US08977982B1
Techniques described and suggested herein include systems and methods for navigating content in the form of a scrollable information sets. In an embodiment, a portion of a scrollable information set is displayed on a user device. As the user navigates through the information set, one or more location indicators are modified. The location indicators each correspond to a position within the information set and are configured to facilitate user input for navigating to a corresponding position within the information set.
US08977978B2
Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, and machine readable mediums for creating and presenting an outline view, the outline view including a first user navigable graphical panel, the first panel displaying first organizational elements corresponding to a first outline level of an electronic content work; a second user navigable graphical panel, the second panel displaying one or more child organizational elements of a selected first organizational element, the child organizational elements corresponding to a second outline level of the electronic content work; and one or more content previews of content within the electronic content work in the first or second panel, the content previews corresponding to the first or second outline levels of the electronic content work, respectively.
US08977977B2
There is provided a method for fanning pages of an electronic book on a touch panel display of an electronic apparatus for consuming electronic books. The method replicates a user experience similar to fanning pages of a physical book.
US08977966B1
Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure enable use of a keyboard to navigate a webpage presented in a web browser. According to an embodiment, a two-dimensional grid is placed over a webpage and elements of the webpage are assigned to the nearest cells of the grid. The grid specifies the directional and distance relations among the various elements of the webpage. Functionality is provided that enables users to quickly navigate the elements of the webpage using arrow keys of a keyboard. For example, if a selection indicator is currently focused on a webpage element that is assigned to a particular cell of the grid, a press of the left-arrow key moves the selection indicator leftward along the grid to the element that is assigned to the nearest leftward cell. The same functionality is applied to up-arrow, down-arrow, and right-arrow keys. Further, functionality is provided that enables users to quickly navigate the elements of the webpage using hotkeys.
US08977958B2
A framework for enabling a community of users to share help information about an application program. The framework includes a mechanism for users to generate and share help information and a mechanism for users to access help information created by other users. To generate help information, tools may be incorporated into an application to enable users to capture information about the application as they are performing functions. Those tools capture as a video clip a representation of screen displays created by the application as the user interacts with the application to perform a function about which help information is to be generated. Along with the scenes captured in the video clip, application context information and explanatory material, such as an audio narration, can be captured. The mechanism to access help information includes a server to which video clips can be posted and cataloged, allowing identification of clips in response to user input describing a required help topic.
US08977952B2
Techniques are disclosed for maintaining multiple versions of electronic books on an access device and for carrying over annotations between the multiple versions. In one embodiment, an annotation to be carried over between multiple versions may include both a document file indicator and a surrounding text indicator associated with a document file in a version. The document file indicator may be used to determine whether a corresponding document file exists in a differing version. If the document file exists in the differing version, the surrounding text indicator may be used to determine whether the surrounding text exists within the differing version. If the surrounding text exists, the annotation may be inserted at the corresponding location in the differing version. Differing versions may be maintained on the access device based on whether each of the differing versions is a major or minor version. Versions of the electronic book and related annotations may be stored on or off-device.
US08977934B2
A system providing early termination for channel decoding by re-encoding including a decoding unit, an encoding unit connected to the decoding unit, and a checking unit connected to the decoding unit and to the encoding unit. Via the system, decoded message words produced from the decoding unit are sent back to the encoding unit for re-encoding. Re-encoded words are compared to the decoded codewords by the checking unit and, if they are completely the same, the decoding action of the decoding unit is terminated. The system reduces power consumption and offers a simplified structure, improved decoding throughput, and reduced hardware complexity.
US08977931B2
A method begins by a DS processing module generating a plurality of encoded slices from a data segment using an error encoding function. The method continues with the DS processing module identifying a plurality of DS storage units for storing the plurality of encoded slices. The method continues with the DS processing module selecting an encoded slice of the plurality of encoded slices for sub-slicing using a sub-slicing encoding function to produce a selected encoded slice. The method continues with the DS processing module outputting the plurality of encoded slices to the plurality of DS storage units. The method continues with the DS processing module outputting a command to a DS storage unit of the plurality of DS storage units corresponding to the selected encoded slice, wherein the command includes an instruction to sub-slice the selected encoded slice.
US08977927B2
An error-correction coding method that includes outer coding of performing a coding process for an outer code; and inner coding of performing a coding process for an inner code that has an error correction capability adjusted based on an error correction capability of the outer code.
US08977925B2
A method for ordering trapping sets to find one or more dominant trapping sets includes analyzing a trapping set and a random set of codewords to generate a distance value for each trapping set, and ordering the trapping sets by the distance value. Distance values may be determined for each trapping set by tracking a vote count wherein a correct decode at a certain noise level produces a “right” vote and an incorrect decode at a certain noise level produces a “left” vote. A certain threshold number of “left” votes terminates processing at that noise level.
US08977921B1
A system for providing a test result from an integrated circuit to a status analyzer. A deserializer is configured to deserialize, into data frames, messages received from the integrated circuit. The messages include the test result and are received from the integrated circuit in a serial data format. A frame sync module is configured to synchronize the data frames, output the synchronized data frames, and generate a clock signal. A gateway module is configured to receive the synchronized data frames from the frame sync module in accordance with the clock signal, convert signal levels and signal timings associated with the synchronized data frames from a first format used by the frame sync module to a second format used by the status analyzer, and provide the synchronized data frames to the status analyzer in accordance with the signal levels and the signal timings in the second format used by the status analyzer.
US08977920B2
A device test architecture and a reduced device test interface are provided to enable efficient testing of embedded cores and other circuits within devices. The reduced device test interface is achieved using a double data rate (DDR) signaling technique between the tester and the device. The DDR test interface allows the tester to interface to test circuits within the device, such as IEEE 1500 and/or IEEE 1149.1 test circuits, to provide high test data bandwidth to the test circuits using a minimum of test interface signals. The test architecture includes compare circuits that allow for comparison of test response data to be performed within the device. The test architecture further includes a memory for storing the results of the test response comparisons. The test architecture includes a programmable test controller to allow for various test control operations by simply inputting an instruction to the programmable test controller from the external tester. Additional features and embodiments of the device test architecture and reduced test interface are also disclosed.
US08977916B2
A method of detecting uninitialized memory reads is shown where either all or a subset of a random access memory system is initialized to a know value. One or more watch points are implemented where after a memory read is detected the value read is compared to the value written during initialization. If the values match debug information is captured and appropriate corrective action is taken.
US08977911B1
A method and apparatus to operate a watchdog timer having a first time out period in a processing system. The watchdog timer receives an indication of a change in a mode of operation in the processing system. In response to the change in the mode of operation of the processing system, the watchdog timer changes the time out period to a second time out period corresponding to the new mode of operation.
US08977898B1
A dataset is concurrently recovered after a server crash while the dataset is actively used for servicing client requests. In response to a reboot, records of not-yet-completed transactions in a transaction log are parsed to create a graph of dependencies between the transactions. Once this graph has been created, clients may access a specified block of the dataset after on-demand recovery of the specified block. The on-demand recovery is concurrent with a background recovery task that replays the not-yet-completed transactions in time order. The on-demand recovery uses the dependency graph to replay any and all transactions that support recovery of the specified block, so that recovery of the specified block includes update of other blocks to be consistent with the recovered block in accordance with the not-yet-completed transactions.
US08977897B2
An internode put requesting unit detects a time-out with respect to a put request issued to the next node in the order of a multiplexing chain and notifies a put/get executing unit of the time-out. The put/get executing unit sends an error to the previous node in the order of the multiplexing chain or a client and instructs a put-failed-data synchronizing unit to synchronize data failed to be put, and the put-failed-data synchronizing unit performs a synchronization process. A primary makes other put requests wait until completion of the synchronization process. Furthermore, when having received the error, the client issues a get request to the tail end of the multiplexing chain.
US08977890B2
According to one embodiment, a memory system includes a first memory, a second memory, and a control unit. The first memory includes a volatile first register retaining a first operation parameter. The control unit performs a first operation of retaining the first operation parameter in the second memory. Then, the control unit turns OFF the first memory while retaining the first operation parameter in the second memory when an operation mode is switched from a first mode to a power saving second mode. Then, the control unit performs a second operation of turning on the first memory, and transferring the first operation parameter retained in the second memory to the first register when the operation mode is switched from the second mode to the first mode.
US08977888B1
Reservation conflicts are resolved in a clustering and storage system with SCSI-3 PR fencing enabled. For each specific node, all paths to shared storage are registered with a unique key. Only registered nodes can access the shared storage, and only one reservation can exist amidst multiple registrations. A command failure with a reservation conflict resulting from an attempt to access the shared storage is detected. In response, it is determined whether the specific node is registered with its unique key. If so, it is determined that the node is not fenced off from the shared storage, and the reservation conflict is to be resolved. To do so, the node is re-registered for all paths to the shared storage with the node's unique key. The failed command is then re-started. If the node is not registered, it is determined that the node is fenced off.
US08977878B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a method for decreasing power in an L1 program memory of a multi-level memory system. The power is decreased by enabling a sleep mode in the L1 program memory. The sleep mode determines when the L1 program memory will not be accessed for a period of time. When it is determined that the L1 program memory will not be accessed for a period of time, the voltage applied to the memory array is reduced. When it is determined that the L1 program memory will be accessed, the voltage applied to the memory array is increased.
US08977876B2
An apparatus for implementing low power consumption for data switching device includes a dormancy management module that controls an upper layer logic component in a device to enter a low power consumption state when a current state parameter of the device satisfies a preset dormancy configurationcondition; detects whether an energy consumption state of a transmission medium is active; and wakes up the upper layer logic component in the device to enter a normal working state if the energy consumption state of the transmission medium is active. When a preset condition is satisfied, upper layer logic components such as a CPU, a network processor and an optical module in the device, properly stop full-time operation to save energy.
US08977872B2
An information processing apparatus in which a first waiting time is set, if a job interval is longer than a reference time and a predetermined condition is not satisfied, and a second waiting time longer than the first waiting time is set, if a job interval is longer than the reference time and the predetermined condition is satisfied. In a case that the job interval is longer than the first reference time, a control unit causes a multi-function peripheral to shift from a normal mode to a power saving mode when the first waiting time has elapsed after a job having been processed, if the predetermined condition is not satisfied, and causes the multi-function peripheral to shift to the power saving mode when the second waiting time has elapsed after the job having been processed, if the predetermined condition is satisfied.
US08977859B2
In one aspect, the present invention comprises one or more processors that generate a first checksum value for a data block and a second checksum value for the data block, wherein the first checksum value is generated by applying a first checksum algorithm to the data block and the second checksum value is generated by applying a second checksum algorithm, different from the first checksum algorithm, to the data block; one or more processors operable to create a data entry comprising data identifying: the first and second checksum values, the first and second checksum algorithms, and at least one of the identified attributes of the data block, the data entry not comprising the data block, and wherein the data block can be recovered using the data entry; and one or more processors that store the data entry in a computer-readable medium. Other aspects comprise related systems, methods, and software.
US08977854B2
Automatic identification and authentication of a user of a mobile application entails receiving from the wireless communications device a unique device identifier and an e-mail address corresponding to the wireless communications device, associating a registration identifier with the unique device identifier and the e-mail address, generating an authentication token, and communicating the authentication token and the registration identifier to the wireless communications device.
US08977849B1
A computer-implemented method for creating a rights management system (RMS) with superior layers and subordinate layers is described. A separate trust network for one or more layers of the RMS is established. The trust network includes one or more computing nodes within the one or more layers. A data object is created on a computing node that is a member of trust network in a superior layer. The data object is encrypted to a ciphertext data object. A publishing license is created for each of the one or more layers of the RMS. Access rights and attributes associated with the ciphertext data object are controlled within each layer based on the publishing license of each of the one or more layers of the RMS.
US08977848B1
Systems and methods for providing safety and security functions are disclosed. The system includes a computing device that provides at least a first partition and a second partition. The computing device implements time and space partitioning to isolate resources available to the first partition and the second partition. The system also includes a safety module that operates in the first partition for providing safety functions for the system. The system further includes a security module that operates in the second partition for providing security functions for the system. A predefined communication interface is utilized to facilitate communications between the safety module and the security module. The communication interface defines a set of communications allowable between the safety module and the security module, wherein information sharing between the safety module and the security module is restricted to only the set of communications allowed through the communication interface.
US08977845B2
Improved access control techniques for use in a service-oriented computing environment are disclosed. For example, one method for authenticating a client in a service-oriented environment, wherein the service-oriented environment includes a plurality of services, includes the following steps. At least one service of the plurality of services is invoked. State information is associated with the at least one service invoked. The state information is used to authenticate a client with at least one service. Further, a method for access control in a service-oriented environment, wherein the service-oriented environment includes a plurality of services, includes the following steps. A rule specification language is provided. At least one rule is specified using the rule specification language. A verification is performed to determine whether or not the client satisfies the at least one rule. The client is granted access to a service when the client satisfies the at least one rule.
US08977839B2
The present invention is a procedure for a self configuring eNB/E-UTRAN. The eNB/E-UTRAN interacts with the Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) of the LTE network in order to complete the mutual authentication task between the eNB and the EPC and other operating procedures in the eNB self configuration phase.
US08977837B2
At least one instruction of a sequence of program instructions has a plurality of alternative outcomes including at least a first outcome that is independent of at least one operand and a second outcome that is dependent on the at least one operand. The at least one operand is a value generated by a preceding instruction in the sequence. The at least one instruction is issued for execution independently of when the at least one operand is generated by the preceding instruction. Recovery circuitry is provided to perform a recovery operation in the event that the second outcome is to be executed for the at least one instruction and the at least one operand has not been generated by the preceding instruction when the at least one instruction is to be executed by said instruction execution circuitry.
US08977836B2
In one aspect, the invention comprises a system comprising: (a) a plurality of parallel processors on a single chip; and (b) computer memory located on the chip and accessible by each of the processors; wherein each of the processors is operable to process a de minimis instruction set, and wherein each of the processors comprises local caches dedicated to each of at least three specific registers in the processor. In another aspect, the invention comprises a system comprising: (a) a plurality of parallel processors on a single chip; and (b) computer memory located on the chip and accessible by each of the processors, wherein each of the processors is operable to process an instruction set optimized for thread-level parallel processing.
US08977835B2
Techniques for reducing issue-to-issue latency by reversing processing order in half-pumped single instruction multiple data (SIMD) execution units are described. In one embodiment a processor functional unit is provided comprising a frontend unit, and execution core unit, a backend unit, an execution order control signal unit, a first interconnect coupled between and output and an input of the execution core unit and a second interconnect coupled between an output of the backend unit and an input of the frontend unit. In operation, the execution order control signal unit generates a forwarding order control signal based on the parity of an applied clock signal on reception of a first vector instruction. This control signal is in turn used to selectively forward first and second portions of an execution result of the first vector instruction via the interconnects for use in the execution of a dependent second vector instruction.
US08977832B2
A memory controller converts controller output signals output from a controller into memory input signals according to the operation specifications of memory chips to operate, and outputs the resultant to the memory chips through a common bus. The memory controller also receives memory output signals output from the memory chips through the common bus, and converts the received signals into controller input signals receivable to the controller. This allows the single memory controller to access the plurality of types of memory chips. As a result, the memory controller can be reduced in chip size, lowering the cost of the memory system.
US08977828B2
A system includes a proxy processor configured to simulate a virtual disk, and a daemon processor in communication with the proxy processor and a backup repository. The proxy processor is configured to receive from an application a read request or a write request and to direct the read request or the write request to the daemon processor. The daemon processor is configured to receive the read request from the proxy processor and to access the backup repository or the simulated virtual disk, and to receive the write request from the proxy processor and to write data in the write request to the simulated virtual disk.
US08977825B1
A method performed by a storage management computer includes (a) receiving a set of storage profile definitions (SPDs) from an administrator of a data storage system over a user interface, each SPD of the set of SPDs including (1) a storage profile name and (2) a set of storage policies assigned to that SPD, (b) providing the storage profile names from the set of SPDs to an environment management application, the environment management application being configured to manage environments that use storage from the data storage system, (c) in response to providing, receiving a selection of a particular SPD from the environment management application to be used in connection with a particular environment, and (d) provisioning a unit of storage from the data storage system to the particular environment in accordance with the set of storage policies assigned to the particular SPD.
US08977822B2
A memory device includes an on-board processing system that facilitates the ability of the memory device to interface with a plurality of processors operating in a parallel processing manner. The processing system includes circuitry that performs processing functions on data stored in the memory device in an indivisible manner. More particularly, the system reads data from a bank of memory cells or cache memory, performs a logic function on the data to produce results data, and writes the results data back to the bank or the cache memory. The logic function may be a Boolean logic function or some other logic function.
US08977821B2
A method to eliminate the delay of multiple overlapping block invalidate operations in a multi CPU environment by overlapping the block invalidate operation with normal CPU accesses, thus making the delay transparent. The cache controller performing the block invalidate operation merges multiple overlapping requests into a parallel stream to eliminate execution delays. Cache operations other that block invalidate, such as block write back or block write back invalidate may also be merged into the execution stream.
US08977820B2
A data processing apparatus and method are provided for handling hard errors occurring in a cache of the data processing apparatus. Cache location avoid storage is provided having at least one record, with each record being used to store a cache line identifier identifying a specific cache line. On detection of an error condition, one of the records in the cache location avoid storage is allocated to store the cache line identifier for the specific cache line associated with the entry for which the error condition was detected. A clean and invalidate operation is performed in respect of the specific cache line, and the access request is then re-performed. Cache access circuitry is arranged to exclude any specific cache line identified in the cache location avoid storage from a lookup procedure.
US08977811B2
Methods and apparatus to improve throughput and efficiency in memory devices are described. In one embodiment, a memory controller may include scheduler logic to issue read or write requests to a memory device in an optimal fashion, e.g., to maximize bandwidth and/or reduce latency. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US08977806B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a hybrid memory module that combines memory devices of different types while presenting a single technology interface. The hybrid memory module includes a number of super-stacks and a first interface configured to transmit data between the super-stacks and a memory controller. Each super-stack includes a number of sub-stacks, a super-controller configured to control the sub-stacks, and a second interface configured to transmit data between the sub-stacks and the first interface. Combining memory devices of different types allows utilizing the favorable properties of each type of the memory devices, while hiding their unfavorable properties from the memory controller.
US08977799B2
A multi-tiered system of data storage includes a plurality of data storage solutions. The data storage solutions are organized such that the each progressively faster, more expensive solution serves as a cache for the previous solution, and each solution includes a dedicated data block to store individual data sets, newly written in a plurality of write operations, for later migration to slower data storage solutions in a single write operation.
US08977798B2
The present invention provides an electronic system mounted on an aircraft which can effectively reduce electronic devices and wires by integration of control systems. Specifically, a fuselage (80) of an aircraft (100) is divided into a nose part (80a), a center part (80b), and an aft part (80c), and two IMAs (integrated modular avionics units) (50a to 50c) are provided in each of these parts. The IMA units (50a to 50c) are interconnected via an integrated data bus (53) to construct an integrated electronic system mounted on the aircraft. The system is suitably used for integrating utility systems except for avionics systems, among a plurality of control systems mounted on the aircraft, and is also applicable to integration of the avionics systems.
US08977795B1
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with managing access to critical sections in a multithread processor are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a register configured to store i) respective resource identifiers that identify respective resources and ii) respective priorities for respective resource identifiers. The apparatus includes a managing module logic configured to receive a blocking instruction for a first resource having a first resource identifier that is associated with a first task, access the register to determine a priority associated with the first resource identifier, select one or more dependent resources based, at least in part on the priority associated with first resource identifier, and block the first resource and the dependent resources. In this manner the first task is granted access to the first resource and the dependent resources while other tasks are prevented from accessing the first resource and the dependent resources.
US08977792B2
An audio signal adapter device, an audio signal receiving device and a system for transmitting an audio signal are provided. The audio signal adapter device comprises an audio interface and an adapter end interface. The audio interface is connected with an audio signal sending device, has a ground pin and at least one audio pin. The adapter end interface is connected with the audio signal receiving device, has an audio signal pin and a reference signal pin. The audio pin of the audio interface is configured to receive an audio signal output from the audio signal sending device, connected with the audio signal pin of the adapter end interface, the ground pin of the audio interface is connected with the reference signal pin of the adapter end interface. The audio signal pin and the reference signal pin are configured to output the audio signal to the audio signal receiving device.
US08977786B1
Methods and device coupled to a computing device and a network device are provided. A first module receives a first packet and a second packet via a same single data path from the computing device. A second module receives the first packet at a first buffer via a first path and the second packet at a second buffer via a second path. The first module uses a steering mechanism to steer the first packet in the first path and the second packet in the second path. The second module uses an arbitration module to select the first packet and the second packet for maintaining an order in which the first packet and the second packet are received and for sending the first packet and the second packet to a third module for further processing.
US08977785B2
A wireless memory device may include logic configured to detect that first data has been written by a microcontroller to a first address of a memory space of the wireless memory device; incorporate the first data into a first packet, in response to detecting that the first data has been written to the memory space, wherein the first packet includes the first address; and provide the first packet to a wireless chipset to wirelessly transmit the first packet to a destination device. The logic may be further configured to receive a second packet from the wireless chip set, wherein the second packet was received wirelessly from the destination device; retrieve a second memory address from the second packet; retrieve second data from the second packet; and write the second data to the retrieved second memory address in the memory space of the wireless memory device.
US08977774B2
A packet processor implemented in hardware. The packet processor includes a processing pipeline including a plurality of processing elements. The plurality of processing elements are configured to process a first data packet transferred sequentially through the plurality of processing elements. The first data packet includes information indicating a period of time that at least a first processing element of the plurality of processing elements uses to process the first data packet. The first processing element is prevented from processing other data packets due to performing processing on the first data packet during the period of time. A packet rate shaper is configured to, prior to the first data packet entering the processing pipeline, read the information in the first data packet, selectively increment and decrement a token value, and selectively grant the first data packet access to the processing pipeline based on the information and based on the token value.
US08977769B2
A network communication system includes a listener that receives a plurality of data streams from a talker. The data in the data streams may be identical. The listener identifies one of the data streams as a primary data stream and another of the plurality of data streams as a non-primary data stream. The listener may process data in the primary data stream, and may buffer a minimal amount of data in the non-primary data stream. In the event of a failure or disruption in reception of the primary data stream, the listener may switch over to processing the data in the non-primary data stream. The switch over to processing the non-primary data may be performed in a manner that ensures lossless failover.
US08977767B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided that may be implemented in various electronic devices to identify at least one current interest topic associated with message content transmitted over a wireless communication network, and affect programming of at least a portion of content for transmission over a multicast network based, at least in part, on the current interest topic.
US08977765B1
A method and apparatus for streaming applications to a plurality of clients within a peer-to-peer network is provided. In one embodiment, a method for distributing application blocks to facilitate application streaming within a peer-to-peer network includes processing location information regarding a plurality of data chunks amongst a plurality of clients, wherein the plurality of data chunks form at least a portion of an application block and communicating the location information amongst the plurality of clients, wherein the location information is used to request at least one data chunk of the plurality of data chunks.
US08977762B2
A managed services platform. An applications management server is provided for managing relationships with application service providers and others over a wide area network such as the Internet. The applications management server interfaces with a master database server and the servers of one or more application service providers, or other entities, to facilitate selection and deselection of applications, services, and capabilities that may be available for use by the information technology network of a company.
US08977758B2
A service bus system includes: a plurality of first devices each coupled with a client; a plurality of second devices each to perform a service; a first service bus device through which sequences of a session between the first and second devices are communicated, including: a prediction unit to predict one or more other service bus devices through which connection between the first and second devices in a second or later sequence of the session is established; and a transmission unit to transmit information indicating the connection in the first sequence of the session to the one or more other service bus devices predicted; and a second service bus device including: a storage unit to hold the information transmitted from the first service bus device; and a connection unit to establish the connection in the second or later sequence of the session by using the connection information held.
US08977757B2
A method, session managing node and arrangement for providing a network service address of at least one network service of a first operator IMS network to a third party service provider (3PSP) are disclosed, wherein the 3PSP has no business agreement with the first operator. A first application of a mobile station communicates with a second application via a first network, resulting in the setup of an IMS session between the mobile station and the 3PSP. A network service address of at least one network service, provided by the first operator IMS network, is inserted into a SIP message of the IMS session in a session managing node of the first operator IMS network and delivered to the 3PSP, where it is forwarded to the second application. If required, the second application may access the one or more network services via the first network, using the retrieved network address.
US08977744B2
A hardware device for monitoring and intercepting data packetized data traffic at full line rate, is proved. In high bandwidth embodiments, full line rate corresponds to rates that exceed 100 Mbytes/s and in some cases 1000 Mbytes/s. Monitoring and intercepting software, alone, is not able to operate on such volumes of data in real-time. An exemplary embodiment comprises: a data delay buffer with multiple delay outputs; a search engine logic for implementing a set of basic search tools that operate in real-time on the data traffic; a programmable gate array; an interface for passing data quickly to software sub-systems; and control means for implementing software control of the operation of the search tools. The programmable gate array inserts the data packets into the delay buffer, extracts them for searching at the delay outputs and formats and schedules the operation of the search engine logic.
US08977742B1
A system for remote validation of user interactions for client-side scripting may include one or more processors and memory. The processors may receive a transcript of user interactions recorded during an execution of a client-side script and a corresponding score. The transcript may include an indication of a relative time when each user interaction was recorded. The processors may execute the client-side script and recreate the user interactions during the execution at the relative times indicated by the transcript, may calculate a second score for the user interactions based at least in part on at least some of the user interactions and the relative times when the user interactions are recreated during the execution of the client-side script, and may provide the second score when it is equivalent to the received score, otherwise may provide an indication that the user interactions are invalid and/or that the received score is invalid.
US08977741B1
A cloud computing service stores customer data on a server that is located outside of a network security system of the customer. The cloud computing service automatically monitors the customer data to identify one or more access events that originate from a resource within the cloud computing service. For each access event, the service identifies a resource and a data set. The resource may include an identifier associated with a human operator or a software application that performed the access event, and the data set may include customer data that the resource accessed during the access event. The service may create a report of each access event and the information corresponding to the data set for each access event, and it may cause the report to be transmitted to the customer.
US08977736B2
A source virtual machine (VM) hosted on a source server is migrated to a destination VM on a destination server without first powering down the source VM. After optional pre-copying of the source VM's memory to the destination VM, the source VM is suspended and its non-memory state is transferred to the destination VM; the destination VM is then resumed from the transferred state. The source VM memory is either paged into the destination VM on demand, or is transferred asynchronously by pre-copying and write-protecting the source VM memory, and then later transferring only the modified pages after the destination VM is resumed. The source and destination servers preferably share common storage, in which the source VM's virtual disk is stored; this avoids the need to transfer the virtual disk contents.
US08977730B2
A method, a system, and a computer program product are provided for reducing message passing for contention detection in distributed SIP server environments. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to determine that a first site is waiting for a first object locked by a second site. The programming instructions are further operable to determine that a third site is waiting for a second object locked by the first site, and to send a first probe to the second site to determine whether the second site is waiting. A second probe is received and indicates that a site is waiting for an object locked by the first site. The second probe further indicates a deadlock in a distributed server environment to be resolved.
US08977728B1
Data including a set of one or more resources and one or more associated IP addresses is updated based on monitored DNS responses. A request is received from a client device for a resource identified by an IP address. The IP address is matched to one of the IP addresses in the set of one or more IP addresses. A particular resource associated with the matched IP address is identified. A particular network policy that applies is identified. The identified particular network policy is applied to the received request.
US08977721B2
A method for presenting content to a client device through a platform server includes detecting a selection of current content at the platform server. An attribute of the current content is identified. Additional content based on the attribute is identified. A representation of the additional content configured to be displayed at the client device is transmitted. A selection of the additional content is detected at the platform server. The attribute is revised based on the selection of the additional content. A representation of revised content configured to be displayed at the client device is transmitted. The revised content is based on revising the attribute.
US08977715B2
A method for communicating data in an aircraft between at least a first data processing system and a second data processing system locally networked, each processing system being capable of executing at least one application, wherein the data to be exchanged are organized in messages, the aforementioned messages as well as the processing systems and the applications being defined in files stored in a backup unit connected to the network and accessible by the data processing systems.
US08977705B2
A method of logging internet requests includes defining a plurality of field types of interest and receiving a request from the internet including one or more fields. The method also includes determining that a first field type of a first field of the one or more fields matches one of the plurality of field types of interest and caching at least a portion of the first field in a cache. The method further includes determining that a second field type of a second field of the one or more fields matches one of the plurality of field types of interest caching at least a portion of the second field in the cache. The method includes transmitting the cache to a server, determining, a number of occurrences of a field value of at least one of the first field type or the second field type, and providing a report including the number of occurrences of the field value.
US08977701B2
Embodiments are directed towards modifying when to publish content to a channel for distribution based on monitored actions associated with previously published content. A plurality of publishing slots may be determined from a plurality of time slots. Each publishing slot may indicate a time to publish content to the channel. Content may be published to the channel at each of the plurality of publishing slots. User actions associated with the published content may be monitored. The plurality of publishing slots may be ranked based on these monitored actions. At least one of the plurality of publishing slots may be modified to a different time slot based on the rankings of the publishing slots. The publication of content at a publishing slot may be delayed based on a success of other content published at a previous publishing slot being above a threshold.
US08977694B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed to identify session users with cookie information. An example method includes identifying activity associated with a first cookie having a first type, in response to identifying the first, parsing the first cookie to identify a first panelist, when the first cookie includes an identifier associated with a first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist, and when the first cookie includes an identifier unassociated with the first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with a guest.
US08977681B2
A pre-fetching request is received by a server from a client. The pre-fetching request is performed to pre-fetch data from a data source connected to the server according to an indication of the pre-fetching request. The pre-fetched data is sent from the server to the client upon receiving an actual request for the pre-fetched data. As such, an integrated capability of a server and a client can be employed to perform data pre-fetch, to improve overall performance of the server and the client.
US08977679B2
Launching an instance in cloud computing environment having a plurality of computing nodes is described. At a user's home cloud system, a request is received from the user to launch an instance of an object. At the home cloud system, a designated remote cloud system is determined from a federated plurality of remote cloud systems based on the request. The request is translated into a format suitable for the designated remote cloud system. The translated request is communicated to the designated remote cloud system. The instance of the object is launched at the designated remote cloud.
US08977677B2
A computing device provides a first server. The first server receives a primary request associated with a client. In response to receiving the primary request, the first server processes the primary request to generate a response message. As part of processing the primary request, the first server sends a secondary request to a second server after a delay period expires. The second server accesses a resource as part of processing of the secondary request. The duration of the delay period depends at least in part on a recent latency level of the client with regard to the resource. In this way, the first server throttles access to the resource.
US08977676B2
There is provided a numerical value management system which includes a server device and a plurality of user terminals. Each user terminal generates title data to send to the server device when the title name is inputted, the server counts a number of users who create the title data for each title name based on the title data group to generate title compilation data indicating a relationship between the title name and a number of creating users. Further, a high-order title screen data is generated and sent to the user terminal when the server device obtains the high-order title reference request and the high-order title screen data is displayed on a screen in the user terminal.
US08977675B2
Computer systems, methods and software for responding to remote clients with content selected based on when the request is made. The method may include selecting one or more interface components based on the time of day and/or date of the request, and returning a response including the selected interface components. The method may include adjusting the time for a time zone for the remote client and/or user. Interface components may be fully embedded in the response, or may be references to external components. Interface components may include data relating to a user task associated with the date and/or time of day, formatting information for displaying the task data to the user of the remote client, instructions for user interaction with the task data, etc.
US08977674B2
A method and apparatus for managing bookmark information of a media server through a network based on the UPnP AV standard is disclosed. If a request for bookmarking a content item is made, a bookmark item is created and the created bookmark item is linked to the content item by adding the ID of the created bookmark item to the property information of the content item and recording the ID of the content item to be bookmarked in the created bookmark item.
US08977661B2
A method for file management, the method may include: calculating, by a management server that is located within a cloud computing environment, signatures of multiple files that are stored at multiple storage entities; and finding, by the management server, groups of similar files out of the multiple files, wherein the finding is in response to similarities between signatures of the multiple files; wherein the multiple storage entities comprise at least a first storage entity that is managed by a first management entity and a second storage entity that is managed by a second management entity that differs from the first management entity.
US08977657B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for finding lost objects in a file system having a namespace that includes creating a list of all objects in the file system; identifying a portion of the namespace to compare with the list; comparing the portion of the namespace to the list; and deleting from the list entries for objects represented in the portion of the namespace. Some embodiments also include determining whether another portion of the namespace is available to compare with the list of all objects in the file system. Identifying a portion of the namespace to compare with the list according to embodiments for finding lost objects in a file system having a namespace may be carried out by identifying objects renamed during execution of the method.
US08977653B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for generating modified web documents. In one aspect, a method includes retrieving a web document including markup language code and having references to resources external to the web document and parsing the retrieved web document to interpret the markup language code and identify references to resources external to the retrieved web document. Data relating to at least a portion of the resources external to the retrieved web document are retrieved, and a modified web document including the retrieved data is generated and stored for use in responding to a request for retrieval of content of the web document.
US08977651B2
Data is retrieved from a linked-list by locking the linked-list, retrieving data from an element in the linked-list, advancing to a subsequent element in the linked-list while a breakpoint is not encountered and marking the subsequent element as “in-use” when a breakpoint is encountered. A reference to the subsequent element is then created before the linked-list is unlocked.
US08977630B1
A system receives a search query from a user and performs a search of a corpus of documents, based on the search query, to form a ranked set of search results. The system re-ranks the set of search results based on preferences of the user, or a group of users, and provides the re-ranked search results to the user.
US08977629B2
A machine may be configured to access an image of an item described by a description of the item. The machine may determine an image quality score of the image based on an analysis of the image. A request for search results that pertain to the description may be received by the machine, and the machine may present a search result that references the item's image, based on its image quality score. Also, the machine may access images of items and descriptions of items and generate a set of most frequent text tokens included in the item descriptions. The machine may identify an image feature exhibited by an item's image and determine that a text token from the corresponding item description matches one of the most frequent text tokens. A data structure may be generated by the machine to correlate the identified image feature with the text token.
US08977628B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable code stored on a non-transitory media for assessing an entity's innovation level by one or more computing devices include gathering information relating to an entity's performance in plural disciplines; capturing strengths and opportunities of the entity based on the gathered information; generating an innovation score of the entity; analyzing the innovation score to generate an innovation report; and returning the innovation report to the entity.
US08977624B2
Computer-readable media, computer systems, and computing devices facilitate enhancing a web index with uniform resource locator (URL)/non-encoding character (NEC) word pairs to facilitate relevance ranking of search results provided in response to a search query that includes NEC words. URLs are received from web pages and substrings extracted therefrom. Additional elements are received from the web page, word-broken into sequences of NEC words, and the NEC words are converted into encoding-language representations which are matched against the URL substrings to identify candidate URL/NEC pairs for utilization in relevance ranking.
US08977623B2
Data indexing includes receiving data from a data source; classifying the data into one of a plurality of categories according to a predetermined data classification criteria; establishing a corresponding relationship between the data and an index associated with the data, the index having a preset maximum capacity; and recording the relationship between the data and the index. The index is one of a plurality of indices, and each of the plurality of indices is exclusively written by an index writing device.
US08977621B1
A search engine optimizer that works independently and in parallel with a browser and search engine supercomputer to gather, analyze, and distill input information interactively. The optimizer reorganizes the input, and provides an optimized version as an output. The optimized version of the input (e.g. output) is sent to the search engine, which responds to the end user with search results. The optimizer recognizes each request as a pattern and stores the pattern in an advanced Glyph format. This permits the optimizer to identify a left and right side human brain checkmate combination required to achieve certitude.
US08977619B2
Examples of satellite scheduling systems are provided that use crowd-sourced data to generate image acquisition events for a network of imaging satellites. A crowd-sourcing system may utilize crowd-sourced data (e.g., messages generated by users of social network services) to determine events of interest and geographic locations of such events. Event data may then be used to create or update image acquisition tasks and/or task priorities which are automatically provided to a scheduling system to facilitate timely and responsive acquisition of overhead images of the geographic location of the event. The scheduling system can utilize a directed acyclic graph to increase or maximize a utilization function, which can lead to determination of optimal or near-optimal schedules in a relatively quick and efficient manner.
US08977614B2
This invention relates to an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network. The machine receives, from a user, a search request including a search argument corresponding to the desired information and searches, based upon the received search argument, a first database having data network related information to generate search results. It also correlates the received search argument to a particular advertisement in a second database having advertisement related information. The search results together with the particular advertisement are provided by the machine to the user.
US08977613B1
Some embodiments provide a method for generating a recurring search for a research system that identifies documents as relevant to particular categories. The method generates a set of categories to include in the recurring search based on an identified user objective and an initial category by using relationship data that defines several different types of relationships between several different categories. The recurring search identifies documents from a particular period of time identified as relevant to the set of categories. The method identifies an optimal set of filters for removing specific types of documents that are relevant to the set of categories from the recurring search.
US08977610B2
Techniques allow automatic identification of statistically significant attribute combinations in a dataset, and provide users with an understanding thereof including starting points for further analysis. Statistically significant combinations may be obtained from large data sets by limiting combinations to four or fewer attributes. The combinations obtained may be ranked to differentiate patterns, e.g. according to factors such as error ratio, decision tree depth, occurrences, and number of attributes. Still further insights may be achieved by ranking attributes according to the number of statistically significant combinations in which they appear. For useful visualization of statistically significant information within the patterns, only those having at least one measure/numeric may analyzed for further insight (e.g. by an outlier algorithm) and presented as output in a chart (e.g. pie, bar) form. The decision tree approach of various embodiments may facilitate ‘What if’ analysis of the data, as well as obtaining the reverse inference.
US08977598B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for rapidly restoring client data set for a computer by storing the client data and one or more pat sets required to revert to one or more version of the client data on a remote server; storing a local copy of the replicated client data on a local data storage device coupled to the computer; receiving a request to revert to a predetermined version of the client data; using the local copy as a seed, receiving a patch set corresponding to a predetermined version; and updating the local copy using the patch set to generated the predetermined version.
US08977597B2
Techniques for maintaining a cascading index are provided. In one approach, one or more branch node compression techniques are applied to the main index of a cascading index. In an approach, a Bloom filter is generated and associated with, e.g., a branch node in the main index. The Bloom filter is used to determine whether, without accessing any leaf blocks, a particular key value exists, e.g., in leaf blocks associated with the branch node. In an approach, a new redo record is generated in response to a merge operation between two levels of the cascading index. The new redo record comprises (a) one or more addresses of blocks that are affected by the merge operation, (b) data is that being “pushed down” to a lower level of the cascading index, and (c) one or more addresses of blocks that are written to storage as a result of the merge operation.
US08977595B1
A method, system, and medium are provided for monitoring the data volume in a file log associated with a program (e.g., a queue manager) in a failover computing environment. A failover computing environment includes pairs of programs capable of performing the same functions. One program in the pair is the primary program and the other is the backup program. Only one of the two programs is active at any given time. Embodiments of the present invention may identify the file directory for each program installed on a computing device. The location of each file log may be determined by accessing a core-configuration file in the file directory associated with the program. The program only has access to the core-configuration file when the program is active. Once the file log is located, the file usage may be ascertained and compared with a threshold usage.
US08977593B1
A method, system, and program product for use in a data replication environment, the data replication environment comprising a plurality of data protection appliances, each data protection appliance of the plurality of data protection appliances comprising a journal, the method comprising creating a virtual consistency group comprising a virtual journal; wherein the virtual consistency group is configured to replicate a production volume, dividing the virtual consistency group into segments; wherein each segment corresponds to a portion of the production volume and a portion of the virtual journal, and assigning each data protection appliance of the plurality of data protection appliances a segment of the virtual consistency group.
US08977586B2
A method for prioritizing one or more of resumes based on a job description is provided. The method includes (i) processing the job description to extract one or more keywords and a first period, (ii) extracting, from a first resume and a second resume of the one or more resumes, one or more section, one or more events, a first date range, and a second date range, (iii) obtaining a second period and a third period, (iv) comparing, is the first resume and the second resume, the one or more keywords with the one or more events and the first period with the third period to obtain a relevant event and a relevant section, (v) computing a first weight for the first resume and a second weight for the second resume, and (vi) prioritizing the first resume and the second resume based on the first weight and the second weight.
US08977578B1
A synaptic time-multiplexed (STM) neuromorphic network includes a neural fabric that includes nodes and switches to define inter-nodal connections between selected nodes of the neural fabric. The STM neuromorphic network further includes a neuromorphic controller to form subsets of a set of the inter-nodal connections representing a fully connected neural network. Each subset is formed during a different time slot of a plurality of time slots of a time multiplexing cycle of the STM neuromorphic network. In combination, the inter-nodal connection subsets implement the fully connected neural network. A method of synaptic time multiplexing a neuromorphic network includes providing the neural fabric and forming the subsets of the set of inter-nodal connections.
US08977575B2
A system includes a computer implemented Bayesian diagnostic system. The diagnostic system includes an inferencing engine and a conditional probability table that forms the basis for Bayesian inferences once the diagnostic system is trained. Each inference includes a diagnosis and associated probability of the diagnosis. A confidence generator receives the inferences, and generates a confidence measure for each inference.
US08977557B2
A method, medium, and apparatus encoding and/or decoding a multichannel audio signal. The method includes detecting the type of spatial extension data included in an encoding result of an audio signal, if the spatial extension data is data indicating a core audio object type related to a technique of encoding core audio data, detecting the core audio object type; decoding core audio data by using a decoding technique according to the detected core audio object type, if the spatial extension data is residual coding data, decoding the residual coding data by using the decoding technique according to the core audio object type, and up-mixing the decoded core audio data by using the decoded residual coding data. According to the method, the core audio data and residual coding data may be decoded by using an identical decoding technique, thereby reducing complexity at the decoding end.
US08977554B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for facilitating an assisted shopping experience. A speech input can be captured and transcribed. The transcribed speech input can be transmitted to a customer service agent in a data session that is contemporaneous with a voice session. The customer service agent can then facilitate an assisted shopping experience via the voice session and data session.
US08977552B2
A system, method and computer readable medium that enhances a speech database for speech synthesis is disclosed. The method may include labeling audio files in a primary speech database, identifying segments in the labeled audio files that have varying pronunciations based on language differences, identifying replacement segments in a secondary speech database, enhancing the primary speech database by substituting the identified secondary speech database segments for the corresponding identified segments in the primary speech database, and storing the enhanced primary speech database for use in speech synthesis.
US08977549B2
A natural language business system and method is developed to understand the underlying meaning of a person's speech, such as during a transaction with the business system. The system includes a speech recognition engine, and action classification engine, and a control module. The control module causes the system to execute an inventive method wherein the speech recognition and action classification models may be recursively optimized on an unisolated performance metric that is pertinent to the overall performance of the natural language business system, as opposed to the isolated model-specific criteria previously employed.
US08977542B2
The present invention relates to a frequency domain based method of encoding and decoding an audio signal, wherein an adaptive spectral code book is updated with synthesized frequency domain representations of a time domain signal segment. A frequency analysis is performed of a received time domain signal segment in order to obtain a frequency domain representation, and the adaptive spectral code book is searched for a first approximation of the frequency domain representation. A fixed spectral code book is searched for an approximation of the residual frequency representation. A synthesized frequency domain representation may be generated from the two approximations.
US08977541B2
The present invention relates to a speech processing apparatus, a speech processing method and a program which, when multichannel audio signals are downmixed and coded, prevent delay and an increase in the computation amount upon decoding of the audio signals. An inverse multiplexing unit (101) acquires coded data on which a BC parameter is multiplexed. An uncorrelated frequency-time transform unit (102) performs IMDCT transform and IMDST transform of frequency spectrum coefficients of a monaural signal (XM) obtained from this coded data to generate the monaural signal XM) which is a time domain signal and a signal (XD′) which is substantially uncorrelated with this monaural signal (XM). The stereo synthesis unit (103) generates a stereo signal by synthesizing the monaural signal (XM) and the signal (XD′) using the BC parameter. The present invention is applicable to, for example, a speech processing apparatus which decodes a downmixed and coded stereo signal.
US08977535B2
This invention concerns a method for transliterating an at least partially phonetic symbol-based writing system including entry of symbols into a complex character-based writing system including characters, comprising: entering with a human-to-machine interface a string of symbols into a transliterating engine, the string of symbols comprising a series of symbols at least corresponding to pronunciation of a string of characters; parsing the string of symbols into a series of symbols, each series of symbols forming an utterance unit corresponding to a character of the string of characters; transliterating the series of symbols into the corresponding characters; displaying the characters; wherein the transliterating step comprises matching by database retrieval each series of symbols with one and only one character.
US08977531B1
A system for designing a circuit, which includes a module, uses a computer. A user may program or adapt the computer to perform computer-aided design functions. The computer obtains a description of the module from the user. The computer parses the description of the module to identify a port of the module, and to obtain information about the port. The computer presents to the user the information that it has obtained about the port.
US08977527B2
A method and system for automatically generating simulations for a distributed control system is disclosed herein. A programmed process model generator automatically incorporates a variety of process model data from pre-defined model libraries into descriptions of process equipment including control devices to render simulation models of various degrees of fidelity.
US08977520B2
A set of instructions stored on at least one computer readable medium for running on a computer system. The set of instructions includes instructions for identifying line segments of a roof that is preferably displayed within a geo-referenced image, instructions for determining three-dimensional information of the line segments including position, orientation and length of the line segments preferably utilizing the geo-referenced image, and instructions for classifying, automatically, at least one of the line segments as one of a plurality of predefined roof elements utilizing at least one of the relative position and orientation of the line segments.
US08977511B2
A method for classifying electrical sheet is produced. The electrical sheet is used to produce an electrical machine and is available in the form of a strip roll wherein a magnetic flux that changes over time and that causes a shape change of the strip roll and magnetic losses is produced in the strip roll using an excitation winding fed by a feeding device, the shape change and/or the magnetic losses are measured using a measuring device and the measurement signal obtained is fed to an evaluation device, and the evaluation device categorizes the electrical sheet in regard to noise emission and/or magnetic losses using the measurement signal.
US08977502B2
The invention relates to the development of an analytical model to predict the velocity of the continuously expanding front of the steam chamber in a steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) hydrocarbon production system. The developed analytical model has advantages over reservoir simulation tool in that it is very fast and can be easily calibrated with field observation well data before making good prediction. One field study shows that the developed model can achieve excellent prediction for a field SAGD performance. A better understanding of the size of the steam chamber and the velocity of the front should provide better time, cost and energy efficiency for the production of high viscosity hydrocarbons.
US08977501B2
Provided are a system and method for identifying planned markers while drilling a borehole. In one example, the method includes obtaining a plan containing planned markers that each corresponds to a baseline marker from an existing well. Each of the baseline markers corresponds to a waveform from a log file obtained from the existing well and is associated with a waveform representation of the corresponding waveform. Each of the planned markers is associated with an estimated true vertical depth (TVD) value. A second log file corresponding to the borehole is obtained that contains waveforms representing formation information detected within the borehole. The second log file is scanned for a planned marker based on the estimated TVD value and the waveform representation of the baseline marker corresponding to the planned marker. At least one match may be identified and reported for the planned marker.
US08977500B2
An apparatus for estimating a property of a downhole fluid, the apparatus includes: a carrier configured to be conveyed through a borehole penetrating the Earth; a downhole fluid extraction device disposed at the carrier and configured to extract the downhole fluid; and a dielectric spectrometer disposed at the carrier and configured to transmit electromagnetic energy into the extracted downhole fluid at a plurality of frequencies and to measure a plurality of responses to determine a permittivity of the extracted downhole fluid as a function of frequency; wherein the permittivity is used to estimate the property.
US08977496B2
A method and system are disclosed for estimating origin and destination locations of users of a transportation system. The origins and destinations of known users are determined during a segment of an analysis period from validation information for all users of the transportation system. The origins and destinations are then mapped to probable locations associated with the transportation network. A destination probability is then computed for each destination location of an individual origin location. A unknown users are then apportioned to each destination, which may be based on the number of unknown users on a vehicle traveling from the origin to the destination, the computed probability, and the validation information, so as to estimate the number of users traveling from an origin location to any corresponding destination location on the transportation system.
US08977491B1
An apparatus for use with a weather radar system having a radar antenna, the apparatus for mounting to an aircraft and for verifying terrain features shown on an electronic display, the terrain features based on terrain data from a terrain database. The apparatus includes processing electronics configured to receive radar return data from the weather radar system and configured to correlate the radar return data with the terrain data. The processing electronics using the correlation to provide an indication as to whether the terrain features displayed on the electronic display are correct or incorrect.
US08977488B2
In one embodiment, a navigation system may include one or more processors, a display, a satellite antenna, one or more memory devices, and map data. A route distance icon can be presented on the display, automatically, when the current location is not coincident with the route and the start offset distance is less than a predetermined distance. The route distance icon can provide the on-the-route distance. A geodesic distance icon can be presented on the display, automatically, when the current location is not coincident with the route and the start offset distance is greater than the predetermined distance. The geodesic distance icon can provide a geodesic distance from the current location to the destination.
US08977482B2
An apparatus for generating flight-optimizing trajectories for a first aircraft includes a receiver capable of receiving second trajectory information associated with at least one second aircraft. The apparatus also includes a traffic aware planner (TAP) module operably connected to the receiver to receive the second trajectory information. The apparatus also includes at least one internal input device on board the first aircraft to receive first trajectory information associated with the first aircraft and a TAP application capable of calculating an optimal trajectory for the first aircraft based at least on the first trajectory information and the second trajectory information. The optimal trajectory at least avoids conflicts between the first trajectory information and the second trajectory information.
US08977480B2
A method for determining barrier crossing information for convoyed objects (22) using historic trajectory data (28). Trajectories (28) having similar geographical and directional properties are bundled so that trajectory density can be measured as a function of position and time (s, t). Visual presentation of the trajectory information can be used to determine certain types of barrier crossing information useful in a digital map. Frequency analysis on a number of trajectory density time series may be performed to determine specific barrier crossing locations (26) through the detection of vehicle bursts. Such frequency analysis may also indicate barrier crossing times and schedules in the case of crossing patterns.
US08977477B2
Various embodiments of systems and methods related to controlling oil injection for piston cooling in an engine are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes during an engine cold start event, enabling oil injection onto a piston of an engine, disabling oil injection after the engine cold start event, and re-enabling oil injection after the engine cold start event based on a first operating parameter.
US08977475B2
The present invention provides for predicting peak cylinder temperatures above which knock in an engine may become more frequent and then provides one or more actuation approaches to reduce the knock of the engine while maintaining engine performance. The actuation approaches of the present invention include one or more of direct injection, engine gas recirculation, and spark retarding, where the application of one or more the actuation approaches is determined based upon using operational and engine characteristic inputs as well as modeling and estimation values as inputs in a feedforward control methodology.
US08977470B2
An engine system and method for improving sampling of a port throttle pressure sensor. In one example, the port throttle pressure sensor is sampled a plurality of times during a cylinder cycle and different engine operating conditions are determined from selected samples. The system and method may improve engine air-fuel control as well as engine diagnostics.
US08977468B2
Disclosed herein are a solenoid valve control apparatus and method. The solenoid valve control apparatus to control a solenoid valve which include a solenoid coil and is opened and closed by current supplied to the solenoid coil, includes a switching unit which switches the current supplied to the solenoid coil, a pre-driver unit which outputs a driving signal to drive the switching unit, a current detection unit which detects the current flowing in the solenoid coil, and an MCU which controls the pre-driver unit so as to output the driving signal from the pre-driver unit to the switching unit such that a value of the current detected by the current detection unit reaches a target current value during current control of the solenoid valve and controls the pre-driver unit such that a frequency of the output driving signal is varied during output of the driving signal.
US08977464B1
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for performing driving assistance for a controlled vehicle, involving determining a longitudinal acceleration target value on the basis of a lateral acceleration of the controlled vehicle and one or more setting parameters, and controlling a longitudinal acceleration of the controlled vehicle on the basis of the calculated longitudinal acceleration target value. According to the invention, a lateral acceleration acting, during cornering, on a proceeding vehicle, which moves in the longitudinal direction on the road ahead of the controlled vehicle, is estimated, and the one or more setting parameters for the calculation of the longitudinal acceleration target value are set based on the estimated lateral acceleration acting on the proceeding vehicle during cornering.
US08977459B2
When a rear wheel total drive force is smaller than a rear wheel drive force difference and the rear wheel drive force difference cannot be realized by setting a left-right distribution of the rear wheel total drive force, an inside wheel target drive force is set unconditionally to a minimum initial drive force required to prevent a three-wheel drive state and an outside wheel target drive force is set to a value equal to the sum of the initial drive force and the rear wheel drive force difference, which is a value with which the rear wheel drive force difference can be realized while the inside wheel target drive force is set to the initial drive force. In this way, a drive force distribution control apparatus gives priority to realizing the rear wheel drive force difference and emphasizes achieving a target behavior over achieving a four-wheel drive performance.
US08977454B2
A system and method are provided for grade-based anti-hunt shift control of an automatic transmission powering a machine. A shift controller determines a recommended gear in which to operate the transmission and sets an anti-hunt timer upon recommending a shift from a first gear to a second gear. The anti-hunt timer prevents a subsequent shift back to the first gear while the anti-hunt timer is running. A grade-based controller is configured to track machine operation and to determine when the machine operational factors change such that an estimated steady state gear differs from the second gear. When such a change is encountered, the grade-based controller clears the anti-hunt timer and sets a secondary timer. The clearing of the anti-hunt timer allows a downshift to accommodate the detected grade while the setting of the secondary timer prevents a subsequent clearing of the anti-hunt timer while the secondary timer is running.
US08977430B2
An electronic stability control indication system including a bar-graph-type display, a processor, and a memory. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, control the operation of the electronic stability control indication system. The system receives a first signal from a yaw rate sensor indicative of an actual yaw rate of the vehicle. The system then determines a target yaw rate and a threshold difference for the vehicle. If the difference between the actual yaw rate and the target yaw rate exceeds the difference threshold, an electronic stability control system is activated. The system also provides a visual representation of the difference between the actual yaw rate and the target yaw ratio relative to the threshold difference on the bar-graph-type display.
US08977428B2
A GPS and a map information database acquire information regarding an arrow light which displays a signal for prohibiting travel in a particular direction, such as a red arrow light. A display and a loudspeaker supply information to a motorist of a host vehicle based on the information acquired by the GPS and the map information database, or a brake ECU and a brake actuator brake the host vehicle without depending on the manipulation by the motorist based on the information acquired by the GPS and the map information database. As a result, it is possible to correctly support driving even when a red arrow light or the like for prohibiting travel in a right turn direction.
US08977427B2
An odometer monitor for monitoring the connectivity status of a mobile data terminal to a vehicle is a module defined in a data processor of the mobile data terminal. The monitor is operable to detect successive timed poll events originating in the mobile data terminal and listen for arrival of corresponding odometer update values from a vehicle tracking device connected to an information bus of the vehicle. Successive odometer updates are compared to calculate the distances travelled between updates, and to make a determination of connectivity status of the mobile data terminal relative to the vehicle based on whether or not the calculated distances are above or below a preset maximum distance. The odometer monitor can verify whether the mobile data terminal remains connected to the same vehicle by checking a vehicle identity module, which may be located in the vehicle tracking device.
US08977414B2
A train control system of the present invention includes: an on-board device 1 that is mounted on a train and has an vehicle radio set VRS1 capable of performing wireless communication; fixed radio sets (WRS1 to WRS7, and SRS1) that are disposed along the railroad track R and capable of performing wireless communication by a time division multiple access method with the vehicle radio set VRS1; and a ground device 2 that calculates distance from a train A to a stop point before a preceding train B on the basis of the location information of the train A obtained by the wireless communication between the vehicle radio set VRS1 and the fixed radio set. The on-board device 1 generates a stop pattern on the basis of the distance, and performs a travel control so that the train A travels at a speed equal to or less than the stop pattern.
US08977413B2
Methods of illustrating one or more derated takeoffs of an aircraft on a runway where such illustrations are on a flight display in a cockpit of the aircraft and are based on various information and may allow pilots to make more accurate decisions related to derated takeoffs and full thrust takeoffs of the aircraft.
US08977404B2
Systems and methods for providing collaborative energy benchmarking are described. Information including background data, energy consumption data, temporal data, and/or other information is gathered from multiple sources and stored in a central database. Based on the stored information, energy benchmarks are created for measuring residential energy usage. Energy usage data is displayed to consumers in multiple formats, and permits consumers to directly compare their energy usage data to other consumers or groups of consumers, in addition to their own energy usage. In some embodiments, energy challenge programs encourage reduction of energy usage. Through such programs, consumers create and present challenges for themselves and/or other consumers, such as to reduce energy usage during a given timeframe. The progress of the group and individual consumers is displayed during the course of a challenge.
US08977402B2
This invention relates to a method and a system for operating a wind power plant (1) connected to a power grid (2), the wind power plant comprising a number of wind turbine generators. The method comprises the steps of: setting up (101) a number of different models, each model emulating an electrical behavior of an electrical system, such as a load or a power generating unit, connected to the power grid; detecting (102) value(s) of a number of power grid parameters; selecting (103) one of the number of models, based on a number of values out of a set comprising the detected power grid parameter value(s) and ambient parameter value(s), or based on an external command signal; in the selected model, calculating (104) electrical output values of the model, based on the detected grid parameter values; calculating (105) electrical reference values for the wind power plant, based on the calculated electrical output values of the model; and calculating (106) electrical reference values for each wind turbine generator based on the calculated electrical reference values for the wind power plant. The method may further comprise controlling (107) the wind turbine generators according to the calculated electrical reference values for each wind turbine generator.
US08977385B2
Processing and tracking of individual mail items processed through a document processing system such as a sorter or inserter utilize a mail item identifier that is unique with respect to each individual mail item. A mail item may have a postal authority approved code representing or containing its associated unique identifier. If not, an identifier is generated and a corresponding postal authority approved code is applied to the mail item. Processing entails associating the unique mail item identifier for each respective mail item with collected metadata for the respective mail item and storing the identifier and associated the metadata. In a sorter example, each mail item is sorted into a postal sort group, and the processing entails identifying the sort group to which each item is sorted and storing the identified sort in association with the unique mail item identifier.
US08977383B2
A modular system for storage of cargo units in a designated space. The modular system includes: a plurality of interconnected active cell units, each cell unit including a cell transporting mechanism with at least one active shuttle unit moveable between the plurality of cell units. Each shuttle unit includes a shuttle transporting mechanism adapted to transport at least one pallet of the plurality of pallets to and from one of the plurality of cell units and also to and from at least one shuttle unit. The system also includes a central controller adapted to control the operation of the cell and the shuttle transporting mechanisms, the operation of which is performed in an independent manner via the central controller such that a construction of any arrangement of the cell units is performed to effectively exploit a designated space.
US08977381B1
A CNC controlled rotating workpiece holding fixture is attached to a tombstone of a horizontal mill. The rotating workpiece holding fixture(s) allows workpieces to be independently rotated to allow milling of various surface of the workpiece thereby providing a five axis CNC capability. As many as eight rotating workpiece holding fixtures may be attached to a single tombstone. Each rotating workpiece holding fixture may be formed by a harmonic drive driven by a servo motor which provides a compact configuration and a very low gear ratio in the harmonic drive combined with the inherent braking of the servo motor provides stability. The rotating workpiece holding fixtures may be controlled using existing auxiliary outputs (e.g., M-Codes), present in CNC milling machines. The M-Codes are preferably created by an operator, multiplexed, sent to the tombstone, de-multiplexed, and used to control each rotating workpiece holding fixture.
US08977376B1
Method and devices for testing a headphone with increased sensation are provided. The headphone can filter and amplify low frequency audio signals, which are then sent to a haptic device in the headphone. The haptic device can cause bass sensations at the top of the skull and at both ear cups. The testing system can evaluate the haptic and acoustic sensations produced by the headphone to evaluate if they have been properly assembled and calibrate the headphones if necessary.
US08977375B2
An audio system attachable to a computer includes a sound reproduction device for producing audible sound from audio signals. The sound reproduction device includes a radio tuner and a powered speaker. The audio system further includes a connector for connecting the sound reproduction device with a computer. The computer provides audio signals from a plurality of sources, the sources including a computer CD player, digitally encoded computer files stored on the computer, and a computer network connected to the computer. The sound reproduction device further includes control buttons for controlling at least one of the computer CD player, the digitally encoded computer files and the computer network.
US08977367B2
A stimulation probe comprises a lead having a distal end and a proximal end. The distal end of the lead has a plurality of electrodes configured to stimulate tissue. A protective tubing element extends over a portion of the lead proximate the proximal end of the lead. An advanced lead can element includes a switch matrix. The advanced lead can element is coupled to the proximal end of the lead and configured to couple the lead to an implantable pulse generator.
US08977366B2
A patch for a therapeutic electrical stimulation device includes a shoe connected to the first side of the patch, the shoe including a body extending in a longitudinal direction from a first end to a second end, and having first and second surfaces, the first end of the shoe defining at least two ports, and the first surface of the shoe defining a connection member. The patch also includes at least one conductor positioned in the ports of the first end of the shoe. The shoe is configured for sliding insertion into a receptacle defined by a controller so that the conductor is connected to the controller to deliver electrical current from the controller, through the conductor, and to the electrodes, and the connection member is at least partially captured by a detent defined by the controller in the receptacle to retain the shoe within the receptacle.
US08977363B2
A stimulator and a method for the treatment of intractable pain syndromes by electrical stimulation of the spinal cord is disclosed in which implantable electrodes positioned around a targeted area of the spinal cord transmit an interferential current that has a base medium frequency alternating current between 500 Hz-20 KHz. A digital signal processor generates a sine-wave-like waveform from a pulse generator which after further processing is used to generate at least two circuits for use in producing the interferential current. An effective area of stimulation is controlled by the quantity of electrodes, positioning of the electrodes and electrode cross pattern orientation. Amplitude modulation of electrical circuits created at the electrode placements also augments the effective area of stimulation. The stimulator and method reduce accommodation of the body to the electrical stimulation and provide deeper penetration of the resultant signal.
US08977362B2
A system including a processor configured to be coupled to an electrical lead that is configured to sense electrical activity in a patient, a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to detect a pain signature in the sensed electrical activity, determine a treatment protocol in response to the detected pain signature, and cause the treatment protocol to be delivered to the patient via the electrical lead.
US08977350B2
A medical device performs a method to classify a cardiac rhythm. Differences between cycle lengths in a first heart chamber are determined during an established time interval. Evidence of ectopy associated with irregular coupling intervals is detected from the signal during the established time interval. A rhythm classification output corresponding to a second heart chamber at the expiration of the established time interval is provided in response to the consecutive cycle length differences and the evidence of ectopy associated with irregular coupling intervals.
US08977347B2
What is disclosed is a video-based system and method for estimating heart rate variability from time-series signals generated from video images captured of a subject of interest being monitored for cardiac function. In a manner more fully disclosed herein, low frequency and high frequency components are extracted from a time-series signal obtained by processing a video of the subject being monitored. A ratio of the low and high frequency of the integrated power spectrum within these components is computed. Analysis of the dynamics of this ratio over time is used to estimate heart rate variability. The teachings hereof can be used in a continuous monitoring mode with a relatively high degree of measurement accuracy and find their uses in a variety of diverse applications such as, for instance, emergency rooms, cardiac intensive care units, neonatal intensive care units, and various telemedicine applications.
US08977345B2
The invention relate to the demonstration herein that it is feasible to use a transvaginal NIRS probe to interrogate functioning urological tissues, such as the urethral sphincter, the bladder detrusor muscle, and pelvic floor musculature, to obtain clinically relevant information. The present invention accordingly provides methods and devices for transvaginal monitoring or imaging of the urological tissues, such as the urethral sphincter and/or the bladder, and/or pelvic floor musculature, using NIRS.
US08977340B2
A system and method for detecting permittivity and conductivity boundaries within a high resolution spatial image of a material is presented. Electrical properties of a material, such as permittivity and conductivity, may assist in identification of physical properties of the material. Structural boundaries within tissue may be identified in spatial images, such as MR images. Image reconstruction algorithms may combine these structural boundaries with microwave images of the tissue to determine the permittivity and conductivity parameters within the structural boundaries. In the case of soft tissue, the microwave images may be captured simultaneously with the spatial images. The microwave images may be taken at a different time from the spatial image for rigid tissue. The method may be employed for two dimensional or three dimensional image reconstruction.
US08977335B2
A cortical sensing device for contact with the surface of the brain is provided that includes a support member, at least one macroelectrode sensing element secured with respect to the support member and at least one microelectrode sensing element secured with respect to the macroelectrode. The support member is substantially thin and made from flexibly-conformable material to accurately and safely place the sensing device upon the brain surface. The microelectrode sensing element is surrounded by the macroelectrode brain-contact surface of the macroelectrode sensing element. The first surface of the support member, the macroelectrode brain-contact surface and the microelectrode brain-contact surface are substantially co-planar to abut the surface of the brain for sensing and monitoring.
US08977327B2
A communication apparatus and an air-cooling method for the same utilizes an air-cooling mode that can be easily changed to reduce the cost to increase the number of transceiver units and space for the housing. The communication apparatus includes transceiver units installed in a housing and attachable onto and detachable from the communication apparatus and fan units for forcibly air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver units. The fan units are installed in the housing and are attachable onto and detachable from the communication apparatus. Each transceiver unit includes a transceiver function section; a forced air-cooling radiator fixedly mounted in the transceiver function section for forcibly air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver function section; and a natural air-cooling radiator mounted in the transceiver function section for naturally air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver function section. The natural air-cooling radiator is attachable onto and detachable from the main transceiver section.
US08977324B2
A computer-implemented method includes receiving coordinates, at a vehicle associated computing system (VACS), corresponding to a vehicle's location. The method also includes using the VACS to compare the coordinates to a predetermined set of geographic borders, wherein the geographic borders determine at least language boundaries. The method further includes using the VACS to determine a local language based at least in part on the coordinate comparison. The method additionally includes using the VACS to transmit an emergency message in at least the determined local language.
US08977316B2
The invention relates to a portable security device (SIM) for authenticating a user (USR) of a communication device (MP1, MP2) to a server (SRV), the portable security device (SIM) comprising means for configuring said communication device (MP1, MP2). The portable security device (SIM) further comprises means for filtering the configuration of a first communication device (MP1), creating a backup of the filtered configuration of the communication device (MP1), detecting that the user (USR) changed a first communication device (MP1) for a second communication device (MP2), filtering the backup of the filtered configuration, and restoring the filtered backup of the filtered configuration of the first communication device (MP1) on the second communication device (MP2). The invention also relates to systems comprising a portable security device (SIM) according to the invention, and to a method for a user (USR) to backup the configuration of a first communication device (MP1) and restore it on a second communication device (MP2), with a portable security device (SIM) according to the invention.
US08977312B2
A user equipment in wireless communication system is provided. The user equipment includes an antenna unit including a plurality of antennas, a control unit for grouping the plurality of antennas into a predetermined number of antenna groups and controlling separately transmission power of each of the predetermined number of antenna groups, and a transmitting unit, connected to the control unit, for transmitting at least one of data and control information to a base station via at least one of the predetermined number of antenna groups.
US08977311B2
The present invention relates to a method and arrangement for reducing interference in a cellular communication network. A radio base station of the network is configured to serve at least a first cell, where interference is reduced by selecting a link adaptation scheme for a UE in the first cell, The arrangement comprises means for receiving measurements on estimated channel quality, means for estimating channel quality for a future transmission by adjusting the received measurements on estimated channel quality based on knowledge of future UE scheduling in at least the first cell, and means for selecting the link adaptation scheme comprising a transmit power level based on the estimated channel quality for the future transmission.
US08977308B2
Apparatuses and methodologies are described that mitigate signal pollution in a wireless communication system. According to one aspect, user devices can request signals for use in access point selection. Access points can be selected based upon the received strength of their signals. In one aspect, access points can delay the transmission of signals based upon the strength of the received request. In addition, if sufficient access points respond during the delay, an access point can refrain from transmitting signals in response to signal requests, further reducing signal pollution.
US08977306B2
A user may receive one or more text messages after the user is authorized. The potential user can opt in through a web page in one embodiment. Once the potential user sends an initial request, the user may receive a first text message containing an authorization code on their mobile phone. The user may enter the authorization code back to a web page. Receipt of the authorization code may trigger the phone number of the potential user to be added to a list of authorized text message receivers. One or more text messages may then be sent to authorized phone numbers on the list.
US08977300B2
A system and method for providing a multimodal list of transceiver devices to a remote terminal is disclosed. A positioning unit determines a location of a remote terminal. A processor identifies transceivers for communicating in at least a first communication mode and a second communication mode according to the location of the remote terminal. The processor retrieves information about the identified transceivers from a database and generates a multimodal list. The processor causes a transceiver to transmit the multimodal list of transceiver devices to the remote terminal using a communication mode of the remote terminal.
US08977295B2
An approach is provided for generating accurate and substantially real-time map and location-based data in a cost-effective manner. Specifically, one or more communications within one or more social networks are monitored, processed, and mined to determine map-related information (e.g., maps, traffic, points of interest). The map-related information is then subjected to one or more threshold criteria (e.g., a correctness probability, a level of confidence, a degree of trust, an author's influence, a rating, or a combination thereof) to better ensure its accuracy before being made available to mapping and/or location-based services that can use the map-related information to develop better quality maps and/or location-based mobile applications (e.g., improved routing guidance, location recommendations, etc.). By providing mapping and location-based services with accurate and real-time map and location-based data, the services can fulfill user's increasing expectation and demand for up-to-the-minute information.
US08977291B1
Disclosed are examples of modifying a current state of a mobile station based on the location of the mobile station with respect to a nearby acquaintance. The method may include detecting a presence of a mobile station in a predefined domain area identified by an application, the predefined domain area being associated with at least one acquaintance, and performing a modification to a current state of the mobile station based on a level associated with the at least one acquaintance.
US08977283B2
Techniques for efficient signaling to and from a plurality of mobile stations are disclosed. In one embodiment, a subset of mobile stations may be allocated a portion of the shared resource with one or more individual access grants, another subset may be allocated a portion of the shared resource with a single common grant, and yet another subset may be allowed to use a portion of the shared resource without any grant. In another embodiment, an acknowledge and continue command is used to extend all or a subset of the previous grants without the need for additional requests and grants, and their associated overhead. In one embodiment, a traffic to pilot ratio (T/P) is used to allocate a portion of the shared resource, allowing a mobile station flexibility in selecting its transmission format based on T/P.
US08977276B2
A method comprises communicating, by a first device, with a second device, using a device-to-device communication on licensed band, determining, by the first device, whether unlicensed band resources are available, and if the unlicensed band resources are available, initiating, by the first device, a set up of a device-to-device communication on unlicensed band.
US08977275B2
An apparatus (100) generates a preferred roaming list (108) for a wireless mobile station (404) that includes area identification data (such as GEO GROUP_ID) (200) corresponding to an area serviced by at least one wireless wide area network, such as a ground based CDMA system and an area services by at least one in-vehicle wireless pico-cell (402), such as a wireless CDMA pico-cell located on an aircraft or any other suitable vehicle. The area identification data (200) is associated with a wireless in-vehicle pico-cell system identification data (205) and in the case of a CDMA pico cell system, a system identification data SID) and network identification (NID) data pair (206) associated with the in-vehicle wireless pico-cell (402).
US08977270B2
A method of wireless communication includes returning to a base station after a handover failure. The method also includes measuring a length of time between receiving a handover command and returning to the base station. The method further includes setting a physical uplink channel transmit power based on the measured length of time. The physical uplink channel can be an enhanced physical uplink channel (E-PUCH) of a high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) wireless network.
US08977259B2
An apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating communication operations with a wireless device that is ICS or DTM capable. Signaling protocols and apparatus are provided for operation of the wireless device when an ICS with the wireless device is ongoing, and the device leaves an area that provides for ICS as well as when the ICS can be provided using circuit-switched connections.
US08977243B2
The present invention includes a wireless communication method and device comprising a one-to-one exchange of wireless electronic device identifications or unique profile IDs between a sending and a receiving party who are both registered users of the electronic business/personal card service and further comprising upload of the wireless electronic identifications to a data server computer system wherein said system matches said identifications with those of registered users and said computer system displays information about the user associated with each identification.
US08977235B2
An exemplary method and apparatus are provided for establishing a communication between a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal over a network. A server dynamically generates a first single-use key and a second single-use key respectively associated with the first and second communication terminals as a function of time data related to at least one previous communication between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal, during a request to establish a call from the first communication terminal to the second communication terminal. The server compares the first and second keys that were generated, and authorizes the establishment of the communication if the compared keys are identical.
US08977232B2
Providing for secure tracking and reporting of wireless resources utilized by a mobile device is described herein. By way of example, resources utilized in conjunction with network-facilitated or peer-to-peer wireless data exchange can be tracked in secure, tamper-resistant components of the mobile device. Further, a report can be compiled from the tracked information and digitally signed with a secret data/material specific to the mobile device. The signed report can be submitted to a network server in conjunction with accounting, billing or like functions. By validating the signature of a mobile device, the network server can trust that information collected and submitted by user devices has not been tampered with or spoofed with an ID of another such device.
US08977228B2
A personal security system for automatically warning a user when an item is lost, or after being so lost is then found, wherein when the first and second transceivers are separated by a distance exceeding the predetermined operating range for a predetermined duration, the first transceiver and second transceiver each generates the predetermined signal (which may include vibration of the first and second transceivers and playing a predetermined alarm sound) for a predetermined duration; and when after being so separated, the first and second transceivers are brought back within a defined distance or operating range, the first transceiver and second transceiver each generates the predetermined signal once again for a predetermined duration. The system may include a single, second transceiver, or multiple second transceivers, each being identical except with respect to their digital signatures and settings such as range, sound, volume and duration of alarms.
US08977225B2
A unidirectional sampling mixer utilizes a stepped phase modulation to shift the frequency of an input signal. An RF input signal is supplied to an RF input switch from an RF input port. An ordered set of phase shift values to be applied to the RF input signal and a set of times each element of which correspond to a time at which a phase shift value is be applied to the RF signal are determined. For each phase shift value within the ordered set of phase shift values, a controller controls the RF input switch to select an input of a phase shifting device and controls an RF output switch to select an output of the phasing shifting device. The input of the phase shifting device and the output of the phase shifting device are selected to apply the phase shift value at its corresponding time to the RF input signal. A frequency shifted signal is supplied to an RF output port from an output of the RF output switch. This Abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this Abstract.
US08977211B1
A system includes a radio frequency (RF) signal path configured to receive an input signal that includes at least one of a test signal and an RF signal. A local oscillator (LO) signal path is configured to supply a LO signal. A mixer includes a first input in communication with the RF signal path and a second input in communication with the LO signal path. A calibration control module is configured to receive an output of the mixer in response to the test signal and to adjust an effective duty cycle of the LO signal in the LO signal path based on the output of the mixer.
US08977209B2
One or more of the programmable RF receivers or other devices in the network may be programmed to determine whether one or more defining characteristics associated with a particular RF transmitter or transmitter type are present in RF data. The one or more defining characteristics are used to detect the use of an RF transmitter or transmitter type.
US08977206B2
A data transmission device connected to a monitor includes a wireless transmission module, a multimedia processing unit and an output interface. The wireless transmission module wirelessly receives a multimedia data transmitted by an electronic apparatus. The multimedia processing unit receives and decompresses and decodes the multimedia data, and the output interface transmits the multimedia data to the monitor for displaying the multimedia data. The display area of the monitor is larger than the display area of the display unit of the electronic apparatus. A user is allowed to watch the multimedia data generated from the electronic apparatus executing a multimedia file on the monitor with a large display area. A data transmission system and method based on the data transmission device is also disclosed.
US08977202B2
To enable an appropriate steaming transfer of audio data in an environment where a plurality of profiles can be operated. In a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, a short distance wireless communication unit receives a remote controller command transmitted from a head set which is connected with a short distance wireless communication, via the wireless communication. An operation profile determination unit refers to a use status of each profile previously managed by a Bluetooth profile use status management unit when the remote controller command is received and determines whether a predetermined profile used upon the wireless communication is operated. When it is determined that the predetermined profile is operated, a remote controller control unit performs a control such that a response corresponding to the remote controller command is transmitted to the opposite device and the remote controller command is discarded.
US08977196B2
A near field communication antenna device of a mobile terminal is provided. The near field communication antenna device includes a window including a display region for transmitting an image displayed by a display and a black mark region formed around the display region, a multi-layer Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB) on which a plurality of layers are laminated on the lower side of the black mark region of the window, and a spiral loop-shaped antenna pattern in which conductive lines are formed on respective layers of the multi-layer FPCB and are connected to each other. Accordingly, a near field communication antenna is not disposed in a separated installation space, an antenna pattern width can be reduced, and performance of the near field communication antenna may be prevented from being degraded when a battery cover is made of metal or has a curved shape.
US08977195B2
A contactless system is described in which multiple execution environments may be coupled to a near field communication (NFC) controller, wherein each execution environment is configured to communicate with remote readers via the NFC controller using an assigned one of a plurality of communication protocols. During a polling session from a proximate reader, responding to a request command using a requested communication protocol and activating one of the plurality of execution environments assigned to the requested communication protocol to use the NFC controller. An arbitration is performed in response to each polling session such that a same combination of communication protocol and execution environment is not activated for adjacent polling sessions.
US08977193B2
A mobile station includes a radio section which communicates with a base station, and a short-range radio section for performing short range radio communication independently of the radio section. A backlight mounted on a display portion of the mobile station can be selectively turned on and off. The operation of the short-range radio section is disabled when the backlight is deactivated, and the operation of the short-range radio section is enabled when the backlight is activated.
US08977191B2
An approach facilitates synchronization by providing: (i) a method to analyze the two-satellite synchronization problem in time-frequency domain; and (ii) a two-stage estimation method to accomplish timing and frequency synchronization. The embodiment facilitates satellite diversity. The embodiment applies to a system involving two or more geosynchronous satellites.
US08977178B2
A fixing device including: a flexible cylindrical member; a heater that is disposed inside the cylindrical member; a nip plate configured to be in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical member and is configured to be heated by the heater; and a roller configured to pinch the cylindrical member between the roller and the nip plate, wherein, at least during fixing, the nip plate has a curved shape where a central portion thereof in an axial direction of the cylindrical member is more spaced from the roller than both end portions thereof in the axial direction, and wherein the roller is a concave roller where a diameter of a central portion thereof in the axial direction is smaller than diameters of both end portions thereof respectively.
US08977176B2
A fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image formed on a recording material includes a rotatable member; a cleaning unit for cleaning the rotatable member, the cleaning unit including a cleaning fabric for cleaning the rotatable member, a feeding roller on which the cleaning fabric is wound, and a winding-up roller for winding up the cleaning fabric fed from the feeding roller; and a load applying mechanism for applying a retarding force against a winding-up operation of the winding-up roller such that when a frictional force between the rotatable member and the cleaning fabric which is in a standstill state and which is in contact with the rotatable member which is rotating exceeds the retarding force of the load applying mechanism, the winding-up roller rotates to wind up the cleaning fabric.
US08977175B2
A fixing apparatus of the invention includes a pressure roller 6 and a fixing roller 7 that make press-contact with each other and an oil roller 8 that makes press-contact with either the pressure roller 6 or the fixing roller 7, and passes a recording sheet through a nip area between the pressure roller 6 and the fixing roller 7 to fix toner on the recording sheet. The fixing apparatus also includes: a pressure roller gear 21 and an oil roller gear 22 that transmit a rotation of a shaft of the pressure roller 6 that makes press-contact with the oil roller 8 to a shaft of the oil roller 8; and a one-way clutch 23 that causes the oil roller 8 to idly rotate in a direction of a driven rotation when the oil roller 8 is driven to rotate by pressing against the pressure roller 6.
US08977174B2
An apparatus, system and method are provided for controlling one or more strip radii in a fuser. The fuser has a first member having a first surface. The fuser also has a belt having a first portion that contacts the first surface of the first member. The fuser further has a second member having a second surface that contacts a second portion of the belt in a region defining a nip. The fuser additionally has a stripping apparatus, positioned downstream of the nip in a process direction, comprising one or more adjustable blades configured to selectively exert one or more variable predetermined pressures on one or more selected sections of the first portion of the belt causing one or more selectable strip radii.
US08977168B2
A developer unit for an image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a developer device having a developer agent carrier and a developer agent supplier, a developer agent container arranged in an upper position with respect to the developer device, and a curved wall, which separates the developer device from the developer agent container; is curved toward the developer agent container; and is formed to have a feeding opening and a collecting opening, and a conveyer, which is arranged along the developer agent supplier and conveys the developer agent toward the collecting opening. The curved wall is arranged to be in proximity to the conveyer and to fit with outlines of the conveyer.
US08977167B2
An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member provided with a mark; a driving portion for rotationally driving the image bearing member; a first detecting portion for detecting speed information of the image bearing member by detecting the mark moved in a predetermined first distance; a second detecting portion for detecting speed information of the image bearing member by detecting the mark moved in a second distance shorter than the predetermined first distance; a filter circuit for suppressing a high-frequency part of an output from the detecting portion and a low-frequency part of an output from the second detecting portion; a calculating portion for calculating a speed of the image bearing member detected from an output from the filter circuit; and a controller for controlling the driving portion so that the calculated speed of the image bearing member is a set speed.
US08977163B2
A developing cartridge includes: a housing having first and second sidewalls through which respective end portions of a developing roller shaft are rotatably inserted; a developing gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which is fixed to the end portion of the developing roller shaft; a transmission gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which transmits driving force to the developing gear; a first cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the transmission gear; and a second cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the developing gear from an outer side in the axis line direction. The second cover member is formed separately from the first cover member and is arranged side by side with the first cover member outside of the first sidewall.
US08977162B2
A developing device that attaches/detaches to/from a main body of an image forming apparatus includes a first frame that supports a photosensitive member, a second frame that supports a developing roller, and a connecting bracket in which a fixed supporter couples to a side portion of the first frame, a flexible supporter that couples to a side portion of the second frame, and an elastic arm connecting the fixed supporter and the flexible supporter to each other to provide an elastic force that may elastically bias the developing roller toward the photosensitive member, are integrally formed.
US08977157B2
A switching power supply includes a transformer, a switching unit configured to switch a voltage input to the primary side of the transformer, a control unit configured to control the operation of the switching unit, and a detection unit configured to detect as a voltage a current flowing through the primary side of the transformer and supply the voltage to the control unit, wherein the detection unit controls the voltage to be supplied to the control unit based on the operating state of the switching unit.
US08977156B2
A fixing device includes a rotatable, endless fixing belt; a rotatable contact member configured to contact a circumferential surface of the fixing belt to form a nip in association with the fixing belt; and a heating member disposed at an interior surface of the fixing belt, configured to heat the fixing belt. The heating member includes a multiple heat sources arranged along the width of a sheet of recording media in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction. A controller changes an area to be heated by each heat source based on image data and corresponding to an unfixed image on the sheet. The fixing belt is heated by the heating member so that the unfixed image on the sheet that has been conveyed to the nip is fixed onto the sheet at least with heat. The heating member is disposed at a portion other than the fixing nip.
US08977155B2
The image forming apparatus can be used in areas having different power supply voltages, in which a failure of the apparatus can be detected so that reliability of the apparatus is improved. The apparatus includes a connection state switching part which switches connection of a first heat generating member and a second heat generating member, which generate heat by electric power supplied from a commercial power supply through a power supply path, between a serial connection state and a parallel connection state, and a current detection part which detects current flowing in the power supply path. The current detection part is disposed in the power supply path after branching toward the first heat generating member and the second heat generating member in the parallel connection state.
US08977154B2
An image forming device comprising a fixing unit for thermally fixing a developer on a recording sheet, a control unit that controls the temperature to maintain the fixing unit at one of a fixing temperature and a stand-by temperature lower than the fixing temperature, and a transport unit that transports the recording sheet to the fixing unit, wherein, when the temperature of the fixing unit has dropped from the fixing temperature to the stand-by temperature, and a printing command is received, the control unit controls the transport unit so as to set a stand-by time to wait before starting to transport the recording sheet after the printing command is received as a second time interval, which is longer than a first time interval of time required for the temperature of the fixing unit to reach the fixing temperature based on information relating to the current temperature of the fixing unit.
US08977145B2
A detection device for detecting a state of a waste toner container comprises an optical sensor and an actuation member. The optical sensor comprises an emitting unit emitting an optical signal and a receiving unit receiving the optical signal. A space is provided between the emitting and receiving units, and the optical signal travels along an optical path from the emitting unit to the receiving unit. The actuation member is movably disposed between the emitting and receiving units. The actuation member in a first position interrupts the optical path of the optical signal; and the actuation member is moved by the waste toner container to a second position when at least a part of the waste toner container is placed in the space. The actuation member in the second position allows a passage of the optical signal. An image forming apparatus using such a detection device is also provided.
US08977139B2
A circuit may include a photodiode configured to receive an optical signal and convert the optical signal to a current signal. The circuit may also include a transimpedance amplifier coupled to the photodiode and configured to convert the current signal to a voltage signal. The circuit may also include an equalizer coupled to the transimpedance amplifier and configured to equalize the voltage signal to at least partially compensate for a loss of a high frequency component of the optical signal. The equalizer and the transimpedance amplifier may be housed within a single integrated circuit.
US08977138B2
A technique is provided for configuring an optical receiver. A photo detector is connected to a load resistor, and the photo detector includes an internal capacitance. A current source is connected through a switching circuit to the load resistor and to the photo detector. The current source is configured to discharge the internal capacitance of the photo detector. The switching circuit is configured to connect the current source to the internal capacitance based on a previous data bit.
US08977136B2
A receiver that includes a carrier recovery module that includes a reference signal generator that is arranged to generate a reference signal that estimates a carrier signal; a decision module that is arranged to demodulate a receiver input signal by the reference signal to provide a demodulated signal and to evaluate the demodulated signal to provide an decision module output signal that estimates the carrier signal; the reference signal generator includes a delay and rotation module that is arranged to delay receiver input signals to provide delayed receiver input signals and to align the delayed receiver input signals by a rotation that is responsive to the decision module output signal thereby providing aligned signals; and a multiplication and summation module that is arranged to generate the reference signal by calculating a weighted sum of the aligned signals.
US08977135B2
A system comprises a transmitter including a laser configured to generate a laser beam directed at a spot on a surface, and a laser driver connected to the laser and configured to modulate input data onto the laser beam. The system may further comprise a receiver including an optical detector configured to decode received light into raw data, a signal processor configured to decode the raw data into the original input data, and telescope optics configured to receive light reflected from the spot on the surface, collimate the light and converge the light onto the optical detector.
US08977131B2
An optical apparatus receives an upward signal light from a plurality of subscriber units, where the upward signal light is composed of a plurality of time slots corresponding to the plurality of optical subscriber units. The optical apparatus includes a driving unit configured to determine a respective required gain for light from each of the plurality of optical subscriber units, an amplifying section configured to amplify the upward signal light with the required gain corresponding to the time slots of the upward signal light, and a receiver configured to receive the amplified upward signal light.
US08977130B2
There is provided an optical transmission device, the optical transmission device including a wavelength selective switch configured to select a first optical signal having a first wavelength from an input signal of wavelength division multiplexing, an optical filter circuit configured to include an optical tunable filter having a pass wavelength that is tunable to a second wavelength of a second optical signal for passing therethrough, a splitter configured to split the input signal, a split signal split by the splitter being transferred to the optical filter circuit, and a coupler configured to couple the first optical signal selected by the wavelength selective switch and the second optical signal passed through the optical filter circuit.
US08977128B2
An apparatus comprising a path computation element (PCE) configured to perform a path computation using a wavelength converter (WC) pool information based on a dynamic WC pool model, wherein the dynamic WC pool model comprises information regarding WC pool usage state represented using a WC pool usage state vector, and wherein the information regarding WC pool usage state is communicated to the PCE using a WC usage state Type-Length-Value (TLV) that indicates an available WC in a WC pool, a used WC in the WC pool, or both. Also disclosed is a network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising receiving a WC usage state TLV comprising information regarding WC pool usage state, establishing a WC pool usage state vector using the information in the WC usage state TLV, and calculating a WC pool connectivity matrix based on the WC usage state vector.
US08977126B2
Embodiments enable a network operator to use any (and a single) network management system (NMS) that it desires to manage a network having mixed fiber to the home optical network units (ONUs) and coaxial connected cable modems. For example, embodiments enable a cable company operator to use a DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) NMS (which the cable company already uses to manage its DOCSIS network) to manage such mixed network, by a simple addition of a DOCSIS Mediation Layer (DML) module between the NMS and the optical line terminal (OLT). On the other hand, embodiments enable a telephone company operator to use a standard EPON (Ethernet Passive Optical Network) OLT NMS with minor OLT and OAM (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance) protocol modifications to manage the same mixed network.
US08977125B2
A method and apparatus for simultaneous processing of signals impressed on a horizontal polarization of a light wave and on a vertical polarization of the light wave is provided. In one embodiment, a horizontal polarization pilot tone is impressed on a data signal carried by the horizontal polarization and a vertical polarization pilot tone is impressed on a data signal carried by the vertical polarization. A receiver processes the dual-polarized light wave and converts it to an X channel signal and a Y channel signal. The X and Y channel signals are processed in separate channels to recover a phase and frequency offset between them and a local oscillator. The phase and frequency recovered and frequency de-multiplexed signals are further processed to polarization de-multiplex the data signal carried by the horizontal polarization and the data signal carried by the vertical polarization.
US08977124B2
A system and method for optical switching of networks in a multi-node computing system with programmable magneto-optical switches that enable optical signal routing on optical pathways. The system includes a network of optical links interconnecting nodes with switching elements that are controlled by electrical control signals. Data transmission is along the optical links and an optical pathway is determined by the electrical control signals which are launched ahead of optical signal. If links are available, an optical pathway is reserved, and the electrical signal sets the necessary optical switches for the particular optical pathway. There is thereby eliminated the need for optical-electrical-optical conversion at each node in order to route data packets through the network. If a link or optical pathway is not available the system tries to find an alternative path. If no alternative path is available, the system reserves buffering. After transmission, all reservations are released.
US08977116B2
An assembly for measuring the water level of a food industry machine has a water tank holding water to be heated, a load cell installed underneath the water tank so that a weight of the water tank holding the water impinges on a strain gauge of the load cell, a controller for receiving an electric signal from the load cell proportionate to a weight of the water tank plus the water in the water tank and converting the weight to a water level of the water tank based on a pre-determined formula and a display structure for continuously displaying a water level of the water in the water tank. The water level measurement device stays dry and free of scale deposits.
US08977110B2
Methods and apparatus for providing video with embedded media are disclosed. An example method includes dividing an image comprising a number of pixels into a number of portions, each portion including less than all of the pixels of the image, and blending respective ones of the portions with different video frames of a stream of video frames comprising a host presentation, wherein the media reaches a discernibility threshold when the host presentation is played at an accelerated rate.
US08977107B2
A storage device and method for resuming playback of content are provided. In one embodiment, a storage device comprises a memory operative to store a plurality of versions of content. The storage device receives a request for one of the versions of the content from a host, provides the requested version of the content to the host, and provides bookmark information from which the host can determine a location where to resume playback of the content, wherein the bookmark information indicates where playback ended for a different version of the content.
US08977106B2
Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping and/or filtering content from a video stream using closed captioning data associated with the video stream. The closed captioning data is parsed using metadata to identify portions of the video stream to skip during presentation, and/or to identify portions of the video stream to output to a user. The portions of the video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the video stream, and the filtered video stream is presented to a user.
US08977105B2
A personal media system and method that obtain content playback information of an end device is provided. The personal media system including: an end device reader to, when an end device that collects playback information about content playback is connected, obtain the collected playback information and content information about content stored in the end device; and a mapping unit to map the playback information and the content information, to determine playback information for each content in the end device, and to generate playback information for each content of a user based on the playback information for each content in the end device.
US08977095B2
Polarization maintaining optical fibers and methods for making the same are disclosed herein. According to one embodiment, a polarization maintaining optical fiber includes a cladding portion and a core portion disposed in the cladding portion. The core portion includes a first core region having a first coefficient of thermal expansion CTE1 and a second core region having a second coefficient of thermal expansion CTE2. The first coefficient of thermal expansion CTE1 is not equal to the second coefficient of thermal expansion CTE2. At least one of the first core region and the second core region is non-circular symmetric with respect to a centerline of the polarization maintaining optical fiber.
US08977078B2
An optical printed circuit board according to the embodiment includes an insulating layer; an optical wave guide buried in the insulating layer to transmit an optical signal; and an optical path converting part provided on at least one end of the optical wave guide to convert a transmission path of the optical signal defined by the optical wave guide such that the transmission path has a predetermined curvature.
US08977070B2
Blotches may be identified and processed to reduce or eliminate the blotch. The blotch may be in just one of several separations and multiple separations may be used, for example, to identify the blotch. An implementation (i) compares a first component image of an image with a first component image of a reference image, (ii) compares a second component image of the image with a second component image of the reference image, and (iii) determines based on these comparisons whether the first component image of the image includes a blotch. Multiple image separations also, or alternatively, may be used, for example, to modify the blotch, as well as to evaluate whether a modification is beneficial.
US08977060B2
The techniques and systems described herein are directed to isolating part-centric motion in a visual scene and stabilizing (e.g., removing) motion in the visual scene that is associated with camera-centric motion and/or object-centric motion. By removing the motion that is associated with the camera-centric motion and/or the object-centric motion, the techniques are able to focus motion feature extraction mechanisms (e.g., temporal differencing) on the isolated part-centric motion. The extracted motion features may then be used to recognize and/or detect the particular type of object and/or estimate a pose or position of a particular type of object.
US08977050B2
An image processing device performs image processing on image data obtained by receiving light emitted from a light source and then reflected from an object to be read with a light receiving element. The image processing device includes a determination unit configured to determine whether or not a color of each pixel in the image data belongs to a predetermined correction target color range and a correction unit configured to perform correction to reduce the density of a pixel of the color belonging to the correction target color range.
US08977044B2
An image processing apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives an image; a separating unit that separates a first area from the received image; an extracting unit that extracts a second area of a color having a predetermined relationship in the separated first area; an acquiring unit that acquires the characteristic relating to the shape of the extracted second area; a first determining unit that determines whether or not the second area is plain, on the basis of the acquired characteristic; and a second determining unit that determines, as the property of the first area, whether the first area is a continuous-tone area, a plain area, or a composite area including a continuous-tone area and a plain area, on the basis of the ratio of the second area determined to be plain to the separated first area.
US08977041B2
Systems and methods for generating a visual vocabulary build a plurality of visual words via unsupervised learning on set of features of a given type; decompose one or more visual words to a collection of lower-dimensional buckets; generate labeled image representations based on the collection of lower dimensional buckets and labeled images, wherein labels associated with an image are associated with a respective representation of the image; and iteratively select a sub-collection of buckets from the collection of lower-dimensional buckets based on the labeled image representations, wherein bucket selection during any iteration after an initial iteration is based at least in part on feedback from previously selected buckets.
US08977024B1
Disclosed are platforms, systems, computer program products for high throughput, distributed screening and analysis of images by a plurality of human image analysts, including methods of using the same.
US08977021B2
A method for customizing an interactive haptic boundary based on a patient-specific feature comprises identifying a reference feature associated with a virtual implant model. The method also comprises determining an intersection between the identified reference feature and a virtual model associated with an anatomy of the patient. A virtual haptic boundary is generated based on the determined intersection between the identified reference feature associated with the virtual implant model and the virtual model associated with the anatomy of the patient.
US08977014B2
A method of simulating the effect of distortion on a representation of a marker, such as a fingerprint is provided. The method is useful for generating data for use in various processes concerned with fingerprints and particularly avoids the need to manually generate and collect such data. The method includes obtaining a plurality of representations from an individual, the representations being subject to different distortions relative to one another. A function, such as a thin plate spline function, is then used to describe the effects of the different distortions on the plurality of representations obtained. This generic model of the effects of distortion can then be used to generate distortions for a further representation from an individual, preferably another individual. The simulated distorted representations can be used in a variety of ways.
US08977009B2
A biometric authentication device that authenticates a user using biological features of the user, the biometric authentication device includes: an illumination unit configured to illuminate a target which represents the biological features; an image sensor configured to obtain a first captured image by capturing the target illuminated by the illumination unit, and obtain a second captured image by capturing the target not illuminated by the illumination unit; an acquisition unit configured to acquire from a storage unit a mask which has a target area approximating the shape of the target in the first and second captured images obtained by the image sensor; and a detection unit configured to detect light other than illumination light illuminated by the illumination unit based on the mask acquired by the acquisition unit and at least one of the first and second images.
US08977002B2
A method of point source target detection for multispectral imaging is disclosed. In one embodiment, a background source spectral ratio is determined using at least one radiant source, such as baseline intensities, camera optics sensitivity properties and atmospheric transmission properties. Further, a spectral difference is computed for each pixel in an incoming frame by applying the background source spectral ratio to a spectral band-specific radiant intensity value of each pixel. Furthermore, offset biasing in the incoming frame is removed by applying spatial median filtering to each computed spectral difference in the incoming frame.
US08977000B2
In an object detection system with a first and a second image processing apparatus, the first image processing apparatus includes a reduction unit configured to reduce an input image, a first detection unit configured to detect a predetermined object from a reduction image reduced by the reduction unit, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the input image and a first detection result detected by the first detection unit to the second image processing apparatus, and the second image processing apparatus includes a reception unit configured to receive the input image and the first detection result from the first image processing apparatus, a second detection unit configured to detect the predetermined object from the input image, and an output unit configured to output the first detection result and a second detection result detected by the second detection unit.
US08976997B1
A transparent ultrasonic emitter includes a first transparent base layer; a transparent conductor disposed on the first transparent base layer; a second transparent base layer; and a partially open transparent conductive layer disposed on the second transparent base layer between the first and second transparent base layers, wherein the partially open conductive layer comprises conductive portions, the conductive portions having a thickness and being arranged to define one or more open volumes adjacent the second transparent base layer.
US08976996B2
An array speaker structure for audio/video device includes a slide contact assembly by means of which an array speaker unit is movable out of the audio/video device from a retracted position to an extended position. The slide contact assembly is connected with a connector. By means of operating and 180-degree rotating the connector, the speakers of the array speaker unit can be rotatable to a front side of the audio/video device. Then the array speaker unit is lifted and attached to a lateral side of the audio/video device, whereby the speakers can emit sound from the front side of the audio/video device.
US08976982B2
In a mixer system including an editing device that edits a configuration of signal processing by designating a combination of a plurality of components and a DSP that processes audio signals in accordance with the signal processing configuration edited by the editing device, when the mixer engine does not store a predetermined enabling key, audio signal processing including a protected component in the mixer engine is disabled, and when the mixer engine stores the predetermined enabling key, the audio signal processing is enabled. Further, the editing device is permitted to edit a signal processing configuration including the protected component irrespective of storage of the enabling key in the mixer engine.
US08976981B2
A circuit, device and method for controlling an output signal of an amplifier are provided. The output signal may be controlled through a first stage located before a digital to analog converter and/or a second stage located after it. The first stage boosts the digital signal to match with the full signal range of the converter. For the second stage, the circuit comprises: a first resistor coupled to an output of the amplifier in series, the first resistor having a resistance value Rs; a second resistor coupled to the first resistor in series, the second resistor having a resistance value Rp; and an output terminal for a transducer connected to the electronic device, the output terminal connected in parallel to the second resistor. In the circuit, the resistance values Rs and Rp are related by an inversely proportional relationship. The circuit provides an output signal at the output terminal having a noise floor that varies with an output level of the amplifier and a constant output impedance as seen from the transducer.
US08976980B2
Methods and systems for amplitude modulation in a parametric speaker system are provided that perform truncated double sideband (TDSB) frequency modulation of audio signal in which most of the processing is performed in the frequency domain, thus permitting use of fast processing techniques for amplitude modulation (AM) and filtering and reducing computation cost over time domain processing. A maximum envelope value of the time domain audio signal may be to the carrier signal in the frequency domain that avoids emitting the carrier signal when the input signal level is low or mute. The application of the envelope value may be smoothed to reduce discontinuity at input block boundaries.
US08976975B2
Various embodiments of the invention include systems, computer program products, and related methods for managing power plant acoustics. In various embodiments, a system is disclosed including at least one computing device configured to perform the following: determine a difference between an A-weighted sound decibel (dBA) level and a C-weighted sound decibel (dBC) level (Δ dBC-dBA) from a power plant system within a sound spectrum; compare the Δ dBC-dBA with a predetermined threshold difference for the sound spectrum; and provide instructions to increase the dBA level of a balancing sound in the spectrum proximate the power plant system in response to determining the Δ dBC-dBA exceeds the predetermined threshold difference.
US08976971B2
A method and an apparatus for adjusting a channel delay parameter of a multi-channel signal are provided in the embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: performing down-mixing processing on a multi-channel signal to obtain a processed signal (101); calculating energy distribution of the processed signal (102); and judging whether a comb filtering effect occurs in the processed signal according to the energy distribution of the processed signal, and adjusting a channel delay parameter of the multi-channel signal if the comb filtering effect occurs in the processed signal (103).
US08976967B2
Methods, systems and apparatuses for a mediator controlling access to an electronic content, are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a mediator server of a mediator, a second share SKG2 from an owner server, wherein a first share SKG1 is provided to a member server of a member of a group by the owner server. Further, the mediator receives a request for mediation, including the mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content from the member. Further, the mediator determines whether the member is eligible to decrypt the electronic content, if eligible, the mediator responding to the request for mediation with a member accessible header, wherein the member accessible header includes the header after application of SKG2.
US08976966B2
To prevent falsification of an attribute of data, a mechanism is provided, which encrypt document/image data while holding the attribute contained in electronic document data as a plain text and make it extremely difficult to decrypt the document/image data if the attribute is falsified. A transmitter receives a public key set including a plurality of public keys from a receiver, encrypts the document/image data using a common key, selects a public key from the public key set based on an attribute of the data, encrypts the common key using the selected public key, and transmits the data including the encrypted document/image data, the encrypted common key, and the attribute to the receiver.
US08976962B2
An apparatus and method for generating a group key using the status of a wireless channel are provided. The apparatus includes a representative channel response selection unit for selecting a representative channel response signal from among pilot signals received from slave terminals. A key generation unit generates a group key based on a representative channel response value of the representative channel response signal. A hash value generation unit generates a hash value corresponding to the group key. A transmission pilot control unit adjusts power intensities of transmission pilots of the respective slave terminals using the channel response value of the representative channel response signal and channel response values and transmission power intensities of the slave terminals. A communication unit is individually connected to the slave terminals and configured to transmit pilot signals, power intensities of which have been adjusted, and the hash value to the slave terminals.
US08976961B2
A system architecture allows for the transmission of multiple HDCP encrypted audio/video streams over a single unified cable to multiple receivers using a daisy chain topology. Each individual audio/video stream is first encrypted and then combined into a uniform stream, and the uniform stream is transmitted to each of the receivers. Each receiver contains a decryption engine that operates independently of the engines in the other receivers, therefore allowing each receiver to select to a unique channel and decrypt and display one of the audio/video streams.
US08976953B2
Methods and apparatus for improving confidentiality of sensitive information received from a customer in a contact handling system including an agent are disclosed. The method can include opening a first connection path between the customer and the contact handling system. The method can include making communication sent by the customer through the first connection path available to the agent. The method can include opening a second connection path between the customer and the contact handling system as the agent and customer communicate over the first connection path. The method can include preventing the agent from accessing communication sent over the second communication path. The method can include receiving sensitive information through the second communication path.
US08976950B2
Third party call control in a service management platform (SMP) of an enterprise system comprising a private branch exchange (PBX) in communication with the SMP over a trunk and line. Receiving a request over the line for communication involving a device. Invoking reliable transmission of provisional responses in the trunk. Receiving a receive only session description over the trunk. Invoking specific event notification between the SMP and PBX for calls answered between the device and PBX. Receiving notification of a call answered between the device and PBX. Responding to the request with the first session description as a send/receive offer. Receiving acknowledgement including a second send/receive answer session description over the line. Updating the trunk the second description as a send/receive update. Receiving a third session description with a successful response message from the PBX; the third session description being a send and receive copy of the first session description.
US08976947B2
Pre-authorized communication services and/or transactions are provided via a plurality of networks in response to a request received from a user to provide at least one of a communication service, a transaction and user account information via a plurality of networks of different types. Prior to processing the request, there is verification of the user's authorization to receive the at least one of the communication service, the transaction, and the user account information, and that an account associated with the user has a sufficient amount currently available for payment of the at least one of the communication service and the transaction. After verification, an authorized account associated with the user is charged in real time as the at least one of the communication service and the transaction is provided.
US08976946B2
A communication apparatus includes a communication portion for communicating with an external device, a transmitter information acquiring portion for acquiring predetermined transmitter information for identifying the transmitter at a time of an incoming call of communication, a storage portion for storing a registered name in association with the transmitter information in advance, a registered name retrieval portion for, retrieving the registered name stored in the storage portion so as to be associated with the acquired transmitter information, a common part extraction portion for, in a case where a plurality of registered names are retrieved with respect to the acquired transmitter information when the registered name is retrieved by the registered name retrieval portion, extracting a common part among the plurality of registered names, and an output portion for outputting the common part of the registered names which is extracted by the common part extraction portion, in a predetermined system.
US08976944B2
A mass-scale, user-independent, device-independent, voice messaging system that converts unstructured voice messages into text for display on a screen is disclosed. The system comprises (i) computer implemented sub-systems and also (ii) a network connection to human operators providing transcription and quality control; the system being adapted to optimize the effectiveness of the human operators by further comprising 3 core sub-systems, namely (i) a pre-processing front end that determines an appropriate conversion strategy; (ii) one or more conversion resources; and (iii) a quality control sub-system.
US08976930B2
A radiation image capturing system and a console are described. The radiation image capturing system includes a radiation image capturing apparatus and a console. The console holds in advance a relationship between a number of the scanning line from which readout of the image data is started and an offset amount superimposed on the image data to be read out. When the preview image is displayed, the console modifies the relationship so that the starting point is moved to a position of the scanning line from which the radiation image capturing apparatus actually starts the readout, calculates the offset amount for each of the scanning lines, and displays the preview image based on a value obtained by subtracting the offset amount from the corresponding preview image data.
US08976913B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for processing data. As one example, a circuit is disclosed that includes a pre-detector that detects an estimated pattern in a digital input signal, and a summation element that subtracts the estimated pattern from the digital input signal to yield a noise estimate. The circuit further includes a data dependent noise prediction filter that is adaptively tuned to detect a noise pattern, and that filters the noise estimate to provide a filtered noise estimate.
US08976910B1
The subject matter described herein relates to methods, systems, and computer readable media for smart decoding of downlink signals in the presence of interference caused by reference signals of different generation air interface equipment. One method includes receiving, at a decoder, a downlink signal including interference caused by different generation network equipment. The method further includes providing information regarding reference signal locations to the decoder. The method further includes, at the decoder, weighting decoding error metrics resulting from received bits corresponding to the reference signal locations relative to decoding error metrics resulting from received bits corresponding to other locations to account for the presence of the interference caused by the reference signals. The method further includes decoding the received bits based on the relative weights and outputting a sequence of likely transmitted bits.
US08976905B1
A robust differential receiver is described that may be used in any frequency modulated system, including short-range radio frequency (RF) communication devices. The differential receiver provides a preamble detection approach that reduces false preamble detection, a fine carrier frequency (CFO) estimation approach that provides an extended estimation range, and robust in-band and out-of-band interference detection. The described differential receiver assures that preamble detections are not falsely triggered, and that CFO estimates are based on accurately modeled preamble waveforms that have not been distorted by phase ambiguities or in-band distortion. In this manner, the described robust differential receiver assures that CFO estimates used to compensate remaining portions of detected signals are accurate, thereby reducing the likelihood that remaining portions of the detected signal will be affected by phase ambiguity distortions, thereby enhancing the differential receiver's ability to lock onto an otherwise unavailable communication channel, and/or reducing transmission errors and/or packet loss.
US08976904B2
Methods and systems to vary an erasure slicer threshold based on a measure computed from prior soft and/or hard symbol decisions, identify reliable symbol estimates based on the threshold, identify unreliable symbol estimates for erasure based on the threshold, modify the identified symbol estimates, output the reliable symbol estimates and the modified symbol estimates as erasure slicer decisions, and filter the decisions in a feedback filter of a decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The erasure slicer threshold may be based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or mean-squared-error (MSE). A symbol estimate may be identified for erasure when a coordinate of the corresponding soft decision is within an erasure area defined by the threshold. Symbol modification may include replacing a corresponding coordinate of the symbol estimate with a coordinate of a decision boundary associated with the erasure area.
US08976880B2
A wireless communication apparatus and a wireless communication method wherein even when the permissible delay amount of data is small, the permissible delay thereof can be satisfied. A data type determining part determines whether the delay of transport data or control information should be allowed or not. A pilot signal insertion control part decides, based on pilot insertion interval information and allowable delay information, that a pilot signal is placed adjacently to data that is not allowed to delay. A multiplexing part multiplexes encoded and modulated transport data with the pilot signal generated by a pilot signal generating part in such a manner that realizes the placement decided by the pilot signal insertion control part.
US08976875B2
The present invention relates to a clock-embedded or source synchronous semiconductor transmitting and receiving apparatus and to a semiconductor system including same. The semiconductor apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: a data providing unit for providing differential data; a multi-phase clock generator for generating a first clock signal provided to the data providing unit, and a second clock signal having a different phase from the first clock signal; and a combining unit for receiving the differential data and the second clock signal and combining same to generate a combined signal, wherein the second clock signal is a single clock signal and has n (here, n is an integer of two or greater) times a symbol period of the differential data, the first and second clock signals have a 90 degree phase difference, and the combination signal is transmitted to the outside through differential transmission lines.
US08976872B2
The disclosure is directed to techniques for picture-in-picture (PIP) processing for video telephony (VT). According to the disclosed techniques, a local video communication device transmits PIP information to a remote video communication device. Using the PIP information, the remote video communication device applies preferential encoding to non-PIP regions of video transmitted to the local video communication device.
US08976868B2
When a prediction is made between fields with different parity, the predicative efficiency of a chrominance vector is improved by adaptively switching the generation of a chrominance motion vector depending on a encoding/decoding field parity (top/bottom) and a reference field parity (top/bottom), and the coding efficiency is improved accordingly.
US08976862B2
The present disclosure relates to an intra prediction method and apparatus and an image encoding/decoding method and apparatus using the same. The disclosure provides the intra prediction apparatus that predicts the pixel values of respective pixels in a current block by weight-averaging the pixel values of one or more adjacent pixels in neighboring blocks to the current block according to the distances between each pixel in the current block and the adjacent pixel(s). According to the disclosure, the current block to be encoded can be predicted more accurately so that the encoding efficiency is improved by reducing the difference between the original block and the predicted block, and thereby video compression efficiency can be improved.
US08976861B2
In one example, an apparatus is disclosed for coding coefficients associated with a block of video data during a video coding process, wherein the apparatus includes a video coder configured to code information that identifies a position of a last non-zero coefficient within the block according to a scanning order associated with the block prior to coding information that identifies positions of other non-zero coefficients within the block, including at least one of the following: coding a one-dimensional position within the block that identifies the position of the last non-zero coefficient; coding a two-dimensional position within the block that identifies the position of the last non-zero coefficient, and coding a flag that indicates whether the last non-zero coefficient is located within a range of positions within the block, and coding the one-dimensional position when the last non-zero coefficient is located within the range, and otherwise coding the two-dimensional position.
US08976856B2
An encoder executes an iterative search method for selecting deblocking parameters for coded video. According to the method, a decoded picture may be deblocked according to parameters associated with a multi-dimensional deblocking vector and an error, called the “deblocking error” may be estimated therefrom. If the estimated error exceeds a predetermined threshold, then alternate deblocking vectors may be created, each advanced from the current deblocking vector in a respective dimension. The method may deblock the decoded picture according to each advanced vector and may estimate errors from each of the deblocking of each advanced vector. Finally, the deblocking vector may be revised for a next iteration according to a gradient derived from the estimated deblocking errors of the vector dimensions. This gradient-based search method may converge on a final set of deblocking parameters in an efficient manner.
US08976855B2
An exemplary receiver equalizer includes a first decision feedback equalizer (DFE) sampler coupled to a summer, the first DFE to latch an equalized output of the summer. The first branch includes a second DFE sampler coupled to the first DFE sampler, the second DFE to latch an output of the first DFE sampler. The first branch includes a third DFE sampler coupled to the second DFE sampler, the third DFE to latch an output of the second DFE sampler. The summer coupled to the first, second, and third DFE samplers of the first branch, the summer to integrate the output of said DFE samplers, the received signal, and equalized outputs from one or more other branches, wherein the integrating occurs over a plurality of unit intervals (UIs).
US08976850B2
Provided is a channel state information (CSI) sharing method and apparatus in a Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) environment. Each node may use network-coding to reduce overhead necessary for sharing CSI between all nodes in the MU-MIMO environment. A transmitter may dynamically select, based on the CSI between receivers, a path used for transmitting data to each receiver and a receiver to be used as a relay based on the global CSI. A decoding performance may be improved based on the CSI between the transmitter and the receivers.
US08976848B2
A method and device for reducing interference between a first signal of the carrier current type (Se) transmitted between modems (MCPL) in an electrical network (Re) and a second signal (S) transmitted between modems (M) in another network (R), the signals (Se, S) being coded by distribution of the data over allocated carrier frequencies in the same reserved frequency band (BF). The method includes: a step of measurement, by each modem (MCPL) in the electrical network, of transmission characteristics of each carrier frequency (F) that may be used for coding the first signal (Se), a step of detection, by analysis of the measured transmission characteristics, of at least one second carrier frequency (F2,n), which is allocated or may be allocated for coding the second signal (S) and is common with at least one first carrier frequency (F1,m), which is allocated for coding the first signal (Se), and a step of optimization of the distribution of the data of the first signal (Se) over carrier frequencies.
US08976842B1
A method of detecting PN code synchronization for a DSSS signal comprising receiving a DSSS data signal of data frames comprised of I and Q symbols, at least a portion of each data frame comprising a unique word, demodulating the data signal into I and Q chip samples, filtering the I and Q chip samples and outputting the filtered I and Q chip samples to a chip stream controller which outputs the plurality of chip streams to a correlation matrix that correlates the plurality of chip streams with the chipped unique word and outputs a correlated data stream. A plurality of FFTs is run on the correlated output data stream and a processor searches for a maximum frequency bin power of each FFT. A PN synchronization detector searches for a maximum frequency bin power of each FFT. A PN synchronization detector searches for a maximum frequency bin power among the plurality of FFT rounds and determines whether PN synchronization is present.
US08976841B2
A transmitting/receiving installation of microwave radio signals including a transmitting/receiving unit. The unit includes a receiving module to receive electrical signals, known as terrestrial electrical signals, issued from the transformation of radio signals received terrestrially, a module to transform the electrical signals modulated according to a spread spectrum protocol, known as satellite electrical signals, into radio signals able to be transmitted by satellite, a transmitter to transmit to a satellite of the microwave radio signals obtained after transformation of the satellite electrical signals and an amplifier to amplify the satellite electrical signals. The installation includes a box including a modulator of electrical signals according to a spread spectrum protocol and a coaxial cable connecting the transmitting/receiving unit and the box.
US08976838B2
An apparatus for assigning transmission symbols to a media data stream of information symbols is described, the media data stream including a first substream for representing media content in a basic quality and a second substream including additional data for representing the media content, along with the first substream, in an improved quality. The apparatus includes a first assigner for assigning first transmission symbols to the information symbols of the first substream and a second assigner for assigning second transmission symbols to the information symbols of the second substream, the first transmission symbols being transmissible, via a transmission channel, with reduced error probability as compared to the second transmission symbols.
US08976832B2
A multi-wavelength semiconductor laser device includes: first and second device sections monolithically formed on a substrate; and a rear end face film formed together on a rear end face of each of the first and second device sections. The first device section is a light-emitting device section having an oscillation wavelength of λ1. The second device section is a light-emitting device section having an oscillation wavelength of λ2 (λ1<λ2). The rear end face film includes a layer in which N sets (N≧2) of layers each having the combination of a low refractive index layer having a refractive index of n1 and a high refractive index layer having a refractive index of n3 (n1
US08976831B2
An edge emitting semiconductor laser comprising an active, radiation-generating zone (1), and an common waveguide (8), which is suitable for guiding the radiation generated in the active zone (1) within the semiconductor laser. The common waveguide (8) comprises a first n-doped layer (4) and a second n-doped layer (5), which is arranged between the first n-doped layer (4) and the active zone (1), wherein the refractive index n2 of the second n-doped layer (5) is greater than the refractive index n1 of the first n-doped layer (4) by a value dn.
US08976826B2
A lasing wavelength of a laser diode is determined by applying a forward current to the p-n junction of the laser diode and measuring a voltage across the p-n junction. The lasing wavelength can be determined by performing a simple wavelength calibration of the laser diode. This allows one to stabilize the lasing wavelength, and also to use the laser diode as a reference wavelength source.
US08976820B2
To provide a passive Q-switch-type solid laser apparatus for outputting a high peak-power pulse laser whose pulse energy is large and pulse-time width is small. A passive Q-switch-type solid laser apparatus has: two reflection elements for forming an oscillator; a solid gain medium being disposed between the two reflection elements; a saturable absorber being disposed between the two reflection elements; an excitation device for exciting the solid gain medium; and a cross section control device for making at least one of a stimulated emission cross section of the solid gain medium and an absorption cross section of the saturable absorber closer to another one of them; and the cross section control device is equipped with at least one or both of a temperature control device for retaining the solid gain medium at a predetermined temperature and an oscillatory-wavelength control device for fixating an oscillatory wavelength at a predetermined wavelength.
US08976808B2
A wireless local area network (WLAN) device transmits a header over an air interface, at a first modulation rate. The header may include an indication of a second modulation rate that will be used to transmit a consolidated payload. The device further transmits the consolidated payload at the second modulation rate. The consolidated payload includes multiple data units. In one embodiment, the consolidated payload includes delimiters with validation fields associated with the various data units.
US08976799B1
A high-speed I/O interface that allows a number of native I/O formats to be encapsulated into PCIe Vendor Defined Messages (“VDMs”) for transfer over a single physical medium, preferably optical, and is thus referred to as the converged I/O (“CIO”) interface. The devices can be designed to provide synchronization (time value, frequency, and phase) among a network of routers, with signal paths of several meters, thereby providing an accurate time base suitable for exacting audiovisual applications.
US08976794B2
An apparatus for forwarding an Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) data frame into an Ethernet network comprising a processor configured to receive a data frame on a input port, obtain a first destination address and a virtual local area network identifier (VID), determine whether the first destination address and the VID matches an entry within a forwarding table, construct a key when the first destination address and VID matches the entry and the data frame is a FCoE frame, and forward the data frame as an outgoing data frame via an output port when the key matches a rule that permits forwarding the data frame.
US08976786B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to deliver broadcast channels by way of interactive TV (iTV) edge routers using multicast virtual private networks, share a same multicast state for the broadcast channels and share a same multicast delivery tree for the broadcast channels. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08976783B2
In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for assuring Voice over Internet Protocol service. In one embodiment, a system for assuring Voice over Internet Protocol service includes a performance management platform for collecting performance management data from a plurality of sources in a Voice over Internet Protocol network, for detecting at least one abnormal event in accordance with the collected performance management data, and for reporting a volume of traffic in the Voice over Internet Protocol network and a trouble ticketing system for generating a ticket identifying a root cause of the abnormal event(s).
US08976782B1
A communication system providing telephony communication across combined circuit switched and packet switched networks, such as a telephone network and the Internet, which are connectable to terminals, such as telephones and computers, for selective communication therebetween. The communication system includes an authorization and account control object in the packet switched network, multiple gateways between the circuit switched and packet switched networks providing controlled connectivity between those networks, and an information retrieval object in the packet switched network.
US08976775B2
A method implemented in a mobile communications system for data transmission is disclosed. The method includes selecting a set of parallel channels, determining transmission rank, and determining a precoding matrix of the transmission rank for the set of parallel channels, wherein the precoding matrix is formed by applying householder transformation to a vector to make a matrix and selecting one or more columns from the matrix. Other methods and apparatuses also are disclosed.
US08976770B2
The present invention relates to wireless communication, and more specifically, to a method and device whereby a base station allocates nodes to a terminal in a semi-static fashion in a multi-node system. The method, according to one aspect of the present invention, whereby a base station allocates at least a portion of a plurality of nodes to a terminal in a multi-node system comprising the plurality of nodes and the base station for controlling the plurality of nodes, comprises the steps of: receiving, from the terminal, data showing at least one first node that is preferred among the plurality of nodes by the terminal; and transmitting, to the terminal, first data for allocating the first node(s) to the terminal. The first data may comprise pilot data which is required by the terminal in order to transmit, to the base station, feedback data concerning the first node.
US08976766B2
A method for integrating functions of a cellular radio controller and a microwave backhaul radio controller are disclosed. In some embodiments a cellular baseband unit is coupled to a cellular radio unit and a microwave backhaul radio unit. The cellular baseband unit includes a digital signal processor that performs modulation, demodulation and scheduling for both the cellular radio signals and the microwave backhaul radio signals.
US08976765B2
A base station transmits subframes of downlink carriers in a primary cell group and downlink carriers in a secondary cell group in substantial time alignment with each other. A wireless device transmits subframes of uplink carriers in the primary cell group in substantially time alignment with each other. The wireless device transmits subframes of uplink carriers in the secondary cell group in substantially time alignment with each other. The subframes transmission timing for uplink carriers in the primary cell group and in the secondary cell group employ different synchronization signals as a timing reference and different timing advance commands.
US08976754B2
The invention relates to a method for encoding a number of feedback information messages in a mobile radio communications system using carrier aggregation, the method comprising: encoding the number of feedback information messages by a set of codewords, where each feedback information message can be of at least a first kind or a second kind. The method is distinguished by that for at least one feedback information message there is at least one codeword corresponding to information of the first kind and at least one codeword corresponding to information of the second kind, wherein the modulation symbol of one of said at least one codeword corresponding to information of the first kind and the modulation symbol of one of said at least one codeword corresponding to information of the second kind have a maximum distance. The invention also relates to a mobile terminal and radio basestation for a communications system.
US08976753B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transceiving a downlink control channel. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method in which a receiver receives a downlink control channel from a transmitter in a wireless communication system comprises: a step of assuming an overhead of a transmitted reference signal in a data region of a downlink subframe; and a step of decoding the downlink control channel transmitted by the transmitter in the data region on the basis of the assumption of the overhead of the reference signal, wherein the assumption of the overhead of the reference signal is determined on the basis of at least the number of receiving antennas of the receiver.
US08976752B2
The present invention relates to a terminal device and method for transmitting a power headroom report (PHR) in a wireless communication system supporting multiple component carriers. The terminal device of the present invention comprises a transmitter for transmitting, to a base station, PHR information on at least one component carrier and information on the maximum power reduction (MPR) of the terminal device, wherein the PHR information on the at least one component carrier includes component carrier index information, and the MPR information of the terminal device may be an MPR value of said at least one component carrier, or a sum of the MPR values of said at least one component carrier.
US08976745B2
The present invention discloses a method in which a terminal transmits an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal in a wireless communication system. In detail, the comprises the steps of allocating a first control channel resource to the ACK/NACK signal and a second control channel resource to a channel quality information (CQI) signal, determining the transmission power of the first control channel resource and the transmission power of the second control channel resource in accordance with a preset priority, and transmitting the ACK/NACK signal and the CQI signal to a base station using the control channel resources and the transmission powers corresponding thereto.
US08976743B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a Service Specific Scheduling Control Header (SSSCH) in a wireless communication system are provided, in which the SSSCH includes SSSCH type information and a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter change indicator. The SSSCH type information indicates at least one of a QoS parameter set change request, an ACKnowledgment (ACK) for a QoS parameter set change request, and a Negative ACK (NACK) for a QoS parameter set change request, and the QoS parameter change indicator indicates whether a QoS parameter set will be changed.
US08976741B2
Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for aggregating certain frame types in uplink and/or downlink transmit opportunities. Such techniques may improve wireless communications system performance by reducing the overall number of transmit opportunities required.
US08976740B2
A method of wireless communication includes acquiring at least one non-required system information from a cell while in a radio resource control connected state. The non-required system information is system information that is not required in the radio resource control connected state. The method includes transitioning from the radio resource control connected state to a radio resource control idle state on the cell without acquiring the at least one non-required system information.
US08976734B2
A system and method for transmitting high speed data on fixed rate and for variable rate channels. The system and method provides the flexibility of adjusting the data rate, the coding rate, and the nature of individual retransmissions. Further, the system and method supports partial soft combining of retransmitted data with previously transmitted data, supports parity bit selection for successive retransmissions, and supports various combinations of data rate variations, coding rate variations, and partial data transmissions.
US08976725B2
Provided is a communication system including a plurality of base stations, a plurality of communication terminals that communicates with one of the plurality of base stations, and a relay device, the relay device including a selection unit that selects a communication terminal to be relayed from among the plurality of communication terminals on the basis of communication quality information received from each of the plurality of communication terminals, and a relay unit that relays communication between the communication terminal selected by the selection unit and the corresponding base station.
US08976723B2
A disclosed OFDM-based transmission device includes a unicast channel generating unit configured to generate a unicast channel; an MBMS channel generating unit configured to generate an MBMS channel; a multiplexing unit configured to time-division-multiplex the unicast channel and the MBMS channel in the same frequency band; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit time-division-multiplexed transmission symbols. In the disclosed transmission device, the guard interval length for the MBMS channel is set longer than the guard interval length for the unicast channel.
US08976720B2
A technique for controlling transceiving operations of a transceiver device in a wireless communication network is described. A method implementation of this technique comprises the following steps performed by the transceiver device: determining a temporal mismatch between DTX characteristics and DRX characteristics of the transceiver device; and adjusting at least one of the DTX characteristics and the DRX characteristics such that DTX pauses become essentially aligned with DRX pauses. During the overlapping inactivity periods of the DTX pauses and the DRX pauses power management measures may be initiated by the transceiver device.
US08976713B2
Method and apparatus for performing transmission and reception simultaneously in same frequency band
There are provided a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving signals in the same frequency band at the same time. A signal is received using a dual polarization antenna, the main axis of the polarization of the reception signal is predicted by performing adaptive polarization tracking, and polarization filtering is performed in order to remove interference. A signal is transmitted through a polarization completely orthogonal to the tracked polarization. In accordance with the present invention, in a wireless communication system, signals can be transmitted and received in the same frequency band at the same time.
US08976711B2
An autonomous system (AS) comprising a topology transparent zone (TTZ) comprising a plurality of TTZ nodes, wherein the plurality of TTZ nodes includes an edge node and an internal node, wherein each of the plurality of TTZ nodes is configured to connect to another TTZ node via an internal link, and a plurality of neighboring external nodes connected to the TTZ edge nodes via a plurality of external links, wherein no link state advertisements (LSAs) describing the internal links are distributed to the neighboring external nodes.
US08976697B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for network status mapping. Such an exemplary system and method involves inserting a network map tag in a flow set of packets in a computer network and receiving a response to the network map tag from a network element that includes populated fields of the network map tag comprising a field to identify a network element, a field to identify the outgoing port of the network element, a field to identify queue of the outgoing port; and a status field for the queue of the outgoing port.
US08976694B2
This invention relates to the proposal of component carrier (de)activation message that is allowing a activation or deactivation of one or more component carriers in the uplink or downlink. Furthermore, the invention relates to the use of the new component carrier (de)activation message in methods for (de)activation of downlink component carrier(s) configured for a mobile terminal, a base station and a mobile terminal. To enable efficient and robust (de)activation of component carriers, the invention proposes to use component carrier-specific or cell-RNTI(s) for the scrambling of the CRC of the component carrier (de)activation message, and to explicitly indicate the intended recipient of the component carrier (de)activation message in a corresponding field in the message. Furthermore, the invention further proposes different designs of the component carrier (de)activation message and further uses thereof, so as to trigger CQI reporting and/or SRS transmission by a mobile terminal.
US08976693B2
Disclosed is a method for a terminal to report an emergency in a mobile communication system, the method including detecting an emergency and transmitting an emergency report header to a base station to notify the base station of the emergency, the emergency report header including a field indicating a signaling header for emergency reporting.
US08976684B2
The invention provides a method of operating a network which comprises a plurality of stations each able to transmit and receive data so that the network can transmit data directly, or indirectly via one or more intermediate stations, between a requesting station and potential resource providing stations. The method comprises monitoring, at each station, the activity and/or resources of other stations on the network to establish the availability of resources at the other stations, and transmitting, from a requesting station requiring a specified resource, resource request probe signals identifying the specified resource. The resource may be data, connectivity, memory/storage, or another resource. At each station receiving the resource request probe signals, the availability of the specified resource or a portion thereof is determined, and hence whether said station is a potential resource providing station. If such a potential resource providing station has the specified resource or a portion thereof, response data is transmitted directly, or indirectly via one or more intermediate stations, to the requesting station indicating the availability of the specified resource or portion thereof to the requesting station. The requesting station is then given access to the specified resource or portion thereof from at least one resource providing station selected from one or more potential resource providing stations. The invention extends to a network for implementing the method.
US08976681B2
A network system, management server, and OAM test management method for grouping the virtual networks, selecting a test target for each group, and lowering the network load and the operating load in the OAM testing. Grouping the multiple virtual networks based on their physical topology and selecting a representative virtual network for each group, allows selecting a test target virtual network from among the representative virtual networks for the virtual network selected by the operator and executing tests.
US08976674B2
A method and system in accordance with the present invention presents a new packet structure and an improved method for detecting the packet. The method and system comprise adding an additional field to the packet structure to allow for a sufficient time to process a very high throughput (VHT) signal field; and enabling the detection of the VHT signal field of the packet structure. The VHT signal field is distinguishable from other signal fields and the VHT signal field allows for a backward compatibility with other devices.
US08976670B2
This invention provides a system, method and apparatus for managing congestion on heterogeneous network communication links, the first communication link and second communication link being heterogeneous with respect to each other. The system, method and apparatus including a routing decision module, the routing decision module evaluating a queue of information packets scheduled for transmission across the first communication link to determine whether to generate a command signal to route a portion of information packets over the second communication link. The system, method and apparatus may further include a communication link threshold module, the communication link threshold module storing threshold limit values corresponding to a first communication link technology of the first communication link.
US08976655B2
A method, a computer readable media and a device, the method is for evaluating a capacity of a cell of a radio access network (RAN), and may include monitoring, by a monitor, (a) downstream traffic that is directed towards the cell and (b) responses from the cell to the downstream traffic, to provide monitoring results; calculating, in response to the monitoring results, round trip time (RTT) statistics; and generating an estimate of the capacity of the cell in response to the RTT statistics.
US08976654B2
A method in a base station, and a base station, adapted for scheduling and receiving uplink transmissions from user entities and further forwarding data related to such transmissions to a core network, wherein the base station being adapted for transmitting serving grant signals for allowing a user entity to transmit uplink transmissions at a given maximum granted data rate, at least at a subsequent transmission opportunity. An uplink transmission from a user entity may be responded to by the base station by a not-acknowledge, NACK, or an acknowledge, ACK, signal. The method comprises the steps of: detecting the rate of an uplink transmission; detecting whether an overload situation exists, and if the rate exceeds the granted rate and an overload situation exists, sending an ACK to the user entity without forwarding any uplink data to the core network.
US08976653B2
A communication device may include a transmitting circuit for transmitting packets from a first communication device to a second communication device and a processor in the first communication device and coupled with the transmitting circuit. The processor may evaluate the packet receipt status information to identify a packet receipt characteristic associated with the second communication device and control data packet transmission from the first communication device to the second communication device based on the packet receipt characteristic associated with the second communication device.
US08976651B2
[Solution to Problem] A load balance control unit, which is included in a transmission apparatus for transmitting a plurality of units of data, each being a piece of transmission data delimited by a given data length, to an opposite apparatus via a plurality of transmission lines, includes sorting buffers which are provided for the respective transmission lines; a threshold setting element which sets upper limit retention threshold values for the respective sorting buffers; and a sorting determination element which determines, for each of the units of data, in which of the sorting buffers the each of the units of data is to be written, taking into consideration retention states and the upper limit retention threshold values of the respective sorting buffers, and a data amount of the each of the units of data.
US08976625B2
A zero-offset VSP survey is carried out with spaced apart receivers located in a vertical wellbore. Spectra of the signals at the receivers following wavefield separation are estimated. An absorption coefficient is estimated using differences in spectra between all pairs of receivers.
US08976614B2
A memory has a tracking circuit for a read tracking operation. The memory includes a memory bit cell array, a tracking column, a tracking row, a sense amplifier row coupled to the memory bit cell array and the tracking row, and a sense amplifier enable logic. The memory further includes a tracking bit line coupled to the tracking column and the sense amplifier enable logic, and a tracking word line coupled to the tracking row and the sense amplifier enable logic. The tracking circuit is configured to track a column time delay along the tracking column before a row time delay along the tracking row.
US08976606B2
A voltage generating circuit includes first and second step-up circuits, each having first and second input terminals and an output terminal and configured to increase a voltage level of an input signal supplied through the first input terminal and output the signal with the increased voltage level through the output terminal. The second input terminal of the first step-up circuit is connected to the output terminal of the second step-up circuit and the second input terminal of the second step-up circuit is connected to the output terminal of the first step-up circuit. The voltage generating circuit may also include third and fourth step-up circuits and fifth and sixth step-up circuits having similar configurations.
US08976605B2
A high voltage generation circuit includes a plurality of pumps configured to generate a final pump voltage, a plurality of switches configured to couple the pumps to various nodes, a voltage division circuit configured to divide the final pump voltage from the pumps interconnected by the switches, and outputting a divided voltage, a section signal generation circuit configured to generate a plurality of section signals by comparing the divided voltage with each of different reference voltages, and a section signal combination circuit configured to generate enable signals for controlling the switches by combining the section signals.
US08976601B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a boundary circuit unit positioned between a low voltage page buffer and a high voltage page buffer and having circuits configured to electrically couple the low voltage page buffer and the high voltage page buffer. The boundary circuit unit includes: a first boundary circuit unit having first and second transistors configured to receive data of a corresponding memory cell area through a signal transmission line selected from a plurality of signal transmission lines extended and arranged along a first direction for each column; a second boundary circuit unit disposed adjacent in the first direction from the first boundary circuit unit and having the plurality of signal transmission lines extended and arranged thereon; and an active region where the first transistor is formed and an active region where the second transistor is formed are isolated from each other.
US08976598B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory block comprising cell strings each of which includes a plurality of memory cells, a current measurement circuit measure a current flowing through a selected bit line coupled to a selected cell string when a data read operation or a program verification operation is performed, and a logic group configured to change a read voltage, a program verification voltage, or a pass voltage in response to the measured current.
US08976586B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, a random number generation circuit configured to generate a random number, and a controller configured to control the memory cell array and the random number generation circuit. The random number generation circuit includes a random number control circuit configured to generate a random number parameter based on data which is read out from the memory cell by a generated control parameter, and a pseudo-random number generation circuit configured to generate the random number by using the random number parameter as a seed value.
US08976579B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic memory element includes: a magnetic wire, a stress application unit, and a recording/reproducing unit. The magnetic wire includes a plurality of domain walls and a plurality of magnetic domains separated by the domain walls. The magnetic wire is a closed loop. The stress application unit is configured to cause the domain walls to circle around along the closed loop a plurality of times by applying stress to the magnetic wire. The recording/reproducing unit is configured to write memory information by changing magnetizations of the circling magnetic domains as the domain walls circle around and to read the written memory information by detecting the magnetizations of the circling magnetic domains.
US08976578B2
A memory element has a layered configuration, including a memory layer in which a magnetization direction is changed corresponding to information; the magnetization direction being changed by applying a current in a lamination direction of the layered configuration to record the information in the memory layer, a magnetization-fixed layer in which a magnetization direction is fixed, an intermediate layer that is formed of a non-magnetic material and is provided between the memory layer and the magnetization-fixed layer, and a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy inducing layer, the memory layer including a first ferromagnetic layer, a first bonding layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, a second bonding layer and a third ferromagnetic layer laminated in the stated order.
US08976577B2
One embodiment of a magnetic memory device comprises a substrate and a plurality of planar memory arrays stacked on the substrate, each memory array includes a plurality of parallel first conductive lines, each first conductive line includes a ferromagnetic cladding, a plurality of parallel second conductive lines overlapping the first conductive lines at a plurality of intersection regions, a plurality of magnetic tunnel junctions, each magnetic tunnel junction has a controllable electrical resistance, is disposed at an intersection region and electrically coupled to one of the first conductive lines at its first end and to one of the second conductive lines at its second end. The electrical resistance of the magnetic tunnel junction is controlled by a joint effect of a spin-polarized current running between the first and second ends and a bias magnetic field applied simultaneously to said each magnetic tunnel junction. Other embodiments are described and shown.
US08976576B2
A static random access memory structure is provided. The static random access memory structure includes a storage region having a first storage node and a second storage node which is complementary to the first storage node. The static random access memory structure also includes a reading region having a first reading transfer gate and a second reading transfer gate, and a reading word line electrically connecting with the gate of the first reading transfer gate and the gate of the second reading transfer gate. Further, the static random access memory structure includes a writing region independent of the reading region having a first writing transfer gate and a second writing transfer gate and a writing word line electrically connecting with the gate of the first writing transfer gate and the gate of the second transfer gate.
US08976571B2
It is an object to obtain a memory element (DRAM) storing multilevel data easily. The amount of charge accumulated in a capacitor of a memory element (DRAM) is controlled by changing the potential of a wiring (a bit line), which is used for writing data to the memory element (DRAM), in a period in which a transistor included in the memory element (DRAM) is on. Thus, multilevel data stored in the memory element (DRAM) can be obtained without a complex configuration of a semiconductor device including the memory element (DRAM).
US08976568B1
A memory device can include a plurality of memory cells each comprising at least one programmable impedance memory element; a programming circuit coupled to the memory elements and configured to apply at least one time varying pulse to memory elements to place them into one of at least two different impedance states; and a programming voltage source coupled to the programming circuit configured to generate the at least one time varying pulse; wherein the time varying pulse decreases and increases in potential while having an overall increase in one voltage polarity.
US08976552B2
A high voltage power supply for use in small diameter spaces such as in oil well logging devices includes an AC voltage source which provides an AC voltage to a voltage multiplier circuit that converts the AC voltage to a high DC voltage. A parallel or combination parallel-series multiplication circuit is used, rather than a series multiplication circuit, to reduce the reverse voltage across each semiconductor rectifier in the multiplication circuit. A plurality of parallel capacitors is constructed using an elongate common capacitor electrode with individual capacitors formed from individual capacitor electrodes spaced along and separated from the common electrode by a layer of dielectric material. The layer of dielectric material can be tapered along the common electrode, and additional dielectric material can be positioned between edges of adjacent individual electrodes. A high voltage end individual electrode can be made wider to increase its capacitance.
US08976551B2
A power converter includes an inverter unit that includes a plurality of semiconductor switching elements constituting upper and lower arms and converts DC power into AC power; a gate driving unit that outputs, to the inverter unit, a gate signal used to drive gates of the plurality of semiconductor switching elements; a driving control unit that supplies the gate driving unit with a switching control signal used for the gate driving unit to output the gate signal; a first abnormality detection unit that performs over voltage detection of the DC power and over current detection of the AC power and temperature detection of the upper and lower arms; and a second abnormality detection unit that detects abnormality of the plurality of semiconductor switching elements of the upper arm and lower arms, wherein the driving control unit includes a first protection circuit and a second protection circuit.
US08976544B2
A resonant circuit inverter with a rectifier, a DC link circuit and an inverter including controllable switches. The resonant circuit inverter has a first control means, with which the operating point (Ap) of the resonant circuit inverter determined by a phase angle between an output current (Iist) and a voltage (Uist) at the output of the resonant circuit inverter is controlled. The first control means determines frequency of the output current (Iist). The resonant circuit inverter has a phase detector for determining an actual phase angle as a function of a zero crossing of the output current (Iist). The resonant circuit inverter has means for detecting a zero crossing of the output current (Iist). For determining the actual phase angle, the difference (Ti−Tt) is determined from measured time (Ti) and a known dead time (Tt).
US08976543B1
A circuit includes a full-bridge converter circuit coupled to a transformer for converting a first voltage level to a second voltage level. A sensing circuit is coupled to the transformer for sensing a size of a load coupled to the transformer. A digital feedback circuit is coupled to the full-bridge converter and to the sensing circuit for adjusting a rate at which the full-bridge converter is switched based on a signal received from the sensing circuit.
US08976537B2
A spring washer sandwiched between flat washers is interposed between a land on one surface of a printed circuit board of a control board part and an attachment plate, and a screw is inserted from the other surface of the printed circuit board through a substrate through hole extending through the printed circuit board, one of the flat washers, the spring washer, and the other flat washer and is screwed into a screw hole formed in the attachment plate, thereby fixing the attachment plate to the printed circuit board.
US08976535B2
Provided are a vehicle card key and a method of manufacturing the same. The vehicle card key is used to lock/unlock a vehicle door or start an engine in wireless communication with a vehicle. The vehicle card key includes a lower cover, a circuit board stacked on and coupled to a top of the lower cover, and an upper cover coupled to the lower cover as one body to cover an upper side of the circuit board. The lower cover and the upper cover are formed of a thermo-hardening resin.
US08976532B2
The present invention relates to a slide unit for an electronic apparatus, including a base having a flat surface extending in front and rear directions and having a left end part and a right end part along the front and rear directions on both sides along a width direction perpendicular to top and bottom directions of the flat surface, a pair of left and right intermediate plates attached to the left end part and the right end part, respectively, to be slideable in the front and rear directions via a first slider mechanism, and a slide plate attached to the pair of left and right intermediate plates to be slideable in the front and rear directions via a second slider mechanism, wherein at least one of the first slider mechanism and the second slider mechanism includes a slide member extending in the front and rear directions, and a sliding member slideably supporting the slide member from both sides of the top and bottom directions and from both sides of the width direction.
US08976519B2
A portable computer includes a base, a display module, a support element and a sliding assembly. The base defines a first area and a second area between a front end and a rear end thereof, The display module includes a connecting end having a connecting element. Two ends of the support element are pivoted respectively to the rear end of the base and the display module. The sliding assembly includes a slide guiding structure disposed in the second area and a sliding element moving along the slide guiding structure. The sliding element includes an engaging portion for detachably engaging with the connecting element. When the connecting end of the display module moves from the second area to the first area with the sliding element, the connecting end is moved to stride across the first area by detaching the connecting element from the engaging portion.
US08976518B2
There is provided an electronic apparatus which includes a rectangular apparatus body including a display unit, and a battery pack including a battery cell incorporated therein and including a rounded outer shape, wherein the battery pack is mounted on one side of the apparatus body in an arrangement in which the display unit and the battery cell do not overlap with each other.
US08976514B2
A computer host with a housing includes a movable portion, an actuator module, a detection module and a process module. The movable portion constitutes a first portion of the housing. The actuator module actuates the movable portion to execute an operation. The detection module detects an output value of the actuator module, and outputs a detection signal when the output value is varied. The processing module sends a reverse actuation signal to the actuator module according to the detection signal so that the actuator module reversely actuates the movable portion.
US08976513B2
The present invention features a robust customizable computing system comprising: a processing control unit; an external object; and means for operably connecting the processing control unit to the external object, the processing control unit introducing intelligence into the external object, thus causing the external object to perform smart functions. The processing control unit preferably comprises: (a) an encasement module comprising a main support chassis having a plurality of wall supports and a plurality of junction centers containing means for supporting a computer component therein, a dynamic back plane that provides support for connecting peripheral and other computing components directly to a system bus without requiring an interface, means for enclosing the main support chassis and providing access to an interior portion of the encasement module; (b) one or more computer processing components disposed within the junction centers of the encasement module; and (c) means for cooling the interior portion of the encasement module.
US08976512B2
A protective cover for an electronic device that has an interactive control panel and one or more electrical contacts includes a protective shell having first member and a second member. The second member is configured to join with the first case member to at least partially cover the electronic device. An aperture defined by the protective shell is aligned with the interactive control panel when the electronic device is at least partially enclosed by the protective shell. A securing mechanism secures the first member with the second member. An electrical connection attached to the protective shell is configured to connect an electrical source to at least one of the electrical contacts of the electronic device to provide an electrical connection to the electrical source when the electronic device is received by the first member.
US08976506B2
A design for an improved metal-on-metal capacitor design is described. The design includes a substantially diagonal feedline (411, 412, 413) in each metal layer. Each metal layer (21, 22, 23) comprises two sets of metal fingers which are interleaved. Each set of fingers comprises two subsets of fingers and the subsets of fingers are arranged at right angles to each other. Fingers in a first of the two sets are all connected to the diagonal feedline, while fingers in the other set are connected together via fingers at the periphery of the device. The design is repeated in adjacent layers, where the design may be identical or rotated (e.g by 180°) between adjacent metal layers.
US08976501B2
In one implementation, the present disclosure provides a method for imparting motion to a magnetically movable object. The method includes disposing the magnetically movable object over a display of an electronic device. The method further includes imparting motion to the magnetically movable object by adjusting a magnetic field that is produced by a magnetic field source, the magnetic field being applied to the magnetically movable object through the display of the electronic device. The adjusting the magnetic field can be based on a location of the magnetically movable object over the display. Furthermore, the display can be a touch sensitive display and the adjusting the magnetic field can be based on touch input of the touch sensitive display. The imparting motion can include moving the magnetically movable object around the display.
US08976495B2
A safety-related communication system includes a safety relay with signal inputs of an input signal current circuit that connect the safety relay to a control device for monitoring the input signal circuit. The safety relay also includes at least two load outputs of a load current circuit for connecting to a load. Switching elements are connected in parallel and configured to switch the load current circuit on or off based on an activation signal at the input signal current circuit. A diagnostic device monitors faults in the load current circuit and/or the safety relay. A signaling device connected to the signal inputs provides an impedance for the input signal circuit. The impedance is tuned to the control device during a fault-free state and is detunable upon detection of a fault so as to signal the detected fault to the control device via the input signal current circuit.
US08976493B1
A magnetic sensor having improved pinned layer robustness for improved reliability and having improved side shielding for improved track resolution at very high data densities. The sensor has a pinned layer structure with laterally extending wing portions that become thicker with increasing distance from the air bearing surface and has a side shield structure has a thickness that decreases with increasing distance from the air bearing surface.
US08976489B2
The embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a magnetic head having a magnetic lip. The vertical sides and the bottom of the magnetic lip are covered by one or more conductive layers. In one embodiment, the bottom of the magnetic lip is covered by a first conductive layer and the vertical sides of the magnetic lip are covered by a second conductive layer. The conductive layers are made of a material that would not react with oxygen, thus no oxide films are formed on the vertical sides and the bottom of the magnetic lip during the manufacturing of the magnetic head.
US08976484B1
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a shingled magnetic recording system having a magnetic recording medium that has a magnetization easy axis in the recording layer of the medium that is oriented in from the bottom surface to the top surface of the recording layer. Additionally, a magnetization easy axis in the recording layer of the medium is inclined with respect to the recording track width direction.
US08976476B1
A hard disk drive or other storage device comprises a storage medium, a read/write head, and read channel circuitry coupled to the read/write head. The read channel circuitry comprises a despreader configured to generate a stitched logic sector by stitching together subsectors of that logic sector that were interleaved with subsectors of other logic sectors for storage on the storage medium, and a subsector bridging control module configured to control a number of bridging bits inserted by the despreader between a given pair of adjacent subsectors of the stitched logic sector. The subsector bridging control module may be illustratively configured to cause the despreader to insert a sufficient number of bridging bits between each pair of adjacent subsectors of the stitched logic sector so as to prevent discontinuities that might otherwise arise from use of X-averaging in generation of Y samples from X samples in a retry mode of operation.
US08976471B1
Systems and method relating generally to data processing, and more particularly to systems and methods for tone reduction in relation to data transmission. In one case, a data processing system is disclosed that includes: a two stage tone reduction circuit including a first stage circuit and a second stage circuit; and a polarity change circuit operable to change a polarity of the second stage output to yield a tone reduction output.
US08976468B2
Provided is an endoscope objective optical system 1 including, in order from an object side, a first lens 2 composed of a negative single lens, a second lens 3 composed of a positive single lens, an aperture stop 4, a third lens 5 composed of a positive single lens, and a fourth lens 6 composed of a positive combined lens, wherein the third lens 5 has a meniscus shape having a convex surface facing the image side. The endoscope objective optical system (1) satisfies the following conditions: 0.3
US08976465B2
The present invention is to provide a multi-ring optical filter assembly, which includes a positioning frame having one end threadedly connected with a front side of a camera lens, a first rotatably connecting frame fixedly provided therein with a first lens (e.g., an ND filter or a polarizer) and provided with a first curved surface adjacent to the other end thereof and extending in an axial direction, an adapter frame provided with a second curved surface adjacent to one end thereof and rotatably connected with the first curved surface, and a second rotatably connecting frame fixedly provided therein with a second lens (e.g., an ND filter or a polarizer) and having one end rotatably connected with the other end of the adapter frame. Thus, the two lenses can be rotated with respect to the camera lens, respectively, for achieving the independent adjustment of the rotation angle of each lens.
US08976463B1
Present embodiments provide for a mobile device and an optical imaging lens thereof. The optical imaging lens comprises five lens elements positioned in an order from an object side to an image side. Through controlling the convex or concave shape of the surfaces of the lens elements to allow the thickness of the second lens element and the sum of all air gaps between all five lens elements along the optical axis satisfying the relation: 0.20
US08976459B2
A zoom lens comprises in order from an object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, and at the time of zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens unit moves, and the zoom lens satisfies the following conditional expression (1). FNO(W)<1.64 (1) where, FNO(W) denotes an F-number of the zoom lens at the wide angle end.
US08976454B2
A variable-magnification projection optical system substantially consists of a negative first lens group that is disposed at the most enlargement-side position and is fixed during magnification change, a positive last lens group that is disposed at the most reduction-side position and is fixed during magnification change, and a plurality of lens groups that are disposed between the first lens group and last lens group and are moved during magnification change. The lens groups that are moved during magnification change substantially consist of three lens groups, wherein the most enlargement-side lens group is a negative lens group. Predetermined conditional expressions relating to a back focus of the entire system on the reduction side at the wide-angle end, a focal length of the entire system at the wide-angle end, a focal length of the last lens group, and a focal length of the first lens group are satisfied.
US08976450B2
A light switch (or valve) made up of two mutually inverted, substantially identical diffraction gratings with a liquid medium therebetween, arranged to allow the grating substrates to be shifted laterally relative to one another so as to align and mis-align the grating elements. When aligned, incident-polarized light passes through the switch and when misaligned, light does not pass through the switch but is reflected.
US08976449B2
An identification medium, in which a pattern is clearly altered in observation through a right-handed circularly polarizing filter and observation through a left-handed circularly polarizing filter, is provided. The identification medium is formed by laminating a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, a λ/4 plate, and a linearly polarizing filter layer, in that order, from an observing side. The cholesteric liquid crystal layer is formed with a hologram and selectively reflects light. In an observation through a circularly polarizing filter that transmits the light reflected at the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, light reflected at a pattern printed layer is not perceived due to the function of a circularly polarizing layer. Images are clearly altered by switching a right-handed and a left-handed circularly polarizing filter.
US08976441B2
A digital micromirror device (“DMD”) is used to alter the shape of light that is projected onto a stage. The DMD selectively reflects some light, thereby shaping the light that is projected onto the stage. The control for the alteration is controlled by an image. That image can be processed, thereby carrying out image processing effects on the shape of the light that is displayed. One preferred application follows the shape of the performer and illuminates the performer using a shape that adaptively follows the performer's image. This results in a shadowless follow spot.
US08976436B2
A display device comprising a pixel, where the pixel includes: (a) a polar fluid that is at least one of colored and black, (b) a non-polar fluid that is at least one of transparent and translucent, (c) a first substrate, (d) a second substrate arranged relative to the first substrate to define a channel occupied by the polar fluid and the non-polar fluid, wherein at least one of the polar fluid and the non-polar fluid is visible, (e) a reflector having a plurality of features, comprising at least one of concavities and projections, that alter an angle of reflected light from a specular reflection to provide the appearance of a diffuse reflection, the display device also including a plurality of electrodes configured to cause repositioning of the polar fluid in the channel to displace at least a first portion of the non-polar fluid and a voltage source.
US08976432B2
A hologram-including medium is disclosed, which is an integrated medium on which at least two items of identification information are recorded, wherein one of the two items of identification information is holographic identification information which can be observed within a predetermined angle range when illuminated from a predetermined angle.
US08976430B2
Generation of shading correction data is started before an instruction to start reading of the document is input in a case in which time to generate shading correction data corresponding to a document reading mode is longer than time since the instruction to start reading of the document is received until the document is fed to reach a reading point, and generation of shading correction data is started after an instruction to start reading of the document is input in a case in which time to generate shading correction data corresponding to a document reading mode is shorter than time since the instruction to start reading of the document is received until the document is fed to reach a reading point.
US08976427B2
An image forming apparatus and a method of controlling the same are provided. The image forming apparatus includes a document feeder to feed an original document, a time delay integration image sensor to scan the original document and read image data, and a controller to activate a time delay integration function of the time delay integration image sensor when a direction for feed of the original document corresponds to a sub-scanning direction of the time delay integration image sensor, and to deactivate the time delay integration function of the time delay integration image sensor when the direction for feed of the original document does not correspond to the sub-scanning direction of the time delay integration image sensor, during reading of the original document.
US08976425B2
According to one embodiment, an image scanning apparatus includes a document table on which an original document is stacked; a substrate; plural first light emitting elements located on one surface of the substrate, the first light emitting elements each emitting light for irradiating the original document on the document table with direct light not reflected by a reflection member; and plural second light emitting elements located on the other surface of the substrate, the second light emitting elements each emitting light for irradiating the original document on the document table with indirect light reflected by the reflection member. The reflection member includes a first reflection member and a second reflection member, and the first reflection member and the second reflection member are located in positions opposed to each other across a reflection optical path of light reflected by the original document on the document table.
US08976419B2
In an image forming apparatus and a control method thereof according to this invention, in a case that a received print job designates image formation on a surface of a sheet on which an image has been formed, whether image formation on the sheet based on the print job is possible is determined based on at least image information of the sheet acquired by reading the image of the sheet. If it is determined that image formation on the sheet based on the print job is impossible, the image formation on the sheet is stopped. If it is determined that the image formation on the sheet based on the print job is possible, an image is formed on the sheet in accordance with the image information of the print job.
US08976409B2
An image registration system which helps to accurately produce an image onto an oversized media substrate in a large scale printer. The image registration system includes a rail support track, a printing zone, and a platen cart moveable along the rail support track through said printing zone. The image registration system also includes an image capturing apparatus for capturing a position of the media substrate in relation to the platen cart in order to ensure accurate image on media substrate reproduction.
US08976406B2
A print control apparatus performs a print process for printing image data on a sheet, controls a binding process for binding a plurality of sheets without a staple, and adjusts the printing area of the image data to be printed when performance of the binding process is designated.
US08976403B2
A document processing system includes: a generator that generates a document image to be printed; a memory that stores document images for plural pages, the document images generated by the generator in print processing; an arithmetic unit that performs an AND operation on document images for a plural number of specific pages among the document images stored in the memory; and a display controller that causes a display device to display a synthetic image obtained by the AND operation by the arithmetic unit.
US08976396B2
A print image processing system includes plural logical page interpretation units, a caching interpretation unit, and a print image data generation unit. The plural logical page interpretation units interpret different logical pages in print data in parallel to obtain interpretation results, and output the interpretation results. The caching interpretation unit interprets an element to be cached which is included in each of logical pages in the print data to obtain interpretation results, and stores the interpretation results in a cache unit. The print image data generation unit generates print image data of the logical pages using the interpretation results of the logical pages output from the logical page interpretation units and the interpretation results of the elements to be cached stored in the cache unit. The print image data generation unit supplies the generated print image data to a printer.
US08976386B2
An information processing apparatus includes an intermediate command generating unit configured to convert print setting information to an intermediate command based on first definition data in which a rule for converting from the print setting information to the intermediate command is defined; and a print command generating unit configured to convert the intermediate command to a print command, which is interpretable by an image forming apparatus, based on second definition data in which a rule for converting from the intermediate command to the print command is defined.
US08976382B2
In a digital multifunction peripheral having a function of preventing unauthorized duplication, a situation is prevented in which a document to which encoded images having contradictory contents are added is created. An apparatus having a control unit configured to perform detection processing of an encoded image for a document image and add a different encoded image to a document image form which an encoded image is detected by the detection processing and output the document image, characterized in that the control unit does not perform output of a document image to which the different encoded image is added upon receipt of an instruction not to perform the detection processing from a user.
US08976381B2
A printing apparatus determines whether software to be updated is software related to a GUI display function. If the software to be updated is determined to be software related to the GUI display function, the printing apparatus performs control to display information about a status of the own apparatus during execution of the update by using a CUI display function.
US08976380B2
An image forming apparatus capable of more quickly executing a fail-safe function for shifting to a power state different in power consumption. The apparatus can operate in power states different in power consumption. A controller controls the apparatus. A power supply controller controls supply of power. A reset circuit resets the controller. When a power switch is operated by a user, a monitoring time period, set in advance, is decided according to a type of user's operation and the power state. One of operations to be executed when the monitoring time period has elapsed, for causing the controller to cut off the supply of power to the controller and for causing the reset circuit to reset the controller, is set according to the type of user's operation and the power state. The set operation is executed when the decided monitoring time period has elapsed.
US08976369B2
A method for evaluating a thin-film-formed wafer, being configured to calculate a film thickness distribution of a thin film of the thin-film-formed wafer having the thin film on a surface of a substrate, wherein light having a single wavelength λ is applied to a partial region of a surface of the thin-film-formed wafer, reflected light from the region is detected, reflected light intensity for each pixel obtained by dividing the region into many pieces is measured, a reflected light intensity distribution in the region is obtained, and the film thickness distribution of the thin film in the region is calculated from the reflected light intensity distribution. The method enables a film thickness distribution of the micro thin film (an SOI layer) that affects a device to be measured on the entire wafer surface at a low cost with a sufficient spatial resolution in a simplified manner.
US08976350B2
A method of determining the carbon content of an iron alloy may include starting of the measurement of a sample in a spark spectrometer, creation of a plasma in a pre-sparking phase, detection and recording of an intensity signal for the carbon, calculation and cutting out of an unstable plasma phase, calculation of an excessive rise in the carbon signal, and calculation of the content of dissolved and undissolved carbon.
US08976337B2
A method and an apparatus are provided to measure a position of a mark with a less measurement error caused by a variation in a wafer process condition. The mark is illuminated with light and an image of the mark is formed, via an optical system, in a light receiving surface of a sensor. The image of the mark is sensed and image data thereof is acquired by the sensor. Correction data of a fundamental frequency and a high harmonic of the image data is set based on information associated with a shape of the mark, an imaging magnification of the optical system, and an imaging area of the sensor. The image data is corrected using the correction data, and the position of the mark is calculated using the corrected image data.
US08976325B2
Disclosed is a VA-mode liquid-crystal display device wherein the total of retardation along the thickness-direction at a wavelength of 550 nm of the color filter layer, RthCF(550), and retardation along the thickness-direction at a wavelength of 550 nm of the whole rear-side retardation region, Rthrear(550), satisfies following formula (I): (I) |RthCF(550)+Rthrear(550)|≦90 nm.
US08976318B2
A method and system for zonal switching for light steering to produce an image having high dynamic range is described. The system comprises: a light source for providing light along an optical path; a spatial light modulator for directing portions of the light to off-state and on-state light paths, thereby producing an image, the spatial light modulator having a plurality of illumination zones corresponding to the image; and a set of sequentially-arranged optical elements in the optical path for steering at least some of the light from a first subset of the plurality of illumination zones to a second subset of the plurality of illumination zones to increase the dynamic range of the image. The dwell time of the one or more sequentially arranged optical elements can be modified to steer light.
US08976314B2
A display apparatus including a top chassis, a display panel, a bottom chassis, a driving part, and a combining part. The display panel configured to display an image is disposed under the top chassis. The bottom chassis is disposed under the display panel. The bottom chassis is combined with the top chassis to receive the display panel. The driving part is electrically connected to the display panel to drive the display panel. The combining part is configured to combine the top chassis, the bottom chassis and the driving part.
US08976311B2
A backlight unit adapted to implement enhanced light efficiency and uniform brightness is disclosed. The backlight unit includes a plurality of light sources arranged at fixed intervals, a diffusion plate disposed on the plurality of light sources, prism patterns formed on one surface of the diffusion plate, and micro-lens patterns formed on the other surface of the diffusion plate. The vertex angle of each prism pattern is in a range of about 64°˜76°.
US08976309B2
In one embodiment, a first wiring line is pulled out from an active area, and a short ring circuit is provided in a peripheral portion of the active area. A first electrode is formed in the same layer as the first wiring line. A semiconductor layer is formed on the first electrode. A portion of a second electrode faces the first electrode through an insulating layer and arranged on the semiconductor layer. A third electrode is arranged on the semiconductor layer in the same layer as the second electrode. The first electrode includes a cutout portion arranged under an edge of the second electrode.
US08976304B2
A liquid crystal display device 10 of the present invention includes: LEDs 22; LED substrates 24 to which the LEDs 22 are attached; a liquid crystal panel 11 where display is performed using light from the LEDs 22; a light guide plate 16 that is arranged so as to overlap the side of the liquid crystal panel 11 opposite to the display surface, the edge faces of the light guide plate facing the LEDs 22; a chassis 14 arranged on the side of the light guide plate 16 opposite to the liquid crystal panel 11; a frame 13 arranged on the display surface side of the liquid crystal panel 11 and housing the LEDs 22, LED substrates 24, liquid crystal panel 11, and light guide plate 16 between the chassis 14 and the frame itself; and heat dissipating members 18 with heat dissipating characteristics that are respectively arranged abutting the LED substrates 24 and that are held between the frame 13 and the chassis 14.
US08976297B2
Media content is received in a windows management application. The media content is from a set of content including zero or more television signal content and zero or more application content. The media content is incorporated into a television signal containing a window configuration. The television signal is then sent from the windows management application to a television where it is displayed.
US08976286B2
An imaging apparatus comprises an optical imaging system 110, an image sensor 101, and an image processor 103. The optical imaging system 110 has an aberration control element 103 for generating a predetermined aberration. The optical imaging system 110 forms an optical image. The image sensor 101 generates an image signal corresponding to the optical image. The image processor 103 performs image processing on the image signal so as to enhance a degraded image characteristic on the basis of the predetermined aberration. The aberration control element 112 causes a response of an optical transfer function of the optical imaging system 110 to be zero at a first spatial frequency. The first spatial frequency is below a Nyquist frequency of the image sensor 201.
US08976276B2
When various reverse operations are performed using a scan reverse function that reverses an image vertically or horizontally, there is a problem in that color information of the first pixel of an image after being reversed is different from color information of the first pixel of a Bayer image before interpolation processing. An image processing apparatus performs interpolation processing on a first image of a Bayer pattern, generates a second image in which colors are arranged in an order reverse to the predetermined order from an interpolated image, and stores the second image in a memory. The image processing apparatus reverses the second image when reading the second image from the memory.
US08976274B2
An image pickup apparatus and method which reduces fixed pattern noise appearing in multiple exposure shooting and which can obtain a high-quality multiple exposure image. Multiple pieces of exposure image data are obtained by exposing an image pickup device. The multiple pieces of exposure image data are subjected to image processing. The multiple pieces of image processed exposure image data are synthesized to generate synthesized exposure image data. Multiple pieces of dark image data are obtained by shielding the image pickup device from light. Each of the multiple pieces of dark image data is subjected to image processing equivalent to image processing performed on a corresponding one of the multiple pieces of exposure image data. The multiple pieces of image processed dark image data that are synthesized to generate synthesized dark image data. The synthesized exposure image data is corrected on the basis of the synthesized dark image data.
US08976273B2
This invention targets improvement in CMOS sensors using a multiplexed read-out architecture in which pixels are output at the pixel VN level instead of the line/reference amplifier level. The pixel signal voltage VN and offset voltage VNS are read sequentially, eliminating the differential structure. Interference rejection, usually achieved by a differential signal, is obtained by using a CDS (Correlated Double Sampler) in the same way as in the prior art.
US08976257B2
An automatic process for calibrating the optical image exposure value to compensate for changes in machine vision systems to maintain optimal exposure of captured images and adjust for the different characteristics among cameras components, such as imaging sensor sensitivity, LED strength, external lighting, reflective functions of any background material, different external lighting conditions, possible changes or updates of the systems over the years, such as LED changes, and even the aging of camera sensor and LEDs over time. A series of images of a target are captured with a predetermined sequence of exposure values, the saturation exposure percentage of a region of interest is calculated in each of the images, and the saturation exposure percentages are compared to determine the exposure value that has a saturation exposure percentage that varies the least from the saturation exposure value of the preceding and following exposure values.
US08976255B2
An imaging apparatus includes a first and a second imaging unit, a clipping unit, an image processing control unit. The first imaging unit is provided on a front face of an apparatus main body. The second imaging unit is provided on a back face of the apparatus main body. The clipping unit clips image data of the second main subject from the second acquired image data. The image processing control unit combines the first acquired image data with the image data of the second main subject clipped by the clipping unit to meet combining conditions determined by the first image data.
US08976254B2
Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for upsampling a video sequence for coding. According to the method, an estimate of camera motion may be obtained from motion sensor data. Video data may be analyzed to detect motion within frames output from a camera that is not induced by the camera motion. When non-camera motion falls within a predetermined operational limit, video upsampling processes may be engaged. In another embodiment, video upsampling may be performed by twice estimating image content for a hypothetical new a frame using two different sources as inputs. A determination may be made whether the two estimates of the frame match each other sufficiently well. If so, the two estimates may be merged to yield a final estimated frame and the new frame may be integrated into a stream of video data.
US08976252B2
The present disclosure related to acquisition of color calibration charts. In at least some examples herein, an image of a calibration color chart is processed. A lighting condition of the color calibration chart may be automatically determined.
US08976244B2
An exemplary method includes a mobile user device subsystem 1) acquiring, during operation in a normal surveillance mode, a first set of surveillance data, 2) transmitting, during operation in the normal surveillance mode, the first set of surveillance data to a server subsystem, 3) detecting, during operation in the normal surveillance mode, a trigger event, 4) transitioning, in response to the detecting of the trigger event, from operation in the normal surveillance mode to operation in an enhanced surveillance mode, 5) acquiring, during operation in the enhanced surveillance mode, a second set of surveillance data; and 6) transmitting, during operation in the enhanced surveillance mode, the second set of surveillance data to the server subsystem, wherein the second set of surveillance data comprises an enhanced set of data compared to the first set of surveillance data. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.
US08976243B2
The present disclosure relates to a camera for use in a digital network, in particular as a surveillance camera in a working device, including an integrated router having at least two ports for communication with further network components, in particular having a first port for communication with a terminal and having a second port for communication with a further camera.
US08976241B1
A device is provided with integrated hardware and software components for measuring and monitoring abnormalities on animal and human tissue and other surfaces. The device includes a display panel and a control panel secured to the upper surface of a housing and a plurality of sensor arrays attached to the lower surface on two scanner belts. A processor receives input from the sensor arrays to create data objects which are stored in an image object database. A retrieval component retrieves the image objects and identifies attributes to display image and quantitative values on a the display panel. A hardware processing component runs at least one algorithm to determine the area of a surface abnormality. Another hardware processing component is provided to receive user input to update images and to select a deformation region for area calculation.
US08976240B2
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with producing spatially varying spectral response calibration data are described. One example method includes controlling a digital camera to capture characteristic data arrays from light sensors in the digital camera in response to the digital camera being exposed to light stimuli from a multi-spectral reference display. The data arrays will be acquired multiple times at multiple locations in multiple stimuli provided from the multi-spectral reference display. The method also includes controlling a calibration logic to manipulate characteristic data arrays to produce spatially varying spectral response calibration data as a function of using characteristic data arrays and known wavelengths of the light in light stimuli. The method may also include providing the spatially varying spectral response calibration data to a downstream consumer (e.g., correction process, quality control process), displaying the data, or storing the data.
US08976237B2
A surveillance system is provided that includes at least one sensor disposed in a security area of a surveillance region to sense an occurrence of a potential security breach event; a plurality of cameras is disposed in the surveillance region; at least one camera thereof has a view of the security area and can be configured to automatically gather biometric information concerning at least one subject person in the vicinity of the security area in response to the sensing of a potential security breach event; one or more other of the plurality of cameras can be configured to search for the at least one subject person; a processing system is programmed to produce a dossier corresponding to the at least one subject person to match biometric information of one or more persons captured by one or more of the other cameras with corresponding biometric information in the dossier.
US08976231B2
A device for measuring three dimensional shape includes a first irradiation unit, a first grating control unit, a second irradiation unit, a second grating control unit, an imaging unit, and an image processing unit. After performance of a first imaging operation as imaging processing of a single operation among a multiplicity of imaging operations performed by irradiation of said first light pattern of multiply varied phases, a second imaging operation is performed as imaging processing of a single operation among a multiplicity of imaging operations performed by irradiation of said second light pattern of multiply varied phases. After completion of the first imaging operation and the second imaging operation, shifting or switching operation of the first grating and the second grating is performed simultaneously.
US08976215B2
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photosensitive media, a light source unit which comprises a plurality of light sources, a polygon mirror which deflects a plurality of beams output from the plurality of light sources into the plurality of photosensitive media using a plurality of reflective surfaces, a beam detector which receives beams reflected from the polygon mirror during a rotating process of the polygon mirror, and outputs a beam detection signal, and a horizontal sync signal generator which receives the beam detection signal and counts beam reflecting times during which the beams are reflected from the plurality of reflective surfaces, and compares the plurality of counted beam reflecting times with the compensation values calculated for the reflective surfaces, respectively, generates a horizontal sync signal for a corresponding reflective surface, and provides the horizontal sync signal to the light source unit.
US08976213B2
An apparatus comprises an accommodation unit which accommodates a continuous printing sheet; a conveyance unit which conveys the printing sheet; a printing unit which performs image forming processing on the conveyed printing sheet; a cutting unit which cuts the printing sheet after completion of the image forming processing; and a processing unit which executes, when a printing sheet remaining on a conveyance path is detected, processing for removing the remaining printing sheet, the processing unit controls the conveyance unit to convey the printing sheet to detect a leading end, compares a first distance from the leading end to a portion located at a curl correction unit with a second distance from the leading end, which distance is required for image forming processing set, and sets a larger distance as a cutting position of the remaining printing sheet.
US08976196B1
Novel and non-trivial system, device, and method for generating and presenting different images to separate viewers of a dual-view aircraft display unit are disclosed. An image generator is configured to receive first and second sets of image data, generate third image data from both sets, and provide the third image data to a dual-view aircraft display unit configured to present a left image to a left viewer and a right image to a right viewer. The first and second sets of image data are representative of first and second images, respectively, and comprised of first and second pixel columns, respectively. The third image data is representative of a left image and a right image and, if the images are not shared, comprised of first pixel columns interleaved with second pixel columns. The left or right viewer may change his or her own image without affecting the other's image.
US08976194B2
The present invention provides a method for cropping one or more files in freeform using transparent or non-transparent layers. Specifically, the invention allows a user to crop a file with irregular/freeform boundaries while using a plurality of transparent or non-transparent layers that overlay the original file. The transparent layers overlap the image data for cropping, so that the finalized cropped image may be copied, pasted, or imported into another document while leaving the original file unaltered. The cropped portion of the image may also be sent or emailed by the user.
US08976181B2
A method for controlling and optimizing the treatment of wastewater in a batch reactor using the calculation and manipulation of ORP readings.
US08976177B2
A graphics processor includes a vertex shader 20 that processes input attribute values from a vertex buffer 26 to generate output vertex shaded attribute values 28 to be used by a rasteriser/fragment shader 22 of the graphics processor when processing an image for display. Vertex shader output attributes for which the vertex shader input attributes that the vertex shader output attribute depends on are defined solely on a per-vertex basis or solely on a per-instance basis are identified. Then, for such vertex shader output attributes, the vertex shader 20 stores, for use by the rasteriser/fragment shader 22 of the graphics processor when processing an image for display, only one copy of the vertex shader output attribute for a given vertex or instance, respectively, irrespective of the number of instances or vertices, respectively, that the output attribute value applies to.
US08976175B2
A depth estimation data generating device includes a difference data generator and negative and positive shift amount generators. The difference data generator calculates the difference between a non-stereo image and the average value data of the average brightness of the non-stereo image to generate the difference data. The negative shift amount generator generates a negative shift amount, wherein the difference data generated using the minimum value data of the minimum brightness of the non-stereo image has a minimum value of shift amount and the shift amount approaches zero from the minimum value as the difference data approaches zero. The positive shift amount generator generates a positive shift amount, wherein the difference data generated using the maximum value data of the maximum brightness of the non-stereo image has a maximum value of shift amount and the shift amount approaches zero from the maximum value as the difference data approaches zero.
US08976163B2
Systems, devices, and methods for using clock detector circuitry to reduce turn-on time of an electronic display, improve image quality, and reduce operations of a host are provided. In one example, a system may include a host configured to transmit a number of signals and a display driver coupled to the host. The number of signals may include a clock signal and data signals. The display driver is configured to drive a display based at least in part on the data signals. The display driver is also configured to be reset upon detection of the clock signal without waiting for a host-issued reset signal. A clock detect circuit configured to detect the clock signal may be configured to transmit an internal reset signal to reset the display driver without a dedicated host-issued reset signal.
US08976162B2
The electrophoretic display device includes: an electrophoretic layer which is disposed between first and second substrates disposed to face each other and has a plurality of first electrically-charged particles colored into a first color, a plurality of second electrically-charged particles colored into a second color, and a dispersion medium which retains the first and second electrically-charged particles; first and second pixel electrodes provided on the first substrate; an opposite electrode provided on the second substrate; and a reflective electrode provided at a position on the first substrate side rather than on the electrophoretic layer, wherein the first electrically-charged particle has permeability in a first wavelength region and absorbability in the other wavelength regions, and the second electrically-charged particle has reflectivity in a second wavelength region and absorbability in the other wavelength regions.
US08976160B2
A method for operating a mirror-display including: operating the system in idle mode wherein image is displayed on the monitor and the processor awaits the presence of a user in front of the camera; once a user presence is identified, switching the operation of the mirror-display into mirror mode, wherein the camera continuously sends captured images to the processor, the processor flips the captured images to reverse right and left sides and applies transformation mapping to generate modified images that appear to mimic reflection of a mirror, and displaying the modified images on the monitor. During idle mode the camera continuously sends background images to the processor, and the user presence is identified by the processor detecting changes in the background images. The processor performs face recognition process on the captured image and interrogates a database to determine whether an account corresponding to the user exists in the database.
US08976157B2
The present invention relates to a camera module and an optical touch screen using the same, the camera module including an infrared emitting diode (100) for emitting infrared ray, a linear sensor (150) for detecting a touched area by detecting infrared ray reflected from a retro reflector, and an infrared pass filter (130) for passing the infrared ray emitted from the infrared emitting diode (100) and infrared ray incident on the linear sensor (150).
US08976154B2
A touch panel system (71a) includes a capacitance value distribution detection circuit (72). The capacitance value distribution detection circuit (72) switches a connection state between a first connection state and a second connection state, which first connection state makes first signal lines (HL1 to HLM) serve as drive lines (DL1 to DLM) and second signal lines (VL1 to VLM) serve as sense lines (SL1 to SLM), and which second connection state makes the second signal lines (VL1 to VLM) serve as the drive lines (DL1 to DLM) and the first signal lines (HL1 to HLM) serve as the sense lines (SL1 to SLM).
US08976150B2
A method and a system for supporting a touch function on a terminal for performing a touch operation in which a writing pressure is applied to a touch pen of the system including the touch pen and a terminal are provided. The method includes touching a touch pen to a touch panel of the terminal, the touch pen having a capacitance that corresponds to and varies with pressure applied to the touch pen, generating, by the terminal, an instruction word corresponding to a result of adding the capacitance corresponding to the pressure applied to the touch pen when the touch pen is touched to the terminal and a capacitance of the touch panel, and performing a user function corresponding to the instruction word.
US08976139B2
An electronic device 10 includes a casing 14, a display section 12 for displaying information, a touch panel 11 to be touched by the user, a connecting portion 16 for connecting together the casing 14 and the touch panel 11, a vibrating section 13 for vibrating the touch panel 11, and a vibration control section 33 for controlling the vibration of the vibrating section 13. The vibration control section 33 controls the vibration so as to generate a greater vibration when the touch panel 11 is supported only by the connecting portion 16 than when the touch panel 11 is supported by the connecting portion 16 and another point of support other than the connecting portion 16.
US08976132B2
A touch-sensing display apparatus includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a plurality of touch sensing structures, and a display medium. The first substrate has a plurality of pixels and scan lines, and a read-out line. Each touch sensing structure includes a sensing active device, a sensing space, and a bridge electrode. Each sensing active device is disposed on the first substrate and includes a bottom gate, a channel, a source, a sensing electrode, and a top gate. The top gate has an opening to form a first electrode and a second electrode that are electrically isolated. When pressed, the bridge electrode contacts the top gate to electrically connect to the first and second electrodes, so that control of the channel is transformed from one of the top gate and the bottom gate to both the top and the bottom gates, thereby forming a sensing current in the sensing electrode.
US08976111B2
Electronic devices and methods for operating the electronic devices are disclosed. The method for operating an electronic device includes a first body and a second body that can be magnetically connected with each other. The method including: obtaining an attachment position at which the first body is attached to the second body; controlling the electronic device to operate in a first mode when the first body is attached to the second body at a first attachment position; and controlling the electronic device to operate in a second mode when the first body is attached to the second body at a second attachment position. The first attachment position is different from the second attachment position, and the first mode is different from the second mode.
US08976110B2
A personal computer system includes a visual display, an imaging device adapted to provide eye-tracking data by imaging the face of a viewer of the visual display, and an input device for accepting eye-tracking control data and other input data. The imaging device is switchable between at least an active mode, a ready mode and an idle mode, and the switching time from the idle mode to the active mode is longer than the switching time from the ready mode to the active mode. The eye-tracking data provided in the ready mode may include eye position but not eye orientation. The system may include a dedicated input device for forcing the imaging device into active mode by directly triggering an interrupt; alternatively, the dedicated input device forces it permanently into idle mode.
US08976103B2
Disclosed herein is a display apparatus, including, a pixel section, a plurality of scanning lines, a plurality of signal lines, and a driving circuit.
US08976096B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device which displays each halftone by changing the luminance of pixels during a cycle (F1-F8) composed of a first term (F1-F2), a second term (F3-F4), a third term (F5-F6), and a fourth term (F7-F8). The liquid crystal display device includes: a type 1 pixel, which luminance level rises during the first term, rises or stays on hold during the second term, decays during the third term, and decays or stays on hold during the fourth term; a type 2 pixel, which luminance level decays during the first term, decays or stays on hold during the second term, rises during the third term, and rises or stays on hold during the fourth term; a type 3 pixel, which luminance level rises or stays on hold during the first term, decays during the second term, decays or stays on hold during the third term, and rises during the fourth term; a type 4 pixel, which luminance level decays or stays on hold during the first term, rises during the second term, rises or stays on hold during the third term, and decays during the fourth term to continuously display the same halftone.
US08976092B2
A system may include a processor, a graphics controller, and a display. The graphics controller may generate video data to be presented on the display. The display may include a display panel, a backlight unit for providing the display panel with backlight, and a display timing controller for communicating with the graphics controller. The display may be used in non-movie mode and movie mode. The backlight unit may be operated in fixed backlight mode during the non-movie display mode and may be operated in dynamic pixel backlight (DPB) mode during the movie display mode. Backlight level adjustments may be sloped only during the non-movie mode. Backlight level sloping can be handled internally within the backlight unit, can be controlled using pulse width modulation with the display timing controller, and implemented using incremental backlight level adjustments with the processor.
US08976090B2
There is provided a pixel circuit capable of obtaining high-luminance while suppressing power consumption. Further, there are provided a display panel having the pixel circuit, and a display device including the display panel. Still further, there is provided an electronic unit including the display device. The pixel circuit includes a first transistor driving a light-emitting element, a plurality of holding capacitors connected in series between a gate and a source of the first transistor, a second transistor provided between a first signal line and the gate of the first transistor, and a third transistor provided between a second signal line and one of junctions of the holding capacitors.
US08976089B2
The display device including a pixel circuit has a first line, a transistor, a light emitting element, and a second line. The transistor is located between the second line and an electrode of the light emitting element. Either the first line or the second line is wired in a region that overlaps a light emitting region of the light emitting element in a lamination direction of layers. The second line intersects the first line outside of the light emitting region and overlaps a non-light emitting region of the light emitting element.
US08976084B2
A portable optical device (104) for transmitting an image to the eye (6) of an observer, includes: a display (1) disposed on the same side of the observer's head (7) as the eye, so as to emit the image in front of the observer's head; an ocular dioptric surface (3); and redirection elements (4, 5, 8, 9) for guiding the image towards the dioptric surface. The device is disposed such that the image strikes the dioptric surface (3) originating from the side of the nose in relation to the eye (6) and the dioptric surface (3) then reflects the image towards the eye (6). Such a device is particularly suitable for the production of glasses that can be used to display a virtual or augmented reality.
US08976075B2
In antenna device, a coil conductor of an antenna coil module and a conductor layer at least partially overlap. A current flows in the conductor layer to block a magnetic field generated by a current flowing in the coil conductor. A current, which flows around the periphery of an opening of the conductor layer, flows along the periphery of a slit and around the periphery of the conductor layer due to a cut-edge effect. Since magnetic flux does not pass through the conductor layer, magnetic flux attempts to bypass the conductor layer along a path in which the conductor opening of the conductor layer is on the inside and the outer edge of the conductor layer is on the outside. As a result, the magnetic flux generates relatively large loops that link the inside and the outside of a coil conductor of an antenna on a reader/writer side.
US08976074B2
There is provided an electronic device case having a low frequency antenna pattern embedded therein, the case including: a radiator frame injection molded using a polymer mixture containing a magnetic substance component so that a radiator including a low frequency antenna pattern part is formed on one surface thereof; a case frame injection molded upwardly of the radiator frame and provided with the radiator embedded between the radiator frame and the case frame; and a boundary part forming a boundary between the radiator frame and the case frame and having a groove formed inwardly of the case frame.
US08976067B2
One embodiment is directed to an antenna module comprising integrated RF circuitry comprising at least one of a transmitter and a receiver. The module further comprises an antenna element operatively coupled to the integrated RF circuitry, the antenna element comprising first and second substantially co-planar portions. The integrated RF circuitry is disposed on an interior part of at least one of the first and second substantially co-planar portions. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08976061B2
A radar system (100) is described including a transmitting assembly (10), a receiving assembly (20), a control unit (30) and a signal processing unit (40). The transmitting assembly (10) receives an input signal (31) and transmits an incident radar signal (2). The transmitting assembly (10) includes a Rotman lens (12) having a lens cavity (74), a plurality of beam ports (60), a plurality of array ports (62) and a patch antenna assembly (14). The lens cavity (74) has a lens gap (h) between 10 microns to 120 microns, and preferably 40 microns to 60 microns. The patch antenna assembly (14) includes a plurality of antenna arrays (130) operable to receive a plurality of time-delayed, in-phase signals from the Rotman lens (12) and to transmit the incident radar signal (2) towards a target (4). The receiving assembly (20) receives a reflected radar signal (6) and produces an output signal. The signal processing unit (40) compares the input signal (31) to the output signal and implements an algorithm determining the range, velocity and position of the target (4).
US08976052B2
A counter includes a buffer unit and a ripple counter. The buffer unit generates at least one least significant signal of a count by buffering at least one clock signal until a termination time point. The ripple counter generates at least one most significant signal of the count by sequentially toggling in response to at least one of the least significant signal. The counter performs multiple data rate counting with enhance operation speed and reduced power consumption.
US08976051B2
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to floating point timers and counters that are used in a variety of contexts. In some implementations, a floating point counter can be used to generate a wave form made up of a series of pulses with different pulse lengths. An array of these floating point counters can be used to implement a pool of delays. In other implementations, an array of floating point counters can be used to analyze waveforms on a number of different communication channels. Analysis of such waveforms may be useful in automotive applications, such as in wheel speed measurement for example, as well as other applications.
US08976046B2
Methods and systems for a MEMS detector that enables control of a device using human breath are disclosed and may include detecting air flow caused by human breath via a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) detector, which may include deflectable members operable to detect the movement of air. The deflection of the members may be limited via a spacer within the MEMS detector. The amount of deflection may be determined by measuring reflected light signals, piezoelectric signals, capacitance changes, or current generated by the deflection in a magnetic field. Output signals may be generated based on the detected movement. The MEMS detector may include a substrate, a spacer, and the MEMS deflectable members. The substrate may include a ceramic material and/or silicon, and may include embedded devices and interconnects. An integrated circuit may be electrically coupled to the substrate. Air flows may be directed out of the side of the MEMS detector.
US08976045B2
A tactile force sense presenting device of the present invention includes: an operation unit which includes an operation lever to be operated by an operator, and a movement guide surface which guides an input of a slide motion of the operation lever in the XY-planar direction and an input of a push-in motion of the operation lever in the Z-axis direction at a specific position on the XY-plane; a detection unit which detects the input of the slide motion of the operation lever in the XY-planar direction and the input of the push-in motion of the operation lever in the Z-axis direction; a calculation control unit which calculates a force corresponding to an operation of the operation lever, based on detection results of the detection unit; and a drive transmission unit which includes a driving unit including at least one actuator, and which causes, based on calculation results of the calculation control unit, the driving unit to generate a resistive force of the operation lever with respect to the input of the slide motion in the XY-planar direction and an adjusting force of the operation lever with respect to the input of the push-in motion in the Z-axis direction.
US08976040B2
An apparatus and method of providing driver assistance for performing a driving action include obtaining video information adjacent to a vehicle, obtaining audio information adjacent to the vehicle, optionally obtaining movement-related information, and generating a driver assist indication based on a combination of the video information and the audio information, and, optionally, the movement-related information.
US08976030B2
A checkout system is provided for carrying out a two-factor authentication process where coded products are purchased and theft activity might be pursued. The system typically includes an identification code reader for reading product identification codes (e.g. UPC bar code symbols or EPC-encoded RFID tags) on products that are passed through the point of sale (POS) and a security code detector/reader for automatically detecting/reading a security code (e.g. implemented as an EAS tag or an RFID tag) at the POS. During product checkout operations, the identification code reader reads identification codes, and the security code detector/reader detects or reads security codes applied to products. Collected identification and security data is automatically processed using identification and security data stored in a database to determine whether or not each product being purchased at the POS is in compliance or not in compliance with a two-factor authentication process supported by the checkout system.
US08976027B2
An information processing system is for determining information about consumers at a store where at least some of the consumers may carry personal mobile wireless devices, and each personal wireless mobile device may transmit signals for identifying the respective consumer. The system may include at least one RF receiver device arranged about the store for receiving communications from the personal mobile wireless devices, and a processor coupled to the at least one RF receiver device. The processor may be for generating consumer position data of the consumers during movement about the store based upon communications from the respective personal mobile wireless devices to the at least one RE receiver device, and associating the consumer position data with respective identities of the consumers.
US08976021B2
The present invention relates to a remote patient management device (1) and method (1000) which facilitates to particularly follow up chronic diseases and keep them under control and enables to transfer measurement results, which should be made by people with these diseases and transmitted to healthcare personnel properly, in an easy and safe way automatically.
US08976013B2
A contact type tactile feedback apparatus and operational method of the contact type tactile feedback apparatus is provided. The contact type tactile feedback apparatus may enable an object to be in close contact with a power feedback portion to transfer a power sensed by a sensor, using a fixing portion, thereby enabling the object to recognize the power, intuitively.
US08976005B2
A passive keyless system including a base that selectively allows access to a restricted environment through a base transceiver operating with an encrypted link on first and second frequencies, and a base recording element storing base measured movement history information. Also, a passive keyless device with at least one sensor detects a movement property of the device, a device recording element stores movement history information about the device and reflecting the detected movement property, and a device transceiver communicating with the base transceiver, and transmitting to the base transceiver encrypted security information identifying the device in accordance with a passive keyless protocol and/or the movement history information, and an access request element that causes the device transceiver to request access to the base transceiver. The base uses the base measured movement history information and movement history information when allowing access to the restricted environment.
US08976002B2
A universal remote control system is disclosed. The universal remote control includes a receiver that has a wireless signal receiver unit, an electric motor that drives a mechanical arm and a microprocessor. When the receiver receives a control signal from a wireless signal transmitter, the microprocessor will energize the motor which drives the mechanical arm toward a pushbutton switch of a controlled device, such as a garage door opener, and depresses the push button, therefore activating the garage door opener. A feedback signal, for example, from the mechanical arm or the motor, may be provided to the microprocessor to inform the microprocessor when the pushbutton switch is sufficiently depressed and is in an engaged state. When the switch is in the engaged state, the motor will reverse its direction, causing the mechanical arm to raise and move back to a standby position.
US08975997B2
In a planar coil element, the quantitative ratio of inclined particles to total particles of a first metal magnetic powder contained in a metal magnetic powder-containing resin provided in a through hole of a coil unit is higher than the quantitative ratio of inclined particles to total particles of the first metal magnetic powder contained in the metal magnetic powder-containing resin provided in other than the through hole, and many of particles of the first metal magnetic powder in the magnetic core are inclined particles whose major axes are inclined with respect to the thickness direction and the planar direction of a substrate. Therefore, the planar coil element has improved strength as compared to a planar coil element shown in FIG. 9A and has improved magnetic permeability as compared to a planar coil element shown in FIG. 9B.
US08975993B2
A transformer that improves the DC superposition characteristic without incurring eddy-current losses. In the transformer, a part of a plate-like core opposing a top face of a flange of a drum core is formed with a first opposing portion opposing none of input and output terminals and a second opposing portion opposing the input and output terminals. A first gap is formed between the top face and the first opposing portion by a spacer. A second gap greater than the first gap is formed by a recess of the plate-like core provided so as to correspond to the second opposing portion. This allows magnetic fluxes to pass between the top face and the first opposing portion where the gap is formed and inhibits them from passing between the plate-like core and the input and output terminals where the second gap greater than the first gap is formed.
US08975991B2
A magnetic attachment mechanism and method is described. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach at least two objects together in a preferred configuration without fasteners and without external intervention. The magnetic attachment mechanism can be used to releasably attach an accessory device to an electronic device. The accessory device can be used to augment the functionality of usefulness of the electronic device.
US08975988B1
Mechanically short single and multi-carriage impedance tuners use a dielectrically filled slabline. The dielectric filling reduces the overall tuner length by a factor of 1/√∈r. The increase in loss, and associated reduction in reflection factor, is partly compensated by the shorter size and travel of the probes. A typical length reduction factor is 40%. Using dielectric low loss oil also reduces the electric field between probe and center conductor and increases Corona threshold; lubrication of sliding contact between probe and slabline walls and cooling of the center conductor are additional benefits. The method is most effective for wideband tuners with lowest frequency of operation between 100 and 200 MHz and harmonic tuners with lowest frequency between 200 and 400 MHz.
US08975987B2
Provided is a transmission line used to transmit high-frequency electrical signals which can remove a dip-shaped (S21) loss of transmission characteristics due to wall surface resonance, furthermore, can further decrease the size, and can suppress the manufacturing cost at a low level. The transmission line used to transmit high-frequency electrical signals (1) is made up of a signal line (3) used to transmit high-frequency electrical signals which is formed on a front surface (2a) of a dielectric substrate (2), GND electrodes (4) formed outside the signal line (3) and in vicinities of end portions of the front surface (2a), a GND electrode (6) that is electrically connected to the GND electrodes (4) through via holes (5) formed across an entire rear surface (2b) of the dielectric substrate (2), and band-shaped resistors (7) that are formed outside the GND electrodes (4) and in the end portions of the surface (2a) and are electrically connected to the GND electrodes (4).
US08975985B2
A frequency-tunable microwave bandpass filter including a wave guide having a rectangular cross-section and including a stationary first conductive portion I and a movable second conductive portion II. The first portion includes first conductive partitions having one or more conductive obstacles related to complementary openings in the section of the guide that forms capacitive irises. The first partitions are transversely mounted, at the propagation of the wave in the guide, define cavities in the longitudinal direction of the guide, are rigidly connected to the first portion and the second conductive partitions that have one or more openings defining capacitive irises, and, in combination with the adjacent guide lengths, form immitance inverters. The first partitions form a series of resonating cavities coupled by the immitance inverters. A means ensures electrical contact between the conductive portions I and II.
US08975984B2
A micro-electro-mechanical transducer (such as a cMUT) having a non-flat surface is disclosed. The non-flat surface may include a variable curve or slope in an area where a spring layer contacts a support, thus making a variable spring model as the spring layer vibrates. The non-flat surface may be that of a non-flat electrode optimized to compensate the dynamic deformation of the other electrode during operation and thus enhance the uniformity of the dynamic electrode gap during operation. Methods for fabricating the micro-electro-mechanical transducer are also disclosed. The methods may be used in both conventional membrane-based cMUTs and cMUTs having embedded springs transporting a rigid top plate.
US08975968B2
Amplifiers with improved isolation are disclosed. In an exemplary design, an apparatus (e.g., a wireless device, an integrated circuit, etc.) includes an amplifier having a gain transistor, first and second cascode transistors, and a shunt transistor. The gain transistor receives an input signal and provides an amplified signal. The first cascode transistor is coupled between the gain transistor and an intermediate node and receives the amplified signal. The second cascode transistor is coupled between the intermediate node and an output node and provides an output signal. The shunt transistor is coupled between the intermediate node and circuit ground. The first and second cascode transistors are enabled to provide the output signal. The shunt transistor is (i) disabled when the cascode transistors are enabled and (ii) enabled to short the intermediate node to circuit ground when the cascode transistors are disabled.
US08975958B2
In a power supply circuit which uses a switching amplifier in combination with a linear amplifier, in order to be capable of correcting errors of operation of the switching amplifier and the linear amplifier, that is to say, in order to cause the switching amplifier and the linear amplifier to operate in coordination in a near-ideal state, the power supply circuit is provided with first amplification unit for delaying an input signal by a predetermined set time and amplifying the input signal, current detection unit for detecting a current value of an output signal of the first amplification unit, predicted signal generation unit for generating a pulse signal on a basis of an output signal of the current detection unit and the input signal, second amplification unit for amplifying the pulse signal and signal output unit for combining current of the output signal of the first amplification unit and current of the output signal of the second amplification unit to output the combined current, wherein the set time is time for reducing an effect of delay times generated at the current detection unit, the predicted signal generation unit and the second amplification unit.
US08975941B2
A signal processing circuit includes an input inverter and an output inverter. Each inverter has a signal input for receiving an input rectangular signal, a signal output for providing an inverted output rectangular signal, and a pair of voltage outputs for developing a rectified dc output voltage. A first circuit input terminal is connected to the output of the input inverter and the input of the output inverter. A second circuit input terminal is connected to the input of the input inverter and the output of the output inverter, wherein the signal input terminals receive an input signal having a data component. A pair of supply voltage output terminals is connected to the voltage output terminals of the inverters for providing a rectified dc supply voltage output. A first circuit output terminal is connected to one of the supply voltage output terminals, and a second circuit output terminal connected to the second circuit input terminal, wherein the circuit output terminals provide an output signal including the data component.
US08975939B2
A voltage clamp circuit includes a power supply, a first element connected with the power supply to output a constant current, a third element configured to allow a current to pass through when a voltage of a predetermined value or more is applied; and a second element configured to output a voltage according to a voltage generated by the first and third elements.
US08975934B2
A particular method includes receiving a retention signal. In response to receiving the retention signal, the method includes retaining state information in a non-volatile stage of a retention register and reducing power to a volatile stage of the retention register. The non-volatile stage may be powered by an external voltage source. The volatile stage may be powered by an internal voltage source.
US08975929B2
A circuit includes a first input transistor and a first voltage divider coupled to a source of the first input transistor and a second input transistor and a second voltage divider coupled to a source of the second input transistor. A first set of series connected transistors include a first transistor with a gate coupled to the first input transistor source and a second transistor with a gate coupled to a tap of the first voltage divider. A second set of series connected transistors include a third transistor with a gate coupled to the second input transistor source and a fourth transistor with a gate coupled to a tap of the second voltage divider. An output is coupled to the sources of the first and second input transistors. The first and second sets are coupled to one of the first input transistor drain or second input transistor drain.
US08975922B2
Electronic logic gates that operate using N logic state levels, where N is greater than 2, and methods of operating such gates. The electronic logic gates operate according to truth tables. At least two input signals each having a logic state that can range over more than two logic states are provided to the logic gates. The logic gates each provide an output signal that can have one of N logic states. Examples of gates described include NAND/NAND gates having two inputs A and B and NAND/NAND gates having three inputs A, B, and C, where A, B and C can take any of four logic states. Systems using such gates are described, and their operation illustrated. Optical logic gates that operate using N logic state levels are also described.
US08975919B1
The present invention provides for a method and circuit of an integrated circuit (IC) having dual row input/output (I/O). The circuit having a plurality of dual I/Os including an upper row of I/O and a lower row of I/O, with logic arranged in communication between the upper and the lower rows of the dual row I/O. The connectivity with the logic circuits of the present invention therefore provides for improving reliability and performance through more similar and uniform pathway connections. Advantageously, the present invention also provides for the reallocation of valuable footprint space as the logic is embedded within the dual row I/O thereby creating additional footprint space for further performance and other beneficial gain where interconnects as between the physical layer (PHY) logic and I/O cells are generally similar in length.
US08975911B2
The control system of the invention includes at least one actuator (6) for a cowling (2), driven by at least one electric motor (7), and control means (9) for the electric motor (7) and the actuator (6). The control system includes an electric circuit (C) that comprises: a plurality of electric components; a plurality of measuring means (16-18) adapted for measuring respectively a characteristic magnitude of an electric component or a group of electric components in the electric circuit; a failure detection means (19) adapted for detecting a failure at a component of the electric circuit when the characteristic magnitude measured at said component exceeds a predetermined value or is in a range of predetermined values.
US08975906B2
A probe for inspecting electronic components, and more particularly, to a probe for inspecting electronic components, which connects a target electronic component to an inspection apparatus to inspect defects of the target electronic component. The probe for inspecting electronic components includes: a cylinder body having a cylindrical shape; a piston body reciprocating between an inside and an outside of the cylinder body; a spring surrounding an outer circumference of the cylinder body and the piston body, and forcing a part of the piston body to resiliently move out of the cylinder body when inserted into the cylinder body; a probing unit extending from the cylinder body to be brought into contact with a target electronic component to be inspected as to flow of electric current therethrough; and a contact unit extending from the piston body to be connected to an inspection apparatus for inspecting the target electronic component.
US08975901B2
Measurement devices, systems, and methods to measure a high field conductivity of a fluid are provided herein. The measurement device includes a fluid cell, a pair of electrodes, a voltage switch, and a measurement unit. The fluid cell is on an inclined plane to receive the fluid. The pair of electrodes are connected to the fluid cell. The pair of electrodes are spaced apart from one another to receive the fluid therebetween and positioned parallel to one another to pass an electrical current therethrough. The power unit provides a high voltage power supply to one electrode of the pair of electrodes. The measurement unit measures the electrical current that passes between the pair of electrodes through the fluid.
US08975900B2
A system for sensing human activity by monitoring impedance includes a signal generator for generating an alternating current (AC) signal, the AC signal applied to an object, a reactance altering element coupled to the AC signal, an envelope generator for converting a returned AC signal to a time-varying direct current (DC) signal, and an analog-to-digital converter for determining a defined impedance parameter of the time-varying DC signal, where the defined impedance parameter defines an electromagnetic resonant attribute of the object.
US08975895B2
A method for correcting motion-induced phase errors in diffusion-weighted k-space data acquired with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is provided. The MRI system is directed to acquire the following data from an imaging volume: three-dimensional diffusion-weighted k-space data, three-dimensional diffusion-weighted navigator data, three-dimensional non-diffusion-weighted k-space data, and three-dimensional non-diffusion-weighted navigator data. Initial estimates of k-space shift values and a constant phase offset value are calculated using the three-dimensional diffusion-weighted navigator data and the three-dimensional non-diffusion-weighted navigator data. These initial k-space shift values and constant phase offset value are then updated by iteratively minimizing a cost function that relates the phase of the diffusion-weighted k-space data to the phase of the non-diffusion-weighted k-space data, as shifted by the initial k-space shift values and constant phase offset value. The diffusion-weighted k-space data is then corrected for motion-induced phase errors using the updated k-space shift values and constant phase offset value.
US08975894B2
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus includes a housing which has a bore to which a magnetic field for use in an MRI scan is applied, a moving table on which an inspection target may be placed and that enters the bore of the housing, a projector which projects an image onto an inner wall that forms the bore of the housing, and a controller which controls the projection unit and transmits a video signal to the projector.
US08975890B2
A circuit for detecting a DC current in a conductor (L1) includes a current transformer (CT) having a ferromagnetic core (10), a primary winding comprising the conductor (L1) and at least one secondary winding (W1). The circuit further includes an oscillator (12) for supplying an oscillating signal across the secondary winding and means for detecting a dc offset in the current flowing in the oscillator circuit. The circuit includes a capacitor (C1) in series with the secondary winding, and the detecting means is arranged to detect a non-zero voltage across the capacitor above a certain level.
US08975889B2
Embodiments relate to current difference sensors, systems and methods. In an embodiment, a current difference sensor includes first and second conductors arranged relative to one another such that when a first current flows through the first conductor and a second current, equal to the first current, flows through the second conductor, a first magnetic field induced in the first conductor and a second magnetic field induced in the second conductor cancel each other at a first position and a second position; and first and second magnetic field sensing elements arranged at the first and second positions, respectively.
US08975887B2
Embodiments of systems, methods and apparatuses of a switching voltage regulator are disclosed. One switching voltage regulator includes a series switch element, a shunt switch element, a PWM controller, and a mode controller. The PWM controller includes an error amplifier and a switching controller. The error amplifier generates an error signal based on a difference between a reference voltage and an output voltage. Further, the switching controller is operative to generate switch element control voltages based on the error signal, for controlling opening and closing of the series switch element and the shunt switch element, wherein the opening and closing of the series switch element and the shunt switch element generates a switching voltage. The mode controller is operative adjust a gain of the error amplifier over a selected range of frequencies based on a parameter indicative of a likelihood of oscillations in the output voltage.
US08975886B2
A system configured for charging and distribution control is provided. The system includes a switching regulator, a control circuit and a first converter. The switching regulator is configured to be selectively operable in one of a first operative state and a second operative state based on a control signal. The first operative state and the second operative state are associated with a maximum level of an alternator output power corresponding to at least one alternator operational feature, at least one alternator operational feature being associated with the alternator output voltage and an alternator speed. The control circuit is configured to generate the control signal based at least on the at least one alternator operational feature. The first converter is configured to generate a first converter output voltage based on the regulated DC output voltage. The first converter output voltage is lower than the regulated DC output voltage.
US08975885B2
A controller for a switch mode regulator with discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) correction which includes a correction network and a modulator. The correction network detects a low load condition indicative of regulation error during DCM and asserts an adjust value indicative thereof. The modulator receives the adjust value and adjusts operation accordingly to improve regulation during DCM. The correction network receives or determines a regulation metric, such as periods between successive pulses of a pulse control signal, or a current sense signal indicative of load current, and compares the regulation metric with one or more thresholds for determining the level of adjustment. Adjustment may be made using one or more methods, such as adjusting pulse on-time, adjusting pulse off-time, adjusting frequency of operation, etc.
US08975876B2
A generator system includes a generator having a stationary portion and a rotating portion. An exciter field winding and a main armature winding are disposed on the stationary portion. An exciter armature winding and a main field winding are disposed on the rotating portion. A frequency demodulator is configured to extract a frequency modulated control signal from the exciter armature winding and to demodulate the frequency modulated control signal to generate a demodulated control signal. The generator includes a main field rotating power converter to selectively control current in the main field winding in response to the demodulated command signal. The generator system includes a generator control unit in electrical communication with the generator to monitor the output voltage at the main armature winding and to output an exciter current including the frequency modulated control signal to the exciter field winding based on the output voltage.
US08975875B2
A power management system includes a first switch, a second switch, and a controller coupled to the first and second switches. The first switch has a first transfer terminal. The second switch has a second transfer terminal. The controller controls power conversion by turning on a third switch periodically. The first and second transfer terminals and a third transfer terminal of the third switch are coupled to a common node. The resistance between the first transfer terminal and the common node, the resistance between the second transfer terminal and the common node, and the resistance between the third transfer terminal and the common node are substantially equal to zero.
US08975872B2
A circuit for heating a battery includes a switch unit, control module, damping component, energy storage circuit, and superposition unit. The energy storage circuit forms a loop with the battery, and includes current and charge storage components. The damping component, switch unit, current storage component, and charge storage component connect in series. The control module switches on the switch unit so current flows between the battery and energy storage circuit and switches off the switch unit to stop current flow. The superposition unit superposes energy in the energy storage circuit with energy in the battery after the switch unit switches on and off. The control module switches the switch unit off after the first positive half cycle of current flow through the switch unit after the switch unit switches on. Voltage applied to the switch unit when the switch unit switches off is lower than the switch unit's voltage rating.
US08975853B2
A human-operated system comprises a positioning system and an input shaper. The positioning system moves an object from one location to another. The positioning system includes a computing device that controls the movement of the positioning system responsive to receiving a user command. The input shaper is coupled to the computing device of the positioning system. The computing device estimates an overtravel of the positioning system and determines an overtravel constraint that is factored into the movement of the positioning device. The computing device moves the positioning system based on the overtravel constraint in a manner that limits the overtravel, deflection and vibration of the object as the object is moved from one location to another. The human-operated system includes a predictive element that represents a predictor location responsive to the user command provided by the human operator, which aids the human operator position the positioning system.
US08975850B2
There is provided a driving control device of an opening and closing body, which drives the opening and closing body in a closed state by a motor through an idling section thereof. The device includes a calculation section for calculating a rotation speed difference between a rotation speed of the motor in the idling section and a current rotation speed of the motor; and an insertion detection section for detecting insertion of a foreign member based on the calculated rotation speed difference and a predetermined threshold value. The threshold value monotonously decreases according to an increase in the rotation amount of the motor to coincide with a fully-closed state threshold value at a predetermined rotation amount of the motor within an error range of the rotation amount corresponding to the fully-closed state, and to maintain the fully-closed state threshold value to a maximum rotation amount in the error range.
US08975846B2
A control device performs voltage conversion control on a voltage conversion circuit between a power supply and motor control circuits which control a plurality of motors. The control device includes sampling units for sampling a DC voltage after voltage conversion, target voltage setting units for setting target voltages VHT1 and VHT2 of the plurality of motors, selection unit for selecting a target voltage VHT to be converted by the voltage conversion circuit from a plurality of target voltages VHT1 and VHT2, generating unit for generating a sampling timing TS on the basis of a gate signal GS1 or GS2 of one of the motors with the target voltage which has not been selected, and control unit for performing the voltage conversion control using the DC voltage sampled by the sampling units at the sampling timing TS in response to each sampling timing request DS in the voltage conversion control.
US08975843B2
A motor control device includes a control condition storage unit storing at least one of a control condition defined by an equivalent voltage supplied to a three-phase motor and a control condition defined by relationship between the equivalent voltage supplied to the three-phase motor and a frequency of PWM signal, a control condition extracting unit extracting the control condition from the control condition storage unit in response to a temperature of a viscous fluid supplied by a pump having the three-phase motor as a power source, and a PWM controlling unit controlling a switching element included in an inverter circuit based on a PWM signal related to the extracted control condition when the three-phase motor is started.
US08975838B2
An electric motor controller includes controller electronics configured to control an electric motor. The electric motor controller also includes a thermoelectric cooler in thermal communication with the controller electronics. The thermoelectric cooler is configured to receive a braking current associated with braking of the electric motor and provide cooling to the controller electronics.
US08975831B1
In a method for controlling a current regulator for dimming an LED load, an adjustable delay circuit generates a delayed second dimming signal from an original first dimming signal. The second dimming signal has a duty cycle that controls the LED ON-time and LED OFF time at a fixed frequency. An ON-time pulse of the first dimming signal starts a pre-charging of the regulator's inductor to approximately the inductor current previously detected at the end of the previous ON-time of the LEDs. The pre-charging ends at the leading edge of the delayed ON-time pulse of the second dimming signal. The second dimming signal controls the regulator to only supply current to the LED load during the LED ON-time. The delay time is adjusted by a feedback loop. Therefore, the current pulse magnitudes applied to the LED load are constant at every duty cycle even with very low duty cycles.
US08975828B2
The present invention provides a DC boost topology circuit for backlight driving, which includes a coupling inductor including a primary coil having an end connected to a DC voltage input terminal and an opposite end connected to a secondary coil and a field-effect transistor that has an end grounded. An energy storage module includes a first capacitor and a first diode. The secondary coil has an end connected to the first capacitor and an opposite end connected to an opposite end of the primary coil and the first diode of which an opposite end connected to an opposite end of the first capacitor. A circuit protection unit has an end connected to a common terminal of the first diode and the first capacitor and an opposite end connected to a DC voltage output terminal. The topology circuit has an output voltage that is multiple times of that of known circuits.
US08975826B1
A digital compensator detects time-varying or periodic variations in the input voltage and, via the use of an iterative-learning control (“ILC”) system, a repetitive-control (“RC”) system, or a run-to-run control (“R2R”) system, generates a compensating signal based on prior behavior of the time variance.
US08975820B2
A method and system are provided for smoothly dimming a solid state light (SSL) source. The method includes measuring a dimming angle (S322) of a voltage received from a dimmer, determining a target brightness (S323) of light to be output by the SSL source corresponding to the dimming angle, determining a current brightness (S324) of light currently output by the SSL source, and determining a slew rate (S325) based on the current brightness and the target brightness. The current brightness of the light currently output by the SSL source is adjusted (S326) to the target brightness using the nonlinear slew rate.
US08975809B2
An ignition plug having a ceramic insulator with an axial bore, a metallic shell provided around the ceramic insulator, and a terminal electrode having a leg portion inserted into a rear end portion of the axial bore and a head portion projecting from the rear end of the ceramic insulator, wherein the length L of a portion of the ceramic insulator projecting from the rear end of the metallic shell is not less than 28 mm but not greater than 34 mm. The thickness t of the thinnest portion of the ceramic insulator is 1.0 mm or greater within a region which extends 5.5 mm from the rear end of the ceramic insulator toward the forward end side with respect to the direction of the axis.
US08975806B2
A lens includes a first lens section and a second lens section, which are integrally formed. The first lens section is formed in a hemispherical shell shape including a first recess opened toward one side of an optical axis direction in which light from a light source is made incident. The second lens section is formed in a hemispherical shell shape including a second recess opened toward the other side of the optical axis direction.
US08975802B2
An acoustic wave device includes: a comb-like electrode provided on a piezoelectric substrate; and a first medium that covers the comb-like electrode and has at least a silicon oxide film in which an element is doped, wherein sonic speed in the silicon oxide film in which the element is doped is lower than sonic speed in an undoped silicon oxide film.
US08975798B1
A method and system for reducing bearing failure in a rotating electrical device includes installing a magnetic core around the rotor shaft between the rotor and the bearing. The magnetic core creates an electrical impedance which reduces the current which flows through the bearings, and therefore reduces bearing failure.
US08975793B2
An actuator assembly includes a housing having a central axis, a motor compartment on one end defined about the central axis, a gear compartment on the other end. An electronic rotational position sensor is fixed relative to the housing proximate the motor compartment. A motor assembly is disposed in the motor compartment and has a hollow input shaft extending along the central axis into the gear compartment. An output shaft extends along the central axis and has a lower end extending out of the gear compartment and an upper end extending freely through the hollow input shaft to a point proximate to the electronic rotational position sensor. A gear assembly is supported within the gear compartment for translating rotation of the input shaft to the output shaft. A sensed object is disposed on the upper end of the output shaft opposed to the speed sensor.
US08975785B2
A load control device includes: a main switching unit which has a main switch element connected in series to an AC power source and a load and controls the supply of power to the load; a manipulation switch that outputs a start-up signal for starting at least the load; a control unit which controls the opening and closing of the main switching unit; a first power source unit supplying a stable voltage to the control unit; and a second and a third power source unit each supplying power to the first power source unit. The load control device is characterized in that upon receiving the start-up signal, the control unit outputs an initial drive signal, for closing the main switch element, to the main switching unit before a power source supplying power to the first power source unit is switched from the second to the third power source unit.
US08975780B2
An appliance including an electrically-powered system, a primary power input, and an auxiliary power input is provided. The electrically-powered system is disposed within a housing. The primary power input is configured to supply electrical energy to the electrically-powered system. However, the housing generally hampers access to the primary power input after installation of the appliance. Therefore, the auxiliary power input, which is also configured to supply electrical energy to the electrically-powered system, is readily accessible relative to the primary power input after installation of the appliance.
US08975779B2
The present invention relates to a load management controller for a household electrical installation comprising a pair of electricity supplies, a grid supply and a micro-generator supply, providing electricity to a plurality if sub-circuits. The household electrical installation has means to monitor the amount of electricity being supplied by the micro-generator supply and the amount of electricity being consumed in the household. The load management controller has means to access and use that information to control the supply of electricity to an energy storage sub-circuit to route surplus electricity supplied by the micro-generator to the energy storage sub-circuit. Furthermore, the load management controller can communicate with a remote electricity supplier to control the loads in the household to achieve better grid management and efficiency.
US08975771B2
An improved wind power device for wind energy conversion or vehicle propulsion. Among many possibilities contemplated, the device may have a moving sail with tethered wings (101), moving in elliptical trajectory, utilize separate sheave (503) and cable drum (505), use a block and tackle (411), attached to the tether and utilize a cable having a flexible jacket with aerodynamically streamlined cross section (603).
US08975768B2
Wind turbine systems and methods for operating wind turbine systems are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes gating on a dynamic brake switch of a dynamic brake in a wind turbine power converter when an experienced direct current (DC) bus voltage is equal to or greater than a threshold DC bus voltage. The method further includes disabling a threshold temperature rating for the dynamic brake switch when the dynamic brake switch is gated on, and gating off the dynamic brake switch when the experienced DC bus voltage is less than the threshold DC bus voltage.
US08975767B2
A power system includes a prime mover configured to generate a drive force, a generator configured to receive the drive force and be driven by the prime mover to produce electrical power for an external load. The system includes a power storage device configured to store electrical power or to discharge electrical power to the external load. The system further includes a controller configured to control the power storage device to discharge power to supplement the electrical power from the generator directed to the external load.
US08975766B2
First and second opposing ends are formed in a magnetic path forming member on which a power generation coil is wound. A rotating body has a permanent magnet, a first magnetization member and a second magnetization member. When an operating force does not act on an operating member, an end surface of the first magnetization member is opposed to the first opposing end via a gap and an end surface of the second magnetization member is opposed to the second opposing end via a gap. When the operating member is pressed, the rotating body rotates and when the force to the operating member is released, the operating member and the rotating body return. Since the rotating body and the magnetic path forming member do not come into contact with each other, the force required to operate the operating member is relatively weak and large electromotive force can be obtained.
US08975756B2
An electric terminal device is provided with glass substrate 11, glass-substrate-side electric terminals 15 formed on glass substrate 11, tape carrier packages 16a and 16b which are larger in thermal expansion rate than glass substrate 11, and tape-side electric terminals 21 provided to correspond to glass-substrate-side electric terminals 15. Tape-side electric terminals 21 include alignment terminals 25 to align with terminals at the outer most edges of glass-substrate-side electric terminals 15, and connecting terminals 26 electrically and mechanically connected to glass-substrate-side electric terminals 15 due to thermal expansion of tape carrier packages 16a and 16b by thermo-compression bonding on a condition that alignment terminals 25 of tape-side electric terminals 21 are aligned with the terminals of glass-substrate-side electric terminals 15.
US08975746B1
An integrated circuit package includes a ball arrangement that includes transmitter contact pairs arranged in a first portion of a ball grid array disposed in the integrated circuit package. Each of the transmitter contact pairs include transmitter differential signal contacts. Pairs of the transmitter contact pairs located adjacent to one another are in a staggered arrangement. The ball arrangement also includes receiver contact pairs arranged in a second portion of the ball grid array. Each of the receiver contact pairs include receiver differential signal contacts. Pairs of the receiver contact pairs located adjacent to one another are in a staggered arrangement. The ball arrangement also includes voltage supply contacts arranged at least between every two pairs of the transmitter contact pairs and the receiver contact pairs.
US08975745B2
Packaged microelectronic devices recessed in support member cavities, and associated methods, are disclosed. Method in accordance with one embodiment includes positioning a microelectronic device in a cavity of a support member, with the cavity having a closed end with a conductive layer, and an opening through which the cavity is assessable. The microelectronic device can have bond sites, a first surface, and a second surface facing opposite from the first surface. The microelectronic device can be positioned in the cavity so that the second surface faces toward and is carried by the conductive layer. The method can further include electrically coupling the bond sites of the microelectronic device to the conductive layer. In particular embodiments, the microelectronic device can be encapsulated in the cavity without the need for a releasable tape layer to temporarily support the microelectronic device.
US08975744B1
A three-dimensional, reconfigurable system package is provided for an electronic system. The system package includes a plurality of layers of active electronic components integrated both vertically and horizontally into a single circuit, with the layers being vertically stacked and spaced apart from one another. The layers include a base layer whose active electronic components include a reconfigurable system-on-chip configured to at least partially implement the electronic system, and an upper layer whose active electronic components include electronic components configured to signal process RF signals. The system package also includes a RF tunnel that extends vertically between the base layer and upper layer, and that is configured to provide structural support and vertical separation for the upper layer, and transport at least some RF signals between the base layer and upper layer. And a cover is secured to the base layer and encases the active electronic components and RF tunnel.
US08975743B2
In a semiconductor device including a semiconductor element that produces heat and a substrate on which the semiconductor element is mounted, functions of the substrate are divided between a heat dissipating substrate and a wiring substrate. The heat dissipating substrate has a relatively high thermal conductivity, and includes principal surfaces defined by electric insulators, one of which is provided with an outer conductor located thereon. The wiring substrate is mounted on the upper principal surface of the heat dissipating substrate, has a thermal conductivity lower than that of the heat dissipating substrate, and includes a wiring conductor made mainly of silver or copper and located inside the wiring substrate, the wiring conductor being electrically connected to the outer conductor. The semiconductor element is mounted on the upper principal surface of the heat dissipating substrate and disposed in a through hole of the wiring substrate.
US08975736B2
A wafer level package has a first wafer having a plurality of chips mounted or formed thereon in a plane, and a second wafer that is opposed to the first wafer. The first wafer and the second wafer are joined while a seal frame that seals a periphery of each chip is interposed therebetween. A gap is formed between the seal frames of the chips adjacent to each other. A partial connect part that partially connects the seal frames to each other is provided in the gap formed between the seal frames of the chips adjacent to each other.
US08975734B2
A semiconductor package without a chip carrier formed thereon and a fabrication method thereof. A metallic carrier is half-etched to form a plurality of grooves and metal studs corresponding to the grooves. The grooves are filled with a first encapsulant and a plurality of bonding pads are formed on the metal studs. The first encapsulant is bonded with the metal studs directly. Each of the bonding pads and one of the metal studs corresponding to the bonding pad form a T-shaped structure. Therefore, bonding force between the metal studs and the first encapsulant is enhanced such that delamination is avoided. Die mounting, wire-bonding and molding processes are performed subsequently. Since the half-etched grooves are filled with the first encapsulant, the drawback of having pliable metallic carrier that makes transportation difficult to carry out as encountered in prior techniques is overcome, and the manufacturing cost is educed by not requiring the use of costly metals as an etching resist layer.
US08975731B2
In a semiconductor device having an insulating layer structure and method of manufacturing the same, a substrate including a first region and a second region may be provided. A first pattern structure may be formed on the first region of the substrate. A second pattern structure may be formed on the second region of the substrate, and have a height that is greater than the height of the first pattern structure. An insulating layer structure is formed on the first and second pattern structures and includes a protrusion near an area at which the first and second regions meet each other. An upper surface of the insulating interlayer structure is higher than a top surface of the second pattern structure. The protrusion may have at least one side surface having a staircase shape. A planarized insulating interlayer may be formed without substantial damage to the infrastructure by using the insulating layer structure in accordance with example embodiments.
US08975719B2
A planar diode and method of making the same employing only one mask. The diode is formed by coating a substrate with an oxide, removing a central portion of the oxide to define a window through which dopants are diffused. The substrate is given a Ni/Au plating to provide ohmic contact surfaces, and the oxide on the periphery of the window is coated with a polyimide passivating agent overlying the P/N junction.
US08975718B2
The invention relates to an avalanche photodiode-type semiconductor structure (1) intended to receive electromagnetic radiation in a given wavelength. The structure comprises a first semiconductor zone (210) with a first type of conductivity with a first longitudinal face (201), said first zone (210) being made of mercury-cadmium telluride of the CdxHg1-xTe type with a cadmium proportion x that is varied. The structure (1) also comprises at least one second semiconductor zone (310) in contact with the first zone (210), and a third semiconductor zone (410) in contact with the second zone (310). The first zone (210) comprises a doping element, such as arsenic, of which the concentration is varied alternately in a direction substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal face (201) between a so-called low concentration and a so-called high concentration. The invention also relates to a process for producing a structure (1) according to the invention.
US08975711B2
A device includes a first power semiconductor chip with a first contact pad and a second contact pad on a first face and a third contact pad on the second face. The device further includes a second power semiconductor chip with a first contact pad and a second contact pad on a first face and a third contact pad on the second face. The first and second power semiconductor chips are arranged one above another, and the first face of the first power semiconductor chip faces in the direction of the first face of the second power semiconductor chip. In addition, the first power semiconductor chip is located laterally at least partially outside of the outline of the second power semiconductor chip.
US08975707B2
A region for substrate potential is formed of an n-type well at a position in the direction of a channel length relative to the gate electrode and the position is between drain regions in the direction of a channel width. An n-type of a contact region with a higher concentration of n-type impurity than that of the region is provided in the region. The contact region is arranged away from the drain regions with a distance to obtain a desired breakdown voltage of PN-junction between the region and the drain region.
US08975687B2
An integrated circuit of an array of nonvolatile memory cells has a dielectric stack layer over the substrate, and implanted regions in the substrate under the dielectric stack layer. The dielectric stack layer is continuous over a planar region, that includes locations of the dielectric stack layer that store nonvolatile data, such that these locations are accessed by word lines/bit lines.
US08975685B2
N-channel multi-time programmable memory devices having an N-conductivity type substrate, first and second P-conductivity type wells in the N-conductivity type substrate, N-conductivity type source and drain regions formed in the first P-conductivity type well, the source and drain regions being separated by a channel region, an oxide layer over the N-conductivity type substrate; and a floating gate extending over the channel region and over the second P-conductivity type well in the N-conductivity type substrate, the multi-time programmable memory cell being programmable by hot electron injection and erasable by hot hole injection.
US08975683B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes a pipe insulation layer having a pipe channel hole, a pipe gate disposed over the pipe insulation layer, a pair of cell strings each having a columnar cell channel, and a pipe channel coupling the columnar cell channels and surrounding inner sidewalls and a bottom of the pipe channel hole.
US08975681B2
In one surface of a semiconductor substrate, an active region in which main current flows and an IGBT is disposed is formed. A termination structure portion serving as an electric-field reduction region is formed laterally with respect to the active region. In the termination structure portion, a porous-oxide-film region, a p-type guard ring region, and an n+-type channel stopper region are formed. A plurality of floating electrodes are formed to contact the surface of the porous-oxide-film region. Another plurality of floating electrodes are formed to contact a first insulating film.
US08975680B2
A highly integrated gain cell-type semiconductor memory is provided. A first insulator, a read bit line, a second insulator, a third insulator, a first semiconductor film, first conductive layers, and the like are formed. A projecting insulator is formed thereover. Then, second semiconductor films and a second gate insulating film are formed to cover the projecting insulator. After that, a conductive film is formed and subjected to anisotropic etching, so that write word lines are formed on side surfaces of the projecting insulator. A third contact plug for connection to a write bit line is formed over a top of the projecting insulator. With such a structure, the area of the memory cell can be 4 F2 at a minimum.
US08975679B1
A single-poly NVM cell includes a substrate having an isolation region separating a first OD region from a second OD region, a read transistor within the first OD region, and a coupling capacitor within the second OD region. A first ion well completely overlaps with the first oxide define region. The read transistor includes a drain region, a source region, a channel region, a single-poly floating gate overlying the channel region, and a gate dielectric layer between the floating gate and the channel region. The coupling capacitor includes a shallow ion well, a heavily-doped, ultra-shallow dopant region in the shallow ion well, a single-poly charge-storage floating gate overlying the heavily-doped, ultra-shallow dopant region, and a gate dielectric layer under the charge storage floating gate. The shallow ion well has a junction depth that is substantially equal to or shallower than a trench depth of the isolation region.
US08975678B2
In connection with a semiconductor device including a capacitor element there is provided a technique capable of improving the reliability of the capacitor element. A capacitor element is formed in an element isolation region formed over a semiconductor substrate. The capacitor element includes a lower electrode and an upper electrode formed over the lower electrode through a capacitor insulating film. Basically, the lower electrode and the upper electrode are formed from polysilicon films and a cobalt silicide film formed over the surfaces of the polysilicon films. End portions of the cobalt silicide film formed over the upper electrode are spaced apart a distance from end portions of the upper electrode. Besides, end portions of the cobalt silicide film formed over the lower electrode are spaced apart a distance from boundaries between the upper electrode and the lower electrode.
US08975677B2
A decoupling capacitor cell includes: a first decoupling capacitor formed by only a pMOS transistor; and a second decoupling capacitor formed by two metal layers. The decoupling capacitor cell is arranged in an unused region not occupied by basic cells in a cell-based IC and is connected to a power wiring and a ground wiring.
US08975670B2
A semiconductor device, including: a semiconductor substrate with a first layer including first transistors; a shield layer overlaying the first layer; a second layer overlaying the shield layer, the second layer including second transistors; wherein the shield layer is a mostly continuous layer with a plurality of regions for connections between the first transistors and the second transistors, and where the second transistors include monocrystalline regions.
US08975667B2
A solid-state imaging device including, active elements configured to handle the charge captured in a photoreceiving region, an element isolation region configured to isolate regions of the active element, a first impurity region configured to surround the element isolation region, and a second impurity region including an impurity region lower in impurity concentration than the first impurity region, the second impurity region being provided between the first impurity region and active elements.
US08975656B2
An emitting device includes a first electrode on a base substrate, a second electrode on the base substrate, a third electrode on the base substrate, an emitting structure on and/or at a same level as the first electrode, a first pattern on the base substrate being electrically connected to the first electrode, and a plurality of second patterns on the base substrate, wherein at least one of the second patterns is arranged on a first side of the first pattern and is electrically connected to the second electrode and at least another one of the second patterns is arranged on a second side of the first pattern and is electrically connected to the third electrode, the first side opposing the second side.
US08975655B2
A semiconductor light-emitting device, and a method of manufacturing the same. The semiconductor light-emitting device includes a first electrode layer, an insulating layer, a second electrode layer, a second semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a first semiconductor layer that are sequentially stacked on a substrate, a first contact that passes through the substrate to be electrically connected to the first electrode layer, and a second contact that passes through the substrate, the first electrode layer, and the insulating layer to communicate with the second electrode layer. The first electrode layer is electrically connected to the first semiconductor layer by filling a contact hole that passes through the second electrode layer, the second semiconductor layer, and the active layer, and the insulating layer surrounds an inner circumferential surface of the contact hole to insulate the first electrode layer from the second electrode layer.
US08975652B2
A light emitting diode (LED) structure, a LED device and methods for forming the same are provided. The LED structure comprises a LED wafer; and a phosphor layer having a flat surface and formed above a light emitting surface of the LED wafer, in which the phosphor layer is formed by centrifugal spin coating.
US08975624B2
The present application discloses OEL display panel including OEL board including organic emission elements situated in respective emission regions compartmentalized by confining wall, and black matrix facing OEL board. The black matrix is provided with openings, each of which allows passage of light from each of the organic emission elements. Organic emission elements include first organic emission element with organic emission layer for emitting light in first emission color, and second organic emission element with organic emission layer for emitting light in second emission color different from first emission color. Openings include first opening corresponding to first organic emission element, and second opening corresponding to second organic emission element. First organic emission element has lower emission efficiency than second organic emission element does. Thermal conductivity is higher around first opening than second opening.
US08975622B2
An organic molecular memory for controlling a current flowing through a memory cell and achieving stable operation and high degree of reliability is provided. The organic molecular memory includes a first electrode, a second electrode made of a material different from the first electrode, and an organic molecule layer provided between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein one end of a resistance change-type molecular chain constituting the organic molecule layer is chemically bonded with the first electrode, and an air gap exists between the other end of the resistance change-type molecular chain and the second electrode.
US08975610B1
Control elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The control element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non-selected devices, and high leakage currents at high voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The control element can be based on multilayer dielectric stacks. The control element can include a titanium oxide-silicon-titanium oxide multilayer stack. Electrode materials may include one of ruthenium, titanium nitride, or carbon. The control element can include a silicon nitride-silicon-silicon nitride multilayer stack. Electrode materials may include titanium nitride.
US08975608B2
An apparatus and a corresponding system for reading out X-ray information stored in a storage phosphor plate includes a reading device for irradiating the storage phosphor plate with stimulation light and for detecting emitted light excited thereby in the storage phosphor plate, and a transport device for transporting the storage phosphor plate relative to the reading device and having a roller drive and at least one roller that can be set rotating about the axis of rotation thereof by the roller drive. In order to simplify the design of the apparatus and of the system while providing as reliable a transport of the storage phosphor plate as possible, the roller includes at least one magnetic area that has a helical progression.
US08975602B2
An operator positioning apparatus for a proton treatment system includes: a proton beam nozzle to emit a proton beam to a targeted region of a patient; a gantry wheel having a front face to support the proton beam nozzle to direct the proton beam to an isocenter of the gantry wheel corresponding to a center of the targeted region, wherein the gantry wheel rotates the proton beam nozzle around the isocenter; an active floor that horizontally translates across the front face of the gantry wheel, the active floor having an opening having a width through which the proton beam nozzle protrudes when the proton beam nozzle is located below the targeted region.
US08975601B1
A method of manufacturing a wafer with an integrated circuit (IC) layout includes receiving a first plurality of pixels, wherein each of the pixels corresponds to a portion of the IC layout and includes data members. The method further includes transforming the first plurality of pixels into a second plurality of control signals, wherein at least some of the control signals include both a data member of one of the pixels and another data member of another one of the pixels. The method further includes transferring the control signals to a third plurality of mirrors, wherein the mirrors conditionally reflect an energy beam incident thereupon when coupled with the control signals.
US08975597B2
The present invention is in the field of product marking and identification, more in particular to methods of differentiating products or product versions and to methods of product authentication. The present invention further relates to marker systems for product authentication, to a kit of parts for applying a marker system to a product and identifying the marked product, in particular seed, to seed coating compositions and to coated seed.
US08975592B2
An ion detector 1A for detecting positive ions is provided with a chamber 2 having an ion entrance 3 which allows positive ions to enter, a conversion dynode 9 which is disposed in the chamber 2 and to which a negative potential is applied, and an avalanche photodiode 30 that is disposed in the chamber 2 and has an electron incident surface 30a which is opposed to the conversion dynode 9 and also into which secondary electrons emitted from the conversion dynode 9 are made incident. The electron incident surface 30a is located closer to the conversion dynode 9 than a positioning part 14 which supports the avalanche photodiode 30 in the grounded chamber 2.
US08975584B2
A terahertz system can be configured for producing and coherently detecting terahertz radiation. The system can comprise a laser light source and two THz antennas, a first of which is used as a transmission antenna and a second of which is used as a receiver antenna, which are each optically coupled to the laser light source by an optical fiber and can be activated by light from this laser light source, wherein the THz antennas each have a semiconductor chip to which antenna conductors have been contact-connected and which comprises at least one photosensitive active layer with a band edge wavelength which is longer than a wavelength of the laser light source and at least one layer, adjoining the active layer, with a band edge wavelength which is shorter than the wavelength of the laser light source, wherein the band edge wavelength of the active layer of at least one of the THz antennas is at least 200 nm longer than the wavelength of the laser light source.
US08975580B2
An orthogonal pulse accelerator for a Time-of-Flight mass analyzer includes an electrically-conductive first plate extending in a first plane, and a second plate spaced from the first plate. The second plate includes a grid that defines a plurality of apertures each having a first dimension extending in a first direction and a second dimension orthogonal to the first dimension, the first and second dimensions lying in the second plane and the second dimension begin larger than the first dimension. The first and second plates are positioned in the Time-of-Flight mass analyzer to receive, during operation of the mass analyzer, an ion beam propagating in the first direction in a region between the first and second plates, and the orthogonal pulse accelerator directs ions in the ion beam through the apertures.
US08975577B2
LC/MS data generated by an LC/MS system is analyzed to determine groupings of ions associated with originating molecules. Ions are grouped initially according to retention time, for example, using retention time or chromatographic peaks in mass chromatograms. After initial groupings are determined based on retention time, ion peak shapes are compared to determine whether ions should be excluded. Ions having peak shapes not matching other ions, or alternatively a reference peak shape, are excluded from the group.
US08975568B2
Image sensors and methods of operating the same. An image sensor includes a pixel array including a plurality of pixels. Each of the plurality of pixels includes a photo sensor, the voltage-current characteristics of which vary according to energy of incident light, and that generates a sense current determined by the energy of the incident light; a reset unit that is activated to generate a reference current, according to a reset signal for resetting at least one of the plurality of pixels; and a conversion unit that converts the sense current and the reference current into a sense voltage and a reference voltage, respectively.
US08975567B2
A coordinate detector includes a light output part, a light detection part, a first guide part, and a second guide part. The light output part emits light. The light detection part outputs a detection signal according to the amount of entering light. The light output part and the light detection part are provided in an area around a display part on a side closer to a first surface of the display part than to its second surface facing away from the first surface. The first guide part guides light emitted from the light output part toward a direction along the first surface. The second guide part guides, toward the light detection part, light exiting from the first guide part and passing over the first surface.
US08975564B2
This invention advances the related state-of-the-art by eliminating the physical EO window used by electro-optical imaging infrared seekers for tactical missiles and high-altitude endo-atmospheric interceptors, widely employed in integrated defense systems. This invention increases the probability of intercepting exo-atmospheric ballistic warheads by exo-atmospheric interceptors, and eliminates the existing altitude “gap” of interception, as well as the geographical limitations posed by the mesospheric Noctilucent Clouds. The problem of protecting an imaging EO sensor from aeroheating is solved in this invention by a special purpose device which is enabled immediately after the nose cone ejection event. The role of said device is to augment the sensor fixed sunshade and cavity lengths in the forward direction, and by doing so, the resulting new cavity enables the optimal injection of an optically inert gas into the new extended cavity in front of the sensor, thus effectively blocking the entry of the compressed hot air into the sensor cavity, while simultaneously avoiding any adverse effects of inducing flow instabilities in the flow as well as the disturbance of the injected gas flow on sensor structures. Having a greater length for the hot gas to penetrate, eliminates also the penetration of suspended particles in oncoming air stream.
US08975562B2
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for a safety door of an oven having glass therein with a plastic laminate. The safety door retains glass within the door in order to prevent glass from falling or being forced outside of the oven, which may cause injury.
US08975559B1
Methods for forming an aluminum weld on an aluminum work surface are disclosed. The methods include providing an aluminum metal-core wire having a sheath with an outer surface and a core composition within the sheath, applying a voltage to the aluminum metal-core wire in the vicinity of the aluminum work surface to generate an arc, and melting the wire and the work surface to form the weld. The sheath is formed with an inorganic lubricant on its outer surface and the core composition includes metal powders, metal alloy powders, or combinations thereof and less than about 5% of non-metallic components or non-metallic agents based on the weight of the wire.
US08975558B2
An electric arc welder for creating an arc welding process between an electrode and a workpiece where the welder comprises a preregulator having a first DC signal as an input and a regulated second DC signal as an output, an unregulated isolation inverter to convert the regulated second DC signal into a DC power signal and a weld control stage for converting the DC power signal into a welding signal. A controller causes the weld control stage to conform the welding signal into a waveform to provide welding process between the electrode and the workpiece, which controller has an output control signal regulated to produce a selected waveform or waveforms and the polarity of the waveform or waveforms. A device selects one of several stored welding processes as a program and a corresponding polarity for outputting by the controller.
US08975557B2
A method for treating a surface is disclosed. According to some aspects, the method includes ejecting matter from the surface by projecting an ejection agent on the surface. The ejection agent is selected from gases, fluids in supercritical state, solid materials in divided form, solid materials in a gas vector and electromagnetic radiation. The method includes trapping the ejected matter in one or several pieces of an aerogel situated on trajector of the ejected matter. A device for carrying out this method as well as the use of an aerogel to trap the matter ejected from a surface during a treatment of that surface are also disclosed. The method may be applied in fields including cleaning, satinizing, polishing, deburring, etching, marking, pre-adhesion surface preparation metallization enameling, painting or varnishing operations are done, in particular electronics, microelectronics, optics, optoelectronics, bijouterie, jewelry, and the restoration of art and antiques.
US08975554B2
A voltage is applied to a machining gap between a wire electrode and a workpiece for a period of one microsecond or less with a quiescent time longer than the duration of voltage application between each two adjacent cycles of voltage application provided, and the number of duty cycles and a machining-gap voltage are detected. An open-circuit state in which electric discharge does not occur after the voltage is applied is identified by the detected machining-gap voltage, and the number of open-circuits is counted. An average machining-gap voltage is obtained based on the numbers of duty cycles and open-circuits and the supply voltage or an average voltage for each duty cycle.
US08975553B2
A workpiece mounting table (20) for an electric discharge machine, which machines a workpiece (12) by discharging electricity between an electrode and the workpiece (12) in an interior of a work tank (6) and removing a surface of the workpiece (12), includes a surface-plate mounting table (3) made of a conductive material and arranged at the bottom of the work tank (6), a plurality of insulating materials (2), each of which has a flat shape and is arranged and fixed on the surface-plate mounting table (3) with a gap (4) between the insulating materials (2) to constitute an insulating flat plate (30), and a surface plate (1) made of a metal material, fixed on the insulating flat plate (30) and insulated from the surface-plate mounting table (3) by the insulating flat plate (30), for fixing thereon the workpiece (12).
US08975545B2
A circuit interrupter includes an enclosure; a first terminal; a second terminal; separable contacts electrically connected between the first and second terminals; an operating mechanism structured to open and close the separable contacts; and an indicator circuit electrically interconnected with the second terminal The indicator circuit is structured to indicate occurrence of a signal at the second terminal. The signal has a frequency substantially greater than a power line frequency.
US08975542B2
A switching substrate on which switching portions are mounted is attached at an angle to a case. The length in the pressing direction of a first push button of a push button unit is larger than the length in the pressing direction of a second push button. A first contact portion about which the push button unit rotates when the first push button is pressed and a second contact portion about which the push button unit rotates when the second push button is pressed are at substantially the same height from the surface of the switching substrate. Therefore, the rotation angle when a first operating surface is pressed can be made equal to the rotation angle when a second operating surface is pressed.
US08975540B2
Electronic devices with support frames and mechanically-bonded plastic and methods for forming such electronic devices are provided. A representative electronic device includes: a housing that incorporates: a metal chassis having a base and a sidewall extending outwardly therefrom to define an interior, the chassis having an opening extending there through; a plastic part mechanically bonded to the metal of the chassis, the plastic part spanning the opening; and a support frame mounted at least partially within the housing such that the support frame increases rigidity of the housing.
US08975530B2
A printed circuit board (PCB) includes a substrate, a pad, a plurality of connecting wires and a plurality of separating portions. The pad arranged on at least one surface of the substrate. The plurality of connecting wires increase contact area of the pad and a copper foil around the pad to keep the current of the PCB steady when a lot of current flow through the PCB. The plurality of separating portions located on between the pad and the copper foil around the pad to divide the pad and the copper foil to avoid short-circuit when the copper foil is etched.
US08975527B2
A circuit board prevents breakage at a boundary between a rigid region and a flexible region and includes a body including stacked flexible sheets, and rigid regions and a flexible region more flexible than the rigid regions. A circuit is defined by a conductor provided in the body. In the flexible region on a principal surface of the body, grooves are arranged to be in contact with boundaries between the flexible region and the rigid regions and to extend along the boundaries.
US08975520B2
A ground loop isolator for a coaxial cable, for example that blocks DC current but which allows a desired band of RF through the ground loop isolator, and which is small enough to fit in the areas where coupling of the desired electronic equipment is to occur. Embodiments may include an outer area allowing for easier manual coupling of the coaxial cable connector nut to electronic devices.
US08975519B2
An electrical box assembly includes an electrical box and a primary bracket. The primary bracket includes a first end panel for securing to a first surface of a stud; a second end panel for securing to a second surface of the stud and in a substantially parallel orientation to the first end panel; and mounting panel, joined to a first surface of the electrical box and located between the first end panel and the second end panel, the mounting panel having a length corresponding to a first stud depth. The primary bracket also includes an adaptation panel, between the mounting panel and the rear panel, having a length corresponding to a difference between the first stud depth and a second larger stud depth. The adaptation panel is selectively manipulated to position the front panel and the rear panel to accommodate either the first stud depth or the second stud depth.
US08975516B2
A pre-fabricated ferromagnetic loop having a footprint characterized by a continuous wire shaped according to a predetermined planar pattern. In some embodiments, the predetermined planar pattern can be multiple contiguous polygons within a larger footprint used for establishing a sensor for the detection of moving vehicles. The footprint may include one of a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a rhombus, a parallelogram, an ellipse, or a circle, and/or other shapes or configurations. Similarly, each of the multiple contiguous polygons may include one of a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a rhombus, a parallelogram, and/or other shapes or configurations. A loop sensor housing is arranged to enclose a continuous loop sensor wire configured in the predetermined planar pattern. The prefabricated loop sensor is inserted in a groove web pre-cut in a receiving medium to match the predetermined planar pattern.
US08975513B2
A quantum dot (QD) sensitized wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor heterojunction photovoltaic (PV) device comprises an electron conductive layer; an active photovoltaic (PV) layer adjacent the electron conductive layer; a hole conductive layer adjacent the active PV layer; and an electrode layer adjacent the hole conductive layer. The active PV layer comprises a wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor material with Eg≧2.0 eV, in the form of a 2-dimensional matrix defining at least two open spaces, and a narrower bandgap semiconductor material with Eg<2.0 eV, in the form of quantum dots (QD's) filling each open space defined by the matrix of WBG semiconductor material and establishing a heterojunction therewith. The active PV layer is preferably fabricated by a co-sputter deposition process, and the QD's constitute from about 40 to about 90 vol. % of the active PV layer.
US08975506B2
A surface electrode (5) is installed on the light receiving surface of a solar cell element, the surface electrode (5) comprises three bus bar electrodes (5a) for extracting light-produced at the solar cell element to the outside and collecting finger electrodes (5b) connected to these bus bar electrodes (5a), and the bus bar electrodes (5a) are not less than 0.5 mm and not more than 2 mm in width and the finger electrodes (5b) are not less than 0.05 mm and not more than 0.1 mm in width. A high-efficient solar cell module can be obtained with substantially lowered resistance by increasing the number of bus bar electrode (5a) and thereby decreasing the lengths of the finger electrodes (5b).
US08975501B2
A micro-practicing device emulates a portion of a full size instrument. The micro-practicing device includes a fingerboard with fret wires dividing the fingerboard into frets. In order to emulate the portion of the full size instrument, a length of each fret substantially matches lengths of frets of full size instruments. At the same time, the fingerboard is sized to enable increased portability. The device includes capacitive sensors adapted to detect the longitudinal and transverse positions of the user's fingers on the frets, and to communicate that positional information to a body portion. The body portion transmits the positional information to an external musical module, which converts the positional information into musical tones.
