US09640183B2

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a processor configured to perform automatic speech recognition (ASR) on a speech input by using a speech recognition model that is stored in a memory and a communication module configured to provide the speech input to a server and receive a speech instruction, which corresponds to the speech input, from the server. The electronic device may perform different operations according to a confidence score of a result of the ASR. Besides, it may be permissible to prepare other various embodiments speculated through the specification.
US09640181B2

A speech processing engine of an HSC device transcribes user utterance input and displays resulting text on a microdisplay. The speech processing engine further provides to the user text editing functions and auto suggestions. The user interface utilizes head gesture control and natural language for text editing. Standard language dictionaries, user's dictionary and user's address book contacts data are utilized.
US09640174B2

A home appliance and an operation method thereof are disclosed. The operation method of the home appliance includes entering a voice recognition mode, receiving a voice data through a microphone, recognizing the received voice date, and, in a case in which the recognized voice data contains information related to another home appliance, transmitting the recognized voice data to the corresponding home appliance. Consequently, sharing of voice data between home appliances is achieved.
US09640168B2

An audio processor (200) for a hearing device has a noise estimator (100), an adaptive noise canceller (110), and a dynamic range compressor (120) to provide a gain according to a signal strength of an input signal. A signal strength processor (130) determines a signal strength dependent noise cancellation parameter, and the adaptive noise canceller provides noise cancellation of the input signal according to an estimated noise from the noise estimator, and according to the signal strength dependent noise cancellation parameter, so as to provide less noise cancellation when the input signal has higher signal strength than when the input signal has a lower signal strength. This helps retain the desirable environment or ambient type noise, present when the signal strength is higher, while providing more cancellation of undesirable circuit type noise when there is low input signal strength.
US09640166B2

A soundproof panel has a sandwich structure, which includes two outer walls, a core, and modifying elements that are maintained in a fractal distribution by the core. The panel has an improved trade-off between sound attenuation efficiency and the weight of the panel.
US09640157B1

The present invention relates to the field of audio recognition, in particular to computer implemented note recognition methods. Furthermore, the present invention relates to improving latency of such audio recognition methods. One of the embodiments of the invention described herein is a method for note recognition of an audio source. The method includes: dividing an audio input into a plurality of frames, each frame having a pre-determined length, conducting a frequency analysis of at least a set of the plurality of frames, based on the frequency analysis, determining if a frame is a transient frame with a frequency change between the beginning and end of the frame, comparing the frequency analysis of each said transient frame to the frequency analysis of an immediately preceding frame and, based on said comparison, determining at least one probable pitch present at the end of each transient frame, and for each transient frame, outputting pitch data indicative of the probable pitch present at the end of the transient frame.
US09640153B2

A drum-supporting component is provided for maintaining a drum or cymbal acoustically separated from an underlying support surface. A body of the component is configured to maintain the drum separated from the underlying support thereby increasing the sound generated from the drum which is projected therefrom.
US09640147B2

A driving circuit of a display panel and driving method thereof are provided. The driving circuit of the display panel has a capacitor, a first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth thin film transistor, a reset thin film transistor, and an output thin film transistor. A sixth and seventh drain electrode, and an eighth gate electrode are connected to a signal output line, a sixth source electrode is configured to receive a fourth power source signal, an eighth is configured to receive a fifth power source signal, and an eighth drain electrode is connected to a sixth gate electrode.
US09640138B2

An information processing system includes a first information processing terminal which can be connected to an external network and a second information processing terminal which receives data from the external network through the first information processing terminal. The first information processing terminal stands by in a sleep mode, and when a predetermined condition is satisfied, it cancels the sleep mode and transmits data from the external network to the second information processing terminal.
US09640131B2

An overdrive engine generates output frames to be used to drive a display from input frames to be displayed. Each output frame is generated on a region by region basis from the corresponding regions of the input frames. If it is determined that an input frame region has changed significantly since the previous version(s) of the input frame, an overdriven version of the input frame region is generated for use as the corresponding region in the output frame. On the other hand, if it is determined that the input frame region has not changed since the previous version of the input frame, then the new input frame region is used without performing any form of overdrive process on it for the corresponding region in the output frame.
US09640127B2

The amplitude voltage of a signal input to a level shifter can be increased and then output by the level shifter circuit. Specifically, the amplitude voltage of the signal input to the level shifter can be increased to be output. This decreases the amplitude voltage of a circuit (a shift register circuit, a decoder circuit, or the like) which outputs the signal input to the level shifter. Consequently, power consumption of the circuit can be reduced. Alternatively, a voltage applied to a transistor included in the circuit can be reduced. This can suppress degradation of the transistor or damage to the transistor.
US09640126B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose an array substrate, a driving method thereof and a display panel. The array substrate includes: data lines, connected with a source driver IC; gate lines, connected with a gate driver IC; and pixel units, arranged in an array, wherein each row of pixel units are connected with a first gate line and a second gate line, the first gate line receives a gate driving signal in the case of displaying an odd frame image, the second gate line receives a gate driving signal in the case of displaying an adjacent even frame image, each pixel unit comprises a first and second TFTs, the first TFT is connected with the first gate line; the second TFT is connected with the second gate line; each column of pixel units are connected with two data lines, two adjacent columns of pixel units share one data line.
US09640123B2

The embodiment of the present invention provides a display driving method which can reduce the coupling effect due to the rapid changes of the voltage on the gate line and improve stability of display. The display driving method uses an overlapping scan mode, wherein every two rows of pixel units have two gate lines, the two gate lines drive the pixel units connected thereto respectively, each gate line group including N pairs of adjacent two gate lines, N being a natural number, said driving method comprising: providing a switching voltage signal to the odd gate lines in the gate line group sequentially; and providing a switching voltage signal to the even gate lines in the gate line group sequentially; wherein when the switching voltage signal on the odd gate lines is in the falling edge, the switching voltage signal on the even gate lines is in the rising edge.
US09640121B2

One display frame period is divided into one or a plurality of display driving periods and non-display driving periods, and immediately before transition from the non-display driving period to the display driving period, a dummy driving period is inserted. During the dummy driving period, using dummy data changed from display data at the time of driving stop of a signal electrode during the non-display driving period, driving of the signal electrode starts. Thereafter, a display line is selected, and, using the display data corresponding to each display line selected, the signal electrode is driven.
US09640113B2

A compensation circuit of IR drop of a display system, the display system having m pixel circuits, the compensation circuit comprising: m current comparators composed of TFT devices, wherein each current comparator is configured to compare the input current signal with a reference current signal and output a voltage signal according to the comparison result; m encoders composed of TFT devices, wherein each encoder is configured to encode the voltage signal into a digital voltage signal to output; a controller which is configured to calculate a difference value between the digital voltage signal and an ideal digital voltage signal and generate a digital difference signal; m compensation voltage generators each of which is configured to convert the digital difference signal into a compensation voltage signal, and write the compensation voltage signal into a corresponding pixel circuit according to control of a timing control signal; and a driver IC.
US09640100B2

Systems and methods for displaying always-on content on a display of a mobile device allow the device to use a low power processor for certain always-on content and to coordinate with the device application processor for the remaining always-on content. In an embodiment, a pixel row-skip pattern is specified by the low power processor based on the display screen's resolution setting as well as ambient light conditions. In a further embodiment, the execution of pixel rendering in keeping with the prescribed pattern is synchronized between the device's low power processor and main application processor.
US09640090B2

A cryptographic system (10) performs a cryptographic process using a basis. B and a basis B*. An encryption device (200) generates a ciphertext including a transmission-side vector being a vector in the basis B and being generated using one vector of a first vector consisting of coefficients yj of a polynomial having xi as roots and a second vector consisting of v1i being a power of v1. A decryption device (300) decrypts the ciphertext generated by the encryption device (200) with a decryption key including a reception-side vector being a vector in the basis B* and being generated using the other vector of the first vector and the second vector.
US09640087B2

An apparatus, teaching method and composing method are disclosed as part of a kit to teach playing the piano. The kit incorporates special arrangements of music notation symbols on cling sheets. The cling sheets cling to a piano keyboard and to a music stand that has a presentation surface. The size of the spaces between the five staff lines on the cling sheets are such that musical notes on the staff lines accurately define finger placement on standard piano keys. The static cling sheets with music notation symbols are used as manipulatives and not just labels or identifiers as has been used in the past. The apparatus and methods do not require that students memorize letters, symbols and the music staff before they can play music; rather it allows students to manipulate symbols printed on cling sheets to learn how to play piano.
US09640070B2

Three-dimensional (3D) projections of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals are acquired from a liver experiencing NMR in response to a 3D multi-echo non-Cartesian pulse sequence. The projections are reconstructed into two sets of images having different resolutions. Bins associated with the different positions to which the liver moves during respiration are identified in lower resolution images, and then higher resolution images are binned into the position dependent bins based on navigator data in the lower resolution images. A combined image for a bin is made from images located in the bin and then registered to a reference image. An overall combined image is made by summing the combined bin images. Quantized data for a contrast agent concentration in the liver is produced using signal intensity in the overall combined image. The quantized value may describe a liver perfusion parameter. A diagnosis may be made from the quantized value.
US09640066B2

A method and system for limiting remote control between a portable electronic device and one or more vehicle systems in a vehicle. The method and system include connecting the portable electronic device to the vehicle. The method and system also include sending one or more remote control commands from the portable electronic device to the one or more vehicle systems, the one or more remote control commands are executed for remotely controlling the one or more vehicle systems from the portable electronic device. Additionally, the method and system include determining one or more countermeasure controls associated with the one or more remote control commands. The method and system further include restricting the execution of one or more remote control commands from the portable electronic device if it determined that one or more countermeasure controls are associated with the one or more remote control commands.
US09640064B2

A system for passing electrical signals through a living body has a transmitter on one side of a body for feeding thereto a predetermined electrical signal on at least two separate channels on respective different frequencies and a receiver on the other side of the body for receiving the signal on each of the channels. An evaluating unit connected to the receiver evaluates the received signals and selecting from them one signal for further processing.
US09640057B1

A computer-implemented system and method for detecting a fall includes a wearable device with an accelerometer and a transmitter for transmitting data to a portable electronic device. The method comprises receiving data from the accelerometer in response to a movement of the wearable device; transitioning between operational states in a plurality of operational states based on the received data and time elapsed since a last state transition; and detecting falling of the person based on a predefined sequence of state transitions including at least one transition to a falling state having the data being equivalent to zero, where the time elapsed at the falling state exceeds a predefined maximum time threshold.
US09640052B2

A home intellectual positioning system for use in a house, the system includes a power supply, a sound sensor, a thermal sensor, an identification unit and an intellectual processor. The sound sensor is provided for detecting and tracking a sonic wave of a home member to generate a sonic wave value. The thermal sensor is provided for detecting and tracking a body temperature of the home member to generate a body temperature value. The identification unit is provided for storing sonic wave information and body temperature information of a plurality of home members. The intellectual processor is interconnected to the identification unit, and to compare the sonic wave value of the sound sensor with the sonic wave information and the body temperature value of the thermal sensor with the body temperature information to identify which home member stays in the house.
US09640048B2

Methods and apparatuses are disclosed that allow an electronic device to autonomously adapt one or more user alerts of the electronic device. For example, some embodiments may include a method for operating a haptic device including driving a haptic device using a control signal, measuring a frequency related to the operation of the haptic device and comparing the measured frequency with a target frequency. A control signal is adjusted based on the comparison to drive the haptic device to the target frequency.
US09640047B2

A method and apparatus for generating a haptic signal with auditory saliency estimation from an audio signal is disclosed. The method includes detecting audio characteristic information of a bass component and audio characteristic information of a treble component from a received audio signal, estimating auditory saliency with respect to the audio signal based on the two types of audio characteristic information, and calculating a tactile signal based on the auditory saliency.
US09640046B2

The present document describes a device and method for synchronizing a motion signal corresponding to a media content with a media signal for the media content, the motion signal being for controlling a motion feedback system. The method comprises: receiving a portion of the media signal; obtaining a fingerprint corresponding to the received portion of the media signal; from reference fingerprints associated with time positions of at least one reference media content, identifying a reference time position of the media content corresponding to the obtained fingerprint; obtaining the motion signal associated with the identified reference time position of the media content; and outputting the motion signal synchronized with the media signal using the identified reference time position of the media content for controlling the motion feedback system.
US09640040B2

An automated banking machine operates to cause financial transfers responsive at least in part to data read from data bearing records. The automated banking machine includes a card reader that is operative to read card data corresponding to financial accounts from user cards. The card data is linked in at least one data store to data indicating that the card data corresponds to a financial account that is authorized to be used to conduct at least one transaction through use of the automated banking machine. The automated banking machine may be used to carry out financial transfers involving financial accounts by users who are determined to be authorized users of such accounts. Data corresponding to a financial account can also be linked to a mobile wireless device so as to enable financial transfers by authorized users of such accounts.
US09640039B2

A gaming system including a cascading symbol game which utilizes a plurality of symbol display position matrices and a plurality of different directions of symbol movement. Each symbol display position matrix includes a plurality of symbol display positions. At least one of the symbol display position matrices includes one or more symbol display positions linked to or otherwise associated with one or more symbol display positions of at least another of the symbol display position matrices. If the gaming system determines that one or more symbols will be repositioned from one or more symbol display positions of one symbol display position matrix to one or more linked symbol display positions of another symbol display position matrix, the gaming system determines a direction of movement of such symbols.
US09640030B2

On a network of electronic gaming machines, data regarding the performance of the machines or the players of the machines is collected and processed to make predictions of future jackpots and recommendations of games to play. The predictions and recommendations are delivered via at least one virtual persona that communicates with players or potential players via displays in a casino or on a web browser, via smartphone. Players can conduct conversations with the persona using cellular telephone, text messaging, or other types of Internet communications.
US09640029B1

In a multi-player bingo type matching game, game players attempt to achieve matching patterns of game indicia associated with assigned game cards. Called game indicia are displayed to the players. The first player to select or grab the called game indicia is permitted to attempt to match the called game indicia to game indicia on their assigned card, while other players are not permitted to use the selected game indicia. If that called game indicia does not match the player's game card, the player loses one or more successive game turns. The winner of the game may comprise the first player who is able to achieve a predetermine winning matching pattern relative to their game card.
US09640024B2

A gaming system performs a wagering game by determining an outcome, based at least in part, on one or more random elements. The wagering game uses a plurality of symbol bearing reels that includes at least one adjustable reel having an adjustable reel strip with one or more adjusting symbol positions thereon. When a wagering game is initiated and while the symbol bearing reels are spinning, a series of symbols are sequentially displayed by the adjustable reels at the adjusting symbol positions. The symbols may optionally increase in value as displayed to enhance player anticipation. The number and location of adjustable reels, the number and location of adjusting symbol positions on each adjustable reel, and the symbols displayed at the adjusting symbol positions may be randomly or statically determined. During the wagering game, the order of display of the series of symbols at the adjusting symbol locations may be random or based on previously displayed symbols.
US09640022B2

Devices and methods for generating and/or communicating using optically formatted image data are provided. One method includes receiving first gaming information from a first wager-based gaming device via a local area network. The method further includes receiving from the first wager-based gaming device a request to include the first gaming information in a machine readable optically formatted image data. The method further includes generating the machine readable optically formatted image data or instructions for creating the machine readable optically formatted image data. Data encoded in the machine readable optically formatted image data comprises a unique identifier and the first gaming information. The method further includes sending the generated machine readable optically formatted image data or the instructions for creating the machine readable optically formatted image data to the first wager-based gaming device. The machine readable optically formatted image data is output to a display device.
US09640021B2

Systems and methods include a wagering game machine having a three-dimensional monitor. Certain events are 3D transition events that cause certain graphical elements presented by the wagering game to be rendered as real 3D objects using the three-dimensional monitor.
US09640016B2

A parking meter assembly (10) including a base (11) that is to be fixed to or embedded in a ground surface, typically adjacent the curb that which a car is to be parked. The assembly (10) also includes a parking meter (13) having a front face (17) that includes a coin slot (25) a card slot (20) and a control panel (21). The parking meter (13) further includes a rear face (27) having a window aperture (28) that provides for the transmission of light to a solar panel (29) behind the aperture (28).
US09640015B2

An automated retail system according to embodiments of the present invention includes a front and/or rear product rack, each rack having a plurality of bins, each of which has a product door, the system further including a basket moveable along an x-y plane on a rail system to selectively open a product door of a product bin to permit the product within the bin to fall into the basket, the basket movable to a product delivery position to release the product from the basket. Such a system may include sensors and/or scanners to determine contents of each bin, such that any product may be placed in any bin, and inventory of each bin or all bins may be determined at any time. The basket may be configured to move in x and y but not z directions, and may also serve as the sole actuation mechanism for opening the doors.
US09640012B2

A protocol appropriate for smartcard purchase applications such as those that might be completed between a terminal or ATM and a users personal card is disclosed The protocol provides a signature scheme which allows the card to authenticate the terminal without unnecessary signature verification which is an computationally intense operation for the smart card. The only signature verification required is that of the terminal identification (as signed by the certifying authority, or CA, which is essential to any such protocol). In the preferred embodiment, the protocol provides the card and terminal from fraudulent attacks from impostor devices, either a card or terminal.
US09640010B2

The present invention has the purpose of providing a coin processing device capable of performing a coin reception test while being connected with a vending machine.When a response command from the vending machine is received while a test mode is executed, a response is carried out to the response command based on device information present immediately before the test mode is executed, reception of a coin thrown during the test mode is stored, and the coin is paid out based on the storage when the test mode is released.
US09640009B1

A depository system operates in response to data bearing records. Information regarding planned future deposits is recorded, at least one record visible appearance feature is stored or generated, and data corresponding to the at least one record appearance feature is stored in associated relation with deposit data. The at least one record appearance feature is made visible on a deposit item. The deposit item is subsequently presented to a depository that includes an image sensor. The image sensor operates to read the at least one record appearance feature. At least one controller in the depository causes a determination to be made that at least one record appearance feature corresponds to a pre-registered deposit and such determination enables the deposit item to be received in the depository.
US09640002B1

A system and method for verifying entry credentials and activating/deactivating an access control system via use of the native capabilities of a mobile device is disclosed herein. Particularly, the system and method include an embedded local control device attached or communicative with an electronic gate or lock. The control device is communicative with a remote access control management system, which is structured to receive, track and manage access tokens that can be used to control access to a gated community or other secured location. Notifications that an access token has been generated can be communicated to the guest(s) by way of text message, short message service (SMS), email, social media, for example. Each notification may contain a unique link to a webpage employing the access token. While in the geographic vicinity of the secured location, the guest may actuate the access token and open the gate.
US09640000B2

A surveillance device and method provide access to a surveillance system for keeping a cabin of an aircraft under surveillance. A computer program may be used to execute the method for accessing the surveillance system. The surveillance device includes an authentication unit for examining an access-authorization request for access to the surveillance system, and a control unit for selecting, on the basis of the access-authorization request, a display unit from a plurality of display units provided in the aircraft, and for relaying a video-image signal corresponding to a captured video image of a subarea of the cabin of the aircraft to the selected display unit for the purpose of displaying the video image.
US09639999B2

System and method for estimating speed of a vehicle is disclosed. Speed of a vehicle is recorded using a first sensor at a time interval of a plurality of time intervals. Further, an acceleration of the vehicle may be recorded using a second sensor at each sub-interval of the time interval. At each sub-interval, a forward speed and a backward speed, of the vehicle are obtained based upon the acceleration at each sub-interval. After obtaining the forward speed and the backward speed, a predefined weight may be assigned to the forward speed and the backward speed at each sub-interval. Subsequently, a corrected speed of the vehicle at each sub-interval is calculated based upon the predefined weight, the forward speed and the backward speed. Further, a slope associated with the speed of the vehicle is determined Based upon the slope, the speed of the vehicle at a sub-interval may be estimated.
US09639991B2

Provided are an augmented reality provision system, a method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium capable of displaying a virtual object in a very natural representation form regardless of a state of an illumination in a real space. A plurality of same color patches with the same color are extracted from a captured image including a target. Light distribution characteristics of light with which the target is irradiated are estimated from a relationship between color values in the plurality of same color patches. An object image to which a visual effect in which the virtual object is irradiated with the light has been given depending on the estimated light distribution characteristics is obtained by correcting a color of an original object image indicating the virtual object.
US09639980B2

An image processing apparatus comprises an acquiring section that acquires DEM data indicating digital elevation of each lattice-shaped area in a predetermined map region, a selecting section that selects at least one of a plurality of line filters that filters data which is continuous in one direction in the map region and a plurality of matrix filters that filters data constituting a two-dimensional region in the map region, a filter processing section that conducts filter processing of the DEM data acquired by the acquiring section by a filter selected by the selecting section, and an outputting section that outputs the DEM data after being filtered in the filter processing.
US09639979B2

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for non-occluding overlay of user interface or information elements on a contextual map. A method is provided including receiving a two dimensional image associated with a geographic area or object, receiving geometry model associated with the associated with the geographic area, generating an embossing map based on ambient occlusions associated with the geometry model, and generating a composite image based on the two dimensional image and the embossing map.
US09639970B2

A character recognition system for recognizing character(s) displayed on display(s) of computer(s). In one embodiment, memory device(s) store recognition dictionaries, and there may be a separate recognition dictionary for each display font and character size combination. Such a recognition dictionary may contain information pertaining to arrangement of constituent dots making up each character of a corresponding display font and character size. A character recognition unit may identify target character(s) displayed on display(s) by searching such recognition dictionary or dictionaries and extracting therefrom character(s) for which information pertaining to arrangement of constituent dots making up extracted character(s) is a perfect match for target character(s) displayed on display(s).
US09639969B1

Various implementations related to collaborative design are described. In one such implementation, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, using one or more computing devices, input from a second user selecting to remix an existing design of a first user; generating, using the one or more computing devices, a new version of the existing design including one or more layers from the existing design; receiving, using the one or more computing devices, one or more design inputs from the second user, the one or more design inputs remixing at least one of the one or more layers included from the existing design; applying, using the one or more computing devices, the one or more design inputs to the new version of the existing design to create a remixed design; and sharing, via a computer network, the remixed design with one or more other users.
US09639963B2

Techniques for improved command level remoting are disclosed. In embodiments of the invention, commands to generate vertices are sent in a terminal service session. As commands to draw vertices are generated by a server to be sent to a client to display, they are analyzed by the server. Where some of those vertices have been previously sent to the client, such as to generate a previous bitmap image, the server determines not to send those vertices to the client, and sends the client the new vertices.
US09639960B1

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assessment and reporting system may utilize one or more scanning techniques to provide useful assessments and/or reports for structures and other objects. The scanning techniques may be performed in sequence and optionally used to further fine tune each subsequent scan. A first image may be a nadir image in some embodiments. A boustrophedonic scan of the area may include images captured during a boustrophedonic flight pattern within a first altitude range. Distances to an underlying surface (e.g., ground or structure) may also be determined. A loop scan of the structure may be performed at a second flight pattern in which the UAV travels around the perimeter of the structure. A micro scan of the structure in a third flight pattern may include vertical approaches proximate the structure to capture detail images of the structure.
US09639957B2

Disclosed are various embodiments for generating recommendations utilizing visual image analysis. A digital image provided by a client device is analyzed to identify an empty region in a setting embodied in the digital image. A recommended item, available for consumption via an electronic commerce system, may be identified based on characteristics of the setting embodied in the digital image and historical data associated with a user. A modified form of the digital image is generated comprising the recommended item in the empty region.
US09639950B2

With this device, an edge pair likelihood map generation unit (120) computes edge pair likelihood which denotes the plausibility that a pixel of a pair is an edge of an estimation subject site, and generates an edge pair likelihood map which denotes the edge pair likelihood for each pixel. A continuity likelihood map generation unit (130) evaluates, upon the edge pair likelihood map, the continuity for the edge pair likelihood of a pixel which is included in a region wherein the estimate subject site is presumed, and generates a continuity likelihood map which denotes an edge pair likelihood which has continuity as a candidate region of the estimate subject site. An integrated likelihood map generation unit (140) generates an integrated likelihood map which denotes the candidate region which the continuity likelihood map denotes, refined based on a predetermined condition.
US09639944B2

A method for determining a depth of a target object in an environment is disclosed. The method comprises sensing a depth of objects within the environment with a depth sensing apparatus (1 10), identifying a disocclusion gap caused by the target object (120), detecting a position of edge contours of the disocclusion gap (1 30), and calculating a depth of the target object from the position of the disocclusion gap edge contours and a position of the depth sensing apparatus (140). Also disclosed are a computer program product for carrying out a method for determining a depth of a target object in an environment and an apparatus (300) for determining a depth of a target object in an environment.
US09639942B2

To calculate the position and orientation of a target object with high accuracy, an information processing apparatus converts an image feature on a two-dimensional image into a corresponding position in a three-dimensional space, acquires a first registration error between the converted image feature and a geometric feature of a model, acquires a second registration error between a distance point and the geometric feature of the model, and then derives the position and orientation of the target object based on the acquired first registration error and the acquired second registration error.
US09639937B2

An apparatus and a method for detecting an event from a plurality of captured images are disclosed. An apparatus for generating an individual event rule is provided, comprising an image receiver, an image synthesis unit, an event rule acquisition unit, an individual event rule generator and a rule transmitter. The image receiver receives multiple captured images from multiple cameras. The image synthesis unit synthesizes the multiple captured images through conversion functions corresponding to coordinate systems of the multiple cameras into a main image. The event rule acquisition unit acquires an event rule for the main image. The individual event rule generator converts the event rule through the conversion functions into individual event rules corresponding respectively to the cameras. The rule transmitter transmits the individual event rules for identifying a single event.
US09639931B2

A radiation image processing apparatus comprises a storage unit that stores part information with which an imaging region and an extraction size of a radiation image are associated, a recognizing unit that recognizes a region of interest from a radiation image based on an image region associated with designated part information, and an arrangement unit that arranges an extraction area of an extraction size associated with the designated part information on the radiation image in accordance with the region of interest recognized by the recognizing unit.
US09639923B2

A bilateral filtering method includes decomposing an image patch by pixel intensity to form a stack of patches; computing spatial filtering response of each intensity; multiplying the spatial filtering response of each intensity by corresponding intensity, thereby resulting in multiplied spatial filtering response of each intensity; and summing up the multiplied spatial filtering responses of different intensities weighted with corresponding range weights.
US09639920B2

In an example, a method for image processing may include inputting a first pixel value corresponding to a first pixel of an image into a LUT. The LUT may map one or more LUT input values to one or more LUT output values. The first pixel value may correspond to a first LUT input value that maps to a first LUT output value in the LUT. The first pixel may include one or more pixel values. The method may include generating a noise value for the first LUT input value. The method may include generating a first interpolated LUT output value for the first LUT input value based on the noise value. The method may include transforming the image into a transformed image using the first interpolated LUT output value.
US09639916B2

A fog in an image is quickly removed with a small processing load.An image processing device includes a dark channel image generating section 20 for generating a dark channel image based on an input image, a transmittance image generating section 30 for generating a transmittance image based on the dark channel image generated in the dark channel image generating section 20 and a pixel value of atmospheric light, a transmittance correcting section 40 for correcting the transmittance image generated in the transmittance image generating section 30, and a fog removal image generating section 60 for removing fog in the input image based on the transmittance image corrected in the transmittance correcting section 40, the pixel value of atmospheric light, and the input image.
US09639914B2

The present disclosure is applicable to the field of image processing, and provides a portrait deformation method and apparatus. The method includes: reading a picture including a portrait; detecting a facial feature of the portrait in the picture; deforming the detected facial feature according to preset control points, to obtain a corresponding deformation field, the number of the preset control points being greater than 1; and making the deformation field act on the picture, so as to convert the picture into a deformed picture. According to embodiments of the present invention, lines of a deformed portrait are more continuous.
US09639913B2

A device comprises an input unit, a motion acquisition unit, a matrix operation unit, and a drawing unit. The input unit implements sequential input of a first frame image and a second frame image. The motion acquisition unit acquires motion data between the first frame image and the second frame image. The matrix operation unit calculates a projection matrix to project the output frame image to the second frame image, from a first matrix including a rolling shutter distortion component, a second matrix including at least one of a parallel translation component in directions perpendicular to an image-shooting direction and a rotation component with respect to the image-shooting direction, and an auxiliary matrix including a motion component not included in the first matrix and the second matrix. The drawing unit generates the output frame image from the second frame image by using the projection matrix.
US09639912B2

A method for reversible image data hiding includes steps of encrypting an original image by an encryption process to generate an encrypted image, embedding a message into the encrypted image by an embedment process to generate an embedded image, and extracting the message and the original image from the embedded image by a decryption and extraction process. The encryption process includes generating a key stream by using a secret encryption key, and generating an encrypted image by XORing the original image with the key stream. The embedment process includes generating an embedded image by embedding the message via XORing the encrypted image with a predetermined public key set.
US09639903B2

A crop yield per location measurer is disclosed. In general, the crop yield measurer includes a crop collector for a field of crops. The crop collector includes a navigation satellite system location determiner to determine location information at periodic times during a crop collection process. The crop collector also includes an optical mechanism to optically determine a volume of collected crops at the periodic times during the crop collection process. In addition, a database is used for storing the location information and the volume at the periodic times during the crop collection process. A crop yield overview generator is then utilized to provide a user accessible crop yield per location overview for the field of crops based on the information stored at the database.
US09639896B2

System and method for dynamically managing message flow. According to the example embodiments, an intermediary network device or a client device dynamically manages the flow of messages received from an electronic exchange by analyzing the client device's capabilities, such as CPU utilization. Based on a percentage of total CPU utilization, the level of throttling is dynamically adjusted, such that if the percentage of CPU utilization, or load, increases, then throttling is increased from a lower level to a higher level. Similarly, if the percentage of CPU utilization decreases significantly enough, then throttling is decreased to a lower level.
US09639891B2

The number of users viewing a given variable directly affects the rate of change and/or outcome of said variable. In the case of eCommerce, pricing of products and/or services is based upon a user accessing a website on which products and/or services are for sale. An initial price indicia associator associates initial price indicia with the products and/or services files. The initial pricing can be based upon historical indicia or the engine itself. Thereafter, a price indicia adjuster adjusts the pricing responsive to user access of the website or related website. A user interface meter shown on the website indicates to potential buyers how much interest there is in the product and/or service being sold so that peer activity is exhibited to potential buyers to encourage sales and impulsive buying behavior. Pricing is dynamic and adjusts in real-time at a rate determined by the amount of users accessing the website.
US09639889B2

A method and a system of online shopping using a digital storefront. For example, a digital storefront having multiple touchscreen display surfaces presents a plurality of tiles to a user, where one or more tiles display images of items for sale and at least one hunch question which may be related to the environment. In further examples, a response is received from the user to one or more hunch questions, and items are recommended for the user and presented to the user in one or more updated tiles on a touchscreen display surface.
US09639880B2

A system and method for recommending clothing or apparel to a user. Activity of a user is detected in order to identify a set of items that are of interest to the user. One or more recommendation parameters may be determined for the used based at least in part on the individual items of clothing/apparel that are of interest to the user. Clothing/apparel content is selected for display to the user based on the recommendation parameters.
US09639879B2

The present invention is an improved system and method for analyzing multiple real estate properties. The system includes a pool of properties that are searched based on user-defined search criteria. The system identifies comparison properties from the search pool. The comparison properties include attributes that match or are a near match to the search criteria. The system compares each of the comparison properties to at least one average value and demonstrably depicts the comparison to the user.
US09639877B1

Electronic content items such as electronic books are enhanced by identifying citations within the content items, identifying sources of the objects of the citations, and associating the citations with such sources so that readers of the content items can easily purchase or otherwise obtain the citation objects. The citations may be updated as new products become available or information related to the products changes over time.
US09639865B2

A distributed generation of coupons system and method is described. One example develops a campaign having a set of rules at a campaign management system. in addition, a communication channel is established between the campaign management system and a coupon generating subsystem. The campaign having a set of rules is provided from the campaign management system to the coupon generating subsystem via the communication channel. The coupon generating subsystem is authorized to independently generate a coupon based on the set of rules of the campaign without requiring communication between the coupon generating subsystem and the campaign management system.
US09639862B2

Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems receive a gift giving event characteristic. A first set of one or more gift giving events within a first period of time that meet the received gift giving event characteristic are identified. Each of the gift giving events result in a narrative being published to a social network and are viewable by a group of one or more users of the social network. A second set of one or more gift giving events within a second period of time are identified. The second period of time is subsequent to the first period time. The second set of gift giving events are initiated by the group of one or more users. An amount of influence of a first user that initiated a gift giving event in the first set of gift giving events is determined based upon the second set of gift giving events.
US09639856B2

A method, performed by a computer device, may include obtaining a viewing history, associated with a customer, from a set-top box associated with the customer, wherein the viewing history relates a particular television channel to a duration time associated with the particular television channel. The method may further include determining a keyword, associated with the customer, based on the obtained viewing history; calculating a keyword score for the keyword based on the obtained viewing history; selecting an advertisement, associated with the keyword, based on the calculated keyword score; and providing the selected advertisement to the set-top box associated with the customer, based on selecting the advertisement.
US09639847B2

A system and a method for measuring and monitoring effectiveness of on-line advertising are provided. The system and method provide a code attached to, for example, an advertising banner of a company that may advertise goods and/or services of the company. The code provides a signal to a server when the banner is viewed on a computer of a user. Cookie data is transferred by the server to the computer of the user providing information related to viewing of the advertising banner. Surveys are further presented to users to obtain information related to the effectiveness of the advertising for both exposed users and control users.
US09639845B2

A system and method for increasing displaying time of online advertisements. Upon receiving a search request including one or more search terms, a search engine may identify a list of search results and display the search results on one side of a result page. The search engine may also obtain a list of advertisements and display the list of advertisements on the other side of the result page. When a user scrolls down to look at search results at a lower portion of the result page, the list of advertisements may be moved down, following the movement of the screen, so that at least a part of the list of advertisements may keep being displayed on the current screen. Since the online advertisements are visible to the user for a longer time, there are more opportunities for the online advertisements to get the user's attention, and consequently more opportunities for the user to click on an advertisement. As a result, the efficiency of online advertising may be improved.
US09639839B2

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a first memory unit for storing a non-payment application, a first processor, a fingerprint sensing unit and a security element including a second memory unit and a second processor. The second memory unit stores a payment application and user fingerprint information. When the second processor executes the payment application, the fingerprint sensing unit captures a fingerprint image of a user's finger and the second processor transmits the fingerprint image to the first processor via a secure channel. The first processor calculates biometric characteristics of the fingerprint image to generate to-be-recognized fingerprint information which is transmitted to the second processor via the secure channel. When the second processor determines that the to-be-recognized fingerprint information matches the user fingerprint information, the second processor generates an authentication signal for a payment transaction.
US09639820B2

Techniques are provided that produce a risk profile consisting of a risk score and trends of risk scores across devices and sensors in a machine-to-machine (M2M) or Internet of things (IOT) environment. For example, a device is assigned a risk score which is based on baseline factors such as expected network packets between two devices, normal network packets, access to critical devices, authorized access requests from one device to another device, normal communications to a device, and the critical ports of a device; access to and conflicts across physical, logical, and operational systems; historical and current usage of these systems, and anomalies from normal behavior patterns. Techniques encompass risk management by computing a risk score in a timely fashion in accordance with an architecture that enables achieving the required scaling necessitated by the huge number of devices in the machine-to-machine (M2M) or Internet of things (IOT) environment.
US09639819B2

A delivery server includes: an update unit configured to update a remaining gas amount on a basis of a gas usage obtained based on comparison between a plurality of sets of meter indication data when receiving a set of meter indication data, included in the plurality of sets of meter indication data, of a gas meter configured to detect the gas usage in a gas cylinder; a prediction unit configured to predict a prospective remaining gas amount on a basis of a change in a past gas usage obtained based on comparison between the past gas usages consumed in the gas cylinder; and a determination unit configured to determine a date on which the predicted remaining gas amount reaches a predetermined value as a delivery date of the gas cylinder.
US09639815B2

Managing processes in an Enterprise Intelligence (‘EI’) assembly of an EI framework, including: for each executing EI assembly in the EI framework, in real time: tracking, by the process state transition manager, the present state of processes of each executing EI assembly; analyzing, by the process state transition manager, the present state; and storing, by the process state transition manager, results of the state analysis.
US09639813B2

A method and device determines an optimization solution for an optimization problem. The method includes receiving the optimization problem having cost functions and variables in which each of the cost functions has a predetermined relationship with select ones of the variables. The method includes generating a first message for each of the cost functions for each corresponding variable based upon the respective predetermined relationship and a second message for each of the variables for each corresponding cost function based upon the respective predetermined relationship. The method includes generating a disagreement variable for each corresponding pair of variables and cost functions measuring a disagreement value between the first and second beliefs. The method includes repeating steps (b), (c), and (d) until a consensus is formed between the first and second messages until the optimization solution is determined based upon the consensus.
US09639812B1

A system and method for accommodating disrupted travelers utilizing scoring and optimization techniques.
US09639808B2

There is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for attribute estimation. The process includes: extracting, for each user, feature quantities of plural pieces of image information that are associated with attributes of the user; integrating the extracted feature quantities for each user; and performing learning, input of the learning being an integrated feature quantity that has been obtained as a result of integration for each user, output of the learning being one attribute, and generating a learning model.
US09639806B2

A system and method for evaluating iconicity of an image are provided. In the method, at least one test image is received, each test image including an object in a selected class. Properties related to iconicity are computed for each test image. The properties may include one or more of: a) a direct measure of iconicity, which is computed with a direct iconicity prediction model which has been learned on a set of training images, each training image labeled with an iconicity score; b) one or more class-independent properties; and c) one or more class-dependent properties. A measure of iconicity of each of the test images is computed, based on the computed properties. By combining a set of complementary properties, an iconicity measure which shows good agreement with human evaluations of iconicity can be obtained.
US09639802B2

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a neural network comprising multiple modalities. Each modality comprises multiple neurons. The neural network further comprises an interconnection lattice for cross-associating signaling between the neurons in different modalities. The interconnection lattice includes a plurality of perception neuron populations along a number of bottom-up signaling pathways, and a plurality of action neuron populations along a number of top-down signaling pathways. Each perception neuron along a bottom-up signaling pathway has a corresponding action neuron along a reciprocal top-down signaling pathway. An input neuron population configured to receive sensory input drives perception neurons along a number of bottom-up signaling pathways. A first set of perception neurons along bottom-up signaling pathways drive a first set of action neurons along top-down signaling pathways. Action neurons along a number of top-down signaling pathways drive an output neuron population configured to generate motor output.
US09639801B2

A wireless communication device includes an antenna resonance circuit and a wireless IC element. The antenna resonance circuit includes a loop-shaped antenna that performs wireless communication by generating a magnetic field and series inductors connected in series to the loop-shaped antenna. The antenna resonance circuit has a resonant frequency corresponding to a carrier frequency. The wireless IC element is connected to the antenna resonance circuit and processes transmission and reception signals. An inductance value of the series inductors is larger than an inductance value of the loop-shaped antenna, and the series inductors are covered with a magnetic material.
US09639791B2

A multicolor image can include multiple overlaid items including a black region covering a color region. Raster image processing adds the color data to color pixels of the raster data print page uniformly across the area of the raster data print page that corresponds to the color region of the multicolor image, and adds the black data to over-print pixels (where the black region covers the color region in the multicolor image). Such over-print pixels include both the color data and the black data. The color data (but not the black data) is removed from the over-print pixels that are positioned a preset pixel distance from non-black color pixels. The raster data page is output from the processor device to a printing engine, and the printing device prints the raster data page on print media to produce a physically printed reproduction of the multicolor image.
US09639788B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for improving the performance of a raster image processor. Smaller objects are identified among a group of larger objects with respect to a job processed via a raster image processor. The smaller objects are merged with one or more larger objects among the group of larger objects. The smaller objects that are merged with the larger object are treated as a single object without losing the perceptual quality of the job and while reducing memory requirements to thereby enhance productivity during processing of the job via the raster image processor. RIP performance improvement results by pre-flattening complicatedly designed backgrounds with multiple objects of significantly low relative occupancy.
US09639786B2

A medium stores computer executable programs. The programs cause an information processing apparatus being capable of data communication with an image recording apparatus to perform: generating image data of an image to be recorded; in a case of receiving manual double-sided printing instruction based on the generated image data, transmitting first image data of an image to be recorded on a first surface of a recording medium, together with a recording instruction based on the first image data and identification information to the image recording apparatus; and transmitting second image data of an image to be recorded on a second surface opposite to the first surface of the recording medium, together with a recording instruction based on the second image data and the same identification information as that transmitted with the first image data to the image recording apparatus, after transmitting the first image data.
US09639783B2

Systems, apparatuses, and methods to relate images of words to a list of words are provided. A trellis based word decoder analyses a set of OCR characters and probabilities using a forward pass across a forward trellis and a reverse pass across a reverse trellis. Multiple paths may result, however, the most likely path from the trellises has the highest probability with valid links. A valid link is determined from the trellis by some dictionary word traversing the link. The most likely path is compared with a list of words to find the word closest to the most.
US09639769B2

An image of a portion of a person's body is accessed, the image having been captured by an image capture device. Using the image, measurements of characteristics in the image are obtained, the characteristics in the image having been selected based on a statistical analysis of characteristics (i) in a plurality of first images taken directly of a person and (ii) in a plurality of second images taken of an image of a person. Based on a liveness function, a score for the image is determined using the obtained measurements of the characteristics in the image. A threshold value is accessed. The score of the image is compared to the accessed threshold value. Based on the comparison of the score of the image to the accessed threshold value, the image is determined to be have been taken by the image capture device imaging the portion of the person's body.
US09639767B2

For context-aware handwriting recognition for input fields, an apparatus, system, method, and computer program product are disclosed. The apparatus may include a processor, a handwriting input unit operatively coupled to the processor, a display operatively coupled to the processor, a field metadata module that obtains metadata related to an input field, a field type module that identifies a field type of the input field associated with the handwriting input based on the metadata, and a recognition tuning module that adjusts a handwriting recognition engine based on the field type. Adjusting the handwriting recognition engine may include increasing a weight given to text having particular characteristics, based on the field type. Obtaining the metadata related to an input field may include querying an application for properties of the input field and/or identifying text adjacent to the input field.
US09639766B2

An image monitoring system that efficiently utilizes a network band and decrease the processing load of a server is provided. A second image decision processor analyzes an extracted image transmitted from a monitoring terminal, and evaluates the quality (reliability) of the extracted image. A reliability decision unit outputs an individual ID of the analyzed extracted image to a load estimation unit when the numerical value from the analysis output by the second decision processor becomes less than the preset threshold. The load estimation unit estimates the server processor load of a server and the network load. A resend request unit controls the resend request for an individual ID output from the negative load estimation unit corresponding to the server processor load and the network load.
US09639758B2

A method of processing an image by using an image processing apparatus is provided. The method includes acquiring, by the image processing apparatus, a target image, extracting a shape of a target object included in the target image, determining a category including the target object based on the extracted shape, and storing the target image by mapping the target image with additional information including at least one keyword related to the category.
US09639750B2

Embodiments of the invention include systems, methods, and computer-program products for lifting metadata from financial documents to allow for automated exception processing. As such, allowing for automated decisions for exception processing to systematically be resolved base on matches between lifted metadata. The exceptions may include one or more irregularities such as bad micro line reads, outdated check stork, or misrepresentative checks that may result in a failure to match the check to an associated account for processing. As such, once an exception is identified during the processing the metadata lifted from the document with the exception may be utilized to search financial records at the financial institution to attempt to identify the correct version of the document. Subsequently, the system may correct the irregularity systematically and automatically.
US09639740B2

The present invention provides, in at least one aspect, methods and systems that detect at least one face in at least one digital image, determine and store area co-ordinates of a location of the at least one detected face in the at least one digital image, apply at least one transformation to the at least one detected face to create at least one portrait of the at least one detected face, rotate the at least one portrait at least until the at least one portrait is shown in a vertical orientation and a pair of eyes of the at least one face shown in the at least one portrait are positioned on a horizontal plane; and store the rotated at least one portrait.
US09639731B2

A compact optical arrangement splits the field of view of an upwardly-looking imager into a plurality of intersecting subfields along which return light from a target passes through and past an upright window to the imager. A top mirror is positioned along a vertical axis directly above the imager. Overhead mirror portions located between the imager and the top mirror are spaced radially apart to enable the return light reflected by the top mirror to bypass the overhead mirror portions and pass unobstructedly directly to the imager along a central subfield. A plurality of side fold mirrors reflects the return light passing through the upright window to the overhead mirror portions. The overhead mirror portions are positioned apart to enable the return light reflected by the side fold mirrors to pass to the imager along a pair of outer subfields.
US09639722B2

An object management system that includes at least one object identification device to be secured to an associated object. The object identification devices provide radio frequency signals containing object identification codes. The system includes at least one user identification device providing a radio frequency signal containing a user identification code and a control unit having a reader for receiving and reading the signals provided by the user identification devices and the object identification devices. One aspect provides a remote unit that communicates directly with the control unit to receive information associated with a condition of the object management system at a location remote from the control unit. The remote unit is further configured to be carried by a user and configured to communicate information and/or an alert to the user, wherein the information and/or the alert is associated with the condition of the object management system.
US09639715B2

This disclosure describes systems and method for preventing the transfer of ‘user-identifiable information’ from a client device while collecting telemetry data that is relevant to features of an operating system or computing application. In various examples, telemetry data is gathered to monitor the performance or use of an operating system or computing application. The process of collecting telemetry data can involve capturing data associated with files that are not directly associated with the operating system or computing application that is being monitored. This disclosure presents techniques that use a cryptographic hash function to prevent user identifiable information from being revealed in file attributes during the process of collecting telemetry data. A user's privacy is protected by the computational impracticability of recreating the original filename from the hash value.
US09639712B2

A method for providing hierarchal client entitlement information in a graphical user interface (“GUI”) is provided. The method includes deploying the information on a mobile platform. The method may further include inventorying a list of possible landing sites for deploying the mobile platform and determining which of the inventoried landing sites requires, upon deployment, a connection to an Oracle database. The method may further include eliminating any member of the list of possible landing sites that requires, upon deployment, a connection to the Oracle database from the list of possible landing sites. Following the eliminating, the method may include providing a user, via the GUI, a selection capability to select one of the list of possible landing sites as a default landing site for the deploying the mobile platform.
US09639707B1

A method comprising the steps of receiving a data object, obfuscating the meaning of at least a portion of the data and transmitting the data to a second processor-controlled device. In some embodiments the data may be formatted as either a spreadsheet or an XML file and the obfuscation process may operate on the elements and the attributes of the XML file. The obfuscating may include replacing meaningful data with identifiers before transmitting them to another client device or a server. In response, the other client device or server may operate on the data and return it, or optionally return code or applets to be executed on the client device. Some embodiments allow for a server or other client device to access remote resources for use when processing the data. The client devices may be cellular telephones or other smart devices including portable computers and tablets.
US09639705B1

Large volumes of data to be securely imported to, and exported from, a data storage service or other such location in a secure manner without a customer having to manage keys or encryption. A data management component can execute on a client device that can identify data to be stored and obtain the appropriate key for encrypting the data. Once the data is encrypted, the data can be transmitted to the data storage service. When the data is received to the data storage service, an ingestion station reads the encrypted data and causes the encrypted data to be stored to the data storage service. The data remains encrypted from the client device through being stored to the data storage service. When a request for the data is received, access to the key can be obtained and the data decrypted and returned in response to the request.
US09639703B2

A method for automatically mitigating vulnerabilities in a source code of an application is provided in the present invention. The method includes the following steps. First, the source code is complied, and a path graph is built according to the compiled source code. The path graph includes a plurality of paths traversing from sources to sinks, and each of the paths includes a plurality of nodes. Then, at least one tainted path is identified by enabling a plurality of vulnerability rules. Each of the at least one tainted path corresponds to a vulnerability, and each of the at least one vulnerability corresponds to a sanitization method. Then, the at least one vulnerability is determined if it is mitigable. If the at least one vulnerability is mitigable, the at least one vulnerability is mitigated automatically. Furthermore, the method may be implemented as a system and a computer program product.
US09639696B1

A method and apparatus for analyzing end user license agreements and taking action based on the analysis outcome. In one embodiment, the method includes sensing initialization of an installable software program installation, extracting a EULA from the installable during installation, pausing presentation of the EULA to a user, providing a database of suspect terms, analyzing whether a suspect term exists in the EULA, and presenting at least one of the EULA or a suspect term to the user.
US09639689B1

There is disclosed a technique for use in authentication. The technique comprises selecting an authentication challenge when an authentication request is deemed risky. An attack threat determined to be associated with the authentication request acts as a decision factor in the selection of the authentication challenge such that a biometric challenge is selected in the event that the attack threat describes a stolen device and an out-of-band challenge is selected in the event that the attack threat describes a stolen identification credential.
US09639675B2

Removing high level logic structure from a source program. Two or more source program fields are characterized by their respective value characteristics. A first field is mapped, with respect to the source program, to a second field having similar value characteristics as the first field. A target program is then created by replacing, in the source program, the first field with the second field and replacing each first field value with a corresponding second field value thereby preserving the value characteristics of the source program.
US09639671B2

Provided are facilities for secure execution of an encrypted executable comprising an encrypted instruction. The secure execution includes obtaining the encrypted instruction, decrypting the encrypted instruction using a decryption key being maintained in a secure location within a processor, and storing the decrypted instruction to a secure storage for execution, where the decryption key remains in the secure location during the decrypting and the storing to facilitate maintaining security of the decryption key.
US09639667B2

Reference intervals are established and/or validated based on existing clinical data and exclusion criteria, such as diagnosis coding. A Reference Interval Test Engine is designed to statistically analyze large volumes of existing clinical lab test results to establish and evaluate reference intervals for specific population subgroups and/or to provide other applications.
US09639663B1

An embodiment provides a method of graphically displaying room information, including: displaying, on an electronic device, a matrix having a plurality of cells therein, at least one cell displaying hospital room information regarding room availability and patient occupancy in the room; said matrix displaying the plurality of cells in column form; and displaying, responsive to a user interaction with a cell in the matrix of a patient occupied hospital room, an overlay window having secondary room status information therein comprising patient specific information regarding the status of the hospital room.
US09639660B2

Disclosed are data processing and analysis methods for gene expression data for identifying endogenous reference genes and a composition for the quantitative analysis of gene expression, comprising a pair of primers and/or probes useful in amplifying the identified endogenous reference genes. Introduced with the concepts of “Zero's proportion” and CV, the method allows different datasets to be integrally analyzed, thereby searching for novel reference genes. By the method, 2,087 genes are first found as housekeeping genes which are expressed in most tissues, and the usefulness thereof in the relative quantification of different target genes is determined by analyzing their expression stability. Of the 2,087 genes, 13 genes show higher expression stability with lower expression levels across a wide range of samples than traditional reference genes such as GAPDH and ACTS, and therefore are suitable for the normalization of universal genes having relatively low expression levels.
US09639656B2

A machining simulation device includes a local-region setting unit that sets a local region for a workpiece, an offset-deformation processing unit that offsets and deforms a shape of a part of a whole three-dimensional shape model of the workpiece, for which the local region is set, and generates a local three-dimensional shape model of the workpiece, a local tool-movement-data output unit that outputs local tool movement data from whole tool movement data based on a tool model and movement path data of a tool, a local cutting-deformation processing unit that cuts and deforms the local three-dimensional shape model of a workpiece based on the local tool movement data, and a display superimposing unit that superimposes the cut and deformed local three-dimensional shape model of the workpiece on the whole three-dimensional shape model of the workpiece, and displays the superimposed result.
US09639653B2

A method is described for checking a hardware-configurable logic circuit including circuit areas and including a configuration memory having different subareas for faults, a respective configuration of hardware elements of one of the circuit areas being defined by configuration data stored in an associated subarea of the configuration memory, and when at least one checking requirement in regard to an output signal which is provided by the hardware-configurable logic circuit is met, a fault check of the configuration data being carried out only in those subareas of the configuration memory of the hardware-configurable logic circuit which are involved in generating the output signal.
US09639652B2

A system, method and computer program product for implementing a quiescent current leakage specific model into semiconductor device design and circuit design flows. The leakage model covers all device geometries with wide temperature and voltage ranges and, without the need for stacking factor calculations nor spread sheet based IDDQ calculations. The leakage model for IDDQ calculation incorporates further parasitic and proximity effects. The leakage model implements leakage calculations at different levels of testing, e.g., from a single device to a full chip design, and are integrated within one single model. The leakage model implements leakage calculations at different levels of testing with the leverage of a single switch setting. The implementation is via a hardware definition language code or object oriented code that can be compiled and operated using a netlist of interest, e.g., for conducting a performance analysis.
US09639649B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a core section, a corner area adjacent section, a first circuit block and a second circuit block, and multiple wiring layers. The corner area adjacent section is arranged adjacently to a corner area positioned in a corner of the core section adjacently to the sense amplifier and the row decoder. The multiple wiring layers are provided in each of the first circuit block and the second circuit block, wherein a first wire in one of the multiple wiring layers in the first circuit block is arranged parallel to a second wire included in a wiring layer in the second circuit block which is the same as the wiring layer of the first wire.
US09639638B2

Numerical simulation techniques of physical behaviors of a string drawn out of a yarn feeder in a weaving/braiding machine are disclosed. A FEA model, representing a string having a source end at yarn feeder and a braiding end towards braiding/weaving operations, contains at least one truss element with a leading element directly connected to the source end at which pull-out force of the yarn feeder is predefined. Maximum and minimum lengths of a truss element are predefined for facilitating local remeshing. Simulated physical behaviors of the string are obtained by performing a time-marching simulation using the FEA model with the FEA application module having local remeshing capability. Simulated physical behaviors include axial forces in each truss element of the FEA model and the string's deformed geometry. Local remeshing is used for updating the computerized model by creating new leading element that satisfies consistent realistic condition, when local remeshing becomes necessary.
US09639636B1

Systems and methods of automating parallelization kernel selection in distributed simulations are discussed herein. Techniques disclosed pertain to attempting execution of all runs or representative run sets on an external simulation kernel and monitoring for failures, with a threshold amount of failures prompting simulation run completion on an internal simulation kernel. Further techniques pertain to performing static analysis on a model simulation job to determine an appropriate simulation kernel.
US09639635B2

A footwear digitization system and method configured to determine physical attributes for any given footwear or other cut-and-stitched item, including dimensional and spatial properties, optical attributes, and assembly information, and utilizing those properties and attributes to generate a digital three-dimensional model thereof. The invention relates generally to the field of garment digitization, and the subsequent production of computer-generated images depicting the (digitized) garment at a level of quality comparable to studio photographs of the real garment article.
US09639620B1

Provided in the present disclosure is a fingerprint bookmark system which may be implemented in a vehicle with one or more configurable interior settings. The fingerprint bookmark system may contain a scanner which may be configured to record a fingerprint from a vehicle occupant such that a fingerprint image showing the fingerprint and a duration data for the fingerprint image are recorded by the scanner. The system may contain one or more processors which may be configured to compare the duration data associated with the fingerprint image with a duration threshold. The one or more processors may be configured to initiate a search to obtain a bookmark for the fingerprint shown in the fingerprint image when the duration data is less than the duration threshold. The one or more processors may be further configured to create a new bookmark when the duration data exceeds the duration threshold.
US09639613B2

Methods, systems, and products self-identify an electronic device to a remote control. The remote control queries the electronic device, and the electronic device sends a response. A collision avoidance mechanism allows difference devices to respond to the remote control.
US09639594B2

A data model for managing identity and access management (IAM) data implemented at an electronic database may include a set of logical resource elements, a set of physical resource elements, and a set of access requests elements that respectively model logical resources, physical resources, and access requests received at an access request manager of an enterprise. The physical resource elements may be respectively associated with the logical resource elements such that access rights for the physical resources may be obtained based on a logical resource specified in the access request. A system for managing IAM may include a mapping module configured to transform heterogeneous IAM data provided by a plurality of IAM data sources into homogeneous IAM data formatted according to the common IAM data format. A data store may implement the IAM data model such that the data store is configured to store the homogeneous IAM data.
US09639585B2

A computer system for calculating a quantity from a set of input values. The computer system comprises a database that is configured to store a sequence of first input values xn wherein n=1, 2, . . . i, wherein for any value of n, xn lies between xn+1 and xn−1 in the sequence. Each value of x has associated with it a second input value yn, a conversion value pn that is calculated from yn according to a conversion algorithm, and an output value zn, wherein zn=zn−1+pn. The database is configured to store the plurality of output values zn.
US09639584B2

The present invention relates to a system and method for pre-processing the data and storing the pre-processed data based on its type at the time of storage. During the pre-processing time, the system extracts all the relevant information such as entities, events/time stamped data, domain specific associations from the received content and stores them separately in a different data store. The system also generates different views based on the correlation between the identified entities, events and domain specific associations using data folding techniques. The system also stores the created views in a separate data store such as a view store, wherein the view store is optimized to serve end user queries by traversing through the stored views.
US09639576B2

A database management system (DBMS) generates a query execution plan including information representing one or more database (DB) operations necessary for executing a query, and executes the query in accordance with the query execution plan. In the execution of the query, the DBMS dynamically generates tasks for executing the DB operations and executes the dynamically generated tasks. The query execution plan includes a plurality of query blocks, which are sets of one or more DB operations. When newly generating a task, the DBMS executes determination processing of simultaneous-task-generation number. The determination processing of simultaneous-task-generation number is to calculate, targeting each of the query blocks, the number of simultaneous task generation, which is the number of tasks simultaneously generatable as tasks for executing the query block. The number of the dynamically generated tasks is equal to or smaller than the number of simultaneous task generation.
US09639574B1

An apparatus for conducting a hierarchical join on a hierarchically clustered data stream is disclosed. The apparatus may include a memory storing query conditions that each determine whether a Structured Query Language query is suitable for performing a non-buffering read operation on a hierarchical data storage. A processor in communication with the memory may be configured to receive a Structured Query Language (“SQL”) query from a client device and evaluate the SQL query for one or more of the query conditions stored in the memory. When the processor determines that the SQL query satisfies one or more of the query conditions, the processor may then perform a non-buffering read operation on the hierarchical data storage to obtain a hierarchically clustered data stream. The hierarchically clustered data stream may be evaluated to obtain a plurality of record results, which may be transmitted to the client device.
US09639573B2

A computer-implemented method for optimizing a queue of queries for database efficiency is implemented by a controller computing device coupled to a memory device. The method includes receiving a plurality of database queries at the computing device from at least one host, evaluating the plurality of database queries to determine a resource impact associated with each database query of the plurality of database queries, prioritizing the plurality of database queries based upon a set of prioritization factors and the resource impact associated with each database query, and submitting the prioritized plurality of database queries to a database system for execution. The database system executes the plurality of database queries in order of priority.
US09639566B2

A method, computer program product and apparatus provide an improved data structure for storing key-value pairs. The data structure comprises six arrays. The method, computer program product and apparatus provide for efficient searching, adding, removal, and iteration of elements. The data structure utilizes a scaled hash code and may store multiple values associated with a same scaled hash code. The required memory is allocated at the time of instantiation, resulting in improved performance. An insertion time of a new key-value pair is a linear function of the total number of key-value pairs.
US09639564B2

In some examples, a plurality of content properties may be used for managing indexing of object data, such as a plurality of files. Each content property may include an expression for extracting data values from specific data fields in the object data. Further, each content property may include a name that may be used for indexing the objects using the extracted data values. For instance, multiple content properties may have the same name, but may each have different expressions for extracting different data values from different data fields. Accordingly, the content properties may be used to extract desired data values from the objects for indexing. When a search query is received including a content property name and a specified value, one or more of the objects that are indexed with the specified value may be searched.
US09639562B2

A method, apparatus, and system for automatically determining an optimal database subsection is provided. A database subsection is selected to optimize certain benefits when the database subsection is translated, transferred, and cached on an alternative database system, which may utilize a different technology or database engine that provides certain performance benefits compared to the original database system. Algorithms such as multi-path greedy selection and/or dynamic programming may provide optimal or near-optimal results. A host for the alternative database server may be shared with or otherwise located in close physical proximity to improve latency for a database application or client layer. Once the database subsection analysis is completed, a report may be generated and presented to the user, and an implementation script may also be created to automatically configure a client host to function as a cache or replacement system according various cache size configurations described in the report.
US09639561B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to collect one or more user-generated comments from each of a plurality of computing devices, detect a correlation in the one or more user-generated comments collected from the plurality of computing devices, and establish a social network between the plurality of computing devices according to the detected correlation. The one or more user-generated comments can be temporally associated with media content presented at the plurality of computing devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09639560B1

A first command may be received from a client computing platform. The first command may include a proxy image. The proxy image may represent an image stored on the client computing platform. An identifier may be associated with the proxy image. The identifier may be transmitted to the client computing platform. The identifier may be associated with the image stored on the client computing platform. Edits to the image based upon the proxy image may be determined at a remote computing platform. Instructions may be transmitted from the remote computing platform to the client computing platform. The instructions may include the identifier. The instructions may be configured to cause the client computing platform to process the edits on the image.
US09639544B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for a distributed parallel processing database system that persists table data in memory to a distributed file system. A distributed parallel processing database system persists table data in memory to a distributed file system. A parameter of creating a database table specifies that data records in the database table and history of changes to the data records can be stored in memory as well as in the distributed file system. When the database table is populated or otherwise modified, data records and the history in memory are evicted to the distributed file system as log files and removed from memory. The log files can be designated as write-only, where the data records, once written, cannot be read by structured query language (SQL) queries, or as read-write, where the data records, once written, can be read by SQL queries.
US09639543B2

The subject disclosure is directed towards a data deduplication technology in which a hash index service's index and/or indexing operations are adaptable to balance deduplication performance savings, throughput and resource consumption. The indexing service may employ hierarchical chunking using different levels of granularity corresponding to chunk size, a sampled compact index table that contains compact signatures for less than all of the hash index's (or subspace's) hash values, and/or selective subspace indexing based on similarity of a subspace's data to another subspace's data and/or to incoming data chunks.
US09639542B2

A text file is received. The text file is arranged in an extensible format and includes a plurality of metadata lines, a header line, and a plurality of content lines. Keys are retrieved from the content lines. For each key, a data type and a number from at least one metadata table is retrieved. Using a combination of each key and the corresponding data type and number, a column title is derived. Upon verification that the derived column title does not already exist, a column for each key is generated in a content table having a dynamic structure in a relational database schema. The column has the derived column title, a column type based on the corresponding retrieved data type, and the number of generated columns determined by the corresponding retrieved number. The retrieved value is mapped into the column associated with the corresponding key.
US09639536B2

Multiple playlists can be generated for broadcast or streaming. An aggregate difference representing a difference between the aggregate playout length of the multiple playlists and a target playout length can be determined. If the aggregate difference exceeds a difference threshold, a subsequent time period can be reduced, so a playlist generated for the subsequent time period can be constrained to be shorter. The playlists can be generated based on different versions of a ranking chart or list that includes ranked media items, e.g. songs, videos, etc., by automatically including the highest ranked media items to the playlist, but only adding some of the lower ranked media items to the playlist. Lower-ranked media items can be pseudo-randomly excluded from one or more of the playlists if the media item's rank in a newer version of a ranking chart is lower than its ranking in a previous version.
US09639534B2

A system and method for automating the creation of customized media includes generating media content comprising first metadata associated with the media content, reviewing the media content and the first metadata, applying at least one set of rules to the media content and the first metadata, and generating a customized media output based on the media content, the first metadata and the at least one set of rules.
US09639528B1

The embodiments may be adapted to accommodate a plurality of translations of a source text string into a limited available display area of a visual element in a graphical interface of a client system. Text strings in a source language may be received as input. A list of one or more languages selected for the text string to be translated into may also be received as input. The system may then be configured to obtain translations of the text string in the selected languages, to provide a set of translation vectors, and to calculate a minimum display area necessary for a visual element to display the longest translation of the translations contained in the translation vector. The display area of the visual element may then be adjusted to encompass the minimum display area so that the longest translation fits within the display area of the visual element.
US09639526B2

Techniques are described for improving language translation of content (e.g., web content) on computing devices (e.g., mobile computing devices). For example, automatic translation can be performed when entering reading view in association with displayed web content by determining that the displayed web content is not in a language that is understood by the user (e.g., as indicated by language settings). As another example, language-related meta-data can be passed between applications and used in language detection of content, such as web content.
US09639523B2

A method for processing natural language includes generating a first layer of a multi-layer knowledge network including a plurality of word nodes arranged to represent a word or an entity name, generating a second layer of the multi-layer knowledge network with a natural language dataset, the second layer including one or more instance nodes arranged to represent a word or an entity of the natural language dataset, each of the instance nodes being linked by one or more semantic or syntactic relations to form one or more sub-graphs, and, referencing the first layer of the multi-layer knowledge network with the second layer of the multi-layer knowledge network by establishing a reference between each of the word nodes and each of the instance nodes when the word or the entity name represented by each word node is associated with the word or the entity represented by the instance node.
US09639522B2

Methods and apparatus related to determining an edit rule based on a plurality of edits. Some implementations are directed to identifying the plurality of edits in one or more documents and determining an edit rule based on the pre-edit and post-edit phrases of the edits. Some implementations are directed to identifying the edits from one or more mature documents. The determined edit rule may be utilized to determine one or more candidate rephrasings of a subsequent phrase.
US09639518B1

In some implementations, text is extracted from a digital work and proper nouns are identified in the text to generate a list of names. The list of names may be sorted so that names containing more information are positioned toward the beginning of the list. The list may be traversed to cluster names and alternate names into name sets that correspond to particular entities in the digital work. Non-unique names that appear in more than one name set may be disambiguated based on proximity to unique names in the same name sets to determine which occurrences of the non-unique names belong with which name sets. Furthermore, a representative name may be selected from among multiple names in a name set for use in representing an entity or object corresponding to the name set. In some examples, the representative name may be selected based on a fullness of the name.
US09639517B2

The present invention improves application of a style to a view object when a document for a Web page to be edited is edited on a browser-type edit screen. First, a view object is detected from a managed document. Then, a direct style directly described in the managed document and an indirect style identified only by referring to an external document are collected. A browser-type edit screen is generated in which the direct and indirect styles are applied to each view object. The content of the managed document is synchronized with the edited content on the browser-type edit screen based on the editing operations on the browser-type edit screen.
US09639513B2

A system for presenting and executing a multiplicity of interactive forms as a single document includes a server having one or more copies of a multi-form package and configured to deliver a copy of the package to a requesting device upon request. The system also includes a client computing device configured to request and receive the multi-form package, the first computing device including an application program and a multi-form document engine configured to receive commands from the application program and, in response, cause forms from the multi-form package to be presented and executed.
US09639508B2

Systems and methods for providing a contextual user interface element are provided. A described system includes a user device configured to receive, from a remote server, itinerary-specific data relating to a particular travel itinerary and information for accessing a travel website for performing a travel-related action. The user device is configured to present the itinerary-specific data in a contextual user interface element on the user device concurrently with a web page of the travel website for performing the travel-related action. The itinerary-specific data are presented as selectable data elements within the contextual user interface element. The user device is configured to receive a user selection of a selectable data element and to execute instructions for copying the itinerary-specific data from the contextual user interface element to a form field of the travel website in response to the user selection.
US09639503B2

An example method for placing one or more element data values into an output vector includes identifying a vertical permute control vector including a plurality of elements, each element of the plurality of elements including a register address. The method also includes for each element of the plurality of elements, reading a register address from the vertical permute control vector. The method further includes retrieving a plurality of element data values based on the register address. The method also includes identifying a horizontal permute control vector including a set of addresses corresponding to an output vector. The method further includes placing at least some of the retrieved element data values of the plurality of element data values into the output vector based on the set of addresses in the horizontal permute control vector.
US09639501B1

Systems and techniques relating to processing of network communications include, according to an aspect, a network device that includes circuitry configured to receive value bits selected from a group consisting of a zero bit, a one bit, and a don't care bit; and circuitry configured to store encoded representations of the value bits for use in network packet routing, wherein the encoded representations are position bits selected from a group consisting of a zero bit and a one bit; wherein the circuitry configured to store includes a first memory location and a second memory location that each eliminate a different combination of the value bits from being available for storage respectively in the first memory location and the second memory location.
US09639496B2

A system and method for mounting multiple devices on an SLR enable information handling system is disclosed herein. A drive-letter may be assigned to a first user session in a first user session namespace only. A second user may have access to the same drive-letter as the mounting of drive-letters is specific to each specific user session and not the global namespace. A symbolic link is created for each assigned drive-letter and the corresponding drive-letter in the global namespace is deleted allowing for more than the standard mounting of only twenty-six different devices.
US09639492B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for notifying a virtual machine of an expander coupled to a first virtual root bus, probing the expander to detect an additional root bus, probing the additional root bus to detect a second device, and assigning the second device to a second virtual root bus of the virtual machine.
US09639491B2

A connection interface switching device for multiple portable devices provides a communication channel between an I/O peripheral set and for a plurality of portable devices which are bundled with a default control program installed in the portable devices, and switches among the portable devices to establish a communication channel selected between one portable device and the I/O peripheral set according to a switch instruction generated by the default control program of the portable device. The connection interface switching device includes plural I/O ports, a controller, a memory module, a storage module and an I/O peripheral port, and an origin of the computer signal is controlled and switched to achieve the effect of sharing the same I/O peripheral set among multiple portable devices through the communication channel.
US09639481B2

Systems and methods for managing records stored in a storage cache are provided. A cache index is created and maintained to track where records are stored in buckets in the storage cache. The cache index maps the memory locations of the cached records to the buckets in the cache storage and can be quickly traversed by a metadata manager to determine whether a requested record can be retrieved from the cache storage. Bucket addresses stored in the cache index include a generation number of the bucket that is used to determine whether the cached record is stale. The generation number allows a bucket manager to evict buckets in the cache without having to update the bucket addresses stored in the cache index. In an alternative embodiment, non-contiguous portions of computing system working memory are used to cache data instead of a dedicated storage cache.
US09639480B2

The configuration of a cache is adjusted within a computer system that includes at least one entity that submits a stream of references, each reference corresponding to a location identifier corresponding to data storage locations in a storage system. The reference stream is spatially sampled using reference hashing. Cache utility values are determined for each of a plurality of caching simulations and an optimal configuration is selected based on the results of the simulations.
US09639459B2

A storage system receives an anticipatory write command corresponding to a potential subsequent write command to be received by the storage system, wherein the anticipatory write command indicates an anticipated region of logical address space that may be written to by the potential subsequent write command. The storage system determines that physical storage is not allocated to the anticipated region of logical address space. The storage system allocates physical storage to the anticipated region of logical address space from a pool of available storage managed by the storage system. The storage system creates an association between the anticipated region of logical address space and the allocated physical storage in a virtual-to-physical mapping.
US09639454B2

A computer-readable recording medium storing therein a test data generating program to be executed by a computer, the program causing the computer to: generate, for each of a plurality of path conditions obtained by repeatedly performing symbolic execution, a simplified path condition by substituting a fixed value for a first symbolic variable included in the path condition; calculate, for each the simplified path condition, a value of the symbolic variable that satisfies the simplified path condition; generate test data including the values of the symbolic variable, the fixed values, and path conditions not subjected to simplification; and remove duplicative data from the test data that corresponds to a same path condition.
US09639448B2

An upgrade procedure for an application system without downtime is presented. The upgrade procedure includes a mix of a rolling upgrade of application servers, shadow systems, and record and replay mechanisms that employ transformation and locking, for the upgrade of the applications on the application system. Application servers are upgraded one after another. A target version of the system is simultaneously added to the original system and a shadow, or target, system. Data changes are not only carried out in the original system, but are also carried out in the target system, so that a customer realizes no downtime for their data requests to the applications.
US09639442B2

This embodiment relates to software verification and in particular to automatic generation of Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC) tests scenarios. A system and method for reducing Modified Condition/Decision coverage (MC/DC) test scenarios is described along with selection of test data automatically for an input Boolean expression. An MC/DC test case engine generates optimal test case for a Boolean expression using an algorithm. The optimal minimal number of MC/DC cases generated to for satisfy the MC/DC condition for ‘n’ number of inputs may be ‘n+1’. The MC/DC test engine supports Boolean expression with Arithmetic and Comparison operators. The MC/DC test engine supports Boolean expression with no limitation on number of input variables.
US09639427B1

To back up data stored in a distributed database system, a backup utility is configured with information regarding locations of data stored in the distributed database system having a plurality of nodes. The backup utility retrieves, based on the information regarding locations of data stored in the distributed database system, backup data from the plurality of nodes for backup storage.
US09639425B1

The present disclosure describes methods and apparatus for implementing a signature-based sleep recovery operation flow for booting a system-on-chip (SoC). When the SoC begins its normal boot flow, a controller retrieves a sleep recovery signature from a register and compares the retrieved sleep recovery signature to a default signature. If the sleep recovery signature matches the default signature, the SoC enters a ROM checksum fail debug flow and, upon satisfying the requirements of the ROM checksum fail debug flow, enters a sleep recovery boot flow, which restores the SoC to the operational state it was in prior to entering the sleep mode. If the sleep recovery signature does not match the default signature, the SoC continues with the normal boot flow or, by use of external pins, can be forced into a normal debug mode flow so that the boot code can be debugged.
US09639422B2

Memory devices having a first plurality of data buffers coupled to sense circuitry, a second plurality of data buffers coupled to sense circuitry, and an error correction controller coupled to the first and second plurality of data buffers and configured to synchronize data from the first and second plurality of data buffers prior to transmitting the data, as well as systems containing such memory devices.
US09639412B1

Some embodiments provide application performance management tools with a service monitor that operates on a number of different mobile devices to track and monitor services that an application is using. In some embodiments, the service monitor stores a log relating to the use of the service each time the application uses the service. The application performance tool also includes an error monitor to detect an application error and report the application error to a performance monitoring server along with one or more logs relating to the use of the service when the error is detected. The performance monitoring server then provides an error report with the one or more logs to assist a developer in diagnosing the cause of the error with the application.
US09639404B2

Software that uses machine logic based algorithms to help determine and/or prioritize an application programming interface's (API) desirability to a user based on how closely the API's terms of service (ToS) meet the users' ToS preferences. The software performs the following steps: (i) receiving a set of API ToS feature information that includes identifying information for at least one API and respectively associated ToS features for each identified API; (ii) receiving ToS preference information that relates to ToS related preferences for a user; and (iii) evaluating a strength of a match between each respective API identified in the API ToS feature information set and the ToS preference information to yield a match value for each API identified in the API ToS feature information set.
US09639400B2

A resource allocation system begins with an ordered plan for matching requests to resources that is sorted by priority. The resource allocation system optimizes the plan by determining those requests in the plan that will fail if performed. The resource allocation system removes or defers the determined requests. In addition, when a request that is performed fails, the resource allocation system may remove requests that require similar resources from the plan. Moreover, when resources are released by a request, the resource allocation system may place the resources in a temporary holding area until the resource allocation returns to the top of the ordered plan so that lower priority requests that are lower in the plan do not take resources that are needed by waiting higher priority requests higher in the plan.
US09639398B1

Burst throttling methods may be used manage computing resources of a data storage service. Tokens may represent I/O operations executed by a customer of the data storage service. A global token bucket may contain a set of tokens representing the overall I/O operation capacity of the data storage service. Additionally, a work token bucket may contain a set of tokens for a given logical volume maintained by the data storage service. When I/O request are received the data storage service may determine if the I/O request is a member of a sequence and removed a reduced number for tokens from the work token bucket as a result. Furthermore, if there is sufficient capacity the data storage service may charge a reduced number of tokens to the work token bucket.
US09639396B2

A data processing system (100) includes a main list (126) of tasks, main scheduling scheme, a starvation list (128) of tasks, and a secondary scheduling scheme. A method identifies tasks in the main list that are potentially-starving tasks and places the potentially-starving tasks in the starvation list. A starvation monitor (130) controls starvation of tasks in the system by determining when to use the secondary scheduling scheme to schedule, for execution on a CPU (132), a highest priority task in the starvation list prior to scheduling, pursuant to the main scheduling scheme, other tasks in the main list. The starvation monitor determines a number of times that a task in the main list is pre-empted, by other tasks in the main list, from being scheduled for execution on the CPU. A counter (131) is incremented each occasion that any task not in the starvation list is executed on the CPU.
US09639395B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for memory requests by a virtual machine. One of the methods includes initiating a migration process to move an application executing on a first device from the first device to a second device by copying pages of data, stored in a memory of the first device and used for the execution of the application, from the first device to the second device while continuing to execute the application on the first device, updating, by the first device, one or more bytes in at least one of the pages of data in response to executing the application on the first device during the migration process, stopping execution of the application on the first device, and copying the updated bytes from the first device to the second device to cause the second device to continue execution of the application.
US09639393B2

A method includes, with a hypervisor, detecting that a virtual processor of a virtual machine has accessed a designated address, the designated address being associated with a time value, causing the virtual processor to enter a halt state for a period of time, and causing the virtual processor to exit the halt state after a period of time has passed, the period of time being based on the time value.
US09639382B2

An interactive intermediate representation (IR) viewer displays a view of the intermediate representation of client side code during a just-in-time compilation of the client side code in a live environment. The interactive IR viewer allows a developer to request the intermediate representation generated during one or more of the phases of the JIT compilation of the client side code. Modifications may be made to the intermediate representation before executable code is generated. The analysis of the intermediate representation during the live environment provides a developer with insight as to how the executable code is being compiled so that improvements may be made to improve the performance of the client side code.
US09639380B2

In one or more embodiments, a system can configure a physical mobile device via configuring a configuration for an emulator of the physical mobile device. For example, a user (e.g., a customer) can request a physical mobile device, and a system can provide the user with an emulation of the physical mobile device, where the user can configure the emulation of the physical mobile device. In one or more embodiments, the user can be provided with the configuration via at least one of a network and a physical delivery of the physical mobile device, configured with the configuration. In one example, the user can execute an emulation of the physical mobile device configured with the configuration, received via the network. In another example, the physical mobile device can be configured with the configuration, and subsequently, the physical mobile device can be physically delivered to the user.
US09639376B2

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment skins can be defined as sets of script files, art files, media files, and text files. These files can be used to create new and different skin appearances, layouts and functionalities. The files are organized for use using a hierarchical tag-based data structure, an example of which is an XML data structure. The data structure is processed to provide an object model. The object model can be a scriptable object model that enables script to execute to provide an interactive, dynamic skin that can respond to internal and external events. In one embodiment, a computer architecture used for rendering the skin includes a layout manager that processes an intermediate representation of the XML data structure to provide the scriptable object model. Various components of the scriptable object model can include a script engine for receiving and executing script, and one or more rendering elements. Each rendering element represents a different skin element and can be individually configured to respond to script via the script engine. The inventive systems and techniques can provide a robust, dynamic skin that can be rendered and re-rendered at runtime. In other embodiments, properties associated with a skin's elements can be synchronized with other skin element properties or state that is associated with a software application. Synchronization can take place through the use of keywords that can be used in connection with the XML data structure. Synchronizations can be one- or two-way synchronizations.
US09639375B2

Described herein is a method and apparatus for generating automatic language bindings. The method includes receiving a request for a first program module in a first language from a second program module in a second language. A binding module is created in the second language in response to the request, where the binding module is generated from debug data of the first program module. The binding module is returned to the second program module. The second program module can then access the functionality of the first program module through use of the functions of the binding module.
US09639374B2

A method and system is provided for optimizing a boot time of a computer system with at least one CPU, in response to a boot command. The system includes memory and a processor. The processor executes instructions stored in the memory to access a task description chart (TDC) comprising essential tasks related to the booting of the system. The TDC is processed offline to create two sets of scheduling charts: an independent task chart (ITC) and a dependent task chart (DTC). The ITC includes all the independent tasks and the DTC includes all the dependent tasks. The DTC is further divided into DTC1 and DTC2. The tasks from all the charts are selected for execution based on priority. The method and system solve the scheduling overhead problem during the boot process, by optimizing the scheduling.
US09639365B2

An indirect branch instruction takes an address register as an argument in order to provide indirect function call capability for single-instruction multiple-thread (SIMT) processor architectures. The indirect branch instruction is used to implement indirect function calls, virtual function calls, and switch statements to improve processing performance compared with using sequential chains of tests and branches.
US09639359B2

Embodiments are described for a method for compiling instruction code for execution in a processor having a number of functional units by determining a thermal constraint of the processor, and defining instruction words comprising both real instructions and one or more no operation (NOP) instructions to be executed by the functional units within a single clock cycle, wherein a number of NOP instructions executed over a number of consecutive clock cycles is configured to prevent exceeding the thermal constraint during execution of the instruction code.
US09639357B2

A processor, apparatus and method to use a multiple store instruction based on physical addresses of registers are provided. The processor is configured to execute an instruction to store data of a plurality of registers in a memory, the instruction including a first area in which a physical address of each of the registers is written. An instruction generating apparatus is configured to generate an instruction to store data of a plurality of registers in a memory, the instruction including a first area in which a physical address of each of the registers is written. An instruction generating method includes detecting a code area that instructs to store data of a plurality of registers in a memory, from a program code. The instruction generating method further includes generating an instruction corresponding to the code area by mapping physical addresses of the registers to a first area of the instruction.
US09639352B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating widened types for computing measures of rework normalized churn. One of the methods includes determining a plurality of commit chains for a software developer. Respective measures of rework churn occurring in each commit chain are calculated. An overall rework factor is computed for the developer using the respective measures of rework churn for each commit chain in the plurality of commit chains for the developer. A measure of rework normalized churn is computed for the developer including adjusting the initial measure of churn by the overall rework factor. Productivity of the developer is quantified relative to one or more other developers using the measure of rework normalized churn for the developer.
US09639350B2

A method relates to identifying, by a processing device, a plurality of source code objects associated with an open source product stored in a version-controlled code repository, determining a first subset of the plurality of source code objects associated with a respective commit identifier indicating that each of the first subset of the plurality of source code objects is committed to the version-controlled code repository, determining a second subset of the plurality of source code objects not associated with any commit identifier of the version-controlled code repository, labeling each of the first subset of the plurality of source code objects as an upstream source code object, and labeling each of the second subset of the plurality of source code objects as a non-upstream source code object.
US09639347B2

Updating a firmware package including receiving an update package for the firmware package, the firmware package including currently installed components supporting one of a plurality of software layers, the update package including update components that correspond to the currently installed components; retrieving information describing a state of the currently installed components; comparing the information describing the state of the currently installed components to information describing a state of the corresponding update components; constructing a revised update package that includes only update components having a state more recent than the state of the corresponding currently installed components; and updating the currently installed components with corresponding update components of the revised update package.
US09639341B2

Methods, systems and computer readable media for generating hardware and software upgrade recommendations for a managed network of devices are described.
US09639335B2

Type inference is used to provide the benefits of static type checking without explicitly declaring type in the source code. Type inference that proceeds in a bottom up direction is augmented by contextual typing that proceeds in a top down direction. Contextual typing types enclosed expressions by associating the type of a directly enclosing expression with the enclosed expression. Object literals, function literals and array literals enclosed in assignment and call expressions, can be contextually typed.
US09639328B2

A fixed-point multiplier providing reduced energy usage dynamically truncates received operands according to the location of computationally important bits in the operands and provides the truncated operands to a reduced width multiplier offering reduced energy usage. Information about the location of the dynamic truncation is used to properly shift the result of the multiplier to provide an approximation of full multiplication of the operands.
US09639325B2

A method for finding a best matching string among a set of strings for a reference string includes representing, for each of the set of strings paired with the reference string, a dynamic programming problem for calculating a final alignment score as a matrix of cells, and calculating a current optimal alignment boundary threshold. The method also includes executing, for each string of the set of strings, a calculation of a prospective final alignment score of a candidate alignment of the each of the set of strings and the reference string for each cell. Based on determining, that prospective final alignment score improves the current optimal alignment boundary threshold, the method includes calculating a final alignment score for the string of the set of strings associated with the cell. Otherwise, the method includes aborting the calculation of a candidate alignment covering the string associated with the cell.
US09639319B2

A display panel and a display device are provided. The display panel comprises a first substrate (1), a first liquid crystal display structure (2) and an organic electroluminescent structure (3); the first liquid crystal display structure (2) and the organic electroluminescent structure (3) are respectively provided at opposite sides of the first substrate (1), the organic electroluminescent structure (3) emits light from both sides; the light emitted from a side facing the first liquid crystal display structure (2) is used as the backlight for the first liquid crystal display structure (2), and the light emitted from a side facing away from the first liquid crystal display structure (2) can be used for displaying or illumination. The display panel is capable of double-sided display or illumination and has a reduced thickness.
US09639318B2

This provides a method, device, and system for sharing image data. When detecting an image being rendered on an image-rendering interface of its rendering application, a first terminal can obtain image information of the image being rendered and location information associated with the image information. The first terminal can transmit a first image data to a server, the first image data including the image information and location information. The server can transmit the first image data to a second terminal which shares images with the first terminal, the second terminal also equipped with an image rendering application. The second terminal can receive the first image data and render an image based on the image information at a location corresponding to the location data on an interface of its image-rendering application. This can facilitate image data sharing among multiple terminals.
US09639315B2

A method includes causing a display by a first device of a user interface containing a visual representation of content accessed from a source remote from the first device. Responsive to a user's selection of a first control associated with the user interface, a hard copy representation of the content is caused to be generated. Responsive to a user's selection of a second control associated with the user interface, an electronic file representation of the content is caused to be communicated to a second device remote from the first device.
US09639313B2

A job control device includes a display, a storage circuit, an execution circuit, a status display, a cancel circuit, a recovery display, and a recovery control circuit. The execution circuit performs a job. The recovery display displays a second operation screen on the display. The second operation screen includes a selection display field and a second input portion. The selection display field selectably displays the cancel jobs stored in the storage circuit. The second input portion is configured to receive a recovery instruction for performing the cancel job selected in the selection display field again. The recovery control circuit causes the execution circuit to perform the cancel job corresponding to the recovery instruction when the recovery instruction is input.
US09639307B2

An information processing system includes first and second information processing apparatuses. The first information processing apparatus transmits a request for status notification to the second information processing apparatus, which transmits a response of the status notification to the first information processing apparatus. The second information processing apparatus transmits a header of the response to the first information processing apparatus when receiving the request for the status notification from the first information processing apparatus, and transmits a part of a body of the response to the first information processing apparatus in response to the occurrence of a status change to be reported in the second information apparatus. The part of the body includes information on the status change. The second information processing apparatus transmits a last part of the body of the response to the first information processing apparatus when the status notification becomes unnecessary.
US09639295B1

Example embodiments of the present invention provide for parallel replication of an IO received by a storage array. Such parallelism provide numerous benefits, including enqueuing the command phase of the write command at the storage array and the replication appliance in parallel, providing data still in memory (i.e., slot) and not destaged to disk, and providing data processing in parallel (e.g., validate checksum, validate data is good, validate internal data structures).
US09639288B2

Various embodiments for data management in a storage grid, by a processor device, are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises directing data Input/Output (I/O) operations from a host to an owning node according to a Logical Block Address (LBA) without a static assignment of ownership, notwithstanding any relationship between the host and the storage grid.
US09639285B2

A Flash-based memory system comprises of a plurality of memory nodes, each memory node comprises a distributed RAID controller agent, a memory controller, and a plurality of memory devices. All the memory nodes are connected in a ring type topology by one or more high-speed serial communication links. More particularly, in each memory node, the RAID controller agent is closely coupled with the memory controller.
US09639280B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing a memory command on a computer system. During operation, a command scheduler executing on a memory controller of the computer system obtains a predicted latency of the memory command based on a memory address to be accessed by the memory command. Next, the command scheduler orders the memory command with other memory commands in a command queue for subsequent processing by a memory resource on the computer system based on the predicted latency of the memory command.
US09639276B2

A request is received over a link that requests a particular line in memory. A directory state record is identified in memory that identifies a directory state of the particular line. A type of the request is identified from the request. It is determined that the directory state of the particular line is to change from the particular state to a new state based on the directory state of the particular line and the type of the request. The directory state record is changed, in response to receipt of the request, to reflect the new state. A copy of the particular line is sent in response to the request.
US09639270B2

A system includes, in a first memory location, a pointer to a next one of the plurality of memory locations and a respective reference counter, in each of respective ones of a plurality of memory locations, a pointer to a next one of the plurality of memory locations, a pointer to a previous one of the plurality of memory locations, and a reference counter, and in a last memory location, a pointer to a previous one of the plurality of memory locations and a respective reference counter, and atomically incrementing and decrementing of a reference counter stored in one of the plurality of memory locations.
US09639269B2

A memory module stores a computing device type-specific parameter for each of a number of different types of computing devices. When the memory module is installed within a computing device, the computing device reads the computing device type-specific parameter for the particular type of computing device, and configures itself to use the memory module according to this parameter. As different types of memory modules become available, they are tested against different types of computing devices to determine the computing device type-specific parameter with which they should be programmed for each type of computing device.
US09639267B2

A computer-implemented user interface method for a computing device is disclosed. The method includes associating each of a plurality of telephone keys with a direction of each key relative to a center of a telephone keypad, receiving a contact from a user of the device at a location on a touchscreen display of a computing device and an input at a direction relative to the location of the user contact, and causing a telephone number to be entered on the computing device based on the direction of each key relative to the center of the telephone keypad corresponding to the direction relative to the location of the user contact.
US09639242B2

When a registration request of an application button is received, an information processing apparatus generates an image for transition if an activation-completed notification is received. If the activation-completed notification is not received, the information processing apparatus generates the image for transition after the activation-completed notification is received.
US09639239B2

The present disclosure describes a dockbar implementation method, device and system, which belong to the field of communications. The method includes: acquiring an interface operation instruction for an application program inside a dockbar; generating a dockbar interface refresh data according to the interface operation instruction; and refreshing an interface of the dockbar according to the dockbar interface refresh data. The device includes an application layer and a logic layer. The present disclosure can realize the dynamicity of the dockbar and improve the flexibility of the dockbar.
US09639234B2

Methods, devices, and non-transitory process-readable storage media automatically configure or reconfigure input mechanisms to provide user inputs to simultaneously-active applications with input mechanisms that conflict. An embodiment method performed by a processor of a computing device may include recognizing that an overlapping control condition exists between simultaneously-active applications when a first control element of a first application and a second control element of a second application are configured to receive respective user inputs via a common input mechanism. When the processor determines that an overlapping control condition exists, available input mechanisms of the computing device may be identified, and one of the identified available input mechanisms may be reconfigured to provide the user inputs for one of the first control element or the second control element while the overlapping control condition exists. When the overlapping control condition no longer exists, the processor may return control inputs to normal configurations.
US09639233B2

The disclosed subject matter provides a digital sign with a video camera. The digital sign and video camera are connected via a communications medium to a central computer. The central computer provides a way of changing the images displayed on the digital sign and of disseminating the video from the video camera either through real time forwarding/viewing or recording the real time video stream and playing back the recorded video to a user. The central computer also provides a user interface where an authorized user, which would normally include an authorized governmental entity, can view the video stream and unilaterally interrupt the normally displayed image (or series of images) with an emergency notification message that would display on the digital sign.
US09639230B2

When using graphical diagrams, cutting and pasting operations may take advantage of predefined relationships to intelligently insert and remove items from the diagram. A text data model may be interpreted sequentially or hierarchically to construct various diagrams. Pasting operations will bring new data into the diagram and data model while conforming the new data to the diagram definition. Cutting operations may cause the data model and diagram to be healed to conform to the diagram definition.
US09639227B2

The electroconductive laminate according to the present invention is obtained by laminating a hard coat layer and an electrically conducting layer on at least one surface of a polycarbonate base. This electroconductive laminate is characterized in that the hard coat layer is formed from a hard coating composition which contains (A) a phenolic novolac acrylate having two or more acrylate groups, (B) an orthophenyl phenol acrylate containing 1-2 mol of an ethylene oxide structure in each molecule and (C) a bisphenol skeleton-containing diacrylate containing 2-4 mol of an alkylene oxide structure having two or three carbon atoms in each molecule.
US09639226B2

A capacitance sensing device can include a reference circuit configured to connect to a reference capacitance, and to generate an electrical reference signal that varies over time according to the reference capacitance and a compare signal; a sense circuit configured to connect to a sense capacitance, and to generate an electrical sense signal that varies over time according to a sense capacitance; a compare circuit having compare inputs coupled to receive the sense signal and the reference signal, and a compare output that provides the compare signal; and a value generation circuit configured to generate an output value corresponding to the compare signal over a predetermined time period.
US09639225B2

A method and circuitry for detecting a touch on a device is provided herein. Touch-sensing circuitry comprises two antennas coupled to two voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). A phase locked loop (PLL) is provided coupled to the VCOs. The PLL compares a VCO output with a frequency source (temperature controlled crystal oscillator (TCXO)), and outputs a tuning voltage (steering voltage) for the VCO that is based on the difference between the VCO frequency and the TCXO frequency. The steering voltages for each VCO are compared, and a decision is made as to whether or not a touch has been made to the antennas. If the antennas have been touched, a location of the touch is determined based on a difference in the steering voltages of the two VCOs.
US09639224B2

A touch panel with fingerprint identification includes a fingerprint identification module disposed in a through hole of a first substrate. The fingerprint identification module and the first substrate are attached to a second substrate.
US09639222B2

The present disclosure is related to a mobile terminal comprising: a touch screen configured to display a plurality of objects, and to generate a proximity signal or a direct touch signal by using an input medium; and a controller configured to display changed sizes of a plurality of selected objects located within a range from the input medium among the plurality of objects according to the proximity signal.
US09639216B2

A touch-control display device is disclosed. The display device includes first, second, and third touch-control structures, a first plate, and a second plate opposing the first plate. The first and second touch-control structures form a capacitive touch-control structure, the third touch-control structure is an electromagnetic touch-control structure, and the first, second and third touch-control structures are respectively disposed on an inner side of the first plate, on an external side of the first plate, and on an inner or external side of the second plate. In addition, the first, second, and third touch-control structures are separated by one or more insulating layers.
US09639213B2

Detecting a location of a touch input is disclosed. Each of a plurality of transmitters coupled to a propagating medium emits a signal that is distinguishable from other signals emitted from other transmitters. The signals from the transmitters are received from at least one receiver coupled to the propagating medium to detect the location of the touch input on a surface of the propagating medium as indicated by an effect of the touch input on each of the distinguishable signals.
US09639203B2

A touch control detection system, a delta-sigma modulator and a modulating method thereof are provided. The delta-sigma modulator includes a quantizer and N integrating units. The quantizer generates a modulating result signal. The integrating units are coupled in series. Each of the integrating receives an input signal, and each of the integrating units receives a plurality of gain parameters, N is a positive integer. The quantizer quantizes a signal on an output end of the Nth stage integrating unit according to an error signal for generating the modulating result signal. A center frequency of a noise transfer function (NTF) of the delta-sigma modulator is adjusted according to the gain parameters, and the gain parameters are determined according to a frequency of the input signal.
US09639202B2

A touch display device is provided to depress the chance that the touch display device generates bubble, mura or similar bad phenomena. The touch display device includes a touch screen (1) and a display panel (2) arranged opposite to each other, and at least two insert-fitting structures (3) located between the touch screen (1) and the display panel (2), and the touch screen (1) and the display panel (2) are connected with each other in an insert-fitting way through the insert-fitting structures (3).
US09639190B2

A display for a refrigerator, which can uniformly form a diffusing area, is provided. The display includes a process unit receiving a variety of operation signals for operating the refrigerator, a front cover provided in front of the process unit and including a pushing portion displaying an input location of a user and a light transmission portion transmitting light, and a diffusion sheet provided in rear of the front cover and uniformly diffusing the light.
US09639189B2

A conductive pattern formation method of the present invention includes a first exposure step of radiating active light in a patterned manner to a photosensitive layer including a photosensitive resin layer provided on a substrate and a conductive film provided on a surface of the photosensitive resin layer on a side opposite to the substrate; a second exposure step of radiating active light, in the presence of oxygen, to some or all of the portions of the photosensitive layer not exposed at least in the first exposure step; and a development step of developing the photosensitive layer to form a conductive pattern following the second exposure step.
US09639187B2

A method and apparatus for determining the speed and/or position of an input device from vibrational signals is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a response spectrum is generated as the input device moves across a surface. Amplitude and frequency data associated with the response spectrum is analyzed to determine the magnitude of the velocity.
US09639183B2

A method is provided to interface an active stylus with a sensor controller, wherein the sensor controller is coupled to a sensor configured to receive input from the active stylus. In the method the sensor controller caches stylus capability information of the active stylus. The stylus capability information includes setting information for inking used by an application program executed to display input from the active stylus on the sensor. The active stylus generates a hash value of the stylus capability information and transmits the hash value to the sensor controller when the active stylus enters a sensing zone of the sensor controller.
US09639179B2

An input device for computing devices that include touch screens. The input device includes an outer housing having an inner surface and an inner shaft. The inner shaft is at least partially received within the outer housing. A nib is operatively coupled to the inner shaft. Providing a first force to the nib causes the inner shaft to contact the inner surface of the outer housing at a first contact point along the outer housing, and providing a second force to the nib causes the inner shaft to contact the inner surface of the outer housing at a second contact point along the outer housing.
US09639176B2

A system for balancing an input device, the system comprising: a spherical device having an outer spherical wall and an inner spherical wall the system further comprising: an internal circuitry module housing internal circuits and positioned in the center of the spherical device and balanced in the center in order hold the spherical device still on a flat surface; a cavity formed between the outer spherical wall and the inner spherical wall; a rheological fluid disposed in the cavity wherein the volume of the rheological fluid is below 50% of the volume of the cavity and such that the weight of the rheological fluid is above the weight of the spherical device without the rheological fluid; wherein al least one of the outer spherical wall and the inner spherical wall comprises a rheological fluid activation means configured to change the state of the rheological fluid; and a rheological fluid activation controller configured to control the rheological fluid activation means in response to occurrence of a predefined condition so that the spherical device may switch between a free rolling state and a fixed state.
US09639173B2

A human interface apparatus comprising the steps of: receiving text input from a user; switching to input mode for pointing location information; receiving input for pointing location information from the user; and switching the human interface apparatus to a text input mode, wherein the text input area and the pointing location information input area have at least a part of the area in common.
US09639166B2

A computer system comprises a hardware interface, a computer-memory device, an update engine, and a posture-recognition engine. The hardware interface is configured to receive depth video of an environment from a camera. The computer-memory device stores a background model of the environment preservable over a reboot of the computer system, the background model including a plurality of trusted coordinates derived from the depth video. The update engine is configured to update the background model, including moving a trusted coordinate to greater depth if an observed pixel is behind the trusted coordinate over a first duration, but retaining the trusted coordinate if the observed pixel depth is in front of the trusted coordinate over the first duration. The posture-recognition engine is configured to recognize posture of a user in front of a background portion of the video, which is bounded by the trusted coordinates of the background model.
US09639165B2

A projection system includes a light emitting apparatus that emits detection light to a detection area for detecting indication positions of indicators, and a projector that detects the indication positions of the indicators in the detection area. The projector includes an imaging portion that captures an image of the detection area, and a position detection portion that detects at least one of an image of light generated by the indicator and an image of the detection light reflected on the indicator from data of a captured image of the imaging portion, and discriminates and detects the indication positions of the indicator and the indicator based on light emission timings of the indicator and the light emitting apparatus.
US09639146B2

A fluid analyzing system comprises an electronic control module and a telematics device. The electronic control module is coupled with an asset. The electronic control module is configured for initiating acquisition of a sample of a fluid of the asset and initiating a microfluidic analysis of the sample in response to occurrence of an analysis trigger. The analysis trigger comprises an operating characteristic of the asset. The telematics device coupled is coupled with both the asset and the electronic control module. The telematics device is configured for wirelessly transmitting results of the microfluidic analysis to an asset management system located remotely from the asset and the telematics device.
US09639142B2

An information processing apparatus is connected to a plurality of input/output devices. The information processing apparatus includes an arithmetic processing device configured to perform a computation, and a plurality of communication devices each configured to perform a communication between the plurality of input/output devices and the arithmetic processing device. The information processing apparatus further includes a determination unit configured to determine a communication device whose power consumption is controllable, among the plurality of communication devices, and a managing unit configured to suppress power consumption of the communication device determined by the determination unit.
US09639133B2

Described is an apparatus which comprises: an input for providing a first voltage signal; a level translator, coupled to the input, to translate the first voltage signal to a second input voltage, the second input voltage having a voltage level higher than a voltage level of the first voltage signal; and an open loop reference core coupled to the level translator, the open loop reference core to receive the second input voltage and to generate an output indicating whether the first voltage signal is above or below a reference level.
US09639128B2

Systems, methods, and computer programs, embodied in or as a memory management module, are disclosed for thermally controlling memory to increase its performance. One exemplary embodiment includes a memory, one or more processors, and a thermoelectric cooling device. The one or more processors access the memory via a memory controller electrically coupled to the memory. The thermoelectric cooling device is configured to thermally control the memory in response to a predicted change in temperature of the memory.
US09639124B2

A carrier includes a frame defining a first space configured to accommodate a first type of hard disk drive, and an adjusting mechanism slidably coupled to the frame. The adjusting mechanism is transitionable between: (i) a first configuration in which the adjusting mechanism is located outside the first space defined by the frame, and (ii) a second configuration in which the adjusting mechanism is located inside the first space, the adjusting mechanism and the frame cooperatively define a second space configured to accommodate a second type of hard disk drive different from the first type of hard disk drive.
US09639122B2

A stretchable display is disclosed. In one aspect, the stretchable display includes a display unit that is stretchable and a rotation member arranged below the display unit and connected to the display unit. The rotation member is configured to tension the display unit. The stretchable display further includes a fixing member arranged below the rotation member and defining a rotation axis. The rotation member is further configured to rotate about the rotation axis so as to tension the display unit.
US09639120B2

A heat dissipation structure of wearable electronic device includes a wearable main body and a wearable strap body connected with the wearable main body. The wearable main body includes a receiving space, a circuit board and multiple electronic components arranged on the circuit board. At least one of the electronic components is a heat source. The wearable strap body has a heat conduction section and a protection section enclosing the heat conduction section. A section of the heat conduction section is exposed to an interior of the receiving space without being enclosed by the protection section. The exposed section of the heat conduction section is in contact with the corresponding heat source on the circuit board so as to greatly enhance the heat dissipation performance of the wearable electronic device.
US09639111B2

The present invention relates to a household appliance (1) comprising a control panel (2), a push-pull type and rotary knob (3) which is disposed to the control panel (2), a casing (5) which is produced from plastic, fixed to the back side of the control panel (2) and which forms a housing for the knob (3), and which has a cylindrical side wall (4), more than one light source (8) which provides the periphery of the knob (3) to be illuminated by emitting light, a printed circuit board (9) whereon the light sources (8) are integrated and a light guide (14) which transmits the light received from the light sources (8) to the periphery of the knob (3).
US09639085B1

A new apparatus and method for determining trajectories for hypersonic glide vehicles significantly reduces integrated, or total, heat load, with little reduction in time to distance and maximum range. The new approach identifies a trajectory having large phugoid oscillations and plotting a glide trajectory along the peaks of the phugoid oscillations. The glide trajectory is determined by calculating a first altitude that results in a maximum lift to drag ratio trajectory having damped or small phugoid oscillations, then calculating a different altitude that results in larger phugoid oscillations, and higher phugoid peaks, and finally plotting a trajectory from the first altitude that follows the peaks of the higher phugoid oscillation trajectory. The thus calculated trajectory can be input into a glide vehicle guidance system for controlling the trajectory of the glide vehicle from a point where it reaches the first altitude.
US09639080B2

A controller for controlling a machine tool and a robot includes a storage unit, configured to store an input machining program including a statement for machine tool and a statement for robot, and a machining program distribution unit configured to transfer the statement for machine tool, out of the statements for machine tool and statements for robot that are included in the stored machining program, to the machine tool control unit and to transfer the statement for robot to the robot control unit.
US09639073B2

An information processing apparatus, article of manufacture and method for discriminating between combined results of a plurality of elements. The apparatus includes: an assigning unit that assigns an element identification value to each of a plurality of basic elements, a generating unit that combines two or more basic elements, among the plurality of basic elements, so as to generate a combined element representing the two or more combined basic elements, and a calculating unit that merges, through an operation corresponding to an element combination method, a plurality of element identification values individually assigned to the plurality of basic elements contained in the combined element so as to calculate one element identification value for the combined element, where two elements are combined by an order-considered or ordered-ignored combination method, the calculating unit merges two corresponding element identification values through an operation where the commutative law holds or does not hold.
US09639070B2

A method for controlling a turbine is proposed, which is characterized at any point in the control by a hidden state. The dynamic behavior of the turbine is modeled with a recurrent neural network comprising a recurrent hidden layer. In this case, the recurrent hidden layer is formed from vectors of neurons, which describe the hidden state of the turbine at the time points of the regulation, wherein two vectors are chronologically linked for each time point with a first connection bridging a time and second connection bridging at least two points in time. Short-term effects can be controlled by means of the first connections and long-term effects can be adjusted by means of the second connections. Secondly, emissions and also occurring dynamics in the turbine can be minimized. Furthermore, a regulating device and a turbine with such a regulating device are proposed.
US09639064B2

A wearable electronic device having an analog display and a digital display. The device may include a receiver for receiving, from a remote source, current time information data representative of a current time; a controller, operatively coupled to the receiver, wherein the controller processes the current time information data received from the remote source and provides for the current time information data to be displayed by the at least one digital indicator on the digital display as the current time; and a an analog time indicator rotating arrangement for causing the rotation of the at least one analog time indicator until the at least one analog time indicator is aligned with the at least one digital indicator; whereby the alignment of the at least one analog time indicator with the at least one digital indicator indicates that the at least one analog time indicator is synchronized with the correct time information.
US09639062B2

Vapor cells and methods for making the same are presented, in which a cell cavity is completely filled with aqueous alkali metal azide solution and the solution is dried at a controlled evaporation rate to substantially maintain edge contact pinning at an interface with the cavity sidewall to promote preferential evaporation in the center and outward capillary flow from an unpinned air-fluid interface toward the sidewall to form crystallized alkali metal material at the sidewall while inhibiting drying of dispersed aqueous solution on a transparent cavity bottom to provide substantially unrestricted passage of light through the cavity for atomic clock and other applications.
US09639060B1

A diving watch assembly includes an internal airtight and waterproof space formed by a housing, an upper cover, a transparent plate and a lower cover, and an air pressure watch core, a water pressure watch core and a dial disc installed in the internal airtight and waterproof space. The air pressure watch core is adapted to drive a first pointer, and the water pressure watch core is adapted to drive the second pointer. The air pressure (air amount) scale and the water pressure (water amount) scale are respectively indicated by the first pointer and the second pointer on the same dial disc.
US09639055B2

An image forming apparatus includes a body casing, a plurality of process cartridges, and a moving member. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum having a rotation axis extending in a first direction. The plurality of process cartridges are configured to move between an engaging position and a release position in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The photosensitive drum and the positioning member engage with each other in the engaging position, and are disengaged from each other releasing the engagement in the release position. The moving member in a pressing position is configured to exert pressure so that the process cartridges are moved to the engaging position. The moving member in the non-pressing position is configured to release the pressure so that the process cartridges are moved to the release position.
US09639053B2

In an image forming apparatus, when a line connecting a midpoint of a line segment connecting a first supporting portion and a second supporting portion and a rotational center of a first photosensitive drum as viewed from a first axial direction of the first photosensitive drum is referred to as a first straight line, and a line connecting a midpoint of a line segment connecting a third supporting portion and a fourth supporting portion and a rotational center of a second photosensitive drum as viewed from a second axial direction of the second photosensitive drum is referred to as a second straight line, the first straight line as viewed from the first axial direction and the second straight line as viewed from the second axial direction are not parallel to each other.
US09639050B2

A method is disclosed in the context of a system comprises an electrophotographic subsystem, a transfer subsystem, an imaging member, and an inking subsystem. The electrophotographic subsystem comprises a photoreceptor, a charging subsystem, an exposure subsystem, and a development subsystem. In operation, the photoreceptor is charged areawise. An exposure pattern is formed by the exposure subsystem on the surface of the charged photoreceptor to thereby write a latent charge image onto the photoreceptor surface. The image is developed with an image definition material, such as a dampening fluid. The image definition material forms a positive pattern of the image to be printed. The image pattern is then transferred to the reimageable surface. The transferred pattern is then developed by selectively applying an ink over regions of image definition material. The inked image may be transferred to a substrate.
US09639043B1

According to one embodiment, a heater includes an elongated substrate; a conductor that is provided on the substrate along a longitudinal direction of the substrate; and a plurality of resistance heating elements which are respectively disposed on the substrate along the longitudinal direction of the substrate, are electrically connected to each other in series by the conductor, and of which each resistance temperature coefficient becomes smaller as the resistance heating elements approach end regions in the longitudinal direction of the substrate.
US09639040B2

A heating device suppresses a bias force toward a center in a longitudinal direction (center in a rotation axis direction) of a fixing film serving as a rotation member, thereby preventing film overlapping and sheet wrinkles. The sliding friction resistance in the rotation axis direction of a fixing film between the fixing film and a protrusion is set so that at least the sliding friction resistance in an end part in the rotation axis direction is larger than the sliding friction resistance in a region closer to a central part in the rotation axis direction than the end part.
US09639034B2

An image forming apparatus includes a carrier that carries a toner image formed by a toner, the toner including a toner body and an external additive, a circularity of the external additive being about 0.5 to about 0.9, a transfer member that holds a transferred body between the transfer member and the carrier, the transfer member transferring the toner image to the transferred body, and a removing member that includes a contact portion, the contact portion contacting the transfer member, the removing member removing toner that adheres to the transfer member from the toner image carried by the carrier, the contact portion being made of an elastic material that satisfies an inequality (1) below: A≧−2.5×B+102  (1) where A denotes a pure water contact angle (°) at 23° C. and 55% RH, and B denotes a 100% modulus (MPa) at 23° C.
US09639029B2

An image forming apparatus includes an accommodation container, a storage medium, and a controller. The accommodation container includes a rotational portion and outflow portion. The rotational portion accommodates a developer therein and has a helical-shaped transport section formed in an inner surface thereof. The outflow portion rotatably supports the rotational portion and has an outflow port through which the developer transported during rotation of the rotational portion flows out. The storage medium stores use state information of the developer accommodated in the rotational portion. The controller controls a driving source which drives the rotational portion. When a use state of the accommodation container for the developer is a use state which is set in advance, the controller intermittently drives the rotational portion by performing driving at a rotation angle of (n+½)π±18 degrees or less than 90 degrees and stopping.
US09639028B2

A container for developer detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus body includes a container body, a discharge member, a resistive member, and a resistance reduction mechanism. The container body contains developer and is rotated when drive is transmitted from the image forming apparatus body. The discharge member supports the container body rotatable relative to the discharge member and has a discharge port through which the developer is discharged. The resistive member is brought into contact with the container body so as to apply resistance to the rotation of the container body. The resistance reduction mechanism changes a contact state between the resistive member and the container body so as to reduce the resistance between the resistive member and the container body when the container is mounted to the image forming apparatus body.
US09639021B2

The image forming system having an image forming apparatus and a charge adjusting apparatus has a decision unit that decides an amount of charge to be applied to a recording sheet from coverages of toner images of both surfaces of the recording sheet, the image forming apparatus has a fixing unit that heats and presses a recording sheet to which a toner image is transferred, thereby fixing the toner image to the recording sheet, and the charge adjusting apparatus has a voltage applying unit that applies a voltage to the recording sheet to which the toner image is fixed by the fixing unit, thereby applying charge with the amount decided by the decision unit to the recording sheet.
US09639014B2

An electrostatic charge image developer includes an electrostatic charge image developing carrier containing a ferrite particle and an electrostatic charge image developing toner containing metallic particles whose resistance is from 1010 Ωcm to 1013 Ωcm in an electric field of 10,000 V/cm, wherein the electrostatic charge image developing carrier satisfies the following formula (1): 0.9≦RB/RA≦1.0 (1), wherein RA represents the resistance of the electrostatic charge image developing carrier in an electric field of 2,400 V/cm, and RB represents the resistance of the electrostatic charge image developing carrier in an electric field of 19,200 V/cm.
US09639011B2

A colorless digital primer for digital printing includes a colorless paste. The colorless paste includes a non-polar carrier fluid, and a resin swollen in the non-polar carrier fluid. The resin is present in the paste in an amount ranging from about 20% (w/w) to about 50% (w/w). A solid polar compound is dispersed in the resin. The solid polar compound is selected from the group consisting of a cellulose microcrystalline powder, dextrin, maltose monohydrate, polyacrylic acid, polyvinyl alcohol, a styrene maleic anhydride copolymer, a bismaleimide oligomer, sucrose, sucrose octaacetate, sucrose benzoate, and combinations thereof. The solid polar compound is present in an amount up to 60 wt. % of solids in the colorless paste.
US09639008B2

A lithography apparatus includes a measuring station that includes a first measuring device configured to measure a height of a substrate holder, and a second measuring device configured to measure a height of a surface of a substrate held by the holder, and a patterning station that includes a third measuring device configured to measure a height of the holder, and patterns the substrate held by the holder based on an output of the second measuring device. The patterning station includes a fourth measuring device configured to measure a height of a surface of a substrate held by the holder. The lithography apparatus includes a controller configured to obtain a correction value for an output obtained from at least one of the first and third measuring devices based on outputs of the second and fourth measuring devices with respect to a substrate held by the holder.
US09639005B2

An imaging catoptric optical unit has at least four mirror, which image an object field in an object plane into an image field in an image plane. A first chief ray plane of the optical unit is prescribed by propagation of a chief ray of a central object field point during the reflection at one of the mirrors. A second chief ray plane of the optical unit is prescribed by propagation of the chief ray of the central object field point during the reflection at one of the other mirrors. The two chief ray planes include an angle that differs from 0. In an alternative or additional aspect, the imaging optical unit, considered via the image field, has a maximum diattenuation of 10% or a diattenuation that prefers a tangential polarization of the imaging light for a respectively considered illumination angle. The result of both aspects is an imaging optical unit in which bothersome polarization influences are reduced during the reflection of imaging light at the mirrors of the imaging optical unit.
US09639002B2

A method of forming a resist pattern including forming a resist film on a substrate using a resist composition which generates acid upon exposure and exhibits changed solubility in a developing solution under action of the acid; exposing the resist film; and patterning the exposed resist film by negative-tone development using a developing solution containing an organic solvent, to form a resist pattern. The resist composition includes a polymeric compound having at least two kinds of specific structural units.
US09639001B2

A system to dynamically configure a conductive pathway and a method of forming a dynamically configurable conductive pathway are described. The system includes a substrate to mechanically support a circuit, and a photosensitive layer disposed on at least a portion of at least one side of the substrate. The system also includes a light source to controllably define the conductive pathway in the photosensitive layer based on photoexcitation of an area of the photosensitive layer corresponding with the conductive pathway, a change in the area photoexcited by the light source facilitating a change in the conductive pathway.
US09639000B2

A position detector (16), configured to detect a position of a mark on an object to be detected, comprises an image pickup unit (34), an optical system, a noise obtaining unit (36) and a correction unit (38). The image pickup unit picks up an image of the object to be detected. The optical system forms an image of the object to be detected on an image pickup surface of the image pickup unit. The noise obtaining unit obtains noise information by picking up an image of a region other than the mark using the optical system and the image pickup unit in accordance with the result of adjustment of an optical member included in the optical system. The correction unit corrects, using the noise information obtained by the noise obtaining unit, the image of the mark obtained using the optical system and the image pickup unit.
US09638999B2

The present invention provides methods of fabricating microelectronics structures and the resulting structures formed thereby using a dual-layer, light-sensitive, wet-developable bottom anti-reflective coating stack to reduce reflectance from the substrate during exposure. The invention provides dye-filled and dye-attached compositions for use in the anti-reflective coatings. The anti-reflective coatings are thermally crosslinkable and photochemically decrosslinkable. The bottom anti-reflective coating stack has gradient optical properties and develops at the same time as the photoresist. The method and structure are particularly suited to high-NA lithography processes.
US09638993B2

The present invention provides a phase-shift mask comprising a light shading region which is covered by a light shading pattern and a light transmission region which is not covered by the light shading pattern, the light shading pattern comprises a symmetrical part and an asymmetrical part provided outside the symmetrical part, wherein, an optical blocking unit is provided in a part of the light transmission region outside the symmetrical part away from the asymmetrical part, so that intensity of light transmitted through the part of the light transmission region provided with the optical blocking unit is reduced. During an exposure process using the phase-shift mask of the present invention, the obtained exposure intensity is more uniform.
US09638984B2

Systems and methods described herein can adjust a search range generated by a camera using depth-assisted autofocus based in part on measuring focus values in a first search range. For example, in some embodiments, a method includes estimating a depth of an object to be captured in an image, determining a first range of lens positions based at least in part on the estimating, moving the lens of the camera to a plurality of lens positions within the first range of lens positions, capturing a plurality of images, the plurality of images being captured at one or more of the plurality of lens positions, generating one or more focus values based on the plurality of images, and determining one or more additional lens positions or a second range of lens positions based at least in part on the one or more focus values.
US09638982B2

Provided area deep ultraviolet non-linear optical crystal of barium borate hydrate, a preparation method therefor and the use thereof. The chemical formula of the crystal is Ba2B11O22H7, belonging to monoclinic system, with the space group thereof being P21, the crystal cell parameters thereof being a=6.7719(10) Å, b=21.1195(4) Å, c=6.8274(10) Å, β=119.3950(10) °, and the molecular weight thereof being 752.65. The non-linear optical crystal of borate is obtained by means of programmed cooling or natural cooling using a hydrothermal method. The crystal powder has a frequency-doubled effect of about 2 times that of KDP (KH2PO4) and an ultraviolet cut-off edge of below 175 nm and can be used as a deep ultraviolet non-linear optical crystal. The growth process of the crystal has advantages such as simple, a low cost, a low toxicity, a short growth cycle, stable physical and chemical properties, etc. The deep ultraviolet non-linear optical crystal of barium borate hydrate Ba2B11O22H7 is widely used in the preparation of non-linear optical devices such as frequency doubling generators, upper frequency converters, lower frequency converters, optical parametric oscillators etc.
US09638981B2

An optical device comprises a first optical coupler configured to receive a light signal and provide a first output and a second output, a first optical waveguide in optical communication with the first output and configured to provide a first optical path for a first portion of the light signal, and a second optical waveguide in optical communication with the second output and configured to provide a second optical path for a second portion of the light signal, wherein the first optical waveguide is configured to provide a phase differential between the first optical path and the second optical path, wherein the second optical waveguide is positioned according to a lateral thermal diffusion length associated with the first optical waveguide, and wherein the lateral thermal diffusion length is a spreading distance of a thermal effect in a direction about perpendicular to the first optical path.
US09638980B2

A modulator including: a Mach-Zehnder modulator that includes an optical waveguide disposed on a substrate, the optical waveguide including an electrode thereon; a resin layer disposed on the substrate, the resin layer embedding the optical waveguide, the resin layer having a groove arranged besides the optical waveguide; a termination resistor disposed on the substrate in the groove of the resin layer; and a first wiring disposed on the resin layer, the first wiring being connected to the termination resistor and the electrode of the optical waveguide.
US09638979B2

The present invention relates to a light control film, comprising:two transparent electroconductive substrates; anda light control layer sandwiched between the two transparent electroconductive substrates,wherein the light control layer contains a resin matrix and a light control suspension dispersed in the resin matrix, and the concentration of the light control suspension in the vicinity of each of the transparent electroconductive substrates is smaller than that of the light control suspension in the middle in the thickness direction of the light control layer.
US09638973B2

An array substrate, a fault line repair method thereof, and a display device are provided. The array substrate includes: a base substrate; a gate line and a signal line which are arranged on the base substrate, adjacent gate lines and adjacent signal lines crossing with each other to define a pixel region; and a pixel electrode located in the pixel region. The array substrate further includes a common electrode corresponding to the pixel electrode. The common electrode includes: a frame; a first strip-shaped connection part arranged in the frame and having both ends thereof connected with the frame; and a second strip-shaped connection part connected with the first strip-shaped connection part in a crossed manner and having both ends thereof disconnected from the frame. The signal line is parallel with the second strip-shaped connection part and located directly above or directly under the second strip-shaped connection part.
US09638963B2

Minimum distances between features in high resolution liquid crystal displays are described. Specifically, minimum distances between a column spacer and contact holes in adjacent pixels are described. Maintaining a minimum distance between a column spacer and a contact hole prevents the column spacer from being unintentionally placed in a nearby contact hole. This unintentional placement can be more likely in high resolution displays due to reduced pixel size.
US09638961B2

A liquid crystal display device includes first and second substrates, liquid crystal layer, and first and second spacer sections. The first substrate has a first surface including a light-shielding region in a lattice form and a plurality of opening regions surrounded by the light-shielding region. The light-shielding region includes a plurality of first extended portions extending in a first direction and a plurality of second extended portions extending in a second direction that intersects the first direction. The first substrate has a plurality of transistors formed thereon. The second substrate has a second surface that is opposed to and spaced from the first surface. The liquid crystal layer is arranged between the first and second surfaces. The first spacer section has long sides oriented in the second direction, and the second spacer section has long sides oriented in the first direction. The spacer sections protrude into the liquid crystal layer.
US09638959B2

The disclosure discloses a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel and an LCD device. The LCD panel comprises a first substrate, a second substrate arranged opposing to the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein alignment film layers are provided on the surfaces of the first and second substrates facing the liquid crystal layer, and concave-convex microstructures are formed on the surfaces of the alignment film layers.
US09638945B2

The invention refers to a technical problem of display device, and discloses a display device. The display device includes a backlight source, a rubber frame provided on the backlight source, a LGP and an optical film layer provided in the rubber frame, and shading bars lapping over the rubber frame and the optical film layer respectively, and further includes a display panel, which contains a display panel border lapping over the rubber frame. In the above technical solution, the rubber frame is used for a supporter to support the display panel. Specifically, the display panel border exposed from the display panel laps over the rubber frame, so that the rubber frame is able to support the border as a supporter when the display panel is pressed.
US09638943B2

An LCD panel, which includes liquid crystal cells, a TFT testing unit, and a gate, source, and drain electrode testing pad, is provided. The TFT testing unit includes three electrode testing wires, each of which has one end connected to a gate, source, or a drain electrode, and the other end connected to a corresponding one of the three electrode testing pads. A manufacture method for the LCD panel is also provided. Electrical measurements of the TFT in the liquid crystal cell is realized.
US09638942B2

A novel phase shifter design for carrier depletion based silicon modulators, based on an experimentally validated model, is described. It is believed that the heretofore neglected effect of incomplete ionization will have a significant impact on ultra-responsive phase shifters. A low VπL product of 0.3 V·cm associated with a low propagation loss of 20 dB/cm is expected to be observed. The phase shifter is based on overlapping implantation steps, where the doses and energies are carefully chosen to utilize counter-doping to produce an S-shaped junction. This junction has a particularly attractive VπL figure of merit, while simultaneously achieving attractively low capacitance and optical loss. This improvement will enable significantly smaller Mach-Zehnder modulators to be constructed that nonetheless would have low drive voltages, with substantial decreases in insertion loss. The described fabrication process is of minimal complexity; in particular, no high-resolution lithographic step is required.
US09638922B2

A line-forming optical system and method are disclosed that form a line image with high-efficiency. A method includes forming a laser beam having a first intensity profile with a Gaussian distribution in at least a first direction and passing at least 50% of the laser beam in the first direction to form a first transmitted light. The method also includes: focusing the first transmitted light at an intermediate image plane to define a second intensity profile having a central peak and first side peaks immediately adjacent the central peak; then truncating the second intensity profile within each of first side peaks to define a second transmitted light; and then forming the line image at an image plane from the second transmitted light.
US09638918B2

A display device includes a display panel having a display surface, an infrared cut filter layer disposed at a display surface side of the display panel, and a polarization layer disposed at a position farther from the display surface than the infrared cut filter layer in such a manner that the polarization layer is in contact with the infrared cut filter layer, the polarization layer having a higher transmittance of infrared light than that of the infrared cut filter layer.
US09638912B2

A method and apparatus for focusing a device for imaging a biologic sample is provided. A method aspect includes the steps of: disposing lenslets within a biologic sample, which lenslets have a height and a refractive index, which refractive index is different from that of the sample, wherein one or both of the imaging device and the sample are relatively locatable so a focal position of the imaging device can be moved along the height of the lenslets; imaging a portion of the sample including lenslets using transmittance at one or more wavelengths; determining an average light transmittance intensity of the sample at the wavelengths; determining an average light transmittance intensity of a region of each lenslet at the wavelengths; and determining the focal position of the imaging device using the average light transmittance intensity of the sample and the average light transmittance intensity of the region of the lenslets.
US09638910B2

The image measurement device includes: a measurement target place specifying part that specifies a measurement target place on a workpiece image based on a user's operation; an illumination condition storage part that holds two or more illumination conditions; an imaging control part that controls a camera and an illumination device to acquire two or more of the workpiece images sequentially photographed while making the illumination condition different; a workpiece image display part that displays the acquired plurality of workpiece images; a workpiece image selecting part that selects any one of the displayed workpiece images; an illumination condition deciding part that decides the illumination condition based on the selected workpiece image; and a dimension calculating part that extracts an edge of the measurement target place based on the workpiece image photographed on the decided illumination condition, and obtains a dimension of the measurement target place based on the extracted edge.
US09638904B2

In a zoom lens including, in order from an object side: a front group including at least one lens unit; a positive lens unit; and a negative lens unit, an interval between the lens units adjacent to each other is changed during zooming, a combined focal length of the front group is negative at a wide angle end, the positive lens unit moves toward the object side during zooming from the wide angle end to a telephoto end, the negative lens unit moves toward the image side during focusing from infinity to proximity at a first zoom position, and during focusing from infinity to proximity at a second zoom position, which is on a telephoto side of the first zoom position, the positive lens unit moves toward the image side, and the negative lens unit moves toward the object side.
US09638901B2

A zoom lens includes, in the order starting from the object side to the side of an image plane, a first lens group having positive refractive power, a second lens group having negative refractive power, a third lens group having negative refractive power, and a fourth lens group having positive refractive power. The fourth lens group includes, in the order starting from the side closest to the image plane to the object side, a first positive lens, a first negative lens, a second negative lens and a second positive lens. The fourth lens group G4 has a configuration that satisfies the following conditional expression (1) when νdP1 represents an Abbe number of the first positive lens L46 and νdN1 represents an Abbe number of the first negative lens L45: −40<νdP1−νdN1<0  (1).
US09638897B2

A five-piece optical lens for capturing image and a five-piece optical module for capturing image, along the optical axis in order from an object side to an image side, include a first lens with refractive power having a convex object-side surface; a second lens with refractive power; a third lens with refractive power; a fourth lens with refractive power; and a fifth lens with negative refractive power; and at least one of the image-side surface and object-side surface of each of the five lens elements are aspheric. The optical lens can increase aperture value and improve the imagining quality for use in compact cameras.
US09638894B2

A photographing optical lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element and a fifth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second lens element with negative refractive power has a concave image-side surface. The third lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface and a convex image-side surface. The fourth lens element with refractive power has a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, wherein the surfaces thereof are aspheric. The fifth lens element with refractive power has a convex object-side surface, and an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof and having at least one convex shape in an off-axial region thereof, wherein the surfaced thereof are aspheric.
US09638891B2

An imaging lens consists of, in order from the object side, a front group, a stop, and a rear group, wherein the front group includes, in order from the most-object side, a positive first lens, a negative second lens, a negative third lens which are adjacently disposed, and further includes a final lens of the front group adjacent to the stop, with the surface toward the stop being convex toward the image side, the rear group includes, in order from the image side, two sets of cemented lenses having positive refractive powers, which are adjacently disposed, the object-side cemented lens of the two sets of cemented lenses is formed by cementing a positive lens and a negative meniscus lens together, and the image-side cemented lens is formed by cementing a negative meniscus lens and a positive lens together.
US09638887B2

The invention relates to a support device for a curved mirror having support elements and a curved mirror. The objective of providing a support device for a curved mirror which is constructed in a particularly simple manner and which enables particularly low production costs is achieved by a support device in that the support device has at least one bent metal carrier profile-member, the bent carrier profile-member having in the longitudinal direction an at least similar curvature to the curved mirror and being substantially mirror-symmetrical in the longitudinal direction.
US09638883B1

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention actively align a representative optic array with an imager array, and subsequently passively align constituent optic arrays with constituent imager arrays based on data from the active alignment. In one embodiment, a method of aligning a plurality of lens stack arrays with a corresponding plurality of sensors includes: aligning a first lens stack array relative to a first sensor, varying the spatial relationship between the first lens stack array and the first sensor; capturing images of a known target using the arrangement at different spatial relationships between the first lens stack array and the first sensor; scoring the quality of the captured images; and aligning at least a second lens stack array relative to at least a second sensor, based on the scored images and the corresponding spatial relationships by which the scored images were obtained.
US09638858B2

A hybrid optical source that provides an optical signal having a wavelength (or a narrow band of wavelengths) is described. This hybrid optical source includes an optical amplifier (such as a III-V semiconductor optical amplifier) that is butt-coupled or vertically coupled to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, and which outputs an optical signal. The SOI platform includes an optical waveguide that conveys the optical signal. A temperature-compensation element included in the optical waveguide compensates for temperature dependence of the indexes of refraction of the optical amplifier and the optical waveguide. In addition, a reflector, adjacent to the optical waveguide after the temperature-compensation element, reflects a portion of the optical signal and transmits another portion of the optical signal that has the wavelength.
US09638853B2

An article of manufacture includes first and second micro-features of well-defined shape. In some embodiments, the article of manufacture is a light guide or redirecting film and the second micro-features are micro-optical elements configured to disrupt a specular optical path that includes the second micro-optical element. In other embodiments, the article of manufacture is a patterning tool for use in making an optical substrate. Embodiments of the optical substrate are formed by injection molding or embossing using the patterning tool.
US09638851B2

A method of manufacturing a wire grid polarizer includes: preparing a stamp having a nanostructure body at one surface and forming a mask layer with anisotropic vapor deposition at the one surface; forming a metal film on a substrate; transferring a mask layer of an upper portion of a nanostructure body in the mask layer onto the metal film; and patterning the metal film into metal lines by removing a portion that is not covered with the mask layer in the metal film with dry etching.
US09638849B2

An optical film of the present invention includes an optically anisotropic layer containing a compound represented by the following general formula (1) or an optically anisotropic layer formed by the curing of a polymerizable composition containing a compound represented by the following general formula (1):
US09638844B2

A spectral filter includes an assembly of filtering cells. Each cell has a same nanostructured pattern and a preferential direction of the pattern. This preferential direction is, for each cell, oriented approximately radially with respect to a single point of the spectral filter. Alternatively, this preferential direction is, for each cell, oriented approximately ortho-radially with respect to the single point of the spectral filter. The single point may be a center point. Alternatively, the single point may correspond to an optical axis of a lens element associated with the spectral filter.
US09638839B2

An optical zoom probe is disclosed. The optical zoom probe includes: at least one liquid lens having a focus which is configured to be adjusted according to a flow of a fluid through a flow path; and a barrel provided to form the flow path and including a narrowed first end part including a first opening through which an image is captured, the at least one liquid lens being provided inside the barrel.
US09638838B1

A lens having microstructures has a first face and a second face. The first face has an optical portion at a central portion thereof. An optical mechanism portion is defined around the optical portion. The optical mechanism portion is formed with at least one recessed microstructure whose bottom has a matte surface.
US09638828B2

Method and system is described for marine surveying. The method involves operations for exploring and developing hydrocarbons with one or more unmanned vehicles. The unmanned vehicles are used to perform marine surveying and to obtain one or more samples that may be used to identify chemical, hydrocarbon and/or biologic information, which may be used for environmental monitoring of bodies of water.
US09638827B2

A bottom hole assembly used for a field operation is disclosed herein. The bottom hole assembly can include at least one directional antenna disposed on an outer surface of a first tubing pipe of a tubing string, where the at least one directional antenna receives a first electric current from at least one power source, where the first electric current generates a first magnetic field that radiates from the at least one directional antenna into a formation. The bottom hole assembly can also include at least one receiver disposed on a second tubing pipe of the tubing string, where the at least one receiver receives the first magnetic field returning from the formation.
US09638826B2

This invention relates to devices and processes for geophysical prospecting, subsurface fluid monitoring and, more particular, to the use of interferometric techniques using Control Source Electromagnetic (“CSEM”) and Magnetoturelic (“MT”) signals to create images of sub-surface structures and fluids.
US09638814B2

A radiation imaging apparatus including a radiation detection unit in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion devices configured to convert radiation into electric charges are arranged and a communication unit configured to output image data formed from electric charges read out from the photoelectric conversion devices includes a setting unit configured to perform setting for connecting the communication unit wirelessly to an external apparatus, by executing processing based on a plurality of setting methods.
US09638810B2

A detector array (112) includes at least one detector pixel (306) with a cavity (400) that defines a three dimensional volume. A surface of the cavity includes at least two photosensitive regions and a non-photosensitive region there between, defining at least two sub-pixels (306i, 3062) which detect light photons traversing within the three dimensional cavity and produce respective signals indicative thereof. The detector array further includes a scintillator (302), including a first sub-portion that is located in the cavity and which emits the light photons in response to absorbing x-ray photons. Light photons emitted by the first sub-portion are detected by both of the at least two sub-pixels
US09638802B2

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) detection method and a system therefor are provided. The UAV detection method includes receiving a radio signal from air, detecting a global positioning system (GPS) leakage signal of a predetermined frequency from the received radio signal, and determining that a UAV is detected when the GPS leakage signal is detected.
US09638801B2

In a system and method for reconstructing a scene, a light source transmits an optical pulse unto the scene, and a set of sensors receive a reflected pulse to acquire sensed signals corresponding to the optical pulse. There is a fixed coded aperture in an optical path between the light source and set of sensors. Then, a processor performs a method to reconstruct the scene as a three-dimensional (3D) depth map using a scene model.
US09638798B2

An imaging transducer (302) includes a plurality of transducer elements (404, 604, 704, 804) arranged with respect to each other in an array along an long axis of the transducer, wherein an effective width of a transducer element of the transducer is equal to or greater than a center-to-center distance between adjacent transducer elements. A method includes acquiring data with an imaging transducer, wherein the transducer includes a plurality of transducer elements arranged with respect to each other in an array along an long axis of the transducer, wherein an effective width of a transducer element of the transducer is equal to or greater than a center-to-center distance between adjacent transducer elements.
US09638788B2

An apparatus that detects creeping of radar waves includes: a transmitter transmitting radar waves; a receiver receiving incoming waves from a target; a distance detecting unit detecting a first distance which is a distance up to the target; a speed derivation unit deriving a relative speed relative to the target; a distance estimating unit estimating, based on the relative speed, a second distance which is a distance up to the target; and a creeping detecting unit determining whether or not a creeping has occurred in accordance with whether or not the differential distance representing a deviation quantity between the first distance and the second distance is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold.
US09638777B2

A magnetic resonance method of electric properties tomography imaging of an object includes applying an excitation RF field to the object via a coil at a first spatial coil position (402), acquiring resulting magnetic resonance signals via a receiving channel from the object, determining from the acquired magnetic resonance signals a first phase distribution and a first amplitude of a given magnetic field component of the excitation RF field of the coil at the first coil position (402), repeating these steps with a coil at a second different spatial coil position (404), to obtain a second phase distribution, determining a phase difference between the first and second phase distribution, determining a first and a second complex permittivity of the object, the first complex permittivity comprising the first amplitude of the given magnetic field component and the second complex permittivity comprising the second amplitude of the given magnetic field component and the phase difference, equating the first complex permittivity and the second complex permittivity for receiving a final equation and determining from the final equation a phase of the given magnetic field component for the first coil position (402).
US09638773B2

In some aspects, a magnetic system for use in a low-field MRI system. The magnetic system comprises at least one electromagnet configured to, when operated, generate a magnetic field to contribute to a B0 field for the low-field MRI system, and at least one permanent magnet to produce a magnetic field to contribute to the B0 field.
US09638771B2

A technique is provided to reserve large examination space in the tunnel type MRI apparatus, without increasing production cost nor reducing significantly irradiation efficiency and homogeneity in an irradiation distribution within an imaging region. The present invention provides an RF coil unit in which four partial cylindrical coils are placed with a gap therebetween in the circumferential direction inside a cylindrical RF shield, in such a manner that two pairs of the partial cylindrical coils are opposed to each other, and magnetic fields produced by the individual partial cylindrical coils are combined, thereby producing a circularly polarized wave field or an elliptically polarized wave field. The partial cylindrical coil is provided with a partial cylindrical conductor, multiple first conductors substantially parallel with the central axis of the RF shield, multiple capacitors connecting both ends of the first conductors with the partial cylindrical conductor, and a second conductor adjacent to at least one of the ends of the first conductor. The partial cylindrical coils are respectively provided with high frequency signals having a desired amplitude ratio and phase difference, while a reference frequency thereof being identical.
US09638768B2

Magnetometers, atomic sensors and related systems, methods and devices are disclosed. In one configuration, an assembly for use in a high-sensitivity atomic sensor can include an alkali vapor cell, at least one illumination source configured to emit light when activated, the emitted light having a first predetermined range of wavelengths, a light collector capable of collecting light in the first predetermined range of wavelengths, and a plurality of optical elements arranged such that (a) light emitted from the at least one illumination source is directed to the alkali vapor cell, and (b) light emerging from the alkali vapor cell is directed to the light collector.
US09638763B2

A resonant impedance sensing system includes a negative impedance control loop incorporating the resonator as a loop filter, and including a class D negative impedance stage implemented with a class D comparator, and a loop control stage implemented with an output comparator clocked (D_clk) by the class D comparator. The class D comparator receives resonator oscillation voltage, and generates a class D switching output synchronized with resonator oscillation frequency. A discrete current source (such as a current DAC) drives the resonator through an H-bridge switched by the class D switching output, so that the time average of the discrete drive current corresponds to resonator oscillation amplitude. Based on resonator oscillation amplitude, the output comparator provides a discrete loop control signal to the discrete current source, driving the resonator with a negative impedance that balances resonant impedance, thereby maintaining constant resonator oscillation amplitude corresponding to steady-state oscillation.
US09638762B2

Embodiments relate to integrated circuit (IC) sensors and more particularly to IC sensor diagnostics using multiple (e.g., redundant) communication signal paths, wherein one or more of the communication signal paths can be diverse (e.g., in hardware, software or processing, an operating principle, or in some other way) from at least one other of the multiple communication signal paths. Embodiments can relate to a variety of sensor types, implementations and applications, including 3D magnetic field and other sensors.
US09638753B2

The disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus for providing expected data, mask data, and control signals to scan test architectures within a device using the falling edge of a test/scan clock. The signals are provided on device leads that are also used to provide signals to scan test architectures using the rising edge of the test/scan clock. According to the disclosure, device test leads serve to input different test signals on the rising and falling edge of the test/scan clock which reduces the number of interconnects between a tester and the device under test.
US09638747B2

Placing integrated circuit devices using a perturbation is described. In one example, a testing platform has a circuit board. A socket is on the board for receiving and connecting to an integrated circuit package. The socket has an array of pins to engage connection bumps on a surface of the package and a biasing feature to guide the package into alignment with the pins of the socket. A perturbation source induces movement of the package into alignment with the pins of the socket.
US09638742B2

A test system and method for identifying open and shorted connections on a printed circuit board (PCB). An integrated circuit (IC) unit on the PCB is configured to generate a test signal on an output pin connected to a test pin on a second device, connector, or socket on the PCB. For a connection, the test signal is capacitively coupled to a detector plate proximal the second device. Based on the signal coupled to the detector, time domain analysis is performed on the coupled signal to determine if the test pin has a good connection to the PCB or if the pin is open or shorted. Analysis may include cross-correlating the coupled signal with a learned signal obtained from a known “good” PCB. The test pin may pass the test if the cross-correlation is within a specified threshold window. If the test fails, additional tests may be performed to troubleshoot the cause of the testing failure.
US09638736B2

A DC level detection circuit between high speed signal line connecting ports and a system using the same in optical communications is disclosed. Corresponding ports of a high speed signal line each have an additional resistor, where one additional resistor has a resistance significantly greater than that of the other resistor. The smaller resistor is grounded. The larger resistor is connected to a DC voltage source, a low pass filter, and a signal detection port. Thus, when both ports of the high speed signal line are connected, a status of the electrical level detected at the signal detection port changes. The circuit detects the connection state of the high speed signal line without negative effects on signal transmission and is applicable to various circuits, especially plug-in modules and corresponding slots. Thus, the circuit further enables signal port multifunctionality, increases module installation accuracy, and provides higher compatibility for plug-in modules.
US09638735B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for detecting faults in excitation wiring. A first sum of a first high voltage and a first low voltage related to a first sensor is determined, where the first sensor is further related to an excitation voltage. A second sum of a second high voltage and a second low voltage related to a second sensor is determined, where the second sensor is further related to the excitation voltage. The excitation voltage is provided to both the first and second sensors using excitation wiring. A determination is made whether each of the first sum and the second sum changes beyond a threshold amount during a first time interval. After determining that each of the first sum and the second sum has changed beyond the threshold amount during the first time interval, an indication of a fault in the excitation wiring is provided.
US09638732B2

A method of assessing a pulse-width-modulated signal in which the pulse-width-modulated signal to be assessed is applied to a first input of a microcontroller and a signal, that depends on the pulse-width-modulated signal being assessed, is applied to a second input of the microcontroller for assessment. The pulse-width-modulated signal being assessed is applied to a voltage divider to produce the signal that depends on the same. For the pulse-width-modulated signal to be assessed and for the signal that depends on the same, in each case, the microcontroller determines a time interval between signal edges of the respective signal, and the signal is assessed on the basis of a difference between the time interval between the signal edges in the pulse-width-modulated signal to be assessed and the time interval between the signal edges in the signal that depends on the same.
US09638727B2

Disclosed is a power inductor. The inductor comprises a magnetic core and multiple lines. The multiple lines have a first terminal and a second terminal, are parallel with each other, and wind the magnetic core to form a winding. The lines at the first terminal depart from the magnetic core at the same position, and the lines at the second terminal depart from the magnetic core at the same position. At least one line at the first terminal forms a first interface end, the other lines at the first terminal, which are not utilized to form the first interface end, form a second interface end, and the lines at the second terminal together form a third interface end. By measuring the current flowing through the first interface end using a current sensor with a small measuring range, the current flowing through the power inductor can be estimated based on ratio.
US09638722B2

A current sensor includes an induction coil, a Hall sensor, and a calibration coil loaded by a generator continuously with a calibration current of defined frequency ωcal. A first evaluation circuit is loaded with the induction signal. A second evaluation circuit, whose input receives the Hall signal, includes a low-pass filter. A third evaluation circuit evaluates a part of the Hall signal that is attributed to the calibration current and uses it for defining a parameter of the second evaluation circuit. A fourth evaluation circuit generates an output signal that represents the current magnitude and is the sum of the output signal of the first evaluation circuit and the output signal of the second evaluation circuit minus the part of the output signal of the second evaluation circuit which is attributed to the calibration current.
US09638714B2

A structure and method for providing a contact pin between a device under test (DUT) and a load board which provides upper and lower contact point which are axial aligned is disclosed. The pin has an upper (30) and lower (32) section and a hinge in between which allow flex of both upper and lower contact (24/26) which, but the axial alignment can provide a direct replacement for POGO pins but with greater reliability. It also includes a structure and method for removing upper pins 230 by use of a modified hinge 244a. In an alternate embodiment, the lower section includes a leg extension 320 and a sliding contact land 360 which slides against an aperture in the housing. A spacer 342 provides space for decoupling components on the load board. The hinge may include a truncated cylinder 40b which is configured to permit remove of the upper pin without removal of the lower.
US09638713B2

A non-transitory computer readable medium stores a program causing a computer to execute a process. The process includes calculating a variance of acceleration in individual sections obtained by dividing, by a first predetermined time interval, acceleration information for multiple axis directions detected from a subject whose action is to be determined; extracting, as a first candidate region, a section with the largest variance of acceleration from among the sections; calculating a variance of acceleration in individual sections obtained by shifting the first candidate region forward and backward by a second predetermined time interval; selecting, as a second candidate region, a section with the largest variance of acceleration from among the first candidate region and the sections obtained by shifting the first candidate region forward and backward; calculating a feature value for the second candidate region; and determining the action of the subject based on the feature value.
US09638706B2

An external standard solution for use in the analysis of amino acid in plasma, containing,(1) at least one amino acid selected from the following components A, at a concentration of 0.0007 M to 0.49 M, and (2) (i) at least one amino acid selected from the following components B, at a concentration of 0.2 to 0.9 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among the amino acids selected from components A, (ii) at least one amino acid selected from the following components C, at a concentration of 0.1 to 0.4 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among amino acids selected from the components A, or (iii) at least one amino acid selected from the following components D, at a concentration of 0.05 to 0.2 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among amino acids selected from the components A; [Components A] valine, glycine, alanine and glutamine [Components B] serine, proline, threonine, taurine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, histidine, phenylalanine and tyrosine [Components C] asparagine, ornithine, arginine and tryptophan [Components D] glutamic acid, methionine, citrulline and cystine.
US09638699B2

The present invention relates to a method for detecting cardiovascular oxidative stress in an individual, comprising detecting in a blood sample from the individual modification of a cysteine at position 45 of the β1-subunit of the human erythrocyte ATP-dependent Na+K+ pump protein or of an equivalent cysteine in a homolog or variant thereof. The invention further relates to a kit for detecting cardiovascular oxidative stress in an individual, the kit comprising at least one agent for detecting the presence of a modification in a cysteine at position 45 of the β1-subunit of the human erythrocyte ATP-dependent Na+K+ pump protein or of an equivalent cysteine in a homolog or variant thereof, wherein said modification is a result of oxidation.
US09638683B2

A system and a method for determining a percentage of recycled polyethylene terephthalate present in a test sample includes selecting a contaminant from a set of known contaminants. At least one predictor analyzes is identified from a group of predictor analyzes as being a statistically independent predictor analyzes of a presence of the selected contaminant. Predicting a percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate, identifying at least one set of best subsets of the statistically independent predictor analyzes of percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate and refining a percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate statistical model to a final predicted percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate model.
US09638673B2

Disclosed is an ultrasonic device optimized with both averaging and dithery pulsing techniques. The averaging technique significantly removes white noise; on the other hand, the dithery pulsing significantly removes acoustic noise, which is otherwise accumulated during conventional averaging processes.
US09638666B1

The invention is essentially a sequential (“DMA”) apparatus using a novel arrangement of at least three electrodes and at least two block electrodes to produce a DMA apparatus having at least two sequential DMA regions between pairs of adjacent electrode walls within the same housing. This apparatus is used to improve the transfer of particles into the subsequent DMA region without a vacuum or pump, and to improve the separation of target particles from non-target particles and concentration and collection of the target particles.
US09638663B2

The present invention relates to a cartridge for conducting diagnostic assays. The cartridge consists of an assembly of components that are easily assembled. The cartridge provides means for receiving a patient sample, precisely controlling fluid introduction, onboard storage of assay fluid and conducting different assay protocols and detection of a plurality of analytes. Methods of use for the cartridge are described. The disclosed invention is suitable for point of care environments or any place where rapid, ultrasensitive testing is required.
US09638643B2

A particulate contamination measurement method and apparatus are discussed. The method, for example, comprises pressing a measurement surface (5) of a polyurethane elastomer (2) against a surface (7) to be measured, removing the polyurethane elastomer from the surface without leaving residues, then using an optical apparatus (11) to detect particles (8) which have been removed by the polyurethane elastomer from the surface and which have become attached to the polyurethane elastomer.
US09638641B2

In order to provide an inspection illumination device that makes it possible to greatly change a light amount within an observation solid angle of an imaging device even in a case where a change in reflection or scattering taking place at a feature point is subtle, and thus detect such a minute feature point, the inspection illumination device includes: a surface light source that emits inspection light; a lens that is arranged between the surface light source and an inspection object, and provides an image of the surface light source near the inspection object; and a first light shielding mask that is arranged between the surface light source and the inspection object, and forms a dark domain within an illumination solid angle of the inspection light applied to each point on the inspection object.
US09638639B2

The present invention includes nanotubes or rods, methods and arrays using plasmonic-magnetic bifunctional nanotubes or rods comprising: one or more silica nanotubes or rods; one or more nanomagnets embedded in a portion of the silica nanotubes or rods; and plasmonic metal nanoparticles uniformly coating in or on at least a portion of the surface of the nanomagnets and the silica nanotubes surface-coated.
US09638632B2

Disclosed are improved optical detection systems and methods comprising multiplexed interferometric detection systems and methods for determining a characteristic property of a sample, together with various applications of the disclosed techniques.
US09638629B2

A method and apparatus for estimating the structure of an unidentified substance produced from an original substance having a known structural formula through partial structural change caused by metabolism or the like. A mass difference between a product ion, originating from the unidentified substance and having a partial structure including a structural change site, and a product ion, originating from the original substance and having a partial structure prior to the structural change, is equal to the mass difference between the original substance and the unidentified substance. Therefore, when pairs of product ions each having such a mass difference are selected to be compared with partial structures obtained from the known structural formula of the original substance, a minimum common partial structure having the structural change site is obtained.
US09638627B2

In an integrating sphere including a structure having a spherical inner wall that forms a spherical space, there are provided an LED circuit board equipped at one end with a light-emitting device adapted to radiate a light in the space at an input port formed at the structure to be diffuse-reflected on the spherical inner wall and equipped at other end with a heat sink, a measuring port formed at the structure to pass the light diffuse-reflected on the spherical inner wall on a measuring object, an output port formed at the structure to output a reflected light of the diffuse-reflected light passing the measuring port and reflected on the measuring object outside, and a detector adapted to be detachably connected to the output port to receive the outputted reflected light.
US09638619B2

The present invention is made focusing on the viscoelasticity of a sample, which is completely different from a conventional idea, and provides an optical analysis cell 100 that in order to easily make the thickness of the sample X uniform as well as making a pair of light transmitting plates 10 parallel to each other without the use of any spacer, includes the pair of light transmitting plates 10 that sandwich and hold the sample X having predetermined viscoelasticity between mutually opposed inward surfaces 10a. In addition, the optical analysis cell 100 further includes a distance fixing member 20 having a pair of opposed surfaces 21a and 22a provided separately from each other by a predetermined distance. Also, it is configured that the respective light transmitting plates 10 receive the elastic force of the sample X, and thereby outward surfaces 10b on the sides opposite to the inward surfaces 10a of the respective light transmitting plates 10 are pressed against corresponding respective opposed surfaces 21a and 22a to fix the separation distance between the inward surfaces 10a.
US09638609B2

An apparatus for providing a sample gas includes a gas dosing part, a first pressure gauge for measuring a pressure of a sample gas dosed through the gas dosing part, a plurality of flow lines positioned between the gas dosing part and a gas analyzer that can be opened or closed according to the pressure measured by the first pressure gauge, a plurality of control valves respectively formed in the plurality of flow lines and controlling the plurality of flow lines to be opened or closed, a bypass line formed on at least one of the plurality of flow lines and exhausting some of the sample gas flowing along the flow lines, and a controller for selecting one of the plurality of flow lines according to the pressure measured by the first pressure gauge and controlling the control valves formed in the selected flow line.
US09638608B2

This disclosure is directed to exemplary embodiments of systems, methods, techniques, processes, products and product components that can facilitate users making improved absorbance or fluorescence measurements in the field of spectroscopy with reduced (minimal) sample waste, and increased throughput, particularly in the study of biological sciences. A measuring system is provided having: a base unit with a means for locating a pipette tip; a pipette tip designed to interact with the base unit for purposes of accurate pipette tip positioning; at least one light supplying unit positioned to supply light to a liquid sample in the pipette tip and at least one light collecting unit positioned to collect light from a liquid sample in the pipette tip.
US09638597B2

A differential pressure sensor assembly includes a transducer having a first sensing surface and a second sensing surface. The second sensing surface is contained in a cavity. An Integrated Circuit (IC) is hermetically coupled to the transducer. The IC has a first aperture aligned to the cavity. A lead frame is coupled to the IC. The lead frame has a second aperture aligned to the first aperture of the IC. A package encapsulates the transducer, the IC and the lead frame. The package has a third aperture exposed to the first sensing surface. The package includes a molding compound providing a hermetic seal between the third aperture of the package and the first aperture of the IC. The molding compound is separated from the transducer by an encroachment distance.
US09638594B2

A six-axis force sensor including a fixed part; a first movable part; a first connecting part connecting the first movable part to the fixed part in an elastically displaceable manner; a second movable part; a second connecting part connecting the second movable part to the first movable part in an elastically displaceable manner; a first detecting section detecting a displacement of the first movable part relative to the fixed part; and a second detecting section detecting a displacement of the second movable part relative to the first movable part. The six-axis force sensor enables, in a three-axis rectangular coordinate system, a detection of force components in first axis, second axis and third axis directions, and moment components about the first axis, the second axis and the third axis, of a force applied to the second movable part, with reference to detection values of the first and second detecting sections.
US09638541B2

The present invention relates to a method for calculating trip paths determined by a departure point and a target point by using traffic information in a terminal. The method includes the steps of: requesting traffic information related to a trip from a server; receiving the traffic information related to the trip from the server; and calculating the paths by using the received traffic information, wherein the received traffic information includes traffic events corresponding to information on disturbances in the traffic flow in an area or the path related to the trip, and performance parameters corresponding to information on traffic flow in a road segment within a constant radius from the departure point, and wherein the performance parameters can be received from the server in the case where there is congestion heavier than a predetermined level within a constant radius from the departure point.
US09638534B2

An arrival time notification system includes smart glasses including a recognition unit configured to recognize current time according to the view of a driver driving a vehicle, and a head unit configured to inform of an arrival time at a destination through the time recognized from the smart glasses.
US09638518B2

A device and method for measuring the rotational position of a rotating feature, the device employing rotary to linear magnification. A connecting member is operatively connected to the rotating feature, the connecting member extending through one or more structural layers of an enclosure. An arm is operatively connected to the connecting member and located outside the enclosure. A target is arranged with respect to a position sensor, with the position sensor configured to measure the linear position of the target with respect to the position sensor. A cable is connected to the arm at an attachment point, the cable also being connected to the target. One or more pulleys are arranged to control the path of the cable between the attachment point on the arm and the target.
US09638509B2

In a phase difference detector, a first phase difference computation unit computes a value of E(i)·C corresponding to one and the same given magnetic pole sensed by the two magnetic sensors with use of six output signals sampled at three different timings while the two magnetic sensors are sensing the given magnetic pole when a rotary body is rotating. E is an angular width error correction value, and C is a phase difference between two signals. The first phase difference computation unit executes this process until values of E(i)·C corresponding to all the magnetic poles are computed. After that, the first phase difference computation unit computes the phase difference between the output signals with use of the values of E(i)·C corresponding to all the magnetic poles and the number (m) of the magnetic poles.
US09638508B2

A device including a displacement measurement circuitry and a charge adjuster circuitry is disclosed. The displacement measurement circuitry may be configured to measure displacement associated with a rotating object. The charge adjuster circuitry is coupled to the displacement measurement circuitry. The charge adjuster circuitry is configured to measure an offset associated with ambient noise in the device over time. The charge adjuster circuitry is further configured to adjust sensors of the displacement measurement circuitry to reduce the measured offset.
US09638501B2

A projectile includes an ordnance portion configured to impact a target and a communication apparatus positioned rearward of the ordnance portion. The projectile is configured to rotate about and travel along a longitudinal axis after launch.
US09638498B2

A cartridge of a non-lethal weapon includes a housing in a launching device and including an internal space, a piercing member on a rear end of the space, a channel through the piercing member to communicate the space with at least one projectile, a metal sleeve at a front end of the space, and internal threads on an inner surface of the sleeve wherein the sleeve, the piercing member, and the housing are formed integrally; a high-pressure air canister in the space; a cap including two front through holes, external threads adjacent to the through holes, an internal primer between the through holes, and at least one spacer between the primer and the air canister wherein the cap is in the sleeve with the external threads and the internal threads secured together; and a first washer sandwiched by and between the cap and the inner surface of the space.
US09638491B2

A bushing for mounting a grip panel to a firearm is provided. The bushing has a torquing surface distributed about the head of the bushing to provide improved torque and alignment for the bushing as it is assembled and disassembled into the firearm frame. The bushing may include an O-ring on the bushing itself and an additional O-ring fitted on the grip screws. The bushings and tools for replacing the OEM bushings may be provided as part of a kit.
US09638490B1

A pneumatic firing device includes a rear section engaging a cylinder, a solenoid valve engaging the rear section from under, an adjusting element disposed inside the rear section, a piston disposed inside the cylinder to form a first chamber and a second chamber, an airflow guiding element engaging the cylinder at the front thereof, a moving rod having a tail end engaging the piston and a front end stretching through the cylinder into the airflow guiding element for controlling the operation of the airflow guiding element, and a front section engaging the front of the airflow guiding element. The solenoid valve holds control of the operation of a pressure release channel to change the pressure difference between the first and second chamber, making the pressured air entering a first passage from a first guiding hole of the airflow guiding element, pushing the delivery tube to a firing position, flowing into a second passage from a second guiding hole, and then firing a pellet with strong airflow.
US09638486B2

There are disclosed embodiments for a paintball swab. For example, a disk is pivotably and slidably attached to the distal end of a rod so there is a proximal and distal limit along the rod. When the disk is at the distal limit, it is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the rod. When the disk is at the proximal limit, it is angled with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rod.
US09638480B1

A vehicle computer is programmed to determine an expected thermal load for an autonomous driving compute cluster and a target temperature for the compute cluster under the expected thermal load. Based on a comparison of a current temperature of the compute cluster to an ambient temperature, the vehicle computer is further programmed to operate a switching valve in a first coolant path to open the path to one of a radiator portion and a condenser portion and operate, with the path open to the condenser portion, a pump in the first coolant path and a condenser in a second coolant path at speeds respectively based on at least one of the expected thermal load and the target temperature.
US09638472B2

A cooling recover system and method are disclosed. A fluid, such as water, is chilled and provided to a cooling coil to cool and dehumidify air passing over the cooling coil. The fluid is output from the cooling coil through an outlet, and at least a portion of the fluid from the outlet of the cooling coil is provided to an inlet of a heat transfer coil to reheat air passing over the heat transfer coil. The fluid is warmed as it passes through the cooling coil, which warmer temperature serves to reheat the air passing over the heat transfer coil.
US09638469B2

This low-pressure condenser is provided with: a pressure bulkhead which partitions the inside of the container into an upper space and a lower space; a heat transfer tube which is arranged in the upper space; and a reheater which is arranged in the lower space and which, by means of high-temperature steam flowing from the outside into the lower space, heats water which condenses in the upper space and flows into the lower space. The reheater includes multiple partition members, a receiving plate which receives water flowing downward via the partition members, and a dam which is connected to the outer peripheral edge of the receiving plate. The lower ends of the multiple partition members are below the upper end of the dam.
US09638462B2

The method according to the invention comprises the separation of a feed stream (16) into a first fraction (60) and a second fraction (62) and the injection of at least part of the second fraction (62) into a second dynamic expansion turbine (46) to form a second expanded fraction (80).It comprises the cooling of the second expanded fraction (80) through heat exchange with at least part of the first headstream (84) coming from a first column (28) and the formation of a second feed stream (82) of the first column (28) from the second cooled expanded fraction.
US09638460B2

A refrigerator includes a storage compartment formed in a cabinet of the refrigerator by a fixed insulation wall, the storage compartment being provided with an access opening. The refrigerator also includes a door rotatably provided to the cabinet to open and close the access opening, a drawer provided in the storage compartment, a camera fixed to a ceiling of the storage compartment to photograph both a first region for storing of food arranged in an external space of the drawer and a second region for storing of food arranged in an internal space of the drawer, and a controller configured to separate, through a capturing time of a picture containing both the first region and the second region, a first region picture and a second region picture from the picture to individually divide and store the first region picture and the second region picture.
US09638456B2

A generator assembly for mounting to a container. The generator assembly includes a container frame having a top casting and a receiver bracket. The generator assembly includes a frame, a generator coupled to the frame, a clamp mounting system including a first clamp coupled to the frame and configured to be coupled to the top casting, and a pin mounting system including a first bracket coupled to the frame and configured to be coupled to the receiver bracket. The generator assembly is such that one of the first clamp and the first bracket is repositionable on the frame to avoid interference with the container when the other of the first clamp and the first bracket is coupled to the corresponding one of the top casting and the receiver bracket.
US09638442B2

A thermoelectric device comprising an elongated panel, formed of a thermally insulating material, and having a plurality of thermoelectric elements comprising compacted conductors inside the insulating material and expanded conductors outside the insulating material is combined with other layers for leakage current interception, bodily fluid absorption, and pillars that preserve pressure re-distribution. The thermoelectric device may be integrated into a variety of surfaces or enclosures needing heating or cooling and manufactured using pre-existing automated equipment.
US09638430B2

In an air-conditioning apparatus, when a plurality of pumps are all operating and a heat exchange amount in use-side heat exchangers is equal to or lower than a lower limit of a thermal capacity that can be conveyed in a heat medium circuit B, before at least one of the plurality of pumps is stopped, a refrigerant flow path in the intermediate heat exchanger connected to the pump that is to be stopped is closed. Then, the at least one of the plurality of pumps is stopped, and the thermal capacity required in at least one of the use-side heat exchangers in the rest of the plurality of pumps is conveyed.
US09638423B2

To provide a multifuel gas turbine combustor capable of combusting gases containing hydrogen in a high concentration with a low NOx while maintaining a low emission performance brought about by the pre-mixture combustion in the main burner, the gas turbine combustor includes a main burner (12) for supplying to and combusting a premixed gas (M), containing a first fuel (F1), within a first combustion region (S1) of a combustion chamber (10), and a supplemental burner (20) for supplying to and combusting a second fuel (F2) of a composition different from that of the first fuel (F1) within a second combustion region (S2) defined downstream of the first combustion region (S1) within the combustion chamber (10). The first fuel (F1) is of a hydrocarbon system and the second fuel (F2) is a gas containing hydrogen in a concentration exceeding the stable combustion limiting concentration of the hydrogen.
US09638408B2

A lighting device may be provided that includes: a light emitting device; and an optical exciter which is disposed over the light emitting device and emits light excited by the light emitted from the light emitting device, wherein the optical exciter includes at least one of a yellow fluorescent material, a green fluorescent material and a red fluorescent material, wherein the optical exciter moves over the light emitting device, and wherein a color temperature of the light emitted from the optical exciter varies according to the movement of the optical exciter.
US09638402B2

The present disclosure describes a clamp used for adherence and securement to a desired object. The clamp has an upper half and a lower half held together by hinges. Opposite the hinges there is a locking mechanism which can be loosened or tightened as necessary. The clamp further has a shaped support designed to support a number of objects including solar lights, flags, poles, signs, rods, and the like. The clamp is designed to fit on existing colonial style and chain link fence structures, however, the clamp can be sized appropriately for the specific need.
US09638385B2

A head lamp in a vehicle may include a light source for emitting a light, a reflector for reflecting the light forward from the light source, a lens for transmitting the light being forwarded toward a front from the light source and the reflector, a holder having one end coupled to the lens and the other end coupled to the reflector to make the lens spaced at a predetermined distance from the reflector, and a movable shield disposed between the light source and the reflector and the lens for selectively shielding a portion of the light being forwarded toward the lens from the light source and the reflector, or not shielding the portion of the light being forwarded toward the lens from the light source and the reflector when being moved to create a space between the movable shield and a lower end of the holder to allow the light pass through.
US09638373B2

Disclosed herein is an energy efficient vertical cryogenic tank, which comprises a tank body with a vacuum insulation interlayer, wherein the tank body comprises a transmission means including an air return pipe and a liquid outlet pipe, and positioning means including supporting legs provided at the bottom of the tank body, and a built-in saturation adjustment mechanism formed by a heat exchanger connected to an let of the air return pipe and a return air dispersing device. By using a saturation adjustment mechanism at the inlet of the air return pipe, the cryogenic storage tank can not only fully leverage the gasification gas produced at the pump, but also achieve the saturation function of the LNG in the tank, with such benefits as reduced energy loss, simplified tank interface settings, improved efficiency of saturation adjustment, and avoided pump cavitation.
US09638372B2

An operating gas system for an underwater vehicle, particularly for a submarine or an unmanned underwater vehicle, includes a fuel cell system and an operating gas vessel connected in terms of flow to the fuel cell system. In order to achieve simple and efficient storage of boil-off gasses, a gas-receiving device is also provided and is connected to the operating gas vessel. The gas-receiving device contains a sorbent for receiving boil-off gas from the operating gas vessel. The boil-off gas, which is produced in the operating vessel with an operating gas for the fuel cell system and which cannot be consumed directly in the fuel cell reaction, is therefore collected and stored with the aid of the sorbent in the gas-receiving device. A method for operating an operating gas system and an underwater vehicle are also provided.
US09638368B2

A snap fitting for use in plumbing is provided. The snap fitting includes a main body formed of plastic and shaped to extend partially around a cylindrical pipe to snap over the pipe and an inset for extending from an interior side of the main body into a hole in the cylindrical pipe.
US09638362B2

A tubular threaded connection includes a threaded sub-assembly having a first tubular member, a first torque member threadingly received on the first tubular member, and a second torque member threadingly received on the first tubular member. In forming the threaded sub-assembly, the first torque member is torqued relative to the second torque member. Furthermore, the sub-assembly is configured to receive a second tubular member for torqueing against the sub-assembly.
US09638356B2

The invention relates to a wall feed-through fitting for passing elongated parts, pipes, wires, and/or cables through a wall of piece of equipment, housing or component provided with the wall that has a throughgoing hole and where a flange (1) is fastened to the wall by a fastener, the flange having a hole (2) coaxial to the throughgoing hole, wherein the flange (1) has two half-flanges (3) that abut at a parting plane crossing the hole (2), the half-flanges are connected or connectable to one another by integrally molded connecting formations (4), and the half-flanges (3) are of identical shape with each of the half-flanges (3) having a first connecting formation at one respective parting face and a second connecting formation at a second respective parting face and the first and second connecting formations are different from one another but fit complementarily with one another in a desired mounting position of the half-flanges (3).
US09638354B1

A cable organizing assembly includes a pair of mounts. Each of the mounts includes a rotatable base. The rotatable base corresponding to each of the mounts may be removably coupled to a support. Each of the mounts includes a clamping unit. The clamping unit may engage at least one cable thereby facilitating the at least one cable to be removably coupled to the support.
US09638346B2

This invention discloses a valve including a body, an upper membrane, a lower membrane and a positioning block. The body has an upper channel, a lower channel, an accommodation space and a valve groove. The accommodation space defines an upper opening and a lower opening for respectively communicating with the upper channel and the lower channel. The valve groove is near the intersection of the lower channel and the accommodation space respectively communicating therewith. The upper and the lower membrane block the upper opening of the accommodation space and the lower opening. The positioning block is disposed between the upper membrane and the lower membrane and is able to push the lower membrane into the valve groove and abut against a sidewall of the valve groove. The valve is able to block the flow of water in the valve when the water flow is needed to be cut off.
US09638342B2

A valve comprising a valve body with a fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, an inner cavity and an outer cavity at least partly surrounding the inner cavity. The outer cavity is in fluid communication with the fluid inlet and with the inner cavity and the inner cavity is in fluid communication with the fluid outlet. A flow splitter is provided, forming at least two flow passages in the outer cavity.
US09638327B1

Radial shaft seal includes an outer diameter member, a primary sealing lip, and a lip energizer. The primary sealing lip is spaced radially from the outer diameter member. The lip energizer is positioned radially between the outer diameter member and the primary sealing lip. The lip energizer moves to an engaging position with the outer diameter member forming a section of material between the outer diameter member and the primary sealing lip. The outer diameter member, the primary sealing lip, and the lip energizer can be formed from a single piece of material, and in one embodiment, an elastomer.
US09638324B2

The invention provides a sealing device constructed by combination of a slinger and a lip member, the sealing device being capable of improving a sealing performance, particularly a sealing performance against external dusts. In order to achieve the object, in a sealing device having a slinger which is installed to one member among relatively rotating two members, a lip member which is installed to the other member, and structured such that the slinger integrally has a tubular portion which is fitted to the one member and a flange portion which extends in a diametrical direction, and the lip member having an end face lip which slidably comes into close contact with the flange portion, a bent portion protruding in an axial direction toward the lip member is provided in the flange portion, and a labyrinth structure having a minute gap is provided between the bent portion and the lip member.
US09638322B2

Exemplary piston rings are disclosed, comprising a base portion formed of a metallic material, and an outer contact surface extending between opposing side faces of the piston ring. The piston ring may include a coating layer applied to the outer contact surface, with the coating layer including an inner layer and an outer layer. Exemplary methods of making a piston ring are also disclosed, comprising providing a base portion formed of a metallic material, applying an inner layer to an outer surface of the base portion, and applying an outer layer on top of the inner layer.
US09638311B2

Hemispherical protrusions are protrudingly provided in end surfaces of a rotor gear and a tooth portion of a small gear having the smaller number of gear teeth between the rotor gear and a large gear of an intermediate gear, and between the small gear of the intermediate gear and an output gear, which are meshed with each other in a transmission gear train. Thus, in a case where the large gear rides on the rotor gear or the small gear rides on the output gear when the intermediate gear is accommodated in a housing after the rotor gear and the output gear are accommodated, it is possible to cancel the riding state thereof only by applying a slight vibration to the housing.
US09638302B2

An axle drive system for a motor vehicle, having a dynamoelectric drive motor (1), a shiftable superimposing transmission having a first and a second gear stage (3, 4), a shift actuator system (5) for shifting the superimposing transmission, as well as a power divider (8) driving two output shafts (10, 12). The drive motor (1), power divider shafts (9, 11), output shafts (10, 12) and dynamoelectric drive motor (1) are arranged coaxially to each other and perpendicular to the direction of travel of the motor vehicle. A particularly compact design is achieved for the axle drive system of the aforementioned type in that the shift actuator system (5) having an electric motor (14) provided for actuation purposes is in its entirety disposed in a space bounded by the first gear stage (3) on one side and the second gear stage (4) on the other side in the axial direction of the drive system.
US09638301B2

A variable transmission includes an input shaft, a planetary gear set drivingly engaged with a variator comprising, a variator carrier assembly, a first ring assembly, and a second ring assembly; and the output shaft, arranged to produce transmissions with continuously variable or infinitely variable output ratios.
US09638299B2

The invention relates to an actuating device for joint action upon at least two different elements of a motor vehicle door lock, with at least one sheathed cable having a core and sheath, wherein the sheathed cable is provided in the longitudinal extent thereof with at least two force transmission units which are designed for interaction with a first element at one end and with a second element at the other end upon action on the sheathed cable, and one of the two elements is designed as an actuating lever, wherein the other element is a closing/opening element operating on a locking mechanism.
US09638279B2

An embodiment provides a damper a damper including: a housing; a rotor; and a sealing member. The housing includes outer and inner cylinder portions to define a filling space portion therebetween for filling with a viscose fluid. The rotor includes a head portion and a cylinder portion extended downwardly therefrom so as to be inserted into the filling space portion. The sealing member seals the filling space portion. The rotor further includes axially-extending first and second groove portions provided on outer and inner peripheral surfaces of the cylinder portion near the bottom portion thereof. At least one of the first groove portions includes a communicating portion which communicates the inside and the outside of the rotor, and the second groove portion is apart from the communicating portion in a circumferential direction.
US09638277B2

A bicycle disc brake rotor is provided that has a center rotational axis, and basically includes an outer portion and a cooling fin. The outer portion includes a first braking part defining a first braking surface and a second braking part defining a second braking surface. The first and second braking surfaces face in opposite axial directions. The cooling fin includes an inner portion radially offset from the first and second braking surfaces. The cooling fin further includes an attachment portion extending outwardly from the inner portion and sandwiched between the first and second braking parts. The first and second braking parts are separate and distinct individual parts from each other and from the cooling fin.
US09638276B2

A brake disc includes a basic body with at least one contact surface that has a wearing coat applied thereon. The at least one contact surface of the basic body is pretreated to realize the bond between the wearing coat and the basic body. The at least one pretreated contact surface of the basic body has a surface topography that is modified by laser irradiation and has at least one predetermined parameter. A method produces the brake disc.
US09638271B2

A brake device for a vehicle may include: a driving unit positioned in a drum and supplying rotation power; a nut screw positioned between first and second brake shoes; a first push rod having both sides connected to the first brake shoe and the nut screw, and pressurizing the first brake shoe through the rotation of the nut screw; a fixing protrusion fixed to a case surrounding the nut screw; a rotation connection part coupled to the fixing protrusion to restrict rotation of the rotation connection part; a rotation control part inserted into the rotation connection part so as to be screwed to the rotation connection part; and a second push rod having both sides connected to the second brake shoe and the rotation control part, and moved together with the rotation control part in a longitudinal direction so as to pressurize the second brake shoe.
US09638270B2

In one aspect, a decoupler comprises an input member, an output member, and a torsional isolation spring, a carrier, and a wrap spring clutch configured to operate in a first mode in which rotary power is transmitted in a first rotational direction from the input member to the output member serially through the wrap spring clutch, the carrier, and the isolation spring, and a second mode in which the output member overruns the input member in the first rotational direction. The carrier has a carrier clutch drive face that receives a first vector force from an end of the wrap spring clutch, and an isolation spring drive face that receives a second vector force from an end of the isolation spring. The wrap spring clutch and isolation spring drive faces are arranged so as to direct the second vector force to intersect with the first vector force substantially at the carrier clutch drive face.
US09638264B2

A clutch for a motor vehicle, preferably for engaging and disengaging a drive train for all-wheel drive vehicles, comprises a first shaft, a second shaft arranged coaxially to the first shaft, a clutch sleeve which is moveable in the axial direction relative to the first shaft and the second shaft for causing a form-fit coupling or decoupling of the first shaft and the second shaft, and a coil which can be powered, wherein a plurality of engagement bodies are connected rotationally fixedly to the first shaft, wherein the coil which can be powered is arranged coaxially to the axial direction, wherein by powering the coil, the clutch sleeve can be moved in the axial direction, wherein by moving the clutch sleeve in the axial direction, the engagement bodies can be pressed over part of their height into receivers, and wherein the receivers are connected rotationally fixedly to the second shaft.
US09638258B2

A rolling-contact bearing comprising an inner ring, an outer ring with an outer surface in the form of a section of a sphere, rolling bodies between the inner ring and the outer ring, an encoder washer constrained to rotate with the inner ring, a sensor member being designed to detect a rotation of the encoder washer, and a support member having an inner surface in the form of a section of a sphere, the inner surface being designed to be in sliding contact with the outer surface of the outer ring. The support member is designed to hold the sensor member, in relation to the encoder washer, in a position in which the sensor member can detect a rotation of the encoder washer. The sensor member includes a transponder intended to communicate wirelessly with a detector.
US09638253B2

A rolling element bearing comprising inner and outer rings; a plurality of rolling elements disposed between opposing surfaces of the inner and outer rings; and a bearing shield comprising a first member having an annular surface facing the plurality of rolling elements, the first member either (1) extending from the inner ring towards the outer ring (defining a gap between the first member and the outer ring) and the inner ring having a low surface energy surface adjacent the gap, or (2) extending from the outer ring towards the inner ring (defining a gap between the first member and the inner ring) and the inner ring comprises a low energy surface adjacent the gap. The low energy surfaces each have a surface energy of ≦0.028 N/m.
US09638249B2

A cage for a rolling bearing formed from two axial halves and a rolling bearing cage assembly including a cage formed from two axial halves, include passages formed through the web separating adjacent rolling element pockets when the two halves are in an abutting relationship. A resilient element is inserted in at least one passage with axial ends extending into the adjacent rolling element pockets.
US09638236B2

A pin member for a fastener includes an elongated shank having a first end, a second end opposite the first end, a cylindrical shank portion having an outer surface, a head located at the first end of the elongated shank, the head including a bearing surface located on the bearing surface of the head, and a threaded portion located at the second end of the elongated shank. Either or both of the bearing surface of the head or the outer surface of the cylindrical shank portion is coated with a coating and/or is textured. The coating may be tungsten, molybdenum, copper, or a refractory ceramic. The textured surfaces may include a surface roughness greater than 0.5 micron.
US09638234B2

Methods and apparatus for a multi-dimensional asymmetrical fastening system according to various aspects of the present technology include a driver and a fastener that are configured to have corresponding conforming surfaces suitably adapted to provide engagement between a plurality of driver fins and a recessed receiving area of the fastener. The driver and fastener may each be configured to include driving surfaces of varying widths. Variable widths allow for the customization of a given driver/fastener system.
US09638232B2

A structure securely attaches a component to an opening portion in a plate-shaped member without stripping or turning over the member. Each of a pair of mount members includes a first engagement portion engaged with a rear surface of the plate-shaped member and a second engagement portion engaged with the component. The component includes projecting portions to be fitted between the mount members, thus the component can be fixed against coming off by engagement of the second engagement portion and the component. The projecting portions inhibit the mount members engaged with the opening portion from moving, thereby preventing the mount members from coming off the opening portion. Since the fitting member is fitted between the second engagement portions, the fitting member inhibits the second engagement portions from moving to come closer to each other, and from disengagement from the component, thereby more securely preventing the component from coming off.
US09638217B2

A lifting system for a jib of an operating machine that includes an energy storage device having an energy storage cylinder and an accumulator, the energy storage cylinder having an upper chamber, a lower chamber, and an energy storage piston rod connected to the jib. The upper part of the accumulator is filled with gas, and the lower part of the accumulator is filled with hydraulic oil and communicates with the lower chamber of the energy storage cylinder. The lifting system also includes a hydraulic pump and a control cylinder for controlling the lifting of the jib, which comprises an upper chamber, a lower chamber, and a control piston rod connected to the jib.
US09638208B2

Provided is a centrifugal compressor including a first splitter blade 7 arranged nearer to a suction side Sb of a full blade 5F located upstream in a rotating direction of the compressor, and a second splitter blade 8 provided farther from the suction side Sb of the full blade 5F and being shorter than the first splitter blade 7. Leading edges 7a and 8a on the shroud side of the first splitter blade 7 and the second splitter blade 8 are offset from positions dividing the space between the full blades at equal intervals by the number of splitter blades therebetween toward the suction side Sb of the full blade.
US09638202B2

A centrifugal blood pump apparatus includes a plurality of permanent magnets (17) in an impeller (10) in a blood chamber (7), a plurality of coils (20) in a motor chamber (8), and a magnetic element (18) in each of the coils (20). The magnetic elements (18) are made shorter than the coils (20) to lower attractive force between the magnetic elements (18) and the permanent magnets (17) in the impeller (10), to set a large gap between the magnetic elements (18) and the permanent magnets (17). As a result, axial attractive force and negative rigidity can be lowered while required torque is satisfied.
US09638197B2

A turbo compressor is provided that has first, second and third stage compressor blades rotated by a large gear shaft via an acceleration device, and includes a cast integral casing (1) which forms an acceleration unit cover housing the acceleration device, compression unit covers housing the compressor blades, and first, second and third stage cooler chambers (11a, 12a, 13a) which are arranged in parallel at a lower portion thereof, which communicate with the compressor unit covers by fluid passages, and into which first, second and third stage coolers are inserted from the side thereof. An oil tank (21) is integrally formed with the cast integral casing (1) so as to run along an insertion-directional innermost side of the coolers of the parallel-arranged first, second and third stage cooler chambers (11a, 12a, 13a).
US09638194B2

A method implemented by at least one processor includes receiving a pressure profile to be generated by a pumping system, wherein the pumping system includes at least one pump-unit powered by at least one generator-unit. The method also includes receiving a pump-unit parameter from at least one pump-unit and a generator-unit parameter from at least one generator unit. The pump-unit parameter is representative of an operating parameter of the pump-unit. The generator-unit parameter is representative of an operating parameter of the at least one generator-unit. The method includes generating an operating set-point corresponding to the at least one generator-unit based on the pump-unit parameter and the generator-unit parameter, wherein the operating set-point is one of at least one operating set-point corresponding to the at least one generator-unit. The method also includes determining an input parameter for the at least one generator-unit based on the at least one operating set-point.
US09638189B2

An oil pump structure including: an oil pump having a first hydraulic control chamber and a second hydraulic control chamber; a hydraulic control valve having a valve operating oil passage, a first inflow passage, a second inflow passage, a first outflow passage, a second outflow passage and a drain flow passage; and an oil circuit, wherein the hydraulic control valve is connected to a branching flow passage of the oil circuit; a spool valve body of the hydraulic control valve has a front valve section, a rear valve section and an intermediate valve section, which are formed perpendicularly to the axial direction of a connecting shaft; an axial-direction dimension of the intermediate valve section is larger than an axial-direction dimension of the second outflow passage; the second outflow passage and the drain flow passage are both accommodated temporarily between the intermediate valve section and the front valve section due to movement of the spool valve body; and in the hydraulic control valve, a control hydraulic pressure is applied at all times to the first hydraulic control chamber, and the control hydraulic pressure is increased and decreased in the second hydraulic control chamber.
US09638185B2

A double displacement pump includes an inlet manifold, an outlet manifold, a first fluid cavity between the inlet manifold and the outlet manifold, a second fluid cavity between the inlet manifold and the outlet manifold, and a drive system that includes a housing defining an internal pressure chamber, a piston disposed within the internal pressure chamber and having a first and second pull chambers and a central slot for receiving a drive, a first pull with a free end slidably secured within the first pull chamber and a second pull with a free end slidably secured within the second pull chamber, and a first fluid displacement member coupled to the first pull and a second fluid displacement member coupled to the second pull.
US09638184B2

An air compression apparatus includes an air tank, an air compressor, and a governor. The air compressor delivers compressed air to the air tank by using power of an engine at the time of load running and stops the delivery of the compressed air to the air tank at the time of no-load running. The governor switches between the load running and the no-load running of the air compressor. Furthermore, the governor changes, when an engine speed is equal to or more than a threshold value, switchover timing for switching the air compressor from the no-load running to the load running in comparison with a time when the engine speed is less than the threshold value.
US09638182B2

The present invention relates to pump systems having graphene or other atomically thin electrically conductive materials supported by trough-shaped cavities.
US09638181B2

A vacuum pump includes a cylinder. The cylinder includes an inner casing forming two transversely intersected, parallel cylindrical chambers, the axes of which rest in one plane, and one of the faces of which represents a wall on which a suction hole inlet is located. The cylinder also includes an outer casing disposed around the inner casing to form a confined space, provided with the inlet and an outlet, which allows a liquid to be circulated. Two pump rotors are situated in the parallel cylindrical chambers and are driven in rotation by an electric motor. A drive housing contains the motor and components for driving and synchronizing the pump rotors supporting the rotors by cantilever and serving as support and centering with respect to the cylinder. The drive housing includes two extended supports that are integrally constructed as one piece. First and second guide elements guide rotation of the rotors, which guide elements support the rotors by cantilever, wherein the first guide elements are situated at the ends of the two extended supports.
US09638180B2

An axial piston machine of swash plate design includes cylinder bores with respective longitudinal axes that are arranged at an acute angle with the rotational axis and that approach the rotational axis radially in the direction of their control plate-side ends. For each cylinder bore, a point of action of a resulting hydrostatic relieving force, which acts on the cylinder barrel, of the hydrostatic sliding bearing is spaced apart radially with regard to the rotational axis of the cylinder barrel further than a point of intersection of the longitudinal axis of the cylinder bore with the cylinder barrel-side bearing face of the hydrostatic sliding bearing.
US09638179B2

A liquid pumping system comprises a plurality of liquid pumps and a hydraulic drive unit. Each liquid pump is driven by a separate hydraulic cylinder. The hydraulic cylinders are powered by a shared hydraulic pump through a valve set. A valve set controller is configured to operate the valve set. A liquid pumping process comprises distributing an initial flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid between the hydraulic cylinders. The hydraulic cylinders move through a cycle in a phased relationship to provide a constant sum of flow rates from the liquid pumps. A membrane filtration system combines the liquid pumping system with a membrane unit. In a water treating process, feed water is pumped through the membrane unit. Brine from the membrane unit is returned to each liquid pump while that liquid pump is feeding water to the membrane unit.
US09638176B2

In one embodiment, the disclosed vortex generator may include a flap, a bearing configured to be mounted on a surface, an axle retained in the bearing, the flap attached to the axle such that the flap rotates relative to the bearing about the axle, and an actuator made of a shape memory alloy attached to the flap and to a support, the actuator shaped to receive the axle therethrough, such that a change in temperature of the actuator causes the actuator to rotate the flap relative to the bearing.
US09638168B2

A system and method for detecting ice on a rotor blade of a wind turbine are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method may include releasing a pitch brake of a pitch adjustment mechanism associated with the rotor blade, controlling the pitch adjustment mechanism so as to maintain the rotor blade at a fixed pitch angle, monitoring a pitch-related parameter of the wind turbine while the rotor blade is maintained at the fixed pitch angle, and analyzing the monitored pitch-related parameter to determine whether ice is present on the rotor blade.
US09638159B2

A laser spark plug configured to be installed into a plug shaft of an internal combustion engine, and to focus laser ignition energy into the combustion chamber via combustion chamber-side, and thus proximal end, of the laser spark plug has, at a distal end of the laser spark plug opposite to the proximal end, a connecting unit for detachable mechanical and thermal connection to a cooler, the connecting unit being designed to permit the connecting and the disconnecting of the cooler when the laser spark plug is installed in the plug shaft.
US09638156B2

A saddle-ride type vehicle includes a frame, an engine, a starter motor, a predetermined component, and a coupling member. The engine is supported by the frame. The starter motor is attached to the engine. The predetermined component is disposed adjacent to the starter motor. The coupling member couples the predetermined component to the starter motor.
US09638153B2

Methods and systems are provided for cooling a high pressure fuel pump. One method includes, when a spill valve is in a pass-through state, circulating fuel from a compression chamber of the high pressure fuel pump to a step room of the high pressure fuel pump. The fuel circulation through the step room may provide for a reduction in fuel temperature in the step room, and thus, the high pressure fuel pump.
US09638152B2

An electric heater for fuel of endothermal engines, in particular for fuel systems called “common rail” and the like, includes a heating part and a terminal adapted to be associated with one end of the hollow body of a fuel feeding duct; advantageously, the terminal is at least partly made of plastic material. A fuel feeding duct to which the heater is applied, as well as to a fuel warm-up device, are also provided.
US09638149B2

An air intake duct of a motorcycle forms an air intake passage for supplying an intake air to a supercharger. The air intake duct forms a curve portion and is connected to the supercharger. The air intake passage has a transverse cross-section which is shaped such that a dimension in an orthogonal direction that is orthogonal to a radial direction of the curve portion is gradually reduced from the center of the curve portion toward an outer side, in the radial direction, of the curve portion.
US09638146B2

A gasoline direct-injection engine is provided. The engine performs compression self-ignition combustion, and includes a cylinder, an injector, intake and exhaust ports, intake and exhaust valves, and an ozone generating system for generating ozone inside the cylinder. The system includes an electrode projecting into the cylinder while being partially electrically insulated from walls of the cylinder, and a high-voltage control device for applying a controlled pulse-shaped voltage to the electrode. When the voltage is applied, electric discharge occurs between the non-insulated part of the electrode and the walls of the cylinder, and ozone is generated inside the cylinder due to an effect of the electric discharge. A combustion pattern is provided, in which a compression stroke injection is performed and mixture gas formed by the fuel injection self-ignites to combust. When the combustion pattern is applied, the high-voltage control device is operated on intake stroke or the compression stroke.
US09638142B2

A vaporized fuel processing apparatus has a fuel tank, a canister configured to adsorb vaporized fuel, a vapor path connecting the canister to the fuel tank, a closing valve provided in the vapor path, a pressure sensor measuring inner pressure of the fuel tank, and an electric control unit connected with the closing valve and the pressure sensor. The electric control unit is configured to close or open the closing valve in order to initialize the closing valve or open the closing valve in order to release the vaporized fuel from the fuel tank. Further, the electric control unit is configured to detect failure of the closing valve depending on change in the inner pressure of the fuel tank within a predetermined time from when the closing valve is opened or is closed for initialization of the closing valve or release of the vaporized fuel from the fuel tank.
US09638135B2

A fuel system that in at least some implementations includes a carburetor having a fluid passage, a solenoid, a valve, a driver circuit and a control circuit. The valve may be moved by the solenoid between an open position permitting fluid flow through the fluid passage and a closed position at least partially inhibiting fluid flow through the fluid passage. The driver circuit and control circuit are communicated with the solenoid to contribute to providing power to the solenoid and controlling actuation of the solenoid. The driver circuit and control circuit provide a first magnitude of power to the solenoid to initially change the solenoid from its closed position to its open position and a second magnitude of power to maintain the solenoid in its open position wherein the second magnitude of power is less than the first magnitude.
US09638125B2

A control system of an engine is provided. The control system includes a deceleration fuel cutoff module for performing a deceleration fuel cutoff when a deceleration fuel cutoff condition is satisfied in an engine decelerating state, a purge unit for purging by supplying a purge gas to an intake passage during the deceleration fuel cutoff, an exhaust emission control catalyst provided in an exhaust passage, an O2 sensor provided at a position of the exhaust passage downstream of the exhaust emission control catalyst, an abnormality determining module for determining an abnormality of the exhaust emission control catalyst, and a purge restricting module for restricting the purge during an immediately previous deceleration fuel cutoff.
US09638123B2

A controller for an engine controls a throttle opening degree. The controller includes a target opening degree calculating section that selects either a primary request value for a throttle opening degree that corresponds to a torque request or a secondary request value that corresponds to another request and that calculates a target throttle opening degree from the selected one of the first and secondary request values. If the primary request value has been selected, an abnormality occurrence determining section determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred, in accordance with a magnitude of a deviation of the primary request value from the target throttle opening degree. If the secondary request value has been selected, the abnormality occurrence determining section determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred, in accordance with whether or not the target throttle opening degree is greater than or equal to a predetermined upper limit value.
US09638118B2

A natural gas system for an intake manifold of a dual fuel engine is provided. The natural gas system includes a heat exchanger configured to exchange heat with a first stream of natural gas passing therethrough. The natural gas system further includes a temperature regulating assembly positioned downstream of the heat exchanger with respect to the first stream of the natural gas. The temperature regulating assembly includes a conduit having an inlet and an outlet. The temperature regulating assembly also includes a supply line in selective fluid communication with the conduit. The temperature regulating assembly further includes a temperature sensing assembly provided within the conduit. Further, the introduction of the second stream is based on a temperature of the natural gas within the conduit.
US09638115B2

A control device of a multi-cylinder engine is provided. The device includes first and second auxiliary components. The first auxiliary component generates energy. The device includes an angular speed variation detecting device for detecting an angular speed variation of a crankshaft, and an auxiliary component control device for controlling drive loads of the first and second auxiliary components. When an engine load is low and the angular speed variation exceeds a predetermined threshold, the auxiliary component control device increases a total drive load of the auxiliary components. Here, if the drive load of the first auxiliary component is increasable, the drive load of the first auxiliary component is increased, and when this increase amount is insufficient, the drive load of the second auxiliary component is increased, whereas if the drive load of the first auxiliary component is not increasable, the drive load of the second auxiliary component is increased.
US09638113B2

A method for controlling an engine in a hybrid electric vehicle according to the present disclosure includes, in response to a drive motor being unavailable, commanding an engine power equal to the lesser of a first and a second power. The first power is sufficient to satisfy a driver wheel torque request at the current engine speed, and the second power corresponds to a maximum engine torque available at a target engine speed, where the target engine speed is selected to attain a desired battery state of charge.
US09638100B2

An engine can include at least one piston, a block, a fluid delivery system, and an output shaft. The block can define at least one cylinder. The piston can be received in the cylinder. The piston can be operable to reciprocally move rectilinearly while positioned in the cylinder. The fluid delivery system can be operable to communicate air and combustible fuel to the cylinder. The piston can be operable to compress the air and combustible fuel. The output shaft can be driven in motion by the piston and extend beyond the block to a distal end. The output shaft is limited to rectilinear movement.
US09638097B2

An exhaust-gas turbocharger (1) having a turbine housing (2) which has a turbine inlet (3) and a turbine outlet (4) and which connects a wastegate duct (5) between the turbine housing inlet (3) and the turbine housing outlet (4), which wastegate duct can be opened and closed via a shut-off element (6). The shut-off element is in the form of a piston (6) which is guided in a longitudinally displaceable manner in an interior space (14) of a guide (7), and the wastegate duct (5) opens into the interior space (14) transversely with respect to the longitudinal central line (L) of the guide (7).
US09638083B2

A connector element for connecting a pump assembly for use in a selective catalytic reduction system to a reagent supply of reagent fluid, the connector element comprising: a reagent flow passage arranged to receive reagent fluid at a first end from the reagent supply and to supply the reagent fluid via a second end to a reagent inlet port for reagent fluid on the pump assembly; a coolant passage for cooling fluid, the coolant passage arranged to be in communication with a coolant port on the pump assembly.
US09638079B2

An exhaust mixer provided may be used for mixing an additive, such as urea, in exhaust fluid flow. The exhaust mixer may be useful in reducing or preventing build-up of solid additive deposits by increasing efficiency of mixing of the additive. The exhaust mixer may be located at least partially within a mixing conduit and includes plurality of elongate mixing blades held in spaced configuration by a support. Each mixing blade may have a longitudinal axis extending along a longitudinal axis of the mixing conduit, wherein an injector module may be located upstream of the inlet of the mixing conduit.
US09638070B2

An engine includes a crankshaft, a piston coupled to the crankshaft, and a head positioned over the piston and cylinder. The head includes a first aperture therethrough profiled for a spark plug. The engine also includes at least one camshaft positioned in the head and a cam retainer positioned over the camshaft to retain the camshaft in the head. The cam retainer includes a second aperture profiled to at least partially overlie the first aperture. The cam retainer is in a sealed relation with the head at the interface of the first and second apertures. The engine also includes a valve cover receivable over the head and cam retainer and including a third aperture therethrough, the third aperture being profiled to at least partially overlie the second aperture, and the valve cover being in a sealed relation with the cam retainer at the interface of the second and third apertures.
US09638069B2

A cam carrier module for vehicles may include a cam carrier coupled with a cylinder head, an injector penetrating through the cam carrier and the cylinder head, and a sealing device provided between the cam carrier and the cylinder head and enclosing the injector to implement sealing of the injector.
US09638068B2

A method for energy storage and recovery is based on the liquid air energy storage (LAES) operated at the pressure relationship such that the pressure of discharge air is greater than the charge air to provide a high round-trip efficiency. External cold source and cold thermal energy storage are used in a LAES to achieve a decrease in the LAES capital costs. A demand for a supplemental cold energy provided by external sources may be minimized. These features alone or in combination may result in reduced power demand required for cooling.
US09638056B2

The present disclosure provides, in one embodiment, a unique gas turbine engine. Other embodiments include unique gas turbine engines, and unique active balancing systems; as well as apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for gas turbine engines and active balancing systems. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application will become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith.
US09638054B2

A steam turbine includes a turbine main body having blades supported rotatably, a steam channel which is connected to the turbine main body and in which steam flows, a regulating valve configured to linearly move to adjust opening/closing of the steam channel, and an opening/closing drive mechanism configured to drive the regulating valve. The opening/closing drive mechanism includes an electric motor configured to rotate by an electric power being supplied, a conversion mechanism configured to convert rotational motion of the electric motor into linear motion of the regulating valve, and a brake operated by regenerative energy of the electric motor.
US09638053B2

The invention relates to an axial flow turbine and method of operating thereof. The turbine comprises a last stage of rotating blades located towards a downstream end of the turbine having a distal region at an end of the airfoil of the blades. A monitoring control system has at least one sensor in the distal region of at least one last stage blade for measuring at least one physical property of the airfoil and a control element that is capable of influencing at least one physical property of the distal region. The control system further includes a controller that adjusts the control element based on at least measured physical property so by controlling the at least one physical property.
US09638049B2

A turbine engine blade includes an airfoil connected by a platform to a middle radial wall extending axially and prolonged radially inwards by a blade root that is mountable in a slot of a disk, and the platform and the middle radial wall defining two lateral cavities situated on either side of the middle radial wall and opening out circumferentially to receive scaling members. The cavities are open downstream with two fins projecting on either side of the middle radial wall at downstream end of the middle radial wall, the fins coming to bear against two adjacent teeth of the disk between which the slot is formed. The downstream end of the middle radial wall includes a setback extending between at least one rib of the platform and the fins.
US09638043B2

A method of through-thickness reinforcing a laminated material is disclosed, in which a reinforcing element is coated with a thermoplastic layer. The reinforcing element is inserted into a base material, and a matrix material, such as a polymeric, is included in the base material. The combination is then cured, or heated, such that the thermoplastic layer and the matrix material diffuse into each other, thereby forming an interphase region around the reinforcing element. This interphase region helps to prevent cracks from propagating from the reinforcing element.
US09638029B2

A communications path between a surface control system and downhole equipment includes a network of wirelessly interconnected communication devices that are located along a conduit. When the communications path fails or cannot be established during performance of a downhole operation, a mobile master communication tool that is in communication with the surface system can be deployed within the wireless range of one of the devices to provide an alternative communication path between the surface system and the downhole equipment. In other embodiments, the alternative communication path can be a temporary path to provide for communications before the network is fully deployed.
US09638023B2

Systems and methods for determining stresses in pipe under non-uniform exterior loads to test the pipe design for structural integrity by approximating non-uniform exterior loads on the pipe and performing a stress analysis of the pipe under the non-uniform exterior loading to determine the stresses in the pipe.
US09638021B2

A method can include providing a pump connected to a power cable with a smooth surface; providing a stuffing box with a valve configured to form a seal with the smooth surface of the power cable in a closed state and to form a passage for the pump as connected to the power cable in an open state; providing a lubricator; providing a blow-out protector with a valve configured to form a seal with the smooth surface of the power cable in a closed state and to form a passage for the pump as connected to the power cable in an open state; and controlling the states of the valves while lowering the pump via the power cable through the stuffing box, the lubricator, and the blow-out protector to position the pump into a bore of a well. Various other apparatuses, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.
US09638020B2

A method and system for steering a rotary steerable tool in a borehole. A method includes determining an azimuthal angle between a reference direction and a reference point on a direction determination component of a tool string. The direction control component is remote from the rotary steerable tool. The azimuthal angle and a time at which the angle was determined are communicated to a rotary steerable tool direction control system. A steerable shaft of the rotary steerable tool is deflected based on the azimuthal angle and the time at which the angle was determined, thereby directing the rotary steerable tool in a predetermined direction.
US09638019B2

A method for removal of a compound from a crude hydrocarbon gas stream to be obtained from a sub-sea well is disclosed. The method comprises bringing the crude hydrocarbon gas stream in contact with a treatment solution comprising an absorbent at least partly selective to the compound to be removed, thereby obtaining a rich treatment solution and a compound depleted gas stream, regenerating the treatment solution comprising the absorbent by desorbing the compound from the rich treatment solution, thereby obtaining a compound stream. The crude hydrocarbon gas stream is brought in contact with the treatment solution comprising the absorbent subsea, the compound depleted gas stream is obtained subsea, where as the regenerating of the rich treatment solution and obtaining the compound stream is performed topside Further a system for transporting a treatment fluid from a subsea treatment unit to a topside regeneration involving adding pressurized hot natural gas to the treatment fluid subsea as a lift gas and separating the natural gas from the treatment fluid topside before the treatment fluid enters the treatment unit is described.
US09638017B2

Batch initiation and/or exploitation phases of in situ solution mining of a mineral from an underground evaporite mineral stratum. The initiation phase may comprise a lifting step which employs a lithological displacement (lifting) of this stratum from an underlying non-evaporite stratum with application at the strata interface of a lifting hydraulic pressure greater than overburden pressure by a solvent suitable to dissolve the mineral; a soaking step for dissolution of mineral upon contact with stationary solvent, and a brine extraction step. The method may further comprise one or more exploitation phases carried out after the initiation phase. The exploitation phase may comprise a partial filing or filling step with the same solvent or different solvent than during lifting, another soaking step, and another brine extraction step. The lifting, cavity partial filing/filling, and brine extraction steps are being discontinuous. The evaporite mineral stratum preferably comprises trona.
US09638016B2

A method is provided for treating at least a portion of a subterranean formation. The method includes introducing a treatment fluid including a composite particle, which includes proppant incorporated into or attached to a swellable material and/or swellable materials, into a subterranean formation via a wellbore; and increasing the buoyancy of the composite particle including proppant by either mixing it with a treatment fluid or mixing it with a treatment fluid and triggering the swellable material and/or swellable materials to swell.
US09638013B2

A completion joint 100 has two sand control jackets 120A-B connected on each end of an intermediately-mounted inflow control device 130. Both jackets 120A-B communicate with a housing chamber 155 through dedicated open end-rings 140A-B. The basepipe's flow openings 118 are isolated from this housing chamber 155 by a sleeve 160 fitted with flow ports 170. The housing 150 is removable to allow access to the flow ports 170 for pinning to configure the ports 170 open or closed for a given implementation.
US09638011B2

A downhole tool includes an outer tubular member and an inner tubular member. The outer tubular member may have one or more screens coupled thereto, a packer coupled thereto, and a shunt tube isolation valve coupled thereto. A first sleeve may be coupled to the packer and move from a first position to a second position. The packer may actuate into a set state when the first sleeve is moved to the second position, and the packer may isolate first and second portions of an annulus from one another when in the set state. A shunt tube may be coupled to the packer and provide a path of fluid communication from the first portion of the annulus, through the packer, and to the second portion of the annulus when the packer is in the set state.
US09638009B2

A downhole power generation system includes a tubular power generation device configured to be disposed in an annular space around a portion of a production tubing, wherein the power generation device is switchable between a power generation mode and a bypass mode. The system also includes a power storage device electrically coupled to the tubular power generation device and configured to store power generated by the power generation device. The power generation device comprises at least one power generation path and at least one bypass path. The at least one power generation path comprises at least one power generation mechanism which generates power when traversed by fluid. The at least one power generation path is open in the power generation mode and closed in the bypass mode.
US09638007B2

An interlock device for connection within a load path of a tubular support device to lock the tubular support device in a closed position in response to detecting a load suspended from the tubular support device. The interlock device includes a first member moveably connected to a second member and a biasing mechanism operationally connected to the first member and the second member providing a load setting resisting movement of the first member and the second member relative to one another. The first and the second member may be rotationally locked with one another to transmit rotation across the interlock device to the elevator.
US09638005B2

A down-hole tool for pressure testing production tubing within a borehole of a well returning the well to production, includes an anti-rotational device comprising a tubular housing having a first end, a second end, an outer surface, and at least one anti-rotational wing disposed on the outer surface of the tubular housing, radially extendable to engage a radial surface of the borehole to anchor the production tubing thereto; a valve for controlling the flow of down-hole fluids within the production tubing, the valve comprising a first valve member fixedly positioned within the tubular housing of the anti-rotational device and a second valve member positionable between a closed position and an open position; and a reactivation device comprising means for axially engaging an axial surface of the borehole, the reactivation device affixed to the first end of the tubular housing, wherein the production tubing may be pressure tested when the valve is in the closed position.
US09638002B2

A disclosed reverse-out valve includes an upper mandrel, a lower mandrel movable with respect to the upper mandrel, and a reverse activated plug device arranged on the upper mandrel and including a piston arranged within a piston chamber of the upper mandrel and a prop extending longitudinally from the piston, wherein the piston chamber includes a first end and a second end, the reverse activated plug device further including a closure device movable between an open position where the piston is arranged at the first end and the prop holds the closure device open such that a reverse-circulation fluid is able to bypass the reverse activated plug device, and a closed position, where the piston is arranged at the second end and the prop is moved to allow the closure device to close and thereby prevent the reverse-circulation fluid from bypassing the reverse activated plug device.
US09637999B2

An isolation method is described for gravel packed zones separated by at least one packer and having an auxiliary conduit passing through the packer into adjacent zones. The conduit includes at least one each of a shunt tube, flow housing, annular space, and isolation valve housing. The flow housing, the annular space, and the isolation valve housing are all annular and formed between two concentric pipes. The method includes running in an assembly of screens isolated by at least one packer with at least one auxiliary conduit extending into adjacent zones defined by the packer when the packer is subsequently set. The method also includes closing flow in said conduit to prevent flow into shunt tubes during production based on creating a flow barrier in the annular space, the flow housing, or the isolation valve housing, the shunt tubes supplying slurry through the auxiliary conduit prior to the production.
US09637987B2

The present invention relates to a coring system and a determining method that can determine whether accurate coring was achieved. A coring system according to the present invention includes: a coring part with a core to be filled with an object to be cored; a driving unit controlling upward/downward movement of the coring part; a rope connecting the coring part with the driving unit; and a tensiometer measuring tension in the rope.
US09637985B2

Certain aspects are directed to a device designed to relieve compression in a length of pipe. The device provides a load ring that can absorb and isolate load until a shear sleeve is shifted and shear pins are sheared. A specific aspect provides a packer release compaction joint that has a shifting sleeve having a first internal shoulder configured to engage a shifting tool; a shear sleeve having a raised abutment; a load ring mounted on the shear sleeve, the load ring having an outer diameter and positioned forward of the first side of the raised abutment; a snap ring mounted around the outer diameter of the load ring. Action of a shifting tool against the first internal shoulder of the shifting sleeve causes the snap ring to move away from the load ring and move to the second side of the raised abutment.
US09637982B2

A percussion drilling apparatus is arranged to affect at least one characteristic of a shock wave produced in a drill string. The apparatus includes an elongate energy transmission adaptor having a shock wave modification sleeve configured with a free end and an attachment end projecting radially from an outer surface of the adaptor.
US09637980B2

A drill bit having a shank and a crown. The crown defines a central axis and has at least one fixed segment. Each fixed segment has a cutting face and a plurality of surface features that are continuous with a distal surface of the cutting face. The plurality of surface features and a distal portion of the cutting face of each segment are integrally formed of a selected matrix material, and each surface feature consists solely of the selected matrix material. The matrix of the selected matrix material is configured to erode to expose abrasive particles within the matrix.
US09637970B1

The present invention relates to a double breakout sliding door system for use in retail and other buildings. The system includes left and right doors that are configured to slide open and closed and also breakout in two directions (outward and inward) when a force is exerted on the doors in order to, for example, allow customers and employees to exit a building in the event of a fire and to prevent damage to the doors in the event that a user pushes on them when they are closed. The system also includes a leveling system configured to keep the doors level when they breakout and a ball detent mechanism to alert the user to the proper position of the doors.
US09637966B1

A cupboard has a body and an up-down louvered door. The door comprises a plurality of louvers, and a pair of lift racks to which the louvers are attached. The cupboard also includes a motor transmission apparatus, and two belts. When people need to open the door, the motor is actuated, whereby the lift racks lift and fold up, causing the louvers to fold up, and thus the door is opened. When people need to close the door, the motor is reversed, such that lift racks descend and extend, causing the louvers to extend, and thus the door is closed. The door can open adequately so as to facilitate taking out/putting in articles. No more space is occupied while opening the door, and the door is safe while closing. A small driving force can open/close the door.
US09637957B2

A remote lock assembly includes a housing and a bolt adapted for sliding linear movement within the housing between an extended position and a retracted position. A latch disposed within the housing is adapted to releasably hold the bolt in the retracted position. A trigger disengages the latch from the bolt when contacting the latch. The trigger is biased into a position extending out from the housing. A spring biases the bolt into the extended position.
US09637953B2

The invention relates to an actuation device for a motor vehicle door lock (1), comprising a handle (7), and a locking lever (10) which renders the handle (7) inactive when accelerating forces of a predetermined magnitude occur, for example, in the event of an accident. In the normal operation, the locking lever (10) is displaced when impinged upon by the handle (7) and the handle (7) is simply rendered inactive in the locked operation.
US09637952B2

The invention is directed to lock for a vehicle door arrangement, wherein a catch and a pawl are provided. The catch can be brought into an opening position and into a closed position, wherein the catch, which is in the closed position, is or may be brought into holding engagement with a lock striker. The pawl may be brought into an engagement position. A pawl actuation lever is provided for deflecting the pawl into the release position. A switchable coupling arrangement comprises a first coupling lever on the side of the pawl actuation lever, a second coupling lever on the side of the pawl and a moveable coupling element that may be moved into a closing position for a coupling engagement with the two coupling levers and into an opening position for decoupling the two coupling levers. The coupling element is arranged on one of the two coupling levers.
US09637947B2

Erectable shelter frame structures including a plurality of rib assemblies. Preferably, each rib assembly has a receptacle for receiving a respective end of a purlin arrangement, the other end of which is attached to a receptacle of a subsequent rib assembly. The joints include toggle clamps that assist in facilitating the ease by which the shelter structure can be assembled or disassembled. Methods of construction and disassembly of the shelter frame structure are also disclosed.
US09637943B2

A compressible stand for an awning support includes a base plate, a cover, guide posts extending upwardly from the base plate and downwardly from the cover, and a support plate configured with apertures receiving the guide posts in sliding engagement. The support plate supports a leg of the awning support. A biasing member tends to maintain the support plate and leg in a predetermined relationship with respect to the base plate under a normal load. When an additional load is placed on the support plate, the biasing member is compressed, and the support plate and leg are lowered. When the additional load is removed, the biasing member is decompressed, and the support plate and leg may return to their original positions.
US09637938B2

The invention relates to an anchoring system for a wall formwork and to a method for an assembly of the anchoring system: • the two wall formworks (1, 2, 3, 40) are set up opposite from each other, • an anchoring rod (4) with a graduation (21) is pushed through anchoring rod bores of the two wall formworks (1, 2, 3, 40) in such a way that the end of the anchoring rod (4) that has not been pushed through has the graduation (21), • the pushed-through end of the anchoring rod (4) is connected to a locking device (41) present on the rear side of the one formwork (40), • the end of the anchoring rod (4) that has not been pushed through is connected to the locking device (5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15) provided here in such a manner that this connection is aligned with the selected graduation, • the locking device aligned with the graduation is connected to the adjacent wall formwork (1, 2, 3).
US09637934B2

A composite clip for attaching decking. The clip includes a bottom and a top. The bottom is made of a first material. The top is made of a second material. The first material of the bottom is different than the second material of the top. The clip has a generally T shape in a side view with a central bore passing through the top member and the bottom member, and a series of posts that extend from the top surface of the bottom member to pass through a corresponding through bore in the top member.
US09637930B2

A removable handrail assistance device includes a bracket and a handle extension. The bracket may be affixed to a wall or other essentially immobile structure. The handle may be easily inserted into, or removed from, the bracket. The inserted handle extension is capable of supporting a user who holds onto the handle for support while, for example, climbing up or down one or more stairs. The bracket may be reversible, thereby allowing the handle to point in an opposite direction when inserted.
US09637927B2

A roof load support structure supports a load on a sloping metal panel roof such that substantially all of the load is conveyed through rails, which are mounted on roof panel ribs, then through the roof panel ribs, and to underlying building support structure. Minor portions of the load can be conveyed through an upper diverter and a lower closure. The upper diverter diverts water laterally away from the support structure, in two opposing directions to two opposing sides of the support structure.
US09637925B2

A strand chair for supporting a prestressing cable in a cement cast. The strand chair contains a lower cup for receipt of a lower prestressing cable as well as an upper cup for supporting an upper prestressing cable. The strand chair utilized the pressures of the stressed cables to support and position a reveal which runs along the casting bed. Furthermore, the strand chair supports the placement of rebar utilized in the cement casting.
US09637924B2

Reinforcing is disclosed comprising a reinforcing bar extending along a portion of the length of the reinforcing and a termination extending along an end portion of the reinforcing. The termination may have a body extending in a longitudinal direction and a lateral engagement face formed on the body. The engagement face may incorporate locking formations thereon arranged to interfit with a complementary shaped termination to form an interlock arranged to accommodate loading applied in the longitudinal direction.
US09637916B1

A work-station utilizes sound absorbing, translucent enclosure panels that allows light from outside of the work-station to enter. The translucent enclosure panels have an outside panel, and intermediate panel and an inside panel of a translucent plastic sheet material that form cells for dampening sound transmission through the enclosure panels. The inside panel has a plurality of apertures to allow sound to enter and be dissipated within the internal cells. A sound masking device is configured within the work-station and projects a dampening sound into the work-station, such as along the opening to work-station to produce a masking sound curtain for sound entering the work-station.
US09637915B1

A fire and/or water resistant expansion joint system for installation into a building joint in vertical and horizontal configurations is designed such that it can be used for either an inside or outside corner. The system comprises a core having a fire retardant infused therein. A layer of an elastomer is disposed on the core and is tooled to define a profile to facilitate the compression of the expansion joint system when installed between coplanar substrates. The system can be delivered to a job site in a pre-compressed state ready for installation into the building joint.
US09637909B1

A drain snake (4) with a ball (8, 42) on a forward end of a cable (6), the ball having a convex leading surface (36) with a protrusion (10, 44) designed to act as a foot that steps over the end (22, 30) of a pipe (24) in an elbow (26) as the snake is rotated (32). In an embodiment, the protrusion may terminate laterally at 60-150% of a maximum lateral extent (R, 37) of the ball or the protrusion may be limited to the lateral extent of the ball. The protrusion may form a rotationally asymmetric surface arrangement on the ball. The protrusion may have a forward cutting edge (48, 53) and may have a lateral cutting edge (52). The cable (6) may be designed to flex laterally while remaining substantially inelastic axially under manual feed and retraction forces.
US09637898B2

An assembly for undermounting a sink to a support surface includes a central sink support supporting a front center portion of a sink. The central sink support includes an elongated block member having an upper surface, a lower surface and extending sidewalls. The central sink support also includes first and second screw holes shaped and dimensioned for the passage of screws that will be secured to a front wall of a sink cabinet and a threaded locking pin hole with a similarly threaded locking screw. The assembly also includes a mounting driver having a support bar shaped and dimensioned for positioning between an underside of the sink and a wall of a cabinet at an angular orientation relative to the wall. The support bar includes a first end and a second end.
US09637893B2

A nut is employed to fix a faucet on a wash basin or a kitchen basin and contains an external driving member and an internal screwing member. The external driving member includes a cylindrical fence, an accommodating cavity, a first edge, and a second edge; the cylindrical fence has at least one limiting block and a griping face. The internal screwing member is fitted into and retained with the accommodating cavity and includes an annular cliff, a through orifice, a third edge, and a fourth edge; the annular cliff has plural slots longitudinally extending and isometrically arranged to the fourth edge from the third edge so as to define a plurality of flexible retaining portions, each having an inner threaded section; the annular cliff also has at least one longitudinal recess for retaining with the at least one limiting block of the external driving member and has a contacting fringe.
US09637886B2

A bag constructed of a weed suppression material for packaging a ground cover material. When the bag is in a closed configuration, the bag serves as a container for shipping, handling, and storage of the ground cover material. When the bag is opened and unfolded, and the ground cover material within the bag is spread over the opened and unfolded bag, the bag serves as a layer of weed suppression material on top of underlying soil and beneath the ground cover. In addition, the bag may be used for planting individual plants in a planting bed, for establishing a buffer zone around the foundation of a building, or for controlling erosion around a downspout of a building.
US09637878B2

A hazard alert assembly for alerting an observer to a hazard includes a base structured to retain a flare on a support surface so the flare is visible to an observer. A frame is coupled to the base so the frame may be visible to the observer. The frame alerts the observer to a hazard. An arrow is coupled to the frame so the arrow is may indicate a direction the observer should travel to avoid the hazard.
US09637853B2

A washing machine capable of manipulating a balancer with a simple manipulation, and a balancer thereof, the washing machine including a rotating tub configured to accommodate a laundry while being rotatably disposed on a shaft, at least one mass mounted on the rotating tub so as to move in a circumferential direction of the rotating tub, thereby offsetting an unbalanced load of the rotating tub, at least one wire extending along the circumferential direction of the rotating tub and coupled to the at least one mass, and at least one driving unit coupled to the at least one wire and configured to rotate the at least one mass in the circumferential direction of the rotating tub.
US09637850B2

A method for spreading a textile sheet where the sheet is caused to run between at least two rotary rollers, the axes of which extend parallel to each other and substantially perpendicular to the running direction of sheet. The sheet under pressure is caused to pass between at least one pressure generator of the rollers driven into axial oscillation and in phase opposition. At least one pressure generator of the rollers has adjustable pressure values along the generator in order to spread the sheet with a low thickness variability.
US09637848B2

A bendable straight knitting needle consisting of three parts (1,2,3) that provides ergonomic benefit by enabling bending of the needle during stitch/loop creation by the knitter typically done with two knitting needles, one in each hand. The addition of a bendable portion to the standard conventional straight knitting needle would allow flexible knitting motion with enhanced comfort and better ease of knitting in a tight space.
US09637845B2

A ripstop fabric having multi-component polyester filament yarns interwoven into spun yarns in a ripstop pattern.
US09637843B2

A stainless wire that does not have a crystal grain of 200 nm or greater in maximum length in a surface normal to a fiber axis within a range of 1 μm square from a center of a diameter in a cross section normal to a fiber axial direction is used as the stainless wire that forms a fabric material.
US09637841B2

A fiber for artificial hair that has an improved appearance with a suppressed gloss is obtained by combining regenerated collagen fibers having different shapes in cross section. An artificial hair product using the same is provided. The fiber for artificial hair according to the present invention is obtained by combining fibers having different shapes in cross section. The fiber for artificial hair includes regenerated collagen fibers, and the regenerated collagens fibers include at least two types of regenerated collagen fibers whose cross-sectional shapes are selected from the group consisting of shapes including an elliptical shape, a circular shape, and a multifoil shape. The artificial hair product of the present invention includes the above-described fiber for artificial hair.
US09637833B2

A copper plating solution which contains compounds with the structure —X—S—Y— where X and Y are, independently of each other, atoms selected from a group consisting of hydrogen, carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen, and X and Y can be the same only if they are carbon atoms and aliphatic semialdehydes. By using this copper electroplating solution it is possible to form good filled vias without worsening the appearance of the plating.
US09637832B2

A method for recovering heavy metals and rare earth elements from fly ash, coal ash, and unrefined mineral ores containing rare earth metals using an ionic liquid and an organic acid to solubilize the metals. The solubilized components are removed from the ionic liquid by electrochemical deposition. The heavy metals and rare earth elements are deposited onto an electrode, and then purified via electrochemical processing.
US09637830B2

Photocatalytic structures having a capillary-force based electrolyte delivery system are provided. Also provided are photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic cells incorporating the structures and methods for using the cells to generate hydrogen and/or oxygen from water. The photocatalytic structures use an electrolyte-transporting strip comprising a porous network of cellulose nanofibers to transport electrolyte from a body of the electrolyte to a porous photoelectrode or a porous photocatalytic substrate via capillary force.
US09637826B2

A steel sheet for containers that has excellent film adhesion qualities, and has; a chemical conversion coating formed by immersing or subjecting to electrolytic treatment a steel sheet in a solution containing Zr ions, F ions, with adhesion amount of 0.1 to 100 mg/m2 for metal Zr and no more than 0.1 mg/m2 for F; and a hydroxyl acid treatment layer formed on the chemical conversion coating, the layer having a C adhesion amount of 0.05 to 50 mg/m2.
US09637822B2

A susceptor apparatus for use in a CVD reactor includes a main platter with a central gear. The main platter has opposite first and second sides, a central recess formed in the second side, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced-apart pockets formed in the first side. The central gear is positioned within the central recess and the satellite platters are individually rotatable within the respective pockets. Each pocket has a peripheral wall with an opening in communication with the central recess. The central gear teeth extend into each of the pockets via the respective wall openings and engage a planet gear associated with each satellite platter. Rotation of the main platter about its rotational axis causes the satellite platters to rotate about their individual rotational axes.
US09637816B2

Provided are a mask assembly, an apparatus for manufacturing a display apparatus, and a method of manufacturing the display apparatus. The mask assembly includes a mask comprising an opening having a pattern; and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) that is coated on at least a portion of the mask.
US09637811B2

An iron-based sintered sliding member consists of, by mass %, 0.1 to 10% of Cu, 0.2 to 2.0% of C, 0.03 to 0.9% of Mn, 0.52 to 6.54% of S, and the balance of Fe and inevitable impurities. The iron-based sintered sliding member satisfies the following First Formula in which [S %] represents mass % of S and [Mn %] represents mass % of Mn in the overall composition. The iron-based sintered sliding member exhibits a metallic structure in which pores and sulfide particles are dispersed in the matrix that includes a martensite structure at not less than 50% by area ratio in cross section. The sulfide particles are dispersed at 3 to 30 vol. % with respect to the matrix. [S %]=0.6×[Mn %]+0.5 to 6.0  First Formula
US09637807B1

A method of preparing metal nanoparticles using an extract of desert truffles (Terfeziaceae) includes providing an aqueous solution including a metal salt; and combining an extract of Terfeziaceae with the aqueous metal salt solution to produce the metal nanoparticles. The metal salt can be silver nitrate (AgNO3) and the metal nanoparticles can be silver nanoparticles. The metal nanoparticles can have a mean diameter in the range of from about 5 nm to about 100 nm. The silver nanoparticles can be used as an antimicrobial agent and/or an anti-parasitic agent.
US09637792B2

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for determination of and uses of specific methylation patterns indicative of adenoma and carcinoma. In particular, the invention relates to analysis of defined CpG loci that are coordinately methylated in DNAs from cancer and adenoma samples, methods for identifying coordinately methylated loci, and methods of using analysis of coordinately methylated loci in one or more marker regions in the design of assays for adenoma and cancer.
US09637782B2

Mitigation of photo-induced damage in excitation illuminated reactions and analyses utilizing such reactions results in an enhanced performance for the reactions and the analyses. There is provided a novel class of triplet-state quenchers for mitigating photo-induced damage which are both simple in structure and effective at preventing and/or reducing photo-induced damage to reaction components of excitation illuminated reaction mixtures. Also provided are methods of using the compounds of the invention, devices and kits incorporating the compounds of the invention.
US09637780B2

A hot start enzyme composition is described that includes a hot start nuclease, a nucleic acid polymerase, and a substantially double-stranded oligonucleotide that inhibits the catalytic activity of the nucleic acid polymerase at temperatures lower than the melting temperature of the oligonucleotide.
US09637770B2

Provided is a biosensor including a scaffold and a dye complex, the dye complex including a clay material associated with a dye material, where the dye complex is at least partially embedded in the scaffold. Also provided is a process for preparing the biosensor, an apparatus including the biosensor and methods for detecting viable microorganisms in an aqueous fluid test sample making use of the biosensor, for predicting biofouling in a fluid flowing system and for determining a concentration of disinfectant required to disinfect an aqueous fluid.
US09637767B2

Disclosed is a method for preparing a mixture of malto-oligosaccharides. Generally, a dry-milled corn fraction, such as a corn flour from which germ and fiber have been removed, is subjected to hydrolysis, typically catalyzed with acid or an enzyme such as an α-amylase enzyme, under conditions suitable to form a mixture of malto-oligosaccharides. A gluten fraction is removed and the enzyme is inactivated, such as with heat. The mixture of malto-oligosaccharides then may be recovered from remaining solids and purified.
US09637764B2

This document describes biochemical pathways for producing pimelic acid, 7-aminoheptanoic acid, 7-hydroxyheptanoic acid, heptamethylenediamine or 1,7-heptanediol by forming two terminal functional groups, comprised of carboxyl, amine or hydroxyl group, in a C7 aliphatic backbone substrate. These pathways, metabolic engineering and cultivation strategies described herein rely on the carbon chain elongation enzymes or homologs thereof associated with the cyclohexane carboxylate biosynthesis from Syntrophus aciditrophicus or 2-aminoadipate lysine biosynthesis.
US09637763B2

The invention relates to the production of aromatic molecules in prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts such as E. coli, yeasts, filamentous fungi, algae, microalgae, other plant cells.
US09637757B2

The present invention relates to a tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum L.) which may comprise a genetic determinant that confers resistance to Pepino Mosaic Virus (PepMV), wherein the resistance is characterized by the presence of at least QTL1 and/or QTL2. The invention also relates to sources for obtaining said genetic determinant, representative seed of which were deposited with the NCIMB under accession numbers NCIMB 41927, NCIMB 41928, NCIMB 42068, and NCIMB 42069. The invention further relates to seeds and progeny of the plant and to its fruits and processed fruits. In addition the invention relates to molecular markers linked to PepMV resistance conferring QTLs and the use thereof.
US09637756B2

The present invention relates to isolated nucleic acid molecules and their corresponding encoded polypeptides able confer the trait of improved plant size, vegetative growth, growth rate, seedling vigor and/or biomass in plants challenged with saline conditions. The present invention further relates to the use of these nucleic acid molecules and polypeptides in making transgenic plants, plant cells, plant materials or seeds of a plant having plant size, vegetative growth, growth rate, seedling vigor and/or biomass that are improved in saline conditions with respect to wild-type plants grown under similar conditions.
US09637748B2

The present invention provides novel C. botulinum conjugatively transmissible plasmids and methods of use thereof. Specifically, described herein are novel, conjugatively transmissible clostridial plasmids which are capable of being transferred among and between clostridial species. The novel plasmids of the present invention therefore permits the delivery of heterologous clostridial genes into a clostridial host, such as C. botulinum, and the expression of genes of interest in that host, including clostridial toxins and the nontoxigenic components of the toxin complex, toxin fragments, or antigenic portions thereof, in a way both that ensures abundant expression and facilitates purification. Furthermore, toxins with altered structures, chimeric, hybrid toxins, and other toxin derivatives valuable in medicine could be synthesized in this system.
US09637746B2

The invention pertains to a method for preparing cells that can be used as biocatalysts by inducing in them a growth-decoupled state, in which interferase inhibits the expression of genes except the ones that code for the pathway enzymes of interest. mRNAs that code for interferase-resistant products are overexpressed in the background of a metabolically-frozen cell. Enzymes that compete for a substrate or product of the pathway of interest may be altered such that the enzyme is sensitive to a site-specific protease, which protease is inducible in the host cell.
US09637739B2

Isolation or in vitro assembly of the Cas9-crRNA complex of the Streptococcus thermophilus CRISPR3/Cas system and use for cleavage of DNA bearing a nucleotide sequence complementary to the crRNA and a proto-spacer adjacent motif. Methods for site-specific modification of a target DNA molecule using an RNA-guided DNA endonuclease comprising at least one RNA sequence and at least one of an RuvC active site motif and an HNH active site motif; for conversion of Cas9 polypeptide into a nickase cleaving one strand of double-stranded DNA by inactivating one of the active sites (RuvC or HNH) in the polypeptide by at least one point mutation; for assembly of active polypeptide-polyribonucleotides complex in vivo or in vitro; and for re-programming a Cas9-crRNA complex specificity in vitro or using a cassette containing a single repeat-spacer-repeat unit.
US09637737B2

The present invention provides a novel technique by which the redox activity of a nucleic acid molecule can be evaluated. An evaluation method of the present invention includes: a detection step of electrochemically detecting a redox reaction to a substrate, the redox reaction being catalyzed by a nucleic acid molecule to be evaluated, using a device that electrochemically detects a redox reaction; and an evaluation step of evaluating redox activity of the nucleic acid molecule from a result of the detection of the redox reaction. As the device, a device in which a base provided with a detection portion is included, the detection portion includes an electrode system, and the nucleic acid molecule to be evaluated is arranged on the base is used. In the present invention, it is preferred that a plurality of kinds of nucleic acid molecule to be evaluated is arranged on the base, and the plurality of kinds of nucleic acid molecules to be evaluated is evaluated by a single device.
US09637733B2

A reagent supply device includes a plurality of chambers which are separated from each other such that different reagents may be injected, the plurality of chambers having bottom surfaces made of a membrane, the membrane comprising a destruction pattern which is formed at a position corresponding to each of the plurality of chambers and breachable by an external impact to discharge the injected reagent from the chamber.
US09637732B2

Provided is a method of improving the efficiency of iPS cell establishment, comprising bringing one or more factors selected from the group consisting of proteins belonging to cyclin D family and nucleic acids that encode the same into contact with a somatic cell, in the step of nuclear reprogramming of the somatic cell. Also provided are a method of producing an iPS cell comprising the step of bringing the factor(s) and nuclear reprogramming substance(s) into contact with a somatic cell, an iPS cell comprising a nucleic acid that encodes a protein belonging to cyclin D family that can be obtained by the method of producing an iPS cell, and a method of somatic cell production by forcing the iPS cell to differentiate.
US09637722B2

A polyurethane porous membrane is produced by a simple method to be used for at least one of applications of cell culture and cancer cell growth inhibition. The production method of the polyurethane porous membrane to be used for at least one of the applications of cell culture and cancer cell growth inhibition comprises: a first step of forming a layer of a polyurethane material which is uncured, on a substrate; and a second step of supplying water vapor to an exposed surface of the layer of the polyurethane material formed on the substrate, which is away from the substrate, so as to cure the polyurethane material and provide the layer of the polyurethane material with a porous structure having a plurality of irregularities on the exposed surface.
US09637720B2

The invention relates to a method for multiplying a strain of Trichoderma, which includes the preparation of substantially contaminant-free culture media, containing disinfected wood fibers obtained by means of a twin-screw extruder, the amplification of Trichoderma via a series of steps for manufacturing a primary inoculum and then a secondary inoculum from said primary inoculum, and the multiplication of the microorganisms in each step, wherein the multiplication of the propagules reaches 2×104 to 105.The invention also relates to a plant growing medium containing a secondary inoculum of Trichoderma.
US09637719B2

This invention relates to devices and methods for purifying biological cells. For example, viable tumor, stem, immune and sperm cells can be purified from a complex biological sample using a column, including a pipette tip column. Cells can be purified in a sealed chromatographic system. Methods of the invention can aid research, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
US09637717B2

A system and method for compartmentalizing micro-carriers in a bioreactor includes a container configured to store micro-carriers and a vessel configured to contain a fluid so as to prevent the micro-carriers from entering the vessel during sterilization, shipping, storage, or other pre-use handling of the system. One or more addition lines connect the container and the vessel such that the vessel is in fluid communication with the vessel. The one or more addition lines are contactable by at least one blocking element configured to reversibly block fluid flow between the container and the vessel. The container, addition lines, and vessel are configured to allow the micro-carriers to be injected into the vessel at any point during a cell culture run. The vessel may also include a rotatable wheel, a harvest port configured to allow for the removal of the micro-carriers from the vessel, and a media removal port comprising a retention screen for removing spent medium.
US09637701B2

A method for preparing a ketone group-containing estolide compound and a ketone group-containing estolide compound prepared thereby are disclosed. The method for preparing a ketone group-containing estolide compound includes converting biomass fat into a fatty acid; separating the fatty acid into a C16 saturated fatty acid and a C18 unsaturated fatty acid; increasing an amount of oleic acid through partial hydrogenation of the C18 unsaturated fatty acid; synthesizing a C35 ketone through ketonization of the oleic acid; and performing estolide bonding by capping the C16 saturated fatty acid onto the C35 ketone.
US09637697B2

This application relates to the polymorphism and microstructure of certain triacylglycerols and fatty acid methyl esters, and how the properties of these individual components in a biodiesel fuel, as well as their combined mixtures, helps understand the fundamental mechanisms of their crystallization so as to design biodiesel fuels with improved low temperature characteristics.
US09637694B2

The invention relates to a process for upgrading pyrolysis tar, such as steam cracker tar, in the presence of a utility fluid. The utility fluid contains 2-ring and/or 3-ring aromatics and has solubility blending number (SBN)≧120. The invention also relates to the upgraded pyrolysis tar and to the use of the upgraded pyrolysis tar, for example, for fuel oil blending.
US09637690B2

An oxidative treatment system, e.g., oxidative desulfurization or denitrification, is provided in which the oxidant is produced in-situ using an aromatic-rich portion of the original liquid hydrocarbon feedstock. The process reduces or replaces the need for the separate introduction of liquid oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide, organic peroxide and organic hydroperoxide in an oxidative treatment process.
US09637689B2

A process is described for reducing the total acid number of a refinery feedstock. In one embodiment, refinery feedstock containing naphthenic acids is contacted with an effective amount of solid catalyst in the presence of an aqueous caustic base, wherein the caustic base is sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, for a period of time sufficient to neutralize at least a portion of the naphthenic acids in the feedstock. Thereafter, the aqueous phase is separated from the neutralized refinery feedstock. In another embodiment catalyst is pretreated with a caustic base solution and contacted with refinery feedstock to reducing the total acid number.
US09637679B2

Compounds comprising multiple hydrophilic heads and a lipophilic tail may be contacted with a metal or other surface so as to adhere to the surface and inhibit corrosion, among other things. Suitable hydrophilic heads may include quaternary ammonium cation moieties, phosphonium cation moieties, and combinations thereof. Such corrosion-inhibiting compounds may be introduced into a wellbore penetrating at least a portion of a subterranean formation, for instance in oil and/or gas recovery operations and the like, whereupon the compound may adhere to a metal or other surface downhole so as to inhibit corrosion of the surface. These compounds may be employed in various other environments, such as any metal or other surface that may be exposed to corrosive conditions.
US09637672B2

A polyester resin composition comprising: 100 parts by mass of a polyester resin having at least 50% by mass of a glycolic acid resin; and from 0.5 to 50 parts by mass of a carboxylic acid anhydride.
US09637671B2

A composite is characterized by particulates of sand wherein at least a portion of the surface of the particulates is coated with a polycationic polymer. The presence of the polycationic polymer on the surface of the particulates reduces the amount of dust generated during handling and use of the sand. The polycationic polymer further reduces the amount of dust generated during transport of the sand as well during manufacture, treatment or processing of the sand.
US09637668B2

The invention relates to a two-component polyurethane adhesive having high strength and elasticity at a particularly low glass transition temperature, suitable as a structural adhesive. The adhesive according to the invention contains a triol, a diol, a polyamine, a polyisocyanate and a polyurethane polymer having isocyanate groups in certain ratios, and a Fe(III) or Ti(IV) or Zr(IV) or Hf(IV) chelate-complex-catalyst.
US09637663B2

A plasticized ultraviolet or electron beam (UV/EB) cationically cured coating, such as a release layer or print from UV/EB cured inks, comprises polymers with a reactive plasticizer incorporated therein. The cured coating contains the plasticizing additives permanently attached to the polymer matrix, locking them in place, and permanently flexibilizing the cured coating. The cured coating finds use on varied substrates including printable substrates used in conventional printers and those with release layers for adhesive labels. Coating formulations which form these cationically cured coatings comprise cationically polymerizable monomers and/or oligomers, a reactive plasticizer which is food grade, cosmetic grade, medical grade or biologically benign when incorporated in the polymer backbone, and a catalyst.
US09637645B2

The present invention relates to an item having anti-soiling properties and intended for aquatic, and particularly ocean use, and to a method for slowing the growth of aquatic organisms on submersible or semi-submersible structures.
US09637640B2

The invention relates to a method for coating the surface of inorganic solid particles in an aqueous suspension. The untreated particles, particularly TiO2 base material, are made into an aqueous suspension and subsequently disagglomerated. According to the invention, a disagglomerated suspension of untreated particles is fed (recirculated) from an intermediate vessel (vessel) in a cyclic process. The intermediate vessel contains a high-speed agitator preferably having a minimum peripheral speed of 15 m/s or a specific agitator capacity P/V of at least 30 W/m3. A pipeline mixer (e.g. inline disperser) based on the rotor/stator principle is furthermore installed in the circuit. The water-soluble precursor compounds of the coating substances, and equally any necessary pH-controlling substances, are metered into the pipeline mixer. This leads to surface coatings with greater smoothness (low specific surface area according to BET), improved density (low sulphuric-acid solubility), and less coating substance precipitated separately (improved gloss).
US09637636B2

A manufacturing process for rice husk fiber synthetic resin powder includes grinding rice husks into rice husk powder, feeding the powder into a mixer, adding and uniformly mixing cellulose, starch, and water, removing and cooling the mixture into rice husk fiber powder; additionally putting natural resin and lignin into a reaction kettle, adding water and agitating uniformly into slurry, adding nano-silica and continuing agitating evenly, and after cooling, adding the rice husk fiber powder and continuing the agitation, cooling and removing the mixture, thus obtaining a paste material; and injecting the paste material into a flash drier to produce rice husk fiber synthetic resin powder. The rice husk fiber synthetic resin powder can be used to make rice husk fiber products such as tableware, toys, furniture and kitchenware that have good physical properties and are degradable into organic fertilizer, thereby being environmentally friendly and commercially promising.
US09637634B2

The present invention relates to flame-retardant, impact-modified polycarbonate (PC) compositions and molding compositions which have good mechanical properties, good resistance to chemicals and high hydrolytic stability.The present application additionally relates to the use of the compositions in the production of molded articles, and to molded articles produced from the compositions.
US09637633B2

A resin composition includes a polyester resin, an alloyed resin of a polycarbonate resin and an acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber-styrene resin, and an acrylic block copolymer containing a polymer block containing an acrylic acid ester monomer unit and a polymer block containing a methacrylic acid ester monomer unit, wherein a weight ratio of a content of the polyester resin and a content of the alloyed resin is in a range of 5:95 to 50:50, and wherein a content of the acrylic block copolymer is in a range of 0.5% by weight to 10% by weight with respect to a total of the content of the polyester resin and the content of the alloyed resin.
US09637626B2

Disclosed is a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composition that comprises at least a first high density polyethylene component having a density of 0.940-0.968 g/cm3 and a melt index I2.16 of 0.5-10.0 dg/min and a melt flow ratio (flow index I21.6 at 190° C. divided by melt index I2.16 at 190° C.) of at least 25. A second HDPE component may be included in the composition with melt index I2.16 of greater than 10 dg/min and melt flow ratio of 30 or less. The disclosed compositions are suitable for use in living hinge closure applications.
US09637620B2

A pigment and method for making a pigment comprising a milled elastomer, wherein the milled elastomer has a D50 particle size of between about 5 and about 50 microns. A coating of the pigment has a smoothness of about 3 or less. The pigment is prepared by providing an elastomer; and milling the elastomer in the presence of milling media and solvent at a temperature from about 30° C. to about 70° C. The elastomer is insoluble in the solvent. The method for preparing the pigment from an elastomer comprises the steps of: providing an elastomer; and milling the elastomer in a media mill in the presence of milling media and solvent at a temperature from about 30° C. to about 70° C. The diameter of the milling media is from about 0.5 mm to about 10 mm, and the elastomer is insoluble in the solvent.
US09637617B2

Disclosed are an environmentally-friendly anti-cracking, anti-corrosive and waterproof material and a preparation method therefor, which may solve the following problems of the existing waterproof and anti-corrosive materials: a single function, a poor property, a high cost and a short service life. The waterproof material in the present invention consists of the following components in weight parts: 5-15 parts of synthetic polyester resin, 3-6 parts of penetrant, 1-3 parts of cellulose fiber, 0.1-0.3 parts of cellulose ether, 75-85 parts of solvent. A preparation method of the above waterproof material is also provided. The formulation used in the present invention can have the effects of efficiently protecting indoors and outside, and be used for penetration resistant, waterproof, moisture proof, mildew proof, anti-corrosive, acid and alkali resistant, oil leaking resistant, corrosion resistant, freezing and thawing resistant, anti-cracking, weather and aging resistant, and fouling resistant penetration-type waterproof, anti-corrosive indoors and outside corrosion resistant engineering.
US09637616B2

A resin composition includes a non-substituted cellulose resin having a weight average molecular weight in a range of 10,000 to 75,000.
US09637602B2

The present invention relates to a new biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film, a process for the preparation of such film as well as the use of a polypropylene for the preparation of such film and an article comprising such film.
US09637588B2

A film comprising a copolyester wherein said copolyester comprises repeating units derived from an aliphatic glycol, an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, and a comonomer (M) selected from the group consisting of N,N′-bis-(2-hydroxyalkyl)-bicyclo-[2,2,2]-oct-7-ene-2,3,5,6-tetracarboxylic diimide (BODI) and 2-hydroxyalkyl-2-[p-(2-hydroxyethoxycarbonyl)phenyl]-1,3-dioxo-2H-isoindole-5-carboxylate (DOIC), wherein the number of carbon atoms is the 2-hydroxyalkyl group is 2, 3 or 4, and wherein comonomer (M) constitutes a proportion of the glycol fraction of the copolyester.
US09637587B2

Disclosed is a method to prepare a polylactic acid comprising the steps of performing a ring opening polymerization using a catalyst and either a catalyst killer compound or an endcapping additive to obtain a raw polylactic acid of MW greater than 10,000 g/mol, purifying the raw polylactic acid by removing and separating low boiling compounds comprising lactide and impurities from the raw polylactic acid by devolatization of the low boiling compounds as a gas phase stream, and purifying the lactide from the devolatization and removing the impurities from the gas phase stream of evaporated low boiling compounds by means of crystallization by desublimation from the gas phase, wherein the lactide is purified and the removed impurities include a catalyst residue and a compound containing at least one hydroxyl group such that the purified lactide is then polymerized by feeding it back into the ring opening polymerization. The invention further relates to an apparatus for carrying out the method comprising a polymerization reactor for performing a ring opening polymerization to obtain a raw polylactic acid, a devolatization apparatus for separating low boiling compounds comprising lactide and impurities from a raw polylactic acid, and a crystallization apparatus for purifying a lactide and removing impurities by means of a desublimation and a crystallization in the same crystallization apparatus.
US09637573B2

A polymer reactor-blend comprising at least a first component having a polydispersity index of greater than about 20 and is present in an amount of from about 1 wt. % to about 99 wt. % based on the total weight of the polymer and a second component having a polydispersity index of less than about 20 and is present in an amount of from about 1 wt. % to about 99 wt. % based on the total weight of the polymer wherein a molecular weight distribution of the second component lies within a molecular weight distribution of the first component.
US09637566B2

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a supported metallocene catalyst, and a method for preparing polyolefin using the same, in which the supported metallocene catalyst prepared from the simple process according to the method for preparing the supported metallocene catalyst of the present invention can apply to the polymerization of the polyolefin that is polymerized at low pressure or high pressure; the molecular weight distribution of polyolefin prepared can be easily controlled; and there are effects such that its catalyst activity is significantly higher than that of the existed supported metallocene catalyst, and the molecular weight distribution can be easily controlled.
US09637548B2

The present invention relates to the identification of nucleic acid and amino acid sequences that are characteristic of colorectal, in particular colonic, and gastric tumor tissues and colorectal, in particular colonic, and gastric tissues, and which represent targets for therapy or diagnosis of such tumor diseases in a subject.
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