ,S(Q) as [F83].[F83] e(S,Q)=f′χ,S(Q)(pk−1)/r.
US08477932B1
In one embodiment, progress of an encryption process may be tracked. This may comprise, for example, storing progress of an encryption process so that the encryption process may be resumed after an interruption of the encryption process. As such, progress data may identify a point in the encryption process so that encryption may be resumed from that point. In at least one embodiment, storing progress of an encryption process may comprise storing and/or otherwise providing the last segment of data that was encrypted and/or the last segment of data that was not encrypted. Additionally, a data structure, may provide a capability to mark or indicate a point of interruption of the encryption process and provide data that may be utilized to resume from the point of interruption the overall encryption process.
US08477926B2
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a cloud computing call center that may provide a multi-tenanted platform for scalable, dynamic allocation of telephony, PBX, and call center capabilities. Embodiments of the invention include implementations of a software telephony switch in a cloud computing environment that may dynamically allocate software based PBXes, virtual interactive voice responses (IVRs), and other system components to particular calls.
US08477911B2
A communication system comprises a transmitter, a console in operative communication with the transmitter, an audible communication device and a tone simulator. The transmitter is in operative communication with the console and operative to send a first signal to the console. The console is operatively connected to a communication network and is operative to send a second signal over the communication network to at least two response systems. The console comprises a receiver operative to receive the first signal from the transmitter, a controller operative to compare the first signal from the transmitter with a set of pre-determined values, access a communication network and dial one of the at least two pre-programmed voice line addresses, and a communication interface operative to connect the receiver to a communication network. The audible communication device is coupled to the controller and the communication interface. Each pre-programmed voice line address corresponds to one of the two different response systems. The tone simulator generates a first tone upon connection of a voice line communication to one of the two different response systems and a second tone upon termination of audible communication on the voice line between a user of the communication system and an individual at one of the two different response systems. The first tone signals to the console that the voice line communication has begun, and the second tone signals to the console that the voice line communication has ended.
US08477909B2
A device may automatically place a call to a call routing device based on one of a list of numbers or addresses. The call may be forwarded by the call routing device to a call agent device. The device may also establish a session with the call agent device to which the call is forwarded by the call routing device and automatically receive, from the call agent device, a message that includes an identifier for a virtual call agent. The device may extract the identifier from the received message, compare the extracted identifier to an identifier that is associated with the call, and determine whether the call routing device correctly forwarded the call based on the comparison.
US08477906B2
A bundle of drawn fibers that have X-ray scintillating unagglommerated nanocrystallite particles in plastic or glass cores of down to 0.1 micron spacing and claddings of X-ray absorbing compounds in the cladding composition. Optional is a cover to the bundle that blocks light from leaving the bundle at the X-ray side while allowing X-rays to pass into the cores. To image the light exiting the fiber bundle at the sub-micron level, light expansion is preferable using either a lens system or a fiber bundle expander.
US08477903B2
A method of validating a compensator for use in a radiation therapy machine to treat a cancer patient involves determining a radiation treatment plan based on a compensator description file that includes data representative of an actual machined surface of the compensator. The plan includes operating parameters of the radiation therapy machine, and this plan is compared against actual radiation measurements taken during a non-patient test of the radiation therapy machine with the compensator mounted to the machine. If the comparison results in a match, the compensator is validated for use in the radiation therapy machine to treat the cancer patient.
US08477897B1
Circuitry for use in aligning bytes in a serial data signal (e.g., with deserializer circuitry that operates in part in response to a byte rate clock signal) includes a multistage shift register for shifting the serial data signal through a number of stages at least equal to (and in many cases, preferably more than) the number of bits in a byte. The output signal of any shift register stage can be selected as the output of this “bit slipping” circuitry so that any number of bits over a fairly wide range can be “slipped” to produce or help produce appropriately aligned bytes. The disclosed bit slipping circuitry is alternatively or additionally usable in helping to align (“deskew”) two or more serial data signals that are received via separate communication channels.
US08477895B1
Circuits and methods are described for adaptive timing and communications. Described circuitry includes circuitry to receive an incoming data signal based on a receive clock signal, which is based on a local clock signal (LCS); an offset adjustment circuit to receive timing information relating the LCS to the incoming data signal and calculate a phase offset and a frequency offset indicative of adjustment(s) to be made to the LCS; a first phase interpolator to produce the receive clock signal by adjusting the LCS in response to the phase offset and the frequency offset; a clock recovery circuit to generate the timing information responsive to whether the receive clock signal leads or lags the incoming data signal; a second phase interpolator to produce a transmit clock signal by adjusting the LCS in response to the frequency offset; and circuitry to transmit an outgoing data signal based on the transmit clock signal.
US08477891B2
Techniques for deriving and using noise estimate for data reception in a wireless communication system are described. A noise estimate may be derived for each packet received in a data transmission. The noise estimate may be derived by determining a phase offset between a first and second sample sequence, applying the phase offset to the first sample sequence to obtain a third sample sequence, and deriving the noise estimate based on the second and third sample sequences. Data detection may then be performed for each packet using the noise estimate for that packet. At least one weight may be derived for each packet using the noise estimate for the packet. Data detection is then performed for each packet with the at least one weight for the packet.
US08477887B2
A method for Automatic Gain Control (AGC) in a receiver is performed by a circuit having an inner loop and an outer loop. The method includes performing an outer loop energy detection, mitigating interference using the outer loop energy detection, and performing a frequency domain energy measurement in the inner loop. The method also includes adjusting a digital gain component in the inner loop and an analog gain component in the outer loop in response to the frequency domain energy measurement.
US08477886B2
A radio-receiver circuit having an analog-to-digital conversion unit. The analog-to-digital conversion unit comprises an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a filter operatively connected to an input terminal of the ADC in a receive path of the radio-receiver circuit. The radio-receiver circuit further comprises a control unit adapted to receive control data and determine, based on the control data, a frequency band in which data is to be transmitted to the radio-receiver circuit during a subsequent time interval. Furthermore, the control unit is operative to adapt at least one frequency characteristic of the analog-to-digital conversion unit to the determined frequency band for receiving said data transmitted in said subsequent time interval.
US08477885B2
A system for receiving signals is set forth. The system includes an open loop frequency offset updating system adapted to receive an input signal. The open loop frequency offset updating system updates a frequency offset recursively, using a real time update value for value Γ(f,N). The system samples the signal and calculates an alternate quantity based on Γ(f,N) to determine a maximum value of the alternate quantity.
US08477884B2
A reception apparatus including: a detection unit detecting extrinsic information based on a tentative symbol decision signal, a channel estimation signal, a noise variance estimation signal, and a received signal that are obtained from a previous iteration process; a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) aided channel decoding unit outputting an interleaved bit or a posteriori information thereof based on the extrinsic information; a tentative symbol decision unit determining a tentative transmission symbol based on an output of the CRC aided channel decoding unit; a channel estimation unit estimating a channel based on an output of the tentative symbol decision unit; and a noise variance estimation unit estimating a noise variance based on the output of the tentative symbol decision unit and an output of the channel estimation unit is provided.
US08477880B2
In a multi-input multi-output communication system receiving signals transmitted through a plurality of transmission antennas by using a plurality of reception antennas, a matrix determining a position of a symbol to be detected from a received signal is calculated at a first symbol detection step, and from the subsequent step, a matrix at the current step is acquired through a simple relationship from the matrix calculated at the previous step to determine a position of a symbol to be detected.
US08477878B2
A communications subsystem for a wireless device for correcting errors in a reference frequency signal. The communications subsystem comprises a frequency generator for generating the reference frequency signal and a closed loop reference frequency correction module that generates a reference frequency adjustment signal for correcting the reference frequency signal when the communications subsystem operates in closed loop mode. The subsystem further includes an open loop frequency correction means that that samples values of the reference frequency adjustment signal during the closed loop mode and generates a frequency correction signal for correcting the reference frequency signal when the communications subsystem operates in a mode other than closed loop mode.
US08477875B2
A method of demodulation includes determining samples of a modulated analogue audio signal; determining at least one distorted sample of the samples depending on the signal quality of the modulated analogue audio signal; and replacing the distorted sample.
US08477874B2
Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of wireless communication. Some embodiments include a receiver to process a wireless transmission received via a plurality of receive antennas, the receiver including a joint beamforming-synchronization module to jointly determine both a synchronization-error value and a beamforming weight vector. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08477873B2
A frequency signal generator includes a controller for generating a frequency generation signal, a reference frequency signal generator for generating a first frequency signal and generate a second frequency signal by dividing a first frequency signal from the controller, an assistance frequency signal generator adapted to generate a third, fourth, and fifth frequency signals and to output a sixth frequency signal in response to an assistance frequency select signal, a mixer for selecting a sign of the sixth frequency signal in response to a sign select signal and generating a seventh frequency signal and a eighth frequency signal by mixing the sixth frequency signal of the selected sign and the first frequency signal, a switch adapted to output the seventh or eighth frequency signal in response to a dividing select signal, and a first divider outputting a ninth frequency signal by dividing the eighth frequency signal from the switch.
US08477866B2
The method includes performing a wired back-to-back test by forming M wired paths connecting one of the N transmission antennas with the M reception antennas through M cables, separating ith digital data corresponding to an ith receiver wired path from the plurality of digital data stored in the receiver wherein i is a natural number greater than 1 and smaller than M, extracting a time delay by decimating the separated ith digital data and performing sliding correlation on the decimated data, and extracting attenuation and phase characteristics of the ith receiver wired path by extracting samples after the time delay among the decimated samples.
US08477862B2
An apparatus for trellis-based detection in a communication system including a processor and memory having computer program code configured to construct a trellis representing a transmitted signal formed from a plurality of symbols, each having a constellation size, transmitted by a number of transmit antennas, and form a log likelihood ratio at nodes of the trellis as a log-sum of a number of exponential terms including a priori information corresponding to a hypothesized transmitted bit value of the plurality of symbols. The number of exponential terms is limited by a number of most likely paths of the trellis extending from each node of the trellis and the constellation size. The processor and memory including computer program code are configured to form a list at each node of the trellis of a size limited to the number of the most likely paths of the trellis extending from each node.
US08477859B2
A system and method for wireless communications with codebook quantization are provided. A method for communications device operations includes estimating a channel between a controller and a mobile device, generating channel state information from the channel estimate, quantizing the channel state information by selecting a codeword from a rank n codebook based on a codeword selection mechanism, where n is a non-negative integer value, transmitting an index corresponding to the selected codeword and receiving a transmission from the controller. The transmission is precoded based on the index. The rank n codebook includes 2K codewords with each codeword comprising n columns of a transformed base matrix of dimension Nt×Nt, where K is a positive integer number representing a number of bits in the rank n codebook, and Nt is a number of transmit antennas at the controller.
US08477858B2
Techniques to process data for transmission over a set of transmission channels selected from among all available transmission channels. In an aspect, the data processing includes coding data based on a common coding and modulation scheme to provide modulation symbols and pre-weighting the modulation symbols for each selected channel based on the channel's characteristics. The pre-weighting may be achieved by “inverting” the selected channels so that the received SNRs are approximately similar for all selected channels. With selective channel inversion, only channels having SNRs at or above a particular threshold are selected, “bad” channels are not used, and the total available transmit power is distributed across only “good” channels. Improved performance is achieved due to the combined benefits of using only the NS best channels and matching the received SNR of each selected channel to the SNR required by the selected coding and modulation scheme.
US08477856B2
The invention is directed to a multi-bit digital signal isolation system including a plurality of micro-transformers, each having a primary winding and a secondary winding, a transmitter circuit receiving a multi-bit signal and transmitting an encoded logic signal across the plurality of micro-transformers corresponding to the multi-bit signal, the primary winding of each micro-transformer receiving a signal corresponding to one of at least three possible states, and a receiver circuit receiving the encoded logic signal from the secondary windings of the plurality of transformers, decoding the encoded logic signal and reconstructing the received multi-bit signal based upon the decoded signal.
US08477849B2
Wavelet based multiresolution video representations generated by multi-scale motion compensated temporal filtering (MCTF) and spatial wavelet transform are disclosed. Since temporal filtering and spatial filtering are separated in generating such representations, there are many different ways to intertwine single-level MCTF and single-level spatial filtering, resulting in many different video representation schemes with spatially scalable motion vectors for the support of different combination of spatial scalability and temporal scalability. The problem of design of such a video representation scheme to full the spatial/temporal scalability requirements is studied. Signaling of the scheme to the decoder is also investigated. Since MCTF is performed subband by subband, motion vectors are available for reconstructing video sequences of any possible reduced spatial resolution, restricted by the dyadic decomposition pattern and the maximal spatial decomposition level. It is thus clear that the family of decomposition schemes provides efficient and versatile multiresolution video representations for fully scalable video coding.
US08477848B1
Systems and methods for converting a picture frame rate from a source video at a first rate to a target video at a second rate via interpolation of an intermediate frame. In one implementation, the system includes a phase plane correlation calculator including a low pass filter and a high pass filter for receiving previous frame data and current frame data where the phase plane correlation calculator is configured to generate a first motion vector based upon low pass representations and high pass representations. The system may also include a motion compensated interpolator that receives the first motion vector and an additional input motion vector and determines a final motion vector for use in interpolation. The system may further include an intermediate frame generator configured to generate the intermediate frame utilizing the final motion vector.
US08477845B2
An apparatus comprising an inter-prediction motion compensation unit, a transform unit coupled to the inter-prediction motion compensation unit, a quantization unit coupled to the transform unit such that the transform unit is positioned between the inter-prediction motion compensation unit and the quantization unit, a scanning unit coupled to the quantization unit such that the quantization unit is positioned between the transform unit and the scanning unit, and an adaptive scan order predictor unit coupled to the inter-prediction motion compensation unit, the quantization unit, and the scanning unit. An apparatus comprising an entropy decoding unit, an inverse scanning unit coupled to the entropy decoding unit, an inverse quantization unit coupled to the inverse scanning unit such that the inverse scanning unit is positioned between the entropy coding unit and the inverse quantization unit, and an adaptive scan order predictor unit coupled to the entropy decoding unit and the inverse scanning unit.
US08477843B2
The rate controller in a digital video encoding system is responsible for allocating a bit budget for video frames to be encoded. The rate controller considers many different factors when determining the frame bit budget. One of the factors considered is the complexity of the frames being compressed. Occasionally there will be a very complex frame that is not representative of the overall video frame sequence. Such a rare complex frame may cause a disproportionate affect on the bit budget allocation. The system of the present invention limits the amount that a very complex frame can change the bit budget allocation. The rate controller of the present invention also includes a relaxation factor. The relaxation factor allows a user to determine if the rate controller should strictly allocate its bit budget or relax its standards such that the rate controller may not be so conservative when allocating bits to frames.
US08477840B2
A method and apparatus are provided for encoding video signal data for transmission in a network. The method includes the step of encoding the video signal data at a variable bit rate using at least one of a prioritized structure or a scalable coding structure to obtain a bitstream having a base layer and an enhancement layer. The encoding step encodes the video signal data such that a base layer bitrate is constrained to be less than or equal to a first value over a first time interval, and all of the bitstream, including the base layer and the enhancement layer, is constrained to a bitrate less than or equal to a second value over a second time interval.
US08477826B2
In a wireless communication system, a portable device transmits a first signal spread based on a reference period indicated by a synchronization signal transmitted from an in-vehicle device and transmits a second signal spread based on an operation by a user. The in-vehicle device sets a search period based on a variation range in a delay time from when the synchronization signal is transmitted to when the spread first signal is transmitted and sets a residual period that starts at an ending point of the search period and ends at an ending point of the reference period when a starting point of the reference period is set at a starting point of the search period. When the in-vehicle device fails in a synchronous acquisition for the search period, the in-vehicle device performs a synchronous acquisition process for the residual period.
US08477825B2
Multi-pass optical imaging apparatus includes a concave mirror in combination with two retro-reflecting mirror pairs and at least one reflective surface. The mirror, the retro-reflecting mirror pairs and the reflecting surface are arranged such that a light-ray input into the apparatus parallel to and spaced apart from the optical axis of the concave mirror and incident on the concave mirror is caused to be incident on the thin-disk gain-medium at least four times, with each of the four incidences on the gain-medium being from a different direction. If the input ray is plane-polarized, the arrangement provides that the polarization orientation of the ray on each incidence on the gain-medium is in the same orientation.
US08477820B2
A semiconductor laser device includes a first semiconductor stack portion that includes a grating layer and an active layer provided on the grating layer. The grating layer has a first region and second region; a diffraction grating provided in the first region; a semiconductor ridge structure portion provided on the first semiconductor stack portion and extending in a first direction; and a pair of first trenches provided along both side faces of the semiconductor ridge structure portion with the first region of the grating layer being located between the trenches. The first trenches penetrate through the grating layer. The first region of the grating layer has an end extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The end of the first region of the grating layer reaches a trench.
US08477819B2
Disclosed is a distributed feedback semiconductor laser diode device capable of operating at a high output ratio of forward/backward optical power while ensuring satisfactory stability of single-mode oscillation. The distributed feedback semiconductor laser diode device is configured to include a diffraction grating formed in an optical waveguide thereof. In a partial region of the optical waveguide, there is formed an alternately repetitive pattern of a grating part possessing a distributive refractivity characteristic and a no-grating space part possessing a uniform refractivity characteristic. The no-grating space part possessing a uniform refractivity characteristic has an optical path length that is half an integral multiple of a wavelength of laser oscillation, and the grating part possessing a distributive refractivity characteristic includes at least five grating periods.
US08477815B2
An apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a lasing element, a laser driver and logic. The laser driver is configured to drive the lasing element at multiple current levels, and the laser driver includes a switching network, multiple direct current (DC) loops, and an output circuit. The switching network receives a differential input signal, and each DC loop is coupled to the switching network. The output circuit is also coupled to the lasing element, and the logic is coupled to each of the DC current loops, where the logic selects one or more of the DC loops in each (of several) modes. Each mode generates one or more output lasing currents for the lasing element that corresponds to a one or more of the current levels in response to the differential input signal.
US08477806B2
A method for processing packets includes performing by a plurality of processors integrated in a single NIC chip, the plurality of processors including at least a hardware processor and a firmware processor, receiving information identifying at least one packet to be processed. The method may include determining whether the identified packet is a large send offload packet. If the identified packet is a large send offload packet, the method may include selecting between at least the hardware processor and the firmware processor to process the large send offload packet. If the identified packet is not a large send offload packet, the method may include bypassing the hardware process and the firmware process, and read DMA processing the identified packet from a host memory.
US08477801B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a technique for decreasing a probability of post-backoff collisions that occur during uplink transmissions from multiple user stations (STAs) following completion of downlink transmission from an access point to the STAs.
US08477799B2
Provided are a method for using a flexible bandwidth in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based cognitive radio system, and a base station (BS) and a subscriber station using the method. The method includes: allocating a channel band from among unused channel bands having a bandwidth that is a natural number times a bandwidth resolution to customer premises equipment (CPE), wherein the bandwidth resolution is a predetermined bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of a broadcast channel band, and transmitting an OFDMA-based signal comprising band allocation information indicating information regarding the allocated channel band.
US08477797B2
A control-based method for processing media stream queues includes: a multimedia control entity processes the talk burst request queues corresponding to different media types when the conditions of triggering processing of different talk bursts are satisfied; and the multimedia control entity sends the assigned talk burst to the corresponding multimedia session terminal. The present invention also provides a corresponding apparatus. By processing the media stream queues, the present invention ensures talk bursts of multiple correlated media types to be assigned in a session.
US08477780B2
Processing packet information using an array of processing elements involves performing search-independent processing on packet information in parallel with a search of a first stage memory unit and then using the processed information and the result from the search of the first stage memory unit to generate search information for a search of a second stage memory unit. The search-independent processing of packet information in parallel with search operations can be repeated at each stage of the array. By performing search-independent processing of packet information in parallel with search operations instead of serially, latency that is contributed from the relatively slow search operations is reduced.
US08477774B2
A detecting method is provided, which includes extracting an Internet Protocol Identifier value from an obtained data packet. The detecting method may further include searching in a record table containing a correspondence relationship between an Internet Protocol Identifier value and a terminal serial number to determine whether the record table contains an adjacent Internet Protocol Identifier value smaller than the extracted Internet Protocol Identifier value and modifying the adjacent Internet Protocol Identifier value that is smaller than the extracted Internet Protocol Identifier value to be the extracted Internet Protocol Identifier value if the record table contains the adjacent Internet Protocol Identifier value smaller than the extracted Internet Protocol Identifier value. Otherwise, the detecting method may also include, adding a new record of the extracted Internet Protocol Identifier value and the corresponding terminal serial number into the record table. When a notification is received, the detecting method may calculate the number of terminal serial numbers in the record table and output the number of terminal serial numbers as the number of hosts. The provided detecting method may further provide a corresponding statistic and analyzing server and a detecting system.
US08477764B2
Methods and systems for processing data are disclosed and may comprise receiving packetized data comprising voice data and network data via an Ethernet switch integrated within a single gigabit Ethernet IP phone chip. The received packetized data may be processed via a single main processor core integrated within the single gigabit Ethernet IP phone chip. The single main processor core may comprise circuitry that is controlled by an instruction set for handling processing of the voice data for a plurality of voice channels without the use of a separate DSP. It may be determined whether data to be processed by the single main processor core is voice data or network data. If the data to be processed by the single main processor core is voice data, at least one modified instruction may be selected from the modified instruction set for processing the voice data.
US08477755B2
A method and a device for processing data in a dedicated physical data channel, comprising, when data on which softer handover is performed is extended DPDCH data, sending, after completing the softer merging of the data for one timeslot, a request for secondary despread, where the request contains channel numbers; acquiring the request for secondary despread, determining channels according to the channel numbers contained in the request for secondary despread, determining a channel having the highest priority from the channels according to a predetermined channel priority order, and secondarily despreading, framing and outputting data of the channel having the highest priority. Due to the arrangement of the extended DPDCH, embodiments of this invention process the data carried by the extended DPDCH at the frequency of timeslots, and thus reduce the time delay of the second despreading and support services having higher requirements for logic processing delay without affecting the process for the existing normal DPDCH data.
US08477752B2
A user equipment UE with an active connection (radio or logical) with a wireless network needs to establish an emergency service. The UE unilaterally deactivates an active session or context with the wireless network, and thereafter sends to the wireless network signaling to establish the emergency service, in which the signaling specifically identifies the service as an emergency service. In one embodiment (FIG. 1) the UE locally detaches from an active packet domain communication and sends an emergency attach so as to clear resources. In another embodiment (FIG. 2) the UE deactivates one or more contexts and sends an extended service request which identifies one or more context which remains active after the deactivating. In another embodiment (FIG. 3), after the signaling to establish the emergency service (SERVICE REQUEST) the UE sends a deactivation message explicitly indicating which context(s) is/are deactivated (PDN CONTEXT DEACTIVATION or PDN DISCONNECT REQUEST).
US08477751B2
A communication device is used by a mobile station to perform wireless communication with another mobile station. The communication device includes a processor configured to set a transmission resource according to a present position of the mobile station, the transmission resource being set based on transmission resource association information including different transmission resources assigned to plural assignment areas provided at different positions along a road through which the mobile station passes; and a transmitter configured to transmit data with the use of the transmission resource that has been set.
US08477748B2
A base station forms a communication area enabling communication with a mobile communication network through a local network that includes the base station. The base station includes a monitoring unit that monitors an address for data communication with the mobile communication network and assigned to a mobile terminal in the communication area; a storage unit that stores combination information indicating a combination of the address monitored and identification information of the mobile terminal; a receiving unit that receives, from a communication terminal in the local network, data having the identification information; a comparing unit that compares the combination information with a combination of a destination address of the data and the identification information in the data; and a transmitting unit that transmits the data to the mobile terminal if the combination and the combination information coincide, and performs error processing if the combination and the combination information do not coincide.
US08477746B2
Allocation of transmission power is carried out adaptively without affecting adjacent cells. Included are a reception part that receives information from a mobile station apparatus, a transmission power determination part that determines transmission power when transmitting a wireless signal to a mobile station apparatus based on the received information, an acquisition part that acquires information about communication environment in each time channel or each frequency channel from the received information, a scheduling part that identified a time channel or frequency channel the relationship of which between transmission power and communication environment satisfies the condition for allocation and allocates transmission data and transmission power for transmission to a mobile station apparatus to a communication slot in the time channel or frequency channel, and a transmission part that transmits a wireless signal using the communication slot to which the transmission data and the determined transmission power have been allocated.
US08477745B2
A mobile station (100) according to the present invention includes: a transmitter unit (110) configured to transmit an uplink shared signal at a first time interval based on a received first downlink control signal; and a retransmitter unit (110) configured to retransmit the uplink shared signal at a second time interval based on a second downlink control signal received at a third time interval allocated fixedly. When the third time interval overlaps a time interval for measurement by the mobile station (100), the transmitter unit (110) is configured to transmit the uplink shared signal at the first time interval and the retransmitter unit (110) is configured not to retransmit the uplink shared signal at the second time interval.
US08477741B2
A method for coordinating communications between a user equipment and a base station is presented. The method includes receiving an assignment of a first set of timeslots for at least one of uplink and downlink communications between the user equipment and the base station, and reducing a number of timeslots monitored by the user equipment to less than the first set of timeslots for communications. The method includes, after reducing the number of timeslots monitored by the user equipment to less than the first set of timeslots for communications, transmitting a block to the base station, the block signaling a resumption of timeslot monitoring by the user equipment, wherein the block includes at least one of a dummy block format, a specified block format, and a predetermined communication, and increasing the number of timeslots monitored by the user equipment.
US08477732B2
An apparatus determines a transmission bandwidth for uplink transmission of a signal and includes a reception unit that receives a predefined signal from a mobile station and derives a channel quality indicator based on the received signal. The apparatus also includes a storage unit that stores a relationship between the channel quality indicator and the transmission bandwidth of the mobile station. The apparatus also includes a determination unit that determines the transmission bandwidth based on the relationship and a transmission unit that transmits the transmission bandwidth to the mobile station.
US08477726B2
A method, system and device for MS handover are provided in an embodiment of the present invention. The method includes: receiving the handover-assisting information from the RS by the serving MR-BS; determining whether to recommend the RS to the MS as the target station according to the handover-assisting information by the serving MR-BS. The embodiments of the present invention enable the serving MR-BS to obtain related information from the RS and the serving MR-BS of the MS to better ascertain the potential target station and related information to be recommended to the MS. This helps improve the handover performance of the MS and reduce the failure rate.
US08477723B2
The present invention includes a receiving antenna receiving information while changing plural different wireless base stations; a seat information acquiring unit acquiring position information of a destination seat paired; a wireless base station selecting unit selecting a wireless base station to be connected on the basis of position information; and a directivity switching unit changing directivity of the receiving antenna on the basis of position information, which transmits at least one of video information and audio information from a wireless base station to a user seated on the seat.
US08477720B2
A method, server, and terminal for selecting an access domain for sending information between a wireless terminal and a core network, wherein sessions between the wireless terminal and the core network are established and controlled using an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). A database maintained in the IMS stores information regarding real-time packet-switched service capabilities of a plurality of access domains. The database is interrogated based upon currently used and/or available access domains. An access domain is selected for use by the wireless terminal based upon the results of the interrogation.
US08477702B2
Provided are a scheduling apparatus and method for a multicast broadcast service. Scheduling information is configured with at least one of information related to a location in which each multicast broadcast service, which is identified by a unique identifier within one scheduling period, starts and information related to a location in which each multicast broadcast service ends, and a scheduling block including the configured scheduling information is generated. There is an advantage that power management of user equipment is easy, and a time delay when initially entering the MBMS and a channel change time when selecting a different MBMS are reduced.
US08477699B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitates identifying control information for two or more carriers in a multi-carrier system or environment. User equipment (UE) identifications (IDs) can be assigned for a user equipment, wherein each user equipment (UE) identification (ID) can correspond to a specific carrier. Upon receipt of control information related to a plurality of carriers from an anchor carrier, the user equipment (UE) identifications (IDs) can be utilized in order to identify which control information corresponds to each carrier. The user equipment (UE) identification (ID) can be, for example, a Cell Random Network Temporary Identity (C-RNTI).
US08477693B1
A communication control system configures a wireless access node to broadcast a message stream comprising information associated with a location covered by a sector serving wireless communication devices, receives an interest indicator indicating a level of interest in the message stream by the wireless communication devices, receives a request to receive the message stream transmitted from an out-of-sector wireless communication device served by a different sector from the sector serving the wireless communication devices, wherein the request includes interest filter criteria, applies the interest filter criteria to activate a subscription to the message stream for the out-of-sector wireless communication device when the interest filter criteria is met based on the interest indicator, and in response to activating the subscription to the message stream, transfers a message comprising the information associated with the location covered by the sector serving the wireless communication devices for delivery to the out-of-sector wireless communication device.
US08477690B2
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a mobile station receives a location beacon transmitted from multiple base stations based on a transmission plan for a predefined downlink location based services zone in the superframes of a signal frame structure. The transmission plan includes spreading transmissions of the location beacon that are unique to respective base stations. The mobile station identifies the base stations based on the respective location beacons and the transmission plan. The mobile station identifies a present location based on the location beacons and the identities of the base stations that from which the location beacons were received.
US08477687B2
A wireless mesh network system includes a plurality of wireless devices adapted to forward a message packet. Each of the wireless devices includes a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, a communications controller, and a RAM. Further, the communications controller controls such that an original source address contained in a message packet forwarded by a wireless device, which is an address of the wireless device that has firstly transmitted the message packet, and a packet number that identifies the message packet are stored in the RAM, and controls such that a message packet received is forwarded if information contained in the message packet received is not consistent with information of the original source address and the packet number stored in the RAM.
US08477683B2
The claimed subject matter relates to configuring a host device through utilization of MMP, which is a protocol that is based upon MIP but not associated with several deficiencies associated therewith. In particular, a wireless terminal can be configured to run MMP and send messages that conform to MMP over a wireless link. A base station can be configured to act as a DHCP server. The base station can provide configuration information to host device by way of DHCP.
US08477680B2
Processing method for modulated data transmitted in the form of multiplexed frames (Frame 1, . . . Frame 10) containing symbols that have a symbol frequency. The method comprises a frame selection processing operation performed at least partly at a working frequency below the symbol frequency, and a demodulation processing operation comprising at least a part performed at the working frequency on the selected frames.
US08477676B2
A digital broadcasting system and a method of processing data are disclosed, which are robust to error when mobile service data are transmitted. To this end, additional encoding is performed for the mobile service data, whereby it is possible to strongly cope with fast channel change while giving robustness to the mobile service data.
US08477667B2
An apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving control information in a broadband wireless communication system using Half Frequency Division Duplex (H-FDD) are provided. An operation of a Mobile Station (MS) includes, in the case of a frame at which control information is not transmitted, performing uplink communication at a front end of the frame and, in the case of a frame at which the control information is transmitted, performing downlink communication at a front end of the frame.
US08477660B2
A method for updating a filtering database in a multi-ring network, includes: when the topology of a lower ring in a multi-ring network, in which a plurality of ring networks are connected by two ring connection nodes, is altered and the ring connection node detects the alteration in the topology of the lower ring, erasing, by the ring connection node, its filtering database; generating, by the ring connection node, a control message including a ring ID, a blockage flag, and an erasure flag; transmitting the control message in both directions of the ring; and determining, by a node which receives the control message, to erase a filtering database by referring to and correcting the blockage and erasure flag information included in the control message.
US08477658B2
An efficient media streaming method utilizing a globally load balanced overlay network. This method makes use of capacity per out-degree values to construct and maintain an overlay network for media streaming in a Peer-to-Peer environment.
US08477650B2
A power manager for a passive optical network, including a network statistics collector, for collecting data regarding traffic in a passive optical network (PON) including a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) on the downstream side of the PON, wherein each ONU can be in at least a sleep state and an active state, and wherein the PON transmits data in packets of data frames, a buffer for storing downstream data frames for each ONU while the ONU is in the sleep state, an activity detector for processing the data collected by the network statistics collector to generate indicators of activity levels for each ONU, and a protocol manager including a plurality of state machines for the respective plurality of ONUs, wherein each state machine governs state transition of its respective ONU to the sleep state when the activity detector indicates a low activity level for the ONU, and to the active state when the activity detector indicates a high level of activity for the ONU.
US08477648B2
Methods, systems, and devices for monitoring network capacity and determining network utilization are herein disclosed. A traffic flow of captured data packets received at an ingress port of a network captured traffic distribution device may be sampled at a frequency corresponding to a first time period. The sample may be analyzed to determine whether, for example, the ingress port is active during the first time period. An increment may be added to a first counter based on a determination that the ingress port is active. The increments from a predefined plurality of first time periods may be aggregated and the predefined plurality of first time periods may correspond to a second time period. A second counter value may be generated for the second time period based on the aggregate and a percent utilization of the ingress port for the second time period may be determined based on the second counter value.
US08477643B2
A communication apparatus comprising a table configured to include a correspondence between at least one of a first identifier that identifies a port from which frames are received, a second identifier that identifies a port from which frames are transmitted, a third identifier that identifies a flow related to a frame received, and a fourth identifier that identifies a flow related to a frame to be transmitted, and a fifth identifier that is different from the first to fourth identifiers, a counter equipped for each fifth identifier, and a controller configured to search the table, each time a frame is received or transmitted, for a fifth identifier by using any one of the first to fourth identifiers related to the frame as a key, and increment a counter corresponding to the fifth identifier by an amount.
US08477639B2
A method for communicating network status information includes receiving, via a first link, a request for status information from a client device, the first link being a link between a router device and a client device. In response to the request, a data exchanger is polled for status information via a second link. The second link is a link between the router device and the data exchanger. The status information identifies a state of a third link between the data exchanger and a wide area network. The status information is received via the second link and communicated to the client device via the first link.
US08477638B2
Techniques for routing multicast packets in an SRP topology when there is a ring-wrap condition are provided. By routing multicast packets on both rings simultaneously, multicast packets may reach their destination receiver(s) with a fewer number of hops than if the packets had to traverse portions of both inner and outer ring paths when a ring wrapped condition exists.
US08477634B2
A method of performing a random access channel (RACH) procedure between a mobile terminal and a network includes the steps of detecting whether a random access response (RAR) is received from the network within a certain time period, the RAR including information about a random access channel (RACH) preamble transmitted to the network; and if the RAR is not received within the certain time period or if the information about the transmitted RACH preamble included in the RAR does not match the transmitted RACH preamble, performing a first procedure to detect failures in the RACH procedure; and if the RAR is received within the certain time period and if the information about the transmitted RACH preamble included in the RAR matches the transmitted RACH preamble, performing a second procedure to detect failures in the RACH procedure.
US08477629B2
In one embodiment, a target bandwidth, a lower bandwidth boundary constraint, and an upper cost boundary constraint for a constrained path are configured. A set of paths are computed that have bandwidth within the lower bandwidth boundary constraint and cost within the upper cost boundary constraint. A determination is made whether one or more paths of the set of paths has bandwidth that provides at least the target bandwidth and, if so, a path from the one or more paths of the set of paths having bandwidth that provides at least the target bandwidth is selected to use as the constrained path, and, if not, a path from the one or more paths of the set having bandwidth that does not provide at least the target bandwidth that has bandwidth closest to the target bandwidth is selected to use as the constrained path.
US08477628B2
A base station communicating with user equipments using shared channels. The base station includes a congestion level estimation unit estimating a congestion level of a cell; a priority-level/desired-value changing unit changing priority levels or desired minimum transmission rates of data to be transmitted by the user equipments or the base station based on the congestion level of the cell; and a selection unit selecting one or more of the user equipments to which radio resources are to be allocated based on the changed priority levels or the changed desired minimum transmission rates of the data.
US08477624B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing network bandwidth. A monitor module monitors traffic of a plurality of peer computers over a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network. A detection module detects traffic exceeding a traffic threshold for the network. A delay module delays issuing each TCP/IP acknowledge signal for a specified delay interval in response to detecting the traffic exceeding the traffic threshold.
US08477622B2
An approach is provided for managing network resources and policies. A network resource manager receives an allocation request, over a radio network, for one or more network resources for joining one of a plurality of multicast groups, the one multicast group being associated with a quality of service (QoS) level. The network resource manager then determines whether the network can accommodate the allocation request and modifies the network to accommodate the allocation request based on the determination by modifying a local multicast service provider (LMSP) mapping list that associates, respectively, one or more LMSPs with the multicast groups.
US08477619B2
According to one embodiment, methods and systems may be configured to support client-to-network, network-to-client, and network-to-network flows in a network element including multiple plug-in units. Such support may include policing and shaping flows as aggregates across plug-in units, combining outputs of two upstream traffic managers to network ports on two plug-in units, combining network flows that ingress two plug-in units, and shaping traffic to client ports.
US08477617B2
A system enables monitoring a multicast data feeds over a network. The system may include a multicast-enabled network device for transmitting a multicast feed from a multicast feed source to a user device via a computer network. A feed agent may be operatively coupled to the multicast-enabled network device for collecting and storing multicast feed data from the multicast feed source. A management server may be operatively connected to the feed agent for receiving multicast feed data collected by the feed agent. The management server may include a web server for receiving requests for multicast feed data over the network via a web interface.
US08477613B2
A switch architecture and method provides scaling through multi-level load balancing of flows across data and application processing planes. An input/output module receives a communication session flow (forward) from a client device and selects one of a plurality of data processors to process the flow. The selected data processor determines the level of processing for the forward flow and selects an application processor from a plurality of such application processors. The application processor generates a session structure identifying actions to be performed on the forward flow and transfers the session structure to the selected data processor to perform the actions on the forward flow. The application processor also predictively generates and offloads a session structure for the associated reverse flow. If the reverse session structure is offloaded to a different data processor, either the forward or reverse flow redirects packets, or is redirected, to the data processor hosting the other flow.
US08477610B2
Computerized methods, systems, and computer-storage media for allowing virtual machines (VMs) residing on a common physical node to fairly share network bandwidth are provided. Restrictions on resource consumption are implemented to ameliorate stressing the network bandwidth or adversely affecting the quality of service (QoS) guaranteed to tenants of the physical node. The restrictions involves providing a scheduler that dynamically controls networking bandwidth allocated to each of the VMs as a function of QoS policies. These QoS policies are enforced by controlling a volume of traffic being sent from the VMs. Controlling traffic includes depositing tokens into token-bucket queues assigned to the VMs, respectively. The tokens are consumed as packets pass through the token-bucket queues. Upon consumption, packets are held until sufficient tokens are reloaded to the token-bucket queues.
US08477608B2
A method is described for controlling the conformance of a data flow in a communication system to a traffic definition. The communication system comprises a transmitter and a receiver and data packets transporting the data flow are sent from the transmitter to the receiver. The receiver sends responses identifying received data packets to the transmitter, and the transmitter comprises a control function which controls the number of sent data packets for which no response is received according to a limit for the number of outstanding data packets. A conditioning criterion is obtained for the data flow, the conditioning criterion being associated with the traffic definition. The receiver determines a conformance parameter for the received data packets transporting the data flow. The limit and/or the sending of the responses is modified according to the conditioning criterion and the determined conformance parameter for controlling the number of transmitted data packets.
US08477606B2
A service for Public Safety (PS) and Law Enforcement (LE) users on commercial wireless networks which assure them access to packet data services. The service request is application based. The applications that are for official use, by the PS/LE users, could have a reserved priority level associated with them. The reserved priority level could be higher than a normal commercial user. The network could use the priority to distinguish users, and dynamically allocate and optimize network resources. The network could use priority level information to perform access, admission, and congestion control. The PS/LE user could use the official applications while on duty and un-official ones while off duty, thus, additionally freeing up network resources. The PS/LE users could then use advanced commercial packet data services, without the need for a private network, while at the same time making it feasible for commercial networks.
US08477605B2
The present invention inspects packets to identify session initiation messages associated with select applications. A session initiation message may be any message used to initiate a communication session with another communication client. Once a session initiation message from a select application is identified, the intended communication session may be identified, monitored, prevented, or otherwise processed in a predefined manner. These select applications may be illicit applications from which communication sessions are actually or potentially unlawful or otherwise improper. The illicit communication sessions that the present invention seeks to control may be used for voice communications as well as for transferring data and facilitating application collaboration, such as is used in video conferencing or file sharing. The session initiation messages need not be received directly from the originating communication client for inspection. Packet inspections may take place at any location, such as aggregation points throughout the packet networks.
US08477602B2
An adaptation mechanism monitors, maintains and controls quality of voice-grade for communications among end-systems in a distributed PBX topology, thereby providing an enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) for the network.
US08477593B2
Techniques for sending signaling for data transmission in a wireless communication system are described. A transmitter may process signaling for a data transmission based on a block code, a convolutional code, a transformation, etc. The signaling may comprise an identifier of an intended receiver for the data transmission and/or other information such as data rate, resource assignment, etc. The signaling for the data transmission may be mapped to a first set of tones in a time slot. Data for the data transmission may be mapped to a second set of tones in the time slot. The entire signaling may be sent on the first set of tones. Alternatively, the first set of tones may be selected from among multiple sets of tones or pseudo-randomly selected from among available tones based on a first part of the signaling. A second part of the signaling may be sent on the first set of tones.
US08477591B2
A control apparatus of a communication system that uses a plurality of communication paths from a transmission node to a reception node to redundantly transmit data is provided. The apparatus comprises: a setting unit for setting priorities to a plurality of partial data; a calculation unit for calculating the time slot number which is required to transmit the partial data on the communication paths; a selection unit for selecting one or more combinations of the partial data and the communication path. The selection unit selects the one or more combinations in descending order of the priorities of the partial data and selects the one or more combinations in ascending order of the required time slot number if the priorities of the partial data are equal.
US08477577B2
Recording and reading method for optical information recording medium comprising: recording layer having thickness not less than 2λ/n, where λ is wavelength of recording beam and n is refractive index of the recording layer, and configured to undergo a change in the refractive index by irradiation with the recording beam; and adjacent layer adjacent to the recording layer at a side opposite to an incident side, comprises the steps of: recording a recording spot by irradiating with the recording beam, while shifting focal position by offset amount d, which satisfies ω0d3ω0, where ω0 is radius of the recording spot, from interface between recording layer and adjacent layer toward the incident side at a time of recording, whereby the refractive index of recording layer changes at a recording position to record recording spot; and reading out the information by irradiating with reading beam, while bringing it into focus on the interface.
US08477576B2
An optical disc apparatus, for recording or reproducing information by irradiating a laser beam on an optical disc. More particularly, the present application relates to an optical pickup of the optical disc apparatus that produces a tracking error signal, in general, and the optical disc apparatus executes a tracking servo with using the tracking error signal.
US08477567B2
A timepiece having a mechanical clock movement and separate first and second cases (2, 3), the movement including first and second portions housed in the first and second cases (2, 3), respectively, the cases (2, 3) being mutually connected in a rotatably hinged manner via a hinge (4) defining a pivot axis so as to be capable of forming a variable angle between the cases, the part further including a controller arranged to transmit information from one portion of the movement to the other. The controller includes at least one rod (15) slidably mounted in the hinge along an axis substantially parallel to the pivot axis and engaging with the first and second portions of the clock movement for transmitting information from one portion of the movement to the other, by a linear, alternating movement, regardless of the relative position of the two cases (2, 3).
US08477562B2
A communication device includes: an ultrasonic oscillating unit which detects or generates an ultrasonic wave; a communication unit which transmits and receives information using the ultrasonic wave; a storage unit which stores a table to which a communication command to designate communication with the another communication device is allocated in time series, the table being shared by the another communication device; and a control unit which shifts the communication unit to one of a transmitting state, a receiving state, and a standby state that is neither the transmitting nor the receiving state, synchronously with the another communication device on the basis of the communication command in the table.
US08477559B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a burst termination control unit and a data output control unit. The burst termination control unit generates a termination control signal, a read command, a write command and a mode resister read command. The data output control unit stops a data output operation in response to the termination control signal.
US08477553B2
Provided is a fuse circuit capable of selectively using a power supply voltage for a logic operation according to an operation mode. The fuse circuit includes a mode generating circuit, a power supply voltage selection circuit, and at least one fuse unit. The mode generating circuit generates a plurality of mode signals. The power supply voltage selection circuit selects one out of a plurality of power supply voltages in response to the plurality of mode signals and outputs the selected power supply voltage to a first node. Each of the fuse units is coupled between the first node and a ground voltage and uses the selected power supply voltage as a power supply voltage for a logic operation. Thus, a semiconductor device including the fuse circuit may accurately test a connection state of a fuse.
US08477552B2
A semiconductor memory device comprises a memory cell array, first and second bit lines, first and second amplifiers, and a sense amplifier control circuit. An amplifying element in the first sense amplifier amplifiers the signal of the first bit line and converts it into an output current. The second bit line is selectively connected to the first bit line via the first sense amplifier. A signal voltage decision unit in the second sense amplifier determines the signal level of the second bit line being supplied with the output current. The sense amplifier control circuit controls connection between the amplifying element and the unit in accordance with a determination timing, which switches the above connection from a connected state to a disconnected state at a first timing in a normal operation and switches in the same manner at a delayed second timing in a refresh operation.
US08477551B1
Optical memory comprising: a semiconductor wire, a first electrode, a second electrode, a light source, a means for producing a first voltage at the first electrode, a means for producing a second voltage at the second electrode, and a means for determining the presence of an electrical voltage across the first electrode and the second electrode exceeding a predefined voltage. The first voltage, preferably less than 0 volts, different from said second voltage. The semiconductor wire is optically transparent and has a bandgap less than the energy produced by the light source. The light source is optically connected to the semiconductor wire. The first electrode and the second electrode are electrically insulated from each other and said semiconductor wire.
US08477545B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of stacked chips. At least two of the chips are configured to receive a column command and generate a column control signal based on the column command. Generation timing of the column control signal generated based on a column command in one of the at least two chips substantially coincide with the generation timing in the other of the at least two of the plurality of chips.
US08477529B2
A magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell includes an embedded MRAM and an access transistor. The embedded MRAM is formed on a number of metal-interposed-in-interlayer dielectric (ILD) layers, which each include metal dispersed therethrough and are formed on top of the access transistor. An magneto tunnel junction (MTJ) is formed on top of a metal formed in the ILD layers that is in close proximity to a bit line. An MTJ mask is used to pattern the MTJ and is etched to expose the MTJ. Ultimately, metal is formed on top of the bit line and extended to contact the MTJ.
US08477521B2
A fuse circuit includes a plurality of fuse cells, an amplification unit, and a plurality of registers. The amplification unit is configured to sequentially amplify data stored in the fuse cells. The registers are configured to sequentially store data amplified by the amplification unit.
US08477518B2
Disclosed is a device for driving an inverter having a semiconductor switching element. A gate voltage calculating unit (20) calculates a surge voltage from the temperature, current, and DC-side voltage of each of IGBTs of the inverter and compares the surge voltage with the breakdown voltage of the element. The gate voltage calculating unit (20) commands a gate voltage control unit (22) to set a gate voltage higher than the normal value (reference value) in the case of judging that the difference between the element breakdown voltage and the surge voltage exceeds a predetermined threshold voltage and that a margin exists in the surge voltage. The voltage control unit (22) performs switching control of gates of the IGBTs according to the gate voltage command higher than the reference voltage to thereby reduce stationary losses of the IGBTs.
US08477516B2
A controller for a power supply having a primary side and a secondary side includes a mapping circuit for generating a feedback signal corresponding to an output current of the secondary side, a power switch coupled to the primary side for conducting a connection according to a modulation signal, a constant current block, for generating a first current signal according to the feedback signal; and a control unit, for generating the modulation signal to control the power switch according to the first current signal.
US08477515B2
An integrated circuit for use in a power supply includes a drive signal generator, a first delay, a second delay, a comparator, a first logic, a first short on time detector, and a second logic. The drive signal generator generates a drive signal to control a switch in response to a clock signal. The short on time detector sets the first latch indicating that an on time of the switch is a short on time. The second logic is coupled to detect long pulses of the drive signal to reset the first latch indicating that the on time of the switch is not a short on time. An on time of the drive signal is a short on time if a switch current of the switch exceeds a current limit after a sum of a leading edge blanking period and a current limit delay time period.
US08477507B2
An assembly sheet includes a plurality of suspension boards and a frame member that integrally supports the suspension boards. On a surface of the frame member, a plurality of identification marks for identifying respective positions of the suspension boards in automatic optical inspection are provided corresponding to the suspension boards.
US08477501B2
A control network comprises a plurality of network nodes arranged in a plurality of tiers, with first-tier nodes and lower tier nodes. A master control bus interconnects the first-tier nodes, which are also connected to a power source. Lower-tier buses interconnect groups of the lower tier nodes. The lower-tier buses include both data lines and a power source line derived from the power source, allowing the lower tier nodes to selectively distribute power to local loads. A first-tier node may be embodied as a hub controller configured to be connected to one or more of said lower-tier buses. The hub controller may comprise a plurality of internal hub nodes (including a hub master node and hub slave nodes) integrated within the same physical unit.
US08477500B2
A locking device providing thermal management for an electrical assembly board is described and includes a fluid-permeable member saturated with a fluid and disposed between the electrical assembly board and a heat sink; a pair of locking device substrates substantially orthogonal to the electrical assembly board and the heat sink; and an actuator coupled to at least one of the locking device substrates. The fluid-permeable member is disposed between the locking device substrates. The actuator is configured to compress the fluid-permeable member by at least one of the locking device substrates forcing a portion of the fluid out of the fluid-permeable member and forming at least one fluid contact interface with the electrical assembly board and the heat sink in a reversible process. A method for making a locking device is also described.
US08477495B2
An electronic device includes a bottom plate, a circuit board having an electronic component, a fan, and an airflow guide member. The circuit board is fixed to the bottom plate. The fan is arranged at the front of the circuit board. The airflow guide member is arranged between the fan and the circuit board. The airflow guide member includes an airflow guide wall defining a number of spaced slots, and a number of stop plates selectively inserted into the corresponding slots of the airflow guide wall, to leave some of the slots directly in front of the bottom of the electronic component open.
US08477494B2
An electronic assembly includes an electronic device and a solar shield coupled to the electronic device. The solar shield has an attachment portion which attaches to the electronic device, and a shield portion coupled to the attachment portion. The shield portion prevents direct sunlight from substantially reaching a section of the electronic device. The shield portion defines (i) at least a portion of an air intake, (ii) at least a portion of an air exhaust, and (iii) at least a portion of an air passageway which extends from the air intake to the air exhaust. The air passageway overlies the section of the electronic device enabling ambient air adjacent the air intake to form natural convective airflow into the air intake and out the air exhaust through the air passageway to carry away heat from the section of the electronic device during electronic operation of the electronic device.
US08477492B2
Methods for forming PCBs that can be used in a portable computing device are described. The PCBs can be installed in the portable computing device in a bent configuration. In a particular embodiment, a contiguously formed PCB can be shaped with two large regions connected a thin connector portion. The thin connector portion can connect components one each of the two large regions and can be used in lieu of a flex connector. In one embodiment, the PCB can be formed from multiple layers including trace and substrate layers. The trace and substrate layer can be adjusted to affect the stiffness of the PCB in various regions, such as to allow the PCB to hold a bent configuration after a bending moment is applied.
US08477490B2
A cooling system for a mobile computing device configured to drive two devices, a fan and an alert device. The fan cools components of the mobile computing device by exchanging air between an inner cavity of the mobile computing device and an outer environment surrounding the mobile computing device. The alert device produces an alert, e.g., a vibration, for the mobile computing device. The cooling system includes a motor operably connected to a first device (either the fan or the alert device) and operably connected via a clutch to a second device (either the fan or the alert device). The clutch allows the second device to be selectively activated depending on a speed or rotational direction of a drive shaft of the motor.
US08477488B2
A removable storage module including a housing that facilitates sliding of the removable storage module into and out of a slot of a modular computer device, wherein the slot includes an opening in a front panel of the modular computer device that enables the removable storage module to be installed into and removed from the slot while the modular computer device is installed in one or more slots of a computer chassis. The removable storage module also includes a latching mechanism that is selectively actuated between a locked and an unlocked position to selectively couple the removable storage module within the slot of the modular computer device during use.
US08477487B2
A hinge assembly having a hollow clutch is arranged to pivotally couple a portable computer base portion to a portable computer lid portion. The hinge assembly includes at least a hollow cylindrical portion that includes an annular outer region and a central bore region, the central bore region suitably arranged to provide support for electrical conductors between the base and lid portions. The hinge assembly also includes a plurality of fastening components that couple the hollow clutch to the base portion and the lid portion of the portable computer, with at least one of the fastening regions being integrally formed with the hollow cylindrical portion such that space, size and part count are minimized. The integrally formed fastening region(s) can be flat with holes dispersed therethrough for screws, bolts or the like. The central bore can also support a heat transfer element and can also serve as a lubricant reservoir.
US08477485B2
An electronic device includes an upper body, a lower cover, a lower body, and a slide mechanism installed between the upper body and the lower cover. The lower cover is fastened on the lower body. The mechanism includes a fixed element, a slide element, and two plates. The fixed element is fastened on the lower cover. The slide element may slide relative to the fixed element. The plates are fastened on two opposite sides of the slide element and the upper body.
US08477482B2
A touch control panel securing device is used for fixing a touch control panel. The touch control panel includes a housing formed with an opening, the touch control panel being mounted within the housing and being registered with the opening; at least one pressing member for pressing the touch control panel, and including a first engaging portion engaging the housing, and a second engaging portion disposed opposite to the first engaging portion; and a locking mechanism including at least one engaging part for engaging the second engaging portion and a pressing part operable to be pressed for disengaging the engaging part from the second engaging portion.
US08477481B2
A ballast for a florescent or HID lamp includes a housing enclosing florescent or HID lamp ballast electronic components; a plurality of lead wire extending from a side of the housing; and a ballast plate mounted to a housing lower side. The ballast plate is shaped as a planar member having ballast plate sidewalls and includes an adapter plate bottom opening disposed on the ballast plate; and a retainer retaining the ballast plate to the housing. The retainer is secured to the ballast plate, and the ballast plate directs the wire from the side of the housing through the adapter plate bottom opening. An adapter plate front opening is formed on the ballast plate and receives the plurality of lead wire extending from the side of the housing.
US08477463B2
A method, system, and apparatus of a vibration based user input for mobile devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of controlling an electronic device includes receiving an impact signal, (e.g., a vibration generated by a user controlled impact with a surface mechanically coupled to a housing of the electronic device). The method further includes identifying a user command to the electronic device based on the impact signal, and performing a predesignated action (e.g., a mute, a power on, a power off, a volume increase, a volume decrease, a music track change, a call redirect, a call directed to voicemail, etc.) based on the user command. The user command may be identified using a number of user controlled impacts and an interval between a prior user controlled impact and a later user controlled impact.
US08477462B2
Plasma nitridation, in place of plasma oxidation, is used for the formation of a CCP layer. Al, Mg, Hf, etc. all form insulating nitrides under these conditions. Maintaining the structure at a temperature of at least 150° C. during plasma nitridation and/or performing post annealing at a temperature of 220° C. or higher, ensures that no copper nitride can form. Additionally, unintended oxidation by molecular oxygen of the exposed magnetic layers (mainly the pinned and free layers) is also avoided.
US08477460B1
There is provided a disk drive that includes a base, a limiting member, an actuator, and a latch. The actuator includes an actuator catch with a catch path. The latch contacts the limiting member with the latch in an open position. The latch is biased to rotate to a defeat position. An arresting portion is in the catch path with the latch in a closed position. The arresting portion is not in the catch path with the latch in the open position, and not in the catch path with the latch in the defeat position. A crash stop portion contacts the actuator with the latch in the closed position and with the actuator in a stop position. The crash stop portion does not contact the actuator with the latch in the defeat position.
US08477457B2
A head-gimbal assembly (HGA) with a suspension-lead pad having a form that is configured to inhibit formation of an inter-pad solder bridge. The HGA includes a gimbal, a head-slider and a plurality of suspension-lead pads. The head-slider is coupled with the gimbal, and includes a plurality of head-slider pads. The plurality of suspension-lead pads is coupled with the plurality of head-slider pads by a plurality of solder bonds. A suspension-lead pad comprises a first lateral side, a second lateral side, a proximal side, disposed in proximity to a respective head-slider pad, and a distal side. A first width of the suspension-lead pad closer to the proximal side is substantially larger than a second width of the suspension-lead pad further from the proximal side than the first width. A disk drive including the HGA, and a head-slider with a head-slider pad having similar form to the suspension-lead pad are also provided.
US08477444B1
The present disclosure includes systems and techniques relating to control of magnetic recording devices, such as disk drives. Systems and techniques include generating timing data based on a clock signal and a waveform produced by a head operated with respect to a rotating recording medium and the clock signal, determining model parameters based on the timing data to model deterministic disturbances associated with the rotating recording medium, predicting a frequency offset by a model-based technique for the compensation of the deterministic disturbances between two servo wedges, predicting a frequency offset associated with one or more nondeterministic disturbances by a loop filter, determining a clock adjustment based on the predicted deterministic and nondeterministic frequency offsets, and adjusting a clock frequency to read or write data within the area.
US08477442B2
Pre-patterned discrete track media for self-servo writing are described. Embodiments include land and groove patterns for two or more Integrated Servo sequence fields for each servo sector in which one of the Integrated Servo sequence fields is aligned with the data track and a second sequence is offset by one-half of a track width. The lands and grooves between the Integrated Servo sequence fields are preferably the same width as those between the data tracks to facilitate planarization. Alternative embodiments include a sync feature for each servo sector formed by a selected groove and/or land pattern as a marker for the start of the servo fields. Alternative embodiments include a bootstrap zone with servo patterns that are readable when DC-magnetized. Described methods of self-servowriting include ways to adapt to eccentricity and non-circularity of pre-patterned discrete tracks with respect to the head paths.
US08477440B2
Provided is a tape recorder that has a tape including at least one partition and that controls access to the tape. The tape recorder includes: means for identifying a position of data on the tape; means for sequentially reading necessary data areas in the data; means for sequentially copying the necessary data areas to the beginning of an empty area on the tape; means for creating a continuous front empty area formed of unnecessary data areas and copy source areas of the necessary data areas on the tape; and means for moving a beginning of the partition (BOP) to a position immediately after the front empty area and for updating the position information on the beginning of the partition.
US08477434B2
An imaging lens includes a first lens having positive refractive power; a second lens having negative refractive power; a third lens having positive refractive power; and a fourth lens having positive refractive power, arranged from an object side to an image plane side. In the first lens, a curvature radius on an object-side surface is positive and a curvature radius of an image-side surface is negative. In the second lens, curvature radii of an object-side surface and an image-side surface are both positive. In the third lens, curvature radii of an object-side surface and an image-side surface thereof are both negative. When the whole lens system has a focal length f and a distance from the object-side surface of the first lens to an image-side surface of the fourth lens is L14, the imaging lens satisfies the following expression: 0.5
US08477431B2
An image capturing lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element with positive refractive power, a third lens element with refractive power, a fourth lens element with refractive power, a fifth lens element with refractive power having a convex image-side surface, and a sixth lens element with refractive power having a concave image-side surface. An object-side surface and the image-side surface of the sixth lens element are aspheric, and the sixth lens element has at least one inflection point formed on the image-side surface thereof.
US08477426B2
A display device for a motor vehicle includes a projection module for generating an image for projection in a normal direction of looking of a user long an optical path. The display device comprises a reflection element capable of being moved between a first rest position and a second display position. The reflection element in its display position is provided in the normal direction of looking of the user. When the reflection element moves between its first rest position and its second display position, it is subjected to rotary movement about a fixed axis of rotation.
US08477425B2
This disclosure concerns an interactive head-mounted eyepiece with an integrated processor for handling content for display and an integrated image source for introducing the content to an optical assembly through which the user views a surrounding environment and the displayed content, wherein the optical assembly comprises a partially reflective, partially transmitting optical element that reflects a portion of image light from the image source and transmits scene light from a see-through view of the surrounding environment, so that a combined image comprised of portions of the reflected image light and the transmitted scene light is provided to a user's eye.
US08477424B2
A method for producing a single-layer diffractive combiner for a head-up display having a projection unit with n light sources of λi wavelength(s), where i=1 to n sending light towards the combiner at an angle θp. The method includes forming interference fringes for each λi wavelength on a photosensitive layer with an interference of two light beams from a single laser source of wavelength λe, where the forming step is repeated n times, and each time the forming step is repeated an angle θi between the two beams is determined according to θi=arcsin ((λe/λi)*sin(θp)), one of the interfering beams being divergent and having a spherical wave front and the other being a plane wave, the interference of the beams generating a diffractive network with an adjustable pitch and curved contour fringe lines.
US08477420B2
The present disclosure reveals a reflective, front-projection screen designed to faithfully and accurately display the images from state-of-the-art (SOTA) and next-generation 2D and 3D motion-picture projectors, such as those found in large-capacity public movie theaters, home theaters, offices, and for use with portable projection systems for consumer and commercial applications. In particular it discloses cinema-size light shaping 3D projection screens with front-surface microstructures and horizontal viewing angles in the range of 90 to 120 degrees.
US08477419B1
According to various embodiments, a telescope is automatically aligned without requiring user intervention and without requiring knowledge of actual local time or location. A mount model specifying a relationship between a telescope's internal coordinate system and a celestial coordinate system is generated using an arbitrary time, arbitrary telescope location, and a number of alignment reference points. A pointing error for the initial mount model is determined, for example using a plate solving technique to translate between plate coordinates and celestial coordinates for the alignment reference points. Time and location values are iteratively adjusted to reduce the pointing error until it is acceptably low. In one embodiment, adjustments are made by reference to a local sidereal time (LST) offset and/or a latitude value. In one embodiment, the iterative adjustment is performed using a two-phase methodology, including a coarse adjustment followed by a fine adjustment.
US08477418B2
A confocal laser microscope has at least one laser whose illumination light is transmitted in direction of the microscope objective by at least one light-conducting fiber. The light-conducting fiber can be plugged in at a housing which preferably comprises the scanning head of the microscope, and a holder is provided which can be plugged into the housing and into which the light-conducting fiber projects and which is provided at its end remote of the fiber with first optics for transmitting the laser light exiting divergently from the fiber in direction of at least partially displaceable collimating optics in the housing. At least second optics are advantageously arranged between the first optics and the collimating optics.
US08477411B2
Techniques, in the form of an apparatus, logic and a method, are provided to set power levels for multiple Raman pump wavelengths in a distributed Raman amplification configuration in order to achieve a target gain and tilt or desired gain profile. A Raman pump light source is activated at each of a plurality of pump wavelengths and at each of a plurality of pump power levels such that only one pump wavelength at a given pump power level is active at a time to thereby amplify an optical probe signal in the optical fiber to produce an amplified probe signal. The level of the amplified probe signal at each of the pump power levels for the plurality of pump wavelengths is measured. The pump power level for each of the plurality of pump wavelengths is computed based on the measured levels of the amplified probe signals due to each of the pump power levels and at each of the pump power levels for the plurality of pump wavelengths.
US08477409B2
Disclosed are a PLC-type delay demodulation circuit and a PLC-type optical interferometer capable of reducing the size of a PLC chip with respect to the arrangement of various kinds of light output waveguides. In a PLC-type delay demodulation circuit, arm waveguides of a first MZI and arm waveguides of a second MZI are formed so as to overlap each other in the same region of a planar lightwave circuit. The optical paths of the MZIs are arranged such that the propagation directions of two DQPSK signals branched by a Y-branch waveguide are opposite to each other.
US08477406B2
The present invention relates to a method for making a device provided with at least one closed enclosure filled with at least one liquid and closed with at least one flexible membrane based on an elastic material, comprising the steps of: a) depositing on a support (100) at least one given material in liquid form, b) at least partly solidifying said given material (130), c) depositing at low pressure an elastic material onto said solidified material so as to form a membrane, the membrane and the support forming at least one closed enclosure filled with said given material, d) melting said given material (130), so as to again liquefy said given material in the closed enclosure.
US08477405B2
A particle dispersion for display including: first particles for display including a colorant and a first polymer having a first charging group, the first particles for display being movable in response to an electric field; a first polymeric dispersant attached to the first particles for display; second particles for display including a colorant and a second polymer having a second charging group, the second particles for display being movable in response to an electric field; a second polymeric dispersant attached to the second particles for display; and a dispersing medium in which the first particles for display and the second particles for display are dispersed, the first polymeric dispersant and the second polymeric dispersant having different weight average molecular weights so that the first particles for display and the second particles for display start moving upon application of different voltages.
US08477404B2
A display medium includes: a pair of substrates having electrodes and disposed to form a space therebetween, at least one of the substrates transmitting light; a dispersion medium enclosed between the substrates; a group of particles that is dispersed in the dispersion medium and that moves in the dispersion medium according to an electric field applied between the substrates; and a treatment layer provided on at least one of surfaces of the substrates that oppose each other, the treatment layer being formed by treating the at least one of surfaces of the substrates that oppose each other with a polymer compound having a silicone chain.
US08477388B2
A scanner is disclosed. The scanner has a flatbed glass and an ADF glass mounted to a top cover with a gap formed between the two glass pieces. The scanner has a scanner module that has an ADF scan position underneath the ADF glass and a flatbed scan position underneath the flatbed glass. When the scanner module is in the flatbed scan position the scanner module references the flatbed glass. The scanner module crosses the gap between the two glass pieces when the scanner module moves from the flatbed scan position to the ADF scan position. The scanner module is lowered away from the flatbed glass as the scanner module approaches and moves across the gap between the two glass pieces.
US08477384B2
A solid-state image pickup device and image pickup method eliminate a dark-current component by adjusting the black level appropriately even if the dark-current component varies among horizontal lines. A pixel array includes light-receiving pixel elements and light-blocking pixel elements disposed such that horizontal lines include the light-blocking pixel elements individually. A readout circuit block reads pixel signals of each of the horizontal lines from the pixel array, inputs the pixel signals to ADC circuits (column ADC circuit block), and outputs the pixel signals of the light-blocking pixel elements. A ramp signal generation circuit obtains the pixel signals of the light-blocking pixel elements output from the readout circuit block, generates a ramp signal by using a reference level of AD conversion adjusted for each of the horizontal lines in accordance with the obtained pixel signals of the light-blocking pixel elements, and inputs the ramp signal to the ADC circuits.
US08477378B2
A region for quantization having a value lower than the value B is assumed as having little influence by Bk data on the pixels in this region. Thus, in order to prioritize the optimization of the granularity at the start of the input of GY data, the LUT having a combination of GY and gy as an input as an input is used to perform separation quantization. On the other hand, since a region having a value equal to or higher than the value B requires the use of Bk data, the LUT having only a combination of Bk and GY as an input as an input is used to perform quantization. As a result, the number of types of pieces of ink data referencing the table can be 2, thus suppressing an increase in the table size.
US08477377B2
A mechanism for integrating print quality enhancement (PQE) and multi-bit halftone data is disclosed. A system of embodiments of the invention includes a print control unit communicably coupled to a printer, the print control unit operable to process received multi-bit input print data for printing by the printer. The system further comprises a PQE card communicably coupled with the printer, the PQE card configured to separate multi-bit text and line art input data from multi-bit halftone image input data in the multi-bit input print data, ignore any of the identified multi-bit halftone image input data for purposes of applying PQE technology to the identified multi-bit halftone image input data, and apply the PQE technology to the identified multi-bit text and line art input data. Lastly, the system includes a print head communicably coupled to the printer, the print head operable to print multi-bit output created by the PQE card.
US08477373B2
Disclosed is an image processing system, comprising: an image processing apparatus to output image data based on an input of a print job; and an image forming apparatus to form an image based on the image data, wherein the image processing apparatus comprises a first control section to output color adjustment data so as to perform a gamma adjustment for the image data, and wherein the image forming apparatus comprises an adjustment section to perform the gamma adjustment for the image data based on the input color adjustment data.
US08477372B2
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for determining a printer metric in terms of image quality (IQ) over a large complex set of conditions based upon measurements taken over a small simple set of conditions while compensating for printer drift. The present system and method effectively utilizes a predictive model that predicts noise measurements of multi-separations from those of single-separation colors and/or a subset of the multi-separations. Because a model is used to comprehend the metric over the entire gamut, the number of patches is reduced. This reduction enables the method to be used within a machine to dynamically characterize the device's image quality metric. Various embodiments have been disclosed.
US08477369B2
An image processing apparatus which inputs data obtained by reading a chart of highlights formed by an image forming apparatus and generates a correction condition of an image reading unit based on the data. The image processing apparatus includes a first image reading unit configured to read the chart of highlights formed by the image forming apparatus, a second image reading unit configured to read the chart of highlights, a calculation unit configured to calculate a difference between an image signal read by the first image reading unit and an image signal read by the second image reading unit, and a generation unit configured to generate a correction condition for correcting reading resolving power of the first image reading unit or reading resolving power of the second image reading unit corresponding to the difference.
US08477367B2
A system and related method for selectively printing color content of a page with a reduced color gamut are provided. The system includes a detection module, a printing mode module, and a conversion module. The detection module is configured to detect a color object in the page and the printing mode module exists in at least one mode. The conversion module can selectively convert the detected color object to a converted reduced-colorant object in accordance with the existence of the at least one mode of the printing mode module.
US08477354B2
The systems and methods presented herein provide print operations to a client via a print application in a manner that makes the print application independently operable within a computing environment of the client. The system includes a print application initiator that is operable in the client to copy system definitions of the client that control computing sessions within the client, to retrieve print application definitions that control computing sessions for the print application, and to change one or more of the copied system definitions based on the print application definitions. The print application initiator is also operable to generate a computing session for the print application within the client based on the changed system definitions and to start the print application within the computing session to provide the print operations of a print processing device to the client.
US08477353B2
An information processing apparatus includes an application executing unit and a printing program executing unit. The application executing unit executes an application according to operation content received from an external terminal apparatus and outputs a printing command to print an execution result. The printing program executing unit receives the printing command output from the application executing unit using a pseudo-printing apparatus driver and transmits the printing command from the pseudo-printing apparatus driver to a pseudo-application that can output the printing command to a printing apparatus driver of the external terminal apparatus connected to a printing apparatus through a local area network.
US08477352B2
Function information related to a plurality of kinds of functions arranged in a first image forming apparatus is acquired. The acquired function information is displayed. A desired function is designated from the displayed functions. A document containing the identification information is read on the basis of the designated function. The read document image is transmitted to the first image forming apparatus through a network. The identification information of original data corresponding to the document image is received from the first image forming apparatus through the network.
US08477339B2
This invention determines a compression method of printing data in consideration of a printing operation halt time when a low-speed interface is used. An image processing apparatus of this invention, which is connected to a printing apparatus, compresses printing data, and outputs the compressed printing data, determines the interface type, acquires a print waiting time, and determines the compression method of printing data based on the determined interface type and the acquired print waiting time. The image processing apparatus compresses printing data using the determined compression method, and outputs the compressed printing data to the printing apparatus.
US08477338B2
A print job management system includes a job maintaining unit, a user default storing unit, a determining unit, and a job providing unit. The job maintaining unit stores a print job, ID information on an owner user of the print job, and model information on a job handling printer in association with each other, the job handling printer being a printing device corresponding to the print job. The user default storing unit stores ID information on a user and information on a user default printer in association with each other, the user default printer being a printing device selected as the job handling printer by default when a print job of the user is generated. The determining unit determines a specific printing device as the user default printer corresponding to a user and updates data stored in the user default storing unit when ID information on the user is input using an input device associated with the specific printing device. The job providing unit provides a print job stored in the job maintaining unit to a job handling printer corresponding to the print job.
US08477331B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for creating an electronic version of printed matter. Advantageously, the electronic version of the printed matter is such that is has the same appearance and layout as the printed matter. The electronic version of the printed matter is also such that that a viewer's interaction with the electronic version can trigger the sending of information to the viewer. The information can be in various forms including an e-mail or e-coupon. It comes with an intelligence and interactive module where viewers can read other languages' printed matter instantaneously with multi-lingual translation both in text and voice. The apparatus and method is also capable of compressing the electronic version so that it can be quickly and efficiently distributed to viewers over numerous networks. These networks can include LAN, WAN, internet, or mobile and wireless communication networks.
US08477330B2
A system providing printer resource sharing in a communication network includes a first communication device at a first location, communicatively coupled to a printer resource and to a second communication device at a second location. The first communication device may authenticate the second communication device, and subsequent to the authentication, may enable printing of information content on the printer resource, at a request of a user of the second communication device. The first communication device may authenticate the second communication device based on a signal received from the second communication device. The first and second communication devices and the printer resource may be communicatively coupled via a communication network. The communication network may include a broadband access headend, a cable infrastructure, a satellite network infrastructure, a digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure, an Internet infrastructure, an intranet or wired infrastructure, closed communication infrastructure, local area network, and/or a wireless infrastructure.
US08477323B2
A system enables a rendering intent to be specified for an object in a page description language that does not support the specifying of rendering intents. Such a system includes a user interface for receiving a rendering intent and an identification of an object associated with the received rendering intent, a page description language (PDL) file generator for generating a tag to associate the identified object with a PDL output parameter, and an encoder for encoding the received rendering intent in the PDL output parameter associated with the identified object. Such a system may be used, for example, with a PostScript or a PDF print job file.
US08477321B2
A high precision, rapidly operable optical parallelism measurement device includes a light source module, a light beam splitting module and at least two photoelectric detectors. The light source module has a light source and a light beam splitting element such that the light source module is able to produce two light beams perpendicular to each other. One of them is parallel to the moving direction, and is received by one of the detectors, while the other beam is split into two beams perpendicular to each other by the light beam splitting module. One beam is parallel to the former parallel by moving beam and is received by the other detector. With this scheme, the measurement can be performed by means of those perpendicular and parallel light beams without being affected by the structure of the machine platen to cause errors. The device can be manufactured with low cost and high precision. It is very compact in size and easy to carry and build up for rapid measurement.
US08477317B2
A position measuring arrangement that includes a retroreflector, a light source generating a lightbeam and a scanning unit that generates a partially-divergent lightbeam. The scanning unit includes a scanning mirror mounted so it is deflected in a reproducible manner so that a grid-like scanning of a two-dimensional spatial area by the partially-divergent lightbeam takes place over a plurality of scanning tracks. The position measuring arrangement including an interferometric distance measuring unit that includes a beam splitter element that splits the lightbeam generated by the light source so that split lightbeams pass through a reference arm and a measuring arm at least once in each direction. The interferometric distance measuring unit includes an opto-electronic detector unit, through which a detection of distance-dependent signals from superimposed lightbeams from the reference arm and the measuring arm takes place.
US08477301B2
An edge exposure unit includes a projector, a projector holding unit, a substrate rotating unit, an outer edge detecting unit and a surface inspection processing unit. Each component of the projector holding unit operates to move the projector in an X direction and a Y direction. The projector irradiates a peripheral portion of a substrate with light transmitted from a light source for exposure through a light guide. Edge sampling processing is performed based on distribution of an amount of light received in a CCD line sensor of the outer edge detecting unit. Surface inspection processing is performed based on distribution of an amount of light received in a CCD line sensor of the surface inspection processing unit.
US08477300B2
An optical device that may include a sighting portion including an optical axis; an electromagnetic beam source coupled to said sighting portion, electromagnetic beam source facilitates generating a source beam including an axis that is substantially parallel to said optical axis; an optical surface coupled to said electromagnetic beam source; and a frequency filter coupled within said sighting portion.
US08477297B2
The method measures first transmitted wavefronts and second transmitted wavefronts by respectively causing reference light to enter an object placed in plural placement states in a first medium and a second medium, calculates an aberration sensitivity with respect to changes of the placement state of the object, and calculates an alignment error of the object in each placement state by using the aberration sensitivity and the first and second transmitted wavefronts measured in each placement state. The method further calculates first and second reference transmitted wavefronts respectively acquirable when causing the reference light to enter the reference object placed in placement states including the alignment errors in the first medium and the second medium, and calculates a refractive index distribution of the object which a shape component thereof is removed, by using the first and second transmitted wavefronts and the first and second reference transmitted wavefronts.
US08477274B2
Disclosed is a liquid-crystal display device comprising a liquid-crystal cell comprising a liquid-crystal layer that aligns vertically to the substrate thereof in a black state, two polarizing elements that are disposed to sandwich the liquid-crystal cell therebetween in a manner that their absorption axes are perpendicular to each other, and retardation films having equivalent optical anisotropy that are disposed between each of the two polarizing elements and the liquid-crystal cell, wherein the retardation films comprise a cellulose acylate and a liquid-crystal compound, and satisfy 30 nm≦Re(550)≦80 nm, 70 nm≦Rth(550)≦140 nm, Re(450)/Re(550)<1 and Re(650)/Re(550)>1.
US08477271B2
A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate having a plurality of pixels defined thereon, each of which is provided with a reflection layer, a second substrate disposed opposite the first substrate, and a display surface which displays images by the pixels, where the display surface is curved in one direction, and each of the reflection layers is formed so that a reflectance of light reflected from each of the reflection layers in a direction normal to the display surface is higher in both edge portions in a curvature direction than in a middle portion in the curvature direction on the display surface.
US08477263B2
A liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix along a first direction and a second direction which are perpendicular to each other a TFT substrate, a counter substrate, a liquid crystal layer, a plurality of microlenses, and a backlight provided on a side of the plurality of microlenses which is opposite to the TFT substrate. The plurality of microlenses includes a plurality of lenticular lenses extending in the first direction, the plurality of lenticular lenses being arranged side by side along the second direction.
US08477262B2
Disclosed are a backlight unit and a display device using the same. The backlight unit includes a light guide plate, a light emitting module provided on at least one lateral surface of the light guide plate to supply light to the light guide plate, and a bottom cover to contain the light guide plate and the light emitting module. The light emitting module includes a substrate including a plurality of through holes and a plurality of light emitting devices which are inserted into the through holes and spaced apart from the light guide plate at a first distance.
US08477260B2
A light guide plate comprises: a rectangular light exit plane and at least one light entrance plane in contact with the light exit plane, wherein the light guide plate comprises three or more structural layers disposed on each other in a direction normal to the light exit plane, each structural layer containing scattering particles dispersed therein, the structural layers having different particle densities of scattering particles.
