US09028185B2
A device for joining a plastic part to a second part with an insert adapted to thread into the plastic part. The insert includes a longitudinal body with outer threads, a hole in the longitudinal body with female threads, and an annular flange. Protrusions and recesses on the bottom of the annular flange alternate in a radial pattern. The insert is threaded into an opening in the plastic part. The protrusions and recesses of the insert interact with the plastic part to resist over rotation of the insert. The opening in the plastic part may include a hole and a counter bore portion. The counter bore includes protrusions and recesses. The protrusions and recesses alternate in a radial pattern. When the insert is threaded into the opening, the protrusions and recesses of the insert interact with the protrusions and recesses of the plastic part and resist over rotation.
US09028183B1
An apparatus for selectively securing a boat to a trailer may include a hull contact structure for abutting against the boat hull, and a releasable gripping structure positioned adjacent the hull contact structure to engage the boat's securing loop and selectively lock onto the loop to hold the boat to the trailer.
US09028181B2
A tool holder has a body with a spindle side for fastening the tool holder to a spindle of a machine tool and a tool side for accommodating a tool and has a lubricating media passage from the spindle side to the tool side that contains a lubricating media bush adjustable in the axial direction in the body. The lubricating media bush opens out on the tool side of the body, wherein a guide for the lubricating media hush is provided in the body. The guide contains a fitting section in which the lubricating media bush is adjustably guided, wherein a seal is provided which seals the lubricating media bush relative to the body.
US09028179B2
Chips are segmented to have a desired width and the chip controllability is improved and the tool rigidity is improved. A drilling tool is provided that includes: a tool body; a chip discharge groove formed at the outer periphery of the tool body; at least one sub-groove formed at an inner face facing the front side in the tool rotation direction T of the chip discharge groove; a rake face; a tip end flank face; and a cutting edge formed at a ridge line at which the tip end flank face intersects with the rake face. The plurality of rake faces form a step-like shape having at least one step section. The drilling tool is configured so that the turnup section of the sub-groove is turned up in a different direction from the direction along which the turnup section of the chip discharge groove is turned up.
US09028176B1
A finger guard is described, removably attachable to a shoring device of the type having a pair of opposed shoring columns having outer and inner surfaces, the outer surfaces exposed for contact with excavation surfaces and with an extendable and retractable jack pivotally secured at the inner surfaces to the column. The finger guard comprises a sheet of stiff material; at least one connector attached to the sheet, wherein the at least one connector includes: two arms spaced apart from each other and extending generally parallel to each other; a shoulder element extending between the two arms, and connecting the two arms together; a leg element, extending from the shoulder element parallel with the arms; wherein, the sheet of stiff material is attached to the at least one connector; a set screw threadably passing through one of the arms, the set screw being configured to attach the connector to a portion of a shoring column.
US09028166B2
A wedge-shaped vehicle barrier, including a top assembly pivotably coupled to a bottom assembly; a mechanism coupled to the top assembly and coupled to the bottom assembly, where the mechanism moves the top assembly between a first position that is substantially horizontal and a second position at a first angle; and one or more flexible slings coupled to a distal portion of the top assembly and a distal portion of the bottom assembly, where the one or more slings prevent the top assembly from rotating beyond a second angle when the top assembly is engaged by a vehicle, the second angle being greater than or equal to the first angle.
US09028164B2
A method of forming a sliding spline-type joint using magnetic pulse forming technology includes providing a female driveshaft member and a splined insert having inwardly formed splines. A male driveshaft member is provided having outwardly formed splines engageable with the insert. A mandrel is provided having outer ribs similar to the outer spline profile of the male driveshaft member. An inductor is provided which is energized to create a pulse magnetic field. The insert is placed over the mandrel. The female driveshaft member is disposed over the insert, and both are placed inside the inductor. The inductor is energized to deform a portion of the female driveshaft member over the insert to form an array of crimps for permanently connecting the female driveshaft member with the insert. The male driveshaft member is engaged into the insert to provide a sliding spline-type of slip joint.
US09028163B2
A connector assembly that includes a first connector, a lever, a second connector and a link. The lever is pivotally mounted to the first connector for movement about a pivot axis between a first lever position and a second lever position. The second connector has a lug. The link is pivotally coupled to the lever at a location that is spaced apart from the pivot axis. The link has a coupling member with a slotted interior aperture and an engagement tab. The lug is received into the slotted interior aperture when the lever is in the first lever position. The engagement tab engages the lug to inhibit relative movement of the second connector away from the coupling member when the lever is moved from the first lever position to the second lever position.
US09028161B2
A wiper for wiping off a cosmetics applicator during the withdrawal from its storage container, wherein the wiper forms a substantially rectangular passage, which in the non-stressed state is closed off by two mutually opposing wiper lips that are respectively divided into several bending elements which are elastically deformed when the cosmetics applicator is pushed through and thus clear the way for the applicator to pass through the passage.
US09028158B2
A multi-stage fiber processing system comprises first and second fiber holders configured to hold respective portions of at least one fiber and a plurality of heat sources arranged between the first and second fiber holders and configured to provide a heat zone that axially extends about the at least on fiber. The first and second fiber holders can be configured to translate away from each other for tapering. The plurality of heat sources can include two 3 electrode heat sources that deliver an extended, substantially isothermic heat field axially about the fiber. All but one heat source can be turned off to splice the fiber. The two 3 electrode heat sources can generate 9 arcs to from the heat zone, wherein arcs between the two 3 electrode heat sources can be rotated about the at least one fiber.
US09028157B2
Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chips with backside vertical optical coupler and packaging into an optical transmitter/receiver. A grating-based backside vertical optical coupler functions to couple light to/from a plane in the PIC chip defined by thin film layers through a bulk thickness of the PIC chip substrate to emit/collect via a backside surface of the PIC chip where it is to be coupled by an off-chip component, such as an optical fiber. Embodiments of a grating-based backside vertical optical coupler include a grating coupler with a grating formed in a topside surface of the thin film A reflector is disposed over the grating coupler to reflect light emitted from the grating coupler through the substrate to emit from the backside of the PIC chip or to reflect light collected from the backside of the PIC chip through the substrate and to the grating coupler.
US09028153B2
An optical fiber includes a first end and a second end. The optical fiber includes a core for transmitting optical signals from the first end to the second end. The core has end surfaces at the first and second ends and a cladding is positioned around a circumference of the core. Magnetic elements are provided at the end surfaces of the first end and the second end. The magnetic elements are configured to magnetically couple the core to a magnetic element at an end of a core of another optical fiber. The magnetic elements form part of a light transmission path defined by the core. The magnetic elements are optically transmissive and allow optical signals to pass therethrough.
US09028146B2
A connection assembly for connection to the mouth of a flexible container comprising of an inner ring having an inner flange around its external diameter and an outer ring having a recess around its inner diameter sized to engage the inner flange. The inner and outer rings being adapted to interengage to trap the mouth between the inner and outer rings.
US09028141B2
An on die thermal sensor (ODTS) of a semiconductor memory device includes a high voltage generating unit for generating a high voltage having a voltage level higher than that of a power supply voltage of the semiconductor memory device; and a thermal information output unit for sensing and outputting a temperature as a thermal information code, wherein the thermal information output unit uses the high voltage as its driving voltage.
US09028135B1
A non-contact pyrometer and method for calibrating the same are provided. The pyrometer includes a radiation sensor configured to measure at least a portion of a radiance signal emitted from a target medium and output a voltage that is a function of an average of the absorbed radiance signal, and an optical window disposed proximate the radiation sensor and configured to control a wavelength range of the radiance signal that reaches the radiation sensor. The pyrometer may further include a reflective enclosure configured to receive the target medium therein, wherein the radiation sensor and the optical window are disposed within the reflective enclosure, an amplifier in communication with an output of the radiation sensor, and a data acquisition system in communication with an output of the amplifier.
US09028132B2
A mixing silo for free-flowing finely divided solid materials, in particular for powdered, fibrous and/or granular mixed material, especially polymer granules, specifically suited for mixing polymer granules, having an excellent mixing quality and at the same time a simplified and improved suitability for washing out in order to avoid cross contamination. The mixing silo may be used for homogenizing possibly inhomogeneous polymer granule batches in the form of a stream of product from a process producing polymer granules.
US09028130B2
A seal ring is provided which allows the interior of a cylinder 1 of a screw extruder to be maintained at elevated temperature and elevated pressure, thus suppressing a variation in the pressure in the cylinder 1. In a special seal ring 300 attached to a screw shaft 7 in the cylinder of the screw extruder so as to be rotatable integrally with the screw shaft 7, thus restraining a material to be treated from being fed from upstream to downstream in the cylinder, a lead groove 317 extending in an axial direction of the shaft 7 is formed in an outer circumferential surface 316 opposing with a predetermined gap to an inner circumferential surface 1a of the cylinder. The lead groove 317 serves to disturb the flow of the material to be treated passing between the outer circumferential surface 316 and the inner wall surface 1a of the cylinder 1 to complex the flow. This stabilizes feeding resistance to suppress a variation in the pressure in the cylinder 1.
US09028121B2
An electronic censer includes a censer body, a driving device and an incense branch. The censer body defines a recess on a top end thereof. The driving device is received in the recess of the censer body. The incense branch is inserted in the censer body and extends from the recess to external environment of the censer body. The incense branch includes a frame and an LED light source located at an upper end of the frame. The LED light source is electrically connected with the driving device. The frame has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion of the frame is pivotally connected with the second portion of the frame, thereby making the second portion of the frame rotatable around the first portion of the frame.
US09028114B2
Implementations of the present invention comprise lighting fixture assemblies that minimize the visibility of hardware and shadows. In particular, the lighting fixture assemblies may include no supporting hardware extending through an internal space defined, in whole or in part, by the lighting fixture assembly. In addition, the lighting fixture assemblies may include a gap between a bottom/top panel and a side panel of the lighting fixture assembly. Accordingly, lighting fixture assemblies of one or more implementations of the present invention can reduce or eliminate the visibility of internal supporting hardware and shadows on the exterior surfaces of the lighting fixture assemblies.
US09028113B1
A hanging lamp assembly provides visual stimulation and relaxation. The assembly includes a container having a transparent perimeter wall defining an interior space. A first fluid and a second fluid are positioned in the interior space defining a liquid mass. The second fluid has a density different than a density of the first fluid wherein the first fluid and the second fluid are layered within the interior space defining a fluid interface between the first liquid and the second liquid. The first fluid is a non-clear color and the second fluid is a different color than the first fluid. A plurality of items is positioned in the interior space such that the items are suspended in the liquid mass. A light source is coupled to the container directing light towards the liquid mass. A hanger is coupled to the container such that the container swings freely from a supporting structure.
US09028102B2
A luminaire includes a base, a light-emitting unit, and a lamp cover. The base includes a first tube part, a second tube part having an inner diameter smaller than that of the first tube part, and a joint part connected between the first and second tube parts. An inner flow path is defined by at least the first tube part, the joint part, and the second tube part in a coaxial manner. The lamp cover is fixed on the base for covering the light-emitting unit. As such, air heated by the light-emitting unit flows out of the inner flow path to thereby allow cold air to be sucked into the inner flow path.
US09028100B2
The adjustable LED lens has a body having a light incident surface and a light-emitting surface respectively mounted on two opposite sides of the body. The light-emitting surface has a concave tapered surface. The adjustable LED lens is mounted on a holder. A distance between the adjustable LED lens and the holder is changeable. An LED is mounted on the holder, wherein a light generated by the LED passes through the light incident surface and the light-emitting surface of the body. The concave tapered surface of the light-emitting surface increases a light distribution angle to increase an illumination range and decrease a glare. The distance between the adjustable LED lens and the LED is changeable to adjust a light shape as desired.
US09028096B2
The present disclosure relates generally to a modular angled light engine. In one embodiment, the modular angled light engine includes a center portion comprising an interlocking feature to connect to a second modular angled light engine and at least one housing coupled to the center portion. The at least one housing includes a heat sink coupled to a first side of the at least one housing, at least one light emitting diode (LED) coupled to an interior volume of the at least one housing and a lens covering the at least one LED and coupled to a second side of the at least one housing.
US09028092B2
The present invention provides an LED light bar and a backlight module using the LED light bar. The LED light bar includes a heat dissipation strip, a PCB mounted on the heat dissipation strip, LED chips mounted on the heat dissipation strip and electrically connected to the PCB, and a thermal interface material layer arranged between the LED chips and the heat dissipation strip. The LED light bar and the backlight module using the LED light bar according to the present invention arrange LED chips to be mounted to a heat dissipation strip that is of bettered thermal conduction performance to thereby avoid the conventional process of transferring terminal energy through a PCB that is of poor heat dissipation. The art is simple and the entire heat dissipation path is shortened to achieve excellent heat dissipation performance and thus ensure the quality of backlighting.
US09028083B2
Phosphor assemblies include a phosphor layer and a broadband reflector attached to the phosphor layer. The phosphor assembly can be combined with a short wavelength (e.g. blue) emitting LED and other optional components to provide a remote phosphor lighting system. At least some LED light passes through the phosphor layer before reaching the broadband reflector. The broadband reflector provides high reflectivity for both the LED light and the longer wavelength phosphor light. The degree of transparency or of transmission of the phosphor layer to LED light can be tailored to increase the broadband light output of the lighting system. Such increase can actually be achieved by decreasing the amount of phosphor used in the phosphor layer. The single pass transmission T of the phosphor layer to the LED light may be from 30 to 65%, and the reflectivity of the broadband reflector may be at least 90, 94, or 98%.
US09028075B2
A projector includes: a light source device; an optical modulation device configured to modulate a luminous flux emitted from the light source device in accordance with image information, forming an image; a projection optical device configured to project the image; a shutter device including a light shielding plate which can move into and out of an optical path of the luminous flux ranging from the light source device to the optical modulation device, shields the luminous flux by the light shielding plate moving into the optical path; and a light control device which being disposed on the optical path's upstream side of the shutter device, changes the area of a light passage through which the luminous flux passes, controlling the quantity of the luminous flux.
US09028043B2
A printhead cleaning device is configured to use a cleaning web to absorb the residual ink left on the faceplate of the printhead. The cleaning web is supplied from a feed cartridge and taken up by a take-up cartridge. The cartridges include indexing mechanisms that are configured to dispense and pull-in, respectively, a predetermined length of the cleaning web during each maintenance cycle of the printhead.
US09028035B2
A printing control apparatus configured to execute printing using continuous sheets stored in a plurality of storage portions includes a determination unit configured to determine a continuous sheet usable by each print job in a print queue, and a decision unit configured to decide a use order of the continuous sheets stored in the plurality of storage portions based on a result of determination by the determination unit, wherein the decision unit decides the use order so that a continuous sheet with a smaller remaining amount is used preferentially.
US09028033B2
In a printing apparatus including a PE sensor which normally functions only in a state in which a sheet is forward-fed, in a case where a printing operation involves back-feeding, the printing apparatus can appropriately manage the length of a sheet and print a desired image. In a case where the printing operation does not include back-feeding, the printing operation is performed based on the result of detection by a first sensor (paper end (PE) sensor), and in the case where the printing operation includes back-feeding, the result of detection by the first sensor is ignored and the printing operation is performed based on only the result of detection by a second sensor.
US09028028B2
Ink ejection problems of black ink nozzles are compensated for by forming dots by mixing cyan, magenta and yellow inks without reducing print quality. When a nozzle that discharges black ink becomes unable to properly eject ink, cyan, magenta, and yellow inks are ejected from respective nozzles to the discharge area on the recording medium to which the defective nozzle should eject ink. The volumes of the cyan, magenta and yellow inks that are ejected are set to effectively compensate for the missing black dot.
US09028023B2
A fluid ejection device includes: a modulator adapted to pulse-modulate a drive waveform signal forming a basis of a drive signal of an actuator to obtain a modulated signal; a digital power amplifier circuit adapted to power-amplify the modulated signal to obtain a power-amplified modulated signal; a low pass filter adapted to smooth the power-amplified modulated signal to obtain the drive signal; and a power amplification stopping section operating when holding a voltage of the actuator constant.
US09028022B2
According an aspect of the present invention, when causing the liquid ejection head to perform a feeding operation along a first direction, the substrate is retracted outside the projected feeding region of the liquid ejection head and the supporting member thereof prior to starting the feeding operation of the liquid ejection head, preventing dusts and other foreign matters, generated as a result of the feeding operation of the liquid ejection head and the supporting member, from being deposited on a surface of the substrate onto which the liquid is to be deposited.
US09028020B2
A stabilizing panel for placing items thereon is provided with a first surface including a plurality of parallelogram areas including four corners and four sides. Each corner of the parallelogram areas includes a peak, and the peaks are aligned so as to be parallel with one of the four sides of the parallelogram areas on the first surface. Each of the parallelogram areas defines a depression. The stabilizing panel may be rectangular and includes a pair of adjacent first edges and a pair of adjacent second edges. Each first edge is configured with a male connecting section and each second edge is configured with a female connecting section configured to interlock with the male connecting section of a neighboring stabilizing panel.
US09028017B2
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some implementations an expandable or adjustable snap-in cam or other friction device having a mechanically lockable drawer, shelf or divider in a cabinet, pantry, kitchen cupboard mount includes no screws or other permanent mounting.
US09028013B2
Provided is a driving device that applies a braking force to a first tire and a second tire rotatably arranged in a vehicle body. The driving device includes: a master cylinder configured to include a first liquid pressure chamber and a second liquid pressure chamber that supply a liquid pressure; a piston configured to apply an external force to the first liquid pressure chamber and the second liquid pressure chamber; a first hydraulic braking unit configured to apply a braking force to the first tire based on the liquid pressure supplied from the first liquid pressure chamber; and a second hydraulic braking unit configured to apply a braking force to the second tire based on the liquid pressure supplied from the second liquid pressure chamber.
US09028011B2
A method is provided for operating a parking brake module that is at least partially integrated into a compressed air generation system in the event of defects, having a control unit, solenoid valves, and a relay valve for aerating and deaerating at least one spring-loaded brake cylinder. A pressure in the parking brake module which is elevated compared to a normal pressure is determined. A constant compressed air delivery is stopped. A reduced switch-off pressure of the compressed air generation system is set. The pressure level in the parking brake module is lowered to the reduced switch-off pressure through repeated activation of the relay valve.
US09028006B2
A safety bow assembly for a child seat comprises: a bow body that has opposite first and second ends; first and second connecting parts that are connected to the child seat, the first connecting part defining an accommodating space and having a side wall; and an engaging lever that is connected movably to the side wall, that is formed with an engaging element facing the accommodating space, and that is movable relative to the side wall between a first position, in which the engaging element is adapted to engage releasably a coupling part of the child seat, and a second position, in which the engaging element is adapted to be disengaged from the coupling part.
US09028003B2
A stylish ready-to-assemble chaise lounge and sofa which may be easily and quickly assembled by a consumer, is provided. The invention is a kit from which either a stylish chaise lounge or a sofa may be easily assembled by a consumer using a single Allen wrench. The kits, both chaise and sofa, comprise a seat base, a long side seatback and a short side seatback, feet, fasteners and cushions. With regard to the chaise, the long and short side chaise seatbacks have rectangular lower portions with upper portions featuring a flowing curved “waterfall” seating surface which improves the comfort of a user leaning back against the seatback.
US09027994B2
A structure is provided to improve rigidity of a locking structure for skin terminals of a vehicle seat. The locking structure for the skin terminals of the vehicle seat includes a seat frame having a tucking groove on an outer surface, a skin terminal of a skin for covering the seat frame, a holding member fixed to the skin terminal, a carpet terminal surrounded by the holding member, and a cut and bent portion for regulating detachment of the holding member. The skin terminal and the carpet terminal are locked in the tucking groove. The holding member is provided with a projection portion, and the carpet terminal is provided with an engagement member engaged with the projection portion for regulating detachment from the holding member. The projection portion is provided closer to the opening side of the tucking groove than the engagement member.
US09027989B1
A vehicular system is provided with a substantially hollow member having a long axis, a short axis, and an outer surface substantially parallel to the long axis. The outer surface includes a plurality of notched elements configured to reduce strain from bending the member in the direction of the short axis, e.g., by a stretch bending process. The hollow member may also include an outer surface that is curved substantially in the direction of the short axis. A method of making the vehicular assembly includes the steps: providing a substantially hollow member having a long axis, a short axis, and an outer surface substantially parallel to the long axis; cutting a plurality of notched elements into the outer surface; and bending the member such that the portion of the outer surface in proximity to the notched elements is in tension and curved in the short axis direction.
US09027986B2
An open/close guard with a wiper device is attachable to a cab with a skylight. The wiper device includes a wiper for wiping a surface of the skylight, and a wiper drive unit that rotatably supports the wiper. The open/close guard includes a fixing frame attachable to the cab, and an open/close guard portion supported by the fixing frame. The open/close guard portion is supported by the fixing frame so that it can be opened or closed from or over the fixing frame.
US09027982B2
A vehicle door structure that can improve an effect of insulating sounds that penetrate from a vehicle exterior into a vehicle cabin. A front side door to which a vehicle door structure is applied has, at a door main body that supports a door glass such that the door glass can be raised and lowered, a weatherstrip having a wall in which an opening is formed at a position facing the door glass, and a sealing lip that is disposed so as to project-out from the wall and slidingly contact the door glass. Further, a wall body that, together with the wall, forms a closed space that communicates with the opening is provided at a side of the wall opposite the door glass.
US09027976B1
A multi-purpose helicopter pendant hook assembly is provided. The pendant hook assembly allows cargo load attachment by a ground crewman from positions either on the load itself or standing on the ground next to the load. In both cases, a stand-off from the helicopter improves safety for the ground crewmen. The hook assembly combines the capability to pick up cargo and personnel, or both, simultaneously. This multi-purpose feature reduces the need for more than one helicopter during recovery operations. The pendant has multiple D-rings for attachment of personnel and has a communications link for ground crew to pilot communications. The hook assembly also has a flange and hook configuration which allows release of the cargo load while retaining the cargo net.
US09027975B2
A method of replacing a generator of a wind power installation. The generator is provided in the interior of a pylon of a wind power installation and the pylon has a door opening. An exchanging cross beam is fixed by way of a first fastening point to a crane hook of a mobile crane. A first end of the cross beam is introduced with a second fastening point through the door opening into the pylon. The transformer to be replaced is fixed to the second fastening point of the first end. A compensating weight is fixed at the second fastening point to the second end of the cross beam. The second end of the cross beam is tilted or inclined until the transformer is at the height of the door opening and the crane hook is moved until the transformer to be replaced is outside the door opening.
US09027972B2
A vehicle door locking apparatus is equipped with a movable wedge, a fixed wedge, and an elastic member. The movable wedge is movable in the open/close direction of the vehicle door towards the vehicle body opening. The elastic member impels the movable wedge toward the fixed wedge. A slanted surface on the movable wedge and a slanted surface on the fixed wedge are configured to come into contact when the door is closed. The movable wedge is assembled on the end surface on the vehicle body opening side along with the base plate of a door lock striker that is assembled on the end surface on the vehicle body opening side. The fixed wedge is immovably assembled on the mounting section of the end surface on the vehicle door side, which is involved in a door lock assembly that is assembled on the end surface on the vehicle door side.
US09027971B2
A hood latch having an extra-long fishmouth for enabling a vehicle hood to deflect downwardly upon impact, such as when hit by a pedestrian in a frontal crash. To prevent this deflection when the hood is slammed shut in ordinary use, a stop lever is pivotally mounted to the latch housing. The stop lever features first and second arms defining a slot therein. One arm has a proboscis thereon and is biased to align the slot with the fishmouth, with the proboscis jutting into the fishmouth. The proboscis receives an impact from the striker and rotates the stop lever to a blocking position wherein the non-proboscis arm intercepts the striker and prevents it from reaching the bottom end of the fishmouth. In the closed position the ratchet retains the striker at an intermediate depth in the fishmouth, enabling the striker to travel toward the bottom end thereof.
US09027962B1
An airbag apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: an airbag main body; at least one vent which is provided at a side of the airbag main body, and operated in an opened state; a shield which shields the vent; and a tether which is connected with the shield, in which when an occupant in a vehicle collides with the airbag main body, the tether is operated so that the shield shields the vent.
US09027960B1
A front airbag device in which an airbag module can be detached from a steering wheel with a simpler operation is provided. A front airbag device includes a steering wheel and an airbag module. The airbag module includes a housing. The steering wheel includes a positioning hook and a retaining hook. The housing includes a positioning tab on which the positioning hook is hooked and a rod-shaped elastic body on which the retaining hook is hooked. The positioning tab has an extension portion, and the steering wheel has a window portion which enables the extension portion to be visible from the outside. The positioning tab is tilted whereby the positioning tab is disconnected from the positioning hook and the elastic body can move.
US09027958B2
In at least certain embodiments, the vehicle seat assembly comprises a frame, a seat pad, a trim cover extending over at least part of the seat pad with the cover having a release seam, and an air bag assembly including an inflator and an air bag. In accordance with an embodiment, the air bag assembly includes an air bag guide associating the air bag assembly with the release seam, the air bag guide comprising a panel having an intermediate portion that wraps around the air bag assembly, a first end secured to the trim cover on a first side of the release seam and a second end secured to the trim cover on the first side of the release seam spaced a predetermined distance from the first end, the first end having a first width, the second end having a second width and the intermediate portion having a third width, with the sum of the first and second widths being equal to or greater than the third width.
US09027952B2
A lower leg rest device includes an engaging member and a support member having a length adjusting mechanism. An end of the support member is pivotally connected to the frame of the baby carriage at a pivot point. The engaging member is disposed on another end of the support member. The support member is used for supporting a child safety seat. The length adjusting mechanism is used for adjusting a length between the engaging member and the pivot point. When the lower leg rest device pivots to a position below the frame body, the length of the support member can be shortened so as to support legs of a baby seated in the baby carriage. When the lower leg rest device pivots to a position above the frame body, the support member can be lengthened so that the engaging member can be engaged with and support the child safety seat.
US09027950B2
An anti-rattle hitch (100) includes a tubular insert (102) that is configured to be inserted into a receiver (90). A wedge mechanism comprising a first wedge member (112) and a second wedge member (114) are disposed in the insert, and have slidably engaged angled faces. The second wedge member includes one or more pistons that extend through piston (110) apertures in the insert such that the longitudinal position of the second wedge member is fixed. An adjustment member (120) adjusts the position of the first wedge member, thereby adjusting the piston position which can be biased against the receiver.
US09027935B2
A multi-layer gasket including first and second functional layers, each having an opening. Each of the functional layers includes a compression bead, and the compression beads contact and seal against one another when the gasket is compressed between a cylinder head and an engine block. At least one of the functional layers includes a stopper disposed between the compression bead and the opening. The stopper has a gear-like shape including a plurality of circumferentially spaced teeth. Each tooth extends upwardly from a plane by a distance which is less than the combined height of the compression beads. When the gasket is compressed between the cylinder head and engine block, the stopper ensures that the compression beads remain elastically biased against one another and maintain a gas-tight seal.
US09027930B2
A method of sealing a passage in a body with a sealing composition comprising (a) a major proportion of a latex emulsion or colloid; and (b) a minor proportion of lauric acid or a laurate compound; and (c) at least one further selected additive, ideally a latex coagulation inhibitor, wherein said composition is pumped into said passage where it is set or coagulated to form a seal. Advantageously, the laurate compound is ammonium laurate and coagulation is conveniently induced by adjusting pH of the sealing composition from alkaline to acidic pH range. The method is particularly well suited to sealing in faulty formations or sealing sites and may be used in sealing within salt mines which contain brines.
US09027926B2
A sheet conveyance device includes conveying portion, first sensing portion, second sensing portion, drive control portion, response time calculation portion, and setting time changing portion. First sensing portion is disposed upstream conveying portion in conveyance direction. Second sensing portion is disposed downstream conveying portion in conveyance direction. Drive control portion makes conveying portion stop until a predetermined setting time has elapsed after sensing of the leading end of the sheet-like member in the conveyance direction of the sheet-like member by first sensing portion, to deflect the sheet-like member, and outputs a drive signal that drives the conveying portion when setting time has elapsed. Response time calculation portion calculates response time until conveying portion is driven since drive signal is outputted. Setting time changing portion changes setting time based on response time calculated by response time calculation portion.
US09027923B2
A sheet conveying apparatus includes: a conveying unit nipping a sheet in a nip portion to convey the sheet; a shutter unit rotated in a predetermined rotation direction by being pushed by the conveyed sheet to correct a skew of the sheet; a rotation transmitting unit configured to transmit a rotational driving force to the shutter unit to rotate the shutter unit in the predetermined rotation direction; and an urging unit configured to apply an urging force to the shutter unit so that the shutter unit comes into contact with a surface of the sheet, thereafter the shutter unit is returned to a waiting position along with the passage of a rear end of the sheet through the shutter unit after the shutter unit is rotated by the rotational driving force of the rotation transmitting unit.
US09027919B2
Provided are a sheet feeding device and an image forming apparatus that are capable of accurately detecting an abnormality of a feeding state without erroneously detecting when a trailing edge of a preceding sheet and a leading edge of a subsequent sheet are fed in an overlaid state. The sheet feeding device includes ultrasonic wave sensors 6 and 7 that detect an overlaid state of a preceding sheet Sa and a subsequent sheet Sb fed from feeding portions 51, 317 to 319 and a controller 1 that continuously performs a detection of the overlaid state of a sheet fed from the feeding portion at a predetermined number of detecting points along a sheet conveying direction at every predetermined time and determines a number of detecting points where detects. Based on the determined number of detecting points, the controller determines that the overlaid state is normal or abnormal.
US09027918B2
A medium processor is provided with a medium storage which can house two small storing boxes next to each other and has plural slots into which the two small storing boxes can be detachably loaded. Thus, the two small storing boxes can be loaded in a space equivalent to one conventional bill storing box, and the small storing boxes can be detached for servicing even when there are two small storing boxes loaded in one slot. Thus, various kinds of media can be handled without impairing maintainability.
US09027917B2
A puncher cylinder includes a puncher knife, the cylinder being arranged for cooperation with a paper web such that the cylinder when in use can be rolled longitudinally along and in contact with the paper web, punching holes in the paper web by way of the puncher knife. The holes are punched a longitudinal distance from each other essentially corresponding to the circumference of the cylinder. A system is further disclosed including the punching cylinder, as is a method utilizing the punching cylinder, and a newspaper partly produced by way of the punching cylinder.
US09027915B2
A retractable assembly for introducing an insertable device into a container through a container opening, comprising: a linear guide, which is releasably mountable on the container via a holder; and, guided along the linear guide, a slider, on which an articulated head is so seated, that it has at least two degrees of freedom perpendicular to the linear guide, wherein the insertable device is at least axially guided in the articulated head in the mounted state.
US09027911B2
The present invention relates to a valve tray for mass transfer columns having a base plate, at least one liquid intake and at least one liquid outlet for forming a liquid flow having a direction of flow on the base plate, a plurality of gas entry orifices formed in the base plate and also a plurality of fixed valves covering the gas entry orifices, which fixed valves are formed in one piece with the base plate and in each case include a valve roof at a distance to the base plate and also a valve rear side and a valve front side, wherein between the base plate, the valve rear side, the valve front side and the valve roof of each fixed valve, at least one side gas outlet orifice is formed in each case. The side gas outlet orifices of the fixed valves can taper in the direction of flow of the liquid flow.
US09027894B2
A support apparatus includes an arm assembly attached to a support assembly such that the arm assembly is positionable adjacent to an article of furniture such as a desk or work surface. A mounting device is attached to the arm assembly that is sized and configured to retain a display device. A vertically adjustable attachment mechanism attaches a first end of the counterbalance mechanism to the arm assembly or support assembly. The vertically adjustable attachment mechanism is sized and configured such that a vertical position of the first end of the counterbalance mechanism is adjustable via movement of at least one component of the vertically adjustable attachment mechanism.
US09027890B2
An aircraft wing assembly, comprising a wing having a fixed leading edge, a slat mounted for movement between a retracted position and an extended position with respect to the fixed leading edge, and a translating cable device for electrically connecting the slat to the wing and having a strut coupled at one end to the slat, the fixed leading edge having an aperture to accommodate the strut, and a seal assembly for sealing between the strut and the aperture.
US09027875B2
An aircraft pylon is disclosed, the pylon including a strut, a modular fluid containment structure and a modular firewall. The strut presents an open structure and connects an aircraft external element to the aircraft. The fluid containment structure is associated with a fluid transfer component, wherein the fluid containment structure contains escaped fluid from the fluid transfer component and channels the escaped fluid away from the aircraft. Both the fluid containment component and the firewall are modular and separable from the strut.
US09027861B2
A spray nozzle assembly including at least one wear part made from a hard and abrasion-resistant material and a protective housing made from a strong and resilient material and having a downstream chamber adapted to receive one or more of the wear parts in releasably trapped relationship, the downstream chamber having a wall including a post defined by a slot in the downstream chamber wall either side of the post, the post including an inwardly extending protuberance at or near its end and adapted to prevent the wear part from escaping from the downstream chamber.
US09027853B2
A multiple nozzle body including a plurality of discharge nozzles for arranging on the liquid line of an agricultural crop sprayer, wherein the liquid line can be connected to the supply line of the multiple nozzle body, wherein the supply line opens out in a distribution space, wherein a plurality of connecting lines that respectively lead to a discharge nozzle branch off from the distribution space, wherein a shut-off element that is respectively assigned to a connecting line and is formed as a shut-off valve is assigned to the distribution space, wherein one or more connecting lines can be optionally connected to and/or shut off from the supply line by means of the shut-off element of the shut-off valves, which can be actuated by means of a switchable actuating element.
US09027850B2
A method of manufacturing a nozzle assembly may include the step of over molding a nozzle housing, or a portion of a nozzle housing, onto at least one nozzle component, such as an injection tube. Nozzle assemblies and flow cytometers incorporating nozzle assemblies may include any combination of straight smooth injection tubes, improved features for securing a nozzle assembly, improved features for debubbling a nozzle assembly, and aggressive orienting geometries. A method of sorting cells may include the step of magnetically coupling a nozzle assembly with a flow cytometer.
US09027849B2
In an electric airless sprayer (16), as the motor (14) temperature approaches allowable limits, several performance cutbacks can be used to prevent overheating. The preferred method is to gradually reduce the controlled pressure. If the temperature continues to rise, the control (20) switches to on/off or deadband control. If the temperature continues to rise in spite of these measures, the control (20) shuts the unit down.
US09027847B2
A method of estimating a floor temperature of a solid floor that has a fluid conduit embedded in the floor. Provided is a control scheme that provides a sequence, where the concrete temperature can be estimated through the temperature of the fluid in the conduit embedded in the floor. After the concrete temperature is obtained, a heating sequence can be initiated for providing fast and accurate control of the floor temperature.
US09027830B2
There is provided a cash handling system capable of reliably storing sales proceeds and the like stored in a cash settlement apparatus into a cash accounting apparatus. A cash management system 1 includes a cash settlement apparatus 11, a cash accounting apparatus 21 and the cash transport cassette 30. The cash settlement apparatus 11 and the cash accounting apparatus 21 have reading units 157, 257, respectively, which are configured to read out cassette ID information from a memory unit 35 of the cash transport cassette 30. In addition, the cash management system 1 further includes: a management unit 26 having a depositing judgment unit 26A configured to judge whether cash in the cash settlement apparatus 11 to be received by the cash transport cassette 30 can be deposited into the cash accounting apparatus 21 or not; a guide apparatus configured to guide information from the management unit 26; and a comparison unit 27 configured to compare the cassette ID information read out by the reading unit 257 of the cash accounting apparatus 21 and the information from the management unit 26.
US09027826B2
A selectively frangible shipping carton for storing and shipping goods comprises at least one side wall joining a top wall and a bottom wall. A path of weakness extends around a periphery of the carton through at least a portion of the side wall. The path of weakness enables a user to manually separate the carton into at least two portions: an upper portion including the top wall and a lower portion including the bottom wall. A pair of lines of weakness extends upwardly relative to the path of weakness and terminates at or adjacent the top wall. A grip flap defined in the side wall between the pair of lines of weakness, the grip flap being graspable by the user when separating the carton into the at least two portions.
US09027822B2
An adhesive layer forming step of forming an adhesive layer on a surface of a substrate; a solder layer forming step of forming a solder layer on the adhesive layer by loading plural solder powders with in-between spaces; and a filler supplying step of supplying fillers to the in-between spaces of the solder powders that have been formed on the adhesive layer are included.
US09027816B2
The invention relates to a fastener driving tool comprising a tank (5) for storing a fuel, in particular liquefied petroleum gas, a combustion chamber (2) connected to the tank (5), wherein the combustion chamber (2) has a movable piston for powering a driving plunger, and a metering device (4) arranged between the tank (5) and the combustion chamber (2) wherein a defined quantity of fuel can be transported by means of the metering device (4) from a metering space (12) into the combustion chamber (2), wherein the metering device (4) comprises a thermomechanical element (15) by means of which the defined amount can be varied as a function of a temperature.
US09027812B2
A backpack frame is disclosed herein. The backpack frame includes a frame body and an arm coupled to the frame body. The arm has a proximal portion at the one or more points of connection and a distal portion that is extended away from the one or more points of connection. A space between a distal portion of the arm and the frame body is sufficiently sized to receive the head of an antlered animal therethrough when the distal portion of the arm is pivoted away from the frame body. The arm is capable of pivoting at a point of connection between the arm and the frame body. Accordingly, at least in some instances, when the head of an antlered animal is inserted through the space, the arm pivots, locking the head in place and supporting the head and antlers.
US09027810B1
A method for a user to produce a ballistic resistant carriable article through the user a) providing a desired article to be used as a container for at least one sheet of ballistic resistant material that is formable to the selected article, b) shaping said material by cutting or folding to the desired article and attaching through fastener to the interior surface of the article. The carriable article is preferably taken from the group of purse, attaché case, backpack and carry-on luggage. The at least one sheet of ballistic resistant material is attached to the interior surface of the article with fastener means, preferably taken from the group of double back tape, VELCRO®, snaps and glue.
US09027808B2
An attachment system includes a case having a bottom including at least two slots, a strap inserted into the at least two slots of the case, and at least one add-on piece attached to the strap. The strap includes an attachment means, and the at least one add-on piece may include interchangeable jewelry pieces.
US09027806B1
A beverage and pill carrier device attaches to a garment for hands free carrying of a beverage and discretely held medications. The device includes a container for holding a bottle. A hook is coupled to and extends from the container. The hook is attachable to a loop of a garment. A support wall is coupled to a perimeter wall of the container and extends through an interior space of the container. The support wall supports the bottle in spaced relationship to a base wall of the container. A pocket wall has a peripheral edge coupled to a perimeter edge of the base wall such that the pocket wall forms a pocket with the base wall. An opening extends into the pocket for insertion of pills into the pocket.
US09027804B2
A stackable garment hanger is configured to stack vertically, with successive hangers being positioned in an undulating, back-and-forth manner. At least a portion of each garment hanger nests within the outline of the next garment hanger in a vertical stack of identical garment hangers. The front and back garment hangers may be substantially mirror images of each other. The garment hanger includes at least one pair of binding slots extending therethrough and separated by a predetermined distance that coincides with the up-and-down, undulating offset distance between each adjacent, nested and stacked garment hanger. In this manner, a coaxial opening or continuous channel is formed through the alternating, successive alignment of an upper slot an adjacent lower slot, a further adjacent upper slot, and so forth.
US09027799B2
A mounting member fitted and mounted on an open head portion of an aerosol container 11 having an inner diameter of 1 inch is formed with two valve housing mounting portions. The mounting member is fitted and mounted with the middle portion of this mounting member being located at a bead 12 of the opening head portion of the aerosol container 11 in such a manner that the upper portions of aerosol valves project upwardly from the opening head portion. A cover 19 covering the outside of the mounting member is crimped to the outside of the bead 12 in a manner to hold down a stem gasket and two aerosol valves are provided in the inch can 11. A reinforcing cover member which holds down the stem gasket and prevents deformation of the cover is provided between the mounting member and the cover 19 to thereby accurately prevent deformation due to internal pressure applied to a top ceiling of the cover and leakage from the stem gasket. An aerosol device for dispensing plural kinds of liquids in which two aerosol valves for dispensing and injecting contents liquids are disposed in a standard aerosol container with a bead having an inner diameter of 1 inch can thereby be provided.
US09027796B1
A flexible and resilient tool for use with a conventional half barrel, parallel frame caulking gun or enclosed “sausage” style caulking gun, aiding the user in finishing and shaping after the caulking material has been applied. One function of the tool is to collect excess caulk from his finger(s) or from various shaping tools and spatulas. Also provided can be cap, rag and sponge holders. Additional embodiments include adaptations to existing prior art disposable caulking cartridges and caulking guns to include components of the disclosed tool.
US09027788B2
A fluid level gauging mechanism external of a reservoir bottle in a dispenser which mechanism emits electromagnetic radiation and senses the electromagnetic radiation emitted which passes through the bottle or is reflected from the bottle through a wall of the bottle into the bottle at a first height and senses reflected radiation passing outwardly from the bottle at a second different height.
US09027780B2
An egg carton includes a base and a lid that are hinged together through a web. The base and lid may include side walls extending around the base and the lid, the base including at least one egg cup for receiving an egg but typically around six. The base further includes at least one compartment in the base for containing other ingredients than eggs, such as bacon. The lid and base include co-operating members arranged so that when the lid is closed on the base the co-operating members ensure that there is a gap between the side walls of the lid and base to allow the flow of air into and out of the carton. This ensures that no moisture collects in the carton that can affect the longevity of the eggs and other ingredients.
US09027777B1
A vented trash container with a manifold of air channels which is capable of distributing air throughout the entire container. The vented trash container is capable of eliminating vacuum between walls of the container and a liner. The manifold in the container comprises a plurality of air channels and an air distributing means. The manifold forms a network of the air channels so as to provide air distribution throughout the entire container and enhance reliability of the air distribution. The vented trash container with the manifold can be cast form a single piece of a material to form an integrated seamless unit and easily manufactured by a single injection molding process.
US09027771B2
A carrier for carrying at least one beverage container includes a sheet of at least one layer of a polymeric material having an arrangement of at least one aperture for receiving a beverage container, and having a plurality of handle members for grasping by at least one finger or portion of a users hand for carrying the beverage container. A tray configuration is also provided for use with the carrier or in a separate manner, and a dispensing system for use with the carrier is set forth.
US09027768B2
A prescription bottle storage unit for holding a plurality of prescription pill bottles includes a holder for holding the plurality of prescription pill bottles in fixed positions spaced-apart around a vertically-extending axis so that outwardly-extending side portions of the plurality of prescription pill bottles are observable.
US09027758B2
A collapsible sifter having a substantially rigid annular top rim, a substantially rigid annular bottom ring, a flexible annular middle portion having two or more living hinges to collapse the sifter from an open configuration to a collapsed configuration and a removably attachable bottom implement. First and second cooperating elements, associated with the annular bottom ring and the bottom implement, are used to removably attach the bottom implement to the bottom annular ring.
US09027750B1
A phone support device holds and supports a phone on or adjacent to a bed. The device includes a tray having a panel and a perimeter wall coupled to and extending upwardly from a perimeter edge of the panel defining a receptacle such that the tray is configured for receiving a phone in the tray. A knob is coupled to and extends from a bottom surface of the panel. A clip having a pair of spaced arms selectively engageable to the knob wherein the clip is secures the tray to a sheet by positioning the sheet between the knob and the clip when the clip is engaged to the knob.
US09027742B2
“CONVEYOR SYSTEM WITH DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS AND ISOLATION OF THE CONVEYED PRODUCT IN RELATION TO THE DRIVE SYSTEM”, is a conveyor for grains, seeds, fruit, granulated and ground products and similar products. The conveyor has different applications and isolates the product conveyed from the drive system. There are two or more tubes, and in each set of tubes there is a swivel with a drive system using roller chain, chain, cable, belt, et cetera. In this manner, the drive system is isolated from the product, avoiding mechanical damages, contamination, and also increasing the performance of the system.
US09027741B2
The invention is related to a transport system for sheet material including a conveyor belt charged with a vacuum. The transport system includes a vacuum chamber providing the vacuum to charge the conveyor belt while moving along the vacuum chamber in a transport direction, wherein the conveyor belt is permeable to air by recesses having specified distances from each other, and air nozzles arranged at a deflection position inside the vacuum chamber. The specified distances from each other correlate with the distances of the recesses in the conveyor belt to allow pressurized air charged to the air nozzles to pass through the recesses in the conveyor belt.
US09027736B2
A rotary conveyor apparatus, for collecting, transferring and releasing containers, includes: a platform (9) rotating according to a rotation axis (AA); trolleys (3), supported by the platform, and slidable in a corresponding slit extending from the periphery (9B) to the center of rotation through an internal conduit (6), within the trolleys a certain degree of suction is created for a determined rotation angle of the platform through a suction box (4), arranged at the lower part and in contact with the platform, including a suction opening (7) extending along an angular section thereof. The trolleys are movable relative to the rotation of the platform, and are moved from the periphery to the center of rotation and vice versa during a complete rotation of the platform. The movement action is directed by a first guide closed loop-like on the box and a second radial guide integral with the platform.
US09027731B2
A meat-processing system includes a production station for producing meat products, a processing station for processing the meat products, and a conveying system configured for conveying the meat products in a conveying direction along a conveying path from the production station to the processing station. The conveying system includes a supply conveyor and a discharge conveyor. The supply conveyor is configured for transferring the meat products to the discharge conveyor in such a manner that the discharge orientation with which the meat products are delivered by the production station differs from the orientation with which the meat products are supplied to the processing station.
US09027729B2
A banknote handling device includes a safe that protects banknotes (casing of a second unit), a first conveyance path externally provided to the safe, and a second conveyance path internally provided to the safe. The safe is provided with at least one opening portion through which the banknotes pass. A passing unit including a passing conveyance mechanism that passes a banknote between the first conveyance path and the second conveyance path and a left-behind sensor that detects a banknote that is left-behind, is detachably installed inside the opening portion of the safe.
US09027712B2
An apparatus that provides selectively deployable worker access with fall protection to at least a portion of the top of a container disposed above the ground. A gangway and its associated fall protection cage are selectively deployable from an elevated platform over the top of the container. The gangway and its associated cage are slidably connected to the platform via a track carried along the side of the platform.
US09027709B2
A tree stand for removable attachment to a tree comprising: a support bar having an upper end and a lower end with a length therebetween; an upper jaw coupled to the upper end of the support bar and a lower jaw coupled to the lower end of the support bar, and a platform mounted to the outer side of the lower jaw by insertion of a set of protrusions on the platform into the pivoting snap locks of the arms of the lower jaw. A seat may also be attached to the support par through the upper jaw.
US09027708B2
This maintenance trolley (17) for the air intake (9) of the nacelle of an aircraft turbojet engine is notable in that it comprises a base (19) and a platform (23) cantilever-mounted on this base (19) and designed to enter said air intake (9) without contact therewith.
US09027706B2
An enhanced, lightweight acoustic absorber is provided. The acoustic absorber is bounded by the at least one scrim layer without need for additional layers, such as melt-blown or nonwoven layers. The at least one scrim layer includes at least one non-planar, folded scrim layer bonded to itself or another scrim layer to form a plurality of air spaces between folded portions of the at least one scrim layer. The at least one scrim layer establishes a thickness of the acoustic absorber extending across opposite exposed sides of the acoustic absorber.
US09027705B2
There is provided a sound absorbing member lamination structure in which the functions by the sound field adjustment can effectively be achieved by preventing the sound reflection against an intension of design in a boundary between the sound absorbing member and the other layer, when the sound absorbing member and the other layer are laminated into a united body. When the sound absorbing member and the other layer are placed in a stacked state, they are bonded with the use of a pressure-sensitive adhesive, so that the sound absorbing member and the other layer are combined together, with the pressure-sensitive adhesive kept uncured in a stacked state of the sound absorbing member and the other layer. Thus, such an uncured pressure-sensitive adhesive does not become a reflection portion of a sound. It is therefore possible to cause the sound to pass through appropriately the boundary between the respective layers.
US09027703B2
Methods and devices are disclosed for a gaseous liquid to audibly deform the shape of a closed container. One embodiment includes pushing inward to depress a plurality of deformations integral with an exterior of the plastic container having a bottom, a top, the exterior, and an interior, wherein the top is at least partially opened. Further, the method includes sealing, subsequent to the depressing, the top to close the plastic container. Further still, the method includes pushing outward, subsequent to the sealing, by carbonation from a carbonated liquid contained within the interior, on the plurality of deformations. Yet further, the method includes deforming, by the pushing outward, at least two of the plurality of deformations to displaced positions. The method also includes creating two or more sounds and/or movement by the deforming.
US09027689B1
A reciprocating infant stroller assembly for automatically producing a reciprocating forward and backward rocking motion on an infant stroller is disclosed. The reciprocating infant stroller assembly includes a battery-powered motor having a linkage which is connects to an infant stroller wheel to induce a reciprocating motion. The reciprocating infant stroller assembly further includes a power switch and a speed control for controlling the frequency of motion.
US09027681B2
Embodiments of hybrid sensor-enabled and autonomous electric wheels can include a plurality of systems and devices integrated into a single compact hub unit that can be retrofitted into numerous types of two-wheeled bicycles. In one embodiment, an electrically motorized bicycle wheel can include a wheel rim, a wheel hub having an electric motor, a battery pack and a control unit configured to control a drive torque of the electric motor, and a plurality of wheel spokes connecting the wheel rim to the wheel hub. The electric motor, the battery pack and the control unit can be positioned within the wheel hub of the electrically motorized bicycle wheel.
US09027680B2
In a hybrid vehicle, a target rotational speed and a target torque or a target operation point of an engine are set to a predetermined optimal efficiency rotational speed and a predetermined optimal efficiency torque that enable the engine to be operated efficiently when the engine is operated while a state of charge of the battery is equal to or more than a control-center state of charge after a start of a driving of the vehicle. Then, the engine and motors are controlled so that the engine is operated at the target operation point and a torque equivalent to a torque demand is output to a ring gear shaft or an axle.
US09027665B2
A wireless small motor driver, in which power consumption is decreased by adjusting a gear ratio, the efficiency of an operation is increased due to a high torque, and the safety of a worker at night is ensured using an illumination lamp. The wireless small motor driver includes a driver case inside of which a motor is provided. A driver bit has a predetermined length in a bilateral direction, the driver bit being replaceable, with one or both ends thereof conforming to the shape of a bolt, and has a fixing projection. A socket is coupled to an end portion of the driver case, the driver bit being fastened to the socket. A rotation reduction gear is coupled to the motor, the rotation reduction gear transmitting rotary force to the socket and increasing a torque. A USB and a battery for supplying uniform power to the motor are added.
US09027659B2
A technique enables anchoring of a tool in a wellbore. The technique provides traction against a well component without creating high stress concentrations that weaken the well component. An anchoring device comprises anchoring members that are selectively movable to an expanded configuration for anchoring the tool. The anchoring members have traction surfaces able to selectively engage a smooth anchoring surface of the well component at any desired location along the well component. Each traction surface is formed to facilitate traction while minimizing stress concentration.
US09027655B2
A slip element, including a substrate at least partially formed from a material degradable upon exposure to a fluid; and an outer surface disposed on the substrate. A method of removing a slip element including exposing a substrate of the slip element to a downhole fluid for degrading the substrate.
US09027654B2
A valve for use in a flow management system comprising a valve including a body, a shuttle, and a seat closure, a rotatable shaft passing through the body and the seat closure, the rotatable shaft for operating a mechanical pump, and, translation of the seat closure along the rotatable shaft operable to mate the seat closure with a seat of the shuttle.
US09027651B2
A completion system, including a barrier valve transitionable between an open position and a closed position. An upper completion is operatively coupled with the barrier valve for mechanically transitioning the barrier valve to the closed position when the upper completion is withdrawn. A method of operating a completion system is also included.
US09027643B2
A method for enhanced degradation of a cutting structure on a drill shoe is provided. The cutting structure may be degraded at an accelerated rate after achieving a desired objective. Degradation of the cutting structures on the drill shoe may facilitate the eventual drill out of the drill shoe. In one embodiment, a method of degrading the cutting structure includes operating the drill shoe using a reduced flow rate of drilling fluid. In another embodiment, a method of degrading the cutting structure includes operating the drill shoe at an increased rotary speed. In yet another embodiment, a method of degrading the cutting structure includes operating the drill shoe with an increased weight on bit. In yet another embodiment, a method of degrading the cutting structure includes any combination of one or more of the enhanced degradation methods described herein.
US09027642B2
A dual-purpose tool can be used for steam injection and production in a wellbore. A mandrel deploys in the wellbore to communicate steam in a steam injection operation and to communicate production fluid from the wellbore during production operations. A distributor on the mandrel has nozzles for injecting steam into the wellbore and has production valves for producing fluids from the wellbore. A screen can be used to screen production fluids as they are produced through the production valves. The nozzles can also allows produced fluids to flow into the mandrel, or backflow valves can be used to restrict flow of produced fluids through the nozzles while permitting the flow of steam out of the nozzles.
US09027638B2
A method of producing hydrocarbons from a well. The method begins by injecting steam into a well. The bitumen in the formation is then heated with the injected steam, followed by ceasing the injection of steam into the well and then by soaking the bitumen with the injected steam and collecting the heated oil. Steam that has condensed is revaporized by directing RF/MW radiation to the steam allowing for more bitumen to be produced without injecting more steam. In addition, some of the steam could become superheated, wherein the temperature of the superheated steam is greater than the temperature of the steam. The bitumen is heated by the revaporized steam and the superheated steam, followed by soaking the bitumen with the revaporized steam and the superheated steam. Hydrocarbons are then produced from the well.
US09027637B2
A well system has a fluid flow path for the inflow of production fluid. An inflow control device is disposed within the fluid flow path. The inflow control device has at least first and second fluid passageways. A first plug is disposed within the first fluid passageway and is operable to restrict fluid flow therethrough. The first plug is operably removable from the first fluid passageway responsive to a first stimulus. A second plug is disposed within the second fluid passageway and is operable to restrict fluid flow therethrough. The second plug is operably removable from the second fluid passageway responsive to a second stimulus, wherein the first stimulus is different from the second stimulus.
US09027635B2
A device for withdrawing heat energy from air. The device includes a layer of a substantially hydrophobic coating on a heat exchange surface. The coating has a lower surface tension than water, to repel water and prevent the formation of water condensation on the surface. For example, the coating can be a fluoropolymer such as 1,1,2,3,3,3 hexafluoropropene.
US09027634B2
‘Underground Thermal Battery Storage System’ using a battery structure of one or more underground thermally insulated cells, where each cell comprised of a waterproof thermal insulation shell, one or more fluid storage tanks and earth matrix. The thermal storage cell's fluid storage tanks are interconnected using a thermal fluid transport system with control valves, circulating pumps, and managed by a programmable controller. The programmable controller uses the cell sensors to determine cell status, control cell interconnections, and to manage the thermal charging and discharging by exterior heating or cooling devices. A moisture injection system is provided to control the thermal conductivity within the cell's earth matrix.
US09027631B2
Metal alloy injection molding techniques are described. In one or more implementations, these techniques may also include adjustment of injection pressure, configuration of runners, and/or use of vacuum pressure, and so on to encourage flow of the metal alloy through a mold. Techniques are also described that utilize protrusions to counteract thermal expansion and subsequent contraction of the metal alloy upon cooling. Further, techniques are described in which a radius of edges of a feature is configured to encourage flow and reduce voids. A variety of other techniques are also described herein.
US09027629B1
A method of using a portable, protective barrier for facilitating the passage of oversized articles through a span defined between two barriers. The protective barrier is fabricated of a board having a first (preferably smooth) planar surface and an opposite (preferably textured) planar surface defined by a peripheral edge. An arch is formed in the protective barrier to provide vertical support as well as pliancy during use. The arch can be formed by retention of the barrier within a forming carrier. The arched protective barrier is placed between the article being transferred through the span and at least one of the barriers. The article compresses the arched section of the protective barrier to facilitate movement of the article through the span. The article can be furniture, appliances, equipment, etc., and the barriers can be a corner, a wall, a doorjamb, a staircase, other furniture, artwork, etc.
US09027623B2
A belt welding apparatus is provided for joining together the ends of one or more monolithic conveyor belts. In one form, a belt support is configured to support the belt ends in spaced relation to each other and a non-contact heating device is provided for being disposed between the belt ends to generate thermal radiation for joining the belt ends together. In another form, a drive mechanism is operable to cause relative movement of a pair of platens, for supporting belt ends, toward and away from each other and a heating device between heating and stowed positions. An actuator of the drive mechanism is movable by an operator between at least three operation positions corresponding to three different operation positions of the platens.
US09027621B2
A system comprises a feed assembly for applying composite tape; a unit for forming lateral stripes across a portion of the tape that has been applied; a camera for capturing images of the lateral stripes; and a processor programmed to process the images of the lateral stripes to identify any discontinuities in the tape. Those stripes intersecting any discontinuities will make those discontinuities apparent.
US09027618B2
A mounted assembly of a wheel and a tire. The tire inflation pressure is greater than 9 bar, and a relative deflection of the tire greater than 30%. The rim comprises a drop-center functionality and is of monobloc type. A carcass reinforcement includes a circumferential alignment of carcass reinforcement elements anchored in the beads by a stack of circumferentially oriented reinforcement elements, and by an anchoring rubber mix having an elasticity modulus of less than 30 MPa at 10% deformation.
US09027605B2
An assembly and a method for reinforcing or repairing one or more segments of an existing pipeline, without taking the pipeline out of service and without the need for disassembling the existing pipeline segments that are to be repaired. The assembly incorporates a metallic reinforcement pipe, a front seal ring, a rear seal ring, a front seal ring retention assembly, a rear seal ring retention assembly, and a self-hardening medium receiver. The reinforcement pipe and the seal rings create an annular space between the respective ends of the reinforcement pipe and the external surface of the existing pipeline. The seal rings, seal ring retention assemblies, and the flexible reinforcement pipe, accommodate out-of-round and joint angular displacement conditions of the existing pipeline. A self-hardening medium is injected into the annular space and pressure is maintained on the medium until the medium has set.
US09027604B2
The present invention relates to sealing means made of a plastically deformable material for mechanical sealing of hollow hoses (2) of elastic material by means of an appliance having at least two jaws, at least one of which is movable towards and away from the other and which, when moving towards each other, crimp the sealing means against the hose (2) for contamination-tight sealing of the same, the sealing means (20) comprises at least one sealing member (4, 4′; 44, 44′; 64, 64′; 74, 74′; 84), which has two opposite ends and an opening (40, 40′) that extends between said ends to allow the at least one sealing member to be slipped onto the hose (2) to be sealed.The present invention also relates to a kit comprising a sealing means and an appliance for sealing of hollow hoses and to a method for mechanical sealing of hollow hoses.
US09027603B2
An open ended cap for a pipe is provided comprising a flexible tubular body wherein one end has a downwardly-extending radial rim. The tubular body includes a finger grip member recessed from the end of the cap and extending inwardly from an inner periphery of the rim and connected to a tear strip extending across the rim and downwardly along at least a portion of the tubular body. The tubular body optionally has an interior wall surface having multiple compressible longitudinal fit beads which are configured to provide contact with the external surface of a pipe upon being inserted into the end cap. The open ended cap may be used in conjunction with a closed end cap fit within the bore of the pipe to maximize protection of both the exterior and interior of the pipe.
US09027600B2
An accumulator of the invention is provided with a safety mechanism for an emergency which releases an internal pressure of the housing to the oil port side so as to prevent the housing from being exploded by the internal pressure of the housing which comes to a higher pressure in an emergency, for example, occurrence of fire disaster. The safety mechanism for the emergency has a taper portion in a corner portion between the tubular portion and the end surface portion of the stay. The taper portion is buckled at its root position in the emergency. In the case that the taper portion is buckled, a pressure releasing flow path is formed between the bellows cap or the retained member and the taper portion as well as the bellows cap or the retained member and the end surface portion come away. The stay can be manufactured only by press molding.
US09027589B2
An assembly of valve sections includes an inlet section, an outlet section, a working section, and a working section. The working section is a conventional pressure compensated working section. The working section includes a directional control valve, a pressure compensator valve, and a pressure limiter valve. The valves are of integral construction, such that each is an essential part to complete the other. The pressure compensator valve includes a pressure compensator spool movable between an opened position and a closed position in response to a pressure differential across the spool. The pressure limiter valve includes a pressure limiter spool that moves to an open position to change the pressure differential and close the pressure compensator valve when a selected limit pressure is reached.
US09027586B2
In a pipeline for transportation of gas, the supplying pressure for the gas out through an outlet shall not exceed a threshold value. The pipeline has a safely unit with a pressure transmitter and a temperature transmitter arranged in connection to the pipeline close to an inlet of the pipeline. The safety unit comprises a device for measuring the flow rate and the safely unit is either used for maintaining an increased inlet pressure to the pipeline and/or in order to use a pipeline with a reduced inner diameter within a given safety level against leakage and excessive pressure.
US09027584B2
A flush valve assembly having a handle assembly positioning bushing for spacing a handle assembly within an opening of the flush valve assembly. The handle assembly positioning bushing having an eccentric opening for receiving the handle such that rotation of the handle assembly positioning bushing with regard to the flush valve assembly body alters the height of the handle assembly and, thus, the volume of water passing through the flush valve assembly during a flush cycle.
US09027578B2
A gravity and flow operated diverter valve diverts liquid flow from one source to either of two output destinations. The valve includes a housing, an inlet opening, a first outlet opening and a second outlet opening. A valve member is located coaxially in the housing interior, the valve member having at least one flow path extending axially therethough, an exterior edge of the valve member and an interior surface of the side wall having a cooperating cam follower structure defining a cyclic path, the path having at least two no flow positions in which the valve member is spaced from the upper wall, and at least two flow positions in which the flow path in the disc selectively allows communication with one or both of the first and second outlet openings, the cyclic path arranged so that on successive liquid flows into the inlet opening the valve member cycles between the at least two flow positions to selectively direct flow out of one or both of the first and second outlet openings. Related dishwasher designs are also disclosed.
US09027576B2
Substrate treatment systems are provided. The substrate treatment systems may include a treating device configured to treat a substrate with a supercritical fluid, and a supplying device configured to supply the supercritical fluid to the treating device. The treating device may include a supercritical process zone in which the substrate is treated with the supercritical fluid, and a pre-supercritical process zone in which the supercritical fluid is expanded and then provided into the supercritical process zone to create a supercritical state in the supercritical process zone.
US09027574B2
A cleaning/disinfecting apparatus includes: a plurality of attachment portions for attaching an endoscope; a cleaning/disinfecting portion that communicates with the plurality of attachment portions and can execute different types of cleaning/disinfection menus for the respective attachment portions; and an endoscope information reading portion that reads endoscope information from the endoscope. Also, the cleaning/disinfecting apparatus includes: a control portion that determines a cleaning/disinfection menu based on the read endoscope information and outputs attachment portion identifying information for identifying an attachment portion for executing the determined cleaning/disinfection menu; and a notifying portion that notifies the attachment portion identifying information outputted from the control portion.
US09027571B2
The present invention relates to a tool (1) for separating a hair bundle (11) comprising a number of hair strands appropriate for receiving a hair treatment composition (15) for creating a hair bundle effect. The hair bundle (11) is received into a through hole (10) via a slit (50). The dimensions of the through hole (10) dictate the appropriate size of a hair bundle (11). In one aspect of the present invention, the tool (1) is substantially flat in order to prevent spillages of hair treatment composition (15) onto the scalp. A gripping layer (70) may extend upon at least a portion of the tool (1) for aiding the grip of the tool (1) to the hair bundle (11).
US09027566B2
A system for producing porous masses may include a mold cavity disposed along the material path, at least one hopper before at least a portion of the mold cavity for feeding a matrix material to the material path, a heat source in thermal communication with at least a first portion of the material path, and a cutter disposed along the material path after the first portion of the material path.
US09027562B1
A connector for connecting an oxygen input flow duct with two narrowed oxygen output flow ducts, is provided thereby to meter oxygen flow to nasal cannula, and includes a hollow body having a relatively large flow input chamber sized for telescopic interfit with the input flow duct, the body having two relatively smaller flow output chambers sized for telescopic interfit with the respective two output flow ducts. The two output chambers have direct and like-sized communication with the input chamber whereby input flow is equally divided into two output flow streams.
US09027560B2
A breathing gas delivery system and method provides a flow of breathing gas to a patient. The gas flow is purposely interrupted for the patient's exhale phase in order to minimize irritation and injury to nasal tissues due to constant, uninterrupted flows. Embodiments include an oscillating ball valve that interrupts oxygen supply during the patient's exhale phase, cannula tips that are shaped to minimize trauma, and a sleep apnea treatment system that interrupts breathing gas supply during the patient's exhale phase.
US09027551B2
Inhalers with fins that deagglomerate dry powder using inspiratory effort of a user of an inhaler. The inhaler fins, at least in steady state conditions, are configured to generate dry powder and airflow patterns having turbulence with flow vortices, some of which may have a vortex having an axis of rotation that extends in an inspiratory flow direction while others may have a vortex that is substantially orthogonal to the inspiratory flow direction in an inspiratory airflow path, as an amount of dry powder travels through the inhaler to thereby deagglomerate the dry powder without trapping undue amounts of the dry powder during inhalation.
US09027535B2
A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided that can favorably determine a shut-off failure of an EGR valve under a high intake pressure condition in which an intake pressure becomes higher than an exhaust pressure. In a case where the high intake pressure condition and a transition condition are established at a time of a shut-off instruction on shutting off the EGR valve, it is determined that a shut-off failure of the EGR valve has occurred if an actual measurement value of the air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas detected by a main air-fuel ratio sensor is a value that is leaner by an amount equal to or greater than a predetermined lean determination value relative to a target value of the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas.
US09027534B2
A compression ignition dual fuel engine supplies natural gas fuel and liquid diesel fuel to each engine cylinder from a common fuel injector. Each fuel injector is fluidly connected to both a liquid fuel common rail and a gaseous fuel common rail. The engine includes a surplus gas system for capturing surplus gas, such as evaporated gas from the gaseous fuel supply and pressure control system, or left over pressurized natural gas produced by engine shut down. Rather than being vented to atmosphere, the surplus gas can be burned in the engine when operating conditions present burn opportunities.
US09027532B2
Methods and systems are provided for generating sufficient vacuum to enable a leak detection routine. While a fuel tank pressure is within mechanical limits, fuel vapors are purged from a canister to an engine with an isolation valve open to generate a desired level of vacuum in the fuel tank. Thereafter, the fuel tank is isolated and leak detection is performed concurrent to the purging.
US09027530B2
A method of calibration of at least one fuel injector for a fuel burner in an exhaust gas treatment system for an internal combustion engine is provided. The method is adapted for an exhaust gas system having the fuel burner mounted upstream of a diesel particle filter (DPF). The method of calibration is performed during an idle speed of the combustion engine, this to assure a constant temperature of the burner during the calibration. Hence, the method is started when a first steady tempera tore is registered in the fuel burner, wherein the at least one fuel injector, is operated with a first pulse width. A first temperature of an exhaust gas is registered directly downstream of the fuel burner. After this first temperature is registered, the pulse width, of the fuel injector changed into a second pulse width, which is different from the first pulse width.
US09027527B2
An anti-vibration device according to the present invention makes it possible to achieve compactness and sufficient durability without increasing the number of parts. To be specific, an anti-vibration member 10 is made up of an inner cylinder 4, an outer ring 6, and a rubber-like elastic body 8. The outer ring 6 is disposed outside the inner cylinder 4. The outer ring 6 is attached to a frame-side member 5. An end plate 7 is provided at an outer end portion of the inner cylinder 4. The rubber-like elastic body 8 is disposed between the inner cylinder 4, the outer ring 6, and the end plate 7. The anti-vibration rubber assembly 10 is provided on each side of the frame-side member 5. A guide member 9 is interposed between the two inner cylinders 4 and is unified therewith. The inner cylinder 4 is attached to an engine-side bracket 3. The guide member 9 faces the outer ring 6 in the radial direction and guides the inner cylinder 4 in the up-and-down direction. Damage of the rubber-like elastic body 8 due to displacement in the horizontal direction is prevented while an engine 2 is elastically supported thereby suppressing vibration.
US09027511B2
A pet grooming tool including a handle and long tines terminating in short, shallow catchment hooks. When the tines are drawn through the pet's fur, the catchment hooks untie tangled and matted fur incrementally without snagging and compounding the whole mass and without cutting through or removing attached fur. The hooks include a blunt leading edge that grabs and unties fur entanglements without cutting the fur. The long tines deliver the catchment hooks to the under coat while leaving the guard coat alone. The handle is ergonomic with a contoured shape for ease of use, effective engagement of the tines with the fur and a pleasing grooming experience for the pet owner and the pet.
US09027505B2
The present invention is to provide an apparatus for coloring an electrical wire to improve a visibility and design of the electrical wire. The apparatus includes a coloring device for ejecting a liquid coloring material to an outer surface of the electrical wire and a sliding device for moving relatively the coloring device in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the electrical wire so as to color each whole outer surface of a plurality of coloring regions thereof responsive to a belt-shaped design pattern.
US09027495B2
A boat protection device includes a boat fender having a cushion, a first attachment element and a second attachment element. The first attachment element has a first keyhole aperture. The first keyhole aperture has a first slot and a first passage contiguous with the first slot. The second attachment element has a second keyhole aperture. The second keyhole aperture has a second slot and a second passage contiguous with the second slot.
US09027494B2
A jet boat including a hull including a keel extending in a fore and aft direction of the jet boat, at least one jet propulsion nozzle mounted to a rear of the hull, and an articulating keel attached at the rear of the hull, the articulating keel arranged to pivot about a pivot axis extending vertically or substantially vertically. A bottom surface of the articulating keel does not extend below a bottom surface of the keel when the articulating keel is parallel or substantially parallel to the fore and aft direction of the jet boat.
US09027487B1
The disclosure contains an improved pallet generally comprising: a support deck with an upper load contacting surface and a lower ground facing surface, ground contacting legs preferably connected to two elongate sides of the support deck; a pallet cavity formed below the lower ground facing surface of the support deck, a first set of two tine openings and a second set of two tine openings located along two sides of the pallet. A support element with a tine contacting surface protruding vertically down from the lower ground facing surface of the support deck partially into the pallet cavity but not below the ground contacting legs may be present in some embodiments.
US09027485B2
An obstacle deflector provided at a front portion of an underframe of a carbody of a railcar includes an obstacle deflecting plate configured to protect the carbody from an obstacle on a railway track when the railcar is traveling. The obstacle deflecting plate includes a main plate portion provided to receive the obstacle by a surface thereof and having a curved shape that is convex toward a front side in a traveling direction in plan view and a sub plate portion projecting toward a rear side from the main plate portion and is continuously provided along the main plate portion so as to extend from a convex, curved front end portion of the main plate portion toward a pair of left and right side portions of the main plate portion, the left and right side portions being located at the rear side in the traveling direction.
US09027479B2
The invention relates to a method of aligning magnetic flakes, which includes: coating a substrate with a carrier having the flakes dispersed therein, moving the substrate in a magnetic field so as to align the flakes along force lines of the magnetic field in the absence of an effect from a solidifying means, and at least partially solidifying the carrier using a solidifying means while further moving the substrate in the magnetic field so as to secure the magnetic flakes in the carrier while the magnetic field maintains alignment of the magnetic flakes. An apparatus is provided, which has a belt for moving a substrate along a magnet assembly for aligning magnetic flakes. The apparatus also includes a solidifying means, such as a UV- or e-beam source, and a cover above a portion of the magnet assembly for protecting the flakes from the effect of the solidifying means.
US09027476B2
A laser-engraveable flexographic printing precursor or patternable element comprises a laser-engraveable layer having two orthogonal dimensions. This laser-engraveable layer comprises one or more elastomeric resins and non-metallic fibers that are oriented in the laser-engraveable layer predominantly in one of its two orthogonal dimensions. The non-metallic fibers have an average length of at least 0.1 mm and an average diameter of at least 1 μm. The oriented non-metallic fibers reduce curl and shrinkage in the precursor and improve print quality and press life.
US09027474B2
A marking device for golf balls comprises a seat, an arch-shaped retainer, and a bottom plate. The seat defines a central recess and defines a bottom opening that communicates with the central recess. The seat is provided with an anti-slip pad within the central recess. Also, the seat is provided with upper positioning means and lower positioning means. The arch-shaped retainer is provided with retainer positioning means corresponding to the upper positioning means of the seat. The bottom plate is provided with plate positioning means corresponding to the lower positioning means of the seat. Therefore, the arch-shaped retainer and the bottom plate can be properly positioned on the seat. Furthermore, the arch-shaped retainer defines a central slit and the bottom plate defines a plurality of hollowed-out symbols. As such, the marking device can mark a line or symbol on a golf ball conveniently.
US09027468B2
The invention relates to a domestic cooking pot (1) comprising means of controlling (7) at least part of its operation, wherein said control means (7) have a mobile mounting between a plurality of positions, wherein said pot (1) is characterized in that it is further fitted with an information window (8) and at least an indicator (10) that is representative of one of the positions of the control means (7), and in that the window (8), the indicator (10) and the control means (7) work together so that said indicator (10) appears in the window (8) when the control means (7) are in the corresponding position.
US09027466B2
The invention relates to a capsule for the preparation of a beverage. The capsule includes first and second covering walls connected for forming a cavity containing a beverage ingredient and a contactless identifying element for identifying the capsule by detecting the identifying element using the detector of a beverage producing device. The identifying element is preferably disposed in the cavity.
US09027461B2
A rodless power cylinder includes a cylinder body, a piston assembly adapted to reciprocate in the cylinder body, a magnet mounted at each of the two ends of the piston assembly, a valve mounted at each of the two ends of the cylinder body for guiding a flow of air or fluid in and out of the cylinder body to cause the piston assembly to reciprocate, a magnetic sensor mounted in a sensor mounting groove at each of the two valves for sensing the position of the respective magnet, a movable member mounted around the cylinder body and coupled to the piston assembly by a magnetic force for synchronous reciprocating motion.
US09027442B2
Output gears are disposed so as to be movable toward and counter to plural second input gears to which rotation of the motor is transmitted, and so as to be biased toward the plural second input gears. A cam, which has plural recesses provided at the periphery thereof, is disposed at the inside of the output gear. The cam is rotated, and a pin of the output gear enters the recess, so that the output gear is moved toward the second input gear, and the output gear is engaged with the second input gear.
US09027441B2
A gear includes a body defining a portion of a sphere and including at least one curved surface. A plurality of teeth extend from the at least one curved surface. The plurality of teeth are arranged in rows and columns that define a plurality of longitudinal and latitudinal arcuate channels along the curved surface.
US09027411B2
A stress and strain sensing device capable of continuously sensing stress received from bedrock and strain of the bedrock over a long period of time is provided.A stress and strain sensing device has a pillar-shaped case to be buried and installed in bedrock, a pressure receiving member that has two pressure receiving surfaces for sensing stress received from the bedrock and strain of the bedrock, wherein the two pressure receiving surfaces are both arranged on a common axis orthogonal to an axial direction of the case such that the two pressure receiving surfaces are exposed to an outside through an outer peripheral wall of the case and wherein the two pressure receiving surfaces are not connected with the case mechanically, and a displacement sensor that senses the stress received from the bedrock and the strain of the bedrock based on a displacement amount between the two pressure receiving surfaces.
US09027409B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a differential pressure transducer that comprises first and second diaphragms of different configurations, i.e., different diameters and/or thicknesses. The pressure transducer provides more versatility over prior art designs as the diaphragms can be of different configurations yet still maintain substantially similar back pressures. Therefore, the errors commonly associated with back pressures are eliminated because the back pressures from the diaphragms ultimately cancel out in the sensor's differential pressure measurement.
US09027408B2
An elastomeric particle (1, 1, 1″) comprises a non-conducting elastomeric body (2) having an electrically conducting surface (4a, 4b, 6). Pressure sensor elements (20, 20′, 20″; 30, 30′, 30″, 30′″) comprising such elastomeric particles are disclosed, as well as sensor clusters (50″, 50′″, 50IV, 50V, 50VI, 50VII, 70) comprising such sensor elements. There is also disclosed a pressure sensor element (40, 40′, 40″, 40′″, 40IV, 40V, 40VI, 40VII), comprising a resistive element (44, 44′, 44″) providing a conduction path, a first electrode (42a, 42a-1, 42a-2, 42a-3, 42a-4, 42a-5, 42a-6), connected to the resistive element, a second electrode (42b, 42b′), which in a quiescent state is spaced from said first electrode, wherein the second electrode, when the pressure sensor element is subjected to a pressure, is arranged to contact said first electrode or said resistive element. Systems comprising such sensor elements and sensor clusters are disclosed, as well as methods of their fabrication.
US09027407B2
A pressure and temperature sensor comprising comprises at least a first resonator of the SAW type comprising a piezoelectric substrate, thinned at least locally, of the membrane type, a second resonator of the SAW type comprising a piezoelectric substrate and a third resonator of the SAW type comprising a piezoelectric substrate, characterized in that the first, the second and the third resonators are respectively on the surface of first, second and third individual piezoelectric substrates, each of the individual substrates being positioned on the surface of a common base section, locally machined away under said first resonator in such a manner as to liberate the substrate from said resonator so as to render it operational for the measurement of pressure. A method of fabrication for such a sensor is also provided.
US09027405B2
A method and system for ultrasonic inspection of an axle is disclosed. An ultrasonic probe and wedge are placed on the radial surface of an outboard journal of the axle and an ultrasonic scan is directed toward the inboard journal, wherein the devices mounted on the inboard journal remain mounted during the ultrasonic scan.
US09027401B2
There is provided a method of evaluating a clamping portion of an electric wire and a terminal, which can determine whether a clamping quality is good, or not, through simple test, and can easily test all of the clamping portions. The method of evaluating the clamping portion of an electric wire (W) and a terminal (10) includes measuring a length (L1) of the terminal (10) after clamping to detect an expansion of the terminal (10) after clamping to a length (L0) of the terminal (10) before clamping, determining that the clamping quality is “good” when the expansion falls within an allowable range between a given lower limit and a given upper limit, and determining that the clamping quality is “no good” when the expansion falls outside the allowable range.
US09027395B2
A measuring apparatus may include a first chamber, a second chamber and a membrane separating the first chamber and the second chamber. Furthermore the measuring apparatus may include a notch in an outer wall of the first chamber designed to liquid-tightly arranging an injection valve in this notch such that an injection nozzle of the injection valve opens out into the first chamber. The measuring apparatus may include a sensor designed and arranged to capture a first measured variable representative for a strain of the membrane.
US09027380B2
A force-transmitting mechanism (110) has stationary and load-receiving portions (111, 112). The load-receiving portion is joined to a measurement transducer on the stationary portion through a force-transmitting connection, directly or through at least one coupling element (119) and at least one lever (116). The force-transmitting mechanism has a parallel-guided coupling means (124), a calibration lever (120) with a fulcrum on the stationary portion, and calibration lever arms (121, 122), one of which is rigidly connected to a calibration weight (123). The parallel-guided coupling means (124) is arranged between the second calibration lever arm and the at least one coupling element or an arm (117, 118) of the lever. The parallel-guided coupling means is divided into fixed and parallel-guided coupling parts (126, 125), which allows a force to be transmitted between the coupling parts. Parallel elements of the parallel-guided coupling part absorb relative traverse displacements from transmitted forces.
US09027378B2
A digital manufacturing system comprises a build chamber, a build platform disposed within the build chamber, at least one extrusion line configured to heat a metal-based alloy up to a temperature between solidus and liquidus temperatures of the metal-based alloy, a deposition head disposed within the build chamber and configured to deposit the heated metal-based alloy onto the build platform in a predetermined pattern, an umbilical having a first end located outside of the build chamber and a second end connected to the deposition head, and at least one gantry assembly configured to cause relative motion between the build platform and the deposition head within the build chamber, where the at least one gantry assembly comprises a motor disposed outside of the build chamber.
US09027377B2
A rolling stand 100 in accordance with the invention is a rolling stand provided with three grooved rolls for rolling a tubular or bar shaped material to be rolled, in which three grooved rolls R21 to R23 are arranged in such a manner that an angle formed by pressing directions of any two adjacent grooved rolls of the three grooved rolls R21 to R23 comes to 120 degrees. With regard to a cross sectional shape of each of the grooved rolls R21 to R23 formed by cutting each of the grooved rolls in a plane which includes a center line of a rotating axis of each of the grooved rolls R21 to R23 and is orthogonal to a pass line of a material to be rolled, any one grooved roll R21 is provided with a first straight portion L1 extending vertically to the pressing direction in both side flange portions, and the other two grooved rolls R22 and R23 are provided with a second straight portion L2 opposing to the first straight portion L1 and extending in parallel to the first straight portion L1 in the flange portions.
US09027367B2
A knit fabric for use as a wrap around-sleeve having connectors along opposed edges. The fabric comprises a body portion knitted in a single layer of warp and weft yarns, a first edge portion of warp and weft yarns formed into spaced chains which secure a woven tape having hooks onto the knit fabric and a second edge knit to form raised loops. The hooks secured along the first edge are adapted to secure with the loops along the second edge securing the fabric edges forming the fabric into a wrap-around sleeve.
US09027361B2
A water filter is provided. The water filter includes a casing with a filtering media disposed within the casing. The water filter also includes a plug and a water soluble support. The plug can impede a flow of water through the chamber in order to encourage replacement of the water filter.
US09027360B2
Apparatus and method are provided for facilitating cooling of an electronic component. The apparatus includes a liquid-cooled structure, a thermal conduction path coupling the electronic component and the liquid-cooled structure, a coolant loop in fluid communication with a coolant-carrying channel of the liquid-cooled structure, and an outdoor-air-cooled heat exchange unit coupled to facilitate heat transfer from the liquid-cooled structure via, at least in part, the coolant loop. The thermoelectric array facilitates transfer of heat from the electronic component to the liquid-cooled structure, and the heat exchange unit cools coolant passing through the coolant loop by dissipating heat from the coolant to outdoor ambient air. In one implementation, temperature of coolant entering the liquid-cooled structure is greater than temperature of the outdoor ambient air to which heat is dissipated.
US09027355B2
A manual mechanical drive to a high pressure sub assembly of a turbojet during endoscopic inspection of the high pressure turbine is provided. A coupling element suitable for coupling with an external actuator such as a crank handle is fitted on the axis of an alternator that is normally driven mechanically via the high pressure sub assembly, thereby providing a coupling suitable for driving said high pressure sub assembly.
US09027344B2
Rotational speed of an electric turbocharger controlled so that the actual temperature of the motor does exceed the allowable level even over a long time span. A speed control device for the turbocharger, includes a temperature sensor, a speed limitation device which limits the speed of the motor in response to the temperature level detected by the temperature sensor wherein the speed limitation device is provided with a limit control start temperature correction device which decreases the limit control start temperature when the increase rate of the detected temperature exceeds a threshold. A speed limitation setting device sets a speed limit based on the temperature difference between the limit control start temperature and the detected temperature T on a rate of increase of the detected temperature.
US09027336B2
Self-regulating pressure source. The pressure source includes a chamber enclosing a chemical monopropellant. A moveable boss is attached to a deformable membrane sealing an air chamber, the moveable boss and air chamber being disposed within the chamber. A catalyst is disposed around the membrane so as to be covered by the boss in a retracted position so that the monopropellant is broken down by the catalyst to produce a gas. The gas pressure will increase within the chamber causing air in the air chamber to compress thereby to pull the boss into the retracted position to cover the catalyst thereby to regulate the pressure within the chamber. The self-regulating pressure source is particularly suited to power fluidic elastomeric actuators.
US09027326B2
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle exhaust heat recovery system including a first exhaust line fluidically connected to a heat exchanger, a second exhaust line fluidically connected to the first exhaust line, and an inanimate flow regulator in the first exhaust line configured to limit exhaust flow under predetermined conditions.
US09027318B2
A reel lawn mower which has a connection structure for connecting a reel cutting unit to a main body. The reel cutting unit has a spiral cutting reel which is rotated by a prime mover to cut grass together with a bedknife. In the connection structure, in order to connect the reel cutting unit to the main body so that the reel cutting unit rolls around a virtual horizontal line perpendicular to the shaft center of the cutting reel in the center of the axial direction of the cutting reel, the reel cutting unit includes a connecting arm with an arc portion shaped so as to follow a virtual arc centered on the virtual horizontal line. The connecting arm is slidably supported so as to prevent the arc portion from coming off the virtual arc.
US09027313B2
Apparatus and a process for dividing heat-shrinkable plastic film into different temperature regions within a shrink wrap oven including a movable platform; a cylindrical tube immovably mounted within the oven in the direction of movement of the platform and including a platform for supporting a portion of the heat-shrinkable plastic film and a slit running the length of said cylindrical tube; a package covered with heat shrinkable plastic film and including that portion of the heat-shrinkable plastic film resting on the platform adjacent the cylindrical tube; an electric fan mounted at the opposite end of the cylindrical tube containing the platform and sucking ambient air through the cylindrical tube to cool that portion of the heat-shrinkable plastic film as the heat-shrinkable plastic film is tightly shrunk around the package.
US09027312B2
Machine (10) and method for treating containers (12) of liquids comprising a loading station (15) into which baskets (23) are loaded containing, according to a desired pattern of disposition, the containers (12) to be subjected to washing, a filling station (18) in which the washed containers (12) are filled with new liquid, and a re-closing station (19) in which the containers (12) are closed by the relative lids (11). The re-closing station (19) comprises a closing device (63) provided with gripper members (70) by means of which the lids (11) are picked up and positioned so as to close the containers (12), and loading members (66) that automatically direct the lids (11) toward the closing device (63) in a manner consistent with the desired pattern of disposition of the containers (12) in the baskets (23). The closing device (63) comprises movement members (69) that move the gripper members (70) automatically between a pick-up position in correspondence with the loading members (66) and a position of closure in correspondence with the containers (12). The loading members (66) comprise stop elements (67), able to be selectively activated to automatically dispose the lids (11) in a manner consistent with the predetermined pattern of disposition of the containers (12).
US09027307B2
Examples of construction systems and methods of constructing multi-story buildings utilizing premanufactured and prefinished components are disclosed. Examples of premanufactured and prefinished components include floor and ceiling slabs, non-weight bearing window walls, demising walls, exterior walls, and utility walls. The premanufactured and prefinished components may be transported to the construction site and assembled at the construction site.
US09027306B2
Floor panels are provided with a mechanical locking system having small local protrusions which reduce displacement along the joint when the panels are laying flat on the sub floor and locked vertically and horizontally.
US09027296B2
A composite product includes gypsum in an amount of 60 to 90% by weight, fibers in an amount of 1.5 to 26% by weight substantially homogeneously distributed through the composite, and a rheology-modifying agent in an amount of 0.5 to 6% by weight. The composite is caused or allowed to cure to form a cured composite. The cured composite is a fire resistant component used in a fire-rated door core, a fire-rated door or a fire-rated building panel. The fire resistant component may include a building panel, a door panel, a door core, a door rail, a door stile, a door lock block, a door border, or a door insert.
US09027293B1
A window covering assembly, including a generally convex panel defining a perimeter. The panel further includes structural outer and inner layers and an impact absorbing layer disposed between the structural outer layer and the structural inner layer. A flange portion is connected to the generally convex panel and has a plurality of apertures formed therethrough. A plurality of fasteners are extendable through the apertures for engaging a structure.
US09027287B2
The present invention discloses a high-capacity drilling rig system that includes novel design features that alone and more particularly in combination facilitate a fast rig-up and rig-down with a single set of raising cylinders and maintains transportability features. In particular, a transport trailer is disclosed having a first support member and a drive member which align the lower mast portion with inclined rig floor ramps and translate the lower mast legs up the ramps and into alignment for connection. A pair of wing brackets is pivotally deployed from within the lower mast width for connection to the raising cylinder for raising the mast from a horizontal position into a vertical position. A cantilever is pivotally deployed from beneath the rig floor to a position above it for connection to the raising cylinder for raising the substructure from a collapsed position into the erect position.
US09027286B2
A roofing system is installed over the top of existing corrugated metal roofs or over the top of low profile ribbed metal roofs as a retrofit roofing system. The system uses a clip specifically designed for corrugated and other forms of low-profile ribbed metal roof panels. The clip spans a single raised corrugation or single raised rib to provide a secure support for a roofing system to be disposed above the existing roof. The clips may be disposed at a plurality of locations along a purlin and are secured to the purlin through the existing roof panels with connectors. The connectors pass through spaced curved feet of the clip which fit into the spaced depressions of the corrugated roofing panel or the spaces adjacent to the low profile rib.
US09027283B2
In a sliding door with a door panel supported by a carriage disposed on a guide rail so as to foe movable between spaced door stops, the door stops include shock absorbers and the carriage has contact elements for contact with the shock absorbers. The shock absorbers further include return springs which are compressed by the engagement of the sliding door panel, the sliding door panel being lockable in its end positions by a locking arrangement for retaining it in an end position.
US09027279B2
A plant cultivation device and feed-water control method, in which a detected moisture amount to start watering and a water amount to be used per watering are easily determined, includes a plant cultivation container for pooling plant cultivation water; a water-absorbing plant cultivation bed material; a feed-water device for supplying the plant cultivation water to the plant cultivation container; a first moisture sensor for detecting moisture around an immersed part of the plant cultivation bed material; a second moisture sensor for detecting moisture around a growth part of the plant cultivation bed material where a root of a plant is received; and a controller for supplying water when values detected by both of the first and second moisture sensors are below respective reference values, and for stopping water supply when a value detected by either the first or second moisture sensor is above the corresponding reference value.
US09027277B2
The invention is directed toward a spill- and leak-proof container for floriculture items including cut flowers, stems, other horticultural items, and the like. More specifically, the invention includes a receptacle having funnel-like primary closure. The funnel-like primary closure includes a wider opening generally adjacent to and contiguous with the mouth of the receptacle. The narrower opening of the funnel-like primary closure is positioned in the interior of the receptacle. A secondary closure atop the wider opening of the primary closure ensures no liquid can spill.
US09027274B2
According to at least one exemplary embodiment, a firearm leaner is disclosed. The firearm leaner can include a barrel engaging portion and a pair of arms separated by a gap and extending upwards from the barrel engaging portion. The arms may diverge as they extend outwardly. Each arm can include a plurality of protrusions, which can in turn include a plurality of points. An extension can extend rearwardly from the barrel engaging portion.
US09027270B2
A point of sale device includes a card mounted on a hanger on a vertically extending mounting structure of a retail shop. The card carries a reusable storage container in which articles are stored. The container includes a body with an opening closed by a transparent, sealable, removable and re-sealable lid. The container is mounted on the card and the device is mounted on the hanger so a prospective purchaser can see the articles through the transparent lid. In one embodiment, the body includes a permanent magnet abutting the base.
US09027250B2
A protective riser guide for scissors is provided in the present disclosure. In certain embodiments, the protective riser guide is integrally formed with an arm of a pair of scissors. In other embodiments, the protective riser guide is removably attached to the exterior surface of a scissor arm. Preferably, the protective riser guide is in the shape of an arc extending away from the interior surface of the arm if the guide is integrally formed with the arm, or from the exterior surface if the guide is removably attached to the exterior surface. Due to the shape and position of the protective riser guide on the arm of a pair of scissors in certain embodiments, the protective riser guide is ergonomic and increases the safety of the operator of the scissors without interfering with the operator's cutting techniques.
US09027244B2
In a method for repairing worn or damaged rotor blades of an aircraft engine, laser cladding for the reconstruction of the blade tips is not performed in a continuous welding process along the blade edge but during a cycle-by-cycle rotation of the rotor blades attached to a rotor disk, in only one limited section of the respective blade edge for each cycle. The method reduces time expenditure for the repair of the blades and improves the tribological properties of the blade material in the area of the repaired blade tip.
US09027234B2
A motor stator automatically assembling system includes a feeding unit, a wire-winding unit, a first conveyer unit, a second conveyer unit, a first assembly unit and a second assembly unit. A motor stator automatically assembling method includes: the feeding unit is operated to feed a plurality of insulation members; the insulation members are arranged on the first conveyer unit to convey to the wire-winding unit; the wire-winding unit is operated to wind wires on the insulation members to form a plurality of wire-wound insulation members; the wire-wound insulation members are arranged on the second conveyer unit to convey to the first assembly unit; the first assembly unit is operated to insert pole teeth into the wire-wound insulation members to form a plurality of compact pole tooth sets; the second assembly unit is operated to combine the compact pole tooth sets with a stator ring frame to form an assembled motor stator.
US09027232B2
A cylindrical magnet assembly has at least one coil mounted on a former, assembled to a bore tube by a number of inserts within holes formed in a material of the former. Each insert can bear on a dished radially outer extremity of a radially-outwardly directed protrusion or each insert can bear on a radially outer concave surface of a radially-inwardly directed protrusion.
US09027221B2
A method for manufacturing a compound refractive lens for focusing X-rays in two dimensions. The method includes the following steps: 1) manufacturing a mother lens; 2) manufacturing a daughter lens; and 3) assembling the mother lens and the daughter lens. The assembly of the mother lens and the daughter lens includes: aligning square embedded lens bodies of the daughter lens with square holes of the mother lens, respectively, for allowing the first parabola-shaped holes on the mother lens and the second parabola-shaped holes on the daughter lens to form an orthogonal structure; and inserting and pressing the square embedded lens bodies into the corresponding square holes, respectively. The method of the invention has advantages of high-precision for manufacturing and calibration of optical axis, and meanwhile the compound refractive lens manufactured based the method has high X-rays focusing efficiency.
US09027219B2
A securing mechanism is provided for a tool that allows for the attachment and release of the shafts of a variety of implements from the tool. The mechanism has a construction that provides an easily releasable, but secure engagement of the implement shaft within the mechanism while also having an alignment feature which engages the implement at multiple locations when engaged with the mechanism to maintain the alignment and concentricity of the implement shaft with regard to the mechanism and the tool when in use.
US09027217B2
Specialized tools and methods are presented for use on blowout preventers on oil and gas rigs. The specialized tools releseably attach to a threaded, blowout-preventer head to remove the same. In one instance, the tool has a longitudinal shaft, a lifting eye member at one end and a head-mounting member at the other. The head-mounting member attaches to the threaded, blowout-preventer head. In some instances, one or more torque arms may be included to add additional torque. Other embodiments and methods are also included.
US09027206B2
A pole handle comprising a wrist strap formed of a strap connected to an insert, a body oriented along a longitudinal axis, the body comprising an insert housing adapted to receive the insert, the insert housing being arranged in the upper portion of the body, such that the insert can be inserted into the housing along a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body, and a latching mechanism for retaining the insert in the insert housing, the unlatching of the latching mechanism being capable of being actuated directly by a displacement of the insert along the direction opposite that of insertion of the insert. The latching mechanism comprises a latch movable in relation to the body.
US09027203B2
A surface cleaning head comprising one or more lower open sided air flow passages is provided. One or both air flow passages may be a lower open sided air flow passage and may have a rib to prevent carpet of the like from blocking the air flow passage. One of the passages may be a deep cleaning slot.
US09027202B2
Highly efficient particulate collectors, such as for dust and street debris collected by a mobile street cleaning vehicle, with very low pressure loss are disclosed. One embodiment uses a specially contoured passage to separate the solid particles from particulate-laden gas stream by rapid directional change at a throat region. By using the Venturi effect at the accelerating zone communicating with a gas return channel from the particulate retaining chamber, a small amount of the gas will be recirculated from the deposit zone to help move and retain the separated particles in a confined collection receptacle.
US09027195B1
A cleaning implement having a sponge and an assembly for engaging and manipulating the sponge. The assembly includes a gripper head having a receptacle area that is defined within a peripheral wall. Hook elements are provided that laterally extend into the receptacle area from the peripheral wall. A handle extends from the gripper head. The handle may be selectively detachable from the gripper head. A sponge is provided, wherein a segment of the sponge is deformed into the receptacle area. The deformed section of the sponge is hooked by the hook elements in the receptacle area. This mechanically interconnects the sponge with the gripper head.
US09027191B2
A pig launching system comprising a pipe loop comprising a first end and a second end; a pig shuttle connected to the first end and the second end; a first opening in the pig shuttle aligned with the first end of the pipe loop; a second opening in the pig shuttle aligned with the second end of the pipe loop; and a slot within the pig shuttle movable between the first opening and the second opening.
US09027187B2
A cleaning system used for removing contaminant particles on a surface of an image sensor is provided. The cleaning system includes an gas blower, two plate electrodes parallel to each other, and a high frequency voltage source. The gas blower supplies a mixed gas to the two plate electrodes. The high frequency voltage source provides a high voltage for the two plate electrodes to ionize the mixed gas, thereby the ionized gas cause contaminant particles on the surface of the image sensor to be positively charged, and cause the surface of the image sensor to be positively charged. The vacuum pump device removes the positively charged particles, which are repelled by the positively charged surface of the image sensor.
US09027175B2
Provided is an automatic head care system and an automatic hair washing system for caring a person's head in a safe and effective manner without applying a straining force on the person's neck. In order to achieve the object, the following steps are performed in turn: a head receiving step in which a pair of arms 114L, 114R are placed at positions for receiving a person's head 10 on a suppotring body 112; a water washing step in which water ejected from a plurality of nozzles 110 is poured to the head 10 while the pair of arms 114L, 114R are swung; a shampoo step in which washing liquid ejected from the plurality of nozzles 110 is poured to the head 10 while the pair of arms 114L, 114R are swung; and a head care step in which the head 10 is cared by performing the push-rotating of the pair of arms 114L, 114R in the direction of approaching the head 10 so as to bring the plurality of contacts 109 into contact with the head 10 and by swinging the pair of arms 114L, 114R while moving the plurality of contacts 109.
US09027170B2
A personal protection device for protecting a user is described. The personal protection device can have an inflatable member having an internal chamber that can be inflated or deflated according to predetermined conditions.
US09027169B2
An article of apparel may include a base layer and a cover layer. The cover layer may be stitchlessly-secured to an exterior surface of the base layer and positioned to extend along a side area and from a pelvic region to a leg region of the base layer. A width of the cover layer may be greater in the pelvic region than the first leg region. In some configurations, a frictional resistance of the exterior surface of the base layer may be greater than a frictional resistance of a surface of the cover layer.
US09027168B2
A fabric assembly attachable to the front side of a men's underwear and a men's underwear having such a fabric assembly are described. The fabric assembly has layers of fabrics having linear slots perpendicular to each other so that the wearer can take his genital organ out through the intersection of the linear slots. The peripheries of the fabric layers are elastically stitched together to make a fabric assembly. The fabric layers have sufficient rigidity such that the linear slots do not open under the pressure of the genital organ, unless the wearer uses his hands to open the slots. The fabric assembly may also have a flap on the inside or outside of the fabric layers. One or two sides of the flap may be attached to the men's underwear and the other sides may not be attached to permit easy opening of the flap by hand.
US09027166B1
An interior sock is fabricated of a flexible elastic polymer. The interior sock has a cylindrical closed toe section, a cylindrical open ankle section and an intermediate heel section. The heel section is provided between the toe and ankle sections. An exterior sock is fabricated of a knitted blend of cotton and a minor portion of an elastic. The exterior sock has a cylindrical closed toe section, a cylindrical open ankle section and an intermediate heel section. The heel section is provided between the toe and ankle sections. A quantity of therapeutic fluid is located within the interior sock. The therapeutic fluid is in contact with a foot of a user. The interior sock provides support for the therapeutic fluid. The exterior sock provides pressure and warmth to the interior sock and the therapeutic fluid.
US09032546B2
Techniques are described herein that are capable of enforcing conditions of use associated with disparate data sets. For example, content may be published. Conditions of use that are associated with the published content may be specified. The published content may include disparate data sets. Each data set may be associated with its own condition(s) of use. The condition(s) of use associated with each data set may be enforced.
US09032543B2
Methods and systems for providing access to content are disclosed. The method is performed at least in part at a client computer system having a processor and memory. The method includes executing a host application associated with a first party. In some implementations, the host application is a media player. The method further includes initiating a secure communication channel between the host application and a server associated with the first party. The method further includes executing a supplemental application associated with a second party. The method further includes accessing, with the supplemental application, content licensed to the first party, wherein the licensed content is accessible to the supplemental application via the secure communication channel subject to terms of a licensing agreement. In some implementations, the content is media content, such as music, movies, and the like.
US09032535B2
A storage device and method for providing a scalable content protection system are disclosed. In one embodiment, a storage device is provided comprising a memory operative to store a plurality of versions of content, wherein each version of the content is of a different quality and is associated with a different level of content protection. The storage device receives information from the host identifying a level of content protection supported by the host. The storage device sends, to the host, a version of the content that is associated with the level of content protection supported by the host, wherein the version of the content is sent to the host using the level of content protection that is supported by the host. In another embodiment, different levels of content protection are applied to different types of content.
US09032528B2
Detecting security vulnerabilities in web applications by interacting with a web application at a computer server during its execution at the computer server, identifying client-side instructions provided by the web application responsive to an interaction with the web application, where the client-side instructions are configured to be implemented by a client computer that receives the client-side instructions from the computer server, evaluating the identified client-side instructions, and identifying a security vulnerability associated with the client-side instructions.
US09032526B2
The subject disclosure is directed towards a technology for efficiently emulating program code that is protected by one or more various code virtualization techniques to detect the presence of malware. An emulation engine emulates a program containing a mix of native code, custom (e.g., virtualized obfuscated) code, and at least one emulator and/or interpreter that understands the custom code, by building a custom emulation component that is built by detecting and analyzing the internal emulator or interpreter. The custom emulation component may access a translation table built from the analysis, and also may simplify a plurality of instructions in the program into a lesser number of instructions in an intermediate language used for emulation.
US09032522B1
The various technologies presented herein relate to the determination of unexpected and/or malicious activity occurring between components communicatively coupled across a backplane. Control data, etc., can be intercepted at a backplane where the backplane facilitates communication between a controller and at least one device in an automation process. During interception of the control data, etc., a copy of the control data can be made, e.g., the original control data can be replicated to generate a copy of the original control data. The original control data can continue on to its destination, while the control data copy can be forwarded to an analyzer system to determine whether the control data contains a data anomaly. The content of the copy of the control data can be compared with a previously captured baseline data content, where the baseline data can be captured for a same operational state as the subsequently captured control data.
US09032518B2
A monitoring and alerting system for detecting a disruptive event on the Internet includes a data collection and wrapping module configured to process input data that includes messages produced by a network routing protocol, including a live stream of messages on the network, historical dumps of the message to a computer's file system, or both. An automated analysis engine includes analysis modules configured to analyze routing information and selected Internet behaviors from the input data. User output includes automated alerts to the user and an interactive analysis module. The analysis modules include a probabilistic origin hijack analysis module; a probabilistic route hijack analysis module; a Hidden Markov Model analysis module; a tensor decomposition and analysis module and a static topology analysis module; and a dynamic topology analysis module.
US09032514B1
A reporting system, method, and computer program product are provided with respect to occurrences of potential data leakage. In use, a plurality of occurrences of potential data leakage is identified based on user behavior. In addition, a report is provided based on a determination of whether an aspect of the plurality of occurrences exceeds a predetermined threshold.
US09032505B1
A computing device includes: a processing unit; and memory encoding instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to: receive a request from a client computing device; establish a first secured connection to the client computing device; select a server computing device from a plurality of server computing devices to service the request from the client computing device, selection being made based, at least in part, upon load balancing considerations; establish a second secured connection to the server computing device, the second secured connection being separate from the first secured connection; and allow the client computing device to securely communicate with the server computing device through the first and second secured connections.
US09032504B2
A system and a method for operating a plurality of information handling systems forming a network are provided. The system includes a host computer processing unit (CPU); a band management controller (BMC); and a switch having a first port coupled to the host CPU, a second port coupled to the BMC, and an external port coupled to a network; wherein the switch is configured to perform lookups and send an ingress traffic including an internet content to the host CPU, and to send the ingress traffic including a management content to the BMC accordingly. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable and executable code for instructing a processor in a management unit for a plurality of information handling systems forming a network to perform a method using a system as above is also provided.
US09032489B2
Disclosed are a method and device for a proxy access of an open platform for solving technical problems that resource occupancy is excessive, a password security is low, and a local file cannot be uploaded. In the present invention, an official application is established in a user terminal, and the official application interacts with the open platform by an SDK provided by the open platform; the official platform is bound by applying for a protocol with the URL format from an operating system of the user terminal, and provides an interaction interface for the third party application through the protocol with the URL format. Therefore, the present invention reduces the system resource which the third party application occupies in the user terminal and the development cost of the third party application, and protects the security of the user's account.
US09032488B2
In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing a cross instance user authentication architecture in an on-demand service environment including, for example, means for receiving a login request at a global Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) address for the host organization from a client device; forwarding the login request received at the global VIP address to one of a plurality of datacenters within the host organization; determining the selected datacenter is a non-home-geo datacenter for a user associated with the login request received from the client device; establishing a back-end link from the non-home-geo datacenter to a home-geo datacenter for the user; forwarding the login request from the non-home-geo datacenter to the home-geo datacenter via the back-end link for authentication of the client device at the home-geo datacenter responsive to the login request received from the computing device; and returning a response to the client device from the non-home-geo datacenter upon successful authentication of the login request at the home-geo datacenter, wherein the response specifies a re-direct to the home-geo datacenter for the user. Other related embodiments are disclosed.
US09032485B2
The disclosure provides an anchor authenticator relocation method and system. The method includes: after an old authenticator accepts an anchor authenticator relocation request of a Mobile Station (MS), a new authenticator sends an authenticator relocation request to an AAA server; when the AAA server's verification on the new authenticator is passed and the old authenticator confirms that the new authenticator is trusted, the anchor authenticator is relocated to the new authenticator. The disclosure provides a detailed solution to perform anchor authenticator relocation without re-authentication.
US09032478B2
A method of managing security in a network is described. A data anomaly at a first location on a network is detected. A source of this data anomaly is identified. The source is compared with a plurality of access control policies, wherein each of the plurality of access control policies comprises at least one access restriction instruction associated with one or more sources. Based on the comparing, the source is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of access control policies.
US09032475B2
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for configuring application control rules. The system creates a new application control rule that specifies restrictions or permission on execution a software application, a function of an application or a category of applications. The system then collects information about one or more computers in a network, including information about software applications deployed on the computers and existing application control rules. The system then tests the new application control rule using the collected information to determine verdicts rendered by the new application control rule that restrict or permit execution of an application, certain function of an application or a category of applications. The system then compares verdicts rendered by the new application rule with the verdicts rendered by the existing application control rules to identify conflicting rules, and reconfigures the new application control rule to eliminate conflicts.
US09032472B2
To allow viewer to adapt audiovisual content to their attention level, the audiovisual signal processing arrangement (104, 106), comprising an audiovisual signal processing unit (104) arranged to receive from a control unit (106) at least one complexity setting value (S_Inf-c) specifying a complexity of information in an audiovisual signal, the audiovisual signal processing unit (104) being arranged to process an inputted audiovisual signal S(A, V) to decrease or increase its information complexity as determined by the complexity setting value (S_Inf-c), wherein the audiovisual signal processing unit (104) is arranged to process at least an audio component (A) of the audiovisual signal S(A, V).
US09032469B2
A media playback apparatus and a method for providing a multimedia content using the same are disclosed. In accordance with the apparatus and the method, a content reception information stored in a disk media is read and a connection to an external apparatus is established based on the content reception information to receive and provide the multimedia content.
US09032463B2
A method and apparatus for providing content in a broadcast system is provided. Upon receipt of a request for synchronization from a mobile terminal, a set-top box creates a recommended content list based on user information received from the mobile terminal and delivers the recommended content list to the mobile terminal. The set-top box receives from the mobile terminal a content list, selected from the recommended content list and included in a Personal Information Management System (PIMS) updated using the recommended content list. The set-top box determines whether a user of the mobile terminal intends to view content from the received content list at a start time of the content. Upon receipt of view acceptance information from the mobile terminal, the set-top box sends a request for the content to a service provider at the start time, receives the requested content from the service provider, and provides the received content to the mobile terminal.
US09032462B2
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting/receiving through a network such as the Internet, and to a transmitter/receiver using same, the transmission method comprising: converting content stored in a file format into a delivery format; and including the content converted into the delivery format in a payload of an IP packet and transmitting same, wherein one or more mdats, which are included in an mdat box of the file format, are cut according to a time window and sequentially included in the delivery format in the transforming step.
US09032460B1
A method of operating a first networking device includes receiving, from a media server, a cable length request message. The cable length request message includes data indicative of a length of a first networking cable arranged between the media server and the first networking device. The method includes determining a cumulative cable length based on the length of the first networking cable and a length of a second networking cable arranged between the first networking device and a media client. The method includes, in response to presence of a second networking device between the first networking device and the media client, sending a further cable length request message to the second networking device indicating the cumulative cable length. The method includes, in response to absence of the second networking device, sending a cable length response message to the media server indicating the cumulative cable length.
US09032459B2
A system and method for adjusting one or more signal delays. The signal delays are adjusted by obtaining delay amounts of video signals associated with respective camera units and respective camera control units, the camera units being coupled to respective ones of the camera control units via an asynchronous network, and adjusting one or more of the delay amounts.
US09032458B2
A content distribution system includes a distribution center, a processor, a switch, and first and second multiplexers. The distribution center receives and applies program content on program channels. The processor identifies subsets of the program channels in response to a respective score associated with the program channels. The switch couples the distribution center to the multiplexers. The switch applies program channels to respective inputs of the first and second multiplexers in response to the processor. A method for optimizing a multiplexed transport channel includes the steps of identifying a set of program channels designated for distribution via the multiplexed transport channel, arranging the set of program channels in subsets, the program channels within a subset grouped in accordance with a viewing score, multiplexing the program channels of the subsets to a respective transport channel and applying the respective transport channels to a distribution medium for delivery to the destination.
US09032455B2
The invention relates to a method of management of trick mode commands destined to control a digital content streaming server. In order to manage the transmission of trick mode commands from multiple trick mode command issuers, the method comprises: a step of reception of at least one trick mode command from at least one command issuer, a step of determination of elapsed time between the received command and a last transmitted command, and a step of transmission of the received command to the at least a digital content streaming server if none of determined conditions applies, whereby the determined conditions comprises: if the elapsed time is smaller than a determined first delay; and if the command issuer of the received command does not have highest issuer rights allowing the issuer to derogate from respecting of the determined first delay.
US09032454B2
In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving a request for interactive content at a mediation device, the request sent from a set-top box device via a secure network. The method also includes receiving the interactive content at the mediation device from at least one content provider via an unsecured network. The method also includes removing at least one unapproved element from the interactive content. The method also includes sending the interactive content to the set-top box device via a video head-end.
US09032450B2
A method is provided comprising: receiving a constant bit rate video stream representing a single video from a video source via a managed broadband connection; converting the constant bit rate video stream into a single non-adaptive bit rate video stream by modifying a video transport stack of the video to be compatible with a home device media player video transport stack; modifying a video control stack of the video to be compatible with a device in a home network; adding a home networking transport stack to the video stream, wherein the home networking transport stack is such that it would appear to the device in the home network as if the video stream came from a server local to the home network; and delivering the video stream to a device in the home network.
US09032448B2
A broadcast system provides consumers with inducement to consume portions in which they may not have an active interest, such as commercials. To dissuade consumers from leaving the vicinity of the broadcast receiver or from switching to other broadcasts while a first broadcast airs such a portion, the first broadcast is augmented by a second content entity calculated to be of interest to the consumer. Interaction is required of the consumer in order for him to receive the second content entity, which necessitates his presence and attention.
US09032447B1
A method for capturing viewer attention concerning a product depicted in a color motion video is provided wherein a frame in the plurality of image frames rendering the motion video on a display, is elongated. While elongated sections of the video frame showing products or services are highlighted and a user interface is provided to request information about or order the product.
US09032442B2
The present invention is a method, system, and computer-readable medium for acquiring a channel map in a cable receiver. The channel map associates physical analog and digital channels in an RF spectrum to channel identification data, where the channel identification data includes physical RF channel numbers, modulation type, virtual channels, and channel names. The method obtains a list of available channels from an electronic program guide service provider, and initializes the channel map based on the list of available channels. The method performs a channel scan to detect clear channels, and collect identification information for each detected clear channel. Based on the identification information, the method updates the channel map for each detected channel. The method receives changes to the channel map from a user of the cable receiver device, updates the channel map based on the changes to the channel map from the user, and uploads the channel map to the electronic program guide service provider.
US09032435B2
In a streaming video system, a method determining a sequence of video programs playing on an interactive player device may include streaming a first video program including an ad break from a computer server to an interactive player device during a first streaming session. The method may further include automatically selecting a video advertisement or next program from a set of prospective video advertisements for play during the ad break or available programs, based at least in part on the first video program exclusive of any parameter based on user identity. The method may include providing the video advertisement to the interactive player device in the first streaming session at the ad break. Bases for selecting the next ad or program may include program popularity, rate of change in popularity, or other parameter. The method may be embodied in a computing apparatus or system.
US09032427B2
A monitoring system includes a video network analyzer processes the packet data to generate network and media session data relating to the distribution of video content via the data distribution network in at least one media session, wherein the network and media session data includes at least one session metric, location data, protocol identification data, video encoding parameter data, and audio encoding parameter data. An analytics database stores the network and media session data for generation of report data.
US09032426B2
A medium processing device may include a head which reads or writes data to a recording medium; and a flexible cable which is connected with the head. The flexible cable may be formed in a multilayer structure including a data signal layer formed with a data signal pattern and disconnection detecting signal layers which cover a front face and a rear face of the data signal layer and are formed with a disconnection detecting signal pattern. The flexible cable may also include a terminal connecting part formed with a through hole into which a signal terminal of the head is inserted and a terminal covering part folded to cover the terminal connecting part and fixed to the terminal connecting part.
US09032421B2
A computation device includes a data path element (300) including a function processing unit (4000) that executes a computation specified in a function using input data included in an event (1000) as an argument; and a control path element (2000) that detects the event (1000) by use of a return value (ret) of the function. The function processing unit (4000) includes a data calculation unit (4001) that executes a computation and outputs a first result (d0); and a control comparison unit (4002) that outputs, to the control path element (2000), a result of comparison between the input data and data for specifying the event (1000), as the return value (ret).
US09032418B2
A service may be provided that reads sensors, and that communicates information based on the sensor readings to applications. In one example, an operating system provides a sensor interface that allows programs that run on a machine to read the values of sensors (such as an accelerometer, light meter, etc.). A service may use the interface to read the value of sensors, and may receive subscriptions to sensor values from other programs. The service may then generate messages that contain the sensor value, and may provide these messages to programs that have subscribed to the messages. The messages may contain raw sensor data. Or, the messages may contain information that is derived from the sensor data and/or from other data.
US09032417B2
A information processing apparatus having a processor is controlled to execute a procedure of reading from the memory attribute information indicating a usage frequency of a register used by a process to be executed as a next process by the processor when the processor switches a process currently being executed, saving a value of the register used by the next process to be executed by the processor to the memory when the usage frequency of the register indicated by the attribute information is larger than a certain frequency, reading from the memory owner information indicating a process using the register to be used by the next process when the usage frequency of the register indicated by the attribute information is larger than the certain frequency, and restoring a register value saved in the memory to the register when the owner information indicates a process other than the next process.
US09032413B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus for separately loading and managing foreground work and background work of an application. In some embodiments, a method is provided for use by an operating system executing on at least one computer. The operating system may identify at least one foreground component and at least one background component of an application, and may load the at least one foreground component for execution separately from the at least one background component. For example, the operating system may execute the at least one foreground component without executing the at least one background component. In some further embodiments, the operating system may use a specification associated with the application to identify at least one piece of computer executable code implementing the at least one background component.
US09032409B1
A method, system and program product for remote scheduling of at least one job to run on a plurality of computers in a computer network. The job scheduler enables selection of a domain that includes at least a subset of the computers on which the job is to run. A list of computers in the selected domain is automatically generated. The computers on which the job is to run can be selected from the generated list of computers. A configuration file is created for storing an identification of the selected domain and the job to be run on the selected computers in the domain.
US09032403B1
Embodiments of systems and methods are described for instant provisioning (e.g., cloning, copying, replicating, migrating, backing up, restoring, etc.) of virtual machines, virtual machine files, or other types of files (e.g., database files). In some implementations, a cloned virtual machine file can present an illusion to multiple applications accessing the cloned file that the cloned file contains all the appropriate data (e.g., a file system volume), even while the clone file is still being filled with relevant data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use a file system filter driver to intercept and redirect certain input/output (I/O) requests to the cloned file. The file system filter driver may use a data structure (e.g., a bitmap) to determine which logical units of the clone file have already been filled with data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use the operating system to handle cached I/O requests, which may improve efficiency.
US09032390B2
Various embodiments are directed to framework versioning for a mobile computing device. The described embodiments may include a web browser, a plurality of application frameworks, one or more applications compatible with one or more of the plurality of application frameworks, and a loader module operative to select and load one of the plurality of application frameworks into the web browser for each of the one or more applications based on an identifier in each of the one or more applications. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032389B2
A method for generating a Set Top Box (STB) code download step sequence includes the steps of retrieving a code object from a Software Download Generator (SDG) memory in response to an instruction signal, generating at least one of a control message and a decoder conditional command using a SDG processor in response to the code object, accessing information in a channel map in the SDG memory, combining the at least one of a control message and a decoder conditional command with the code object to generate the STB code download step sequence for a target STB, transmitting the at least one STB code download step sequence from the SDG memory to a Digital Addressable Controller (DAC), re-transmitting the STB code download step sequence from the DAC to a Remote Addressable DANIS/DLS (RADD), and re-transmitting the STB code download step sequence from the RADD to the target STB.
US09032376B2
A method is provided to evaluate impact of a change in code of a depended upon component of a system stored in a computer readable storage device, upon a dependent component of the system, the method comprising: identifying a dependency relationship between a first component stored in a computer readable storage device and a second component stored in the computer readable storage device; in response to a determination that the second component depends upon the first component, configuring a computer system to obtain a first property evaluation corresponding to the first component; and in response to obtaining the first property evaluation corresponding to the first component, configuring the computer system to associate the first property evaluation with the second component, and obtain a second property evaluation corresponding to the second component, wherein the second component is associated with the first property evaluation.
US09032374B2
A method, system and computer program product for software debugging using annotation metadata. A set of metadata comprising source code annotation information for a software program is maintained, together with data/metadata relationships between individual units of the metadata and individual units of the source code. A software debugging point is set that is associated with debugging point metadata comprising one or more units the metadata. A debugging action is performed when execution of the software program reaches said debugging point.
US09032370B2
A system and method is disclosed to estimate both, the time and number of resources required to execute a test suite or a subset of test suite in parallel, with the objective of providing a balanced workload distribution. The present invention partitions test suite for parallelization, given the dependencies that exists between test cases and test execution time.
US09032357B1
Aspects of the invention relate to techniques of generating guiding patterns for via-type feature groups. A guiding pattern may be constructed for a via-type feature group that comprises two or more via-type features in a layout design. A backbone structure may then be determined for the guiding pattern. Based on the backbone structure and a self-assembly model, simulated locations of the two or more via-type features are computed. The simulated locations are compared with targeted locations. If the simulated locations do not match the targeted locations based on a predetermined criterion, the simulated locations adjusted to derive modified locations. Using the modified locations, the above operations may be repeated until the simulated locations match the targeted location based on a predetermined criterion or for a predetermined number of times.
US09032351B2
A relationship between distance from a back bias control section which outputs a control signal for controlling a back bias of a transistor and an amount of noise in the control signal outputted from the back bias control section is found. An increase of jitter corresponding to the amount of the noise in a clock transmitted on a clock path connected to a circuit section (IP macro) is found on the basis of the relationship between the distance from the back bias control section and the amount of the noise. The circuit section and the clock path are placed on the basis of the increase of the jitter and an allowable jitter value for the circuit section.
US09032350B2
A method for bypassing a defective through silicon via x in a group of n adjacent through silicon vias, includes receiving a plurality of relief signals to identify the defective through silicon via x, activating x−1 switch circuits to connect x−1 data circuits to through silicon vias 1 to x−1 in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, activating n-x switch circuits to connect n-x data circuits to through silicon vias x+1 to n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, and activating a switch circuit to connect a data circuit to an auxiliary through silicon via which is adjacent through silicon via n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias.
US09032345B2
A method, a system and a computer readable medium for providing information relating to a verification of a digital circuit. The verification may be formal verification and comprise formally verifying that a plurality of formal properties is valid for a representation of the digital circuit. The method comprises replacing at least a first input value relating to the representation of the digital circuit by a first free variable, determining if at least one of the plurality of formal properties is valid or invalid after replacing the first input value by the first variable and indicating if the at least one of the plurality of formal property is valid or invalid. The use of a free or open variable that has not determined value can be directly in the description or representation of the digital circuit. It is not necessary to insert errors or to apply an error model.
US09032344B2
A plurality of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), high performance transceivers, and memory devices provide a verification module for timing and state debugging of electronic circuit designs. Signal value compression circuits and gigabit transceivers embedded in each FPGA increase the fanout of each FPGA. Ethernet communication ports enable remote software debugging of processor instructions.
US09032342B2
A method of patterning a plurality of layers of a work piece in a series of writing cycles in one or a plurality of write machines, the workpiece being deviced to have a number of N layers and layers of the workpiece having one or a plurality of boundary condition(s) for pattern position, the method comprising the steps of: determining the boundary conditions of layers 1 to N, calculating deviations due to the boundary conditions and calculating a compensation for the deviation of the first transformation added with the assigned part of the deviation due to the boundary conditions.
US09032338B2
An electronic device displays text of an electronic document on a display; displays an insertion marker at a first position in the text of the electronic document; detects a first horizontal gesture on a touch-sensitive surface; in response to a determination that the first horizontal gesture satisfies a first set of one or more predefined conditions: translates the electronic document on the display in accordance with a direction of the first horizontal gesture, and maintains the insertion marker at the first position in the text; and, in response to a determination that the first horizontal gesture satisfies a second set of one or more predefined conditions, moves the insertion marker by one character in the text from the first position to a second position in the text in accordance with the direction of the first horizontal gesture.
US09032336B2
The present invention provides an input interface that a human can operate naturally and intuitively using a human gesture (motion), by including means for acquiring motion information based on a gesture and input interface means for generating information for operating an object on a desktop of a computer on the basis of motion information. In this case, the motion information is matched against a template for recognizing a motion of a user and a matched event is outputted so that the object is operated. The object includes a pie menu in which a menu item is disposed in a circular form. A user is allowed to selects a desired menu item in the pie menu in accordance with an angle at which the user twists a wrist thereof.
US09032327B2
An approach is described for supplementing a scrolling region of an item user interface (UI) presentation with scrolling-region information. For example, the scrolling region can be enhanced by presented information regarding a flattened list of containers. The approach may also involve varying a representation of a collection of items displayed in an item presentation region of the item UI presentation based on at least one emphasis-related attribute associated with the collection of items. The various features of the item UI presentation facilitate a user's navigation through a large collection of items.
US09032318B2
A widget security system, method and computer-readable medium detects a security event associated with a widget, assesses the risk associated with the security event, and initiates a security action based on the assessed risk.
US09032316B1
Computer-implemented methods for proposing actions to a user to select based on the value of the actions to the user are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving content selected by a user from a device, and identifying a plurality of actions to be executed that are associated with a referent entity identified from the selected content, wherein each action has an associated value to the user. The method also includes providing, for display, an identifier of each of at least a subset of the actions based on their associated values. Systems and machine-readable storage media are also provided.
US09032310B2
This document discusses, among other things a server interface to bridge communications between a desktop application and a web server. In an example embodiment, the server interface translates a communication from the desktop application (e.g., in a desktop programming language) to HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and transfers the translated communication over a network to a web server.
US09032308B2
Systems and methods for providing a manufacturer portal are disclosed. More specifically, in one embodiment a content distribution system, as a central location for user generated content may also provide manufacturers with a portal to monitor, and participate in, the process of content generation and distribution. This portal may provide the manufacturers with the ability to: view generated content related to that manufacturer and to filter this user generated content utilizing a wide variety of criteria and to generate content which may be responsive to presented generated content. Content generated by a manufacturer through their portal may subsequently be incorporated into one or more retailer's site utilizing the content distribution system.
US09032307B2
Data defining an avatar is received over a network. A sprite sheet comprising a plurality of sprites is created, using the data defining the avatar. Each sprite includes a partial rendering of the respective avatar and at least one run-time parameter including a sprite attribute. A plurality of requests are received, over the network, for the avatar from a plurality of user applications. The data defining the avatar and the sprite sheet are transmitted, over the network, to each of the requesting user applications, enabling each respective user application to display the sprites in the sprite sheet and to set the run-time parameter associated with each of the sprites in the sprite sheet such that each respective sprite is thereby customized to the application.
US09032306B2
Method or system for allowing a social networking system to retain users of a social networking system by identifying low-activity users who are likely to become inactive/dormant users and prompting users to initiate interactions with the low-activity users. The low-activity users are identified by monitoring activities and interactions of the users via the social networking system. If the pattern of activities and interactions satisfy one or more criteria, a computer device for providing the social networking system initiates an intervention scheme where users are induced to initiate interactions with the low-activity users. In response to the interactions, the low-activity users are likely to resume interactions via the social networking system.
US09032303B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating web-based interaction with a local system are disclosed. Such systems, methods, and computer program products provide an approach that allows a web client within in a web browser environment to access local hardware and local software—via a web server contained in the local system—in a local computer system. In response to a user input, the web client directs local hardware and local software to perform actions (e.g., writing files and taking pictures). Information related to such actions is returned to the web client via the local web server. The local computer system may be remotely located from the web client and such returned information may be stored and/or executed at a remote site (e.g., cloud database). Security layers may be provided to authenticate the user as well as user permissions for accessing the local computer system.
US09032278B2
A method for performing data shaping is applied to a controller of a Flash memory, where the Flash memory includes a plurality of blocks. The method includes: performing a program optimization operation according to original data and a plurality of shaping codes, in order to generate trace back information corresponding to a Trellis diagram and utilize the trace back information as side information; and dynamically selecting at least one shaping code from the shaping codes according to the side information to perform data shaping on the original data.
US09032275B2
An encoding method and encoder of a time-varying LDPC-CC with high error correction performance are provided. In an encoding method of performing low density parity check convolutional coding (LDPC-CC) of a time varying period of q using a parity check polynomial of a coding rate of (n−1)/n (where n is an integer equal to or greater than 2), the time varying period of q is a prime number greater than 3, the method receiving an information sequence as input and encoding the information sequence using Equation 1 as a g-th (g=0, 1, . . . , q−1) parity check polynomial to satisfy 0.
US09032271B2
In some embodiments of the present invention, a data storage system includes a controller and a non-volatile memory array having a plurality of memory pages. The controller performs a method that efficiently resolves the lower page corruption problem. In one embodiment, the method selects programmed lower page(s) for which paired upper page(s) have not been programmed, reads data from those selected lower page(s), corrects the read data, and reprograms the read data into those lower page(s). Since the number of lower pages in this condition is typically low (e.g., several pages in a block with hundreds or thousands of pages), this is a much more efficient method than reprogramming the entire block. In another embodiment, a similar reprogramming method is applied as a data recovery scheme in situations in which only lower pages are programmed (e.g., SLC memory, MLC memory in SLC mode, etc.).
US09032268B1
A digital broadcast communication system includes an upload system further comprising digital transceivers that upload a plurality of voice sources from any one of announcers, players, referees, coaches, and sportscasters from a broadcast booth utilizing a synchronized multicast communication protocol. At least one access point is configured to communicate with the digital transceivers using synchronized multicast communication protocol. The system utilizes error control coding and decoding that is based upon a quasi-orthogonal maximal sequence code.
US09032259B1
Systems and methods involve prioritizing information based at least in part on test results for tests. A computing device may administer one or more tests and/or may receive test results for one or more tests. Multiple executions of one or more tests may be administered over a period of time. A device administering a test may evaluate the functionality of at least a portion of an application programming interface (API) or at least a portion of a user interface. Test results may be analyzed to determine a failure pattern and/or pass rate for one or more tests. Test results may be analyzed to determine an error signature and/or error signature frequency for one or more test results. A report can be generated that prioritizes information based at least in part on the tests, test results, and/or any determined information.
US09032255B2
Provided is a semiconductor device including: a first memory that stores multiple instructions; a second memory that stores multiple data items; first and second buses; a microprocessor that fetches, through the first bus, an instruction at a specified address among the multiple instructions stored in the first memory, executes the instruction, and accesses the second memory through the second bus based on a result of the execution; and a trace information output unit that acquires, when a branch instruction is generated in the microprocessor, address information of the first memory specified before branching, and outputs the information as trace information. The trace information output from the trace information output unit is written into the second memory through the second bus in a period in which the microprocessor does not access the second memory during execution of the branch instruction.
US09032254B2
The presently disclosed subject matter includes a system and method which enable to identify one or more causes for excessive energy consumption in a computer executing one or more processes. Information indicating that consumption of a computer-resource of at least one of said processes is greater than a predefined threshold is obtained and one or more threads of said at least one process which are in running state are identified. Thread performance information of at least one thread in running state is collected and used for identifying one or more functions that are the cause for said state of the respective thread. The identified functions are associated with their respective modules in order to identify one or more modules of said process, which are the cause for said excessive energy consumption.
US09032250B1
A power delivery system includes a power supply unit, a secondary power unit, a controller, and a monitor. The power supply unit is configured to receive primary power and provide operating DC power to a DC load. The secondary power unit is configured to store energy from the primary power. The controller is configured to control the secondary power unit during a testing period such that the secondary power unit uses the stored energy to provide secondary DC power to the load instead of the operating DC power. The monitor is configured to monitor the operation of the secondary power unit during the testing period and provide a signal indicative of whether the secondary power unit operated within defined parameters during the testing period.
US09032244B2
The techniques discussed herein identify failed segments of memory in a memory region. The techniques may then manage the failed segments of memory by logically clustering the failed segments of memory at an outlying portion of the memory region using a remapping process. The remapping process may include creating and storing remapping metadata defining segment remapping entries for the memory region. Accordingly, the failure clustering logically eliminates or reduces the memory fragmentation so that a system can allocate larger portions of contiguous memory for object storage.
US09032240B2
A method and system for providing high availability services to SCTP applications is disclosed. In one embodiment, a high availability (HA) server system includes an active server and a standby server with a primary redundancy module and a secondary redundancy module, respectively, which are operable for performing a method including forming a control channel between the active server and the standby server, forwarding IP addresses of the active server and the standby server to a client device when an association between the client device and the active server is established, synchronously mirroring a state of a SCTP stack and a state of an application of the active server to the standby server using the control channel, and servicing the client device using the standby server based on the state of the SCTP stack and the state of the application if a failure of the active server is detected.
US09032236B2
A semiconductor device includes an internal circuit, a power supply control circuit which controls supply of a power supply to the internal circuit upon receipt of a first control signal, and a control signal generation circuit which outputs the first control signal upon receipt of a second control signal. The control signal generation circuit does not deactivate the first control signal when an inactive period of the second control signal is equal to or less than a first period and deactivates the first control signal when the inactive period of the second control signal is more than the first period.
US09032226B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having a plurality of cores and a control logic to control provision of a voltage/frequency to a first core of the plurality of cores independently of provision of a voltage/frequency to at least a second core of the plurality of cores. In some embodiments, the voltages may be provided from one or more internal voltage regulators of the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032222B2
A data entry device including a housing formed of at least two portions, data entry circuitry located within the housing, at least one case-open switch assembly operative to sense when the housing is opened and tamper indication circuitry operative to receive an input from the at least one case-open switch assembly and to provide an output indication of possible tampering with the data entry circuitry located within the housing, the at least one case-open switch assembly including an arrangement of electrical contacts including at least first, second and third contacts and a displaceable conductive element, the tamper indication circuitry and the third contact together being operative such that when the third contact is short circuited to at least one of the first contact, the second contact and another contact, an output indication of possible tampering is provided.
US09032220B2
Data is secured on a device in communication with a remote location using a password and content protection key. The device stores data encrypted using a content protection key, which itself may be stored in encrypted form using the password and a key encryption key. The remote location receives a public key from the device. The remote location uses the public key and a stored private key to generate a further public key. The further public key is sent to the device. The device uses the further public key to generate a key encryption key, which is then used to decrypt the encrypted content protection key. A new content encryption key may then be created.
US09032216B2
Techniques for dynamic generation and management of password dictionaries are presented. Passwords are parsed for recognizable terms. The terms are housed in dictionaries or databases. Statistics associated with the terms are maintained and managed. The statistics are used to provide strength values to the passwords and determine when passwords are acceptable and unacceptable.
US09032215B2
Management of access control in wireless networks known as smart spaces includes a framework that presents non-expert users with a consistent and intuitive interaction mechanism to manage access to devices they own in the smart space without exposing to them the complexity of the underlying security infrastructure. Access control of devices in a network can include providing an interface between a user-level tool on a first device connected to a network and security components associated with the network, communicating a passlet between the user-level tool and the interface, verifying access permission at a second device on the network where access permissions are based on the passlet, and providing a response to the first device based on the verification of the access permission in the passlet. The passlet provides access permissions based on a particular user rather than a particular device.
US09032213B2
A method may include receiving data and first path-metadata. The first path-metadata may include a first entity identifier. The first entity identifier may be associated with a first receiving entity that receives the data and the first path-metadata from an originating entity. The first path-metadata may also include a first digital signature associated with the originating entity. The method may further include receiving second path-metadata that may include the first path-metadata and a second entity identifier associated with a second receiving entity. The second path-metadata may also include a second digital signature associated with the first receiving entity. The method may additionally include verifying that the data was communicated by the originating entity to the first receiving entity and from the first receiving entity to the second receiving entity based on the first path-metadata, the second path-metadata, the first digital signature, and the second digital signature.
US09032208B2
A communication terminal that can adjust which section of a one-time pad cipher key is used and achieve cipher communication when there is a possibility that the one-time pad cipher keys are not completely matched between communication terminals. A cipher key transfer device acquires a one-time pad cipher key from a key sharing system, divides the acquired one-time pad cipher key with a predetermined number of bits, and transfers the same to a mobile communication terminal after converting the same into one-time pad cipher key cartridges. Along with the partner's terminal, the mobile communication terminal negotiates which one-time pad cipher key cartridge will be used to perform cipher communication, decides the one-time pad cipher key cartridge to be used, and begins cipher communication.
US09032200B2
Method, system, and storage media for remotely installing a virtual service processor (VSP) to a computing device are disclosed. The computer device initiates a preboot execution environment (PXE) client and receives a VSP installation file from a PXE server. The VSP installation file includes a VSP file, a universal plug and play (UPnP) service file, and a remote procedure call (RPC) service file. The UPnP service is discoverable by a management station in a network through UPnP. The computer device initiates a RPC service based on the RPC service file, sends hardware information of the computing device to the management station through the RPC service, receives configuration parameters for the VSP through the RPC service. The RPC service installs the VSP based on the VSP installation file and the configuration parameters.
US09032199B1
Embodiments relate to systems, devices, and computer-implemented methods for creating a loadable image and using the loadable image for restarting an application. The method can include starting, by a computing device, initialization of the application, and identifying upon initialization of the application, a plurality of resources associated with the application. The method can further include determining checkpoints associated with the plurality of resources. In addition, the method can include creating an optimized image corresponding to the application based on the checkpoints and an optimization of an application image, and storing the optimized image in a memory. Further, the method can include restarting the application by replacing a current process image with a new process image, and updating the new process image with one or more elements of the optimized image.
US09032190B2
A leading thread and a trailing thread are executed in parallel. Assuming that no transient fault occurs in each section, a system is speculatively executed in the section, with the leading thread and the trailing thread preferably being assigned to two different cores. At this time, the leading thread and the trailing thread are simultaneously executed, performing a buffering operation on a thread local area without performing a write operation on a shared memory. When the respective execution results of the two threads match each other, the content buffered to the thread local area is committed and written to the shared memory. When the respective execution results of the two threads do not match each other, the leading thread and the trailing thread are rolled back to a preceding commit point and re-executed.
US09032184B2
A method, apparatus and a data storage device are provided for implementing drive list mode for read and write transfers on a recordable surface of a storage device. Drive List mode provides a queue in a linked list to chain together multiple independent transfers on a single track. The multiple drive independent transfers include at least one of sequential transfers, near-sequential transfers, and random transfers on the single track. A drive list mode transfer of multiple independent transfers on the single track is enabled in one disk revolution, and requiring a single hardware setup for the drive list mode transfer.
US09032183B2
Apparatus and method for placing data based on the content of the data in random access memory such that indexing operations are not required. A strong (e.g., cryptographic) hash is applied to a data element resulting in a signature. A weaker hash function is then applied to the signature to generate a storage location in memory for the data element. The weaker hash function assigns multiple data elements to the same storage location while the signature comprises a unique identifier for locating a particular data element at this location. In one embodiment a plurality of weak hash functions are applied successively to increase storage space utilization. In other embodiments, the assigned storage location can be determined by one or more attributes of the data element and/or the storage technology, e.g, long-lived versus short-lived data and/or different regions of the memory having different performance (e.g., access latency memory lifetime) characteristics.
US09032180B2
A primary processing unit entitlement is determined for a logical partition. A smaller secondary processing unit entitlement is also determined. A partition manager allocates primary processing units to the logical partition from a primary shared processor pool, and the logical partition is activated. The secondary processing units are reserved for the logical partition from a secondary shared processor pool, and the logical partition can be relocated to the secondary shared processor pool in response to a condition such as a hardware failure. The logical partition can continue to process its workload with the fewer processor resources, and can be restored to the primary processing unit entitlement.
US09032177B2
Managing data returns to a host in response to read commands, an operation monitor of a solid-state drive (SSD) manages counters used to hold metrics that characterize the estimated time to complete a read operation on a corresponding flash die. A timer generates a periodic event which decrements the counters over time. The value stored in each counter is generated for flash operations submitted to the corresponding die and is, generally, based on the operational history and the physical location of the operation. Whenever a read command is scheduled for submission to a particular die, the time estimate for that particular read operation is retrieved and, based on this information, the optimum order in which to return data to the host is determined. This order is used to schedule and program data transfers to the host so that a minimum number of read commands get blocked by other read commands.
US09032173B2
A method according to one embodiment includes receiving instruction to change from an original target storage subsystem in a disaster recovery configuration-to a new target storage subsystem. Second copy services relationships are created between one or more new target volumes on the new target storage subsystem and one or more source volumes on a source storage subsystem using multi-target functionality. Existing first copy services relationships between the source storage subsystem and the original target storage subsystem are terminated after all of the second copy services relationships are full duplex.
US09032169B2
A method, system and computer-usable medium which provides a format in which data is written to a dump data set to allow use of Fast Replication technology for both backing up and restoring of both datasets and volumes. Such a format allows any data that can be captured at a track level to be written to the dump data set via Fast Replication. When using this methodology of backing up and restoring, backups should be made to devices that support Fast Replication technology and restoration of the data should be to devices which are capable of being the target of a Fast Replication for that backup device.
US09032164B2
The splitting of storage applications and functions into a control path (CP) component and a data path (DP) component is disclosed. Reads and writes may be handled primarily in the DP. The CP may be responsible for discovery, configuration, and exception handling. The CP can also be enabled for orchestrating complex data management operations such as snapshots and migration. Storage virtualization maps a virtual I/O to one or more physical I/O. A virtual target (vTarget) in the virtual domain is associated with one physical port in the physical domain. Each vTarget may be associated with one or more virtual LUNs (vLUNs). Each vLUN includes one or more vExtents. Each vExtent may point to a region table, and each entry in the region table may contain a pointer to a region representing a portion of a pExtent, and attributes (e.g. read/write, read only, no access) for that region.
US09032151B2
To ensure that the contents of a non-volatile memory device cache may be relied upon as accurately reflecting data stored on disk storage, it may be determined whether the cache contents and/or disk contents are modified during a power transition, causing cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. The cache device may be removable from the computer, and unexpected removal of the cache device may cause cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. Cache metadata may be managed during normal operations and across power transitions, ensuring that cache metadata may be efficiently accessed and reliably saved and restored across power transitions. A state of a log used by a file system may be determined prior to and subsequent to reboot of an operating system in order to determine whether data stored on a cache device may be reliably used.
US09032142B2
Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium directed to efficiently storing value ranges in TCAM or other memory are disclosed. Storing a range of integer values in a memory includes determining a subrange within the range, so that, in a first and a second plurality of bit subsequences from binary representations respectively of a start value and an end value of the subrange, all except at most one bit subsequence in the first plurality is either equal in value to a corresponding bit subsequence in the second plurality or has a value of 0 and a corresponding bit subsequence of the second plurality has a maximum value. The storing a range of integer values in a memory further includes forming a first bit string based upon values of the first and second plurality of bit subsequences, and storing the first bit string in the memory.
US09032136B2
A memory controller, system including the memory controller and method of controlling the memory. The memory controller receives requests for memory and content sensitively allocates memory space in a mixed cell memory. The memory controller allocates sufficient space including performance memory storing a single bit per cell and dense memory storing more than one bit per cell. Some or all of the memory may be selectable by the memory controller as either Single Level per Cell (SLC) or Multiple Level per Cell (MLC).
US09032135B2
A data protecting method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module having physical blocks is provided, a plurality of logical block addresses is mapped to a part of the physical blocks. The method includes, configuring a plurality of virtual block addresses to map to the logical block addresses, grouping at least one virtual block address into a virtual block address area, and allocating the virtual block address area to an application. The method also includes, receiving an access command which is configured to instruct accessing a first virtual block address from the application. The method also includes: determining whether the first virtual block address belongs to the virtual block address area, if not, sending an error message to the application. Accordingly, the method can effectively prevent an application from accessing the data which can not be accessed by the application program.
US09032134B2
A method of operating a memory system includes receiving a read command from a host, where the read command is associated with a logical sector of a memory, determining whether the logical sector of the memory is indicated as being erased in a sector allocation table, if the logical sector of the memory is indicated as being erased, outputting a data pattern from the sector allocation table to the host, and if the logical sector of the memory is not indicated as being erased, reading a physical sector of the memory and outputting data from the physical sector of the memory to the host.
US09032132B2
The USB device (e.g. an audio class device) comprises a USB bus interface that connects to an upstream USB port and a USB logical device that provides first USB endpoints for upstream communication on a first channel. The USB host comprises a USB host controller that connects to a downstream USB port, and a USB driver that provides second USB endpoints for downstream communication on a second channel; wherein the USB host operates concurrently with the USB device. The processor is configured to communicate data between the first channel and the second channel via the first USB endpoints and the second USB endpoints, respectively.
US09032131B2
An audio system including a first audio unit and a second audio unit coupled to the first audio unit through an audio bus. A first processor is coupled to the first audio unit. The first processor is configured to transmit bits comprising audio content to the second audio unit over the audio bus. The first processor is further configured to receive a control command selected from a plurality of control commands, and in response, interrupt the bits comprising audio content and send a preamble and a control message on the audio bus, wherein the control message corresponds to the control command. A second processor is coupled to the second audio unit. The second processor is configured to monitor the audio bus for a preamble, and if a preamble is detected, then process the control message and execute the corresponding control command.
US09032127B2
A method of balancing input/output (I/O) device interrupt service loading in a computer system comprises: assigning priorities to a plurality of I/O device interrupts of a processing unit of the computer system; servicing the plurality of interrupts according to the assigned priorities thereof; collecting data on the interrupt servicing of the plurality of interrupts over a time interval; reassigning the priorities of the plurality of interrupts based on the collected interrupt service data; and repeating the collecting and reassigning steps to balance input/output (I/O) device interrupt service loading of the processing unit.
US09032126B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for accessing a task stored in an entry of a task queue that identifies the task and a first core of a processor on which the task has been scheduled, reassigning the task to a coldest idle core of the processor, and sending the task to the coldest idle core and maintaining the processor in a turbo mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032120B2
A device and method for writing/reading a piece of data in/from a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals, each peripheral having a peripheral clock signal, when two or more of the plurality of peripherals need to write/read such piece of data at the same time, the digital device including a central unit having the memory register and a bank of SL modules in signal communication with the central unit, the bank of SL modules being designed to write/read the piece of data. The bank of SL modules comprises a plurality of writing/reading modules whose priority value ranges between maximum and minimum priority values, each module being connected to a respective peripheral, the central unit includes a multiplexer in signal communication on the one hand with the plurality of writing/reading modules, and on the other hand with the memory register, each module comprises an arbitration cell, such that the first module is identified by the maximum priority value (Prmax′) and the other N−1 modules are identified by decreasing priority values, the central unit operating at a predetermined main clock frequency to write/read the piece of data in the memory register.
US09032115B2
The disclosure provides a method for passing a parameter between processors. The method comprises the following steps: in a source program of a slave processor, directly introducing a static configuration parameter to be passed; obtaining a relative address of the static configuration parameter when converting the source program of the slave processor into a target program of the slave processor; and configuring directly, by a master processor, a parameter value of the static configuration parameter in the target program of the slave processor according to the obtained relative address of the static configuration parameter. The disclosure also provides a system for passing a parameter between processors. The system has no need to use external hardware such as a dual-port Random Access Memory (RAM) and a register, thus, the requirement of parameter transmission on the external hardware is reduced, and further the area and static power consumption of a chip are reduced. The disclosure reduces the cycle delay of the slave processor in accessing the dual-port RAM and the register, thereby effectively reducing the dynamic power consumption of the chip, improving the processing capability of the slave processor and enhancing the effective performance of the slave processor.
US09032085B1
Techniques are described for identifying the use of software applications, such as to determine an identity of a user interacting with a Web site or other electronic information service based on information regarding an application copy used by the user. When a communication is received from a software application, the communication is analyzed to attempt to identify a particular software application copy that sent the communication. Various types of information about a client software application copy may be used in the analysis, including information about particular configuration settings for the client software application and for the client computing device on which the client software application is executing. After a matching software application copy is identified for a received communication, possible inappropriate activities related to the received communication may be identified in various ways, including based on previous communications received from the same software application copy.
US09032080B2
A central terminal may receive from a user a first message, which may be transmitted from a communication terminal, identifying particular media content on a particular content server, and in response the central terminal may transmit a second message to a particular application server if the central terminal determines that the first message is associated with the application server. The application server may generate and transmit to the communication terminal accessing information that may be used by the user to retrieve, via the communication terminal, the media content from the content server. Submitting content requests in this manner may enable routing content requests through a particular system, such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), thereby making use of filtering features of the particular system for user authentication and access control, and obviating need for separate proprietary access control mechanisms for the content server.
US09032079B2
Systems and methods of managing and diagnosing enterprise telephonic devices are disclosed. A provisioning request can be received from an enterprise telephonic device. The provisioning request can include a domain name system lookup request. An enterprise network address of a device management server can be provided to the enterprise telephonic device. A voice data link can be established with the enterprise telephonic device so as to permit the enterprise telephonic device to communicate over a data network with endpoint telephonic devices. The device management server can periodically receive heartbeat data from the enterprise telephonic device. The heartbeat can be indicative of a status of at least one functionality of the enterprise telephonic device. The enterprise telephonic device can provide diagnostic logs when requested by the device management server. In addition, the enterprise telephonic device can be configured to periodically request software updates.
US09032077B1
Methods and apparatus for client-allocatable bandwidth pools are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of resources of a provider network and a resource manager. In response to a determination to accept a bandwidth pool creation request from a client for a resource group, where the resource group comprises a plurality of resources allocated to the client, the resource manager stores an indication of a total network traffic rate limit of the resource group. In response to a bandwidth allocation request from the client to allocate a specified portion of the total network traffic rate limit to a particular resource of the resource group, the resource manager initiates one or more configuration changes to allow network transmissions within one or more network links of the provider network accessible from the particular resource at a rate up to the specified portion.
US09032074B2
A method and apparatus for controlling a home network access using phone numbers, and a system thereof, which enables a sharing user to simply set and manage sharing environment based on a telephone number capable of being easily recognized by the sharing user, and enables sharing users to simply access a sharing device inside a home using telephone numbers previously recognized by the sharing users when sharing contents of a UPnP device connected to a home network with the sharing users outside the home. The system includes a phone number management server for managing phone number information and a linked home gateway identifier, an access list management server for managing an access list, a home gateway management server for managing state information and access information of a home gateway, and a service server for receiving a service request from a remoter terminal and processing the received service request.
US09032071B2
An example provides potential solutions for SAS fabrics. The example includes identifying one or more devices directly attached to an entry point switch. The example also includes identifying one or more SAS switches that are not directly attached to the entry point switch. The example further includes receiving a request for SAS fabric information. Additionally, the example includes generating a data model in a format adapted to direct a client to generate a representation of the SAS fabric. The data model includes the one or more devices directly attached to the entry point switch, and the one or more SAS switches that are not directly attached to the entry point switch.
US09032067B2
In one embodiment, a method includes dynamically crawling an event-driven application in a plurality of client-tier environments; for each of the client-tier environments, generating a behavioral model of the event-driven application based on the dynamic crawling; for each of the behavioral models, determining one or more pairwise equivalences with respect to one or more other ones of the behavioral models; and, for each of the client-tier environments, determining one or more differences in an end-user experience of the event-driven application in the client-tier environment with respect to one or more other end-user experiences of the event-driven application in one or more other ones of the client-tier environments.
US09032060B2
A mobile device, such as a smartphone or a laptop, connects to a network based on the available bandwidth (throughput) of the network rather than on signal strength. The device may send a request containing the device's location to a service provider who has data on networks in the device's location and specifically on bandwidth or pipe performance. This data is used to determine which network in the area would be best to connect to. The network may be a network that does not necessarily have the highest signal strength (often shown as bars on a handset device). The service provider can cause the device to transition to the network having the higher bandwidth. It can also direct the user so that blackout areas are avoided using the network data maintained by the provider. The provider uses testers to obtain current bandwidth data of networks.
US09032058B2
Methods, devices, and systems are provided for managing and controlling small footprint devices with a lightweight control protocol, such as SNMP. Relatively small control messages are employed that have a compact command portion included in an object identifier portion, thereby circumventing the need for a separate command portion as well as a data body. Also, methods, devices, and systems for improving the security and privacy of processing SNMP messages on SNMP-managed devices by moving this processing together with the sensitive data that the process employ such a cryptographic keys inside the tamper-resistant and tamper-evident boundary of an integrated circuit card.
US09032057B2
A method of configuring a stack includes: connecting stacking ports of a plurality of stackable devices using one or more stacking links; connecting a user console to a first one of the stackable devices; transmitting a stack setup command from the user console to the first stackable device; and establishing a stack in response to the stack setup command. The stack is established by initiating a discovery process with the first stackable device in response to the stack setup command, wherein the first stackable device requests and receives identifying information from the stackable devices over the stacking links during the discovery process. The topology of the stackable devices is displayed with the user console in response to the identifying information. The stackable devices are authenticated during the discovery process such that the stack setup is secure. The first stackable device becomes the active controller of the stack by default.
US09032042B2
Aggregated data associated with a geographic area may be obtained. The aggregated data may be dynamically distilled to obtain a presentation set of data based on a dynamically changing geographic location associated with the geographic area. A transmission of a stream of personalized audio data that is based on the presentation set of data may be initiated, via a device processor, to a receiving device associated with a user that is associated with the dynamically changing geographic location.
US09032035B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for alerting a respondent that generates a reply to a received mail message of addressing of the reply message to a non-secure address. A detector detects reception of a received mail message, and a correlator determines whether any of the entries on a distribution list associated with the received mail message is of selected characteristics, i.e., non-secure. If determined to be non-secure, an annunciator generates an annunciation requiring the respondent to elect whether to include the identified address as a recipient of the reply message.
US09032032B2
Architecture for efficiently ensuring that data is stored to the desired destination datastore such as for replication processes. A copy of data (e.g., messages) sent to a datastore for storage is stored at an alternate location until a received signal indicates that the storage and replication was successful. As soon as the feedback signal is received, the copy is removed from the alternate location, and hence, improves input/output (I/O) and storage patterns. The feedback mechanism can also be used for monitoring the status of data transport associated with log shipping, for example, and taking the appropriate actions when storage (e.g., replication) is not being performed properly.
US09032029B2
Some embodiments include a communication hub for presenting audio-visual data from electronic devices. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are disclosed.
US09032026B2
A method for providing, by a remote machine, access to a desk band associated with a resource on a local machine includes receiving, by a first agent on the remote machine, an identification of a desk band associated with a resource on a local machine. The first agent, in communication with a shell on the remote machine, maintains a taskbar window in a remote desktop environment. The taskbar window includes at least one window associated with a resource provided by the remote machine and a window region representing the desk band by using graphical data stored on the remote machine. The first agent transmits, to a second agent on the local machine, window attribute data and output data associated with the taskbar window in the remote desktop environment. The second agent displays at least a portion of the received output data in a local window on a local desktop environment.
US09032017B1
Roughly described, a database query router is installed transparently in a network between database client systems and a database server cluster. One subset of the servers is designated to handle read queries only and a second subset is designated to handle write queries. The query router receives, through a network port, the database queries made by a client system, and directed to the IP address and port assigned to the query router. The query router determines whether the query is a read or a write query, and forwards read queries to servers in the first subset and write queries to servers in the second subset of servers. By installing the query router transparently in the network, no modifications are required to the software in either the client systems or the database servers in order to add query routing functionality to a client/server database environment.
US09032012B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for configurable pacing in messaging systems. In an embodiment of the invention, a configurable message pacing method has been provided. The method includes receiving a message directed for placement in a repository of an intermediate messaging system into which messages are placed by message producing applications and from which messages are retrieved by message consuming applications. Thereafter, it can be determined if the placement of the received message into the repository will result in a breach of an associated threshold value for the repository. Consequently, a message pacing action can be triggered responsive to the determination that the placement of the received message into the repository will result in a breach of the associated threshold value for the repository.
US09032007B2
Distributed processing system and method for discrete logarithm calculation. The speed and resource efficiency of discrete logarithm calculation may be improved by allowing a plurality of operation agents to distributively process an operation of generating a modulo multiplication auxiliary table, an operation of generating a pre-calculation table, and an operation of searching for an answer by applying an iterated function for discrete logarithm calculation in a discrete logarithm calculation operation using the pre-calculation table.
US09032003B2
Method, apparatus, and program means for performing a conversion. In one embodiment, a disclosed apparatus includes a destination storage location corresponding to a first architectural register. A functional unit operates responsive to a control signal, to convert a first packed first format value selected from a set of packed first format values into a plurality of second format values. Each of the first format values has a plurality of sub elements having a first number of bits The second format values have a greater number of bits. The functional unit stores the plurality of second format values into an architectural register.
US09031999B2
A method for generating a concept database respective of a plurality of multimedia data elements (MMDEs) comprises generating a plurality of items from a received MMDE of the plurality of MMDEs; determining the items that are of interest for signature generation; generating at least one signature responsive to at least one item of interest of the received MMDE of the plurality of MMDEs; clustering a plurality of signatures received from the signature generator responsive of the plurality of MMDEs; reducing the number of signatures in each cluster to a create a signature reduced cluster (SRC) of the cluster; associating metadata with the SRC to a concept structure comprised of a plurality of SRCs and their associated metadata; and generating at least one index for mapping the received MMDE to at least one concept structure, wherein the concept database includes concept structures and the generated indices for the plurality of MMDEs.
US09031998B2
A method and system, the method may include generating a change notification in response to a change of at least one attribute associated with at least one node of a host business object (BO); and updating, based on the generated change notification, an analytic enablement object (AEO) class of business object having derived attributes based on the at least one attribute of the host BO and representing transformations of the at least one attribute.
US09031994B1
Techniques for improved partitioning of a database for distribution in a data processing system. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. A database and a workload set associated with the database are analyzed. A hyper-graph is generated based on the analysis of the database and the workload set. The hyper-graph is partitioned into a partitioned hyper-graph. The partitioned hyper-graph is evaluated based on one or more partitioning constraints and/or one or more partitioning effect metrics. The partitioned hyper-graph is repartitioned when warranted by the evaluation step. A mapping is generated based on the partitioned hyper-graph that assigns at least one or more portions of the database to one or more nodes of a data processing system. The analyzing, hyper-graph generating, partitioning, evaluating, repartitioning and mapping generation steps are executed via at least one processor device.
US09031988B2
A system and method for the automatic generation of a website. The website is created upon a user request, where the user provides identification information that is used to search an information database. The information will provide a reference to a code that relates to a template that is used to specify the layout, style and content of the website that is to be generated, and the website is then generated in accordance with the structure of the template, based on content contained in the information database. The user may engage the system and method by means of e-mail or a dedicated website or other such suitable means.
US09031984B2
Multiple computers are connected to a data storage unit that includes a file system, which further includes multiple data entities, including files, directories and the file system itself. The file system also includes, for each data entity, an owner field for indicating which computer, if any, has exclusive or shared access to the data entity, along with a time field for indicating when a lease of the data entity began. When a computer wants to lease a data entity, the computer uses a disk reservation capability to temporarily lock the data storage unit, and, if the data entity is not currently leased, the computer writes its own identification value into the owner field and a current time into the time field for the data entity, to claim the data entity for a renewable lease period. If a prior lease of a data entity has expired, another computer may break the lease and claim ownership for itself.
US09031982B2
A service delivery platform receives a request for a catalogue. The system obtains subscriber-specific multi-media catalogue entries based on profile information stored with the service delivery platform. The system sends the subscriber-specific catalogue entries along with service details of the subscription back to the subscriber.
US09031961B1
A user device presents passages of an electronic publication. The user device tracks a user's access behavior for the passages of the electronic publication. The user device identifies the user's favorite passages of the electronic publication based on the user's access behavior and stores an identification of the user's favorite passages.
US09031957B2
Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for presenting updates to associated records to publish on an information feed in an on-demand database service environment. In one embodiment, data is received at a computing device configured to provide computing services via a network. The data may be separated into a plurality of data entries to define structured data. Each data entry may have a plurality of data fields. Each data field may be capable of being assigned a respective data value. The structured data may be stored in a database in an on-demand computing services environment. References to the structured data may be capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database. The feed items may be capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device.
US09031952B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for user interest modeling. A method may include accessing logged interactive user history data for a user data for a user. The method may additionally include determining at least one user interest topic for the user by utilizing a topic model acting upon at least a portion of the logged interactive user history data and one or more seed documents generated from a topic feature source. Corresponding apparatuses are also provided.
US09031946B1
A processor engine for affecting a website's position on at least one Internet search engine's page ranking comprises at least one processor. The at least one processor is arranged to: load (425) at least one search term into a program (425) running on the at least one processor; load (445) a target list comprising at least one website that is to be promoted; and create (420) an Internet connection. The at least one processor is further arranged to request a search of the at least one search term on the at least one Internet search engine; identify at least one website search hit that matches at least one website on the target list; and access the identified at least one website a plurality of times, affecting the at least one website's position on the Internet search engine's page ranking.
US09031933B2
A semantic query over an RDF database is received with RDF database statistics and access methods for evaluating triple patterns in the query. The semantic query is expressed as a parse tree containing triple patterns and logical relationships among the triple patterns. The parse tree and access methods create a data flow graph containing a plurality of triple pattern and access method pair nodes connected by a plurality of edges, and an optimal flow tree through the data flow graph is determined such that costs are minimized and all triple patterns in the semantic query are contained in the optimal flow tree. A structure independent execution tree defining a sequence of evaluation through the optimal flow tree is created and is transformed into a database structure dependent query plan. This is used to create an SQL query that is used to evaluate the semantic query over the RDF database.
US09031929B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining a first count of unique queries, received by a search engine, that are categorized as referring to a particular site; determining a second count of unique queries, received by the search engine, that are associated with the particular site, wherein a query is associated with the particular site when the query is followed by a user selection of a search result that (a) was presented, by the search engine, in response to the query and (b) identifies a resource in the particular site; and determining, based on the first and second counts, a site quality score for the particular site.
US09031925B2
The present description refers to a computer implemented method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving a resource request at an in-memory database platform that includes an application server and an in-memory database, generating a Hadoop connection function call based on the resource request, forwarding the Hadoop connection function call to a function call conversion service, identifying which of a plurality of Hadoop interface services correspond to the Hadoop connection function call, generating a Hadoop interface service function call corresponding to the Hadoop connection function call based one or more parameters included in the Hadoop connection function call, and forwarding the Hadoop interface service function call to the identified Hadoop interface service to initiate processing by a Hadoop cluster.
US09031918B2
A method for providing per-user aggregation of content accessible via a personalized user site may generally include receiving a request for metadata and determining whether the requested metadata is expired. The method may further include returning at least a portion of queried metadata prior to verifying whether the metadata is expired. The method may then include querying a change log for metadata modifications. The method may further include, if metadata has been modified since a previous query, sending a query to a community site for metadata that meets change criteria. The method may also include receiving the changed metadata and returning the changed metadata to a content group container within the personalized user site.
US09031909B2
Techniques are described herein that are capable of provisioning and/or synchronizing a data store using common metadata. For instance, a common instance of metadata may be used in lieu of multiple instances of the metadata that correspond to respective items in the data store for indicating a time at which the data store was provisioned. Each time a change occurs with respect to an item in a data table of the data store after provisioning of the data store, a record may be added or updated in a corresponding tracking table. When a request is made for changes that have occurred with respect to the items in a data table, the common instance of the metadata may be used to generate a record in the corresponding tracking table for each item in the data table that did not change since the data store was provisioned.
US09031905B2
A computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and on which instructions are stored for execution by the processing circuit for, upon receipt of a command relating to a file stored at a remote location, synchronizing the file between the remote location and a local device, determining whether a list of files linked to the file is stored in the local device, and, in an event the list is stored in the local device, synchronizing the files included in the list between the remote location and the local device.
US09031897B2
Techniques for evaluation and/or retraining of a classification model built using labeled training data. In some aspects, a classification model having a first set of weights is retrained by using unlabeled input to reweight the labeled training data to have a second set of weights, and by retraining the classification model using the labeled training data weighted according to the second set of weights. In some aspects, a classification model is evaluated by building a similarity model that represents similarities between unlabeled input and the labeled training data and using the similarity model to evaluate the labeled training data to identify a subset of the plurality of items of labeled training data that is more similar to the unlabeled input than a remainder of the labeled training data.
US09031896B2
An apparatus and method are disclosed for analysing a process. An exemplary method includes: generating a process template; and determining a probabilistic model specifying the process template. The method can include use of task nodes for tasks of the process; observables nodes for observables that may be caused by performance of the tasks; and a background activities node, wherein observables may further be caused by background activities of the background node. The method can include use of task nodes for tasks of the process; observables nodes for observables that may be caused by performance of the tasks; and a background activities node, observables may further be caused by background activities of the background node. The method can include measuring values of an observable corresponding to one of the observables nodes; and updating a probabilistic estimate of the process state using the measured values.
US09031893B2
An input combination of at least one condition value to be evaluated against at least one rule of a decision table is received. The at least one rule includes at least one condition and the rule is associated with a result. The at least one rule is evaluated against the input combination to determine conditions fulfilled for the at least one condition value. In one aspect, a rule from the at least one rule that best matches the input combination is determined and a result associated with the rule that best matches the input combination is outputted.
US09031885B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to predicting and using search engine switching behavior. In aspects, switching components receive a representation of user interactions with at least one browser. The switching components derive information from the representation that is useful in predicting whether a user will switch search engines. The derived information and information about a user's current interaction with a browser is then used by a switch predictor to predict whether the user will switch search engines. This prediction may be used in a variety of ways examples of which are given herein.
US09031879B2
A method of generating a digital signature at a postage meter, in which method a postal imprint is printed on a mail item once said mail item has been weighed and once its postage amount has been determined, said postal imprint being associated with a digital signature generated by means of a secret key on the basis of constant data and variable data, said variable data comprising only a fingerprint code extracted upstream of the weighing from a three-dimensional structure of the fibers of the mail item.
US09031876B2
A system administrator, while logged into a system-administrator account, creates and configures a key-administrator account and a member account. A key administrator, while logged into said key-administrator account, creates a group private key, a group public key, and a group symmetric key, a member private key, and a member public key. The key administrator encrypts the group private key with the group symmetric key, and encrypts said group symmetric key with the member public key. A publisher encrypts a document using the group public key. The publisher distributes the resulting encrypted group document so that it is accessible via said member account but not through said key-administrator account.
US09031857B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for customizing digital media marketing messages using biometric data. In one embodiment, data is received from a set of biometric devices associated with a retail facility to form the biometric data. The biometric data is associated with a given customer. The biometric data is processed to form dynamic data. The dynamic data is analyzed using a data model to identify personalize marketing message criteria for the customer. A customized marketing message is generated using the personalized marketing message criteria.
US09031848B2
Methods and apparatus for providing a search interface for an electronic device including a tuner configured to tune the electronic device to receive scheduled programming content. A search query is received and one or more data sources including information about media content are searched based, at least in part, on the search query. The results of the search are presented on a user interface using a time-based axis and a time-independent axis.
US09031846B2
Method and apparatus for a user to access a systems interface to back-end legacy systems using voice inputs. Generally, a user such as a technician accesses a systems interface to legacy systems via a front-end voice server. The user dials-in to the voice server using a portable access device. Preferably, the portable access device is a cellular phone. Preferably, the voice recognition server performs voice authentication, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. The voice server authenticates the user based on a voice exemplar provided by the user. Using speech synthesis, the voice server provides a menu of operations from which the user can select. By speaking into the access device, the user selects an operation and provides any additional data needed for the operation. Using speech recognition, the voice server prepares a user request based on the spoken user input. The user request is forwarded to the systems interface to the legacy systems. Preferably, the systems interface includes a protocol server for providing a protocol interface and a transaction server for receiving user requests and generating legacy transactions based on the user requests. The systems interface retrieves information from the legacy systems based on the user request and forwards this information to the voice server. The voice server formats the information and outputs the information to the access device. Preferably, the outputted information may be synthesized speech and/or text presented on a display of the access device.
US09031845B2
Mobile systems and methods that overcomes the deficiencies of prior art speech-based interfaces for telematics applications through the use of a complete speech-based information query, retrieval, presentation and local or remote command environment. This environment makes significant use of context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for one or more users making queries or commands in multiple domains. Through this integrated approach, a complete speech-based natural language query and response environment can be created. The invention creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command. The invention may organize domain specific behavior and information into agents, that are distributable or updateable over a wide area network. The invention can be used in dynamic environments such as those of mobile vehicles to control and communicate with both vehicle systems and remote systems and devices.
US09031841B2
A apparatus includes: a storage unit to store a model representing a relationship between a relative time and an occurrence probabilities; a first detection unit to detect first speech period of a first speaker; a second period detection unit to detect second speech period of a second speaker; a unit to calculate a feature value of the first speech period; a detection unit to detect a word using the calculated feature value; an adjustment unit to make an adjustment such that in detecting a word for a reply by the detection unit, the adjustment unit retrieves an occurrence probability corresponding to a relative position of the reply in the second speech period, and adjusts a word score or a detection threshold value for the reply; and a second detection unit to re-detect, using the adjusted word score or the adjusted detection threshold value, the detected word by the detection unit.
US09031840B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving (i) audio data that encodes a spoken natural language query, and (ii) environmental audio data, obtaining a transcription of the spoken natural language query, determining a particular content type associated with one or more keywords in the transcription, providing at least a portion of the environmental audio data to a content recognition engine, and identifying a content item that has been output by the content recognition engine, and that matches the particular content type.
US09031835B2
In a method of improving perceived loudness and sharpness of a reconstructed speech signal delimited by a predetermined bandwidth, performing the steps of providing (S10) the speech signal, and separating (S20) the provided signal into at least a first and a second signal portion. Subsequently, adapting (S30) the first signal portion to emphasize at least a predetermined frequency or frequency interval within the first bandwidth portion. Finally, reconstructing (S40) the second signal portion based on at least the first signal portion, and combining (S50) the adapted first signal portion and the reconstructed second signal portion to provide a reconstructed speech signal with an overall improved perceived loudness and sharpness.
US09031833B2
Provided is a communication apparatus for direct communication between networks of different types. The communication apparatus includes a transmission data selector determining whether or not data input from a first communication network is speech data, a data processor digitizing and packetizing the data transferred from the transmission data selector, and a modem for converting the digitized and packetized data into analog data and then directly transmitting the analog data to a second communication network different from the first communication network through a speech channel.
US09031821B2
A production simulator (2), for simulating a mature hydrocarbon field, providing quantity produced (Qφktb) per phase, per well, per layer (or group of layers) and per time as a function of production parameters (PP), wherein the production simulator (2) matches history data (HD) of the mature hydrocarbon field and verifies a Vapnik condition.
US09031815B2
A method detects a “misfire” condition in an internal-combustion engine including a control unit, a driving shaft and phonic wheel that is splined to the shaft and coupled to a sensor. The method comprises steps of: detecting intensity of a signal generated by passage of teeth of the wheel by the sensor, sampling the signal generated by the passage of the teeth, processing the sampled signal by applying a discrete Fourier transform, representing the sampled signal processed by a virtual phasor that represents in a vector form the signal that has been sampled and processed, determining a corresponding theoretical phasor for the virtual phasor that represents theoretical evolution of the signal that has been sampled and processed over time, comparing the theoretical phasor with the virtual phasor, and determining presence of a “misfire” condition by comparing the theoretical phasor with the virtual phasor that represents the signal that has been sampled and processed.
US09031810B2
A system and method for enhanced and expanded localized geometry characterization. Objects of interest are enhanced, detected, and classified according to user-defined parameters, and this enables enhanced contrast and more accurate feature detection, as well as more accurately defined feature object regions for feature geometry measurement and characterization.
US09031804B2
In a method for determining measured values from a time-dependent graph of specified values, a measurement is carried out using a measuring device, and a point in time (TM) that is associated with this measurement is determined. Furthermore, the measured value (yE) is determined by using at least two value pairs (t1, y1; t2, y2) on the time-dependent graph, each value pair (t1, y1; t2, y2) being composed of a point in time (t1; t2) and a value (y1; y2) that is associated with this point in time (t1; t2). The measured value (yE) is determined based on a corrected point in time (TK) which is determined by correcting the point in time (TM) that is associated with the measurement by using a correction term that accounts for a dead time (TT) of the measuring device.
US09031798B2
The present disclosure relates generally to computational solution algorithms (and associated systems and methods) applied to a stochastic unit commitment problem. In one example, the computational solution algorithms (and associated systems and methods) may be applied to the energy industry.
US09031796B2
A continuous flow structural health monitoring system for detecting a crack in a component or structure comprises a pressure source, a fluidic circuit and a measurement system. The pressure source supplies fluid at a regulated pressure relative to ambient pressure. The fluidic circuit couples at one end to the pressure source and opens at an opposite end to ambient pressure. The pressure source produces a substantially constant and continuous flow of fluid through the fluidic circuit. The fluidic circuit has a first passage having a first surface portion of the component or structure. The measurement system monitors perturbations in the flow of fluid through the first passage to provide an indication of structural health of the component or structure.
US09031792B2
A system and device are provided which include a gene regulatory system controlling expression of one or more expression cassettes present in or released by the device, by emitting one or more stimulations. An expression cassette includes a regulatable transcription control element that is responsive to the emitted stimulations linked to an open reading frame of interest. The system optionally includes a sensor to sense a parameter indicative of a need, a telemetry module to receive an external command, or a programmable device, for regulating gene expression of the open reading frame.
US09031784B2
According to navigation systems and methods, when a detected current position has deviated from a guidance route, a navigation device transmits a reroute calculation condition to an information distribution center including the current position and the destination. Based on the reroute calculation condition, the information distribution center determines whether a distance from the current position to a closest adjacent link is equal to or shorter than a predetermined distance. When the distance from the current position to the closest adjacent link is longer than the predetermined distance, the information distribution center distributes to the navigation device reroute prohibition information including information regarding the adjacent link and a maximum waiting time. The maximum waiting time is a time that must elapse before the navigation device can again transmit the reroute calculation condition.
US09031780B2
When an exit road from a rotary is a road inside of the rotary, a right/left turn branch display is performed instead of performing a rotary guidance display. Thus, a driver is enabled to correctly recognize the exit road which advances inward of the rotary.
US09031776B2
A vehicle intersection monitoring method includes exchanging host vehicle information and remote vehicle information between a host vehicle and a remote vehicle, with the host vehicle information including information pertaining to a host vehicle location, a host vehicle heading and a host vehicle intended next maneuver and the remote vehicle information including information pertaining to a remote vehicle location, a remote vehicle heading and a remote vehicle intended next maneuver. The method further includes identifying a road intersection relating to the host vehicle heading and the remote vehicle heading, selecting an intersection scenario from a plurality of intersection scenarios based on the host vehicle information and the remote vehicle information, and monitoring, by operation of a processor, a location relationship between the host vehicle and the remote vehicle according to an algorithm that is determined based on the selected intersection scenario.
US09031775B2
In certain embodiments, an apparatus comprises an input and one or more processors. The input receives known locations of wireless mobile nodes over a wireless link. The one or more processors determine geometric features associated with the locations, and calculate an apparatus location of the apparatus from the known locations and the geometric features.
US09031774B2
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for predicting a moving direction of another vehicle running on a carriageway adjacent to a user's vehicle using periodically acquired image information around the user's vehicle, and performing a control process of preventing collision of the user's vehicle when a moving direction of the user's vehicle crosses the moving direction of the other vehicle.
US09031773B2
An apparatus for detecting a narrow road in front of a vehicle includes: a narrow road determination processor configured to generate circular arcs passing between obstacles, select a circular arc closest to the middle of the obstacles among the generated circular arcs, and generate an offset curve which is a circular arc having the same central point as the selected circular arc and contacting a corresponding obstacle at left/right sides of the selected circular arc, based on driving information and specification information of the vehicle, and then to determine that a road is a narrow road when a width between the two offset curves does not exceed a threshold value.
US09031770B2
A display device for a vehicle is provided in a vehicle having idling stop function and includes: a fuel economy display unit to display fuel economy information on the vehicle; an first fuel economy display unit to calculate a first fuel economy based on a distance traveled and fuel consumption in a first period; and a second fuel economy calculation unit to calculate an second fuel economy based on a distance traveled and fuel consumption in a second period shorter than the first period. The device also includes a display control unit to control display of the fuel economy display unit based on a fuel economy difference between the first and second fuel economies. When the second fuel economy reaches a reference value before performing idling stop, the fuel economy display control unit controls the fuel economy display unit based on the last fuel economy difference without updating the difference.
US09031766B2
A method for controlling the operation of an engine of a vehicle is disclosed in which a torque request signal supplied to control the supply of torque from the engine is adaptively modified based upon a desired maximum acceleration limit for the currently engaged gear and variations in the sum of forces resisting motion of the vehicle.
US09031763B2
A system and attendant structural assembly operative to establish a coordinated mixture of gaseous and distillate fuels for an engine including an electronic control unit (ECU) operative to monitor predetermined engine data determinative of engine fuel requirements and structured to regulate ratios of the gaseous and distillate fuel of an operative fuel mixture for the engine. The system and assembly includes at least one mixing assembly comprising an integrated throttle body and air gas mixer directly connected to one another, wherein the throttle body is disposed in fluid communication with a pressurized gaseous fuel supply and the air gas mixer is disposed in fluid communication with a flow of intake air to a combustion section of the engine. In use, the throttle body is structured to direct a variable gaseous fuel flow directly to the air gas mixer for dispensing into the intake air flow to the combustion section.
US09031750B2
When an extension pattern selection device is activated, a normal mode is displayed on a screen of a monitor. An operator presses a manual mode switch key of an operation unit to switch the display mode of the screen from the normal mode to an extension pattern manual rearrangement mode. In the extension pattern manual rearrangement mode, the operator rearranges extension patterns so that frequently selected extension patterns P may be displayed at upper positions. Thus, the frequently selected extension patterns P are more preferentially displayed than the other extension patterns P.
US09031745B2
A system for correcting steering wheel angle errors of a motor vehicle of the present disclosure may include a steering wheel angle sensor, an actuator angle sensor, and at least one of a wheel speed sensor and a lateral acceleration sensor. The system may further include a controller configured to receive signals from the steering wheel angle sensor, actuator angle sensor, and at least one of the wheel speed sensor and lateral acceleration sensor. The controller may be configured to calculate a correction angle based on the signals, and adjust a steering wheel angle of a steering wheel, as observed by a driver of the motor vehicle, based on the correction angle.
US09031740B2
The present invention relates to a vehicle control device that is communicably connected to other control devices so that controller area network (CAN) communication can be performed through a communication bus and a diagnostic method thereof. The vehicle control device includes a CAN data transmission unit that can generate and transmit CAN data, a transmission stop unit that stops transmission of the CAN data transmitted from the CAN data transmission unit to the communication bus when a transmission stop signal is inputted, an abnormality detection unit that outputs the transmission stop signal to the transmission stop unit when detecting an abnormality in the vehicle control device, and a diagnostic unit that causes the abnormality detection unit to output the transmission stop signal regardless of the detection of abnormality, causes the CAN data transmission unit to transmit the CAN data, and diagnoses a transmission stop function that stops the transmission of the CAN data to the communication bus on the basis of a result of comparison between the transmitted CAN data and data on the communication bus.
US09031734B2
A method for managing an airplane fleet is described. The method includes: (i) developing a gold body database for an airplane model for each non-destructive inspection system implemented to detect defects; (ii) inspecting, over a period of time, a plurality of candidate airplanes of the airplane model, using different types of non-destructive inspection systems and the gold body database associated with each of the different types of non-destructive inspection systems, to identify defects present on the plurality of candidate airplanes; (iii) repairing or monitoring defects detected on the plurality of candidate airplanes; (iv) conducting a trend analysis by analyzing collective defect data obtained from inspecting of plurality of candidate airplanes; and (v) maintaining the airplane fleet, which includes plurality of candidate airplanes, by performing predictive analysis using results of trend analysis.
US09031726B2
A method and a device are provided for operating a pre-lubrication system for an internal combustion engine of a hybrid electrical vehicle after vehicle start up, wherein the hybrid electrical vehicle also comprises. The electric engine is turned on at vehicle start up and the internal combustion engine is turned on at vehicle start up or after a period of time after vehicle start up. The pre-lubrication system comprises an engine control function for controlling the internal combustion engine, monitoring the torque requested by a driver and storing information regarding when the driver requests torque equal to or higher than a predetermined torque threshold. The cranking operation of the internal combustion engine, in order to build up oil pressure and fill the oil circuit with oil, is initiated based on the stored information or when the electrical hybrid vehicle reaches a predetermined vehicle speed threshold.
US09031707B2
An energy management system in a smart grid environment includes: an electrical power producing apparatus for collecting and analyzing real time price information and electrical power production environment information inputted through a communication network interface to thereby determine a control of an electrical power production; a micro grid, connected to the electrical power producing apparatus, for supplying an electrical power in a local micro grid environment; an electrical power grid, connected to the micro grid, for supplying a main power; and an energy routing service apparatus for transmitting an electrical power and processing an energy information packet for a control of an electrical power flow.
US09031704B2
In a charging process of a shaft furnace, in particular of a blast furnace, batches of charge material are typically discharged in cyclical sequence into the furnace from a top hopper using a flow control valve. A method and system is proposed for adjusting the flow rate of charge material in such a process. Pre-determined valve characteristics for certain types of material are provided, each indicating the relation between flow rate and valve setting for one type of material. According to the invention, a specific valve characteristic is stored for each batch of charge material, each specific valve characteristic being bijectively associated to one batch and indicating the relation between flow rate and valve setting of the flow control valve specifically for the associated batch. In relation to discharging a given batch of the sequence the invention proposes: using the stored specific valve characteristic associated to the given batch for determining a requested valve setting corresponding to a flow rate setpoint and using the requested valve setting to operate the flow control valve; determining an actual average flow rate for the discharge of the given batch; correcting the stored specific valve characteristic associated to the given batch in case of a stipulated deviation between the flow rate setpoint and the actual average flow rate.
US09031699B2
A predictor usable for rapid and accurate calculation of joint commands of an articulated mechanism describes relationship between the joints in the form of a differential equation. The predictor solves this differential equation by direct substitution of a power series for each of its variables and the combining of selected sets of coefficients of these power series into linear systems of equations which may be solved to determine power series coefficients to arbitrary order.
US09031694B2
An entry detection device includes first light marks and second light marks. A control signal corresponding to a part of the first light marks is an error detection code of the control signal corresponding to the other part of the first light marks. A first inspection value is generated based on a first part of a light receiving signal corresponding to the other part of the first light marks. A second inspection value is generated based on a reverse bit string of a third part of the light receiving signal corresponding to a part of the second light mark paired with the other part of the first light marks. An entry is detected based on the first inspection value and the second inspection value.
US09031674B2
A method of optimizing production of wells using choke control includes generating, for each well, an intermediate solution to optimize the production of each well. The generating includes using an offline model that includes a mixed-integer nonlinear program solver and includes using production curves based on a choke state and a given wellhead pressure. The method further includes calculating, using a network model and the intermediate solution of each well, a current online wellhead pressure for each well. The method further includes setting the intermediate solution as a final solution based on determining that a difference between the current online wellhead pressure of each well and a prior online wellhead pressure of each well is less than a tolerance amount. The method further includes adjusting, using the final solution of each well, at least one operating parameter of the wells.
US09031669B2
Various implantable medical device embodiments stimulate an autonomic neural target from within a pulmonary artery, and comprise at least one electrode, a power supply, a neural stimulator connected to the power supply, and an anchor structure. The neural stimulator is configured to generate a neural stimulation signal for delivery to the neural stimulation target through the at least one electrode. The anchor structure is configured to chronically and securely implant the neural stimulator, the power supply and the at least one electrode within the pulmonary artery. The anchor structure, the neural stimulator, the power supply and the at least one electrode are configured to be implanted through a pulmonary valve into the pulmonary artery. In various embodiments, the neural stimulator is configured to be operational to implement a neural stimulation protocol when chronically implanted within the pulmonary artery without a wired connection through the pulmonary valve.
US09031668B2
Disclosed is a device positioner for guiding and positioning energy delivery devices during a surgical procedure. The energy delivery device positioner includes a body, a plurality of legs coupled to the body and a plurality of ribs connected to the body. The body includes a body facing surface and a plurality of device positioner apertures defined therein. The device positioner apertures are configured to receive an energy delivery device therethrough. The plurality of legs includes at least one foot extending beyond the patient facing surface of the body with the distal end of the foot configured to contact patient tissue and elevate the patient facing surface of the body such that the patient facing surface is spaced away from patient tissue. The plurality of ribs form one or more air flow aperture.
US09031664B2
The present disclosure provides a medical device that includes a neurostimulator. The neurostimulator includes one or more channels. Each channel includes a digitally-controlled switch coupled to a voltage source. The switch is in one of an “on” state and an “off” state in response to a first control signal. Each channel also includes a digitally-controlled current sink coupled to the switch. The current sink is coupled between the switch and the voltage source. The current sink draws a variable amount of electrical current in response to a second control signal. Each channel further includes a conductor coupled to the switch and the current sink. The conductor is configured to be coupled to an electrode that is operable to deliver the electrical current drawn by the current sink to a target tissue area.
US09031653B2
A unit configured for implantation in a subject's body may include a carrier, an implantable circuit associated with the carrier, an antenna arranged on the carrier and configured to wirelessly receive energy from a location external to the subject's body and to provide at least a portion of the energy to the implantable circuit, and at least one component associated with the carrier for receiving energy from the implantable circuit. Wherein the implantable circuit and the antenna have an internal resonant frequency mismatched from an external resonant frequency of an external circuit, to account for resonance frequency variation as a result of implantation in the subject's body.
US09031651B2
In an example, a system includes a cardiac pulse generator configured to generate cardiac paces to pace the heart, a sensor configured to sense a physiological signal for use in detecting pace-induced phrenic nerve stimulation where the pace-induced phrenic nerve stimulation is phrenic nerve stimulation induced by electrical cardiac pace signals, and a phrenic nerve stimulation detector configured to analyze the sensed physiological signal to detect PS beats where the PS beats are cardiac paces that induce phrenic nerve stimulation. The detector may be configured to correlate signal data for sensed beat signals to a PS template to detect PS beats, or may be configured to analyze morphological features of sensed beat signals to detect PS beats, or may be configured to detect PS beats using a combination that both correlates signal data for sensed beat signals to a PS template and analyzes morphological features of sensed beat signals.
US09031650B2
Various aspects of the present subject matter relate to a method. According to various method embodiments, cardiac activity is detected, and neural stimulation is synchronized with a reference event in the detected cardiac activity. Neural stimulation is titrated based on a detected response to the neural stimulation. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein.
US09031634B2
A new and improved method for tracking and/or spatial localization of an invasive device in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is provided. The invention includes providing an invasive device including a marker having a chemically shifted signal source with a resonant frequency different from the chemical species of the subject to be imaged, applying a pulse sequence, detecting the resulting RF magnetic resonance signals, and determining the 3D coordinates of the marker. The invention also includes generating scan planes and reconstructing an image from the detected signals to generate an image having the marker contrasted from the subject. The invasive device includes a marker having a chemically shifted signal source which has a resonant frequency different from the chemical species of the subject to be imaged for use in tracking the device during imaging.
US09031632B2
A method for detecting a virus in a patient based on imaging data includes scanning a region of interest of the patient with an imaging device and generating imaging data indicative of the region of interest, identifying at least one marker in the image data that corresponds to the virus based on the identified at least one marker and a set of predetermined imageable markers that correspond to the virus, classifying the virus as a particular strain of the virus based on a set of classification rules, and generating a signal indicative of the particular strain. The method optionally includes generating a signal indicative of the classification and electronically conveying the signal to at least one entity.
US09031629B2
The present invention provides a non-contact photoplethysmographic (PPG) pulse measurement device, and oxygen saturation and blood pressure measurement devices using the PPG pulse measurement device. The PPG pulse measurement device includes a sensing unit including at least two light emitting units for emitting light into a human body without making direct contact with skin, and a light receiving unit for sensing reflected light. A signal separation unit separates output of the sensing unit into a ripple component and a ripple-free component. A microprocessor unit monitors the ripple-free component and compares the ripple-free component with a DC signal value. A luminance adjustment unit adjusts luminance of the light emitting units. A filter and amplification unit eliminates noise from the ripple component. An A/D conversion unit converts output of the filter and amplification unit into a digital signal. A signal transmission unit transmits output of the A/D conversion unit.
US09031622B2
An electronic device includes a housing defining a receiving space framed by a plurality of side walls with an opening defined on a top surface of the housing. A cover is movable relative to the top surface. A connecting mechanism connects the housing with the cover. The connecting mechanism includes a transmission apparatus received in the housing and is exposed out of the housing via the opening, engaging with the cover, a moveable position apparatus is assembled with the transmission apparatus moving along the transmission apparatus, a latching apparatus is arranged on one side wall of the housing to latch the position apparatus. When the cover is moved to a first side of the housing, the position apparatus latches the latching apparatus. When the latching apparatus is released from the position apparatus, the cover slides to a second side opposite to the first side of the housing automatically.
US09031606B2
A method and system is provided to control a mobile device. The method includes initially determining whether 4G network service is available. The network switch is set to a 4G baseband processor upon determining that 4G network service is available. The 4G network connection is monitored to determine whether a fault occurs. If so, the 4G baseband processor is reset. However, if 4G network service is not available, whether 3G network service is available is determined. If so, the network switch is set to a 3G baseband processor. When in 3G mode, the 3G network connection is monitored to determine whether a fault occurs. If so, whether a 4G network service is available is determined. Even if there is no fault with the 3G network, the mobile device switches to use the 4G network when the 4G network becomes available.
US09031603B1
The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, a digital mirror implementer, a non-digital mirror implementer, a remote controlling implementer, an audiovisual communication implementer, and an incoming communication ID implementer.
US09031599B2
A method of operating base station includes determining a first transmit power of a user equipment (UE), which includes determining a serving base station receive power, determining a path loss of the UE to the base station, determining a downlink signal to noise and interference ratio (SNIR) at the UE, and forming the first UE transmit power. Forming the first UE transmit power comprises summing the serving base station receive power, the path loss of the UE to the base station and the downlink SNIR. The method further includes instructing the UE to transmit at the first UE transmit power.
US09031580B2
A method of and system for estimating temporal demographics of mobile users is disclosed. A method of estimating demographic information associated with a selected geographical area includes, for at least one individual, determining a selected geographical area along a portion of a track of travel of the individual and determining demographic information associated with the at least one individual. The method also includes estimating a ratio of individuals transiting into the area versus individuals that are residents of the area and estimating demographic information associated with the area based on the estimated ratio and based on demographic information associated with the at least one individual.
US09031579B2
A computer-implemented method including executing instructions stored on a computer-readable medium is provided. The method includes receiving a request for location services from a user, the request including one or more request parameters. The method also includes formatting the request as a single uniform resource locator (URL) string including the one or more request parameters and transmitting the formatted request to a first of a plurality of geolocation service providers. The method also includes receiving from the first of a plurality of geolocation service providers one or more geographic coordinates related to the request and the one or more request parameters. The method includes outputting the one or more geographic coordinates to the user.
US09031578B2
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for generating information regarding demographic composition of a location using mobile devices associated with individuals at the location. A method of the present invention comprises receiving information indicating presence of one or more mobile devices associated with one or more individuals at a given location and identifying one or more attributes of the individuals. Information regarding demographic composition of the location is generated through use of the one or more attributes of the one or more individuals with which the one or more mobile devices are associated, wherein the one or more attributes may comprise one or more of age, relationship status, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, race, hobbies, occupation or religion.
US09031571B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for improved coverage verification schemes in a wireless sensor network that do not require information about the location of sensor nodes in the wireless sensor network. Coverage holes are detected by a first node in a wireless sensor network by obtaining an estimate of a distance to each of a plurality of additional nodes in a transmission radius of the first node; determining a relative location of each of the plurality of additional nodes in the coordinate system of the first node; identifying border segments of a sensing border of the first node, where each of the border segments comprises a section of a sensing border of the first node that is covered by a sensing radius of at least one of the additional nodes; and determining if a coverage hole exists for the first node by determining if a plurality of the border segments comprise a cyclic segment sequence. The coordinate system comprises r-map coordinates of the first node and the additional nodes, where r is based on a transmission radius of the first node.
US09031565B2
The present invention discloses a static mesh network in or for a cabin of a vehicle, in particular an aircraft, the cabin having a predetermined, known cabin layout, comprising at least three different network levels which are arranged hierarchically in relation to one another, respectively adjacent network levels in the hierarchy being in wireless communicative connection with one another, and comprising a plurality of network nodes which operate mutually independently and of which the position in the cabin layout is fixedly predetermined by the configuration of a respective network node, the network nodes within a respective network level having an equal logic. The present invention furthermore discloses an aircraft and a method for data communication using such a network in an aircraft.
US09031564B2
An indication of the speed of movement of a UE in a radio communications system is received (801) at a network node of the radio communications system. The parameters of the radio communications system are then analyzed (803) using the speed of movement indication. The system parameters are then adjusted (805) using the analysis.
US09031560B2
A method includes sending a message from a first base station to another entity in a radio network. The message includes one or more indications one or more conditions have been met. The one or more conditions include one or both of: a duration the user equipment is connected to a first cell served by the first base station, prior to handover from the first cell to a second cell served by a second base station, is less than a threshold; or the signal strength of the second cell as measured by the user equipment and reported to the first base station is better than a signal strength of the first cell for a threshold duration of time. The entity may receive the message, e.g., and use the message to determine whether to effect changes to the radio network. Apparatus, program products, and software are also disclosed.
US09031554B2
The present invention relates to a method for managing cell informations received from neighbor cells for MDT (Minimization of Drive Text) in the 3GPP system and terminal for performing the method, the terminal including a transceiver which receives cell informations transmitted by at least one neighbor base station; a controller which checks at least one cell information for generating location prediction information to check current location of the terminal among the cell informations received by the transceiver; and a memory which stores the at least one cell information for generating the location prediction information as Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) measurement sample for reporting radio environment under the control of the controller. The terminal is capable of logging the neighbor cell measurement information efficiently depending on whether the terminal logs RF fingerprint information in the idle mode.
US09031552B2
A method for testing at least one of an inbound or an outbound roaming functionality of a first public land mobile network and a second public land mobile network includes: assigning a first Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) as a testing number in the first public land mobile network; triggering a simulated initiation of the first MSISDN in the second public land mobile network; assigning a second MSISDN as a testing number in the first public land mobile network; activating Call Forwarding on Not Reachable (CFNRc) functionality on the first MSISDN with forwarding to the second MSISDN; forwarding a Provide Roaming Number (PRN) request for the first MSISDN to a Visitor Location Register (VLR) of the second public land mobile network; and receiving a Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN) from the VLR of the second public land mobile network.
US09031548B2
A method for obtaining a configuration profile, including obtaining test results for customer-tested configuration profiles, including operable configuration profiles, from customer mobile devices. A shared data repository is populated with the test results and the customer-tested configuration profiles. The customer-tested configuration profiles are related to customer mobile device profiles of the customer mobile devices. A target mobile device profile, describing mobile device properties, is received from a target mobile device. A subset of the customer mobile device profiles having a threshold degree of similarity to the target mobile device profile are selected from the shared data repository. For each of the operable configuration profiles in the subset, a probability of compatibility is calculated, and the operable configuration profiles in the subset are tested on the target mobile device in an order defined by the probability of compatibility. The shared data repository is updated with the modified test result.
US09031522B2
The present disclosure relates to envelope power supply calibration of a multi-mode RF power amplifier (PA) to ensure adequate headroom when operating using one of multiple communications modes. The communications modes may include multiple modulation modes, a half-duplex mode, a full-duplex mode, or any combination thereof. As such, each communications mode may have specific peak-to-average power and linearity requirements for the multi-mode RF PA. As a result, each communications mode may have corresponding envelope power supply headroom requirements. The calibration may include determining a saturation operating constraint based on calibration data obtained during saturated operation of the multi-mode RF PA. During operation of the multi-mode RF PA, the envelope power supply may be restricted to provide a minimum allowable magnitude based on an RF signal level of the multi-mode RF PA, the communications mode, and the saturation operating constraint to provide adequate headroom.
US09031521B2
A power amplifier system includes an input operable to receive an original value that reflects information to be communicated and an address data former operable to generate a digital lookup table key. The power amplifier system also includes a predistortion lookup table coupled to the address data former and a power amplifier having an output and coupled to the predistortion lookup table. The power amplifier system further includes a feedback loop providing a signal associated with the output of the power amplifier to the predistortion lookup table and a switch disposed in the feedback loop and operable to disconnect the predistortion lookup table from the output of the power amplifier.
US09031518B2
A concurrent hybrid matching network is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a phase shifting coupler having a first terminal connected to an antenna, a second terminal connected to a receive signal path, and third terminal connected to a transmit signal path. The apparatus also includes at least one switch to configured to enable one of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path to communicate with the antenna.
US09031515B2
A transceiver includes a local oscillation module, a transmitter section, and a receiver section. The local oscillation module is operable to generate a transmit local oscillation and a receive oscillation. The transmitter section includes a transmit mixing module and a transmit weaved connection that is operable to high frequency filter the transmit location oscillation. The transmit mixing module mixes the filtered transmit location oscillation with a transmit signal to produce an up-converted signal. The receiver section includes a receive mixing module and a receive weaved connection that is operable to high frequency filter the receive location oscillation. The receive mixing module mixes the filtered receive location oscillation with an RF received signal to produce a down-converted signal.
US09031512B2
In a mobile communication network, technologies are provided for determining power consumption of a communication site. An OSS system receives power consumption information of one or more devices and traffic volume information from a communication site. Then, the OSS determines power consumption of one or more virtue devices of the communication site, which are listed on a pre-configured device list according to power of the virtue devices, traffic volume information of the communication site, or both, wherein the a virtue device is not capable of monitoring power consumption, reporting power consumption, or both. Then the OSS determines power consumption of the communication site according to the power consumption information of the one or more devices received from the communication site and the power consumption of the virtual device in the communication site.
US09031511B2
Methods and systems having improved capabilities are described for providing communications to a plurality of cellular mobile devices through generating m different sets of fixed position patterns of N RF beams across four contiguous one-millisecond LTE sub-frames from an agile beam forming antenna system of a cellular LTE base transceiver station. The cellular LTE base transceiver station is in RF frequency division duplexing (FDD) communication with the plurality of cellular mobile devices within a cell coverage area of the cellular LTE base transceiver station. Each RF beam illuminates a non-contiguous sub-area of the cell coverage area. A number m sets of RF beam patterns illuminate the area of the cell coverage area, wherein 1≦m≦4.
US09031509B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for analyzing a wide frequency band with respect to signal power levels in specified narrow frequency bands, detecting narrow band signal power levels received in the specified narrow frequency bands, determining an average composite wideband power level from the narrow band signal power levels, and determining an adaptive threshold from the narrow band signal power levels for detecting narrow band interferers in the wide frequency band. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09031498B1
A processor-implemented method is provided. The method comprises a communications control device installed in a motor vehicle receiving a wireless communication from a short range wireless device. The method also comprises the communications control device selecting a first radio from a plurality of radios available to transmit the wireless communication to the destination specified in the wireless communication, wherein the radios are components of the communications control device. The method also comprises the communications control device determining that a second radio is connected to a physical expansion slot, wherein the physical expansion slot is a component of the communications control device. The method also comprises the communications control device selecting the second radio for transmission of the wireless communication based on applying at least one decision criterion to the first radio and the second radio and the device transmitting the wireless communication to the specified destination using the second radio.
US09031490B2
As a typical configuration of a cleaning device and an image forming apparatus according to the invention, the cleaning device includes a cleaning blade which cleans an image bearing member, a plurality of compression coil springs which apply a force from the cleaning blade to the image bearing member, and a plurality of bosses provided to fix the plurality of compression coil springs to a frame. The particular boss that attaches to one of the compression coil springs is selectable from the plurality of bosses, which are disposed at different positions. As a result, the abutting pressure of the cleaning blade to the image bearing member is adjustable by changing the boss to which a particular compression spring is attached.
US09031487B2
A fixing device includes a heating member pressed by a pressing member to form a nip part, an excitation coil generating a magnetic flux induction-heating the heating member, a magnetic core and a magnetism shielding member. The magnetic core is located opposite to the heating member across the excitation coil and provides a magnetic path passing through the excitation coil and heating member. The magnetism shielding member partially shields the magnetic path and includes a rotatable belt member allowing the magnetic flux to pass through, and a magnetism shielding layer arranged on a surface of the belt member. In the magnetism shielding layer, gap parts extending in a width direction of the belt member are arranged along a circumference direction of the belt member. When the magnetism shielding member is located to shield the magnetic path, inner wall faces of the gap part are brought into contact with each other.
US09031484B2
Certain embodiments provide a fuser including a cylindrical fixing belt, a heating unit configured to heat the fixing belt, a pressurized section, a first nip forming section, a second nip forming section, and a moving mechanism. The pressurized section is arranged in contact with the fixing belt. The first nip forming section is fixed in a position where the first nip forming section presses the fixing belt against the pressurized section. The second nip forming section is configured to be movable between a position where the second nip forming section can press the fixing belt against the pressurized section and a position where the second nip forming section is separated from the fixing belt. The moving mechanism moves the second nip forming section.
US09031479B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a belt position detection unit to detect a position of a transfer belt in a rotating shaft direction of a driving roller, and a roller driving unit to tilt a steering roller to control the position of the transfer belt in the rotating shaft direction of the driving roller. In addition, a storage unit stores a reference position of the steering roller and a reference position of the transfer belt, and a control unit controls a formation position of the latent image, in a rotation axis direction of each photosensitive member, formed on each of a plurality of photosensitive members by the image forming unit based on a position of the transfer belt, in the rotating shaft direction of the driving roller, with respect to a detected reference position of the transfer belt and a tilt amount of the steering roller controlled by the roller driving unit with respect to the reference position of the steering roller.
US09031477B2
A toner case includes a case body, a cover, and a conveying member. The cover covers the outer surface of a wall at an end of the case body. The conveying member, including a first attaching assembly, a second attaching assembly and a linking assembly, is rotatably attached to the case body and feeds toner. The first attaching assembly is rotatably attached to the wall. The second attaching assembly is rotatably attached to a wall at the other end of the case body. One end and the other end of the linking assembly are respectively linked to the first attaching assembly and second attaching assembly. One end is slidable in the longitudinal direction of the conveying member. The linking assembly rotates together with the first and second attaching assemblies. The first attaching assembly engages the cover's inner surface, preventing the first attaching assembly from coming off the one-end wall.
US09031475B2
An object is to smoothly convey toner from a developer containing chamber to a developing chamber even when an opening that provides communication between the developer containing chamber and the developing chamber has a connecting part for adding strength to the apparatus. A sheet member that conveys a developer from an opening to the outside of a developer containing chamber has an entering portion that is formed by a first slit extending from a free end of the sheet member and positioned to cross a connecting part as viewed in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of a shaft member. The entering portion is configured to enter the outside of the developer containing chamber from the inside of the developer containing chamber. The entering portion overlaps in position with the connecting part as viewed in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the shaft member.
US09031474B2
A powder feeding device includes a powder container, a feeding tank in communication with the powder container, a negative pressure room in communication with the feeding tank via a suction port communicating tube; an air suction device in communication with the negative pressure room via a negative pressure room communication tube; a suction port opening and closing unit that opens and closes the suction port communicating tube; a negative pressure room opening and closing unit that opens and closes of the negative pressure room communication tube; an output port opening and closing unit that opens and closes an output port of the feeding tank; and a controller that performs negative pressure generation control, powder supply control, and powder discharge control. Further, the controller simultaneously starts the negative pressure generation control and the powder discharge control.
US09031471B2
A development device having a development portion with a developer spout, to develop a latent image formed on an image carrier with developer including toner and carrier particles. The development unit also includes a circulation unit to convey developer collected from the development portion to the developer spout, a developer container, provided in the circulation unit, to contain the developer at a position upstream from the development portion in a developer circular direction, the developer container having a cylindrical upper portion and a funnel-shaped lower portion continuous with the cylindrical upper portion through a joint so that a level of the developer contained in the developer container at rest is positioned near the joint between the cylindrical upper portion and the funnel-shaped lower portion. An agitator is provided inside the developer container, to agitate and mix the collected developer and fresh toner supplied to the developer container.
US09031460B2
In an image forming apparatus, a drum supporting member integrally supports a plurality of photosensitive drums. A moving member detachably supports the drum support member. The moving member moves between a mounted position, in which the moving member is mounted in a main body of the image forming apparatus, and a pulled-out position, in which the moving member is pulled out of the main body of the image forming apparatus. A belt is disposed above the moving member and is capable of contacting with the plurality of photosensitive drums when the moving member is disposed in the mounted position. The drum supporting member is detached upward from the moving member when the moving member is in the pulled-out position. The drum supporting member rotatably supports each of the photosensitive drums.
US09031453B2
The present invention provides a retainer device capable of preventing a unit such as a transfer device from dropping when detached from an image forming apparatus. The retainer device includes a transfer device detachably attached to the image forming apparatus; a guide member to supportably guide the transfer device with respect to the image forming apparatus when the transfer device is detached from the image forming apparatus; and a stopper, disposed on the guide member, configured to contact the transfer device when the transfer device is moving in a direction separating from the image forming apparatus and stop the transfer device from dropping from the image forming apparatus. The guide member is switchable between a separation regulating state and a guidable state so that the transfer device is prevented from dropping when detached from the image forming apparatus.
US09031450B2
A toner collection unit, which can be included in an image forming apparatus, includes a collected toner container having an opening and storing collected toner, a flexible seal sealing the opening of the collected toner container, having a shape of a recess in an initial condition before toner is collected in the container, and being flexible to change the shape to inflate outwardly due to a pressing force exerted from the toner stored in the container, a moving unit disposed outside the flexible seal and movable both in a positive direction to approach the opening of the container and in an opposite direction to move away from the opening when contacting the flexible seal inflating outwardly, a detector detecting movement of the moving unit, and a regulator regulating the moving unit from coming into the recess of the flexible seal in the initial condition.
US09031446B2
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a heating roller having an electrode to receive power disposed at an outer circumference thereof and a connection unit to supply the power to the heating roller via the electrode. The connection unit includes a connection member connected to the electrode, the connection member being rotated along with the heating roller, an annular friction bush disposed at the connection member, and at least one wire having one fixed end and the other end contacting an outer circumference of the friction bush. The connection member is rotated along with the heating roller, and therefore, no friction occurs between the electrode and the connection member, thereby preventing damage to the electrode.
US09031445B2
An image forming apparatus that is capable of coping with both a high power saving effect and a quick response. A reading unit reads an image of an original. A printing unit prints out image data. A control unit controls units including the reading unit and the printing unit. A detection unit detects an original placed in the reading unit. A power control unit restores the control unit and the reading unit from a sleep state when the detection unit detects an original, and further restores the printing unit from the sleep state before receiving a job when a sheet of the same size as the original concerned is stored.
US09031438B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium; a fixing section that includes a heat roller with a heater inside and fixes a toner image on the recording medium; a temperature detecting section for detecting the temperature of an end region of the heat roller in a direction of a rotary axis thereof; a control section that controls the operation of the heater based on the detected temperature; and a post-drive time calculating section that calculates a post-drive time for a post-drive of the fixing section after a successive image formation on recording media, depending upon the sizes of the recording media and through a subtraction using a correction factor set according to a condition of conveyance of the recording media. The control section causes the fixing section to perform the post-drive for the calculated post-drive time.
US09031433B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a density-corrected image forming unit, a measurement unit, an image correction unit, and a fixing unit. The image forming unit forms an image represented by image data as a toner image. The density-corrected image forming unit forms a density corrected image. The measurement unit measures the density of the density corrected image. The image correction unit performs image correction such that a non-halftone image is formed as a halftone image whose halftone percentage is less than 100%. The fixing unit, in a case where the image correction unit performs image correction for image data, fixes a toner image on a recording medium with at least one of an increased fixing temperature, an increased fixing time period, and an increased fixing pressure, the toner image being based on the image data for which image correction has been performed.
US09031428B2
An image forming apparatus includes a image forming unit; an image bearing member having a surface to bear a toner image and a test pattern; the surface having a first time-surface positioned identical to the test pattern, an integer multiple of revolutions upstream or downstream from the test pattern in a surface movement direction, and a second time-surface positioned different from the test pattern, shorter than one revolution upstream or downstream from the test pattern; a reflection light detector to detect the amount of light reflected from the test pattern and the first and second time-surfaces of the image bearing member; and a controller to control the image forming unit based on the detection result and determine whether to execute a first-surface control to detect at least the first time-surface or a second-surface control to detect only the second time-surface based on use condition of the image forming apparatus.
US09031427B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image formation portion; a fixing portion that includes an exciting coil for inductively heating member and a temperature detection member: a main control portion that stops a printing operation when a temperature abnormality is recognized; a notification portion; a power supply portion that supplies power to the exciting coil; and a heating control portion that controls power supply to the exciting coil and detects the power abnormality. When the heating control portion detects a power abnormality, the heating control portion stops the induction heating, provides stop notice; when the main control portion determines, based on the history of the stop notice, whether the temperature abnormality is due to the stop of the induction heating or is not due to the stop of the induction heating.
US09031425B2
A cartridge plug for a CRUM-enabled ink or toner cartridge includes a CRUM device seated in an annular position, secured in a recess at a center of the cap. The recess is formed in a mounting surface of the cap that extends above a peripheral surface of the cap that the surrounds the mounting surface. The mounting surface is contiguous with the peripheral surface, being interposed by flexible walls that compress under load. The mounting surface is compressible under load by way of the flexible walls, and springs back to a resting position as a load is decreased.
US09031423B2
A printing system includes: a printing unit that performs printing on a sheet; a conveyance mechanism that has a printing path for guiding a sheet to a printing position of the printing unit and a reverse path for reversing the sheet passing through the printing position and guiding the sheet again to the printing position; a control unit that performs double-side printing processing depending on a plurality of methods in which maximum numbers of the sheets existing in the conveyance mechanism at the same time are different from each other; and a determination unit that determines a probability of sheet jamming occurring in the conveyance mechanism. When the determination unit determines that the jamming occurrence probability is high, the control unit selects the method in which the maximum sheet number is small, and performs the double-side printing processing in accordance with the selected method.
US09031417B2
A modulator device for converting digital data into modulation of an optical signal includes an electronic input for receiving an input data word of N bits and an electrically controllable modulator for modulating the intensity of an optical signal, the modulator including M actuating electrodes where M≧N. An electrode actuating device, most preferably a digital-to-digital converter, operates actuating electrodes so that at least one electrode is actuated as a function of values of more than one bit of the input data word. According to an alternative, or supplementary, aspect of the invention, the set of electrodes includes at least one electrode having an effective area which is not interrelated to others of the set by factors of two. In one preferred implementation, a Mach-Zehnder modulator also provides phase modulation to give QAM functionality. Another implementation employs a semiconductor laser.
US09031409B2
A headend communications device communicates via a network to downstream network elements, such as cable modems coupled behind optical network units, and allocates and grants timeslots for upstream transmissions from the network elements. The headend communications device has a scheduler for managing and controlling timeslot allocations in a manner avoiding interference such as optical beat interference or FM carrier collisions. The scheduler identifies two or more cable modems or like customer network elements served by the headend communications device that will cause at least a pre-determined intolerable level of interference when allocated overlapping timeslots for upstream transmissions and prevents these two or more cable modems or network elements from being allocated and granted overlapping timeslots.
US09031402B1
A viewfinder 3 includes a finder optical system S2 including first and second lens groups L1, L2; a zoom frame 6 provided with first and second cam grooves 63, 64 configured to rotate about an optical axis A2 to move the first and second lens groups L1, L2 in the optical axis direction in accordance with the shapes of the first and second cam grooves 63, 64; and a diopter adjuster 9 configured to adjust the diopter of the finder optical system S2. The diopter adjuster 9 changes the position of the zoom frame 6 in the optical axis direction to adjust the diopter of the finder optical system S2, and adjusts, during rotation of the zoom frame 6, the position of the zoom frame 6 in the optical axis direction such that the diopter of the finder optical system S2 is maintained.
US09031399B2
A computation & control unit defines, as first and second voltages, A+B_signal voltages at distances which give the maximum and minimum voltages of an S_signal voltage, respectively. The unit further defines the higher one of the first and second voltages as an S_signal validity determination voltage and defines a distance at which the S_signal voltage takes on an in-focus determination voltage. The unit defines first and second lower limit voltages, defines the higher one of the first and second lower limit voltages as a lower limit voltage, and defines, as an upper limit voltage, an A+B_signal voltage at a distance which gives an in-focus determination voltage between the maximum and minimum positions of the S_signal voltage. An input and output unit outputs the upper and lower limit voltages as the upper and lower limit values of a settable range of the S_signal validity determination voltage.
US09031398B2
A wireless camera apparatus includes a power supply track and a wireless camera device detachably installed on the power supply track. The wireless camera device has a camera module and a linking module fixed on the camera module. The linking module has a connecting unit and a conductive unit electrically connected to the camera module. When the wireless camera device is installed on the power supply track, the connecting unit is coupled to the power supply track, and the conductive unit is electrically connected to the power supply track. Thus, the instant disclosure provides the wireless camera apparatus, which is adjustable to any position of the power supply track according to the user's demand. Besides, the instant disclosure further provides a wireless camera device.
US09031394B2
An image capture apparatus comprises an inclination detection unit which detects an inclination of the image capture apparatus, a display unit which displays the inclination of the image capture apparatus, and a predetermined reference orientation set for the image capture apparatus, a still state determination unit which determines that the image capture apparatus is in a still state, if a variation of the inclination falls within a predetermined range, and a reference orientation setting unit which sets the reference orientation of the image capture apparatus, wherein the reference orientation setting unit does not set the reference orientation if the still state determination unit determines that the image capture apparatus is not in the still state.
US09031391B2
A liquid control apparatus that controls a spread of a liquid has a main body that has a supply subject surface onto which the liquid is supplied. The apparatus also has a mesh form body that is woven into a mesh form and provided to contact the supply subject surface and a guiding member that is provided to contact an opposite side of the mesh form body to the main body side.
US09031384B2
An interesting section identifying device for identifying an interesting section of a video file based on an audio signal included in the video file, the interesting section being a section in which a user is estimated to express interest, includes an interesting section candidate extracting unit that extracts an interesting section candidate from the video file, the interesting section candidate being a candidate for the interesting section, a detailed structure determining unit that determines whether the interesting section candidate includes a specific detailed structure, and an interesting section identifying unit that identifies the interesting section by analyzing a specific section when the detailed structure determining unit determines that the interesting section candidate includes the detailed structure, the specific section including the detailed structure and being shorter than the interesting section candidate.
US09031381B2
Systems and methods are provided for generating a composite video based on a plurality of asynchronously recorded input video streams. A plurality of segments of the input video streams are identified. A number of the input video streams that were recording during the particular segment are determined. A video display configuration for the particular segment is determined based on the number of video streams that were recording, where the video display configuration includes a display sub-region for each of the number of video streams that was recording. A composite video is generated, where the composite video includes a portion of video associated with each of the segments, where the composite video portion associated with the particular segment is formatted according to the video display configuration and displays the video streams that were recording during the particular segment in the display sub-regions of the video display configuration.
US09031378B2
A method and a playback control device are provided. The method, performed by the playback control device, includes: receiving a first request to playback a first data of a first wireless multimedia data type having a first priority; and playing back the first data if no other data of a wireless multimedia data type having a priority higher than the first priority is received.
US09031377B2
When reproducing a binocular 3D video, noises with random parallax are reduced by appropriately controlling the intensity of noise reduction.A reproduction apparatus includes: a noise processing circuit for applying noise processing to a video signal of a video content based on a given control signal; and a control section for receiving an output format identification signal which identifies an output format of the video content, and generating the control signal in accordance with the output format identification signal, the control section generating a control signal which causes the noise processing performed in the noise processing circuit to vary depending on whether an output format of the video content is a two-dimensional video or a three-dimensional video.
US09031376B2
A method and apparatus for providing additional information included in a video displayed on a display device using visible light communication (VLC). A data packet including video data and additional information for an object included in the video data is received. The video data is extracted from the data packet, and the video data is decoded. The additional information from the data packet is extracted, and the additional information decoded. The decoded video data is output through the display device, and at the same time, the additional information is transmitted for a particular object included in a video based on a VLC protocol using a light emitting device prepared in the display device. The additional information providing apparatus includes an image sensor module, a display module, a visible light receiving module, an additional information manager and a controller.
US09031371B2
The present invention relates to a GI-type multi-mode optical fiber in which the outer diameter of the core is 47.5 to 52.5 μm or 60 to 65 μm, or to a bend resistant multi-mode optical fiber provided with resistance against property fluctuation caused by the bending of the multi-mode optical fiber by providing a trench portion having a low refractive index at the outer periphery of the core. In the multi-mode optical fiber, both the maximum tensile stress and the maximum compressive stress in the optical axis direction remaining in the core are 50 MPa or less.
US09031364B1
The present invention provides a fiber optic jack for routing optical signals. In another aspect, the present invention provides a fiber optic connector with accurate alignment that may be used with, among other things, the fiber optic jack.
US09031360B2
A process of manufacturing an optical flexible circuit comprising: (a) disposing an adhesive layer on at least a portion of a carrier film, said adhesive layer having a downward adhesive face and an upward adhesive face, said downward adhesive face and said carrier film being configured such that said carrier film is removable from said downward adhesive face without disruption of said downward adhesive face; (b) routing one or more fibers on said upward adhesive layer; (c) coating said fibers to define an optical circuit; and (d) optionally parting said carrier film to separate said optical circuit from other optical circuits on said carrier film.
US09031347B2
A method for correcting overfocus of a digital image created from coherent imaging using centered fractional Fourier transforms or mathematical equivalents is described. A received image is presented to a numerical processor, and a first numerical value for an imaginary power variable is selected and used in an iterative algorithm, numerical procedure, system architecture, etc. A centered discrete fractional Fourier transform of an imaginary power and a phase restore operator associated are applied to the image file to produce a modified image. A change in mis-focused is determined and used in adjusting the specified imaginary power for a next iteration.
US09031331B2
A classification system and method enable improvements to classification with nearest class mean classifiers by computing a comparison measure between a multidimensional representation of a new sample and a respective multidimensional class representation embedded into a space of lower dimensionality than that of the multidimensional representations. The embedding is performed with a projection that has been learned on labeled samples to optimize classification with respect to multidimensional class representations for classes which may be the same or different from those used subsequently for classification. Each multidimensional class representation is computed as a function of a set of multidimensional representations of labeled samples, each labeled with the respective class. A class is assigned to the new sample based on the computed comparison measures.
US09031327B2
An information processing device includes: a recognizer configured to recognize a predetermined part of a body of a person from an input image including the person; an evaluator configured to evaluate a difference between a recognized input part and a reference part serving as a basis; and a notifying unit configured to notify information relating to the difference of the input part from the reference part based on an evaluation result.
US09031319B2
Systems, methods, and devices for sharpening image data are provided. One example of an image signal processing system includes a YCC processing pipeline that includes luma sharpening logic. The luma sharpening logic may sharpen the luma component while avoiding sharpening some noise. Specifically, a multi-scale unsharp mask filter may obtain unsharp signals by filtering an input luma component, and sharp component determination logic may determine sharp signals representing differences between the unsharp signals and the luma component. Sharp lookup tables may “core” the sharp signals, which may prevent some noise from being sharpened. Output logic may determine a sharpened output luma signal by combining the sharp signals with, for example, luma component or one of the unsharp signals.
US09031318B2
A mark object that serves as a marker for a guidance point on a set route is specified, and coloration information related to a coloration of the mark object is acquired. Based on the coloration information, a correction information creating object before the mark object on the route having a coloration similar to the coloration of the mark object is specified. An image of the correction information creating object while a vehicle travels the route is acquired as a correcting image, and color correction information is calculated based on acquired color information and existing color information. A recognition template is then corrected based on the calculated color correction information to create a correction template. Thus, because the recognition template used for recognizing the mark object is corrected to a color more closely resembling the actual appearance of the mark object, the recognition accuracy of the mark object can be improved.
US09031312B2
A computerized inspection system is described for detecting the presence of non-uniformity defects and providing output indicative of a severity of each type of non-uniformity defect. Techniques are described that increase the throughput of the inspection system. Algorithmic and hardware approaches are described to significantly decrease the average amount of time required to inspect a given quantity of material that is expected to be mostly uniform. The techniques described herein involve dynamic selection of which image features to compute by starting with a base feature set and only triggering additional feature computations as needed until the features are sufficient to compute a severity for each type of non-uniformity defect. The number of features extracted and the order in which the features are extracted is dynamically determined in real-time to reduce a cost associated with the feature extraction.
US09031311B2
A method and apparatus for identifying a position of a surface on an aircraft. Image data for an image of the surface on the aircraft is received. The image data is processed to determine whether the position of the surface on the aircraft is a desired position. A surface position identification report comprising information identifying whether the position of the surface on the aircraft is the desired position is generated.
US09031308B2
Embodiments of the present invention relates to systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer program products for capturing and storing elements of a negotiable instrument for use in image recreation. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receive an image of the negotiable instrument, wherein the image of the negotiable instrument comprises one or more elements that are used for processing the negotiable instrument and non-element portions that are not used in processing the negotiable instrument; (b) capture, using the image capture device, images of one or more elements of the negotiable instrument; (c) store the images of the one or more elements of the negotiable instrument in the database; and (d) store, as white space, the non-element portions of the image of the negotiable instrument in the database.
US09031300B1
According to some embodiments, an emission tomography scanner may acquire emission scan data. One or more anatomical images may be generated using an anatomical imaging system, and the anatomical images may be processed to obtain an initial attenuation image. An emission image and a corrected attenuation image may be jointly reconstructed from the acquired emission scan data, the corrected attenuation image representing a deformation of the initial attenuation image. A final reconstructed emission image may then be calculated based on the reconstructed emission image and/or the corrected attenuation image. The final reconstructed emission image may then be stored in a data storage system and/or displayed on a display system.
US09031293B2
Features, including one or more acoustic features, visual features, linguistic features, and physical features may be extracted from signals obtained by one or more sensors with a processor. The acoustic, visual, linguistic, and physical features may be analyzed with one or more machine learning algorithms and an emotional state of a user may be extracted from analysis of the features. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09031285B2
A method and system for detecting floating objects in maritime video is disclosed. The horizon is detected within the video. Modeling of the sky and water is performed on the video. Objects are detected that are not water and sky within the video.
US09031283B2
A mobile device uses vision and orientation sensor data jointly for six degree of freedom localization, e.g., in wide-area environments. An image or video stream is captured while receiving geographic orientation data and may be used to generate a panoramic cylindrical map of an environment. A bin of model features stored in a database is accessed based on the geographic orientation data. The model features are from a pre-generated reconstruction of the environment produced from extracted features from a plurality of images of the environment. The reconstruction is registered to a global orientation and the model features are stored in bins based on similar geographic orientations. Features from the panoramic cylindrical map are matched to model features in the bin to produce a set of corresponding features, which are used to determine a position and an orientation of the camera.
US09031277B2
Disclosed inventions relates to methods and systems for encoding at least one watermark into a stereoscopic conjugate pair of images. An example method comprises the step of encoding the at least one watermark by shifting selected pixels of said pair of images in one or more directions. The one or more directions include a horizontal direction. In the disclosed embodiments, ancillary information is not required to support decoding of encoded watermarks in addition to the transmitted left and right images.
US09031274B2
Provided are bone conducting hearing devices having a normal force that secures the device to a user. A removable adhesive anchor secures an external component of the bone conducting hearing device to the user and provides reliable connecting that is comfortable, such as by a substantially uniform force generation over the contact area between the device and the user. Because the adhesive anchor is removable, a user can readily and reliably remove the device or connect the device, as desired. Also provide are methods of connecting any of the bone conducting hearing devices provided herein to a user, including the mastoid process of the user.
US09031273B2
Apparatuses that provide a bone-conduction speaker arranged to be located behind the ear are described herein. An exemplary apparatus may include: (a) a glasses-style support structure comprising a front section and at least one side section; (b) at least one bone-conduction speaker; and (c) a member having a proximate end and a distal end, wherein the proximate end is attached to the at least one side section, and wherein the at least one bone-conduction speaker is attached to the member at or near the distal end; wherein the member is arranged on the at least one side section such that when the glasses-style support structure is worn the member: (a) extends to the anterior of the at least one side section and (b) locates the bone-conduction speaker posterior to an ear.
US09031271B2
The present invention relates to a listening device for a hearing impaired person. The present invention furthermore relates to a corresponding operating method of operating a listening device and to a corresponding computer program. In particular, the present invention relates to a listening device that comprises a signal processing unit that is controlled by a controller configured to implement a combined feed-forward and feed-back control in order to ensure that both an electric input signal and a processed electric output signal have at least almost identical modulation index values. Thereby, speech intelligibility is increased, in particular for a hearing impaired person being capable of perceiving sound pressure levels in a substantially decreased dynamic range.
US09031262B2
A distributed self-scaling network audio processing system includes end nodes interconnected by packet-switched network and operating as peers on the network. Each of the end nodes supports local input processing, mixing, and output processing. The input processing includes the option of dual input channels for supporting separate front-of-house and monitor workflows. End nodes are added to the system to support specific audio processing applications, based on the number of audio sources, the number of output mixes required, and the number of locations from which users choose to interact with the system.
US09031249B1
An electrolarynx includes a cylindrically shaped handheld case having an inner wall that defines a hollow interior. A circuit board within a mid portion of the hollow interior drives a sound-producing transducer component within a distal end portion. Two wires electrically connect the circuit board to the transducer component. First and second wire-guiding structures are provided that have been integrally molded with the rest of the case at diametrically opposite locations along the inner wall of the distal end portion, where they maintain bends in the two wires from longitudinally extending wire paths coming from the circuit board to circumferentially extending wire paths going to wire attachment points on the transducer, thereby facilitating fabrication while avoiding wire interference with transducer operation.
US09031248B2
An RPM signal representing a current RPM of a vehicle engine is received. An instant magnitude and an instant phase are determined for each of N harmonics of a target engine sound based on the RPM signal. The instant magnitude and the instant phase are each smoothed to generate a smoothed harmonic magnitude and a smoothed harmonic phase for each of the N harmonics. A magnitude perturbation signal and a phase perturbation signal are generated for each of the N harmonics. An individual harmonic signal is also generated for each of the N harmonics based, at least in part, on the smoothed harmonic magnitude, the magnitude perturbation signal, the smoothed harmonic phase, and the phase perturbation signal. The individual harmonic signals are summed to generate an engine harmonic enhancement signal, and the engine harmonic enhancement signal is transduced to acoustic energy.
US09031239B2
An information processing apparatus includes an encrypting unit that encrypts a value to be kept secret with a predetermined cipher key. The information processing apparatus includes a converting unit that converts, when the value to be kept secret is an initial value written at the time of initialization of a storage device in which a value encrypted by the encrypting unit is stored, the value encrypted by the encrypting unit into a value which is reversibly convertible and is independent of the cipher key used by the encrypting unit. The information processing apparatus includes a storing unit that stores the value converted by the converting unit in the storage device.
US09031234B2
According to one embodiment, an encryption device includes a storage unit, an input unit, first to fourth partial encryption units, a generation unit, and an output unit. The first partial encryption unit calculates first intermediate data from input plain data to store in the storage unit. The generation unit generates a round key, which is used in calculations for the first intermediate data and N-th intermediate data, from the secret key. The second partial encryption unit calculates (i+1)th intermediate data from i-th intermediate data (i is smaller than N) and the round key to store in the storage unit. The third partial encryption unit performs an arithmetic operation including predetermined conversion for mixing the N-th intermediate data, and calculates (N+1)th intermediate data to store in the storage unit. The fourth partial encryption unit obtains encrypted data by performing an arithmetic operation including inverse conversion of the conversion on the (N+1)th intermediate data.
US09031230B2
A reduction in the size of encryption processing configuration applying generalized Feistel structures is achieved. The encryption processing configuration applies a generalized Feistel structure for dividing and inputting data into multiple lines, and repeatedly executing data transformation processing applying a round function on the data transferred to each line, and during the execution cycle of a matrix operation by a matrix operation executing unit for executing linear transformation processing applying a matrix on the data in a first line, an operation is executed on the matrix operation processing data from the initial cycle and data in a second line. This configuration enables a register to be used for both the storage of the data for the second line and the storage of the results of the matrix operation on the first line of data in progress, a reduction in the total number of registers, and thus a reduction in size.
US09031229B1
A homomorphic encryption algorithm is performed that encrypts at least a portion of a plurality of plaintext data items at a client computing device into homomorphic queries, each query including a cryptographically safe representation of one of the data items. The queries are transmitted to at least one discrete homomorphic encryption (DHE) server. An identifier is received from each query from the DHE server. The identifiers are transmitted to at least one computing server that maintains a database including data structures. The computing server is requested to requesting the computing server to insert the received identifiers into the database. At least one of the identifiers is processed: the computing server is requested to find the identifiers in the data structures that match the at least one identifiers and to perform at least one equality-based operation on the matching identifiers. A result of the at least one operation is received.
US09031227B2
A method is described for defining a reserved pattern of symbols, receiving in a crypto-module an input stream including sequential input symbols, applying a cipher to the input stream in the crypto-module so as to generate an intermediate stream including sequential output symbols corresponding respectively to the input symbols, and converting the intermediate stream to an output stream from the crypto-module by comparing successive groups of the input symbols and the corresponding output symbols to the reserved pattern and, upon finding a match to the reserved pattern in a given group, substituting the input symbols in the group into the intermediate stream in place of the corresponding output symbols. Related hardware and systems are also described.
US09031226B2
A method and device for streaming the output of one or more audio sources to one or more smart headsets includes establishing a secure connection with a smart headset, associating an audio channel of the one or more audio sources with the smart headset, and streaming the associated audio channel to the smart headset. The audio streaming device may selectively stream one or more audio channels from one or more audio sources to one or more of the smart headsets as a function of a streaming policy.
US09031221B2
A system for automated audio quality testing, having various endpoint emulators, call engines, audio generator devices, and head and torso simulator devices. The call engine utilizes reference audio samples to simulate customer interactions with a contact center. The endpoint manager utilizes reference audio samples to simulate contact center agents' interactions with customers.
US09031219B2
According to various embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for routing telephone calls from host switch to remote switch in a Voice Over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) network. In one embodiment, a system includes a host switch in a voice over internet protocol (“VoIP”) network communicably coupled with a plurality of remote switches and a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”), the host switch to receive a call from the PSTN having signaling including a location routing number (“LRN”) field, and a database communicably coupled to the host switch to identify a target remote switch of the plurality of remote switches that is associated with at least a portion of the LRN field. In addition, the host switch is to send the call to the target remote switch based on the identification by the database. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09031218B2
Agencies issue multiple devices to personnel for maintaining distinct identities over the course of assigned investigations. To provide flexible capabilities to agencies, a phone is converted for use with multiple attached telephone numbers. Accordingly, a single phone may be used to manage multiple identities over the course of one or more investigations. Using a multiple attached number, a given device can place and receive calls over the network to and from contacts. In addition to providing multiple attached numbers, calls using the multiple attached numbers may be monitored live and recorded to establish evidence.
US09031213B2
A method of providing validation data associated with a subscriber line of a telecommunication network. The method includes obtaining line data of the subscriber line wherein the line data is suitable for interrogating a line identification database (LIDB). The method interrogates the LIDB with the line data to obtain reference subscriber data associated with the line data, and processes the reference subscriber data to obtain validation data associated with the subscriber line. The invention extends to a subscriber line validation system to validate a subscriber line of a communication network.
US09031208B2
A method and system for providing context of a caller to a callee when a call is initiated is provided. The context system executing on the calling device collects context for the call. The calling device initiates the call and sends a message to the callee that includes the context. Upon receiving the message, the callee device notifies the caller that a call has been initiated and displays the received context. The callee can decide based on the received context whether to answer the call or not answer the call.
US09031207B2
A system and method for communicating location information of a VoIP subscriber to a public-safety answering point may include receiving an E-911 telephone call from a VoIP telephone. Location information associated with the VoIP telephone stored in a database may be requested. The location information may be received in a signal formatted substantially the same as a signal format for communicating caller identification information. The location information may be displayed at a public-safety answering point. In one embodiment, the location information may be displayed on a video display.
US09031205B2
An automatic ambient environmental detection and lockout system that recognizes unacceptable background noise for agents and a method that requires agents and/or supervisors to take corrective action on detected noise issues prior to work assignment facilitates an effective and efficient environment appropriate for agents to handle contact center work.
US09031195B2
An imaging detector includes a scintillator having a scintillator pixel that is configured to emit light. The detector also includes a photosensor that defines a photosensor pixel that is configured to absorb light emitted by the scintillator pixel. A lens is positioned between the scintillator pixel and the photosensor pixel for directing light emitted from the scintillator to the photosensor pixel. The lens is configured to converge light emitted from the scintillator pixel toward the photosensor pixel.
US09031194B2
An X-ray imaging apparatus comprises: an obtaining unit configured to obtain an operational state of a connected apparatus; and a display control unit configured to control a transition to a hide display state in accordance with the obtained operational state, wherein the hide display state comprises performing display while hiding at least part of information displayed on a display device.
US09031190B2
An X-ray imaging apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an X-ray sensor unit that detects X-rays, and a control unit that controls driving of an X-ray generator and the X-ray sensor unit. The control unit performs alignment imaging for imaging a still image of a subject. The still image is used as a reference for alignment of at least one of the X-ray generator and the X-ray sensor unit. After the alignment imaging, the control unit performs main imaging for imaging a moving image of the subject. The alignment imaging and the main imaging are performed under the same driving condition of the X-ray sensor unit.
US09031182B2
A method for clock recovery and data recovery from a data stream on a communication channel includes sampling a data stream on the communication channel at a sampling frequency determined by a clock signal and generating a sampled signal. The method further includes determining a phase shift between the communication data stream and the sampled signal and modifying the phase of the clock signal on the basis of the phase shift to obtain a desired phase difference between the sampled signal and the data stream.
US09031181B1
A multi-port information communication system includes a reference clock signal generator configured to generate a reference clock signal. The system also includes a phase controller configured to generate a plurality of information communication clock signals based on the reference clock signal by staggering a phase of each of the information communication clock signals. The phase controller includes a delay-locked loop configured to generate a plurality of delay-locked loop signals based on the reference clock signal, and a plurality of time delay elements. Each time delay element is configured to produce a respective one of the information communication clock signals by adding a respective delay to a respective one of the delay-locked loop signals. The system includes information communication devices each including a respective transmitter. Each of the transmitters is configured to operate in response to a respective one of the information communication clock signals.
US09031179B2
Embodiments include systems and methods for calibrating effective clock path mismatches in a receiver circuit. For example, a serializer/deserializer (SERDES) circuit includes a data slicer that generates data sampler decisions by sampling an input signal according to a clocking signal, and an error slicer that generates error slicer samples by sampling the input signal according to the clocking signal. Each of the data slicer and error slicer has an associated clock path delay, and the delays are typically different (e.g., due to manufacturing differences). A calibrator performs iteratively shifted sampling and comparing of the data sampler decisions and the error slicer samples over a plurality of clocking locations to determine an effective clock path mismatch. The calibrator can then determine and apply a clocking offset to the data slicer and/or the error slicer to effectively shift data and error sampling, thereby compensating for the effective clock path mismatch.
US09031177B2
A receiver is disclosed that is capable of correcting for harmonic distortion injected into received analog signals. The receiver splits the analog signal in the analog front-end and modifies the split analog signals with a difference signal. After amplification and/or sampling, the modified analog signals are recombined in a main data pathway and are kept separate in a secondary pathway. Utilizing the difference signal, a feedback loop that includes distorters and an LMS filter detects the distortion coefficient of the harmonic distortion. A distorter in the main data pathway utilizes the detected distortion coefficient to correct the harmonic distortion in the analog signal.
US09031175B2
A method of performing Automatic Gain Control, AGC, in a receiver of a device is provided. The device is served on a serving carrier of a multi-carrier communication network. Measurement gaps are scheduled on the serving carrier for inter-carrier measurements on a non-serving carrier. The method comprises the step of determining a first time interval, in which a predefined signal portion is transmitted on the non-serving carrier; the step of estimating, for the first time interval, received signal power on the non-serving carrier; the step of computing a receiver gain based on the estimate signal power; the step of performing, over a second time interval, an inter-carrier measurement on the non-serving carrier; and the step of applying the receiver gain to the receiver after the second time interval.
US09031173B2
A receiving apparatus for receiving signals in a transmission system transmitted based on a frame structure including signaling data and payload data. The receiving apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive a transmission signal, a frame demapper configured to demap signaling data blocks and payload data patterns from the frames of the frame structure of the received transmission signal, wherein a signaling data block is assumed to include a number of data corresponding to a number of a signaling data pattern, wherein the signaling data patterns are split into n signaling data portions, n being a positive integer, in which n signaling portions are mapped onto n or less frames, and a demodulation decoder is configured to separately demodulate and decode the signaling data blocks and payload data patterns to obtain signaling data and payload data.
US09031166B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate dynamically allocating demodulation resources of a wideband receiver to provide improved demodulation of simultaneously received signals. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or packet error rate (PER) can be measured for the plurality of carriers to determine which demodulators related to the carriers require more resources than others to demodulate signals at a specified signal quality. Where the SNR of a related carrier is high and/or PER is low, the demodulator can require fewer resources than where the SNR of a related carrier is low and/or PER is high. In this regard, the resources are dynamically allocated among the demodulators and reallocated where SNR/PER changes and/or additional resources are made available.
US09031163B2
Transmission outputs of a plurality of transmission branches (101, 102) are extracted by coupler sections (161, 162). Branch detectors (121, 122) respectively detect the levels of the extracted signals of the respective transmission branches and a combination detector (130) detects an output obtained by combining two extracted outputs from the transmission branches by a signal combining section (110). An amplitude error is detected and corrected by comparing output levels of the branch detectors (121, 122), and a phase error is detected and corrected by an output level of the combination detector (130).
US09031154B2
A transmission device 100 has an inverse fast Fourier transform converter 104 (first circuit) that acquires plural multi-value symbol data each of which is assigned to a dedicated subcarrier, and generates waveform data on the basis of the acquired plural multi-value symbol data, and a digital frequency converter 107 (second circuit) that shifts frequency of the waveform data generated by the inverse fast Fourier transform converter 104.
US09031153B2
A duty-cycle modulated bit signalling method and circuit, comprising: signaling bits by virtue of a duty-cycle ratio; wherein the duty-cycle ratio is varied dependent upon the transmission rate of the signalling. A bit period comprises a long phase and a short phase and the duty-cycle therebetween is varied such that the ratio between the duration of the long phase and the duration of the short phase is increased for decreasing transmission rate. The duty-cycle ratio is varied dependent upon the transmission rate of the signalling according to one or more ranges of transmission rate. In a higher transmission rate range the duty-cycle is defined as a fixed ratio, and in a lower transmission range the duty-cycle is defined by a fixed length of the short phase of the bit period.
US09031148B2
Embodiments herein relate to a method in a radio base station (12) for transmitting a data signal to a user equipment (10) in a radio communications network. The radio base station (12) is connected to an active antenna array of a number of active transmitting antennas and the radio base station (12) serves the user equipment (10) in the radio communications network. Each active transmitting antenna comprises sub elements. The radio base station (12) transforms a precoded data signal using a transformation, which transformation directs signals vertically. Furthermore, the radio base station (12) transmits the transformed data signal over at least one sub element to the user equipment (10). The transmitted data signal is enabled to be directed vertically, and the transformed data signal is limited to be transmitted in a direction within a range of elevation angles.
US09031137B2
A method for signaling sample adaptive offset (SAO) band offset syntax elements in a video encoder is provided that includes receiving a plurality of band offset syntax elements, entropy encoding an absolute value of a magnitude of each band offset syntax element in a compressed video bit stream, and entropy encoding a sign of each non-zero band offset syntax element in the compressed video bit stream following the absolute values of the magnitudes.
US09031134B2
An apparatus and method of evaluating whether an image under test is similar to a reference image, the method comprising performing a test on pairs of blocks in turn, each pair of blocks comprising a block of the image under test and a corresponding block of the reference image, the test comprising calculating a difference measure indicative of the difference between the blocks and comparing the difference measure to a threshold, wherein the test is passed if the difference measure betters the threshold, and the image under test and the reference image are deemed to be similar if the test is passed by all of the pairs of blocks.
US09031131B1
Systems and methods for converting a picture frame rate from a source video at a first rate to a target video at a second rate via interpolation of an intermediate frame. In one implementation, the system includes a phase plane correlation calculator including a low pass filter and a high pass filter for receiving previous frame data and current frame data where the phase plane correlation calculator is configured to generate a first motion vector based upon low pass representations and high pass representations. The system may also include a motion compensated interpolator that receives the first motion vector and an additional input motion vector and determines a final motion vector for use in interpolation. The system may further include an intermediate frame generator configured to generate the intermediate frame utilizing the final motion vector.
US09031128B2
A method for use in encoding video data, including generating metric values for the video data based on a metric function and respective encoding parameters. At least one of the encoding parameters is selected on the basis of a desired quantity of encoded video data and a predetermined relationship between metric values and respective quantities of encoded video data.
US09031127B2
A method includes receiving a data signal that includes a plurality of encoded frames in a first access unit, receiving a data message indicative of a similarity between a portion of a first one of the plurality of encoded frames and a portion of a non-successive second one of the plurality of encoded frames in a second access unit, and decoding the portion of the second one of the plurality of encoded frames from the portion of the first one of the plurality of encoded frames when the data signal is corrupted.
US09031126B2
A system and method for video encoding using noise level estimates from vertical blanking interval lines. A video signal may be received by an encoding system. Information may be extracted from the video signal and may be analyzed. The extracted information may be vertical blanking intervals. The extracted and analyzed information may be utilized to estimate a noise level of the video signal. The estimated noise level may then be utilized in encoding the video signal by being inserted into the video signal or used to change parameters used in video encoding.
US09031124B1
A method of generating a hypothesis and estimating a CFO includes receiving a signal including a set of radio frames, dividing each received radio frame of the set into a set of received sub-sequences, dividing, each of reference radio frames from a reference signal stored in the receiver into a set of reference sub-sequences, correlating the set of received sub-sequences with the set of reference sub-sequences to obtain a set of correlation values, generating, a first value set and a second value set of hypothesis based on the correlation values, generating a first and a second hypothesis based on the first value and the second value set, and averaging the first and the second hypothesis to obtain an averaged hypothesis, performing a DFT on the averaged hypothesis to obtain a DFT sequence, determining a peak position of the DFT sequence, and estimating the CFO based on the peak position.
US09031118B2
In one embodiment, a correlator of a global positioning system receiver in a global positioning system receives a sample satellite signal. The correlator includes a signal comparator configured to receive the sample signal, a first normalized estimate signal, and a second normalized estimate signal. The signal comparator generates a first accumulated output and a second accumulated output. The first accumulated output represents the integration of a correlation of the sample signal and the first normalized estimate signal. The second accumulated output represents the integration of a correlation of the sample signal and the second normalized estimate signal. Using time-multiplexing, the high speed of a digital signal processing core is leveraged to perform calculations of the signal comparator and threshold comparator in real time.
US09031114B1
An intra-cavity frequency doubled OPS-laser includes a laser-resonator terminated by a plane mirror and a mirror-structure of an OPS-chip. The resonator is folded by three fold-mirrors. The fold-mirrors are supported on a vibration-isolation plate supported by isolation posts above a base-plate. The plane mirror and the mirror-structure of the OPS-chip are mounted back to back on opposite parallel surfaces of a mounting block. The mounting-block is supported on the base-plate and extends through an aperture in the vibration-isolation plate. Movement of the vibration-isolation plate with respect to the base-plate does not change the resonator length.
US09031100B2
Implementations and examples of fiber lasers based on fiber laser cavity designs that produce self-similar pulses (“similaritons”) to achieve a pulse spectral bandwidth greater than a gain spectral bandwidth based on a spectral broadening fiber segment and a spectral filter to ensure the proper similariton conditions.
US09031096B2
A multimedia data system comprising a synchronization unit. The synchronization unit receives a demodulated bitstream, checks whether a FAW pattern corresponding to a candidate of the bitstream exists, checks whether an additional information corresponding to the candidate of the bitstream is valid when the FAW pattern exists, determines a hit weighting corresponding to the candidate according to the checking result, determines whether the hit weighting meets a criterion and outputs a synchronization signal when the hit weighting meets the criterion.
US09031093B2
Methods, apparatus and systems for implementing for implementing Energy-Efficient Ethernet (EEE) refresh and wake signaling for high-speed Ethernet links. During an EEE refresh or wake signaling period, ALERT frames are transmitted between first and second Ethernet interfaces on opposing ends of the link, with a first ALERT frame being sent from a first Ethernet interface and a second ALERT frame being returned from the second Ethernet interface. The ALERT frames have a length that is different that the length of Physical Media Attachment (PMA) frames, and the returned ALERT frames include frame alignment offset data identifying a relative offset between an ALERT frame and a predetermined location in a PMA frame, and countdown data. The frame alignment offset data and countdown data are employed to facilitate a rapid transition from the link training mode to the data mode.
US09031091B2
Operations of a building facility monitoring device and an IP network monitoring device are coordinated with each other. In a connection system of a building facility device managing system, when a status of the IP network monitoring device is changed, a monitoring-device-status managing unit 301 provides parameter information unique for a BACnet protocol to the changed status and stores it. If the status is not an operation command, a coordinated-packet-generation transmitting/receiving unit 302 generates a packet of the BACnet protocol based on a status and parameter information of a specific IP network monitoring device to transmit it to a building facility device managing system 103. If the status is the operation command, it acquires a status and parameter information of the specific IP network monitoring device from a management database 401, and generates a packet of the BACnet protocol based on the status and the parameter information to transmit it to the building facility device managing system 103.
US09031089B2
A vehicle communication system providing, in one embodiment, wirelessly transmitting and receiving messages regarding the status of parking spaces, such as empty or occupied. Only vehicles belonging to a predetermined set are able to decrypt such messages, in one embodiment. Message formats to comprise a group of parking spaces are described. An embodiment includes a communication mode specific for vehicles in a parking lot. An embodiment includes messages describing the shape and size of vehicle entering or leaving a parking space. Efficient methods of coding vehicle type are described. Methods of improving the operational efficiency of a vehicle communication system, including passive RF reflectors, audio and video messages, safety, courtesy and social messages, and compliance with vehicle restrictions are in some embodiments.
US09031087B2
A system for optimizing response time to events or representations thereof waiting in a queue has a first server having access to the queue; a software application running on the first server; and a second server accessible from the first server, the second server containing rules governing the optimization. In a preferred embodiment, the software application at least periodically accesses the queue and parses certain ones of events or tokens in the queue and compares the parsed results against rules accessed from the second server in order to determine a measure of disposal time for each parsed event wherein if the determined measure is sufficiently low for one or more of the parsed events, those one or more events are modified to a reflect a higher priority state than originally assigned enabling faster treatment of those events resulting in relief from those events to the queue system load.
US09031083B2
A communication management system includes a measuring unit, an assigning unit, and a distribution controller. The measuring unit measures, for each of clients, a traffic pattern representing a pattern of temporal changes in an amount of communication traffic regarding the client. The assigning unit assigns, to each of plural communication channels, one or more clients that use the communication channel, on the basis of the traffic patterns of the clients measured by the measuring unit. The distribution controller performs control of selecting, as a communication channel with which distribution data is to be distributed to one or more of the clients, at least one of the plural communication channels to which the assigning unit has assigned the clients.
US09031081B2
A local manager in a local networking domain may configure a plurality of logical switches by combining switching functions available in network devices and/or network switches in the local networking domain. The configuration may utilize vertical and/or horizontal combinations of the switching functions. The switching functions may comprise network switch-based switching functions, and/or hypervisor-level switching functions and/or network adapter-level switching functions available in network devices which may be configured as virtualized platforms. The local manager may provide interfacing services to enable exposing configured logical switches. The interfacing services may comprise an internal interface, which may be utilized, via the local manager, to control the switching functions corresponding to logical switches and/or to route messages sent to and/or from the logical switches. The interfacing services may also comprise an external interface, which may be used by external entities, such as remote management entities, to manage and/or interact with configured logical switches.
US09031077B2
A system for passing data, the system including multiple data producers passing processed data, wherein the processed data include discrete data units that are each consecutively numbered, each of the data producers calculating insertion indices for ones of the data units passing therethrough; a circular buffer receiving the data units from the producers, the data units placed in slots that correspond to the respective insertion indices; and a consumer of the data units that receives the data units from the circular buffer in an order that preserves sequential numbering of the data units, wherein the multiple data producers follow a protocol so that a first one of the data producers, upon failing to place a first data unit in the circular buffer, does not lock other data producers from placing other data units in the circular buffer.