US08768804B2

A data analysis system (1) for displaying data facilitating visual analysis of financial transaction is disclosed. The system includes a transactions database (3) operable to store transaction records (5) defining financial transactions and a processing module (11) operable to determine a hierarchy having a tree structure wherein leaf nodes in the lowest level of the hierarchy correspond to sources and destinations associated with financial transactions represented by transaction records 5) stored in the transactions database (5). The processing module (11) then causes representations of the financial transactions to be displayed on a display screen (13) by determining for each transaction a first set of control co-ordinates comprising co-ordinates associated with elements in a path in the tree structure connecting the source and destination associated with a financial transaction via the closest common parent in the hierarchy common to the source and destination; determining for each transaction a second set of control co-ordinates for drawing a straight line between co-ordinates associated with the source and destination associated with the financial transaction; calculating as a set of control co-ordinates for representing a transaction weighted averages of corresponding co-ordinates in the first and second set, weighted by a bundling factor; and representing each of the financial transactions as a line drawn utilizing the calculated control co-ordinates for each transaction.
US08768803B2

A computer system detects questionable financial transactions. The system includes a data source component configured to access a database of transaction data, and a data storage component configured to store transaction data that is to be reviewed. An account compilation component of the system is configured to compile data sets from the transaction data. Each data set includes pertinent external transactions in the transaction data that are related to a particular individual client during a screening time interval. The account compilation component excludes internal transactions from the data sets. A screening component is configured to compare each data set with at least one screening criterion. A reporting component is configured to report data sets that satisfy the at least one screening criterion.
US08768795B2

A system includes a utility analytics system. The utility analytics system includes a non-technical utility loss system configured to derive a probability of at least one utility non-technical loss, an unbilled utility system configured to calculate an expected unbilled utility service for a customer based on customer attributes and the probability of the at least one utility non-technical loss, and a revenue recoverability system configured to calculate an expected recoverable revenue based on probability of revenue recovery and of the expected unbilled utility service.
US08768794B2

A method of using rules to execute periodic allocations of funds in a hierarchal accounting structure may include receiving an allocation rule, comprising a source account, a rule for determining a first amount, a parent account, and an allocation basis; accessing a multidimensional data cube comprising a hierarchal arrangement and aggregated balances for each level of the hierarchal arrangement; generating an allocation scenario by allocating the first amount to the aggregated balances for the one or more child accounts according to the allocation rule; generating one or more accounting journal entries corresponding to the allocation scenario; posting the one or more accounting journal entries to a general ledger associated with a relational database; and updating, using the relational database, the multidimensional data cube to reflect the allocation scenario.
US08768775B1

Systems, methods and articles for automating the process of registering a product purchased by a consumer from a merchant in a purchase transaction. Product data including product identification data is obtained from a merchant electronic point of sale system as the consumer checks out. The product data is then automatically transmitted to a product registration system, such as via a consumer's mobile communication device having a product registration app. An auto-registration database is accessed to see if auto-registration is available for the product. If auto-registration is available for the product, then a request is made to the consumer to authorize auto-registration for the product. If the consumer accepts the auto-registration, then consumer data, such as the consumer name and contact information, is sent to the product registration system. The product registration system then creates a product registration record using the product data and the consumer data.
US08768763B2

A marketplace server and method for facilitating purchase transactions are provided. A marketplace server may include a routing engine configured to receive an order for goods from a first computing device associated with a first customer, with the order including a first delivery address of the customer. The routing engine also calculates a delivery route to the first delivery address. An offer engine is configured to create an offer for other goods. The offer includes a shipping incentive associated with a second delivery address of a second customer. The offer may be targeted to the second customer based on a proximity of the second delivery address to the delivery route. The offer engine sends the offer to a second computing device associated with the second customer. Upon receiving an acceptance of the offer from the computing device, the offer engine processes a purchase transaction for the offer.
US08768758B2

The home viewing of movies currently being shown in one or more theaters is facilitated. Facilitating home viewing of first-run, feature length movies may increase the amount of money earned during the theatre run of the movies. For example, this may enable users that would not be able to view movies in the theatre, and/or that would not be willing to view at least some of the movies in the theatre, to purchase the ability to view the movies.
US08768757B2

The present invention is directed toward a method of advertising on a portable media device having video and audio capabilities comprising the steps of: (a) embedding a video advertisement on the supportive identification information of a music file; (b) downloading the music file to a portable media device with a video advertise so that playing the music file generates the display of a video advertisement; (c) tracking the play count of each music file with an associated video advertisement until the play count data reaches a certain fixed number; d) recording the play count of each music file in connection with each specific video advertisement; and (f) changing the advertisement in the embedded supportive information of the music file.
US08768751B2

Methods, computer-readable media, and systems for gathering gamification data from business applications. Common gamification data that describes a user that accesses a business software environment, and specific gamification data that describes the user and is specific to a particular computer system in the business environment are identified at a user interface of a client device in response to a request from a gamification engine. By executing gamification logic in the user interface, the common gamification data and the specific gamification data are collected at the user interface and provided to the gamification engine. For example, the gamification data can be gathered by monitoring interactions between the user and the client device that is connected to the gamification engine at the user interface, and provided to the gamification engine independent of the business computer system to which the client device is connected.
US08768747B2

A system and method are provided for exposing Internet users to advertisements together with the distribution of media content in a manner which is germane to conventional syndicated broadcast agreements. The system includes a processor coupled to a memory device. The system further includes software means operable on the processor and memory device. The software means is operable on the processor for obtaining a user specific set of data prior to distributing a media package. The software means is operable for selecting a number of advertisements from a data bank containing a plurality of advertisements based on the user specific set of data. The software means is operable for combining the selected number of advertisements with a requested set of media content to form the media package. The software means is further operable for distributing the media package. In this manner a regional broadcasting station can preserve its investment in purchasing national syndicate broadcast rights by ensuring regional advertisers a penetration of their advertisements across a regional Internet audience. Methods for performing the same are similarly included.
US08768739B2

A computer-implemented method provides location-sensitive and time-sensitive calendaring to a wireless device, such as a cell phone, pager, PDA, etc. A user's calendar is maintained with a number of appointments, start times and end times for the appointments, meeting place and a list of attendees for the appointments. When the present time reading is within a predetermined minimum of a meeting start time of an appointment of a calendar user, the location of the user is determined based on the location of the wireless device. The location of the meeting place is also determined. Using historical data (of the user or others), the estimated time of arrival of the user at the meeting place is determined. If the estimated time of arrival is after the meeting start time, then a late message may be sent to the user and/or to the other meeting attendees.
US08768729B2

Systems and methods are provided in which contract terms from a first electronic representation of a contract are used to form at least a part of a second electronic representation of the contract. For instance, the first electronic representation of a contract may be formed for use with a first software application, such as an adjudication application, and such first electronic representation of the contract is used by a system to form at least part of a second electronic representation of the contract, wherein such second electronic representation is used by a second software application, such as a contract management application. Disparate applications often utilize different representations of contract terms, and certain embodiments enable a second electronic representation to be formed by the system at least in part from a first electronic representation so that the different electronic representations are consistent as to the overlapping contract terms included therein.
US08768727B2

A system and method for assisting with the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits by generating tailored strategy messages within an expert system and then pushing those messages to the corresponding individual users of the cellular phones or other portable devices. The system and method allows diet and exercise plans to be tailored to individual users based on their preferences and provides consistent and appropriate strategy messages designed to encourage and motivate users toward successfully maintaining healthy lifestyle habits. Users complete initial assessments which detail individual food and physical activity preferences. The system uses the assessments to generate individualized messages that are pushed to user devices through a system incorporating cellular technologies. Tailored messages are pushed from the computer based expert system to user devices at predetermined times each day.
US08768701B2

A method and apparatus for synthesizing audible phrases (words) that includes capturing a spoken utterance, which may be a word, and extracting prosodic information (parameters) there from, then applying the prosodic parameters to a synthesized (nominal) word to produce a prosodic mimic word corresponding to the spoken utterance and the nominal word.
US08768694B2

Facts are extracted from speech and recorded in a document using codings. Each coding represents an extracted fact and includes a code and a datum. The code may represent a type of the extracted fact and the datum may represent a value of the extracted fact. The datum in a coding is rendered based on a specified feature of the coding. For example, the datum may be rendered as boldface text to indicate that the coding has been designated as an “allergy.” In this way, the specified feature of the coding (e.g., “allergy”-ness) is used to modify the manner in which the datum is rendered. A user inspects the rendering and provides, based on the rendering, an indication of whether the coding was accurately designated as having the specified feature. A record of the user's indication may be stored, such as within the coding itself.
US08768688B2

A method and associated apparatus for using visual separators to indicate additional character combination choices from a disambiguation function on a handheld electronic device.
US08768683B2

A plurality of Guest cells of Guest instructions are provided with corresponding Host cells for emulating Guest instructions, each Guest instruction having a Guest cell corresponding to a Host cell. Each of the Host cells are initialized with an initialization routine for discovering a corresponding semantic routine for emulating the Guest instruction. When an instruction is to be emulated for the first time, the initialization routine patches itself with the discovered semantic routine such that subsequent emulation of the Guest instruction can be directly performed.
US08768681B2

A method, system, and computer readable article of manufacture for simulating a mechanism system controlled by a plurality of electronic control units operating at different clock rates. The simulation system includes a mechanism system simulator; a plurality of electronic control unit emulators for electronically emulating the respective plurality of electronic control units, each thereby receiving an input signal with a time and giving an output signal with a time; and a scheduler for receiving and storing the output signals with the times from the plurality of electronic control unit emulators, and for providing, in response to a change in the output signal coming from the electronic control unit emulator and having a relatively late time, the output signal with a time preceding the relatively late time to the mechanism system simulator.
US08768677B2

A coupled analysis simulation apparatus includes a coupled analysis processing unit configured to perform coupled analysis by performing electromagnetic field analysis and circuit analysis in coordination with each other, the electromagnetic field analysis being performed on a space including conductive layers to which an electronic circuit module is connected, the circuit analysis being performed on the electronic circuit module; a first generating unit configured to generate a virtual conductive part in a section or a region including connection parts connecting the electronic circuit module with the conductive layers; and a second generating unit configured to generate virtual connection parts that virtually connect the virtual conductive part with the conductive layers at positions where the connection parts are connected to the conductive layers.
US08768674B2

Computer-implemented method of preoperatively determining the optimized external shape of a prosthetic femoral hip stem for use in partial cementing hip replacement procedures and of a reamer for reaming a cavity in the femur of a patient for implanting the prosthetic femoral hip stem, comprising: a) setting an initial external shape of the prosthetic femoral hip stem based on the reconstructed femur anatomy of a patient, b) generating an associated initial reamer by negatively offsetting the initial external shape of the prosthetic femoral hip stem by an uniform offset value δ, c) calculating contact stresses at the interface of the prosthetic femoral hip stem and the patient's femur when reamed by the initial reamer and d) optimizing the offset value δ, so that the contact stresses are within a predetermined acceptable range.
US08768671B2

A system and method for optimizing a drilling operation is provided. The system has a drilling a drilling operation optimization unit. The drilling operation optimization unit has a base model unit for producing a base model of the reservoir and a reservoir stress unit for producing a three dimensional stress model of the reservoir. The drilling operation optimization unit has a trajectory unit for determining at least one property for at least one wellbore trajectory based on the base model and the three dimensional stress model, wherein each of the wellbore trajectories is selectable by an operator. The system has an operator station for inputting data into the drilling operation optimization unit at the wellsite and a drilling tool for forming a wellbore along at least one of the at least one selected wellbore trajectories.
US08768663B2

System and method for automatically and regularly predicting water level and currents in coastal areas, without operator intervention. The system and method can enable, automated operational forecasts at regular time intervals without operator intervention by using a grid and a computer forecast model that allows accurate prediction of tidal heights and currents in complex shoreline and bathymetry regions, single or parallel processing capability, optimal available processor assignment based on the size of computing domain, standard and other tidal database forcing in the open boundary, missing data gap-filling, and wind, bathymetry, and model-derived boundary condition model integration.
US08768656B2

The invention is a method and apparatus for automatically generating an optimal configuration of a product, using logic implemented on a digital computer processing system. A general configuration will be broken down into a hierarchy of subdesigns by a designer of an artifact type. A particular instance of the type must satisfy user-specified external parametric constraints. Constraints may take the form of a range of values for some performance characteristic or to satisfy laws or business requirements. Hierarchical decomposition facilitates solution of complex problems. Criteria for a best solution may be specified for a given subdesign, a collection of subdesigns, or globally. Tentative selection of a particular subdesign may impose internally generated constraints upon a subsequent subdesign. If no acceptable solution is found for a subdesign, the candidate overall configuration rolls back to the most complete viable partial collection of subdesigns. The method transforms constraints into a concrete design.
US08768655B2

According to various embodiments of the invention, systems and methods are provided for analyzing and designing architectural structures. Such embodiments may be utilized by architects and engineers as tools that assist in designing architectural structures that achieve specific design goals, such as those related to sustainability. For example, an embodiment may comprise a system that: (i) provides a sustainability analysis on an architectural structure design created using a computer-assisted design (CAD) tool, and then (ii) applies a design option to that design (e.g., changes to orientation of building on a project site, size of fenestrations on the structure, choice of wall insulation, etc.) to improve its sustainability. In addition, various embodiments may be accessed through a web-based platform, which provides a user with easier access and better collaboration between and among design team members.
US08768649B2

It is possible to rapidly or highly accurately estimate a highly reliable offset according to situations and improve further the reliability of the estimated offset even if a measurement data is not obtained in a space in which the magnitude of a vector physical quantity to be measured is uniform. The offset included in the obtained vector physical quantity data are statistically estimated based on a predetermined evaluation formula using difference vectors. In the estimation of the offset, reliability information on a reference point is calculated based on at least one of the vector physical quantity data, the difference vectors and a plurality of estimated reference points according to a calculation parameter for calculating the reliability information on the reference point, whether or not the reference point is reliable is determined by comparing the reliability information with a determination threshold value.
US08768645B2

The invention relates to a method for determining a temperature (T) of a plurality of memory elements (10) having a temperature-dependent probability (P) of assuming a particular bit value, the method comprising: triggering (110) the plurality of memory elements (10) to assume the particular bit value; reading out (120) the contents of the plurality of memory elements (10) to obtain read data (D), and processing (130) the read data (D) for determining a value (Vact) indicative of the temperature (T). The invention also relates to a program product comprising instructions for causing a processor to perform the method. Such computer program is advantageously used in a smartcard, which then does not need any structural modification at all. The invention further relates to a system for determining a temperature (T) of a plurality of memory elements (10). Such system is advantageously implemented in an integrated circuit, wherein the plurality of memory elements (10) forms part of an integrated memory. The invention provides that temperature (T) can be determined without the need for a separate temperature sensor. The only real requirement is the presence of a plurality of memory elements (10) having a temperature-dependent probability (P) of assuming particular bit value.
US08768643B2

Method and apparatus for parallel testing of multiple regions on a substrate used in high performance combinatorial development of new materials and processes are described. The apparatus comprises dedicated hardware for each probe assembly with multiple PC controllers networked using a master/slave configuration.
US08768628B2

The various embodiments herein provide a method for determining core wettability characteristics of reservoir rock samples based on modified form of Washburn equation. The method involves saturating a core sample with a first reservoir fluid such as water and imbibing with a second reservoir fluid such as oil. The change in square of the core mass with respect to time is monitored during an imbibition process to acquire a data to calculate a contact angle to determine the wettability of the sample. The contact angle is calculated by using the modified form of Washburn equation. A single or twin core sample is used to calculate the wettability characteristics. The method measures wettability characteristics in terms of contact angle and not in terms of wettability index.
US08768626B1

The disclosed subject matter relates to computer implemented methods for calculating walking directions based on walking attributes and location history of a user. In one aspect, a method includes accessing a user profile and location history of a user. The user profile of the user includes the user's walking attributes. The location history of the user includes the user's location data from respective dates and times. The location data is received from a location-aware device associated with the user. The method further includes receiving a request for walking directions for the user, the walking directions being from a first location to a second location. The method further includes calculating, in response to the received request, walking directions from the first location to the second location, based on the walking attributes of the user and the location history of the user.
US08768622B2

A technique to assist guidance techniques for a free-flying inspection vehicle for inspecting a host satellite. The method solves analytically in closed form for relative motion about a circular primary for solutions that are non-drifting, i.e., the orbital periods of the two vehicles are equal, computes the impulsive maneuvers in the primary radial and cross-track directions, and parameterizes these maneuvers and obtain solutions that satisfy constraints, for example collision avoidance or direction of coverage, or optimize quantities, such as time or fuel usage. Apocentral coordinates and a set of four relative orbital parameters are used. The method separates the change in relative velocity (maneuvers) into radial and crosstrack components and uses a waypoint technique to plan the maneuvers.
US08768618B1

Methods and systems for determining a location of a mobile device using a multi-modal Kalman filter are described. According to an example method, a mobile device may maintain multiple approximations of a location of a mobile device. Each approximation includes an estimated geographic location of the mobile device that is determined by filtering a respective subset of location estimates received by the mobile device using a respective Kalman filter, and one of the multiple approximations is designated as an active approximation. The method also involves receiving data indicating an estimate of a geographic location of the mobile device and, based on a distance between the estimate of the geographic location and a given approximation of the multiple approximations, updating the given approximation using the estimate of the geographic location. Additionally, the method involves providing for display a visual indication of an estimated geographic location associated with the active approximation.
US08768616B2

A method for predicting a final destination of a vehicle comprises the steps of acquiring a start location of the vehicle, providing a predetermined waypoint distance from the start location, determining a current waypoint location once the vehicle travels the predetermined waypoint distance, receiving historical destination data from a database, including previous destinations associated with the current waypoint location. Then, making a prediction at the current waypoint location of the final destination based on the historical destination data.
US08768613B2

A tour route generating apparatus includes a distance obtaining unit which obtains a target route distance of a tour route to be generated; a reference point obtaining unit which obtains a reference point as a start point of the tour route; a waypoint determination unit which determines a waypoint of the tour route; and a tour route generating unit which generates the tour route such that a route distance from the reference point to the reference point via the waypoint becomes the target route distance.
US08768602B2

A straddle-type vehicle 30 includes a vehicle body frame 31, an engine 1 mounted on the vehicle body frame 31, combustion adjusting devices (fuel injection valves) 14 and 15 for adjusting the combustion condition of the engine 1, and a combustion controller (ECU) 22 for controlling the fuel injection valves 14 and 15. The ECU 22 controls the fuel injection valves 14 and 15 such that the maximum point of a sound pressure level waveform of an audible sound wave generated from the engine 1 or the vehicle body frame 31 is shifted by a predetermined amount or larger within a predetermined period at least in some of the operation conditions of the engine 1.
US08768595B2

A vehicle braking force control device which, at a normal time, performs antilock brake control when the slip ratio of a wheel has become equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. The control device acquires from the engine control unit an accelerator pedal position signal corresponding to an accelerator pedal position, a clutch connection signal corresponding to a state of connection of a clutch, and a power transmission signal corresponding to a state of power transmission of a transmission. When engine braking is large on the basis of the accelerator pedal position signal, the clutch connection signal, and the power transmission signal, the vehicle braking force control device changes the predetermined threshold value to an offset threshold value that makes it harder to perform the antilock brake control than at the normal time.
US08768580B2

Disclosed is a working machine that computes and displays moment by moment its dynamic stability and its state of contact with a ground in view of an inertia force and an external force applied to the working machine. Specifically, a working machine is provided with an undercarriage, a working machine main body mounted on the undercarriage, a front working mechanism attached pivotally in an up-and-down direction to the working machine main body, and a working attachment connected to a free end of the front working mechanism. The working machine includes a ZMP computing means for calculating coordinates of a ZMP by using position information, acceleration information and external force information on respective movable portions of the main body, which includes the front working mechanism, and undercarriage, and a stability computing means for calculating a support polygon formed by plural ground points of the working machine with a ground, and, when the ZMP is included in a warning region formed inside a perimeter of the support polygon, producing a tipping warning sound. The ZMP and the support polygon, which includes the warning region, is computed, and a display or warning is produced.
US08768579B2

A system and method for various levels of automation of a swing-to-hopper motion for a rope shovel. An operator controls a rope shovel during a dig operation to load a dipper with materials. A controller receives position data, either via operator input or sensor data, for the dipper and a hopper where the materials are to be dumped. The controller then calculates an ideal path for the dipper to travel to be positioned above the hopper to dump the contents of the dipper. In some embodiments, the controller outputs operator feedback to assist the operator in traveling along the ideal path to the hopper. In some embodiments, the controller restricts the dipper motion such that the operator is not able to deviate beyond certain limits of the ideal path. In some embodiments, the controller automatically controls the movement of the dipper to reach the hopper.
US08768577B2

A power machine having an operator interface is disclosed. The power machine has a frame, an engine supported by the frame, and a cab supported that defines an operator compartment. The power machine provides an auxiliary power source capable of providing auxiliary power to an implement that is operably coupled to the power machine. Control input devices that are actuable by an operator provide signals indicative of actuation thereof. The implement is in communication with the power machine. The operator interface is accessible within the operator compartment for providing operational information related to control of the implement to the operator. The operator interface receives signals related to the provided operational information that are communicated by the implement.
US08768575B2

The recognizability of a vehicle peripheral environment may be enhanced. A vehicle periphery monitoring device is to monitor the periphery of a vehicle. The vehicle periphery monitoring device includes an imaging unit that obtains a plurality of peripheral images by imaging the periphery of the vehicle, a display unit that displays the plurality of peripheral images imaged in the imaging unit, and an image control unit that controls the plurality of peripheral images displayed in the display unit. The image control unit varies a distance between the plurality of peripheral images displayed in the display unit. As a result, sensory understanding of a vehicle peripheral environment by a driver may be enhanced, thereby enhancing the recognizability of the vehicle peripheral environment.
US08768572B2

An apparatus for detecting a rollover event, which includes at least one acceleration sensor in the vertical direction of the vehicle and one acceleration sensor in the horizontal direction of the vehicle. A processor of the apparatus according to the invention will start a rollover algorithm in response to an inertial event, in order, as a function of the signal of the acceleration sensor in the vertical direction to detect the rollover event and as a function of it to trip restraint devices.
US08768570B2

A wheel suspension system for a three-wheeled motorcycle or “trike” includes parallel wheels mounted on vertically pivoting suspension arms governed by hydraulic pistons. The pistons have upper liquid reservoirs that are interconnected through a valve system, which interconnects the upper reservoirs when the trike is in motion, allowing opposing vertical wheel movements when banking through turns, and prevents liquid exchange when the trike is stopped, thereby holding the motorcycle upright, Embodiments include a manual and/or automatic valve control. A threshold switching speed for an automatic controller can be factory set and/or user adjustable. The pistons can include directly interconnected lower fluid reservoirs. A shock-absorbing reservoir can allow transient vertical movement of both wheels to absorb shocks. A cover system can emulate the appearance of saddle bags and can appear to be covering only a single wheel.
US08768568B2

A driver assistance system for a vehicle includes an information display screen viewable by a driver of the vehicle when the driver is normally operating the equipped vehicle. At least one camera is mounted at the vehicle and has a field of view exterior of the vehicle and is operable to capture image data. The information display screen is operable to display video images derived from image data captured by the at least one camera and the information display screen is operable to display other information. A capacitive touch sensor is actuatable by the driver of the vehicle, and the information display screen is operable to display at least the other information responsive to actuation by the driver of the vehicle of the capacitive touch sensor.
US08768559B1

A laser-based line projection system that is suitable for selectively placing lines on a floor surface, such as a factory floor. Several projectors are used in a typical installation. Each projector includes a laser directed through a diverging lens to create a planar projection of laser light. The planar projection creates a bright line when it falls on a surface. Each projector is optionally equipped with a movable mask that alters the angle of divergence for the laser light after it passes through the cylindrical lens. This component allows the projector to vary the length of the line projected.
US08768556B2

An apparatus defines a protection envelope in an aircraft, including a processor and at least one sensor, each sensor being coupled with the processor, the processor executing at least one neural network based algorithm. The at least one sensor monitors flight parameters of the aircraft thereby generating monitored flight parameters. The processor divides the performance envelope of the aircraft into predefined flight regimes, wherein for each predefined flight regime, the processor defines and stores a suitable protection envelope. The processor determines an estimated flight regime of the aircraft using the neural network based algorithm based on the monitored flight parameters. The processor selects a respective suitable protection envelope for the aircraft based on the estimated flight regime.
US08768553B2

The present invention relates to a method and system for controlling charging of a battery supplying power to a hybrid electric vehicle according to a driving state. The method includes: detecting, by a sensor, a speed of the vehicle, generating, by a generator, power according to a driving state of the vehicle; controlling, by a controller, a charge to the battery using generated power of the power generator based on a signal of the vehicle speed detector; calculating, by the controller, an average vehicle speed for a set time; updating, by the controller, the average vehicle speed at an update period shorter than the set time; changing a state of charge (SOC) charging band, a charging reference of the battery, based on the average vehicle speed; and determining, by the controller whether to charge the battery according to a driving state based on the SOC charging band.
US08768539B1

One aspect of the disclosure provides a control device that is located inside the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The control device may include a portable computing device configured to execute software that effectively enables passengers to use a touch screen (or another input device) to perform control actions for the vehicle that would otherwise take a flip of a switch, turning of a knob, or pressing of a pedal. For example, the portable computing device may be used to steer the vehicle or apply the brakes of the vehicle. The capabilities of the portable computing device are subject to location-specific permissions. The portable computing device, for example, may be allowed to steer the vehicle only when it is located in the area of the vehicle's driver seat.
US08768537B2

A technique for updating vehicle information using a wireless access point connected to a telematics server is described. More specifically, the system includes a wireless communication unit configured to connect to the wireless access point through, e.g., Wi-Fi network, to automatically receive an update data container(s), when the update data container(s) regarding the vehicle information is present in the telematics server; a control unit configured to store the update data container(s) received through the wireless communication unit and control the vehicle information and one or more devices corresponding to the vehicle information; and an update unit configured to update the vehicle information by using the update data container(s).
US08768535B2

A method and device for the recognition of a trailer (2) of a motor vehicle (1), wherein the trailer (2) is connected to the motor vehicle (1) via a coupling device (3), wherein a control device (4) collects and stores data relating to the currently connected trailer (2) during an operating phase of the motor vehicle, and a device for identification (5) of the trailer (2) is able to ascertain, by means of a test signal, a separation of the connected trailer (2) from the motor vehicle (1) during the shutdown phase of the motor vehicle (1).
US08768522B2

A set of semi-active actuators is arranged in an elevator system to compensate a vibration of an elevator car. The actuators are controlled in accordance with the control policy based on a measured signal including values of the parameter measured during the operation of the elevator system. The control policy is determined, based on a model of the elevator system, wherein the control policy includes a state function representing an operation of the elevator system and a function of displacement representing an operation of the set of semi-active actuators. The state function is approximated, using the model of the elevator system, as a first function of a parameter representing the vibration. The function of displacement is approximated, using the model of the elevator system, as a second function of the parameter.
US08768519B2

An apparatus for controlling grille aperture ratios of a plurality of air transfer grilles which are installed in a room, includes a determining unit for determining target grille air volumes of air blowing to the racks, for determining simulation air volumes of air blowing from the air transfer grilles on the basis of the target grille air volumes so that each of air of the target grille air volumes are blown to the racks, and for determining grille aperture ratios for each of the air transfer grilles on the basis of the plurality of simulation air volumes so that each of the amounts of air blowing from the air transfer grilles is replaced by each of the simulation air volumes, and a controller for controlling each of the grille aperture ratios of the air transfer grilles on the basis of each of the determined grille aperture ratios.
US08768517B2

The present invention provides control methods, control systems, and control software for microfluidic devices that operate by moving discrete micro-droplets through a sequence of determined configurations. Such microfluidic devices are preferably constructed in a hierarchical and modular fashion which is reflected in the preferred structure of the provided methods and systems. In particular, the methods are structured into low-level device component control functions, middle-level actuator control functions, and high-level micro-droplet control functions. Advantageously, a microfluidic device may thereby be instructed to perform an intended reaction or analysis by invoking micro-droplet control function that perform intuitive tasks like measuring, mixing, heating, and so forth. The systems are preferably programmable and capable of accommodating microfluidic devices controlled by low voltages and constructed in standardized configurations. Advantageously, a single control system can thereby control numerous different reactions in numerous different microfluidic devices simply by loading different easily understood micro-droplet programs.
US08768514B2

An image taking system including: (a) a lighting device capable of changing a light emission time to various time length values; (b) an image taking device configured to take an image of a subject portion while light is being emitted by the lighting device; (c) a subject-portion moving device configured to move the subject portion relative to the image taking device, and capable of changing a movement velocity of the subject portion relative to the image taking device, to various velocity values; and (d) a control device configured, during movement of the subject portion by the subject-portion moving device, to cause the lighting device to emit the light for one of the time length values as the light emission time and to cause the image taking device to take the image, and is configured to control the movement velocity, such that an amount of the movement of the subject portion for the above-described one of the time length values is not larger than a predetermined movement amount.
US08768511B2

An object searching method includes: capturing an image in front of a cleaning robot by a camera. Comparing the image with a number of reference images to determine whether the image is the same as one of the reference images. Storing a position of the cleaning robot and the image when the image is the same as one of the reference images, adjusting the path of the cleaning robot to stop the cleaning robot from cleaning the object; and emitting an alarm.
US08768499B2

A control unit (120) of a production index information generating device (100) groups, based on log information of a production device, processing targets to generate groups for which end time of processing falls within a predetermined interval, classifies the processing targets contained in the groups into classes based on a number of the processing targets contained in each of the groups, generates cycle time information for each of the classes, which specifies cycle time of each of the processing targets contained in corresponding one of the classes, and determines a production capability of the production device. Accordingly, an index specifying a capability of the production device may be obtained with ease.
US08768498B2

The present invention relates to a method for operating an industrial system, wherein the system comprises at least one line (1, 2, 3, 4), wherein each line (1, 2, 3, 4) comprises at least one machine (10, 12, 14, 16), and wherein each machine (10, 12, 14, 16) comprises at least one component (110, 112, 114, 116), comprising the steps of detecting state data of each component (110, 112, 114, 116), of each machine (10, 12, 14, 16), and of each line (1, 2, 3, 4), transmitting the state data to at least one user unit, and displaying the state data by means of the at least one user unit. The present invention further relates to an industrial system for performing the method, and a computer program.
US08768497B2

The present application describes, inter alia, methods, devices, and systems for modeling and fabricating corrective appliances and methods of treating cleft palate using same.
US08768494B1

Embodiments of the invention provide a policy-based audio system. The system includes a sound application protocol interface, a configuration module and a speaker driver. The sound application protocol interface receives a set of sound samples generated by an application or event. The configuration module retrieves a first group of one or more parameters, rules and priorities applicable to the application or event. The speaker driver produces an audio output by processing the set of sound samples as a function of the group of one or more configuration parameters, rules and priorities.
US08768491B2

A method for axis correction in a processing machine, in particular a shaftless printing machine, has at least one axis for processing and/or transporting a material, at least one detection device for detecting a processing parameter and at least one controller device for calculating a controller output variable for axis correction of the at least one axis using the detected processing parameter. The method is implemented iteratively, with the result that feedforward control output values for the feedforward control of the axis correction are determined during an (n+1)-th change in rotation speed of the at least one axis using observation of the controller output variable and/or the processing parameter during an n-th change in rotation speed of the at least one axis.
US08768480B2

Implantable subcutaneous device of biocompatible material that can receive data and energy by electromagnetic coupling with at least one external device is disclosed. The implantable device bears an airtight housing and a magnet that can hold the other external device centered with the implantable device. The housing bears a hollow crown containing at least electronic device(s) and a coil, and a bottom sealing the opening of the crown in an airtight manner. The magnet has dimensions compatible with a central housing formed by the so-called internal wall of the crown and in which it is positioned.
US08768479B1

An exemplary system includes at least one computing device that 1) detects a user input command for a sound processor included in a cochlear implant system to perform one or more cochlear implant fitting operations, wherein the sound processor is communicatively coupled to the at least one computing device by way of a communication path, 2) directs, in response to the user input command, the sound processor to perform the one or more cochlear implant fitting operations, and 3) transmits, in response to the user input command, a signal to the sound processor by way of the communication path, the signal configured to direct the sound processor to display a visual cue prior to or simultaneously with the performance of the one or more cochlear implant fitting operations. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.
US08768478B1

The present application discloses systems and methods to address situations in a binaural hearing prosthesis configuration in which each hearing prosthesis receives audio signals that have differing audio signal measures (e.g., signal to noise ratios (SNRs)). In accordance with one embodiment, a method is provided and includes receiving a first audio signal from a first transducer, receiving a second audio signal from a second transducer, evaluating the first audio signal and determining thereby a first audio signal measure, evaluating the second audio signal and determining thereby a second audio signal measure, based on the evaluating, identifying from among the first audio signal and the second audio signal a particular audio signal that has a certain quality with respect to the audio signal measures (e.g., the highest SNR), and applying stimulation to a recipient in accordance with the identified audio signal.
US08768469B2

A method and apparatus for treating a condition associated with impaired blood pressure and/or heart rate in a subject comprising applying an electrical treatment signal, wherein the electrical treatment signal is selected to at least partially block nerve impulses, or in some embodiments, to augment nerve impulses.
US08768468B2

An apparatus for the electro-physiologic stimulation of the human nervous system includes a positive electrical assembly having an integrated circuit (IC) producing a sequence of physiologically compatible and acceptable electromagnetic waveforms, the IC having ungrounded positive and negative outputs of the waveforms, a battery substantially in electrical communication with the IC board, a positive treatment pad at a bottom of the positive assembly in electrical communication with the positive output of the waveforms. An upper and middle housing is in swivel contact with a lower housing. Also included is a flexible housing for the electrical cable. Further included is a negative assembly in electrical communication with an opposite end of the cable, carrying the negative side of the waveforms, a negative treatment pad in axial electrical communication with a bottom of a housing secured about the cable.
US08768466B2

A remote external interface for an implantable cardiac function management device is configured to be communicatively coupled to the implantable cardiac function management device via a network to a local external interface and via telemetry between the local external interface and the implantable cardiac function management device. The remote external interface includes a communication circuit and a processor circuit. The communication circuit is configured to communicate with the implantable cardiac function management device. The processor circuit is configured to perform an analysis of physiologic data received from the implantable cardiac function management device in response to operation of the implantable cardiac function management device using a plurality of therapy control parameter sets. The processor circuit can be further configured to select a particular therapy control parameter set using the analysis.
US08768458B2

A unitary subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator that contains a source of electrical energy, a capacitor, and operational circuitry for sensing the presence of potentially fatal heart rhythms. Provided on the housing are cardioversion/defibrillation electrodes located to deliver electrical cardioversion-defibrillation energy when the operational circuitry senses a potentially fatal heart rhythm. The unitary subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator does not have a transvenous, intracardiac, epicardial, or subcutaneous electrode.
US08768445B2

There is provided electronic device, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive heart rate data generated by a heart rate measuring system; a calculation unit configured to calculate heart rate variation data on the basis of the received heart rate data. The electronic device further comprises: a processing unit configured to analyse the calculated heart rate variation data in comparison with the corresponding heart rate data, and to determine at least one threshold value for fat burning on the basis of the analysis.
US08768442B2

A wakeful-state data generating apparatus includes at least one processor and at least one storage device, the at least one storage device configured to; store a first correlation between value of variation in heartbeat interval and maximum spectral density, and store a second correlation between heartbeat rate and wakeful-state maximum frequency, the at least one processor configured to; calculate a value of variation in heartbeat interval from a heartbeat signal of a subject, estimate a wakeful-state maximum spectral density of the subject, on the basis of the first correlation and the calculated value of variation, calculate a heartbeat rate from the heartbeat signal, estimate a wakeful-state maximum frequency of the subject, on the basis of the second correlation and the calculated heartbeat rate, and generate wakeful-state data including the estimated wakeful-state maximum spectral density and the estimated wakeful-state maximum frequency.
US08768439B2

A method and system perform physiological monitoring. The system includes a first light source and a plurality of optical waveguide couplers, each of the plurality of optical waveguide couplers being arranged at a different predetermined spatial location on an ocular insert to be placed on an eye. The system also includes a plurality of optical waveguides. Each optical waveguide carries light from a second light source to a respective one of the plurality of optical waveguide couplers and carries a received signal from the respective one of the plurality of optical waveguide couplers. A processor receives the received signal from each of the plurality of optical waveguides and monitors a parameter based on the received signal.
US08768431B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for monitoring tissue regions. In particular, the present invention provides systems and methods for detecting changes in tissue regions over a period of time. In some embodiments, the systems and methods of the present invention are used to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular treatment of a tissue region. In some embodiments, the systems and methods employ functional diffusion map algorithms for imaging changes in tissue regions over time and/or in response to therapeutic interventions.
US08768428B2

The system for displaying muscle force data includes a wearable patch and a remote visual display. The wearable patch carries electrodes suitable for sensing electromyographic signals on the skin of the patient. The patch carries circuitry which converts the detected electromyographic signal to a digital output which can be transmitted to the remote visual display. The circuitry relies on filtering to produce a usable digital signal at very low power consumption. The transmitted signal can be used to drive a variety of visual displays, including a conventional hand-held personal communicators and entertainment devices which had been programmed to suitably process the visual display.
US08768425B2

Disclosed are methods and devices comprising an elongated probe for the in vivo detection of meconium in amniotic fluid held in an amniotic sac based on detecting the presence of Zinc-coproporphyrin I (ZnCP). ZnCP is excited at approximately 405 nm and emits characteristic fluorescence, centered at about 580 nm and less intensely at 630 nm.
US08768418B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting beacon signals in a wireless communications network. For a given cell site, a single frequency may be used for the beacon signal by assigning different beacon signal time slots to different sectors of the cell site. During one time slot, the beacon signal is transmitted to one of the sectors, and during another one of the time slots, the beacon signal is transmitted to a different one of the sectors. Because a single frequency can be used for all of the sectors of a cell site, more frequencies are available for other purposes, such as for user traffic, for example. The invention improves spectral efficiency, reduces adjacent channel interference and co-channel interference and allows power consumption to be controlled.
US08768414B2

A mobile device includes multiple subscriber identification module (SIM) cards. When a user of the mobile device requests to call a phone number, the mobile device determines a mobile telecommunications service provider of the phone number, based on service provider information received for the phone number from a service mapping server. The mobile device selects for the call a SIM card from the multiple SIM cards that is associated with the determined service provider of the phone number. The mobile device places the call to the phone number using the selected SIM card.
US08768413B2

Methods and systems including non-transitory computer-readable storage media, for selectively erasing data stored at a wireless device are disclosed. The media include instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method including comparing a particular service provider identified by the data stored at the wireless device to at least one favored service provider selected from a group of favored service providers consisting of a home service provider and a preferred service provider other than the home service provider. The instructions further, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to erase, if the particular service provider is not one of the favored service providers, the data stored at the wireless device.
US08768389B2

A core network is provided for transmission of short messages in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) mobile communication network. The core network provides SMS over SGs functionality and includes: a Mobility Management Entity (MME); a Short Message Service Center (SMSC); and a unit providing an Interworking, Function (IWF) for handling of short messages; wherein the MME and the SMSC are in direct communication via the IWF with respect to communication of a short message with respect to a User Equipment (UE) having a data connection to the EPS mobile communication network.
US08768380B1

A method, system and server comprise determining, at a server, an appropriate Position Determining Entity (PDE) to forward data to based on a network in which a mobile station is roaming and forwarding the data from the server to the PDE.
US08768377B2

A portable electronic device comprises an image sensor configured to capture at least one image. The at least one image may be output via an optical output device. A processing device is configured to retrieve geographic information associated with the at least one image, and to identify at least one contact included in a set of contacts of the portable electronic device, the at least one contact having captured at least one other image in a geographic area in which the at least one image was captured. An identifier for the at least one contact is displayed.
US08768374B1

A wireless communication system comprises a wireless communication device and an application control system. The wireless communication device is configured to receive an application transmitted from an application server over a communication network, present application management tiers comprising individual settings for management items of access, bandwidth, and security for the application, receive a selection of one of the application management tiers for the application from the user, and transfer the selected application management tier for delivery to the application control system. The application control system is configured to process the selected application management tier with a predetermined management tier for the application to identify a discrepancy between a setting of one of the management items in the selected application management tier and a predetermined setting for a corresponding item in the predetermined management tier, and transfer feedback for delivery to the wireless communication device that identifies the discrepancy and suggests the predetermined management tier for the application.
US08768373B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for providing flexible bandwidth waveforms and channels for wireless communication. Embodiments may utilize portions of spectrum that may not be large enough to fit a standard or normal waveform. Chip rates may be adapted dynamically to generate and/or to receive flexible bandwidth waveforms to fit these portions of spectrum. Scaling factors and/or center frequencies may also be utilized to generate flexible waveforms. A mobile device may receive adjustment information from a base station so that the mobile device may dynamically adjust its chip rate to utilize a flexible bandwidth channel. A base station may simultaneously transmit on a normal bandwidth channel and a flexible bandwidth channel in some cases. Some flexible bandwidth waveforms may be utilized that are larger, or take more bandwidth, than a normal waveform. Flexible bandwidth may also be utilized to split and/or combine frequency channels.
US08768370B2

Obtaining access to a physical uplink shared channel that is shared by a plurality of mobile stations in a wireless network is disclosed. A mobile station may receive dedicated configuration information for an uplink control channel. The mobile station may send to the wireless network over the uplink control channel a request for access to the physical uplink shared channel. The mobile station receives a physical uplink shared channel allocation in response to the request.
US08768369B2

The exemplary embodiment uses geographical location information to assist the selection of the target cell during reconfiguration, handover and redirection procedures. This process involves defining a network geographical grid and building an associated database of captured data from the user equipment, such as radio measurements, and calculated KPI statistics per geographical location, and then using such data for making mobility and load-balancing decisions.
US08768358B2

Systems and methods of uplink bandwidth allocation for a handoff are provided. A mobile station can transmit a handoff request message to a serving base station. The mobile station and the target base station can exchange synchronization messages and the mobile station can then subsequently receive an unsolicited allocation of a number of uplink sub-channels from the base station.
US08768355B2

A PUE in communication with an ANDSF server through an access network includes a network interface unit of the PUE from which a registration request is sent to the ANDSF server through the access network and which receives a successful authentication result and a set of configuration instructions from the ANDSF server. The PUE includes a processing unit of the PUE which determines one or more observation triggers from the set of configuration instructions. Upon fulfillment of the observation trigger, the processing unit activates one or more interfaces supported by the PUE, which the set of configuration instructions requires to be monitored. The processing unit determines consolidated areas, wherein each consolidated area includes those geographical points with given network characteristics for one or more accessible networks. The consolidated areas data are stored in the memory and submitted by the network interface unit to the ANDSF server through the access network.
US08768351B2

Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to implementing circuit-switched call delivery. A mobile terminating call for user equipment (UE) is received. A first mobile switching center is determined to perform a first call termination attempt for the mobile terminating call by sending a provide roaming number (PRN) request with a pre-paging supported parameter to the first MSC. The first call termination attempt can include instructing the UE to return to a CS network domain to receive the call. A message indicating that the UE is not connected to the first MSC is received. It is determined whether the UE is in a registration process within a duration of time. If the registration succeeds, a second call termination attempt for the mobile terminating call is made via the second MSC.
US08768350B2

Systems and methods for determining and/or providing call origin location information. In one particular case, a method is provided for identifying communication origin location in relation to an emergency response system. The method includes providing a communication device stability module and receiving a network access request associated with a communication device. A location status of the communication device is determined, and based at least in part on the location status of the communication device, a query is issued requesting a location of the communication device.
US08768346B2

A mobile terminal as well as a network connecting method and a network connecting apparatus thereof are disclosed in the present disclosure. The network connecting method comprises the following steps of: determining whether the network connecting mode is a dual-mode mode when the mobile terminal is connecting to a network; and if it is determined that the network connecting mode is the dual-mode mode, then setting the network connecting mode of the mobile terminal into a TD preference mode and connecting to the network. In the present disclosure, when the mobile phone is not in a 3G network or when the 3G signal is weak, the mobile phone that has been switched to a 2G network can re-initiate the network business without the need of firstly logging on the 3G network. This significantly reduces the network searching time, which is very convenient for the user.
US08768339B2

A method and apparatus for enabling a wireless communication service provider to remotely provide wireless network service outage and/or degradation detection, isolation, and restoration relating to a base station are disclosed. For example, the method detects a wireless service problem, and isolates the wireless service problem to a base station of a plurality of base stations of the wireless communication network, wherein the wireless service problem comprises a wireless service degradation. The method then performs a recovery task remotely on the base station to address the wireless service degradation.
US08768337B2

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of base station power control in a mobile network. In various examples, base station power control in a mobile network may be implemented in the form of systems, methods and/or algorithms.
US08768336B2

A communication unit comprises receiver circuitry for receiving radio frequency (RF) signals from at least one wireless serving communication unit, and a signal processing logic module. The signal processing logic module is arranged to decode system information within received RF signals transmitted by the at least one wireless serving communication unit, determine whether the wireless serving communication unit supports a restricted access communication cell based on the decoded system information, and decide whether RF signals received from that at least one wireless serving communication unit are suitable as a timing signal source when synchronizing an operating frequency of the communication unit based at least partly on the determination.
US08768333B2

A communication apparatus for communicating by radio with mobile stations located in a radio communication area of the communication apparatus and for connecting to a network of a communication carrier, the communication apparatus includes obtainment means for obtaining information on a selection equipment for selecting a control equipment on a basis of data stored in a detachable data storage device in case of the data storage device being connected to the communication apparatus, reception means for receiving information on the control equipment selected from a plurality of control equipments by the selection equipment accessed from the communication apparatus on a basis of the obtained information on the selection equipment, from the selection equipment, and connection means for performing communication by radio to the mobile station with the selected control equipment on a basis of the received information on the control equipment.
US08768332B2

An interactive personal information management system is disclosed. The system permits a user to communicate updated information to other users of a personal information management system. The system notifies the other users of the change and automatically updates the other users' personal information management system to reflect the changed information.
US08768330B2

A communication terminal apparatus includes a computer configured to receive an incoming call request from a caller device; identify a communication service requested by the caller device, based on the received incoming call request; retrieve from among a plurality of OSs running on the communication terminal apparatus and based on communication services processable by each OS included among the OSs, an OS capable of processing the identified communication service; and allocate the incoming call request to the retrieved OS.
US08768321B2

A SIP server generates a second call request for calling out group talk members corresponding to a first call request on the basis of the received first call request. Prior to transmitting the generated second call request to the group talk members, the SIP server transmits call request receiving information indicating that the first call request has been received. An SMS server transmits a start-up message to the group talk members on the basis of the received call request receiving information. The start-up message is used to start up an application which executes a group talk, and includes the member identification information of the group talk.
US08768317B2

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for performing automated events using a multi-wireless detection device service platform. For example, in one embodiment, a method for performing automated events in an office environment is disclosed. The method may include logging, by the office management system, a user onto a network data processing system located within an office within the office environment using an account associated with the user in response to receiving a notification message from a wireless detection device. In one embodiment, the communication between the wireless detection device and the office management system to log the user onto the network data processing system located within the office is performed in response to a user-initiated request that indicates that the wireless device is within the office.
US08768316B2

A method for loading a customizable keypress tone package on a desired electronic device includes defining a customizable keypress tone package. The customizable keypress tone package can include one or more customizable keypress tones and can optionally include one or more customizable visual aids. A user requests installation of the defined customizable keypress tone package on the electronic device and the network sends the defined customizable keypress tone package to the electronic device. Once the device receives the package, the device installs the defined customizable keypress tone package on the electronic device.
US08768314B2

Methods and apparatus for providing personalized content to a user of a wireless network include establishing an anonymous user identifier and delivering the user identifier to a content provider are disclosed. Based on the user identifier, communication with a predetermined data source is established or predetermined data content is selected. In some embodiments, a device identifier is provided in addition to the user identifier and device specific personalized content is delivered to the user. In one example, a device identifier and a user identifier are based on a mobile station serial number and a subscriber identity module (SIM) and are used in an HTTP header. The anonymous user identifier can be based on a SIM serial number, or a hash of the SIM serial number so that user information such as a user phone numbers is not available to content providers.
US08768313B2

Many of the detailed technologies are useful in enabling a smart phone to respond to a user's environment, e.g., so it can serve as an intuitive hearing and seeing device. A few of the detailed arrangements involve optimizing division of shared processing tasks between the phone and remote devices; using a phone GPU for exhaustive speculative execution and machine vision purposes (including facial recognition); novel device architectures involving abstraction layers that facilitate substitution of different local and remote services; interactions with private networks as they relate to audio/image processing; adapting the orders in which operations are executed, and the types of data that are exchanged with remote servers, in accordance with current context; reconfiguring networks based on sensed social affiliations among users and in accordance with predictive models of user behavior; etc. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US08768310B1

In systems and methods of providing a notification message in a wireless communication system, a message notifier is received at a processing node in wireless communication system based on a first message from a sender. The message notifier comprises sender information. The sender information is matched to a contact entry of the recipient to generate a matching criteria. Based on the matching criteria a paging channel power is determined for a notification message to be sent to the recipient wireless device.
US08768307B1

In part the invention relates to a method of providing remote access to data generated by a mobile device having a device storage element. The method includes the steps of monitoring the mobile device such that changes in local data resident in the device storage element are detected using a client application installed on the mobile device, wherein the changes in the local data accumulate during a period of time to comprise at least one change set; transmitting the at least one change set over a network; receiving the at least one change set at a remote server, the remote server having a remote storage element; and processing the at least one change set using a server application to generate user accessible remote data. Various embodiments further involve remote text message archives, positional and temporal information associated with change sets, alert generation by trigger events, and archiving with associated searchable meta-data for data mining.
US08768303B2

A telecommunications chip card (100) for enabling the login of a mobile telephone device (202) into a digital cellular mobile telecommunications network (200), the telecommunications chip card comprising: a chip card reader interface (102) adapted for allowing communications between the telecommunications chip card and the mobile telephone device, wherein the chip card reader interface is adapted for receiving physical parameter data (112, 118, 120, 224) via the chip card reader interface; a processor (104); a memory (106) for storing applications for execution by the processor; an application (108) stored in the memory comprising machine readable instructions executable by the processor; and an application management program (110) stored in the memory comprising machine readable instructions executable by the processor, wherein the applications management program enables or disables the application depending on at least the physical parameter data.
US08768300B2

The present invention provides a remote control method and system for a smart card. The remote control method for a smart card includes the following steps: a smart card management platform receives a request for destruction of a smart card from a user (S101); the smart card management platform carries out short message interactive processing with a terminal via a mobile network platform according to the request to make the terminal destruct the smart card (S103).
US08768298B1

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for persona based telecommunication service subscriptions. Usage of a device is detected, and one of a plurality of personas configured for the device is determined to be associated with the usage of the device. Additionally, at least one telecommunication service subscribed to by the persona is identified. Further, the usage of the device is serviced using the identified telecommunication service.
US08768293B1

Various aspects of this disclosure are directed to determining, with a computing device, an amount of time that has elapsed since the computing device was last utilized for processing an outgoing or an incoming phone call. The computing device may determine that the amount of time that has elapsed exceeds a threshold time value. Responsive to the determination, the computing device may identify a phone number to call with the computing device, may establish a voice connection using the identified phone number, and may output a message using the voice connection.
US08768286B2

The present invention provides a safety control system for a vehicle with controls located on the vehicle steering wheel. The controls may be arranged in a cluster on one or both sides of the upper half of the steering wheel or on a special flange mounted to the steering wheel. The contours are easily recognizable and accessible while driving without any distraction to the driver. The controls can be enhanced by varied coloring, shape, size, and texture to make them easily identifiable. The controls can be used with portable telematics devices, in a multi-modal process in conjunction with thumb gesture interpretation or speech recognition. A universal portable device docking station may be used in conjunction with the control system.
US08768285B2

A wireless device includes a baseband unit and front-end units that are provided in individual housings. The baseband unit and the front-end units are connected to each other by wire. A transmitter for synchronization that converts a signal based on a reference clock into a radio signal and transmits the radio signal as a clock synchronization signal is provided in any one of the housings, and receivers for synchronization that receive the signal for the clock synchronization and PLLs that generate a clock synchronized with a reference clock signal which is obtained from the received clock synchronization signal are provided in the housings other than the housing having the transmitter provided therein. In order to simultaneously process a plurality of wireless devices having different symbol rates, it is preferable to provide the transmitter, the receiver, and the PLL for each reference clock.
US08768276B1

An integrated circuit for controlling a gain of an LNA to be applied to (i) a first signal from a first communication device, and (ii) a second signal from a second communication device, wherein (i) the first signal conforms to a first communication protocol, and (ii) the second signal conforms to a second communication protocol, includes LNA gain adaptation hardware. The LNA gain adaptation hardware is configured to determine a first signal strength indicator corresponding to a signal strength of the first signal, determine a second signal strength indicator corresponding to a signal strength of the second signal, and control the gain of the LNA based on at least (i) the first signal strength indicator and (ii) the second signal strength indicator.
US08768274B2

A cellular phone comprises a first wireless transceiver that receives radio frequency (RF) signals, which include frequency modulated (FM) signals that have been tuned by a remote device. An FM processing module receives the RF signals, converts the RF signals to baseband signals and generates processed FM signals.
US08768273B2

Systems and methods are provided for detecting forward power sent to an antenna and reflected power reflected back from the antenna. Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for measuring forward and reflected power and controlling the amount of power supplied to the antenna responsive to these measurements. Embodiments of the present invention enable the power sent to the antenna to be dynamically altered when antenna impendence changes (e.g., when the antenna gets too close to another object).
US08768271B1

A III-N semiconductor channel is formed on a III-N transition layer formed on a (111) or (110) surface of a silicon template structure, such as a fin sidewall. In embodiments, the silicon fin has a width comparable to the III-N epitaxial film thicknesses for a more compliant seeding layer, permitting lower defect density and/or reduced epitaxial film thickness. In embodiments, a transition layer is GaN and the semiconductor channel comprises Indium (In) to increase a conduction band offset from the silicon fin. In other embodiments, the fin is sacrificial and either removed or oxidized, or otherwise converted into a dielectric structure during transistor fabrication. In certain embodiments employing a sacrificial fin, the III-N transition layer and semiconductor channel is substantially pure GaN, permitting a breakdown voltage higher than would be sustainable in the presence of the silicon fin.
US08768261B2

A method for reducing interferences between base stations in a communication system having a plurality of base stations. This method comprises the steps of: causing a user station to receive both a signal transmitted by a local-cell base station and a signal transmitted by an adjacent-cell base station, thereby measuring the SNR of the interfered link and the SNR of the leak link of the adjacent-cell base station; calculating a weighting factor of a leak power based on the measured SNR of the interfered link and the measured SNR of the leak link of the adjacent-cell base station; and determining, based on the calculated weighting factor, whether or not the leak power has to be suppressed and to what degree such suppression has to be performed.
US08768260B2

An electromagnetic wave discrimination device according to the present invention discriminates electromagnetic waves, and includes an acquisition section, a feature quantity calculation section, a similarity calculation section, a classification section, a discrimination section, an output section, and a storage section. The acquisition section receives communication signals of a predetermined frequency, and samples waveform data of the communication signals every predetermined time to obtain sample data for each predetermined time. The feature quantity calculation section calculates amplitude feature quantities for each predetermined time, based on the sampling data for each predetermined time. The similarity calculation section calculates degrees of similarity with respect to the amplitude feature quantities for each predetermined time. The classification section classifies the communication signals for each predetermined time into clusters to obtain cluster analysis results of the communication signals for each predetermined time, based on the degrees of similarity. The discrimination section discriminates communication signals constituting one cluster for each of the clusters to obtain discrimination results, based on the cluster analysis results of the communication signals for each predetermined time. The output section outputs the discrimination results. The storage section stores the amplitude feature quantities, the degrees of similarity, the cluster analysis results, and the discrimination results.
US08768256B2

A wireless media player and a related system and methodology are disclosed. One aspect of the wireless media player system pertains to a virtual connector system, apparatus, and method for the automatic establishment of wireless connectivity with other electronic devices. In one embodiment, the media player device employs the use of integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to exchange communication settings, media capability, and other parameters with an external device that also has integrated RFID technology. The automatic exchange of settings and other information via a proximity-based RFID data exchange allows a media player to quickly establish a secure communication link with another device via a commonly supported wireless protocol such as Ultra Wideband (UWB) or Bluetooth. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a method of using the captured media capability of the connecting device to customize certain menu options and software parameters in the media player.
US08768252B2

A wireless audio system configured to receive audio information wirelessly transmitted by an audio source including first and second wireless transceivers. The first wireless transceiver establishes a bidirectional secondary wireless link with the audio source for receiving and acknowledging receipt of the audio information. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate with each other via a primary wireless link. A wireless audio system including an audio source and first and second wireless transceivers. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate via a primary wireless link. The audio source communicates audio information to the first wireless transceiver via a secondary wireless link which is configured according to a standard wireless protocol. The first wireless transceiver is configured to acknowledge successful reception of audio information via the secondary wireless link.
US08768243B2

Various techniques that relate to prolonging the battery life on a portable electronic device during the buffering and playback of audio broadcast data are provided. In accordance with disclosed embodiments, upon detecting a low power state, the device may implement one or more low power actions, including starting, continuing, or stopping one or more audio broadcast functions, such as buffering or playing back audio broadcast data, to reduce overall power consumption, and thus prolong battery life. In one embodiment, a user may specify one or more low power actions that are to be implemented during a low power state by configuring user settings stored on the device. In another embodiment, the device, upon detecting a low power state, may prompt the user to make a selection from a listing of selectable low power action options and perform the selected low power action.
US08768234B2

There is described a delivery member for use in an image forming apparatus. The delivery member includes a support member, an inner layer comprising a elastomeric matrix and a functional material dispersed therein, the inner layer disposed on the support member and an outer layer disposed on the inner layer. A method for manufacturing the delivery member and its function are described.
US08768225B2

An image forming apparatus includes a rotating image carrier, a charging device, a latent image forming device, a developing device having a developer holder and developing a latent image as a visible image, a voltage application unit that generates a potential difference between the image carrier and the developer holder to form an electric field, by which toner is directed toward the latent image, in a developing region, and a transfer device that transfers the visible image of the image carrier to a medium, wherein the developer holder having a concavo-convex portion having a convex portion and a concave portion is provided in an outer surface thereof and formed such that the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the convex portion is set to be larger than the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the concave portion.
US08768223B2

An assembly in an imaging apparatus including a developer unit and a toner cartridge having a pressure equalization system for equalizing a pressure differential between a toner reservoir in the toner cartridge and a toner sump of a developer unit containing ingested air. A ducted shutter that opens and closes an exit port on the housing of the toner cartridge in combination with a passageway in fluid communication with a duct in the shutter and the toner reservoir forms an airway, and when the toner cartridge is mated with a developer unit of the imaging apparatus and the shutter is in the open position, exiting toner leaves the cartridge through the exit port and enters the developer unit while air entrained within the developer unit enters the toner reservoir via the exit port and airway equalizing pressure between the toner cartridge and the developer unit.
US08768221B2

A powder delivery member includes: a rotation shaft portion disposed rotatably within a powder storage container with powder stored therein; a delivery portion for delivering the powder along the axial direction of the rotation shaft portion; and, a powder discharge portion which, is disposed at a position corresponding to the position of the powder discharge port of the powder storage container, and is capable of storing therein the powder delivered thereto from the delivery portion, and also which, when it is rotated along the peripheral direction of the rotation shaft portion with the powder stored therein, can deliver the stored powder to the powder discharge port.
US08768213B2

A guide surface of an attachment guide for a cartridge attached to a position nearest to a scanner has, in the vicinity of an inlet of the attachment guide, a portion oriented so as to be away from a guide surface of a guide unit for another cartridge from the upstream toward the downstream side in the direction in which the cartridges are attached.
US08768203B2

An image forming apparatus includes an exposure device as a light source, a developer container storing developer and attached to a main body of the image forming apparatus perpendicular to a lengthwise direction of the photoconductor, a developing unit and a photoconductor unit having a photoconductor for bearing a latent image thereon each detachably attached to the main body substantially in the same direction as the developer container. An exposure device displacing mechanism displaces the exposure device between a first position enabling the exposure device to function as the light source and a second position disabling the exposure device to function as the light source. The photoconductor unit is detached when the developer container is either displaced from an initially attached position or is removed from the main body and the exposure device displacing device has displaced the exposure device to the second position.
US08768201B2

An image forming apparatus including a main frame, an image forming unit, which is disposed on an inner side of the main frame, a power board, which is disposed on the inner side of the main frame and is configured to apply voltage to the image forming unit, and a holder member, which is detachably attached to a surface on an outer side of the main frame and is configured to hold a wire connecting the power board and the image forming unit electrically, is provided.
US08768185B2

An image formation device for use with a consumable removably loaded therein, the consumable including a non-volatile consumable memory, the image formation device including: a non-volatile device memory; an abnormality detection unit detecting an abnormality pertaining to the consumable; a detection registration unit registering abnormality detection data into both memories when the abnormality pertains to the consumable and no relevant abnormality data are registered in either memory, the abnormality detection data representing the detected abnormality; a confirmation registration unit registering abnormality confirmation data after the consumable has been exchanged and new abnormality detection data pertaining to a new abnormality detected by the abnormality detection unit are registered in only one of the memories, the abnormality confirmation data replacing the new abnormality detection data in the appropriate memory; and a confirmation notification unit making a notification of abnormality confirmation when the abnormality confirmation data are registered by the confirmation registration unit.
US08768179B2

A power management arrangement for low power optical transceiver such as those that may be integrated into a personal computer or server may periodically put itself into a power conservation or sleep mode which assures the transceiver is available upon wake-up.
US08768174B2

A modulation device and method, and a demodulation device and method are provided. The modulation device modulates plural baseband signals to generate an optical signal, and comprises: plural modulation units for modulating plural electrical carriers with different frequencies by using the baseband signals respectively, to generate corresponding electrical modulated signals; a synthesizer for synthesizing the electrical modulated signals to generate a single electrical synthesized signal; an optical modulation unit for modulating a single optical carrier by using the electrical synthesized signal to generate the optical signal, wherein signal components corresponding to the baseband signals in the optical signal are distributed on both sides of a carrier frequency of the optical carrier at a predetermined frequency interval. Thus, processing on a high-speed baseband signal may be divided into processing on multiple relatively low-speed baseband signals, overcoming a bottleneck caused by sampling rates of a digital-analog converter and an analog-digital converter.
US08768172B2

A method may include receiving a stream of datagrams, the datagrams having a first bit length. The method may also include selecting a block of bits from consecutively-received datagrams, the block having a second bit length greater than the first bit length. The method may additionally include determining whether a particular data field is present at a particular bit position within the block. The method may further include outputting the block as a valid block in response to determining that the particular data field is present at the particular bit position. The method may additionally include, in response to determining that the particular data field is not present at the particular bit position: discarding a received datagram from the stream of datagrams; and repeating the receiving, selecting, determining, and discarding steps until a determination is made that the particular data field is present at the particular bit position.
US08768164B2

An optical transmitter includes a plurality of VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) that convert an electrical signal into an optical signal and transmit the converted optical signal. The optical transmitter measures a time for each of the VCSELs of transmitting an optical signal. Then, the optical transmitter assigns an electrical signal, indicating information to be transmitted, to one or more VCSELs, out of the VCSELs, other than a VCSEL of which a cumulative time measured is more than a predetermined threshold.
US08768159B2

Embodiments are disclosed of an apparatus including a curved reflector having an interior and an open end; a light module positioned around a perimeter of the open end of the reflector, the light module including a first side having one or more interior light sources thereon to direct light toward the interior of the reflector and a second side having one or more exterior light sources thereon to direct light away from the reflector; and a light pipe coupled to the light module and aligned so that light from the one or more exterior light sources is launched into the light pipe. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US08768158B2

An image pickup apparatus configured to execute wireless communication with a flash apparatus by radio waves via a communication unit includes a signal output unit configured to output a flash start signal to the flash apparatus, a flash detection unit configured to detect a flash emitted by the flash apparatus according to the flash start signal, an acquisition unit configured to acquire a time difference between a predetermined reference timing and a timing at which the flash is regarded to have been emitted by the flash apparatus according to a result of detection by the flash detection unit, and a control unit configured to control at least one of a timing of output of the flash start signal to the flash apparatus by the signal output unit and a timing of start of an operation executed corresponding to the flash by the flash apparatus according to the time difference acquired by the acquisition unit.
US08768147B2

Methods and systems that provide enhanced personal video recorder (“PVR”) and interactive television program guide (“IPG”) functionality are provided. An interactive television application (“application”) may be implemented to provide such functionality. The application may be used to display a list of PVR recordings, to schedule recordings to a PVR, to configure recordings, to view a list of scheduled recordings, to configure recording settings, or to select delete priority settings for recordings. The application may integrate pay-per-view and PVR functionality. The application may send user notifications for changes that are to be made to the recording content of a PVR. Live programming may be buffered by the application using a straight buffers that are created for each new program. Parallel buffers for concurrent programs may be implemented using multiple tuners. Straight buffers may be used in managing or controlling the flow of programming. Television content may be automatically paused when a user is engaged in using the application. Multiple IPGs for different users of a PVR may be implemented. Other PVR related features are also provided.
US08768143B2

A programming recorder receives information after receiving at least two programming event recording requests, detects a conflict between the programming event recording requests based on the received information, creates a ranked list of alternative sources for the programming event recording requests, and resolves the conflict by fulfilling at least one of the at least two programming event recording requests utilizing an alternative source. The alternative source may be automatically selected or selected by a user. The ranked list of alternative sources may be ordered utilizing a set of one or more priority criteria. The programming event recording requests and/or the received programming information may include metadata and determining alternative sources may comprise comparing the metadata. The programming recorder may display an indication that the conflict between the at least two programming event recording requests was detected and resolved.
US08768141B2

A video camera band includes left and right side portions, a bridge, at least one video camera, a processor, local storage and a network interface. Video recorded by the video camera band is transmitted via the network interface to a remote computing device.
US08768138B1

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method and apparatus to insure continuous presentation of digital content to an audience when a locally stored copy of a file containing the digital content suddenly becomes unavailable to a digital projector. In one embodiment of the method, a first computer generates a first command to read a first block of data from a file stored on a first memory device, wherein the first computer system is coupled to a digital projector. The first computer system also generates a second command, which is subsequently transmitted to a storage device external to the computer system. The external storage device includes a hard disk that stores a copy of the file that is stored on the first memory device or vice versa. The external storage device includes a read/write head. In response to the external storage device receiving the second command, the read/write head is moved to a position on the hard disk where the read/write head can read a copy of the first block of data stored on the hard disk.
US08768135B2

A cable exit trough is mountable to a lateral trough section either during initial assembly of the cable routing system, or at a later date. The exit trough includes a bracket portion mountable to the top edge of one of the sides of the lateral trough section. Two lead-ins are provided to lead the cable in an upward direction from the lateral trough section to the exit trough. The exit trough includes an exit trough portion extending from the bracket portion upwardly away from the lateral trough section. The exit trough portion includes a convexly curved bottom trough surface, and two convexly curved upstanding sides. The exit trough portion and the lead-ins define a cable pathway from the lateral trough section to an exit point of the exit trough portion which can either lead downwardly relative to the lateral trough section, or horizontally.
US08768121B2

A filter and a method of filtering a high frequency electrical signal using photonic components is disclosed. The filter has a serially fiber-coupled laser source, a modulator, a filter, and a photodetector. The electrical signal is applied to the modulator. The modulated light propagates through the filter which is constructed to pass not only a modulated sideband, but also at least a fraction of light at the carrier frequency of the laser. The photodetector detects a signal at the beat frequency between the carrier and sideband signals, after both signals have propagated through the filter. As a result, a separate optical branch for light at the carrier frequency is not required, which considerably simplifies the filter construction and makes it more stable and reliable.
US08768119B2

An optical assembly includes a combination of laser sources emitting radiation, focused by a combination of lenses into optical waveguides. The optical waveguide and the laser source are permanently attached to a common carrier, while at least one of the lenses is attached to a holder that is an integral part of the carrier, but is free to move initially. Micromechanical techniques are used to adjust the position of the lens and holder, and then fix the holder it into place permanently using integrated heaters with solder.
US08768117B2

There are provided an optical fiber coupler configured to improve or optimize optical efficiency and coupling efficiency, a method of manufacturing the optical fiber coupler, and an active optical module. The optical fiber coupler includes a first optical fiber and second optical fibers. The first optical fiber includes a first core and a first cladding surrounding the first core, and the second optical fibers are coupled to the first cladding. The first cladding includes a first coupling facet to which ends of the second optical fibers are coupled.
US08768113B2

A measuring device is provided for measurement of parameters, in particular for measuring the temperature, in molten masses, in particular in molten metal or molten cryolite masses having a melting point above 500° C. The measuring device has an optical fiber for receiving radiation from the molten mass and a cable reel having an external circumference for winding up the optical fiber and an internal space surrounded by the external circumference. A distributor and a mode filter for the optical fiber are arranged in the internal space.
US08768108B2

A solid state light source comprising a light pump outputting light energy; a waveguide optically coupled to the light pump source for receiving the light energy; and a down-converter for converting the light energy from the waveguide to a lesser light energy.
US08768105B2

A method for searching in a large-scale database of images for images that are visually similar to query images is provided using a processor to perform the following steps: computing visual features for the database images; constructing an Image Anchor Graph that contains a plurality of anchors corresponding to a subset of images in the database, according to the computed visual features; computing visual features for the query images; and retrieving database images similar to one or more user query images using a ranking algorithm that uses the anchors in the Image Anchor Graph according to the computed visual features of both the query images and the database images on the Image Anchor Graph.
US08768102B1

According to various embodiments of the invention, improved downsampling techniques are employed, which can be applied to light field images and which preserve the ability to refocus (and otherwise manipulate) such images. Groups of pixels, rather than individual pixels, are downsampled; such groups of pixels can be defined, for example, as disks of pixels. Such downsampling is accomplished, for example, by aggregating values for pixels having similar relative positions within adjacent disks (or other defined regions or pixel groups) of the image. When applied to light field images, the downsampling techniques of the present invention reduce spatial resolution without sacrificing angular resolution. This ensures that the refocusing capability of the resulting light field image is not reduced and/or adversely impacted.
US08768095B2

A signal processing method is provided. The signal processing method includes the steps of generating undersampled data corresponding to an object, determining a variable thresholding parameter based on a composition of the undersampled data, and iteratively determining thresholded coefficients to generate a plurality of coefficients by utilizing the undersampled data, a current solution and the variable thresholding parameter by updating the variable thresholding parameter and the current solution, and reconstructing a data signal using the plurality of coefficients.
US08768088B2

The invention concerns a method of concealing errors in at least one part of a current image (i) a sequence of images (4), characterized in that it comprises the following steps: comparing (S81) said at least one part of the current image (i) with at least one corresponding part of a previous image (i−1), and selecting (S83) a temporal error concealment method or a spatial error concealment method to be applied in said at least one part of the current image, according to the result of said comparison step and at least one item of information relating to the errors concealed in said at least one corresponding part of the previous image.
US08768075B2

Distances between data are encoded by performing a random projection, followed by dithering and scaling, with a fixed scaling for all values. The resulting dithered and scaled projection is quantized using a non-monotonic 1-bit quantizer to form a vector of bits representing the signal. The distance between signals can be approximately calculated from the corresponding vectors of bits by computing the hamming distance of the two vectors of bits. The computation is approximately correct up to a specific distance, determined by the scaling, and not beyond that.
US08768062B2

The present invention relates to a method and system for online script independent recognition of handwritten sub-word unit and words. More particularly the present invention relates to a system and method which enables online recognition of script independent sub-word unit and words by recognizing the written individual strokes prior to recognition of sub-word unit and words. The present invention provides an easy and natural to use method for handwritten sub-word unit and word recognition, wherein the application can be deployed on the existing communication means.
US08768049B2

An automated registration and authentication system combines a generative and discriminative approach to improve the matching of a query object to a database of registered objects. The discriminative approach uses a voting mechanism to identify a most likely match, and the generative approach uses ASIFT transforms to determine a best geometric match. The two results are combined using a technique base on Bayesian inference theory.
US08768039B2

A system and method for monitoring degradation of a device having a metal layer and a composite layer, such as a vehicle-mounted boom arm. The system can include a collar mounted on an outer surface of the device, a radiography device movably coupled to the collar, and a monitor. The radiography device can include a source of radiography signals positioned to direct radiography signals through at least a portion of the device and a detector to detect radiography signals that have passed through the device. The monitor can be connected to the detector to display an image of the device generated from the detected radiography signals. Anomalies in the device image can represent degradation in the device.
US08768038B1

Machine-readable storage media having instructions stored therein that, when executed by a processor of a mobile device, configure the mobile device to capture a check image for funds to be deposited into a recipient account. The mobile device configured to display a request to a user of the mobile device to provide one or more portions of a MICR line for the received check image and receive user inputs from the user specifying the one or more portions of the MICR line. The mobile device configured to transmit a message to a bank account computer system associated with the recipient account, the message including data specifying the one or more portions of the MICR line.
US08768033B2

A system, method, and apparatus includes a computed tomography (CT) system having a rotatable gantry, an x-ray source, a generator, a detector having pixels and positioned to receive x-rays, and a computer. The computer is programmed to acquire CT data representative of an object, determine a first subset of the CT data, determine a second subset of the CT data, and determine a difference between the first and second subsets of the CT data to identify a motion region in the object. The computer is also programmed to update image data reconstructed from a first portion of the first subset of the CT data and corresponding to the region and reconstruct an image based on the updated image data and non-updated image data. The non-updated image data is reconstructed from a second portion the first subset of the CT data.
US08768029B2

A system and a method are disclosed that allow for generation of a model or reconstruction of a model of a subject based upon acquired image data. The image data can be acquired in a substantially mobile system that can be moved relative to a subject to allow for image acquisition from a plurality of orientations relative to the subject. The plurality of orientations can include a first and final orientation and a predetermined path along which an image data collector or detector can move to acquire an appropriate image data set to allow for the model of construction.
US08768025B2

A method and apparatus for generating a color mapping for a dental object. The method includes generating a transformation matrix according to a set of spectral reflectance data for a statistically valid sampling of teeth. Illumination is directed toward the dental object over at least a first, a second, and a third wavelength band, one wavelength band at a time. For each of a plurality of pixels in an imaging array, an image data value is obtained, corresponding to each of the at least first, second, and third wavelength bands. The transformation matrix is applied to form the color mapping by generating a set of visual color values for each of the plurality of pixels according to the obtained image data values and according to image data values obtained from a reference object at the at least first, second, and third wavelength bands. The color mapping can be stored in an electronic memory.
US08768019B2

The present disclosure relates to acquiring image data of a subject and selecting image data to be displayed. The image data can include a plurality of frames that relate to a specific location of a tracking device positioned within the subject. The determined location of the tracking device can be used to determine which frame of the image data to display at a selected time.
US08768011B2

A road estimation device receives data including core points assigned along a road and assigned with attributes for identifying the road. An input unit inputs map data including links in a unit of a divided region. Each link has a termination point in a boundary of the divided region. The links have attributes corresponding to attributes of the core points. When the core points exist beyond a boundary of the divided region, a generation unit generates a virtual core point on the boundary in the inputted map data and assigns an attribute to the virtual core point based on the attributes of the core points. An extraction unit extracts a candidate link being candidate of the road from the map data according to the attributes of the links, the core points, and the virtual core point.
US08768005B1

A device for extracting a watermark signal from an output signal of a watermarking encoder in which the output signal includes an input signal portion corresponding to an input signal to the watermarking encoder and a watermark signal portion corresponding to the watermark signal includes an input configured to receive the input signal and the output signal. The device further includes an adjustment signal generator configured to generate a gain adjustment signal and a delay adjustment signal based on the input signal and the output signal, a gain and delay adjustor configured to adjust gain and delay of the output signal or the input signal based on the gain adjustment signal and the delay adjustment signal, respectively, to generate an adjusted output signal or an adjusted input signal, respectively, and an output configured to transmit a difference between the input signal and the adjusted output signal or a difference between the adjusted input signal and the output signal as the watermark signal.
US08768003B2

Media monitoring using multiple types of signatures is disclosed. An example media monitoring method disclosed herein comprises processing signatures of a first type to monitor media presented by a media device until a first one of the signatures of the first type is determined to match a reference signature of the first type, the reference signature of the first type being associated with first reference media, and processing signatures of a second type to monitor the media presented by the media device after the first one of the signatures of the first type is determined to match the reference signature of the first type and until a number of signatures of the second type is determined not to match corresponding reference signatures of the second type, the reference signatures of the second type being associated with the first reference media.
US08768000B2

An improved structure for an amplifier comprises: a single member, which at least has a frame, an edge and a membrane; and a positioning shrapnel, which is assembled by an inner frame, an outer frame and a plurality of flexible braces, the outer frame is firmly disposed at the frame of the single member, the plurality of flexible braces is disposed between the inner frame and the outer frame, the inner frame is firmly disposed on the membrane of the single member, wherein the peripheral of the frame has a fillister that can be embedded in by the outer frame, each connection of any of the flexible braces and the inner frame is a curve portion that is to keep the connection of the inner frame and the outer frame while a height difference is existed between the inner frame and the outer frame.
US08767998B2

A pressure adjustor includes a sheet-like supporter formed of unwoven fabric or woven fabric, a plurality of activated carbon powder particles attached to the supporter, and binders binding the plurality of activated carbon powder particles to each other. If this pressure adjustor is disposed inside a cabinet of a speaker device including a speaker unit provided in the cabinet, a speaker device is obtained which has an excellent bass reproduction effect even if the device is made small.
US08767990B2

A hearing aid with a child-proof battery compartment includes a shell and a battery door mounted in the shell for rotational movement between an open position and a closed position. A latch mechanism between a pivotal latch of the battery door and a corresponding arrest part is at an internal side of an arrest wall. The battery door in the closed position includes external wall parts facing away from the hearing aid and all of the external wall parts are flush with or recessed with respect to adjacent wall parts of the hearing aid shell, such that an opening force cannot be applied to the external wall parts. The arrest wall includes a narrow gap opening which grants access to the pivotal latch and allows an opening force to be applied to the pivotal latch through the opening to release the battery door.
US08767984B2

Apparatus for reproduction of stereo sound from a two channel signal, having one or more first transducers (3a, 3b) for reproducing a signal comprising one of or the sum of the two channels, and one or more second transducers (5) for reproducing a signal comprising the difference between the two channels. The apparatus is arranged such that the signal generated by the one or more first transducers (3a, 3b) is transmitted from an output plane in a direction substantially orthogonal to the output plane. The apparatus also has a duct (6) associated with the one or more second transducers (5) and is arranged to conduct the signal generated by the one or more second transducers (5) such that it is transmitted along a direction substantially parallel to the output plane from a point spaced from the plane in the direction in which the signal generated by the one or more first transducers (3a, 3b) is transmitted.
US08767970B2

A panner is provided that incorporates a surround sound decoder. The panner takes as input the desired panning effect that a user requests, separates sounds using surround sound decoding, and places the separated sounds in the desired places in an output sound field.
US08767965B2

An inventive scheme for detecting parties responsible for repeated malicious activities in secure and anonymous communication is presented. The scheme comprises generating a pool of keys, distributing to and associating with each party a small number of keys chosen randomly from the pool, revoking a key when it is detected as used in a malicious activity, creating a set of parties associated with the revoked key, revoking additional keys randomly chosen among the keys not currently revoked, selecting new keys, and when a party requests an updated key, sending the updated key selected from among the new keys to the requesting party, wherein if an other malicious activity is detected, creating another set of the parties associated with the other malicious activity and identifying the parties in both sets. The steps of the inventive scheme are repeated until only one party is in the intersection set.
US08767962B2

A system and methods for permitting open access to data objects and for securing data within the data objects is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for securing a data object is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for securing a data object is disclosed. The method includes the steps of (1) providing a data object comprising digital data and file format information; (2) embedding independent data into a data object; and (3) scrambling the data object to degrade the data object to a predetermined signal quality level. The steps of embedding and scrambling may be performed until a predetermined condition is met. The method may also include the steps of descrambling the data object to upgrade the data object to a predetermined signal quality level, and decoding the embedded independent data.
US08767961B2

A client device implements a media player and a proxy application. The media player controls playback of media content on the client device. The proxy application is implemented to request a playlist from a media server, where the playlist corresponds to the media content. The proxy application receives the playlist from the media server, and the playlist includes encryption key reference parameters to obtain an encryption key. The proxy application modifies the playlist to include local encryption key access parameters for the media player, and the modified playlist is communicated to the media player. The proxy application can then receive a request for the encryption key from the media player that utilizes the local encryption key access parameters included in the modified playlist, and the proxy application securely communicates the encryption key to the media player.
US08767960B2

Information, such as audio visual information, is secured by self-decay of the information over time. For instance, a date stamp and decay rate embedded in an encrypted audio or visual digital media file can be applied to decrypt the file to a predetermined decayed state, such as a degraded playback quality. One or more keys can be included with the information to allow undecayed decryption but expire after use or a predetermined time period. In one embodiment, the decayed state can comprise gaps formed at intervals in the information, the gaps having increased length for decreased quality. In an alternative embodiment, the decayed state can be a reduced sample rate for a compressed digital media file.
US08767949B1

A computerized method and related system and software for simplifying telephonic calling, comprising: designating a default destination area code; the user specifying a destination telephone number; and as a default, causing the call to be signaled using the designated default destination area code in combination with the specified destination telephone number, without the user entering the designated default destination area code when specifying the destination telephone number.
US08767948B1

A back office services of an intelligent automated agent for a contact center is provided. The back office services is configured to run on a processor coupled to a non-transitory storage device. The back office services includes: a customer profile module configured to access a profile of a customer from a customer profile database stored on the storage device, the profile of the customer including interaction data from interactions involving the customer and the contact center, and analysis results from analyzing the interaction data between the interactions involving the customer and the contact center; and a content analysis module configured to generate new analysis results by performing the analyzing of the interaction data between consecutive interactions of the interactions involving the customer and the contact center, and update the analysis results of the profile of the customer on the storage device to reflect the new analysis results.
US08767944B1

A distributed contact center and method of managing data transfers between the distributed parts of the contact center is provided. Distributed parts of the contact center are joined together through a known communications initiation protocol such as SIP, then status information and/or control signals are transferred between the distributed parts using lossless communication protocols.
US08767937B2

A non-transitory computer readable medium is disclosed containing instructions for execution by a computer, the computer program comprising: instructions to for detect a noise level on a conference telephone call; instructions to reconnect a first end user device to a first data line and sending a message to the first end user device indicating that the first end user device is a source of noise and to reconnect to a conference server using a second end user device in response to determining that the noise is reduced by disconnecting the first end user device from the first data line; and instructions to reconnect the first end user device to the first data line and determining if the noise is reduced in response to determining that the noise is not reduced by disconnecting the first end user device from the first data line. A system and method are also disclosed.
US08767936B2

A dynamic reporting tool presents conferencing data to customers in a useful and flexible manner. Customers may customize standard reports using dynamic, comprehensive search criteria. Customers may also create custom ad hoc reports as needed. Furthermore, customers may access unbilled usage data and conduct searches on the unbilled usage data.
US08767926B2

In one embodiment, a method for ensuring quality of a media message is provided. The method includes receiving information for a media message. At least a portion of the media is analyzed to determine a media quality for the media message. The method then determines if the media quality is acceptable. If the media quality is not acceptable, then an alert may be sent regarding the media quality of the media message. For example, a caller may be prompted to re-record a media message.
US08767918B2

A X-ray scattering measurement device and measurement method can measure, with high resolution, the intensity of X-rays which have undergone small-angle scattering and diffraction with reflection geometry and can easily and accurately measure a microstructure on the surface of a sample. The X-ray scattering measurement device is suitable for microstructural measurement on the surface of a sample includes an X-ray source that generates an X-ray; a first mirror and a second mirror that continuously reflect the generated X-ray; a sample stage that supports the sample; and a two-dimensional detector that detects the X-ray scattered on the surface of the sample. The first mirror focuses the generated X-ray onto the two-dimensional detector within a plane parallel to the surface of the sample, and the second mirror focuses the X-ray reflected by the first mirror onto the surface of the sample within a plane perpendicular to the surface of the sample.
US08767904B2

A method is provided for operating a nuclear reactor. The method includes operating the nuclear reactor for an initial cycle during which a core contains initial nuclear fuel assemblies; then operating the nuclear reactor for transition cycles, at least some of the initial nuclear fuel assemblies being progressively replaced, during the replacement steps preceding the transition cycles, with transition nuclear fuel assemblies or with plutonium-equilibrium nuclear fuel assemblies; and then operating the nuclear reactor for at least one plutonium equilibrium cycle during which the core contains only plutonium-equilibrium nuclear fuel assemblies.
US08767900B2

A signal transition detection circuit is provided. The signal transition detection circuit comprises a counter module, a DAC, a comparator and a digital sampling module. The counter module generates a digital step signal. The DAC converts the digital step signal into an analog input signal and transmits it to an under-test circuit such that the under-test circuit generates an output signal transiting from a first stable level to a second stable level, wherein a transition section is located between the first and the second stable level. The comparator receives and compares the output signal with a default value to generate a normalized output signal. The digital sampling module samples the normalized output signal to retrieve impulses such that when the number of the impulses is accumulated to be larger than a reference value, a corresponding step of the digital step signal is determined to be a transition point.
US08767881B2

A signal processing apparatus is disclosed which includes: a detection section configured such that based on a result of the error correction of a signal generated by a single carrier system, the detection section detects the presence or absence of spectrum inversion in the signal; and a selection section configured such that if the detection section detects the spectrum inversion, the selection section selects the spectrally inverted signal as the signal subject to the error correction, and that if the detection section does not detect the spectrum inversion, then the selection selects the spectrally uninverted signal as the signal subject to the error correction.
US08767879B1

A transceiver includes a channel estimator configured to generate, based on a packet received over a channel, an initial channel estimate for the channel. A compensator is configured to compensate a phase of the initial channel estimate to adjust for a carrier frequency offset associated with the channel, and ii) selectively compensate the initial channel estimate for sampling phase jitter. The selectively compensating the initial channel estimate for sampling phase jitter includes compensating the initial channel estimate for sampling phase jitter responsive to the packet having been received at a data rate greater than a first predetermined data rate, and not compensating the initial channel estimate for sampling phase jitter responsive to the packet having been received at a data rate less than or equal to the first predetermined data rate.
US08767870B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a variable inter symbol interference generator that generates a data signal having a variable amount of inter symbol interference by passing a data signal through (1) a programmable filter having an adjustable frequency response, and through (2) a fixed filter having a fixed frequency response such as a PCB trace, a length of cable, a discrete filter, or the like. By adjusting the parameters and therefore the insertion gain or loss of the programmable filter, and combining this with one or more fixed filters, a large range of continuously variable and finely tunable inter symbol interference amounts can be easily generated.
US08767869B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure propose an adaptive joint linear and non-linear digital filter that can adaptively estimate and reconstruct cascaded effects of linear and non-linear self-jamming distortions introduced by non-linearities in the transmit and/or receive chains. The proposed digital filter may be used to cancel second-order inter-modulation distortion (IM2) generated in the receive chain and/or harmonic distortion generated in the transmit chain, as well as other distortions introduced by the transmit/and or receive chains.
US08767863B1

A transceiver utilizes a spatial spreading matrix to distribute two or more encoded spatial data streams to multiple antennas. The spatial spreading matrix satisfies one or more of the following two constraints: (a) the ratio of squared norms of the sum of the components of a row, for different rows of the spatial spreading matrix, is equal to a first constant sequence, and (b) the ratio of squared norms of the sum of a symbol Sl to be transmitted, when the symbol Sl is equal to 1 or −1, multiplied by each of the components of a row, for different rows of the spatial spreading matrix, is equal to a second constant sequence.
US08767855B2

A SCO estimator comprises the following units. A module obtains a first data output by a first unit and copies the first data to obtain copied data. A QAM unit quadrature modulates the copied data into each sub-carrier of each OFDM symbol to regenerate transmitted modulated data. A first phase unit obtains a first phase of each sub-carrier of each OFDM symbol of the modulated data. A second phase unit obtains a second data from a second unit, and obtains a second phase of each sub-carrier of each OFDM symbol of the second data. A comparator generates a comparing result according to the first phase and the second phase of each sub-carrier of each OFDM symbol. A divider divides the comparing result of each sub-carrier by the subcarrier index within each OFDM symbol and the OFDM symbol index of each OFDM symbol. An averaging unit averages the divided comparing result over number of sub-carriers and number of OFDM symbols.
US08767848B2

In at least some embodiments, a receiver includes channel estimation logic configured to a process a long training field symbol having a doubled cyclic prefix. The channel estimation logic is configured to vary an amount of the doubled cyclic prefix used for channel estimation. Further, in some embodiments, a wireless communication device includes logic to enable communications based on at least two long training field symbols having a doubled cyclic prefix as part of a synchronization header. Further, in some embodiments, a method includes receiving a long training field symbol having a synchronization header with a doubled cyclic prefix and varying an amount of the doubled cyclic prefix used for channel estimation.
US08767847B2

A method for processing input data for use in a time-deinterleaver of a receiver is provided. Input data is first received, wherein the input data is data inputted to the time-deinterleaver and includes a plurality of symbols and each symbol includes a plurality of samples and each sample includes a signal quality (SQ) data corresponding thereto. A down sampling ratio is then determined according to a channel condition. The input data is down-sampled in the time and/or the frequency domain with the down sampling ratio according to whether a modulation mode is a single carrier mode or a multi-carrier mode and outputting the down-sampled data. Thereafter, the outputted down-sampled data is stored in a data buffer of the time-deinterleaver for further signal processing.
US08767835B2

A video encoded as a bit stream is decoded by maintaining a set of dictionaries generated from decoded prediction residual signals, wherein elements of the set of dictionaries have associated indices. A current macroblock is entropy decoded and inverse quantized to produce decoded coefficients. For the current macroblock, a particular dictionary of the set of dictionaries is selected according to a prediction mode signaled in the bit stream, and particular elements of the particular dictionary are selected according to a copy mode signal in the bit stream and the associated index. The particular elements is scaled and combined, using the decoded coefficients, to reconstruct a current decoded macroblock prediction residual signal. Then, the current decoded macroblock prediction residual signal is combined with previously decoded macroblocks to generate an output macroblock of a reconstructed video, wherein the steps are performed in a decoder.
US08767834B2

Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods for selectively determining a quantization parameter based on coding parameters. In some embodiments, a quantization parameter selection may be based on the presence of non-zero transform coefficients as well as other parameters. Some embodiments relate to rewriting a multi-layer bitstream to a single-layer bitstream with a quantization parameter selected with reference to transform coefficients. Some embodiments convert a scalable, multi-layer video sequence into a single-layer, non-scalable video sequence that is compatible with legacy devices.
US08767832B2

A method and apparatus for processing a multimedia bitstream are provided. The apparatus comprises a receive module, an extraction module, and a generation module. The receiving module receives the multimedia bitstream, wherein the multimedia bitstream comprises a plurality of NAL units. The extraction module extracts the NAL units from the multimedia bitstream. The generation module generates a processed bitstream comprising markers and NAL units. Each of the markers has a unique code. By doing so in future processing, a decoder or a decoding method can locate NAL units easily by searching for the corresponding marker.
US08767831B2

Certain aspects of a method and system for motion-compensated picture rate up-conversion (PRUC) using information extracted from a compressed video stream may include extracting PRUC data from a compressed video data stream while the compressed video data stream is being decompressed by a video decompression engine. The PRUC data may comprise, for example, local block motion vectors, block coding modes, quantization levels, quantized residual data and decoded pictures. A plurality of interpolated pictures may be generated based on extracting the PRUC data.
US08767828B2

A system for encoding and decoding video that uses power reduction techniques.
US08767821B2

A method and system for providing adaptive media optimization are described. Aspects of the invention modify video encoding and network transmission settings to optimize the user viewing experience. The system and method sample video content to determine various content features of the video. The system and method use the identified content features in conjunction with network statistics to modify encoding settings and network transmission options to ensure a minimum of interruption in the transmitted video. Previously generated lookup tables ensure efficient mapping of video content and network conditions to encoding and transmission settings.
US08767817B1

Disclosed herein is a method for encoding a video signal having at least one frame with at least one block of pixels. The method includes selecting a parameterized equation corresponding to a coding mode for a current block of pixels to be encoded in the at least one frame, determining at least one parameter for use in the selected parameterized equation, generating, for at least a first pixel in the current block, a predicted value using the parameterized equation; a position value for the first pixel using a processor; and the determined at least one parameter and encoding the block using the predicted value.
US08767808B2

In a method for processing unsolicited result codes (URCs) of a communication device, keywords of a URC are extracted when the URC is sent from a modem of the communication device to an operating system of the communication device. A digital code of the keywords is obtained by encoding the extracted keywords. A function of the communication device is executed to process the received URC according to the digital code of the keywords.
US08767807B2

A method and a device are provided for transmitting or receiving a clock signal. The method includes the step of transmitting or receiving at least two wave bands via a digital subscriber line, wherein a clock signal is conveyed via one of the at least two wave bands. The clock signal may be used for mobile clock synchronization.
US08767805B2

The assembly includes a first sub-assembly with, on a transmitter side, a modem having a plurality of inputs, an output for a total data stream, and signal paths connected in parallel. Each signal path includes a modulation stage, a stage for sampling modulated signals and a mixer stage Outputs of mixer stages are connected to inputs of a summation stage, and output of the summation stage is connected to output of the modem. A second sub-assembly has an input for initialization data connected to an assembly for controlling a test operation. The sub-assembly is connected to a downstream carrier management assembly having a plurality of outputs. Each output is connected to a test sequence generating unit. Outputs of all test sequence generating units are connected to a parallel/serial converter assembly connected downstream of a filter assembly. Output of the filter assembly is connected to output of the second sub-assembly.
US08767795B2

A hybrid orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and method are disclosed. A WTRU includes a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver processes received data to recover data mapped to the subcarriers using OFDMA. The receiver recovers first input data by separating user data from multi-user spread data and recovers second input data from non-spread data.
US08767793B2

A method for treating spheroidal graphite iron includes the step: pouring molten spheroidal graphite iron into a pouring electrical furnace (1); covering the molten spheroidal graphite iron (5) with alkali slag (6) which is melted at high temperature and rich in alkali earth metal ion, rare earth metal ion, or mixture of them; connecting the molten spheroidal graphite iron (5) with the negative pole of the direct current source by one pole (7); connecting the alkali slag (6) with the positive pole of the direct current source by another pole (4), treating the molten spheroidal graphite iron (5) with the alkali slag (6) which is used as electrolyte. The method can prevent the spheroidized fading velocity of the spheroidal graphite iron. The pouring electrical furnace can be used for treating the molten spheroidal graphite iron.
US08767792B2

Embodiments of a method comprising guiding an optical mode with an optical waveguide disposed in silicon, overlapping both the optical waveguide and an active semiconductor material evanescently coupled to the optical waveguide with the optical mode guided through the optical waveguide, electrically pumping the active semiconductor material to inject current directed through the active semiconductor material and through the optical mode, and generating light in the active semiconductor material in response to the injected current. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US08767775B2

A signal transmission method is provided, wherein, when a transmitter transmits a signal to a receiver, a transmitter processor multiplexes a plurality of data for a plurality of connections to be transmitted to one specific receiver, and constitutes a multiplexed medium access control (MAC) packet data unit (PDU) containing a MAC header part for receiving the multiplexed data, and a MAC PDU payload containing the multiplexed data, and the transmitter transmits the multiplexed MAC PDU to the specific receiver. The MAC header part includes a first header part containing a generic MAC header, and a second header part containing an extended header indicator serving as a 1-bit indicator for indicating the existence of an extended header (EH) for each flow ID for each of the plurality of connections. The MAC header part further includes a third header part which selectively contains the extended header for each flow ID in accordance with the extended header indicators for each flow ID.
US08767769B2

A system for processing data flows comprises a classifier, a first processor, a first checking unit, a calculator, and a second processor. The classifier is designed for classifying of data channels into a first and a second class of data channels. The first processor is designed for processing of a second sub-class of data channels. The calculator is designed for calculating information for the second class data channels from processing results of the first processor. The second processor is designed for processing the second class data channels using information calculated by the calculator. Each of network equipment for an uplink connection, and of user equipment for a downlink connection or batch processing of format detection comprises such a system for processing data flows. A method for processing data flows comprises following steps: a step of performing a classification (60, 62) of data channels into a first and a second class of data channels; a step of processing of the first class data channels; a step of calculating information for the second class data channels from processing results of the step of processing; and a step of processing of the second class data channels using information calculated in the step of calculating information.
US08767762B2

An apparatus is provided. Physical medium dependent (PMD) sublayer logic is configured to communicate with a communications medium. Physical medium attachment (PMA) sublayer logic is coupled to the PMD logic. Forward error correction (FEC) sublayer logic is coupled to the PMA sublayer logic, and physical coding (PCS) sublayer logic is configured to communicate with an interface. A transmit path is coupled to the transmit data in a second clock domain to the FEC sublayer logic. A first read pointer circuit is coupled to transmit path. A write pointer circuit is coupled to the transmit path. A receive path is coupled to receive data in the second clock domain from the FEC sublayer logic. A second read pointer circuit is coupled to the receive path, where the first read pointer circuit, the second read pointer circuit, and the write pointer circuits are each configured to detect gaps between the first and second clock domains.
US08767746B1

A method, wireless system, and medium are provided for estimating capacity for a new communication session initiated by a wireless device. The wireless system includes a base station and wireless devices that wirelessly connect to the base station. The base station executes a wireless scheduler that coordinates wireless transmission over wireless networks. The base station also executes a bandwidth estimation component to estimate available bandwidth for a new communication session. The estimated available bandwidth is used in a quick configuration message communicated from the base station to a wireless device to notify the wireless device of the capacity available at the base station and of a transmission rate for the wireless device.
US08767726B2

A method of encapsulating data and a single frequency network configured to perform the method are disclosed. A content stream of data packets is received, and the data packets in the content stream are formatted in accordance with a first protocol. Information identifying a container size established for the content stream is received. The data packets formatted in accordance with the first protocol are fragmented and packed to form data units formatted in accordance with a second protocol, and the data units are sized based on the container size. The data units formatted in accordance with the second protocol are encapsulated to form second protocol data packets. The second protocol data packets are provided to a transmitter that is synchronized to one or more transmitters in a single frequency network so that each transmitter in the single frequency network broadcasts a same signal that includes the second protocol data packets.
US08767723B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A method for receiving system information of a wireless device wirelessly communicating with a base station (BS) and a terminal in a wireless communication system includes receiving system information change information from the base station (BS) through a dedicated time unit used for communication between the base station (BS) and the wireless device, and receiving system information from the base station (BS) through a different time unit from the dedicated time unit.
US08767722B2

A switching network includes an upper tier having a master switch and a lower tier including a plurality of lower tier entities. The master switch, which has a plurality of ports each coupled to a respective lower tier entity, implements on each of the ports a plurality of virtual ports each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of remote physical interfaces (RPIs) at the lower tier entity coupled to that port. Data traffic communicated between the master switch and RPIs is queued within virtual ports that correspond to the RPIs with which the data traffic is communicated. The master switch applies data handling to the data traffic in accordance with a control policy based at least upon the virtual port in which the data traffic is queued, such that the master switch applies different policies to data traffic queued to two virtual ports on the same port of the master switch.
US08767720B2

A networking device includes a hardware port coupled to a first device and a management module. The management module identifies fabric subsets such that devices included in a fabric subset are permitted to communicate with each other, identifies configurations that include subsets that are active when the configuration is active, and detects that a device is uncoupled from the port. In response to detecting, the management module modifies the subsets by creating a new subset that does not include the uncoupled device, and modifies the configurations.
US08767719B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for splitting SIP back-to-back user agents and converting SIP communications between a back-to-back user agent server and a back-to-back user agent client to HTTP requests while preserving SIP headers. The back-to-back user agent server receives a SIP invite from a caller and converts the SIP invite to an HTTP request, wherein headers from the SIP invite are preserved in the HTTP request. The server transmits the HTTP request to a user agent client via a wide area network connection and receives, from the user agent client, an HTTP response to the HTTP request. The server converts the HTTP response to a SIP response, and transmits the SIP response to the caller, wherein the SIP response contains instructions for establishing SIP communications between the caller and a callee via a network.
US08767711B2

To prevent an occurrence of mismatch in processing timing between a PHY layer and a MAC layer that may occur when a synchronization process for inter-base-station synchronization is performed by a PHY processing apparatus. A base station apparatus includes a PHY processing apparatus that performs a communication process related to the PHY layer, and a MAC processing apparatus that performs a communication process related to the MAC layer. The PHY processing apparatus includes a synchronization processing unit that performs a synchronization process for synchronizing a communication frame processing timing of the PHY processing apparatus with a communication frame processing timing of other base station apparatus serving as the synchronization source. The MAC processing apparatus acquires, from the PHY processing apparatus, synchronization information for synchronizing a communication frame processing timing of the MAC processing apparatus with the communication frame processing timing of the PHY processing apparatus.
US08767708B2

The cell searcher module (CSM) of a wireless communication device detects that the device is in coverage region of an eNB by processing received signal associated with the primary synchronization (PSCH) and secondary synchronization (SSCH) sequences transmitted by the eNB. The wireless device determines whether candidate SCH signals from candidate neighbor cells are synchronous with SCH sequences from the serving cell by implementing one of three methods. In a first method, the CSM generates a joint estimate of the received power of SSCH sequences corresponding to already detected/identified serving cell and a hypothetical neighbor cell. In a second method, the CSM re-constructs SCH sequences corresponding to already detected cells and subtracts the re-constructed SCH sequences from the received signal to obtain a residual signal with reduced serving cell interference. In a third embodiment, the CSM performs a correlation of estimated channel responses to determine whether the neighbor cell is present.
US08767697B2

The invention discloses a method for a cellular communications system, in which traffic is sent in frames, each frame comprising a first number of subframes, with a second number of said subframes being available for at least either uplink or downlink traffic. At least one of said second number of subframes is made to comprise at least three parts, as follows: One part which is utilized for uplink traffic, One part which is utilized for downlink traffic, One part which is utilized as a guard period, with said guard period part being scheduled between the uplink and the downlink parts. The duration of at least two of said three parts may be varied to fit the current system need.
US08767693B2

A vehicle, comprises a vehicle network bus and a mobile router. The mobile router comprises a local area network interface comprising a first wireless transceiver of a first predetermined type to provide a link to first a local area network and a wide area network interface comprising a second wireless transceiver of a second predetermined type to provide a link to a wide area network. One of the wide area network interface and the local area network interface is selectively operable to establish a wireless communication link with a network management system comprising a communication server. The router further comprises an application executable by at least one processor to selectively acquire predetermined data from the vehicle network bus. The communication agent is operable to upload the predetermined data to the network management system.
US08767688B2

A virtual network image system (VNIS) maintaining virtual counterparts for each of the entities in a real-world, physical wireless local area network (WLAN) to which the VNIS corresponds. The virtual counterparts operate in accordance with a communication protocol that corresponds to that of the WLAN and under the control of a VNIS manager component. The VNIS manager component predicts and optimizes operating configurations associated with the virtual counterparts, based on “what-if” analyses, to provide automation of various services relating to the operation of the physical WLAN.
US08767685B2

The invention provides for a method of identifying a cyclic prefix to UEs in an OFDM communication system. The cyclic prefix has a dynamically variable length. The method includes, within an OFDM cell, transmitting MCCH scheduling information in a system information block in an OFDM broadcast channel, and using the MCCH scheduling information to receive the MCCH, wherein the MCCH contains MTCH scheduling information to indicate to the UE which sub-frame carries MTCH.
US08767676B1

A network device includes a transceiver and a control module. The transceiver transmits, from the network device to a first access point, first packets and second packets, transmits a request signal to a second access point to perform a handover of support for the network device from the first access point to the second access point, and receives a control message from the second access point based on the request signal. The transceiver receives the control message subsequent to transmitting the first packets to the second access point. The control message indicates the second access point received, during the handover, the first packets from the first access point, and one of the first packets from the network device. The control module, based on the control message, refrains from transmitting the one of the first packets, discards the first packets, and has the second packets transmitted to the second access point.
US08767674B2

The invention relates to a method for performing a radio resource control (RRC) connection or reestablishment in a communication system using carrier aggregation (CA), and to a terminal device for same. The present invention involves acquiring information on an additional component carrier (CC) through system information in addition to the CC which is specified during cell selection or reselection, and enables the CC on which additional information is acquired to be usable during the RRC connection or reestablishment performed by user equipment, to thereby prevent loads from being concentrated on a specific CC.
US08767673B2

A method of transmitting messages in a telecommunication system includes a first network offering circuit-switched services, a second network offering packet-switched services, and at least one mobile station supporting the first and the second network. When the need arises to transmit at least one message, a check is made to see if the mobile station is attached to the second network. The message is transmitted to the second network if the mobile station is attached to the second network. The message is transmitted to the first network in case of a failure to transmit the message via the second network.
US08767663B2

A component carrier management method which relates to the communication technical field includes determining one or more component carriers that are required to be added into a physical downlink control channel monitoring set; sending a component carrier activation or configuration message to a user equipment to indicate one or more component carriers that are required to be added into the physical downlink control channel monitoring set. Through the technical solutions, the PDCCH monitoring set of the UE may be managed when CCs are activated or configured, so that the UE may maintain the PDCCH monitoring set in real time, implement monitoring on the CCs in the monitoring set, and ensure a service requirement of the UE.
US08767662B1

A method and system for allocating control channel resources. After initially allocating control channel elements to user equipment (UE), a processing unit may engage in a modification process in an effort to optimize the allocation, which may involve changing a number of control channel elements, taking into account transmission power headroom and predicted error rate.
US08767653B2

UE-initiated accesses within a cellular network are optimized to account for Doppler shift. A user equipment (UE) receives information that designates a particular access slot as high-speed and designates another access slot as low-speed within a given cell. The UE determines its relative speed to a serving base station (NodeB) within the cell. The UE selects either a baseline structure or an alternate structure if the relative speed is less than a threshold value or only an alternate structure if the relative speed exceeds the threshold value. The UE transmits a signal to the NodeB using the selected structure, such that the baseline structure is transmitted only in the designated low-speed access slot and that the alternate structure is transmitted only in the designated high-speed request slot.
US08767651B2

A mobile communication system and method are disclosed for designating the resources to be used for mapping the control signal of HARQ performed by a base station apparatus. The base station apparatus and a mobile station apparatus communicate using a plurality of component carriers. The base station apparatus sets a single downlink component carrier for the mobile station apparatus and allocate, to the mobile station apparatus, a plurality of physical downlink shared channels by using a plurality of physical downlink control channels, which are mapped on the set downlink component carrier in the same subframe. The mobile station apparatus is designated, by the base station apparatus, a plurality of physical uplink control channels corresponding to the respective ones of the plurality of physical downlink control channels mapped on the set downlink component carrier, on a single uplink component carrier that corresponds to the set downlink component carrier.
US08767642B2

For use in a wireless network, a base station configured to communicate in the wireless network is provided. The base station includes a processor coupled to a transmitter and configured to generate a resource allocation message. The resource allocation message includes a plurality of fixed length fields, one or more primary variable-length fields, and a plurality of secondary variable-length fields. The one or more primary variable-length fields occupy a position in the resource allocation message preceding as many of the fixed length fields as permitted by rules that govern a structure of the resource allocation message. The one or more primary variable-length fields are positioned in the resource allocation message such that when the resource allocation message is partitioned and allocated across a sequence of basic units (BUs), every primary variable-length field appears in a smallest possible sequence of BUs starting from the first BU in the sequence.
US08767641B2

In this invention wireless communication of data between a user equipment and a base station including bandwidth aggregation of a plurality of component carriers, includes a first unit transmitting on a first component carrier a grant control signal the other unit specifying a second component carrier different to transmit the typically via a carrier indication field of 3 bits. The carrier indication field can be a one-to-one mapping to each possible second component carrier of a component carrier offset from an anchor carrier, which could be the first component carrier.
US08767639B2

Various processing options and systems are provided for setting/controlling feedback indicators referred to as “Happy Bits” in a wireless communication network using multiple uplink carriers. In one aspect, a Happy Bit is determined independently for each one of a plurality of uplink carriers based on channel conditions and buffer lengths for the respective carrier. For example, if a UE is transmitting the maximum data allowed by its serving grant for that carrier, the UE has available power to increase the data rate on that carrier, and the TEBS delay is greater than a certain threshold, then the Happy Bit for that carrier may be set to Unhappy to inform the Node B that the UE is capable of transmitting at a higher data rate on that carrier.
US08767622B2

Method and system for managing address prefix information associated with handover in network. A fast handover process is achieved for point-to-point communication model. A mobile node send a provisional new care-of-address with an aggregate prefix part to its previous access router, which forwards the address to a new access router. The new access router in response generates a modified new care-of-address with a unique prefix part for the mobile node. Alternatively, the mobile node sends a request to the previous access router for a unique prefix. The request is forwarded from the previous access router to the new access router. The new access router assigns a unique prefix for the mobile node.
US08767618B2

Methods, mobile stations and networks are provided that cause a packet data service reconnect to be performed automatically after the occurrence of an event triggering registration, even in some circumstances where such a data service reconnect would not normally occur. This avoids complications that can arise due to the packet data service being discontinued upon registration and the resulting inability to reach the mobile station.
US08767608B2

For use in a wireless communication network, a subscriber station is capable of switching carriers. The subscriber station is configured to receive an N-bit bitmap from the communication network and determine at least one unicast available interval based on an arrangement of the N bits in the N-bit bitmap. The subscriber station is also configured to switch from a first carrier to a second carrier at a start of the at least one unicast available interval.
US08767604B2

The present invention relates to methods and arrangements in a multi-carrier system. It also assumes independent DRX (Discontinuous reception) functionality on respective component carriers and the possibility for one carrier, e.g. the anchor carrier to initiate a change of DRX state for another component carrier. The basic concept of the present invention is to introduce a new “dormant” state in the DRX logic, whereby the dormant state can be used for non-anchor carrier components. The dormant DRX state implies that a carrier of a UE having this state is not required to monitor system signaling. In embodiments of the present invention this new state is introduced for a particular component carrier (e.g. non-anchor component carrier) for a UE operating in a multi-carrier system, and how to perform the transitions to and from the dormant DRX state implicitly, e.g. based on configured timer(s) for the component carrier or explicit signaling in a different (e.g. anchor) component carriers.
US08767602B2

Various methods and apparatuses for reliably transmitting or receiving messages and data in a Power Saving Class (PSC) mode, which are applicable to a wireless access system, are disclosed. In addition, various methods and apparatuses for retransmitting a management message (e.g., a control message) in the PSC mode are disclosed. Accordingly, the messages and data can be transmitted using a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) scheme.
US08767588B2

A method and apparatus for maintaining a connection between a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and a blanket wireless local area network (BWLAN) are described. An inter-working function (IWF) entity in a given network access point (NAP) of the BWLAN maintains lists of WTRUs in respective states. Furthermore, the given NAP maintains a list of neighbor NAPs, and operates in accordance with a selected WTRU mobility protocol. The states may include a “not aware” (NA) state in which the given NAP is actually not aware of a particular WTRU, an “active transmit” (AT) state in which the given NAP is actively transmitting to a particular WTRU, and a “neighbor range” (NR) state for WTRUs indicated in an update report from neighbor (URN) message that the given NAP was not aware of. The WTRU mobility protocol may be a push mobility protocol or a poll mobility protocol.
US08767579B2

A method includes: receiving symbols from antenna(s); calculating average-channel estimates of the symbols over a measurement period; forming a channel matrix from the average-channel estimates; calculating a power ratio between a closed-loop mode and an open-loop mode for each PCI using the channel matrix; calculating RSCP value(s) and ISCP value(s) corresponding to the antenna(s); averaging the RSCP value(s) and ISCP value(s) over the antenna(s) to provide averaged RSCP and ISCP; calculating open-loop SINR from the averaged RSCP and ISCP; calculating SINR for stream(s) for each PCI from the power ratio and the open-loop SINR; determining TBS for a single stream from a single-stream-CQI table using calculated SINR; determining TBS for all streams from a dual-stream-CQI table using calculated SINR; comparing the TBS of the single stream and TBS of the dual stream to determine whether to select single stream or dual stream; and determining PCI and CQI for the stream(s).
US08767555B1

What is disclosed is a method of operating a call processing system to route a voice-over-packet call between a wireless communication device and a destination device, where the destination device is located in a geographic area served by a communication network. The method includes receiving a request for the call originating from the wireless communication device, where the request comprises a destination identifier of the destination device and a location identifier of the wireless communication device. The method also includes processing the destination identifier and the location identifier to determine if the wireless communication device is located in the geographic area served by the communication network. The method also includes selecting a first route for the call from a packet network serving the wireless communication device to the communication network serving the destination device if the wireless communication device is located in the geographic area served by the communication network, and selecting a second route for the call from the packet network serving the wireless communication device to the communication network serving the destination device if the wireless communication device is not located in the geographic area served by the communication network. The method also includes transferring routing instructions for the call.
US08767543B2

A terminal, server and method for storing and selectively retrieving SIP-based messages, are discussed. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides a method for controlling a SIP-based message by a control server, which includes receiving a SIP-based message; determining a manner in which the SIP-based message is to be processed based on user preference information; transmitting the SIP-based message and indication information to a storage server based on the determination result, the indication information indicating if the SIP-based message is to be sent back with link information, the link information including a reference to the SIP-based message; receiving a part of the SIP-based message and the link information from the storage server; and transmitting the part of the SIP-based message and the link information to a terminal, whereby the SIP-based message can be selectively retrieved.
US08767535B2

A method for controlling resource allocation is provided. The method includes determining a service metric associated with a first application, wherein the first application is associated with one or more virtual machines. The method further includes comparing the service metric to an application specific service level goal associated with the first application and modifying a resource allocation associated with the first application at one or more of the virtual machines.
US08767529B2

In a switching network, each of a plurality of lower tier entities is coupled to each of multiple master switches at an upper tier by a respective one of multiple links. At each of the multiple master switches, a plurality of virtual ports each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of remote physical interfaces (RPIs) at the lower tier are implemented on each of a plurality of ports. Each of the plurality of lower tier entities implements a respective egress port mapping indicating which of its plurality of RPIs transmits egress data traffic through each of its multiple links to the multiple master switches. In response to failure of one of the multiple links coupling a particular lower tier entity to a particular master switch, the particular lower tier entity updates its egress port mapping to redirect egress data traffic to another of the multiple master switches without packet dropping.
US08767528B2

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for receiving reception acknowledgement for HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) in a wireless communication system. A terminal receives, from a base station, an uplink resource allocation that includes information on a plurality of allocated RBs (Resource Blocks) within a subframe that includes the plurality of RBs, and transmits uplink transmission blocks to a PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) by using the plurality of allocated RBs on the subframe. The terminal receives, from the base station, ACk/NACK signals on a PHICH (Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel). PHICH resources used on the PHICH are identified by the lowest index among indexes of the plurality of allocated RBs, and at least two of the indexes of the plurality of RBs are linked by being overlapped with the same PHICH resource.
US08767526B1

A network device may include a supplicant framework to generate a first 802.1x packet using a MAC address, associated with a first device as a first username and password in the first 802.1x packet; and generate a second 802.1x packet using a second username and password received from a second device via a captive-portal web page. The network device may further include an authenticator state machine to authenticate the first device with a Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server using a first Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet that includes the first 802.1x packet; authenticate the second device with the RADIUS server using a second EAP packet that includes the second 802.1x packet; receive a third EAP packet from a third device; and authenticate the third device with the RADIUS server using the third EAP packet.
US08767524B2

Methods and systems for communications that generate a plurality of spatial streams, wherein each of the spatial streams comprises a data packet with a training sequence; and multiply at least a portion of the training sequence in each of the spatial streams with a different spreading sequence. Methods and systems that receive a plurality of spatial streams, wherein each of the spatial streams comprises a data packet with a training sequence; multiply at least a portion of the training sequence in each of the spatial streams with a different spreading sequence; and decode the plurality of spatial streams based on the different spreading sequences.
US08767520B2

A method of producing a recording medium includes preparing a substrate of the recording medium, forming a first face recording layer at a first face side of the substrate, forming a first face protection layer for protecting the first face recording layer on the first face recording layer, forming a second face constituting whole or a part of a layer configuration at a second face side of the substrate, deactivating a protection feature of the first face protection layer; and forming a first face constituting whole or a part of a layer configuration of a first face on the first face protection layer.
US08767510B2

A method for controlling ultrasonic transducers of an ultrasonic probe for inspecting an object includes: iterated at least twice, receiving from the transducers new measurement signals; measuring echoes due to reflections of ultrasonic waves on the object, the ultrasonic waves having emission delays with respect to one another, the emission delays having been determined from initial emission delays and all complementary emission delays determined previously; determining new complementary emission delays from the new measurement signals; controlling the transducers so they emit ultrasonic waves to the object, the ultrasonic waves having emission delays with respect to one another, the emission delays having been determined from the initial emission delays and all the complementary emission delays determined previously.
US08767506B2

An acoustic logging tool emits a wideband acoustic pulse toward an inside surface of a borehole casing and an acoustic response is received. The acoustic response is analyzed at one or more higher order harmonics of the thickness mode resonance of the casing to determine the acoustic impedance of the material behind the casing.
US08767503B2

A clock transfer circuit includes a clock transfer unit configured to receive an external clock and transfer the received external clock as one or more internal clocks and a clock control unit configured to control the clock transfer unit to transfer the external clock as a column clock among the internal clocks in response to an active command and block a transfer of the external clock as the column clock in response to a precharge command.
US08767491B1

A system on a chip includes a semiconductor memory, a memory control module, a non-volatile memory and a memory decoder module. The semiconductor memory has i) first memory locations, and ii) second memory locations. Each of the second memory locations is redundant to one of the first memory locations. The memory control module is configured to detect defective ones of the first memory locations. The non-volatile memory has a memory repair database. The memory repair database is configured to store information associating respective addresses of the defective ones of the first memory locations with one or more of the second memory locations. The memory decoder module is configured to, based on the information stored in the memory repair database, respectively remap the respective addresses of the defective ones of the first memory locations to the one or more of the second memory locations.
US08767489B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a transmission line configured to transmit a fuse enable signal for performance of a repair operation; a first repair enable signal generation unit configured to receive the fuse enable signal through the transmission line and generate a first repair enable signal for performing a repair operation for a first bank; and a second repair enable signal generation unit configured to receive the fuse enable signal through the transmission line and generate a second repair enable signal for performing a repair operation for a second bank.
US08767481B2

A nonvolatile memory device includes a page buffer unit configured to include a plurality of page buffers coupled to the respective bit lines; a pass/fail circuit coupled to the page buffer unit and configured to perform a pass/fail check operation by comparing the amount of current, varying according to verify data stored in the plurality of page buffers, with an amount of reference current corresponding to the number of allowed error correction code bits; and a masking circuit configured to preclude the pass/fail check operation by coupling a ground terminal to sense nodes coupled to the remaining page buffers, respectively, other than page buffers corresponding to column addresses having the identical upper bits as an input column address.
US08767476B2

Methods and apparatus for compensating for charge loss in memories include tracking a specific block of the main memory array and determining charge loss compensation by comparing pre-cycled and post-cycled mean threshold voltages for the tracking block; or tracking each block of the main memory and determining charge loss and compensation on a block by block basis.
US08767470B2

Bit lines of a memory segment are read at substantially the same time by coupling a selected memory segment and, at some of the data lines of any intervening segments, to respective data caches. The bit lines of the unselected memory segments that are not used to couple the selected segment to the data caches can be coupled to their respective source lines.
US08767459B1

A method for data storage includes accepting data for storage in an array of analog memory cells, which are arranged in rows associated with respective word lines. At least a first page of the data is stored in a first row of the array, and at least a second page of the data is stored in a second row of the array, having a different word line from the first row. After storing the first and second pages, a third page of the data is stored jointly in the first and second rows.
US08767453B2

A magnetic device includes a magnetic layer having a variable direction of magnetization, and a first antiferromagnetic layer in contact with the magnetic layer, the first antiferromagnetic layer being able to trap the direction of magnetization of the magnetic layer. The magnetic device also includes a layer made of a ferromagnetic material in contact with the first antiferromagnetic layer through its face opposite to the magnetic layer, the directions of magnetization of the magnetic and ferromagnetic layers being substantially perpendicular. A first layer among the magnetic and ferromagnetic layers has a magnetization, the direction of which is oriented in the plane of the first layer whereas the second of the two layers among the magnetic and ferromagnetic layers has a magnetization, the direction of which is oriented outside of the plane of the second layer.
US08767452B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a stacked body, a semiconductor pillar, a charge storage layer, a tunneling layer, a dividing trench and a first heating unit. The stacked body includes a plurality of first insulating films stacked alternately with a plurality of electrode films. The semiconductor pillar pierces the stacked body. The charge storage layer is provided between the electrode films and the semiconductor pillar. The tunneling layer is provided between the charge storage layer and the semiconductor pillar. The dividing trench is provided between the semiconductor pillars in one direction orthogonal to a stacking direction of the stacked body to divide the electrode films. The first heating unit is provided in an interior of the dividing trench.
US08767441B2

Method for a memory including a first, second, third and fourth cells include applying a read, program, or erase voltage, the first and second cells coupled to a first top interconnect, the third and fourth cells coupled to a second top interconnect, the first and third cells coupled to a first bottom interconnect, the second and fourth cells are to a second bottom interconnect, each cell includes a switching material overlying a non-linear element (NLE), the resistive switching material is associated with a first conductive threshold voltage, the NLE is associated with a lower, second conductive threshold voltage, comprising applying the read voltage between the first top and the first bottom electrode to switch the NLE of the first cell to conductive, while the NLEs of the second, third, and the fourth cells remain non-conductive, and detecting a read current across the first cell in response to the read voltage.
US08767433B2

Methods for testing unprogrammed single transistor and two transistor anti-fuse memory cells include testing for connections of the cells to a bitline by comparing a voltage characteristic of a bitline connected to the cell under test to a reference bitline having a predetermined voltage characteristic. Some methods can use test cells having an access transistor identically configured to the access transistor of a normal memory cell, but omitting the anti-fuse device found in the normal memory cell, for testing the presence of a connection of the normal memory cell to the bitline. Such a test cell can be used in a further test for determining the level of capacitive coupling of the wordline voltage to the bitlines relative to that of a normal memory cell under test.
US08767429B2

A content addressable memory (CAM) system configured for reduced power consumption and increased speed includes a plurality of bit cells implementing a stacked architecture. Each bit cell comprises a pair of stacked storage elements in a first column and a compare circuit, coupled to the pair of stacked storage elements and a matchline of the CAM system, situated in a second column. The stacked architecture results in a reduced matchline length, thereby reducing CAM system power consumption and increasing CAM system speed. Further, a content addressable memory (CAM) system configured for reduced power consumption and increased speed includes storing encoded data in a pair of stacked storage elements.
US08767425B2

Electronic devices require correct power in order to operate correctly. Receiving an incorrect power signal could potentially result in immediate and/or long term harm to the electronic device and/or catastrophic conditions. Certain devices, such as programmable logic controller (“PLC”) modules, may provide variable power to electronic devices, such as field devices comprising sensors and/or actuators. The present inventors have recognized that deciphering between AC and DC input signals before coupling electronic devices to such power sources may advantageously avoid harmful and/or catastrophic conditions. Aspects of the present invention provide an electronic circuit for deciphering between an AC and a DC input signal. Systems and methods are also described.
US08767422B2

An interface arrangement for connection between an AC system and a DC system and to a method of disconnecting a DC system from an AC system are disclosed. The arrangement includes a converter for conversion between AC and DC having a DC side for connection to the DC system and an AC side for being coupled to the AC system, a set of circuit breakers coupled between the AC side of the converter and the AC system and a breaker assisting unit including a set of branches connected between the AC side of the converter and ground, where each branch includes a switch in series with an impedance element.
US08767419B2

A feedback circuit with feedback impedance modulation according to the present invention comprises a compare circuit, a counter and a switching resistor circuit. The compare circuit receives a feedback signal of a power converter to compare the feedback signal with a threshold signal for generating a control signal. The feedback signal is correlated to a load condition of the power converter. The counter is coupled to the compare circuit and generates a modulation signal in response to the control signal. The switching resistor circuit is coupled to the counter and a feedback loop of the power converter for modulating a feedback impedance of the power converter in response to the modulation signal. The feedback impedance is directly modulated from a lower resistance to a higher resistance when the load condition is reduced from a half/full-load to a no/light-load. The feedback impedance is gradually modulated from a higher resistance to a lower resistance when the load condition is increased from the no/light-load to the half/full-load.
US08767418B2

A power converter employing a control system configured to make multiple functional use of a circuit node therein and method of operating the same. In one embodiment, the power converter includes a power train including at least one power switch. The power converter also includes a control system including an opto-isolator circuit, including a resistor, configured to receive an output signal from the power converter and provide a feedback signal to a feedback node for the control system to provide a switch control signal for the at least one power switch. The control system also includes a current source configured to produce multiple voltage levels at the feedback node in accordance with the resistor, thereby enabling multiple functional uses of the feedback node.
US08767417B2

A dual switches Flyback power converter with a wide input voltage range according to the present invention comprises an input diode and an energy-storage capacitor. The input diode can prevent the reflected voltage from the power transformer of the power converter to charge the electrolytic capacitor of the power converter. The energy-storage capacitor will store the reflected voltage and the energy of the leakage inductor of the power transformer. The energy stored in the energy-storage capacitor will be recycled to the output voltage of the power converter. Further, the input diode can be replaced by an input transistor to prevent the reflected voltage from the power transformer to charge the electrolytic capacitor.
US08767413B2

An integrated switching power supply device includes a series-connected body, a driving control element, and external terminals. In the series-connected body, a switching element, a constant current element, and a diode are connected in series. The driving control element controls to drive the constant current element. The external terminals include first to seventh external terminals. The first and second external terminals are connected to main terminals of elements of the series-connected body. The third external terminal is connected to a connection point of main terminals of the switching element or the constant current element and a main terminal of the diode. The fourth external terminal is connected to a control terminal of the switching element. The fifth external terminal supplies electric power to the driving control element. The sixth external terminal inputs reference potential. The seventh external terminal inputs a signal to the driving control element.
US08767410B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic device is provided with: an electronic substrate on which electronic components are provided; a screw including a screw head portion and a threaded portion, and configured to be engaged to the electronic substrate; a conducting member provided between the screw head portion and the electronic substrate and configured to electrically connect the screw head portion and the electronic substrate; and an electrical wiring line provided between the screw head portion and the electronic substrate and configured so as not to be electrically connected to the screw head portion.
US08767408B2

Stacked arrays of components are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first and a second layer of components are electrically and mechanically coupled to an interposer with an encapsulated third layer of components disposed between the first and second layers. The first layer can be configured to attach the stacked array to a host printed circuit board. The interposer can couple signals between the components on the first and second layers.
US08767402B2

An electrical equipment casing includes a circuit board on which many electrical parts are mounted and a heat sink to which the circuit board is fixed. The heat sink is provided with a reactor housing dent that opens in a surface on which the circuit board is placed and radiator fins that reach a bottom portion of the reactor housing dent on a surface opposite to the surface on which the circuit board is placed at a position surrounding an outer circumference of the reactor housing dent. The reactor is housed in the reactor housing dent and a terminal thereof is electrically connected to the circuit board. This structure of the electrical equipment casing can contribute to an achievement of both of a size reduction of the overall casing and enhanced heat dissipation of the reactor.
US08767400B2

A cooling system for an electronics chassis includes a plurality of centrifugal blowers arranged to motivate cooling air through the electronics chassis. The centrifugal blowers are arranged in one or more sets, each having blowers oriented with respective inlets in mutual facing relationship. The orientation, positioning, and alignment of the centrifugal blowers facilitates a compact arrangement of the plurality of blowers that achieves increased aerodynamic efficiencies to reduce noise output and energy consumption.
US08767399B2

The cooling system includes: a frame; a plurality of electronic devices disposed in the frame and operating or functioning independently from each other; fans disposed in the frame and supplying cooling air to the electronic devices; a temperature acquiring portion for acquiring the temperature of the cooling air; an air-flow resistance adjusting portion for adjusting the air-flow resistance to the cooling air; and a controller for controlling the fans and the each air-flow resistance adjusting portion. The controller determines each target cooling air volume required for cooling each electronic device to a predetermined temperature based on temperature information acquired by the temperature acquiring portion and heat generation information on each electronic device, controls each air-flow resistance adjusting portion to set the volume of cooling air to each target cooling air volume, and performs the drive control of the fans to set the volume of cooling air to the minimum necessary.
US08767398B2

A thermal management system for an electrical component includes a printed circuit board (PCB) capable of receiving the electrical component on a first side of the PCB. An elongate member has one end attached to a second side of the PCB, and another end disposed away from the PCB. The elongate member also has an open interior that facilitates fluid communication between the two ends. One of the ends defines an at least partially closed boundary on the PCB. The PCB includes an aperture disposed therethrough proximate the boundary such that fluid communication is facilitated between the first side of the PCB and the second side of the PCB, and along at least a portion of the elongate member.
US08767394B1

An apparatus includes a processor and a display that is operably coupled to the processor. The display includes four sides, where each of the four sides is substantially equal in length, a center of mass for the apparatus is located between a geometric center of the apparatus and an edge of one of the four sides and the edge of one of the four sides includes a grip area that is located on a same side as the center of mass for the apparatus.
US08767392B2

A portable electronic device is provided. The portable electronic device includes a body, an operation interface, a supporting element and an image capturing unit. A receiving recess is formed on the body. The operation interface is disposed on the body. The supporting element is rotated between a first orientation and a second orientation relative to the body, wherein when the supporting element is in the first orientation, the supporting element is in the receiving recess, and when the supporting element is in a second orientation, an angle is formed between the supporting element and the body, wherein the angle is greater than 0 degree. The image capturing unit is disposed in the supporting element.
US08767390B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing, a circuit board in the housing, a first back plate on the circuit board, a second back plate on the circuit board, and a connecting portion connecting the first back plate with the second back plate.
US08767389B2

A system includes a first apparatus and a second apparatus. The first apparatus includes a first surface, a depression in the first surface, and a first connector disposed on the first surface. The depression has a bottom with a hole through which a screw for assembling the apparatus is passed and accommodates the head of the screw. The second apparatus includes a second surface facing the first surface when the first apparatus is detachably attached, a second connector disposed on the second surface and engaging with the first connector, and a protrusion fixed into the depression when the first apparatus is attached.
US08767386B2

A fastening device for a hard disk drive (HDD) includes a bottom plate and two fastening members. Two protrusions protrude up from the bottom plate. A positioning portion is formed on the bottom plate. The positioning portion defines a hooking slot. Each fastening member includes a connection wall, and a top wall and a bottom wall perpendicularly extending from top and bottom sides of the connection wall. The top walls are fastened to a bottom of the HDD. Each bottom wall defines an engaging hole. The engaging hole includes a large first hole and two small second holes communicating with opposite sides of the first hole. A latch is formed on one of the fastening members. The HDD is operable to slide to allow the protrusions to enter the corresponding second holes from the corresponding first holes, and to allow the latch to engage in the hooking slot.
US08767385B2

A protective cover for an electronic device that has an interactive control panel includes a protective shell having a first member and a second member. The second member is configured to join with the first case. An aperture defined by the protective shell aligns with the interactive control panel. A protective membrane for an electronic device includes a sheet of engineered thermoplastic having dimensions corresponding to features of a surface of the electronic device, and has a combination of sufficient thinness and a dielectric constant that together permit capacitive inputs on a front side of the protective membrane to be transmitted to the capacitance sensing interactive control panel. The protective cover and/or the protective membrane include a metalized coating or metallic additive.
US08767382B2

A server rack according to the present invention mounts a plurality of servers. The server rack includes a plurality of central power supply units, each of which arranged between the plurality of servers with regular intervals, each of the plurality of central power supply units supplying electric power to one or more of the servers; and a direct-current power supply cable that connects the server and the central power supply unit. The direct-current power supply cable connects each of the servers and the central power supply units within a range of a predetermined distance.
US08767378B2

An electrically conductive paste composition comprises: (a) silver powders comprising spherical silver powders having a mean particle size (D50) of over 0.1 μm and no more than 5 μm and flake-shaped silver powders having a mean particle size of no more than 10 μm; and (b) binder resins comprise (b-1) aliphatic thermoplastic resin and (b-2) self-polymerizing thermosetting resin; wherein the content of the silver powders is no more than 60 wt % based on the total weight of the paste composition, wherein the weight ratio of the aliphatic thermoplastic resin for the self-polymerizing thermosetting resin ((b-1)/(b-2)) is 99/1-67/33 and wherein the weight ratio of the silver powders for the binder resins ((a)/(b)) is 94/6-85/15.
US08767372B2

The invention relates to an ignition device for igniting fuel in an internal combustion engine by generating a corona discharge, comprising an insulator which carries a center electrode, a coil attached to the center electrode, the coil being wound onto a bobbin and enclosed by a tube housing. According to the invention, the coil tapers toward the insulator.
US08767370B2

Providing noise protection in a signal transmission system that includes a first component, second component, controller, switch, and pre-charged capacitor, the first and second components coupled by a signal line, the controller coupled to the switch, the switch configured to couple the signal line to the capacitor when activated, where providing noise protection includes: determining, by the controller, that a signal transmitted on the signal line transitioned to a steady state voltage; enabling, by the controller responsive to determining that the signal transitioned to the steady state voltage, noise protection to the signal on the signal line including activating the switch thereby coupling the signal line to the pre-charged capacitor, the pre-charged capacitor providing noise protection to the signal on the signal line; and prior to the signal on the signal line transitioning from the steady state voltage, deactivating the switch, thereby decoupling the signal line from the pre-charged capacitor.
US08767369B2

A power unit (e.g., inverter module) includes a housing and a switch attached to the housing. The switch may be configured to be electrically coupled to a remotely-mounted drive circuit through two or more wire leads. The power unit also includes a clamping circuit electrically coupled to terminals of the switch and in parallel with the switch. The clamping circuit may be disposed inside the housing or on an outer surface of the housing, and is configured to limit a voltage across the switch.
US08767367B2

With a wire protection method in accordance with the present invention, the method being used for supplying electric power from a power source to a load, an applied-current to the load is detected every predetermined time, A wire rise temperature is calculated using the detected applied-current I(n) and by a relational expression concerning heat radiation and heat generation of the wire. The calculated rise in temperature is added to a reference temperature so that a wire temperature is estimated. When the estimated wire temperature is lower than a predetermined upper limit temperature, the calculation of the rise in temperature is repeated. When the estimated wire temperature has become equal to or higher than the predetermined upper limit temperature, the electric power supply from the power source to the load is stopped so that the wire is protected.
US08767366B2

An apparatus and method is disclosed for providing an electrostatic discharge protection circuit for compound semiconductor devices and circuits. The electrostatic discharge protection circuit comprises a first terminal and a second terminal. The electrostatic discharge protection circuit further comprises a transistor shunt element that is operably coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal; the transistor shunt element is capable of providing a bi-directional discharge path between the first terminal and the second terminal. The electrostatic discharge protection circuit further comprises a shut-off element that is operably coupled with the second terminal; the shut-off element is capable of keeping the transistor shunt element turned-off.
US08767362B2

An islanded power system with a distributed power supply includes a system abnormality detection unit, which outputs an abnormality detection signal when an abnormality in a commercial system is detected; a breaker, which interrupts a supply of power from the commercial system when the abnormality detection signal is input from the system abnormality detection unit; a status detection unit, which outputs a breaker status signal when the breaker's open state is detected; and an electrical storage device, which compensates a fluctuation in load until a rotating machine generator switches to an islanded operation after the supply of power from the commercial system is interrupted by the breaker by starting the supply of power when the breaker status signal is input.
US08767360B2

A ESD protection scheme is disclosed for circuits with multiple power domains. Embodiments include: coupling a first power clamp to a first power rail and a first ground rail of a first domain; coupling a second power clamp to a second power rail and a second ground rail of a second domain; providing a blocking circuit for blocking current from an ESD event; providing an I/O interface connection in the first domain for transmitting signals from the first domain to the blocking circuit; providing a core interface connection in the second domain for transmitting signals from the blocking circuit to the second domain; coupling an input connection of the blocking circuit to the I/O interface connection; and coupling an output connection of the blocking circuit to a core interface connection.
US08767354B1

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a non-volatile memory and control circuitry comprising an interface operable to receive a supply voltage, and a capacitor. An operating voltage regulator converts the supply voltage into an operating voltage used to operate the non-volatile memory. The supply voltage is used to charge the capacitor to a capacitor voltage higher than the supply voltage, and during a power failure, a backup voltage regulator converts the capacitor voltage into a backup voltage substantially equal to the supply voltage. The operating voltage regulator converts the backup voltage into the operating voltage used to operate the non-volatile memory.
US08767351B1

The presently disclosed technology describes systems and methods for attaining a ball bond using less than 1 thousandth of an inch diameter gold wire using ultrasonic bonding energy and without heating an underlying bonding pad. The ball bond allows the use of particularly small bonding pads that are particularly close to adjacent microelectronic structures that limit the use of other bonding techniques that have shallow take-off angles.
US08767349B2

As track densities increase, it becomes increasingly important, while writing in a given track, not to inadvertently write data in adjoining tracks. This problem has been overcome by limiting the width of material in the ABS plane to what it is at the write gap. The part of the lower pole that is wider than this is recessed back away from the ABS, thereby greatly reducing its magnetic influence on adjacent tracks. Four different embodiments of write heads that incorporate this notion are described together with a description of a general process for their manufacture.
US08767346B2

A magnetic recording head includes a first magnetic pole, a second magnetic pole, a spin torque oscillator, a first coil, a second coil, and a third coil. The first magnetic pole applies a recording magnetic field to a magnetic recording medium. The second magnetic pole is provided parallel to the first magnetic pole. At least a portion of the spin torque oscillator is provided between the first magnetic pole and the second magnetic pole. The first coil magnetizes the first magnetic pole. A current is passed through the second coil independently of the first coil. A current is passed through the third coil independently of both the first coil and the second coil.
US08767345B2

A thermally actuated head for magnetic head for magnetic data recording having a contact sensor for detecting contact between the head and a magnetic disk. The contact sensor includes a thermal sensor film and first and second leads, wherein the leads extend at least as far from the ABS as the thermal sensor film. More preferably the leads extend slightly further from the ABS than the sensor film so that contact between the magnetic disk and the contact sensor occurs at the leads rather than at the sensor film. The sensor film can be constructed of NiFe, preferably having 30-70 atomic percent Ni or more preferably 40-60 atomic percent Ni or most preferably 40-50 atomic percent Ni. The leads are preferably constructed of one or more of Ru, Rh or Ta or an alloy whose primary constituents are Ru, Rh or Ta.
US08767344B2

In one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a main pole having a leading side and a trailing side relative to a downtrack direction, a side gap layer positioned adjacent to the main pole in a crosstrack direction, and a side shield layer positioned adjacent the side gap layer in a crosstrack direction. The downtrack direction is in a direction of medium travel relative to the main pole, the crosstrack direction is perpendicular to the downtrack direction, the side gap layer is characterized by having a groove therein in the downtrack direction having the main pole positioned therein, the side shield is characterized by having a groove formed therein in the downtrack direction having the side gap layer positioned therein, the side gap is non-conformal in shape, and a position of the side shield relative to a position of the main pole is characterized as being self-aligned.
US08767335B2

A method according to one embodiment includes selecting an initial radius value (Rfull) for an outgoing reel, where Rfull is the initial radius of a tape on the outgoing reel; unwinding the tape from the outgoing reel; computing a radius value of the tape on the outgoing reel during the unwinding; adjusting the computed radius with an offset calculated from a direct measurement of velocity from the tape position; and outputting the adjusted computed radius. A method according to another embodiment includes selecting an initial radius value (R0) for an incoming reel, where R0 is the initial radius of the incoming reel; winding the tape onto the incoming reel; computing a radius value of the tape on the incoming reel during the winding; adjusting the computed radius with an offset calculated from a direct measurement of velocity from the tape position; and outputting the adjusted computed radius.
US08767331B2

The present disclosure relates generally to writing and reading data from a magnetic tape storage media and, more particularly, to a secure erasure system for the eradication of the data contained in the data tracks of a tape media such that substantially all of the data can be erased while leaving the servo bands substantially unaltered or within specification. A data tape cartridge erased with such a system can then be reused in a secure data storage environment with complete confidence that any data from a previous usage is not subject to discovery.
US08767330B2

A data storage library is described including a plurality of tape cartridges wherein each of the tape cartridges possesses an auxiliary radio frequency memory device in which auxiliary digital data is stored. The library also includes at least one drive disposed substantially within the library capable of transferring user data to and from one of the tapes. The library further includes at least one auxiliary radio frequency memory device reader that capable of reading the auxiliary digital data and transmitting the auxiliary digital data to at least one designated location, the reader is independent of the at least one drive.
US08767328B2

An apparatus and associated method related to reading from memory an indicia that is dedicated to identifying a first portion less than an entirety of an addressable storage medium, the first portion having previously been subjected to a certification scrutiny. In relation to results of the reading, a second portion less than the entirety of the addressable storage medium is selected for subsequently subjecting the second portion to the certification scrutiny.
US08767318B2

A catadioptric lens system includes, in order of light travel: a first lens group that includes a concave mirror and a convex mirror and has a positive refractive power; a second lens group that is positioned on the image side of the concave mirror and has a negative refractive power; and a third lens group that has a positive refractive power, wherein a close-range object is brought into focus by moving the second lens group in a direction parallel with the optical axis, and wherein the following conditional expression is satisfied 0
US08767317B2

An optical imaging lens includes five lens elements. The first lens element has a positive refracting power, and its object-side surface has a convex portion near the optical axis and a concave portion near its periphery. The second lens element has a negative refracting power, and its object-side surface has a convex portion near its periphery. The third lens element has an object-side surface having a concave portion near its periphery and an image-side surface having a convex portion near its periphery. The fourth lens element has an object-side surface having a concave portion near its periphery and an image-side surface having a convex portion near its periphery. The image-side surface of the fifth lens element has a concave portion in a vicinity of the optical axis and a convex portion near its periphery.
US08767313B2

A zoom lens including, in order from object side: a positive first unit fixed for zooming; a negative second unit moving for zooming; a zoom unit including at least one unit moving for zooming; a stop; and a fixed unit. The first unit includes a negative first sub-unit not moving for focusing, and a positive second sub-unit and a positive third sub-unit moving toward image side and object side, respectively, when focusing from infinity object to proximity object. A focal lengths of the first and second units, a distance from a vertex of a surface closest to the image side in the first unit to an image side principal point position of the first unit, a thickness of the first unit on an optical axis, and lateral magnifications of the second and third sub-units when focusing on infinity object are appropriately set.
US08767309B2

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 multiple segments of a torus convex toward the optical axis. Embodiments may also include a lens of suitable size and shape for inclusion in a contact lens.
US08767302B2

A laminated optical disk, applied for lighting system or solar energy system, includes a plurality of annular lenses, a base and a circular light guiding unit. The annular lenses are arranged in order from center to outside to form a disk-structure. Each annular lens has a light-input curved surface and a light-output curved surface respectively matching the different thickness of the base. The light-input curved surface is opposite to the center. The light-output curved surface is opposite to the light-input curved surface, and facing to the center. The light is incident on the light-input curved surface, refracted and tended to concentrate by the light-input curved surface. Besides, the light exiting from the annular lens is to be refracted to the direction of the center by the light-output curved surface. The base of the laminated optical disk can significantly improve the light leakage problem by different annular lenses.
US08767301B2

A method of forming a non-polarizing pellicle beamsplitter having a desired power-tap ratio. The method includes the operation of forming a base layer having a base refractive index on a substrate and arranging a plurality of alternating layers having relatively high and low indexes of refraction respectively over the base layer. The thickness of each of the high index and low index layers is selected to substantially eliminate polarization of the optical beam. The method further includes the operation of removing a selected area of the substrate to create an optical pathway comprised of both the base layer and the plurality of alternating layers, and where the optical pathway is configured to transmit and reflect a selected amount of light in the optical beam.
US08767300B2

Objects are to obtain a highly accurate diffraction element that may prevent an intensity decrease of a light beam entering a light receiving unit without a decrease in diffraction efficiency and without a problem of flare or the like, a manufacturing method for the diffraction element, and a spectrometer using the same. A diffraction element (2) includes a diffraction grating formed on a substrate having a curved surface. In the diffraction element (2), the curved surface (3) has an anamorphic shape formed by pivoting a curved line (I) in a plane about a straight line (II) in the same plane serving as a rotation axis, and gratings (10a) of the diffraction grating (10) exist in cross sections orthogonal to the rotation axis.
US08767291B2

A pulsed laser system includes a variable attenuator located in a secondary optical path bounded by a target surface and one or more reflective surfaces outside of the primary laser oscillator of the laser system. The variable attenuator isolates an output optical amplifier of the laser system from light reflected from the target during time periods between laser pulses. In some embodiments, the variable attenuator is synchronously controlled with the primary laser oscillator. In some other embodiments, the variable attenuator is controlled separately from the primary laser oscillator to shape the generated laser pulses.
US08767288B2

Systems and methods for amplification are shown that include a pump preparation module configured to provide a pump output that includes a plurality of pump modes; an amplification module configured to accept a multimode signal input and the pump output, such that the pump output causes an amplification of a plurality of modes in the signal input to produce an amplified signal output; and a gain control module configured to adjust a balance of the plurality of pump modes in the pump output to produce a predetermined amplified signal output.
US08767282B2

A plasmonic polarizer and a method for fabricating the plasmonic polarizer are provided. The method deposits alternating layers of non-metallic film and metal, forming a stack. A hard mask is formed overlying the stack. The hard mask comprises structures having dimensions and periods between adjacent structures less than a first length, where the first length is equal to (a first wavelength of light/2). The stack is etched through openings in the hard mask to form pillar stacks of alternating non-metallic and metal layers having the dimensions of the hard mask structures. Then, the hard mask structures are removed. In one aspect, subsequent to removing the hard mask structures, the spaces between the pillar stacks are filled with a dielectric material.
US08767277B2

The optical density of a first primary color is determined using two test patches. The first patch is printed with only the first primary color and a second primary color. The second patch is printed using the first primary color and a second primary color. The optical density of both patches is measured. The optical density of the first primary color is determined using the measured optical density of the second primary color and the measured optical density of the first patch.
US08767273B2

An image-reading system that includes a plurality of image-reading apparatuses each including a document reading start instructing unit, and an information processing terminal connected to the image-reading apparatuses, wherein each of the image-reading apparatuses includes a detecting unit that detects that a user operates the document reading start instructing unit, a reading unit that reads a document when the detecting unit detects the operation of the user, and an image file transmitting unit that transmits an image file of the document read by the reading unit to the information processing terminal.
US08767257B2

A method of determining print media attributes of print media, which includes the following steps: obtaining information from a package of print media using an image recognition system associated with the image forming apparatus; sending the information via a network connection to at least one print media database server for determination of print media attributes for the package of print media; determining the print media attributes of the package of print media by matching the information obtained from the image recognition system to a print attribute database hosted by the at least one print media database server, the print attribute database containing print media attributes for a plurality of print mediums, which are available to a plurality of image forming apparatuses; and sending the print media attributes for the package of print media to the image forming apparatus, which generates printer configuration settings for the print media.
US08767253B2

An information processing apparatus includes a script file storage unit and a script execution unit. The script file storage unit stores therein a first script to convert the data format of print setting information from a first format to a second format, and a second script for converting the data format of the print setting information from the second format to the first format. At least part of the print setting information in the first format cannot be changed through an application. The print setting information in the second format can be changed through the application. The script execution unit executes at least one of the first script and the second script in accordance with a request from the application.
US08767250B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an acquiring unit; a resolution converting unit; a receiving unit; a position determining unit; a correcting unit; and a scaling unit. The acquiring unit acquires image data composed of a plurality of pixels; the scaling-factor determining unit determines a scaling factor of the acquired image data; the resolution converting unit converts a resolution of the acquired image data into a higher resolution than the resolution of the image data; the receiving unit receives a designation of a sub-scanning directional shift amount of a correction pixel to be corrected; a position determining unit performs a position determining process; and the scaling unit scales the image data at the determined scaling factor by causing the position determining unit and the correcting unit.
US08767248B2

A label data processing apparatus including: a label data storage unit configured to store one or more label data for printing a label; and a display unit configured to switch and display, per label, an editing screen including at least a portion of text data included in each label data, as a selection candidate for the label data.
US08767244B2

An image forming apparatus has a plurality of application execution environments, and includes a control part in each of the application execution environments, configured to control an application executed in a corresponding application execution environment. The control part in an application execution environment controls an application executed in an other application execution environment via the control part of the other application execution environment.
US08767241B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for selection of print services in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, in a typical embodiment, a request (e.g., comprising a print job) is received from a user, and a print template is identified. The print template generally comprises a set of parameters (e.g., paper size, colors, etc.) for printing the print job request. A location of the user will be determined, and a set of printers (e.g., within a predetermined proximity of the location) that is capable of printing the job in accordance with the set of parameters is identified. Thereafter, a particular printer will be identified from the set of printers based on a set of service level commitments (e.g., a desired distance from the location, a queue length, etc.). The job can then be sent to the particular printer for printing.
US08767234B2

A home/office printer for selectively printing and transmitting photographs as recorded on a memory card is disclosed. The printer includes a read-slot for inserting a memory card and a network coupling for transferring photographic images to an online printing service. The printer further includes an operating software, which is configured to print the photographic images recorded on a memory card and alternatively to transfer the photographic images data to an online printing service, as a print order, via the network coupling.
US08767230B2

A variable printing system includes: an image forming apparatus including an engine for variable printing; a device communicatively connected to the image forming apparatus; a first control section included in one of the image forming apparatus and the device; and a second control section included in one of the image forming apparatus and the device. The first control section acquires setting information of the engine corresponding to a job instructing variable printing, and performs one of adding the setting information into the job, and storing the setting information in a form of a database. The second control section analyses an output result of a job which has been executed and setting information of the engine corresponding to the job, and instructs the engine, based on a result of the analysis, to change a setting of the engine corresponding to a job to be executed or being executed.
US08767229B2

A printing system includes a printing device for printing onto a recording medium; a media advance system for moving the recording medium into position to be printed on by the printing device when the printing system is in an operating mode; a connector for receiving AC line voltage; a power supply for converting the AC line voltage into a plurality of DC voltages; a wireless communication device for receiving image data; a controller for controlling printer operation when the printing system is in the operating mode, and for turning off at least one of the plurality of DC voltages when the printing system is in a low power mode; and an energy storage device for powering the wireless communication device when the printing system is in the low power mode.
US08767226B2

An information processing apparatus comprises a first installer for installing a driver corresponding to the image output apparatus, wherein the first installer is executed to install, in the information processing apparatus, a first driver and a second installer for installing a second driver, the installed first driver includes: unit configured to generate a first print queue to connect to a first connection port of the image output apparatus; unit configured to transmit an address acquisition request and acquire an address of a second connection port of the image output apparatus; and unit configured to, upon accepting an instruction to generate a second print queue using the print server as a connection destination, launch the second installer to install the second driver, and generate the second print queue, and the launched second installer generates the second print queue using the address of the second connection port that is acquired.
US08767218B2

An optical arrangement for the non-contact measurement or testing of properties of a solid's surface, such as curvature, shape, contour, roughness or alignment. An optical arrangement includes structure for establishing a gap between the solid's surface and a reference edge, structure for imaging the gap on a detector, and an analyzing system connected to the detector. The analyzing system is designed to determine gap widths lying adjacent to each other on the basis of the output signals of the detector, and to determine curvature, shape, contour or roughness of the solid's surface on the basis of the gap widths lying adjacent to each other. From the comparison of the images obtained from any two positions within a drilled hole, deductions can be made, among other things, about any tilt between the measuring object and the measuring system.
US08767213B2

A turbidity sensor for use in a machine for washing articles, e.g., a washing machine (400). The turbidity sensor comprises a light source (210) for emitting light. The emitted light has a radiant intensity which is variable. The sensor further comprises a light-sensitive element (220) for receiving light emitted from the light source (210). The light source (211) and the light-sensitive element (220) are positioned relative to each other so that, when the light source (210) is in operation, light emitted from the light source (210) can propagate through a washing liquid contained in the washing machine (400) on its way to the light sensitive element (220). The light-sensitive element (220) is configured to measure the radiant intensity of light received at the light-sensitive element (221). Furthermore, the sensor comprises a controller (230) which is communicatively coupled to the light source (210) and the light-sensitive element (220). The controller (230) is configured to adjust the radiant intensity of the light emitted by the light source (210) in dependence of the measured radiant intensity of light received at the light-sensitive element (220).
US08767210B1

The present invention comprises an approach for calibrating the sensitivity to polarization, optics degradation, spectral and stray light response functions of instruments on orbit. The concept is based on using an accurate ground-based laser system, Ground-to-Space Laser Calibration (GSLC), transmitting laser light to instrument on orbit during nighttime substantially clear-sky conditions. To minimize atmospheric contribution to the calibration uncertainty the calibration cycles should be performed in short time intervals, and all required measurements are designed to be relative. The calibration cycles involve ground operations with laser beam polarization and wavelength changes.
US08767206B2

Wavelength information indicating a correspondence relationship between a plurality of light receiving elements of a light receiving unit and wavelengths of pieces of lights is stored. First and second intensity distributions of the light related to first and second dispersion images are acquired based on a signal outputted from each of the light receiving elements when a monochromatic light is passed through a opening of a light shielding body and first and second dispersion images related to primary and secondary diffracted light are formed on the light receiving unit. An estimated intensity distribution of the light related to the second dispersion image is calculated from the first intensity distribution according to a predetermined relational expression. A change amount related to the wavelength information is calculated based on the estimated intensity distribution and the second intensity distribution. The wavelength information is corrected according to the change amount.
US08767193B2

Methods for tracking the relative velocity between a vehicle and a target that uses both a measured velocity as well as an estimate of the velocity that is based on tracking the peaks in a laser vibrometer return signal.
US08767190B2

A LiDAR-based 3-D point cloud measuring system includes a base, a housing, a plurality of photon transmitters and photon detectors contained within the housing, a rotary motor that rotates the housing about the base, and a communication component that allows transmission of signals generated by the photon detectors to external components. In several versions of the invention, the system includes a vertically oriented motherboard, thin circuit boards such as ceramic hybrids for selectively mounting emitters and detectors, a conjoined D-shaped lens array, and preferred firing sequences.
US08767185B2

In general, one aspect of the technology described can be embodied in methods that include the action of applying a writing mechanism having non-isotropic writing properties resulting from different degrees of coherence interaction in a sweep direction and a cross-sweep direction, writing an image pattern twice on a work piece using the writing mechanism rotated relative to the image pattern written on the workpiece between first and second writings, whereby writing with the rotated writing mechanism averages the non-isotropic properties. The lesser included angle separating first and second relative directions of movement between a workpiece and writing mechanism may be 20 degrees or greater, or somewhat less, under conditions described herein.
US08767181B2

In an exposure method for exposing a substrate which is arranged in the area of an image plane of a projection objective as well as in a projection exposure system for performing that method, output radiation directed at the substrate and having an output polarization state is produced. Through variable adjustment of the output polarization state with the aid of at least one polarization manipulation device, the output polarization state can be formed to approach a nominal output polarization state. The polarization manipulation can be performed in a control loop on the basis of polarization-optical measuring data.
US08767173B2

A lithographic projection apparatus projects a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate using a projection system and includes a liquid supply system configured to at least partly fill a space between the projection system and the substrate with a liquid. An element of the projection system through which the pattern is projected has, on a surface configured to be in contact with the liquid, a protective coating which is substantially insoluble in the liquid.
US08767172B2

A projection optical device includes a projection optical system which projects an image of a pattern, a support member attached to the projection optical system, and a plurality of coupling members connected to the support member. The coupling members suspend and support the projection optical system through the support member from an upper direction of the support member. The projection optical device can include a frame to which one end of each of the coupling members is attached, such that the projection optical system hangs from the frame via the support member and the coupling members. A projection optical device also can include a liquid supply which supplies a temperature-controlled liquid to a side surface of a projection optical system utilizing gravity to cause the temperature-controlled liquid to flow along the side surface of the projection optical system.
US08767167B2

The display panel includes an opposite substrate and an array substrate. The opposite substrate includes a first substrate including a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, a first wire electrode formed on the first surface, a first transparent electrode formed on the first surface and partially overlapping with the first wire electrode, and a common electrode formed on the second surface. The first wire on the first surface is formed before the first transparent electrode on the first surface. The array substrate includes a second substrate including a third surface facing the second surface, and a pixel layer formed on the third surface and facing the common electrode.
US08767166B2

In the liquid crystal display device where a liquid crystal layer exhibiting a blue phase is interposed between a first substrate and a second substrate, a pixel electrode layer (first electrode layer) and a common electrode layer (second electrode layer) provided between the first substrate and the liquid crystal layer are positioned not to overlap with each other. The pixel electrode layer is formed to cover top and side surfaces of a rib-shaped first structure body which projects into the liquid crystal layer from a surface of the first substrate on the liquid crystal layer side. The common electrode layer is formed to cover top and side surfaces of a rib-shaped second structure body which projects into the liquid crystal layer from the surface of the first substrate on the liquid crystal layer side.
US08767165B2

A preferred embodiment relates to a cooling system and a method for cooling an electronic display. Exemplary embodiments include a transparent gas cooling chamber. The components in the system are preferably housed within the electronic display housing. The cooling chamber defines a gas compartment that is anterior to and coextensive with the electronic display surface. Fans may be used to propel the isolated gas through the cooling chamber. The circulating gas removes heat directly from the electronic display surface by convection. The isolated gas is transparent or at least semi-transparent. The image quality of an exemplary embodiment remains essentially unchanged, even though the gas is flowing through a narrow channel over the visible face of the electronic display surface.
US08767158B2

A liquid crystal panel having an array substrate, a color filter substrate, a plurality of pixel units provided on both of the array substrate and the color filter substrate, a common electrode and a pixel electrode being provided in each of the pixel units such that when polarity of voltage difference between the pixel electrode and the common electrode in one first pixel unit is identical to that in one second pixel unit, the direction of an electric field formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode and for driving liquid crystal molecules to display at a gray level in the first pixel unit is opposite to that in the second pixel unit.
US08767157B2

A liquid crystal display comprises a liquid crystal panel including subpixels formed in a matrix, each of the subpixels comprising: a first area, a second area, and a third area partitioned off in a long-axis direction; a first pixel electrode arranged in the long-axis direction of the first area; second pixel electrodes extending from the first pixel electrode in a central area of the long-axis direction and arranged in the first to third areas; third pixel electrodes extending from the first pixel electrode, divided into third pixel electrodes on one side and third pixel electrodes on the other side with respect to the second pixel electrodes, and arranged in plural number in the first to third areas, the slope of the electrodes arranged in the first and third areas being steeper than the slope of the electrodes arranged in the second area with respect to a virtual horizontal line passing through the central area; a first common electrode disposed on the same layer as the first to third pixel electrodes and arranged in the long-axis direction of the third area; a second common electrode extending from the first common electrode in the central area and arranged between the second pixel electrodes; and third common electrodes extending from the first common electrode, divided into third common electrodes on one side and third common electrodes on the other side with respect to the second pixel electrodes, arranged in plural number in the first to third areas, and having the same slope as the third pixel electrodes.
US08767151B2

There is provided an integrated wide viewing film including: a first film having an optical axis located in-plan; and a second film having an optical axis located in a thickness direction thereof, and inclined at a predetermined angle in an in-plane direction. The IPS-LCD employing the integrated wide viewing film can be significantly improved in a contrast ratio in a diagonal direction.
US08767142B2

A liquid crystal display device (1) includes a liquid crystal display panel (2), a metal backlight chassis (4), a metal bezel (13), a printed circuit board (31), an electric conductor (14) via which the metal backlight chassis (4) and a ground land part (31f) of the printed circuit board (31) are electrically connected with each other, and a frame (10) having an insertion hole in which the electric conductor (14) is inserted.
US08767136B2

In a display device, a liquid crystal capacitive element is sandwiched between a pixel electrode and an opposite electrode. The pixel electrode, one end of a first switch circuit, one end of a second switch circuit and a first terminal of a second transistor form an internal node. The other terminals of the first switch circuit and the second switch circuit are connected to a source line. The second switch circuit is a series circuit composed of a first transistor and a diode. A control terminal of the first transistor, a second terminal of the second transistor and one end of a boost capacitive element form an output node. The other end of the boost capacitive element and the control terminal of the second transistor are connected to a boost line and a reference line, respectively.
US08767131B2

A semiconductor device includes a one-segment tuner I/F that is connected to a one-segment tuner, a tuner I/F that is connected to a digital terrestrial tuner, a decoder that selectively decodes a first broadcast signal supplied from the one-segment tuner I/F and a second broadcast signal supplied from the tuner I/F, a general purpose processor that is provided separately from the decoder and decodes the first broadcast signal, and a switch unit that, based on signal intensity of the second broadcast wave, switches the decoding by the decoder between the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal while the general purpose processor is decoding the first broadcast signal. The one-segment tuner I/F, the tuner I/F, the decoder, the general purpose processor, and the switch unit are integrated on one chip.
US08767125B2

A video display device, a video output device, and a video system are provided, each of which has a user-interface having high usability in menu operation so that false operation may be prevented, and a menu-screen-display control method is provided. The menu-screen-display control method includes: determination process of determining which device, of a video display device and one or more video output devices connected to the video display device, is an object of operation through a menu screen displayed on the video display device; and prohibition process of setting a non-object device into a menu-operation-prohibited mode, the non-object device being a device other than an operation object device which is determined to be the object of operation through the menu screen under display.
US08767122B2

A method of controlling reproduction for a stream containing video data and/or audio data is disclosed. A mute process is performed for a decoded output of the stream. A first decode process is performed to decode a partial region of the stream from a beginning thereof and obtain attribute information from the stream. Parameters with which the stream is reproduced are set on a basis of the attribute information. The mute process is stopped after the parameters have been set. A second decode process is performed to decode the stream from the beginning thereof.
US08767117B2

Pixel values of focus detection pixels are suitably corrected according to reducing occurrence of a residual error of correction. A digital camera ii includes a CCD, an AF detection circuit, a specific pixel correction unit and the like. The CCD has standard pixels and phase difference pixels arranged in a predetermined pattern on an imaging surface, and outputs an image signal of one frame. The AF detection circuit evaluates an in-focus state by referring to a pixel value of the phase difference pixels from the image signal. The specific pixel correction unit determines a first correction value by multiplying the pixel value of the phase difference pixels by a predetermined gain, and compares the first correction value with the pixel value of the standard pixels around the phase difference pixels. If the first correction value is equal to or less than the maximum of those pixel values and equal to or more than their minimum, the pixel values of the phase difference pixels are replaced with the first correction value. Otherwise, the pixel values of the phase difference pixels are replaced with a second correction value obtained by averaging the pixel values of peripheral pixels.
US08767108B2

A solid-state imaging device includes pixels each having a photoelectric conversion element for converting incident light to an electric signal, color filters associated with the pixels and having a plurality of color filter components, microlenses converging the incident light through the color filters to the photoelectric conversion elements, a light shielding film disposed between the color filter components of the color filters, and a nonplanarized adhesive film provided between the color filters and the light shielding film.
US08767102B2

This disclosure describes a method of improving filter wheel imaging data capture and other functionality through use of an improved filter wheel design with pie shaped filter segments, continuously rotating image capture, multiple filtered images, and easily removable and attachable filter segments.
US08767101B2

There is provided an image processing apparatus and system for demosaicing. The image processing apparatus comprises an edge determination module configured to determine whether a target pixel is an edge pixel and a direction of an image edge if the target pixel is an edge pixel; and a demosaicing module configured to extract a luminance component value of the target pixel using a Bayer image pattern having the target pixel in a central portion of the Bayer image pattern, wherein the demosaicing module is configured to extract the luminance component value of the target pixel using the Bayer image pattern by a weighting process if the target pixel is determined as an edge pixel.
US08767091B2

An embodiment of the invention is a method of generating a final exposure setting, including, (a) selecting one of a number of predetermined exposure settings as a current exposure setting for a solid state camera having a camera imager, (b) generating a captured scene by the camera imager using the current exposure setting, (c) selecting according to an automated search methodology another one of the exposure settings to be the current setting in response to the captured scene being underexposed or overexposed, and, (d) repeating (b) and (c) until the captured scene is neither underexposed or overexposed.
US08767083B2

A system including a digital camera and remote display glasses. The remote display glasses include a frame, at least one display, and a first and a second temple configured to support the display proximate to at least one of the user's eyes when the remote display glasses are worn on the user's head. The digital camera includes a lens configured to capture light, an electronic viewfinder; a video processor configured to generate an image, and a camera switch configured to selectively transmit the image from the video processor to the electronic viewfinder or the display of the remote display glasses.
US08767078B2

This camera system comprises a novel or new combination of three elements or parts including a 1000 mm focal length Maksutov Cassegrain MTO or Rubinar mirror lens threaded to an M42 to Sony Alpha mount or M42 to Olympus 4/3 mount adapter, both with their own “dandelion chip”, programmed with the focal length of 1000 mm allowing for the only currently image stabilized lens of this length, also allowing the lens to communicate with the camera to allow proper metering and exposure as well as focus confirmation for faster, more certain sharp photos whether through “focus peaking” in the case of the Sony, or “catch in focus” and a confirmation beep with the Olympus, as well as 3 variable levels of zoom from 1500 mm to 3000 mm in the case of the Sony (incorporating both the crop factor of the sensor and the crop zoom push button feature) and 2× crop with Olympus.
US08767076B2

Methods and apparatus are described for assessing the video image decoding quality of a set top box (STB), television receiver or other video device. Moving video testing of video delivery hardware in a manufacturing environment uses a video sequence that has reference characteristics embedded in the visible portion of the video signal from frame to frame. Each frame of the video is analyzed for distortions of the embedded reference objects, and the reference objects are allowed to move from frame to frame. The reference objects are located through the use of a background that is easily discriminated from the objects and by the use of frame templates that locate the reference information in the frame.
US08767075B2

A quick pass exit/entrance installation and method is particularly adaptable for controlling and monitoring the exit and return of vehicles to and from a secured area. The identification of the driver and the vehicle is automatically determined and the exiting transaction is undertaken while the driver remains seated in the vehicle. The vehicle VIN and the image of the license plate may be automatically obtained at both the exit and entrance lanes. An image of substantially all four sides of the vehicle may be automatically obtained on both exiting and entering the facility. The information is processed and receipts are issued while the driver remains seated in the vehicle.
US08767069B2

An apparatus, system, and method for increasing measurement accuracy in imaging cytometry. The system may include a light detector configured to measure light emitted by a particle in response to a first light source, and processor coupled to the light detector. The processor may be configured create a first image by taking a first measurement of light and create a second image by interpolating the first image, where the second image has higher resolution than the first image. The processor may be configured to determine a difference between pixels of the second image and an expected distribution and discard the first measurement of light if the difference is above a predetermined threshold.
US08767059B2

An electronic endoscope includes an illumination unit, an imaging unit and an image generating unit. The illumination unit switches among plural light beams having different spectra so as to illuminate a subject. The light beams include white light and excitation light for exciting the subject to produce fluorescence. The imaging unit includes a solid-state imaging device, and an objective optical system. The objective optical system guides, to the solid-state imaging device, light returning from the subject which the illumination unit illuminates. The image generating unit generates image data based on image signals output from the imaging unit. The solid-state imaging device further includes a sensitivity adjusting unit that only lowers sensitivity, to the excitation light, of pixels which are sensitive to the fluorescence among a plurality of pixels of the solid-state imaging device. The light guided by the objective optical system is incident directly onto the solid-state imaging device.
US08767040B2

Methods and systems for navigating panoramic imagery are provided. If a user rotates panoramic imagery to a view having a view angle that deviates beyond a threshold view angle, the view of the panoramic imagery will be adjusted to the threshold view angle. In a particular implementation, the view is drifted to the threshold view angle so that a user can at least temporarily view the imagery that deviates beyond the threshold view angle. A variety of transition animations can be used as the imagery is drifted to the threshold view angle. For instance, the view can be elastically snapped back to the threshold view angle to provide a visually appealing transition to a user.
US08767025B2

The inside of a housing of a printer device is cooled by the air from a ventilation port and, consequently, the temperature of solder SP on a mask surface supported by a mask holding frame inside the housing can be kept low. Moreover, provided is a mask cover for blocking the air flow from the ventilation port toward the mask, and the drying of the solder SP caused by the wind from the ventilation port is thereby inhibited as a result of the wind from the ventilation port not coming into contact with the solder SP on the mask surface. In this way, the solder SP is cooled while inhibiting the drying of the solder SP and, consequently, it is possible to appropriately inhibit the change in viscosity of the solder SP, and favorable printing can be realized.
US08767021B2

A display device including a light-transmitting pixel portion and a reflective pixel portion is provided. In a moving image display period, the light-transmitting pixel portion performs an image display and a reflective pixel portion performs a black display. In a still image display period, the reflective pixel portion performs a display in response to black-and-white grayscale image signals.
US08767013B2

Methods and systems are provided for improving pilot situational awareness during brown-over-brown display situations. An image is rendered, on a display, that includes one of, or both, rendered terrain and rendered sky. A sky veil is at least selectively rendered on a portion of the display. The sky veil, when rendered, is rendered at least partially transparent and in a manner that portions of the sky veil that overlap with rendered sky are not discernable, and rendered terrain is viewable through portions of the sky veil that overlap with terrain.
US08767004B2

Output image data for display on a target display having a target gamut is generated from first and second input image data. The first and second input image data may be color timed for display on different types of display. Chromaticity values in the output image data may be generated by interpolation using an interpolation parameter derived from the target gamut and gamuts associated with the first and second image data.
US08767000B2

A data processing method compensates a color of input data for a present frame of a display panel of a display apparatus to generate color compensating data. Dimming levels of a plurality of light emitting blocks included in a light source module for the display panel are determined using the color compensating data. Compensating data of the present frame is generated using the color compensating data and compensating coefficient data including the dimming levels.
US08766999B2

This is generally directed to systems and methods for local tone mapping of high dynamic range (“HDR”) images. For example, a HDR image can have its larger dynamic range mapped into the smaller dynamic range of a display device. In some embodiments, to perform the local tone mapping, a RGB to Y converter can be used to convert the input image signal to a luminance signal in the YCgCo color space, a shape adaptive filter can be used to separate the luminance signal into its illumination and reflectance components, contrast compression can be applied to the illumination component, image sharpening can be applied to the reflectance component, and the processed illumination and reflection components can be used to calculate a processed RGB signal. The dynamic range of the processed RGB signal can then be mapped into the dynamic range of the display device.
US08766986B1

A display device may be operable to create a display list during rendering of a graphics object. The display device may store a set of properties of the graphics object, where the set of properties may describe how the graphics object is to be drawn on the display device. When one or more property states associated with the stored set of properties are changed, the display device may update the stored set of properties based on the property state change(s). The display device may process, utilizing the updated stored set of properties, the display list to cause a graphics module in the display device to present the graphics object, in the changed property state(s), on the display device. The set of properties may comprise translucency property and/or transform property. The transform property may comprise information on position, rotation and/or scale associated with the graphics object.
US08766980B2

A method for constructing relation information between data elements in a directed acyclic graph (DAG) in first and second domains includes importing data from the first domain DAG and data from the second domain DAG to generate a relation graph; responsive a relation between a node va of the first domain DAG and a node vb of the second domain DAG, generating a join node between va and vb in the relation graph, the join node linking a node upstream of va in the DAG to a node upstream of vb in the DAG; if there is a pair of va of the first domain DAG and vb of the second domain DAG that do not have a join node, generating a join node v between va and vb in the relation graph, and generating an edge (va, v) and an edge (vb, v) in the relation graph.
US08766976B2

The present invention provides a three-dimensional (3D) display apparatus and a 3D system. The system comprises the 3D display apparatus and polarizer glasses. The 3D display apparatus comprises a display panel and a pattern retarder film. Retarder rows of the pattern retarder film are positioned to pixel row pairs of the display panel, respectively. First pixel rows of the pixel row pairs include first sub-pixels and second sub-pixels arranged in an alternating manner. The present invention can mitigate the image crosstalk and the color shifting problem exiting in the conventional 3D display.
US08766974B2

Provided is a display apparatus that may estimate a degree of visual fatigue corresponding to an input 3-dimensional (3D) image, using a visual fatigue model to estimate the degree of visual fatigue of a user. The display apparatus may reduce the degree of visual fatigue of the user by rescaling a depth level of the input 3D image based on the degree of visual fatigue.
US08766973B2

A method of generating a disparity map is described. The method is for an image sequence which is displayable on a screen defining a screen plane, wherein the image sequence includes a stereoscopically viewable first object perceivable by a viewer on an image plane different to the screen plane, the stereoscopically viewable object comprising a first image viewable by a viewer's eye and a second image viewable by the viewer's other eye, the method comprising: performing a first edge pixel detection process on the first image frame to identify edges within the first image frame; identifying a feature pixel of the first image from the detected edges; generating a block of pixels including the feature pixel, performing block matching on a search region of the second image using the block of pixels from the first image frame, wherein the block of pixels generated from the first frame is correlated against the search region; and generating a disparity map by identifying a relative displacement of the feature pixel of the first image frame from a corresponding feature pixel in the second image frame.
US08766972B2

A method and system for compacting and distributing graphic data by representing three-dimensional models by primitive objects that are predefined in the system and instructions, which may include solid modeling operations for constructing at least one model from the identified primitive objects. The method and system enable creating compacted representation files that can be distributed via one or more communication network, where a client application enables reconstruction of the models represented by the data in the representation files by combining the primitive objects constructing the model according to the set of instructions that enable the actual construction.
US08766970B2

A pixel circuit includes a first sub-pixel and a second sub-pixel. The first sub-pixel is coupled to a scan line and a data line, so as to determine whether to be enabled according to a first scan signal transmitted on the scan line, and whether to be driven according to a data signal transmitted on the data line. The second sub-pixel is coupled to the scan line, so as to determine whether to be enabled according to the first scan signal. The data signal is in a first state when the first scan signal is in a pre-charged period. The data signal is in a second state during a time interval after the pre-charged period is over and before the first scan signal enters a turn-on period. Voltage polarities of the first state and the second state are opposite. The pixel design can improve color shift and frame flicker.
US08766957B2

A display device and a repairing method for the same are disclosed. The display device includes a substrate, a pixel array, at least one gate driver unit, at least one source driver unit, a first repair line, a second repair line, a first dummy line, and a second dummy line. The first repair line is disposed between the pixel array and the source driver unit. The second repair line is disposed opposite to the first repair line on the pixel array. The first dummy line and the second dummy line are respectively disposed at two sides of the pixel array and crossing the gate lines, the first repair line, and the second repair line. A signal transmission is not required to go around the outmost periphery of the gate driver unit in a repairing process. As a result, the signal attenuation can be decreased effectively.
US08766950B1

Embodiments described herein include an input device for capacitive sensing. The input device includes a plurality of sensor electrodes, a modulated power supply, a plurality of analog front end channels, and a sensor module. The modulated power supply is configured to generate a modulated reference signal. The plurality of analog front end channels are coupled to the plurality of sensor electrodes and to the modulated power supply and are configured to flow charge in response to an input object in a sensing area associated with the plurality of sensor electrodes. The sensor module comprises transmitter circuitry that is coupled to the plurality of sensor electrodes and to the plurality of analog front end channels. The sensor module is configured to drive the plurality of sensor electrodes with a modulated sensor electrode signal that is based on the modulated reference signal, via the plurality of analog front end channels.
US08766944B2

Apparatuses and methods of false touch filtering are described. One device includes a controller and a capacitance sensing array including multiple sense elements (e.g., intersections of TX and RX electrodes). The controller includes a capacitance sensing circuit coupled to the capacitance sensing array, and a filter circuit coupled to the output of the capacitance sensing circuit. The controller is configured to receive, from the capacitance sensing circuit, data representing capacitances of the sense elements, process the data to identify activated sense elements, and filter the data to remove false touch events based on a spatial relationship of activated sense elements.
US08766942B2

An electronic device includes: a touch controller, periodically providing a touch sensing signal in a touch sensing period to a touch display panel for touch detection; a control core, periodically switching a level of a parallax switching signal; a parallax switching barrier, for respectively barricading a right-eye display zone and a left-eye display zone on the touch display panel in a left-eye display period and a right-eye display period in response to the parallax display switching signal; and an interference shielding module, for delaying the level switching of the parallax switching signal of the control core when a starting point of the touch sensing signal is detected, so as to prevent the level switching of the parallax switching signal from being triggered in the touch sensing period.
US08766939B2

A mode-configurable amplifier comprises a single-ended input for receiving a received signal from a capacitive touch panel, a differential output operable to carry a differential processed signal to a subsequent processing stage, and processing circuitry in communication with the single ended input and the differential output. The processing circuitry comprises mode selection inputs and mode selection circuitry in communication with the mode selection inputs. The mode selection circuitry is operable to configure the processing circuitry into a current operating mode selected from a high-pass filter mode, bandpass filter mode, and a trans-capacitive gain mode. The high-pass filter mode is operable to high-pass filter the received signal to obtain the differential processed signal. The bandpass filter mode is operable to bandpass filter the received signal to obtain the differential processed signal. The wideband gain mode is operable to amplify the received signal to obtain the differential processed signal.
US08766935B2

An electrostatic capacitance-type input device includes: a first translucent conductive film that configures a first electrode that extends in a first direction in an input area on a substrate and second electrodes that extend in a second direction intersecting the first direction in the input area and are disconnected in intersection portions with the first electrode; an interlayer insulating film that is formed at least in areas overlapping the intersection portions; and a second translucent conductive film that configures relay electrodes formed on the interlayer insulating film to have sheet resistance lower than that of the first translucent conductive film and electrically connecting the second electrodes disconnected in the intersection portion by being electrically connected to the second electrodes in an area in which the interlayer insulating film is not formed and a peripheral wiring extending in a peripheral area of the substrate located to the outer side of the input area.
US08766927B2

The present disclosure provides a touch panel and a display device employing the same. The touch panel includes at least one transparent layer consisting of a carbon nanotube metal composite layer including a carbon nanotube layer and a metal layer coated on the carbon nanotube layer.
US08766924B2

An EL emitting touch switch includes first electrodes, a single second electrode facing the first electrodes, and EL layers each sandwiched between a corresponding one of the first electrodes and the second electrode. A light emission driver applies a driving voltage between the first and second electrodes to cause the EL layers to emit light. A timing signal generator generates a timing signal to control the light emission driver such that the application of the driving voltage is stopped at predetermined intervals. Touch decision units are provided for each first electrode. Each touch decision unit includes a feedback circuit for supplying current to the corresponding first electrode such that the potentials of the first and second electrodes become equal to each other, and detects contact of a human body with the corresponding first electrode based on operation of the feedback circuit while the application of the driving voltage is stopped.
US08766923B2

A character input apparatus and method in a terminal are provided, in which a touch screen displays a first key set and a second key set. The first key set includes first letter keys with all consonants and a second letter key with symbols indicating Tone Marks (Tms) and positions of predetermined vowels, for inputting all vowels and Tms. The second key set includes the predetermined vowels or Tms. Upon selection of a symbol by the second letter key, the controller controls the touch screen to display the second key set and receives at least one letter by the first key set and the second key set.
US08766901B2

An object is to suppress change of a threshold voltage of a transistor in a shift register and to prevent the transistor from malfunctioning during a non-selection period. A pulse output circuit provided in the shift register regularly supplies a potential to a gate electrode of a transistor which is in a floating state so that the gate electrode is turned on during a non-selection period when a pulse is not outputted. In addition, supply of a potential to the gate electrode of the transistor is performed by turning on or off another transistor regularly.
US08766900B2

There is a need for decreasing a variation in times for writing to TFT elements for pixels in a direction along the extension of a gate line in a liquid crystal display apparatus. A display apparatus includes a display panel having multiple gate lines and drain lines arranged in a matrix and a data driver for outputting a display data signal to each drain line. The data driver includes: an internal control signal generation circuit generating an internal control signal for setting a timing to output a data signal to a drain line of each block on a block basis by dividing the plurality of drain lines into multiple blocks; and a register circuit for recording a setting for division of the block, a setting for delay direction and width of a timing to output the data signal, and a setting for rising and falling of an internal control signal.
US08766893B2

The invention relates to a method for compensating for poor uniformity of a liquid crystal display having a non-uniform backlight. By virtue of selecting a standard color that all cells can achieve to serve as a virtually primary color, the invention measures to give the relationship between the tri-stimulus values of the virtually primary color and those presented by the respective cells and records the resultant values to serve as compensation data. During operation of a display, the input image data are computed based on the compensation data for respective cells in accordance with the cell locations and converted into compensated image signals. As such, all of the cells are able to present the same chromaticity and brightness upon receiving the same image signal, thereby performing uniform chromaticity and brightness across the entire display.
US08766878B2

A display device includes a display panel including first to fourth pixels in a first direction, wherein each of the first to fourth pixels has a first width in the first direction and a length more than the width and in a second direction; and a backlight unit including first and second line light regions supplying light to the display panel to display three-dimensional images, wherein the first and second line light regions have a slanted angle with respect to the second direction, wherein light from the first line light region comes to right and left eyes of a viewer through the first and second pixels, respectively, and light from the second light region comes to the right and left eyes through the third and fourth pixels, respectively, wherein the display device has K view points.
US08766877B2

A communication system in trains comprises a control data communication device 400 and an image data communication device 300 installed in each of the cars. The control data communication device 400 transmits train operation information, train location information, control instructions of train-mounted apparatuses, and the like. The image data communication device 300 transmits image information such as moving images and still images, audio information such as in-train announcement, textual information for caption display, and operation log information of apparatuses, which form the contents, to a display unit 200 installed in each of the cars and to apparatuses 500 such as a telephone. The display unit 200 switches the display on the screen in accordance with train control information transmitted from the control data communication device 400 through the image data communication device 300.
US08766865B2

An antenna device including: a reflector antenna including a primary radiator, a feed waveguide for feeding radio waves to the primary radiator, and a reflector; and a radome that covers the reflector antenna, in which the antenna device further includes a sidelobe reduction member attached to a vicinity of the primary radiator or the feed waveguide, the sidelobe reduction member reducing a sidelobe in a specific direction of an antenna by at least one of scattering and absorbing of radio waves reflected by the radome out of the radio waves radiated from the reflector antenna. Therefore, it is possible to reduce a sidelobe deterioration caused by reflection waves from the radome.
US08766854B2

A bottom feed cavity aperture antenna is provided. The bottom feed cavity aperture antenna includes a patch and a ground structure. The patch feeds a signal to the bottom feed cavity aperture antenna. The ground structure includes a continuous wall, and a top end and a bottom end, wherein the continuous wall surrounds the patch, a thickness of the ground structure is formed between the top end and the bottom end, a patch height is formed between the patch and the bottom end, and a ratio of the patch height to the thickness is substantially lower than 1/2, and a magnetic field is formed at the top end, and magnetic resonance directions of the magnetic field are parallel to a first axis.
US08766850B2

A horizontal beam adjusting method and apparatus for an omni-directional antenna are provided. The horizontal beam adjusting apparatus may generate a switch control signal according to an inclination of the omni-directional antenna, and adjust a radiation direction of the omni-directional antenna according to the switch control signal. Accordingly, the adjusted radiation direction may have horizontal omni-directionality with respect to a ground surface.
US08766848B2

A method and system for estimating the position comprises measuring a first carrier phase of a first carrier signal and a second carrier phase of a second carrier signal received by a location-determining receiver. A primary real time kinematic (RTK) engine or receiver data processing system estimates a primary integer ambiguity set associated with at least one of the measured first carrier phase and the measured second carder phase. A quality evaluator determines if a primary integer ambiguity set is resolved correctly to the predefined reliability rate during an earlier evaluation period. A secondary real time kinematic (RTK) engine or receiver data processing system estimates a secondary integer ambiguity set associated with at least one of the measured first carrier phase and the measured second carrier phase during a later period following the earlier evaluation period.
US08766846B2

A vehicle with an accident prevention system is disclosed. The vehicle also has a foot brake for stopping the vehicle. The system includes a sensor arrangement for sensing an object behind a rear end of the vehicle that generates an object recognition signal when it senses an object within range behind the vehicle. The sensor arrangement includes passive IR sensors or reflected pulse sensors such as sonar or radar sensors on the rear end. A controller generates an accident prevention response signal on receiving an object recognition signal from the sensor arrangement. A brake applicator is operatively coupled to the brake to stop the vehicle when the controller generates a response signal. Conveniently the system includes an alarm for sounding an alarm signal. A method for preventing an accident where a vehicle which is reversing at low speed collides with a person is also disclosed.
US08766839B2

An intermediate set of bits of a SAR ADC are converted into first intermediate analog value and a second intermediate analog value respectively from a first set of representative capacitor and a second set of representative capacitor. A capacitor in the first set and second set are selected as not same. A SAR ADC output code is generated from the first intermediate analog value and the second intermediate analog value. The resolution of a N bit SAR ADC can be enhanced by generating more than one N bits digital codes correspondingly operating the N Bit SARADC with more than on transfer functions. Each transfer function is selected such that they are offset by a fraction of LSB value. The more than one N bits digital codes are then added to form P bits digital code such that P is greater than N due to addition.
US08766838B2

A method and apparatus for performing modulation of a radio frequency, RF, signal within a digital-to-RF converter. The method includes determining a desired digital control word switching frequency value based at least partly on at least one parameter corresponding to a bandwidth of the RF signal to be modulated and at least one from a group including: at least one parameter corresponding to an RF channel frequency of the RF signal to be modulated; and at least one parameter corresponding to a power level of the RF signal to be modulated. The method further includes dynamically configuring at least one digital control module to output at least one digital control word signal in accordance with the desired digital control word switching frequency value, and performing modulation of the RF signal in accordance with the at least one digital control word signal output by the at least one digital control module.
US08766830B2

In an RF source, a digital waveform synthesizer comprises a computational module to synchronously determine a desired periodic function, f(θ), within a first bandwidth portion, to which computational result there is combined an injected digital noise increment in an adjustable range of bounded amplitude, specifically selected to average over discontinuities of the DAC transfer characteristic. The combination is effected after passing the injected noise increment through a programmable digital filter forming a composite tuning word having a total bandwidth at a selected Nyquist zone and thence passing the composite tuning word through a truncation component to a DAC. The programmable digital filter is constructed to displace the spectral distribution of the injected noise increment to a portion of the total bandwidth remote from the first bandwidth portion.
US08766825B2

The present invention provides a multifunctional input device. The input device includes a functional mode which defines the mode of operation of the input device. Each functional mode includes one or more domain levels with each domain level containing one or more domain-level values. Each domain level-value within each functional mode is assigned to one of a plurality of programmable input keys. The domain-level value assigned to each programmable input key controls the function of that programmable input key within a given functionality and domain level. The present invention also includes a display to indicate the domain-level value associated with each of the programmable input keys within a given functionality.
US08766822B2

Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer program products for providing improved augmentation for GPS calculations. In general, various embodiments of the invention involve using a plurality of GPS devices associated with stationary objects associated with a common carrier's delivery network and the common carrier's delivery fleet to calculate error corrections and to communicate these error corrections to a number of GPS enable devices to be used by these devices to augment GPS calculations to correct errors associated with GPS signals. Further, various embodiments of the invention involve collecting GPS data for a plurality of delivery routes traveled by the common carrier's delivery fleet. In particular embodiments, this collected data may be used to provide more accurate address information for locations along these delivery routes and more accurate renderings of various landscapes along these delivery routes.
US08766821B2

A protection system is described herein for an electrical connector providing power to a grounded aircraft. The system includes receiving a sensing device electrically coupled to each of a number of power conductors. The sensing device generates an operating parameter. The system also includes a protection device that measures the operating parameter, determines that the operating parameter exceeds a threshold, and sends an overcurrent notification. The system may also include a shunt that is electrically coupled to the power conductors and generates a different operating parameter. The protection device may determine a difference between operating parameters of the shunt and sensing device and send an overtemperature notification when the difference exceeds an operating threshold. The system may also include a ground fault detection device. Some or all components of the system may be located in a removable adapter.
US08766818B2

A method, system and computer program product for allocating parking spaces for vehicles in a parking area. In one embodiment, the invention provides a system comprising a sensor system for generating output representing measurements of vehicles in the parking area, a marking system for identifying parking spaces in the parking area, and a controller for calculating parking spaces for vehicles. The controller obtains defined measurements for the vehicles in the parking area, and calculates for each of the vehicles, a respective one parking space in the parking area. In an embodiment, the controller allocates a size and a position for each parking space in the parking area, and operates the marking system to mark each parking space to facilitate driving the vehicles into the parking spaces. Embodiments of the invention dynamically allocate parking spaces based on criteria: (1) Determine the minimum space that should be enough for the size of the car that is being currently identified for parking; and (2) Maximize utilization of space by preventing improper fragmentation, where because of allocating fixed size spaces to all cars, big/small/medium, fragments of space would be wasted.
US08766811B2

A compression testing assembly for compression testing of a test material includes a testing stage with a first surface and a second surface. The test material is disposed between the first and second surfaces. The assembly also includes a thickness detector that automatically detects a thickness of the test material. Moreover, the assembly includes an actuator that moves at least one of the first and second surfaces toward the other of the first and second surfaces to compress the test material to a predetermined percentage of the detected thickness of the test material. Additionally, the assembly includes a load detector that detects a compression load of the test material and that detects a change in the compression load over time.
US08766808B2

An imager array may be provided as part of an imaging system. The imager array may include a plurality of sensor arrays (e.g., also referred to as lenslets or optical elements). Each sensor array may include a plurality of sensors (e.g., pixels) associated with a lens. The sensor arrays may be oriented, for example, substantially in a plane facing the same direction and configured to detect images from the same scene (e.g., target area). Such images may be processed in accordance with various techniques to provide images of electromagnetic radiation. The sensor arrays may include filters or lens coatings to selectively detect desired ranges of electromagnetic radiation. Such arrangements of sensor arrays in an imager array may be used to advantageous effect in a variety of different applications.
US08766804B2

A hospital monitoring system for monitoring hospital personnel, a plurality of patient locations for patients, and associated devices is configured to control the associated devices based on the presence of hospital personnel or alarms.
US08766792B1

A storage device operable to store a plurality of radio signal emitting tracking collars wherein subsequent the tracking collars being engaged with the storage device the storage device operably engages the magnetic switch of the tracking collars to suspend the radio signal emission from the collar. The storage device further includes a mounting member that is substantially hollow being mounted on a base plate in a generally vertical position. Disposed within the mounting member is a bar magnet that has a vector field having a direction and magnitude that extends to at least the perimeter of the base plate so as to operable engage the magnetic switch of the tracking collar placed on the storage device. The storage device further includes two support rods mounted in a generally vertical manner operable to assist in the maintenance of the correct position of the tracking collars once the tracking collars have been placed on the storage device.
US08766777B2

Non-RFID-active units in a space are marked by affixing RFID tags. Two tags are affixed to each unit, each tag having a directional antenna. The antennas are oriented to define a per-unit reader location. Units are arranged in the space so the per-unit reader locations at least partially overlap to define a reader location. The units in the space can also be detected by an RFID reader located in the overlapping per-unit reader locations. A controller can compare a received list of tag identities corresponding to units expected to be in the container to the identities of the tags read to determine whether the expected units are in the container and disposed at positions and with orientations that cause the respective per-unit reader locations to at least partially overlap with the reader location.
US08766769B2

A user is authorized to enter a side door in a vehicle having a rear closure by a method including: providing a door latch having an electric actuator energizable to unlatch the door latch; providing a rear closure latch that is unlatched by either a key operated lock cylinder or energization of an electrical actuator; providing a fob for transmitting a first radio signal indicating that a user is authorized to unlatch the door latch and a second radio signal energizing the rear closure latch; monitoring the transmission of the radio signals; monitoring the status of the closure latch to determine that the closure latch has been unlatched; and if the closure latch has been unlatched without the transmission of the second radio signal, calculating that the key was used, the user is authorized; and operating the door latch to permit user entry through the side door.
US08766766B2

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a projection control section configured to control projection of a projection image containing first information for authentication onto a second information processing apparatus placed within a projection region, an authentication control section configured to control an authentication process with the second information processing apparatus using second information for authentication detected based on a picked-up image of the projection region, and a communication control section configured to control communication with a second information processing apparatus authenticated by the authentication control section.
US08766764B2

The present specification discloses a system for controlling a movement of at least one person into a controlled location. The system includes an X-ray screening system having an entrance area defined by walls and a gate, and an exit area defined by walls and a gate. The gates are automatically controlled based upon the output of the X-ray screening system. Additional gates, defining an additional holding area, are used for subsequent analysis and inspection.
US08766754B2

A nanomagnet having widely tunable anisotropy is disclosed. The disclosed nanomagnet is a magnetic particle with a convex shape having a first magnetically easy axis. The convex shape is modified to include at least one concavity to urge a second magnetically easy axis to form substantially offset from the first magnetically easy axis. In at least one embodiment, the convex shape is also modified to include at least one concavity to urge a second magnetically easy axis to form with a magnetic strength substantially different from the first magnetically easy axis.
US08766751B2

Proximity switches are disclosed that preferably are provided in a hermetically sealed unit that can be used in harsh environments and under significant pressures, such as underwater and in nuclear power facilities, without having any parts that would require replacement or periodic maintenance. The proximity switches are preferably switches actuated by physical movement of a contact in response to changing magnetic forces. The switches are preferably disposed in a body tube optionally including a hermetic seal assembly to seal an open end of the body tube and/or a ferrule that prevents electrical wires attached to the switch inside the body tube from being pulled away from the switch. Further, the switches preferably maintain a contact pressure between electrical contacts sufficient to withstand acceleration seismic testing of 10 g with no contact discontinuity.
US08766750B2

In an electromagnetic switching apparatus, a fixed core is fixedly-installed at a lower side, and a movable core driven by an electromagnetic force is installed at an upper side so as to be directly connected to a movable contact. This may require no shaft, and thus simplify the entire structure.
US08766748B2

On-chip high performance slow-wave microstrip line structures, methods of manufacture and design structures for integrated circuits are provided herein. The structure includes at least one ground and a signal layer provided in a different plane than the at least one ground. The signal layer has at least one alternating wide portion and narrow portion with an alternating thickness such that a height of the wide portion is different than a height of the narrow portion with respect to the at least one ground.
US08766745B1

A disk resonator gyroscope includes a quartz base, a quartz resonator disk having a central pillar connected to the base, the quartz resonator disk having a surface facing the base and having plurality of circumferential slots in the surface of the quartz resonator disk around the central pillar, and an electrode comprised of quartz and connected to the base outside of an outer edge of the resonator disk.
US08766734B2

The present invention provides a TSV-based oscillator WLP structure and a method for fabricating the same. The method of the present invention comprises steps: providing a silicon base having an oscillator unit disposed thereon; forming on the silicon base at least one package ring surrounding the oscillator unit; and disposing a silicon cap on the package ring to envelop the oscillator unit. The present invention adopts a cap and a base, which are made of the same material, to effectively overcome the problem of thermal stress occurring in a conventional sandwich package structure. Further, the present invention elaborately designs the wiring on the lower surface of the base to reduce the package size and decrease consumption of noble metals.
US08766724B2

The apparatus and method thereof accurately sense and convert a radio frequency (RF) current signal to direct current (DC) independent of process variation and temperature, and without requiring high speed, high voltage amplifiers for its operation. The apparatus comprises an AC coupled circuit that couples the RF signal from the main device to a sense device with an N:M ratio, a low pass filter system that extracts the DC content of the RF current signal, and a negative feedback loop that forces the DC content of the main device and the sensed device to be equal. Exemplary embodiments include a current sensor that provides feedback to protect an RF power amplifier from over-current condition, and a RF power detection and control in a RF power amplifier (PA) that multiplies the sensed output current by the sensed output voltage to be used as a feedback to control the PA's bias.
US08766717B2

Embodiments of the present invention include a method and system for control of a multiple-input-single output (MISO) device. For example, the method includes determining a change in power output level from a first power output level to a second power output level of the MISO device. The method also includes varying one or more weights associated with respective one or more controls of the MISO device to cause the change in power output. The one or more controls can include one or more of (a) a phase control of one or more input signals to the MISO device, (b) a bias control of the MISO device, and (c) an amplitude control of the input signals to the MISO device.
US08766716B2

An apparatus of a hybrid power modulator using interleaving switching is provided. The apparatus includes a linear switching unit for generating an output signal by comparing an envelope input signal and a feedback signal, an interleaving signal generator for generating an interleaving switching signal arranged not to supply the signal to input stages of P-type Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) Field Effect Transistors (FETs) and N-type MOS FETs of power cells at the same time by comparing the output signal and a reference signal, and a switching amplifying unit for determining a level of the switching signal using the interleaving switching signal. Hence, the hybrid power modulator using the interleaving switching method in the envelope signal of the wide bandwidth maintains high efficiency and high linearity. In addition, the buck converter can use the single inductor by preventing the simultaneous on/off of the power cells.
US08766710B1

An integrated circuit comprising: a first core circuit configured to operate at a first clock rate for carrying out a first range of tasks; and a second core circuit configured to operate in a first mode and a second mode, the second core circuit being configured to operate at a second clock rate for carrying out a second range of tasks in the second mode and being configured to operate in the second mode when the first core circuit carries out the first range of tasks, the second clock rate being greater than the first clock rate.
US08766705B2

An arrangement for detecting local light irradiation in an illegal attack attempt to intentionally induce a malfunction or faulty condition is formed on a small chip occupancy area so as to provide high detection sensitivity. In a region containing a logic circuit, a plurality of series-coupled detection inverters are distributively disposed as photodetector elements having a constant logical value of primary-stage input. When at least one of the series-coupled detection inverters is irradiated with light, an output thereof is inverted, thereby producing a final output through the series-coupled detection inverters. Based on the final output thus produced, local light irradiation can be detected.
US08766701B1

An apparatus relating generally to an analog multiplexer is disclosed. In such an apparatus, the analog multiplexer has first select circuits and at least one second select circuit. The first select circuits have respective input nodes and output nodes. The output nodes are all coupled to one another to provide an output node of the analog multiplexer. The first select circuits are coupled to a first supply voltage of a first supply domain. The at least one second select circuit is coupled to a second supply voltage of a second supply domain different from the first supply domain. The at least one second select circuit has an input port and an output port. The output port is coupled to an input node of the input nodes.
US08766700B1

A sampled CMOS switch includes first and second NMOS devices in series between input and output nodes. The first and second NMOS devices are activated by a sample signal. A pair of low-voltage DEPMOS devices is connected in a “T” configuration between the input and output nodes. The low-voltage DEPMOS devices are activated by an inverted sample signal. A feedback circuit includes the DEPMOS devices together with a third high-voltage NMOS device and a current source. The third NMOS device is controlled by a signal on the input node. A switch switchably connects an analog voltage source to a source of the third NMOS device and gates of the DEPMOS devices in accordance with a phase of an inverted sample signal. The construction of the sampled CMOS switch enables the protection of the gate oxide insulation of the low-voltage DEPMOS transistors from high voltage damage.
US08766696B2

A voltage level shifting circuit with an input terminal and an output terminal. The level shifting circuit has a field-effect transistor (FET) switch with a gate attached to the input terminal, a drain attached to the output terminal and a source attached to a current changing mechanism. The current changing mechanism includes a current mirror circuit having an output connected between the source and an electrical earth. The output of the current mirror circuit is preferably adapted to change a current flowing between the drain and the source based on an input voltage applied to the gate.
US08766687B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a clock period reflector configured to reflect time corresponding to period information of an internal clock signal to an input data signal, a data-clock converter configured to generate a synchronization clock signal having phases corresponding to an output signal of the clock period reflector, and a synchronization output unit configured to synchronize and output the input data signal in response to the synchronization clock signal.
US08766681B2

Circuit and method for resetting clock circuitry. The circuit includes a chain of cascading units, each of which receives an input of a number of parallel bit streams and outputs a different number of parallel bit streams. A chain of dividers provides one or more divided clock signals to the cascading units, wherein the divided clock signals are based on a gated common clock signal. An asynchronous reset signal is delivered to the dividers, and when asserted sets the dividers to a reset state. A clock source provides an ungated common clock signal. A clock gating circuit generates the gated common clock signal based on the ungated common clock signal, and is configured to hold the gated common clock signal while the asynchronous reset signal is asserted. The clock gating circuit provides the gated common clock signal to the dividers when the asynchronous reset signal is de-asserted.
US08766677B2

A signal input circuit and method and chip are disclosed. The signal input circuit includes a control signal input terminal configured for receiving a control signal; at least one common signal input terminal each configured for receiving a corresponding common signal; at least one first signal output terminal each configured for outputting a corresponding first signal; at least one first signal unit each configured for receiving said corresponding common signal and outputting said corresponding common signal as said corresponding first signal under control of said control signal; at least one second signal output terminal each configured for outputting a corresponding second signal; and at least one second signal unit each configured for receiving said corresponding common signal and outputting said corresponding common signal as said corresponding second signal under control of said control signal.
US08766668B2

An integrated circuit chip includes a first single ended type buffer configured to receive a first signal through a first pad, a second single ended type buffer configured to receive a second signal through a second pad, a differential type buffer configured to receive a third signal through the first pad and the second pad, a strobe input unit configured to receive a strobe signal synchronized with the third signal inputted to the first pad and the second pad, and a buffer control unit configured to control activation of the first and second single ended type buffers and the differential type buffer in response to the strobe signal.
US08766655B2

A conductive conductivity sensor, comprising: a probe immersible in a measured medium. The probe has an inner space, which is connected to an environment of the probe via at least one opening leading out from the inner space and in which are arranged two electrodes, which are supplied with an alternating voltage during measurement operation and which have inner surfaces facing into the inner space and outwardly facing outer surfaces covered by insulation, wherein the inner surfaces have edge surfaces adjoining the openings. Measuring characteristics of the conductivity sensor have a smallest possible dependence on objects arranged in the vicinity of the conductivity sensor. At least the edge surfaces adjoining one of the openings have a surface geometry directing thereon beginning or ending, electric field lines in a direction facing away from such opening and into the inner space.
US08766653B2

A measuring device for measuring insulation resistance of an electric vehicle includes a measuring unit, a voltage detecting unit, and a control unit. The measuring unit includes a first tap, a second tap, a switch, and a measuring resistor. The first tap is to be electrically coupled to a high potential side of a high voltage system. The second tap is to be electrically coupled to a ground side of a low voltage system. The switch and the measuring resistor are connected in series between the first tap and the second tap. The voltage detecting unit is for detecting a voltage formed between the first tap and the second tap. The control unit is operable for controlling ON and OFF states of the switch, and is configured to determine the high potential insulation resistance and the low potential insulation resistance after operating the switch in the ON and OFF states.
US08766652B2

This invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the grain angle of a wood object which has a circular cross section of constant or varying radius along the object's length. This apparatus may be hand-held or fixed mounted as testing circumstances dictate. The resulting grain angle may be displayed in real time, as perceived by the user, or transmitted to a processing unit for data collection or interpretation.
US08766646B2

An embodiment of the invention provides a clock calibration method to calibrate an internal clock signal of a computer. The method comprises: receiving an external clock signal from an external clock source; generating a pulse signal with a first duration according to the external clock signal; counting the internal clock signal according to the pulse signal to get a first count value; and calibrating the internal clock according to the first count value.
US08766628B2

In an embodiment, a method of characterizing a polycrystalline diamond compact is disclosed. The method includes providing the polycrystalline diamond compact, and measuring at least one magnetic characteristic of a component of the polycrystalline diamond compact.
US08766622B2

A voltage measuring apparatus electrically connected to buck circuits includes the same number of RC circuits as there are buck circuits, an analog/digital (A/D) convertor, a controller, and a display unit. Each RC circuit is configured to be electrically connected in parallel with an inductor of one corresponding buck circuit. The A/D convertor selectively obtains an analog voltage of one of the buck circuits, and converts the analog voltage signal into a digital voltage signal. The controller controls the A/D convertor and receives the digital voltage signal from the A/D convertor. The display unit displays a decimal voltage value based on the digital voltage signal.
US08766621B2

An analog input module for a programmable logic controller, wherein the analog input module has a ground potential, and includes a channel output configured at a first electrical potential, a first channel input configured at a second electrical potential where the absolute value of the second electrical potential is less than the absolute value of the first electrical potential and greater than the absolute value of the ground potential. The analog input module also includes a second channel input, and a third channel input, where the ground potential of the analog input module is the ground potential of the channel output, of the first channel input, of the second channel input and of the third channel input.
US08766620B2

A phase identification system includes a power distribution station and a phase detection device. The power distribution station includes a phase distortion device for generating voltage distortions of a known harmonic frequency in at least one of three phase voltage signals of the power distribution station. The phase detection is configured to receive at least one of distorted three phase voltage signals and to identify a phase of the received voltage signal. The phase detection device includes a delay circuit to generate a phase shifted voltage signal of the received voltage signal and a transformation module to transform the received voltage signal and the phase shifted voltage signal into d-q domain voltage signals of a known harmonic frequency reference frame. A phase determination module in the phase detection device determine the phase of the received voltage signal by comparing an amplitude of a harmonic of the known harmonic frequency in the received voltage signal with a threshold value.
US08766606B2

A controlled power supply comprising: a) an array of low voltage current sources; b) a plurality of switch power supplies coupled to each of the storage capacitors and respective ones of the pulse loads being coupled to each of the switch power supplies; c) each of the storage capacitors being configured for storing energy during an inactive portion of a load switching cycle of the respective switch power supply to which the corresponding storage capacitor is coupled when the pulse loads are inactive; d) a respective output capacitor in association with each of the switch power supplies for feeding voltage to the respective pulse loads during an active portion of the load switching cycle; and e) the respective storage capacitor being configured for supplying the stored energy via the respective to the respective switch power supply to which the storage capacitor is coupled to each of the pulse loads coupled to switch power supply during an active portion of the load switching cycle.
US08766603B2

In a control apparatus for an inverter generator having a first, second and third windings wound around an alternator driven by an engine, and first, second and third inverters adapted to convert alternating current outputted from the first, second and third windings into direct current and invert the converted direct current into single-phase alternating current in a desired frequency so as to supply to the electric load, there is provided with an actuator (stepper motor) to open and close a throttle valve of the engine, and it is configured to detect output powers (effective powers) of the first, second and third inverters, to determine a target engine speed based on the detected output powers, and to control an operation of the actuator so that the engine speed converges at the determined target engine speed.
US08766600B2

Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods of controlling power in battery operated systems. In one embodiment, the present invention includes a switching regulator for boosting voltage on a depleted battery to power up a system. The system may communicate with an external system to increase the current received from the external system. Embodiments of the present invention include circuits for controlling power received from external power sources such as a USB power source. In another embodiment, input-output control techniques are disclosed for controlling the delivery of power to a system or charging a system battery, or both, from an external power source.
US08766595B2

Method and device for controlling charging stations for electrical vehicles. In order to minimize peak power demands in at least two charging stations 10 combined into a group 12, actual charging parameters are exchanged 32 within the charging stations 10 within the group 12, a load prediction for the group 12 is created 34 depending on at least the actual charging parameters, and setpoint charging parameters for the charging stations 10 of the group 12 are determined 38 depending on the load prognosis.
US08766594B2

A method and a device are provided for the efficient charging of a vehicle battery of an electric vehicle by a charging station of a group charging station. The connected vehicle battery, starting from an initial charge state, is charged in accordance with a calculated charge priority value until the charge state of the vehicle battery reaches a selectable charge state. The calculated charge priority values of the vehicle batteries connected at the same time to the charging stations of the group charging station determine which batteries will be charged within a charging interval.
US08766591B2

A resonance type non-contact charging apparatus is disclosed. A charger of the apparatus receives the high frequency power from a secondary side resonance coil of the apparatus. A power ratio detecting section of the apparatus detects the ratio of the reflected power from a primary side resonance coil to the high frequency power source with respect to the output power from the high frequency power source to the primary side resonance coil. A stop control section of the apparatus stops the high frequency power source when the ratio detected by the power ratio detecting section becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value.
US08766588B2

A method for pulse width modulation control of a multiple phase drive includes identifying at least one phase from the plurality of phases for the drive as eligible for clamping to one of a plurality of extreme power supply voltages, selecting a phase of the eligible phases having a largest magnitude driving current, determining a first offset signal as a difference between a control signal level for the selected phase and an extreme control signal level corresponding to one of the extreme power supply voltages, limiting a rate of change of the first offset signal to form a second offset signal, and determining a modified control signal for each of the phases for the drive including forming for each of a plurality of the phases a combination of the second offset signal and a control signal level for the phase to determine the modified control signal for the phase.
US08766587B2

Disclosed herein is a motor control apparatus and a method thereof. A phase error of the reference voltage output corresponding to a time delay caused by digital control may be compensated to stably control a motor, thereby improving the stability of a system. The phase compensation unit may be provided therein to convert a reference voltage of the synchronous coordinate system into a reference voltage of the stationary coordinate system when controlling the high-speed operation of the motor, thereby compensating a phase error of the reference voltage output, and allowing the motor to be operated at a high speed while maintaining its efficiency and reducing a volume of the compressor.
US08766586B2

A magnetic pole position detecting device includes a calculating unit for correcting a magnetic pole position detected by a magnetic pole position detecting unit. In this magnetic pole position detecting device, an additional phase is added to the magnetic pole position detected by the magnetic pole position detecting unit, in order to move a rotor. In relation to a movement amount before and after this movement, a movement amount detected by the magnetic pole position detecting unit is compared with a movement amount detected by an encoder. When a difference between them is larger than a predetermined threshold, a process of detecting the magnetic pole position is determined as false detection.
US08766585B2

A control device (1) for controlling on-board equipment has a mount (5) having hinged thereto at least one drive lever (2) movable between two extreme positions, and also including a magnetic friction member (3) connected to the lever (2) and opposing resistance to movement thereof.
US08766577B2

A first inverter and a second inverter supply two coil sets forming a three-phase motor with AC voltages, which are the same in amplitude but shifted by 30° in phase. Current detectors detect phase currents supplied from the inverters to the coil sets. Temperature estimation sections estimate temperatures of the inverters or the coil sets based on an integration value of the phase current detection values. A current command value limitation section limits upper limits of current command values of both coil sets based on the estimated temperatures Tm1 and Tm2. Thus, the inverters and the coils sets are protected from overheating without increasing torque ripple.
US08766568B2

The system periodically measures the battery voltage of the toothbrush and the current in a stator portion of the motor for the appliance. The amplitude of movement of the toothbrush workpiece is determined from the measured stator current. A circuit/control program changes the duty cycle or pulse width of the drive signal from the motor if the battery voltage drops below a first threshold value and a circuit or control program changes the drive frequency of the appliance if the amplitude of the workpiece movement falls below a first threshold value. A circuit/control program terminates the operation of the toothbrush if the voltage drops below a second threshold value or if the amplitude drops below a second threshold value, both of which are less than the respective first thresholds.
US08766560B1

An adaptive LED dimming driving circuit is disclosed, wherein its control module is disposed with a first resistor, a second resistor, a retainer, a third resistor and a fourth resistor. When the control module receives an input voltage, the retainer is driven to output a retaining current Ihold to the second resistor, thereby ensuring normal dimming. The first resistor and the third resistor detect the input voltage so that when an input current Iin satisfies a correlation Iin=Ihold+ILED, the retaining current has the minimum value to increase work efficiency during the LED that is dimmed to the maximum intensity. When the input voltage is too low, the reference level is reduced to prevent the LED from generating twinkling. The fourth resistor detects the voltage energy of the LED. Therefore, when the voltage energy is changed, a high-low-voltage compensation is performed to achieve a constant power state.
US08766558B2

A lighting circuit for lighting a semiconductor light source includes: a DC/DC converter configured to receive a DC first voltage and a DC second voltage and generate a DC third voltage; a first connector including a first terminal, wherein the third voltage is applied to the first terminal, wherein the first connector connects the first terminal and one end of the semiconductor light source; and a control circuit that controls the DC/DC converter. The control circuit selects only the first voltage as a voltage applied to the other end of the semiconductor light source, when a voltage for emitting the semiconductor light source is less than an absolute value of a difference between the first and second voltages. The control circuit selects the first voltage or the second voltage as the voltage applied to the other end thereof, when the voltage is not less than the absolute value.
US08766557B2

Various embodiments of the invention provide power factor correction in solid state lighting applications. In certain embodiments, an LED driver for an LED array is controlled for power factor correction by a control circuit block. The control circuit block comprises electronic circuitry that enables the input current to the LED driver to be measured and controlled. This control circuit block comprises at least one switching device that enables an alternating form of current at a particular frequency to be applied to the LED array regardless of whether the main power source is a DC or AC power source.
US08766542B2

The disclosed charged particle beam apparatus includes a field-emission electron source including <310> single crystal of tungsten; a vacuum chamber having the electron source therein; an exhausting system for exhausting the vacuum chamber; a filament connected to the electron source to let flow a current through the electron source and thereby heat the electron source; a power supply for letting a current flow through the filament; an ammeter for measuring a total current emitted from the electron source; and a controlling unit for exercising control to cause the power supply to let a current flow through the filament when the total current measured periodically has become a predetermined ratio or less as compared with a total current from the electron source found immediately after first electron beam emission, or a total current from the electron beam found immediately after a current is let flow through the filament.
US08766536B2

Light-emitting modules according to the embodiments is configured by mounting a plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements having the same light-emitting property in a closed-up manner on a substrate and sealing the closed up plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements by a dome shaped sealing member altogether.
US08766524B2

A lead-free glass material for sealing organic EL elements is provided with which satisfactory sealing quality is obtained through laser sealing without requiring the addition of a metallic powder. The lead-free glass material for sealing organic EL elements has a glass composition which comprises, in terms of mol %, 30-60% V2O5, 5-20% ZnO, 5-20% BaO, 15-40% TeO2, 0-7% Nb2O5, 0-7% Al2O3, 0-5% SiO2, 0-5% MgO, 0-5% Sb2O3, 0-4% CuO, and 0-4% SnO and in which Nb2O5+Al2O3 is 0.5-10%, SiO2+MgO+Sb2O3 is 0-5%, and CuO+SnO is 0-4%. The glass material has low-temperature softening properties, melt stability, and a low coefficient of thermal expansion and is inhibited from thermally adversely affecting organic EL elements The glass material can attain high sealing properties and high sealing strength in high yield.
US08766509B2

In a discharge process of the solid body actuator (2), a current that discharges the solid body actuator (2) loaded with electrical energy is detected. A switching element (6) is switched from an open position to a closed position to short circuit the solid body actuator (2) for removal of electrical energy from the solid body actuator (2) through the switching element (6) depending on the current falling below a threshold of the current, wherein the magnitude of the threshold is specified.
US08766508B2

A rotor for a motor is provided including: a rotor core including at least one a first coupling portion on an outer circumference thereof, wherein the first coupling portion includes a first coupling groove or a first coupling projection; at least one division core spaced apart from the rotor core and including a second coupling portion on an outer circumference thereof, the second coupling portion including a second coupling groove or a second coupling projection; and a connecting pin including a third coupling portion and a fourth coupling portion, the third coupling portion to be coupled to the first coupling portion and the fourth coupling portion to be coupling to the second coupling portion.
US08766507B2

A motor pulley minimizes an influence of a resonance phenomenon, thereby reducing noise and vibrations and preventing lowering of durability.
US08766494B2

A linear vibrator is disclosed, characterized by: a housing; a stator fixed inside the housing; a vibrating unit formed with an opening for surrounding the stator and vibrating inside the housing by being interactive with the stator; and an elastic member elastically supporting the vibrator inside the housing, whereby the vibrating unit is vibrated in the width direction to enable a reduced thickness of the housing.
US08766484B2

A magnetic positioning system for use in inductive couplings. The magnetic positioning system having a magnet that provides sufficient magnetic force, but does not have enough electrical conductivity to overheat in the presence of the anticipated electromagnetic field. The magnet may be a bonded magnet or a shielded magnet. In another aspect a plurality of magnets are used to provide magnetic attraction forces and said magnetic repulsion forces that cooperate to align the inductive power supply and the remote device. In another aspect, a sensor allows differentiation between different positions of the remote device or inductive power supply. In another aspect, multiple magnets in the inductive power supply interact with multiple magnets in the remote device to position the remote device in different positions.
US08766479B2

A plurality of generators can be connected in parallel to a common electrical bus. Each generator has a controller that regulates the voltage and frequency of the electricity being produced. Before a given generator connects to the electrical bus, its controller senses whether electricity is present on the bus and if not, the connection is made. Otherwise, the controller synchronizes the electricity being produced to the electricity is present on the bus before the connection occurs. The controller in each generator may also implement a load sharing function which ensures that the plurality of generators equitably share in providing the total amount of power demanded by the loads. The load sharing can be accomplished by controlling the generators to operate a substantially identical percentages of their individual maximum power generation capacity.
US08766477B2

At least one embodiment of the invention generally relates to a drive system for a facility having an alternating-current isolated network, in particular for a ship or an offshore platform, including a three-phase drive machine, which can be operated both as a motor and as a generator, and including a converter having a direct-current intermediate circuit having an intermediate circuit voltage. At least one embodiment of the invention aims to provide a way of avoiding undesired and/or impermissible voltage and/or frequency increases in the alternating-current isolated network. For this purpose, the drive system includes according to the invention an energy absorbing device arranged in the intermediate circuit, which energy absorbing device includes at least one energy absorber, which preferably includes at least one electrical resistor, for absorbing at least a part of the electrical energy that the three-phase drive machine generates in generator operation and outputs to the intermediate circuit by way of the motor-side current converter of the converter. The energy absorber can be activated by the energy absorbing device according to the polarity of the intermediate circuit voltage. The energy absorbing device is preferably variable regarding an absorption of electrical braking power of the three-phase drive machine.
US08766474B2

Presented is a system and method for providing reconfigurable AC interfaces for AC power systems. The method comprises embedding a reconfigurable AC interface for transferring power between power sources and loads, monitoring the voltage and current of the interfaces of the reconfigurable AC interface, and switching between power sources based on the monitoring. The system comprises a reconfigurable AC interface further comprising an inverter for converting DC power to AC, transfer switches with interfaces for connecting to the inverter, other transfer switches, and AC busses, and a controller that dynamically configures the transfer switches to transfer power between the inverter, and AC busses.
US08766467B2

A wind turbine with a generator is provided. The wind turbine includes a rotor comprising permanent magnets; a stator comprising stator coils mounted in or on a stator housing structure; a generator contactor electrically connected to the stator and to a converter, the generator contactor disposed in or on the stator housing structure.
US08766462B2

The present invention provides a dicing tape-integrated wafer back surface protective film including: a dicing tape including a base material and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on the base material; and a wafer back surface protective film formed on the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of the dicing tape, in which the wafer back surface protective film is colored. It is preferable that the colored wafer back surface protective film has a laser marking ability. The dicing tape-integrated wafer back surface protective film can be suitably used for a flip chip-mounted semiconductor device.
US08766461B1

A flip chip mounting board includes a substrate having a top surface and a plurality of generally parallel, longitudinally extending, laterally spaced apart bond fingers are formed on the top surface. Each of the plurality of bond fingers has a first longitudinal end portion and a second longitudinal end portion. A first strip of laterally extending solder resist material overlies the first longitudinal end portions of the bond fingers. The first strip has an edge wall with a plurality of longitudinally projecting tooth portions separated by gaps with a longitudinally extending tooth portion being aligned with every other one of the bond fingers. Adjacent bond fingers have first end portions covered by different longitudinal lengths of solder resist material.
US08766459B2

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (“CMUT”) devices and fabrication methods are provided. The CMUT devices can include integrated circuit devices utilizing direct connections to various CMOS electronic components. The use of integrated connections can reduce overall package size and improve functionality for use in ultrasonic imaging applications. CMUT devices can also be manufactured on multiple silicon chip layers with each layer connected utilizing through silicon vias (TSVs). External power connections can be provided if high biasing voltages are required. Forward and side looking CMUT arrays can be manufactured for use in a variety of ultrasound technologies.
US08766456B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor package is provided, including: disposing a semiconductor element on a carrier; forming an encapsulant on the carrier to encapsulant the semiconductor element; forming at least one through hole penetrating the encapsulant; forming a hollow conductive through hole in the through hole and, at the same time, forming a circuit layer on an active surface of the semiconductor element and the encapsulant; forming an insulating layer on the circuit layer; and removing the carrier. By forming the conductive through hole and the circuit layer simultaneously, the invention eliminates the need to form a dielectric layer before forming the circuit layer and dispenses with the conventional chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, thus greatly improving the fabrication efficiency.
US08766454B2

An integrated circuit is provided having a base with a first dielectric layer formed thereon. A second dielectric layer is formed over the first dielectric layer. A third dielectric layer is formed in spaced-apart strips over the second dielectric layer. A first trench opening is formed through the first and second dielectric layers between the spaced-apart strips of the third dielectric layer. A second trench opening is formed contiguously with the first trench opening through the first dielectric layer between the spaced-apart strips of the third dielectric layer. Conductor metals in the trench openings form self-aligned trench interconnects.
US08766453B2

A package substrate has a die mounted on a first side. One or more inner solder pads are on an inner portion of a second side. A perimeter of the inner portion is aligned with a perimeter of the die. The one or more inner solder pads are the only solder pads on the inner portion. The one or more inner solder pads number no more than five. A plurality of outer solder pads are on an outer portion of the second side. An average of areas of the one or more inner solder pads is at least five times an average of areas of the one or more inner solder pads. The plurality of outer solder ball pads are for receiving solder ball balls. The outer portion is spaced from the perimeter of the inner portion. The outer portion and the inner portion are coplanar.
US08766449B2

Disclosed is a variable interconnect geometry formed on a substrate that allows for increased electrical performance of the interconnects without compromising mechanical reliability. The compliance of the interconnects varies from the center of the substrate to edges of the substrate. The variation in compliance can either be step-wise or continuous. Exemplary low-compliance interconnects include columnar interconnects and exemplary high-compliance interconnects include helix interconnects. A cost-effective implementation using batch fabrication of the interconnects at a wafer level through sequential lithography and electroplating processes may be employed.
US08766443B2

An anisotropic conductive film composition for bonding an electronic device may include a hydrogenated bisphenol A epoxy monomer represented by Formula 1 or a hydrogenated bisphenol A epoxy oligomer represented by Formula 2: where n may be an integer from 1 to about 50.
US08766441B2

Solder on slot connections in package on package structures. An apparatus includes a substrate having a front side surface and a back side surface; a first passivation layer disposed over at least one of the front side and back side surfaces; at least one via opening formed in the first passivation layer; a conductor layer disposed over the first passivation layer, coupled to the at least one via and forming a conductive trace on the surface of the first passivation layer; a second passivation layer formed over the conductor layer; and at least one slot opening formed in the second passivation layer and exposing a portion of the conductive trace for receiving a solder connector. In additional embodiments the substrate may be a semiconductor wafer. Methods for forming the structures are disclosed.
US08766437B2

There is provided an electrode structure to be electrically connected to a connection conductor by being bonded thereto with an anisotropic conductive adhesive mainly composed of a thermosetting resin, the electrode structure including an electrode for connection using an adhesive, the electrode being arranged on a base material, and an organic film serving as an oxidation preventing film configured to cover a surface of the electrode for connection using an adhesive, in which the organic film has a higher decomposition temperature than the maximum temperature of heat treatment to be performed. A wiring body and a connecting structure using an adhesive are also provided.
US08766436B2

An electronic device comprising a bond pad on a substrate and a wire bonded to the bond pad. The device further comprises an intermetallic compound interface located between the bond pad and the wire and a silicon nitride or silicon carbonyl layer covering the intermetallic compound interface.
US08766415B2

A protective structure may include: a semiconductor substrate having a doping of a first conductivity type; a semiconductor layer having a doping of a second conductivity type arranged at a surface of the semiconductor substrate; a buried layer having a doping of the second conductivity type arranged in a first region of the semiconductor layer and at the junction between the semiconductor layer and the semiconductor substrate; a first dopant zone having a doping of the first conductivity type arranged in the first region of the semiconductor layer above the buried layer; a second dopant zone having a doping of the second conductivity type arranged in a second region of the semiconductor layer; an electrical insulation arranged between the first region and the second region of the semiconductor layer; and a common connection device for the first dopant zone and the second dopant zone.
US08766396B2

A semiconductor device comprises a substrate, a cathode, an outer ring, an anode, an electrically insulating layer, and an electrically conducting layer. The substrate includes a semiconducting material having a first conduction type. The substrate has a first face and a second face substantially parallel to the first face. A cathode is disposed at the second face and has the first conduction type. An outer ring, having the first conduction type, is disposed at an outer perimeter of the first face of the substrate. An anode, having the second conduction type, is disposed at the first face of the substrate within an inner perimeter of the outer ring. An electrically insulating layer is disposed over the outer ring. An electrically conducting layer is disposed over the electrically insulating layer and over the outer ring. The electrically conducting layer electrically is insulated from the outer ring by the electrically insulating layer.
US08766395B2

A device includes a Schottky barrier formed by a metal-semiconductor junction between a semiconductor nanowire and a metal contact. The metal contact at least partly encloses a circumferential area of each nanowire along the length thereof. The nanowire includes a low doped region that is part of the metal-semiconductor junction. The device can be fabricated using a method where two different growth modes are used, the first step including axial growth from a substrate giving a suitable template for formation of the metal-semiconductor junction, and the second step including radial growth enabling control of the doping levels in the low doped region.
US08766382B2

A free ferromagnetic data storage layer of an MRAM cell is coupled to a free ferromagnetic stabilization layer, which stabilization layer is directly electrically coupled to a contact electrode, on one side, and is separated from the free ferromagnetic data storage layer, on an opposite side, by a spacer layer. The spacer layer provides for the coupling between the two free layers, which coupling is one of: a ferromagnetic coupling and an antiferromagnetic coupling.
US08766379B2

A multi-layer scavenging metal gate stack, and methods of manufacturing the same, are disclosed. In an example, a gate stack disposed over a semiconductor substrate includes an interfacial dielectric layer disposed over the semiconductor substrate, a high-k dielectric layer disposed over the interfacial dielectric layer, a first conductive layer disposed over the high-k dielectric layer, and a second conductive layer disposed over the first conductive layer. The first conductive layer includes a first metal layer disposed over the high-k dielectric layer, a second metal layer disposed over the first metal layer, and a third metal layer disposed over the second metal layer. The first metal layer includes a material that scavenges oxygen impurities from the interfacial dielectric layer, and the second metal layer includes a material that adsorbs oxygen impurities from the third metal layer and prevents oxygen impurities from diffusing into the first metal layer.
US08766373B2

A semiconductor memory includes a plurality of stripe-like active areas formed by stacking, in a direction perpendicular to a substrate, a plurality of layers extending parallel to the substrate, a first gate electrode formed on first side surfaces of the active areas, the first side surfaces being perpendicular to the substrate, a second gate electrode formed on second side surfaces of the active areas, the second side surfaces being perpendicular to the substrate. The layers are patterned in self-alignment with each other, intersections of the active areas and the first gate electrode form a plurality of memory cells, and the plurality of memory cells in an intersecting plane share the first gate electrode.
US08766371B2

There is provided a semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the same. The semiconductor structure according to the present invention comprises: a semiconductor substrate; a channel region formed on the semiconductor substrate; a gate stack formed on the channel region; and source/drain regions formed on both sides of the channel region and embedded in the semiconductor substrate. The gate stack comprises: a gate dielectric layer formed on the channel region; and a conductive layer positioned on the gate dielectric layer. For an nMOSFET, the conductive layer has a compressive stress to apply a tensile stress to the channel region; and for a pMOSFET, the conductive layer has a tensile stress to apply a compressive stress to the channel region.
US08766361B2

A semiconductor device is provided, which includes a single crystal semiconductor layer formed over an insulating surface and having a source region, a drain region, and a channel formation region, a gate insulating film covering the single crystal semiconductor layer and a gate electrode overlapping with the channel formation region with the gate insulating film interposed therebetween. In the semiconductor device, at least the drain region of the source and drain regions includes a first impurity region adjacent to the channel formation region and a second impurity region adjacent to the first impurity region. A maximum of an impurity concentration distribution in the first impurity region in a depth direction is closer to the insulating surface than a maximum of an impurity concentration distribution in the second impurity region in a depth direction.
US08766360B2

An apparatus comprises: a semiconductor device on a base substrate, the semiconductor device having a core metal positioned proximate a source and a drain in the base substrate; a work function metal on a portion of the core metal; a dielectric liner on a portion of the work function metal; a metal gate in electrical communication with one of the source and the drain; and an insulator film implanted into the core metal, the insulator film forming an insulative barrier across the metal gate and between the core metal and the source or the drain.
US08766351B2

According to one embodiment, a columnar semiconductor, a floating gate electrode formed on a side surface of the columnar semiconductor via a tunnel dielectric film, and a control gate electrode formed to surround the floating gate electrode via a block dielectric film are provided.
US08766336B2

An electrical device in which an interface layer comprising arsenic is disposed between and in contact with a conductor and a semiconductor. In some cases, the interface layer may be a monolayer of arsenic.
US08766333B2

A semiconductor device includes a first buried bit line (120a) provided between lower and upper substrates (100b, 100a), first and second pillar patterns (105a, 105b) extending from the upper substrate (100a) and coupled to the first buried bit line (120a) through first and second gate patterns (140a), respectively. A first body contact pattern (160a) coupled to the first and/or the second pillar patterns (105a, 105b) through the upper substrate (100a) prevents the first and the second pillar patterns from floating.
US08766332B2

A die is formed with different and optimized critical dimensions in different device levels and areas of those device levels using photolithography and etch techniques. One aspect of the invention provides for a memory array formed above a substrate, with driver circuitry formed in the substrate. A level of the memory array consists of, for example, parallel rails and a fan-out region. It is desirable to maximize density of the rails and minimize cost of lithography for the entire memory array. This can be achieved by forming the rails at a tighter pitch than the CMOS circuitry beneath it, allowing cheaper lithography tools to be used when forming the CMOS, and similarly by optimizing lithography and etch techniques for a device level to produce a tight pitch in the rails, and a more relaxed pitch in the less-critical fan-out region.
US08766331B2

In a semiconductor module according to certain aspects the invention, a U-terminal and an M-terminal overlap each other in a manner to reduce inductance and to further to reduce the size of snubber capacitor. In certain aspects of the invention, a P-terminal, M-terminal, N-terminal, and U-terminal are arranged such that the U-terminal, through which currents flow in and out, is arranged farthest away from control electrodes to reduce the noises superposed to control electrodes, and the P-terminal, M-terminal, N-terminal, and U-terminal are aligned to facilitate attaching external connection bars thereto. A power semiconductor module according to aspects of the invention can facilitate reducing the wiring inductance inside and outside the module, reducing the electromagnetic noises introduced into the control terminals, and attaching the external wirings to the terminals thereof simply and easily.
US08766328B2

Methods and apparatus relating to very large scale FET arrays for analyte measurements. ChemFET (e.g., ISFET) arrays may be fabricated using conventional CMOS processing techniques based on improved FET pixel and array designs that increase measurement sensitivity and accuracy, and at the same time facilitate significantly small pixel sizes and dense arrays. Improved array control techniques provide for rapid data acquisition from large and dense arrays. Such arrays may be employed to detect a presence and/or concentration changes of various analyte types in a wide variety of chemical and/or biological processes. In one example, chemFET arrays facilitate DNA sequencing techniques based on monitoring changes in hydrogen ion concentration (pH), changes in other analyte concentration, and/or binding events associated with chemical processes relating to DNA synthesis.
US08766322B2

In a layout structure of a standard cell including off transistors 126, 127 unnecessary for logic operation of a circuit, dummy via contacts 116, 117 are disposed on impurity diffusion regions 103, 106 of the off transistors 126, 127, respectively. Dummy metal interconnects 122, 123 are connected to the dummy via contacts 116, 117, respectively. Thus, variations in the density of via contacts, which are one of causes lowering the production yield of semiconductor integrated circuits, is reduced, improving manufacturing defects of the via contacts.
US08766315B2

Disclosed are a quantum dot-block copolymer hybrid, methods of fabricating and dispersing the same, a light emitting device including the same, and a fabrication method thereof. The quantum dot-block copolymer hybrid includes; a quantum dot, and a block copolymer surrounding the quantum dot, wherein the block copolymer has a functional group comprising sulfur (S) and forms a chemical bond with the quantum dot.
US08766313B2

A mounting board including a pair of patterned electrodes, a lower surface and an upper surface opposed thereto on which a substrate of an electronic component is to be mounted, a pass-through hole penetrating through the upper surface and the lower surface, and a peripheral side surface that defines the pass-through hole. The pass-through hole includes a plurality of penetrating grooves that are cut into the mounting board and penetrate through the upper and lower surfaces. The plurality of penetrating grooves electrically split the pair of patterned electrodes. The pair of patterned electrodes is partly positioned inside the peripheral side surface, and a connection portion connecting the at least one pair of patterned electrodes and at least one pair of patterned electrodes provided on the upper surface of the substrate of the electronic component is to be disposed inside the peripheral side surface that defines the pass-through hole.
US08766307B2

A light emitting diode device includes an epitaxial substrate, at least one passivation structure, at least one void, a semiconductor layer, a first type doping semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer and a second type doping semiconductor layer. The passivation structure is disposed on the epitaxial substrate and has an outer surface. The void is located at the passivation structure and at least covering 50% of the outer surface of the passivation structure. The semiconductor layer is disposed on the epitaxial substrate and encapsulating the passivation structure and the void. The first type doping semiconductor layer is disposed on the semiconductor layer. The light-emitting layer is disposed on the first type doping semiconductor layer. The second type doping semiconductor layer is disposed on the light emitting layer.
US08766306B2

A light emitting device and a method for manufacturing the light emitting device are disclosed. In one example, the light emitting device includes a transparent substrate, partially transparent an anode layer or layer assembly arranged on said substrate, a light emitting layer arranged on said anode layer, and a transparent cathode layer arranged on said light emitting layer, wherein said anode layer or layer assembly includes a first surface facing said transparent substrate and a second surface facing said light emitting layer and is positioned opposite to said first surface, said first surface includes a transparent conductive material, said second surface includes first and second domains, said first domains are conductive and non-transparent, said second domains are transparent and electrically isolating, and said first domains are in direct contact with said light emitting layer and are arranged to allow electrical contact between said first surface and said light emitting layer.
US08766305B2

A semiconductor light emitting device has a light emitting element, a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer, a seed electrode layer and a plated layer. The light emitting element has a nitride-based III-V compound semiconductor on a substrate and a light extraction surface. The first electrode layer is provided on the light extraction surface. The second electrode layer is provided on a surface opposite to the light extraction surface. The seed electrode layer is configured to cover the entire surface of the second electrode layer. The plated layer is provided on the seed electrode layer. The light emitting element has a light emitting layer, first conductive type semiconductor layer, and second conductive type semiconductor layer, and has a forward tapered shape of a width which gradually narrows in order of the second conductive type semiconductor layer, the light emitting layer and the first conductive type semiconductor layer.
US08766299B2

An electro-optic device includes a light-emitting element disposed above a substrate, an optically transparent sealing film covering the light-emitting element, and a color filter disposed on the sealing film so as to adjoin the sealing film. The sealing film includes a thin portion overlapping at least part of the light-emitting element, and a thick portion surrounding the thin portion. The thin portion and the thick portion form a recess in the sealing film. The color filter fills the recess.
US08766298B2

A light emitting packaged diode ids disclosed that includes a light emitting diode mounted in a reflective package in which the surfaces adjacent the diode are near Lambertian reflectors. An encapsulant in the package is bordered by the Lambertian reflectors and a phosphor in the encapsulant converts frequencies emitted by the LED chip and, together with the frequencies emitted by the LED chip, produces white light. A substantially flat meniscus formed by the encapsulant defines the emitting surface of the packaged diode.
US08766294B2

A semiconductor light-emitting device has a first principal surface, a second principal surface formed on a side opposite to the first principal surface, and a light-emitting layer. A p-electrode on the second principal surface is in the region of the light-emitting layer and surrounds an n-electrode. An insulating layer on the side of the semiconductor layer surrounds the p- and the n-electrodes. A p-metal pillar creates an electrical connection for the p-electrode, and an n-metal pillar creates an electrical connection for the n-electrode. A resin layer surrounds the end portions of the p- and the n-metal pillars, and also covers the side surface of the semiconductor layer, the second principal surface, the p-electrode, the n-electrode, the insulating layer, the p-metal pillar and the n-metal pillar.
US08766292B2

Provided are a method of manufacturing an organic light emitting display device and an organic light emitting display device manufactured by the method. The method includes calculating a peak-luminance current density for each of a red sub-pixel, a blue sub-pixel, a green sub-pixel, and a white sub-pixel, calculating an average use current density for each of the red sub-pixel, blue sub-pixel, green sub-pixel, and white sub-pixel; determining a size of each sub-pixel with the peak-luminance current density and the average use current density, and forming the sub-pixels with the determined sizes of the respective sub-pixels. The present invention sets the size of each sub-pixel in consideration of a peak-luminance current density and an average use current density, thus easily achieving the peak luminance and enhancing the color-coordinate life.
US08766289B2

Disclosed is a light emitting device including: a light emitting structure including a plurality of light emitting regions including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer and a second semiconductor layer; a first electrode unit disposed on the first semiconductor layer in one of the light emitting regions; a second electrode unit disposed on the second semiconductor layer in another of the light emitting regions; an intermediate pad disposed on the second semiconductor layer in at least still another of the light emitting regions; and at least one connection electrode to sequentially connect the light emitting regions in series, wherein the light emitting regions connected in series are divided into 1st to ith light emitting region groups and areas of light emitting regions that belong to different groups are different (where 1
US08766288B2

A display panel includes a substrate, a plurality of bottom electrodes, an isolation layer, a plurality of light emitting layers, a top electrode, and at least one first auxiliary electrode. The bottom electrodes and the isolation layer are disposed on the substrate. The isolation layer has a plurality of pixel region openings and at least one buffer region. Each of the pixel region openings respectively exposes the corresponding bottom electrode. The buffer region is disposed between two adjacent pixel region openings. The light emitting layers are respectively disposed on the corresponding bottom electrodes. The top electrode covers the light emitting layers, the isolation layer, and the buffer region. The first auxiliary electrode is disposed in the buffer region.
US08766287B2

The present invention relates to a light emitting device, a light emitting device package, and a lighting device with the same.The light emitting device includes a light emitting structure including a first conductive type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductive type semiconductor layer, a second electrode layer formed on an underside of the light emitting structure connected to the second conductive type semiconductor layer electrically, a first electrode layer in contact with the first conductive type semiconductor layer passed through the second conductive type semiconductor layer and the active layer, and an insulating layer formed between the second electrode layer and the first electrode layer, between the second conductive type semiconductor layer and the first electrode layer, and between the active layer and the first electrode layer.
US08766284B1

The optoelectronics chip-to-chip interconnect system includes at least one packaged chip connected on the printed-circuit-hoard (PCB) with at least one other packaged chip, opticalelectrical (O-E) conversion means, and waveguide-board. Single to multiple chips can be interconnected using this technique. Packaged chip includes semiconductor die and package based on ball-grid array or chipscale-package. O-E board includes optoelectronics and multiple electrical contacts on both board sides. Waveguide board includes electrodes transferring signals from O-E board to PCB, and the flex optical waveguide, stackable onto the PCB, to guide optical signals chip-to-chip. Electrodes can be connected to the PCB instead of on waveguide hoard. The chip-to-chip interconnection system is pin-free, compatible with the PCB. Advantages are to use the packaged chip for interconnection, while conventional PCB can be used for low speed signal connection, and transmitting part of the heat from the packaged chip to the PCB through conductors, avoiding complex cooling systems.
US08766282B2

An organic light emitting display is disclosed. In one aspect, the display includes a substrate, thin film transistors disposed on the substrate, first, second, and third pixel definition layers disposed on the thin film transistors, respectively having openings, and respectively having first, second, and third heights different from each other, and first, second, and third organic light emitting devices disposed in the openings of the first, second, and third pixel definition layers and connected to the thin film transistors, respectively. The first, second, and third pixel definition layers are spaced apart from each other, the first, second, and third organic light emitting devices have different thicknesses from each other, and the first, second, and third organic light emitting devices have thicknesses respectively corresponding to the first, second, and third heights of the first, second, and third pixel definition layers.
US08766281B2

A light emitting diode chip includes a substrate, an epitaxial layer, two inclined plane units, and two electrode units. The substrate has top and bottom surfaces. The epitaxial layer is disposed on the top surface of the substrate. Each of the inclined plane units is inclined downwardly and outwardly from the epitaxial layer toward the bottom surface of the substrate, and includes an inclined sidewall formed on the epitaxial layer, and a substrate inclined wall formed on the substrate. Each of the electrode units includes an electrode disposed on the epitaxial layer, and a conductive portion extending from the electrode to the substrate inclined wall along corresponding one of the inclined plane units.
US08766279B1

A SiC-based trench-type Schottky device is disclosed. The device includes: a SiC substrate having first and second surfaces; a first contact metal formed on the second surface and configured for forming an ohmic contact on the substrate; a drift layer formed on the first surface and including a cell region and a termination region enclosing the cell region; a plurality of first trenches with a first depth formed in the cell region; a plurality of second trenches with a second depth less than the first depth; a plurality of mesas formed in the substrate, each defined between neighboring ones of the trenches; an insulating layer formed on sidewalls and bottoms of the trenches; and a second contact metal formed on the mesas and the insulating layer, extending from the cell region to the termination region, and configured for forming a Schottky contact on the mesas of the substrate.
US08766271B2

A flexible display apparatus is disclosed. The flexible display apparatus includes: a substrate on which a display unit for displaying an image, a non-display area formed outside the display unit, and at least one pad for inputting an electrical signal to the display unit are located; and a circuit board including circuit terminals to be electrically connected to the at least one pad. A stiffener including a plurality of reinforcement lines that are patterned to reduce or prevent thermal deformation of the substrate is formed on the substrate.
US08766267B2

A pixel structure including a semiconductor layer having at least one source region and at least one drain region; a first insulating layer covering the semiconductor layer; a first conductive layer on the first insulating layer and including at least one gate; a second insulating layer covering the first conductive layer; a second conductive layer on the second insulating layer and including at least one source electrode, at least one drain electrode and at least one bottom electrode, the source region, the source electrode, the drain region, the drain electrode and the gate forming at least one thin film transistor; a third insulating layer covering the second conductive layer; a third conductive layer on the third insulating layer and including at least one top electrode, the top electrode and the bottom electrode forming at least one capacitor; and a pixel electrode electrically connected to the thin film transistor.
US08766264B2

An embodiment of the disclosed technology provides a thin film transistor device comprising a source electrode, a drain electrode, a gate electrode, an active layer corresponding to the gate electrode, and a gate insulation layer formed between the gate electrode and the active layer; a concave region corresponding to the gate electrode is provided in the gate insulation layer.
US08766262B2

An organic light-emitting display device preventing edge defects between a pixel define layer and a pixel electrode, and a method of manufacturing the same. The organic light-emitting display device, comprises: a substrate; a pixel electrode disposed on the substrate and comprising a first patterned unit and a second patterned unit which are electrically disconnected; a pixel define unit disposed on the substrate and exposing the pixel electrode; an intermediate layer disposed on the pixel electrode and emitting light; and a counter electrode disposed on the intermediate layer and the pixel define layer.
US08766252B2

A semiconductor device having favorable electric characteristics and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. A transistor includes an oxide semiconductor layer formed over an insulating layer, a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer which overlap with part of the oxide semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer in contact with part of the oxide semiconductor layer, and a gate electrode layer over the gate insulating layer. In the transistor, a buffer layer having n-type conductivity is formed between the source electrode layer and the oxide semiconductor layer and between the drain electrode layer and the oxide semiconductor layer. Thus, parasitic resistance is reduced, resulting in improvement of on-state characteristics of the transistor.
US08766225B2

According to the embodiment, a storage device includes row lines arranged parallel to one another, column lines arranged parallel to one another to intersect with the row lines, and a memory cell disposed at each of intersections of the row lines and the column lines and including a resistance-change element and a diode connected in series to the resistance-change element. The diode includes a stack of a first semiconductor region containing an impurity of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor region containing an impurity of the first conductivity type lower in concentration than in the first semiconductor region, and a third semiconductor region containing an impurity of a second conductivity type. An impurity concentration in the second semiconductor region of the diode in a first adjacent portion adjacent to the first semiconductor region is higher than that in a second adjacent portion adjacent to the third semiconductor region.
US08766214B2

The invention relates to a method of preparing and imaging a sample using a particle-optical apparatus, equipped with an electron column and an ion beam column, a camera system, a manipulator. The method comprises the steps of deriving a first ptychographic image of the sample from a first electron image, thinning the sample, and forming a second ptychographic image of the sample. In an embodiment of the invention the seed image used for the second image is the first ptychographic image. In another embodiment the second ptychographic image is the image of the layer removed during the thinning. In another embodiment the inner potential of the sample is determined and dopant concentrations are determined.
US08766209B2

Disclosed is a surge protection system for use with an ion source assembly. The system comprises a high voltage power source coupled in series with a thermionic diode and an ion source assembly. The high voltage power supply is enclosed in the pressure tank and drives the ion source assembly. The thermionic diode is comprised of an insulating tube disposed between the ion source assembly enclosure and the output of the high voltage power supply and makes use of existing ion source assembly components to limit damage to the power supply during arc failures of the ion source assembly.
US08766200B2

A portable radiation detector is described having an elastomeric enclosure that provides some degree of mechanical shock resistance. In one embodiment, the enclosure encloses some or all of the electronic components of the detector and provides protection against drops and other mechanical shock for the enclosed components. One or more support or stiffening structures may also be provided to protect against impacts, to distribute static loads, and/or to impart a shape to the detector when handled.
US08766198B2

A single photon counting pixel detector chip has a negligible dead time and consequentially high frame rates. The detector chip contains: a) a layer of photosensitive material; b) an N×M array of photo-detector diodes arranged in the layer of photosensitive material; and c) a N×M array of readout unit cells. The readout unit cell contains an input interface connected to a diode output interface, a high-gain charge to voltage amplifying device and a pixel counter being connected to an output of the high-gain voltage amplifying device. The pixel counter is split into a first number of nibble counters. The basic counter cell contains a counting element, a switch, a temporary storage element and an output stage. Additionally, the detector chip has a side shift register to read out the nibble counters row-wise with a predetermined number of nibble row selections.
US08766189B2

The system is comprised of at least one pair of light sources (1;2;3) that emit pulsed electromagnetic radiation in the near-infrared zone; at least one pair of light sources (1;2;3) that emit radiation in the near-ultraviolet zone; at least one photodetector (4) with the absorption band located in the near-infrared zone, for detecting the pulsed radiation transmitted and reflected on the biological element, on the basis of the pulsed radiation emitted by the pair of light sources that emit the radiation in the near-infrared; at least one photodetector (5) with the absorption band located in the near-ultraviolet zone, for detecting the pulsed radiation transmitted and reflected on the biological element, on the basis of the pulsed radiation emitted by the pair of light sources (1;2;3) that emit the radiation in the near-ultraviolet zone; a control unit (8(c)) that interprets the pulsed radiation transmitted and reflected on the biological element; and a processing unit (8(d)) that determines if it is a living biological element, on the basis of the radiation interpreted by the control unit.
US08766178B2

A method of interfacing atmospheric pressure ion sources, including electrospray and desorption electrospray ionization sources, to mass spectrometers, for example miniature mass spectrometers, in which the ionized sample is discontinuously introduced into the mass spectrometer. Discontinuous introduction improves the match between the pumping capacity of the instrument and the volume of atmospheric pressure gas that contains the ionized sample. The reduced duty cycle of sample introduction is offset by operation of the mass spectrometer under higher performance conditions and by ion accumulation at atmospheric pressure.
US08766176B2

In an ion mobility spectrometer in which a gas flows through a gas-tight tube with a radially quadrupolar RF field therein and blows ions against a DC electric field barrier, a mobility scan with a mobility scale that is linear in time is obtained by holding the height of the DC electric field barrier constant while changing the pressure and temperature conditions of the flowing gas. Alternatively, the mobility scan is performed by holding the pressure and temperature conditions of the flowing gas constant and reducing the height of the DC electric field barrier non-linearly with respect to time.
US08766172B2

Methods and apparatus for LC/IMS/MS analysis involve obtaining noisy raw data from a sample, convolving the data with an artifact-reducing filter, and locating, in retention-time, ion mobility, and mass-to-charge-ratio dimensions, one or more ion peaks of the convolved data.
US08766171B2

A two-dimensional substantially quadrupole field is provided. The field comprises a quadrupole harmonic of amplitude A2 and an octopole harmonic of amplitude A4, wherein A4 is greater than 0.01% of A2, A4 is less than 5% of A2, and, for any other higher order harmonic with amplitude An present in the field, n being any integer greater than 2 except 4, A4 is greater than ten times An.
US08766163B2

A control circuit is applied into a projector and an operation method is provided for the projector. The projector includes a photo sensor provided for generating a sensing voltage according to light intensity sensed by the photo sensor. The control circuit includes a first voltage-comparing unit, a reference voltage generating unit and a second voltage-comparing unit. The first voltage-comparing unit is provided for comparing the sensing voltage and a first reference voltage, to generate a first comprising result. The reference-voltage generating unit is provided for generating a second reference voltage and determining whether adjusting the second reference voltage according to the first comparing result. The second reference voltage is relatively larger than the first reference voltage. The second voltage-comparing unit is provided for comparing the sensing voltage and the second reference voltage, to generate a second comparing result.
US08766159B2

In one aspect, the present invention provides photodetectors and components thereof having multi-spectral sensing capabilities. In some embodiments, photodetectors of the present invention provide a first photosensitive element comprising at least one accessway extending through the element and an electrical connection at least partially disposed in the accessway, the electrical connection accessible for receiving a second photosensitive element.
US08766154B2

An opto-electronic measuring arrangement being independent from extraneous light includes a transmission light source and a compensation light source which sequentially emit light on a clocked phase basis. The emitted light is respectively phase-shifted. The light sources can be controlled such that the clock-synchronous signal difference between different phases becomes zero. A basic coupling light source transmits light directly to the optical receiver without the light being influenced by the measuring object. The basic coupling control current is so that a desired sensitivity of the measuring arrangement is achieved and/or a desired operating point can be set. The controllable current source for generating a clocked transmission control current and the controllable basic coupling current source for generating a clocked basic coupling control current are phase-synchronously clocked. The controllable compensation current source for generating a clocked compensation control current is clocked with the inverted clock signal of the clock generator.
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