US08578138B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor that has an on-die storage such as a static random access memory to store an architectural state of one or more threads that are swapped out of architectural state storage of the processor on entry to a system management mode (SMM). In this way communication of this state information to a system management memory can be avoided, reducing latency associated with entry into SMM. Embodiments may also enable the processor to update a status of executing agents that are either in a long instruction flow or in a system management interrupt (SMI) blocked state, in order to provide an indication to agents inside the SMM. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08578135B2
A high-performance information processing technique permitting updating of an instruction buffer ready for effective prefetching to branch instructions and returning to the subroutine with a small volume of hardware is to be provided at low cost. It is an information processing apparatus equipped with a CPU, a memory, prefetch means and the like, wherein a prefetch address generator unit in the prefetch means decodes a branching series of instructions including at least one branched address calculating instruction and branching instruction to a branched address out of a current instruction buffer storing the series of instructions currently accessed by the CPU, and thereby looks ahead to the branching destination address. The information processing apparatus further comprises a RTS instruction buffer for storing a series of instructions of the return destinations of RTS instructions, and series of instructions stored in the current instruction buffer are saved into the RTS instruction buffer.
US08578133B2
Direct injection of a data to be transferred in a hybrid computing environment that includes a host computer and a plurality of accelerators, the host computer and the accelerators adapted to one another for data communications by a system level message passing module. Each accelerator includes a Power Processing Element (‘PPE’) and a plurality of Synergistic Processing Elements (‘SPEs’). Direct injection includes reserving, by each SPE, a slot in a shared memory region accessible by the host computer; loading, by each SPE into local memory of the SPE, a portion of data to be transferred to the host computer; executing, by each SPE in parallel, a data processing operation on the portion of the data loaded in local memory of each SPE; and writing, by each SPE, the processed data to the SPE's reserved slot in the shared memory region accessible by the host computer.
US08578106B1
A method for writing data to submission queues in a storage controller including receiving an input/output (I/O) request from a client application, where the client application is associated with a virtual port and where the virtual port is associated with a physical port. The method further includes determining a size of the I/O request, identifying a queue group based on the size of the I/O request and the virtual port, where the queue group includes submission queues and is associated with the virtual port. The method further includes identifying a submission queue, sending the I/O request to a storage controller over the physical port, where the queue group is located in memory operatively connected to the storage controller and where the storage controller is configured to place the I/O request in the submission queue.
US08578099B2
The present invention is directed towards integrating cache managing and application firewall processing in a networked system. An integrated cache/firewall system comprises an application firewall operating in conjunction with a cache managing system in operation on an intermediary device. The application firewall processes a received HTTP response to a request by a networked entity serviced by the intermediary device. The application firewall generates metadata from the HTTP response and stores the metadata in cache with the HTTP response. When a subsequent request hits in the cache, the metadata is identified to a user session associated with the subsequent request. The application firewall can modify a cache-control header of the received HTTP response, and can alter the cookie-setting header of the cached HTTP response.
US08578098B2
A system and method for increasing cache size is provided. Generally, the system contains a memory and a processor. The processor is configured by the memory to perform the steps of: categorizing storage blocks within a storage device as within a first category of storage blocks if the storage blocks that are available to the system for storing data when needed; categorizing storage blocks within the storage device as within a second category of storage blocks if the storage blocks contain application data therein; and categorizing storage blocks within the storage device as within a third category of storage blocks if the storage blocks are storing cached data and are available for storing application data if no first category of storage blocks are available to the system.
US08578093B1
A method is used in managing indications in data storage systems. A threshold value is associated with a storage object. A client subscribes to a server for receiving an indication indicating a change in a property of the storage object. A determination is made as to whether a number of indications processed by the server exceeds the threshold value. A bulk status is associated with the indication based on the determination. The indication is send to the client. The client performs an action based on the bulk status associated with the indication.
US08578091B2
A computer includes an enclosure, an internal mass storage device within the enclosure, and a redundancy controller within the enclosure. At least one port enables direct connection of the computer to at least one external mass storage device. The redundancy controller is configured to provide data redundancy using the internal mass storage device and the at least one external storage device if the at least one external mass storage device is connected to the at least one port.
US08578089B2
Implementations described and claimed herein provide a method and system for comparing a storage location related to a new write command on a storage device with storage locations of a predetermined number of write commands stored in a first table to determine frequency of write commands to the storage location. If the frequency is determined to be higher than a first threshold, the data related to the write command is stored in a write cache.
US08578088B2
A method for writing and reading data memory cells, comprising: defining in a first memory zone erasable data pages and programmable data blocks; and, in response to write commands of data, writing data in erased blocks of the first memory zone, and writing, in a second memory zone, metadata structures associated with data pages and comprising, for each data page, a wear counter containing a value representative of the number of times that the page has been erased.
US08578076B2
Methods and systems for establishing a cloud bridge between two virtual storage resources and for transmitting data from one first virtual storage resource to the other virtual storage resource. The system can include a first virtual storage resource or cloud, and a storage delivery management service that executes on a computer and within the first virtual storage resource. The storage delivery management service can receive user credentials of a user that identify a storage adapter. Upon receiving the user credentials, the storage delivery management service can invoke the storage adapter which executes an interface that identifies a second virtual storage resource and includes an interface translation file. The storage delivery management service accesses the second virtual storage resource and establishes a cloud bridge with the second virtual storage resource using information obtained from the second virtual storage resource and information translated by the storage adapter using the interface translation file.
US08578071B2
An information processing apparatus includes a plurality of processors configured to form a pipeline, a plurality of communication units configured to transfer communication data between a processor in an upstream stage of the pipeline and another processor in a downstream stage and to temporarily store the communication data output from the processor in the upstream stage to the processor in the downstream stage into an internal FIFO buffer, and a memory configured to be accessible from each of the processors and each of the communication units.
US08578070B2
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for controlling a memory device. One method for controlling a memory device embodiment includes storing device class dependent information and a command in one or more of host system memory and host controller memory, setting a pointer to the command in a register in a host controller, directing access to the one or more of host system memory and host controller memory with the memory device via the host controller; and executing the command with the memory device.
US08578066B2
A device has a consumable device component. A supply status indicator indicates a status of the consumable device component to at least one of a first host computer and the device. The supply status indicator includes a suppressed state.
US08578065B2
A communication speed control apparatus for controlling communication between a host device and an external device in accordance with a high-speed communication mode or a low-speed communication mode includes a list storage unit configured to store a list of specification information of external devices that are incompatible with the host device when data communication is carried out using the high-speed communication mode and a specification information obtainment unit configured to obtain external device specification information from the external device. A device determination unit is configured to determine if the external device specification information obtained from the external device corresponds to an incompatible external device based on the stored specification information and a communication speed control unit sets a data communication speed to the low-speed communication mode if the device determination unit determines that the external device in incompatible with the host device.
US08578064B2
One embodiment provides a system that processes an input/output (I/O) operation associated with a portable storage device. During operation, the system loads a virtual computing environment stored on the portable storage device into a host computer system coupled to the portable storage device. Next, the system intercepts the I/O operation from the virtual computing environment to the portable storage device. Finally, the system decouples the I/O operation from the virtual computing environment by processing the I/O operation independently of a representation of the I/O operation in the virtual computing environment.
US08578060B2
Connecting USB devices with USB hosts over distinct network paths, including the following steps: Connecting USB hosts with respective USB host adaptors (USBHs), essentially according to USB specification timings. Connecting USB devices with respective USB device adaptors (USBDs). Enabling the USBDs and the USBHs to communicate over a network that can connect each USBD with each USBH. Initiating USB connections over the network between the USB devices and the USB hosts. And operating at least two of the USB connections over the network essentially simultaneously and without any common network node.
US08578042B2
A method for playing streaming media is disclosed, which includes: determining at least two storages storing a media file according to information of the media file (400); obtaining media streaming data corresponding to the media file from at least one of the determined storages and playing the obtained media streaming data (401), thereby solving the problem in the prior art that the bandwidth pressure on the streaming media server is excessively heavy if the same streaming media server is accessed when the same media file is obtained when a large number of users perform the data transmission service at the same time in the present streaming media system. A system and a device for playing streaming media are also disclosed.
US08578040B2
A dynamically-enforceable application-controlled quasi-reliable extension to TCP permits a client application to dynamically set a percent loss tolerance for data transmission reliability through network input/output system calls to the TCP, thereby programming the transport layer to optimistically acknowledge non-critical missing frames. The reliability requirement can be dynamically set within TCP to the level of reliability required for specific data frames within the data stream during the data transfer. Based on this loss tolerance specified, the TCP layer makes a determination whether to trigger a retransmission or continue delivering out-of-order frames to the application. A forced acknowledgement frame is sent for each missing packet until the number missing packets causing forced acknowledgments within the current receive buffer frame exceeds the loss tolerance. This process avoids needless retransmissions and permits the TCP data flow and sliding window to advance uninterrupted, thereby providing substantial performance benefits to network throughput.
US08578038B2
An apparatus for providing access to social content may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least receiving information providing corresponding identities of a plurality of members of a group, receiving an indication of group content including at least one content item stored in association with the group, and enabling access to the group content by the members based on presence information related to the members indicating that a presence threshold associated with the group content is met. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided.
US08578030B2
A method, system and apparatus for autonomic buffer configuration. In accordance with the present invention, an autonomic buffer configuration method can include monitoring data flowing through buffers in a communications system and recording in at least one buffer profile different data sizes for different ones of the data flowing through the buffers during an established interval of time. An optimal buffer size can be computed based upon a specification of a required percentage of times a buffer must be able to accommodate data of a particular size. Subsequently, at least one of the buffers can be re-sized without re-initializing the at least one resized buffer.
US08578024B1
A method for profiling network traffic of a network, including defining a set of features each corresponding to a set of pre-determined bit positions for selecting a pre-determined number of data bits from each flow in a flow set generated by a network application to form a feature value assigned to the feature for the each flow, identifying the feature as a deterministic feature based on a frequency of occurrence of the feature value, extracting a set of paths from the flow set based on a number of deterministic features, generating a state machine based on the set of paths, and analyzing a new flow associated with a server in the network to determine the server as executing the network application.
US08578021B2
A performance measurement and service quality monitoring server capable of collecting performance information within a set of equipment over a communication network, the server integrating a generic performance model comprising high-level indicators, a performance model dedicated to each type of equipment and provided with equipment-oriented indicators and an SNMP model to sample equipment as well as an interfacing model, known as a CLI model to sample equipment according to a CLI (Command Line Interface) mechanism.
US08578011B2
A system for dynamically provisioning a remote device with an Internet Protocol (IP) stack using a custom IP agent is disclosed. The system includes a Master Catalog storing a profile identifying an operating system and a native protocol of the device. The system also includes a Provisioning Master in communication with the Master Catalog. The Provisioning Master is configured to receive the device profile from the Master Catalog and generate the custom IP agent based on at least the device profile to allow communication of IP services to/from the remote device. The Provisioning Master is also configured to establish a data link to the remote device using the native protocol of the remote device, and install the IP agent onto the remote device, using the native protocol of the remote device, to form the IP stack for the remote device, thereby enabling communication of IP services to/from the remote device.
US08578007B1
A software reload is executed. The hardware associated with the network device continues to forward network traffic during the software reload. Also, a kernel of the network device operates unaffected in a protected address space throughout the software reload. Further, the kernel preserves local checkpointed and shared memory data. Application processes running on the network node are shut down gracefully. The reloaded software is brought up and the network device is resynchronized.
US08578005B1
The present invention provides systems and methods for notifying mobile devices of the presence of software and/or firmware updates using Mobile-IP extensions. When a mobile device seeks to engage in a Mobile-IP session, it sends a Mobile-IP registration request message. When it receives a reply to the registration request, the reply includes a Mobile-IP extension that indicates whether an update is available for the mobile device. If the extension indicates that an update is available, the mobile device responsively obtains the update.
US08577989B2
A method of optimizing the delivery of a set of data elements from a first device to a second device. The method includes retrieving from a data source the set of data elements, including a first subset of the set of data elements, a second subset of the set of data elements, and a third subset of the set of data elements. The method also includes transferring the first subset of the set of data elements to the second device. The method further includes selecting a fourth subset of the set of data elements, wherein the fourth subset can be comprised of data elements from the first subset and the second subset, or wherein the fourth subset can be comprised of data elements from the second subset and the third subset. The method also includes transferring a fourth subset of the set of data elements to the second device.
US08577987B2
An index ranking optimization system and method are provided herein.
US08577970B2
A method for identifying discrepancies in an email distribution list is provided in various embodiments of this present invention. The method includes receiving from an originating client an email addressed to a list of recipients; examining the list of recipients to identify one or more possible amendments to the list of recipients; and informing the originating client of any identified amendments. In other embodiments, examining the list of recipients further includes comparing the recipient list with one or more trusted lists or a directory to identify one or more possible amendments to the list of recipients to identify those recipients missing or sharing a common attribute. In other embodiments it is determined if other names in the directory, but no in the recipient list, also share the common attribute. Subsequently, one or more amendments may be made to the recipient list based on such absent names.
US08577966B2
A content sharing system and a content sharing method of sharing contents following a free will of a user through belonging to a plurality of groups are disclosed. Identification information on each of one or more groups to which respective users belong is stored while associating it with identification information on the users. A download history of a content via user terminals by respective users is stored while associating it with the identification information on the users. A group or groups to which a user accessing via a user terminal belongs is/are determined. Whether a content already primarily downloaded by another user belonging to the determined group(s) exists is determined based on the download history and identification information. If the content already primarily downloaded by the another user exists, secondary download to the user terminal accessing the above-mentioned content is permitted.
US08577960B2
In a distributed landscape, different levels of data caches, such as a memory cache and prefetch tables, are provided for storing status and other information about a remote system to a client. Status information may be provided to the client from a memory cache if available and up to date. The memory cache may be updated using information stored in the one or more prefetch tables or by reading the data from the remote system(s). The prefetch tables may be updated by reading information from the remote systems. The data caches are dynamically updated to store the most up-to-date status information available. The data stored in each data cache level may be updated at predetermined intervals or upon a request by the client. Status messages for the one or more remote systems selected are displayed, providing the client with a status overview of the distributed landscape.
US08577957B2
Various aspects and embodiments are directed to a graphical user interface that organizes interface elements into views of computer content for presentation to a user. Different views of are used to provide an interface that is responsive to configurations of the device and responsive to activity being performed by the user. Aspects include permitting the user to transition the device from one configuration to another during its use, for example from easel to laptop modes. Further the elements that comprise the graphical user interface are configured to present a summarized view of available actions and content, in order to simplify user interaction. The different views present different organizations of the interface elements and in some example display only certain ones of the modes of content in order to reduce the number of options a user must navigate to accomplish an objective. According to another aspect, methods and systems for streamlining user interaction with computer content are provided. In some embodiments, streamlining includes pre-configuring a user device based on received information. Other embodiments include presenting consistent visual representations used to navigated to views that present computer content.
US08577943B2
A method and apparatus for generating a plurality of unique configurations of indicia is provided. A first set of indicia is provided, including a plurality of first groups of indicia. Then a second set of indicia is provided that has a plurality of second groups of indicia. The first set of indicia is then combined with the second set of indicia in a pairwise fashion, wherein a number of the first groups of indicia is relatively prime in relation to an number of the second groups of indicia.
US08577937B1
Systems and methods of executing and/or provisioning an application in an application specific runtime environment or general runtime environment are disclosed. The application specific runtime environment or general runtime environment are optionally defined by an application environment specification to include a minimal or reduced set of software resources required for execution of the application. These software resources are optionally stored in a resource repository that includes resources associated with a plurality of operating systems and/or executable applications. Various embodiments of the invention include the development of hierarchical resource metadata configured to characterize the various files, packages and file families included in the resource repository. In some embodiments this metadata is used to select between files when provisioning an application specific runtime environment. Various embodiments of the invention include use of an exclusion list to manage conflicts between same named files.
US08577934B2
Provided is a system and method for a storage system response. The system includes a first storage system adapted to be linked in communication with at least one client and with a second storage system, the second storage system retaining a plurality of digital assets. An asset map is adapted to track where in the first storage system or the second storage system each of the plurality of digital assets is retained. A migrator is also provided and structured and arranged to migrate each of the plurality of digital assets from the second storage system to the first storage system, the migrator further adapted to update the asset map regarding a status of migration for each of the plurality of digital assets. A server structured and arranged to fulfill digital asset requests received by the first storage system from the at least one client, the server structured and arranged to consult the asset map to determine where the requested digital assets resides. An associated method is also provided.
US08577930B2
Methods and apparatus are described for measuring the topical coherence of a keyword set while simultaneously partitioning the set into contextually related clusters.
US08577927B2
A computer readable medium includes executable instructions to define an individual publication schema for each heterogeneous source of a set of heterogeneous sources. Each individual publication schema specifies mapping rules between data from a heterogeneous source and a non-permanent structured instance of data. A non-permanent structured instance of data as defined by an individual publication schema is generated. An integration schema defining a set of integration rules for combining data from each non-permanent structured instance of data as defined by individual publication schema is established. A target non-permanent structured instance of data to include data from the plurality of heterogeneous sources based on at least one integration schema is formed.
US08577926B1
In an embodiment, a technique for changing a parent model based on changes made to a referenced model. The technique may include receiving one or more changes for the referenced model. The referenced model may be changed based on the received one or more changes. Change information about the one or more changes to the referenced model is maintained. A reference to the referenced model from the parent model is processed. Processing may include changing the parent model based on the maintained change information for the referenced model.
US08577920B2
A method executed by a computer includes searching a design subject having similar attribute information from attribute information on a design subject designed in the past and histories of descriptions of improvements based on input information on a design subject; obtaining a description of an improvement on the searched design subject having similar attribute information from the histories, obtaining a design subject the description of an improvement of which has an effect of the improvement, and outputting improved input information, wherein the attribute information contributing to the improvement of the design subject is obtained and reflected in the input information, and the history of the improved input information is stored.
US08577919B2
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for retrieving multimedia contents represented in a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) 7 by transforming a user query into an MPEG-7 query format. The method for retrieving multimedia contents includes: representing a user query by using an indicator indicating a specific region of a Moving Picture Experts Group 7 (MPEG-7) document and a reference for referring to the indicator; analyzing a meaning of the user query represented by using the indicator and the reference to thereby produce an analysis result; and retrieving multimedia contents according to the analysis result. The present research can satisfy more than two retrieval conditions within the same structure in an MPEG-7 query format and it can also clearly represent that two different MPEG-7 documents are referred to. Since the meaning of a user query is analyzed accurately during retrieval process, it is possible to precisely retrieve multimedia contents.
US08577905B2
A method may include subscribing each of a plurality of users to receive native-format geospatial information from a data source. The method may also include receiving native-format geospatial information from the data source. The method may further include analyzing native-format geospatial information and previously-rendered geospatial data file fragments to determine whether to update one or more previously-rendered geospatial data file fragments. The method may additionally include translating native-format geospatial information into geospatial data file fragments in response to a determination to update one or more previously-rendered geospatial data file fragments, and storing such geospatial data file fragments.
US08577896B2
Genres and associated digital items are recommended to a user based on the interests of the user. Genres that are of interest to the user are determined based on user preferences gathered implicitly or explicitly. The genres are then scored and sorted based on different scoring and sorting techniques. A subset of the scored and sorted genres is then selected for recommending to the user.
US08577893B1
A system ranks documents based on contexts associated with the documents. The system identifies a reference in a first document, where the reference is associated with a second document. The system analyzes a portion of the first document associated with the reference, identifies a rare word (or words) from the portion, creates a context identifier based on the rare word(s), and ranks the second document based on the context identifier.
US08577891B2
In response to a search query having a search term received from a client, a current language locale is determined. A state machine is built based on the current language locale, where the state machine includes one or more nodes to represent variance of the search term having identical meaning of the search term. Each node of the state machine is traversed to identify one or more postings lists of an inverted index corresponding to each node of the state machine. One or more item identifiers obtained from the one or more postings list are returned to the client, where the item identifiers identify one or more files that contain the variance of the search term represented by the state machine.
US08577887B2
A method of grouping a plurality of media content is provided. The method includes converting at least a portion of the media content into at least one document object model (“DOM”) using a processor. The DOM can include a plurality of block elements, each comprising at least one content object. The method includes apportioning the content objects into a relevant portion and an irrelevant portion and extracting a set of keywords, the set comprising at least one keyword, within the relevant portion of the content objects. The method includes apportioning the relevant portion of the content objects into a related portion and an unrelated portion using at least a portion of the set of keywords and grouping the related portion of the content to provide a group of related content.
US08577884B2
Technologies are described herein for providing automated analysis and summarization of free-form comments in survey response data. A number of topic words are identified from the survey response comments, and a numeric weight is calculated for each topic word that reflects the relevance of the topic word to each comment. Each topic word is associated with one or more topics and the comments relevant to each topic is then determined based on the weights of the associated topic words in each comment. A report is generated which summarizes the topics and their relative importance in the survey response comments based upon the number of comments relevant to each.
US08577883B2
Methods and systems for collaborative, incremental specification of identities are provided. Users of an information processing system collaborate to define and refine identities of entities, and users can create references for those identities. Relationships among the identifiers imply related keywords that can be used to improve search, navigation, and integration. Relationship factoring can be used to maintain efficient logical and physical representations.
US08577881B2
Content searching and configuration of search results are described. In an implementation, a method includes in response to a search query, selecting a keyword based on heuristic data which describes a plurality of previously performed searches. A search is performed utilizing the search query and the selected keyword to locate content.
US08577876B2
A system and method of the present invention present a web based music station. The system includes a website having at least two engine components such as a table of a playlist and a table of a content references. A system includes a controller with an algorithm incorporated therein. The algorithm is configured to retrieve various images and music pre-stored in the controller and presents these images and the music to the users. The system tries to reconstruct the “logical priority chains” of user perception as it relates to both the music and the images. The system then clusterizes picks of the music and the images and the users. The system then binds both music and images together using non-linear mapping to determine preference of each user.
US08577871B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for monitoring database queries and executions is disclosed. The query syntax may conform to the structured query language (SQL). The approach supports various performance statistics to be monitored at each step of the query statement's execution plan and for each row processed in order to meet requirements of a near real-time query monitoring solution. Such statistics include timing information plus some miscellaneous statistics like the number of rows processed, the amount of memory used, the amount of data spilled to disk, etc.
US08577865B2
Searching for documents using different sources includes receiving a search statement containing information for the documents, and determining a search strategy based on the search statement. The search strategy includes first and second search activities for searching first and second sources, respectively, where the first and second search activities are weighted. The first and second sources are searched using the first and second search activities, respectively, where an order in which the first and second search activities are performed is dictated by weightings of the first and second search activities.
US08577859B2
There is disclosed a method and system for presenting indexed search results from a social network, concurrently with customary search results returned by a search engine hosted on a website, to a user performing a search from a user interface of a user device using the search engine. The user is registered on the social network and has connections thereon. The method comprises: indexing data related to users registered on the social network to produce indexed data, the data obtained from the social network hosted on a website different from the website hosting the search engine; receiving a search query along with a user identifier; performing a search on the indexed data specific to the user's connections to obtain indexed search results specific to the user's connections on the social network; and returning to the user device the indexed search results for presentation on the user interface.
US08577839B2
Content management on web portals has become complex and sometime tedious. There are needs for efficient and cost-effective methods to manage large volumes of contents for web portals. Posting and withdrawing contents on a web portal, if carried out in parallel, can improve the efficiency of updating and managing the web portal.
US08577837B2
Systems, methods, and software for generic extraction of business object data are provided. One computerized method includes retrieving multiple identifiers of sub-nodes. The sub-nodes are associated with a root node of a business object. The method further includes generating a tree data structure. The tree includes multiple tree nodes and multiple tree edges. The multiple nodes correspond to the root node of the business object and the retrieved multiple identifiers. The method also includes traversing the tree to retrieve data associated with the root business object and the retrieved multiple identifiers. The method further includes storing the retrieved data.
US08577825B2
System, method and device for reducing the time required for solution of problems in the NP complexity class to polynomial time. Within satisfaction problems or problems reducible to a satisfaction problem, the invention tracks the sources of implications and identifies proximal parameterizations of conditional contradictions and subsequently avoids those contradictory conditions. The action is completed in less time than is incurred by existing methods and thus provides a performance improvement to the devices, software, or processes which address such problems.
US08577821B1
A method and apparatus for encoding the amplitude of frequency signals, into a temporal electrical spike pattern and a method for decoding the generated pattern by recognizing and classifying it with a correlating (associative pattern recognition) neuron like device. The first part of the system takes signals and converts their amplitude into a set of timed pulses. The timing of that pulse is a function of the amplitude of the incoming signal. Once a series of timed pulses have been created, they can be sent to a decoder. The decoder circuit uses bandpass filters and delays/gains a low pass summation. The recognition portion compares the timed input spikes with a known sample. Only when the input signals match the sample signals will the amplitudes be sufficient to meet the trigger threshold. When the output spike is generated, a pattern match has been found.
US08577814B1
Embodiments may generate a population of candidate rules including multiple rule conditions for detecting duplicates, each duplicate representing different sets of item description information that describe a common item. For each candidate rule of the population, embodiments may apply that rule to a reference data set including known duplicates and non-duplicates. Embodiments may assign each candidate rule a fitness score generated with a fitness function based on the performance of that candidate rule. Embodiments may, based on the fitness scores, select a subset of the population of candidate rules as parents for the new generation of candidate rules. Embodiments may perform crossover and/or mutation operations on the parent candidate rules to generate the new generation of candidate rules. Embodiments may select from the new generation of candidate rules (or from subsequent generations of candidate rules), rules for inclusion within a rule set for detecting duplicates within item description information.
US08577809B2
Systems and methods for protecting digital assets associated with a computing device are described herein. An example of a method according to the disclosure includes assigning at least one asset worth value to respective digital assets associated with a device, computing at least one device worth value using the at least one asset worth value assigned to the digital assets associated with the device, identifying at least one device worth value threshold, performing a comparison of the at least one device worth value to the at least one worth value threshold, and initiating at least one action with respect to the digital assets associated with the device based on the comparison.
US08577805B1
Mechanisms for virtual banking are disclosed herein that provide experiences to users as if they were actually interacting with a branch office bank. For instance, virtual lockboxes are provided to users, and users can fill these lockboxes with the type of digital data that would traditionally be placed in a branch office bank lockbox. Birth certificates, social security numbers, wills, etc., can be uploaded from a user's remote computing device to a server associated with a bank. In another aspect, currency cards are disclosed that mimic cash withdrawal (or deposit) transactions users might engage in at typical branch offices. For example, users can download money from a bank server onto a currency card located at some remote location (or, alternatively, upload money from the card to the server, which would amount to a deposit being made to the bank).
US08577804B1
A method for facilitating the widespread use of the PIN-Debit payment method for Internet “eCommerce” and mobile payments sales which requires little or no change for the cardholders, merchants, debit networks and card issuers based primarily on the introduction of a layer of middleware and wherein the Debit Networks and Issuing Banks may customize the implementation of the services based on individual strategy and cardholder preferences.
US08577801B2
Dynamically enabling and facilitating businesses or other entities to locate and transact with payment systems for the purpose of processing payments. A customer interacts with a supplier of an item (e.g., goods or services), selects an item for purchase, and provides the supplier with payment criteria. The supplier queries a payment system directory to locate candidate payment systems for the transaction. The supplier then interacts directly with one or more of the payment systems to partially or fully process payment for the transaction. Alternatively, the supplier interacts with a gateway service, which queries a payment system directory to locate candidate payment systems and then interacts with one or more of the payment systems to process payment for the transaction.
US08577798B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a method of implementing electronic transfers with government consulates. The method may include receiving, via the interface terminal, a selection of a country's consulate and a location of the consulate comprising a city in which the consulate has an office. The method may also include receiving, via the interface terminal, a consulate service selection. The method may further include receiving, at an input device, documentation necessary to complete the selected service type. The method may moreover include receiving, via the interface terminal, a payment for the selected service. The method may additionally include transmitting the service type selection, the documents, and the payment to the selected consulate.
US08577771B2
An electronic trading system utilizes a Match Engine that receives orders, stores them internally, calculates tradable combinations and advertises the availability of real and implied orders in the form of market data. New tradable items defined as combinations of other tradable items may be included in the calculation of tradable combinations. A technique is disclosed for transforming a combination or strategy contract with an arbitrary number of buy and sell legs with an arbitrary volume ratio for each leg into a form that can be used for rapid implied order calculations.
US08577752B2
A computer system for creating a design for an image product includes servers that can identify a blog page that includes an image, text, or designs, automatically incorporate at least one of the image, text, or the design object in the blog page into the design of an image product, and allow a user to review the design of the image product. The servers communicate with a printing finishing facility that makes a physical image product according to the design of the image product.
US08577750B2
There is disclosed a method for custom hair coloring formula supplemental identification. The method includes accepting a user login associated with previously entered user characteristics. Accepting user input of new user characteristics including natural hair color, current hair coloring, hair treatments, hair coloring characteristics and hair treatment characteristics. The method further includes identifying available hair coloring, accepting user input of desired hair coloring and identifying a hair colorant suitable to create the desired hair coloring in view of the user characteristics. An order is then generated for the hair colorant.
US08577740B1
Combining fulfillment of customer orders from merchants in computer-facilitated marketplaces. An order management system may include a virtual shopping cart interface that may be used with a number of merchants. Each merchant may be registered to receive fulfillment services from a fulfillment services provider for inventory items the merchant offers in commerce. The virtual shopping cart interface may be configured to receive requests to indicate various items within a virtual shopping cart corresponding to a customer. Different inventory items offered by different merchants may be placed within the virtual shopping cart. In response to the customer's request to finalize an order, the order management system may instruct the fulfillment services provider to ship the items in the virtual shopping cart to the customer. A single shipment may include items offered by several different merchants, and each of the merchants may be the merchant of record for its respective inventory item.
US08577735B2
A method and system for gifting using interactive multimedia and a gifting system. The gifting system can include a gift card, a website for redeeming the gift card, a plurality of gift representations corresponding to actual gift items, and means for advertising additional retail products or services to consumers. The gift card can also include a greeting card and a unique card identifier associated with the user. The methods and systems can be used to advertise products to consumers, which can be purchased for personal use or for gifting. The system can be used to direct consumers to a card issuer's website. The system can include a customizable avatar to read aloud text converted to an audio speech file that relates to the gift item. The system can also include a game in which points redeemable for gift items are awarded to the website's users for answering advertisement-related questions correctly.
US08577733B2
A system and method to enable dynamic partner selection and subsequent order fulfillment by a service provider is presented. The system and method has an order entry device for obtaining an order, a service specification corresponding to the order, a flow execution engine, a partner selector mechanism, at least one partner, and at least one component obtained from the service specification, the component being broadcast from the partner selector mechanism to the partner, who responds to the broadcast, such that all of the partner responses are optimized by the partner selector mechanism for execution by said flow execution engine to fulfill the order.
US08577726B1
A calculate bid system calculates bid amounts based on category-specific conversion information and category-specific advertising expense factors. The calculate bid system collects conversion information for keywords used in advertisements for categories of items purchased during converting sessions. The calculate bid system uses collected category-specific conversion information along with category-specific advertising expense factors to calculate a bid amount for a keyword. The calculate bid system may calculate a bid amount by generating a product for each category of the financial benefit for the category multiplied by the advertising expense factor for that category. The calculate bid system may then aggregate the products and normalize the aggregated product by dividing by a collected number of conversions. The calculate bid system may then multiply the normalized aggregated product by a forecast conversion rate to give the bid amount.
US08577725B2
A telecommunication and advertising business model and method of utilizing same (10) that permits users to make telephone calls for a predetermined amount of time according to the destination of the call. The telecommunication and advertising business model is controlled by an on-line database system and comprises customers, and companies that pay for advertising through a system.
US08577722B2
A method, system and computer program for enabling a loyalty system to be linked to one or more card issuers, cardholders, merchants, and thereby their cardholders. A system operable to create, implement and manage one or more loyalty programs that provide benefits to members of the loyalty programs in connection with transactions between the members and one or more merchants associated with the loyalty system. The method includes registering on the loyalty system one or more card issuers; one or more merchant acquirers associated with the one or more card issuers; a plurality of cardholders as members of the loyalty program. Establishing and applying rules for accrual and processing of benefits from the merchants to cardholders associated with the one or more card issuers in connection with transactions between the cardholders and the merchants with the loyalty system. Defining a rule based survey utility operable to issue surveys to members of the loyalty system on a transaction and non-transaction basis.
US08577721B2
There is provided a communication device which has a first communication system that communicates with an external telephone device and a second communication system that communicates with an external computer. The communication device comprises a call unit and a data acquisition unit. The call unit makes a call to a telephone device designated by a user using the first communication system. If a destination of the call unit is decided by the user's designation, a data acquisition unit obtains data corresponding to the destination telephone device using the second communication system. By only making a call operation, the user can obtain the data corresponding to the destination telephone device from the communication device through the computer network which is a different kind of network from the telephone line network. That is, the communication device can reduce user's operations to access related devices over various kinds of networks.
US08577720B2
Techniques, for automatically determining frequent traveler award redemptions by rule are disclosed. The frequent travel award redemption program is encoded in rules using predefined data structures based on fare by rule data structures. The techniques automatically determine a travel itinerary based on a query and the rules. Also included is a graphical user interface that displays a plurality of possible travel options for redemption using a frequent travel award. The rules include fields to determine co-pay options and for calculating mileage purchase options.
US08577718B2
A method and system for optimizing the level of engagement of components within a defined ecosystem or context includes defining an initial ecosystem or context ‘A’ in structural, functional, operational, and conceptual terms. One or more components are identified in the defined ecosystem or context ‘A’. It is determined whether all identified components account for all of the structural, functional, operational, and conceptual terms of the initial ecosystem or context ‘A’. If so, levels of disengagement and engagement are quantified for each of the identified components. For each of the identified components, one or more gaps are measured between a current component engagement level and a potential component engagement level. A report associated with the one or more identified components and the one or more measured gaps is produced and output. The report includes an organizational structure of the one or more components within a new ecosystem or context ‘B’.
US08577716B2
A research and development system that gathers feedback from patients and healthcare providers with respect to the their experience with various aspects of a supplier's products in order to tabulate, consolidate, compare and analyze the data received rapidly and efficiently, and which can be used on successive iterations to determine future products and services.
US08577713B2
Disclosed herein is an integrated method and system for managing human resources. Specifically, the method and system integrates several processes (e.g., a process for developing a strategy and particularly for developing a set of rules on how human resources will be managed and sourced, a process for developing a long-term strategic plan for sourcing human resources to satisfy demands, a process for developing a near-term operational plan recommending individual human resources be used to satisfy selected demands, a process for selecting and assigning individual resources to specific engagements, etc.). Thus, the method operates through a spectrum of time horizons from the strategic to real time, providing a coherent and cohesive system for matching supply to demand based on the priorities of the business as represented through the set of rules.
US08577712B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus, including software tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, involve a future deadline for completion of a project milestone. An estimate of an amount of time slippage associated with the future deadline is received. A probability of missing the future deadline is calculated based on the estimated amount of time slippage and an amount of time remaining until the future deadline.
US08577703B2
System and method for monitoring and mentoring driver behavior and vehicle operation and for categorizing or grading a driver's performance. The driver's classification or grade is used to determine or adjust insurance rates, premiums or coverages for the driver. The driver may receive discounted insurance rates for using monitoring and/or mentoring equipment in the vehicle. Insurance companies may use the driver classifications or grades to bid for coverage of groups of drivers having similar classifications or grades.
US08577696B2
A system for transferring medical records from one or more source locations to a destination location is described. The system includes a plurality of medical site clients, each of which has access to medical records at a corresponding medical site, and an exam distribution server connected to each of the plurality of medical site clients via a network. The exam distribution server configured to receive an exam transfer request that specifies exam criteria and the destination location to which medical exams that have the criteria should be transferred. When the exam distribution server receives an exam transfer request, the server forwards the request to the medical site clients. When one of the medical site clients receives an exam transfer request, the medical site client sends all exam records meeting the criteria of the exam transfer request to the exam distribution server, and the exam distribution server forwards received exam records to the destination specified in the exam transfer request.
US08577695B2
A method for adjudicating and reimbursing a care provider for services provided for a clinical event is provided. The method includes referencing a transaction including a number of clinical event details electronically documented by a care provider at a point of care for a clinical event for which reimbursement is sought. A first knowledge base comprising a number of quality criterion for assessing quality of health care provided to patients is accessed. Quality criterion are selected based on the clinical event details, and an analysis of the clinical event details against the selected quality criterion is performed to determine the quality of health care provided to a patient. A level of reimbursement is determined based on the quality of health care provided to the patient using electronic health record data elements associated with the patient and using corresponding clinical event details electronically documented by the care provider at the point of care for the clinical event for which reimbursement is sought. The provider is reimbursed in real-time.
US08577694B2
A system includes a Healthcare Advisory System (HAS) module and a server. The HAS module may send user location information to the server. Based on user information and environment information stored on the server, an alert may be generated and sent to a user via the HAS module.
US08577689B1
A jewelry registration, verification and recovery system is disclosed, which includes a coding system that summarizes the physical characteristics of any piece of jewelry. The code includes various positions, with each position corresponding to a physical characteristic, such as the type of jewelry, the weight, the color of the metal, and so forth. Each position (or category) has a predetermined number of alphanumeric digits (or values) in the code, such as one, two, and so forth. A database is established to house the codes and locations of as many pieces of jewelry as possible, with nationwide, or even worldwide entries. In the event of a loss or theft of a particular piece of jewelry, the code (and optionally the location) of the lost piece is supplied to the database, which returns each database entry having the same code as the lost piece, along with its location and an indication if it has been reported stolen or missing, optionally within a particular time window. In this manner, a pawn shop may easily and quickly verify that a particular jewelry item brought in for sale is not stolen, prior to purchasing it.
US08577683B2
Disclosed are Multipurpose Media Players that enable users to create transcriptions, closed captions, and/or logs of digitized recordings, that enable the presentation of transcripts, closed captions, logs, and digitized recordings in a correlated manner to users, that enable users to compose one or more scenes of a production, and that enable users to compose storyboards for a production. The multipurpose media players can be embodied within Internet browser environments; thereby providing high availability of the multipurpose players across software platforms, networks, and physical locations.
US08577676B2
In one embodiment the present invention includes a method of improving audibility of speech in a multi-channel audio signal. The method includes comparing a first characteristic and a second characteristic of the multi-channel audio signal to generate an attenuation factor. The first characteristic corresponds to a first channel of the multi-channel audio signal that contains speech and non-speech audio, and the second characteristic corresponds to a second channel of the multi-channel audio signal that contains predominantly non-speech audio. The method further includes adjusting the attenuation factor according to a speech likelihood value to generate an adjusted attenuation factor. The method further includes attenuating the second channel using the adjusted attenuation factor.
US08577660B2
A technique includes receiving a first dataset that is indicative of seismic data acquired in a seismic survey of a field of wells and receiving a second dataset that is indicative of wellbore data acquired in a wellbore survey conducted in at least one of the wells. The technique includes determining a mechanical earth model for the field based at least in part on the seismic data and the wellbore data.
US08577659B2
A simple and efficient method for simulating dispersed bubble flow is provided. Instead of modeling the complex hydrodynamics of numerous small bubbles explicitly, the method approximates the average motion of these bubbles using a continuum multiphase solver. The subgrid interactions among bubbles are computed using a new stochastic solver. Using the proposed scheme, complex scenes with millions of bubbles can be simulated efficiently.
US08577658B2
A computational “toolbox” can be used for the a priori design of optimized fluidic components. These components include a channel under low-Reynolds number, pressure-driven flow, with an arrangement of grooves cut into the top and/or bottom to generate a tailored cross-channel flow. An advection map for each feature (i.e., groove of a particular shape and orientation) predicts the lateral transport of fluid within the channel due to that feature. Applying the advection maps in sequence generates a representation of the outflow distribution for complex designs that combine one or more features. Therefore, the effect of the complex three-dimensional flow field can be predicted without solving the governing flow equations through the composite geometry, and the resulting distribution of fluids in the channel is used to evaluate how well a component performs a specified task. The toolbox is applied to determine optimal combinations of features for specified mixer sizes and mixing metrics.
US08577656B1
Systems and methods for numerically simulating inflation of an airbag configured with more than one connected flexible-boundary volumes (i.e., primary and secondary pouches) are disclosed. A finite element analysis model of such airbag is defined in the airbag's folded configuration. Numerical simulation of inflating the primary pouch is based on corpuscular particle theory by interacting simulated corpuscular or gas particles with one another and with the shell elements representing the primary pouch. The simulated corpuscular particles are created by flow characteristics generated by an explosive blast. Numerical simulation of inflating the secondary pouch is based on control volume theory by converting kinetic energy of those of the simulated corpuscular particles having flowed through the interconnected opening from the primary to the secondary pouch to a uniform pressure. The uniform pressure is then applied onto the shell elements representing the secondary pouch.
US08577651B2
In an embodiment, one or more computer-readable media holding executable instructions is provided. The instructions may be executed on a processing device to project a specification to a platform environment that includes a system model. The media may hold one or more instructions for accessing an algorithm model, the algorithm model being associated with the specification. The media may further hold one or more instructions for projecting the specification to the system model via a forward projection. The media may hold one or more instructions for receiving a reverse projection that includes specification changes, the specification changes identifying suggested changes to the specification. The media may further hold one or more instructions for modifying the algorithm model based on the specification changes, and the media may hold one or more instructions for storing the modified algorithm model.
US08577642B2
A user obtains an individual's body temperature data and transmits the data to a medical monitor (e.g., a medical device) for display. Additional data includes a timestamp and location of the body temperature data. Once the data is transmitted, a user may view the medical monitor for a temperature reading. For example, a doctor may take a patient's temperature and the temperature reading is displayed on a medical monitor. The body temperature data of each patient is detected using a preferred temperature detector, such as a temporal artery thermometer using an arterial heat balance approach. After collecting an individual's body temperature data, the body temperature data can be transferred to a processor. By sending body temperature data for many individuals for a geographic region, the processor can identify a pattern (e.g., a pandemic) in the body temperature data.
US08577634B2
A magnetic field sensor including a bidirectional node is configured to perform at least one of generating sensor data, storing sensor data, or communicating sensor data in a serial data signal in response to a trigger signal received at the bidirectional node. An alternative sensor having a node that may or may not be a bidirectional node is configured to reset at least one of a sensor data signal, a clock, a register, or a counter in response to a trigger signal received at the node and is further configured to communicate the sensor data signal in response to the trigger signal.
US08577629B2
A method and system related to phased array ultrasonic systems identifies faults in individual element on a regular basis. The method and system are based on a simple approach of calculating energy levels in response signals from each individual element and then identifying any discontinuities or unexpected drops in energy levels sensed during a typical phased array operation, by comparing responses for individual transducer elements to the group response.
US08577626B2
Methods and systems for assessing fluid dynamics aspects of corrosion and shear stress in piping networks are provided. Shear stress hot spots of a piping network may be identified using non-dimensional transfer functions that have been developed for identifying the magnitude and location of these local maxima depending upon the geometrical parameters of commonly used components of piping networks, the fluid properties of the flow, and the operating conditions of the piping network. Upon identification of potential shear stress local maxima, piping network operators may monitor these locations for corrosion or other damage to prevent loss of integrity of the pipes.
US08577618B2
The present invention relates to a method for quantitatively measuring the muscular relaxing activity of a neurotoxin. Specifically, based on an extent of the activity of muscular relaxation of a neurotoxin from bacteria of Clostridium, the present invention relates to a method for quantification of the efficacy (potential and/or diffusion reaction) of a neurotoxin comprising the following steps of: (a) administering a neurotoxin to the hind leg muscle of one of hind legs of a non-human mammal; (b) applying electric stimulus to said non-human mammal; (c) measuring a compound muscle action potential (CMAP) by contraction of said hind leg muscle to which the neurotoxin is administered and/or of the hind leg muscle of the other hind leg to which the neurotoxin is not administered; and (d) taking amplitude data from the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) obtained by the measurement in step (c) and analyzing an extent of a decrease in amplitude to thereby quantify the efficacy of the muscular relaxing activity by the neurotoxin. In contrast to the mouse LD50 currently used as a potential unit of a botulinum toxin which is measurable at a level of only several units, the quantification method of the efficacy of a neurotoxin of the present invention allows for measurement at a level of as low as 0.01 to 1 unit and hence is a method with a high sensitivity, reproducibility and accuracy.
US08577616B2
Methods of compiling a database of images of plant species and the use of the database to identify unknown plant species are described. Images of the apical complexes of the plant are obtained and stored in a database to allow a comparison of the apical complexes with unknown plant species. The invention provides a facile method for the identification of unknown or unidentified plant species.
US08577611B2
A method and apparatus for identifying individual trees in LiDAR data based on the view of a LiDAR data point. In one embodiment, those LiDAR data points that do not have neighboring LiDAR data points that block the local view at a defined angle are considered to be in a central part of a tree canopy. In one embodiment, those LiDAR data points that are in a central part of a tree canopy are added to an output file that stores clusters of data points for each tree canopy detected. The central part of the tree canopy area can be analyzed to predict one or more characteristics of the tree.
US08577610B2
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: generating an extraction job including a crawl task based on a location of a point of interest and a web form type of a website for harvesting the point of interest from the website; receiving a heartbeat from a distributed cache for determining when a client device is available to execute the extraction job; generating an assignment schedule of the extraction job based on the heartbeat for distributing the extraction job to the client device to retrieve a location-based field; and receiving the location-based field associated with the point of interest for displaying on a monitor device.
US08577603B2
Disclosed is a navigation device including a guidance route calculation unit 3 for calculating a guidance route by using point information about a destination, point information about a current position, and map information, a guidance map generating unit 5 for generating a guidance route map by using the calculated guidance route and the map information, a guidance route surrounding facility icon arrangement unit 6 for extracting a facility icon required for the calculated guidance route according to a facility icon extraction rule, and for determining an offset arrangement position of this facility icon, and a display unit 11 for attaching the facility icon at the above-mentioned determined offset arrangement position on the above-mentioned guidance route map to display the facility icon.
US08577600B1
Navigation systems and vehicles for providing traffic information pertaining to pre-defined locations of interest are provided. A navigation system or a vehicle may present a traffic location input control on a display of the navigation system or vehicle, detect a tactile input indicative of a selection of a traffic location icon shown on the display, and automatically provide traffic information pertaining to a location of interest associated with the selected traffic location icon. A navigation system or a vehicle may determine a route between a current position and the farther of a first pre-defined location of interest and a second pre-defined location of interest, provide traffic information pertaining to the determined route, and deactivate turn-by-turn navigation.
US08577597B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for estimating position location of a mobile device.
US08577578B2
A method of controlling torque on a vehicle wheel axle includes comparing a torque intervention request to a predetermined minimum axle torque for a current vehicle speed and a current direction of motion of the vehicle. The predetermined minimum axle torque decreases as vehicle speed in an operator-selected direction of motion increases. An arbitrated axle torque is calculated based on an operator-requested torque, the current vehicle speed, the current direction of motion, and the greater of the torque intervention request and the predetermined minimum torque. Axle torque is applied to the vehicle's wheel axle based at least partially on the arbitrated axle torque.
US08577566B2
A driving instability determination device is provided to improve the precision in detecting the driving instability. The driving state determination section determines whether the state is a prescribed driving state by determining whether the information of the operation state of the driving operation unit and the vehicle state as the running state data is disturbed. Based on the running state data for detecting the unstable state of the driver, the running state distribution computing section excludes the running state data when the state is determined to be the prescribed driving state, and the running state distribution computing section computes the first and second running state distributions in different time ranges. The driving instability determination section determines the instability of the driving from the difference between the two computed running state distributions.
US08577564B2
A system for automated movement of a reference point along a three dimensional path stores a three dimensional path including a plurality of spaced apart points. A velocity vector of the reference point and a look ahead vector extending from the reference point define a plane of travel. A directional vector of the reference point is determined along the plane of travel, and a command vector directs movement of the reference point at least in part based upon the directional vector. The velocity vector and the look ahead vector may be used to determine the directional vector. A method is also provided.
US08577557B2
A system for determining when one or more jacks on a vehicle have contacted the ground. The system includes at least one of a pitch sensor that senses a pitch angle of the vehicle and a roll sensor that senses a roll angle of the vehicle. A jack extension system operatively associated with the vehicle jacks extends and retracts the one or more jacks on the vehicle. A control system operatively associated with the pitch sensor, the roll sensor, and the jack extension system monitors the pitch and roll sensors to determine the pitch and roll angles of the vehicle. The control system operates the jack extension system to lower the jacks to the ground and determines that the jacks have contacted the ground based on detected changes in the pitch and roll angles of the vehicle.
US08577544B2
In a method for examining a state of a circuit of a motor vehicle, a state for the circuit is requested, whereafter it is checked whether the requested state is actually set. An actual value for a quantity related to the circuit is measured by a measuring unit of the motor vehicle and is compared by a control unit of the motor vehicle with values for the quantity specified for the requested state of the circuit. In parallel, corresponding steps are initiated or performed by a control unit disposed outside the motor vehicle. A message is outputted when the control unit determines that the requested state for the circuit is set. A motor vehicle using the method is also disclosed.
US08577539B1
A micro air vehicle having a navigation system with a single camera to determine position and attitude of the vehicle using changes the direction to the observed features. The difference between the expected directions to the observed features versus the measured direction to the observed features is used to correct a navigation solution.
US08577531B2
A system and method for the automatic control of wheel brake-slip in a motor vehicle with an electric drive (2), including the following steps: detecting a brake signal (14) by means of a slip control device (9), at which point the slip control device (9) generates an electric drive signal (15) and a friction brake signal (16) for the automatic control of a predetermined slip value of a wheel (1) of the motor vehicle, transmitting the electric drive signal (15) to an electric drive control device (6) and transmitting the friction brake signal (16) to a friction brake control device (12), at which point a friction brake control device (12) activates a friction brake (10) of the wheel (1) according to the friction brake control signal (16) to generate friction brake signal (16) to generate friction brake torque and an electric drive control device (6) activates electric drive (2) according to electric drive signal (15) to generate electric drive torque. A wheel brake-slip control system for a motor vehicle with an electric drive and to a computer program which are capable of implementing the above described method.
US08577526B2
In a hybrid vehicle 20, when the ECO switch 88 is turned on, Step S140 determines whether or not a driving state is an economy driving state based on an ECO mode driving state determination map having a tendency not to regard the driving state as the economy driving state in comparison with a normal driving state determination map. A determination result of Step S140 is displayed on a meter display unit 90 in the form of an illumination or an extinction of an ECO mark 95 so as to inform the driving state is the economy driving state or not (Step S180).
US08577521B2
The present invention relates to an on-board aeronautic system intended to be dynamically reconfigured, especially an on-board information system, and to an associated method as well as to an aircraft comprising such a system. In particular, the system comprises a plurality of heterogeneous equipment items, at least part of the said equipment items being reconfigurable, and comprises a reconfiguration management center set up to receive state messages from the said plurality of equipment items and to emit reconfiguration messages destined for the said reconfigurable equipment items as a function of at least the said received messages, the said state messages being emitted according to the same format by monitoring means encompassed in each of the said equipment items, the reconfigurable equipment items encompassing reconfiguration means capable of processing at least one of the said reconfiguration messages in order to reconfigure the said associated equipment item.
US08577517B2
A method of operating a remote vehicle configured to communicate with an operator control unit (OCU) includes executing a click-to-drive behavior, a cruise control behavior, and a retro-traverse behavior on a computing processor. The click-to-drive behavior includes receiving a picture or a video feed and determining a drive destination in the received picture or video feed. The cruise control behavior includes receiving an absolute heading and velocity commands from the OCU and computing a drive heading and a drive velocity. The a retro-traverse behavior includes generating a return path interconnecting at least two previously-traversed waypoints of a list of time-stamped waypoints, and executing a retro-traverse of the return path by navigating the remote vehicle successively to previous time-stamped waypoints in the waypoints list until a control signal is received from the operator control unit.
US08577511B2
An energy supply system includes: an energy supply device (1a) configured to supply electric power and/or heat; and a controller (6) configured to set a first maximum operation time of a first specified period including a plurality of second specified periods, the first maximum operation time being an upper limit of an operation time of the energy supply device in the first specified period; calculate and set a second target maximum operation time of each of the second specified periods of the first specified period such that the operation time of the energy supply device in the first specified period does not exceed the first maximum operation time, the second target maximum operation time being a target value of an upper limit of the operation time of the energy supply device in the second specified period; and reconfigure the second target maximum operation time of a future second specified period of a certain first specified period based on a time in which the energy supply device has been actually operated in a past second specified period of the certain first specified period.
US08577505B2
A system and approach for diagnostic visualizations of, for example, building control systems data. A focus may be on a similarity metric for comparing operations among sites relative to energy consumption. Normalizing factors may be used across sites with varying equipment consumption levels to be compared automatically. There may also be a high level overview of an enterprise of sites. For instance, consumption totals of the sites may be normalized by site size and length of time of a billing period to identify such things as outlier sites. One may use a main view of geographic distribution dynamically linked to subviews showing distribution by size, by aggregated climate, and so on. With these views, one may quickly drill through the enterprise and identify sites of interest for further investigation. A key metric may be intensity which invokes viewing virtually all sites by normalized consumption for a unit amount of time.
US08577498B2
A transfer robot for accommodating and transferring a transferred object has a transfer route storage section, a movement mechanism section, and a security level setting section. The transfer route storage section stores a transfer route having been set up at least on the basis of transfer destination information for the transferred object. The movement mechanism section causes the transfer robot to move toward a transfer destination on the basis of the transfer route. The security level setting section switches a security level of the transfer robot under movement on the basis of a zone level defined beforehand by each region in the transfer route, present position information of the transfer robot, and type information of the transferred object.
US08577491B2
Transport scheduling and transport processes for low microbial (“LM”) bulk products are described. The transport scheduling and processes facilitate low microbial activity in a LM bulk product during the transport of the LM bulk product.
US08577489B2
Solutions for diagnosing in-line critical dimension control adjustments in a lithographic process are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes: locating a control structure in a data set representing one of a chip or a kerf; simulating component dimensions within a region proximate to the control structure; determining a difference between the simulated component dimensions within the region and target component dimensions within the region; determining whether the difference exceeds a predetermined tolerance threshold; adjusting a simulation condition in response to determining the difference exceeds the predetermined tolerance threshold; and repeating the simulating of the component dimensions within the region, the determining of the difference, and the determining of whether the difference exceeds the predetermined tolerance threshold in response to the adjusting of the simulation condition.
US08577482B2
A transient detector is provided for generating an ambience signal suitable for being emitted via loudspeakers for which there is no special loudspeaker signal to detect a transient period. A synthesis signal generator produces a synthesis signal which fulfills the transient condition on the one hand and the continuity condition for the synthesis signal on the other hand. A signal substituter will then substitute a portion of the examination signal by the synthesis signal to obtain an ambience signal for the surround channels.
US08577475B2
A Wireless Monitoring Apparatus is used in conjunction with an automated external defibrillator (AED) system for patient rescue in mass-casualty incidents. The rescuer applies the device on each patient. The wireless monitoring apparatus automatically analyzes the patient's heart rhythm and communicates with the AED system. The AED system is therefore is able to display information with regard to each patient, notifies the rescuer on actions to take and can deliver defibrillation therapy if needed.
US08577471B2
An apparatus for the cardio-synchronized stimulation of skeletal or smooth muscle, but excluding the heart muscles, in a counterpulsation mode of a patient. The apparatus comprises an active and a passive electrode for attachment to said patient, a signal processor having a configuration input for varying a time delay associated with counterpulsation mode stimulation, and a sensing system for sensing information relating to the performance of the patient's heart and for transmission of information signals to said signal processor, said signal processor producing control signal information relating to stimulation signals to be applied to said active electrode in a counterpulsation mode, a stimulation signal generator associated with said active electrode for generating stimulation signals, wireless transmission means for transmitting said control signal information from said signal processor to said stimulation signal generator whereby said stimulation signal generator applies stimulation signals to said active electrode in accordance with said signal information.
US08577460B2
An implantable stimulation system comprises an implantable stimulator and a control device. The control device is configured to transmit acoustic waves to the implantable stimulator, and the implantable stimulator is configured to transform the acoustic waves into electrical current, and generate stimulation energy based on the electrical current. For example, the electrical current can be transformed into electrical energy that can be used to generate the stimulation energy. Or the electrical current can contain signals used to directly or indirectly control the generation of the stimulation energy.
US08577452B2
A method for acquiring a physiological response from a test subject, particularly an auditory brainstem response, by presenting a plurality of stimuli, such as a Maximum Length Sequence, detecting electrophysiological signals in response to the stimuli, generating a recover signal based on the stimuli and determining the physiological response from the electrophysiological signals and the recovery signal.
US08577449B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for automatically determining ST windows for ischemia detection. An IEGM signal is obtained over a period of time a derivative signal of the IEGM signal is calculated. The R-wave is identified in the derivative signal and the derivative signal data following the identified R-wave is analyzed to find portions of the derivative signal comprising samples having lower values than a predetermined threshold. Further, a portion of the derivative signal including samples having lower values than the threshold is determined to correspond to a ST window for that cardiac cycle if that portion fulfills predetermined requirements. A reference ST window based on a number of determined ST windows is determined. Using the reference ST window, ischemia can be detected by comparing IEGM data in the reference ST window with current IEGM data from a segment of the IEGM signal corresponding to the reference ST window.
US08577447B2
The invention relates to an optic-based sensing assembly and a system incorporating the assembly and related use of the assembly. In particular, the invention relates to an optic-based catheter assembly and related system used to determine contact between a catheter and surrounding proximate environment, such as tissue. An embodiment of such a system may, for example, be used for visualization, mapping, ablation, or other methods of diagnosis and treatment of tissue and/or surrounding areas.
US08577444B2
The invention relates to a method and a device for making correction information for correcting a guidance direction of an instrument. Based on a current position of the tip of the instrument and the current guidance direction of the instrument and the position of a target point in an object, a first straight line indicating the current guidance direction and a second straight line defined by the tip of the instrument and the target point in the object are determined. The second straight line intersects the first straight line and indicates the desired guidance direction. Based on the position of the first and second straight lines relative to one another, a digital item of correction information is specified, wherein the correction image has a correction diagram located in a plane in the perspective of the current guidance direction of the instrument.
US08577441B2
A method for real time monitoring of cardiac function includes defining a plurality of planes through a heart from which to acquire heart imaging data, acquiring a sequence of 2-dimensional images from said selected planes, wherein each said image comprises a plurality of intensities defined on a domain of points on a 2D grid, selecting one or more of said sequence of images to provide imaging data for monitoring heart function, wherein said remaining unselected images are adapted for diagnostic purposes, and repeating said steps of acquiring a sequence of 2-dimensional images from said selected planes and selecting one or more of said sequence of images for monitoring heart function, wherein a time sequence of images is obtained, alternating between images for monitoring heart function and images for diagnostic purposes.
US08577437B2
Human or animal body fluids can be measured in-vivo to determine analyte concentrations, such as glucose. The measurement system comprises an exchangeable sensor for in-vivo placement, a data carrier with calibration data for the sensor, a housing having a first chamber for receiving a sterile sensor and a second chamber for receiving a data carrier, and a base station that couples to the housing for transmitting measurement signals to an evaluation unit. Replacement sterile sensors can be packaged in a sterile package and the data carrier associated with the replacement sensor can be packaged in a non-sterile package.
US08577436B2
A sensor may be adapted to reduce signal artifacts by deflecting the effects of outside forces and sensor motion. A sensor is provided with a rigid annular structure adapted to reduce the effect of motion of a sensor emitter and/or detector. Further, a method of deflecting or minimizing outside forces and sensor motion is also provided.
US08577433B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to patient monitors with alarm modeling features that may be employed to set alarm limits. According to certain embodiments, the patient monitors may include a user interface for setting alarm limits that may be displayed on the patient monitors and/or on an external device, such as a central monitoring station. The user interface may allow a user to vary alarm limit settings and view how the settings change the alarm history for a representative data trend.
US08577431B2
A noninvasive physiological sensor for measuring one or more physiological parameters of a medical patient can include a bump interposed between a light source and a photodetector. The bump can be placed in contact with body tissue of a patient and thereby reduce a thickness of the body tissue. As a result, an optical pathlength between the light source and the photodetector can be reduced. In addition, the sensor can include a heat sink that can direct heat away from the light source. Moreover, the sensor can include shielding in the optical path between the light source and the photodetector. The shielding can reduce noise received by the photodetector.
US08577428B2
An information processing apparatus includes a determination unit that determines whether a second key provided on a body is pressed when a first key provided on the body is pressed and a control unit that disables the first key and inhibits an operation in response to an operation with the first key if the determination unit determines that the second key provided on the body is pressed.
US08577427B2
The adjustable headset is an all in one device that include an adjustable support band, an adjustable screen, a first and second ear cover, a computer system, a communications system, and a power source. The adjustable support band connects to each ear cover, allowing the virtual goggles to rest atop a user's head, with the ear covers being adjacent to a user's ears. The screen is attached to the ear covers by adjustable screen bars, which allow a user to change the distance, angle, and general orientation of the screen. The computer system is capable of storing and running software programs, such as an operating system, as well as interfacing with connected devices by means of a set of connection ports, located on the ear covers, or the communications system. Thus the virtual goggles serve to adjust to meet individual comfort needs and interface with a wide variety of technologies.
US08577423B2
A system, apparatus, method and article to perform vibration tone differentiation are described. The apparatus may include a mobile computing device. The mobile computing device may comprise a messaging client. The messaging client may receive an incoming message sent to the mobile computing device. The messaging client may parse communication information from the incoming message. The messaging client may determine a priority level of the incoming message from the communication information. The mobile computing device may also comprise a motor controller. The motor controller may retrieve a vibration sequence associated with the priority level and instruct a vibrate motor to vibrate according to the vibration sequence. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08577422B1
Wireless device gesture detection and operational control comprises identifying a first position of the device based on a sensor reading of at least one sensor operating as part of the device. The method may also include identifying a change in the device's position to a second position that is different from the first position, and receiving a specific pattern of touch input data on a touch pad of the device, the specific pattern of touch input data identified as a predefined object which corresponds to dimensions of a human ear being pressed against the touch pad and changing a current operating state of the device to a different operating state based on a comparison and detection operation.
US08577421B2
To provide a mobile terminal capable of achieving the optimal volume according to a style without causing discomfort to the user. A mobile terminal in accordance with the present invention includes a main body including a microphone 219, a screen display unit including speaker-and-receiver units 226 and 227 at both ends thereof, the screen display unit being disposed in the main body in such a manner that the screen display unit can slide and rotate with respect to the main body, and switches 224 and 225 that select the speaker or the receiver to be used in respective speaker-and-receiver units according to a style formed by the screen display unit and the main body.
US08577420B2
A method is provided for providing a visual indicator of content existing in a play list while displaying available media items for adding to the play list. The method comprises the steps of: retrieving information related to the available media items; retrieving information related to the content existing in the play list; comparing the available media item information with the play list content information to determine items from the available media that are already included in the play list; displaying a menu showing the available media items; and displaying visual indicators next to the items in the menu of the available media that are already included in the play list.
US08577410B2
A device includes a radio transceiver equipped with a UHF antenna, a clock generator associated with the radio transceiver, a processor configured to periodically connect to the radiotelephony network by way of the radio transceiver, and a UHF tag reader configured to conduct a transaction with a UHF tag only outside periods of connection of the processor to the radiotelephony network. The device is particularly directed for use in mobile telephones.
US08577408B2
A radio communication apparatus which performs a direct communication with a counter radio communication apparatus is provided. The radio communication apparatus includes a radio section configured to receive from the counter radio communication apparatus, a first radio signal which contains a first transmission power setting value as a setting value of power at transmission from the counter radio communication apparatus, and to measure a first reception power value as a power value at reception of the first radio signal; and a transmission power control section configured to determine a second transmission power setting value as a setting value of power at transmission of a second radio signal to the counter radio communication apparatus based on the first transmission power setting value and the first reception power value. The radio section transmits the second radio signal, which contains the second transmission power setting value, to the counter radio communication apparatus at transmission power indicated with the second transmission power setting value.
US08577407B2
A base station configured for outer loop power control receives an uplink dedicated channel transmission from a wireless transmit/receive unit. The base station transmits transmit power control commands in response to the received uplink channel transmission and determines if the wireless transmit/receive unit is in a discontinuous transmission mode. The base station adjusts a target SIR based on which transmission mode for the wireless transmit/receive unit is detected. The value for the transmit power control command is derived from the adjusted target SIR.
US08577403B2
A method for providing wireless Ethernet connectivity over an UWB link includes providing an adapter coupled to an external network via an Ethernet port, monitoring, by the adapter, a plurality of communication channels in an UWB spectrum, establishing a wireless link on a preferred communication channel, and exchanging data between the adapter and a UWB-enabled device over the wireless link.
US08577400B2
A network node of a communications system that routes short messages in a home network of a mobile station provides a service where one or more functions are invoked in response to receiving a request to forward a short message addressed to the mobile station. When the network node receives a request to forward a short message it determines a type of transmission of the received short message, where the type of transmission indicates whether or not a request for forwarding the same short message has been previously received in the network node. The network node then invokes functions of the service according to the determined type of transmission.
US08577399B2
Embodiments of the invention include systems and methods for facilitating a commerce transaction over a distribution network. According to one embodiment, a method for facilitating a purchase transaction over a distribution network is provided. The method may include transmitting advertisement content associated with at least one product or service to a viewer device associated with a viewer, wherein the advertisement content presents at least one commerce command. The method may further include receiving a selection of the at least one commerce command selected by the viewer and transmitting at least one message to initiate a commerce transaction for the at least one product or service with a marketplace system responsive to receiving the selection of the at least one commerce command.
US08577395B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating paging of an access terminal operable in a radio communication system. The access terminal detects a first page message that does not include an access sequence identifier. The access terminal responds to the first page message without waiting for detection of a second page message that includes an access sequence ID. The response to the first page message includes an access sequence ID retrieved from a shared pool of access sequence IDs stored at the access terminal.
US08577380B2
Method for an automatic identification of urban dense areas from cell phones records, by using a computing device that receives as inputs: a geographical region R, a time period Δt for which dense areas in the region R need to be computed, a set of BTSs in the region R, a set of CDRs generated by individuals during the time period Δt using the set of BTSs of the region R, a coverage C and a granularity ε. The method includes constructing a graph G=(V, E), being V=vertexes and E=edges, using Delaunay triangulation, where each vertex vi of V corresponds to btsi of BTS in the geographical region R, and each edge ei,j of E represents connection between btsi and btsj; eliminating from E all the edges in E with a distance between two connecting BTS larger than c, so that a desired spatial granularity is ensured; associating a weight wi,j to each edge ei,j of E that has not been eliminated, the weight representing the average density of the area covered by btsi and btsj during the time period Δt; constructing a data structure L that contains the dense areas using the edges of E; and applying a “Maximum Spanning Tree” type algorithm to detect dense areas given by the data structure L.
US08577377B2
Methods and apparatus for providing a wireless expansion network. In an aspect, an apparatus includes an expansion circuit configured to identify at least one of a selected uplink (UL) channel and a selected downlink (DL) channel that are provided by one of a primary network and an expansion network, and a processing circuit configured to switch to the at least one of the selected UL and DL channels. An apparatus includes means for obtaining link parameters associated with a primary network and an expansion network, means for identifying clients that are assigned transmission channels on both the primary network and the expansion network based on the link parameters, and means for transmitting messages to the clients to indicate the assigned transmission channels.
US08577371B2
Methods and apparatus to avoid transmission of redundant neighbor cell information to mobile stations. An example method to avoid transmission of at least some neighbor cell system information from a network to a mobile station disclosed herein comprises receiving neighbor cell system information, setting a validity indication representing whether the mobile station has valid neighbor cell system information associated with a neighbor cell, and sending the validity indication to the network.
US08577370B1
To perform handoff of a mobile station from a source wireless network controller of one wireless access technology to a target wireless network controller of a different wireless access technology, a first message for initiating a handoff is sent from the source wireless network controller to the target wireless network controller. The source wireless network controller receives, from the target wireless network controller, a second message responsive to the first message, where the second message contains information to enable identification of cell segments neighboring the target wireless network controller for which signal strength measurements are to be performed. In response to the second message, signal strength measurements made by the mobile station are received by the target wireless network controller.
US08577360B2
In one embodiment, if a UE is performing minimizing drive test (MDT) measurements and a radio link failure (RLF) occurs, the UE may add MDT measurement information to an RLF message to the network. In effect, the UE “piggy-backs” MDT information in the RLF report, and in so doing, provides greater flexibility to UEs reporting MDT information and more robust reporting. In another embodiment, the UE detects that no allowed reporting channel to report MDT measurement information exists, stores the MDT information, and after detecting that allowed reporting channel exists, initiates establishment of a radio link with the radio communications network during which the UE informs the network using an availability indicator that the UE has stored unreported MDT measurement information to be reported to the radio communications network.
US08577347B2
There is presented a system and method for managing data sharing over a hotspot network. The system comprises a mobile broadband hotspot with a processor configured to receive a selection of a mobile device to receive a data file, notify the mobile device of the data file to share, and transmit the data file to the mobile device in response to receiving a download request from the mobile device. By saving the data file into the memory of the mobile broadband hotspot, the mobile broadband hotspot may be directed to share the data file with other devices connected to the mobile broadband hotspot through a hotspot network without requiring the other devices to download the data file again through a wide area network.
US08577345B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus providing promotion information to a mobile device are provided by certain embodiments of the invention. According to one embodiment, promotion information for a program may be associated with an information carrying tone that is transmitted to a mobile device associated with an operator by a tone transmission device. An indication received responsive to the mobile device receiving the information carrying tone can be stored, and at least one entry associating the promotion and the operator can be stored responsive to receiving the indication. Also according to various aspects, following receipt of the indication, it may be determined whether the promotion is validated and/or can be activated for the operator, and promotional information can be communicated to the operator, such as a activation confirmation or a redeemable promotion.
US08577344B2
This invention provides a mechanism for enhancing safe use of wireless mobile terminals (smartphones) in a moving vehicle. The Invoke facility service's Boolean expression controls the conditions which invoke smartphone apps into execution. Smartphone apps, which are dangerous to execute in a moving vehicle, are prevented from invocation. Elimination of all smartphone apps in moving vehicles is inadvisable. An app, deploying an accelerometer to sense the impact of a serious collision to call “911” with a recorded message and provides the vehicle's GPS location, is an example. This invention allows an app builder to select invocation conditions for apps. Significant is the use manner of the operation “Not”. The contradiction of an event is also an event meaning that if an event is false, its contradictory event is true. Another important aspect is the conjunctive operation “And Then”. This operation implies an efficient algorithm to evaluate Boolean expressions.
US08577340B2
Message notifications to an accessory from a mobile communication device are provided according to some embodiments of the invention. When a message such as a text message, email, and/or voicemail is received at a mobile communication device, the mobile communication device can notify an attached accessory that a message has been received. In response, the accessory can request the full message, media associated with the message, an attachment to the message, and/or an audio/video stream of the message for presentation to a user.
US08577339B2
A technique and apparatus to provide status tracking of presence and/or location of wireless devices to requesting entities inside and/or outside a particular wireless system. Presence and/or location information is provided to entities outside a particular servicing wireless network via mechanisms of call processing components of a mobile network and standard mechanisms available to any appropriately conforming MSC element. In one embodiment, a wireless chat automatic status tracking system utilizes a change in mobile registration status to automatically forward or copy a registration notification (REGNOT) message to an external IP application, to notify a chat group system outside the wireless network of current status information activity regarding a relevant device. Change in mobile registration is communicated via a suitable signaling link between a HLR and the chat group system. REGNOT messages are pushed over TCP/IP connections to external applications to automatically notify the external system of a particular user's location.
US08577324B2
The present invention receives simultaneously RF signal of different frequency band and processes the RF signal received, at this time a BPS receiver minimizes aliasing generated by RF signal. The present invention comprises a sampling process unit which samples a signal summing a first RF signal and a second RF signal of different frequency bands with time gap, a quantization process unit which generates a first stream signal and a second stream signal from signals sampled by the sampling process unit according respective time information in the signal summing the first RF signal and the second RF signal and a signal process unit which performs FIR filtering with reference to phase shift for a respect frequency band of the first stream signal and the second stream signal, separates the first RF signal and the second RF signal based on a result of the performance.
US08577321B2
Electronic devices may have multiple antennas. A first antenna may be located at one end of a device and a second antenna may be located at another end of the device. An input-output port in a device may have a connector that receives a mating connector associated with external equipment. The input-output port and the second antenna may be located at one of the ends of the electronic device. When equipment such as an external video accessory is in use, input-output circuitry in an electronic device may transmit high speed data signals through the input-output port. The presence of activity on the input-output port such as video data or other data transmissions may be monitored by control circuitry in the electronic device. When input-output port activity is detected, use of the second antenna in receiving radio-frequency signals can be inhibited.
US08577320B2
An oscillation detector having an RF oscillator configured to be synchronized with a first frequency and a comparator for distinguishing the synchronized state from the non-synchronized state of the radiofrequency oscillator on the basis of an oscillating signal produced by the radiofrequency oscillator and indicating the presence of oscillations in a frequency band around the first frequency in response to identifying the synchronized state and, in alternation, indicating the absence of oscillations in this frequency band otherwise.
US08577317B2
A broadcast receiver and a method for setting the broadcast receiver, comprising receiving a primary broadcast sent by a broadcast station and retrieving program associated data made available by said broadcast station. The method comprises a first channel, a primary broadcast channel BC, and a second channel, an interaction channel, for retrieving the program associated data (PAD) from the broadcast station, whereby a browser sends an HTTP or a WAP request using an Internet connection. The method comprises retrieving a uniform resource locator of the program associated data (PAD) as station associated data (SAD) from a station associated data site (SADS) the station associated data comprising program associated data relating to the primary broadcast, coverage information and frequency information of included broadcast stations and the broadcast receiver being capable of setting the browser and the broadcast receiver unit by suing this SAD information.
US08577314B2
Methods and systems for dynamic range detection and positioning utilizing leaky wave antennas (LWAs) are disclosed and may include configuring one or more LWAs to enable communication of signals in a particular direction. RF signals that are reflected from an object may be received via the LWAs, and a location of the object may be determined based on the received reflected RF signals. The velocity of the object may be determined based on a Doppler shift associated with the received reflected RF signals. A frequency chirped signal may be transmitted by the LWAs to determine a location of the object. A resonant frequency of the LWAs may be configured utilizing micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) deflection. LWAs may be situated along a plurality of axes in the wireless device. The LWAs may include microstrip or coplanar waveguides, where a cavity height is dependent on spacing between conductive lines in the waveguides.
US08577312B2
A system for controlling amplifier power is provided. The system includes a voltage envelope detector receiving a voltage signal and generating an attenuated voltage envelope signal. A current envelope detector receives a current signal and generates an attenuated current envelope signal. A controller receives power level data and generates attenuation control data for the voltage envelope signal and the current envelope signal. A detector receives the voltage envelope signal and the current envelope signal and generates a control signal based on the greater of the voltage envelope signal and the current envelope signal. A power amplifier level controller receives the control signal and generates a power amplifier level control signal.
US08577306B2
Methods and systems for power combining in a multi-port distributed antenna are disclosed and may include power combining signals from power amplifiers (PAs) on a chip. The PAs may be coupled to a single distributed antenna via antenna ports. A phase of each of the signals may be matched at the antenna ports via phase-matching circuitry. A characteristic impedance may be configured at the ports based on a location of the ports. The PAs may be impedance matched to the antenna ports via impedance matching elements. A power level of the power-combined signals may be monitored via a power detector coupled to the distributed antenna. The power detector may include an envelope detector, such as a diode. The antenna may be integrated on the chip or may be located external to the chip. The signals may include RF signals and the antenna may include a microstrip antenna.
US08577300B2
A system and method for automatically configuring operating parameters of a wireless radio device. The wireless radio device determines a geographic location of the wireless radio device, and a determination is made as to the regulatory domain in which the wireless radio device is located based on the geographic location of the wireless radio device. The wireless radio device may register with and/or receive configuration information from the server associated with the regulatory domain in which the wireless radio device is located. The wireless radio device configures the operating parameters of the wireless device in accordance with configuration parameters associated with the determined regulatory domain.
US08577299B2
To transmit data in a manner to mitigate the deleterious effects of delay spread, the expected coverage areas for multiple transmissions to be sent in multiple time slots are initially determined. Cyclic prefix lengths for these transmissions are selected based on the expected coverage areas. The cyclic prefix length for each transmission may be selected from among a set of allowed cyclic prefix lengths based on the expected coverage area for that transmission, the pilot staggering used for the transmission, and so on. For example, a shorter cyclic prefix length may be selected for each local transmission, and a longer cyclic prefix length may be selected for each wide-area transmission. The selected cyclic prefix lengths may be signaled to the terminals. The transmissions are processed (e.g., OFDM modulated) based on the selected cyclic prefix lengths. The cyclic prefix lengths may be selected periodically, e.g., in each super-frame.
US08577296B2
A method of forming an adaptive antenna array includes calculating intra-unit phase relationships between antenna elements of a plurality of access units and measuring inter-unit phase relationships between the access units. An indication of a desired coverage area collectively produced by the plurality of access units is received. A set of weighting factors is determined. Each weighting factor is associated with an individual antenna element in the plurality of access units and the set of weighting factors provide the desired coverage pattern. Phase lock between the plurality of access units is maintained to control the desired coverage pattern.
US08577295B2
In certain embodiments, a transponder comprises a transceiver configured to receive a forward link having a forward-link header comprising at least one symbol for configuring a setting of the transponder. The transponder may be configured to transmit a return link having a return-link header comprising information based on one or more characteristics of the transponder, and to receive a modified subsequent symbol of the forward-link header. The modified subsequent symbol of the forward link header generated by analyzing the return-link header to determine adjusted information for configuring the setting of the transponder and modifying the subsequent symbol of the forward-link header in accordance with the adjusted information for configuring the setting of the transponder.
US08577291B1
A method and system for optimizing data throughput in a Bluetooth communication system is provided. The method may include determining the bit error rate (BER) of a first Bluetooth packet type of a plurality of Bluetooth packet types transmitted at a first power output level by a Bluetooth transmitter and selecting a second packet type from the plurality of Bluetooth packet types in response to determining the bit error rate. The different packet types may comprise DM1, DM3, DM5, DH1, DH3, DH5, HV1, HV2, HV3, 2DH1, 2DH3, 2DH5, 3DH1, 3DH3, and 3DH5 Bluetooth packets. The method may also include estimating the BER from the packet error rate (PER) of the first Bluetooth packet type, where the PER may be computed by comparing a number of packets of said first Bluetooth packet type with good CRCs to a number of packets of said first Bluetooth packet type with bad CRCs.
US08577287B2
Provided is a method of applying a transmission diversity scheme in a multiple cell cooperative communication system in which a terminal may receive, from a plurality of base stations, identical data using an identical radio resource. In the method, base stations of a cooperative base station involved in a cooperative communication may apply the transmission diversity scheme using the same resource as time and frequency resources used to apply the transmission diversity scheme in a base station of a serving base station.
US08577286B2
One embodiment is directed to a system for use with a coverage area in which one or more wireless units wirelessly transmit using a wireless radio frequency spectrum. The system comprises a first unit, and a plurality of second units communicatively coupled to the first unit using at least one communication medium. Each of the plurality of second units generates respective digital RF samples indicative of a respective analog wireless signal received at that second unit. Each of the plurality of second units communicates the respective digital RF samples generated by that second unit to the first unit using the at least one communication medium. The first unit digitally sums corresponding digital RF samples received from the plurality of second units to produce summed digital RF samples. The system is configured so that an input used for base station processing is derived from the resulting summed digital RF samples.
US08577285B2
A method for transmitting data includes receiving at a first relay station first data from a parent station during a downlink period comprising a plurality of downlink zones. A network coding zone is one of the plurality of downlink zones and is located at an end of the downlink period, and the first data is received in at least one of the plurality of downlink zones other than the network coding zone. The method further includes receiving at the first relay station from a child station, second data during an uplink zone, and transmitting third data by the first relay station to the child station, during the network coding zone using a resource. The method further includes transmitting the third data to the parent station, during the network coding zone, using the resource. The third data results from the first data being effectively logically XOR-ed to the second data.
US08577284B2
A method and apparatus for method for providing cooperative reception diversity based on signal point rearrangement and superposition modulation performed at a relay station is discussed. A first technique performs superposition modulation at a relay station and a second technique employs signal point rearrangement at a relay station. The superposition modulation is a different type of superposition modulation than that employed by the transmitter of the signal. Similarly, the signal point rearrangement is a different type of signal point rearrangement than that employed by the transmitter of the signal. As a result of the superposition modulation or signal point rearrangement performed by the relay station, the reliability of a signal received by a reception unit at the destination receiver is improved.
US08577283B2
A repeater that facilitates communication in a wireless environment comprises a scheduling component that analyzes a schedule relating to when communications are active in the forward link direction and when communications are active in the reverse link direction, the communications are subject to time division duplexing. An amplifier that amplifies received communications as a function of the schedule. The repeater can further comprise a configuration component that configures the amplifier to amplify the received communications in one or more of a forward link direction and a reverse link direction.
US08577277B2
An image forming apparatus includes a paper cassette feeding a recording material, an image forming unit forming an image on a photosensitive member, a primary transfer roller transferring the image onto an intermediate transfer belt, a secondary transfer roller transferring the image onto the recording material, and a sensor detecting the size of the recording material. The timing of starting feeding the recording material is earlier than the timing of starting forming the image. When image formation on the recording material is started, until the sensor detects the size of the recording material, a plurality of images are formed on the intermediate transfer belt at a first interval according to a predetermined recording material size, and after the sensor detects the size of the recording material, a plurality of images are formed on the intermediate transfer belt at a second interval according to the detected recording material size.
US08577265B2
A developing device usable with an image forming apparatus having a developer delivery device of an improved drive configuration. The developing device includes a developer storage unit, a rotating member arranged in the developer storage unit, and a plurality of developer delivery members arranged in an axial direction of the rotating member to be rotated around the rotating member upon receiving rotation power from the rotating member. A first power-transmission structure may be provided between at least one of the plurality of developer delivery members and the rotating member to allow slip therebetween.
US08577260B2
A fixing apparatus includes: a heating rotator, a pressurizing rotator and a fixing housing. The heating rotator is configured to be rotatable about a first rotational axis and has a peripheral surface heated by a heat source provided inside or outside of the heating rotator. The pressurizing rotator is configured to be rotatable about a second rotational axis parallel to the first rotational axis. The pressurizing rotator forms a fixing nip in conjunction with the heating rotator. The fixing housing is configured to accommodate the heating rotator and the pressurizing rotator. The heating rotator, the pressurizing rotator and the fixing housing form a fixing rotator unit. The fixing rotator unit is configured to be withdrawable from an apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus and such that the peripheral surface of the heating rotator is exposed when the fixing rotator unit is withdrawn from the apparatus main body.
US08577254B2
A slide rail includes an outer rail and an inner rail. The inner rail includes a top face portion, main-portion side walls, outer deck portions, and end-portion side walls. The outer rail includes a bottom wall and a storage portion. The main-portion side walls and the end-portion side walls are both provided adjacently on both sides of the top face portion in a width direction thereof, and bent toward outer rail. The main-portion side walls are provided in a portion other than one end portion in the longitudinal direction. The end-portion side walls are provided in the one end portion. Each outer deck portion extends outward in the width direction to be continuous to an edge of each main-portion side wall opposite the top face portion. The storage portions are provided adjacently on both sides of the bottom wall in the width direction and bent toward the inner rail to cover the outer edge portions.
US08577250B2
A toner box includes: a main body; a shutter; and a toner seal. The main body is configured to accommodate toner therein and that 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 toner seal is configured to be disposed between the main body and the shutter and to surround a perimeter of the main-body-side communication through-hole when the shutter is in the closed position. The toner seal includes: an elastic layer provided with a fixing surface; and a mesh layer disposed on a surface of the elastic layer opposite to the fixing surface.
US08577243B2
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, an exposure unit configured to expose the photosensitive member corresponding to an image, a developing unit configured to develop, using a toner, an electrostatic latent image formed on the exposed photosensitive member, a generation unit configured to generate a waveform signal for the developing unit, a parallel-to-serial conversion unit configured to apply, at a predetermined sampling period, parallel-to-serial conversion to a plurality of signals including the generated waveform signal, a serial-to-parallel conversion unit configured to apply, at the predetermined sampling period, serial-to-parallel conversion to the signals output from the parallel-to-serial conversion unit, and a voltage applying unit configured to apply to the developing unit a voltage composed of a direct-current voltage and an alternating-current voltage superimposed thereon based on the waveform signal among signals output from the serial-to-parallel conversion unit.
US08577237B2
In an image forming apparatus, a transfer current output unit outputs a transfer current having a same value as a target value to a nip forming member to transfer a toner image on a latent image carrier to the nip forming member to determine the target value based on an algorithm representing a relationship between an image area ratio of the toner image and the target value and the image area ratio, and in an algorithm for a second transfer step in which the toner image is transferred to be superimposed on the toner image of the nip forming member to which the toner image has been transferred, a smaller target value is related to a same image area ratio compared to the algorithm for a first transfer step in which the toner image is transferred to the nip forming member to which no toner image is transferred.
US08577236B2
An image forming apparatus includes a sensor that is configured to detect a property of a developer material, a transport unit that is operatively in contact with the developer material and that is configured to move the developer material toward a recording medium, and a controller that receives the property of the developer material from the sensor unit and sets a voltage of the transport unit, wherein the voltage is determined based on the property of the developer material received from the sensor.
US08577226B2
A detachable body includes: a detachable body main body that is to be attached to an attachment/detachment subject apparatus in a detachable manner, the detachable main body having an internal space and a connection hole which connects the internal space and an external space; and an opening/closing member that is attached to the detachable body main body, the opening/closing member being movable between an opening position where the connection hole is exposed and a closing position where the connection hole is closed. The opening/closing member includes: an opening/closing member main body that is curved parallel with a movement direction of the opening/closing member between the opening position and the closing position; and a plane portion that has a flat surface, the plane portion being formed in an outer surface of the opening/closing member main body.
US08577220B1
A method and system for protecting against communication loss or disruption in an optical network system includes a signal state detector, which can measure received optical signals and determine if their strength is sufficient to support reliable communications. If the signal state detector informs the control circuit that the received optical signal is too low to support communications with the data service hub (or if there is no signal at all, such as in a severance of an optical waveguide), then the control circuit can instruct the data switch to re-route communications from the primary communication path to a secondary or back up communication path. This switching or re-routing of communications from a primary communication path which is non-functional or inoperative to an operational and fully functional communication path (a back up or secondary communication path) can be completed in a very short time, such as within fifty milliseconds or less.
US08577211B2
In various aspects, the present application describes a heating element assembly for a liquid heater, embodiments of which may include an electrically conductive termination rod with a base portion defining a securement opening. An electrically conductive fastener may include a shank portion for fitting into the securement opening. The heating element assembly may have a head portion larger than the securement opening, and an electrical resistance heating element comprising a continuous coil. An end portion of the continuous coil may be formed to loop around the fastener shank portion. The end portion may be in electrical contact with the fastener head portion and the termination rod base portion. An adjacent portion of the continuous coil may be formed to clear the fastener head portion as the adjacent portion extends from the end portion. The continuous coil may have a coil axis substantially aligned with a lengthwise axis of the fastener.
US08577202B2
The invention relates to a method for processing a video data set, which comprises a sequence of original images, into a modified video data set which, in addition to the sequence of original images, comprises virtual images derived therefrom in one or more data processing units, wherein an SfM analysis is carried out for each of the original images and a respectively assigned original position of a recording device which was used to record the original image, virtual positions are formed for a recording device for recording virtual images, for each virtual position of the recording device with the associated virtual initial image, a respective assignment is created to at least one of the original positions of the recording device with the associated original image, for each assignment, a homography is determined between the virtual initial image and the associated original image, and for each virtual initial image, a virtual final image is formed from the associated original image in that the original image is formed in the associated final image using the respectively determined homography.
US08577197B2
An optical unit is comprised of a plurality of optical base fibers twisted together without any member serving as a center of twisting so that each optical base fiber comes in contact with adjacent optical base fibers along the whole length, each of the optical base fibers including an optical fiber and a sleeve consisting essentially of silicone, a filler having the plurality of optical base fibers embedded therein, the filler consisting essentially of silicone, and a sheath covering the filler and the plurality of optical base fibers embedded in the filler.
US08577196B1
A communication cable can comprise optical fibers protected by an armor, such as a corrugated metallic tube. An outer jacket can cover the armor to provide environmental protection. A tape located between the outer jacket and the armor can comprise holes, with the outer jacket extending into the holes, towards the armor. The tape can be wrapped around the armor to form a tube, for example. The holes can control coupling between the outer jacket and the armor, for example providing a desired level of friction, bonding, adhesion, adherence, fusion, and/or contact between the outer jacket and the armor.
US08577194B2
The present application is directed towards systems and methods for efficient installation of optical and electrical cable in watercraft. A manufacturer may terminate one end of a cable in a location removed from the watercraft, allowing use of automated cable termination machines for efficiency and consistency of terminations. The single-terminated cable may then be brought to the watercraft and installed by pulling or routing the unterminated end through ductwork and pipes, watertight bulkhead throughways, and cable trays and ladders as necessary, prior to termination. Accordingly, more difficult and expensive on-site labor is reduced, and reliability is greatly increased. Furthermore, many cable tests that require termination but cannot be executed post-installation can be performed prior to installation, to ensure that at least the first termination, performed off-site, is error-free, reducing later troubleshooting and further increasing installation efficiency.
US08577193B2
An apparatus includes a waveguide, a laser diode positioned adjacent to the waveguide and having an active region producing light in a plane substantially parallel to a plane of the waveguide, a first grating positioned to couple light out of the laser diode and to direct the light toward the waveguide, a reflective layer positioned adjacent to a side of the first grating opposite to the waveguide, and a second grating having the same period as the first grating and positioned to couple light into the waveguide. A data storage device that includes the apparatus is also provided.
US08577190B2
An optocoupler having an optical transmitter die, an optical receiver die, a light guide, a limiting element and a body is disclosed. The light guide is confined to upper portion of the body by using the limiting element. In one embodiment, the limiting element is a dielectric tape. In yet another embodiment, the limiting element is a pre-molded plastic attached to the lead frame via non-conductive epoxy. The use of the limiting element yields light guides having consistent shape.
US08577188B2
An optical transmitter module includes a light source, a first optical circulation unit, a first optical reflector, and an output unit. The light source emits a first light signal with a first wavelength, and a second light signal with a second wavelength. The first optical circulation unit includes three optical couplers and three optical isolators, which are alternately connected to one another to form a loop. The first optical circulation unit includes a first port at a first optical coupler, a second port at a second optical coupler, and a third port at a third optical coupler. The first port is optically coupled to the light source. The first optical reflector is optically coupled to the second port. The first optical reflector reflects the first light signal back to the second port. The output unit is optically coupled to the third port to output the first light signal.
US08577184B2
A method and system for improving picture quality of color images by combing the content of a plurality of frames of the same subject; comprising: at least one processor; the at least one processor comprising a memory for storing a plurality of frames of a subject; the at least one processor operating to combine the content of plurality of frames of the subject into a combined color image by performing: a process in which at least two multicolored frames are converted to monochromatic predetermined color frames; a gross shift process in which the gross shift translation of one monochromatic predetermined color frame is determined relative to a reference monochromatic predetermined color frame; a subpixel shift process utilizing a correlation method to determine the translational and/or rotational differences of one monochromatic predetermined color frame to the reference monochromatic predetermined color frame to estimate sub-pixel shifts and/or rotations between the frames; and an error reduction process to determine whether the resolution of the resulting combined color image is of sufficient resolution; the error reduction process comprising applying at least one spatial frequency domain constraint and at least one spatial domain constraint to the combined color image to produce at least one high-resolution full color image.
US08577179B2
An image processing arrangement includes an input to receive an indicator of a power characteristic related to an image processing arrangement and an image processor to process an image based on the indicator of the power characteristic.
US08577177B2
A method for symmetric and inverse-consistent registration of a pair of digital images includes calculating a first update of a forward transformation of a first digital image to a second digital image from a previous update of the forward transformation and a gradient of a cost function of the first and second digital images, calculating a first update of a backward transformation of the second digital image to the first digital image from an inverse of the first update of the forward transformation, calculating a second update of the backward transformation from first update of the backward transformation and the gradient of a cost function of the second and first digital images, and calculating a second update of the forward transformation from an inverse of the second update of the backward transformation.
US08577169B2
Algorithms for improving the quality of images tone mapped using the bilateral filter are presented. The algorithms involve a localized operator applied to the tone mapping compression factor which enhances apparent image contrast in the low dynamic range output of the tone mapping. At least one embodiment of the present invention is related to circuitry configured to perform at least a portion of related calculations.
US08577159B2
Methods and devices for encoding and decoding data using adaptive transform domain filtering are described. The encoder determines a set of transform domain filter coefficients to be applied to a transform domain prediction. The filtering may, in some cases, also apply to quantized transform domain coefficients. Rate-distortion optimization may be used to determine the optimal filter coefficients on a frame-based, coding-unit-basis, or other basis.
US08577148B2
An image combining apparatus includes a control section which acquires first position information identifying a figure on a first medium from an electronic pen by using the first medium where a pattern for the electronic pen to detect an electronic pen tip position is combined with a background of a image list, identifies an image from the position information by referring to information associating each image with a position on the first medium, further acquires second position information identifying a figure on a second medium from the electronic pen by using the second medium on which the pattern is formed, and identifies an image combining area from the first and second position information, and then associates the image combining area with the image; and an image processing section creating a combined image by combining the image combining area with the image associated with the image combining area.
US08577146B2
An electronic device includes a camera that is configured to generate a visual data signal that corresponds to dynamically captured graphic content that includes an image and a pointer that is operable to communicate a selection characteristic of the image. A signal processor receives the visual data signal and is operable to identify a portion of the image in the dynamically captured graphic content responsive to the selection characteristic communicated by the pointer.
US08577130B2
Described herein is a technology for facilitating deformable model-based segmentation of image data. In one implementation, the technology includes receiving training image data (202) and automatically constructing a hierarchical structure (204) based on the training image data. At least one spatially adaptive boundary detector is learned based on a node of the hierarchical structure (206).
US08577114B2
An apparatus and method for expanding the FOV of a truncated computed tomography (CT) scan. An iterative calculation is performed on the original CT image to produce an estimate of the image. The calculated estimate of the reconstructed image includes the original image center and a estimate of the truncated portion outside the image center. The calculation uses an image mask with the image center as one boundary.
US08577102B2
A method is disclosed for improving the accuracy of a bronchial biopsy. In at least one embodiment, the method includes detecting the position and extent of a lesion to be biopsied by way of imaging methods, calculating the maximum biopsy depth with a known biopsy inaccuracy as a function of the extent of the lesion, and producing a biopsy plan on the basis of the calculated maximum biopsy depth and the position of the lesion. A device is also disclosed for carrying out the method.
US08577097B2
Classifier chains are used to determine quickly and accurately if a window or sub-window of an image contains a right face, a left face, a full face, or does not contain a face. After acquiring a digital image, an integral image is calculated based on the acquired digital image. Left-face classifiers are applied to the integral image to determine the probability that the window contains a left face. Right-face classifiers are applied to the integral image to determine the probability that the window contains a right face. If the probability of the window containing a right face and a left face are both greater than threshold values, then it is determined that the window contains a full face. Alternatively, if only one of the probabilities exceeds a threshold value, then it may be determined that the window contains only a left face or a right face.
US08577095B2
A method processes segmented iris images obtained by a non-cooperative image acquisition system to generate descriptors for features in the segmented iris image that are tolerant of segmentation error. The method includes receiving a segmented iris image, and selecting feature points in the segmented iris image to describe an iris locally.
US08577090B2
A biometric authentication method if provided for an individual to be authenticated amongst a very large quantity of individuals with an authentication system storing a set of reference information each associated to one of the individuals. The reference information is distributed across a plurality of sub-databases. The method includes a phase of adding reference information representative of a new individual, including selecting the sub-database that is best adapted to store the reference information to be added. A phase of authentication includes: provision by the individual of authentication biometric information and of an identifier forming addressing information, designating at least one of said sub-databases likely to contain the reference information representative of said individual; and searching amongst the reference information stored by the authentication system, of reference information corresponding to the individual, the searching being carried out on a subset of said set of reference information, identified by the addressing information.
US08577084B2
A visual target tracking method includes representing a human target with a machine-readable model configured for adjustment into a plurality of different poses and receiving an observed depth image of the human target from a source. The observed depth image is compared to the model. A refine-z force vector is then applied to one or more force-receiving locations of the model to move a portion of the model towards a corresponding portion of the observed depth image if that portion of the model is Z-shifted from that corresponding portion of the observed depth image.
US08577082B2
A security device and system is disclosed. This security device is particularly useful in a security system where there are many security cameras to be monitored. This device automatically highlights to a user a camera feed in which an incident is occurring. This assists a user in identifying incidents and to make an appropriate decision regarding whether or not to intervene. This highlighting is performed by a trigger signal generated in accordance with a comparison between a sequence of representations of sensory data and other corresponding sequences of representations of sensory data.
US08577081B2
Mobile video-based therapy, using a portable therapy device that includes a camera, a therapy application database, a processor, and a display. The camera is configured to generate images of a user, and the therapy application database is configured to store therapy applications. The processor is configured to select, from the therapy application database, a therapy application appropriate for assisting in physical or cognitive rehabilitation or therapy of the user, to invoke the therapy application, to recognize a gesture of the user from the generated images, and to control the invoked therapy application based on the recognized gesture. The display is configured to display an output of the controlled therapy application.
US08577069B2
A wireless mobile electronic device includes a first housing and a first acoustic chamber disposed within the first housing. A sound generator, within said first housing, is acoustically coupled to the first acoustic chamber. Additionally, a first acoustic port defines an opening into the first acoustic chamber. The acoustic port includes a first mating structure configured for mating with a second mating structure of a second acoustic chamber, exclusive of said first housing.
US08577065B2
Modern electronic devices are getting more portable and smaller leading to smaller distances between speakers. In particular, computers are now so compact that the notebook computer is one of the most popular computer types. However, with the proliferation of media available in digital form, both music recordings and video features, the demand for high quality reproductions on computers has increased. Systems and methods for producing wider speaker effects and immersion effects disclosed can enhance a listener's experience even in a notebook computer.
US08577062B2
An earpiece (100) and a method (300) personalized voice operable control can include capturing (302) an ambient sound from an Ambient Sound Microphone (111) to produce an electronic ambient signal (426), delivering (304) audio content (402) to an ear canal (131) by way of an Ear Canal Receiver (125) to produce an acoustic audio content (404) and capturing (306) in the ear canal an internal sound (402) from an Ear Canal Microphone (123) to produce an electronic internal signal (410). The electronic internal signal includes an echo of the acoustic audio content and a spoken voice generated by a wearer of the earpiece. The Method also includes detecting (312) the spoken voice in the electronic internal signal in the presence of the echo, and controlling (314) a voice operation of the earpiece when the spoken voice is detected.
US08577061B2
A power supply for limited power sources and an audio amplifier using the power supply comprising power sources to provide an output power signal that can be used by load with a high peak to average power requirement ratio. When such power sources are used to power devices that have a high peak to average power consumption, the average power output of the device is severely limited if the peak power is kept below the power supply limits of the limited power source.
US08577056B2
Systems and methods of limiting peak audio power in mobile devices may include a high pass filter and a burst module to detect a burst load condition in a mobile device. The burst module can also apply the high pass filter to an audio signal of the mobile device in response to the burst load condition to obtain a filtered signal, and transmit the filtered audio signal to a speaker of the mobile device.
US08577055B2
Provided is a sound source signal filtering method and apparatus. The sound source signal filtering method includes: generating two or more microphone output signals by combining sound source signals input through a plurality of microphones; calculating distances between the microphones and a sound source from which the sound source signals are emitted by using distance relationships according to frequencies of the sound source signals extracted from the generated microphone output signals; and filtering the sound source signals to obtain one or more sound source signals corresponding to a predetermined distance by using the calculated distances. Accordingly, it is possible to obtain only sound source signals emitted from a sound source at a particular distance from the microphone array among a plurality of sound source signals input through the microphone array.
US08577046B2
An apparatus estimates the direction of a sound source from signals plural microphones capture sound to produce. Data are stored on reverse characteristics of spatial transfer functions defined on sound transmitted from sound source positions to the respective microphones. To the signal produced by each microphone, applied are the reverse characteristics of the spatial transfer functions thus stored in connection with that microphone with respect to the sound source positions to thereby estimate a sound source signal on a sound source position associated with the sound captured. Between the sound source signals estimated on the sound source positions associated with the sounds captured by the microphones, coincidence or higher correlation is found on a sound source position to thereby produce information on at least the direction of the sound source thus found.
US08577040B2
A data communication system and method in which a need to store a frame count value in a non-volatile memory and update the frame count value is obviated, and in which the effect resulting when a frame with its frame count value altered to a value close to a full count value is transmitted is reduced. When a valid frame count value is not held, an inquiry is made for a frame count value. The frame count value is notified from the receiving end, and the frame count value is acquired. An encryption key is generated on the basis of the frame count value. Data is encrypted with the encryption key. Data in a frame structure is transmitted. When the frame transmission ends, the frame count value is incremented.
US08577037B1
A network device includes an input circuit and a key mixing circuit. The input circuit is configured to receive i) a message and ii) a plurality of packets from a transmitting device. The message includes i) an address of the transmitting device and ii) a predetermined value for a count. Each of the plurality of packets i) is encapsulated and ii) includes the address of the transmitting device and one of a plurality of values for the count. The message is received prior to receiving the plurality of packets. The key mixing circuit is configured to generate a plurality of seeds based on the message. Each of the plurality of seeds is based on i) a predetermined key, ii) the address of the transmitting device, and iii) the predetermined value for the count. The plurality of seeds is used to decapsulate the plurality of packets.
US08577028B2
There are disclosed systems and methods for computing an exponentiatied message. In one embodiment blinding is maintained during the application of a Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT) algorithm and then removed subsequent to the completion of the CRT algorithm. In another embodiment, fault injection attacks, such as the gcd attack, can be inhibited by applying and retaining blinding during the application of the CRT algorithm to yield a blinded exponentiation value, and then subsequently removing the blinding in a manner that causes an error injected into the CRT computation to cascade into the exponent of the value used to unblind the blinded exponentiated value.
US08577023B2
A common-key blockcipher processing configuration with enhanced immunity against attacks such as saturation attacks and algebraic attacks (XSL attacks) is realized. In an encryption processing apparatus that performs common-key blockcipher processing, S-boxes serving as non-linear transformation processing parts set in round-function executing parts are configured using at least two different types of S-boxes. With this configuration, the immunity against saturation attacks can be enhanced. Also, types of S-boxes present a mixture of different types. With this configuration, the immunity against algebraic attacks (XSL attacks) can be enhanced, thereby realizing a highly secure encryption processing apparatus.
US08577020B2
A communication terminal apparatus is connected to a single telephone line and is configured to be selectively connected either to a telephone set or to a facsimile machine. A pseudo ring back tone generator generates a repetitive pseudo ring back tone transmitted to a calling party in response to an incoming call. A pseudo ring signal generator generates a pseudo ring signal for driving a ringer of the telephone set to ring in response to the incoming call. A tone detector detects a CNG signal indicative that the incoming call is a facsimile. A controller controls at least the pseudo ring back tone generator and the pseudo ring signal generator. A table correlates a plurality of ring back tones with corresponding countries. If a ring back tone for a country meets a predetermined condition, the controller sets a predetermined pseudo ring back tone to the pseudo ring back tone generator.
US08577012B2
In the field of communications, a session transfer method and a User Equipment (UE) are provided, so as to solve the problem that when a UE is involved in a voice session and a video session at the same time, session transfer cannot be performed. The technical solution according to the present invention includes: determining a session in an active state among a video session and a voice session; and initiating transfer of the session in the active state, so that a network side transfers the session in the active state to a Circuit Switched (CS) domain, and transfers a session in an inactive state among the video session and the voice session. The session transfer method and the UE may be applied in a radio communication network.
US08577010B2
A second device (120) has a first virtual terminal and a second virtual terminal. The second device (120) switches the access point of a third telephone terminal (32) to the first virtual terminal and switches the access point of a second telephone terminal (22) to the second virtual terminal by control of a first device (110). Then, the first virtual terminal is put on hold. Then, the first virtual terminal calls the first telephone terminal by an outgoing call for forwarding to a first telephone terminal (12). Then, the first device (110) connects the first telephone terminal (12) to the third telephone terminal (32).
US08576998B2
Systems, apparatuses, methods, and media for generating an efficiency report in a communication service center are provided. According to the systems, apparatuses, methods, and media, communication statistics of an operator are obtained from a communication database. Work statistics of the operator are also obtained. An entry code that corresponds to an input statistic of the operator is received. The communication statistics, the work statistics, and the input statistic of the operator are integrated, and the efficiency report is generated based on the integrating of the communication statistics, the work statistics, and the input statistic of the operator.
US08576990B2
A method and system for localizing an initial point of an Internet Protocol (IP)-based telephone call that is an emergency call. A Telephony Application Server (TAS)-Proxy receives the emergency call originating from a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriber. An emergency call application transmits to a replication database a request for emergency call data for identifying an initial point of the emergency call. The replication database determines the emergency call data from the IP address of the VoIP and transmits the emergency call data to the emergency call application. The emergency call applications sends the emergency call data to the TAS-Proxy. The TAS-Proxy routes the emergency call, and sends an Emergency ID of the emergency call data, to a local responsible Public Safety Answering Point. The local responsible Public Safety Answering Point can use a reference in the Emergency ID to technical data to locate the initial point of the emergency call.
US08576989B2
The present specification discloses a beam chopping apparatus, and more specifically, a helical shutter for an electron beam system that is employed in radiation-based scanning systems, and more specifically, a beam chopping apparatus that allows for variability in both velocity and beam spot size by modifying the physical characteristics or geometry of the beam chopper apparatus. The present specification also discloses a beam chopping apparatus which provides a vertically moving beam spot with substantially constant size and velocity to allow for substantially equal illumination of the target. In addition, the present specification is a beam chopping apparatus that is lightweight and does not cause an X-ray source assembly employing the beam chopper to become heavy and difficult to deploy.
US08576988B2
A distributed X-ray source (3) and an imaging system (1) comprising such an X-ray source (3) are proposed. The X-ray source (3) comprises an electron beam source arrangement (19) and an anode arrangement (17). The electron beam source arrangement (19) is adapted to emit electron beams (24) towards at least two locally distinct focal spots (27) on the anode arrangement (17). Therein, the X-ray source is adapted for displacing the anode arrangement (17) with respect to the electron beam source arrangement (19). While the provision of a plurality of focal spots allows acquisition of projection images under different projection angles thereby allowing reconstruction of three-dimensional X-ray images e.g. in tomosynthesis application, a displacement motion of the anode arrangement (17) with respect to the electron beam source arrangement (19) may allow for distributed heat flux to the anode arrangement thereby possibly reducing cooling requirements.
US08576986B2
An X-ray imaging method includes in a digital X-ray detector including an array of discrete picture elements each including a photodiode and a transistor, applying a first voltage to the transistors of the discrete picture elements. The method also includes preparing for acquisition of X-ray image data by sampling data from the discrete picture elements while applying a second voltage to the transistors of the discrete picture elements not then being sampled, the second voltage being more negative than the first voltage. The method further includes receiving X-ray radiation on the detector from a source. The method yet further includes sampling X-ray image data from the discrete picture elements while applying the second voltage to the transistors of the discrete picture elements not then being sampled.
US08576979B2
An arithmetic counter circuit for high performance CMOS image sensors includes a plurality of flip-flops of a plurality of counter stages and a plurality of multiplexers of the plurality of counter stages being coupled to the plurality of flip-flops. Each of the plurality of multiplexers coupled to receive control signals including at least one of a toggle signal, a keep signal, a shift enable signal, or a mode signal. The control signals select the output of each of the plurality of multiplexers. Each of the plurality of flip-flops is coupled to be in one of a toggle state, a keep state, a reset state or a set state based on inputs received from the plurality of multiplexers. Other embodiments are described.
US08576975B2
The present invention provides a method of operating a Boiling Water Reactor, having the steps of analyzing LPRM signals for oscilliatory behavior indicative of neutron-flux-coupled density wave oscillations, determining if oscilliatory behavior is present in the signals; initiating a reactor protective corrective action if the oscilliatory behavior is determined, and in addition, initiating corrective actions if neutron uncoupled oscillations are possible. Detecting the later is performed through analytically determined exclusion zone on the power flow map or by on-line stability calculations for several high power channels.
US08576973B2
A cask for loading at least one nuclear fuel assembly in a transport container, including a body with a longitudinal axis (X) capable of sealably covering an upper end of a container, at least one aperture (10) for letting through a fuel assembly, at least one means for connecting to pneumatic confinement means and at least one means (56) capable of maintaining a means (58) for sealing a chamber of the container inside the cask and at a distance from an entrance of said chamber during loading, wherein the maintaining means (56) includes a first arm (60) rotationally mobile around a first axis and a second arm (62) attached to the first arm (60) and rotationally mobile relatively to the first arm, said cask also including external means for controlling the arms (68,86), and wherein the second arm (62) includes a housing (76) for receiving the sealing means.
US08576970B2
A PLL circuit (1a, 1b) for generating a pixel-clock signal based on a hsync signal. The PLL circuit comprises a phase-frequency detector arranged to receive the hsync signal and a frequency divided pixel-clock signal, and generate up and down signals based on the hsync signal and the frequency-divided pixel-clock signal. A charge pump (20) is arranged to generate an output signal based on the up and down signals and a loop filter (30) is arranged to generate a frequency-control signal based on the output signal of the charge pump (20). Furthermore, a VCO (40a, 40b) is arranged to generate an oscillating signal and adjust the frequency of the oscillating signal in response to the frequency-control signal. The VCO (40a, 40b) is adapted to have a tuning range with a center frequency which is larger than or equal to 4 GHz. A programmable first frequency divider (50) is arranged to generate the pixel-clock signal by frequency division of the oscillating signal, and a programmable second frequency divider (60) is arranged to generate the frequency divided pixel-clock signal by frequency division of the pixel-clock signal.
US08576968B2
A packet trace is received. The packet trace is transformed into a sequence of pulse signals in a temporal domain. The sequence of pulse signals in the temporal domain is transformed into a sequence of pulse signals in a frequency domain. Peaks are detected within relevant frequency bands in the sequence of pulse signals in the frequency domain. A fundamental frequency is identified within the peaks. The fundamental frequency, which represents the TCP flow clock, is returned.
US08576964B2
There is provided a radio receiver including: a first matched filter, a second matched filter, a first frame synchronization determining unit and a first phase determining unit. The first matched filter performs matching processing on the basis of N first tap coefficients and sign information of a received digital signal to obtain first output data. The second matched filter performs matching processing on the basis of M (M is a natural number smaller than the N) second tap coefficients, the sign information and amplitude information of the received digital to obtain second output data. The first frame synchronization determining unit determines a first frame synchronization timing of the received digital signal on the basis of the first output data. The first phase determining unit determines a first phase amount of the received digital signal on the basis of the second output data and the first frame synchronization timing.
US08576951B2
A mixed-signal radio frequency receiver implements multiple spur avoidance modes to reduce or remove spurs or digital noise injection into the received channel to enhance the receiver performance. The multiple spur avoidance modes are reconfigurable to allow a single mode or multiple modes to be selected for use depending on the application. One or more spur avoidance modes can be selected to enhance the performance of the receiver or the modes can be selected to reduce power consumption. The same spur avoidance circuit is used to support all of the spur avoidance modes by reconfiguring the circuit for each mode or each combination of modes. In another embodiment, a clock masking scheme is applied to align analog and digital clock edges to separate digital activities from sensitive analog activities.
US08576946B2
A method and system are provided in a wireless communications system comprising a plurality of nodes (users) working cooperatively. The system provides cooperative diversity by allowing nodes to actively share their antennas and other resources to obtain spatial diversity. The nodes receive the same message (information data) from a common source. Each node enhances the reliability of the message with a modern forward error correction (FEC) code, converts the FEC encoded message into an ensemble of symbols, divides the ensemble of symbols into packets, modulates, dithers and transmits the packets to a receiving node. The dithering process is performed by varying the signal amplitude, phase, frequency and/or symbol timing of the modulated packets. A unique dither pattern is assigned to each node. The receiving node captures a composite signal comprising the transmitted packets of all or most of the transmitting nodes in the cooperative communications system. Because the transmitted packets are dithered independently in phase and/or amplitude, spatial diversity is transformed into temporal diversity.
US08576943B2
A multi-band signal is generated by combining two or more input signals separated in frequency. The input signals are combined either before or after predistortion depending on the bandwidth of the multi-band signal. If the bandwidth of the multi-band signal is less than a predetermined bandwidth threshold, the input signals are combined and predistortion is applied to the combined signal to generate the multi-band signal. If the bandwidth of the multi-band signal is greater than the bandwidth threshold, the individual input signals are predistorted and subsequently combined to generate the multi-band signal.
US08576940B2
Embodiments are provided wherein a bandwidth of a waveform sequence that is transmitted by a transmitter in order to convey information is varied. According to additional embodiments, a set of frequencies that is used to provide frequency content to the waveform sequence is also varied and comprises non-contiguous first and second frequency intervals wherein a third frequency interval that is between the first and second frequency intervals remains devoid of providing frequency content to the waveform sequence in order to avoid interference. The invention is relevant to 4G LTE carrier aggregation systems/methods and/or other aspects of 4G LTE. Various transmitter/receiver embodiments are disclosed including direct synthesis transmitter/receiver embodiments.
US08576932B2
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements in a wireless communication system supporting cyclic-prefix insertion, using a symbol sequence comprising a number of samples for transmission over a radio channel that enables the handling of very large signal delay spreads. The symbol sequence is built up by a first symbol with CP and a second symbol with CP. The second symbol is a copy of the first symbol with the samples shifted in a way that makes the two adjacent symbols with CP match in regards to the sample order. The symbol sequence may also comprise a third symbol with CP or more, where the third symbol is a copy of the second symbol and with the samples shifted in analogy with the symbol shift described above. The resulting symbol sequence will thus appear as an extended continuous symbol thanks to the precise cyclic shift that matches adjacent symbols. This allows the receiver to place its FFT window anywhere during the extended symbol, e.g. at the end of the symbol sequence thus making it possible to handle a delay spread longer than the CP duration. It also allows to place e.g. two FFT windows and to combine the extracted signal into one SNR improved signal, while still handling a longer delay spread.
US08576930B2
A receiver of a signal communication apparatus; the apparatus including a transmitter adapted to transmit coded signals, the receiver for receiving the signal and a wireless interface interposed between the transmitter and the receiver and having a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna. The receiver includes a decoder configured to decode the received signal and circuitry coupled to the receiving antenna and capable of triggering the decoder if the value of the received signal is outside a logical hysteresis having a first logic threshold having a value smaller than the value of the direct current component of the received signal and a second logic threshold having a value greater than the value of the direct current component of the received signal.
US08576926B2
A video processing method comprising receiving a video stream comprising a plurality of frames, removing via one or more non-binary artifact functions a plurality of artifact pixels from the video stream, and outputting the video stream with the artifact pixels removed.
US08576925B2
An image processing apparatus which converts a frame rate by dividing an input frame into subframes and outputting the subframes, comprises, a preprocessing unit adapted to perform preprocessing of replacing a pixel value of a pixel of interest with a minimum pixel value of peripheral pixels of the pixel of interest in an input frame, a low-pass filter processing unit adapted to generate a first subframe by performing a low-pass filtering process on the input frame having undergone the preprocessing, a generating unit adapted to generate a second subframe from the first subframe and the input frame, and a switching unit adapted to output the first subframe and the second subframe by switching the first subframe and the second subframe at a predetermined timing.
US08576924B2
A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by performing piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion. With this approach, a smaller on-board memory may be used for the in-loop filtering operations of the video decoding hardware block. By pipelining the piecewise processing operations, latency in the filtering operations is hidden and the filtering output is smoothed, thereby avoiding the need for bursts of fetching and storing of blocks.
US08576923B2
A request may be received to navigate through a bitstream by a navigation time, the bitstream having a plurality of data sequences, each of the plurality being associated with a different presentation time of the bitstream. The navigation time may be correlated with a number of bytes from a current location of the bitstream to a target location of the bitstream. The bitstream may be navigated to reach the target location within the bitstream, based on the number of bytes. Navigation may then occur from an initial start code proximate to the target location within the bitstream to a further start code until a final start code is reached that has a timestamp which, compared to a timestamp of the current location, indicates a presentation time that corresponds to the navigation time and thereby satisfies the request.
US08576922B2
Techniques for synchronizing audio and video content for presentation to a user at a same rate are provided. Streams of content from two or more sources of media, each media source having an associated clock, are synchronized by a synchronizing component and processor with respect to a master clock. As well, techniques are provided for ensuring that output devices are synchronized at preview startup. That is, such techniques ensure that the output devices start playing the media at the same time as well as at the same rate.
US08576920B2
The method includes receiving a multi-view video stream including a random access picture, which includes a random access slice. The random access slice references only a slice corresponding to a same time and a different view of the random access picture. Type information indicating whether the random access slice is predicted from one or two reference pictures is obtained, and a reference picture list is initialized using view number information and view identification information included in obtained initialization information according to the type information. A prediction value of a macroblock in the random access picture is determined based on the initialized reference picture list, and the macroblock is decoded using the prediction value.
US08576917B2
An image processing method which adaptively reduces compression noise of a digital image and an image processing apparatus using the same are provided. The image processing method determines weight to reduce compression noise of an image based on local information and frame information, and processes the image according to the weight. Therefore, noise is adaptively reduced according to an image, and also noise is reduced with the optimal extent.
US08576913B2
A frame prediction system and a prediction method thereof. An initializing module initializes a first image block having a plurality of pixels. A providing module provides a first centroid and a first motion vector of a second image block. The location lookup module finds a location according to the first centroid, and generates a first weight and a second weight respectively according to a relationship between each of the pixels, the first centroid and the location. A vector lookup module finds a second motion vector, which gives a minimum pixel intensity error for the plurality of pixels in the first image block according to the first centroid, the first motion vector, the location, the first weight and the second weight. A processing module sequentially calculates a plurality of predictive intensity values according to the motion vectors and the weights.
US08576912B2
An encoding apparatus having a direct mode as a prediction mode, when a pixel with opposite parity from a top field to a bottom field, for example, is referred to for obtaining a reference vector in the direct mode, performs correction by adding or subtracting a value corresponding to a half pixel to or from a value of the obtained reference vector. The encoding apparatus, when a pixel with opposite parity is referred to for obtaining a first and a second direct vector by temporally scaling the corrected reference vector, performs correction by adding or subtracting a value corresponding to a half pixel to or from values of the obtained direct vectors.
US08576909B2
A system and method for monitoring a sequence of video packets for quantifying video quality includes a video picture monitor that accesses data in a header of a video packet included in the sequence of video packets. The header is separate from video content stored in the video packet. The video picture monitor also determines from the accessed data, a relationship between a portion of a picture included in the video packet and at least a portion of a picture included in another video packet. Both video packets are included in the sequence of video packets. This relationship indicates whether to use the video content stored in the first video packet to quantify video quality.
US08576907B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs for improved quality video compression. Image quality from MPEG-style video coding may be improved by preserving a higher number of bits during intermediate encoding and decoding processing steps. Problems of inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) mismatch can be eliminated by exactly matching the IDCT function numerical algorithm of the decoder to the IDCT function numerical algorithm used for the decoding portion of the encoder. Also included is an application of high precision compression to wide dynamic range images by extending the range of the “quantization parameter” or “QP”. The extension of QP may be accomplished either by increasing the range of QP directly, or indirectly through a non-linear transformation. Also included is an application of extended intermediate processing precision and an extended QP range to reduced contrast regions of an image to extend the precision with which the low-contrast portions are compression coded.
US08576905B2
A central decoding controller and a central decoder controlling method are disclosed. A video stream is processed and transmitted via at least two parallel channels. The method comprises steps of: receiving a video key frame obtained by decoding an original video frame via a first channel, and a plurality of intra-description frames neighboring the video key frame; receiving a predictive video frame obtained by processing a prediction analysis and an error correction to the original video frame via a second channel parallel to the first channel; receiving a plurality of inter-description frames via the second channel, the inter-description frames neighboring the video key frame; calculating correlation of the video key frame, the intra-description frames, and the inter-description frames; and selecting the video key frame or the predictive video frame as an output frame according to the correlation result. The method can improve video quality under wireless transmission or unstable internet transmission.
US08576898B2
Systems and methods for controlling transmission of signals are described. A camera-side modem is configured to receive two signals from a video camera and to extract a received passband signal from a transmission line. A detector in the camera-side modem generates an enable signal when the received passband signal is identified. The enable signal is used to control transmission of at least one of the baseband video signal and the passband video signal. The passband signal may be identified by an estimate of mean square error in a quadrature amplitude demodulator, a measurement of reliability provided by a constellation detector, a measurement of reliability based on a sequence of frame synchronizations and/or an estimate of mean square error in an equalizer. The detector may monitor a gain factor in an automatic gain control module of the camera-side modem and/or a magnitude of the received passband signal.
US08576896B2
Implementations of improved OSTC decoding are disclosed where received channel output corresponding to a partial OSTC codeword may be used to generate estimated channel output, and where the received channel output and the estimated channel output may be used to reconstruct the OSTC codeword.
US08576883B2
A system and method of synchronizing clocks in a distributed network is disclosed. A simple 1-pulse-per-second timing pulse is routed to time-stamping units in each network device and utilized to measure traffic-dependent synchronization packet residence delays within network elements. Synchronization messages are updated to reflect the measured residence times, thus creating transparent clocks that can readily be synchronized across the network. The simple timing pulse architecture allows the method to be applied readily both to new designs and to retrofit existing hardware.
US08576882B2
A method and system for wireless communication in which a plurality of media access control (“MAC”) packet data units (“PDUs”) corresponding to a plurality of wireless communication connections are received. The plurality of MAC PDUs is grouped into a relay packet and the relay packet is transmitted. Such grouping and transmission of the relay packet is performed by one or more relay nodes. The traffic control for the transmission can also be based on centralized or decentralized routing control and/or centralized or decentralized QoS control.
US08576879B2
A communication system for transmitting data, for example, within a System-in-Package. The system includes a first circuit configured for: a) dividing the data into a plurality of packets having a determined size; and b) creating for each of the packets a transmission segment including a segment header and the respective packet as payload. The system also includes a second circuit configured for: a) separating the transmission segments into a plurality of physical units, where the physical units have a determined size; and b) transmitting the physical units over a physical communication channel. In particular, the segment header includes at least one field that identifies the number of physical units that are to be transmitted.
US08576873B2
A system and method for discovering channel impediments for Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications. Cabling power loss in PoE applications is related to the resistance of the cable itself. A PHY can be designed to measure electrical characteristics (e.g., insertion loss, cross talk, length, discontinuities, etc.) of the Ethernet cable to enable determination of the cable resistance. The determined resistance can be used in powering decisions and in adjusting power budgets allocated to power source equipment ports.
US08576869B2
A method, and associated apparatus and system, for simultaneous cell group and cyclic prefix (CP) detection, having the steps of determining primary synchronization signal (P-SyS) timing τ using the P-SyS; based on τ, determine a secondary synchronization signal (S-SyS) timing; placing a single Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) window; FFT processing the signal to obtain the frequency domain S-SyS symbols; equalizing the frequency domain S-SyS signal; phase correcting the S-SyS signal; and detecting the cell group and CP length by the correlation giving maximum energy.
US08576845B2
Method and apparatus for controlling transmission of data packets in a packet-switched network. When a first end-host (A) sends an address query to a DNS system (300) for a second end-host, the DNS system responds by providing a sender key created from a destination key registered for the second end-host, if the first end-host is authorized to send packets to the second end-host. Thereby, the first end-host, if authorized, is able to get across data packets to the second end-host by attaching a sender tag (TAG) generated from the sender key, as ingress tag to each transmitted data packet. A router (302) in the network matches an ingress tag in a received packet with entries in a forwarding table and sends out the packet on an output port (X) according to a matching entry. Otherwise, the router discards the packet if no matching entry is found in the table.
US08576844B1
Layer two (L2) forwarding of multicast traffic between routers of a Virtual Private local area network (LAN) Service (VPLS) domain is described. For example, the techniques allow multicast traffic to generally be forwarded between VPLS routers based on L2 information only, without requiring the routers to examine any layer three (L3) information carried by the multicast traffic for forwarding the multicast traffic. A router dynamically learns a mapping between a multicast source device and an L2 address of a router that introduces multicast traffic into the VPLS domain from the multicast source device. The router installs forwarding information based on the mapping that specifies the L2 address of the router that introduces the multicast traffic, and an L2 multicast group address of the multicast group, and forwards multicast traffic for the multicast group based on the forwarding information without reference to any L3 information of the multicast traffic.
US08576843B2
A method is provided for transmitting a packet including information describing a bus transaction to be executed at a remote device. A bus transaction is detected on a first bus and a network packet is generated for transmission over a network. The network packet includes an opcode describing the type of bus transaction. One or more control signals of the bus transaction map directly to one or more bits of the opcode to simplify decoding or converting of the bus transaction to the opcode. The packet is transmitted to a remote device and the bus transaction is then replayed at a second bus. In addition, the packet includes a data field having a size that is a multiple of a cache line size. The packet includes separate CRCs for the data and header. The packet also includes a transaction ID to support split transactions over the network. Also, fields in the packet header are provided in a particular order to improve switching efficiency.
US08576842B2
A system, and related methodology, are provided that are configured to receive, at a first network element such as a Universal Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulator (UEQAM), multiple channels of data delivered as respective streams of packets, form a packet switched communication frame including a sub-layer header, encapsulate packets from the respective multiple channels into a payload field of the packet switched communication frame, identify the packets encapsulated in the payload field with respective tags in the sub-layer header, and transmit the packet switched communication frame to a second network element such as a Downstream Physical (DS-PHY) entity where the individual packets are recovered and mapped to selected respective stream processing resources based on respective tags.
US08576841B2
In general, techniques are described for encoding port ranges. In one example, a method includes generating an encoded value that represents a specified port range including a first element storing an identifier that identifies a frequently occurring port range stored in an associative data structure of most frequently occurring port ranges, a second element storing an index that represents a dynamically-learned port range specifying at least a part of the specified port range, the dynamically-learned port range represented in a tree-structure of dynamically-learned port ranges and identified by the index, and applying, by a forwarding plane of the computing device, one or more filters associated with the encoded value to a packet that specifies a port included in the specified port range.
US08576831B2
A radio device, which is the source, transmits a route request packet (RREQ) to a radio device. In response to the route request packet (RREQ), the radio device transmits to the radio device a route setup packet (RSET) including a route Radio Device Radio Device Radio Device Radio Device by looking-up topology information (TPIF). In response to the route setup packet (RSET), the radio device produces a route notification packet (RNTF) and transmits the produced route notification packet (RNTF) to radio devices, and. In response to the route notification packet (RNTF), the radio device, which is the destination, produces a route reply packet (RREP) and transmits the produced route reply packet (RREP) to the radio device, which is the source.
US08576829B2
A wireless network has at least one wireless unit which transmits messages in multiple channels. The messages are synchronously transmitted using a transmit clock signal. The at least one wireless unit starting transmission of the messages at intervals consisting of at least one of one or multiple periods of the transmit clock signal. A plurality of location receivers are used for receiving the messages at different channels transmitted by the wireless units within the wireless network and determining a time of arrival for the received messages. At least one master unit is used for receiving the time of arrival from each of the location units. The location of the wireless unit is to be determined on the Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) of the transmitted messages at the location units.
US08576814B2
The access point used in the wireless LAN system acquires, from a network, an IP address of a management device that holds a list of wireless LAN control devices to each of which the access point can be subordinate, in response to an event start input, acquires the list from the management device via the network by using the IP address of the management device, and accesses at least one of the wireless LAN control devices registered in the list via the network and determines a wireless LAN control device to which the access point should be subordinate, based on a response sent from the at least one of the wireless LAN control devices.
US08576811B2
Techniques are provided for reliably distributing network management information in and ad hoc multi-hop wireless network which includes a number of existing nodes. A first node selects a particular timeslot in a dedicated channel based on the network management information received from the neighbor nodes and determines, via a contention channel, if the particular timeslot is being used by any neighbor nodes of the first node. If the particular timeslot is determined to be unused, then it is assigned to the first node for periodically transmitting network management information.
US08576810B2
a method and apparatus for detecting a secondary synchronization signal, the method including: calculating a channel estimation compensation value of each sub-carrier of a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) symbol in different Cyclic Prefix (CP) modes; obtaining-a coherent accumulative results of even half frames and odd half frames of each sub-carrier according to the channel estimation compensation value of each sub-carrier of said SSS symbol; generating a SSS sequence; obtaining an index of the SSS sequence corresponding to an over-threshold value of a first round detection, determining indexes composed of the SSS sequence used in a second round detection according to said index, using coherent accumulative results of all the sub-carriers in the even and odd half frames and SSS sequences of all the sub-carriers to obtain an over-threshold value of the second round detection; and obtaining a CP mode, and calculating a cell ID and a radio frame boundary.
US08576795B2
Systems and methods for switching among heterogeneous networks and inter-working between a source access system and a target access system. An inter-system handoff control component can facilitate setting an IP tunneling by the mobile unit, wherein IP addresses for inter-working security gateway and Radio Access Network of the target access system can be identified. The inter-system handoff control component can then implement tunneling between the source system and the target system, wherein signaling/packeting associated with the target system can be transferred over the source system.
US08576782B2
Baseband recovery in wireless networks, base transceiver stations, and wireless networking devices may be implemented to minimize the number of timing symbols while at the same time enabling wireless devices to use a relatively low per-symbol sampling rate, so that minimal processing is required to implement the timing recovery. In one embodiment, a relatively low number of samples is taken per expected symbol interval during the training sequence. A subset of the samples is selected and processed to determine error signals for each of the samples. The error signals are multiplied by the expected symbol and summed to form an error signal. The error signal is used to adjust the set of samples that will be used and processed in connection with subsequent symbols. The error signal is also used to interpolate between available samples to infinitesimally approach the point of maximum eye opening.
US08576776B2
A method and apparatus reduce overhead of feedback in a closed loop Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system. A controller feeds back the long-term Precoder Matrix Index (PMI) to a serving base station under direction of the serving base station when the long term PMI feedback transmission is required, generates a new codebook using the long term PMI, and determines a short term PMI from the new codebook. A feedback transmitter feeds back the short-term PMI to the serving base station.
US08576772B2
A cooperative cluster of wireless nodes exchange data before cooperatively communicating with a destination node over a MIMO channel. In a cooperative cluster of M nodes, each node shares 1/M of its own data with each of the other nodes, and keeps 1/M of its own data for transmission. Each node receives 1/M of data from each cooperative node. The data is merged at each cooperative node, and transmitted to the destination node.
US08576771B2
A method of reporting received signal quality to a transmitter includes measuring a received signal quality in a receiver, and selectively performing the steps of reporting the received signal quality to the transmitter, and reporting a selected modulation and coding scheme to the transmitter.
US08576768B2
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and method for processing wireless signals received from one or more communications systems. In a particular implementation, one or more signals received from one or more communication systems such as a GNSS may be processed in two or more separate wireless signal receiver paths and combined in baseband to share one analog-to-digital converter.
US08576766B2
A relay node is operated in a communication system wherein the relay node communicates with a communication system node via a first link and communicates with user equipment (UE) via a second link. The relay node detects whether a collision between its own uplink transmission on the first link and receipt of the user's transmission on the second link at a future time instant is expected to occur, wherein the collision will interfere with the relay node's ability to receive the UE's transmission. If so, then, the relay node selects and executes one of a plurality of interference averting measures, selection being based at least in part on what type of information is expected to be transmitted and received on the respective first and second links. First and second interference averting measures comprise refraining from or proceeding with transmission of some information to the communication system node.
US08576764B2
A communication apparatus includes an input unit that inputs names of repeater stations to which the local communication apparatus and a communication counterpart belong respectively, a memory storing identification information of each repeater station, and information needed to set a communication path from the repeater station to another repeater station as communication path setting information associated with the name of the repeater station, an information retrieving section that retrieves identification information of the repeater station, and information needed to set a communication path to another repeater station from the associated information stored in the memory based on the input name of the repeater station, and a communication frame generating section that generates a communication frame including the identification information of the repeater station, and the information needed to set the communication path from the repeater station to which the local communication apparatus belongs to the repeater station of the communication counterpart from a result of the information retrieval.
US08576757B2
Techniques for dynamically determining a target setup time based on paging performance are described. A UE in an idle mode may be assigned paging occasions, which are specific time intervals in which the UE might receive paging messages. The UE may wake up a setup time prior to each paging occasion, perform setup tasks, detect for a paging indicator, and possibly receive a paging message. The UE may dynamically determine a target setup time for each awake interval based on paging performance. The target setup time may be (i) decreased by a down step if the paging performance is better than a first threshold or (ii) increased by an up step if the paging performance is worse than a second threshold. The target setup time may be updated in each fixed update period or whenever the paging performance is outside the first and second thresholds.
US08576756B2
A technique for transmitting an object to a mobile device is provided. In response to the mobile device moving from a first area serviced by a first cache to a second area serviced by a second cache, the first cache transmits the object stored in the first cache to the second cache. The first cache transmits instructions to the second cache that cause the second cache to forward the object to the mobile device in the second area.
US08576748B2
A wireless communication terminal comprises a trigger receiving unit, a participation request receiving unit, and a connection setup unit. The trigger receiving unit receives a predetermined trigger. The participation request receiving unit receives requests to participate in a wireless network from an external terminal which does not participate in the wireless network in which the wireless communication terminal has participated, using wireless communication. The connection setup unit makes each of participation requests received by the participation request receiving unit from a plurality of external terminals correspond to one trigger received by the trigger receiving unit. The connection setup unit performs a connection setup which makes each of the plurality of external terminals participate in the wireless network in response to each of the participation requests, in the order in which the participation requests are received.
US08576746B2
A sensor node identification method by a first component of a first layer in a hierarchical sensor network includes: receiving a sensing request including sensor node identification information from a second component of a second layer prior to the first layer; modifying the sensor node identification information by removing an identifier of the first layer from the sensor node identification information when an identifier of the first layer matches an identifier of the first component among the sensor node identification information; and transmitting a sensing request including the modified sensor node identification information to a third component of a third layer subsequent to the first layer.
US08576734B2
The present invention provides an information processing apparatus that, during data communication with a plurality of external apparatus, maintains the accuracy of the data communication and reduces the power consumed in the data communication, and a control method thereof. To accomplish this, the information processing apparatus sets a communication rate of data communication with a plurality of communicatively connected external apparatus, and measures a receiving interval between data packets received in the data communication with the external apparatus. Furthermore, the information processing apparatus determines whether or not the measured receiving interval exceeds a predetermined threshold. If the interval exceeds the predetermined threshold, the information processing apparatus maintains the currently set communication rate. If the interval does not exceed the predetermined threshold, the information processing apparatus changes the currently set communication rate to a faster communication rate.
US08576732B2
Piggybacked acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (PAN) bits in unreliable bit positions of a modulated symbol are swapped with data bits located in more reliable bit positions. In addition, a power offset value may be applied to the symbols containing the PAN bits.
US08576715B2
A method for communication includes routing a first packet, which belongs to a given packet flow, over a first routing path through a communication network. A second packet, which follows the first packet in the given packet flow, is routed using a time-bounded Adaptive Routing (AR) mode, by evaluating a time gap between the first and second packets, routing the second packet over the first routing path if the time gap does not exceed a predefined threshold, and, if the time gap exceeds the predefined threshold, selecting a second routing path through the communication network that is potentially different from the first routing path, and routing the second packet over the second routing path.
US08576710B2
Methods and systems for processing data requests in a client-server computing environment, such as the Web, are disclosed. A client device initially transmits a data request to a randomly selected first server device. The first server device may reject the data request if its request queue threshold is exceeded. The client device retransmits the data request, including the request queue threshold, to a randomly selected second server device. The second server device may reject the data request if the request queue threshold of the first server device is smaller than a request queue threshold of the second server device. The client device transmits the data request back to the first server device, including the request queue threshold of the second server device. The first server device processes the data request and adjusts its request queue threshold based on the request queue thresholds of the first and second server devices.
US08576704B2
A communication system includes communication devices that are connected with one another in a ring via a serial link. In the communication system, one communication device issues a standby packet for causing each communication device connected to a part of the link that is not involved with data transfer to switch to standby mode. Each communication device connected to this part of the link relays the standby packet from an immediately preceding communication device in the link to an immediately succeeding communication device in the link, and after relaying the standby packet, causes the own device to switch to standby mode. Further, a communication device that performs communication with said one communication device issues a loopback packet for causing each communication device connected to a part of the link that is involved with data transfer to switch to loopback mode. Each communication device connected to this part of the link relays the loopback packet from an immediately preceding communication device in the link to an immediately succeeding communication device in the link, and after relaying the loopback packet, causes the own device to switch to loopback mode.
US08576698B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related system and machine-readable medium including one or more of the following: receiving, at the MEP, a connectivity fault management (CFM) message; determining whether the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor; and when the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using the new value as the timeout factor. One or more of the following may also be included: when the CFM message does not include an indication specifying a new timeout factor, using a default value as the timeout factor; determining a timeout period using at least the timeout factor; determining whether the timeout period has elapsed since a most recent CFM message was received; and when the timeout period has elapsed since the last CFM message was received, determining that a timeout has occurred.
US08576696B2
A mobile multimedia broadcast transmission system is provided, which comprises: a Reed-Solomon (RS) coding and byte interleaving unit, a Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coder, a bit interleaver, a constellation mapping unit, a frequency domain symbol generator, a scrambler, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) unit, a time domain framing unit, and a transmitter. According to the technical solutions provided in the present invention, the system can provide high-quality mobile multimedia services for users in a 6 MHz operation bandwidth. Furthermore, an optimized selection is performed on RS coding according to the operation bandwidth of the system, thereby selecting an appropriate coding mode according to different channel conditions. Accordingly, the byte interleaver is optimized, such that suitable interleaving parameters can be used to perform byte interleaving. With the technical solutions provided in the present invention, the continuous pilots, the discrete pilots and the digital sub-carriers of the system can be suitably configured and allocated according to the actual bandwidth of the system, thereby suitably configuring the system overhead of the mobile multimedia broadcast transmission system to efficiently utilize spectral resources for data transmission.
US08576693B2
Systems and methods for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing are provided. In one embodiment, a multi-carrier modem comprises: a transmitter configured to modulate symbols onto at least one of a plurality of the spectrally overlapping carrier signals; a processor coupled to the transmitter, wherein the processor outputs data for transmission by the transmitter, wherein the processor applies an inverse Fourier transform to the data transmitted by the transmitter; the processor modulating a first carrier of the plurality of spectrally overlapping carrier signals based on a first modulation scheme while modulating a second carrier of the plurality of spectrally overlapping carrier signals based on a second modulation scheme.
US08576692B2
Techniques for transmitting UE-specific reference signals (UE-RSs) in a wireless network are described. In an aspect, a UE-RS may be transmitted in different manners depending on the number of layers used for data transmission. In one design, a cell may determine subcarriers for a UE-RS based on a frequency shift if data is transmitted on one layer and based on a predetermined set of subcarriers (with no frequency shift) if data is transmitted on multiple layers. In another aspect, a UE-RS may be transmitted on subcarriers determined based on a frequency shift for data transmission on multiple layers. In yet another aspect, a UE-RS may be transmitted from a plurality of cells to a UE for coordinated multi-point (CoMP). In yet another aspect, a UE-RS may be transmitted in a data section of a subframe including only the data section.
US08576691B2
A method and apparatus for crosstalk channel estimation based on a measured signal-to-noise (SNR) of a loaded line. The method for channel estimation includes: loading, on a newly added line K, a combination of K-1 signals sent on lines 1 to K-1; obtaining a measured SNR of the line K loaded with the combination of the K-1 signals sent on the lines 1 to K-1; and calculating crosstalk channels of the line K according to K-1 coefficients of the K-1 signals sent on the lines 1 to K-1 and the measured SNR. Embodiments of the present invention may be used for relevant network communications systems such as xDSL systems.
US08576690B2
In accordance with one embodiment, a method is implemented in a vectored system for improving a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a far end transmitted signal on a victim line in the system. The method comprises mitigating, by the vectored system, self-induced far-end crosstalk (self-FEXT) on the victim line based on self-FEXT mitigation coefficients and receiving, by a second sensor, information relating to at least one of: self-FEXT of the vectored system, external noise, and the far end transmitted signal. The method further comprises learning, at the second sensor, coefficients relating to self-FEXT coupling into the second sensor and removing self-FEXT from the second sensor based on the learned coefficients. Upon removal of self-FEXT from the second sensor, a linear combiner configured to combine information relating to the victim line and the second line is learned. The method further comprises applying the learned linear combiner and readjusting the self-FEXT mitigation coefficients to remove any residual self-FEXT on the victim line after application of the learned linear combiner.
US08576687B1
The invention relates to tonearm tracking mechanisms in phonograph players and mechanical devices constructed for the purpose of reproducing or playing back recorded audio material previously impressed, in the form or grooves, onto a surface of a disk, which are commonly called phonograph players or turntables. Such disk is commonly called, among other similar words, a phonograph record or a vinyl disk. The present invention is a tangential tracking tonearm mechanism, wherein the tonearm bearing subassembly has two rotary bearings in the lateral plane and a coupling linkage built into a compact subassembly. The collective contribution of these elements, when properly configured and appropriately adjusted, make, during playback of audio material on a disk, reduced playback distortion over radial tracking mechanisms and closely mimics the conditions under which nearly all masters are made.
US08576681B2
An optical information recording medium includes a recording layer in which a track is formed, the track having recording marks linearly arranged thereon. Each recording mark has a dimension corresponding to a reference mark length, which serves as a reference, in a track direction along which the track extends, the dimension being smaller than dimensions of the recording mark in two directions perpendicular to the track direction.
US08576680B2
According to one embodiment, a circuit for generating a signal has an amplifier, first and second detection circuits, first and second A/D converters, and a digital signal processing circuit. The amplifier amplifies an electric signal corresponding to an intensity of a reflected light from an optical disc. The first detection circuit detects an upper envelope of an output signal from the amplifier, and outputs an upper envelope signal. The second detection circuit detects a lower envelope of an output signal from the amplifier, and outputs a lower envelope signal. The first A/D converter converts the upper envelope signal into a first digital signal. The second A/D converter converts the lower envelope signal into a first digital signal. The digital signal processing circuit performs calculation processing of the first and the second digital signals, and outputs a signal for controlling reproduction of data recorded on the optical disc.
US08576676B2
A flexible cable is provided. The flexible cable includes a base film having a band shape, a plurality of wiring layers disposed on the base film and extending in one direction, and a plurality of elasticity-adjusting patterns attached to a portion of the base film and partially adjusting the elasticity of the flexible cable.
US08576674B2
A plasmon generator configured to excite a surface plasmon based on light includes a first portion formed of a first metal material and a second portion formed of a second metal material different from the first metal material. The plasmon generator has a front end face. The front end face includes a near-field light generating part that generates near-field light based on the surface plasmon. The second portion includes an end face located in the front end face. The second metal material satisfies at least one of the following requirements: a lower ionization tendency than that of the first metal material; a lower electrical conductivity than that of the first metal material; and a higher Vickers hardness than that of the first metal material.
US08576672B1
A layer configured for use in a magnetic stack has electrical resistivity greater than about 5×10−8 Ωm and thermal conductivity greater than about 1 W/mK. In some arrangements, the magnetic stack includes a substrate with the layer disposed over the substrate, a magnetic recording layer disposed over the layer, and a thermal resist layer disposed between the layer and the magnetic recording layer. In some arrangements, the layer is configured to function as a heat sink and a soft under layer. A system that incorporates the layer can include a magnetic write pole, a near field transducer (NFT) positioned proximate the write pole that radiates energy.
US08576670B2
An electronic timepiece has a function for receiving satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites for capturable positioning information based on the received satellite signal and a positioning calculation unit that generates positioning information. A time information adjustment unit corrects the internal time information based on the time difference in the assumed positioning region when the time difference evaluation unit determines that the assumed positioning does not contain a time difference boundary. The positioning calculation unit reselects the specific number of positioning information satellites and continues the positioning calculation when the time difference evaluation unit determines that the assumed positioning region contains a time difference boundary. The reception unit terminates satellite signal reception when the time difference evaluation unit determines that the assumed positioning region does not contain a time difference boundary.
US08576663B2
A method for seismic inversion of vertical seismic profile (VSP) data in an oilfield. The method includes obtaining an initial velocity model of a subterranean formation including acoustic velocities of wave propagation in proximity to the wellbore, determining an acquisition geometry for obtaining the VSP data including receiver locations within the wellbore and a source location, performing a seismic survey to obtain the VSP data based on the acquisition geometry, analyzing arrival signals of the VSP data to generate transit time data for wave propagation from the source location to the receiver locations, modifying the initial velocity model to generate an updated velocity model by performing a tomographic inversion of the transit time data, generating an elastic model of the subterranean formation by performing the seismic inversion of the VSP data using the updated velocity model, and adjusting the operations of the oilfield based on the elastic model.
US08576660B2
An ultrasonic imaging method is provided. A wideband acoustic pulse is fired at a wall. A wideband response signal is received. The wideband response signal is processed to select an impedance measurement frequency. A wavelet having a characteristic frequency approximately equal to the impedance measurement frequency is fired. A wavelet response signal is received. A reflection coefficient is determined from the wavelet response signal. An impedance measurement is calculated from the reflection coefficient. Related tools and systems are also disclosed.
US08576644B2
A memory device using error correcting code and a system including the same are provided. The memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of bit lines and a plurality of memory cells; an access block for accessing the memory cell array; and a controller block for receiving a first operation command signal, dividing the first operation command signal into at least two paths pulse signals corresponding to at least two paths, based on a pre-determined criterion, and then supplying the at least two path pulse signals to the access block. The access block operates based on an output signal of the controller block.
US08576643B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit has a central processing unit and a rewritable nonvolatile memory area disposed in an address space of the central processing unit. The nonvolatile memory area has a first nonvolatile memory area and a second nonvolatile memory area, which memorize information depending on the difference of threshold voltages. The first nonvolatile memory area has a maximum variation width of a threshold voltage for memorizing an information set larger than that of the second nonvolatile memory area. The first nonvolatile memory area can be prioritized to expedite a read speed of the memory information, and the second nonvolatile memory area can be prioritized to guarantee the number of times of rewrite operation of memory information.
US08576623B2
A non-volatile semiconductor storage device according to one embodiment includes a memory cell array that has NAND cell units in which a plurality of memory cells are connected in series, the control gate of each of the plurality of memory cells being connected to a word line, and a control circuit configured to execute a write operation by applying a write voltage to the word line. The control circuit is configured to execute a correction write operation accompanied by the write operation and executed on a selected memory cell, when a threshold voltage of data written in a reference memory cell is an erase level, the reference memory cell being the memory cell adjacent to the selected memory cell and in which the data is written after the write operation on the selected memory cell.
US08576617B2
A method of establishing a reference level includes providing first and second non-overlapping paths from a first node to a second node, providing first and second reference magnetic random access memory (MRAM) elements in the first path, providing third and fourth reference MRAM elements in the second path, measuring a first value indicative of a resistance between the first node and the second node, and setting the reference level based at least in part on the measured value. Also an associated reference circuit.
US08576614B2
A tunnel transistor is provided including a drain, a source and at least a first gate for controlling current between the drain and the source, wherein the first sides of respectively the first and the second gate dielectric material are positioned substantially along and substantially contact respectively the first and the second semiconductor part.
US08576611B2
Some embodiments regard a memory array comprising: a plurality of memory cells arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns; wherein a column of the plurality of columns includes a column ground node; at least two voltage sources configured to be selectively coupled to the column ground node; and a plurality of memory cells having a plurality of internal ground nodes electrically coupled together and to the column ground node.
US08576604B2
An embodiment of semiconductor device including a control unit and an FRAM storage unit is disclosed. The FRAM storage unit contains FRAM cells. The control unit includes a predetermined test data pattern. The control unit is configured to read the FRAM cells that contain a test data pattern in a margin-mode, compare the read out bit information with the test data pattern to determine whether a bit error is present in the dedicated FRAM cells. When a bit error is present, the control unit is configured to read-out the complete FRAM storage unit in a recovery-mode and refresh all FRAM cells of the FRAM storage unit by writing back the read out bit information to the respective FRAM cells. In the margin-mode, the read operation is performed using a lower read-sensitivity compared to the read operation reading out the complete FRAM storage unit that is performed in the recovery-mode.
US08576594B2
An AC-DC power converter has a phase-shifting autotransformer based rectifiers and DC capacitors. Soft start of the AC-DC power converter is achieved by designing the autotransformer to operate at a low peak flux density at a point of AC voltage step application (initial turn on). The addition of a controlled impedance segregates capacitor charging from the initial magnetizing process of the autotransformer.
US08576589B2
A power supply system and method includes a switch state controller that is operational to control a switching power converter during certain power loss conditions that cause conventional switch state controllers to have diminished or no functionality. In at least one embodiment, during certain power loss conditions, such as when an auxiliary power supply is in standby mode or when the switching power converter is not operating, a power supply for the switch state controller does not provide sufficient operating power to the switch state controller during certain power loss conditions. In at least one embodiment, during such power loss conditions power is generated for the switch state controller using sense input and/or sense output currents of the switching power converter to allow an integrated circuit (IC) switch state controller to generate a control signal to control a switch of the switching power converter.
US08576573B2
A controller includes: a circuit board; a retaining member; a bus bar that has an embedded portion embedded in and retained by the retaining member and an exposed portion that is exposed from the retaining member and that is electrically connected to the circuit board; and an electrical element that has a terminal connected to the exposed portion. The bus bar is formed in such a manner that a metal plate of which an outer surface is plated with a plating layer is cut along a predetermined cutting plane. The cutting plane at the exposed portion has a parallel portion that is arranged substantially parallel to a principal surface of the circuit board. The parallel portion and the terminal are joined to each other.
US08576571B2
A power bank assembly includes a housing, a power bank casing, a clasp structure, and a fastening structure. The clasp structure is correspondingly formed on a first end of the housing and a first end of the power bank casing to enable the first end of the housing to engage with the first end of the power bank casing, and the clasp structure also allows the housing to rotate relative to the power bank casing and about the first end of the housing serving as a pivot. The fastening structure is correspondingly formed on the second end of the housing and the second end of the power bank casing, and the fastening structure secures the housing to the power bank casing when the second end of the housing touches the second end of the power bank casing.
US08576568B2
A sliding apparatus includes a sliding member fixed to a first end of a server module, an elongated sleeve shaped first slide rail, and an elongated pole shaped second slide rail. The sliding member includes a first holding portion and a second holding portion each defining a mounting hole. The second slide rail is slidably retained in the mounting holes of the first and second holding portions. A first end of the first slide rail is fixed to a rack. A latch member is fixed to the sliding member for latch the rack. A first end of the second slide rail is slidably received in a second end of the first slide rail. A second end of the second slide rail is fixed to a second end of the server module.
US08576565B2
A cooling structure (10A) for an electronic device includes: a housing provided with an air inlet and an air outlet; a fan; and a circuit board (2) disposed in the housing. A heat generating component (3) is mounted on one surface of the circuit board (2). A heat release member (4) having fins (45) and a heat transfer plate (41) is disposed between the one surface of the circuit board (2) and an opposite wall (12) of the housing. The heat release member (4) extends, in an arrangement direction of the fins (45), beyond both sides of the heat generating component (3). For example, in an intermediate zone, a resistant layer (8) for suppressing heat transfer from the fins (45) to the opposite wall (12) is formed between the opposite wall (12) and the fins (45).
US08576555B2
An electronic device includes a display unit that includes a flexible display element which displays an image on a front surface thereof, and a member which is placed facing a rear surface opposite to the front surface of the flexible display element, in which the member applies tension to the flexible display element when the flexible display element is unfurled.
US08576546B2
An apparatus includes a housing portion comprising a back panel, side panels, and a front panel, the back panel and side panels partially defining a cavity having an access orifice, the side panels partially defining an entry area to the access orifice, the front panel arranged to at least partially obscure the entry area to the access orifice and pivot about an axis of rotation, and a first switch disposed in the cavity including a first contact portion secured to the housing portion, and a removable contact portion connected to the front panel.
US08576543B2
A solid electrolytic capacitor a solid electrolytic capacitor that includes an anode body, a dielectric overlying the anode body, and a solid electrolyte overlying the dielectric is provided. The capacitor also comprises a conductive polymer coating that overlies the solid electrolyte and includes nanoparticles formed from a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) quaternary onium salt.
US08576542B2
A structural electrochemical capacitor that includes at least one pair of electrodes and a solid electrolytic material disposed between the electrodes which, taken collectively, have sufficient mechanical strength to allow the electrochemical capacitor to be used as a structural component of an article of manufacture is described. The present invention also describes a method of capacitively storing electrical energy and conserving mass and/or volume in a device that includes the steps of: fabricating portions of the structure of a device with high-strength structural electrochemical capacitor that includes at least one pair of electrodes and a body of solid electrolytic material disposed between said electrodes wherein the body of solid electrolytic material accounts for a majority of the mass of a structural element or a majority of the volume of a structural element in the device.
US08576541B2
An electrolyte system having a conductive salt dispersed in a solvent mixture, the solvent mixture having an organic nitrile solvent and a co-solvent. The concentration of the conductive salt in the electrolyte system is 1.25 molar to 3.0 molar.
US08576534B2
Disclosed is an electronic magnetic contactor, the contactor including: an operation power supply unit inputting an operation power; an electronic switch driving unit receiving a power from the operation power supply unit to drive a power supply of a load; a switching unit switched by a pulse signal to drive the electronic switch driving unit; an operation state determination unit determining whether the electronic magnetic contactor is in an opened state or in a closed state; an input voltage sensing unit sensing an amplitude of an input voltage supplied from the operation power supply unit; and an input signal generation unit generating an input signal for determining whether the electronic magnetic contactor is inputted based on determined state by the operation state determination unit and the sensed amplitude by the input voltage sensing unit.
US08576533B2
A discharge gap device includes a first discharge pattern connected to a first wiring pattern and a second discharge pattern connected to a second wiring pattern which is electrically insulated from the first wiring pattern and the first discharge pattern, the second discharge pattern projecting from the second wiring pattern. The first and second discharge patterns are opposed to each other, and a gap between the first discharge pattern and the second discharge pattern is set to a predetermined interval, so that the discharge gap device discharges a lightning surge or static electricity from the gap. The first discharge pattern includes a first side face which confronts the second discharge pattern, the second discharge pattern includes a second side face which confronts the first side face, and the first side face and the second side face are arranged in parallel.
US08576528B2
A matrix converter includes a plurality of semiconductor switch modules, and a plurality of snubber modules each having a plurality of capacitors and a plurality of diodes. Each of the snubber modules has a terminal group projecting outward, a first terminal, and a second terminal. The first and second terminals project from positions different from the terminal group, and are connected to an external circuit provided outside the matrix converter. Terminals of the terminal group are connected to terminals of a corresponding semiconductor switch module. The first terminals of the plurality of snubber modules are connected to one another via a first bus bar, and the second terminals are connected to one another via a second bus bar.
US08576526B2
Aspects of the invention provide an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with reduced current leakage, and a related method. In one embodiment, an ESD protection device for an integrated circuit (IC) is provided. The ESD protection device includes: a resistor-capacitor (RC) timing circuit for selectively turning on the ESD protection device during an ESD event; a trigger circuit for receiving an output of the RC timing circuit and generating a trigger pulse for driving at least one of: a first ESD clamp and a second ESD clamp; and a selection circuit for selecting one of: the trigger circuit or a charge pump for controlling the second ESD clamp.
US08576511B1
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk comprising a plurality of physical zones including a first physical zone and a second physical zone, wherein the first physical zone comprises data tracks recorded at a first data rate and the second physical zone comprises data tracks recorded at a second data rate different than the first data rate. A write command is received including data and at least one logical block address (LBA). One of the first and second physical zones is selected based on a power parameter affecting a power consumption of the disk drive, and the data is written to a data sector in the selected physical zone. A physical block address (PBA) is assigned to the data sector, and an LBA to PBA map is updated for the written data.
US08576505B2
Disclosed is a method of storing data on a tape medium in at least one data recording session employing a tape drive apparatus operable to record the data in accordance with a format specifying an unused area of the tape medium. The method comprises formatting the tape medium according to the format, and recording a tape medium identifier in the specified unused area of the tape medium.
US08576502B2
A miniaturized lens assembly includes a first lens, a stop, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens and a fifth lens, all of which are arranged in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. The first lens is made of plastic material, is a meniscus lens with negative refractive power, and includes a convex surface facing the object side. The second lens is made of plastic material and is a biconvex lens with positive refractive power. The third lens is made of glass material and is a biconvex lens with positive refractive power. The fourth lens is made of glass material, is a biconcave lens with negative refractive power, and is adhered to the third lens to form a compound lens. The fifth lens is made of plastic material, is provided with positive refractive power, and includes an aspheric surface.
US08576501B2
A wide-angle optical system comprises a front lens group (11), and a rear lens group (12), with an aperture stop (13) interposed between. The front lens group (11) includes at least two negative lenses (111, 112) and at least one positive lens (113). At least one of the positive lenses included in the front lens group (11) has at least one aspherical surface. The front lens group (11) satisfies the conditional expression vdp<29 where vdp is the minimum value of the Abbe number of the positive lens(es) included in the front lens group (11).
US08576499B2
An imaging lens includes: an aperture stop; a first lens having a positive refractive power; a second lens having a negative refractive power which is formed in a concave shape on both sides thereof; a third lens having a positive refractive power which is formed in a meniscus shape in which a concave surface is directed toward the side of an object; and a fourth lens having a negative refractive power in which a convex surface is directed toward the object side, which are sequentially disposed from the object side to the image side, wherein the imaging lens satisfies the following conditional expressions (1), (2), (3) and (4): 0.40
US08576497B2
This invention provides an image capturing lens assembly in order from an object side to an image side comprising five lens elements with refractive power: a first lens element with negative refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, a second lens element with positive refractive power having a convex image-side surface, a third lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a fourth lens element with negative refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface; and a fifth lens element with positive refractive power. By such arrangement, sufficient field of view is provided, and the aberration of the lens assembly is corrected for obtaining higher image resolution.
US08576496B2
This invention provides an imaging lens system comprising two non-cemented lens elements with refractive power: a positive first lens element having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex or flat image-side surface at the paraxial region; and a negative second lens element having a concave object-side surface at a paraxial region and a concave image-side surface at a paraxial region, and both the object-side and image-side surfaces being aspheric; wherein, the shape of the image-side surface of the second lens element changes from concave when near an optical axis to convex when away from the optical axis. By such arrangement, the imaging lens system has not only a shorter total track length for compact electronic products, but also the advantage of a more comparable focusing performance between the short wavelength and long wavelength applications with improved image quality.
US08576487B2
Disclosed is a video display system comprising a spatial light modulator, such as a DMD modulator. The system uses a light source and color-wheel filter that is interposed between the light source and the spatial light modulator, the color-wheel filter being divided into primary color segments and at least one neutral density (“ND”) segment that is complementary to at least one of the primary color segments and having a transmissivity that is lower than that of its corresponding primary color segment. At the border between the ND segment and its complementary primary color segment is an area that can be referred to as an ND spoke. The video display system modulates light from this ND spoke area along with light from the other segments.
US08576483B2
Disclosed herein is a microscope, including: an illumination optical system; a first image creation optical system; a second image creation optical system; an illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section; and a characteristic-quantity computation block, wherein the illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section adjusts the image creation position for the illumination field diaphragm on the basis of the characteristic quantity computed by the characteristic-quantity computation block.
US08576479B2
Prior art techniques for converting the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation by non-linear interactions such as sum frequency generation SFG produces blurred images when applied to polychromatic images. The invention provides an improved arrangement (15) for up-converting incoming electromagnetic radiation with dissimilar first wavelengths (λ,) distributed in a first wavelength interval (Δλ,) into up-converted electromagnetic radiation comprising corresponding dissimilar up-converted wavelengths (λ3), smaller than the first wavelengths (Δ1). The arrangement applies a nonlinear crystal (5) and a laser (16) for providing a laser beam (10) of second wavelength, different from the first wavelengths (λ1) inside the nonlinear crystal, and a Fresnel zone plate (17) for focusing or converging the incoming radiation inside the nonlinear crystal in spatial overlap with the laser beam. The up-converted radiation is produced inside the non-linear crystal by sum frequency generation between the incoming radiation and the laser beam. The arrangement (15) can comprise an image forming lens arrangement (20) for forming an object image (2), a second zone plate (18) for forming an up-converted image (3) and an image sensor (19) on which the up-converted image (3) is formed.
US08576474B2
This invention discloses a MEMS device supported on a substrate formed with electric circuit thereon. The MEMS device includes at least an electrode connected to the circuit and at least a movable element that is controlled by the electrode. The MEMS device further includes a conformal protective layer over the electrode and the circuit wherein the protective layer is semiconductor-based material. In a preferred embodiment, the MEMS device is a micromirror and the semiconductor material is one of a group of materials consisting of Si, SiC, Ge, SiGe, SiNi and SiW.
US08576454B2
The problem of the present invention is to be capable of executing color shift correction processing also in consideration of a mechanical inclination component in an image forming device. For solving the problem, the image forming device according to the present invention comprises information processing unit, first measurement requesting unit, holding unit of curve information, notifying unit of curve information, receiving unit of a measurement pattern image, measurement processing unit, determining unit of a result of the measurement processing, and second measurement requesting unit.
US08576450B2
A system and methods for modifying the values of halftoned image pixels to replace a defective colorant with at least one non-defective colorant.
US08576438B2
A main controller stores levels and information to be stored in accordance with the levels. An operation screen is used to enter operation information for operating a complex machine 1. A scanner engine and a plotter engine execute operations based on the operation information. A memory records only information on operations in a level corresponding to the entered level information among the operations performed by the complex machine.
US08576431B2
A device management system of the present invention, in which a device which is allowed to shift to a power saving mode and a management apparatus which manages the device are connected to a network, allows the management apparatus to recognize power consumption statuses of devices without making any periodic communications between the management apparatus and devices.
US08576420B2
When an image of a read out document is acquired, an MFP obtains information of a read out state of the image (document orientation or the like) or a copy setting information (magnification and the like), qualified as the copy permissive condition embedded in the image. Copying is permitted only when the read out state of the image or the copy setting of the image matches the permissive condition embedded in the image.
US08576419B2
An image reading device that can be incorporated in an image forming apparatus includes a housing including a first housing member having a document reading area and a second housing member attached to the first housing member, a document reading unit disposed inside the housing to read a document while moving in a sub-scanning direction of the housing, a document reference line formed on the first housing member to position the document placed on the document reading area in the sub-scanning direction, and a reference position detector positioned on a plane surface of a square that extends perpendicular to the document reading area along a main scanning direction of the document reference line to detect a reference position of the document reading unit as the document reading unit moves in the sub-scanning direction.
US08576418B2
A method generates a set of color patches that can be used to characterize a color printer. An accurate reference printer model is selected. A base set of calibration patches is printed and measured. The measurements are used to generate a model that can be used to predict the color produced by the reference printer for any combination of its colorants. The base set of patches is supplemented by a set of patches chosen to reduce the maximum color error produced by using the model compared to the predictions of a reference printer model. The supplemented set of patches is used to generate a more accurate model of the printer. The supplemented set of patches is used to recalibrate other instances of the printer.
US08576417B2
An image-forming apparatus includes: a memory that stores a plurality of image forming modes; a contact controller that controls a status of contact between a plurality of image-forming units and an intermediate transfer member on the basis of an image forming mode selected from among the plurality of image forming modes, so that an image-forming unit used for image forming represented in the selected image forming mode is contacted with the intermediate transfer member, and another image-forming unit is moved away from the intermediate transfer member; and an image-quality adjusting unit that adjusts, if the status of contact is changed by the contact controller, an image quality of an image that is to be transferred onto the intermediate transfer member from the image-forming unit that is in contact with the intermediate transfer member.
US08576416B2
An image processing apparatus, connectable with plural image processing apparatuses via a network, which performs image processing. UI setting data is received from an another image processing apparatus, and it is determined whether or not a function included in the received UI setting data can be executed by the apparatus itself. If it is determined that the function cannot be executed by the image processing apparatus, a first image processing apparatus which can execute the function is retrieved on the network. Then setting is changed such that the function is substitutionally executed by the first image processing apparatus.
US08576414B2
A bookbinding processing apparatus capable of setting values for each item of post-processing functions on printed sheets and a control method thereof display, on a display unit, an operation screen for inputting setting values for each item of post-processing functions, and an setting value for each item is input using the operation screen. When inputting a setting value for a first item, giving the instruction to display an recommended setting value for the first item and items thereafter causes a display unit to display a list of recommended setting values for the first item input on the operation screen and for the other items, recommended setting values selected on the list are displayed, and setting values for items previously input on that setting screen can be validated and printing is started.
US08576412B2
A position detection device includes: a light source adapted to form a light intensity distribution of a detection light beam; a first detector adapted to receive a reflected light beam of the detection light beam reflected by an object in a detection area where the light intensity distribution is formed; a transmissive member disposed between the detection area and the light source, and between the detection area and the first detector, and having a first surface directed toward the detection area and a second surface directed toward the light source; a second detector adapted to receive a light beam reflected by the second surface out of the detection light beam; a position detector adapted to detect the object based on the detection result in the first detector; and a light blocking member disposed between the second detector and the detection area, and adapted to block the reflected light beam.
US08576407B2
A device for detecting disk asperities. The device includes an optical glide head. The glide head is not required to physically contact a disk for detection of the disk asperities. The optical glide head includes a waveguide configured to transmit light onto the disk and receive reflected light from the disk.
US08576401B2
The embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus for determining at least one characteristic of a physical resource for use in a physical resource consuming apparatus.
US08576398B2
A concentration measuring device for determining a concentration of gas or particles in a measurement volume includes at least one housing having an opening for communication with the measurement volume, a light source for transmitting measurement light through the housing into the measurement volume, a light receiver for receiving the measurement light after its passage through the measurement volume and an evaluation unit which is designed for determining the concentration of gas or particles from the measurement light received at the light receiver. In accordance with the invention at least one body of solid material is arranged in the at least one housing such that the measurement light path largely passes through the at least one solid body within the housing, with the portion of the measurement light path within the at least one housing not passing through the at least one solid body having a specified total length.
US08576394B2
A method of fabricating a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate. In one embodiment, the method has the steps of simultaneously evaporating a metal at a first evaporation rate and a polymer at a second evaporation rate different from the first evaporation rate, to form a nanocomposite of the metal and the polymer, depositing the nanocomposite onto a substrate, and applying an etching process to the deposited nanocomposite on the substrate to remove the polymer material, thereby forming an SERS substrate.
US08576390B1
This invention provides a system and method for determining and controlling focal distance in a lens assembly of a vision system camera using an integral calibration assembly that provides the camera's image sensor with optical information that is relative to focal distance while enabling runtime images of a scene to be acquired along the image axis. The lens assembly includes a variable lens located along an optical axis that provides a variable focus setting. The calibration assembly generates a projected pattern of light that variably projects upon the camera sensor based upon the focus setting of the variable lens. That is, the appearance and/or position of the pattern varies based upon the focus setting of the variable lens. This enables a focus process to determine the current focal length of the lens assembly based upon predetermined calibration information stored in association with a vision system processor running the focus process.
US08576386B2
A vibration detector (1) comprising at least one fiber optic sensor (2) mechanically coupled to a flexible support member (3). The vibration detector (1) is mounted on the outside of the pipeline and a signal from the fiber optic sensor is measured. This signal is indicative of whether the vibration detector is experiencing vibrations due to collisions of contaminant particles with each other and/or with the walls of the pipeline. A method for detecting particulate contaminants in a fluid flowing in a pipeline is also provided.
US08576380B2
A method for optically communicating, from a user to a six degree-of-freedom (6DOF) laser tracker, a command to control operation of the tracker includes providing a rule of correspondence between commands and pose patterns, each pattern including a change in a coordinate from an initial to a final pose, each pose having three translational coordinates and three orientational coordinates. Also, selecting a first command from among the commands and measuring the coordinate of a first pose of the 6DOF target with the tracker. Further, changing between first and second times, the coordinate of the pose of the target and measuring the coordinate of a second pose of the target with the tracker. Also, determining the first command based on the difference between the measured coordinates of the first and second poses according to the rule of correspondence and executing the first command by the tracker.
US08576377B2
A method for configuring an illumination source of a lithographic apparatus is presented. The method includes dividing the illumination source into pixel groups, each pixel group including one or more illumination source points; selecting an illumination shape to expose a pattern, the illumination shape formed with at least one pixel group; iteratively calculating a lithographic metric as a result of a change of state of a pixel group in the illumination source, the change of the state of the pixel group creating a modified illumination shape; and adjusting the illumination shape based on the iterative results of calculations.
US08576376B2
An imaging optical system includes a plurality of mirrors that image an object field in an object plane into an image field in an image plane. At least one of the mirrors is obscured, and thus has a opening for imaging light to pass through. The fourth-last mirror in the light path before the image field is not obscured and provides, with an outer edge of the optically effective reflection surface thereof, a central shadowing in a pupil plane of the imaging optical system. The distance between the fourth-last mirror and the last mirror along the optical axis is at least 10% of the distance between the object field and the image field. An intermediate image, which is closest to the image plane, is arranged between the last mirror and the image plane. The imaging optical system can have a numerical aperture of 0.9. These measures, not all of which must be effected simultaneously, lead to an imaging optical system with improved imaging properties and/or reduced production costs.
US08576374B2
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a lithographic method of providing an alignment mark on a layer provided on a substrate, the method including providing the alignment mark on an area of the layer which is oriented within a certain range of angles with respect to a surface of the substrate on which the layer is provided.
US08576372B2
An aspect provides a method, including: fixing a laminated panel, which has been cut into a predetermined shape, to a mold, said laminated panel having an expanded layer disposed between layers made of a conductive resin; injection of molding non-conducting resin into the mold in which the laminated panel has been fixed; wherein a non-conductive region and a conductive region are joined to form a bottom surface of a display casing, said display casing having an inner and outer surface; and wherein an antenna mounting space is formed in the non-conductive region. Other aspects are described and claimed.
US08576371B2
An LCD device is disclosed. The LCD device includes: a first substrate configured to include an active area in which a plurality of thin film transistors, a plurality of pixel electrodes, a plurality of gate lines, and a plurality of data lines are formed for displaying an image, and a dummy area loaded with a driving circuit which is connected to the plurality of gate lines; a second substrate, opposite to the first substrate, configured to include a common electrode together with the plurality of pixel electrodes used for forming electric fields, and color filters and a black matrix formed opposite to the active area; column spacers secured to the first substrate within the active and dummy areas and configured to maintain a constant cell gap between the first and second substrates; and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrates. The second substrate is configured to further include color filter patterns formed on its portions opposite to only the column spacers within the dummy area.
US08576361B2
A transflective liquid crystal display device and a fabricating method thereof are disclosed in the present invention. The transflective liquid crystal display device includes a substrate having a reflective portion and a transmissive portion, a gate line on the substrate, a data line crossing the gate line and defining a pixel region, a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line, a first organic material layer in the pixel region, the first organic material layer having a plurality of uneven patterns at the reflective portion, a second organic material layer on the first organic material layer, the second organic material layer having an open portion at the transmissive portion, and a reflective layer on the second organic material layer having a transmissive hole at the open portion.
US08576355B2
Provided is an LED substrate including a plurality of LEDs that is capable of being downsized in width. An LED substrate (20) includes a radiating plate (22) made from metal, an insulating layer (23), a plurality of LEDs (21) disposed linearly along a longitudinal direction of the radiating plate and connected to each other in series, and first and second ground patterns (33, 34) disposed at left and right ends of the LED substrate, wherein the first and second ground patterns are electrically connected to the radiating plate, which is disposed under the first and second ground patterns while sandwiching therebetween the insulating layer, via sheet-metal screws (71, 72).
US08576349B2
A liquid crystal display panel and liquid crystal display array substrate are disclosed. The liquid crystal display array substrate includes first scan lines, second scan lines, data lines, first columns of pixel units and second columns of the pixel units. Each of the first columns of the pixel units has a plurality of first pixel structures electrically connected to the first scan lines and the data lines respectively. Each of the second columns of the pixel units has a plurality of second pixel structures electrically connected to the second scan lines and the data lines respectively. Each of the first pixel structures has a first storage capacitor, and the first storage capacitor has a first capacitance value. Each of the second pixel structures has a second storage capacitor, and the second storage capacitor has a second capacitance value, wherein the second capacitance value is less than the first capacitance value.
US08576345B2
A cholesteric liquid crystal display is provided, including a substrate, a first electrode layer disposed on the substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed on the first electrode layer, wherein the liquid crystal layer comprises at least two liquid crystals having different sensitivities to driving frequencies, mixed with each other, and liquid crystals having a greater initial state-transition temperature are more sensitive to driving frequency.
US08576343B2
According to one aspect, a mixed-signal tuner for analog and digital TV reception incorporates a demodulator for analog TV, employing various features for resolving limitations of the analog circuitry and for achieving compatibility with various global TV standards. Such features, which may be present in one or more embodiments, include the use of a variable sample rate in all digital clocks for frequency planning, and use of a microcontroller (MCU) to control various circuitry of the tuner.
US08576333B2
A photographic device includes a body, and at least an optical assembly and multiple auxiliary light sources surrounding the optical assembly are disposed in the body. A front cover is disposed on a front end of the body, and a protecting mirror is disposed on the front cover. Light emitted by the auxiliary light sources passes through the protecting mirror and illuminates a photographic area. A light-blocking film is disposed on the protecting mirror corresponding to the optical assembly, so as to prevent the light emitted by the auxiliary light sources from entering the optical assembly after reflected by the protecting mirror.
US08576331B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of not only detecting whiteout or blackout but also effectively achieving exposure control. In the image pickup apparatus, an entire-screen brightness frequency distribution is detected based on a picked-up image signal. The image pickup apparatus calculates a first exposure control value from the entire-screen brightness frequency distribution. The image signal is divided into a plurality of small areas, and the brightness of each of the small areas is detected. The image pickup apparatus calculates a second exposure control value from the brightness. The image pickup apparatus calculates an exposure correction value based on the first exposure control value and the second exposure control value. An exposure value is calculated using the exposure correction value and an exposure value of the image signal. The image pickup apparatus performs exposure control of the image pickup section based on the calculated exposure value.
US08576321B2
An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging unit that respectively generates, with imaging devices different from one another, a first captured image with a specific direction of a subject set in a longitudinal direction, a second captured image with an orthogonal direction orthogonal to the specific direction set in a longitudinal direction and including a subject adjacent to one side of the orthogonal direction of the subject included in the first captured image, and a third captured image with the orthogonal direction set in a longitudinal direction and including a subject adjacent to the other side of the orthogonal direction of the subject included in the first captured image; a detecting unit that detects a state of the imaging apparatus; and a control unit that determines, based on the detected state, a range of a target image as a target of display or recording among the first to third captured images.
US08576309B2
A pixel defect correction device includes: a defect determining section determining whether a pixel of interest of an image, in which pixels each having a pixel value are arrayed in a two-dimensional manner, is a defect of the image; a gradient detecting section detecting a gradient or an edge in a processing region, which includes pixels with the pixel of interest in the middle, based on values of at least peripheral pixels around the pixel of interest which are included in the processing region; a correction value acquisition section selecting a pixel, which is used for acquisition of a correction value of the pixel of interest, according to the detected gradient or edge and acquiring the correction value from a value of the selected pixel; and a defective pixel replacing section replacing the value of the pixel of interest with the correction value when the pixel of interest is determined to be a defect.
US08576297B2
Systems and methods for modifying a color image of a scene are provided. The systems and methods involve illuminating at least a portion of the scene with a light having a known spectral power distribution, and detecting a finite number of spectral components of light received from the scene under such illumination. The detected values of spectral components of light received from the scene are used to modify the color image or rendition of the scene.
US08576291B2
To provide a drive unit and a drive module which include a shape memory alloy as a drive source to move a driven member and are capable of the high-precision movement of the driven member to a reference position. A drive unit and a drive module can be provided by controlling, in the drive unit and the drive module which include the shape memory alloy as the drive source to move the driven member, the shape memory alloy so that the resistance of the shape memory alloy is equal to the resistance when the driven member is located at the reference position.
US08576288B2
An image processing unit includes a memory unit, a comparative image generator to generate a comparative image from a non-reference image, an image divider to divide a reference image, a non-reference image, and a comparative image into image blocks of a predetermined size, a motion data calculator to calculate motion data between the reference image and comparative image, an average calculator to calculate an average of pixel output values for each image block of the reference image and the comparative image, a threshold determiner to determine a threshold for synthesis determination according to the average of pixel output values of an image block of the reference image, a synthesis determiner to determine whether or not the image blocks of the reference image and of the non-reference image are suitable for synthesis, and a ratio determiner to determine a synthesis ratio of the image blocks determined as suitable for synthesis.
US08576286B1
A system and method for video navigation is disclosed. The system and method may include one or more video cameras configured to capture views external to the vehicle, a control mechanism for adjusting the sight-line of the one or more video cameras, and a display panel positioned within the vehicle for displaying the views captured within the sight-line of the one or more video cameras.
US08576281B2
Aspects of a method and system for processing video data are disclosed and may include detecting, within a single chip in a programmable surveillance video camera, one or more moving objects in a raw video signal generated by the programmable surveillance video camera. One or more characteristics of the detected one or more objects may be extracted within the single chip in the programmable surveillance video camera. The extraction may be based on the raw video signal and may be performed prior to compression of the raw video data. The characteristics of the detected one or more objects may include shape, texture, color, motion presence, motion direction, sequence name, location, links, and/or alarm type. One or more textual representations of at least one of the characteristics of the detected one or more objects may be generated within the single chip in the programmable surveillance video camera.
US08576278B2
The present invention discloses a system for monitoring dynamic stability of micro machine is provided in this invention, wherein an image-capturing device and an analytic device are included. The image-capturing device captures an image on a surface of a work piece milled by the micro machine. The analytic device comprises an image input interface, means for gray-scaling an image, means for analyzing abnormal gray-scaled value of the gray-scaled image, and means for analyzing numbers of veins of the gray-scaled image. This invention also provides a method for monitoring dynamic stability of micro machine.
US08576275B2
A method for authoring and sending from a network element and receiving at a mobile device, rich media, the sending having the steps of checking whether the rich media includes discrete content; if yes, sending a low resolution version of the discrete content with the rich media; and subsequently sending a higher resolution version of the rich media. The receiving having the steps of receiving a low resolution version of the discrete content in the rich media; rendering the rich media; receiving a higher resolution fragment of the discrete content; and incrementally applying the higher resolution fragments to the low resolution version of the discrete content.
US08576265B2
An image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor which is rotatable with respect to a body frame, an exposing member which is movable relative to the body frame, a spacing member which is provided between the exposing member and the photoreceptor to maintain a distance between the photoreceptor and the exposing member, a positioning member which makes a contact with the exposing member to position the exposing member in a direction of rotation of the photoreceptor, and a pressing member which is provided to the body frame to press the exposing member toward the photoreceptor and the positioning member. Accordingly, it is possible to position the exposing member accurately with respect to the photoreceptor, in any of the light-axis direction and the rotational direction of the photoreceptor.
US08576264B2
A registration device for a mail processing system having wide print nozzle arrays that reduces problems associated with printing on variable thickness media. A thin wire, held by guides, is strung across the print nozzle openings in the registration plate to support and guide the top (print) surface of a mail piece and to prevent the mail piece from protruding into the openings. The guides are positioned such that the wire passes between zones where there are no print nozzles located. A tensioning device is provided to adjust the tension of the wire to ensure the wire maintains its position within the openings. The wire acts as a guide to maintain the optimal gap between the mail piece top surface and the print nozzles.
US08576263B2
A method and apparatus for processing video pictures for dynamic false contour effect compensation. Each video picture is divided into at least a first type and second type of area according to the video gradient of the picture. A specific video gradient range is associated to each type. First and second sets of sub-field code words are allocated to the first and second types respectively. The second set is a subset of the first set. The pixels of the first and second types are encoded with the first and second sets of sub-field code words respectively. For at least one horizontal line of pixels including pixels of the first and second type, the area of second type is extended until the next pixel in the first type area is a pixel encoded by a sub-field code word belonging to both first and second set of sub-field code words.
US08576255B2
A luminance distribution at the highest gradation level is corrected to a curved plane luminance distribution in such a manner that the maximum gradation input to a display panel shows a curved luminance plane having the highest luminance at the center of the display panel and a lower luminance in the peripheral area of the display panel. The luminance distribution at the minimum gradation is corrected in such a manner that the minimum gradation shows a curved luminance plane having the lowest luminance at the center of the display panel and a higher luminance in the peripheral area of the display panel.
US08576251B2
A scaling-up control method and a scaling-up control apparatus are used in a display device. The display device includes a scaler for converting an original image signal into an output image signal by performing a linear interpolation. Moreover, by utilizing a global locking mechanism and a local locking mechanism to perform the linear interpolation to determine the actual position of the interpolated pixel, the position error of the pixel position is largely reduced. Since the difference between the calculated pixel value and the ideal pixel value is reduced, the imaging quality of the output image signal is enhanced.
US08576248B2
A polygon selection unit selects, on the basis of a given condition, a base unit to be used in a collision determination process from base units included in a three-dimensional virtual object. A collision determination unit executes the collision determination process between three-dimensional virtual objects by using the base unit selected by the polygon selection unit for each virtual object.
US08576244B2
Provided is a video signal generation apparatus and method that may minimize crosstalk between a luminance signal and color difference signals. The video signal generation apparatus may generate the luminance signal using a nonlinear Y signal and then generate color difference signals using a nonlinear XYZ signal to maximize a de-correlation characteristic between the luminance signal and the color difference signals.
US08576219B2
An image processing apparatus able to continuously generate region data, able to eliminate wasteful processing due to invalid regions, and able to efficiently draw an image, is provided with a triangle digital differential analyzer (DDA) circuit for generating region data increased by at least one unit square region worth of data based on set-up data including a change data input from a DDA set-up circuit in a case where at least one pixel is located inside a triangle in a unit square region including a plurality of pixels, storing the region data, further dividing the stored region data into usual region data equivalent to the unit square regions, and outputting the same as DDA data to a texture engine circuit, and a method of the same.
US08576218B2
Architecture that facilitates the attachment of multiple visualization types (e.g., charts) to the data of a grid and the presentation of the visualization next to the grid. The infrastructure allows each data view to be associated with a set of visualizations. These visualizations are rendered along with the grid (in a separate presentation pane) so that the user does not have to switch context to perform analysis. The visualizations available include charts that show aggregate and/or non-aggregate data. In a server farm scenario, all user interactions such as drill-downs are provided. Server farm drill-downs for these visualizations can be obtained using MHTML (MIME hypertext markup language). The visualizations can be automatically updated when filters are applied on the grid, and when drill-down is performed on the visualization, the grid is automatically updated. The visualizations can be consumed from a web-based browser client and/or thick client, for example.
US08576207B2
A system for displaying images is provided. The system includes a self-emission type display device including a substrate, a first sub-pixel unit disposed on the substrate, and a second sub-pixel unit disposed on the substrate and adjacent to the first sub-pixel unit. Each of the first and second sub-pixel units comprises a light-emitting device, a power line electrically connected to the light-emitting device, and a storage capacitor having an electrode electrically connected to the power line. The electrodes of the storage capacitors of the first and second sub-pixel units are formed of a continuous conductive layer, such that the power lines of the first and second sub-pixel units are electrically connected to each other through the continuous conductive layer.
US08576206B2
The present invention relates to a phase modulating apparatus capable of highly accurately and easily correcting the phase modulation characteristic of a reflective electric address spatial light modulator even when a condition of input light is changed. In the LCOS phase modulating apparatus, an input unit inputs the condition of the input light, and a processing unit sets an input value for each pixel. A correction value deriving unit determines a correction condition according to the condition of the input light. A control input value converting unit converts the input value set for each pixel into a corrected input value based on the correction condition. An LUT processing unit converts the corrected input value into a voltage value, and drives each pixel by using a drive voltage equivalent to the converted voltage value.
US08576199B1
Methods for controlling computers using touch input devices such as touch screens and touch pads are disclosed. These methods include several tactile features that allow reliable operation even in situations where the user has trouble seeing the display of an associated device, and are particularly valuable in stress situations such as encountered in vehicles or using certain mobile devices. Several novel methods of displaying and sensing information in these situations are also disclosed, as are many examples of apparatus useful in vehicles and the home.
US08576198B2
The present invention discloses a touch panel structure formed by an anti-scratch surface layer and a capacitive sensor layer, and a transparent lamination layer is used for pasting the two into a panel. The capacitive sensor layer includes an X-axis first transparent conductive layer and a Y-axis second transparent conductive layer formed on both sides of a transparent plastic carrier to provide a touch panel structure having the advantages of a relatively low material cost, a light weight, an easy manufacturing and molding, a better lamination yield and a flexible and break-free feature.
US08576188B2
An electronics device including a haptic-based user interface, including a touch screen; an actuator coupled to the touch screen for selectively vibrating the touch screen responsive to the touch screen being depressed; and a visual display panel. The user interface further includes a plurality of suspension members disposed between the touch screen and the display panel and a plurality of seal members disposed between the suspension members such that the suspension members and the seal members define a volume between the touch panel and the visual display panel. The suspension and seal members may be formed from compressible material, such as foam materials. By separating the visual display panel from the touch panel with the suspension members in this way, vibrations from the actuator that are experienced by the visual display panel are reduced, thereby extending the useful life of the visual display panel.
US08576180B2
Method for switching touch keyboard and handheld electronic device and storage medium using the same
A method for switching a touch keyboard and a handheld electronic device and a storage medium using the method are provided. The method is suitable for a handheld electronic device having a touch screen. In the method, a character input function is first activated to display a first type touch keyboard on a side of the touch screen. A touch signal produced within a display area of the first type touch keyboard is then received and it is determined whether the touch signal moves to another side of the touch screen. If the touch signal is determined to move to the another side of the touch screen, a second type touch keyboard is displayed on the another side of the touch screen. Accordingly, the users can switch the touch keyboard to another one conveniently so as to input characters.
US08576175B2
A method for processing data entered using an electronic device and an electronic device capable of implementing the method is described. In one embodiment, the electronic device includes at least one multi-value key associated with at least two input data values. Each multi-value key includes a plurality of units and each input data value corresponds to at least one unit. The electronic device also includes an eye-tracking system that determines an area where a user is gazing by monitoring eye movements of the user, and an input value selection module coupled to the plurality of units and to the eye-tracking system. The input value selection module determines probabilistically which input data value was entered based on a value received from at least one unit and on the area where the user is gazing.
US08576169B2
A system and a method for determining an attitude of a device undergoing dynamic acceleration is presented. A first attitude measurement is calculated based on a magnetic field measurement received from a magnetometer of the device and a first acceleration measurement received from a first accelerometer of the device. A second attitude measurement is calculated based on the magnetic field measurement received from the magnetometer of the device and a second acceleration measurement received from a second accelerometer of the device. A correction factor is calculated based at least in part on a difference of the first attitude measurement and the second attitude measurement. The correction factor is then applied to the first attitude measurement to produce a corrected attitude measurement for the device.
US08576167B2
A system associated with a text entry application, such as email or instant messaging, comprises an optional onscreen representation of a circular keyboard, a list of potential linguistic object matches, and a message area where the selected words are entered. The circular keyboard is manipulated via a hardware joystick or game-pad with analog joystick or omni-directional rocker switch built therein. The user points the joystick in the general direction of the desired letter, and then continues pointing roughly to each letter in the desired word. Once all letters have been roughly selected, buttons are used to select a specific word from the list of potential matches and send the selected word to the message area.
US08576165B2
An input device includes: an operating section which is held by a user and operated in a three-dimensional free space in order to operate an information processing apparatus by remote control; a calculation section which calculates a hand shake related value for controlling selection of an image to be controlled which is displayed on the information processing apparatus, the hand shake related value being relevant to an amount of hand shake of the operating section; and an output section which outputs the hand shake related value as an operation signal for operating the information processing apparatus by remote control.
US08576164B2
The present invention is directed to a driving method for compensating the response speed change of an electrophoretic display due to temperature variation, photo-degradation or aging of the display device, without a complex structure (e.g., use of sensors). This is accomplished by combining two waveforms, one of which causes the grey level to become dimmer and the other waveform causes the grey level to become brighter, as the response speed degrades.
US08576156B2
An auxiliary capacitor line driving circuit (5), provided in a surrounding region located around a display region (R1) in a liquid crystal display panel, generates auxiliary capacitor driving signals, and includes: first and second voltage trunk lines (VCS1, VCS2) which carry two different voltages, respectively; at least one control signal line (VCTRL1, VCTRL2) carrying one control signal; and a plurality of TFTs (T1, T2, T3, T4) each alternately supplying, to the respective auxiliary capacitor lines (CSn, CSn+1, and the like) in a given cycle, the two different voltages supplied to the auxiliary capacitor line driving circuit (5). Therefore, a liquid crystal display device employing multi-picture element drive method can be provided as a liquid crystal display device that achieves narrowing of a picture frame region as a non-display region and an external circuit board.
US08576152B2
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel having a plurality of pixel units, a scanning driver configured to provide scanning signals to scan the pixel units, a data driver configured to provide data voltage signals to the pixel electrode of the pixel units; and a common voltage driver configured to provide a common voltage signal to the common electrodes of the pixel units. Each pixel unit includes a pixel electrode and a common electrode, and the pixel units cooperatively display picture frame by frame. A dummy cycle period is defined between two sequent normal frame periods. The common voltage signal is an alternating current voltage signal in each normal frame period, and a polarity of the common voltage signal is fixed in the dummy cycle. A method for driving a liquid crystal display is also provided.
US08576149B2
This invention discloses an LCD which includes an LCD panel and a pixel voltage adjuster. The LCD panel includes a plurality of pixel units which are arranged in the way of a matrix. Each pixel unit is provided with a liquid crystal capacitor. The liquid crystal capacitor includes a pixel electrode and a common electrode oppositely arranged. The pixel voltage adjuster receives a feedback common voltage from the common electrode and adjusts the voltage of the pixel electrode in terms of the feedback common voltage. The LCD provided in this invention can reduce cross-noise and improve the display quality of the LCD.
US08576135B1
A bicone antenna is provided with high bandwidth and beneficial return loss performance. The antenna is dipole based and thus its radiation pattern is not strongly influenced by shape and size of a nearby ground plane. A parasitic element comprising a conductive band encircling the antenna's feed structure improves matching, gain flatness, and makes the antenna less susceptible to detuning.
US08576133B2
An RF receiver section includes an adjustable antenna assembly, a low noise amplifier module, and a down conversion module. The adjustable antenna assembly is configured to provide a first receive antenna structure and a second receive antenna structure. The first and second receive antenna structures receive an inbound wide bandwidth RF signal that includes an interferer RF signal component and a desired inbound RF signal component. The effective polarization of at least one of the first and second receive antenna structures is adjusted to reduce signal strength of the interferer RF signal component.
US08576130B2
A vehicle window assembly. The window assembly includes a frame having an inner metal edge and a window pane fixed to the frame. The window pane includes an inner glass ply, an outer glass ply, an interlayer between the inner glass ply and the outer glass ply, and an electro-conductive coating located on a surface of the outer glass ply, wherein the electro-conductive coating has an outer peripheral edge spaced from the inner metal edge of the frame to define an antenna slot. The window assembly also includes an antenna feed structure electrically connected to the outer peripheral edge of the electro-conductive coating and a capacitive coupling strip located on the inner glass ply and overlapping the outer peripheral edge of the electro-conductive coating proximate the antenna feed structure, wherein the coupling strip couples a wide bandwidth radio frequency signal into and out of the antenna slot.
US08576122B2
A method for measuring a location of a mobile terminal includes calculating first location information by using a ToA (Time of Arrival) scheme, calibrating the first location information by using angle information between two base stations and the terminal; calculating second location information by using an AoA (Angle of Arrival) scheme, and calculating a location value of the terminal by using the calibrated first location information and the second location information.
US08576112B2
A multifunction airborne radar device includes a plurality of transmit antenna modules and/or receive antenna modules that are fixed relative to the aircraft, placed substantially over the surface of the aircraft so as to form transmit and receive beams, enabling targets to be detected for implementing a sense-and-avoid function. The airborne radar device may also comprise processing means for tracking the detected targets and for generating information sent to an air traffic control center and/or to a control device on board the aircraft. The processing device may also receive data relating to the aircraft, enabling the antenna beams to be adjusted and the tracking calculations to be refined.
US08576110B2
A method of detecting a target in a room using a radar system having a transmitter for irradiating the object, a sensor for receiving reflected radiation, and circuitry for analyzing the reflected radiation to determine at least one characteristic thereof, the method including determining at least one parameter for each wall of a plurality of walls of a room containing the target; determining possible signal paths between the target and the sensor for paths including up to N reflections based on the at least one parameter of each wall and the location of the sensor; calculating target image locations based on the possible signal paths; and processing the received radiation to determine a target location based on target image locations.
US08576108B1
In one embodiment, a passive expendable decoy for an aircraft is provided by ejecting passive radiators from the aircraft along a transmission line trailing from the aircraft and excited by a jammer on the aircraft, such that the radiators accelerate under aerodynamic drag forces to the end of the transmission line and couple energy from the transmission line to free space. This provides angular deception to a tracking radar or homing missile since the point of radiation along the transmission line is determined by the instantaneous position of the expendable radiating element.
US08576106B2
An analog-digital converter includes converter units and a control unit. The converter units each including a comparator for performing a comparison using an input voltage, one or more capacitor ladders each having a signal line connected with first terminals of capacitors and with one input of the comparator, and switches each of which is associated with one of the capacitors, connected to a second terminal of the respective capacitor with a first or a second reference potential, the input voltage being shifted when switching one or more of the switches. The control unit controls the number of converter units, and to set the switching states of the plurality of switches in conversion cycles and to obtain comparison results from each of the comparators in a comparison subsequent to each setting of the switching states.
US08576103B2
Rollover operative digital to analog converter (DAC). With respect to a codeword that is provided to a DAC, a processing module (e.g., a rollover processor) operates to compare the codeword to threshold(s) in accordance with adaptively partitioning the codeword into one or more sub-codewords when the codeword has a magnitude greater than at least one of the thresholds. In instances that the codeword is less than a threshold, the codeword may be provided directly to a DAC for use in generating a first analog signal. However, if the codeword is a larger than a threshold, then that portion of the codeword which is greater than the threshold may be provided to an alternative component such as one or more auxiliary or additional DACs, one or more other circuitry components, etc. in accordance with generating at least one additional analog signal to be combined with the first analog signal.
US08576098B2
A device for compressing a feature descriptor includes a non-uniform quantizer and a run-length encoder. The non-uniform quantizer accesses a source feature descriptor from a storage device, and non-uniformly quantizes the source feature descriptor having source vectors into an intermediate feature descriptor having intermediate vectors according to a vector default value. The run-length encoder executes run-length coding for the intermediate feature descriptor to generate a compressed feature descriptor.
US08576086B2
In a limit signal indicator for determining two positions of a pneumatically operated positioning device, a position sensor detects a position of the positioning device. A first signal transmission contact, a second signal transmission contact, and a microprocessor are provided. The first and the second signal transmission contacts each output a respective electrical limit position signal, the limit position signals representing an adoption of the first and the second positions or of at least one position of the positioning device above or below a predetermined set limit value. At least one of the signal transmission contacts is connected for signal transmission so that in case of a malfunctioning of a signal transmission, the switch amplifier is capable of generating an emergency signal above a maximum limit value or below a lower limit value, and to transmit the emergency signal to an external processing location. The microprocessor, upon detecting a specific operational malfunctioning, actuating the positioning device and executing an emergency procedure according to which the same emergency signal is generated and output at the second signal transmission contact.
US08576078B2
A method for reading poker chips according to one embodiment includes sending out an interrogation signal; receiving responses from poker chips in response to the interrogation signal, each of the poker chips comprising a circuit and an antenna coupled to the circuit, wherein the antenna minimally affects electromagnetic RF fields surrounding the antenna even in the vicinity of the antenna; and determining a value of the poker chips from which responses are received. A poker chip according to another embodiment includes a circuit on or within a substrate; and an antenna coupled to the circuit, wherein the antenna minimally affects electromagnetic RF fields surrounding the antenna even in the vicinity of the antenna. Additional systems and methods are disclosed.
US08576074B2
A capacitor warning circuit, and method of providing a warning are provided, the circuit comprising a capacitor capable of being charged to a charged state and a warning circuit coupled to the capacitor and adapted to provide an indication that the capacitor is in the charged state, wherein the warning circuit is powered by energy accumulated in the capacitor when the capacitor is in the charged state.
US08576062B2
A driving advice provision apparatus generates an advice, based on diagnosis performed on multiple diagnosis items regarding the driving condition of the vehicle and based on the diagnosis results from those diagnosis items, and provides the generated advice to the driver. The multiple diagnosis items are classified into different categories according to the diagnosis methods. For the diagnosis items suitable to the comparative evaluation rather than the quantitative evaluation, a diagnosis result A for the previous evaluation section is compared with a diagnosis result B for the current evaluation section for yielding a comparative evaluation and for advice generation, thereby enabling an effective advice generation and provision in terms of diagnosis item category.
US08576058B2
A method is described for monitoring and wirelessly signaling data that contains information on the pressure states prevailing in tires of wheels. In the method, electronic modules that are arranged in the wheels wirelessly transmit the data to a control device which is arranged in the vehicle. No data is transmitted during a first mode associated with a standstill state of the vehicle, while the respective electronic module transmits the data to the control device in the form of telegrams during at least one other mode associated with another state of the vehicle, the transition from a first mode into at least one other mode being determined by means of at least one acceleration sensor.
US08576051B2
An RFID tag assembly for use in tracking or timing of a progress of a user and the method of operating thereof the assembly including an RFID tag having a mounting substrate with an exposed first planar surface and an opposing second planar surface with one adapted for selective attachment to a surface of a carrier and an RFID semiconductor chip having a predetermined operating frequency with an antenna interface mounted on the second planar surface, a conductor, an antenna and a spacer composed of a foam material that is non-conducting and non-absorbing of a substantial amount of energy at the predetermined operating frequency that is attached to the at least one of the first and second planar surfaces of the mounting substrate and is positioned between a surface of the body of the user and the RFID tag for positioning at a minimum spaced apart distance from the surface of the body of the user during operation of the RFID tag.
US08576045B2
A method and system are provided for minimizing metal detection signal interference by dividing a standard EAS system metal detection burst timeslot into a plurality of timeslots per burst in order to minimize triggering metal detection false alarm signals between adjacent metal detection systems. The method and system include synchronizing a plurality of metal detection systems by generating a signal having a predefined time duration and segmenting the signal into multiple timeslots per signal. A selected timeslot that is assigned to each of the plurality of metal detection systems is stored and the system performs metal detection using the assigned timeslot.
US08576040B2
Disclosed herein is a multilayer type power inductor including: a plurality of body layers including internal electrodes and having magnetic material layers stacked therein; and a plurality of gap layers, wherein the gap layer has an asymmetrical structure. In the multilayer type power inductor, portions that are in contact with the body layers have, a non-porous structure, which is a dense structure, and portions that are not in contact with the body layers have a porous structure, such that the gap layer has the asymmetrical structure. Therefore, a magnetic flux propagation path in a coil is dispersed to suppress magnetization at a high current, thereby making it possible to improve a change in inductance (L) value according to the application of current.
US08576037B1
A dual output autotransformer is realized by employing a novel topology in which three transformers are wound on a single, high permeability, ferrite, binocular core. The three transformers are (1) an autotransformer; (2) a coupled winding to the autotransformer; and, (3) a transmission line transformer. Within the topology employed, the outputs of the coupled line transformer and the transmission line transformer provide the balanced output (secondary) and the input to the autotransformer forms the unbalanced primary. Such an approach results in a wideband response of from 30 MHz to 3000 MHz or greater with the requisite amplitude and phase balance.
US08576030B2
A switch module for activating a hibernation mode of an electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a casing and a hibernation switch installed inside the casing. The switch module includes a sliding member, a push button and an activating member. The sliding member is disposed on an inner side of the casing in a slidable manner. The push button is slidably disposed on an outer side of the casing and connected to the sliding member for driving the sliding member to slide relative to the casing. The activating member is disposed on the sliding member for activating the hibernation switch when the push button drives the sliding member to slide to an activating position, so as to activate the hibernation mode of the electronic device.
US08576028B2
A switch device includes: a switch manipulation portion that is manipulated between an ON position and an OFF position; a detecting unit that detects which position the switch manipulation portion is positioned at, the ON position or the OFF position; a first mechanism that, when the switch manipulation portion is manipulated from the OFF position to the ON position, causes a first electrical contact point to enter an ON state; and a second mechanism that, when the switch manipulation portion is manipulated to the OFF position, causes the switch manipulation portion to enter an OFF state and to maintain the ON state of the first electrical contact point, and changes the state of the first electrical contact point to the OFF state by making an electrical signal be in an OFF state, an ON state, and an OFF state in this order.
US08576023B1
The present invention is directed to an interface for connecting a waveguide manifold of a transition to a stripline manifold of the transition. The interface may include a plurality of metamaterial layers, each including a metamaterial(s). The interface may further include a ground plane layer which may be connected to both the plurality of metamaterial layers and to the stripline manifold. Further, the interface may include a plurality of ground vias which may form channels through each of the layers of the interface and through the stripline manifold for providing a ground structure for the interface. The interface is further configured for forming a resonant structure which provides a low-loss, broadband conversion between a stripline mode and a waveguide mode for electromagnetic energy traversing through the interface between the waveguide manifold and the stripline manifold.
US08576019B2
An electronic high frequency induction heater driver, for a variable spray fuel injection system, uses a scalable array of zero-voltage switching oscillators that utilize full and half-bridge topology with inductors between semiconductor switches wherein the semiconductor switches are synchronous within each bridge for function, and each bridge is synchronized for function along the entire array. The induction heater driver, upon receipt of a turn-on signal, multiplies a supply voltage through a self-oscillating series resonance, wherein one component of each tank resonator circuit comprises an induction heater coil magnetically coupled to an appropriate loss component so that fuel inside a fuel component is heated to a desired temperature.
US08576018B2
An electronic high frequency induction heater driver, for a variable spray fuel injection system, uses a scalable array of zero-voltage switching oscillators that utilize full and half-bridge topology wherein the semiconductor switches are synchronous within each bridge for function, and each bridge is synchronized for function along the entire array. The induction heater driver, upon receipt of a turn-on signal, multiplies a supply voltage through a self-oscillating series resonance, wherein one component of each tank resonator circuit comprises an induction heater coil magnetically coupled to an appropriate loss component so that fuel inside a fuel component is heated to a desired temperature.
US08576013B2
A radio frequency system includes a power amplifier that outputs a radio frequency signal to a matching network via a transmission line between the power amplifier and the matching network. A sensor monitors the radio frequency signal and generates first sensor signals based on the radio frequency signal. A distortion module determines a first distortion value according to at least one of (i) a sinusoidal function of the first sensor signals and (ii) a cross-correlation function of the first sensor signals. A first correction circuit (i) generates a first impedance tuning value based on the first distortion value and a first predetermined value, and (ii) provides feedforward control of impedance matching performed within the matching network including outputting the first impedance tuning value to one of the power amplifier and the matching network.
US08576009B2
A broadband high power amplifier architecture is disclosed. One example configuration includes a first plurality of distributed amplification cells connected in a first string, wherein a conductive trace operatively coupling outputs of the first string cells is a stepped structure, such that the associated inductance successively decreases from a first cell to a last cell of the first string. The amplifier further includes a second plurality of distributed amplification cells connected in a second string, wherein a conductive trace operatively coupling outputs of the second string cells is a stepped structure, such that the associated inductance successively decreases from a first cell to a last cell of the second string. A combiner combines output signals of the first and second strings. Additional strings and/or stages can be provided, and the degree of combining will depend, for example, on factors such as the application and desired output power.
US08575997B1
A circuit for downscaling voltage comprising: a voltage regulator; a voltage reference register configured to provide a voltage reference value; a voltage comparator configured to output a logical one if a supply voltage of the voltage regulator is greater than the voltage reference value, wherein a first input of the voltage comparator is coupled to output of the voltage regulator and a second input of the voltage comparator is coupled to output of the voltage reference register; an AND gate, where a first input of the AND gate is coupled to output of the voltage comparator and a second input of the AND gate is coupled to a voltage reference ready signal; a switch configured to close based on output of logical one from the AND gate; and a pull-down resistor configured to couple to the output of the voltage regulator only if the switch is closed.
US08575995B2
A detection electrode and an X-driving electrode (first driving electrode) are stacked through a sensor side insulating layer, at the side of a sensor portion of a film base material, and a Y-driving electrode (second driving electrode) is formed on the same forming surface as the detection electrode. The X-driving electrode is formed of a first conductive layer, the detection electrode and the Y-driving electrode are formed in a stacked structure of a second conductive layer having a resistance lower than the first conductive layer and a third conductive layer having a resistance higher than the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer.
US08575990B2
A semiconductor switching device for switching high voltage and high current. The semiconductor switching device includes a control-triggered stage and one or more auto-triggered stages. The control-triggered stage includes a plurality of semiconductor switches, a breakover switch, a control switch, a turn-off circuit, and a capacitor. The control-triggered stage is connected in series to the one or more auto-triggered stages. Each auto-triggered stage includes a plurality of semiconductor switches connected in parallel, a breakover switch, and a capacitor. The control switch provides for selective turn-on of the control-triggered stage. When the control-triggered stage turns on, the capacitor of the control-triggered stage discharges into the gates of the plurality of semiconductor switches of the next highest stage to turn it on. Each auto-triggered stage turns on in a cascade fashion as the capacitor of the adjacent lower stage discharges or as the breakover switches of the auto-triggered stages turn on.
US08575989B1
A switch is provided. The circuit includes a plurality of transistors configured to electrically isolate the input of the switch from the output of the switch. In one embodiment, for example, the plurality of transistors may be configured to provide at least one path between the input and the output of the switch, and to provide at least three layers of electrical isolation between the input and the output of the switch when the switch is open.
US08575986B2
A level shift circuit includes an input port to which an input signal is input, a first signal amplifying unit configured to amplify the input signal input to the input port, a node at the first signal amplifying unit to output the amplified signal, a level shift input port to which a level shift voltage for controlling a DC level of the node is input, a first supply voltage configured to drive the first signal amplifying unit, and a level shift voltage generation circuit configured to generate the first supply voltage and the level shift voltage.
US08575982B1
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods of noise reduction and/or power saving. According to one or more illustrative implementations, for example, innovations consistent with delay lines in clock/timing circuits such as Delay-Lock-Loop (DLL) and/or Duty Cycle Correction (DCC) circuits are disclosed.
US08575965B2
An internal clock gating apparatus comprises a static logic block and a domino logic block. The static logic block is configured to receive a clock signal and a clock enable signal. The domino logic block is configured to receive the clock signal and a control signal from an output of the static logic block. The static logic block and the domino logic block are further configured such that an output of the domino logic block generates a signal similar to the clock signal in phase when the clock enable signal has a logic high state. On the other hand, the output of the domino logic block generates a logic low signal when the clock enable signal has a logic low state. Furthermore, the static logic block and the domino logic block can reduce the setup time and delay time of the internal clock gating apparatus respectively.
US08575956B2
A semiconductor device includes an impedance control signal generation unit configured to generate an impedance control signal for controlling an impedance value, a first processing unit configured to process the impedance control signal in response to a first setup value and generate a first process signal, a first clock termination unit configured to be coupled with a first clock path and determine an impedance value responding to the impedance control signal, and a second clock termination unit configured to be coupled with a second clock path and determine an impedance value responding to the first process signal.
US08575949B2
A vehicle component is provided that includes a console surface, at least one circuit board proximate the console surface, and an array of proximity sensors electrically connected to the at least one circuit board. Each of the proximity sensors emit a field that combine to form an activation field, wherein a lateral direction of the activation field extending approximately parallel to the console surface is greater than a longitudinal direction of the activation field extending approximately perpendicular to the console surface.
US08575945B2
A subsea line monitoring device includes a diagnostic unit adapted to be deployed, in use, in a subsea location and having a first connector, the diagnostic unit being operable, in use, to output a signal indicative of the integrity of a line or device connected to the first connector. The subsea line monitoring device may be deployed on a long term or permanent basis at the subsea location.
US08575942B2
This invention relates to non-contact measurement methods and an apparatus for the identification of hazardous contact voltages on energized objects and surfaces. The apparatus includes an electric field sensor structured to sense an electric field and a gain amplifier electrically connected to the electric field sensor to amplify electric signals from the electric field sensor. The apparatus further includes a signal conditioning circuit adapted to process the amplified electric signals and form time-coordinated signals and a digital signal processor adapted to evaluate the time-coordinated signals and provide a user with a status of a contact voltage source by activating an appropriate status indicator.
US08575939B2
A battery includes a first terminal, a second terminal, an outer layer, and a power indicator apparatus. The power indicator apparatus comprises an electrical conductor and a mechanical switch. The electrical conductor is configured to be in continuous electrical communication with the first terminal. The mechanical switch is configured to be actuated by an application of pressure at a single location, and upon actuation, to place the electrical conductor in electrical communication with the second terminal such that the power indication apparatus can facilitate a reading of a potential energy stored in the battery. Methods of determining a potential energy stored in the battery are also provided herein.
US08575933B2
A method for motion correction using coil arrays, termed “MOCCA,” is provided, in which coil-dependent motion-related signal variations are employed to determine information related to motion in two and three directions. With such a method, navigator echoes are not required, nor is the acquisition of additional data required to resolve complex motions in more than one direction. The motion estimation and compensation method provided by MOCCA is also applicable to applications of cardiac, respiratory, and other physiological self-gating techniques.
US08575929B1
A magnetic anomaly surveillance system includes triaxial magnetometer (TM) sensors arranged at known locations in an array. A processor coupled to the TM sensors generates a scalar magnitude of a magnetic anomaly field measured at each of the TM sensors. The scalar magnitude is indicative of a spherical radius centered at the known location associated with a corresponding one of the TM sensors. The processor also generates a comparison between each scalar magnitude and a threshold value. The processor then determines at least one magnetic anomaly location in the coordinate system via a spherical trilateration process that uses each spherical radius and each scalar magnitude associated with selected ones of the TM sensors for which the threshold value is exceeded. One or more output devices coupled to the processor output data indicative of the one or more magnetic anomaly locations.
US08575918B2
A system and method for measuring electrical current by measuring magnetic flux density is presented. A magnetic flux density measuring device for measuring a magnetic field strength generated by a current in a conductor includes a ring, a pair of metal strips with high magnetic permeability and a magnetic field sensor. The ring is generally concentric with the conductor and supports the pair of metal strips. The metal strips are located back-to-back and form a gap between the metal strips. The sensor located in the gap to measure the magnetic field strength in the gap.
US08575917B2
Load detection circuitry is provided that may be used to monitor an output line. The load detection circuitry may include one or more current sensing resistors. A monitor circuit can measure voltages across the current sensing resistors to determine whether current is flowing through a load connected to the output line. In configurations with multiple different current sensing resistors, the monitor circuit can determine the amount of current that is flowing through the load based on the measured voltages. A switch may be interposed between the current sensing resistor and the output line. A current-limited voltage regulator may supply a voltage to the output line. The monitor circuit may periodically open the switch and monitor resulting voltage changes on the output line to determine whether an electronic device or other load is attached. Opening of the switch may be inhibited whenever current is sensed through a current sensing resistor.
US08575916B2
A power equipment protection system includes a first circuit monitoring device configured to monitor a first circuit, a second circuit monitoring device configured to monitor a second circuit that is electrically coupled to the first circuit, and a processor communicatively coupled to the first circuit monitoring device and the second circuit monitoring device. The processor is configured to receive a signal indicative of a fault from at least one of the first circuit monitoring device and the second circuit monitoring device, determine whether the fault occurred in the first circuit or in the second circuit, and if the fault occurred in the second circuit, determine whether the fault is an arc event.
US08575913B2
There is described a pulse analyzer (1) for sampling a pulse or a repetitive stream of pulses. The pulse analyzer multiplies a pulse by a set of basis functions (c1, c2) to generate a plurality of multiplied pulse functions, and a synthesizer (9a, 9b, 13) combines the multiplied pulse functions to generate a pulse sample. In particular, the synthesizer performs at least one integrating operation over an integration interval substantially corresponding to the duration of the pulse and at least one adding operation. The basis functions are such that the output of the synthesizer corresponds to a pulse sample for a sample time interval shorter than the integration interval.
US08575903B2
A voltage regulator, according to the present invention, can operate with or without an external power transistor to generate a regulated output voltage. The voltage regulator determines whether an external power transistor is connected thereto. The voltage regulator then automatically sets a frequency compensation scheme that depends on whether an external power transistor has been detected.
US08575898B2
A charging circuit includes a monitoring part configured to monitor a battery voltage applied to a battery and configured to output an overvoltage signal when the battery is in an overvoltage condition a protection part configured to electrically disconnect the battery from an adaptor when receiving the overvoltage signal, and a switch which, when the battery is electrically disconnected from the adaptor, switches a monitoring node for an adaptor voltage outputted from the adaptor, from a supply node of the battery voltage to a supply node of a system voltage, which is applied to a system electrically connected with the battery and the adaptor, based on the overvoltage signal to cause a control command for controlling the adaptor voltage based on the system voltage to be outputted.
US08575897B2
A battery temperature control system, in temperature rise control, sets a maximum chargeable current and a maximum dischargeable current based on detection values of current, voltage, and temperature of a high-voltage battery, and controls charging/discharging power so that the current of the high-voltage battery does not exceed the maximum chargeable current or the maximum dischargeable current. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the high-voltage battery from abnormal heating and promptly raise its temperature according to change in the internal state of the high-voltage battery. In this control, a plurality of electrical equipment is selectively used. The amplitude of charging/discharging is controlled to reduce vibration noise and driving force fluctuation.
US08575886B2
A power storage apparatus is installed in connection with a power generation system using natural energy generation power. The power storage apparatus is comprised of a control unit and a plurality of electricity storage devices. The control unit is structured to calculate a target value of power station output, to calculate a charge and discharge power instruction of each of the plurality of electricity storage devices, and to instruct the charge and discharge. The control unit calculates a correction value of the charge and discharge power to be charged and discharged by the power storage apparatus to permit the charge rate of the plurality of secondary batteries to follow an individual charge rate target value.
US08575884B2
A motor drive control system connected to an alternating current/direct current conversion circuit which converts alternating-current voltage or alternating current to direct-current voltage or direct current are provided. A control circuit controls supply or stop of the supply of the direct-current voltage or direct current from the alternating current/direct current conversion circuit to the first number of first direct current/alternating current conversion circuits and the second number of second direct current/alternating current conversion circuits while maintaining the total of the outputs of the first number of motors and the outputs of the second number of motors at a certain power not more than power which can be supplied from the alternating current/direct current conversion circuit.
US08575879B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, systems, a machine-readable medium operable in a controller, and apparatus for controlling a multi-phase inverter that drives a multi-phase electric machine. When a sensor fault is detected, a phase current angle is computed based on the feedback stator currents, and used to estimate an angular velocity and an angular position of a rotor of the multi-phase electric machine. When the estimated angular velocity of the multi-phase electric machine is less than a transition angular velocity threshold, an open-circuit response can be applied at the multi-phase inverter by controlling all switches in the multi-phase inverter drive to be open. By contrast, when the estimated angular velocity is greater than the transition angular velocity threshold, a short-circuit response can be applied at the multi-phase inverter by controlling selected switches in the multi-phase inverter drive to connect all phases of the multi-phase inverter to a single bus (e.g., either the plus bus or the minus bus).
US08575870B2
A vibratory driving device includes a shaft-like driving member, an electromechanical transducer which can incline the driving member and which also can displace the driving member in the axial direction of the driving member, a movable member which slidably engages on the driving member, a driving circuit which can apply to the electromechanical transducer a frictional driving voltage displacing the driving member back and forth with a speed varying asymmetrically in the axial direction to slidingly displace the movable member with respect to the driving member and a periodic inclination driving voltage oscillating the driving member, a resonance frequency meter which measures a resonance frequency of the inclining oscillation of the driving member, and a position estimator which estimates a position of the movable member based on the resonance frequency.
US08575865B2
Systems, methods, and devices are provided for maintaining a target white point on a light emitting diode based backlight. In one embodiment, the backlight may include two or more strings of light emitting diodes, each driven at a respective driving strength. Each string may include light emitting diodes from a different color bin, and the respective driving strengths may be adjusted, for example, through pulse width modulation or amplitude modulation, to maintain the target white point. In certain embodiments, the driving strengths may be adjusted to compensate for shifts in the white point that may occur due to temperature or aging. A controller may adjust the driving strengths based on feedback from a temperature sensor, from an optical sensor, from a user input, or from calibration data included within the backlight or system.
US08575858B2
Systems and methods for allowing replacement of updated light heads with different design parameters to become independent of the remote power supply. An exemplary light system includes a light head remote from a power supply component. The light head includes one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or other light emitting devices, a memory that stores configuration information and a communication component. The power supply component includes a power converter, a memory, and a controller. The power converter outputs an electrical signal for driving the one or more LEDs. The memory stores light head configuration information. The controller receives configuration information from the communication component via the data bus, generates and sends instructions, based on at least one of the configuration information stored in the power supply component memory or the configuration information received from the light head, to the power converter.
US08575849B2
A driver circuit, solid state light (SSL) source assembly including same, and a method of driving an SSL source are provided. The driver circuit includes a rectifier, an inverter, a transformer, a PFC circuit, and a frequency control. The rectifier receives an AC voltage and provides an unregulated DC voltage. The inverter includes two switches, and receives respective control signals to operate these, to generate a resonate AC signal from the unregulated DC voltage. The transformer includes a primary winding coupled to the inverter, a secondary winding to be coupled to an SSL source through an output stage, and a feedback winding. The PFC circuit controls the inverter in response to signals representative of the unregulated DC voltage and the inverter's current. The frequency control generates the control signals to control the inverter's switching frequency in response to signals representative of the output stage's current and the feedback winding's current.
US08575847B2
A control circuit of a light-emitting element comprises a rectifying unit (30), a switching element (38), a transformer (48) having a first winding (L1) which generates a magnetic field using a current controlled by switching of the switching element (38), a second winding (L2) which is magnetically coupled to the first winding (L1) and which generates a current flowing to an LED (102), and a third winding (L3) which is magnetically coupled to the first winding (L1) and which generates a voltage (Sfbk), and an averaging capacitor (32) which averages a voltage derived by superposing a voltage (Srec) rectified by the rectifying unit (30) and the voltage (Sfbk), and a voltage averaged by the averaging capacitor (32) is applied to the first winding (L1), so that light is emitted from the LED (102).
US08575844B1
The plasma klystron switching device of the present invention may include a low-dielectric substrate, a plasma cavity internally pressurized by an inert gas, a circuit assembly formed on the first surface of the low-dielectric substrate and enclosed by the plasma cavity, wherein the circuit assembly includes a first electrode and a second electrode configured to form a switching gap, wherein the switching gap is configured to act as a high conductance plasma generation zone during an ON state of the plasma klystron switching device and a low conductance zone during an OFF state of the plasma klystron switching device, an evacuated klystron resonance generator, wherein the klystron resonance generator includes a klystron resonance cavity, wherein the klystron resonance generator includes a coupling aperture configured to RF couple the klystron resonance cavity and the plasma cavity, and a field emitter array configured to energize the klystron resonance generator.
US08575831B2
There is described an EHID lamp that comprises a field applicator, a means for coupling RF power to the field applicator, and a discharge vessel; the discharge vessel being disposed within the field applicator and containing a discharge medium; the field applicator being comprised of a solid, transparent or translucent dielectric material and having an optical control surface and a conductive coating that substantially covers its external surfaces. By combining functions served by otherwise individual components, the EHID lamp of this invention has the potential for reducing parts count, improving RF coupling to the plasma, reducing shadowing, and improving reliability.
US08575830B2
An electrode material that may be used in spark plugs and other ignition devices including industrial plugs, aviation igniters, glow plugs, or any other device that is used to ignite an air/fuel mixture in an engine. The electrode material is a metal composite and includes a particulate component embedded or dispersed within a matrix component such that the metal composite has a multi-phase microstructure. In one embodiment, the metal composite includes a matrix component that includes a precious metal and makes up about 2-80% wt of the overall composite and a particulate component that includes a ruthenium-based material and makes up about 20-98% wt of the overall composite.
US08575822B2
A piezoelectric/electrostrictive actuator, including a piezoelectric/electrostrictive element that includes at least one laminate including one piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer and one pair of electrodes disposed respectively on both sides of said piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer and has a moving part corresponding to a portion where said piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer is sandwiched by one pair of said electrodes and a non-moving part corresponding to a portion where said piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer is not sandwiched by one pair of said electrodes, and a moisture proof membrane disposed to cover at least the proximity of the boundary between said moving part and said non-moving part and consisting of silicone-based organic insulation material with storage elastic modulus of 100 kPa or less obtained by dynamic viscoelastic measurement using a parallel cone with diameter of 25 mm under a condition with strain of 0.1%, frequency of 1 Hz, gap of 0.5 mm and temperature of 22° C.
US08575819B1
Microelectromechanical resonators include a resonator body with a built-in piezoelectric-based varactor diode. This built-in varactor diode supports passive frequency tuning by enabling low-power manipulation of the stiffness of a piezoelectric layer, in response to controlling charge build-up therein at resonance. A resonator may include a composite stack of a bottom electrode, a piezoelectric layer on the bottom electrode and at least one top electrode on the piezoelectric layer. The piezoelectric layer includes a built-in varactor diode, which is defined by at least two regions having different concentrations of electrically active dopants therein.
US08575809B2
It is described a stator for an energy converting apparatus, the stator comprising the stator including a support structure having an annular shape around an axial direction; a first protrusion coupled to the support structure and extending radially from the support structure; a second protrusion coupled to the support structure and extending radially from the support structure, the second protrusion being spaced apart from the first protrusion in a circumferential direction; and a first wire arranged between the first protrusion and the second protrusion in a plurality of first radial layers located at different radial positions and configured such that a circumferential extent of a cross-sectional area of the first wire increases radially outwards. Further is described an energy converting apparatus including the stator, and a wind turbine including the energy converging apparatus.
US08575807B2
An electric drive motor that is intended for a vehicle, in particular for a motor vehicle, includes a stator and a rotor with at least one pole pair, wherein each pole of a respective pole pair has a magnet arrangement having at least one buried magnetic layer. The drive motor is characterized in that each pole has a number of magnetic flux influencing groups, each of which has a number of air-filled recesses, which are not assigned to a magnet of a respective magnetic layer for purposes of flux conductance.
US08575797B2
A low profile permanent magnet synchronous motor with segment structure. In accordance with this invention, a stator assembly for an electromagnetic motor is provided. The stator assembly has a first stator core and a second stator core that couple windings. Teeth extend outward from each stator core and through the windings to contact the other stator core.
US08575785B2
A system is described that turns off a high power, power supply when a device no longer needs high power. A low power, power supply or a rechargeable battery provides power to determine when the device again needs high power. The low power supply consumes a minimum possible power when the device does not need high power and the power rechargeable battery is not charged. That is, the high power and low power, power supplies are turned on or off based on the real time power consumption need of the device and the charged state of the battery. The power need of the device is monitored by a current shunt monitoring circuit and a control signal monitoring circuit.
US08575774B2
A generator-steam turbine-turbocompressor-string is provided. The generator-stream turbine-turbocompressor-string includes a generator with variable frequency, a steam turbine and a turbocompressor which can be driven by the generator and/or the steam turbine. The generator and the steam turbine are coupled together to a shafting, wherein the generator may be electrically coupled to an electrical power supply system for power supply feeding and the steam turbine may be connected to a live steam feeding device for the feeding of live steam to the steam turbine, such that the generator-steam turbine-turbocompressor-string has a rotational speed which is controllable by varying the power supply feeding and/or by the live steam feeding.
US08575772B2
A permanent magnet (PM) machine system is provided having a PM machine and a controller in communication with the PM machine. The PM machine has a q-axis voltage feedback signal and a pullout torque that represents a peak torque that the PM machine generates. The controller includes a q-axis current regulator that produces a commanded q-axis voltage that is supplied to the PM machine. The controller also includes at least one control logic for monitoring the q-axis voltage feedback signal of the PM machine.
US08575757B2
Even when a stiffener is omitted, the semiconductor device which can prevent the generation of twist and distortion of a wiring substrate is obtained. As for a semiconductor device which has a wiring substrate, a semiconductor chip by which the flip chip bond was made to the wiring substrate, and a heat spreader adhered to the back surface of the semiconductor chip, and which omitted the stiffener for reinforcing a wiring substrate and maintaining the surface smoothness of a heat spreader, a wiring substrate has a plurality of insulating substrates in which a through hole whose diameter differs, respectively was formed, and each insulating substrate contains a glass cloth.
US08575753B2
A semiconductor device includes an interlayer insulating layer disposed on a substrate, the interlayer insulating layer comprising an opening exposing the substrate, a barrier layer pattern disposed within the opening, and a conductive pattern disposed on the barrier layer pattern, the conductive pattern having an oxidized portion extending out of the opening and a non-oxidized portion within the opening, wherein a width of the conductive pattern is determined by a thickness of the barrier layer pattern.
US08575744B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor element and a lead frame. The lead frame includes a first lead, a second lead, a third lead, a fourth lead, and a fifth lead placed parallel to one another. The first and second leads are placed adjoining to each other and constitute a first lead group, and the third and fourth leads are placed adjoining to each other and constitute a second lead group. The spacing between the first lead group and the fifth lead, the spacing between the second lead group and the fifth lead, and the spacing between the first lead group and the second lead group are larger than the spacing between the first lead and the second lead and the spacing between the third lead and the fourth lead.
US08575736B2
Some exemplary embodiments of an advanced direct contact leadless package and related structure and method, especially suitable for packaging high current semiconductor devices, have been disclosed. One exemplary structure comprises a mold compound enclosing a first contact lead frame portion, a paddle portion, and an extended contact lead frame portion held together by a mold compound. A first semiconductor device is attached on top of the lead frame portions as a flip chip, while a second semiconductor device is attached to a bottom side of said paddle portion and is in electrical contact with said the first semiconductor device. The extended contact lead frame portion is in direct electrical contact with the second semiconductor device without using a bond wire. Alternative exemplary embodiments may include additional extended lead frame portions, paddle portions, and semiconductor devices in various configurations.
US08575731B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit device with a balun which is formed above a conductive semiconductor substrate and which includes a dielectric film, an unbalanced line for transmitting an unbalanced signal, and balanced lines for transmitting a balanced signal. The unbalanced line is placed opposite to the balanced lines via a nano-composite film that is a region of the dielectric film. The nano-composite film, interposed between the unbalanced line and the balanced lines, has a relative permittivity higher than that of other regions of the dielectric film. This allows suppression of electromagnetic coupling of transmission lines or passive elements other than the balun, thereby providing a semiconductor device with a wide-band and small-size balun.
US08575726B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor chip including: a first main face having an edge portion, a second main face locating the opposite side to the first main face, a crystalline defect region present within a region including at least the edge portion being adjacent to the first main face, the crystalline defect region being configured to have lower stress than the stress in the other semiconductor region for the same strain; and a metallic substrate to be bonded via a bonding member to the first main face of the semiconductor chip.
US08575724B2
A semiconductor device including a semiconductor die in a die stack under-filled with a film. Once the semiconductor die are formed, they may be stacked and interconnected. The interconnection may leave a small space between semiconductor die in the die stack. This space is advantageously completely filled using a vapor deposition process where a coating is deposited as a vapor which flows over all surfaces of the die stack, including into the spaces between the die in the stack. The vapor then deposits on the surfaces between and around the die and forms a film which completely fills the spaces between the die in the die stack. The material used in the vapor deposition under-fill process may for example be a member of the parylene family of polymers, and in embodiments, may be parylene-N.
US08575720B2
A process is described for integrating, on an inert substrate, a device having at least one passive component and one active component. The process comprises: deposition of a protection dielectric layer on the inert substrate; formation of a polysilicon island on the protection dielectric layer; integration of the active component on the polysilicon island; deposition of the covering dielectric layer on the protection dielectric layer and on the active component; integration of the passive component on the covering dielectric layer; formation of first contact structures in openings realised in the covering dielectric layer in correspondence with active regions of the active component; and formation of second contact structures in correspondence with the passive component. An integrated device obtained through this process is also described.
US08575719B2
Silicon nitride antifuses can be advantageously used in memory arrays employing diode-antifuse cells. Silicon nitride antifuses can be ruptured faster and at a lower breakdown field than antifuses formed of other materials, such as silicon dioxide. Examples are given of monolithic three dimensional memory arrays using silicon nitride antifuses with memory cells disposed in rail-stacks and pillars, and including PN and Schottky diodes. Pairing a silicon nitride antifuse with a low-density, high-resistivity conductor gives even better device performance.
US08575704B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a device region including first and second parts, first and second gate electrodes formed in the first and the second parts, first and second source regions, first and second drain regions, first, second, third, and fourth embedded isolation film regions formed under the first source, the first drain, the second source, and the second drain regions, respectively. Further, the first drain region and the second source region form a single diffusion region, the second and the third embedded isolation film regions form a single embedded isolation film region, an opening is formed in a part of the single diffusion region so as to extend to the second and the third embedded isolation film regions, and the opening is filled with an isolation film.
US08575703B2
In a semiconductor device having paired transistors, an imbalance in characteristics of the paired transistors is reduced or prevented while an increase in circuit area is reduced or prevented. First and second transistors have first and second regions having the same active region pattern, and third and fourth transistors have third and fourth regions having the same active region pattern. The active regions of the third and fourth transistors have a longer length in the channel length direction than that of the active regions of the first and second transistors. The third and fourth regions have a narrower width in the channel length direction than that of the first and second regions.
US08575702B2
A semiconductor device includes: an active region configured over a substrate to include a first conductive-type first deep well and second conductive-type second deep well forming a junction therebetween. A gate electrode extends across the junction and over a portion of first conductive-type first deep well and a portion of the second conductive-type second deep well. A second conductive-type source region is in the first conductive-type first deep well at one side of the gate electrode whereas a second conductive-type drain region is in the second conductive-type second deep well on another side of the gate electrode. A first conductive-type impurity region is in the first conductive-type first deep well surrounding the second conductive-type source region and extending toward the junction so as to partially overlap with the gate electrode and/or partially overlap with the second conductive-type source region.
US08575700B2
A charge-balance power device formed in an epitaxial layer having a first conductivity type and housing at least two columnar structures of a second conductivity type, which extend through the epitaxial layer. A first surface region of the second conductivity type extends along the surface of the epitaxial layer on top of, and in contact with, the columns, and a second surface region of the first conductivity type extends within the first surface region, and also faces the surface of the epitaxial layer. The columns extend at a distance from one another from the first surface region so as to delimit between them an epitaxial portion that defines a current path so as to reduce the on-resistivity of the device.
US08575697B2
An SRAM-type memory cell that includes a semiconductor on insulator substrate having a thin film of semiconductor material separated from a base substrate by an insulating layer; and six transistors such as two access transistors, two conduction transistors and two charge transistors arranged so as to form with the conduction transistors two back-coupled inverters. Each of the transistors has a back control gate formed in the base substrate below the channel and able to be biased in order to modulate the threshold voltage of the transistor, with a first back gate line connecting the back control gates of the access transistors to a first potential and a second back gate line connecting the back control gates of the conduction transistors and charge transistors to a second potential. The first and second potentials can be modulated according to the type of cell control operation.
US08575693B1
The present invention discloses a double diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) device. The DMOS device is formed in a substrate, and includes a high voltage well, a first field oxide region, a first gate, a first source, a drain, a body region, a body electrode, a second field oxide region, a second gate, and a second source. The second field oxide region and the first field oxide region are separated by the high voltage well and the body region. A part of the second gate is on the second field oxide region, and another part of the second gate is on the body region. The second gate is electrically connected to the first gate, and the second source is electrically connected to the first source, such that when the DMOS device is ON, a surface channel and a buried channel are formed.
US08575681B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a substrate, a conductive layer provided on a major surface of the substrate, a stacked body, a memory film, and a channel body. The stacked body includes multiple insulating layers alternately stacked with multiple electrode layers on the conductive layer. The memory film includes a charge storage film provided on side walls of holes made to pierce the stacked body. The channel body includes a pair of columnar portions and a linking portion. The pair of columnar portions is provided on an inner side of the memory film inside the holes. The linking portion is provided inside the conductive layer to link lower ends of the pair of columnar portions. The electrode layers are tilted with respect to the major surface of the substrate. The columnar portions of the channel body and the memory film pierce the tilted portion of the electrode layers.
US08575669B2
The present invention relates to a highly integrated semiconductor device in which a capacitor is formed between adjacent gate patterns by using a nanotube process. A semiconductor memory device according to an example embodiment of the present invention includes a capacitor formed on a first side of a source/drain region positioned between gate patterns of adjacent cell transistors; a plate layer connected to an upper portion of the capacitor, the plate layer being formed in a direction intersecting the gate pattern; and a bit line connected to a second side of the source/drain region of the cell transistor, the bit line being formed in the direction intersecting the gate pattern.
US08575657B2
A GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) device having a silicon carbide substrate including a top surface and a bottom surface, where the substrate further includes a via formed through the bottom surface and into the substrate. The device includes a plurality of epitaxial layers provided on the top surface of the substrate, a plurality of device layers provided on the epitaxial layers, and a diamond layer provided within the via.
US08575642B1
Techniques are disclosed for transmitting electromagnetic radiation such as ultra-violet, violet, blue, blue and yellow, and/or blue and green electromagnetic radiation, from LED devices fabricated on bulk semipolar or nonpolar materials and using phosphors. The substrate may include polar gallium nitride.
US08575641B2
Solid state light sources based on LEDs mounted on or within thermally conductive luminescent elements provide both convective and radiative cooling. Low cost self-cooling solid state light sources can integrate the electrical interconnect of the LEDs and other semiconductor devices. The thermally conductive luminescent element can completely or partially eliminate the need for any additional heatsinking means by efficiently transferring and spreading out the heat generated in LED and luminescent element itself over an area sufficiently large enough such that convective and radiative means can be used to cool the device.
US08575636B2
A first light-blocking member and a second light-blocking member are adhered to each other by forming a light-transmitting layer having a light-transmitting composition serving as a base material and a light-transmitting filler different in index of refraction from this light-transmitting composition on a front surface of the first light-blocking member. A liquid light curing adhesive is applied to a front surface of the light-transmitting layer. The second light-blocking member is arranged on the front surface of the light-transmitting layer to which the liquid light curing adhesive has been applied. The liquid light curing adhesive is cured by irradiating the light-transmitting layer with light having a prescribed wavelength laterally from a side of the light-transmitting layer so as to adhere the light-transmitting layer and the second light-blocking member to each other. By adhering light-blocking members to each other, an adhesion operation may easily and quickly be performed with sufficient adhesion strength.
US08575629B2
In order to improve the light extraction efficiency of a light-emitting element, the light-emitting element includes: a light-emitting layer provided between an electrode and a transparent substrate; a particle layer provided between the light-emitting layer and the transparent substrate; and an adhesive layer provided between the light-emitting layer and the particle layer, the particle layer includes particles having a refraction index that is higher than a refraction index of the transparent substrate, the adhesive layer has a refraction index that is higher than the refraction index of the transparent substrate, and the particle layer has an average thickness that is less than an average particle size of the particles.
US08575626B2
A method for manufacturing a bi-section semiconductor laser device includes the steps of (A) forming a stacked structure obtained by stacking, on a substrate in sequence, a first compound semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a compound semiconductor layer that constitutes a light-emitting region and a saturable absorption region, and a second compound semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type; (B) forming a belt-shaped second electrode on the second compound semiconductor layer; (C) forming a ridge structure by etching at least part of the second compound semiconductor layer using the second electrode as an etching mask; and (D) forming a resist layer for forming a separating groove in the second electrode and then forming the separating groove in the second electrode by wet etching so that the separating groove separates the second electrode into a first portion and a second portion.
US08575620B2
The present invention provides a circuit board with a reduced circuit area, and a display device comprising the circuit board and a narrower picture frame. The circuit board of the present invention comprises: a bottom gate thin film transistor comprising a first semiconductor layer, a first gate electrode, a first source electrode, and a first drain electrode; and a top gate thin film transistor comprising a second semiconductor layer, a second gate electrode, a second source electrode, and a second drain electrode, wherein the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are formed from the same material, and the first drain electrode or the first source electrode and the second gate electrode are connected without interposing any other thin film transistor therebetween, and have the same electric potential.
US08575607B2
A flat panel display device that can achieve uniformity between pixel circuits and improved image quality includes: a first pixel including a first light emitting device and not including a pixel circuit; and a second pixel spaced apart from the first pixel and including a first circuit that is electrically connected to the first light emitting device. Active layers of thin film transistors in the pixel circuits are formed of polycrystalline silicon crystallized from an amorphous silicon and patterned from an area of the polycrystalline silicon in which lasers of an excimer laser annealing process did not overlap.
US08575605B2
An organic light-emitting display device includes: a substrate having a transistor region and a thin-film transistor having a gate electrode, a source/drain electrode and an active layer sequentially formed on the transistor region, wherein a portion of the source/drain electrode is between the active layer and substrate.
US08575598B2
An organic light emitting diode display that includes a first electrode arranged on a substrate, an organic emission layer arranged on the first electrode and a second electrode arranged on the organic emission layer, the first electrode includes a first layer, a second layer and a third layer stacked sequentially on the organic emission layer, the second layer has a lower work function than the third. Here, the second layer has a higher work function than that of the third layer.
US08575596B2
Techniques are disclosed for forming a non-planar germanium quantum well structure. In particular, the quantum well structure can be implemented with group IV or III-V semiconductor materials and includes a germanium fin structure. In one example case, a non-planar quantum well device is provided, which includes a quantum well structure having a substrate (e.g. SiGe or GaAs buffer on silicon), a IV or III-V material barrier layer (e.g., SiGe or GaAs or AlGaAs), a doping layer (e.g., delta/modulation doped), and an undoped germanium quantum well layer. An undoped germanium fin structure is formed in the quantum well structure, and a top barrier layer deposited over the fin structure. A gate metal can be deposited across the fin structure. Drain/source regions can be formed at respective ends of the fin structure.
US08575595B2
A semiconductor device comprises an active layer above a first confinement layer. The active layer comprises a layer of α-Sn less than 20 nm thick. The first confinement layer is formed of material with a wider band gap than α-Sn, wherein the band gap offset between α-Sn and this material allows confinement of charge carriers in the active layer so that the active layer acts as a quantum well. A similar second confinement layer may be formed over the active layer. This semiconductor device may be a p-FET. A method of fabricating such a semiconductor device is described.
US08575590B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device including a first interconnection layer, memory cell modules each of which is formed by laminating a non-ohmic element layer with an MIM structure having an insulating film sandwiched between metal films and a variable resistance element layer, and a second interconnection layer formed on the memory cell modules, the insulating film of the non-ohmic element layer includes plural layers whose electron barriers and dielectric constants are different, or contains impurity atoms that form defect levels in the insulating film or contains semiconductor or metal dots. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory device using non-ohmic elements and variable resistance elements in which memory cells can be miniaturized and formed at low temperatures is realized by utilizing the above structures.
US08575588B2
A method for forming a phase change memory cell (PCM) includes forming a heater for the phase change memory and forming a phase change structrure electrically coupled to the heater. The forming a heater includes siliciding a material including silicon to form a silicide structure, wherein the heater includes at least a portion of the silicide structure. The phase change structure exhibits a first resistive value when in a first phase state and exhibits a second resistive value when in a second phase state. The silicide structure produces heat when current flows through the silicide structure for changing the phase state of the phase change structure.
US08575583B2
A memory storage device includes: a lower electrode formed to be separated for each of memory cells; a memory storage layer formed on the lower electrode and capable of recording information according to a change in resistance; and an upper electrode formed on the memory storage layer, wherein the memory storage device includes a first layer formed of metal or metal silicide and a second layer formed on the first layer and formed of a metal nitride, the lower electrode is formed by lamination of the first layer and the second layer and formed such that only the first layer is in contact with a lower layer and only the second layer is in contact with the memory storage layer, which is an upper layer, the memory storage layer is formed in common to plural memory cells, and the upper electrode is formed in common to the plural memory cells.
US08575575B2
A system and method for an extreme ultraviolet light chamber comprising a collector mirror, a cooling system coupled to a backside of the collector mirror operative to cool a reflective surface of the collector mirror and a buffer gas source coupled to the extreme ultraviolet light chamber.
US08575569B2
In order to reduce light leak influencing the detection capability of a fluorescence imaging apparatus, an interference filter and an absorption filter on an emission-side filter section are arranged serially in the traveling direction of the fluorescence. The interference filter and the absorption filter that are in use for such an arrangement block the waveband light equivalent to the excitation light irradiated onto a sample while fully transmitting the waveband light equivalent to the fluorescence.
US08575562B2
Embodiments of an apparatus, and an inspection system incorporating the apparatus, prevent exposure to radiation during inspection of tubes (e.g., boiler tubes). The embodiments can comprise a housing and a pair of translating baffles that engage the outside of the housing. In one embodiment, the housing moves relative to the translating baffles during rotation of the housing to change the orientation of the housing relative to the boiler tubes. The housing and the translating baffles maintain engagement to prevent radiation from leaking out of the housing and into the surrounding environment.
US08575561B2
A readout board for use in a micropattern gas detector comprises a plurality of detector pads arranged into a plurality of consecutive layers that are separated by dielectric spacer material. An electron cloud hitting the front side of the readout board will induce a charge on one of the detector pads of the uppermost layer. By capacitive coupling, the signal will propagate downwards through the consecutive layers until it reaches the bottom layer, from which the charges are read out and analyzed. The position of the impact can be determined by comparing the charges that have spread to neighboring readout pads. Since only the bottommost layer of the readout pads needs to be connected to readout electronics, incident particles can be localized at high precision despite the relatively large size of the readout pads in the bottom layer. The invention is effective both in a gas electron multiplier (GEM) and in a MicroMegas detector.
US08575557B2
The present invention provides a radiation detection element and a radiographic imaging device that may provide optimal resolution that corresponds to the purpose of imaging and to imaging speed, and that may suppress increase in device size. Namely, TFTs of plural pixels in a column direction are connected to the same signal lines. When a moving image is imaged, a control signal is output via a control line, the TFTs of the pixels are turned on, and the charges are read-out from sensor sections. Since the two pixels×two pixels are operated as one pixel and the charges are extracted, resolution may be lowered when compared with a still image and a frame rate may be improved.
US08575549B2
A machine tool monitoring device includes a detection device (32) for detecting the presence of a type of material, in particular human tissue, in a machine tool area (34) via spectral evaluation of radiation (S). The detection device (32) includes a sensor unit (50) having at least one sensitivity range (64) for detecting radiation in a wavelength range (WL2) located at least partially in the infrared spectrum (72).
US08575545B2
In one embodiment, a mass spectrometer includes an RF drive circuit for generating RF signals, a quadrupole mass filter, and a fixed connection assembly for delivering RF signals from the RF drive circuit to the quadrupole mass filter, the fixed connection assembly representing the entire delivery path of RF signals from the RF drive circuit to the quadrupole mass filter. By avoiding flexible components such as a freestanding wires or flexible circuit boards, the need for retuning when parts are removed or disturbed for testing or servicing is reduced, and a modular instrument in which components and connections are standardized and therefore interchangeable is realized.
US08575542B1
The invention relates to a device for performing electron capture dissociation on multiply charged cations. Provided is an electron emitter which, upon triggering, emits a plurality of low energy electrons suitable for efficient electron capture reactions to occur. Further, the device contains a particle emitter being located proximate to the electron emitter and being capable, upon triggering, to emit a plurality of high energy charged particles substantially in a direction towards the electron emitter in order that the electron emitter receives a portion of the emitted plurality of high energy charged particles and emission of the plurality of low energy electrons is triggered. A volume capable of containing a plurality of multiply charged cations is located in opposing relation to the electron emitter such that the volume receives the plurality of low energy electrons upon emission as to allow electron capture dissociation to occur.
US08575535B2
A sensing device is provided to sense light and generates a sensing output signal indicating intensity of the light. The sensing device includes a photo element, a comparison circuit, and a logic circuit. The photo element senses the light and generates a current signal at a first node. The comparison circuit is coupled to the first node and receives the current signal. The comparison circuit includes a filter for filtering a high-frequency component on the current signal, and the comparison circuit generates a result signal according to the filtered current signal. The logic circuit receives the result signal and performs a logic operation to the result signal to generate the sensing output signal.
US08575531B2
The present invention provides a junction gate photo-diode (JGP) pixel that includes a JGP accumulating charge in response to impinging photons. The JGP is positioned on a substrate and includes a top n layer, a middle p layer and a bottom n layer forming a n-p-n junction, and a control terminal coupled to the top n layer. Also includes is a floating diffusion (FD) positioned on the substrate and coupled to a pixel output line through an amplifier. Also includes is a pinned barrier (PB) and a storage gate (SG) positioned on the substrate between the JGP and the FD. The PB temporarily blocks charge transfer between the JGP and the FD, and the SG stores the accumulated charge from the JGP, and transfers the stored charge to the FD for readout.
US08575501B2
A household appliance having a touch user interface that includes a touch panel with a touch area and a printed circuit board with a capacitive touch switch trace and wherein the printed circuit board is mounted to the touch panel such that the capacitive touch switch trace is aligned with the touch area.
US08575494B2
A printed circuit board (PCB) includes a bank or matrix of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). Each MLCC includes positive and negative electrodes respectively connected to a power layer and a ground layer of the PCB through two positive and two negative vias. A portion of the positive vias and a portion of the negative vias utilized by the same column of MLCCs are arranged in two separated lines along the flowing direction of current streams in the power layer.
US08575487B2
A first trunk line of a wire harness is inserted into a wire harness insertion space of a protector main body, and branch lines pulled out and branching to the left and right from the outlet are respectively bound to a second trunk line routed in left and right directions to form a triangular space enclosed by the left and right branch lines and the second trunk line. An elongated portion projecting to a position covering the triangular space is provided to the lid which makes a lock connection to close an opening of the protector main body, and while a male engagement portion protrudes on the elongated portion, a female engagement portion to which the male engagement portion engages and latches is provided from the bottom wall of the protector main body, and the lid connects to the protector main body in the triangular space.
