US08739570B2
A device or holder for holding a pair of eyeglasses that may be incorporated into a necklace assembly is provided. The holder or device may be connected to a necklace having a first and a second end by a linker, one linker attached to the holder and adapted to attach to a first end of a necklace and one linker attached to the holder and adapted to attach to a second end of a necklace. The first and second end of the necklace may have terminal loops. The necklace assembly may be worn about the neck having a device or holder for holding a temple piece of eyeglasses assembly connected between ends of the necklace. The device or holder for holding a temple piece of eyeglasses includes an eyeglass-holder tube and optionally a first and a second linker.
US08739562B2
Systems for limiting pressure differences in dual compressor chillers are provided. To achieve the efficiency benefits of series flow chillers within a single unit, an evaporator and/or a condenser may be partitioned into separate chambers by a baffle. Process fluid may then flow through one chamber of the evaporator and/or condenser prior to entering the other. This configuration creates a pressure differential between chambers which may reduce compressor head and result in greater chiller efficiency. However, to maintain the structural integrity of the evaporator and/or condenser baffle, a system for limiting this pressure differential may be employed. This system may include an evaporator pressure equalization valve, a common liquid line, or an equalizing line between separate liquid lines. Methods of operating dual compressor chillers using these systems are also provided.
US08739560B2
One exemplary embodiment of this invention provides a single-effect absorption chiller including an absorber operatively connected to a solution heat exchanger and a generator, and a condenser in fluid communication with the absorber, wherein the absorber is sized and configured to receive a feed of water from a source of water and to transfer heat to the feed of water and then to convey the feed of water to the condenser without further heat conditioning of the feed of water prior to its entry into the condenser, and wherein the condenser is sized and configured to receive the feed of water from the absorber and to transfer heat to the feed of water, thereby cooling the condenser without resorting to an external heat exchanger such as a conventional cooling tower.
US08739558B2
The various embodiments herein provide an air conditioner system for providing cold and warm air in cars and buildings. The air conditioner system includes a chamber, a plurality of input air blades, a plurality of input air filters, an electrical ventilator, one or more wet heat exchangers, and one or more dry heat exchangers installed in the chamber, an outgoing air heat exchanger, an operation selection valve, an electrical circulating pump, one or more sets of water sprayers nozzles, one or more water sprayer pumps, one or more thermoelectric modules and a microcontroller unit. The passing of air through the chamber is automatically controlled by the microcontroller unit based on the operation of the system in the cooling or heating mode. The air is cooled in the cooling mode using the multistage water evaporation mechanism.
US08739555B2
The rotary type ultralow temperature refrigerant supply apparatus includes a refrigerant introduction pipe coupled to the super conductive rotor for supplying a liquid-phase ultralow temperature refrigerant cooled by the refrigeration system to the evaporator, a refrigerant withdrawal pipe disposed spaced apart from the refrigerant introduction pipe for withdrawing a gas-phase ultralow temperature refrigerant obtained through the evaporation of the liquid-phase refrigerant by the evaporator and guiding the withdrawn gas-phase ultralow temperature refrigerant to the refrigeration system, and a vacuum housing fixedly disposed outside the refrigerant introduction pipe and the refrigerant withdrawal pipe, the vacuum housing having a vacuum heat insulation space defined inside.
US08739543B2
A method for operating a burner including a burner outlet opening with at least two sectors, each sector is assigned at least one fuel nozzle, is provided. The method is characterized in that fuel is supplied separately to the fuel nozzles of different sectors. Also described is a burner which includes at least two sectors wherein each sector is assigned at least one fuel nozzle. The burner includes at least two separate fuel supply lines and a device for adjusting the fuel mass flow which flows through the respective fuel supply line. The fuel supply lines supply fuel to the fuel nozzles of different sectors. Also described is a gas turbine which is fitted with at least one burner.
US08739540B2
A hermetic Rankine cycle in a sealed casing powers an internal centrifugal condensate pump with an internal vapor turbine during forced convective heat transfer between a heat source and a heat sink. No work is imported into the cycle during operation. A centrifugal pumping disk shears the working fluid against a heating surface, sweeping evolving vapor into radial vortices which provide sink flow conduits to a vapor space at the center of the cylindrical turbine. Convective mass flow through the vapor space to the condensing end of the casing spins the turbine and the centrifugal pumping disk which is connected to it. Vapor is continuously swept from the heating surface, so bubbles do not form and superheat while blocking heat flux into liquid working fluid. Vapor is sucked through the radial vortices into the central vapor space and into the condensing end of the casing along the low pressure gradients in vortex cores established by cooling power. A high heat flux surface is thereby thermally connected to a conventional heat sink having high cooling power, for maximal heat extraction at data centers or other heat sources. Vapor vortices organize counterflow of vapor and condensate in a continuous mass flow cycle, and extract work from heat. Organic working fluids can be used in the casing to make even low temperature waste heat a power source.
US08739538B2
An apparatus includes an electric generator having a stator and a rotor. A first turbine wheel is coupled to a first end of the rotor to rotate at the same speed as the rotor. A second turbine wheel is coupled to a second end of the rotor opposite the first end, and configured to rotate at the same speed as the rotor. The first and second turbine wheels may rotate in response to expansion of a working fluid flowing from an inlet side to an outlet side of the turbine wheels.
US08739537B2
In a power generation apparatus, a working medium is evaporated in an evaporator using a heating medium supplied from outside, and the evaporated working medium is subsequently introduced into an expander, which is connected to an electric generator, to convert a thermal expansion force of the working medium into a rotation force inside the expander for generation of electric power. Then, the working medium exhausted from the expander is fed into a condenser in which the working medium is condensed by cooling the working medium with a coolant medium supplied from outside, and the condensed working medium is pressurized by a circulating pump to resupply the evaporator with the pressurized working medium. In the power generation apparatus, when a condensing pressure in the condenser is high, a rotational speed of the circulating pump and a suction volume of the evaporator are increased.
US08739526B2
A compensating tank for a hydraulic motor vehicle brake system, having a housing including a housing upper part and a housing lower part and having a device for monitoring the tank filling level of the compensating tank, including a switching unit, which is welded to the housing and has a plug connector, and including a sensor or switching element which can be switched by a transducer at a switching point S at which the switching unit generates a signal for an electronic control unit. The housing has a depression for holding the switching unit, with the switching unit having a base body composed of plastic, which base body is welded to the housing in the depression, and with the depression being provided such that the base body of the switching unit forms a planar surface with the housing.
US08739525B2
A thermally-activated material assembly transformable between an actuated condition and a non-actuated condition including an actuator material that, in response to being heated and cooled above/below an actuation temperature, causes the actuator element to actuate from a non-actuated shape to an actuated shape, and vice versa, respectively. The assembly also includes a drive mechanism connected to the actuator element and a phase-change material (PCM) associated with the drive mechanism. The drive mechanism causes the PCM to either (i) directly engage the actuator element when the actuator assembly is in the non-actuated condition and to be disengaged from the actuator element when the actuator assembly is in the actuated condition or (ii) directly engage the actuator element when the actuator assembly is in the actuated condition and to be disengaged from the actuator element when the actuator assembly is in the non-actuated condition.
US08739522B2
Systems and methods provide for capturing heat energy in a power generation system. The system includes: a first compressor configured to exhaust a first compressed, heated air flow; a heat exchanger connected to the first compressor and configured to receive the first compressed, heated air flow and configured to transfer heat energy from the first compressed, heated air flow to an oil; at least one pump connected to the heat exchanger and configured to pump the heated oil in a closed-loop system from the heat exchanger to an insulated storage tank; a second compressor connected to the heat exchanger and configured to exhaust a second compressed, heated air flow; and an energy storage unit connected to the second compressor and configured to store heat energy from the second compressed, heated air flow.
US08739517B2
A method is provided for controlling regeneration of an SCR catalyst. The method includes coordinating the regeneration duration and temperature (e.g., longer/shorter regenerations and/or lower/higher temperatures) to the urea deposit loading. In this way, improved regeneration may be achieved due to the particular nature of urea deposits on SCR catalysts.
US08739516B2
The invention concerns a turbojet for aircraft including engine located in nacelle, and thermal exchanger intended to cool a fluid participating in the engine propulsive system, characterized in that said thermal exchanger is located on engine external wall, an interstitial space within which air can circulate being arranged between the engine external wall and a lower wall of said thermal exchanger. The invention also concerns an aircraft provided with at least one such turbojet.
US08739515B2
A nacelle assembly for a high-bypass gas turbine engine includes a variable area fan nozzle having a first fan nacelle section and a second fan nacelle section. The second fan nacelle section being axially movable relative the first fan nacelle section to define an auxiliary port to vary a fan nozzle exit area and adjust fan bypass airflow, the second fan nacelle section includes at least one cowl with an inner portion, an outer portion and a multiple of stiffeners therebetween to increase a flutter margin.
US08739507B2
A convertible interlocking cable track system for receiving and handling a flexible member for use in a longwall mining operation. The cable track system includes a series of links adapted to retain the flexible member, each of the links including a single pull link adapted to interconnect with adjacent links, wherein the single pull link is configured to cooperate with a cable control member to form an opening for receiving and handling the flexible member. The cable control member comprises either a shaped rod to form a single pull cable track system, or an outer link to convert the single pull link to a twin pull link in order to satisfy certain loading requirements. The cable track system also includes a securing arrangement for securing the cable control member to the single pull link and an interlocking system for joining the series of links to one another.
US08739490B2
A wall construction system includes a plurality of leveling blocks arranged in a first course wherein each leveling block including an upper surface, a wall defining a leveling block void, and at least one leveling component having a leveling plate that engages the wall and at least one threaded adjuster extending through the plate. A plurality of field blocks is arranged in a second course atop the first course wherein each field block includes a lower surface that interfits with the upper surface of at least one of the leveling blocks and a wall defining a field block void aligned with the leveling block void of the one leveling block. A cementitious material is disposed in an aligned field block void and leveling block void of at least one of the field blocks and at least one of the leveling blocks, respectively.
US08739487B2
A ceiling panel uses a perimeter frame with a wide outwardly extending bottom flange defining a thin panel edge. Preferably the bottom flange includes a lower surface for securing of a finished substrate about the panel perimeter. The upper surface of the bottom flange receives a gusset clip that includes two arms for securement of the bottom flange and an upwardly extending lift and shift securing tab. The upwardly extending lift and shift securing tab is preferably located within a depth of the ceiling panel generally defined by an acoustical dampening material located within the perimeter frame.
US08739483B1
A system for mounting wall panels to a wall, includes wall panels, each including a main wall panel, and at least two bent end sections with a cut-out section and a wall thickness; and a plurality of main fastening extrusions, each including a base section to be secured to the wall, and two parallel, spaced apart flexible and resilient bent end securing walls extending from the base section, each bent end securing wall including a projection facing the other bent end securing wall, the bent end securing walls spaced apart corresponding to the wall thickness of two bent end sections, such that pressing of the bent end sections into the spacing between the bent end securing walls causes biasing away of the bent end securing walls until the projections engage in respective cut-out sections with the bent end sections being at least in near abutting relation.
US08739478B1
An integrated solar module capable of being easily assembled for thermal solar application. The module includes a solar panel device having an aperture region and a backside region and a shaped thickness of material including a first side wall and a second side wall. The shaped thickness of material is characterized by a fire rating of at least A and has a mechanical strength to maintain a thickness free from penetration of moisture and a specific shape to couple with the backside region. Additionally, the module includes an air plenum provided between the backside region and the shaped thickness of material. The air plenum is configured to receive air flows from ambient via an intake region and guide the air flows toward an output region. The air flows are optionally let to pass through either or both of the first side wall and the second side wall.
US08739470B1
An apparatus that provides a continuous one-piece drip edge for a roof that not only protects from water damage, but also protects the roofing material at the rake and eaves from peeling as well as offer protection from wind, snow and ice and any other weather conditions that commonly strip roofing material from a roof surface.
US08739466B2
A system for emergency opening of a door or window of a vehicle comprises an opening mechanism for forcing the door or window to open by means of pressure of hydraulic fluid, and an unlocking mechanism, which by means of hydraulic fluid is configured to unlock a lock of the door or window. The system may be connected to the brake system of a vehicle.
US08739457B1
An animal attracting apparatus comprising a water source, a collection tube pivotable vertically between an upwardly disposed first position and a downwardly disposed second position, and a rotatable shaft attached to the collection tube for concomitant rotation therewith. Animal attractant devices are mounted to the shaft for concomitant rotation therewith. In operation, water gravity flows from the water source into the collection tube. After water in the collection tube reaches a predetermined level, the collection tube pivots from the first position to the second position and dispenses water from the collection tube. After water in the collection tube is dispensed, the collection tube pivots from the second position back to the first position to be refilled by water. As the collection tube pivots, the collection tube rotates the shaft. As the shaft rotates, the animal attractant devices are actuated to emit animal attractants.
US08739452B1
A weapon system includes a long gun, such as a rifle or a shotgun, a handgun, and a bracket secured to the rifle or shotgun around the barrel. The bracket permits swiveling and firing the handgun while attached to the long gun. The bracket includes a swivel ball joint below the long-gun barrel and an attachment brace that releasably connects the swivel ball joint and the handgun. The handgun may be a semi-automatic pistol where a slide moves back and forth when fired. The attachment brace has a top section and a bottom section. The top section goes around the slide so that it does not interfere with its movement. The bottom section contacts the handgun below the slide to securely attach the handgun to the rifle or shotgun.
US08739449B2
A modular rifle includes an upper receiver assembly and a barrel assembly. The upper receiver, typically fashioned from aluminum, can be strengthened by insertion of a hardened metal liner insert inside the aft portion of the upper receiver. The upper receiver liner insert is secured within the aft portion of the upper receiver assembly by engaging screw threads on the liner insert with receiving threads inside the aft portion of the upper receiver and insertion of anchor pins into the aft portion of the upper receiver. The anchor pins impinge the liner insert such that it is prevented from rotating within the upper receiver. The barrel assembly is attached to the liner insert by engaging screw threads on the liner insert with threads within a barrel nut connector sleeve.
US08739448B2
A hand guard assembly for attachment to a firearm includes an anchor member and a sleeve. The anchor member is coupled to the firearm and defines an inner bore through which a barrel of the firearm extends when the anchor member is coupled to the firearm. The sleeve surrounds a portion of the barrel of the firearm in an overlying relationship. The sleeve is coupled to the anchor member at a first end so that when the assembly is attached to the firearm, the sleeve is cantilevered from the anchor member with an inner surface of the sleeve and an outer surface of the barrel being radially spaced apart from one another.
US08739441B2
An exemplary power regulator apparatus provides power for illumination of a display object, such as a merchandise package or container, which has a light emitting apparatus comprising a secondary inductor and an illumination source. A support structure, such as a point of purchase display, typically contains or supports one or more power regulators and display objects. The power regulator comprises a controller and a primary inductor, and the controller is adapted to provide a voltage or current to the primary inductor to generate a primary inductor voltage. The controller may also comprise a plurality of switches and a memory adapted to store values for switching frequency or switch on-time durations or pulse widths. The illumination source emits visible light when the power regulator is in an on state and when the secondary inductor is within a predetermined distance of the primary inductor.
US08739438B1
The present disclosure and related inventions are directed to a greeting card in the shape of a wine bottle. A clear vacuum form is placed onto the front surface of a two-panel greeting card, creating a cavity therebetween. An intricate paper scene is disposed within the cavity, concealing various electronic components. A faux cork is attached to the greeting card at a pivot point wherein the faux cork can move between a first position where it is partially contained within the cavity and a second position where it is substantially outside of the cavity. Movement of the faux cork about the pivot point causes playback of pre-recorded audio and illumination of one or more LED lights and/or fiber optics.
US08739434B2
Wellness footwear that promotes proper gait and strong feet is provided. The footwear can include a sole. The footwear can also include a securing upper arranged with the sole and configured to securely hold a foot of a user on a footbed so as to substantially prevent lateral movement of the foot with respect to the footbed and allow one or more of a big toe and remaining toes of the user to be at least partially uncovered and exposed. A toe aligner structure can be arranged between the securing upper and the sole and configured to extend between the big toe and remaining toes of the user so as to direct a force against the big toe in a direction away from the remaining toes during standing, walking, running, swimming, and other movements when muscles of the foot are in use.
US08739430B2
A hand drying apparatus includes a main box body in which a hand insertion portion is provided for allowing insertion/pulling out of hands and a water pan is provided for collecting water drops blown away from hands. In the main box body, a drain tank is disposed for accumulating water that is collected in the water pan. The drain tank is attached to the main box body in a detachable manner. A first lock mechanism is disposed for restricting removal of the drain tank. Moreover, an operating unit is disposed for switching the operating state of the apparatus and is covered with an openable-closable operating unit cap. A third lock mechanism is disposed for restricting opening and closing of the operating unit cap.
US08739429B2
A system for drying a surface of a substrate is provided. The system for drying a surface of a substrate comprising: a rotary support; a first dispenser fluidly coupled to a source of liquid, the first dispenser positioned above the surface of the substrate so as to be capable of applying a film of the liquid to the surface of the substrate; a second dispenser fluidly coupled to a source of drying fluid with a supply line, the second dispenser positioned above the surface of the substrate so as to be capable of applying the drying fluid to the surface of the substrate; and a proportional valve operably coupled to the supply line between the second dispenser and the source of drying fluid, the proportional valve capable of being incrementally adjusted from a closed position to an open position.
US08739419B1
A targeting system for a bow is disclosed. A laser rangefinder is offset from a designated pin on the bow sight such that a theoretical line of sight for the designated pin intersects with a rangefinder laser beam emitted by the laser rangefinder at a preset distance. An adjustment mechanism is provided that permits the position of the laser rangefinder relative to the bow to be adjusted such that the rangefinder laser beam and a user's actual line of sight along the designated pin intersect at a target located at the preset distant. The designated pin permits the user to aim the laser rangefinder at a selected target and adjust an elevation of the bow to an angle corresponding at least approximately to a range to the selected target displayed by the laser rangefinder. In one embodiment, the rangefinder laser and the bow sight form a unitary bow sight assembly. In another embodiment, electronics and other components associated with operation of the laser rangefinder are incorporated into a bow sight housing to form a unitary bow sight assembly that does not need to be operably connected to a bow mounting bracket for the supply of power or electrical signals thereto.
US08739408B2
A shape memory polymer is initially fabricated to a size where its peripheral dimension will be at least as large as the borehole wall in which it is to be deployed. After the initial manufacturing the material temperature is elevated above the transition temperature and the material is stretched on a mandrel to retain its inside dimension as its outside dimension is reduced to size that will allow running the seal to a desired subterranean location without failing the material during the stretching. The material is allowed to cool below the transition temperature to hold the new shape. The material on the mandrel is then secured to a tubular string and delivered to the desired location. Wellbore fluid at given temperature raises the material again above the transition temperature, which causes the material to revert to its originally manufactured shape.
US08739400B2
A press assembly and a method for bending electrical terminals of battery cells are provided. The assembly includes a supporting member that holds a body portion of a cell thereon. The cell has first and second electrical terminals. The assembly further includes a lower plate having first and second dies that hold the first and second electrical terminals, thereon. The assembly further includes an upper plate having third and fourth dies, and guide rods disposed between the lower plate and the upper plate. The upper plate moves vertically on the guide rods relative to the lower plate. The assembly further includes an actuation assembly moving the upper plate toward the lower plate such that the first electrical terminal is bent into a first predetermined shape between the first and third dies, and the second electrical terminal is bent into a second predetermined shape between the second and fourth dies.
US08739393B2
It is an object to provide an electronic component mounting method that makes it possible to assure stable pickup operation even when a dimensional error attributable to a difference in production lot exists in electronic components or carrier tapes. During electronic component mounting adopting a tape splicing technique for splicing a carrier tape 15 already loaded on a tape feeder to a newly loaded carrier tape 15A, when an optical sensor 30 has detected a joint J between the already-loaded carrier tape 15 and the newly-loaded carrier tape 15A, a height measurement device 12 performs measurement of a component pickup height targeted for components P housed in the carrier tape 15A in connection with the tape feeder for which the joint J has been detected. Component pickup height data showing a target lowering height to which pickup nozzles 10a are to be lowered are updated on the basis of the measurement result.
US08739392B2
A cast grid array (CGA) package comprises shaped solder posts which may be reflowed and connected directly to a circuit board, such as mother board, or remain in a solid state with the shape allowing them to be secured within a CGA socket which, in turn, may be connected to the a board. Embodiments of the CGA allows for a lower cost socket and package combination by using solder post to interface the socket and not requiring a loading mechanism on every socket.
US08739388B2
A method of joining parts together with a self-piercing rivet that is inserted through a part and partially through a second part. The second part includes a fiber-filled layer and a resin matrix layer that together form a composite part. A self-piercing rivet extends into the second part, but does not penetrate completely through the matrix layer. An assembly, including a first part and a second part that includes a reinforced layer and a resin layer in which a fastener is inserted, but does not extend through the second layer. A composite part including a first layer of resin matrix reinforces the filler and a second layer of resin matrix that does not include a filler and is more than 3 microns thick.
US08739387B1
The invention relates to a tie and a method for tying at least one object. More particularly, the tie has a strip, which includes a tip, a connecting end opposite the tip and a plurality of teeth arranged on the strip between the tip and the connecting end, and a plurality of locking members, which are connected to the connecting end of the strip. Each of the locking members includes an opening for passage of the strip therethrough and a locking tab for engaging at least one of the teeth so as to allow the strip to move through the opening of a corresponding one of the locking members only in one direction. The method includes the steps of placing the tie around at least one object; passing the strip through the opening of a first one of the locking members in the one direction such that the tie wraps around the at least one object; and disconnecting the first one of the locking members from the connecting end of the strip while leaving at least another one of the locking members connected to the connecting end such that the tie can be reused for tying another object.
US08739385B2
A method of assembling a member made of a first material in a part made of a second material having no plastic domain, including forming the part with an aperture; inserting an intermediate part, which is made of a third material and includes a hole into the aperture without any stress; introducing the member into the hole without any stress; elastically and plastically deforming the intermediate part by moving two tools towards each other axially, respectively on the top and bottom parts of the intermediate part, so as to exert a radial stress against the member and against the wall of the part surrounding the aperture by causing the elastic deformation of the part, in order to secure the assembly in a manner that is not destructive for the part. The member can be a time piece.
US08739380B1
Method and apparatus for a swing-out, multi-level barbeque smoker having a common mounting post wherein the individual cooking units are mounted on the common mounting post so that the individual units are slidably and swingably disposed so that a user can have easy access to the individual units. The apparatus is mounted on a wheeled carriage having a handle bar assembly so that the wheeled carriage can be easily maneuvered by a user. The upper swing-out unit has a grill for receiving food items, the middle swing-out unit has a bowl for receiving water therein and the lower unit has a grill upon which the fuel, e.g., charcoal or the like can be placed.
US08739375B2
A corrugated fiberboard box assembly including a first portion including a bottom section having a pair of opposite long edges and a pair of opposite short edges with all edges being bounded by a plurality of creases, a pair of opposing side panels running along and connected to the pair of opposite long edges by two of the plurality of creases, and a pair of opposing end panels running along and connected to the pair of opposite short edges by another two of the plurality creases. The first portion being foldable to form a rectangular box with the bottom section on the bottom and the side panels and end panels both extending substantially perpendicularly upwardly away from the bottom to form side walls of the box. The box further includes a separate inner liner configured to fit within an inside of the side walls and a top configured to fit over the tops of the side walls.
US08739369B2
Clasp for a watch bracelet including a cover (2) connected on a first side to a first bracelet strand (6) and to a second bracelet strand (10) on a second side, with the insertion of a folding system (4) between the second bracelet strand (10) and the cover (2) of the clasp (1), wherein said folding system (4) includes first and second links (12, 14), the first link (12) is hinged by a first end to the second bracelet strand (10) and by a second end to the second link (14), the second link (14) is hinged in turn to the cover (2) of the clasp (1), the folding system (4) is moveable between a first position in which the first and second links (12, 14) are superposed on each other inside the cover (2) of the clasp (1), and a second position in which the first and second links (12, 14) are unfolded, said clasp (1) being characterized in that, in the first position of the folding system (4), the first link (12) is held folded down on the second link (14), the first link (12) therefore including first and second elastic locking points (22, 24) for fixing the link in the cover (2) of the clasp (1).
US08739365B2
A hinge structure includes a first connecting member, a tray for securing a first component, and a second connecting member for securing a second component. The first connecting member includes two clamping panels substantially parallel to each other. A retaining panel extends from the tray. The second connecting member is rotatably secured to the first connecting member. The retaining panel is located between the two clamping panels, for preventing the tray from moving in a direction substantially perpendicular to the two clamping panels.
US08739363B2
A grommet device and method of using a grommet device is provided. The grommet device includes a substantially circular base structure. A substantially circular top structure is connected to the substantially circular base structure with a substantially cylindrical middle portion, wherein an aperture having an interior space is positioned interior of the substantially cylindrical middle portion. A flexible top surface is connected to the substantially circular top structure, wherein the flexible top surface is substantially planar. At least one enlargeable slit is formed within the flexible top surface and through an entire thickness of the flexible top surface, wherein an unobstructed path is positioned from a location proximate to an exterior side of the flexible top surface, through the at least one enlargeable slit, and into the interior space of the aperture.
US08739359B2
A surface cleaning apparatus comprises an air flow path extending from a dirty air inlet to a clean air outlet. The surface cleaning apparatus comprises a main body comprising a front end, a rear end, first and second opposed sidewalls, and a suction motor provided in the air flow path. At least one of the first and second opposed sidewalls may have a compartment that houses an operating component of the surface cleaning apparatus or a portion of the air flow path. A cyclone bin assembly may be provided in the air flow path. The cyclone bin assembly may have opposed end walls.
US08739357B2
A surface cleaning apparatus comprises an air flow path extending from a dirty air inlet to a clean air outlet, an air treatment member and a suction motor. The surface cleaning apparatus comprises a main body comprising a front end and a rear end. A plurality of wheels may be rotatably mounted on to the surface cleaning apparatus. The surface cleaning apparatus may comprise a filter in a filter compartment wherein an axle or an axle mount for at least one of the wheels defines an axis of rotation that projects through the filter compartment.
US08739345B2
A cleaning apparatus (2) comprising a hollow first cylindrical end collar (4), a hollow second cylindrical end collar (6) and a substantially tubular cleaning section, open at each end, extending therebetween, wherein the tubular cleaning section comprises a plurality of elongate strip brushes (8) disposed between the first cylindrical collar (4) and the second cylindrical collar (6) and arranged such that there are radical openings in the tubular cleaning section between said elongate strip brushes (8).
US08739339B1
A breathable mattress including a plurality of layers, where one of the mattress layers is further comprised of a plurality of sections and the sections are comprised of different types of materials, which have varying firmnesses and feel, and where each of the layers is comprised of material that is perforated or of an open-cell structure to allow for air circulation. The mattress is supported by an air filtration foundation capable of creating an air flow within the mattress.
US08739338B2
An attachment apparatus (20) for attachment to the air conduits (6,8,10,12) of a zoned air cell cushion A or mattress to an associated valve. The attachment apparatus comprises a connector assembly (24) with connectors (26, 28, 30, 32) secured in the ends (N1, N2, N3, N4) of air conduits secured in a conduit constraint (38). Each air conduit is in fluid communication with a separate inflation zone (r,s,t,u) of the cushion or mattress. The connectors are in fluid cooperation with a valve (60) that places normally isolated zones into fluid communication and vice versa. The connector assembly may function as a base for any one of a number of valves (60, 103, 150, 200, 400, 500).
US08739331B2
A changer assembly and a playard are disclosed. The changer assembly is adapted for installation on a skeleton of a playard and includes an attachment base and a changer frame. The attachment base includes a mount structure attached to the skeleton and a guiding structure connected to the mount structure and outwardly extended with respect to a circumferential side of the skeleton. The changer frame is rotatably and slidably connected to the guiding structure and detachably engaging with an upper side of the skeleton for being capable of moving from a first position above the upper side to a second position beside the circumferential side by disengaging from the upper side and rotating on and sliding along the guiding structure. Thereby, the playard equipped with the changer assembly needs no additional space outside the playard for storing the changer frame.
US08739325B2
A shower unit including a shower receiver (1) and a pumping device (2), whereby the shower receiver (1) includes a first portion (100) forming the shower tray and a second portion formed by a recess (120). The aforementioned pumping device (2) is positioned in the recess (120) of the receiver (1).
US08739322B2
A flow duct is provided in which water is caused to flow by way of a delivery device disposed in a circulation line. In order to be able to adapt the flow inside the duct to the particular requirements, and/or achieve a laminar flow over the entire flow region, a plurality of circulation lines is provided, each having a controllable delivery device, wherein the circulation lines lead into the flow duct separately from each other, and wherein the discharge openings of the circulation lines are distributed over the face wall of the flow duct.
US08739317B2
A liner adapted to be interposed between the interior surface of a protective headgear and a wearer's head includes a plurality of networked fluid cells adapted to distribute and dissipate an impact force to the liner, and/or headgear with which the liner is used, across a larger area of the wearer's head as compared with the impact location, and also to dampen the tendency of the wearer's head from rebounding back from the impact location by transferring fluid through the network from fluid cells at the impact location to those in an opposed region. Discrete fluid cells interspersed among the networked fluid cells maintain the liner and/or the headgear in a predetermined orientation on the wearer's head. Fluid flow within the liner may be restricted or directed by configuring the fluid passageways. A liner may further include means for moving fluid into or out of the fluid cells.
US08745756B2
A device management system which makes it possible to promptly and easily change and reset device-related operation rights assigned to users. User's operation rights with respect to a device are set, and a system policy is set which is used to restrict the operation rights with respect to the device and is to be applied to a plurality of specific users. It is determined whether or not the system policy is to be applied. If it is determined that the system policy is to be applied, the user's operation rights with respect to the device are restricted based on the system policy irrespective of whether or not operation rights have been set.
US08745755B2
Aspects described herein allow multiple devices to function as a coherent whole, allowing each device to take on distinct functions that are complementary to one another. Aspects described herein also allow the devices function as a coherent whole when interconnected devices and their respective applications are configured to operate in various operation modes, when management policies are employed to control the operation of the interconnected devices and their respective applications, when transferring content between the interconnected devices and storing the content at those devices, when obtaining access credentials for the interconnected devices that enable the devices to access enterprise resources, when a policy agent applies management policies to control operation of and interaction between the interconnected devices, and when the interconnected devices are used to access an enterprise application store.
US08745746B1
A computer-implemented method for addressing security vulnerabilities on computing devices may include 1) identifying a security vulnerability associated with a programmatic installation on a mobile computing platform, 2) querying, in response to identifying the security vulnerability, a database for a list of mobile computing devices that include both the programmatic installation and a security system capable of remedying security vulnerabilities, 3) generating a message to send to each mobile computing device within the list of mobile computing devices that includes a prompt to remedy the security vulnerability, and 4) prompting a user of each mobile computing device within the list of mobile computing devices to remedy the security vulnerability by transmitting the message to each mobile computing device within the list of mobile computing devices via a plurality of push notifications. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08745740B2
The invention relates to an apparatus for detecting malicious sites, comprising: a monitoring unit for monitoring all processes being executed in a computing apparatus; a hook code insertion unit for inserting a hook code in a process executed in a browser when the execution of the browser is detected by the monitoring unit; a danger level determining unit that, upon the detection of a website movement, uses the hook code to inspect a stack structure of a process implemented according to the website movement and determine whether or not to perform the stack structure inspection, and determines whether or not the website to which the movement has been made is a malicious site; and a database for storing a list of sites determined to be malicious.
US08745739B2
A system and method prevent malware, spyware and other undesirable applications from affecting mobile communication devices, which use a server to assist in identifying and removing undesirable applications. When scanning an application, a device transmits information about the application to a server for analysis. The server receives the information, produces a characterization assessment and can also provide a characterization re-assessment for the application, or data object, and transmits the assessment to the device. Performing analysis on a server reduces the battery and performance cost of protection. The server transmits notifications to devices that have installed applications that are discovered to be undesirable. The server receives data about applications from many devices, using the combined data to minimize false positives and provide comprehensive protection against known and unknown threats. The server can accumulate this data and then perform a characterization re-assessment of a data object it has previously assessed.
US08745738B2
Trusted user accounts of an application provider are determined. Graphs, such as trees, are created with each node corresponding to a trusted account. Each of the nodes is associated with a vouching quota, or the nodes may share a vouching quota. Untrusted user accounts are determined. For each of these untrusted accounts, a trusted user account that has a social networking relationship is determined. If the node corresponding to the trusted user account has enough vouching quota to vouch for the untrusted user account, then the quota is debited, a node is added for the untrusted user account to the graph, and the untrusted user account is vouched for. If not, available vouching quota may be borrowed from other nodes in the graph.
US08745730B1
A networked computer device can be customized to contain provisioning and/or authorization logic in its firmware or the firmware of one of its subcomponents. The computer device is thus configured to provision itself from a provisioning server that is identified within the firmware, and to periodically query an operations authority for continued authorization to operate with the received provisioning. Upon failure to receive authorization, the firmware may implement various security measures, such as storage protection, boot protection, communications protection, and so forth. The firmware may also implement remote reporting, to assist an investigator when a device has been lost or stolen.
US08745726B2
An avatar in a virtual world is provided with credentials for access to various parts of the virtual world by embedding information derived from avatar identification and authorized credential information in the form of a graphic image associated with the avatar. The embedded information is preferably encrypted.
US08745724B2
Systems and methods for partitioning memory into multiple secure and open regions are provided. The systems enable the security level of a given region to be determined without an increase in the time needed to determine the security level. Also, systems and methods for identifying secure access violations are disclosed. A secure trap module is provided for master devices in a system-on-chip. The secure trap module generates an interrupt when an access request for a transaction generates a security error.
US08745715B2
The invention relates to password-based authentication in group networks. Each device has an authentication token irreversibly based on the password. The authentication involves a first device at which the password P is entered and a second device towards which the authentication occurs. The first device determines a check token Mj for the second based on the password and its own authentication token Rl and this check token is sent to the second device, where it is compared with the authentication token of that device. The procedure may include update of a device to exclude a non-trusted device from the group or change the password. Advantageous features are that the information in one device does not allow retrieval of the password and that the password is only exposed at one device, and only temporarily, during the authentication.
US08745713B1
A system and method to prevent the installation by a hacker of malicious software onto networked electronic systems, computers, and the like, by removing the read, write and execute administrator permission files of a system's OS, and placing them in a in a separate, protected server in the cloud. The secure cloud server records the system's unique ID(s). After relocation of the authorized administrator's permissions files, a strong password is requested from the authorized administrator. Thereafter, the network path to the secure cloud server files is encrypted and recorded on the protected system. This path change replaces the former local path in the computer system to those files. The result of these changes to the OS on a protected system eliminates the hacker's access to the system from a network to illicitly become an administrator of the hacked system.
US08745711B2
A system includes an access management server and a cooperation server, wherein the access management server comprises issuance unit that issues a token corresponding to the managed user account in response to a request of the cooperation server, and deletion unit that deletes a user account, of the managed user accounts, which satisfies a predefined deletion condition, and the cooperation server comprises acquisition unit that acquires, when acquisition of a token corresponding to the user account managed by the access management server is requested by another server, if the deletion unit has not deleted the user account, an issued token corresponding to the user account, and to cause, if the deletion unit has already deleted the user account, the access management server to re-register the user account to acquire a token issued for the re-registered user account.
US08745707B2
Techniques for concurrent access to a resource object, such as a database object, include generating a lock data structure for a particular resource object. The lock data structure includes data values for a resource object identification, a lock type, and a version number. The version number is related to a number of changes to the resource object since the lock data structure was generated. By carrying a lock version number in a lock data structure managed by a lock manager, improved optimistic locking is provided in a database. In particular, the approach enables introduction of optimistic locking to a legacy database without requiring burdensome changes to a database table schema.
US08745697B2
A multifunction product, when receiving input of login name and password, requests an LDAP server to perform authentication by using a pre-set representative ID. If the authentication is successful, the multifunction product requests the LDAP server to search for user information (DN) with the use of the login name, and after acquiring the DN, requests the LDAP server to perform authentication with the use of the DN. If the authentication processing is successful, the multifunction product permits a search for user information stored in the LDAP server.
US08745688B2
An electronic device operates a television located in a premises to simulate occupation of the premises, and thereby deter intrusion. The electronic device is caused to operate automatically, without any input from a user, and activates the television at different times according to a predetermined schedule not set by the user. During automatic operation, the television is caused not only to present television programming, but also to present visual and sound effects simulating human activity, whereby occupation of the premises is simulated.
US08745684B1
A method of facilitating video search is disclosed. A video on or linked to by a display page is located. A video search index entry associated with the video is generated, at least in part, using an additional information data, retrieved at least in part programmatically from a location other than the display page.
US08745682B1
An integrated cable modem and cable television management system. The invention may include a stand alone device, a portable device, or a vehicle adapted device in various embodiments of the invention. The invention allows for two-way communication and interaction between a television service provider and a user of the device. In addition, other various circuitries may reside in the device allowing storage and processing of received signals. The invention allows a device operable to receive different broadcast signals, including analog and digital signals. In addition, the invention allows for download of selectable programming from a cable television server using the device, either offline, streaming, or in real time when online. The invention allows for recording and buffering of received signals. In addition, the invention allows for control of commercials, publications, and content contained within received signals. The invention allows for time compression of such signals as well.
US08745674B2
A broadcast signal receiving apparatus receives a plurality of transport streams and uses conditional access provided by an external adapter. The broadcast signal receiving apparatus includes a pre-processor operable to extract a part of information, by elementary stream unit, from each of the plurality of transport streams by receiving a filtering condition from the external adapter and performing filtering on the plurality of transport streams according to the filtering condition. The broadcast signal receiving apparatus also includes a multiplexer, an output interface, an input interface, and a demultiplexer. The external adapter is detachable from the broadcast signal receiving apparatus, and includes a conditional access descrambler that descrambles transport stream packets in the multiplexed data that are protected by conditional access with a packet identifier specified by the controller in the broadcast signal receiving apparatus.
US08745671B2
According to one embodiment, an apparatus is disclosed for receiving and providing an aggregate video feed on a mobile platform. The apparatus can include a receiver configured to receive a mobile digital television signal. A file assembler is configured to provide a broadcast media stream and at least one media file from the mobile video television signal. A media library stores the at least one media file. A media player configured to selectively retrieve the at least one media file from the media library, to construct an aggregate video feed from the retrieved at least one media file and the broadcast media stream, and to output the aggregate video feed.
US08745668B2
A digital receiver and method of controlling the same are provided. An embodiment of the method of providing service data in a digital receiver includes transmitting device information including information about a country and a receiver type to a server; receiving a group identifier, ID, in accordance with the device information from the server; transmitting a service list including the received group ID and first service data to the server at a first interval; and receiving second service data from the server, configuring a service guide, and providing the service guide.
US08745667B2
A method of processing channel information and a receiver are disclosed. The receiver includes a first manager, a database, a channel manager, and a second manager. The first manager may receive a packet including service provider discovery information including service provider identification information, and a packet including service discovery information including content provider identification information and content service identification information and extracting the information included in the packets. The second manager may perform a control operation to form multi-part channel information using the identification information and receive a content service of a channel corresponding to the multi-part channel information.
US08745663B2
Systems and methods provide information to a user in response to usage of an electronic program guide provided by an appliance coupled to a display. Usage of the electronic program guide is observed from within the appliance, and any triggering events in the usage of the electronic program guide are identified. An instruction is then executed in response to the triggering event to thereby provide the information on the display. Information provided may include a graphic display, a video clip, a highlight of any portion of the electronic program guide, or other information as appropriate.
US08745656B2
A method for providing television advertising includes receiving user input for selecting an advertising parameter and providing a user with an advertisement corresponding to the advertising parameter.
US08745649B2
A system and method of operating a multi-user storage facility is provided. For each distinct user of the storage facility, the distinct user is associated with at least one storage unit of the facility. Video monitoring of the at least one storage unit is provided producing a video output. Each distinct user is provided over a digital communication network with private access to a view of the video output associated with the user. In this manner, each of a plurality of distinct users has access to a view of the video output associated with the user.
US08745642B2
The present invention relates to a method and respective system for sharing data between portlets within a portal. In general, a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention includes: generating a visual representation, indicating for a predetermined first portlet a portlet property indicating whether or not the first portlet shares data with a second portlet; displaying the visual representation at the web page rendering the first portlet; and/or generating a user control, allowing to switch ON and switch OFF the ability of the first portlet to share data with the second portlet, and performing portlet integration in dependence of the portlet property.
US08745635B2
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for managing business process messaging include receiving a business process message at a first node of multiple nodes in a distributed computing environment, the business process message comprising a message payload; correlating the business process message with a business process executing on one or more of the plurality of nodes in the distributed computing environment based on the message payload; identifying the one or more of the plurality of nodes in the distributed computing environment; providing the business process message to the identified one or more of the plurality of nodes; and mapping the message payload to the business process executing on the identified one or more of the plurality of nodes.
US08745633B2
A system and method for managing resources in a partitioned computing system using determined risk of resource saturation is disclosed. In one example embodiment, the partitioned computing system includes one or more partitions. A volatility of resource usage for each partition is computed based on computed resource usage gains/losses associated with each partition. A current resource usage of each partition is then determined. Further, a risk of resource saturation is determined by comparing the computed volatility of resource usage with the determined current resource usage of each partition. The resources in the partitioned computing system are then managed using the determined risk of resource saturation associated with each partition.
US08745618B2
A mechanism is provided in a virtual machine monitor for providing cache partitioning in virtualized environments. The mechanism assigns a virtual identification (ID) to each virtual machine in the virtualized environment. The processing core stores the virtual ID of the virtual machine in a special register. The mechanism also creates an entry for the virtual machine in a partition table. The mechanism may partition a shared cache using a vertical (way) partition and/or a horizontal partition. The entry in the partition table includes a vertical partition control and a horizontal partition control. For each cache access, the virtual machine passes the virtual ID along with the address to the shared cache. If the cache access results in a miss, the shared cache uses the partition table to select a victim cache line for replacement.
US08745609B2
An imaging system has a lens unit including an imaging device which converts an optical image representing an object into image data by an imaging unit, a main body unit which holds the lens unit in such a manner that the lens unit is attachable to and detachable from the main body unit and a controller configured, by use of an integrated firmware in which one or a plurality of firmwares of the lens unit and one or a plurality of firmwares of the main body unit are integrated, to exchange the integrated firmware between the lens unit and the main body unit via a communication device, and to upgrade one of the firmwares with a corresponding firmware in the integrated firmware.
US08745607B2
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for reducing branch misprediction impact for nested loop code is disclosed. The method includes: responsive to identifying code having an outer loop and an inner loop, determining a quantity of iterations of the inner loop for an initial number of iterations of the outer loop; determining a number of processor cycles for executing the quantity of iterations of the inner loop for the initial number of iterations of the outer loop; determining whether the number of processor cycles is less than a threshold; and responsive to determining that the number of processor cycles is less than the threshold, fully unrolling the inner loop for the initial number of iterations of the outer loop.
US08745605B2
Various domains may wish to specify different implementations of the type; e.g., a compilation domain may describe the type statically, an execution domain may instantiate objects of the given type, while a debugging execution domain may associate additional debugging information such as a symbol name. This may be achieved by specifying a type implementation of a particular type within respective domains which all implement a common type interface. A type binding instruction set may then select a type implementation for the type within the target instruction set according to the domain, and may bind type instances of the type within target instruction set to the selected type implementation for the current domain. This technique yields domain-specific variance in type implementation without having to reconfigure the target instruction set or perform domain-checking logic there-within.
US08745602B2
A project system is automatically configured from project capabilities determined from an instance of a build system by a project capabilities analyzer. A flexible configuration based build system defines the consuming project system. Results of an evaluated project file are used to define the overall capabilities of the build system. The capabilities are used to dynamically load and assemble the project system code. Changes in the project capabilities due to a reevaluation of a result of a build can then redefine and reassemble the project system code. Hence project system configuration is data-driven rather than user-defined and utilizes a flexible, configuration based build system to define the consuming project system.
US08745599B2
A computer-implemented probabilistic pointer analysis method using SSA form comprises the steps of: evaluating a program in an SSA form comprising a target pointer to determine pointer relations between the target pointer, a plurality of aliased pointers related to the target pointer and at least a probable location of the target pointer; and generating a direct probabilistic relation between the target pointer and the at least a probable location of the target pointer according to the pointer relation.
US08745595B2
In an information processing apparatus, a program execution section executes a program, and in the stage of execution of a log acquisition command, acquires the value of a variable set in the log acquisition command. A trace log generation section generates a trace log including identification information on a file set in the log acquisition command, version number on a source code, and the acquired value of the variable, and stores the trace log in a storage device. A source code acquisition section acquires a source code corresponding to a combination of the identification information and the version number, based on the trace log. A character string addition section extracts a character string related to the value of the variable included in the trace code, from the acquired source code, adds the extracted character string to the trace log, and stores the trace log in a storage device.
US08745592B1
Some embodiments provide a system that generates a test suite for a software program. During operation, the system obtains a set of inputs for the software program and determines a coverage of the software program associated with the set of inputs. Next, the system determines a subset of the inputs which substantially provides the coverage of the software program. Finally, the system uses the subset of inputs as the test suite for the software program.
US08745579B2
This disclosure provides techniques of verifying license compliance for a web application. A web application including a broadcast key and a license tag is generated. The generated web application is made available for review by a search engine. A query is communicated to the web search engine for a selected license tag. A list of reviewed web applications is received from the web search engine. The broadcast keys associated with each web application are evaluated to identify duplicate broadcast keys.
US08745569B2
Provided is a simulation method for simulating electrical properties of a bidirectional switch formed as a single element and having a double gate structure. A simulation is performed using an equivalent circuit having a symmetrical structure in which a drain electrode of a JFET and a drain electrode of another JFET are connected via a resistor.
US08745564B2
The present invention provides a data processing apparatus having a programmable logic and a method for controlling the apparatus. If it is determined that the reconfiguration of the programmable logic is necessary, register setting data for reconfiguring the programmable logic is supplied to the programmable logic. The programmable logic reads out circuit information from a memory storing the circuit information in accordance with the register setting data and reconfigures a function of the programmable logic. A CPU transfers the register setting data to the programmable logic and then transfers data to be processed by the programmable logic whose function has been reconfigured, to the programmable logic.
US08745563B2
A system for simulating operation of a VLSI interconnect structure having capacitive and inductive coupling between nodes thereof, including a processor, and a memory, the processor configured to perform obtaining a matrix X and a matrix Y containing different combinations of passive circuit element values for the interconnect structure, the element values for each matrix including inductance L and inverse capacitance P, obtaining an adjacency matrix A associated with the interconnect structure, storing the matrices X, Y, and A in the memory, and performing numerical integration to solve first and second equations.
US08745559B2
A method includes creating a technology file including data for an integrated circuit including at least one die including at least one metal layer to be formed using at least one of a single patterning process or a multi-patterning process, creating a netlist including data approximating at least one of capacitive or inductive couplings between conductors in the metal layer of at least one die based on the technology file, simulating a performance of the integrated circuit based on the netlist, adjusting the routing between the at least one die and the interposer based on the simulation to reduce the at least one of the capacitive or the inductive couplings, and repeating the simulating and adjusting to optimize the at least one of the capacitive or inductive couplings.
US08745555B2
Methods for designing and manufacturing an integrated circuit are disclosed, in which the physical design process for a standard cell or cells utilizes a preferred diagonal direction for minimum-width patterns on at least one layer, where the standard cell or cells are used in the layout of an integrated circuit. The methods also include forming the patterns on a photomask using model-based fracturing techniques with charged particle beam simulation, and forming the patterns on a substrate such a silicon wafer using the photomask and an optical lithographic process with directional illumination which is optimized for the preferred diagonal direction.
US08745547B1
A method for making a photomask layout is disclosed. A graphic data of a photomask is provided. A first correction step is performed to the graphic data. A first verification step is performed to all of the graphic data which has been subjected to the first correction step, wherein at least one failed pattern not passing the first verification step is found. A second correction step is performed to the at least one failed pattern, so as to obtain at least one modified pattern. A second verification step is performed only to at least one buffer region covering the at least one modified pattern, wherein the buffer region has an area less than a whole area of the photomask. Besides, each of the first correction step, the first verification step, the second correction step and the second verification step is executed by a computer.
US08745538B2
A method and an apparatus for reminding and browsing related information of contacts, and a recording medium using the same are provided. In the present method, a communication device displays a contact list comprising at least one contact on a screen thereof. Meanwhile, the communication device checks whether each contact has unread related information and displays an indicating icon on the corresponding contact in the contact list when it is determined that the contact has related information unread, so as to remind a user of the communication device that the contact has unread related information.
US08745532B2
The display device allows easily operating plural controlled devices connected to a network. The display device includes a communication unit communicating with controlled devices X1 through Xn connected to a network; an information acquiring unit acquiring operation-related information from controlled devices X1 through Xn through the communication unit; an information classifying unit classifying URL information into plural function groups based on operation information contained in operation-related information; a menu generating unit generating a menu page for each of the function groups; a display unit displaying the menu page generated by the menu generating unit; and a page operation unit operating the menu page.
US08745512B2
A method and computer-readable medium are provided for interacting with a portion of an electronic document. According to the method, a UI control is displayed that includes a border surrounding the portion of the electronic document and one or more UI items that allow actions to be performed on the portion of the electronic document. The UI control may be displayed continually or displayed when user input is received within the portion of the electronic document. The border of the UI control may form a bounded region that is displayed transparently over the display of the portion of the electronic document. The transparency of the bounded region may be increased gradually when user input is received in the portion of the electronic document and removed gradually when user input is subsequently received outside the portion. A selectable region may be provided within the UI control for selecting and moving the portion of the electronic document to another location within the document.
US08745508B2
Exemplary systems and methods for user polling are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a service provider subsystem receiving, from a poll provider subsystem, data representative of a poll comprising at least one poll question, transmitting the poll in a first data format to a plurality of translators for translation and distribution to a plurality of access devices associated with a plurality of users and with a plurality of distinct, heterogeneous media platforms, receiving from the plurality of translators, data representative of one or more responses to the at least one poll question provided by one or more of the plurality of access devices, aggregating the data representative of the one or more responses, generating poll results based on the one or more responses, and transmitting data representative of the poll results to the poll provider subsystem and/or the plurality of access devices. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US08745500B1
A window displaying at least one video clip and at least one highlight element is presented in a graphical user interface on a mobile device having a touch screen interface. Thereafter, user-generated input is received via the graphical user interface selecting one of the at least one highlight element during display of the at least one video clip. In response to the user-generated input, at least one thumbnail is displayed (concurrently with the window in the graphical user interface) that corresponds to a segment of the video clip being displayed. A video file is then generated or modified that includes for at least one thumbnail, the corresponding segment of the video clip. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US08745498B2
An exemplary system includes a media control operable to begin playing a media segment automatically after buffering the media segment, and a host application operable to receive a reference to the media segment, initialize the media control with the media segment, and cause the media control to postpone playing of the media segment after the media segment is buffered. An exemplary method includes receiving a playlist referencing a first media segment and a second media segment, the second media segment operable to play automatically without a prompt after being loaded, presenting the first media segment, and prerolling the second media segment.
US08745490B2
A mobile terminal and a method of controlling the mobile terminal are provided. The method includes displaying an operation screen on a display module capable of identifying a fingerprint; if a multi-fingerprint-touch input including first and second fingerprint-touch inputs is received through the display module, selecting a locked operation menu from the operation screen; and if fingerprint information of the multi-fingerprint-touch input is authenticated, unlocking and then executing the selected operation menu. Therefore, it is possible to perform fingerprint authentication and the execution of an operation at the same time in response to a multi-fingerprint-touch input.
US08745488B1
A method and a system for editing documents online, that in some implementations, simultaneously edits a webpage document, in a webpage file format, and an image document, in an image file format. The webpage document and the image document may have substantially similar visual content. In some implementations, an editing interface is displayed to a client device. The editing interface may have a first portion displaying one or more webpage editing forms for editing the webpage document and a second portion displaying the webpage document or image document being edited. The editing interface accepts editing data from the client device. Both the webpage document and an image document may be updated based on accepted editing data. The image document is updated in part by updating form data retrieved from a database. In some implementations, the updated webpage document is displayed on a webpage and access to the image document is provided from the webpage.
US08745485B2
Functionality available on an enterprise server is applied to HTML content from a remote server. HTML content is collected from remote servers including remote markup tags upon request from an end user. The HTML content for the remote markup tags is parsed and converted to content formatted for enterprise server functionality. The converted content is executed at the enterprise server. Remote server and enterprise server data are then transmitted to the end user. Tags and/or libraries may be extensible, such that they may be created or modified, and the tags may or may not be included within a supplied library of tags and/or a created library of tags, or any combination thereof.
US08745468B1
Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for improving the iterative decoding performance of a decoder, for example, as used in a wireless communications receiver or in a data retrieval unit. A decoding technique may receive and process a set of channel samples using an iterative decoder. If the iterative decoder output indicates a decoding failure, noise samples may be combined with the received channel samples to create biased channel samples. Noise samples may be generated using a pseudo-random noise generator and/or by using signals already present in the communications receiver or data retrieval unit. The biased channel samples may be provided to the iterative decoder and the iterative decoder may re-run using the biased channel samples.
US08745466B2
An embodiment of a data read path includes recovery and decoder circuits. The recovery circuit is operable to recover coded data from a storage medium, and the decoder circuit is operable to detect, in the recovered data, a write error that occurred during a writing of the coded data to the storage medium. For example, such an embodiment may allow detection of a write error that occurred while writing data to a bit-patterned storage medium.
US08745465B1
Methods and circuits detect a burst error in a block of data bits. Coset calculator circuits calculate coset leaders from a syndrome generated from the data bits of the block. The coset calculator circuits calculate the coset leaders for each frame of the data bits. For each frame, comparator circuits input a corresponding coset leader of the coset leaders. Each comparator circuit determines, for each burst-length portion of one or more burst-length portions within the corresponding coset leader, whether the coset bits of the corresponding coset leader are zero except for the coset bits within the burst-length portion. An error-locator circuit outputs an error vector describing the burst error in the block in response to one of the comparator circuits determining that the coset bits of the corresponding coset leader are zero except for the coset bits within one of the burst-length portions within the corresponding coset leader.
US08745455B2
In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a logic analyzer such as may be implemented on a system-on-chip or another semiconductor device. The analyzer can include multiple lanes each having a filter to receive and filter debug data, a compressor to compress the debug data passed by the filter, a buffer, and a controller to store the compressed debug data into the buffer, where the compressed debug data can be stored without timing information. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08745451B2
A method of processing signal data comprises receiving signal data, calculating a first k-th moment from the signal data based on a first number of samples N1, calculating a second k-th moment from the signal data based on a second number of samples N2, the first number N1 being different than the second number N2, calculating a combined error, the combined error being a function of the first and second k-th moments, classifying a data region of the signal data as flat if the combined error is below or equal to a threshold curve in the data region, and classifying a data region of the signal data as non-flat if the combined error is higher than the threshold curve in the data region.
US08745449B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for managing solid state drives. As an example, a storage system is described that include at least a first flash memory block and a second flash memory block, and a control circuit. The first flash memory block and the second flash memory block are addressable in the storage system. The control circuit is operable to identify the first flash memory block as partially failed, receive a write request directed to the first flash memory block; and direct the write request to the second flash memory block.
US08745443B2
According to one embodiment, a memory system includes a data manager and a data restorer. The data manager multiplexes difference logs by a parallel writing operation and stores them in a second storage area, the difference logs being difference logs indicating difference information before and after update of a management table; and thereafter multiplexes predetermined data as finalizing logs and stores them in the second storage area. The data restorer determines a system status at startup of the memory system, by judging whether irregular power-off occurs or data destruction occurs in the second storage area, based on a data storage state of the difference logs and the finalizing logs stored in the second storage area.
US08745434B2
Data that is collected and disseminated by mobile devices typically has to be processed, correlated with other data, aggregated, and then transmitted back to the mobile device users before the information becomes stale or otherwise irrelevant. These operations may be performed in a cloud-based solution that manages dataflow. The cloud-based solutions may be scalable and implemented in a fault-tolerant distributed system to support user-facing continuous sensing and processing services in the cloud-computing system. A system may monitor execution of data and shift workloads (i.e., balancing) in response to spatial and temporal load imbalances that occur in a continuous computing environment. A failure recovery protocol may be implemented that uses a checkpoint-based partial rollback recovery mechanism with selective re-execution, which may allow recovery of the continuous processing after an error while avoiding large amounts of downtime and re-execution.
US08745430B2
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates synchronization between a first component and a second component connected to the first component via an interface in a computer system. During an active state of the interface, the system uses a local time base in the second component to generate a local clock signal that tracks a host clock signal from the first component. Next, during an inactive state of the interface, the system uses the local time base to maintain the local clock signal at the second component. Finally, during a subsequent active state of the interface after the inactive state, the system adjusts the local clock signal to remove clock drift between the local clock signal and the host clock signal.
US08745405B2
A system, a method, and a computer program for generating a seed and/or a key from live biometric indicia, such that all the information necessary for generating the seed and/or the key is not stored on a storage medium. The method comprises receiving a biometric template from a user and enrolling the template; assigning an optimization value to the enrolled biometric template; encrypting an item of test data using the optimization value, such that the optimization value is an encryption seed; storing the encrypted item of test data on the storage medium; destroying the encryption seed after encrypting the item of test data; receiving a live biometric template; comparing the templates and determining an interval based on a probability that the templates are specific to the same user; iteratively testing values within the interval to identify the value in the interval for decrypting the encrypted item of test data, wherein the value used to decrypt the item of test data is the encryption seed; and generating the key using the seed.
US08745394B1
Methods and systems for secure electronic communication involve, for example, using a processor coupled to memory to receive a request message from a user's communication device processor including a session key encrypted with a public key of a public/private key pair without sending a private key of the public/private key pair to, or storing the private key on, the user's communication device. Using the processor, the request message is decrypted with a private key of the public/private key pair and the session key is retrieved from the decrypted request message. Thereafter, also using the processor, a response message is generated and encrypted with the retrieved session key and sent to the user's communication device processor.
US08745392B2
Two-way authentication between two communication endpoints using a one-way out-of band (OOB) channel
Techniques for two-way authentication between two communication endpoints (e.g., two devices) using a one-way out-of-band (OOB) channel are presented. Here, in embodiments, both communication endpoints may be securely authenticated as long as the one-way OOB channel is tamper-proof. Embodiments of the invention do not require the one-way OOB channel to be private to ensure that both endpoints are securely authenticated. Since providing a two-way or private OOB channel adds to the cost of a platform, embodiments of the invention provide for a simple and secure method for two-way authentication that uses only a non-private one-way OOB channel and thus helping to reduce platform cost. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08745389B2
A method to prevent information leakage in a cryptographic protocol is implemented in a network device. The method implements an error message processing strategy to mask information otherwise useful to an attacker and that has been generated (by decryption processes) as a consequence of an attacker's exploit. The technique avoids information leakage associated with a padding oracle attack. In one aspect each error message (irrespective of its content) is replaced with a generic error message so that the attacker does not obtain the specific error message content(s) that might otherwise provide useful information. In addition to masking the error message content, the technique preferably implements a “delay” policy that delays the transmission of particular error messages (or message types) to hide (from the attacker's point-of-view) whether a particular error message is relevant to (or a consequence of) the attacker's exploit.
US08745376B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs for verifying a digital signature are disclosed. The verifier accesses an implicit certificate and a digital signature provided by the signer. The implicit certificate includes a first elliptic curve point representing a public key reconstruction value of the signer. The verifier accesses a second elliptic curve point representing a pre-computed multiple of the certificate authority's public key. The verifier uses the first elliptic curve point and the second elliptic curve point to verify the digital signature. The verifier may also use a third elliptic curve point representing a pre-computed multiple of a generator point. Verifying the digital signature may provide verification that the implicit certificate is valid.
US08745374B2
A method of sending protected data from a sender unit to a receiver unit via an intermediate unit. The intermediate unit stores information associated with a certificate belonging to the receiver unit, and information associated with a certificate belonging to the intermediate unit, which has previously been signed by the receiver unit. The intermediate unit receives a request from the sender unit to send protected data to the receiver unit, and so it sends a response to the sender unit. The response includes the information associated with the certificate belonging to the receiver unit, which allows the sender unit to verify that the intermediate unit is authorized to receive data on behalf of the receiver unit. The intermediate unit then receives data from the sender unit that is protected using the information associated with the certificate belonging to the receiver unit for subsequent forwarding to the receiver unit. Having the receiver unit sign the intermediate unit's certificate allows the exchange of credentials to allow a sender unit to send protected data to a receiver unit via an intermediate unit.
US08745372B2
Systems and methods are provided for distributing trust among a set of certificate authorities. One approach provides methods and systems in which the secure data parser is used to distribute trust in a set of certificate authorities during initial negotiation of a connection between two devices. Another approach provides methods and systems in which the secure data parser is used to disperse packets of data into shares. A set of tunnels is established within a communication channel using a set of certificate authorities, keys developed during the establishment of the tunnels are used to encrypt shares of data, and the shares of data are transmitted through each of the tunnels.
US08745363B2
A bootable volatile memory device comprises a volatile memory area configured to be written to and read from by a host processor, a boot code area configured to store bootstrap code before a boot procedure is performed by the host processor, a first chip select terminal configured to output a signal used as a chip select signal where the host processor performs the boot procedure by reading the bootstrap code from the boot code area, and a second chip select terminal configured to output a signal used as a chip select signal where the host processor writes and reads data to and from the volatile memory area.
US08745353B2
The present disclosure describes various techniques resolving block boundary issues and reconstructing logical blocks in a block access storage device when there are resulting mismatches between logical and physical block sizes or alignments, such that logical blocks span multiple physical block boundaries in irregular ways. In one example, a method comprises the following features: receiving logical block addresses that are associated with a sequence of logical blocks; and locating a first portion of a logical block within a first physical block that is stored in a block access storage device based upon a logical block address of the logical block, wherein the logical block is part of the sequence of logical blocks, and wherein at least two logical blocks within the sequence of logical blocks have different sizes.
US08745352B2
Reducing contentions between processes or tasks that are trying to access shared resources is described herein. According to embodiments of the invention, a method of writing a set of data associated with a task to a memory resource is provided. The method includes calculating the amount of memory required to write said data to the memory resource and updating an expected end marker to reflect the amount of memory required to write the data to the memory resource. A flag is then set to an incomplete state, and the data is written to the memory resource. The flag can be set to a complete state and an end marker is updated. The end marker indicates the end of the data stored in the memory resource.
US08745328B2
Systems and processes may be used to retrieve metadata from a nonvolatile memory of a portable device and transmit the retrieved metadata to an external host. Metadata may be analyzed using the external host and/or at least a portion of the metadata may be modified based on the analysis. Modified metadata may be transmitted from the external host to a memory controller of the host.
US08745324B2
Optimization of tracks on a hard disk includes: determining I/O characteristics for data clusters to be stored on the hard disk; generating a set of solutions for each possible placement configuration; for each solution, calculating a plurality of cost functions using the I/O characteristics for the plurality of data clusters; for each solution, calculating a membership value using the cost function values; for each solution, calculating a fitness value using the membership value; retaining the solutions with the fitness value greater than a predetermined threshold; determining whether at least one stopping condition has been met; if not, adding new solutions to the retained solutions to generate the next set of solutions; and repeating the calculating the membership value, the calculating the fitness value, and the retaining the solutions with the fitness value greater than the predetermined threshold until at least one stopping condition has been met.
US08745312B2
A non-volatile memory may include a plurality of map blocks for storing a plurality of map units, the map units representing mapping information between physical addresses and logical addresses. A storage device may include such a non-volatile memory. A method of mapping such a non-volatile memory may include writing historical information regarding locations of valid map units among the map units included in map blocks previously allocated among the map blocks when a new map block among the map blocks is allocated, the valid map units representing valid mapping information, and constructing a map table including all of the valid mapping information based on the historical information and a result of searching a map block recently allocated among the map blocks.
US08745297B2
A load card for testing different types of PCI slots is provided. The load card includes several gold fingers, and resistor selection circuits. Each gold finger corresponds to one PCI slot. Each resistor selection circuit includes a resistor to test at least one PCI slot working in one working voltage. When a PCI slot working at a working voltage is to be tested, the gold finger connects to the PCI slot, and the resistor selection circuit including the resistor to test the PCI slot working at the working voltage is enabled and others are disabled in response to an operation of the user.
US08745294B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for dynamic random access memory (DRAM)/SSD-based memory to improve memory usage. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a field programmable gate array (FPGA) (SSD controller) that comprises a PCI-express interface for receiving and converting serial data to 64 bit data; a data/bit converter coupled to the interface for converting the 64 bit data to 128 bit data; and a memory controller coupled to the data converter for receiving and storing the 128 bit data in a set of DRAM units coupled to the memory controller. In general, the data converter comprises an input address buffer for receiving and buffering address information; an address matching component coupled to the input address buffer for analyzing the address information and determining a matching address based on the address information; an output address buffer coupled to the address matching component for buffering and outputting the matching address; an input data buffer for receiving and buffering 64 bit data; a data matching component coupled to the input data buffer for matching the 64 bit data with a corresponding address; and an output data buffer coupled to the data matching component for buffering and outputting the 128 bit data based on output of the data matching component.
US08745293B2
A format converter includes a first input buffer for storing input data, an output buffer for storing output data, a converter connected between the first input buffer and the output buffer, and a register that the converter refers to. The register allows plural kinds of conversion patterns to be defined in conformity with a desired data format conversion. The converter generates the output data based on the input data, in accordance with the conversion pattern defined in the register.
US08745290B2
A multi-modem device is disclosed. The multi-modem device includes a housing. Included within the housing is a plurality of modems, wherein the modems send and receive data along a common data bus. The multi-modem device further includes an interface that provides a connection that enables the modems to communicate with a computer, wherein each of the modems is made available to the computer so that the modems may be selected either individually or in parallel to provide one or more communication links to the computer.
US08745287B2
A data transfer apparatus includes a virtual channel unit configured to time share a serial bus for a first virtual channel and a second virtual channel and include a buffering control unit configured to receive data via the first virtual channel and the second virtual channel, first and second receive buffers being configured to store the data received via the first virtual channel and the second virtual channel, respectively; and a switching unit configured to control storing the data received via the first virtual channel in the second receive buffer when the buffering control unit receives the data from another data transfer apparatus which is configured to use only the first virtual channel and the capacity of the first receive buffer is smaller than that of the second receive buffer.
US08745284B2
Interactive content may be presented to a user that is manipulating a peripheral. One or more state parameters that are related to the position of the peripheral may be determined. The peripheral may be identified from a plurality of possible peripherals. The interactive content may be adjusted based at least in part on the one or more position parameters and/or the identification of the peripheral. Haptic feedback to be provided to the user may be determined based at least in part on the one or more position parameters and/or the identification of the peripheral.
US08745279B2
An integrated circuit (IC) performs self-healing and reconfiguration of a portion of the IC. In response to determining that a portion of the IC should be configured, a clock to the portion of the IC to be configured is halted. That portion of the IC is then configured using a processing core that is included in the IC. The processing core is also used to perform an intended function of the IC that is different than the configuration.
US08745272B2
Various embodiments described or referenced herein are directed to different devices, methods, systems, and computer program products for providing contextual information via a user interface provided in a web browser. The user interface may display a plurality of components including a first component displaying object record information associated with an object record stored in a database and a second component displaying contextual information related to the stored object record information. Edited object record information may be received at the client machine. An indication of the edited object record information may be provided to the second user interface component of the user interface in the web browser. A request for updated contextual information related to the edited object record information may be transmitted from the client machine to the server. The updated contextual information may be displayed in the second user interface component of the user interface.
US08745269B2
A method and server for generating an IP address profile are provided. The method may include first gathering information about an IP address associated with an Internet user based at least in part on the Internet user's activity with respect to one or more Internet sites. The information may be stored in a database in association with the IP address, and a profile associated with the IP address may be generated based at least in part on the stored information. At some point, a request may be received for the profile from a web server in response to the Internet user requesting access to an Internet site associated with the web server. In response, the profile may be transmitted to the web server, such that the web server can dynamically alter one or more configurations of the Internet site based at least in part on the profile.
US08745263B2
In one embodiment, a system includes at least one outgoing transmission engine implemented in hardware, wherein the at least one outgoing transmission engine is for transmitting data in the plurality of buffers queued to the at least one outgoing transmission engine to the intersystem transmission medium, and a memory for storing the plurality of buffers, wherein each of the buffers queued to the at least one outgoing transmission engine is dequeued after the data is transmitted therefrom and requeued to an available buffer queue. In another embodiment, a system includes the above, except that it includes one or more incoming reception engines instead of outgoing transmission engines. In another embodiment, a method includes buffering data to be sent out by executing a loop of commands on an intersystem communication device and disconnecting the buffers after data has been transferred.
US08745258B2
A method of viewing a highlight package on a client device, comprising at the client device: receiving a video stream comprising a plurality of frames, receiving field of view information from a server, the field of view information identifying, for a frame in the received video stream, positional information defining a segment of the frame, and displaying the defined segment to a user.
US08745257B1
A system downloads a video from a remote server to a local server residing on a mobile device. The video is packaged in a first protocol, where the first protocol is selected based on a preferred download compatibility associated with the mobile device and the remote server. The system converts, on the local server, the video packaged in the first protocol to a video packaged in a second protocol. The second protocol is selected based on a capability of a video controller, residing on the mobile device, to render the video using the second protocol. The system transmits the video packaged in the second protocol from the local server to the video controller. Using the video controller, the system renders the video packaged in the second protocol on the mobile device.
US08745245B1
Systems and methods of offline detection are disclosed. The method includes generating a timeout value for offline detection at a plurality of clients. The method includes receiving a request from a client of the plurality of clients, sending an initial response to the client immediately after receiving the request from the client, sending one or more additional responses to the client, receiving timing information from the client, aggregating timing information received from the plurality of clients using a processor, and generating at least one timeout value based on the aggregated timing information.
US08745232B2
Systems and methods for balancing electronic mailboxes among databases communicatively coupled to an information handling system are disclosed. A method may include comparing an actual utilization values for a first database to a threshold utilization value for the first database and, depending upon the results, identifying the first database as over-utilized. The method may also include comparing an actual utilization values for a second database to a threshold utilization value for the second database and, depending upon the results, identifying the second database as under-utilized. The method may further include comparing a threshold usage value of a first electronic mailbox stored in the first database to an upper threshold usage value for the first electronic mailbox and, depending upon the results, identifying the first electronic mailbox as heavily-utilized. The method may also include moving the heavily-utilized electronic mailbox to the second database.
US08745225B2
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for detecting a tethering function being performed by an endpoint device in a communications network are disclosed. For example, the method analyzes a data packet directed towards the endpoint device, detects a signature based upon analyzing the data packet, and identifies the endpoint device as performing the tethering function based upon detecting the signature.
US08745219B2
A management system for a computer data network comprises a remote management station connected to an analog communication system and connected to a device console port of a co-located computer device. The remote management station comprises (a) an embedded processor, (b) a connecting means to the analog communication system, and (c) a connecting means to the device console port. The remote management station is configured to detect a user connecting to or disconnecting from the device console port via the remote management station. The remote management station is configured for one or more of the following: (a) logging the user off the device console port when the user disconnects or is disconnected from the console port; (b) logging a previous user off the device console port before allowing a new user to access the device console port; or (c) monitoring messages sent to the device console port
US08745217B2
A system for brand management using social networks comprising an application server, social network crawler software modules, third party service integration software modules, an analytics server, a report generator, a search engine, a behavioral analysis engine, a recommendation engine, and a database. A user registers and provides data pertaining to a brand. Upon retrieving content from a plurality of social networks pertaining to the brand, the analytics server module analyzes the content to a content value specific to the brand among members of the social networks. The behavioral analysis engine obtains content elements generated by a first member a social network and analyzes the first member's behavior to compute an audience value of the first member. The report generator prepares reports specific to the brand, the reports comprising at least indicia of content value, indicia of audience value, and recommendations for improving member engagement with the brand.
US08745213B2
A managed services platform and method of operation of same are described herein. The platform can include a device management service (DMS) server in which the DMS server can act as a gateway for communications with one or more computing devices, and the computing devices are associated with a first entity. The platform can also include an application service (AS) server in which the AS server is communicatively coupled with the DMS server. When a first computing device contacts the DMS server, the DMS server is operable to provide a bundle to the first computing device. As an example, the bundle contains content that at least includes one or more configuration messages and an application set that contains one or more predefined applications. The content of the bundle can be determined at least in part by the first entity.
US08745203B2
An eService connector system includes an eService consumer for receiving an eService from an eService source. The eService may, for example, be any wave form of illumination, acoustic or thermal service. A service switch is provided for selectively transferring the eService from the eService source to the eService consumer. The service switch is activated to transfer an eService from the eService source to the eService consumer in response to a proximity sensor engaging a proximity target.
US08745184B1
A method for wireless communication provisioning is disclosed. A first wireless communication provisioning state associated with one or more identifiers is defined. A second wireless communication provisioning state associated with one or more identifiers is defined. A state transition rule is defined, wherein the state transition rule defines a transition between the first wireless communication provisioning state and the second wireless communication provisioning state, wherein the first wireless communication provisioning state and the second wireless communication provisioning state are based on the lifecycle of the service of a wireless communication device associated with the first and second wireless communication provisioning states.
US08745180B2
Method for dynamically adjusting network parameters of a mobile terminal browser and mobile terminal
The disclosure discloses a method for adjusting a mobile terminal browser, which comprises setting an upper threshold value and a lower threshold value of a downloading speed for a mobile terminal browser. The method further comprises: calculating a current average downloading speed of the mobile terminal browser; comparing the current average downloading speed with the upper threshold value and the lower threshold value of the downloading speed; resetting network parameters of the mobile terminal browser when the current average downloading speed is less than the lower threshold value of the downloading speed or greater than the upper threshold value of the downloading speed. The disclosure also discloses a mobile terminal. The disclosure optimizes the network parameters of the mobile terminal browser according to the current network environment, and simultaneously increases downloading efficiency and stability of the mobile terminal browser, thereby avoiding the process of manually setting the relative network parameters of the browser by a mobile terminal user according to different network environments, so that the browser is more humanized and user experience is greatly improved.
US08745178B2
Methods and arrangements for selecting a content source from a plurality of potential content sources based on program information are described. A network resource maintains a mapping between itself and a static URL to be accessed by an application when updating content used in the application. The network resource can receive, over an electronic network, a configuration request providing the static URL and program information that at least identifies the application and version of the application. Based on the received information that is specific to the identified application version and from which content specific for that application version can be obtained, the network resource determines a second URL and provides the second URL to the application in response to the request.
US08745176B2
A device to set device configurations, and a method thereof. The method includes requesting a server for address information to be used by a device and cloning information for setting configurations, and receiving the cloning information from the server according to the address information to be used by the device and setting configurations for the device. Accordingly, when a new device is installed, the method can receive device configuration information previously stored in a server that manages devices, and can automatically set configurations for the new device.
US08745172B1
In general, embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to techniques for determining a user's potential exposure to defined audio content (e.g., television and audio advertisements) using a mobile device. In one example, a method includes receiving first audio content. The method further includes generating a first digital representation of the first audio content. The method also includes accessing a data structure, wherein the data structure contains at least a second digital representation of at least second audio content. The method also includes comparing the first digital representation to at least the second digital representation contained in the data structure and if there is a match between the first digital representation and at least the second digital representation contained in the data structure, transmitting a message to a remote server indicating the match.
US08745167B2
A client stores a first set of workspace data, and is coupled via a computer network to a global server. The client may be configured to synchronize portions of the first set of workspace data with the global server, which stores independently modifiable copies of the portions. The global server may also store workspace data which is not downloaded from the client, and thus stores a second set of workspace data. The global server may be configured to identify and authenticate a user seeking global server access from a remote terminal, and is configured to provide access to the first set or to the second set. Further, services may be stored anywhere in the computer network. The global server may be configured to provide the user with access to the services. The system may further include a synchronization-start module at the client site (which may be protected by a firewall) that initiates interconnection and synchronization with the global server when predetermined criteria have been satisfied.
US08745166B2
A gateway service platform is disclosed that provides access to a payment processing system via an open network such as the internet. The gateway service platform also provides access to service systems that provide a variety of services and applications offered by or affiliated with the payment processing system. The gateway service platform allows the payment processing system to reach users and to facilitate transactions on a wide variety of devices that may not otherwise be able to connect to payment processing system. Other devices, such as payment terminal devices, can also interact with a payment processing system through the gateway service platform using the same network and protocol. Embodiments of the invention allow devices on these open networks to connect with the payment processing system without having to change the existing infrastructure of the payment processing system.
US08745158B2
Methods and systems for populating a cache memory that services a media composition system. Caching priorities are based on a state of the media composition system, such as media currently within a media composition timeline, a composition playback location, media playback history, and temporal location within clips that are included in the composition. Caching may also be informed by descriptive metadata and media search results within a media composition client or a within a media asset management system accessed by the client. Additional caching priorities may be based on a project workflow phase or a client project schedule. Media may be partially written to or read from cache in order to meet media request deadlines. Caches may be local to a media composition system or remote, and may be fixed or portable.
US08745154B1
A client device may include various sensors that monitor an environment of the client device as well as operations performed by the client device. The client device may identify a digital item that a user has requested to download to the client device according to a predetermined schedule that includes multiple reoccurring periods. The client device may monitor access of the item (or versions thereof) by the user for each of the multiple reoccurring periods of the predetermined schedule. The client device may then determine that the user does not access the item during at least one instance of a particular period of the multiple reoccurring periods. Based at least in part on the determining, the client device may refrain from downloading the item to the client device during an instance of the particular period that is subsequent to the at least one instance of the particular period.
US08745148B1
Communication systems and methods are described. In an illustrative embodiment, embeddable code is provided to a user to embed on a user web page. A communication request is received from a visitor via a user interface displayed on the user web page, the user interface including an address field configured to receive from the visitor an address associated with the visitor, and a text entry field configured to receive a text message from the visitor, wherein the user interface is generated at least in part by the code. If the visitor enters a phone address into the address field, a determination is made as to whether the phone address is valid at least partly in response to a first action by the visitor. If the visitor enters text into the text entry field, the text is transmitted to the user at least partly in response to a second action by the visitor.
US08745141B2
A compact functionally rich timeline bar is embedded within an e-mail application window so that time-related information, such as calendar events, can be viewed and managed from within the e-mail window. The timeline bar consumes a small area of the e-mail window while presenting an optimal amount of information without interfering with the primary tasks regarding the e-mail application. The timeline bar displays as much of a string of calendar events as will fit in the timeline bar, and presents mechanisms with which a user can scroll forward and backward through the string of calendar events and can jump to particular dates within the string of events. Various presentations and operations are provided when a user hovers over corresponding features of the timeline bar, and various “drag-and-drop” operations are provided to initiate calendar event scheduling when a user drags-and-drops entities from other applications onto a feature of the timeline bar.
US08745140B2
A message received, over a first message handling service, on a mobile wireless communication device may be forwarded using a second message handling service. When a user wishes to forward a received message object associated with a first message handling service, the user may be provided, by a new verb object, with the option to forward the received message object as a new message object associated with a second message handling service. In the event that the user exercises the option, the new verb object selects a previously existing verb object for generating the new message object. The new verb object then passes the received message object to the previously existing verb object.
US08745138B2
A method for inviting an Instant Messaging (IM) user to join an online game is provided. An inviter generates a first instant message according to an online game selected by an inviter user, and sends the message to an invitee, where the first instant message contains description information describing the online game selected by the inviter user; after receiving an instant confining message returned by the invitee, which indicates that the invitee user agrees to join, the inviter requests according to the description information of the online game selected by the inviter user the game server of the online game to allocate game resources; after the game server successfully allocates the game resources, the inviter and the invitee respectively add the inviter user and the invitee user to the online game provided by the game server. The inviter is thus prevented from performing unnecessary operations.
US08745136B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs for defining a first group of contacts, the first group of contacts having been specified by a first user of a social networking service and including contacts of the first user within the social networking service, each contact in the first group of contacts being associated with a first sub-group of contacts within the first group of contacts, the first group of contacts being associated with a distribution scheme for digital content provided by the first user within the social networking service, and associating, based on first input provided by the first user, one or more contacts of the first sub-group of contacts with a second sub-group of contacts within the first group of contacts, the second sub-group of contacts including contacts for which at least some digital content distributed to the first user is filtered from display to the first user.
US08745132B2
A system that allows consumers to manage content and create audio/video presentations in a small portable media device, and to share media files with other users of small portable media devices, without requiring access to a computer.
US08745126B2
A processing method for a distributed computing system includes a round proposal signal transmission step, a round accept signal transmission step, a round-winning judgment step, an instance proposal signal transmission step, an instance accept signal transmission step, an instance consensus judgment step, an instance execution instruction signal transmission step, an instance execution step. In the instance consensus judgment step, a leader judges whether or not a condition regarding reception of the instance accept signal is satisfied, on the basis of whether or not the number of agents from which the leader has received the instance accept signal is greater than or equal to a number obtained by subtracting one from the majority of servers constituting a cell. In the instance proposal signal transmission step, the leader transmits, to each agent, the instance proposal signal for other instances without confirming satisfaction of the condition regarding reception of the instance accept signal.
US08745121B2
An approach is provided for construction and aggregation of distributed computations. A distributed computation construction infrastructure identifies an execution context bound to a user context at a device, the execution context corresponding to one or more processes executing at the device. The distributed computation construction infrastructure further causes, at least in part, decomposition of the execution context into one or more closure primitives and respective process states, wherein the one or more closure primitives represent computation closures of the one or more processes. The distributed computation construction infrastructure also causes, at least in part, serialization of the one or more closure primitives, the process states, or a combination thereof. The distributed computation construction infrastructure further causes, at least in part, aggregation of the one or more primitives and the respective process states to reconstruct at least a portion of the execution context based, at least in part, on consistency determination.
US08745116B2
A low-complexity inverse transform computation method, comprising following steps: firstly, analyzing an end-of-block (EOB) point in a matrix of a block; next, determining whether a bottom-left corner coefficient or a top-right coefficient before said EOB point is zero, and if it is zero, reducing further size of said matrix; then, determining an adequate operation mode to reduce computational complexity; and finally, realizing 2-D inverse transform through simplified 1-D inverse transforms. An inverse transform process of said method mentioned above is capable of lowering computation amount, reducing burden and computational complexity of a decompression system, and shortening effectively computation time of said 2-D inverse transform, such that it is applicable to inverse transforms of various video and still image codecs.
US08745113B2
The present invention discloses a pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) generator which outputs the entire datapath, or entire pseudo-random bit sequence, over one single clock cycle. This is accomplished by removing redundancy, or any redundant exclusive-or gates from linear feedback shift registers; using logic to identify the critical path and optimal shift for the critical path; and dividing the datapath into several pipeline stages to increase the clock rate (i.e., transmission speed).
US08745099B2
Provided are methods, systems, and computer readable media for user interaction with database methods and systems. In an aspect, a user interface can be generated to permit dynamic display generation to view data. The system can comprise a visualization component to dynamically generate one or more visual representations of the data to present in the state space.
US08745097B2
Techniques and tools are described for converting XML documents and XML schema documents to OWL. An OWL model ontology can be generated by receiving XML schema documents, performing schema consolidation, and generating the OWL model ontology from the consolidated XML schema. An OWL instance ontology can be generated by receiving XML documents and XML schema documents and generating an OWL instance ontology from the XML documents and the XML schema documents. OWL model extraction and OWL instance generation can be performed in parallel and without the need for intermediate XSLT documents. Schema consolidation can comprise collecting schema documents, merging schema documents, and reorganizing the merged schema document to create a consolidated schema document.
US08745084B2
A repository content analysis and management system includes a periodic searching device connected to a repository, a content analysis heuristic engine for non-trivial assessment of content returned by the searching device, a processing engine to transform content detected through assessment, and a file management device to manage the operations on content to and from the repository.
US08745083B1
A system and method for matching candidates with personnel needs is provided. The system accepts both candidate attributes and personnel need attributes. At least one algorithm is utilized to match candidates with personnel needs. Feedback is solicited from both candidates and personnel searchers at various stages throughout a matching process. Based on this feedback, the system may modify at least one algorithm, and/or, in a system that utilizes a plurality of algorithms, modify at least one weight given to the results of at least one of the algorithms. The candidate attributes and personnel need attributes are also modified based on the feedback. Revised candidate lists and/or personnel need lists are provided based on the revised algorithms.
US08745077B2
Described herein is a technology for facilitating searching and matching of data. In some implementations, an input data string, including one or more ideographic elements, is received and converted to a Latin-based input data string. One or more input keys may be generated based on the Latin-based input data string. A reference database may be searched for one or more candidate records indexed by at least one of the one or more input keys. If the one or more candidate records are found, a match score is determined for the one or more candidate records.
US08745076B2
The database command rewriting system rewrites a first database command that includes language specific for a first database management system command into a second database command suitable for a second database management system. The database command rewriting system receives the first database command and identifies the specific language. Furthermore, the database command rewriting system retrieves a rule based on the identified language. Using the retrieved rule, the database command system rewrites the first database command to the second database command and transmits the second database command to the second database management system.
US08745071B2
Revised component selector extracts a translation file comprising a plurality of English keys and translation language values in a database, including untranslated keys as an XML file. The revised component selector extracts a plurality of English keys and translation language values and determines whether there are XML unsupported characters in the XML file. The revised component selector first filters out the XML unsupported characters to form a resultant file, responsive to a determination that XML unsupported characters are in the XML file. The revised component second selector filters out translated data from the resultant file to form an untranslated file. The revised component selector selects a subset of data. The revised component selector, responsive to selecting, third filters out any data not included in the subset to form a translatable file, responsive to selecting. The revised component selector sends the translatable file to a translation center to translate.
US08745070B2
Systems, methods, and media are disclosed herein that can be embodied in a traditional Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) in order to transform it into a Streaming Relational Database Management System (SRDBMS). An SRDBMS may provide functionality such as to manage and populate streams, tables, and archived stream histories and support the evaluation of continuous queries on streams and tables. Both continuous and snapshot queries support the full spectrum of the industry standard, widely used, Structured Query Language. The present technology can support a high number of concurrent continuous queries using a scalable and efficient shared query evaluation scheme, support on-the-fly addition of continuous queries into a mechanism that implements the shared evaluation scheme, reuse RDBMS modules such as relational operators and expression evaluators, and visualize results of continuous queries in real time.
US08745069B2
Methods for the automatic creation of a category tree with respect to the contents of a data stock, wherein a taxonomy of the data stock will be created on the base of co-occurrences. Another object of the present invention is furthermore a data processing system comprising data which represent information in at least one data stock which is accessible via at least one data source, which is designed and/or adapted to at least partially carry out a method according to the invention. Another object of the present invention is furthermore a data processing device for the electronic processing of data, comprising a control and/or computer unit, an input unit and an output unit, which is designed and/or adapted to at least partially carry out a method according to the invention, preferably using at least a part of a data processing system according to the invention.
US08745064B2
Systems and methods for operating a saturated hash table are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes a hash table located in memory of a computer and a hash program in communication with the hash table. The hash table may include a plurality of index positions, and the hash program may be operable to populate the hash table with a first new digest value, where the first new digest value is associated with a first data item. The first new digest value may be stored at least at a first index position and a second index position of the hash table.
US08745061B2
A method and system for identifying a candidate subset of a data set comprises comparing suffixes of query field values to data field values of records in the data set. Sufficiently similar records are included in the candidate subset. Query field value suffixes may range in length from the query field value itself down to a minimum suffix length. The longest suffix may be processed first, and then successively shorter suffixes may be processed until a satisfactory number of candidates are identified. Entries in an index data structure derived from the data set may associate various suffixes found in the data set with individual records. The data structure entries may include record keys identifying records with data field values identical to the suffix and may also include suffix pointers identifying related data structure entries with suffixes similar to the entry's suffix.
US08745059B1
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to functions used for retrieving image results based on search queries. More specifically, image search queries can be pre-grouped or classified based on visual and semantic similarity. For example, a pairwise image similarity value for a pair of queries can be computed based on one or more of the sum of all of the overlapping the image results, the sum of the image distances between all of the pairs of images in the image results, and the rank of each of the images in the image results. The pairwise image similarity values can then be used to generate image query clusters. Each image query clusters can include a set of queries with high pairwise image similarity values. In some examples, a distance function can be determined for each image query cluster. This data can be used to provide image results.
US08745057B1
A system and method for creating and organizing events includes an activity stream application that captures, searches and collaborates on one or more events. The events include unstructured data comprising text, digital ink, an audio clip and an image. The activity stream application receives user input and generates a new event and combines related events into the same activity. The activity stream application receives a search query and searches for events that are relevant to the search query. In one embodiment, the search query includes contextual information that includes at least one of at a similar time, at a similar location, in a similar situation and a relatedness of event attributes.
US08745050B2
The present invention relates to the generation of customised documents using document templates or master documents in a document generation system. In particular, the present invention relates to master documents requiring information specifying various definitions used in the document generation process.
US08745047B2
A method of providing a media recommendation is provided. The method includes receiving user provided information at a first device from a second device. The user provided information includes user preference information and user device information. The received user provided information is stored at a device accessible by the first device. Media information provided by a plurality of devices is monitored. The plurality of devices are accessible by the first device. A media recommendation is generated based on the received user provided information and the media information. If the user provided information includes an automatic download authorization, a media file associated with the generated media recommendation is downloaded to the first device from a content provider device. The downloaded media file is sent from the first device to the second device.
US08745040B2
According to one general aspect, a method of using an application may include receiving a request, from a user, to display at least a portion of a business service context regarding a business service. The method may also include receiving, from a database, an aggregated database result regarding the business service. The aggregated database result may include the requested business service context. The business service context may include information from a plurality of other applications. The method may further include displaying a graphical user interface element that displays at least a portion of the information included by the business service context.
US08745027B1
A system, method and a computer-readable medium for optimizing cascading style sheet (CSS) rules. The system includes a parser, an optimizer and a compiler. The parser is configured to generate a template tree and a CSS tree. The template tree is associated with a template file that includes one or more templates. The CSS tree is associated with a CSS file that includes one or more CSS rules. The optimizer is configured to traverse the template tree and the CSS tree, and identify each node in the template tree that has a reference to a CSS node in the CSS tree. When the reference exists, optimizer retrieves a CSS rule from the CSS node and appends the CSS rule to the node in the template tree. The compiler compiles the appended template tree.
US08745021B2
An enterprise business intelligence system includes a data access service. In one example, a method comprises receiving, with a data access service, a query and a report specification from an application, wherein the data access service is positioned between the application and a data source; creating a run tree that comprises a sequence of executable decoration nodes; executing the query on the data source, thereby providing a query result set comprising query results drawn from the data source that are responsive to the query; and executing the sequence of decoration nodes on the query result set. The decoration nodes modify the query result set, thereby producing a decorated result set based on the query result set and the decoration nodes. Producing the decorated result set comprises associating members or values in the query results with corresponding positions or calculated members in the report specification.
US08745018B1
The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented search method including receiving, at a non-browser application on a computing device, part or all of a user search query. The method further includes displaying search results responsive to receiving the search query in the non-browser application. The method further includes receiving a user selection of one of the search results. The method further includes automatically displaying, in response to the user selection of the one of the search results, a landing page for the one of the search results in a web browser on the computing device. The method further includes receiving from the user a selection of a first back button in the web browser and, in response to the user selection of the first back button, activating the non-browser application.
US08745017B2
Techniques are provided for performing transaction-aware caching of metadata in an electronic file system. A mechanism is described for providing transaction-aware caching that uses a cache hierarchy, where the cache hierarchy includes uncommitted caches associated with sessions in an application and a committed cache that is shared among the sessions in that application. Techniques are described for caching document metadata, access control metadata and folder path metadata. Also described is a technique for using negative cache entries to avoid unnecessary communications with a server when applications repeatedly request non-existent data.
US08745013B2
An improved computer system may include a controller including a computer processor. The system may also include a selector apparatus in communication with the controller to choose a table having a higher collision quality index than other tables under consideration by the selector apparatus. The system may further include an exchanger apparatus to configure a standby table that replaces the table chosen by the selector apparatus. The system may additionally include a switch that changes a hash function based upon the exchanger apparatus′ replacement of the chosen table to enable the controller to reduce insertion times and/or collisions when interfacing with new components introduced to the controller.
US08745011B2
A method and system for scrubbing data within a data storage subsystem is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method is provided for scrubbing data of a storage element within a data storage subsystem. In the described method embodiment, a request to access the storage element is processed utilizing a first processing module and access permission metadata associated with the storage element. A data scrub process is concurrently performed utilizing a second processing module by modifying the access permission metadata and validating data of the storage element substantially simultaneously with the processing.
US08745002B2
A partial replication step shot method. The method includes receiving a first snapshot at a first time from a replication source and receiving a set of data objects from the replication source that have been modified during a time period between the first time and a subsequent second time. A second snapshot is generated at the second time on the replication source by using the set of data objects. An application is mounted onto the second snapshot prior to the set of data objects being received to completion.
US08745000B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for logging operations for a database. An operation event module detects an operation on a record in a database table. A translation module creates a changed field bit field, one or more operation time bit fields, and a user bit field. The translation module creates the changed field bit field by encoding indicators of one or more fields of the record that the operation is configured to change, creates the one or more operation time bit fields by encoding time information for the operation, and creates the user bit field by encoding information of a user associated with the operation. A consolidation module packs at least the changed field bit field, the one or more operation time bit fields, and the user bit field into a single bit array. A log module stores the bit array in a change log.
US08744994B2
A method and system are disclosed for use with an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process, comprising optimizing a filter expression to select a subset of data and evaluating the filter expression on the data after the extracting, before the loading, but not during the transforming of the ETL process. The method and system optimizes the filtering using a pipelined evaluation for single predicate filtering and an adaptive optimization for multiple predicate filtering. The adaptive optimization includes an initial phase and a dynamic phase.
US08744992B2
Embodiments of the present invention include methods and systems for predicting the likelihood of topics appearing in a set of data such as text. A number of latent variable methods are used to convert the data into a set of topics, topic values and topic profiles. A number of time-course methods are used to model how topic values change given previous topic profiles, or to find historical times with similar topic values and then projecting the topic profile forward from that historical time to predict the likelihood of the topics appearing. Embodiments include utilizing focus topics, such as valence topics, and data representing financial measures to predict the likelihood of topics. Methods and systems for modeling data and predicting the likelihood of topics over other dimensions are also contemplated.
US08744990B2
Method and apparatus for rule-based, proactive web browsing are provided. A set of rules is determined and stored in computer data storage, where each rule in the set of rules is a proactive browsing rule that indicates a web page. The occurrence of an event represented by event information is detected. In response to detecting the occurrence of the event, the set of rules is evaluated based on the event information to determine whether any rules are satisfied. While a web browser is in use, a determination is made that a particular rule is satisfied. In response to determining that the particular rule is satisfied, the web browser is automatically redirected to directly access a particular web page that is indicated in the particular rule.
US08744986B2
A system, method and program product for estimating effort of implementing a system based on a use case specification document. A system is provided that includes: a volumetrics processor that quantifies a structure of the document and evaluates a format of the document; a domain processor that identifies a domain of the system associated with the document; a complexity processor that defines a set of complexity variables associated with the document based on the structure of the document, a format of the document and a domain of the document; and a neural network that estimates an effort based on the set of complexity variables.
US08744983B2
A method for classifying an unknown part includes acquiring a broadband frequency response for a plurality of parts in a training set of parts, the training set of parts including a plurality of non-flawed parts and a plurality of flawed parts, performing a statistical analysis on the broadband frequency responses to form a plurality of part subsets, the plurality of part subsets including at least one subset of non-flawed parts and at least one subset of flawed parts, and utilizing the plurality of part subsets to form a blended subset of parts, the blended subset of parts being used to classify an unknown part as either a defective part or a non-defective part. A tool for implementing the method is also described.
US08744982B2
A gene-specific prediction tool for classifying and interpreting gene tests is described. The prediction tool includes a classifier trained and tested using databases of gene variants and their known phenotypes. The classifier uses differences between features of amino acids in obtaining attributes used to perform classification and generate predictions, including for benign and pathologic outcomes, for uncertain gene variants.
US08744979B2
Triaging electronic communications in a computing system environment can mitigate issues related to large volumes of incoming electronic communications. This can include an analysis of user-specific electronic communication data and associated behaviors to predict which communications a user is likely to deem important or unimportant. Client-side application features are exposed based on the evaluation of communication importance to enable the user to process arbitrarily large volumes of incoming communications.
US08744963B1
A method for transferring an amount to be paid is provided. The method includes searching for available wireless devices and selecting a payee via input provided through one of the available wireless devices. The method includes selecting a payment option for transferring a payment amount to the payee and entering the payment amount. The method includes authorizing payment instructions to the payee and receiving confirmation that the payment amount was received by the payee.
US08744962B1
Funding source data, such as bank account information or credit card information, associated with a user is stored in an enterprise-wide database maintained by an institution, such as a financial services institution. The data in the enterprise-wide database may be accessible to entities associated with the institution upon the user's authorization. The user only has to provide the funding source data once and may then use that funding source to pay for any product, service, bill, etc. associated with any of the entities of the institution. A user may update funding source data once, and this updated funding source data may then be available to all the entities. After providing account details for the user's various funding sources, a user can assign any of the funding sources to a payment plan for any product or service in any entity of the institution.
US08744959B2
A system for third party bill payment services used by a payer to pay a biller with whom a payer has an account includes a third party computer system for accessing biller data, the biller data for the payer comprising at least one account identifier, an amount due, and a nominal bill due date; a payment option generator for developing at least one payment option wherein the payment specified is responsive to a difference between a proposed payment date and the nominal bill due date; a payer interface for presenting the at least one payment option to the payer and for accepting a payer option selection and a payment funding confirmation; and a payment execution controller responsive to the payer option selection and funding confirmation, for initiating payment to a biller account on behalf of the payer.
US08744954B2
A system and method are provided for implementing an electronic exchange-based transaction message policy. One example method includes defining a message usage threshold to be used in relation to a client entity that utilizes one or more trading strategies and sends transaction messages to an electronic exchange. The method further includes dynamically monitoring the message usage at the client entity and comparing it to the defined message usage threshold. If the message usage exceeds the threshold limit, the method includes adjusting one or more trading strategies at the client entity in attempt to not violating the exchange-based transaction message policy.
US08744952B2
A method and apparatus for outputting data that represents the change in value of an options premium that would have resulted if the options traded in a direct linear volume relationship with its underlying security is provided. Input values utilized include a delta value, a gamma value, a value-weighted average price of an underlying stock, a reference price of the underlying stock, and an original order premium value.
US08744947B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets for a mechanism for determining an optimized investment strategy across a portfolio of media channels for a given product or service. For each media channel in the portfolio, the unadjusted elasticity indicating an estimated effectiveness of the media channel when used for marketing is adjusted based on risk information associated with the media channel. The risk adjusted elasticity corresponding to each media channel in the portfolio is then used to determine an investment allocation for the media channel.
US08744945B2
A system and method for displaying trade information is disclosed. The method includes receiving from a host exchange a plurality of trade notifications, each trade notification corresponding to an executed trade, and for each executed trade of interest, determining whether the executed trade belongs in an aggregated set with one or more other executed trades. All executed trades in an aggregated set are for the same associated tradable object, have traded at the same associated trade price, and have been executed within a predetermined time period of each other. Aggregated sets are displayed a user display with an associated aggregated quantity, and the remaining executed trades of interest are also displayed. Trades are displayed using an associated indicator for indicating whether the corresponding executed trade or aggregated trade traded on the bid side or on the offer side of the market, and which indicates whether additional volume is available at the associated trade price.
US08744944B2
Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company's spend capacity. Banks and lenders can use CSoW/CSoSW to determine who to lend to and who to deny credit to, as well as for pricing loans and other products in a dynamic way. Banks and lenders can also determine which customers should be retained, as well as identify loans which are likely to default.
US08744933B2
A computer implemented business method and process directed to enabling a public works contractor employer who contracts for work on one or more government agency public works projects or who contracts for work on concurrent private and public works projects, in a singlular or plurality of jurisdictions to process payroll on contract-specific bases in order to: generate certified payroll records in accordance with the currently applicable rules and standards for content and format required by a plurality of awarding body or enforcement jurisdictions and at predetermined intervals; provide alerts and reports allowing said contractor to anticipate compliance vulnerability and choose real time manpower adjustments for such management issues as apprentice/journeyman ratio; provide evidence of meeting and exceeding government objectives in order to establish a record and reputation of compliance; and generate reports for managing the assignment of personnel to enhance worker cooperation, spirit, and morale.
US08744931B1
A method is disclosed that includes identifying an inventory item corresponding to a product configuration. The product configuration is defined using a feature map. The inventory item is also defined using the feature map. Each entry of the feature map corresponds to one of a number of features of a product.
US08744930B1
In general, the subject matter described in this disclosure can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products. A particular application program receives, as sent by a third-party application program: (i) a first request to purchase a product for use by the third-party application program, and (ii) an attribute of the product. The particular application program sends, for receipt by a server system: (i) a second request to purchase the product, and (ii) the attribute of the product. The particular application program receives, as sent by the server system: (i) an indication that the product has been purchased, and (ii) the attribute of the product. The particular application program sends, for receipt by the third-party application program: (i) the indication that the product has been purchased, and (ii) the attribute of the product.
US08744926B1
An approach to facilitating provisioning of in-vehicle services is provided. Trip-identifying information may be obtained from a user-provided device. The trip-identifying information may identify a trip that is to occur on the vehicle. A list of in-vehicle services, which are available for the trip on the vehicle, may be determined based on the trip-identifying information. The list of in-vehicle services may be provided to the user-provided device. A selection of at least one in-vehicle service that is to be provided during the trip may be received from the user-provided device. A request for the at least one in-vehicle service may be generated based on the selection.
US08744925B2
A system, methods, and apparatus for performing automobile transactions are disclosed. In an example embodiment, automobile market data representative of current automobile market characteristics is stored. The automobile market data may include pricing, inventory, and consumer interest information received from dealers, manufacturers, and consumers. A consumer may provide a request for a response regarding a specific automobile using an image of a vehicle identification number or a graphical user interface. Automobile market data may be provided to a dealer based on the request. Bids to sell the specific automobile may be requested from dealers based on the request. Dealer bids may be provided to the consumer with prices and a delivery options. The consumer may select a bid which specifies a pickup location at a first dealer.
US08744924B2
The present invention is a system and method to sell or procure complementary goods. A complementary good according to the invention is a good whose value or utility is enhanced when paired with another good, such a pair of goods is a communication license to encumbered spectrum and a complementary clearing right to clear the spectrum of its encumbrance. The invention provides automated procedures to facilitate the fashioning and sale of clearing rights so as to enhance the value of the communications license.
US08744920B2
One aspect of the invention is directed to integrating mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, etc., into a mobile retail environment commercial system. A mobile device includes a mobile store module that provides an interactive user experience that allows a traveler to browse goods or services that are available in the mobile retail environment. The device further includes a mobile store inventory records module that maintains records of goods and services that are available in each particular mobile retail environment. An update module facilitates data connectivity with a remote server to update the stored data in the mobile store inventory records module. The remote server, in turn, is communicatively coupled with a transportation service provider system, such as an airline business system that provides information on individual travelers and their itineraries. The mobile device further includes an in-flight data exchange module that facilitates interaction with a point-of-sale device.
US08744919B1
Computing systems, methods, and program products can support a closed retail network. A computing system can receive an inquiry from a first member entity of a retail network and identifying a product of interest. The system can use a datastore to determine if the product of interest is available for sale by a first member by determining if the product is available from a second member. If the product of interest is available for sale, the computing system can indicate that the product is available, receive data from the first member entity indicating that the product has been sold to a customer and including payment information, use the payment information to transfer funds from the customer, and initiate a distribution of the transferred funds to the first and second member entities. The system may consider distribution rules in determining if the product is available for sale by the first member.
US08744915B2
A consumer is prequalified for a line of credit attached to a checking account by a lending institution computer responsive to consumer underwriting data. The lending institution computer makes available draws to the line of credit line in an authorization stream for a proposed payment from the checking account. When the line of credit is accessed, the checking account is credited with an additional value equal to one or more preselected loan increments so that the account then has a new amount totaling a previous amount plus the amount of value of the one or more preselected loan increments and so that the new amount exceeds or equals the value of a proposed payment. Next, a new value for the line of credit balance available is determined, accounting for value credited to the checking account and a preselected loan advance fee for each loan increment credited to the account.
US08744914B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for assisting a consumer during a transaction with a vendor at a point of sale by providing transaction information to the consumer via consumer-readable communications. In one embodiment, a payment terminal proximate the point of sale communicates a transaction information signal to the mobile device. The mobile device communicates the transaction information to the consumer in a consumer-readable format such as audible sound waves. In some embodiments, the consumer-readable communications include requests for consumer input. The consumer input is received by an input device proximate the mobile device and communicated to the payment terminal. In some embodiments consumer input is received by the payment terminal as well as the mobile device, and in some embodiments, the consumer chooses whether to use the mobile device as an interface or only to use the payment terminal.
US08744909B2
Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for verifying a consumer's cognitive awareness of an advertisement. Aspects of the invention provide a method of receiving a request for services from a consumer, presenting at least one advertisement to the consumer, presenting at least one verification question to the consumer, receiving at least one verification response from the consumer, and determining whether the at least one verification response matches at least one correct response. If the at least one verification response matches the correct response, then access to the service is granted. If the at least one verification response does not match the correct response, then access to the service is not granted. In some embodiments of the invention, the consumer is allowed to repeat the verification process if the verification response does not match the correct response.
US08744907B2
A method and system for the electronic distribution of product redemption coupons to remote personal computers located at users' homes are disclosed. A centrally located repository, such as an online service provider or web site on the Internet, stores packages of coupon data for downloading on demand to the user's computer. A coupon generated by the system and method of the present invention comprises an encoded area that consists essentially of a unique Coupon Id. The unique Coupon Id is also recorded in a database comprising a plurality of data tables. At least one of the data tables associates each Coupon Id with one or more of a Promotion Id and a Consumer Id. Preferably, the Print Id is also associated in a data table with a Session Id and information regarding the date/time of printing. The Ids other than the Coupon Id may not be printed on the coupon.
US08744898B1
Methods and systems for user churn reporting based on engagement metrics are disclosed. In some embodiments, methods and systems may provide mechanisms for reporting the number of users or customers that are disengaged from a service or product. These embodiments may be employed, for instance, in cases where there is no “analytic footprint” marking discontinuation of service—e.g., where there is no explicit “subscription cancellation request,” “subscription expiration,” “opt-out,” or the like in connection with a user's disengagement. Other embodiments are applicable to subscription-based models, for example, where users have not “unsubscribed” from the service but should nonetheless no longer be considered engaged. As such, systems and methods disclosed herein may enable assessment and improvement of marketing campaign and retention efforts based on their effectiveness in reducing the number of churned users, re-engagement of users that have abandoned a particular product or service, etc.
US08744896B2
The quality of a product may be an important driver of consumer satisfaction, competition, and long-term brand success. Identifying the right dimensions of product quality may be central to devising segmentation and positioning strategies, rankings brands, creating advertising content, improving current products, or designing new products. User-generated content, such as product reviews, may identify quality. Data in product reviews is analyzed across fifteen firms in five markets over four years to extract the dimensions of experienced quality using Latent Dirichlet Allocation. The face, external, and predictive validity of these dimensions is explored. Results suggest that a few dimensions may be enough to capture experienced quality, have good correspondence to other metrics of quality, and serve as reasonably good predictors of earnings and stock market returns. Dynamic analysis may enable tracking the importance of dimensions and of competitive brand positions on those dimensions over time.
US08744894B2
A method for information technology (IT) and information asset risk assessment of a business relationship between a client and a third party. The method includes establishing a database. The database includes a plurality of IT information risk factors. The database is configured to receive IT risk information. The IT risk information is associated with the plurality of IT information risk factors. The plurality of IT information risk factors includes a subset of relationship risk factors. The subset of relationship risk factors are utilized for evaluating the business relationship risk between the client and the third party. The method also includes receiving IT risk information corresponding to the subset of relationship risk factors. The method continues with generating a relationship risk score. The relationship risk score is determined in response to evaluating the subset of relationship risk factors using the IT risk information corresponding to the subset of relationship risk factors.
US08744887B2
An approach that manages a service oriented architecture (SOA) lifecycle organization change is provided. In one embodiment, there is a change management tool, including a retrieval component configured to retrieve a proposed change; a lifecycle defining component configured to define an SOA lifecycle based on the proposed change; a services portfolio component configured to identify a plurality of SOA shared services in services portfolio that addresses the proposed change; a stakeholder component configured to identify stakeholders having an interest in the proposed change; an impact component configured to determine impacts of the proposed change on the stakeholders; a deployment planning component configured to develop a service deployment plan and communication plan related to the proposed change; and an implementation component configured to implement the plurality of SOA shared services that addresses the proposed change.
US08744881B2
Systems and methods related to an online website wherein businesses seeking insurance can obtain quotations and be connected to a plurality of insurance providers are described herein. In some embodiments, the businesses are authenticated and verified by providing such details as, e.g., employer identification number (EIN) or tax identification number (TIN), and being registered with the system prior to requesting quotations. In some embodiments, the system has an online collaboration system where a business can ask or post questions and receive answers from insurance providers or agents who match their search criteria.
US08744875B2
A patient monitor is synchronized with a portable sensor module by detecting a first coupling of the portable sensor module to the patient monitor. In response to the first coupling, the portable sensor module and the patient monitor each store configuration settings and record patient data acquired through the portable sensor module. After the portable sensor module is decoupled from the patient monitor, the portable sensor module continues to store patient data and the configuration settings stored in the patient monitor and the portable sensor module are allowed to change relative to one another. Upon detecting a second coupling of the portable sensor module to the patient monitor, the portable sensor module and the patient monitor resynchronize with one another to remove any differences in the configuration settings and to provide copies of any patient data missing from either the portable sensor module and the patient monitor.
US08744871B1
An interface module for a display interface of an illuminated display system including an operating subframe and a selector coupled to the operating subframe. The operating subframe is coupled to a plurality of light emitters. Each light emitter provides a different predetermined wavelength of light than the other light emitters from the plurality of light emitters. Each respective predetermined wavelength provides information relating to a corresponding predetermined status. Each desired light emitter is chosen from the plurality of light emitters according to a lighting operation sequence. The operating subframe includes a module processor coupled to the plurality of light emitters and the selector, a removable external memory device, and an external memory processor, and a bus coupled to the module processor and the removable external memory processor. The module processor stores illuminated light emitter information in a computer readable format within the removable external memory device.
US08744870B2
A system, method and computer program product for forecasting one or more clinical pathways and resource requirements of at least one patient are provided. The system comprises an input module for receiving inputs pertaining to patient diagnostic data, the patient diagnostic data comprising information identified during diagnosis of the patient. The system also comprises a repository for storing data comprising at least one of patient data and pre-existing clinical pathways. The patient data comprises at least one of the patient diagnostic data received from the input module; patient historical data comprising historical treatment data of the patient and patient demographic data comprising demographic details of the patient. The system also comprises a clinical pathway forecasting module for forecasting clinical pathways by application of predetermined analytical models on the patient data and pre-existing clinical pathways. The system further comprises a resource requirement forecasting module for forecasting resource requirements of the patient.
US08744864B2
A method for generating a financial report indicative of estimated turbine maintenance costs is provided. The method includes receiving, at a database, turbine operational history data and turbine inspection data from a user for a pre-identified turbine, receiving, at the database, turbine replacement part costs, turbine part repair costs, and vendor service costs associated with the pre-identified turbine, inputting a pre-determined turbine operational forecast into the database, analyzing turbine maintenance information including at least one of turbine operational history data, turbine inspection data, replacement part costs, part repair costs, vendor service costs, and turbine operational forecast, and automatically generating a financial report including at least one schedule of turbine maintenance events and costs associated with each event based on the turbine maintenance information analysis.
US08744859B2
An operation method of an interactive refrigerator system, includes displaying information about stored items corresponding to a speech input by a user, generating and outputting a response message for the information about the stored items, checking whether or not storage periods of the stored items are expired; and outputting expiration information about storage periods of the stored items or expected expiration information about storage periods of the stored items.
US08744856B1
A computer implemented method, system and computer program product for evaluating pronunciation. Known phonemes are stored in a computer memory. A spoken utterance corresponding to a target utterance, comprised of a sequence of target phonemes, is received and stored in a computer memory. The spoken utterance is segmented into a sequence of spoken phonemes, each corresponding to a target phoneme. For each spoken phoneme, a relative posterior probability is calculated that the spoken phoneme is the corresponding target phoneme. If the calculated probability is greater than a first threshold, an indication that the target phoneme was pronounced correctly is output; if less than a first threshold, an indication that the target phoneme was pronounced incorrectly is output. If the probability is less than a first threshold and greater than a second threshold, an indication that pronunciation of the target phoneme was acceptable is output.
US08744843B2
In an embodiment, bitstream elements of sub-frames are encoded differentially to a global gain value so that a change of the global gain value results in an adjustment of an output level of the decoded representation of the audio content. Concurrently, the differential coding saves bits. Even further, the differential coding enables the lowering of the burden of globally adjusting the gain of an encoded bitstream. In another embodiment, a global gain control across CELP coded frames and transform coded frames is achieved by co-controlling the gain of the codebook excitation of the CELP codec, along with a level of the transform or inverse transform of the transform coded frames. In another embodiment, the gain value determination in CELP coding is performed in the weighted domain of the excitation signal.
US08744840B1
A method, system, and computer-readable program for creating at least one n-dimensional map by utilizing one or more processors are disclosed. One aspect of the subject matter described can be embodied by a computer-implemented method which utilizes simple and reduced complexity algorithms in which an n-dimensional map, e.g., an EMPT (Entity, Meaning, Place, and Time) map or a language map (e.g., Words map), may be created by integrating the data itself within a special environment and context such that all pedigrees of data, in massive amounts, may be rapidly and accurately correlated and analyzed in unique and new ways.
US08744838B2
A system and method for contextualizing operating procedures are provided. A set of procedures is provided, each including text describing user actions which are to be performed on a physical device to implement the procedure. A device model refers to components of the device on which user actions are performable and provides state charts which link an action performable on the respective component with states assumed by it. The text of each procedure is segmented to form a sequence of steps. Each step includes an action to be performed on one of the components of the device that is referred to in the device model. When a request for one of the procedures is received, the corresponding sequence of instruction steps is retrieved. A current one of the instruction steps is contextualized, based on device data received from the device and the state chart of the respective component.
US08744837B2
A question type and domain identifying apparatus includes: a question type identifier for recognizing the number of words of a user's question to identify whether the user's question is a query for performing information searching or a question for performing a question and answer (Q&A); a question domain distributor for distributing one of plural preset domain specialized Q&A engines, as a Q&A engine of the user's question based on the recognized word number; and a Q&A engine block, including the domain specialized Q&A engines, for selectively performing information searching or a Q&A with respect to the user's question in response to the distribution of the question domain distributor.
US08744833B2
Method for creating a language model capable of preventing deterioration of quality caused by the conventional back-off to unigram. Parts-of-speech with the same display and reading are obtained from a storage device (206). A cluster (204) is created by combining the obtained parts-of-speech. The created cluster (204) is stored in the storage device (206). In addition, when an instruction (214) for dividing the cluster is inputted, the cluster stored in the storage device (206) is divided (210) in accordance with to the inputted instruction (212). Two of the clusters stored in the storage device are combined (218), and a probability of occurrence of the combined clusters in the text corpus is calculated (222). The combined cluster is associated with the bigram indicating the calculated probability and stored into the storage device.
US08744832B2
A hybrid electronic design system and a reconfigurable connection matrix thereof are disclosed. The electronic design system includes a virtual unit, a hybrid unit and a communication channel. The virtual unit further includes a plurality of proxy units, a plurality of virtual components and a driver. The virtual components are connected with the driver via the proxy units. The hybrid unit further includes an emulate unit, a physical unit and a chip level transactor. The chip level transactor is connected with the emulate unit and the physical unit. The communication channel is connected with the driver of the virtual unit and the chip level transactor of the hybrid unit.
US08744829B1
In one embodiment, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) environment is configured to maintain a model of a system. The CAD environment includes a plurality of predefined transducers, and a graphical user interface configured to permit a user to select one or more of the predefined transducers and connect the selected transducers to portions of the model. The CAD environment further includes a simulation engine to run a simulation of the model. A graphical programming environment is configured to execute a graphical program embodied in a block diagram. The graphical program receives one or more simulated transducer signals from the CAD environment and generates and sends one or more control signals to the CAD environment, to control the simulation.
US08744822B2
A pavement condition analysis system and method models a state of a roadway by processing at least traffic and weather data to simulate the impact of traffic and weather conditions on a particular section of a transportation infrastructure. Traffic data is ingested from a plurality of different external sources to incorporate various approaches estimating traffic characteristics such as speed, flow, and incidents, into a road condition model to analyze traffic conditions on the roadway in order to improve road condition assessments and/or prediction. A road condition model applies these traffic characteristics, weather data, and other input data relevant to road conditions, accounting for heat and moisture exchanges between the road, the atmosphere, and pavement substrate(s) in a pavement's composition, as further influenced by traffic and road maintenance activities, to generate accurate and reliable simulations and predictions of pavement condition states for motorists, communication to vehicles, use by industry and public entities, and other end uses such as media distribution.
US08744818B2
A thermal-fluid-simulation analyzing apparatus includes an execution unit that generates an analysis model using analysis conditions to conduct a first thermal fluid simulation analysis based on the generated analysis model, an analysis-condition collecting unit that collects analysis conditions when a predetermined period passes after the first thermal fluid simulation analysis, a condition extracting unit that extracts a boundary condition from the analysis conditions collected by the analysis-condition collecting unit, and a re-execution unit that selects a region corresponding to the boundary condition extracted by the condition extracting unit from regions of the analysis model generated by the execution unit, updates the selected region with the boundary condition, and conducts a second thermal fluid simulation analysis for the updated analysis model.
US08744802B2
A mobile terminal which makes it possible to automatically calculate a step length of a user with accuracy. A step count-acquiring section acquires a step count of the user of a mobile terminal. A position calculating section calculates a position of the mobile terminal. A center position-calculating section calculates a center position of a plurality of positions calculated by the position calculating section. A covered distance-calculating section calculates a distance covered by the mobile terminal based on a plurality of the center positions calculated by the center position-calculating section. A step length-calculating section calculates the step length based on the step count acquired by the step count-acquiring section and the covered distance calculated by the covered distance-calculating section.
US08744792B2
A measurement apparatus is disclosed in which a barrier separates a chamber into a first region and a second region. The barrier is of a known thickness, and it comprises holes having a known radius. Gas flow means provide a flow of a carbon dioxide in the first region and a flow of a nitrogen in the second region. A gas detector measures the concentration of carbon dioxide in the second region and a processor calculates the theoretical diffusive flux from one region to another based on the known properties of the through-holes. The processor is arranged to calculate a calibration parameter in order to relate the measured parameter to the theoretical diffusive flux, based on the known properties of the through-holes.
US08744790B2
Real-time power line rating may be provided. First, sensor data may be received corresponding to a conductor of a power line. The sensor data may provide real-time weather conditions for the conductor's environment. The sensor data may be received from a sensor device configured to collect the sensor data. The sensor data may correspond to the weather conditions at a location of the sensor device on the power line. Next, design limitations for the power line having the conductor may be received. The conductor of the power line may have a design ampacity based upon the design limitations and assumed weather conditions for the conductor's environment. Then a dynamic ampacity may be calculated for the power line based upon the received sensor data and the received design limitations for the power line. The power line may then be operated according to the calculated dynamic ampacity instead of the design ampacity.
US08744779B2
Drug delivery models, displays, and systems may be configured to provide a clinician with readily intuitive information about the effects of one or more drugs on a subject. Interactive features may be included to provide a subject-specific model of the expected or predicted effects of one or more drugs on the subject. Additionally, interactive features that effect drug delivery to the subject may also be included. Drug delivery models, displays, and systems may be used in teaching, in advance of treatment, during treatment, or following treatment.
US08744778B2
In one aspect, the present invention provides methods of determining whether an agent is more like a partial agonist of a target molecule than a full agonist of the same target molecule. In another aspect, the present invention provides methods to select a candidate compound that may reduce blood plasma glucose concentration in a mammal. Populations of genes are provided that are useful in the practice of the present invention.
US08744763B2
A navigation system includes host and remote units. Host unit includes positioning device to determine absolute position/orientation of host unit; first communication device to communicate signals; first processor; and first memory. Remote unit includes second communication device to receive signals from first communication device; second processor; and second memory. First or second processor compares first aspects of known pattern with second aspects of image of captured pattern positioned on surface at either host unit or remote unit. First or second processor determines relative position/orientation of remote unit relative to host unit based on comparison of first aspects and second aspects. First or second processor determines absolute position/orientation of remote unit based on relative position/orientation of remote unit relative to host unit and absolute position/orientation of host unit. Either absolute position/orientation of host unit or absolute position/orientation of remote unit are communicated from host unit to remote unit.
US08744761B2
Location technologies are combined with other information systems to provide augmented information for individuals such as a traveler in an automobile.
US08744756B2
A method is provided for determining an ecological route attribute, in which at least one current energy consumption value is determined by a motor vehicle. A current measurement location is determined by the motor vehicle. An ecological location attribute, which includes the measurement location and the current energy consumption value, is formed by the motor vehicle and transmitted to a central processor. An ecological route attribute is determined by the central processor on the basis of a plurality of received ecological location attributes, which in each case includes a measurement location, which ecological route attribute describes an energy consumption on a route section which has a prescribed spatial relationship with the measurement locations.
US08744738B2
A method and apparatus for managing separation between vehicles. A closest point of approach between a first vehicle traveling along a first path and a second vehicle traveling along a second path is predicted. A number of compensation commands for altering the first path of the first vehicle are generated using the closest point of approach and a desired level of separation between the first vehicle and the second vehicle. The number of compensation commands is integrated with a number of control commands for the first vehicle to form a final number of control commands configured to maneuver the first vehicle to substantially maintain the desired level of separation between the first vehicle and the second vehicle. A response of the first vehicle to the final number of control commands is a desired response.
US08744733B2
An object of this invention is to promptly detect a crank angle based on in-cylinder pressures and easily compensate for a detection error by processing that has a low computational load. An ECU 50 calculates an in-cylinder pressure ratio (Pn+1/Pn) based on in-cylinder pressures Pn and Pn+1 at two crank angles separated by a predetermined angle Δθ. The ECU 50 includes map data that represents relations between volume ratio parameters (Vnκ/Vn+1κ) calculated using in-cylinder volumes Vn and Vn+1 at the crank angles, and the crank angles. Therefore, when cranking, a crank angle can be detected based on the in-cylinder pressure ratio and the map data earlier than a conventional cylinder discrimination operation. Gains included in the in-cylinder pressures Pn and Pn+1 can be removed by dividing the two pressures, and exponential operations and the like can be eliminated by using the map data to thus suppress the computational load.
US08744732B2
A vehicle comprises an acceleration command input device operated by a driver to input an acceleration command; a braking command input device operated by the driver to input a braking command; and an engine controller for controlling a plurality of engine control components to change an engine driving power in response to the acceleration command and executing a deceleration control for reducing the engine driving power when a predetermined deceleration condition is met; the engine controller executing driving power increasing preparation for changing a controlled amount of at least one of the engine control components to increase the engine driving power while maintaining the deceleration control state when inputting of the braking command stops during the deceleration control, and changing a controlled amount of at least one of the engine control components to increase the engine driving power when the acceleration command is input thereafter.
US08744729B2
An apparatus for detecting abnormal air-fuel ratio variation among cylinders of a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine includes: a catalyst element that oxidizes hydrogen contained in exhaust gas to remove the hydrogen; a first air-fuel ratio sensor that detects an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas that has not passed through the catalyst element; a second air-fuel ratio sensor that detects an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas that has passed through the catalyst element; and a unit that determines whether abnormal air-fuel ratio variation among the cylinders has occurred based on an amount by which a value detected by the second air-fuel ratio sensor is leaner than a value detected by the first air-fuel ratio sensor.
US08744726B2
A method for improving purging of fuel vapors from a boosted engine is presented. In one embodiment, the method increases the efficiency of a venturi that supplies vacuum to purge fuel vapors from a vapor storage canister.
US08744723B2
An engine control system comprises a fuel composition module, a comparison module, and a memory module. The fuel composition module determines a fuel composition and an amount of undesired fuel in the fuel composition. The comparison module compares the amount of undesired fuel to a misfueling threshold. The memory module records a misfueling event based on the comparison.
US08744717B2
Disclosed is a technique for inducing economic driving for a vehicle. In particular, a control unit calculates a driving resistance of a vehicle based on a current rolling friction, air resistance, and a road grade of the vehicle. The an amount of air-conditioning energy consumed by the vehicle is calculated by the control unit, and in response the calculated driving resistance and air-conditioning energy are substituted into a data map to continuously calculate the optimal economic vehicle speed of the vehicle in real time. The optimal economic vehicle speed calculated by the control unit is then displayed to a driver via a display unit.
US08744712B2
A drive control device for an electric vehicle that is driven by a motor-generator, includes: a detection unit that detects a fact that an accelerator pedal depression amount and a brake pedal depression amount of the electric vehicle are both zero; and a control unit that sets a regenerative braking torque command value for the motor-generator to zero, while the detection unit is detecting the fact.
US08744706B2
Mapped data of line pressure set to any of high pressure/low pressure regions on the basis of an engine load are stored in a storage section. A determining section 103 determines, on the basis of temperature of the hydraulic oil detected by an ATF temperature sensor 18, whether the mapped data the low pressure region is shifted in an enlarged direction. A state determining section 104 determines whether a throttle valve opening degree TH of the vehicle is totally closed or whether the line pressure is currently set to low line pressure. When the low pressure region is shifted in the enlarged direction and the throttle valve opening degree TH is totally closed or the line pressure is currently set to the low line pressure, a region changing section enlarges the low pressure region of the mapped data stored in the storage section.
US08744698B2
A vehicle includes an internal combustion engine, a transmission having a neutral state and an engaged state, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine a restart condition for the engine; and to classify the restart condition as one of: (i) a no wheel torque restart condition, and (ii) a wheel torque restart condition. The state of the transmission is set based on the restart condition classification, and the engine is started.
US08744697B2
A variator lockout valve system for a continuously variable transmission includes a pair of shift valves. Each shift valve has at least one port that is fluidly coupled to a variator of the continuously variable transmission. Electro-hydraulic actuators control the position of each of the shift valves. When the shift valves are in one position, pressure control valves supply fluid pressure to the variator. If one of the shift valves is in another position, one of the pressure control valves is blocked from supplying fluid pressure to the variator.
US08744694B2
An active suspension seat for use in a vehicle incorporates a swivel enabling the active suspension seat to be rotated about a vertical axis towards and away from a position appropriate for use in driving the vehicle, and incorporates a seat controller operating a brake to prevent such rotation away from that appropriate position in response to an indication that the vehicle is in motion, and limiting the active suspension to being enabled only when the seat is in the appropriate position for use in driving.
US08744688B2
An inverted pendulum type vehicle has a first travel operation unit and a second travel operation unit. A controller of the inverted pendulum type vehicle controls an actuator on the basis of a restricted desired value. The restricted desired value is obtained by restricting a basic desired value of the lateral travel velocity of the second travel operation unit by a limiting processor, the basic desired value being for bringing the actual turn angular velocity of the vehicle close to a desired value. The limit width of the limiting processor is variably set according to the actual travel velocity of the second travel operation unit.
US08744677B2
The present invention is intended to suppress a change in a braking force due to a change in the magnitude of friction of an internal combustion engine, in a regenerative control system for a vehicle in which kinetic energy of wheels is made to be converted (regenerated) to electrical energy, at the time of deceleration running of the vehicle with the internal combustion engine mounted thereon. In order to solve this subject, the present invention is constructed such that the change in friction of the internal combustion engine is offset by adjustment of a regenerative braking force by regulating an amount of excitation current supplied to an electric generator according to the magnitude of friction in the internal combustion engine, at the time of deceleration running of the vehicle.
US08744675B2
An Advance Driver Assistance System of a vehicle collects measurements for a driving event, including GPS coordinates for a specific location from the EH system, and logs the data into an on-vehicle database. The ADAS uses the data in the on-vehicle database to develop a history associated with the specific location. Information, including GPS coordinates and recorded false output warnings, may be shared between the on-vehicle database and an off-vehicle database, such as associated with and Electronic Horizon system, providing an opportunity to significantly improve the feature performance of the ADAS. Driver assist information may be compiled between the off-vehicle database and the on-vehicle database, thereby continuously updating the knowledge base of the ADAS and optimizing feature performance of the ADAS over the life of the vehicle.
US08744670B2
A method for quickly calculating mileage includes the steps: A, receiving report data from a vehicular terminal and updating data center according to the report data; B, receiving an inquiry request which includes a vehicle number, a first time point which is earlier than a second time point and the second time point which are requested to inquire; C, inquiring the data center to acquire a first total mileage value to which the time point that is proximate to the first time point corresponds and a second total mileage value to which the time point that is proximate to the second time point corresponds; D, obtaining a running mileage L from the first time point to the second time point by subtracting the first total mileage value from the second total mileage value. A system for quickly calculating mileage quickly is also proposed. The method and the system can calculate mileage quickly and accurately, reduce the processing burden of the data center, and facilitate the vehicle surveillance of the traffic department.
US08744669B1
A system for providing an indication of the amount fuel dispensed by a fuel dispenser. The system includes a sensor which communicates fuel data to a data storage device to store the fuel data. The fuel data includes the amount of fuel flowing through a filler neck and the total amount of fuel dispensed. A first communication device, such as a smartphone, accesses the data storage device to transfer the fuel data to a server, such that the server stores the fuel data, allowing a second communication device to access the server and obtain the fuel data. The data storage device also receives location information from a GPS module corresponding to the location of where the fuel data is obtained. The system allows users to access the server and locate service stations having the most accurate displays and charge the correct amount of money for the amount of fuel dispensed.
US08744661B2
A method and apparatus are disclosed for reducing traffic flow instabilities and increasing vehicle throughput by monitoring the distances and velocities of motor vehicles leading and following a center vehicle and controlling the velocities of the vehicles to maintain a steady relative distance between the center vehicle and the leading and following vehicles. Using distance and speed information derived from both leading and following vehicles reduces the loop gain of feedback needed below one (1) and diminishes traffic instabilities caused by “car following.”
US08744659B2
A regeneration control device of a hybrid vehicle comprises a comparison unit for, when a regenerative torque generated in the electric motor is used as a braking force during deceleration of the vehicle using only the electric motor, comparing a preset target deceleration with an actual deceleration; and a control unit for, in a case where the result of comparison of the comparison unit indicates that a state in which the actual deceleration is equal to or lower than the target deceleration occurs in a predetermined pattern though the electric motor is generating the maximum regenerative torque, causing the vehicle to travel using both an engine and the electric motor in a cooperative manner during the next deceleration after the current deceleration has been finished, such that the engine braking and the regeneration torque are both used as a braking force.
US08744653B2
A control apparatus for controlling a transmission apparatus that includes: an input member that is drivably connected to a rotating electrical machine being capable of generating regenerative torque based on an engine and a deceleration request of a vehicle; an output member that is drivably connected to wheels; and a speed change mechanism that has a plurality of friction engagement elements that are controlled to be engaged and released so as to switch a plurality of shift speeds, and that shifts a rotation speed of the input member at one of gear ratios set for the shift speeds and outputs the shifted speed to the output member.
US08744646B2
A system for controlling construction site vehicles has a plurality of construction site vehicles and a control room. Data can be transmitted on communication channels between the control room and the construction site vehicles. In the control room, at least one digital map is stored in which at least one additional piece of information is stored for individual road sections, in addition to the route of the respective road section. A navigation module is provided and designed to generate, with reference to the at least one digital map, navigation recommendations for the construction site vehicles.
US08744644B2
An apparatus and method for detecting the location of a vehicle using results sensed by sensing devices installed outside the vehicle and the internal information of the vehicle without obtaining the current location information of the vehicle using signals transmitted from a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, the apparatus for detecting the location of a vehicle includes a location information reception unit for receiving location information that is generated by sensing a vehicle passing by a sensing point and that corresponds to the sensing point. A location detection unit estimates a current location of the vehicle based on information sensed by internal sensors of the vehicle and control information for a vehicle manipulation part while the location information is not received, and corrects the estimated current location of the vehicle using received location information when the location information is received.
US08744639B2
According to one embodiment, a power control apparatus includes a receiving unit, an environment-data acquiring unit, and a calculation unit. The receiving unit receives, from a power supplying side, a power-consumption reduction request for reducing power consumption at a power demanding side. The environmental data acquiring unit acquires, from the power demanding side, environmental data representing environmental state of the power demanding side. The calculating unit calculates a power-reduction value based on the environmental data, in response to the power-consumption reduction request.
US08744636B2
A Kalina Cycle control system monitors one or more operating parameters of the Kalina Cycle. The system calculates one or more optimal operating parameters that allow the Kalina Cycle to operate at an increased efficiency. The system automatically adjusts the one or more actual operating parameters to the optimal parameters to increase the efficiency of the Kalina Cycle. Methods of increasing the efficiency of a Kalina Cycle include automatically adjusting one or more operating parameters to an optimal configuration.
US08744626B2
The different illustrative embodiments provide a system for autonomous machine management comprising a number of autonomous machines, a number of nodes, a performance estimation module, and a navigation system. The number of autonomous machines is configured to perform area coverage tasks in a worksite. The number of nodes is configured to define a number of worksite areas for the worksite. The performance estimation module is executed by a processor unit and configured to calculate a percentage of work completed in the number of worksite areas. The navigation system is configured to operate an autonomous machine to perform the area coverage tasks and move between the number of worksite areas.
US08744618B2
Embodiments of the invention can include systems and methods for dispensing consumable products. In one embodiment, a system comprising a product dispenser and processor can be provided. The processor can be operable to execute a set of instructions operable to receive a consumer preference to receive a notification associated with a product. The set of instructions can be further operable to determine whether the product is being offered, and based at least in part on the consumer preference, notify the consumer regarding availability of the product from the product dispenser.
US08744607B2
Performance of a manufacturing tool is optimized. Optimization relies on recipe drifting and generation of knowledge that capture relationships among product output metrics and input material measurement(s) and recipe parameters. Optimized recipe parameters are extracted from a basis of learned functions that predict output metrics for a current state of the manufacturing tool and measurements of input material(s). Drifting and learning are related and lead to dynamic optimization of tool performance, which enables optimized output from the manufacturing tool as the operation conditions of the tool changes. Features of recipe drifting and associated learning can be autonomously or externally configured through suitable user interfaces, which also can be drifted to optimize end-user interaction.
US08744596B2
An implantable lead for an electrical stimulation system includes a lead body having a distal end, a proximal end, a longitudinal length, and a circumference; a plurality of electrodes disposed along the distal end of the lead body in an electrode array; a plurality of terminals disposed along the proximal end of the lead body; a plurality of conductors electrically coupling the plurality of electrodes to the plurality of terminals; and at least one capsule including an x-ray fluorescent material and disposed along the distal end of the lead body relative to the electrode array to indicate, when viewed fluoroscopically, an orientation of the electrode array. The plurality of electrodes includes a plurality of segmented electrodes. Each of the plurality of segmented electrodes extends partially around the circumference of the lead body.
US08744594B2
An electromedical device for the non-invasive reduction or removal of subcutaneous adipose tissue, comprising an energy source which provides a high-frequency alternating current, comprising at least two individual emitters which are fed by the energy source and which are designed to emit high-frequency electromagnetic waves into subcutaneous adipose tissue, and comprising a directivity control which is coupled with the individual emitters and which controls the individual emitters in such a way that, by direction and field concentration of the high-frequency electromagnetic waves emitted by the individual emitters, a total electromagnetic field with a desired field geometry can be produced in the subcutaneous adipose tissue.
US08744593B2
An apparatus includes a cathode chamber configured to store a gel cathode and an anode chamber configured to store a gel anode. A cathode dispensing channel is in fluid communication with the cathode chamber and allows at least a portion of the gel cathode to be dispensed. An anode dispensing channel is in fluid communication with the anode chamber and allows at least a portion of the gel anode to be dispensed. A portion of the gel cathode and a portion of the gel anode come into contact upon being dispensed to form an active battery that can be used to generate an electrical current.
US08744588B2
A method and system for connecting an impaired nervous system of a patient to a destination target of a muscle, group of muscles, or robotic device. A command module implanted within the patient's body: (i) samples analog electrical neural signals generated by neurons or nerve fibers of the patient; (ii) processes the neural signals to generate spatial digital data in sample matrices; (iii) processes multiple consecutive sample matrices in real time using sliding window method to generate a time dependent window matrix; (iv) and matches the window matrix to source movement templates to generate high-level movement command(s) which is wirelessly transmitted to driver module(s) within the patient's body and attached to the destination target. The driver module matches the high-level movement commands to destination movement templates to generate a digital stimulus. The digital stimulus is translated into an electrical stimulus which is applied to the destination target.
US08744584B2
The invention is directed to techniques for stimulating a colon of a patient to relieve chronic constipation. Specifically, a colon stimulation system applies one or more electrical stimuli to the colon of the patient in order to induce peristaltic activity in the colon to relieve chronic constipation. In accordance with the invention, the colon stimulation system induces peristaltic activity in the colon by applying an electrical stimulus to the colon to cause a portion of the colon to contract to a contracted state and removing the electrical stimulus to cause the colon to relax. While in the contracted state, the colon is substantially fully contracted.
US08744580B2
An implantable medical device comprises a hermetically sealed housing having a housing wall with an interior surface, and an ultrasonic acoustic transducer, the transducer comprising one or more piezoelectric discs fixed to the interior surface of the housing wall, such that the housing wall acts as a diaphragm in response to induced movement by the one or more piezoelectric material discs.
US08744572B1
Techniques and systems for monitoring cardiac arrhythmias and delivering electrical stimulation therapy using a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (SICD) and a leadless pacing device (LPD) are described. For example, the SICD may detect a tachyarrhythmia within a first electrical signal from a heart and determine, based on the tachyarrhythmia, to deliver anti-tachyarrhythmia shock therapy to the patient to treat the detected arrhythmia. The LPD may receive communication from the SICD requesting the LPD deliver anti-tachycardia pacing to the heart and determine, based on a second electrical signal from the heart sensed by the LPD, whether to deliver anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) to the heart. In this manner, the SICD and LPD may communicate to coordinate ATP and/or cardioversion/defibrillation therapy. In another example, the LPD may be configured to deliver post-shock pacing after detecting delivery of anti-tachyarrhythmia shock therapy.
US08744566B2
Methods and systems for the determination and representation of anatomy anatomical information are disclosed herein. Methods and systems described herein include generating anatomical information about the heart based on positions of the catheter electrodes and the electrical signals from the electrodes at the determined subset of electrode positions.
US08744564B2
A method of detecting tissue oedema in a subject. The method includes determining a measured impedance for first and second body segments. An index indicative of a ratio of the extra-cellular to intra-cellular fluid is then calculated for each body segment, with these being used to determine an index ratio based on the index for the first and second body segments. The index ratio can in turn be used to determine the presence, absence or degree of tissue oedema, for example by comparing the index ratio to a reference or previously determined index ratios.
US08744561B2
A data collection system collects and stores physiological data from an ambulatory patient at a high resolution and/or a high data rate (“more detailed data”) and sends a low-resolution and/or downsampled version of the data (“less detailed data”) to a remote server via a wireless network. The server automatically analyzes the less detailed data to detect an anomaly, such as an arrhythmia. A two-tiered analysis scheme is used, where the first tier is more sensitive and less specific than the second tier. If the more sensitive analysis detects or suspects the anomaly, the server signals the data collector to send more detailed data that corresponds to a time period associated with the anomaly. The more specific second tier analyses the more detailed data to verify the anomaly. The server may also store the received data and make it available to a user, such as via a graphical or tabular display.
US08744552B2
A biopsy apparatus includes a biopsy region positional information calculator for calculating a three-dimensional position of a biopsy region, a biopsy needle moving mechanism for moving a biopsy needle along three axes and/or turning the biopsy needle obliquely to an object to be examined, a biopsy needle positional information calculator for calculating a three-dimensional position of the biopsy needle, and a traveled distance calculator for calculating a distance over which the biopsy needle moves with respect to the biopsy region based on the three-dimensional position of the biopsy needle and the three-dimensional position of the biopsy region.
US08744538B2
A device may include a lower panel, an upper panel, bi-stable shaft, and guide link. The lower panel may include four sides, a first surface, and a second surface. The upper panel may include four sides, a third surface, and a fourth surface, where the fourth surface overlays the first surface of the lower panel when the device is in a first configuration. A first end of the bi-stable shaft may be rotatably attached proximate to a first of the sides of the lower panel. A second end of the bi-stable shaft may be rotatably attached proximate to a first of the sides of the upper panel. The guide link may include two ends, a first end rotatably attached proximate to the first side of the upper panel and a second end slidably inserted in a track parallel to the first side of the lower panel.
US08744527B2
An apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating alert handling at a communication device provides for selection at the communication device of the manner by which terminating communications at the communication device are handled. A terminating communication is detected at a receive part of the communication device, and an indication of its reception is displayed. Together with the displayed indication of the terminating communication, an actuation key is provided to permit selection of alert handling of the terminating communication and subsequent terminating communications.
US08744525B2
A method for handling packet-switched data transmissions by a mobile station with a first subscriber identity card coupled to a first radio frequency (RF) module and a second subscriber identity card coupled to a second RF module, executed by an adapter of the mobile station, is provided. An uplink Internet protocol (IP) packet is received. Information regarding at least one of the received packet and hardware status of the mobile station is collected. One subscriber identity card is determined from the first and second subscriber identity cards according to the collected information. The received packet is transmitted to an IP network via the RF module corresponding to the determined subscriber identity card.
US08744524B2
A multi-function communications device has a processor that generates a user interface audible tone signal. The device also has a downlink digital signal processor, and an uplink digital signal processor. A mixer has an input to receive the downlink signal and another input to receive the user interface tone signal. The uplink processor has an acoustic echo canceller having an input to receive the uplink signal and another input to receive an output from the mixer. The echo canceller may reduce the amount of both the far-end user's speech and the user interface tone that may be present in the uplink signal. The mixer may be positioned within the chain of audio signal processors, or it may be positioned outside the chain. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08744518B2
A single radio wireless communications device is contemplated in which the user equipment (UE) operates according to more than one radio access technology. The UE may operate preferentially according to a first radio access technology, and may switch to a different radio access technology at predetermined intervals to check for incoming calls. An error unit within the UE may provide frequency error estimates to a GPS unit during operation according to the first radio access technology based upon signals received in the first radio access technology, unless any time spent in the different radio access technology is longer that a predetermined duration. In response to the predetermined duration being met, the error unit may provide the frequency error estimation to the GPS unit based upon signals received in the different radio access technology.
US08744514B2
A wireless communication device has a first wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with an external network, a management information storage configured to store application management information received through the first wireless communication unit, a second wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with an external communication device, and a management unit configured to control, based on the application management information stored in the management information storage, information wirelessly transmitted and received between the second wireless communication unit and the external communication device.
US08744503B2
A wireless communication device avoids unnecessary reduction of transmission capacity of a data signal to ensure the reliability of a pilot signal. A determination unit determines a reception modulation method for a received data signal according to the state of the transmission line. A transmission circuit generates a first pilot signal indicating the reception modulation method determined by the determination unit and, after adding an error correction code, modulates and transmits the first pilot signal. A reception unit receives a second pilot signal indicating a transmission modulation method that is the method for modulating a transmitted data signal. A switching unit, in accordance with the transmission modulation method indicated by the second pilot signal received by the reception unit, switches at least one of the modulation method of the first pilot signal transmitted by the transmission circuit and the redundancy of the error correction code of the first pilot signal.
US08744502B2
Various arrangements for mapping antennas to transceivers are presented. A plurality of antennas may be present. Each antenna of the plurality of antennas may be configured to communicate using different radio technologies. A plurality of transceivers may be present. At least some of the transceivers of the plurality of transceivers may be configured to utilize different radio technologies. A selector circuit may be present that is configured, based on input from a processor, to map each antenna of the plurality of antennas with each transceiver of the plurality of transceivers. The processor may be configured to control which antennas of the plurality of antennas are mapped to which transceiver of the plurality of transceivers. Touch sensors may be used to determine which antenna or antennas are likely to serve as effective electromagnetic transducers. Signal-to-noise measurements may be used to determine when to modify an antenna mapping.
US08744499B2
The disclosure provides a mobile terminal (10), which comprises: a storage module (101), configured to store a linked list that includes a service ID and a reception time of a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) notification message, and a maximum length of the linked list; an inquiry module (102), configured to inquire whether there is a service ID identical with a service ID of a received MMS notification message in the linked list when the MMS notification message is received; a length determination module (103), configured to determine whether a length of the linked list is smaller than the maximum length when there is no service ID of the received MMS notification message in the linked list; a time difference determination module (104), configured to determine whether the time difference between the reception time and the last node in the linked list is greater than the time difference between the first node and the last node in the linked list when the length of the linked list is smaller than the maximum length; and a linked list modification module (105), configured to determine whether to insert the service ID and the reception time of the MMS notification message into the linked list as a node. The disclosure also provides an MMS notification message processing method. The disclosure increases the inquiry efficiency of the linked list.
US08744490B2
Mobile agents can be deployed to location aware mobile devices within specific regions of interest to achieve specific goals in respect of events occurring in the region of interest. In order to ensure that the agent can persist within the region of interest until the agent goals are achieved, the agent is configured to locate other devices within the region of interest and to propagate itself, by moving or copying itself, to those other devices. When a device hosting the agent exits the region of interest, the agent is terminated, thereby freeing device resources.
US08744483B2
Discloses is a method for transmitting cell change instruction information, which is to be performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method for transmitting cell change instruction information includes: selecting or reselecting a second cell from a first cell; comparing a first cell ID of the first cell with a second cell ID of the second cell, or comparing a first tracking area code (TAC) of the first cell with a second TAC of the second cell; and transmitting cell change instruction information to a network when the result of the comparison shows that the first cell ID does not match the second cell ID or the first TAC does not match the second TAC.
US08744471B1
Systems and methods of allocating radio resources are provided. The systems and methods involve assigning each of a plurality of mobile stations to one of a plurality of categories, wherein each of the plurality of categories is associated with a different resource allocation scheme. An amount of available radio resources is allocated to each of the plurality of categories. An amount radio resources assigned to each category is allocated to mobile stations assigned to the category based on the resource allocation scheme associated with the category.
US08744468B2
In a heterogeneous cell deployment a mobile terminal may need to receive control data transmissions from a macro node at the same time as a pico node is transmitting user data for the mobile terminal, using the same frequency or set of frequencies. This can result in a problematic interference situation. According to several embodiments of the present invention, at least one of two general approaches is used to mitigate the interference situation described above. In a first approach, the pico node's transmission power is reduced in some time intervals, thereby reducing the interference to a level where reception from the macro node is possible. In a second approach, which may be combined with the first approach in some cases, the data transmitted from the macro node is provided by the pico node, either alone or in combination with the macro node.
US08744463B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. Particularly, in configuring a location estimation subframe for determining the location of a terminal in a wireless communication system, the present invention involves replacing a portion of repeating patterns of a channel estimation pilot in the location estimation subframe with a location estimation pilot. In this way, the present invention is capable of transmitting a location estimation reference signal for a location-based service to the terminal while minimizing influences on an existing wireless frame structure.
US08744460B2
A radio communication system including a first terminal apparatus group for performing a reception by using a first radio resource and a transmission by using a second radio resource; and a second terminal apparatus group for performing the reception by using the second radio resource and the transmission by using the first radio resource, for performing a direct radio communication. The system includes a first terminal which belongs to the first terminal apparatus group and transmits allocation request of transmission band in the second radio resource by using the second radio resource; and a second terminal which belongs to the second terminal apparatus group, receives the allocation request transmitted from the first terminal, and transmits information indicating allocation of the transmission band for the first terminal, wherein the first terminal transmits data by using the allocated transmission band in the second radio resource.
US08744450B2
A radio terminal UE according to one embodiment includes a radio communication unit 210 configured to receive a plurality of parameters including a first parameter for high-speed movement and a second parameter for non-high-speed movement as parameters for processing for switching to a neighboring base station from a base station connected to the radio terminal, and a controller 260 configured to acquire movement speed information indicating a movement speed of the radio terminal and to select a parameter corresponding to the movement speed information. The first parameter is configured to inhibit processing for switching to a Pico base station PeNB which is included in the neighboring base stations.
US08744446B2
A method of sending measurement messages with updated channel quality measurement information is provided. The method can include sending a first measurement message generated based at least in part on a first channel quality measurement in unassured mode. The method can further include determining whether a handover message is received within a timeout period following sending the first measurement message. In an instance in which it is determined that a handover message is not received within the timeout period, the method can additionally include determining an updated channel quality measurement and sending a new measurement message generated based at least in part on the updated channel quality measurement in unassured mode.
US08744441B2
A system and method for providing wireless services comprises a server configured to communicate over a plurality of different carrier networks with a plurality of mobile devices and to provide wireless services from a service provider to the plurality of mobile devices.
US08744429B2
Embodiments include but are not limited to cellular phones, methods practice thereon, for autonomously servicing a call or a message, on behalf of the user, without interacting with the user, are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, data about a user of the cellular phone, internal conditions of the cellular phone, or external environment of the cellular phone are locally collected and from a wireless communication network. In various embodiments, multiple agents are provided to the cellular phone, wherein each agent is configured to determine, on receipt of a received call or message, a current service context based at least in part on some of the data stored, and autonomously servicing the received call or message based on the results of the determination. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08744428B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving, at the network device, a message; determining, in response to receiving the message, that a set of supported features should be transmitted to a partner device; determining, based on the partner device, whether a default set of features should be overridden; if the default set of supported features should be overridden, transmitting an alternative set of features to the partner device; and if the default set of supported features should not be overridden, transmitting a standard set of features based on the default set of features to the partner device.
US08744421B2
A method of operating a vehicle telematics unit includes storing a conference call access code; initiating a conference call from a vehicle based on verbal commands received from a vehicle occupant; receiving a request for the conference call access code from an automated telephone attendant (ATA) while initiating the conference call; determining that the ATA has requested the conference call access code using a speech recognition function at the vehicle; and sending the stored conference call access code to the ATA based on the determination of the speech recognition function.
US08744419B2
Media is distributed via a scalable ad hoc geographic routing/broadcast protocol. Media can be transmitted from a mobile device to a cluster of mobile devices that are geographically located in a particular region. Devices that are located between the source and the intended target can act as routers with the ability to forward data packets toward the intended destination. In essence, a geocast network cloud is established, allowing any device within the cloud to communicate with any other device in the cloud. Devices in the network can constantly change position and the transmission path through the network can be constantly changing. The geocast protocol adapts to the changing conditions.
US08744412B1
The various examples disclosed herein relate to systems, methods, and equipment that allow law enforcement to access vehicle identification information stored in a vehicle telematics unit, as well as other vehicle related information, wirelessly directly from a user's vehicle without going through wireless mobile network using an authorization code. The authorization code allows authorized law enforcement personnel to communicate directly with the vehicle and gain access to vehicle information while still keeping the information private.
US08744403B2
The present disclosure provides a method and system for remote control of a smart card. The method comprises that: a smart card management platform receives a request of locking or unlocking a smart card from a subscriber; and the smart card management platform performs interactive processing with a terminal side according to the request via a mobile network platform, so as to enable the terminal side to perform the locking or unlocking of the smart card. The present disclosure enables the payment subscriber to avoid loss when the terminal is robbed, lost, stolen, or is illegally used seriously, and provide a higher flexibility to the payment system.
US08744397B2
A system and method for providing profile information for occupants of a vehicle to a service provider. The system may communicate with at least one mobile device to receive an identification from each mobile device. The system may store profile information of an occupant associated with each identification. The system may communicate with the service provider to transmit the profile information associated with the mobile devices if a crash condition is identified and communication with the mobile device occurred during a time period just prior to the crash condition.
US08744395B1
A system for mitigating radio frequency (RF) interferences. The system may comprise an interference cancellation module communicatively coupled with a first antenna, the interference cancellation module configured for mitigating interferences from a second antenna by phase shifting a signal receivable at the first antenna according to a phase shift value, the phase shift value being predetermined when the second antenna is oriented in an initial directional orientation. The system may further comprise a variable RF delay module communicatively coupled with the interference cancellation module, the variable RF delay module configured for determining a current directional orientation of the second antenna, the variable RF delay module further configured for providing a phase compensation value based upon the current directional orientation of the second antenna. The interference cancellation module may be further configured for phase shifting the signal receivable at the first antenna according to the phase compensation value.
US08744369B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes a step A of transmitting, by an operation and maintenance server EM, “MDT config” to a subscriber management server HSS, and a step B of instructing, by the subscriber management server HSS, the target mobile station UE to perform the MDT measurement process through a mobility management node MME and a radio base station eNB when it is determined that the MDT measurement process by the target mobile station UE is approved.
US08744365B2
A mobile communication device storing a file to be printed, the mobile communication device including: a communication unit to receive printer information of a printer; a network interface unit to connect to a printer server corresponding to the printer information received through the communication unit; and a control unit to transmit the file to be printed to the printer through the printer server according to the received printer information. Accordingly, users can print files using a mobile communication device while traveling away from a fixed printer.
US08744360B2
Satellite communications methods include receiving communications signals including co-channel interference at a space-based component from a plurality of wireless terminals in a satellite footprint over a satellite frequency band and reducing interference in the communication signals by (a) performing co-channel interference reduction on the communications signals to generate a plurality of interference reduced signals and (b) performing multiple access interference cancellation on the interference reduced signals. An interference reducing detector for a satellite communications system includes an interference reducer configured to perform co-channel interference reduction on communications signals to generate a plurality of interference reduced signals, and a detector configured to perform multiple access interference cancellation on the interference reduced signals. Satellite communications systems and satellite gateways including interference reducing detectors are also disclosed.
US08744357B2
A mobile wireless communications device includes a near field communications (NFC) device, and a magnetic sensor. A processor is coupled to the NFC device and the magnetic sensor, and is switchable between an active mode and an idle mode based upon the magnetic sensor. The processor is configured to remain in the active mode based upon communication via the NFC device irrespective of the magnetic sensor.
US08744350B2
The application discloses a method for establishing a connection between a first communication device capable of receiving an activating message and a mobile communication device, the method comprising: (a) determining that the mobile communication device is seeking communication with a communication device; (b) checking the status of a first communication device; (c) choosing an action required for establishing the connection in view of the status of the first communication device; and (d) taking the action chosen in (c), wherein taking the action comprises sending to the first communication device an activating message, having at least a portion which activates an application residing on the first communication device.
US08744347B2
Method of routing incoming application data in an NFC chipset, for identification of the application
A method for routing incoming or outgoing application data in an NFC system includes an NFC interface circuit performing contactless data sending and receiving. The routing of incoming application data received by the interface circuit includes routing at least a first portion of the incoming application data to a destination point located in the NFC system and designated as arbitration point of incoming application data routing; analyzing by the arbitration point the first portion of the incoming application data to identify the application for which the data is sent to the NFC system; designating by the arbitration point a point of destination of the application data and application processing; and routing a second portion of the incoming application data to the destination and processing point.
US08744346B2
An apparatus for communicating between a mobile device, and a plurality of transceivers. The apparatus includes a first transceiver which transmits to the mobile device on any one of a plurality of channels. The apparatus further includes a second transceiver which transmits to the mobile device on any one of the plurality of channels.
US08744331B2
A fixing device includes a hollow, open-sided stationary heat roller, a flexible fuser belt, a fuser pad, a rotatable pressure member, a reinforcing member, and a sealing mechanism. The heat roller defines an elongated longitudinal side opening that opens into a hollow interior thereof. The fuser belt is looped for rotation around the heat roller to transfer heat radially outward from the roller circumference. The fuser pad is held substantially stationary along the roller opening outward from the roller interior and inward from the loop of the fuser belt. The pressure member is pressed against the fuser pad through the fuser belt to form a fixing nip. The reinforcing member is disposed within the roller interior to thrust against the fuser pad through the roller opening. The sealing mechanism is disposed on the roller opening to prevent foreign matter from entering the roller interior through the roller opening.
US08744328B2
A fluid delivery system is controlled to adjust a release fluid delivery rate to a rate that is predetermined to be effective for fusing a next sheet in a print job before the sheet arrives at a fusing nip. Predetermined rates and corresponding media types may be stored in memory. A controller controls the fluid release system for a print job in accordance with a print job schedule based on the predetermined fluid delivery rates.
US08744327B2
A media stripper for use with a pair of first and second, opposed rotary members includes a stripper finger and a rotation restriction mechanism. The stripper finger has an operational edge thereof disposed adjacent to the first rotary member to strip a recording medium from the first rotary member. The stripper finger is rotatable around a pivot axis parallel to a rotation axis of the first rotary member either in a first rotational direction in which the operational edge approaches the first rotary member, or in a second rotational direction in which the operational edge approaches the second rotary member, so as to establish an operational position thereof relative to the first rotary member. The rotation restriction mechanism is disposed for contact with the stripper finger to restrict rotation of the stripper finger in the second rotational direction upon establishment of the operational position of the stripper finger.
US08744326B2
There is provided an electro-conductive belt including a resin material and conductive particles, the electro-conductive belt including: an innermost layer that contains none of the conductive particles; a first conductive layer that is adjacent to the innermost layer at an outer side thereof, a concentration of the conductive particles being highest in the first conductive layer; and a second conductive layer that is adjacent to the first conductive layer at an outer side thereof, the second conductive layer containing the conductive particles in a concentration lower than in the first conductive layer and higher than in the innermost layer.
US08744324B2
The semiconductive roller according to the present invention includes a roller body having an outer peripheral surface made of a crosslinked substance of a semiconductive rubber composition and exhibiting Shore A hardness of not more than 60, the semiconductive rubber composition contains a base polymer made of a mixture of (1) mixed rubber N of liquid nitrile rubber and solid nitrile rubber, (2) chloroprene rubber C, and (3) epichlorohydrin rubber E in a mass ratio (C+E)/N of 10/90 to 80/20, the ratios of the chloroprene rubber and the epichlorohydrin rubber in the total quantity of the base polymer are not less than 5 mass % and not less than 5 mass % respectively, and roller resistance at an applied voltage of 5 V is not less than 104Ω and not more than 109Ω.
US08744320B2
In a developing device including a developer tank and a developing roller, an internal space of the developer tank is divided by a partition wall into a first conveying path, a second conveying path, a communication path and a pumping path. In the pumping path, there is disposed a developer pumping section including a pumping spiral blade, a pumping rotation shaft member, and a pumping gear. A developer in the pumping path is pumped up by the developer pumping section, so that a part of the developer is moved to a side of the first conveying path while another part of the developer is moved to a side of the second conveying path.
US08744319B2
A developing device has a developer tank for containing a two-component developer; a partition; a first and a second developer conveyance path for conveying the developer in pairs; a first conveyance member for conveying the developer in one direction, which has a first rotation axis, a first helical blade fixed to the first rotation axis, and a first passive gear provided to an end of the first rotation axis; a second conveyance member for conveying the developer in one direction, which has a second rotation axis, a second helical blade fixed to the second rotation axis, and a second passive gear provided to an end of the second rotation axis; a first communicating path; a second communicating path; a developing roller; and a rotation axis bending prevention belt provided so as to bridge the first and the second rotation axis outside the developer tank.
US08744316B2
A charged particle generator includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an insulating material that is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode. Charged particles are generated by discharge that occurs between the first and the second electrodes. The first electrode, the insulating material, and the second electrode are arranged in a first direction. The second electrode has a shape that does not intersect a path along which the charged particles move in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US08744310B2
A detachable unit to be attached to a unit-receiving apparatus includes a unit body, a rotary member, an urging member urging the rotary member toward a downstream side in a detachable-unit-attaching direction, a contact-receiving portion provided on the rotary member, first and second support-receiving portions provided at respective ends of the rotary member, first and second supports provided at respective positions of the unit body corresponding to the positions of the first and second support-receiving portions, and first and second rotary support members provided between the first support-receiving portion and the first support and between the second support-receiving portion and the second support, respectively, and supporting the respective ends of the rotary member such that the rotary member is rotatable. The first and second rotary support members are supported in such a manner as to be movable in a detachable-unit-attaching-and-detaching direction.
US08744308B2
An image forming device includes a plurality of developing devices, and a plurality of sloping members disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of developing devices. Each developing device includes a developer accommodating chamber and a developing roller disposed above the developer accommodating chamber. Each developing device is movable between a first position and a second position lower than the first position in a height direction generally parallel to a vertical direction. Each sloping member has a sloped surface movable in the height direction and a biasing member biasing the sloped surface upward in the height direction. Each sloping member is movable between a third position where the corresponding developing device is placed on the sloped surface and a fourth position where the corresponding developing device is released from being pressed by the sloped surface in a predetermined direction generally perpendicular to the vertical direction.
US08744307B2
A process cartridge includes an image forming unit including an image carrier, a developing unit, and a cleaning unit, the image carrier carrying a latent image and a toner image formed by developing the latent image with toner, the image carrier transferring the toner image onto a transfer body, the developing unit forming the toner image by developing the latent image with the toner, the cleaning unit cleaning the image carrier by removing the toner that remains on the image carrier; a container attachment unit that is provided at a position separated from the image forming unit and to which a toner container is detachably attached, the toner container containing the toner to be supplied to the developing unit; and a toner receiving unit that extends in a space between the image forming unit and the container attachment unit and receives the toner removed from the image carrier.
US08744305B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion for forming an image on a recording material; an image reading portion, for reading an original image, movable between a first position in which the image reading portion opposes the image forming portion and a second position in which the image reading portion is partly raised from the image forming portion; an openable member movable, relative to the image forming portion independently of the image reading portion, between an open position in which the openable member exposes an inside of the image forming portion and a closed position in which the openable member covers the image forming member; and preventing means capable of preventing movement of the openable member toward the closed position when the image reading member is located at the second position. The prevention of movement of the openable member is released by moving the image reading member toward the first position from the second position in which the preventing means prevents the movement of the openable member.
US08744301B2
In an image forming apparatus for forming an image by electrophotography, a charging device is comprised of a needle electrode in which a plurality of saw teeth are arrayed in one direction; a cleaning rubber roller that cleans the needle electrode; a cleaning member supporter; a moving portion that moves the cleaning member supporter; and a control portion that controls the charging device, and the control portion includes a function to increase a saw-tooth current value by increasing print cumulative count; and a function to decrease the saw-tooth current value at the time of performing cleaning.
US08744294B2
A representative configuration of an image forming apparatus has a plurality of developing devices, each of which develops an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum into a toner image using developer of plural colors. The image forming apparatus includes a density sensor which detects the amount of toner of the toner image for each color. In a case where it is determined that the amount of toner of any color departs from a predetermined range based on the detection result of the density sensor, development conditions of the rest of the developing devices, other than the developing device departing from the predetermined range, are changed such that the image densities developed by the respective developing devices are equal to each other.
US08744293B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a photosensitive element; a writing light source; a conveying unit; a light-emitting unit; a detection unit; a writing control unit; and an adjustment unit. The detection unit detects reflected light from a recording medium. The writing control unit controls the writing light source based on operational timing when a signal output from the detection unit turns to a fixed threshold. The adjustment unit acquires information of a gloss level of the recording medium, and adjusts light emission intensity of the light-emitting unit according to the acquired information of the gloss level in such a manner that a signal output from the detection unit when the light-emitting unit irradiates a plain region of the recording medium approximates a certain reference value.
US08744274B2
An optical transmitter device includes a laser source, a driving circuit, and an optical modulator. The driving circuit is connected to the laser source. The driving circuit includes a thermistor configured for compensating the temperature variation of the laser source to stabilize the frequency of a laser beam output from the laser source. The optical modulator is configured for modulating the laser beam to form a plurality of second laser beams which have different frequencies.
US08744271B2
A method for influencing electromagnetic radiation in a frequency range between 0.1 and 10 terahertz includes providing a planar modulator having a matrix of at least 10×10 individual, active planar elements. Each planar element has a diameter between 5 μm and 100 μm. The planar elements are individually controlled using a central control unit such that each planar element assumes a respective one of at least two states in accordance with the control so as to influence the radiation.
US08744270B2
An avionics device able to be installed on board an aircraft, including means of processing information and a connector able to receive and/or transmit information, the aforementioned connector including an electrical coupling interface able to transmit and/or receive information in the form of electrical signals, and an electro-optical connection interface able to convert electrical signals into optical signals and to transmit information in the form of optical signals and/or receive information in the form of optical signals and convert these optical signals into electrical signals.
US08744236B2
A system for playing a film on a portable media player, the portable media player comprising a central processor, a GPS module to determine a location of the portable media player within a geographic area, and a storage having stored therein film data of the film for playing on the portable media player, as well as location data of a plurality of locations in a geographic area; the film data comprising at least one preliminary scene to be played first, and a plurality of subsequent scenes, each of the subsequent scenes being linked to both the preliminary scene and one of the locations. A corresponding portable media player, film and method are also disclosed.
US08744234B2
A method and an apparatus providing a visual indication of the occurrence of video recording operations on an electronic device. The video recording operations including recording a plurality of frames according to a number of characteristics. The method comprising providing a time interval between the recording of two consecutive frames by modifying at least one of the characteristics of the video recording operations and providing the visual indication of video recording operations during the time interval.
US08744226B2
A method of manufacturing an optical fiber includes a first step of drawing an optical fiber preform into a glass fiber and disposing a fiber coating on the outer circumference of the glass fiber to form a parent optical fiber; a second step of cutting the parent optical fiber into a plurality of individual optical fibers; a third step of determining, at, at least, one spot of the parent optical fiber, a failure strength F1 and a failure time T; a fourth step of determining a failure strength F2 of each of the individual optical fibers; and a fifth step of selecting an optical fiber having a failure strength F2 of 5.5 kgf or more from the individual optical fibers cut from the parent optical fiber whose failure strength F1 and failure time T satisfy the inequality T>2.6×10−11×exp(4.736×F1).
US08744225B2
In an optical coupling device, a main waveguide have a linearly extending portion and a tapered portion formed on a first clad layer. The waveguide has a width which is gradually reduced towards an incident side of the light wave. Auxiliary waveguides are formed on the both sides of the main waveguide, wherein each of the auxiliary waveguides has first and second tapered portions having widths which are gradually reduced toward both sides. A second clad layer is so formed as to cover the main and auxiliary waveguides and first clad layer, wherein the first clad layer guides the light wave introduced into the first clad layer or the second clad layer and gradually converge the light wave towards the main waveguide.
US08744224B2
Systems and methods for monitoring signals in an optical fiber amplifier system are provided. The optical amplifier system includes a tapered fiber bundle which couples optical energy into the cladding of an optical amplifier. A signal passing through the optical amplifier is amplified. To monitor the amplified signal, a single fiber of a tapered fiber bundle may be used as a monitor fiber. Alternatively, a monitor or coupler may be integrated into the tapered fiber bundle during manufacturing. The systems and methods disclosed allow for monitoring the amplified signal without increasing the length of the amplified signal's path, thus minimizing the introduction of additional non-linearities.
US08744215B2
Methods and systems to improve operator control of mobile robots are disclosed. The invention comprises in various embodiments the aggregation of multiple image feeds to improve operator situational awareness and the dynamic selection of command reference frames to improve operator intuitive control. The disclosed methods and systems reduce operator workload, reduce task completion times, and extend the capabilities of mobile manipulation systems.
US08744207B2
Converting lightness of each pixel even for images having continuous lightness includes: setting a local area around a pixel for which lightness is converted, in the original image; setting an upper limit conversion function which continuously monotonically increases with respect to the lightness, and determines an output upper limit of lightness conversion; setting a lower limit conversion function which continuously monotonically increases with respect to the lightness, and determines an output lower limit of lightness conversion; calculating upper and lower limit values (upper and lower limit conversion function of lightness of the pixel to be converted); calculating a ratio for setting a value between the upper limit value and the lower limit value according to lightness of each pixel in the local area; and calculating converted lightness of a pixel for which the lightness is converted based on the upper limit value, the lower limit value and the ratio.
US08744196B2
Presented is a method of automatically performing an action, based on graphical input. The method comprises: receiving, for a user, an input image; comparing the input image with the contents of a user-customized database comprising a plurality of records, each record representing a predefined class of image, wherein the user has previously associated records in the database with respective specified actions; attempting to recognize the image, based on the similarity of the input image to one of the predefined classes of image represented in the user-customized database; and if the image is recognized, performing the action previously associated by the user with the class. Also presented is apparatus for recognizing an image and a method of constructing a user-customized database.
US08744194B2
In a boundary line recognition apparatus, a boundary line candidate extracting part extracts boundary line candidates from image data obtained by an on-vehicle camera based on known image processing such as pattern matching and Hough transform. One or more kinds of boundary line feature calculating parts calculate one or more likelihoods of each boundary line candidate. The likelihood indicates a degree of probability to be the boundary line. A boundary line feature combining means multiplies the likelihoods of each boundary line candidate and outputs a combined likelihood. A boundary line candidate selecting part selects the boundary line candidate having a maximum likelihood as the boundary line. The boundary line feature calculating part further calculates the likelihood of the boundary line candidate using a dispersion of brightness and an internal edge amount, and changes the likelihood based on an additional likelihood obtained by a driving lane surface feature extracting part.
US08744186B1
Presently disclosed are systems and methods for identifying a scene-change/non-scene-change transition between frames. One embodiment takes the form of a method that, with respect to a current frame pair that includes first and second current frames, includes: (i) defining a first region of said first current frame and a second region of said second current frame; (ii) generating a first luma table based on said first region and a second luma table based on said second region, wherein said luma tables each have a luma counter for each luma in a luma range; (iii) for each luma in said luma range, calculating a first value based on said luma counters and adding said first value to an accumulator; (iv) calculating a second value based on said accumulator; and (v) identifying the current frame pair as having a scene-change transition responsive to the second value being less than a scene-change threshold.
US08744185B2
In an approach for sampling a distribution of segmentations of an image, the segmentations are based on a level set function. For each sample of the distribution, the sampling includes the following, for each of multiple iterations: randomly selecting a set of locations of the level set function, determining a domain of allowed perturbations of the level set function at the selected set of locations, and randomly accepting a perturbation of the level set function according to a criterion corresponding to a biased distribution over the domain of allowed perturbations of the level set function, wherein the bias is selected to increase a probability of accepting the perturbation. The sampling also includes determining the sample of the distribution of segmentations according to a perturbed level set function determined in a final iteration of the multiple iterations for the sample.
US08744180B2
A computer implemented method, system and computer program product for identifying the Main Colors and the matching colors of a visual object, and then viewing on a mobile device select items comprising the matching colors, such as from a merchant's catalogue. A visual object is analyzed for color content, and the results are stored on a system database located on the device or on a remote server. The color analysis of the objects comprise advanced image processing techniques, such as Main Color extraction using color space transformation comprising HSV, RGB and CYMK to map between pixels in the image. The user can subsequently view a display on their mobile identifying the visual object's Main Colors and at least one Harmonic Color; and then select and view all items (i.e. products in a database) comprising one Harmonic Color, and/or all items of a specific type and Harmonic Color.
US08744173B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus including computer program products for using extracted image text are provided. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method includes receiving an input of one or more image search terms and identifying keywords from the received one or more image search terms. The method also includes searching a collection of keywords including keywords extracted from image text, retrieving an image associated with extracted image text corresponding to one or more of the image search terms, and presenting the image.
US08744169B2
Methods and systems for egomotion estimation (e.g. of a vehicle) from visual inputs of a stereo pair of video cameras are described. 3D egomotion estimation is a six degrees of freedom problem in general. In embodiments of the present invention, this is simplified to four dimensions and further decomposed to two two-dimensional sub-solutions. The decomposition allows use of a voting strategy that identifies the most probable solution. An input is a set of image correspondences between two temporally consecutive stereo pairs, i.e. feature points do not need to be tracked over time. The experiments show that even if a trajectory is put together as a simple concatenation of frame-to-frame increments, the results are reliable and precise.
US08744163B2
Systems, devices, and methods for removing areas of tissue are described. A programmable laser may remove precise areas of tissue while the tissue remains substantially frozen. The laser is programmed in part by analyzing a reference image of a representative tissue section. A software program may receive digital images of test slices. Areas of interest in the image may be selected by a user. The software program can then create and send cut instructions to the programmable laser. The laser may be configured to make perforated cuts to remove the area of interest without melting the removed section.
US08744162B2
A method and system for evaluating images, such as x-ray image, to provide feedback that can be used for subsequent image acquisition. The feedback may be used to adjust the positioning of a patient with respect to an image capture device, or a setting of the image capture device. The image capture device may be part of a dental x-ray imaging system that generates an x-ray image of the patent and provides the image to a collector service. The image is evaluated by the collector service for positioning errors and other operator correctable issues that may have had an impact on the image quality. A report that includes feedback regarding the operator correctable issues, as well as suggested corrective action, is generated and provided to the imaging system operator.
US08744139B2
An apparatus, method and system are provided for sensing at least one biometric measure of an individual. An electrical current flows through an electrode to induce an electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field stimulates and excites the molecules associated with the sweat gland pores and causes molecular compounds to fluoresce. An image of the fluoresced dermal surface is obtained and a biometric function is performed with data derived from the image. Alternatively, sweat gland pore biometric information may be derived from variations, fluctuations or disturbances to the electromagnetic field induced by the electrical current.
US08744135B2
Searchable annotated formatted documents are produced by correlating documents stored as photographic or scanned graphic representations of an actual document (evidence, report, court order, etc.) with textual version of the same documents. A produced document will provide additional details in a data structure that supports citation annotation as well as other types of analysis of a document. The data structure also supports generation of citation reports and corpus reports. Methods of creating searchable annotated formatted documents including citation and corpus reports by correlating and correcting text files with photographic or scanned graphic of the original documents. Data structures for correlating and correcting text files with graphic images. Generation of citation reports, concordance reports, and corpus reports. Data structures for citation reports, concordance reports, and corpus reports generation. Multiple document data structures are used to create multiple citation documents and reports. Embodiments of citation reports and corpus reports contain correlated, comprehensive multiple citations.
US08744126B1
Embodiments of the disclosed invention relate to identifying safe landing sites on a surface. More particularly, three-dimensional image data is obtained from a surface. That image data is processed using morphological operations to create a smoothed surface. The smoothed surface data is then used to calculate slopes, to identify areas of the surface that present a slope hazard. The smooth data obtained for identifying slope hazards can also be used in connection with identifying surface features, including bumps or holes, that create surface feature hazards. After identifying the slope and/or surface feature hazards, a hazard map indicating safe and not safe landing areas can be created.
US08744125B2
An example of a method for identifying objects in video content according to the disclosure includes receiving video content of a scene captured by a video camera, detecting an object in the video content, identifying a track that the object follows over a series of frames of the video content, extracting object features for the object from the video content, and classifying the object based on the object features. Classifying the object further comprises: determining a track-level classification for the object using spatially invariant object features, determining a global-clustering classification for the object using spatially variant features, and determining an object type for the object based on the track-level classification and the global-clustering classification for the object.
US08744123B2
A foreground object blob having a bounding box detected in frame image data is classified by a finite state machine as a background, moving foreground, or temporally static object, namely as the temporally static object when the detected bounding box is distinguished from a background model of a scene image of the video data input and remains static in the scene image for a threshold period. The bounding box is tracked through matching masks in subsequent frame data of the video data input, and the object sub-classified within a visible sub-state, an occluded sub-state, or another sub-state that is not visible and not occluded as a function of a static value ratio. The ratio is a number of pixels determined to be static by tracking in a foreground region of the background model corresponding to the tracked object bounding box over a total number of pixels of the foreground region.
US08744122B2
The present invention relates to a system and method for detecting one or more targets belonging to a first class (e.g., moving and/or stationary people), from a moving platform in a 3D-rich environment. The framework described here is implemented using a number of monocular or stereo cameras distributed around the vehicle to provide 360 degrees coverage. Furthermore, the framework described here utilizes numerous filters to reduce the number of false positive identifications of the targets.
US08744111B2
An earphone with tension diaphragm includes a front portion, a rear portion, a silicone gel earplug, a filtering net and a sound generating unit. As a user pushes the earphone into his ear, the diaphragm of the sound generating unit has a deformation and thus an air turbulence would be generated. This air turbulence would then cause a deformation of the tension diaphragm and this deformation would in turn eliminate the strange and unpleasant noises generated as a user pushes an earphone into his ear. Therefore, better audio signals may be achieved and a better low-frequency effect may be reached. Also, because the earphone of the present invention is water-resistant, it may be used under water. In addition, other water-resistant earphones on the market do not have such tension diaphragm.
US08744099B2
A battery compartment for a condenser microphone includes a battery space configured to hold a battery; a battery outlet open to a portion of a peripheral wall of the battery space and allowing removal of the battery in the battery space; a lid covering the battery outlet; and a ribbon having one end portion fixed to an internal wall of the battery space and the other end portion disposed to be pulled out from the battery outlet and wrapping around an external periphery of the battery. The ribbon is conductive and the fixed end portion is grounded.
US08744097B2
A microphone has a slide member and a push member. The slide member has a slide knob, and a conductive state and a nonconductive state are switched according to operation of the slide knob. The push member holds a switch in the conductive state while a push button is pushed. A mechanism interlocking of the slide member and the push member is provided and interlocks operation of the slide member with the push member by converting movement of the slide member in a sliding direction into movement of the push member in a pushing direction, the slide knob and the push button are separated from each other in the sliding direction.
US08744093B2
An active vibration/noise control device which is provided with a plurality of cancel signal generation parts for generating output signals for respectively cancelling noises generated at a plurality of vibration/noise generation sources. The effect of the suspension of either of first and second cancel signal generation parts on the other is reduced. According to the operating state of the first cancel signal generation part, the simulated transmission properties of the second cancel signal generation part are adjusted. Consequently, without regard to the operating state of the first cancel signal generation part, the noise control performance of the second cancel signal generation part can be maintained.
US08744090B2
To suppress the transverse displacement of a ribbon due to an impact to a level smaller than that achieved by electromagnetic damping. The switch 150 breaks a path between the piezoelectric element 140 and the secondary winding 132 so as to be non-conductive when a power plug is connected (the microphone is in use), and completes a path between the piezoelectric element 140 and the secondary winding 132 so as to be conductive when a power plug is not connected (the microphone is not in use), in order to generate a driving force in the direction opposite to the displacement direction of the ribbon 10 by causing a current corresponding to power generated in the piezoelectric element 140 to flow in the ribbon 10.
US08744083B2
VoIP systems often use multiple ciphers for different components. The present invention includes a system and method for early detection of encrypted signals in packet networks that may be encrypted using any of a multitude of ciphers.
US08744082B2
A system and method for securing wireless communications are provided. A method for secure communications by a first user includes estimating a channel between the first user and a second user based on a pilot signal transmitted by the second user, determining a first threshold and a second threshold based on the estimate of channel, selecting a first subset of channel estimates, signaling the first subset of channel estimates to the second user, receiving a second subset of channel estimates from the second user, for each channel estimate in the second subset of channel estimates, quantizing the channel estimate based on a relationship between a gain of the channel estimate and the first threshold and the second threshold, generating a first secret key based on quantized channel estimates, verifying that the first secret key matches a second secret key generated by the second user, and transmitting information to the second user.
US08744070B2
The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a user device, which includes a main body part, a movable part electrically connected with the main body part, and a switching control unit and a rotation driver unit for co-axially connecting the main body part with the movable part. The switching control unit is used for eliminating a friction that enables the main body part to be fixed relative to the movable part fixed to turn on a rotation mode of the movable part. The rotation driver unit is used for applying a pre-pressing elastic force to the movable part when the switching control unit turns on the rotation mode of the movable part, so as to enable the movable part to automatically rotate relative to the main body part. The pre-pressing elastic force is less than the friction.
US08744067B2
Embodiments of the present invention include methods and apparatuses for adjusting audio content when more multiple audio objects are directed toward a single audio output device. The amplitude, white noise content, and frequencies can be adjusted to enhance overall sound quality or make content of certain audio objects more intelligible. Audio objects are classified by a class category, by which they are can be assigned class specific processing. Audio objects classes can also have a rank. The rank of an audio objects class is used to give priority to or apply specific processing to audio objects sin the presence of other audio objects of different classes.
US08744055B2
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for providing one or more services in a communication session such as a call or other media exchange independent of supporting network technologies. According to one embodiment, a system for providing one or more services in a communication session can comprise a communication network and an application dispatcher communicatively coupled with the communication network. The application dispatcher can be adapted to determine one or more components for providing at least one service in the communication session and direct the communication session to the one or more components. According to one embodiment, determining the one or more components and directing the communication session to the one or more components can be performed independent of supporting network technologies.
US08744048B2
An integrated X-ray source is provided. The integrated X-ray source includes a target for emitting X-rays upon being struck by one or more excitation beams, and one or more total internal reflection multilayer optic devices in physical contact with the target to transmit at least a portion of the X rays through total internal reflection to produce X-ray beams, wherein the optic device comprises an input face for receiving the X rays and an output face through which the X-ray beams exit the integrated X-ray source.
US08744047B2
The embodiments disclosed herein relate to the thermal regulation of components within an X-ray tube, and more specifically to heat transfer between the anode and the rotary mechanism to which the anode is attached. For example, in one embodiment, an X-ray tube is provided. The X-ray tube generally includes a fixed shaft, a rotating bearing sleeve disposed about the fixed shaft and configured to rotate with respect to the fixed shaft via a rotary bearing, an electron beam target disposed about the bearing sleeve and configured to rotate with the bearing sleeve, and a thermally conductive, deformable metallic gasket disposed between the target and the bearing sleeve and configured to conduct heat between the target and the bearing sleeve in operation.
US08744043B2
A radiation image capturing device includes a radiation image capturing unit, a diaphragm unit, and a control unit. The radiation image capturing unit captures a radiation image based on radiation transmitted through a subject. The diaphragm unit has an opening region that is configured to transmit a part of the radiation emitted from a radiation source and an area thereof is changeable, and the diaphragm unit is configured such that a transmission dose of the radiation decreases as a distance from a circumferential part of the opening region increases. The control unit controls the diaphragm unit such that direct rays of the radiation are irradiated onto a predetermined region of the subject.
US08744039B2
An X-ray CT apparatus is provided that generates a three-dimensional cross-section model from scanogram projection data of an examinee. An operator inputs a site of interest, an assumed displacement amount of the site and a desired image quality index value. A scan planning unit calculates an X-ray attenuation index from the three-dimensional cross-section model, and corrects the calculated X-ray attenuation index on the basis of the input site of interest, assumed displacement amount and image quality index value. The scan planning unit further determines a tube current modulating pattern (irradiation X-ray dose modulating pattern) on the basis of the corrected X-ray attenuation index. When scanning is executed, an X-ray tube is controlled according to the determined irradiation X-ray dose modulating pattern, and controlled so as to obtain an optimum X-ray dose.
US08744037B2
A divider for providing an output signal having an output frequency by dividing a reference frequency of a reference signal by a divider value is disclosed. The divider includes at least a first divider element configured to provide a first divider output signal having a first divider output signal frequency which is half of the reference frequency and a last divider element configured to provide a last divider output signal having a last divider output signal frequency which half of the preceding divider output signal frequency. Furthermore, the divider comprises an output signal provider for providing the output signal.
US08744036B2
A high-temperature nuclear reactor, cooled by a liquid fluoride salt, is described. The reactor uses an annular fuel pebble comprised of an inert graphite center kernel, a TRISO fuel particles region, and a graphite outer shell, with an average pebble density lower than the density of the liquid salt so the pebbles float. The pebbles are introduced into a coolant entering the reactor and are carried into the bottom of the reactor core, where they form a pebble bed inside a plurality of vertical channels inside one or more replaceable Pebble Channel Assemblies (PCAs). Pebbles are removed through defueling chutes located at the top of each PCA. Each PCA also includes channels for insertion of neutron control and shutdown elements, and channels for insertion of core flux mapping and other instrumentation.
US08744035B1
A power module includes a reactor vessel containing a coolant and a reactor core located near a bottom end of the reactor vessel. A riser section is located above the reactor core, wherein the coolant circulates past the reactor core and up through the riser section. In one embodiment, a coolant deflector shield includes flow-optimized surfaces, wherein the flow-optimized surfaces direct the coolant towards the bottom end of the reactor vessel. In another embodiment, the reactor housing includes an inward facing portion that varies a flow pressure of the coolant and promotes a circulation of the coolant past a baffle assembly and towards the bottom end of the reactor vessel.
US08744033B2
An object of the invention is to embody a small and inexpensive passage selector, which can be applied by commonly using an index device even if the number of detector passages is changed, and which is easy to make inspection and maintenance. The passage selector of a reactor in-core nuclear-measuring apparatus of the invention includes: a drive motor; an index device that is driven by the drive motor and that makes a rotary output of a predetermined index number; a central rotating shaft that is driven to rotate by the index device and that causes a passage selecting guide tube to be located in opposition to any detector passage; and a speed-increasing and decreasing device that is interposed between an output shaft of the index device and the central rotating shaft, and that adjusts the index number of the central rotating shaft.
US08744023B1
Systems and methods are provided for whitening noise of a received signal vector in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission or storage system. The whitening filter may be designed to whiten an interference component of the received signal vector, where the interference component is derived from modeling transmitter and receiver imperfections as a first coupling between MIMO transmitter outputs and a second coupling between MIMO receiver. The whitening filter may be computed based on the covariance matrix of the interference component.
US08744021B1
Improving signal quality by sampling an intermediate frequency signal by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and determining spectral characteristic data of the output signal of the ADC, and processing the spectral characteristic data to identify blocking signals and blocking spur signals that interfere with any desired signals. An adjustment is made to the frequency of one or more oscillators to reduce the interference resulting from the blocking signals if a ratio of the desired signal level to the total interfering blocker spur level is below a threshold.
US08744014B2
A FFR (fractional frequency reuse)-based network MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) transmission architecture in a cellular system that employs cell sectoring using directional antennas. Each cell is sectorized into three outer sectors using three directional antennas which transmit in three different directions using three different frequency subbands. The cell sectors are arranged based on a frequency partition scheme so that three sectors in three neighboring cells form a coordinated group for network MIMO transmission. A regular and a rearranged frequency partition are described. Further, a practical implementation of SON (self organizing network)-based three-cell FFR-based network MIMO for a wireless OFDM system is described. In this implementation, a server connected to multiple base stations (BSs) defines multiple coordinated groups for coordinated MIMO transmission, and the BSs within each coordinated group negotiate a common radio resource region (a composite time-frequency region), and selects a serving mobile station to participate in the coordinated MIMO transmission.
US08744011B2
A wireless communication device is disclosed that is capable of reduced power consumption. The device includes several analog components, including some that may be capable of operating at multiple different operation powers and others whose function may be performed by an equivalent digital component. Based on a quality of a received signal, the wireless communication device can adjust a power consumption configuration of its analog components in order to optimize power use. For example, when signal quality is higher than necessary, the device can sacrifice performance to reduce operating power and/or switch to digital equivalent components. Similarly, when signal quality is lower than necessary, the device can enhance performance by increasing operating power and/or switching from digital equivalent components to corresponding analog components.
US08744010B2
Apparatuses may perform and methods may include: receiving a digital broadcast signal that includes an Electronic Service Guide (ESG); extracting and assembling the ESG; extracting from the ESG signaling information which links one or more services in an upper level layer of a broadcast protocol to a physical layer of the broadcast protocol. Based on the signaling information, one or more services from a broadcast system may be accesses.
US08744003B2
A transmitter may comprise a symbol mapping circuit that is configurable to operate in at least two configurations, wherein a first of the configurations of the symbol mapping circuit uses a first symbol constellation and a second of the configurations of the symbol mapping circuit uses a second symbol constellation. The transmitter may also comprise a pulse shaping circuit that is configurable to operate in at least two configurations, wherein a first of the configurations of the pulse shaping circuit uses a first set of filter taps and a second of the configurations of the pulse shaping circuit uses a second set of filter taps. The first set of filter taps may correspond to a root raised cosine (RRC) filter and the second set of filter taps corresponds to a partial response filter.
US08743989B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for applying successive multi-rank beamforming strategies (e.g., successive precoding strategies) for the design of precoders over a set of parallel channels. Successive beamforming is applied to a narrow band channel model and is also applied for finer quantization of a single beamforming vector (e.g., recursive beamforming). A first embodiment provides the optimal approach with high complexity. An alternative embodiment provides successive beamforming for near optimal precoding selection with medium complexity. A low complexity method for precoder selection is also provided wherein a channel representative matrix for the set of parallel channels is determined and successive beamforming on the calculated channel representative is applied.
US08743987B2
A receiver is configured to perform symbol detection based on a total frequency domain received signal that comprises contribution from a block of time domain symbols. The receiver comprises electronic circuitry operate to divide the block into plural sub-blocks, and for each sub-block, to jointly detect the symbols of the sub-block while treating symbols of the block which are outside of the sub-block as noise.
US08743983B2
An apparatus, a method and a computer program for determining a bearing. The apparatus may comprise: a first transformer configured to transform a first signal formed from a set of multiple orthogonal subcarriers and received via a first path, from a time domain to a frequency domain and produce for each of a plurality of the multiple orthogonal subcarriers a respective first coefficient; a second transformer configured to transform a second signal formed from the set of multiple orthogonal subcarriers and received via a second path, different from the first path, from a time domain to a frequency domain and produce for each of a plurality of the multiple orthogonal subcarriers a respective second coefficient; and processing circuitry configured to process the plurality of first coefficients and the plurality of second coefficients to determine a bearing for the apparatus.
US08743982B2
A system includes at least a transmitter having a serial-to-parallel converter, an iFFT block and a frequency de-spreader device that applies each signal that results from multiplying a data sample by one of the predetermined frequency coefficients of the prototype filter of a synthesis filter bank to one of the inputs of the iFFT block presenting a size that is strictly greater than the number of subchannels. Also described is a system including at least one receiver including a serial-to-parallel converter, a FFT block presenting a size that is strictly greater than the number of subchannels of the system, and a frequency de-spreader device that multiplies the signal from each output of the FFT block by one of predetermined frequency coefficients of the prototype filter of an analysis filter bank and sums the results of these multiplications to deliver at least a portion of the output signal from the receiver.
US08743979B2
It is well known that relay-based DF cooperative wireless networks outperform AF cooperative networks. However, this performance enhancement is achievable through considerable signal processing (precoding/decoding) at relay nodes. To reduce the precoding/decoding complexity, a method for precoding and decoding a distributive MIMO channel in the relay-based DF cooperative wireless network using EVD based on properties of Jacket transformations is provided.
US08743975B2
A method for receiving signals over a power line network, within the power line network at least one transmitter and at least one receiver communicate via at least two channels, each of the channels having a respective feeding port of the at least one transmitter and a respective receiving port of the at least one receiver, and the receiver having at least two receiving ports. The method determines a channel characteristic of each of the channels, applies a receiving port selection criterion based on the channel characteristic, and selects an excluded receiving port among the at least two receiving ports based on the receiving port selection criterion, the excluded receiving port is not used during further communication.
US08743974B2
Systems and methods for adaptive modulation and coding with frame size adjustment are described. In various implementations, these systems and methods may be applicable to Power Line Communications (PLC). For example, a method may include identifying a temporal region of a cyclostationary noise over which a frame is to be sent across a PLC network, the cyclostationary noise having a plurality of temporal regions, each of the plurality of temporal regions having a distinct spectral shape. The method may also include applying a given one of a plurality of Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCSs) to the frame to produce a modulated frame, wherein the given one of the plurality of MCSs is selected based, least in part, upon the spectral shape corresponding to the identified temporal region. The method may further include transmitting the modulated frame across the PLC network, at least in part, over the identified temporal region.
US08743972B2
A deblocking filter module can be used in a video processing device that processes a video input signal in accordance with a plurality of coding parameters. The deblocking filter module includes an adaptive deblocking filter that receives a plurality of samples and produces a plurality of filtered samples in response thereto, the adaptive deblocking filter having at least one filter parameter that is controllable in response to a filter control signal. A filter control module generates the filter control signal based on the plurality of coding parameters.
US08743964B2
A system and method for block-based per-pixel correction for film-based sources. The appearance of mixed film/video can be improved through an adaptive selection of normal deinterlaced video relative to inverse telecine video. This adaptive selection process is based on pixel difference measures of sub-blocks within defined blocks of pixels.
US08743963B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for a quality enhancement/super resolution technique. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a first version of media at a first resolution and creating a second version of the media at a second resolution higher or equal to the first resolution using at least one transform and adaptive thresholding.
US08743958B2
According to the compressed video data stream switching method for the transmission of a first data stream corresponding to a first video sequence, followed by, in a given switching point of this first stream, a second data stream corresponding to a second video sequence, the second data stream is modified prior to transmission, by a replacement of the bidirectional pictures with bidirectional commutation pictures of which the pictures blocks have a null residue and a null motion vector which is either forward or backward, according to the position of the blocks in the picture.
US08743956B2
A block dead zone scale generator (202) receives an image signal and a prediction error, analyzes the pattern or prediction performance of a target block, and outputs a dead zone scale suitable for the pattern or prediction performance of the block. A dead zone generator (201) receives a dead zone scale from the block dead zone scale generator (202) and an MB quantization parameter from a quantization control device (103), calculates a dead zone width from the zone scale and the MB quantization parameter, and outputs the dead zone width. A quantization device (102) quantizes an orthogonal transformation coefficient supplied from an orthogonal transformation device (101) by using a dead zone from the dead zone generator (201), and outputs a quantized transformation coefficient. This makes it possible to realize quantization with arbitrary strength for each transformation coefficient and for each block comprising a plurality of transformation coefficients as constituent elements, thereby providing a high-quality image encoding technology.
US08743955B2
A method, medium, and apparatus for encoding and/or decoding video by generating a scalable bitstream formed with a base layer bitstream and an enhancement layer bitstream, in order to provide forward compatibility, is described. The method includes reconstructing an image having an extended bit-depth and an extended video format into an image having a base bit-depth and a base video format, encoding the reconstructed image, and as a result of the encoding of the image having the base bit-depth and the base video format, generating a base layer bitstream, and reconstructing the image having the extended bit-depth and extended video format into an image having the extended bit-depth and the base video format, and by using the result of the encoding of the image having the base bit-depth and the base video format, encoding the image having the extended bit-depth and the base video format, and generating an enhancement layer bitstream with a result of the encoding of the image having the extended bit-depth and the base video format and additional data required for the extended video format.
US08743951B2
A method and apparatus for variable accuracy inter-picture timing specification for digital video encoding is disclosed. Specifically, the present invention discloses a system that allows the relative timing of nearby video pictures to be encoded in a very efficient manner. In one embodiment, the display time difference between a current video picture and a nearby video picture is determined. The display time difference is then encoded into a digital representation of the video picture. In a preferred embodiment, the nearby video picture is the most recently transmitted stored picture. For coding efficiency, the display time difference may be encoded using a variable length coding system or arithmetic coding. In an alternate embodiment, the display time difference is encoded as a power of two to reduce the number of bits transmitted.
US08743949B2
Techniques and tools for video coding/decoding with sub-block transform coding/decoding and re-oriented transforms are described. For example, a video encoder adaptively switches between 8×8, 8×4, and 4×8 DCTs when encoding 8×8 prediction residual blocks; a corresponding video decoder switches between 8×8, 8×4, and 4×8 inverse DCTs during decoding. The video encoder may determine the transform sizes as well as switching levels (e.g., frame, macroblock, or block) in a closed loop evaluation of the different transform sizes and switching levels. When a video encoder or decoder uses spatial extrapolation from pixel values in a causal neighborhood to predict pixel values of a block of pixels, the encoder/decoder can use a re-oriented transform to address non-stationarity of prediction residual values.
US08743942B2
A receiver includes a constellation processing module and a plurality of demodulation stages. The constellation processing module groups points of a constellation associated with a transmitted signal into a plurality of subsets, were at least two adjacent ones of the subsets have one or more common constellation points so that the at least two adjacent subsets overlap. The constellation processing module also determines a centroid-based value for each of the subsets of constellation points and groups the centroid-based values into one or more sets. Each of the demodulation stages except for the last demodulation stage localizes a search for a final symbol decision using the set of centroid-based values input to or selected by the demodulation stage as constellation points. The last demodulation stage determines the final symbol decision using the subset of constellation points input to or selected by the last demodulation stage.
US08743939B2
A nonlinear echo compensator comprises a mapping circuit that includes a weighting circuit that generates a weighted signal based on a current symbol and a prior symbol and a function generating circuit that selects one of N functions based on the weighted signal, where N is an integer greater than one. The mapping circuit generates a driving signal based on the selected one of the N functions and the weighted signal. A canceling circuit generates a nonlinear echo compensation signal based on the driving signal.
US08743937B2
Using DSL modems as data collectors, the modems processes the data to, for example, allow easier interpretation of the line characteristics. In particular, the modems postprocess the data including calibration, filter compensation, determination of the SNR medley from the bits and gains tables and rate conversion. The interpretation process uses the postprocessed data and determines loop characterization, interferer detection, a data reduction estimation and a data rate estimation. The outputs of these determinations least allow for the characterization of the line conditions between the two modems.
US08743924B2
In a surface-emission laser diode, there is provided, between an active layer and a semiconductor layer that contains Al, Ga and As as major components, a semiconductor layer containing Al, In and P as major components such that the semiconductor layer containing Al, In and P as major components is provided adjacent to the semiconductor layer that contains Al, Ga and As as major components. Further, an interface between the semiconductor layer containing Al, Ga and As as major components and the semiconductor layer containing Al, In and P as major components is coincident to a location of a node of electric field strength distribution.
US08743923B2
Embodiments of the invention describe an illuminator having a light source to originate an illumination beam, wherein the light source further comprises a set of vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), including a first VCSEL having a first laser emission wavelength, and a second VCSEL having a second laser emission wavelength different than the first laser emission wavelength. Thus, by varying laser emission wavelengths of VCSELs in a VCSEL array, embodiments of the invention produce low-contrast speckle, and do not limit the imaging capabilities of the host illumination system. In some embodiments of the invention, vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) are utilized to produce the above described varying laser emission wavelengths.
US08743922B2
A laser device is disclosed that provides at least an ultraviolet laser beam and preferably both an ultraviolet laser beam and a visible laser beam. The laser device includes a semiconductor laser device (e.g. a laser diode) to generate visible laser light which is coupled into a frequency doubling crystal taking the form of a single crystal thin film frequency-doubling waveguide structure. The single crystal thin film frequency-doubling waveguide converts a portion of the visible light emitted by the laser diode into ultraviolet light. Both visible and ultraviolet laser light is emitted from the waveguide. As an example, the single crystal thin film frequency-doubling frequency doubling waveguide includes a frequency doubling crystal region composed of β-BaB2O4 (β-BBO), a cladding region composed of materials that are transparent or nearly transparent at the wavelength of the ultraviolet laser light beam and a supporting substrate composed of any material.
US08743917B2
A wavelength conversion laser light source, including a solid-state laser medium configured to generate fundamental light; a wavelength conversion element configured to convert the fundamental light into second harmonic light which has a higher frequency than the fundamental light; and a conductive material in contact with the wavelength conversion element, wherein the wavelength conversion element includes a polarization inverted structure formed with a polarization inversion region, and a first lateral surface which perpendicularly intersects with the polarization inversion region, and the conductive material is in contact with the first lateral surface.
US08743911B2
A synchronization method is disclosed, including: obtaining a synchronization symbol position {circumflex over (d)}0 of one time slot of an initial update period; taking Ntrack frames as an update period to adjust the synchronization symbol position, and the step of adjusting the synchronization symbol position including: obtaining a synchronization symbol position {circumflex over ({circumflex over (d)}k+1=dk+Ntrack{circumflex over (T)}k of a corresponding time slot of a (k+1)th update period according to a synchronization symbol position {circumflex over (d)}k of a corresponding time slot of a kth update period and an inter-frame sampling derivation estimation value {circumflex over (T)}k of said kth update period; obtaining synchronization symbol positions of other time slots in said kth update period according to the synchronization symbol position {circumflex over (d)}k of the corresponding time slot of the kth update period and the inter-frame sampling derivation estimation value {circumflex over (T)}k of said kth update period. A synchronization apparatus is also disclosed. The method and apparatus reduces synchronization calculation amount.
US08743901B2
In a first embodiment of the present invention, a method for remoting user/callee presence information in a home network is provided, the method comprising: subscribing, from a home network presence client, to one or more home network presence servers, for presence information relating to one or more users; receiving, from one of the home network presence servers, a change in presence information relating to one of said one or more users; and notifying a user of a device associated with the home network presence client of the change in presence information.
US08743895B2
The invention pertains to a system and method of interactive queue management through public communication networks. Interactive queue management allows business or automated systems to easily and efficiently interact with waiting individuals in any queue through the individuals' preferred communication device, e.g., telephone, mobile phone, smart phone, wirelessly enabled PDA or handheld computer. In one embodiment this invention allows people to hold their place in a queue by proxy of their telephone or mobile phone number. An individual will provide their phone number to the interactive queuing system; the system will retain the phone number and other pertinent information about the individual, communicate via voice, wireless messaging, or other means with the individual, and collect the input from the individual. Key components of the system include a queue client system, a queue management and server system, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, and a wireless messaging infrastructure system. Interfaces between key components will be via the Internet or other networks using standardized protocols.
US08743892B2
A method and system for dynamically selecting a destination gateway to complete a call over a path supported at least in part by an IP telephony network and a public switched telephone network. The method and system further provide for dynamically detecting available gateways, dynamically removing failed and/or unavailable gateways, and automatically recovering failed and/or unavailable gateways after a predetermined period of time. A method is also provided for detecting available destination gateways using a ping method, where a message is transmitted to a plurality of destination gateways on a one-by-one basis to ascertain the availability status of each destination gateway.
US08743891B2
A data packet router enables a mobile communication device to access a WAN such as the Internet via a PC connected to the WAN. The router comprises bearer plug-in modules which each enable connection between the mobile communication device and the computer over a different bearer. The PC is therefore used as an internet access point for mobile communication devices which can use any conventional bearer to connect to the PC (USB, RS232, Bluetooth wireless etc.). Hence, a mobile telephone could gain web access using conventional WAP or, with the present invention, it could also be connected to a PC using a convenient bearer and hence gain access to the internet via the PC. Because the router uses bearer plug-in modules, it is possible to write new bearer modules as and when new bearers are developed and to readily add them to upgrade existing implementations. This is valuable since new connectivity standards (and enhancements to old standards) are continually under development.
US08743882B1
A packet processor for a network device includes an incoming port that receives a first packet. The first packet includes a data portion, a control portion and a first outgoing port. A control data processing device receives the control portion from the incoming port while the data portion is stored in memory, and transmits the control portion to the first outgoing port. The first outgoing port transmits a first request for the data portion based on the control portion. A header altering device retrieves the data portion from the memory and strips, modifies, and encapsulates the data portion based on the first request.
US08743877B2
Roughly described, a header processing engine for a network interface device has a header recognizer to parse the headers of a data packet stored at a buffer to identify the type and position of each header in the packet; a constructor unit; and a processor including an execution pipeline. The header recognizer is configured to, for each header: select in dependence on the header type commands stored at a command memory; and form one or more messages for the constructor unit identifying the selected commands and the position of the header in the data packet. The commands selected for the packet headers are collectively such as to, if executed by the constructor unit, cause the constructor unit to generate a data structure which operates to cause the processor to process of the packet headers without accessing the data packet at the buffer.
US08743871B2
A system processes media, such as voice and video, in a scalable and secure manner. The system can process voice and video for a large quantity of users. For example, the system can enable large quantities of simultaneous phone conversations over an IP network. The IP network can carry voice, video, and other data concurrently. The system identifies which packets carry voice data, which packets carry video, and which packets carry other kinds of data. The system scales both with the quantity of users and in terms of network topology. Multiple digital signal processors (DSPs) can be controlled by and connected to a switching device via an Ethernet network. One or more DSPs connected to the switching device interact with the switching device as separate IP devices, in that each such DSP may have its own separate IP address to which IP packets may be addressed.
US08743870B2
A voice over Internet protocol communication system and method provides infrastructure components as intermediaries between networks, the components include multi-protocol session controllers and a multi-protocol signaling switch as well as a management system. The session controllers process calls and participate in the calls that flow through it. The session controllers process calls that are either at the edge of the network or at the core of the voice over Internet protocol network. The session controllers associate calls with one another in call peers for incoming calls as ingress call peers and for outgoing calls as egress call peers. A centralized database of call routing policies is provided to the session controllers. The session controllers provide cost management, topology hiding, and inter-working, or conversion, of calls from SIP networks to H.323 networks for both voice and video.
US08743867B2
System and method for transmitting interaction metadata messages, for example, computer telephony integration (CTI) messages, from one or more network end points and/ox from a central network device to a recording system using a light-weight interaction metadata protocol, for example, a light-weight CTI protocol, over one or more communication services.
US08743859B2
A mobile communication device for managing the operation status of wireless transmissions and receptions is provided. In the mobile communication device, a wireless module performs the wireless transmissions and receptions. Also, in the mobile communication device, a controller module activates the wireless module to transmit a scheduling request message to the service network, and keeps the wireless module activated for the wireless receptions in a first predetermined period of time subsequent to the transmission of the scheduling request message.
US08743857B2
A method and a system that multiplies a beamforming matrix by a unitary matrix that does not change the subspace of the beamforming matrix for form a converted matrix having a lower left triangle of zeros. A first column vector having a fewest number of elements of the converted matrix is quantized using a codebook and represented by a first codebook index. A Householder matrix is determined from the quantized first column vector and the converted matrix is multiplied by the Householder matrix. Quantizing, determining a Householder matrix from further column vectors of the converted matrix using a codebook and representing each respective column vector by further corresponding codebook index, and multiplying the converted matrix on the left by the determined Householder matrix for each respective column vector are recursively repeated. The first codebook index and further codebook indices are transmitted to a remote station for use in beamforming.
US08743848B2
Hybrid location determination for wireless communication device. Various services that may be used by a wireless communication device within a particular location may be referred to as location based services (LBS). As such, means by which the location of a wireless communication device that may use such available services, within such a locale, is made by using more than one type of location determination approach. For example, a wireless communication device includes communication capability (e.g., RX and TX) in accordance with a first communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth) and also includes a communication capability (e.g., RX only) in accordance with a second communication protocol (e.g., WiFi/WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)). The RX capability is operative to assist in location determination for the wireless communication device based on knowledge of at least one wireless communication device that communicates with the wireless communication device.
US08743847B2
An apparatus and method of transmission opportunity in a mesh network is disclosed. A beacon timing from a receiver MP is received. The beacon timing includes a beacon reception timing of a received beacon frame that is received by the receiver MP from a neighboring MP of the receiver MP. A transmission opportunity is determined in order not to be extended across the beacon reception timing.
US08743846B2
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting service flow information in a wireless communication system. The method for transmitting service flow information in a wireless communication system according to one aspect of the present invention comprises the step of enabling a terminal to transmit, to a base station and through the service flow to be generated or modified during a service flow generating or modifying process, an indicator for indicating whether or not uplink data to be transmitted exists.
US08743845B2
A method of scheduling data transmission in a wireless network is disclosed. The wireless network includes an access router and a plurality of access terminals connectable to the base station. The method includes determining a number of the access terminals that are connected to the base station, and comparing the number with a threshold. The method further includes determining, based on the comparison between the number of connected access terminals and the threshold, whether to send a dedicated control signal or a shared control signal from the base station, in order indicate which ones of the plurality of access terminals are scheduled to transmit data during a slot.
US08743833B2
According to embodiments, a base station includes a radio communication unit configured to establish communication with a mobile communication terminal using a plurality of component carriers. The base station further includes a control unit configured to transmit a command to the mobile communication terminal to reduce the plurality of component carriers to one prior to handover of communication between the mobile communication terminal and the base station to another base station.
US08743812B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a system, and an access gateway for traffic flows to share resources. The method for traffic flows to share resources includes obtaining information of at least two traffic flows and resources requested by the at least two traffic flows, where the at least two traffic flows correspond to different Internet Protocols connections. The at least two traffic flows share the resources. The information of the at least two traffic flows is bound on an established data channel. Resources for the data channel are allocated according to the resources requested by the at least two traffic flows. The at least two traffic flows are beared on the data channel.
US08743805B2
Provided are a radio terminal device, a radio base station device, and a channel signal forming method which can prevent quality degradation of the downlink source allocation information by reducing the frequency of the zero information addition process to the downlink resource allocation information when executing communication using an uplink unit band and a plurality of downlink unit bands correlated to the uplink unit band. A base station (100) can execute communication using the uplink unit band and a plurality of downlink unit bands correlated to the uplink unit band. The base station (100) includes: a PDCCH generation unit (102) which includes the uplink allocation information relating to the uplink unit band only in some of the channel signals formed for each of the downlink unit bands; and a padding unit (103) which adds zero information to the downlink allocation information only in the selected some channel signals having the bandwidth of the corresponding downlink unit band smaller than that of the uplink unit band until the downlink allocation information size becomes equal to the uplink allocation information size.
US08743802B2
A wireless network, such as an LTE (“Long-Term Evolution”) network, may be configured to receive an identifier from a wireless network. The identifier identifies a resource configuration in a plurality of resource configurations. The resource configuration corresponds to a plurality of resource attributes. At least one signal is transmitted to the wireless network using the plurality of resource attributes.
US08743801B2
The present invention relates to allowing configuring CSI reporting (step S-224, 310) on radio resources that are allocated over a plurality of sub frames on Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). Allocation of said radio resources (steps S-202, 404) can be performed by semi-persistent allocation or by using Transmission Time Interval (TTI) bundling. By using either semi-persistent scheduling or TTI-bundling as decided by an eNB (104, 204, 600) the UE (102, 202, 500) can be configured to report CSI (step S-224, 310) for a plurality of UL transmissions. By allocating radio resources by using semi-persistent scheduling, the signaling overhead, which can be substantial for dynamic scheduling of radio resources, decreases. By using TTI-bundling the coverage of the CSI-reports increases.
US08743799B2
Change of rate matching modes in presence of channel state information reference signal transmission
In one aspect thereof the exemplary embodiments of this invention provide a method that includes, prior to confirmation that a network access node has correctly acquired capabilities of a user equipment, operating a user equipment with the network access node in accordance with a first rate matching mode and, only after confirmation to the user equipment that the network access node has correctly acquired capabilities of the user equipment, changing the rate matching mode to a second rate matching mode. In an embodiment the first rate matching mode comprises puncturing a downlink shared channel transmission with a set of resource elements, which may be at least one of reference symbols and muted resource elements, and the second rate matching mode comprises rate matching the downlink shared channel around those resource elements that are members of the set of resource elements. Also described are apparatus and computer readable storage medium storing program code that operate in accordance with the method.
US08743796B2
Provided is an apparatus for allocating a sequence to a synchronization channel for a node identification (ID), the apparatus including: a base node sequence generator to generate a base sequence that is a sequence for a node ID of a base node; a relay node sequence generator to generate a relay sequence that is a sequence for a node ID of a relay node by transforming the base sequence; a baseband signal generator to generate a baseband signal by mapping the base sequence or the relay sequence to a frequency domain and a time domain; and a transmitter to transmit the baseband signal.
US08743786B2
Teachings presented herein provide reduced computational complexity and/or memory requirements for a mobile terminal to determine the power backoff required for a multi-carrier uplink signal. In particular, the mobile terminal determines whether its power headroom falls below a pre-defined power headroom threshold, indicating that it is headroom limited. If so, it quantizes power allocated to each carrier of the multi-carrier uplink signal according to a pre-defined quantization policy. In doing so, the mobile terminal thereby reduces the possible configurations that may be selected for the multi-carrier uplink signal. Thus, in one embodiment, the mobile terminal stores the required backoff in a look-up table for only the configurations that may be selected when the mobile terminal is headroom limited. This relieves the memory requirements of the mobile terminal as compared to storing the required backoff for all possible configurations of the multi-carrier uplink signal.
US08743766B2
Method and system for network discovery and selection in wireless network systems. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides a wireless communication system. The system includes a first access network that is connected to a content service network. The first access network includes a base station to provide wireless access to wireless devices within a first region through a plurality of communication channels. The plurality of communication channels includes a broadcast channel. The first access network is configured to send broadcast messages through the broadcast channel. The broadcast message includes a first broadcast message, which includes channel availability information. The system also includes a wireless device. The wireless device includes an antenna and a wireless interface. The wireless interface is adapted to receive at least the first broadcast message.
US08743765B2
Method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed to enable power save modes of operation between mobile wireless devices for direct data transfer in an infrastructure BSS. An example embodiment inserts in a message that is transmitted by the transmitting mobile wireless device, a specified time when a next active direct data transfer period will start so that the devices can remain in power save mode in a direct data transfer link until that time. Then, when the next active direct data transfer period is about to start, the receiving device sends a trigger signal based on the specified time, the trigger signal indicating that the next period is about to start. This confirms to the transmitting device that the receiving device has awakened, so that the transmitting device may start transmitting the data to the receiving device via the direct data transfer link.
US08743761B2
The present invention discloses a method for implementing power control of the high speed shared control channel and the high speed shared information channel, including: Node B independently setting the initial transmit power of the HS-SCCH with reference to the maximum power of HS-SCCH configured by higher layer and completing the open-loop power control; performing the close-loop power control based on transmit power control TPC command; UE calculating the initial transmit power based on a series of parameters configured by the higher layer and completing the open-loop power control; UE adjusting the close-loop transmit power based on the TPC command carried on HS-SCCH and completing the close-loop power control. Wherein, Node B generates the TPC by taking the high speed shared information channel SNR generated by itself as the target value and the high speed shared information channel SNR measured as the actual value. The present invention can achieve the power control of HS-SCCH and HS-SICH based on the TPC parameters for HS-SICH close-loop control calculated by Node B.
US08743754B2
The present invention is directed to a wireless communication system, more specifically, a transmitter used for wireless communication and a method for the same. The transmitter used for wireless communication comprises a plurality of transmitting antennas; a plurality of radio frequency (RF) chains configured for each of the transmitting antennas; a signal generator generating one or more transmitting signals at a base band; and an RF switch mapping the one or more transmitting signals into the plurality of RF chains.
US08743747B2
A network control module including an access module and a selection control module. The access module is configured to determine whether a wireless terminal communicating with a first network via a first gateway is attempting to communicate with a second network via a second gateway. The access module is configured to determine whether the first gateway allows communication with the second network. The selection control module is configured to allow the wireless terminal to access the second network via the first gateway prior to the wireless terminal establishing a connection with the second gateway.
US08743735B1
Various embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a method and system for functionally verifying a network device design programmed into a hardware logic verification system. The method and system encapsulates and de-encapsulates test patterns generated by a tester application into and out of network packets, which are further encapsulated into and de-encapsulated from enclosing data packets for fast and efficient delivery to the network device. Such method and system decreases functional verification times for a network device DUT while requiring little to no modification of existing tester applications and functional verification hardware.
US08743724B2
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting signals in a heterogeneous network, the method comprising: a step wherein a base station determines a value-added vector for forming a beam pattern to be applied to a subsidiary carrier; a step wherein carrier operation information including information related to the determined value-added vector is transmitted via a primary carrier; and a step wherein the subsidiary carrier is transmitted by applying the determined value-added vector.
US08743719B2
There is provided a method for allocating network rates to a plurality of mobile terminals through which users access possibly different applications through a network having a certain limited total bandwidth to allocate. The method comprises an optimization operation which uses a quality utility function as input which indicates for a certain application the quality perceived by a user depending on the allocated data rate, preferably further also depending on the channel condition. Then there is performed an optimizing operation such that it calculates a combined quality measure based on the quality utility functions for the different applications and for different possible resource allocations to the plurality of applications in such a way that said quality measure is optimized.
US08743708B1
A method and a device for reconfiguring communication transmission characteristics in response to a changing communication environment is provided. An environment at a communication device is characterized to determine if a transmission parameter associated with processing of a communication signal at a physical layer or a network interface layer should change based on current conditions at the communication device. If a need is identified, a second transmission parameter is selected based on the environment monitoring. A request identifying the second transmission parameter is sent to a second communication device using an existing communication link. A response from the second communication device is received indicating acceptance or rejection of use of the second transmission parameter. If the response indicates acceptance of use of the second transmission parameter, the physical layer and/or the network interface layer are reconfigured based on the selected second transmission parameter.
US08743707B2
Delay is measured associated with the transfer of voice signals involving a telephone connected to a PSTN carrier (e.g., non VoIP based) where the call is terminated by an operator agent using a workstation connected to a VoIP based network. A test tone is provided to the telephone causing a tone to be generated at a headset of the workstation. An oscilloscope measures the delay using an input of a first signal associated with the generation of the test tone at the telephone, and a second signal associated with the generation of the resulting tone at the headset. The tone at the headset can be looped back into the headset microphone, causing a return signal to be generated and measured. Once the overall delay is known, and the delay of certain elements are estimated, the delay associated with other network elements, including the workstation, can be determined.
US08743699B1
A system and method are disclosed for improving the speed of operation and accuracy of GPS receivers. The system comprises a RFID assisted GPS (RAGPS) receiver and geographically dispersed RFID assistance tags. The RAGPS receiver and the RFID assistance tags store location data comprising current location estimate, almanac, and ephemeris data. The location data is time stamped. The RFID assisted GPS (RAGPS) receiver comprises a GPS receiver, a RFID tag reader, a RFID transmitter and a controller. The controller comprises software that transfers the location data to and from the RAGPS receiver and a RFID assistance tag. The method discloses the RAGPS receivers reading up-to-date location data from a nearby RFID assistance tags and similarly if the RAGPS receivers have up-to-date location data already, the RAGPS receivers may write that location data to a nearby assistance tags that lacks up-to-date location data.
US08743695B1
The present invention relates to a method to improve the communication performance of a network of transceivers stations. The method comprises of a plurality of transceiver stations transmitting signals to each other, calculating the channel for the signal received at one station, and then conveying the information about the channel to the transmitting station.
US08743689B2
In order to ameliorate the overload at an overloaded network node that is discarding some of the SMSs it is receiving, when a node is overloaded with received SMSs, it sends a message to the nodes from which it is receiving SMSs of that fact and includes a parameter indicating the extent to which it is overloaded. That parameter, for instance, may be the percentage of SMSs that it is receiving that are being discarded. With this information, the sending node can determine a percentage of the pending SMSs during such conditions that will help remove the overloaded node from the overload condition more quickly. Furthermore, the network protocol may be adapted to include a priority parameter in SMSs. Then, when an SMS sending node knows that a node to which it is sending SMSs is overloaded, the sending node may decide which SMSs to send to the overloaded node based on such priority information.
US08743688B2
In one embodiment, the present disclosure is a method and apparatus for dynamically controlling Internet Protocol packet flows in a Voice over Internet Protocol network. In one embodiment, a method for controlling flows of packets in a network includes obtaining a list identifying at least one user element that is authorized to register with the network and dynamically configuring a manner in which at least one border element handles the packets in accordance with the list.
US08743675B2
A communication device for transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signals in a wireless communication system. The device includes a plurality of antenna elements that transmit the OFDM signals to a receiver over a plurality of transmission channels in the wireless communication system. The device also generates weight coefficients applied to each of the plurality of subcarrier signals, and controls an amplitude and/or phase of the plurality of subcarrier signals as a function of said weight coefficients.
US08743672B2
In an optical disk manufacturing apparatus, a movement mechanism changes the movement speed of a laser beam irradiation component from a first to a second speed at a first radial position located within where the laser beam irradiation component moves from an inner peripheral region of the optical disk to an identification information recording region of the optical disk, and changes the movement speed from the second to a third speed at a second radial position at which the laser beam irradiation component has reached the identification information recording region at the second speed. The second speed is lower than the first speed and the third speed. The laser beam irradiation component records the identification information by irradiating with a laser beam while alternating between a first power level and a second power level low enough not to crystallize the recording layer, when moving through the identification information recording region.
US08743667B1
A thermally-assisted recording (TAR) disk drive operates by turning on write current prior to the application of heat to the recording layer by the near-field transducer (NFT). In a TAR disk drive that uses thermal fly-height control (TFC), TFC power is at a first power level that keeps the write pole at a predetermined fly-height. The write current is then turned on, either simultaneously with or after a reduction in TFC power. The write pole then reaches its optimal fly-height as a result of the combination of write pole protrusion caused by the write current and retraction of the write pole caused by the reduction in TFC power. After the write pole has reached its optimal fly-height, heat is applied to the recording layer by the NFT. The combination of write current and heat causes writing to occur at the optimal write pole fly-height.
US08743658B2
A system and a method for a blind direction of arrival estimation is provided for a nonlinear 1-dimensional array of M receivers of J
US08743652B2
Disclosed herein is a semiconductor device that includes a command receiver receiving the command signal to generate a first internal command signal, and a latency control circuit activating a second internal chip select signal after elapse of first cycles of a clock signal since a first internal chip select signal is activated. The latency control circuit activates a second control signal when the chip select signal is maintained in an inactive state during second cycles of the clock signal that is larger than the first cycles. The command receiver is activated based on a first control signal. The first control signal is activated in response to the first internal chip select signal. The first control signal is deactivated in response to the second control signal.
US08743650B2
Systems, memory arrays and methods (e.g., methods of block repair) are provided. One such system includes a memory array including a memory bank including a plurality of sections, wherein each of the plurality of sections includes at least one redundant row. Further embodiments provide for mapping non-redundant rows associated with a section associated with a block failure to distributed redundant rows.
US08743634B2
A system and method for interfacing a memory controller and a source synchronous memory utilizing a generic low power strobe. A set of double rate (2×) strobes can be generated by gating a continuous double rate clock in order to enable the set of double rate strobes only for duration of a data transfer from controller to the memory. The data and control from a SDR continuous single rate (1×) clock domain with respect to the memory controller can be moved to a set of double rate clock domain by sampling with the set of double rate strobes. The phase of the set of double rate strobes can be shifted in relation to the continuous single rate clock and a phase relationship of the generated synchronous signals to the memory can be dynamically switched by changing the phase of the set of double rate strobes. The set of double rate clock domain enables each bit-slice to be independently programmed to generate an output to the memory at each phase relative to the controller single rate clock.
US08743633B2
An integrated semiconductor device including: a first semiconductor device having a clock generation section, first data storage sections storing input data as transfer data, data output terminals provided, one for each of the first data storage sections, and a clock output terminal adapted to output a transfer clock; and a second semiconductor device having data input terminals which receive the transfer data, a clock input terminal adapted to receive the transfer clock, second data storage sections associated with the data input terminals respectively to store input data, and selection sections associated with the second data storage sections respectively to select either the transfer data or data shifted and output to the associated second data storage section in a first series circuit which is formed by connecting the second data storage sections in series, the selection sections supplying the selected data to the associated second data storage section.
US08743630B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a sense amplifier architecture that facilitates fast and accurate read operations. The sense amplifier architecture includes a folded cascode amplifier for its first sense amplifier stage, and a pre-charge circuit to establish a pre-charge condition for a senseline and a reference senseline of the sense amplifier. The pre-charge circuit and the folded cascode amplifier each include one or more cascode transistors of the same size and which receive the same bias voltage on a gate thereof. This architecture provides fast and accurate read operations in a relatively small footprint, thereby providing a good blend of cost and performance.
US08743628B2
Described embodiments are directed to line drivers, such as those for providing reduced gate induced drain leakage in a memory array. Corresponding methods of operation of line drivers are also disclosed.
US08743625B2
In a semiconductor integrated circuit, an internal circuit is capable of executing a first operation and a second operation concurrently, and an output circuit outputs to the outside of the semiconductor integrated circuit information indicating whether or not the first operation is being executed and information indicating whether or not the second operation is executable.
US08743621B2
A method of verifying a non-volatile memory device includes precharging a bit line to a high level through a sensing node by applying a first voltage to a bit line select transistor coupled between the bit line and the sensing node; applying a verifying voltage to a plurality of word lines; disconnecting the bit line from the sensing node; and coupling the bit line to the sensing node by applying a second voltage to the bit line select transistor so as to detect a level of the bit line, the second voltage being smaller than the first voltage, wherein, a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage in a verifying operation is higher than a difference between a first voltage and a second voltage that are used in a read operation.
US08743611B2
A first capacitor includes a plurality of first conductive layers and second conductive layers. The first conductive layers function as a first electrode of the first capacitor, the second conductive layers function as a second electrode of the first capacitor. The first conductive layers and the second conductive layers are arranged alternately in the direction substantially perpendicular to a semiconductor substrate. A control circuit is configured to control a voltage applied to each of first conductive layers and the second conductive layers according to voltages of gates of a plurality of memory transistors, thereby changing a capacitance of the first capacitor.
US08743610B2
An apparatus, system, and computer-implemented method for controlling data transfer between a plurality of serial data link interfaces and a plurality of memory banks in a semiconductor memory is disclosed. In one example, a flash memory device with multiple links and memory banks, where the links are independent of the banks, is disclosed. The flash memory devices may be cascaded in a daisy-chain configuration using echo signal lines to serially communicate between memory devices. In addition, a virtual multiple link configuration is described wherein a single link is used to emulate multiple links.
US08743600B2
Systems in which PCM is used, including memory systems, as well as methods for operating such systems. A comparison of PCM memory elements storing logical values to a trigger resistance or to each other can be used to determine the extent of resistance drift since the PCM memory elements were last written. If the comparison determines that the resistance drift has passed a sense margin threshold or a trigger resistance, a memory refresh is triggered and pre-drift resistances corresponding to the stored logical values are written to the PCM memory elements.
US08743591B2
In a semiconductor memory device, one electrode of a capacitor is connected to a bit line, and the other electrode of the capacitor is connected to a drain of a cell transistor. A source of the cell transistor is connected to a source line. When a stack capacitor, for example, is used in this structure, one electrode of the capacitor is used as part of the bit line. An impurity region formed on the semiconductor substrate or a wiring parallel to a word line can be used as the source line; thus, the structure of a DRAM is simplified.
US08743579B2
SRAM cells and SRAM cell arrays are described. In one embodiment, an SRAM cell includes a first inverter and a second inverter cross-coupled with the first inverter to form a first data storage node and a complimentary second data storage node for latching a value. The SRAM cell further includes a first pass-gate transistor and a switch transistor. A first source/drain of the first pass-gate transistor is coupled to the first data storage node, and a second source/drain of the first pass-gate transistor is coupled to a first bit line. The first source/drain of the switch transistor is coupled to the gate of the first pass-gate transistor.
US08743555B2
Substrates having power planes, such as, for example, printed circuit boards, include at least one noise suppression structure configured to suppress electrical waves propagating through at least one of a first power plane and a second power plane. The at least one noise suppression structure may include a first power plane extension that extends from the first power plane generally toward the second power plane, and a second power plane extension that extends from the second power plane generally toward the first power plane. Methods for suppressing noise in at least one of the first power plane and second power plane include providing such noise suppression structures between the power planes.
US08743551B2
A server rack system includes a rack and a network board card. The rack includes rack layer type spaces arranged along a vertical axis direction. The rack layer type spaces are used for receiving a network switch unit and a server unit slidably inserted along a horizontal axis direction. The network board card is disposed along the vertical axis direction and between the top and the bottom of the rack. The network board card includes network interfaces. The network interfaces are arranged along the vertical axis direction on the network board card. The network interfaces include a first type network interface used for being connected to the network switch unit and a second type network interface used for being connected to the server unit. The first type network interface is connected to the second type network interface by an integrated circuit deployed in the network board card.
US08743532B2
In order to obtain a switchgear which can improve heat dissipation efficiency, in the switchgear which dissipates heat outside an apparatus vessel, the heat being generated from an electrical apparatus placed in the apparatus vessel, the switchgear includes a first heat conductor in which one side is connected to a heat generation portion of the apparatus vessel and the other side is extended toward the apparatus vessel side, a second heat conductor in which one side is disposed near the other side of the first heat conductor and the other side is extended outside the apparatus vessel, and an insulating member between conductors disposed between the other side of the first heat conductor and one side of the second heat conductor.
US08743526B2
There is provided an electrostatic roller apparatus comprising a body including: a first body portion and a second body portion; the first body portion including an electrostatic generating sub-assembly; a roller applicator and a support structure, the support structure having a first end and a second end, the first end being configured to rotatably mount the roller applicator thereupon and the second end being configured to be coupled with the second body portion.
US08743520B2
The invention relates to a method for protecting a multi-phase autotransformer for an aircraft, including the steps of receiving (100) values of current output from (Ia, Ib) the first and second phases and a value of current input into (IB) the second phase; determining (101), from these received values of the second phase, a value of current representative of the operation (IFb) of the second phase; determining (102), as a function of this determined value and of the value of current output from (Ia) the first phase, a value representative of the homopolar current (Idet-a) flowing in the first phase; comparing (104) this value of homopolar current (Idet-a) with a first predetermined threshold value (S1) at least during a first predetermined period (D1); and controlling (106) the values of currents input into (IA, IB) and/or output from (Ia, Ib) the phases as a function of the said first comparison.
US08743515B2
Some embodiments relate to an area efficient electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamp comprising an RC trigger circuit, having one or more low-voltage, thin-oxide devices, which is configured to operate with a high-voltage power supply. In some embodiments, the ESD clamp comprises an RC trigger circuit connected between a first circuit node having a first voltage and a second circuit node having a second voltage. The RC trigger circuit comprises a resistive element connected in series with a thin-oxide MOS capacitor. The MOS capacitor has a source and drain connected to an intermediate supply voltage between the first and second voltage, and a body connected to the second voltage. By connecting the source and drain to the intermediate supply voltage, the thin-oxide MOS capacitor is able to reliably operate with a high-voltage power supply.
US08743514B2
A high voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission system includes a cable fault ride-through system. The cable fault ride-through system is configured to ensure the HVDC power transmission system remains operational via an earth path between the power source end and the load end during a transmission cable fault, even in the absence of a neutral bus and/or dc circuit breakers.
US08743513B2
An arc fault detector comprises a current transformer (CT) having a primary winding and a secondary winding (W1), the primary winding being formed by at least one conductor (L) of an AC or DC supply circuit. The inductance of the CT is selected so that the CT has a lower frequency operating point (LFOP) of at least 10 KHz. The detector also comprises circuitry (10, 12, SW) for disconnecting the supply if the voltage induced in the secondary winding meets predetermined criteria as to magnitude and duration.
US08743511B2
A method and apparatus for increasing the electrical resistivity and corrosion resistance of the material forming a spacer layer in current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors. The increased resistivity of the spacer layer, and thus, the CPP-GMR sensor permits a larger voltage across the sensor and a higher signal-to-noise ratio. The increased corrosion resistance of the spacer layer minimizes the effects of exposing the spacer layer to corrosive materials during fabrication. For example, adding tin to silver to form a metallic alloy spacer layer increases the corrosion resistance of the spacer layer and the electrical resisitivity of the CPP-GMR sensor relative to a spacer layer consisting solely of silver. The Ag—Sn alloy permits a larger current to flow through the sensor, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio.
US08743510B2
A magnetoresistive transducer head assembly includes a reader element, a writer element and a high impedance shunt electrically connecting the reader element and the writer element. The high impedance shunt provides a high impedance conductive path for maintaining electrostatic charge equipotential between the reader element and the writer element.
US08743508B2
A tape movement constraint for a tape drive system, comprises a tiltable tape roller bearing having a grooved surface adapted to contact and engage a surface of the tape as the roller barrel rotates, and an actuator adapted to pivot the roller bearing surface when the actuator is actuated, to control the lateral position of a tape. In operation, in one embodiment, a roller barrel of the tiltable roller bearing is biased in a first position on a pivot axis, using magnetic attraction between a movable magnet and a return path structure of magnetically permeable material. The roller barrel is pivoted on the pivot axis by conducting current through a fixed coil to generate a magnetic field which is conducted by the return path structure to interact with the magnetic field of the magnet. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08743500B2
In one embodiment, a data storage system includes a tape channel for reading data from a tape to produce a signal, an adaptive noise whitening filter adapted for receiving the signal, the noise whitening filter being adapted for minimizing variance of noise affecting the signal output from the noise whitening filter, a soft DMAX detector adapted for receiving the signal from the noise whitening filter, the soft detector adapted for calculating first soft information about each bit of the signal and sending the first soft information to a soft decoder, and the soft decoder positioned subsequent to the soft detector, the soft decoder being adapted for calculating second soft information about each bit of the signal and sending the second soft information to the soft DMAX detector, wherein one or more noise whitening coefficients used in the noise whitening filter are updated using a noise whitening filter coefficient updater.
US08743490B2
A color filter substrate includes a plurality of color filters and a first dummy pattern. The color filters are formed in a display area. The color filters include a plurality of colors. The first dummy pattern is formed in a peripheral area surrounding the display area. The first dummy pattern has a color identical to one of the colors. An edge portion of the first dummy pattern corresponding to an apex of the display area is rounded. Therefore, the reliability of a color filter manufacturing process may be improved, the reliability of the color filter may be improved, and the generation of stain defects having a radial shape may be prevented, so that display quality may be improved.
US08743486B2
An optical image capturing lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element and a third lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has an object-side surface being convex at a paraxial region. The second lens element with positive refractive power is made of plastic material, and has an object-side surface being convex at a paraxial region and an image-side surface being concave at a paraxial region, wherein the surfaces of the second lens element are aspheric. The third lens element with negative refractive power is made of plastic material, and has an object-side surface being concave or planar at a paraxial region and an image-side surface being concave at a paraxial region and being convex at a peripheral region, wherein the surfaces of the third lens element are aspheric.
US08743474B2
A lens apparatus includes an optical system, a lens barrel, and a weight. The optical system includes a movable lens unit. The lens barrel houses the optical system and includes a fixed barrel and a cam barrel. The fixed barrel supports the movable lens unit to be forwardly and backwardly movable along the optical axis of the optical system. The cam barrel is engaged with the movable lens unit, is supported by the fixed barrel to be rotatable around the optical axis, and is configured to forwardly and backwardly move the movable lens unit in accordance with the rotation of the cam barrel. The weight is engaged with the cam barrel and forwardly and backwardly moves along the optical axis in a direction opposite to a moving direction of the movable lens unit in accordance with the rotation of the cam barrel.
US08743467B2
The present invention relates generally to an arcuate liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall. Some specific embodiments include a liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall essentially in the shape of a conical frustum. Embodiments may also include a lens of suitable size and shape for inclusion in a contact lens.
US08743463B2
A virtual image display includes at least an image forming device, a pair of accommodating members at least one of which accommodates the image forming device, a light guide member which guides image light received from the image forming device toward a predetermined outside position, and a pair of temples one and the other of which are rotatably attached to one and the other of the pair of the accommodating members, respectively. Each of either the accommodating members or the temples has a contact member which regulates rotation of the temple, and a position control member which shifts the corresponding contact member in a first direction extending nearer to or away from the corresponding accommodating member or temple on which the contact member is not provided.
US08743455B2
It is disclosed a method for driving a laser diode such as to enable mitigation or elimination of so called spiking effects related to the number of injected carriers in the laser overshooting the equilibrium value at the beginning of the lasing process. In this manner, among other things, the efficiency of a master oscillator power amplifier that may be utilized in range finding applications will be improved. It is further disclosed an optical pulse transmitter comprising such a laser diode.
US08743453B2
An apparatus for producing coherent, pulsed ultraviolet light with pulse durations that range between 1 ps and 1 μs includes one or more source lasers in the visible or near-infrared frequency range. The apparatus also includes one or more FC stages, at least one of the one or more FC stages including a nonlinear FC device and one or more optical elements. The optical elements include a reflector, a focusing element, a polarization-controlling optic, a wavelength separator, or a fiber optic component. The FC device includes a huntite-type aluminum double borate nonlinear optical material configured to produce FC light having a wavelength between 190 and 350 nm and a composition given by RAl3B4O12, where R comprises one or a plurality of elements {Sc, La, Y, Lu}. The nonlinear optical material is characterized by an optical transmission greater than 70% over the wavelength range of 190 to 350 nm.
US08743452B2
Metal nanovoids are grown on a stretchable plastic film. The fabrication proceeds by assembling the template of a single layer of close packed silica spheres on a conducting substrate. A conducting layer is then electrochemically grown on top to form a master. An elastomeric precursor is then coated on the master (e.g. by spinning) and is cured before removal. The resulting plastic film is then coated with a thin (e.g. 20 nm) layer of noble metal (e.g. Au, Ag or Cu), to produce a flexible film. Applications for such tuneable structural color would be coating of injection molded artifacts, such as mobile phone covers, car bodies to form an iridescent skin, wall and fascia decorations, loudspeaker coatings, architectural tent coverings, and clothing.
US08743444B2
An optical scanning device that scans a plurality of surfaces to be scanned in a main scanning direction by using a light beam includes: a plurality of light sources; a light deflector that deflects a plurality of light beams emitted from the light sources; and a scanning optical system that individually guides each one of the light beams deflected by the light deflector to a corresponding one of the surfaces to be scanned. The scanning optical system includes one scanning lens shared by the light beams, and at least one surface of the scanning lens has a plurality of optical surfaces corresponding to the plurality of light beams disposed in a sub-scanning direction with a flat surface provided between the optical surfaces.
US08743440B2
A method for classifying a document (3) to be associated with at least one service (Si), including a step in which a scanner (1) having a processor (6) scans (E1) the document (3). The method also includes steps in which the processor (6): develops (E2) at least one structure (Σj) representing the document (3), determines (E3) for each service (Si) at least one similitude value (σij) between the structure (Σj) representing the document and a reference structure (Rij) of the same kind and representing the service (Si), deduces (E4) from the similitude value (σij) the service (Si) with which the document (3) is to be associated, and processes (E5) the document (3) according to the service (Si) thus associated. The invention also relates to a scanner for implementing the method.
US08743439B2
In order to optimize the calibration tables of a printer, and to improve the calibration for combined printing with respect to one-dimensional calibration, a method for optimized printer calibration is proposed, comprising the following method steps: a) for each primary color, the maximal value is colorimetrically limited; b) each primary color is colorimetrically linearized; c) the maximal value of the combined printing of all primary colors is determined colorimetrically; d) a definition of the resulting color range is made; e) the outer layer of the color range is determined at equal spaces; and f) the intermediate values of the resulting calibration tables are interpolated.
US08743420B2
The present invention is intended to provide an image processor that can reduce color unevenness occurring in a composite color image formed by overlapping different types of inks due to a variation in printing characteristic among a plurality of nozzles while suppressing a reduction in processing speed in generation of printing data. The image processor converts a color signal indicating the image represented by a plurality of elements to a color signal corresponding to the plurality of inks with use of a conversion table determined on the basis of ejection characteristics of nozzle groups corresponding to the plurality of inks so as to suppress color unevenness occurring in a composite color image due to a variation in ejection characteristic among the plurality of nozzles.
US08743419B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus and image processing method that make it possible to reduce jaggedness and blurring that may occur when performing resolution conversion of an inputted image from low resolution to high resolution, and make it possible to output a high-resolution image. When performing the conversion from low resolution to high resolution, a multi-gradation signal value pattern that surround a pixel of interest for which interpolation is being performed is acquired. By performing pattern matching, a pattern that corresponds to the acquired signal value pattern is extracted from among pattern files that are prepared in advance for the acquired signal value pattern, after which the image is converted to high resolution by signal value substitution and then outputted.
US08743414B2
An image processing apparatus including an acquisition unit, an extraction unit, a determination unit and an addition unit is provided. The acquisition unit acquires an image of one page from images of a plurality of pages included in one file. The extraction unit extracts color information, which is information about a color of the image of the one page acquired by the acquisition unit. The determination unit determines whether the color information extracted by the extraction unit satisfies a predetermined condition for specifying a page partition. The addition unit adds additional information, by which the page partition can be searched, to at least one of the images of the plurality of pages, when the determination unit determines that the color information satisfies the predetermined condition.
US08743408B2
A method is provided for presenting documents using a binder file stored on a computer-readable storage medium where the documents in the binder file are presentable within a graphical interface that appears as a notebook binder. The method includes opening a printer driver; selecting a binder file from an interface of the printer driver; selecting a section of the selected binder file from the interface of the printer driver; and adding the document to the selected binder file with an indicator for the document specifying the selected section.
US08743406B1
Systems, methods, and computer program products are presented for creating and distributing a document of a particular type, where the document is based on variable content and/or variable layout. In one embodiment, a four-step is process is used. First, the document is specified. The document can be specified anywhere, regardless of the location of the user's office or the destination address of the document. In one embodiment, the document is specified using a client device (e.g., a computer running a web browser) that is attached to a network (e.g., the Internet). Second, the specification is transmitted to a production facility based on the destination address. Third, the document is produced at the facility. Finally, the produced document is delivered to the destination address.
US08743402B2
A printing system comprises a storage part for storing therein first history information on the number of responsible printing operations of each operator by orderer and second history information on the number of uses of each printer by operator, and a determination part for determining a responsible operator to be in charge of printing of a new print order from a specific orderer and a processing printer to be used by the responsible operator in the printing of the new print order on the basis of the first history information and the second history information.
US08743399B2
An image forming system includes: an information operation apparatus which receives screen data and image forming data corresponding to the screen data; an image forming apparatus which communicates with the information operation apparatus; and a display apparatus which communicates with the information operation apparatus and which displays an image on a display portion based on the screen data received from the information operation apparatus, wherein when receiving an image forming confirmation command, the image forming apparatus receives the image forming data corresponding to the image shown on the display apparatus from the information operation apparatus, displays an image which indicates the image forming data and forms the image based on the image forming data if an image forming command is received.
US08743389B2
A printing system for processing a print job includes a host computer; and a printer in communication with the host computer. The host computer comprises a printer driver that determines whether each print job unit can be more efficiently rendered on the host computer or on the printer and processes the print job accordingly. A method of processing a print job includes determining whether each step in rendering a print job unit of the print job can be more rapidly completed on a host computer or on a printer, and rendering the print job accordingly.
US08743386B2
In a printing apparatus, control is performed such that, among buttons displayed by a display means, if while a first button for inputting a setting with respect to a job to be executed by the printing apparatus is in the touched state, a touch operation is furthermore performed on a second button for inputting another setting with respect to the job, the setting indicated by the second button is not performed, and if while the first button for inputting the setting with respect to the job to be executed by the printing apparatus is in the touched state, a touch operation is furthermore performed on a third button for interrupting a print job being executed by the printing apparatus, the print job that is being executed is interrupted based on the touch operation performed on the third button.
US08743382B2
When providing cloud-based software services to a print customer or print shop for executing a print job, information related to one or more vendors that supply downloadable software that satisfies a print consumer's specified print job requirements is obtained and software from a selected vendor is downloaded. The downloaded software is inserted at a selected point in a print job workflow, and the print job is executed. The print consumer is charged on per-use basis for use of the downloaded software by providing a hashed payment word for each subsequent use of the downloaded software. A payment word chain comprising the initial hashed payment word and each successive hashed payment word is then provided to the vendor of the downloaded software, who performs a hash algorithm to verify the payment words and redeems the payment words for micro-payments.
US08743379B2
There is provided a device for monitoring a thickness reduction of an inner surface in a heat transfer tube or an inner surface in an evaporation tube, the device including: a movement unit which moves along a fin tube; a laser measurement unit which is provided in the movement unit and measures the thickness reduction of the inner surface by a laser; a cable which includes a light guiding path for introducing a laser into the laser measurement unit and a light deriving path for transmitting reflected light; and a thickness reduction determining unit which compares the laser measurement data with past data or standard data and determines the current thickness reduction.
US08743376B2
The present disclosure relates to a surveying system including a surveying instrument and method for detecting light of fan shaped laser beam. The surveying instrument includes a detector for detecting light of the fan shaped laser beam rotating around a propagation axis with a direction of rotation and having two detector elements arranged in a known spatial relation for outputting a detection signal when irradiated. A position determining unit is used to obtain a first set of detection signals from the detector elements, to determine a first time relation between the detection signals of the first set, and to determine a positional relation between the detector and the propagation axis based on the first time relation.
US08743372B2
A whispering-gallery-mode-based seismometer provides for receiving laser light into an optical fiber, operatively coupling the laser light from the optical fiber into a whispering-gallery-mode-based optical resonator, operatively coupling a spring of a spring-mass assembly to a housing structure; and locating the whispering-gallery-mode-based optical resonator between the spring-mass assembly and the housing structure so as to provide for compressing the whispering-gallery-mode-based optical resonator between the spring-mass assembly and the housing structure responsive to a dynamic compression force from the spring-mass assembly responsive to a motion of the housing structure relative to an inertial frame of reference.
US08743368B2
An optical detection system is provided for generating and detecting a beam of electromagnetic radiation having intensity. The optical detection system comprises a source for producing the beam of electromagnetic radiation; and a body, that is at least partially transparent and comprises an ATR-sensor layer on at least a portion of the body, having an entrance surface for the beam of electromagnetic radiation, an internally or externally reflective surface that reflects the beam transmitted through the entrance surface, and an exit surface through which the beam, reflected from the second surface, exits the transparent body. The optical detection system may further comprise a distribution device between the beam source and the body; wherein the distribution device redistributes the intensity of the beam from a non-uniform intensity distribution to a substantially uniform intensity distribution; and a detector that detects the beam of electromagnetic radiation exiting the body.
US08743367B2
An SPR or other optical resonance based analysis system in which, light is provided at multiple angles to a specimen and then the light modified by the specimen is processed to select only some of the light. Optionally, the processing selects light at a particular incidence angle. Optionally, the detection is by imaging of the light on a 2D imager array.
US08743364B2
The present invention is directed to a method and a system for producing one or more matching formulas to match color and coarseness appearance of a target coating on a substrate. The method provides providing a set of coating chips comprising at least two coating chips having different lightness values, and at least two coating chips having matching lightness values and different coarseness values. This invention provides a simple method and the system for matching color and coarseness appearance of the surface coating.
US08743362B2
An optical measurement apparatus, to which a base end portion of a measurement probe introduced into a subject is connected so that scattering light from the subject through the measurement probe can be measured, includes: calibration member serving as an irradiation target of illumination light when a calibration process is performed for the measurement probe using the illumination light from the measurement probe; an insertion portion where a leading end of the measurement probe can be inserted; a housing portion that communicates with the insertion portion and accommodates the calibration member movably along a penetration direction of the insertion portion; a detection unit that detects insertion of the measurement probe when the calibration member reaches a predetermined position in the housing portion by the insertion of the measurement probe through the insertion portion; and a control unit that performs control for initiating the calibration process when the detection unit detects the insertion of the measurement probe.
US08743361B2
A method of aligning a substrate and an imprint template is disclosed. The method includes directing an alignment radiation beam towards an imprint template alignment mark and an adjacent substrate alignment mark, the imprint template alignment mark and the substrate alignment mark each including a grating which extends in a first direction and a grating which extends in a second direction, providing relative movement between the imprint template and the substrate in the first direction and in the second direction, using an intensity detector to detect the intensity of alignment radiation redirected in the zero-order direction by the imprint template alignment mark and the substrate alignment mark during the relative movement in the first direction and in the second direction, and determining an aligned position of the imprint template alignment mark and the substrate alignment mark based upon the detected intensity.
US08743358B2
A first location comprising an unknown material may be scanned using SWIR hyperspectral imaging in a dual polarization configuration. Surveying may also be applied to thereby determine whether or not a human is present. This surveying may be achieved my assessing LWIR data, data acquired from motion sensors, and combinations thereof. If no human is present, a second location may be interrogated using Raman spectroscopic techniques to thereby obtain a Raman data set representative of the region of interest. This Raman data set may be assessed to associate an unknown material with a known material. This assessment may be achieved by comparing the Raman data set to one or more reference data sets in a reference database, where each reference data set is associated with a known material.
US08743327B2
A touch panel (input device) includes a flexible transparent base; a transparent electrode formed on a first surface of the transparent base; a decorative layer formed on a second surface of the transparent base, the second surface being opposite the first surface; and a transparent panel (glass panel) bonded to the second surface of the transparent base, with an optical clear adhesive layer interposed therebetween.
US08743323B2
A liquid crystal display panel includes: a first substrate and a second substrate disposed so as to face each other with a liquid crystal layer being held between the first substrate and the second substrate, a first electrode and a second electrode across which an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer being formed on the first substrate, a subpixel for display and a subpixel for control of a view angle being disposed on the same electrode, in which a plurality of slit-like openings are formed in the second electrode in the subpixel for control of a view angle, and a light blocking member is formed in a central position of a width of each of the plurality of slit-like openings in terms of planar view.
US08743314B2
Disclosed are a reflecting plate capable of preventing inferiority of an image quality due to leakage of light emitted from LEDs to outside, a backlight and an LCD device having the same. An extension portion extending towards an LED substrate is formed on a side surface of the reflecting plate, the side surface where the LEDs are arranged. This may shield light emitted from the LEDs and leaked to a space between the LED substrate and the reflecting plate.
