US09078346B2

Insulating materials disposed within the housing are protected through the use of removable protective layers, which can be fit over the insulating components. In some embodiments, these removable protective layers are dimensioned so as to fit over the insulating components without the use of any fasteners. In other embodiments, a fastener, such as a set screw or clip, may be used to hold the removable protective layer in place. These removable protective layers can be placed over any insulating component in a housing, such as a high voltage feed through insulator. During preventative maintenance cycles, the coated removable protective layer is removed from the insulating component, and a new protective layer is used to cover the insulating component.
US09078344B2

A printed circuit board includes: a first insulating layer; a second insulating layer of which one surface is formed to be in contact with the other surface of the first insulating layer; a first circuit pattern formed to be embedded in one surface of the first insulating layer; a second circuit pattern formed to be embedded between the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer; a third circuit pattern formed to be protruded from the other surface of the second insulating layer; and a landless fill-plating layer for filling a hole which penetrates the first insulating layer.
US09078343B2

A method for manufacturing a printed wiring board including forming a penetrating hole in a core substrate, forming a first conductor on a first surface of the substrate, forming a second conductor on a second surface of the substrate, and filling a conductive material in the hole such that a through-hole conductor is formed in the hole and the first and second conductors are connected via the through-hole conductor. The forming of the hole includes forming a first opening in the first surface, forming a second opening from the bottom of the first opening toward the second surface such that the second opening has a smaller diameter than the first opening, forming a third opening in the second surface, and forming a fourth opening from the bottom of the third opening toward the first surface such that the fourth opening has a smaller diameter than the third opening.
US09078342B2

An external control stand for controlling at least one working component of an self-propelled construction machine comprises at least one display panel and a plurality of input elements, the external control stand comprising at least one mounting section to mount it to the construction machine. The external control stand is characterized in that it comprises a lower shell, an upper shell, and an impact protection, the impact protection being configured to be in contact with the lower shell and the upper shell.
US09078340B2

A cabinet for an electrical switchboard includes a supporting base and a frame mounted on the supporting base. The supporting base includes a base element having a lower wall configured to rest on a bearing surface, and a first lateral wall and a second lateral wall which protrude transversally from the lower wall and face each other. The base element includes a first upper wall protruding from an upper end of the first lateral wall towards the second lateral wall, a second upper wall protruding from an upper end of the second lateral wall towards the first lateral wall, so as to extend over at least a portion of the first upper wall. The base element also includes a coupling mechanism which couples the first and second upper walls to each other for supporting a corresponding portion of the frame.
US09078339B2

A display device is provided. The display device has an upper case, a lower case, at least one fastening unit and at least one adjustable module. The upper case and the lower case respectively have at least one first fasten hole and at least one second fasten hole. The second fasten hole coaxially communicates with the first fasten hole. Through the second fasten hole, the unit is fixed in the first fasten hole to fasten the upper case and the lower case together. The adjustable module has an adjustable unit with a through hole penetrating therethrough. Furthermore, the adjustable unit is partially disposed in the second fasten hole. By disposing the adjustable unit and the fastening unit within the second fasten hole, the display device could be made more compact and the overall cost can be decreased.
US09078334B2

An extreme ultraviolet light (EUL) source device is disclosed, the device comprising: a chamber in which a gas flow and a droplet stream are provided; a droplet generator through which target material is changed into the droplet stream; and a shroud positioned along the droplet stream, the shroud shielding the droplet stream from the gas flow, wherein the droplet stream is irradiated by laser to produce plasma and generate an extreme ultraviolet light. The shroud includes flow guide surface features that guide accumulated target material away from a collector mirror that reflects and focuses the EUL.
US09078332B2

A light emitting device includes a light emitting diode (LED); a transparent optic having a refractive index noptic; and a phosphor layer spaced apart from the LED and positioned between the LED and the transparent optic. The phosphor layer has an effective refractive index nphosphor, where a gap between the LED and the phosphor layer has a refractive index ngap that is less than nphosphor. The transparent optic has an inner convex surface in contact with the phosphor layer. The inner convex surface has an inner radius of curvature r; and an outer convex surface facing away from the phosphor layer and being a surface through which the light emitting device emits light into a medium adjacent the outer convex surface. The medium has a refractive index nmedium. The outer convex surface has an outer radius of curvature R, such that r/R is equal to nmedium/noptic.
US09078331B2

A light emitting device is provided to produce white light with a stable correlated color temperature and stable color coordinates. The light emitting device includes a blue LED chip and a yellow phosphor. The blue LED chip has a peak wavelength X slightly smaller than the peak wavelength Y of the phosphor such that when the light emitting device is subjected to a predetermined operating current, the phosphor decays due to thermal effect, and the LED chip has its emission spectrum red-shifted to substantially match with the excitation spectrum of the phosphor. At this time, the excitation ability of the LED chip is increased and causes an increase of yellow power output from the phosphor that substantially compensates a decrease of yellow light output caused by the phosphor.
US09078328B2

A vehicle lighting outage detection circuit is disclosed having a plurality of parallel branches connected at a common positive reference node. Each parallel branch comprises a branch resistor and a current controlled branch switching device connected in series. A constant current source is connected to the positive reference node and configured to deliver a substantially constant current to the positive reference node. The cathode of a zener diode is connected to the positive reference node. When current to a predetermined number of the branch resistors is interrupted due to the failure one or more LEDs connected to the control inputs of the branch switching devices, the voltage at the positive reference node increases beyond the breakdown voltage of the zener diode. In such a condition, excess current flow to the anode of the zener diode to supply an outage detection signal.
US09078326B2

A dimmable LED lamp, which receives power from a DC power source to emit light, includes a main body, a DC/DC converter, and a LED module; wherein the main body is hollow, and includes a conductive portion made of a conductive material, wherein the conductive portion is connected to the DC power source; the DC/DC converter is provided in the main body, and is electrically connected to the conductive portion of the main body to receive a power from at least a DC power source; the DC/DC converter converts a voltage of the power provided by the DC power source into a corresponding current; the LED module is provided on the main body, and is electrically connected to the DC/DC converter to emit light with luminance corresponding to the current received from the DC/DC converter.
US09078324B2

An error amplification circuit amplifies an error voltage between a reference voltage and an output voltage of the LED current sensor. A control circuit controls the DC output power so that the DC output power becomes a predetermined value, by performing on-off control on a switching element based on the output voltage of the error amplification circuit. The error amplification circuit includes an error amplifier, a phase compensation circuit connected between an inverting input terminal and an output terminal of the error amplifier and having a serial circuit of a phase compensation capacitor and a phase compensation resistor, a gain adjustment resistor serially connected at one end to the serial circuit and connected at the other end to the LED current sensor, and a short circuit configured to make the inverting input terminal of the error amplifier grounded for a predetermined period of time after activation.
US09078322B2

A method of driving LED chips, wherein the LED chips have different specifications, includes the steps of: A. defining a plurality of setting currents; B. connecting a LED chip; C. selecting one of the setting currents which matches a rated current of the LED chip; and D. providing power with the selected setting current to the LED chip. Whereby, the method could be applied to drive LED chips of several different specifications.
US09078308B2

In one embodiment of lighting devices and lighting systems, the lighting device has a connection for connecting to a primary power supply and has a secondary power supply, such as a battery. A measuring circuit is operable to measure an impedance of the primary power supply connection and to determine from the measurement if a main power supply has failed, and if so whether to power light sources using power from the secondary power supply.
US09078302B2

An apparatus and method for controlling an illumination device in an aircraft is provided. The apparatus has a light source suitable for emitting light with a wavelength in the visible range. The apparatus also has a pulse-width modulator for delivering at least one output signal that is connected to the light source and suitable for effecting brightness control of the light source. The output signal is composed from a first number of first subsignals each having a first pulse width and a second number of second subsignals each having a second pulse width shorter than the first pulse width. The brightness of the light source is adjustable by varying the first number and the second number for a brightness change and the output signal is repeated after delivery of the first number and second number of subsignals.
US09078298B2

An electromagnetic heater for heating an irregularly shaped object, including: a cavity within which an object is to be placed; at least one feed which feeds UHF or microwave energy into the cavity; and a controller that controls one or more characteristics of the cavity or energy to assure that the UHF or microwave energy is deposited uniformly in the object within ±30% over at least 80% of the volume of the object.
US09078292B1

A monitoring system for monitoring the temperature of equipment, comprising a central digital computer, a MESH communication network, wherein the network feeds signals to the central digital computer, a plurality of heating elements for heating the equipment, temperature sensors adapted to measure the temperature of the equipment, wherein each sensor is adapted to provide a signal representing the temperature of the piece of equipment to which the sensor is associated, to the network, wherein each temperature sensor can also be used to control the electric heaters, a temperature sensor that monitors the ambient temperature of the facility, and current transducers associated with the heaters, to monitor the energy use and current loss of the heaters, wherein the central computer uses the data it receives from the other elements of the monitoring system to determine when the equipment is not at the correct temperature and diagnoses the reason why.
US09078291B2

A vehicle seat having a first temperature control unit and a second temperature control unit. Each control unit has power-input terminals for receiving power from a vehicle electrical power system and power-output terminals. The first control unit has a logic part for comparing received temperature selection and temperature measurement values along with a first pulse generator connected to a first output terminal of the logic part and a second pulse generator connected to a second output terminal of the logic part as well as a first switch unit coupled to the first pulse generator. The second temperature control unit includes a second switch unit coupled to the second pulse generator. First and second heating elements are coupled to the temperate control units. An occupant switch is coupled to the first temperate control unit. A first temperature sensor monitors the thermal output of the first heating element.
US09078285B2

A method and a network side device for trunking communication are provided, and the method includes: in the frequency hopping synchronization of the trunking communication, sending a frequency hopping synchronization information frame to a mobile terminal intended to communication, wherein the frequency hopping synchronization information frame includes the frequency hopping synchronization information. The amount of the transmitted synchronization information is large, the time for establishing synchronization is short, and the confidentiality is strong; and the technical difficulty of the implementation is not high.
US09078282B2

The disclosure provides a method and an apparatus for implementing a network device function of a wireless communication terminal, belonging to the field of communications. The method for implementing a network device function of a wireless communication terminal includes: the apparatus for implementing the network device function of the wireless communication terminal receives a control instruction and determines a sender of the control instruction; when the sender of the control instruction is a host, the apparatus for implementing the network device function of the wireless communication terminal forwards the received control instruction to the wireless communication terminal; and, when the sender of the control instruction is the wireless communication terminal, the apparatus for implementing the network device function of the wireless communication terminal forwards the received control instruction to the host. The technical solution can implement a network data exchange with the wireless communication terminal on a non-windows platform.
US09078278B2

An apparatus and a method therein include selecting a size of a soft buffer memory partition per component carrier in a Carrier Aggregation scenario. The method supports multiple carriers to select a size of a soft buffer memory partition, the partition associated with receiving data on at least one component carrier, the multi-carrier system comprising at least two component carriers, each component carrier is associated with a configured bandwidth, the apparatus comprising the processor configured to select a size of a soft buffer memory partition for the first component carrier based at least in part on a first total number of soft channel bits, a first number associated with hybrid automatic retransmit request processes, and the configured bandwidth of the first component carrier.
US09078269B2

Interference that occurs during wireless communication may be managed through the use of fractional reuse and other techniques. In some aspects fractional reuse may relate to HARQ interlaces, portions of a timeslot, frequency spectrum, and spreading codes. Interference may be managed through the use of a transmit power profile and/or an attenuation profile. Interference also may be managed through the use of power management-related techniques.
US09078259B2

A communication-management method involves a recurring polling scheme, wherein network nodes are polled by a base station according to optimized and/or user-preferred polling intervals assigned to each network node. The polling interval assigned to a given node may be optimized to minimize and/or achieve user-preferred thresholds for energy consumption and latency associated with each network node in the sensor network. Optimized and/or user-preferred polling intervals may be constrained in accordance with various network performance considerations, for example, a recommended update interval for each network node, characteristics of the network nodes themselves, the duration of the timeslots at which the network nodes are polled, and/or other network performance considerations.
US09078250B2

Methods for devices, devices and computer program products for devices relate to a communication module, arranged for packet based communication, and including a receiving module. The receiving module is arranged to receive a control message, wherein the control message includes a plurality of acknowledgement information items, wherein each of the plurality of acknowledgement information items are located in a preset portion of the control message, respectively. The device further includes a determination module, arranged to determine whether the received control message is intended for the device, a selection module, arranged to select, responsive to an affirmative determination result, at least one of the plurality of acknowledgement information items based on the preset portions, and an obtaining module, arranged to obtain control data contained in the selected at least one of the plurality of acknowledgement information items.
US09078247B2

A method for transmitting information of resources for use in transmission of ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is disclosed. An example method for receiving ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is also disclosed. When resources for transmission of data and resources for transmission of control information of the data are scheduled through virtual unit resources, the method identifies information of resources for receiving an ACK/NACK signal for transmission data mapped to information of at least one of a virtual unit resource allocated to the transmission data and a virtual unit resource allocated to control information of the transmission data, and receives the ACK/NACK signal for the transmission data through the information of resources for receiving the ACK/NACK signal.
US09078243B2

Provided is a communication control device controlling communication of multiple secondary usage nodes providing second communication services using a part of a frequency band assigned to a first communication service, including a communication unit receiving service area information for estimating service areas of the second communication services provided by the secondary usage nodes and access technique information indicating radio access techniques usable by the secondary usage nodes, a storage unit storing information on the service area and access technique received by the communication unit, an estimation unit estimating service areas of multiple second communication services, and a control unit notifying a secondary usage node providing one of the multiple second communication services of a radio access technique or a channel recommended to the at least one second communication service on the basis of a location relationship between the service areas estimated by the estimation unit and the access technique information.
US09078239B2

By the present invention are disclosed a method for providing and a method for obtaining voice call related information from a first party device (100) to a second party device (200), prior to establishing a voice call between the first party device (100) and the second party device (200). Portable communication devices (100, 200, 500) for providing and obtaining of voice call related information also disclosed. The methods comprises sending/obtaining in real time the voice call related information (steps 304, 402) from the first party device (100) to the second party device (200) over a packet switched network, and sending/obtaining a call setup message (steps 308, 410) over a circuit switched network, of the voice call from the first party device (100), so that the voice call related information can be presented to a user of the second party device (200) before responding to the call setup message.
US09078236B2

A random access scheme for preventing unnecessary retransmission and a user equipment for the same are disclosed. If a Contention Resolution (CR) timer expires in contention resolution during a random access procedure or if a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) signal or a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) signal associated with the PDCCH signal does not match an identifier of a terminal, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer for storing a Medium Access Control Packet Data Unit (MAC PDU) transmitted in the random access procedure is flushed such that unnecessary data retransmission can be prevented.
US09078232B2

Techniques are provided, which may be implemented via various methods, apparatuses, and/or articles of manufacture. For example, an electronic device may obtain an estimated location of a mobile device, determine a quality of a geometric distribution of transmitting devices capable of transmitting wireless signals to the mobile device at the estimated location, and assign an uncertainty to the estimated location. In certain implementations, an electronic device may further determine an adapted transmission setting for a transmitting device and transmit a corresponding message to the transmitting device. In certain implementations, an electronic device may identify adapted assistance data for the mobile device and transmit a corresponding message to one or more other electronic devices.
US09078231B2

A method and apparatus for compensating an estimated location of a wireless network element from information collected by heterogeneous terminals are provided. The method may include receiving information on a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a wireless network element and location information of a heterogeneous terminal from the heterogeneous terminal by a wireless network element positioning server, compensating the information on the RSSI received from the heterogeneous terminal into information on an RSSI received from a predetermined reference terminal, using a difference value model of the RSSI of the wireless network element between heterogeneous terminals, the difference model generated in advance, and estimating a location of the wireless network element using the compensated information on the RSSI from the reference terminal and the received location information.
US09078227B2

Various embodiments of the invention determine and/or enhance the location of a wireless mobile station in a WiMAX network, and provide that location to a requesting device. Some embodiments produce more that one determination of the location, using different sources for the information, and combine the different determinations to produce an enhanced version of the location.
US09078213B2

A first position information generation unit (130) generates, based on a first radio signal received by a first wireless communication unit (110), first position information representing a position where the first radio signal is received. A second position information generation unit (140) generates, using the first position information, second position information representing a position where a second wireless communication unit (120) can receive a second radio signal. A wireless communication operation determination unit (150) determines, based on the generated first and second position information, whether the operation by the second wireless communication unit is possible. A power supply control unit (160) executes power supply control of the second wireless communication unit in accordance with a determination result. This allows to uniquely determine the position information of a mobile communication terminal apparatus by simple signal processing at a low cost and implement power supply control of wireless communication functions based on the position information.
US09078200B2

A method and apparatus for connecting a personal mobile device to a vehicle communication unit. The method involves automatically detecting the presence of a personal mobile device located at a vehicle, obtaining permission to connect the personal mobile device, and automatically connecting the personal mobile device to the vehicle communication unit. The method and apparatus can be used, for example, during an initial connection of a personal mobile device to a vehicle communication unit or each time a new mobile device is present in the vehicle.
US09078193B2

An apparatus for determining a route including: a collector that collects a current amount of link traffic and current link power consumption of each link; a virtual link setter that sets virtual links for each link; a link cost calculator that calculates a link cost of each virtual link based on the estimated increase in the link power consumption; a constraint condition setter that creates a constraint condition satisfying a requirement of end-to-end quality of a request flow based on change in quality of each virtual link and satisfying a requirement of end-to-end quality of an existing flow based on the change in quality of the existing flow on the virtual link; a route determinator that determines a route having a smallest sum of the link costs including a plurality of the virtual links satisfying the created constraint condition.
US09078190B2

Wireless networks are becoming increasingly heterogeneous in terms of the processing capabilities of network users' receiving equipment. According to embodiments of the innovation, in a communications network comprising a plurality of receivers with different data reception rate capabilities, data frames targeted to respective receivers may be transmitted to the receivers in accordance with the respective data reception rate capabilities of the receivers.
US09078189B2

A method of performing inter-mobile station (MS) handover in a radio access system and an MS therefor are disclosed. The method includes a first MS receiving an inter-MS handover indication message from a base station (BS) while performing inter-MS communication with a second MS, and the first MS performing inter-MS handover from the second MS to another MS according to the inter-MS handover indication message. The inter-MS handover is decided according to channel quality between the first MS and the second MS or channel quality between the second MS and the BS.
US09078187B2

System and method for handoff between different types of networks. A communication session of a user equipment may be handed off from a first network to a second network based on a network condition of the first network. A network information may be transmitted from the first network and the network condition of the first network may be determined based on received network information. The network information may include information of an adaptive multi-rate (AMR) mode assigned for providing a corresponding service, and the information of the AMR mode may be assigned based on the network condition of the first network and may be associated with a bit-rate for speech coding. A handoff from the first network to the second network may be initiated when the network condition of the first network is determined to be poor.
US09078186B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication, and more particularly, to a method for a base station and a user equipment to transmit and receive data in a multi radio access technology system based on an access point (AP) and apparatus therefor. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of performing a communication, which is performed by a user equipment based on an access point (AP) supporting a Multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology), may include the steps of receiving an information on a 1st AP associated with the user equipment among a plurality of APs from the 1st AP, transmitting the information on the 1st AP to a base station, receiving an information on at least one cooperative user equipment candidate associated with the 1st AP from the base station, and transmitting a 1st data to the base station using the at least one cooperative user equipment, wherein the 1st data is exchanged between the user equipment and the at least one cooperative user equipment via a 1st radio access scheme and wherein the 1st data is exchanged between the at least one cooperative user equipment and the base station via 2nd radio access scheme.
US09078179B2

A user equipment (UE) considers both the signal strength in time slot zero and the signal quality of the downlink traffic time slots when determining whether to send an IRAT measurement report to trigger IRAT handover to GSM.
US09078177B2

The present invention relates to an electronic device and a method of operating the electronic device. There are provided an electronic device and a method of operating the electronic device that may more effectively resolve handover request collisions by using a specific field value included in a handover request message.
US09078155B2

A wireless communication system includes an RNC and a BTS which communicates with the RNC. A congestion-notification transmitting unit of the BTS notifies the RNC of occurrence of congestion in a sector in which a mobile station is located. The RNC includes a congestion-notification receiving unit, a retransmission-ratio monitoring unit, and a transmission-rate control unit. The congestion-notification receiving unit detects the congestion occurrence by the notification from the BTS. The retransmission-ratio monitoring unit monitors a ratio of retransmission of a packet to the mobile station. The transmission-rate control unit performs control of changing a transmission rate of a packet to the mobile station according to the retransmission ratio when the congestion occurrence has been detected by the congestion-notification receiving unit.
US09078152B2

A programmable cellular telephone device includes a programmable interface for establishing a wireless communications link with at least one monitored technical device, and a processing module for authenticating wireless transmissions sent from a programming transmitter by determining if at least one transmission contains a coded number. The device is configured to use memory to store a telephone number or IP address included within the transmission(s) if the processing module authenticates the transmission(s) by determining that the transmission includes the coded number. The stored telephone numbers/IP addresses are numbers to which the device is configured to and permitted to send outgoing wireless transmissions. The device also communicates with a remote data monitoring device and/or sends data to/receives data from an Internet web page. The device processes data received from a monitored technical device, displays the processed data, and/or to transmits the data to an Internet web page.
US09078143B2

An example apparatus is provided that receives a first message following conclusion of a voice call between a first apparatus and a second apparatus over a network. And in response to the first message, the apparatus obtains a geographic location of at least the first apparatus, and prepares a second message for transmission to the first apparatus. The second message includes a telephone number of a quality server to enable the first apparatus to initiate a voice call to the telephone number to participate in a voice quality test with the quality server, where the voice quality test includes calculation of a score reflecting a quality of the voice call. The apparatus receives the score, and correlates the score with the geographic location of at least the first apparatus and other network parameters obtained during the test to facilitate tuning the network based on the score and the geographic location.
US09078142B1

A link optimizer for optimizing a link on a wireless local area network (WLAN). The link optimizer includes: a sounding distender, a beamform matrix derivation module, and a link dimension attenuator. The sounding distender send a sounding packet exclusively at a maximum number of streams and at a maximum bandwidth supported by the link and receives a MIMO feedback beamforming matrix in response. The beamform matrix derivation module derives from the received MIMO feedback beamforming matrix a set of derived MIMO beamforming matrices having at least a column dimension less than a column dimension in the feedback beamforming matrix. The link dimension attenuator selects at least one of the derived beamforming matrices for transmission of subsequent communication packets, thereby avoiding a requirement for additional channel sounding.
US09078137B1

Systems and methods are described for a mobile hotspot that can be managed from an access controller. According to an embodiment, a mobile establishes a wide area network (WAN) connection through a wireless WAN module and establishes a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection with a wireless fidelity (WiFi)-enabled device using a first AP profile, wherein the first AP profile is the same as an AP profile for APs that is controlled by an access controller (AC). The mobile hotspot sets up a security tunnel with the AC through the WAN connection. After receiving WLAN traffic from the WiFi-enabled device through the WLAN connection transmitting, the mobile hotspot routes the WLAN traffic to the AC through the security tunnel.
US09078136B2

A system and method for establishing a group of wireless devices having shared media stored thereupon associates each group member device of the group of wireless devices, communicates with at least some of the group member devices of the group of wireless devices to identify shared media and upon receiving a request transmitted by a group member device of the group of wireless devices, supports access to shared media. The shared media may be stored on a different group member device, upon a managing server computer, or a media server. Upon a successful validation, the group member device that made the request is notified to facilitate the access to the shared media. The notification includes access information.
US09078135B2

The disclosure is directed to a mobile device password reset. A method in accordance with an embodiment includes: receiving a phone call at a locked mobile device from a phone having a privileged phone number; initiating a password reset in response to the receipt of the phone call from the privileged phone number and the phone call exceeding a predetermined time duration threshold by: terminating, by the locked mobile device, the phone call from the phone having the privileged phone number; generating, by the locked mobile device, a temporary password; establishing, by the locked mobile device, a connection to the phone having the privileged phone number; displaying, by the locked mobile device, a password entry field; communicating, by the locked mobile device, the temporary password via the connection to the phone having the privileged phone number; and unlocking the locked mobile device upon successful entry of the temporary password in the password entry field displayed by the locked mobile device.
US09078133B2

The disclosure provides a method for configuring a locking strategy of a mobile terminal, comprising: setting, at a locking strategy setting terminal, relevant information of a locking strategy which needs to be executed by a mobile terminal and transmitting the relevant information to the mobile terminal, when the mobile terminal determines that the mobile terminal is currently unlocked, storing the relevant information of the locking strategy which needs to be executed by the mobile terminal; or, inputting, at the mobile terminal, relevant information of a locking strategy which needs to be executed, and storing the inputted relevant information of the locking strategy which needs to be executed. The disclosure further provides a method for applying a locking strategy of a mobile terminal as well as a system and a terminal mobile for configuring a locking strategy of a mobile terminal. According to the technical solutions of the disclosure, the locking strategy of the mobile terminal can be conveniently and flexibly configured.
US09078131B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of communicating location-enabling information for location estimation. For example, an apparatus may include a location-enabling information (LEI) processor to process a location-enabling message, which is transmitted between first and second location-enabling sources and receivable by a mobile device, the location-enabling message including encrypted LEI configured for enabling estimation of a location of the mobile device at a predefined accuracy based on a cryptographic key corresponding to the first location-enabling source.
US09078120B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for configuring mobility or paging parameters of a femto node. A method includes determining capabilities of one or more neighboring access points based in part on signals received from the one or more neighboring access points. The method includes comparing the capabilities to one or more capabilities of the femto node to determine a mobility or paging parameter adjustment. The method includes adjusting one or more mobility or paging parameters based on the mobility or paging parameter adjustment.
US09078118B2

Embodiments of the present invention include wireless communication systems having one or more network components that can communicate with at least one mobile station in an interference environment. A transmitter can transmit data indicating a set of communication modes in which a mobile station is capable of operating and for at least one mode of communication in the set an indication of interference rejection capability. The indicating data can be received by a receiver. A resource allocator can allocate system resources based on the indicating data for use during a connection between network components (e.g., a network apparatus and a mobile station). Allocation of system resources can fully or partially depend on a connection's communication mode, an indication of interference rejection capability of a mobile station for the mode of communication of the connection, and/or an interference environment expected during the connection. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09078116B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for computing various determinations at one or more mobile devices and/or central machines. In part, such determinations are computed based on analysis of one or more inputs originating at one or more sensors of one or more devices. Such determinations include determining an in-vehicle role, an in-vehicle location, a handheld state, and a vehicle class. Various transformations, modifications, and outputs can result from such determinations. Also disclosed are systems and methods for restricting operation of a mobile device, including restrictions that impede operation by a driver moreso than operation by a passenger. Also disclosed are systems and methods for orienting a coordinate system of a mobile device.
US09078110B2

According to one embodiment, a method for notifying a reserved call of an electronic device includes registering a schedule of at least one time period, acquiring an outgoing number when an incoming call is rejected, determining a time of notifying the reserved call associated with the outgoing number by referring to the schedule, and notifying the reserved call associated with the outgoing number when the determined time arrives.
US09078099B2

Systems, methods, and devices for determining the geospatial position/location of a mobile device by using transmissions from surrounding wireless utility meters and prior knowledge of the locations of the surrounding meters. A mobile device may receive transmissions from a plurality of wireless utility meters, and determine signal strengths and meter identifiers of each of the plurality of wireless utility meters from the received transmissions. The signal strengths and meter identifiers may be compared to data records stored in a wireless utility meter signal signature database to identify a best match data record, which may include geographic coordinates that may be used by the mobile device to determine its current geospatial position and/or location.
US09078095B2

Provided is a distributed system and method for enabling new and useful location dependent features and functionality to mobile data processing systems. Mobile data processing Systems (MSs) interact with each other as peers in communications and interoperability. Data is shared between mobile data processing systems to carry out novel Location Based eXchanges (LBX) of data for new mobile applications. Information transmitted inbound to, transmitted outbound from, is in process at, or is application modified at a mobile data processing system triggers processing of actions in accordance with user configured permissions, charters, and other configurations. In a preferred embodiment, a user configurable platform is provided for quickly building well behaving LBX applications at MSs and across a plurality of interoperating MSs. Tools, triggered interfaces and integrated applications are disclosed for a breadth of MS LBX configurations and functionality.
US09078086B2

The present invention relates to a solution for handling a plurality of machine to machine, M2M, devices in a wireless communication cell by providing a shared Internet Protocol, IP, address for the plurality of M2M devices and one of the M2M devices acts as a master device for attaching and receiving the shared IP address and other communication configuration control data from a wireless gateway. The M2M devices communicate with a central M2M server using datagrams with the shared IP address and device identity information together with data or control messages.
US09078079B2

In a multiple network access method in a communication device including at least one protocol stack having a physical layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer, and at least one application unit for performing communication through the protocol stack, the method includes applying a first parameter to the protocol stack and a first attribute to the application unit, accessing a first network for a first attribute to the applications, switching the first parameter into a second parameter and the fist attribute into a second attribute, and accessing a second network for a second hour after the switching.
US09078075B2

A hand held tool for safely inserting a canal hearing device into the ear canal having a medial end configured to simultaneously cradle the lateral end of the canal hearing device and constrain a knob element laterally positioned on the canal hearing device. In a preferred embodiment, the insertion tool comprises a C-shaped cavity for self-centering engagement with a D-shaped lateral end of a CIC device, providing ease of use for hearing impaired individuals. In a preferred embodiment, the insertion tool is substantially formed of a single monolithic structure for improved durability and lower cost of fabrication.
US09078074B2

A hearing aid includes electronics, a physically manipulable member, and a receiver. The receiver is configured to output sound in a first mode at a first decibel level and in a second mode at a second decibel level higher than the first decibel level. The first mode is based on an input from a microphone. The second mode is based on the physically manipulable member not having been manipulated over a selected period of time. In various examples, wireless approaches are used to perform location identification. Examples using antennas and radio frequency identification (RFID) are provided. Various location approaches are possible using different location tones and methods for generation of such tones. Other apparatus are provided for location identification in a system with one or more hearing aids.
US09078071B2

According to an aspect, a mobile electronic device includes a sound emitting unit, an input unit, and a processing unit. The sound emitting unit emits a sound based on a sound signal. The input unit receives a response with respect to the sound emitted by the sound emitting unit. The processing unit determines a compensation parameter for compensating the sound to be emitted by the sound emitting unit based on correctness of the response.
US09078066B2

Processing an audio signal is disclosed. A source audio signal to be rendered by a touch input medium is received. An indication of an event where the touch input medium has been contacted at a location on the touch input medium such that rendering of the source audio signal by the touch input medium is affected by the contact is received. At least a portion of the source audio signal is modified based on an expected effect of the contact on the touch input medium determined using the indication of the detector.
US09078065B2

There is provided a method and a system for presenting audio signals as vibrotactile stimuli to the body in accordance with a Model Human Cochlea (MHC). Audio signals are obtained for presentation. The audio signals are separated into multiple bands of discrete frequency ranges that encompass the complete audio signal. Those signals are output to multiple vibrotactile devices. The vibrotactile devices may be positioned in a respective housing to intensify and constrain a vibrational energy from the vibrotactile devices. Output of the vibrotactile devices stimulate the cutaneous receptors of the skin at the locations where the vibrotactile devices are placed. In one embodiment, a system implements this method using audio voice coils that are embedded in a chair, which make contact with the human body while seated.
US09078064B2

An acoustic system includes a receiver (or microphone), a tube, or a moisture resistant screen. The receiver is capable of outputting an audio signal, while the microphone receives an audio signal. The tube is in connection with the receiver (or microphone) and the audio signal travels along a length of the tube. The moisture resistant screen is fitted at an end of the tube. The moisture resistant screen prevents moisture from passing along the tube toward the receiver, and causes an amount of damping to the audio signal. The moisture resistant screen is configured to have a submersion rating greater than or equal to 7 IP.
US09078061B2

A stereo ribbon microphone includes four ribbon microphone units disposed in a circle on a single horizontal plane. The ribbon microphone units are alternately assigned to a right channel and a left channel along the circumferential of the circle.
US09078058B2

The two-way wireless speaker system of this invention increases sound fidelity by enabling speakers to acknowledge receipt of audio data packets. This provides increased functionality because the audio hub can receive data not only from wired inputs, but also wireless transmission from computer, cell phone, and other sources. Audio hub can use information from speaker to customize/adjust audio signal for each speaker independently, giving better audio quality and synchronization among speakers.
US09078056B2

The audio resonance device contains a base member having a box shape with an open top side, a resonance element inside the base member having stacked ceramic layers, and at least two contact pieces on a top side, a cover member sealing the open top of the base member, and a number of elastic elements, each contacting a contact piece of the resonance element, and having an end extending through the cover member and contacting a portable appliance for picking up audio vibration from the portable appliance and delivering the audio vibration to the resonance element. The resonance element resonates with the audio vibration, and the base member provides a resonant chamber so that the audio quality from the portable appliance is enhanced. The portable appliance is not required of any modification such as opening holes.
US09078055B2

A scheme for localizing a wireless user equipment (UE) device's relative position with respect to a spatial configuration based on audio signatures received via a multi-channel audio system, e.g., an audio system of a vehicle or home entertainment system. The wireless UE device is configured to capture the audio signatures from a head unit that are placed in an out-of-hearing band, wherein the audio signatures comprise a single beep per channel that is separately detectable and are simultaneously transmitted by the head unit to the speaker channels. The wireless UE device includes a persistent memory module having program instructions for processing the captured signal including the out-of-band signatures in order to compute time delays. A localization module is configured to estimate the wireless UE device's relative position based on the time delays associated with respective speaker channels.
US09078052B2

A method and device for converting an input light signal into an output light signal, in an optical component is described. An input light signal, at a first wavelength, and a first light beam which may be at a second wavelength, are received at the component. The input light signal and the first light beam interfere in the component to form an interference pattern, which modifies a reflectivity spectrum of the component to increase the reflectivity of the component in a portion of the reflectivity spectrum. A second light beam, having a second wavelength corresponding with a wavelength within the portion of the reflectivity spectrum, is also received at the component and is then reflected from the component, in dependence upon the portion of the reflectivity spectrum, to generate the output light signal at the second wavelength. This enables conversion of light signals to signals at a different wavelength.
US09078050B2

Clock reference data may be recovered or updated in networks that include line-powered devices and other devices susceptible to power outages. For example, for a mobile information collection network, one or more devices with extended clock holdover may be strategically deployed throughout the mobile information collection network to provide reference clock data. As another example, battery-powered devices may be woken up in order to provide clock reference data to other devices. Alternatively or additionally, the battery-powered devices may be configured to periodically broadcast their clock reference data to other devices.
US09078046B2

A method of transmitting a broadcast signal includes encoding mobile service data to build a Reed-Solomon (RS) frame according to an RS frame mode, wherein the mobile service data is either a mobile service data of a base layer or a mobile service data of the base layer and at least one enhancement layer, wherein each layer is specified by a layer identifier, wherein a layer identifier value of the base layer is set to 0 and a layer identifier value of the at least one enhancement layer starts from 1; and encoding signaling data, wherein the signaling data includes fast information channel (FIC) data and transmission parameter channel (TPC) data, and the FIC data includes information for rapid mobile service acquisition.
US09078034B2

Information is transmitted indicating when a burst mode will take place which intervenes during a regular transmission mode. The information transmitted can also include information indicating how long such a burst mode will be and the contents of the burst mode where such contents can be identified as video, audio, system information, advertisements, or interactive content.
US09078033B2

Methods and apparatus are described for providing digital information and/or data services over hybrid network infrastructures including both IP and coax transmission media.
US09078023B2

A method and apparatus for enabling registered users to select and purchase video sessions from a network to be viewed from any video display devices connected to the network are disclosed. Specifically, these purchased video sessions can be stored within the network and accessed from any viewable display device connected to any video endpoint device at any time upon the users' request. In one embodiment, the stored video sessions can be downloaded and recorded onto a recording medium for future use.
US09078021B2

According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a first input module, a second input module, a converter and an output module. The first input module receives a first packet group of first content applied to a first copyright protection method. The second input module receives a second packet group of second content applied to a second copyright protection method. The converter re-packetizes the first content packetized into the first packet group and the second content packetized into the second packet group, into a third packet group for outputting to a transmission path by applying a third copyright protection method. The output module outputs the third packet group of the first content and the second content.
US09078019B2

A distributed content analysis network uses the processing capabilities of customer-premises equipment as subordinate nodes for analyzing multimedia programs. A master node selects a program and identifies subordinate nodes that are available for analysis, which may include both nodes tuned to the program and idle nodes. The master node divides the program into segments for analysis and instructs each subordinate node to analyze a segment. The subordinate nodes then provide analysis results back to the master node, which may build a metadata profile for the program based on the analysis.
US09078008B2

Adaptive interpolation filters for multi-layered video delivery are described. Combinations of such adaptive filters with other pre-processing steps in the context of frame or 2D compatible 3D and 2D scalable video delivery system are also addressed.
US09078006B2

A video encoder includes: a motion compensation picture signal generator that generates a plurality of motion compensation picture signals in accordance with an encoding target signal and a plurality of reference pictures; a prediction signal generator that generates a prediction signal of the encoding target signal using the motion compensation picture signals; a prediction error signal generator that generates a prediction error signal representing a difference between the encoding target signal and the prediction signal; a selector that selects an entropy code assignment rule that is expected to minimize an information amount of an encoded state of the prediction error signal from a plurality of entropy code assignment rules for encoding the prediction error signal in accordance with the motion compensation picture signals; and an entropy encoder that generates encoded information from the prediction error signal in accordance with the selected entropy code assignment rule.
US09078003B2

A moving picture coding apparatus for performing inter-picture predictive coding for pictures constituting a moving picture is provided with a coding unit for performing predictive error coding for image data; a decoding unit for performing predictive error decoding for an output from the coding unit; a reference picture memory for holding output data from the decoding unit; and a motion vector detection unit for detecting motion vectors on the basis of the decoded image data stored in the memory. When coding a B picture as a target picture, information indicating whether or not the target picture should be used as a reference picture when coding another picture is added as header information. Therefore, in a decoding apparatus for decoding a bit stream Bs outputted from the moving picture coding apparatus, management of a memory for holding the reference picture can be facilitated on the basis of the header information.
US09078000B2

An apparatus decodes encoded moving image data in which a picture is divided and encoded, into two or more small areas that include at least a block and do not overlap with each other. The apparatus includes: a unit configured to decide first and second parameters being decoding parameters of another block for which decoding has already been performed in the same picture and referred to in an entropy decoding process and an extension process of each block, using position information of each small area and reference relation information to another small area; a decoder configured to perform the decoding process, in an order of the decoding process and the extension process, by referring only to the first parameter; and an extender configured to perform the extension process in the order by referring only to the second parameter in compression information of each block obtained by the decoding process.
US09077997B2

A graphics display system integrated circuit is used in a set-top box for controlling a television display. The graphics display system processes analog video input, digital video input, and graphics input. The system incorporates a unified memory architecture that is shared by the graphics system, a CPU, and other peripherals. The unified memory architecture uses real time scheduling to service tasks. Critical instant analysis is used to find a schedule for memory usage that does not affect memory requirements of real time tasks while at the same time servicing non-real-time tasks as needed.
US09077994B2

A handheld imaging device has a data receiver that is configured to receive reference encoded image data. The data includes reference code values, which are encoded by an external coding system. The reference code values represent reference gray levels, which are being selected using a reference grayscale display function that is based on perceptual non-linearity of human vision adapted at different light levels to spatial frequencies. The imaging device also has a data converter that is configured to access a code mapping between the reference code values and device-specific code values of the imaging device. The device-specific code values are configured to produce gray levels that are specific to the imaging device. Based on the code mapping the data converter is configured to transcode the reference encoded image data into device-specific image data, which is encoded with the device-specific code values.
US09077991B2

A computer-implemented system and method are described for performing video compression. For example, a method according to one embodiment comprises: encoding a plurality of video frames or portions thereof according to a first encoding format; transmitting the plurality of encoded video frames or portions to a client device; receiving feedback information from the client device, the feedback information usable to determine whether data contained in the video frames or portions has not been successfully received and/or decoded; in response to detecting that one or more video frames or portions thereof have not been successfully received and/or decoded, then either encoding a new video frame or portion thereof according to a second encoding format or encoding the new video frame to be dependent on the last video frame or portion thereof known to have been successfully received and/or decoded, and: (1) if no forward error correction (FEC) coding is used to transmit the plurality of encoded video frames or portions, then encoding a new video frame or portion thereof using FEC coding; or (2) if a first FEC coding is used to transmit the plurality of encoded video frames or portions, then encoding a new video frame or portion thereof using a second FEC coding, the second FEC coding being a relatively stronger FEC coding than the first FEC coding; and transmitting the new video frame or portion thereof to the client device.
US09077975B2

The present invention generally relates to sub-diffraction limit image resolution and other imaging techniques, including imaging in three dimensions. In one aspect, the invention is directed to determining and/or imaging light from two or more entities separated by a distance less than the diffraction limit of the incident light. In some cases, the position of the entities can be determined in all three spatial dimensions (i.e., in the x, y, and z directions), and in certain cases, the positions in all three dimensions can be determined to an accuracy of less than about 1000 nm. In some cases, the z positions may be determined using one of a variety of techniques that uses intensity information or focal information (e.g., a lack of focus) to determine the z position. Non-limiting examples of such techniques include astigmatism imaging, off-focus imaging, or multi-focal-plane imaging.
US09077970B2

Presentation of cross-platform multimedia content may be controlled by a media player. Cross-platform content may include a two-dimensional (2D) graphics component, a three-dimensional (3D) graphics component, and a video component. Each component may be rendered as a separate layer, and each component may be rendered independently from one another. The multimedia player may synchronize the separate renderings for presentation. In one embodiment, the rendering of at least one of the separate layers may be performed by a hardware resource separate from the hardware resource executing the multimedia player. Each separate layer may be composited for display. In one embodiment, the compositing may be performed by a hardware resource separate from the hardware resource executing the multimedia player.
US09077968B2

An image processing apparatus, a method, and a program that enable an amount of code to be suppressed below a desired value with more reliability. An emergency mode determining section determines that the amount of code of a next picture is likely to exceed an upper limit if a target bit calculated by a rate controlling section exceeds a predetermined upper limit. If it is determined that the amount of code of the next picture is likely to exceed the upper limit, the code amount controlling section controls an orthogonal transducing section to replace a transform coefficient of a predetermined frequency component with zero, controls an intra predicting section to restrict intra prediction modes to be applied, and controls a mode determining section to restrict inter prediction modes to be applied. The prevent invention can be applied to an encoding apparatus.
US09077960B2

A block transform-based digital media codec efficiently compresses digital media data using block patterns representing whether a block's coefficients are zero-valued, such that their explicit encoding is skipped. Because the block patterns can have widely varying probability distributions, the codec adaptively chooses a prediction mode for modifying the block patterns (e.g., based on spatial prediction, or inverting) to enhance their compression using entropy coding techniques. Further, with high spatial correlation of block patterns, the codec encodes a meta block pattern for a region indicating whether all block patterns of the region represent zero-valued coefficient blocks. In such cases, the codec can then also omit explicitly encoding the block patterns in those regions.
US09077959B1

A signal adaptive filtering method for reducing blocking effect and ringing noise, a signal adaptive filter, and a computer readable medium. The signal adaptive filtering method capable of reducing blocking effect and ringing noise of image data when a frame is composed of blocks of a predetermined size includes the steps of: (a) generating blocking information for reducing the blocking effect and ringing information for reducing the ringing noise, from coefficients of predetermined pixels of the upper and left boundary regions of the data block when a frame obtained by deconstructing a bitstream image data for inverse quantization is an intraframe; and (b) adaptively filtering the image data passed through inverse quantization and inverse discrete cosine transform according to the generated blocking information and ringing information. Therefore, the blocking effect and ringing noise can be eliminated from the image restored from the block-based image, thereby enhancing the image restored from compression.
US09077956B1

Technology is described for identifying a scene in video content. Video content to be played on a device may be provided. A segment of the video content that includes an occurrence of an interest event may be identified. A scene may be created with the segment based on a starting time code of the segment. The scene with the segment may be provided for playback.
US09077955B2

A method of digital television recording including receiving a content item at a first Personal Video Recorder (PVR), determining whether to transfer the content item based, at least in part, on at least one of the following: currentness of the content item, a user preference, and a user profile; and transferring the content item from the first PVR to a mobile PVR only upon a positive result of the determining. Related methods and apparatus are also disclosed.
US09077953B2

A special instruction for not encoding a content is incorporated into access authorization data contained in the received signal, so that within a unified system for transmitting and receiving of encoded or non-encoded sound and/or picture contents, it is possible to meet the requirement of public broadcasting and “free-to-air” program providers for a non-encoded processing and/or display and/or storage of freely accessible contents for the end user. The instruction signalizes that the sound and/or picture contents, once received, must be available in the non-encoded form to the end user. The access authorization data remain added to the sound and/or picture contents, even in cases of a cascading, encoded retransmission, or remains logically linked thereto by suitable means, even if transmitted physically separate along with the picture and/or sound contents. During the processing and/or display and/or storage of the picture and/or sound contents retransmitted in the encoded form, the special instruction triggers a decoding of the picture and/or sound contents, at least at the end of the retransmission cascade.
US09077943B2

Systems and methods for generating local image statistics are provided. In one example, an image signal processing system may include a statistics pipeline with image processing logic and local image statistics collection logic. The image processing logic may receive and process pixels of raw image data. The local image statistics collection logic may generate a local histogram associated with a luminance of the pixels of a first block of pixels of the raw image data or a thumbnail in which a pixel of the thumbnail represents a downscaled version of the luminance of the pixels of the first block of the pixel. The raw image data may include many other blocks of pixels of the same size as the first block of pixels.
US09077942B2

A substantially rectangular spectral representation is synthesized, which is adapted to produce image capture device sensor outputs if applied to an image capture device. The synthesized substantially rectangular spectral representation can be utilized in generating output color values of an output color space from image capture device sensor outputs, where the image capture device sensor outputs correspond to an image captured by an image capture device. The generated output color values correspond to colors perceived by the human visual system for the same image as that captured by the image capture device. Image capture device gamut is also determined.
US09077939B1

Methods and devices automatically determine a base color gamut of base marking materials and extension color gamuts of extension marking materials. As each print job is received, these methods and devices automatically evaluate the print job to determine the print job color gamut. Then, the methods and devices can automatically determine the closest match between: the print job color gamut; and the base color gamut or one of the extension color gamuts to identify a matching color gamut. Further, these methods and devices automatically output the matching color gamut (and potentially a corresponding interchangeable supply container, if the matching color gamut is one of the extension color gamuts) by, for example, displaying the matching color gamut and the corresponding interchangeable supply container in at least one additional column in a print queue, or displaying the matching color gamut and the corresponding interchangeable supply container in a separate gamut queue.
US09077930B2

A content reproducing method and system for performing seamless playback of contents between devices is provided. The contents reproducing system includes a portable device which, when a short distance communication with a remote control which is configured to control an electronic device occurs during reproducing of contents, generates data required by the electronic device for reproducing the contents that are being reproduced, and which transmits the generated data to the remote control; the remote control which receives the data from the portable device and which transmits the received data to the electronic device, in conjunction with the occurrence of the short distance communication with the portable device; and the electronic device for receiving the contents from a contents provider and reproducing the contents.
US09077925B2

An image-editing service system comprises a server, a user terminal, an administrator terminal, a worker terminal, and the server including a database for storing the image information sent from worker terminal, a first image generating section for generating a first image based on the image information stored in the database, a display section for displaying an image display frame so as to display the first image in a display window of the user terminal and displaying a window information so as to display a display condition of the first image which is allowed to be input, a second image generating section for generating a second image regard to the first image based on the display condition inputted by the user terminal and, a window information generating section for displaying the first image and the second image simultaneously.
US09077919B2

In a reference signal comparison AD conversion scheme, a reference signal SLP_ADC and each of P and D phases of a pixel signal voltage Vx are compared. A count clock CKcnt1 is counted based on the comparison result. The counting result data is converted into signal data Dsig, i.e., the difference between the P and D phases, which is also subjected to CDS. At this time, the n-bit AD conversion is performed on each of the P and D phases of the pixel signal voltage Vx, followed by summation for digital integration. This prevents any possible detrimental effects that may be caused by summation in the analog domain. Although the signal data becomes W times greater, noise will likely become √W times greater. This alleviates the problem of random noise resulting from AD conversion such as quantizing noise and circuit noise that do not exist in the analog domain, thus reducing the noise.
US09077915B2

Systems and methods for interweaving infrared and visible moving image data using a single optical system and imager device based on an infrared input signal and a visible input signal are disclosed. Infrared image frames can be substituted in for complete visible image input frames or for partial visible image input frames, i.e. substituting in an infrared image input frame for one or more of the color channels in one or more visible image input frames. Moving video or computer-generated moving graphics can include both infrared and visible image data to be displayed users viewing the resulting images with and without night vision imaging devices. In particular, the system and method can be used in projection systems for night-vision imaging device team training simulators to reduce the cost of the system while increasing the ease of use and performance of such systems.
US09077912B2

Systems and methods of synchronizing devices may include detecting a movement of a first mobile device and conducting a time synchronization procedure with respect to a second mobile device in response to the movement of the two mobile devices. The time synchronization can be conducted without network infrastructure support at the mobile devices.
US09077909B2

An image photographing apparatus, a strobe device connected to the image photographing apparatus, and a photographing method. The image photographing apparatus includes a strobe emitter which emits strobe lights, a control glass arranged on a front of the strobe emitter, and a controller which changes a diffusing rate of the strobe lights with respect to the control glass.
US09077908B2

Provided is an image generation system and method, more particularly, an image generation system and method which can generate a high dynamic range image from a plurality of images acquired in a single short exposure. The image generation system To includes an image generation system having an image acquisition unit to acquire an image, an image generation unit to generate, from the acquired image, a plurality of images with different resolution and brightness, and an image synthesis unit to synthesize the generated images.
US09077907B2

There is provided an image processing apparatus that can implement image recognition processing on all of objects to be recognized, and can reduce a load of capturing and transferring images. The image processing apparatus includes: an image capturing unit that captures image information picked up by an imaging element; a processing region setting unit that sets a plurality of processing regions for the image information; a processing sequence/frequency determination unit that determines at least any one of a sequence, a frequency, and a timing of capturing the respective image information in a plurality of set processing regions, and at least any one of a sequence, a frequency, and a timing of processing the respective image information; and an image processing unit that captures the image information for each of the processing regions according to the sequence, the frequency, or the timing which has been determined, and processes the captured image information according to the sequence, the frequency, or the timing which has been determined.
US09077903B2

An imaging device includes an optical system including optical elements, an image sensor, a lens barrel movable relative to a device body to move the optical elements along an optical axis, a fixed element, a movable element on which the image sensor is mounted, a drive mechanism to generate a drive force by flowing an electric current into a magnetic field, to move the movable element relative to the fixed element, and movable connectors each including a bar element and a bearing provided in the fixed element and the movable element provided to movably support the bar element along the axis. The bar elements of the movable connectors are set to move in different directions along the plane orthogonal to the optical axis. At least one of the bearings is disposed outside the lens barrel in the orthogonal direction relative to the optical axis.
US09077902B2

An image capturing apparatus having a camera shake correction function, includes an optical system, a movable member that is movable on a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical system to achieve the camera shake correction function, an angular velocity detector configured to detect an angular velocity of shake of the image capturing apparatus and generate a detection signal, and a controller configured to drive the movable member based on the output from the angular velocity detector. The controller includes a time change rate limiter configured to limit a time rate of change of angular velocity indicated by the detection signal output from the angular velocity detector to be no greater than a predetermined limiting value, and drive the movable member based on the detection signal output through the time change rate limiter.
US09077899B2

An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup device that converts an image entering through a lens system into a captured image; a display unit that displays an image with a first field angle obtained from the captured image that is currently being shot; a moving distance detecting unit that detects a moving distance between images with the first field angle based on a plurality of images with the first angle sequentially captured; a partial image storing unit that stores an image with a second field angle that is less than the first field angle; and a panorama composing unit that composes a panoramic image based on a plurality of images with the second field angle stored in the partial image storing unit and the moving distances between the images with the first field angle that are respectively associated with the plurality of images with the second field angle.
US09077884B2

Electronic devices with motion response and related methods are provided. In this regard, a representative electronic device includes: an image capturing device operative to acquire image data; an accelerometer operative to sense an acceleration of the electronic device; and a motion response system operative to receive acceleration information corresponding to a sensed acceleration and to alter a mode of operation of the image capturing device based, at least in part, on the acceleration information.
US09077883B2

An information processing apparatus prevents the physical switch operation from being wrongly detected as the tapping operation to thereby cause the intended process to be surely performed. The information processing apparatus has an operation member. The vibration of the information processing apparatus is detected and an operation of the operation member is detected. If the operation of the operation member is not detected by the member operation detecting unit within a predetermined period after the vibration detecting unit has been detected the vibration, a function assigned to the detected vibration is executed, and if the operation of the operation member is detected by the member operation detecting unit within the predetermined period after the vibration detecting unit has detected the vibration, a function corresponding to the operation of the operation member without executing the function assigned to the detected vibration is executed.
US09077878B2

A camera module has an image sensor and a lens assembly that includes a lens barrel having a first cylindrical portion that includes an externally threaded portion and a second cylindrical portion that has a larger diameter than the externally threaded portion. A lens moving mechanism includes a movable sleeve having internal threads that receive the externally threaded portion of the lens assembly. The lens moving mechanism is coupled to the image sensor such that the second cylindrical portion of the lens assembly is closest to the image sensor. The camera module is assembled by inserting the lens assembly into the lens moving mechanism from the side closest to the image sensor. An installation tool engages the second cylindrical portion to rotate the lens assembly and engage the externally threaded portion of the lens assembly with an internally threaded portion of a movable sleeve in the lens moving mechanism.
US09077869B2

The invention relates to a new method and system for detection and removal of rain from video using temporal/spatiotemporal properties. Advantageously, the temporal/spatiotemporal properties are involved to separate the rain pixels from the non-rain pixels. It is thus possible by way of the present invention to involve less number of consecutive frames, reducing the buffer size and delay. It works only on the intensity plane which reduces the complexity and execution time significantly along with accurate rain detection. This new technique does not assume the shape, size and velocity of the raindrops which makes it robust to different rain conditions. This method reduces the buffer size which reduces the system cost, delay and power consumption while maintaining sufficient quality of rain detection.
US09077865B1

An interactive system and method of the present invention provides a customized experience to individual spectators of a live performance. At least one virtual reality device is associated with a spectator of the live performance, and each virtual reality device is coupled to a processor to independently receive real time virtual reality sensory effects projected from the processor in response to parameters selected by the associated spectator. The virtual reality device may be for example eyewear which projects the real time virtual reality sensory effects as substituting in effect for visual effects associated with the actual live performance. Selectable parameters may include one or more of a visual perspective for the spectator, costumes associated with performers, and background scenery elements.
US09077864B2

A method and an apparatus of controlling a plurality of monitoring cameras which transmit a plurality of live-view images of a plurality of channels, respectively, are provided. The method includes: displaying a panorama image of a channel among the plurality of channels on a panorama region in a screen of a display unit; and controlling at least one of a monitoring camera of the channel and the panorama image according to a command input by a user.
US09077862B2

An inspection system for inspecting a surface of a wafer/mask/reticle can include a modular array. The modular array can include a plurality of time delay integration (TDI) sensor modules, each TDI sensor module having a TDI sensor and a plurality of localized circuits for driving and processing the TDI sensor. At least one of the localized circuits can control a clock associated with the TDI sensor. At least one light pipe can be used to distribute a source illumination to the plurality of TDI sensor modules. The plurality of TDI sensor modules can be positioned capture a same inspection region or different inspection regions. The plurality of TDI sensor modules can be identical or provide for different integration stages. Spacing of the modules can be arranged to provide 100% coverage of the inspection region in one pass or for fractional coverage requiring two or more passes for complete coverage.
US09077858B2

There is provided a media playback system for monitoring usage of a plurality of media contents. The system includes a memory configured to store an analytic log file corresponding to each of the plurality of media contents. The system also includes a processor. The processor is configured to identify the analytic log file corresponding to one of the plurality of media contents. The processor is further configured to collect data relating to a plurality of events. At least one of the plurality of events relates to the usage of one of the plurality of media contents. The processor is further configured to store at least one of the plurality of events in the analytic log file. In addition, the processor is configured to send the analytic log file to a remote network server if the network connection has been detected.
US09077857B2

Disclosed systems and methods present a graphics based electronic programming guide (EPG) that organizes available content in radial fashion on a display. Which content appears on a screen shot of the EPG may be determined using rating data, user preferences or collaborative filtering. Through collaborative filtering, disclosed embodiments may predict which programs a user may like according to group member ratings. Some disclosed EPGs include a mosaic with graphical indications of an overall rating and graphical indications of which of a plurality of characteristics (e.g., genres) apply to multimedia programs.
US09077855B2

A communication system 100 includes a content repository 274 storing a plurality of content files associated with the content distribution system. A transport processing system 250 communicating with the content distribution system, a terrestrial communication network 132, and a content delivery network 280 communicating with the content distribution system 260 and the terrestrial network. The content management system assigns a satellite category or a broadband category to each of the plurality of content files in response to a popularity rating. The content distribution system 274 communicates the content to the transport processing system. The transport processing system 250 communicates the content through a satellite from the transport processing system to a user device. The content distribution system 260, in response to the broadband category, communicates the content to the content delivery network 280. The content delivery network 280 communicates the content through a terrestrial communication network to the user device.
US09077852B2

A method includes receiving a control message that identifies a first video conference terminal as an active talker. The method includes sending, in response to the control message, outgoing video conference data from the first video conference terminal via a first multicast group to two or more video conference terminals joined to the first multicast group. The method also includes sending a command to join a second multicast group in response to the control message.
US09077840B2

An image processing device includes an image acquisition part acquiring first image data, a character detector detecting, based on the first image data, data of a character area in the first image data, a marking detector detecting, based on the first image data, data of a marking area in the first image data, an image adjustment area determination part determining, based on a detection result of the character detector and a detection result of the marking detector, data of an image adjustment area in the first image data, and an image processing part subjecting the data of the image adjustment area in the first image data to image processing to output second image data.
US09077835B2

Provided is an image scanning unit which makes it possible to improve scanning accuracy while also making the overall body thinner by appropriately positioning a plurality of reflection members within an effective space in a carriage frame without wasting space. An image scanning unit, wherein a frame is divided into at least two spaces facing an irradiation surface, a first accommodation unit for accommodating a light source unit is formed in one of the spaces, a second accommodation unit for accommodating at least one reflection member is formed in the other adjacent space, a first reflection member for initially receiving light reflected from the irradiation surface is positioned at the side opposite the irradiation surface with the first accommodation unit positioned therebetween, and a light-shielding member is provided between the first reflection member and the reflection member positioned in the other space and prevents light that has strayed from a scanning light path from the first reflection member from being incident on the reflection member in the other space.
US09077826B2

The present invention allows desired printing to be easily achieved not with complex operation but with intuitive operation. In the present invention, short-range communications can be made between a portable terminal device and a copy machine. When the portable terminal device is placed on a placement table of the copy machine, the copy machine detects the placement state of the portable terminal device (for example, landscape orientation or portrait orientation), determines a print format (for example, printing in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction as a printing direction) according to this placement state, and performs printing of print data received from the portable terminal device according to the print format.
US09077823B1

A photo-based project and associated printed photobook having a flush photo collage, or montage, on the front cover are disclosed. In one embodiment, a photobook is made by receiving a plurality of images corresponding to a photo-project; storing said plurality of images in a data repository; receiving a print order for a printed photobook corresponding to the photo-project; in response to the print order, printing a photo-strip having one or more of the images; producing a front cover by compressing a compressible cover material to form a channel in the compressible cover material, wherein the channel is of a size and a shape matching the photo-strip; wrapping the compressible cover material with the channel around a cover board to make the front cover; and setting the photo-strip permanently into the channel and flush with the front cover to create the photobook.
US09077819B2

The present invention discloses a transmission power control method for a communication system comprising a transmitter and a plurality of receivers. The transmitter is coupled to the plurality of receivers via a plurality of corresponding outgoing links. The transmission power control method comprising steps of each of the plurality of receivers performing channel estimation for each of the plurality of corresponding outgoing links, and replying a first suggested transmission power back-off level to the transmitter; and the transmitter determining a new transmission power back-off level after collecting a plurality of first suggested transmission power back-off levels from the plurality of receivers.
US09077813B2

A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for masking a message on an electronic device. The method includes receiving a message on an electronic device, determining if a message category label is included in the message, mapping the message category to a corresponding masking format if a message category label is included in the message, extracting the content of the message to generate a message category if a message category label is not included in the message, wherein each message category generated corresponds to a masking format, and masking the message on the electronic device by transforming the message into the masking format that corresponds to the message category for the message.
US09077793B2

A carbon nanotube based flexible mobile phone includes a flexible body including a flexible display panel a flexible touch panel, and a communicating system received therein. The flexible touch panel is disposed on a surface of the flexible display panel. The flexible touch panel includes at least one carbon nanotube layer including a carbon nanotube film.
US09077791B2

Display module and mobile terminal having the same are provided. The display module includes a liquid crystal display panel configured to output a color per pixel, a backlight unit configured to uniformly project light to a rear side of liquid crystal display panel, a backlight unit having a light guide plate and a light source, a mold located at a perimeter of the liquid crystal display panel and a perimeter of the backlight unit, and a light cutoff part configured to cut off path of light incident on a front of the liquid crystal display panel from a side of the liquid crystal display panel. Accordingly, light leakage caused by light incident on lateral side of liquid crystal display panel by being reflected by mold or light reflected by lateral side of liquid crystal display panel is minimized to output more clear and vivid images.
US09077790B1

A cell phone auxiliary lens holder including a body removably attached to an existing cell phone holder configured to hold a cell phone having an existing built-in lens for a built-in digital photography device so that an attachable binocular lens of existing binoculars is aligned with the existing built-in lens on the existing cell phone to produce a desired digital photographic image modified by the attachable binocular lens.The body includes an open front side and a closed rear side having at least one opening configured to align with the existing built-in lens on the existing cell phone. The body also includes an outer wall continuously disposed between the front side and the rear side and a cavity therein configured to conform to and receive an eyepiece end of the existing binoculars. The rear side removably attaches to a forward outer wall of the existing cell phone holder.
US09077788B2

An electronic apparatus includes a frame, at least one first blocking part, at least one second blocking part, a display module, a first wedging structure and a second wedging structure. The frame includes a first frame stick, a second frame stick and a third frame stick connecting the first frame stick and the second frame stick. The first blocking part is disposed on the first frame stick. The second blocking part is disposed on the second frame stick. The display module includes a first edge, a second edge and at least one third edge. The third edge is pivotally connected to the third frame stick. The first and second wedging structures are respectively disposed on the first and second edges for wedging the first blocking part or the second blocking part. The first wedging structure and the second wedging structure are misaligned.
US09077784B2

The description generally relates to a system designed to synchronize the rendering of a media file between a master device and a sister device. The system is designed so that a media file is simultaneously rendered on a master device and a sister device beginning from identical temporal starting points.
US09077780B2

Performing A/B testing of content of a webpage includes selecting one of at least two different versions of the webpage to be displayed to a user through an interactive user interface (e.g., a web browser) based on an identification code, such as an Internet Protocol address or tracker identifier supplied by a cookie, associated with the user.
US09077775B2

Methods and systems for providing related social profiles in a social network are disclosed. One method identifying a plurality of social profiles within the social network, wherein the plurality of social profiles each have a relationship with the first file, wherein the social network allows uploading and sharing of social profiles of users, and wherein each social profile includes a representation of a user. The method further includes generating, by a system server, a list of inquiries based on the plurality of social profiles, providing, by the system server, the list of inquiries to at least one author of the first file, receiving from the at least one author at least one response to the list of inquiries, selecting a subset of the plurality of social profiles based on the at least one response, and storing information related to the selected subset of the plurality of social profiles for access if the first file is selected.
US09077771B2

Technologies for game providers to place their game worlds into existing map databases and communicate the relevant locations to location-based applications are generally described. In some examples, this may be achieved by generating maps that use non-physical locations that are still within standard location data formats at a game service provider and providing the maps and/or map data to map server providers showing game worlds mapped to those coordinates. Alternatively, the game service provider may provide the map data to the map service provider and the map may be generated at the map service provider. The imaginary location maps may be identified by extreme or non-physical altitudes, for example. Game clients may be enabled to publish the location of their game persona on an imaginary map and/or their real persona on a real map and receive location-based services for either or both personas.
US09077770B2

A method, device and computer program product for forming a mobile web app infrastructure on a device may include creating a local web app server on the device in response to an application being started on the device. A proxy uniform resource locator (URL) address may be provided by the local web app server that enables the device to access an out of security URL to perform a function associated with the application.
US09077768B2

Method for providing digital contents in a network environment in an embodiment includes the following. In a server, the digital content request is checked for its priority. Whether a queue is full is checked. If the queue is not full, the digital content request is added to the queue. If the digital content request is not of a high priority and the queue is full, a communication link to a client device corresponding to the digital content request is disconnected. If the digital content request is of the high priority and the queue is full, the digital content request is added to an additional queue appended to the queue. With respect to a first request, a digital content required by the first request is provided to a client device corresponding to the first request. The providing step is repeated for another request obtained from the queue.
US09077763B2

A media delivery system enhances subscriber experience with streaming media. The media delivery system supports delivery of primary media content to the subscriber, but also provides secondary media content delivery, such as location based media delivery, that may interrupt the primary media content. The media delivery system coordinates delivery of the primary media stream and the location based media stream so that the primary media stream resumes delivery from the point of interruption when the secondary media stream finishes.
US09077760B2

Disclosed is a provisioning tool and a method for implementing an operating a communications network, particularly a broadband communications network which is arranged to provision a service for a user based on information available via another user connection; this facilitates provision. In a preferred embodiment, a user device address is obtained from a user IP address. Provisioning and other network tools with additional or alternative advantageous features are disclosed and the provisioning tools disclosed may communicate with a variety of other tools including planning and inventory applications and agents associated with equipment, all of which are also independently provided, enabling provision of a variety of novel services and features dealing with a spectrum of problems arising in a communications environment, particularly a broadband environment.
US09077756B1

Access to a mobile computing device by a connected external device is limited, based on the context of the connection. The connection of the mobile computing device to an external device is detected. An identifier of the connected external device is gleaned, and the gleaned identifier is looked-up in a database of mappings between identifiers and descriptions of specific devices. The connected external device is classified as being of a specific functional category, based on the gleaned identifier and the description of the external device from the database. The functional category describes a legitimate function to be performed by the connected external device, such as data synchronizing, media playing or battery charging. The external device is provided with a level of access to the mobile computing device based on the classified functional category.
US09077748B1

Unauthorized uses of embedded objects in websites are detected, in order to protect users from phishing sites using cloned copies of such objects. Authorized parties register objects for use at legitimate locations (e.g., specific IP address ranges or domains). When a client computing device accesses a website, the objects in the website are checked against the registered objects, to determine whether the objects are registered for use by the site being accessed. Depending upon trust status information concerning the objects, the access of the website can be permitted or blocked, or the user can be warned about questionable or un-trusted embedded objects. Additionally, the party that registered an object can be notified, in the case of an indication of unauthorized use of the object by a website.
US09077729B2

Disclosed are methods, systems, apparatus, devices, products, and other implementations, including a method that includes monitoring a plurality of messages from a plurality of mobile devices, each of at least some of the plurality of messages including at least one identifier of at least one content data record, from a plurality of content data records, stored at least on a sending device sending the respective message, and data representative of number of times the at least one content data record was used on the respective sending device. The method also includes determining popularity metrics for one or more content data records from the plurality of content data records based on the data included in each of the at least some of the plurality of messages representative of the number of times the respective at least one content data record was used on the respective sending device.
US09077717B2

The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for adoption of an extension of a service across networked applications. One process includes receiving, by a target platform operating a target networked application, a data package associated with the extension, the data package comprising data specifying the service to be extended and information associated with a technology of a source platform at which the data package was created, extracting a portion of the data from the data package, and implementing the extracted portion of the data in the service of the target application.
US09077715B1

Making a trust decision is disclosed. One or more members of a social trust network are polled for information associated with a trust decision about a computing environment. The information includes information collected automatically with respect to activities of one or more of the one or more members of the social trust network. At least one action is taken based at least in part on the information.
US09077712B2

An IC chip, an information processing apparatus, system, method, and program are provided. An IC chip includes an authentication control unit configured to authenticate a request using authentication information. The request and/or the authentication information is received from outside the IC chip.
US09077707B2

Method for providing access to private digital content owned by an owner and installed on a content server, wherein a content manager server has a number of clients potentially interested in the private content, the method comprising the following steps performed at a content management server being informed that the owner has installed private content on a content server; obtaining a delegate token from the content server; receiving a query for the private digital content from a client of the number of clients of the content management server; providing said client with a token using the delegate token enabling the client to access the private content.
US09077705B2

A system and method of managing applications and event notifications using a cursor-based GUI, wherein the cursor-based GUI is located adjacent to the cursor and provides a user with the ability manage and monitor a plurality of dynamically updated applications, commands and event notifications via a persistent and centralized interface. Since the cursor-based GUI is persistent in nature, the plurality of applications, commands and event notifications can be accessed regardless of the user's computer environment. The user can manage user authentication requirements and other configuration information for the cursor-based GUI.
US09077700B2

There is provided an authentication server including: a network access authenticating unit and an address notifying unit wherein the network access authenticating unit receives, from an authentication relay connected to a network, a first authentication message for a communication device existing under the authentication relay, and execute network access authentication process with the communication device, and the address notifying unit notifies the communication device of the server's address information in accordance with a result of the network access authentication process.
US09077696B2

A first data item is transmitted from a source device to a receiving device with metadata that identifies a location where the data item resides on the source device. The receiving device generates a subsequent request for data items that reside at the location specified by the metadata provided with the first data item. The receiving device generates an output that is based on the data items received from the source device.
US09077693B2

In an approach, a target computing device receives a pairing request from a controller computing device, the pairing request including controller credentials that were previously received by the controller computing device from an authentication server computer and encrypted under a service key. The target computing device forwards the pairing request to the authentication server, the authentication server computer being configured to return a pairing response based at least in part on the controller credentials. The target computing device receives the pairing which includes a shared secret encrypted under a target device key and the same shared secret encrypted under a controller key. The target computing device decrypts the shared secret encrypted under the target device key and forwards the shared secret encrypted under the controller key to the controller device. Using the decrypted shared secret, the target computing device establishes a secure connection to the controller computing device.
US09077690B2

An example apparatus is provided that receives a pseudonym and encrypted identifier, where the pseudonym is of a user's personal data. The pseudonym has been generated using a first secret key, and the encrypted identifier has been generated by encrypting the identifier using a second secret key. The first and second secret keys are known to other user(s) authorized to access the data, and are unknown to the apparatus. The operations also include storing the personal data in a database under the pseudonym, and indexed by the encrypted identifier. The keys used for encryption and pseudorandom generation can be provided by a second apparatus (e.g. an offline security manager), which may employ a proxy re-encryption scheme to provide proper keys to the apparatus based on access policies. Only the authorized users can decrypt the keys with their private keys, thus can query the user records stored in the apparatus.
US09077682B2

A server downloads a code image to remote devices so that the remote devices are performing properly in accordance with an updated version of the code image. The server may include an application server that targets devices and informs the targeted devices about a multicasting session. The targeted devices subsequently join the multicast session supported by a multicasting server and extract the code image from the multicast session. After the multicast session has been completed, the downloading center polls the targeted devices to determine which devices have successfully downloaded the code image. The server may repeat the download to devices that did not successfully download the code image by subsequently scheduling a subsequent multicasting session or by individually sending the code image to the devices. Portions of the code image may be sent in multicasting messages based on a depth level and interval.
US09077677B2

A URL sharing utility and social network facilitates group discussions about shared links. Unlike conventional applications, this service enables live discussions about specific URLs, so people who join the discussion already share an interest in a particular topic. The sharing mechanism preferably enables many people around the world to see the discussion topic and join if they are interested. Sharing a URL together with a second URL reserved for a live discussion of the first URL preferably enables users to promote the discussion in a less socially risky way. A one-to-one correspondence between one URL and a second, predictable network address for the discussion of the original URL allows everyone who shares an interest in a URL to be funneled into a single discussion about that URL. Users preferably specify explicit social and professional networking policies so that every discussion with others carries the promise of a beneficial, lasting connection.
US09077672B2

An enhancement to e-mail user interfaces and message formats includes a dynamic preview window to view and retrieve attachments and summaries of e-mail messages directly in the e-mail list view or inbox view without opening an e-mail message. The efficient viewing mechanism further allows previews without cluttering the listing of the e-mails in the inbox by allowing the client to detect special preview instructions within an e-mail and run executables within the preview window. The enhancement is applicable to standalone e-mail clients (POP or IMAP based) and to web-based e-mail systems.
US09077669B2

Lookup techniques are described, which can achieve improvements in energy efficiency, speed, and cost, of IP address lookup, for example, in devices and systems employing ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). The disclosed subject matter describes dividing a route table into several sub-tries with disjoint range boundaries. In addition, the disclosed subject matter describes storing sub-tries of a route table between a TCAM and a faster and less costly memory. The disclosed details enable various refinements and modifications according to system design and tradeoff considerations.
US09077663B2

A router programmed to function within an aggregation of a plurality of routers that appears as a single router externally is programmed to determine whether it is a first router in the aggregation of routers to receive a data packet. If the router is a first router in the aggregation of routers to receive a data packet, the router is programmed to perform layer 3 routing for the data packet including modification of the source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of the packet, and then transmit the packet to another router in the aggregation of routers for layer 2 switching of the packet. If the router is not a first router in the aggregation of routers to receive a data packet, the router is programmed to only perform layer 2 switching of the packet, with layer 3 routing for the data packet having already been performed by another router in the aggregation of routers.
US09077661B2

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a request for a service for a subscriber at an access gateway; receiving a default subscriber policy and a default service policy at the access gateway; receiving a subscriber policy and a service policy for the service being requested at the access gateway; receiving the service being requested at the access gateway; and communicating the service being requested from the access gateway to the subscriber in response to the request.
US09077658B2

A flow-based network switching system includes a memory having a flow table and a packet processor coupled to the memory. The packet processor includes a user-programmable flow-based rule storage that includes a plurality of flow-based rules. A flow-based handler and session manager in the packet processor is operable to retrieve application layer metadata from a first packet received over a network, determine a first flow session associated with the first packet using the application layer metadata from the first packet and the flow table, and retrieve at least one of the plurality of flow-based rules from the programmable flow-based rule storage using the application layer metadata from the first packet. A flow-based rule processing engine in the packet processor is operable to apply the at least one flow-based rule to the first packet. Packets with applied flow-based rules are forwarded through the network.
US09077656B2

The present invention relates to a packet switch and a packet switching method. An example embodiment of the present invention comprises at least three network ports, at least one instrument port, a mux-switch, a packet switch fabric, and an address table. The embodiment updates the address table to include the source address of each ingress packet of each network port and associate the source address with that network port. The mux-switch routes the ingress packet traffic of each network port according to the identity of the network port so that at least a copy of the packet traffic of one of the network ports is routed to an instrument port. The packet switch fabric routes the packets from the instrument ports to the network ports according the destination address of the packet and the identity of the network port that is associated with the destination address as recorded in the address table.
US09077653B2

A system and method for data communication is provided. The system includes a first port, a transmission layer module and a signaling layer module. The transmission layer module supports a first priority and a second priority. The signaling layer module can route data between the first port and a second port and can route data between the first port and a third port. The signaling layer module supports alternate routing if one or both of the second port and the third port fail.
US09077650B2

Disclosed are various embodiments for multi-homing in an extended bridge, including both multi-homing of port extenders and multi-homing of end stations. In various embodiments, a controlling bridge device receives a packet via an ingress virtual port and determines a destination virtual port link aggregation group based at least in part on a destination media access control (MAC) address of an end station in the packet. The controlling bridge device selects one of multiple egress virtual ports of the destination virtual port link aggregation group. The end station of the extended bridge is reachable through any of the egress virtual ports of the destination virtual port link aggregation group. The controlling bridge device forwards the packet through the selected egress virtual port, and the forwarded packet includes an identifier of a destination virtual port to which the end station is connected.
US09077640B2

An approach is provided for dynamic congestion control among mobile virtual routers. A determination is made whether a congested segment of a network of a plurality of physical routers. A temporary congestion point is created at a mobile virtual router to divert traffic away from the congested segment using logical tunnels over non-congested physical links, wherein the mobile virtual router is configured to utilize resources of at least two of the physical routers.
US09077637B2

Determining the physical location of a mobile wireless device. A computer receives 1-hop and 2-hop neighbor information from a mobile wireless device for neighbor devices of the mobile wireless device responding to a discovery request transmitted by the mobile wireless device in an ad hoc wireless communications protocol. The computer determines a physical location of the mobile wireless device based in part on stored fixed physical locations of responding devices; an area in which the mobile wireless device is in range of responding 1-hop neighbors associated with a fixed physical location; and an area in which the mobile wireless device is in range of responding 1-hop neighbors not associated with a fixed physical location, which are in the range of 2-hop neighbors associated with fixed physical locations.
US09077635B2

A method and non-transitory computer readable medium for discovering network subnets are disclosed. For example, the method sets a host portion of a network address to a fixed value for a particular network, sends a discovery message to a subnet of a plurality of subnets having the fixed value of the host portion for the particular network, discovers the subnet if a response to the discovery message is received from a device and repeats the sending and the discovering until all of the plurality of subnets are checked, where the sending and the discovering are applied only to the fixed value of the host portion for each of the plurality of subnets.
US09077634B2

A system facilitates the visualization of a network having multiple nodes. The system collects information from at least one of the nodes. The information describes network operation over a period of time. The system then reconstructs the network operation for the time period from the collected information and presents the reconstructed network operation to an operator.
US09077630B2

Systems and methods for distributed implementation of dynamic wireless traffic policy are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a system for optimizing resources in a mobile network having a local proxy on a mobile device to aggregate client-side parameters and a proxy server to aggregate server-side parameters. The local proxy and the proxy server can each communicate the client-side parameters and the server-side parameters, respectively, to the other component, to formulate a policy for traffic control in the mobile network between the mobile device and the server. The policy can be jointly implemented by the local proxy and the proxy server and dynamically adjusted in real-time.
US09077626B2

A system and method for in-service migration for a Virtual Local Area Network, VLAN, service if a Provider Bridge Metro Ethernet Network, PB MEN, is upgraded to a Provider Backbone Bridge, PBB, MEN or an Internet Protocol/Multi Protocol Label Switching, IP/MPLS, MEN. After the deployment of the new PBB or IP/MPLS technology, a sequence of management actions are performed to configure PBB or IP/MPLS edge nodes to use the new technology as well as the old PB-based technology to support the VLAN service. Both old and new connectivity structures are maintained in the edge nodes during the entire migration process. Customer traffic is then redirected per edge node to the new technology. When each edge node entirely provides the VLAN service under the new technology, the migration is complete.
US09077623B2

Attribute values in a customized logical group definition are displayed to a user, each customized logical group definition being associated with a network that includes multiple network entities, and each of the multiple network entities having one or more associated attribute values. A user selection of one of the different attribute values is received, and a determination is made of one or more of the multiple network entities that have an associated attribute value that matches the user selected attribute value. Identifiers of each of the one or more network entities that have an associated attribute value that matches the user selected attribute value are displayed.
US09077621B2

An apparatus to manage transmission of log data generated by a transmission terminal from the transmission terminal to a log management device obtains detection result data indicating whether a predetermined event is detected at the log management device, determines whether the log data is to be transmitted from the transmission terminal to the log management device based on the detection result data to generate a determination result, and transmits the transmission approval data having the determination result to the transmission terminal to cause the transmission terminal to process the log data according to the determination result of the transmission approval data.
US09077618B2

A mirror maintenance endpoint (MEP) is hosted on a provider edge switch within an Ethernet network to perform service level mirroring to a network management device of the Ethernet network. The mirror MEP is configured by the network management device to receive all mirrored frames from provider edge switches in a service provider network and to switch the mirrored frames to the network management device. The mirrored frames are mirrored by the provider edge switches to the mirror MEP during mirror sessions initiated by the network management device.
US09077616B2

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system for network communication includes an M dimensional grid of node groups, each node group including N nodes, wherein M is greater than or equal to one and N is greater than one and each node comprises a router and intra-group links directly connecting each node in each node group to every other node in the node group. In addition, the system includes inter-group links directly connecting each node in each node group to a node in each neighboring node group in the M dimensional grid.
US09077615B2

In one embodiment, a router initiates reroutes of one or more tunnels at the router as part of optimization of a plurality of tunnels in a computer network, and stores an original state of the one or more tunnels at the router prior to the optimization. By detecting whether path computation element (PCE) failure occurs prior to completion of the optimization, the router may revert to the original state of the one or more tunnels in response to PCE failure prior to completion of the optimization.
US09077603B2

Embodiments of user equipment and methods for determining IQ imbalance parameters are described. In some embodiments, a method for determining in-phase (I) and Quadrature (Q) imbalance (IQ imbalance) parameters based on a known signal in a dual-carrier receiver using at least one controllable frequency offset includes receiving a known signal modulated onto a first radio frequency (RF) carrier frequency and a second RF carrier frequency different than the first RF carrier frequency. The known signal is downconverted to a baseband signal for the carriers by conversion from the respective RF carrier frequencies to an intermediate frequency (IF) using a common RF local oscillator (LO) and by further conversion from IF to baseband using carrier specific IF LOs, where a controllable frequency offset is used. Any controllable frequency offset is removed from the baseband signal for the first and second carriers to produce representations of the received signals.
US09077602B2

Systems and methods are provided for fast and precise estimation of frequency with relatively minimal sampling and relatively high tolerance to noise.
US09077590B2

The present application is directed towards systems and methods for providing link management in a multi-core system. In some embodiments, the present application describes solutions for managing address resolution in IPv4 networks in a multi-core system. In other embodiments, the present application describes solutions for managing neighbor discovery in IPv6 networks in a multi-core system. In still other embodiments, the present application describes solutions for managing network bridging in a multi-core system. In yet other embodiments, the present application describes solutions for managing link aggregation in a multi-core system. And in still other embodiments, the present application describes solutions for managing virtual routers in a multi-core system.
US09077581B2

Devices, methods and computer-readable code for simultaneously monitoring the content of at least two streaming audio content channels are disclosed. In some embodiments, the monitored content is analyzed, and one or more features of the monitored content channels are computed, including but not limited to music classification features, content genre features, and spoken content features. These computed features may be used, for example, to compute a rating or score for each monitored audio channel, for example, a rating computed relative to user listening preferences, expressed, for example, in preference rules. In some embodiments, the presently disclosed device includes a channel selector for automatically tuning, for example, to a channel assigned a higher rating at a given time. Alternatively or additionally, content rating scores may be displayed to a user who manually selects and tunes to an audio content channel.
US09077578B1

In some embodiments, a server system composites in real-time, in response to a user video search query, a standard-compliant (e.g. MPEG-4/H.264) SD or HD video stream encoding a rectangular (x-y) composite video preview panel array (grid) of video search results. Each panel/tile in the rectangular panel array displays a temporal section (e.g. the first 90 seconds, looped-back) of a video identified in response to the user query. Generating the composite video panel array in real-time is achieved by compositing the component video panels in the compressed domain, after each panel undergoes off-line a compressed-domain pre-compositing preparation process that facilitates dynamic compositing of the panels into a single video stream. The pre-compositing preparation includes transcoding to a format having a down-scaled common resolution, common GOP structure, and one-slice-per-row slice structure.
US09077577B1

A method for transmitting a plurality of input streams from a transmitting unit to a receiving unit receives the plurality of input data streams and each of the plurality of input data streams are processed to generate a parallel pair of data streams including an in-phase stream (I) and a quadrature-phase stream (Q) for each of the plurality of input data streams. A first and second parallel pair of data streams are modulated with a selected one of at least three mutually orthogonal functions at a first and second signal widths, respectively, using a predefined modulation process to generate a plurality of first data sub-layers and a plurality of second data sub-layers. A plurality of composite data stream are generated by overlaying the first data subs-layers with the second data sub-layers at a preconfigured overlay offset. The plurality of composite data streams are overlapped by a predetermined overlap amount and placed on a wavelength of a communications link. Intersymbol interference is controlled between the plurality of composite data streams responsive to the predefined modulation process used to create the first and second data sub-layers.
US09077576B2

A communication device is configured to perform processing of one or more bits to generate a modulation symbol sequence based on one or more profiles that specify variable bit loading of bits per symbol over at least some of the modulation symbols of the modulation symbol sequence. The communication device is also configured to perform interleaving of the modulation symbol sequence to generate OFDM symbol(s). Some modulation symbols within the modulation symbol sequence that are separated by an interleaver depth may be transmitted via adjacently located sub-carriers, while other modulation symbols within the modulation sequence that are separated by more than the interleaver depth may also be transmitted via adjacently located sub-carriers. A communication device may be configured to adapt and switch between different operational parameters used for bit loading, interleaving and/or deinterleaving at different times based on any desired considerations.
US09077573B2

A transmitter includes: a digital modulator configured to modulate a base-band signal in a digital domain into a modulated signal; a synchronization module configured to synchronize the modulated signal with a clock signal; and an analog output stage configured to convert the modulated signal into an analog signal for transmission.
US09077563B2

A switch which includes a plurality of ports, each being assigned to any of VLAN groups, and outputs a packet received at any of the ports, the switch include: recording means in which partition information and an address table are recorded, the partition information indicating which of extended VLAN groups into which the ports are further logically partitioned, and the address table containing an entry in which a destination address, an output port, a VLAN group, and an extended VLAN group are associated with each other; acquisition means for acquiring a source address and acquiring group information of a VLAN; identification means for identifying group information of an extended VLAN; and registration means for registering in the address table the source address acquired by the acquisition means as the destination address, the port, the group information of the VLAN, and group information of the extended VLAN group.
US09077560B2

A method of generating a generic framing procedure hierarchy comprising processing a first generic framing procedure frame to determine the overall length of the generic framing procedure frame, mapping the frame into the generic framing procedure payload area of a second generic framing procedure frame at the next level of the generic framing procedure hierarchy, whereby information enabling the size of the generic framing procedure payload remaining after that frame has been extracted is captured in the header fields of the generic framing procedure frame into which the first frame is encapsulated, and wherein the generic framing procedure header indicates whether there are more frames left in the mapping hierarchy when de-encapsulating (i.e., running down) the generic framing procedure frame stack by providing an indicator at level N of the hierarchy that at the level N−1 there is a generic framing procedure frame to extract.
US09077553B2

A method and system for controlling services received by a visiting subscriber to a visited network associated with a visited service provider are disclosed. According to one aspect, a request for the visiting subscriber to receive at least one service from the visited network is received at a node of the visited network. In response to the request, the visited network retrieves a quality of service to be afforded the visiting subscriber for each of the at least one service. The visited network determines whether to provide at least one of the at least one service to the visiting subscriber based at least in part on the quality of service and a current network load.
US09077549B2

Examples that are described herein provide systems and methods for creating virtual areas for realtime communications. Some examples provide a quick and easy process for creating a virtual area for a set of communicants and provisioning those communicants for realtime communications in the virtual area. Some examples provide a quick and easy way for a user to wrap a realtime communications framework around a network service. Through seamless integration of realtime communications (e.g., realtime audio, video, chat, screen sharing, and file transfer) in persistent virtual areas, these examples are able to enhance and improve communicants' experiences with a network service relative to traditional browser based methods of collaborating on network service based projects.
US09077547B2

The present system and method comprises an improved marketplace for providing and consuming services. Using the present system, generally via one or more APIs, comprises a method for integrating value added services within a network of participants, for instance, a payment network. The network can use service switching capabilities to route service calls to and from the service consumers and providers using routing elements defined in a message specification. Network participants can be both consumers and providers of services. The network can route service messages to the appropriate provider depending on details in the message.
US09077529B1

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with echo cancellation are described. According to one embodiment, a method includes generating, in a communication device, an address to a look-up table by using a first signal and a second signal. The look-up table is a two-dimensional look-up table configured to store a plurality of cancellation values arranged in a two-dimensional grid. The method also includes producing, in the communication device, a cancellation signal according to a cancellation value in the look-up table that corresponds to the address.
US09077528B2

A method and a device for performing communication in a wireless communication system are provided. In the wireless communication system, a transmitter determines a communication state for first devices using a first communication scheme for a first time interval, determines a duration of a second time interval to be allocated for the first devices, and transmits information on the second time interval having the determined duration to the first devices before the second time interval starts, wherein the first time interval and the second time interval are included in a frame allocated for a second communication scheme that different from the first communication scheme, wherein a frequency used for the first communication scheme is identical to a frequency used for the second communication scheme, and wherein a signal transmission operation of second devices using the second communication scheme is suspended during the first time interval and the second time interval.
US09077515B2

Embodiments of a method and/or system of transmitting and/or receiving data is disclosed.
US09077509B2

The present invention relates to a method of converting an encrypted data set into an encryption of individual bits representing the data set. Further, the invention relates to a system for converting an encrypted data set into an encryption of individual bits representing the data set. A basic idea of the present invention is to provide a protocol in which it is possible to divide an encryption of a data set in the form of e.g. a biometric feature, such as a number x, where xε{0, 1, . . . , n−1}, into an encryption of respective bits x0, x1, . . . , xt-1 forming the number x, where t is the number of bits of the number n−1, without leaking any information about x or its bits x0, x1, . . . , xt-1 Hence, the present invention enables splitting of the encryption [[x]] into the respective encrypted bits [[x0]], [[x1]], . . . , [[xt-1]] forming the encrypted number x=ΣI=1n xi 2i.
US09077503B2

The disclosed a method will work with future versions of LTE-A, be backwards compatible, and alleviate interference to signals for basic system operation. The method includes generating one or more Reference Signals associated with the one or more Channel Quality Indicators, and includes mapping the one or more Channel Quality Indicator-Reference Signals to the last symbol of the second slot of the one or more subframes.
US09077502B2

A method of receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) signal from at least one access terminal (AT) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes transmitting at least one packet via a packet data channel from an access network (AN), receiving at least one ACK signal from the at least one AT using same channelization resources, wherein each AT is assigned a code specific to each AT, and identifying the ACK signal corresponding to the transmitted packet from the received at least one ACK signal.
US09077500B2

To control allocation of a portion of a shared channel to use for control information, a base station determines an amount of resource elements of the shared channel to use for the control information in place of traffic data. The base station sends, to a mobile station, an indication relating to an offset parameter, where the indication is provided to allow the mobile station to compute a value for the offset parameter such that the mobile station can determine the amount of the resource elements of the shared channel to allocate for the control information.
US09077496B2

The present invention relates to a method for generating a reference signal, including: obtaining first control information, where the first control information indicates or includes cyclic shift related information which is used by a terminal belonging to a serving cell to send a reference signal; and sending the first control information to the terminal belonging to the serving cell, so that the terminal belonging to the serving cell generates the reference signal according to the cyclic shift related information which is indicated or included by the first control information and used by the terminal to send the reference signal, where a variation rule of a cyclic shift which the terminal belonging to the serving cell uses to generate the reference signal is the same as that of a cyclic shift which a terminal belonging to a coordinated cell uses to generate the reference signal.
US09077492B2

Embodiments include processes, systems, and devices for reshaping virtual baseband signals for transmission on non-contiguous and variable portions of a physical baseband, such as a white space frequency band. In the transmission path, a spectrum virtualization layer maps a plurality of frequency components derived from a transmission symbol produced by a physical layer protocol to sub-carriers of the allocated physical frequency band. The spectrum virtualization layer then outputs a time-domain signal derived from the mapped frequency components. In the receive path, a time-domain signal received on the physical baseband is reshaped by the virtual spectrum layer in order to recompose a time-domain symbol in the virtual baseband.
US09077491B2

Intelligent technique is an effective method to perform the network resource management. A three layer cascade adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based intelligent controller is proposed for the mobile wireless network to optimize the maximum average throughput, minimum transmit power and interference for multimedia call services. The proposed intelligent controller is designed with a three layer cascade architecture, which mainly contains an ANFIS rate controller (ARC) in the first layer, an ANFIS power controller (APC) in the second layer and an ANFIS interference controller (AIC) in the third layer. The design aim of the proposed three layer cascade ANFIS cognitive engine is maximizing the average throughput of the mobile wireless network, while minimizing the transmit power and interference power.
US09077487B2

A multichannel radio receiver may include a radio frequency (RF) subsystem and a digital subsystem. The digital subsystem may be configured to use an analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample input. A channelizer bank within the digital subsystem may include a plurality of channelizers. Each channelizer may receive and translate input into a plurality of channels, the channels having widths that are non-uniform and/or spacing (e.g., spacing center-to-center of adjacent channels) that is not regular. The translation may include re-sampling channels at a rate associated with a modulation scheme. A decoder bank may include a plurality of decoders operating in parallel, each to receive input from a channelizer and each associated with a particular modulation scheme. Thus, the multichannel radio may simultaneously receive on a plurality of channels of arbitrary location, arbitrary spacing and/or arbitrary bandwidth, wherein each channel is associated with one of a plurality of modulation schemes.
US09077472B2

Provided are a wireless communication apparatus and a wireless communication method capable of reducing distortion of a CSI-RS and interference with other CSI-RSs. The wireless communication apparatus according to the invention includes: a CSI-RS generation section that generates CSI-RSs, an arrangement section that arranges the CSI-RSs in a single or a plurality of consecutive OFDM symbols located between a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which a signal other than the CSI-RS is arranged, and adjacent to the plurality of OFDM symbols in which the signal other than the CSI-RS is arranged; and a transmission section that transmits a signal other than the CSI-RS arranged by the arrangement section and a transmission signal including the CSI-RS.
US09077466B2

In one embodiment, a method can include receiving at an egress schedule module a request to schedule transmission of a group of cells from an ingress queue through a switch fabric of a multi-stage switch. The ingress queue can be associated with an ingress stage of the multi-stage switch. The egress schedule module can be associated with an egress stage of the multi-stage switch. The method can also include determining, in response to the request, that an egress port at the egress stage of the multi-stage switch is available to transmit the group of cells from the multi-stage switch.
US09077456B2

A receiving device includes a first conversion unit, an amplification unit, and a microcomputer. The microcomputer includes: a second conversion unit that performs, for each sampling time duration, AD conversion on a voltage signal into an AD-converted value; a first calculation unit that calculates a difference digital value by difference calculation; a second calculation unit that calculates a positive reference value and a negative reference value; a detection unit that detects a rising point starting difference digital values greater than the positive reference value, and a falling point starting difference digital values smaller than the negative reference value; a third calculation unit that calculates a first sample period and a second sample period; and a fourth calculation unit that calculates a modulated signal for each symbol time period based on the first sample period and the second sample period.
US09077455B2

An optical receiver comprising an optical-to-electrical converter and a digital processor having one or more equalizer stages. The optical-to-electrical converter is configured to mix an optical input signal and an optical local-oscillator signal to generate a plurality of electrical digital measures of the optical input signal. The digital processor is configured to process the electrical digital measures to recover the data carried by the optical input signal. At least one of the equalizer stages is configured to perform signal-equalization processing in which the electrical digital measures and/or digital signals derived from the electrical digital measures are being treated as linear combinations of arbitrarily coupled signals, rather than one or more pairs of 90-degree phase-locked I and Q signals. The latter feature enables the digital processor to more-effectively mitigate the receiver-, link-, and/or transmitter-induced signal impairments because various orthogonality-degrading effects can be mitigated in a relatively straightforward manner.
US09077450B2

Optical systems for wavelength division multiplexing and wavelength division demultiplexing with a multi-core fiber, and methods of their fabrication, are disclosed. The systems include a coupling mirror with a plurality of angled surfaces that are configured to direct light to or from different cores of a multi-core fiber. In addition, the multiplexer systems can further include laser chips for generating light, while the demultiplexer systems can include photodiode arrays for detecting light from the multi-core fiber. The systems can also include a guiding structure comprising filters/micro-mirrors to direct light from the lasers or to the photodiodes.
US09077446B2

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for performing spectrum sensing to detect a signal for a terminal of a primary user in each sensing node. The method for performing sensing may comprise the steps of: performing, by the sensing node, spectrum sensing to detect a signal for a terminal of a primary user; computing, by the sensing node, a local test statistic on the basis of the result of the spectrum sensing; calculating, by the sensing node, the transmission probability on the basis of the computed local test statistic; and transmitting, by the sensing node, sensing information to a convergence center on the basis of the calculated transmission probability. In this case, the convergence center can determine whether the signal for a primary user exists on the basis of the transmitted sensing information.
US09077440B2

Systems and methods for suppressing transmitter noise in a receive band of a co-located receiver that are suitable for wideband applications are disclosed. In one embodiment, a transmitter is configured to upconvert and amplify a digital transmit signal to provide an analog radio frequency transmit signal at an output of the transmitter that includes a desired signal in a transmit band of the transmitter and transmitter noise in a receive band of a main receiver. The main receiver is configured to amplify, downconvert, and digitize an analog radio frequency receive signal to provide a digital receive signal. The digital feedforward transmit noise cancellation subsystem is configured to process the digital transmit signal to generate a digital transmitter noise cancellation signal that is representative of the transmitter noise in the receive band and is subtracted from the digital receive signal to thereby provide a compensated digital receive signal.
US09077435B1

A method is provided for communicating signals at a low power level in an electromagnetic interference (EMI) environment. A first device transmits a modulated signal having a first carrier frequency, including the encoded information via a hardwire transmission medium. In one aspect, the power level of the modulated signal can be adjusted to minimize power consumption or reduce the generation of EMI. The modulated signal may be in one of the following formats: frequency modulation (FM) or phase modulation (PM) to name a few examples. A second device including a logarithmic detector amplifier (LDA) demodulator circuit receives the signal, which may be mixed with EMI. The LDA demodulator circuit amplifies the modulated signal, without amplifying the EMI, to supply a demodulated baseband signal, which may be an n-ary digital signal, or an audio signal. A low-power, noise insensitive communication channel is also provided.
US09077431B2

The relay device includes a first switch interposed between a first extraction unit and a second superimposing unit and a second switch interposed between a second extraction unit and a first superimposing unit. The first switch opens and closes a path where a superimposed signal is relayed from a first transmission path to a second transmission path. The second switch opens and closes a path where a superimposed signal is relayed from the second transmission path to the first transmission path. The first switch is controlled in response to reception of a first control signal to be turned off when a superimposed signal is relayed from the second transmission path to the first transmission path. The second switch is controlled in response to reception of a second control signal to be turned off when a superimposed signal is relayed from the first transmission path to the second transmission path.
US09077427B2

A communication system and method for a deep space spacecraft receiver to perform post-processing to dynamically combine received signal power coherently for pre-processed signal streams radiated non-coherently from a distributed, multiple element, Ka-band transmitting array via multiple concurrent propagation paths. Mutually orthogonal data and pilot signals travel though the multiple propagation paths. A pre-processor utilizing wavefront multiplexing restructures signal streams on the ground into multi-channel wavefrom structures along with injections of pilot signals for diagnostic and probing purposes. These restructured, or “wavefront multiplexed” (WFM) signals are transmitted through propagation channels to a receiver on the spacecraft, wherein adaptive equalization and wavefront de-multiplexing coherently separates the mixtures of received WFM signals. Transmitting power can be dynamically allocated for the multiple concurrent data streams, radiated to different spacecraft within the same field of view according to continuously changing demand by changing the relative input power ratios of the WFM signal mixtures.
US09077425B2

Various embodiments provide for systems and methods for signal conversion of one modulated signal to another modulated signal using demodulation and then re-modulation. According to some embodiments, a signal receiving system may comprise an I/Q demodulator that demodulates a first modulated signal to an in-phase (“I”) signal and a quadrature (“Q”) signal, an I/Q signal adjustor that adaptively adjusts the Q signal to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a transitory signal that is based on a second modulated signal, and an I/Q modulator that modulates the I signal and the adjusted Q signal to the second modulated signal. To increase the SNR, the Q signal may be adjusted based on a calculated error determined for the transitory signal during demodulation by a demodulator downstream from the I/Q modulator.
US09077411B2

In a closed-loop wireless communication system, a codebook-based feedback control mechanism is provided where feedback from each of a plurality of receivers is scheduled to control the feedback so that the receiving devices do not needlessly feed back precoding information to the transmitting device. The feedback may be controlled by establishing and distributing a schedule to control when each receiver feeds back precoding information, or by establishing and distributing a metric-based feedback threshold that must be satisfied before feedback is permitted.
US09077405B2

A first transmit path, a second transmit path, and a third transmit path are disclosed. The first transmit path includes a first radio frequency (RF) power amplifier (PA) and alpha switching circuitry, which is coupled to an output from the first RF PA. The second transmit path includes a second RF PA and beta switching circuitry, which is coupled to an output from the second RF PA. The third transmit path includes a third RF PA.
US09077402B2

A method for feeding back codebook-based precoding matrix information by a receiving side includes estimating a channel through a receiving signal received from a transmitting side; selecting first and second precoding matrix indexes for indicating precoding matrices selected in a predefined codebook based upon said estimated channel; and transmitting said selected first and second precoding matrix indexes to said transmitting side, wherein said predefined codebook supports antenna patterns at the receiving side, precoder (W) in the predefined codebook is expressed as a multiplication of two precoding matrices (W1 and W2), W1 is constituted as an oversampled discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix by a diagonal matrix, an element which reflects a factor in accordance with an antenna pattern configuration of said receiving side is included, and said first precoding matrix index indicates a precoding matrix selected from W1 and said second precoding matrix index indicates a precoding matrix selected from W2.
US09077396B2

A method and system for providing CoMP assistance in a wireless communication network are disclosed. In one embodiment a cooperating base station receives a CoMP assistance request from a serving base station. The CoMP assistance request is a request for assistance to decode a first transmission from a UE. The cooperating base station receives the first transmission from the UE. The first transmission from the UE is received at the cooperating base station at one of a time before receiving the CoMP assistance request and a time after receiving the CoMP assistance request. The cooperating base station determines a CoMP payload in response to the CoMP assistance request. The CoMP payload is based on the received first transmission from the UE. The CoMP payload is forwarded to the serving base station after the serving base station determines that the first transmission from the UE is received by the serving base station with error.
US09077389B2

A technique for processing radio packages is disclosed. In an embodiment, the processing of a radio package is divided into subtasks and results of the radio package processing are stored on a per-subtask basis. Because the processing of a radio package is divided into subtasks and because results of the processing are stored on a per-subtask basis, context switches can be made at the subtask level instead of at the task level. With the ability to perform context switches at the subtask level, the processing of radio packages can be scheduled in a more efficient manner and context switches can be made without losing processing results that have already been generated. In addition to storing the processing results on a per-subtask basis, in an embodiment, a processing pipeline is drained on a per-subtask basis.
US09077372B1

Optimized fully parallel mapped FFT structures where the bit-length of each phase factor used by the FFT is adjusted to meet a quality criteria of phase angle accuracy in terms of error percentage relative to π/4. Two quantization methods of round-to-zero and round-to-nearest are described.
US09077367B2

The bit length reducing unit reduces the bit length of an operand expressed by a floating-point number and outputs the operand to a computing unit. The bit length increasing unit increases the bit length of the result value of operation represented by the floating-point number inputted from the computing unit and restores the original bit length. The bit length reducing unit discards a preset number of higher-order bits of the exponent part of the floating-point number and at the same time adds a positive or negative offset value to the exponent part with the higher-order bits discarded, according to an application to be executed by the computing unit. The bit length increasing unit restores the bits discarded by the bit length reducing unit 11 from the exponent part of the floating-point number and at the same time subtracts an offset value from the exponent part.
US09077350B2

A delay-locked loop circuit includes a phase detector and a coarse-lock detector. The phase detector receives a feedback clock and a first clock to generate first and second phase detecting signals, respectively. The coarse-lock detector generates a coarse-lock signal based on changes of phase of the first and second phase detecting signals.
US09077346B2

An oscillator according to the disclosure includes a crystal unit, an IC chip, an adhesive agent flow prevention film, and a lead frame. The lead frame is disposed in a peripheral area of the pair of crystal terminals and the IC chip in an approximately same surface as the one surface of the flat container of the crystal unit. The lead frame includes a wiring part that is connected to an IC terminal of the IC chip by a bonding wire and is buried in the resin mold, and a mounting terminal forming portion that extends from the wiring part and is folded along an outside of the resin mold in a back surface that is another surface side opposite to the one surface of the crystal unit so as to form a mounting terminal.
US09077334B2

A countermeasure in a logic circuit having a logic gate supplying a binary output signal, the method including supplying binary data having random values to inputs of logic circuit during a precharge phase; supplying data to process to inputs of the logic circuit during a data processing phase; supplying on input of the logic circuit a precharge command signal launching a precharge phase; and under the effect of the precharge command signal, adapting the functioning of a logic gate of the logic circuit, statistically unbalanced, so that the output signal of the logic gate is in a binary state with a same probability as the random binary data supplied on input of the logic circuit during the precharge phase.
US09077333B2

A programmable analog device and an analog device that can retain data even when supply of a power supply potential is interrupted and consumes less power. In a semiconductor device, first to fourth transistors are used as switches in a unit cell including an analog element, and the output of the unit cell switches between a conducting state, a non-conducting state, and a conducting state through the analog element by controlling the potential of a first node where the first transistor and the second transistor are connected and the potential of a second node where the third transistor and the fourth transistor are connected.
US09077329B2

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for capturing and holding a level of an input signal using a latch circuit that presents a low number of loads to the clock signal. The clock is only coupled to a bridging transistor and a pair of clock-activated pull-down or pull-up transistors. The level of the input signal is propagated to the output signal when the storage sub-circuit is not enabled. The storage sub-circuit is enabled by the bridging transistor and a propagation sub-circuit is activated and deactivated by the pair of clock-activated transistors.
US09077324B2

The disclosure provides a clamp circuit and a method for clamping voltage. The clamp circuit includes: a first switch control unit, connected with the high-potential terminal of the first stage output of a comparator and configured to clamp the voltage of the high-potential terminal to VGate1 when the voltage of the high-potential terminal is lower than a first pre-set value V1, and a second switch control unit, connected to the low-potential terminal of the first stage output of the comparator and configured to clamp the voltage of the low-potential terminal to VGate2 when the voltage of the low-potential terminal is higher than a second pre-set value V2, wherein the voltages of the first stage output of the comparator are between VGND and VCC. By the disclosure, the output voltage swings of the first stage of the comparator are limited, and thereby the processing speed of the comparator is improved.
US09077318B2

The invention relates to a device for locking an adjusting means (5), in particular an electrical addressing device, mounted on a printed circuit board (1) which extends in an x and/or y direction. The device includes an essentially flat base plate (2) having a length (L), a width (B), and a thickness (D), to which a first detent spring (4) is attached for locking engagement with marking means (23, 23′) of the adjusting means (5). The first detent spring preferably has an oblong spring leg (7), wherein in the installed state the base plate (2) is mounted on the printed circuit board (1).
US09077312B1

A filter includes two or more surface acoustic wave resonators formed on a surface of a substrate and at least one ground conductor formed on the surface of the substrate. At least a portion of an edge of the ground conductor is formed as a plurality of serrations.
US09077311B2

An acoustic filter and method of acoustic filter manufacture provides a plurality of series acoustic resonators coupled in series on a first resonator substrate, a plurality of shunt resonators on a second resonator substrate, and a support substrate. The first and second resonator substrates are mounted on the support substrate. The filter further provides a plurality of electrical connections, wherein each respective electrical connection electrically couples a respective one of the plurality of shunt resonators to a respective one of the plurality of series acoustic resonators.
US09077309B2

A high current RF choke network comprising a high current RF choke combined with an all-pass T-bridge filter. The high current RF choke may be connected to a grounded capacitor in the serial branch of the all-pass filter. In this case the parasitic capacitance of the RF choke practically becomes an integral part of the all-pass filter capacitor. The added capacitance in parallel to the parasitic capacitance of the high current RF choke practically neutralizes the resonances of the high current RF choke and thus extends significantly the operating frequency range of the network. The operating frequencies bandwidth range of the high current RF choke network is extended from the legacy range of 5 MHz to 1 GHz up to an extended range of at least 5 MHz to 3 GHz.
US09077300B1

The predistortion circuit with concave characteristic is developed from a novel functional model for class-AB solid-state bipolar amplifiers. The model, based on a Fourier sine-series is simple and can provide closed-form expressions for the intermodulation products resulting from exciting the power amplifier by a multi-sinusoidal signal. The special case of a two-tone equal-amplitude signal is considered in detail. The present model can be used to build a database for the intermodulation performance of the class-AB bipolar SSPAs excited by a multi-sinusoidal signal. Using this database, the diode-based predistortion circuit with concave characteristic for linearizing the class-AB solid-state power amplifier is designed.
US09077296B2

A radio frequency (RF) power amplifier (PA) may include a first transistor and a second transistor. A first power cell may be coupled with the first transistor, and a second power cell may be coupled with the second transistor. In embodiments, the first transistor may be scaled to operate at a first current density, while the second transistor may be scaled to operate at a second current density.
US09077292B2

A first amplifier is connected between an input terminal and an output terminal. A first junction point is located between the input terminal and an input of the first amplifier. A second junction point is located between the output terminal and an output of the first amplifier. A second amplifier is connected in parallel with the first amplifier, between the first junction point and the second junction point. A third junction point is located between an output of the second amplifier and the second junction point. A first capacitor and a switch are connected in series between the third junction point and ground. The second junction point is the lowest impedance point along a power amplification path that includes the input terminal, the first amplifier, and the output terminal. The switch is turned off/on when the second/first amplifier is turned on.
US09077290B2

A low-noise amplifier (300) is provided which comprises an input circuit (301) configured to operate with a variable bias current and an impedance boosting circuit (314) electrically connected to the input circuit (301). The impedance boosting circuit (314) comprises at least one switch (316) and at least one tail inductor (318) electrically connected with the at least one switch (316). The low-noise amplifier (300) is configured to activate the impedance boosting circuit (314) if the variable bias current is reduced, and the impedance boosting circuit (314) is configured to increase the input impedance of the low-noise amplifier (300) if the impedance boosting circuit (314) is activated.
US09077288B2

There is a problem that in an image sensor including an amplifier in each pixel, when a thin-film semiconductor is used as a transistor constituting the amplifier, voltage continues to be applied between source and gate of the transistor and thereby a threshold voltage value of the transistor varies, resulting in a variation of signal voltage. To solve the problem, a thin-film transistor formed with an oxide semiconductor is used as the transistor constituting the amplifier, and during a period other than a period of outputting an output of the amplifier, source potential of the transistor is controlled to be equal to drain potential thereof.
US09077280B2

Systems and methods for disposing and supporting a solar panel array are disclosed. The embodiments comprise various combinations of cables, support columns, and pod constructions in which to support solar panels. The solar panels can incorporate single or dual tracking capabilities to enhance sunlight capture. The embodiments encourage dual land use in which installation of the systems minimizes disruption of the underlying ground. Supplemental power may be provided by vertical axis windmills integrated with the columns. Special installations of the system can include systems mounted over structures such as parking lots, roads and aqueducts. Simplified support systems with a minimum number of structural elements can be used to create effective support for solar panel arrays of varying size and shapes. These simplified systems minimize material requirements and labor for installation of the systems.
US09077276B2

The present invention relates to a motor control method for a dental handpiece provided with a motor that rotationally drives a cutting tool. The control method includes a step A of limiting the motor current to a first limit current I1 when the load torque applied to the cutting tool exceeds a preset limit torque value, and a step B of controlling the motor current to be equal to or lower than a second limit current, which is lower than the first limit current, when it is detected that the motor stops rotating.
US09077265B2

A phase voltage setting unit is configured to define an actual current phase region including a current phase error range based on parameters to which is added an individual difference of at least any one of a motor and an inverter. The phase voltage setting unit defines a stable operation current phase region in which a rotor position can be detected through sensorless control, and sets, as a target current, an electric current obtained by adding a phase difference corresponding to the number of revolutions detected by the revolution number detecting unit to an electric current set by current vector control, such that the actual current phase region is within the stable operation current phase region.
US09077248B2

A start-up circuit for a power adapter and method of operating the same. In one embodiment, the power adapter includes a start-up circuit configured to provide an initial bias voltage for the power adapter. The power adapter also includes a crowbar circuit configured to turn on the start-up circuit upon loss of an ac mains voltage supplied to the power adapter.
US09077245B2

AC powered logic circuits and systems including same are disclosed. According to one aspect, a system including a logic circuit powered using an alternating current (AC) power source includes at least one supply transistor connected to receive voltages of opposite phases from an AC power source such that the at least one supply transistor is strongly on during a first phase of the voltage of the AC power source and is strongly off during a second phase opposite the first phase of the voltage of the AC power source and at least one logic circuit connected to be powered by the AC power source through the at least one supply transistor and producing an output at an output terminal responsive to an input received at an input terminal.
US09077236B2

A permanent magnet rotor (3) for a rotary electric machine (1) comprises a rotor body (10) having a rotation axis (A) and a plurality of radial magnets (4), wherein the magnets (4) exhibit a head portion (5) located in proximity to an external surface (30) of the rotor body (10) and a base portion (6) facing towards the rotation axis (A). The base portion (6) of each magnet (4) has a width smaller than a width of the head portion (5).
US09077234B2

A vehicle AC generator includes a stator having stator windings; front frame and rear frame, each rotatably supporting a rotor; a cooling fan fitted to the rotor; first polarity arm and second polarity arm configured to rectify currents of one polarity and another polarity, respectively; a rectifier device configured to rectify an alternating current generated in the stator windings; and a protective cover covering the rectifier device. The rectifier device includes a first heat dissipating plate having rectifier elements forming the first polarity arm, a second heat dissipating plate rectifier elements forming the second polarity arm, and a connection plate formed in waveform-like shape and disposed between the first and second heat dissipating plates, and a passage of a cooling air blown by the cooling fan formed between the first and second heat dissipating plates and between the second heat dissipating plate and the connection plate.
US09077230B2

An electric motor has a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted in the stator. The stator includes a stator core and stator windings. A heat dissipating device is mounted around an outer surface of the stator core and configured to absorb heat there from. The heat dissipating device includes a base mounted around the stator core and a plurality of fins extending outwardly from the base in the radial direction. Electronic components are mounted on the heat dissipating device. A fan is mounted on a shaft of the rotor for generating a flow of air inside the stator and through slots between the fins to thereby cool the rotor, stator core, stator windings and electronic components.
US09077225B2

A stator is provided with a core and a winding. The core includes a plurality of slots and a plurality of teeth formed between the slots. The winding is composed of a plurality of wires W bundled in an irregular arrangement. The winding includes a plurality of coil portions wound on each of the teeth, and a connecting portion connecting the coil portions together. The winding has a twisted shape in the connecting portion.
US09077209B2

A power generation system includes power generating modules, and a module fixing device configured to fix the power generating modules. Each power generating module includes a power generating module body including a power generator that generates DC energy, and a power transmitter attached to the power generating module body. The power transmitter includes an oscillator that converts the DC energy into RF energy with a frequency f0, and a power transmitting antenna that transmits the RF energy as a resonant magnetic field. The module fixing device includes a first fixing member configured to fix the power generating modules, power receiving antennas each of which receives at least a part of the RF energy transmitted by the corresponding power transmitting antenna, and a second fixing member configured to fix the power receiving antennas. The respective outputs of the power receiving antennas are combined in parallel by the combining section.
US09077199B2

An electronic device is provided. When the electronic device is at a power exhaustion state and a first external device with a charging function is coupled to a connection interface to provide a first supply voltage to a power pin of the connection interface, a voltage regulation unit transforms the first supply voltage to a first operation voltage, and a storage unit powered by the first operation voltage outputs device information of the electronic device to the first external device through a signal transmitting/receiving pin set of the connection interface. When the first external device provides a second supply voltage to the power pin in response to the device information, the electronic device enters a charging mode. In the charging mode, the charging unit provides a charging voltage according to the second supply voltage to charge the battery unit and provides a second operation voltage to a processing unit.
US09077198B2

A method and apparatus for controlling a composite battery charger including a switching regulator and a linear charger charging a battery connected to it, whereby the switching regulator provides the supply voltage for the linear charger and Device Circuits. The control method and circuit fully turns on the pass device of the linear charger in a constant current operating mode and the switching regulator is controlled to maintain a constant charge current through the pass device while also supplying device current to the Device Circuits. The device current may vary. The method and circuit limits the dissipation of the pass device of the linear charger by reducing the supply voltage as a function of the charge current in the CC/CV transition region of the battery charger and by reducing the charge current as a function of the battery voltage if the battery voltage is below a predetermined value related to a predetermined minimum supply voltage value.
US09077193B2

Disclosed herein is a power relaying apparatus provided between: a power supplying apparatus including a power supplying resonance device and a power supplying power supply section for supplying an AC current to the power supplying resonance device; and a power receiving apparatus having a power receiving resonance device for receiving a power from the power supplying apparatus by adoption of a resonance method, the power relaying apparatus including a power relaying resonance device resonating between the power supplying resonance device and the power receiving resonance device, wherein the power relaying resonance device is fixed at a predetermined position by making use of an insulation member.
US09077189B2

Disclosed herein is a battery protection circuit module device. The battery protection circuit module device includes a charging unit, a battery protection circuit module, and a system. The charging unit includes first and second MOSFET switches, and supplies externally input power to a battery or a system. The battery protection circuit module includes the battery, third and fourth MOSFET switches configured to be selectively turned on and off, a resistor and a capacitor configured to supply the voltage of the battery to the PCM controller as driving power, and the PCM controller configured to control the third and fourth MOSFET switches. The system is operated using the voltage of the battery or externally input voltage. The third and fourth MOSFET switches of the battery protection circuit module are connected via a common drain structure and a common drain terminal is connected to an internal ground.
US09077186B2

A power supply device includes a plurality of power supply units connected in parallel, and includes a positive electrode-side junction formed by the joining of positive electrode-side terminals of the plurality of power supply units and a negative electrode-side junction formed by the joining of negative electrode-side terminals of the plurality of power supply units. Each of the plurality of power supply units includes a battery unit, and a first relay that is provided between one of the positive and negative electrode-side junctions and the battery unit and is electrically disconnectably connected in series to the battery unit. Each of the plurality of power supply units includes a resistive element of which one end is connected between the first relay, which is connected to one of a positive electrode terminal and a negative electrode terminal of the battery unit, and the battery unit.
US09077185B2

Electrical power systems and methods using bidirectional power converters to provide, among other functions, uninterruptible power supplies for loads such as cell towers. The power-packet-switching power converter can be connected, for example, to a photovoltaic array, batteries, and a critical load such as a cell tower. An AC generator can also be connected in order to power the cell tower and/or to charge the batteries as needed. Green energy utilization is maximized, power conversion efficiency is increased, and system costs are decreased, by having only a single power conversion stage for all conversions.
US09077184B2

Provided is a storage battery system comprising a plurality of storage batteries connected in parallel, characterized by detecting the temperature and energy amount of each battery connected in parallel, calculating the deterioration rate of each battery based on the detected temperature and energy-amount, and controlling the power amount to be inputted to and output from each battery so that the deterioration rate of each storage battery will come closer to each other.
US09077183B2

A distributed wireless monitoring system with a cloud server and low-power remote sensors includes data encoding/compression at sensors to reduce power use from transmission and storage, event activated operation/data logging triggered by configurable thresholds, remote configuration via the cloud server of event triggering thresholds and correlation templates, distributed processing capabilities, and sensor clock synchronization from a network time service.
US09077178B2

An electronic device may include a connector port that accommodates reversible connector plugs. The connector port may include protection circuitry that protects other components in the electronic device from undesired power supply voltages. The protection circuitry may form a first branch and a second branch opposite to the first branch. The protection circuitry may receive control signals from power polarity detection circuitry. The power polarity detection circuitry may detect the presence of power supply voltages at the first branch and the second branch. In response to detecting the presence of a power supply voltage at a given branch, the power polarity detection circuitry may disable a power supply signal path through the opposite branch and enable a power supply signal path through the given branch.
US09077175B2

An electronic fuse circuit for interrupting a current flowing through a power circuit includes: a trip switch structured to open and close to interrupt and permit, respectively, the current flowing through the power circuit; a current sensing circuit structured to sense when a magnitude of the current flowing through the power circuit is greater than a predetermined magnitude; a trip circuit structured to control the trip switch to open and close based on the sensed magnitude of the current flowing through the power circuit; and a processor having a routine structured to monitor a characteristic of the trip circuit and, when the monitored characteristic meets a predetermined criteria, to enter an override mode and control the trip circuit to control the trip switch to open regardless of the magnitude of the current flowing through the power circuit.
US09077174B2

The ESD protection device includes: opposed electrodes 2 including an opposed electrode 2a on one side and an opposed electrode 2b on the other side, and a discharge auxiliary electrode 3, the discharge auxiliary electrode being placed so as to extend from the opposed electrode on one side to the opposed electrode on the other side, wherein the discharge auxiliary electrode contains metal grains, semiconductor grains and a glass material, the metal grains, the semiconductor grains, and the metal grain and the semiconductor grain are bound together, respectively, via the glass material, the average grain size X of the metal grains is 1.0 μm or more, and the relationship between the thickness Y of the discharge auxiliary electrode and the average grain size X of the metal grains satisfies the requirement of 0.5≦Y/X≦3.
US09077167B2

An aircraft raceway mounting apparatus comprising an attachment formation for attachment of the apparatus to an aircraft structure, a raceway receiving formation for receiving a raceway, the raceway receiving formation comprising a snap fit formation for retention of a raceway. An aircraft raceway clamping apparatus comprising a concave raceway receiving formation having a raceway support region and a mouth, a bridge member configured to at least partially span the mouth, a clamping member movably mounted to the bridge member to advance into the mouth.
US09077166B2

A weatherproof electrical box may include a housing having a first enclosure volume and an opening to the first enclosure volume. A cover may be connected with the housing to cover the opening. A cable configuration element may extend from the cover and into the first enclosure volume. The cable configuration element may retain a cable connected with a device mounted in the housing in a downwardly extending surface configuration when the cover covers the opening.
US09077158B2

A spark plug for use in an internal combustion engine has a center electrode, an earth electrode, and an electrode chip formed on at least one of the center electrode and the earth electrode. A spark discharge gap is formed between the center electrode and the earth electrode. The electrode chip has a base section, a chromium rich layer formed on at least a part of the base section, and a diffusion layer formed between the base section and the chromium rich layer. The base section contains chromium within a range of 5 to 45 mass %, an element X within a range of 0.5 to 25 mass %, and a remainder composed of tungsten and unavoidable impurity. The chromium rich layer is larger in content of chromium than the base section. The element X contained in the base section is comprised of at least one of molybdenum, silicon, aluminum and lead.
US09077155B2

Provided are a white-emitting monomolecular compound using excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) characteristics, and an organic electroluminescence device and a laser device comprising same. The white-emitting monomolecular compound according to the present invention is prepared by covalently bonding at least two types of molecules which produce different colors and have excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) characteristics. The white-emitting monomolecular compound according to the present invention achieves white luminescence irrespective of the concentration thereof and of the state of the materials thereof, and therefore can be used in a variety of fields including an organic electroluminescence device and a laser device.
US09077154B2

According to an embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device is configured to emit light by energy relaxation of an electron between subbands of a plurality of quantum wells. The device includes an active layer and at least a pair of cladding layers. The active layer is provided in a stripe shape extending in a direction parallel to an emission direction of the light, and includes the plurality of quantum wells; and the active layer emits the light with a wavelength of 10 μm or more. Each of the cladding layers is provided both on and under the active layer respectively and have a lower refractive index than the active layer. At least one portion of the cladding layers contains a material having a different lattice constant from the active layer and has a lower optical absorption at a wavelength of the light than the other portion.
US09077153B2

An improved quantum cascade laser, the improvement comprising a longitudinally non-uniform dielectric waveguide. The waveguide includes a longitudinally straight section and a longitudinally tapered section. The length of the tapered section is between 5% and 50% of the total cavity length. The tapered section tapers at a taper angle from the facet width to the ridge width. The taper angle is smaller than the delineation angle of the waveguide.
US09077151B2

An optoelectronic device grown on a miscut of GaN, wherein the miscut comprises a semi-polar GaN crystal plane (of the GaN) miscut x degrees from an m-plane of the GaN and in a c-direction of the GaN, where −15
US09077150B2

A high power fiber laser system consisting of multiple fiber amplifier or laser systems amplifying the input signal in parallel is configured with a high power splitter such as to share some of the gain stages. The high power splitting component consists of high power fiber couplers and splitter(s). The splitter is a holographic optical element, a dielectric coated plate, a diffraction grating, or a volume Bragg grating. The resultant fiber laser configuration reduces the total number of amplifying stages including optical isolators and active fiber assemblies for the system and thus reduces the total volume and weight.
US09077142B2

Air-cooled laser devices and formation methods are provided. An exemplary air-cooled laser device can include at least a laser active slab, a first silicon carbide clad, a second silicon carbide clad, a first laser diode array, and a first cylindrical lens. The first and second silicon carbide clads can be symmetrically bonded to the laser active slab and can have a surface area greater than the laser active slab to form an air duct surrounding side surfaces of the laser active slab and between the silicon carbide clads. The first laser diode array can emit first input pump laser beams to be collimated by the first cylindrical lens to provide parallel and quasi-parallel pump laser beams that are guided by the air duct to enter into the laser active slab from at least a first side surface of the laser active slab.
US09077124B2

A card edge connector assembly is disclosed. The card edge connector assembly includes an insulating housing, a first circuit board, a line transmission device, and a covering body. A plurality of first terminals and second terminals are inserted into the insulating housing. The first terminals and the second terminals are electrically connected to the line transmission device via the first circuit board. The first terminals are above the second terminals and mating portions of the first terminals and the second terminals stretch into a plug space of the insulating housing. In this way, the plug space can be used for the second circuit board to plug in such that the first terminals and the second terminals are electrically connected to the second circuit board.
US09077121B2

Connector receptacles that may help maintain registration or alignment between a printed circuit board, a connector receptacle, and an opening in a device enclosure. One example may provide a connector receptacle having a housing including a passage. A pin may be placed in the passage such that a first portion extends away from a front of the housing and a rear portion extends away from a rear of the housing. The front portion may be arranged to fit in a cavity or opening in an inside surface of a device enclosure, while the rear portion may be arranged to fit in a cavity or opening in a top surface of a printed circuit board.
US09077117B2

A lead frame assembly includes two lead frames detachably coupled to each other. Each lead frame has an insulating frame, several signal terminals fixed on the insulating frame, and a ground terminal fixed on the insulating frame. One of the ground terminals has a shielding sheet and several groups of elastic arms, and the shielding sheet and the elastic arms are protruding from the corresponding insulating frame; another ground terminal has several shielding portions protruding from the corresponding insulating frame. The ground terminals are contact with each other along a shielding direction, and the groups of elastic arms are respectively abutted against the shielding portions. In a space, which is surroundingly defined by the contour of the shielding sheet extending along the shielding direction, the shielding direction passes through at least one of the shielding sheet, the elastic arms, and the shielding portions.
US09077115B2

A terminal set of an electrical connector includes signal terminal duos and ground terminal duos. The signal terminal duos have two signal terminals. The signal terminals are spaced apart by a first distance and each have a first recess. The direction of the depth of the first recess equals the longitudinal direction of the signal terminals. The ground terminal duos have two ground terminals. The signal terminal duos are disposed between the ground terminals. The ground terminals each have a second recess. The direction of the depth of the second recess equals the longitudinal direction of the ground terminals. The ground terminal and the adjacent signal terminal are spaced apart by a second distance. The first distance is shorter than the second distance. The ground terminals each partially bulges out transversely to form at least a bulging portion. The terminal set features terminal electrical impedance and alleviated inter-terminal resonance.
US09077113B2

A connector includes: a casing (1), a plurality of pins (2), including: a first end portion (3), extending along a first axis (A1), a second end portion (4), extending along a second axis (A2), a securing portion (5), adjacent to the first end portion (3) and secured to the casing (1), an insertion part (6), arranged between the securing portion (5) and the second end portion (4), certain pins (2) including at the level of their insertion part (6) at least one wavy inflected part (7) including at least one axial part (11) extending along the first axis (A1) or the second axis (A2) and an off-axis part (12) extending radially distant from the axial part (11), the off-axis part (12) being connected to the axial part (11) through a curved shape.
US09077111B2

Various embodiments are disclosed for a plug retention apparatus, which includes: a male retention portion including a first flexible clasp for applying a retaining force to a plug assembly inserted therein, the male retention portion further including a ratchet member configured with a toothed bar: and a female retention portion including a second flexible clasp for applying a retaining force to the plug assembly inserted therein, the female retention portion further including an opening to receive the ratchet member of the male retention portion, the female retention portion further including a pawl configured to engage the toothed bar of the ratchet member.
US09077105B2

The present invention relates to an improved structure of an electromagnetic electrical connection device. To this end, the present invention comprises first and second electromagnetic electrical connectors (100, 100a) which electrically connect the electromagnetic electrical connection device to an electronic product by magnetic force, and is capable of blocking of noise while being connected, and provides stability, convenience, and waterproofing functions, wherein the first and second electromagnetic electrical connectors (100, 100a) include an outlet body (110) fixedly provided on a product and a plug body (150) selectively detachable from the outlet body (110).
US09077096B2

Connector receptacles that are simple to assemble, provide a good ground contact path, avoid marring of both inserts and receptacles, and can be arranged to fit in a device enclosure. These receptacles may include a subassembly that is inserted into a hollow tongue. The subassembly may include a first number of contacts that are insert molded in a housing, as well as a second number of contacts. The tongue may further include ground contacts on its sides and top. The tongue may cover edges of at least some contacts to prevent marring of both the connector receptacle and connector insert. The shell of the connector receptacle may be formed around a portion of the connector receptacle to assist in fitting the receptacle in a device enclosure.
US09077089B2

A coaxial cable connector includes a continuity bus that extends a ground circuit from a coaxial cable outer conductor to a connector part such as a connector fastener and/or a connector post.
US09077080B1

An antenna for passing a cable to a second antenna includes shorts positioned along a circumferential perimeter of the antenna, first and second bicone sections of oppositely directed conductive cone sections energized at respective apices and opening along an antenna axis, first and second dipole sections, where the first dipole section is joined together with and extending from the first conical section to the circumferential perimeter of the antenna, and where the second dipole section is joined together with and extending from the second conical section to the circumferential perimeter of the antenna.
US09077075B1

The present invention is directed to a monopole/dipole asymmetric radiator structure that includes an asymmetric planar radiator. When the asymmetric is part of an operative monopole or dipole antenna, the antenna exhibits a wide or broad bandwidth, a VSWR of less than about 3:1, a relatively constant gain perpendicular or broad-side to the plane of the radiator, and is vertically polarized. In one embodiment, asymmetric planar radiator has an outer edge that is bilaterally asymmetrical. In another embodiment, the outer edge of the asymmetric planar radiator is symmetric and a closed inner edge of the radiator that defines a void is bilaterally asymmetric.
US09077074B2

An antenna includes a first portion and a second portion soldered together. The first portion includes conductive traces applied to a first device part. The conductive traces may wrap from one side of the first device part to another side. A second device part is attached to the first device part to enclose a speaker. The second portion of the antenna comprises FPC attached to the second device part. A section of the FPC portion of the antenna extends beyond an edge of the second part and folds over onto solder applied to a section of first portion of the antenna on the first device part. The solder may be melted to attach the first portion of the antenna on the first device part to the second portion of the antenna on the second device part.
US09077060B2

A modally driven oscillating element periodically contacts one of more electrical contacts, thereby acting as a switch, otherwise known as a resonant switch, or “resoswitch”, with very high Q's, typically above 10000 in air, and higher in vacuum. Due to periodic constrained contacting of the contacts, the bandwidth of the switch is greatly improved. One or more oscillating elements may be vibrationally interconnected with conductive or nonconductive coupling elements, whereby increased bandwidths of such an overall switching system may be achieved. Using the resoswitch, power amplifiers and converters more closely approaching ideal may be implemented. Integrated circuit fabrication techniques may construct the resoswitch with other integrated CMOS elements for highly compact switching devices. Through introduction of specific geometries within the oscillating elements, displacement gains may be made where modal deflections are greatly increased, thereby reducing device drive voltages to 2.5 V or lower.
US09077047B2

A secondary battery according to an embodiment includes a container having a pouring hole through which an electrolyte is poured, and housing the electrolyte, poured through the pouring hole, together with an electrode body; and a sealing lid fixed to the container and closing the pouring hole. The container has a plurality of grooves extending in parallel along the outer edge of the pouring hole, in a predetermined region that surrounds the periphery of the pouring hole, and the sealing lid is provided on the plurality of grooves in such a manner as to close the pouring hole and is fixed to the container.
US09077041B2

The present invention relates to the use of porous structures comprising electrode active materials, which can be used as electrodes in electrochemical cells. In certain embodiments, the electrodes described herein can comprise a first porous support structure (e.g., a plurality of particles, which can be porous in certain cases) in which electrode active material is at least partially contained. The first porous support structure can be, in some embodiments, at least partially contained within the pores of a second porous support structure (e.g., an agglomeration of elongated fibers, a porous web formed by sintered particles, etc.) containing pores that are larger than the components of the first porous support structure.
US09077040B2

To provide a method that is capable of suppressing absorption of lithium ions into the inner portion of a resin collector that is used in a bipolar lithium ion secondary battery. The collector for a bipolar lithium ion secondary battery of the invention has at least two conductive layers. One of the conductive layers that constitute the collector (a first conductive layer) is configured by adding a conductive filler into a base material that contains an imide group-containing resin. The other of the conductive layers that constitute the collector (a second conductive layer) is configured by adding a conductive filler into a base material that contains a polar resin containing no imide group. The collector for a bipolar lithium ion secondary battery is further characterized in that when a bipolar electrode is formed, the first conductive layer is arranged on the positive electrode side.
US09077028B2

Provided is a gas diffusion layer for a fuel cell, wherein a reactive gas passage groove for distributing a reactive gas is formed in one principal surface of the gas diffusion layer, and a reinforcing member is provided along the reactive gas passage grooves. Thus, the deformation of the gas diffusion layer due to a fastening pressure can be suppressed to improve the power generation performance.
US09077025B2

The method for producing a porous film of the present invention includes producing a stretched film by stretching a resin sheet containing at least polyolefin, and then irradiating the stretched film with a vacuum ultraviolet ray. The separator for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery of the present invention is composed of the porous film obtained by the production method of the present invention. The non-aqueous electrolyte battery of the present invention is provided with the separator for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery of the present invention.
US09077023B2

A cathode active material including: a lithium manganese oxide of which primary particles has a diameter of 1 μm or more and which has a spinel structure in which an X-ray diffraction (XRD) peak intensity ratio of I(111)/I(311) is 1.0 or more; and a boron element disposed at least one position selected from the group consisting of inside the primary particles and on surfaces of the primary particles.
US09077020B2

A battery module including a plurality of sub battery modules stacked together, each sub battery module comprising a plurality of battery cells, each of the battery cells having terminals and a vent portion on a first side of the sub battery modules; a pair of end plates, one of the ends plates located at each end of the battery module; a top plate on the first side of the sub battery modules; and a controller configured to control the battery cells for each of the sub battery modules, wherein each of the sub battery modules has an individual degassing region controlled by the controller.
US09077019B2

An electricity storage device includes a first battery stack (15), a second battery stack (11 to 14), and a case (22) that accommodates the first battery stack and the second battery stack. Each of the first battery stack and the second battery stack includes a plurality of cells (151) that are aligned and the second battery stack is placed under the first battery stack. The supporting member (80) that supports the first battery stack is placed between the first battery stack and the second battery stack and is fixed to the case.
US09077012B2

A membrane electrode assembly includes a proton exchange membrane, an anode and a cathode. The proton exchange membrane has two opposite surfaces, a first surface and a second surface. The anode is located adjacent to the first surface of the proton exchange membrane, and the cathode is located adjacent to the second surface of the proton exchange membrane. The anode includes a diffusion layer and a catalyst layers. The diffusion layer includes a carbon nanotube structure. A biofuel cell using the membrane electrode assembly is also provided.
US09077011B2

Redox flow battery systems having a supporting solution that contains Cl− ions can exhibit improved performance and characteristics. Furthermore, a supporting solution having mixed SO42− and Cl− ions can provide increased energy density and improved stability and solubility of one or more of the ionic species in the catholyte and/or anolyte. According to one example, a vanadium-based redox flow battery system is characterized by an anolyte having V2+ and V3+ in a supporting solution and a catholyte having V4+ and V5+ in a supporting solution. The supporting solution can contain Cl− ions or a mixture of SO42− and Cl− ions.
US09077004B2

An improved fuel cell system comprising a component designed to minimize or otherwise prevent the collection of water (and thus formation of ice at low temperatures) at valves or other anode exhaust flowpath control points. Thus, such system is configured to be operable under at least freeze start conditions. Also provided, in various embodiments, are methods of controlling ice blockage in a fuel cell system by, among other things, providing such a component.
US09076998B2

Fuel-cell membrane-subgasket assemblies may include an electrolyte membrane and a coated subgasket overlying the electrolyte membrane around a perimeter of the electrolyte membrane so as to define an active area inside the perimeter. The coated subgasket may comprise a subgasket body formed from a subgasket material. At least one side of the coated subgasket includes a subgasket coating layer containing or formed from a coating material such as metals, ceramics, polymers, polymer composites, or other hard coatings. Fuel-cell assemblies may include gas diffusion media, a bipolar plate, and a fuel-cell membrane-subgasket assembly having a coated subgasket. Fuel-cell stacks may include clamping plates, unipolar endplates, and a plurality of individual fuel-cell assemblies, at least one of which includes a fuel-cell membrane-subgasket assembly having a coated subgasket.
US09076996B2

An electrochemical battery that exchanges energy with an external device. The battery includes a container containing a positive electrode, a negative electrode and an intervening electrolyte, the electrodes and electrolyte existing as liquid material layers in the container at the operating temperature of the battery so that adjacent layers form respective electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Positive and negative current collectors are in electrical contact with the positive and negative electrodes, respectively, both collectors being adapted for connection to the external device to create a circuit through which current flows. A circulation producer in the battery causes circulation within at least one of the layers to increase the flux of material in one layer to an interface with an adjacent layer, thereby giving the battery a greater current/power capability.
US09076995B2

A secondary battery according to the present exemplary embodiment is a secondary battery including a laminated electrode body provided with at least one pair of positive and negative electrodes and an outer enclosure that accommodates the laminated electrode body, wherein the outer enclosure includes one or more concave portions, inside a border corresponding to an outer edge of an electrode surface of an outermost layer of the laminated electrode body, on a surface facing the electrode surface, and wherein, when a band-shaped outer circumferential region having an area that is a half of an area inside the border is set inside the border, at least one of the concave portions is located inside the outer circumferential region.
US09076993B2

Provided are an organic light emitting display device and a method for manufacturing the same. The organic light emitting display device comprises at least a first pixel area and a second pixel area. A partition is disposed between the first pixel area and the second pixel area. An auxiliary electrode is disposed between the first pixel area and the second pixel area and over the partition. Additionally, a first conductive element is disposed over the first pixel area, the second pixel area, and the auxiliary electrode and the first conductive element is electrically connected to the auxiliary electrode.
US09076992B2

Disclosed is a method for preventing a short circuit between metal wires in an organic light emitting diode display device. The method includes: forming an inorganic layer on a substrate; forming a metal layer including two metal wires on the inorganic layer; forming an organic layer on the two metal wires; forming an indium tin oxide layer on the organic layer; coating a photoresist layer; performing an exposure step by utilizing a photo mask having a transparent area, an opaque material disposed in the transparent area, wherein a width of the opaque material is less than a width of the transparent area; performing a development step to the photoresist layer; and performing an etching step to remove a part of the indium tin oxide layer and a part of the organic layer. The present invention can prevent the short circuit between the metal wires.
US09076990B2

A method of manufacturing an organic EL device according to the present application example includes forming a sealing layer by covering multiple organic EL elements and a connection terminal, forming a color filter as an organic layer that covers the sealing layer, patterning the color filter in such a manner that an opening extending up to the sealing layer is formed in a portion of the color filter, which overlaps the connection terminal, and etching the sealing layer in such a manner as to expose at least one part of the connection terminal with the pattern-formed color filter serving as a mask.
US09076983B2

An organic light-emitting display device and a method of manufacturing the organic light-emitting display device are provided. The organic light-emitting display device includes: a substrate including first and second areas; a pixel electrode formed in the first area of the substrate; an auxiliary electrode formed in the second area of the substrate; an intermediate layer including an organic emission layer and formed on the pixel electrode and the auxiliary electrode; a first common electrode formed on the intermediate layer; and a second common electrode formed on the first common electrode, where the second common electrode and the auxiliary electrode contact each other through a contact hole which penetrates the first common electrode and the intermediate layer formed on the auxiliary electrode.
US09076977B2

On the TFT substrate (10), a vapor deposition layer is formed by use of a vapor deposition device (50) which includes (i) a vapor deposition source (85) having injection holes (86) and (ii) a vapor deposition mask (81) having openings (82) through which vapor deposition particles injected from the injection holes (86) are deposited so as to form the vapor deposition layer. The TFT substrate (10) has a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally arranged in a pixel region (AG), and terminals of a plurality of wires (14), which are electrically connected with the plurality of pixels, are gathered outside a vapor deposition layer formation region.
US09076970B2

A curved foil-shaped electro-optical product (1) is provided having at least a first region with a basis substrate layer (10) of a shrunken organic substance, having a convex side and a concave side and comprising at the convex side (12) of the basis substrate layer at least a further layer (20), the electro-optical product further comprising at least a second region with an electro-optical structure (20).
US09076959B2

A method of manufacturing a non-volatile memory device comprises: forming a first electrode layer; a variable resistance material layer, a second electrode layer; and a hard mask layer, forming a first resist mask extending in a first direction on the hard mask layer; forming a first hard mask extending in the first direction by etching the hard mask layer using the first resist mask; forming a second resist mask extending in a second direction, on the first hard mask such that the width of the second resist mask is greater than the width of the first resist mask; forming a second hard mask by etching the first hard mask using the second resist mask; and forming a variable resistance element by patterning, by etching the second electrode layer, the variable resistance material layer and the first electrode layer using the second hard mask.
US09076958B2

A resistive memory device includes word lines stacked on top of one another, at least one first selection line formed over the word lines, a first channel layer passing through the word lines and the first selection line, a first phase change material layer formed in the first channel layer and overlapping the word lines, and a first insulating layer formed in the first channel layer and overlapping the first selection line.
US09076956B2

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) array sensor having an input interdigital transducer (IDT); first and second output IDTs that are disposed at both sides of the input IDT, respectively; a first delay line between the input IDT and the first output IDT; and a second delay line between the input IDT and the second output IDT, wherein the first and second delay lines have different lengths; and related devices.
US09076946B2

A light-emitting element comprises: a light-emitting semiconductor stack comprising a first semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor layer on the first semiconductor layer; and a light-emitting layer between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer; a first electrode on the first semiconductor layer; a first protection layer on the light-emitting semiconductor stack and comprising a first through hole; and a conductive contact layer on the first protection layer and electrically connected to the first electrode through the first through hole.
US09076945B2

A method for ablating a first area of a light emitting diode (LED) device which includes an array of nanowires on a support with a laser is provided. The laser ablation exposes a conductive layer of the support that is electrically connected to a first conductivity type semiconductor nanowire core in the nanowires, to form a first electrode for the LED device. In embodiments, the nanowires are aligned at least 20 degrees from the plane of the support. A light emitting diode (LED) structure includes a first electrode for contacting a first conductivity type nanowire core, and a second electrode for contacting a second conductivity type shell enclosing the nanowire core, where the first electrode and/or at least a portion of the second electrode are flat.
US09076941B2

A method of producing at least one optoelectronic semiconductor chip includes providing at least one optoelectronic structure, including a growth support and a semiconductor layer sequence with an active region, the semiconductor layer sequence being deposited epitaxially on the growth support, providing a carrier, applying the at least one optoelectronic structure onto the carrier with its side remote from the growth support, coating the at least one optoelectronic structure with a protective material, the protective material covering the outer face, remote from the carrier, of the growth support and side faces of the growth support and of the semiconductor layer sequence, and detaching the growth support from the semiconductor layer sequence of the at least one optoelectronic structure.
US09076939B2

An LED device with improved LED efficiency is presented. An LED die is positioned within a pocket formed by a substrate and an opening in a supporting layer arranged thereon. The increase in the LED efficiency is achieved by providing a device where at least a portion of the pocket surface is reflective. This portion of the pocket surface is reflective because it is covered by either a reflective layer of foil or film, or a reflective coating, or it is polished.
US09076938B2

A semiconductor light-emitting device includes a substrate, an LED chip mounted on the substrate, and a resin package covering the LED chip. The substrate includes a base and a wiring pattern formed on the base. The resin package includes a lens. The base includes an upper surface, a lower surface and a side surface extending between the upper surface and the lower surface. The LED chip is mounted on the upper surface of the base. The side surface of the base is oriented in a lateral direction. The wiring pattern includes a pair of first mount portions and a pair of second mount portions. The paired first mount portions are formed on the lower surface of the base. The paired second mount portions are oriented in the lateral direction and offset from the side surface of the base in the lateral direction.
US09076927B2

A method of fabricating a heterostructure device, including (a) obtaining a first layer or substrate; (b) growing a second layer on the first layer or substrate; and (c) forming the second layer that is at least partially relaxed wherein (1) the first layer and the second layer have the same lattice structure but different lattice constants, (2) the first layer and the second layer form a heterojunction, and (3) the heterojunction forms an active area of a device or serves as a pseudo-substrate for the device.
US09076922B2

In various embodiments, a method for fitting contact wires to a surface of a photovoltaic cell is provided. The method may include: feeding the contact wires to a contact wire positioning and placement device, wherein the contact wire positioning and placement device comprises a plurality of nozzles or eyes, wherein at least one contact wire is in each case passed through a respective nozzle or eye, for positioning and placement thereof onto the surface of the photovoltaic cell; positioning and placing the contact wires on the surface of the photovoltaic cell by means of the contact wire positioning and placement device; and attaching the contact wires to the surface of the photovoltaic cell.
US09076921B2

A method of fabricating a large area photodiode is provided. The method includes providing a substrate having a first contact layer formed thereon. Also, the method includes forming a dielectric layer on the first contact layer and patterning selective areas of the dielectric layer to form a plurality of dielectric windows. Each of the dielectric windows has an open region exposing the first contact layer. Furthermore, the method includes epitaxially growing photodiode material(s) in the dielectric windows, wherein each of the dielectric windows are individualized photodiode structures.
US09076915B2

Isoelectronic co-doping of semiconductor compounds and alloys with acceptors and deep donors is sued to decrease bandgap, to increase concentration of the dopant constituents in the resulting alloys, and to increase carrier mobilities lifetimes. For example, Group III-V compounds and alloys, such as GaAs and GaP, are isoelectronically co-doped with, for example, B and Bi, to customize solar cells, and other semiconductor devices. Isoelectronically co-doped Group II-VI compounds and alloys are also included.
US09076909B2

A photoelectric conversion device having a new anti-reflection structure is provided. The photoelectric conversion device includes a first-conductivity-type crystalline semiconductor region, an intrinsic crystalline semiconductor region, an intrinsic semiconductor region, and a second-conductivity-type semiconductor region that are stacked over a first electrode. An interface between the first electrode and the first-conductivity-type crystalline semiconductor region is flat. The intrinsic crystalline semiconductor region includes a crystalline semiconductor region, and a plurality of whiskers that are provided over the crystalline semiconductor region and include a crystalline semiconductor. In other words, the intrinsic crystalline semiconductor region includes the plurality of whiskers; thus, a surface of the second electrode is uneven. Further, a concentration gradient of an impurity element imparting the first conductivity type is formed from the first-conductivity-type crystalline semiconductor region toward the intrinsic crystalline semiconductor region.
US09076903B2

A method (50) is provided for processing a graded-density AR silicon surface (14) to provide effective surface passivation. The method (50) includes positioning a substrate or wafer (12) with a silicon surface (14) in a reaction or processing chamber (42). The silicon surface (14) has been processed (52) to be an AR surface with a density gradient or region of black silicon. The method (50) continues with heating (54) the chamber (42) to a high temperature for both doping and surface passivation. The method (50) includes forming (58), with a dopant-containing precursor in contact with the silicon surface (14) of the substrate (12), an emitter junction (16) proximate to the silicon surface (14) by doping the substrate (12). The method (50) further includes, while the chamber is maintained at the high or raised temperature, forming (62) a passivation layer (19) on the graded-density silicon anti-reflection surface (14).
US09076897B2

An optoelectronic semiconductor device includes an optoelectronic semiconductor layer sequence on a metal carrier element, which includes as a first component silver and as a second component a material having a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than silver, wherein the first and second components are intermixed in the metal carrier element.
US09076895B2

A stereoscopic image display substrate includes a base substrate, a data line, a plurality of gate line parts and a pixel electrode part. The data line is disposed on the base substrate. The data line extends in a first direction. The gate line parts are disposed on the base substrate. Each gate line part includes a plurality of gate lines extending in a second direction different from the first direction. The gate lines are adjacent to each other. The pixel electrode part is disposed between the gate line parts. The pixel electrode part includes at least three pixel electrodes connected to the data line.
US09076893B2

Methods, apparatuses, and products passively generate electrical energy from waste heat. Electronic components in cabinets generate waste heat that is used to illuminate an interior of a cabinet. A thermovoltaic semiconductor detects a temperature differential between a pair of terminals installed in the cabinet. The thermovoltaic semiconductor generates a low voltage output in response to the temperature differential. A power supply receives the low voltage output and produces a higher voltage for low-wattage light sources installed in the cabinet.
US09076889B2

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device including providing a semiconductor substrate having a first opening and second opening. A dielectric layer is formed on the substrate. An etch stop layer on the dielectric layer in the first opening. Thereafter, a work function layer is formed on the etch stop layer and fill metal is provided on the work function layer to fill the first opening.
US09076888B2

Methods and structures are provided for full silicidation of recessed silicon. Silicon is provided within a trench. A mixture of metals is provided over the silicon in which one of the metals diffuses more readily in silicon than silicon does in the metal, and another of the metals diffuses less readily in silicon than silicon does in the metal. An exemplary mixture includes 80% nickel and 20% cobalt. The silicon within the trench is allowed to fully silicide without void formation, despite a relatively high aspect ratio for the trench. Among other devices, recessed access devices (RADs) can be formed by the method for memory arrays.
US09076884B2

A method of making a package for a semiconductor device having electrical terminals. At least one semiconductor device is located on a substrate. A first dielectric layer is printed on at least a portion of the semiconductor device to include first recesses aligned with a plurality of the electrical terminals. A conductive material is deposited in the first recesses forming contact members. A second dielectric layer is printed on at least a portion of the first dielectric layer to include second recesses aligned with a plurality of the first recesses. A conductive material is deposited in at least a portion of the second recesses to include a circuit geometry and a plurality of exposed terminals. A compliant material is deposited in recesses in one or more of the first and second dielectric layers adjacent to a plurality of the exposed terminals.
US09076874B2

An object is to provide a structure of a transistor which has a channel formation region formed using an oxide semiconductor and a positive threshold voltage value, which enables a so-called normally-on switching element. The transistor includes an oxide semiconductor stack in which at least a first oxide semiconductor layer and a second oxide semiconductor layer with different energy gaps are stacked and a region containing oxygen in excess of its stoichiometric composition ratio is provided.
US09076866B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including a plurality of pillars, a gate electrode formed to surround a lower portion of the pillar and having a top surface lower than a top surface of the pillar, a salicide layer formed to cover the top surface of the pillar and surround an upper portion of the pillar, and an electrode formed to cover a top surface and a lateral surface of the salicide layer.
US09076865B2

A non-volatile memory device includes a semiconductor substrate having active regions formed of a p-type semiconductor, first and second vertical strings disposed on the active regions, channels extending vertical to the semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of memory cells stacked along the channels, wherein the active regions are directly connected to the channels of the first and second vertical strings.
US09076849B2

Semiconductor devices, and methods of fabricating a semiconductor device, include forming a via hole through a first surface of a substrate, the via hole being spaced apart from a second surface facing the first surface, forming a first conductive pattern in the via hole, forming an insulating pad layer on the first surface of the substrate, the insulating pad having an opening exposing the first conductive pattern, performing a thermal treatment on the first conductive pattern to form a protrusion protruding from a top surface of the first conductive pattern toward the opening, and then, forming a second conductive pattern in the opening.
US09076834B2

A spacer for a thermal plate in semiconductor processing includes a base substrate having a top surface defined thereon, a wafer having a bottom surface covering a portion of the base substrate, and a plurality of air passages formed in between the bottom surface of the wafer and the base substrate. The air passages connect the bottom surface of the wafer to an ambience.
US09076820B2

According to one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of insulating isolation sections provided so as to extend in a first direction, isolate the stacked body in a second direction, and have a projection projecting from the stacked body. Each insulating isolation section has a side wall including recessed sections and projected sections repeated along the first direction. The method includes forming a sidewall film on a side wall of the projection of the insulating isolation section, and forming a plurality of first holes surrounded by the sidewall film and isolated by the sidewall film in the first direction, between the plurality of insulating isolation sections. The method includes forming a second hole in the stacked body provided under the first hole by etching with the insulating isolation section and the sidewall film used as a mask.
US09076806B1

A device and a method of reducing high-frequency currents between the tip of the soldering iron and the circuit board are described. In one embodiment, a special EMI filter and a method of it implementation in soldering process is described. This device and this method of implementation provide significant reduction of high-frequency current to the sensitive components. Another embodiment describes an implementation of EMI-reducing filter inside the soldering iron. Yet other embodiments include implementation of EMI-reducing filter as a part of the solder station, of the vise holding the circuit board, of the solder spool holder and as a stand-alone device.
US09076803B2

A semiconductor device has a first interconnect structure. A first semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a first surface of the first interconnect structure. A first encapsulant is deposited over the first interconnect structure and first semiconductor die. A second semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a second surface of the first interconnect structure opposite the first surface. A plurality of first conductive pillars is formed over the second surface of the first interconnect structure and around the second semiconductor die. A second encapsulant is deposited over the second semiconductor die and around the plurality of first conductive pillars. A second interconnect structure including a conductive layer and bumps are formed over the second encapsulant and electrically connect to the plurality of first conductive pillars and the first and second semiconductor die.
US09076802B1

Simultaneous semiconductor packages can be produced using a dual-sided film-assist molding process. The process involves using a film or membrane having opposing surfaces for receiving un-encapsulated semiconductor packages on both surfaces. A slot can be formed in the film or membrane to facilitate introduction and passage of the encapsulation therethrough such that upon removal of the film or membrane, increased throughput and productivity of the completed semiconductor packages can be carried out to achieve considerable cost savings.
US09076800B2

A method for forming an identification mark on a silicon carbide single crystal substrate according to the present invention includes: (a) scanning a principal surface of a silicon carbide single crystal substrate with a laser beam at a first energy density such that a groove is formed in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate, thereby forming an identification mark which is constituted of one or more grooves in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate; and (b) scanning an inside of the groove formed in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate with a laser beam at a second energy density that is lower than the first energy density.
US09076784B2

A semiconductor structure includes a work function metal layer, a (work function) metal oxide layer and a main electrode. The work function metal layer is located on a substrate. The (work function) metal oxide layer is located on the work function metal layer. The main electrode is located on the (work function) metal oxide layer. A semiconductor process forming said semiconductor structure is also provided.
US09076781B2

A carrier device for a semiconductor chip includes a bondable and/or solderable metallic carrier having a mounting region for the semiconductor chip and a soldering region. The carrier is at least partly covered with a covering material. A solder barrier is arranged between the soldering region and the mounting region at an interface between the carrier and the covering material. An electronic component and an optoelectronic component are furthermore specified.
US09076773B2

The present invention concerns thin diffusion barriers in metal and metal alloy layer sequences of contact area/barrier layer/first bonding layer type for metal wire bonding applications. The diffusion barrier is selected from Co-M-P. Co-M-B and Co-M-B—P alloys wherein M is selected from Mn, Zr, Re, Mo, Ta and W having a thickness in the range 0.03 to 0.3 μm. The first bonding layer is selected from palladium and palladium alloys.
US09076772B2

A semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a P-type region, on at least one main surface of which integrated circuits are formed; one or more via electrodes inserted into the P-type region of the semiconductor substrate; a dielectric layer formed between the semiconductor substrate and the via electrodes; an N-type region, which is formed in the semiconductor substrate to contact a portion of the dielectric layer and to expose other portion of the dielectric layer; and a power circuit, which is electrically connected to the N-type region and apply a bias voltage or a ground voltage thereto, such that electric signals flowing in the via electrodes form an inversion layer on a surface of the semiconductor substrate facing the exposed portion of the dielectric layer.
US09076764B2

An asymmetric gate tunneling transistor includes a substrate, a first-polarity portion, a second-polarity portion, a channel portion, a gate structure and an insulation body. The first-polarity portion and the second-polarity portion are disposed on the substrate. The channel portion is connected with the first-polarity portion and the second-polarity portion, and includes a first section and a second section. The gate structure includes an enveloping portion surrounding the first section, and a flat portion covering one side of the second section away from the substrate. The insulation body includes a first insulation portion disposed between the first section and the enveloping portion, and a second insulation portion disposed between the second section and the flat portion. Through the asymmetric design of the gate structure, the tunneling transistor is offered with features of a high ON current and a low OFF current.
US09076758B2

A rectangular capacitor for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and a dual-pass lithography method to form the same are described. For example, a capacitor includes a trench disposed in a first dielectric layer disposed above a substrate. A cup-shaped metal plate is disposed along the bottom and sidewalls of the trench. A second dielectric layer is disposed on and conformal with the cup-shaped metal plate. A trench-fill metal plate is disposed on the second dielectric layer. The second dielectric layer isolates the trench-fill metal plate from the cup-shaped metal plate. The capacitor has a rectangular or near-rectangular shape from a top-down perspective.
US09076732B2

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device by wet-process chemical etching, the device comprising at least one layer of silicon (Si) and at least one layer of silicon-germanium (SiGe) and at least one layer of photosensitive resin forming a mask partly covering the layer of silicon-germanium (SiGe) and leaving the layer of silicon-germanium uncovered in certain zones, characterized in that it comprises a step of preparation of an etching solution, having a pH between 3 and 6, from hydrofluoric acid (HF), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), acetic acid (CH3COOH) and ammonia (NH4OH), and a step of stripping of the layer of silicon-germanium (SiGe) at least at the said zones by exposure to the said etching solution. The invention will be applicable for the manufacture of integrated circuits and more precisely of transistors. In particular, for optimization of CMOS transistors of the latest generation.
US09076730B2

A metal silicide thin film and ultra-shallow junctions and methods of making are disclosed. In the present disclosure, by using a metal and semiconductor dopant mixture as a target, a mixture film is formed on a semiconductor substrate using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process. The mixture film is removed afterwards by wet etching, which is followed by annealing to form metal silicide thin film and ultra-shallow junctions. Because the metal and semiconductor dopant mixture is used as a target to deposit the mixture film, and the mixture film is removed by wet etching before annealing, self-limiting, ultra-thin, and uniform metal silicide film and ultra-shallow junctions are formed concurrently in semiconductor field-effect transistor fabrication processes, which are suitable for field-effect transistors at the 14 nm, 11 nm, or even further technology node.
US09076729B2

A semiconductor device is disclosed. The device includes a substrate, a first dielectric layer disposed over the substrate and a metal structure disposed in the first dielectric layer and below a surface of the first dielectric layer. The metal structure has a such shape that having an upper portion with a first width and a lower portion with a second width. The second width is substantially larger than the first width. The semiconductor device also includes a sub-structure of a second dielectric positioned between the upper portion of the metal structure and the first dielectric layer.
US09076720B2

An aspect of the present embodiment, there is provided magnetic random access memory device including a semiconductor substrate, a selection transistor on the semiconductor substrate, the selection transistor including a diffusion layer, a contact plug on diffusion layer, an amorphous film on the contact plug, a lower electrode provided on the amorphous film, a first magnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, a second magnetic layer, an upper electrode stacked in an order and a sidewall contact film on the contact plug, the sidewall contact film being in contact with a sidewall of the upper electrode.
US09076718B2

The present invention provides an oxide semiconductor capable of achieving a thin film transistor having stable transistor characteristics, a thin film transistor having a channel layer formed of the oxide semiconductor and a production method thereof, and a display device equipped with the thin film transistor. The oxide semiconductor of the present invention is an oxide semiconductor for a thin film transistor. The oxide semiconductor includes indium, gallium, zinc, and oxygen as constituent atoms, and the oxygen content of the oxide semiconductor is 87% to 95% of the stoichiometric condition set as 100%, in terms of atomic units.
US09076713B2

The invention relates to a method for fabricating a locally passivated germanium-on-insulator substrate wherein, in order to achieve good electron mobility, nitridized regions are provided at localized positions. Nitridizing is achieved using a plasma treatment. The resulting substrates also form part of the invention.
US09076712B2

An electrical mobility-controlled material includes a solid state host material having a controllable Fermi energy level and electrical charge carriers with a charge carrier mobility. At least one Fermi level energy at which a peak in charge carrier mobility is to occur is prespecified for the host material. A plurality of particles are distributed in the host material, with at least one particle disposed with an effective mass and a radius that minimize scattering of the electrical charge carriers for the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy of peak charge carrier mobility. The minimized scattering of electrical charge carriers produces the peak charge carrier mobility only at the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy, set by the particle effective mass and radius, the charge carrier mobility being less than the peak charge carrier mobility at Fermi level energies other than the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy.
US09076700B2

In a semiconductor device in which a plurality of semiconductor chips are stacked, performance is enhanced without deteriorating productivity. The semiconductor device has a plurality of elements, an interlayer insulating film, a pad, and a bump electrode electrically connected with the pad sequentially formed on a main surface of a silicon substrate and has a back-surface electrode formed on a back surface of the silicon substrate and electrically connected with the bump electrode. The bump electrode has a protruding portion penetrating through the pad and protruding toward the silicon substrate side. The back-surface electrode is formed so as to reach the protruding portion of the bump electrode from the back surface side of the silicon substrate toward the main surface side and to cover the inside of a back-surface electrode hole portion which does not reach the pad, so that the back-surface electrode is electrically connected with the bump electrode.
US09076699B2

A TSV exposing process is provided, including: performing a mechanical grinding process on the substrate back surface of a substrate with a TSV conductive column, a liner between the substrate and the TSV conductive column; performing a first and a second chemical mechanical polishing process on the grinded substrate back surface; then performing an etching on the substrate back surface, and making the TSV backside reveal more than 10 μm.
US09076693B2

Display substrates are disclosed. In one aspect, display substrates include a first signal line, a second signal line, a first detour signal line and a second detour signal line. The first signal line includes a first region and a pair of second regions disposed on opposite sides of the first region. The pair of second regions are spaced apart from the first region. The second signal line crosses the first signal line. The second signal line includes a third region and a pair of fourth regions disposed on opposite sides of the third region. The pair of fourth regions are spaced apart from the third region. The first detour signal line electrically connects the pair of second regions to each other. The second detour signal line electrically connects the pair of fourth regions to each other. Related methods are also disclosed.
US09076684B1

A 3D memory structure and a manufacturing method of the same are provided. The 3D memory structure includes a substrate, a plurality of stacked structures, a plurality of charge trapping layers, a plurality of bit lines, and a plurality of stair structures. The stacked structures are formed on the substrate, and each of the stacked structures includes a plurality of gates and a plurality of gate insulators alternately stacked on the substrate. The charge trapping layers are formed on the sidewalls of the stacked structures. The bit lines are arranged orthogonally over the stacked structures, the surfaces of the bit lines crossing the stacked structures for forming a plurality of memory elements. The stair structures, each electrically connected to the different gates, are stacked on the substrate.
US09076670B2

In an integrated circuit that includes an NMOS logic transistor, an NMOS SRAM transistor, and a resistor, the gate of the SRAM transistor is doped at the same time that the resistor is doped, thereby allowing the gate of the logic transistor to be separately doped without requiring any additional masking steps.
US09076642B2

This disclosure enables high-productivity fabrication of porous semiconductor layers (made of single layer or multi-layer porous semiconductors such as porous silicon, comprising single porosity or multi-porosity layers). Some applications include fabrication of MEMS separation and sacrificial layers for die detachment and MEMS device fabrication, membrane formation and shallow trench isolation (STI) porous silicon (using porous silicon formation with an optimal porosity and its subsequent oxidation). Further, this disclosure is applicable to the general fields of photovoltaics, MEMS, including sensors and actuators, stand-alone, or integrated with integrated semiconductor microelectronics, semiconductor microelectronics chips and optoelectronics.
US09076639B2

The present invention includes a transmissive-reflective photocathode including a membrane configured to absorb photons from an illumination source via a first surface of the membrane, the membrane further configured to emit photoelectrons in a reflection mode via the first surface, the membrane further configured to emit photoelectrons in a transmissive mode via a second surface, the first surface and the second surface being substantially parallel, and a membrane support structure configured to mechanically secure the membrane, the membrane support structure further configured to provide at least a first pathway between the first surface and free space and a second pathway between the second surface and free space.
US09076636B2

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus including a susceptor 114, having a substrate mounting portion for mounting thereon a substrate, to which a high frequency power is applied; a focus ring 210, disposed to surround the substrate mounted on the substrate mounting portion, including an outer ring 214 having a top surface higher than a top surface of the substrate and an inner ring 212 extending inwardly from the outer ring so as to allow at least a part of the inner ring to be positioned below a periphery of the substrate, the outer ring and the inner ring being formed as a single member; a dielectric ring 220 positioned between the focus ring and the susceptor; a dielectric constant varying device 250 for varying a dielectric constant of the dielectric ring.
US09076628B2

A support structure for an x-ray window comprising a support frame defining a perimeter and an aperture, a plurality of ribs extending across the aperture of the support frame and carried by the support frame, and openings between the plurality of ribs. A rib taper region can extend from a central portion of the ribs to the support frame. The taper region can include a non-circular, arcuate pair of fillets on opposing sides of the ribs and an increasing of rib width from the central portion to the support frame.
US09076613B2

A thermally activated electrical interrupt device incorporates a thermally activated portion engaging with an electrical interrupt portion. The thermally activated material expands when heated, causing an interrupt control rod to open an electrical contact. When the interrupt device is placed into an interrupt state, a reset mechanism maintains the interrupt control rod in the interrupt state until specifically reset. An actuating shaft is in operational communication with at least one electrical contact. The actuating shaft is maintained in a thermal monitoring position until an interrupt control rod is moved via a thermally expanding material and engages with the actuating shaft, releasing it from the thermal monitoring position. The actuating shaft is projected via a biasing member to cause a change in state of the electrical contact. The actuating shaft remains in the interrupt state until the user resets the switch.
US09076605B2

The Present Disclosure provides a touch panel, which consists of a main panel and a light-emitting touch module mounted under the main panel. The light-emitting touch module consists of a first circuit board provided with a plethora of touch sensors and light-emitting devices under the main panel. These touch sensors are used to induce the approaching signals of the operator, and transmit the induction signals to a touch control circuit for controlling the light-emitting status of the corresponding light-emitting device. The light-emitting touch module also consists of a second circuit board, electrically connected with the first circuit board. The touch control circuit is provided on the second circuit board, spatially separated from the first circuit board by a certain distance, so that the electromagnetic interferences of the touch control circuit on the touch sensors may be reduced.
US09076599B2

A compact laminated ceramic electronic component having superior moisture resistance and electrical properties is provided.A laminated ceramic electronic component 1 includes an inner layer portion that contains a plurality of dielectric layers 2a and internal electrode layers 3 comprising Ni as a main component that are laminated alternately, and a pair of dielectric outer layer portions 2b which sandwich the inner layer portions. And Ni particles are segregated in the dielectric outer layer portions 2b. And the amount of Ni particles existing in the dielectric layers 2a is smaller than that in the dielectric outer layer portions 2b.
US09076597B2

A monolithic ceramic capacitor includes an element body including a multilayer portion including a plural conductor layers and plural ceramic dielectric layers alternately stacked in a thickness direction. The element body is divided in the thickness direction into thickness-direction first and outer layer portions made of the ceramic dielectric layers, and a thickness-direction inner layer portion including the multilayer portion. The element body bulges to the outer side at a center portion in a length direction, and center portions in the length direction of the plural conductor layers are curved to the outer side. The thickness of a portion of the first outer layer portion adjacent to a first extension portion is larger than the thickness of a center portion thereof, and the thickness of a portion of the second outer layer portion adjacent to a second extension portion is larger than the thickness of a center portion thereof.
US09076596B2

There are provided a laminated ceramic electronic component and a method of fabricating the same. The laminated ceramic electronic component include a ceramic body including a dielectric layer; and first and second internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween within the ceramic body, wherein the ceramic body includes an active layer that is a capacitance forming part and a cover layer that is a non-capacitance forming part formed on at least one of a top surface and a bottom surface of the active layer, and when a thickness of the ceramic body is t and a thickness of the cover layer is T, T≦t×0.05 is satisfied and when an average particle diameter of a dielectric grain in the active layer is Da and an average particle diameter of a dielectric grain in the cover layer is Dc, 0.7≦Dc/Da≦1.5 is satisfied.
US09076595B2

A capacitor includes a dielectric layer having a first plane, a second plane opposite to the first plane, and first and second through-holes communicated with the first plane and the second plane; a first external conductor layer disposed on the first plane; a second external conductor layer disposed on the second plane; a first internal electrode formed in the first through-hole, connected to the first external electrode layer, disposed in the second hole diameter part at a tip and separated from the second external electrode layer; and a second internal electrode formed in the second through-hole, connected to the second external electrode layer, and separated from the first external electrode layer.
US09076594B2

Capacitors and methods of making the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a capacitor comprises a structure having first and second oppositely facing surfaces and a plurality of pores each extending in a first direction from the first surface towards the second surface, and each having pore having insulating material extending along a wall of the pore; a first conductive portion comprising an electrically conductive material extending within at least some of the pores; and a second conductive portion comprising a region of the structure consisting essentially of aluminum surrounding individual pores of the plurality of pores, the second conductive portion electrically isolated from the first conductive portion by the insulating material extending along the walls of the pores.
US09076592B2

A wet electrolytic capacitor that contains an anodically oxidized porous anode body, a cathode containing a metal substrate coated with a conductive coating, and a working electrolyte that wets the dielectric on the anode. The conductive coating is formed through anodic electrochemical polymerization (“electro-polymerization”) of a microemulsion on the surface of the metal substrate. The microemulsion is a thermodynamically stable, isotropic liquid mixture that contains a precursor monomer, sulfonic acid, nonionic surfactant, and solvent.
US09076591B2

Electrochemical capacitors and methods for producing such electrochemical capacitors. The electrochemical capacitor can have an initial charged state and a cycled charged state and can include an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. The anode can include a first mixture having a first plurality of electrically conductive carbon-comprising particles having a first average porosity. The cathode can include a second mixture having a second plurality of electrically conductive carbon-comprising particles having a second average porosity greater than said first average porosity. The electrolyte can be physically and electrically contacting said anode and said cathode, and the first mixture in the cycled charged state can be substantially free of lithium metal particles and can further include a plurality of lithium ions intercalating the first plurality of carbon comprising particles. The mass ratio of the cathode and the electrolyte can be less than 1.
US09076588B2

Provided herein are dielectric fluids comprising at least one estolide compound of formula: in which n is an integer equal to or greater than 0; m is an integer equal to or greater than 1; R1, independently for each occurrence, is selected from optionally substituted alkyl that is saturated or unsaturated, and branched or unbranched; R2 is selected from hydrogen and optionally substituted alkyl that is saturated or unsaturated, and branched or unbranched; and R3 and R4, independently for each occurrence, are selected from optionally substituted alkyl that is saturated or unsaturated, and branched or unbranched. Also provided herein are uses of dielectric fluids and electrical devices such as transformers that comprise a dielectric fluid comprising at least one estolide compound.
US09076586B2

A coil component includes a coil element, a body having a square pole shape which accommodates the coil component therein, and a pair of terminals. The first ends of the terminals are respectively fixed to the side surfaces, opposite to each other, of the body. The terminals are bent from the side surfaces toward the bottom surface of the body. The second end of each of the terminals includes corner parts at the both side portions thereof. The bottom surface of the body is provided with recesses at locations not overlapping with the coil component, viewed from the bottom surface. The recesses are recessed from the bottom surface of the body and penetrating to one of the side surfaces. The corner parts of the terminals are locked on the bottom surface of the body, by being bent along inner walls of the recesses.
US09076578B2

There is provided a dielectric composition, including; a base powder including BamTiO3 (0.995≦m≦1.010); a first sub-component including 0.05 to 4.00 moles of an oxide or carbonate containing at least one rare-earth element based on 100 moles of the base powder; a second sub-component including 0.05 to 0.70 moles of an oxide or carbonate containing at least one transition metal; a third sub-component including 0.20 to 2.00 moles of a Si oxide; a fourth sub-component including 0.02 to 1.00 mole of an Al oxide; and a fifth sub-component including 20 to 140% of an oxide containing at least one of Ba and Ca, based on the third sub-component.
US09076572B2

A conductive paste is provided, which includes 3 wt % to 20 wt % of epoxy resin, 10 wt % to 25 wt % of solvent, 0.3 wt % to 5 wt % of latent curing agent, 3.5 wt % to 35 wt % of flaky metal powder surface-treated by saturated fatty acid, and 35 wt % to 75 wt % of flaky metal powder surface-treated by unsaturated fatty acid.
US09076565B2

There is provided an image processing apparatus including a processing unit configured to superimpose a plurality of X-ray images that are based on X-ray detection data representing detection results obtained by detecting a plurality of times in a time-division manner parallel beam X-rays output from a ray source including a plurality of X-ray sources that output parallel beam X-rays.
US09076563B2

A detector system for multi-slice X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) system is disclosed. The detector system comprises a plurality of X-ray detector modules for detecting X-ray photons; wherein each detector module is divided into individual detector elements organized in a matrix fashion with element rows (z-axis for row direction) and element columns (x-axis for column direction) for detecting X-ray photons; wherein the individual detector elements are interspaced by gaps (areas that do not detect radiation), which are also organized in a matrix fashion with gap rows and gap columns; and an anti-scatter collimator comprising a plurality of anti-scatter plates, which is placed above the detector modules and aligned to focus on an X-ray source of the CT system; wherein some or all of the anti-scatter plates are placed above the detector elements; wherein those anti-scatter plates that are placed above the detector elements block a portion of primary X-ray photons from the X-ray source in addition to scattered X-ray photons from reaching the detector elements.
US09076562B2

A phase plate for a charged particle beam system, such as a transmission electron microscope (TEM), is described. The phase plate comprises a support having a through-hole and an elongate member which is magnetisable in a direction along its length and which extends partially across the through-hole and which is narrower than the through-hole.
US09076557B2

Read margin measurement circuitry for measuring the read margin of floating-gate programmable non-volatile memory cells. In some embodiments, the read margin of a cell with a floating-gate transistor in a non-conductive state is measured by periodically clocking a counter following initiation of a read cycle; a latch stores the counter contents upon the cell under test making a transition due to leakage of the floating-gate transistor. Logic for testing a group of cells in parallel is disclosed. In some embodiments, the read margin of a cell in which the floating-gate transistor is set to a conductive state is measured by repeatedly reading the cell, with the output developing a voltage corresponding to the duty cycle of the output of the read circuit.
US09076553B2

Among other things, one or more techniques or systems for facilitating access operations to a single port memory device are provided. Multiple access operations to a single port memory device, such as a 6 transistor bitcell array of an SPSRAM, are performed during a single clock period of a system clock. In an embodiment, a wrapper controller initiates a first access operation during a first clock period of the system clock based upon a rising edge of the system clock. Responsive to receiving an operation complete signal during the first clock operation, the wrapper controller initiates a second access operation to the single port memory device during the first clock period. In this way, multi-port access functionality is implemented, such as in a serial manner to mitigate operation disturbs, for a single port memory device that occupies a relatively smaller area than a multi-port memory device for improved storage density.
US09076547B2

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a compensation unit to provide a compensation value based at least in part on a threshold voltage value of a memory cell. At least one of such embodiments includes a controller to select a code during an operation of retrieving information from the memory cell to represent a value of information stored in the memory cell. Such a code can be associated with an address having an address value based at least in part on the compensation value. Additional apparatuses and methods are described.
US09076544B2

A non-volatile storage system is disclosed that includes pairs of NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) in the same block being connected to and sharing a common bit line. To operate the system, two selection lines are used so that the NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) sharing a bit line can be selected at the block level. Both selection lines are connected to a selection gate for each of the NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) sharing the bit line. One set of embodiments avoid unwanted boosting during read operations by keeping the channels of the memory cells connected to word lines on the drain side of the selected word line biased at a fixed potential.
US09076542B2

A magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) including an MRAM cell array having an MRAM cell, and a control and voltage generation unit configured to generate a back bias voltage for the MRAM cell. The control and voltage generation unit including a command decoder configured to generate a decoding signal in response to a command output from a memory controller, and a voltage controller and generator configured to generate the back bias voltage with a magnitude based on the decoding signal and a reset signal output from the memory controller.
US09076530B2

Method and apparatus for managing data in a memory. In accordance with some embodiments, a non-volatile (NV) buffer is adapted to store input write data having a selected logical address. A write circuit is adapted to transfer a copy of the input write data to an NV main memory while retaining the stored input write data in the NV buffer. A verify circuit is adapted to perform a verify operation at the conclusion of a predetermined elapsed time interval to verify successful transfer of the copy of the input write data to the NV main memory. The input write data are retained in the NV buffer until successful transfer is verified.
US09076524B2

A method is provided for accessing a memory device. The method includes programming data in a plurality of cells of the memory device in a first programming operation. The first programming operation uses a first memory instruction including at least one first parameter representative of at least one first threshold voltage value for said programming. The method further includes re-programming at least a portion of the data in the plurality of cells in a second programming operation. The second programming operation uses a second memory instruction including at least one second parameter representative of at least one second threshold voltage value for said re-programming, wherein said re-programming provides bit manipulation of the portion of the data.
US09076522B2

A method is disclosed that includes the operations outlined below. A first voltage is applied to a gate of an access transistor of each of a row of memory cells during a reset operation, wherein a first source/drain of the access transistor is electrically connected to a first electrode of a resistive random access memory (RRAM) device in the same memory cell. An inhibition voltage is applied to a second electrode of the RRAM device or to a second source/drain of the access transistor of each of a plurality of unselected memory cells when the first voltage is applied to the gate of the access transistor.
US09076521B2

A thin-film memory may include a thin-film transistor-free address decoder in conjunction with thin-film memory elements to yield an all-thin-film memory. Such a thin-film memory excludes all single-crystal electronic devices and may be formed, for example, on a low-cost substrate, such as fiberglass, glass or ceramic. The memory may be configured for operation with an external memory controller.
US09076519B2

A resistive random access memory (ReRAM) device can comprise a first metal layer and a first metal-oxide layer on the first metal layer. The first metal-oxide layer comprises the first metal. A second metal layer can comprise a second metal over and in physical contact with the first metal-oxide layer. A first continuous non-conductive barrier layer can be in physical contact with sidewalls of the first metal layer and sidewalls of the first metal-oxide layer. A second metal-oxide layer can be on the second metal layer. The second metal-oxide layer can comprise the second metal layer. A third metal layer can be over and in physical contact with the second metal-oxide layer. The first and second metal-oxide layers, are further characterized as independent storage mediums.
US09076518B2

A three-dimensional non-volatile memory system is disclosed including a memory array utilizing shared pillar structures for memory cell formation. A shared pillar structure includes two non-volatile storage elements. A first end surface of each pillar contacts one array line from a first set of array lines and a second end surface of each pillar contacts two array lines from a second set of array lines that is vertically separated from the first set of array lines. Each pillar includes a first subset of layers that are divided into portions for the individual storage elements in the pillar. Each pillar includes a second subset of layers that is shared between both non-volatile storage elements formed in the pillar. The individual storage elements each include a steering element and a state change element.
US09076511B2

A nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell array; and a high voltage generator arranged to generate a high voltage to be supplied to the memory cell array. The high voltage generator includes a pump unit block having a plurality of pump units supplied with an external voltage and at least one of the pumps is engaged in pumping the external voltage to a higher, output, voltage, at a steady clock rate. The number of pumps engaged in pumping is increased until a predetermined period has elapsed. The rate at which the number of pumps is increased depends upon the value of the external voltage.
US09076507B2

A nonvolatile memory includes multiple banks, control logic and multiple read and write (RW) circuits. Each bank includes multiple memory cells. The control logic includes multiple storage units corresponding to the banks, respectively, and configured to output write enable signals and read enable signals to respective banks based on mode information stored in respective storage units. The RW circuits are connected to the banks, respectively, and are configured to independently enable or disable write and read operations of the respective banks in response to the write enable signals and the read enable signals of the respective banks. In an initial state after the mode information is stored in the respective storage units, the control logic activates the write enable signals and the read enable signals of the respective banks regardless of the mode information stored in the respective storage units.
US09076498B1

A mobile hard disk drive includes an electrical module including a circuit board, a face panel and a holder box, and a hard disk tray detachably insertable through an insertion slot in the face panel into a receiving chamber in the holder box to force arched spring plates thereof into friction engagement with two opposite inner lateral walls in the receiving chamber of the holder box and lockable to the face panel by two hand screws that are mounted at an end plate of the hard disk tray for threading into respective locating screw holes at the face panel to lock the hard disk tray to the face panel of the electrical module.
US09076489B1

Methods and apparatus provide for a self-enclosed timeline trimmer to create a circular timeline placed over a video that graphically represents the entire duration of a video. The self-enclosed timeline trimmer generates a self-enclosed timeline to represent a duration of the video incremented according to a first unit of time. The self-enclosed timeline is layered over at least a portion of the video. The self-enclosed timeline trimmer represents a start of the video on the self-enclosed timeline and an end of the video on the self-enclosed timeline. The self-enclosed timeline trimmer displays the duration of the video in its entirety by connecting the start and the end of the video on the self-enclosed timeline. Further, the self-enclosed timeline trimmer is well suited for video editing on mobile computer devices, wireless computer devices, and for portable computer devices.
US09076482B1

Utilities that increase the volume of media elements that can be simultaneously loaded and/or unloaded into or from a storage library, facilitate mounting of media element magazines into a storage library, and limit access to an interior of a storage library by users during operation of robotics assemblies of the storage library. One disclosed utility includes a cartridge access port for use with a storage library that has a storage container that is pivotable (e.g., swingable) between at least first and second positions. In the first position, the storage container is adjacent an opening in the housing of the library for loading and unloading of media elements by a user into or from the container via the opening. After the storage container has swung into the second position, the storage container is spaced from the opening and faces the interior of the library for access by a robotics assembly.
US09076479B2

A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate having sequentially formed thereon (a) a magnetic layer; (b) a protective layer having a thickness ranging from 1.0 nm to 2.5 nm and being composed of an amorphous metal layer having a thickness of at least 0.3 nm, the amorphous metal layer being composed of a metal selected from the group consisting of Si, Al, Ge, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo and W that is in an amorphous state; (c) a carbon layer formed on the amorphous metal layer and having a thickness of at least 0.3 nm, the carbon layer including amorphous carbon; and (d) a lubricating layer, wherein the carbon layer includes nitrogen atoms in a surface thereof in which a ratio of number of nitrogen atoms to total number of carbon atoms, nitrogen atoms, and oxygen atoms is 14 atomic % or less.
US09076478B2

An aspect of the present invention relates to a binder resin composition for a magnetic recording medium, which comprises a vinyl chloride resin containing a radiation-curable functional group, and a methacrylate compound denoted by formula (A): in an amount of equal to or more than 0.3 weight percent but equal to or less than 10 weight percent relative to a content of the vinyl chloride resin.
US09076470B2

A suspension substrate of the present invention includes an insulating layer, a spring material layer, and a plurality of wirings, wherein one wiring of the plurality of wirings includes a head-side wiring part and a plurality of division wiring parts, respectively bifurcated from the head-side wiring part. The spring material layer includes a spring-material-layer main body, a first spring-material-layer separated body and a second spring-material-layer separated body. The division wiring parts of the one wiring are respectively connected with the first spring-material-layer separated body, via a pair of conductive connection parts, respectively extending through the insulating layer. The first spring-material-layer separated body is located on one side relative to the longitudinal axis, while the second spring-material-layer separated body is located on the other side relative to the longitudinal axis.
US09076469B1

A head assembly includes: a first link that is disposed to interconnect between a first joint connected to a slider support plate and a second joint connected to a first fixing unit; a second link that is disposed to interconnect between a third joint connected to the slider support plate and a fourth joint connected to a second fixing unit; a first drive unit that drives the first link; and a second drive unit that drives the second link.
US09076468B1

A scissor type magnetic sensor having a soft magnetic side shields for improved sensor stability. The soft magnetic side shield structure extends from the side of the sensor and although being constructed of a low coercivity soft magnetic material it has a shape the causes the magnetization of the side shield layer to remain oriented in a desired direction parallel to the media facing surface. The side shields include first and second magnetic layers with an antiparallel coupling layer sandwiched between them. Each of the magnetic layers of the side shield structure has a width measured perpendicular to the media facing surface and a thickness measured perpendicular to the width and parallel with the media facing surface, both the width and the thickness being less than 10 times an intrinsic exchange length of the magnetic layer.
US09076448B2

A real-time system incorporating speech recognition and linguistic processing for recognizing a spoken query by a user and distributed between client and server, is disclosed. The system accepts user's queries in the form of speech at the client where minimal processing extracts a sufficient number of acoustic speech vectors representing the utterance. These vectors are sent via a communications channel to the server where additional acoustic vectors are derived. Using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), and appropriate grammars and dictionaries conditioned by the selections made by the user, the speech representing the user's query is fully decoded into text (or some other suitable form) at the server. This text corresponding to the user's query is then simultaneously sent to a natural language engine and a database processor where optimized SQL statements are constructed for a full-text search from a database for a recordset of several stored questions that best matches the user's query. Further processing in the natural language engine narrows the search to a single stored question. The answer corresponding to this single stored question is next retrieved from the file path and sent to the client in compressed form. At the client, the answer to the user's query is articulated to the user using a text-to-speech engine in his or her native natural language. The system requires no training and can operate in several natural languages.
US09076447B2

Streaming audio is received. The streaming audio includes a frame having plurality of samples. An energy estimate is obtained for the plurality of samples. The energy estimate is compared to at least one threshold. In addition, a band pass estimate of the signal is determined. An energy estimate is obtained for the band-passed plurality of samples. The two energy estimates are compared to at least one threshold each. Based upon the comparison operation, a determination is made as to whether speech is detected.
US09076443B2

A device and method for quantizing a gain of a fixed contribution of an excitation in a frame, including sub-frames, of a coded sound signal. The gain is estimated in a sub-frame using a frame classification parameter, and is then quantized in the sub-frame using the estimated gain. The device and method can be used in jointly quantizing gains of adaptive and fixed contributions of an excitation. For retrieving a quantized gain of a fixed contribution of an excitation in a sub-frame, the gain of the fixed excitation contribution is estimated using a frame classification parameter, a gain codebook supplies a correction factor in response to a received, gain codebook index, and a multiplier multiplies the estimated gain by the correction factor to provide the quantized gain.
US09076435B2

A method and apparatus for determining the manner in which a processor-enabled device should produce sounds from data is described. The device ideally synthesizes sounds digitally, and reproduces pre-recorded sounds, together with an audible delivery thereof, a memory in which is stored a database of a plurality data at least some of which is in the form of text-based indicators, and one or more pre-recorded sounds. The device is further capable of repeatedly determining one or more physical conditions, e.g. current GPS location, which is compared with one or more reference values provided in memory such that a positive result of the comparison gives rise to an event requiring a sound to be produced by the device.
US09076429B2

Metamaterial members for absorbing sound and pressure, and modular systems built of metamaterial members are provided. The metamaterial member includes an outer mass. The outer mass can have a cavity formed therein in which a stem coupled to an inner mass is disposed, or the outer mass can be solid and contain an inner mass embedded therein. The inner mass can include an inner core and an outer shell. Multiple metamaterial members can be attached to form a modular system for absorption of sound and pressure.
US09076416B2

The present invention relates to a musical instrument tuner, e.g. a guitar tuner, featuring tuning as a part of a user session.
US09076415B2

In some aspects, a hi-hat musical cymbal set support stand includes a vertical stand tube defining a stand axis, and three support members associated with a lower end of the stand tube and disposed in a tripod arrangement for supporting engagement of the stand upon a supporting surface. Each supporting member defines a contact point with the supporting surface, and the three supporting members supporting the lower end of the stand tube in a position spaced apart from the supporting floor surface. At least one of the three supporting members includes a foot pedal cymbal operating device having an outward heel end defining one of the three contact points and an inward toe end suspended from the lower end of the stand tube, the heel end being disposed in engagement with the supporting surface, and the toe end being spaced from contact with the supporting surface.
US09076410B2

A fallboard arrangement for a keyboard instrument, which makes it possible to make flat the entire upper surface of a keyboard instrument in a closed state. A fallboard back section is immovably provided in a rear part of the body, in a horizontal state. A fallboard is movable between a closed position where it is forward of the fallboard back section and has an upper surface thereof made flush with that of the fallboard back section in a state closing the performance section and an open position where it is upward of the fallboard back section so as to open the performance section. A hinge connects the fallboard to the fallboard back section in a manner pivotally movable between the closed position and the open position and is disposed downward of the fallboard in the closed position and the upper surface of the fallboard back section.
US09076408B2

A frame data shrinking method is disclosed. The method is to divide frame data into data of target pixel and neighbor pixels, and select one data combination set from a plurality of data combination sets provided from the data neighbor pixels as encoded data of the target pixel; and the data combination set are to be compressed and recovered as decoded data of the target pixel of the current frame for being used to be compared with the decoded data of a target pixel of a previous frame; and then the data of the neighbor pixels are compressed and stored along with the selection information about the target pixel in a memory. Because the usage of memory is relatively lower, the cost of driving chips can be effectively reduced.
US09076402B2

A liquid crystal display device includes a pixel array substrate having signal lines and scan lines arranged in a matrix, and pixel circuits arranged at intersections of the signal and scan lines. A touch panel is attached on the counter substrate to draw pictures or characters on a display panel. A first voltage generation circuit generates an analog pixel voltage applied to the signal lines and a second voltage generation circuit generates a counter electrode voltage applied to the counter electrode. A settling adjustment circuit adjusts a settling time of at least one of the analog pixel voltage and the counter electrode voltage.
US09076400B2

A memory-type liquid crystal display device includes transistors (N1, N2), retention electrodes (MRY), refresh output control sections (RS1), and capacitors (Cb1). In a data retention period, an electric potential of each of the retention electrodes (MRY) is changed via a corresponding one of the capacitors (Cb1) by changing an electric potential level of a retention capacitor wire signal that is supplied to a corresponding CS line (CSL(i)). Each of the refresh output control sections (RS1) receives the electric potential thus changed of a corresponding one of the retention electrodes (MRY) via the input section and controls an electric potential of a corresponding pixel electrode (PIX) in accordance with the electric potential thus changed.
US09076398B2

A display and an operating method thereof are provided. The display includes a display panel, a timing controller, and a plurality of source drivers. The timing controller has a plurality of signal output terminals. The source drivers are coupled to the timing controller and the display panel. The timing controller outputs a plurality of training packets to the source drivers. When the source drivers lock a clock of the timing controller according to the training packets, the timing controller outputs a plurality of control packets and a plurality of color data packets to the source drivers. The source drivers respectively output a plurality of pixel voltages corresponding to the color data packets to the display panel according to the corresponding control packets. The training packets, the control packets, and the color data packets are serially transmitted to the source drivers via the signal output terminals.
US09076393B2

Disclosed are a timing controller and an LCD device including the same. The timing controller sequentially drives a plurality of sub-pixels, which are arranged in parallel on the same horizontal line, during a plurality of horizontal period. The timing controller includes a timing signal generation unit generating a first data enable signal on the basis of an active period of a data enable input signal supplied from the reception unit, generating a second data enable signal on the basis of an abnormal period generated during the active period, and generating a data enable output signal on the basis of the first and second data enable signals, and a data processing unit selecting display data corresponding to sequential driving of the horizontal periods among from the temporarily stored data according to the data enable output signal, and outputting the selected display data.
US09076391B2

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer-based image processing, and more particularly, to systems, computer-readable mediums, methods, and apparatuses to operate a rear modulator in a high dynamic range display to, among other things, characterize input images into pixel characteristics which may be data-reduced representations of a group of pixels corresponding to the input image, and to relate a modulation value intensity image to a weighted combination of the pixel characteristics. The modulation value intensity image may be used to derive a rear modulator drive signal, which, turn, may be configured to control one or more modulating elements to generate a low resolution image of the input image at the rear modulator.
US09076390B2

A display device includes a display unit including pixels, each of which emits light according to data voltages, respectively; and a timing controller which divides an area of the display unit into an upper, center and bottom portions, divides one frame time into light emission sub-frames of a light emission period and a blank sub-frame of a blank period in which is supplied a black data signal, divides the upper, center and the bottom portions into groups, differentiates a scan start time of a light emission sub-frame and a scan start time of the blank sub-frame of each group, and increases the light emission period and decreases the blank period in proportional to an increase ratio of the light emission period as a group is closer to a middle of the center portion.
US09076386B2

A display device is disclosed. In one aspect, the device includes a plurality of pixels, a scan driver sequentially applying scan signals at a gate-on voltage to a plurality of scan lines connected to a plurality of pixels and a data driver applying data signals to a plurality of data lines connected to a plurality of pixels in response to the scan signals at the gate-on voltage. The device also includes a power supply unit sequentially changing first power voltages at a high level voltage into a low level voltage and applying the changed voltages, and sequentially changing second power voltages at the low level voltage into the high level voltage and applying the changed voltages. The device further includes a light-emitting signal unit sequentially applying light-emitting signals at the gate-on voltage to a plurality of light-emitting lines connected to a plurality of pixels.
US09076382B2

A method for driving an organic light emitting display device capable of reducing the number of output lines in a data driver, as well as ensuring a sufficient driving time. The method for driving the organic light emitting display device includes steps of supplying a data signal and a reset voltage to an output line during a horizontal period; supplying the data signal and the reset voltage, supplied to the output line, to a plurality of data lines using a demultiplexer; charging a voltage corresponding to the data signal in a pixel connected with one of the data lines during a period when a scan signal is supplied to a current scan line of the pixel; and allowing the pixel to emit light corresponding to the charged voltage.
US09076379B2

A display module including a substrate having a plurality of pixels, a data line that supplies a data signal to a pixel, a current supply line that supplies electric current to the pixel, a data driving circuit that supplies a data signal to the data line, and a gate driving circuit thereon. The plurality of pixels are arranged in a display area of the substrate, and each of the plurality of pixels includes a light emitting device, a first thin film transistor connected to the data line that supplies the data signal, a second thin film transistor connected to the current supply line, and a capacitor. The light emitting device includes a first electrode layer connected to the second thin film transistor, an organic layer formed on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer formed on the organic layer.
US09076378B2

A method of driving an electro wetting display panel includes applying a first data voltage to a pixel part of the display panel during a first section of a frame and applying a second data voltage different from the first data voltage to the same pixel part during a second section of the frame. The first data voltage is converted from display data based on a first gamma curve. The second data voltage is converted from the display data based on a second gamma curve. Light transmittance through the pixel part is changed based on movement of a fluid within the pixel part.
US09076373B2

A display apparatus for displaying a three-dimensional image using a parallax barrier scheme includes a display module having a display region in which a plurality of pixels are arranged, and a parallax barrier facing the display region. In the parallax barrier, a plurality of aperture regions are formed as light-transmissive regions so that each one of the aperture regions corresponds to a predetermined number of the pixels. In one embodiment, each of the aperture regions is in a shape that exhibits an identical shape when rotated by 90 degrees.
US09076364B2

In a method for adjusting a display screen of an electronic device, the method obtains a current image and a previous image of a user captured by an image capturing device, detects a first face area from the current image and a second face area from the previous image. The method further rotates the display screen according to the movements of the user's face, and stops rotating the display screen when rotation angles of the display screen are equal to movement angles of the user's face.
US09076361B2

An image processing apparatus and a method of controlling the same are provided. The image processing apparatus includes: one or more receiving units which receive a plurality of contents; a signal processing unit which outputs a first image frame by processing first content of the plurality of contents and outputs a second image frame by processing second content of the plurality of contents; an output unit which outputs a plurality of contents views by combining the first image frame and the second image frame; and a control unit which, if a sharing restriction command regarding a first contents view from among the plurality of contents views is obtained, restricts matching of a glasses apparatus with the first contents view.
US09076355B2

The present invention provides crutch decorations that when applied to a crutch form a substantially flat surface between two opposing crutch columns. The flat surface is optimally used for placing printed advertising, designs, pictures, and the like, on the crutch.
US09076340B2

A vehicle detecting system, a vehicle detecting method adapted for a vehicle, and a computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program are disclosed. The system controls two cameras to capture images in the front of the vehicle and at the back of the vehicle respectively, according to a speed and a direction of the vehicle. The system further determines whether or not two images from each camera are the same, if the two images from each camera are different, the vehicle is in a dangerous driving condition, and when times of the dangerous driving condition within a preset time period reaches a preset value, the system outputs a warning to prompt a driver.
US09076338B2

A travel control plan generating system 1 includes: upper level plan generating means 22a for generating an upper level plan corresponding to a travel policy of a vehicle A; lower level plan generating means 22b for generating a lower level plan, which is a plan for achieving the upper level plan and includes at least a travel course; lower level plan obtaining means 16, 30 for obtaining a lower level plan including at least a travel course of a peripheral vehicle B, C; evaluating means 24 for evaluating the lower level plan of the vehicle A in accordance with a predetermined index, taking into account the lower level plan of the peripheral vehicle B, C; and lower level plan selecting means 26 for selecting a lower level plan to be executed by the vehicle A on the basis of an evaluation performed by the evaluating means 24.
US09076333B2

Information specifying an initial motion of a vehicle when travel is started on a road in a predetermined section is obtained, and information specifying an estimated motion, which is associated in advance with the initial motion, of the vehicle on the road in the predetermined section subsequent to the initial motion is also obtained. Based on the estimated motion, a guidance unit mounted in the vehicle provides guidance for supporting driving when traveling on the road in the predetermined section.
US09076332B2

A multiobjective management system for saturated traffic road networks comprising: green wave coordination of locally adaptive traffic control units, traffic movement optimization and live traffic route guidance. Current traffic congestion measurements on intersections are generated from local traffic cameras and remote air-borne conventional cameras and thermal sensing imaging cameras or satellite radar such as SAR/ISAR using optical image brightness analysis. At the first stage of traffic optimization, individual local intersection green times are computed based on current traffic congestion level. At the second stage optimization, the central traffic server uses a multiobjective approach to coordinate the current locally-optimized green times of the first stage and create input constraints for green-way coordination of plurality of traffic lights. The server updates dynamically current cycle start and green times on all network-connected traffic light controllers and also broadcasts recommended travel times, green times and green waves to all on-line client vehicle navigation units. Traffic server and individual client guidance units utilize novel time-dependent modifications of an A*-type algorithm to update current travel and recommended travel times and to execute fastest route searches.
US09076326B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for traffic prioritization of surrounding air traffic for display onboard an aircraft. The apparatus includes a traffic data source configured to supply surrounding traffic data. The apparatus includes a traffic control module coupled to receive user selection data from the user input device and the surrounding traffic data. The traffic control module can be configured to determine a prioritization zone for prioritizing the surrounding air traffic to identify air traffic preceding the aircraft based on the user selection data, the range and the vertical speed of the surrounding air traffic, and set first traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic within the prioritization zone listed by priority and second traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic outside of the prioritization zone listed in received sequence. The apparatus displays a graphical user interface that includes the first traffic and the second traffic data.
US09076325B1

A wireless sensor with digital detector for monitoring the environment surrounding the sensor. The wireless sensor with digital detector comprises a configurable wireless transceiver with quadrature down and up converters, memory to store the real time received in phase and quadrature phase samples, a bank of phase rotators to phase rotate the received stored samples and a bank of in phase and quadrature phase constellation level slicers to detect the received bits. A control processor utilizes the received information, received signal strength and timing information to estimate and calculate various environmental parameters which can be used to activate different devices.
US09076324B2

A remote control system includes an in-vehicle controller that is installed in a vehicle and controls in-vehicle devices installed in the vehicle; a mobile communication device that remotely controls the in-vehicle devices via the in-vehicle controller; and a wireless communication device that is installed in the vehicle and intervenes and establishes wireless communication between the in-vehicle controller and the mobile communication device, wherein the wireless communication device includes a reception-mode switching unit that switches between a reception standby mode with consumption of a standby current to prepare for reception from the mobile communication device and a reception dormant mode without consumption of a standby current in accordance with a time schedule.
US09076320B2

A sensor signal processing apparatus receives a sensor signal from a sensor in order to detect an object, determines whether an object exists from the received sensor signal, and if an object exists, the sensor signal processing apparatus generates an alarm signal, and it removes an alarm signal corresponding to a false alarm signal from the alarm signal based on at least one of a length and energy of the alarm signal.
US09076319B2

An interface system for providing a comprehensive user interface for alarm systems. The interface system may include two or more alarm system workstations, each having a user interface application installed thereon. One or more alarm panels may be connected to each of the alarm system workstations, and one or more points may be connected to each of the alarm panels. A broker workstation may be connected to the two or more alarm system workstations, and one or more client workstations may be connected to the broker workstation. A user interface broker may be installed on the broker workstation, wherein the user interface broker is configured to provide the one or more client workstations with a user interface that presents the status of, and that provides control over, all of the points.
US09076307B2

A method of incorporating a bonus symbol into a plurality of symbols to be displayed in a display of an electronic gaming machine, the display adapted to display at least a selected portion of a plurality of standard symbols, the method including the steps of: determining a number of bonus symbols to be displayed; for each bonus symbol to be displayed, determining a location at which the bonus symbol is to be displayed within the plurality of standard symbols; incorporating a bonus symbol with a corresponding standard symbol for the determined location; whereby the bonus symbol is incorporated into the plurality of symbols without affecting the standard symbol probabilities.
US09076294B2

The invention relates to systems and methods of selecting and placing real-world wagers responsive to one or more wager triggers, obtaining outcomes of the real-world wagers, facilitating user interactions with various interactive media, and revealing the outcomes of the real-world wagers through the interactive media to give an appearance that the outcomes of the real-world wagers resulted from the user interactions even though the outcomes resulted from the real-world wagers. The system may provide a time-conditioned reveal such that a certain action must be performed within some period of time (or by a deadline) to claim a potential payout. The system may provide a reveal decay, where the user may be given an opportunity to complete an action such that the longer it takes to complete the action, the payout amount that is revealed decreases to zero.
US09076287B2

Systems and methods for wagering on game outcomes allow a player to wager on game outcomes resulting from linked gaming devices linked to a primary gaming device being played by the player. A primary game display shows game plays and outcomes and allows wagering on a primary game and a linked game display shows game plays and outcomes and allows wagering on linked games. Both the primary and linked gaming devices may be the same type of gaming device, or they may be two different types of gaming devices, such as gaming devices for playing slot games, card games, keno, and the like. Further, either or both of the primary and linked games may allow bonus game outcomes resulting in a bonus game having bonus game awards.
US09076285B2

A spinning reel slot machine has increased versatility, while having reels that are aesthetically similar to traditional mechanical reels. In one embodiment, the slot machine includes a plurality of optical fibers having first ends optically coupled to a surface of an image display device and seconds ends defining a curved display surface for displaying simulated mechanical reels to a player. In another embodiment, one or more of the mechanical reels has a transparent window at a location where a symbol would normally be present. A video display displays a video symbol in the transparent window. In yet a further embodiment, one of the plurality of mechanical reels has a miniature image display located at selected ones of the symbol regions for providing video symbols for the game. In yet further embodiments, a symbol region can produce more than one symbol in response to exposure at certain wavelengths or polarizations of light.
US09076281B2

A wagering game system is described herein. In embodiments the wagering game system comprises a plurality of player terminals configured to present wagering games and to collect player activity information associated with the wagering games, the player activity information indicating player inputs and financial transactions. In embodiments, the wagering game system further comprises one or more account servers configured to receive the player activity information and to perform the financial transactions on player accounts and a monitoring system configured to receive the player activity information and to remotely disable ones of the plurality of player terminals.
US09076275B2

A vehicle measurement apparatus and a method for measuring vehicle data are provided. For example, the vehicle measurement apparatus includes a system-on-a-chip (SoC) device configured to integrate a programmable module with a microcontroller unit to receive vehicle data, process the vehicle data, and communicate the processed vehicle data to a remote computer.
US09076269B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a way of improving the stitching procedure.The object is achieved by a method in an electronic device for creating a combined image. The method comprises obtaining (701) a first set of at least two sub-images recorded by an array camera. The method further comprises obtaining (702) a second set of at least two sub-images recorded by the array camera. A first depth map is calculated for the first set of sub-images. The first depth map comprises information about a first plane of the sub-images and a second plane of the sub-images. The first plane being at a first distance from the point where the sub-images have been recorded, and the second plane being at a second distance from the point where the sub-images have been recorded. A second depth map is calculated for the second set of sub-images. The second depth map comprises information about the first plane and the second plane. The method further comprises stitching the first set of sub-images and the second set of sub-images in the first plane, and thereby obtaining a first stitched image. The first set of sub-images and the second set of sub-images are stitched in the second plane, and thereby obtaining a second stitched image. Finally the method comprises combining the first stitched image with the second stitched image and thereby creating the combined image.
US09076261B2

Various disclosed embodiments include methods and systems for creating a virtual geometric model. According to disclosed embodiments, a data processing system for creating a virtual geometric model includes at least one processor and a memory connected to the processor. The data processing system is configured to generate a virtual drafting tool and a virtual marking device. The data processing system is configured to position the virtual drafting tool on a page and to position the virtual marking device relative to the virtual drafting tool. The data processing system is configured to draw the geometric model on the page by laying down ink by the virtual marking device using the virtual drafting tool and to store the geometric model in the memory.
US09076259B2

A geospatial multiviewer can include a geospatial application that provides geospatial data responsive to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region. A request engine is configured to provide a search query for requesting content from at least one data source. The search query is based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application. A graphics pipeline is configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in an output presentation in response to the user input. The output presentation is rendered based on the at least one transformation. The objects in the output presentation comprise received content and the representation of at least one geographical region.
US09076248B2

According to one embodiment, a display apparatus includes an image projection unit, an information acquisition unit and a data supply unit. The image projection unit projects a light flux including an image toward a projection layer which is reflective and transmissive. The information acquisition unit acquires information relating to a position of a three-dimensional object superimposing portion of three-dimensional objects positioned at a road. The road extends from a proximal region of the external environment proximal to the projection layer toward a distal region of the external environment distal to the projection layer. The three-dimensional object superimposing portion is higher than a ground surface and viewable via the projection layer. The data supply unit supplies data relating to the image including a display object to the image projection unit based on the information. The display object is displayed along the three-dimensional object superimposing portion.
US09076244B2

A composite document system is implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. When executed on a processor, the instructions cause the processor to receive model data that describes a three-dimensional model of an object, where the three-dimensional model is generated using a modeling software, and where the model data conforms to a non-image format of the modeling software. The instructions further cause the processor to receive web page data that includes content and description of the content in a mark-up language, generate a composite document that includes the model data and the web page data, interpret the model data in the composite document to generate a visual representation of the three-dimensional model, and interpret the web page data in the composite document to generate a visual representation of the web page data.
US09076242B2

An electronic device and method use a camera to capture an image of an environment outside followed by identification of regions therein. A subset of the regions is selected, based on attributes of the regions, such as aspect ratio, height, and variance in stroke width. Next, a number of angles that are candidates for use as skew of the image are determined (e.g. one angle is selected for each region. based on peakiness of a histogram of the region, evaluated at different angles). Then, an angle that is most common among these candidates is identified as the angle of skew of the image. The just-described identification of skew angle is performed prior to classification of any region as text or non-text. After skew identification, at least all regions in the subset are rotated by negative of the skew angle, to obtain skew-corrected regions for use in optical character recognition.
US09076241B2

A method of estimating one or more dimensions of a patch panel may include receiving an image of a patch panel that comprises a plurality of ports and one or more gaps, extracting, by a computing device, a region of interest from the received image, detecting, by the computing device, one or more possible port edges from the region of interest, fitting the detected possible port edges to a cross-ratio constancy model to determine a port-to-gap-length ratio associated with the patch panel, using the port-length-to-gap-length ratio to determine a location of one or more final port edges, and determining a location of one or more final ports based on the location of the final port edges.
US09076240B2

The present invention provides a system, method and computer program providing automated window memoization which is an automated optimization of image processing. The method comprises inputting to a memoization compiler an image set, hardware or software code implementing one or more image processing algorithms, and one or more design parameters. The memoization compiler processes the image set for the image processing algorithms and implements hardware or software code for optimizing the image processing algorithms based on the design parameters.
US09076216B2

A method of processing of photo and video images is disclosed which searches for a minimum of cost functions carried out at an N-number of image detail levels, from coarser to finer, and at each image detail level the image is divided into regions; each region is assigned a single segmentation value by a η-number of successive iterations. The value of the cost function for the seams at the region boundaries is calculated with different types of image segmentation, and for every region a segmentation value is chosen which minimizes the sum of the cost functions of the seams and data. The technical result is the segmentation of an image with little use of the memory resources of a mobile device while maintaining both resistance to image noise and operating speed.
US09076212B2

This invention relates to a system that adaptively compensates for subject motion in real-time in an imaging system. An object orientation marker (30), preferably a retro-grate reflector (RGR), is placed on the head or other body organ of interest of a patient (P) during a scan, such as an MRI scan. The marker (30) makes it possible to measure the six degrees of freedom (x, y, and z-translations, and pitch, yaw, and roll), or “pose”, required to track motion of the organ of interest. A detector, preferably a camera (40), observes the marker (30) and continuously extracts its pose. The pose from the camera (40) is sent to the scanner (120) via an RGR processing computer (50) and a scanner control and processing computer (100), allowing for continuous correction of scan planes and position (in real-time) for motion of the patient (P). This invention also provides for internal calibration and for co-registration over time of the scanner's and tracking system's reference frames to compensate for drift and other inaccuracies that may arise over time.
US09076202B2

Systems and methods are provided for performing a minimally invasive procedure in an automated or semi-automated fashion, where an imaging probe having an imaging modality compatible with the presence of an intraluminal medium is employed to record images that are processed to identify regions of interest and direct a medium displacement operation during a subsequent minimally invasive operation that benefits from the displacement of the intraluminal medium. The minimally invasive operation may include recording images with a second imaging modality, or may be a therapeutic treatment. The method is may be performed in real-time, where images obtained from the first imaging modality are processed in real time to determine whether or not the minimally invasive operation is to be performed at a given position.
US09076198B2

The present invention provides an information processing apparatus capable of accurately separating parenchymal cells and stromal cells from each other regardless of the staining intensity of the cells. The information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus 100 including: an image processing unit 110 for smoothing a tissue sample image 150 obtained by staining and then imaging a biological tissue containing parenchymal cells 151 and stromal cells 152 so that luminance values of cell components of each of the parenchymal cells 151 become less than those of each of the stromal cells 152; and a mask generation unit 120 for generating, through generating a binary image by binarizing the tissue sample image 115 smoothed by the image processing unit 110, a mask 125 for removing a region of the stromal cells from the tissue sample image 115.
US09076196B2

An automatic method for detection and quantification of localized sources of magnetic susceptibility in images using a computer with instructions for a parameter module; an image input and filtering module; a second image filtering module; and a pattern quantification module.
US09076192B2

Method of detecting and quantifying blur in a digital image implementing a computer and comprising: —a step a) of obtaining a digital image; a step b) of obtaining a brightness parameter for each pixel on the basis of the digital image, the step b) comprising an operation of convolution with an edge detection matrix; a step c) of calculation of a score S1 comprising the maximum, calculated over all the pixels, of the brightness parameter obtained in step b); and a step d) a step of evaluating the digital image, the digital image being considered to be blurred if the score S1 obtained in step c) is strictly less than a first predetermined threshold, the score S1 providing a first quantity of blur present in the digital image.
US09076185B2

Electronic real estate registration systems include property transaction and location characteristic databases communicating via computer networks providing information related to transactions associated with registered real property interests linked to publicly recorded documentation that protect legal interests of parties and counterparties engaged in the public exchange of real property rights. Real property rights can be held or owned by a managed asset-titling entity thus share a registered asset identifier providing locational coordinates identifying real property interest assignments and transactional documentation in association with asset underwriting, asset performance, and asset class rating systems. Electronic real estate registry database devices capture, process, store, retrieve, transmit, and report useful and timely information concerning registered property interests, responding in a manner typically associated with exchange traded securities, providing borrowers, creditors, investors and governing regulators ready access to fair and clear valuation, underwriting and transactional records delineated by time, apportionments, and pricing of real property interests.
US09076178B2

A system for tracking the successful recommendation of a good/service comprising a mobile phone possessed by a receiver, a second mobile phone possessed by a recommender, the mobile phones send and receive communication messages; at least one database; and an intermediary system. The recommender composes a first communication message to the intermediary system including the mobile phone number of the mobile phone, a unique identifier of the recommender and a reference code for a good/service associated with the selected good/service. The intermediary system receives the first communication message; parses the message to identify separate information included therein; creates a new referral record including the unique identifier of the recommender, the mobile phone number of the mobile phone and the reference code for the recommended good/service; composes a recommendation message recommending the recommended good/service and sends the recommendation message to the mobile phone using a phone number having a unique identification.
US09076177B2

According to one embodiment, A system for providing commodity information includes a storage module configured to store a plurality of data files, each data file corresponding to a commodity and including a plurality of data fields, each of the data fields comprising: commodity identification information data, symbol identification data, detailed commodity information data, and producer information data, a first recognition module configured to identify the commodity by comparing an input commodity image to the commodity identification information data, a second recognition module configured to identify a symbol on the commodity by comparing an input symbol image to the symbol identification data, and an output module. The output module outputs the detailed commodity information data based on the identified commodity, and outputs the producer information data based on the identified symbol.
US09076173B2

A method and a system to determine a product identification of an item for sale in an online publication system is shown and described. For example, the method may be initiated when an input identifying an item is received from a user. An input type (e.g., image, text, audio recording, etc.) may be determined and one or more identification services may be selected based on the input type. At least a portion of the input is transmit to the selected one or more identification services. A product identification is received from each of the one or more identification services. Based on the received product identifications, a recommended product identification is determined. The recommended product identification is transmitted to the user.
US09076171B2

A graphical payment identifier is used to facilitate the automatic processing of an electronic payment. A graphical identifier payment system receives a request from a payment processing entity for a onetime use graphical payment identifier. In response, a onetime use graphical payment identifier to be displayed by the payment processing entity is generated. A request for user payment information by the payment processing entity is encoded in the graphical payment identifier, which is transmitted to the payment processing entity for display. The graphical payment identifier being displayed by the payment processing entity is captured by a registered user operated computing device. In response, the requested user payment information is transmitted to the payment processing entity, such that the electronic payment is executed automatically, without the user manually entering the requested payment information or providing a credit card.
US09076163B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, are provided for handling user-created advertisements. In one aspect, a method includes receiving data from a first end user to create a first advertisement; receiving targeting criteria associated with the first advertisement, the targeting criteria indicating a second end user to whom the first advertisement is to be shown: receiving, from a client device, a first indication of the second end user browsing a webpage; and providing the first advertisement to be displayed to the second user on the webpage upon receiving the first indication.
US09076161B2

Systems and methods for printing tickets are provided. In some embodiments, the printed ticket is a lottery ticket. According to a particular system provided in the present disclosure, the system comprises a server configured to manage the printing of tickets and advertisements. The system also comprises a ticket printing device operating in a predetermined location, the ticket printing device configured to print an advertisement on a ticket. A network is configured to enable communication between the server and the ticket printing device. The ticket printing device is configured to print the advertisement based at least on time parameters, the time parameters including at least a time period when an advertiser intends for the advertisement to be printed.
US09076160B2

Provided are a system and method of suggesting at least one recommended keyword. The recommended keyword suggestion system may include a database storage device, the system including a keyword extracting unit to extract at least one keyword associated with a certain keyword from a related search word database stored in the database storage device, a display score providing unit to provide at least one display score for the at least one extracted keyword, each of the at least one display score being associated with an expected revenue from advertisement of each of the at least one extracted keyword, and a recommended keyword determining unit to determine at least one recommended keyword to be displayed for the certain keyword among the at least one extracted keyword, based on the provided at least one display score.
US09076142B2

The electronic wallet comprises a card duplicator, an electronic wallet or e-wallet, and an e-card. The card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet comprises a personalized authentication security card. Each electronic wallet or e-wallet has only one e-card. Single users are only required to have the electronic wallet or e-wallet. Business and family plans are required to have both the card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet. The card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet store credit card and personal data into the system. The e-card works as an interface device for the consumers. The e-card functions like normal credit card however the e-card is equipped with superior security system compared to a normal credit card.
US09076129B2

A computer system for hosting electronic group chat is provided. The computer system includes a memory device for storing data and a processor coupled in communication with the memory device. The processor is programmed to electronically host a plurality of chat rooms, associate a first chat room of the plurality of chat rooms with a first element inputted into the computer system, and transmit chat communications between a plurality of users of the chat rooms.
US09076126B2

A computer-based architecture and system provides operational control of the document management process, permitting a client seamless access to sophisticated document production operations. Direct client control over SEC compliant document management permits faster more accurate document production operations.
US09076125B2

Providing for graphical visualization of contextual information pertinent to electronic messaging is described herein. By way of example, contextual network usage information or messaging disposition can be determined for a set of participants to electronic communication. The contextual information is compiled into categories and organized at least as a function of category. The compiled data can be transformed into a visualization of user disposition or context and output to a user device as a multi-dimensional graphical rendering. By rendering contextual data graphically, the rich and diverse information available from usage histories, current user context and user dispositions can be output and consumed rapidly and efficiently, resulting in productive electronic interaction.
US09076120B2

A system and method for locating sample vessels are presented. The system comprises a holder having an array of positions for holding sample vessels. An information tag is attached to the holder for storing and/or retrieving machine-readable information related to the positions of sample vessels with respect to the array of positions. The system further comprises a handheld device capable of reading information on the information tag. The handheld device has an input for inputting information related to a to-be-located sample vessel and an output for outputting a position of the to-be-located sample vessel with respect to the array of positions based on information stored in the information tag. The method comprises inputting information related to a to-be-located sample vessel into the handheld device, reading information stored in the holder's information tag with the handheld device; and outputting a position of the to-be-located sample vessel.
US09076119B2

An inventory monitoring controller maintains information reflecting a current inventory of articles based on radio frequency identification (RFID) tag identifying information received from one or more RFID tag readers in the context of inventory polling operations. In an embodiment, the controller also adjusts an operational parameter (e.g., a missing article detection threshold or a variable polling parameter) based on an analysis of the RFID tag identifying information. For example, a variable polling parameter may be adjusted in response to an occurrence of a triggering event (e.g., an inventory change indicated by the RFID tag identifying information or an occurrence of a temporal event), and a missing article detection threshold may be adjusted based on historical information relating to the detection of (or failure to detect) a particular RFID tag.
US09076118B1

A modeling framework for evaluating the impact of weather conditions on farming and harvest operations applies real-time, field-level weather data and forecasts of meteorological and climatological conditions together with user-provided and/or observed feedback of a present state of a harvest-related condition to agronomic models and to generate a plurality of harvest advisory outputs for precision agriculture. A harvest advisory model simulates and predicts the impacts of this weather information and user-provided and/or observed feedback in one or more physical, empirical, or artificial intelligence models of precision agriculture to analyze crops, plants, soils, and resulting agricultural commodities, and provides harvest advisory outputs to a diagnostic support tool for users to enhance farming and harvest decision-making, whether by providing pre-, post-, or in situ-harvest operations and crop analyses.
US09076116B2

A method is provided that includes receiving process-related information describing a process for production of a product, including a logical sequence of tasks to produce respective internal products of the process. The method also includes constructing a schedule for the process based on the process-related information, with the process schedule being for execution of at least some of the tasks each of which utilizes or requires inputs including temporally a last input. Construction of the process schedule includes separating each of at least some of the respective tasks into a closure portion that requires availability of the last input of its task before being initiated, and a distinct precursor portion capable of being initiated before the respective last input is available. The closure portions of the respective tasks may be temporally sequenced without intervening precursor portions, and the precursor portions may be prepended to respective, temporally-sequenced closure portions.
US09076105B2

The illustrative embodiments provide an apparatus for performing horticultural tasks comprising a number of data storage devices, a diagnostic system, and a processor unit. The number of data storage devices includes a horticultural knowledge base, a logistics database, and a home site database. The processor unit executes the diagnostic system and accesses the horticultural knowledge base, the logistics database, and the home site database on the number of data storage devices to identify a horticultural need for a plurality of plants.
US09076100B2

An image forming apparatus constituting a print system includes a reception unit configured to receive a job, a determination unit configured to analyze job data of the job, and determine whether or not the job involves a storage job for performing data storage processing to a non-volatile storage unit of the image forming apparatus, an analysis unit, and a communication unit. In a case where the job is determined to involve the storage job, the analysis unit performs simplified analysis processing for obtaining list display information for displaying storage target data stored by the storage job prior to the data storage processing. When the communication unit receives a display request for displaying a list of jobs including the storage job from a second image forming apparatus, the communication unit transmits, to the second image forming apparatus, list information including information about the storage target data.
US09076097B1

A method comprising beginning a print job on a three-dimensional printer to manufacture an object, pausing the print job while the object is incomplete, determining the state of the print job when the print job was paused, and printing information onto the incomplete object, wherein the information includes an identification of the print job. The information preferably takes the form of a matrix barcode printed on a surface of the incomplete object that will later be overwritten.
US09076093B2

Provided is a metal card including a metal card sheet made of duralumin and an anodized layer formed by anodizing a surface of the metal card sheet, wherein a background color or pattern of the metal card is determined according to a composition of electrolyte of the anodizing for forming the anodized layer.
US09076090B2

A card is provided having structure, such as a teeth-like pattern, tongue and groove, etc., along at least one edge thereof. The structure is configured for matching or mating with a corresponding similar pattern along at least one edge of another card for selectively attaching and detaching the two cards. The card can be a credit card or other type of card having at least one magnetic stripe for effecting payment for purchases. The card can also be other types of cards, such as gift cards, library cards, identification cards, etc.
US09076087B2

An electronic apparatus includes a display unit that includes a display screen including a touch panel configured to display an image and to accept an input from an operator made by touching the touch panel, a touch position detection unit that detects a position touched by the operator on the display screen of the display unit, upon receipt of a detection signal outputted from the display unit according to detection by the touch panel, a calibration execution unit that executes calibration to correct a shift of the touch position detected by the touch position detection unit, and a human body sensor that outputs a detection signal upon detecting that the operator has come to a position spaced from the electronic apparatus by a predetermined distance. The calibration execution unit executes the calibration upon receipt of the detection signal from the human body sensor.
US09076086B2

A display control apparatus includes a control section which controls a display to display contents in a first display area, a second display area, and a third display area on the display. The control section is configured to: display at least one setting value in the first display area for each of a plurality of setting items; allow a user to select one of the at least one setting value in a particular setting item; receive a user's selection of the setting value for each of the setting items; display the selected setting value in the second display area in receipt of the user's selection; determine whether there is an exclusive setting value in the setting values displayed in the first display area and belonging to any setting item other than the particular setting item, the exclusive setting value being inadequate to be selected with the selected setting value.
US09076084B2

An image forming apparatus includes a user interface unit to display a user interface window to receive a user command, a job management unit to perform a job corresponding to the user command, a storage unit to store a plurality of user interface windows and UI information on a user interface window to be displayed at a pre-set point of time among the plurality of user interface windows, and a control unit to control the user interface unit so as to update the UI information stored in the storage unit based on the user command received with respect to the job and display a user interface window corresponding to the updated UI information at the pre-set point of time.
US09076081B2

A multi-class discriminating device for judging to which class a feature represented by data falls. The device has a first unit for generating plural first hierarchical discriminating devices for discriminating one from N, and a second unit for combining score values output respectively from the plural first hierarchical discriminating devices to generate a second hierarchical feature vector and for entering the second hierarchical feature vector to generate plural second hierarchical discriminating devices for discriminating one from N. When data is entered, the plural first hierarchical discriminating devices output score values, and these score values are combined together to generate the second hierarchical feature vector. When the second hierarchical feature vector is entered, the second hierarchical discriminating device which outputs the maximum score value is selected. The class corresponding to the selected second hierarchical discriminating device is discriminated as the class, into which the feature represented by the entered data falls.
US09076078B2

There is provided an image processing apparatus that includes a feature data calculating unit, a distribution map generating unit, and a display control unit. The feature data calculating unit calculates feature data of each image contained in a group of sequential images that are taken by an image taking apparatus. The distribution map generating unit includes a representative vector calculating unit and a representative vector arrangement determining unit, and generates a distribution map that represents an overall trend of the group of sequential images. The representative vector calculating unit calculates a predetermined number of representative vectors that represent a plurality of images contained in the group of sequential images. The representative vector arrangement determining unit determines arrangement of the calculated representative vectors on the distribution map. The display control unit displays the distribution map on a display unit.
US09076070B2

Methods and apparatus to detect differences between images are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to recognize different image versions include generating a first signature representative of a sample image, and obtaining a reference image associated with a second signature determined to substantially match the first image signature. Such example methods also include generating a third signature representative of a first region of the sample image corresponding spatially to a first region of the reference image associated with a first version of the reference image, the third signature being different from the first signature. Such example methods further include comparing the generated third signature and a fourth signature representative of the first region of the reference image to determine whether the sample image corresponds to the first version of the reference image.
US09076067B2

An information processing apparatus includes an information input section that reads input image information, a cumulative image information generator that generates cumulative image information for pixels corresponding to positions of pixels of a prescribed pixel pattern in the read input image information, and a memory controller that stores in the cumulative image information holding memory the cumulative image information generated in the cumulative image information generator. This configuration allows memory resources necessary for holding the cumulative image information to be reduced.
US09076049B1

Systems, methods of operation, and software are provided, for encoding RFID tags with which a predefined group of items is tagged. Encoding is by writing applicable Electronic Product Codes (EPCs) to the tags, so as to identify the individual items in the group. A base code can be read from each tag, and the applicable EPC is then written to it.
US09076048B2

A biometric identification or authentication images an ear of the user. A source of near-infrared structured light illuminates the ear with at least one structured pattern and an image acquisition device captures a near-infrared image of an ear illuminated with a structured pattern of near-infrared light. An analysis area of the near-infrared image is processed to extract identifying features and it is determined if the identifying features correspond to an authorized user. The analysis area of the near-infrared image is processed to determine a reflectivity of the ear and it is determined if the reflectivity corresponds to an ear of a living person. The user is authenticated if the classified identifying features correspond to an authorized user and the reflectivity corresponds to an ear of a living person.
US09076045B2

A method of analyzing images over time is provided herein. The method includes: capturing a plurality of images each associated with specified objects in specified locations such that a specified area is covered; specifying regions of interest (ROI) in each of the captured images; repeating the capturing with at least one of: a different location, a different orientation, and a different timing such that the captured images are associated with the specified covered area; and comparing the captured imaged produced in the capturing with the captured imaged produced in the repeating of the capturing to yield comparison between the captured objects by comparing specified ROI.
US09076042B2

A camera system comprises an image capturing device, object detection module, object tracking module, and match classifier. The object detection module receives image data and detects objects appearing in one or more of the images. The object tracking module temporally associates instances of a first object detected in a first group of the images. The first object has a first signature representing features of the first object. The match classifier matches object instances by analyzing data derived from the first signature of the first object and a second signature of a second object detected in a second image. The second signature represents features of the second object derived from the second image. The match classifier determine whether the second signature matches the first signature. A training process automatically configures the match classifier using a set of possible object features.
US09076037B2

A background image holding unit is configured to hold a background image. A threshold table holding unit is configured to hold a threshold. A previous frame image holding unit is configured to hold a previous frame image. An object extraction unit is configured to perform a background subtraction process of calculating difference values between the background image and a latest image and detecting a pixel whose calculated difference value is equal to or larger than the threshold as an extracted object, and configured to perform a process of judging the magnitude of difference between the background image and latest image. The object extraction unit is configured to update the background image and threshold in accordance with the magnitude of difference between the background image and latest image.
US09076031B2

An image capture apparatus include transmission unit for transmitting first feature data concerning a face region included in an image captured by an image sensor to an external apparatus, reception unit for receiving a matching result between the first feature data and second feature data concerning a sub object from the external apparatus, storage unit for storing third feature data concerning a main object in a predetermined storage area in advance, matching unit for matching the first feature data with the third feature data and display unit for identifiably displaying, on a display device, the face region recognized as the sub object in the matching result received by the reception unit and the face region recognized as the main object in the matching result obtained by the matching unit.
US09076030B2

The present disclosure concerns a method of verifying the presence of a living face in front of a camera (112), the method including: capturing by said camera a sequence of images of a face; detecting a plurality of features of said face in each of said images; measuring parameters associated with said detected features to determine whether each of a plurality of liveness indicators is present in said images; determining whether or not said face is a living face based on the presence in said images of a combination of at least two of said liveness indicators.
US09076029B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, are disclosed for reducing the impact of lighting conditions and biometric distortions, while providing a low-computation solution for reasonably effective (low threshold) face recognition. In one aspect, the methods include processing a captured image of a face of a user seeking to access a resource by conforming a subset of the captured face image to a reference model. The reference model corresponds to a high information portion of human faces. The methods further include comparing the processed captured image to at least one target profile corresponding to a user associated with the resource, and selectively recognizing the user seeking access to the resource based on a result of said comparing.
US09076025B2

A card connector includes an insulating body defining at least one receiving cavity for receiving an electronic card, electrical terminals disposed in the insulating body and projecting into the receiving cavity for contacting with the electronic card, and a securing part. One wall of the receiving cavity is opened with a slot and a ring-shaped receiving groove communicated with the slot and penetrating through the wall to communicate with the receiving cavity. A pillar is formed in the receiving groove. The securing part has a semi-ring elastic portion sleeved round the pillar and located in the receiving groove, and a pair of positioning arms parallelly extending from free ends of the elastic portion to be inserted in the slot and elastically abut against two inner sidewalls of the slot. The elastic portion projects into the receiving cavity for elastically resisting against one side edge of the electronic card.
US09076021B2

A method for managing access to encrypted data of a data storage system storing snapshot data, a snapshot providing a previous point-in-time copy of data in a volume of the data storage system, wherein the data storage system utilizes changing encryption keys for write data. For each snapshot, the method stores at least one decryption key identifier for each decryption key corresponding to an encryption key utilized to encrypt data written to a volume since a previous snapshot was committed to disk, and associates the at least one decryption key identifier with the snapshot. A key table associating decryption key identifiers with corresponding decryption keys is provided, and based on the key table and the at least one decryption key identifier associated with the snapshot, one or more decryption keys required for accessing encrypted data associated with the snapshot are determined. Decryption key identifiers may be stored in snapshot metadata.
US09076015B2

Method for accessing a resource in a data-processing environment. The resource includes a set of objects. The data-processing environment is capable of storing in association with at least one object of the resource at least one modified object. The data-processing environment is capable of storing in association with such an object information of degree of elaboration. The method performs the steps of identifying, for each object of the resource to which corresponds at least a modified object, by using the information of degree of elaboration, at least a most elaborate version of said object, and assembling the objects thus identified for them to be displayed in the resource.
US09076013B1

Embodiments of systems and methods are described for managing requests for security services to a provider of computing resources. In some implementations, a user can request that security services be provided to analyze or test a target network. For example, the user can request that security services conduct penetration testing of the target network in order to detect vulnerabilities with the target network's security infrastructure or configuration. The computing resource provider can dynamically provide the security services to the target network, for example, by instantiating one or more virtual machines that begin security testing of the target network in response to the user's request. In some embodiments, the provider of the security services may instantiate a security virtual machine instance (VMI) that can be connected to a customer's network using a secure connection, such as a virtual private network. The virtual machine instance can be physically located outside the customer's network while functioning as part of the customer's network. Thus, the security VMI can test security from either outside the network or from inside the network. In some embodiments, the VMI may test at multiple locations of the customer's network, for example, by establishing connections to multiple locations on the customer network.
US09076007B2

A portable data carrier (1) includes a non-volatile memory (11), a processor (15) and a watermark application (131) executable by the processor (15) which is also stored on the data carrier (1). The watermark application (131) is configured to check (152) data (110, 140) stored on the data carrier (1) or data intended to be stored on the data carrier (1) as to the presence of a digital watermark, or to mark (151) such data (110, 140) with a digital watermark. The check (152) or marking (151) is carried out on the data carrier (1) and after the check (152) or marking (151) the checked or marked data (110, 140) are stored in the non-volatile memory (11) in order to remain there for an indefinite time.
US09075997B2

A method includes determining selected global variables in a program for which flow of the selected global variables through the program is to be tracked. The selected global variables are less than all the global variables in the program. The method includes using a static analysis performed on the program, tracking flow through the program for the selected global variables. In response to one or more of the selected global variables being used in security-sensitive operations in the flow, use is analyzed of each one of the selected global variables in a corresponding security-sensitive operation. In response to a determination the use may be a potential security violation, the potential security violation is reported. Apparatus and computer program products are also disclosed.
US09075996B2

A process to evaluate a request to access a service received from a user's computing device having a software stack and a software stack provider over a computer network is disclosed. Prior to providing access to the service, a determination is made as to whether the software stack meets a set of conditions. If the set of conditions are met, the software stack provides verification information. The software stack provider is asked to validate the verification information. Access to the service if the software stack provider validates that the set of conditions are met.
US09075993B2

A method in one embodiment includes determining a frequency range corresponding to a subset of a plurality of program files on a plurality of hosts in a network environment. The method also includes generating a first set of counts including a first count that represents an aggregate amount of program files in a first grouping of one or more program files of the subset, where each of the one or more program files of the first grouping includes a first value of a primary attribute. In specific embodiments, each program file is unknown. In further embodiments, the primary attribute is one of a plurality of file attributes provided in file metadata. Other specific embodiments include either blocking or allowing execution of each of the program files of the first grouping. More specific embodiments include determining a unique identifier corresponding to at least one program file of the first grouping.
US09075992B2

Systems (100) and methods (2100) for identifying, deterring and/or delaying malicious attacks being waged on a Computer Network (“CN”). The methods involve implementing a Mission Plan (“MP”) at a first Network Node (“NN”). MP (1900, 1902) specifies that: a first IDentity Parameter (“IDP”) for a second NN has numerous possible values associated therewith; and at least two possible values are to be used in communications to and from the second NN in different timeslots of a time frame (2020-2026). At the first NN, a value for the first IDP, which is contained in a received packet, is compared with the possible values specified in MP to determine if the value is a “correct” value for a current timeslot. If it is determined that the value is not “correct” for the current timeslot, then the first NN performs actions to identify, deter or delay a possible malicious attack on CN.
US09075985B2

A restricted transmogrifying driver platform is described herein. In one or more implementations, a platform is provided that enables a restricted execution environment for virtual private network (VPN) drivers and other transmogrifying drivers. The platform may be implemented as an operating system component that exposes an interface through which drivers may register with the platform and be invoked to perform functions supported by the platform. The restricted execution environment places one or more restrictions upon transmogrifying drivers that operate via the platform. For instance, execution may occur in user mode on a per-user basis and within a sandbox. Further, the platform causes associated drivers to run as background processes with relatively low privileges. Further, the platform may suspend the drivers and control operations of the driver by scheduling of background tasks. Accordingly, exposure of the transmogrifying drivers to the system is controlled and limited through the platform.
US09075980B2

Systems, methods, and technologies for configuring a conventional smart card and client machine, and for performing a smart card authorization using the configured smart card and client. Further, the combination of methods provides for mutual authentication—authentication of the client to the user, and authentication of the user to the client. The authentication methods include presenting a specified token to the user sufficient to authenticate the client to the user and thus protect the user-provided PIN. Security is strengthened by using an integrity key based on approved client system configurations. Security is further strengthened by calculating a PIN′ value based on a user-specified PIN and a modifier and using the PIN′ value for unlocking the smart card.
US09075971B2

A mediation service accepts a coordination instruction for coordinating a web application server with a coordination device from a web browser, generates a script to be authenticated by an authentication method corresponding to the server, and transmits the generated script to the coordination destination service providing system indicated by the coordination instruction. The web browser transmits authentication information or an authentication token, which is obtained in response to an input operation on an authentication information input screen displayed by execution of the script, to the coordination device. Then, the coordination device receives and saves the authentication information or the authentication token.
US09075968B2

In a computing system environment for administratively installing MSI applications on one or more computing devices of a remote user, methods and apparatus include creating a temporary administrative user on the computing devices. Upon installation, the temporary administrative user is removed and the application is used normally. Preceding installation, however, determinations are made regarding whether the MSI application requires the presence of the user. If so, creation of the temporary administrative user occurs on the fly by software, indicated by way of an administrator of the environment on a computing device other than the one being installed with the application. In this manner, MSI applications, which oftentimes require the presence of an actual user, can be successfully installed without their presence. They can also be installed without the security risks of a generic user common to all computing device or installed immediately without waiting for a first user to log on.
US09075959B2

A control system development platform is provided. The platform includes a shell component adapted to support development of a control systems application. An abstract model is associated with the shell component to facilitate development of the control systems applications.
US09075955B2

Some aspects of what is described here relate to managing permission settings applied to applications on a mobile device. Multiple management policies that apply to an application associated with a perimeter on a device are identified. A priority ranking for each management policy is determined for the application based on the perimeter with which the application is associated. A permission setting based on the priority rankings is applied to the application.
US09075952B2

In one embodiment, a fabric of a processor such as a system on a chip includes at least one data buffer including a plurality of entries each to store data to be transferred to and from a plurality of agents and to and from a memory, a request tracker to maintain track of pending requests to be output to an ordered domain of the fabric, and an output throttle logic to control allocation into the ordered domain between write transactions from a core agent and read completion transactions from the memory. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09075947B2

An input/output circuit layout has a first section in which first transistors having a thicker gate oxide are located and a second section in which second transistors having a thinner gate oxide are located. Due to process technology constraints, the gates of all of the second transistors are oriented in a single common direction. The second section has a perimeter having a square shape including a first edge and a second edge adjacent to the first edge. First connection pins coupled to the second transistors are provided with an orientation that extends inwardly from and perpendicular to the first edge. Second connection pins coupled to the second transistors are provided with an orientation that extends inwardly from and perpendicular to said second edge. The square shape and presence of pins on adjacent first and second edges permits rotation of the second section to fit within different orientations of the layout.
US09075946B2

A semiconductor integrated circuit according to one embodiment includes a plurality of flip-flop groups configured by dividing a plurality of flip-flops, connected in series, for carrying out a serial operation of serially transferring data, a continuous signal determination circuit configured to output a first signal if outputs of the flip-flops contained in the flip-flop group match, and output a second signal in other cases; and a clock gating circuit configured not to provide a clock signal when receiving the first signal and to provide a clock signal when receiving the second signal with respect to the flip-flops other than a head of the flip-flop group.
US09075943B2

A mesh number prediction method obtains a mesh length for a case in which a mesh having an arbitrary shape is created by approximating an entire analyzing target by a three-dimensional (3D) mesh model based on data of a 3D surface model of the analyzing target, obtains a mesh number of each part forming the analyzing target for a case in which a mesh having an arbitrary shape is created by approximating each part by a 3D mesh model based on the mesh length, and obtains a predicted total mesh number of the entire analyzing target from a ratio of volumes of the entire analyzing target and each part based on the mesh number.
US09075941B2

The presently claimed invention provides a method for optimizing an electrodeposition process of a plurality of vias in a wafer. Instead of simulating a large number of via on the wafer for via filling, a representative via is selected with the maximum value of critical factor, which is a function of process parameters. The filling of the representative via is simulated with different sampling points to find out the filling goodness in order to find out the optimized process windows of process parameters. An optimizer is also disclosed, which either provides sampling points or reduces sampling points under artificial neural network method. Calculation of filling goodness is used for evaluating via filling quality and further comparing among via fillings simulated at different sampling points. Consequently, the method of present invention is able to shorten the simulation time for via filling as well as provide a process window with high accuracy.
US09075939B2

A method for the co-simulation of two or more interacting mathematical models in which each model has at least one input port and one output port for inputting and outputting values of parameters in a predefined parameter protocol. The unit of measurement is identified for each parameter in the model and a scaling factor is then generated to equalize the units of measurement for each parameter in each model. The parameter protocol for each port is then determined and a virtual bus with unique locations is configured for each parameter in the models. The parameters from the models are then configured as a function of the parameter protocol so that the same parameters from different models are associated with the same location in the virtual bus.
US09075938B2

A method for mapping a multiple-floor structure includes building a plurality of maps that includes one map for each of at least two of the floors, detecting a set of anchor points, where the set of anchor points includes at least one anchor point on each of the maps, linking the anchor points to produce a set of linked anchor points, and aligning the maps around the set of linked anchor points to produce a set of aligned maps. A method for mapping a structure using a single robot includes generating, by the robot, a first map at a first point in time, storing the first map, generating, by the same robot, a second map at a second point in time subsequent to the first point in time, and aggregating the first map and the second map to produce an aggregated map.
US09075934B2

Correction of reticle defects, including reticle weak spots or shortcomings, is accomplished with a second exposure. Embodiments include obtaining a reticle with a pattern corresponding to a wafer pattern design, exposing a wafer with the reticle, modifying the design, designating variations between the design and the modified design as reticle defects, and exposing the wafer with correction patterns containing structure corresponding to the modified design at defect positions. Other embodiments include modifying, eliminating, and/or shifting the pattern near a reticle blank defect position, and exposing a wafer with the reticle and with a correction pattern containing structure corresponding to the design at a defect position; modifying a patterned reticle surface layer near a defect forming an expanded defect, exposing a wafer with the modified reticle and with an expanded defect correction pattern; and exposing a wafer with a reticle and with a correction pattern larger than a detected reticle defect.
US09075917B2

A system and method for bucket testing includes: retrieving a user's information from a user in a bucket testing group when a request to serve a web page is received; determining from the user's information if the user has an active bucket identifier associated with the user's account in a persistent store; retrieving bucket parameters from the user's information when it is determined that the user has an active bucket identifier; determining if the bucket parameters are within a range assigned to the bucket testing group; passing the bucket parameters to the server; and loading configuration and files associated with the active bucket identifier.
US09075915B2

An embodiment of the present invention utilizes the abilities of an operating system to manage the window focus while debugging a graphical user interface program. In an example, a debugger program intercepts a breakpoint in the code of a graphical user interface computer program undergoing automated testing by a separate computer program. The debugger program instructs the operating system to save states of the window focus. Responsive to determining the breakpoint condition has ended, the debugger program instructs the operating system to restore saved states of the window that had focus prior to the breakpoint condition. Another embodiment of the present invention arranges similar window focus management where an operating system on its own is unable to save and restore states of the window that had focus prior to the breakpoint condition.
US09075913B2

The techniques described in this disclosure are directed to validating an application that is to be executed on a graphics processing unit (GPU). For example, a validation server device may receive code of the application. The validation server device may provide some level of assurance that the application satisfies one or more performance criteria. In this manner, the probability of a problematic application executing on the device that includes the GPU may be reduced.
US09075911B2

Systems and methods are provided for analyzing usage patterns. In certain embodiments, a system includes a scenario observer, a scenario associator, and a scenario analyzer. The scenario observer is configured to acquire event data relating to a plurality of events on a system having software and hardware, wherein the plurality of events comprises user input. The scenario associator is configured to associate the event data with a plurality of scenarios. The scenario analyzer configured to analyze the plurality of scenarios to identify usage patterns of the system.
US09075905B2

An IPTV can receive a user name and present a screen enabling a user by means of a remote control to select health information categories, inputting numeric parameters into the selected categories which can be uploaded to an Internet server for analysis and viewed by the user for subsequent monitoring/charting.
US09075898B1

Providing incremental search suggestions from a content database include accessing the content database to determine possible candidates for the search suggestions, scoring each of the candidates based at least partially on a non-monotonic document frequency function, where candidates that appear a first amount corresponding to a relatively frequent occurrence in the content database and candidates that appear a second amount corresponding to a relatively infrequent occurrence in the content database both score lower than candidates that appear in the content database with a frequency that is between the first amount and the second amount, and ordering the possible candidates based on at least the scoring. Possible candidates may include named entities and n-grams. The n-grams may only be unigrams and bigrams. Stop words may be filtered out of the n-grams. Scoring may include taking into account term frequency.
US09075897B2

Attributes are identified in media content. A classification value of the media content is computed based on the identified attributes. Thereafter, a fingerprint derived from the media content is stored or searched for based on the classification value of the media content.
US09075888B2

A procedure includes: receiving a request to monitor a target monitored item of the computer from a first information processing apparatus; inquiring the first information processing apparatus for a first monitoring condition; and determining a second information processing apparatus by referring to monitoring information. The monitoring information includes information indicating a specific monitored item and a monitoring condition for monitoring the specific monitored item in association with an identifier for identifying an information processing apparatus. The procedure further includes: instructing one of the first and second information processing apparatuses to monitor the target monitored item of the computer in accordance with the first monitoring condition for monitoring the target monitored item by the other one of the first and second information processing apparatuses; and instructing the other one of the first and second information processing apparatuses not to transmit a request to monitor the target monitored item.
US09075886B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for detecting the stockpiling of domain names. In one exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method for detecting a status of a domain name. The method may include receiving information related to the domain name from a registrar. The method may include crawling the at least one domain name, wherein the crawling receives first information located on a website associated with the domain name and receives second information related to a registration of the domain name. The method may also include storing the first information and the second information, wherein the crawling is initiated at a first time prior to expiration of the at least one domain name and a second time after expiration of the at least one domain name.
US09075881B2

A method and search engine for classifying a source publishing a document on a portion of a network, includes steps of electronically receiving a document, based on the document, determining a source which published the document, and assigning a code to the document based on whether data associated with the document published by the source matches with data contained in a database. An intelligent geographic- and business topic-specific resource discovery system facilitates local commerce on the World-Wide Web and also reduces search time by accurately isolating information for end-users. Distinguishing and classifying business pages on the Web by business categories using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes is achieved through an automatic iterative process.
US09075878B2

Provided is an information processing apparatus including a data acquisition unit that acquires content item data indicating a content item, an identification information generation unit that generates identification information of the content item on the basis of the content item data acquired by the data acquisition unit according to a predefined rule, and a browsing history extraction unit that extracts a browsing history of a user regarding the content item in correlation with the identification information of the content item generated by the identification information generation unit.
US09075873B2

Described herein are technologies pertaining to generating co-citation graphs. A context-informative co-citation graph includes a first node that represents a first research document, a second node that represents a second research document, and a third node that represents a third research document that includes a citation to both the first research document and the second research document. The context-informative co-citation graph also includes a first edge that couples the first node and the third node, and a second edge that couples the second node and the third node. The two edges visually indicate that the first research document and the second research document are co-cited by the third research document. The context-informative co-citation graph further includes at least a portion of a sentence in the third research document that includes a citation to at least one of the first research document or the second research document.
US09075871B2

Disclosed are methods and systems for classifying data displayed in a user interface based on a user defined classification and generating the user interface to display the data based on the user defined classification. The method includes importing a folder structure from a folder structure container wherein the folder structure depicts a user defined classification of the data. The data displayed in the user interface is mapped to a folder in the folder structure and a user interface object in the user interface is created for the folder. Furthermore, the mapped data is presented in the user interface object.
US09075870B2

A system for detecting related topics and competition topics for a target topic includes an information extracting apparatus configured to create topic templates and association words from documents created online to generate topic templates and association words. The system also includes a related topic detecting apparatus configured to detect and trace related topics and competition topics for the target topic based on the topic templates and the association words.
Patent Agency Ranking