US09407994B2
A device and methods are provided for a hearing device. In one embodiment, a hearing device includes a microphone to receive sound, an interactive tip and actuator. The actuator can include an actuator element and preload force element to place the interactive tip in contact with a portion of an ear. The hearing device includes circuitry coupled to the microphone and actuator, the circuitry configured to process sound received by the microphone and drive the actuator based on processed sound, wherein the actuator drives the interactive tip relative to a portion of the ear based on one or more signals received from the circuitry.
US09407977B2
A loudspeaker device is presented which includes a zeolite material comprising zeolite particles having a silicon to aluminum mass ratio of at least 200. For an increased pore fraction of pores with a diameter in a range between 0.7 micrometer and 30 micrometer shows an increased shift of the resonance frequency down to lower frequencies has been observed.
US09407973B2
A computer-implemented method includes receiving, at a set-top box device, media content from a media content server. The media content includes one or more metadata tags associated with one or more items depicted when the media content is displayed. The computer-implemented method includes sending the media content to a display device. The computer-implemented method also includes receiving a first user selection to visually identify the one or more items. The computer-implemented method also includes receiving a purchase request to purchase at least one of the one or more items depicted.
US09407969B2
A method of displaying an Internet signal on a TV. Preferably, at least a portion of the Internet signal is selectively displayed by a remote activation control signal.
US09407968B2
A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium provide for receiving program data of programs; receiving files pertaining to each of the programs, wherein the files include a manifest file and M3U8 files; selecting one of the programs and the manifest file; adding multicast information to each M3U8 file pertaining to the program, wherein the multicast information indicates a multicast channel and a date and a time of a multicast; segmenting the program data of the program based on a maximum transmission unit of the multicast channel; storing the manifest file and the M3U8 files pertaining to the program; providing the manifest file and one or more of the M3U8 files pertaining to the program, to a user device; and multicasting a segmented program data via the wireless network based on the multicast information, wherein the multicasting includes the adaptive bitrate streaming service.
US09407963B2
The present invention describes a system and method of managing digital content received from content providers and for facilitating access to the digital content to many subscribers. The method includes receiving from the content providers incoming feed files where each feed file contains information describing the content. The method determines if the feed files are approved by applying a template to the feed files and also receives request files from the subscribers where each request file contains search criteria. The method provides one or more answer files in response to the request files where each answer file identifies feed files that meet the search criteria of a corresponding request file. The answer files are used to access or permit access to digital content on the web. In addition, a graphical user interface is described to manage, edit, promote and delete the feed files provided to the system.
US09407957B2
Provided are a display system, an image processing apparatus, and an external apparatus, and methods of controlling the same. The display system includes: a plurality of servers which provides a video content; a display apparatus which interacts with the plurality of servers, and displays the video content provided by a first server of the plurality of servers; and an external apparatus which stores therein interaction history information of the display apparatus with the first server as a result of an interaction of the display apparatus with the first server, and transmits the stored interaction history information to a second server of the plurality of servers to enable the second server to provide the display apparatus with the video content based on the interaction history information when the display apparatus interacts with the second server.
US09407955B2
Systems, devices and methods are provided to support multiple audio tracks in an adaptive media stream. Segments of the adaptive stream are encoded so that the player is able to locate and request a specific one of the available audio tracks using byte range requests or the like. Audio content can be removed from video segments, or at least moved to the end of the segments so that a byte range request obtains just the video content when the default audio is not desired. The audio content can be obtained from a separate audio segment. Indeed, multiple audio tracks can be packaged into a common audio segment so that byte range requests can obtain just the particular audio track desired.
US09407954B2
A method that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving a product placement event that is triggered by a placement stamp in a media program. The placement stamp may identify an occurrence of a product in the media program, where the occurrence is not an explicit advertisement. The method further may include searching a product description database according to a product identifier of the product placement event and receiving product advertising information matching the product identifier in an entry of the product description database. The product description database may have been updated, and the product advertising information may differ from what the product advertising information would have been if the product description database had not been updated. The method may further include presenting a product advertisement according to the product advertising information. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09407941B2
A method of distributing audio video content is described. The method includes: receiving configuration data for a plurality of devices; for each device in the plurality of devices, computing a set of bit rates based, at least in part, on the configuration data; encoding audio video content at each bit rate in each set of bit rates to produce a plurality of encoded audio video content streams; splitting each encoded audio video content stream in the plurality of encoded audio video content streams into chunks to produce a plurality of chunked encoded audio video content streams; for each device in the plurality of devices, creating a separate index file, each separate index file including references to at least one of the plurality of chunked encoded audio video content streams; publishing a locator for each separate index file in a catalogue; and transmitting the plurality of chunked encoded audio video content streams and each separate index file to a network. Related systems, apparatus, and methods are also described.
US09407936B2
Provided are entropy decoding and encoding methods of a video. The entropy decoding method includes obtaining a transformation unit significant coefficient flag indicating whether a non-zero transformation coefficient exists in the transformation unit, from a bitstream, determining a context model for arithmetically decoding the transformation unit significant coefficient flag, based on the transformation depth of the transformation unit and arithmetically decoding the transformation unit significant coefficient flag based on the determined context model.
US09407919B2
In an image coding apparatus (1), a Hadamard transform unit (11) performs horizontal Hadamard transform on a picture of uncompressed image data (21). The sum total of absolute values of AC component values obtained by the Hadamard transform is calculated as a Hadamard value (23) of the picture. A scene change determination unit (12) determines whether a scene change occurs or not in the picture on the basis of the Hadamard value (23). In a case where a scene change occurs in the picture or where a differential absolute value between the amount of generated codes in a coded GOP and the ideal amount of codes in a GOP is larger than a predetermined reference value, a quantization parameter determination unit (13) determines a quantization parameter (24) of the picture on the basis of the Hadamard value (23) and the target amount of codes of the picture. A coding unit (14) codes the picture by using the determined quantization parameter (24).
US09407918B2
According to one embodiment, a prediction unit generates a prediction block to be used for prediction of a coding target block, based on at least one reference block adjacent to the coding target block in the image. Each number of pixels in the coding target block and the prediction block is a power of two. A calculation unit calculates a residual block having residual pixel values between the coding target block and the prediction block. A decision unit decides whether to code the residual block, based on pixel values of at least one of the coding target block, the reference block and the prediction block. A coding unit codes the residual block by variable length coding when the residual block is decided to be coded, and codes a skip flag representing the residual block not being coded when the residual block is not decided to be coded.
US09407911B2
A video processing device operates in an encoding mode when a mode selection signal has a first value and operates in a decoding mode when the mode selection signal has a second value. The video processing device utilizes an interpolation filter to perform an encoding function in the encoding mode and to perform a decoding function in a decoding mode.
US09407909B2
A method and device for improving rate controlling in video coding of sequences including a series of Inter frames separated by Intra frames, when a decoding delay is considered, comprise for each Inter frame of the series: computing a target frame size, computing a maximum buffer level related to a position of each Inter frame relative to a previous Intra frame and an upcoming Intra frame, and optimizing a transmission buffer level in response to the computed target frame size and the computed maximum buffer level.
US09407907B2
The present disclosure relates to methods and display systems for concurrently displaying two complementary images. Collimated light comprising interlaced series of left and right image rows are received, at angles that alternate over time, on an intensity modulation matrix. The collimated light is transmitted to a patterned retarder capable of applying spatially alternating polarizations to successive rows. The collimated light is further transmitted to a display layer. The angles at which collimated light is received on the intensity modulation matrix and distances between display system components are such that odd lines of the display layer alternate in time between lines of a first image and lines of a second image while even lines of the display layer alternate between lines of the second image and lines of the first image. The first and second images may be discriminated by viewers using polarized glasses.
US09407895B2
A system for controlling a video is provided. The system includes a terminal which transmits a flush command to an external device to delete buffered data in a buffer of the external device when a search command for moving to a location of specific data of a video is generated while data of the video is streamed to the external device and which then transmits to the external device the specific data located in relation to the search command, and an external device which deletes the buffered data in the buffer when the flush command is received from the terminal while a video streamed from the terminal is reproduced and which buffers the specific data of the video received from the terminal in the buffer to be output.
US09407887B2
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a display is powered on to display a projected image, and the operation of one or more display elements are ramped up until a stabilized state is reached. During said ramping up, a light source of the display is powered display at less than full power until the stabilized state is reached. While the light source is operating at less than full power, a splash screen may be displayed. After the stabilized state is reached, the light source can then be operated at or near full power. By providing a light output that is less than full power during ramp up, the display does not need to wait until the stabilized state is reached before the light source is powered on. As a result, the projector provides an output earlier in time to cue to the user that the projector is operating.
US09407884B2
A digital signal processing unit 17 extracts a determination block which includes a predetermined number of pixels and has a pixel to be corrected as the center. When an edge of an object image is present in each determination block, the direction of the edge is a direction perpendicular to a direction in which a phase difference is detected by the phase difference detecting pixel, and the edge overlaps the pixel to be corrected, the digital signal processing unit 17 performs interpolation correction for an output signal from the pixel to be corrected in the block.
US09407883B2
A method for processing a video recording involves receiving sensor data from at least one sensor located on a person performing a physical activity. The sensor data includes biometric and/or biomechanical measurements taken from the person while performing the activity. The video recording is of the person performing the activity. The received video recording is correlated with the received sensor data to allow portions of the video recording to be matched with portions of the sensor data from corresponding periods of time. Correlation allows one to readily find and review video footage that show the activity being performed correctly or not based on an interpretation of the sensor data.
US09407882B2
An apparatus allows entry of an individual into an area. An access structure (14) controls entry to and exit from a facility. The condition of at least one lock (26, 30, 48, 52) associated with the structure is changed responsive to correspondence of user data and stored data. An operator terminal (12) provides through a display (72), visible outputs associated with the structure. The operator terminal is usable to control functional aspects of the structure. The operator terminal is also usable to receive indications of conditions associated with components that control entry to and exit from the structure.
US09407881B2
Systems and methods for cloud-based surveillance for a target surveillance area are disclosed. At least two mobile input capture devices (ICDs) are communicatively connected to a cloud-based analytics platform via a data communication device. At least one user device can access to the cloud-based analytics platform. The cloud-based analytics platform automatically analyzes received 2-Dimensional (2D) video and/or image inputs for generating 3-Dimensional (3D) surveillance data and providing 3D display for a target surveillance area. In one embodiment, the at least two mobile ICDs are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
US09407880B2
Systems and methods for cloud-based surveillance for an operation area are disclosed. At least two input capture devices, at least one safety control device and at least one user device are communicatively connected to a cloud-based analytics platform. The cloud-based analytics platform automatically generates 3-Dimensional (3D) surveillance data based on received 2-Dimensional (2D) video and/or image inputs and perform advanced analytics and activates the at least one safety control device based on analytics data from advanced analytics.
US09407876B1
A method of encoding and decoding a plurality of wide-area surveillance area-of-interest video codestreams is described. The method includes generating, by a computer server, a plurality of video codestreams, each video codestream comprising a plurality of areas-of-interest of a plurality of images. The method further includes multiplexing, by a multiplexer in communication with the computer server, the plurality of video codestreams into a multiplexed video codestream, transmitting the multiplexed video codestream from a first location to a second remote location; and demultiplexing the multiplexed video codestream at the second location to regenerate the plurality of video codestreams.
US09407872B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, receiving first and second media content portraying images of first and second users, wherein the first and second users participate in a conference call. Joint media content is generated of the conference call including the images of the first and second users, that when presented at a display of a third user includes the images of the first and second users. Speech of the first user directed to the second user is detected and, in response, the image of the first user of the joint media content is adjusted to obtain a rotated image of the first user. The joint media content includes the rotated image of the first user and the image of the second user, that when presented at the display of the third user portrays the first user turned toward the second user.
US09407859B2
According to an embodiment of the present invention a moving picture reproduction method includes reproducing, via a display on the mobile terminal, a moving picture, extracting, via a controller on the mobile terminal, a still picture at an interrupted timing if the moving picture reproduction is interrupted, generating, via controller, a first thumbnail image by combining the extracted still picture with information about a reproduction rate, and displaying, via the display, the generated thumbnail image on a moving picture list.
US09407855B2
Provided is a television apparatus including: a display panel which displays an image; a front cover which covers a front side of the television apparatus such that the display panel is exposed; a rear cover which is opposed to the front cover; a power supply which is supported between the front cover and the rear cover and includes an input connector mounted thereon to receive an input AC power for the display panel; an output connector configured to detachably coupled with the input connector to supply the input AC power, wherein the rear cover includes an inwardly-depressed portion at which a cover insertion hole is formed such that the output connector is coupled to the input connector through the cover insertion hole.
US09407853B2
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for presenting weather data. The method includes displaying a first weather video panel comprising a first video element and a second weather video panel comprising a second video element, where the first video element and the second video element are synchronized, and receiving an instruction to add a third weather video panel. The method further includes, in response to receiving the instruction to add a third weather video panel, displaying the third weather video panel comprising a third video element, and restarting the first weather video panel and the second weather video panel, where after the restarting, the first video element, the second video element, and the third video element are synchronized.
US09407846B2
An analog-to-digital conversion device includes a plurality of counting period supply units that supply a period of length according to a voltage of an analog signal inputted into each counting period supply unit based on the voltage of the analog signal as a counting period, a plurality of counter circuits which are connected to a common power supply and which perform a counting operation that counts a count value in the counting period different from each other and generate a digital signal indicating the count value, and a plurality of compensation circuits which are connected to the power supply and which operate so that the greater the number of counter circuits that stop the counting operation among the plurality of counter circuits, the greater the number of the compensation circuits that operate.
US09407845B1
Approaches provide for a computing device that includes, for example, a camera assembly, a lens assembly. The camera assembly can include an image sensor that includes, for example, a first region having camera pixels and a second region having photovoltaic cells. The camera pixels can be configured to capture light from the lens assembly for use in generating image data and the photovoltaic cells can be configured to capture light from the lens assembly for use in generating energy. The lens assembly can include a lens and a plurality of lens elements, where each lens element can be configured to direct a portion of light to a portion of the second region that includes the photovoltaic cells and the lens can be configured to direct a portion of the light to the first region that includes the camera pixels. A power collection component can be configured to process power from light received by the plurality of photovoltaic cells and an image analysis component can be configured to generate image data from light received by the camera pixels.
US09407841B2
A depth measurement apparatus including ranging pixels each having a plurality of photoelectric conversion units for receiving light fluxes that have respectively passed through first and second pupil regions, a reading unit that is shared by the plurality of photoelectric conversion units, and a control unit for controlling the ranging operation, wherein a signal charge accumulated in one of the photoelectric conversion units is output as a first signal and a second signal obtained by adding a signal accumulated in the other photoelectric conversion unit to the first signal is output, the signal charge accumulated in the other photoelectric conversion unit is acquired based on a difference between the first and second signals, and the signal charge of the photoelectric conversion unit receiving flux with a lower transmittance is read first.
US09407837B2
An electronic device includes a modulated light projector to project an infrared light pattern and an image sensor. The image sensor includes an array of photosensors and a filter array overlying the array of photosensors. The filter array comprises a mosaic of color filter elements and infrared filter elements, each color filter element overlying a corresponding photosensor of a first subset of photosensors and each infrared filter element overlying a corresponding photosensor of a second subset of photosensors. The electronic device further includes a controller to, in a first mode, control the image sensor to capture a color image using the first subset of photosensors and, in a second mode, control the image sensor to capture a depth image representing a reflection of the infrared light pattern using the second subset of photosensors.
US09407828B2
Disclosed is a CMOS image sensor comprising a unit pixel which includes a photodetector (e.g., photodiode); an erasing transistor which, being connected to the photodetector, controls the exposure integration time of the photodetector by time division; a charge storage (e.g., floating diffusion region) in which the charge accumulated in the photodetector is transferred and stored; and a transfer transistor which, being connected between the photodetector and the charge storage, transfers the charge accumulated in the photodetector to the charge storage; wherein a first signal charge accumulated in the photodetector during the first exposure integration time is transferred to the charge storage and stored therein, and the second signal charge is accumulated in the photodetector during the second exposure integration time, thereby sequentially reading out signals in response to the first signal charge and the second signal charge at a time of sampling out the information on signal charge stored in the unit pixel.
US09407825B2
An imaging apparatus in which a composite image and composite information are reproduced from a recording medium, an image acquired by a second imaging unit is extracted from the composite image based on the reproduced composite information, and information for displaying the extracted image acquired by the second imaging unit is generated.
US09407817B2
Provided herein is an imager device for fusing an image from multiple sources. The device includes a focal plane array detector for obtaining an image of a scene at a first wavelength; a display projector for projecting a projected image of the scene obtained by the focal plane array detector at a second wavelength; and a splitter/combiner element positioned to direct a line of sight of the focal plane array detector in a first direction and to direct the projected image in a second direction. The device is configured such that a normal line of sight having a third wavelength passes through the splitter/combiner element without being deflected by the splitter/combiner element. An assembly including an optical scope and an imager device for fusing an image from multiple sources is also provided. The scope may be a direct view optical scope or an indirect view optical scope.
US09407811B2
Fast Focus control is to be performed. The imaging apparatus is an imaging apparatus that includes a focus control unit. The focus control unit performs focus control based on the contrast in an image and the processing result of a two-image matching process. The image is an image generated by an imaging unit. The two-image matching process is a process to be performed with the use of two images that are generated by the imaging unit, with the focus lens being located in different positions.
US09407809B2
Systems, apparatus and methods for triggering a depth sensor and/or limiting bandwidth and/or maintaining privacy are presented. By limiting use of a depth sensor to times when an optical image alone is insufficient, mobile device power is saved. Furthermore, by reducing a size of an optical image to only the portion of the image needed to detect an object, bandwidth is saved and privacy is maintained by not communicating unneeded or undesired information.
US09407803B2
A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are disclosed, which facilitates a terminal to be used in further consideration of user's convenience. The present invention includes a first camera, a second camera, a touchscreen, and a controller, if the first and second cameras are activated, outputting a first preview screen for the first camera through the touchscreen, the controller outputting a second preview screen for the second camera to a prescribed region having a first shape in the outputted first preview screen, the controller changing the first shape into a second shape based on an image received through at least one of the first camera and the second camera. Accordingly, an image can be effectively photographed or a video call can be effectively performed, using front and rear cameras.
US09407802B2
An imaging apparatus includes an image-forming optical system assembly, an image sensor, a sensor retaining portion that retains the image sensor, a coupling portion that is fixed to the image-forming optical system assembly, and a movement suppressing member that is immovable with respect to the coupling portion. The image-forming optical system assembly includes an optical system-side adhesive surface, the coupling portion includes an opposite surface, and the sensor retaining portion includes a sensor-side adhesive surface. A first adhesive is filled in at least a portion of a gap between the optical system-side adhesive surface and the sensor-side adhesive surface, and comes into contact with both of the optical system-side adhesive surface and the sensor-side adhesive surface. The movement suppressing member contacts the opposite surface, and contacts the sensor retaining portion on a surface facing the rear side out of surfaces of the sensor retaining portion.
US09407801B2
A compound eye image pickup apparatus includes a plurality of optical systems (1110, 1120, 1130, 1140) including a first optical system having a longest focal length, and an optical system group of a plurality of second optical systems having focal lengths different from the focal length, and includes an image pickup element (1200) including a plurality of image pickup regions corresponding to the plurality of optical systems, and a condition expression below is satisfied, 0.15 2 × S p 2 × P AVE ≤ N t ≤ P SUM var × 2.0 × 10 6 where p (mm) represents a pixel pitch of the image pickup element, S (mm2) represents an area of the image pickup element, PAVE represents an average value of the number of pixels of each image pickup region, PSUM represents a sum of the number of the pixels of each image pickup region, Nt represents the number of the first optical systems, and var represents the number of the different focal lengths.
US09407799B2
There is provided a position detection apparatus that includes an autofocus mechanism and an optical image stabilization mechanism by using a closed loop control, in which a magnet is commonly used as an autofocus magnet and an optical image stabilization magnet to achieve downsizing. The position detection apparatus includes the autofocus mechanism that moves a lens along an optical axis (Z axis) of the lens, and the optical image stabilization mechanism that moves the lens in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis. A permanent magnet is secured to the lens, and moves according to the movement of the lens. The amount of movement thereof is detected by position sensors. The permanent magnet for autofocus used in the autofocus mechanism and the permanent magnet for optical image stabilization used in the optical image stabilization mechanism is provided in the vicinity of the lens for common use.
US09407796B2
A system for reconstructing optical properties of a diffusing medium including at least one pulsed radiation source capable of illuminating the diffusing medium, at least one first detector of a first type, capable of receiving a signal emitted by the medium, the first detector being a time-resolved detector, and an information processing unit for processing at least one source—first detector pair, a time distribution of the signal received by the corresponding first detector. The reconstruction system also includes at least one second detector of a second type, each second detector being made up of a set of pixel(s) from an image sensor capable of acquiring an image of the medium, and the second detector being capable of measuring an intensity of the signal emitted by the medium, the intensity corresponding to an equivalent moment of order 0 for the corresponding source—second detector pair.
US09407790B2
A method for applying filters to digital images with minimal amplification of image noise, comprising filtering the digital image with an EPDR edge-preserving detail-reducing filter, determining a matrix from the filtered image as a result of one or more structure adaptive functions, and modifying the digital image using the filter, adjusted by the matrix values, to produce an enhanced digital image. The order of processing may be inverted, by first determining the matrix and then filtering the matrix with the edge-preserving detail-reducing filter.
US09407775B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, one or more components for receiving a call request at a first server from a first end user device, transmitting the call request from a first server to an intermediate server for establishing a voice or video call over an IP multimedia subsystem between the first end user device and a second end user device via a second server, and routing the voice or video call request from the first server to the second server using a second IP address when an undesired condition is determined to be associated with the IP multimedia subsystem. The second IP address can be obtained from a group of IP addresses stored in a memory of the first server and the group of IP addresses can be associated with other servers. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09407772B1
Examples of associating user information from social network sites with a conference call application may include a series of operations. One example operation may provide receiving a command to share at least one social networking application with a scheduled conference call and accessing an application programming interface (API) of the social networking application, and sharing user profile information with a graphical user interface (GUI) application of the scheduled conference call corresponding to the command to share the social networking application.
US09407754B1
Techniques for authenticating a user of a mobile device at a computing platform are provided. A method according to these techniques includes generating a first profile and second profile of user behavior for the user of the mobile device, the first profile comprising a first type of profile having at least a first duration and the second profile comprising a second type of profile having a second duration that is shorter than the first duration, monitoring user behavior to generate usage behavior data, comparing the usage behavior data to the first profile and the second profile, performing a first type of authentication action responsive to the usage behavior data deviating from the first profile, and performing a second type of authentication action responsive to the usage behavior data deviating from the second profile.
US09407751B2
A data processing system includes components for providing a pleasant user experience. Those components may include a family interaction engine that provides a family channel. The family interaction engine may provide for creation of a user group. The family channel may present content of interest to multiple users in the user group. When a user is detected near the data processing system, the family interaction engine may automatically present content of interest to that user. When used for presenting media content, the data processing system may also cause supplemental data to automatically be presented, wherein the supplemental data is relevant to the media content and to a predetermined interest of the user. The data processing system may also provide a ranked list of applications for potential activation by the user. The applications may be ordered based on the current context. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09407750B2
A terminal device includes: a determination unit that determines whether a user intends to use a non-contact reception function based on information indicating a state of a terminal device to output a determination result; and a display unit that displays a mark to be used for alignment between the terminal device and the opposed device based on the determination result.
US09407748B2
Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and a method for providing, among other things, local calling name caller identification to a broadband phone, personalized user-specified actions associated with a plurality of users based on an incoming caller identification number to a broadband phone, and remote access to locally stored data on a broadband phone.
US09407744B2
An apparatus performs a power control method for a portable terminal. The power control method includes measuring humidity around the portable terminal using a humidity sensor, and determining whether a flooding condition occurs based on the measured humidity. The method also includes turning off power of the portable terminal by releasing a connection with a battery that supplies power to the portable terminal when it is determined that the flooding condition occurs.
US09407741B1
A portable electronic device including a substrate, a first metal element, a second metal element and a battery is provided. The substrate has a ground plane. The first metal element is disposed on a carrier and has a feeding point. The second metal element is disposed on the carrier and is electrically connected to the ground plane. The second metal element and the first metal element are spaced apart by a coupling distance, and the portable electronic device operates in at least one band through the first metal element and the second metal element. An orthogonal projection of the battery on the carrier is overlapped with an orthogonal projection of the second metal element.
US09407737B2
A communication terminal, a terminal body of which is fixed at various tilting angles, is disclosed. The communication terminal has a terminal body, a slider detachably coupled to the terminal body, and a stand coupled to the slider which is slidably moved to and from the stand. The stand supports the terminal body by the slider. The slider has a plurality of engagement portions arranged in a longitudinal direction of the slider. A rotation lever disposed in the stand releasably engages one of the engagement portions. The rotation lever is biased by a spring to releasably engage the engagement portions.
US09407730B2
A relay apparatus includes a reception processor configured to receive data corresponding to any one of plural types of communication protocols from a first network, analyze the structure of the received data, and convert information commonly included in the data of the communication protocol into common data of a predetermined format, a transmission processor configured to transmit data corresponding to any one of the plural types of communication protocols to a second network, and a relay controller configured to control the communication protocol and destination of the received data to be transmitted from the transmission processor to the second network, based on the common data and a relay rule which is defined for the common data.
US09407729B2
A cache server for providing content includes a processor configured to receive a first datagram from a client system sent to an anycast address, send a response datagram to the client system in response to the first datagram, receive a request datagram from the client system sent to the anycast address, and send a batch of content datagrams to the client system. The first datagram includes a universal resource locator corresponding to the content. The response datagram includes a content identifier for the content. The request datagram includes the content identifier, an offset, and a bandwidth indicator. The batch of content datagrams includes a portion of the content starting at the offset.
US09407724B2
Remote desktop sharing allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network. An intermediary computer can communicate with a host computer and one or more client computers to facilitate remote desktop sharing. The host can send the intermediary computer an encoded key frame and encoded updates. The intermediary computer can decode the host screen data, and apply subsequent updates to the decoded image so that the intermediary computer has a near live host screen image in a first buffer. A second buffer on the intermediary computer can store an instance of a screen encoder for each client computer that has joined the session and the most current host image that the client computer has. The encoder compares the near live screen image and the stored client computer host image to create an encoded differential screen image update to pass to the client computer.
US09407723B2
A method of distributing content to an application from a server is disclosed. The method includes detecting in a file to be sent to the application from the server that the application is directed to request one or more resources to be downloaded to the application. A network latency associated with the downloading of the one or more resources is determined. A subset of the one or more resources is selectively packaged based at least in part on the network latency. The selectively packaged subset of the one or more resources is sent to the application.
US09407720B2
A requesting device can browse global file repositories and select a file in a source to be copied to a target directly without having to pass the file through the requesting device. A servlet-established controller can manage and monitor the process.
US09407719B2
Disclosed in some examples is a method including determining a set of recommended connections for a member of a social networking service based upon a recommendation criteria; presenting the set of recommended connections to the member; receiving from the member a selection of a set of target members; and for each particular member in the set of target members: determining a second set of recommended connections for the particular target member, the second set of recommended connections based upon the recommendation criteria and based upon the set of target members; and sending a notification to the particular member, the notification including the second set of recommended connections.
US09407714B2
According to examples of the present disclosure, a method is provided to perform data refreshing of an application. The method may comprise registering a first view and a second view of the application to a group to which both the first view and the second view belong. The first view may be associated with a first data refresh function that is invocable to refresh data shown on the first view, and the second view with a second data refresh function that is invocable to refresh data shown on the second view. The method may further comprise, in response to determination that data refreshing is required for the first view in the group, performing data refreshing of the first view and the second view in the group by invoking the first function associated with the first view. Further, the method may comprise, in response to determination that data refreshing is also required for the second view in the group, performing data refreshing of the second view by invoking the second function associated with the second view.
US09407712B1
A computer implemented method includes receiving an object scheduled for automatic deletion after a specified viewing period, a specified number of views or a specified period of time. Object push criteria are evaluated. The object is pushed to an edge server cache in response to evaluating. The object is served in response to a request for the object.
US09407692B2
Load balancing includes receiving, from a client, a connection request to establish a connection with a server; determining load balancing state information based at least in part on the connection request; synchronizing the determined load balancing state information across a plurality of service engines, including to invoke an atomic read-miss-create (RMC) function on a distributed data store service; and distributing the connection to a selected server among a plurality of servers according to a result of the RMC function.
US09407679B2
The present application is directed towards systems and methods for systems and methods for handling real-time streaming protocol sessions by an intermediary multi-core system. When a multi-core intermediary receives a setup request for a real-time streaming protocol session, the intermediary processes and forwards the request to a server providing the streaming media. The server sets up an RTSP session and transmits a session identification to the multi-core intermediary. A core of the intermediary receives the transmitted session identification and determines an owner core of the session, based on a hash of the session identification. The core transmits the session information to the determined owner core, which selects two consecutive ports on which to establish listening services. The owner core then notifies all other cores to establish listening services on the same consecutive ports, such that any core that receives an RTSP control message from a client can handle it properly.
US09407678B2
A method is provided in one example and includes determining an occurrence of an exception to a predetermined cadence associated with an input stream of a profile, determining a shifted cadence based, at least in part, on the exception, receiving an indication of a key frame in the profile, determining that the key frame aligns with the shifted cadence, designating the key frame as a boundary point based, at least in part, on the shifted cadence, and communicating the boundary point.
US09407673B1
The present invention is an apparatus, system, and method for the improved tracking of a data state. The present invention allows session states to be maintained by sites that run on multiple, load-balanced servers. The present invention removes a single point of failure in a system, thus preventing all active sessions from being lost by providing persistent session data distributable across one or more machines over a communications network.
US09407671B2
The invention relates to a system and method for monitoring a handshaking exchange between a call initiator and a call recipient to determine if handshaking has failed, to avoid repeated failed calls between the call initiator and the call recipient.
US09407669B1
Pacing communications between a message sending computer and a message receiving computer that are both members of a message group of a sysplex includes receiving, by the message receiving computer, a message comprising data sent by the message sending computer; determining, by the message receiving computer, to stop receiving a subsequent message from the message sending computer; and transmitting, by the message receiving computer to the message sending computer, a first control message instructing the message sending computer to not send any more messages. Pacing further includes determining, by the message receiving computer, to resume receiving the subsequent message from the message sending computer; and transmitting, by the message receiving computer to the message sending computer, a second control message instructing the message sending computer to resume sending messages.
US09407663B1
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a method, an apparatus and a computer-program product for man-in-the-middle agent-assisted client filtering. An example method to be performed by the man-in-the-middle includes receiving portions of a data stream transmitted from a source and performing an analysis of the portions of the data stream. Based on the analysis, the man-in-the-middle then may interact with the source. An example method to be performed by an agent at the source includes providing portions of a transmitted data stream to the man-in-the-middle and interacting with the man-in-the-middle.
US09407660B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media for malicious request attribution are presented. For example, according to one aspect, requests for one or more records may be received from a requesting computing device. A determination may be made that the requests are of a malicious nature. Responsive to determining that the requests are of a malicious nature, one or more requests for obtaining information about the requesting computing device may be generated, and communicated to the requesting computing device. In some embodiments, at least one of the one or more requests for obtaining information about the requesting computing device may be configured to cause the requesting computing device to fail to properly render at least a portion of a web page comprising at least one of the one or more records.
US09407655B2
A system comprising an interface and a memory communicatively coupled to a processor retrieves access information corresponding to an asset. The system stores one or more risk categories and one or more risk factors. The system determines the one or more risk categories corresponding to the access information and determines the one or more risk factors corresponding to the one or more risk categories. Based at least in part upon the one or more risk factors, the system calculates an access risk score for the asset. The system generates data visualization corresponding to the access risk score and the asset.
US09407644B1
A computer-implemented method for detecting malicious use of digital certificates may include determining that a digital certificate is invalid. The method may further include locating, within the invalid digital certificate, at least one field that was previously identified as being useful in distinguishing malicious use of invalid certificates from benign use of invalid certificates. The method may also include determining, based on analysis of information from the field of the invalid digital certificate, that the invalid digital certificate is potentially being used to facilitate malicious communications. The method may additionally include performing a security action in response to determining that the invalid digital certificate is potentially being used to facilitate malicious communications. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed.
US09407643B1
A system for consolidating network streams includes a consolidator in communication with each of a plurality of network streams. Each network stream is associated with a communication path through a network. The consolidator is configured to prevent the plurality of network streams from being networked together, and configured to create at least one virtual local area network (VLAN) within the consolidator. The consolidator is configured to pass information on an ingress port of the consolidator associated with the at least one VLAN to egress ports of the consolidator associated with the at least one VLAN. The system includes a network analyzer in communication with the consolidator. The consolidator is configured to consolidate the plurality of network streams into a single network stream for application to the network analyzer to determine characteristics of each of the plurality of network streams.
US09407640B2
Methods for assessing the current security state of a mobile communications device to determine access to specific tasks is presented. A security component on a server is configured to receive a request to access services from a mobile communications device for a specific task. The security component on the server is further configured to determine whether a security state for the mobile communications device is acceptable for access to the services. Based on the security state for the mobile device being determined to be acceptable for access to the services, access to the services is granted and a determination is whether the security state is acceptable for access to the specific task requested. Based on the security state being determined to be acceptable for access to the specific task requested, access to the specific task requested is granted by the server security component.
US09407631B1
Multi-server passcode verification is provided for one-time authentication tokens with auxiliary channel compatibility. An exemplary method comprises receiving an authentication passcode generated by a token associated with a user; and processing the received authentication passcode using at least a first authentication server and a second authentication server, wherein the received authentication passcode is based on at least one protocode and embedded auxiliary information and wherein at least one of the first authentication server, the second authentication server and a relying party extract the embedded auxiliary information from the received authentication passcode. The disclosed method can extend an existing multi-server verification process to provide the processing of the received authentication passcode based on the embedded auxiliary information.
US09407627B2
A login page is sent, by a backend server system, to a browser executing on a client associated with a user; and an authentication process is performed by the backend server system with the client. The logic page is intercepted by a proxy, and a modified logic page is generated by the proxy by adding a routine to the logic page. The modified logic page is forwarded to the browser, and the routine causes the browser to loads an asynchronous engine configured to execute a login process with an authentication profiling service to retrieve login information for the back-end server, and complete the authentication process.
US09407620B2
Some implementations may provide a machine-assisted method that includes: receiving, from a relying party, a request to determine a trustworthiness of a particular transaction request, the transaction request initially submitted by a user to access data managed by the relying party; based on the transaction request, summarizing the particular transaction request into transactional characteristics, the transactional characteristics devoid of source assets of the transaction; generating first machine-readable data encoding transactional characteristics of the underlying transaction as requested, the transactional characteristics unique to the particular transaction request; submitting a first inquiry at a first engine to determine an access eligibility of the user submitting the transaction request, the first inquiry including the credential information of the submitting user, as well as the summarized transactional characteristics that is applicable only once to the underlying transaction request; and receiving the access eligibility determination from the first engine.
US09407618B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for authenticating devices and securing data. In embodiments, a session key for securing data between two devices can be derived as a byproduct of a challenge-response protocol for authenticating one or both of the devices.
US09407610B2
A method for generating one or more secrets for use by members. The method includes sending a first request for connection with a second member, and sending a second request to connection with a third member. The method further includes receiving, by the first member from the second member, a second input after the first request is sent and after communication is initiated between the first member and the second member and receiving, by the first member from the third member, a third input after the second request is sent and after communication is initiated between the first member and the third member. The method further includes generating, using an n-bit generator executing on the first member, a message digest using a first input, the second input, and the third input, extracting a secret from the message digest, and storing the secret in a secrets repository on the first member.
US09407609B2
Lighting system, a light source, a device and a method of authorizing the device by the light source
A lighting system (100), a light source (110), a device (150), and a method of authorizing the device (150) by the light source (110) are provided. The lighting system (100) comprises a light source (110) to emit light (116), a device (150) to control the light source(110), a first communication channel from the light source (110) to the device (150), and a second communication channel from the device (150) to the light source (110). The first communication channel is formed by modulating information in the emitted light (116) of the light source (110). The light source (110) comprises a challenge generator (118), a light source transmitter (112), a light source receiver (122) and an authorizing means (120). The challenge generator (118) generates a challenge with a cryptographic function receiving an argument comprising a first cryptographic key. The light source transmitter (112) transmits the challenge via the first communication channel. The light source receiver (122) receives a response from the device via the second communication channel. The authorizing means (120) authorizes the device (150) to control the light source (110) by matching the received response with a reference, and if the received response matches the reference, the device (150) is authorized. The device (150) comprises a device receiver (152), a response generator (154) and a device transmitter (156). The device receiver (152) receives the challenge via the first communication channel. The response generator (154) generates the response with the cryptographic function which receives arguments comprising the received challenge and a second cryptographic key. The device transmitter (156) transmits the response to the light source via the second communication channel.
US09407600B2
For service access, a physical address of a specified application service corresponding to a specified IP segment is acquired by a user mode component in accordance with an IP-segment information of the specified IP segment, which is included in a virtual network interface card configured in a system container, and an address information including the physical address is transmitted to a router module of a machine kernel. A routing table is established by the router module in accordance with the address information. Then a network data packet is acquired and forwarded to a destination service site by the router module in accordance with the routing table.
US09407599B2
For a network controller for managing managed forwarding elements running in hosts in a network, a method for configuring a host to facilitate migration of a virtual machine (VM) from a first host to a second host is described. The method configure, in the first host, a first managed forwarding element to perform (1) a logical L3 routing processing and (2) a network address translation (NAT) processing for a VM running in the first host. The method configures the first host to automatically send NAT information to the second host when the VM migrates to the second host so that a second managed forwarding element running in the second host can perform a NAT processing for the migrated VM based on the NAT information.
US09407593B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for storing and transferring messages. An example method includes providing a queue having an ordered plurality of storage blocks. Each storage block stores one or more respective messages and is associated with a respective time. The times increase from a block designating a head of the queue to a block designating a tail of the queue. The method also includes reading, by each of a plurality of first sender processes, messages from one or more blocks in the queue beginning at the head of the queue. The read messages are sent, by each of the plurality of first sender processes, to a respective recipient. One or more of the blocks are designated as old when they have associated times that are earlier than a first time. A block is designated as a new head of the queue when the block is associated with a time later than or equal to the first time. One or more of the first sender processes is allowed to read messages from the old blocks until a second time which is later than the first time. One or more of the old blocks are deleted at a time later than or equal to the second time.
US09407586B2
Method and system for cross device notification (CDN) are provided. An incoming event is received at a first device associated with a user. The first device detects one or more active devices associated with the user other than the first device. Whether the user reacts to the incoming event is detected on the first device. Whether a CDN is needed is determined based on whether the one or more active devices are detected and/or whether the user reacts to the event within a predetermined time period. If a CDN is needed, the CDN is generated and transmitted to the one or more active devices.
US09407582B2
A redundantly operated industrial communication system includes communication devices that are redundantly linked to an industrial communication network and includes network infrastructure devices associated with the industrial communication network, wherein message transmission occurs wirelessly at least in sections. The industrial communication network contains a plurality of buffer memory units for message elements that are received at a network node by wire and message elements that are to be sent by the network node wirelessly. When a maximum buffer size is exceeded, an oldest message element situated in a respective buffer memory unit is erased. Until the maximum buffer size is exceeded, the oldest message element is selected as the next message element to be sent wirelessly.
US09407577B2
In a switch node connected with an external control server, a high functional service protocol processing can be realized by utilizing a multi-route compatible switch and a network interface (NW I/F), which are prescribed by the PCI express. Specifically, in a system which is provided with a switch node and a control server, a plurality of CPUs having a great deal of memories and a plurality of extended NW I/Fs are connected by a multi-route compatible PCI express switch, to configure a switch port of the plurality of extended NW I/Fs. Load distribution transfer processing to the plurality of CPUs from the network interfaces is made possible. High-speed packet processing is realized through the multiple processing by using the plurality of CPUs. A high-speed switch node is provided in which a large-capacity flow table is configured with the software-based switch node by using a large-capacity memory space of the CPU.
US09407574B2
An apparatus comprising high speed ports connected via an integrated high speed serial switch fabric and serializer/deserializer circuits to an internal processing logic, wherein the high speed serial switch fabric is adapted to switch a serial reception signal received by a high speed port to at least one of at least one other high speed port of the apparatus and to the serializer/deserializer circuit of the receiving high speed port.
US09407573B2
This application discloses a controller area network (CAN) design and verification tool to identify periodic messages and sporadic messages that a control node is configured to transmit on a shared bus in a CAN design. The CAN design and verification tool can assign placeholders to a schedule table of the control node to define a message transmission schedule for the control node. The placeholders include at least one sporadic message placeholder configured to identify one of a plurality of minor time frames available on the shared bus for the control node to transmit any one of the sporadic messages. The CAN design and verification tool can determine a worst-case latency associated with delivery of a first one of the sporadic messages on the shared bus when the control node utilized the sporadic message placeholder to transmit a second one of the sporadic messages on the shared bus.
US09407572B2
A processor replicates a request for a computer resource to a plurality of clouds, and updates a repository in view of resource offerings received from the plurality of clouds. The repository stores resource and service data for each cloud. The processor identifies resource and service data in the repository that match information specified in the request in view of the updated repository, and provides information to a requesting entity indicating resource and service data in the repository satisfy the request.
US09407571B1
Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for geographically appropriate domain name system assignment are described. In embodiments, a mobile internet protocol session is initialized with a packet data serving node, and a registration request is communicated to a home agent, the home agent acting as a router on a home network of the mobile device and enabled to tunnel one or more data packets to the mobile device when the mobile device is outside the home network. Further, in embodiments a registration reply is received from the home agent, the registration reply including a domain name system server assignment to a domain name system server acting as a translator capable of converting one or more hostnames into one or more associated IP addresses during the mobile IP session.
US09407564B2
An apparatus for adaptive-rate shifting of streaming content includes an agent controller module configured to simultaneously request at least portions of a plurality of streamlets. The agent controller module is further configured to continuously monitor streamlet requests and subsequent responses, and accordingly request higher or lower quality streamlets. A staging module is configured to stage the streamlets and arrange the streamlets for playback on a content player. A system includes a data communications network, a content server coupled to the data communications network and having a content module configured to process content and generate a plurality of high and low quality streams, and the apparatus. A method includes simultaneously requesting at least portions of a plurality of streamlets, continuously monitoring streamlet requests and subsequent responses, and accordingly requesting higher or lower quality streamlets, and staging the streamlets and arranging the streamlets for playback on a content player.
US09407559B2
A method discovers routes for forwarding packets from source nodes (sources) to sink nodes (sinks) in a wireless network, wherein some neighboring sources act as relay nodes. Each source measures a rate of receiving control messages from each neighboring node. Then, the data packets are forwarded from a particular source to the sink via the neighboring nodes having a lowest rate.
US09407549B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for forwarding packets with hierarchically structured variable-length identifiers (HSVLIs). During operation, the system receiving a packet with an HSVLI. The packet includes a first value and a second value. The first value uniquely represents an interest corresponding to the HSVLI. The second value is derived based on at least a subset of the HSVLI components. The system then makes a forwarding decision for the packet based on the first hash value and second hash value.
US09407548B2
Included are embodiments for ReNAT communications address communications. Some embodiments include a network operations center (NOC) that includes a ReNAT twin NAT that translates between a customer-assigned private IP address and a unique private IP (UPIP) address. The NOC may additionally include a ReNAT VPN component coupled to the ReNAT twin NAT, where the ReNAT VPN provides a source IP address to the ReNat twin NAT. The NOC may include logic that when executed by a processor, causes the processor to facilitate communication between a user workstation on a private network and a remote computing device, wherein facilitating communication includes receiving the data from the user workstation via a traditional VPN portal, wherein address translation has been performed by a ReNAT twin NAT client on the user workstation.
US09407546B2
An example method for routing a message in a dynamic service mesh includes receiving at a mesh point a first message from a sender service and determining, based on a routing table, whether the mesh point has previously received a second message from the sender service. When the mesh point is determined to not have received the second message from the sender service, the first message is routed to a target service in the dynamic service mesh. The method includes receiving an indication of whether the first message has been accepted by the target service and updating the routing table based on the indication. When the indication indicates that the first message has been rejected by the target service, the first message is routed from the mesh point to a second target service.
US09407544B1
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a packet at a first provider edge device in communication with a mapping system comprising mappings of customer routes to provider edge devices, and mappings of customer virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instances to a service provider VRF instance, mapping a customer route to one of the provider edge devices and mapping a customer VRF instance to the service provider VRF instance, encapsulating the packet at the first provider edge device based on the mappings, and transmitting the packet to the provider edge device. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09407531B2
In a relaying apparatus, a label information controller generates and transmits label information including at least one of communication medium information on communication media for use in communication with other apparatuses and communication cost information on communication costs that are generated when communication is performed via the relaying apparatus. In a communication apparatus, a route controller receives the label information, creates a list of routes for use in communication with a communication counterpart, and detects a communication route through which communication is to be performed from the list. The route controller creates a list of all routes including, out of relaying apparatuses, relaying apparatuses which enable communication with a counterpart apparatus using a communication medium which the communication apparatus has, and based on the communication cost information included in the label information, detects a communication route which is lowest in communication costs from the list.
US09407530B2
Systems and methods for extending Inter System Routing Policies (ISRPs) of an ANDSF to enable domain name system (DNS) flows to be identified by a queried domain may be disclosed. Such systems and methods may include providing an ISRP with a routing rule that may be used to select a DNS sever or interface thereof and resolve DNS for a target domain name and/or corresponding target URL for a website.
US09407524B2
Methods, systems, and products simulate a topology of a residential home network. The residential home network has a residential gateway and one or more devices communicating with the residential gateway. Each device may be queried by the residential gateway for configuration and performance data. A simulated view of a topology of the residential home network is then generated.
US09407522B2
The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for initiating data collection based on WiFi network connectivity metrics. Specifically, detects that a value for a WiFi network connectivity metric for a WiFi connection between a client device and a WiFi network meets a particular criteria. Responsive to determining that the value meets the particular criteria, the disclosed system initiates a data collection process for collecting data associated with one or more devices while the WiFi network connectivity metric meets the particular criteria. The determining operation may be performed by a network device in response to receiving a request from a user of the client device. Also, the disclosed system stores the data collected while the WiFi network connectivity metric meets the particular criteria.
US09407521B1
A system, method, and medium for generating a visual representation of a data center. The data center includes multiple cloud groups, and each cloud group is represented with a circle in the visual representation. The size of the circle represents the aggregate capacity of the cloud group. The visual representation is a scatter plot with a horizontal axis measuring health and a vertical axis measuring available capacity. Circles are placed within the scatter plot based on the health and available capacity of their corresponding cloud groups. The color of the circle is based on the health of the corresponding cloud group, and the density of the color is based on the available capacity of the corresponding cloud group.
US09407515B2
A method of automatically detecting the service level agreement settings in an Ethernet virtual circuit (EVC) carrying user packets comprises generating synthetic packets different from the user packets, on a data path in the EVC at a level sufficiently high to saturate the EVC. This accelerates the detection of actual effective values for the Committed Information Rate (CIR) and the Excess Information Rate (EIR) by triggering traffic shaping devices in the data path to enforce the CIR and EIR settings configured for those devices. A plurality of traffic samples are collected from the data path during a sampling period that is long enough to allow the collection of at least two valid traffic samples, where a valid traffic sample is the amount of user packets measured between two consecutive losses of synthetic packets. The CIR and EIR values enforced by the traffic shaping devices are determined from the collected samples.
US09407514B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer readable media with executable instructions stored thereon for virtual machine placement are provided. A user's demands on execution of a number of tasks, each task including a demand trace, can be defined as Service Level Agreement (SLA) information, including one or more Class of Service (CoS) levels defined by a Base Resource Entitlement (BRE) criteria and a Reserved Resource Entitlement (RRE) criteria (222). A highest CoS level of the one or more CoS levels can be selected (224) and the tasks within the Cos level can be load-balanced across a pool of servers (226). At least a portion of the RRE criteria can be removed from the demand trace of the selected CoS level (228). The selecting, load-balancing, and removing steps can be repeated until there are no more CoS levels (230).
US09407503B2
A control apparatus includes: a topology management unit that manages a network topology formed by including a plurality of relay apparatuses; a link aggregation group management unit that groups ports of the plurality of relay apparatuses, having a physical link with an arbitrary node of the network topology and manages the grouped ports as a port of a virtual logical link between the plurality of relay apparatuses and the arbitrary node; and a relay apparatus control unit that controls the plurality of relay apparatuses, having the grouped ports, so that, when one of the plurality of relay apparatuses receives a broadcast packet or a multicast packet, a plurality of same packet are not forwarded to the physical links that form the virtual logical link.
US09407502B2
Examples of methods and apparatus are provided for state-based provisioning of a local client having a windows-based embedded image. The apparatus may include a retrieval module of the local client that facilitates locating a remote repository server containing a configuration file and that facilitates obtaining the configuration file from the remote repository server. The apparatus may include a reset check module of the local client that determines whether to reset a previous state of the image based on the configuration file. The apparatus may include an apply settings module of the local client that applies, to the image, one of a first configuration change and a second configuration change based on the determination. The first configuration change may include a configuration update to the previous state of the image. The second configuration change may include a change to the image independent of the previous state of the image.
US09407496B2
The present invention discloses a path switching method and apparatus in a network comprising at least a first path and a second path. For an incoming traffic flow, it is determined that any of tunnels on the first path of all levels into which the incoming traffic flow is multiplexed is of a failure status. The incoming traffic flow is then forwarded via the second path. Herein, for the first path, one or more traffic flows are multiplexed into a tunnel, and one or more higher level tunnels are multiplexed into a lower level tunnel.
US09407494B1
Delivering information over a distribution network using a distribution manager is disclosed. A first assignment of one or more sources peers in the distribution network is sent to a destination peer in the distribution network. At least one of a change in a network condition and a policy change is detected. It is determined that at least one modification should be made to the first assignment. A second assignment of one or more source peers in the distribution network is sent to the destination peer.
US09407493B2
A network element (NE) comprising a processor configured to receive a Router Solicitation (RS) from a multi-homed host interested in obtaining routing information, and in response to the RS, send the route information to the multi-homed host in a Router Advertisement (RA) message, wherein the route information comprises source address information for the multi-homed host. Also disclosed is a NE comprising a processor configured to receive a RS from a multi-homed host interested in obtaining routing information, and in response to the RS, send the route information to the multi-homed host in a RA message, wherein the route information comprises next hop information for the multi-homed host.
US09407491B2
A data structure defining a presence protocol, a device, a server, a system and method to provide management of presence information as a standalone service as well as part of the instant messaging service of a communication system.
US09407488B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for reducing a Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) in a digital broadcasting system. Reserved tones are determined in previously determined locations of sub-carriers that do not collide with a pilot signal of a preamble in a frame. A signal is transmitted through the reserved tones in a period for which the preamble is transmitted. If a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) size is 8K, locations of the reserved tones are determined in accordance with a specified chart.
US09407482B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for tunable filters. In one aspect there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus may include a bandpass filter comprising a resistive-capacitive configuration of N-path filters tunable to a first center frequency based on at least a first clock frequency; a notch filter comprising a capacitive-resistive configuration of N-path filters tunable to a second center frequency based on at least a second clock frequency; and a combiner coupled to the bandpass filter and the notch filter to combine a bandpass output signal provided by the bandpass filter and a notch output signal provided by the notch filter, wherein the combiner outputs a combined output. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09407475B2
A method and system for soft output multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) decoding may include generating a tree-graph based on: MIMO rank, number of bits per layer, and type of modulation, wherein the tree-graph comprises a root node, leaf nodes, nodes, and branches connecting the nodes; performing sphere decoding by determining a radius covering a subset of nodes within said tree-graph; managing, based on the sphere decoding, tables comprising metrics and counter metrics usable for log likelihood ratio (LLR) generation; predicting, based on a specified prediction scheme, counter metrics for paths in the tree-graph that comprise nodes and branches out of the determined radius; and updating the tables comprising the counter metrics with the predicted counter metric, in a case that the predicted counter metrics are better in maximum likelihood terms than the determined counter metrics.
US09407473B2
A signaling system is described. The signaling system comprises a transmit device, a receive device including a partial response receive circuit, and a signaling path coupling the transmit device and the receive device. The receive device observes an equalized signal from the signaling path, and includes circuitry to use feedback from the most recent previously resolved symbol to sample a currently incoming symbol. The transmit device equalizes transmit data to transmit the equalized signal, by applying weighting based on one or more data values not associated with the most recent previously resolved symbol value.
US09407471B2
A method of tap coefficient correction includes: obtaining a synchronization symbol difference between a first polarization and a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization; obtaining a delay amount of each of the first polarization and the second polarization in an adaptive equalizer; calculating, in a case where a horizontal axis represents a tap number and a vertical axis represents a tap coefficient and a tap number or a nearest tap number with which an area of a drawn figure is halved is set as a gravity center of tap coefficients, a correction reference gravity center of the tap coefficients set in the adaptive equalizer, based on the synchronization symbol difference and the delay amount; and performing a correction of shifting an entire tap coefficients in units of symbol to cause the correction reference gravity center to be closest to a tap center.
US09407470B2
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to elements to counter transmitter circuit performance limitations. An embodiment of an apparatus for driving data on a differential channel including a first output terminal and a second output terminal includes a differential driver circuit; and a first pre-driver and a second pre-driver, where each pre-driver has an output, wherein the first output terminal of the apparatus is coupled to the output of the first pre-driver, and the second output terminal of the apparatus is coupled to the output of the second pre-driver, where each pre-driver includes one or more capacitors, a first end of each capacitor being connected to the output of the pre-driver and a second end of each of the capacitors being connected to a sub-pre-driver circuit.
US09407468B2
A channel estimating apparatus includes a receiver that receives reference signal groups that are respectively transmitted from wireless communications units and that each include a reference signal that is allocated a common channel resource allocated to a reference signal in another reference signal group; a first estimating unit that based on a reference signal that is in a first reference signal group among the received reference signal groups and that is allocated a unique channel resource not allocated to a reference signal in another reference signal group, estimates a reference signal that is in the first reference signal group and allocated the common channel resource; and a second estimating unit that based on the reference signal estimated by the first estimating unit, estimates a reference signal that is in a second reference signal group among the received reference signal groups and that is allocated the common channel resource.
US09407467B2
As system and method to transmit information with intensity interferometry includes a digital switch configured to receive a baseline message, and, for each of a plurality of bits of a received interferometric message, set the digital switch to an output position depending upon the bit value of the interferometric message. A first and second pair of transmitters separated by a first and second defined distance, wherein the defined distances are different, are configured to broadcast each of the plurality of bits of the baseline message depending upon the output position of the digital switch. One or more pairs of receivers are configured to receive the broadcast of the plurality of bits of the baseline message. An interferometric message recovery module is configured to recover the bits of the received interferometric message after receiving the broadcast of the baseline message at the one or more pairs of receivers.
US09407450B2
In one embodiment, a method includes generating at a network device comprising a virtual switch, a tenant record comprising tenant information for a context defined within the virtual switch, exporting the tenant record to a collector, monitoring network flow at the virtual switch, and exporting network flow data in a data record to the collector. The data record includes an identifier associating the data record with the context. An apparatus is also disclosed.
US09407447B2
A multicast message replication method and apparatus are provided. The method includes: step 1. storing a received message in a message cache module, and an inter-port replication module acquiring a cache address of the message, inter-port replication information of the message, and inner-port replication information of the message, replicating the cache address according to the inter-port replication information, and transmitting the replicated cache address and the corresponding inner-port replication information to a port queue module to be stored; step 2. a port scheduling module scheduling the cache address of the port queue module, and under the scheduling by the port scheduling module, the port queue module outputting a cache address for which message replication needs to be performed according to the stored corresponding inner-port replication information; step 3. the message cache module reading a corresponding message according to the cache address output by the port queue module and outputting.
US09407445B2
A method for exchanging data according to one embodiment includes transmitting a packet of data from a first device to a second device, the packet of data comprising an unencrypted command and an encrypted payload.
US09407436B2
An immobilizer ECU generates an encryption key using key generating logic, from a SEED code included in an ID code signal sent from an electronic key, and registers the encryption key to the immobilizer ECU. The immobilizer ECU receives an instruction from a registration and deletion tool and sends, to the electronic key, a deletion request signal that requests the deletion of the SEED code. The electronic key deletes the SEED code from the electronic key if a deletion request signal has been received.
US09407435B2
In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor including a first core. The first core includes multi-biometric logic to output first biometric data wi (i=1 to n, n≧2), each wi determined based on a corresponding one of first biometric input Mi (i=1 to n, n≧2) received during a first time period. The apparatus also includes setup logic to transform a cryptographic key k via a transformation that uses the first biometric data wi, where transformation of the cryptographic key k results in output of helper data hi (i=1 to n). Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09407434B2
A method, system and apparatus for deriving a secondary secret from a root secret are described, the method, system and apparatus including reserving a memory buffer included in an integrated circuit, the memory buffer being large enough to contain all of the bits which will include the secondary secret, receiving a plurality of bits from a root secret, the root secret being stored in a secure memory of the integrated circuit, inputting the plurality of bits from the root secret and at least one control bit into a permutation network, and thereby producing a multiplicity of output bits, the at least one control bit including one of one bit of a value g, and one bit an output of a function which receives g as an input, receiving the multiplicity of output bits from the permutation network, inputting the multiplicity of output bits from the permutation network into a plurality of logic gates, thereby combining the multiplicity of output bits, wherein a fixed number of bits is output from the logic gates, inputting the fixed number of bits output by the logic gates into an error correcting code module, the fixed number of bits output by the logic gates including a first group of intermediate output bits and a second group of intermediate output bits and receiving output bits from the error correcting code module, the output bits of the error correcting code module including the first group of intermediate output bits as changed by the error correcting code module, where the change depends on the second group of intermediate output bits, filling non-filled registers in the reserved memory buffer with the first group of intermediate output bits as changed by the error correcting code module, and repeating the steps of “receiving a plurality of bits from a root secret” through “filling non-filled registers in the reserved memory buffer” until the entire secondary secret is derived, wherein the steps of “receiving a plurality of bits from a root secret” through “filling non-filled registers in the reserved memory buffer” are performed in a single clock cycle of the integrated circuit. Related apparatus, methods and systems are also described.
US09407428B2
Provided is a reception apparatus including: a correction unit that corrects phase compensation for each one of multiple phase-compensated segments that are connected one after another, in which the correction unit includes a timing generation unit that, based on a phase of a known signal, generates a timing at which an amount of the phase compensation is initialized, an amount-of-correction generation unit that, based on the phase of the known signal, generates an amount of correction for correcting the amount of the phase compensation, and a phase correction unit that performs phase correction on the phase compensation using the amount of the correction that is generated by the amount-of-correction generation unit.
US09407426B2
An optical network interface (ONI) module has two main components: an optoelectronic front-end and a general purpose hardware-programmable optical network interface engine. The ONI engine is hardware programmable, allowing the user to configure the overall ONI module with different optoelectronic front-ends and for use with different host modules. In this way, the ONI module can be configured for different applications and protocols.
US09407425B1
A method of compensating phase imbalance comprises, detecting power outputs of a first output signal related to a first phase compensation value and of a second output signal related to a second phase compensation value; calculating a first absolute difference between an in-phase value and a quadrature value of the power output of the first output signal; calculating a second absolute difference between an in-phase value and a quadrature value of the power output of the second output signal; determining a minimum difference by comparing the first absolute difference with the second absolute difference; determining an optimal phase compensation value and a suboptimal phase compensation value from the first and the second phase compensation values according to the minimum difference; and obtaining an updated optimal phase compensation value with a binary search algorithm.
US09407415B2
A method for sending an acknowledgement includes: sending first subframe ratio information and second subframe ratio information to a UE; reserving a first PHICH resource set in a first acknowledgement subframe set; reserving a second PHICH resource set in an acknowledgement subframe, in which the first PHICH resource set does not exist, of a second acknowledgement subframe set; receiving uplink data sent by the UE; determining an acknowledgement subframe for the uplink data; and sending an acknowledgement to the UE by using a PHICH resource in the first PHICH resource set if the first PHICH resource set exists in the acknowledgement subframe, or sending an acknowledgement to the UE by using a PHICH resource in the second PHICH resource set if the first PHICH resource set does not exist in the acknowledgement subframe. PHICH resource overhead of a system is lowered and data transmission for the user equipment is ensured.
US09407403B2
A method for transmitting downlink data in a wireless communication system is provided. A base station generates a downlink sub-frame comprising: a first control channel for a first cell having a first frequency band; and a second control channel for a second cell having a second frequency band including a part of the first frequency band. The base station transmits the downlink data through the downlink sub-frame.
US09407402B2
A communication device's processor generates an OFDMA packet that includes different information for different recipient devices. The processor transmits, via a communication interface, different portions of the OFDMA packet via different channels. Initially, the processor transmits a first at least one field of the OFDMA packet intended for a first recipient device via the first channel. Then, the processor transmits a second at least one field of the OFDMA packet intended for the first recipient device via the first channel while simultaneously transmitting at least one other field of the OFDMA packet intended for a second recipient device via a second channel. This staggered transmission of different portions of the OFDMA packet via different channels allows a recipient device to classify different portions of the OFDMA packet and to determine which portions are intended for that recipient device.
US09407397B2
A method and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving a packet in a broadcasting and communication system are provided. The method includes splitting a source packet block including source packets into a plurality of source packet subblocks, converting the source packet subblocks to source symbol subblocks, respectively, generating a plurality of first repair symbol blocks by encoding the source packet subblocks using a first error correction code, configuring an error correction source packet by adding a source error correction payload IDentifier (ID) to source symbols included in the source symbol subblocks and configuring an error correction repair packet by adding a repair error correction payload ID to repair symbols included in the first repair symbol subblocks, and transmitting the error correction source packet and the error correction repair packet.
US09407395B2
A remote node (RN) comprises a downstream port, a wavelength multiplexer (WM) coupled to the downstream port and comprising ports for passing optical waves, an optical rotator coupled to the WM, and a mirror coupled to the optical rotator, wherein the WM, the optical rotator, and the mirror are part of a wavelength tuning scheme. An apparatus comprises a tunable transmitter, a polarization beam splitter (PBS) coupled to the tunable transmitter, a filter coupled to the PBS, a receiver coupled to the filter, a photodiode (PD) coupled to the PBS, and a processor coupled to the tunable transmitter and the PD. An apparatus comprises a tunable transmitter configured to transmit a first optical wave, a filter configured to receive a first reflected optical wave associated with the first optical wave, and a processor configured to tune the tunable transmitter based on the first reflected optical wave.
US09407393B2
The present invention relates to a method for receiving downlink data and a wireless device using same. The wireless device determines a subframe reception timing difference between a first serving cell and a second serving cell, receives a downlink grant through a downlink control channel of the first serving cell, and receives a downlink transmission block through a downlink shared channel of the second serving cell as instructed by the downlink grant. When the subframe reception timing difference is a predetermined value, at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol from among a plurality of OFDM symbols is neglected in a subframe where the downlink shared channel is received.
US09407387B2
An apparatus includes a receiver, a delay value receiver, a time stamp calculation unit, and a transmitter. The receiver is configured to receive a content signal. The delay value receiver is configured to receive a delay value from another apparatus. The time stamp calculation unit is configured to determine a time stamp based on the delay value. The transmitter is configured to send the content signal including the time stamp to the other apparatus.
US09407386B2
In a telecommunications network including at least a user device and a network node separated by at least a packet-switched part of the telecommunications network, the user device including a primary jitter buffer having a constant packet play-out rate, the network node including a secondary jitter buffer, incoming packets destined for the user device are received and passed through the secondary jitter buffer of the network node downstream towards the primary jitter buffer of the user device. The departure times of packets passing through the secondary jitter buffer of the network node downstream towards the primary jitter buffer of the user device are monitored. On the basis of the monitoring and one or more known characteristics of the primary jitter buffer, an estimate of a current state of the primary jitter buffer is maintained. Operation of the secondary jitter buffer is dynamically controlled according to the maintained estimate.
US09407373B2
Embodiments herein provide for an optical frequency synthesizer including a coarse optical frequency comb, a fine optical frequency comb, and an output laser. The coarse comb is pumped with a first pump laser, and an absolute frequency of at least one tooth of the coarse optical frequency comb is set. The fine comb is pumped with a second pump laser and has a frequency spacing between teeth that is locked to a fractional or integer multiple of a radio frequency reference. Initially, the second pump laser is locked to a first tooth of the coarse optical frequency comb. The optical frequency synthesizer can be tuned by sweeping the second pump laser and locking the second pump laser to a desired tooth. An output signal can then be generated with the output laser based on a tooth of fine comb after the second pump is locked to the desired tooth.
US09407371B2
A multiplexer/demultiplexer that functions as an extremely small AWG optical filter in order to prepare a miniaturized and low-cost transceiver module necessary to realize a high speed transceiver for Ethernet (registered trademark). An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer includes: at least one input waveguide, a first slab waveguide, an arrayed waveguide group, a second slab waveguide, and at least one output waveguide. Each of the waveguides of the arrayed waveguide group has: a first bent part of which a waveguide extending direction changes 180 degrees or more; and a second bent part of which a waveguide extending direction changes 180 degrees or more in a direction opposite to a direction of the change of the first bent part.
US09407368B2
An information communication method is provided for transmitting a signal using a change in luminance. The method includes determining a pattern of the change in luminance by modulating the signal to be transmitted, and transmitting the signal by a light emitter changing in luminance according to the determined pattern, wherein the pattern of the change in luminance is a pattern in which one of two different luminance values occurs in each arbitrary position in a predetermined duration. In the determining, the pattern of the change in luminance is determined so that a luminance change position in the duration is different for each of different signals to be transmitted, the luminance change position being a position at which the luminance rises or a position at which the luminance falls.
US09407359B2
A localized repair method in a network using a control plane includes, responsive to a failure on a local repair segment defined on a connection traversing the network, generating a release message in the control plane; attempting a local repair on the local repair segment; if the local repair is unsuccessful, transmitting the release message to redial the connection; and, if the local repair is successful, signaling a new sub-path based on the local repair. A controller and a network are also disclosed.
US09407349B2
A wireless transmitter has a modulator modulating an information signal of a frequency f1 by a carrier wave of a frequency f2 to output a first modulated signal, a transmitting antenna transmitting the first modulated signal using a linearly polarized wave, and a motor rotating the transmitting antenna at a frequency f3 to rotate the outgoing linearly polarized wave at the frequency f3 thereby multiplexing the first modulated signal with a linearly polarized wave component and a horizontally polarized wave component, the two components being independent of each other. A wireless receiver has diversity receiving antennas receiving the signal on a plurality of polarization planes to obtain a plurality of input signals; a path difference phase shifter compensating each of the input signals for the phase shift stemming from path differences, and a composer composing the corrected received signals.
US09407344B2
The present invention relates to a method for determining a precoding matrix for downlink signal transmission in a base station cooperative wireless communication system. The method includes receiving from a first terminal first channel information between the first base station and the first terminal, and second channel information between a second base station and the first terminal, transferring the first and the second channel informations to the second base station, determining a first precoding matrix for a first channel maximizing the efficiency of transmission to the first terminal, and determining, by the second base station, a second precoding matrix for a third channel between the second base station and the first terminal in order for a signal transmitted from the second base station to the first terminal to be arranged in an area where a signal transmitted from the first base station to the first terminal is not used.
US09407339B2
A monotonic optimization method is for achieving the maximum weighted sum-rate in multicell downlink MISO systems. It belongs to the wireless communications field. The weighted sum-rate maximization is viewed as a monotonic optimization problem over the achievable rate region. A sensible search scheme, a sequential partition method as well as a vertex relocation method are designed to reduce the complexity and accelerate the convergence.
US09407338B2
An antenna array structure includes a plurality of antennas, wherein a first antenna has a first geometric shape, provides a first radiation pattern, and has a first frequency bandwidth. A second antenna has a second geometric shape to provide a second radiation pattern and has a second frequency bandwidth. The first and second frequency bandwidths at least partially overlap to include channels of interest. An antenna processing circuit sends one or more transmit signals to one or more of the antennas for transmission via one or more of the channels of interest and receives one or more receive signals from the one or more of the antennas or from another one or more of the antennas via the one or more of the channels of interest or from another one or more of the channels of interest.
US09407337B2
Antenna systems and methods for Massive Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) (M-MIMO) communication are provided. Antennas systems include a M-MIMO transmitter architecture with a hybrid matrix structure. The hybrid matrix structure protects against transmit path component failures and ensures that a spatial rate of the MIMO transmitter is not degraded by the failures. Antenna systems and methods also include antenna selection schemes for selecting a subset of antennas from a plurality of antennas to transmit to a receiver.
US09407336B2
A method of operating a Mobile Station (MS) in a wireless communication system using beamforming includes receiving a reference signal over a plurality of downlink transmit (Tx) beams, measuring channel quality information of the received reference signal, and generating effective channel quality information by compensating for beamforming gain compensation information according to the channel quality information.
US09407297B1
Techniques are described for dynamically tuning mobile device antennas. Input derived from multiple sources and representing a variety of scenarios is provided to the RF modem of a mobile device. The modem is configured to select antenna tuning settings based on this input, each of which tunes the antenna by modifying its impedance as appropriate for the corresponding scenario.
US09407295B2
Aspects of the disclosure pertain to a system and method for providing component detector switching for a diversity loop detector. Switching between component detectors is performed via one of: a periodic state likelihood reset process, a slope-based switching process, or a cross-over connection process. The joint decision circuit switches among component detectors to promote improved performance with present of constant or transition phase offset.
US09407294B2
A non-volatile memory controller for a solid state drive includes a soft-decision LDPC decoder. The soft-decision LDPC decoder includes a probability generation module. A processor reads collected statistics collated from decoded frames and tunes the performance of the soft-decision LDPC decoder performance. Additional parameters may also be taken into account, such as the scramble seed and the type of non-volatile memory. An asymmetry in errors may also be detected and provided to a hard-decision LDPC decoder to adjust its performance.
US09407287B2
Systems, devices and methods for data compression using history search for dictionary based compression. Systems, devices and methods may use parallel processing techniques for data compression and encoding. Systems, devices and methods may provide memory search techniques for hardware.
US09407277B2
The present invention discloses a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter capable of improving the accuracy of analog-to-digital conversion. An embodiment of this converter comprises: a successive approximation analog-to-digital converting circuit operable to generate M bits according to an analog input signal in which the M bits include a most significant bit (MSB) and successive M−1 bit(s) in succession to the MSB while the number M is an integer greater than one; and a multi-bit generating circuit operable to receive a capacitor array output signal and a comparison signal outputted from the successive approximation analog-to-digital converting circuit for a predetermined time after the generation of the M bits, and then generate N bits at a time accordingly in which the N bits include a least significant bit (LSB) and successive N−1 bit(s) ahead of the LSB while the number N is an integer greater than one.
US09407275B1
Disclosed are an apparatus for lock detection suitable for a fractional-N frequency synthesizer and a method thereof. The lock detector for use in the fractional-N frequency synthesizer includes a delay unit delaying an N-divider output frequency clock based on an output value of a fraction ratio modulator, a lock detection unit outputting a lock detection signal by comparing a reference frequency clock with the N-divider output frequency clock delayed by the delay unit, a counter counting the number of lock detection signals received from the lock detection unit, and a controller issuing a command to output a lock identification signal based on the number of lock detection signals counted by the counter.
US09407271B2
A method and system is provided for sharing of bandwidth on intermediate frequency cabling connections between indoor and outdoor units of a MIMO microwave communications system. Phase locked loop design assists in creating synchronization signals to be transmitted over the cable connecting the indoor units and outdoor units.
US09407270B2
Various systems and methods utilizing a digitally controlled oscillator having frequency steps that increase in magnitude as a target output clock frequency increases are described. An integrated circuit in accordance with the disclosure includes a plurality of first transistor units fixedly coupled to an input voltage and a plurality of second transistor units switchably coupled to the first transistor units. An output coupled to the plurality of second transistor units and the plurality of first transistor units conveys an output signal having a frequency dependent on which select ones of the second transistor units are enabled. The plurality of second transistor units include a first switchable transistor unit having a transistor of a first width, a second switchable transistor unit having a transistor of a second width greater than the first width, and a third switchable transistor unit having a transistor of a third width greater than the second width.
US09407267B2
A level conversion circuit includes level conversion portions which are connected in series. The level conversion portion includes circuit blocks. The circuit block inverts an input signal. The circuit block includes a transistor connected between a power supply and a node, a transistor connected between the node and a power supply, a transistor connected between a gate of the transistor and the power supply, and a capacitor connected between an output node and the gate of the transistor. The circuit block carried out level conversion in step with operation of the transistor in accordance with a signal applied from an input node to a gate thereof and operation of the transistor an ON/OFF state of which is switched by application of an output of the circuit block to a gate thereof, to thereby output potential change at the node.
US09407265B2
An integrated circuit has signal assist circuitry for assisting with pulling a signal on the signal line towards the logical low or high signal level. The signal assist circuitry comprises first and second assist circuits. The first assist circuit couples the signal line to the logical high signal level following a pullup transition of the signal and provides a floating signal level following a pulldown transition, while the second assist circuit provides the floating signal level following the pullup transition and provides the logical low signal level following the pulldown transition. By providing complementary first and second assist circuits, each circuit can be optimized for the opposite transition to achieve improved performance or power consumption.
US09407264B1
A system for isolating a first power domain from a second power domain in an integrated circuit includes receiving an input signal from the first power domain and receiving a set of bits from a programmable register. An isolation enable signal indicative of isolating the first power domain from the second power domain is generated, and an intermediate signal based on the isolation enable signal and the input signal is generated. At least one of the input signal, a logic low signal, a logic high signal, and the intermediate signal is output based on the isolation enable signal and the set of bits.
US09407257B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus to reduce power consumption in a passive matrix LCD driver circuit by using a plurality of drive buffers and active power management of sub-blocks in the passive matrix LCD drive circuit. Each drive buffer may operate in a first phase, which may include a high-drive mode to drive an LCD voltage to a threshold voltage level and a low-drive mode to modify the LCD voltage to approximate an input voltage of the drive buffer, and to maintain a constant LCD voltage level. The low-drive buffer consumes less current than the high-drive buffer, thus reducing power consumption. The drive buffer may also operate in a second phase, also a no-drive mode, in which the drive buffer and the bias voltage generator may be completely turned off, to further reduce power consumption. The drive buffer may be used to drive capacitive loads, as well as partially-resistive loads and inductive loads.
US09407256B2
A method for reducing a disturbance on a signal path is provided. The disturbance is caused by a capacitance (203, 214)of a semiconductor switch (131-133) of an integrated circuit (130). The semiconductor switch (131-133) switches the signal path. The capacitance (203, 214) acts between the semiconductor switch (131-133) and a power supply terminal of the integrated circuit (130). According to the method, the power supply terminal of the integrated circuit (130) is coupled via an impedance (138, 139) to a power supply (137, 140).
US09407253B2
The application generally relates to apparatus for driving high voltage power switching devices such as IGBTs. An aspect provides a method of adding a sensing capability to a device driver for driving at least one high voltage power switching device of a power switching apparatus having device side circuitry comprising said at least one device and said driver and having control side circuitry comprising a driver controller, the device driver arranged to be coupled to a said driver controller by a communications link, the device driver arranged to drive said at least one device on or off in response to a switching signal received on said communications link from the driver controller, the device driver further arranged to transmit an acknowledge signal to said driver controller in response to said received switching signal, said acknowledge signal detectable at said driver controller as a valid said acknowledge signal, the method comprising: providing a sense circuit to output an indication of a condition of said device side circuitry; providing a modulation circuit to modulate a said acknowledge signal dependent on said condition indication prior to said transmission such that said modulated acknowledge signal is said acknowledge signal to be transmitted by said device driver to said driver controller in response to said received switching signal and detectable at said driver controller as a valid said acknowledge signal.
US09407251B1
A multichip power module directly connecting the busboard to a printed-circuit board that is attached to the power substrate enabling extremely low loop inductance for extreme environments such as high temperature operation. Wire bond interconnections are taught from the power die directly to the busboard further enabling enable low parasitic interconnections. Integration of on-board high frequency bus capacitors provide extremely low loop inductance. An extreme environment gate driver board allows close physical proximity of gate driver and power stage to reduce overall volume and reduce impedance in the control circuit. Parallel spring-loaded pin gate driver PCB connections allows a reliable and reworkable power module to gate driver interconnections.
US09407250B2
The disclosure presented herein provides example embodiments of systems for accurate multiplexing. The systems and methods presented may be suitable for non-limiting examples of analog to digital conversion with a switched input voltage (for a switched capacitor application) or any circuit with high voltage/high accuracy voltage multiplexing. In an example embodiment, pulsed current sources may be implemented to rapidly turn on and turn off the selected and unselected multiplexer ports while maintaining relatively low power consumption. A Kelvin input port may allow a high voltage input to be accurately sensed by avoiding a voltage drop associated with a selected pass gate p-channel FET channel resistance and parasitic wire resistance. The Kelvin input port biases the gate of a pass FET structure whose body terminals are allowed to remain floating.
US09407248B2
A memory-like structure composed of variable resistor elements for use in tuning respective branches and leaves of a clock distribution structure, which may be used to compensate for chip-by-chip and/or combinatorial logic path-by-path delay variations, which may be due, for example, to physical variations in deep submicron devices and interconnections, is presented. A single system clocked scan flip-fop with the capability to perform delay test measurements is also presented. Methods for measuring combinatorial logic path delays to determine the maximum clock frequency and delays to program the variable resistors, as well as methods for calibrating and measuring the programmed variable resistors, are also presented.
US09407232B2
A switchable band-pass filter is described that includes a first capacitor, a first switch circuit, and a second switching circuit arranged in parallel between a first node and a second node. The first switching circuit includes a third node and a first switch. The first switch is coupled between the third node and the second node. The second switching circuit includes a fourth node and a second switch. The second switch is coupled between the fourth node and the second node. A linking circuit is coupled between the third node. Methods for operating the switchable band-pass filter are also described.
US09407230B2
An apparatus is provided with a device storing machine readable code and a processor executing the machine readable code. The machine readable code includes sound setting code and audio processing code. The sound setting code detects use of a microphone and sets sound characteristics that are suitable for conversation in response to detecting the use of the microphone. The audio processing code processes sound on the basis of the sound characteristics set by the sound setting code.
US09407229B2
A squelch detector includes is configured to receive a time-varying differential communication signal, and includes switched capacitors and an inverter configured to provide an indication of whether a level of the received communication signal is above or below a threshold value.
US09407225B2
A sound enhancing system is disclosed for use with an engine of a vehicle to amplify engine sounds produced by the engine over a predetermined engine RPM operating range. The sound enhancing system includes a sound enhancing component which may be fixedly mounted within an engine compartment so that it does not move relative to the engine as the engine experiences engine roll during changes in engine RPM or a load experienced by the engine. An inlet duct communicates with an inlet of the sound enhancing component and receives air pulsations drawn in by the vehicle's induction system, and is able to vary in length as the engine roll occurs, when engine RPM increases and decreases. This enables a frequency response of the sound enhancing component to be modified in accordance with changing engine RPM or the load experienced by the engine.
US09407220B1
A transconductance stage has a common-emitter transconductance stage having common emitter transistors, a common-base transconductance stage having common base transistors, wherein collectors of the common emitter transistors and collectors of the common base transistors are cross-connected to allow in-phase signal combining, an input differential signal applied to the common-emitter transconductance stage and the common-base transconductance stage in parallel, and a selectable gain output, the output selectable between at least one high gain and one low gain, wherein the low gain is lower than the high gain. A switchable transconductance stage has at least one input voltage signal having a frequency in the microwave range, a switchable gain setting, the switchable gain setting having at least two gain settings, and an output current signal having a gain determined by the switchable gain setting.
US09407218B2
A multi-stage transimpedance amplifier (TIA) which includes a common gate amplifier configured to receive a current signal, the common gate amplifier is configured to convert the current signal into an amplified voltage signal. The multi-stage TIA further includes a capacitive degeneration amplifier configured to receive the amplified voltage signal, the capacitive degeneration amplifier is configured to equalize the amplified voltage signal to form an equalized signal. The multi-stage TIA further includes an inverter configured to receive the equalized signal, the inverter is configured to increase a signal strength of the equalized signal to form an output signal. The multi-stage TIA further includes a feedback configured to receive the output signal, wherein the feedback is connected to an input and an output of the inverter.
US09407216B2
A comparator 13 that detects the difference between a high frequency signal detected by a detector 12 and a feedback signal A output from a comparator 11; a comparator 14 that detects the difference between the difference detected by the comparator 13 and a feedback signal B output from an adder 18; and a loop filter 15 that passes only a prescribed low frequency band of the output signal of the comparator 14 are provided, in which an amplitude sensitivity adjuster 16 adjusts the amplitude sensitivity of a variable gain amplifier 3 in accordance with the rate of change of the signal passing through the loop filter 15, thereby controlling the gain of the variable gain amplifier 3.
US09407215B2
Disclosed are circuits and methods related to low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) having improved linearity. In some embodiments, a radio-frequency (RF) amplifier circuit can include a first amplifying transistor configured to amplify an RF signal. The RF amplifier circuit can further include a switchable inductance circuit that couples the first amplifying transistor to a signal ground. The switchable inductance circuit can be configured to be capable of providing at least two different inductance values that yield different linearity levels for the RF amplifier circuit. A high linearity performance can be obtained with a higher inductance and a lower bias voltage, thereby reducing power consumption of the RF amplifier. Examples of methods and devices related to such an RF amplifier circuit are disclosed.
US09407211B1
An apparatus having a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to generate an output signal in response to an intermediate signal. The first circuit may be implemented using a first transistor type. The second circuit may be configured to generate the intermediate signal in response to (i) an input signal and (ii) a feedback of the output signal. The second circuit may be implemented using a second transistor type. The output signal is an amplified version of the input signal while maintaining linearity.
US09407209B2
The present disclosure relates to a circuit that includes an input port for applying a sinusoidal input signal, and a first buffering means for converting the sinusoidal input signal into a square wave signal. A DC level of the square wave signal may be defined by an adjustable threshold voltage level. The circuit also includes an output port for outputting the square wave signal to a power amplifier. Further, the circuit includes a feedback loop having a low pass filtering means arranged for filtering the square wave signal and comparing means arranged for comparing a DC level of a filtered signal received from the low pass filtering means with a pre-set reference level. The reference level may be selected for cancelling a given harmonic component. The comparing means is further arranged for outputting to the first buffering means a correction signal for adjusting the threshold voltage level of the first buffering means.
US09407208B2
A Class AB amplifier has a control stage and a push-pull stage. The control stage has a programmable resistor that allows a floating constant voltage to applied to the push-pull stage such that the quiescent current of the amplifier is relatively low. The configuration enables the amplifier to operate properly at relatively low power-supply voltage levels. The amplifier can be configured as the output driver for an operational amplifier (op-amp) with a Miller compensation configuration that replaces the conventional Miller compensation resistor with a transistor that is part of the op-amp.
US09407207B2
An radio frequency amplifying circuit includes an amplifying transistor configured to amplify a radio frequency signal input to a base of the amplifying transistor via a matching network to output the amplified radio frequency signal, a first bias transistor connected to the amplifying transistor based on a current-mirror connection to supply a bias to the amplifying transistor, and a second bias transistor connected to the base of the amplifying transistor based on an emitter-follower connection to supply a bias to the amplifying transistor.
US09407206B2
A phased array architecture configured for current reuse is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a current mode phase rotator (PR) module configured to generate phase shifted in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) current signals, and a current mode residual sideband (RSB) correction module configured to correct residual sideband error associated with the phase shifted I and Q current signals. The RSB correction module and the PR module form a phased array element configured to reuse a DC supply current.
US09407200B2
Circuits having corresponding methods and computer-readable media comprise: an amplifier; a crystal port configured to be electrically coupled to a crystal, wherein a first terminal of the crystal port is electrically coupled to an input of the amplifier, and wherein a second terminal of the crystal port is electrically coupled to an output of the amplifier; a first capacitor, wherein a first terminal of the first capacitor is electrically coupled to ground; a second capacitor, wherein a first terminal of the second capacitor is electrically coupled to ground; a first switch configured to selectively electrically couple the input of the amplifier to a second terminal of the first capacitor; and a second switch configured to selectively electrically couple the output of the amplifier to a second terminal of the second capacitor.
US09407196B2
Method to command and control an electric motor of an automation unit. The unit comprises a mechanical member, driven by a drive shaft, a central command and control unit, and a position detection mean. The method provides that the central command and control unit receives the position signals of the shaft of the electric motor and/or of the mechanical member from the position detection mean, divides the operating cycle into a plurality of sub-phases equal with respect to each other, consisting of elementary units and, for each of said sub-phases, or multiple of sub-phases, selects predefined or self-learnt current reference values, and generates a signal consisting of an instantaneous current reference (feed forward) for the electric motor.
US09407193B2
A wiper control apparatus includes a wiper motor for operating a wiper, and providing a ground terminal, a low-speed terminal, and a high-speed terminal. A cam plate is disposed inside the wiper motor and generates a control signal for stopping the wiper when an operation mode of the wiper is a stop mode. A controller is configured to selectively supply a power to a low-speed terminal and a high-speed terminal of the wiper motor by turning on/off of a low-speed relay and a high-speed relay according to an operation mode of the wiper, to selectively turn off the low-speed relay and the high-speed relay by using the control signal according to a rotation of the cam plate, and to decelerate a wiper speed when the wiper stops.
US09407192B2
A charging circuit for at least one bootstrap charge storage element within an inertial load driver circuit is described, the at least one bootstrap charge storage element comprising a first node operably coupled to an output node of at least one switching element of the inertial load driver circuit. The charging circuit comprises at least one current source controllable to provide a current to a second node of the at least one bootstrap charge storage element, and at least one detection component arranged to receive at a first input thereof an indication of a voltage level at the output node of the at least one switching element of the inertial load driver circuit, detect when the voltage level at the output node of the switching element of the inertial load driver circuit is below a negative threshold voltage level, and control the at least one current source to provide a current to the second node of the at least one bootstrap charge storage element when the voltage level at the output node of the switching element of the inertial load driver circuit is below the negative threshold voltage level.
US09407190B2
An electric power steering apparatus is provided in which stably performing drive of FETs of an inverter can be achieved by means of a simplified constitution. The electric power steering apparatus drive-controls a motor through an inverter comprised of an FET bridge based on each-phase duty command values of pulse-width modulation (PWM) and perform assist control of a steering system. The electric power steering apparatus comprises a charge pump circuit and a bootstrap circuit that generate a booster power voltage for driving upper-FETs of the FET bridge, wherein the circuit having a higher voltage is used as the booster power voltage.
US09407184B2
An energy harvesting device comprises a semiconductor device, a first magnet core, and at least one second magnet core. The semiconductor device, disposed in a housing, includes a plurality of first sensors and a plurality of second sensors. The first magnet core, disposed over the semiconductor device, is configured to establish a magnetic field between the first sensors and move with respect to the semiconductor device. The at least one second magnet core, disposed between an inner wall of the housing and the semiconductor device, is configured to establish a magnetic field between the second sensors and move with respect to the semiconductor device.
US09407183B2
A signal control system for a fan motor comprises an input end, a load driving unit, a first signal conversion unit, a second signal conversion unit, and an amplifying driving unit. A rotation speed signal is transmitted from the input end to the load driving unit. The first and the second signal conversion units are electrically connected to the load driving unit and receive the rotation speed signal. The amplifying driving unit is electrically connected to the first and the second signal conversion units to generate an operation signal. Thus, the received rotation speed signal is converted to the operation signal through the signal control system for the fan motor, achieving the effects of cost reduction, simplification, and convenience.
US09407181B2
A control device stores, as a dead time Td, a period from a point of time of a switching-off operation of an inverter to a point of time when an inverter output voltage becomes lower than a control target value “0”. In overmodulation PWM control over the inverter, the control device performs the switching-off operation at a time t1, and thereafter starts a switching-on operation at a time t2 with passage of dead time Td read from a memory. With the setting of dead time Td, the inverter output voltage becomes lower than the control target value “0” at time t2 at which the switching-off operation is started. Hence, the inverter output voltage just after the switching-on operation is less likely to be affected by surge voltage during the switching-off operation, whereby the peak value of the inverter output voltage is made small.
US09407178B2
A voltage source inverter controller for controlling an inverter electrically connected to an electric machine includes a current command generator, a six-step flux controller and a current regulator. The six-step flux controller generates a flux modifier to regulate flux in a flux-weakening speed/load operating region of the electric machine when operating the electric machine in a six-step mode. The current command generator converts a desired torque to three-phase desired currents that are input to a dq0-dq transformer and combined with the flux modifier to determine a modified-flux direct-quadrature (dq) current request. The current regulator includes a proportional-integral feedback controller, anti-windup elements, a dq voltage limit element and a voltage magnitude limiter. The proportional-integral feedback controller and the anti-windup elements perform closed-loop current control on the modified-flux dq current request to determine commanded dq voltages.
US09407177B2
In a rotating electric machine control device, a voltage command value calculation section calculates a voltage command value based on a current command value and a motor current. An inverter power estimation section estimates an inverter power based on the motor current. A power supply current estimation section estimates a power supply current based on the inverter power and a power supply voltage. A limit gain determination section determines a limit gain based on the power supply current and a target power supply current. A limited voltage command value calculation section calculates a limited voltage command value based on the voltage command value and the limit gain. A current limitation section is capable of limiting the power supply current by outputting a command value corresponding to the limited voltage command value to an inverter portion.
US09407159B2
A kilowatt-scale high-frequency electrical power conversion system adapted for variable output power delivery is described, in which switching frequency of switchable power delivery circuitry is dynamically modulated in transition of the system to a low power regime that is substantially below maximum power output, in order to at least partially attenuate thermal overload from heat generation of switching components in such transitions. The system is useful in high-efficiency charging of rechargeable batteries of electrical vehicles, e.g., e.g., automotive, industrial, and other motive power vehicles.
US09407153B2
A control circuit controlling the driving of a switching device includes an under voltage lock out circuit stopping the operation of the control circuit when a power supply voltage supplied from the auxiliary winding of an insulating transformer becomes lower than a predetermined power supply lower limit voltage, an FB voltage decision circuit stopping the driving of the switching device when a feedback voltage indicating the state of a load becomes lower than the predetermined threshold value, a flip-flop brought into a set state by an output of the FB voltage decision circuit and a reset state when the power supply voltage exceeds the voltage ensuring the normal operation of the control circuit, and a switching circuit to set the power supply lower limit voltage in the under voltage lock out circuit, lower than that of the normal operation when the flip-flop is set.
US09407152B2
A current regulation apparatus is provided. The current regulation apparatus includes a trans unit, a first switching unit, a voltage detection unit, a voltage comparison unit, and a control unit. The trans unit includes an auxiliary winding unit. The first switching unit controls an operation of the trans unit. The voltage detection unit detects a voltage induced to the auxiliary winding unit. The voltage comparison unit compares a voltage detected by the voltage detection unit and a reference voltage. The control unit adjusts a turn-on section of the first switching unit according to an output voltage of the voltage comparison unit.
US09407151B2
An isolated switching converter includes a transformer having a primary winding, a secondary winding and an auxiliary winding, a primary switch coupled to the primary winding, a secondary switch coupled to the secondary winding, and a feedback circuit coupled to the auxiliary winding to generate a feedback signal indicative of the output voltage. Under normal operation, the primary switch is controlled based on the feedback signal and the secondary switch is controlled based on the status of the primary switch. Under light load condition, the secondary switch is controlled based on the output voltage. The secondary switch is turned on to generate a negative secondary current flowing through the secondary winding and turned off when the negative secondary current reaches a secondary current threshold. The primary switch is turned on based on a negative primary current and turned off when the primary current reaches a primary current threshold.
US09407146B2
A power source circuit includes a power source terminal for inputting a power source voltage; a switching regulator including a switching circuit connected to the power source terminal and a smoothing circuit connected to the switching circuit; a series regulator connected to the switching regulator in series; a switching portion; and a control portion. The smoothing circuit includes a capacitor and an inductor to output a first voltage. The series regulator is connected to the switching circuit and the smoothing circuit in series to output a second voltage. The switching portion supplies the power source voltage to the series regulator. The control portion outputs a switching signal for controlling the switching portion to turn on or off according to the power source voltage.
US09407143B2
A vehicle power-supply unit has chargeable and rechargeable first power supply and second power supply connected to a voltage transducer at input and output terminals, respectively, and a switch element connected between the output terminal of the voltage transducer and the second power supply. By controlling a rector current flown through a reactor connected to at least two switching elements at one end when the voltage transducer is started, a capacitor connected between the other end of the reactor and the ground is charged, and the switch element is brought in a connection state according to a charging voltage of the capacitor and a voltage value of the second power supply. Consequently, a vehicle power-supply unit can protect the elements by preventing a rush current during a backflow and reverse connection and at start-up.
US09407140B2
In one embodiment, a method of detecting a voltage can include: (i) generating a first current according to a first voltage and a converting resistor; (ii) charging a detection capacitor by the first current during a first time period of a switching cycle of a switching power supply; (iii) charging the detection capacitor by a second current during a second time period of the switching cycle; (iv) detecting a voltage across the detection capacitor to obtain a detection voltage at an end time of the second time period, where the first time period includes a rising portion of a current flowing through the inductor, and the second time period includes a decreasing portion of the inductor current; and (v) determining a state of a present output voltage of the switching power supply according to the detection voltage.
US09407138B2
A method of controlling a charge pump circuit can include: (i) detecting a difference between an output voltage and an input voltage in real time; (ii) generating an error amplifying signal by comparing the difference between the output voltage and the input voltage against a predetermined difference; and (iii) generating a control voltage signal for controlling the charge pump circuit according to the error amplifying signal, where a frequency of the control voltage signal positively changes along with the difference between the output voltage and said input voltage when the difference between the output voltage and the input voltage is greater than the predetermined difference.
US09407130B2
A massage device including a massage pad including a plurality of vibrating units, a plurality of heating elements, and/or a plurality of lifting actuators connected to a control box which accepts an input from a remote control associated with an action for at least one of the vibrating units, heating elements or lifting actuators and controls the vibrating units, heating elements or lifting actuators to perform the action is provided. Also provided are pre-programmed patterns of massage control actions, which may be input by a user using the remote control and/or a scripting language.
US09407118B2
The disclosure includes a generator gas shield support device, and method of removing the generator gas shield using the support device. In one embodiment, the generator gas shield support device of a generator system includes a first support coupled to a generator rotor of the generator system. The first support of the generator gas shield support device is configured to releasably couple a first portion of a generator gas shield to the generator rotor of the generator system. The generator gas shield support device may also include a second support releasably coupled to the generator rotor. The second support is configured to support the first portion of the generator gas shield during a rotation of the generator rotor.
US09407112B2
An apparatus (100) comprises a wireless sensor system (102) with electronic circuitry (104) and a power supply (106) for powering the electronic circuitry. The power supply comprises a primary cell (108) and an energy scavenger (110). The energy scavenger scavenges ambient energy and converts the scavenged ambient energy into electric energy. The sensor system is configured for having the primary cell power the electronic circuitry when the energy scavenger is inactive. The system is configured for performing at least one of having the energy scavenger power the electronic circuitry via the primary cell when the energy scavenger is active, using a capacitance of the primary cell as a buffer for the electric energy; and having the energy scavenger recharge the primary cell.
US09407100B2
An apparatus can have a casing that provides a first rigid interface that is configured to engage a second rigid interface of a mobile electronics device to form a direct electrical connection via rigid attachment. The casing may further have a charge controller connected to a circuitry board and configured to distribute charge power from at least a solar panel and external power input to a rechargeable battery.
US09407099B2
In a two-way direct balance circuit for series cells, a control unit activates a pulse generator to transmit high frequency switch control signals, and a flyback converter is utilized to perform electromagnetic transition between the cells that rapidly conveys power from the cells with high relative state of capacity (RSOC) to the flyback converter and to the cells with low RSOC. The direct energy transfer between cells provides fast and highly efficient performance.
US09407094B2
A method for adaptive load control by an electronic device is described. The method includes determining a wiring mode. The method also includes determining a frequency of a power source. The method further includes capturing a voltage waveform. The method additionally includes capturing a current waveform. The method also includes determining a load type of a load based on the voltage waveform and the current waveform. The method further includes determining a power factor based on the voltage waveform, the current waveform and the wiring mode. The method additionally includes operating the load based on the load type, the power factor and the frequency.
US09407088B2
A surge arrester includes an insulator having a first insulator end and an opposite second insulator end, at least one first electric arc electrode attached in the region of the first insulator end, at least one second electric arc electrode attached in the region of the second insulator end, a fixing element made of electrically non-conductive material for mounting the surge protector on an external support, and at least one dish-shaped element to which the first electric arc electrode is assigned and the dish side wall of which at least partially laterally encloses the first electric arc electrode. The fixing element is attached laterally to the dish side wall of the dish-shaped element.
US09407086B2
A safety switching device for switching on or off a hazardous installation in a failsafe manner has a failsafe control/evaluating unit and a power supply for providing at least one operating voltage for the control/evaluating unit. The power supply has a voltage converter for converting an input voltage into an output voltage of a defined output voltage value. The output voltage corresponds to the operating voltage. The power supply has a fault detector for detecting a fault condition of the voltage converter. The fault detector has a comparator for comparing a currently existent output voltage with a defined reference voltage. The fault detector provides a fault condition signal upon detection of a predetermined deviation from the reference voltage. The power supply also has a switch which disconnects the input voltage of the voltage converter when the fault condition signal is present.
US09407082B2
An arc flash system includes a circuit breaker having separable contacts, an operating mechanism, a trip unit including a sensor sensing current flowing in a power circuit, a trip circuit cooperating with the operating mechanism to trip open the contacts responsive to the sensed current or a first signal, and a communication interface outputting the sensed current, and an interface circuit including a processor having a first output of the first signal, an input of a second signal, and a second output of a third signal, and a communication interface cooperating with the processor to determine and communicate cause of trip information to the trip unit communication interface, input the sensed current, and communicate the sensed current to the processor. A light sensor senses light from an arc flash associated with the power circuit and outputs the second signal. A shorting apparatus shorts the circuit responsive to the third signal.
US09407078B2
The invention comprises a transmission line hanger insert that acts as an adapter that allows standard transmission line adapters previously used for coaxial cables to be used for fiber optic cables, power cables, hybrid cables and other cables that are becoming the new standard in the telecommunications industry. The insert is manufactured from UV-resistant rubber that is softer than the rubber used in prior art inserts.The insert of the present invention comprises a hollow cylindricalThe present invention is a hollow, spool-shaped cylindrical insert for a standard transmission line hanger that comprises a cylinder with a rim at either end, a round opening through the cylinder's center, a slit extending from the exterior of the insert to the interior opening and multiple standing ribs in the interior of the insert that allow the insert to be used with a plurality of different cable diameters and shapes.
US09407077B2
A support frame (10) for a cabling trunk assembly (1) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the support frame (10) has a main body (11) defining a mounting surface (41), and a first extension leg (50) extending along a first side edge (42) of the main body (11) and away from the mounting surface (41). Similarly, the support frame (10) can be provided with a second extension leg (52) that extends along a second side edge (44) of the main body (11) and away from the mounting surface (41). The extension legs (50, 52) may be provided with tabs (54, 56) to provide a secure connection with receiving grooves (28, 29) on a channel (12) of the cabling trunk assembly (1). The extension legs (50, 52) may also be configured to provide a snap-fit connection with the receiving grooves (28, 29).
US09407076B2
One aspect relates to a method for producing an electrical bushing for an implantable device, an electrical bushing, and an implantable device. The method according to one embodiment includes forming a base body from a ceramic slurry and introducing a bushing conductor made of a metal or cermet material with a metal fraction into the base body. The metal fraction in the bushing conductor is provided to decrease towards the base body. It includes sintering the green blank that includes the base body and the bushing conductor.
US09407074B2
A mounting assembly is configured for mounting electronics in a ceiling or wall without requiring access to interior portions of the ceiling or wall. The mounting assembly comprises a collar, at least two arms and at least two threaded screws. The collar fits around and attaches to the electronics housing. The at least two arms are each independently compressed to engage the ceiling and are coupled to the collar to support the collar in the ceiling.
US09407069B2
An electrically conductive glass seal for providing a hermetic bond between an electrically conductive component and an insulator of a spark plug is provided. The glass seal is formed by mixing glass frits, binder, expansion agent, and electrically conductive metal particles. The glass frits can include silica (SiO2), boron oxide (B2O3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), bismuth oxide (Bi2O3), and zinc oxide (ZnO); the binder can include sodium bentonite or magnesium aluminum silicate, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and dextrin; the expansion agent can include lithium carbonate; and the electrically conductive particles can include copper. The finished glass seal includes the glass in a total amount of 50.0 to 85.0 weight (wt. %), and electrically conductive metal particles in an amount of 15.0 to 50.0 wt. %, based on the total weight of the glass seal.
US09407067B2
A method of manufacturing a light emitting element includes, sequentially (a) forming a first light reflecting layer having a convex shape; (b) forming a layered structure body by layering a first compound semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second compound semiconductor layer; (c) forming, on the second surface of the second compound semiconductor layer, a second electrode and a second light reflecting layer formed from a multilayer film; (d) fixing the second light reflecting layer to a support substrate; (e) removing the substrate for manufacturing a light emitting element, and exposing the first surface of the first compound semiconductor layer and the first light reflecting layer; (f) etching the first surface of the first compound semiconductor layer; and (g) forming a first electrode on at least the etched first surface of the first compound semiconductor layer.
US09407064B2
A light-emitting element includes a mesa structure in which a first compound semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer, and a second compound semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type are disposed in that order, wherein at least one of the first compound semiconductor layer and the second compound semiconductor layer has a current constriction region surrounded by an insulation region extending inward from a sidewall portion of the mesa structure; a wall structure disposed so as to surround the mesa structure; at least one bridge structure connecting the mesa structure and the wall structure, the wall structure and the bridge structure each having the same layer structure as the portion of the mesa structure in which the insulation region is provided; a first electrode; and a second electrode disposed on a top face of the wall structure.
US09407046B1
An electrical connector assembly includes a cage member having a plurality of walls defining an upper port and a lower port for pluggable modules. The walls define side walls along sides of the upper and lower ports. The walls are manufactured from a metal material and providing electrical shielding for the upper port and the lower port. The walls define a port separator extending between the side walls below at least one of the upper port and the lower port. The port separator has an upper plate and a lower plate extending between the side walls of the cage member. The port separator has a plurality of channel walls extending between the upper plate and the lower plate to divide the port separator into a plurality of channels. The channels are open at a front and a rear of the port separator to direct airflow through the port separator.
US09407040B2
A female connector (F) includes a block-like main body (11) formed with terminal accommodating chambers (17). Projection-like functional portions (16) made of synthetic resin project from outer surfaces of the main body (11) and terminal accommodating chambers (17) are formed in the projection-like functional portions (16). Terminal fittings (40) are accommodated into the terminal accommodating chambers (17). Spaces constituting the terminal accommodating chambers (17) are present in the projection-like functional portions (16). Thus, even if the projection-like functional portions (16) are enlarged, sinks will not form in the projection-like functional portions (16) in a molding process.
US09407007B2
An antenna device in a wireless communication includes antenna wires of four sides which include three feeding points and have a loop structure and four main switches which are located among the antenna wires of the four sides, wherein the antenna device operates as a loop antenna when the antenna wires of the four sides are connected according to operations of the main switches and wherein the antenna device operates as dipole antennas when the antenna wires of the four sides are disconnected according to operations of the main switches.
US09407005B2
A multi-polarized scanning phased array antenna includes a plurality of elements, a first feed line operatively coupling the plurality of elements, a second feed line operatively coupling the plurality of elements, and a phase delay operatively coupled in at least one of the first feed line and the second feed line. The phase delay is configured to cancel a polarized signal associated with the multi-polarized scanning phased array antenna. A method of increasing isolation between polarizations in a multi-polarized scanning phased array antenna includes coupling a plurality of elements operatively with a first feed line, coupling the plurality of elements operatively with a second feed line, and coupling a phase delay operatively in at least one of the first feed line and the second feed line such that a polarized signal associated with the multi-polarized scanning phased array antenna is cancelled.
US09407001B2
The present invention relates to an antenna assembly for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. More particularly, this invention relates to a wideband and multiband omnidirectional antenna assembly for sending and receiving radio waves. Specifically, this invention relates to a radiative antenna element formed by way of a single-fed spiraled sheet of conductive material. The conductive material is interlaced with a dielectric material to form the radiative element. The radiative element includes a height of substantially less than ¼ of the characteristic wavelength of the lowest operating frequency.
US09407000B1
Method for deploying an antenna involves selectively determining an optimal position for at least one defining point of an antenna based on one or more parameters associated with a wireless communication session. Responsive to this determining, an unmanned aerial vehicle is automatically controlled to suspend at least one portion of the antenna aloft in a controlled position based on the optimal position. The antenna is coupled to a wireless communication device which is disposed on the ground. The method involves using the antenna while aloft to conducting the wireless communication session while the wireless communication device is disposed on the ground.
US09406999B2
Antenna structures may be customized to compensate for manufacturing variations in electronic device antennas. The antenna structures may include an antenna resonating element and a ground. Customizations may be made to the antenna structures by performing customization operations such as adding material, removing material, deforming material, and making electrical adjustments. Customizations may be performed to a conductive antenna resonating element structure, to a ground structure, or to associated antenna structures such as parasitic antenna elements. During manufacturing operations, antenna structures may be characterized by making radio-frequency antenna performance measurements. Antenna performance can be compared to desired performance levels and compensating customizations for the antenna structures can be identified. Customized antenna structures can be installed in electronic devices during manufacturing to produce devices that meet desired specifications.
US09406992B2
The invention relates to a microwave arrangement for the transmission of high-frequency signals of high powers comprising a microstrip conductor on an upper side of a substrate. The microstrip line comprises a multi-stage signal splitter and a ground surface on an underside of the substrate disposed opposite to the upper side. A defected ground structure is introduced into the ground-surface below a first stage of the signal splitter. Further a power combiner and/or a power splitter with a microwave arrangement according to example embodiments of the invention.
US09406981B2
A battery system including a stably operating battery management unit and an energy storage system including the battery system is disclosed. The battery system includes a battery rack configured to store and provide power, a rack protection circuit configured to selectively connect and disconnect the battery rack to and from the input/output terminal, and a rack battery management system (BMS) configured to communicate with the battery rack and with the rack protection circuit. The rack BMS receives data from the battery rack and generates control signals for the rack protection circuit. In addition, the rack protection circuit includes a current path between the battery rack and the input/output terminal, and the rack BMS is excluded from the current path.
US09406976B2
An electrolyte for a rechargeable lithium battery that includes a lithium salt and a non-aqueous organic solvent, wherein the non-aqueous organic solvent includes a fluoro-based solvent represented by the following Chemical Formula 1, and a rechargeable lithium battery including the same. R—O—R′ Chemical Formula 1 In Chemical Formula 1, R and R′ are independently a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C6 alkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C6 fluoroalkyl group, wherein at least one of R and R′ is the substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C6 fluoroalkyl group, and a substitution ratio of fluoro in the fluoro-based solvent represented by the Chemical Formula 1 may range from more than about 0% to less than or equal to about 50%.
US09406972B2
An electrolyte additive and electrolyte and lithium rechargeable battery including the electrolyte additive are provided. The electrolyte additive may be a monosubstituted pentafluorocyclotriphosphazene.
US09406966B2
A fuel cell assembly comprising an enclosure having a fuel cell stack mounted therein, and an inlet opening into the enclosure. The fuel cell stack having an inlet face for receiving coolant/oxidant fluid. The fuel cell assembly further comprises a delivery gallery extending from the inlet in the enclosure to the inlet face of the fuel cell stack, the delivery gallery having a first region and a second region separated by an aperture. The delivery gallery and aperture are configured such that, in use, coolant/oxidant fluid within the first region of the delivery gallery is turbulent, and coolant/oxidant fluid within the second region of the delivery gallery has a generally uniform pressure.
US09406965B2
Provided is a fuel cell capable of reducing the size thereof by reducing the installation space. The fuel cell includs a plurality of cell tubes, a lower tube plate fixing one end portion of the plurality of cell tubes, a gas flow path portion communicatively connected to an electric power generating chamber through the lower tube plate, a fuel discharge header and an air supply passage provided in the gas flow path portion, in which the fuel discharge header is communicatively connected to an interior of the cell tubes on one surface side and is adjacent to the air supply passage on the other surface and a side surface with a metal member interposed therebetween.
US09406961B2
According to the method for preparing an electrolyte for a vanadium redox flow battery, one electrolyte can be used as both the positive electrolyte and the negative electrolyte, by preparing an electrolyte having a median oxidation number of electrolytes used for the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the vanadium redox flow battery. Particularly, since the mixed electrolyte having the median oxidation number is separated into the same amounts of positive electrolyte and the negative electrolyte at the time of charging and discharging, the maximum charging and discharging effect based on the supplied capacitance can be obtained.
US09406958B2
The present invention provides a fluoropolymer electrolyte material which has improved processability and which is easily produced. The electrolyte emulsion of the present invention comprises an aqueous medium and a fluoropolymer electrolyte dispersed in the aqueous medium. The fluoropolymer electrolyte has a monomer unit having an SO3Z group (Z is an alkali metal, an alkaline-earth metal, hydrogen, or NR1R2R3R4, and R1, R2, R3, and R4 each are individually a C1-C3 alkyl group or hydrogen). The fluoropolymer electrolyte has an equivalent weight (EW) of 250 or more and 700 or less and a proton conductivity at 110° C. and relative humidity 50% RH of 0.10 S/cm or higher. The fluoropolymer electrolyte is a spherical particulate substance having an average particle size of 10 to 500 nm. The fluoropolymer electrolyte has a ratio (the number of SO2F groups)/(the number of SO3Z groups) of 0 to 0.01.
US09406953B2
A fuel cell stack includes a first separator and a second separator. The first separator includes a first sandwiching section for sandwiching an electrolyte electrode assembly, a fuel gas supply section, and a first bridge section. A fuel gas supply passage extends through the fuel gas supply section in the stacking direction. The second separator includes a second sandwiching section for sandwiching the electrolyte electrode assembly, an oxygen-containing gas supply section, and a second bridge section. An oxygen-containing gas supply passage extends through the oxygen-containing gas supply section. A first displacement absorbing mechanism, a second displacement absorbing mechanism, a third displacement absorbing mechanism and a fourth displacement absorbing mechanism are provided in the fuel gas supply section, the oxygen-containing gas supply section, the first sandwiching section and the second sandwiching section for absorbing displacement generated in the fuel cell stack.
US09406949B2
A fuel cell system is provided with a fuel cell, a first combustor, a first heating gas return channel and a gas supplier. The fuel cell includes a solid electrolyte cell with an anode and a cathode. The fuel cell generates power by reacting a hydrogen-containing gas and an oxygen-containing gas. The first combustor selectively supplies a heating gas to the cathode of the fuel cell. The first heating gas return channel mixes at least some exhaust gas discharged from the cathode with the heating gas of the first combustor such that a mixed heating gas of the exhaust gas and the heating gas is supplied to the cathode. The gas supplier connected to the first heating gas return channel for supplying the exhaust gas from the cathode to mix with the heating gas of the first combustor.
US09406948B2
A bipolar plate assembly for a fuel cell is provided. The bipolar plate assembly includes a first electroformed unipolar plate disposed adjacent a second electroformed unipolar plate. The first and second unipolar plates are bonded by a plurality of localized electrically and thermally conductive plugs by electroplated material deposited within apertures formed in the substrates onto which the unipolar plates are electroformed. A method for forming the bipolar plate assembly is also described.
US09406942B2
Disclosed herein are embodiments of an apparatus for preparing rotating disk electrodes. One such apparatus comprises a base, a plurality of disk mounts attached to the base, each configured to receive a respective rotating disk, a plurality of motors each coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of disk mounts and configured to rotate the corresponding one of the plurality of disk mounts and a controller configured to individually operate each of the plurality of motors.
US09406937B2
A binder composition for a rechargeable lithium battery includes a semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) including a copolymer including a repeating unit represented by the following Chemical Formula 1 and a repeating unit represented by the following Chemical Formula 2 and polyacrylamide, and polyalkylene glycol. In Chemical Formula 1, R1 and R2 are the same or different and are independently selected from hydrogen, or a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C10 alkyl group, and R3 and R4 are an alkali metal. In Chemical Formula 2, R5 to R8 are the same or different, and are independently hydrogen, a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C30 alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C30 aryl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C30 alkoxy group.
US09406926B2
Disclosed is an anode for a lithium secondary battery. The anode includes a current collector in the form of a wire and a porous anode active material layer coated to surround the surface of the current collector. The three-dimensional porous structure of the active material layer increases the surface area of the anode. Accordingly, the mobility of lithium ions through the anode is improved, achieving superior battery performance. In addition, the porous structure allows the anode to relieve internal stress and pressure, such as swelling, occurring during charge and discharge of a battery, ensuring high stability of the battery while preventing deformation of the battery. These advantages make the anode suitable for use in a cable-type secondary battery. Further disclosed is a lithium secondary battery including the anode.
US09406918B2
A battery assembly including a plurality of battery cells and at least one frame having a support feature formed thereon is disclosed. The support feature supports electrically conductive tabs of the battery cells and militates against damage to the battery assembly during a joining of one of the electrically conductive tabs with another one of the electrically conductive tabs of an adjacent battery cell or during a joining of the electrically conductive tabs of adjacent battery cells with a connector.
US09406916B2
A battery module includes first and second plates opposite each other, first and second frames respectively connecting tops and bottoms of the first and second plates to define a casing, the first frame being connected to the second frame and having a shape corresponding to the second frame, and a plurality of battery cells stacked in the casing, each battery cell including a first surface with a terminal portion, the first surface of each battery cell facing the first plate, a second surface opposite the first surface, and a pair of third surfaces spaced part from each other, each third surface connecting the first and second surfaces and being parallel to the second frame.
US09406915B2
A power tool system includes a first power tool having a first power tool rated voltage, a second power tool having a second power tool rated voltage that is different from the first power tool rated voltage, and a first battery pack coupleable to the first power tool and to the second power tool. The first battery pack is switchable between a first configuration having a first battery pack rated voltage that corresponds to the first power tool rated voltage such that the first battery pack enables operation of the first power tool, and a second configuration having a convertible battery pack rated voltage that corresponds to the second power tool rated voltage such that the battery pack enables operation of the second power tool.
US09406910B2
An organic electroluminescent element comprising an anode, a cathode and a plurality of organic compound layers sandwiched between the anode and cathode, the organic compound layers including: a hole-transporting layer made of an organic compound insoluble in alcohols; and an electron-transporting layer formed on the hole-transporting layer by a wet method, the electron-transporting layer being made of a phosphorus-containing organic compound soluble in the alcohols.
US09406907B2
The present application provides an organic light emitting device and a method for manufacturing the same, the organic light emitting device including a first electrode; an organic material layer; and a second electrode provided in consecutive order, the organic material layer further including a light emitting layer; and an optical length control layer provided between the light emitting layer and the second electrode, the optical length control layer including a first optical length control layer that includes a compound represented by the following Chemical Formula 1, the light produced in the light emitting layer being emitted through the first electrode.
US09406906B2
In one aspect, an encapsulation sheet, a method of manufacturing an organic light emitting display device using the encapsulation sheet, and an organic light emitting display device is provided. The encapsulation sheet includes a carrier film; and a first sheet formed on the carrier film, wherein the first sheet comprises at least one of tin fluorophosphates glass, chalcogenide glass, tellurite glass, borate glass, and phosphate glass.
US09406904B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a substrate, an organic light-emitting device on the substrate, an encapsulation layer covering the organic light-emitting device, and a low adhesive layer covering the encapsulation layer.
US09406902B2
A flexible display panel includes a first flexible substrate, a second flexible substrate, a display medium, and a sealant. The first flexible substrate has a plurality of non-folding areas and at least one folding area located between the non-folding areas. The non-folding areas are separated. The second flexible substrate is configured above the first flexible substrate. The display medium is configured between the first flexible substrate and the second flexible substrate. The sealant is configured on the first flexible substrate to surround the display medium. The elasticity of the sealant in the folding area is greater than the elasticity of the sealant in the non-folding areas.
US09406891B2
Disclosed are a compound for an organic optoelectronic device, an organic light emitting diode including the same, and a display device including the organic light emitting diode. A compound for an organic optoelectronic device represented by Chemical Formula 1 provides an organic optoelectronic device having an excellent life-span and improved luminous efficiency at a low driving voltage due to excellent electrochemical and thermal stability.
US09406890B2
An embodiment is directed to compound represented by Formula 1 below: wherein, in Formula 1, Ar1, Ar2, Ar3, and Ar4 are each independently a substituted or unsubstituted C6-C60 aryl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C10-C60 condensed polycyclic group, or a substituted or unsubstituted C3-C60 heteroaryl group; a is an integer from 0 to 2, b is an integer from 0 to 4, c is an integer from 1 to 3, and when b is 2 or more, Ar4 is identical to or different from each other.
US09406886B2
This invention comprises a semiconducting polymer having a permittivity greater than 3.4 at 1000 Hz and a charge mobility in the pure state greater than 10−7 cm2V−1s−1 and more preferably greater than 10−6 cm2V−1s−1. Preferred polymers include repeating units of triarylamines which have specific cyano and/or alkoxy substitution. They are suitable for use in electronic components such as organic thin film transistors.
US09406883B1
Structures and formation methods of a semiconductor device structure are provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a semiconductor substrate and a first electrode over the semiconductor substrate. The first electrode has a ring-shaped cross section. The semiconductor device structure also includes a resistance-switching layer over the first electrode and a second electrode over the resistance-switching layer.
US09406876B2
A method for manufacturing MTJ pillars for a MTJ memory device. The method includes depositing multiple MTJ layers on a substrate, depositing a hard mask on the substrate and coating a photoresist on the hard mask. Further, alternating steps of reactive ion etching and ion beam etching are performed to isolate MTJ pillars and expose side surfaces of the MTJ layers. An insulating layer is the applied to protect the side surfaces of the MTJ layers. A second insulating layer is deposited before the device is planarized using chemical mechanical polishing.
US09406873B2
Provided are a magnetic memory device and a method of fabricating the same. The device may include a cell selection device, a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), and a lower electrode connecting them. The lower electrode may include a vertical portion and a horizontal portion laterally extending from a side surface of the vertical portion. In the lower electrode, the vertical portion has a top surface higher than the horizontal portion and has a top surface including at least two parallel sides and other side at an angle thereto. The MTJ may be provided on the vertical portion of the lower electrode.
US09406868B2
A manufacturing method for a piezoelectric resonator device includes sequential steps of: (i) laminating a metal film constituted by at least two types of metals on at least one of a substrate of a joining region of a piezoelectric resonator plate, a substrate of a region of an upper lid member, and a substrate of a region of a lower lid member; (ii) promoting metal diffusion inside the metal film by heat processing; and (iii) roughening a surface of the substrate of the at least one of the piezoelectric resonator plate, the upper lid member, and the lower lid member by performing wet etching with an etchant caused to penetrate into the metal film and thereby forming a large number of micropores in the surface of the substrate of the at least one of the piezoelectric resonator plate, the upper lid member, and the lower lid member.
US09406866B2
A piezoelectric device is provided with: a piezoelectric ceramic layer that is obtained by firing a piezoelectric ceramic composition which contains a perovskite composition and an Ag component; and a conductor layer that sandwiches the piezoelectric ceramic layer, wherein Ag is segregated in voids in a sintered body of the perovskite composition in the piezoelectric ceramic layer. The piezoelectric ceramic composition preferably contains a perovskite composition which is represented by (Pba.Rex){Zrb.Tic,.(Ni1/3Nb2/3)d.(Zn1/3Nb2/3)e}O3 (wherein Re represents La and/or Nd, and a-e and x satisfy the following conditions 0.95≦a≦1.05, 0≦x≦0.05, 0.35≦b<0.45, 0.35≦c≦0.45, 0≦d≦0.10, 0.07≦e≦0.20 and b+c+d+e=1) and 0.05-0.3% by mass of an Ag component in terms of oxides relative to the perovskite composition.
US09406862B2
An elastic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate including a primary surface and a first electrode which is provided on the primary surface of the piezoelectric substrate, which includes a first multilayer metal film including at least three metal films laminated in a bottom-to-top direction, and which includes at least an IDT film. The first multilayer metal film includes a Ti film as the topmost film and has a crystal orientation oriented in a predetermined direction so that the normal line direction of the plane of a Ti crystal of the Ti film coincides with the Z axis of a crystal of a piezoelectric body defining the piezoelectric substrate.
US09406853B2
A method for manufacturing at least one optoelectronic semiconductor device includes providing a substrate and applying a number of optoelectronic semiconductor chips, which are arranged spaced apart from one another in a lateral direction, on an upper face of the substrate. At least one reflective coating is applied to the exposed areas of the substrate and the lateral surfaces of the optoelectronic semiconductor chips. Openings are introduced into the reflective coating, which completely penetrate the reflective coating. Electrically conductive material is arranged on the reflective coating and at least on some parts of the openings. Radiation penetration surfaces of the optoelectronic semiconductor chips are free of the reflective coating and the reflective coating does not laterally extend beyond the optoelectronic semiconductor chips.
US09406852B2
A light emitting device includes a substrate having a first main surface that serves as the light extraction surface, a second main surface that is opposite the first main surface, and a mounting surface that is adjacent to at least the second main surface, and that is provided an insulating base material, a pair of connection terminals disposed on the second main surface, and a heat dissipation terminal disposed on the second main surface and between the pair of connection terminals; a light emitting element that is mounted on the first main surface of the substrate and; a sealing member that seals the light emitting element and is formed substantially in the same plane as the substrate on the mounting surface.
US09406847B2
In at least one embodiment, the semiconductor component includes an optoelectronic semiconductors chip. Furthermore, the semiconductor component includes a conversion-medium lamina, which is fitted to a main radiation side of the semiconductor chip and is designed for converting a primary radiation into a secondary radiation. The conversion-medium lamina includes a matrix material and conversion-medium particles embedded therein. Furthermore, the conversion-medium lamina includes a conversion layer. The conversion-medium particles are situated in the at least one conversion layer. The conversion-medium particles, alone or together with diffusion-medium particles optionally present, make up a proportion by volume of at least 50% of the conversion layer. Furthermore, the conversion-medium lamina includes a binder layer containing the conversion-medium particles with a proportion by volume of at most 2.5%.
US09406837B2
A method of forming a light emitting diode includes forming a transparent substrate and a GaN buffer layer on the transparent substrate. An n-GaN layer is formed on the buffer layer. An active layer is formed on the n-GaN layer. A p-GaN layer is formed on the active layer. A p-electrode is formed on the p-GaN layer and an n-electrode is formed on the n-GaN layer. A reflective layer is formed on a second side of the transparent substrate. A scribe line is formed on the substrate for separating the diodes on the substrate. Also, a cladding layer of AlGaN is between the p-GaN layer and the active layer.
US09406819B2
A photovoltaic component that includes at least one first array of photovoltaic nano-cells is disclosed. Each photovoltaic component includes an optical nano-antenna exhibiting an electromagnetic resonance in a first resonant spectral band, at least one lateral dimension of the optical nano-antenna being subwavelength in size, and a spectral conversion layer allowing at least part of the solar spectrum to be converted to said first resonant spectral band.
US09406814B2
According to one embodiment, a non-volatile memory device includes a first stacked electrode provided above a underlying layer, a second stacked electrode juxtaposed with the first stacked electrode above the underlying layer, a plurality of first semiconductor layers piercing the first stacked electrode in a direction perpendicular to the underlying layer, and a second semiconductor layer piercing the second stacked electrode in a direction perpendicular to the underlying layer. The device further includes a memory film provided between the first stacked electrode and the first semiconductor layers, and between the second stacked electrode and the second semiconductor layer, and a link part provided between the underlying layer and the first stacked electrode, and between the underlying layer and the second stacked electrode. The link part is electrically connected to one end of each of the first semiconductor layers and one end of the second semiconductor layer.
US09406808B2
In a channel protected thin film transistor in which a channel formation region is formed using an oxide semiconductor, an oxide semiconductor layer which is dehydrated or dehydrogenated by a heat treatment is used as an active layer, a crystal region including nanocrystals is included in a superficial portion in the channel formation region, and the rest portion is amorphous or is formed of a mixture of amorphousness/non-crystals and microcrystals, where an amorphous region is dotted with microcrystals. By using an oxide semiconductor layer having such a structure, a change to an n-type caused by entry of moisture or elimination of oxygen to or from the superficial portion and generation of a parasitic channel can be prevented and a contact resistance with a source and drain electrodes can be reduced.
US09406798B2
An SOI wafer contains a compressively stressed buried insulator structure. In one example, the stressed buried insulator (BOX) may be formed on a host wafer by forming silicon oxide, silicon nitride and silicon oxide layers so that the silicon nitride layer is compressively stressed. Wafer bonding provides the surface silicon layer over the stressed insulator layer. Preferred implementations of the invention form MOS transistors by etching isolation trenches into a preferred SOI substrate having a stressed BOX structure to define transistor active areas on the surface of the SOI substrate. Most preferably the trenches are formed deep enough to penetrate through the stressed BOX structure and some distance into the underlying silicon portion of the substrate. The overlying silicon active regions will have tensile stress induced due to elastic edge relaxation.
US09406794B2
A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes a semiconductor layer. A first conductivity type region is formed on a base layer portion of the semiconductor layer. A body region of a second conductivity type is formed on the semiconductor layer to be in contact with the first conductivity type region. A trench in which a gate electrode is embedded through a gate insulating film is formed on the semiconductor layer. The trench penetrates through the body region, so that a deepest portion thereof reaches the first conductivity type region. A source region of the first conductivity type is formed on a surface layer portion of the semiconductor layer around the trench. The gate insulating film includes a thick-film portion having a relatively large thickness on a bottom surface of the trench.
US09406780B2
Vertical gate all around devices are formed by initially forming a first doped region and a second doped region that are planar with each other. A channel layer is formed over the first doped region and the second doped region, and a third doped region is formed over the channel layer. A fourth doped region is formed to be planar with the third doped region, and the first doped region, the second doped region, the third doped region, the fourth doped region, and the channel layer are patterned to form a first nanowire and a second nanowire, which are then used to form the vertical gate all around devices.
US09406772B1
A semiconductor structure with a multilayer gate oxide is provided. The structure includes a substrate. A multilayer gate oxide is disposed on the substrate, wherein the multilayer gate oxide includes a first gate oxide and a second gate oxide. The first gate oxide contacts the substrate and the second gate oxide is disposed on and contacts the first gate oxide. The second gate oxide is hydrophilic. The first gate oxide is formed by a thermal oxidation process. The second gate oxide is formed by a chemical treatment.
US09406770B2
Provided is a method of fabricating a semiconductor device. The method includes providing a substrate including a transistor area and a resistor area, forming dummy gate structures on the substrate in the resistor area, and a lower interlayer insulating layer; forming a resistor structure having a buffer insulating pattern, a resistor element and an etch-retard pattern disposed sequentially on the lower interlayer insulating layer; and forming resistor contact structures configured to pass through the etch-retard pattern and to contact with the resistor element.
US09406769B2
An integrated circuit includes a PMOS gate structure and a gate structure on adjacent field oxide. An epitaxy hard mask is formed over the gate structure on the field oxide so that the epitaxy hard mask overlaps the semiconductor material in PMOS source/drain region. SiGe semiconductor material is epitaxially formed in the source/drain regions, so that that a top edge of the SiGe semiconductor material at the field oxide does not extend more than one third of a depth of the SiGe in the source/drain region abutting the field oxide. Dielectric spacers on lateral surfaces of the gate structure on the field oxide extend onto the SiGe; at least one third of the SiGe is exposed. Metal silicide covers at least one third of a top surface of the SiGe. A contact has at least half of a bottom of the contact directly contacts the metal silicide on the SiGe.
US09406760B2
Favorable electrical characteristics are given to a semiconductor device. Furthermore, a semiconductor device having high reliability is provided. One embodiment of the present invention is an oxide semiconductor film having a plurality of electron diffraction patterns which are observed in such a manner that a surface where the oxide semiconductor film is formed is irradiated with an electron beam having a probe diameter whose half-width is 1 nm. The plurality of electron diffraction patterns include 50 or more electron diffraction patterns which are observed in different areas, the sum of the percentage of first electron diffraction patterns and the percentage of second electron diffraction patterns accounts for 100%, the first electron diffraction patterns account for 90% or more, the first electron diffraction pattern includes observed points which indicates that a c-axis is oriented in a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface where the oxide semiconductor film is formed.
US09406758B2
This application discloses semiconductor devices with sharp gate edges including 2D and 3D memory cells, High Electron Mobility Transistors and tri-gate transistors. Implementation of a gate with sharp edges may improve the read and write speed and reduce the program and erase voltages in memory cells. It may also improve the gate control over the channel in tri-gate transistors and HEMTs. Methods to fabricate such devices are also disclosed.
US09406749B2
A semiconductor structure includes a substrate and a fin. The fin extends from the substrate and is formed with a hole therethrough. The hole is defined by a confronting pair of wall parts. One of the wall parts is more arcuate than the other of the wall parts. A method for fabricating the semiconductor structure is also disclosed.
US09406745B2
A method of manufacturing super junction for semiconductor device is disclosed. The super junction for semiconductor device includes a silicon substrate with a first conductive type epitaxial layer, a plurality of highly-doped second conductive type columns formed in the first conductive type epitaxial layer, and a plurality of lightly-doped (first conductive type or second conductive type) side walls formed on outer surfaces of the highly-doped second conductive type. The semiconductor device is super-junction MOSFET, super junction MOSFET, super junction Schottky rectifier, super junction IGBT, thyristor or super junction diode.
US09406735B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes: a first substrate; a display unit on the first substrate, the display unit being divided into a pixel unit and a non-pixel unit located around the pixel unit; a first electrode having an island shape to correspond to the pixel unit; a second electrode facing the first electrode and over the pixel unit and the non-pixel unit; an organic light-emitting layer between the first electrode and the second electrode and to emit light toward the second electrode; a second substrate facing the second electrode and bonded with the first substrate; and a light output unit arranged as a part corresponding to the pixel unit and a light reflection unit arranged as a part corresponding to the non-pixel unit, wherein the light output unit and the light reflection unit are on an internal surface of the second substrate facing the second electrode.
US09406733B2
A pixel structure, including a data line, a scan line, at least one active device, a first auxiliary electrode, and a light emitting device, is provided. The at least one active device is electrically connected with the data line and the scan line, and each active device includes a gate, a channel layer, a source, and a drain. The first auxiliary electrode is electrically insulated from the active device. The light emitting device is disposed above the first auxiliary electrode, wherein the light emitting device includes a first electrode layer, a light emitting layer, and a second electrode layer. The first electrode layer is electrically connected with the first auxiliary electrode. The light emitting layer is disposed on the first electrode layer. The second electrode layer is disposed on the light emitting layer, wherein the second electrode layer is electrically connected with the active device.
US09406727B2
A dual-mode display including a substrate and a plurality of sub-pixels on the substrate, in which each sub-pixel includes, a reflective device having an optical filter function which reflects different color according to electrical signals applied from outside the display, and an emissive device disposed on the reflective device, wherein the emissive device includes a cathode and an anode, and the cathode and the anode include a carbon-based material including graphene sheets, graphene flakes, and graphene platelets, and a binary or ternary transparent conductive oxide including indium oxide, tin oxide, and zinc oxide.
US09406725B2
The thickness of a display device including a touch sensor is reduced. Alternatively, the thickness of a display device having high display quality is reduced. Alternatively, a method for manufacturing a display device with high mass productivity is provided. Alternatively, a display device having high reliability is provided. Stacked substrates in each of which a sufficiently thin substrate and a relatively thick support substrate are stacked are used as substrates. One surface of the thin substrate of one of the stacked substrates is provided with a layer including a touch sensor, and one surface of the thin substrate of the other stacked substrate is provided with a layer including a display element. After the two stacked substrates are attached to each other so that the touch sensor and the display element face each other, the support substrate and the thin substrate of each stacked substrate are separated from each other.
US09406721B1
A memory device includes a bit line extending in a first direction, a word line extending in a second direction crossing the first direction, an insulating material between the word line and another word line, a first layer made of a Group IV element, between the word line and the insulating material and between the word line and the bit line, and a second layer made of a compound of a Group V element and a Group VI element, between the insulating material and the bit line. The word line includes a first portion that is metallic and a second portion between the first portion and the first layer. In addition, a variable resistance portion in contact with the first and second layers and the second portion of the word line, contains the Group IV element and the compound of the Group V element and the Group VI element.
US09406713B2
A vertically stacked image sensor having a photodiode chip and a transistor array chip. The photodiode chip includes at least one photodiode and a transfer gate extends vertically from a top surface of the photodiode chip. The image sensor further includes a transistor array chip stacked on top of the photodiode chip. The transistor array chip includes the control circuitry and storage nodes. The image sensor further includes a logic chip vertically stacked on the transistor array chip. The transfer gate communicates data from the at least one photodiode to the transistor array chip and the logic chip selectively activates the vertical transfer gate, the reset gate, the source follower gate, and the row select gate.
US09406709B2
Methods, apparatuses, systems, and devices relating to fabricating one or more nanowires are disclosed. One method for fabricating a nanowire includes: selecting a particular wavelength of electromagnetic radiation for absorption for a nanowire; determining a diameter corresponding to the particular wavelength; and fabricating a nanowire having the determined diameter. According to another embodiment, one or more nanowires may be fabricated in an array, each having the same or different determined diameters. An image sensor and method of imaging using such an array are also disclosed.
US09406708B2
The present invention provides an image sensor device including a substrate, a channel formed in the substrate, a photoelectric transfer region formed in the substrate located at one side of the channel, a voltage transfer region formed in the substrate located at the other side of the channel, a first gate dielectric layer formed on the substrate, a second gate dielectric layer formed on the substrate, wherein the first gate dielectric layer and the second gate dielectric layer have a joint above the channel, and the thickness of the first gate dielectric layer is thicker than that of the second gate dielectric layer, and a gate formed on the first gate dielectric layer and the second gate a is dielectric layer. The present invention also provides a method for fabricating the image sensor device.
US09406707B2
Disclosed herein is a solid-state image pickup element, including: a photoelectric conversion region; a transistor; an isolation region of a first conductivity type configured to isolate the photoelectric conversion region and the transistor from each other; a well region of the first conductivity type having the photoelectric conversion region, the transistor, and the isolation region of the first conductivity type formed therein; a contact portion configured to supply an electric potential used to fix the well region to a given electric potential; and an impurity region of the first conductivity type formed so as to extend in a depth direction from a surface of the isolation region of the first conductivity type in the isolation region of the first conductivity type between the contact portion and the photoelectric conversion region, and having a sufficiently higher impurity concentration than that of the isolation region of the first conductivity type.
US09406705B2
There is provided a TFT backplane having at least one TFT with oxide active layer and at least one TFT with poly-silicon active layer. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, at least one of the TFTs implementing the circuit of pixels in the active area is an oxide TFT (i.e., TFT with oxide semiconductor) while at least one of the TFTs implementing the driving circuit next to the active area is a LTPS TFT (i.e., TFT with poly-Si semiconductor).
US09406692B2
A vertical-type nonvolatile memory device is provided in which differences between the sizes of channel holes in which channel structures are formed are reduced. The vertical-type nonvolatile memory device includes a substrate having channel hole recess regions in a surface thereof. Channel structures vertically protrude from the surface of the substrate on ones of the channel hole recess regions, and memory cell stacks including insulating and conductive layers are alternately stacked along sidewalls of the channel structures. A common source line extends along the surface of the substrate on other ones of the channel hole recess regions in a word line recess region, which separates adjacent memory cell stacks. Related fabrication methods are also discussed.
US09406690B2
A memory device and corresponding fabrication method prevent undesired diffusion of dopants from a silicon cap of a vertical NAND string to a channel film of the NAND string. Initially, a memory hole is provided in a stack of alternating control gate layers and dielectric layers. The memory hole is filled with annular films and a dielectric core filler. The dielectric core filler is etched back from a top of the memory hole to a topmost control gate layer, forming a void. A dopant stopper liner is deposited in the void before depositing n+ doped silicon which forms the silicon cap. The dopant stopper liner can be a conductive material such as metal or polysilicon doped with carbon. A conductive via is then formed above, and aligned with, the top of the silicon cap. A bit line may be formed over the conductive via.
US09406685B2
A flash memory unit, a memory array and operation methods thereof are provided. The flash memory unit includes a semiconductor substrate, a first and a second bit line structures, a word line structure, a first and a second float gates, and a first and a second control gates. The semiconductor substrate has doping wells formed therein, constituting a source and a drain. The first and second bit line structures are respectively connected with the source and the drain. The word line structure is disposed between the first and second bit line structures. The first float gate is disposed between the first bit line structure and the word line, and the second float gate is disposed between the second bit line structure and the word line. The first control gate is disposed on the first float gate, and the second control gate is disposed on the second float gate.
US09406681B2
Cell layouts for a memory cell, such as for ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), are disclosed. Some cell layouts include a well strap structure. A cell layout may include a p-doped well, an n-doped well, and a p-doped well sequentially along a layout. Another cell layout may include a p-doped well, an n-doped well, a p-doped well, and an n-doped well sequentially along a layout. A well strap structure may be in a p-doped well or an n-doped well. Various metallization layers having a mesh may be used with a memory cell layout. In some disclosed examples, a first metallization layer may have one, two, or four ground traces, and a second metallization layer may have two ground traces. These various ground traces may be electrically coupled together to form a mesh.
US09406675B1
A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The method includes providing a substrate, forming a fin structure extruding from the substrate, forming shallow trench isolations over the substrate, and forming an oxide material over the fin structure. The method further includes forming a carbon-doped amorphous silicon layer or a carbon-doped poly silicon layer over the oxide material, wherein the forming a carbon-doped amorphous silicon layer or a carbon-doped poly silicon layer includes doping carbon in a range of from about 5E19/cm3 to about 1E22/cm3.
US09406671B2
Semiconductor devices having capacitor arrays. A semiconductor device is formed including a capacitor array formed in a plurality of cells in a two-dimensional grid. The capacitor array includes a plurality of operational capacitors formed in a first subset of the plurality of cells along a diagonal of the capacitor array. A first operational capacitor is formed in a cell at a first edge of the capacitor array and at a first edge of the diagonal of the capacitor array. The capacitor array also includes a plurality of dummy patterns formed about the plurality of operational capacitors in the capacitor array in a second subset of the plurality of cells to achieve symmetry in the grid about the diagonal. Each one of the plurality of operational capacitors is electrically coupled to another one of the plurality of operational capacitors.
US09406668B2
A power semiconductor element includes: a main transistor including a first gate electrode, a first drain electrode, and a first source electrode; a sensor transistor including a second gate electrode, a second drain electrode, and a second source electrode; and a gate switch transistor including a third gate electrode, and a third drain electrode, a third source electrode. The first gate electrode, the second gate electrode, and the third drain electrode are connected, the first drain electrode and the second drain electrode are connected, the first source electrode and the second source electrode are connected via a sensor resistor, the first source electrode and the third source electrode are connected, the second source electrode and the third gate electrode are connected via a switch resistor, and the main transistor, the sensor transistor, and the gate switch transistor are formed with a nitride semiconductor.
US09406667B2
An improved nLDMOS ESD protection device having an increased holding voltage is disclosed. Embodiments include: providing in a substrate a DVNW region; providing a HVPW region in the DVNW region; providing bulk and source regions in the HVPW region; providing a drain region in the DVNW region, separate from the HVPW region; and providing a polysilicon gate over a portion of the HVPW region and the DVNW region.
US09406665B2
Integrated passive devices for silicon on insulator (SOI) FinFET technologies and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming a passive device on a substrate on insulator material. The method further includes removing a portion of the insulator material to expose an underside surface of the substrate on insulator material. The method further includes forming material on the underside surface of the substrate on insulator material, thereby locally thickening the substrate on insulator material under the passive device.
US09406662B2
A method of assembling a first and a second electronic components includes forming connection elements on an assembly surface of the first component and forming connection elements on an assembly surface of the second component. The method also includes depositing a liquid layer of electrically-insulating curable material on the assembly surface of the first and/or of the second component and arranging the first and second components on each other to place the connection elements of the second component in front of the connection elements of the first component. The method further includes applying a force along a predetermined direction and the first and/or the second components to create electric interconnects each formed of a connection element of the first component and of a connection element of the second component and curing the curable material.
US09406660B2
Stacked semiconductor die assemblies with die support members and associated systems and methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a semiconductor die assembly can include a package substrate, a first semiconductor die attached to the package substrate, and a support member attached to the package substrate. The support member can be separated from the first semiconductor die, and a second semiconductor die can have one region coupled to the support member and another region coupled to the first semiconductor die.
US09406652B2
A semiconductor memory is formed by stacking a plurality of substrates and memory cells on each substrate are connected by data dump lines. A switch may intervene between the memory cell and the data dump line. When data of each substrate is dumped by the data dump line, a problem of decrease in a speed and an increase in power consumption due to a parasitic component can be minimized. Further, a core circuit including the memory cell may be disposed on one substrate and a peripheral circuit unit may be disposed on the remaining substrates.
US09406651B2
The chip stack of semiconductor chips with enhanced cooling apparatus includes a first chip with circuitry on a first side and a second chip electrically and mechanically coupled to the first chip by a grid of connectors. The chip stack further includes a thermal interface material pad between the first chip and the second chip. The thermal interface material pad comprises a plurality of nanotubes containing a magnetic material, aligned parallel to mating surfaces of the first chip and the second chip, wherein a hydrophobic tail of oleic acid is wrapped around each one of the plurality of nanotubes and a hydrophilic acid head of the oleic acid is attached to the magnetic material.
US09406650B2
Methods of packaging semiconductor devices and packaged semiconductor devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method of packaging semiconductor devices includes coupling integrated circuit dies to a substrate, and disposing a molding material around the integrated circuit dies. A cap layer is disposed over the molding material and the plurality of integrated circuit dies.
US09406647B2
A semiconductor device is manufactured by, first, providing a wafer, designated with a saw street guide, and having a bond pad formed on an active surface of the wafer. The wafer is taped with a dicing tape. The wafer is singulated along the saw street guide into a plurality of dies having a plurality of gaps between each of the plurality of dies. The dicing tape is stretched to expand the plurality of gaps to a predetermined distance. An organic material is deposited into each of the plurality of gaps. A top surface of the organic material is substantially coplanar with a top surface of a first die of the plurality of dies. A redistribution layer is patterned over a portion of the organic material. An under bump metallization (UBM) is deposited over the organic material in electrical communication, through the redistribution layer, with the bond pad.
US09406639B2
A semiconductor package and manufacturing method thereof are disclosed and may include a first semiconductor device comprising a first bond pad on a first surface of the first semiconductor device, a first encapsulant material surrounding side edges of the first semiconductor device, and a redistribution layer (RDL) formed on the first surface of the first semiconductor device and on a first surface of the encapsulant material. The RDL may electrically couple the first bond pad to a second bond pad formed above the first surface of the encapsulant material. A second semiconductor device comprising a third bond pad on a first surface of the second semiconductor device may face the first surface of the first semiconductor device and be electrically coupled to the first bond pad on the first semiconductor device. The first surface of the first semiconductor device may be coplanar with the first surface of the encapsulant material.
US09406637B2
A semiconductor construct includes a semiconductor substrate and connection pads provided on the semiconductor substrate. Some of the connection pads are connected to a common wiring and at least one of the remaining of the connection pads are connected to a wiring. The construct also includes a first columnar electrode provided to be connected to the common wiring and a second columnar electrode provided to be connected to a connection pad portion of the wiring.
US09406635B2
A semiconductor light emitting device includes a multi-region solder pad. The semiconductor light emitting device includes a light emitting diode (LED) chip having a first surface on which first and second electrodes are disposed and a second surface opposing the first surface. A passivation layer is disposed on a surface of the LED chip such that bonding regions of the first and second electrodes are exposed through the passivation layer. A solder pad is disposed in each respective bonding region and has a plurality of separated regions. A solder bump is disposed in each respective bonding region and covers the plurality of separated regions of the respective solder pad. In the semiconductor light emitting device, separation between the solder pad and the solder bump may thereby be effectively prevented by ensuring that an interface between a solder pad and a solder bump is not entirely damaged.
US09406632B2
A semiconductor package includes a passivation layer overlying a semiconductor substrate, a pillar bump overlying the passivation layer, and a molding compound layer overlying the passivation layer and covering a lower portion of the bump. A sidewall of the passivation layer is covered by the molding compound layer.
US09406625B2
A semiconductor wafer has a multi-stage structure that damps and contains nascent cracks generated during dicing and inhibits moisture penetration into the active region of a die. The wafer includes an array of die regions separated by scribe lanes. The die regions include an active region and a first ring that surrounds the active region. A portion of the first ring includes a low-k dielectric material. A second ring includes a stack of alternating layers of metal and interlayer dielectric (ILD) material. A dummy metal region around the rings includes a stacked dummy metal features and surrounds the active region. A regular or irregular staggered arrangement of saw grid process control (SGPC) features reduces mechanical stress during dicing.
US09406624B2
A semiconductor module includes a case, a semiconductor component provided in the case for switching a current, encapsulating resin provided in the case for covering the semiconductor component, a magnetic shield contacting the encapsulating resin and containing a magnetic material, and an embedded magnetic shield embedded in the case, the embedded magnetic shield containing a magnetic material.
US09406619B2
A semiconductor device includes a pre-fabricated shielding frame mounted over a sacrificial substrate and semiconductor die. An encapsulant is deposited through an opening in the shielding frame around the semiconductor die. A first portion of the shielding frame to expose the encapsulant. Removing the first portion also leaves a second portion of the shielding frame over the semiconductor die as shielding from interference. A third portion of the shielding frame around the semiconductor die provides a conductive pillar. A first interconnect structure is formed over a first side of the encapsulant, shielding frame, and semiconductor die. The sacrificial substrate is removed. A second interconnect structure over the semiconductor die and a second side of the encapsulant. The shielding frame can be connected to low-impedance ground point through the interconnect structures or TSV in the semiconductor die to isolate the die from EMI and RFI, and other inter-device interference.
US09406617B1
Structures and processes include a single metallization step for forming a metal nitride liner layer suitable for contact formation. The structure and processes generally includes forming a nitrogen-enriched surface in a deposited metal liner layer or forming a nitrogen-enriched surface in the dielectric material prior to deposition of the metal liner layer. In this manner, nitridization of the metal occurs upon deposition of nitrogen ions into the metal liner layer and/or as a function of additional conventional processing in fabricating the integrated circuit such that the deposited nitrogen ions diffuse into at least a portion of the metal liner layer. As a consequence, only a single metal layer deposition step is needed to form the metal liner layer.
US09406614B2
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprises forming a first dielectric material layer on a semiconductor substrate. The first dielectric material layer is patterned to form a plurality of vias therein. A metal layer is formed on the first dielectric material layer, wherein the metal layer fills the plurality of vias. The metal layer is etched such that portions of the metal layer above the first dielectric material layer are patterned to form a plurality of metal features aligned with the plurality of vias respectively. A self-assembled monolayer film is formed on surfaces of the plurality of metal features.
US09406592B2
A power semiconductor circuit includes at least one semiconductor having at least one contact area, and at least one bonding conductor strip having at least one contact region fastened on at least one of the contact areas. The contact region of the bonding conductor strip includes cutouts.
US09406591B2
A semiconductor device 100 includes a first insulating material 110 attached to a second main surface 106b of a semiconductor chip 106, and a second insulating material 112 attached to side surfaces of the semiconductor chip 106, the first insulating material 110 and an island 102. The semiconductor chip 106 is fixed to the island 102 via the first insulating material 110 and the second insulating material 112. The first insulating material 110 ensures a high dielectric strength between the semiconductor chip 106 and the island 102. Though the second insulating material 112 having a modulus of elasticity greater than that of the first insulating material 110, the semiconductor chip 106 is firmly attached to the island 102.
US09406588B2
The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a carrier, a first redistribution layer (RDL) over the carrier, a semiconductor die over the first RDL, an adhesive layer between the semiconductor die and the first RDL, and a molding compound encapsulating the first RDL, the semiconductor die, and the adhesive layer. The first RDL includes at least one pattern electrically isolated from any component of the semiconductor structure. The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure discussed herein. The method includes forming an RDL on a carrier, defining an active portion and a dummy portion of the RDL, and placing a semiconductor die over the dummy portion of the RDL.
US09406577B2
A semiconductor wafer stack and a method of forming a semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes providing first and second wafers with top and bottom surfaces. The wafers include edge and non-edge regions, and the first wafer includes devices formed in the non-edge region. A first protection seal may be formed at the edge region of the first wafer. The first and second wafers may further be bonded to form a device stack. The protection seal in the device stack contacts the first and second wafers to form a seal, and protects the devices in subsequent processing.
US09406562B2
Embodiments of the invention provide an integrated circuit (IC) having reduced through silicon via (TSV)-induced stresses and related IC design structures and methods. In one embodiment, the invention includes a method of designing an integrated circuit (IC) having reduced substrate stress, the method including: placing in an IC design file a plurality of through silicon via (TSV) placeholder cells, each placeholder cell having an undefined TSV orientation; replacing a first portion of the plurality of TSV placeholder cells with a first group of TSV cells having a first orientation; and replacing a second portion of the plurality of TSV placeholder cells with a second group of TSV cells having a second orientation substantially perpendicular to the first orientation, wherein TSV cells having the first orientation and TSV cells having the second orientation are interspersed to reduce a TSV-induced stress in an IC substrate.
US09406559B2
A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The method includes forming a gate structure over a substrate and forming source and drain regions adjacent to the gate structure. The method also includes forming a first ILD layer surrounding the gate structure over the source and drain regions and forming a contact modulation structure over the gate structure. The method also includes etching the first ILD layer and the contact modulation structure to form a first contact trench over the source and drain regions and a second contact trench over the gate structure. The method further includes forming a first contact in the first contact trench and a second contact in the second contact trench. In addition, the first ILD layer has a first etching rate and the contact modulation structure has a second etching rate that is less than the first etching rate.
US09406556B2
A semiconductor system includes: providing a dielectric layer; providing a conductor in the dielectric layer, the conductor exposed at the top of the dielectric layer; capping the exposed conductor; and modifying the surface of the dielectric layer, modifying the surface of the dielectric layer, wherein modifying the surface includes cleaning conductor ions from the dielectric layer by dissolving the conductor in a low pH solution, dissolving the dielectric layer under the conductor ions, mechanically enhanced cleaning, or chemisorbing a hydrophobic layer on the dielectric layer.
US09406552B2
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor die or chip, a package body and a through package body via. The semiconductor chip includes a plurality of conductive pads. The package body encapsulates a sidewall of the semiconductor chip, and has at least one hole formed therein having a sidewall which is of a prescribed first surface roughness value. The through package body via is disposed in the hole of the package body and comprises a dielectric material and at least one conductive interconnection metal. The dielectric material is disposed on the sidewall of the hole and defines at least one bore having a sidewall which is of a second surface roughness value less than the first surface roughness value. The interconnection metal is disposed within the bore.
US09406549B2
A planarization process, the process including performing first sputtering on a material layer, with an area of the material layer which has a relatively low loading condition for sputtering shielded by a first shielding layer, removing the first shielding layer, and performing second sputtering on the material layer to planarize the material layer.
US09406529B1
A finFET structure, and method of forming such structure, in which a germanium enriched nanowire is located in the channel region of the FET, while simultaneously having silicon-germanium fin in the source/drain region of the finFET.
US09406527B2
A method for processing a wafer (in a process of manufacturing semiconductor devices) may include the following steps: using a first slurry set to perform a first chemical mechanical polishing process on the wafer, wherein the wafer includes a plurality of metal gate structures; using a second slurry set to perform a second chemical mechanical polishing process on the wafer, wherein a concentration of a slurry material in the second slurry set is less than a concentration of the slurry material in the first slurry set; performing a cleaning process on the wafer; and providing an anti-reflective coating on the wafer.
US09406522B2
A first portion of a multiple cycle spacer is formed on a sidewall of a patterned feature over a substrate. A spacer layer is deposited on the first portion using a first plasma process. The spacer layer is etched to form a second portion of the multiple cycle spacer on the first portion using a second plasma process. A cycle comprising depositing and etching of the spacer layer is continuously repeated until the multiple cycle spacer is formed.
US09406511B2
A semiconductor device and a method of forming the same are provided. An embodiment comprises a target layer and masking layers over the target layer. First openings are formed in the uppermost layer of the masking layers. Spacers are formed along sidewalls of the first openings, remaining first openings having a first pattern. Second openings are formed in the uppermost layer of the masking layers, the second openings having a second pattern. The first pattern and the second pattern are partially transferred to the target layer.
US09406510B2
Provided is a method for forming a pattern on a layer on a substrate. The method includes forming a line-and-space pattern on the layer; coating a resist on the line-and-space pattern and filling the resist in a space portion of the line-and-space pattern; exposing a pattern to the resist, developing the exposed resist, and forming a resist pattern on the space portion; and forming a pattern on the layer using a pattern which is a combination of a line portion of the line-and-space pattern and the resist pattern as a mask.
US09406509B2
Easily removable heteroatom-doped carbon-containing layers are deposited. The carbon-containing layers may be used as hardmasks. The heteroatom-doped carbon-containing hardmasks have high etch selectivity and density and also a low compressive stress, which will reduce or eliminate problems with wafer bow. Heteroatoms incorporated into the hardmask include sulfur, phosphorous, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine, all of which have low reactivity towards commonly used etchants. When sulfur is used as the heteroatom, the hardmask is easily removed, which simplifies the fabrication of NAND devices, DRAM devices, and other devices.
US09406508B2
Methods of forming a semiconductor layer including germanium with low defectivity are provided. The methods may include sequentially forming a silicate glass layer, a diffusion barrier layer including nitride and an interfacial layer including oxide on a substrate. The methods may also include forming a first semiconductor layer on the interfacial layer and converting a portion of the first semiconductor layer into a second semiconductor layer having a germanium concentration therein that is higher than a germanium concentration of the first semiconductor layer.
US09406499B2
A semiconductor structure includes a wafer including a first surface and a periphery, a plurality of protrusions protruded from the first surface and a plurality of recesses spaced from each other by the plurality of protrusions, and each of the plurality of recesses is extended from the periphery of the wafer and is elongated across the first surface of the wafer.
US09406496B2
A method and system are disclosed for improving characteristic peak signals in electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) measurements of crystalline materials. A beam scanning protocol is applied which varies the inclination, azimuthal angle, or a combination thereof of the incident beam while spectroscopic data is acquired. The method and system may be applied to compositional mapping.
US09406489B2
A method and apparatus for investigating a chemical-based event inside a vehicle without significant delay. A number of samples of air are collected at a number of locations inside the vehicle in response to a detection of the chemical-based event inside the vehicle. A number of chemical profiles for the number of samples are generated on-site using a portable chemical profiling device. A probable cause of the chemical-based event is identified using at least one of the number of chemical profiles.
US09406485B1
An argon and helium plasma apparatus and method are disclosed that operate with argon or helium at atmospheric pressure, and at low temperatures, and with high concentrations of reactive species in the effluent stream. Laminar gas flow is developed prior to forming the plasma and at least one of the electrodes is heated which enables operation at conditions where the argon or helium plasma would otherwise be unstable and either extinguish, or transition into an arc. The apparatus and method can be employed to remove organic materials from a substrate, thereby cleaning the substrate; activate the surfaces of materials thereby enhancing adhesion between the material and an adhesive; kill microorganisms on a surface, thereby sterilizing the substrate; etches thin films of materials from a substrate, and deposit thin films and coatings onto a substrate.
US09406477B2
A slow wave structure of a traveling wave tube is provided. The slow wave structure includes an input port, an output port, a first material, and a second material. The second material is mounted in the first material at periodic intervals in a direction of propagation of a radio frequency signal between the input port and the output port. The second material has a real part of permittivity that is negative and a real part of permeability that is positive at an operational frequency of the radio frequency signal.
US09406468B2
A relay in which a relay body and a light source are incorporated in a case, the light source emitting light in conjunction with operation of the relay body, wherein a light guide is provided inside an outer surface of the case, the light guide is configured to take in the light emitted from the light source, to guide the light to a portion parallel to a top panel of the case, and to spread the light in the portion parallel to the top panel, and an optical pattern is provided in at least one of a top surface and a bottom surface of the portion parallel to the top panel, the optical pattern is configured to output, the light guided in the light guide to the portion parallel to the top panel, to outside the case from a top surface of the top panel.
US09406467B2
Systems, methods, and apparatuses are provided in which power control relay switches may be configured to switch at or near a predetermined time during an AC cycle and/or that are configured to control a velocity of an armature of the relay switch during switching. An input power source may provide alternating current (AC) power and a voltage or current level of the AC power may be sensed. A relay controller may switch the relay switch based on a time at which the voltage or current is at or near a zero-crossing. The relay controller may be configured to close the relay switch based on when a voltage of the power input is at a zero-crossing, and is configured to open the relay switch based on when a current of the power input is at a zero-crossing.
US09406465B1
Circuit interrupter having an arc extinguisher which functions to arrest an arc between its contacts regardless of the polarity of the contacts. The circuit interrupter includes one or more permanent magnets configured to drive an arc into the arc extinguisher. The arc extinguisher may include two arc paths, each including arc splitter plates. The two arc paths may be adjacent, each extending in a parallel direction. The arc paths may alternatively be non-adjacent, each extending in a perpendicular direction.
US09406462B2
An interconnect for transferring signals herein includes one or more signal contacts to transfer the power or data to or from an integrated truss system. An interconnect may be configured to transfer power or data between layers of the integrated truss system or within the same layer of the integrated truss system. An interconnect may be configured with one or more compression mechanisms that secure the interconnect in the integrated truss system.
US09406456B2
In one embodiment the present disclosure relates to providing wireless speaker functionality in an electrical switch assembly, such as a light switch located in the wall of a building. The switch assembly includes a faceplate with a touch-sensitive speaker grille covering a sizeable portion of the faceplate. The disclosed designs enables the grille portion of the faceplate to provide sound transmission and electrical switch control, thereby allows for a larger speaker to be placed centrally in the junction box, while maintaining full electrical switch functionality. In some embodiments illumination components (e.g. electroluminescent regions) are arranged on a circuit board with a plurality of openings designed to align with the grille. The illumination components can illuminate regions of the faceplate, indicating the current state of one or more electrical switches.
US09406452B2
A movable contact point for an inhibiter switch includes a movable contact point that makes pressure contact with a fixed contact point is slid to cause the movable contact point and the fixed contact point to be connected and disconnected. The movable contact point comprises parallel side wall portions and a sliding portion that slides on the fixed contact point and that connects end portions of the side wall portions. Projecting portions that project in the sliding direction are provided in notch portions in the side walls, wherein the projecting portions abut against each other between the side wall portions in the sliding direction.
US09406444B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a first solid electrode, a second electrode separated into subsections, and a dielectric medium separating the subsections from the first solid electrode, where the subsections of the second electrode include a first group of subsections and a second group of subsections, where the first group of subsections are connectable with a first terminal for receiving an input signal, and where the second group of subsections is connectable with a second terminal for providing an output signal. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09406438B2
A stack-type inductor element includes a stack including a magnetic element layer, a coil-shaped conductor pattern provided in the stack, a plurality of first pad electrodes provided on one main surface of the stack, and a plurality of second pad electrodes provided on the other main surface of the stack and symmetric to the plurality of first pad electrodes. The stack is rectangular or substantially rectangular when viewed in a direction of stack of the stack. A first end and a second end of the coil-shaped conductor pattern are electrically connected to two of the plurality of first pad electrodes, respectively, and the plurality of second pad electrodes are all electrically open.
US09406435B2
A wireless power transmission device for transmitting power from a power source to a load includes a three-dimensional source conductive element that is electrically coupled to the power source and that induces an alternating current therein. A first three-dimensional resonating conductive element surrounds the source conductive element, but is physically decoupled therefrom and resonates in response to the alternating current induced in the source conductive element. A second three-dimensional resonating conductive element is physically spaced apart from the first three-dimensional resonating conductive element and resonates in response to an oscillating field generated by the first three-dimensional resonating conductive element. A three-dimensional load conductive element is within the second three-dimensional resonating conductive element, but is physically decoupled therefrom. The three-dimensional load conductive element applies power to the load in response to resonation in the second three-dimensional resonating conductive element.
US09406425B2
A magnetic decoupling unit that is capable of magnetically releasing several types of magnetically releasable antitheft devices may include a magnet assembly. The magnet assembly may be placed inside a magnet housing with a cover that has an aperture and insert for receiving portions of a magnetically releasable antitheft device. The magnet assembly may include a first magnet with a vertical magnetic orientation which is surrounded by adjacent magnets with magnetic orientations that are orthogonal to the vertical magnetic orientation. Additionally, the magnet assembly includes one or more additional magnets oriented in the vertical and orthogonal directions. The resulting magnet assembly may be capable of magnetically releasing single clutch, double clutch, and electronic media type antitheft devices.
US09406422B2
There is provided a superconducting magnet in which magnetization caused by a shielding current of a superconducting winding is eliminated whereby the current to be supplied to the superconducting winding is uniformized, and thus uniformity of the central magnetic field is secured. The superconducting magnet has a superconducting winding composed of a superconductor, and an outer AC winding composed of a superconductor or non-superconductor wound coaxially with the superconducting winding, at an outer side the superconducting winding; and an AC current is supplied to the outer AC winding thereby applying an AC magnetic field in a direction perpendicular to a direction of magnetization caused in the superconducting winding by the shielding current, and thus the magnetization is eliminated. Also, the superconducting magnet has an inner AC winding composed of a superconductor or non-superconductor wound coaxially with the superconducting winding, at an inner side of the superconducting winding layer.
US09406417B2
Exemplary methods for manufacturing a wire and resultant wires are disclosed herein. The method includes extruding a receptor cross-linkable polymer that is substantially free of curing agent about a conductive core and extruding a donor polymer in association with a curing agent. The method includes disposing the donor polymer about the receptor polymer and conductive core to create a multi-layer wire pre-product. The method also includes heat curing a multi-layer wire pre-product to form a wire.
US09406415B2
A method of manufacturing a transparent conductive film has the steps of: preparing a laminated body in which a transparent conductive layer that is not patterned is formed on a flexible transparent base, removing a part of the transparent conductive layer to form the pattern forming part having the transparent conductive layer on the flexible transparent base and the pattern opening part not having the transparent conductive layer on the flexible transparent base, and heating the laminated body in which the transparent conductive layer is patterned. The absolute value of the difference H1−H2 of the dimensional change rate H1 of the pattern forming part and the dimensional change rate H2 of the pattern opening part in the heat treatment step is preferably less than 0.03%.
US09406413B2
The invention relates to a flame-retardant resin composition for an aluminum electric wire, the resin composition comprising: a base resin containing (A) 75 to 95 parts by weight of a resin composition containing 45 to 65 parts by weight of an olefin-based resin having a tensile modulus of 1000 to 1500 MPa, 10 to 30 parts by weight of an olefin-based resin having a D hardness of 40 to 55, and 5 to 15 parts by weight of a maleic acid-modified resin and (B) 5 to 25 parts by weight of a flexible resin, and (C) 90 to 150 parts by weight of magnesium hydroxide blended into 100 parts by weight of the base resin.
US09406410B2
A new type of nuclear fuel rods. The rod cladding has an elliptical section transverse to its longitudinal direction and each nuclear fuel pellet has a truncated elliptical shape along the major axis of the cladding, the minor axis of the pellets is the same as the length of the minor axis of the cladding except for the assembly clearance j, the difference in length between the major axis of the cladding and the truncated major axis of the pellets is very much larger than the assembly clearance j. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing nuclear fuel rods and stacking them in the cladding so as to form a nuclear fuel rod.
US09406398B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a driver circuit including a normally-on thin film transistor, which driver circuit ensures a small malfunction and highly reliable operation. The driver circuit includes a static shift register including an inverter circuit having a first transistor and a second transistor, and a switch including a third transistor. The first to third transistors each include a semiconductor layer of an oxide semiconductor and are depletion-mode transistors. An amplitude voltage of clock signals for driving the third transistor is higher than a power supply voltage for driving the inverter circuit.
US09406397B1
One-time programmable (OTP) memory comprises a layer of a first conductivity type formed in an active area in a region of a second conductivity type and gate polysilicon of a second conductivity type. Gate polysilicon and said layer of the first conductivity type act as the word line and the bit line. Each bit cell is picked up by a metal bit line. Contact between the metal bit line and said layer of the first conductivity type can be ohmic or rectifying. Said layer of the first conductivity type, said region of the second conductivity type and the contact, ohmic or rectifying, are formed by using process steps available from a standard manufacturing process.
US09406386B2
A data storage device includes a nonvolatile memory having a plurality of first memory cells connected to a first word line and a plurality of second memory cells connected to a second word line. A memory controller divides first data to be programmed in the first memory cells into first and second data groups and divides second data to be programmed in the second memory cells into third and fourth data groups. The nonvolatile memory device performs a third program operation of the second data group and a fourth program operation of the fourth data group after sequentially performing a first program operation of the first data group and a second program operation of the third data group.
US09406382B2
The present invention proposes a single poly EEPROM cell including a first control gate capacitor, a first tunnel gate capacitor, a first sense transistor, and a first selection transistor. In a single poly EEPROM cell according to the present invention, a Fowler Nordheim (FN) tunneling method is used in order to increase the recognition distance of an RFID tag chip in mode. In a single poly EEPROM device including a single poly EEPROM cell, the single poly EEPROM cell includes a first control gate capacitor MC1, a first tunnel gate capacitor MC2, a first sense transistor MN1, and a first selection transistor MN2, and the first sense transistor MN1 and the first selection transistor MN2 share a P type well PW.
US09406380B2
Provided is an electronic device including a semiconductor memory unit. The semiconductor memory unit may include: a storage cell comprising a variable resistance element; a first selecting element coupled to one end of the storage cell and having a threshold voltage set to a first voltage; and a second selecting element coupled to the other end of the storage cell and having a threshold voltage set to a second voltage higher than the first voltage.
US09406373B2
A memory array includes an array of memory cells. The memory array further includes at least two read tracking cells in a read tracking column. The memory array further includes a read tracking circuit coupled to the at least two read tracking cells, wherein the read tracking circuit is configured to generate a global tracking result signal based on outputs from the at least two read tracking cells. The memory array further includes memory control circuitry, wherein the memory control circuitry is configured to reset a memory clock based on the global tracking result signal.
US09406372B2
A secure memory includes a bistable memory cell having a programmed start-up state, and means for flipping the state of the cell in response to a flip signal. The memory may include a clock for generating the flip signal with a period, for example, smaller than the acquisition time of an emission microscope.
US09406369B2
A memory module includes a printed circuit board; first memory chips disposed in parallel with a long axis of the printed circuit board along a first column; second memory chips disposed in parallel with the long axis of the printed circuit board along a second column; and passive elements disposed between the first memory chips and the second memory chips, wherein the passive elements are connected between input/output pins of each of the first and second memory chips and tap pins.
US09406366B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell, a reference cell, a first current source configured to cause a first current to flow through the memory cell, a second current source configured to cause a second current having an amount thereof being variable to flow through the reference cell, a sense amplifier configured to compare a voltage responsive to a voltage drop across the memory cell with a voltage responsive to a voltage drop across the reference cell, and a current-amount setting circuit configured to determine the amount of the second current, wherein the current-amount setting circuit determines the amount of the second current such that the voltage drop across the reference cell is equal to a midpoint between the voltage drop across the memory cell having a data value of “0” stored therein and the voltage drop across the memory cell having a data value of “1” stored therein.
US09406365B1
A structure includes a tetragonal Heusler of the form Mn1+cX, in which X includes an element selected from the group consisting of Ge and Ga, with 0≦c≦3. The tetragonal Heusler is grown directly on (or more generally, over) a substrate oriented in the direction (001) and of the form YMn1+d, wherein Y includes an element selected from the group consisting of Ir and Pt, with 0≦d≦4. The tetragonal Heusler and the substrate are in proximity with each other, thereby allowing spin-polarized current to pass from one through the other. This structure may form part of a magnetic tunnel junction magnetoresistive device, and an array of such magnetoresistive devices may together form an MRAM.
US09406364B2
Embodiments of an apparatus and method for encoding data are disclosed that may allow for reduced simultaneous switching output noise. The apparatus may include a row decode circuit, a column decode circuit, and a memory array. The row decode circuit and column decode circuits may be configured to decode a first portion and a second portion, respectively, of a given data word of a first plurality of data words, where each data word may include N data bits, and where N is an integer greater than one. The memory array may be configured to store a second plurality of data words where each data word may include M data bits, and where M is an integer greater than N. The memory array may be further configured to retrieve a given data word of the second plurality of data words dependent upon the decoded first and second portions.
US09406363B2
A memory device includes wordline decoder circuits that share components between adjacent memory blocks. The wordline decoder circuits include multiple levels, where at least one level is split, driving half of the wordlines in one adjacent memory block and driving half of the wordlines in another adjacent memory block. Memory blocks have every other wordline coupled to one adjacent decoder circuit, and the remaining wordlines coupled to another adjacent decoder circuit.
US09406361B2
A memory subsystem incorporating a die-stacked DRAM (DSDRAM) is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system include a processor implemented on a silicon interposer of an integrated circuit (IC) package, a DSDRAM coupled to the processor, the DSDRAM implemented on the silicon interposer of the IC package, and a DRAM implemented separately from the IC package. The DSDRAM and the DRAM form a main memory having a contiguous address space comprising a range of physical addresses. The physical addresses of the DSDRAM occupy a first contiguous portion of the address space, while the DRAM occupies a second contiguous portion of the address space. Each physical address of the contiguous address space is augmented with a first bit that, when set, indicates that a page is stored in the DRAM and the DSDRAM.
US09406360B2
A semiconductor device may include a first pad suitable for inputting a dock, a plurality of second pads suitable for inputting data through a plurality of first data paths, a third pad suitable for inputting a first strobe signal through a first strobe signal path, a data latch unit suitable for latching the data inputted through the first data paths in response to the first strobe signal inputted through the first strobe signal path, and a calibration control unit suitable for calibrating delay values of the plurality of first data paths and the first strobe signal path in a first calibration mode such that a plurality of first test signals passing through the respective first data paths and a second test signal passing through the first strobe path are in phase with the clock inputted from the first pad.
US09406355B1
The present disclosure provides a sense amplifier. The sense amplifier includes a first inverting circuit, a second inverting circuit, a capacitor, and a write-back path circuit. The first inverting circuit has a first input end and a first output end, and the first input end receives a first bit line signal from a memory cell. The second inverting circuit has a second input end and a second output end, wherein the second input is coupled to the first output end, and the second output end is coupled to the first input end, and the second input end receives a second bit line signal from the memory cell. The capacitor receives a boost signal and generates a boosted voltage according to the boost signal during a write-back timing period. The write-back path circuit transports the boosted voltage to one of the first and second input ends during the write-back timing period.
US09406354B1
A read circuit for a memory cell may include an integrated logic circuit for sensing a current change. The integrated logic sensing circuit may be an offset cancelling single ended integrated logic sensing circuit. The circuit may include an offset canceling single ended sensing circuit coupled to a supply voltage, an offset canceling single ended sense amplifier circuit having a sense amplifier input coupled to the offset canceling single ended sensing circuit and a sense amplifier output, and a cell array coupled to a sensing circuit output and a ground.
US09406351B2
There is provided a memory unit comprising one or more global bit lines connected to a sense amplifier, and a plurality of memory cells that are grouped into a plurality of memory cell groups, each memory cell group having one or more local bit lines operatively connected to each of the memory cells in the memory cell group. Each memory cell group is configured such that, when a memory cell of the memory cell group is being read, the one or more local bit lines of the memory cell group are provided as inputs to a logic circuit and are not connected to the global bit lines, the logic circuit being configured to cause a capacitance element to be connected to one of the one or more global bit lines in dependence upon the states of the one or more local bit lines of the memory cell group.
US09406340B2
A range of unified software authoring tools for creating a talking paper application for integration in an end user platform are described herein. The authoring tools are easy to use and are interoperable to provide an easy and cost-effective method of creating a talking paper application. The authoring tools provide a framework for creating audio content and image content and interactively linking the audio content and the image content. The authoring tools also provide for verifying the interactively linked audio and image content, reviewing the audio content, the image content and the interactive linking on a display device. Finally, the authoring tools provide for saving the audio content, the video content and the interactive linking for publication to a manufacturer for integration in an end user platform or talking paper platform.
US09406338B2
A method and system for creating and editing video and/or audio tracks is described. The method includes providing at least one artist, venue, and track available for selection and providing at least one clip associated with the at least one artist, venue, and track. The method also includes allowing a user to create a custom track from the at least one clip. The system includes a plurality of video cameras for recording a live performance at a plurality of positions. The system also includes at least one server for storing a plurality of video clips created from the plurality of video cameras and an application stored on the at least one server for allowing a user to access the plurality of video clips via the Internet.
US09406332B2
An optical information recording medium includes at least one recording layer. The recording layer includes a recording material comprising a polymer compound to which a one-photon absorption dye is bonded, and a coupling strength Δ2 between the one-photon absorption dye and the polymer compound in the recording material is higher than a coupling strength estimated to be exerted between the same one-photon absorption dye and the same polymer compound if the one-photon absorption dye is dispersed in the polymer compound in the recording material.
US09406329B1
Segregants for magnetic recording layers and materials for intermediate layers underlying the magnetic recording layers are provided for improved heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) media. One such HAMR medium includes a substrate, a heat sink layer on the substrate, an underlayer on the heat sink layer, an intermediate layer of TiON, VON, CrON, TiOC, VOC, TiONC, and/or combinations thereof, on the underlayer, and a magnetic recording layer of FePt on the intermediate layer. The magnetic recording layer further includes three sublayers, each having a different segregant. The segregant of the first magnetic recording sublayer on the intermediate layer includes AgBN, AgCN, AgBNC, AgB2O3, AgMoO3, AgV2O5, B2O3, MoO3, V2O5, and/or combinations thereof.
US09406327B2
In one embodiment, a magnetic storage device includes at least one microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) head, each MAMR head including a spin torque oscillator (STO), a magnetic recording medium, a drive mechanism for passing the magnetic medium over the at least one MAMR head, and a controller electrically coupled to the at least one MAMR head for controlling operation of the at least one MAMR head, wherein the magnetic recording medium includes a recording layer positioned directly or indirectly above a substrate and an assist layer positioned above the recording layer, wherein the recording layer includes at least Co, Pt, and an oxide or oxygen, wherein the assist layer is positioned closer to the at least one MAMR head and includes at least Co and Pt, and wherein at least a portion of the recording layer has a smaller anisotropic magnetic field than the assist layer.
US09406318B2
A first side shield has a first sidewall and a second sidewall. A second side shield has a third sidewall and a fourth sidewall. The distance between the first sidewall and the third sidewall decreases with increasing proximity to the top surface of a substrate. The second and fourth sidewalls are close to perpendicular to the top surface of the substrate. Each of the second and fourth sidewalls has an edge farthest from the top surface of the substrate, the edge being parallel to the medium facing surface. The main pole has a first, a second, a third and a fourth side surface. The first side surface is opposed to the first sidewall. A portion of the second side surface is opposed to the second sidewall. The third side surface is opposed to the third sidewall. A portion of the fourth side surface is opposed to the fourth sidewall.
US09406317B1
A perpendicular magnetic recording writer is disclosed with a side shield separated from a write pole side by a gap layer at an air bearing surface (ABS) where the side shield has a first sidewall facing the write pole with an end at height (h1) from the ABS, and a second sidewall at height h1 that is parallel to the ABS. The write pole side is curved such that a first portion proximate to the ABS is at an angle of 0 to 40 degrees with respect to a center plane formed orthogonal to the ABS, and a second section proximate to a corner where the curved side connects with a flared main pole side is formed substantially parallel to the second sidewall. When h1 is 30-80 nm, and the corner is 80-150 nm from the ABS, overwrite is improved while cross-track field gradient is enhanced.
US09406315B2
The embodiments disclosed generally relate to an STO structure for a magnetic head. The STO structure has an FGL having a greater thickness than the SPL. The SPL may have multiple layers. In one embodiment, a MAMR head comprises a main pole; a trailing shield; and an STO coupled between the main pole and the trailing shield. The STO includes: a first magnetic layer having a first thickness; a non-magnetic spacer layer coupled to the first magnetic layer; and a second magnetic layer having a second thickness and coupled to the non-magnetic spacer layer, wherein the first thickness is greater than the second thickness, wherein a current is charged from the first magnetic layer to the second magnetic layer, and wherein a vertical magnetic anisotropy field of the second magnetic film is less than 0 kOe.
US09406307B2
A method, device, and apparatus provide the ability to predict a portion of a polyphonic audio signal for compression and networking applications. The solution involves a framework of a cascade of long term prediction filters, which by design is tailored to account for all periodic components present in a polyphonic signal. This framework is complemented with a design method to optimize the system parameters. Specialization may include specific techniques for coding and networking scenarios, where the potential of each enhanced prediction is realized to considerably improve the overall system performance for that application. One specific technique provides enhanced inter-frame prediction for the compression of polyphonic audio signals, particularly at low delay. Another specific technique provides improved frame loss concealment capabilities to combat packet loss in audio communications.
US09406288B2
In an actuator (50), a bobbin (511) to which a voice coil (513) is attached is disposed within a magnetic path space formed by a magnetic path forming section (52). A connecting shaft (514) is coupled to the bobbin (511), and a connection end portion (516A) at a distal end of the connecting shaft is connected to a sound board of a musical instrument. The length of the shaft (514) can be adjusted. When the actuator (50) is attached to the sound board, the length of the shaft (514) is adjusted and the connection end portion (516A) is connected to the sound board while a position of the voice coil (513) within the magnetic path space is maintained in a predetermined reference mounting position, in a state in which the magnetic path forming unit (52) is supported in a predetermined position by a support unit (55).
US09406284B2
A keyboard device includes key units each including keys arranged in a right and left direction, hinges, a common mounting portion which are molded in one piece. The common mounting portion is elongated in the right and left direction. Bach hinge is provided between the common mounting portion and the key. The key units include a particular key unit having an uppermost one of the common mounting portions. At least one of the hinges of the particular key unit includes a hinge thick portion connected to a rear surface of the key; and a hinge thin portion connected to a rear surface of the hinge thick portion and connected to a front surface of the uppermost common mounting portion. A protrusion protruding outward is provided on at least one of opposite outer ends of the hinge thick portion in the right and left direction.
US09406278B2
A portable device and a screen brightness control method thereof are provided. The portable device and related method can maintain the current screen brightness in overall consideration of a detected ambient illuminance, a touch of an input unit, and a user's direct touch. The portable device detects an ambient illuminance. If the detected ambient illuminance is less than a threshold value, the portable device calculates a first distance between an illuminance sensor and a touch of an input unit detected from a touch screen, and also calculates a second distance between the illuminance sensor and a user's direct touch detected from the touch screen. If the first distance is equal to or greater than the second distance, the portable device controls the touch screen to maintain the current screen brightness thereof.
US09406276B2
Image data systems and methods combine a plurality of images into a single multiple-palette image data file, or generate a selected image from the multiple-palette image data file. An exemplary embodiment receives first pixel information for a first pixel of a first image, the first pixel having a first color; receives second pixel information for a like-located second pixel of a second image, the second pixel having a second color; and specifies a color palette location value that identifies a first color palette array element in a first color palette of the first image and identifies a second like-located color palette array element in a second color palette of the second image. First color information stored in the first color palette array element defines the first pixel color. Second color information stored in the second image data color palette array element defines the second pixel color.
US09406272B2
A gate driving circuit includes a shift register and a vertical start line. The shift register includes first to N-th circuit stages sequentially providing first to N-th gate-on signals to first to N-th gate lines, respectively, at least one reverse dummy stage adjacent to the first circuit stage and at least one forward dummy stage adjacent to the N-th circuit stage (N is a natural number). The vertical start line is electrically connected to the first circuit stage or the N-th circuit stage according to a scan direction and transfers a vertical start signal to the first or N-th circuit stage.
US09406260B2
A display device including: a plurality of first electrodes each corresponding to a plurality of light emitting groups on a plurality of pixels including organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and a plurality of second electrodes formed on the plurality of first electrodes, having an insulating layer therebetween, wherein a plurality of touch sensing signals are applied to each of the plurality of first electrodes during a non-light emitting period of each of the plurality of light emitting groups and a touched position is determined in response to a magnitude in voltage between the first and second electrodes by a touch from the outside.
US09406257B2
In a display device, a signal line drive circuit applies an initialization voltage to control terminals of drive transistors from corresponding video signal lines, and applies a reset potential to first terminals of the drive transistors from corresponding reset lines to initialize the drive transistor, and the initialization voltage is set to a lower value as a voltage value of the gradation voltage signal written after offset cancellation for offset-canceling a threshold value of the drive transistor is higher.
US09406247B2
A magnetic sign holder and system including a substantially flat accommodating portion formed of a ferromagnetic material to accommodate the magnetic sign, and one or more mounting brackets extending from one or more sides of the accommodating portion to affix the holder to a supporting member.
US09406239B2
A method/apparatus/system for learning path recommendation based on student and learning vector context is disclosed. The incident learning object and the target learning object are identified. Learning paths between the incident learning object and the target learning object are identified, which learning paths each include a plurality of learning objects and learning vectors. A magnitude is calculated for the learning paths, which magnitude is based on the sum of the magnitudes of the learning vectors in each learning path. The magnitudes of the learning paths are compared, and one of the learning paths is selected based on the comparison of the learning paths and provided to a student.
US09406236B1
A computer-based communications management system for managing multiple requests made by different users, in abstract or generalized formats, for data to be provided by various systems of interest. This computerized system is programmed to perform operations which ensure that requests from different users do not interfere with each other and that all information requested from the systems of interest is retrieved without missing or additional (i.e., not requested) information. Additionally, the system accommodates the functional differences between various systems of interest, and also uses relevant related data from other systems of interest to achieve greater data usefulness.
US09406234B2
A method is provided for automatically activating a car's side view camera during lane changes and displaying the camera feed on a dashboard mounted display, thereby eliminating blind spots and making the maneuver safer. The system can be configured to anticipate an upcoming lane change based on use of the turn signal alone, or the turn signal in combination with vehicle speed and/or determination of a second vehicle located in the primary car's blind spot. The display of the camera's data feed is terminated after completion of the lane change, where lane change completion is typically based on deactivation of the turn signal or the vehicle crossing over the lane markers.
US09406226B2
A method of verifying and/or improving a message indicative of an event affecting traffic flow on at least a portion of one or more navigable segments is described. The method involves obtaining positional data relating to the movement of a plurality of devices along a navigable stretch including a navigable stretch identified by the message as being affected, and using the positional data to verify and/or improve the message. The positional data is live data and is used to obtain data relating to the speed of travel of the devices along the navigable stretch including the stretch identified by the message. The speed data can be used to determine a spatial extent of the affected stretch and/or an expected speed of travel along the stretch.
US09406225B2
A non-navigation data system for providing traffic data service in a mobile environment can include a data decoder for decoding a digital data stream from a digital audio radio transmission source, location determining means (such as GPS or cellular location determining schemes) for determining a current location of a mobile receiver receiving the digital data stream, a display for displaying traffic data corresponding to the current location, and a plurality of static maps wherein the traffic data corresponding to the current location is overlaid at least over a portion of the static maps.
US09406218B1
The chin-operated remote control is a housing that is configured to rest against a chest of an end user. The housing includes a retractable cord that extends to a chinstrap. The chinstrap is configured to be mounted on a chin of an end user such that upon moving of the head of said end user, the retractable cord moves left, right, extends, and retracts. The retractable cord relays said movement in order to operate a remote control provided inside of the housing. An antenna and a plurality of buttons are provided on the housing. The remote control is adapted for use with an electronic appliance.
US09406217B2
The invention provides a convertible wireless remote control suitable for controlling a computer of a media management system offering an integrated multimedia experience. The invention controls the media management system wirelessly with a small amount of buttons but is convertible to offer expanded and/or changed functionality to the user, as desired.
US09406214B2
Techniques are provided that enable a wireless security system that is designed to detect and receive wireless transmissions in one protocol, to use sensor-transmitters that operate in a different protocol. The techniques involve, generally, the use of an integration device, and in some implementations, first enrolling sensor-transmitters of a first protocol into the integration device, along with device type information for the sensor-transmitters. Thereafter, during system operation, transmissions with message packets in the first message packet protocol are received by the integration device, recognized as having been previously enrolled, and a message packet in a second message packet protocol that includes device type information is then formulated and transmitted by the integration device, for receipt by a system control device for the wireless security system. In some scenarios, an enrollment process need not be done in the integration device, and the integration device is utilized in the communication process.
US09406207B2
A chain driven gate and security system is provided. The system includes a gate which is opened and closed by a gate operator. The gate operator includes a chain and a motor having a rotatable sprocket for engaging the links of a chain. The gate and security system includes a sensor for detecting whether the chain has been severed, an alarm for producing a visible or audible alert, and a processor connected to the motor, sensor and alarm. The processor activates an alarm in the event that the processor indicates that the gates should be closed, but that the chain has been severed.
US09406205B2
One embodiment of a method for activating a stimulus on a notification device includes encoding an instruction to activate the stimulus in a voltage dropout pulse of a synchronization protocol and sending the synchronization protocol, including the voltage dropout pulse, over a single two wire circuit to which a fire notification device and a mass notification device are coupled, where the notification device is the fire notification device or the mass notification device.
US09406203B2
A gaming system comprising a selector arranged to select a plurality of symbols from a set of symbols for display in a display area at a plurality of display positions and to select a plurality of win line elements. The gaming system is arranged to define a special win line when a plurality of win line elements are contiguously displayed across the display area, and an outcome generator arranged to determine a game outcome based on symbols displayed along the special win line if a special win line is defined. A corresponding method is also disclosed.
US09406196B2
Systems and methods for real-time interactive wagering on event outcomes are presented. Clients are first qualified and given wagering limits before being allowed to interactively wager on event outcomes. Event outcomes may be based on, for example, financial markets and indices, sporting and entertainment events, casino games, casino performances, and natural phenomena such as weather and earthquakes. Events on which wagers can be placed include both those with known and unknown outcome probabilities, and wagers can be a fixed-odds type or a spread-bet type. Wager transactions, including acceptances and confirmations, are executed in real time. Clients can customize displays of events on which they are authorized to wager. Real-time client credit management, automatic dealer hedging, automatic price-spread adjustments, and automatic client and dealer defined wagering limits are also provided.
US09406194B2
A player of an enhanced game receives a bonus for playing the enhanced game and a chance for an additional extra award. The additional extra award may be based on one or more factors: the actual game title of the game being played by the player, the rate of gameplay by the player, the rate of gain/loss for an entity different from the player, a rate of gain/loss for the player, or the like. Gameplay and player data may be gathered and a dynamic bonusing system may reconfigure a gaming machine being played by the player based at least on the gathered data.
US09406193B2
Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a gaming system and method providing a video poker card game having community cards. Upon receiving a wager, the gaming system provides the player with a quantity of player hands. The gaming system enables the player to discard one or more of the player hands. The gaming system then displays an initial quantity of community cards to the player. The gaming system further enables the player to discard one or more player hands, prior to displaying the remaining community cards. The remaining player hands are each evaluated by combining with the community card against a paytable, to determine an award, if any, won by the player.
US09406188B2
Methods and apparatus for preventing near-concurrent wins in a progressive gaming system controlled by Jackpot Controller are disclosed. A VLT player may send a “win” combination to the Jackpot Controller to determine whether the “win” awards the accumulating progressive jackpot. The Jackpot Controller may evaluate the “win” message. If the “win” message is valid, the “win” of the accumulating progressive jackpot may be confirmed. Other VLTs may be blocked from submitting “win” messages for that same progressive jackpot. The VLT may then distribute the proceeds to the player. The Jackpot Controller may initiate other progressive jackpot status communications to insure against a loss of data should an interruption event occur. Individual VLTs may initiate status messages to the Jackpot Controller should they remain inactive for a predetermined period.
US09406186B2
A system and computer-implemented method for providing access to data of a first party including receiving information for identifying the first party, authenticating the first party using the received information for identifying the first party and generating a first read-only personal identification number (PIN). The first read-only PIN is associated with a first set of access rights for the data of the first party and provided to a second party. The first read-only PIN is stored with the first set of access rights in a computer database. A third party receives the first read-only PIN from the second party, authenticates the received first read-only PIN using the stored first read-only PIN and provides the second party with access to at least a portion of the data of the first party using the first set of access rights associated with the first read-only PIN if the received first read-only PIN is authenticated.
US09406183B2
A valuable document authentication method and device. Whether a valuable document, an image sensor or a first sensor has shifted or not, the effect of authenticating the valuable document will not be affected, because a reference unit is needed to determine the location relationship between the image sensor and the first sensor before the valuable document is authenticated, thereby preventing an error occurring with the authenticated valuable document due to the fact that each sensor has shifted; moreover, when the valuable document is authenticated, even if the valuable document has shifted, the correctness of the valuable document authenticated can also be guaranteed by the conversion of the location relationship between a detection object and the sensor. Therefore, the solution provided in the present invention improves the identification accuracy and working efficiency of the authentication device, thereby providing convenience for users.
US09406168B1
An efficient method and system for multi-sample antialiasing in graphics processing is described. Geometric edges as well as implicit edges of primitives in a bin are identified by iteratively rendering bins of pixels. Selective multi-sample antialiasing is applied to pixels that are touched by either a geometric edge or an implicit edge; pixels that are fully covered are not antialiased.
US09406164B2
Provided is an apparatus and method of multi-view rendering. A method of multi-view rendering includes rendering one or more 3D objects based on a first viewpoint, transforming pixel values of pixels of the first viewpoint, which are obtained by the rendering of the 3D objects, into pixel values of pixels based on a second viewpoint that is different from the first viewpoint, detecting an occlusion region that is a remaining region other than a region represented by the pixel values obtained by the transforming of the pixel values in an image based on the second viewpoint, and rendering the detected occlusion region based on the second viewpoint.
US09406159B2
A computer implemented method to modify an intermediate representation of graphics data written in a page description language is described. The method renders the graphics data to produce a print preview representation stored as intermediate graphics data in an intermediate graphics format. A modifying operation for modifying graphics content of the print preview representation is detected, and the method determines whether the print preview representation contains information about the graphics data required to perform the modifying operation based on a class of the modifying operation and a content of the print preview representation affected by the detected modifying operation. Where the print preview representation contains information required to perform the modifying operation, the print preview representation is modified, and otherwise the method utilizes the graphics data written in the page description language to apply the modifying operation. An apparatus, storage medium and printer using the method(s) are also discussed.
US09406158B2
In an image processing apparatus, an image acquiring section acquires a group of candidate images for use in creating a recommended composite image to be proposed to a user; an image analysis information acquiring section acquires image analysis information on each image of the group of candidate images; a theme determining section determines a theme of the group of candidate images based on the image analysis information on each image of the group of candidate images; a template selecting section selects a template for use in creating a recommended composite image based on the theme of the group of candidate images; and a layout section creates a recommended composite image in which images of the group of candidate images are laid out in the template.
US09406156B2
An apparatus includes an association unit, a setting unit, and an arrangement unit. The association unit associates an image with a display region reference point through an image reference point of the image. Here, a number of display region reference points disposed in a display region is equal to or more than the number of images to be arranged in the display region. The setting unit sets, in the display region and for each image, an image reference point arrangement region based on a size of the image associated with the display region reference point and based on a position of the display region reference point associated with the image. The arrangement unit arranges each image in the display region by positioning the image reference point of the image within the image reference point arrangement region associated with the image.
US09406154B2
The use of the channelized preconditioners in iterative reconstruction is disclosed. In certain embodiments, different channels correspond to different frequency sub-bands and the output of the different channels can be combined to update an image estimate used in the iterative reconstruction process. While individual channels may be relatively simple, the combined channels can represent complex spatial variant operations. The use of channelized preconditioners allows empirical adjustment of individual channels.
US09406147B2
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for generating a blended pixel. In use, a first image and a second image are received. Next, a motion transform between the first image and the second image is estimated, and an aligned first image and an aligned second image are rendered based on the motion transform. Further, a first intensity for a first pixel associated with the aligned first image is calculated, a second intensity for a second pixel associated with the aligned second image is calculated, and a blend value based on the first intensity, the second intensity, and a blend surface function is calculated. Additionally, a blended pixel associated is generated with a blended image by blending the first pixel with the second pixel based on the blend value. Lastly, the blended pixel within the blended image is stored. Additional systems, methods, and computer program products are also presented.
US09406142B2
A fully automatic method for segmentation of the mitral leaflets in 3D transesophageal echocardiographic (3D TEE) images is provided. The method combines complementary probabilistic segmentation and geometric modeling techniques to generate 3D patient-specific reconstructions of the mitral leaflets and annulus from 3D TEE image data with no user interaction. In the model-based segmentation framework, mitral leaflet geometry is described with 3D continuous medial representation (cm-rep). To capture leaflet geometry in a target 3D TEE image, a pre-defined cm-rep template of the mitral leaflets is deformed such that the negative log of a Bayesian posterior probability is minimized. The likelihood of the objective function is given by a probabilistic segmentation of the mitral leaflets generated by multi-atlas joint label fusion, while the validity constraints and regularization terms imposed by cm-rep act as shape priors that preserve leaflet topology and constrain model fitting.
US09406138B1
In one embodiment, a technique is provided for semi-automatically extracting a polyline from a linear feature in a point cloud. The user may provide initial parameters, including a point about the linear feature and a starting direction. A linear feature extraction process may automatically follow the linear feature beginning in the starting direction from about the selected point. The linear feature extraction process may attempt to follow a linear segment of the linear feature. If some points may be followed that constitute a linear segment, a line segment modeling the linear segment is created. The linear feature extraction process then determines whether the end of the linear feature has been reached. If the end has not been reached, the linear feature extraction process may repeat. If the end has been reached, the linear feature extraction process may return the line segments and create a polyline from them.
US09406136B2
An information processing device includes an imaging unit, a storage unit that stores face images of at least two persons, including an owner of the information processing device, in association with a communication device owned by each of the at least two persons, an identification unit that identifies, based on a first group of face images and a second group of face images, a person associated with a face image detected from an image including face images of a plurality of persons imaged by the imaging unit, the first group of face images includes the face image of each person detected from the image imaged by the imaging unit, and the second group of face images includes the faces stored in the storage unit, and a decision unit that decides a person as a receiver from the identified persons excluding the owner.
US09406133B2
A method for image registration includes the steps of: providing a computer and an imager; acquiring and processing a reference image frame including a plurality of reference strips; acquiring and correcting a target frame by the steps of: acquiring one or more target frame strips of the target frame; comparing the one or more target frame strips in real-time to one or more corresponding strips of the reference frame based on a calculated registration of a specific target frame strip from a previous target frame; correcting a registration of the one or more target frame strips; repeating steps until a last strip of the target frame; repeating the steps of acquiring and correcting a target frame until a last target frame is acquired; and saving processed image based on a plurality of corrected target frames to a non-volatile memory. A system to perform the method is also described.
US09406131B2
A method for generating a 3D representation of a dynamically changing 3D scene, which includes the steps of: acquiring at least two synchronised video streams (120) from at least two cameras located at different locations and observing the same 3D scene (102); determining camera parameters, which comprise the orientation and zoom setting, for the at least two cameras (103); tracking the movement of objects (310a,b, 312a,b; 330a,b, 331a,b, 332a,b; 410a,b, 411a,b; 430a,b, 431a,b; 420a,b, 421a,b) in the at least two video streams (104); determining the identity of the objects in the at least two video streams (105); determining the 3D position of the objects by combining the information from the at least two video streams (106); wherein the step of tracking (104) the movement of objects in the at least two video streams uses position information derived from the 3D position of the objects in one or more earlier instants in time. As a result, the quality, speed and robustness of the 2D tracking in the video streams is improved.
US09406130B2
A data processing method for determining atlas data and comprises information on a description of an atlas image of a general anatomical structure. The method performed by a computer comprises: acquiring patient data which comprise a description of a set of images of an anatomical structure of a set of patient images and each patient image is associated with image representation parameters; acquiring model data which comprise information on a description of a model image of a model of an anatomical structure of a patient; determining matching transformations which are constituted to respectively match the set of patient images of the set of patients to the model image by matching images associated with the same parameter set; determining an inverse average transformation by applying an inverting and averaging operation to the determined matching transformations; and determining the atlas data.
US09406129B2
A system including or receiving information regarding the geometry of a patient can be used to identify possible or appropriate instruments for a patient. Instruments can include pacing and defibrillation leads. Information regarding the patient can include target location size, bifurcation angles, and tortuosity of a path. Information regarding the instrument can include diameter, shape, stiffness, and/or other handling characteristics. The information can be used to identify or rank instruments.
US09406120B2
An output device that outputs a schematic view showing a position of a diseased part of a human body, comprises: a read-out unit adapted to read out a plurality of schematic views output from a storage unit adapted to store the schematic views, and a control unit adapted to output the plurality of schematic views read out by the read-out unit to an output unit, wherein the read-out unit selects a schematic view to be read out based on an output format that has been set by a user.
US09406119B2
A method is provided for estimating a parameter of physiological significance. One or more images are provided of a tissue in a subject to whom a dose of a contrast agent (CA) has been administered, using a computer equipped with image processing software, the concentration or relative concentration of the agent in a region or regions of interest in the tissue is determined, thus generating concentration data. The time-based behavior of concentrations of CA within the tissue is determined using a pharmacokinetic model that is based on a set of pharmacokinetic model parameters. Using computer code, the pharmacokinetic model is fit to the concentration data, varying one or more parameters, such that a best fit estimate of a parameter of physiological significance is provided.
US09406115B2
A method of identifying discontinuities in the surface of a substrate is herein disclosed. An object plane of an imaging system is positioned at a focal position associated with a discontinuity and an image is captured, the discontinuity having a relatively higher contrast with respect to the remainder of the surface of the substrate. The discontinuity is thereby more readily discernable than when the focal plane is positioned at the surface of the substrate. Analysis of discontinuities may include the extraction of discontinuity characteristics.
US09406108B2
A method and an apparatus for deblurring an image from a sequence of images are described. The image comprises pixels. A motion estimation stage estimates motion of the pixels of the image. A point spread function modeling stage models point spread functions for the pixels of the image using the motion estimates. A deconvolution stage determines a deblurred estimate of the image using the modeled point spread functions. A feedback loop allows iteratively improving the motion estimates for the pixels until the modeled point spread functions converge.
US09406106B2
An image processing circuit and a ringing artifact removing method thereof are provided. The image processing circuit includes a deRing detection unit and a deRing filtering unit. The deRing detection unit receives a plurality of display data of an input frame and calculates a regulating reference value corresponding to each display data according to the display data and the display data at adjacent display positions. The deRing filtering unit is coupled to the deRing detection unit. The deRing filtering unit receives the display data and regulates the display data according the regulating reference values respectively corresponding to the display data to output a plurality of regulated display data.
US09406090B1
A method and apparatus for sharing captured media data via a social networking service is described herein. The method includes receiving a list of one or more media data files captured via a mobile (i.e., portable) computing device, the list to include, for each of the media data files, data identifying one or more real-world experiences of a user of the social networking service associated with the respective media data file. The method also includes transmitting information for providing an interface to the mobile computing device to enable the user to share one or more of the media data files in the social network with one or more other users by identifying each media data file with the data identifying a corresponding real-world experience. Furthermore, the method allows for the sharing of data related to the context of each corresponding real-world experience.
US09406086B2
A system for violation enforcement utilizing vehicle immobilization is provided. The system includes a database configured to store identifying information for a plurality of target vehicles subject to immobilization. The system includes a license plate recognition device configured identify a plurality of vehicles and a geographic locations associated with each vehicle. A data server receives the data identifying the plurality of vehicles and the plurality of geographic locations associated with each vehicle. An output processor is in operative communication with the data server and the database and is configured to process the received data and to compare the received data to the stored identifying information for the plurality of target vehicles. The output processor is further configured to generate and transmit a notification to a recovery vehicle when identifying information for one or more target vehicles matches the identifying information for one or more vehicles in the received data.
US09406080B2
A computer-implemented method and system for enabling the automated selection of keywords for rapid keyword portfolio expansion are disclosed. In some embodiments, a report is generated comprising selected keywords and a corresponding value for each selected keywords, with the corresponding value being based on the corresponding keyword being omitted from trafficking on a search engine, and at least a portion of the selected keywords are removed from being trafficked on the search engine based on the selection of the keywords to be omitted, with the removing of the at least a portion of the selected keywords being performed in response to a user input corresponding to the report, the user input being used to determine the at least a portion of the selected keywords to be omitted.
US09406079B1
A system for adjusting a relevance weight value for a content item is described. The system comprises a content delivery module configured to deliver a plurality of content items to a device via a network. The content items are displayed on the device. A content storage module is configured to store a relevance weight value and a location in association with each content item. A location detection module is configured to determine a location of the wireless device. A user provides a feedback input for a content item. The relevance weight value associated with the location and the content item is adjusted according to the feedback input provided.
US09406078B2
The system and method described herein may use various natural language models to deliver targeted advertisements and/or provide natural language processing based on advertisements. In one implementation, an advertisement associated with a product or service may be provided for presentation to a user. A natural language utterance of the user may be received. The natural language utterance may be interpreted based on the advertisement and, responsive to the existence of a pronoun in the natural language utterance, a determination of whether the pronoun refers to one or more of the product or service or a provider of the product or service may be effectuated.
US09406072B2
Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for predicting data. A name or title is obtained from a taste profile. There is an index into a data set based on the name or title, and a set of terms and corresponding term weights associated with the name or title are retrieved. A sparse vector is constructed based on the set of terms and term weights. The sparse vector is input to a training model including target data. The target data includes a subset of test data which has a correspondence to a predetermined target metric of data. A respective binary value and confidence level is output for each term, corresponding to an association between the term and the target metric.
US09406067B1
A system and method of identity verification at a point-of-identification verification (POV) using biometric-based identity recognition and an identity verifying score based upon a presenter's initial identification presentment and their subsequent action in the system. The system also provides tracking and evaluates verifier activity within the system through biometric-based identity recognition and a performance score based upon their actions and the results of their actions within the system. System users register at least one biometric identifier and personal and/or business identity-verifying data. Users present a biometric sample obtained from their person and their system ID number to conduct identification transactions. This data is used to authenticate the user's identity to a percentage of reliability and allows a user with consistently positive ID verifications to establish a higher ID score, strengthening their credibility within the system. Once enrolled, the system allows the user to be identified without presenting any token-based information, such as a driver's license or passport. In one embodiment, an identity verification score generated via the system can be employed in conjunction with online transactions, such as purchases, auctions, email, instant messaging, and the like.
US09406058B1
An apparatus for automatically assaying an item made of at least one precious metal and selectively offering payment in exchange includes a user interface and control circuit; a trolley for carrying and moving the item within the apparatus; a first camera to image the item; an electronic weighing scale, and an x-ray fluorescence engine. The trolley carrying the item moves onto the weighing scale to establish a weight of the item and moves the item into the x-ray fluorescence engine to perform an x-ray fluorescence assay of the item at a location determined through image processing a visual survey of the item performed by the first camera. The user interface and control circuit creates an offer of purchase of the item based on weight and x-ray fluorescence assay of the item.
US09406057B2
A first embodiment of the present invention relates to systems and methods for determining a priority for a set of alert triggers and performing additional processing based on the determined priority. In some embodiments, additional processing may include generating and sending of alert messages. In other embodiments, additional processing may further include determining that the generating and sending of alert messages are to be delayed until a later time. In yet other embodiments, additional processing may include determining that no alert message is to be generated and sent. A second embodiment of the present invention relates to systems and methods for dynamically selecting a delivery channel and generating an alert message for the selected delivery channel. In some embodiments, the alert message may be formatted based on the selected delivery channel. According to one embodiment, the alert message may be generated based on a compact protocol format. When the alert message is received by a mobile device, the mobile device may use the alert message to generate a second alert message.
US09406055B2
Disclosed is a system and associated method or restricting access to a user's account via one or more account access channels. The system typically includes a processor, a memory, and an access restriction module stored in the memory. The module is typically configured for: integrating one or more account access channels associated with the user's account with an access restriction procedure; receiving a request from the user to implement the access restriction procedure; based on receiving the request from the user to implement the access restriction procedure, implementing the access restriction procedure, wherein implementing the access restriction procedure comprises restricting access to the user's account via the account access channel(s).
US09406049B2
A method, device and system are provided for automated updating of message recipients designated for a reply message based on a declaration or notification in a body of the message. Once a reply message is initiated at a first device and an initial recipient set defined for the reply message based on the participants of a previous message of the thread, a declaration or instruction may be inserted in the message body identifying a change to be made to the initial recipient set. In response to a trigger detected at the device, any such declarations are identified and a determination is made whether the current recipient set is consistent with them. If not, changes are made to the current recipient set to render it consistent.
US09406043B1
Techniques for peer-binding are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for peer-binding includes: receiving event information associated with an event detected on Web content associated with a trusted script executing on a first client computing device; and in response to a request, retrieving the received event information and sending the retrieved event information to a second client computing device. The second client computing device is peer-bound with the first client computing device via the trusted script associated with the Web content.
US09406030B2
Electronic document classification comprising providing training documents sorted into classes; linear programming including selecting inputs which maximize an output, given constraints on inputs, the output maximized being a difference between: a. first estimated probability that a document instance will be correctly classified, by a classifier corresponding to given inputs, as belonging to its own class, and b. second estimated probability that document instance will be classified, by the classifier, as not belonging to its own class; and classifying electronic document instances into classes, using a preferred classifier corresponding, to the inputs selected by the linear programming. A computerized electronic document forgery detection method provides training documents and uses a processor to select value-ranges of non-trivial parameters, such that selected values-range(s) of parameters are typical to an authentic document of given class, and atypical to a forged document of same class.
US09406027B2
A prediction regarding one or more functions can be made for a database environment. In particular, a predication can be made with respect to values stored in at least one column of at least one table in a database, based on the evaluation of one or more functions for a subset of possible column values (i.e., resultant values derived from the evaluation of a subset of possible column values) without the need to calculate the function(s) for all of the actual entries in the column of the table(s). In effect, a functional predicate can be transformed (or translated) to a predicate that is dependent on the column values instead of the evaluation of one or more functions for the column values.
US09406018B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system for data integration and information retrieval by bringing semantically related data together for a given context. As described, the integration of data may include the building of an ontology, the mapping of one or more processes, semantic maps and concept dictionaries in the ontology to one or more data sources, tagging the data sources in accordance with the ontology, providing a query interface for accepting an input query from a user, the mapping of the input query to one or more concepts in the ontology, and deriving one or more subqueries thereby, and the querying of data sources in accordance with the composed one or more subqueries, wherein the data sources queried are tagged with one or more concepts from the ontology. Additionally, the tracking of data across data sources in accordance with a defined data value chain is disclosed.
US09406016B2
A system that collects data from monitored network traffic. The system inputs, in parallel, the data through inputs of a neural network. The system compares an output of the neural network, generated in response to the inputted data, to at least one predetermined output. If the output of the neural network corresponds to the at least one predetermined output, the system provides a notification relating to the data.
US09406003B2
An image processing apparatus for applying a color balance correction to input image data, comprises a first highlight color calculation unit which estimates a light source at the time of shooting from pixel values of the image data, converts color values of the image data based on a condition of the estimated light source at the time of shooting, and calculates a first highlight color; a second highlight color calculation unit which calculates a second highlight color from the image data; a third highlight color calculation unit which calculates a third highlight color based on a positional relationship between the first highlight color and the second highlight color on a color space; and a correction unit which attains the color balance correction by converting the pixel values of the image data using the third highlight color.
US09405998B2
A display control apparatus includes an image display that displays a document image representing a document file; an accepting unit that accepts an operation to point a portion in the document image displayed in the image display; an extracting unit that, upon acceptance of the operation to point the portion in the document image by the accepting unit, extracts each image portion surrounded by pixels other than white pixels from the entire document image if a ratio of the white pixels in the pixels in the document image is higher than or equal to a predetermined threshold value in an area of a predetermined size centered at the pointed portion; and a display controller that performs control so as to display information concerning the image portion having the shortest distance from the portion, among the image portions extracted by the extracting unit, in the image display.
US09405984B2
A method for portable lottery ticket sales and redemptions by mobile vendors is provided wherein the vendor have an existing credit or debit card processing interchange. The vendor is provided with a portable local processor having a memory, and with a local printer connected to the local processor. The local processor is in wireless communication with a network. A bank identification number (BIN) is assigned to lottery tickets sold or redeemed by the vendor that is unique to lottery tickets in the vendor's existing credit or debit card processing interchange. The unique lottery BIN is also associated with a lottery data blob provided on the lottery ticket. The BIN and lottery data blob are entered into the vendor's existing credit or debit card barcode protocol to initiate transfer of the lottery data to a lottery central site via the interchange, wherein a processor within the interchange recognizes the unique lottery BIN and initiates special routing to and further processing of the lottery data at the lottery central site outside of the interchange's debit or credit card data transfer and processing procedures.
US09405983B2
A quality control method for printed products at a control console includes recording image information of the printed product with a camera device, comparing the recorded data to digital image data of the printed image in a computer, displaying a digital version of the printed product on a screen associated with the control console and illuminating the printed product with at least one light source. The printed product is sensed by using at least one sensor, the position of the printed product relative to the light source and/or relative to the angle of vision of a person is calculated by using a computer, and the displayed digitized version of the printed product is displayed on the screen in accordance with or corresponding to the position of the real printed product.
US09405981B2
A method, system, and computer program product, for detecting objects of interest in a digital image. At least positional data associated with a vehicle is received. Geographical information associated with the positional data is received. A probability of detecting an object of interest within a corresponding geographic area associated with the vehicle is determined based on the geographical data. The probability is compared to a given threshold. An object detection process is at least one of activated and maintained in an activated state in response to the probability being one of above and equal to the given threshold. The object detection process detects objects of interest within at least one image representing at least one frame of a video sequence of an external environment.
US09405978B2
Prioritizing facial recognition matches includes obtaining identification information and a facial image for each visitor entering the monitored environment, the monitored environment having a plurality of cameras at known locations including entry and exit points; obtaining itineraries of the visitors. Itineraries of the visitors are obtained, and based on the entry points and the itineraries of the visitors, likely routes of the visitors are determined through the monitored environment. Responsive to receiving an image captured by a first camera at a first location at an image capture time, the database records are sorted for facial recognition matching with the image from the first camera based on the visitors whose routes are likely to place the visitors in proximity to the first camera at the time of image capture.
US09405971B2
A system and method for tracking, identifying, and labeling objects or features of interest, such as follicular units is provided. In some embodiments, tracking is accomplished using unique signature of the follicular unit and image stabilization techniques. According to some aspects pixel data of a region of interest in a first image is compared to pixel data of the regions of interest in a second image, and based on a result of the comparison of pixel data in the region of interest in the first and second images and the signature of the follicular unit, locating the follicular unit in the second image. In some embodiments the follicular unit is searched for in the direction of a motion vector.
US09405970B2
Provided is a system and method for object detection and tracking in a video stream. Frames of the video stream are divided into regions of interest and a probability that the region contains at least a portion of an object to be tracked is calculated for each region of interest. The regions of interest in each frame are then classified based on the calculated probabilities. A region of interest (RI) frame is then constructed for each video frame that reports the classification of regions of interest in the video frame. Two or more RI frames are then compared in order to determine a motion of the object. Also provided is a system executing the presently described method, as well as a device including the system. The device may be for example, a portable computer, a mobile telephone, or an entertainment device.
US09405965B2
Systems and methods for performing face recognition and image searching are provided. A system for face recognition and image searching includes an ingestion system, a search system, a user device, and a database of galley files that include feature vectors. The ingestion system crawls the internet starting with a seed URL to scrape image files and generate feature vectors. Feature vectors of images input by a user may be compared by the search system to feature vectors in the gallery files. A method for generating feature vectors includes landmark detection, component aligning, texture mapping, vector computation, comparing cluster centers defined by vectors stored in a database with vectors generated based on an input image, linear discriminant analysis, and principal component analysis.
US09405962B2
A method for determining a facial emotion of a user in the presence of a facial artifact includes detecting Action Units (AUs) for a first set of frames with the facial artifact; analyzing the AUs with the facial artifact after the detection; registering the analyzed AUs for a neutral facial expression with the facial artifact in the first set of frames; predicting the AUs in a second set of frames; and determining the facial emotion by comparing the registered neutral facial expression with the predicted AUs in the second set of frames.
US09405961B2
An image processing apparatus comprising a storage unit configured to store image data; a readout unit configured to read out the image data stored in the storage unit; a detection unit configured to detect a target object from the image data read out by the readout unit; a conversion unit configured to convert a resolution of the image data read out by the readout unit; and a write unit configured to write the image data having the resolution converted by the conversion unit in the storage unit, wherein the readout unit outputs the readout image data in parallel to the detection unit and the conversion unit.
US09405959B2
System and method for detecting and classifying man-made objects on the seafloor using 3D reconstruction techniques. Enhanced sea floor object detection with classification is provided that is as good as provided by short range optical imagery. This approach eliminates the step of passing off identification to humans, and enhances the speed, accuracy, and safety of present operations in mine detection and neutralization.
US09405953B2
A biometric scanner having an electric field device and a method of using that scanner are disclosed. The electric field device (a) has no electric field generator or an electric field generator that is prevented from providing an electric field to a biometric object, such as a finger, and (b) has an electric field sensor array comprised of a plurality of electric field sensors. Capacitance readings from the sensor array are used to generate values that are attributed to locations corresponding to the sensors.
US09405948B2
A method for monitoring the functioning of an RFID-based radio communication network in a spatially extensive area, wherein a plurality of RFID tags carry out a radio communication with a reader, wherein in the area of coverage of the RFID system at least one fixed reference RFID tag is arranged that carries out a periodic radio communication with a reader and the data from which is compared in a control center with previously transmitted data.
US09405940B2
A printer and a control method of a printer can print barcodes appropriately according to a given print medium by means of a simple, easy operation. The printer stores a constant preset value relationally corresponding to each type of print medium. The printer also stores an added correction value that is optionally input for each specific type of print medium. The constant value and the added correction value are used to adjust the printed state of the barcode, e.g. to adjust bar widths within the barcode. The print control unit prints barcodes using the constant value stored in the printer storage unit adjusted with the added correction value.
US09405938B2
An information processing apparatus includes an authentication information storage unit that stores authentication information for releasing restriction on use of a storage device, a release unit that releases the restriction on use of the storage device based on the authentication information, a generation unit that generates new authentication information for releasing the restriction on use of the storage device, and a setting unit that, after the restriction on use of the storage device is released, set the new authentication information in the storage device.
US09405931B2
A protected stream manager includes one or more subsystems to receive a content stream in a virtual environment, obfuscate the content stream, and prioritize use of a processor to process the content stream.
US09405924B2
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate anticipatory pushing of content to clients of a communications network in such a way that the content is unusable by the anticipatory clients until explicitly requested. Embodiments apply one or more self-keying techniques to a content dataset to generate an anticipatory dataset, such that the anticipatory dataset cannot be used to reconstruct the content dataset without a keying dataset that also can only be generated using the content dataset. The anticipatory dataset is pre-pushed to a client in anticipation of a future request for the content. If and when the client subsequently issues a request for the content dataset, the server intercepts the new copy of the content dataset received in response to the request, uses the content dataset to generate the keying dataset, and communicates the keying dataset to the client for local reconstruction of the content dataset by the client.
US09405923B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for establishing isolation between content hosting services executing on a common support server. In aspects, a server virtualization platform can operate on a common physical support server to instantiate, configure, and operate a set of virtual servers. The set of virtual servers can, for instance, be used to run independent Web sites or other locations or services. The data available to each process on each virtual server can be encoded using an SELinux™ label including an MCS (multi-category security) category or categories uniquely identifying that process. Isolation of the potentially sensitive data for multiple Web sites and/or their content hosted on a common physical server can therefore be enforced, since each process operating on each virtual server is restricted to only access and manipulate data objects or other entities having matching MCS category information identified on that baremetal support server.
US09405918B2
A computing device can monitor the gaze direction of people around the device to determine whether any unintended viewers are viewing content displayed on the device. A user can activate a privacy mode of the device, such that when an unintended viewer is detected the device can take an appropriate action. In some cases the device can notify the primary user of the device using audible, visual, or tactile alerts. In other cases, the device can modify the display of content such that the unintended viewer is unable to decipher or view the content, or is otherwise notified of the detection.
US09405911B2
A printing system is provided with a secure boot program and a detachable memory device with an installable secure boot program. Upon switching on the printer controller, the secure boot program will check if a detachable memory device containing the secure boot program is plugged in. If this is the case, the controller will boot from the detachable memory device, otherwise the controller will invoke the printer control program to bring the printer in its normal operational mode.
US09405906B1
In a system for determining components of a software application from binary code thereof, one or more binary files are read without loading any component/object in the files in an execution environment that can execute the software application. A component in one of the files, designated as a primary component, is visited to identify a path specifying origin of a secondary component that is associated with the primary component, and the identified path is stored. Analysis of the path can indicate whether the secondary component is provided by the developer of the software application or by a different entity.
US09405904B1
A computer-implemented method for providing security for synchronized files may include (1) synchronizing, using a cloud folder synchronization service, a backend server with both a client folder on a client machine and an additional client folder on an additional client machine, (2) propagating a file from the client folder to the backend server through the cloud folder synchronization service, (3) identifying, using the cloud folder synchronization service, a result of a security scan of the propagated file, and (4) adjusting, using the cloud folder synchronization service, the synchronization of the file with the additional client folder based on the result of the security scan. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09405900B2
The embodiments described herein include a system and a method. In one embodiment, a system includes a device monitoring component configured to measure control system behavior and an intrusion prevention system communicatively coupled to the device monitoring component and a communications network. The intrusion prevention system includes a control system analysis component configured to analyze the control system behavior measured by the device monitoring component against a first rule set to determine whether an anomaly, an intrusion, or both are present.
US09405898B2
The disclosure includes a system and method in which one or more virtual resources are presented to a secure element; and the one or more virtual resources are mapped to available resources based on a model architecture for the secure element in order to provide hardware abstraction, the available physical resources varying based on the model architecture and an associated host device, the virtual resources allowing consistent interaction with the virtual resources regardless of variation in the physical resources available and their location. The hardware abstraction increases the versatility of the secure element and may contribute to the secure element's functionality. The secure element providing functionality to replace most items carried in an individual's pockets, e.g., logical and physical keys, a thumb drive, identification, credit and debit cards, etc.
US09405895B2
An authenticating system includes an authenticating device, a background display device, a sensing device, and an authentication pattern checking device. The authenticating device displays a first display pattern on a transparent display panel including a transmissivity pattern. The transmissivity pattern includes a plurality of regions with different transmissivities. The background display device displays a second display pattern on a display panel to overlap the transparent display panel. The sensing device generates a sensing pattern by sensing an authentication pattern generated based on the transmissivity pattern, the first display pattern, and the second display pattern. The authentication pattern checking device performs authentication by checking whether the sensing pattern is consistent with an authentication reference pattern.
US09405892B2
Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for preventing spoofing attacks for bone conduction applications. According to one aspect, a device can receive an authentication signal that has propagated through a body. The device can prevent an adversary from using the authentication signal to spoof a user to be authenticated by the device. The device can also authenticate the user.
US09405889B2
Devices and methods for authenticating a user of a mobile computing device to a content server include establishing a communication session between a target computing device and the content server that is identified by a session ID. The target computing device generates a pairing token using the session ID, which pairing token may be a two-dimensional bar code such as a quick response (“QR”) code, and presents the pairing token to the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device captures the pairing token and authenticates the user of the mobile computing device to an authentication server. The target computing device receives an authentication token from the authentication server in response to the mobile computing device successfully authenticating the user to the authentication server. The target computing device accesses content on the content server using the authentication token. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09405888B1
Methods, systems, and products describe a robust solution for the dictionary problem of data structures. A hash function based on tabulation is twisted to utilize an additional xoring operation and a shift. This twisted tabulation offers strong robustness guarantees over a set of queries in both linear probing and chaining.
US09405886B2
A noninvasive patient-specific method is provided to aid in the analysis, diagnosis, prediction or treatment of hemodynamics of the cardiovascular system of a patient. Coronary blood flow and pressure can be predicted using a 3-D patient image-based model that is implicitly coupled with a model of at least a portion of the remaining cardiovascular system. The 3-D patient image-based model includes at least a portion of the thoracic aorta and epicardial coronaries of the patient. The shape of one or more velocity profiles at the interface of the models is enforced to control complex flow features of recirculating or retrograde flow thereby minimizing model instabilities and resulting in patient-specific predictions of coronary flow rate and pressure. The invention allows for patient-specific predictions of the effect of different or varying physiological states and hemodynamic benefits of coronary medical interventions, percutaneous coronary interventions and surgical therapies.
US09405884B2
The present invention relates to methods for analyzing protein samples, e.g., monoclonal antibodies, via the SITRS technique, as well as methods and systems that facilitate the processing of data generated by the SITRS technique.
US09405883B2
A method is disclosed that includes the operations outlined below. A first criteria is determined to be met when directions of a first current and a second current around a first end and a second end of a metal segment respectively are opposite, in which the metal segment is a part of a power rail in at least one design file of a semiconductor device and is enclosed by only two terminal via arrays. A second criteria is determined to be met when a length of the metal segment is not larger than a electromigration critical length. The metal segment is included in the semiconductor device with a first current density limit depending on the length of the metal segment when the first and the second criteria are met.
US09405881B2
In one embodiment, cycle-accurate information may be collected by stopping an input clock associated with a functional block of a SoC using a programmable trigger signal. The programmable trigger signal may also stops a root clock of the SoC. Cycle-accurate information may be collected regarding the functional block and at least one other functional block of the SoC at the time of the programmable trigger signal. The collected information may be outputted and used to debug the SoC in a time-efficient manner.
US09405876B2
Solving computational problems may include generating a logic circuit representation of the computational problem, encoding the logic circuit representation as a discrete optimization problem, and solving the discrete optimization problem using a quantum processor. Output(s) of the logic circuit representation may be clamped such that the solving involves effectively executing the logic circuit representation in reverse to determine input(s) that corresponds to the clamped output(s). The representation may be of a Boolean logic circuit. The discrete optimization problem may be composed of a set of miniature optimization problems, where each miniature optimization problem encodes a respective logic gate from the logic circuit representation. A quantum processor may include multiple sets of qubits, each set coupled to respective annealing signal lines such that dynamic evolution of each set of qubits is controlled independently from the dynamic evolutions of the other sets of qubits.
US09405869B2
An elastic response performance prediction method that employs a finite element analysis method to predict an elastic response performance expressing deformation behavior of a rubber product. The elastic response performance of the rubber product is predicted by employing a constitutive equation that expresses temperature and strain dependence of strain energy in the rubber product expressed using a parameter representing intermolecular interaction.
US09405866B1
In a computing system running an environment for designing operation of circuitry, at least the following are performed for providing simulations and evaluations of one or more user-defined modules of circuitry including one or more pipeline stages in a pipeline. A model of the pipeline is automatically generated by using a pipeline block diagram, where the model is generated in a high-level modeling language able to perform simulations of circuitry with the pipeline. An interface is automatically generated between the one or more user-defined modules and the generated model of the pipeline, the interface including a set of access methods to the pipeline. Evaluation is performed of the one or more user-defined modules using the automatically generated model of the pipeline and the automatically generated interface. Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed.
US09405853B2
Disclosed herein are a system, non-transitory computer readable medium, and method for responding to a query having a plurality of input objects. A subgraph based on a main graph of objects is used to generate a list of objects associating the input objects.
US09405851B1
This document describes, among other things, a computer-implemented method that can include receiving, from a web server system, web page code to be provided over the internet to a computing device. The web page code can correspond to a particular web page served by the web server system. The method may include generating an intermediate representation of at least a portion of the web page code, and comparing the intermediate representation to a prior intermediate representation of the particular web page. Based on a result of the comparison, the method can include determining what portion of the web page code to analyze for re-coding of the web page code before serving the web page code to the computing device.
US09405846B2
Various methods and apparatuses are provided which may be implemented using one or more computing devices within a networked computing environment to employ publish-subscribe techniques to associate subscriber encoded data files with a set of publisher encoded data files.
US09405845B2
Adaptable layouts for social feeds are described. In embodiments, shared content is received as a social network action initiated at a user device by a social network user. An activity is generated based on the social network action to collect metadata associated with the shared content. The shared content and the metadata is then mapped to layout templates that are each generated for different display layout formats associated with different types of client devices. Additionally, the shared content and the metadata is mapped to additional layout templates that are each generated for different social network form factors.
US09405843B2
The invention provides a system and method for analyzing a collection of communication messages. The communication messages may be any one of a collection of electronic mail messages, voicemail messages, instant messaging dialogs and other forms of communications. The collections of communications, such as electronic mail messages, may be selected by a user and then subsequently processed to determine the identity of any of the user's contacts within the communications. The contacts may then be arranged in a relative priority arrangement whereby contacts which have been identified as engaging in prior reciprocal communications with the user are given higher priority. Higher priority may also be given to contacts which engage in more recent communications with the user. Specific contact relationships may be inferred from the communications depending on whether specific contacts are repeatedly mentioned within the communication messages.
US09405833B2
A computer-implemented method is provided for searching for files on the Internet. In one embodiment, the method may provide an application crawler that assembles and dynamically instantiates all components of a web page. The instantiated web application may then be analyzed to locate desired components on the web page. This may involve finding and analyzing all clickable items in the application, driving the web application by injecting events, and extracting information from the application and writing it to a file or database.
US09405832B2
A user can input a search query. By assessing terms in the search query, the search query can be categorized (e.g., as a navigational, functional or browse query). The categorization can depend on an analysis of terms in the search query, a preliminary search, and/or empirical data tied to previous and similar searches. For example, searches estimated to be directed to finding a specific app can be categorized as navigational, based on capitalized letters, quotation marks, a short number of words in the query, and a tight distribution of apps typically downloaded subsequent to viewing results from the search. Based on the categorization, a search strategy can be identified. Search strategies can differentially weight and/or use text-based strategies.
US09405830B2
Systems and methods for personalization using image clouds to represent content. Image clouds can be used to identify initial user interest, present recommended content, present popular content, present search results, and present user profile information. Image clouds are interactive, allowing users to select images displayed in the image cloud, which can contribute to presenting more personalized content as well as updating a user's profile.
US09405829B2
Video content information associated with video content is received, by at least a first computing device, wherein the video content is delivered utilizing internet protocol. End destination information associated with a reception instance of the video content is received, by at least the first computing device, wherein the end destination information includes experience information that, at least in part, includes information relating to a quality of the reception instance of the video content and a location of an end destination associated with the reception instance of the video content. At least a portion of the video content information and at least a portion of the end destination information, which includes at least a portion of the information relating to the quality of the reception instance of the video content, is selectively aggregated, by at least the second computing device, to generate aggregated information.
US09405827B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a mechanism for automatically creating a playlist for a user. In particular, data indicating music played by other users in the user's social network is collected. Music is then selected from this data and gathered from a music service in which the user subscribes, such as iTunes, Yahoo Music, etc. The service then builds the playlist with the gathered music.
US09405826B1
Systems and methods are provided for audio processing. A system includes: a component manager and a pipeline manager. The component manager is configured to communicate with a host system and manage one or more components for processing an audio stream. A component is associated with one or more audio processing functions. The pipeline manager is configured to manage one or more connections among the components. The connections indicate a processing flow involving the components.
US09405820B2
A system and method for searching a document for a query pattern. A plurality of streams may be stored each including a linear sequence of nodes. Each stream may be associated with nodes having a common label in a data tree of the document. A query pattern may be searched for in the streams by executing a plurality of threads. Each of two or more of the threads may be used to search different sub-streams of the plurality of streams. Each of the different sub-streams searched for by each thread in each stream may be uniquely correlated with one or more disjoint sub-trees of a partition of the tree into a plurality of sub-trees. The two or more of the plurality of threads may be executed in parallel. A result of the query pattern search may be generated using at least one of the threads.
US09405810B2
A method is provided to produce a custom calendar user interface for display on an electronic device display screen comprising: receiving over a network code objects adapted for use to generate visual content items on the different user device display screens; receiving over the network from a user device, receiving a search query; identifying one or more respective received code objects that match the received search query; and sending over the network to one or more user devices, information indicating the identified matching code objects.
US09405806B2
According to one embodiment, a system is provided. The system includes a memory, at least one processor coupled to the memory and an object network modeler component executable by the at least one processor. The memory stores an object network including a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects including a first object, a second object, a third object, and a fourth object. The object network modeler component is configured to implicitly associate, within the object network, the first object with the second object and explicitly associate, within the object network, the third object with the fourth object.
US09405804B1
This specification describes technologies relating to identification of interests of a subgroup of a larger group of users. One aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include receiving data reflecting characteristics for users in a set of users of a social networking platform, wherein the data reflects endorsements of pages hosted on the social networking platform. A subset of the users within the set is identified by excluding users in the set with characteristics that do not match filter criteria. For each of some of the pages endorsed by members of the subset, a measure of the likelihood of a user in the subset endorsing the page relative to the likelihood of other users in the set endorsing the page is calculated. One or more content items are selected based on the measures and data specifying the selected content items is transmitted.
US09405798B2
A system includes a transceiver, processor, database, and memory. Instructions for executing a nearest neighbor search are recorded in memory. Receipt of a query point by the transceiver from a camera or other input device causes the processor to construct a KD-Fern having nodes as an ordered set of splitting dimensions and thresholds. All nodes at the same level of the KD-Fern have the same splitting dimension d and the same threshold τ. A binary bit is generated at each node describing a respective threshold comparison decision for that particular node. The processor associates each of a plurality of binary addresses in the binary map with a corresponding nearest neighbor index, determines the binary address of the query point, and returns, e.g., to a vehicle braking, steering, or body control module, a nearest neighbor result by extracting the nearest neighbor from the binary map.
US09405796B2
Implementations of the present teachings relate to processes and systems for analyzing registrar and hosting provider relationships. In embodiments, the processes include compiling a list of domain names and matching each domain name with a registrar name and a hosting provider name. The processes also include generating a graph based on relationships between registrars and hosting providers. For example, the graph can represent the registrars and hosting providers as nodes and edges connecting the nodes can correspond to domain names that are registered by the registrar and hosted by the hosting provider. Further, the processes include applying graph metrics to the graph to identify key characteristics of a domain market.
US09405794B2
An information retrieval system converts unstructured ad-hoc search queries into structured search instructions that retrieve data in a structured relational database or an unstructured database. Data from the database is uploaded into a distributed in-memory database system. Tokens are automatically generated based on attributes, measures, and other metadata extracted from the relational database. The tokens are then compared with the non-structured ad-hoc user search queries. The information retrieval system uses the tokens to identify or predict what structured data is associated with user search queries. The tokens guide the user through a set of search terms that the system then uses to generate the structured query instructions. The structured query instructions retrieve specific data and answers from in the database system.
US09405792B2
Electronic documents are classified and compared according to their temporal qualities. The content of a document relating to an event is analyzed to identify temporal components. These components can be compared with corresponding counterparts in other documents to identify a relative temporal order. The invention can be used in environments such as automated news aggregators, search engines, and other electronic systems which compile information having temporal qualities.
US09405791B2
A translation service provided by a browser toolbar may be automatically updated. In one implementation, a device may obtain a version identifier corresponding to a first configuration file, stored locally by the device, that includes configuration options relating to a language translation service provided by a browser toolbar implemented by the device. The device may request a version identifier corresponding to a second configuration file, stored at an update server and determine whether the second configuration file is different than the first configuration file. The device may download the second configuration file when the second configuration file is different than the first configuration file may update operation of the language translation service based on the obtained options.
US09405789B2
Sorting information by relevance to individuals with passive data collection and real-time injection
In one aspect, data, such as information articles, is sorted and prioritized based on a plurality of factors, such as user interest and popularity of data with respect to other users. The data is sorted by initial personal (i.e., user) data, sorted by the most relevant to the user, while passive interaction data is used to continually reorder the articles in real-time, while new stories are being injected into the stream in real time, all while other articles are increasing/decreasing in stature based on popularity with regard to other users and time decay. As such, the system provides that the information is fed to users in an efficient manner, in a manner based on time relevance, assumed interest with regard to that given user based on past actions by that user or information otherwise known about that user, as well as interest in the articles demonstrated by other users.
US09405781B2
An improved scalable object storage system includes methods and systems allowing multiple clusters to work together. Users working with a first cluster, or with a multi-cluster gateway, can ask for services and have the request or data transparently proxied to a second cluster. This gives transparent cross-cluster replication, as well as multi-cluster compute or storage farms based upon spot availability or various provisioning policies. Vendors providing a cloud storage “frontend” can provide multiple backends simultaneously. In one embodiment, a multi-cluster gateway can have a two, three, or higher-level ring that transparently matches an incoming request with the correct cluster. In the ring, a request is first mapped to an abstract “partition” based on a consistent hash function, and then one or more constrained mappings map the partition number to an actual resource. In another embodiment, the multi-cluster gateway is a dumb gateway, and the rings are located only at the cluster level.
US09405772B2
A server system receives a visual query and information about the current location of the querying device. The server system sends the query and location information to a visual query search system and receives one or more search results in accordance with the visual query and the location information. From the one or more search results, the server system identifies an entity in the visual query. The server system further identifies a client-side action corresponding to the identified entity and creates an actionable search result element configured to launch the client-side action. For example, if the identified entity were a restaurant the actionable search result elements could include buttons to initiate a telephone call, to read reviews, to map the address, or to make a reservation. If the actionable search result is selected, the client system launches the client-side action in an application distinct from the visual query client application.
US09405767B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to file system placeholders. In aspects, placeholders may be used by a client to represent remote file system objects. The placeholders may include metadata and may also include none, some, or all of the content of the represented remote file system objects. In response to a request to access content of a file system object represented by a placeholder, a client may obtain needed data from a remote storage system and stream or not stream the data to the requesting application based on whether the requesting application is capable of streaming the data.
US09405765B1
In one aspect, a method includes intercepting, at a file system level, an I/O directed to a file representing a virtual volume to be replicated to a replica volume at a replica site, translating a file offset of the file to a volume offset of the replica volume; and replicating the I/O to a replica volume using the volume offset.
US09405756B1
A backup and restore module allows for block level cloud-based back up and restore of a storage volume of a computer. Original content of a block of a disk volume that is being modified by a write operation is stored in a point-in-time snapshot in a cloud storage. The original content may be stored in a hidden volume in the computer prior to being stored in the cloud storage. The original content may be encrypted for storage. To roll back the computer by restoring the disk volume, the snapshot is retrieved from the cloud storage. The original content is copied from the snapshot back to the block to restore the disk volume. The hidden volume may be searched for other original contents yet to be included in the snapshot in the cloud storage, and the original contents may be copied back to corresponding blocks to restore the disk volume.
US09405755B1
A method implemented by a computer includes receiving a log file with log file data characterizing the operation of a system. A normalized format for the log file data is proposed. User input on the normalized format is solicited. The normalized format is set. The log file data is converted to the normalized format. A visualization application operative with the normalized format is selected. The visualization application supplies visualizations of the log file data.
US09405753B2
A method is provided for playing back media from a network. The method includes receiving a search criteria from a network enabled device. The method further includes accessing a database comprising a plurality of network addresses, where the database associates each address with one or more classes of information. The addresses in the database each access a media network resource. The method further includes selecting at least one address in the database using the search criteria, and signaling the selected address to the network enabled device. The method also includes controlling the network enabled device so as to automatically access and play back the media resource of the selected address.
US09405752B2
A system and method for automatically presenting a media file on a mobile device based on an analysis of metadata associated with the media file. The system evaluates a media file's metadata to determine whether the media file is relevant to a mobile device user based on time, date, location, subject matter, or other criteria. If the media file is relevant to the user, the system automatically displays the media file on the mobile device. By presenting the media file to a mobile device user, the system reminds the user of fond memories associated with past dates, people, events, or places. In some embodiments, the system may also prompt a user of the mobile device to take an action related to the media file presented on the mobile device, such as prompting the user to place a telephone call to a person pictured in the image.
US09405747B2
Provided is an information display system and a dot pattern printed material to be used for the same, which are capable of easily displaying information only by reading a dot pattern, easy for update of the information, and capable of printing an even less visible dot pattern as compared to the conventional case. The information display system includes: a dot pattern printed material including a dot pattern having coordinate position code information, the dot pattern being printed on a printing object through gravure printing in a less visible and optically readable manner; optical reading means; information transfer means for transferring, to a server device, the coordinate position code information that is read by the optical reading means; a server device for outputting associated information that is accumulated in advance in association with the coordinate position code information; and information display means for displaying the associated information output from the server device. The dot pattern printed material is obtained by printing the dot pattern through the gravure printing with carbon black ink on a black printing layer that is formed with cyan ink, magenta ink, and yellow ink.
US09405745B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to language translation. In aspects, a reference to a language translation component is embedded or otherwise inserted into a Web page. When the Web page is rendered, code corresponding to the language translation component may be downloaded and executed. Once executed, the translation component may access other content in the Web page and allow a user to request translation of the Web page. Upon receiving an indication that translation is desired, the translation component may send content in the Web page to a translation service and receive translated content. The translation component may then provide this translated content to a user viewing the Web page.
US09405743B1
Dynamically modelling geospatial words in social media, in one aspect, generates a word set based on frequencies of words occurring in GPS annotated text data generated by a GPS-enabled device containing latitude and longitude coordinates. Locations are partitioned by mapping GPS coordinates in the GPS annotated text data to a set of discrete non-overlapped locations. A text stream contained in the GPS annotated text data is segmented into time windows. Footprints of locations in time windows are generated. Geospatial weights associated with words in the word set are generated based on localness of words determined based on the footprints. Words in a text message are extracted and scores are determined for the set of discrete non-overlapped locations associated with the words.
US09405737B2
In particular embodiments, a method comprising, by one or more computing devices, identifying, at a client device, one or more objects or references to the one or more objects embedded in a structured document displayed to a first user, accessing a social graph to determine if one or more second users having an association with the first user have accessed any of the one or more identified objects, and modifying, for at least one of the one or more identified objects, the structured document displayed to the first user to indicate that the at least one or more identified objects has been accessed by one or more second users.
US09405734B2
A web page or group of pages can be automatically generated based on images selected by a user. The images are analyzed for color and groups of colors for the page background and image framing are determined. Images are analyzed to determine the shapes of the images and the images are placed within appropriate shapes on a page on the web. Click-through rate can be estimated for images and this click-through rate used during the web page generation. Important sections are evaluated in the images and cropping may occur for the images on a page. Text and video can be part of the web page. Software applications can be accessed from the web page as well. The online web pages can be tailored for presentation on a mobile device.
US09405730B1
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for a signed-magnitude adder based on one's complement logic, where the adder offers enhancements in both speed and chip area consumption. The one's complement based adder includes circuitry for converting operands from their signed-magnitude representations to their one's complement representations, circuitry for adding operands in their one's complement representations, and circuitry for converting the resulting sum into a signed-magnitude format.
US09405728B2
An integrated circuit is provided that performs floating-point addition or subtraction operations involving at least three floating-point numbers. The floating-point numbers are pre-processed by dynamically extending the number of mantissa bits, determining the floating-point number with the biggest exponent, and shifting the mantissa of the other floating-point numbers to the right. Each extended mantissa has at least twice the number of bits of the mantissa entering the floating-point operation. The exact bit extension is dependent on the number of floating-point numbers to be added. The mantissas of all floating-point numbers with an exponent smaller than the biggest exponent are shifted to the right. The number of right shift bits is dependent on the difference between the biggest exponent and the respective floating-point exponent.
US09405723B2
A mobile application management through policy inclusion using centralized enforcement libraries is disclosed. The method includes storing independently developed mobile applications on at least one server. The method further includes storing independently developed policies associated with each of the independently developed mobile applications on the at least one server. The method further includes associating a policy of the stored independently developed policies with any of the mobile applications of the independently developed mobile applications. The method further includes providing the associated policy and mobile application to a mobile device where the enforcement libraries restrict the app as instructed by the policy.
US09405717B2
A system and method are disclosed for an electronic integrated circuit to communicate with different hosts via different interfaces using the same host protocol. The system may use a host interface circuit to select a first set of electrical contacts or a second set of electrical contacts in order for a first host or a second host, respectively, to communicate with the electronic integrated circuit using a host protocol. The method may include switching from communicating with the first host using the first set of electrical contacts to communicating with the second host using the second set of electrical contacts in order for the second host to test the electronic integrated circuit.
US09405704B2
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for establishing a point-in-time copy relationship between source logical addresses and target logical addresses. A point-in-time (PiT) copy establish command specifies a source set comprising a subset of source logical addresses in at least one storage and a target set comprising a subset of target logical addresses in the at least one storage. The source set of source logical addresses are copied to the target set of target logical addresses. The source logical addresses map to source tracks and wherein the target logical addresses map to target tracks. Copy information is generated indicating whether the source logical addresses in the source set have been copied to the target set. Complete is returned to the PiT copy establish command after generating the copy information and before copying all the source logical addresses to the target logical addresses.
US09405694B2
Techniques are provided for using an intermediate cache between the shared cache of an application and the non-volatile storage of a storage system. The application may be any type of application that uses a storage system to persistently store data. The intermediate cache may be local to the machine upon which the application is executing, or may be implemented within the storage system. In one embodiment where the application is a database server, the database system includes both a DB server-side intermediate cache, and a storage-side intermediate cache. The caching policies used to populate the intermediate cache are intelligent, taking into account factors that may include which object an item belongs to, the item type of the item, a characteristic of the item, or the type of operation in which the item is involved.
US09405678B2
An integrated circuit device includes a transmitter circuit operable to transmit a timing signal over a first wire to a DRAM. The DRAM receives a first signal having a balanced number of logical zero-to-one transitions and one-to-zero transitions and samples the first signal at a rising edge of the timing signal to produce a respective sampled value. The device further includes a receiver circuit to receive the respective sampled value from the DRAM over a plurality of wires separate from the first wire. In a first mode, the transmitter circuit repeatedly transmits incrementally offset versions of the timing signal to the DRAM until sampled values received from the DRAM change from a logical zero to a logical one or vice versa; and in a second mode, it transmits write data over the plurality of wires to the DRAM according to a write timing offset generated based on the sampled values.
US09405677B2
A system and method for tuning a solid state disk memory includes computing a metric representing a usage trend of a solid state disk memory. Whether one or more parameters need to be adjusted to provide a change in performance is determined. The parameter is adjusted in accordance with the metric to impact the performance of running workloads. These steps are repeated after an elapsed time interval.
US09405672B2
An apparatus having a processor and a circuit is disclosed. The processor is generally configured to initiate an operation to recycle a plurality of source blocks in a memory that is nonvolatile. The circuit is generally configured to (i) search through a first of a plurality of levels in a map that defines a plurality of translations between a plurality of logical addresses used at an interface to a computer and a plurality of physical addresses used in the memory and (ii) notify the processor in response to a detection in the first level of one or more of the source blocks to be recycled that contain valid data.
US09405669B2
For cache/data management in a computing storage environment, incoming data segments into a Non Volatile Storage (NVS) device of the computing storage environment are validated against a bitmap to determine if the incoming data segments are currently in use. Those of the incoming data segments determined to be currently in use are designated to the computing storage environment to protect data integrity.
US09405668B1
A data storage device including non-volatile storage is initialized from initialization information stored in an information initialization area. A pointer area is also provided on the non-volatile storage for storing initialization pointer information. Pointer information includes a sequence identifier. A processor is configured to read the storage locations in the pointer area and used the information to locate and read initialization information from the located initialization information area to initialize the data storage device. In one embodiment, sequence identifiers are examined to locate most recent sequence identifier for initialization. In other embodiments, more than one initialization area and/or pointer area may be used for robustness.
US09405666B2
Technologies are described for health monitoring using snapshot backups through test vectors. In some examples, health of an application deployed at a datacenter may be monitored and key metrics recorded in the metadata of progressive backup snapshots of an instance of the application such that warning metrics can be reviewed retrospectively upon failure of the instance and a snapshot can be automatically selected for restoration of the application instance based on lack of high incidence of suspect metric values. Moreover, an operating state associated with snapshot backups may be assessed as the snapshots are captured and selected ones with operating conditions desired as part of a test suite may be saved for use as test scenarios. In particular, state information from added or existing deployment monitoring may be used by a test logic process to evaluate whether each snapshot is needed for testing scenarios.
US09405659B2
Techniques are described for measuring or quantifying the logging behavior in the source code of a computer program. In particular, the techniques select a method identified as exhibiting the ideal logging behavior in a computer program and then compute the overall logging quality score for the entire computer program based on the deviation in logging behaviors between the selected method and all other methods in the source code of the project. This overall logging quality score can be compared to various benchmarks of existing projects with high logging quality. If the software logging quality is found to be low, various steps can be taken by the developers to improve the logging before the software release.
