US09445391B2
Methods are provided for filtering, collecting, and analyzing location data for a plurality of devices in a wireless network. Location data for one or more devices is received, for each device the location data includes a unique identifier. Whether the devices belong to the group of devices is determined based on the unique identifier. The location data of devices determined to belong to the group of devices are stored and used in the mobility analysis and the results distributed accordingly. A relevancy analysis may be performed on the stored location data of devices determined to belong to the group of devices in which device information is generated that is associated with devices not belonging to the group of devices. The device information is fed back to determine whether the devices belong to the group of devices based on the unique identifier.
US09445390B2
A method in a first radio base station of a wireless communication system, for transmitting a reference signal for positioning in a cell. The cell is hosted by the first radio base station and served by a plurality of transmission points. Each transmission point is associated with a value of a first attribute indicating whether transmission of the reference signal for positioning is enabled for the associated transmission point. The method comprises selecting at least one transmission point among the plurality of transmission points based on the values of the first attribute, and transmitting the reference signal for positioning in the cell from the selected at least one transmission point only.
US09445387B2
The present invention is related to method and device for building Wi-Fi radio map. Especially, it is related to device and method for building Wi-Fi radio map that is used to position locating service that utilizes Wi-Fi fingerprints that many, unspecified mobile terminals collect and provide. Specifically, the present invention provides, as methods for estimating position data for AP (200) using Wi-Fi fingerprints collected by mobile terminals (100), 1) method for estimating position data for AP (200) by linking Wi-Fi fingerprints and time data for collecting Wi-Fi signal, or 2) method for estimating position data for AP (200) through user address data comparison between Wi-Fi fingerprints without linking signal collection time data to Wi-Fi fingerprints. Accordingly, it has effects of epoch-making economic feasibility compared to prior art that requires huge cost in collecting Wi-Fi fingerprint like war driving.
US09445384B2
Provided are a mobile device capable of generating multiple maximum transfer units (MTUs) and a data transfer method. The method includes determining whether a network is registered with the mobile device; if the network is not registered in the mobile device, generating a virtual interface to generate a maximum transfer unit (MTU) value of the network; and registering the network by storing the MTU value of the network in the mobile device. The mobile device includes an MTU management unit configured to determine whether a network is registered with the mobile device, and, if the network is not registered in the mobile device, to generate a virtual interface to generate an MTU value of the network.
US09445382B2
The present invention provides a method and a device for detecting a secondary synchronous signal, a computer program and a storage medium. The method comprises: Step S1: extracting a first SSS sequence from a received signal according a PSS detection result; Step S2: performing rotation on the first SSS sequence, to obtain at least two second sequences including the first SSS sequence, channel paths corresponding to the at least two second sequences being located within a channel window in a time domain; Step S3: calculating a channel estimation result of each of the second sequences corresponding to each of SSS standard sequences; Step S4: selecting, according to the channel estimation result, valid channel paths corresponding to the respective SSS standard sequence from the channel paths corresponding to the second sequences; Step S5: calculating a signal-to-noise ratio corresponding to the respective SSS standard sequence according to the valid channel paths corresponding to the respective SSS standard sequence; and Step S6: determining a cell ID according to the SSS standard sequence corresponding to a maximum signal-to-noise ratio. According to the present invention, it is able to improve the accuracy of the SSS detection.
US09445380B2
An exemplary method of communicating includes a relay node that uses a cell identifier that is also used by a base station having a coverage area within which the relay node is located. The method includes determining that a mobile station is within a communication range of the relay node. A transmission power from the relay node is controlled so that the total transmission power of at least one transmission from the relay node and the base station corresponds to a selected transmit power limit. A timing of a downlink transmission from the base station and the relay node is coordinated based on a schedule determined by the base station. At least one uplink control parameter is set at the base station based upon uplink information regarding a link between the mobile station and the relay node.
US09445379B2
A method for managing transmitting power of communications devices equipped with multiple antennas. The method enables a first antenna configuration of the plurality of antennas in accordance with a first pre-determined rule. The method transmits a first message to a peer communications device, wherein the first message comprises at least a power management profile of the communications device transmitting the first message. The method receives a second message comprising at least information pertinent to a power management profile of the peer communications device receiving the first message and signal integrity information determined by the peer communications device from the received first message. Finally, the method activates a second antenna configuration of the plurality of antennas by using the signal integrity information in accordance with a second pre-determined rule.
US09445368B2
Systems and methods for optimizing keepalives or other non-interactive or background traffic from applications on a mobile device are disclosed. A keepalive optimizer can detect keepalive and other background traffic and optimize such traffic by blocking keepalives, advancing or delaying execution of keepalives, delaying repeatable background requests based on radio state, device state or characteristics, policy, transaction characteristics, application characteristics, and/or the like. The disclosed keepalive optimization methods facilitate management of traffic and/or conservation of resources on the mobile device and the network. The keepalive optimization can be performed by an application sending the keepalives or by a local proxy on the mobile device.
US09445365B2
A connection with a network that includes a base station (BS) may be established by a user device (UE) via a wireless connection, for conducting communications using semi persistent scheduling (SPS) in a connected discontinuous reception (C-DRX) mode. The SPS transmit periodicity may be adjusted with respect to the SPS activation command and the SPS interval UL (for uplink). Data may then be transmitted during the C-DRX On-Duration periods according to the determined SPS transmit periodicity. In some embodiments, the SPS transmit periodicity is adjusted such that following a first C-DRX On-Duration period when an SPS activation command is received, SPS data transmission occurs a specified number of subframes earlier during each subsequent C-DRX On-Duration period than in the first C-DRX On-Duration period. The SPS data transmission in each subsequent C-DRX On-Duration period may take place as soon as the UE device wakes up during the On-Duration period.
US09445362B2
Methods, apparatus and program products are disclosed for allowing wireless devices in two wireless access networks whose coverage areas overlap to communicate with their respective access nodes. Groups may be assigned to wireless devices in the access networks and the groups may be used by wireless devices in the access networks to determine whether to access a communication medium or not. Received powers may also be used by wireless devices in the access networks to determine whether or not to access a communication medium. A wireless device in a first access network can determine whether to access (e.g., compete for access to) the communication medium by comparing a measured power of transmission from a second access node with an indication of a minimum received power above which wireless devices in a second access network formed by a second access node are allowed to contend for access to the communication medium.
US09445359B2
A mobile radio communication terminal device may include at least one circuit configured to perform a method of processing received digitized signals, the method including determining a plurality of cross-correlation coefficients for the received digitized signal. Each of the plurality of cross-correlation coefficients may be determined by cross-correlating the received digitized signal with a respective candidate mobile radio local reference signal out of a plurality of pre-stored candidate mobile radio local reference signals. The at least one circuit may be further configured to select one or more cross-correlation coefficients from the determined plurality of cross-correlation coefficients and perform a mobile radio cell scan based on one or more of the selected cross-correlation coefficients, thereby determining a mobile radio communication network to connect to.
US09445356B2
Providing for distributed access point management for access to a mobile network is described herein. By way of example, an interface application maintained at a Femto cell base station (BS) can facilitate initial power up and/or acquisition for a Femto user terminal (UT). Upon start-up, a bootstrap process is utilized by the Femto cell to provision the UT with an SDL establishing at least one BS as high priority within a particular geographic area (GEO). Thus, when the Femto UT is within the GEO, the UT is more likely to acquire, camp on and/or handoff to the preferred BS. When outside the GEO, a serving access point can provision the Femto UT OTA with a custom SDL suited to another GEO having a different high priority access point. By implementing access point management at distributed access points, expensive network equipment can be mitigated or avoided.
US09445349B1
A system includes an access point and a client station. The access point is configured to control access to a communication channel of a wireless network, define a first power category and at least one second power category, each of the first power category and the at least one second power category having a respective access priority associated with access to the communication channel, and communicate a requirement for assignment to the first power category. The client station is configured to determine whether an operating characteristic of the client station meets the requirement for assignment to the first power category, and transmit, in response to a determination that the operating characteristic meets the requirements, a request to the access point to be assigned to the first power category.
US09445345B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to systems, methods, and devices for staggered primary channel selection for WiFi. According to certain aspects, a method for wireless communications is provided. The method may be performed, for example, by an access point (AP). The method generally includes obtaining information regarding neighbor basic service sets (BSSs), selecting a primary channel based on the obtained information, and output for transmission a message signaling an intention to communicate using the selected primary channel.
US09445342B2
The present invention relates to a method and a device for effectively controlling a handover of a user equipment (UE) in a long connected mode. A method for controlling a handover by an eNB, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: checking whether a UE is in a long connected mode; and transmitting, to the UE, channel measurement configuration information of which a channel measurement report trigger condition is alleviated compared with a normal connected mode.
US09445333B2
A method for switching of multi-carrier and device are provided. The method comprises: receiving a message sent from a source RAN node corresponding to a first link and comprising information of a second link; according to the information of the second link, establishing a connection between a target RAN node corresponding to the first link and an RAN node corresponding to the second link, so as to perform data transmission. The first link is a link in a first Radio Access Technology (RAT) network, and the second link is a link in a second RAT network. Embodiments of the present invention can ensure the continuity of the throughput of data transmission during switching under aggregation of multiple RAT carriers.
US09445332B1
A method and apparatus for improved idle handoff a mobile station in a wireless communication system. While idling in a particular sector of the system, the mobile station will select a target sector based on a determination that the target sector has the same number of channels as the current sector, such as the same number of paging channels and perhaps the same number of frequency channels as the current sector. The mobile station will then engage in an idle handoff from the current sector to the selected target sector. By striving to hand off to a sector that has the same number of channels, particularly the same number of paging channels, the mobile station may avoid having to hash onto a channel in the target sector and may thereby minimize the likelihood of missing a page message sent while the mobile station was busy hashing onto the channel.
US09445331B2
The communication management apparatus includes a reception index determination device configured to determine, with respect to respective neighboring cells of a serving cell of each terminal apparatus within a predetermined cell, and a reference signal reception index for the terminal apparatus according to location information of the terminal apparatus. The reference signal reception index is used for indicating signal reception situation of the terminal apparatus with respect to the neighboring cells.
US09445330B2
A method includes receiving information to be used in response to failure, while a UE is in a connected state with a network, of a network connection between the user equipment and a current cell. The received information is to be used by the UE to search for another cell to reestablish the network connection. In response to the failure, searching, based on the received information, for another cell to reestablish the network connection. Another method includes determining, in a network, information to be used by a UE in response to failure of a network connection between the UE and a current cell. The information is to be used by the UE in response to the failure occurring while the UE is in a connected state with the network and to be used to search for another cell to reestablish the network connection. Apparatus and program products are disclosed.
US09445324B2
The embodiments disclosed relates to a method and a network node that determines a time period between a first handover and a second handover of a user equipment. The first handover is to or from a first cell and the second handover is to or from a second cell. The network node sets a threshold value based on a difference in cell quality between the first cell and the second cell. The difference in cell quality is associated with the first or second handover. The network node then determines the type of handover, of at least one of the first and second handover, based on the time period and threshold value.
US09445321B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided in which a user equipment performs an inter-radio access technology (RAT) mobility procedure from a first network to a second network while idle mode signaling reduction (ISR) is active, locally deactivates ISR in connection with completion of the inter-RAT mobility procedure, and initiates a location management procedure in the second network. Depending on the respective type of the first and second network, and the connection state of the UE with respect to the first network, the mobility procedure may be performed in response to a mobility command received from the first network, or in response to a mobility condition of the first network as detected by the UE.
US09445316B2
A method performed by a first wireless device for handling a device-to-device, D2D, communication with a second wireless device during handover of the first wireless device from a source network node to a target network node in a wireless telecommunications network is provided. The first wireless device interrupts the D2D communication. Then, the first wireless device determines a first uplink timing difference as the difference between the uplink timing to the source network node and the uplink timing to the target network node. Further, the first wireless device reconfigures the D2D communication based on the first uplink timing difference. Then, the first wireless device restarts the D2D communication as reconfigured. A first wireless device (121) is also provided.Further, a target network node (110, 111, 112), a source network node (110, 111) and methods therein for handling a D2D communication are provided.
US09445311B2
A method and corresponding apparatus for transmitting an indication in a wireless communication system. In the method, a source donor eNodeB (DeNB) transmits a first handover request message for a mobile relay node, to a target DeNB, and transmits a second handover request message for user equipments (UEs) attached to the mobile relay node, to a target eNB. The source DeNB transmits an indication including information on lists of UEs which can be handed over to the target eNB, to the mobile relay node, and the mobile relay node transmits a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message indicating a UE to handover to the target eNB.
US09445300B2
A method for localized congestion exposure within a local loop in a cellular network that is performed by a localized congestion exposure receiver node of the local loop. The method includes receiving downlink packets destined for a downstream user device. The downlink packets have headers that indicate a level of congestion experienced by the downlink packets. The headers also indicate a level of expected downstream congestion declared by an upstream node. The method also includes forwarding the downlink packets to the downstream user device through a wireless connection. The method further includes sending packets upstream that have feedback indicative of the level of congestion experienced by the downlink packets and any congestion experienced within the localized congestion exposure receiver node.
US09445295B2
In current LTE, different measurement cycles of a measurement process are set for respective measurement frequencies. A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes: a step A of a radio base station eNB notifying a mobile station UE of a measurement cycle for “Inter-Frequency Measurement” for each measurement frequency; and a step B of the mobile station UE performing out a measurement process in each of cells #11A and #11B having frequencies f2 and f3 different from that of a cell #11 to which the mobile station UE is currently connected, on the basis of the measurement frequency and the measurement cycle for “Inter-Frequency Measurement”.
US09445292B2
A method for transmitting channel quality information based on a differential scheme is disclosed. When channel quality information of a predetermined number of sub-bands selected by a receiver in a frequency selective channel is transmitted, total average channel information is transmitted. Channel information of the selected sub-bands is transmitted as sub-band differential information associated with average channel information. In this case, the sub-band differential information may be denoted by a specific value contained in a differential-value range including only positive (+) values. If at least two channel quality information is transmitted by a MIMO system, channel quality information of one channel is transmitted, then channel quality information of the other channel is transmitted as spatial differential information. In this case, the spatial differential information is denoted by a specific value contained in a differential-value range asymmetrical on the basis of “0”.
US09445282B2
A transceiver architecture with combined digital beamforming and analog/hybrid beamforming is proposed. Digital beamforming is used for beam training with reduced overhead (switching time). It is beneficial to estimate all UE's angle of arrival (AoA) at the same time. In addition, the pilot/training signals are transmitted in a narrow band to reduce complexity. Analog/hybrid beamforming is used for data transmission with high directive gain and low complexity. The value of beamforming weights (phase shifter values) in analog domain can be based on the estimation of AoA from beam training. By using digital beamforming for beam training, combined with analog/hybrid beamforming for data transmission, effective beamforming is achieved with reduced overhead, complexity, and cost.
US09445257B2
The present invention provides a method and system for mobile communication where upon detecting a change in registration of a subscriber of a 5 client network at a visited operator, the subscribers client networks IMSI is switched to a hub operators IMSI. The hub operator is selected from a cloudSIM hub ecosystem, depending on the location of the subscriber. Thereafter, a cloudSIM hub converts between the signaling on the hub operators IMSI to signaling on the client operators IMSI. Further, the cloudSIM hub relays the converted signaling between 10 the visited operator and the client operator.
US09445256B1
A first home packet gateway (PGW) device may receive a binding update message on behalf of a wireless communication device (WCD). The first home PGW device may be associated with a first pool of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and the WCD may be assigned a particular IP address. It may be determined that the first pool of IP addresses does not include the particular IP address, and that the particular IP address is included in a second pool of IP addresses that is associated with a second home PGW device. Possibly in response to determining that the particular IP address is included in the second pool of IP addresses that is associated with the second home PGW device, the first home PGW device may forward the binding update message to the second home PGW device.
US09445254B2
An electronic device may communicate according to a first communication standard and a second communication standard. The first communication standard may have a longer communication range than the second communication standard. The electronic device may send a capability indication through the first communication standard. The capability indication may indicate the electronic device is capable of communicating according to the second communication standard with a shorter communication range than the first communication standard. The electronic device may discover a second electronic device capable of communicating according to the second communication standard and positioned outside of a non-extended communication range of the second communication standard. Upon discovery, the electronic device may communicate with the second electronic device at an extended range of the second communication standard even though the second electronic device is positioned outside the non-extended communication range of the first electronic device.
US09445248B2
In various aspects, the disclosure provides a hub that is adapted for radio-agnostic message translation. The hub may be configured to establish a connection with a target device using a first network access technology, receive a first message from a first client device through a connection established on a second network access technology, translate the first message from a first transmission format to obtain a second message in a second transmission format, and transmit the second message to the target device and using the first network access technology. The first network technology may employ a first wireless technology having a range that is less than 100 meters. The first client device may be separated from the target device by a distance that is greater than the range of the first wireless technology.
US09445243B2
A method of supporting group communication over LTE MBMS is provided. A UE first establishes a unicast Evolved Packet Service (EPS) bearer in an LTE network for group communication. The UE belongs to a communication group having a communication group ID. The UE receives access information from the network for monitoring downlink (DL) multicast traffic of the DL group communication based on a multicast decision. The UE is then ready for monitoring a multicast Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) bearer for receiving the DL multicast traffic. In one embodiment, The UE requests to switch the DL multicast traffic from the multicast MBMS bearer to the unicast EPS bearer upon detecting that the UE is approaching an MBMS coverage boundary. In another embodiment, the UE transmits an indication of preferred target cells to the network before performing a handover and thereby maintaining multicast service continuity of the group communication.
US09445226B2
The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for improving location accuracy in multi-channel wireless networks. Specifically, to coordinate with other Access Points (APs) and improve location accuracy of client devices, each access point can (a) obtain a schedule of another neighboring AP; (b) switch to the operating channel of the neighboring AP at a scheduled time for communication exchanges between the neighboring AP and the client device, (c) listen to the communication exchanges between the neighboring AP and the client device; (d) collecting signal samples, e.g., signal strength associated with messages originated from the client device; and (e) send the report to the location engine to allow the location engine collect more signal samples associated with the client device, thereby more accurately determine the location of the client device; etc.
US09445217B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an MTC device communication method, device, and system. A second network element receives, a query message sent by a first network element after the first network element identifies that a type of a received short message is a preset-type short message. The query message comprises an identifier of a receiver of the short message and an identifier of a sender of the short message. The second network element checks whether the sender is authorized to send the preset-type short message to the receiver. The second network element sends a message to the first network element indicating whether or not to send the short message to the receiver.
US09445213B2
A mobile device may include at least one processor configured to generate a first set and second set of processed audio signals for use in a surround sound system. The mobile device may also include at least one output port adapted to provide the first set of processed audio signals for use in the surround sound system to at least two speakers. The mobile device may also include an output port adapted to provide the second set of processed audio signals for use in the surround sound system to headphone speakers.
US09445202B1
The present disclosure relates to the field of acoustics, sound reproduction technologies, and the design principle of the loudspeaker, and more particularly, to an electroacoustic transducer having controlled ion generation. The electroacoustic transducer may include an anode having one or more discharge elements electronically connected to a first terminal of a voltage source, the one or more discharge elements of the anode having a first surface area configured to generate ions in conjunction with the connected voltage source. The electroacoustic transducer may also include a cathode having one or more discharge elements electronically connected to a second terminal of the voltage source, the one or more discharge elements of the cathode having a second surface area configured to generate ions in conjunction with the connected voltage source, wherein a ratio of the first surface area to the second surface area is greater than one.
US09445201B2
A dual coil transducer is provided that has a low profile construction. The transducer includes a voice coil disposed around a central region of the transducer, a diaphragm with flexible suspension extending generally outwardly from the central region and including an inner edge attached to the voice coil, where the diaphragm includes a concave surface, and at least one magnet assembly disposed forward of the concave surface, where the at least one magnet assembly defines at least two magnetic gaps disposed about the central region. The transducer will usually be mounted with the motor outside of the loudspeaker enclosure for best heat dissipation.
US09445200B2
The present disclosure relates to a piezoelectric speaker having a weight that enables a frequency response characteristic of the piezoelectric speaker to be uniform by disposing a weight of a flexible material on an acoustic diaphragm or on and below an acoustic diaphragm of the piezoelectric speaker, thereby enhancing flatness of sound. The piezoelectric speaker having the weight includes a piezoelectric device having a piezoelectric layer and an electrode formed on or on and below the piezoelectric layer to apply an electrical signal to the piezoelectric layer; an acoustic diaphragm having a wider area than the piezoelectric device and bonded on one surface of the piezoelectric device; a frame disposed in a form that surrounds a side surface of the acoustic diaphragm; and a weight disposed above the acoustic diaphragm or above and below the acoustic diaphragm on which the piezoelectric device is disposed to thereby control a vibration.
US09445193B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus. The apparatus includes a housing, electronic circuitry, and an audio-visual source tracking system. The electronic circuitry is in the housing. The audio-visual source tracking system includes a first video camera and an array of microphones. The first video camera and the array of microphones are attached to the housing. The audio-visual source tracking system is configured to receive video information from the first video camera. The audio-visual source tracking system is configured to capture audio information from the array of microphones at least partially in response to the video information. The audio-visual source tracking system might include a second video camera that is attached to the housing, wherein the first and second video cameras together estimate the beam orientation of the array of microphones.
US09445180B1
A headphone storage system that includes a headphone and a headphone storage device. The headphone includes a speaker, a cord and a plug. The cord extends from the speaker. The plug is attached to an end of the cord that is opposite the speaker. The headphone storage device includes a main body portion having a first end and a second end. The headphone storage device has a first aperture and a second aperture formed therein. The first aperture and the second aperture both permit the cord and the plug to pass therethrough.
US09445178B2
A cord management system includes a case and a strap. The strap has a first attachment point at a first location on the strap and a second attachment point a second location on the strap. The strap also includes at least two modes of operation. In a first mode of operation, the first attachment point is attached to the second attachment point so that a first segment of the strap located between the first attachment point and the second attachment point forms a loop configured to secure a cord that is wrapped around the case. In a second mode of operation, the first attachment point is detached from the second attachment point so that the first segment no longer forms the loop. In some embodiments, the strap is permanently attached to the case, while in other embodiments the strap is semi-permanently attached to the case.
US09445177B2
A hearing article having an acoustic decoupling section is provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a hearing article described herein includes a tether having a first end attached to a first hearing device, a first acoustic decoupling section proximate the first end, and a substantially straight intermediate section. The acoustic decoupling section comprises a predetermined shape.
US09445176B1
An earpiece apparatus for in-ear headphones, includes two shells, each having a speaker and an extending sound output hole, wherein at least one mounting hole is positioned on the outer surface of said shells, said mounting hole is not positioned opposite to said sound output hole, a vibrating structure is correspondingly positioned on said mounting hole, said vibrating structure contacts the earlap, said vibrating structure comprises a vibrating diaphragm and a flexible piece, said vibrating diaphragm is fixed on said flexible piece, said vibrating diaphragm is made of thin metal, plastic, or paper etc. membrane material, and said flexible piece is made of a soft material, and when the sound waves produced from said speaker vibrate within said shell, said flexible piece and said vibrating diaphragm vibrate accordingly along with the sound waves passing through.
US09445171B2
A sounder for use in mobile apparatus comprising an electronic signal generator and a electroacoustic transducer to generate an audible sound, wherein the sound comprises continuous repetitions of a pre-determined section of substantially broadband sound.
US09445166B2
A method may include determining, by a device, a wavelength identifier graph corresponding to an optical network based on a set of lightpath conflicts, for a set of optical signals, associated with a set of links and a set of nodes of the optical network. One or more optical signals may be associated with transmission via a super-channel. The method may further include selectively assigning, by the device, a wavelength identifier to an optical signal, of the set of optical signals, based on the wavelength identifier graph. The wavelength identifier being associated with a set of wavelength identifiers and corresponding to a wavelength of a set of wavelengths. The method may further include causing, by the device, the optical signal to utilize the wavelength, of the set of wavelengths, for transmission via the optical network.
US09445164B2
According to one embodiment, an existent person count estimation apparatus includes motion sensors and following units. The collection unit generates human sensing information. The instance prediction unit predicts second instances from the first instances by using the transition matrix. The likelihood calculation unit calculates likelihoods of the second instances using the time information items. The instance selection unit selects one or more third instances having likelihoods higher than a threshold. The output unit generates output information including estimate values of existent person counts for the first areas included in the third instances.
US09445158B2
A system and method are disclosed for enabling a distributed group of users to collaboratively select a media item for a collaborative playback session. In one embodiment, a distributed group of users for a collaborative playback session is formed, where the distributed group of users includes a number of users located at a number of geographically distributed user sites. Each user site includes one or more media controllers having access to media content and one or more renderers that operate to render the media content. A distributed aggregate guide that includes a listing of media content accessible to the media controllers at all of the user sites is generated and utilized by users at the user sites to suggest media items for the collaborative playback session. Based on the suggestions of the users, a media item for the collaborative playback session is selected.
US09445156B2
A method comprising: receiving, via a distribution channel, video data having an identifier that identifies a position within a video and an address defining a location of a stored playlist. The method also comprises obtaining from a server a playlist in response to a user input, where the playlist includes location information identifying a location of a stored transport stream. The method also comprises receiving the transport stream from the location identified in the playlist over a network, and displaying the obtained transport stream.
US09445154B2
First video showing content displayed on a touch sensitive screen is combined with second video from a camera showing a user's interaction with the touch sensitive screen. The second video is filtered (digitally or physically) to prevent the camera from capturing the content of the touch sensitive screen. Combining the first video with the second video creates a combined video containing both a high quality image of the graphic user interface of an application appearing on the touch sensitive screen as well as how a person operating the application is gesturing and otherwise touching the touch sensitive screen when interacting with the application.
US09445152B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program product for controlling distribution and processing of content-related metadata of different content sources (101-1 to 101-n), wherein extracted metadata are transformed at from a received format of the extracted metadata into a predetermined common format used by a recommender engine. Additionally or alternatively, it is checked for an overlap between a detected classification parameter and at least one stored classification parameter, and non-overlapping metadata is enriched by adding at least one new classification parameter derived from an ontology-based processing of the non-overlapping metadata.
US09445151B2
A receiving device such as a set-top box or mobile device alters video of a scene that is currently being displayed based on recognition or detection in real time of objects or actions shown in the scene. In some embodiments, those scenes or portions of those scenes in which objects or actions shown in the scene are associated with adult content or other undesirable content are blocked until such objects or actions are no longer detected. In other embodiments, advertisements or factual information may be displayed based on scene content while the scene is playing. This is performed dynamically in real time at the set-top box such that the altered video and items to display need not be inserted or integrated in the video upstream at the remote server or content provider before it reaches the set-top box.
US09445139B2
Embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to facilitating the discovery of authenticated content from a variety of sources. One embodiment provides a method comprising receiving a plurality of authentication tokens from the media presentation device, where each of the plurality of authentication tokens represents an established authenticated relationship between a user and a corresponding content source. The method further comprises receiving a request from the media presentation device for an electronic programming guide and sending the electronic programming guide to the media presentation device, where the electronic programming guide comprises a listing of content from a plurality of content sources corresponding to the plurality of authentication tokens.
US09445130B2
In one example, a method for encoding video data includes determining a first value for a line of a first plurality of lines, wherein the first plurality of lines are perpendicular to a first edge of a block of the video data; in response to determining that the value satisfies at least one threshold: determining a second value for the line of the first plurality of lines; and determining a second value for a line of a second plurality of lines, wherein the second plurality of lines are perpendicular to a second edge of the block of video data; determining, based on the second value for the line of the first plurality of lines and the second value for the line of the second plurality of lines, an average value; and determining, based on the average value, whether or not to encode one or more deblocking parameter offsets.
US09445125B2
Systems, devices, and methods for capturing and displaying picture data including picture orientation information are described. In one innovative aspect, a method for transmitting media information is provided. The method includes obtaining picture or video information, said picture or video information including image data and orientation information of a media capture unit when the picture or video information is obtained. The method further includes encoding said picture or video information, wherein the orientation information is included in a first portion and the image data is included in a second portion, the second portion being encoded and the first portion being distinct from the second portion. The method also includes transmitting the first portion and the second portion.
US09445108B1
To compress a document, a number of edges present in a selected portion of the document are counted to determine whether the number of edges exceeds a threshold. When the number of edges exceeds the threshold, a pixel is selected from the portion and a set of neighboring pixels is identified for the pixel. For each neighboring pixel in a subset of the neighboring pixels, a corresponding label of the neighboring pixel is identified. A mask layer contains labels of pixels in the portion where a label of the selected pixel is biased using labels of neighboring pixels in the subset of the neighboring pixels. The selected pixel is designated to a foreground or a background layer of the document according to the label of the selected pixel. A compressed document is constructed corresponding to the document using the mask layer, the foreground layer, and the background layer.
US09445095B1
Various methods, systems, and apparatuses can be used to remove uninteresting data from captured data prior to transmission of the captured data for analysis. In some implementations, a compression module is operable to modify capture data by replacing encrypted content with tags, and to compress the resulting modified data using various compression algorithms.
US09445094B2
An image coding method for an image coding apparatus configured to divide an image into divisional blocks of a plurality of sizes and to perform coding on the image while controlling image quality according to a parameter value in units of divisional blocks includes acquiring a block size of a target block to be coded, acquiring a minimum block size used to control the parameter value, acquiring a state of division of the target block, acquiring the parameter value, determining whether the target block is divided according to the state of division of the target block, determining whether the block size of the target block is greater than or equal to the minimum block size; determining whether the block size of the target block is equal to the minimum block size, and coding the acquired parameter value.
US09445093B2
A method for encoding transform coefficients in a video encoding process includes dividing a block of transform coefficients into a plurality of zones, determining a scan order for each of the plurality of zones, and performing a scan on each of the transform coefficients in each of the plurality of zones according to their respective determined scan order. In another example, a method for decoding transform coefficients in a video encoding process includes receiving a one-dimensional array of transform coefficients, determining a scan order for each of a plurality of sections of the one-dimensional array, wherein each section of the one-dimensional array corresponds to one of a plurality of zones defining a block of transform coefficients, and performing a scan on each of the transform coefficients in each of the section of the one dimensional array of zones according to their respective determined scan order.
US09445089B2
A video encoding device, which uses intra encoding and inter encoding with motion compensation with respect to an input video signal, includes a determination unit which determines whether the input video signal to be encoded corresponds to a stationary region, a region having minute motion, or a region having normal motion, a first encoding unit which performs inter encoding of a motion vector (0, 0) with respect to a region determined as a stationary region by the determination unit, a second encoding unit which performs motion search and inter encoding in a limited search range with respect to a region determined as a region having minute motion by the determination unit, and a third encoding unit which performs motion search and inter encoding in a normal search range with respect to a region determined as a region having normal motion by the determination unit.
US09445088B2
Video encoders and video decoders filter reconstructed video data in a video encoding and/or video decoding processes and, more particularly, may perform adaptive loop filtering. Instead of implementing region adaptive (RA) classification using a fixed set of regions, a variable number of regions in a picture can be used. Additionally or alternatively, a global set of filters can be signaled in a parameter set from an encoder to a decoder, but instead of selecting filters from the global set based on an RA classification or a block adaptive (BA) classification, a filter from the global set can be explicitly signaled, for a given block, using a filter ID associated with the filter.
US09445087B2
Included are embodiments for a color calibration device formed from a flexible, elongate strip of material that is formable into a headband. The color calibration device includes a first color correction region comprising a plurality of color chips and a second color correction region comprising a plurality of color chips, wherein the first color correction region and the second color correction region are positioned on opposite sides of a mid-point of the flexible, elongate strip of material.
US09445083B2
A system 8 for delivering stereoscopic images for viewing without 3-D glasses being required comprises a video display element 1, an image direction element 4, a front holder element 5, a rear holder element 3, and a resolution enhancement element 2. The video display element 1 outputs a plurality of left-eye images and a plurality of right-eye images. The image direction element 4 directs each left-eye image at a desired left-eye angle and directs each right-eye image at a desired right-eye angle. The front holder element 5 is movable relative to the rear holder element 3 to move the image direction element 4 to adjust each left-eye angle at which each left-eye image is directed and to adjust each right-eye angle at which each right-eye image is directed to suit each viewer. The resolution enhancement element 2 is modulated simultaneously with the image direction element 4.
US09445080B2
A stereo camera apparatus including an image capturing device, an optical axis controlling module and a calculating module is provided. The image capturing device is suitable for obtaining a stereo image, and the image capturing device includes a plurality of image capturing units. The optical axis controlling module is coupled to the image capturing device. The calculating module is coupled to the image capturing device and the optical axis controlling module, wherein the calculating module calculates a calibration condition according to the stereo image. The optical axis controlling module adjusts directions of imaging optical axes of the image capturing units. After being adjusted by the optical axis controlling modules, the imaging optical axes of the image capturing units are aligned. Besides, a self-calibration apparatus and a method of calibration are also provided.
US09445075B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus. A region of interest (ROI) configuration unit may generate a visual attention map according to a visual attention of a human in correspondence to an input three dimensional (3D) image. A disparity adjustment unit may adjust disparity information, included in the input 3D image, using the visual attention map. Using the disparity information adjusted result, a 3D image having a decreased visual fatigue may be generated and be displayed.
US09445068B2
An image processing apparatus includes a direction detection unit configured to detect a direction of a picture pattern of each picture in an input image having a predetermined color pixel array; a moire detection unit configured to detect a moire level by periodicity of a pixel value of each pixel in the input image depending on the direction as a moire index value; and a moire suppression unit configured to suppress the moire level in the input image based on the moire index value detected by the moire detection unit. A method thereof and a program therefor are also provided.
US09445064B2
A liquid crystal display device 10 includes a panel controller 50 and a backlight controller 51. The panel controller 50 drives a liquid crystal panel 11 such that one frame display period includes a red and blue display period and a green display period. In the red and blue display period, red pixels RPX and blue pixels BPX are selectively driven. The backlight controller drives a lighting device to turn on first magenta LEDs 17M1 and the first green LEDs 17G1 until scanning of at least red pixels RPX and blue pixels BPX included in a first area A1 is finished after starting of the scanning, after finishing of the scanning, turn on the first magenta LEDs 17M1 and turn off the first green LEDs 17G1 for at least a certain period until scanning of green pixels BPX included in the first area A1 for a next green display period is started.
US09445058B2
A method for processing video can include storing input video frame data at a video data buffer and outputting the stored video frame data from the video data buffer at an output video frame rate based on at least an amount of video frame data stored at the video data buffer.
US09445057B2
A vision system for a vehicle includes a camera disposed at a vehicle and having an image sensor and a lens. When the camera is disposed at the vehicle, the lens is exposed to the environment exterior the vehicle. The camera has an exterior field of view exterior the vehicle and is operable to capture image data representative of a scene occurring in the field of view of the camera. An image processor is operable to process multiple frames of image data captured by the camera, and wherein, responsive to processing multiple frames of captured image data, the image processor is operable to detect contaminants, such as water droplets or dirt, at the lens of the camera. Responsive to the image processor detecting contaminants at the lens of the camera, the vision system generates an alert and may trigger a function.
US09445052B2
Metadata associated with a first image and that specifies an alignment reference line for the first image is accessed. Based on the accessed metadata associated with the first image, a layout for concurrently displaying the first image and a second image at a location is defined that substantially aligns the alignment reference line of the first image with an aspect of the second image.
US09445049B2
Presented herein are techniques for detecting whether a presentation video stream in a conference call includes motion video. In an embodiment, this can be done by detecting the presence of audio. The presence of audio suggests that the presentation video stream may include motion video. If audio is not detected, then the presentation video stream is encoded at a first frame rate. If audio is detected, then the presentation video stream is encoded at a second, higher frame rate to accommodate the motion video. The higher frame rate allows for a better viewing experience by conference participants.
US09445046B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may capture images using a camera system at a location associated with a user, transmit video content representative of the images over a network for presentation by another media processor at another location, receive at a media processor media content and second video content representative of second images that are associated with the second user, and present at a display device of the location the media content and the second video content in a telepresence configuration that simulates a presence of the other user at the location, where at least one of the media content and the video content is presented as three dimensional content. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09445043B2
A method comprising: displaying a UI for display of received video; detecting selection of a UI button; receiving a plurality of drawing inputs while the button is selected, each drawing input defining image data to be applied at a facial position on a first side of a face of a user displayed in the received video; for each drawing input, determining a further facial position on a second side of the face, that is symmetrically opposite to the facial position; and for each received video frame, the method comprises: for each drawing input (i) determining a position of the face in the frame by executing an algorithm to determine the locations of the facial position and determined further facial position on the face in the frame; and (ii) applying the image data to the facial position and the determined further facial position; and displaying the modified frame in the UI.
US09445042B2
Several data streams contain video, audio and/or other data. Some of the data streams are pre-recorded in a multiplex on a storage medium while other data streams are located out of the data stream multiplex on the storage medium. The data streams are synchronized using a navigation file (List_of_PlayItems), which comprises descriptors (PlayItems, SubPlayItems) pointing to parts of said data streams, wherein said descriptors define the arrangement in time for said data streams by means of data sub stream paths.
US09445039B2
There has been a need for a technology for effectively realizing a narrow frame in a flat-screen display device including a speaker. A liquid crystal television is provided with SP bosses (30) for attaching a speaker unit (50) to a bottom cover (20) which also serves as an appearance part. In addition, the speaker unit (50) is arranged onto a backlight chassis (12) (rear side). By arranging the speaker unit (50) and anchoring with a screw (81) so as to cause fixation holes of SP fixation portions (53) and holes of the SP bosses (30) to coincide, the speaker unit (50) is fixed to the bottom cover (20).
US09445034B2
A method of processing video images is provided. The method includes reproducing 3-dimensional (3D) video images by generating left-eye video images and right-eye video images from a video stream, receiving a first command for activating a pop-up interactive graphics stream during the reproduction of the 3D video images, and reproducing 2-dimensional (2D) video images by generating either left-eye video images or right-eye video images from the video stream, in response to the first command for activating the pop-up interactive graphics stream.
US09445032B2
A host device, such as a television, automatically pairs with target devices, such as remote controls. There may be multiple host devices, and the host devices may exchange information that specifies valid, trusted, or authorized target devices, the signal level or range of signal levels at which the host device communicated with the target device, and other information. The host devices detect when a specific target device meets a transition criterion. Responsive to the transition criterion, a new host device automatically connects to the target device, and a prior host device that previously connected to the target device no longer responds to the target device.
US09445026B2
A solid-state image sensor comprising a pixel array in which a plurality of pixels are arrayed in a matrix having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, wherein the pixel array includes a first wiring layer and a second wiring layer arranged above the first wiring layer, the first wiring layer includes first column signal lines arranged at the respective columns of the pixel array, and the second wiring layer includes second column signal lines arranged at the respective columns of the pixel array.
US09445024B2
Provided is a solid-state image sensor including a pixel array portion formed from a two-dimensional array of ordinary imaging pixels each having a photoelectric conversion unit and configured to output an electric signal obtained through photoelectric conversion as a pixel signal, and focus detection pixels for detecting focus. The focus detection pixels include at least a first focus detection pixel and a second focus detection pixel each having a photoelectric conversion unit and configured to transfer and output an electric signal obtained through photoelectric conversion to an output node. The first focus detection pixel and the second focus detection pixel share the output node. The first focus detection pixel includes a first photoelectric conversion unit, and a first transfer gate for reading out an electron generated through photoelectric conversion in the first photoelectric conversion unit to the shared output node.
US09445017B2
There are provided a near-infrared cut filter that effectively uses near-infrared absorbing glass and a near-infrared absorbing dye and is excellent in a near-infrared shielding property, and a high-sensitivity solid-state imaging device including the same. A near-infrared cut filter includes: a near-infrared absorbing glass substrate made of CuO-containing fluorophosphate glass or CuO-containing phosphate glass; and a near-infrared absorbing layer containing a near-infrared absorbing dye (A) and a transparent resin (B), on at least one principal surface of the near-infrared absorbing glass substrate, wherein an average value of a transmittance in a 400 nm to 550 nm wavelength range is 80% or more, and an average value of a transmittance in a 650 nm to 720 nm wavelength range is 15% or less.
US09445016B2
A software program for creating features for use with a plurality of media objects in a sequence. The program comprises a feature component specifying a feature having parameters affecting at least one variable aspect of the feature. An indicator component identifies a position of the specified feature relative to the media objects in the sequence. The program comprises a sequence generator for modifying the specified feature by varying its parameters of the specified feature as a function of the position of the specified feature relative to the media objects and/or relative to other features in the sequence. The sequence generator also modifies the specified feature by varying its parameters of the feature as a function of the content of the media objects around it or to which it has been applied. A rendering component renders the specified feature according to the varied parameters at the identified position.
US09445015B2
Example methods and systems for adjusting sensor viewpoint to a virtual viewpoint are provided. An example method may involve receiving data from a first camera; receiving data from a second camera; transforming, from the first viewpoint to a virtual viewpoint within the device, frames in a first plurality of frames based on an offset from the first camera to the virtual viewpoint; determining, in a second plurality of frames, one or more features and a movement, relative to the second viewpoint, of the one or more features; and transforming, from the second viewpoint to the virtual viewpoint, the movement of the one or more features based on an offset from the second camera to the virtual viewpoint; adjusting the transformed frames of the virtual viewpoint by an amount that is proportional to the transformed movement; and providing for display the adjusted and transformed frames of the first plurality of frames.
US09445006B2
There is provided an image processing apparatus including a focused area judgment unit that judges a focused area in target image data, a distribution information generation unit that generates distribution information of an edge evaluation value with the focused area judged by the focused area judgment unit as a target, a threshold value setting unit that variably sets a threshold value for judging an emphasis display portion using the distribution information generated by the distribution information generation unit, and a display data generation unit that selects an emphasis display portion in the image data using the threshold value set by the threshold value setting unit and generates display data for displaying the selected portion with emphasis.
US09445005B2
An optical device capable of selecting a focus detection point from a plurality of focus detection points for focus detection, such that the selection is performed while causing a user's intention to be reflected thereon. The optical device performs focus detection at a focus detection point selected from focus detection points in a predetermined photographing range. A face area is detected from an object image in the photographing range. The line of sight of a user is detected in the photographing range. A photographing mode is selected from a plurality of photographing modes. The priorities of face detection and sight line detection are determined according to the selected photographing mode. A focus detection point at which the focus detection is performed is determined according to the priorities.
US09445002B2
An image processing apparatus obtains an image signal, which is captured by an image capturing apparatus, and in which respective pixels correspond to light fluxes of different combinations of pupil regions, where the light fluxes have passed through in an imaging optical system of the image capturing apparatus, and incident directions. The image processing apparatus sets a focal length corresponding to an object to be focused, and generates a reconstructed image focused on the object of the set focal length from the image signal. The image processing apparatus generates a moving image by concatenating a plurality of reconstructed images generated in association with a plurality of different focal lengths, and outputs the moving image in association with the image signals.
US09444990B2
The present disclosure provides a system and method of setting the focus of a digital image based on social relationship. In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a scene is imaged with an electronic device and a face present in the imaged scene is detected. An identity of an individual having the detected face is recognized by determining that the detected face is the face of an individual having a social relationship with the user of the electronic device. The focus of the image is set to focus on the face of the recognized individual.
US09444986B2
A remote control unit for an objective and a camera comprises a base part, an operating element movable relative to the base part, an evaluation and control unit for generating a control signal in accordance with the position of the operating element and an output device for outputting the control signal to an associated camera. The evaluation and control device is adapted to control a feedback device of the control unit in dependence on the position of the operating element to generate at least one feedback signal perceivable by a user.
US09444983B2
A photographing device comprises an assembling component, an image capturing component, a first annular fastener, a first stopping part and a second annular fastener. The assembling component comprises a hollow case, a protruding part, a first fastening part and a second fastening part. The hollow case has an inner surface, a first end and a second end. The protruding part is located at inner surface to form a supporting space together. The first fastening part and second fastening part are located at first end and second end, respectively. The image capturing component is located in supporting space. The first annular fastener has a third fastening part fastened to first fastening part and an annular abutting part. The first stopping part is connected to first annular fastener or first end. The second annular fastener has a fourth fastening part fastened to second fastening part and a second stopping part.
US09444982B2
The present invention discloses a surveillance camera, which comprises: a housing for accommodating substrate and internal components; the housing includes a base and an upper cover, the base is provided with a retaining ring at the periphery of its bottom and a plurality of bolt holes at its periphery in the circumferential direction, and the base is fixed firmly to the upper cover by bolts to form a cavity; for each of the bolt holes there is provided a guiding groove at its bottom end; each of the bolt holes is provided at one side with a gutter, which is connected with the guiding groove; the upper cover is also provided with gutter; the base is provided at its bottom with a mounting hole for installing a dehumidifying means, and at the periphery of the mounting hole there is a retainer, at the outer edge of which there is provided a guiding gutter, which is connected with the gutter of the base. The present invention enables water to be discharged from the housing via the gutter; even if some water enters the housing, it is difficult for water to enter the surveillance camera via the bolt hole. The present invention also discloses a housing of the surveillance camera.
US09444977B2
The present invention relates to method of adaptive noise measurement of a video signal comprising a sequence of images. The proposed method comprises the steps of searching one or more spatially uniform areas within a current image, determining a spatial uniformity value of said one or more spatially uniform areas and combining said spatial uniformity values to obtain a spatial noise value representing a first measure for the amount of noise in said current image, detecting motion by comparing the current image with one or more preceding images and/or one or more succeeding images of said sequence of images by use of a motion threshold to obtain one or more motion maps indicating the amount of motion between the current image and the respective preceding or succeeding image, searching one or more static areas within said one or more motion maps, determining a temporal uniformity value for said one or more static areas by comparing image values at positions in said one or more preceding images and/or said one or more succeeding images, at which a low amount or no motion is indicated in the respective one or more motion maps, said temporal uniformity value representing a measure for the amount of noise at said positions in said current image, and combining said obtained temporal uniformity values to obtain a combined noise value representing a second measure for the amount of noise in said current image.
US09444973B2
An image processing apparatus is provided which includes: an inputting unit configured to input image data including a first process color and a second process color; and a determining unit configured to determine a density of the second process color for a target pixel in the inputted image data on the basis of a density of the first process color in the target pixel and on a density of the second process color in a peripheral pixel of the target pixel.
US09444963B2
Provided is a non-transitory storage medium storing a printer driver and a printing method, which enable to improve print quality even if an original is extremely reduced for printing. A computer, which executes the printer driver to be used by application software for generating a print script to be printed by an MFP from the original in accordance with ability of the MFP, obtains a scale factor on the basis of a size of a recording medium to be printed by the MFP and a size of the original (S133), multiplying the scale factor obtained in S133 by an actual print resolution of the MFP so as to obtain a resolution to reply (S134), and reply the resolution to reply obtained in S134 to the application software in response to an inquiry about the ability from the application software (S135).
US09444941B2
Delivery of a text message and/or voice mail message may include identifying a recipient of the message, receiving a notification indicative of one of the subscriber's availability, the subscriber's presence and the subscriber's location, recording the message, selectively converting a voice mail message to a text message based on the notification, and delivering either the text message or the voice mail message to a device of the recipient based on the notification. The text message and/or voice mail message may be delivered via a map, wherein selection of a location on the map may retrieve the text message and/or voice mail message.
US09444930B2
The present invention relates to systems and methods for delivering telecommunications services to customers. The systems and methods allow for the rapid creation and deployment of new telecommunications services, and the bundling of multiple services into service packages that can be sold together as a single product. Based on the systems and methods, targeted service packages may be developed and marketed toward business customers in specific industries. The systems and method provide opportunities for new business arrangements between telecommunications service providers and smaller third party providers. The new business arrangements provide access to a much wider customer pool for the third party providers, and create new sources of revenue for telecoms.
US09444925B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided that enable a portable computing device to emulate a proximity card. A portable computing device is provided that includes an antenna, storage that stores an identification number, and a processor. The processor is configured to control modulation of the identification number onto a carrier signal received by the antenna from a proximity card reader device. In this manner, an applicable function may be enabled, and the portable computing device emulates a proximity card. The antenna may be specific to proximity card emulation, or may be shared with other portable computing device functions, such as wireless charging.
US09444923B1
A method of receiving and replying messages with a hands-free device includes a step of application installation; a step of connection; a step of communication; a step of analyzing the notification message; and a step of voice replying. With the method, text messages sent between mobile devices can be converted into voice messages, so that the user does not have to fetch the mobile device and read the text message, which improves the driving safety when communication is conducted during driving. The user also replies with voice message, which further improves drive safety. Furthermore, the method will prompt the message sending end to install an application program when there is no application program at the message sending end, consequently all potential contacts can be ensured to install the application program.
US09444921B2
A real loop and method for using the loop for testing sidetone signal level are provided. The loop is modeled from a coil of cable to represent a straight wire loop. Several conducting wires in a cable may be used. The cable may be configured in a coil and may have a first end and a second end exposed for electrical connections to an even number of wires. Each wire in the even number of wires may be capable of being identified as the same wire on each of the first and second ends of the cable. One or more pairs of wires in the even number of wires may be electrically connected to form an electrical loop. An electrical current passes in opposite directions in the wires in each pair of wires.
US09444916B2
Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable media for enhanced domain name system (DNS) caching are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method for enhanced DNS caching includes, at a mobile device for operating in a wireless network, providing, within the mobile device, a local DNS cache that stores DNS-related queries and their respective responses received from a DNS server for responding to DNS-related queries issued from applications hosted within the mobile device, where each response received from the DNS server is associated with a first time-to-live (TTL) value for that response, and assigning to each query/response pair in the local DNS cache a second TTL value that is larger than that response's first TTL value, where the second TTL value is used in place of the first TTL value.
US09444909B2
In a client-server environment providing hosted services, an application service server receives from a client a first request for hosted services associated with a user-specified domain name. If the server does not provide hosted services for that domain name, the server designates the first request as pending and provides a limited set of the hosted services in association with the first request. The server provides a complete set of the hosted services requested in the first request if it can be established that a first user associated with the first request has appropriate authority to make administrative changes for the network domain designated by the domain-name. In some embodiments, the server denies the first request and cancels the limited services if it is not shown within a predetermined period of time that the first user has the appropriate authority.
US09444907B2
A social networking system selects a subset of keywords from a set of master keywords found in user profiles. The method includes selecting a first and second group of user profiles including one or more keywords and computing the number of occurrences of each of the master keywords in the first and second group of profiles. A value may be computed for each of the master keywords based on a comparison of the number of occurrences in the first group of profiles and the number of occurrences in the second group of profiles. The computed value may be used for selecting the subset of keywords from the master keywords and/or ranking the master keywords.
US09444905B2
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for allocating network bandwidth to prefetch requests to prefetch data from a remote storage to cache in a local storage. A determination is made of access rates for applications accessing a plurality of files, wherein the access rate is based on a rate of application access of the file over a period of time. A determination is made of an access rate weight for each of the files based on the access rates of the plurality of files. The determined access rate weight for each of the files is used to determine network bandwidth to assign to access the files from the remote storage to store in the local storage.
US09444904B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing the data flow from a publisher entity to a consumption entity, which may be a user, system or device. The publisher entity generates and transmits entitled data to a content management server along with a set of permissions associated with the consumption entity for access to the data. Upon receiving a request for entitled data from a consumption entity, the content management server retrieves the requested data from a cache and transmits at least a subset of the cached data matching the consumption entity's permissions.
US09444899B2
Techniques for collecting information about client devices utilizing IIS logging in a secure and asynchronous manner are described. A method may comprise collecting information associated with one or more programs resident on a client device. A request is generated to access a webpage associated with one or more of the client devices where a query string, including at least a portion of the collected information, is attached to the request to access the webpage. The request to access the webpage along with the query string is sent to a server supporting the webpage for storage within an IIS log.
US09444889B1
A distributed system is adapted to manage the performance of distributed processes. In one aspect, multiple stripes associated with a data item are stored in a distributed storage. The stored stripes include one or more stripes of redundancy information for the data item. A distributed process including at least one task is performed. During performance of the distributed process, a determination is made as to whether to perform an accelerated data retrieval operation. Responsive to a determination to perform an accelerated data retrieval operation, at least one of the one or more stripes of redundancy information for the data item is requested from the distributed storage. Other stripes associated with the data item may also be requested from the distributed storage. After a sufficient subset of stripes associated with the data item is received, the data item is reconstructed using the subset.
US09444883B2
A server-based desktop-virtual machines architecture may be extended to a client machine. In one embodiment, a user desktop is remotely accessed from a client system. The remote desktop is generated by a first virtual machine running on a server system, which may comprise one or more server computers. During execution of the first virtual machine, writes to a corresponding virtual disk are directed to a delta disk file or redo log. A copy of the virtual disk is created on the client system. When a user decides to “check out” his or her desktop, the first virtual machine is terminated (if it is running) and a copy of the delta disk is created on the client system. Once the delta disk is present on the client system, a second virtual machine can be started on the client system using the virtual disk and delta disk to provide local access to the user's desktop at the client system. This allows the user to then access his or her desktop without being connected to a network.
US09444874B2
A device previously configured as a registrar and that has established an independent ad-hoc network is automatically discovered by another device also previously configured as a registrar. To form an ad-hoc wireless network between these two devices, each device periodically enters a scanning mode to scan for and intercept beacons transmitted by the other device. Upon such interception, one of the devices becomes an enrollee in accordance with a predefined condition and in response to a user selected option. Subsequently, the enrollee modifies its beacons to include an attribute, such as the MAC address, associated with the other device. After intercepting the modified beacon, the remaining registrar prompts it user to decide whether to allow the enrollee to join the registrar's network. If the user responds affirmatively, a handshake is performed between the two devices and a subsequent attempt is made by the enrollee to join the registrar's network.
US09444872B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide method, server and system for data sharing, and non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the system to perform the method for data sharing. The method includes establishing, according to a first webpage request of a first terminal, a long connection of communications with the first terminal; establishing, according to a second webpage request of a second terminal, long connection of communications with the second terminal, where the first and second webpage requests carry respectively first and second webpage identities; determining, according to the first and second webpage identities, whether the first and second terminals are shared terminals; and if the first and second terminals are the shared terminals, sharing data of the first terminal to the second terminal, and sharing data of the second terminal to the first terminal.
US09444871B2
A method and system for transmitting multimedia content from a server to a client device includes a source multimedia retriever to retrieve source multimedia content data. A transcoded multimedia retriever retrieves transcoded multimedia content data, the transcoded multimedia content data being a transcoded version of the source multimedia content, and the transcoded multimedia content data being time shifted with respect to the source multimedia content data. A data packet formulator formulates a data packet comprising the source multimedia content data and the time shifted transcoded multimedia content data. A data packet transmitter transmits the data packet from the server to the client device.
US09444865B2
Methods and apparatus relating to distribution of intelligence across a network are described. In one embodiment, one or more content processors may be provided at the edge of a computer network (e.g., prior to a point where data is aggregated or routed by the network). Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09444860B1
A method for checklist sharing. The method includes monitoring actions of a user on a computer device, identifying an action of the user, identifying a transaction record based on the action, identifying a checklist based on the transaction record, sending a notification of the checklist to the user, receiving, from the user, a download request to download the checklist, and providing the download of the checklist to the user.
US09444857B2
In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing instant social image cobrowsing through the cloud, including, for example, means for loading an application at the client device, the application displaying a graphical interface at the client device; receiving input at the graphical interface of the client device to initiate an instant share session; generating an action at the client device to request an instant share session; communicating the action from the client device to a remote host organization via a public Internet; receiving, at the client device, a pointer to a dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization responsive to communicating the action from the client device to the remote host organization; following the pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization communicably linking the client device with the host organization; and exchanging a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site. Other related embodiments are disclosed.
US09444856B2
A system and method for managing adjacent channels in an adaptive streaming environment. One or more adjacent channels may be defined for a client device relative to a current streaming channel, wherein the client device is configured to pre-fetch metadata and initialization information for the defined adjacent channels based on bandwidth conditions, buffer conditions, etc. When a channel is changed, the client device is operative to use the pre-fetched data to quickly obtain encoded media content for rendering.
US09444855B2
A particular method includes receiving a signal to invoke a central server-directed service from a first communication device at a session initiation protocol application device. The first communication device is coupled to at least one second communication device via a pathway of a half call model communication session. The method includes sending first instructions to the first communication device via the session initiation protocol device in response to the signal. The first instructions enable the first device to access the central server-directed service. The method also includes sending second instructions to the at least one second device via the session initiation protocol device in response to the signal. The second instructions enable the at least one second communication device to access the central server-directed service.
US09444849B2
Disclosed herein is a method for enforcing policy compliance on a device that includes detecting a compliance action associated with an electronic device. The compliance action initiates verification that the electronic device is in compliance with a policy. The method also includes sending configuration information for the electronic device to a compliance authenticator in response to the compliance action. The compliance authenticator verifies that the configuration information complies with a policy. Further, the method includes receiving an authentication certificate in response to the compliance authenticator verifying the configuration information complies with the policy. The authentication certificate expires after a predetermined period of time.
US09444848B2
Providing access to one or more resources to a user device. A method includes at a user device, registering with an identity service to obtain an identity credential. The method further includes at the user device, registering with a policy management service by presenting the identity credential. The method further includes at the user device, providing an indication of current state of the user device to the policy management service. The policy management service can then indicate to the identity service the compliance level of the user device. The method further includes the user device receiving a token from the identity service based on the policy management level of the user device as compared to a policy set.
US09444834B2
The invention discloses a method and system for detecting a behavior of remotely intruding into a computer, wherein the method comprises: monitoring a process creating event in a system; when a request for creating a process is monitored, intercepting the process creating request; by analyzing the process, an ancestor process of the process and a currently opened port, judging whether the process creating operation is normal; and if the process creating request is abnormal, determining the process creating request to be a behavior of remotely intruding into a computer. The invention can detect a remote intrusion behavior without the intervention of a user, and will not cause stored data to expand excessively.
US09444832B1
Systems and methods for optimizing an antivirus determination for executable files. Optimization by excluding from an antivirus check executable files such as dynamic libraries and/or resource files that do not contain executable code speeds up the overall antivirus determination. An optimization system generally includes an antivirus system. The antivirus system generally includes a check tool and an executable file detection system. The executable file detection system generally includes a breakdown tool, an analysis tool, and a database. The antivirus system can be operably coupled to an antivirus server via the Internet.
US09444821B2
An inspection system 1 having a plurality of network segments 2 includes: a management information acquiring unit 34 which acquires a node ID that a node 90 belonging to the network segment 2 can be identified and a segment ID that the network segment 2 to which the node 90 belongs can be identified; a management information accumulating unit 35 which accumulates the acquired node ID and segment ID in the way of being associated with each other; a cutoff determining unit 36 which determines whether the cutoff of the communications of the node 90 specified by the accumulated node ID and segment ID is required or not; and a communication cutoff unit 21 which cuts off the communications of the node 90 specified by the node ID in the case of determining that the cutoff of the communications of the node 90 is required.
US09444819B2
A secure tag generation service is associated with a cloud infrastructure. This service establishes a security context for a particular cloud tenant based on a tenant's security requirements, one or more cloud resource attributes, and the like. The security content is encoded into a data structure, such as a tag that uniquely identifies that security context. The tag is then encrypted. The encrypted tag is then propagated to one or more cloud management services, such as a logging service. When one or more cloud resources are then used, such use is associated with the encrypted security context tag. In this manner, the encrypted tag is used to monitor activities that are required to meet the security context. When it comes time to perform a security or compliance management task, any cloud system logs that reference the encrypted security context tag are correlated to generate a report for the security context.
US09444816B2
Disclosed is an apparatus, system, and method to continuously authenticate a user of a mobile device. The mobile device includes a user interface, a transceiver, a microphone, and processor. The processor continuously samples a user's voice from the microphone during a call by obtaining voice snippets on a pre-defined periodic basis or on a random basis. The processor further compares the sampled voice from the microphone to a stored voice to authenticate a valid user, wherein if the sampled voice matches the stored voice for a valid user, functionality of the mobile device continues. On the other hand, if the sampled voice does not match the stored voice for a valid user, functionality of the mobile device is locked.
US09444806B2
The disclosure relates to a method, apparatus and server for identity authentication, related to communication technique to solve system overload problem caused by invalid access ID attack. The method may include: a server receiving an API calling request from third party developer, the API calling request carrying access ID generated in advance by server and assigned to the third party developer; searching for a version character carried in the access ID; based on a version character generation rule, verifying whether the version number marked by the version character being the same as a version number of the check character generation rule used by the server; when the version character being verified successfully, searching for at least a check character carried in the access ID; and based on the check character generation rule, verifying respectively on the at least a check character. The disclosure is applied to API calling request process.
US09444804B2
A method of dynamically generating a security question for accessing a resource. The method comprises monitoring a behavior of said user during a monitoring period to identify automatically a deviation from a behavioral pattern indicative of repetitive behavior of a user, automatically generating a security question responded to by an indication of said deviation, receiving a user input inputted by a user in response to a presentation of said security question and said deviation, and authenticating, after said monitoring period, an access to a resource according to a match between said user input and said deviation.
US09444795B1
Computer systems, such as a client and a server operably interconnected via a network, are subject to stress on computational resources due to an abundance of automated-user traffic. To improve resource functionalities and control the resources available to automated-agents, value information of valuable assets is encrypted such that a client must perform an algorithm for calculating a decryption key in order to view the unencrypted content. Wherein the encryption is tuned in such a way that any computational delay caused by the encryption is imperceptible to a human-user and largely perceptible to an automated-agent such that the need to determine if a user is an automated-user or a human-user is irrelevant.
US09444790B2
A method and system providing remote access for threat removal to a computer system. A remote virtual private network (VPN) connection is established to an application on a remote computer utilizing a plug and play communications device having a trusted embedded component. The plug and play communications device is connectable to a first computer. Access is allowed to the first computer by the application on the remote computer using the VPN to perform threat removal operations on the first computer.
US09444783B2
A communication apparatus stores a first address in association with a second address of an apparatus which is targeted to permit or restrict processing of a received packet. The communication apparatus detects first and second addresses of a transmission apparatus which is a source of a packet received through a network, and if the detected first address of the transmission apparatus is stored, then the processing of the received packet is permitted or restricted. If the detected first address of the transmission apparatus is not stored in association with the second address of the transmission apparatus and the detected second address is stored, then the communication apparatus updates the stored first address with the detected first address.
US09444779B2
A request to resolve an IP address is received by a Domain Name Server (DNS). A record, such as an MX record, relating to the request is obtained that comprises a unique label (e.g. record=customer-com.mail.messaging.com) that is used in determining how to resolve the request. The unique label portion of the record (e.g. customer-com) is used to identify information relating to the request such as a version of software/service to use to handle the request, a region used to handle the request, and the like. The same record may be used to direct a request to a different version and/or different region. For example, without changing the record, a request at one time may access a first version/region and a request at a different time access a different version/region.
US09444777B2
A method and a processing system for routing a message request are provided in the present invention. Using the present invention, a message, which is returned by a party receiving the message request, is routed, according to a predefined designation, to a designated client, which is one of multiple simultaneous online clients sharing the identical user identifier, via a server, and therefore the requirements of the users are satisfied and the experiences of the users are improved.
US09444775B2
A user device may be configured to generate a multipart message (e.g., a multimedia messaging service (“MMS”) message). A message part of the multipart message may include conversation metadata that includes information regarding a messaging conversation between the user device and at least one other user device. The message part may include a multipart type indicator (e.g., a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (“MIME”) type indicator) that indicates that a type of the at least one part is a type associated with conversation metadata. The user device may output the multipart message to the other user device.
US09444769B1
Received PDU's, when inductively determined to be not aligned with a byte-stream payload, are stored within an intermediate dedicated buffer memory and then are read and further processed once alignment of further received PDU's has been derived and a whole PDU has been buffered. A PDU can then be read from the dedicated memory buffer and the PDU payload portion placed in the final destination buffer in system memory. Received PDU's when determined to be aligned with a byte-stream payload are placed in the final destination buffers in system memory, and when the PDU's arrive out-of-order are placed out of order in the final destination buffers.
US09444767B2
The present invention concerns a method and system for associating a device with a gateway, said gateway being designed to communicate firstly with the device via a communication network and secondly with another device referred to as the server. The method comprises a step of sending, by the server and to the gateway, of an authorization so that a device may be associated with this gateway.
US09444757B2
Described embodiments provide a method of updating configuration data of a network processor having one or more processing modules and a shared memory. A control processor of the network processor writes updated configuration data to the shared memory and sends a configuration update request to a configuration manager. The configuration update request corresponds to the updated configuration data. The configuration manager determines whether the configuration update request corresponds to settings of a given one of the processing modules. If the configuration update request corresponds to settings of a given one of the one or more processing modules, the configuration manager, sends one or more configuration operations to a destination one of the processing modules corresponding to the configuration update request and updated configuration data. The destination processing module updates one or more register values corresponding to configuration settings of the processing module with the corresponding updated configuration data.
US09444756B2
A network device monitors a path aggregation group. The network device may monitor path selection for network traffic (e.g., packets) communicated through the path aggregation group. During a monitoring period, the network device may obtain a path selection indication that a network packet has been selected for communication through the path aggregation group and specifically a first path in the path aggregation group. The network device may update a path entry associated with the first path in the path aggregation group.
US09444755B2
To provide a packet processing device that prevents a reduction in the efficiency of data communication. A packet processing device 100 estimates a time, which is taken until an acknowledgement corresponding to a packet is received after transmitting the packet to a client 30, as the round-trip delay time of the packet, determines the size of data that is divided into packets and is continuously transmitted to the client 30, and updates the transmission rate of packets transmitted to the client 30 according to the data size and the round-trip delay time.
US09444748B2
A method of performing congestion management in a network is provided. The method includes monitoring a congestion status at a switch in the network. It is determined at the switch that the congestion status indicates that there is congestion at the switch. Based on the congestion being related to data received at the switch from a source at a first rate, a first message is transmitted from the switch to the source requesting the source to send the data at a second rate that is slower than the first rate. Based on the congestion being related to data requests received at the switch from a destination at third rate, a second message is transmitted from the switch to the destination requesting the destination to request the data at a fourth rate slower than the third rate.
US09444746B2
In an embodiment, a transmitting UE is engaged with a target UE in a communication session supported at least in part via a QoS channel on which audio traffic is primarily carried and a non-QoS channel on which non-audio traffic is carried. The transmitting UE obtains audio data and non-audio data for transmission to the target UE during the communication session, and identifies a subset of higher-priority non-audio data within the obtained non-audio data. The transmitting UE transmits a stream of packets including both the audio data and the subset of higher-priority audio data over the QoS channel instead of the non-QoS channel based on the identification. The target UE receives the stream of packets on the QoS channel, and the target UE identifies and extracts the audio data and the higher-priority non-audio data. After extraction, the target UE plays the audio data and processes the higher-priority non-audio data.
US09444745B2
A first wireless access network node sets a data rate for communication of data between a second wireless access network node and a user equipment (UE) that is concurrently connected to the first wireless access network node and the second wireless access network node. The first wireless access network node sends information relating to the data rate to the second wireless access network node for use by the second wireless access network node in controlling data communication between the second wireless access network node and the UE.
US09444724B2
Provided is a router to acquire a content, even when accessibility to a server is impossible due to a network failure. The router comprises: a unit for storing content data included in a content reply message transmitted from a content server; a unit for, when the content server becomes unreachable, broadcasting, to other routers, an MBC setting request message configured to set guidance information in the other routers, the guidance information being used, when a content request message which requests the content server for the content data is transmitted from a content request node, to transfer the content request message to the own router; and a unit for replying a content reply message including the stored content data, when the content request message used to request the content server for the content data is transferred in accordance with the guidance information.
US09444715B2
The present disclosure describes methods and systems for providing and enforcing scalable federated policies for network-provided flow-based performance metrics. Due to different security concerns related to different domains, varying group policies can be applied to different domains to ensure proper sharing and receipt of flow-based performance metrics. Some policies can limit the type of performance metric being shared among the nodes in the domain. Some policies allow less information to be exposed by specifying aggregated performance metrics to be shared among the nodes in the domain. A group key management infrastructure can be provided to enforce these group policies in the network in a scalable manner.
US09444713B1
Methods and systems for a network device. The network device includes a temporary memory storage device having a plurality of storage locations that are used to store packets received by a plurality of sub-ports. The network device includes a cut-through estimation circuit that estimates a cut-through threshold value based on which a certain portion of a packet has to be received and stored at one of the plurality of storage locations before the packet can be processed by one of the sub-ports that received the frame. The cut-through threshold value varies based on an operating speed of a network link the packet is received on, an operating speed of a network link the packet is transmitted on, and a protocol used for receiving and transmitting the packet.
US09444710B1
An apparatus and method for scalable frame alignment in a high data-rate communications system. OTUk/ODUk frame alignment uses serial processing of a match vector, or serial processing of received OTUk/ODUk bytes to reduce the footprint occupied by the processing logic.
US09444709B2
The present invention relates to a BFD session negotiation method. The BFD session negotiation method includes: generating a first discriminator value, where the first discriminator value is unique in a local area network to which a local device belongs; generating a first BFD control packet, where the first BFD control packet includes the first discriminator value; and sending the first BFD control packet to a peer device, so that the peer device performs a session negotiation with the local device according to the first discriminator value.
US09444706B2
An activity associated with a digital medium may be detected. An interest of a user may be identified responsive to detecting the activity. The interest may be stored, and one or more online communities monitored for the interest to find content associated with the interest. The user may be notified of the content in a scalable manner to keep the user up-to-date with the interest.
US09444698B2
Computer-readable recording medium storing process for monitoring computer, its method and apparatus
For each group including a plurality of computers, a monitoring computer includes a storage storing a monitoring path which associates a monitoring-source computer that is an origin of monitoring with at least one computer that is both a monitored target and a monitoring source. When an instruction including specification information specifying a group is given, the monitoring computer references the monitoring path in the storage and distributes a monitoring path related to the group specified by the specification information to each computer belonging to the group specified by the specification information. The monitoring computer makes a request for the monitoring-source computer that is the origin of monitoring in the monitoring path to monitor another computer in conformity with the monitoring path.
US09444689B2
Improving a distributed network environment. A method includes determining physical element properties of physical elements in a virtualized network topology. The method further includes determining gateway placement on a first physical element of the virtualized network topology. The method further includes determining utilization of physical elements in the virtualized network topology. Based on the physical element properties, gateway placement, and utilization of physical elements in the virtualized network topology, the method further includes determining an improved virtualized network topology to improve use of physical elements in the virtualized network topology.
US09444685B2
A cloud configuration management method implemented in a cloud configuration management system communicatively coupled to one or more cloud nodes in a cloud system includes creating a plurality of golden configurations for each of a plurality of roles, wherein each of the one or more cloud nodes has one of the plurality of roles for operation in the cloud system; defining metadata rules for each of the plurality of golden configurations; performing a configuration analysis to audit the one or more cloud nodes using the metadata rules; and providing results of the configuration analysis to determine misconfiguration of any of the one or more cloud nodes.
US09444680B2
An aspect of this invention is a computer-executable method for distributing one or more features associated with information to be transported by a communications network that includes a plurality of end nodes interconnected via a plurality of network nodes. The method includes receiving one or more features associated with information to be transported by the communications network, wherein the one or more features are specified at an end node of the plurality of end nodes for receipt by a network node of the plurality of network nodes; responsive to the one or more received features, configuring at least a portion of the communications network to perform actions on information based upon the features; receiving the information using the plurality of network nodes; and based at least on the received features and the configuring, performing one or more actions with the information. Illustratively, the one or more actions comprise sending the information to one or more edge entity nodes in accordance with the configuring and the received features.
US09444678B2
Restoration devices in a cloud storage system are paired with source containers associated with a mainframe computer, and series of commands are generated based on the pairings to cause copies of data at the source containers to be stored to the restoration devices. A point-in-time copy of the copy of the data at the source containers may be stored to some restoration devices, and a second copy of the data may be stored to other restoration devices. The restoration devices may be reallocated from inactive source containers. Execution of the commands is monitored, and the commands are modified if the execution of the commands does not satisfy one or more desired conditions. For example, a cycle time associated with copying data to a restoration device may be measured, and if the cycle time exceeds a threshold, the command may be modified.
US09444662B2
In a contention avoidance control device and a contention avoidance control method for PWM output and A/D conversion, the change timings of PWM outputs are detected, and output of a received A/D conversion trigger to an A/D conversion circuit is inhibited within a predetermined time measured based on the change timings.
US09444658B2
The present invention relates to a method for scheduling users in a mobile or wireless radio communication system comprising a base station with a multiple antenna system and at least two users, said base station communicating with users using precoding weights at said multiple antenna system, an indication on precoding weights to be used for communication with a first user being sent by said first user on a feedback channel to said base station. According to the present invention, the method comprises the steps of: •Expressing said precoding weights used at said multiple antenna system as a combination of two types of precoding weights, a first type of precoding weights relating to long term channel information and a second type of precoding weights relating to short term channel changes; •Sending on said feedback channel from said first user an indication related to precoding weights of said first type which, if used at said multiple antenna system for communication with a second user, would cause interference below a threshold on said first user if both said first and second users were scheduled on identical resources.
US09444653B2
The invention provides a method filtering in a UE, comprising: estimating a channel and interference for a sub-frame from a cell-specific reference signal received from a serving cell, respectively; determining the sub-frame is a flexible sub-frame, the flexible sub-frame being configured for transmission of different directions for a serving cell and a neighboring cell respectively; and filtering the estimated channel for the flexible sub-frame with a first filtering function having at least one parameter different from that for a normal sub-frame, the normal sub-frame being configured for transmission of same directions for the serving cell and the neighboring cell. The invention also provides a UE using the above method as well as a computer readable recording medium comprising computer instructions for executing the above method.
US09444651B2
A network control system that includes a first set of network controllers for (i) receiving a logical control plane definition of a logical switching element that couples to both a first set of network hosts in a first domain and a second set of network hosts in a second domain, (ii) translating the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element into a first set of flow entries in a first logical forwarding plane, and (iii) translating the first set of flow entries into a second set of flow entries in a second logical forwarding plane. The network control system includes a second set of network controllers in the first domain for (i) receiving a portion of the second set of flow entries and (ii) translating the portion of the second set of flow entries into a third set of flow entries in a physical control plane.
US09444648B1
Functionality is described herein for presenting supplemental information. The functionality determines that a message includes a keyword and, based at least on the identified keyword, determines at least one item to recommend. The functionality annotates the message with an identifier of the recommended item, and responsive to activation of the identifier, presents the supplemental information regarding the item.
US09444647B2
A device sending electronic messages first verifies the intended recipient of the message by sending a message beacon (101) comprising data uniquely identifying the electronic message and the electronic address of the intended recipient of the message to a receiving device. The receiving device verifies that the intended recipient is serviced by the receiving device and then replies to the sending device returning the message beacon (102). The sending device thereafter sends the electronic message to the intended recipient (103). The receiving device may also reply to the sending device with a verification reply including data related to the intended recipient (108). Upon consideration of the data, the sending device may alter the electronic message prior to forwarding, forward the message or determine to withhold the message.
US09444645B2
A method for securing data assessing a probative value of document transfers. The identity of a recipient of a document is authenticated. The document is transmitted from a document sender to the recipient by processing the document processing. A probative value of the processing step is measured. The probative values of processing of the transmission are aggregated to provide a measure of the overall probative value of said document transmission. The overall probative value is associated with the transmission of the document. Also provided is a trusted third party network system for managing secure electronic correspondence which includes at least one application computer server handling a directory service for users of the system and a service for supplying the users with current correspondence accounts on the computer server.
US09444638B2
A core network node and method for use in a wireless system are provided. The method includes transmitting, by a core network node, one or more service data unit (SDUs) to a base station; and transmitting, by the core network node, a control message including respective length information of the one or more SDUs to the base station. The length information included in the control message is used by the base station for processing the one or more SDUs, and the control message is transmitted after the one or more SDUs are transmitted.
US09444634B2
Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for a miscabling detection protocol. One or more switches can periodically send miscabling protocol (MCP) packets on non-fabric ports on all configured EPG VLANs. A first switch located at a network fabric receives a miscabling protocol (MCP) packet indicating an identity of an originating switch and a port number of an originating port of the MCP packet via a receiving port on the first switch, wherein the MCP packet is received from an external network connected to the receiving port, and wherein the originating switch and originating port are also located at the network fabric and connected to the external network. Based on the MCP packet, the first switch then detects a loop between the receiving port, the originating port, and the external network. Next, the first switch blocks the receiving port or the originating port in response to detecting the loop.
US09444633B2
A method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for providing power over Ethernet are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The apparatus and method for providing power over Ethernet includes a first device that receives power from a computer. A second device may be in communication with the first device using a wired section of the Ethernet. The first device provides electrical power to operate the second device using the wired section of the Ethernet. One method for providing power over a data network may include determining availability of a power injector. A determination may be made whether a connected device is capable of receiving power over Ethernet. If the connected device is capable of receiving power over the Ethernet, electrical power may be provided from the power injector to the connected device.
US09444624B2
In particular embodiments, a user associated with a user account wishes to utilize their computing device to facilitate authentication of their identity. The user may provide a device key to an online system hosting the user account, wherein the device key uniquely identifies their computing device. The device key may be based on a device identifier encoded in hardware of the computing device. The online system may then store the device key in association with the user account. Subsequently, if an action related to the online system requires authentication, the user may be asked to provide authentication using their computing device. The user generates an authentication code using their device, which can be entered by the user into a user interface for comparison against an authentication code generated using the device key stored by the online system.
US09444623B2
A processing device, such as logic on an integrated circuit may identify a cryptographic message stored in a first register. The processing device may determine a plurality of components for a second power of the cryptographic message using a plurality of components of the cryptographic message. The processing device may determine the plurality of components for the second power of the cryptographic message without storing the entire second power of the cryptographic message. Further, the processing device may determine a third power of the cryptographic message using modular arithmetic. The processing device may determine the third power by transforming the plurality of components for the second power of the cryptographic message and the plurality of components of the cryptographic message.
US09444618B1
Circuits and methods are disclosed for defending against attacks on ring oscillator-based physically unclonable functions (RO PUFs). A control circuit that is coupled to the RO PUF is configured to detect out-of-tolerance operation of the RO PUF. In response to detecting out-of-tolerance operation of the RO PUF, the control circuit disables the RO PUF, and in response to detecting in-tolerance operation, the control circuit enables the RO PUF.
US09444615B2
A circuit for reducing jitter in a digital signal is provided, comprising a clock and data recovery stage operative to receive an input data signal and generate in response thereto a recovered data signal, a recovered clock signal, and an unfiltered interpolator code; a filter stage operative to receive the unfiltered interpolator code and generate in response thereto a filtered clock signal; and a memory component operative to receive the recovered data signal, the recovered clock signal, and the filtered clock signal; sample the recovered data signal using the recovered clock signal; store the resulting sampled bits; and generate an output data signal by selecting stored bits using the filtered clock signal.
US09444607B2
A method and an apparatus for protecting a primary service as an unlicensed device in a regulatory domain where a licensed device and the unlicensed device are permitted to operate are disclosed. For protecting a primary service by a station as an unlicensed device in a regulatory domain where a licensed device and the unlicensed device are permitted to operate, the unlicensed device acquires a list of identified available channels for the operation of the unlicensed device and maximum allowed transmission powers of the identified available channels from a regulatory domain database system; generates a white space map (WSM) comprising the list of identified available channels and the maximum allowed transmission powers of the identified available channels; updates the WSM when the station acquires information that a primary service signal is detected on a specific channel which is indicated as available in the WSM; and transmits the updated WSM to another station such that the another station moves to another channel if the another station is operating on the specific channel.
US09444604B2
A communication system includes a data sending terminal which sends data and a data receiving terminal which sends an acknowledgement, which indicates that the data is received, to the data sending terminal in reply to receiving the data, and the data receiving terminal includes a unit which judges whether it is necessary to resend the acknowledgement on the basis of judgment whether the data receiving terminal receives new data from the data sending terminal within a predetermined time since sending the acknowledgement.
US09444603B2
A method and apparatus are described for a User Equipment (UE) to transmit in a control channel ACKnowledgement signals associated with a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest process (HARQ-ACK signals) in response to receiving Transport Blocks (TBs) transmitted from a base station. The UE conveys the HARQ-ACK information by selecting one resource from multiple resources in the control channel and by selecting a constellation point of the modulation scheme for the HARQ-ACK signal. Transmission diversity is supported using different control channel resources that are already available to the UE without configuring additional resources. Design principles are described to optimally map the HARQ-ACK information to control channel resources and modulation constellation points for a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system and for a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system.
US09444598B2
In one embodiment, a device (e.g., a transmitter) determines a level of error protection of each bit position within symbols of a particular constellation map used for modulation-based communication, and also determines priority levels of application data bits to be placed into a communication frame. Application data bits may then be placed into symbols of the communication frame, where higher priority application data bits are placed into bit positions with greater or equal levels of protection than bit positions into which lower priority application data bits are placed. The communication frame may then be transmitted to one or more receivers with an indication of how to decode the placement of the application data bits within the symbols. In another embodiment, the particular constellation map may be dynamically selected from a plurality of available constellation maps, such as based on communication channel conditions and/or applications generating the data.
US09444593B2
A transmitter for transmitting signals to a receiver is provided. The transmitter generates a padded code sequence including a plurality of symbols with the last symbol being a duplication of the first symbol, and transmit the padded code sequence with the symbols therein respectively corresponding to a plurality of first sub-carriers to the receiver via an air interface using a first antenna in a time period. Also, the transmitter duplicates the padded code sequence and transmits the duplicated padded code sequence with the symbols therein respectively corresponding to a plurality of second sub-carriers to the receiver via the air interface using a second antenna in the time period.
US09444592B2
According to one embodiment, a method for transmitting an uplink signal includes transmitting the uplink signal including a block of data symbols. The block of data symbols are mapped to at least two sets of subcarrier blocks. Each data symbol of the block of data symbols is mapped to one of subcarriers of the at least two sets of subcarrier blocks. The at least two sets of subcarrier blocks are not contiguous in frequency. The block of data symbols are mapped in sequence starting with a first data symbol to the at least two sets of subcarrier blocks and in increasing order of subcarrier index.
US09444589B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided that facilitate puncturing codeblocks in resource blocks for muting or transmitting signals of a disparate technology such that the puncturing similarly impacts the codeblocks. Codeblocks can be mapped in order across frequency in a given data symbol before moving to a next data symbol. In this regard, utilizing data resource elements substantially evenly spaced across frequency and across data symbols in a data resource block for transmitting signals of the disparate technology can substantially equalize impact of the puncturing to related codeblocks. In addition, resources can be allocated to legacy devices, devices with bandwidth, data rate, or quality of service requirements, devices of a certain rank or geometry, etc., based at least in part on the puncturing. Moreover, a modulation and coding scheme can be selected for generating codeblocks based at least in part on the puncturing and its effect on performance.
US09444582B2
A transmitter for broadcasting data in a broadcasting system that improves the decoding quality, if needed, comprises a data input, and an encoder for error correction code encoding the input data words into codewords, a codeword comprising a basic codeword portion and an auxiliary codeword portion, wherein said encoder is adapted for generating said basic codeword portion from an input data word according to a first code and for generating said auxiliary codeword portion from an input data word according to a second code, said basic codeword portion being provided for regular decoding and said auxiliary codeword portion being provided as incremental redundancy if regular decoding of the codeword by use of the basic codeword portion is erroneous. Further, the transmitter comprises a data mapper for mapping the codewords onto frames of a transmitter output data stream, and a transmitter unit for transmitting said transmitter output data stream.
US09444577B1
A bi-directionally calibrated beamforming technique for use in a MIMO wireless communication system includes a transmitter communicating a calibration initiation signal to a receiver requesting the receiver send a non-sounding packet containing an estimated description of the forward channel. The receiver also sends a sounding packet to the transmitter. The transmitter determining a partial or full estimated description of a reverse channel based on the received non-sounding packet and/or the receiving sounding packet. The transmitter further determines one or more transmitter correction matrices from receiving estimated description of the forward channel and the partial or full estimated description of the reverse channel. The transmitter sending the partial or full estimated description of the reverse channel to the receiver, which determines one or more receiver correction matrices.
US09444557B2
There are provided a terminal device, a base station device, a communication method, an integrated circuit, and a wireless communication system that enable a base station device and a terminal device to determine parameters related to uplink signals or uplink reference signals and to perform efficient communication. In a terminal device that transmits a demodulation reference signal, a sequence group number is determined on the basis of a value of a parameter configured by a higher layer in a case where a transmission on a physical uplink shared channel is performed in accordance with a downlink control information format to which CRC parity bits scrambled by a C-RNTI are attached, which is transmitted on an enhanced physical downlink control channel, and the sequence group number is determined on the basis of a physical layer cell identity in a case where a transmission on the physical uplink shared channel is performed in accordance with a downlink control information format to which CRC parity bits scrambled by a Temporary C-RNTI are attached, which is transmitted on a physical downlink control channel.
US09444553B2
The invention provides a tunable coherent optical receiver and a related method wherein the receiver uses low-frequency trace-tone modulation of optical WDM channels at transmission as channel IDs in order to detect which optical channels are present in the received optical WDM signal. The receiver than discriminates between the thereby detected optical channels by tuning a local oscillator to one of the received optical channels as determined based on the presence of the low-frequency tones in the received optical signal.
US09444548B1
The present invention is an improved method of processing conglomerate data. The method employs a Triband Wavelet Transform that decomposes and decimates the conglomerate signal to obtain a final result. The invention may be employed to improve performance of Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry systems.
US09444547B2
In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a self-identifying optical transmitter for broadcasting a one-way authentication code using light-based communication. The transmitter may include a memory for storing an identifier of the transmitter, a processor for generating a data signal including an identifier of the transmitter, a modulator for receiving the data signal and generating an electrical signal, the modular generating the electrical signal by modulating the data signal. The transmitter may also include a light source for receiving the electrical signal, converting the electrical signal into an optical signal, and continuously broadcasting the optical signal as an optical data transmission stream. The optical data transmission stream may be used to verify that a receiving mobile device is near the transmitter. The transmitter may also include an optical surface for dispersing the optical data transmission stream as the optical data transmission stream is emitted from the transmitter.
US09444543B2
A system is disclosed that includes a first interface port, a second interface port, a signal splitter device, a main booster, and a front-end booster. The signal splitter device may include first, second, and third splitter ports. The signal splitter device may be configured such that a first direction signal received at either of the second and third splitter ports is output at the first splitter port and a second direction signal that is received at the first splitter port is output at each of the second and third splitter ports. The main booster may include main first and second direction amplification paths that are each communicatively coupled between the first splitter port and the first interface port. The front-end booster may include front-end first and second direction amplification paths that are each communicatively coupled between the second splitter port and the second interface port.
US09444538B2
The radio communication system includes: a transmitter that transmits a first polarized signal and a second polarized signal to a receiver and terminates the transmission of the second polarized signal in accordance with an instruction from the receiver; and the receiver that receives the polarized signal from the transmitter, determines whether or not a reception quality of the second polarized signal becomes lower than a threshold value, and issues an instruction to the transmitter to terminate transmission of the second polarized signal to the transmitter when the reception quality becomes less than the threshold value.
US09444534B2
A system is configured to perform Spatial Division Multiple Access. The system includes at least one transmitter or receiver capable of polarization alignment. The transmitter includes a baseband precoder configured to precode a signal, an array of sub-array antennas and a plurality of radio frequency (RF) chains. Each RF chain is coupled to a respective antenna sub-array of the array of antennas. The transmitter is configured to perform a method that includes precoding, by a baseband precoder, a signal for spatial division multiple access (SDMA). The method also includes applying, by each of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) chains, a phase shift and beamforming weight to the signal and transmitting the phase shifted and weighted signal by an array of sub-array antennas.
US09444528B2
Idle mobile devices are used as cooperating devices to support coordinated multipoint transmission and reception for uplink and downlink communications between a primary mobile device and its serving base station. For uplink communications, the cooperating mobile devices receive the uplink transmission from the primary mobile device and retransmit the received data signal to the serving base station for the primary mobile device. For downlink communications, the cooperating mobile devices receive the downlink transmission from the serving base station and retransmit the received data signal to the primary mobile device.
US09444522B2
Described herein are techniques related to near field coupling and proximity sensing operations. For example, a proximity sensor uses a coil antenna that is utilized for near field communications (NFC) functions. The proximity sensor may be integrated into an NFC module to form a single module.
US09444520B2
Described herein are improved configurations for a wireless power converter that includes at least one receiving magnetic resonator configured to capture electrical energy received wirelessly through a first oscillating magnetic field characterized by a first plurality of parameters, and at least one transferring magnetic resonator configured to generate a second oscillating magnetic field characterized by a second plurality of parameters different from the first plurality of parameters, wherein the electrical energy from the at least one receiving magnetic resonator is used to energize the at least one transferring magnetic resonator to generate the second oscillating magnetic field.
US09444519B2
The present technology relates to a communication device, a control method, and a program which enable reliable selection of a desired target. A CLF transmits a polling command received from a NFC reader for selecting a candidate of a final target to targets, selects the candidate of the final target, by setting a P2P application as a target having the highest priority in the selection of the candidate of the final target, selects the final target based on a command other than the polling command received from the NFC reader, and controls to lower the priority of the P2P application, in a case where the P2P application is selected as the candidate of the final target and the P2P application is not selected as the final target. The present technology can be applied to a communication device supporting an NFC standard, for example.
US09444515B2
An 8.1 nJ/bit 2.4 GHz receiver with integrated digital baseband supporting Q-QPSK DSSS modulation compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is presented that targets short-range, Internet of Things applications (IoTs). The sensitivity of a wireless communication receiver in general trades with power consumption. This receiver exploits this tradeoff to achieve a total power consumption of 2.02 mW including ADCs and digital baseband processing, at a sensitivity of −52.5 dBm at 250 Kbps. The energy-efficiency of the radio frequency (RF) front-end alone is nearly two times better than the prior art. The receiver was fabricated in 65 nm CMOS with an area of 0.86 mm2.
US09444513B2
Embodiments of the present invention, relating to the field of communications technologies, provide a communication method and device used for a time division duplex system. The communication method includes: adjusting a first uplink-downlink subframe configuration to a second uplink-downlink subframe configuration, where there is an intersection between subframes corresponding to the second uplink-downlink subframe configuration and subframes corresponding to the first uplink-downlink subframe configuration, where the intersection is a set of subframes having a same subframe index and a same subframe type, and the intersection includes at least one uplink subframe and at least one downlink subframe; and communicating, by the user equipment, according to a timing relationship same as a timing relationship corresponding to the first uplink-downlink subframe configuration, with the base station in the at least one uplink subframe and the at least one downlink subframe comprised in the intersection.
US09444509B2
An on-package interface. A first set of single-ended transmitter circuits on a first die. The transmitter circuits are impedance matched and have no equalization. A first set of single-ended receiver circuits on a second die. The receiver circuits have no termination and no equalization. A plurality of conductive lines couple the first set of transmitter circuits and the first set of receiver circuits. The lengths of the plurality of conductive lines are matched.
US09444505B2
A system and method for frequency reuse for wireless point-to-point backhaul. Frequency reuse is enabled through the cancellation of interfering signals generated by interference sources. In one embodiment, a conventional dish antenna is complemented with one or more additional auxiliary antennas (e.g., isotropic). The one or more additional auxiliary antennas enable cancellation of interfering signals whose direction of arrival (DOA) is off the dish antenna's bore-sight.
US09444501B1
Radio frequency (RF) transmitters and methods of their operation are disclosed. An exemplary RF transmitter includes an RF power amplifier (RFPA), a dynamic power supply (DPS), and a baseband processing unit. The baseband processing unit generates an amplitude modulation (AM) signal that the DPS follows to generate a DPS voltage VDD(t). The DPS voltage VDD(t) serves as a power supply for an output stage of the RFPA. Under most operating conditions the output stage is configured to operate in a compressed mode (C-mode), but is reconfigured to operate in a product mode (or “P-mode) during times low-magnitude events in the AM signal are conveyed to the DPS and become present in the DPS voltage VDD(t) produced by the DPS. Operating the output stage in P-mode overcomes the inability of C-mode operation to reproduce low-magnitude events contained in the AM signal at the RF output of the RFPA.
US09444498B2
A transceiver circuit including a digital-to-analog converter, a filter coupled to the digital-to-analog converter, a passive mixer coupled to the filter, via a buffer and a multi-stage power amplifier coupled to the passive mixer via a passive amplifier. A transmitter and method for amplifying a RF signal for transmission are also provided.
US09444490B2
A method of operating a data compression circuit includes receiving and storing a plurality of data blocks until a cache is full and writing the data blocks that have been stored in the cache to a buffer memory when the cache is full. The method also includes performing forced literal/literal encoding on each of the data blocks regardless of repetitiveness of each data block when the cache is full.
US09444471B2
A phase detector for generating a phase difference signal indicative of a phase difference between a first bi-level signal of frequency F1 and a second bi-level signal of frequency F2 is proposed. The phase detector may include first and second detector inputs, first and second flip-flops, a NAND gate, and a first and second overphase detection units. An output of the first overphase detection unit may be connected to a direct input of the second flip-flop and may be arranged to output the level “1” in response to F1≦F2 and the level “0” in response to F1>F2. An output of the second overphase detection unit may be connected to a direct input of the first flip-flop and may be arranged to output the level “1” in response to F2≦F1 and the level “0” in response to F2>F1.
US09444465B1
A low phase noise frequency divider suitable for use in phase locked loops (PLL) and frequency synthesizers, particular in a fractional-N PLL system having an N frequency divider with a main (M) counter and an auxiliary (A) counter. In some user selectable cases, the count value CM for the M counter is fixed and only the count value CA for the A counter is varied. Having a fixed CM value results in lower phase noise in most cases. For cases where it is not possible to vary CM, then CM is allowed to vary in a conventional manner to retain a full range of functionality.
US09444463B2
A method for voltage level shifting comprises several steps. A data signal in a first voltage domain is received by a voltage level shifter. The received data signal is shifted to a second voltage domain by the voltage level shifter, where the voltage level shifter is configured as a function of the shifted data signal. The shifted data signal is outputted.
US09444459B2
The logic circuit includes an input terminal, an output terminal, a main logic circuit portion that is electrically connected to the input terminal and the output terminal, and a switching element electrically connected to the input terminal and the main logic circuit portion. Further, a first terminal of the switching element is electrically connected to the input terminal, a second terminal of the switching element is electrically connected to a gate of at least one transistor included in the main logic circuit portion, and the switching element is a transistor in which a leakage current in an off state per micrometer of channel width is lower than or equal to 1×10−17 A.
US09444455B2
A data storage device includes a signal source. A load is responsive to the signal source. A method includes adjusting an impedance of the load to reduce an impedance mismatch between the signal source and the load.
US09444454B2
In a keyboard of the type including a key cap and a capacitive sensor disposed underneath the key cap, a method including operating the capacitive sensor in a first mode configured for near field detection and generating a first variable capacitance, and operating the capacitive sensor in a second mode configured for far field detection and generating a second variable capacitance. The method further includes determining key motion based on the first variable capacitance and determining finger presence based on the second variable capacitance.
US09444452B2
Apparatuses and methods of frequency hopping algorithms are described. One method listens to a noise level on multiple electrodes of a sense network at multiple operating frequencies. The method then selects one of the frequencies with a lowest noise level for scanning the electrodes to detect a conductive object proximate to the electrodes.
US09444433B2
A novel and useful wideband FM demodulator operating across an 8 GHz IF bandwidth for application in low-power, wideband heterodyne receivers. The demodulator includes an n-stage ring oscillator that is injection locked to a wideband input signal. Locking to the input frequency, it divides the FM deviation by n, thereby facilitating as well as reducing the energy required for wideband demodulation. The quadrature-phased output of the ring oscillator is phase correlated using a low-power folded CMOS mixer capable of detecting FM up to 400 Mb/s over a 2-10 GHz IF frequency range.
US09444415B2
This disclosure relates generally to power amplification devices and methods of operating the same. The power amplification devices are capable of reducing (and possibly cancelling) modulation of a ripple variation of a supply voltage level of a supply voltage onto a radio frequency (RF) signal. In one embodiment, a power amplification device includes a power amplification circuit configured to amplify an RF signal with a supply voltage such that a ripple variation in a supply voltage level of the supply voltage is modulated onto the RF signal in accordance with a conversion gain. However, the power amplification device also includes a plurality of ripple rejection circuits. The plurality of ripple rejection circuits is configured to produce phase shifts and one or more amplitude shifts in the RF signal so as to reduce the conversion gain of the power amplification circuit.
US09444407B2
Power supply circuitry, which includes a parallel amplifier and a parallel amplifier power supply, is disclosed. The power supply circuitry operates in either an average power tracking mode or an envelope tracking mode. The parallel amplifier power supply provides a parallel amplifier power supply signal. The parallel amplifier regulates an envelope power supply voltage based on an envelope power supply control signal using the parallel amplifier power supply signal, which provides power for amplification. During the envelope tracking mode, the envelope power supply voltage at least partially tracks an envelope of an RF transmit signal and the parallel amplifier power supply signal at least partially tracks the envelope power supply control signal. During the average power tracking mode, the envelope power supply voltage does not track the envelope of the RF transmit signal.
US09444404B2
This document discusses, among other things, apparatus and methods for a front-end charge amplifier. In certain examples, a front-end charge amplifier for a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device can include a charge amplifier configured to couple to the MEMS device and to provide sense information of a proof mass of the MEMS device, a feedback circuit configured to receive the sense information and to provide feedback to an input of the charge amplifier, and wherein the charge amplifier includes a transfer function having a first pole at a first frequency, a second pole at a second frequency, and one zero at a third frequency.
US09444402B2
Provided is an amplifier with a test oscillator for a high frequency characteristic monitor, which has small power loss in a normal operation state and secures good noise performance while it is possible to equip both a transmitter IC and a receiver IC with the amplifier. In a high frequency IC including an amplifier including an inductive load and a test oscillator arranged in a same chip, the test oscillator commonly uses the inductive load of the amplifier, the amplifier has a bias voltage terminal to switch an operation state into an active state/inactive state, and the oscillator has a bias voltage terminal to switch an operation state into an active state/inactive state. In a test operation mode, the amplifier is inactivated and the test oscillator is activated and in a normal operation mode, the amplifier is activated and the test oscillator is inactivated.
US09444398B2
A semiconductor structure and a fabricating process for the same are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a micro battery cell coupled to a solar cell by a semiconductor fabricating process.
US09444391B2
A protective method is provided against torque peaks between a motor adapted for setting a shaft of the motor into rotation and an electric source adapted for electrically powering an electric assembly and including a fixed section and a rotating adapted for rotating with the shaft. The method includes a step for controlling the operation of the electric source forcing the rotary movement of the rotating section with the shaft to observe an instruction relating to the torque of the rotating section applied to the shaft of the motor, the instruction being adapted depending on at least one element characterizing a current operating state of the motor.
US09444368B2
A method performed in a power bridge (3) comprising multiple arms (B1, B2, Bi, Bn). Each arm comprises upper and lower semiconductor switches arranged in series and connected in parallel to first and second terminals (B+, B−) of a common voltage source (2). The mid-point of the arm is connected to a phase of an electrical load (1). The aforementioned switches are controlled complementarily by pulses having a duty factor set value (RC1, RC2, RCi, RCn) determined as a function of a first phase voltage set value (V1, V2, Vi, Vn) in relation to a reference terminal of the electrical load (1) and of a common-mode voltage (V0) in relation to one of the first or second terminals, such as to control the switching losses of the switches. The common-mode voltage (V0) is determined such as to balance switching losses and conduction losses between the switches.
US09444367B2
A method and apparatus for providing AC power. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a cycloconverter controller for determining a DC value based on a reference waveform and a three-phase cycloconverter, coupled to the cycloconverter controller, for selectively coupling, based on the DC value, an alternating current to an AC line to generate a single-phase AC output.
US09444355B2
A method and apparatus for controlling power conversion. In one embodiment, the method comprises computing a ratio based on both voltage and charge pertaining to power conversion in a resonant converter; comparing the ratio to a threshold; and controlling, independent of switching frequency of the resonant converter, power output from the resonant converter based on whether the ratio satisfies the threshold.
US09444351B2
A normally-off bidirectional switch having two gates is connected to a transformer. The transformer has a first winding and a second winding. A first gate bias power supply configured to use power generated at the first winding to supply power for driving one of the gates of the bidirectional switch and a second gate bias power supply configured to use power generated at the second winding to supply power for driving the other gate of the bidirectional switch are provided.
US09444342B2
A hysteretic mode control circuit within a DC-to-DC converter is configured for varying the current limit that controls the switching interval and duration of a power switching section of the DC-to-DC converter to permit the DC-to-DC converter to manage large changes in output current load of the DC-to-DC converter. The hysteretic mode control circuit has a positive and a negative current limit section that develop a first and a second reference signal for turning on and turning off the first and the second switching device. The first and second reference signals are compared to an output voltage of the power switching section to determine if the first switching device or the second switching device is to be turned on or turned off.
US09444339B2
A DC-DC converter, adapted to control a converting circuit to convert an input voltage into an output voltage, is disclosed. The converting circuit comprises a switch module and an LC filter, the switch module is coupled to the input voltage, and the LC filter is coupled to the switch module and provides the output voltage. The DC-DC converter comprises a system control circuit, a driver circuit, and an output voltage adjusting circuit. The system control circuit generates a switch control signal according to a reference voltage and a state of the LC filter. The driver circuit controls the switch module according to the switch control signal for adjusting the output voltage in response to the reference voltage. The output voltage adjusting circuit determines whether adjusting the output voltage toward a predetermined adjusting voltage according to an adjusting reference voltage and a detecting voltage indicative of the output voltage.
US09444337B2
To provide a DCDC converter achieving low power consumption. A clock generation circuit, an error amplifier, a comparator, and a timer are included in a control circuit. The clock generation circuit, the error amplifier, and the comparator each include a bias circuit and a potential hold portion for intermittently holding a constant potential generated in the bias circuit. The potential hold portion includes a capacitor and a switch. The on or off of the switch is intermittently controlled using the timer. Even in a period in which the supply of voltage is stopped, a signal based on a constant potential generated in the bias circuit is continuously output.
US09444329B2
A voltage converter device converts an input signal having a given input voltage value into an output signal having an output voltage different from the input voltage. The device comprises a main module, arranged between an input terminal and a first circuit node, The device is adapted to output at the first circuit node a pulse-width-modulated signal switching between a first voltage value and a second voltage value, defining a switching range, by switching successively between a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation. The switching range of the pulse width modulation has an amplitude, calculated as the absolute difference between the first and the second voltage value, inferior or equal to half the input voltage.
US09444326B2
A SEPIC-type voltage converter for converting an input voltage supplied by a power supply into an output voltage comprises an inductive component comprising primary and secondary windings, an output capacitor for delivering power to a load by way of an output node, an AC coupling capacitor, a first rectifier for rectifying the output voltage, and a switch for periodically switching between an ON state in which the primary winding is energized by the power supply and in which the secondary winding is energized by the coupling capacitor, and an OFF state in which the output capacitor is charged by both the primary winding and the secondary winding. A second rectifier is connected in series with the secondary winding and the secondary winding is inductively coupled to the primary winding such that the secondary winding is influenced by changes in the voltage applied across the primary winding by the power supply.
US09444323B2
An electrical power conversion system having a harmonic distortion limiter. The power conversion system includes a power converter having a power input, a power output, a current measurement output signal, and a control signal input. The system further includes a controller having a voltage control subsystem arranged to measure a voltage present at the power output of the power converter and generate a corresponding current reference signal. A current control subsystem of the controller is arranged to receive the current reference signal and the current measurement output signal and generate a corresponding modulation command signal, the modulation command signal of the controller being electrically coupled to the control signal input of the power converter. The power converter is responsive to the modulation command signal to limit harmonic distortion at the power output of the power converter.
US09444321B2
In one embodiment, a zero-crossing detection circuit can include: (i) a first detection circuit configured to detect a current through a main transistor of a main circuit of a switching power supply, and to generate a voltage sense signal that represents the current through the main transistor; (ii) a second detection circuit configured to detect if quasi-resonance occurs in the main circuit, the second detection circuit being configured to generate at least one pulse signal when the quasi-resonance is detected; and (iii) a control circuit configured to receive the at least one pulse signal and the voltage sense signal, to turn the main transistor off when the current through the main transistor reaches a predetermined value, and to turn the main transistor on when the at least one pulse signal is active.
US09444316B2
The method for extraction or introduction of a rotor (4) from or into a stator (2) of an electric machine (1) includes removing the fan blades (20) from the seats (19) of the rotor shaft (26), connecting a first guide (16) into the seats (19) of the removed fan blades (20), connecting a second guide (23) to the stator or to an element fixed to the stator (2), extracting or inserting the rotor (4) by sliding the first guide (16) on the second guide (23).
US09444315B2
An arrangement apparatus and an arrangement method of allowing gripping devices to grip electrical conductors by using inexpensive, simple, and small-sized configurations. A stator manufacturing apparatus for arranging coil elements in a ring shape includes: a plurality of gripping devices that are arranged in a ring shape and grip coil elements; robot arms that supply the coil elements to the gripping devices; and a turntable that integrally rotates the plurality of gripping devices. According to this, the gripping devices are rotated by the turntable is aligned in a ring shape, and thus, the coil elements are supplied to the arrangement points by the robot arms and the plurality of coil elements can be aligned in a ring shape while gripped by the gripping devices.
US09444311B2
Provided is an electric driving device including an electric motor (1), and a control device (20) arranged on an axis line of a rotation shaft (2) of the electric motor, for controlling the electric motor. The electric motor includes a motor terminal (13) extending toward the control device in parallel to a direction of the axis line of the rotation shaft, and a slit (13a) is formed at an end portion of the motor terminal on the control device side. The control device includes a motor connection terminal (34) formed on an extension line of the motor terminal and connected to the motor terminal. The slit of the motor terminal is press-fitted and fixed to the motor connection terminal, and an insulating member (33) for holding the motor connection terminal is fixed to the heat sink (35).
US09444307B2
A variable speed switch includes a switch main body portion which is accommodated in a housing of an electric power tool and mounted to the housing so as to be capable of relative movement, and a load sensor which is provided in the switch main body portion and capable of outputting an electric signal in proportion to the amount of distortion caused by a pressing force. The switch operating portion is mounted on the surface of the housing so as to be capable of relative displacement with respect to the housing and transmits a pressing force applied to the switch operating portion to the load sensor, with the maximum displacement amount of the switch operating portion being set to equal to or less than 5 mm.
US09444306B2
A variable flux electric starter motor includes a frame, an armature rotatably mounted within the frame, and a primary field mounted to the frame. The primary field includes a plurality of primary windings electrically connected one to another. A relay is electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of poles. A supplemental field is mounted to the frame. The supplemental field includes a supplemental winding electrically connected in parallel to the plurality of primary windings.
US09444291B2
An electromagnetic drive mechanism (10) comprises a rotor (50) configured to rotate within a stator (30). The rotor (50) and stator (30) have multiple poles (56, 36), wherein each pole comprises a radial inner portion (564, 362) and a radial outer portion (562, 364). The radial inner portions (564, 362) and radial outer portions (562, 364) of the rotor (50) and stator (30) have different heights, forming a step (566, 366) between the radial inner and outer portions of the rotor (50) and stator (30). This configuration allows for overlapping radial surfaces in addition to overlapping axial surfaces during operation of the drive mechanism (10), thereby increasing the total overlap area and thus the reluctance torque, and potentially improving response speed while allowing for a more compact device (10).
US09444290B2
A circuit for signal decoding in RFID or wireless power charging is provided in the present invention. The implement of the present invention is to add a current sense resistor connected to an upper switch or a lower switch the up arm switch or low arm switch to decode the signal on the current sense resistor. Since the error would occur in the original voltage decoder of the wireless power or RFID when the load is heavy and voltage signal swing is large, such that the charge status and then the off-line status cyclically occur and then the charge status . . . occurs in cycle when the mobile device is charging under charge. Since the present invention uses the voltage and current for decoding at the same time, the decoding would be succeed whenever the load is light or heavy.
US09444288B2
If a failure has occurred on the backbone-power-transmission-network side, i.e., the electric-power system, and if the power supply to a power-distributing/transforming substation is stopped, a power-distributing feeder is cut off from the electric-power system. Moreover, a monitor/control apparatus transmits a single-operation-permitting permission signal to a distributed power-source system which is connected to the cut-off power-distributing feeder. Here, the distributed power-source system supplies its power to the power-distributing feeder only during a time-interval in which the system is receiving the permission signal. A general load and an important load, which are connected to the power-distributing feeder, find it possible to continue their activities by taking advantage of this power.
US09444285B2
A charge controller is used for a vehicle equipped with a rotating machine, a main battery for storing electrical power supplied to the rotating machine, a power storage device, and a solar power generator. The charge controller includes a power converter, a first charging section, a step-up section, and a second charging section. The power converter is interposed between the solar power generator and the storage device. The first charging section controls the power converter to store electrical power generated by the solar power generator in the storage device. The step-up section steps up and outputs the power stored in the power storage device to the main battery. The second charging section controls the step-up section to charge the main battery with the power stored in the power storage device.
US09444279B1
Methods and systems for implementing wireless charging identification using a sensor are described. A device platform operating a device, such as a mobile electronic device, may be configured to determine that the device is in wireless communication with a charging surface by receiving and analyzing information from sensors. A battery or another entity associated with the device may receive a charge wirelessly from the charging surface through induction or another means. The device platform may determine if an orientation of the device relative to the charging surface has changed depending on the state of the charging process. In some examples, the device platform may use information from an accelerometer, gyroscope, or magnetometer to determine whether the device has moved. Based on whether the orientation of the device has changed relative to the charging surface, the device platform may be configured to provide feedback through one or more systems, such as audible notifications.
US09444274B2
A method of detection and display of charging information of power bank is provided and used when a mobile electronic device is charged by a power bank via a charging transmission device. The method of detection and display of charging information of power bank includes an information acquisition step, an integrating and computing step, and an information output step. In the information acquisition step, a power bank parameter information and a device parameter information are provided based on a choice. The power bank parameter information and the device parameter information are transmitted to a computing module of a process unit of the mobile electronic device. In an integrating and computing step, a charging information is produced after the power bank parameter information and the device parameter information are integrated or computed. In an information output step, the charging information is transmitted to a display element of the mobile electronic device.
US09444270B2
Systems and methods are disclosed that enable power regulation during wireless power transfer, such as during magnetic resonance (MR) charging of one or more devices from a power transfer device, by applying a cascading charging mechanism that includes identifying a priority order of charging of each of the one or more devices to allocate wirelessly transmitted power to the one or more devices.
US09444260B2
An energy management controller for controlling and limiting the time during which high current draws may be made by one or more of a plurality of single serve coffee brewers that are commonly connected to the same circuit and which include heater constructions that require and draw high power at certain times during operation, and require and draw lower power at other times. It includes one controller board, connected to the primary brewer to complete a circuit, and which board includes heat and wait timer functions to monitor the power status usage with respect to all of the brewers.
US09444254B2
A boost device is coupled to a compensation device that is configured to be connected to a power system. The boost device includes multiple portions, each of the multiple portions including at least one electrical element, and a solid-state switching device electrically connected to the at least one electrical element. The solid-state switching device is connected in parallel with the at least one electrical element such that closing the solid-state switching substantially prevents current flow to the at least one electrical element.
US09444242B2
A cable reel can improve transfer of power and data between a static frame and a cable wound around a rotatable element. The cable reel can use torsional springs to store mechanical energy and also to electrically couple the cable to a node within the static frame. This electrical coupling can be used to pass power. The cable reel can use a data transfer apparatus to transfer data between the frame and the cable. This apparatus may comprise two capacitive plates that together form a capacitor, one connected to the frame and one connected to the rotatable element. Alternatively, this apparatus may comprise an optically isolated zone in which an optical transmitter may communicate data to an optical receiver over free-space optical communications. The data can be transferred without physical contact between the frame and rotatable element, even while the rotatable element may rotate relative to the static frame.
US09444241B2
The present disclosure relates to a track structure capable of supplying power, which comprises a track module, a first conducting module, a second conducting module, at least a sliding module, a first electrical transmission module, and a second electrical transmission module. Each track module is provided for disposing an electronic device. The electronic device slides along the track module via the sliding module. The first electrical transmission module is connected to the electronic device, and a first electrode and a second electrode of the sliding module. The first and second electrodes contact the first and second conducting modules, respectively. The second electrical transmission module is connected to the first and second conducing modules and connected to a power supply. The power supply supplies power and transmit the power to the electronic device through the track structure.
US09444238B1
An electrical wiring device includes a device housing that has a front cover having a user-accessible portion having at least one set of receptacle openings formed therein. The housing also includes a back body having a major rear surface. A mounting strap includes a central strap portion. A stabilization structure includes a plurality of shutter stabilization elements coupled to the central strap portion and disposed in a substantially balanced array around the central strap portion. The plurality of shutter stabilization elements extends through the back body to form a three-dimensional reinforcing structure that rigidly interconnects the user-accessible portion and the major rear surface.
US09444227B2
A spark gap arrangement includes a discharge chamber, an electrode head and a contact connection arranged outside the discharge chamber. The electrode head is electrically conductively connected and mechanically coupled to the contact connection in such a way that, when the contact connection is removed from its position or when the contact connection reaches a preset position, the electrically conductive connection is interrupted, and the electrode head is mechanically decoupled from the contact connection so that the electrode head is movable in the direction of the discharge chamber interior and/or within the discharge chamber.
US09444208B2
A compatible apparatus for an SIM card and a related terminal are disclosed. The compatible apparatus includes: a second card slot and a first card slot rotatably connected to the second card slot; wherein a card insertion area with parallel metal elastic pins is arranged in the second card slot; a first SIM card is inserted into fillets on both sides of the first card slot, and when the first card slot is snapped on the second card slot, the first SIM card contacts with the metal elastic pins; and an elastic stop apparatus matched with a second SIM card is arranged outside of the card insertion area in the second card slot, the elastic stop apparatus is for arranging the second SIM card, and when the first card slot is snapped on the second card slot, the second SIM card contacts with the metal elastic pins.
US09444206B2
A connector structure for attaching a hand microphone to a voice recorder 11 includes a recorder-side connector, a pre-load applying member and an operation ring. The pre-load applying member applies a pre-load by pushing a rear end of a connector housing of a mikeside connector while the mikeside connector is joined to the recorder-side connector. The position of the pre-load applying member is adjustable in the axial direction of the recorder-side connector by means of the operation ring, so as to apply a proper pre-load to the mikeside connector, thereby stabilizing the joint regardless of variations in axial length of the mikeside connector. As using no coil spring, the connector structure does not provide repulsion during the attaching operation.
US09444205B2
An electric connector includes a connector body and a conductor base attached to the connector body. A plurality of contact arms extend from the conductor base away from the connector body and are located around a central space. The electric connector also includes a pin attached to the connector body and located in the central space.
US09444199B2
Provided is a female connector for high-speed transmission with grounding, including a case, an insulating body, and an upper terminal group and a lower terminal group disposed in the insulating body. The insulating body is disposed in the case. A shielding sheet is disposed in the insulating body. A contact part directly processed from the shielding sheet is disposed on a portion of the shielding sheet, wherein the portion corresponds to the ground terminals of the upper terminal group and the lower terminal group. The contact part is physically and electrically connected to the ground terminals. The upper terminal group and/or the lower terminal group at least includes a high frequency terminal pair, wherein the thickness of a contact portion of the high frequency terminal pair is less than the thickness of a portion adjacent to the contact portion.
US09444195B1
The new PCIE-OCuLink cable end connector can include terminals, a plastic part, a rear cover, an iron shell and a PCB. These terminals are divided into two groups. Each of the two groups snaps onto one and the other side of the plastic part symmetrically, forming an assembly. The rear cover is snapped into firm connection with the iron shell such that the assembly is accommodated within the interior space formed by them. The PCB and the rear ends of the terminals mate and insert with each other. With the two side pieces wrapping their middle portions, the terminals are pressed into the main body, and each side piece is tightly clamped within a respective clamping groove at the same time. Each terminal includes a root portion.
US09444191B2
A shielded plug connector for use with a cable having a plurality of conductors surrounded by a shield braid has an electrically nonconductive contact support and an electrically conductive shield sleeve surrounding the contact support. Respective contact members at ends of the electrical conductors are held in the shield sleeve. An electrically conductive one-piece shield shell extends from the shield braid at an end of the cable to the contact support surrounded by the shield sleeve in electrical contact with the shield sleeve and is formed along the cable with a throughgoing slot so as to be radially compressible. A compression ring or the like compresses the shield shell inward at the slot against the cable and the shield braid thereof.
US09444185B2
A guide device that guides a component terminal includes: a guide portion configured to guide the component terminal to a specified position; and a separating mechanism portion configured to move the guide portion away from the component terminal after the guidance of the component terminal, as compared with before the guidance of the above component terminal.
US09444180B2
Disclosed is a connector strain relief assembly comprising: a connector adapter having a first connector adapter end configured to fit over an electrical connector, and a second connector adapter end having a substantially spherical shape; a cable adapter having a first cable adapter end configured to fit over an electrical cable, and a second cable adapter end having a substantially spherical shape; and, a ball-joint connector having a link socket end and a link ball end attached to the connector adapter and to the cable adapter.
US09444162B1
A dual in-line memory module (DIMM) connector system is provided. The DIMM connector system includes a motherboard, a DIMM card and a connector by which the DIMM card is coupled with the motherboard. The motherboard includes a printed circuit board (PCB) formed of a mid-loss dielectric constant material, signal pads that are thinner than ground pads, ground pads disposed proximate to signal pads, signal vias connected to distal edges of signal pads and shared antipads. The DIMM card includes a printed circuit board (PCB) formed of a mid-loss dielectric constant material, signal pads that are thinner than ground pads, signal vias connected to distal edges of signal pads and shared antipads for respective pairs of signal vias.
US09444140B2
Multiple transmit antenna beam formers include/share a same set of power amplifiers and antenna elements to form multiple concurrent transmit antenna beams. Multiple receive antenna beam formers include/share a same set of antenna elements and low noise amplifiers to form multiple concurrent receive antenna beams. A transceiver includes the multiple transmit antenna beam formers and the multiple receive antenna beam formers, where the multiple transmit and receive beam formers include/share the same set of antenna elements. The transmit antenna beam formers and the receive antenna beam formers are configured to transmit, receive, and operate in the millimeter wave frequency band.
US09444137B2
A handheld device including a ground plane, a first antenna element and a second antenna element is provided. The ground plane includes a short edge and a first long edge adjacent to each other to form a first corner. The first antenna element is opposite to the short edge of the ground plane. The second antenna element is opposite to the first long edge of the ground plane and includes a first radiation portion. An end of the first radiation portion is electrically connected to the first long edge and adjacent to the first corner. The handheld device uses the second antenna element to adjust an equivalent ground plane length of the first antenna element.
US09444113B2
The invention aims to reduce degradation of the power generation performance of a fuel cell during a prolonged high load operation with high effectiveness. A fuel cell vehicle correlates the dryness of an electrolyte membrane to the cell temperature, while performing power generation control of a fuel cell based on a power demand for a driving motor. When the cell temperature exceeds a first temperature α that indicates the increased dryness of the electrolyte membrane, the fuel cell vehicle intermittently repeats temporary current increase control that shifts the operation state of the fuel cell to the state of an increased electric current and a decreased voltage in a time period t, in order to increase the amount of water production on a cathode.
US09444111B2
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a control valve and a controller. The fuel cell is configured to receive anode gas and cathode gas to generate electric power. The control valve is configured to control pressure of the anode gas being fed to the fuel cell through an anode flow channel. The controller controls the control valve to periodically increase and decrease the pressure of the anode gas flowing through the anode flow channel in an area downstream of the control valve. The controller sets an anode pressure differential value for the anode gas resulting from periodic increasing and decreasing of the pressure of the anode gas based on a requested fuel cell output. The controller determines a quantity of liquid in the anode flow channel. The controller decreases the anode pressure differential value that was set based on the requested fuel cell output.
US09444110B2
A system and method for operating fuel cell power plant 10 includes enclosing fuel bearing components, such as fuel cell stack 28 and reformer 24, into a fuel compartment 12 separate from motorized components in a motor compartment 14, and consuming leaked fuel in the fuel compartment 12 using a fuel bearing component such as cell stack 28 and/or burner 26, thereby reducing fuel emissions from the plant.
US09444107B2
A method of making an electrode ink containing nanostructured catalyst elements is described. The method comprises providing an electrocatalyst decal comprising a carrying substrate having a nanostructured thin catalytic layer thereon, the nanostructure thin catalytic layer comprising nanostructured catalyst elements; providing a transfer substrate with an adhesive thereon; transferring the nanostructured thin catalytic layer from the carrying substrate to the transfer substrate; removing the nanostructured catalyst elements from the transfer substrate; providing an electrode ink solvent; and dispersing the nanostructured catalyst elements in the electrode ink solvent. Electrode inks, coated substrates, and membrane electrode assemblies made from the method are also described.
US09444098B2
A positive active material including: a lithium-containing oxide, and a lithium-intercalatable phosphate compound disposed on the lithium-containing oxide.
US09444091B2
The approaches and apparatuses for fabricating cathodes can be adapted to improve control over cathode composition and to better accommodate batteries of any shape and their assembly. For example, a first solid having an alkali metal halide, a second solid having a transition metal, and a third solid having an alkali metal aluminum halide are combined into a mixture. The mixture can be heated in a vacuum to a temperature that is greater than or equal to the melting point of the third solid. When the third solid is substantially molten liquid, the mixture is compressed into a desired cathode shape and then cooled to solidify the mixture in the desired cathode shape.
US09444086B2
According to one embodiment, a battery unit includes a first cell unit, a second cell unit and a third cell unit arranged adjacent to the first cell unit, respectively. Each cell unit includes a plurality of secondary battery cells, and the respective secondary battery cells are formed of a main body of a substantially rectangular solid shape and a pair of first and second electrodes of different polarities each other pulled out from one end of the main body. A first bus bar connects the first electrodes of the first cell unit and the second electrodes of the second cell unit in a first line, and a second bus bar connects the second electrodes of the first cell unit and the first electrodes of the third cell unit in a second line.
US09444073B2
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a polymer layer is formed on a second electrode of an organic light emitting display device.
US09444068B2
A transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode for an organic light emitting diode (OLED) has a first layer of a crystalline material and a second layer of an amorphous material. The material of the second layer can include one or more dopant materials.
US09444066B2
An organic electroluminescent device and organic electroluminescent display device having enhanced efficiency are discussed. In one example, the organic electroluminescent device includes first and second electrodes facing each other on a substrate and at least two emission layers formed between the first and second electrodes and realizing blue light, wherein, among the emission layers, a first blue emission layer close to the first electrode includes a first blue dopant having a different maximum luminescence wavelength than that of a second blue dopant of a second blue emission layer close to the second electrode.
US09444063B2
To increase emission efficiency of a fluorescent light-emitting element by efficiently utilizing a triplet exciton generated in a light-emitting layer. The light-emitting layer of the light-emitting element includes at least a host material and a guest material. The triplet exciton generated from the host material in the light-emitting layer is changed to a singlet exciton by triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA). The guest material (fluorescent dopant) is made to emit light by energy transfer from the singlet exciton. Thus, the emission efficiency of the light-emitting element is improved.
US09444060B2
Disclosed are semiconducting or conducting organic small molecules and oligomers that contain a central, electron rich, functionalized dihydrodicyclopentylanthracene core (or electron donor core) that is connected to at least one or two comparatively electron deficient monomeric unit or units (or electron acceptor units) that feature group 16 heteroatoms sulfur, selenium or tellurium or combinations thereof. Multiple electron rich cores can be linked together through one or more alkynyl linkages. The small molecules and oligomers can have the following generic structure and can be used in areas such as organic photovoltaic materials:
US09444054B2
A compound for an organic optoelectronic device is represented by the following Chemical Formula 1:
US09444043B2
Embodiments disclosed herein may relate to forming a storage component comprising a phase change material and a shunt relative to amorphous portions of the phase change material.
US09444041B2
A memory device and a method of making the same are presented. The memory device includes a substrate and a memory cell formed on the substrate. The memory cell includes a single transistor. The single transistor includes a first gate on the substrate which functions as a control gate and a second gate embedded in the substrate which functions as a select gate.
US09444028B2
Systems and methods are operable to generate electric power from heat. An exemplary direct thermal electric converter embodiment includes at least a first recombination material having a first recombination rate, a second recombination material adjacent to the first recombination material and having a second recombination rate, wherein the second recombination rate is different from the first recombination rate, and a third recombination material adjacent to the second recombination material and having a third recombination rate substantially the same as the first recombination rate. Application of heat generates at least first charge carriers that migrate between the first recombination material and the second recombination material, and generates at least second charge carriers that migrate between the third recombination material and the second recombination material. The migration of the first charge carriers and the migration of the second charge carriers generates an electrical current.
US09444022B2
An optoelectronic semiconductor chip includes a semiconductor body that emits primary light, and a luminescence conversion element that emits secondary light by wavelength conversion of at least part of the primary light, wherein the luminescence conversion element has a first lamina fixed to a first partial region of an outer surface of the semiconductor body, the outer surface emitting primary light, and leaves free a second partial region of the outer surface, the luminescence conversion element has a second lamina fixed to a surface of the first lamina facing away from the semiconductor body and spaced apart from the semiconductor body, the first lamina is at least partly transmissive to the primary radiation, a section of the second lamina covers at least the second partial region, and at least the section of the second lamina is designed to be absorbent and/or reflective and/or scattering for the primary radiation.
US09444020B2
A highly reliable light-emitting device and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. A light-emitting element and a terminal electrode are formed over an element formation substrate; a first substrate having an opening is formed over the light-emitting element and the terminal electrode with a bonding layer provided therebetween; an embedded layer is formed in the opening; a transfer substrate is formed over the first substrate and the embedded layer; the element formation substrate is separated; a second substrate is formed under the light-emitting element and the terminal electrode; and the transfer substrate and the embedded layer are removed. In addition, an anisotropic conductive connection layer is formed in the opening, and an electrode is formed over the anisotropic conductive connection layer. The terminal electrode and the electrode are electrically connected to each other through the anisotropic conductive connection layer.
US09444019B1
A method for making a light-emitting device is provided. The method comprises the steps of providing a substrate, forming a nucleation layer on the substrate, forming a semiconductor stack on the nucleation layer, and separating the semiconductor stack from the nucleation layer to expose the nucleation layer.
US09444017B2
According to one embodiment, the second insulating film is provided between the first interconnect portion and the second interconnect portion, and at an outer periphery of a side face of the semiconductor layer. The optical layer is provided on the first side, and on the second insulating film at the outer periphery. The optical layer is transmissive with respect to light emitted from the light emitting layer. The film is provided between the second insulating film at the outer periphery and the optical layer. The film has a roughened surface on a side in contact with the optical layer.
US09444006B2
Provided are an optical device and a method for manufacturing same. The optical device according to the present invention including: a transparent amorphous substrate; a current injection layer formed on the substrate; a graphite layer formed on the current injection layer; and a semiconductor unit formed on the graphite layer, wherein the semiconductor unit is formed after forming the graphite layer on the amorphous substrate, thereby overcoming the problems of conventional methods that involve forming a semiconductor unit on an amorphous substrate, and the semiconductor unit of the present invention has superior crystallinity.
US09444004B1
An automated system provides automated manufacturing of photovoltaic standard power modules for utilization in a space solar array, in both rolled blanket and z-folded configurations. The automated system provides robotically controlled systems for CIC-ing, glassing, stringing, laydown and acceptance testing of interconnected photovoltaic devices. A method of manufacturing the photovoltaic standard power modules includes the steps of robotic positioning of diodes, interconnects and busbars onto a SPM stringing tray followed by the robotic positioning of bare cells into position adjacent to the diodes, interconnects and busbars to form strings. The SPM stringing tray is thereafter robotically positioned adjacent to an integral welder for welding of the front side of the string. Cover glass is thereafter robotically placed over the cells. The string is flipped and the backside of the string is robotically positioned for welding.
US09444002B2
A graphene transistor optical detector based on a metamaterial structure and an application thereof. The optical detector includes a substrate, a gate metal layer, a gate medium layer, a graphene layer, a source and drain metal layer successively arranged from bottom to top, wherein a local region of at least the source and drain metal layer has a periodic micro/nanostructure, the periodic micro/nanostructure being matched with the gate metal layer and the gate medium layer to form a metamaterial structure having a complete absorption characteristic. By changing the refractive index, thickness or the like of material for the periodic micro/nanostructure and the gate medium layer, a light absorption frequency band of the metamaterial structure can be regulated. The optical detector provided by the present invention has higher flexibility and narrow-band response, and can work under visible light to infrared even longer wavebands by selecting different metamaterial structures.
US09444001B1
A position sensitive detector includes a substrate, an absorber layer on the substrate, a barrier layer on the absorber layer, a contact layer on the barrier layer, and a first contact and a second contact on the contact layer. The barrier layer prevents a flow of majority carriers from the absorber layer to the contact layer. The position sensitive detector is sensitive to a lateral position between the first contact and the second contact of incident light on the contact layer.
US09443994B2
Solar cell structures and formation methods which utilize the surface texture in conjunction with a passivating dielectric layer to provide a practical and controllable technique of forming an electrical contact between a conducting layer and underlying substrate through the passivating dielectric layer, achieving both good surface passivation and electrical contact with low recombination losses, as required for high efficiency solar cells. The passivating dielectric layer is intentionally modified to allow direct contact, or tunnel barrier contact, with the substrate. Additional P-N junctions, and dopant gradients, are disclosed to further limit losses and increase efficiency.
US09443991B2
In a power feeding region of a memory cell (MC) in which a sidewall-shaped memory gate electrode (MG) of a memory nMIS (Qnm) is provided by self alignment on a side surface of a selection gate electrode (CG) of a selection nMIS (Qnc) via an insulating film, a plug (PM) which supplies a voltage to the memory gate electrode (MG) is embedded in a contact hole (CM) formed in an interlayer insulating film (9) formed on the memory gate electrode (MG) and is electrically connected to the memory gate electrode (MG). Since a cap insulating film (CAP) is formed on an upper surface of the selection gate electrode (CG), the electrical conduction between the plug (PM) and the selection gate electrode (CG) can be prevented.
US09443989B2
A method for forming an amorphous semiconductor which contains an impurity element and has low resistivity and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device with excellent electrical characteristics with high yield are provided. In the method for forming an amorphous semiconductor containing an impurity element, which utilizes a plasma CVD method, pulse-modulated discharge inception voltage is applied to electrodes under the pressure and electrode distance with which the minimum discharge inception voltage according to Paschen's Law can be obtained, whereby the amorphous semiconductor which contains an impurity element and has low resistivity is formed.
US09443988B2
In a transistor having a top-gate structure in which a gate electrode layer overlaps with an oxide semiconductor layer which faints a channel region with a gate insulating layer interposed therebetween, when a large amount of hydrogen is contained in the insulating layer, hydrogen is diffused into the oxide semiconductor layer because the insulating layer is in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer; thus, electric characteristics of the transistor are degraded. An object is to provide a semiconductor device having favorable electric characteristics. An insulating layer in which the concentration of hydrogen is less than 6×1020 atoms/cm3 is used for the insulating layer being in contact with oxide semiconductor layer which forms the channel region. Using the insulating layer, diffusion of hydrogen can be prevented and a semiconductor device having favorable electric characteristics can be provided.
US09443977B1
A method for forming a semiconductor device comprises patterning and etching a fin in a semiconductor substrate, forming a gate stack over the fin, epitaxially growing a first semiconductor material on exposed portions of the fin, epitaxially growing a second semiconductor material on exposed portions of the first semiconductor material, and performing an etching process that removes exposed portions of the first semiconductor material and exposed portions of the second semiconductor material, the etching process is operative to remove portions of the first semiconductor material at a faster rate than the second semiconductor material such that a first cavity is formed adjacent to the fin.
US09443976B1
One example of a novel integrated circuit product disclosed herein includes, among other things, a lateral FinFET device comprising a first gate structure having a first upper surface positioned above a semiconductor substrate and a vertical FinFET device comprising a second gate structure having a second upper surface positioned above the semiconductor substrate, wherein the first upper surface of the first gate structure is positioned at a first height level above a reference surface of the semiconductor substrate and the second upper surface of the second gate structure is positioned at a second height level above the reference surface of the semiconductor substrate, the first height level being greater than the second height level.
US09443975B1
Forming a transistor transistor includes forming a surface region, a gate, a source dopant region, a drain dopant region, a drift dopant region, a set of electrically conductive shield plates, and a shield plate dopant region. A sidewall of the gate aligns with a drain side boundary of the surface region. The drain dopant region is formed within the surface region on the drain side. The drift dopant region is formed within the surface region between the drain side boundary and the drain dopant region. The set of electrically conductive shield plates includes a first shield plate overlying the drift dopant region. The shield plate dopant region is formed within the drift dopant region and underlies the set of shield plates.
US09443973B2
A semiconductor substrate has a main surface and a rear surface vertically spaced apart from the main surface, a first doped region, a second doped region and a third doped region. The third doped region is interposed between the first and second doped regions beneath the main surface. Field plate trenches having field plates vertically extend from the main surface to a bottom that is arranged in the first doped region. A gate trench having a gate electrode vertically extends from the main surface to the first doped region. A compensation zone vertically extends from the bottom of the gate trench deeper into the first doped region. The compensation zone is laterally aligned with the gate trench and is adjacent to the field plates along a cross-sectional plane of the device that is parallel to the main surface.
US09443971B2
A semiconductor device includes a diffusion barrier layer, a first semiconductor region having first charge carriers of a first conductivity type and a second semiconductor region having second charge carriers. The first semiconductor region includes a transition region in contact with the second semiconductor region, the transition region having a first concentration of the first charge carriers, a contact region in contact with the diffusion barrier layer, the contact region having a second concentration of the first charge carriers, wherein the second concentration is higher than the first concentration, and a damage region between the contact region and the transition region. The damage region is configured for reducing the lifetime and/or the mobility of the first charge carriers of the damage region as compared to the lifetime and/or the mobility of the first charge carriers of the contact region and the transition region.
US09443965B2
A method for producing a thin film transistor includes forming a transistor prototype on a substrate. The transistor prototype includes two transparent electrodes adapted to form a source and a drain of a thin film transistor. Next, the two transparent electrodes of the transistor prototype are exposed in an environment full of a plasma. The plasma conducts a surface treatment on the two transparent electrodes of the transistor prototype to form the thin film transistor. The method can solve the problem of excessive contact resistance of the transparent conductive films of conventional thin film transistors.
US09443964B2
A fin structure disposed over a substrate and a method of forming a fin structure are disclosed. The fin structure includes a mesa, a channel disposed over the mesa, and a convex-shaped feature disposed between the channel and the mesa. The mesa has a first semiconductor material, and the channel has a second semiconductor material different from the first semiconductor material. The convex-shaped feature is stepped-shaped, stair-shaped, or ladder-shaped. The convex-shaped feature includes a first isolation feature disposed between the channel and the mesa, and a second isolation feature disposed between the channel and the first isolation feature. The first isolation feature is U-shaped, and the second isolation feature is rectangular-shaped. A portion of the second isolation feature is surrounded by the channel and another portion of the second isolation feature is surrounded by the first isolation feature.
US09443960B2
An MOSFET includes a silicon carbide substrate, an active layer, a gate oxide film, and a gate electrode. The active layer includes a body region where an inversion layer is formed at a region in contact with the gate oxide film by application of voltage to the gate electrode. The body region includes a low concentration region arranged at a region where an inversion layer is formed, and containing impurities of low concentration, and a high concentration region adjacent to the low concentration region in the carrier mobile direction in the inversion layer, arranged in a region where the inversion layer is formed, and containing impurities higher in concentration than in the low concentration region.
US09443957B1
A method for forming a semiconductor device includes patterning a gate conductor, formed on a substrate, and a two-dimensional material formed on the gate conductor. Recesses are formed adjacent to the gate conductor in the substrate, and a doped layer is deposited in the recesses and over a top of the two-dimensional material. Tape is adhered to the doped layer on top of the two-dimensional material. The tape is removed to exfoliate the doped layer from the top of the two-dimensional material to form source and drain regions in the recesses.
US09443954B2
The present invention provides a method for forming a semiconductor device having a metal gate. The method includes firstly, a substrate is provided, and a first semiconductor device and a second semiconductor device are formed on the substrate, having a first gate trench and a second trench respectively. Next, a bottom barrier layer is formed in the first gate trench and a second trench. Afterwards, a first pull back step is performed, to remove parts of the bottom barrier layer, and a first work function metal layer is then formed in the first gate trench. Next, a second pull back step is performed, to remove parts of the first work function metal layer, wherein the topmost portion of the first work function metal layer is lower than the openings of the first gate trench and the second gate trench.
US09443948B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device comprises forming a nanowire on an insulator layer at a surface of a substrate; forming a dummy gate over a portion of the nanowire and a portion of the insulator layer; forming recesses in the insulator layer on opposing sides of the dummy gate; forming spacers on opposing sides of the dummy gate; forming source regions and drain regions in the recesses in the insulator layer on opposing sides of the dummy gate; depositing an interlayer dielectric on the source regions and the drain regions; removing the dummy gate to form a trench; removing the insulator layer under the nanowire such that a width of the trench underneath the nanowire is equal to or less than a distance between the spacers; and forming a replacement gate in the trench.
US09443941B2
A transistor device includes a compound semiconductor body having a first surface and a two-dimensional charge carrier gas disposed below the first surface in the compound semiconductor body. The transistor device further includes a source in contact with the two-dimensional charge carrier gas and a drain spaced apart from the source and in contact with the two-dimensional charge carrier gas. A first passivation layer is in contact with the first surface of the compound semiconductor body, and a second passivation layer is disposed on the first passivation layer. The second passivation layer has a different etch rate selectivity than the first passivation layer. A gate extends through the second passivation layer into the first passivation layer.
US09443938B2
A transistor includes a III-N layer structure comprising a III-N channel layer between a III-N barrier layer and a p-type III-N layer. The transistor further includes a source, a drain, and a gate between the source and the drain, the gate being over the III-N layer structure. The p-type III-N layer includes a first portion that is at least partially in a device access region between the gate and the drain, and the first portion of the p-type III-N layer is electrically connected to the source and electrically isolated from the drain. When the transistor is biased in the off state, the p-type layer can cause channel charge in the device access region to deplete as the drain voltage increases, thereby leading to higher breakdown voltages.
US09443936B2
Embodiments described include straining transistor quantum well (QW) channel regions with metal source/drains, and conformal regrowth source/drains to impart a uni-axial strain in a MOS channel region. Removed portions of a channel layer may be filled with a junction material having a lattice spacing different than that of the channel material to causes a uni-axial strain in the channel, in addition to a bi-axial strain caused in the channel layer by a top barrier layer and a bottom buffer layer of the quantum well.
US09443921B2
The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor package structure and a manufacturing method thereof. The semiconductor package structure comprises a first dielectric layer, a die pad, an active component, at least one first metal bar, at least one second metal bar and a through via. The first dielectric layer has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The die pad is located within the first dielectric layer. The active component is located within the first dielectric layer and disposed on the die pad. The first metal bar is disposed on the first surface of the first dielectric layer, and electrically connected to the active component. The second metal bar is disposed on the second surface of the first dielectric layer. The through via penetrates the first dielectric layer and connects the at least one first metal bar to the at least one second metal bar.
US09443920B2
The present disclosure relates to an organic light emitting diode display having high aperture ratio and a method for manufacturing the same. The present disclosure suggests an organic light emitting diode display comprising: a plurality of pixel areas disposed in a matrix manner on a substrate; a thin film transistor disposed in the pixel area; an organic light emitting diode connected to the thin film transistor and disposed in the pixel area; and a three-stack storage capacitor having four electrodes connected to the thin film transistor and the organic light emitting diode.
US09443919B2
A light emitting device includes a transistor, a light reflection layer, a first insulation layer that includes a first layer thickness part, a second layer thickness part, and a third layer thickness part, a pixel electrode that is provided on the first insulation layer, a second insulation layer that covers a peripheral section of the pixel electrode, a light emission functional layer, a facing electrode, and a conductive layer that is provided on the first layer thickness part. The pixel electrode includes a first pixel electrode which is provided in the first layer thickness part, a second pixel electrode which is provided in the second layer thickness part, and a third pixel electrode which is provided in the third layer thickness part. The first pixel electrode, the second pixel electrode, and the third pixel electrode are connected to the transistor through the conductive layer.
US09443918B2
A light-emitting device having a curved light-emitting surface is provided. Further, a highly-reliable light-emitting device is provided. A substrate with plasticity is used. A light-emitting element is formed over the substrate in a flat state. The substrate provided with the light-emitting element is curved and put on a surface of a support having a curved surface. Then, a protective layer for protecting the light-emitting element is formed in the same state. Thus, a light-emitting device having a curved light-emitting surface, such as a lighting device or a display device can be manufactured.
US09443912B2
There is provided a solid-state image pickup device that includes a functional region provided with an organic film, and a guard ring surrounding the functional region.
US09443906B2
Control elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The control element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non selected devices, and high leakage currents at high voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The control element can be based on a single dielectric layer or on a multilayer dielectric stack.
US09443895B2
An apparatus according to the present invention in which a first substrate including a photoelectric conversion element and a gate electrode of a transistor, and a second substrate including a peripheral circuit portion are placed upon each other. The first substrate does not include a high-melting-metal compound layer, and the second substrate includes a high-melting-metal compound layer.
US09443894B1
An imaging package includes an image sensor package formed with a semiconductor substrate. A removable transparent cover is bonded over the image sensor package to cover a first side the image sensor package. A lateral dimension of the removable transparent cover along a first direction is larger than a lateral dimension of the image sensor package along the first direction. An overhang portion of the removable transparent cover is defined by an exposed portion of the removable transparent cover that extends beyond a lateral side of the image sensor package along the first direction.
US09443893B2
A solid-state image sensing element including a transistor with stable electrical characteristics (e.g., significantly low off-state current) is provided. Two different element layers (an element layer including an oxide semiconductor layer and an element layer including a photodiode) are stacked over a semiconductor substrate provided with a driver circuit such as an amplifier circuit, so that the area occupied by a photodiode is secured. A transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer in a channel formation region is used as a transistor electrically connected to the photodiode, which leads to lower power consumption of a semiconductor device.
US09443886B2
A thin film transistor substrate according to an embodiment includes a data line and a light barrier film to overlap an active layer of a thin film transistor, wherein the data line and the light barrier film are formed simultaneously, thereby reducing the cost of fabricating the thin film transistor substrate.
US09443885B2
An array board 11b includes a first diode 29, a contact portion 32, and a static protection portion 51. The first diode 29 includes first electrodes 29a, 29b and a first semiconductor portion 29d. The first electrodes 29a, 29b are formed from a second metal film 38. The first semiconductor portion 29d is connected to the first electrodes 29a, 29b via first diode-side holes 29c1, 29c2. The contact portion 32 includes agate line-side connecting portion 48 and a diode-side connecting portion 50. The gate line-side connecting portion 48 is formed from a first metal film at an end of a gate line 19. The diode-side connecting portion 50 is connected to the gate line-side connecting portion 48 via a contact portion-side hole 49a. The static protection portion 51 includes a static dissipating portion 52 and a static dissipation portion protection portion 53. The static dissipating portion 52 is formed from a semiconductor film 36 and for dissipating static electricity that builds up in one of the first diode 29 and the contact portion 32 in a stage prior to formation of the second metal film 38. The static dissipating portion protection portion 53 is formed from a protection film 37 and includes a static dissipating hole 53a that is a through hole formed at a position overlapping the static dissipating portion 52 in a plan view.
US09443883B2
Methods of forming integrated circuit devices include forming a sacrificial layer on a handling substrate and forming a semiconductor active layer on the sacrificial layer. The semiconductor active layer and the sacrificial layer may be selectively etched in sequence to define an semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, which includes a first portion of the semiconductor active layer. A multi-layer electrical interconnect network may be formed on the SOI substrate. This multi-layer electrical interconnect network may be encapsulated by an inorganic capping layer that contacts an upper surface of the first portion of the semiconductor active layer. The capping layer and the first portion of the semiconductor active layer may be selectively etched to thereby expose the sacrificial layer. The sacrificial layer may be selectively removed from between the first portion of the semiconductor active layer and the handling substrate to thereby define a suspended integrated circuit chip encapsulated by the capping layer.
US09443879B2
A display substrate includes a base substrate, a common line on the base substrate, a first insulation layer covering the common line and having a first insulating material, a conductive pattern on the first insulation layer and including a source electrode and a drain electrode, a second insulation layer covering the drain electrode and the common line, and including a lower second insulation layer having a second insulating material and an upper second insulation layer having the first insulating material, a first electrode electrically connected to the drain electrode through a first contact hole in the second insulation layer, and a second electrode electrically connected to the common line through a second contact hole in the first and second insulation layers. The upper and lower second insulation layers on the drain electrode have a first hole and a second hole respectively that form the first contact hole.
US09443877B2
A thin film transistor panel includes an insulating substrate, a gate insulating layer disposed on the insulating substrate, an oxide semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, an etch stopper disposed on the oxide semiconductor layer, and a source electrode and a drain electrode disposed on the etch stopper.
US09443875B2
The present invention provides array substrate and manufacturing method thereof and display device. The manufacturing method comprises: forming patterns including active regions of first and second TFTs by patterning process on substrate; forming gate insulation layer on the substrate; forming patterns including gates of the TFTs by patterning process on the substrate; forming isolation layer on the substrate; forming, on the substrate, second contacting vias for connecting sources and drains of the TFTs to respective active regions and first contacting via for connecting gate of the second TFT to source of the first TFT; and on the substrate, forming patterns of corresponding sources and drains on the second contacting vias above active regions of the TFTs, and meanwhile forming connection line for connecting gate of the second TFT to source of the first TFT above the first contacting via above gate of the second TFT.
US09443871B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device structure includes providing a substrate with a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) configuration, the SOI substrate comprising a semiconductor layer formed on a buried oxide (BOX) layer which is disposed on a semiconductor bulk substrate, forming trench isolation structures delineating a first region and a second region within the SOI substrate, removing the semiconductor layer and the BOX layer in the first region for exposing the semiconductor bulk substrate within the first region, forming a first semiconductor device with an electrode in and over the exposed semiconductor bulk substrate in the first region, forming a second semiconductor device in the second region, the second semiconductor device comprising a gate structure disposed over the semiconductor layer and the BOX layer in the second region, and performing a polishing process for defining a common height level to which the electrode and the gate structure substantially extend.
US09443850B2
An integrated circuit device includes at least two epitaxially grown active regions grown onto a substrate, the active regions being placed between two gate devices. The device further includes at least one dummy gate between two epitaxially grown active regions. Each active region is substantially uniform in length.
US09443848B1
A method of making a semiconductor device includes depositing a hard mask on a dielectric layer on a substrate, the dielectric layer being disposed around first, second, and third gates; removing a portion of the hard mask to form an opening that exposes the first, second, and third gates; forming a patterned soft mask on the first, second, and third gates within the opening, a first portion of the patterned soft mask being disposed on the first and second gates, and a second portion of the patterned soft mask being disposed on the second and third gates; removing portions of the dielectric layer to transfer the pattern of the patterned soft mask into the dielectric layer and form first and second contact openings between the first and second gates, and third and fourth contact openings between the second and third gates; and disposing a conductive material in the contact openings.
US09443835B2
Embedded Wafer-Level Packaging (eWLP) methods and optoelectronic devices, packages and assemblies made by the eWLP methods are described. The eWLP methods allow electrical interconnections to be easily and economically made to the back sides of the chips of the eWLP wafer using eWLP wafer-level processes, thereby eliminating the need to use TMVs or TSVs to make such interconnections. The eWLP methods also allow thermal and optical interconnections between the back side and the front side of the eWLP wafer to be easily and economically made. In addition, the eWLP methods allow electrical and optical interfaces to be formed on the front side and/or on the back side of the eWLP wafer. The eWLP methods may be used to form a variety of very thin optoelectronic devices, packages and assemblies having a various useful configurations with high volume, yield and throughput.
US09443831B2
Provided is a substrate for mounting an LED element in which a stable light-emitting surface is obtained, as well as a light source and an LED display using this substrate, so that the axis at which light is emitted by a chip LED does not vary. The substrate for mounting an LED element (1) comprises a substrate (1a) on which an LED element can be mounted, and a wiring layer (2) for supplying electricity to an LED element (7). The wiring layer (2) for supplying electricity to the LED element (7) is formed on a mirror-finished surface on the entirety of a substrate surface on which the LED element is mounted, except for an insulating space 4 capable of providing insulation between terminals of the LED element.
US09443829B2
A semiconductor device has a first interconnect structure. A first semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a first surface of the first interconnect structure. A first encapsulant is deposited over the first interconnect structure and first semiconductor die. A second semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a second surface of the first interconnect structure opposite the first surface. A plurality of first conductive pillars is formed over the second surface of the first interconnect structure and around the second semiconductor die. A second encapsulant is deposited over the second semiconductor die and around the plurality of first conductive pillars. A second interconnect structure including a conductive layer and bumps are formed over the second encapsulant and electrically connect to the plurality of first conductive pillars and the first and second semiconductor die.
US09443828B2
A semiconductor device has a first thermally conductive layer formed over a first surface of a semiconductor die. A second surface of the semiconductor die is mounted to a sacrificial carrier. An encapsulant is deposited over the first thermally conductive layer and sacrificial carrier. The encapsulant is planarized to expose the first thermally conductive layer. A first insulating layer is formed over the second surface of the semiconductor die and a first surface of the encapsulant. A portion of the first insulating layer over the second surface of the semiconductor die is removed. A second thermally conductive layer is formed over the second surface of the semiconductor die within the removed portion of the first insulating layer. An electrically conductive layer is formed within the insulating layer around the second thermally conductive layer. A heat sink can be mounted over the first thermally conductive layer.
US09443820B2
A device for bonding of one bond side of a first substrate to one bond side of a second substrate, the device having one module group with a common working space which can be closed especially gastight to the environment, at least one bond module is connected in a sealed manner to the working space, and a movement apparatus for moving the first and second substrate in the working space.The module group has a reduction module which is connected, in a sealed manner to the working space for reducing the bond sides.
US09443817B2
Characteristics of a semiconductor device are improved. An opening that exposes a pad region of a top-layer wiring containing aluminum is formed in a protection film over the wiring, and aluminum nitride is formed on a surface of the exposed wiring. Additionally, a silicon nitride film is formed on a back surface of a semiconductor substrate having the wiring. As described above, foreign substances generated over the pad region due to the silicon nitride film on the back surface of the semiconductor substrate can be prevented by providing an aluminum nitride film over the pad region. Particularly, even in a case of requiring time before an inspection step and a bonding step, after a formation step of the pad region, formation reaction of the foreign substances can be prevented in the pad region, and the characteristics of the semiconductor device can be improved.
US09443815B2
Embedded die packages are described that employ one or more substrate redistribution layers (RDL) to route electrode nodes and/or for current redistribution. In one or more implementations, an integrated circuit die is embedded in a copper core substrate. A substrate RDL contacts a surface of the embedded die, with at least one via (e.g., thermal via) in contact with the surface RDL to furnish electrical interconnection between the embedded die and an external contact. Additional substrate RDL or WLP RDL can be incorporated into the package to provide varying current distribution between the embedded die and external contacts.
US09443814B2
A multi-chip package includes a substrate having a plurality of first bump structures. A pitch between first bump structures of the plurality of first bump structures is uniform across a surface of the substrate. The multi-chip package includes a first chip bonded to the substrate and a second chip bonded to the substrate. The first chip includes a plurality of second bump structures, and the plurality of second bump structures are bonded to a first set of first bump structures of the plurality of first bump structures. The second chip includes a plurality of third bump structures, and the plurality of third bump structures are bonded to a second set of first bump structures of the plurality of first bump structures. A pitch between second bump structures of the plurality of second bump structures is different from a pitch between third bump structures of the plurality of third bump structures.
US09443809B2
A portable apparatus, an IC packaging structure, an IC packaging object, and an IC packaging method thereof are disclosed. The IC packaging structure includes an IC packaging object and a substrate. The packaging object includes a die and a metallurgy layer. The die has a contact portion, a saw reserved portion, and a seal ring. The seal ring is disposed between the contact portion and the saw reserved portion. The metallurgy layer is disposed on the contact portion. At least a part of the metallurgy layer overlaps the seal ring. The metallurgy layer includes a solderable layer coated by a solder paste. The substrate includes a solder pad. The solder pad is coupled to the solderable layer coated by the solder paste.
US09443806B2
Chip packages and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In some embodiments, a chip package may include: a chip having a contact pad disposed at a first side of the chip; a passivation layer over the first side of the chip, the passivation layer having an opening disposed over the contact pad; a polymer layer over the passivation layer, the polymer layer having an edge disposed over the contact pad; a conductive structure formed atop the contact pad, the conductive structure filling the opening of the passivation layer and covering the edge of the polymer layer; and a frontside redistribution layer (RDL) disposed over the conductive structure, the frontside RDL having a first portion electrically connected to the conductive structure and a second portion electrically connected to the first portion and extending laterally away from the first portion and the conductive structure.
US09443796B2
A package component includes a surface dielectric layer including a planar top surface, a metal pad in the surface dielectric layer and including a second planar top surface level with the planar top surface, and an air trench on a side of the metal pad. The sidewall of the metal pad is exposed to the air trench.
US09443785B2
The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor package. In an embodiment, the semiconductor package includes a substrate, a semiconductor device, a thermal conductive element and a molding compound. The semiconductor device is mounted to the substrate. The thermal conductive element is disposed above the semiconductor device. The molding compound covers a side surface of the substrate and at least a part of a side surface of the semiconductor device.
US09443783B2
A system and method for stacking semiconductor devices in three dimensions is provided. In an embodiment two or more semiconductor dies are attached to a carrier and encapsulated. Connections of the two or more semiconductor dies are exposed, and the two or more semiconductor dies may be thinned to form connections on an opposite side. Additional semiconductor dies may then be placed in either an offset or overhanging position.
US09443779B2
A semiconductor device includes a molded body obtained by sealing, with a sealing material, a member including a semiconductor element, an insulating substrate which is bonded to one surface of the semiconductor element, and a printed circuit board which is used for a connection to an external circuit and is bonded to another surface of the semiconductor element. The sealing material includes a first sealing material which is a nanocomposite resin including an epoxy base resin, a curing agent, and an inorganic filler with an average particle size of 1 nm to 100 nm; and a second sealing material which is a thermosetting resin, a thermoplastic resin, or a mixture thereof without an inorganic filler. The sealing material is less likely to be degraded by thermal oxidation, even when the semiconductor element operates at a high temperature of 175° C. or higher, is crack resistant, and has high reliability and durability.
US09443776B2
A test structure used to determine reliability performance includes a patterned metallization structure having multiple interfaces, which provide stress risers. A dielectric material surrounds the metallization structure, where a mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between the metallization structure and the surrounding dielectric material exist such that a thermal strain value is provided to cause failures under given stress conditions as a result of CTE mismatch to provide a yield indicative of reliability for a manufacturing design.
US09443775B2
Disclosed is a novel system and method to form local interconnects in a continuity test structure. The method begins with a first set of transistor gate lines and a second set of transistor gate lines are formed. Next, a first group of two or more local interconnect lines landing on transistor gates and formed substantially perpendicular to the first set of transistor gate lines and electrically coupled therewith is formed using a first lithography pass. A second group of two or more local interconnect lines landing and formed substantially perpendicular to the second set of transistor gate lines and electrically coupled therewith is formed during second lithography pass. For some technologies, a third set of transistor gate lines is formed along with a third group using a third lithography pass.
US09443770B2
After forming an organic planarization layer (OPL) atop a substrate which includes a plurality of semiconductor fins and a gate structure thereon, the OPL is recessed such that uppermost surfaces of remaining portions of the OPL are located below an uppermost surface of the gate structure but above top surfaces of the semiconductor fins. The remaining portions of the OPL are patterned to expose semiconductor fins in a pFinFET region for subsequent ion implantation. Portions of the OPL that remain on the semiconductor fins in an nFinFET region act as an implantation mask to shield the semiconductor fins in the nFinFET region from the ion implantation.
US09443768B2
A method of fabricating a fin-like field-effect transistor (FinFET) device includes providing a substrate having a first region and a second region, and forming a plurality of mandrel features in the first region with a first spacing. The method further includes forming first spacers along sidewalls of the mandrel features with a targeted width A, and forming second spacers with a first width W1 along sidewalls of the first spacers, wherein two back-to-back adjacent second spacers are separated by a gap. The method further includes depositing a dielectric material in the gap and in the second region, and performing a first cut thereby removing a first subset of the first spacers. Coincident with the removing of the first subset, the method further includes partially removing the dielectric material in the second region thereby forming a mesa of the dielectric material in the second region.
US09443762B2
A semiconductor device has a conductive via in a first surface of a substrate. A first interconnect structure is formed over the first surface of the substrate. A first bump is formed over the first interconnect structure. The first bump is formed over or offset from the conductive via. An encapsulant is deposited over the first bump and first interconnect structure. A portion of the encapsulant is removed to expose the first bump. A portion of a second surface of the substrate is removed to expose the conductive via. The encapsulant provides structural support and eliminates the need for a separate carrier wafer when thinning the substrate. A second interconnect structure is formed over the second surface of the substrate. A second bump is formed over the first bump. A plurality of semiconductor devices can be stacked and electrically connected through the conductive via.
US09443761B2
Methods for fabricating integrated circuits are provided. In one example, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a semiconductor device with a metal silicide electrically coupled thereto. A contact opening exposing the metal silicide is formed to the semiconductor device. A conductive material is deposite within the contact opening to form a contact to the metal silicide while simultaneously forming a contact seam void within the contact. A self-aligned conductive material is deposited within the contact to form a conductive plug that at least partially fills the contact seam void, and a metallization layer is deposited overlying the contact.
US09443756B2
A method of forming a substrate opening includes forming a plurality of side-by-side openings in a substrate. At least some of immediately adjacent side-by-side openings are formed in the substrate to different depths relative one another. Walls that are laterally between the side-by-side openings are removed to form a larger opening having a non-vertical sidewall surface where the walls were removed in at least one straight-line vertical cross-section that passes through the sidewall surface orthogonally to the removed walls.
US09443751B2
The present invention relates to a back grinding sheet (BG sheet) (1a, 1b, 1c) having an unevenness-absorbing layer (12) on a substrate (11), in which the unevenness-absorbing layer is a layer formed of a film-forming composition containing (A) a urethane (meth)acrylate and (B) a polymerizable monomer except component (A) and the layer satisfies the following requirements (a) to (c): (a) a loss tangent at 70° C. measured at a frequency of 1 Hz is 1.5 or more, (b) a relaxation rate 300 seconds after a square (1 cm×1 cm) of the unevenness-absorbing layer is compressed at 25° C. and a compressive load of 10 N is 30% or less, and (c) a storage elastic modulus at 25° C. measured at a frequency of 1 Hz is 1.0 to 10.0 MPa. The BG sheet of the present invention has excellent absorptivity of uneven portions such as bumps in a semiconductor wafer and can suppress formation of gaps between bumps and the BG sheet and simultaneously suppress a phenomenon where the resin layer (unevenness-absorbing layer) of a BG sheet oozes from the edges of a roll when the BG sheet is wound up in the form of roll.
US09443749B2
In this vacuum processing apparatus, four process modules and four load-rock modules are arranged in clusters around a two-stage conveyance vacuum chamber. In the apparatus, the entirety of the second stage of the vacuum conveyance chamber is a third vacuum conveyance area and the third vacuum conveyance area extends from the second stage to the first stage through an aperture to enter between first and second vacuum conveyance areas. A third vacuum conveyance robot has: left and right-side conveyance units, which can move straight in the depth direction in the second stage of the third vacuum conveyance area; and left and right-side conveyance units, which can move straight in the vertical direction, i.e. can move up and down, in the aperture of the vacuum conveyance area.
US09443745B2
The present invention relates to developing and design a coater & developer with high throughput that in-line with lithograph equipment during integrated circuit production, which needs to reasonably set the quantity of processing modules and the transfer speed of robots in the coater & developer. The present invention provides a method for setting the quantity of the processing modules and the transfer speed of the robots in the coater & developer, including steps of determining the processing time parameter of the coater & developer according to the target throughput, and designing the processing periodic time parameter of each processing module and the transfer periodic time parameter of each wafer transfer robot in the coater & developer make the three time parameters tend to consistency.
US09443736B2
A silicon precursor composition is described, including a silylene compound selected from among: silylene compounds of the formula: wherein each of R and R1 is independently selected from organo substituents; amidinate silylenes; and bis(amidinate) silylenes. The silylene compounds are usefully employed to form high purity, conformal silicon-containing films of SiO2, Si3N4, SiC and doped silicates in the manufacture of microelectronic device products, by vapor deposition processes such as CVD, pulsed CVD, ALD and pulsed plasma processes. In one implementation, such silicon precursors can be utilized in the presence of oxidant, to seal porosity in a substrate comprising porous silicon oxide by depositing silicon oxide in the porosity at low temperature, e.g., temperature in a range of from 50° C. to 200° C.
US09443735B2
There is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including: preparing a semiconductor substrate having an active region; forming a dielectric layer for gate insulation on the active region; forming a curing layer with a material containing germanium (Ge) on the dielectric layer; heat-treating the curing layer; and removing the curing layer. The germanium-containing material may be silicon germanium (SiGe) or germanium (Ge).
US09443725B2
A multi-step system and method for curing a dielectric film in which the system includes a drying system configured to reduce the amount of contaminants, such as moisture, in the dielectric film. The system further includes a curing system coupled to the drying system, and configured to treat the dielectric film with ultraviolet (UV) radiation and infrared (IR) radiation in order to cure the dielectric film.
US09443719B2
Provided is a technique of forming a film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times. The cycle includes: forming a first layer by supplying a gas containing a first element to the substrate, wherein the first layer is a discontinuous layer, a continuous layer, or a layer in which at least one of the discontinuous layer or the continuous layer is overlapped; forming a second layer including the first layer and a discontinuous layer including a second element stacked on the first layer; and forming a third layer by supplying a gas containing a third element to the substrate to modify the second layer under a condition where a modifying reaction of the second layer by the gas containing the third element is not saturated.
US09443716B2
Methods for self-aligned multiple patterning including controlled slimming of features during spacer layer deposition. Multiple spacer layer deposition process conditions produce a balance between controlling the damage to the features and increasing production throughput.
US09443715B2
A method and device for determining temperature of a substrate in a vacuum processing apparatus during a process of the substrate are disclosed, the substrate to be measured is placed on a susceptor in the vacuum processing apparatus for a manufacture process, and the method includes: selecting i wavelengths from radiance emitted from the susceptor through a substrate, where i is a natural number greater than 1; obtaining at least i pieces of radiance corresponding to the selected i wavelengths; and calculating the temperature of the substrate based on the i pieces of radiance and the i wavelengths, by using a mathematical equation: E(λi)=T(d)×M(λi,T), where E(λi) is the ith radiant quantity corresponding to the ith wavelength λi, T(d) is transmittance of the substrate, which is a function of thickness d of a film grown on the substrate, and M(λi,T) is blackbody radiation equation, which is a function of the ith wavelength λi and the substrate temperature T.
US09443714B2
A substrate cleaning apparatus may include a substrate support having a support surface to support a substrate to be cleaned, wherein the substrate support is rotatable about a central axis normal to the support surface; a first nozzle to provide a first cleaning gas to a region of the inner volume corresponding to the position of an edge of the substrate when the substrate is supported by the support surface of the substrate support; a first annular body disposed opposite and spaced apart from the support surface of the substrate support by a gap, the first annular body having a central opening defined by an inner wall shaped to provide a reducing size of the gap between the first annular body and the support surface in a radially outward direction; and a first gas inlet to provide a first gas to the central opening of the first annular body.
US09443705B2
Provided is a multiple frequency Radio Frequency (RF) amplifier. The multiple frequency RF amplifier includes a waveform generation circuit configured to generate an RF signal by amplitude and frequency-modulating a reference waveform signal, a drive amplifier circuit configured to drive-amplify the RF signal, and a power amplifier circuit configured to generate a multiple frequency RF voltage signal through a power amplification of the drive-amplified RF signal and output the multiple frequency RF voltage signal to an ion trap for a mass spectrometry.
US09443703B2
An apparatus for generating a hollow cathode arc discharge plasma, including two plasma sources, each including a hollow cathode and an electrode which is associated with the hollow cathode and which has an opening that extends through the electrode, wherein the hollow cathodes of the two plasma sources are connected to a pulse generator which generates a bipolar, medium-frequency pulsed voltage between the two hollow cathodes. Here, in each of the two plasma sources, the hollow cathode is connected in an electrically conducting manner, directly or with interconnection of at least one current direction limiting component, to the associated electrode.
US09443702B2
Apparatus and method for plasma-based processing well suited for deposition, etching, or treatment of semiconductor, conductor or insulating films. Plasma generating units include one or more elongated electrodes on the processing side of a substrate and a neutral electrode proximate the opposite side of the substrate. Gases may be injected proximate a powered electrode which break down electrically and produce activated species that flow toward the substrate area. This gas then flows into an extended process region between powered electrodes and substrate, providing controlled and continuous reactivity with the substrate at high rates with efficient utilization of reactant feedstock. Gases are exhausted via passages between powered electrodes or electrode and divider.
US09443699B2
In a charged-particle multi-beam processing apparatus for exposure of a target with a plurality of parallel particle-optical columns, each column has a beam shaping device forming the shape of the illuminating beam into a desired pattern composed of a multitude of sub-beams, by means of an aperture array device, which defines the shape of a respective sub-beam by means of an array of apertures, and a deflection array device selectively deflecting sub-beams off their nominal paths; thus, only the non-selected sub-beams can reach the target. According to many embodiments of the invention each beam shaping device is provided with a first field-boundary device and a second field-boundary device, which are the first and last plate elements traversed by the beam. One of the first and second field-boundary devices defines a field-free space interval so as to accommodate feeding lines for controlling the deflection array device.
US09443690B2
A device for generating microwaves has a plurality of separately controlled microwave generators. Each of the generators includes a resonator, each with a capacitor structure formed with two electrodes that are separated by a spark gap. A high voltage supply charges the individual capacitor structures, which can be discharged by a breakdown of the spark gap. The individual capacitor structures are charged up by way of the high voltage supply device to a voltage that lies below the breakdown voltage of the individual spark gaps. A triggering device for triggering a breakdown of the respective spark gap is associated with each spark gap and the triggering devices are individually controlled by a common control device.
US09443689B2
The invention relates to a fuse for connection to a protective component of an overvoltage protective device. A fuse wire runs between a first cap and a second cap. In some implementations, the fuse wire may be held on the first cap by means of a soldered connection and fastened to a connection electrode. The connection electrode may be movable with respect to a fuse body and under mechanical pretension with respect to a fuse body. The fuse wire melts when acted on with a high I2t, and the soldered connection melts upon external heating by the overvoltage protective device above a specified temperature by means of the thermal connection. Electrical contact between the first cap and the connection electrode is broken via the mechanical pretension if the fuse wire or the soldered connection melt.
US09443686B2
A circuit breaker is described herein. The circuit breaker comprising: a first plurality of electrical wires to the circuit breaker; a strain relief connecting the plurality of electrical wires to the circuit breaker; a securing mechanism attaching the strain relief to the circuit breaker; and a plurality of tethers attached to the circuit breaker positioned over the strain relief.
US09443683B2
Certain aspects are directed to a thermal fuse for preventing overheating of RF devices in a telecommunication system. The RF thermal fuse includes a body, a conductive bolt, and a driving mechanism. The body can be positioned on a transmission line between an RF signal source and an RF device. The conductive bolt is positioned in the body. The conductive bolt has a length sufficient to provide impedance at a point of protection on the transmission line in response to the conductive bolt contacting a live conductor of the transmission line. The impedance is sufficient to reflect a portion of the incident power of an RF signal from the RF source. The driving mechanism can cause the conductive bolt to contact the live conductor in response to a temperature at or near the point of protection exceeding a threshold temperature.
US09443681B2
An electrical switch includes a tubular housing having a conductor receiving end and an operating end opposite the conductor receiving end. The tubular housing also includes a conductive interface positioned intermediate the conductor receiving end and the operating end. An operating rod extends through the operating end toward the conductor receiving end. The operating rod is moveable between a first position to engage the electrical switch and a second position to disengage the electrical switch. A gelatinous dielectric material is provided within a portion of the tubular housing, and around the operating rod, in the operating end to prevent voltage from the conductive interface from arcing to the operating end. The gelatinous dielectric material is configured to deform to maintain contact with the operating rod in the first position and the second position.
US09443680B2
Input device includes a printed circuit board, a first switch, a button and at least one second switch. The first switch is arranged at the printed circuit board, and is electrically connected to the printed circuit board. The at least one second switches are arranged at the printed circuit board surrounding the first switch. The guide body is arranged on the printed circuit board. The button is arranged on the guide body. The button is configured to move towards the circuit board to trigger the first switch. The button is also configured to rotate with respect to the circuit board to trigger the second switch.
US09443671B2
An apparatus to pass an electrical signal within a refrigerator having a liner partially defining an interior compartment and having an opening, and a moveable member, includes first and second members not passable through the opening when the apparatus is at a first rotational orientation, at least one of the first and second members passable through the opening when the apparatus is at a second rotational orientation, a planar third member between the first and second members fitting in the opening at the first rotational orientation, an electrically conductive contact to conduct the electrical signal to the moveable member when the moveable member is at a predetermined position relative to the apparatus, and a electrical conductor electrically coupled to the contact and passing through the apparatus to conduct the electrical signal from the exterior of the liner to the contact.
US09443664B2
A method is provided for charging a supercapacitor. The method initially provides a supercapacitor with a metal cyanometallate (MCM) particle anode, an electrolyte including a salt (DB) made up of cations (D+) anions (B−), and a cathode including carbonaceous materials (□). The method connects an external charging device between the anode and cathode, and the charging device supplies electrons to the anode and accepting electrons from the cathode. In response to the charging device, cations are inserted into the anode while anions are absorbed on the surface of the cathode. A supercapacitor device is also presented.
US09443662B2
A method of forming an ordered nanorods array in a confined space is used to form a high surface area device where an ensemble of parallel trenches has micrometer dimensions for the width and depth of the trenches, which are decorated with crystalline nanowires radiating from the sidewalls and bases of the trenches. The high surface area device is formed by depositing a conformal crystalline seed coating in the trenches, forming microchannels from these trenches by placing a barrier layer on the open surface of the trenches, contacting the conformal coating with a crystal precursor solution that is caused to flow through the microchannels. In an embodiment, a very high surface area electrode is constructed with ZnO nanowires radiating from the sidewalls and base of trenches formed on a silicon substrate. The device can be a dye-sensitized solar cell.
US09443647B2
A variable resistor includes a shell, an inverted circuit module, and a manipulating device. The shell has a shell position restriction hole and an allocation space linked to the shell position restriction hole. The inverted circuit module is fixed in the allocation space and includes a circuit board and a plurality of connecting ends located on the circuit board. The circuit board has a circuit board position restriction hole and a resistance circuit on a rear surface thereof. The manipulating device is slidably assembled in the allocation space and includes a brush base, at least a metal brush, and a bar. The metal brush is fixed on a front surface of the brush base and elastically presses against the resistance circuit. The bar is connected to the brush base and extended outward through the circuit board position restriction hole and the shell position restriction hole.
US09443644B2
A shielded electrical ribbon cable includes conductor sets each including two or more insulated conductors, each conductor set surrounded by a shielding film, and a first and second non-conductive polymeric films on opposite sides of the cable including cover portions and pinched portions. When the cable is laid flat, S/Dmin is in a range from 1.7 to 2, where S is a center-to-center spacing between nearest insulated conductors of two adjacent conductor sets, and Dmin is the lesser of the outer dimensions of such nearest insulated conductors.
US09443640B2
Provided is a process for producing a dispersion liquid of carbon nanotube aggregates in which the carbon nanotube aggregates are dispersed in a dispersion medium, comprising the two steps: (A) a step of adsorbing a dispersant to carbon nanotube aggregates by physical dispersion treatment in a dispersion medium to prepare a carbon nanotube paste with a particle size of 100 nm to 20 μm resulting from partial dissociation of a mass of the carbon nanotube aggregates; and (B) a step of dispersing the carbon nanotube paste by ultrasonic dispersion treatment. A process for producing a dispersion liquid of carbon nanotube aggregates with reduced destruction and breakage of graphite structure of a carbon nanotube aggregate can be provided.
US09443638B2
A structure having a carbon nanotube material having a plurality of carbon nanotubes and an electrically or thermally conductive material disposed on at least a portion of the carbon nanotubes, such electrically or thermally conductive material being chemically bonded to such portion of the carbon nanotubes.
US09443636B2
Organic charge-transfer (CT) co-crystals in a crossed stack system are disclosed. The co-crystals exhibit bidirectional charge transfer interactions where one donor molecule shares electrons with two different acceptors, one acceptor face-to-face and the other edge-to-face. The assembly and charge transfer interaction results in a pleochroic material whereby the optical absorption continuously changes depending on the polarization angle of incident light.
US09443621B2
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of adjusting an oxygen concentration of a reactor water side stream in a nuclear plant. The method may include injecting demineralized water into the reactor water side stream to produce an oxygenated stream with an increased oxygen concentration. The oxygenated stream may be tested to determine the effect of a process treatment on the reactor system.
US09443620B2
According to an embodiment, a nuclear reactor containment vessel has: a primary reactor containment vessel which contains a nuclear pressure vessel; a secondary reactor containment vessel and which is disposed outside the primary reactor containment vessel which has the pressure resistant properties and the leak-tightness which are equivalent to those of the primary reactor containment vessel; an air bag which is disposed within the secondary reactor containment vessel and which, when a failure occurs in primary reactor containment vessel, expands while receiving and encapsulating a high pressure gas discharged from the inside of the primary reactor containment vessel; and a gas phase vent pipe which connects the primary reactor containment vessel and the air bag.
US09443617B2
According to one embodiment, a controller includes a quality measuring unit, a block classifying unit, and a multi-plane setting unit. The quality measuring unit measures quality of a block. The block classifying unit classifies the block for every plane based on a measurement result of the quality. The multi-plane setting unit selects one block belonging to the same classification from each plane and combines the blocks to generate the multi-plane.
US09443607B2
A latch circuit includes a write driving unit configured to output fuse data as boot-up data according to a fuse set select signal in a boot-up operation; and a latch set configured to latch the boot-up data when a latch select signal is activated in the boot-up operation, and output data latched as the latch select signal is activated as a repair column address in a normal operation.
US09443606B2
A non-volatile storage system includes a plurality of non-volatile storage elements, a plurality of bit lines connected to the non-volatile storage elements, a plurality of word lines connected to the non-volatile storage elements, and one or more control circuits connected to the bit lines and word lines. The one or more control circuits perform programming, verifying, reading and erasing for the non-volatile storage elements. When verifying, a first subset of bit lines connected to non-volatile storage elements are charged to allow for sensing, while a second subset of bit lines are not charged. When reading, a two strobe sensing process is selectively used to more accurately read data from the non-volatile storage elements.
US09443604B2
An exemplary embodiment provides an electronic device including a controller, a first flash memory and a second flash memory. The first flash memory stores a first data sector. The second flash memory stores a second data sector, wherein the first data sector and the second data sector are the same, and the first data is stored in a plurality of pages of the first flash memory and the second data is stored in a plurality of pages of the second flash memory. The controller produces a third data according to the first data sector and the second data sector when the controller determines that the first data sector stored in the first flash memory is damaged.
US09443598B2
The present disclosure relates to a method for controlling two twin memory cells each comprising a floating-gate transistor comprising a state control gate, in series with a select transistor comprising a select control gate common to the two memory cells, the drains of the floating-gate transistors being connected to a same bit line, the method comprising steps of programming the first memory cell by hot-electron injection, by applying a positive voltage to the bit line and a positive voltage to the state control gate of the first memory cell, and simultaneously, of applying to the state control gate of the second memory cell a positive voltage capable of causing a programming current to pass through the second memory cell, without switching it to a programmed state.
US09443596B2
A non-volatile memory device includes a memory cell array and a voltage generator. The memory cell array has a plurality of cell strings in which a plurality of memory cells are connected with each other in series between a string select transistor and a ground select transistor. The voltage generator generates a program voltage, a first pass voltage, and a second pass voltage. A first boost channel voltage applied when programming an outermost memory cell from among the memory cells of each of non-selected cell strings of the cell strings is lower than a second boost channel voltage applied when programming one of remaining memory cells except for the outermost memory cell. The non-volatile memory device prevents programming disturb caused by hot carrier injection.
US09443588B2
A resistive memory system, a driver circuit thereof and a method for setting resistances thereof are provided. The resistive memory system includes a memory array, a row selection circuit, a first control circuit and a second control circuit. The memory array has a plurality of resistive memory cells. The row selection circuit is used for activating the resistive memory cells. The first control circuit and the second control circuit are coupled to the resistive memory cells. When each of resistive memory cells is set, the first control circuit and the second control circuit respectively provide a set voltage and a ground voltage to the each of resistive memory cells to form a set current, and the set current is clamped by at least one of the first control circuit and the second control circuit.
US09443586B2
A nonvolatile memory device can improve a read retry operation speed while minimizing a reduction in the capability of a memory read operation by performing a read retry operation. The nonvolatile memory device includes a resistive memory cell, a sensing node, and a sense amplifier connected to the sensing node and sensing a difference between a voltage level of the sensing node and a reference voltage level or a difference between a current level of the sensing node and a reference current level. When a read fail bit value is generated during a read operation of data stored in the resistive memory cell, a current flowing in the resistive memory cell is changed by changing a difference between voltages of opposite ends of the resistive memory cell and a read retry operation is then performed.
US09443584B2
Structures and methods for improving logging in network structures are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an apparatus can include: (i) a network interface card (NIC) configured to receive data, to transmit data, and to send data for logging; (ii) a memory log coupled to the NIC, where the memory log comprises non-volatile memory (NVM) configured to write the data sent for logging from the NIC; and (iii) where the data being sent for logging by the memory log occurs substantially simultaneously with the data being received by the NIC, and the data being transmitted from the NIC.
US09443566B2
An embodiment solution for operating a non-volatile memory of a complementary type is proposed. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of sectors of memory cells, each memory cell being adapted to take a programmed state or an erased state. Moreover, the memory cells are arranged in locations each formed by a direct memory cell and a complementary memory cell. Each sector of the non-volatile memory is in a non-written condition when the corresponding memory cells are in equal states and is in a written condition wherein each location thereof stores a first logic value or a second logic value when the memory cells of the location are in a first combination of different states or in a second combination of different states, respectively. In an embodiment, a corresponding method includes the following steps: selecting at least one of the sectors, determining an indication of the number of memory cells in the programmed state and an indication of the number of memory cells in the erased state of the selected sector, and identifying the condition of the selected sector according to a comparison between the indication of the number of memory cells in the programmed state and the indication of the number of memory cells in the erased state.
US09443556B2
Video acquisition and compilation system and method of assembling and distributing a composite video
FIG. 7 shows a camera system (700) that operates to time-stamp video content captured from multiple cameras (740) relative to a recorded and time-synchronized location of a portable tracking unit (722). The position of the cameras (740) is known to the system. Based on the time and position data for each uniquely identifiable tracking unit, an editing suite (770) automatically compiles a composite video made up from time-spliced video segments from the various cameras. Video or still images captured by the cameras (740)are cross-referenced against the client address stored in database (760) and related to the assigned, uniquely identifiable tracking unit (722). A server (750) is arranged to use the client address to send reminder messages, which reminder messages may include selected images taken by the composite video. Alternatively, a client (720) can use the client address to access the database and view the composite video. In the event that the client (720) wants to receive a fair copy of the composite video, the server (750) is arranged to process the request and send the composite video to the client. Streaming of multiple video feeds from different cameras that each encode synchronized time allows cross-referencing of stored client-specific data and, ultimately, the assembly of the resultant composite video that reflects a timely succession of events having direct relevant to the client (720).
US09443553B2
A system or a device having a storage area with a plurality of circumferential tracks around a central axis, the tracks for storing data therein. The system or device includes at least two media scratch pads in the storage area, located at different radii from the central axis. In some implementations, the storage area has multiple discs.
US09443548B2
A hologram reproducing device which reproduces information from a recording medium having information recorded by interfering a signal beam and a reference beam, provided with a first light-angle change unit which changes an irradiation angle of the reference beam; a second light-angle change unit which changes the irradiation angle of the reference beam; a photodetector which detects a reproduction beam; a first light-angle drive-signal output unit which outputs a drive signal of the first light-angle change unit; a first light-angle control unit which controls the first light-angle change unit on the basis of the output of the photodetector; a second light-angle drive-signal output unit which outputs a drive signal of the second light-angle change unit; a second light-angle control unit which controls the second light-angle change unit; and a light-angle interpolation processing unit which controls a control target value of the second light-angle control unit.
US09443542B1
An apparatus for securing an HGA to a tester includes a housing with a cylindrical cavity disposed about an axis, and having, at its top end, a mounting surface with a central aperture, for receiving an HGA base plate with a boss hole of the HGA overlying the central aperture. Axially elongated clamp fingers, radially dispersed about a spreader pin, move along the axis between (i) a loading position with upper ends extending through and relatively far beyond the central aperture, and (ii) a clamping position with the upper ends disposed at or near the mounting surface. With an HGA on the mounting surface, and the clamp fingers at their loading position, the clamp fingers are driven downward, while simultaneously, the clamp fingers are driven outward by the spreader pin, and the clamp fingers engage boss hole edges, securing the HGA to the tester.
US09443540B2
A product according to one embodiment includes a magnetic recording tape having opposite ends and at least one servo track, a longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape being defined between the ends. The at least one servo track has a plurality of straight first magnetic bars, and a plurality of straight second magnetic bars spaced from the first magnetic bars. A width of each of the at least one servo track is defined in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape between sides of the servo track, the sides of each servo track extending along opposite ends of the each of the first magnetic bars. Lengths of the second magnetic bars between outermost ends thereof are less than the width of the associated servo track.
US09443536B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and method of deducing a user's intention using motion information. The user's intention deduction apparatus includes a speech intention determining unit configured to predict a speech intention regarding a user's speech using motion information sensed by at least one motion capture sensor, and a controller configured to control operation of detecting a voice section from a received sound signal based on the predicted speech intention.
US09443532B2
Systems and methods of improved noise reduction using direction of arrival information include: receiving audio signals from two or more acoustic sensors; applying a beamformer module to the audio signals to employ a first noise cancellation algorithm to the audio signals and combine the audio signals into an audio signal; applying a noise reduction post-filter module to the audio signal, the application of which includes: estimating a current noise spectrum of the audio signals after the application of the first noise cancellation algorithm; using spatial information derived from the audio signals received from the two or more acoustic sensors to determine a measured direction-of-arrival by estimating the current time-delay between the acoustic sensor inputs; comparing the measured direction-of-arrival to a target direction-of-arrival; applying a second noise reduction algorithm to the audio signal; and outputting a single audio stream with reduced background noise.
US09443531B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a noise reduction method for speech processing includes detecting if two signals from two microphones are so close to each other in non voice area that the two microphones are equivalent to Single-Microphone for noise/interference reduction processing. Single-Microphone noise/interference reduction processing algorithm is selected if the equivalent Single-Microphone is detected; Multiple-Microphone noise/interference reduction processing algorithm is selected if the equivalent Single-Microphone is not detected.
US09443530B2
A method and system for acoustic echo cancellation stores received far-end data in a first buffer. When the far-end data in the first buffer exceeds a predefined length, the stored far-end data is used to calculate echo estimate data. The echo estimate data is stored in a second buffer. Whenever microphone data is received the error data is calculated independent of echo estimate data availability. In particular, subsequent to sufficient echo estimate data being stored in the second buffer and responsive to the reception of the microphone data, the error data is calculated by subtracting, from the microphone data, corresponding echo estimate data stored in the second buffer.
US09443526B2
A comfort noise controller (50) for generating CN (Comfort Noise) control parameters isdescribed. A buffer (200) of a predetermined size is configured to store CN parameters for SID (Silence Insertion Descriptor) frames and active hangover frames. A subset selector (50A) is configured to determine a CN parameter subset relevant for SID frames based on the age of the stored CN parameters and on residual energies. A comfort noise control parameter extractor (50B) is configured to use the determined CN parameter subset to determine the CN control parameters for a first SID frame following an active signal frame.
US09443522B2
The present disclosure provides a voice recognition method for use in an electronic apparatus comprising a voice input module. The method comprises: receiving voice data by the voice input module; performing a first pattern voice recognition on the received voice data, including identifying whether the voice data comprises a first voice recognition information; performing a second pattern voice recognition on the voice data if the voice data comprises the first voice recognition information; and performing or refusing an operation corresponding to the first voice recognition information according to a result of the second pattern voice recognition. The present disclosure also provides a voice controlling method, an information processing method, and an electronic apparatus.
US09443513B2
Systems and methods are provided for automated detection of plagiarized spoken responses. A spoken response is processed to generate a text that is representative of the spoken response. The text is processed to remove disfluencies in the text and to identify a plurality of sentences in the text. A first numerical measure indicative of a number of words and phrases of the text that are included verbatim in a source text is determined. The source text has been designated as a source of plagiarized content. A second numerical measure indicative of an amount of the text that paraphrases portions of the source text is determined. A third numerical measure indicative of a similarity between sentences of the text and sentences of the source text is determined. A model is applied to the first, second, and third numerical measures to classify the spoken response as being plagiarized or non-plagiarized.
US09443508B2
A low power sound recognition sensor is configured to receive an analog signal that may contain a signature sound. Sparse sound parameter information is extracted from the analog signal. The extracted sparse sound parameter information is processed using a speaker dependent sound signature database stored in the sound recognition sensor to identify sounds or speech contained in the analog signal. The sound signature database may include several user enrollments for a sound command each representing an entire word or multiword phrase. The extracted sparse sound parameter information may be compared to the multiple user enrolled signatures using cosine distance, Euclidean distance, correlation distance, etc., for example.
US09443506B2
A high frequency energy converter which has application as an acoustic actuator for converting incoming high frequency energy into outgoing harmonized high frequency mechanical (e.g., sound) and electromagnetic waves. The energy converter is adapted to improve the quality of sound heard by a listener by reducing random and spurious harmonics that are introduced by the environment in which the listener is located. The energy converter includes an outer body and a reactive crystalline material (e.g., quartz) lying at the bottom of the outer body that is responsive to the incoming high frequency energy. A dispersion horn is located at the top of the outer body to be seated upon the crystalline material. The dispersion horn has a throat extending therethrough so that both incoming high frequency energy and outgoing high frequency mechanical and electromagnetic waves are transmitted through the throat of the horn in opposite directions.
US09443497B1
A tuning device with a time display is disclosed. The tuning device has a vibration sensor, a microprocessor, machine readable memory, and a display. A computer program stored in the machine readable memory for executing with the microprocessor to analyze audio frequency signals to determine musical pitch and error information for the detected audio frequency, and display both the time of day and the musical pitch and error information. A display has two display areas, one for display of the musical pitch and error information, and another for alternating display of the time of day and an A-reference setting. User inputs are provided for selecting among several user session modes, including a continual time of day display mode, or a tuning information mode, and a timer display mode. A clamp is provided for mechanically mounting the tuning device to a musical instrument and transmitting acoustic vibrations.
US09443491B2
An information display apparatus includes main image tone value modification means for modifying a tone value to compress a tone of a main image, first projection means for projecting the main image having the compressed tone by the main image tone value modification part with a first polarization component, sub-image tone value modification means for compressing tones of the sub-image, then modifying tone values of the sub-image by adding to the tone values after the compression an offset value, the offset value being not less than the maximum tone value of the main image having the compressed tone, correction image generation means for generating the correction image formed by subtracting the tone values of the main image having the compressed tone from the tone values modified by the sub-image tone value modification means, and second projection means for projecting the correction image with a second polarization component different from the first polarization component overlaying to the main image projected by the first projection means.
US09443484B2
In a liquid crystal display device for performing pause driving, occurrence of flicker is effectively suppressed while an increase in power consumption is suppressed. A frame in which an image signal is inputted without requesting an external portion to input the image signal is set as a refresh frame by a reversal driving technique deciding portion. A pause frame counting portion counts the number of times of pause frames since the previous refresh frame as a count value. The comparison portion compares the count value with a previously set threshold. As a result, when the count value is not smaller than the threshold, the reversal driving technique deciding portion sets a reversal driving technique in the first input frame to dot-reversal driving. When the count value is smaller than the threshold, the reversal driving technique deciding portion sets a reversal driving technique in the first input frame to column-reversal driving.
US09443472B2
A pixel circuit and a display are configured to reduce the size of the pixel circuit, and in turn reduce the pixel pitch and increase the pixel number per unit area, and thus improve the display quality of pictures. The pixel circuit comprises a first pixel sub-circuit and a second pixel sub-circuit, and an initialization module (31) and a data voltage writing module (32) connected to the first pixel sub-circuit and the second pixel sub-circuit, wherein the initialization module (31) is connected to a reset signal terminal and a low level terminal, and is configured to initialize the first pixel sub-circuit and the second pixel sub-circuit under the control of a reset signal input at the reset signal terminal; and the data voltage writing module (32) is connected to a data voltage terminal and a gate signal terminal, and is configured, under the control of a signal input at the gate signal terminal, to firstly write a first data voltage to the first pixel sub-circuit and perform compensation for a driving module (331) of the first pixel sub-circuit, and then write a second data voltage to the second pixel sub-circuit and perform compensation for a driving module (332) of the second pixel sub-circuit.
US09443461B2
To provide a novel driving method for driving an electronic device by using digital gray scale and time gray scale in combination, which secures high duty ratio, which can display an image normally even when a sustain period is shorter than an address period, and which is hardly affected by dulled signal waveform. In a sub-frame period (102) where a sustain period is shorter than an address period, a clear period (105) is squeezed in between completion of a sustain period (104) and start of an address period of the subsequent sub-frame period. The length of the sustain period (104) thus can be set without being limited by the length of an address period (103). This non-display period is provided by changing the electric potential of a storage capacitor line. Therefore, unlike the case where the non-display period is provided by changing the electric potential of a cathode wiring, the present invention is hardly affected by dulled signal waveform.
US09443457B2
There is provided a display control device including a setting unit that sets a type and display position of a pseudo object, an acquiring unit that acquires a parameter for implementing a function of the set pseudo object in one or more devices placed near the set display position, and a display control unit that displays the pseudo object according to the parameter on a display unit, the display unit being one of the one or more devices.
US09443453B2
An illuminated display board includes a frame, a light-transmissive panel, and a light source. The light source is positioned within the frame, and adjacent the light-transmissive panel. The light source is oriented at an angle of between about 25 degrees and about 50 degrees with respect to the light-transmissive panel.
US09443450B2
A display device includes a display element and an image compensation element. The display element includes a main display region and a first periphery display region located at a first side of the main display region, each of the main display region and the first periphery display region includes a plurality of pixels, and a pixel density of the main display region is smaller than a pixel density of the first periphery display region. The image compensation element includes a compensation portion corresponding to the periphery display region, and the image compensation element extends an image of the first periphery display region to one side of the first periphery display region away from the main display region.
US09443431B1
A power system is disclosed including a plurality of power circuits, each power circuit providing an independent power output and including a high-side driver coupled to a high-side switch and a low-side drive coupled to a low-side switch, and control circuitry coupled to each of the power circuits. The control circuitry is operable to detect a present state of each high-side and low-side switch, and prevent two or more of the high-side switches from substantially concurrently switching from a first state to a second state, or two or more of the high-side switches and one or more of the low-side switches from substantially concurrently switching from a third state to a fourth state, or two or more of the low-side switches from substantially concurrently switching from the third state to the fourth state.
US09443428B2
A facility for providing guidance for locating street parking is described. The facility receives an indication of a geographic location with respect to which provide parking guidance, and determines an effective time for which to provide guidance. The facility then provides parking guidance relating to the indicated location at the effective time for a use.
US09443426B1
A method and device for providing wireless notifications to a driver via a mobile device indicating when a stopped traffic condition in the present lane of travel is about to resume flowing.
US09443423B2
An information communication method for use in a portable terminal, e.g., a wristwatch, to obtain information includes a light receiving step of, by at least one of plural solar cells incorporated in the portable terminal and having respective directivities, receiving visible light that is emitted in a direction corresponding to the directivity of the relevant solar cell, and an information acquisition step of obtaining information by demodulating a signal that is specified by the received visible light.
US09443417B2
An apparatus comprising a message outputting device, an FM radio receiver, where the FM radio receiver is configured to obtain utility operator data provided by an FM subcarrier channel, and a processor in electrical communication with the FM radio receiver and the message outputting device is provided. The processor is configured to process the utility operator data and communicate a message in the utility operator data via the message outputting device. In some instances, the apparatus further comprises an input interface in electrical communication with the processor for receiving instructions from a user on whether to alter usage of the apparatus after the message in the utility operator data has been displayed via the message outputting device.
US09443412B2
An integrated line voltage converter and microprocessor-controlled tone generator allow advanced alarm features to be implemented in standard appliances as powered by a high-voltage line power. An integrated switch may also be used to allow the addition of alarm features to standard appliances as a drop-in replacement for door switches.
US09443408B2
A pneumatic sensing apparatus for use in an overheat or fire alarm system comprising a sensing assembly that comprises a sensing means 51, 61, 71, containing a pressurized gas, coupled to a pressure sensor 52, 62, 72. The pressure sensor 52, 62, 72, is configured to produce a signal that is indicative of the gas pressure. The pressure sensor 52, 62, 72, comprises an optical pressure sensor and the signal comprises an optical signal.
US09443405B2
An apparatus is provided, wherein the apparatus includes an audio annunciator of a security system that protects a secured geographic area, a first wireless interface of the annunciator that wirelessly exchanges synchronization and channel maintenance messages with a control panel of the security system under a TDMA format, and a second wireless interface of the annunciator that wirelessly exchanges alarm messages with the control panel of the security system through a second wireless interface under a CSMA/CA format, the second wireless interface being maintained in a deactivated state until an alarm message is detected from the control panel through the first wireless interface, the second interface being activated in response to the alarm message, wherein audio information is thereafter streamed from the control panel to the annunciator through the second wireless interface.
US09443402B2
A simplified Bluetooth Low Energy or Bluetooth compatible vibrator, that can be paired with a cellular telephone or other device, has in one embodiment no buttons, no switches, no ports, no input device, and no display. The vibrator can use a non-rechargeable battery and can be automatically paired with the cellular telephone (or other device) in response to initially inserting the non-rechargeable battery into the vibrator. A low battery monitoring circuit can detect a low battery condition and cause the vibrator to send a low battery warning message to the cellular telephone to remind the user to replace the non-rechargeable battery.
US09443392B2
An improved method for allowing players to make pari-mutuel wagers on previously-run, order-of-finish contests (PROOFCs) includes the steps of enabling the operator of a pari-mutuel wagering enterprise to: (1) access the database of race conditions pertaining to each of the PROOFCs and assemble a specified collection of PROOFCs upon which a player may elect to wager or not wager on a specific PROOFC, (2) select the number of contestants and the race conditions applicable to each of the PROOFCs so as to yield a wagering experience for the player (with sufficiently variable results and an acceptable financial return on the player's wagers) that makes it likely the player will again use this improved method of wagering, and wherein the wagering is conducted such that whether a player's selection is determined to be a winner depends on the performance of the selected contestant.
US09443391B2
A wagering game account management system and its operations are described herein. In some examples, the operations include detecting activation of an account-augmentation mechanism by a single event at a wagering game machine. The account-augmentation mechanism indicates to initiate an electronic transfer of a set amount of funds from at least one account to a gaming account associated with the wagering game machine during a wagering game session. The operations can further include electronically accessing an account setting related to the gaming account and, determining, in response to analysis of the account setting, that the account setting indicates a restriction on use of the at least one account during the wagering game session. The operations can further include automatically applying the restriction to the transfer of the funds.
US09443387B2
Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention operate a controlled entity hybrid game. The controlled entity hybrid game, includes a real world engine constructed to provide a randomly generated payout of real world credits from at least one wager in a gambling game, an entertainment software engine constructed to execute an entertainment game providing outcomes based upon a player's skillful execution of the entertainment game, and a game world engine constructed to manage the entertainment software engine and communicate, to the gambling game, a gameplay gambling event occurrence based upon a player's instruction of a controlled entity to consume an enabling element of the entertainment game that triggers a wager in the gambling game.
US09443386B2
A money dispensing unit, including an electric motor, a control device, which has a storage unit, wherein the electric motor is coupled to the control device of a controllable switch and can be activated with current/voltage of the switch in order to dispense money; and the control device is provided and designed to provide a code. Additionally, a comparison module for receiving the code and comparing the code with a predefined code, wherein if the received code is identical to the predefined code, the switch can be activated in order to supply voltage to the electric motor in order to dispense money is also disclosed.
US09443382B2
Disclosed is a method for enabling a user in an augmented reality gaming venue to use an augmented reality gaming venue component and a mobile device to find a particular game or gaming machine. The method includes: controlling a camera on the mobile device using the augmented reality gaming venue component, once the component is activated; determining the location of the mobile device; determining the orientation of the mobile device; querying a casino management system to retrieve data for the augmented reality gaming venue; generating a list of gaming machines and other objects currently visible to the camera; rendering a camera-captured image on a display of the mobile device; and overlaying icons on the image for each visible object to display additional visual information to a user on the display of the mobile device in response to the user aiming the mobile device at gaming machines or other objects of interest in the augmented reality gaming venue.
US09443378B2
Electronic gaming machines and gaming systems for allowing communication between the electronic gaming machines and a plurality of external systems are described. The electronic gaming machine is configured to provide gameplay of a wager-based game. The electronic gaming machine includes a processor and a memory. The electronic gaming machine further includes a slot accounting system port configured to allow communications between the EGM and a plurality of separate master control systems. The electronic gaming machine includes a universal game module (UGM) having a UGM SAS port, wherein the UGM SAS port is coupled to the SAS port of the EGM with a connector.
US09443376B2
One or more gaming devices, such as slot machines, can be installed onto a gaming device base comprised of façade kits removably attached to a gaming device foundation. The tops of the gaming device bases either have replaceable top surfaces or adjustable attachment points in order to allow different gaming devices to be attached to any given base. In one embodiment of the later, adjustable mounting brackets are utilized that provide elongated bolt hole slots through which bolts can be inserted from a gaming device. The gaming devices are then secured to a base by use of nuts inserted and tightened over the bolts. The adjustable mounting brackets can be slid back and forth when bolts through them have not been secured with nuts. The mounting brackets can also be easily inserted and removed. The result is that the mounting points for gaming devices can be adjusted in two dimensions, allowing for the installation of most gaming devices, regardless of bolt and cable configurations.
US09443374B2
A method and system for randomly selecting numbers for playing a game using a random arrangement of numbered balls placed on an ice layer, or in an ice layer in a capacity. Conditions are created for thawing the ice and allowing the numbered balls to sink and fall exiting the bottom of the capacity. A device below the capacity comprises a detector for sensing a numbered ball that is exiting. A remotely accessed game server enables game players to place stakes on the numbered balls exiting. The detector sensing a numbered ball exiting, communicates with the game server to stop accepting stakes for the numbered balls to be exited.
US09443370B2
Secure access distribution machines and methods for distributing a plurality of medical items to an authorized user. The distribution machine includes a housing enclosing a plurality of bins for storing medical items mounted on carousels. Once the distribution machine has been provided with user identification data, patient identification data, and an item selection, the plurality of carousels is actuated to move a bin holding a selected medical item to a location behind an access door in the housing. The user can then reach into the housing to manually retrieve and then verify the removal of the selected medical item. Only one access door into the housing is opened at any time, thereby preventing unauthorized removal of medical items stored in any other bins within the housing.
US09443362B2
Credential data representing users seeking access to a well-defined space are registered in a reader unit associated with an access-control-related building component. A linked address associates the credential data with a first credential data receiver (EAC1) and/or at least one second credential data receiver (EAC2). The address is stored in a memory at the reader unit or on a portable carrier holding the credential data. If the address identifies the first credential data receiver (EAC1), the reader unit forwards the registered credential data to this unit (EAC1). If the address (A) identifies a particular second credential data receiver (EAC2), the reader unit instead forwards the registered credential data (CD) to this unit (EAC2). When receiving the credential data, the units (EAC1; EAC2) effect at least one decision concerning the well-defined space independently of one another.
US09443359B2
Calibration for a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) includes determining a trigger event configured to initiate a check for updates to calibration data files of the ECU, iterating through calibration part numbers present in the ECU, and accessing, from a memory device in communication with the vehicle, in response to the iterating, a chain of parts table in a linked list that maps calibration part numbers identified in the ECU unit to any subsequently-issued calibration part numbers. The subsequently-issued calibration part numbers reflect an index to the updates to the calibration data files. The calibration also includes searching the chain of parts table using the calibration part numbers identified in the ECU to determine a corresponding subsequently-issued calibration part number, selecting one of the updates to the calibration data files using the subsequently-issued calibration part number from the memory device, and updating the ECU with the selected update.
US09443356B2
Methods and systems for augmenting situational awareness using a controllable window are described. An environmental condition within a field of view of the controllable window is determined. Light transmissivity of the controllable window is selectively changed based on the determined environmental condition. In some implementations, multiple points of view can be provided to multiple viewers.
US09443354B2
Embodiments that relate to interacting with a physical object in a mixed reality environment via a head-mounted display are disclosed. In one embodiment a mixed reality interaction program identifies an object based on an image from captured by the display. An interaction context for the object is determined based on an aspect of the mixed reality environment. A profile for the physical object is queried to determine interaction modes for the object. A selected interaction mode is programmatically selected based on the interaction context. A user input directed at the object is received via the display and interpreted to correspond to a virtual action based on the selected interaction mode. The virtual action is executed with respect to a virtual object associated with the physical object to modify an appearance of the virtual object. The modified virtual object is then displayed via the display.
US09443346B2
A method of creating an image including providing three-dimensional image data of an anatomy, providing a model of a portion of the anatomy, and creating a virtual radiograph of a target portion of the anatomy using information from the image data and information from the model. The method may further include representing the portion of the anatomy in a modified state, wherein the modified state is a resected, translated, rotated, and/or otherwise modified portion of the anatomy. The method may further include adding a virtual image of a prosthetic device to the virtual radiograph. The virtual radiograph may by created by executing a ray casting process on the three-dimensional image data.
US09443327B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, can perform rendering and un-rendering using profile replacement. A computer implemented method includes obtaining source image data associated with a source input-referred color space, transforming the source image data to intermediate image data associated with an intermediate input-referred color profile, applying a rendering operation to the intermediate image data by associating the intermediate image data with an intermediate output-referred color profile, and transforming the intermediate image data to destination image data associated with a destination output-referred color space using the intermediate output-referred color profile. The method further includes making available for output the destination image data.
US09443326B2
The subject disclosure is directed towards automatically labeling location-related information such as corresponding to GPS data or the like with a semantic label. A classifier trained with machine learning is provided with feature data corresponding to the location-related information and other features, such as user demographics data of a person associated with location-related information. The semantic label is received from the classifier, and associated with the location-related information. Other features may be used, such as other egocentric features corresponding to a person's particular visit, features from a sequence of visits, and/or features from other user information. The semantic label may be used to trigger an action, label a location on a map or the like, and so on.
US09443322B2
A method for correcting color shading artifact of an image and associated apparatus is provided. The method comprises: providing a plurality of bases, calculating a plurality of coefficients respectively associated with the bases, generating a correction map by summing the bases respectively weighted by with the coefficients, and providing a corrected image by correcting the image according to the correction map. Each basis is capable of providing a basic correction value for each pixel of an intermediate image which is associated with the image.
US09443311B2
A method and a system in which an image of an object having a tip end and a plurality of markings disposed on an outer surface is acquired, a distance between the measurement system and each of the plurality of markings and a plurality of angles at which the object is positioned in the three-dimensional space are determined, a three-dimensional vector of the object is determined based on the distance between the measurement system and each of the plurality of markings and based on the plurality of angles at which the object is positioned in the three-dimensional space, and a position of the tip end in the three-dimensional space is determined based on the distance to each of the plurality of markings and based on the three-dimensional vector of the object.
US09443308B2
A method for a six degree of freedom position and orientation determination of a known shape in a scenery is disclosed. The method includes taking a range image with a range imaging camera and a visual picture with a digital camera. The range imaging camera includes a sensor array with a first number of pixels. Determining a 3D cluster of points from range information collected from the sensor array to a point of the scenery. the digital camera comprises an image sensor having a second number of pixels, resulting in a 2D picture. A stored 3D digital representation of the known shape may be fitted in a virtual space to match the reproduction of the known object in the 2D picture and the 3D cluster of points and determining the six degree of freedom position and orientation of the known shape according to the virtual match.
US09443306B2
A digital image is automatically cropped to fit within a desired frame. The cropping is based on one or more of two identified portions of the image. One of the portions is an all-subjects portion that includes all the identified subjects of a particular type in the image. The other portion is an attention portion that identifies an intended focus of the image. An attempt to crop the image to include both of these portions is made, and if unsuccessful then an attempt to crop the image to include at least the all-subjects portion is made. If neither of these attempts is successful, then the image is cropped to include one or more, but less than all, of the identified subjects of the particular type in the image.
US09443305B2
A computerized system for displaying and making measurements based upon captured oblique images. The system includes a computer system executing image display and analysis software causing the computer system to display at least one oblique image having corresponding geo-location position data; receive one or more signals indicative of user selection of at least two points on a man-made structure depicted within the at least one oblique image; and calculate at least one measurement between the at least two points on the man-made structure depicted within the at least one oblique image using the geo-location position data associated with the at least one oblique image. The system may calculate at least one measurement using a series of interconnected line segments between at least two points on a geographic structure depicted within the at least one oblique image using the geo-location position data associated with the at least one oblique image.
US09443300B2
A method for analyzing a bondline in a structure is provided. The method includes obtaining, from a first side of the structure, by at least one computing device, at least one first internal image of the structure that includes at least a first pattern associated with the bondline, wherein the structure is in a pre-loaded state and obtaining, from the first side of the structure, by the at least one computing device, at least one second internal image of the structure that includes at least the first pattern, wherein the structure is in a loaded state. Additionally, the method includes comparing, by the at least one computing device, the at least one first internal image with the at least one second internal image, and determining, by the at least one computing device, at least one stress and/or strain-related property of the bondline based on the comparison. The method additionally includes predicting an estimated life of the bondline, whereby the estimated life provides a valuable tool for optimization of maintenance effort and enabling cost-optimal maintenance decisions.
US09443295B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for reducing artifacts in Computed Tomography (CT) image reconstruction. The method comprises acquiring an original reconstructed image, then conducting total variation processing for the original reconstructed image generating a total variation reconstructed image, conducting an initial metal artifact reduction processing for the original reconstructed image generating an initial metal artifact reduction reconstructed image, generating a weighted image based on the total variation reconstructed image and the initial metal artifact reduction reconstructed image, wherein the weighted image reflects that the original reconstructed image contains white-band artifactsd combining a portion of the original reconstructed image and a portion of the initial metal artifact reduction reconstructed image through the weighted image to generate a final image, wherein the final image does not contain white-band artifact.
US09443292B2
This disclosure pertains to novel devices, methods, and computer readable media for performing “blind” color defringing on images. In one embodiment, the blind defringing process begins with blind color edge alignment. This process largely cancels every kind of fringe, except for axial chromatic aberration. Next, the process looks at the edges and computes natural high and low colors to either side of the edge, attempting to get new pixel colors that aren't contaminated by the fringe color. Next, the process resolves the pixel's estimated new color by interpolating between the low and high colors, based on the green variation across the edge and the amount of green in the pixel that is being repaired. Care is taken to prevent artifacts in areas that generally do not fringe, like red-black boundaries and skin tone. Finally, the process computes the final repaired color by using luminance-scaling of the new pixel color estimate.
US09443291B2
In one example embodiment, a lens calibration method includes generating a distorted image by distorting a pattern image that includes at least two reference points separated from a center of the pattern image by different distances. The method further includes generating lens calibration data by comparing the pattern image with the distorted image.
US09443290B2
This disclosure pertains to novel devices, methods, and computer readable media for performing color defringing on image data. In photography, particularly RAW images, different artifacts can affect the quality of the edges of objects in the image. This effect is generally more noticeable when the edge has high contrast. One motivation for the described techniques is the understanding that, typically, not all pixels of an image exhibit color fringing. Usually, fringing only occurs in high-contrast edges. Mere masking of the effects of the whole-image operations can improve the result, but further improvements are still possible. This disclosure also pertains to novel devices and computer readable media for performing red-blue color reconstruction on data from a variety of color filter arrays (CFAs).
US09443282B2
This image processing circuit performs, with reduced power consumption, pipeline processing of image data. This image processing circuit has an image processing unit which performs pipeline processing of image data having N-bit pixel data. The image processing unit has a pipeline register (400) having upper bit flip-flop circuits (401), lower-order bit flip-flop circuits (402), a comparison circuit (403) which determines whether the input values and the output values of the upper bit flip-flop circuits (401) are the same, and a clock gating control circuit (404) which controls supply of the clock signal such that, when the aforementioned input and output values are the same, the clock signal is not supplied to the upper bit flip-flop circuits (401). The pipeline register (400) does not have a circuit for controlling supply of the clock signal to the lower 1-bit flip-flop circuits (402), and holds pixel data or calculation results during pipeline processing.
US09443279B2
Systems, apparatus, articles, and methods are described including operations to communicate synchronization notifications between a co-processor graphic data producer and a co-processor graphic data consumer via a direct link without passing such communications through the central processing unit.
US09443276B2
An electronic device enabled with a Near Field Communications (“NFC”) reading capability may perform event-based asset tracking and/or order adherence, and/or rewards management in conjunction with a Software Service Platform. Assets may be provided with intelligent Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) tags in which such is associated with trackable event and such event may be associated with a master order of one or more such events. The electronic device may be programmable such that the various functions may be provided by application programs which may be preloaded on the electronic device as one or more client applications, provided to the NFC-enabled electronic device as a “software as a service” (“SaaS”) delivery, or provided to the NFC-enabled electronic device in any other desired manner.
US09443274B1
A system gathers information on important and influential people and builds a social graph. The information is organized based on this social graph and provided to users as a service. The system continually updates information in the social graph by crawling websites and other sources of information. When a user wants to keep updated with a person of the system, the user can establish a watch. The system processes the requirements of the user from the watch and alerts the user when the requirements are met.
US09443268B1
A system for processing bill payments from a consumer to one or more creditors may provide the consumer with a credit report and options to make payments on tradelines present on the credit report. The system may also report the payment information to one or more credit bureaus. Additionally, the system may automatically identify the consumer's accounts, enroll the consumer in online bill payment with creditors, provide account alerts, recommend payments, provide access to electronic statements, and/or provide contextual action buttons for the consumer's accounts.
US09443265B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for selecting catalog items for display on a network page. The catalog items have corresponding catalog item identifiers and catalog item representations. In response to a network request, a response is received. The response includes catalog item object identifiers but excludes the corresponding catalog item object representations. At least one of the catalog item object representations is requested using the corresponding catalog object identifier. At least one of the catalog items is selected for inclusion on a network page. The selection is based on an attribute in the catalog item object representation. The network page is displayed to a user.
US09443263B1
Disclosed are a travel destination one stop shopping system based on 3D panoramic image and a control method thereof. That is, a virtual reality is implemented by making a tag associated with a corresponding product or store be included in a 3D panoramic image of products displayed at a store or a small store on a road view without an online shopping mall, interested product purchase and delivery functions are performed through providing information on the product or store associated with the selected tag when the tag associated with the product or store is selected, shopping information of a corresponding area is previously collected and verified based on the 3D panoramic image before departing for a travel destination, and performs a payment function of a traveler dedicated prepaid multi-product discount coupon as necessary.
US09443243B2
Location-based services are provided in a communication system comprising at least a portion of at least one wireless network. In one aspect of the invention, mobile user devices that are located within a common geographic area are identified, and location-based service information is delivered to the identified mobile user devices over a broadcast channel shared by those mobile user devices. A response to the location-based service information maybe received from at least a given one of the mobile user devices, and at least one message maybe controllably delivered to the given one of the mobile user devices based on the response to the location-based service information.
US09443241B2
A card validation system determines a first set of cell identifiers of a card validation matrix to associate with a first merchant and a user and transmits the first set of cell identifiers to a first merchant. The system receives a request to validate a card and receives, from the first merchant, a first set of received cell values corresponding to the first set of cell identifiers of a card validation matrix. The system determines a first set of stored cell values corresponding to the first set of cell identifiers of the card validation matrix. The system compares the first set of received cell values to the first set of stored cell values. Based at least in part upon the comparison, the system determines whether the card is validated.
US09443238B2
The present invention provides a payment system that allows a mobile communications device (MCD) to interact with a merchant processing device (MPD) and a payment engine. A communications component associated with the payment engine can send requested barcodes to the MPD, receive barcodes or alphanumeric Universal Product Codes from customer MCDs, and handle payment authorizations and settlements. A barcode management component can generate and interpret barcodes based upon merchant offerings and client requests. A security algorithms component can employ an offset pair algorithm to convert each digit from a payment card information into an offset pair of digits to facilitate security in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
US09443235B1
A method and apparatus for third party control of a device have been disclosed. By utilizing a third party to control a device, view and control of a device may be separated.
US09443233B1
A method for approving a commercial transaction using a customer generated fractal image. The method includes receiving, from a central authority, a seed, and receiving a request for the customer generated fractal image for payment of the commercial transaction with a merchant. In response to the request, payment device information is obtained and the customer generated fractal image is generated using the seed and the payment device information. The customer generated fractal image is displayed on the mobile device where it is scanned by the merchant to obtain a scanned fractal image. The scanned fractal image is sent, by the merchant, to the central authority. The central authority approves the commercial transaction by generating an expected fractal using a copy of the payment device information and the seed, and comparing the scanned fractal image with the expected fractal.
US09443232B1
A text based communication from a sender to a recipient is analyzed to automatically detect a no-specific-time (NST) text segment within the text communication. Responsive to detecting the NTS text segment, establishment of a firm time consistent with the NST text segment based on availability of the recipient per an electronic calendar of the recipient, referred to hereafter as the recipient's calendar, is programmatically facilitated. The NST text segment references a future time for a gathering that is lacks a specific date and time. Facilitating establishment of the firm time includes accessing an electronic calendar of the recipient, which is maintained by a server independent of a communication server responsible for sending and receiving communications for the recipient.
US09443228B2
A system and machine-implemented method for differentiating participants in a group conversation within a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, via displaying a collection of contact icons on the graphical user interface, each contact icon respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of participants in a group conversation, wherein the group conversation provides for sharing communication messages among the plurality of participants including the user; determining which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation; and differentiating, in the graphical user interface, display of the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation from the remaining contact icons.
US09443222B2
Systems and methods for enabling a picker to correctly identify and pick inventory items from a warehouse or storage facility are provided. An exemplary portable picking-assistance device comprises first and second communication devices. The first communication device is configured to electronically receive a first item list including one or more items to be retrieved by an operator from a predetermined storage area. The one or more items may be selected from a plurality of items stored in the predetermined storage area. The second communication device is configured to communicate radio frequency signals to a first radio frequency (RF) tag of a plurality of RF tags. The first RF tag is associated with a first item listed on the first item list. An indication is provided to the operator confirming an identification of the first item to be retrieved by the operator.
US09443216B2
An approach for managed instant communication (or chat)-based helpdesk services. An inquiry for a support service is received, at a helpdesk management platform, from a customer requesting assistance, the inquiry including one or more parameters defining the support service. A response is generated to the inquiry based on the one or more parameters, the response indicating a plurality of helpdesks associated with at least one service provider. An instant communication session is established between the customer and one of the helpdesks. The instant communication session is placed into a queue for an agent associated with the one helpdesk.
US09443213B1
Adapting web-based applications in a client/server web-based architecture is provided. At least a first version and a second version of a client/server application is provided. An adaptable application platform monitors a client and a server in a client/server web-based architecture for one or more performance characteristics. If one or more configurable performance characteristics exceeds a threshold, the adaptable application platform switches dynamically between executing the first version to executing the second version. The first version is server preferring and the second version is client preferring.
US09443210B2
A product configurator comprises a constraint network having a plurality of nodes. The configurator allows a modeler to designate that one of more nodes of a configuration are input-required nodes. During an interactive session, the configurator may receive a request for an auto-completion of the configuration. The configurator will determine if an input has been received for the input-required nodes, and prohibit the auto-completion if the input has not been received.
US09443203B2
Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein relate to a control unit comprising a memory having stored thereon a feature database that includes feature data, a portion of which is labeled with a transition from an ambulation mode and a memory having stored thereon a pattern recognition controller that is trained using the labeled feature data, wherein the pattern recognition controller is configured to predict the ambulation mode of an assistive device and the control unit is configured to communicate with sensors coupled to the assistive device.
US09443201B2
Systems and methods to monitor a signal from an apparatus are disclosed. A feature extracted from the signal is automatically defined. Signals are received over a period of time wherein the apparatus is in a normal operational mode. Features are classified in a learning mode and are applied to create a reference model that defines a within-normal operational mode. In a testing mode a signal generated by the apparatus is received, a feature is extracted and classified. Instantaneous data generated in operational mode by the apparatus is classified by the system as abnormal if it does not lie within boundaries of the reference model or contains information/structure in an orthogonal subspace. A learned reference model is augmented by a user or automatically. In one illustrative example the apparatus is a power generation equipment and the signal is an acoustic signal.
US09443188B2
Provided is an operating number-counting piezoelectric dispenser including a piezoelectric pump dispensing a liquid by using a piezoelectric element as an actuator. According to the operating number-counting piezoelectric dispenser, damages to a piezoelectric actuator may be predicted and the piezoelectric actuator may be replaced before the damages are caused, thereby preventing process loss and defective products and improving productivity.
US09443182B2
A card key has a structure in which an engagement projection of a cell cover engages with an engagement recess of a card key body to fix the cell cover to the card key body. An engagement contact surface of each of the engagement recess and the engagement projection, which are engaged with each other, is provided at an angle of 90° relative to a direction of sliding of the cell cover. The card key body is provided with an escape sloped surface that allows deformation of a first side portion of the cell cover by avoiding interference with a second side portion of the cell cover, thereby to enable the cell cover to be pulled out from the card key body. Therefore, removal of the cell cover is eased. Further, even if the card key receives a shock, the cell cover is restricted from being unexpectedly detached.
US09443178B2
An image processing apparatus includes a detection unit and a determination unit. The detection unit detects an error by comparing image data related to a print job with read image data obtained as a result of reading a print output related to the print job. The determination unit compares read image data related to a post-error print output, which is a continuously-printed print output related to the print job for a page subsequent to a page in which the error is detected, with the image data when the error is detected by the detection unit, so as to determine a process for recovering the print job by using the post-error print output.
US09443172B2
An image forming apparatus includes a light source, a reflector, a photosensitive member, a light receiver, and an integrated circuit chip. The integrated circuit chip outputs, to the light source, a lighting signal for controlling lighting of the light source. The integrated circuit chip includes a synchronizing signal output circuit, a receiver, a first OR circuit, and a first wiring line. The synchronizing signal output circuit is configured to output a synchronizing signal for lighting the light source. The receiver is configured to receive a first image data signal outputted from an external circuit, the first image data signal being for lighting the light source. The first OR circuit is configured to output a first lighting signal that is a logical sum of the synchronizing signal and the first image data signal. The first wiring line connects the synchronizing signal output circuit with the first OR circuit.
US09443171B2
A method for printing with a printhead, comprising: generating a first imaging matrix comprising cells each containing information related to the ink to be deposited on a corresponding area of the print medium; on the basis of said first matrix, generating a second imaging matrix, comprising cells each containing information related to the ink drops to be deposited on a corresponding area of the print medium; wherein some cells of the second matrix are prioritized and for some of them the information related to the ink drops depends on a cell of the first matrix that corresponds to a different area of the print medium than the area of said prioritized cell of the second matrix; such that upon printing, nozzles of the printhead associated with some prioritized cells fire ink that in the first matrix is associated with areas of the print medium corresponding to non-prioritized cells.
US09443168B1
An object detection method can begin with receipt of an ensemble classifier previously trained upon a binary dataset of images for an object. The ensemble classifier can be defined by a list, W, of N weak classifiers, wn for n=1, . . . , N. The ensemble classifier can be trained as a detector for the object using a training dataset of images; each image can have a set of candidates having one or more known ground truth candidates. As a result of training, the weak classifiers can be reordered, based upon performance, into a new list, W′, and a rejection threshold on candidate rank can be assigned for each detection stage. A cascading algorithm can be performed using the trained detector to detect the object in an image having known object candidates. The rejection threshold for a stage of the cascading algorithm can be applied to a rank of the object candidates.
US09443158B1
A method of identifying bigrams of glyphs within a digital image. Classifiers are configured through training to differentiate between glyph orientations, allowing for accurate pairing and positive identification of the bigram. Embodiments include assistive technology devices which read playing cards held in-hand by visually impaired users and convey the rank and suit of each card to the player by non-visual means.
US09443155B2
A method for real face image recognition may include obtaining, by at least one processor, an human face image from an original image; obtaining, by at least one processor, a first image by executing a Point Divid Arithmetic Mean Illumination Treatment on the human face image; executing, by at least one processor, a Fourier transformation on the first image and obtaining, by at least one processor, the transformed value of each pixel of the first image; determining, by at least one processor, whether the human face image is a real human face according to the transformed value of each pixel of the first image and the preset classification threshold.
US09443146B2
A method to create a photo diary includes creating an entry for a time period in the photo diary. Creating the entry includes selecting candidate frames from digital videos created or received in the time period. Selecting the candidate frames includes performing people and pet detection on the digital videos, extract frames with people and pets from the digital videos perform people recognition on the frames with people to identify frames with recognized persons. The method further includes sorting the candidate frames with recognized persons and pets into groups based on criteria, selecting representative frames from the groups, and presenting the representative frames in the entry.
US09443137B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for detecting body parts, the method including identifying a group of sub-images relevant to a body part in an image to be detected, assigning a reliability coefficient for the body part to the sub-images in the group of sub-images based on a basic vision feature of the sub-images and an extension feature of the sub-images to neighboring regions, and detecting a location of the body part by overlaying sub-images having reliability coefficients higher than a threshold value.
US09443127B2
A cell analyzing apparatus includes: a first histogram acquiring section which is configured to acquire a first histogram of fluorescence intensities by using a result of a measurement of a number of nuclear stained cells; a second histogram acquiring section which is configured to acquire a second histogram that is normalized based on a fluorescence intensity value indicating a maximum value of the first histogram; a determining section which is configured to determine whether cancer cells exist or not, based on one of the first histogram and the second histogram; and an outputting section which is configured to output a result of the determination performed by the determining section.
US09443123B2
An indicia-verification system acquires video and analyzes the video to determine whether it contains any images of an indicia that are of sufficient quality to merit the initiation of indicia verification. If the video is of sufficient quality, the system acquires a high resolution still image of the indicia. If the still image is of sufficient quality, an indicia-analysis subsystem performs indicia verification on the still image of the indicia.
US09443116B2
Embodiments of the invention provide for device authentication in a flexible display computing device. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for device authentication in a flexible display computing device includes pre-storing in memory of a computing device, data corresponding to a pattern of folds of a flexible display of the computing device. The method also includes receiving a subsequent authentication request in the computing device and, in response, monitoring a folding of the flexible display and computing data corresponding to a pattern of the monitored folding. The method yet further includes comparing in the memory of the computing device the computed data to the pre-stored data. Finally, the method includes granting access to the computing device if the pattern of the monitored folding compares to the pattern of folds based upon a threshold degree of equality between the computed data and the pre-stored data.
US09443108B1
A method and system for retrieving a current and previous timestamp value, retrieving a previous accumulator value reflecting a previous state of the accumulator, retrieving information representing digests collected during an interval window, and generating a new accumulator value based on the retrieved values, and a storage medium with executable code for retrieving a first and second timestamp, a first and second accumulator value, information representing digests, and for validating data by comparing the second accumulator value with a hash of the first timestamp, the first accumulator value, and the information.
US09443104B2
Structured data, such as email addresses, social security numbers, and the like is accessed for encoding. A set of encoding rules including one or more encoding actions and/or encoding components corresponding to each of one or more structured data components is accessed. The set of encoding rules can include one or more encoding actions and/or one or more encoding components corresponding to each of one or more structured data components. Encoding actions can include tokenization, encryption, data masking, data modification, and the like. The one or more components of the structured data are encoded based on the accessed set of encoding rules. The encoded structured data is stored, processed, or outputted to an external entity.
US09443089B1
Described is a system for mobile proactive secret sharing. The system utilizes a Secret-Share protocol to share, by server Pj, a secret s among a set of servers , such that a degree of polynomials used to share the secret s is d and a shared secret is denoted as [s]. A GenPoly protocol is used to cause the servers in the set of servers to generate l random polynomials of degree D. A Secret-Redistribute protocol is used to redistribute the shared secret [s] to a set of new servers ′. Finally, a Secret-Open protocol is used to open the shared secret [s].
US09443077B1
A program binary file is identified as part of a webpage, where the file can be downloaded from the webpage for execution by a client. A browser-executable web application or browser extension that is installed on a client computing device as a consequence of executing the program binary is identified, where source code for the web application or browser extension includes scripting language code. The source code of the web application or browser extension is re-written to include tracking code to track behavior during execution of the re-written web application or browser extension. It is determined whether execution of the re-written web application or browser extension violates one or more predetermined conditions. Then, it is determined whether to discourage downloading the program binary from the webpage to the client computing device or whether to disable execution of the web application or browser extension on the client.
US09443076B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for protecting user settings of an application from third-party application changes are provided. An example method for protecting a user setting of an application from a third-party application change includes verifying a digital signature of a backup application setting, and determining whether a provided actual application setting matches the backup application setting when the digital signature of the backup application setting is verified. The example method further includes replacing the provided actual application setting with the backup application setting when the provided actual application setting is determined to not match the backup application setting. The example method also includes displaying, to a user, a document using the replaced actual application setting. The example method further includes displaying, to the user, an indication that the provided actual application setting has been changed when the provided actual application setting is determined to not match the backup application setting.
US09443066B2
Embodiments may be configured to receive a protected version of content that includes multiple encrypted content samples. In various embodiments, each encrypted content sample includes multiple encrypted blocks. For a given encrypted content sample, different sets of encrypted blocks in that sample may form different encryption chains. The protected version of the content may further include decryption information for decrypting the encrypted content samples. The decryption information may include at least some initialization vectors generated dependent upon non-content information that is not included in the protected version of the content. The non-content information may be from a different protected version of the content. Embodiments may be configured to use the decryption information to decrypt one or more of the encrypted content samples.
US09443065B1
Systems and methods that relate to security enforcement for shared content are described. A system includes an interface component that facilitates a display of information indicative of an option to select a defined level of security for a first subset of content of a plurality of content, wherein the defined level of security is indicative of a first type of secure environment. The first type of secure environment can be a hypertext transfer secure (HTTPS) environment or any environment in which content is encrypted prior to transmission over the Internet. A security component determines an association between the first subset of content and the defined level of security; and generates decision information to facilitate output, to a device, of the first subset of content associated with the defined level of security based on a determination that the device provides the first type of secure environment.
US09443063B2
A method, computer-readable storage device and apparatus for calculating a health quality measure are disclosed. For example, a method receives characteristics of motion information, wherein the characteristics of motion information is based upon gait information, monitors the characteristics of motion information over a time period to determine a plurality of different modes of motion within the time period, and calculates the health quality measure based upon the plurality of different modes of motion.
US09443060B2
Provided is a method for assessing cardiovascular risk in Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes patients. The method involves obtaining data from a Type 2 diabetes patient or a Metabolic Syndrome patient and determining a Fayad/Schentag index which includes a Glucose Supply Index (S) to an Insulin Demand Index (D) ratio. The Fayad/Schentag index is used in scoring cardiovascular risks of Metabolic Syndrome patients and for recommending and implementing therapeutic interventions that can be shown to lower cardiovascular risk.
US09443058B2
A urine work area manager comprises a computing unit and a set of machine executable instructions stored in a memory for execution by the computing unit. The computing unit transfers commands and data between a urine test strip reader and the manager using a first interface, and transfers commands and data between a urine sediment analyzer and the manager using a second interface. In operation, the computing unit instructs the urine test strip reader to analyze a plurality of urine samples, receives a strip analysis result from the urine test strip reader, and generates a first set of instructions for controlling the urine sediment analyzer using the strip analysis result. The computing unit further instructs the urine sediment analyzer to analyze the plurality of urine samples with the first set of instructions and receives a sediment analysis result from the urine sediment analyzer using the second interface.
US09443048B2
A method of performing physical aware technology mapping in a logic synthesis phase of design of an integrated circuit and a system to perform physical aware technology mapping are described. The system includes a memory device to store a logic design of the integrated circuit, and a processor to subdivide a core area representing a sub-block of the integrated circuit into equal-sized grids, the core area including one or more input ports and one or more output ports, to determine a location of each latch in a logic design based on an algorithm, to determine a location of each combinational logic gate in the logic design, and to obtain the technology mapping based on the locations of the one or more latches, the locations of the one or more combinational logic gates, and associated path delays.
US09443047B2
A method of performing physical aware technology mapping in a logic synthesis phase of design of an integrated circuit and a system to perform physical aware technology mapping are described. The method includes subdividing a core area representing a sub-block of the integrated circuit into equal-sized grids. The method also includes determining a location of each of one or more latches in the logic design based on an algorithm, determining a location of each of one or more combinational logic gates in the logic design based on the locations of the one or more latches, and obtaining the technology mapping based on the locations of the one or more latches, one or more input ports, or one or more output ports, the locations of the one or more combinational logic gates, and associated path delays.
US09443042B1
Embodiments of systems and methods are disclosed for evaluating a superabrasive material by a three-dimensional model generated using a computed tomography scanner. The model is analyzed to identify a superabrasive matrix within the model and at least one performance characteristic of the superabrasive material is determined according to at least one property of the superabrasive matrix. Methods are also disclosed for characterizing crystal-to-crystal bonding regions and non-superabrasive material within an interstitial matrix of the superabrasive matrix.
US09443039B2
Dive computers incorporating a variety of features are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention includes a dive computer including a microprocessor, memory configured to store a software application, a pressure transducer configured to determine depth information, and a communications device configured to communicate with external devices, wherein the software application configures the microprocessor to create a dive log stored in memory, wherein the dive log includes recorded information including depth of submersion information recorded from the pressure transducer, and transmit the dive log using the communications device.
US09443036B2
Systems and methods for generating geo-aware auto-suggestions for searching are provided. Characters corresponding to user input for a search query to a searching service may be processed prior to completion of the search query. Information about a geographical location may be processed. A geographical area of interest and potential correction(s) may be identified. Geo-specific suggestions may be determined based on the search query and/or a selected correction. The geo-specific suggestions may correspond to one or more identified businesses located in the geographical area of interest. The determining the geo-specific suggestions may include identifying business listing information corresponding to the geographical area of interest and the search query and/or a selected correction. The geo-specific suggestions may be indicated as a user-selectable option to complete the search query in a search query field for a search engine and/or to submit to the search engine as a selected search query.
US09443031B2
Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for capturing images with an imaging sensor device using a web browser of a user computer device. A user may use a user computer device to capture (i.e., acquire) images over the web. A web browser of the user computer device is used to access a web site and download a dynamic link library (DLL) to the user computer device. The DLL may be executed in a web browser environment of the user computer device to capture an image via an imaging sensor device.
US09443020B2
A search engine server delivers search results to a web browser of a client device communicatively coupled to the search engine server via the Internet. The system identifies new web pages in a source language during crawling, translates them into a plurality of destination languages, creates reverse indexes in respective languages, and stores both reverse indexes and cache web pages in a database. Upon the entry of search strings by a user using a web browser, the search engine server responds by delivering links of web pages in the user-desired language (the language of the search string or a language chosen by the user) as well as web pages translated from a plurality of destination languages, ranked based upon popularity or other means. The search engine server contains a plurality of translators that translate new web pages, links that are obtained during crawling, in to a plurality of destination languages.
US09443011B2
Techniques describe submitting a video clip as a query by a user. A process retrieves images and information associated with the images in response to the query. The process decomposes the video clip into a sequence of frames to extract the features in a frame and to quantize the extracted features into descriptive words. The process further tracks the extracted features as points in the frame, a first set of points to correspond to a second set of points in consecutive frames to construct a sequence of points. Then the process identifies the points that satisfy criteria of being stable points and being centrally located in the frame to represent the video clip as a bag of descriptive words for searching for images and information related to the video clip.
US09443007B2
A system may include multiple personal data sources and a machine-implemented data extractor and correlator configured to retrieve personal data from at least one of the personal data sources. The data extractor and correlator may extract information from unstructured data within the retrieved personal data and correlate the extracted information with previously stored structured data to generate additional structured data. The system may also include a storage device configured to store the previously stored structured data and the additional structured data. A natural language query module may be configured to receive a natural language query from a user and provide a response to the natural language query based at least in part on one or both of the previously stored structured data and the additional structured data.
US09442999B2
A system for different electric loads includes sensors structured to sense voltage and current signals for each of the different electric loads; a hierarchical load feature database having a plurality of layers, with one of the layers including a plurality of different load categories; and a processor. The processor acquires voltage and current waveforms from the sensors for a corresponding one of the different electric loads; maps a voltage-current trajectory to a grid including a plurality of cells, each of which is assigned a binary value of zero or one; extracts a plurality of different features from the mapped grid of cells as a graphical signature of the corresponding one of the different electric loads; derives a category of the corresponding one of the different electric loads from the database; and identifies one of a plurality of different electric load types for the corresponding one of the different electric loads.
US09442993B2
A metadata management system receives metadata changes and automatically updates a metadata architecture which maps the data. The metadata changes may be received through a simple user interface by a user or administrator. Once received, the system may automatically update schemas and data transformation code to process data according to the new data mapping preference. The system may handle metadata updates in a multi-tenant system having one or more applications per tenant, and may update data for a single tenant and 1 or more tenant applications in a multitenancy.
US09442992B2
Signal data from a sensor is stored in a storage device. The signal data is accessed by means access request that includes an identification of a base signal that may indicate the signal data from said sensor and an identification of a derivation to obtain a requested signal from the base signal. An interface extracts the identifications of the base signal the derivation. The interface tests whether stored signal data obtained from the base signal by said derivation is available in the storage device, and if so it returns the stored signal data in response to the access request via the interface. If not signal data is derived from further stored signal data by at least one signal processing operation identified in the derivation.
US09442980B1
The present invention relates generally to a system and method of querying an anonymized database. More particularly, the invention provides a method and system for querying an anonymized database without the need to decrypt queried data while it's processed. Even more specifically, the invention provides a method and system of anonymizing a database such that it may be queried efficiently in near real time while still retaining the ability to not decrypt requested data while it's being processed.
US09442971B2
Resource reservation request information originated by a client application during a first phase of a distributed multi-phase transaction is received at a processor. The resource reservation request information specifies a first resource the client application intends to access during a first subsequent phase of the distributed multi-phase transaction after the first phase of the distributed multi-phase transaction is completed. The requested first resource is reserved on behalf of the client application. A transaction weighted priority is assigned to the distributed multi-phase transaction of the client application based upon a stage of completion of the distributed multi-phase transaction.
US09442967B2
A query may be provided to aggregators at hierarchical levels in an in-memory data storage module. The query may be provided to leaf nodes of the in-memory data storage module. The leaf nodes may execute the query, returning results of the query to the aggregators. One or more aggregations may be performed based on the results. In an embodiment, log entries associated with a logged event may be serialized and divided into distributed chunks for storage in the leaf nodes. A leaf node, from the leaf nodes, having storage capacity for a distributed chunk may be identified. The distributed chunk may be stored in the leaf node.
US09442963B2
Methods, system, and devices for improving pre-modeling processing of data for use in predictive modeling. A computing device may be configured to perform operations for processing client data using metadata describing various client-specific parameters. Received client data may be loaded within stage tables based on the client-specific parameters, such flat file locations. The computing device may perform various validation checks on the loaded data, such as checks to identify duplication data records associated with client data received at different times, duplication data records occurring within an overlap period, and deleted records. In an embodiment, the computing device may perform additional checks to validate data records that include changing status information, such as marital status data of an employee. The computing device may use processed client data to generate weekly aggregated tables based on custom aggregation timeframes. In an embodiment, the computing device may archive aggregated data for subsequent use.
US09442950B2
Systems and methods for a dynamic visual search engine are provided. In one example method, a criteria used to partition a set of compressed image descriptors into multiple database shards may be determined. Additionally, a size of a dynamic index may be determined. The dynamic index may represent a dynamic number of images and may be configured to accept insertion of reference images into the dynamic index that can be search against immediately. According to the method, an instruction to merge the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors may be received, and the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index may be responsively merged into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors based on the criteria.
US09442940B1
A computer-implemented method for selecting file-recall modes based on environmental properties may include (1) intercepting a request to recall a file from a secondary storage system to a primary storage system, (2) identifying a value of a dynamic environmental property associated with the file that may negatively impact performance of a mode of recalling the file from the secondary storage system to the primary storage system, (3) identifying a policy that comprises criteria for selecting an appropriate recall mode for recalling the file from the secondary storage system to the primary storage system, (4) adaptively selecting, by applying the policy to the value of the dynamic environmental property, a recall mode for recalling the file, and (5) recalling the file from the secondary storage system to the primary storage system using the selected recall mode. Various additional methods, systems, and configured computer-readable-storage media are also disclosed.
US09442939B2
Particular embodiments store a business object attachment in a specific storage location associated with a business object. In this embodiment a computer receives an attachment for the business object along with information regarding the business object. The information regarding the business object may include a business object identifier and a business object type identifier. With this information, the computer defines routing attribute fields for the attachment. Using the routing attribute fields and the business object type identifier, the computer calculates a target content repository and a target path for the attachment. The computer then determines which content management system contains the target repository and interfaces with that target content management system to direct that content management system to store the attachment in the target repository at the target path.
US09442938B1
In one aspect, a method includes using a file system layer configured to interact with a plurality of volumes and enabling an application to interact with any of the plurality of volumes using a single file system format provided by the file system layer. At least two of the plurality of volumes have different file system formats.
US09442936B2
A Cooperative Grid Based Picture Archiving and Communication System (Grid PACS for short) is a multimedia (imaging) medical information archiving, communication and application system used in hospitals. Based on the existing PACS servers, workstations, or other networked multimedia image management systems, it adds and integrates grid-based network functionality into the existing image systems to form new grid-based image communication and management system.It uses service-oriented and event-driven concepts and methods to design and implement a new grid-based image communication and management system to solve the problems encountered in distributing archived image information, coordinating work and managing in a virtually centralized way (Virtual Super-PACS) of different PACS or archiving systems under varied operating environments.
US09442933B2
The invention pertains to methods, systems, and apparatus for identifying segments within a media item, the media segment including at least one of audio content and video content, comprising segmenting the media item into a plurality of segments as a function of subject matter, storing data identifying each segment and its subject matter, and organizing each segment within an ontology based on its subject matter.
US09442925B2
A system for consolidating data messages includes a memory that stores data messages. Each of the data messages has a user field, an outside party field, and a timestamp field. The first data message's user field is associated with a first user, the outside party field is associated with a first outside party, and the timestamp field is associated with a first timestamp. The third data message's user field is associated with a first user, the outside party field is associated with a first outside party, and the timestamp field is associated with a third timestamp. A processor then groups the first data message and the third data message based at least in part upon the user field, outside party field, and timestamp field of each message. The processor then combines the first data message and the third data message into a consolidated data message.
US09442918B2
A computer-implemented method of managing perspective data associated with a common feature in items is disclosed. The method can include identifying a common feature in a first item and a second item, the first item having a set of perspective data and establishing a subset of perspective data associated with the common feature. The method can include associating the subset of perspective with the second item. The method can include determining a set of relevancy scores for the subset of perspective data associated with the common feature and establishing a set of relevant perspective data from the subset of perspective data. The set of relevant perspective data can have relevancy scores outside of a relevancy threshold. The method can include associating the set of relevant perspective data with the second item.
US09442912B1
Aspects and implementations described herein are directed to systems and methods of distributing online content. The distribution of online content may include receiving a request for content items for a designated space having a size. A data processing system may estimate a number of content items for the space given the size. A second number of content items, greater than the estimated number, may be provided in response to the request. Data may be received indicative of a third number of content items rendered in the space, which may be equal to or less than the second number, and the content items may be selected in an online auction.
US09442904B2
Systems and methods described herein enable a residual error image to be added and rendered in an existing HTML canvas using native primitives. A current image and a residual error image containing pixel value differences between the current image and an updated image are received. A positive residual error image and a negative error image are generated from the residual error image. The positive residual error image is added to the current image to generate a partially updated image, and the partially updated image is xored to generate an inverse image. The negative residual error image is added to the inverse image to generate an updated inverse image, and xoring the inverse image to revert the inverse image to generate the updated image.
US09442900B2
An apparatus for arranging a plurality of elements includes a memory that stores a program and a processor that executes the program stored in the memory. The processor acquires a first element and a second element, each of which strides over a page partition position corresponding to a bottom of a first page in a vertical direction. The processor arranges the first element and the second element, so that the first element is divided, at a position of the first element corresponding to the page partition position over which the second element strides, into the first page and a second page, and a whole of the second element is arranged to the second page.
US09442898B2
A system that generates one or more fonts for a document is provided. Glyph data associated with the one or more fonts is modified in a way that modifies one or more glyphs, but does not affect how the one or more glyphs are displayed within the document. Subsequently, character mappings are created, where each character of a plurality of characters is mapped to one or more modified glyphs.
US09442897B2
After target software starts, whether a module with an image display function has been loaded by the target software may be determined. When determining that the module with the image display function has been loaded by the target software, a global hook may be injected into the module with the image display function. After receiving a screenshot instruction, screenshot may be executed with the global hook.
US09442896B2
Embodiments are directed to processing documents on a computer. A document may received on a computer over a platform specific interface. The document may be provided to a platform independent engine where parser may be configured to parse the document based on a page description language (PDL) that comprises the document. A plurality of feature objects may be generated based on feature information. Intermediate documents may be generated based on the plurality of feature objects. The intermediate documents may be stored on a data store for various reasons including, backups, archiving, sharing, or the like. A preview document may be generated from the at least one intermediate document arranged such that the preview document may displayable on the computer. A user may be further enabled to provide edit information that may be used for generating an updated preview document.
US09442892B2
Based at least in part on one or more characteristics relating to a measurement system, a polygonal space in a Fourier domain is determined. A representation of a function that is bandlimited within the polygonal space is computed.
US09442889B2
An apparatus comprises a decoder and an actuator. The decoder is configured to receive a signal comprising a target olfactory pleasantness, to determine one or more combinations of odors which produce the target olfactory pleasantness, and to select a given one of the combinations of odors. The actuator is coupled to the decoder and configured to utilize the given combination of odors to produce an odor with the target olfactory pleasantness.
US09442888B2
One variation of a method for renting a vehicle includes: receiving a signal from a fleet manager, the signal specifying a current availability of the vehicle for rent; updating a visual indicator arranged on the vehicle according to the signal, the visual indicator visually detectable from outside the vehicle; receiving identification information of a user proximal the vehicle; enabling access to the vehicle for the user in response to verification of the user as a driver of the vehicle; determining, through a sensor arranged within the vehicle, that the user is seated in a driver's seat within the vehicle; and enabling ignition of the vehicle for the user in response to determination that the user is seated in the driver's seat.
US09442879B2
Methods, apparatus, and systems, for transporting data units comprising multiple pieces of transaction data over high-speed interconnects. A flow control unit, called a KTI (Keizer Technology Interface) Flit, is implemented in a coherent multi-layer protocol supporting coherent memory transactions. The KTI Flit has a basic format that supports use of configurable fields to implement KTI Flits with specific formats that may be used for corresponding transactions. In one aspect, the KTI Flit may be formatted as multiple slots used to support transfer of multiple respective pieces of transaction data in a single Flit. The KTI Flit can also be configured to support various types of transactions and multiple KTI Flits may be combined into packets to support transfer of data such as cache line transfers.
US09442876B2
A network interface controller includes a plurality of host interfaces configured to communicate with a plurality of processing nodes, a plurality of network interfaces configured to provide network communication for the processing nodes to a network, and a shared resource configured to provide link based services and stateless offload services for the processing nodes when communicating with the network.
US09442874B2
An expansion unit includes a connector to which a remote unit is connected, an embedded memory that records therein information in a nonvolatile manner, an external memory I/F into which a memory card is inserted, a CPU that performs reading of the operation information set in the remote unit connected via the connector and performs writing of the operation information into the remote unit connected via the connector, and a memory switching switch that sets a writing destination of the operation information read from the remote unit connected to the connector and a reading source of the operation information to be written into the remote unit connected to the connector to any one of the memory card inserted into the external memory I/F and the embedded memory.
US09442873B2
Systems and methods for direct memory access are described. One example system includes a memory module that includes a first memory portion that maintains transfer descriptors of direct memory access (DMA) channels, and a second memory portion that maintains transfer descriptors of enabled DMA channels. The system includes a controller coupled to the memory module, the controller includes one or more DMA channels coupled to a system bus, a channel arbiter that selects one of the enabled DMA channels as an active DMA channel for data transfer including re-arbitrating after each burst or beat in a given transfer, and an active channel buffer that receives a transfer descriptor of the active DMA channel from the second memory portion. The controller is configured to write back the transfer descriptor of the active DMA channel into the second memory portion when the active DMA channel loses arbitration.
US09442859B1
A method and system for transferring data from mass storage devices to the high speed data cache in a manner that imposes minimal overhead to the normal input/output mechanism and minimizes the load placed on the device being cached is disclosed herein. Minimizing the load placed on the slower device and minimizing the overhead of processing input/output requests results in optimal performance.
