US08554451B2
A stop control system for an internal combustion engine, which controls a stop position of a piston of the engine, is provided. An valve opening amount of an intake air flow rate control valve is determined based on the detected engine rotational speed and the detected crank angle after the ignition switch is turned off, and the intake air flow rate control valve is controlled so that the valve opening amount of the intake air flow rate control valve coincides with the determined valve opening amount. For example, the valve opening amount of the intake air flow rate control valve is determined according to the crank angle at the time the engine rotational speed decreases to reach a predetermined range, and the intake air flow rate control valve is controlled to be opened. With this control, the intake air amount of the engine is increased so that the stop position of the piston coincides with the desired position.
US08554449B2
A fuel injection control apparatus for controlling a fuel injection valve including an arithmetic processing section that determines whether a necessary fuel amount is injectable or not within a fuel injectable range from a first fuel injection start timing, computes a second fuel injection start timing in which the necessary fuel amount is injectable within the fuel injectable range in the case that it is not injectable, and controls the fuel injection valve at the computed second fuel injection start timing so as to start fuel injection.
US08554448B2
A fuel injection detecting device computes an actual fuel-injection-end timing based on a rising waveform of the fuel pressure detected by a fuel sensor during a period in which the fuel pressure increases due to a fuel injection rate decrease. The rising waveform is modeled by a modeling formula. A reference pressure Ps(n) is substituted into the modeling formula, whereby a timing “te” is obtained as the fuel-injection-end timing.
US08554447B2
Provided is an internal combustion engine system controller, including a sub-feedback learning section, a state determining section, and a learning update-speed setting section. The state determining section determines, to which of at least three states including: (a) a stable state in which a fluctuating state of a sub-feedback learning value is stable; (b) an unstable state in which the fluctuating state greatly fluctuates; and (c) an intermediate state between the stable state and the instable state (may be referred to as sub-stable state), the fluctuating state corresponds. The learning update-speed setting section sets an update speed of the sub-feedback learning value in accordance with the result of determination by the state determining section. Further, the learning update-speed setting section suppresses the occurrence of hunting of the sub-feedback learning value.
US08554446B2
Provided is a control apparatus, which can successfully suppress that deterioration of combustion is caused in response to inflow of a large amount of blow-by gas to cylinders at the time of a valve return from a valve stop state in an internal combustion engine including a positive crankcase ventilation system and a variable valve operating mechanism that is capable of stopping at least one valve of an intake valve and exhaust valve in a closed state. A valve stop control is performed which stops the intake valve and exhaust valve in a closed state when a fuel cut of the internal combustion engine is executed. A deviation amount ΔA/F between a predetermined target air fuel ratio and an actual air fuel ratio detected by an A/F sensor at the time of a valve return is obtained. A correction is performed to decrease a fuel injection amount by a fuel amount equivalent to the deviation amount ΔA/F at the time of the subsequent valve returns.
US08554443B2
An ECU designates a value of a variation “Vunder” based on at least one of information about driver's operation, a velocity, and a road surface gradient when an actual velocity “V” is higher than a target velocity, sets a value of a variation “Vtarget” based on the designated value of the variation “Vunder” and the target velocity, adjusts the velocity of the vehicle to the velocity of the set value of the variation “Vtarget”, and determines whether the actual velocity “V” after the adjustment is a value not greater than the value of the variation “Vtarget”. Then, the ECU converges the velocity of the vehicle to the target velocity after it has been determined that the actual velocity “V” after the adjustment is a value not greater than the value of the variation “Vtarget”.
US08554435B2
A control device for controlling a drive force that operates on a vehicle includes a first controller for controlling the drive force, and a second controller for sending to the first controller a limit of the drive force. The second controller has an input unit for inputting the drive force outputted from the first control means, and a calculation unit for computing in a first mode a limiting drive force for limiting the drive force. In a case that a first difference between the drive force and the limiting drive force is equal to or greater than a threshold value, the calculation unit calculates the limiting drive force in a second mode instead of the first mode so that the first difference is limited from becoming greater.
US08554428B2
A powertrain control system is disclosed. The powertrain control system may have a power source and a CVT coupled to an output of the power source. The powertrain control system may further have a controller in communication with the power source and the CVT. The controller may have a map with a plurality of speed modes, and, for at least one of the plurality of speed modes, the controller may be configured to vary an actual power source speed based on at least one of a CVT output speed or a ground speed.
US08554424B2
A forage harvester is provided with a chopping arrangement and a reworking device downstream from the chopping arrangement. The reworking device having two rolls between which the harvested crop chopped by the chopping mechanism can be passed through and whose spacing and/or compressive force is adjustable by a unit that is actuated by an external force and is connected with a control device. The control device is acted upon by information with regard to the cut length of the chopping arrangement and directs the unit as a function of the cut length.
US08554423B2
An automatic transmission device for a wheel loader includes: a shift mechanism; a work detection device that detects that the wheel loader is performing an excavation work; and a shift control device that executes control so as to downshift a speed stage at the shift mechanism if the work detection device detects that the wheel loader is performing the excavation work.
US08554422B2
A system for anticipating the needs of at least one passenger onboard a mobile platform is provided. A passenger seating area for receipt of the passenger includes a seat that has a seat back that moves into a reclined position, a tray table that is operable to be positioned to provide a surface for use by the at least one passenger, and a light source disposed for illumination of at least a portion of the passenger seating area. A camera acquires an image of the passenger, and a gesture control module generates activity data that includes at least one activity that the passenger is performing as recognized in the image of the at least one passenger acquired by the camera. A smart control module moves the seat back, positions the tray table, activates or deactivates the light source and performs combinations thereof based on the activity data.
US08554417B2
A narrow band feedback control system is provided to mitigate a disturbance within a predetermined bandwidth that is received by an electric power steering (EPS) system within a vehicle. A torque sensor calculates a torque value associated with the disturbance applied to the EPS system, the torque sensor outputs a torque signal related to the torque value. A filter receives the torque signal, filters the torque signal to the bandwidth associated with the external disturbance, and outputs a filtered torque signal. An amplifier receives the filtered torque signal, adjusts the gain of the filtered torque signal, and outputs a filtered, amplified torque signal. A logic module receives the filtered, amplified torque signal, generates a counter torque signal that is an inverse of the filtered, amplified torque signal and outputs the counter torque signal to the EPS system to mitigate the torque received from the external source.
US08554411B2
In an electric power steering system, an ECU 11 includes two independent microcomputers 17a, 17b that serve as motor control signal generators, and the microcomputers 17a, 17b perform the same current feedback computation. Switching arms 20a, 20b that constitute a driving circuit 18 operate independently of each other, based on motor control signals generated by the corresponding microcomputers 17a, 17b. Each of the microcomputers 17a, 17b determines whether an absolute value of a current deviation of an actual current I (I1, I2) from a current command value exceeds a predetermined threshold value. If the current deviation exceeds the threshold value, it is determined that an abnormality occurs in the system.
US08554409B2
In a method for influencing the transverse dynamics of a vehicle, a transverse dynamics disturbance variable acting on the vehicle is detected by a disturbance variable determination device and a counter-yaw moment counteracting the transverse dynamics disturbance variable is produced. For this purpose, the dynamic transverse dynamics disturbance variable is detected by the disturbance variable determination device, and a first counter-yaw moment is produced to compensate at least partially for the dynamic transverse dynamics disturbance variable with the help of a first vehicle system. The first counter-yaw moment is reduced following the at least partial compensation, and with the help of the disturbance variable determination device, a check is made whether a stationary transverse dynamics disturbance variable exists. If so, a second counter-yaw moment is produced with the help of a second vehicle system to at least partially compensate for the stationary transverse dynamics disturbance variable.
US08554398B2
One or more embodiments of a system for operating a vessel is provided herein. An illustrative system can include a plurality of power sources for operating the vessel. The power sources can include a battery bank and an AC power source. The system can also include an auxiliary device disposed on the vessel, wherein the auxiliary device comprises an electrical rotating source. Energy can be harvested from the electrical rotating source and transferred to the DC power source, a load of the vessel, or both. The illustrative system can also include a power management system that can include a processor; a data storage in communication with the processor; and a plurality of computer instructions stored on the data storage.
US08554393B2
A display system and method for an aircraft renders various airspaces and associated airspace types on an aircraft display device. An image is selectively rendering on the aircraft display device that includes at least an airspace boundary graphic representative of at least a portion of the boundary for the airspace, and a textual airspace type designation label representative of the airspace type of the airspace.
US08554391B2
Provided is a control device of an inverted pendulum type vehicle capable of moving the vehicle toward a desired direction easily. In the inverted pendulum type vehicle 1, one end of a cord member C is connected to a seat 3 via an engagement member 4. A tension of the cord member C is detected by a triaxial force sensor. According to the detected tension of the cord member C, a required center-of-gravity velocity generator 74 determines required center-of-gravity velocities Vb_x_aim and Vb_y_aim, and a manipulated variable for control is determined according thereto.
US08554389B2
A thermal manager has a digital filter whose input is to receive raw temperature values from a sensor and whose output is to provide processed or filtered temperature values according to a filter function that correlates temperature at the sensor with temperature at another location in the device. The thermal manager has a look-up table that further correlates temperature at the sensor with temperature at the other location. The look-up table contains a list of processed temperature sensor values, and/or a list of temperatures representing the temperature at the other location, and their respective power consumption change commands. The thermal manager accesses the look-up table using selected, filtered temperature values, to identify their respective power consumption change commands. The latter are then evaluated and may be applied, to mitigate a thermal at the other location. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08554377B2
Methods for optimizing a thermocline in a thermal energy storage fluid within a thermal energy storage tank are disclosed. The methods comprise identifying a thermocline region in the fluid, adding thermal energy to a fluid stream extracted from the thermocline region, and returning the fluid stream to the tank at a plurality of locations above the thermocline region. The methods further comprise regulating the temperature of the fluid returned to the tank at a set point temperature by modulating the flow rate of the fluid stream and by changing the location from where the fluid is extracted from the tank.
US08554375B2
The invention is related to a method and an apparatus for controlling a ventilating system or an air conditioning system of buildings. This controlling is used predominantly in industrial real estates and serves for the establishment and maintenance of the desired room conditions. The method for controlling a ventilating system or an air conditioning system according to the invention uses the air density as the essential parameter for the controlling. The air density depends on the temperature, the air humidity and the air pressure. The air density difference between the introduced air and the room air is kept small.
US08554369B2
According to the present invention, even during and immediately before a machining operation by a machining apparatus, it is possible to improve positioning control accuracy thereof and, as a result, machining accuracy thereof. A robot 11 equipped with a machining tool 12 performs a moving operation to a target position 41 of a machining target workpiece 2 and a machining operation on the machining target. A robot moving mechanism 14 moves the robot 11 in parallel with the workpiece 2 that is being conveyed by a conveyance carriage 18. A robot control device 17 controls movement of the robot moving mechanism 14 using a detection result of a synchronizing sensor 15 and carries out positioning control of the robot 11 using the detection result of a visual sensor 13 or a synchronizing sensor 15.
US08554344B2
The present invention relates to a compact motorized rotational stage for microscopy applications and control methods for automated sample orientation/rotation. The rotational stage includes a motor, a rotational motion transmission mechanism, and a rotating sample holder for accommodating a holding device such as glass slides/Petri dishes of different sizes. Mouse embryos are used as an example to explain the control methods. A pattern recognition utility was developed for identifying mouse embryo structures. The transformation between the holding device rotational coordinate frame and the translational positioning stage coordinate frame is calibrated during image-based visual servo control. The polar body of an embryo is oriented through purely image-based visual servo control or through coordinate transformation and closed-loop position control.
US08554342B2
An implantable lead having at least one electrode contact at or near its distal end prevents undesirable movement of the electrode contact from its initial implant location. One embodiment relates to a spinal cord stimulation (SCS) lead. A first injectable material is injected into the dura space to mechanically position the electrode array with respect to the spinal cord. Conjunctively for use with adhesives, or alternatively for use instead of the adhesives, a balloon may be positioned on the electrode lead array. The balloon is filled with air, liquid or a compliant material. When inflated, the balloon stabilizes the lead with respect to the spinal cord and holds the lead in place. An elastic aspect of the balloon serves as an internal contained relief valve to limit the pressure the balloon may place on the surrounding tissues when the epidural space is constrained.
US08554341B2
Disclosed herein is an implantable medical lead configured to receive a stylet. The lead may include a tubular body and a structure. The tubular body may include a distal end and a proximal end. The body may be configured to receive the stylet. The structure longitudinally may extend through the body between the distal end and the proximal end. The structure may be anchored within the body such that a tensile force arising within the body by the stylet being extended through the body causes the tensile force to be substantially carried by the structure.
US08554340B2
An implantable electrode array (40, 310) that includes multiple spaced apart electrodes (42, 316) to which current can be individually sourced and sunk. The array includes a carrier (80, 312) that supports the electrodes. One or more control modules that source current to or sink current from the electrodes are disposed in windows (81, 404) within the carrier.
US08554336B2
According to one embodiment, the present invention includes an elongate implantable medical lead having a distal portion that is relatively flexible, a proximal portion that is relatively stiff, and a transition portion which has a variable transition stiffness. The transition stiffness varies over the length of the transition portion that generally decreases in a distal direction. The relatively stiff proximal portion of the lead gives the lead steerability while the gradual change in stiffness in the transition portion reduces the likelihood that the lead will prolapse when it is guided into a branch vein. The distal stiffness is less than the proximal stiffness giving the lead a safe end that is unlikely to puncture vascular walls and is able to maneuver around various tortuosities when the lead is implanted into a patient.
US08554334B2
Power optimization in a medical implant based system. A method includes receiving a portion of a signal by a first transceiver. The method further includes determining, from the portion of the signal, a time duration after which a subsequent portion of the signal will be transmitted. The subsequent portion is transmitted at end of the portion. The method also includes entering into an inactive state for the time duration.
US08554330B2
The invention relates to a method of generating a place-frequency map for accurate positioning of a cochlear implant whereby the place-frequency map is used to relate a physical position of the cochlear implant to a tonotopic map of the basilar membrane/spiral ganglion. The invention also relates to a method of electrically positioning of an already inserted cochlear implant within the cochlea to provide stimuli to only the parts of the cochlea that have reduced or no residual hearing.
US08554329B1
A percutaneous cochlear implant system includes a cochlear stimulator configured to be coupled to an electrode lead, the electrode lead comprising a plurality of electrodes configured to be in communication with a plurality of stimulation sites within a cochlear region of a patient, a sound processor communicatively coupled to the cochlear stimulator and configured to control the cochlear stimulator to generate and apply electrical stimuli representative of an audio signal to at least one of the stimulation sites via at least one of the electrodes, a power source configured to provide power to at least one of the cochlear stimulator and the sound processor, and a percutaneous port configured to be percutaneously implanted within a head of the patient. The percutaneous port may be configured to house at least one of the power source, sound processor, and cochlear stimulator. Additionally or alternatively, the percutaneous port is configured to facilitate programming, recharging of a rechargeable power source (e.g., implanted battery), control of, and/or access to at least one of the power source, sound processor, and cochlear stimulator.
US08554327B2
Here we present the first model that quantitatively predicts the apparent spatial position and shape of percepts elicited by retinal electrical stimulation in humans based on the known anatomy of the retina. This model successfully predicts both the shape of percepts elicited by single electrode stimulation and the shape and relative positions of percepts elicited by multiple electrode stimulation. Model fits to behavioral data show that sensitivity to electrical stimulation is not confined to the axon initial segment, but does fall off rapidly with the distance between stimulation and the initial segment. Using the model, it is possible to compensate, preferably with a look up table, to match percepts to a desired image.
US08554310B2
A medical apparatus includes a storing section in which information concerning a drug movement in a living body is stored, an arithmetic processing section that acquires, based on the information stored in the storing section, information concerning a target region to which a first fluorescent drug is administered, information concerning a method of administering the first fluorescent drug, and information indicating start of administration, diagnosis end timing corresponding to the first fluorescent drug and sets, administration start timing of a second fluorescent drug, and a control section that performs control to start the administration of the second fluorescent drug when a current time reaches the administration start timing of the second fluorescent drug and, after the diagnosis end timing corresponding to the first fluorescent drug, performs control to reduce an irradiating light amount of excitation light for exciting the first fluorescent drug.
US08554307B2
Presented herein are methods, systems, devices, and computer-readable media for image annotation in image-guided medical procedures. Some embodiments herein allow physicians or other operators to use one or more medical devices in order to define annotations in 3D space. These annotations may later be displayed to the physician or operator in 3D space in the position in which they were first drawn or otherwise generated. In some embodiments, the operator may use various available medical devices, such as needles, scalpels, or even a finger in order to define the annotation. Embodiments herein may allow an operator to more conveniently and efficiently annotate visualizable medical data.
US08554299B2
The present invention is concerned with an electrode and electrode catheter using thin metallic threads or wires, for example, microwires having diameters as low as 10−6 to 10−4 meters or less. The embodiments allow for the efficient mounting of at least one electrode on a catheter, resulting in the creation of a flexible ring-microelectrode that is suitable for, amongst other things, the detection of myoelectrical activity in a patient's muscle, such as the diaphragm or other inspiratory-related muscle.
US08554296B2
An in vivo determination of the presence or concentration of an endogenous or exogenous substance by photoacoustically assaying the substance in the eye and correlating the presence or concentration of the substance in the eye to the presence or concentration of the substance in the blood, without removing a tissue or fluid sample from the body for assay. The eye, unlike other body sites such as the skin, has a relatively constant pressure and temperature, providing an additional utility for the inventive method.
US08554294B2
A low-noise cooling apparatus is provided. The cooling apparatus includes an outer container and an inner container. A thermal insulation layer in a vacuum state is disposed between the outer container and the inner container. The inner container includes a Dewar containing a liquid refrigerant, a prepolarization coil arranged inside the inner container and immersed in the liquid refrigerant, a pick-up coil immersed in the liquid refrigerant, and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) electrically connected to the pick-up coil and immersed in the liquid refrigerant. The prepolarization coil is made of a superconductor.
US08554292B1
The wristband for an electronic device provides for the convenient storage and transport of a small electronic device, such as a cell phone, calculator, etc. The wristband has a swivel connector attached thereto. A two-part holder assembly is attached to the swivel connector. An electronic device may be installed in the inner holder. The inner holder extends from the outer holder for use, and retracts into the outer holder for storage. The holder and electronic device are normally oriented with their major axes normal to the circumference of the wristband, i.e., generally aligned with the arm of the wearer of the device. The holders are swiveled to align their major axes across the arm of the wearer and the inner holder is extended from the outer holder in order to access the electronic device therein. This procedure is reversed for storage of the electronic device.
US08554282B2
Screen content from a first telecommunication device, such as a smartphone, is cast wirelessly and received by a second telecommunications device. The received screen content is formatted for presentation on the second telecommunications device. Screen content from among the received screen content may be selected for transmitting to a third telecommunications device. The selected screen content is transmitted to the third telecommunications device for presentation on a virtual screen of the third telcommunications device.
US08554278B2
A system and method of navigating among multiple real-time data streams on a mobile device is presented. Multiple thumbnail image representations are displayed wherein each thumbnail image is associated with an available real-time data stream. A user provides navigation input via a user interface for navigating among the multiple displayed thumbnail image representations. The thumbnail image representation currently selected based on the navigation input is highlighted or otherwise made to stand out on the mobile device display. The user then selects a highlighted thumbnail image representation, via the user interface, thereby activating the real-time data stream associated with the highlighted thumbnail image representation. This causes the real-time data stream associated with the selected highlighted thumbnail image representation to be displayed on the mobile device display.
US08554273B2
An object is to provide a mobile electronic device with high operability and high safety. The mobile electronic device includes an image projector that projects an image, a control unit that controls a projection operation by the image projector, and a cabinet that supports the image projector and the control unit. The control unit can select a first mode and a second mode, and controls an operation of the image projector, when the first mode is selected, in a condition different from that when the second mode is selected. The object is thereby solved.
US08554271B2
A mobile communication device (102) includes both a wide area network (WAN) radio modem (122), and a personal area network (PAN) radio modem (134), which operate on similar frequencies. When the both the WAN and PAN modems are operating and carrying time-sensitive data, the WAN modem disables transmission by the PAN modem when the WAN modem is due to receive data from a WAN base station (406), including neighbor scans. The duration and frequency of disabling the PAN modem is controlled so that the retransmission is successful.
US08554267B2
A method for tuning a filter is provided. The amplitude of a first signal (I1) is compared with the amplitude of a comparison signal. The first signal is generated with a first filter, which receives a first input signal, and there is a phase difference between the first signal (I1) and the comparison signal. A tuning signal is then generated based on differences between the amplitudes of the first signal (I1) and the comparison signal. The tuning signal compensates for any phase and/or amplitude offset in the first signal (I1).
US08554263B2
The peak-index calculator calculates a peak index as an indication of PAR in accordance with gain factors β of channels. The coefficient selector includes a lookup table storing therein fitting coefficients X and Y each categorized in accordance with a combination of β, and selects coefficients X and Y each having a value determined in accordance with a combination of the gain factors β. The power-reduction calculator calculates a reduction in maximum signal-transmission power in accordance with both the peak index and the selected coefficients X and Y. The TXAGC calculator controls maximum signal-transmission power in accordance with the calculated reduction.
US08554257B2
Within a cell area, an RBS typically provides communication services to UEs. During operation, the UE adjusts its transmission power according to a transmission parameter value such as the E-TFCI. The RBS provides a predetermined number of reference points for E-TFCI that covers the limited range. For any intermediate values not specifically provided, the UE calculates the SIR through interpolation. The RBS predicts a range of transmission power likely to be used by the UE and provides the reference points based on the prediction. The prediction is performed based on operational measurement.
US08554256B2
A radio base station includes: an acquiring unit which acquires a pilot signal that is discretely included in a transmission signal to be transmitted from a mobile terminal and is referenced to adjust a transmission timing of the transmission signal in the mobile terminal; an adjusting unit which adjusts the transmission timing of the transmission signal in the mobile terminal based on the pilot signal; and a changing unit which changes an adjustment period in which the transmission timing is adjusted by the adjusting unit based on a transmission cycle of the pilot signal.
US08554255B2
An approach is provided for power control. The sum of path gain relating to non-serving sectors is determined. Power spectrum density (PSD) is determined according to a power control scheme. A power level is set based on the power spectrum density (PSD).
US08554248B2
A system and method for estimating a location of a wireless device in a wireless communication system having a plurality of nodes and a plurality of location measurement units (“LMUs”). A set of signal samples from a first wireless device and a second wireless device may be collected by one or more LMUs in a search window. A first time of arrival (“TOA”) is determined, and a second search window is estimated as a function of the first TOA. A second TOA may be determined within the second search window at a second node or one of the LMUs from the set of signal samples. A range estimate of the wireless device may then be determined, and an estimated location of the wireless device may be determined as a function of the first uplink TOA, the second uplink TOA, or the range estimate and second TOA.
US08554246B2
A method for combining a plurality of individual location measurements, for use in a wireless location system, includes the following steps. A quality metric for a single location estimate is computed along with individual quality metrics and individual weightings for each individual location measurement. In addition, weighting operations incorporating a quality metric for a single location are performed, and the measurement weights are adjusted based on information about co-location groups; and a decision metric and common bias accounting for multiple reference measurements are computed.
US08554245B2
Systems, methods, apparatus and software have been discovered for use by individual users to monitor the geographic location of other people or assets with some relationship to the user. Once some manner of location information is determined, users have the ability to describe that location in various ways and control how that information is shared with other users.
US08554241B2
A method for avoiding an inter-cell interference (ICI) in a multi-cell environment is disclosed. The method includes restricting the use of a PMI in an interfering cell so as to improve a reception performance of a mobile station located at an interfered cell edge. The mobile station measures a restricted-PMI of the interfering cell, which is prohibited from use in the interfering cell, and transmits the measured restricted PMI to the interfering cell. The use of the restricted PMI is prohibited from use in a mobile station in the interfering cell.
US08554232B2
A Point to Multipoint (PMP) multi-hop relay network includes a base station, one or more relay stations and one or more subscriber stations. Active service flows in a PMP multi-hop relay network have a 16-bit connection identifier (CID). A CID defines the connection that a packet is servicing. Before traffic can be transmitted, the path through the network, and the association of CIDs with respective hops needs to be established. The CID mapping relationship from the ingress air link to the egress air link at each relay station is first set up, which is then followed by a traffic phase where the CID mapping relationship is used to route traffic from a base station to a subscriber station.
US08554220B2
A mobile terminal and a network device for providing a handover service are provided. A mobile terminal includes a transmission unit to transmit a request message for handover information to a network device, and a receiving unit to receive a response message including the handover information from the network device, wherein the request message and the response message are transceived by an application layer protocol.
US08554215B1
A method and system is disclosed for including an IMSI in an EVDO access request. When an access terminal determines that any access request it makes will be sent to a micro-type base station, the access terminal will include its IMSI in any EVDO access request. When a micro-type base station receives an EVDO access request containing an IMSI of the requesting access terminal, the micro-type base station will use the included IMSI to establish and identify a data connection to a PDSN.
US08554213B2
An apparatus and method for performing cell selection to a Home cell or a Private network in a mobile communication system are provided, in which a User Equipment (UE) determines a candidate cell by measuring a serving cell and neighbor cells, receives an indicator indicating a Home cell or a Private network in system information from the candidate cell, determines whether the candidate cell is included in a Home cell or Private network list set in the UE, and selects the candidate cell if the candidate cell is included in the Home cell or Private network list.
US08554207B2
At present, there are operators which perform a Location Update procedure for a subscriber via Local Number Server under invoice agreement with the subscriber himself, and even where the subscriber is roaming in an area without roaming agreement with the subscriber's operator. In this situation, the subscriber's operator loses revenues because it has no roaming agreements with the operator where the subscriber is roaming, whilst the latter gets revenues from the subscriber by using the subscriber's operator Subscriber Identity Module or newer operator's card. To avoid this situation, there is provided a home location server arranged to determine whether roaming restrictions apply for a home subscriber before providing authentication data for said home subscriber and either deny the authentication data for the home subscriber to the requesting entity or apply a charging or billing for the provision of the authentication data for said home subscriber.
US08554204B2
An avionic communication unit with interface capabilities is provided. The communication unit includes at least one first type port, at least one second type port and a communication function. The at least one first type port is configured to couple a communication link using a first communication format to the communication unit. The at least one second type port is configured to couple a communication link using a second communication format to the communication unit. The communication function is configured to provide communications to and from an aircraft. The communication function is further configured to interface communications between the at least one first type port and the at least one second type port wherein avionic devices located on the aircraft and using different communication formats coupled to the respective ports can communicate.
US08554201B2
A method of managing a queuing operation of a user equipment, known as UE, in a paging state for a network terminal of a wireless communications system includes, through a cell update procedure, queuing the UE at a frequency carrier where the UE currently camps and keeping the UE in the paging state.
US08554200B2
An approach for providing interference measurements for device-to-device communication is disclosed. A logic generates a control signal to instruct a plurality of stations to perform measurement relating to interference or path loss by the stations. The logic then receives measurement information from the stations and determines, based on the measurement information, whether resources are to be scheduled to provide direct communication between two of the stations.
US08554198B2
A test apparatus for a mobile communication terminal is provided with a pseudo base station and display and control units. The control unit includes a analysis unit and a tag addition unit. The analysis unit acquires and analyzes the messages from the base station to take out information from the messages. The tag addition unit detects a group of series messages which have a mutual association and are consecutive in time sequence among the messages analyzed and to add a tag for identifying each group of messages to a detected group of messages. The control unit displays the tag together with the series of messages so as to identify the respective groups of messages.
US08554195B2
A health management system for managing the healthcare data of patients, managing interactions with patients, doctors and insurance companies, and managing group messaging and data access from mobile phones of patients and doctors. The health management system facilitates interaction with a plurality of patients. It comprises a patient group management server that is communicatively coupled to a plurality of mobile devices of patients. The patient group management server in turn comprises a message interaction module, a questionnaire distribution and feedback collection module, a remote patient premises data collection module, a coaching distribution module and a content distribution service module. The patient group management server enables communication to each other of an inquiry, a response message, a coaching and guided activity, a questionnaire and relevant reference content by members of the patient group.
US08554189B2
The described principles provide a method and system for circumventing the use of live MDNs and nongeographic prefixes in new vehicle-hosted telematics devices, while allowing the purchaser/user convenient use of the vehicle-hosted telematics device. The telematics unit is programmed or configured from the manufacturer with the same parameters as a cancelled or deactivated unit, with a cleared number for re-acquisition. A geographically specific MIN/MDN is later programmed into the device based on one or more preset locational and other VDU triggers.
US08554186B2
A mobile terminal device that has a short range wireless communications unit performing short range wireless communications. A personal information storage unit storing a set of simple personal information relevant to the user of the mobile terminal device and a set of contact information for the user attached to the set of simple personal information and inhibited from being displayed on a device receiving this information.
US08554178B1
Methods and systems for efficient deployment of communication filters are presented. In an exemplary embodiment, a wireless communication device (WCD) attempts to register with a foreign agent and a home agent by using mobile IP. During this process, an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server receives a first message from the foreign agent, where the first message seeks to authenticate the WCD. The AAA server responds to the first message with a second message containing a filter to be applied to the WCD's communication. The AAA server than receives a third message containing the filter, and the AAA server responsively transmits a fourth message to the home agent, seeking to have the home agent apply the filter to the WCD's communication. In this way, communications between the home agent and the AAA server can be reduced because the home agent only communicates with the AAA server if the WCD is subject to a filter.
US08554172B2
A system and method to automatically provide a location estimate of a mobile station in communication with a mobile wireless network to an appropriate law enforcement agency in response to detecting an electronic surveillance event within a mobile wireless network. A surveillance location server extracts pertinent information from a surveillance event message and sends a request for a location estimate to network components that generate and return the location estimate. The surveillance location server forwards to the location estimate to an appropriate law enforcement agency.
US08554170B2
A cell phone software application that automatically informs a person's ICE contacts when their cell phone has made an emergency 911 call. Also included are systems for sending the GPS location of the cell phone to both the emergency service responders and to the ICE contacts. Personal medical information can also be transmitted automatically to the emergency service when the emergency call has been made. A system for disabling the alerting of the person's ICE contacts is also included such that the cell phone user is free to make emergency calls on behalf of other people.
US08554169B2
A system and method for facilitating the distribution of emergency alert messages to electronic devices via a communications network, such as a commercial mobile wireless network. The system includes a commercial mobile service provider (CMSP) gateway that is in communication with an alert gateway and the communications network. The CMSP gateway has a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) interface, such as an application programming interface (API), that is configured to receive an emergency alert message from the alert gateway. The emergency alert message includes elements that have been mapped from a corresponding emergency alert message that was issued by an alert initiator. The CMAS interface is further configured to process the emergency alert message into a format suitable for distribution to electronic devices that are in communication with the communications network. The emergency alert message is then distributed to the appropriate electronic devices via the communications network.
US08554163B2
Systems and methods for signal detection are dynamic cell searching are disclosed. In one embodiment, the period according to which a channel is monitored is dynamically adjusted according to a condition of an electronic device. In another embodiment, between a first and second monitoring of a channel of a first cell, the amount of time searching for an second cell is dynamically adjusted according to a charging condition of an electronic device.
US08554160B2
An AM (Amplitude-Modulated) transmitter capable of improving modulation distortion is provided. An adder adds a modulation signal to a pre-set power reference signal. An APC (Automatic Power Control) amplifier compares a level of a detecting signal outputted by the LPF (Low Pass Filter) with a level of an adder signal. The APC amplifier, based on the comparison result, generates a gain controlling signal that makes a difference between a level of the detecting signal and level of the signal approach zero and feeds the gain controlling signal to a power amplifier. The power amplifier modulates the signal outputted from the amplifier by the gain controlling signal and power-amplifies the modulated signal according to a level of the gain controlling signal. Since the APC amplifier feeds the gain controlling signal to the power amplifier, a modulation degree does not depend on a nonlinear distortion characteristic of the power amplifier.
US08554158B2
A polar modulation power amplifier employs both thermometer coded and binary coded amplitude modulation data. The thermometer coded amplitude modulation data selectively activates one or more equally weighted power amplifier cells. The binary coded amplitude modulation data selectively activates one or more binary weighted power amplifier cells. When less than full output power is required and the MSBs of the amplitude modulation data are zero (reducing output power at the expense of quantization noise), the power dissipated by RF signal buffers for the unused power amplifier cells corresponding to the MSBs is substantially reduced by gating off the RF signal upstream of the buffers.
US08554157B2
A method, an apparatus and a communication unit for generating precoding feedback information in a multiple frequency radio transmission system are disclosed. A rank for precoding matrices, wherein the rank is constant over the multiple frequencies, is selected and a plurality of precoding matrices having the selected rank are selected. A different precoding matrix is selected for each frequency subset of the multiple frequencies.
US08554150B2
Disclosed is a wide area network (WAN) module including plural radios, a power supply, and a switch configured so that one and only one of the radios may receive power at any one time. The switch may be electronically or manually operable; if electronically operable, the module may include a processor and a universal serial bus (USB) port for receiving power switching instructions. The WAN module may be incorporated into utility consumption measuring (metering) devices which may correspond to components in a consumption measurement and reporting automatic meter reading (AMR) system.
US08554143B2
A wireless communication link between two communication devices is established. A communication signal for contacting a second communication device is emitted from a first communication device. The communication signal is a first type of wireless data communication. Communications that are configured to transmit and receive data according to a second type of data communication are activated in the first communication device. Upon receipt of the communication signal, communications that are able to transmit and receive data according to the second type of data communication are activated in the second communication device, and the communication link according to the second type of data communication is established.
US08554141B2
A Bluetooth low energy (BLE) device receives advertising packets from an advertising BLE device. The BLE device filters the received advertising packets utilizing hardware to search for the advertiser. If the advertiser is not found by the hardware, the packet filtering continues utilizing firmware. Device identity information, comprising non-private and/or private device identities, of preferred BLE devices is partitioned to form a different white list for the hardware, firmware, and host, respectively, to concurrently support privacy and white listing. If the advertiser is found by the hardware, the hardware sends a response to the advertiser following a successful CRC check performed in the hardware. If the advertiser is found by the firmware, the device identity information of the advertiser is inserted in the white list for the hardware. The host may be awakened based on the device configuration and/or attribute type information of the received advertising packets.
US08554132B2
A method of controlling connection establishment to transmit or receive audio/video (A/V) data in a wireless network is provided. The method of controlling connection establishment to transmit or receive A/V data in a first device of a wireless network that includes a coordinator and at least one device includes transmitting connection request information required to request connection establishment with a second device and a connection request message which includes capability information of the first device to the second device and receiving a connection response message from the second device in response to the connection request message.
US08554129B2
A computer-based testing system includes testing stations connected to a testing service center and backend via the Internet for providing testing services. The system is operable to perform state management to implement fault recovery due to a computing device failure while a test is being administered. The system is also operable to utilize multiple caching techniques for mitigating network latency while administering tests.
US08554118B2
A developer unit for an image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a developer device having a developer agent carrier and a developer agent supplier, a developer agent container arranged in an upper position with respect to the developer device, and a curved wall, which separates the developer device from the developer agent container; is curved toward the developer agent container; and is formed to have a feeding opening and a collecting opening, and a conveyer, which is arranged along the developer agent supplier and conveys the developer agent toward the collecting opening. The curved wall is arranged to be in proximity to the conveyer and to fit with outlines of the conveyer.
US08554112B2
A charging device includes a corona charger; a shutter of a sheet for shielding an opening of said corona charger, the sheet having such a property that it is curled about an axis when said shutter absorbs moisture; and a winding-up device for winding up the shutter. The axis and a winding-up direction in which the shutter is wound up by the winding-up means form an angle therebetween from 45 degrees to 135 degrees.
US08554107B2
A toner box includes: a main body; a shutter; and a shutter cover. The main body is configured to accommodate toner therein and has a main-body-side communication through-hole, through which an interior and an exterior of the main body communicate. The shutter is disposed so as to be capable of moving between an open position in which the shutter opens the main-body-side communication through-hole, and a closed position in which the shutter closes the main-body-side communication through-hole. The shutter cover is configured to cover part of the shutter and that is elastically deformable.
US08554101B2
A power supply apparatus needs to control an output voltage to a target voltage for a short time. A power supply apparatus of the present invention detects voltages output from a piezoelectric transformer. The power supply apparatus also detects peak values in a plurality of detected voltages according to a plurality of frequencies of pulse signals for the piezoelectric transformer, and identifies a frequency corresponding to the highest peak value, and a frequency corresponding to a next peak value next to and on a higher- or lower-frequency side of the frequency corresponding to the highest peak value. Moreover, the power supply apparatus sets an initial frequency used when starting to control the output voltage of the piezoelectric transformer to the target voltage, within a frequency range between the two identified frequencies.
US08554099B2
An image heating apparatus includes a heater, a pressor, first and second temperature sensors, a controller, first and said coolers for cooling a surface of the heater and the pressor, respectively, a contact-spacing device for establishing a contact state of the heater and pressor and a spaced state of the heater and the pressor, a portion for executing first and second cooling modes in which at least one of the coolers is operated while rotating the heater and pressor in the contact state and in which the first and second coolers are operated while rotating the heater and pressor in the spaced state, respectively, and a selector for selecting the first cooling mode or the second cooling mode on the basis of an output of the second temperature sensor.
US08554088B2
An optical transmission apparatus in an optical transmission system that transmits an optical signal through a transmission fiber includes a measurement device that measures Raman gain efficiency of the transmission fiber; a level determiner that determines an input level of the optical signal based on Raman gain efficiency measured by the measurement device; and a controller that controls a level of the optical signal input to the transmission fiber to become the input level determined by the level determiner.
US08554080B2
An optical splitter for a passive optical network for telecommunication signal transmission with an optical line terminal includes a wavelength selective optical electrical converter, an AC/DC splitter, an energy reservoir and optical switches, where the splitter comprises also a data transmission processing module by which the optical switches can be controlled according to data signals transmitted from the optical line terminal.
US08554078B2
An optical network includes a first passive optical network optical line terminal, coupled to a first port of a first optical filter arrangement, and a second passive optical network optical line terminal, coupled to a second port of the first optical filter arrangement. An optical coupler is connected between the second passive optical network line terminal and the second port of the first optical filter arrangement. A passive optical distribution node is coupled to a third port of the first optical filter arrangement.
US08554064B1
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for vaporizing a liquid to form vapor preferably in a gas stream. The apparatus includes a composite metal structure, the structure comprising a plurality of passageways for providing heat to vaporize the liquid in the gas stream to form a gas/vapor mixture. A non-corrosive interface lies between the metal structure and the gas/vapor mixture, the interface being chemically inert to the gas/vapor mixture and the structure permitting heat to be conducted rapidly therethrough to vaporize the liquid. The apparatus further includes an inlet for the gas and an inlet for the liquid to be vaporized to flow into the plurality of passageways and an exit through which the gas/vapor mixture exits the apparatus.
US08554053B2
A non-transitory computer readable recording medium and method and apparatus for reproducing and recording text subtitle streams including a style segment and presentation segments. The style segments define a region style, and each presentation segment contains a region subtitle associated with a region subtitle and presentation time information defining a presentation time of a corresponding presentation segment. The recording medium and method allow text subtitle streams to be more efficiently and effectively reproduced and recorded.
US08554052B2
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08554047B2
In a composite audio-video apparatus, when a user operates a remote controller and sends a DVD reproducing command, a remote control receiving section receives the DVD reproducing command and outputs it into a VCR control section and DVD control section. The DVD control section controls a DVD reproduce section to reproduce a DVD, and the DVD control section sends a direction signal to the VCR control section. When the VCR control section receives the direction signal, the VCR control section sends an image changeover signal to an image output section, and the image output section is set its image inputting source to the DVD reproduce section. The image reproduced by the DVD reproduce section is outputted to a television set via the image output section.
US08554043B2
An adaptable connection enclosure (ACE) is disclosed. The ACE can employ a number of different connector blocks thereby enhancing versatility to address a myriad of different connection scenarios. In aspects, the ACE can support coax, coax/fiber, coax/CAT5, fiber/CAT5, fiber or CAT5 connector blocks without altering the ACE housing. In accordance therewith, adapter plates can be employed to effect the interchangeability.
US08554042B2
An optical fiber management shelf includes a housing having a first opening and a fiber optic termination module mounted to the fiber management shelf. A first door is pivotably mounted on the housing and pivotable about an axis from a first position substantially covering the first opening to a second position allowing access to the first opening. A first projection is on the first door, and a first receiver is on the housing configured to receive and selectively retain the first projection to releasably secure the first door to the housing. The first receiver includes a latch configured to retain the first projection when the first projection is initially inserted or pushed into the first receiver. The first receiver is also configured to release the first projection when the first projection is subsequently pressed or pushed toward the first receiver after the initial insertion into the first receiver.
US08554039B2
An optical fiber comprising: (i) a multi-mode silica based glass core, said core having a 80-300 μm diameter and an index of refraction n1; (ii) a cladding surrounding the core, said cladding having a thickness ≦20 μm and index of refraction index of refraction n2
US08554035B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing optical pulses of a desired wavelength. The apparatus includes an optical pulse source operable to generate input optical pulses at a first wavelength. The apparatus further includes a higher-order-mode (HOM) fiber module operable to receive the input optical pulses at the first wavelength, and thereafter to produce output optical pulses at the desired wavelength by soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS). The present invention also relates to a method of producing optical pulses having a desired wavelength. This method includes generating input optical pulses using an optical pulse source, where the input optical pulses have a first wavelength and a first spatial mode. The input optical pulses are delivered into an HOM fiber module to alter the wavelength of the input optical pulses from the first wavelength to a desired wavelength by soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) within the HOM fiber module, thereby producing output optical pulses having the desired wavelength.
US08554031B2
The present invention provides an optical microprobe device and method for focusing multimodal radiation with wavelength-scale spatial resolution and delivering the focused radiation to a specimen, including: a radiation source; and one or more of a plurality of optically transparent or semitransparent spheres and a plurality of optically transparent or semitransparent cylinders optically coupled to the radiation source; wherein the one or more of the plurality of optically transparent or semitransparent spheres and the plurality of optically transparent or semitransparent cylinders periodically focus radiation optically transmitted from the radiation source such that radiation ultimately transmitted to the specimen has predetermined characteristics. Preferably, the spheres or cylinders are assembled inside one of a hollow waveguide, a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, a capillary tube, and integrated in a multimode fiber. Alternatively, the spheres or cylinders are assembled on a substrate. Optionally, the optical microprobe device also includes one or more of a waveguide, an optical fiber, a lens, and an optical structure disposed between the radiation source and the spheres or cylinders. Optionally, the spheres or cylinders are made from optically nonlinear or active materials that permit efficient nonlinear frequency generation and low-threshold lasing using the optical microprobe device.
US08554030B2
An optically coupled device and an optical module including the optically coupled device are provided that can appropriately and efficiently perform position measurement of an optical surface, and allow a product having superior overall efficiency to be stably manufactured at a low cost.An optically coupled device main body 15 is formed having a shape that allows both first lens surface 5 and second lens surface 8 to be viewed simultaneously from a surface normal direction of at least one of a first surface portion 2a and a second surface portion 3a.
US08554024B2
The present invention relates to a sensor using a tilted fiber grating to detect physical manifestations occurring in a medium. Such physical manifestations induce measurable changes in the optical property of the tilted fiber grating. The sensor comprises a sensing surface which is to be exposed to the medium, an optical pathway and a tilted grating in the optical pathway. The grating is responsive to electromagnetic radiation propagating in the optical pathway to generate a response conveying information on the physical manifestation.
US08554022B1
Systems and methods for modulating light with light in high index contrast waveguides clad with graphene. Graphene exhibits a large nonlinear electro-optic constant χ3. Waveguides fabricated on SOI wafers and clad with graphene are described. Systems and methods for modulating light with light are discussed. Optical logic gates are described. Waveguides having closed loop structures such as rings and ovals, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, grating, and Fabry-Perot configurations, are described. Optical signal processing methods, including optical modulation at Terahertz frequencies, are disclosed. Optical detectors are described. Microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems using graphene on silicon substrates are described.
US08554015B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for generating a continuum of image data. The continuum can include image data representing a street level view of a geographic area. The image data can be captured at multiple disparate points along another continuum. Each continuum of image data can include a ribbon of data representing the geographic area. In some examples, image data can be simultaneously captured which represents multiple continuums of image data.
US08554010B2
An image processing apparatus that generates image data having a high dynamic range by combining a plurality of image data having different exposure amounts includes: an input unit configured to input a plurality of M-bit image data; a determining unit configured to determine reference image data serving as an exposure reference from among the plurality of input M-bit image data; a composition unit configured to combine the plurality of M-bit image data, and generate one N-bit composite image data (N>M); a characteristic parameter setting unit configured to set a characteristic parameter of tone compression on the N-bit composite image data such that a predetermined reference luminance in the reference image data does not change; and a generating unit configured to generate M-bit composite image data by compressing a luminance tone of an image component based on the set characteristic parameter.
US08554000B2
An image forming apparatus and an image forming method thereof are provided. An image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept comprises a decoder to decode a compressed image to convert the compressed image into image data, a pure black determining unit to determine whether the image data is pure black by using information of the converted image data, a section classifying unit to classify the image data into a text section and an image section by using a result of the pure black determination, and a color coordinate converter to perform color coordinate conversion on the image section of the classified sections. Therefore, it is possible to improve readability of black text.
US08553996B2
The present invention is an image transmission terminal including: an image capture unit (17, 47) that outputs pixel signals; an image data generating unit (18, 48) that generates and outputs image frame data; a first image data compression unit (19, 49) that compresses and outputs the image frame data; a second image data compression unit (21, 51) that either leaves the image frame data uncompressed or else compresses and outputs the image frame data; an image selection unit (11, 13, 41, 43) that receives an operation input from a user, and selects the image frame data; an image data storage unit (22, 38, 52, 69) that stores the image frame data output from the second image data compression unit; and an image transmission unit (20, 50, 38) that wirelessly transmits the image frame data.
US08553994B2
An apparatus comprising a decorrelator, a compressive sampler coupled to the decorrelator, and an encoder coupled to the compressive sampler, wherein the compressive sampler is configured to receive sparse data and compress the sparse data using compressive sampling. Also included is a network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising decorrelating sparse data or data including sparse data, compressing the sparse data using compressive sampling, and encoding the data. Also included is a method comprising receiving a data stream comprising a sparse data portion, compressing the sparse data portion using compressive sampling, and compressing the remaining data portion without using compressive sampling.
US08553990B2
An image classifying device comprises: a pathway data input unit for inputting a plurality of pathway data, the pathway data including person information, pathway information that is continuous location information, date information and time information; an image data input unit for inputting image data which contains imaging date/time information; a pathway data comparison unit for comparing the pathway data; an event date/time decision unit for determining an occurrence of an event and the date/time of the event based on a comparison result; and an image data classifying unit for classifying image data containing the imaging date/time information corresponding to the determined date/time of event as event image corresponding to the determined date/time of the event, the event date/time decision unit determining the occurrence of event based on a difference in the location information corresponding to a time when the time information of the compared pathway data agree.
US08553986B2
An image processing method and a system for processing the same are provided. The image processing method includes the following steps. A first image having several first areas and a second image having several second areas are provided. Each first area has a first feature point having the largest or the smallest grey value in the first area. Each second area has a second feature point having the largest or the smallest grey value in the second area. A first relationship between the first feature points and a second relationship between the second feature points are created. The first and the second feature points are paired by a microprocessor according to the first and the second relationship.
US08553973B2
Methods and/or systems for modeling 3-dimensional objects (for example, human faces). In certain example embodiments, methods and/or systems usable for computer animation or static manipulation or modification of modeled images (e.g., faces), image processing, or for facial (or other object) recognition methods and/or systems.
US08553972B2
Disclosed are an apparatus, a method and a computer-readable medium automatically generating a depth map corresponding to each two-dimensional (2D) image in a video. The apparatus includes an image acquiring unit to acquire a plurality of 2D images that are temporally consecutive in an input video, a saliency map generator to generate at least one saliency map corresponding to a current 2D image among the plurality of 2D images based on a Human Visual Perception (HVP) model, a saliency-based depth map generator, a three-dimensional (3D) structure matching unit to calculate matching scores between the current 2D image and a plurality of 3D typical structures that are stored in advance, and to determine a 3D typical structure having a highest matching score among the plurality of 3D typical structures to be a 3D structure of the current 2D image, a matching-based depth map generator; a combined depth map generator to combine the saliency-based depth map and the matching-based depth map and to generate a combined depth map, and a spatial and temporal smoothing unit to spatially and temporally smooth the combined depth map.
US08553971B2
A method and system for measuring three-dimensional coordinates of an object are provided. The method includes: capturing images from a calibration point of known three-dimensional coordinates by two image-capturing devices disposed in a non-parallel manner, so as for a processing module connected to the image-capturing devices to calculate a beam confluence collinear function of the image-capturing devices; calibrating the image-capturing devices to calculate intrinsic parameters and extrinsic parameters of the image-capturing devices and calculate the beam confluence collinear function corresponding to the image-capturing devices; and capturing images from a target object by the image-capturing devices so as for the processing module to calculate three-dimensional coordinates of the object according to the beam confluence collinear function. In so doing, the method and system enable the three-dimensional coordinates and bearings of a target object to be calculated quickly, precisely, and conveniently. Hence, the method and system are applicable to various operating environments.
US08553970B2
A system and method for performing spatial signature analysis, the system including a memory unit for storing wafer defect density maps of multiple resolutions, derived from a defect map obtained by an inspection tool; an analyzer for analyzing the wafer defect density maps to identify zones of interest; and a spatial signature generator for generating spatial signatures in response to relations between zones of interest of different density resolution.
US08553966B1
Systems and methods for analyzing dynamic occlusion during replicated excursions of virtual three-dimensional representations of a dental patient's occlusal complex are provided. The method may include scanning a patient's jaws and teeth configuration using a medical imaging system such as CBCT, laser scanners, or traditional dental impressions; creating a virtual three-dimensional representation of the patient's occlusal complex; replicating excursions of the virtual three-dimensional representation of the patient's occlusal complex based at least on virtual inter-condylar angles and distances; determining acceptable occlusal contacts and/or malocclusions within the virtual three-dimensional representation of the patient's occlusal complex based at least in part on virtual dynamic occlusion during the replicated excursions, and determining at least one virtual dental appliance and/or orthodontic repositioning of one or more teeth based at least in part on the one or more acceptable occlusal contacts and/or malocclusions within the virtual three-dimensional representation of the patient's occlusal complex.
US08553962B2
A method is disclosed for the reconstruction of picture data of a moving object under examination from measurement, with the measurement data having been recorded beforehand for a relative rotational movement between a radiation source of a computed tomography system and the object under examination. In at least one embodiment, first picture data is computed from a complete measurement dataset of the measurement data for a picture reconstruction, and second picture data is computed from an incomplete measurement dataset for a computed tomography picture reconstruction. The first picture data and the second picture data are combined into third picture data, with the combination being computed using location-dependent movement information of the object under examination.
US08553961B2
In image registration, a similarity measure is computed of first and second images (4, 6) offset at a plurality of relative axial offsets (30). A starting relative axial offset (40) between the first and second images is identified based on the computed similarity measures. An iterative image registration process is performed to relatively register the first and second images (4, 6) using the identified starting relative axial offset between the first and second images as an initial condition for the iterative image registration process. A starting relative in-slice offset (42) may also be identified as an in-slice offset effective to align corresponding slices of the first and second images (4, 6) offset at the starting relative axial offset (40), the identified starting relative in-slice offset also being used as an initial condition for the iterative image registration process.
US08553958B2
Display and navigation for multiple computer-aided detection (CAD) detections is described. A medical image is displayed to a viewer, and a request is received to instantiate CAD-assisted viewing. A timewise presentation sequence for the CAD detections is automatically computed according to a predetermined sequencing criterion. For each CAD detection, an expanded presentation window is displayed for its associated location in the medical image, the expanded presentation windows being displayed according to the timewise presentation sequence. Also described is a navigational tool comprising a plot of an operating curve onto which a computed feature associated with the CAD algorithm can be mapped, the operating curve characterizing an application of the CAD algorithm to a reference database of mammographic cases having known diagnoses. The navigational tool further comprises a plurality of CAD pointer icons spatially distributed therealong according to mappings of the computed feature for the CAD detections onto the operating curve.
US08553955B2
According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus comprises a storage unit configured to store a plurality of volume data acquired by imaging a predetermined part of an object, the plurality of volume data corresponding to a plurality of phases, a calculation unit configured to calculate a spatial motion vector of each voxel included in each volume data by performing registration between the plurality of volume data, an image generation unit configured to generate an image representing a local motion of the diagnosis part using the motion vector of each voxel, and a display unit configured to display the image representing the local motion of the diagnosis part.
US08553954B2
A system enables a user to mark a ROI of a vessel portion having detected boundaries and extend the detection of vessel boundaries into a region identified by the user. An anatomical blood vessel detection and display system includes a user interface enabling a user, via a display of an image presenting anatomical vessels, to, mark a region of interest in a vessel identified by detected boundaries in the image and extend the marked region of interest of the vessel. A detector automatically detects a boundary of the vessel in the extended marked region of interest by detecting an edge representing a change in luminance in data representing the image. An image data processor identifies a minimum vessel diameter in the extended marked region of interest between the detected boundaries and initiates identification of the location of the minimum vessel diameter in the image.
US08553953B2
An endoscopic navigation method includes the steps of: receiving an image from an endoscopic navigation system; performing image classification to determined whether the image is usable; performing a first image process on the image to filter out dark areas of the image to produce a first processed image; performing a first determination procedure to identify the dark areas of the first processed image; producing a first result image for indicating lumen direction; performing a second image process to filter out fold curves of the image to produce a second processed image when there is no dark area in the image; performing a second determination procedure to identify the fold curves of the second processed image; producing a second result image for indicating lumen direction according to the fold curves; and outputting the first or the second result image to a display device to assist users in operating the photographic device.
US08553934B2
Techniques are provided for re-orienting a field of view of a depth camera having one or more sensors. The depth camera may have one or more sensors for generating a depth image and may also have an RGB camera. In some embodiments, the field of view is re-oriented based on the depth image. The position of the sensor(s) may be altered to change the field of view automatically based on an analysis of objects in the depth image. The re-orientation process may be repeated until a desired orientation of the sensor is determined. Input from the RGB camera might be used to validate a final orientation of the depth camera, but is not required to during the process of determining new possible orientation of the field of view.
US08553932B2
The optical device for determining position and orientation of an object comprising a fixed part comprises a laser beam projector with sequential scan and a projection centre (O), defining the centre of a reference frame (R) in space. The projector emits, in a zone comprising at least four sensors fixed to the said object, the four sensors having a known disposition on the object. The instants at which each of the sensors provides an electrical pulse determine the angular directions of the said sensors in the reference frame, the four straight lines passing through the origin and through each of the sensors intercepting an image plane of the fixed part at four projected points. The positions in the image plane of the mappings of the four points determine a geometric shape making it possible to calculate the position and the orientation of the object in space.
US08553927B2
An image processing device extracts additional information from image data and includes an input unit to input a plurality of image data items, an additional information extracting unit to extract an additional information item from each image data item, and a determining unit to determine a process to be performed for each image data item based on the extracted additional information item. The determining unit is configured to determine a process to be performed for an image-data group containing the plurality of image data items, based on a plurality of additional information items extracted from the plurality of image data items, and determine a process to be performed for each image data item based on one of the plurality of additional information items.
US08553925B2
A loudspeaker includes a movable diaphragm, a resilient centering device for centering and guiding the movement of the diaphragm, and a magnet system for controlling the movement of the diaphragm, where the diaphragm is positioned between the magnet system and the resilient centering device.
US08553923B2
An in-ear earphone has a housing in which a driver is located. An articulated acoustic tube is coupled to the housing at its near end portion. The acoustic tube has an open far end portion that is to be inserted into an ear. A hinge or pivot mechanism is formed in the tube, between the near and far end portions. An acoustic aperture formed within the mechanism acoustically couples sound pressure waves, generated by the driver, to the far end portion of the acoustic tube. Other embodiments are also described.
US08553919B2
An audio source system may be built into a garment such as a hooded garment in such a way that safety concerns such as with a hooded garment for children are taken into account so that the audio system wiring cannot be made loose causing a danger of strangulation nor can the hood be cinched. This is done by putting speakers into the hood between a lining and an outer layer and passing the wires into the space between them and then into a tube that is open to the hood inner space and down the tube to a pocket in the body of the garment. Also securing tabs are used to prevent cinching action upon pulling the wire.
US08553916B2
A method, hearing aid, and computer product for changing the sequence of program positions of hearing programs are provided. The program positions of the hearing programs have a predefinable sequence. Time periods, within which hearing programs are selected, are measured. A new sequence of the program positions is calculated taking the measured time periods into account. The sequence of the program positions after a predefinable time span is modified in accordance with the calculated sequence. As a result hearing aids adapt to changed environments and place favorite programs in the front section of the program positions in accordance with the hearing aid wearer's preference.
US08553905B2
A system that records audio and stores the recording is provided. The system includes first and second monitoring assemblies mounted in an earpiece that occludes and forms an acoustic seal of an ear canal. The first monitoring assembly includes an ambient sound microphone (ASM) to monitor an ambient acoustic field and produce an ASM signal. The second monitoring assembly includes an ear canal microphone (ECM) to monitor an acoustic field within the ear canal and produce an ECM signal. The system also includes a data storage device configured to act as a circular buffer for continually storing at least one of the ECM signal or the ASM signal, a further data storage device and a record-activation system. The record-activation system activates the further data storage device to record a content of the data storage device.
US08553904B2
Systems and methods for performing sound source localization are provided. In one aspect, a method for locating a sound source using a computing device subdivides a space into subregions. The method then computes a sound source power for each of subregions and determines which of the sound source energies is the largest. When the volume of the subregion is less than a threshold volume, the method outputs the subregion having the largest sound source power. Otherwise, the stages of partitioning, computing, and determining the subregion having the largest sound source power is repeated.
US08553902B2
A multi-channel broadcasting system using a digital matrix amplifier performing the setting of respective equipment is provided to control the model equipment through a digital master controller. An 8-channel audio input unit 66 is electrically connected to a digital audio mixer. Sound source equipment connection terminals are electrically connected to the sound equipment. A data converter unit 46 converts each data and a contact point signal. An audio matrix IC 60 outputs an input sound source signal to an arbitrary channel. A pair of audio output terminals transmits the output signal of the audio matrix IC.
US08553901B2
An hearing prosthesis configured to cancel received bone-conducted sound. The hearing prosthesis comprises: first and second matched microphones configured to be implanted in a recipient in a spaced arrangement such that the first microphone receives air-conducted sound signals and bone-conducted sound signals substantially simultaneously, and wherein the second microphone receives bone-conducted sound signals at substantially the same time as the first microphone and receives the air-conducted sound signals after a time delay. The time delay results in a relative phase difference between the air-conducted sound signals and the bone-conducted sound signals received by the second microphone. The prosthesis also comprises a noise cancellation system configured to cancel, based on the phase difference, the bone-conducted sound signals received by the first and second microphones.
US08553893B2
A sound processing device includes an inputting section which inputs L-ch audio data and R-ch audio data, a delaying section which applies a delaying process to the L-ch audio data and the R-ch audio data for a delay time that is set in a range from 62.5 microsecond to 125 microsecond, an adding section which adds the delayed L-ch audio data to the inputted L-ch audio data, and which adds the delayed R-ch audio data to the inputted R-ch audio data, a phase adjusting section which adjusts a phase of the added L-ch audio data into a phase that is different from a phase of the input L-ch audio data, and which adjusts a phase of the added R-ch audio data into a phase that is different from a phase of the inputted R-ch audio data, and an outputting section which adds the L-ch audio data whose phase is adjusted by the phase adjusting section to the inputted R-ch audio data and outputs resultant R-ch audio data, and which adds the R-ch audio data whose phase is adjusted by the phase adjusting section to the inputted L-ch audio data and outputs resultant L-ch audio data.
US08553891B2
A stereo audio decoder generates a set of stereo output channels in response to a parametric audio input including signal parameters and stereo related parameters. A parameter processor generates two different set of parameters based on the input signal parameters thus up-mixing the signal parameters by altering or manipulating the signal parameters corresponding to the stereo related parameters. The two different parameters are synthesized by separate signal synthesizers to form respective stereo output channels. The signal synthesizers may be sinusoidal synthesizers, and the decoder also includes transient and noise synthesizers to generate transient and noise signal portions to be applied to the stereo output channels. Further, different transient and noise signal portions to the output channels may be provided by applying different gains based on the stereo related parameter. The two different parameters may be determined from current and previous signal parameter inputs using an input delay line.
US08553890B2
A sound reproduction system includes low frequency speaker units for reproducing low frequency sounds by receiving audio signals on low frequency channels among a plurality of channels, and a holder for holding the low frequency speaker units so as to be disposed in the vicinity of both ears of a listener without being mounted on baffle boards so that sounds from front and back surfaces of diaphragms of the low frequency speaker units are added.
US08553886B2
An advertisement management device generates and manages advertisement information and an advertisement identifier, a tag management unit generates a tag identifier and tag information unique to the tag identifier, and manages the tag identifier, the tag information, and the advertisement identifier generated by the advertisement management device in associated manner. The tag management unit sends the tag identifier and the advertisement identifier to the radio tag. A reader reads the tag identifier and the advertisement identifier from the radio tag, sends the tag identifier to the tag management unit, and sends the advertisement identifier to the advertisement management unit. The tag management unit sends tag information corresponding to the tag identifier received from the reading unit to a display unit, and the advertisement management unit sends advertisement information corresponding to the advertisement identifier received from the reading unit to the display unit.
US08553877B2
A computing device-implemented method and system is provided for obtaining an interim masked substitution table value for a given input component in a cryptographic round, such as an AES cryptographic round, using a substitution table and a self-cancelling mask. A mask with a length equal to an entry in the substitution table is provided, wherein the mask comprises a plurality of mask components of equal length such that a bitwise logical inequality operation such as XOR on the mask components equals zero, and the substitution table is masked with this mask. For each of input component, an interim masked substitution table value is obtained from the substitution table thus masked.
US08553876B1
Improved performance of a chip multithreading (CMT) processor during processing of a cipher is disclosed. The chip multithreading processor may be located on a chip multithreading processor chip that includes a processor cache. The selection of a cipher is received. The cipher is processed by executing a plurality of cryptographic operations on the chip multithreading processor. Lookup tables used during the execution of the plurality of cryptographic operations are determined. The size of at least one of the lookup tables may be increased, such that the at least one lookup table is able to be stored in a processor cache located on the chip multithreading processor chip. Further adjustments may be made to the size of one or more lookup tables depending on the cipher selected, other operations executing on the chip multithreading processor, or both.
US08553860B1
An embodiment of the invention provides a method for communicating on a telecommunications device, wherein a telephone number is received from a user via an interface of the telecommunications device. At least one character from the user is also received via the interface in response to key press options presented to the user. The telephone number and the character received from the user are automatically saved on a memory device. The character is automatically associated with the telephone number. Contextual information associated with the character is saved, wherein the contextual information indicates the time of day that the character is entered, the date that the character is entered, and/or the type of call where the character is entered. The character is presented to the user in a list of previously entered characters on a display of the telecommunications device during a subsequent telephone call to the saved telephone number.
US08553856B2
Systems, methods and machine readable media for processing voicemails are described. In one embodiment, a method includes presenting, on a first data processing system, a first user interface which is capable of presenting data representing a plurality of voicemails and receiving from the first user interface a selection for playback of one of the plurality of voicemails. The data representing the plurality of voicemails are received from a second data processing system which includes a voicemail system which records voicemails left for customers of a public telephone carrier, and the first user interface is configured to receive the selection of any one of the plurality of voicemails in any order. Systems, media and other methods are also described.
US08553854B1
Methods and systems are provided for using voiceprint technology in CALEA surveillance. A media-analysis platform receives packets from a bearer element, the packets comprising media data representing a copy of at least part of a real-time media session. The bearer element is configured to initially send to the platform a copy of each of a plurality of media sessions that traverse the bearer element, and to stop sending a copy of a particular session in response to receiving an instruction from the platform. Responsive to receiving the packets, the platform compares the media data to at least one media-data profile, where each profile is associated with a target of surveillance. The platform determines whether the data matches any of the profiles. If the data does not match any of the profiles, the platform sends an instruction to the bearer element to stop sending the copy of the session.
US08553851B2
A software solution to recording IP based communications that is highly scalable and reliable. Recordings can be configured to occur automatically or be triggered on-demand by a user that has been given the rights to do so. The user initiating the on-demand recording need not be a participant on the call. The solution is based on two server components: a call manager and a media server. The call manager is responsible for re-routing the IP media stream between two endpoints via the media server. The media server relays the IP media packets while capturing a copy that is stored as the recording. The recordings are stored on a network share and secured using standard network file security mechanisms. Access to playback recordings requires rights that are configured via the administrator. Playback of the recordings can be accomplished via the phone, client application or web service. Each playback interface offers a listing of recordings that the user has rights to access.
US08553838B2
A system and process for classifying a piece of material of unknown composition at high speeds, where the system connected to a power supply. The piece is irradiated with first x-rays from an x-ray source, causing the piece to fluoresce x-rays. The fluoresced x-rays are detected with an x-ray detector, and the piece of material is classified from the detected fluoresced x-rays. Detecting and classifying may be cumulatively performed in less than one second. An x-ray fluorescence spectrum of the piece of material may be determined from the detected fluoresced x-rays, and the detection of the fluoresced x-rays may be conditioned such that accurate determination of the x-ray fluorescence spectrum is not significantly compromised, slowed or complicated by extraneous x-rays. The piece of material may be classified by recognizing the spectral pattern of the determined x-ray fluorescence spectrum. The piece of material may be flattened prior to irradiation and detection. The x-ray source may irradiate the first x-rays at a high intensity, and the x-ray source may be an x-ray tube.
US08553836B2
Disclosed is a process of producing a microCT image of a stained specimen, wherein said specimen is a non-human organ, said process comprising: incubating a specimen in a first staining composition, said first staining composition comprising a first staining agent, to produce a stained specimen; submerging said stained specimen in a liquid with an electron density lower than that of said stained specimen; and placing said stained specimen in a specimen holder and scanning said stained specimen in an X-ray computed tomography scanner to produce said microCT image of said stained specimen.
US08553833B2
In a method for operating an imaging apparatus, and an imaging apparatus that has an x-ray source with a focus and a measurement volume with a central axis around which measurement volume the focus can be moved, acquisition of x-ray projections of a measurement subject that is arranged eccentrically relative to the central axis in the measurement volume are produced. The segment of the measurement volume in which the measurement subject is arranged is established based on an overview image and the projection angle range Δα in which x-ray projections should only be acquired in order to be able to reconstruct at least one image of the measurement subject is determined based on the establishment of the segment of the measurement volume.
US08553830B2
A shift register is disclosed, which can prevent malfunctioning of device by decreasing the load on a discharging voltage source line, and can decrease a size of stage. The shift register comprises a plurality of stages to sequentially output scan pulses through respective output terminals, wherein each of the stages comprises a pull-up switching unit controlled based on a signal state of node, and connected between the output terminal and any one among a plurality of clock transmission lines to transmit the clock pulses provided with sequential phase differences; and a node controller to control the signal state of node, and to discharge the node by using the clock pulse from any one among the plurality of clock transmission line.
US08553826B2
A method and system of applying modulated carrier signals to tree networks and processing signals tapped from the tree networks to generate output signals with phase-synchronized carriers are disclosed.
US08553819B2
Method and system for wireless communication in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system is disclosed. The method involves receiving a plurality of receive-signals over a first set of antennas. Further, one or more of the plurality of receive-signals are cyclically delayed to generate one or more cyclically delayed receive-signal. Subsequently, one or more of the plurality of receive-signals are combined with one or more of the cyclically delayed receive-signals. In other words, the method involves performing receive Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD).
US08553818B2
There is provided a method of determining a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS). The method includes predicting an error rate of a symbol and determining a MCS of the symbol using the error rate. Since a MCS level is determined using an estimated error rate and user data is scheduled, multi-user diversity gain can be obtained and the transmission rate can be improved.
US08553816B2
A spread signal is produced having an adjustable spread spectrum. A data signal is provided for transmission. The data signal is processed to have a first spread spectrum. The processed first spread spectrum data signal is filtered to have one out of a plurality of spread spectrums. The filtering capable of producing a signal having a spread spectrum of any of the plurality of spread spectrums. The filtered one spread spectrum data signal is transmitted.
US08553814B2
In a communication receiver, timing recovery circuitry includes a loop filter associated with a timing recovery loop of a first communication device. The first communication device is in communication with a second communication device prior to a temporary power down/power up sequence in the first communication device. The loop filter is configured to: (i) temporarily disable at least a portion of the timing recovery loop after the temporary power down/power up sequence in the first communication device; and (ii) initiate a progression through a set of potential sampling phases to determine a given sampling phase at which the first communication device can recommence communication with the second communication device.
US08553812B2
Discussed herein is a synchronization structure for a receiving apparatus for receiving signals in a communication system, in which the signals are transmitted in frames, each frame comprising a synchronization part with synchronization sequences, wherein at least one of the synchronization sequences has a different phase than the other synchronization sequences. The synchronization structure includes a correlation unit configured to perform a correlation on the synchronization part, a peak detection unit configured to detect candidate correlation peaks and the correlation result, and a correlation peak detection unit configured to detect a correlation peak among said candidate correlation peaks on the basis of a confidence value and phase information. Further, a corresponding synchronization method that enables frame synchronization with a higher performance in low signal to noise ratio environments is also discussed.
US08553805B2
A method and apparatus at a local terminal are described for demodulating a remote-terminal signal located at a subband offset frequency in a frequency subband of relayed interference from a transponder satellite link. The demodulation of the remote-terminal signal is accomplished by transferring the digital data that produced the local-terminal transmit signal to the local-terminal receiver. The digital data is time-delayed and converted to a narrowband offset-constellation signal that cancels the relayed interference in an adaptive equalizer. Providing cancellation in the subband of the relayed interference produces larger interference cancellation factors than those obtained in conventional broadband cancellation systems. A phase-noise error signal is also generated and used to increase cancellation levels limited by phase noise generated in the satellite link frequency converters. Additionally the receiver converter frequencies are chosen such that errors in estimating the subband offset frequency do not affect cancellation in the adaptive equalizer.
US08553804B2
In one embodiment, a UWB transmission system includes a pair of crossed linearly polarized antennas, one of which is fed with a UWB signal current, while the second is fed with a temporally orthogonal UWB signal such as the time-derivative of the UWB signal current. The resultant elliptically polarized radiated fields are simultaneously orthogonal in space and orthogonal in time. In another transmission system, a loop and a co-located dipole are fed with the same current to generate signal exhibiting elliptical polarization. When the energies of the transmissions from each antenna are equal, the polarization is circular. Thus a UWB transmitting and receiving system is shown that utilizes signals that are simultaneously spatially orthogonal and temporally orthogonal, and the several combinations of those signal and polarization states encode data for transmission.
US08553803B2
An apparatus configured to receive a first signal and a second signal from a further apparatus, determine a third signal dependent on at least a first part of the first signal and a first part of the second signal, and generate a parameter value dependent on the third signal.
US08553793B2
An apparatus and method for transmitting feedback information are provided. In a method of operating a transmitter for transmitting feedback information in a broadband wireless access system, the method includes estimating a channel of a second path on the basis of information of a received downlink frame, obtaining a channel representative value corresponding to the estimated channel of the second path, modulating the channel representative value by spreading the channel representative value to a sounding symbol to be transmitted, and transmitting the modulated sounding symbol through a first path.
US08553789B2
A method of estimating at least one modulation parameter of an OFDM signal, the signal being sampled during a time window in order to provide a sequence of samples, the method including: (a) grouping together consecutive samples of the sequence according to a tested value of the parameter, in order to form a plurality of vectors; (b) estimating a covariance matrix of the vectors; (c) calculating a theoretical covariance matrix that would be obtained using an OFDM signal of which the modulation parameter would have the tested value; (d) measuring a distance between the covariance matrix and the theoretical covariance matrix; and iterating the steps (a), (b), (c) and (d), wherein the estimated value of the parameter is that achieving a shortest distance in the step (d).
US08553787B2
Provided are a base station configured to provide an interference vector indicator to a terminal, and the terminal configured to recognize at least one remaining precoding vector using the interference vector indicator. Each of the base station and the terminal may configure a mapping table between at least one bit for the interference vector indicator indicating the at least one remaining precoding vector, and a plurality of vectors included in a codebook, based on a probability that the plurality of vectors may be included in a precoding matrix. In this instance, the base station may generate the interference vector indicator using the mapping table, and the terminal may recognize the at least one remaining precoding vector using the mapping table. The mapping table may be differently configured according to various modes.
US08553773B2
In the method for predicting an image, a current image block is predicted using first and second image blocks, temporal information for a current picture and at least one reference picture related to one of the first and second image blocks.
US08553749B2
A method of transmitting on a transmission line a set of carrier signals of which at least one component represents a respective data value and the carrier signals are of different frequencies ranging from a lowest frequency to a highest frequency, in which the respective component of each carrier above the lowest frequency is adjusted on transmission in accordance with a selected relationship between that respective component and the corresponding component of the next lower frequency so as to compensate for the frequency-dependent effect of the transmission line on those components. The components may be amplitudes. The relationship may be a ratio of the respective and corresponding components. Alternatively each respective component may be adjusted in accordance with a scaling factor dependent on the previous data value presented by the corresponding component of next lower carrier frequency, the scaling factor being a ratio between a predetermined value and the said corresponding component, the predetermined value depending on the said previous data value. The components may be phases and the phase of each carrier after the first may be set from the phase of the previous lower frequency carrier augmented by the ratio of the data value in bits and the number of bits that can be carried by the respective component.
US08553748B2
The present invention introduces a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for mitigating effects of alias responses in a transceiver, by selecting a clock rate for an analog-to-digital converter based on a determined maximum conversion rate of the ADC. The selected conversion rate places an alias response of the unwanted signal component to a frequency range which is substantially non-overlapping with a wanted signal component of the receiver. Furthermore, a temperature of the transceiver may be measured e.g. by a temperature compensation unit of a reference oscillator. Furthermore, a data table may be used by a processing unit for linking temperatures with maximum conversion rates of the analog-to-digital converter. The method is implemented in the processing unit of the transceiver which is further configured to execute the operations of the corresponding computer program product according to the invention.
US08553745B2
Low power wireless communication techniques may be employed in devices that communicate via a wireless body area network, a wireless personal area network, or some other type of wireless communication link. In some implementations the devices may communicate via one or more impulse-based ultra-wideband channels. Inter-pulse duty cycling may be employed to reduce the power consumption of a device. Power may be provided for the transmissions and receptions of pulses by charging and discharging a capacitive element according to the inter-pulse duty cycling. Sub-packet data may be transmitted and received via a common frequency band. A cell phone may multicast to two or more peripherals via wireless communication links.
US08553744B2
An apparatus for communications configured to support first and second spread-spectrum channels, each of the first and second channels being based on a different pseudorandom sequence. The apparatus further configured to select one of the first and second channels for communications to avoid a collision of information that would otherwise occur based on their pseudorandom sequences.
US08553734B2
A system includes: a first nonlinear crystal arranged to receive to a first laser beam having a first wavelength λ1 and operable to generate, by frequency doubling of the first laser beam, a second laser beam having a second wavelength λ2, in which the second beam propagates collinearly with the first beam; a second nonlinear crystal arranged to receive the first and second laser beams from the first crystal, in which the second crystal is operable to generate, by frequency mixing of the first and second laser beams, a third laser beam having a third wavelength λ3; and one or more lenses between the first and second crystals, in which the one or more lenses are operable to spatially separate the first and second beams. The first and second laser beams propagate at an offset and/or titled with respect to an optical axis in order to cause the spatial separation.
US08553725B2
A node is configured to receive an instruction to establish a channel having a bandwidth that corresponds to an operating spectrum an optical fiber; obtain information that identifies a channel spacing and a pointer that identifies where, within the spectrum, to establish bandwidth allocations; identify a group of bandwidth segments based on the spectrum and the channel spacing; and generate bit words that correspond to the bandwidth allocations, where the bit words includes bits that, when set to a value, cause sets of segments to be reserved within the spectrum, and where the sets of segments identify where the bandwidth allocations begin and end, within the spectrum, relative to the pointer.
US08553714B2
A unified contention based protocol is implemented in which a source station within a basic service set selects the protection methodology for data transmission on the communication medium. Utilizing EDCA as a medium access method and maintaining that each transmission opportunity has multiple slots, the source station is provided with the opportunity to select a protection methodology based on the protection environment, which enables transmission opportunity protection without direct PCP involvement.
US08553711B2
Techniques for performing association and resource partitioning in a wireless network with relays are described. In an aspect, resource partitioning may be performed to allocate available resources to nodes and access/backhaul links of relays. In one design, a node computes local metrics for a plurality of possible actions related to resource partitioning. The node receives local metrics for the possible actions from at least one neighbor node and determines overall metrics for the possible actions based on the computed and received local metrics. The node determines resources allocated to a set of nodes and resources allocated to the access and backhaul links of at least one relay based on the overall metrics for the possible actions. In another aspect, association involving relays may be performed by taking into account the performance of the relays. In yet another aspect, association and resource partitioning may be performed jointly.
US08553699B2
One or more flow control modules, implemented on various types of network topologies, provide a number of functionalities for controlling the flow of IP packets (such as TCP/IP packets) over a network connection. The flow control modules may be implemented within a sender and/or receiver or may be deployed into a network as a separate device without requiring significant additional resources.
US08553697B2
An Ethernet virtual switched sub-network (VSS) is implemented as a virtual hub and spoke architecture overlaid on hub and spoke connectivity built of a combination of Provider Backbone Transport (spokes) and a provider backbone bridged sub-network (hub). Multiple VSS instances are multiplexed over top of the PBT/PBB infrastructure. A loop free resilient Ethernet carrier network is provided by interconnecting Provider Edge nodes through access sub-networks to Provider Tandems to form Provider Backbone Transports spokes with a distributed switch architecture of the Provider Backbone Bridged hub sub-network. Provider Backbone transport protection groups may be formed from the Provider Edge to diversely homed Provider Tandems by defining working and protection trunks through the access sub-network. The Provider Backbone Transport trunks are Media Access Control (MAC) addressable by the associated Provider Edge address or by a unique address associated with the protection group in the Provider Backbone Bridged network domain.
US08553694B2
A pseudo wire label reflector, based on a existing label distribution router, further includes: a mode management unit, for determining the mode for switching and transferring a pseudo wire label message; a first session management unit, for saving the support information that LDP signaling session connection supports the pseudo wire label reflecting capacity; a first pseudo wire label receiving unit, for receiving a pseudo wire label message; a first pseudo wire management unit, for saving the switched pseudo wire state and deciding whether to modify the pseudo wire label message according to the switch and transfer mode determined by the mode management unit; a first pseudo wire label sending unit, for sending the pseudo wire label message. The invention also provides an edge apparatus and a L2 VPN. The present invention makes PE equipments participating pseudo wire service to set up PSN tunnel and LDP signaling session connection with the pseudo wire label reflector by introducing the pseudo wire label reflector and extending the capacity that the current edge apparatus supports the pseudo wire label reflector.
US08553693B2
An embodiment may include network controller to be comprised in a first node. The node may be communicatively coupled to a network and may include a host processor to execute an operating system environment. The operating system environment may include, at least in part, a communication protocol stack and an application. The circuitry may receive, at least in part, a packet from the network. The packet may include, at least in part, a header and payload. At least one portion of the payload may be associated with the application. The circuitry may issue at least one portion of the header to the stack. The circuitry may issue the at least one portion of the payload to a destination device in a manner that by-passes involvement of the stack. The destination device may be specified, at least in part, by the application. Many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible.
US08553686B2
Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to an example embodiment, a switch may comprise an instruction decode stage and a lookup stage. The instruction decode stage may be configured to receive a bulk instruction identifying an action to perform on frame entries of the lookup stage, and in response to receiving the bulk instruction, send, to the lookup stage, at least first and second frame entry instructions, each of the first and second frame entry instructions identifying the action and identifying a unique frame entry in the lookup stage upon which to perform the action. The lookup stage may be configured to receive the first and second frame entry instructions from the instruction decode stage, and in response to receiving each of the first and second frame entry instructions, perform the identified action on the frame entry identified by the respective frame entry instruction.
US08553684B2
According to an example embodiment, a method may include receiving a message, appending a header set to the message, and transmitting the message from an ingress port to an egress port of the network switching system based on the header set. In an example embodiment, the header set may include a variable number of headers, wherein one or more of the headers in the header set includes a next header field to identify a type of header following a current header in the header set. In an example embodiment, the packet may be segmented and transmitted across the switching system as a plurality of cells, where a cell destination address may be a portion (e.g., subset of bits) of the packet destination address.
US08553678B2
A packet-based communications system is provided, including: a client communications module for transmitting digital audio signals to a user interface device over a local area network (LAN) and for receiving digital audio signals from the user interface device, a voice packet module configured to: receive audio signals from the client communications module and encapsulate the audio signals into data packets; convert data packets into audio signals and transmit the audio signals to the client communications module, and a network protocol module for transmitting data packets between the voice packet module and an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
US08553674B2
A method for wireless data transmission between a base station and a transponder is provided, in which data are transmitted between the base station and the transponder in the form of data packets that include a header section with at least one symbol for setting one or more transmission parameters and include at least one additional section. The transponder monitors, during the data transmission, to determine whether a time period between two successive symbol delimiters transmitted by the base station exceeds a maximum time, and if the maximum value is exceeded, a receiver unit of the transponder is reset. The maximum time can be determined in the transponder on the basis of the at least one symbol in the header section.
US08553670B2
A radio communication device performing radio communication using OFDMA system includes: a SMI weight deriving unit (14) calculating a correlation matrix and a correlation vector using a plurality of received signal vectors as sample values, and deriving a SMI weight based on the calculated correlation matrix and correlation vector; and a weight multiplying unit (15) for multiplying the received signal vector by the SMI weight derived by the SMI weight deriving unit (14). The SMI weight deriving unit (14) uses a received signal vector of each of a plurality of subcarriers included in a user allocated region in the OFDMA system as a sample value, and thereby derives the SMI weight for the user allocated region.
US08553663B2
A method is provided of enabling access for a terminal (12-1) to a remote network (60) via a mobile network (40). A first connectivity service function (30) is provided as part of the mobile network (40). A second connectivity service function (20) is provided as part of the remote network (60). A third connectivity service function (10) is provided associated with the terminal (12-1). The first connectivity service function (30) is adapted to cooperate in establishing a first layer 2 tunnel (25) between itself (30) and the second connectivity service function (20). The first connectivity service function (30) is also adapted to cooperate in establishing a second layer 2 tunnel (15) between itself (30) and the third connectivity service function (10). The terminal (12-1) thereby has layer 2 access into the remote network (60) through the first and second tunnels (25, 15) using the first, second and third connectivity service functions (30, 20, 10).
US08553662B2
Systems and methods for Wi-Fi roaming. A gateway supports both a local access point (AP) and a virtual AP. The local AP is accessible only to an “owner” of the gateway. The virtual AP (VAP) is accessible to devices associated with the owner of the gateway and to roaming Wi-Fi devices. A datastore conveys information about the roaming Wi-Fi devices to the VAP to permit them to access the VAP without the need for manual configuration of the VAP. A roaming Wi-Fi device may communicate with a gateway via a tunnel to maintain session connectivity during roaming. A session may be initiated on one network, such as a Wi-Fi network or a cellular network, handed off to another network, such as a cellular network or a Wi-Fi network, and then returned to network on which the session was initiated.
US08553647B2
A UE and a method are described herein for optimizing a non-optimized handoff from a first access technology (e.g., E-TRAN, WiMAX, UMTS, WiFi, UMB and E-UTRAN) to a second access technology (e.g. 1×RTT, 1×EVDV, HRPD or eHRPD). In one embodiment, the “optimized” non-optimized handoff effectively decreases the mute time that is experienced by the UE during the handoff from the first access technology to the second access technology from around 628 ms to less than 500 ms which is a marked improvement.
US08553640B2
A communications system for exchange of information between communications apparatuses by a multicarrier transmission mode using a plurality of subcarriers, the communication system comprising: a transmission data generator configured to generate frequency band information indicating which frequency band is to be used for transmission of data information between said communication apparatuses and a transmitter configured to transmit the frequency band information by using a specific frequency band which is set from among a plurality of frequency band assigned to the communications system, and to transmit data information by using at least one frequency band set from among said plurality of frequency bands and a receiver configured to receive the frequency band information by using the specific frequency band. Furthermore, at least one frequency band set from among said plurality of frequency bands, other than the specific frequency band, is made variable.
US08553639B2
Systems and methods are directed to deciding the number of subframes in a frame to use for uplink transmission, with the remaining frames used for downlink transmission for a Base Station (BS) in a Time Division Duplexing Long Term Evolution (TDD-LTE). Systems and methods are based on the number of User Equipment (UEs) that the BS has to serve in the uplink and in the downlink, as well as the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) traffic loads per user. Systems and methods are directed to allowing a TDD LTE BS to partition the subframes in a frame for its UL and DL traffic.
US08553638B2
A method for transmitting information of resources for use in transmission of ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is disclosed. An example method for receiving ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is also disclosed. When resources for transmission of data and resources for transmission of control information of the data are scheduled through virtual unit resources, the method identifies information of resources for receiving an ACK/NACK signal for transmission data mapped to information of at least one of a virtual unit resource allocated to the transmission data and a virtual unit resource allocated to control information of the transmission data, and receives the ACK/NACK signal for the transmission data through the information of resources for receiving the ACK/NACK signal.
US08553614B2
A method of transmitting channel quality indicator (CQI) includes obtaining CQI of each, of the plurality of sub-bands, selecting a first sub-band having the best CQI of the plurality of sub-bands, transmitting the best CQI of the first sub-band at a first transmission cycle and transmitting a difference value between the best CQI of the first sub-band and a CQI of the first sub-band at a second transmission cycle. Signalling overhead due to CQI transmission can be reduced.
US08553611B2
Methods and systems for multi-access point transmission of data using a plurality of access points are disclosed. Methods include identifying a plurality of access points to be used cooperatively in combination with each other for the transmission of data to a receiver. The transmission of the data to the receiver via the plurality of access points is enabled utilizing at least one multi-access point transmission scheme.
US08553601B2
A communications system may include at least one data storage device for storing messages for respective users, and a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices each associated with a respective user for accessing the messages stored on the at least one data storage device. Moreover, the communications system may further include an adaptive polling engine for polling the at least one data storage device for stored messages and providing the polled messages to mobile wireless communications devices of respective users. The adaptive polling engine may advantageously learn respective user usage patterns for each mobile wireless communications device, and change a respective rate of polling for each mobile wireless communications device based thereon.
US08553588B2
A system and method for providing lawful interception (LI) data in voice call continuity for telecommunication networks are disclosed. In one embodiment, the data associated with a registered telecommunication network user (i.e., target user) coming from a first telecommunication network is intercepted by a VCC gateway. Further, the intercepted data is sent to the LEA in a format desired by the LEA. Furthermore, the VCC gateway is configured based on a successful determination of network properties associated with the second telecommunication network upon the target user moving to the second telecommunication network. The second telecommunication network is based on a technology that is different from the first telecommunication network. In addition, the data associated with the target user coming from the second telecommunication network is continuously intercepted by the VCC gateway and continuously sent to the LEA by the VCC gateway in the format desired by the LEA.
US08553580B2
A multi-radio medium-agnostic access architecture is proposed. The multi-radio medium-agnostic architecture features a medium-agnostic MAC that interfaces between the TCP/IP and the physical layers of user equipment, such as a laptop computer or cellular phone having multiple radios, so that the radios in the user equipment may operate simultaneously, seamlessly, and transparently to higher layers.
US08553578B2
A networking system includes a host adapter card including a card connector having four transceiver pairs and a mechanical connector configuration, and a controller having control logic for detecting whether a single-channel connection or a four-channel connection is made to the card connector. The controller further includes control logic for communicating over a network using a default, four-channel-protocol in response to detecting the four-channel connection or using an alternative, single-channel-protocol in response to detecting the single-channel connection. The system further includes an alternative-network compatibility device including a first connector configured for releasably mating with the card connector and a second connector having a different mechanical connector configuration than the card connector. The alternative-network compatibility device includes a transceiver lane from the first connector end to the second connector end, which transceiver lane is placed in connection with one of the four transceiver pairs when mated with the card connector.
US08553577B2
Methods for computing system data (e.g., the number of CMs per DS-SG or US-SG) and traffic data (e.g., the number of online CMs, the number of active CMs, the percentage of time a CM is online, the percentage of time a CM is active, and the concurrency of CMs) in a DOCSIS system are disclosed.
US08553576B2
Embodiments of systems and methods for providing wideband transmission co-existence are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08553575B2
Techniques for performing resource partitioning are described. In an aspect, adaptive resource partitioning may be performed to dynamically allocate available resources for the uplink to nodes, e.g., base stations. Each node may be assigned a list of target interference-over-thermal (IoT) levels for the available resources by the adaptive resource partitioning. Each node may obtain a list of target IoT levels for itself and at least one list of target IoT levels for at least one neighbor node. The list of target IoT levels for each node may include a configurable target IoT level on each available resource for the node. Each node may schedule its UEs for transmission on the available resources (e.g., may determine transmit power levels and rates for the UEs) based on the target IoT levels for itself and the neighbor node(s) such that the target IoT levels for the neighbor node(s) can be met.
US08553572B2
A method for optimizing the throughput of TCP/IP applications by aggregating user application data and consolidating multiple TCP/IP connection streams into a single optimized stream for delivery to a destination application. Optimization of the internet protocol uses a packet interceptor to intercept packets from a source application, a packet driver to aggregate the intercepted packets, a data mover to transport the aggregated packets to another data mover at the destination, a destination packet driver to disaggregate the transported aggregated packets, and a destination end processor to deliver the disaggregated IP packets to the destination application.
US08553566B2
Disclosed is a radio (wireless) communication system providing a radio communication service and a terminal, and more particularly, to a method of delivering a continuously and/or consecutively received Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Service Data units (SDUs) to an upper layer immediately if a PDCP entity receives the PDCP SDUs during a process of a RLC re-establishment within an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) that has evolved from a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system.
US08553562B2
A method implemented in a node of a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network for improved load distribution, including determining a first set of one or more shortest paths between each MPLS node pair, selecting at least a first shortest path by applying the common algorithm tie-breaking process, calculating a link utilization value for each link of the MPLS network, determining a second set of one or more shortest paths between each MPLS node pair, generating a path utilization value for each shortest path in the second set of shortest paths based on link utilization values corresponding to each shortest path, and selecting a second shortest path from the second set of shortest paths on the basis of said path utilization value, whereby the selection of the second subsets in light of path utilization minimizes the standard deviation of load distribution across the entire MPLS network.
US08553556B2
In order to prevent a communication-parameter automatic setting process from being performed by unintended communication apparatuses, a communication terminal having detected a plurality of communication-parameter providing apparatuses sends a notification indicating that the plurality of providing apparatuses exist to another terminal.
US08553553B1
System, method and program product, the system comprising: return network element along a return path for network flows for network sessions for a client; a controller computer; network elements along a forward path for the network flow for network sessions; with the return network element, configured to: receive packets for a return path network flow; determine whether there is an existing ruleset entry for quality-of-service marking packet data combination; sending the packet to the controller computer when the return network element deter mines no existing ruleset entry for the quality-of-service marking packet data combination. The return network element and/or controller computer configured to determine if the source network node is trusted. The controller computer configured to identify one or more network elements in a forward path, and initiate installation of a ruleset entry for the client along the forward path.
US08553545B2
A network device may handle packet congestion in a network. In one implementation, the network device may receive a packet associated with a quality of service priority class and with a connection to a user device. The network device may include an output queue associated with the priority class of the packet. The output queue may be congested. The network device may determine whether the connection associated with the packet is a guaranteed bit rate connection. The network device may queue the packet according to a first action policy function when the connection associated with the packet is a guaranteed bit rate connection and may queue the packet according to a second action policy function when the connection associated with the packet is not a guaranteed bit rate connection.
US08553543B2
A packet relay device comprises a distribution processing unit classifying traffics into groups and users based on header information of packets received; a calculation unit calculating available frame rate of each user from peak frame rate, minimum frame rate, and weight information set for each user; a scheduling control unit updating a transmission schedule point-in-time calculated based on the available frame rate of each user, and judging which packet should be transmitted in accordance with the transmission schedule point-in-time updated; and a shaping unit updating a transmission schedule point-in-time calculated based on the peak frame rate of each user, and performing a shaping of packets at the peak frame rate on each user basis in accordance with the transmission schedule point-in-time updated; and a priority-control processing unit performing a strict priority control over transmission of packets of each group in correspondence with degree of priority of each group.
US08553542B1
A method and system is directed to distributing a flow of packets over a network to multiple traffic management devices. An apparatus receives each packet from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch, or router, to distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The apparatus also may receive packets from servers for which the traffic management devices are managing communications. When distributing packets, a target traffic management device is selected from the group of traffic management devices. A connection key associated with the received packet and an identifier associated with the selected traffic management device are saved such that subsequent received packets in the flow of packets are delivered to the same traffic management device.
US08553532B2
A network node for routing messages in a communications system, includes at least one network interface that communicates messages with a plurality of other network nodes, and a microprocessor that sends and receives messages. The microprocessor transitions from operation in an active-with-peer state to operation in an active-without-peer state in response to detecting that a standby inter-chassis redundancy (ICR) node has become or will become at least partially non-functional as a backup message router for the network node. While operating in the active-with-peer state, the microprocessor responds to a switchover triggering event by switching-over at least part of its message routing responsibility to the standby ICR node. In contrast, while operating in an active-without-peer state, the microprocessor does not switchover routing responsibility to the standby ICR node in response to the switchover triggered event.
US08553502B2
An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes a BEDTIME mode that is initiated by execution of a BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode comprises a number of features that are conducive to sleep by performing operations that minimize distractions to a user, and all such operations are initiated by execution of the BEDTIME mode routine.
US08553479B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a main word line signal generator configured to generate a main word line signal having a first swing width, a sub-word line signal generator configured to generate a first sub-word line signal and a second sub-word line signal having a second swing width and a third swing width, respectively, a first sub-word line driver configured to drive a corresponding sub-word line with the first sub-word line signal or a negative word line voltage in response to the main word line signal, and a second sub-word line driver configured to drive the corresponding sub-word line with the negative word line voltage in response to the second sub-word line signal.
US08553476B2
A three dimensional monolithic memory array of non-volatile storage elements includes a plurality of word lines and a plurality of bit lines. The plurality of bit lines are grouped into columns. One page of data is stored across multiple word lines by programming non-volatile storage elements connected to one column of bit lines and multiple word lines while maintaining the selection of the one column of bit lines. In one embodiment, programming non-volatile storage elements includes selectively connecting bit lines to sense amplifiers using selection circuits that include a storage device, a select circuit connected to the storage device and one or more level shifters providing two or more interfaces to the respective selection circuit.
US08553467B2
A control circuit controls various kinds of operations on the memory cell array. The control circuit executes a pre-erase stress application operation in which, when an erase operation on one of the memory cells is executed, prior to the erase operation, a first voltage belonging in a certain voltage range is applied to the control gate while a second voltage having a value smaller than a value of the first voltage is applied to the channel region, whereby a stress is applied to the memory cell due to a potential difference between the first voltage and the second voltage.
US08553456B2
Provided is a flash memory device. The flash memory device includes: a memory cell storing multi-bit data; a reference bias voltage supply circuit generating a reference bias voltage; an sense amplifier sensing the multi-bit data stored in the memory cell using the reference bias voltage; and a control circuit controlling the reference bias voltage supply circuit. The control circuit controls the reference bias voltage supply circuit to allow the reference bias voltage to be developed according to a change of a main word line voltage applied to the memory cell during a read operation.
US08553453B2
A phase change memory device with memory cells (2) formed by a phase change memory element (3) and a selection switch (4). A reference cell (2a) formed by an own phase change memory element (3) and an own selection switch (4) is associated to a group (7) of memory cells to be read. An electrical quantity of the group of memory cells is compared with an analogous electrical quantity of the reference cell, thereby compensating any drift in the properties of the memory cells.
US08553450B2
A first magnetic layer has a magnetization fixed along one direction. A first nonmagnetic layer on the first magnetic layer functions as a first tunnel barrier. A second magnetic layer on the first nonmagnetic layer has a magnetization whose direction can be reversed by spin transfer current injection. A second nonmagnetic layer on the second magnetic layer functions as a second tunnel barrier. A third magnetic layer on the second nonmagnetic layer has a magnetization whose direction can be reversed by spin transfer through current injection at a current density different from the second magnetic layer. First magnetic, first nonmagnetic layer, and second magnetic layers exhibit a first magnetoresistive effect. Second magnetic, second nonmagnetic, and third magnetic layers exhibit a second magnetoresistive effect. A magnetoresistive effect element records and reads out data of at least three levels based on a synthetic resistance from the first and second magnetoresistive effects.
US08553442B2
Aspects of the disclosure provide an integrated circuit (IC) that is configured to have an increased yield. The IC includes a memory element configured to store a specific value determined based on a characteristic of the IC, and a controller configured to control an input regulator based on the specific value of the IC. The input regulator is operative to provide a regulated input to the IC during operation, such that the IC performance satisfies performance requirement.
US08553440B1
According to one embodiment, an AC power system includes a first AC/DC converter to be coupled to a direct current (DC) load and a multi-phase AC power supply. The system further includes a second AC/DC converter coupled in parallel with the first AC/DC converter via an interphase transformer to the DC load and the multi-phase AC power supply. The system further includes a controller coupled to the first and second AC/DC converters, where the controller is configured to generate a gate trigger signal for firing each of the rectifiers for the first and second AC/DC converters. During a first power cycle, a rectifier of the first AC/DC converter is fired at a firing angle advanced to a firing angle of a corresponding rectifier of the second DC/DC converter. During a second power cycle, the rectifier of the first AC/DC converter is fired at a firing angle lagging to a firing angle of the corresponding rectifier of the second AC/DC converter.
US08553435B2
A device for converting a DC voltage into an AC voltage and vice versa comprises at least one phase leg with a first voltage source and a first inductor connected in series between a first DC terminal and a first AC terminal and with a second inductor and a second voltage source connected in series between the first AC terminal and a second DC terminal, where each of the voltage sources comprises at least a first and a second submodule in series-connection, each submodule comprising at least one power electronic switch connected in parallel with at least one capacitor. In the device, a passive electronic filter is arranged between the first and the second inductor as well as the first AC terminal for reducing harmonics in a circulating current.
US08553429B2
An electrical component mounting assembly is disclosed for attaching a cylindrical electrical component (C1) such as capacitor, diode, or resistor to a mounting member such as a printed circuit board in a horizontal or vertical orientation. The mounting assembly can have a housing (12) and a sleeve (14) placed around the electrical component which cooperates with the housing to retain the electrical component to the housing. A substantially inner cylindrical wall (32) of the housing can taper inward from an entrance (34) end to a rear wall (18) to form a tapering or narrowing chamber (30). The sleeve can have a slit that runs along the entire length of the sleeve and a tapered outer surface (28) that cooperates with the tapered chamber to clamp or compress against the electrical component as the sleeve is inserted into the housing. The lack of appreciable expansion of the housing creates a tight friction fit to secure the sleeve to the housing. The sleeve can also include a plank that is received in an opening in the housing which can be heat staked to reinforce the friction fit taper lock between the housing and sleeve. The housing can be dimensioned to mount more than one electrical component diameter size by varying the dimensions of the sleeve, and in particular the thickness of sleeve.
US08553424B2
An exemplary electronic device enclosure includes a box, a mainboard having a plurality of slots, a card having a bottom end fixed in one slot of the mainboard, and an opposite top end, and a locking device. The locking device includes a fixing member and an engaging member. The fixing member includes a plurality of first teeth. The engaging member includes a plurality of second teeth matching with the first teeth, a bottom of the engaging member having a cutout defined therein, and the cutout adapted for receiving an edge of the card. The engaging member is operable so that the second teeth engage with various of the first teeth, whereby a location of the engaging member is adjustable relative to the location of the fixing member, and thereby the engaging member is capable of engaging with the card when the card is at different locations.
US08553423B2
A memory module holder includes a base, two latching elements, and a frame. A slot is defined in the base. The two latching elements are rotatably attached to opposite ends of the base. The frame includes a beam portion and two latching portions. The two latching portions are positioned at opposite ends of the beam portion. The latching portions are retained by the latching elements. A receiving space is defined by the frame and the base to receive the memory module when the memory module holder is in a first state. The slot is covered by the beam portion when the memory module holder is in a second state.
US08553419B2
A card tray ejection mechanism for an electronic device, which includes a first elongated member rotatably mounted to the base, a second elongated member, and a driving member. The first elongated member includes a first end portion resisting against a side of the tray, a second end portion opposite to the first end portion and a pivoting rod located between the first and second end portions. The second elongated member is rotatably connected to the second end portion. The driving member drives the second elongated member to move longitudinally. When the second elongated member is driven to move longitudinally by the driving member, the first elongated member is driven to rotate around the pivoting rod by the second elongated member, and the card tray is ejected. An electronic device using the card tray ejection mechanism is also provided.
US08553415B2
An electronic device includes a casing, a fan, and a heat sink. The casing defines a plurality of through holes therein. The fan defines air outlet at one side thereof facing the through holes of the casing. The air outlet includes a first portion and a second portion. Air pressure in the first portion is larger than air pressure of the second portion. The heat sink includes a first fin set arranged on the first portion and a second fin set arranged on the second portion. A first passage is defined between each two neighboring first fins. A second passage is defined between each two neighboring second fins. A width of the second passage is less than that of the first passage.
US08553412B2
An electronic device includes a case, a latch, and a detachable member. The case has a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The latch is movably configured on the first surface back and forth. The latch has a first pushing portion and a second pushing portion. The first and second pushing portions are located at two moving axes parallel to a moving direction of the latch. The detachable member is assembled to the case from the second surface, and a portion of the detachable member protrudes from the first surface and is locked to the latch. When the latch moves back and forth relatively to the case, the first and second pushing portions sequentially push the detachable member, so as to drive the detachable member to move relatively to the case and be disassembled from the case.
US08553407B2
A docking station is used for receiving an electronic device. The docking station includes a housing, a docking port, and a locking mechanism. The housing defines a receiving slot. The docking port is arranged inside the housing and is capable of partly extending into the receiving slot to engage with the electronic device when the electronic device is received in the receiving slot. The locking mechanism is connected to the docking port for locking the docking port in the receiving slot. The locking mechanism is partly exposed outside the housing to allow to be operated to drive the docking port to be retracted from the receiving slot.
US08553404B2
A mounting apparatus includes an enclosure, a bracket for fixing a data storage device, and a resisting member. The bracket includes a base and a handle pivotably mounted to the base. The handle includes a pressing portion. The resisting member is pivotably mounted to the bracket. When the handle is rotated toward the base, the pressing portion of the handle presses a first portion of the resisting member to pivot the resisting member. A second portion of the resisting member extends through the bracket to resist against the enclosure.
US08553402B2
A sliding module includes a first section, a second section, a sliding member, a rotary plate, and at least one elastic member. The sliding member is slidably engaged with the second section, and is rotatably connected to the first section. The rotary plate is respectively rotatably connected to the first section and the second section. One end of the at least one elastic member is fixed to the second section, and the other end is fixed to the sliding member. When the sliding member slides relative to the second section, the rotary plate rotates relative to the second section and causes the first section to move and rotate relative to the second section in a tilted orientation.
US08553396B2
A communications device capable of coupling current reduction includes a first casing, a second casing, and an antenna. The first casing includes a first metal layer part. The second casing includes a second metal layer part. The antenna is adjacent to the first and second metal layer parts when the second casing is at a covering position. The first metal layer part has a surface that confronts the second metal layer part when the second casing is at the covering position and that is formed with a plurality of first recesses. The second metal layer part has a surface that confronts the first metal layer part when the second casing is at the covering position and that is formed with a plurality of second recesses.
US08553395B2
A motor control center comprises a plurality of bays in which switchgear components, circuit protective components, automation components and power electronic components are disposed for driving motors and other loads. Network optical conductors are routed through one or more wireways adjacent to the bays. Distribution nodes are coupled to the conductors and are interconnected with respective network terminals within the bays. Components within individual bays for which EtherNet and/or Internet connectivity is desired are coupled to the network terminals. The conductors may comprise plastic optical fibers and may be designed to operate in the relatively high voltage environment of the motor control center bays.
US08553390B2
A ceramic electronic component 100 includes a ceramic body 1 in which internal electrodes containing a metal component is buried, and a pair of terminal electrodes 3 provided to cover both end surfaces 11 of the ceramic body to which the internal electrodes are exposed. Each of the terminal electrodes 3 has a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer formed by baking a conductive green sheet from a side close to the ceramic body 1. The second electrode layer contains the metal component diffused from the internal electrodes.
US08553389B1
An improved MEMS transducer apparatus and method is provided. The apparatus includes a movable base structure having a base surface region. An anchor structure is disposed within a substantially circular portion of the surface region typically at or near the center of the surface region. A spring structure is coupled to the anchor structure and at least one portion of the base surface region. A capacitor, having a fixed capacitor element and a movable capacitor element, are disposed near the base surface region. The fixed capacitor element can be coupled to the anchor structure and the movable capacitor element can be spatially disposed on a portion of the base surface region near the anchor structure.
US08553378B2
According to one embodiment, a switching circuit includes a high-side switch, a rectifier, and a driver. The high-side switch is connected between a high potential terminal and an output terminal. The rectifier is connected between the output terminal and a low potential terminal, forward direction of the rectifier is a direction from the low potential terminal to the output terminal. The driver is connected between the high potential terminal and the output terminal. The driver switches a high-side switch ON based on a high-side control signal. The driver switches the high-side switch OFF when a first short detector detects shorts of the output terminal with the low potential terminal after a first period longer than a backward recovery time of the rectifier until the high-side control signal changing.
US08553369B2
A magnetic element capable of detecting changes in magnetic states, such as for use as a read sensor in a data transducing head or as a solid-state non-volatile memory element. In accordance with various embodiments, the magnetic element includes a magnetically responsive stack or lamination with a first areal extent. The stack includes a spacer layer positioned between first and second ferromagnetic free layers. At least one antiferromagnetic (AFM) tab is connected to the first free layer on a surface thereof opposite the spacer layer, the AFM tab having a second areal extent that is less than the first areal extent.
US08553363B2
Approaches for a head slider for use within a hard-disk drive. The head slider comprises an air bearing surface (ABS) and an electromagnetic transducer disposed at an air outflow end of the air bearing surface. The air bearing surface comprises an inner (ID) side rail proximate the inner diameter side and an outer (OD) side rail proximate the outer diameter side. The ID side rail is longer in length than the OD side rail. The physical dimensions of the ID side rail have a geometry that reduces a contact force between the head and the magnetic-recording disk when the head experiences a positive roll static attitude (RSA). The physical dimensions of the OD side rail have a geometry that reduces contact force between the head and the magnetic-recording disk when the head experiences a negative RSA.
US08553361B2
A magnetic write head having a trailing shield configured to optimize both write field strength and field gradient. The write head includes a write pole, a trailing gap layer formed over the trailing edge of the write pole and a trailing magnetic shield formed over the non-magnetic write gap layer such that the non-magnetic write gap layer is sandwiched between the trailing magnetic shield and the write pole. The trailing magnetic shield has a first surface disposed at the air bearing surface and second surface disposed away from the air bearing surface that is tapered at an angle of 20 to 75 degrees relative to the trailing edge of the write pole.
US08553359B2
A magnetic recording head includes a magnetic pole, a spin torque oscillator, a first shield and a second shield. The magnetic pole has an air-bearing surface. The spin torque oscillator is provided so that a first side of the spin torque oscillator faces the magnetic pole in a first direction parallel to the air-bearing surface. The first shield includes a granular magnetic material, and is provided so that two portions of the first shield sandwich the spin torque oscillator in a second direction which is parallel to the air-bearing surface and perpendicular to the first direction. The second shield is provided on a second side of the spin torque oscillator opposite to the first side.
US08553350B2
A system that is capable of monitoring tribological data, such as friction, in a data storage device. In accordance with various embodiments, a magnetoresistive head is separated from a rotating data storage media by an air bearing and attached to a slider that is adjusted through deformation controlled by a heating element. A measurement circuit concurrently monitors friction from the head and power applied to the heating element to determine an MR head clearance. The measurement circuit includes at least a phase filter that eliminates off-phase friction from contributing to the determination of the MR head clearance.
US08553347B2
According to one embodiment, an information recording device includes: a recording controller configured to control recording of information on a magnetic recording medium having tracks by a recording method; a managing module configured to manage two or more counters corresponding to each of plural track groups that are adjacent to each other; an updating module configured to update a count of one of the two or more counters corresponding to a second track group that is adjacent to a first track group of the plural track groups when information has been recorded on the first track group; a determining module configured to determine an attribute of the second track group based on the updated count of the one counter; and a rewriting module configured to rewrite information recorded in the second track group based on the determined attribute.
US08553343B2
An imaging device support structure includes a master flange having an opening portion through which an optical axis passes, an imaging device which is directly or indirectly attached to the master flange and is positioned in the opening portion as viewed in an optical axis direction, and a shielding member which shields a gap between the master flange and the imaging device in the opening portion. The shielding member includes a slit or a groove and is pressed against an opening edge of the opening portion.
US08553334B2
A heads-up display system is configured for use in a vehicle. The system includes a standard vehicle window (i.e. no special coatings), an image projector, and a vehicle dashboard equipped with a faceted reflective surface. The image projector is configured to project an image onto the faceted reflective surface. The faceted reflective surface is configured to reflect the image from the image projector onto a window surface of the standard vehicle window. The window surface is oriented to reflect the image from the faceted reflective surface toward an occupant. The faceted reflective surface may be disposed within a plurality of troughs separated by a plurality of diffuse reflecting partitions. The plurality of troughs may be configured to shield the occupant from extraneous reflections. The faceted reflective surface may include a plurality of electrically controlled facets. The plurality of electrically controlled reflective facets may be an array of electrowetting cells.
US08553331B2
A selective diffractive optical element includes a first diffractive region having a first design on a first surface of a substrate, and a second diffractive region having a second design on the first surface of the substrate, the first and second designs being different, wherein, by altering a position of a cross-section of an illumination beam, the selective diffractive optical element outputs a desired proportion of the two diffractive patterns aligned along an optical axis of the illumination beam.
US08553328B2
A zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a positive third lens group, in that order from the object side, wherein upon zooming from the short focal length extremity to the long focal length extremity, the distance between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases, and the distance between the second lens group and the third lens group increases. The second lens group includes a positive first sub-lens group and a negative second sub-lens group, in that order from the object side. The second sub-lens group is a negative single lens element serving as an image-stabilizer lens group which moves in directions orthogonal to the optical axis to change the imaging position to correct image shake.
US08553327B2
A system and method for reconfiguring a plurality of electromagnetic beams to take advantage of various wavelength beam combining techniques. The reconfiguring of beams includes individual rotation and selective repositioning of one or more beams with respect to beam's original input position.
US08553325B2
The transmission type screen includes: a Fresnel lens screen (20); and an image display element (30), in which the Fresnel lens screen includes: a Fresnel optical element (21) including a prism formed on an incident surface side as seen from the emitter; and a first light diffusion unit (22) for diffusing an image light passing through the Fresnel optical element, and the image display element includes: a lens element (40) for spatially dividing the image light from the Fresnel lens screen and changing a direction of the image light; a birefringent layer (90) provided at a subsequent stage of the lens element, for mixing image light obtained by spatial division; and a second light diffusion unit (60) provided at a subsequent stage of the birefringent layer, for diffusing the image light passing through the birefringent layer.
US08553316B2
A display device includes a substrate, a driving circuit, an E-paper display layer and a protective coating layer. The driving circuit is arranged on the substrate. The E-paper display layer is disposed on and driven by the driving circuit. The protective coating layer is coated on and in contact with the E-paper display layer. The protective coating layer can provide protection and better optical performance, and it is advantageous to the manufacturing method to overcome the problems such as bubbles and low light transmittance occurring in the conventional manufacturing method.
US08553304B1
A piezoelectric actuator corrects for imperfections in printed material caused by the vertical rotation of a photosensitive image forming surface, such as a photoconductive drum. The piezoelectric actuator may be mounted to the base of a reflective surface holder, such as a mirror holder, that holds a mirror. The reflective surface holder may be operable to horizontally rotate the mirror as the mirror reflects a laser onto the photosensitive image forming surface. A power supply in communication with the piezoelectric actuator applies a voltage to the piezoelectric actuator. The resulting voltage allows the piezoelectric actuator to tilt the mirror in a vertical direction. A memory storage device may store tilt adjustment data usable by a microprocessor or controller to control the amount of voltage the power supply supplies to the piezoelectric actuator.
US08553301B2
An image processing apparatus comprises: means for performing color-reduction processing for a block; means for comparing color data of respective pixels in the block, thereby specifying a placement pattern of the color data included in the block; means for extracting, as first color data, color data corresponding to a pixel at a predefined position in the block, and further extracting color data other than the first color data included in the block; means for outputting the placement pattern specified, and the first color data and the color data other than the first color data, which are extracted; and means for controlling to execute color-reduction processing, for second image data formed from the first color data output, upon determining blocks each including a predetermined number of pixels as blocks to be processed, thereby further controlling to re-execute, for the block having undergone the color-reduction processing, processing by each means.
US08553289B2
A method for compensation of banding in a marking platform includes: initiating a signature learning mode; establishing a timing reference after marking modules have achieved constant velocity; marking a test pattern over multiple intervals of a lowest fundamental frequency among marking modules; obtaining image data for the test pattern from a sensor; and processing the image data in relation to the timing reference to form banding profiles for multiple banding sources. Alternatively, the method may include: initiating a cycle up stage in a phase learning mode; establishing a timing reference after marking modules have achieved constant velocity; marking a test pattern over multiple intervals of a lowest fundamental frequency among marking modules; obtaining banding image data for the test pattern from a sensor; and processing the image data with banding signatures in relation to the timing reference to form phase estimates for each banding signature. Additional embodiments are also provided.
US08553288B2
An image forming apparatus capable of performing accurate gradation correction in a range of density where measurement by a toner density detection unit is- impossible. A printer unit forms a gradation pattern on an image bearing member. A density detection sensor detects density of the gradation pattern. A first correction value for correcting gradation of the image data is calculated based on density of the gradation pattern, detected by the density detection sensor, and a second correction value for correcting gradation of the image data is calculated based on the estimated condition of toner with which a toner image is formed on the image bearing member. An output gamma correction unit corrects density in a low density range of the toner image based on the first correction value, and corrects density in a high density range of the toner image based on the second correction value.
US08553279B2
An image forming apparatus and a control method to improve image quality. In the image forming apparatus, an edge detecting unit detects an edge pixel from scanned image data, an edge processing unit determines whether the edge pixel is a color edge pixel or a black edge pixel and applies independent edge processing methods to the color edge pixel and the black edge pixel, and a print unit prints the scanned image data using the processed edge pixel.
US08553275B2
What is disclosed is a novel system and method to control an imaging device. One or more image transformations are received to apply to an image. The image transformation including one or more transformations of translation, rotation, scaling, and shear. At least one composite transformation matrix (CTM) is identified to carry the image transformation. The identified CTM is applied in at least one subsystem in an imaging device.
US08553262B2
A disclosed information processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire first processing condition information stored in a server via a network, a processing condition storage unit configured to store the first processing condition information acquired from the server via the network, a display unit configured to display the first processing condition information stored in the processing condition storage unit, an edition receiving unit configured to receive an edition of the first processing condition information displayed on the display unit, an execution unit configured to set the first processing condition information edited by the edition receiving unit to execute information processing based on the set first processing condition information, and a processing condition registration unit configured to register the first processing condition information set by the execution unit in the processing condition storage unit.
US08553259B2
Systems and methods presented herein provide for intelligent print options to a user selecting web content of search results provided by a search engine. For example, the user may choose to perform a search through a search engine by entering search criteria within a webpage of the search engine. The search engine may return the search results to the user's web browser via the search engine's webpage. Along with these results, print options may be provided to the user on the webpage. By selecting to automatically print one or more of the search results, the content of the selected result(s) may be converted to a printable format such that page numbers may be counted and returned to the user. Based on the number of pages, the user may make a more informed decision as to whether the user should print the content.
US08553258B2
An image communication system, comprising an image reading device; and a communication device, wherein the image reading device comprises an image reading unit; a transmission unit to transmit the image date to a communication device; an evaluation information receiving unit to receive evaluation information indicating that re-reading of the image is necessary from the communication device; and a display unit to display the evaluation information, and wherein the communication device comprises: an image data receiving unit to receive the image data; an image data display unit to display an image corresponding to the image data; a command reception unit to receive an execution command for executing re-reading of the displayed image; an evaluation information generation unit to generate the evaluation information in response to receipt of the execution command; and an information transmission unit to transmit the evaluation information to the image reading device.
US08553250B2
There is provided a recording device provided with a communication unit configured to receive image data and a print execution instruction from an external device, a display unit, a printing unit, a storage unit; and a controller that stores the image data in the storage unit and displays an image corresponding to the image data on the display unit in response to receipt of the print execution instruction.
US08553248B2
An image forming apparatus accumulates the number of input print jobs when a control circuit of the image forming apparatus recognizes that, during the execution of the first print job having a sheet post-processing setting, a subsequent new print job having no sheet post-processing settings is input. If the accumulated number of input print jobs is less than or equal to a predetermined value, the image forming apparatus allows the interruption of the first print job by the subsequent new job.
US08553243B2
A printer and printer control method can report information about ink consumption to the host computer. The printer 100 is in communication with a host computer 300, and prints according to print jobs sent from the host computer 300. The printer 100 has a job data memory 190 for storing information about each print job. A receiver 110 receives the print jobs from the host computer 300. A print controller 150 controls printing on paper using a predetermined ink according to the print job. A printing evaluator 175 evaluates the result of printing a print job. A ink shot count converter 170 calculates the number of ink shots used to print the print job. A job data manager 180 stores the job ID for the print job and the ink shot count used to print the print job linked to the print result determined for printing the print job in the job data memory 190.
US08553233B2
A method and apparatus for the remote nondestructive evaluation of an object such as a wind turbine blade involves applying mechanical and/or thermal stress to the object and then scanning the object using long-range thermographic and/or laser interferometric imaging. The laser interferometric imaging is preferably performed by a long range shearography camera capable of imaging deformation derivatives at long distances coupled with a blade stressing mechanism incorporating either thermal or internal blade pressurization for the purpose of detecting remotely and at high speed, changes in the structural integrity of an installed wind turbine blade.
US08553221B2
Apparatus for performing Raman spectroscopy may include a first laser source having a first emission wavelength and a second laser source having a second emission wavelength. A separation between the first and second emission wavelengths may correspond to a width of a Raman band of a substance of interest. An optical switch may provide switching between the first and second laser sources. An ensemble of individually addressable laser emitters may be provided. A Bragg grating element may receive laser light from the ensemble. An optical system may direct light from the Bragg grating element into an optical fiber. A combined beam through the optical fiber may contain light from each of the emitters.
US08553217B2
Inspection of EUV patterned masks, blank masks, and patterned wafers generated by EUV patterned masks requires high magnification and a large field of view at the image plane. An EUV inspection system can include a light source directed to an inspected surface, a detector for detecting light deflected from the inspected surface, and an optic configuration for directing the light from the inspected surface to the detector. In particular, the detector can include a plurality of sensor modules. Additionally, the optic configuration can include a plurality of mirrors that provide magnification of at least 100× within an optical path less than 5 meters long. In one embodiment, the optical path is approximately 2-3 meters long.
US08553216B2
A defect inspection device comprises an inspection optical system including a light source, a half mirror for reflecting illumination light emitted from the light source, a catadioptric objective lens for collecting reflected light from the sample by illumination light reflected by the half mirror, an imaging lens for focusing the reflected light transmitted through the catadioptric objective lens, a relay lens having a blocking member provided at a position at which specularly reflected light from the sample is focused by the imaging lens, and a detector for detecting specularly reflected light not blocked by the blocking member; and a computation processing unit for detecting defects of the sample on the basis of the signals detected by the detector.
US08553215B2
An optical collection system for use in a surface inspection system for inspecting a surface of a workpiece. The surface inspection system has an incident beam projected through a back quartersphere and toward a location on the surface of the workpiece to impinge on the surface. This forms a reflected beam that extends along a light channel axis in a front quartersphere, and forms scattered light having a haze scatter portion. The incident beam and the light channel axis form an incident plane. The optical collection system includes back collectors that are positioned in the back quartersphere for collecting the scattered light, where each of the back collectors is disposed in the back quartersphere outside the incident plane, and at a relative minimum in the Rayleigh scatter.
US08553212B2
A geodesic measurement system having a geodesic measurement device. A unique identification code is allocated to each of the target objects, such that the target objects can be differentiated from one another based on the identification code. The measurement device has a distance and angle measurement functionality for determining the position of the target objects. The measurement device is designed for emission of the beam such that the identification code of a target object that is searched for from the target object volume can be modulated to the beam as a code to be searched for. The target unit has an evaluation component connected to the detector for inspecting correspondence between the code modulated to the beam and the own identification code of the target unit and a transmission component for transmission of a reactive confirmation signal to the geodesic measurement device that takes place upon correspondence being determined.
US08553202B2
An optical system includes an optical element having adjusting elements. The optical element is connected to a rotatable carrying ring via at least one connecting member arranged on the carrying ring directly or via one or a plurality of intermediate elements to the optical element. The rotatable carrying ring is borne in a manner freely rotatable about an axis relative to a fixed outer mount or the optical element via a rotating device. The outer mount, the rotatable carrying ring and the connecting members are constructed as rotatable kinematics in the form of parallel kinematics.
US08553198B2
In view of realizing a lithographic process which makes it possible to estimate and correct flare with an extremely high accuracy, and causes only an extremely small dimensional variation in width, over the entire portion not only of a single shot region, but also of a single chip region, a mask pattern correction device of the present invention has a numerical aperture calculation unit calculating, for every single shot region, flare energy for a mask pattern corresponding to a transferred pattern, based on an exposure layout of a plurality of shot regions, or more specifically, while considering flare from a plurality of shot regions located around every single shot region.
US08553197B2
A variable optical device for controlling the propagation of light has a liquid crystal layer (1), electrodes (4) arranged to generate an electric field acting on the liquid crystal layer, and an electric field modulation layer (3,71) arranged between the electrodes and adjacent the liquid crystal layer for spatially modulating said electric field in a manner to control the propagation of light passing through said optical device. The electric field modulation layer has either an optical index of refraction that is essentially spatially uniform, or a polar liquid or gel, or a very high low frequency dielectric constant material having a dielectric constant greater than 20, and preferably greater than 1000. The modulation layer can have a solid body having a first low frequency dielectric constant with a shape selected to impart a desired modulation of the electric field, and a second low frequency dielectric constant material surrounding or adjacent to the solid body such that the solid body and the second material form a layer geometry.
US08553191B2
The present invention seeks to decrease the number of pixel defects in an IPS liquid crystal display device. A gate electrode is formed on a TFT substrate, while a gate insulating film is overlaid on the gate electrode. A pixel electrode which is divided into segments is formed on the gate insulating film. The segments of the pixel electrode are normally interconnected by a source electrode. An inter-layer insulating film, on which a common electrode including slits is formed, is overlaid on the pixel electrode. In a case where the common electrode and one of the segments of the pixel electrode are conductively interconnected by a conductive foreign substance, the other segments of the pixel electrode are allowed to operate by disconnecting the conducted segment of the pixel electrode from the source electrode. Thus, one pixel is prevented from lapsing into a full pixel defect.
US08553190B2
A liquid crystal display device has a wiring electrode and an independent gap electrode without wiring formed on a substrate, and an insulating film formed on the wiring and gap electrodes. A first display electrode, an outer second display electrode, and an inner second display electrode are formed on the insulating film and are electrically connected to the wiring electrode or the gap electrode via respective contact regions provided in the insulating film. The first display electrode overlaps with an edge portion of the gap electrode through intermediation of the insulating film. The outer second display electrode and the inner second display electrode each overlap with another edge portion of the gap electrode through intermediation of the insulating film. By such a construction, the wiring electrode is prevented from being visible or from having portions thereof being half-lit.
US08553187B2
A patterned retarder film with a plurality of first retardation regions and a plurality of second retardation regions and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The method includes providing a base film; forming an alignment layer on a first surface of the base film; coating a liquid crystal material on the alignment layer as a liquid crystal layer; aligning the liquid crystal layer with the alignment layer; embossing the liquid crystal layer with a predetermined pattern to form a patterned layer with a plurality of first and second retardation regions. The structure of the first and second retardation regions are grating-like stripe structure and parallel to each other and the structure of the second retardation regions are grooving-like stripe structure and interleaved with each other. The patterned liquid crystal layer is cured. The phase retardation of the first and second retardation regions is different by 180°.
US08553182B2
A liquid crystal display device of the present invention comprises an array substrate 11 equipped with signal lines 33 and scan lines 32 deployed in a matrix arrangement, thin film transistors (TFTs) 34 provided near the intersections of the signal lines 33 and scan lines 32, and pixel electrodes 40 of which one is provided in each of the pixel domains delimited by the signal lines 33 and scan lines 32; a color filter substrate 12 on which are formed color filters 22R to 22B and common electrodes 23; and a liquid crystal layer 13 placed between said two substrates; wherein the pixel electrodes 40 are positioned so as not to overlap the signal lines 33, or not to overlap the scan lines 32, or not to overlap either, when viewed from above, and below the spaces between adjacent pixel electrodes 40, resin black matrices 45 are deployed so as to overlap the pixel electrodes 40 when viewed from above.
US08553177B2
A light guide plate comprising an incidence surface, a lower surface, an upper surface and an opposite surface which is opposite to the incidence surface, wherein the length of the upper surface is less than the length of the lower surface, and an acute angle is formed between the opposite surface and the direction of elongation line of the upper surface.
US08553173B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is disclosed. The LCD comprises a front frame, a panel, a plastic frame and an optical film assembly. The panel comprises a display region and a non-display region, and the plastic frame and the front frame cooperate with each other to sandwich the non-display region of the panel therebetween. The plastic frame is formed with a V-groove(s) on a surface thereof that faces towards a light exiting surface of the optical film assembly. In this way, light rays traveling through the optical film assembly to the lower surface of the plastic frame are reflected by the V-groove(s) so as to be mostly concentrated onto the non-display region of the panel and then gradually attenuated to disappear. This can reduce the bright lines appearing in the display region of the panel and, consequently, improve the displaying effect of the whole LCD.
US08553168B2
Techniques and devices are disclosed to enhance or increase the viewing angle of liquid crystal display (LCD) device through the use of one or more types of optical films. Such optical films can include arrays of prism structures and/or diffractive elements that redirect light that has passed through an LCD panel. The prism structures and/or diffractive elements can be spaced on an optical film to enable at least a portion of the light travelling through the LCD panel to pass through the optical film without being redirected. Various types of prism structures and/or diffractive elements can be used, and they can be configured on the optical film differently to enable different functionality.
US08553163B2
A display apparatus used for creating 3D images has a display panel and a phase-delaying layer disposed on the display panel. The phase-delaying layer has first and second light-changing patterns that are self-aligned to at least one of pixels and a black matrix of the display panel. The self-aligned structure is formed by selectively passing curing light (e.g., UV light) through the display panel to cure curable liquid crystal films while the films are respectively aligned by aligning layers having different alignments.
US08553160B1
A flat screen television dust protector device featuring an elongated base configured to surround a top area of a flat screen television; at least one mounting bracket disposed on the top dust panel, the first side panel, or on the second side panel of the base, the mounting bracket functions to mount the base to a wall; and a support bar disposed on the top dust panel, the support bar extends downwardly and generally perpendicular to the top dust panel and generally parallel to the front panel, wherein at least on aperture is disposed in the support bar adapted to receive a screw, bolt, or nail, wherein the support bar functions to provide support for the base when the base is attached to the wall.
US08553159B2
Described herein is a remote control for controlling audio/visual equipment. The remote control may include an input device, a transmitter, and a power generation device. The input device may be for receiving commands from a user. The transmitter may be for transmitting instruction signals to audio/visual equipment, where the instruction signals may be based at least in part on the commands received from the user. The power generation device may be for providing power to the transmitter. The power generation device may receive at least a first radio frequency signal and convert at least the first radio frequency signal into direct current power.
US08553149B2
A television leveling module determines, using at least one accelerometer module in response to activation of the television leveling module, an angle of orientation relative to horizontal of a television coupled to a horizontal level-adjustable mounting assembly. An indication of the angle of orientation relative to horizontal is displayed on a television display. The display of the indication of the angle of orientation relative to horizontal of the television is iteratively updated in response to detected adjustments of the angle of orientation. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08553141B2
A method and camera for electronic image capture provide an electronic image capture device, a scanning aperture shutter located to control light energy received by the image capture device, a flash unit oriented to illuminate an image scene, a photocell unit adapted for sensing visible spectrum energy and infrared spectrum energy received from the image scene, and an exposure control system responsive to the photocell unit and operatively connected to the scanning aperture shutter and the flash unit. The exposure control system is adapted to control an amount of fill flash energy received from the image scene in relation to visible ambient light energy received from the image scene during image capture by illuminating the flash unit once a predetermined amount of ambient visible spectrum energy is sensed by the photocell unit and by extinguishing the flash unit once a predetermined amount of infrared energy is sensed by the photocell unit.
US08553135B2
A camera system includes an interchangeable lens and a camera body. The interchangeable lens has a focal adjuster including a focus lens group, an absolute position detector configured to detect the position of the focus lens group with respect to a movable range, and a relative position detector configured to detect the movement amount of the focus lens group. The camera body has a first focal detector configured to detect the focal state on the basis of a contrast value and a second focal detector configured to detect the focal state by phase difference detection method on the basis of the optical image. When the first focal detector is used for focal adjustment, a detection of the focal state is performed on the basis of only the information obtained by the relative position detector.
US08553134B2
An endoscope is provided having an imaging sensor, a focusing lens, and an image processor. The imaging sensor converts an optical image to an output image signal. The focusing lens focuses on an object. The image processor calculates a contrast value based on the image signal while the focusing lens moves to focus on an object, and in the case where the image processor detects a region in which the amount of variation in the contrast value is within a predetermined range, while the focusing lens moves in a close range around a focusing point the image processor processes at least one output image in which either the image has been cropped to exclude the region, an ornament has been added to the region, or the region has been softened.
US08553129B2
A handheld electronic device includes a first lens module, a second lens module, an input unit and a control unit. The first lens module and the second lens module are respectively disposed on the handheld electronic device. The first lens module captures scenes in a first image capturing boundary. The second lens module captures scenes in a second image capturing boundary, which is different from the first image capturing boundary. The input unit is used for receiving a user input for capturing images. When the input unit receives the user input, the control unit controls the first lens module and the second lens module to captures a first image and a second image respectively at the same time.
US08553128B2
An image capturing apparatus for capturing the image of a subject includes: a lock/unlock unit adapted to lock and unlock operation of the image capturing apparatus; a registration unit adapted to register a main item and a sub-item that have been selected by a user, wherein the main item is a main setting item among operation items of the image capturing apparatus and the sub-item is a setting item in a layer lower than that of the main item; and a control unit adapted to limit operation solely to a release operation of the image capturing apparatus and to the main item and sub-item, which have been registered by the registration unit, in a case where operation of the image capturing apparatus has been locked by the lock/unlock unit.
US08553123B2
An image sensing apparatus includes a pixel array including an optical black region and effective pixel region, and a scanning unit which scans the pixel array. The scanning unit includes a first shift register which scans the optical black region by a shift operation, and a second shift register which scans the effective pixel region by a shift operation. The second shift register starts the shift operation during a first period when the first shift register scans the optical black region, and scans a readout region serving as a partial region of the effective pixel region during a second period following the first period.
US08553120B2
There is provided an image pickup apparatus including a pixel including a photoelectric conversion element and an amplification element for amplifying and outputting a signal generated at the photoelectric conversion element, a load transistor for controlling an electric current flowing at the amplification element, and a potential control element for suppressing potential fluctuation in a first main electrode region of the load transistor which is an output side of the amplification element.
US08553119B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging system capable of improving S/N ratio and increasing dynamic range and a method of driving the imaging system suited to the improvement and increase. An imaging system includes: a solid-state imaging device having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, column amplifiers each corresponding to each of columns of the pixels and an output portion for outputting an image signal based on an amplification by the column amplifier; and a signal processing portion receiving the image signal, wherein the column amplifier amplifies a signal output from the pixel by a gain q larger than 1, and the signal processing portion multiplies, by a factor less than 1, the image signal based on the signal amplified by the gain q.
US08553118B2
In order to suppress a variation of a signal held by each signal holding unit, a solid-state imaging apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that, when a clamp operation of a pixel output signal is performed in the signal holding unit, a time changing rate of an amplitude of a drive pulse supplied to the selecting unit for turning from a non-conducting state to a conducting state is not larger than a time changing rate of the amplitude of the drive pulse supplied to the selecting unit for turning from the conducting state to the non-conducting state.
US08553114B2
An image sensing apparatus comprises an image sensing element having an image sensing unit configured to include an effective pixel area in which light is incident on arrayed pixels and a shading pixel area in which the arrayed pixels are shaded, analog-to-digital conversion units connected one-to-one to columns of the arrayed pixels, a feedback control unit configured to output, commonly on an input side of each of the analog-to-digital conversion units, an offset compensation signal for compensating for an amount of error between a reference value and an output signal of the shading pixel area output from at least one of the analog-to-digital conversion units, and offset compensation units arranged one-to-one on the input side of each of the analog-to-digital conversion units, and to compensate for offset by subtracting an output signal of the feedback control unit from an output signal of the effective pixel area.
US08553113B2
A digital image capturing system and method are disclosed. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include a processing engine that performs digital image processing functions like noise reduction, gain control, white balance and others. In one embodiment, the image capturing system may have a first image sensor operable to capture a first view of a scene and a second image sensor operable to capture a second and different view of the scene. A selector may be employed to selectively route either the first view information or the second view information onto the processing engine. In preferred embodiments, the sensors may be CMOS sensors and, as such, relatively inexpensive. By allowing two inexpensive sensors to share image processing electronics, an image capturing system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may be able to offer compelling functional characteristics at a reasonable price.
US08553106B2
A camera with a pair of lens/sensor combinations, the two lenses having different focal lengths, so that the image from one of the combinations has a field of view approximately two to three times greater than the image from the other combination. As a user of the camera requests a given amount of zoom, the zoomed image provided will come from the lens/sensor combination having the field of view that is next larger than the requested field of view. Thus, if the requested field of view is less than the smaller field of view combination, the zoomed image will be created from the image captured by that combination, using cropping and interpolation if necessary. Similarly, if the requested field of view is greater than the smaller field of view combination, the zoomed image will be created from the image captured by the other combination, using cropping and interpolation if necessary.
US08553105B2
In each of photographed L and R viewpoint images, an object area and an object size are detected. A disparity calculator calculates a maximum disparity of the object area between the L and R viewpoint images. A sound image locating unit determines the shift amount of a reverberation sound ratio from a standard ratio based on the object size and the maximum disparity, to give an appropriate depth to sound data. The sound image locating unit also locates the sound data with an appropriate location angle in accordance with the position of a horizontal center of the object area. The processed sound data and L and R viewpoint image data are compressed, and recorded as an AV file on a memory card.
US08553104B2
An image capture device has a first image transfer method for storing a captured digital image on a storage medium and transferring the digital image to a communication device, and a second image transfer method for storing the digital image on the storage medium, reading the digital image from the storage medium and then transferring the digital image to the communication device. The first image transfer method or the second image transfer method is manually or automatically set.
US08553094B2
An interactive image system includes a host having a first wireless module and an access device for accessing software, at least one reference point for generating light of a predetermined spectrum and an interactive apparatus including a second wireless module, an image module, a modulation module and a processing unit. The image module captures images of the reference point with a sampling frequency to form a first image and a second image, calculates and outputs a moving vector of the images of the reference point between the first and second images. The processing unit controls the second wireless module to transmit the moving vector to the first wireless module and controls the modulation module to real-timely modulate the sampling frequency of the image module according to a predetermined condition. The present invention further provides an interactive apparatus and operating method thereof.
US08553092B2
An imaging device for supporting the user to generate satisfactory synthesized images, not missing photo opportunities. The imaging device generates a plurality of still images continuously and generates a synthesized image from the still images. While the shooting button is pressed to instruct continuous shooting, the imaging device performs a process in which it writes still image data, which is obtained by the continuous shooting, into a recording medium sequentially. After the continuous shooting ends, the imaging device enters a wait state to wait for a new instruction, and then upon receiving an instruction to start generating a synthesized image, it performs a process of generating a synthesized image by using a plurality of pieces of still image data stored in the recording medium.
US08553089B2
The present invention switches to and from generation of a luminance signal based on a visible light pixel signal and generation of a luminance signal based on a near infrared light pixel signal depending on a result of comparison of signal levels of the visible light pixel signal and the near infrared light pixel signal.
US08553085B2
A situation monitoring device which enables monitoring of a variety of situations and reporting in response to the situation using a single device is provided. The situation monitoring device is easy to install and to use and a system therefore can be implemented inexpensively. The situation monitoring device recognizes a place or installation where the device is installed (step S102), holds relational information correlating the place of installation and the situation to be recognized and determines a predetermined situation to be recognized according to place of installation recognition results and the relational information (step S104), recognizes a determined predetermined situation (step S106), and reports the result of the predetermined situation to a user (step S108).
US08553082B2
A distortion inspecting apparatus, which inspects perspective distortion of a transparent object, includes a projector that projects a plurality of display points arranged at predetermined intervals, a screen that displays an image projected by the projector thereon and allows the image to pass therethrough, a pedestal that disposes the transparent object at a position where the image passed through the screen, a camera that captures the image that passed through the transparent object, and a control device that stores a reference position coordinate of the image that passed through a reference transparent object, compares the reference position coordinate with an inspection position coordinate of the image that passed through the transparent object as an object to be inspected, and calculates a displacement quantity of the reference position coordinate.
US08553077B2
An endoscope system includes an endoscope and a control device. The endoscope includes an illumination optical system with a fluorescent body formed in an optical path and an imaging optical system with an imaging element outputting an imaging signal of an optical image. The control device includes a light source unit which supplies an excitation light to the illumination optical system so as to emit light from the fluorescent body and an image processing section which corrects the imaging signal output from the imaging element. The image processing section includes: an illumination light spectrum calculating unit, a chromaticity correction table creating unit and an image correcting unit.
US08553070B2
An image signal processing device is provided which includes a receiving unit for receiving an image signal and setting information for each predetermined unit of the image signal including image type setting information to define whether the image signal represents a stereoscopic image and gamma correction setting information to define a gamma correction amount for the image signal, a gamma correcting unit for performing gamma correction for the image signal based on the gamma correction setting information included in the setting information received by the receiving unit, and a stereoscopic image processing unit for selectively performing a process to display the stereoscopic image for the image signal corrected by the gamma correcting unit based on the image type setting information included in the setting information received by the receiving unit.
US08553067B2
Techniques are provided for receiving multimedia from a plurality of endpoints participating in a conference session, including multimedia from an endpoint that was muted during the conference session. A muting state is detected at a particular endpoint during the conference session and the multimedia from the particular endpoint is recorded even though it is not forwarded and rendered to the other endpoints during the conference session. Information associated with the multimedia data for the conference session is stored to indicate the time period during which the muting state was detected at the particular endpoint. Techniques are also provided for granting access at a later time to the stored multimedia data for conference session, including access controls to the muted multimedia.
US08553056B2
An image recording apparatus includes a recording head connected to a plurality of laser emitters provided in a line; a linear motor displacing the recording head in a secondary scanning direction; and an apparatus controller controlling the emission of laser light from the recording head and displacement of the recording head by the displacer. In response to rotation of a drum, one cycle of scanning by the recording head in a main scanning direction of a plate is completed. For each drum rotation, the apparatus controller displaces the recording head in the secondary scanning direction by displacement amount smaller than the recording width in the secondary scanning direction according to laser light emitted from the plurality of laser emitters.
US08553051B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes an LCD panel, a scan driver, a timing controller and a data driver. The LCD panel includes first and second pixel rows. The timing controller determines a correction voltage index according to an absolute difference between an average of original pixel voltages corresponding to original pixel data of all pixels of the first pixel row, and an average of original pixel voltages corresponding to original pixel data of all pixels of the second pixel row, determines a correction voltage according to the correction voltage index, determines an adjusted pixel voltage in a target pixel according to an original pixel voltage of the target pixel in the second pixel row and the correction voltage, and outputs adjusted pixel data corresponding to the adjusted pixel voltage. The data driver outputs the adjusted pixel voltage to the target pixel according to the adjusted pixel data.
US08553050B2
Disclosed is a video signal processing apparatus applicable to various LCD panels. This video signal processing apparatus includes a format converting unit which converts first-format image data into second-format image data, a point sequential converting unit which converts the second-format image data into point sequenced data, a resizing unit which resizes the point sequenced data, a line memory which stores the resized point sequenced data, and an output control unit which controls to continuously read out the point sequenced data from the line memory.
US08553045B2
A method for color transfer includes retrieving a concept color palette from computer memory corresponding to a concept selected by a user. The concept color palette includes a first set of colors, which may be statistically representative of colors of a set of predefined color palettes which have been associated with the concept. The method further includes computing an image color palette for an input image. The image color palette includes a second set of colors that are representative of pixels of the input image. Colors of the image color palette are mapped to colors of the concept color palette to identify, for colors of the image color palette, a corresponding color in the concept color palette. A transformation is computed based on the mapping. For pixels of the input image, modified color values are computed, based on the computed transformation, to generate a modified image.
US08553044B2
A graphic rendering apparatus includes a processing unit and a storage unit. The storage unit is stored with a piece of information. The piece of information defines a virtual area on a display. A pixel of the display overlaps a part of the virtual area, and the part corresponds to a color. The pixel defines a first boundary, a second boundary, a third boundary, and a fourth boundary. The processing unit decides a first coverage rate, a second coverage rate, a third coverage rate, and a fourth coverage rate of the virtual area on the first boundary, the second boundary, the third boundary, and the fourth boundary, respectively. The processing unit decides a display color of the pixel with reference to the color and the first coverage rate, the second coverage rate, the third coverage rate, and the fourth coverage rate.
US08553041B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently creating and accessing an A-Buffer that supports multi-sample compression techniques. The A-Buffer is organized in stacks of uniformly-sized tiles, wherein the tile size is selected to facilitate compression techniques. Each stack represents the samples included in a group of pixels. Each tile within a stack represents the set of sample data at a specific per-sample rendering order index that are associated with the group of pixels represented by the stack. Advantageously, each tile includes tile compression bits that enable the tile to maintain data using existing compression formats. As the A-Buffer is created, a corresponding stack compression buffer is also created. For each stack, the stack compression buffer includes a bit that indicates whether all of the tiles in the stack are similarly compressed and, consequently, whether the GPU may operate on the stack at an efficient per pixel granularity.
US08553035B2
A method and apparatus for providing a visualization of power for display. The method establishes a power visualization scale based on a color saturation and intensity range for a hue and a range of power to be visualized, and generates a display image for at least one measured value of power as a level of color saturation and intensity for the hue based on the power visualization scale.
US08553033B2
Systems and methods provide subsurface scattering on graphical images displayed for wagering games. In one example, a technique to approximate subsurface scattering includes the use of bounding geometry to gauge a distance of a ray to the edge of the object. An implementation of this technique in a wagering game may include: receiving a graphical object; receiving a position of a light source; receiving a position of a bounding geometry; for each pixel in a set of pixels in the graphical object, performing the actions of: computing a distance from the pixel to an edge of the bounding geometry along a vector including the pixel and the ii source and determining a display property of the pixel in accordance with the distance; and displaying the set of pixels in accordance with the display property each pixel in the set of pixels.
US08553030B2
An exemplary stereo display apparatus includes a pixel array and a lens array. The pixel array includes a plurality of pixel units arrayed in parallel rows and parallel columns. The lens array covers the pixel array, and includes a plurality of lenticular lens units arrayed in said rows and columns. The lenticular lens units are parallel to each other, and the adjacent lenticular lens units arrayed in columns have a stagger arrangement along a first direction along which the pixel units are arrayed in rows, thereby the adjacent lenticular lens units arrayed in columns are arranged in terraced steps.
US08553027B2
A display panel driving apparatus and a method of driving the same are provided, and, in particular, a gate driver and a method of driving the gate driver. The gate driver includes a decoder that decodes gate line selection data and that generates a gate line selection signal. A gate driving circuit generates a gate driving signal in a pre-charging phase and a driving phase in response to the gate line selection signal and a pre-charging control signal that controls an off-state of non-selected gate lines. In a time period of the driving phase in which a gate line is not selected, a node that has been in a floating state is held to a target voltage level in response to a hold control signal. The hold control signal is generated based upon a timing relationship between the gate line selection signal and the pre-charging control signal.
US08553019B2
Construction of a pixel-based display using a set of pixel assemblies poured or placed into a display area or volume. Each pixel assembly has a means to produce a visible display output at its position and identify its own position within a 2-D or 3-D display space continuously or when needed. One or more image signals are distributed to the pixel assemblies collectively. Each pixel assembly uses its own self-detected position and other criteria to autonomously decide to which part of the signal(s) it will respond and what value to display as an output. Optionally each pixel assembly may also be able to: decode pixel identity encoded in the input signal(s) to implement a stroke/random access display; communicate with adjacent display elements in order to engage in collective action in local regions of the display; detect faults and remove itself from the display; and reprogram itself using an external signal.
US08553017B2
A gate driving apparatus includes a first stage which outputs a first gate output signal, and a second stage which outputs a second gate output signal. The first stage includes: a transistor which includes a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode; and a dummy transistor which includes a dummy gate electrode, a dummy source electrode and a dummy drain electrode. The gate electrode receives the second gate output signal, and the dummy source electrode is connected to the source electrode or the drain electrode of the transistor and prevents static electricity from flowing to the first stage.
US08553008B2
A flexible display device and a method for accurately recognizing a user's flex input bending of the flexible display device is described. The present invention is able to discard unintentional flexing of the flexible display device while being able to accurately recognize a user's intended flex input command based on a number of bending degree thresholds. A first bending threshold must be overcome in order to initially recognize a user's flex input as a valid flex input command. Then the user's flex input must fall below a second bending threshold in order to cease the recognition of the user's flex input as a valid flex input.
US08553007B2
A handheld electronic device includes a housing having a surface; a first input component having input members disposed external to the surface; a second touch sensitive input component disposed about the input members, the touch sensitive input component being separate and distinct from the input members and the first input component and being structured to provide one of: a contact point with respect to the surface responsive to actuation of a first number of the input members, and a number of responses responsive to actuation of a second number of the input members. A processor cooperates with the first input component and the touch sensitive input component to determine if a plurality of the input members are actuated contemporaneously and to output a representation of a single one of the input members based upon one of: the contact point, and the number of responses.
US08553003B2
The invention provides an input detection method, wherein when multiple touch points are input a touch sensor 30 detects touch points 41, 42 individually. The detection method includes: scanning a first electrode line, and if a plurality of touch areas 43, 45 sandwiching a non-touch area 44 are detected, labeling the plurality of touch areas 43, 45 sequentially; determining the location of the non-touch area as a separation area in the case where the non-touch area between the labels is within a predetermined spacing; when a second electrode line next to the first electrode line where a separation area is detected is scanned, handling the area on the second electrode line corresponding to the separation area on the first electrode line as a separation area; and practicing the above steps for every electrode line and detecting the labels.
US08552998B2
Multi-touch touch-sensing devices and methods are described herein. The touch sensing devices can include multiple sense points, each located at a crossing of a drive line and a sense line. In some embodiments, multiple drive lines may be simultaneously or nearly simultaneously stimulated with drive signals having unique characteristics, such as phase or frequency. A sense signal can occur on each sense line that can be related to the drive signals by an amount of touch present at sense points corresponding to the stimulated drive lines and the sense line. By using processing techniques based on the unique drive signals, an amount of touch corresponding to each sense point can be extracted from the sense signal. The touch sensing methods and devices can be incorporated into interfaces for a variety of electronic devices such as a desktop, tablet, notebook, and handheld computers, personal digital assistants, media players, and mobile telephones.
US08552993B2
A liquid crystal display apparatus with touch input function includes a display unit coupling to a first scanning line, a touch transistor, a touch-sensing device, and a touch-detecting circuit coupling to a sensing line. The touch transistor includes a gate coupling to a second scanning line, a first terminal, and a second terminal coupling to the sensing line. The touch-sensing device includes a first conductor coupling to the first terminal of the touch transistor, a second conductor coupling to the first scanning line, and a touch conductor configured to electrically connect the first conductor and the second conductor when a sensing region of the liquid crystal display apparatus is touched.
US08552990B2
A touch pad system is disclosed. The system includes mapping the touch pad into native sensor coordinates. The system also includes producing native values of the native sensor coordinates when events occur on the touch pad. The system further includes filtering the native values of the native sensor coordinates based on the type of events that occur on the touch pad. The system additionally includes generating a control signal based on the native values of the native sensor coordinates when a desired event occurs on the touch pad.
US08552988B2
Viewing devices are disclosed herein. One embodiment of a viewing device is a digital camera having at least one function. And embodiment of the digital camera comprises a touch pad, wherein in which a stylus that is moved relative to the touch pad is detectable by the digital camera. The speed at which the function is performed corresponds to the speed that the stylus is moved relative to the touch pad.
US08552987B2
An information processing apparatus includes a display and a touch panel provided thereon. A CPU core causes the display to display an input screen (image) that has a keyboard image including a plurality of key patterns and an input area formed on each of the key patterns. By touching some of the key patterns, moving a stick or like to the input area while keeping it in a touch-on state and then performing a touch-off from the key pattern, a character graphic for the key pattern can be input (dragged) to a coordinate position in the input area just before the touch-off; however, by touching some of the key patterns and then performing a touch-off from the key pattern, a character graphic for the key pattern is input to a predetermined position in the input area.
US08552980B2
Computer input devices include a detector adapted to detect relative movement of an input member in x-, y-, and z-dimensions relative to a base point in a base plane, and a controller adapted to send a signal to an associated computing device based at least in part on the relative movement of the input member. Associated computing devices, software, and methods are also disclosed.
US08552978B2
A 3D pointing device utilizing an orientation sensor, capable of accurately transforming rotations and movements of the 3D pointing device into a movement pattern in the display plane of a display device is provided. The 3D pointing device includes the orientation sensor, a rotation sensor, and a computing processor. The orientation sensor generates an orientation output associated with the orientation of the 3D pointing device associated with three coordinate axes of a global reference frame associated with the Earth. The rotation sensor generates a rotation output associated with the rotation of the 3D pointing device associated with three coordinate axes of a spatial reference frame associated with the 3D pointing device itself The computing processor uses the orientation output and the rotation output to generate a transformed output associated with a fixed reference frame associated with the display device above. The transformed output represents a segment of the movement pattern.
US08552976B2
Virtual controllers for visual displays are described. In one implementation, a camera captures an image of hands against a background. The image is segmented into hand areas and background areas. Various hand and finger gestures isolate parts of the background into independent areas, which are then assigned control parameters for manipulating the visual display. Multiple control parameters can be associated with attributes of multiple independent areas formed by two hands, for advanced control including simultaneous functions of clicking, selecting, executing, horizontal movement, vertical movement, scrolling, dragging, rotational movement, zooming, maximizing, minimizing, executing file functions, and executing menu choices.
US08552967B2
A display device is provided including a photosensor PS that detects the ambient light amount of a display area, a comparator that compares the output of the photosensor PS with a predetermined reference value, and a backlight controller that controls the amount of light supplied to the display area depending on a comparison result by the comparator, a switch SW for controlling application of a precharge potential is connected to a metal that exists near the light-receiving part of the photosensor PS with the intermediary of an insulating film. The embodiment apparently decreases the parasitic capacitance of the detection element to thereby suppress the influence of the parasitic capacitance of the detection element itself at the time of light amount detection.
US08552962B2
A display apparatus driving circuit capable of reducing the amount of heat generated at a driving unit while suppressing degradation in image quality is provided. A display apparatus driving circuit according to the present invention includes: a source driver for driving a display unit; a heat detecting circuit for detecting amount of heat generated at the source driver, and outputting a heat detection signal when the detected amount of generated heat is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value; and a heat reduction circuit for changing, when the heat detection signal is received, a driving method of the display unit to reduce the amount of heat generated at said source driver.
US08552960B2
An output amplifier includes a differential stage having a reference voltage supplied to a first input, a first output stage that receives an output of the differential stage, a second output stage whose output is connected to a load, a capacitor element having a first end connected to a second input of the differential stage, and connection control circuits that control switching of first and second connection modes. In the first connection mode, there are provided a non-conductive state between output of the differential stage and input of the second output stage, a non-conductive state between output of the first output stage and output of the second output stage, a conductive state between output of the first output stage and the second input of the differential stage, and voltage of a second end of the capacitor element is an input voltage from the input terminal. In the second connection mode, there are provided a conductive state between output of the differential stage and input of the second output stage, a conductive state between output of the first output stage and output of the second output stage; a non-conductive state between output of the first output stage and the second input of the differential stage, a non-conductive state of the second end of the capacitor element from the input terminal, and a conductive state between the output of the first output stage and the second end of the capacitor element.
US08552958B2
There is provided a method of driving a gate line, a gate drive circuit for performing the method, and a display apparatus having the gate drive circuit. In the method, a plurality of gate signals, generated from a plurality of shift registers connected to a plurality of gate lines, is applied to the gate lines. An output of the gate signals is blocked during a vertical blanking interval, and then a gate off voltage is applied to the gate lines. Therefore, an output signal of the gate drive circuit may maintain a gate off voltage during a vertical blanking interval in which a clock signal is not applied to a gate drive circuit.
US08552953B2
To make a conventional area grayscale display technique applicable to a driving method that is designed to write data in a vertical blanking interval. A display panel with multiple pixels and a display controller that receives an input video signal and a sync signal and gets an image presented on the display panel are provided. If one horizontal scanning period and one vertical scanning period of the input video signal are represented by 1H and V-Total, respectively, the display controller is able to form one vertical scanning period V-Total of a first period in which one horizontal scanning period of the display panel is 1Ho, which is as long as 1H, and a second period in which one horizontal scanning period of the display panel is 1Hn, which is not as long as 1H.
US08552945B2
A liquid crystal display device and method for driving the same is described for reducing a compensating deviation of a common voltage. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel; a data driver for driving data lines of the liquid crystal display panel; a gate driver for driving gate lines of the liquid crystal display panel; and a common voltage compensating unit for generating a plurality of compensating signals for compensating respective distortions of common voltages at a plurality of common regions of a common electrode of the liquid crystal display panel by using common voltages fed back from the common regions, and supplying compensating signals corresponding to each of the plurality of common regions.
US08552922B2
Compound antennas are disclosed, as are aircraft comprising compound antennas and methods to use compound antennas. In one embodiment, a compound antenna comprises a ground plane, a helix antenna element comprising a first dielectric core having a first end and a second end and coupled to the ground plane at the first end, the helix antenna element exhibiting a normal mode polarization pattern, and a conical spiral antenna element disposed proximate the helix antenna element, the conical spiral antenna element exhibiting an axial mode polarization pattern, wherein both the normal-mode and the axial mode patterns are circular polarization patterns and have the same sense. Other embodiments may be described.
US08552921B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor device which can be surely supplied electric power by electromagnetic waves in different frequency bands without preventing reduction in size and weight of a semiconductor device. A semiconductor device capable of wireless communication is provided with a frequency determining circuit which detects the frequency of the electromagnetic waves received by the antenna and a circuit which automatically adjusts impedance in accordance with information from the frequency determining circuit, and the semiconductor device communicates and obtains electric power by one antenna. For adjustment of impedance, a circuit which can change the inductance or the capacitance, or an antenna which can change the length is used.
US08552917B2
A method and system are disclosed for wide angle multibeam antennas. The method and system involve a multibeam antenna system for generating high performance multiple spot beams. In one or more embodiments, the multibeam antenna system includes an oversized antenna reflector and a plurality of antenna feeds. The oversized antenna reflector has its surface shape optimized from a normal parabolic shape in order to broaden and shape the reflected spot beams to improve antenna performance. In addition, the diameter of the oversized antenna reflector is greater than ((100*λ)/δ), where λ is the wavelength in inches and δ is the beam to beam spacing in degrees. In some embodiments, the ratio of the focal length of the oversized antenna reflector to the diameter of the oversized antenna reflector (F/D) is greater than 0.7. In at least one embodiment, the system further includes an antenna sub-reflector.
US08552913B2
A multiple input-multiple output antenna assembly with high isolation between the antennas is disclosed. The antenna assembly includes a substrate with a ground layer at its surface. Two antennas are disposed opposing each other on the substrate. A meandering slot is interposed between the first and second antennas on the ground plane. A first signal port is provided for applying a first signal to excite the first antenna and a second signal port is provided for applying a second signal to excite the second antenna. The meandering slot provides isolation that inhibits electromagnetic propagation between the first and second antennas. A third signal port is provided for applying a third signal to excite the meandering slot to act as another antenna for multiple input, multiple output operation.
US08552906B2
A mixer for mixing a received signal and a local oscillator signal is provided. The local oscillator signal is modulated by means of a modulation signal and the modulated local oscillator signal is injected into the received signal.
US08552902B2
An imaging receiver includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) module to receive and amplify the radio-frequency (RF) input signal; one or more switches configured to selectively pass RF input to one or more of the power detector circuits; one or more power detector circuits coupled to the switches to generate output voltages proportional to associated powers at their input ports; one or more reference circuits to provide reference signals to the switches; and one or more integrator circuits to integrate the output voltages of the power detector circuits.
US08552900B1
A successive approximation register switched capacitor analog to digital converter utilizes a high frequency clock for controlling comparator reset switches and a clock distribution block to operate at lower sample rates. The successive approximation cycles are clocked with the high frequency clock so that the reset switches stay within the leakage limit irrespective of the sample rate but the end of conversion signal is delayed to mimic the slower sample rate.
US08552897B1
A reference circuit for use with a charge redistribution analog to digital converter, having a capacitor array, the reference circuit comprising: an input for receiving a signal; an output for supplying a reference voltage to at least one capacitor of the charge redistribution capacitor array; a storage capacitor for storing the reference voltage; a voltage modification circuit for comparing the reference voltage stored on the storage capacitor with the reference signal, and based on the comparison to supply a correction so as to reduce a difference between the reference voltage and the reference signal, the correction being applied during a correction phase; and a first switch for selectively connecting the storage capacitor to the input during an acquisition phase.
US08552894B2
A sigma-delta modulator includes a front portion and a hybrid portion to form a loop filter. The front portion includes integrator(s) and feed-forward path(s), and is arranged to provide a front signal by combining signals of the integrator(s) and feed-forward path(s). The hybrid portion is coupled to the front portion, and arranged to provide a filtered signal by combining an integration of the front signal and a weighting of the front signal. The filtered signal is quantized, converted from digital to analog, and fed back to the loop filter.
US08552893B1
A control system provides a control signal to a nonlinear plant that generates a response signal responsive to the control signal. The control system includes a detector that detects a predetermined value of a plant quantity, valley switching logic, coupled to the detector, to change a state of a plant switch when the plant quantity is minimized, and a pulse-width modulator, coupled to the valley switching logic, to generate a control signal that controls the plant switch. The valley switching logic includes a nonlinear delta-sigma modulator that compensates for an error in a plant response signal by adjusting the duration of an on-time of a plant switch to cause an average value of the plant response signal to converge toward a target signal value.
US08552891B2
A semiconductor device may include a coding lookup table unit including a plurality of coding lookup tables each of which is selected by a respectively selection signal, and a selection unit configured to receive one of N-bit parallel data and extract respective encoded data corresponding to the selection signal and to which the N-bit parallel data is mapped from the coding lookup table unit, and encoded data and extract respective N-bit parallel data corresponding to the selection signal and to which the encoded data is mapped from the coding lookup table unit, wherein N is 2 or an integer greater than 2, and wherein the coding lookup tables respectively store a plurality of coded data patterns that respectively correspond to patterns of the N-bit parallel data and are random temporally and spatially.
US08552879B2
A method and apparatus for determining the amount of media on an elevator that supports a media stack in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include sensing one or more identification mark on a segmented positional reference scale, determining the elevator's position based on the sensed one or more identification mark, and determining an amount of media on the elevator based on the determined elevator position.
US08552877B2
A rechargeable battery includes a housing having an external surface including a user interface region. A battery cell within the housing is characterized by a charging status, a state of charge, and a state of health. A processor disposed within the housing determines and/or stores the charging status as well as one or more of the state of charge and the state of health of the battery cell. The user interface region provides a plurality of visual components configured to provide a plurality of visual cues relating to the charging status, the state of charge, and the state of health of the battery cell. The plurality of visual components may include a persistent display, an on-demand display, and an input component. The input component may be used to select the manner in which the visual cues are provided.
US08552865B2
A method and apparatus are provided for automatically testing microwave instruction detection modules of a security system. The method includes the steps of detecting intruders within a protected space by monitoring a Doppler output of a signal extraction circuit coupled to a microwave transceiver module, varying a frequency of direct current power pulses applied to the microwave transceiver module, detecting a difference in magnitude of the Doppler output of the signal extraction circuit over the varied frequency and comparing the detected difference with a fault threshold level.
US08552863B2
A method and apparatus are provided for identifying wireless devices within a security system. The method includes the steps of providing a security system monitoring a secured area for an intruder, the security system detecting an intrusion of the secured area, the security system detecting a mobile device within the secured area, the security system retrieving an identifier of the intruder from the mobile device and the security device saving the identifier along with a record of the intrusion.
US08552856B2
A mobile device, e.g. a remote control, that communicates with a remote device. The device is controlled by a battery providing power for electronic circuits and components contained within the hand held remote control device. A battery monitoring device measures the voltage of the battery. A memory device saves the data generated by the battery monitoring device indicating the voltage of the battery. A transmission device transmits a notification to the display device when the voltage of the battery decreases to some predetermined level. The display device may receive the notification of a low battery from the hand held device. An application contained within the display device or the remote control displays a visual indication on the display device to the user indicating that the battery in the hand held device is low and requires recharging.
US08552854B2
A method for reprogramming bidirectional objects is disclosed. The objects contain a common key, at least two objects being paired to allow the sending of a command from one object of the pair to the other object of the pair and the execution of the command by the other object. The method includes the steps of 1) providing the objects with a new common key; 2) then when a command is sent from one object to another object with which it is paired, verifying that the two objects contain the new common key, and 3) refusal by the other object to execute the command if the two objects do not contain the new common key.
US08552844B2
A power line communication device includes a power line communication unit, a sensor to sense a physical connection to a second power line communication device other than via a powerline medium and a pairing unit to receive an indication of a physical connection between the power line communication device and the second power line communication device and to initiate a pairing process with the second power line communication device. A method of pairing communication devices which communicate along a non-data-cable medium includes sensing a data cable connection with a second device, entering an appropriate pairing state upon sensing the data cable connection, the pairing state being either an add device state or a join device state and performing pairing with the second device along the non-data-cable connection.
US08552835B2
Systems and methods for decoding data transmitted by RFID tags are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention includes an analyzer and equalizer configured to filter an input signal, an estimation block configured to obtain a baseband representation of the modulated data signal by mixing the filtered input signal with the carrier wave, and a coherent detector configured to perform phase and timing recovery on the modulated data signal in the presence of noise and to determine a sequence of data symbols.
US08552832B2
A controlling device interacts dynamically with a plurality of appliances using state information known to a master appliance. The master appliance conveys to the controlling device the state information and the controlling device uses the state information to dynamically configure itself to command functional operations of one or more of the plurality of appliances. The master appliance also causes a graphical representation of the current configuration of the controlling device to be displayed on a display device that is associated with the master appliance.
US08552829B2
A transformer device includes a glass substrate having a first side and a second side arranged opposite the first side. A first recess is formed at the first side of the glass substrate. A second recess is formed at the second side of the glass substrate. The first and second recesses are arranged opposite to each other. A first coil is arranged in the first recess and a second coil is arranged in the second recess.
US08552819B2
Disclosed embodiments include a surface acoustic wave device having electrode period, electrode width, and/or ratio of electrode width to electrode period varied in a prescribed manner.
US08552818B2
A tunable filter that is capable of magnifying a pass band width or increasing a frequency variable amount includes a resonator circuit portion provided in at least one of a series arm connecting an input terminal and an output terminal to each other and a parallel arm connecting the series arm and a ground potential to each other, a first variable capacitor is connected in series to the resonator circuit portion and a second variable capacitor is connected in parallel to the resonator circuit portion. The resonator circuit portion includes a piezoelectric substrate including LiNbO3 or LiTaO3, an elastic wave resonator including an electrode located on the piezoelectric substrate, and a bandwidth extending inductance Lx, Lx connected to the elastic wave resonator.
US08552817B2
A phase shifter has a chamber with a holding space, a first feeder unit and a second feeder unit at the sides of the holding space, and at least one reversely configured electric regulation unit. The regulation unit contains a first coupling set with a movable and a fixed coupling, and a second coupling set with a movable and a fixed coupling. A sync linkage mechanism is used to link the respective movable couplings. A push-pull unit is linked to a driven connection of the sync linkage mechanism. A cover plate seals the holding space. The phase shifter configuration makes it possible to reduce markedly the volume and space of the phase shifter, cut down the manufacturing cost and improve the mating accuracy with higher applicability.
US08552813B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed toward a novel printed antenna that provides a low-loss transition into waveguide. The antenna is integrated with a heat spreader and the interconnection between the antenna and the output device (such as a power amplifier) is a simple conductive connection, such as (but not limited to), a wirebond. Integrating the antenna with the heat spreader in accordance with the concepts, circuits, and techniques described herein drastically shortens the distance from the output device to the waveguide, thus reducing losses and increasing bandwidth. The transition and technique described herein may be easily scaled for both higher and lower frequencies. Embodiments of the present apparatus also eliminate the complexity of the prior art circuit boards and transitions and enable the use of a wider range of substrates while greatly simplifying assembly.
US08552810B2
An arrangement for reducing interference between circuit blocks having differences in the amount of input power and phase differences includes isolation wires located between the circuit blocks and connected to a ground.
US08552809B2
Systems and methods for a stacked waveguide circulator are described. The stacked waveguide circulator may comprise a first side and a second side. The stacked waveguide circulator may also comprise a top and a bottom opposite the top. The top and the bottom may be adjacent to the first and second sides. The stacked waveguide circulator may also comprise a a first port and a second port on the first side. The first port may be vertically above the second port on the first side. Further, the stacked waveguide circulator may comprise a third port on the second side. The stacked waveguide circulator may comprise a first magnet on the top. The first magnet may be configured to assist in directing signals between the first, second, and third ports.
US08552805B2
A piezoelectric vibrator includes a tuning fork type piezoelectric vibrating reed including a pair of vibration arm portions; a package that accommodates the piezoelectric vibrating reed; and a getter material that is formed along the longitudinal direction of the vibration arm portion in an inner portion of the package, wherein a cross-sectional area of a middle portion of the getter material adjacent to a center portion of the longitudinal direction of the vibration arm portion is greater than that of an end portion of the getter material.
US08552801B2
Systems and methods for providing a fully differential amplifier performing common-mode voltage control having reduced area and power requirements are disclosed. The amplifier disclosed comprises an additional input stage at the amplifier input which senses the common mode voltage of the amplifier's inputs and applies internal feedback control to adjust the output common-mode voltage until the input common-mode voltage matches a target voltage and thereby indirectly set the output common-mode voltage. Furthermore the internal common-mode control can be implemented in such a manner as to provide a feed-forward transconductance function in addition to common-mode control if desired. Moreover it is possible to use feedback from other amplifier stages in an amplifier chain to implement common-mode feedback.
US08552793B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes a functional circuit part that includes a plurality of field effect transistors, a mode control circuit that receives a first control signal and that generates a second control signal that is used to change a logic state of the functional circuit part, an output control circuit that receives an output signal of the functional circuit part and controls output of the output signal, and a control circuit that receives the second control signal and that generates a third control signal to the output control circuit. During a time period when the functional circuit part changes a logic state according to the second control signal, the output control circuit inverts the output signal of the functional circuit part according to the third control signal.
US08552788B2
Apparatus and methods for adaptive level shifting are provided. In one embodiment, a method of level shifting in an adaptive level shifter (ALS) is provided. The technique includes charging a first capacitor and a second capacitor each to a voltage that is about equal to a difference between a common mode voltage of a differential input voltage signal and a reference voltage. The technique can further include inserting the first capacitor between a first input and a first output of the ALS and the second capacitor between the second input and a second output of the ALS. The technique can further include switching the first capacitor and the second capacitor such that the first capacitor is inserted between the second input and the second output and the second capacitor is inserted between the first input and the first output.
US08552781B2
Methods and systems to adjust a phase difference between signals, such as to perform quadrature phase correction. First and second signals are digitally compared, such as with exclusive OR circuitry, to provide a comparison signal having a duty cycle representative of a phase difference between the signals. A phase delay of one or both of the first and second signals is adjusted until the duty cycle of the comparison signal corresponds to a desired phase difference. In a clock and data recovery system, the signals may correspond to a zero degree phase of a first phase interpolator and a ninety degree phase of a second phase interpolator, and digital codes to the first and second phase interpolators may be adjusted to provide a fifty percent duty cycle in the comparison signal.
US08552770B2
A frequency divider based on a series of divide-by-2/3 cells and divide-by-1/2/3 cells using extended division range is disclosed. The frequency divider uses modified divide-by-1/2/3 cells and additional circuit elements to correctly divide an input frequency by a divisor on successive output cycles while the divisor transitions across an octave boundary. The frequency divider creates a divide-by-1 mode for unused divide-by-1/2/3 cells in the series of cells. The divide-by-1 mode passes the input clock in the unused latches of each unused divide-by-1/2/3 cell as opposed to having each unused divide-by-1/2/3 cell implement divide-by-3 mode.
US08552764B2
In a first circuit for detecting clock glitches in a clock signal, a master counter is clocked by the clock signal and memorizes a master count. An incrementer advances the master count by one increment. A slave counter is clocked by the clock signal and memorizes a slave count. The slave count is retarded relative to the master count by at least a particular number of clock edges. A comparator determines whether the difference between the master count and the slave count is at least a value of the incrementer times the particular number of clock edges.
US08552763B2
According to one embodiment, a switch array includes first and second switches provided in a switch unit. The first switch includes first and second memory cell transistors and a first pass transistor. A second switch includes third and fourth memory cell transistors and a second pass transistor. The first and second memory cell transistor is provided in a first active region. The first pass transistor is provided in a second active region in the substrate. The third and fourth memory cell transistor is provided in the first active region. The second pass transistor is provided in the second active region adjacent to the first pass transistor in the channel length direction. The first and second active regions are adjacent to each other in a channel width direction.
US08552756B2
A chip testing apparatus and a chip testing method are provided. The chip testing apparatus includes a command generating module, a transceiving module and a control module. When the command generating module generates a first test command, the transceiving module transmits the first test command to a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and receives a target test result from the RFID chip. The control module determines whether the target test result complies with a reference test result. When the determination result of the control module is no, the control module controls the command generating module to generate a second test command for retesting the RFID chip.
US08552745B2
A system for monitoring a cement that undergoes polymerization during curing such as most bone and dental cements by passing an electrical signal through the cement to determine the swelling phase, the initiation of polymerization of the cement and the effective working phase. The system further can control the swelling phase to reduce the time from the mixing of the cement to the initiation of the polymerization by using a ultrasonic signal or by heating the cement and can control the effective working phase after the polymerization has been initiated in order to prolong the working phase by cooling the cement.
US08552741B2
A method of detection of a distance variation with respect to an axis of at least one point of an object rotating around this axis by a terminal at a fixed position with respect to the axis and capable of emitting a radiofrequency field for at least one resonant circuit attached to the object. The method includes the steps of measuring and recording, on the terminal side, a maximum value of a quantity representative of the coupling between an oscillating circuit of the terminal and the at least one resonant circuit; and detecting a variation of this periodic maximum.
US08552740B2
A method of measuring signal delay in a integrated circuit comprising applying a common clock signal at a circuit input and output, applying a test signal at the circuit input, detecting a corresponding output signal at the circuit output and detecting whether the test signal and output signal occur in a common part of the clock signal.
US08552732B2
An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus for measuring a conductive pattern on a substrate, which includes a first electro-optical modulator surrounding at least one first detecting roller; transmission rollers for transferring the substrate and allowing direct contact of the substrate and the first electro-optical modulator; a voltage supplier for providing a bias between the first electro-optical modulator and the substrate; and a first image detecting system for receiving a first detecting light reflected from a first surface of the substrate.
US08552724B2
A method for spin magnetic resonance applications in general, and for performing NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance imaging) in particular is disclosed. It is a quantum theory-based continuous precision method. This method directly makes use of spin magnetic resonance random emissions to generate its auto-correlation function and power spectrum, from which are derived spin relaxation times and spin number density using strict mathematical and physical equations. This method substantially reduces the NMR/MRI equipment and data processing complexity, thereby making NMR/MRI machines less costly, less bulky, more accurate, and easier to operate than the pulsed NMR/MRI. By employing extremely low transverse RF magnetic B1 field, MRI with this method is much safer for patients. And, by employing continuous spin magnetic resonance emissions, NMR with this method is of virtually unlimited spectral resolution to satisfy any science and engineering requirements.
US08552723B2
A measuring arrangement is provided with a magnetic field-sensitive sensor (2), which includes a body (10) formed of a magnetic material. The body has a continuous recess (12) and a wall (26) defining same. The sensor (2) has at least one electric conductor (5), which extends between the ends and is passed through the recess (12). A magnet (22), which can be moved relative to the body (10), provides a magnetic field by which the permeability of the body (10) can be varied as a function of the distance between the body (10) and the magnet (22). An analysis means (4), which can be or is connected to the conductor (5) and by which the change in the permeability of the body (10) can be detected. The conductor (5) does not loop around the wall (26).
US08552719B2
A method and apparatus for removing soluble and insoluble contaminants from highly purified and ultra-pure liquids having a bulk resistivity in excess of one megohm-centimeter by establishing laminar flow of the liquid in a cylindrical chamber through an electromagnetic field transverse to the direction of flow, to induce mobility of the constituents. The wall of the chamber forms a cathode and a central rod forms an anode in the chamber. The mobilized constituents are transported either to the anode or the cathode, where the material will adhere and agglomerate with other constituents. Systems are provided utilizing the method and apparatus for purifying and analytically evaluating highly purified and ultra-pure water.
US08552714B2
A rotation angle sensor includes a rotation shaft, a yoke which is made from a magnetic permeable material and includes a first disk portion, a second disk portion and a connection portion magnetically connecting the first disk portion and the second disk portion, the first disk portion and the second disk portion being provided on the rotation shaft in an axial direction of the rotation shaft separately, a first permanent magnet and a second permanent magnet, each having a disk shape which has a uniform plate thickness in a circumferential direction thereof, and which are provided on a first face of the first disk portion and a second face of the second disk portion respectively, the first face being opposed to the second face, a magnetic field detection section which is provided between the first permanent magnet and the second permanent magnet, and generates an output signal in response to an intensity of a magnetic field formed by the first permanent magnet and the second permanent magnet during a rotation of the rotation shaft. The first permanent magnet and the second permanent magnet are inclined with respect to a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the rotation shaft so that a distance of a line passing through the magnetic field detection section and connecting the first disk portion and the second disc portion in the axis direction of the rotation shaft is gradually changed in accordance to the rotation of the shaft.
US08552713B2
The invention relates to a linear sensor, comprising a sleeve, a pin which comprises a permanent magnet and is linearly displaceably supported in the sleeve, and a magnetic field sensor which is fastened to the sleeve and used to detect a displacement of the permanent magnet, characterized in that the pin is guided by way of a substantially cylindrical guide and has a magnet or pin holder.
US08552702B2
A digital control switching regulator of the invention ON/OFF-controls switching elements by digital-controlled pulse width modulation signals and converts an input voltage to a desired output voltage. The switching regulator includes an input voltage detection circuit that includes: a voltage dividing circuit outputting a divided voltage of the input voltage; a comparator section comparing the divided voltage of the input voltage with a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage and outputting a first comparison signal and a second comparison signal indicating comparison results; and a control section controlling a dividing ratio of the voltage dividing circuit based on the first comparison signal and the second comparison signal to obtain the predetermined divided voltage, thereby outputting an input voltage digital signal corresponding to the input voltage. The input voltage digital signal controls controller coefficients for use in the digital control.
US08552701B2
The present invention refers to a system for regulating a load voltage (C) in power distribution circuits comprising at least: a regulation transformer (2) the secondary winding of the regulatory transformer (2) being operatively arranged in series between a power source (F) and the load (C), the power source (F) being capable of providing a supply voltage (VAL) to the load (C); a measuring device (5) operatively associated to the load (C), the measuring device (5) being capable of measuring at least one value of an electric signal of the load (SCA); a control device (4) operatively associated to the measuring device (5), the control device (4) being capable of comparing the value of the electric signal of the load (SCA) with a pre-established reference value and providing a correcting electric signal (SCO); and an actuation device (3) operatively associated to the control device (4), wherein the actuation device (3) is capable of providing an adjustment voltage (VAJ) proportional to the correcting electric signal (SCO), the adjustment voltage (VAJ) being applicable to fixed electric taps of the primary winding of the regulation transformer (2), the fixed electric taps being configured to remain immovable when there is a variation of the adjustment voltage (VAJ), the regulation transformer (2) being capable of transforming the adjustment voltage (VAJ) into a regulation voltage (VRE), the regulation voltage (VRE) being added in module and phase to the supply voltage (VAL). The present invention also refers to a method executed by the above-mentioned system.
US08552689B2
An information handling system battery has first and second protective circuits to detect and address faults for a first charge applied from an external power source to an integrated charger and a second charge applied from a charger of an information handling system to battery cells. If the first protective circuit detects a fault associated with the integrated charger, charging of the battery cells is still supported by inserting the battery in an information handling system. If the second protective circuit detects a fault, the battery becomes inoperative by disconnecting the battery cells. An indicator, such as LEDs on the battery casing, indicates whether a soft or hard fault has occurred.
US08552684B2
It is an object to provide a non-contact charging module that prevents the magnet from negatively influencing particularly the inside portion of a coil and improves power transmission efficiency, even when a magnet is used for alignment. This non-contact charging module is a reception-side non-contact charging module, to which power is transmitted from a transmission-side non-contact charging module which is equipped with magnet, by electromagnetic induction, in which the non-contact charging module includes a planar coil portion around which spiral electric lines are wound, and a magnetic sheet disposed to face the surface of coil of the planar coil portion so that it faces the magnet of the transmission-side contact module, in which the inner diameter of the planar coil portion is larger than the magnet.
US08552681B2
An energy storage system for a track-guided vehicle includes at least one electrical energy storage device and at least one electrochemical energy storage device connected through at least one converter to a supply line and to a drive unit for the vehicle. Individual phases of said at least one converter can be operated as independent direct-current controllers for independent charging and discharging of different energy storage devices.
US08552680B2
An electronic device includes a first rechargeable battery, a solar cell mounted on the electronic device, a second rechargeable battery and a power management circuit. The power management circuit includes a control module, a DC/DC module, a switch and a power supply switching module. The DC/DC module is configured for converting the DC power generated by the solar cell from one voltage level to another, and activating and maintaining the activation of the control module. The switch is turned on by the control module when the control module is activated, causing the DC power from the DC/DC module to charge the second rechargeable battery. The power supply switching module is controlled by the control module to select the second rechargeable battery to power the electronic device if the voltage level of the rechargeable battery is lower than that of the second rechargeable battery.
US08552676B2
Method for measuring an operating variable at multiple electric motors of an automatic parking brake
A method for measuring at least one operating variable at multiple electric motors of an automatic parking brake with the aid of a sensor system, the signals generated by the sensor system being processed by a processing device. To minimize the influence of signal interferences, the at least one operating variable is not measured or is not further processed as long as none of the electric motors is activated.
US08552675B2
A motor includes a sensor magnet having a non-circular contour and a magnet cover fixed to an end portion of a shaft to cover the end portion of the shaft. The magnet cover includes a support portion positioned outside the end surface of the end portion of the shaft. In the support portion, a magnet hole having a non-circular cross section as the sensor magnet and extending in the direction of the rotation axis is provided. The sensor magnet is inserted into the magnet hole and fixed to the magnet hole.
US08552669B2
A duty ratio control device includes a duty ratio calculation unit and a parameter setting unit. The duty ratio calculation unit, when an acceleration manipulation is performed, calculates a control duty ratio per predetermined timing based on a value of at least one parameter so that a rotation speed of a motor mounted on an electric power tool reaches a target rotation speed corresponding to the acceleration manipulation. The control duty ratio is calculated to be larger as the value of the at least one parameter is larger. The parameter setting unit sets the value of the at least one parameter. The value of the at least one parameter set for a reacceleration manipulation is larger than the value of the at least one parameter set for an initial acceleration manipulation.
US08552668B2
An automotive electrical body system includes a plurality of electrical assemblies coupled to at least one automotive body component. Each of the assemblies includes a heating element for heating the at least one component, a motor for actuating the at least one component, or a switch configured to toggle the at least one component on and off. Each of the assemblies also includes a wireless communication module for receiving wireless signals, and, in response to the wireless signals, controlling operation of the heating element or motor. An electrical conductor interconnects each of the electrical assemblies and carries electrical power to each of the electrical assemblies.
US08552662B2
A driver for providing variable power to a LED array, which can be coupled through a dimmer to an AC power supply, comprises a filtering and rectifying unit, a switching power unit, and a control unit. The filtering and rectifying unit is adapted to attenuate EMI and convert an AC power from the AC power supply into a DC power output. The switching power unit is adapted to receive the DC power output and provide an output current to the LED array. The control unit is adapted to determine the output current in response to a comparison between a dim reference signal representing phase-modulating information of the AC power and a feedback signal representing an average value of the output current. The LED array can thus be controlled by a dimmer at the primary side so as to adjust its light output, and can further be utilized in currently existing lighting infrastructures.
US08552660B2
The present invention relates to a parallel light emitting diode (“LED”) drive circuit and provides a drive circuit configured to drive a parallel array of LEDs. The drive circuit comprises: a plurality of switches, a plurality of sampling resistors, and a plurality of chopper amplifiers. Each switch is coupled to a respective LED in the LED array. Each chopper operational amplifier configured to receive a reference voltage and a switching control signal and generate an input offset voltage. Each chopper operational amplifier includes a differential amplifier including an input transistor pair and a current mirror transistor pair, of which the electrical positions can be reserved when the switching control signal is switched between a first state and a second state, wherein the offset voltage, which causes the lightness mismatching in a parallel LED circuit, can be cancelled.
US08552638B2
A pixel array substrate includes a substrate, a plurality of pixel structures, a plurality of signal lines, a plurality of first traces, a plurality of second traces, a plurality of first conductive structures, and a plurality of second conductive structures. The pixel structures are arranged in array in a display region of the substrate. The signal lines are disposed in the display region and are formed in a first conducting wire layer and are electrically connected to the pixel structures. The first traces and the second traces are disposed in a periphery circuit region of the substrate and are respectively formed in a second conducting wire layer and the first conducting wire layer. A part of the signal lines are electrically connected to the first traces by the first conductive structures. Another of the signal lines are electrically connected to the second traces by the second conductive structures.
US08552635B2
A pixel arrangement of an organic light emitting display device with a plurality of repeatedly arranged sub-pixel groups, each of the sub-pixel groups includes two first sub-pixels in i-th and (i+2)-th columns (i is a natural number), two second sub-pixels in the i-th and (i+2)-th columns, the second sub-pixels being arranged in different rows with respect to the first sub-pixels, and two third sub-pixels in (i+1)-th and (i+3)-th columns, each third sub-pixel being arranged to overlap at least two adjacent rows of the first and second sub-pixels.
US08552631B2
A transparent electrode for a display device includes a nanocarbon material and a dopant comprising at least one of aluminum, alumina, palladium, and gold. In some embodiments, the transparent electrode has excellent transparency and low resistance.
US08552625B1
An electro-mechanical transducer provides a very low frequency wide band response by using a quad configuration of piezoelectric cantilevers, providing additive output between the resonant frequencies of the cantilevers and achieves this at great depths under free flooded or oil filled conditions.
US08552622B2
An acoustic wave device according to one embodiment of the present invention has a base with a vibrating body, a sealing member which is joined to the base in a frame-shaped region surrounding the vibrating body and faces the vibrating body with a space therebetween, and an intermediate layer between the frame-shaped region of the sealing member and the base. The frame-shaped region has a recess and at least a portion of the intermediate layer is located inside the recess.
US08552620B2
The present invention relates to a method of measuring and evaluating rigidity of a target object or mechanical output, such as force, displacement, and mechanical energy generated by a piezoelectric actuator and applied to the target object, according to only a measured value of electric quantity without use of a mechanical sensor, and a method of controlling the piezoelectric actuator, and a device using these methods.Steps of finding equivalent circuit constants of the piezoelectric actuator; applying a voltage to the piezoelectric actuator and measuring electrical quantity flowing into the piezoelectric actuator due to the applied voltage, or applying an electric charge to the piezoelectric actuator and measuring voltage applied to the piezoelectric actuator due to the applied electric charge; and measuring and evaluating one or more of force, displacement, or mechanical energy generated by the piezoelectric actuator and applied to a target object, or rigidity of a target object are included. While these values are measured and evaluated minutely, applied voltage and electrical quantity are adjusted and controlled.
US08552619B2
A driving circuit is configured to drive a vibration-type actuator including a vibration member and a moving member. The vibration member includes an electro-mechanical energy conversion element and may generate a vibration wave in response to an alternating voltage applied to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element. The moving member is in contact with the vibration member and may move in response to the vibration wave relative to the vibration member. The driving circuit includes a capacitor and an inductor connected in series with the capacitor to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element. Parameters of the driving circuit may be set such that when a series resonance frequency of the inductor and the capacitor is denoted by fs and a resonance frequency of the vibration member is denoted by fm, a condition 0.73·fm
US08552611B2
The present invention provides a coil end structure of a rotating electric machine which is able to miniaturize the coil end structure without having an insulation coating of a flat wire being affected. A coil segment 4 is composed of a plurality of flat wires. A surface of each flat wire confronting another in a slot 2a (legs 41 and 41) is identical to the surface confronting the other at a coil end (head 42).
US08552603B2
An electric rotating machine is provided which includes a stator in which a coil is so wound as to have an coil end and a coolant channel. The coolant channel has defined therein a flow path through which coolant flows and a flow separator disposed in the flow path and a first and a second coolant outlet. The flow separator works to separate a flow of the coolant into at least a first and a second coolant streams. The first coolant outlet communicates with the first coolant stream, while the second coolant outlet communicates with the second coolant stream. The first and second coolant outlets drain the coolant to different portions of the coil end, thereby cooling almost the whole of the coil end even when the electric rotating machine is tilted undesirably.
US08552599B2
Disclosed herein is a vibration generating device including: a stator which includes a bracket, a case which has an inner space and is assembled with the bracket, and magnets which are fixed symmetrically at a lower surface of the bracket and an upper surface of the case; and a vibrator which includes an elastic member which is fixed at central portions of opposite side surfaces of the case to support vertical vibration, a coil which is connected with an inner diameter of the elastic member, yokes which are symmetrically assembled with upper and lower portions of the elastic member, and weight bodies which are assembled with the yokes.
US08552598B2
A linear vibrating motor includes a base defining a first bottom wall and a first sidewall extending vertically from the first bottom wall, a cover forming a receiving cavity together with the base and defining a second bottom wall and a second sidewall extending vertically from the second bottom wall, a coil positioned on one of the first bottom wall and the second bottom wall, a vibrating unit suspended in the receiving cavity, a gasket positioned on a bottom wall of one of the base and the cover, and an elastic plate suspending the vibrating unit and sandwiched between the gasket and a sidewall of the other one of the base and the cover.
US08552596B2
This disclosure provides a power transmitting apparatus including coupling electrodes couplable to a power receiving apparatus to transmit power to the receiving apparatus. A high-frequency voltage generator circuit is adapted to supply a high-frequency voltage across the coupling electrodes in accordance with a signal output from a control circuit. A driving power supply switching circuit switches between applying a constant voltage and supplying a constant current to the high-frequency voltage generator circuit. First, by sweeping the driving frequency of the high-frequency voltage generator circuit in a state in which a constant current is supplied, it is determined whether there is a maximal value in the frequency characteristics of a voltage applied to the high-frequency voltage generator circuit. When there is a maximal value, the corresponding frequency is set as the driving frequency, and power transmission is started after the driving power supply switching circuit is switched to a constant voltage.
US08552594B2
A noncontact power feed system includes: a noncontact power feed apparatus including a power feed resonance device to supply alternate-current power to an electronic apparatus by resonance in a noncontact manner, and an alternate-current power source section to generate the alternate-current power and supply it to the power feed resonance device; a noncontact relay apparatus including a relay resonance device to receive the alternate-current power and relay it to another electronic apparatus by resonance in a noncontact manner, a relay-side rectifier circuit to form direct-current power for output, and a movement means for moving the noncontact relay apparatus by the direct-current power; and at least one noncontact power reception apparatus including a power reception resonance device to receive the alternate-current power by magnetic field resonance in a noncontact manner, a power-reception-side rectifier circuit to form direct-current power for output, and a load means driven by the direct-current power.
US08552591B2
An energy storage system capable of improving the lifespan of a battery pack while supplying power in a secured manner is provided. In one embodiment, the energy storage system includes a plurality of battery packs connected between a grid and a solar cell to charge/discharge power. The energy storage system includes an inverter connected among the grid, the solar cell, and the battery pack and inverting an alternating current (AC) power to a direct current (DC) power and vice versa according to charging/discharging operations. The energy storage system includes a converter connected to the solar cell, the battery pack, and the grid and converting power supplied from the solar cell, and a plurality of bidirectional converters connected to the plurality of battery packs, the solar cell, and the grid and connected in one-to-one correspondence to the plurality of battery packs and converting the power for charging/discharging the battery pack. The energy storage system further includes a controller connected to the inverter, the converter, and the plurality of bidirectional converters and applying drive signals to sequentially drive the plurality of bidirectional converters.
US08552590B2
An energy management system includes: a first interface configured to receive a first power from a power generation system; a second interface configured to couple to the power generation system, a power grid, and a storage device, and to receive at least one of the first power from the power generation system, a second power from the power grid, or a third power from the storage device, and to supply a fourth power to at least one of the power grid or a load; and a third interface configured to receive the third power from the storage device, and to supply a fifth power to the storage device for storage.
US08552589B2
Systems and methods of operating uninterruptible power supplies in parallel in a power distribution system to provide power to a load are provided. At least one uninterruptible power supply inverter provides power to the load. A communication interface provides a measured value of at least one of inverter output current of a first uninterruptible power supply and a measured value of the load current to a second uninterruptible power supply, and receives a measured value of at least one of inverter output current of the second uninterruptible power supply and the load current. A controller controls the uninterruptible power supplies to operate in one of a master state and a slave state. In the master state the uninterruptible power supply is configured to control the voltage to the load, and in the slave state the uninterruptible power supply is configured to determine a reference output current value based at least in part on at least one of the measured value of inverter output current of the second uninterruptible power supply and the measured value of the load current. The uninterruptible power supply in the slave state drives its inverter output current toward the reference output current value to provide its share of the load current.
US08552588B2
The present invention relates to a power system utilizing an engine generator or public power with AC source, wherein the power system particularly has the characteristics that the maximum output current thereof is limited by electromagnetic effects, and/or constant current or nearly constant current output thereof is set to be lower than the maximum output current, for powering a load, and charging a battery, or jointly powering a load with a battery; when an engine generator set is utilized to be power supply, during operation, the engine operates with the best brake specific fuel consumption and/or the range of revolutions and torque for better energy saving.
US08552586B2
A system for standby power control in a multiple power supply environment is provided. The system includes a plurality of power supplies. Each power supply has a standby voltage output, and has a standby voltage enable signal input. A signal line connects to each power supply at the respective standby voltage enable signal input. A resistance is connected between the signal line and a system reference. The plurality of power supplies are configured such that the resistance determines a number of power supplies that must be available before the standby voltage outputs are activated by the power supplies.
US08552583B2
The present invention relates to a power supply system and method including a power generator and a storage device. Specifically, the power supply method using a power supply system which includes a power generator, a storage device, a unidirectional converter, and a bidirectional interleaved converter, and in which the other side of the unidirectional converter is connected to the other side of the bidirectional interleaved converter and power is output from the other side of the unidirectional converter, the power supply method comprises measuring one or more of an amount of power generation of the power generator and an amount of power storage of the storage device; forming a power transfer path by analyzing one or more of the amount of power generation and the amount of power storage; and controlling activation of devices on the formed power transfer path.
US08552578B2
A vehicle mirror includes a main body, a mirror fixed on the main body, and a generator. The generator includes a generating assembly received in the main body. The generating assembly includes a fan, a stator, and a rotor. The rotor is connected to the fan and is capable of rotating relative to the stator when the fan is rotated by wind, such that the generator generates electrical energy.
US08552577B2
A wind-power generation system with an over-speed protection is disclosed. The system is provided to convert wind energy into mechanical energy by a wind turbine, and mechanical energy is converted into electric energy by the wind turbine driving a generator. Also, electric energy is delivered to a power grid. The wind-power generation system mainly includes an AC crowbar, a fuse, and a DC chopper. The AC crowbar or the DC chopper is provided to consume superfluous energy outputted from the generator, thus providing an over-load operation to brake the wind turbine when the wind turbine operates under a first stage over-speed operation. Finally, the generator is isolated from the generator-side converter by disconnecting the fuse when the wind turbine operates under a second stage over-speed operation.
US08552566B1
A first cavity-down ball grid array (BGA) package includes a substrate member and an array of bond balls. The array of bond balls includes a pair of parallel extending rows of outer mesh bond balls and a row of inner signal bond balls that is parallel to the pair of rows of outer mesh bond balls. A surface-mount blocking element is disposed between the row of inner signal bond balls and the pair of rows of outer mesh bond balls. The surface-mount blocking element is either a passive or an active component of the BGA package. In one example, the first cavity-down BGA package is surface-mounted to a second cavity-down BGA package to form a package-on-package (POP) security module. The surface-mount blocking element provides additional physical barrier against the probing of the inner signal bond balls. Sensitive data is therefore protected from unauthorized access.
US08552559B2
A new interconnection scheme is described, comprising both coarse and fine line interconnection schemes in an IC chip. The coarse metal interconnection, typically formed by selective electroplating technology, is located on top of the fine line interconnection scheme. It is especially useful for long distance lines, clock, power and ground buses, and other applications such as high Q inductors and bypass lines. The fine line interconnections are more appropriate to be used for local interconnections. The combined structure of coarse and fine line interconnections forms a new interconnection scheme that not only enhances IC speed, but also lowers power consumption.
US08552558B2
The present invention is directed to a thick film conductive composition comprising: (a) electrically conductive silver powder; (c) fluorine-containing glass frit; dispersed in (d) organic vehicle and devices made therefrom.
US08552557B1
An electronic component package includes a RDL pattern comprising a redistribution pattern terminal. A buildup dielectric layer is formed on the RDL pattern, the buildup dielectric layer having a redistribution pattern terminal aperture exposing the redistribution pattern terminal. An interconnection ball is formed within the redistribution pattern terminal aperture and on the redistribution pattern terminal. The interconnection ball includes an enclosed portion having an outer concave surface within the buildup dielectric layer. The angle of intersection between the outer concave surface of the interconnection ball and the redistribution pattern is less than 90°. This minimizes stress between the interconnection ball and the redistribution pattern which, in turn, minimizes failure of the bond between the interconnection ball and the redistribution pattern.
US08552555B2
A technique which improves the reliability in coupling between a bump electrode of a semiconductor chip and wiring of a mounting substrate, more particularly a technique which guarantees the flatness of a bump electrode even when wiring lies in a top wiring layer under the bump electrode, thereby improving the reliability in coupling between the bump electrode and the wiring formed on a glass substrate. Wiring, comprised of a power line or signal line, and a dummy pattern are formed in a top wiring layer beneath a non-overlap region of a bump electrode. The dummy pattern is located to fill the space between wirings to reduce irregularities caused by the wirings and space in the top wiring layer. A surface protection film formed to cover the top wiring layer is flattened by CMP.
US08552549B2
In a substrate for a stacking-type semiconductor device including a connection terminal provided for a connection with a semiconductor chip to be stacked and an external terminal connected to the connection terminal through a conductor provided in a substrate, connection terminals of a power supply, a ground and the like, which terminals have an identical node, are electrically continuous with each other. Thus, it is possible to facilitate an inspection of electrical continuity between each connection terminal and an external terminal corresponding to each connection terminal by minimum addition of inspecting terminals. Further, it is possible to improve reliability of a stacking-type semiconductor module.
US08552548B1
To form a semiconductor device, a through electrode is formed in a semiconductor die, and a dielectric layer is then formed to cover the through electrode. The dielectric layer has an opening by being partially etched to allow the through electrode to protrude to the outside, or has a thickness thinner overall so as to allow the through electrode to protrude to the outside. Subsequently, a conductive pad is formed on the through electrode protruding to the outside through the dielectric layer by using an electroless plating method.
US08552546B2
Provided is a semiconductor package. The semiconductor package may include a first semiconductor package having first semiconductor chips sequentially stacked on a substrate. In example embodiments, the first semiconductor chips may have a cascaded arrangement in which first sides and second sides of the semiconductor chips define cascade patterns. The cascaded arrangement may extend in a first direction to define a space between the first sides of the first semiconductor chips and the substrate. The semiconductor package may also include at least one first connection wiring at the second sides of the semiconductor chips, the at least one first connection wiring being configured to electrically connect the substrate with the first semiconductor chips. In addition, the semiconductor package may further include a first filling auxiliary structure adjacent to the first sides of the first semiconductor chips.
US08552537B2
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment, includes a dielectric film and an Si semiconductor part. The dielectric film is formed by using one of oxide, nitride and oxynitride. The Si semiconductor part is arranged below the dielectric film, having at least one element of sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te) present in an interface with the dielectric film, and formed by using silicon (Si).
US08552533B2
A method for manufacturing the compound semiconductor substrate having a reduced dislocation density at an interface between a Si substrate. Contaminants, such as organic matter and metal, on a surface of a Si substrate are removed whereby a flat oxide film is formed. The oxide film on the surface is removed by using an aqueous hydrogen fluoride solution, whereby hydrogen termination treatment is performed. Immediately after being subjected to the hydrogen termination treatment the temperature of the Si substrate is raised in a vacuum apparatus. If the substrate temperature is raised without any operation, the termination hydrogen is released. Before the hydrogen is released, pre-irradiation with As is performed. Thus, an interface between the Si substrate and the compound semiconductor layer is prepared. Several minutes later, irradiation with Ga and As is performed. Thereby, the compound semiconductor is formed.
US08552530B2
A vertical transient voltage suppressor for protecting an electronic device is disclosed. The vertical transient voltage includes a conductivity type substrate having highly doping concentration; a first type lightly doped region is arranged on the conductivity type substrate, wherein the conductivity type substrate and the first type lightly doped region respectively belong to opposite types; a first type heavily doped region and a second type heavily doped region are arranged in the first type lightly doped region, wherein the first and second type heavily doped regions and the conductivity type substrate belong to same types; and a deep first type heavily doped region is arranged on the conductivity type substrate and neighbors the first type lightly doped region, wherein the deep first type heavily doped region and the first type lightly doped region respectively belong to opposite types, and wherein the deep first type heavily doped region is coupled to the first type heavily doped region.
US08552521B2
A semiconductor package removes power noise by using a ground impedance. The semiconductor package includes an analog circuit block, a digital circuit block, an analog ground impedance structure, a digital ground impedance structure, and an integrated ground. The integrated ground and the analog circuit block are electrically connected via the analog ground impedance structure, and the integrated ground and the digital circuit block are electrically connected via the digital ground impedance structure, and an inductance of the analog ground impedance structure is greater than an inductance of the digital ground impedance structure.
US08552518B2
A microelectronic assembly and method of making, which includes a first microelectronic element (including a substrate with first and second opposing surfaces, a semiconductor device, and conductive pads at the first surface which are electrically coupled to the semiconductor device) and a second microelectronic element (including a handier with first and second opposing surfaces, a second semiconductor device, and conductive pads at the handler first surface which are electrically coupled to the second semiconductor device). The first and second microelectronic elements are integrated such that the second surfaces face each other. The first microelectronic element includes conductive elements each extending from one of its conductive pads, through the substrate to the second surface. The second microelectronic element includes conductive elements each extending between the handler first and second surfaces. The conductive elements of the first microelectronics element are electrically coupled to the conductive elements of the second microelectronics element.
US08552509B2
A semiconductor device includes conductive features that are each defined within any one gate level channel uniquely associated with and defined along one of a number of parallel gate electrode tracks. The conductive features form gate electrodes of first and second PMOS transistor devices, and first and second NMOS transistor devices. The gate electrodes of the first PMOS and first NMOS transistor devices extend along a first gate electrode track. The gate electrodes of the second PMOS and second NMOS transistor devices extend along second and third gate electrode tracks, respectively. A first set of interconnected conductors electrically connect the gate electrodes of the first PMOS and second NMOS transistor devices. A second set of interconnected conductors electrically connect the gate electrodes of the second PMOS and first NMOS transistor devices. The first and second sets of interconnected conductors traverse across each other within different levels of the semiconductor device.
US08552502B2
An electrical device is provided that in one embodiment includes a p-type semiconductor device having a first gate structure that includes a gate dielectric that is present on the semiconductor substrate, a p-type work function metal layer, a metal layer composed of titanium and aluminum, and a metal fill composed of aluminum. An n-type semiconductor device is also present on the semiconductor substrate that includes a second gate structure that includes a gate dielectric, a metal layer composed of titanium and aluminum, and a metal fill composed of aluminum. An interlevel dielectric is present over the semiconductor substrate. The interlevel dielectric includes interconnects to the source and drain regions of the p-type and n-type semiconductor devices. The interconnects are composed of a metal layer composed of titanium and aluminum, and a metal fill composed of aluminum. The present disclosure also provides a method of forming the aforementioned structure.
US08552493B2
In one embodiment, a transistor fabricated on a semiconductor die includes a first section of transistor segments disposed in a first area of the semiconductor die, and a second section of transistor segments disposed in a second area of the semiconductor die adjacent the first area. Each of the transistor segments in the first and second sections includes a pillar of a semiconductor material that extends in a vertical direction. First and second dielectric regions are disposed on opposite sides of the pillar. First and second field plates are respectively disposed in the first and second dielectric regions. Outer field plates of transistor segments adjoining first and second sections are either separated or partially merged.
US08552487B2
A semiconductor structure includes a SOI substrate having a top silicon layer overlying an insulation layer, which overlies a bottom silicon layer; a capacitor disposed at least partially in the insulation layer; a device disposed at least partially on the top silicon layer, which device is coupled to a doped portion of the top silicon layer; a backside strap of first epitaxially-deposited material, at least a first portion of the backside strap underlying the doped portion, the backside strap being coupled to the doped portion of the top silicon layer at a first end of the backside strap and to the capacitor at a second end of the backside strap; and second epitaxially-deposited material that at least partially overlies the doped portion of the top silicon layer, the second epitaxially-deposited material further at least partially overlying the first portion.
US08552482B2
A CMOS single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) design uses conventional, or at least known, CMOS processes to produce a device having a breakdown region in which the main p-n junction is formed of a deep n-well layer, and optionally on the other side, a p-add layer. The SPAD may also have a guard ring region which comprises the p-epi layer without any implant. The SPAD may have curved or circular perimeters. A CMOS chip comprises SPADs as described and other NMOS devices all sharing the same deep n-well.
US08552472B2
An integrated circuit device includes a plurality of pillars protruding from a substrate in a first direction. Each of the pillars includes source/drain regions in opposite ends thereof and a channel region extending between the source/drain regions. A plurality of conductive bit lines extends on the substrate adjacent the pillars in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. A plurality of conductive shield lines extends on the substrate in the second direction such that each of the shield lines extends between adjacent ones of the bit lines. Related fabrication methods are also discussed.
US08552470B2
A photovoltaic cell is provided as a composite unit together with elements of an integrated circuit on a common substrate. In a described embodiment, connections are established between a multiple photovoltaic cell portion and a circuitry portion of an integrated structure to enable self-powering of the circuitry portion by the multiple photovoltaic cell portion.
US08552463B2
In accordance with certain embodiments, a semiconductor die is adhered directly to a yielding substrate with a pressure-activated adhesive notwithstanding any nonplanarity of the surface of the semiconductor die or non-coplanarity of the semiconductor die contacts.
US08552461B2
An LED (light emitting diode) includes a seat and an LED chip. The seat includes a main body, and a first electrode and a second electrode formed on the main body. The LED chip includes a first semiconductor layer, an annular light-emitting layer encircling the first semiconductor layer, and an annular second semiconductor layer encircling the light-emitting layer. The first electrode electrically connects with the first semiconductor layer, and the second electrode electrically connects with the second semiconductor layer.
US08552449B2
Provided is a package of a light emitting diode. The package according to an embodiment includes a package of a light emitting diode, the package comprising: a base layer including an entire top surface that is substantially flat; a light emitting diode chip on the base layer; a lead frame electrically connected to the light emitting diode chip; and a reflective coating layer comprising titanium oxide, wherein a top surface of the reflective coating layer is substantially parallel to a top surface of the base layer, and wherein ends of the reflective coating layer and base layer are aligned with each other.
US08552446B2
Disclosed is an optoelectronic device including at least one optoelectronic active region comprising at least a rear electrode and a front electrode between which an organic optoelectronic material is sandwiched, said rear electrode being reflective, and a cover layer arranged in front of said front electrode. The cover layer is formed from a material with light-scattering particles of a first material dispersed in a transparent matrix of at an least partly hydrolyzed silica sol. Due to the highly scattering properties of the cover layer, the device is essentially concealed behind the cover layer when not in its operative state.
US08552429B2
A non-contact charge sensor includes a semiconductor detector having a first surface and an opposing second surface. The detector includes a high resistivity electrode layer on the first surface and a low resistivity electrode on the high resistivity electrode layer. A portion of the low resistivity first surface electrode is deleted to expose the high resistivity electrode layer in a portion of the area. A low resistivity electrode layer is disposed on the second surface of the semiconductor detector. A voltage applied between the first surface low resistivity electrode and the second surface low resistivity electrode causes a free charge to drift toward the first or second surface according to a polarity of the free charge and the voltage. A charge sensitive preamplifier coupled to a non-contact electrode disposed at a distance from the exposed high resistivity electrode layer outputs a signal in response to movement of free charge within the detector.
US08552421B2
An organic electronic device includes an active region polarity definition layer, and a bulk heterojunction active layer formed on the active region polarity definition layer. The bulk heterojunction active layer includes an upper region and a lower region having respective majority carriers localized therein of different polarities.
US08552415B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a first electrode, a second electrode disposed opposing to the first electrode, and a photoelectric conversion layer, which is disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode and in which narrow gap semiconductor quantum dots are dispersed in a conductive layer, wherein one electrode of the first electrode and the second electrode is formed from a transparent electrode and the other electrode is formed from a metal electrode or a transparent electrode.
US08552410B2
A radiation-emitting device (e.g., a laser) includes an active region configured to generate a radiation emission linearly polarized along a first polarization direction and a device facet covered by an insulating layer and a metal layer on the insulating layer. The metal layer defines an aperture through which the radiation emission from the active region can be transmitted and coupled into surface plasmons on the outer side of the metal layer. The long axis of the aperture is non-orthogonal to the first polarization direction, and a sequential series of features are defined in or on the device facet or in the metal layer and spaced apart from the aperture, wherein the series of features are configured to manipulate the surface plasmons and to scatter surface plasmons into the far field with a second polarization direction distinct from the first polarization direction.
US08552407B2
Disclosed is a shield (8, 10) disposed between an ion source (1) of an ion milling device and a sample (7) so as to be in contact with the sample. The shield is characterized by having a circular shape having an opening at the center, and by being capable of rotating about an axis (11) extending through the opening. Further, a groove is provided in the ion source-side surface of an end portion of the shield, and an inclined surface is provided on an end portion of the shield. Thus, an ion milling device having a shield, wherein the maximum number of machining operations can be increased, and the position of the shield can be accurately adjusted.
US08552405B2
A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a unit to calculate a gradient of a convolution amount that is calculated from a convolution operation between an area density and a distribution function, a unit to calculate a small influence radius phenomenon dose correction coefficient that corrects for dimension variation due to a phenomenon whose influence radius is on an order of microns or less, by using the convolution amount and the gradient, a unit to calculate a proximity effect dose correction coefficient that corrects for dimension variation due to a proximity effect, by using a first function depending on the small influence radius phenomenon dose correction coefficient, a unit to calculate a dose by using the proximity effect dose correction coefficient and the small influence radius phenomenon dose correction coefficient, and a unit to write a figure pattern concerned on a target object, based on the dose.
US08552397B2
Disclosed is an operation for an optical system which achieves observation of focused ion beam processing equivalent to that in a case wherein a sample stage is tilted mechanically. In a focused ion beam optical system, an aperture, a tilting deflector, a beam scanner, and an objective lens are controlled so as to irradiate an ion beam tilted to the optical axis of the optical system, thereby achieving thin film processing and a cross section processing without accompanying adjustment and operation for a sample stage. The thin film processing and the cross section processing with a focused ion beam can be automated, and yield can be improved. For example, by applying the present invention to a cross section monitor to detect an end point, the cross section processing can be easily automated.
US08552394B2
A method and system are presented for use in optical processing of an article by VUV radiation. The method comprises: localizing incident VUV radiation propagation from an optical head assembly towards a processing site on the article outside the optical head assembly and localizing reflected VUV radiation propagation from said processing site towards the optical head assembly by localizing a medium, non-absorbing with respect to VUV radiation, in within the light propagation path in the vicinity of said site outside the optical head assembly. The level of the medium is controlled by measuring the reflected VUV radiation.
US08552390B2
In an X-ray line sensor 1, a scintillator layer 24 that absorbs X-rays in a low-energy range and emits light and a scintillator layer 26 that absorbs X-rays in a high-energy range and emits light are brought in contact with each other, and further, the thickness of the scintillator layer 24 on the front side is thinner than that of the scintillator layer 26 on the rear side. These make the amount of mismatch small between a light emitting position P1 in the scintillator layer 24 and a light emitting position P2 in the scintillator layer 26 to X-rays in the low-energy range and X-rays in the high-energy range entered at the same angle from the front side, so that at this time, light emitted by the scintillator layer 24 and light emitted by the scintillator layer 26 are detected by a photo-detecting section 16 and a photo-detecting section 23 facing each other. Thus, mismatch between an X-ray transmission image in the low-energy range and an X-ray transmission image in the high-energy range obtained simultaneously can be prevented.
US08552389B2
A system and method for collimation in diagnostic imaging systems is provided. One collimation system includes a collimator for a radiation imaging detector having a plurality of adjustable segments and a plurality of collimator holes within each of the plurality of adjustable segments. The plurality of adjustable segments are configured to move independently of a detector to adjust a field of view of the collimator holes.
US08552385B2
Provided are a radioactive contamination monitoring device and a radioactive contamination monitoring method for enabling easy detection of radiation from an object to be monitored in a little surrounding space. The radioactive contamination monitoring device comprises a radiation detection unit, a photoelectric conversion unit for converting the light generated in the radiation detection unit to electricity, and a signal processing unit connected to the photoelectric conversion unit. The radiation detection unit includes a quadrangular prism-shaped light guide bar having a rectangular cross-section and a scintillator attached only to two adjacent side faces of the four side faces of the light guide bar.
US08552384B2
A mirror reflection processing method for a position sensitive detector device in intelligent bathroom products. The infrared emitter in the position sensitive detector device is provided with two infrared emitting intensity modes. The position sensitive detector device determines whether to consider that no signal is collected in current collection according to the result of comparison between the reflected infrared signal intensity received by the infrared receiver and the preset value therein, thereby overcoming the mis-operation of the position sensitive detector device when being opposite to objects with relatively high reflectivity, and making the position sensitive detector device even more widely applied.
US08552376B2
A pyroelectric infrared body sensing switch circuit comprises an amplification circuit, a delay unit, an execution unit, and an infrared detection circuit comprising one or more pyroelectric infrared detection elements. A power unit comprises first and second power circuits. Each of the first and second power circuits receives AC power and supplies DC power through RC voltage reduction, full-wave rectification, filtration, and voltage stabilization. The first power circuit supplies power to the execution unit and the second power circuit supplies power to the infrared detection circuit, the amplification circuit, and the delay unit. A signal outputted from the infrared detection circuit is inputted to the amplification circuit. A signal outputted from the amplification circuit controls the activation of the delay unit. A signal output from the delay unit controls the execution unit. The signal outputted from the infrared detection circuit comprises superposed output signals from the pyroelectric infrared detection elements.
US08552374B2
The invention relates to a spectral detector for measuring properties of light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum including cholesteric liquid crystal material and switching means capable of varying the pitch of the helix of the cholesteric liquid crystal material, so that the position of the transmission wavelength band is adjusted in response to the switching means. The spectral detector may further include at least one light direction selecting structure for selecting light incident on the spectral detector having a certain angle of incidence. This invention also relates to a lighting system including the spectral detector of the invention.
US08552373B2
Disclosed is a charged particle beam device, wherein multibeam secondary electron detectors (121a, 121b, 121c) and a single beam detector (140; 640) are provided, and under the control of a system control unit (135), an optical system control circuit (139) controls a lens and a beam selecting diaphragm (141) and switches the electrooptical conditions between those for multibeam mode and those for single beam mode, thereby one charged particle beam device can be operated as a multibeam charged particle device and a single beam charged particle device by switching. Thus, observation conditions are flexibly changed in accordance with an object to be observed, and a sample can be observed with a high accuracy and high efficiency.
US08552369B2
A method of obtaining an elemental concentration profile of a sample using x-ray photon spectroscopy measurements is described. Each measurement relates to a different depth in the sample. The sample is shaped to provide access to different depths thereof. Measurements are obtained at respective positions on a bevelled surface exposing material at each of the depths. The method involves fitting the measurements to a mathematical function, dividing the function into a plurality of equal depth wise slices, determining the elemental concentration for the slice corresponding to the thinnest part of the bevel, and then iteratively determining the contribution of each successive slice to the intensity value as being the intensity value measured for that slice minus the intensity value determined to have been contributed by each preceding slice. According to preferred embodiments, a surface correction factor compensating surface effect phenomena is applied to the concentration value calculated for each slice.
US08552366B2
A mass spectrometer is disclosed comprising an ion guide or ion mobility spectrometer having helical, toroidal, part-toroidal, hemitoroidal, semitoroidal or spiral ion guiding region. The ion guide may comprise a tube made from a leaky dielectric wherein an RF voltage is applied to outer electrodes in order to confine ions radially within the ion guide. A DC voltage is applied to a resistive inner layer in order to urge ions along the ion guide. Alternatively, the ion guide may comprise a plurality of electrodes each having an aperture through which ions are transmitted.
US08552363B2
An optical chromatography system employs fluid filled hollow core fibers, such as photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), which confine an incident optical beam from a laser, for example, in the core and cause separation of particles in the fluid along the length of the PCF. The incident optical beam is confined in the fluid filled core of the PCF by a periodic lattice of air capillaries surrounding the core. The lattice either creates a lower refractive index in the cladding than in the fluid filled core or creates a 1D photonic bandgap structure where the guiding is accomplished by surrounding the fluid filled core with a periodically changing array of dielectric constant which prohibits radial dilution of the optical energy over a range of wavelengths through photonic bandgap effects.
US08552362B2
A system and method for measuring linear and angular displacement of a moving object, such as an autonomous moving object. In one embodiment, the system comprises at least one optical mouse sensor mounted adjacent to and at a predetermined distance from a surface of the autonomous moving object or a working surface. A processor on the autonomous moving object is operatively coupled to the optical mouse sensor. The optical mouse sensor outputs linear and angular displacement values to the processor during movement of the autonomous moving object to determine a direction and distance traveled by the autonomous moving object.
US08552355B2
A current-voltage converting circuit (2) is provided with a first feedback circuit (5) and a correcting transistor (Q1). The first feedback circuit (5) outputs, of an output voltage (V10), a voltage according to a magnitude of a low-frequency component that is not greater than or equal to a predefined first cut-off frequency. The correcting transistor (Q1) extracts a correction current (I21) according to a magnitude of an output of the first feedback circuit (5) from a sensor current (I10). The first feedback circuit (5) has a first integrating circuit (9) and a sample-and-hold circuit (10). The first integrating circuit (9) integrates the output voltage (V10) of a conversion section (3). The sample-and-hold circuit (10) samples and holds an output of the first integrating circuit (9) during a sensing period at which a pulsed detection signal is inputted. Means for preventing an incidence of ambient light onto a light-receiving section can be simplified or omitted as a result.
US08552352B2
A solid-state imaging device of an embodiment includes an imaging region, an output register, a corner register, a multiplication register, a first amplifier, a second amplifier, and a valve gate electrode. The output register is a transfer register that receives a charge transferred from the imaging region to transfer the charge. The output register is capable of selectively transferring a charge in one direction and in the other direction opposite to the one direction. The corner register transfers a charge transferred in one direction from the output register. The multiplication register receives a charge from the corner register and generates and transfers a multiplied charge. The first amplifier generates a signal based on a multiplied charge from the multiplication register. The second amplifier generates a signal based on a charge transferred in the other direction by the output register. The valve gate electrode is an electrode for preventing a transfer of a charge between the output register and the corner register.
US08552351B2
A projectile has a fuze kit that includes deployable canards. The canards are ends of a strip of material. The strip of material is initially in an angled recess of a collar of the fuze kit, with the angled recess angled relative to a longitudinal axis of the projectile, defining a plane that is not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. At some point in flight of the projectile, for example during mid-course of the projectile flight after a ballistic phase of the projectile flight, the canards are deployed by releasing the ends of the strip. This causes the ends of the strip to pull away from the longitudinal axis of the projectile, out of the recess, into the airstream around the projectile. Resilient forces in the strip may cause the ends to be moved out of the recess when the ends are released.
US08552337B2
Laser hybrid welding systems adapted to identify and/or fix a weld defect occurring during a laser hybrid welding process are provided. Embodiments of the laser hybrid welding system may include one or more devices that provide feedback to a controller regarding one or more weld parameters. One embodiment of the laser hybrid welding system includes sensors that are adapted to measure the weld voltage and/or amperage during the welding process and transmit the acquired data to the controller for processing. Another embodiment of the laser hybrid welding system includes a lead camera and a lag camera that film an area directly in front of the weld location and directly behind the weld location.
US08552328B2
The invention provides a method for fixing up the deterioration of a magneto-resistive effect device. A hard disk system is provided in it with a head heating means for heating a thin-film magnetic head, and by that head heating means, a defective site of the magneto-resistive effect device, which occurs as the hard disk system is in operation and is confined in a quasi-stable state, is fixed up in such a way as to return back to its own normal stable state. Thus, the deteriorated site of the magneto-resistive effect device (reproducing device) in the thin-film magnetic head, which is caused by the so-called thermal asperity as the hard disk system is in operation, is fixed up while it remains built in the hard disk system, i.e., without dismantling the hard disk system.
US08552324B2
A lever button in which at least one side thereof is elastically supported and an electronic device therewith is provided. The lever button includes a manipulation part and an elastic part having one end supported by the manipulation part and another end supported by a support frame. The elastic part comprises at least one cantilever.
US08552317B2
Exemplary embodiments are directed to a metal-encapsulated, polyphase busbar switch disconnector and earthing switch, including a housing which, on each of opposite sides has three flanges that lie on a plane. Each flange being connected to one busbar and, on a third side, a flange is connected to a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker having conductor elements arranged in an interior of the housing. First conductor elements are connected to the busbars, and second conductor elements are connected to circuit breaker poles. The second conductor elements are aligned at right angles to the first conductor elements, which connect the busbars to one another, such that the first conductor elements are substantially U-shaped and are passed around the second conductor elements. A switch disconnector and earthing switch contact arrangement is provided between an inner housing wall and the first and second conductor elements.
US08552311B2
An electrical feedthrough includes a ceramic body and a ribbon via extending through the ceramic body, an interface between the ribbon via and the ceramic body being sealed using partial transient liquid phase bonding. The ribbon via extends out of the ceramic body and makes an electrical connection with an external device.
US08552310B2
A mounting structure of an electronic component includes: a bump electrode included in the electronic component, the bump electrode having an internal resin as a core and a conductive film covering a surface of the internal resin, and elastically deforming so as to follow a shape of at least one corner of a terminal so that the conductive film makes direct conductive contact with at least part of a top surface of the terminal and at least part of a surface along a thickness direction of the terminal; a substrate having the terminal and the electronic component that is mounted on the substrate; and a holding unit provided to the substrate and the electronic component so as to hold a state in which the bump electrode electrically deformed makes conductive contact with the terminal.
US08552307B2
A mounting structure includes an insulating substrate having a substrate electrode on which at least one electrode notch is provided and a resist, an electronic component having an electronic component electrode to be electrically connected to the substrate electrode, and solder paste printed on a surface of the substrate electrode. The substrate electrode has a following relation, 0
US08552306B2
An assembly having a substrate and at least one component fastened thereon by sintering using a sintering agent, in particular sintering paste. The sintering agent is situated in a recess of the substrate that accommodates at least some areas of the component. A method for producing an assembly having a substrate and at least one component fastened thereon by sintering using a sintering agent, in particular sintering paste. The sintering agent is brought into a recess of the substrate that accommodates at least some areas of the component.
US08552303B2
A manufacturing method of a circuit structure is provided. A metal layer having an upper surface is provided. A surface passivation layer is formed on the metal layer. The surface passivation layer exposes a portion of the upper surface of the metal layer, and a material of the metal layer is different from a material of the surface passivation layer. The metal layer and the surface passivation layer are dipped into a modifier, and the modifier is selectively absorbed and attached to the surface passivation layer, so as to form a covering layer. The covering layer has a plurality of nanoparticles and covers the surface passivation layer.
US08552296B2
Disclosed are systems, apparatus and related methods for making weather, fire, or water-proofed wire-to-wire electrical connections.
US08552288B2
Photovoltaic modules with adhesion promoters and methods for fabricating photovoltaic modules with adhesion promoters are described. A photovoltaic module includes a solar cell including a first surface and a second surface, the second surface including a plurality of interspaced back-side contacts. A first glass layer is coupled to the first surface by a first encapsulating layer. A second glass layer is coupled to the second surface by a second encapsulating layer. At least a portion of the second encapsulating layer is bonded directly to the plurality of interspaced back-side contacts by an adhesion promoter.
US08552283B2
In a power electronics system of a next generation vehicle, a power module is provided including a thermoelectric device which is provided in a thermally conductive path between a power device and a cooling plate such that the thermoelectric device creates useful electric power from the waste heat of the power device.
US08552280B2
A keyboard device for an electronic keyboard instrument, which enables facilitation of work for mounting and dismounting a key switch and install hammers and the key switch with high accuracy, and provision of a touch feeling similar to one provided by an acoustic grand piano while keeping the device compact in depth. The device comprises swingable keys, a hammer support formed by a synthetic resin molded article, hammers pivotally supported by the hammer support, and a key switch including switch bodies provided in association with the hammers and a switch board. The hammer support has a switch mounting part formed with an opening vertically extending therethrough. The key switch is removably mounted to the switch mounting part, with the switch bodies facing the hammers from above via the opening and the switch board placed on the upper surface of the switch mounting part.
US08552275B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH175773. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH175773, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH175773 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH175773.
US08552263B2
A novel soybean variety, designated XB04Q11 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XB04Q11, cells from soybean variety XB04Q11, plants of soybean XB04Q11, and plant parts of soybean variety XB04Q11. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XB04Q11 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XB04Q11, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XB04Q11, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XB04Q11. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XB04Q11 are further provided.
US08552258B2
The invention provides seed and plants of squash hybrid RX 04858033 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of squash hybrid RX 04858033 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a squash plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another squash plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US08552257B2
The invention provides seed and plants of cucumber hybrid PS 14784719 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of cucumber hybrid PS 14784719 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a cucumber plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another cucumber plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US08552254B2
The present invention provides novel methods of maintaining genetic stability of non-human animal inbred strains. In the methods, pedigree-tracked cryopreserved embryos or gametes or pre-gametes derived from a foundation colony are produced and used to re-establish the foundation colony at appropriate intervals.
US08552244B1
A process for recovering solvent from spent oil sands solids is provided, comprising drying the solids using superheated steam to vaporize solvent and water; compressing and condensing the vapors in a first heat exchanger (hot side) to produce condensates, comprising primarily condensed hot water, and uncondensed vapors; separating condensed hot water and solvent from the uncondensed vapors in a first separator; flowing the hot water through the first heat exchanger (cold side) to produce near-saturated steam; and superheating the near-saturated steam in a second heat exchanger to produce the superheated steam for drying the solids. Uncondensed vapors from the first separator can be further condensed in a third heat exchanger to produce warm water, recovered solvent and uncondensed off gas, which can be separated in a second separator. Some of the warm water is combined with the hot water to produce the near-saturated steam for superheating. The off gas is oil scrubbed or combusted prior to release to the atmosphere.
US08552222B2
The present invention relates to a continuous process for producing a haloalkenone ether of the Formula (I) wherein R1 is C1-C6 haloalkyl, R2 is a C1-C6 alkyl or phenyl, the process comprising:—(i) reacting, in a first continuous stirred tank reactor comprising a solvent, a halide of Formula (II) wherein R1 is as previously defined and R3 is halogen, with a vinyl ether of Formula (III) wherein R2 is as previously defined, to form an intermediate compound of Formula (IV), wherein the concentration of the vinyl ether of Formula (III) in the reaction mass is 15% or less w/w; and (ii) transferring the reaction mass from the first continuous stirred tank reactor into a subsequent continuous stirred tank reactor, wherein the conditions within the subsequent reactor permit the elimination of hydrogen halide (HR3) from the intermediate compound of Formula (IV) to provide the haloalkenone ether of Formula (I).
US08552221B2
A process for preparing a halogenated precursor of an alkenone, which comprises reacting a carboxylic acid halide with a vinyl ether in a liquid reaction medium under turbulent conditions and a process for preparing an alkenone, by eliminating hydrogen halide from said precursor to form the alkenone.
US08552209B2
Lactic acid equivalents are recovered from a starting lactide stream by catalytically racemizing a portion of the lactide in the stream at a temperature of 180° C. or below. This increases the proportion of two species of lactide (i.e., at least two of S,S-, R,R- or meso-lactide) at the expense of the third species. The racemized mixture so obtained can be separated to recover some or all of one or more of the lactide species from the remaining lactide species, by a process such as melt crystallization or distillation. Impurities in the starting lactide stream usually are retained mostly in the remaining meso-lactide, so a highly purified S,S- and/or R,R-lactide stream can be produced in this manner. Such a purified S,S- and R,R-lactide stream is suitable for polymerization to form a polylactide.
US08552207B2
Novel salt forms of [R—(R*,R*)]-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-β,δ-dihydroxy-5-(1-methylethyl)-3-phenyl-4-[(phenylamino)carbonyl]-1H-pyrrole-1-heptanoic acid characterized by their X-ray powder diffraction pattern and solid-state NMR spectra are described, as well as methods for the preparation and pharmaceutical composition of the same, which are useful as agents for treating hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and Alzheimer's Disease.
US08552206B2
A new class of imidazolines as 4-position esters with very potent anti-inflammatory as well as antimicrobial activity is described. The synthesis of these imidazolines includes a multicomponent reaction applicable to a combinatorial synthetic approach. The combination of these two key characteristics provides an effective therapeutic drug in the treatment of septic shock as well as many other inflammatory (arthritis and asthma) and infectious disorders. The use of this novel class of non-steroidal agents as anti-inflammatory agents (for the treatment of asthma, etc.), antibacterial agents, and antiseptic agents is described. The compounds are also useful in the treatment of tumors (such as cancers). The imidazolines are potent inhibitors of the transcription factor NF-κB as well as potent activity against the Gram (+) bacterium. The compositions are also useful for treating autoimmune diseases and for inhibiting rejection of organ and tissue transplants.
US08552200B2
Substituted 6-amino-nicotinamides, pharmaceutical compositions containing these compounds and also use of these compounds in the treatment and/or prophylaxis of pain and further diseases and/or disorders.
US08552199B2
The invention relates to substituted indanes and derivatives thereof, to physiologically acceptable salts and physiologically functional derivatives thereof, to the production thereof, to drugs containing at least one substituted indane according to the invention or derivative thereof, and to the use of the substituted indanes according to the invention and to derivatives thereof as MCH antagonists.
US08552196B2
The present invention relates to compounds of Formula (I): wherein X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8, R1, R2, R3 are defined above. The compounds have apoptosis signal-regulating kinase (“ASK1”) inhibitory activity, and are thus useful in the treatment of ASK1-mediated conditions, including autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising one or more of the compounds of Formula (I), and to methods of preparing the compounds of Formula (I).
US08552194B2
Disclosed herein is an improved, commercially viable and industrially advantageous process for the preparation of quinoline-3-carboxamide derivatives such as laquinimod, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, in high yield and purity.
US08552191B2
This application discloses a novel process to synthesize 8-[{1-(3,5-Bis-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-ethoxy}-methyl]-8-phenyl-1,7-diaza-spiro[4.5]decan-2-one compounds, which may be used, for example, as NK-1 inhibitor compounds in pharmaceutical preparations.
US08552183B2
The present invention relates to a process for linking two molecules by means of a Diels Alder reaction with inverse electron requirement (DARinv), comprising the following steps: reaction of a (a) triazine or tetrazine with one or more electron-attracting substituents on the ring as a diene component, the electron-attracting substituents being selected from: COOR C(O)NR2 CX3 (X=halogen) halogen CN SO2—R or SO3—R PR2 wherein R═H, alkyl, aryl, heterocycle, which in turn may be substituted, where appropriate, with alkyl, OH, SH, halogen, aryl, heterocycle, nitro, carboxyamido or amine group. —heterocyclic rings having 1, 2 or 3 N, O or S atoms with a ring size of 5 or 6 ring members, which are substituted with at least one carboxyl, sulfonic acid or phosphone group with (b) an isolated double bond or triple bond in a (hetero)carbocyclic ring or an isolated olefinic double bond or triple bond in a linear or branched hydrocarbon chain which may also contain heteroatoms, where appropriate, as a dienophile component.
US08552181B2
The present invention comprises a new class of compounds useful for the modulation of Beta-secretase activity and for the treatment of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related CNS conditions, mediated thereby. In one embodiment, the compounds have a general Formula I or Formula II wherein R1a-1c, B, R3-5 and W of Formula I, and R1a-1c, R2-5, A1-4, W, X, Z, m and n of Formula II are defined herein. The invention further provides compounds of Formula III and IV and sub-Formulas II-A-II-D and III-A-III-D. The compounds may be used in pharmaceutical compositions for treating, prophylactically or therapeutically, disorders related to the activity of beta-secretase protein, including without limitation, AD, cognitive deficits and impairment, schizophrenia and other similar central nervous system conditions.
US08552175B2
The use of N-formamidino-5-amino-3H-1,2,4-dithiazole-3-thiones, 5-phenyl-3H-1,2,4-dithiazole-3-thiones, and derivatives thereof as novel, efficient sulfur-transfer reagents is disclosed. Sulfur transfer from these reagents to compounds containing a P(III) atom (e.g., triphenylphosphine, 5′-O-DMT-thymidine 2-cyanoethyl-(N,N-diisopropyl)phosphoramidite, and 5′-O-DMT-3′-O-levulinyl dithymidilyl 2-cyanoethyl phosphite), was studied in solution by 31P NMR and HPLC. The sulfur transfer from title compounds was also studied in the solid-phase synthesis of oligonucleotide phosphorothioates by phosphoramidite methods. In this application, the efficiency of the sulfur transfer reaction for 2′-deoxyoligonucleotides was better than 99.5%. The novel sulfurizing agents are synthesized, at low cost, using simple chemical methods. As opposed to many sulfur transfer reagents known in the prior art such as 1,2-benzodithiol-3-one-1,1-dioxide (Beaucage reagent) and 5-ethoxy-3H-1,2,4-dithiazole-2-one (EDIT), the sulfurizing agents disclosed herein are highly stable in solution, which increases their practical and commercial value.
US08552170B2
The present invention provides an expression vector which is effective in an efficient establishment of transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level. An expression vector which has a cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene containing mRNA destabilizing sequence, at least one element for stabilizing the gene expression and a cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein. Preferably, the mRNA destabilizing sequence is derived from AT-rich sequence existing in the 3′-untranslated region of cytokine, interleukin or proto-oncogene, and the element for stabilizing the gene expression is derived from Chinese hamster genome.
US08552169B2
The present invention provides for a system comprising a BmoR transcription factor, a σ54-RNA polymerase, and a pBMO promoter operatively linked to a reporter gene, wherein the pBMO promoter is capable of expression of the reporter gene with an activated form of the BmoR and the σ54-RNA polymerase.
US08552165B2
The invention relates to immunostimulatory oligonucleotides and methods of using immunostimulatory oligonucleotides to induce an antigen-specific immune response. The invention further relates to a vaccine that comprises an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide and an antigen, and comprises a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The immunostimulatory oligonucleotides of the invention, in some embodiments, include one or more modified linkage(s).
US08552154B2
The present invention is based, in part, on the identification of novel human anti-PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 antibodies. Accordingly, the invention relates to compositions and methods for diagnosing, prognosing, and treating conditions that would benefit from modulating PD-1, PD-L1, and/or PD-L2 activity (e.g., persistent infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, asthma, transplant rejection, inflammatory disorders and tumors) using the novel human anti-PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 antibodies described herein.
US08552153B2
An isolated collagen fiber is disclosed, wherein a length of the fiber prior to stretching by about 15%, is identical to a length of the fiber following said stretching by about 15%. The fiber comprises a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopic profile as shown in FIG. 1. Uses thereof and method of isolating are also disclosed.
US08552149B2
The present invention provides a polypeptide having a biological activity of the Chemotaxis Inhibitory Protein of Staphylococcus aureus (‘CHIPS’), the polypeptide comprising or consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, or a fragment or variant thereof having a biological activity of CHIPS, wherein the fragment or variant retains amino acid substitutions K40E, D42V, N77H, K100R, K105R, N111 K and/or G112A relative to the wildtype CHIPS protein of SEQ ID NO:1. In one embodiment, polypeptide consists of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2. Related aspects of the invention provide pharmaceutical compositions comprising a polypeptide of the invention, together with methods or making and using the same.
US08552137B2
Disclosed is a compositions comprising isocyanate sub-composition comprising by weight not more than 5% of diisocyanate monomers, a dehydrating agent selected among compounds bearing dihydrocarbylsilyl groups bonded to a metalloid of the chalcogen column or to an atom of the nitrogen column. The invention is applicable to the coatings industry, in particular paints and adhesives.
US08552136B2
There is provided a thermoplastic silicone-based polymer process additive component for use in injection molding applications, articles made using the silicone-based polymer process additive component, and methods for making these articles.
US08552129B2
Embodiments of the present invention include a branched aromatic ionomer, and a process of making it, by co-polymerizing a first monomer comprising an aromatic moiety and an unsaturated alkyl moiety and a second monomer represented by the general formula: [R-AZ]y-MX wherein R is a hydrocarbon chain having from 2 to 40 carbons and at least one polymerizable unsaturation; A is an anionic group; M is a cationic group; Z is −1 or −2; X is +1, +2, +3, +4, or +5; and y is an integer having a value of from 1 to 4. The branched aromatic ionomer has a melt flow index ranging from 1.0 g/10 min. to 13 g/10 min. Optionally the melt flow index ranges from 1.3 g/10 min. to 1.9 g/10 min.
US08552124B2
Copolymers containing at least one perfluoropolyether segment and at least one polydiorganosiloxane segments are described. The copolymers further contain multiple aminooxalylamino groups that link the various segments together. Methods of making the copolymers are also described.
US08552121B2
A method for providing a polymer having terminal functionality that includes at least one sulfur atom and at least one silicon or tin atom involves reacting a terminally active polymer with a cyclic compound that includes in its ring structure at least one Si or Sn atom and at least one S atom, optionally at adjacent positions of the ring structure.
US08552118B2
The present invention generally relates to alcohol-terminated polyisobutylene (PIB) compounds, and to a process for making such compounds. In one embodiment, the present invention relates to primary alcohol-terminated polyisobutylene compounds, and to a process for making such compounds. In still another embodiment, the present invention relates to polyisobutylene compounds that can be used to synthesize polyurethanes, to polyurethane compounds made via the use of such polyisobutylene compounds, and to processes for making such compounds. In yet another embodiment, the present invention relates to primary alcohol-terminated polyisobutylene compounds having two or more primary alcohol termini and to a process for making such compounds. In yet another embodiment, the present invention relates to primary terminated polyisobutylene compounds having two or more primary termini selected from amine groups or methacrylate groups.
US08552117B1
Polyolefin based sealing element compositions with good oxygen barrier properties particularly suitable for forming sealing elements, for example gaskets and cap liners that are especially useful for sealing containers having products such as liquids or food-stuffs therein. The compositions when formed as sealing elements do not appreciably contribute taste and/or odor to a packaged product including the sealing element. The compositions have desirable rheological properties and are thus readily processable at various temperatures.
US08552115B2
The present invention provides a powder coating composition free from hexavalent chromium to serve as a binder component but having an adhesion comparable to that of the primer based on chromium phosphate even if baked at elevated temperature for a long time. The present invention is a powder coating composition which contains a macromolecule compound (A) having amide group and/or imide group, an anti-oxidizing material (B) and a fluororesin (C), wherein an average particle size of the macromolecule compound (A) is smaller than 50 μm.
US08552114B2
The present invention provides a block copolymer composition and method of making the same having the structures (A2-B)n-X-(A1) or (A2-B2)n-X-(B1A1), where A1 and A2 are each a polymer block of a monoalkenyl arene and B, B1, and B2 are each a polymer block of one or more conjugated dienes or a hydrogenated diene polymer, n is an integer from 2 to 30 and X is the residue of a coupling agent.
US08552113B2
A rubber material of a wiper blade for windshield wipers is described, which comprises a first rubber component of a first polarity and a second rubber component of a second greater polarity. To equalize the first and second polarities, the first rubber component is at least partially replaced by a chemically functionalized derivative.
US08552109B2
Disclosed is an aqueous polyurethane resin dispersion which comprises a polyurethane resin which is obtained by reacting (A) a polyurethane prepolymer obtained by reacting (a) a polycarbonate polyol having an alicyclic structure in the main chain, (b) an acidic group-containing polyol compound and (d) a polyisocyanate, and (B) a chain-elongating agent, being dispersed in an aqueous medium, a carboxylic acid group content of the above-mentioned (A) polyurethane prepolymer based on a solid component of (A) the polyurethane prepolymer is 2.0 to 13.0% by weight, and a number of a hydroxyl equivalent of a mixture of the above-mentioned (a) polycarbonate polyol having an alicyclic structure in the main chain, the above-mentioned (b) acidic group-containing polyol compound, and, if necessary, (c) a polyol other than (a) and (b) is 70 to 270.
US08552108B2
A room temperature curable organopolysiloxane composition is provided. The composition comprises (I) an organopolysiloxane which is a condensation product of component (A) (an organopolysiloxane comprising R3SiO1/2 unit and SiO4/2 unit and containing 0.02 to 0.12 mol/100 g of hydroxy group bonded to the silicon atom) and component (B) (a diorganopolysiloxane raw rubber having hydroxy group on opposite ends thereof), (II) an organosilane compound having at least 2 hydrolyzable groups bonded to the silicon atom on average per molecule, and/or its partial hydrolytic condensate, (III) a solvent, and (IV) a silica nano particle having its surface modified by a branch structure. The composition is capable of providing a high strength film without incorporating reinforcement fillers, with no curing inhibition by the inorganic nano particles, and without inhibiting gas separation performance realized by the inorganic nano particles.
US08552104B2
A composition comprising (1) a thermosettable resin selected from the group consisting of an epoxy resin, an epoxy vinyl ester resin, an unsaturated polyester resin or a mixture thereof, and (2) an amphiphilic mock copolymer dispersed in the thermosettable resin; fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP), coatings and composites prepared therefrom; and methods of preparing these.
US08552101B2
Disclosed herein are compositions comprising a. from 35 to 80 vol % of a thermoplastic polymer; b. from 5 to 45 vol % of a low thermally conductive, electrically insulative filler with an intrinsic thermal conductivity of from 10 to 30 W/mK; c. from 5 to 15 vol % of a high thermally conductive, electrically insulative filler with an intrinsic thermal conductivity greater than or equal to 50 W/mK; and d. from 5 to 15 vol % of a high thermally conductive, electrically conductive filler with an intrinsic thermal conductivity greater than or equal to 50 W/mK, wherein the composition is characterized by: i. a thermal conductivity of at least 1.0 W/mK; and ii. a volume resistivity of at least 107 Ohm.cm. Also disclosed are articles and methods of use therefor.
US08552100B2
A composite having a flexible hydrogel polymer formed by mixing an organic phase with an inorganic composition, the organic phase selected from the group consisting of a hydrogel monomer, a crosslinker, a radical initiator, and/or a solvent. A polymerization mixture is formed and polymerized into a desired shape and size.
US08552090B2
An ink composition includes a polyurethane resin and at least one selected from a metal compound and hollow resin particles as a colorant, and in the ink composition described above, the polyurethane resin is a polycarbonate-based or a polyether-based anionic polyurethane resin.
US08552088B2
A cement for dental use, containing a first agent and a second agent, wherein both of the first agent and the second agent contain a polymerizable monomer (a) and a filler (b), wherein the first agent and/or the second agent further contains a photopolymerization initiator (c), wherein further as a chemical polymerization initiator (d), either one of the first agent and the second agent contains an oxidizing agent (f) and the other contains a reducing agent (g), the oxidizing agent (f) and the reducing agent (g) constituting a redox polymerization initiator, wherein the photopolymerization initiator (c) contains an α-diketone, and the photopolymerization initiator (c) is contained in a total amount of from 0.010 to 0.100 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the total amount of the polymerizable monomer (a), wherein the chemical polymerization initiator (d) is contained in a total amount of from 0.001 to 20 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the total amount of the polymerizable monomer (a), and wherein a cured product has a compression modulus immediately after photocuring of from 100 to 400 MPa, and a compression modulus after 24 hours from photocuring of 500 MPa or more. The cement for dental use of the present invention is suitably used for adhering the dentine and a crowning restorative material in the field of dental therapy, or the like.
US08552082B2
A novel alkali-soluble polymer compound including a dehydrogenated pimaric acid and/or its isomer as a repeating unit, and a photosensitive resin composition including the alkali-soluble polymer compound as an effective binder matrix are provided. A photosensitive resin composition using the alkali-soluble polymer compound including a dehydrogenated resin acid has excellent photosensitivity and developing characteristics cause a less deformation in a firing process, has excellent elasticity. Thus, the photosensitive resin composition is advantageous for curing various transparent photosensitive materials, in particular, materials of column spacers, an overcoat, a passivation layer, or the like, used for fabricating color filters of an LCD.
US08552077B2
The present invention provides trimerization catalyst compositions and methods to produce a polyisocyanurate/polyurethane foam using such trimerization catalyst compositions. The catalyst composition is the contact product of at least one α,β-unsaturated carboxylate salt and at least one second carboxylate salt.
US08552074B2
The present invention provides a process for preparing methanol, dimethyl ether, and low carbon olefins from syngas, wherein the process comprises the step of contacting syngas with a catalyst under the conditions for converting the syngas into methanol, dimethyl ether, and low carbon olefins, characterized in that, the catalyst contains an amorphous alloy consisting of components M and X wherein the component X represents an element B and/or P, the component M represents two or more elements selected from Group IIIA, IVA, VA, IB, IIB, IVB, VB, VIB, VIIB, VIII and Lanthanide series of the Periodic Table of Elements. According to the present process, the syngas can be converted into methanol, dimethyl ether, and low carbon olefins in a high CO conversion, a high selectivity of the target product, and high carbon availability.
US08552060B2
This invention is directed to a method of treating sexual dysfunction in a subject, comprising the step of administering a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of Formula (I): or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester thereof wherein Rx is a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, lower alkyl of 1 to 8 carbon atoms, halogen selected from F, CI, Br and I, alkoxy containing 1 to 3 carbon atoms, nitro, hydroxy, trifluoromethyl, and thioalkoxy containing 1 to 3 carbon atoms; x is an integer of 1 to 3, with the proviso that R may be the same or different when x is 2 or 3; R1 and R2 can be the same or different from each other and are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, lower alkyl of 1 to 8 carbon atoms, aryl, arylalkyl, cycloalkyl of 3 to 7 carbon atoms; R1 and R2 can be joined to form a 5 to 7-membered heterocycle substituted with a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl, and aryl groups, wherein the cyclic compound can comprise 1 to 2 nitrogen atoms and O to 1 oxygen atom, wherein the nitrogen atoms are not directly connected with each other or with the oxygen atom.
US08552059B2
The present invention provides compositions and methods for treating an ischemic episode using misoprostol alone or in combination with anti-thrombotic agents.
US08552054B2
The invention provides conjugates of fatty amines and pharmaceutical agents useful in treating cancer, viruses, psychiatric disorders. Compositions, pharmaceutical preparations, and methods of preparations of the fatty amine-pharmaceutical agent conjugates are provided.
US08552053B2
The invention relates to new 3′-, 7-substituted-indirubins of formula (I) wherein R represents N—OH, N—O-alkyl or N—O—CO-alkyl, NO—(Ra)n1-Het, N—O—(Y)n1—N Ra Rb, N—O—CO—N(Rb Rc), radical with Het representing an aliphatic nitrogeneous heterocycle, Y being an optionally substituted —CH2— radical, n1 being 1 to 3, and X is an halogen atom selected in the group comprising F, Cl, Br, I, and Z is H or CH3 and the salts thereof.
US08552048B2
Compositions containing, and, methods administering, TH302, are useful in treatment of cancer and other hyper-proliferative diseases.
US08552047B2
The present disclosure relates to compounds, compositions and methods for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds and methods for using these compounds in the treatment of HCV infection.
US08552046B2
Treatment of cancer and thromboembolic disorders using inhibitors of Factor VIIa are disclosed herein using a compound of Formula I.
