US09538407B2

A method of receiving control information in a wireless communication system includes receiving position information for searching at least one downlink control channel, a downlink control channel carrying control information of at least one user equipment, receiving multiplexed downlink control channel in which a plurality of downlink control channels are sequentially multiplexed and sequentially searching the downlink control channel on the multiplexed downlink control channel according to the position information. The number of detection attempts to detect its own control information can be reduced.
US09538406B2

The present disclosure provides a method for using a terminal to detect a small-scale cell at the edge of coverage of the small-scale cell in a wireless communication system in which a macrocell and the small-scale cell coexist. The present invention may include: a step of measuring a macrocell; a step of comparing a value related to the reference signal received quality (RSRQ) acquired according to the macrocell measurement with at least one critical value; a step of determining whether or not to carry out at least one interference removal function for receiving a signal from a small-scale cell in accordance with the determined results; and a step of detecting the signal from the small-scale cell when the interference removal function is actuated.
US09538403B2

Methods and devices relating to Discontinuous reception (DRX) mode are disclosed. In some embodiments a radio network controller detects that a User Equipment operating in a Discontinuous reception mode has performed an uplink transmission on a Random Access Channel, RACH and sends a signal to a Node B that received the uplink transmission indicating to the Node B that the UE has performed said uplink transmission and is continuously monitoring downlink transmissions, where the signal includes information identifying the UE.
US09538398B2

The present invention is applicable to the field of communications, and provides a method, an apparatus and a system for establishing a neighbor relation. The method includes: receiving a discovery message sent by a long term evolution element management system LTE EMS for discovering an LTE to 3rd generation mobile communication 3G neighbor relation; obtaining, according to the discovery message, an LTE-3G neighbor relation policy corresponding to the LTE-to-3G neighbor relation among locally stored LTE-3G neighbor relation policies; and establishing a 3G-to-LTE neighbor relation if the policy allows a bidirectional neighbor relation. The technical solutions provided in the present invention have the advantage that a network terminal has few limitations.
US09538397B2

A base station is provided in which a terminal efficiently controls a demodulation reference signal for a data signal transmitted from the base station in a wireless communication system in which the base station and the terminal communicates with each other. The base station that performs a communication with the terminal includes a data signal generation unit that generates a data signal for terminal, and a demodulation reference signal for a data signal multiplexing unit that multiplexes a demodulation reference signal for a data signal, which is a known signal for demodulating the data signal, into the data signal. The scramble code included in the demodulation reference signal for the data signal is generated based on a first scramble ID and a second scramble ID that are notified from the base station to the terminal.
US09538396B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a device for measuring a channel in a wireless communication system, and comprises a step of, during a handover, receiving information on a specific time interval from a first cell, receiving a signal from a second cell through the specific time interval, and measuring the second cell using the received signal, wherein the first cell and the second cell are different from each other.
US09538395B2

Techniques are provided for utilizing selected inter-frame spacing, such as reduced inter-frame spacing (RIFS) or short inter-frame spacing (SIFS) to avoid failed data transmissions in a Wi-Fi network or the like. For example, there is provided a method, operable by a transmitter node or entity, such as, for example, an access point (AP), that may involve sending a data transmission in a data aggregation mode, the data transmission comprising aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs). The method may involve monitoring for and detecting potential short interference bursts in the network. The method may involve re-sending the data transmission in a data bursting mode, the data transmission comprising back-to-back data packet bursts separated by a selected inter-frame spacing.
US09538394B2

A method for bearer signalling management in a communication network comprising of transporting bearer resource request message of both the UE and RN via DeNB to managing entity of RN within EPC, as a signalling message over uplink channel referred to as ‘Union of Resource Request (UR Request)’ message. The bearer resource response message from one of the managing entity of RN or managing entities of UE and RN within EPC are transported as a signalling message to Evolved Packet Edge (EPE) via DeNB over the downlink channel referred to as ‘Union of Admission Response (UA Response)’. This manages bearer setup signalling as a single loop, by transportation of ‘UR Request’ signalling message and receiving one ‘UA Response’ signalling message over uplink and downlink channels respectively. EPE is a conglomeration of network nodes comprising of UEs, RNs and all other network nodes that communicate over EPC via DeNB.
US09538391B2

An apparatus for sharing frequencies in an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing OFDM-based wireless communication system, wherein the OFDM-based wireless communication system comprises a base station and a mobile device that work within a radio frequency band, the method comprising: detecting an interference signal in the radio frequency band; setting by the base station, based upon the interference signal, interference indication information in a control header of a downlink frame to be sent to the mobile device, the interference indication information indicating a frequency range that is occupied by the interference signal in the radio frequency band; and sending by the base station the downlink frame to the mobile device, such that the mobile device may, based upon the interference indication information, avoid the frequency range where the interference signal is located.
US09538383B2

Access to femto cell service is managed through access control list(s), or “white list(s).” Such white list(s) can be configured via a networked interface which facilitates access management to a femto cell. White list(s) includes a set of subscriber station(s) identifier numbers, codes or tokens, and can also include additional fields for femto cell access management based on desired complexity. Various interfaces and user profiles are associated with granting different levels of access to requesting UEs.
US09538382B2

The embodiments described herein include a transmitter that transmits a power transmission signal (e.g., radio frequency (RF) signal waves) to create a three-dimensional pocket of energy. At least one receiver can be connected to or integrated into electronic devices and receive power from the pocket of energy. A wireless power network may include a plurality of wireless power transmitters each with an embedded wireless power transmitter manager, including a wireless power manager application. The wireless power network may include a plurality of client devices with wireless power receivers. Wireless power receivers may include a power receiver application configured to communicate with the wireless power manager application. The wireless power manager application may include a device database where information about the wireless power network may be stored.
US09538377B2

A system stores first information, provided by a first user input via a mobile operating system, which enables access to a first restricted access website. The system stores a first screenshot and first data associated with the first restricted access website in response to a first user request, via the mobile operating system, to switch to a second restricted access website. The system stores second information, provided by a second user input via the mobile operating system, which enables access to the second restricted access website. The system stores a second screenshot and second data associated with the second restricted access website in response to a second user input, via the mobile operating system, to switch to the first restricted access website. The system outputs the first screenshot supported by the first data. The system enables access to the first restricted access website based on the stored first information.
US09538376B2

Methods and apparatuses for authenticating data communications are disclosed. In a method an intermediate node between a sender device and a receiver device obtains an authenticator associated with the sender device. The intermediate node authenticates the sender device such that the intermediate node acts as the receiver device towards the sender device. The intermediate node is then authenticated to the receiver device such that the intermediate node uses the authenticator associated with the sender device for the authentication to transparently intervene data communications from the sender device to the receiver device.
US09538374B2

The invention relates to a method for vehicle communication via a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system (3), to which a vehicle diagnosis interface (10) having an interface connector (11), an interface module (12) and an air interface (13) is connected, and in which: vehicle diagnosis data (I) from a vehicle are transmitted from the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system (3) of the vehicle to a mobile user communication terminal (20) via the air interface, and the mobile user communication terminal (20) is associated with the vehicle and also the vehicle diagnosis data (I) are transmitted from the mobile user communication terminal (20) to a data network system (40) via a communication network (30), wherein the data network system (40) makes the vehicle diagnosis data (I) available to the mobile user communication terminal (20) again.
US09538368B2

Provided is a method for transceiving data in a wireless LAN system on the basis of a station (STA). The method comprises: receiving an allocation for an association ID (AID) by associating with an access point (AP); and exchanging data with the AP during the channel access period for an STA group comprising the STA. The STA group is grouped on the basis of the AID.
US09538366B2

Systems and methods for a customer care system. An example diagnostics back-end system may be associated with a telecommunications provider. The diagnostics back-end system may perform diagnostic analyzes of information and settings associated with a mobile device, identify resolvable issues based on the diagnostic analyzes, determine execution eligibility of each of one or more solution actions associated with each resolvable issue and upon determination that execution of the one or more solution actions are eligible, cause display of a single graphical user interface button at a user interface device of a customer care agent terminal, wherein activation of the single graphical user interface button causes execution of associated solution actions performed on the mobile device.
US09538365B2

A method for transmitting and receiving data between a plurality of nodes, each performing a periodical standby operation at a specific interval, includes: a step of detecting another communicable node performed by one node; a step of consecutively transmitting notice information representing data transmission timing to another node for a plurality of number of times at a predetermined interval by using the one node; a step of performing a standby operation for data according to the data transmission timing represented in the notice information performed by the another node receiving the notice information within the periodical standby operation; a step of transmitting the notice information to the another node according to the data transmission timing performed by the one node; and a step of receiving the transmission data transmitted from the one node according to the notified data transmission timing performed by the another node.
US09538364B2

A method and electronic device for subscriber identification module (SIM) selection are provided. The method includes determining an ear, from among a user's ears, corresponding to at least one sensor signal, and selecting a SIM, from among a plurality of SIMs, corresponding to the determined ear.
US09538341B1

The present invention comprises a holster for securing a PTT switch to a user that employs a single piece body having opposed top and bottom sides connected by a generally curved side to define a switch chamber. The invention further includes a portion of hook-and-loop fabric secured to the bottoms side for engaging a complementary fabric and a protective tab extending outwardly from said top side for protecting the PTT switch from inadvertent activation.
US09538336B2

An image that includes a point of interest is captured using an image capturing device that is part of the mobile data collection platform. Raw observables are obtained from a GNSS chipset that is internal to the mobile data collection platform. A position fix of the mobile data collection platform is determined based on the raw observables where the position fix defines a location of an antenna. A location of an entrance pupil is calculated as an offset of the location of the antenna. Orientation information comprising a tilt angle and an azimuth angle is determined. The position fix and the orientation information are associated with a three dimensional location that the mobile data collection platform is at when the image was captured. Scale information is captured. The image, the position fix, the scale information, and the orientation information are stored in hardware memory of the mobile data collection platform.
US09538334B2

A method and apparatus for use in a mobile device telemetry system is disclosed. The method and apparatus relate to a telematics furtherance visualization system. The system can sense mobile device remote observation misalignment risk and reconcile mobile device remote observation alignment by communicating a subsequent log of mobile device vector data for rendering a sequence of next positions in the furtherance of a mobile device. The system can also provide an adaptive rendering based upon a phase shift, a log of mobile device vector data, or predictive rendering until receipt of the next subsequent log of mobile device vector data.
US09538331B2

Methods, apparatuses, and systems relating to narrow beam communications and wireless networking are disclosed. Exemplary methods for wireless networking and communications may include identifying a geographic area, receiving topography data related to the geographic area, analyzing the topography data, identifying a first line of sight path related to a first access point location and one or more customer premises device locations based at least in part on the analyzing, and identifying a second line of sight path based at least in part on a predetermined amount.
US09538329B1

A device disposed on a subject for determining whether the subject is inside or outside of a containment zone, the containment zone having a portion of a structure intersecting the perimeter thereof. There is a positioning unit for generating position data, including satellite position data having a carrier to noise ratio. There is a processor unit configured to determine if the carrier to noise ratio is greater than a first predetermined threshold indicating that the subject is not under the structure or less than a second predetermined threshold indicating that the subject is under the structure. If the carrier to noise ratio is greater than the first predetermined threshold, the processor unit determines from the position data if the subject is inside or outside of the containment zone and if less than the second predetermined threshold, the subject is assigned to a virtual position in the containment zone different.
US09538326B2

A first monitoring device is disposed at a predetermined position and configured to monitor a location of an information apparatus that is movable, by performing a radio communication with the information apparatus. A second monitoring device is movable and configured to monitor a location of the information apparatus by performing the radio communication with the information apparatus. An apparatus monitoring device causes the radio communication with the information apparatus to be taken over between the first monitoring device and the second monitoring device, and collects results of monitoring the information apparatus, from the first monitoring device or the second monitoring device which has taken over the radio communication with the information apparatus.
US09538301B2

There is provided a method of operating a device, the device comprising a plurality of audio sensors and being configured such that when a first audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors is in contact with a user of the device, a second audio sensor of the plurality of audio sensors is in contact with the air, the method comprising obtaining respective audio signals representing the speech of a user from the plurality of audio sensors; and analyzing the respective audio signals to determine which, if any of the plurality of audio sensors is in contact with the user of the device.
US09538277B2

A method and apparatus for controlling a sound input path in an electronic device. The method includes detecting a connection of an earphone device to an earphone interface; detecting a sound input through an earphone microphone, when detecting the connection of the earphone device. The earphone microphone is selected as a sound input device, when detecting the sound input through the earphone microphone. A built-in microphone of the electronic device is selected when the sound input through the earphone microphone is not detected.
US09538272B2

An acoustically permeable material is disposed within an aperture of an electronic device to provide aesthetic appeal for the electronic device and protection for an acoustic device mounted within the electronic device. A stiffener is used in conjunction with the acoustically permeable material to improve its ability to resist permanent mechanical deformation from external forces. In some embodiments the stiffener may have multiple cavities enabling improved isolation between multiple acoustic devices within the same aperture. Other methods of employing acoustically permeable materials are disclosed that improve the aesthetic appeal, acoustic performance and/or manufacturability of the electronic device.
US09538270B2

Disclosed is an acoustic speaker (1) including a plurality of loudspeakers (10), a flexible element (2) for supporting the loudspeakers, and a flexible sheath (5) for external coating of the loudspeakers and the flexible supporting element.
US09538268B2

An improved loudspeaker system includes an asymmetrical array of dissimilar drivers, namely a first driver and a second complementary driver configured in an array and driven in parallel so that the measured on-axis frequency response and the output power (SPL) is improved as compared to a symmetrical array (with similar or matched midrange or mid-bass drivers), while retaining a flat tonal balance. This speaker system and method for voicing was discovered to provide lower distortion, improved frequency response and greater clarity as compared to the prior art or traditional (e.g., MTM) loudspeaker configurations.
US09538263B2

A sensor for measuring at least one measurement variable, a sensor network which has several sensors and a method for operating the sensor network. The sensor initially has a measurement variable sensor which is used to convert the measurement variable into an electric signal. A transducer is used to convert the electric signal into measurement data. The sensor has a first communication interface for transferring the measurement data and other data in accordance with a first protocol and a second communication interface for transferring the measurement data and other data in accordance with a second protocol. The sensor also has a data exchange unit for exchanging data between the transducer, the first communication interface and the second communication interface.
US09538249B2

Systems and methods are described for subscriber-driven resource shifting in an attempt to maximize delivery of desirable content to subscribers while minimizing the impact of that content delivery to network infrastructure resources. When a media plan subscriber requests access to media content, and the requested object is determined not to be “watch-nowable” (e.g., it would be undesirable to deliver the object in substantially real time to the subscriber given present communications resource availability) embodiments identify a number of content objects that are presently watch-nowable content objects with respect to the requesting subscriber. Of those watch-nowable content objects, various techniques are presented for determining a set of alternate content objects, including those most likely to provide the subscriber with a similar level of engagement. Embodiments present those alternate content objects to the requesting subscriber as alternatives to the requested content object in exchange for a discount.
US09538247B2

Methods and systems for image alteration. A video signal having multiple images is accessed, and images are altered to blur the video signal based on a subscriber alteration request. The alteration request is selectable among a partial blur, a full blur, and a restore image. The request includes instructions to selectably blur a partial portion of an image by stretching a first portion, without stretching a second portion. The alteration includes accessing an alternation setting selected from a cycle of alteration settings, a group of preprogrammed alteration settings and combinations thereof. The blurred video signal is provide for presentation by subscriber equipment. The video signal is restored in response to a restorative event detected within the blurred video signal. The detecting of the restorative event includes determining a location of a scene change in the blurred video signal.
US09538245B2

A media system and a method of providing recommended search term corresponding to an image are disclosed. Herein, a display device may be configured to display a still image of the content and a search window on a display screen. And, an electronic device may be configured to verify whether or not an image or a portion of the image has been dragged to the displayed search window, wherein the image may be included in the still image, and, when the image or the portion of the image has been dragged to the search window, the electronic device may be configured to send directions to the display device, so that the display device can display multiple search terms related to the image or the portion of the image as recommended search term on the search window.
US09538233B2

A digital video recorder (DVR) has a memory manager to determine a particular date and a particular video program in a download schedule for which the DVR will reach a low memory condition based on the download schedule and an amount of unoccupied memory space in the DVR. The DVR outputs a display signal to indicate the particular date and the particular video program.
US09538231B2

A method for rendering application user interfaces on a television screen executes at a computer system coupled with the television screen. The computer system includes one or more processors and memory storing a plurality of applications configured for execution by the one or more processors. The method provides a user interface of a first application of the plurality of applications for display on the television screen. The method receives from a personal user device a user interface of a second application. The personal user device is distinct from the computer system and the user interface of the second application is provided by one or more programs executing on the personal user device. The method concurrently displays on the television screen the user interface of the first application and the user interface of the second application.
US09538224B2

Segmentation messages indicative of locations of upcoming events, such as the start and end of programs and program portions, and/or rights related to the programs and program portions, are used by cable systems and the like to store programs and program portions for later retrieval and transmission to customers on request. Storage, retrieval and management of programming is thereby facilitated. Methods and systems are disclosed.
US09538223B1

A method and computing system for providing, using one or more computing devices, a synchronous communication session for a plurality of users of a social network. A first video stream of a first user of the plurality of users is rendered within a primary viewing field associated with the synchronous communication session. At least a second video stream of at least a second user of the plurality of users is rendered within the primary viewing field associated with the synchronous communication session.
US09538214B2

A dynamic broadcast system as well as a terminal and a control device for use in such a dynamic broadcast system are presented. Transmission parameters, transmission times and transmission paths used for broadcasting and providing content, either via a broadcast network or a broadband network to terminals used in the dynamic broadcast system are dynamically controlled. Further, a decision logic is provided that dynamically decides transmission parameters, transmission times and transmission paths used for broadcasting and providing content based on monitoring data carrying information on user specific content usage and/or transmission quality data carrying information on the quality of a transmission link between a broadband server and a terminal and/or of a reception of content broadcast by a broadcast transmitter.
US09538213B2

A method includes retrieving multimedia content from a first content source. The multimedia content includes a video stream and a native audio stream. The method includes retrieving a prioritized audio stream from a second content source that is different than the first content source. The method includes synchronizing the multimedia content and the prioritized audio stream by introducing a delay in the prioritized audio stream to generate a synchronized audio stream. The method includes adding the synchronized audio stream to the video stream to form a composite stream. The method also includes initiating a transmission of the composite stream to a media playback device.
US09538197B2

Methods and systems to apply motion estimation (ME) based on reconstructed reference pictures in a B frame or in a P frame at a video decoder. For a P frame, projective ME may be performed to obtain a motion vector (MV) for a current input block. In a B frame, both projective ME and mirror ME may be performed to obtain an MV for the current input block. The ME process can be performed on sub-partitions of the input block, which may reduce the prediction error without increasing the amount of MV information in the bitstream. Decoder-side ME can be applied for the prediction of existing inter frame coding modes, and traditional ME or the decoder-side ME can be adaptively selected to predict a coding mode based on a rate distribution optimization (RDO) criterion.
US09538195B2

A video decoding method includes extracting offset mergence information of a current largest coding unit (LCU), the offset mergence information indicating whether to adopt a second offset parameter as a first offset parameter of the current LCU; reconstructing the first offset parameter of the current LCU based on the offset mergence information, the first offset parameter including an offset type, an offset value, and an offset class of the current LCU; determining whether the current LCU is an edge type or a band type, based on the offset type; determining an edge direction according to the edge type or a band range according to the band type, based on the offset class; determining a difference value between reconstructed pixels and original pixels included in the offset class, based on the offset value; and adjusting pixel values of reconstructed pixels based on the difference value.
US09538191B2

A moving image coding apparatus, a code amount control method, and a code amount control program enable appropriate code amount control to be performed in units shorter than frames. The moving image coding apparatus includes a coding unit, a quantization parameter determination unit, and a target code amount setting unit. The target code amount setting unit designates the number of macroblocks and sets a target code amount as a code amount to be allocated to the designated number of macroblocks. The quantization parameter determination unit calculates, for each macroblock, a quantization parameter to be used in quantization of a current macroblock based on a sum of absolute transformed differences SATD used in a motion estimate process. The moving image coding apparatus performs quantization using the calculated quantization parameter value.
US09538188B2

A method and apparatus for encoding and decoding a video are provided. The method of encoding the video includes: determining whether a unidirectional motion estimation mode and a bidirectional motion estimation mode are to be used based on a size of a current prediction unit to be encoded, performing the motion estimation and the motion compensation on the current prediction unit according to the determining of whether the unidirectional motion estimation mode and the bidirectional motion estimation mode are to be used, determining an optimum motion estimation mode of the current prediction unit based on an encoding cost of the current prediction unit obtained through the performing of the motion estimation and the motion compensation, and encoding information indicating the determined optimum motion estimation mode based on the size of the current prediction unit.
US09538176B2

Methods for scalable video coding are described. Such methods can be used to deliver video contents in Low Dynamic Range (LDR) and/or one color format and then converting the video contents to High Dynamic Range (HDR) and/or a different color format, respectively, while pre-processing video content.
US09538172B2

A video encoding device is configured to generate a first group of syntax elements. Each syntax element in the first group indicates whether a prediction mode of a respective prediction unit (PU) is based on an index into a list of most probable modes. A second group of syntax elements is generated that correspond to respective syntax elements in the first group. The syntax elements in the second group identify either an index into the list of most probable modes or an intra-prediction mode. The first group of syntax elements are context adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) encoded, and the second group of syntax elements are bypass encoded. A video decoder is configured to receive the entropy encoded first and second groups of syntax elements. The video decoder CABAC decodes the first group of flags and bypass decodes the second group of flags.
US09538157B2

Embodiments include methods, systems, and/or devices that may be used to image, obtain three-dimensional information from a scene, and/or locate multiple small particles and/or objects in three dimensions. A point spread function (PSF) with a predefined three dimensional shape may be implemented to obtain high Fisher information in 3D. The PSF may be generated via a phase mask, an amplitude mask, a hologram, or a diffractive optical element. The small particles may be imaged using the 3D PSF. The images may be used to find the precise location of the object using an estimation algorithm such as maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), expectation maximization, or Bayesian methods, for example. Calibration measurements can be used to improve the theoretical model of the optical system. Fiduciary particles/targets can also be used to compensate for drift and other type of movement of the sample relative to the detector.
US09538155B2

Novel methods and systems for decoding and displaying enhanced dynamic range (EDR) video signals are disclosed. To accommodate legacy digital media players with constrained computational resources, compositing and display management (DM) operations are moved from a digital media player to its attached EDR display. On a video receiver, base and enhancement video layers are decoded and multiplexed together with overlay graphics into an interleaved stream. The video and graphics signals are all converted to a common format which allows metadata to be embedded in the interleaved signal as part of the least significant bits in the chroma channels. On the display, the video and the graphics are de-interleaved. After compositing and display management operations guided by the received metadata, the received graphics data are blended with the output of the DM process and the final video output is displayed on the display's panel.
US09538144B2

A system and method for providing lane sensing on a vehicle by detecting roadway lane-markers, where the system employs multiple cameras providing images around the vehicle. The method includes detecting left-side and right-side lane boundary lines in the camera images, and then determining whether the lane boundary lines in the images are aligned from one image frame to a next image frame and are aligned from image to image. If the boundary lines are not aligned, then calibration of one or more of the cameras is performed, and if the lines are aligned, then a model fitting process is used to specifically identify the location of the boundary lines on the roadway.
US09538140B2

A method, a receiver, a computer program and a system for providing an interactive service in association with a motion picture service. The motion picture is displayed to the spectator via a receiver able to modify the motion picture displayed to the spectator and having a bi-directional network connection. The method, receiver, computer program and system are characterized in that a connection is formed that connects a plurality of participants to an interactive motion picture session, a selection of a target area in the motion picture is received, a selection of a graphical element to be associated with the target area is received, the target area is translated to a coordinate system shared by each participant in the interactive motion picture session and the graphical element is provided between the participants.
US09538123B2

Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for switching streams in response to detecting a start trigger are presented. A program's start trigger indicating that the program is upcoming may be detected on a first stream, and in response to detecting the start trigger on the first stream, a second stream containing the program may be switched to. The program may be a video program. Segment triggers may be detected and may be used to selectively record and/or delete segments of the program according to a priority scheme. Multiple start triggers may be detected at decreasing time intervals. The existence of a recording conflict may be determined based on a program's start trigger and a user may be alerted of the recording conflict.
US09538120B2

In a method and system for offline content playback, a first plurality of portions of content streamed from a content sharing service for presentation by a media player is received. A request from a user to make the content available for offline playback is received, and in response to the request, a second plurality of portions of the content streamed from the content sharing service for presentation by the media player is stored. The first plurality of portions is requested and received from the content sharing service. The received first plurality of portions is stored, such that the first plurality of portions and the second plurality of portions are available for offline playback.
US09538117B2

A television apparatus comprises a support frame and a leg member extending from the support frame to support the support frame in an inclined orientation. The television apparatus further comprises a display panel unit having a chassis movably mounted to the support frame via a first coupling assembly mounted between a right side edge portion of the chassis and a right side section of the support frame, and a second coupling assembly mounted between a left side edge portion of the chassis and a left side section of the support frame.
US09538116B2

A method and apparatus for displaying a plurality of secondary images based on image data of a primary image include displaying a primary image and a plurality of secondary images based on the image data of the primary image. Each of the plurality of secondary images is displayed having a size based on a relevance of each respective one of the plurality of secondary images to the primary image. The primary image can be selected from a plurality of images or a frame of a video. Subsets of secondary images can be displayed in clusters including images having content similar to particular content of the primary image.
US09538114B2

A system includes a voice converter converting a first voice command into a first electrical command and a command library having library contents. A language responsiveness module (LRM) stores the first electrical command in a temporary set when a first control command cannot be determined from the library contents. A voice prompt module receives a second voice command when the first control command cannot be determined from the library contents. The voice converter converts a second voice command into a second electrical command corresponding to the second voice command. The LRM compares the second electrical command to the command library. The LRM determines a second control command corresponding to the second electrical command in response to comparing the second voice command to the command library and stores the first voice command in the command library after determining the control command corresponding to the second voice command.
US09538112B2

An image sensor including a photoelectric converter, a charge-voltage converter, a transfer transistor to transfer a charge from the photoelectric converter to the charge-voltage converter whereby potential of the charge-voltage converter changes to a first direction, an amplifier transistor to output a signal corresponding to potential of the charge-voltage converter to a column signal line, the amplifier transistor sequentially outputting, to the column signal line, noise level and light signal level, a capacitance between a control signal line and the charge-voltage converter, and a control unit to change a potential of the control signal line so that the potential of the charge-voltage converter changes to a second direction opposite to the first direction in a period in which the charge-voltage converter is in floating and which is prior to outputting the noise level.
US09538106B2

An image sensor and a method of operating an image sensor to achieve a substantially uniform power signature. An array of pixels may be scanned using analog sensing circuitry to obtain an analog sensor output. The scanning is performed over a first time interval. The analog sensor output is converted to a digital data output using digital logic circuitry. The converting occurs over a second time interval that is subsequent to the first time interval and may be substantially the same duration as the first time interval. While the array of pixels are being scanned, the digital logic circuitry is operated over the first time interval and substantially coincides with the scanning of the array of pixels.
US09538103B2

A signal processing unit includes: a synchronizing signal control section configured to control length of a synchronizing signal for a predetermined row in a frame, in which the synchronizing signal serves as a basis of charge read processing that reads charge from a pixel array on a row basis; and a timing adjustment section configured to adjust timing of electronic shutter operation of unit pixels, according to the length of the synchronizing signal for the predetermined row controlled by the synchronizing signal control section.
US09538100B1

Systems and methods for receiving image information with spectral components in the visible and near infrared (NIR) spectral ranges and separating the image information in the visible spectral range from the image information in the NIR spectral range is described. The separation of the of the visible and NIR spectral range image information may be performed using a colorimetric calibration matrix. The colorimetric calibration matrix may be determined based at least in part on training image information with a known tristimulus matrix.
US09538096B2

Methods and apparatus for producing images having variable lateral magnification. One example of such a method includes receiving a first image having a first level of magnification and representing a first field of view, simultaneously receiving a second image having a second level of magnification and representing a second field of view, the second level of magnification being higher than the first level of magnification and the second field of view being narrower than the first field of view, and digitally processing the first and second images to produce a composite image having a variable lateral magnification derived from the first and second levels of magnification.
US09538088B2

A zoom lens includes: a first lens group having positive refractive power; a second lens group having negative refractive power; a third lens group having positive refractive power; a fourth lens group having positive refractive power; a fifth lens group having negative refractive power; and a sixth lens group having positive refractive power. The first to sixth lens groups are arranged in order from an object side. A total length of the zoom lens varies when a lens position state varies from a wide end state to a telephoto end state. A focusing operation is performed through allowing the fifth lens group to travel along an optical axis in accordance with variation in a subject distance from infinite to a closer distance.
US09538087B2

An image processing device includes first and second image signal processors (ISPs) independently capable of processing an image received from an image sensor. The first ISP processes a first image having a first resolution and the second ISP processes a second image having a different second resolution.
US09538070B2

A generation section generates a first display image based on an image signal output from an image pick-up device, and a second display image based on first and second image signals output from the image pick-up device. An identification section identifies an image region in the second display image generated by the generation section satisfying both a first condition and a second condition. The image region identified by the identification section is then displayed so as to be distinguishable from other regions in the second display image. The first condition indicates a condition of the magnitude of contrast being a first specific value or greater, and the second condition indicates a degree of matching between the first image and the second image being a second specific value or greater.
US09538069B2

An imaging device includes: an optical system which obtains an optical image of a photographic subject; an image sensor which converts the optical image to an electric signal; a digital signal processor which produces image data based on the electric signal; a display section which displays a photographic subject image expressed by the image data; and an operating section which performs a necessary setting regarding imaging, the digital signal processor including: an autofocus operation section which performs an autofocus operation based on data of an autofocus area set in the photographic subject image; a main area setting section which sets a main area in the photographic subject image; and a blurring operation section which performs a blurring operation on an area other than the main area in the photographic subject image, wherein the autofocus area is set automatically to overlap with at least a part of the main area.
US09538068B2

The image pickup apparatus includes an image sensor photoelectrically converting paired object images formed by light fluxes from mutually different pupil areas of an image capturing optical system, a signal producing part producing, by using output from each of plural pixel lines in a focus detection area in the image sensor, paired image signals corresponding to the paired object images for each pixel line, a calculating part calculating a defocus amount by using the paired image signals produced for each pixel line. The calculating part shifts the paired image signals relatively, produce first correlation data showing change of a correlation value of the paired image signals according to their relative shift amount, adds the first correlation data produced for the respective plural pixel lines to produce second correlation data, and calculates the defocus amount from the second correlation data.
US09538067B2

An imaging device including 2-dimensionally arranged pixels for receiving light is provided. The imaging device includes a first area configured to detect a horizontal phase difference based on horizontal phase difference information obtained from pixels configured to detect the horizontal phase difference, a second area configured to detect a vertical phase difference based on vertical phase difference information obtained from pixels configured to detect the vertical phase difference, and a third area configured to detect horizontal and vertical phase differences based on horizontal phase difference information and vertical phase difference information obtained from pixels configured to detect the horizontal and vertical phase differences, wherein the first area is adjacent to a horizontal border of the third area, wherein the second area is adjacent to a vertical border of the third area, and wherein the third area is located at a center of the imaging device.
US09538058B2

The imaging device has a display section, an imaging section configured to generate an image of an object, an operation section configured to accept an operation, and a record control section. The record control section starts recording of video image data based on the generated image after a predetermined operation through the operation section is accepted and a predetermined period of time passes thereafter. Until the operation section accepts the predetermined operation, the display section displays a first mark in a first form. Until the predetermined period of time passes after acceptance of user operation thorough the operation section, the display section displays the first mark in a second form. After the predetermined period of time passes, the display section displays a second mark different from the first mark.
US09538053B2

A protective camera enclosure (3) for a monitoring camera (1) comprises a cover portion (5) which is selectively moveable, in response to a detected tampering threat, from a retracted configuration exposing the camera (1) to an extended configuration covering and physically protecting the camera (1).
US09538052B2

An electronic device may have a housing such as a metal housing. Openings may be formed in the housing to accommodate a button, to form a camera window, to form a microphone port, and to form a camera flash window. An input-output component mounting member may be used to mount input-output components to the housing of the electronic device. The input-output component mounting member may have a recess that mates with a corresponding protrusion on the housing. Screws may attach the input-output component mounting member to the housing. The protrusion and recess in the input-output component mounting member may ensure that the input-output component mounting member is accurately aligned with respect to the housing. Input-output components such as a microphone, button switch, camera, and camera flash may be mounted to the electronic device with the input-output component mounting member.
US09538049B2

A method for use with content includes analyzing a sequence of frames of the content, determining whether an area exists in a scene depicted by the sequence of frames where additional content such as advertising can be inserted without obstructing activity in the scene, for any such area, determining an amount of time that the area is available when the sequence of frames is being played, and for any such area, determining a size of the area. A storage medium storing a computer program for causing a processor based system to execute these steps and an apparatus for use with content are also disclosed.
US09538044B2

A computer-implemented method comprises receiving a data stream that includes a series of code words that encodes a respective series of pixel data according to a first entropy coding lookup table, and processing the data stream to determine if there is a match between a first code word and a consecutive second code word, and a code word entry in a second entropy coding lookup table. The method also includes, if there is a match, decoding the first code word and the second code word using the second entropy coding lookup table. Further, the method includes, if there is not a match, decoding the first code word using the first entropy coding lookup table.
US09538039B2

When an internal storage device or an output device does not have a sufficient free space, predetermined part of the unstored subject data in an external storage device is stored into the internal storage device; the subject data having been stored in the internal storage device is output then the area where the subject data is stored in the internal storage device is released. When the internal storage device has a free space in which all the unstored subject data can be stored, all the unstored subject data is stored into the internal storage device; a communication condition between the communication unit and the external storage device is detected; and the subject data is output except for at least part of the subject data to be output lastly. The subject data is output only when the communication condition has been changed to the non-communicatable condition.
US09538036B2

Various embodiments and methods relating to a scan area indicator are disclosed.
US09538035B2

An image forming apparatus includes an environment obtaining portion, a storage portion, an environment determination portion, a firmware selection portion, and a firmware rewriting portion. The environment obtaining portion obtains environment information from an environmental sensor. In the storage portion, an environmental condition table and a firmware table are stored. In the environmental condition table, in association with registered environment information indicating a specific environment, identification information for identifying the specific environment is stored. In the firmware table, in association with the identification information, firmware that corresponds to an environmental condition indicated by the identification information is stored.The environment determination portion determines whether the obtained environment information corresponds to the registered environment information. Based on the firmware table and on the identification information, the firmware selection portion selects firmware that corresponds to the identification information. The firmware rewriting portion rewrites currently-used firmware with the selected firmware.
US09538030B2

An image reading apparatus includes a scanner housing, a document support member supported by the scanner housing, a reader configured to read an image of a document supported on a document support surface of the document support member, a movable member holding the reader, and a flat cable connected to the reader at one end. The scanner housing includes a peripheral wall including a particular wall. The particular wall includes a restricting portion protruding from the particular wall in a first direction parallel to the document support surface such that the restricting portion restricts the facing surface of the flat cable from contacting the flat surface of the document support member by contacting an outer portion of the facing surface of the flat cable. The restricting portion includes a restricting surface located closer to a bottom wall surface of the scanner housing than the document support member.
US09538028B2

A request for data of an operation screen is transmitted to a Web server, and as a response to the request, data of the operation screen, which includes a plurality of components is received from the Web server. The operation screen is displayed based on the received data of the operation screen, and one of the plurality of components in the displayed operation screen is designated in accordance with an operation by a user. Voice output is performed based on content of voice output associated with the designated component.
US09538023B2

The communication unit of an information processing apparatus can perform a wireless communication with a terminal apparatus. A state identifier indicating the state of the information processing apparatus is obtained, and a device identifier for identifying the information processing apparatus and the state identifier are transmitted to the terminal apparatus through the communication unit. The terminal apparatus holds additional information corresponding to a state of an information processing apparatus which can be identified by the device identifier, and can display the additional information.
US09538022B2

The present invention provides a method for applying cloud-based time-lapse imaging systems. The method comprises a step for an camera device to receive a recording command, a step for the camera device to obtain a start time, an end time, and a time interval from the recording command, a step for the camera device to capture and upload still images to a cloud-based server at the time interval, a step for the cloud-based server to transfer the still images to a display device, and a step for the display device to present the still images as a time-lapse video.
US09538005B1

Described are systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding in an automated manner to a verbal prompt, such as from an automated system. The verbal prompt is processed to identify a request for information, and user information is accessed to determine at least a portion of the user information that corresponds to the request for information. Audio data may be generated using the determined portions of the user information, and the audio data may be provided, via a connection, responsive to the request for information.
US09538002B2

Systems and methods of handling customer contacts at a customer care system that streamline the handling of such customer contacts based on information about previous contacts received from the same customers. The system includes a repeat contact engine, which is connectable to at least one data/communications network. The repeat contact engine includes a controller, at least one database communicably connected to the controller, and a data extractor communicably connected between the data/communications network and the database. The controller includes a server, a rule processor communicably connected to the server, and a policy engine associated with the rule processor. Based on information about at least one previous contact, the system can derive a rule that, in response to its application, would cause a predetermined response, representative of the predicted purpose of an incoming contact, to be provided over a corresponding channel through the data/communications network.
US09537999B2

Methods, systems and devices for implementing different modes or persona of a wireless communication device that allow the wireless communication device to function as multiple devices corresponding to conditions and circumstances that may be defined by an enterprise. Operating modes or persona may be defined by a set of operating characteristics that may include user permissions, device functionality, capabilities enabled, and user restrictions that may be selected by the enterprise. Automatic switching between modes/persona may be controlled through triggers based on any of location, proximity, time, and context of the wireless communication device. Automatic switching of mode control capabilities may also controlled through such triggers, enabling an enterprise to limit the ability of users to override the automatic mode/persona implemented in response to an enterprise-defined trigger.
US09537997B2

A system and method are provided for using location information associated with wireless devices. The system includes a wireless device, a location system, and a feature server. The wireless device includes any wireless apparatus having wireless communications capabilities. The location system can generate location information pinpointing the location of the wireless device. The feature server can use the location information to determine whether to execute an action in accordance with subscriber rules. A large number of applications may be implemented to execute the action via a number of communication channels, including without limitation, a wireless communications network, a computer network, and a public switched telephone system, for example.
US09537994B2

Systems and methods for locating and providing public mobile device charging stations are disclosed. One or more charging stations may be configured to charge a battery of a mobile device. A database may be configured to store location information of the one or more charging stations as well as mobile device location information of the one or more respective mobile devices. A server communicatively coupled with the one or more charging stations and the database, may be configured to determine a proximity of the one or more charging stations to a location of the mobile device. This determination may be based on the station location information and the mobile device location information. Based on the determined proximity, provide the station location information of the respective one or more charging stations to the mobile device.
US09537990B2

The holder device (3) according to the invention comprises: a lower surface (21); an upper part (25, 75); a rear surface (23); an electronic device (27), positioned near the rear surface (23). The holder device (3) comprises a mechanism (26) for adjusting the separation between the lower surface (21) and the upper part (25, 75) as a function of the size of the electronic apparatus (5).
US09537988B1

The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, a multiple & real-time & chronological speech-to-text implementer, and a device vibration implementer.
US09537984B2

A radio-frequency communication device includes connection means electrically connecting an integrated circuit component, or intended for this purpose; and selection means for selecting an electromagnetic current power supply for the component. The device includes an alternative power supply source for powering the component during the reception of an electromagnetic field as soon as the electromagnetic power supply current received by the component is insufficient.
US09537982B2

A service process control method and a network device. The method includes: selecting, according to an execution policy of at least one service deployed on a network device, M data processing modules for processing a packet received by the network device, and determining a processing sequence for the selected M data processing modules to process the packet; and invoking the selected M data processing modules to sequentially process, according to the processing sequence, the packet. In the foregoing technical solutions of embodiments of the present invention, an execution sequence for a data processing module to process the packet is dynamically generated according to a policy set corresponding to the service, thereby reducing an unnecessary processing process and redundant information collection in a service execution procedure, improving service processing flexibility, and enhancing overall performance of the device.
US09537972B1

A secondary indexing technique cooperates with primary indices of an indexing arrangement to enable efficient storage and access of metadata used to retrieve packets persistently stored in data files of a data repository. Efficient storage and access of the metadata used to retrieve the persistently stored packets may be based on a target value of the packets over a search time window. The metadata is illustratively organized as a metadata repository of primary index files that store the primary indices containing hash values of network flows of the packets, as well as offsets and paths to those packets stored in the data files. The technique includes one or more secondary indices having a plurality of present bits arranged in a binary format (i.e., a bit array) to indicate the presence of the target value in one or more packets stored in the data files over the search time window. Notably, the present bits may be used to reduce (i.e., “prune”) a relatively large search space of the stored packets (e.g., defined by the hash values) to a pruned search space of only those data files in which packets having the target value are stored.
US09537966B2

In accordance with a method for location based data pushing, a computer server receives first geolocation data that identify a first geolocation of a first client device, and identifies a plurality of second client devices as located within a predetermined range of the first geolocation. In response to the identifying, the computer server retrieves webpage log data that record information concerning a plurality of websites that have been accessed by the second client devices. Further, in response to a web access request received from the first client device for accessing a webpage, the computer server identifies, among the retrieved webpage log data, one or more web pages as being related to the webpage associated with the web access request, and transmits information of at least one identified webpage and the webpage associated with the web access request to the first client device.
US09537962B2

A server system with one or more processors and memory receives respective client environment data from a first client device of a plurality of client devices, where the respective client environment data is provided to the server system according to predetermined collection parameters. The server system determines characteristic criteria for identifying potential target clients for additional data collection based on the respective client environment data received from the first client device. The server system sends a data collection command to at least one second client device of the plurality of client devices in accordance with the characteristic criteria.
US09537961B2

Disclosed are an open type POI service system using an SNS method and a method thereof. The open type POI system includes an SNS media studio server which opens a POI to a user and registers an interest location designated by a user as an open type POI. Therefore, the SNS media studio server includes a database which stores an open type POI related to a user, and supplies the open type POI to another user who is related to the user by connection of the open type POI and SNS.
US09537958B2

A method for enabling a feature provided by a first presentation layer protocol, within a session established according to a second presentation layer protocol includes intercepting, by a hooking component executing on a first machine, a request, by an operating system executing on the first machine, for an indication whether the first machine established a session with a second machine according to a first presentation layer protocol. The method includes determining that the first machine established a session according to a second presentation layer protocol. The method includes identifying a type of a function within the operating system that generated the request for the indication. The method includes indicating that the first machine established the session according to the first presentation layer protocol, responsive to the identification of the type. The method includes enabling functionality provided for use in sessions established according to the first presentation layer protocol.
US09537954B2

A method and apparatus are provided for autonomously detecting and reporting anomalies in actions of an autonomous mobile node, or in behaviors of a swarm of autonomous mobile nodes to an operator. The autonomous mobile node may experience anomalies or unexpected situations due to various failures or external influence (e.g. natural weather phenomena, enemy threats). During a training phase a prediction model and a structured model may be established from measurement data received from one or more sensors of an autonomous mobile node or a swarm of nodes while executing an action or behavior under normal circumstances. A prediction model forecasts the expected outcome of an action or behavior, and structured model helps quantify the similarity of a learned action or behavior to the currently observed situation. Based on the measurement data applicable models can be used for an action or behavior for anomaly detection in the action or behavior.
US09537953B1

The present disclosure provides methods, systems, and media for allowing access to quantum computers in a distributed computing environment (e.g., the cloud). Such methods and systems may provide optimization and computational services on the cloud. Methods and systems of the present disclosure may enable quantum computing to be relatively and readily scaled across various types of quantum computers and users at various locations, in some cases without the need for users to have a deep understanding of the resources, implementation or the knowledge that may be required for solving optimization problems using a quantum computer. Systems provided herein may include user interfaces that enable users to perform data analysis in a distributed computing environment while taking advantage of quantum technology in the backend.
US09537952B1

A technique and various aspects thereof for apparent cloud access of a hosted content item. In one embodiment, for example, a method performed at a personal computing device comprising a user agent comprises: receiving a block agent request for a content item from the user agent; determining content item block identifiers of content item blocks that make up the content item; determining which, if any, of the content item blocks that make up the content item are not stored in a local storage of the personal computing device; downloading, from a block server of an online content management system, any of the content item blocks that are not stored in a local storage of the personal computing device; and sending to the user agent, in a response to the block agent request, data of each of the content item blocks that make up the content item.
US09537945B2

Systems and methods for determining a display device's behavior based on a dynamically-changing event associated with another display device are disclosed. In one example, a peer-to-peer distributed data network system comprises a first display device that operates a peer-to-peer distributed system application, which detects a dynamically-changing event associated with a second display device to either maintain or change the first display device's current behavior. In one example, the dynamically-changing event is a change of display content, new sensory information, or another new event for the second display device. If the peer-to-peer distributed system application determines that the dynamically-changing event of the second display device merits a change in the first display device's current behavior, the first display device's current behavior may be replaced by a new device behavior, such as switching from a currently-shown content or a user interface menu to a different content or a different menu.
US09537942B2

A proxy assignment apparatus includes a processor or wired logic hardware configured to detect a first data request issued from a terminal apparatus for requesting first data. The processor or wired logic hardware is configured to determine whether a first proxy server that satisfies a condition exists, wherein the first proxy server corresponds to a media access control address of the terminal apparatus. The processor or wired logic hardware is configured to report a first internet protocol address of the first proxy server to the terminal apparatus when it is determined that the first proxy server exists.
US09537941B2

A method and a system for verifying quality of server thereof are provided. The method and the system are used for verifying a plurality of servers constructed in a server cluster. The method includes: installing a cloud computing platform in the servers, creating an input file folder on a cloud computing platform file system included in the cloud computing platform and storing calculation data into the input file folder. The method further includes: creating a plurality of mapreduce tasks corresponding to a calculation job by the servers and distributively executing the mapreduce tasks by using a mapreduce frame included in the cloud computing platform to obtain a plurality of calculation results, and storing and analyzing the calculation results to verify a quality of each of the servers. Accordingly, the method is capable of conformably verifying quality of servers in the server cluster.
US09537933B2

An information-sharing system includes a server in a wide-area network coupled to a data repository, software executing on the server, providing services for a first person, wherein the first person is enabled to create one or more personae stored in the data repository, at least one interactive window associated with individual ones of the personae and deployable to one or more electronic appliances, and one or more rule sets associated with individual ones of the personae, the rule sets defining and limiting server functions that may be initiated through individual ones of deployed interactive windows, the interactive windows and rule sets enabling the first person to control identity and contact information made available to users of deployed interactive windows.
US09537931B2

An example system for distributing a workload of an application includes a class identifier that identifies a remotely instantiable class in an instruction. Execution of the instruction includes processing a workload. The example system also includes a distributor that selects a remote node to process a portion of the workload, sends a message to the selected remote node to cause (i) the selected remote node to instantiate the remotely instantiable class and (ii) the selected remote node to process the portion of the workload by invoking a method of the instantiated class, and receives a result of the processed portion of the workload.
US09537920B2

Disclosed is a comprising generating a top level manifest file for a media asset or stream that includes program event information, providing the top level manifest file and corresponding element manifest files to a real-time adaptive bitrate (“ABR”) packager, and receiving a request for a media-segment file from a client, wherein the ABR packager is configured to interpret the program event information, and wherein the ABR packager is configured to restrict trick-play operations if a program event is detected in a requested media-segment file and restriction criteria are met.
US09537918B2

Technology is disclosed herein for sharing encrypted data within a client-server distributed data storage system. According to at least one embodiment, a first computing device encrypts multiple data sets of the first computing device using symmetric encryption keys. Each of the data sets is encrypted using a different symmetric encryption key among the symmetric encryption keys. The first computing device shares the encrypted data sets with a second computing device. The first computing device further sends the symmetric encryption keys to the second computing device via a secured channel. The symmetric encryption keys are suitable for decrypting the encrypted data sets at the second computing device. The secured channel is through a server connected with the first and second computing devices. The server cannot access the contents of the secured channel and cannot access contents of the encrypted data sets.
US09537908B2

Some examples include transitioning between an individual mode and a collaborative mode in response to an orientation change of a device. Further, some implementations include identifying data to be shared with one or more other devices (e.g., co-located devices) in the collaborative mode. In some examples, the individual mode may be associated with an individual search, the collaborative mode may be associated with a collaborative search, and the devices may transition between the individual mode and the collaborative mode in response to orientation changes.
US09537902B2

Methods, devices and systems for delivering broadcast data to client devices that do not support receiving broadcast transmissions. In an embodiment, a gateway device may be configured to receive a manifest file and related data segments via a first type of network protocol, such as LTE broadcasts. The manifest file may include data defining network addresses for one or more network resources, and may be modified to include a network address of a proxy server for the network resources. The proxy server may be configured to accept requests for data segments from client devices conforming to a second type of network protocol different from the first protocol, such as unicast. In an embodiment, the gateway device may transmit broadcast data for storage in a cache or alternatively a separate storage location accessible to the proxy server. The proxy server may be included in the gateway device or client devices.
US09537900B2

Methods, systems and computer readable media for serving application specific policies based on dynamic context are described. In some implementations, the method can include determining a dynamic authentication context for a user including one or more access credentials, and authenticating the access credentials. The method can also include determining an indication of a need for a service-based policy, and generating a dynamic service-based policy based on the dynamic authentication context and an application. The method can further include providing the dynamic service-based policy to the application, and monitoring for a change in the dynamic authentication context. The method can also include updating the dynamic service-based policy.
US09537886B1

Provided are methods and systems for flagging security threats in web service requests. Specifically, a method for flagging security threats in web service requests can include receiving a request addressed to an addressee. The method can further include analyzing the request based on at least one security signature. The method can continue with determining a threat level associated with the request. The determination can be carried out based on the analysis. The method can further include creating a flag corresponding to the threat level. The method can further include inserting the flag into a network packet associated with the request, thereby creating a modified request. The method may further include sending the modified packet to the addressee. An application associated with the addressee can be operable to selectively process the request based on the threat level.
US09537885B2

A system for providing secure browsing via a transparent network proxy is disclosed. The system may receive, from a client, a request to access a resource. The request may include an identifier that may be utilized to locate the resource. Once the request is received, the system may determine if the resource is not trusted, such as if the identifier is determined to be unknown or suspicious. If the resource is determined to not be trusted by the system, the system may forward the request to a virtual machine manager that may select a browser virtual machine from a pool of browser virtual machines. After the browser virtual machine is selected, the browser virtual machine may stream a rendering of the resource to the client based on the request. The rendering of the resource may be provided in lieu of the actual resource.
US09537877B2

Embodiments disclosed herein provide a system, method, and computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions for implementing a Socialware architecture encompassing a suite of applications for continuously and adaptively monitoring and filtering traffic to and from social networking sites, particularly useful in an enterprise computing environment. In some embodiments, an appliance may be coupled to a proxy server for providing a plurality of Socialware services, including analyzing, logging, and reporting on traffic to and from social networking sites. Some embodiments may allow a user to report, identify, and prevent malicious and potentially malicious content and/or activity by another user. Some embodiments may encrypt outgoing traffic to and decrypt incoming traffic from social networking sites. Some embodiments may provide an enterprise user to define and restrict certain social networking activities outside of the enterprise computing environment.
US09537873B2

Embodiments described herein may be directed to systems, methods, apparatuses, devices, computer program products, computer-executable instructions, and/or applications for securely and anonymously accessing web resources and customizable attribution of identity. In accordance with the present disclosure, a user may inspect and analyze a webpage as well as the underlying source code from an “arm's length” using a secure analysis application to prevent exposure on the user's local machine. The secure analysis application may provide increased flexibility in masking and/or modifying the user's digital persona to external websites. Additionally, the secure analysis application may be integrated with a translation service to translate textual web content without the web content provider being alerted that a translation is taking place.
US09537870B2

Methods and systems are disclosed that, in some aspects, provide for receiving a provisioning request from a requesting device, and identifying one or more other devices proximate to or co-located with the requesting device. The methods and systems may include determining a location and other information of the one or more other devices and using the information to determine a location of and other information related to the requesting device. It may be determined whether to grant the provisioning request based on the determined location of the requesting device.
US09537865B1

Examples of techniques for validating access tokens are described herein. An example computer-implemented method includes receiving, via a processor, a pushed event at a server. The method includes adding, via the processor, a value of the pushed event to a black list of recently disabled users, devices, applications, or any combination thereof. The method also includes receiving, via the processor, a request to access a resource on the server, the request including an access token. The method further includes comparing, via the processor, a field value of the access token with the black list. The method further includes declining, via the processor, the request based on a match of the field value of the access token with a value of the pushed event in the black list.
US09537856B2

Electronic content, for example, a web page, is configured for display by a web browser application to include content that is not included in or referenced by the web page. The web page includes a first locator for first content. A second locator for second content is associated with the first locator in a database or other memory structure. In response to a request for the web page, the second locator is obtained. Access to the second locator may be secured. The second locator may be swapped with the first locator to cause the web browser application to obtain the second content instead of the first content. In the alternative, the second content may be obtained and provided to the web browser instead of, or in addition to, the first content.
US09537853B2

Techniques are described for providing customizable sign-on functionality, such as via an access manager system that provides single sign-on functionality and other functionality to other services for use with those services' users. The access manager system may maintain various sign-on and other account information for various users, and provide single sign-on functionality for those users using that maintained information on behalf of multiple unrelated services with which those users interact. The access manager may allow a variety of types of customizations to single sign-on functionality and/or other functionality available from the access manager, such as on a per-service basis via configuration by an operator of the service, such as co-branding customizations, customizations of information to be gathered from users, customizations of authority that may be delegated to other services to act on behalf of users, etc., and with the customizations that are available being determined specifically for that service.
US09537852B2

An example implementation may involve a media playback system obtaining an authorization token corresponding to a particular queue of media items at a remote server. The media playback system may send to the remote server, (i) the obtained authorization token, and (ii) a request for access to one or more media items of the particular queue. The media playback system may receive, from the remote server, an indication that the media playback system may access the one or more media items.
US09537845B1

A method comprises storing in a memory of a first processing device information relating to one or more historical events visible to the first processing device and a second processing device. The method further comprises, in an authentication sessions between the first processing device and the second processing device, transmitting an indicator derived from at least a portion of the stored information from the first processing device to the second processing device. The indicator permits the second processing device to determine authenticity of the first processing device.
US09537843B2

The present disclosure introduces a method, a client, a server and a system of login verification. When a user logins, the client obtains a login request from the user for logging into an under-protected account system, where the login request includes at least an account to be logged in, determines property information of a current related account system corresponding to the account to be logged in from property information stored in a current login host, generates login verification information including at least the property information of the current related account system, and sends the login verification information to a server. The server verifies a login activity of the user based on the pre-stored reliable property information corresponding to the account to be logged in. Thus, the login verification process is simplified and the efficiency of login verification using the server is enhanced.
US09537829B2

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to prevent consecutive attacks on a virtual private mobile network. An example method includes for each of a plurality of network elements, generating virtualized slices based on a virtualized slice count value for subgroups associated with the virtual private mobile network, and assigning non-consecutive ones of the virtualized slices to the subgroups associated with the virtual private mobile network based on demand for the virtualized slices by the respective ones of the subgroups. The example method also includes, in response to a request from a mobile device to access the virtual private mobile network for a first time, assigning the mobile device to one of the virtual slices of the plurality of network elements based on (i) the subgroup associated with the mobile device, and (ii) availability of the virtual slices.
US09537821B2

The invention relates to a method and system for network communication wherein a Policy and Charging Control Function (PCRF; 6) is aware of any Network Address Translator (NAT; 7) bindings of the user equipment (UE; 2).
US09537811B2

A server has a processor and a memory storing instructions executed by the processor to maintain an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. An ephemeral message is posted to the ephemeral gallery. The ephemeral message has an associated message duration parameter and a gallery participation parameter. An ephemeral message is removed from the ephemeral gallery in response to the identification of an expired gallery participation parameter.
US09537791B2

A management apparatus manages a plurality of devices. The management apparatus includes a management part that manages, for each one of the devices, one of communication systems used for carrying out communication between the management apparatus and the one of the devices and a communication data amount between the management apparatus and the one of the devices; a setting part that sets a permissible communication amount for each one of the communication systems; and a determination part that determines whether to be able to provide a service to one of the devices based on a communication data amount required for providing the service to the one of the devices, the permissible communication amount of one of the communication systems used by the one of the devices and a total of the communication data amounts of respective ones of the devices each using the one of the communication systems.
US09537787B2

In one embodiment, by way of example only, a resource threshold limits the resource usage of each of the multiplicity of clients. The resource threshold of each of the multiplicity of clients increases over time and decreases when the resources deplete and a resource request of a client is rejected. A subset of clients is created from the multiplicity of clients having a resource usage greater than the resource usage of the rejected client. A dynamic average of a normalized number of resources is calculated from the subset of clients. The resource threshold of each client from the subset of clients is decreased based on the dynamic average of the subset of clients, and further acquisition of resources is restricted from each client from the subset of clients in order to bring the resource usage of each of the subset of clients under the resource threshold.
US09537776B2

An improved Ethernet traffic management device is provided comprising. a first port, a second port, and a third port. The device further comprises a first deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller controlling traffic through the first port, a second deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller controlling traffic through the second port, and a third deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller controlling traffic through the third port. The first deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller, second deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller, and third deterministic multi-threaded micro-controller cooperatively operate to selectively communicate data packets between each of the first, second and third ports.
US09537770B1

Exemplary embodiments provide techniques for specifying, on a per-service basis, (1) the peering router to which a particular network packet should be directed, and (2) the egress port that the packet should use when it leaves the peering router. One embodiment encapsulates an original packet inside an encapsulating packet. The encapsulating packet may specify, as a destination, a desired peering router in order to route the packet to a specific peering router and may specify an egress port identifier identifying a desired egress port on which the packet should be sent out from the peering router. At the peering router, the encapsulated packet may be decapsulated and the desired egress port may be retrieved. Thus, general network routing information may be overridden in favor of selected service-specific routes, allowing faster routes can be chosen for more important traffic or services.
US09537769B2

A method and device are disclosed for opportunistic compression of routing segment identifiers. In one embodiment, the method includes participating in routing of a first data packet through a first node in a network, and subsequently entering into an arrangement with an adjacent node in the network. The first data packet includes a first plurality of routing segment identifiers, and additional data packets to be routed through the first node also include the first plurality of routing segment identifiers. The arrangement entered into includes representation of the first plurality of routing segment identifiers by a single compression identifier. The method further includes participating in routing of at least one of the additional data packets using the compression identifier instead of the first plurality of routing segment identifiers. In an embodiment, the device includes one or more network interfaces and a processor configured to perform the steps of the method.
US09537768B2

An industrial automation environment communication system comprises a component that receives a web-based request in an industrial automation environment, wherein the web-based request includes data relating to an automation device. An encapsulating component encapsulates the web-based request, wherein the encapsulation facilitates transmitting the data to the automation device via an industrial automation network protocol.
US09537759B2

Techniques, devices, systems, and protocols are disclosed herein that relate to data transfer between communication nodes via multiple heterogeneous paths. In various embodiments, network coding may be used to improve data flow and reliability in a multiple path scenario. Transmission control protocol (TCP) may also be used within different paths to further enhance data transfer reliability. In some embodiments, multiple levels of network coding may be provided within a transmitter in a multiple path scenario, with one level being applied across ail paths and another being applied within individual paths.
US09537757B2

A method is provided for traffic aggregation in a hitless protected packet switched network having source and destination nodes. The method includes enabling a working path and a protecting path between the source and destination nodes. The working path is non-overlapping with respect to the protecting path. The method includes generating, using a processor, internal marker packets at working and protecting input ports of the source nodes. Each market packet represents a respective marker time period. The method includes transmitting the marker packets to working and protecting output ports of the source nodes, by the working and protecting input ports of the source nodes. The method includes selectively aggregating, at each of the working and protecting output ports of the source nodes, hitless traffic sent from different working and protecting inputs ports of the source nodes to provide an aggregated flow there from, responsive to the marker packets.
US09537755B2

A gateway device disposed at front stage before a server has a dispersion rule of data dispersed on server side and analyzes communication data to specify a server to be accessed finally, so that identification information of the specified server is added to packet option of IP layer to thereby omit higher-rank routing processing than IP layer of gateway devices on the way. Consequently, transfer processing of a gateway device at back stage can be performed at high speed and access passing through a network route intended by manager is possible.
US09537754B2

An approach for finding cost effective network connections while maintaining physical layer diversity is described. A logical segment within a path between a start node and an end node of a network is determined. A plurality of physical connections of the logical segment is then determined, wherein each of the physical connections is associated with a cost value, selecting one of the physical connections of the logical segment based on the cost values. A determination is made of another logical segment between the start node and the end node to include another physical connection, wherein the another logical segment is diverse physically with respect to the logical segment.
US09537752B2

Techniques are presented to enable the instantiation of a service chain that is comprised of service functions belonging to one or more administrative domains. A service chain consisting of one or more service functions in one administrative domain is made available to another administrative domain through an advertisement. This enables the building of inter-domain service chains without the need to share between the administrative domains details about the service chains and service functions in the respective administrative domains.
US09537751B2

A divided hierarchical network system based on software-defined networks, the divided hierarchical network system including: an edge controller configured to: generate forwarding information in response to a flow forwarding inquiry from a lower level and respond to the request with the forwarding information; generate mapping information such that each of a plurality of edge ports of each of a plurality of switches that form the lower level corresponds to each of a plurality of virtual ports of one virtual switch; if it is not possible to generate forwarding information in response to a request received from a lower level for forwarding a flow that comprises edge ports, query forwarding information to an upper level regarding a flow in which the edge port is converted into a corresponding virtual port based on the mapping information.
US09537741B2

A method in a network controller of a control plane in a software defined network (SDN) coupled to a plurality of network elements (NEs) of a data plane in the SDN is described. The method includes at least sending a first control message to an ingress NE of the plurality of NEs to initiate a first test session; sending a second control message to an egress NE of the plurality of NEs to initiate a second test session; sending the test message to the ingress NE to cause the ingress NE to transmit the outgoing message from the ingress NE; receiving the first reply message from the ingress NE; receiving the second reply message from the egress NE; and calculating an indication of a delay between the ingress NE and the egress NE.
US09537737B2

Performance metrics may be received from multiple data processing elements associated with a performance metric domain and a consolidated performance metric may be determined. Grouping the performance metrics into performance metric groups may be performed based on their respective associations with different aspects of the data processing elements.
US09537734B2

Provided are a network-based high performance SAP monitoring system and method, including a hardware engine selecting packets to be updated from input packets by performing session-based filtering and pattern matching on the input packets, identifying to which application protocol belongs among dynamic information and action gateway (DIAG) protocol, remote function call (RFC) protocol, and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) protocol, and adding identification information of the identified application protocol to the packet to be uploaded and a software engine including a DIAG processor processing the DIAG protocol, RFC processor processing the RFC protocol, and HTTP processor processing the HTTP protocol, when receiving the packet added with the identification information from the hardware engine, referring SAP application protocol identification information, extracting data transmitted and received between servers of an SAP client and one of the DIAG processor, RFC processor, and HTTP processor, thereby sorting and processing the three types of SAP application protocol such as the DIAG protocol, RFC protocol, and HTTP protocol.
US09537732B2

Methods and systems of the present invention allow for improving website performance. An exemplary method may comprise the steps of calculating a website quality score for a website (which may indicate the website's effectiveness), identifying changes to the website's attributes that would improve the website's quality score, and modifying the website to include such changes.
US09537729B2

A network switching device (101) for quantifying available service-level capacity of a network (201) for projected network traffic. The network switching device (101) includes at least one input port (110-1a), at least one output port (110-6a), at least one packet-handling module, and at least one test-packet module. At least one packet-handling module is coupled to an input port (110-1a) and an output port (110-6a). At least one test-packet module is coupled with at least one network switching-device module. The test-packet module is to affect presence of a test packet in the network (201) for quantifying available service-level capacity of the network (201) for projected network traffic. A packet-injection system and method for quantifying available service-level capacity of the network (201) for projected network traffic are also provided.
US09537719B2

A CCN-deployment system can design and deploy a content centric network (CCN) topology, either across a collection of CCN nodes or across an existing computer network. During operation, the system analyzes a computer network of N network nodes to determine a physical network topology. The system also determines a number, k, of network nodes of the physical network on which to overlay a content centric network (CCN). The system then determines an average degree of connectivity, and a degree-of-connectivity distribution, that achieves an optimal performance metric for the CCN overlay network. The system generates a network topology of k network nodes that satisfies the average degree of connectivity, and that satisfies the degree-of-connectivity distribution. The system can deploy the content centric network topology across k nodes of the underlying physical network.
US09537718B2

An apparatus and method is disclosed for segment routing (SR) over label distribution protocol (LDP). In one embodiment, the method includes a node receiving a packet with an attached segment ID. In response, the node may attach a label to the packet. Thereafter, the node may forward the packet with the attached label and segment ID to another node via a label switched path (LSP).
US09537714B1

The present disclosure presents a system and method for determining a logical topology of a network, given the network's physical topology. More particularly, a logical topology is implemented across a plurality of optical circuit switches that interconnect the nodes of a network. Each of the optical circuit switches includes an initial internal configuration. The internal configuration of the optical circuit switches are swapped to generate new logical topologies. A fitness is determined for each of the generated topologies. The fitnesses of the topologies are then ranked and the most fit logical topology is implemented in the network.
US09537707B2

A self-organizing internet protocol television (IPTV) grid system that: establishes an internet protocol television grid including an IPTV server, a plurality of grid nodes, a first end user device and a second end user device; communicates an IPTV channel signal over a first communication path that begins at the IPTV server and ends at the first end user device; communicates the IPTV channel signal over a second communication path that begins at the IPTV server and ends at the second end user device; determines that a quality issue condition exists for the channel signal as communicated to the second end user device; and responsive to the determination of the quality issue condition, communicates the IPTV channel signal over a third communication path that begins at the first end user device and ends at the second end user device.
US09537698B2

An apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals includes an encoder for encoding service data corresponding to each of a plurality of transmission unit. Each of a plurality of transmission unit carries at least one service component, a frame builder for building at least one signal frame including the encoded service data, a phase distortion unit for performing a phase distortion on data in the built at least one signal frame, a modulator for modulating data in the built at least one signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme and a transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signals including the modulated data.
US09537693B2

To provide different paths for communication of a serial signal required for high-speed communication and communication of transmission data that may be handled in low-speed communication, a circuit device includes a serial interface that receives a serial signal transmitted from a controller at a first communication speed, a transmission data input terminal that receives transmission data transmitted from the controller at a second communication speed slower than the first communication speed, and a transmission circuit that outputs a transmission signal corresponding to the transmission data based on the serial signal and the transmission data.
US09537692B2

The invention relates to an automation device, in which a plurality of spatially distributed functional units communicate with one another by means of a common transmission protocol. The device has a microcontroller (110) which has at least one associated clock generator (120) and a memory unit (150) and which is connected at least to a data source (140), which is designed to output a data byte stream to be transmitted. A first program for conversion of a data byte stream to be transmitted to a sequence of sample values of an adequate frequency-modulated line signal, and a second program for identification of a frequency-modulated line signal and for its sequential conversion to a received data byte stream are stored in the memory unit (150), with these programs being associated with the microcontroller (110). The first and the second program can be run alternately.
US09537690B1

A measurement apparatus, for example a digital oscilloscope, receives an amplitude modulated (AM) signal comprising a baseband signal, having a baseband waveform, modulating a carrier signal, and reconstructs the baseband waveform. The measurement apparatus: samples the AM signal at a sampling rate which produces a plurality of data samples for each period of the carrier signal; determines the amplitude of the baseband signal for each of a plurality of periods of the carrier signal from at least some of the plurality of data samples for each period; and reconstructs the baseband waveform from the amplitudes of the baseband signal for each of the plurality of periods of the carrier signal. The measurement apparatus may display the reconstructed baseband waveform on a display device.
US09537681B1

An integrated circuit may include receiver circuitry that receives data from an external device. Such receiver circuitry may include, among other things, equalization circuitry that may reconstruct the received data before transmitting the received data to other parts of the integrated circuit. The receiver circuitry may include two different equalization circuits. A first equalization circuit may perform equalization on the received data to generate a first equalized output while a second equalization circuit may generate a second equalized output. The receiver circuitry may further include an amplifier circuit that selectively amplifies either the first or second equalized output from the respective first and second equalization circuits based on the data rate of the received data.
US09537649B2

The present invention relates to a method for newly defining a synchronization signal to be used in an ultrahigh frequency band and acquiring downlink synchronization by using the synchronization signal, and a device for supporting the same. A method by which an eNode B (eNB) transmits a synchronization signal for compensating for a carrier frequency offset in a wireless access system supporting an ultrahigh frequency band, according to one embodiment of the present invention, can comprise the steps of: generating a first repetitive synchronization signal having a first repetitive characteristic; generating a second repetitive synchronization signal having a second repetitive characteristic; and transmitting the first repetitive synchronization signal and the second repetitive synchronization signal in the same subframe.
US09537647B2

The invention concerns a method and device for processing UHF signals for an EPC communication. The method includes the steps of picking up UHF signals by an antenna of the device for processing UHF signals, creating an envelope signal from the UHF signals picked by the antenna in a demodulator, processing the envelope signal and decoding critical TRcal symbol and data in a logic unit of the device. Furthermore, the method includes the steps of interpreting the critical TRcal symbol and data, storing the interpreted data, encoding transmit data, modulating by encoded data in a modulator, and clocking the steps as above by a local oscillator. In the step of processing the envelope signal, the critical TRcal symbol is processed by a high frequency clock and data are processed by a low frequency clock.
US09537636B2

A method and apparatus for allocating resources to carrier response information feedback are disclosed. Wherein, when Transmit Power Control (TPC) command in Downlink Control Information (DCI) for each secondary component carrier in carrier aggregation is different, Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources allocated to the response information feedback of the secondary component carriers are high-layer configuration PUCCH resources designated by TPC command in the DCI which triggers data services in the secondary component carriers. The present solution can not only effectively feedback response information, but also can effectively suppress occurrence of unnecessary downlink retransmission.
US09537631B2

Disclosed is a method for transmitting and receiving a signal, by a terminal, in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the method comprises the steps of receiving information about a plurality of reference signal resources from a base station; receiving information about one channel state information (CSI) process from the base station; and reporting CSI on the basis of the information about the one CSI process, wherein the information about the one CSI process comprises information indicative of at least one of the plurality of reference signal resources.
US09537625B2

A method and a base station for calibrating data transmitted by coordinated APs are disclosed. The method includes: a base station obtaining an uplink channel frequency-domain response and a downlink channel frequency-domain response between a first AP and a second AP which participate in coordination; the base station dividing the uplink channel frequency-domain response by the downlink channel frequency-domain response to obtain an uplink and downlink channel response difference between the first AP and the second AP; and the base station calibrating the data transmitted by the first AP and the second AP in coordination according to the uplink and downlink channel response difference. The method and base station in the embodiments of the present document are applied to calibrate the data transmitted by coordinated APs.
US09537619B2

The present invention is applicable to the communications field and provides a processing method for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal and a network device. The processing method includes: obtaining an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM signal; multiplying, in a digital domain, the obtained OFDM signal by a simple harmonic wave whose frequency is fs to obtain a frequency shifted signal; and outputting and loading the frequency shifted signal by using a digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) to a driver and a modulator to send the frequency shifted OFDM signal.
US09537616B2

A user equipment (UE) is described. The UE determines a duplex method of each serving cell for frequency-division duplexing (FDD) and time-division duplexing (TDD) carrier aggregation. At least one serving cell is a TDD cell and at least one serving cell is a FDD cell. The UE also determines a subframe offset. The UE further determines physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK/NACK) transmission timing for a serving cell. When a primary cell is a TDD cell, the PDSCH HARQ-ACK/NACK transmission timing for the serving cell is determined based on a downlink (DL) association set with the subframe offset for the serving cell. The UE additionally sends PDSCH HARQ-ACK/NACK information based on the PDSCH HARQ-ACK/NACK transmission timing.
US09537611B2

A method and apparatus that improves the performance of a data network by segmenting the TCP path and implementing a proprietary protocol (DPR™) over a network. Bandwidth is reduced and reliability improved by using an erasure coded algorithm to generate a predicted number of redundant coded packets used to reconstruct lost data packets. Coded packets are generated at the transmission side and the coded packets together with the raw data packets successfully sent over the channel are used to reconstruct lost raw data packets. The DPR™ erasure coding to adjust for packet loss in real time protocol provides a multiplexed tunnel for a multiplicity of TCP sessions from a client to a cloud proxy. DPR™ implements congestion management, flow control, reliability, and link monitoring. Other network protocols (such as UDP) are supported with a reliability protocol based upon network coding that improves the transmission reliability.
US09537610B2

A technology of dynamically allocating uplink and downlink subframes in an LTE-advanced Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication system specifically relates to a TDD adaptive frame structure retransmission method, network and terminal side device. The method includes: in a TDD adaptive frame transmission process, for an uplink subframe, if a frame structure whose Round Trip Time (RTT) period of a Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the uplink subframe is 10 ms is found in seven already defined frame structures, transmitting PHICH data on a corresponding downlink subframe in the found frame structure, and receiving retransmitted data on the corresponding uplink subframe in the found frame structure. The technical solution of the present application ensures the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) compatibility with an uplink data channel of an R10UE.
US09537605B1

An ultra-wideband high-power solid-state transmitter for electronic warfare applications which includes a plurality of wideband Gallium-Nitride (GaN) semiconductor monolithic-microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), a spatial power combiner to sum the aggregate contribution of the MMICs, a wide bandwidth small form factor driver amplifier module to supply the required gain in the transmitter, and a thermal management system.
US09537594B2

An apparatus or method for transmitting data blocks on a communications channel having a radio link between two stations including a user equipment comprises receiving first data blocks from the user equipment, and transmitting second data blocks to the user equipment. A polling interval is dynamically set for the transmission of polling messages to the user equipment after transmission of the second data blocks, the polling interval being set in accordance with at least one of: a size of one or more data blocks received by the apparatus from the user equipment, a size of one or more blocks transmitted from the apparatus to the user equipment, and a service to which the user equipment is subscribed. The apparatus may be used as a PCU in a cellular mobile telephone system.
US09537581B2

An apparatus includes a first terminal, a second terminal, a bi-directional regulator circuit, and functional circuitry. The bi-directional regulator circuit generates a voltage across a first power supply node and a second power supply node in response to an input current flowing through the first terminal and the second terminal with a first polarity. The bi-directional regulator circuit also generates the voltage across the first power supply node and the second power supply node in response to the input current flowing through the first terminal and the second terminal with a second polarity opposite the first polarity. The functional circuitry is powered by the voltage and is configured to generate a signal using the voltage. The signal is indicative of the input current in response to the input current being supplied to the first terminal and is indicative of the input current in response to presence of the input current.
US09537580B2

A system includes a detector array having a plurality of level detectors to monitor an optical input signal. Each level detector of the detector array operates in a different operating range, and each operating range for each level detector has a different saturation level and a different cutoff level based on a power level of the optical input signal. A controller monitors the plurality of level detectors of the detector array to detect a present power level for the optical input signal by selecting the operating range that is associated with the level detector operating between its saturation level and its cutoff level.
US09537579B2

The invention relates to a noise compensation system, configured for compensating phase noise in coherent optical communications, and to a method for compensating phase noise. The noise compensation system comprises a transmitter (1) comprising a pilot unit (5) configured for providing a pilot tone comprising a pilot spectrum, wherein the transmitter (1) is configured for transmitting an information signal comprising an information spectrum, a detecting unit (2) comprising a local oscillator lasing unit (7) configured for transmitting a local oscillator signal, wherein the detecting unit (2) is configured for combining the information signal with the local oscillator signal such that an input signal spectrum generated at an output of the detecting unit comprises an information about phase noise in the information spectrum, and a phase noise compensator (3) comprising a first branch, configured for filtering the pilot tone, and a second branch, configured for mixing the information signal with the filtered pilot tone, wherein after mixing an output signal spectrum is obtained at an output of the phase noise compensator (3) on the basis of the information about phase noise in the information spectrum such that the output signal spectrum corresponds to a phase noise compensated copy of the pilot spectrum. In this way, a noise compensation system is provided which is simple and cost-effective to realize and allows compensating phase noise in the analog domain without the need of knowledge about transmission parameters.
US09537574B2

An optical transmitting and receiving unit includes: an optical transmitting module having a light emitting element and having a metal case that stores the light emitting element; an optical connector having a ferrule for holding an optical fiber and having a flange portion provided at one end of the ferrule, the ferrule being inserted into a sleeve of the metal case to connect the optical connector with the optical transmitting module; and a tubular waterproof cap that has a bottom, with one end open and the other end closed, and caps the optical connector to seal an optical connecting portion between the optical connector and the optical transmitting module in a watertight manner. The metal case has step portions with different outside diameters. One of the step portions closest to the optical connecting portion contacts an inner surface of the waterproof cap along an entire circumference thereof.
US09537567B2

A light receiving circuit includes an inverting amplification circuit, a first light receiving element, a first circuit, and a charging circuit. The inverting amplification circuit includes an input terminal and an output terminal. The first light receiving element is connected between the input terminal and a reference potential terminal. The first circuit includes a first resistor, a second resistor, a third resistor and a capacitor. The first resistor second resistor connected through a connection point. The first resistor is connected between the input terminal and the connection point, and the second resistor connected between the output terminal and the connection point. The third resistor is connected between the connection point and connection node, and the capacitor is connected between the connection node and the reference potential terminal. The charging circuit connected between the power supply terminal and the connection node.
US09537566B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for using two TDD carriers in the same paired spectrum by offsetting the DL and UL transmissions in frequency to cause the TDD carriers to behave as two half-duplex FDD carriers. DL and UL transmission and reception periods are predefined such that only one of the TDD carriers is transmitting on the DL at any instant in time while the other TDD carrier is transmitting on the UL.
US09537558B1

A phase shifter component is described. Inputs are arranged to selectively receive an inphase component of an in-phase (I) signal or an outphase I signal 180° out of phase with the inphase I signal, and to selectively receive an inphase component of a quadrature-phase (Q) signal or an outphase Q signal 180° out of phase with the inphase Q signal. A first gain portion includes only two transistor elements arranged to amplify the received outphase or inphase I signal. A second gain portion includes only two transistor elements arranged to amplify the received outphase or inphase Q signal. The first and second gain portions are configured to control the gain of the received outphase or inphase I signal and the received outphase or inphase Q signal, respectively, to provide a composite output signal with a desired phase shift between 0° and 360°.
US09537552B2

Non-zero power channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) are transmitted only on a subsampled pattern of antennas within an antenna array. Based on the transmitted CSI-RS, channel state information is determined for all antennas within the antenna array by, for example, precoder matrix indicator (PMI) interpolation or channel quality indicator (CQI) compensation. The determination of CSI for all antennas within the antenna array may be made by a user equipment receiving the subsampled CSI-RS or a base station transmitting the subsampled CSI-RS.
US09537543B2

An apparatus may include an antenna and a transceiver coupled to the antenna, the transceiver including a receiver operative to receive a radio-frequency (RF) signal and a transmitter operative to transmit a RF signal. The apparatus may also include an RF echo cancellation module coupled to the receiver and the transmitter, the RF echo cancellation module operative to generate an analog echo cancellation signal for the received RF signal based on a delayed version of the transmit RF signal. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US09537530B1

A method of processing signals may include calculating a covariance matrix and a correlation vector based on an input signal vector and an output signal vector; identifying a plurality of critical elements of a parameter vector based on a predefined criteria, wherein the parameter vector describes a relationship between the input signal vector and the output signal vector; calculating a solution to a linear system to generate a reduced parameter update vector having a plurality of elements, wherein the linear system is based on the plurality of critical elements of the parameter vector, the covariance matrix, and the correlation vector; updating the plurality of critical elements of the parameter vector using the reduced parameter update vector to generate an updated parameter vector, wherein the reduced parameter update vector has less elements than the parameter vector; and processing one or more signals associated with the input signal vector using the updated parameter vector.
US09537526B2

A door securement system for a protective case for housing a mobile device is provided. The protective case comprises a top shell that covers a top surface of a device and a bottom shell that cradles the back of the device. Where upper and lower backing elements are used that meet at a parting line along the outer (exterior) surface of the bottom shell, a locking mechanism may be used to pull the backing elements together and hold them in place. A multi-hinged door is positioned along a portion of the protective case to allow access to ports of the mobile device. The door has open, shut and sealed configurations.
US09537524B2

A protective case is suitable for partially wrapping an electronic device. The protective case includes a casing, a kickstand and an elastic strip. The casing is suitable for partially wrapping the electronic device. The kickstand is connected to the casing. The elastic strip is located within the kickstand and elastically deforms to change a shape of the kickstand. When the casing leans against a plane, the shape of the kickstand is changed by the elastic deformation of the elastic strip so that the kickstand supports the casing in relative to the plane.
US09537523B2

A cover configured to be attached to, and cover a portion of, a handheld electronic device. The cover includes a shell having a first side and a second side and a wireless charging receiver module connectable to the handheld electronic device. When attached to the handheld electronic device the first side of the shell faces the handheld electronic device. The wireless charging receiver module is positioned on the first side of the shell.
US09537517B2

Provided is a method of controlling an uplink noise level in a multi-radio unit (RU) environment in which each RU measures an ordinary noise level using a power monitoring function thereof when there is no user traffic and then controls an uplink noise level based on the ordinary noise level.
US09537516B1

The present invention is directed to a transmitter system. The system is made up of a reference clock, a differential oscillator and an edge combining power amplifier (ECPA). The clock feeds a low frequency reference signal into the differential oscillator to produce at least two low frequency outputs with opposite phases. Each low frequency output is made up of a number of low frequency subsignals equal to the number of oscillator stages. Each low frequency output is fed into a branch in the ECPA having a number of sub-branches equal to the number of oscillator stages. A processor uses an edge combining algorithm to combine these subsignals into a high frequency signal.
US09537514B2

An RF transmitter module for a cellular radio that includes a delta-sigma modulator having a plurality of interleaving dynamic element matching (DEM) circuits providing interleaved digital bits at a reduced clock rate. An interleaver controller controls the DEM circuits so as to provide groups of the digital bits at different points in time. In one embodiment, a summation junction adds the groups of the digital bits to provide a continuous stream of the interleaved digital bits, a DAC converts the stream of interleaved digital bits to an analog signal, and a power amplifier amplifies the analog signal.
US09537512B2

The method comprising passing, a base station or a user terminal, information comprising data signals and encoding, a first and a second turbo encoders, said received data signals, generating two different turbo code blocks comprising a set of systematic and parity bits. Where, in order to enhance detection the two different turbo code blocks are simultaneously transmitted through a wireless OFDM system and wherein the data signals to be encoded by said second turbo encoder are interleaved prior encoding by an external bit interleaver.The system of the invention is arranged to implement the method of the invention.
US09537511B2

Disclosed are methods for reading a set of bits from a NVM array (such as a SPI or parallel NOR NVM or otherwise) including: retrieving each of the set of bits from the NVM array substantially in parallel, applying substantially in parallel to each of the retrieved bits a segmented search, each search indexed using an order number of the respective bit being checked, and correcting a bit whose search indicates an error.
US09537508B1

Systems and methods are provided for decoding a codeword of a low density parity check (LDPC) code. The systems and methods may include receiving a vector corresponding to the codeword encoded with a parity check matrix, and processing a first portion of the received vector with a first portion of the parity check matrix to obtain a decoding estimate of a first portion of the codeword. The systems and methods may further include processing the decoding estimate of the first portion of the codeword with a second portion of the parity check matrix to obtain an intermediate vector, and processing a second portion of the received vector with a third portion of the parity check matrix and the intermediate vector to obtain a decoding estimate of a second portion of the codeword.
US09537503B2

Systems and methods are provided for detecting meta-stability during processing of signals. A meta-stability detector may comprise a timing control circuit, a plurality of signal adjustment circuits, and a plurality of signal state circuits. The timing control circuit may measure comparison time for each conversion cycle during analog-to-digital conversions. Each signal adjustment circuit may apply a logical operation to one or more input signals to the signal adjustment circuit, and provide a corresponding output signal. Each signal state circuit may store state information relating to one or more input signals to the signal state circuit, for at least one processing cycle; and provide an output signal based on prior stored information. The plurality of signal state circuits, plurality of signal adjustment circuits, and the timing control circuit may be arranged to generate one or more control signals for controlling an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) during the analog-to-digital conversions.
US09537502B2

A system for calibrating time interleaved ADCs is disclosed and may include a time interleaved analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for converting analog signals to digital signals, the time interleaved ADC comprising: a plurality of active slices, and a plurality of reference slices, each reference slice associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of active slices. An output of each reference slice may be used to correct distortion in an output of the corresponding active slice. Each active slice may sample an input signal at a first rate and each associated reference slice may sample the input signal at a second rate, the second rate being slower than the first rate. Each sample taken by one of the plurality of reference slices may then be taken concurrent with a sample taken by the associated active slice. Each reference slice may include a reference sampling module and a dummy load.
US09537501B2

An image sensor in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept may include a pixel sensor array which includes an active pixel sensor and an optical black pixel sensor; a first analog to digital converter configured to convert a first sensing signal, which is provided from the active pixel sensor, to a first digital signal; a second analog to digital converter configured to convert a second sensing signal, which is provided from the optical black pixel sensor, to a second digital signal; and an output buffer configured to temporarily store and output the first digital signal and the second digital signal, wherein a plurality of noise characteristics of the second analog to digital converter is different from a plurality of noise characteristics of the first analog to digital converter.
US09537498B2

Methods and systems for charge compensation for switched-capacitor circuits may comprise, in an electronics device comprising a first voltage source, a switched capacitor load, and a switched capacitor compensation circuit: switching a capacitor in the switched capacitor load from a first voltage to a second voltage; providing a charge to the switched capacitor load from the switched capacitor compensation circuit without requiring added charge from the first voltage source. A reference voltage may be generated utilizing the first voltage source. A replica reference voltage for the switched capacitor compensation circuit may be generated utilizing a second voltage source. The replica reference voltage may be equal to the reference voltage. The replica reference voltage may be equal to a supply voltage, VDD, for circuitry in the electronics device. Capacitors may couple outputs of the first and second voltage sources to ground.
US09537493B2

A phase lock loop circuit includes a phase detector, loop filter, voltage controlled oscillator, and a divider. The divider includes a controller and a memory that stores a lookup table of signal levels for a sinusoidal feedback signal. The divider receives an output signal from the voltage controlled oscillator and generates an output signal corresponding to the values in the lookup table in a predetermined order to generate a sinusoidal feedback signal. The divider generates a new output for each cycle of the output signal from the voltage controlled oscillator and enables PLL bandwidth that meets or exceeds a frequency of the reference signal.
US09537492B2

An integrated circuit implements at least part of a phase locked loop (PLL). The integrated circuit includes a sampled analog loop filter for the PLL. The loop filter includes a first input for receiving a signal representative of a phase difference between a reference clock signal and a first clock signal, a first output for providing a frequency control signal for controlling a frequency of an oscillator, a clock input for accepting a loop timing clock signal for controlling timing of operation of the loop filter, and a digital control input for configuring a response of the loop filter according to a plurality of control values. In some examples, the loop filter includes charge storage elements coupled by controllable switches, and control circuitry for transferring charge among the charge storage elements to yield the configured response of the loop filter.
US09537472B2

A fast response time, self-activating, adjustable threshold limiter including a limiting element LE, a first coupling element CE1 electrically connected from a signal node of LE to a control input of LE, and a second coupling element CE2 electrically connected from the control input of LE to a nominal node of LE. An initial bias (control) voltage is also supplied to the control input of LE to dynamically control the limiting threshold for the limiter. Embodiments include usage of self-activating adjustable power limiters in combination with series switch components in a switch circuit in lieu of conventional shunt switches.
US09537471B2

A 3D multi-bit flip-flop may include a two tier structure. The two tier structure may include a first tier containing a common clock circuit for the multi-bit flip-flop as well as the clock driven portions of the individual flip-flops and a second tier containing a common scan circuit for the multi-bit flip-flop as well as the non-clock driven portions of the individual flip-flops. Alternatively, the first tier may include the common clock circuit as well as a portion of the individual flip-flops and the second tier may include the common scan circuit as well as the other portion of the individual flip-flops.
US09537469B2

A digital level shifter adapted to shift an input signal from switching in a low voltage range, to an output switching in a high voltage range has a glitch generator configured to generate pulses at rising and falling transitions of the input signal. Glitch generator output triggers a multiple-level current source to a high current mode, operating in a low current mode at other times. The current source feeds a differential pair of high voltage transistors with a first transistor of the pair having a gate coupled to the input signal and a second transistor of the pair having a gate coupled to a complement of the input signal. An active load and buffer circuit receives current from the differential pair and drives the output accordingly.
US09537464B2

A surface acoustic wave resonator includes an IDT that is disposed on a quartz crystal substrate of Euler angles (−1.5°≦φ≦1.5°, 117°≦θ≦142°, ψ) and excites a surface acoustic wave resonant in an upper part of a stop-band of the IDT, and inter-electrode finger grooves that are acquired by depressing the substrate located between electrode fingers configuring the IDT. The wavelength of the surface acoustic wave, the depth of the inter-electrode finger grooves, the line occupancy ratio of the IDT, and the film thickness of the electrode fingers of the IDT are set in correspondence with one another.
US09537463B2

A choke for an EMI filter is provided. The EMI filter includes a first filtering circuit and a second filtering circuit. The choke includes a magnetic core assembly and four winding coils. The magnetic core assembly includes a first magnetic core and a second magnetic core. The first winding coil and the second winding coil are directly wound around the first magnetic core. The third winding coil and the fourth winding coil are directly wound around the second magnetic core. The first winding coil is serially connected with a first positive path of the first filtering circuit. The second winding coil is serially connected with a second positive path of the second filtering circuit. The third winding coil is serially connected with a first negative path of the first filtering circuit. The fourth winding coil is serially connected with a second negative path of the second filtering circuit.
US09537461B2

An antenna having a line feed delivering a radiofrequency (RF) signal to or from a radial waveguide is provided. The radial waveguide may include radiating elements on its periphery for converting the RF signal into a wireless signal. Filter elements are disposed within the waveguide, interposed radially between the line feed and the waveguide periphery. The filter elements are controllable for tunably filtering of the RF signal in their vicinity. Portions of the RF signal propagating through the waveguide in different direction may be bandpass filtered differently or blocked, thereby allowing for both beamsteering and bandpass filtering to support multiple frequency bands concurrently. Also provided is a design for the filter elements as tunable filter components of a frequency selective surface.
US09537442B2

Methods and systems for controlling an electric motor are provided herein. The system is configured to be coupled to a power supply. The electric motor system includes a rectifier, an electric motor, and a microcontroller. The rectifier is configured to convert an alternating current (AC) voltage input to a direct current (DC) voltage. The microcontroller is configured to extract power from a generator device.
US09537437B2

The present subject matter is directed to systems and methods for controlling variable speed generators, particularly converters associated with doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) to permit use of harmonic attenuating filters that are generally smaller and less costly than previous similar filters. The subject matter provides for controlling line-side and rotor-side converters in such a manner that the frequencies generated by the converters are interleaved in a manner that the filters see a higher switching frequency and thus may be designed based on those higher frequencies, thereby requiring smaller and less expensive components.
US09537428B2

A combined direct current DC power transmission and heating system is provided. The system includes a rectifier station configured to generate a DC link current. The system also includes a downstream converter station positioned remotely from the rectifier station. The downstream converter station is configured to generate power supplied to an electrical load using at least a portion of the DC link current. The system also includes a return conductor electrically coupled to the rectifier station and the downstream converter station. The return conductor is configured to transmit a return current from the downstream converter station to the rectifier station. The return conductor is also configured to generate heat from resistive losses induced by the return current; and conduct the heat generated by the return current to a fluid being transported from a proximity of the downstream converter station to a proximity of the rectifier station.
US09537415B2

A power generating device is provided, which includes a matrix converter device, a power transmission path for transmitting electric power between the matrix converter device and an electric power system, and at least one inductor for phase adjustment, bridged between the power transmission path and a neutral point.
US09537407B2

A power supply includes a power conversion circuit configured to selectively operate in one of an active mode in which output power is supplied to a load and a standby mode in which output power is not supplied to the load, a plurality of auxiliary circuits including a first auxiliary circuit and a second auxiliary circuit, a bias node configured to supply power to the plurality of auxiliary circuits, and a switch that is coupled between the bias node and the first auxiliary circuit and that is configured to disconnect the first auxiliary circuit from the bias node in response to a control signal.
US09537405B2

A controller for use in a power converter includes a drive circuit coupled to control switching of a power switch of the power converter to regulate the output of the power converter. A limit sense circuit is coupled to output a limit sense signal in response to a condition of the power converter. The drive circuit is coupled to operate in a first operation mode if there is a no limit condition. The first operation mode includes regulating the output of the power converter with a regulated output voltage and a first maximum output current. The drive circuit is coupled to operate in a second operation mode if there is a limit condition. The second operation mode regulating the output of the power converter with the regulated output voltage and a second maximum output current wherein the second maximum output current is less than the first maximum output current.
US09537395B2

A peak efficiency detection system may include a switched power supply (SPS) module providing an output supply signal. The SPS module may have an internal node, and a plurality of SPS circuits configured to generate the output supply signal on the internal node. A dead type module may generate control signals. A central node external to the SPS module may deliver the output supply signal to a load module. A power stage size control module may generate control signals for controlling the SPS module. A peak-efficiency detection (PED) module may receive the output supply signal from the central node, the control signals from the SPS module, and the control signals from the power stage size control module. The PED module may generate a signal representative of an efficiency of the SPS module.
US09537386B2

Methods, devices, and integrated circuits are disclosed for a driver controller that internally calculates average output current. In one example, a method includes receiving an output voltage of an output line. The method further includes performing a calculation of an average output current at the output line based at least in part on the output voltage. The method further includes controlling an interval timing of a switch based at least in part on the calculation of the average output current at the output line, wherein the switch is configured for switching current to the output line.
US09537381B2

A motor for a compressor, and a reciprocating compressor having the same, are provided. A winding coil may be formed by removing a bobbin from the winding coil, and then coating an insulating material on an outer circumferential surface of the winding coil, to allow heat and moisture generated by the winding coil to be emitted to outside and provide enhanced performance and reliability. As a bobbin is removed from the winding coil, a coil line may be wound on the removed portion of the bobbin to enhance an occupation ratio by the coil line on the same area, and thus enhance efficiency of the motor. An elastic member or an adhesive may be inserted or applied into a space between the winding coil and a coil insertion groove of an inner stator to minimize vibrations of a coil line. The insulating material, which is in the form of powder, may melt while the coil line is adhered as the self-bonding material melts, forming a coating layer. Accordingly, the winding coil may be easily fabricated, and fabrication costs of the winding coil may be reduced.
US09537380B2

A permanent-magnet type rotating electrical machine, including a rotor including a plurality of magnetic poles arranged at an equal interval, and a stator including a plurality of teeth and a plurality of armature windings. A high frequency voltage different in frequency and amplitude from voltages for generating a torque is applied to the armature windings. A magnetic pole position of the rotor is estimated by using a current trajectory of a measured high frequency current. When dq transform is applied to the measured high frequency current, a current trajectory forms an ellipse on d and q axes. Angular variation ranges of a major axis of the ellipse with respect to a load current and a rotor position are set so as to acquire a predetermined position estimation resolution.
US09537377B2

A motor assembly for a window lift mechanism has a motor and a gearbox. The motor includes a stator having a metal housing, and a rotor with a commutator, rotatably received in the housing. An end cap assembly is connected to the housing. The end cap assembly includes a plurality of brushes making sliding contact with the commutator, a plurality of connecting pieces for connecting an external power source, inductors connected between the brushes and the connecting pieces, and shielding layers cladding the inductors and electrically connected to the housing.
US09537372B2

A method for applying frequency resonance to electric power generation implemented by using the kinetic energy of a vehicle includes, a sprung vehicle body, through a free vibration at an inherent frequency thereof, exciting a hollow heavy-object supporting plate to have frequency resonance or effective vibration, in which the sprung vehicle body is provided with a vertical elastic system, the hollow heavy-object supporting plate is supported by the sprung vehicle body, also provided with a vertical elastic system, and equipped with a kinetic energy generator, and the inherent frequency of the hollow heavy-object supporting plate is same as or similar to that of the sprung vehicle body; the sprung vehicle body transfers the kinetic energy of vibration to the hollow heavy-object supporting plate and the hollow heavy-object supporting plate resonated by being excited drives the kinetic energy generator arranged on the hollow heavy-object supporting plate to generate electric power.
US09537369B2

A motor includes a rotor module and a stator module. The rotor module includes a plurality of first magnet units, a plurality of second magnet units, a hollow magnetic conductance pillar and a rotating shaft. The first and second magnet units are alternately arranged to form a hollow pillar. An outer surface of the hollow pillar includes a plurality of first surfaces and second surfaces of the first and second magnet units. The first and second surfaces have different magnetic poles. The hollow magnetic conductance pillar and the rotating shaft are disposed in and through the hollow pillar and the hollow magnetic conductance pillar, respectively. The stator module includes a shell and a coil unit. The rotor module is disposed in the shell and the rotating shaft is extended out of the shell. The coil unit is disposed on an inner surface of the shell and around the rotor module.
US09537364B2

In an expansion sheet for a rotary electric machine that has a thermal expansion property and is to be arranged between a core and a coil conductor in a slot in the rotary electric machine, in which the coil conductor is housed in the slot formed in the core, the expansion sheet has a first surface and a second surface and includes: a first surface-side portion; and a second surface-side portion that is closer to the second surface than the first surface-side portion. An amount of volume increase, caused by heating, of the first surface-side portion is higher than an amount of volume increase, caused by the heating, of the second surface-side portion.
US09537360B2

The invention relates to a rotor for a rotary electric machine, extending along a longitudinal axis and including: an assembly of electrical sheets forming projecting poles, two projecting poles defining an interpolar region therebetween; and at least two internal cooling channels formed in the assembly of electrical sheets in at least one interpolar region.
US09537359B2

A signal generator generates an electrical signal that is sent to an amplifier, which increases the power of the signal using power from a power source. The amplified signal is fed to a sender transducer to generate ultrasonic waves that can be focused and sent to a receiver. The receiver transducer converts the ultrasonic waves back into electrical energy and stores it in an energy storage device, such as a battery, or uses the electrical energy to power a device. In this way, a device can be remotely charged or powered without having to be tethered to an electrical outlet.
US09537358B2

Configurations and methods of wireless sound power transmission using a laptop computer may include a transmitter and/or a receiver embedded in the laptop screen. The embedded transmitter may emit SW waves for the generation of pockets of energy that may be utilized by receivers in peripheral devices for charging or powering. Meanwhile, the receiver embedded in the laptop computer may collect SW waves from a separate transmitter for charging or powering the laptop computer.
US09537343B2

An electric power transmission apparatus for a vehicle includes: a radio receiver that is capable of receiving a radio wave of a predetermined frequency transmitted from outside of the vehicle, and that is capable of executing a search operation of searching for the radio wave by shifting reception frequency from a current reception frequency at a predetermined shift speed, and stopping shifting of the reception frequency when a radio wave is received at or above a predetermined receiving intensity; and an on-vehicle device that interrupts transmission of the electric power to a mobile device performed by an electric power transmitter while the radio receiver is executing the search operation.
US09537337B2

A system and method for selecting a configuration of coils in response to a multi-coil wireless charging system initiating charging are provided. The system includes a ping generator to measure a reference coil peak voltage for each of the coils of the multi-coil wireless charging system; an object detector to detect that an object is placed on a surface associated with the wireless charging system; a charge detector to detect that the object is chargeable; and in response to the object being chargeable, a switch transmitter determines which of the coils of the multi-coil wireless charging system to connect to a power source.
US09537334B2

Provided is a charging system having a circuit for delaying power supply, and more particularly, a charging system having a circuit for delaying power supply installed on a side of a power supply apparatus, wherein the circuit for delaying power supply prevents a spark from being generated when an electronic device and the power supply apparatus are connected to each other.The circuit for delaying power supply blocks the power supply to the Vcc power terminal in the case in which the GND ground power terminal and the D signal terminal are not in an electrically shorted state and releases the blocking of the power supply to the Vcc power terminal because an operation of the transistor is changed and a charging state of the capacitor is changed in the case in which the GND ground power terminal and the D signal terminal become the electrically shorted state.
US09537333B2

A voltage supply system having a first battery with a first anode and a first cathode, and a contactor coupled in series between the first anode and an electrical node is provided. The system includes a first voltage sensor generating a signal indicative of a first voltage level of the first battery, and a second voltage sensor generating a signal indicative of a second voltage level between the electrical node and the first cathode. The system includes a DC-DC voltage converter coupled between the electrical node and the first cathode; and a second battery, and a microprocessor. The microprocessor disables operation of the DC-DC voltage converter such that the converter does not apply a voltage to the second battery, if both the first voltage level is substantially equal to the second voltage level, and the first voltage level is less than a first threshold voltage level.
US09537328B2

A battery rack includes: a plurality of battery packs; a plurality of slave battery management systems, each of the slave battery management systems being coupled to a corresponding one of the battery packs, being powered by an operating power, and being configured to use the corresponding one of the battery packs for the operating power in response to receiving a corresponding one of a plurality of operating power changing signals; and a master battery management system coupled to the slave battery management systems and configured to transmit the operating power changing signals to the slave battery management systems.
US09537321B2

A power transfer interface (120) is formed of a primary repeater coil (104) and one or more secondary repeater coils (106) coupled via a wired interconnect (110), and integrated within a garment (114). The repeater coils operate as part of a wireless charging or powering system in which a transmit coil (102), located in a vehicle or a radio, is driven to magnetically couple a wireless radio frequency (RF) power signal to the primary repeater coil (104) which in turn transfers the RF power signal to the secondary repeater coil (106) via the wired interconnect (110). The system further comprises a portable electronic device (220) having a receive coil (108). The receive coil (108) wirelessly receives the RF power signal from the secondary repeater coil (106), which can in turn be used to power the portable device or charge a battery of the portable device.
US09537311B2

A power transmission and distribution system includes a supplying side having a current source and a receiving side. The receiving side includes a modular converter with plurality of direct current (DC)-alternating current (AC) current source converters connected in series with the current source and a plurality of AC-DC rectifiers connected in parallel to supply power to a multiplicity of loads. Each of the DC-AC current source converters supply power to a corresponding AC-DC rectifier and includes a plurality of reverse blocking fully controllable switches having bidirectional voltage blocking capability. Furthermore, a current from the current source flows in at least one reverse blocking fully controllable switch at any instant.
US09537305B2

A touch control device with enhanced ESD protection effect comprises a sensing circuit module; a plurality of signal lines electrically connected with the sensing circuit module; an ESD protection ring disposed on periphery of the sensing circuit module and the signal lines; and an ESD shield ring interposed between the signal lines and the ESD protection ring. A touch on the sensing circuit module induces a sensation signal. While the signal lines transmit the sensation signal, the electrostatic charges generated thereby is drained off by the ESD protection ring. The ESD shield ring can drain off the residual electrostatic charges that the ESD protection ring does not drain off. Therefore, the present invention can exempt the touch control device from ESD interference, guarantee the accuracy of signal transmission, and protect the electronic elements of the touch control device.
US09537300B2

A load driving device includes a driving switching element, an interrupting part, a short-circuiting switching element, and a protecting element. The driving switching element drives a load by controlling energization to the load. The interrupting part is disposed on an energizing path to the load. The interrupting part is not melted by a driving current to the load and is melted by an interrupting current larger than the driving current so as to interrupt energization to the load. The short-circuiting switching element is connected in parallel with the load and applies the interrupting current to the interrupting part. The protecting element protects the short-circuiting switching element.
US09537299B2

A power management and distribution (PMAD) system includes a main DC bus, an auxiliary DC bus, a power converter, one or more hybrid solid-state circuit breakers, and a controller. The power converter converts power from the main DC bus to provide a regulated output to the auxiliary bus. Each hybrid SSCB includes a main switch connected between the main DC bus and a load and an auxiliary switch connected between the auxiliary DC bus and the load. The controller selectively turns the main switch and the auxiliary switch On/Off to selectively supply power from the main DC bus and/or the auxiliary DC bus to the load, and to selectively regulate the voltage on the auxiliary DC bus.
US09537294B2

An integrated shielding protector and a wire harness are provided so that the man-hours concerning the wiring operation can be reduced, and the number of components also can be reduced. A conductive integrated shielding protector, including a first high voltage accommodating part, a second high voltage accommodating part and a low voltage accommodating part, is used when first high voltage wires the voltage of which is high, second high voltage wires the voltage of which is high but lower than that of the first high voltage wires, and low voltage wires the voltage of which is low are wired in parallel in the same course. A wire harness, including the integrated shielding protector, the first high voltage wires, the second high voltage wires and the low voltage wires, is wired inside a vehicle compartment.
US09537293B2

An enhanced apparatus and method for securing a wire to a pulling cable for pulling wire. Specifically, the pulling cable and wire are attached via a pulling head body. The wire is inserted into an end of the pulling head body and secured by crimping the pulling head body against the wire. Further, crimp zone indicators positioned on the outer surface of the pulling head body indicate the optimal zone of crimping to achieve substantial contact between the pulling head body and the wire. A pulling cable is secured to the pulling head body via a ball swage that comprises a tapped surface.
US09537291B1

An elevated automatic transfer switch (ATS) cabinet provides modular and incremental power support redundancy to a set of electrical loads which reduces capital waste and increases the floor space which can be occupied by electrical loads. The cabinet includes a mounting element which can be coupled to a free-standing structure proximate to the floor space, so that the cabinet is supported by the structure in an elevated position and is freed from occupying floor space. The cabinet includes slots in which separate ATS modules can be installed via blind mate connections, thereby enabling modular and incremental installation of ATS support capacity in the cabinet based on incremental installation of electrical loads. The cabinet can physically couple with power cables extending from separate electrical loads, so that the cabinet electrically couples ATS modules to electrical loads independently of branch circuits between the cabinet and the electrical loads.
US09537284B2

A system for self-aligning assembly and packaging of semiconductor lasers allows reduction of time, cost and testing expenses for high power density systems. A laser package mounting system, such as a modified TO-can (transistor outline can), has modifications that increase heat transfer from the active laser to a heat exchanger or other heat sink. A prefabricated heat exchanger assembly mounts both a laser package and one or more lenses. Direct mounting of a fan assembly to the package further minimizes assembly steps. Components may be physically and optically aligned during assembly by clocking and other indexing means, so that the entire system is self-aligned and focused by the assembly process without requiring post-assembly adjustment. This system can lower costs and thereby enable the use of high powered semiconductor lasers in low cost, high volume production, such as consumer items.
US09537277B2

A process and apparatus for collecting data for nondestructive evaluation of the quality of a crimped wire connector are provided. The process involves providing a crimping tool having an anvil and opposing jaw for crimping a terminal onto a stranded wire, moving the jaw relative to the anvil to close the distance between the jaw and the anvil and thereby compress the terminal against the wire, while transmitting ultrasonic waves that are propagated through the terminal wire combination and received at a receiving ultrasonic transducer as the jaw is moved relative to the anvil, and detecting and recording the position of the jaw relative to the anvil as a function of time and detecting and recording the amplitude of the ultrasonic wave that is received at the receiving ultrasonic transducer as a function of time as the jaw is moved relative to the anvil.
US09537264B2

The present disclosure provides an electrical connector adapted to connect a cable having a metal braid layer with an electrical apparatus having an apparatus housing. The electrical connector includes a body adapted to be mounted on the apparatus housing; a cover fitted on the body; a metal shielding member fitted on the body and partially covered by the cover; and a terminal module arranged within the body. The terminal module comprises a grounding terminal for a grounding connection via the apparatus housing or a grounding wire of the electrical apparatus and a plurality of signal terminals for supplying electrical current from the cable to the electrical apparatus. The metal shielding member comprises a clamping portion adapted to clamp and electrically contact the metal braid layer and an elastic terminal electrically contacting the grounding terminal.
US09537258B2

A self unplugging power connector for charging mobile devices is provided. The self unplugging power connector includes electrical contact members for an electrical outlet, a release mechanism to remove the electrical contact members from the outlet and a current sensing circuit to activate the release mechanism when the circuit senses a current reduction.
US09537240B2

Provided is an electric connector mounted on a circuit board, including: a housing including a fitting portion fitted to a mating connector; a plurality of terminals disposed on the fitting portion; and lock metal fittings including an elastic portion and preventing separation of the mating connector, wherein the housing includes accommodating portions at both ends of the housing in the arrangement direction of the terminals to accommodate the lock metal fittings in the accommodating portions, and each of the lock metal fittings includes a fixed portion formed at one end of the lock metal fitting and fixed to the circuit board, a preventing surface formed at the other end of the lock metal fitting and preventing separation of the mating connector, a first folded portion extended from the preventing surface and folded in a substantially U shape, a second folded portion extended in the separation direction of the mating connector from the fixed portion, folded in a substantially U shape, and coming into contact with the first folded portion in the process of fitting of the mating connector, and a pair of projecting portions provided at the distal end of the first folded portion or in the vicinity of the distal end of the first folded portion, projecting in a direction crossing the arrangement direction of the terminals, and coming into contact with contact surfaces formed on the accommodating portion of the housing on the side in the separation direction of the mating connector.
US09537237B2

A system to improve an in-line memory module may include an edging carried by the in-line memory module to stiffen, support, protect, and/or aid in handling the in-line memory module. The system may also include guide ribs carried by the edging to facilitate positioning of the in-line memory module during installation. In one embodiment, the system includes a heat spreader to aid in cooling a plurality of heat sources carried by the in-line memory module. The system may further include a compliant member to regulate the heat spreader's positioning relative to the plurality of heat sources.
US09537234B2

A solder tail extender connector and method are provided for implementing production of solder tail extender connectors from compliant pins. A forming fixture is provided to collapse compliant pins prior to soldering. The compliant pin is collapsed at or beyond the normal compliant pin low end dimensions and removed from the forming fixture. A solder tail extender optionally is added to the collapsed compliant pin, forming the solder tail extender connector.
US09537224B2

Systems, methods, devices and apparatuses directed to transceiver devices are disclosed. In accordance with one method, a first set of antenna positions in a first section of a set of sections of a circuit layout for the circuit package is selected. The method further includes selecting another set of antenna positions in another section of the circuit layout such that an arrangement of selected antenna positions of the other set is different from an arrangement of selected antenna positions of a previously selected set of antenna positions. The selecting another set of positions in another section is iterated until selections have been made for a total number of antennas. The selecting the other set is performed such that consecutive unselected positions in the other section do not exceed a predetermined number of positions. In addition, antenna elements are formed at the selected positions to fabricate the circuit package.
US09537210B2

An apparatus and method to provide isolation between a first antenna and a second antenna, each of which is located on a ground plane. A slot that is tunable by a variable reactance is located on the ground plane, the slot not being appreciably resonant at the operating frequency of the first antenna and the second antenna. The antennas operate in an orthogonal mode. Varying the slot reactance varies the electrical distance over which the coupling current between the two antennas flows. Increased RF isolation to a desired magnitude results by maintaining the orthogonality at desired bands. The RF isolation can be measured and a departure from the desired magnitude of isolation causes the reactance to be varied to increase the RF isolation back to the desired magnitude. The antennas and the slot are placed at locations on the ground plane of high current density.
US09537201B2

A reconfigurable antenna structure includes first and second reconfigurable antennas, a configuration module, and an antenna processing circuit. The first reconfigurable antenna is configured, in response to a first configuration signal, to have a first radiation pattern and to have a first frequency bandwidth and the second reconfigurable antenna is configured, in response to a second configuration signal, to have a second radiation pattern and to have a second frequency bandwidth. The configuration module is configured to generate the first and second configuration signals. The antenna processing circuit is configured to send one or more transmit signals to one or more of the first and second reconfigurable antennas for transmission via one or more of the channels of interest and receive one or more receive signals from the one or more of the first and second reconfigurable antennas.
US09537194B2

Chipless RFID tags and a tag system are provided, wherein the stepped impedance higher-order mode resonator includes two sets of composite transmission lines each set having an equal line length and including a plurality of transmission lines each having a plurality of specific levels to which the transmission line characteristic impedance is assigned, the two sets of composite transmission lines each connected in series, the sets being connected at the center to form an electrically symmetrical configuration and wherein the chipless RFID tags and the tag system allow each of the codes to be assigned to each of the structures of the stepped impedance higher-order mode resonator, and allow each of those codes to be identified by detecting each of the combinations of the higher-order mode resonance frequencies that may be produced from each the structures of the resonator that corresponds to each of the codes that have been assigned.
US09537190B2

A battery cell separator includes a body having front and rear sides for being stacked against respective battery cells. The body has a cross-section between the front and rear sides. The cross-section may have a saw-wave pattern, a square-wave pattern, or a sine-wave pattern.
US09537189B2

A control system for controlling the temperature in a high-temperature battery to which hot air is supplied via an air duct system or in a high-temperature electrolyzer to which hot air is supplied via an air duct system is provided. The control system includes at least two temperature probes designed to detect the temperature at two different points in the air duct system, at least one first air-conditioning unit for physically conditioning the air, mounted in the air duct system upstream of the high-temperature battery or high-temperature electrolyzer, and a recirculation duct which recirculates hot air discharged from the high-temperature battery or high-temperature electrolyzer to a point in the air duct system upstream of the high-temperature battery or high-temperature electrolyzer and feeds the hot air back into the air duct system. The control system controls the first air-conditioning unit in accordance with the temperatures detected by the temperature probes.
US09537179B2

An intermediate temperature molten sodium-metal halide rechargeable battery utilizes a molten eutectic mixture of sodium haloaluminate salts having a relatively low melting point that enables the battery to operate at substantially lower temperature compared to the traditional ZEBRA battery system and utilize a highly conductive NaSICON solid electrolyte membrane. The positive electrode comprises a mixture of NaX and MX, where X is a halogen selected from Cl, Br and I and M is a metal selected Ni, Fe, and Zn. The positive electrode is disposed in a mixed molten salt positive electrolyte comprising at least two salts that can be represented by the formula NaAlX′4-δX″δ, where 0<δ<4, wherein X′ and X″ are different halogens selected from Cl, Br and I. The positive electrode may include additional NaX added in a molar ratio ranging from 1:1 to 3:1 of NaX:NaAlX′4-δX″δ.
US09537163B2

A control device includes a combustion apparatus temperature comparison unit for comparing a temperature of a combustion apparatus and a combustion apparatus temperature range, a combustion apparatus flame-out determination unit for determining whether flame-out occurs in the combustion apparatus based on a comparison result by the combustion apparatus temperature comparison unit, and a combustion apparatus control unit for starting or stopping operation of a start-up combustor based on a determination result by the combustion apparatus flame-out determination unit.
US09537157B2

A nanoconverter or nanosensor is disclosed capable of directly generating electricity through physisorption interactions with molecules that are dipole containing organic species in a molecule interaction zone. High surface-to-volume ratio semiconductor nanowires or nanotubes (such as ZnO, silicon, carbon, etc.) are grown either aligned or randomly-aligned on a substrate. Epoxy or other nonconductive polymers are used to seal portions of the nanowires or nanotubes to create molecule noninteraction zones. By correlating certain molecule species to voltages generated, a nanosensor may quickly identify which species is detected. Nanoconverters in a series parallel arrangement may be constructed in planar, stacked, or rolled arrays to supply power to nano- and micro-devices without use of external batteries. In some cases breath, from human or other life forms, contain sufficient molecules to power a nanoconverter. A membrane permeable to certain molecules around the molecule interaction zone increases specific molecule nanosensor selectivity response.
US09537155B2

Electrocatalysts having non-corrosive, non-carbon support particles are provided as well as the method of making the electrocatalysts and the non-corrosive, non-carbon support particles. Embodiments of the non-corrosive, non-carbon support particle consists essentially of titanium dioxide and ruthenium dioxide. The electrocatalyst can be used in fuel cells, for example.
US09537142B2

The present invention is a method for manufacturing a negative electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery. The method includes depositing silicon on a substrate by vapor deposition by using a metallic silicon as a raw material, the substrate having a temperature controlled to 300° C. to 800° C. under reduced pressure; and pulverizing and classifying the deposited silicon. The resulting negative electrode active material composed of silicon particles is an active material useful as a negative electrode of a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery in which high initial efficiency and high battery capacity of silicon are kept, cycle performance is superior, and an amount of a change in volume decreases at the time of charge and discharge.
US09537137B2

The main object of the present invention is to provide a cathode active material capable of reducing the initial interface resistance against a solid electrolyte material. The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems by providing a cathode active material comprising a cathode active substance exhibiting strong basicity and a coat layer formed so as to cover the surface of the above-mentioned cathode active substance and provided with a polyanionic structural part exhibiting acidity.
US09537135B2

A rechargeable battery including a case; a cap plate on the case; a terminal post protruding from the cap plate; a terminal plate coupled to the terminal post, wherein the terminal plate includes a body having an opening; and a conductor within the opening and coupled to the body, wherein the conductor substantially surrounds a circumference of the terminal post.
US09537134B2

A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly for performing charging and discharging operations, a case accommodating the electrode assembly, a cap plate coupled to an opening of the case, an electrode terminal installed on the cap plate, and a lead tab connecting the electrode assembly to the electrode terminal, the lead tab including a terminal connection part connected to the electrode terminal, and a current-collecting connection part connected to the electrode assembly, the current-collecting connection part including a welding portion connected to the electrode assembly, and an absorption portion separated from the welding portion in a first direction parallel to the cap plate and provided on an outer side of the welding portion.
US09537127B2

A battery assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a plurality of battery cells and a support structure positioned about the plurality of battery cells. The support structure includes at least one sidewall and the at least one sidewall includes a first flange that extends adjacent a top surface of each of the plurality of battery cells and a second flange that extends beyond a bottom surface of each of the plurality of battery cells.
US09537124B2

A variable insulating battery pack system includes a battery pack enclosure sized and configured to contain the battery pack, an enclosure space in the battery pack enclosure and a fluid pump disposed in fluid communication with the enclosure space and adapted to evacuate and pressurize the enclosure space.
US09537122B2

A fixing sheet adapted for fixing a battery to a body of an electronic apparatus is provided. The fixing sheet includes a structure layer having a first portion, a second portion and a split line. The first portion is adapted to be adhered to the battery. The second portion is structurally connected to the first portion and adapted to be adhered to the body. The split line is located at a common border of the first portion and the second portion. The first portion is capable of being forced relative to the second portion once the battery is forced relative to the body, so as to separate the first portion and the second portion along the split line. An electronic apparatus having the fixing sheet is also provided.
US09537119B2

An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different print head/substrate scan offsets, offsets between print heads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. Optionally, patterns of fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate observable line effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many other possible applications.
US09537116B2

The present disclosure provides novel light emitting devices including AMOLED displays, based on transparent OLED architecture, where a laminated nanostructured light extraction film can produce axial and integrated optical gains as well as improved angular luminance and color. Generally, the transparent AMOLED displays (100) with laminated sub-micron extractors (110a-c) include: (a) an extractor (110a) on a transparent substrate (112a) for light outcoupling on both sides of the transparent device (120); or (b) an extractor (110b) on a reflective film (112b) for providing light outcoupling off the bottom side of the bottom-emitting (BE) AMOLED (120); or (c) an extractor (110c) on a light absorbing film (112c) for providing outcoupling off the bottom side of the BE AMOLED (120) combined with improved ambient contrast.
US09537110B2

An organic compound represented by formula (1) or formula (2) that is easy to synthesize, and has excellent chemical stability, semiconductor characteristics (high carrier mobility) and high solubility in a solvent. in formula (1), X is oxygen, sulfur or selenium; n is 0 or 1; R1 to R3 are hydrogen, fluorine, alkyl having 1 to 20 carbons, aryl, pyridyl, furyl, thienyl, thiazolyl or the like. However, except for a case where X is selenium, a case where all of R1 to R3 are simultaneously hydrogen is excluded, and a case where X is sulfur and all of R1 are simultaneously butyl is also excluded. In formula (2), X is oxygen, sulfur or selenium; n is 0 or 1; R1 to R2 are hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 20 carbons, aryl, pyridyl, furyl, thienyl, thiazolyl or the like; however, a case where all of R1 to R2 are simultaneously hydrogen is excluded.
US09537109B2

Provided is a light-emitting element which has high emission efficiency and a long lifetime and is driven at low voltage. The light-emitting element includes an EL layer between a pair of electrodes. The EL layer includes a compound which gives a first peak at a m/z of around 266.10 in a mass spectrum.
US09537108B2

Provided is a heterocyclic compound represented by Formula 1 below and an organic light-emitting device including the same. In Formula 1, R1 to R8 are each independently a hydrogen atom, a deuterium atom, a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C60 alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C3 to C60 cycloalkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C2 to C60 heteroaryl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C60 aryl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C60 condensed polycyclic group, with the proviso that R2 is not wherein X is O, S, or Se.
US09537107B2

Provided are a light emitting device material which contains a compound having a carbazole skeleton of a specific structure and which makes it possible to achieve a light emitting device having both high luminance efficiency and durability; and a light emitting device using the light emitting device material.
US09537105B2

The present invention describes indenocarbazole derivatives having electron- and hole-transporting properties, in particular for use in the emission and/or charge-transport layer of electroluminescent devices or as matrix material. The invention furthermore relates to a process for the preparation of the compounds according to the invention and to electronic devices comprising same.
US09537104B2

A condensed-cyclic compound and an organic light-emitting diode including the condensed-cyclic compound.
US09537099B2

A polymer having two different sets of repeat units consisting essentially of: Additionally, in the polymer R1 can be selected from the group consisting of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups and combinations thereof. In the polymer, n and m can be greater than 1.In the polymer, x and y can be different from each other and independently selected from the group consisting of: an alkoxy group, a substituted alkoxy group, an aryl group, an alkyl group, a substituted alkyl group, where y=1-3, where y=0-12, where R2 is selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups, and aryl groups, where R3 is selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups, and aryl groups, where R4 and R5 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups, and aryl groups, —NR6R7 where R6 and R7 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups, and aryl groups.
US09537098B2

The present invention relates to a substrate for an organic electrode device, a manufacturing method thereof, and an organic electronic device. An exemplary substrate of the invention, if an organic light emitting element is formed on an upper part of the substrate, can obtain luminance with high emission and uniformity by efficiently controlling the surface resistance of an electrode even when the device is configured into larger sizes.
US09537093B1

A memory structure is disclosed. The memory structure comprises a phase change material layer, a first electrode, a second electrode, and conductive spacers. The second electrode and the first electrode are electrically connected to an upper surface and a lower surface of the phase change material layer respectively. The conductive spacers are separated from each other and on side surfaces of the phase change material layer.
US09537079B2

In a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric device, among a +C plane on a +Z axis side of a piezoelectric thin film and a −C plane on a −Z axis side of the piezoelectric thin film, the −C plane on the −Z axis side of the piezoelectric thin film is etched. Thus, −Z planes of the piezoelectric thin film on which epitaxial growth is possible are exposed. Ti is epitaxially grown on the −Z planes of the piezoelectric thin film in the −Z axis direction such that the crystal growth plane thereof is parallel to the −Z planes of the piezoelectric thin film. Al is then epitaxially grown on the surface of the Ti electrode in the −Z axis direction such that the crystal growth plane thereof is parallel to the −Z planes of the piezoelectric thin film.
US09537066B2

When an uneven pattern is formed on a light extraction surface composed of a semiconductor crystal by wet-etching using an alkaline solution, a plurality of convex portions cannot be formed in a desired arrangement. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device includes a light extraction surface composed of a semiconductor crystal, wherein when the uneven pattern is formed by a plurality of convex portions on the light extraction surface, first, a plurality of impressions are formed on the light extraction surface of a semiconductor layer composed of a semiconductor crystal using a processing substrate, and next, by applying wet-etching to the light extraction surface using an alkaline solution, to thereby form convex portions with a portion where each impression is formed as a top portion, and a plurality of facets of the semiconductor crystal as a side face thereof.
US09537064B2

Disclosed is a method for producing a wavelength conversion element (10) wherein a wavelength conversion layer (100) is provided, the surface thereof is treated with a plasma (50), and the wavelength conversion layer is punched. Also disclosed are a wavelength conversion layer and an optoelectronic component comprising a wavelength conversion layer.
US09537057B2

A surface-mounted light-emitting device includes: a LED epitaxial structure having two opposite surfaces, wherein the first surface is a light-emitting surface; P and N electrode pads over the second surface of the epitaxial structure, which have sufficient thickness to support the LED epitaxial structure, and the P and N electrode pads have two opposite surfaces respectively, in which, the first surface is approximate to the LED epitaxial structure; an insulator between the P and N pads to prevent the P and N electrode pads from short circuit; and the P and N electrode pads are directly applied in the SMT package. Some embodiments allow structural changes compared with conventional SMT package type by directly mounting the chip over the supporting substrate through an electrode pad. In addition, soldering is followed after the chip process without package step, which is mainly applicable to flip-chip LED device.
US09537053B2

Provided is a high quality III nitride semiconductor device in which, not only X-shaped cracks extending from the vicinity of the corners of semiconductor structures to the center portion thereof, but also crack spots at the center portion can be prevented from being formed and can provide a method of efficiently manufacturing the III nitride semiconductor device. The III nitride semiconductor device of the present invention includes a support and two semiconductor structures having a nearly quadrangular transverse cross-sectional shape that are provided on the support. The two semiconductor structures are situated such that one side surface of one of the two semiconductor structures is placed to face one side surface of the other of them. The support covers the other three side surfaces and of the four sides of the semiconductor structures.
US09537050B2

The invention relates to an optoelectronic device and to the method for manufacturing same. The optoelectronic device (45), according to the invention includes, in particular: a semiconductor substrate (46) doped with a first type of conductivity; semiconductor contact pads (18) or a semiconductor layer on a surface (16) of the substrate which are/is respectively doped with a second type of conductivity that is the opposite of the first type; and semiconductor elements (24), each semiconductor element being in contact with a contact pad or with the layer.
US09537048B2

The present invention discloses a vertical AC LED element and fabrication method thereof, wherein the vertical AC LED element comprises a conductive substrate (102); a light-emitting module on the conductive substrate (102), including two horizontally arranged in parallel and mutually-isolated LEDs; wherein the first and second LEDs include a first semiconductor layer (111), a light-emitting layer (112) and a second semiconductor layer (113) from top down; a first insulating layer (131) is arranged between the second semiconductor layer (113) of the first LED and the conductive substrate (102) for mutual isolation; an ohmic contact is formed between the second semiconductor layer (113) of the second LED and the conductive substrate (102); a first conductive structure that connects the first semiconductor layer (111) of the first LED, the second semiconductor layer (113) of the second LED and the conductive substrate (102); and a second conductive structure that connects the second semiconductor layer (113) of the first LED and the first semiconductor layer (111) of the second LED.
US09537041B2

A system and method of patterning dopants of opposite polarity to form a solar cell is described. Two dopant films are deposited on a substrate. A laser is used to pattern the N-type dopant, by mixing the two dopant films into a single film with an exposure to the laser and/or drive the N-type dopant into the substrate to form an N-type emitter. A thermal process drives the P-type dopant from the P-type dopant film to form P-type emitters and further drives the N-type dopant from the single film to either form or further drive the N-type emitter.
US09537040B2

A method for manufacturing semiconductor devices includes following steps. A substrate having a pixel region and a periphery region defined thereon is provided, and at least a transistor is formed in the pixel region. A blocking layer is formed on the substrate, and the blocking layer includes a first opening exposing a portion of the substrate in the pixel region and a second opening exposing a portion of the transistor. A first conductive body is formed in the first opening and a second conductive body is formed in the second opening, respectively. The first conductive body protrudes from the substrate and the second conductive body protrudes from the transistor. A portion of the blocking layer is removed. A first salicide layer is formed on the first conductive body and a second salicide layer is formed on the second conductive body, respectively.
US09537038B2

A method for forming a photovoltaic device includes depositing a p-type layer on a substrate. A barrier layer is formed on the p-type layer by exposing the p-type layer to an oxidizing agent. An intrinsic layer is formed on the barrier layer, and an n-type layer is formed on the intrinsic layer.
US09537031B2

A method for fabricating a solar cell using a nozzle assembly that includes a base portion, a scriber coupled to the base portion, and a nozzle coupled to the base portion such that the nozzle is positioned a predefined distance from a tip of the scriber is provided. The method generally comprises positioning a substructure that includes a buffer layer and an absorber layer proximate to the base portion. A P2 line is scribed through the buffer and absorber layers of the substructure using the scriber tip. A nanoparticle solution is sprayed, using the nozzle, onto at least one portion of the buffer layer at a predefined pressure when the P2 line is being scribed through the buffer and absorber layers such that a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer is inhibited from forming over the portion of the buffer layer that is being sprayed with the nanoparticle solution.
US09537026B2

A method for manufacturing a solar-power-generator substrate by cutting out a semiconductor substrate by slicing a semiconductor ingot and then by forming a texture structure on a surface of the semiconductor substrate by performing a surface treatment on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, includes: cleaning including cleaning and removing an organic impurity and a metal impurity adhering to the surface of the semiconductor substrate with a cleaning fluid containing an oxidizing chemical; and etching including removing a damaged layer on a substrate surface generated by the slicing and forming the texture structure on the surface of the semiconductor substrate by performing anisotropic etching on the surface of the semiconductor substrate with an alkaline aqueous solution, the etching being performed subsequent to the cleaning.
US09537025B1

Embodiments generally relate to optoelectronic devices and more specifically, to textured layers in optoelectronic devices. In one embodiment, a method for providing a textured layer in an optoelectronic device includes depositing a first layer of a first material and depositing an island layer of a second material on the first layer. Depositing the island layer includes forming one or more islands of the second material to provide at least one textured surface of the island layer, where the textured surface is operative to cause scattering of light.
US09537024B2

An optoelectronic device has a hybrid metal-dielectric optoelectronic interface including an array of nanoscale dielectric resonant elements (e.g., nanopillars), and a metal film disposed between the dielectric resonant elements and below a top surface of the resonant elements such that the dielectric resonant elements protrude through the metal film. The device may also include an anti-reflection coating. The device may further include a metal film layer on each of the dielectric resonant elements.
US09537023B2

An image pickup apparatus includes: an image pickup device disposed in a first principal surface of a silicon substrate, the image pickup device sensing infrared light; an electrode pad disposed on the first principal surface; a front-face wiring connecting the image pickup device and the electrode pad; an external connection terminal disposed on a second principal surface of the silicon substrate; a back-face wiring connecting the electrode pad and the external connection terminal via a substrate through-hole extending from the second principal surface side through the silicon substrate to a back face of the electrode pad; and a light blocking layer disposed on the second principal surface, the light blocking layer covering a trench portion surrounding the image pickup device and a region surrounded by the trench portion.
US09537011B1

One embodiment provides a method comprising etching a fin of a fin-shaped field effect transistor (FinFET) to form a reduced fin, and laterally etching the reduced fin to form a fin channel including a first fin channel sidewall and a second fin channel sidewall opposing the first fin channel sidewall. The method further comprises forming a first thin dielectric tunnel and a second thin dielectric tunnel on the first fin channel sidewall and the second fin channel sidewall, respectively. Each thin dielectric tunnel prevents lateral epitaxial crystal growth on the fin channel. The method further comprises etching an insulator layer disposed between the fin channel and a substrate of the FinFET to expose portions of a substrate surface of the substrate. A source epitaxy and a drain epitaxy are formed from vertical epitaxial crystal growth on the exposed portions of the substrate surface after epitaxial deposition.
US09537004B2

A system and method for forming semiconductor structures is disclosed. An embodiment comprises forming a high diffusibility layer adjacent to a gate stack and forming a low diffusibility layer adjacent to the high diffusibility layer. After these two layers are formed, an anneal is performed to diffuse dopants from the high diffusibility layer underneath the gate stack to help form a channel region.
US09536998B2

[Problem] To provide a semiconductor device wherein withstand voltage of a gate insulating film at the upper edge of a trench is improved, and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device.[Solution] A semiconductor device (1) includes: an n-type SiC substrate (2) having a gate trench (9) formed therein; a gate insulating film (16), which integrally includes a side-surface insulating film (18) and a bottom-surface insulating film (19); and a gate electrode (15) which is embedded in the gate trench (9), and which selectively has an overlap portion (17) that overlaps, at the upper edge (26), the surface (21) of the SiC substrate (2). In the side-surface insulating film (18), an overhung portion (27) that is selectively thick compared with other portions of the side-surface insulating film (18) is formed such that the overhung portion protrudes, at the upper end edge (26), toward the inside of the gate trench (9).
US09536993B2

A thin film transistor 100 according to the invention includes a gate electrode 20, a channel 44, and a gate insulating layer 34 provided between the gate electrode 20 and the channel 44 and made of oxide (possibly containing inevitable impurities; this applies to oxide hereinafter) containing lanthanum and zirconium. The channel 44 is made of channel oxide including first oxide containing indium, zinc, and zirconium (Zr) having an atomic ratio of 0.015 or more and 0.075 or less relative to indium assumed to be 1 in atomic ratio, second oxide containing indium and zirconium (Zr) having an atomic ratio of 0.055 or more and 0.16 or less relative to the indium (In) assumed to be 1 in atomic ratio, or third oxide containing indium and lanthanum having an atomic ratio of 0.055 or more and 0.16 or less relative to the indium (In) assumed to be 1 in atomic ratio.
US09536991B1

A method of forming a single diffusion break includes patterning a fin hardmask disposed over a substrate. First and second fin arrays separated by an isolation region are etched into the substrate from the patterned fin hardmask. Any remaining fin hardmask being self-aligned with the fins. A first dielectric fill material is disposed and planarized over the arrays to expose top surfaces of the remaining fin hardmask. A second dielectric strip is formed over the first dielectric fill material to cover the isolation region and end portions of the remaining fin hardmask. Any exposed portions of the remaining fin hardmask are anisotropically etched away. The end portions of the remaining fin hardmask form base extensions of a base for a single diffusion break (SDB) in the isolation region. The first dielectric fill material and second dielectric strip are etched to complete formation of the base for the single diffusion break.
US09536980B1

An embodiment device includes a gate stack extending over a semiconductor substrate, a hard mask disposed on a top surface of the gate stack, and a low-k dielectric spacer on a side of the gate stack. A top of the low-k dielectric spacer is lower than an upper surface of the hard mask. The device further includes a contact electrically connected to a source/drain region adjacent the gate stack. The contact extends laterally over the low-k dielectric spacer, and a dielectric material is disposed between the contact and the low-k dielectric spacer. The dielectric material has a higher selectivity to etching than the low-k dielectric spacer.
US09536979B2

A structure including a plurality of fins etched from a semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode above and perpendicular to the plurality of fins, a pair of sidewall spacers disposed on opposing sides of the gate electrode, a gap fill material above the semiconductor substrate and between the plurality of fins, the gap fill material is directly below the gate electrode and directly below the pair of sidewall spacers, wherein the gate electrode separates the gap fill material from each of the plurality of fins, and an epitaxially grown region above a portion of the plurality of fins not covered by the gate electrode, the EPI region separates the gap fill material from each of the plurality of fins.
US09536975B2

Ferroelectric semiconductor devices are provided by including a ferroelectric layer in the device that is made of a material that is not ferroelectric in bulk. Such layers can be disposed at interfaces to promote ferroelectric switching in a semiconductor device. Switching of conduction in the semiconductor is effected by the polarization of a mechanically bi-stable material. This material is not ferroelectric in bulk but can be considered to be when the thickness is sufficiently reduced down to a few atomic layers. Devices including such ferroelectric layers are suitable for various applications, such as transistors and memory cells (both volatile and non-volatile).
US09536973B2

A method includes depositing a first metal layer on a native SiO2 layer that is disposed on at least one of a source and a drain of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). A metal oxide layer is formed from the native SiO2 layer and the first metal layer, wherein the remaining first metal layer, the metal oxide layer, and the at least one of the source and the drain form a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contact.
US09536972B2

A trench power MOSFET and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The gate of the trench power MOSFET includes an upper doped region, a lower doped region and a middle region interposed therebetween. The upper has a conductive type reverse to that of the lower doped region, and the middle region is an intrinsic or lightly-doped region to form a PIN, P+/N− or N+/P− junction. As such, when the trench power MOSFET is in operation, a junction capacitance formed at the PIN, P+/N− or N+/P− junction is in series with the parasitic capacitance. Accordingly, the gate-to-drain effective capacitance may be reduced.
US09536963B2

An electrode structure of a transistor, and a pixel structure and a display apparatus comprising the electrode structure of the transistor are disclosed. The electrode structure of the transistor comprises a first electrode and a second electrode. The first electrode has at least two first portions and at least one second portion. The first portions are substantially parallel with each other and each has a first width. The second portion has a second width, and connects the substantially parallel first portions to define a space with an opening. The first width is substantially greater than the second width.
US09536961B2

A semiconductor layer of a reverse conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor is provided with a drift region of a first conductive type, a body region of a second conductive type that is disposed above the drift region, and a barrier region of the first conductive type that is disposed in the body region and electrically connects to the emitter electrode via a pillar member which extends from the one of main surfaces of the semiconductor layer. The barrier region is not contact with a side surface of the insulated trench gate.
US09536955B2

A nitride semiconductor substrate is provided which is suitable for a high withstand voltage power device and prevents a warp and a crack from generating in a Si substrate when forming a thick nitride semiconductor layer on the substrate. A nitride semiconductor substrate 1 is prepared in such a manner that a buffer layer 3 and a semiconductor active layer 4 each comprising a group 13 nitride are stacked one by one on one principal plane of a Si single crystal substrate, the one principal plane has an offset angle of 0.1° to 1° or −1° to −0.1° with respect to a (111) plane, an average dopant concentration in a bulk is 1×1018 to 1×1021 cm−3, the Si single crystal substrate 2 has a SiO2 film on the back, and the total thickness of the buffer layer 3 and the semiconductor active layer 4 is 4 to 10 μm.
US09536952B2

Body contact layouts for semiconductor structures are disclosed. In at least one exemplary embodiment, a semiconductor structure comprises: a plurality of gates disposed on a semiconductor layer, each gate extending parallel to a y-axis in a coordinate space; a source region disposed between two of the plurality of gates; a plurality of body contacts disposed in each source region; and wherein a portion of each source region, adjacent to the gate, has a width extending parallel to the y-axis that is greater than the width of the source region parallel to the y-axis at a distance on an x-axis from the gate.
US09536950B2

A semiconductor device may include a strain relaxed buffer layer provided on a substrate to contain silicon germanium, a semiconductor pattern provided on the strain relaxed buffer layer to include a source region, a drain region, and a channel region connecting the source region with the drain region, and a gate electrode enclosing the channel region and extending between the substrate and the channel region. The source and drain regions may contain germanium at a concentration of 30 at % or higher.
US09536949B2

A nitride semiconductor device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a substrate; a first nitride semiconductor layer supported by the substrate; a second nitride semiconductor layer disposed on the first nitride semiconductor layer; a source-side nitride semiconductor regrowth layer which is located on a source-side recess region; a drain-side nitride semiconductor regrowth layer which is located on a drain-side recess region located apart from the source-side recess region; a first diffusion layer which is disposed in the first nitride semiconductor layer and contains Ge diffused from the source-side nitride semiconductor regrowth layer; and a second diffusion layer which is disposed in the first nitride semiconductor layer and contains Ge diffused from the drain-side nitride semiconductor regrowth layer.
US09536948B2

A semiconductor device includes an n-type drain layer, an n-type base layer provided on the n-type drain layer, a p-type base layer and an n-type source layer partially formed in surface layer portions of the n-type base layer and the p-type base layer, respectively, a gate insulation film formed on a surface of the p-type base layer between the n-type source layer and the n-type base layer, a gate electrode formed on the gate insulation film facing the p-type base layer across the gate insulation film, a p-type column layer formed within the n-type base layer to extend from the p-type base layer toward the n-type drain layer, a depletion layer alleviation region arranged between the p-type column layer and the n-type drain layer and including first baryons converted to donors, a source electrode connected to the n-type source layer, and a drain electrode connected to the n-type drain layer.
US09536944B2

A semiconductor device has a deep layer with a higher impurity concentration than that of a super junction structure. The deep layer is formed from a position deeper from a surface of a semiconductor layer by a predetermined depth, and comes in contact with a high impurity layer and also comes in contact with the super junction structure. The deep layer overlaps with a portion between a first end which is an outermost peripheral side of a portion that comes in contact with the high impurity layer in a front surface electrode and an end on an outer peripheral side in the high impurity layer when viewed from a substrate normal direction.
US09536941B2

A semiconductor chip includes a semiconductor layer having first and second opposing main surfaces. A plurality of MOSFET cells are at least partially formed in the semiconductor layer. A gate pad region is at least partially formed in the semiconductor layer and includes a gate pad contact and a first plurality of trenches extending from the first main surface. The first plurality of trenches are spaced apart from one another in a direction parallel to the first main surface by about 45 micrometers to about 60 micrometers. At least one gate feed region is at least partially formed in the semiconductor layer and includes a gate feed contact and a second plurality of trenches extending from the first main surface. The second plurality of trenches are spaced apart from one another in the direction parallel to the first main surface by about 45 micrometers to about 60 micrometers.
US09536937B2

When writing a signal current from a current source to a current source circuit, noise occurs in some cases in a wiring through which a current flows, which may cause a potential of the wiring to be outside the normal range. As the potential does not turn back within the normal range easily at this time, writing to the current source circuit is delayed. According to the invention, when the potential becomes outside the normal range due to noise occurring in a wiring through which a current flows when writing a signal current from a current source to a current source circuit, a current is supplied from other than the current source, thereby the potential of the wiring can turn back within the normal range rapidly.
US09536934B2

The present invention provides an OLED array substrate, a manufacturing method of the same, a display panel, and a display device, and relates to the field of active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology. The present invention can solve the problem that turn-on and turn-off of a switching thin film transistor and grayscale control cannot be performed effectively because the switching thin film transistor and a driving thin film transistor are manufactured as thin film transistors having same performance parameters in an existing OLED array substrate. The OLED array substrate according to the present invention includes a switching thin film transistor and a driving thin film transistor, wherein, an S factor of the switching thin film transistor is less than that of the driving thin film transistor.
US09536928B2

An organic light-emitting display device comprising a substrate; an insulating layer disposed on the substrate; a plurality of bottom electrodes arranged on the insulating layer in a matrix pattern defining a plurality of intersecting rows and columns; an organic layer disposed on each of the bottom electrodes; a top electrode disposed on the organic layer; and a plurality of wiring lines adjacent to the first bottom electrode, the wiring lines being formed on the insulating layer placed between the rows of the bottom electrodes.
US09536923B2

A solid-state image pickup device has an image pickup pixel including a first photoelectric conversion portion and a first transistor and a focus detection pixel including a second photoelectric conversion portion, a second transistor, and a light shielding portion, in which a reflection preventing portion is provided on the underface side of the light shielding portion.
US09536914B2

There is provided a front side illuminated (FSI) semiconductor structure with improved light absorption efficiency which is configured to provide a reflecting layer on a bottom of the FSI semiconductor structure to enhance the light absorption efficiency, wherein the reflecting layer is manufactured in the packaging process or the semiconductor process.
US09536913B2

Disclosed is a display device integrated with a touch screen panel and a method for fabricating the same. The display includes: a TFT positioned at each pixel region; a first electrode spaced from one of a source electrode or a drain electrode of the TFT; a second electrode facing the first electrode; a TFT protective layer positioned on the TFT and has a first contact hole; a touch signal line positioned between a first touch connection pattern, which is made of the same material as the first electrode, and a second touch connection pattern made of the same material as the second electrode, and transfers a touch driving signal to the second touch connection pattern; a first connection pattern made of the same material as the second electrode; and a first electrode protective layer positioned on the first electrode and the touch signal line.
US09536912B2

A method of transferring a thin film is a method of transferring a thin film formed on a first substrate to a second substrate, the method including: allowing the first substrate to come into contact with a liquid to swell the first substrate; allowing the second substrate and the thin film to come into contact with each other via the liquid; and drying the liquid to allow the thin film to adhere to the second substrate.
US09536905B2

An active matrix substrate (5) includes mounting terminals (DT) for supplying a signal from a driver, draw-out lines (22) connecting the mounting terminals (DT) and gate bus lines (G) or data bus lines (D), first common wires (24) connected in common to the plurality of gate bus lines (G) or the plurality of data bus lines (D), and second switching elements (23) connected between the draw-out lines (22) and the first common wires (24). The draw-out lines (22) include a fan-out portion (FA) that is arranged at an angle with respect to a direction of arrangement of the gate bus lines (G) or the data bus lines (D). At least a portion of the first common wires (24) and at least a portion of the second switching elements (23) are arranged between the fan-out portion (FA) and the mounting terminals (DT).
US09536902B2

A thin film transistor array substrate includes a pixel electrode layout area, a data electrode layout area, a transparent pixel electrode layer formed in the pixel electrode layout area, a first metal layer, a first dielectric layer, an amorphous silicon layer, a second metal layer, a second dielectric layer formed in the pixel electrode layout area and the data electrode layout area. The first dielectric layer covers the first metal layer. The amorphous silicon layer, the second metal layer and the second dielectric layer are sequentially formed on the first dielectric layer. The transparent pixel electrode layer is connected to the second metal layer through a via hole formed in the pixel electrode area of the second dielectric layer. Moreover, a method for manufacturing the thin film transistor array and a liquid crystal display including the thin film transistor array substrate also are provided.
US09536896B2

A non-volatile memory device having a vertical structure includes a semiconductor layer, a sidewall insulation layer extending in a vertical direction on the semiconductor layer, and having one or more protrusion regions, first control gate electrodes arranged in the vertical direction on the semiconductor layer, and respectively contacting one of portions of the sidewall insulation layer where the one or more protrusion regions are not formed and second control gate electrodes arranged in the vertical direction on the semiconductor layer, and respectively contacting one of the one or more protrusion regions.
US09536891B2

A nonvolatile memory device having a plurality of unit cells, each of the plurality of unit cells includes a first transistor suitable for having a fixed threshold voltage, and a second transistor suitable for coupling to the first transistor in parallel and having a variable threshold voltage.
US09536882B2

Disclosed are isolation techniques for bulk FinFETs. A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate with a fin structure on the semiconductor substrate. The fin structure is perpendicular to the semiconductor substrate and has an upper portion and a lower portion. Source and drain regions are adjacent to the fin structure. A gate structure surrounds the upper portion of the fin structure. A well contact point is provided in the semiconductor substrate. The lower portion of the fin structure includes a sub-fin between the region surrounded by the gate structure and the semiconductor substrate. The sub-fin directly contacts the semiconductor substrate. The upper portion of the fin structure and an upper portion of the sub-fin are undoped. A lower portion of the sub-fin may be doped. Electrical potential applied from the well contact point to the lower portion of the sub-fin reduces leakage currents from the upper portion of the fin structure.
US09536879B2

A method includes forming a plurality of fins on a substrate, a gate is formed over a first portion of the plurality of fins with a second portion of the plurality of fins remaining exposed. Spacers are formed on opposite sidewalls of the second portion of the plurality of fins. The second portion of the plurality fins is removed to form a trench between the spacers. An epitaxial layer is formed in the trench. The spacers on opposite sides of the epitaxial layer constrain lateral growth of the epitaxial layer.
US09536872B2

A semiconductor chip includes a substrate including a surface, an active transistor region and a substrate contact region formed on the substrate, a shallow trench isolation (STI) area formed in the surface and disposed at least partially between the active transistor region and the substrate contact region, and at least one capacitor at least partially buried in the STI area.
US09536864B2

This disclosure provides a package structure and its fabrication method. The package structure includes: a protective insulation layer; a wiring layer including at least one metal wire and disposed on the protective insulation layer; and a first package unit disposed on the wiring layer and including a plurality of metal pillars, a first integrated-circuit chip and a first molding compound layer; wherein the plural metal pillars are located in a pillar region and electrically connected to the at least one metal wire, the first integrated-circuit chip is located in a device region and electrically connected to the at least one metal wire, and the first molding compound layer filling up the remaining part of the first package unit.
US09536863B2

Apparatuses for interconnecting integrated circuit dies. A first set of single-ended transmitter circuits are included on a first die. The transmitter circuits are impedance matched and have no equalization. A first set of single-ended receiver circuits are included on a second die. The receiver circuits have no termination and no equalization. Conductive lines are coupled between the first set of transmitter circuits and the first set of receiver circuits. The lengths of the conductive lines are matched. The first die, the first set of single-ended transmitter circuits, the second die, the first set of single ended receiver circuits and the conductive lines are disposed within a first package. A second set of single-ended transmitter circuits are included on the first die. The transmitter circuits are impedance matched and have no equalization. Data transmitted from the second set of transmitter circuits is transmitted according to a data bus inversion (DBI) scheme. A second set of single-ended receiver circuits is included on a third die. The receiver circuits have termination. Conductive lines are coupled between the second set of transmitter circuits and the second set of receiver circuits. The lengths of the conductive lines are matched and the second set of receiver circuits is disposed within a second package.
US09536858B2

Provided are a semiconductor device including an interposer having a relatively thin thickness without a through silicon via and a method of manufacturing the same. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming an interposer including a redistribution layer and a dielectric layer on a dummy substrate, connecting a semiconductor die to the redistribution layer facing an upper portion of the interposer, encapsulating the semiconductor die by using an encapsulation, removing the dummy substrate from the interposer, and connecting a bump to the redistribution layer facing a lower portion of the interposer.
US09536853B2

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, a wafer-to-wafer semiconductor device includes a first wafer substrate having a first bonding layer formed on a first bulk substrate layer. A second wafer substrate includes a second bonding layer formed on a second bulk substrate layer. The second bonding layer is bonded to the first bonding layer to define a bonding interface. At least one of the first wafer substrate and the second wafer substrate includes a crack-arresting film layer configured to increase a bonding energy of the bonding interface.
US09536849B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a pad electrode formed on the semiconductor substrate, a post electrode formed on the pad electrode and made of a copper film, a solder ball electrode formed on the post electrode and made of ternary alloy containing tin, a terminal connected to the solder ball electrode and formed on a front surface of a wiring board, and a sealing material filling a gap between the semiconductor substrate and the wiring board. The post electrode includes a cylindrical stem portion and an overhanging portion positioned in an upper part of the stem portion and protruding to an outer side of the stem portion, the solder ball electrode is connected to an upper surface of the post electrode over the stem portion and the overhanging portion, and a sidewall of the stem portion contacts with the sealing material over the entire circumference thereof.
US09536843B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor package includes: a first metal body on which a part of a waveguide structure is formed; a second metal body including a mounting area for a semiconductor device and disposed on the first metal body; a line substrate on which a signal transmission line configured to communicate a waveguide with the semiconductor device mounted on the mounting area is formed; and a lid body disposed at a position facing the first metal body, interposing the second metal body and the line substrate. The lid body is made of resin, on which a structure corresponding to another waveguide structure on an extension of the waveguide structure in the first metal body is formed. The structure includes a metal-coated inner wall surface.
US09536841B2

A semiconductor package includes a substrate having a front side, a bottom side, and a sidewall along a perimeter of the substrate, a plurality of solder pads on the bottom side, at least one EM shielding contact structure on the bottom side and partially exposed on the sidewall, a semiconductor device mounted on the front side, a mold compound on the front side and covering the semiconductor device, and an EM shielding layer conformally covering the mold compound and the sidewall. The EM shielding layer is in direct contact with the exposed portion of the EM shielding contact structure on the sidewall.
US09536840B2

A three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuit (3DIC) with a graphene shield is disclosed. In certain embodiments, at least a graphene layer is positioned between two adjacent tiers of the 3DIC. A graphene layer is a sheet like layer made of pure carbon, at least one atom thick with atoms arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern. A graphene layer may be disposed between any number of adjacent tiers in the 3DIC. In exemplary embodiments, the graphene layer provides an electromagnetic interference shield between adjacent tiers or layers in the 3DIC to reduce crosstalk between the tiers. In other exemplary embodiments, the graphene layer(s) can be disposed in the 3DIC to provide a heat sink that directs and dissipates heat to peripheral areas of the 3DIC. In some embodiments, the graphene layer(s) are configured to provide both EMI shielding and heat shielding.
US09536836B2

An MIS contact structure comprises a layer of semiconductor material, a layer of insulating material having a contact opening formed therein, a layer of contact insulating material having substantially vertically oriented portions and a substantially horizontally oriented portion, the vertically oriented portions of the layer of contact insulating material contacting a portion, but not all, of the sidewalls of the contact opening and the horizontally oriented portion of the layer of contact insulating material contacting the semiconductor layer. A conductive material is positioned on the layer of contact insulating material within the contact opening, the conductive material layer having vertically oriented portions and a horizontally oriented portion and a conductive contact positioned in the contact opening that contacts the uppermost surfaces of the conductive material layer and the layer of contact insulating material.
US09536827B1

The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor structure which includes a first row of diffusion strap having two sections separated by a first distance, a second row of diffusion strap having two sections separated by the first distance, a third row of diffusion strap having two sections separated by the first distance, a fourth row of diffusion strap having two sections separated by the first distance, a first row of conductive strap over the first row of diffusion strap and the second row of diffusion strap, and a second row of conductive strap over the third row of diffusion strap and the fourth row of diffusion strap. The first row of conductive strap has two sections separated by a second distance. The second row of conductive strap has having two sections separated by the second distance, wherein the second distance is greater than the first distance.
US09536822B2

An integrated circuit containing hydrogen permeable dummy vias configured in a linear or rectangular array and symmetrically positioned over a component in the integrated circuit. An integrated circuit containing matching components with identical layouts and hydrogen permeable dummy vias in identical configurations over the matching components. A process of forming an integrated circuit containing matching components with identical layouts and hydrogen permeable dummy vias in identical configurations over the matching components.
US09536821B2

In manufacturing an LSI, or semiconductor integrated circuit device, the step of assembling device (such as resin sealing step) is normally followed by a voltage-application test in an environment of high temperature (e.g., from 85 to 130° C.) and high humidity (e.g., about 80% RH). It has been found that separation of a titanium nitride anti-reflection film from an upper film and generation of cracks in the titanium nitride film at an upper surface edge part of the aluminum-based bonding pad applied with a positive voltage in the test is caused by an electrochemical reaction due to moisture incoming through the sealing resin and the like to generate oxidation and bulging of the titanium nitride film. These problems are addressed by removing the titanium nitride film over the pad in a ring or slit shape at peripheral area of the aluminum-based bonding pad.
US09536819B2

Provided are a transparent substrate having a nano pattern, and a method of manufacturing the same, which enables the nano pattern to be easily formed on the transparent substrate and has the nano pattern applicable to a large sized substrate by forming a resin layer made of transparent material on a transparent substrate; forming at least one or more unit pattern parts composed of a first pattern area and a second pattern area in which a plurality of grid patterns are formed, and a protrusion pattern formed between the first pattern area and the second pattern area, on the resin layer; and forming a nanoscale metal layer on the protrusion pattern.
US09536818B2

A method of a semiconductor package includes providing a substrate having a conductive trace coated with an organic solderability preservative (OSP) layer, removing the OSP layer from the conductive trace, and then coupling a chip to the substrate to form a semiconductor package.
US09536816B2

An electronic device comprising a carrier having a mounting surface, at least one electronic chip mounted on the mounting surface, at least one electric connection structure mounted on the mounting surface, an encapsulant at least partially encapsulating the carrier and the at least one electronic chip, and partially encapsulating the at least one electric connection structure so that part of a surface of the at least one electric connection structure is exposed to an environment, and a mounting provision configured for mounting the electronic device at a periphery device.
US09536810B1

A pad structure for a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor is provided. A semiconductor substrate is arranged over a back end of line (BEOL) metallization stack, and comprises a scribe line opening. A buffer layer lines the scribe line opening. A conductive pad comprises a base region and a protruding region. The base region is arranged over the buffer layer in the scribe line opening, and the protruding region protrudes from the base region into the BEOL metallization stack. A dielectric layer fills the scribe line opening over the conductive pad, and is substantially flush with an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. Further, a method for manufacturing the pad structure, as well as the CMOS image sensor, are provided.
US09536809B2

The embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and more particularly to a structure and method for fabricating a 3D integration scheme for multiple semiconductor wafers using an arrangement of intra-wafer through silicon vias (TSVs) to electrically connect the front side of a first integrated circuit (IC) chip to large back side wiring on the back side of the first IC chip and inter-wafer TSVs to electrically connect the first IC chip to a second IC chip.
US09536806B2

The invention relates to a micro cooling element (1) with a mounting surface (2) for a component to be cooled, in particular a semiconductor component, which has within it a micro cooling structure (3) which is connected by connection channels (4) to at least one inflow opening (4a) and at least one outflow opening (4b) by means of which a cooling medium can be supplied to the micro cooling structure (3) or be discharged from the latter, and which is characterized in that it is formed from at least two different powdery and/or liquid, in particular metallic and/or ceramic, materials or material mixtures (10) while maintaining a monolithic structure, wherein regions of different stresses (I, II) of the micro cooling element (1) are built by a powdery and/or liquid, in particular metallic and/or ceramic materials or material mixtures (10) being adapted to the stress respectively.The invention further relates to an apparatus and a process for producing a micro cooling element according to the invention.
US09536805B2

A hybrid package having a processor module disposed on a substrate and an auxiliary module disposed on a patterned lid. The auxiliary module may be a memory module, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) module, and/or other suitable module, that are located in the package along with the processor module. Having the auxiliary module in the package with the processor module reduces the noise at the solder bump between the processor module and the substrate. Having the auxiliary module in the package with the processor module also allows other modules to be added to the package without increasing the area of the package.
US09536802B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip, a resin mold portion sealing a component in which the semiconductor chip is included, and a bonding layer disposed between the resin mold portion and the component. The bonding layer is made of an organic resin that is disposed at an obverse side of the component, and includes a first layer bonded to the component and a second layer bonded to the resin mold portion. A loss coefficient tan δ of the first layer is smaller than a loss coefficient tan δ of the second layer within a temperature range of 200° C. to 250° C.
US09536797B2

A substrate treatment apparatus includes a processing chamber configured to be capable of storing a substrate; a substrate holder disposed in the processing chamber and configured to be capable of holding the substrate; a sublimation removing unit configured to remove, by sublimation, a sublimating material filled between structures formed on a surface of a substrate held by the substrate holder, and a sublimation status detecting unit configured to detect a progress or an end point of sublimation removal of the sublimating material.
US09536791B2

A technique for a multiple voltage threshold transistor structure is provided. A narrow channel and long channel are formed on a fin. An epitaxial layer is formed on the fin, and an interlayer dielectric layer is formed on the epitaxial layer. Spacers on the fin define the narrow channel and the long channel. A high-k dielectric material is deposited in the narrow and long channels. A metal layer is deposited on the high-k dielectric material in the narrow and long channels. A height of the high-k dielectric material in the narrow channel is recessed. The metal layer is removed from the narrow and long channels. A work function metal is deposited in the narrow and long channels. A gate conduction metal is deposited to fill the narrow channel and long channel. A capping layer is deposited on the top surface of the structure.
US09536784B1

A method of forming through silicon vias (TSVs) on integrated circuit (IC) chips and the IC chips. A TSV pattern on a stack of wiring layers on the surface of the IC chip identifies TSV locations. Etching the IC chip TSV pattern opens a cup shaped through hole through the stack to the silicon substrate at each TSV pattern location. The etched stack forms a TSV hard mask open (HMO) for the silicon substrate. Via through holes etched through the silicon substrate masked by the HMO are filled with conductor connecting IC circuits, e.g., to signal lines on the bottom of the chip.
US09536783B2

Embodiments of a semiconductor wafer having wafer-level die attach metallization on a back-side of the semiconductor wafer, resulting semiconductor dies, and methods of manufacturing the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor wafer includes a semiconductor structure and a front-side metallization that includes front-side metallization elements for a number of semiconductor die areas. The semiconductor wafer also includes vias that extend from a back-side of the semiconductor structure to the front-side metallization elements. A back-side metallization is on the back-side of the semiconductor structure and within the vias. For each via, one or more barrier layers are on a portion of the back-side metallization that is within the via and around a periphery of the via. The semiconductor wafer further includes wafer-level die attach metallization on the back-side metallization other than the portions of the back-side metallization that are within the vias and around the peripheries of the vias.
US09536774B2

An SOI substrate having an SOI layer that can be used in practical applications even when a substrate with low upper temperature limit, such as a glass substrate, is used, is provided. A semiconductor device using such an SOI substrate, is provided. In bonding a single-crystal semiconductor layer to a substrate having an insulating surface or an insulating substrate, a silicon oxide film formed using organic silane as a material on one or both surfaces that are to form a bond is used. According to the present invention, a substrate with an upper temperature limit of 700° C. or lower, such as a glass substrate, can be used, and an SOI layer that is strongly bonded to the substrate can be obtained. In other words, a single-crystal semiconductor layer can be formed over a large-area substrate that is longer than one meter on each side.
US09536772B2

The disclosure relates to a fin structure of a semiconductor device. An exemplary fin structure for a semiconductor device comprises a lower portion protruding from a major surface of a substrate, wherein the lower portion comprises a first semiconductor material having a first lattice constant; an upper portion having an interface with the lower portion, wherein the upper portion comprises a second semiconductor material having a second lattice constant different from the first lattice constant; a first pair of notches lower than the interface and extending into opposite sides of the lower portion, wherein each first notch have a first width; and a second pair of notches extending into opposite sides of the interface, wherein each second notch have a second width greater than the first width.
US09536768B2

Embodiments provided herein generally relate to an electrostatic chuck (ESC). The ESC may comprise a reduced number of stress initiation points, such as holes through the ESC, which may improve the mechanical integrity of the ESC. Electrodes disposed within the ESC may be connected to electrical contacts and a power source via conductive leads, which may be coupled or formed along a peripheral edge of the ESC. Thus, the need for holes formed in the ESC may be reduced or eliminated. In addition, gas channels may be formed on a top surface, a bottom surface, or both. The gas channels may reduce or eliminate the need for a gas channel formed through the ESC and may facilitate heat transfer between a substrate support, the ESC, and a substrate coupled to the ESC.
US09536763B2

In an embodiment, the present invention discloses cleaned storage processes and systems for high level cleanliness articles, such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reticle carriers. A decontamination chamber can be used to clean the stored workpieces. A purge gas system can be used to prevent contamination of the articles stored within the workpieces. A robot can be used to detect the condition of the storage compartment before delivering the workpiece. A monitor device can be used to monitor the conditions of the stocker.
US09536757B2

A cleaning method using vaporized solvent is provided. A solvent-containing vapor is generated, wherein the solvent-containing vapor comprises a solvent. The solvent-containing vapor is conducted to a substrate having debris or contaminants to clean the substrate, wherein the solvent-containing vapor condenses to form a liquid on a surface of the substrate. The liquid phase of the solvent-containing vapor is changed to a solid phase. The solid phase of the solvent-containing vapor is changed back to a liquid phase. The substrate is spun dried to remove the solvent-containing vapor in liquid phase and any debris or contaminants.
US09536754B2

A method of forming a contact structure of a gate structure is provided. In the method, an oxidation layer and a first sidewall layer disposed between a first metal gate and a second metal gate are etched to expose an underlying silicon substrate. A silicide portion defined by a contact profile is deposited in the exposed portion of the silicon substrate. A second sidewall layer substantially covers the first sidewall layer and at least partially covering the silicide portion is formed after depositing the silicide portion. A metal glue layer is deposited around the first metal gate and the second metal gate defining a trench above the silicide portion. A metal plug is deposited within the trench.
US09536752B2

The present invention provides a slurry for chemical mechanical polishing comprising water-soluble clathrate compound (a), polymer compound (b) having an acidic group optionally in a salt form as a side chain, polishing abrasive grain (c) and water (d), wherein the content of the water-soluble clathrate compound (a) is 0.001 mass %-3 mass % of the total amount of the slurry, the polymer compound (b) has a weight average molecular weight of not less than 1,000 and less than 1,000,000, and the content of the polymer compound (b) is 0.12 mass %-3 mass % of the total amount of the slurry, and a polishing method for substrate using the slurry.
US09536751B2

A method for forming patterns for semiconductor device includes following steps. A substrate is provided. The substrate includes a hard mask layer and a sacrificial layer formed thereon. A plurality of spacer patterns parallel with each other are formed on the substrate. A plurality of first blocking layers are formed in the sacrificial layer after forming the spacer patterns. A plurality of second blocking layers exposing at least a portion of the sacrificial layer and at least a portion the first blocking layer are formed on the substrate after forming the first blocking layer. Next, the sacrificial layer and the hard mask layer are etched with the spacer patterns, the first blocking layers and the second blocking layer being used as etching masks to form a patterned hard mask layer on the substrate.
US09536735B2

A method of preparing graphene includes supplying a gas on a metal catalyst, the gas including CO2, CH4, and H2O, and reacting and cooling the resultant.
US09536727B2

A flight-of-time mass spectrometer is offered which can provide a variable range of collisional energies that can be made wider than heretofore. Also, a method of controlling this spectrometer is offered. The spectrometer has an ion source, a first mass analyzer, an ion gate, a potential lift, a collisional cell, a second mass analyzer, a detector, and a potential control portion for controlling the potential on the potential lift. When the precursor ions selected by the ion gate enter the potential lift, the potential control portion sets the potential on the conductive box at V1. When the potential on the potential lift is varied, the potential control portion varies the potential on the potential lift from V1 to V2 while precursor ions are traveling through the potential lift.
US09536698B2

Methods and apparatus for modulating a particle pulse include a succession of Hermite-Gaussian optical modes that effectively construct a three-dimensional optical trap in the particle pulse's rest frame. Optical incidence angles between the propagation of the particle pulse and the optical pulse are tuned for improved compression. Particles pulses that can be modulated by these methods and apparatus include charged particles and particles with non-zero polarizability in the Rayleigh regime. Exact solutions to Maxwell's equations for first-order Hermite-Gaussian beams demonstrate single-electron pulse compression factors of more than 100 in both longitudinal and transverse dimensions. The methods and apparatus are useful in ultrafast electron imaging for both single- and multi-electron pulse compression, and as a means of circumventing temporal distortions in magnetic lenses when focusing ultra-short electron pulses.
US09536692B2

A microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based electrical switch. The electrical switch includes a moveable electrode, a dielectric layer positioned adjacent the moveable electrode on a first side of the dielectric layer and spaced apart from the moveable electrode when the moveable electrode is in an inactivated position and in contact with the moveable electrode when the moveable electrode is in an activated position, and a substrate attached to the dielectric layer on a second side opposite to the first side, the moveable electrode is configured to brake prior to coming in contact with the dielectric layer when the moveable electrode is switched between the inactivated state and the activated state.
US09536688B2

A press button device includes a button unit having a main body with a surrounding wall, and an actuating member protruding from an inner side of the main body for actuating a control switch. A flexible connection unit includes a button-coupling portion connected to the surrounding wall in an airtight manner, a fixed portion radially spaced apart from and surrounding the button-coupling portion, and a deformable portion interconnecting the button-coupling and fixed portions. The deformable portion is elastically displaced relative to the fixed portion when the button unit is pressed, and restores the button unit to its original position when the pressing force thereon is removed.
US09536684B2

A multi-signaling hinged safety switch for mobile protection barriers includes a fixed member designed to be secured to a stationary part of the barrier and having a pair of axial end holes, a movable member designed to be secured to a pivotal part of the barrier and having a pair of substantially transverse arms located outside the fixed member and pivoted to the axial end holes, an electrical detection system within the fixed member switching one or more electric safety circuits of the barrier at a predetermined switching angle. A pair of cylindrical pins extend in cantilever fashion from the arms and are pivotally inserted in the holes, with mutually spaced opposed ends defining a gap with no axial connection member therein. The detection system includes a pair of detectors each interacting with one end of a pin and having a switching angle that are operatively independent of each other.
US09536673B2

A capacitor whose electrical properties can be stable under a variety of different conditions is provided. The solid electrolyte of the capacitor is formed from a combination of an in situ polymerized conductive polymer and a hydroxy-functional nonionic polymer. One benefit of such an in situ polymerized conductive polymer is that it does not require the use of polymeric counterions (e.g., polystyrenesulfonic anion) to compensate for charge, as with conventional particle dispersions, which tend to result in ionic polarization and instable electrical properties, particularly at the low temperatures noted above. Further, it is believed that hydroxy-functional nonionic polymers can improve the degree of contact between the polymer and the surface of the internal dielectric, which unexpectedly increases the capacitance performance and reduces ESR.
US09536672B2

This invention provides a storage module formed using a plurality of storage cells. The each storage cell includes a storage unit that stores a charge, a polyhedral container that houses the storage unit and has two opposing surfaces, and a pair of electrode terminals that output and input the charge of the storage unit. The electrode terminals include a positive electrode terminal that projects externally from an end portion of the container and has a joint surface that is formed to be substantially coplanar with one of the two opposing surfaces of the container and joined to an electrode terminal of an adjacent storage cell, and a negative electrode terminal that projects externally from the end portion of the container and has a joint surface that is formed to be substantially coplanar with another of the two surfaces and joined to an electrode terminal of an adjacent storage cell.
US09536671B2

An electronic component includes: a laminate busbar structure comprising at least two busbar layers separated by an insulating layer; a transistor connected to the laminate busbar structure on a first side thereof; and a capacitor that is mounted on the first side of the laminate busbar structure and is positioned further away from the laminate busbar structure than the transistor, the capacitor having respective planar terminals parallel to each other and perpendicular to the laminate busbar structure, each of the planar terminals comprising a rectangular member with one side thereof connected to the capacitor and an opposite end connected to a corresponding one of the busbar layers.
US09536667B2

A multi-layer ceramic capacitor is made by alternately layering a dielectric layer constituted by a sintered body of a ceramic powder, and an internal electrode layer. The ceramic powder contains, as a main composition, barium titanate powder having a perovskite structure with a median size of 200 nm or smaller as measured by SEM observation, wherein the barium titanate powder is such that the percentage of barium titanate particle having twin defects in the barium titanate powder is less than 10% as measured by TEM observation and that its crystal lattice c/a is 1.0075 or more.
US09536657B2

A grain oriented electrical steel sheet is subjected to magnetic domain refinement by laser irradiation and has magnetic flux density B8 of at least 1.91T, wherein the nitrogen content in the forsterite coating is 3.0 mass % or less. The grain oriented electrical steel sheet satisfies recent demand for iron loss reduction.
US09536653B2

A coil component includes an air-core winding wire portion wound by a wire with a plurality of wound layers by alignment winding, a spiral shaped wound portion in which the wire wound in a spiral shape from an inner edge of an end surface toward an outer edge thereof along the end surface while in contact with the end surface on one side in the axis direction of the winding wire portion, a first lead portion extended and extracted outward from a winding first end point of the spiral shaped wound portion, and a second lead portion extended and extracted outward from a winding second end point at the outer circumference of the winding wire portion.
US09536652B2

The present invention relates to an inductor, wherein the inductor according to the present invention includes: a body, a winding wire winded around the body, and a housing used for covering the body, according to the present invention, the inductor reduces the volume and increases the withstanding voltage of inductor by twisting the wires, and the present invention also provide a production method of the inductor can simplify the production process of inductors.
US09536651B2

A coil component includes a first coil part including a multilayer substrate on which a conductor pattern is formed, a second coil part formed as a wire and stacked together with the first coil part, a core coupled to the first and second coil parts while penetrating through the first and second coil parts to thereby be electromagnetically coupled to the first and second coil parts, and a pressing member interposed between the core and the second coil part to allow the first and second coil parts to closely adhere to each other.
US09536644B2

A composite resistor includes a thin film resistor element having a first temperature coefficient of resistance and a metal resistor element having a second temperature coefficient of resistance. A portion of the metal resistor element overlaps a portion of the thin film resistor element such that the portion of the metal resistor element is in thermal communication with the portion of the thin film resistor element to compensate for a resistance drift arising during operation of the composite resistor.
US09536642B2

A high-temperature insulation assembly for use in high-temperature electrical machines and a method for forming a high-temperature insulation assembly for insulating conducting material in a high-temperature electrical machine. The assembly includes a polymeric film and at least one ceramic coating disposed on the polymeric film. The polymeric film is disposed over conductive wiring or used as a conductor winding insulator for phase separation and slot liner.
US09536641B2

A method of manufacturing an automobile high voltage wire harness includes setting a shrinkable tube which has a color to make the wire harness recognized as a high voltage one outside a metal pipe body which is an exterior member of one or a plurality of high voltage electrical pathway(s) wired in an automobile, making the shrinkable tube shrink to cover part of or all of the outer surface of the metal pipe body, and bending the metal pipe body to a predetermined position to be formed into a three-dimensional shape.
US09536626B2

A memory subsystem empirically tests performance parameters of I/O with a memory device. Based on the empirical testing, the memory subsystem can set the performance parameters specific to the system in which the memory subsystem is included. A test system performs the testing. For each of multiple different settings for multiple different I/O circuit parameters, the test system sets a value for each I/O circuit parameter, generates test traffic to stress test the memory device with the parameter value(s), and measures an operating margin for the I/O performance characteristic. The test system further executes a search function to determine values for each I/O circuit parameter at which the operating margin meets a minimum threshold and performance of at least one of the I/O circuit parameters is increased. The memory subsystem sets runtime values for the I/O circuit parameters based on the search function.
US09536624B2

A data transfer circuit has a first data transmission unit and two or more second shift registers. The first data transmission unit has a first shift register which has a plurality of first flip flop circuits which store data, shifts the data of the plurality of first flip flop circuits, and transmits data of two or more output terminals out of output terminals of the plurality of first flip flop circuits to the two or more second shift registers. The two or more second shift registers each shift data inputted from the two or more output terminals out of the output terminals of the plurality of first flip flop circuits.
US09536617B2

Systems and methods for reducing peak power supply current in a non-volatile memory system that includes a plurality of memory die are described. In some cases, prior to a first memory die of the plurality of memory die performing a particular memory operation (e.g., a programming operation), the first memory die may poll other memory die of the plurality of memory die to determine a total peak power supply current for the plurality of memory die. In response to detecting that the total peak power supply current for the plurality of memory die is at or above a peak current threshold (e.g., more than 200 mA), the first memory die may delay the performance of the particular memory operation or slow down the performance of the particular memory operation.
US09536609B2

A memory module is provided. In one example, the memory module includes a printed circuit board with one or more connectors, and a plurality of multi-chip packaged integrated circuit parts mounted to the printed circuit board. Each of the plurality of multi-chip packaged integrated circuit parts includes an integrated circuit package including a slave memory controller (SMC) die and one or more pairs of (1) a spacer under the slave memory controller die and (2) a flash memory die under the spacer. Each flash memory die is larger than each spacer to provide an opening into a perimeter of the flash memory die to which electrical connections may be made.
US09536607B2

Circuitry and methods for restoring data in memory are disclosed. The memory may include at least one layer of a non-volatile two-terminal cross-point array that includes a plurality of two-terminal memory elements that store data as a plurality of conductivity profiles and retain stored data in the absence of power. Over a period of time, logic values indicative of the stored data may drift such that if the logic values are not restored, the stored data may become corrupted. At least a portion of each memory may have data rewritten or restored by circuitry electrically coupled with the memory. Other circuitry may be used to determine a schedule for performing restore operations to the memory and the restore operations may be triggered by an internal or an external signal or event. The circuitry may be positioned in a logic layer and the memory may be fabricated over the logic layer.
US09536591B1

Apparatuses and methods are described for meeting timing and latency requirements using staggered clocking within the command path. In one example, an apparatus is disclosed that includes a timing circuit configured to provide an internal clock signal; a clock stagger circuit configured to receive the internal clock signal from the timing circuit and to generate at least one delayed internal clock signal; and a shift circuit arranged in a command decode and delay path of a command signal, coupled to the timing circuit and to the clock stagger circuit, and configured to capture the command from an external clock domain into an internal clock domain based on one or both of the internal clock signal and the delayed internal clock signal
US09536586B2

A memory device includes a memory cell array, an intensively accessed row detection circuit, and a refresh control circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cell rows. The intensively accessed row detection circuit generates an intensively accessed row address indicating an intensively accessed memory cell row among the plurality of memory cell rows based on an accumulated access time for each of the plurality of memory cell rows. The refresh control unit preferentially refreshes neighboring memory cell rows adjacent to the intensively accessed memory cell row indicated by the intensively accessed row address when receiving the intensively accessed row address from the intensively accessed row detection unit. The memory device effectively reduces a rate of data loss.
US09536585B2

The present invention provides an improved SRAM memory cell based on a DICE structure, which comprises following structures: four inverter structures formed through arranging PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors in series, wherein the part between the drains of a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor serves as a storage node; each storage node controls the gate voltage of an NMOS transistor of the other inverter structure and of a PMOS transistor of another inverter structure; a transmission structure consisting of four NMOS transistors, whose source, gate and drain are respectively connected with a bit line/bit bar line, a word line and a storage node. The use of an improved SRAM memory cell based on a DICE structure not only avoids such defects as small static noise margin and being prone to transmission error facing the traditional cell structures consisting of 6 transistors, but also resolves the problem that the current SRAM storage cells based on a DICE structure can easily be affected by the electrical level of storage nodes. This effectively improves reliability of storage cells.
US09536583B2

A magnetic memory according to an embodiment includes: a multilayer structure including a semiconductor layer and a first ferromagnetic layer; a first wiring line electrically connected to the semiconductor layer; a second wiring line electrically connected to the first ferromagnetic layer; and a voltage applying unit electrically connected between the first wiring line and the second wiring line to apply a first voltage between the semiconductor layer and the first ferromagnetic layer during a write operation, a magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer being switchable by applying the first voltage.
US09536575B2

An integrated circuit comprises a power supply input pin for receiving an off-chip supply voltage which can have a variable current, an on-chip power source to be powered by the off-chip supply voltage and which can provide a regulated current, a set of one or more circuits to be powered by at least one of the off-chip supply voltage and the on-chip power source, a configuration memory storing a set of one or more memory settings that indicate whether a circuit of said set of one or more circuits is powered by the on-chip power source, and control circuitry responsive to the at least one memory setting to control whether said circuit of said set of one or more circuits is powered by the on-chip power source.
US09536570B2

There are disclosed a method and a system for systematization of production-process video data. The method is executable at an electronic device. The method comprises: receiving data regarding a correspondence between at least one service zone of a video-data source and at least one workplace for a performance of a production operation; generating a list of identifier types for marking video data to be received form the video-data source; receiving data regarding the production operation from at least one input device for production-operation data, the data regarding production operation being indicative of at least one identifier of at least one workplace for the production operation; based on the data regarding the production operation and the data regarding the correspondence between at least one service zone and the at least one workplace for the production operation, determining a given at least one video-data source of a given service zone in which the production operation is currently being performed; composing a reference that is indicative of a correspondence between video data generated by the given at least one video-data source at least some of the identifiers in the list of identifier types for marking video data to be received form the video-data source, the at least some of the identifiers being specifically selected for a type of the production operation being performed.
US09536566B2

An imaging device includes a video acquisition unit, a tilt information acquisition unit, and an extraction period determination unit. The video acquisition unit obtains videos. The tilt information acquisition unit obtains information about shifts in posture, which are changes in angles of view or the like, during obtaining of the videos by the video acquisition unit. The extraction period determination unit determines periods to extract in the respective videos in accordance with the information obtained by the tilt information acquisition unit.
US09536561B1

A request for writing a first index information to a first partition of a serial storage medium of a serial system is received. The serial storage medium includes a first partition for writing the first index information including a first index position, a second partition for storing a data set, the data set including a second index information including a second index position, a memory for determining the second index position, and a module for writing the first index position. A beginning position of the first index is written on the first partition. A determination is made whether the beginning of the first index position is proximate to the second index position. In response to the beginning of the first index position being proximate to the second index position, an interrupted index position is registered. A dummy index is written to the first partition at the interrupted index position.
US09536559B1

A laser power applied to a recording head is changed for a plurality of iterations. Each iteration involves, via the recording head at each laser power, writing multiple adjacent tracks to a heat-assisted recording medium and determining a bit error rate for at least one of the adjacent tracks at each laser power. A first laser power is found that achieves a minimum bit error rate of the iterations. An operational value of laser power that is smaller than the first laser power is used during operational recording to reduce adjacent track interference.
US09536555B1

An apparatus comprises a slider and an optical waveguide formed in the slider and configured to receive light from a laser source. A near-field transducer (NFT) is formed on the slider at or near an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider and optically coupled to the waveguide. A bolometric sensor is positioned proximate the NFT and exposed to at least some of the light. The bolometric sensor is configured to detect changes in output optical power of the laser source and contact between the slider and a magnetic recording medium.
US09536552B1

Examples of slide-in ramps for hard-disk drives are disclosed. In one example according to aspects of the present disclosure, a slide-in ramp includes: a ramp body, a head load/unload section connected to the ramp body, and a slot defined in the ramp body. The slot includes a first portion and a second portion. A first upper surface of the ramp body surrounds the first portion of the slot at a top side of the ramp body, and a second upper surface of the ramp body surrounds the second portion of the slot at the top side of the ramp body. The second upper surface is non-coplanar with the first upper surface according to various examples.
US09536551B2

A laser processing method processes spots on an object in a scan area with a laser beam emitted from a laser emitter. The method includes steps of covering the scan area in such a way as to transmit the laser beam and define a closed space over the scan area, jetting an inert gas into the closed space so that the jetted inert gas forms a gas curtain sweeping along the scan area in the closed space, and discharging the inert gas from the closed space while maintaining a positive pressure in the closed space, thereby removing plumes from the spots processed with the laser beam and preventing the spots from oxidizing. The method is capable of stably laser-processing the object without changing the color of the processed spots.
US09536539B2

A nonlinear acoustic echo signal suppression system and method using a Volterra filter is disclosed. The nonlinear acoustic echo signal suppression system includes an acoustic echo signal estimator configured to estimate a nonlinear acoustic echo signal by using a Volterra filter in a frequency filter, and a near-end talker speech signal generator configured to generate a near-end talker speech signal, in which the nonlinear acoustic echo signal is suppressed, by using a gain function based on a statistical model.
US09536538B2

A method for reconstructing at least one target signal comprises determining a first set of feature vectors from the input signal, the first set of feature vectors forming a non-negative input matrix; determining a second set of feature vectors, the second set of feature vectors forming a non-negative noise matrix; decomposing the input matrix into a sum of a first matrix and a second matrix, the first matrix representing a product of a non-negative bases matrix and a non-negative weight matrix, and the second matrix representing a combination of the noise matrix and a noise weight vector; and reconstructing the at least one target signal based on the non-negative bases matrix and the non-negative weight matrix.
US09536536B2

An adaptive equalization system that adjusts the spectral shape of a speech signal based on an intelligibility measurement of the speech signal may improve the intelligibility of the output speech signal. Such an adaptive equalization system may include a speech intelligibility measurement module, a spectral shape adjustment module, and an adaptive equalization module. The speech intelligibility measurement module is configured to calculate a speech intelligibility measurement of a speech signal. The spectral shape adjustment module is configured to generate a weighted long-term speech curve based on a first predetermined long-term average speech curve, a second predetermined long-term average speech curve, and the speech intelligibility measurement. The adaptive equalization module is configured to adapt equalization coefficients for the speech signal based on the weighted long-term speech curve.
US09536533B2

Linear prediction based audio coding is improved by coding a spectrum composed of a plurality of spectral components using a probability distribution estimation determined for each of the plurality of spectral components from linear prediction coefficient information. The linear prediction coefficient information is available anyway. Accordingly, it may be used for determining the probability distribution estimation at both encoding and decoding side. The latter determination may be implemented in a computationally simple manner by using, for example, an appropriate parameterization for the probability distribution estimation at the plurality of spectral components. The coding efficiency as provided by the entropy coding is compatible with probability distribution estimations as achieved using context selection, but its derivation is less complex. The derivation may be purely analytically and/or does not require any information on attributes of neighboring spectral lines such as previously coded/decoded spectral values of neighboring spectral lines as is the case in spatial context selection.
US09536531B2

In general, techniques are described for editing of higher-order ambisonic audio data. A device comprising a memory and one or more processors may be configured to perform the techniques. The memory may be configured to store spherical harmonic (SH) basis functions. The one or more processors may be configured to manipulate the SH basis functions associated with higher order ambisonics coefficients to alter a direction of an audio object represented by the higher order ambisonics coefficients.
US09536527B1

A speech-based system is configured to use its audio-based user interface to present various types of device status information such as wireless signal strengths, communication parameters, battery levels, and so forth. In described embodiments, the system is configured to understand spoken user requests for device and system status. For example, the user may speak a request to obtain the current wireless signal strength of the speech-based system. The speech-based system may respond by determining the signal strength and by playing speech or other sound informing the user of the signal strength. Furthermore, the system may monitor operational parameters to detect conditions that may degrade the user experience, and may report such conditions using generated speech or other sounds.
US09536525B2

A speaker indexing device extracts a plurality of features from a speech signal on a frame-by-frame basis, models a distribution of first feature sets by a mixture distribution containing as many probability distributions as there are speakers, selects for each probability distribution either first feature sets located within a predetermined distance from the center of the probability distribution or a predetermined number of first feature sets in sequence starting from the first feature set closest to the center of the probability distribution, selects a second feature for the frame corresponding to the selected first feature sets as first training data for the speaker corresponding to the probability distribution and, using the first training data, trains a speaker model to be used to append to each frame identification information for identifying the speaker speaking in the frame.
US09536524B2

Speech recognition models are dynamically re-configurable based on user information, background information such as background noise and transducer information such as transducer response characteristics to provide users with alternate input modes to keyboard text entry. The techniques of dynamic re-configurable speech recognition provide for deployment of speech recognition on small devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants as well environments such as office, home or vehicle while maintaining the accuracy of the speech recognition.
US09536518B2

A computer-based, unsupervised training method for an N-gram language model includes reading, by a computer, recognition results obtained as a result of speech recognition of speech data; acquiring, by the computer, a reliability for each of the read recognition results; referring, by the computer, to the recognition result and the acquired reliability to select an N-gram entry; and training, by the computer, the N-gram language model about selected one of more of the N-gram entries using all recognition results.
US09536511B2

Certain embodiments provide an ultrasound transducer stack. The ultrasound transducer stack includes a backing layer, an active layer overlying the backing layer, and a matching layer overlying the active layer. The active layer has a surface comprising a plurality of textures. The matching layer has a first thickness region and a second thickness region, wherein the first thickness region has a larger thickness than a thickness of the second thickness region, wherein the first thickness region extends into the plurality of textures and the second thickness region does not extend into the plurality of textures.
US09536509B2

As part of a system, a device is provided as part of a system, the device being for capturing vibrations produced by an object such as a musical instrument. The device has a first sensor placed in contact with a surface of the drum, such as a rim of the drum, and a second sensor placed at a fixed location relative to the drum, but not touching the drum. A method may be provided for interpreting the output of the sensors within the system, the method comprising identifying the onset of an audio event in audio data, selecting a window in the data for analysis, applying transforms to generate a representation of the audio event, and comparing that representation to expected representations in a model.
US09536501B2

A radiographic-image processing device executes image processing on radiographic image data obtained by radiographic imaging of a diagnostic target part as an imaging subject. The device includes a display unit and an enlargement display unit. The display unit displays a radiographic image based on the radiographic image data. The enlargement display unit enlarges a predetermined area including an interest area in the radiographic image and which displays the enlarged predetermined area on the display unit as an initial image which is the first to be displayed after radiographic imaging.
US09536500B2

A map display device includes: a processor that defines a coordinate system on a map including element polygons showing constituent elements of an urban map; a processor that sets coordinates located inside the element polygons as inner coordinates and sets coordinates located outside the element polygons as outer coordinates; a processor that calculates, for each coordinate in the coordinate system, a moving average value; a processor that resets each of the outer coordinates which has the moving average value larger than a predetermined value as the inner coordinate; a processor that sets, as an urban polygon, a polygon along an outer periphery of a region formed of an aggregate of the set and reset inner coordinates; and a processor that enables the urban map to be displayed when a current location is present inside the urban polygon.
US09536498B2

The present invention relates to the field of display technology, and in particular to an apparatus and a method for improving uneven display brightness, and a display device. The apparatus for improving uneven display rightness includes: a division module configured to divide a display region into a plurality of segmented regions in a scanning line direction; a collection module configured to collect display brightness of the respective segmented regions; a comparison module configured to set reference brightness in a current grayscale according to the collected display brightness of the respective segmented regions; and an adjustment module configured to adjust the display brightness in the current grayscale of each segmented region according to the reference brightness in the current grayscale and the display brightness of each segmented region, so as to reduce the differences in the display brightness in the current grayscale among the respective segmented regions.
US09536495B2

A system for transmitting data from a timing controller (TCON) to several source driver integrated circuits (SICs) in a display. The system is suitable for use either with a high data rate or a low data rate to each of the SICs. The TCON provides a serial data stream to a SIC, which either uses all of the received data, if it requires high rate data, or relays a portion, e.g., half, of the data to another SIC, which then does not require a separate direct connection to the TCON.
US09536489B2

The exemplary embodiment relates to a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display according to the exemplary embodiment includes: a liquid crystal display panel on which a plurality of data lines cross a plurality of gate lines, wherein each data line and each gate line is connected to a thin film transistor; a source drive IC supplying data voltages to the data lines; a gate drive IC supplying gate pulses to the gate lines; a system board equipped with a scaler that transmits data from the scaler through an interface that comprises 4-pair of data transmitting lines; and a control board equipped with a timing controller that receives the data through the interface and supplies the data to the source drive IC and controls the operating timing of the source drive IC and the gate drive IC.
US09536483B2

A display includes a source driver, a demultiplexer, a first data line, a second data line, a first pixel and a second pixel. The demultiplexer includes a first pixel signal transmission unit and a second pixel signal transmission unit. The first pixel signal transmission unit includes a first sub-pixel signal transmission unit, a second sub-pixel signal transmission unit and a third sub-pixel signal transmission unit. The first sub-pixel signal transmission unit and the second sub-pixel signal transmission unit share a drain. A second pixel signal transmission unit next to the first pixel signal transmission unit includes a fourth sub-pixel signal transmission unit, a fifth sub-pixel signal transmission unit and a sixth sub-pixel signal transmission unit. The fourth sub-pixel signal transmission unit and the fifth sub-pixel signal transmission unit share another drain.
US09536478B2

A backlight for a LCD comprises two or LED arrays, each corresponding to a respective color channel. A control circuit controls the supply current to each LED array separately based on the content of a displayed image to reduce the current consumption of the backlight. The control circuit generates separate histograms of transmittance values for each of two or more color channels in the image, and stretches the histograms for the two or more color channels by respective stretching factors to generate a stretched image. The stretched image is displayed on the LCD. The control circuit further control the current supply to the two or more LED arrays in the backlight to reduce a brightness of light emitted by the two or more LED arrays in dependence on respective stretching factors for the corresponding color channel.
US09536474B2

The present disclosure provides a pixel circuit, its driving method, an array substrate and a display device. The pixel circuit includes a plurality of pixels, each of which includes a blue sub-pixel and a driving module for driving the blue sub-pixel. The blue sub-pixel includes N blue OLEDs, and N is a positive integer greater than 1. The driving module is configured to drive the N blue OLEDs in a time division manner. According to the present disclosure, the blue sub-pixel is segmented into several portions, and merely a portion of the blue sub-pixel is displayed each time. As a result, it is able to prolong the service time of the blue sub-pixel, thereby to increase the service life of an AMOLED panel.
US09536471B2

The present invention relates to a display device and a method of operating the display device that reduces power consumption, the method including: operating the display device in a normal driving mode to display an image on a display panel according to an image data signal; operating the display device in a sleep mode, by adjusting a clock signal and an image data signal transmitted from a set controller to of the display device to a first voltage; measuring a sleep mode time period during which the display device operates in the sleep mode; and adjusting a register value of the set controller when the measured sleep mode time period exceeds a first reference time period and maintaining the clock signal at a second voltage according to the adjusted register value as a clock-off mode.
US09536468B2

There is provided an active matrix EL display device that can display a clear multi gray-scale color display to reduce the shift in the potential caused by the potential drop due to the wiring resistance of a power source supply line, in order to decrease the unevenness in a display region. A plurality of drawing out ports of the power source supply line are arranged. Further, in the wiring resistance between the external input terminal and the pixel portion power source supply line, potential compensation is performed by supplying potential to the power source supply line by a feedback amplifier. Further, in addition to above structure, the power source supply line may be arranged in a matrix.
US09536450B2

A visual training device includes a training image display unit that outputs a training image including a given first figure that appears at substantially irregular intervals of time at a particular position in a peripheral portion of a screen of a display, and an processed image output unit that superimposes the training image output from the training image display unit, on a video content received from an outside, and outputs a resulting image to the display.
US09536448B1

A device, method and system for displaying medical information/instructions is presented. The device is comprised generally of an elongated base displaying a plurality of color-coded zones having a plurality of removable instruction portions attached which correspond to each color zone. The instruction portion is generally comprised of fastener and a medical information/instruction display. The medical information/instruction display can be at least one sheet on which the medical information/instructions are printed or an electronic display such as an LCD screen. If printed information/instructions are used, each sheet may be contained within a transparent sleeve to protect the sheet from damage. In use, a child's weight is correlated to a specific color zone on the elongated base and the corresponding instruction portion is removed and fastened to an object near the child to easily enable the user to administer medical treatment to the child.
US09536444B2

An approach is provided for evaluating subject matter experts (SMEs) in a question and answering (QA) system. In the approach, a number of responses are received at the QA system with each of the responses being a response to a common question and each of the responses being received from a SME. One of the responses is selected with the selected response being from one of the SMEs that is being evaluated. The approach evaluates the selected response by comparing the selected response to the responses received from the other SMEs. Based on the evaluation, the approach updates a SME confidence score that corresponds to the selected SME.
US09536438B2

A reading device, such as a mobile tablet, may download an electronic reading material, such as a textbook, to local memory. The reading device may store a reader profile representing one or more aspects of a user's reading ability. The reading device may convert the downloaded reading material using the reader profile to better conform to the user's reading ability. As the user reads reading materials using the reading device, the user may provide feedback as to portions of text in the reading materials, including whether a word is not recognized, whether a grammatical construction is confusing, etc. Using the received feedback, the reading device may modify the reading profile to further improve the degree to which it represents the user's reading ability. Once modified, the reader profile may be used to re-convert already downloaded reading materials or to convert subsequently downloaded reading materials.
US09536436B2

A learning management system and method displays corresponding learning environments for delivery of instructional material to a plurality of geographically dispersed remote student workstations located in a plurality of regions after the learning system authenticates a corresponding plurality of students at the plurality of geographically dispersed remote student workstations. Each learning environment displays a user interface on a respective remote student workstation located in one region of the plurality of regions. At least one region profile stores information specifying a rule associated with communication of information between a first region and another second region. Messages are communicated amongst the geographically dispersed remote student workstations located in the plurality of regions in accordance with the region profile.
US09536430B2

A method for notifying a user of the status of a parking space. The method comprises transmitting a pulse from a transceiver assigned to a parking space and for each pulse receiving by transceiver a corresponding echo created by said pulse being reflecting back from a object occupying said parking space. The method further comprises measuring corresponding echo time by a processing unit. The method further comprises comparing said corresponding echo time to a predefined range of echo times by a processing unit to determine occupancy of said parking space. The method further comprises using said occupancy of parking space to determine the parking space status by a processing unit, together with information on time of day and parking space permission. The method further comprises notifying a user of said parking space status by visual indication from at least one light emitting diode array.
US09536428B1

Electronic digital display systems, including roadside display devices, vehicle-based devices, personal mobile devices, intermediary servers, advertising servers, and/or additional external data sources may operate individually or in combination to identify one or more vehicle locations, driving routes, driver and passenger characteristics, and the like. Vehicle and individual characteristics may be determined based on data received from traffic cameras, vehicle-based devices, personal mobile devices, and/or other data sources. Based on the vehicle characteristics, individual characteristics, driving data and driving patterns, and the like, digital content may be determined for electronic roadside displays to be viewable by the approaching vehicles, and/or other digital display devices to be viewable by associated individuals via other display devices and at other times. Various techniques may be used to determine customized digital content, such as targeted advertisements and/or driving or vehicle safety messages, including retrieval and aggregation of certain characteristics, prioritization of characteristics, and real-time auctions for advertisements. Additionally, certain systems may be interactive to allow user responses and follow-up content via on-board vehicle devices or other user devices.
US09536424B2

The disclosed embodiments relate to prediction of traffic dynamics. A descriptive model is provided that uses historical probe data to create “tidal-like” patterns for the usual dynamics on the road network and creates a framework for taking a future time, e.g. in terms of month, day, time, and suggesting a typical speed for the specified road network link at that specific time. With this model, better predictions for estimated time of arrival will be derived. As opposed to blindly extrapolating from a static model, the disclosed embodiments dynamically adapt to current conditions using real time data to adapt, based on current conditions, the model from which a predicted speed may be determined.
US09536423B2

Example systems, apparatus, circuits, and other embodiments described herein concern acquiring telemetry data from an MR system and providing the telemetry data via fiber optic cable. One example apparatus includes a telemetry signal acquisition element (e.g., circuit, circuit component) that is configured to acquire a telemetry signal from a component in the MR apparatus. The component may be, for example, a transmit coil or an on-coil amplifier. The example apparatus also includes a fiber optic cable that is configured to carry an output signal from the MR apparatus through a field produced by the MR apparatus. The example apparatus also includes a telemetry signal output element that is configured to produce the output signal from the telemetry signal and to transmit the output signal via the fiber optic cable.
US09536420B2

A power grid event detection apparatus includes an event detection unit to detect a location of an event in a power grid, a customer location unit to determine a location of interest to an interested party, and a rule application unit to determine whether to perform an action designated by the interested party at least when the location of the event corresponds to the location of interest to the interested party.
US09536419B2

A method for providing notification of an alarm event to a plurality of individuals and communication therebetween having steps that include: receiving an alarm event signal from an alarm system indicating an alarm event; determining a customer associated with the alarm event; determine a plurality of individuals that are to be contacted based upon the customer that has been determined as being associated with the alarm event; selecting a transmission vector having a corresponding transmission identifier; correspondingly associating the selected transmission identifier with the alarm event; sending an alarm event notification to each of the plurality of individuals utilizing the selected transmission vector; and receiving a response to the notification and automatically associating the same; directing each of the plurality of individuals into a virtual chat room corresponding to the alarm event; and facilitating communication between the individuals within the virtual chat room.
US09536413B2

A method for an apparatus to monitor an appliance includes receiving information about a translation of a control knob of the appliance along an axis and a rotation of the control knob around the axis, determining if a first event has occurred based on the information, and, when the first event has occurred, starting a timer and determining if a second event has occurred based on the information before the timer reaches a time interval. The method further includes, when the second event does not occur before the timer reaches the time interval, triggering an alert.
US09536412B2

An alarm system comprising at least one first signal source communicating with a central unit configured for providing a logically true alerting signal when predetermined conditions are met. The signal sources may include transponders and a confidential list containing the relation between an RFID chip and the name of the person identified may be stored in a computer. A verification unit is connected to independent signal sources and is configured for providing a logically true verification signal when predetermined conditions are met. The signal sources may also comprise means for measuring bio-functions, and the verification unit may be carried by a safety manager. In such a case, the safety manager will also be able to confirm or reject an alerting alarm from the central unit manually. An alarm signal is activated if and only if the alerting signal is true and the verification signal is true.
US09536410B2

Techniques are described for tracking intruders of a monitored property by the unique identifying characteristics or “digital fingerprints” of electronic devices carried by the intruders. A system detects an alarm event at a monitored property based on output from at least one sensor located at the monitored property. In response to detecting the alarm event at the monitored property, the system initiates a process to gather electronic identifiers for mobile electronic devices located within the monitored property at a time corresponding to the detected alarm event. The system determines electronic identifiers for the mobile electronic devices located within the monitored property at a time corresponding to the detected alarm event. The system stores in electronic storage, information indicating the determined electronic identifiers for the mobile electronic devices located within the monitored property at a time corresponding to the detected alarm event.
US09536401B2

Systems and methods for indicating the presence of a mobile device within a passenger cabin are provided. A method for indicating the presence of a mobile device within a passenger cabin of a vehicle includes linking a vehicle computing device with the mobile device, determining whether a vehicle ignition is off and whether a vehicle lock has been actuated. The method further includes generating an audible mobile device search signal that is played through a cabin and waiting to receive a response from the mobile device as to whether the mobile device detected the audible mobile device search signal. The method further includes determining whether the mobile device is within the passenger cabin based on whether a response was received from the mobile device and generating a first audible indication when the mobile device is within the passenger cabin.
US09536399B2

An automatic banking machine operates responsive to data read from data bearing records corresponding to authorized user or financial account data. The machine includes a card reader for reading data from user cards. The automated banking machine causes financial transfers related to financial accounts that correspond to data read from user cards. The automated banking machine also includes devices that control the supply of power to included devices to avoid exceeding power supply capacity.
US09536398B2

An apparatus and method for enhancing participation in gaming activities that involve replacement items, replacement cards, or other draw-type activity. A player is allowed to hold cards (or other items) of a starting hand/payline. Multiple sets of potential replacement cards are provided, from which the player can select the desired set of replacement cards. The selected set of replacement cards is used to complete the player's hand. Multiple hands may be played concurrently.
US09536395B2

A system comprises a client operable to communicate a bet regarding a baccarat game. The system further comprises a controller communicably coupled to the client and operable to determine a result of the baccarat game, the result based at least in part upon one or more digits of at least one financial market indicator at a configurable point in time. The controller is further operable to determine an outcome of the bet based at least in part on the determined result.
US09536393B2

A method is described for running a feature on a gaming system comprising a plurality of gaming consoles linked by a communication network. The method comprises running at least one elimination round of the feature. A set of participating gaming consoles are determined for the elimination round and a group of options is displayed on the participating gaming consoles. Selections of options from the group are entered by players at the participating gaming consoles and a winning option is displayed from the group of options. Consoles are eliminated from the set of participating consoles unless the winning option was selected at the respective console; and further elimination rounds are commenced unless termination criteria are met. A flashing sequence of lights and sounds may be exhibited to reveal the winning option.
US09536392B1

A bingo system having individual bingo player terminals on which players purchase bingo cards at varying costs and play bingo, coupled to backend computer systems called bingo game managers (BGMs). The BGMs manage bingo game play in two modes, banked and non-banked. Non-banked mode forms bingo games from requests at the same wager level, and forms bingo sessions from bingo games where a bingo session uses a single bingo ball draw. Each wager level has at least one prize pool associated with it; each prize pool is constructed such that it guarantees a given percentage hold to an operator and further enables realistic mimicking of highly complex games such as 5-reel 9-payline slots for use in post-bingo-play displays. Banked mode uses no pools; bingo prizes are generated using an RNG and game template or paytable.
US09536388B2

A system is disclosed for identifying and reading gaming tokens. The system includes: a plurality of gaming tokens; a playing surface including a network of conductors disposed to make electrical contact with the conductive rims of the gaming tokens; one or more transceivers disposed under the playing surface and associated with areas where the gaming tokens are placed on the playing surface; and an identification processor in communication with the transceiver to determine the denomination of the token from the data. Each transceiver is configured to transmit an electromagnetic interrogation signal to the conductive layer of a gaming token resting on the playing surface. The grounded circuit, in response to the interrogation signal, responds with data to identify the chip denomination through capacitive coupling between the conductive layer and a transceiver.
US09536385B2

The invention relates to systems and methods of selecting and placing real-world wagers responsive to one or more wager triggers, obtaining outcomes of the real-world wagers, facilitating user interactions with various interactive media, and revealing the outcomes of the real-world wagers through the interactive media to give an appearance that the outcomes of the real-world wagers resulted from the user interactions even though the outcomes resulted from the real-world wagers and were determined before the user interactions. A real-world wager may be initiated by one or more wager triggers that cause the real-world wager to be placed. The one or more wager triggers may include, without limitation, acquisition of a token, user selection or initiation of interactive media (e.g., selection of a game to play), an occurrence of an event in the interactive media (e.g., based on a user controlled or other in-game action), and/or other events.
US09536378B2

While a player is playing one game on a gaming machine, the systems and methods described herein recommend other games to the player based on the player's past gaming history, accessed via player registration, and the player's real time game play. Upon the player selecting a different game, the system may automatically transfers the player's credits between games or gaming machines. Each gaming machine may carry out one or more game.
US09536377B2

An electronic gaming machine has memory components configured for easy removal during programming or validation procedures. A module may carry first and second memory devices on a module board having a module connector configured to removably attach to a baseboard carrying a processor. Accordingly, multiple memory devices may be removed and reinstalled together as a unit. An adapter may be provided to allow connection of the module to an interface device having a standard interface connector. The module may also provide status information regarding the execution of code stored on one or more of the memory devices.
US09536376B2

Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a gaming system and method providing a slot game including a symbol generator modification event. In various embodiments, the gaming system is configured to provide a slot game, each play of which employs a subset of a plurality of symbol generators. If a symbol generator modification event occurs in association with a first play that employs a first subset of the symbol generators, the gaming system removes one of the symbol generators from the first subset and adds another one of the plurality of symbol generators to the first subset to form a second subset, and employs the second subset for a second play. The gaming system removes and adds the symbol generators to form the second subset such that the average expected payback percentage of the second play is greater than the average expected payback percentage of the first play.
US09536372B2

A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some examples, the operations can include electronically connecting to social network servers for independent online social networks. The social networks provide social network accounts logged on to one or more of the social network servers. The gaming server hosts an online communal wagering game. The operations can further include initiating, based on one or more criterion associated with the communal wagering game, an automatic search across the social network servers for a set of the social network accounts that satisfy the one or more criterion. The operations can further include electronically transmitting, based on search results, an electronic invitation to the set of social network user accounts to participate in the communal wagering game. The operations can further include electronically linking ones of the set of the social network user accounts that respond to the electronic invitation.
US09536371B2

Gaming systems and methods are disclosed. An example gaming system includes a symbol selector arranged to select a plurality of symbols for display at a plurality of display positions, one or more of the display positions including at least two symbols, and an outcome evaluator arranged to determine whether symbol combinations defined by the displayed symbols correspond to one or more winning outcomes. Each symbol combination includes one symbol from each display position used to form the symbol combination.
US09536370B2

An electronic single-space parking meter mechanism is provided. The electronic single-space parking meter mechanism includes an inner housing having a front side and a rear side. The meter mechanism includes wireless communications hardware including an antenna. The meter mechanism includes a payment reader supported by the inner housing and an electronic display screen supported by the inner housing. At least a portion of the antenna is located above at least a portion of the electronic display screen.
US09536369B2

A pharmacy medication verification system is particularly useful for verifying medications to be dispensed to hospital patients while minimizing or eliminating verification by a pharmacist. Typically, a technician or robot picks the medications from storage bins in accordance with a medical prescription or stocking order and uses various sensors to ensure that the correct medication was picked and enters a medication container. The system typically provides correct and incorrect medication indicators as well as correct and incorrect entry indicators. Error reports may be generated when appropriate to communicate any relevant errors to the pharmacist, who can then verify that the correct medications are in the container. In one aspect, the containers are in the form of patient drawers which fit within a cart for delivery to hospital rooms. A containment device may be used to secure the drawer or other container during the verification process.
US09536365B2

A vehicle comprising a keyless go system, and at least one key fob, said keyless go system being operatively connected to a locking/unlocking subsystem and an engine start subsystem, said vehicle further comprising at least one LF transmitter, at least one LF receiver, at least one HF transmitter and at least one HF receiver, said vehicle further comprising an aftermarket keyless go system interfacing with said keyless go system, wherein at least one of said at least one key fob is embedded into said vehicle, and wherein when a user sends a lock/unlock command, or a start command with a portable device, said aftermarket keyless go system interacts with said embedded key fob to selectively enable and disable low frequency communication between said embedded key fob and said keyless go system.
US09536359B1

A cam lock for cabinets, drawers, drug cabinets, credenzas, sliding doors, lockers, mail boxes and other door type applications is compact in size, fits an existing cam lock opening and provides electronic access via a keypad or other electronic access. In a particular embodiment the lock is long, narrow and low in profile so as to fit on the margin of a steel or wood file cabinet, compatible with the cam lock opening already provided. The lock can be on a secure delivery box of each of a series of customers, in a system for secure delivery and pickup of the goods as ordered by the customers.
US09536351B1

In one embodiment, a panoramic camera captures a panorama of the physical environment visible from a position within the physical environment. An orientation sensor determines an orientation of a handheld device. Based on the orientation of the handheld device, a backend augmentation application selects a portion of the captured panorama visible in a corresponding orientation from the position to produce a view of the physical environment. The view of the physical environment shows physical features of the physical environment and at least a portion of the user's body. The backend augmentation application augments the view of the physical environment to merge computer-generated features with the view of the physical environment to create an augmented reality view. The augmented reality view shows a relationship between the portion of the user's body, the physical features, and the computer-generated features. The augmented reality view is displayed on the handheld device.
US09536346B2

A medical image display apparatus includes: a medical image obtaining section for obtaining a three dimensional medical image of a subject; a display control section for displaying the three dimensional medical image obtained by the medical image obtaining section and an additional information image that represents information added to the three dimensional medical image; and an additional information display command receiving section for receiving a command to display the additional information image along with the three dimensional medical image. The display control section displays the additional information image along with the three dimensional medical image and changing the color of the displayed three dimensional medical image to a color which can be discriminated from the color of the additional information image, when the command to display the additional information image is received.
US09536327B2

Example-based edge-aware directional texture painting techniques are described. Inputs are received that define a target direction field and a plurality of edges as part of a target shape mask. A texture is synthesized from a source image by the computing device to be applied to the set of pixels of the target mask using a source shape mask and a source direction field. The source shape mask defines a plurality of edges of the source mask such that the synthesized texture applied to the plurality of edges of the target shape mask correspond to respective ones of the plurality of edges of the source shape mask. The source direction field is taken from the source image such that the synthesized texture applied to the target direction field corresponds to the source direction field. The pixels in the user interface are painted by the computing device using the synthesized texture.
US09536325B2

A device that provides a map and/or navigation application that displays items on the map and/or navigation instructions differently in different modes. The applications of some embodiments provide a day mode and a night mode. In some embodiments the application uses the day mode as a default and activates the night mode when the time is after sunset at the location of the device. Some embodiments activate night mode when multiple conditions are satisfied (for example, when (1) the time is after sunset at the location of the device and (2) the ambient light level is below a threshold brightness).
US09536318B2

The present invention relates to an image processing device for detecting line structures in an image data set. The device comprises a model definition unit (12) for defining a line model of a line structure to be detected, said line model comprising a number of voxels, a calculation unit (14) for calculating, per voxel of interest of said image data set, several correlation values of a correlation between said line model and an image area around said voxel of interest, said image area comprising a corresponding number of voxels as said line model, wherein for each of a number of different relative orientations of said line model with respect to said image area a respective correlation value is calculated, and a determining unit (16) for determining, per voxel of interest, the maximum correlation value from said calculated correlation values and the corresponding optimal orientation at which said maximum correlation value is obtained.
US09536317B2

A candidate-region for an object-region is set in an image. In a graph including point-S corresponding the object-region, point-T corresponding to a background-region, a point corresponding to each pixel in the image, S-link connecting each pixel and point-S, T-link connecting each pixel and point-T, and N-link connecting each pair of adjacent pixels, a cost is set for each link, graph-cut is performed. Whether a pixel connected to point-S by a link is present in the graph is judged. If no pixel is present, graph-cut is performed at each stage while costs set for all the S-links connecting each pixel in the candidate-region and point-S are increased stepwise in an increment of a predetermined threshold or less until a pixel connected to point-S by a link appears. Whether each pixel in the image belongs to the object-region or the background-region is determined based on a result of graph-cut performed last.
US09536315B2

Methods and systems for recognizing a license plate character. Synthetic license plate character images are generated for a target jurisdiction. A limited set of license plate images can be captured for a target jurisdiction utilizing an image-capturing unit. The license plate images are then segmented into license plate character images for the target jurisdiction. The license plate character images collected for the target jurisdiction can be manually labeled. A domain adaptation technique can be utilized to reduce the divergence between synthetically generated and manually labeled target jurisdiction image sets. Additionally, OCR classifiers are trained utilizing the images after the domain adaptation method has been applied. One or more input license plate character images can then be received from the target jurisdiction. Finally, the trained OCR classifier can be employed to determine the most likely labeling for the character image and a confidence associated with the label.
US09536313B2

A method and system for processing digital image data taken from a three-dimensional topographic area including terrain and a right of way including a first and a second object to establish a clearance surface to define clearance violations within a boundary area. Waypoints are located to define a centerline and the boundary area to be analyzed. Vegetation coordinate points in the scene are determined from the digital image data. Ground coordinate points are determined from the digital image data. A clearance surface segment is constructed within the boundary area between the first and second object. The clearance surface is determined from the location of the first and second object and clearance criteria. The clearance surface is used to define a violation region.
US09536310B1

A system and method for monitoring an individual in a dwelling so as to know when such individual falls or indicates the need of assistance. A plurality of 3D motion and sound sensors are located in the dwelling and provide data to a computerized monitoring system. The sensors are configured to recognize one or more biometric identifiers of the individual being monitored. When the monitoring system detects that the individual has fallen or gestured, a computerized communication system contacts the individual to determine the need to send assistance to help the individual. Where assistance is required the system automatics contacts the previously designated caregiver for the individual and can also contact emergency personnel.
US09536308B2

Systems and methods of detecting irregular events include the extraction of values for measure in each of a plurality of notifications. The extracted values are stored in a measures database and a distribution is calculated for the values of each of the measures. The extracted values are compared to the calculated distributions to determine if an irregular event has occurred. An irregularity alert is produced if an irregular event has occurred.
US09536302B2

An image processing apparatus has an extraction unit, a base calculation unit, a recommended-region calculation unit and a display unit. The extraction unit extracts a region including a branch artery of a subject based on volume data. The base calculation unit calculates a base of the branch artery based on the region including the branch artery. The recommended-region calculation unit calculates a recommended region for placing a balloon of a balloon catheter based on the volume data and the base. The display unit aligns and displays the recommended region on a basic image.
US09536301B1

Methods, systems, and computer readable media are disclosed for determining a pixel-to-length ratio between a number of pixels disposed over a predetermined length of a reference object within an image of a siding sample and the predetermined length of the reference object. A first and second distance between respective first and second pairs of points within the image corresponding to respective first and second length measurements of the siding sample are determined, as well as a first and second number of pixels disposed between the first and second pair of points, respectively. Furthermore, the method, system, and computer readable medium disclose determining the first length measurement based on the pixel-to-length ratio and the first number of pixels, determining the second length measurement based on the pixel-to-length ratio and the second number of pixels, and identifying a siding product associated with the first and second length measurements.
US09536299B2

Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes acquiring output for a wafer generated by an inspection system. Different dies are printed on the wafer with different process conditions. The different process conditions correspond to different failure modes for the wafer. The method also includes comparing the output generated for a first of the different dies printed with the different process conditions corresponding to a first of the different failure modes with the output generated for a second of the different dies printed with the different process conditions corresponding to a second of the different failure modes opposite to the first of the different failure modes. In addition, the method includes detecting defects on the wafer based on results of the comparing step.
US09536288B2

Image details are created for an image. An image is processed to obtain image information. Detected texture samples are processed to obtain texture information. A processor device is used for transforming received image information for obtaining frequency domain information. The texture information is used for determining a lifting factor. A frequency distribution is determined for the frequency domain information using the lifting factor for creating particular frequency. An inverse transformation is performed on an updated frequency distribution for creating output image blocks. The output image blocks are combined to create image details for a lifted image. The lifted image is mixed with the image.
US09536286B2

In a method and a magnetic resonance tomography system, at least two temporally separate original data sets are acquired with one phase measurement value being acquired for each pixel in each original image data set. An optimization technique for the shared calculation of corrected phase values for the pixels in the data sets is implemented in a computer, wherein the corrected phase values of the pixels in a first of the data sets is in each case dependent at least on the phase measured value of the pixel at the same location in a second of the data sets which is recorded beforehand or afterwards, and the corrected phase values of the pixels in the second data set are in each case dependent at least on the phase measured value of the pixel at the same place in the first data set. Corrected image data sets are generated from the corrected phase values.
US09536282B2

A computer implemented method of producing output pixels for display in a graphics system, in which the steps include performing rendering operations on one or more pixels, wherein the rendering operations includes the steps of using a POI analyzer to determine one or more of: (a) whether a pixel is a POI or a pixel not of interest (PNOI); (b) selecting different resolutions for a POI and for a PNOI.
US09536272B2

In one example embodiment, an information processing apparatus causes a display device to display a first image in a display range. In this embodiment, the first image is from images associated with an observation target object. The images include a first image, a second image, and a third image. In response to a request to change the display range, the information processing apparatus changes the display range at a first speed, and causes the display range to display the second image. In response to a request to terminate the change of the display range, the information processing apparatus changes the display range at a deceleration speed, and causes the display range to display the third image.
US09536267B2

In some embodiments, a method can comprise accessing one or more neighborhood data structures, at least a portion of the one or more neighborhood data structures are active. In many embodiments, the one or more neighborhood data structures each comprise a label comprising a record identifier, the record identifier corresponding to a specified record of the one or more records, a neighborhood comprising a list of record identifiers for other records linked to the specified record of the one or more records by a pairwise link, and a message for each of the other records linked to the specified record of the one or more records, the message comprising the label and an activity state indicator, the activity state indicator indicating if the neighborhood data structure is active. Other embodiments of related methods and systems are also provided.
US09536266B2

Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for automatically checking and acting on one or more claims. Implementations include actions of receiving claim information associated with one or more claims, wherein each of the one or more claims includes a factual claim, processing the claim information based on a domain vocabulary to identify at least one of one or more keywords and one or more categories, for each claim of the one or more claims: identifying one or more facts relevant to the claim, and determining an accuracy of the claim based on the one or more facts generating a confidence score reflecting an overall confidence in the one or more claims based on respective accuracies, and transmitting at least one of the one or more claims and the confidence score for display in a graphical user interface (GUI).
US09536263B1

Methods and systems are disclosed that identify and locate debt settlement candidates based on credit data associated with the consumer. For example, candidacy may be based on a debt score, generated by an assessment of the consumer's credit data. Credit data may include the consumer's credit score rank, credit score, revolving credit to debit ratio, credit available, delinquent accounts, negative accounts, instances of negative information on their credit report, public record data, average account age, debit, or a combination thereof.
US09536253B1

A method including the steps of: receiving, by a computer system including at least one computer, a first electronic media work uploaded from a first electronic device; extracting one or more features from the first electronic media work; linking the first electronic media work with a reference electronic media work identifier associated with a reference electronic media work to generate correlation information relating the first electronic media work with at least an action associated with the reference electronic media work identifier; storing the correlation information; receiving, from a second electronic device, a query related to the first electronic media work; correlating the query with action information related to an action to be performed based at least in part on the correlation information; generating machine-readable instructions based upon the action information; and providing the machine-readable instructions to the second electronic device to be used in performing the action.
US09536252B2

A computer implemented method and apparatus for enabling targeted messages based on usage of a document accessed within an Internet browser, wherein the document is not a webpage. The method comprises accessing a document within a browser on a device using an application associated with the document; and recording, by the application, usage behavior data during usage of the document accessed within the browser.
US09536241B2

A thin-client access card has a card body with partial or fully emissive magnetic data tracks. An emissive element is disposed in the card body under the location of the legacy magnetic data tracks. An electronic signal conditioner converts audio signals from a mobile device into magnetic data applied to the emissive element. A swipe sensor detects when the thin-client access card is being swiped by a legacy card reader, and triggers an output of magnetic data from the emissive element while proximal to the POS reader head. A cable attaches the thin-client access card as a peripheral to the mobile device with an audio output jack.
US09536239B2

Embodiment of the invention extend to a device (which may be considered an asset which is purchased or which provides a service which may be purchased) which can be controlled through the use of a mobile communications device such as a cellular phone. The cellular phone is connected to a transaction processing system which allows the user to pay for the use of the device. The transaction processing system communicates with the device to allow usage of the device only if the user has successfully paid for such use. A further embodiment of the invention relates to collecting usage information of the device and collating this information at a location remote from the device.
US09536238B2

A hand-held electronics device for aggregation of and management of personal electronic data useable for identification and, or transacting business includes a digital medium for storing data and software, a card reading/writing interface, a display screen, a biometric scanner, a user interface application stored on and executable from the digital medium and a docking bay for docking a readable and rewriteable internal card blank.
US09536232B2

Method, systems, and apparatus for receiving the email message from a sender device; identifying, using data processing apparatus of a payment service system, a sender email address, a service email address, and one or more recipient email addresses from the email message; identifying, for the sender email address, a sender financial account associated with the payment service system and, for each of the one or more recipient email addresses, a respective recipient financial account associated with the payment service system; identifying a payment amount from a subject or body of the email message; submitting a request to transfer, using the payment service system, the payment amount from the respective sender financial account to the respective recipient financial account.
US09536221B2

A method and system which adaptively recommends potential relationships to individual users based on a set of items that are known to be of interest to the user, such as a set of potential matches previously messaged by the user. The system generates the adaptive recommendations using previously-generated user activity that indicates the user's preferences of particular attributes.
US09536213B2

A system includes a suite of business applications and an add-on module coupled to the suite of business applications. The add-on module is configured with Commerce eXtensible Markup Language (cXML) and is operable to enable the suite of business applications to communicate with a network using cXML and a direct web service call to the network. The network is configured to operate using cXML. The direct web service call uses no middleware between the suite of business applications and the network.
US09536212B2

A computer-implemented process for a Web browser-based business process management engine. In an embodiment, the process embeds a lightweight business process management engine in a Web browser to form a Web browser-based business process management engine, and choreographs service invocations using the Web browser-based business process management engine.
US09536210B2

To determine origin-destination (OD) data for a transportation system, a processor may receiving passenger statistics collected from a set of data collection devices deployed throughout the transportation system. The processor developing a model representing passenger usage of a portion of the transportation system. The model comprises nodes that each represent a geographical area of the transportation network, and links that represent transportation routes that connect two nodes. The system determines link utilization rates for each of the links by applying the passenger statistics to the model, and it generates an observation report comprising an origin-destination matrix for at least the portion of the transportation system so that the origin-destination matrix comprises the determined link utilization rates.
US09536204B2

A forecasting cohort includes a first set of forecasting algorithms and a second set of forecasting algorithms. A half-life of each of the first set of forecasting algorithms and the second set of forecasting algorithms are determined. A half-life weight for each of the first set of forecasting algorithms and the second set of forecasting algorithms at a subsequent time are determined, such that the half-life weights decrease an effect of a forecasting algorithm as time elapses. A confidence level of the forecasting cohort at the subsequent time is determined and used to adjust resource usage.
US09536202B2

Determining geospatial patterns from device data collected from a plurality of computing devices. The devices represent, for example, a plurality of sources providing the device data. The device data describes the computing devices and/or environments thereof. Some embodiments present the determined patterns to users for editing, update maps with the edited patterns, and distribute the maps to the users. The maps are stored to create a searchable map library.
US09536192B2

According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for solving combinatorial optimization problems is provided. The method may include receiving a plurality of problem instance parameters associated with a graph. The method may also include determining a dynamic path change indicator exists. The method may then include initializing the graph based on the determining the dynamic path change indicator does not exist. The method may further include inserting a placeholder node and at least one placeholder node edge based on the determining the dynamic path change indicator exists. The method may also include reinitializing the graphiniti with the inserted place holder node and the at least one placeholder node edge. The method may then include initializing the reinitialized graph. The method may further include executing a hybrid algorithm on the initialized graph or on the reinitialized graph, wherein the hybrid algorithm comprises an ant colony optimization algorithm and a genetic algorithm.
US09536191B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for reinforcement learning using confidence scores. One of the methods includes receiving a current observation; for each of multiple actions: determining a respective value function estimate that is an estimate of a return resulting from the agent performing the action in response to the current observation, determining a respective confidence score that is a measure of confidence that the respective value function estimate for the action is an accurate estimate of the return that will result from the agent performing the action in response to the current observation, adjusting the respective value function estimate for the action using the respective confidence score for the action to determine a respective adjusted value function estimate; and selecting an action to be performed by the agent in response to the current observation using the respective adjusted value function estimates.
US09536188B2

Dual-interface Integrated Circuit (IC) card components and methods for manufacturing the dual-interface IC card components are described. In an embodiment, a dual-interface IC card component includes a single-sided contact base structure, which includes a substrate with an electrical contact layer. On the single-sided contact base structure, one or more antenna contact leads are attached to the single-sided contact base structure to form a dual-interface contact structure by applying an adhesive material to partially cover an overlapping area of the at least one antenna contact and the substrate, which is a component of a dual-interface IC card. Other embodiments are also described.
US09536186B2

A method includes identifying one or more codewords of a bit sequence that fail to satisfy at least one codeword constraint. The method also includes removing the one or more codewords from the bit sequence to generate a punctured bit sequence. The method includes, in response to determining that the punctured bit sequence is symmetric, generating a hermitian symmetric codebook primitive based at least in part on the punctured bit sequence, where the hermitian symmetric codebook primitive is useable to form a diffractive optical element (DOE) of a structured light depth sensing system.
US09536184B2

The present invention is characterized by requesting a user to login if the user has not been authenticated when executing sheet processing on a sheet with a post-processing apparatus without performing printing by a printing apparatus, authenticating the user in accordance with acquired user information, and, when authentication is successful, causing the post-processing apparatus to execute the sheet processing on the sheet, and recording an execution history of the sheet processing by the sheet processing apparatus as an execution history of the authenticated user.
US09536178B2

An object recognition system and method is provided which uses automated algorithmically determined negative training. Negative training with respect to a particular object classifier allows for more streamlined and efficient targeted negative training, enabling time and cost savings while simultaneously improving the accuracy of recognition based on the targeted negative training. According to certain additional aspects, embodiments of the invention relate to a system and method for structuring an object recognition engine to maximize recognition accuracy and emulate human visual cortex.
US09536177B2

Various examples are provided for object recognition in video. In one example, among others, a system includes processing circuitry including a processor. The processing circuitry is configured to process a sequence of images to recognize an object in the images, the recognition of the object based upon a hierarchical model. In another example, a method includes determining input data from a plurality of overlapping pixel patches of a video image; determining a plurality of corresponding states based at least in part upon the input data and an over-complete dictionary of filters; and determining a cause based at least in part upon the plurality of corresponding states. The cause may be used to identify an object in the video image.
US09536175B2

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing additional information using image matching. The present invention provides a system for providing additional information using image matching, including: a image input unit configured to receive a video or an image input from a user terminal; a query image determination unit configured to determine a query image, i.e., a query target, from the video or image received from the image input unit; a feature point extraction unit configured to extract feature points of the query image determined by the query image determination unit, and to generate feature point information of the extracted feature points; a reference meta-information database configured to store a structure image identifier (ID) of a structure image of a structure on which an original image has been installed, structure image feature point information of the structure image, and additional information to be provided to the user terminal in association with the structure image ID; an image matching unit configured to determine a matching structure image ID by comparing the feature point information of the query image generated by the feature point extraction unit with the structure image feature point information stored in the reference meta-information database; and an additional information provision unit configured to provide the additional information stored in association with the structure image ID determined by the image matching unit to the user terminal, and a method using the same.
US09536172B2

To make it possible to accurately grasp an exposure state even in the case where noise is included in captured image data. An input image data acquisition unit configured to acquire input image data including a chart, a noise reduction unit configured to perform noise reduction on the input image data, and a histogram generation unit configured to generate a histogram of luminance of the input image data based on noise reduced image data are included, and the noise reduction unit performs noise reduction on the chart area of the input image data in a degree greater than that in which noise reduction is performed on an area other than the chart.
US09536168B2

A digital image of the object is captured and the object is recognized from plurality of objects in a database. An information address corresponding to the object is then used to access information and initiate communication pertinent to the object.
US09536157B2

A method and a camera-based driver assistance system in a subject vehicle uses image processing to automatically recognize dynamic intangible symbols that are projected as light onto the road by another vehicle, and responds in an appropriate manner based on the recognized symbols. For example, advice is given to the driver or signals are transmitted to vehicle devices in order to bring about an appropriate vehicle response, such as an emergency braking action or a distance alert.
US09536155B2

A marking line detection system includes an imaging device and an ECU. An information extraction unit of the ECU is configured to extract depth distance information from the imaging device to an imaging object based on image information in an imaging area captured by the imaging device. A road surface area identification unit of the ECU is configured to identify a distant road surface area based on the depth distance information, the distant road surface area being a road surface area that excludes an immediately-preceding road surface area of the vehicle in the image information and is more distant from the vehicle than the immediately-preceding road surface area. A marking line detection unit of the ECU is configured to detect a marking line in the distant road surface area based on image information corresponding to a position of the distant road surface area.
US09536154B2

A method of monitoring a scene by a camera (7) comprises marking a part (14) of the scene with light having a predefined spectral content and a spatial verification pattern. An analysis image is captured of the scene by a sensor sensitive to the predefined spectral content. The analysis image is segmented based on the predefined spectral content, to find a candidate image region. A spatial pattern is detected in the candidate image region, and a characteristic of the detected spatial pattern is compared to a corresponding characteristic of the spatial verification pattern. If the characteristics match, the candidate image region is identified as a verified image region corresponding to the marked part (14) of the scene. Image data representing the scene is obtained, and image data corresponding to the verified image region is processed in a first manner, and remaining image data is processed in a second manner.
US09536147B2

An optical flow tracking method includes generating a random structure according to an object to be tracked in an image, where the random structure includes at least two structure blocks with fixed relative positions; tracking all structure blocks in the random structure using an optical flow tracking algorithm to obtain a position offset of the random structure; and estimating a target position of the object according to the position offset of the random structure. According to the optical flow tracking method and apparatus provided in embodiments of the present invention, characteristic points of an object in an image are obtained, and a random structure is generated according to the characteristic points, and each random structure is tracked to obtain a position offset of the random structure, so as to estimate a position of the object, thereby reducing tracking errors and effectively improving tracking precision.
US09536145B2

A System and method for identifying one or more human activities in a human-computer interacting environment. Skeleton points associated with a human are received. A data variation factor for the skeleton points is calculated, and a set of skeleton points is selected based on the data variation factor. One or more features are defined from the set of skeleton points by identifying a variance in coordinates of the set of skeleton points by using one or more statistical parameters. The one or more features are used to identify the one or more human activities.
US09536143B2

Systems and methods for imaging seismic data using hybrid one-way wave-equation-migration in tilted transverse isotropic media and/or hybrid two-way reverse-time-migration in tilted transverse isotropic media.
US09536141B2

A method and system generates an idealized image of a form. An image of a form and a template model of the form are received. The form includes data fields. Word boxes of the image are identified. The word boxes are assigned to corresponding data fields of the form. An idealized image of the from is generated based on the assignments and the template model.
US09536140B2

An information processing apparatus includes: an image pickup unit, a recognition unit and an execution unit. The image pickup unit photographs a recording medium to generate a picked-up image. The recognition unit recognizes a handwritten mark in the picked-up image generated by the image pickup unit. The execution unit performs a predetermined process according to the handwritten mark recognized by the recognized unit.
US09536139B2

Methods are provided for defining and determining a formal and verifiable mobile document image quality and usability (MDIQU) standard, or Standard for short. The Standard ensures that a mobile image can be used in an appropriate mobile document processing application, for example an application for mobile check deposit. In order to quantify the usability, the Standard establishes 5 quality and usability grades. A mobile image is first tested to determine if the quality is sufficient to obtain content from the image by performing multiple different image quality assessment tests. If the image quality is sufficient, one or more document usability computations are made to determine if the document or content in the image is usable by a particular application. A ranking is then assigned to the image based on the results of the tests which is indicative of the quality and usability of the image.
US09536134B2

The present invention provides an athletic performance monitoring device having an accelerometer configured such that it can be worn by a user close to the center of gravity of the athlete; and a processing system including a global positioning system. The accelerometer is further configured such that it can wirelessly communicate acceleration data, relating to the acceleration of the user, to the processing system. In addition, the processing system is configured such that it can request acceleration data from the accelerometer only when some events depending on the output of the global positioning system and/or on a clock are occurring. It can also process the acceleration data it receives from the accelerometer to provide athletic performance information. There is further provided a corresponding method for providing athletic performance information. There is also provided an accelerometer for use in an athletic performance monitoring device.
US09536124B1

Systems and methods provide an illumination assembly for a mark reader. A light transmitter is arranged in a surrounding relationship to an interior area, with the light transmitter having a proximal end and a distal end. An illumination source provides a light for transmission into the light transmitter. The light transmitter distal end allows the light from within the light transmitter to pass through and out of the distal end to provide bright field illumination and dark field illumination. The light transmitter distal end may include a first portion and a second portion, where light from within the light transmitter passes through and out of the first portion to provide bright field illumination, and light from within the light transmitter passes through and out of the second portion to provide dark field illumination.
US09536122B2

A multivariable sensing device for sensing one or more parameters of a process fluid disposed in a container is provided. The multivariable sensing device includes a radio frequency based sensor configured to sense a physical parameter, a chemical parameter, a biological parameter, or combinations thereof, representative of the process fluid. The radio frequency based sensor includes a sensor substrate, a radio frequency coil disposed on at least a portion of the sensor substrate, and a support structure configured to be physically coupled to the container. Further, the support structure is configured to position the radio frequency based sensor in operative proximity to an inside of the container.
US09536115B2

In a method for unlocking an electronic device with a touch screen and a distance sensor, a triggering signal to unlock the electronic device is received. Objects within a predetermined distance of the distance sensor is determined. The touch screen is activated to display an unlocking area if no object is detected within the predetermined distance of the distance sensor. Touch signals are received from the unlocking area to determine whether an unlocking operation is performed. A time duration that the touch screen has been activated is calculated to determine whether the unlocking operation is performed within a preset time period from activation of the touch screen. The electronic device is unlocked if the unlocking operation is performed within a preset time period from activation of the touch screen, and a predetermined application is executed when the electronic device is unlocked.
US09536112B2

In an embodiment, to deter or delay counterfeiting/cloning of a replacement component of a host device, the replacement component is provided with a code value. The code value is generated from a value of at least one physical parameter of the replacement component and is stored on the replacement component. The host device determines whether the replacement component is authentic if the stored code value matches a reference code value.
US09536111B2

A hardware Secure Processing Unit (SPU) is described that can perform both security functions and other information appliance functions using the same set of hardware resources. Because the additional hardware required to support security functions is a relatively small fraction of the overall device hardware, this type of SPU can be competitive with ordinary non-secure CPUs or microcontrollers that perform the same functions. A set of minimal initialization and management hardware and software is added to, e.g., a standard CPU/microcontroller. The additional hardware and/or software creates an SPU environment and performs the functions needed to virtualize the SPU's hardware resources so that they can be shared between security functions and other functions performed by the same CPU.
US09536097B2

Methods and apparatus for displaying visual content on a display such that the content is comprehensible only to an authorized user for a visual display system such as a computer, a television, a video player, a public display system (including but not limited to a movie theater), a mobile phone, an automated teller machine (ATM), voting booths, kiosks, security screening workstations, tactical displays and other systems where information is displayed for viewing.
US09536096B2

A system and method for managing business intelligence data is described. In some example embodiments, the system extracts data and metadata from a business intelligence file, generates a data bundle of the data and metadata, generates an application bundle based on the date bundle, and generates an interactive document using the data bundle and application bundle.
US09536093B2

Software code of a software system (e.g., a software stack) may be verified as conforming to a specification. A high-level language implementation of the software system may be compiled using a compiler to create an assembly language implementation. A high-level specification corresponding to the software system may be translated to a low-level specification. A verifier may verify that the assembly language implementation functionally conforms to properties described in the low-level specification. In this way, the software system (e.g., a complete software system that includes an operating system, device driver(s), a software library, and one or more applications) may be verified at a low level (e.g., assembly language level).
US09536091B2

According to one embodiment, a system comprises one or more counters; comparison logic; and one or more hardware processors communicatively coupled to the one or more counters and the comparison logic. The one or more hardware processors are configured to instantiate one or more virtual machines that are adapted to analyze received content, where the one or more virtual machines are configured to monitor a delay caused by one or more events conducted during processing of the content and identify the content as including malware if the delay exceed a first time period.
US09536090B2

To defend a computer against malware, first executable code, of the computer, that includes a signature that identifies an address, in the computer's memory, of a respective data structure that is potentially vulnerable to tampering, is identified. The first executable code is copied to provide second executable code that emulates the first executable code using its own respective data structure. The first executable code is modified to jump to the second executable code before accessing the data structure, and also so that the signature identifies the address of a guard page.
US09536087B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products are described for controlling malicious activity detection with respect to information technology assets based on behavioral models associated with the respective information technology assets. Protection rules and corresponding sensitivities associated with the behavioral models are applied by protection services to detect malicious activity with respect to the information technology assets.
US09536086B2

A circuit arrangement is provided, the circuit arrangement including a processor; a memory circuit connected to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to access the memory circuit; a blocking circuit configured to generate one or more random wait state signals which prevent the processor from accessing the memory circuit; and an integrity checking circuit configured to check the memory circuit during a wait state period of the one or more random wait state signals.
US09536080B2

According to one embodiment, in response to a request received from an application by a launch module hosted by an operating system and executed by a processor to dynamically load a library, a library validation module hosted by the operating system extracts a first team identifier (ID) from the application, where the first team ID identifies an application provider that provides the application. The library validation module extracts a second team ID from the library, where the second team ID identifies a library provider that provides the library. The first team ID and the second team ID are compared to determine whether the first team ID matches the second team ID. In response to determining that the first team ID matches the second team ID, the launch module launches the library to allow the application communicate with the library; otherwise, the request is denied.
US09536075B2

Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide dynamic secure sharing of resources. A resource module can be partitioned into a plurality of functional blocks, which may be allocated to non-secure and secure applications. A security monitor can monitor processor activity and determine when secure resources may be accessed.
US09536060B2

A network information system, and a method of operation thereof, includes: an extraction module for extracting a unique device identification for sending to an e-commerce server, wherein the unique device identification is extracted from a network-connected device with a software application installed and not activated on the network-connected device; a settlement process module, coupled to the extraction module, for generating a notification based on the unique device identification for sending to a license server; and a key generation module, coupled to the settlement process module, for generating a product key for the unique device identification based on the notification for activating the software application to run on a computing device.
US09536051B1

A method for performing an automated medical diagnosis of a patient based upon a patient's signs/symptoms/findings which are input by a user/heath care provider and then further analyzed to then output a listing of high probability differential diagnoses/diseases and a low probability differential diagnoses/diseases that the patient may have. This analysis assists health care providers in providing a fast and early indication of potential conditions based upon an analysis of a patient's signs/symptoms/findings.
US09536050B2

According to an aspect, influence filtering in a graphical model includes accessing the graphical model in a data store. The graphical model includes a plurality of nodes connected by edges having edge strengths representing a degree of relation between the nodes. A target relation strength for a pair of nodes in the graphical model is received. An edge strength of an edge in a direct path between the pair of nodes is determined by traversing, in the graphical model, one or more paths other than the direct path between the pair of nodes. The determining also includes estimating a cumulative strength of the traversed paths, and calculating the edge strength for the edge in the direct path based on the cumulative strength of the traversed paths and the target relation strength. The calculated edge strength is assigned to the edge in the direct path between the two nodes.
US09536041B2

Provided are methods and devices for single-molecule genomic analysis. In one embodiment, the methods entail processing a double-stranded nucleic acid and characterizing said nucleic acid. These methods are useful in, e.g. determining structural variations and copy number variations between individuals.
US09536034B2

A method for designing a system to be implemented on a target device includes generating bounding boxes on the target device for nets in the system where a bounding box identifies routing resources available for routing its corresponding net. The nets in the system are assigned to a plurality of threads to be routed. The threads are executed so that a plurality of the nets are routed in parallel within their corresponding bounding box.
US09536027B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides systems and techniques to execute a hardware simulation and verification solution on a multiprocessor system. The hardware simulation and verification solution can be partitioned into different modules which can include a simulation kernel to simulate changes in signal values, a value change dump module to store the changes in the signal values on a computer-readable storage medium, a functional coverage module to check functionality, a toggle coverage module to check signal toggling, an assertion engine to check complex behaviors, and a testbench module to generate test scenarios. Embodiments of the present invention can execute different modules on different processors, thereby improving performance.
US09536025B2

A timestamp generator generates a timestamp value having a predetermined number of most significant bits and a predetermined number of least significant bits. The least significant bits are transmitted to a client via a parallel data bus. The most significant bits are transmitted to the client sequentially via a series data bus. Each client receives the parallel least significant bits and the series most significant bits and assembles a complete time stamp value.
US09536024B2

A circuit design checker receives a circuit design. The circuit design can include a first set of one or more logic components in a first clock domain and a second set of one or more logic components in a second clock domain. The clock domain checker identifies a first subset of the second set of one or more logic components that receive one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings. The circuit design is traversed to determine whether a subset of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings does not pass through a signal having an attribute indicating that the signal is intended to be part of the one or more asynchronous clock domain crossings. If such a crossing exists, an error is indicated for the circuit design.
US09536018B2

A computer-implemented method of simplifying a geometrical model including through holes, by replacing perforations in the geometrical model, comprising: automatically identifying a potential group of perforations in a geometric model, and replacing the group of perforations with a porous replacement portion.
US09536016B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for storing data on in a storage medium. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a key-value pair including a key k and a value v. The method further includes encoding the key-value pair as (i) a first key-value pair including a first key k1 and first value v1, and (ii) a second key-value pair including a second key k2. The method further includes inserting the first key-value pair and the second key-value pair in a trie.
US09536011B1

Methods and systems for identifying availability of a content unit are described. Processors receive a request to reserve inventory of a content unit for a contiguous set of time units within a date range. The processors generate a request string including a first plurality of characters corresponding to a position in the request string and having a character value. The processors generate an inventory string including a second plurality of characters corresponding to a position in the inventory string and having a character value. The processors determine a substring of the inventory string that includes an equal number of characters as the request string and each character of the substring has a character value that is equal to or greater than a character value of a corresponding character of the request string. The processors display dates corresponding to the substring.
US09536004B2

The subject disclosure pertains to web searches and more particularly toward influencing resultant content to increase relevancy. The resultant content can be influenced by reconfiguring a query and/or filtering results based on user location and/or context information (e.g., user characteristics/profile, prior interaction/usage temporal, current events, and third party state/context . . . ). Furthermore, the disclosure provides for query execution on at least a subset of designated web content, for example as specified by a user. Still further yet, a localized marketing system is disclosed that provides discount offers to users that match merchant criteria including proximity. A system for actively probing populations of users with different parameters and monitoring responses can be employed to collect data for identifying the best discounts and deadlines to offer to users to achieve desired results.
US09535996B1

Collections identifying associated content objects, such as user-defined collections, are stored. A request to display or play a seed content object is received. A plurality of seed collections are identified based on the seed object. A plurality of candidate content objects are identified based on the identified seed collections, for instance by identifying the content objects that are identified by the seed collections. Properties of the seed object are identified, such as the categorization of the seed object, or the tags associated with the seed object. The candidate objects are ranked based on the identified seed collections and the identified properties of the seed object, and a candidate object is selected for recommendation to the user based on the ranking. The ranking of candidate objects can also be determined based on the coherence of the seed collections and the centrality of the seed object to the seed collections.
US09535994B1

The present invention is directed to a method for forensic examination of data access of an information system. The invention allows a user to determine the occurrence and nature of data access. In particular, it allows the user to determine if data were copied. The invention does not require modification of the information system or data beforehand, and requires access to no artifact or evidence other than information system itself.
US09535987B2

System and method to search audio data, including: receiving audio data representing speech; receiving a search query related to the audio data; compiling, by use of a processor, the search query into a hierarchy of scored speech recognition sub-searches; searching, by use of a processor, the audio data for speech identified by one or more of the sub-searches to produce hits; and combining, by use of a processor, the hits by use of at least one combination function to provide a composite search score of the audio data. The combination function may include an at-least-M-of-N function that produces a high score when at least M of N function inputs exceed a predetermined threshold value. The composite search score employ a soft time window such as a spline function.
US09535986B2

Implementations disclosed herein involve first-party applications and first-party applications. An example method involves displaying, on a graphical display, an interface of a first application, where the interface of the first application comprises (i) an indication of one or more second applications and (ii) at least one first control for controlling playback on a media playback system. The method also involves detecting a selection of one of the one or more second applications. Based on detecting the selection of one of the one or more second applications, the method further involves executing the selected second application, where execution of the selected second application involves displaying, on the graphical display, an interface of the selected second application, where the interface of the selected second application includes at least one second control for controlling playback on the media playback system.
US09535983B2

Storing text samples in a manner that the text samples may be quickly searched. The text samples are assigned a text sample identifier and are each parsed to thereby extract text components from the text samples. Text components that have the same content are assigned the same text component identifier. For each parsed text component, a text component entry is created that includes the assigned text component identifier as well as the text sample identifier for the text sample from which the text component was parsed. A text sample entry group is created for each text sample that contains the text component entries in sequence for the text components found within the text sample. The text sample entry groups are stored so as to be scannable during a future search.
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