US09961564B2

A terminal for communicating with at least one communication device is disclosed. A terminal according to the present invention comprises an antenna unit having at least one antenna; and a controlling unit for: determining at least one communication device; determining an antenna individual operation mode of each of the at least one antennas; determining at least one antenna for communication with each of the at least one communication devices from among the at least one antennas; determining a combination operation mode of an antenna set which includes at least two antennas for each of some or all of the communication devices performing communication using the antenna set when communication is performed using at least two antennas for each of some or all of the at least one communication devices; and controlling transmission and reception of data with at least one communication device by using at least one antenna for communication with each of the at least one communication devices according to an antenna individual operation mode of each antenna or to the antenna individual operation mode of each antenna and a combination operation mode of an antenna set for each communication device.
US09961563B2

The invention discloses a small cell base station system, and related devices and data processing methods, and the small cell base station system includes an extended small cell base station and at least one distributed component, where the extended small cell base station includes a network protocol processing module, an upper layer protocol processing module, a physical layer protocol processing module, a first baseband data processing module, and a first transceiver module; and the distributed component includes a second baseband data processing module and a second transceiver module, where in the downlink, the first baseband data processing module separates downlink baseband data into at least two branches, performs a data alignment operation on the at least two branches of downlink baseband data, sends one of the branches to the first transceiver module, and Ethernet encapsulates and then sends the remaining branches to the second transceiver module through the second baseband data processing module of the distributed component, thus extending a coverage area of the small cell base station system.
US09961560B2

Historical context information that includes data from communications of one or more mobile devices is collected. The historical context information includes at least one of communication environment, communication parameter estimates, mobile device statistics, mobile device transmit settings, base station receiver settings, past network statistics and settings, and adjacent network node information statistics and settings. A predictive model for network communications is determined based on the historical context information. A communication context for a first mobile device different than the one or more mobile devices is determined. The first device is scheduled and/or network parameters are set based on the determined predictive model. Actual results are compared to expected results and the predictive model is adjusted based on the comparison.
US09961556B2

A system for controlling a contention state for a communication link between a base station controller and customer premises equipment in point-to-multipoint communication. The contention state is controlled using a state machine, which includes a grant pending absent state in which a unicast request slot is maintained open for use by the customer premises equipment. During the grant pending absent state, the customer premises equipment sends no upstream data to the base station controller but can use the unicast request slot to request a data slot for sending upstream data to the base station controller. In the grant pending state, the customer premises equipment preferably uses piggybacking to request grant of a next data slot while sending upstream data to the base station controller.
US09961552B2

Technology is disclosed for preventing classification of objects, e.g., in an augmented reality system. The technology can identify a set of objects to be classified, determine whether context information for one or more objects in the identified set of objects to be classified is identified as not to be employed during classification, and during classification of two different objects, include context information for one object but not the other.
US09961548B2

A hotspot provides an open wireless network and a secure wireless network. The open wireless network has no network-level encryption and allows open association therewith. The secure wireless network employs network-level encryption and requires authentication of a received access credential from a client device before allowing association therewith. A system for authorizing the client device for secured access at the hotspot includes an access controller configured to establish an encrypted connection between the client device and a login portal of the hotspot over the open wireless network, and to store a user-specific access credential transmitted via the encrypted connection as a valid access credential in a credential database. The credential database is accessed by wireless access points of the hotspot to authenticate the received access credential from the client device in response to a request from the client device to associate with the secure wireless network.
US09961542B2

The embodiments herein provide a method and system for creating a secure connection for a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless network including a UE, carrier aggregated with at least one first serving frequency served by a first eNB and at least one second serving frequency served by a second eNB. A unique non-repetitive security base key associated with the second eNB is generated using a freshness parameter and security key associated with the first eNB. The use of a different freshness parameter for each security base key derivation avoids key stream repetition. Further, a user plane encryption key is derived based on the generated unique non-repetitive security base key associated with the second eNB for encrypting data transfer over at least one data radio bearer.
US09961540B2

A communication establishment method including acquiring a first communication number of a current communication terminal; acquiring an input image, obtaining an information code according to the image, the information code being corresponding to a second communication number; sending call information to a predetermined server, the call information being attached with the first communication number and the information code. The current communication terminal obtains the information code according to the image, provides the information code and the first communication number of the current communication terminal to the predetermined server to establish a communication between the current communication terminal that uses the first communication number and a communication terminal that uses the second communication number. Thus, a user of the current communication terminal does not need to obtain the second communication number used by the other user, which protects the number privacy of the user who uses the second communication number.
US09961539B2

A method is provided for securing telecommunications traffic data that are incurred with the telecommunications service provider of the telecommunications service when at least one telecommunications service is used by a number of subscribers is provided, wherein the telecommunications service is performed in a secure environment, the telecommunications service receives a message from at least one first subscriber of the telecommunications service, the message being intended for at least one second subscriber of the telecommunications service, and the telecommunications service, in response to the receipt of the message, sends a notification to the at least one second subscriber, wherein between the receipt of the message and the sending of the notification, a predetermined time delay is provided. Further, a system is provided for securing telecommunications traffic data is provided being adapted to execute the method according to the invention.
US09961523B1

Architectures, devices, systems and methods incorporating beacon transmissions that comply with a defined communications protocol having frames corresponding to a universally unique identifier (UUID) value, a major value, and a minor value, in which the transmissions incorporate sensor data encoded on the fly into one or more of the values or frames of the protocol. Sensor data may include temperature, light intensity, smoke, voltage, sound, motion, displacement, acceleration, humidity, pressure, radiation, button-press stimulus event, compass direction, proximity, or other stimuli or sensor data, for example, and is more generally termed “contextual content”. According to relationships and permissions established by a receiving device and/or system, look-up results are processed to configure notifications tied to the contextual content of the broadcast. Notifications to a receiving device and/or system are configured according to contextual data broadcast by the beacon. Beacons having the improved communications protocol may be deployed individually or in networks. The beacon broadcast may be accessed by naïve devices, but bit overloading may also be used to prevent unauthorized systems from correctly interpreting the data. Thus the architectures, devices, systems and methods of the invention enable a beacon having nested levels of interaction dependent on context established by the beacon and the relationship established with a compatible receiver.
US09961516B1

Efficient use of channel bandwidth response, response timing, along with the ability to acquire the most accurate and up to date response are provided for management of virtual assistant search queries within a communication system (100, 200). Improved management is obtained using an artificial intelligence (AI) server (104) controlling response activity to a query communication device (102) by incorporating one or more of: adjusting verbosity of responses (158), redirecting queries from the AI server to alternate resources (412), and/or prioritizing of a response (506) based on wait time.
US09961514B2

A system and method for providing effective presence for Push-to-talk-over-Cellular (PoC) networks, wherein one or more servers performs an effective presence delivery method that reduces presence notifications delivered to mobile units participating in advanced voice services, while ensuring that the presence notifications relevant to the mobile units are available when the advanced voice services are invoked by the mobile units. The presence notifications are used to indicate a change in network presence of the mobile units. In addition, the presence notifications are used to indicate a change in self-availability status of the mobile units.
US09961512B2

A method for operating devices in a ZigBee network comprising ZigBee Green Power (ZGP)-capable devices and non-ZGP-capable devices, both to be controlled by at least one ZGPD device, is disclosed. In one example, the ZGPD device transmits a ZGPD command frame, and, upon reception of the ZGPD command frame from the ZGPD device, a ZGP-capable device: translates the received ZGPD command to a regular ZigBee command compatible with non-ZGP-capable devices, forwards the translated command, and tunnels the ZGPD command using a ZGP tunneling mechanism, wherein the ZGP-capable devices controlled by the ZGPD device execute only the tunneled command, if the controlled application functionality is supported, and wherein the non-ZGP-capable devices controlled by the ZGPD device execute only the translated command, if the controlled application functionality is supported.
US09961506B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for refining a coarse location determination by detecting patterns of motion sensor data that may be associated with predetermined locations. One or more geofeatures may be identified that cause a mobile device associated with a user to detect a distinguishable pattern of sensor data when the user interacts with the object. Accordingly, a coarse location may be refined using information associated with the geofeature, such as the location of the geofeature.
US09961505B2

A radio communication terminal receives position information showing a position of another radio communication terminal. The radio communication terminal obtains, from the position information, a terminal ID of the radio communication terminal, and a beacon ID for identifying the predetermined location nearest to the radio communication terminal. The radio communication terminal accepts the predetermined location designated by a user. The radio communication terminal determines as a communication partner terminal, the other radio communication terminal that is nearest to the accepted predetermined location based on the terminal ID and the beacon ID. The radio communication terminal performs communication with the determined communication partner terminal.
US09961503B2

System and methods of tracking a position of a mobile device with an electromagnetic signal-transmitting antenna include receiving electromagnetic signals from the transmitting antenna of the mobile device by a plurality of receiver antennae of a base station and by one or more receiver antennae of a relay station. The relay station transmits to the base station timing information associated with the electromagnetic signals received by the one or more receiver antennae of the relay station. The base station computes a position of the transmitting antenna of the mobile device based on timing information computed from the electromagnetic signals received by the plurality of receiver antennae of the base station and on the timing information received from the relay station.
US09961491B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating geofences. One of the methods includes receiving, at a mobile device, a signal emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant. If the signal is emitted by a merchant device associated with a merchant and the distance between the mobile device and the merchant device satisfies a threshold, a notification is provided on the mobile device indicating proximity of the merchant associated with the merchant device.
US09961472B2

A method for determining the orientation of a loudspeaker relative to a listening device is described. The method simultaneously drives each transducer to emit beam patterns corresponding to distinct orthogonal audio signals. The listening device senses sounds produced by the orthogonal audio signals and analyzes the sensed audio signal to determine the spatial orientation of the loudspeaker relative to the listening device. Other embodiments are also described.
US09961467B2

In one example, a method includes obtaining a representation of a multi-channel audio signal for a source loudspeaker configuration; obtaining a representation of a plurality of spatial positioning vectors (SPVs), in a Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) domain, that are based on a source rendering matrix, which is based on the loudspeaker configuration; and generating a HOA soundfield based on the multi-channel audio signal and the plurality of spatial positioning vectors.
US09961462B2

An acoustic transducer and audio system are checked for operability continuously during operation without interfering with their operation. An inaudible test signal is added on top of a normal audio signal of an electronic device. A mix of the test signal and the normal audio signal is converted to a digital signal which is processed by a type of Fourier transformation, e.g. the Goertzel algorithm, to derive the magnitude of the digital signal at the test signal frequency. The derived magnitude is used to gain knowledge about the functionality of the acoustic transducer and its electrical connection to the electric device, as well as a common audio path.
US09961457B2

The present disclosure relates to an RF antenna adapted to receive and/or transmit electromagnetic RF signals within a first frequency range enclosing a first frequency of resonance of the RF antenna, the RF antenna comprising: an electrically conductive antenna element having a feed for electrically connecting to an RF transmitter and/or an RF receiver; an electronic component adapted to receive and/or provide one or more electric signals from/to an electronic circuit within a second frequency range not overlapping the first frequency range; and one or more electric leads electrically connected to lead the one or more electric signals between the electronic component and the electronic circuit, each of the one or more electric leads being electrically connected to the electronic circuit through a respective inductor adapted to reflect and/or attenuate signals within the first frequency range and pass signals within the second frequency range.
US09961450B2

A piezoresistive microphone includes a substrate, an insulating layer, and a polysilicon layer. A first pattern is disposed within the polysilicon layer. The first pattern includes numerous first opening. A second pattern is disposed within the polysilicon layer. The second pattern includes numerous second openings. The first pattern surrounds the second pattern. Each first opening and each second opening are staggered. A first resistor is disposed in the polysilicon and between the first pattern and the second pattern. The first resistor is composed of numerous first heavily doped regions and numerous first lightly doped regions. The first heavily doped regions and the first lightly doped regions are disposed in series. The first heavily doped region and the first lightly doped region are disposed alternately. A cavity is disposed in the insulating layer and the substrate.
US09961440B2

A method and a system for ultra-low-power acoustic sensor including a buffer transistor, which gate terminal is connected to a first terminal of a capacitive acoustic sensor, which drain terminal is connected via a load network to a power source and to an output terminal, and which source terminal is connected to the regulated current source, where the regulated current source is connected between the source terminal of the buffer transistor and a reference terminal, and where the reference terminal being connectable to a second terminal of the capacitive acoustic sensor.
US09961438B2

A directivity control method is provided for controlling a directivity of a sound collected by a first sound collector including a plurality of microphones. The directivity control method includes: forming a directivity of the sound in a direction toward a monitoring target corresponding to a first designated position in an image displayed on a display; obtaining information on a second designated position in the image displayed on the display, designated in accordance with a movement of the monitoring target, and changing the directivity of the sound toward the monitoring target corresponding to the second designated position by referring to the information on the second designated position.
US09961437B2

A sound sensing device may include a housing having a dome-shaped shell and a baseplate. The housing may have a symmetrically shaped perimeter. The dome-shaped shell may have an arcuate cross section characterized by tangent lines that monotonically increase in slope from a top of the dome-shaped shell toward a bottom of the dome-shaped shell. At least three sound ports may be provided between an interior volume of the housing and an exterior surrounding of the housing, and disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing. The sound ports may be located at most 1 cm above the support surface.
US09961436B2

Disclosed are an earpiece and a headset comprising an earpiece, where the earpiece is configured to be arranged at least partly in an ear of a user. The earpiece comprising a heart rate measurement unit for measuring the heart rate in/at the ear of the user; a receiving member configured for accommodating and/or receiving a detachable speaker unit of the headset; and a detachable speaker unit which is configured to be inserted and/or attached and removed and/detached from the receiving member of the earpiece.
US09961435B1

A set of earphones or other wearable or portable audio equipment may be configured to play relevant sound signals from a speaker provided within a cavity mounted about an ear of a user. The earphones may include one or more microphones for capturing acoustic energy within a vicinity of the earphones, or may be in communication with one or more external microphones. Where one or more of the microphones captures acoustic energy that includes a plurality of sound signals, the signals may be processed to identify one of the signals that is relevant to the user. The relevant signal may be reconstructed and amplified from the speaker, and all other signals may be ignored or attenuated. The signals may be further processed to determine any additional information regarding sources of the signals, including whether such signals are within a vicinity of the user, or may pose a risk to the user.
US09961425B2

The present invention relates to the technical field of electro-acoustic products. Provided is a loudspeaker module, comprising a first cover (10) and a second cover (20) combined together; the first cover (10) and the second cover (20) enclose an inner cavity of the module; the inner cavity of the module houses a loudspeaker unit (30) therein; the loudspeaker module further comprises a fastener assembly used to fasten to a fixed structure of an electronic device and thus fix the loudspeaker module to the electronic device. The loudspeaker module solves the technical problem in the prior art of insecure engagement between a loudspeaker module and an electronic device. The loudspeaker module is securely engaged with the electronic device and is easy to install, thus effectively extending the service life of the electronic device installed with the loudspeaker module.
US09961417B2

The present invention relates to a device for acquiring electricity utilization information which comprises a data acquisition and processing circuit configured to detect an operation parameter about a coupleable power supply circuit; a non-isolated power supply configured to convert an AC power into a DC power to supply an appropriate operation voltage to the data acquisition and processing circuit; a data communication module configured to modulate the detected operation parameter onto a predetermined frequency, wherein the modulated operation parameter is transmitted with a predetermined data transmission rate, and the predetermined frequency is higher than the predetermined data transmission rate such that the transmitted operation parameter can be demodulated; and an isolation component configured to provide electrical isolation and signal transmission isolation to perform a coupling isolation for the modulated operation parameter. The device not only can achieve divided measurement of electricity utilization, but also has the advantage of smaller volume.
US09961415B2

The present invention teaches a method and system for uniquely defining and identifying events within a streaming media program. Programs and additional content can be stored with inband data in the stored content and that inband data can be dynamically updated, to include additional information such as instance counters, when the stored content it is requested by a rendering device. The additional information is used to uniquely identify the rendering of the program or additional content to allow a rendering device to perform actions based upon those unique identifiers.
US09961412B2

A cellular communication system is described for supporting broadcast transmission in at least one of a plurality of communication cells. The cellular communication system comprises at least one base station (210) capable of broadcasting content to at least one wireless communication unit (226) via at least one relay node (RN) (224), wherein the at least one base station (210) is arranged to supplement the broadcast transmission with at least one augmented unicast transmission associated with the broadcast content.
US09961411B2

A method includes detecting, at a video head-end of a video distribution network, a signal having an ultra high frequency white space frequency. The method includes determining that a strength of the signal satisfies a threshold signal strength. The method also includes sending an alert from the video head-end to a network management system in response to the strength satisfying the threshold signal strength.
US09961409B2

There is provided a reception device configured to receive content broadcast via a broadcasting network, the reception device including an application execution unit configured to execute a link application that is able to change a layout of a screen with reference to a video of the received content, and an application control unit configured to control the application execution unit based on application control information relating to the link application so that activation of the link application is restricted.
US09961396B2

An apparatus for recording multimedia content transmitted over a network including a reception interface for receiving the multimedia content from the network, a user input interface for receiving user inputs, and a storage resource including executable instructions including a recording module for recording the multimedia content in accordance with the user inputs. The user inputs also include a multimedia selection signal for indicating the multimedia content to be recorded, and a segmenting signal for indicating a size of at least one of a plurality of segments in which the multimedia content is recorded.
US09961372B2

A method of adaptively disabling deblock filtering of video information including determining a content characteristic of the video information, and adaptively disabling deblock filtering of the video information based on the content characteristic. The content characteristic may be a content complexity, such as an average of minimum sums of absolute differences of pixel values determined during motion estimation, or the mean square error of the video information, or the number of bits used for coding the video content. The content characteristic may be other than complexity, such as motion vector information. A video information processing system including a video processing circuit which processes video information and which determines a content characteristic of the video information, and a deblocking filter circuit which adaptively disables deblock filtering of the video information based on the content characteristic.
US09961366B2

The present technology relates to an image processing apparatus and method capable of preventing an increase in a cost of the apparatus. A setting unit sets identification information for identifying a correspondence relationship between a size of a block of an image and changing of a prediction method applied to the block, and an inter-prediction unit generates a prediction image according to the identification information. An encoder codes the block by using the prediction image so as to generate a coded stream. In addition, the encoder transmits the coded stream and the identification information. The present technology is applicable to, for example, a case of coding/decoding an image, and the like.
US09961365B2

Provided is a method of determining an up-sampling filter to accurately interpolate a sample value for each sampling position according to an up-sampling ratio for scalable video encoding and decoding. An up-sampling method for scalable video encoding includes determining a phase shift between a pixel of a low resolution image and a pixel of a high resolution image based on a scaling factor between the high resolution image and the low resolution image; selecting at least one filter coefficient set corresponding to the determined phase shift from filter coefficient data comprising filter coefficient sets corresponding to phase shifts; generating the high resolution image by performing filtering on the low resolution image by using the selected at least one filter coefficient set; and generating an improvement layer bitstream comprising high resolution encoding information generated by performing encoding on the high resolution image and up-sampling filter information indicating the determined phase shift.
US09961359B2

A sequence of picture slices is encoded as reference slices and non-reference slices, wherein the reference slices include B slices, by forming, for each B slice, at least one data packet containing data values derived from brightness and color information pertaining to the slice. The data packet for each B slice includes a header element indicating whether the B slice is a reference slice. The header element of each reference B slice has a value that depends on depth of the reference B slice in a hierarchy of discardability.
US09961357B2

A video base layer can contain information pertaining to frame-compatible interlace representations of multiple data categories while video enhancement layers can contain interlace or progressive representations and/or frame-compatible representations of these data categories. Video data are encoded and decoded using layered approaches.
US09961354B2

The invention provides a video codec. In one embodiment, the video codec is coupled to an outer memory storing a reference frame, and comprises an interface circuit, an in-chip memory, a motion estimation circuit, and a controller. The interface circuit obtains in-chip data from the reference frame stored in the outer memory. The in-chip memory stores the in-chip data. The motion estimation circuit retrieves search window data from the in-chip data with a search window, and performs a motion estimation process on a current macroblock according to the search-window data. The controller shifts the location of the search window when the current macroblock is shifted, marks a macroblock shifted out from the search window as an empty macroblock, and controls the interface circuit to obtain an updated macroblock for replacing the empty macroblock in the in-chip memory from the reference frame stored in the outer memory.
US09961349B2

A method and apparatus for splitting the audio of media content into separate content files without introducing boundary artifacts is described. A computing system for streaming media content including audio and video comprises a database to store a plurality of content files and a server coupled to the database to deliver the plurality of content files over one or more network connections. Each of the plurality of content files comprises an encoded portion of the video encoded according to a frame rate and having a fixed-time duration and an encoded portion of the audio encoded according to a codec-enforced frame size and having a plurality of full audio frames having the codec-enforced frame size. A duration of the encoded portion of the audio of one or more of the plurality of content files is greater than or less than the fixed-time duration.
US09961347B2

A method and apparatus for deriving aligned inter-view prediction for uni-prediction and bi-prediction in three-dimensional and multi-view coding with illumination compensation enabled are disclosed. When the illumination compensation is enabled, the derivation process for a single reference block in reference list_0 or reference list_1 in the case of uni-prediction is aligned with the derivation process for a reference block in reference list_0 and a reference block in reference list_1 in the case of bi-prediction. The reconstruction process generates the reference block based on a temporal reference block when Inter prediction is used and based on an inter-view reference block when inter-view prediction is used. For the uni-prediction and bi-prediction, the same clipping process can be included in the reconstruction process, the illumination compensation process, or both.
US09961345B2

Decoder processor hardware reproduces a support plane including a set of support values. The set of support values is derived from combining a sequence of multiple original sets of values. The decoder processor hardware receives compensation information. The decoder processor hardware utilizes the compensation information to produce preliminary renditions of the multiple original sets of values based on the set of support values. Encoder processor hardware processes a sequence of original sets of values. The encoder processor hardware utilizes the values of the original sets in the sequence to produce a set of support values, the set of support values representing a baseline to reproduce a rendition of each of the original sets of values. The encoder processor hardware generates reconstruction data to include data corresponding to the set of support values, the reconstruction data indicates how to reconstruct the original sets of values using the set of support values.
US09961333B1

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for projecting a light field. One light field projection system includes a screen and a projection unit. On the screen, there is a plurality of convex reflective elements arranged in a two-dimensional array. The projection unit has a light source. The projection unit also has a modulator to modulate light from the light source. The projection unit further has one or more movable mirrored elements to reflect light from the light source toward the screen to sequentially scan the plurality of convex reflective elements. The projection unit also has a control system that determines a light modulation scheme used by the modulator. The light modulation scheme provides that the light reflected from the light source toward the screen to sequentially scan the plurality of convex reflective elements forms a light field that is concurrently viewable from a plurality of perspectives.
US09961318B2

A projector includes a projection lens, a first imaging section adapted to take an image of the projection surface, and a second imaging section adapted to take an image of the projection surface with a field angle wider than a field angle of the first imaging section. The first imaging section is disposed at a first distance from an optical axis of the projection lens in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis, and the second imaging section is disposed at a second distance longer than the first distance from the optical axis of the projection lens in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis.
US09961315B2

A “Concurrent Projector-Camera” uses an image projection device in combination with one or more cameras to enable various techniques that provide visually flicker-free projection of images or video, while real-time image or video capture is occurring in that same space. The Concurrent Projector-Camera provides this projection in a manner that eliminates video feedback into the real-time image or video capture. More specifically, the Concurrent Projector-Camera dynamically synchronizes a combination of projector lighting (or light-control points) on-state temporal compression in combination with on-state temporal shifting during each image frame projection to open a “capture time slot” for image capture during which no image is being projected. This capture time slot represents a tradeoff between image capture time and decreased brightness of the projected image. Examples of image projection devices include LED-LCD based projection devices, DLP-based projection devices using LED or laser illumination in combination with micromirror arrays, etc.
US09961313B2

A laser projection display device 1 includes a laser light source driving unit 4 setting a current which drives a laser light source according to an image signal, a light sensor 10 detecting a light amount of the laser light generated by the laser light source 5, and a light emission control unit 22 emitting light by supplying a standard image signal and a current setting signal to the laser light source driving unit and setting the laser light source driving unit such that the light amount detected by the light sensor becomes a target value. The light emission control unit supplies the current setting signal to the laser light source driving unit such that light emission is performed a plurality of times with a predetermined current difference, in a fly-back period in one frame of the image signal.
US09961312B2

A projector includes a light source, an information acquisition section adapted to obtain information of designating light intensity of light emitted by the light source, an arithmetic section adapted to calculate time for which the light source can be used with the light intensity represented by the information obtained by the information acquisition section, and a notification section adapted to give notification of the time calculated by the arithmetic section.
US09961309B2

A projected image including at least an image of an overlapping region, on which a first video and a second video are superimposed, is obtained. A correction value for each unit region is determined based on the projected image and an image of a corresponding region in the first video. The corresponding region corresponds to the overlapping region, and the unit region is divided from the overlapping region. Projection-position adjustment based on the correction value is applied to the first video in each unit region.
US09961307B1

An eyeglass recorder includes multiple scene cameras for respectively recording frontal scenes along the viewer's horizontal line-of-sight and depending scenes at approximately a 45° angle downwardly from the viewer's horizontal line-of-sight. The viewer's eye movement is concurrently monitored to differentiate between the viewing of the recorded frontal and depending scenes and to detect saccadic eye motion for assessment of the viewer's level of interest in the viewed scenes.
US09961300B2

In a conversation communication system, a facial image of the communicator is stored, a distance between the communicator and a display and the direction of the face of the communicator are detected. It is determined whether or not the conversation communication is to be continued according to the detected distance and the detected facial direction. When the detected facial direction is a direction facing the display from the front, the conversation communication is to be continued. On the other hand, in a case where the detected facial direction is different, when the detected distance increases afterward, if any of the following conditions (1) and (2) is satisfied, the conversation communication is terminated: (1) the distance is undetectable; and (2) the detected facial direction is, for equal to or longer than a preset period of time, maintained at the direction different from the direction facing the display from the front.
US09961298B2

A management system for managing a session for transmitting content data between a first terminal and a second terminal via a first relay apparatus and a second relay apparatus is provided. The management system includes a determination unit configured to determine a transmission quality of the content data transmitted in the session based on a transmission quality of the content data available for the first terminal and a transmission quality available for the second terminal, a first selection unit configured to select a first relay apparatus to which the first terminal is to be connected based on the determined transmission quality, and a second selection unit configured to select a second relay apparatus to which the second terminal is to be connected.
US09961296B2

A system renders a graphical representation of a timeline of a first video in a graphical user interface. The system receives a notification during playback of the first video at a first location in the first video. The notification indicates a request to playback the first video at a second location in the first video. The system determines that a second video is renderable during the first video between the first location and the second location. The system determines a viewing status associated with the user. The viewing status indicates whether the second video has been previously rendered for a user account on a client machine, and determines whether the user may view the first video at a second location in the first video, based on the viewing status associated with the user.
US09961295B2

A display device includes: a display panel that displays an input video signal; and a video recording and reproduction unit that records and reproduces a video picture to be displayed on the display panel. The video recording and reproduction unit includes an image-size setting unit that reduces a size of a screen of the input video signal according to a multi-display configuration.
US09961292B1

A pixel circuit includes a photodiode, and a transfer transistor coupled to the photodiode. A floating diffusion is coupled to the transfer transistor coupled to transfer image charge from the photodiode to the floating diffusion. An amplifier circuit includes an input coupled to the floating diffusion, an output coupled to generate an image data signal of the pixel circuit, and a variable bias terminal coupled to receive a variable bias signal. A reset switch is coupled between the output and input of the amplifier circuit to reset the amplifier circuit in response to a reset signal. A variable bias generator circuit is coupled to generate the variable bias signal in response to a reset signal to transition the variable bias signal from a first bias signal value to a second bias signal value in response to a transition of the reset signal from an active state to an inactive state.
US09961281B2

An image sensor pixel noise measurement circuit includes a pixel array on an integrated circuit chip. The pixel array includes a plurality of pixels including a first pixel to output a first image data signal, and a second pixel to output a second image data signal. A noise amplification circuit on the integrated circuit chip is coupled to receive the first and second image data signals from the pixel array. The noise amplification circuit is coupled to output an amplified differential noise signal in response to the first and second image data signals received from the pixel array. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis circuit on the integrated circuit chip is coupled to transform the amplified differential noise signal output by the noise amplification circuit from a time domain to a frequency domain to analyze a pixel noise characteristic of the pixel array.
US09961263B2

An imaging apparatus is an imaging apparatus including a camera shake correction function for correcting image blur in a captured image. The imaging apparatus includes a shake detector for detecting shaking of the imaging apparatus, a correction lens for correcting the image blur in the captured image, a lens driver for moving the correction lens on a plane perpendicular to an optical axis, an operating unit for receiving an instruction from a user, and a controller for generating a drive signal for the lens driver based on an output of the shake detector. The controller changes the drive signal according to a setting regarding an amplitude of shaking that is a target of camera shake correction and a setting regarding a frequency of the shaking that is the target of camera shake correction. Also, the controller changes the setting regarding the amplitude and the setting regarding the frequency based on an instruction from the user.
US09961260B2

A system and method that allows the capture of a series of images to create a single linear panoramic image is disclosed. The method includes capturing an image, dynamically comparing a previously captured image with a preview image on a display of a capture device until a predetermined overlap threshold is satisfied, generating a user interface to provide feedback on the display of the capture device to guide a movement of the capture device, and capturing the preview image with enough overlap with the previously captured image with little to no tilt for creating a linear panorama.
US09961255B2

An image capturing apparatus comprises an image sensor; a readout unit that reads out an added signal and that independently reads out the signal of the first photoelectric conversion portion; a calculation unit that calculates a signal corresponding to a signal of the second photoelectric conversion portion by subtracting the signal of the first photoelectric conversion portion from the added signal; a correlation calculation unit that performs correlation calculation for the signal of the first photoelectric conversion portion and the signal corresponding to the signal of the second photoelectric conversion portion; and a subtraction unit that subtracts, from the result of the correlation calculation on an object image by the correlation calculation unit, a correction value for correcting noise caused by obtaining the signal corresponding to the signal of the second photoelectric conversion portion.
US09961243B2

Systems and methods are disclosed herein that generally involve a camera system including a high-quality lens which is selectively attachable to a mobile device, effectively replacing the mobile device's integral lens. The attachable camera system can leverage existing features of the mobile device, such as the display, battery, storage, and sharing functions, allowing the camera system itself to be a relatively simple, lightweight, portable, and inexpensive device. The ability to selectively attach and detach the camera system from the mobile device allows the camera system to be removed when it is desired to maintain the mobile device's favorable weight, size, and ergonomic characteristics. When high quality image or video capture or increased camera flexibility and functionality is desired, the camera system can be attached to the mobile device.
US09961242B2

A stereo camera includes a base assembly capable of being commonly used regardless of type of vehicle, the base assembly including a first lens, a first image sensor for capturing a first image on the basis of incident light introduced through the first lens, a second lens, and a second image sensor for capturing a second image on the basis of incident light introduced through the second lens, a processor for processing the first image and the second image. A windshield bracket is provided including an attachment part adapted to windshields having different inclination angles and radii of curvature and attached thereto. A mount part holds the base assembly so as to enable the first image sensor and the second image sensor to capture forward images of a vehicle.
US09961241B2

A camera for a vision system of a vehicle includes a housing having a front housing portion and a rear housing portion. The camera is configured to be disposed at a vehicle so as to have a field of view interior or exterior of the vehicle. The front housing portion houses a lens assembly. The rear housing portion has a connector portion for electrically connecting circuitry of the camera to an electrical connector of the vehicle when the camera is disposed at the vehicle. The circuitry of the camera includes an imager comprising an imaging array having a plurality of photosensing elements. The rear housing portion has circuitry and electrically connecting elements established via molded interconnect device (MID) technology.
US09961239B2

The present disclosure generally relates to methods and devices for providing touch accommodations to users with tremors or other fine motor impairments to improve the accuracy of such users' touch inputs on touch-sensitive surfaces. Such methods and devices include various approaches for compensating for brief, inadvertent touch inputs; touch inputs with inadvertent motion across the touch-sensitive surface; and/or touch inputs with inadvertent recoil contacts. In some embodiments, the touch accommodations are implemented in a software layer separate from the application layer, such as the operating system.
US09961235B2

An image processing apparatus determines whether each of pixels in a scanned image is a color pixel or a monochrome pixel, determines whether each of blocks including the multiple pixels in the scanned image is a color block or a monochrome block, based on determination results of the respective pixels, and determines that the scanned image is a color image in a case where an arrangement pattern of blocks determined to be color blocks matches a predetermined pattern.
US09961234B1

A replaceable item for a host device, such as a print substance cartridge for a printing device, stores multiple identities. For each identity, the replaceable item stores multiple authentication values, or passwords. The replaceable item selects an identity, and in response to a request for an authentication value from the host device, sends the requested authentication value for the selected identity.
US09961229B2

An image forming apparatus supporting a near-field communication (NFC) function generates scan data by scanning a document, transmits the scan data to a server, receives access information for accessing a preview image of the scan data stored in the server, tags a mobile terminal on which the preview image is to be displayed through NFC, and transmits the access information to the tagged mobile terminal.
US09961226B2

Provided is an image forming system that hands over an operation information on a portable terminal to an image forming apparatus and operates it, if the portable terminal is likely to become battery exhaustion. The portable terminal determines battery exhaustion if battery residual quantity of the portable terminal becomes less than or equal to a prescribed threshold value while accepting setting operation to the image forming apparatus. Then, handing over information (sizing information, color-balance setup information, and image quality setting operation screen information) for handing over operation to the image forming apparatus is automatically transmitted to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus receives the handing over information from the portable terminal. In that case, based on the handing over information, operation is accepted with an operation panel with continuing the setting operation performed with the portable terminal.
US09961225B2

An information processing system includes a storage storing flow information in association with application identification information, for each application for executing a sequence of processes, the flow information defining program identification information and an execution order of the programs; a storage storing screen information in association with the application identification information for each application; a transmitter for sending, to a device, the screen information associated with the application identification information, when a first request including the application identification information is received from the device; a receiver for receiving a second request including information relating to the electronic data specified by a user in the screen displayed on the device; an acquirer for acquiring the flow information associated with the application identification information; and an executor for executing the programs identified by the program identification information, in the execution order, to execute the sequence of processes.
US09961222B2

When a first image is designated in an image output instruction, a first determination portion in an image processing apparatus determines whether or not an operator is a restricted subject who is restricted from outputting through an output portion, on the basis of restriction information. A restriction process portion executes a restriction process of restricting output of first image data of the first image through the output portion when the operator is determined to be the restricted subject by the first determination portion, and approves output of the first image data of the first image through the output portion when the operator is determined not to be the restricted subject by the first determination portion.
US09961219B2

A function identification information acquisition circuit acquires function identification information for identifying a particular function from one or more electronic apparatuses executing a plurality of functions, the function identification information being associated with one of apparatus identification information for identifying the one or more electronic apparatuses and user identification information for identifying one or more users registered in the one or more electronic apparatuses. An important function selection circuit selects a function with high importance from the plurality of functions based on the acquired function identification information. An important function identification information supply circuit supplies important function identification information to one of an electronic apparatus identified by the apparatus identification information that is not associated with the important function identification information and an electronic apparatus in which user identification information that is not associated with the important function identification information is registered.
US09961210B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a terminal, a server, and a terminal control method. A control channel and a data channel are established to a controlled terminal, screen image data that is sent by the controlled terminal by using the data channel is received, a screenshot of the controlled terminal is displayed according to the screen image data, and corresponding operation information is generated according to an operation that is based on the screenshot and is sent to the controlled terminal by using the control channel, so that the controlled terminal performs the corresponding operation according to the operation information.
US09961202B2

A computing system is configured to categorize digital data records each relating to an interaction between a call center agent and a customer. The system includes a rules module to determine a first probability that a data record belongs to a category based one or more rules each rule defining a relationship between one or more features of the data record and the category; a probabilistic module to determine a second probability that the data record belongs to the category based on one or more probabilistic models of relationships between one or more of the features and the category; an arbitration module to determine whether or not the data record belongs to the category based on the first and second probabilities; and an action module to receive from the arbitration processor an indication that the interaction belongs to the category and to initiate an action appropriate to the category.
US09961199B2

When authorized, a user of a computing device, such as a smart phone, may associate a telephone number that is assigned to a computing device with other computing devices. The other computing devices may or may not have an assigned device number. A user may also select to use the same number as the originating number of an electronic device. For example, a user may specify that each computing device associated with the user utilizes the same telephone number. The user may also specify that a computing device not utilize an assigned number. The associations of a device number with the computing devices may be stored as implicit registration data and/or as hunt groups.
US09961197B2

The present invention provides a system, method and apparatus for authenticating calls that is a robust Anti-vishing solution. The present invention can identify Caller ID spoofing, verify dialed number to detect man-in-the middle and verify called party against dialed digits to detect impersonation. This solution can handle calls coming from any phone any where with little impact on user experience. Two separate solutions are tailored for smart phones (communication devices capable of running application software) and traditional phones to reduce the impact to user experience while providing robust verification.
US09961192B1

An interactive contact workflow system provides a graphical representation of a contact workflow in a graphical user interface (GUI) of an interactive contact run-time environment. The interactive contact workflow system receives a request to load response data for a previously recorded interaction with the contact workflow, retrieves the response data from a data store of stored response data, and receives a request to execute a first instruction block of the contact workflow within the interactive contact run-time environment. The interactive contact workflow system then executes the first instruction block by providing the first audio prompt of the first instruction block to an audio output interface of the client device, and provides a response from the response data to the first instruction block as a response to the first audio prompt.
US09961188B2

A vehicle computing system comprising a vehicle auxiliary port and at least one controller. The controller configured to communicate with a nomadic device via a wired connection established between the vehicle auxiliary port and a nomadic device auxiliary port. The controller further configured to transmit data to the nomadic device over the wired auxiliary port connection. The data including one or more control commands for the nomadic device.
US09961187B2

A method comprising: selecting, by an electronic device, a conversation partner; identifying, by the electronic device, one or more message types that are associated with the conversation partner; generating, by the electronic device, a set of one or more tabs corresponding to the message types; and displaying the set of one or more tabs in a user interface for exchanging communications with the conversation partner.
US09961179B2

At least one embodiment takes the form of a process carried out by a given mobile radio in a group of mobile radios. The process includes broadcasting heartbeat messages in accordance with a group-wide symmetric-timing protocol and maintaining an in-range list of mobile radios. The in-range list is maintained at least in part by (i) adding mobile radios that are not already on the in-range list to the in-range list upon detecting transmissions from such mobile radios; (ii) maintaining, for each mobile radio on the in-range list, a respective keepalive timer in accordance with the group-wide symmetric-timing protocol; and (iii) removing mobile radios from the in-range list upon expiration of the respective keepalive timers. The process further includes presenting an alert via a user interface when a count of mobile radios on the in-range list falls below a notification threshold.
US09961176B2

A user equipment of a communication system includes a first communication circuit configured to operably receive ANDSF rule set and RAN rule transmitted from a communication station; a second communication circuit; and a control circuit configured to operably: select a target ANDSF rule out of the ANDSF rule set; determine whether the user equipment fulfills all validity conditions of the target ANDSF rule; select a target access network out of a prioritized network list defined by the target ANDSF rule if all validity conditions of the target ANDSF rule are fulfilled; determine whether the target access network fulfills all validity conditions of the RAN rule if the target access network is present; and control the second communication circuit to steer traffic specified in the target ANDSF rule or traffic specified in the RAN rule to a target access point of the target access network.
US09961173B2

An antenna and a mobile terminal are provided. The antenna may include a radiation unit and at least one parasitic unit. The radiation unit includes a first radiation sub-unit and a second radiation sub-unit. A first terminal of the first radiation sub-unit is connected to a bottom edge of a rear cover of the mobile terminal. A second terminal of the first radiation sub-unit is provided with a feed point, a first terminal of the second radiation sub-unit is connected to the bottom edge. A second terminal of the second radiation sub-unit is provided with a ground point. A distance from the feed point to the ground point is greater than zero and less than a preset value. The at least one parasitic unit is coupleable with the radiation unit via the feed point.
US09961152B2

Some embodiments provide a content delivery network (CDN) solution that affords the CDN control over those elements of customer content that are delivered by third parties. The CDN integrates a distributed set of monitoring agents. Each monitoring agent monitors the delivery performance of third parties to the region in which the agent operates. The CDN uses the performance monitoring information to dynamically manage the content tags to the third-party delivered elements of CDN-customer content. Specifically, a CDN server retrieves the parent page for requested CDN-customer content. The CDN server identifies the region from where the request originates and retrieves the logs from the monitoring agents monitoring from that region. The CDN server then modifies the base page by dynamically removing the tags to the third-party delivered elements that are reported in the monitoring agent logs as being unavailable, inaccessible, or underperforming in the identified region.
US09961151B2

The present invention provides a method, an apparatus and a system for device discovery. The method includes: acquiring, by a first device, a user identification of a target user, and acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, broadcast information of a second device which the target user logs in; when broadcast information of another device is monitored through a D2D function, matching, by the first device, the monitored broadcast information with the broadcast information of the second device, and if the match is successful, determining, by the first device, that the second device and the first device are within a preset distance. According to the present invention, the accuracy of discovering a short distance user is improved and, thus, the problem in the prior art that the accuracy of discovering a user in a short distance cannot be guaranteed by using a cell ID is solved.
US09961144B2

A method for data forwarding storage and retrieval in a network of interconnected computer system nodes may include directing data to a computer memory, continuously forwarding the data, from one computer memory to anther computer memory in the network of interconnected computer system nodes without storing on any physical storage device in the network, and retrieving the data in response to an activity.
US09961140B2

A timing at which communication is to be attempted subsequently is set such that a timing when an information processing apparatus is incommunicatable with a communication counterpart and communication is not carried out is later than a timing when a condition different from the condition that the information apparatus is incommunicatable with a communication counterpart is satisfied and communication is not carried out. When communication with a server is impossible, a timing is set later by a time period than the communication timing as a new communication timing but sets, if a predetermined condition different from a condition that communication with the server is impossible is satisfied, a timing later by a time period, which is shorter than the time period, than the communication timing as a new communication timing.
US09961138B2

Systems and methods use a fiber-based network to provide both network access services such as Internet, television, phone, and wide area networking services as well as distributed data processing services. Distributed computing nodes are provided in broadband gateways at homes and other premises in a fiber-based network to realize a distributed data center architecture. In a specific example, a provider deploys a number of broadband gateways in the homes of homeowners who agree to pay for network access (e.g., Internet, phone, television, etc.) that is received over a fiber-based (preferably point-to-point) network at the broadband gateways in the homes. Those broadband gateways also separately provide distributed workload processing. Providing both network access and distributed workload processing makes the deployment and use of the fiber-based network more economically and technically feasible.
US09961136B2

A service gateway processes a service request received from a host based on a dynamic service response time of a server. In an exemplary embodiment, the service gateway relays a service request to a server over a service session between the service gateway and the server; receives a service response from the server; calculates a dynamic service processing time for the service request from a service request time and a service response time; compares the dynamic service processing time with an expected service processing time; updates a server busy indicator for the server in response to the comparing, where the server busy indicator is maintained at the service gateway; and processes future service requests in accordance with the server busy indicator at the service gateway.
US09961135B2

A method, system, and computer program product for balancing servers based on server load status, include: receiving from a server a service response to a service request, the service response including a result from a processing of the service request and a server status indicating a computing load status of the server; obtaining the server status from the service response; receiving a next service request from a host, the next service request comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL); determining that the server is configured to process the URL; determining whether the server status indicates that the server is available to process the next service request; and in response to determining that the server status indicates that the server is available to process the next service request, sending the next service request to the server.
US09961133B2

A method executable via operation of configured processing circuitry to identify applications by remote monitoring may include initiating remote communication with a target device through an access point, the access point providing network access to the target device, providing a series of ping messages to the target device via the access point to determine a delay signature of an application running on the target device, and generating application identification information based on the delay signature.
US09961125B2

Technologies are provided for a protocol for retrieving data from a remote server at a local client and establishing a context for the client at the server. A client may execute an application enabling users to receive data such as emails stored at the server. The client may employ a messaging-over hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to request the data from the server. An HTTP POST request may incorporate specialized headers with instructions for data retrieval, and may enable the client to establish a context with the server to identify the client for subsequent data requests. After receipt of the POST request, the server may send a receipt response and chunked intermediary responses while the request is being processed. The server may also send a cookie to the client representing the context of the client, and the client may return the cookies with subsequent data requests to the server.
US09961123B2

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) selecting, by a computing system, a media content item from a set of multiple media content items; (ii) identifying, by the computing system, a set of operations that a media production system and/or a media broadcast system performed in connection with the selected media content item; (iii) for each operation in the identified set of operations, determining, by the computing system, a respective operation score; (iv) using, by the computing system, the one or more determined operation scores to determine a media content item score of the selected media content item; (v) repeating (i)-(iv) above for each remaining media content item in the set of multiple media content items; and (vi) displaying a reference to each media content item in the set of multiple media content items, wherein the displayed references are arranged based on the determined media content item scores.
US09961115B2

An approach is provided in which an information handling system creates a first language profile corresponding to a first user account in response to determining that the first user account generated a first offensive message. The information handling system computes an accumulated risk score of the first user account based on correlating the first language profile to a second language profile corresponding to a second user account that generated a second offensive post. The accumulated risk score is based on a first risk score of the first user account and a second risk score of the second user account. In turn, the information handling system generates a notification in response to determining that the accumulated risk score reaches a risk threshold.
US09961114B2

A method includes acts for establishing a subscription for an entity. The method includes receiving, at a cloud service provider, a request from an entity to establish a subscription. The request includes credentials for the entity that are not proper credentials for an organization associated with the entity that the entity should use to access services for the organization. The method further includes performing a corrective action based on detecting one or more factors to determine that the entity is associated with the organization. The method further includes providing services based on the corrective action.
US09961113B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for overriding a soft website block. One of the methods includes receiving, from a user device, a request to access a resource, determining, using a first policy group for the user device, that the user device should be prevented from accessing the resource, providing, to the user device and based on determining that the user device should be prevented from accessing the resource, instructions for the presentation of a user interface including a user credentials field, receiving user credentials from the user device, determining that the user credentials are the same as credentials used to log onto the user device, and allowing the user device access to the resource.
US09961106B2

A method for monitoring traffic flow in a network is provided. A network monitoring probe monitors one or more network traffic flow parameters to detect a denial of service attack. In response to detecting the denial of service attack, a first set of data representing the denial of service attack alert is displayed. Filtering criteria are received from a user. The filtering criteria include at least one of the network flow parameters identified as legitimate network traffic. A second set of data is generated and displayed based on the filtering criteria.
US09961103B2

A network-based appliance includes a mechanism to intercept, decrypt and inspect secure network traffic flowing over SSL/TLS between a client and a server. The mechanism responds to detection of a session initiation request message from the client, the message being received following establishment of a TCP connection between the client and server. The mechanism responds by holding the session initiation request message, preferably by creating a fake socket to a local process, and then diverting the request message over that socket. The TCP connection is then terminated, and the mechanism initiates a new session in initiation request message, all while the original session initiation request message continues to be held. The server responds with its server certificate, which is then used by the mechanism to generate a new server certificate. The new server certificate is then returned to the requesting client as the response to the session initiation request message.
US09961097B2

A home security and control system for monitoring and controlling an external environment such as a home environment comprising: an Internet browser connectable to an extranet; an extranet located external to the home environment and accessible via the Internet browser; a communications server located in the extranet and adapted to interconnect on demand with one of a series of connection gateways located in predetermined home environments; and a connection gateway located in the home environment adapted to control and/or monitor the operation of at least one security device in the home environment; wherein upon accessing a predetermined address by the Internet browser on the extranet, the communications server connects to a predetermined one of the connection gateways to control and/or monitor the operation of the security device. The extranet can ideally be implemented as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) across an Internet substrate.
US09961088B2

Systems and methods are provided for controlling the authentication or authorization of a mobile device user for enabling access to the resources or functionality associated with an application or service executable at the user's mobile device. The user or user's mobile device may be automatically authenticated or authorized to access application or system resources at the device when the current geographic location of the user's mobile device is determined to be within a preauthorized zone, e.g., based on a predetermined geo-fence corresponding to the preauthorized zone. A security level or amount of authorization credentials required to authorize a user for data access may be varied according any of a plurality of security levels, when the current or last known geographic location of the user's mobile device is determined to be outside the preauthorized zone.
US09961084B2

Systems and methods for tiered connection pooling are disclosed herein, which may be used in a method of fulfilling user requests in an enterprise computing system. The method involving generating, by a processing unit, a first connection pool comprising one or more previously used authenticated connections with a resource; generating, by the processing unit, a second connection pool comprising one or more unused authenticated connections with the resource; and generating, by the processing unit, a third connection pool comprising one or more unauthenticated connections with the resource; receiving, by the processing unit, a request from the user device to access the resource, the resource requiring authentication for access; and fulfilling, by the processing unit, the request based on a connection from the first, second, or third connection pool.
US09961078B2

The network system comprises a security management server and a first device is added to the network system by creating a one-time code on the security management server, which is used for connecting the device to the security management server. A server certificate is sent to the device, and a user device certificate generated in the device is sent to the security management server. The user device certificate is signed with an administrator key on the security management server, which signed user device certificate is sent from the security management server to the device and which is used by the device for communication with a further device of the network system. The network system is in particular a secured home network.
US09961077B2

A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for biometric device attestation. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus includes: a biometric device to read biometric authentication data from a user and determine whether to successfully authenticate the user based on a comparison with biometric reference data; and a cryptographic engine to establish communication with a relying party and to attest to the model and/or integrity of the biometric device to the relying party.
US09961075B2

A system for identity based ticketing is provided, wherein a user device sends a challenge to a terminal; the terminal updates a filter based on the challenge and sends the contents of the filter to the user device. The user device sends the contents of the filter, relating to the user device and the terminal, to a backend server; and the backend server derives from the contents of the filter information concerning user behavior.
US09961069B2

In a computer system, some resources may be protected within an SSO environment, and other resources may be protected in an alternate authentication environment. A user logged into an alternate authentication environment will again be prompted for login credentials when accessing an SSO protected resource. To avoid additional login prompts, credentials authenticated by the alternate authentication environment are used by the SSO environment to identify the user. The credentials are collected from the alternate authentication environment and provided to the SSO resource in the form of a ticket. The SSO resource forwards the ticket to an SSO provider. The SSO provider identifies the user within a user store using the credentials in the ticket. If the SSO provider identifies the user, the SSO provider generates a token and provides the token to the SSO resource. The token is authenticated by the SSO resource and access is granted to the user.
US09961064B2

Ad hoc communications are established between unknown contacts. For example, in today's mobile communications environment, there are many instances in which a user of smart phone may wish to send a message to an unknown user's smartphone. An ad hoc communication thus allows messaging with an unknown user.
US09961059B2

Authenticator plugin interface for an enterprise virtualization portal is provided. An example method for evaluating a portal access request may comprise: receiving, by a virtualization management platform, a request initiated by a requestor for access to an enterprise virtualization portal associated with the virtualization management platform, the request comprising a login credential; transmitting, to a first external authentication system, a first authentication query comprising an identifier of a first data type, and a first value of the first data type, wherein the first value is derived from the login credential; receiving a first response message comprising an identifier of a second data type, and an authentication response of the second data type; and responsive to evaluating the authentication response, granting the requestor access to the enterprise virtualization portal.
US09961058B2

A system and method of message routing messages via connections in a distributed computing environment. The method includes providing a platform server, a set of intermediary servers, and a set of edge servers. The method includes receiving, by a port at the platform server, a first data message from a first end-point device over a first persistent connection. The message has been routed through a an intermediate server over a second persistent connection. The method includes receiving a second data message from a second end-point device over a third persistent connection where the second data message has been routed through another intermediate server over a fourth persistent connection. The method includes servicing, by a processor at the platform server, the first data message and the second data message where the intermediate servers manage connectivity between the end-point devices and the platform servers.
US09961057B2

Methods of securing a cryptographic device against implementation attacks, are described. A disclosed method comprises the steps of obtaining a key (230) from memory of the cryptographic device; providing the key and a constant input (210) to an encryption module (240); deriving an output (250) of encrypted data bits using the encryption module (240); providing the output (250), the key (230) and an input vector (270) to a key update module (260); and using said key update module (260) to modify the key based on at least a part (270a) of the input vector (270) to derive an updated key (230a). This prevents the value of the key from being derived using the updated key or by using side-channel attacks because the input is constant for all keys. Additionally, by altering the input vector, the updated key is also altered.
US09961050B2

Verifiable, secure communications between a sender and a receiver on at least one shared communication channel is provided. A manicoded key encoder produces an argument of knowledge for a secret key to the at least one shared communication channel, and a manicoded message encoder provides an implication argument indicating that knowledge of the secret key enables access to message content of the manicoded message. The argument of knowledge is included in a key manifest for the secret key within a manicoded key, and the implication argument is included in a message manifest of a manicoded message. In this way, the sender may provide message content within the manicoded message, and the receiver may operate a decoder to access the message content. A verifier may use the manicoded key and the manicoded message to verify that the receiver has access to the message content.
US09961046B2

A network device may include one or more processors. The one or more processors may receive a call from a services processor to allocate network address translation resources for a data packet. The one or more processors may determine an identifier associated with the services processor. The one or more processors may allocate network address translation resources using a network address port translation manager based on the identifier. The network address translation port manager may be a two-level port bitmap management system that determines a translated source port for the data packet.
US09961030B2

A messaging and content sharing platform that allows for sender-controlled permissions and rules. During operation, a sending device can receive user input to set permissions and rules for an object to be sent to a receiving device. The permissions and rules control how the object will be managed after leaving the sending device. A receiving device receives the object and complies with the permissions and rules associated with the object. Other features of the platform include a hierarchical view for group messaging, an attachment-only view of messages, large file attachments, and the ability to allow users to access external services such as social networking websites without logging in.
US09961029B2

Systems and methods are provided that, in response to obtaining an email to a recipient from a sender, and in accordance with a determination that an indirect relationship exists between the sender and the recipient, determine a spam probability of the email by evaluating statistical information regarding the historical electronic interactions associated with the sender. In this way, the email is classified according to the identified spam probability.
US09961022B1

Packet processors may implement burst absorption for processing network packets. Network packets may be processed at a packet processor according to a packet processing rate. For network packets that do not exceed the packet processing rate, processing of the network packets commences without an intervening buffer to store packet metadata. For network packets that exceed the packet processing rate, control metadata may be stored in a buffer at the excessive processing rate separate from packet data until removed from the buffer for processing according to the packet processing rate. In some embodiments, pipeline bubbles may be inserted by delaying the removal of packet metadata from the burst absorption buffer in order to start a pipeline bubble through forwarding stages of a packet processor.
US09961014B2

An SDN-enabled network communication method is disclosed. A master TURN server sends a client an error response and assigns a relay switch as a backup server for the client using an alternate-server mechanism. Therefore, data streams of the client are directly transferred to the relay switch. With support by a shadow TURN server and an SDN controller, switches forwarding the data streams are managed according to the OpenFlow protocol to implement path optimization for the data streams.
US09960996B2

A method for distributing transmission path information, including: distributing, by a first routing bridge which stores a MAC address of a host on a local link, transmission path information of the host on the local link to a remote routing bridge of a non-local link, the transmission path information including the MAC address of the host on the local link and identification information of a second routing bridge, so that the remote routing bridge learns the transmission path information from the first routing bridge. The present application further provides corresponding routing bridges. The present application may enable the remote routing bridge to timely learn the transmission path information of the host under the condition that a data packet sent by the host is not received, so as to send data to the host according to a new transmission path.
US09960986B2

A system and method for providing notifications is described. The system accesses a notification database that stores a plurality of notification entries. Each notification entry includes notification text, location information, and condition information. For each of a plurality of devices, information is received that includes a current location of that device and a current status associated with that device. At least one device is determined to meet the condition information of a notification entry based on the received information. A notification corresponding to the notification entry is transmitted to the at least one device.
US09960984B2

A computing device performance monitor may be configured to collect performance metric information regarding one or more monitored computing devices, and may assign condition point values to each metric. The performance monitor may generate a total of the condition point values, and use the total to determine an appropriate response.
US09960979B1

Systems and methods for brokering storage services are disclosed. In one embodiment, the brokering system stores a mapping of stored data sets to online storage providers. The system can monitor one or more metrics associated with a plurality of online storage providers, identify one or more provider criteria associated with a first customer account, and obtain one or more metrics of a first storage provider storing a first data set associated with the first customer account. The system can determine whether to migrate the first data set based in part on the monitored metrics, the metrics of the first storage provider and the provider criteria. The system can auto-initiating migration of the first data set from the first storage provider to one or more selected storage providers of the plurality of online storage providers and update the mapping for the first data set.
US09960970B2

Services in an operating environment are represented by stored service definitions that identify entities that perform the service. Entity definitions identify machine data pertaining to the entity. A key performance indicator (KPI) of the service characterizes the service on the whole or some aspect of it. Each KPI is defined by a search query that derives a value from machine data identified in the entity definitions. Processing devices cause display of a service-monitoring page having a services summary region and a services aspects region. The summary region displays interactive summary tiles that each correspond to a service and present information about an aggregate KPI that characterizes the service. The aspects region displays interactive aspect tiles that each correspond to a KPI characterizing some aspect of an associated service. Additional information may be included in the service-monitoring page and interaction features enable a user to navigate to enhanced information displays.
US09960964B2

System, method and apparatus to manage services in a network are provided. The system includes at least one administration node and a plurality of application nodes, which are connected to each other. A first application node from the plurality of application nodes upon receiving at least one instruction from one of the at least one administration node initializing a first process, and the first application node retrieves configuration information from one of the at least one administration node. The configuration information includes a group name, a cluster name, and a service name related to the first process from a database of one of the at least one administration node. After retrieving the configuration information from said corresponding administration node, the first application node assigns, a name which includes the group name, the cluster name, the service name along with a process name, to the first process.
US09960960B2

A remote management system for Customer premises equipment WAN Management Protocol (CWMP) is provided. The remote management system includes at least one CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) and one server coupled to the CPE via a network. The CPE transmits a request to the server via the network. The server processes the request from the CPE according to a processing order, wherein the server provides a table which contains forecasted processing times for commands of a plurality of data models compatible with the CWMP. Upon receiving the request, the server generates a command configuration document according to the request, forecasts and obtains a first processing time corresponding to the command configuration document, and then dynamically adjusts and arranges the processing order for processing the request in the server according to the first processing time and a maximum waiting time corresponding to the request.
US09960956B1

Determining flow rules in a software defined network (SDN) of a plurality of forwarding devices includes determining, by a controller device, a network adjacency matrix of the SDN, wherein the network adjacency matrix represents a topology of the SDN; placing, by the controller device, a phantom node in the network adjacency matrix, wherein the phantom node does not physically exist within the topology of the SDN and the phantom node is attached to a first node with maximum degree in the network adjacency matrix to create a phantom adjacency matrix, wherein the first node corresponds to a first forwarding device in the SDN; and determining, by the controller device, an adverse condition in the SDN using the phantom node, wherein the controller device is separate from the plurality of forwarding devices.
US09960953B2

Systems of redundant in-line network switch appliances are described. In an embodiment, a system includes a primary network switch appliance and a secondary network switch appliance communicatively coupled in-line between nodes on a computer network. A tool, for example for network monitoring, is communicatively coupled to the primary network switch appliance. In use, when the primary network switch appliance is in a first state, a bypass switch of the primary network switch appliance is configured to complete a communication path between the tool and a node on the computer network via a switching fabric of the primary network switch appliance. When the primary network switch appliance is in a second state, the bypass switch is configured to complete a communication path between the tool and the node on the computer network via the secondary network switch appliance, bypassing the switching fabric of the primary network switch appliance.
US09960951B1

Embodiments detect issues in an outside plant utilizing a connectivity trail that indicates network elements (NEs) starting at the headend and ending at a distribution tap that serves one or more customer premise devices associated to a customer account. Embodiments determine a failed NE that serves the highest number of customers for which a trouble is reported to a ticketing system. Embodiments avoid reporting downstream child NEs that may be performing poorly due to the upstream failed parent NE. Embodiments associate the one or more customer premise devices, and a customer account with respective NEs of the connectivity trail, perform operational metric tests to determine whether a customer premise device associated with a customer account has failed, determine when an NE of the connectivity trail has failed. Embodiments also include rebooting the failed NE and/or notifying a ticketing system accordingly.
US09960948B2

A receiver comprises a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) configured to amplify an input signal and a resonant circuit coupled to the LNA. A first switch couples current from the resonant circuit to a first capacitor integrating a first voltage, wherein the first switch is enabled with a clock signal. A second switch couples current from the resonant circuit to a second capacitor integrating a second voltage, wherein the second switch is enabled with an inverse clock signal. A differential amplifier comprises a positive input for receiving the first voltage and a negative input for receiving the second voltage in order to produce a sum and a difference frequency spectrum between a signal spectrum carried within the current and a frequency of the clock signal.
US09960947B2

A compensation circuit of a power amplifier includes a varactor, a voltage sensor and a control circuit. The varactor is coupled to an input terminal of the power amplifier. The voltage sensor is arranged for detecting an amplitude of an input signal of the power amplifier to generate a detecting result. The control circuit is coupled to the varactor and the voltage sensor, and is arranged for controlling a bias voltage of the varactor to adjust a capacitance of the varactor according to the detecting result.
US09960942B2

The invention relates to a method for reducing the PAPR in FRFT-OFDM systems, which belongs to the field of broadband wireless digital communications technology. The method is based on fractional random phase sequence and fractional circular convolution theorem, which can effectively reduce the PAPR of the system. The method of the invention has the advantages of simple system implementation and low computational complexity. In this method, the PAPR of the system can be effectively reduced while maintaining the reliability of the system. When the number of candidate signals is the same, the PAPR performance of the present method was found to be almost the same as that of SLM and better than that of PTS. More importantly, the present method has lower computational complexity than that of SLM and PTS methods.
US09960934B2

Channel estimation with reduced overhead in a filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) system is enabled by use of frequency-time blocks each comprising a pilot field with two pilot symbols and data symbols outside the pilot field. In embodiments, nearest neighbors of the pilot field are populated with data symbols which fulfill one or more symmetry relations enabling approximate interference cancellation. In a first embodiment, the pilot field consists of two frequency-consecutive and time-coinciding positions; the pilot field may be time-initial in a transmission or may be located in the interior of the transmission. In a second embodiment, a block comprises two frequency-coinciding and time-consecutive pilot symbols; the pilot field may be frequency-initial in a transmission or may be located in the interior of the transmission.
US09960925B2

A server apparatus performs a remote conference by a plurality of communication apparatuses. When a recording start instruction is acquired from any one of the communication apparatuses, the server apparatus specifies, based on layout information of the communication apparatuses, a display area in which layouts of two or more image information are corresponding to each other between two or more of the communication apparatuses. The server apparatus combines two or more image data corresponding respectively to the two or more image information included in the specified display area and generates one first kind record data. The first kind record data includes the two or more image information which are arranged in the layout of the two or more image information included in the specified display area.
US09960924B2

A conference system includes at least one server and at least one mobile terminal connectable to the server. The mobile terminal includes an orientation estimation unit configured to detect orientation information of the mobile terminal, an operation unit configured to detect operation information of an operation performed; and an event transmission unit configured to transmit the orientation information and the operation information. The server includes an image information generation unit configured to generate image information of a conference material and image information of a pointer drawn over the image information of the conference material based on the drawing event, and an action information generation unit configured to generate action information corresponding to the conference material based on drawing history information of the drawn pointer.
US09960920B2

In some implementations, a data unit may be hashed to generate a hash. A cryptographic structure, such as a Merkle tree or other cryptographic structure, maybe generated based on the hash and published on a block chain or distributed ledger. A proof associated with the data unit may be provided. The proof may allow for independent verification that the data unit is certified. Responsive to obtaining the data unit as at least one data unit to be verified, the data unit may be hashed. The associated proof may be obtained, where the obtained proof includes an index describing a position of the hash among one or more other hashes in the published cryptographic structure. The cryptographic structure may be reconstructed based on the index of the proof. Certification of the data unit may be verified by proving that the hash belongs to a root of the published cryptographic structure.
US09960919B2

A method of securing data, the method comprising: dividing a secret key into a plurality of secret key shares; storing each of the plurality of secret key shares in a different server of a plurality of servers so that none of the servers has access to the secret key and to the secret key share stored in another of the servers; using a server of the plurality of servers to execute a secure computation protocol to determine a value of a function responsive to all of the plurality of secret key shares without providing any of the plurality of servers with access to the secret key and to the secret key share stored in another of the servers; and using the calculated value of the function to secure the data.
US09960918B2

An approach is provided for providing identity based encryption in distributed computations. An identity based encryption platform causes, at least in part, a segmentation of a computation closure into at least a first part and one or more second parts. The identity based encryption platform also causes, at least in part, an encryption of the one or more second parts using the first part as a public key of an identity-based encryption.
US09960912B2

A system and method for providing security key exchange and management prior to the operating system of the server and also provides for executing various security functions to prevent a virus or malicious software from propagating through the server and the network. The system and method utilize the BIOS firmware and baseboard management controller (BMC), which are more secure since they do not rely on open source code for software plug-ins from the user layer. As a result, a secure code can be created for key management with a globally unique identifier (GUID). The system and method provides for a network manager to easily and flexibly manage multiple security keys for a rack server system.
US09960909B2

A system for performing hashing includes a controller for controlling the system and for providing a clock signal; an array of integrated circuits; in each integrated circuit, a plurality of cores for performing hashing; and in each core, a plurality of data expanders and data compressors, the data expanders and the data compressors having pipelined circuitry so that two iterations of a hashing loop are performed for each cycle of the clock signal. A method for performing hashing, includes controlling a system having an array of integrated circuits with a clock signal; performing hashing in a plurality of cores in each integrated circuit; and performing for each cycle of the clock signal, in each core, a plurality of data expansion and data compression operations, using pipelined circuitry so that two iterations of a hashing loop are performed for each cycle of the clock signal.
US09960907B2

Instructions and logic provide general purpose GF(28) SIMD cryptographic arithmetic functionality. Embodiments include a processor to decode an instruction for a SIMD affine transformation specifying a source data operand, a transformation matrix operand, and a translation vector. The transformation matrix is applied to each element of the source data operand, and the translation vector is applied to each of the transformed elements. A result of the instruction is stored in a SIMD destination register. Some embodiments also decode an instruction for a SIMD binary finite field multiplicative inverse to compute an inverse in a binary finite field modulo an irreducible polynomial for each element of the source data operand. Some embodiments also decode an instruction for a SIMD binary finite field multiplication specifying first and second source data operands to multiply each corresponding pair of elements of the first and second source data operand modulo an irreducible polynomial.
US09960896B2

Techniques for sending hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for transmissions received via a plurality of aggregated component carriers are disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) receive a plurality of codewords via a plurality of component carriers and decodes the codewords. The component carriers are grouped into a plurality of groups, and the WTRU may generate a bundled positive/negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) for each group of component carriers. The WTRU may be assigned a plurality of uplink control channel resources and may implement a channel selection scheme for indicating the ACK/NACKs. The WTRU selects one of the uplink control channel resources, and sets the HARQ feedback based the ACK/NACKs or bundled ACK/NACKs in a way that a different uplink control channel resource is selected and HARQ feedback bits are set differently based on the ACK/NACKs or bundled ACK/NACKs. Each physical uplink control channel (PUCCHs) may be mapped to a particular antenna.
US09960889B2

A pre-5G or 5G communication system to be provided for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4G communication system, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for performing interleaving by using an identical interleaving bit generation method in multiple interleavers included in a communication system. The present disclosure provides a method for interleaving an input bit sequence by an interleaver of a multiple access communication system. The method includes setting a common parameter used by multiple interleavers; setting a unique parameter for the interleaver in view of a correlation between bit sequences which are input to the multiple interleavers; and interleaving the input bit sequence by using prime-power depending on the common parameter and the unique parameter.
US09960882B2

The present application discloses systems and methods for adjusting a back-off value for a rank. In some embodiment, the method includes the steps of: (a) determining whether the rank is underutilized and (b) in response to determining that the rank is underutilized, decreasing the back-off value as a function of time while the rank remains underutilized.
US09960879B2

An optical line terminal (OLT) coupled to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) through a passive optical network (PON). The OLT includes a transceiver configured to communicate via a management channel of a communication network with a plurality of OLTs. The communication includes sending or receiving a notification, wherein the notification includes the following: a source OLT identifier associated with a source OLT sending the notification, wherein the source OLT is configured to communicate over a first channel at a first wavelength of the PON; a destination OLT identifier associated with a destination OLT receiving the notification, wherein the destination OLT is configured to communicate over a second channel at a second wavelength of the PON; and an ONU identifier associated with a first ONU associated with the notification.
US09960875B2

The present disclosure provides a base station, a communication system and a method thereof. The communication system includes three base stations adjacent to each other, and each base station serves at least one UE. The method includes: acquiring, by each base station, a channel matrix of a channel from the base station to an adjacent base station; calculating an interference alignment-based transmission precoding matrix for each base station based on the channel matrices of the channels between the base stations; and precoding, by each base station, data to be transmitted with the interference alignment-based transmission precoding matrix.
US09960866B1

A method and apparatus are provided. The method includes receiving a signal sequence and a noise sequence, determining a first absolute value sum approximation of a receive power of the signal sequence, determining a second absolute value sum approximation of a noise power of the noise sequence, and determining a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based on the first absolute value sum approximation and the second absolute value sum approximation.
US09960865B2

A station (STA) can receive messages (e.g., beacon frames) at a regular interval, and perform measurements on the received messages. The STA maintains a running average of recent measurement values, and updates the running average after each new measurement interval. At some measurement opportunities, the expected messages cannot be received by the STA, and so the STA cannot perform a measurement; when this occurs, the STA can choose substitute values to use for the missed measurements when next calculating the running average. As one example, the STA can substitute the value for a previously-performed measurement for the missed measurements. As another example, the STA can substitute a predetermined low value for the missed measurements. Based on the value of the running average at a given point in time, the STA can take actions such as initiating a roaming scan or switching to a different wireless interface.
US09960864B2

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include antennas. The antennas may include phased antenna arrays for handling millimeter wave signals. Antennas may be located in antenna signal paths. The antenna signal paths may include adjustable components such as adjustable filters, adjustable gain amplifiers, and adjustable phase shifters. Circuitry may be incorporated into an electronic device to facilitate wireless self-testing operations. Wireless self-testing may involve use of one antenna to transmit an over-the-air antenna test signal that is received by another antenna. The circuitry that facilitates the wireless self-testing operations may include couplers, adjustable switches for temporarily shorting antenna signal paths together, mixers for mixing down radio-frequency signals to allow digitization with analog-to-digital converters, and other circuitry for supporting self-testing operations.
US09960862B2

Disclosed are a method and device for detecting a standing-wave ratio, which are used for realizing quick and accurate detection of the standing-wave ratio by only using a downlink service signal transmitted by a TD-LTE base station system, thereby preventing a special training sequence from causing additional interference to the base station system. The method comprises: capturing output power detection data (OPD) of a service signal transmitted by the base station system and reflection power detection data (RPD) of a device to be detected in a base station; within a first preset bandwidth range, respectively extracting feedback signals of the OPD and feedback signals of the RPD within a plurality of periods of time according to a preset data length; determining spectrum characteristics of the feedback signals of the OPD and spectrum characteristics of the feedback signals of the RPD respectively corresponding to each period of time, and determining the reflection coefficient of the base station system according to the spectrum characteristics of the feedback signals of the OPD and the spectrum characteristics of the feedback signals of the RPD respectively corresponding to each period of time; and determining the standing-wave ratio of the base station system within the first preset bandwidth range according to the reflection coefficient of the base station system.
US09960857B2

Described herein are systems and methods for accurately estimating and removing a carrier frequency offset. One exemplary embodiment relates to a system comprising a frequency offset detection circuit detecting a carrier frequency offset in an optical signal, and a frequency testing circuit calculating an estimated frequency offset value of the carrier frequency offset, wherein the frequency testing circuit removes a carrier phase based on the estimated frequency offset value and recovers the optical signal. Another exemplary embodiment relates to a method comprising detecting a carrier frequency offset in an optical signal, calculating an estimated frequency offset value of the carrier frequency offset, removing a carrier phase based on the estimated frequency offset value, and recovering the optical signal.
US09960855B2

A receiver for fiber optic communications.
US09960845B2

We disclose embodiments of a WDM transmitter having an in-band OTDR capability for at least a subset of the WDM channels thereof. In an example embodiment, an OTDR-enabled WDM channel of the WDM transmitter is implemented using an optical transceiver that comprises an optical transmitter and a coherent optical receiver. The optical transmitter is configured to generate a modulated optical signal by modulating a respective carrier wavelength, transmit the modulated optical signal through an optical link as a component of the corresponding WDM signal, and provide the respective carrier wavelength to the coherent optical receiver for being used therein as an optical local oscillator. The optical receiver is configured to estimate an impulse response of the optical link by coherently detecting and processing a return optical signal produced within the optical link due to distributed reflection and/or backscattering of the modulated optical signal.
US09960838B1

A satellite system is configured to receive and allow direct forwarding of traffic on a time slot by time slot basis without demodulation or decoding. The satellite system may be configured to receive waveforms and configured to separate a waveform of data from a waveform of control information. The satellite system may be configured to switch the waveform of data toward one or more terminals and configured to switch the waveform of control information toward a satellite control unit without demodulation or decoding of the waveforms. A method for satellite communication is also provided.
US09960835B2

Embodiments are provided for processing voice communication requests intended for a destination electronic device connected to an on-board communications network. According to certain aspects, a server may receive a request for a routing number and provide the routing number to a service provider network. The server may also identify an identification of a destination electronic device included in a voice communication request, modify the voice communication request to indicate the identification of the destination electronic device, and transmit, to an on-board communications network for delivery to the destination electronic device, a communication according to the voice communication request that was modified.
US09960834B2

A device for supporting wireless communication is provided. The device includes a transceiver, an antenna, and a radio frequency (RF) front end system communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the antenna. The RF front end system may include: a RF sampling block coupled to the transceiver and configured to sample signals received from the transceiver and output voltage signals; a RF switching logic coupled to the RF sampling block to receive the voltage signals and configured to switch the front end RF system between a transmitting mode and a receiving mode; a RF transmission gain block coupled to the RF switching logic and configured to increase a transmission power of the signals received from the transceiver; and a RF receiving gain block coupled to the RF switching logic and configured to remove noise signals contained in radio frequency signals received from the antenna.
US09960832B2

Add-on apparatus dynamically enhancing frequency diversity of a main signal sent over an existing communication system, the system using a communication protocol to convey the main signal from a Tx end to an Rx end, the add-on apparatus comprising a Transmission Frequency Converter (TFC) at the Tx end operative while the system is transmitting the main signal, to at least once shift a given center frequency about which the system is transmitting, to at least one corresponding alternative center frequency, wherein the TFC and an Reception Frequency Converter at the Rx end share prior knowledge defining how each shift of the given center frequency is to be timed relative to at least one recognizable element within the known communication protocol and wherein the Transmission Frequency Converter is operative to use the prior knowledge to recognize the at least one recognizable element and to shift the center frequency accordingly.
US09960830B2

A pre-5th-generation (5G) or 5G communication system for supporting higher data rates Beyond 4th-generation (4G) communication system such as long term evolution (LTE) is provided. In a beam update method of a terminal, measuring a beam reference signal (BRS) transmitted from a base station, determining whether a beam measurement information transmission condition is satisfied, if the beam measurement information transmission condition is satisfied, transmitting beam measurement information to the base station, receiving information about a base station transmitting beam from the base station, and updating information about a terminal receiving beam based on the received information about the base station transmitting beam.
US09960827B2

The present disclosure is directed towards an analog beamformer multiple beam feed (MBF). The analog beamformer MBF comprises a plurality of encoder elements to receive radiofrequency (RF) signals and generate coded analog signals. The RF signals may be coded using code division multiple access (CDMA) codes. The analog beamformer MBF further comprises a combiner to combine the coded analog signals received from the plurality of encoder elements and a divider to receive the combined coded analog signals and generate a plurality of coded analog outputs. The analog beamformer MBF further comprises a plurality of decoder elements to receive the plurality of coded analog outputs and generate decoded analog signals. In some embodiments, the RF signals may be decoded using CDMA codes. The analog beamformer MBF further comprises a plurality of beamformer elements configured to generate beam outputs corresponding to the decoded analog signals.
US09960824B2

A process and system provides a high efficiency (HE) sounding procedure that enables a beamformer to signal to each beamformee support for responses allowing other forms of feedback from the beamformee instead of explicit feedback. The HE sounding procedure utilizes additional fields in the frames of the HE sounding procedure to signal the use of the HE sounding procedure. The HE sounding procedure also supports legacy stations that provide standard explicit feedback.
US09960821B2

A method of arranging exchange of signals between user terminals in a cellular communication system and at least one base station including a central unit and a plurality of remote units. The method includes exchanging signals with at least one user terminal simultaneously via at least two remote units by applying at the at least two remote units, separate distributing weighting functions to the signals exchanged with the at least one user terminal.
US09960819B2

A method for inductively coupled communication is described. The method includes determining an operational mode for inductively coupled communication. The method also includes performing the operational mode by combining a transmit power amplifier (PA) output replica and a PA output copy at a signal combining block of a receiver. The PA output replica reflects effects of channel properties. The PA output copy is unaffected by the channel properties.
US09960812B2

Various aspects are described herein in connection with a method and/or apparatus of near-field communication (NFC). For example, various methods and apparatuses include a NFC controller receiving a current message from a NFC reader. Methods and apparatuses include the NFC controller determining that the current message received from the NFC reader is not associated with a known secure element identification, identifying a secure element corresponding to a last response message sent to the NFC reader, and sending the current message to the identified secure element that originated the last response message sent to the NFC reader. Methods and apparatuses also include the NFC controller receiving a request message from the NFC reader prior to the receiving of the current message, receiving the last response message from one of a plurality of secure elements, and saving an identification of the one of the secure elements that sent the last response message.
US09960810B1

System, apparatus and method for transmission of 10/100Base-T Ethernet signals and electrical power over a coaxial cable are disclosed. The system includes a first media converter and a second media converter which are connected by the coaxial cable. The first media converter is connectable to a power sourcing equipment (PSE) and the second media converter is connectable to a powered device (PD). The two media converters are configured to enable transmission of 10/100Base-T Ethernet signals between the first network device and the second network device over the coaxial cable, and the two media converters are further configured to provide a passive DC circuit path between the PSE and PD for the PSE to deliver electrical power to the PD over the coaxial cable. According to one embodiment of the invention, the two media converters are swappable and are passive devices.
US09960805B2

Systems and methods for suppressing transmitter noise in a receive band of a co-located receiver that are suitable for wideband applications are disclosed. In one embodiment, a transmitter is configured to upconvert and amplify a digital transmit signal to provide an analog radio frequency transmit signal at an output of the transmitter that includes a desired signal in a transmit band of the transmitter and transmitter noise in a receive band of a main receiver. The main receiver is configured to amplify, downconvert, and digitize an analog radio frequency receive signal to provide a digital receive signal. The digital feedforward transmit noise cancellation subsystem is configured to process the digital transmit signal to generate a digital transmitter noise cancellation signal that is representative of the transmitter noise in the receive band and is subtracted from the digital receive signal to thereby provide a compensated digital receive signal.
US09960796B2

Provided are a multi-input multi-output system which overcomes a disadvantage that optimal receiving performance cannot be maintained according to an installation environment and a performance change of a receiver when a receiving module is configured by using a fixed attenuator and a fixed phase in a line-of-sight multi-input multi-output system configuration and analogously controls an interference removing module of a receiver including a variable attenuator and a phase shifter which are controllable to enhance a receiving performance and increase frequency efficiency, in order to maximize a signal-to-interference ratio of each path and an operating method thereof.
US09960794B2

Systems and methods for providing indications about the TX RF non-linear impairments are disclosed. In accordance with some implementations, a first device (UE or base station) estimates EVM indications for the signal and determines if the EVM indications is above a threshold. The first device may transmit the estimated TX non-linearity indications such as AM-AM, AM-PM, Volterra coefficients, and/or other performance metrics to a second device, that transmitted the signal, when it is determined that the EVM indications is above the threshold. Systems and methods for wireless communication impairment correction are also disclosed wherein, in accordance with some implementations, a first device receives estimated TX non-linearity indications such as AM-AM, AM-PM, and/or Volterra coefficients from a second device and performs non-linear correction of a transmit signal for the second receiver device based at least in part on the EVM indications. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09960793B2

Aspects of this disclosure relate to detecting power associated with an individual carrier of a carrier aggregated signal. In an embodiment, a carrier aggregation system includes radio frequency (RF) sources, a transmission output, and a directional coupler. The RF sources, such as power amplifiers, can each be associated with a separate carrier. The transmission output can provide a carrier aggregated signal that includes an aggregation of the separate carriers associated with the RF sources. The directional coupler can provide an indication of RF power of one of the separate carriers.
US09960787B2

Wireless transport of multiple service versions of a transport framework. First and second information may be processed for transmission, respectively, according to first and second service versions of a transport framework. The first and second information may be encoded using a first type of error correction coding; after processing, the processed first information may include error correction coding according to the first type of error correction coding, while the processed second information may remain uncoded according to the first type of error correction coding. Control information may be generated indicating that the second information remains uncoded according to the first type of error correction coding, which may signal to receivers that the second information is processed according to the second service version of the transport framework. Packets including the processed first information, the processed second information, and the control information may be generated and transmitted in a wireless manner.
US09960783B2

A conditional correlated multiple sampling (CCMS) single slope (SS) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is provided. The CCMS SS ADC includes a comparator, arranged to compare an analog signal with a ramp signal and generate a comparison result; and a CCMS control circuit, arranged to determine a swing of the ramp signal according to a magnitude of the analog signal. An image sensor system using the CCMS SS ADC and a method of CCMS SS analog-to-digital conversion are also disclosed.
US09960782B2

An input sampling stage circuit includes, a precharge buffer, a precharge switch-capacitor circuit, and an input sampling capacitor. The precharge buffer is configured to buffer an input voltage. The precharge switch-capacitor circuit includes a plurality of switches, a first capacitor, and a second capacitor configured such that the first and second capacitors are connected in series during a coarse sampling time and in parallel during a fine sampling time and charge transfer time. The input sampling capacitor is configured to sample the input voltage through the precharge switch-capacitor circuit during the coarse sampling time and sample the input voltage directly during the fine sampling time.
US09960776B2

Methods and apparatus for generating a variable clock used to control a component of a substrate processing system are provided herein. In some embodiments, an apparatus for controlling a substrate processing system includes: a phase locked loop circuit for generating a relative clock that is phase locked to a variable frequency signal being used by a substrate processing chamber; and a controller, coupled to the phase locked loop circuit, for producing a control signal for a component of the substrate processing system, wherein the control signal is based upon the relative clock and an operating indicia of the substrate processing system.
US09960762B2

Disclosed is a startup circuit comprises a current path comprising a circuit including a P-channel MOS transistor, a P-channel MOS transistor, and an N-channel MOS transistor connected in series. After a constant current circuit is started, the N-channel MOS transistor is turned on, an operating current is fed through the current path, and an N-channel MOS transistor is turned off to cut off a startup current. After the startup current is cut off, the gate voltage of the P-channel MOS transistor is controlled by the voltage (bias voltage during operation of the constant current circuit) of a node, a drain-source voltage of the P-channel MOS transistor is reduced, and the operating current flowing through the current path is limited.
US09960750B2

Provided herein are apparatus and methods for reconfigurable directional couplers in an RF transceiver. Reconfigurable directional couplers can be reconfigured and designed to provide high directivity using configurable capacitors to effect a mutual coupling and using lumped components or delay lines to effect a phase shift. Depending on the embodiment, the reconfigurable directional coupler can include capacitors, inductors, and switching components. The coupler can be designed for multi-band operation with an adjustable coupling factor conducive to semiconductor process integration. The coupler can have variable phase shifters to achieve a desired level of directivity in the coupler.
US09960739B2

A pulse modulator receives an analog voltage VIN, and generates a pulse signal that is modulated according to the analog voltage VIN. An output stage generates a switching signal at an output terminal according to the pulse signal. A semiconductor integrated circuit is switchable between (i) a normal mode in which a main signal VMAIN to be used in a normal operating mode is input as the analog voltage VIN to the pulse modulator, and (ii) a test mode in which at least one internal analog signal VAUX generated in the semiconductor integrated circuit is input as the analog voltage VIN to the pulse modulator.
US09960737B1

Systems, methods and apparatus for efficient power control of an RF amplifier for amplification of a constant envelope RF signal are described. A reduction in a size of a pass device of an LDO regulator is obtained by removing the pass device of the LDO regulator from a main current conduction path of the RF amplifier. Power control is provided by varying one or more gate voltages to cascoded transistors of a transistor stack of the RF amplifier according to a power control voltage. Various configurations for controlling the gate voltages are presented by way of a smaller size LDO regulator or by completely removing the LDO regulator. In a case where a supply voltage to the transistor stack varies, such as in a case of a battery, a compensation circuit is used to adjust the power control voltage in view of a variation of the supply voltage, and therefore null a corresponding drift in output power of the RF amplifier.
US09960734B2

A nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) oscillator can include an insulating substrate, a source electrode and a drain electrode, a metal local gate electrode, and a micron-sized, atomically thin graphene resonator. The source electrode and drain electrode can be disposed on the insulating substrate. The metal local gate electrode can be disposed on the insulating substrate. The graphene resonator can be suspended over the metal local gate electrode and define a vacuum gap between the graphene resonator and the metal local gate electrode.
US09960724B2

A driving system for hybrid electric vehicles includes a DC/DC converter configured to convert low-voltage DC power of a vehicle battery into high-voltage DC power according to a first PWM signal generated based on a first PWM carrier signal; a first inverter configured to convert the high-voltage DC power into first AC power according to a second signal generated based on a second PWM carrier signal, and drive a first driving motor according to the first AC power; a second inverter configured to convert the high-voltage DC power into second AC power according to a third PWM signal generated based on a third PWM carrier signal, and drive a second driving motor according to the second AC power; and a PWM phase controller configured to separately control phases of the first to third PWM carrier signals according to an operation mode of each of the first and second driving motors.
US09960717B2

A motor drive control device, which drives a motor including a plurality of phase coils and a rotor, includes: a motor driver, which outputs a drive signal to the phase coils on a drive control signal; one position sensor, which is provided in a position where a timing of at least one of a rising edge and a falling edge of a rotor position signal is near a zero cross timing of a phase signal of any phase coil; and a controller that: generates the drive control signal based on the phase signal in a case where a rotational speed of the motor is less than a predetermined rotational speed; and generates the drive control signal based on the rotor position signal output from the one position sensor in a case where the rotational speed is equal to or more than the predetermined rotational speed.
US09960712B2

An inverter includes a transformer that includes a first winding, a second winding, and a third winding, a DC-AC inverter electrically coupled to the first winding of the transformer, a cycloconverter electrically coupled to the second winding of the transformer, an active filter electrically coupled to the third winding of the transformer. The DC-AC inverter is adapted to convert the input DC waveform to an AC waveform delivered to the transformer at the first winding. The cycloconverter is adapted to convert an AC waveform received at the second winding of the transformer to the output AC waveform having a grid frequency of the AC grid. The active filter is adapted to sink and source power with one or more energy storage devices based on a mismatch in power between the DC source and the AC grid.
US09960709B2

A power conversion device includes: a positive arm and a negative arm each of which is formed by connecting a plurality of converter cells in series, the converter cells each being composed of a plurality of semiconductor switching elements and a DC capacitor; and a control circuit. An arm balance control unit in the control circuit calculates a first voltage adjustment value for balancing voltage of the DC capacitors in the positive arm and voltage of the DC capacitors in the negative arm. The control circuit adjusts an AC control command using the first voltage adjustment value, thereby calculating an AC voltage command for AC voltage to be outputted to an AC line for each phase.
US09960704B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a method includes receiving by a drive circuit electrical power from a voltage tap of a first rectifier circuit that includes a load path and a voltage tap, and using the electrical power by the drive circuit to drive a second rectifier circuit that includes a load path. The load path of the first rectifier circuit and the load path of the second rectifier circuit are coupled to a common circuit node.
US09960703B2

To provide a DC power-supply device that can suppress voltage unbalance of a plurality of capacitors serially connected between both terminals of a load, achieve stable drive of the load and long life of the capacitors, and contribute to high reliability, in a configuration in which an alternating current is converted into a direct current and is supplied to a load, and a refrigeration-cycle application device including the DC power-supply device. The DC power-supply device includes a rectifier circuit, a reactor connected to an input or an output side of the rectifier circuit, a first capacitor and a second capacitor serially connected between output terminals to a load, a charging unit that selectively charges one or both of the first capacitor and the second capacitor, and further includes a control unit that controls the charging unit so that voltage unbalance between the first capacitor and the second capacitor is suppressed.
US09960691B2

The disclosure relates to a control circuit, a control method and a flyback converter of primary-side feedback control including the control circuit. On the basis of the current sampling signal feedback, the flyback converter of primary-side feedback control is controlled to operate in a constant on time mode when the input voltage is large, and is controlled to operate in a peak current mode when the input voltage is close to a valley. Thus, the peak value of the primary-side current may not become too small because of a decreased input voltage, further avoiding occurrence of an error sampling after a blanking time due to excessive variations in demagnetization time.
US09960686B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a method of operating a power supply includes detecting a loss of at least one of an AC input voltage an AC input power at an input of the power supply, and increasing a switching frequency of the power supply upon detection of the loss of the AC input voltage or AC input power.
US09960675B2

A method and apparatus for estimating capacitor current in a feed-forward control system includes a circuit that conducts a current through an output capacitor to ground and estimates a current magnitude for the current in an output current estimator. The current estimator generates a voltage that corresponds to the estimated current magnitude by creating a voltage drop across an estimator circuit capacitor that equals a voltage drop across the output capacitor, by creating a voltage drop across an output of an RC network of the estimator circuit that equals or is proportional to a voltage drop across the output capacitor due to parasitic inductance and parasitic resistance of the output capacitor. The voltage drop across the output of the RC network of the estimator circuit is proportional to current flowing through the parasitic inductance and resistance of the output capacitor.
US09960671B2

A capacitive isolation system, capacitive isolator, and method of operating the same are disclosed. The capacitive isolation system is described to include a first semiconductor die and a second semiconductor die each having capacitive elements established thereon and positioned in a face-to-face configuration. An isolation layer is provided between the first and second semiconductor die so as to establish an isolation boundary therebetween. Capacitive coupling is used to carry information across the isolation boundary.
US09960662B2

A high rotor pole switched reluctance machine (HRSRM) employs an axial and radial mirroring concept and is represented by a first Multiple Rotor Pole (MRP) formula and second Multiple Stator Pole (MSP) formula. A multiple rotor HRSRM comprises at least two rotors each having a plurality of rotor poles and at least one stator having a plurality of stator poles. The at least two rotors and the at least one stator are positioned about a central axis with the stator placed between, and laterally adjacent to the rotors. A multiple stator HRSRM comprises at least two stators having a plurality of stator poles and at least one rotor having a plurality of rotor poles. The at least two stators and at least one rotor are positioned about a central axis with the rotor placed between and laterally adjacent to the stators.
US09960652B2

A motor includes a housing, a back cover, a brush card, a brush, and a connector member. The back cover includes a first rear wall portion and a first peripheral wall portion. The first peripheral wall portion includes a through-hole and a cut-out. The through-hole vertically penetrates through the first peripheral wall portion at or near a lower end portion of the first peripheral wall portion. The cut-out is disposed farther on an upper side than the through-hole. The connector member is fitted into the cut-out. An outer surface of the connector member is provided with a flow path groove that extends in both peripheral and axial directions. The motor includes a flow path surface on an inner surface of the back cover. The flow path surface continues from a portion that opposes the flow path groove on a lower side of the flow path groove to the through-hole.
US09960650B2

In an armature coil according to the present invention and, more particularly, in an armature coil including a plurality of coil conductors wound around a plurality of slots which are formed in a stator core and opened on the radially inner side, the circumferential width of the plurality of the coil conductors is formed in a substantially trapezoidal shape which gets narrower toward the radially inner side and the cross-sectional areas of the plurality of the coil conductors in the slot are each substantially the same and the circumferential width thereof is formed narrower as the coil conductor is arranged toward the radially inner side; and one coil conductor is formed in a convex shape and another coil conductor is formed in a concave shape along the convex shape.
US09960644B2

In a core for a rotary electric machine, first end portions of back yoke portions are linked to second end portions of back yoke portions of adjacent core segments so as to be rotatable around pivot portions. Each of the core segments is configured by alternately laminating first core segment sheets and second core segment sheets. The pivot portions are constituted by interfitting protruding portions that are formed on the first core segment sheets. The core segments are displaceable relative to the adjacent core segments between a contracted position in which spacing between the magnetic pole tooth portions is contracted and an expanded position in which spacing between the magnetic pole tooth portions is expanded, when the core segment linked body is opened out rectilinearly.
US09960639B2

A voltage measuring method for a supplying-end module of an induction type power supply system includes generating a coil signal on a supplying-end coil of the supplying-end module; clamping the coil signal to generate a clamp coil signal; performing signal processing on the clamp coil signal to generate a first signal and a second signal, respectively; generating a cyclic signal, a frequency of which is equal to a frequency of the coil signal; comparing the first signal and the second signal via a comparator to obtain a first time and a second time when the first signal and the second signal have an equal voltage level during a cycle of the cyclic signal; calculating a middle time of the first time and the second time; and sampling the clamp coil signal or the coil signal to obtain a peak voltage of the coil signal according to the middle time.
US09960630B2

A wireless power charging device includes a coil configured to transmit or receive a wireless power signal; an electromagnetic wave shielding sheet disposed proximate the coil; and, a heat radiation layer disposed on the electromagnetic wave shielding sheet.
US09960627B2

A feed unit includes: a power transmission section configured to perform power transmission using a magnetic field or an electric field, to a device to be fed including a secondary battery; and a power-transmission control section configured to control power transmission operation in the power transmission section. In a charging period in which charging to the secondary battery is performed based on transmitted power in the power transmission, when the device to be fed including the secondary battery is activated, the power-transmission control section controls the power transmission operation, to increase the transmitted power.
US09960625B2

A method of managing a battery system using a battery management system. The method includes receiving, measured characteristics of one or more battery cells from one or more sensors, receiving, estimated parameters of the battery cells, estimating, one or more states of the battery cells by applying a battery model based on the measured characteristics and the estimated parameters of the battery cells, updating, at least a portion of the estimated parameters based at least in part on the estimation of the states of the battery cells by applying two or more separate battery models, updating, the one or more states of the battery cells based at least in part on the updated estimated parameters of the battery cells, and regulating charging or discharging of the battery based on the updated estimation of the states of the battery cells.
US09960624B2

Within examples, systems for power distribution within the cabin of an aircraft are provided and methods for operation. The system includes a passenger seat of the aircraft. The passenger seat includes a charging module. The charging module is configured to supply power to a connected device of the passenger seat. The passenger seat also includes a passenger control unit (PCU) coupled to the charging module. The passenger control unit is configured to determine a power requirement for the connected device. Additionally, the passenger seat is associated with a seat grouping of the aircraft. The seat grouping of the aircraft includes at least one passenger seat. Further, the power distribution system includes a power supply configured to supply power to at least one charging module based on the determined power requirement.
US09960622B2

A battery charger comprises: a housing having at least one cradle; a connector port for receiving at different times electrical plug connectors having different contact configurations; electrical receptacles in the connector port for receiving at different times electrical plug connectors associated with different electrical power supplies, plural electrical receptacles having different contact configurations; the plural electrical receptacles being closely adjacent such that an electrical connector inserted into one electrical receptacle physically prevents an electrical connector from being inserted into the other electrical receptacle; and an electrical circuit coupling electrical power received at the electrical receptacles to the at least one cradle.
US09960612B2

A charging and discharging system includes a vehicle, a cable, and a charging and discharging device. The vehicle includes an electric storage device, a first fuse, and an inlet. The cable includes a connector, a second fuse, and a power line. The charging and discharging device is configured to convert AC power supplied from a commercial AC power source into DC power and to supply the DC power to the electric storage device via the cable in a charging mode. The charging and discharging device is configured to convert DC power supplied from the electric storage device via the cable into AC power and to supply the AC power to a load in a discharging mode. The first fuse is configured to be melted and cut earlier than the second fuse when the power line causes a short circuit in the discharging mode.
US09960606B2

A wireless power reception apparatus includes a reception (RX) resonator configured to form a resonance coupling with a first resonance period associated with an envelope of a power to receive the power from a transmission (TX) resonator; a switch controller configured to generate, at intervals of the first resonance period, a control signal to deactivate the RX resonator at an off timing corresponding to a time instant at which a maximum energy is stored in an inductor of the RX resonator; and a switch configured to deactivate the RX resonator in response to the control signal.
US09960604B2

An iterative framework to optimally integrate various distributed generations (DG) and demand responsive resources (DRR) within a distribution system into transmission market clearing. The concept of distribution aggregated demand and distribution aggregated utility represent a summed distribution level information in consuming electricity that encompasses preferences of the individual DGs and DRRs. This distribution level preference, which is derived based on unbalanced three-phase AC optimal power flow, is bid into the transmission level for optimal market clearing. When the aggregated preferences cannot be obtained, an iterative method enables the transmission and distribution networks to exchange price and demand information. A competitive equilibrium is reached when the method converges to a price-demand coupling point.
US09960602B2

Optimum power tracking for distributed power sources may be provided by a family of power system architectures having distributed-input series-output (DISO) converters. The DISO converters may be controlled to achieve uniform input voltages across their respective distributed power sources while also tracking an optimum power point of the power system. Each DISO converter may be operably connected to a corresponding power source to form a power-processing channel. A controller may be operably connected to the plurality of DISO converters to control the operation thereof.
US09960597B2

A device for supplying electricity to at least one secondary electric load (30) on-board a turbomachine rotor (12) including a main circuit for transmitting main electric power to at least one main on-board electrical load (16), includes a device (15) for rotatably and electrically connecting the stator and the rotor, and at least one secondary circuit for transmitting a secondary electric power including at least one secondary conductor (28) of the stator connected to a secondary electric power source (29) suitable for outputting a secondary power in the form of a power signal with a secondary frequency selected such as to enable selective, interference-free transmission of the secondary power via the rotary electric connection device (15), separately from the main power transmission.
US09960589B1

The stovetop timer kit is an aftermarket circuit interrupt device adapted for use with electric stoves. The stovetop timer kit uses a current transducer that senses the current flow to the burners and oven of the electric stove. A microcontroller monitors the current flow through the current transducer and when an overcurrent situation is sensed the microcontroller cuts off electric current flow to the burners and oven of the electric stove. The microcontroller is a programmable device that is used to control and operate the device. The stovetop timer kit comprises a control module and an interrupt circuit.
US09960575B2

An electrical stringing block in accordance with some example embodiments includes a sheave formed of a pair of metal plates which are joined together. Each plate includes an angled section, a planar section extending from an outer edge of the angled section, and a curved section extending from an outer edge of the planar section. The plates are joined together at the planar sections. Each angled section is continuous.
US09960567B2

A laser device includes a silicon substrate, a buffer layer on the silicon substrate, a laser cavity on the buffer layer including a first active region based on group III-V semiconductor quantum dots, and a semiconductor optical amplifier that is integrated with the laser cavity on the buffer layer, includes a second active region based on group III-V semiconductor quantum dots, and amplifies light emitted from the laser cavity.
US09960565B2

A method for producing an operative connection between a coaxial cable (1) and a coaxial connector (16). A cable jacket (5), if present, is removed by means of a first tool (6) to a predefined first length L1. In a second step, an outer conductor (3) is removed by means of a second tool (7) to a predefined second length L2. In a third step, a dielectric (4) is removed by means of a third tool (8) to a third length L3, such that one end (15) of the inner conductor (2) is exposed. Then the end (15) of the inner cable conductor (2) is formed by means of a rotary swaging device (9), which comprises a plurality of deflectable jaws (10) rotatable circumferentially about an axis of rotation (11) and each hammering in the radial direction with at least one operative surface (14).
US09960562B2

Technology is provided for circuit board actuator systems for ejecting and inserting a circuit board into a circuit board connector. The actuator system includes a cross-member attached to a circuit board and a pair of levers pivotably coupled to opposite end portions of the cross-member. Each lever is moveable between a closed position and an open position and includes an arm with an insertion pawl and an ejector pawl extending from the arm. The system further includes a pair of circuit board guides, each including a keeper and mountable adjacent a circuit board connector. The insertion pawls operate against the keepers to insert the circuit board into the connector when the levers are moved toward the closed position, and the ejector pawls operate against the keepers to eject the circuit board from the connector when the levers are moved toward the open position.
US09960555B2

An apparatus includes a connector body having a first side and a second side, and having a first edge and a second edge and a plurality of electrical connectors along the first edge and the second edge, wherein the connectors on the first edge conform to a first interface format and the connectors on the second edge conform to a second interface format.
US09960552B2

An electrical receptacle connector includes an inner shell, a terminal module in the inner shell, and an outer shell out of the inner shell. Two side plates, a top plate, and a bottom plate of the inner shell are connected with each other to form an insertion opening, and the insertion opening is near one end of the inner shell. The outer shell is out of the inner shell and near the insertion opening of the inner shell. The outer shell stacks on the two side plates, the top plate, and the bottom plate of the inner shell to form a double-layer shell structure. Accordingly, the structural strength around the insertion opening of the inner shell can be improved. Hence, when a plug connector is inserted into the insertion opening of the inner shell, the inner shell does not deform or bend easily.
US09960549B2

An electrical connector is disclosed. The electrical connector has a middle housing having a first upper contact spring and a first upper opening, an upper cover connected to the middle housing and having a first upper termination clamp, wherein the upper cover rotatably and linearly moves with respect to the middle housing between an open position and a closed position, and a cable having a first core, the first core extending into the first upper opening. In the closed position of the upper cover, the first upper termination clamp contacts the first core in an electrically conductive manner and abuts the first upper contact spring.
US09960546B2

The invention discloses a coiling device and a household appliance having same. The coiling device is configured to coil a power cord. The power cord comprises a first segment (91) and a second segment (92) connected to each other. The coiling device includes: a first coiling bobbin (10), provided with a first coiling groove, the first segment of the power cord being wound in the first coiling groove; and a second coiling bobbin (20), connected with the first coiling bobbin fixedly and provided with a second coiling groove, the second segment of the power cord being wound in the second coiling groove, and a winding direction of the second segment of the power cord being identical to that of the first segment of the power cord.
US09960542B2

A coaxial connector with an F female end shield is configured to restrict RF ingress.
US09960535B2

A connector includes a first member constituting a main body of the connector; and one or a plurality of second members attached to the first member. A specific member is selected from the group consisting of the first member and the second members to have a portion to be elastically deformed upon the attachment, and the specific member is formed of a hydrolysis-resistant material.
US09960525B2

A receptacle connector defines a port. The port is provided with spring fingers that are configured to engage a mating module. The spring fingers are thermally coupled to a heat transfer plate that can be configured to provide part of a cage that defines the port. Fins can be mounted on or integrated into the heat transfer plate. In operation, thermal energy from an inserted module is transferred from the module to spring fingers and then to the heat transfer plate and then to a thermal dissipation system.
US09960511B2

The connector has multiple connection elements arranged on a circuit board and supports which support the connection elements. The connection elements have terminals connected to counterpart terminals in a counterpart connector, as well as stationary retainers and movable retainers that secure the terminals in place. The terminals have connecting portions at one end of the terminals, and contact portions at the other end, and the contact portions are secured in place on one side of the movable retainers. Flexible portions are formed between the movable retainers and the stationary retainers. The movable retainers are provided with biasing members on the other side opposite to the side on which the contact portions are positioned.
US09960507B1

A radio frequency (RF) connector pin assembly is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the RF connector pin assembly includes a first dielectric, a second dielectric, and a contact pin positioned in a housing. The contact pin has a first pin section, a second pin section, and an annular collar. Axial movement of the contact pin is limited by the annular collar moving in a gap between the first and second dielectrics. The first pin section is adapted to provide electrical continuity with an external component, for example, a connector, and the second pin section terminates distally in a connection feature, which may be connected to an external structure, for example, a printed circuit board (PCB). The contact pin axially moves, or floats, in response to movement of the connection feature by engagement with the external structure. Multiple housings may be independently removably mounted in a block with independently movable contact pins.
US09960505B2

A terminal strip having an insulating material housing that has a latching foot for latching onto a mounting rail and has a width less than the length and height, and conductor connections in the insulating material housing that are arranged next to one another in pairs. The insulating material housing is in two parts and has a base housing and a lower housing. The base housing has, in a first connection region, a pair of conductor connections that are electrically conductively connected to one another. In a second connection region, the base housing has a cutout that is laterally bounded by the insulating material of the second connection region. The lower housing can be inserted into the cutout. The lower housing has a conductor connection that is electrically insulated from an adjacent conductor connection that is arranged in the second connection region, in the base housing.
US09960503B2

A method of stranded electrical wire connection involves inserting stripped, stranded ends of the wires into and then out of open container housing. A dielectric gel filled canister having an open bottom is placed over the electrical wires and the container housing, thereby completely encasing the wires. The canister is then snapped onto or otherwise secured over the container housing, to seal the electrical wires, thus completing the sealed, waterproof electrical connection.
US09960501B2

The present invention presents an electronic device. The electronic device includes a socket and a supplementary antenna. The socket is disposed on the electronic device, wherein the socket includes an accommodating portion for accommodating an external wireless communication module inserted from the outside. The supplementary antenna is disposed in the electronic device, wherein when the wireless communication module is completely inserted into the accommodating portion, the main antenna of the wireless communication module and the supplementary antenna become electromagnetically coupled; and wherein when the wireless communication module is completely inserted into the accommodating portion, the electronic device transmits/receives wireless signals using the main antenna and the supplementary antenna together.
US09960492B2

The present invention relates to an antenna and a method of manufacturing antennas.The antenna comprises: —a magnetic core (1); —one or more windings (2, 3) arranged around the core (1); —and an electrically insulating base on which the magnetic core (1) provided with the winding or windings (2, 3) is arranged, the electrically insulating base integrating electrically conductive elements (20) provided for being connected to the windings (2, 3), where the electrically insulating base comprises two parts (5, 6) which are arranged in parallel, facing one another, and linked to the magnetic core (1). Each of the two parts (5, 6) provides a support portion, which support portions together constitute a support around the outer perimeter of which there is wound an external winding (4). The method comprises manufacturing the antenna of the invention by sequentially winding all the windings with a multi-axis winding machine.
US09960488B2

A network device communicates with one or another set of antennas depending on an orientation of the network device. The network device includes a first set of one or more antennas, a second set of one or more antennas, a processor, and memory having stored thereon instructions executable by the processor to cause the device to perform functions. The functions include (1) determining that an orientation of the network device is one of a first orientation and a second orientation; (2) if the determined orientation is the first orientation, then causing the network device to communicate using the first set of one or more antennas; and (3) if the determined the orientation is the second orientation, then causing the network device to communicate using the second set of one or more antennas.
US09960476B2

A conductive coupling frame (CF) or a discontinuous metal layer disposed surrounding and closely adjacent a transponder chip module (TCM), and substantially coplanar with an antenna structure (AS, CES, LES) in the transponder chip module (TCM). A metal card body (MCB, CB) or a transaction card with a discontinuous metal layer having a slit (S), extending from an inner end to a periphery of the metal layer, and not terminating in a distinct opening sized to accommodate a transponder chip module (TCM).
US09960464B2

A device and a method for controlling the temperature of a unit to be controlled in its temperature, including a unit to be heated or cooled, a temperature-control circuit having a recirculatable, heat-transferring medium, the flow direction of the medium through the temperature-control circuit being reversed following at least one predefined time interval or according to a control based on a temperature of the unit to be controlled in its temperature, characterized by the fact that the intake temperature of the recirculatable, heat-transferring medium is higher than the setpoint temperature of the unit to be controlled in its temperature, as long as the actual temperature of the unit requiring temperature control is lower than its setpoint temperature, and the intake temperature of the recirculatable, heat-transferring medium is lower than the setpoint temperature of the unit to be controlled in its temperature, if the actual temperature of the unit to be controlled in its temperature exceeds its setpoint temperature.
US09960457B2

A system and method are described permitting a sophisticated control of a battery composed of a multiplicity of three-terminal electrochemical cells. Each cell has first and second terminals, connected with respective electrodes, one of which is a positive terminal and one of which is a negative terminal. Each cell has a third terminal connected with a grid electrode. A battery is composed of N cells. For each of the N cells, there is provided a respective capacitor switchably coupled to the second and third terminals thereof. A controller is connected through a switching matrix to the capacitors. In operation, the controller is connected sequentially to each capacitor among the multiplicity of capacitors, during which time the capacitor is momentarily uncoupled from its respective cell. When the controller is connected to one of the capacitors, it measures the voltage thereupon. The controller can then charge up or discharge the capacitor to drive it to a desired voltage level. Thereafter, the capacitor is disconnected from the controller and is coupled again to its respective cell.
US09960449B2

Provided is a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery with reduced resistance in a low SOC range, with the battery having a coating on its negative electrode active material. This invention provides a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a positive electrode that has a positive electrode active material layer comprising a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode that has a negative electrode active material layer comprising a negative electrode active material, and a non-aqueous electrolyte. The negative electrode active material has a coating. The coating comprises an oxalato complex-derived component and an N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-derived component. The non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery internally comprises tungsten. The tungsten content per unit capacity of the non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery is 0.0048 g/Ah to 0.0078 g/Ah.
US09960446B2

A secondary battery suitable for a portable information terminal or a wearable device is provided. An electronic device having a novel structure which can have various forms and a secondary battery that fits the forms of the electronic device are provided. In the secondary battery, sealing is performed using a film provided with depressions or projections that ease stress on the film due to application of external force. A pattern of depressions or projections is formed on the film by pressing, e.g., embossing.
US09960434B2

A fuel cell includes a separator plate including manifold holes formed in opposite sides thereof, a plurality of flow-path lands protruding between the manifold holes, a plurality of flow-path channels between the flow-path lands, and a plurality of communication holes formed between ends of the flow-path channels and the manifold holes, and a gasket coupled to the separator plate, and a plurality of separating portions protruding from the blocking portion into gaps between the neighboring communication holes so as to separate the communication holes from one another, wherein ends of the flow-path lands that do not face the separating portions extend toward the communication holes farther than do ends of the flow-path lands that face the separating portions.
US09960431B2

Provided is a catalyst for solid polymer fuel cell that exhibits excellent initial activity and favorable durability and a method for manufacturing the same. The invention is a catalyst for solid polymer fuel cell which is formed by supporting catalyst particles including platinum, cobalt and manganese on a carbon powder carrier, wherein a composition ratio (molar ratio) among platinum, cobalt and manganese in the catalyst particles is Pt:Co:Mn=1:0.06 to 0.39:0.04 to 0.33, a peak intensity ratio of a Co—Mn alloy appearing in the vicinity of 2θ=27° is 0.15 or less with respect to a main peak appearing in the vicinity of 2θ=40° in X-ray diffraction analysis of the catalyst particles, and a fluorine compound having a C—F bond is supported at least on the surface of the catalyst particles. The amount of the fluorine compound supported is preferably from 3 to 20% with respect to the entire mass of the catalyst.
US09960422B2

A positive electrode active material according to an aspect of the present invention for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries contains a lithium transition metal composite oxide that has a compound in contact with its surface, the compound containing a rare earth metal and silicic acid and/or boric acid. A positive electrode according to an aspect of the present invention has a positive electrode collector and a positive electrode mixture layer formed on at least one surface of the positive electrode collector. The positive electrode mixture layer contains a positive electrode active material, a binder, and a conductive agent. The positive electrode active material contains a lithium transition metal composite oxide that has a compound in contact with its surface, the compound containing a rare earth metal and silicic acid and/or boric acid.
US09960420B2

A method for making a lithium-sulfur battery cathode material includes steps of providing a carbon nanotube source; providing sulfur and a first solvent; adding the carbon nanotube source and the sulfur into the first solvent, and ultrasonically agitating the first solvent to form a first suspension. A second solvent is added during an agitation process to form a second suspension and the first solvent and the second solvent are removed from the second suspension. The present disclosure also relates to a lithium-sulfur battery cathode material obtained by the method.
US09960405B2

A secondary battery module includes a plurality of secondary battery units each including at least one secondary battery, each secondary battery including an electrode assembly, a case accommodating the electrode assembly, and first and second electrode terminals electrically connected to the electrode assembly, wherein for at least the first secondary battery unit of the plurality of secondary battery units, each of the corresponding at least one secondary batteries further includes a short-circuit member electrically connected to the corresponding first electrode terminal and protruding to the outside of the case upon the internal pressure of the case reaching a high-pressure condition; at least one fuse connecting at least two of the plurality of secondary battery units to one another in series; and a short circuit connection member having a first side facing each of the short-circuit members of the at least one secondary battery of the first of the plurality of secondary battery units and a second side electrically connected to a second electrode terminal of a secondary batter of another of the plurality of secondary battery units.
US09960404B2

A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode, a second electrode, and a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode, a case accommodating the electrode assembly, a cap plate coupled to the case, a first current collector coupled to the first electrode of the electrode assembly, and a first terminal assembly. The first terminal assembly includes a first terminal coupled to the first current collector and having a first fixed groove or a first fixed protrusion, and a second terminal having a second fixed groove coupled to the first fixed protrusion or a second fixed protrusion coupled to the first fixed groove.
US09960395B2

A battery module having a first battery cell; a frame member having first and second sides and first, second, third and fourth peripheral walls; and first and second thermally conductive plate members is provided. A plurality of flow channels are formed by the first and second thermally conductive plates. The third peripheral wall has a first outlet that receives the first electrical terminal of the first battery cell therethrough, such that if the first battery cell outputs gases therefrom the first outlet routes the gases from the first battery cell to outside of the frame member such that the gases are isolated from the air flowing through the plurality of flow channels.
US09960388B2

A display device includes: pixel electrodes that respectively correspond to unit pixels composing an image; an insulation layer that is arranged to be put on a peripheral part of each of the pixel electrodes and is light transmitting; a light emitting layer that is laminated in contact with a central part surrounded by the peripheral part in each of the pixel electrodes and is arranged to emit light with a luminosity controlled by a current; and a common electrode that is laminated in contact with the light emitting layer and is arranged to be put on the insulation layer over the pixel electrodes. Each of the pixel electrodes has a surface on which the insulation layer and the light emitting layer are put. The peripheral part is either light absorbing or light transmitting on the surface, and the central part is light reflecting on the surface.
US09960384B2

The present invention discloses a packaging method for an organic light emitting diode including: providing a first substrate that is made of metallic foil; providing an organic light emitting diode on the first substrate; providing, outside the organic light emitting diode, a passivation layer for covering the organic light emitting diode; coating an encapsulation adhesive onto the first substrate entirely, so that the encapsulation adhesive covers the passivation layer; providing a second transparent substrate at least on a portion of the encapsulation adhesive covering the passivation layer; and curing the encapsulation adhesive, to form a package of the organic light emitting diode. The present invention also discloses a packaging structure for an organic light emitting diode, and an organic light emitting diode device having the packaging structure.
US09960378B2

The invention provides a quantum dot light emitting device and a manufacturing method thereof and further a liquid crystal display device. The quantum dot light emitting device includes an anode and a cathode disposed opposite to and spaced from each other, and further a hole injection layer, a first hole transport layer, a first quantum dot light emitting layer, a charge generation layer, a second quantum dot light emitting layer, a first electron transport layer and an electron injection layer sequentially stacked between the anode and the cathode in that order. The charge generation layer includes sequentially-disposed a second electron transport layer, a carrier generation layer and a second hole transport layer in that order. The first quantum dot light emitting layer emits a first light, the second quantum dot light emitting layer emits a second light, and the second electron transport layer includes a water/alcohol-soluble polymer.
US09960365B2

A condensed cyclic compound represented by Formula 1: wherein in Formula 1, groups L1 and X1 to X16 are the same as described in the specification.
US09960361B2

An organic light-emitting device having low-driving voltage, improved efficiency, and long lifespan includes: a first electrode; a second electrode facing the first electrode; a first layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first layer including a first compound; a second layer between the first layer and the second electrode, the second layer including a second compound; and a third layer between the second layer and the second electrode, the third layer including a third compound; wherein the first compound does not include a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group comprising *═N—*′ as a ring forming moiety, and wherein the first compound, the second compound, and the third compound each independently include at least one group selected from groups represented by Formulae A to C:
US09960359B2

An arylamine-based compound is represented by Formula 1 below. The arylamine-based compound is included in an organic light emitting diode.
US09960348B2

Embodiments are directed to a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memory cell that includes a reference layer formed from a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) reference layer and an interfacial reference layer. The MTJ further includes a free layer and a tunnel barrier positioned between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. The tunnel barrier is configured to enable electrons to tunnel through the tunnel barrier between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. A first in-situ alignment is provided between a tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and an interfacial reference layer lattice structure of the interfacial reference layer. A second in-situ alignment is provided between the tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and a free layer lattice structure of the free layer. The PMA reference layer lattice structure is not aligned with the interfacial reference layer lattice structure.
US09960340B2

A piezoelectric actuator with integrated features to provide coarse position adjustment of a pushing threaded rod and also mechanically amplified piezo motion for fine position adjustment is presented here in three design variants. The mechanical amplifier houses one or more piezo stacks in longitudinal axis with preload to translate an amplified motion in the order of a few times in the transverse axis, perpendicular to the piezo stack motion. The piezo amplifier output travel is transmitted to the threaded rod with a ball at the end to push a desired surface for position adjustments and motion translation in application such as a mirror mount.
US09960334B2

Disclosed is a thermoelectric material with excellent thermoelectric conversion performance. The thermoelectric material is expressed by Chemical Formula 1 below: CuxSe1-yXy   where X is at least one element selected from the group consisting of F, Cl, Br and I, 2
US09960333B2

A light-emitting device includes a substrate having a first surface extended in a first direction, a second surface opposite to the first surface, a third surface between the first and second surfaces and extended in the first direction, and a fourth surface opposite to the third surface, a conductive member including at least four element mounting portions arranged in the first direction on the first surface, a first wiring portion on the second surface, a second wiring portion on the third surface, and a third wiring portion on the fourth surface, and first, second, third, and fourth light-emitting elements respectively mounted on the four element mounting portions. With the first, second, and third wiring portions, the first and second light-emitting elements are connected in series, the third and fourth light-emitting elements are connected in series, and the first and third light-emitting elements are connected in parallel.
US09960320B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a semiconductor layer, a first metal pillar, a second metal pillar, and an insulating layer. The semiconductor layer includes a first surface, a second surface, and a light emitting layer. The first metal pillar is electrically connected to the second surface. The first metal pillar includes first and second metal layers. The first metal layer is provided between the second surface and at least a part of the second metal layer. The second metal pillar is arranged side by side with the first metal pillar, and electrically connected to the second surface. The second metal pillar includes third and fourth metal layers. The third metal layer is provided between the second surface and at least a part of the fourth metal layer. The insulating layer is provided between the first and second metal pillars.
US09960317B2

A lamination includes a sheet substrate and a display element layer. The sheet substrate includes a plurality of product regions cut out into a plurality of products and a blank region surrounding the product regions. The display element layer is formed on each of a plurality of display areas placed on each of the plurality of product regions for displaying an image. The sheet substrate adheres to a top of a substrate. The substrate has light transmissivity. A protective film is adhered to the lamination so as to cover the display areas. A divider line is formed in a blank region that surrounds the product regions by removing a portion of the lamination. The substrate is removed from the sheet substrate by irradiating the sheet substrate with a laser beam.
US09960316B2

A composite substrate includes a sapphire substrate and a layer of a nitride of a group 13 element provided on the sapphire substrate. The layer of the nitride of the group 13 element is composed of gallium nitride, aluminum nitride or gallium aluminum nitride. The composite substrate satisfies the following formulas (1), (2) and (3). A laser light is irradiated to the composite substrate from the side of the sapphire substrate to decompose crystal lattice structure at an interface between the sapphire substrate and the layer of the nitride of the group 13 element. 5.0≤(an average thickness (μm) of the layer of the nitride of the group 13 element/a diameter (mm) of the sapphire substrate)≤10.0 . . . (1); 0.1≤ a warpage (mm) of said composite substrate×(50/a diameter (mm) of said composite substrate)2≤0.6 . . . (2); 1.10≤a maximum value (μm) of a thickness of said layer of said nitride of said group 13 element/a minimum value (μm) of said thickness of said layer of said nitride of said group 13 element . . . (3)
US09960315B2

A light emitting heterostructure including a partially relaxed semiconductor layer is provided. The partially relaxed semiconductor layer can be included as a sublayer of a contact semiconductor layer of the light emitting heterostructure. A dislocation blocking structure also can be included adjacent to the partially relaxed semiconductor layer.
US09960313B2

A solar battery module and manufacturing method for a solar battery module having improved output are provided. The solar battery module 1 is a transparent substrate 10, transparent resin layer 13b, solar battery cell 12, colored resin layer 13a and back sheet 11 laminated in this order. The light-receiving surface 12a of the solar battery cell 12 faces the transparent resin layer 13b side. The backside 12b of the solar battery cell faces the colored resin layer 13a. The MFR [melt flow rate] of the transparent resin layer 13b is lower than the MFR of the colored resin layer 13a.
US09960309B2

A photoelectronic device includes a semiconductor substrate doped with a first type impurity, a second semiconductor layer doped with a second type impurity of an opposite type to the first type impurity, a transparent electrode formed on a second surface of the second semiconductor layer, the second surface being opposite a first surface on which the semiconductor substrate is formed, and a barrier layer disposed between the second semiconductor layer and the semiconductor substrate or between the second semiconductor layer and the transparent electrode. The second semiconductor layer has a band gap energy less than that of the semiconductor substrate, and the barrier layer includes a semiconductor material or an insulator having a band gap greater than that of the semiconductor substrate.
US09960307B2

A method to produce thin film solar cells in superstrate or substrate configuration is an efficient way to minimize the loss due to absorption in CdS layer and to eliminate the CdCl2 activation treatment step. This is achieved by applying a sacrificial metal-halide layer between the CdS-layer and the CdTe-layer of the solar cells.
US09960290B2

A solar cell is disclosed. The disclosed solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, a conductive region disposed in or on the semiconductor substrate, and an electrode including a plurality of finger lines connected to the conductive region, and formed to extend in a first direction while being parallel, and 6 or more bus bar lines formed to extend in a second direction crossing the first direction. Each bus bar line has a width of 35 to 350 μm at at least a portion thereof. Each bus bar line has a distance between opposite ends thereof in the second direction smaller than a distance between outermost ones of the finger lines respectively disposed at opposite sides in the second direction.
US09960281B2

Thin film transistors are provided that include a metal oxide active layer with source and drain regions having a reduced resistivity relative to the metal oxide based on doping of the source and drain regions at room temperature. In an aspect, a transistor structure is provided, that includes a substrate, and source and drain regions within a doped active layer having resulted from doping of an active layer comprising metal-oxide and formed on the substrate, wherein the doped active layer was doped at room temperature and without thermal annealing, thereby resulting in a reduction of a resistivity of the source and drain regions of the doped active layer relative to the active layer prior to the doping. In an aspect, the source and drain regions have a resistivity of about 10.0 mΩ·cm after being doped with stable ions and without subsequent activation of the ions via annealing.
US09960273B2

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a substrate having a first region and a second region; a first fin feature formed on the substrate within the first region; and a second fin feature formed on the substrate within the second region. The first fin feature includes a first semiconductor feature of a first semiconductor material formed on a dielectric feature that is an oxide of a second semiconductor material. The second fin feature includes a second semiconductor feature of the first semiconductor material formed on a third semiconductor feature of the second semiconductor material.
US09960270B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: forming a recess in a semiconductor substrate, the recess having a bottom and a sidewall extending from the bottom to a first side of the semiconductor substrate; forming an auxiliary structure on the sidewall and the bottom of the recess and forming a hollow space within the recess; filling the hollow space with a filling material; forming a plug on the first side of the semiconductor substrate to cover the auxiliary structure at least on the sidewall of the recess; forming an opening in the plug to partially expose the auxiliary structure in the recess; removing the auxiliary structure at least partially from the sidewall of the recess to form cavities between the auxiliary structure and the sidewall; and sealing the opening in the plug.
US09960268B2

A semiconductor device includes a drift region of a device structure arranged in a semiconductor layer. The drift region includes at least one first drift region portion and at least one second drift region portion. A majority of dopants within the first drift region portion are a first species of dopants having a diffusivity less than a diffusivity of phosphor within the semiconductor layer. Further, a majority of dopants within the second drift region portion are a second species of dopants. Additionally, the semiconductor device includes a trench extending from a surface of the semiconductor layer into the semiconductor layer. A vertical distance of a border between the first drift region portion and the second drift region portion to the surface of the semiconductor layer is larger than 0.5 times a maximal depth of the trench and less than 1.5 times the maximal depth of the trench.
US09960266B2

Passivated AlGaN/GaN HEMTs having no plasma damage to the AlGaN surface and methods for making the same. In a first embodiment, a thin HF SiN barrier layer is deposited on the AlGaN surface after formation of the gate. A thick HF/LF SiN layer is then deposited, the thin HF SiN layer and the thick HF/LF Sin layer comprising bi-layer SiN passivation on the HEMT. In a second embodiment, a first thin HF SiN barrier layer is deposited on the AlGaN surface before formation of the gate and is annealed. Following annealing of the first SiN layer, the gate is formed, and a second HF SiN barrier layer is deposited, followed by a thick HF/LF SiN layer, the three SiN layers comprising tri-layer SiN passivation on the HEMT.
US09960261B2

A transistor with stable electrical characteristics is provided. Provided is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device that includes, over a substrate, an oxide semiconductor, a first conductor, a first insulator, a second insulator, and a third insulator. The oxide semiconductor is over the first insulator. The second insulator is over the oxide semiconductor. The third insulator is over the second insulator. The first conductor is over the third insulator. The oxide semiconductor has a first region and a second region. To form the first region, ion implantation into the oxide semiconductor is performed using the first conductor as a mask, and then hydrogen is added to the oxide semiconductor using the first conductor as a mask.
US09960258B2

Some embodiments include methods of forming charge storage transistor gates and standard FET gates in Which common processing is utilized for fabrication of at least some portions of the different types of gates. FET and charge storage transistor gate stacks may be formed. The gate stacks may each include a gate material, an insulative material, and a sacrificial material. The sacrificial material is removed from the FET and charge storage transistor gate stacks. The insulative material of the FET gate stacks is etched through. A conductive material is formed over the FET gate stacks and over the charge storage transistor gate stacks. The conductive material physically contacts the gate material of the FET gate stacks, and is separated from the gate material of the charge storage transistor gate stacks by the insulative material remaining in the charge storage transistor gate stacks. Some embodiments include gate structures.
US09960254B1

A method is presented for forming a semiconductor structure. The method includes forming a fin structure over a substrate, forming a dummy gate over the fin structure, and etching the dummy gate by a first amount to expose a top portion of the fin structure. The method further includes forming a first dielectric layer adjacent the exposed top portion of the fin structure, forming a spacer adjacent the first dielectric layer contacting the fin structure, and etching the dummy gate by a second amount. The method further includes depositing a second dielectric layer to encapsulate the remaining dummy gate, depositing an inter-level dielectric (ILD) over the second dielectric layer, depositing at least one hard mask to access the dummy gate, stripping the dummy gate to form at least one recess, and filling the at least one recess with a high-k metal gate (HKMG).
US09960245B1

A transistor device including a semiconductor material layer, a gate layer, and an insulation layer between the gate layer and the semiconductor material layer is provided. The semiconductor material layer includes a first conductive portion, a second conductive portion, a channel portion between the first conductive portion and the second conductive portion, and a first protruding portion formed integrally. The channel portion has a first boundary adjacent to the first conductive portion, a second boundary adjacent to the second conductive portion, a third boundary, and a fourth boundary. The third boundary and the fourth boundary connect the terminals of the first boundary and the second boundary. The first protruding portion is protruded outwardly from the third boundary of the channel portion. The first gate boundary and the second gate boundary are overlapped with the first boundary and the second boundary of the channel portion.
US09960236B2

Methods for forming body contact layouts for semiconductor structures are disclosed. In at least one exemplary embodiment, a method comprises: forming a plurality of gates disposed on a semiconductor layer, each gate extending parallel to a y-axis in a coordinate space; a source region disposed between two of the plurality of gates; a plurality of body contacts disposed in each source region; and wherein a portion of each body contact, adjacent to the gate, has a width extending parallel to the y-axis that is less than the width of the body contact parallel to the y-axis at a distance on an x-axis from the gate.
US09960233B2

After forming a buried nanowire segment surrounded by a gate structure located on a substrate, an epitaxial source region is grown on a first end of the buried nanowire segment while covering a second end of the buried nanowire segment and the gate structure followed by growing an epitaxial drain region on the second end of the buried nanowire segment while covering the epitaxial source region and the gate structure. The epitaxial source region includes a first semiconductor material and dopants of a first conductivity type, while the epitaxial drain region includes a first semiconductor material different from the first semiconductor material and dopants of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type.
US09960232B2

A horizontal nanosheet field effect transistor (hNS FET) including source and drain electrodes, a gate electrode between the source and drain electrodes, a first spacer separating the source electrode from the gate electrode, a second spacer separating the drain electrode from the gate electrode, and a channel region under the gate electrode and extending between the source electrode and the drain electrode. The source electrode and the drain electrode each include an extension region. The extension region of the source electrode is under at least a portion of the first spacer and the extension region of the drain electrode is under at least a portion of the second spacer. The hNS FET also includes at least one layer of crystalline barrier material having a first thickness at the extension regions of the source and drain electrodes and a second thickness less than the first thickness at the channel region.
US09960219B2

An organic light emitting display device includes a substrate; an anode electrode on the substrate; an auxiliary electrode on the substrate in a same layer as the anode electrode; a partition supporter on the auxiliary electrode; a partition on the partition supporter; an organic emitting layer on the anode electrode and on the partition such that portions separated on the partition are separated from other portions; and a cathode electrode connected with the organic emitting layer and the auxiliary electrode. A lower surface of the partition supporter includes a pair of short sides; and a pair of long sides connecting the pair of short sides and including at least one inclined surface.
US09960214B2

The present invention discloses an OLED display panel, comprising a substrate; a photochromic layer, being formed on the substrate, and comprising photochromic material which changes from transparent to opaque under excitation of light; a transparent anode, formed at one side of the photochromic layer away from the substrate; an emission layer, formed at one side of the transparent anode away from the photochromic layer, and employed to emit light, and the light comprises a wavelength employed to excite the photochromic material; and a semitransparent cathode, formed at one side of the emission layer away from the transparent anode, and employed to pass a portion of the light and reflect the other portion of the light. The OLED display panel of the present invention has the longer micro cavity total optical distance. The present invention further discloses a manufacture method of an OLED display panel.
US09960212B2

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel includes: an OLED layer; a color filter layer; and a color coordinate tuning layer disposed between the OLED layer and the color filter layer, wherein the OLED layer includes a first light-emitting portion comprising a first light-emitting layer configured to emit a first light and a second light-emitting portion comprising a second light-emitting layer configured to emit a second light. The OLED layer is configured to emit a third light produced by mixing the first light and the second light. The color coordinate tuning layer is configured to output a fourth light different from the third light. The number of all of peaks and shoulders that an EL spectrum of the fourth light has is higher than the number of all of peaks and shoulders that an EL spectrum of the third light has throughout an entire range of a visible wavelength band.
US09960196B2

An array substrate includes a gate line, a common electrode line, a common electrode and a pixel electrode arranged on a base substrate. The common electrode is electrically connected to the common electrode line through a common electrode via-hole, and the common electrode includes a hollowed-out portion and a reserved portion at a region corresponding to the common electrode via-hole. The reserved portion is arranged between the gate line adjacent to the common electrode line and the pixel electrode adjacent to the common electrode line, and electrically connected to the common electrode line through the common electrode via-hole. The reserved portion does not overlap the gate line or the pixel electrode. The hollowed-out portion is at least arranged at a side of the reserved portion adjacent to the gate line and/or pixel electrode and between the reserved portion and the gate line and/or the pixel electrode.
US09960191B2

A display device includes a plurality of gate lines extending in a first direction on the display area, a plurality of source lines extending in a second direction, a plurality of lead-out lines extending in the second direction and for transmitting gate signals to the plurality of gate lines. A plurality of connecting portions each electrically connects one gate line to one lead-out line. The plurality of connecting portions pass through a first insulating layer at a plurality of jointing points which are selected among a plurality of overlapping points where the plurality of lead-out lines and the plurality of gate lines overlap in a plane area.
US09960190B2

To improve field-effect mobility and reliability in a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film. A semiconductor device includes a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film. The transistor includes a region where the maximum value of field-effect mobility of the transistor at a gate voltage of higher than 0 V and lower than or equal to 10 V is larger than or equal to 40 and smaller than 150; a region where the threshold voltage is higher than or equal to minus 1 V and lower than or equal to 1 V; and a region where the S value is smaller than 0.3 V/decade.
US09960189B2

A thin film transistor and a manufacturing method thereof, an array substrate and a display device are provided. The method includes forming a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode on a substrate. The MOS active layer includes forming a pattern layer of indium oxide series binary metal oxide including a first pattern directly contacting with the source electrode and the drain electrode. An insulating layer formed over the source electrode and the drain electrode acts as a protection layer, the pattern layer of indium oxide series binary metal oxide is implanted with metal doping ions by using an ion implanting process, and is annealed, so that the indium oxide series binary metal oxide of the third pattern is converted into the indium oxide series multiple metal oxide to form the MOS active layer.
US09960186B2

Disclosed are a back cover and a transparent display apparatus including the same, in which a chip groove, into which a chip included in a chip-on film coupled to a transparent panel is inserted, is disposed in a rear surface. The transparent display apparatus includes a transparent panel and a back cover. The transparent panel may display an image. The back cover may be transparent, and the transparent panel may be disposed on a front of the back cover. A chip groove into which a chip included in a chip-on film coupled to the transparent panel is inserted may be disposed in a rear surface of the back cover.
US09960185B2

A base and a manufacturing method thereof and a display device are provided, so that a problem of faultage of an insulating layer when forming the insulating layer on an aluminum electrode of a substrate is solved. The base includes an aluminum electrode in a first setting pattern on a substrate, and an aluminum oxide layer or an aluminum nitride layer (3) in a second setting pattern provided in a same layer with the aluminum electrode. The first setting pattern and the second setting pattern are complementary to each other.
US09960181B1

Contact areas for three-dimensional memory devices including multiple vertically stacked tier structures can be reduced by overlapping stepped terraces of the tier structures. Sacrificial via structures laterally surrounded by a respective insulating spacer can be formed through an overlying tier structure in the stepped terrace region thereof. After formation of memory stack structures, the sacrificial via structures can be removed to provide first upper via cavities. An isotropic etch can be performed to extend the first upper via cavities to top surfaces of underlying first electrically conductive layers in an underlying tier structure while forming second upper via cavities extending to second electrically conductive layers in the overlying tier structure. First contact via structures extending through the terrace region of the overlying tier structure can provide electrical contact to the first electrically conductive layers, and second contact via structure can be formed in the second upper via cavities.
US09960180B1

Memory openings can be formed through an alternating stack of insulating layers and sacrificial material layers. Memory stack structures including charge storage elements can be formed in the memory openings. Inter-level charge leakage in a three-dimensional memory device including a charge trapping layer can be minimized by employing a thin continuous charge trapping material layer within each memory opening. After removal of the sacrificial material layers and formation of backside recesses, discrete charge trapping material portions can be formed by selective growth of a charge trapping material from physically exposed surfaces of each thin continuous charge trapping material layer. The discrete charge trapping material portions can function as primary charge storage regions, and inter-level charge leakage can be minimized by the small thickness of the thin continuous charge trapping material layer.
US09960174B2

According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer; an electrode layer; a first insulating film; a charge storage film; and a second insulating film. The first insulating film is provided between the electrode layer and the semiconductor layer. The charge storage film is provided between the first insulating film and the electrode layer. The charge storage film includes a charge trapping layer and a floating electrode layer. The floating electrode layer includes doped silicon. The second insulating film is provided between the floating electrode layer and the electrode layer.
US09960171B2

Semiconductor devices are provided. A semiconductor device includes a plurality of gate electrodes. The semiconductor device includes a channel structure adjacent the plurality of gate electrodes. The semiconductor device includes a plurality of charge storage segments between the channel structure and the plurality of gate electrodes. Methods of forming semiconductor devices are also provided.
US09960170B1

Methods of fabricating a memory device are provided. The methods may include forming a mask pattern including line-shaped portions that are parallel to each other and extend on a first region of a substrate. The mask pattern may extend on a second region of the substrate. The methods may also include forming word line regions in the first region using the mask pattern as a mask, forming word lines in the word line regions, respectively, and removing the mask pattern from the second region to expose the second region. The mask pattern may remain on the first region after removing the mask pattern from the second region. The methods may further include forming a channel epitaxial layer on the second region while using the mask pattern as a barrier to growth of the channel epitaxial layer on the first region.
US09960169B2

In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, mask patterns are formed on a semiconductor substrate. An organic layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate to cover the mask patterns. An upper portion of the organic layer is planarized using a polishing composition. The polishing composition includes an oxidizing agent and is devoid of abrasive particles.
US09960164B2

Various embodiments disclose a method for fabricating vertical transistors. In one embodiment, a structure is formed comprising at least a first substrate, an insulator layer on the substrate, a first doped layer on the insulator layer, at least one fin structure in contact with the doped layer, a dielectric layer surrounding a portion of the fin structure, a gate layer on the dielectric layer, a second doped layer in contact with the fin structure, a first contact area in contact with the second doped layer, and at least a first interconnect in contact with the first contact area. The structure is flipped bonded to a second substrate. The first substrate and the insulator layer are removed to expose the first doped layer. A second contact area is formed in contact with the first doped layer. At least a second interconnect is formed in contact with the second contact area.
US09960160B2

The present disclosure describes a semiconductor device. The device includes a semiconductor substrate, an isolation structure formed in the substrate for isolating a first active region and a second active region, a first transistor formed in the first active region, the first transistor having a high-k gate dielectric layer and a metal gate with a first work function formed over the high-k gate dielectric layer, and a second transistor formed in the second active region, the second transistor having the high-k gate dielectric layer and a metal gate with a second work function formed over the high-k gate dielectric layer. The metal gates are formed from at least a single metal layer having the first work function and the second work function.
US09960153B2

The manufacturing yield of a semiconductor device is improved. There is provided a semiconductor device of a cascode coupling system, which is equipped with a plurality of normally-on junction FETs using as a material, a substance larger in bandgap than silicon, and a normally-off MOSFET using silicon as a material. At this time, the semiconductor chip has a plurality of junction FET semiconductor chips (semiconductor chip CHP0 and semiconductor chip CHP1) formed with the junction FETs in a divided fashion, and a MOSFET semiconductor chip (semiconductor chip CHP2) formed with the MOSFET.
US09960149B2

Embodiments of methods for forming a device include performing an oxidation inhibiting treatment to exposed ends of first and second device-to-edge conductors, and forming a package surface conductor to electrically couple the exposed ends of the first and second device-to-edge conductors. Performing the oxidation inhibiting treatment may include applying an organic solderability protectant coating to the exposed ends, or plating the exposed ends with a conductive plating material. The method may further include applying a conformal protective coating over the package surface conductor. An embodiment of a device formed using such a method includes a package body, the first and second device-to-edge conductors, the package surface conductor on a surface of the package body and extending between the first and second device-to-edge conductors, and the conformal protective coating over the package surface conductor.
US09960144B2

A heating method includes an oxide film forming step and a heating step. The thickness of an oxide film is set in a first range that includes a first maximal thickness and a second maximal thickness and that is smaller than a second minimal thickness in the relationship with the laser absorption having a periodic profile. The first maximal thickness corresponds to a first maximal value a of the laser absorption. The second maximal thickness corresponds to a second maximal value of the laser absorption. The second minimal thickness corresponds to a second minimal value of the laser absorption, namely the minimal value of the laser absorption that appears between the second maximal value and a third maximal value, or the maximal value of the laser absorption that appears subsequent to the second maximal value.
US09960141B2

A semiconductor package structure includes a substrate, and a package preform. The substrate includes a plurality of conductive tracing wires. The package preform includes a semiconductor chip and a plurality of binding wires. The semiconductor chip includes a plurality of welding spots, and the welding spots are electrically connected with corresponding conductive tracing wires by the binding wires. Each binding wire comprises a carbon nanotube composite wire, the carbon nanotube composite wire includes a carbon nanotube wire and a metal layer. The carbon nanotube wire consists of a plurality of carbon nanotubes spirally arranged along an axial direction an axial direction of the carbon nanotube wire.
US09960140B2

The present invention can give a joining structure using metal nanoparticles to join the same types or different types of metal where when one surface metal is Al based, the parts are joined through a joining layer containing Ni nanoparticles, whereby a good joining strength is obtained. Further, by using two joining layers (6, 8) including metal nanoparticles to sandwich metal foil (7) so as to form a joining layer and joining the same type or different types of surface metals (3-4) through this joining layer, it is possible to ease the thermal stress due to the difference in amounts of thermal expansion of joined members which have two surface metals.
US09960139B2

To reduce substrate warp occurring after connection an anisotropic conductive film is used. An anisotropic conductive film has: a first insulating adhesive layer; a second insulating adhesive layer; and a conductive particle-containing layer sandwiched by the first insulating adhesive layer and the second insulating adhesive layer and having conductive particles contained in an insulating adhesive, wherein air bubbles are contained between the conductive particle-containing layer and the first insulating adhesive layer, and, the conductive particle-containing layer, a portion thereof below the conductive particles and in contact with the second insulating adhesive layer has a lower degree of cure than other portions thereof.
US09960134B2

A semiconductor device includes a solder bump overlying and electrically connected to a pad region, and a metal cap layer formed on at least a portion of the solder bump. The metal cap layer has a melting temperature greater than the melting temperature of the solder bump.
US09960133B2

An integrated circuit package includes a die. An electrically conductive layer comprises a redistribution layer (RDL) in the die, or a micro-bump layer above the die, or both. The micro bump layer comprises at least one micro-bump line. A filter comprises the electrically conductive layer. A capacitor comprises an electrode formed in the electrically conductive layer.
US09960116B2

A resistor whose characteristic value can be changed without requiring a photolithography process again is provided. The resistor includes a plurality of first resistor units which is connected serially to each other and a second resistor unit which is connected in parallel to part of the first resistor units. Then, after the measurement of a semiconductor integrated circuit, the second resistor unit is electrically disconnected as necessary. The first resistor units may be either a unit including a single resistor or may be a unit including a plurality of resistors.
US09960109B2

A plurality of lands is formed apart from each other on a surface of a package substrate. Another plurality of lands is formed apart from each other on a surface of a printed wiring board. The surface of the package substrate and the surface of the printed wiring board face each other. The plurality of lands and another plurality of lands are bonded to each other with solder having a height of 30% or less of a diameter of a solder bonding portion at the corresponding land. A ratio of a solder bonded area of at least each of lands, among another plurality of the lands, of which distance value to a corresponding one of the lands is larger than an average distance value between the lands and another lands, to a solder bonded area of the corresponding one of the lands is 56% or more and 81% or less.
US09960107B2

A package substrate including an insulating layer having a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, at least one first copper pattern disposed in the insulating layer and adjacent to the top surface of the insulating layer, at least one second copper pattern disposed on the bottom surface of the insulating layer, and at least one embedded aluminum pad disposed on the at least one first copper pattern, the at least one embedded aluminum pad disposed in the insulating layer such that a top surface of the at least one embedded aluminum pad is exposed by the insulating layer may be provided.
US09960105B2

An apparatus comprises a substrate including a surface and a plurality of bonding pads positioned on the surface. The apparatus also includes a material comprising a solder positioned on the bonding pads and extending a distance outward therefrom. A first of the bonding pads in a first location on the substrate surface includes the solder extending a first distance outward therefrom. A second of the bonding pads in a second location on the substrate surface includes the solder extending a second distance outward therefrom. The first distance is different than the second distance. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09960099B2

A method of forming a semiconductor package includes forming a thermal conductivity layer and attaching the thermal conductivity layer to a chip. The chip has a first surface and a second surface. The thermal conductivity layer is attached to the first surface of the chip. The thermal conductivity layer provides a path through which heat generated from the chip is dissipated to the ambient. A substrate is attached to the second surface of the chip. A molding compound is formed above the substrate to encapsulate the chip and the thermal conductivity layer.
US09960097B2

A semiconductor device manufacturing method includes a step of preparing a semiconductor unit, having a first main surface including a heat releasing portion and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface, in which is mounted a semiconductor chip, a step of preparing a cooler having a flat surface, a step of applying a paste including metal nanoparticles to the first main surface of the semiconductor unit or the flat surface of the cooler, a step of bringing the first main surface of the semiconductor unit and the flat surface of the cooler into contact through the paste, and a step of applying a pressurizing force uniform in-plane to the second main surface of the semiconductor unit at the same time as raising the temperature of the paste, thereby sintering the paste and forming a junction layer.
US09960090B2

A display panel includes first and second test lines connected to the each of data lines, extending in the second direction, and arranged in the first direction, a first test pad electrically connected to the first test line, the first test pad and the first test line being formed from a same layer, and a second test pad electrically connected to the second test line through a contact hole formed through a first insulation layer and disposed adjacent to the first test pad in the second direction.
US09960088B2

A method for performing grinding includes selecting a target wheel loading for wafer grinding processes, and performing a grinding process on a wafer. With the proceeding of the grinding process, wheel loadings of the grinding process are measured. The grinding process is stopped after the target wheel loading is reached. The method alternatively includes selecting a target reflectivity of wafer grinding processes, and performing a grinding process on a wafer. With a proceeding of the grinding process, reflectivities of a light reflected from a surface of the wafer are measured. The grinding process is stopped after one of the reflectivities reaches the target reflectivity.
US09960087B2

An ink jet process is used to deposit a material layer to a desired thickness. Layout data is converted to per-cell grayscale values, each representing ink volume to be locally delivered. The grayscale values are used to generate a halftone pattern to deliver variable ink volume (and thickness) to the substrate. The halftoning provides for a relatively continuous layer (e.g., without unintended gaps or holes) while providing for variable volume and, thus, contributes to variable ink/material buildup to achieve desired thickness. The ink is jetted as liquid or aerosol that suspends material used to form the material layer, for example, an organic material used to form an encapsulation layer for a flat panel device. The deposited layer is then cured or otherwise finished to complete the process.
US09960084B1

The present invention provides a method for forming a semiconductor device, comprising the following steps: firstly, a substrate is provided, having a NMOS region and a PMOS region defined thereon, next, a gate structure is formed on the substrate within the NMOS region, and a disposal spacer is formed on two sides of the gate structure, afterwards, a mask layer is formed on the PMOS region to expose the NMOS region, next, a recess is formed on two sides of the gate structure spaced from the gate structure by the disposal spacer within the NMOS region, the disposal spacer is then removed after the recess is formed, and an epitaxial layer is formed into the recess.
US09960079B2

A method of forming a device associated with a via includes forming an opening or via, and forming at least a pair of conducting paths within the via. Also disclosed is a via having at pair of conducting paths therein.
US09960077B1

Methods of forming a self-aligned CT pillar with the same CD width as the device fins to enable PC isolation and the resulting devices are provided. Embodiments include forming a plurality of fins over a substrate; forming an oxide layer over the substrate and between each fin; removing a portion of a central fin among the plurality, a trench formed in the oxide layer; forming a CT pillar in the trench; recessing the oxide layer below an upper surface of the plurality of fins; forming a gate over the plurality of fins and CT pillar; planarizing the gate down to the CT pillar; and forming a cap layer over the gate and CT pillar.
US09960070B2

A vacuum chuck has at least one suction assembly that pulls a wafer surface toward a chucking surface. The suction assembly may be used with a wafer that is warped. A suction force engages a pad of a suction assembly with the wafer surface and retracts a bellows of the suction assembly. As the bellows retracts and draws the wafer surface closer to the chucking surface, the suction force provided by the vacuum chuck can pull the wafer flat.
US09960056B2

In order to remove a deposit adhered to the backside of the peripheral portion of a wafer, a cleaning gas containing carbon dioxide gas is set to a pressure that is slightly lower than the pressure corresponding to a vapor pressure line of carbon dioxide at a temperature in the nozzle, and a gas cluster of carbon dioxide is generated. A gas cluster of carbon dioxide generated under such a condition is in a state immediately prior to undergoing a phase change to a liquid and therefore is a gas cluster having a large cluster diameter and having molecules that are firmly solidified.
US09960054B2

The present disclosure relates to enhancing the thermal performance of encapsulated flip chip dies. According to an exemplary process, a plurality of flip chip dies are attached on a top surface of a carrier, and a first mold compound is applied over the top surface of the carrier to encapsulate the plurality of flip chip dies. The first mold compound is thinned down to expose a substrate of each flip chip die and the substrate of each flip chip die is then substantially etched away to provide an etched flip chip die that has an exposed surface at the bottom of a cavity. Next, a second mold compound with high thermal conductivity is applied to substantially fill each cavity and the top surface of the second mold compound is planarized. Finally, the encapsulated etched flip chip dies can be marked, singulated, and tested as a module.
US09960052B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods for patterning a metal layer, such as a copper layer, to form an interconnection structure in semiconductor devices. In one embodiment, a method of patterning a metal layer on a substrate includes (a) supplying an etching gas mixture comprising a hydro-carbon gas into a processing chamber having a substrate disposed therein, the substrate having a metal layer disposed thereon, (b) exposing the metal layer to an ashing gas mixture comprising a hydrogen containing gas to the substrate, and (c) repeatedly performing steps (a) and (b) until desired features are formed in the metal layer. During the patterning process, the substrate temperature may be controlled at greater than 50 degrees Celsius.
US09960049B2

In one implementation, a method of removing a metal-containing layer is provided. The method comprises generating a plasma from a fluorine-containing gas. The plasma comprises fluorine radicals and fluorine ions. The fluorine ions are removed from the plasma to provide a reactive gas having a higher concentration of fluorine radicals than fluorine ions. A substrate comprising a metal-containing layer is exposed to the reactive gas. The reactive gas dopes at least a portion of the metal-containing layer to form a metal-containing layer doped with fluorine radicals. The metal-containing layer doped with fluorine radicals is exposed to a nitrogen and hydrogen containing gas mixture and the reactive gas to remove at least a portion of the metal-containing layer doped with fluorine radicals.
US09960046B2

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming insulation layers and sacrificial layers that are alternately and repeatedly stacked on top of each other a substrate, forming a vertical hole that penetrates the insulation layers and the sacrificial layers, and forming a vertical channel structure in the vertical hole. The forming the vertical channel structure includes forming a blocking insulation layer, a charge storage layer, a tunnel insulation layer, and a semiconductor pattern. The forming the blocking insulation layer includes forming a first oxidation target layer, oxidizing the first oxidation target layer to form a first sub-blocking layer, and forming a second sub-blocking layer. The first sub-blocking layer is formed between the second sub-blocking layer and an inner sidewall of the vertical hole.
US09960036B2

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is used for heteroepitaxial film growth at reaction temperatures ranging from 80-400° C. The substrate and film materials are preferably matched to take advantage of Domain Matched Epitaxy (DME). A laser annealing system is used to thermally anneal deposition layer after deposition by ALD. In preferred embodiments, a silicon substrate is overlaid with an AlN nucleation layer and laser annealed. Thereafter a GaN device layer is applied over the AlN layer by an ALD process and then laser annealed. In a further example embodiment, a transition layer is applied between the GaN device layer and the AlN nucleation layer. The transition layer comprises one or more different transition material layers each comprising a AlxGa1-xN compound wherein the composition of the transition layer is continuously varied from AlN to GaN.
US09960029B2

The present invention is directed to a method and device to desorb an analyte using heat to allow desorption of the analyte molecules, where the desorbed analyte molecules are ionized with ambient temperature ionizing species. In various embodiments of the invention a current is passed through a mesh upon which the analyte molecules are present. The current heats the mesh and results in desorption of the analyte molecules which then interact with gas phase metastable neutral molecules or atoms to form analyte ions characteristic of the analyte molecules.
US09960026B1

An ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system includes a UHV cell and an ion pump to maintain the UHV in the UHV cell. The ion pump has a GCC (glass, ceramic, or crystalline) housing. An interior wall of the ion-pump housing serves as an anode or bears a coating that serves as an anode. At least one cathode is disposed with respect to the housing so that it can cooperate with the anode to form an electric field for establishing a Penning trap. The GCC housing defines a flow channel that extends radially through the anode so that a molecule can flow directly into the most ionizing region of a Penning trap.
US09960019B2

The present invention generally relates to a ring assembly that may be used in an etching or other plasma processing chamber. The ring assembly generally includes an inner ring body having a top planar surface and a bottom planar surface, and an outer ring body having a top surface, a bottom surface substantially parallel to the top surface, and an inside surface that extends between the top surface and the bottom surface, the inside surface having a roof covering a portion of the inner ring body when the inner ring body is disposed adjacent the roof, wherein the inner ring body can be flipped into a different position so that a portion of the inner ring body that is not covered by the roof provides a substantially planar surface.
US09960016B2

In a plasma processing method in which multiple cycles, each of which includes a first stage of generating plasma of a first processing gas containing a first gas and a second stage of generating plasma of a second processing gas containing the first gas and a second gas, are performed, a time difference between a start time point of a time period during which the second stage is performed and a start time point of an output of the second gas from a gas supply system is decided automatically according to a recipe. A delay time corresponding to flow rates of the first gas and the second gas in the second stage is specified from a function or a table. The output of the second gas is begun prior to the start time point of the second stage by a time difference set based on the delay time.
US09960010B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a signal processing method includes scanning a pattern on a substrate with a charged particle beam, detecting secondary charged particles emitted from the substrate by using a detector, outputting a signal, and filtering the signal. The detector is separated or divided into a plurality of regions, and the secondary charged particles are detected separately in each region of the detector. Intensity of the filtering is defined in dependence on a function f(θ) of an angle θ between a reference axis and a direction along which the secondary charged particles enter a detector plane. The reference axis is an arbitrary direction in a plane parallel to a surface of the substrate.
US09960002B2

An electromagnetic relay includes an electromagnet unit, a contact unit including a movable contact spring with a movable contact provided thereon and a fixed contact spring with a fixed contact provided thereon, and a base block configured to support the electromagnet unit and the contact unit, wherein the electromagnet unit is supported at a first face of the base block, and the contact unit is supported at a second face of the base block facing in an opposite direction from the first face, and wherein the base block includes a first insulating wall extending from the first face alongside the electromagnet unit and a second insulating wall extending from the second face alongside the contact unit, the second insulating wall being situated on an opposite side from the first insulating wall across the second face.
US09960001B2

A relay system is provided which is designed to avoid flow of inrush current through a capacitor in a pre-charge mode wherein the capacitor is pre-charged. The relay system includes a pair of power lines, a capacitor, a series-connected assembly, a control circuit, and a relay module. The relay module includes two main switches, a main coil, and a sub-coil. In the pre-charge mode, the control circuit energizes both the main and sub-coils to turn on only one of the main switches. Before entering the pre-charge mode, the control circuit diagnoses the sub-coil. When the sub-coil is determined as being malfunctioning, the control circuit inhibits the pre-charge mode from being entered.
US09959999B2

A method for controlling a power switching apparatus to solve problems including: setting a target time reaching a predetermined position immediately before a target phase by a time calculator during an opening and closing operation of a movable arc contact with respect to a fixed arc contact in a target phase at a predetermined average switching speed; and controlling an electric motor at a speed equal to or less than an average switching speed immediately before the target phase from an operation start time to the target time by a motor controller.
US09959997B2

A light switch cover for converting a standard toggle switch into a remote-controlled toggle switch. In one embodiment, the light switch cover comprises a switch toggle member for acting upon a toggle light switch member to place the toggle light switch member into either an on position or an off position, a gear train coupled to the switch toggle member that causes the switch toggle member to act upon the toggle light switch member, an electric motor, coupled to the gear train, for driving the gear train in a first direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the on position, and for driving the gear train in a second direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the off position, motor driving circuitry coupled to the electric motor, a receiver for receiving signals that cause actuation of the standard toggle switch, and processing circuitry coupled to the receiver and the motor driving circuitry that causes the light switch cover to receive a signal to turn the toggle switch into the on position and, in response, causing the electric motor to rotate in a direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the on position.
US09959996B2

Systems and methods are disclosed that may be implemented to provide keycap lighting to a spring loaded mechanical key switch assembly using a light conductive structure, such as a light pipe, and without requiring a chassis housing of the mechanical key switch assembly to include a dedicated power-consuming light source mounted to or otherwise positioned at the location of the individual key switch assembly chassis housing. Additionally, the disclosed systems and methods may be implemented to use one or more common power-consuming light source/s to simultaneously provide key cap lighting to multiple such spring loaded mechanical key switch assemblies, for example, by feeding light to each key cap though a common light spreader and through an individual non-power consuming light pipe provided for each key switch assembly.
US09959993B2

The present invention relates to a key connecting module for triggering a switch circuit board, where the key connecting module includes a frame having a support structure, and a triggering assembly, and the triggering assembly is accommodated in the support structure and is moveable relative to the frame to trigger the switch circuit board. The triggering assembly includes a first combining part corresponding to a first keycap and a second combining part corresponding to a second keycap. When the key connecting module is connected to the first keycap, the first keycap is combined with the first combining part. When the key connecting module is connected to the second keycap, the second keycap is combined with the second combining part.
US09959984B2

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional graphene composite, a preparation method for the same, and a supercapacitor including the same, and more particularly to a three-dimensional graphene composite including at least one electrode material nanoparticle selected from a transition metal hydroxide, a transition metal oxide and a conducting polymer as adsorbed onto the surface of a three-dimensional graphene foam, a preparation method for the three-dimensional graphene composite, and a supercapacitor including the three-dimensional graphene composite.
US09959979B2

An improved capacitor is provided wherein the improved capacitor has improved ESR. The capacitor has a fluted anode and an anode wire extending from the fluted anode. A dielectric is on the fluted anode. A conformal cathode is on the dielectric and a plated metal layer is on the carbon layer.
US09959975B2

A ceramic electronic component that includes a ceramic element, and a coating film and external electrodes on a surface of the ceramic element. The coating film includes cationic elements from a constituent element of the ceramic element, which are ionized and deposited from the ceramic element, and a resin. The surface of the coating film is recessed relative to a surface of wrapping parts of the external electrodes on the surface of the ceramic element.
US09959973B2

A multilayer ceramic capacitor that includes a layered body in which dielectric layers and internal electrode layers are layered alternately, an external electrode on a surface of the layered body and a plating layer on a surface of the external electrode. The external electrode contains Cu, and a protective layer containing Cu2O is provided at a joining portion between the external electrode and the plating layer. When heat is applied to the layered body after the external electrode is removed, a ratio of an arithmetic mean value Xa of a quantity of hydrogen generated per unit temperature in a range higher than or equal to 350° C. with respect to an arithmetic mean value Y of a quantity of hydrogen generated per unit temperature in a range higher than or equal to 230° C. and lower than or equal to 250° C. (Xa/Y) is less than or equal to 0.66.
US09959967B2

Magnetic devices, and associated methods of manufacture, using flex circuits. Conductive flex circuit traces, or combinations of such traces with conductive printed circuit board or other substrate traces, form windings around toroidal ferromagnetic cores. Bending the flex circuit into a partial loop or a full loop forms partial or full windings respectively. Bonding or flow soldering electrically connects the windings together and to a printed circuit board or other substrate. The methods yield transformers with high conversion efficiency, are compatible with conventional printed circuit boards and readily available high-volume assembly equipment, and avoid the higher cost of manually made windings.
US09959963B2

A current controller includes a current control circuit and a current detection circuit, which detects a current flowing through a solenoid of an electromagnetic proportional relief valve. The current control circuit sets a current command to a sum of a value obtained by multiplying a feedforward gain by a target current value, a value obtained by multiplying a proportional gain by a current deviation, and a value obtained by multiplying an integral gain by a current deviation integral value. The current control circuit then controls the current flowing through the solenoid in accordance with the current command. When the current detected by the current detection circuit is less than or equal to the predetermined value, the current control circuit resets the current deviation and the current deviation integral value and sets the current command based on the reset values.
US09959960B2

A magnetic component is disclosed. The magnetic component includes a magnetic core assembly, a fastening element, a first winding set and a second winding set. The magnetic core assembly includes at least a pillar. The fastening element is provided on an outer peripheral surface of the pillar. The first winding set is disposed around the outer peripheral surface of the pillar. The second winding set is disposed around the outer peripheral surface of the pillar and engaged with the fastening set. The first winding set and the second winding set are located adjacent to each other and disposed around the outer peripheral surface of the pillar.
US09959952B2

An electric cable is provided having a plurality of insulated power conductors, a pilot and ground wire assembly and a saddle positioned between the plurality of insulated power conductors with the pilot and ground assembly being positioned within the saddle, where the saddle is constructed from a semi-conductive polymer. An inner sheath surrounds the saddle and the plurality of insulated power conductors, where the inner sheath is constructed from a semi-conductive polymer and where the inner sheath, saddle and the plurality of conductors form a flat cable. An outer insulating sheath disposed around the outside of the inner sheath.
US09959937B2

A memory system includes a semiconductor memory device, a controller configured to access the semiconductor module, a plurality of pins for connection to the outside of the memory system, the pins configured to receive and output serial data, and a test circuit. When one of the pins receives serial test data, the test circuit converts the serial test data into parallel test data, and outputs the parallel test data to the semiconductor memory device for writing therein, and when the test circuit receives parallel test data written in the semiconductor memory device, the test circuit converts the parallel test data to serial test data, and outputs the serial test data through one of the pins for test of the memory system.
US09959936B1

The present disclosure describes apparatuses and techniques that enable temperature-based memory access. In some aspects, a request to access a memory device is received. In response to the request, respective temperatures are determined for multiple locations of the memory device. Based on these respective temperatures, a selection can be made of which of the multiple locations to access. Alternately or additionally, an order in which to access the multiple locations can be determined based on the respective temperatures. The location(s) of the memory device are then accessed based on the selection or the determined order effective to minimize an increase in the memory device's temperature.
US09959935B2

An input-output circuit includes a reception circuit and a register circuit. The reception circuit operates in accordance with a normal write protocol commonly in a normal write mode and a test write mode. The reception circuit receives a plurality of input signals to generate a plurality of latch signals. The register circuit generates a plurality of test result signals based on the latch signals in the test write mode. The input-output circuit may perform the multiple-input shift register (MISR) function in accordance with the normal write path and the normal write protocol. The MISR function may be performed efficiently without consideration of additional timing adjustment for the test write operation because the MISR function is performed under the same timing condition as the normal write operation.
US09959933B2

A method of operating a non-volatile memory device includes selecting a first select transistor from among a plurality of select transistors included in a NAND string, and performing a check operation on a first threshold voltage of the first select transistor. The check operation includes comparing the first threshold voltage with a first lower-limit reference voltage level, and performing a program operation on the first select transistor when the first threshold voltage is lower than the first lower-limit reference voltage level. When the first threshold voltage is equal to or higher than the first lower-limit reference voltage level, the check operation on the first threshold voltage is ended.
US09959931B2

A method includes determining, internal to a memory device, a number of program pulses required to program a sample of memory cells of the memory device during a first programming operation, comparing the determined number of program pulses required to program the sample of memory cells of the memory device to a target number of program pulses, and adjusting a program starting voltage level of one or more program pulses applied to one or more memory cells of the sample of memory cells during a second programming operation subsequent to the first programming operation when the determined number of program pulses required to program the sample of memory cells in the first programming operation is different than the target number so that the number of program pulses applied during the second programming operation tends toward the target number.
US09959926B2

Write assist circuitry is disclosed to assist a memory device in changing logical states during a write operation. The write assist circuit includes write assist circuits which can be coupled to a shared boost capacitor to provide write assistance to the memory device. The write assist circuit includes boost switch circuit to selectively couple one or more of the write assist circuits and the shared boost capacitor. The one or more write assist circuits, when coupled to the shared capacitor, provide negative bitline assistance by selectively driving one of its corresponding bitlines pairs to be negative during a write operation.
US09959924B2

To provide a semiconductor device which can be stably operated while achieving a reduction of the power consumption.A semiconductor device includes a CPU, a system controller which designates an operation speed of the CPU, P-type SOTB transistors, and N-type SOTB transistors. The semiconductor device is provided with an SRAM which is connected to the CPU, and a substrate bias circuit which is connected to the system controller and is capable of supplying substrate bias voltages to the P-type SOTB transistors and the N-type SOTB transistors. Here, when the system controller designates a low speed mode to operate the CPU at a low speed, the substrate bias circuit supplies the substrate bias voltages to the P-type SOTB transistors and the N-type SOTB transistors.
US09959919B2

A memory system has a non-volatile memory of which access speed is electrically controlled, a control circuitry that selects a first region which is a portion of a memory region of the non-volatile memory, and a boost circuit that adjusts an access speed of the first region to be higher than an access speed of a second region different from the first region in the memory region.
US09959915B2

The present disclosure describes a system, a circuit, and method for process and temperature compensation in an integrated circuit. For example, the system includes a bus, a data latch, and a voltage generator. The data latch includes a plurality of transistors coupled to the bus. The voltage generator includes a tracking transistor with one or more physical characteristics that substantially match one or more respective physical characteristics—e.g., gate width and gate length dimensions—of at least one of the plurality of transistors in the data latch. The voltage generator is configured to adjust a pre-charged voltage on the bus based on an electrical characteristic of the tracking transistor.
US09959902B2

Methods and systems for receiving information descriptive of a pace at which a user is exercising; presenting video content depicting a race at a playback speed dependent on the pace; and displaying a dashboard including an indication of the pace.
US09959900B1

Operations include compensating for a Tracking Error Signal (TES) offset in an optical tape drive. The tracking error offset compensation system detects a control signal for controlling movement of an optical head across a surface of a tape. The tracking error offset compensation system computes an estimated movement of the optical head, based on the initial control signal. The tracking error offset compensation system determines an estimated TES offset, based on the estimated movement of the optical head. The tracking error offset compensation system uses the estimated TES offset to correct a TES. The tracking error offset compensation system transmits the corrected TES, for controlling additional movement of the optical head.
US09959899B2

A signal conversion device includes a first converting section configured to convert a clock signal input through a first signal line, a data signal input through a second signal line, and a control signal input through a third signal line, into pulse signals including a first pulse train and a second pulse train; and a transmitting section configured to transmit the first pulse train through a fourth signal line and the second pulse train through a fifth signal line, wherein the control signal is a signal that, through a level transition, causes a control target device to switch between an active state and an inactive state, and wherein the first converting section is configured to put successive pulses into at least one of the first pulse train and the second pulse train in response to the level transition of the control signal.
US09959896B1

An optical disc drive includes a spindle motor, a first control module and a second control module. The spindle motor includes a turn table for supporting and rotating an optical disc. The first control module includes a first optical pickup head corresponding to a first data layer of the optical disc. The first control module is connected with a host through a first bus to execute a first control command. The second control module includes a second optical pickup head corresponding to a second data layer of the optical disc. The second control module is connected with the host through a second bus to execute a second control command. The first control module and the second control module communicate with each other according to a negotiation signal. Moreover, the spindle motor is operated at a target rotation speed under control of the first control module.
US09959895B2

A method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium is provided. An orientation control layer is deposited on a non-magnetic substrate to control an orientation of a layer located directly thereon, and a perpendicular magnetic layer whose easy axis of magnetization is mainly oriented perpendicular to the non-magnetic substrate is deposited thereon. In depositing the orientation control layer, a first granular structure layer containing Ru or a material mainly made of Ru and a first oxide having a melting point of 1000 degrees C. or lower are deposited by sputtering. In depositing the perpendicular magnetic layer, a second granular structure layer containing magnetic particles and a second oxide having a melting point of 1000 degrees C. or lower are deposited by sputtering, and the magnetic particles are grown so as to form a columnar crystal continuing in a thickness direction. The columnar crystal includes crystal grains constituting the orientation control layer.
US09959888B2

A user wearing headphones (e.g., to listen to music, to engage in a voice call, etc.) may speak while receiving an audio signal through the headphones, which may cause the user to produce Lombard speech. Because the Lombard effect is generally involuntary, the user may be unaware that he or she is producing Lombard speech. The Lombard speech may inconvenience proximate individuals and/or embarrass the user (e.g., in an office, in an airport, etc.). An apparatus may be configured to receive, through a microphone communicatively coupled to the apparatus, an audio signal. The apparatus may be configured to determine whether the audio signal indicates speech by a user. The apparatus may be further configured to alert the user based on the determination that the audio signal indicates Lombard speech by the user.
US09959873B2

A method for generating voice dictionary is disclosed which makes it possible to improve the accuracy of speaker identification. A method according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes: acquiring voices of a plurality of unspecified speakers; acquiring noise in a predetermined place; superimposing the noise onto the voices of the plurality of unspecified speakers; and generating, on the basis of the features of the voices of the plurality of unspecified speakers, unspecified speaker voice dictionary that is used for generating personal voice dictionary for identifying a target speaker.
US09959870B2

A system and method of speech recognition involving a mobile device. Speech input is received (202) on a mobile device (102) and converted (204) to a set of phonetic symbols. Data relating to the phonetic symbols is transferred (206) from the mobile device over a communications network (104) to a remote processing device (106) where it is used (208) to identify at least one matching data item from a set of data items (114). Data relating to the at least one matching data item is transferred (210) from the remote processing device to the mobile device and presented (214) thereon.
US09959866B2

A semantic network storage unit stores multiple nodes necessary for performing a task of generating a response sentence to user's speech while associating the nodes with each other. A natural language processor acquires speech information indicating content of the user's speech and identifies a primary node corresponding to the speech information from multiple nodes. A conversation generation unit selects one secondary node from multiple secondary nodes associated with the identified primary node, based on weight values each related to one of the multiple secondary nodes and generates a response sentence corresponding to the selected one secondary node.
US09959862B2

A speech recognition apparatus based on a deep-neural-network (DNN) sound model includes a memory and a processor. As the processor executes a program stored in the memory, the processor generates sound-model state sets corresponding to a plurality of pieces of set training speech data included in multi-set training speech data, generates a multi-set state cluster from the sound-model state sets, and sets the multi-set training speech data as an input node and the multi-set state cluster as output nodes so as to learn a DNN structured parameter.
US09959859B2

The various embodiments set forth an active noise cancellation system that includes a source separation algorithm. The source separation algorithm enables the identification of acoustic inputs from a particular sound source based on a reference signal generated with one or more microphones. Consequently, the identified acoustic inputs can be cancelled or damped in a targeted listening location via an acoustic correction signal, where the acoustic correction signal is generated based on a sound source separated from the reference signal. Advantageously, the reference signal can be generated with a microphone, even though such a reference signal may include a combination of multiple acoustic inputs. Thus, noise sources that cannot be individually measured, for example with an accelerometer mounted to a vibrating structure, can still be identified and actively cancelled.
US09959858B2

A noise-cancelling headphone is provided that avoids an influence of the wind and prevents degradation in the sound quality of the reproduced sound output from a driver unit. The noise-cancelling headphone includes an ear piece including a housing unit having an interior and an exterior, a driver unit attached to the housing unit, and a microphone collecting external sounds at the exterior of the housing unit. The housing unit includes an accommodating portion accommodating the microphone and a sound collecting hole establishing the communication between the accommodating portion and the exterior of the housing unit. The accommodating portion is disposed in an upper portion of the housing unit of the noise-cancelling headphone when worn by the user. The sound collecting hole is open toward the upper side of the housing unit of the noise-cancelling headphone when worn by the user.
US09959856B2

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a processing system may include multiple selectable processing paths for processing an analog signal in order to reduce noise, increase dynamic range, and mask audio artifacts associated with a change in noise floor. Techniques are employed to transition between processing paths and calibrate operational parameters of the two paths in order to reduce or eliminate artifacts caused by switching between processing paths.
US09959851B1

A system and method eliminates the drag associated with CPU drag on experienced by combine audio streams from multiple sources. The embodiments receive audio signals from two separate audio sources and apply a MIDI based timing signature to the audio signals. The audio signals are synchronized according to the MTC signature signal and combined, when synchronized, at a summing module for output as a combined audio stream.
US09959846B1

A frog for a stringed instrument bow is disclosed which has a hollow metal body, which may be made, for example, of direct laser metal sintered titanium. The hollow body has a top side adapted to engage a bow stick of the stringed instrument bow, and a bottom side adapted to support a hair bundle of the stringed instrument bow. A back stop is positioned proximate the bottom side in the interior of the hollow metal body and a cam attached to the bottom side of the hollow metal body is adapted to slide or rotate with respect to the hollow metal body, from an open position in which a hair bundle can be inserted in the hollow metal body and a closed position in which the cam forms a pinch point with the back stop to secure the hair bundle.
US09959843B2

A sound producing apparatus includes: a plurality of sound producing members with differing oscillation frequencies; dampers each corresponding to a respective sound producing member and suppressing vibration by contacting the corresponding sound producing members; a damper operation mechanism that moves each damper, thereby controlling a state of contact of the damper with a corresponding sound producing members; a soundboard that undergoes sympathetic resonance with sound producing members; a vibrator that vibrates the soundboard; an acquisition unit configured to acquire an audio signal; a signal output unit configured to: generate a drive signal for driving the vibrator with a vibration corresponding to the acquired audio signal; and output the drive signal to the vibrator; and a damper control unit configured to drive the damper operation mechanism to change a state of contact between the sound producing members and their corresponding dampers, based on frequency distribution of acquired audio signal.
US09959829B2

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal drive display device, including a display area and a liquid crystal drive circuit, the liquid crystal drive circuit including a plurality of stage GOA circuits, each stage GOA circuit includes a signal line and an auxiliary pull-down circuit, wherein the signal lines are divided into odd-numbered signal lines and even-numbered signal lines, the auxiliary pull-down circuits are divided into first auxiliary pull-down circuits and second auxiliary pull-down circuits; wherein the odd-numbered signal lines and the even-numbered signal lines are separately located on two sides of the display area, and the first auxiliary pull-down circuits and the second auxiliary pull-down circuits are also separately located on two sides of the display area, any two adjacent stage GOA circuits of the plurality of stage GOA circuits share the first auxiliary pull-down circuits and the second auxiliary pull-down circuits.
US09959826B2

A liquid crystal display device is provided where deterioration of the liquid crystal panel is prevented while reducing power consumption. A liquid crystal panel (12) includes a display region (26) in which a video is displayed. The display region (26) includes a plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D). A drive unit (14) rewrites the display on at least one of the plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D) based on a video signal. An identification unit (38) identifies the one of the plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D) on which the drive unit (14) has not rewritten the display for a predetermined number of frames. An output unit (40) outputs an interrupt signal for requesting a video signal for rewriting the display on the sub-region identified by the identification unit.
US09959823B2

According to one embodiment, a liquid crystal display device includes an array substrate, a counter substrate, a liquid crystal layer and a driving unit. The driving unit is configured to perform polarity inversion driving by applying, to the pixel electrode, positive and negative video signals. When applying the video signals to the pixel electrode, the driving unit superposes a correction signal corresponding to a polarity inversion frequency and the gray level on the video signals in advance.
US09959822B2

In a liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels in a display portion and configured to performed display in a plurality of frame periods, each of the frame periods includes a writing period and a holding period, and after an image signal is input to each of the plurality of pixels in the writing period, a transistor included in each of the plurality of pixels is turned off and the image signal is held for at least 30 seconds in the holding period. The pixel includes a semiconductor layer including an oxide semiconductor layer, and the oxide semiconductor layer has a carrier concentration of less than 1×1014/cm3.
US09959816B2

A system and method for displaying information at a fuel dispenser comprises an electrophoretic display that may be configured to operate in low temperature environments. The fuel dispenser may comprise a keypad located beneath the electrophoretic display in order to present a graphical user interface to a customer and receive the customer's selections. The fuel dispenser may comprise additional electrophoretic displays to present additional information to the consumer.
US09959813B2

An organic light emitting diode display including: a substrate including a pixel part for displaying an image and a peripheral part enclosing the pixel part; a plurality of scan lines formed on the substrate, each for transferring a scan signal; a plurality of data lines for transferring a data voltage, and a plurality of driving voltage lines intersecting the plurality of scan lines for transferring a driving voltage, respectively; a plurality of pixels connected to the plurality of scan lines and the plurality of data lines, respectively and formed in the pixel part; and at least one dummy pixel connected to the plurality of scan lines and the plurality of data lines and formed in the peripheral part.
US09959812B2

The present invention provides a method of compensating AMOLED power supply voltage drop, comprising: step 1, measuring a brightness value L of each light-emitting element line of a panel by starting from a COF end of the AMOLED; step 2, drawing a brightness variation curve of the each light-emitting element line caused by IR Drop according to the brightness value L of the each light-emitting element line measured in the step 1; step 3, calculating a voltage value for compensation of every two adjacent light-emitting elements from difference values between the brightnesses of every two adjacent light-emitting elements according to a ratio conversion between a brightness difference ΔL and a voltage difference ΔV, i.e. ΔV=α·ΔL, wherein α is a scaling factor; step 4, making no compensation to a data voltage of the first light-emitting element line, and adding the first compensation value ΔV1 to a data voltage of the second light-emitting element line, and adding a sum (ΔV1+ΔV2) of the first and the second compensation value to a data voltage of a third light-emitting element line and so on to the last light-emitting element line when a sequence controller transmits data voltage signals for showing images. The method can solve the issue of uneven brightness caused by IR Drop in a large scale AMOLED display device.
US09959811B2

A sensing unit measuring a bending degree of a flexible substrate includes: a first line formed on the flexible substrate; a second line adjacent to the first line; and a first controller applying a first sensing signal to the first line and measuring a change of crosstalk generated in the second line by the first sensing signal according to bending of the flexible substrate.
US09959802B1

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system and method for image processing, and a display device. The system comprises: a greyscale value selection module for selecting a plurality of color greyscale values for each sub-pixel, the sub-pixel being used for displaying an image; an optimal common voltage determination module for determining an optimal common voltage of each sub-pixel according to the selected color greyscale values for each sub-pixel; a uniformity determination module comprising a flicker uniformity determination module and a common voltage uniformity determination module, the flicker uniformity determination module being used for determining the flicker uniformity of each sub-pixel, the common voltage uniformity determination module being used for determining the common voltage uniformity of each sub-pixel according to the determined flicker uniformity of each sub-pixel; and an image compensation module for compensating each sub-pixel according to at least one of the optimal common voltage of each sub-pixel and the common voltage uniformity of each sub-pixel, thereby improving the residual image and flicker uniformity at the time of image display.
US09959796B2

A display apparatus includes: a display device; a display device driver which drives the display device; a compression section adapted to an operation of generating compression data by compression processing performed on image data; and a transmission section which, when receiving compressed data from the compression section, transmits the compressed data to the display device driver by using a serial data signal. The compression section performs the compression processing with a data compression ratio selected in response to a frame rate with which the display device driver drives the display device. The display device driver receives the serial data signal from the transmission section, generates decompressed data by decompressing the compressed data transmitted by the serial data signal, and drives the display device in response to the decompressed data. The data compression ratio used in the compression processing is set so that the transmission rate of the serial data signal from the transmission section to the display device driver is kept constant independently of the frame rate.
US09959795B2

A display device and a method of driving the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the display device includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels including a first group of pixels and a second group of pixels. The first group of pixels forms a first region and the second group of pixels forms a second region surrounding the first region. A controller is configured to receive input image data, process the input image data corresponding to the first pixels based on a preset first image processing algorithm so as to generate first modified image data, and process the input image data corresponding to the second pixels based on a preset second image processing algorithm so as to generate second modified image data.
US09959788B2

A label includes a first section and a second section that is attached to the first section. The first section includes a panel. The panel includes one or more sides that are detachable from the first section.
US09959781B2

The technology disclosed herein includes a navigation system for a visually impaired person to navigate a public restroom. The navigation system may include a plurality of fixtures, a plurality of installations, wherein each installation is electronically connected to a fixture, and an electronic device, the electronic device configured to receive auditory or tactile signals from each installation and produce a signal indicative of a fixture location. The plurality of fixtures may include a toilet, a urinal, a sink, a soap dispenser, and a hand drying apparatus.
US09959773B2

Embodiments described herein include a delivery system having unmanned aerial delivery vehicles and a logistics network for control and monitoring. In certain embodiments, a ground station provides a location for interfacing between the delivery vehicles, packages carried by the vehicles and users. In certain embodiments, the delivery vehicles autonomously navigate from one ground station to another. In certain embodiments, the ground stations provide navigational aids that help the delivery vehicles locate the position of the ground station with increased accuracy.
US09959764B1

A method includes receiving and storing operational data including a first plurality of data points indicative of a plurality of respective states of an operational parameter of the vehicle at a plurality of respective times, external data including a second plurality of data points indicative of a plurality of respective states of an environment external to the vehicle at a plurality of respective times, and synchronization data. The method also includes generating a virtual model of an event involving the vehicle using the stored data, at least by generating a first visual representation of the plurality of respective states of the operational parameter, generating a second visual representation of the plurality of respective states of the external environment, and using the synchronization data to cause the first visual representation to be displayed simultaneously with, and in a time-aligned manner with, the second visual representation.
US09959755B2

In the example embodiments as described herein there is at least a method and apparatus to perform operations including monitoring probe data of car and truck traffic on at least one road segment including more than one lane; based on the monitoring, determining that an occurrence of a traffic jam ahead of the car and truck traffic on the at least one road segment is probable or occurring; and in response to the determining, selectively notifying at least one of a car and truck of the traffic of required or prohibited changes to at least one of their position and speed on the at least one road segment to prevent an occurrence of a traffic jam on the at least one road segment.
US09959738B2

A method and system for monitoring at least one reciprocating machine having a crankshaft and at least one cylinder, comprising providing at least one sensor for monitoring the at least one cylinder, the sensor being in communication with at least one processor configured to measure at least one signal from the at least one sensor and to thereby determine an angular position of the crankshaft; selecting at least one subset of potential crankshaft angular positions; calculating at least one statistic associated with the at least one subset of possible crankshaft angular positions based at least partially on data from the at least one sensor; and automatically providing a user with at least one warning or automatically shutting down the machine if the at least one statistic exceeds at least one predetermined threshold; wherein, the at least one sensor comprises at least one acoustic emission sensor.
US09959736B2

A system, a method and a computer program to monitor a plurality of transformer operating parameters, as well as to accurately control one or more of the transformer operating parameters. Also, the system and method may calculate loss of life and give diagnosis for recovery and provide maintenance notification, along with monitoring the operation of the LTC.
US09959731B2

A system for making sure that two wireless devices (a perimeter-anchoring device and a constrained device) are not separated too far apart by having a dynamic perimeter that follows the perimeter-anchoring device as it moves. In some embodiments, the size and/or shape of the perimeter is controlled by machine logic based rules, based at least in part, upon a set of environmental factor(s). Some possible environmental factors include: line of sight, pollution, noise level, presence of stranger(s), streets, traffic, body(ies) of water, contamination, allergen, or blocking obstruction(s).
US09959730B2

A location tracking system for allowing a user to monitor the location of an abuser who has been issued a restraining order. The tracking system includes a monitoring unit to be carried by the user that is in wireless communication with a monitored unit to be worn by the abuser. The monitoring unit includes a housing having a display screen thereon, wherein the display screen shows the location of the monitoring unit and the location of the monitored unit. The monitoring unit is configured to determine the distance of separation between the monitoring unit and monitored unit. The monitoring unit includes an alarm unit that will produce an audible alert if the distance of separation drops below a predetermined minimum distance.
US09959722B1

A method is described for using a surveillance system to covertly and automatically determine the presence of persons and machines that do not want to be tracked and whose identities are unknown. Video is provided by one or more surveillance cameras and recorders to assist in visually distinguishing bearers of WiFi-equipped mobile devices. A processing device covertly receives WiFi probes from mobile devices, particularly smartphones, and forms and sends messages with links for viewing relevant live and recorded video. The processing device processes WiFi information, particularly mobile device signatures known as WiFi MAC addresses, organizes and records MAC addresses and other information, analyzes patterns of previous presence of MAC addresses using a variety of parameters, adjusts its processing parameters, determines when the reception of WiFi information from particular mobile devices satisfy criteria for sending messages, and presents its analysis for review and collaboration.
US09959718B2

An alarm for a door is operable to generate an alarm signal when a rotary grip member of the door is rotated to a particular position, such as an unlocked position. The alarm comprises a housing having a strap retainer configured to receive and retain a strap to hold the housing to the rotary grip member. The alarm comprises a tilt switch for switching when the housing is tilted. Control circuitry is interconnected to the tilt switch and to an annunciator and is operable to activate the annunciator dependent on a state of the tilt switch.
US09959713B2

A card reading device includes a card shoe part in which cards are housed, a card reading part that reads information on the cards drawn out, a control part that determines the outcome of a game based on the read information on the cards, and display parts that display the determined outcome of the game. In a tabletop game system, the information on the cards read by the card reading part and information on the game outcome determined by the control part are transmitted from the card reading device to a main computer apparatus via wireless communication. The card reading device includes a battery that supplies electric power to the control part, the display parts and a wireless output part. The card reading device, as such, is capable of facilitating moving the card reading device in a participatory tabletop game.
US09959704B2

An electronic wagering system may have a player input system, a game processor and a random outcome wagering event system in communication with the game processor. The electronic wagering system receives wagers on a wagering event generating a random outcome event that is used to determine outcomes on received wagers. The processor accounts for wagers placed, credits entered, wagers lost and wagers won and credit status. When the gaming system does not require a contribution to a non-gaming institution, the player input system must contain a specific control that enables a player to input instructions on each of or at least one of recipient(s) of a charitable contribution, amount of contribution from either credit status or directly from winnings before being contributed to the credit status.
US09959699B2

A system for assembling a luminaire comprising a housing, a computer-controlled manipulation device, and a parts repository defined within the housing and configured to carry a plurality of light modules, a plurality of luminaire housings of various luminaire housing types, and a plurality of optics of various optic types. The system further comprises a programming device configured to program a light module of the plurality of light modules to emit light having lighting characteristics. Each of the light modules are configured to be removably couplable to the computer-controlled manipulation device. The luminaire housings each comprise a locking tab configured to permit the respective light modules to engage therewith, thereby enabling attachment of the respective light modules to the respective luminaire housings. Each of the optics comprise a locking tab configured to permit a respective luminaire housing to engage therewith, enabling attachment of the respective luminaire housing to the respective optic.
US09959697B2

A laboratory vial transfer device for automatically transferring laboratory vials from a transport package containing a plurality of said vials, comprising: a vial feeder configured to connect to the transport package after the package has been opened, so as to feed vials directly from the package without manual contact, wherein the vial feeder comprises a rotatable carousel having a plurality of vial receiving positions located on the carousel each for receiving a single vial and adapted to collect the vials from the opened package into respective vial receiving positions upon operation of the carousel, wherein the carousel is operable to feed the vials from their respective vial receiving positions to an exit position.
US09959688B2

In a portable wireless key, decoration fitting portions provided at ends of a pair of side portions of a metal decoration member are fitted in decoration receiving portions of a wireless key body, and a decoration engaging portion provided at a connecting portion of the metal decoration member is engaged with a decoration engagement portion of the wireless key body. Further, a switch operation cover is fixed to an assembled unit of the wireless key body and the metal decoration member. Thus, durability in dropping can be improved without complicating an assembling work of the metal decoration member and without increasing the number of components and costs, and it is easy to address switch variations without increasing initial costs.
US09959687B2

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system for monitoring, recording, and analyzing driver activity. An exemplary system comprises a sensor module configured to receive data from one or more sensors that measure acceleration or deceleration associated with a vehicle. A stop detection module is configured to receive the sensor module data, process the sensor module data, and determine an abrupt acceleration or deceleration event. A location module is configured to retrieve the location of the vehicle simultaneous with an abrupt acceleration or deceleration event. The system stores the location of the abrupt acceleration or deceleration event in an event record in an event database.
US09959680B2

A real-time travel experience system based on virtual reality technology includes sight real-time acquisition subsystems, a network transmission subsystem, a center platform subsystem and experience site subsystems. Based on virtual reality technology, the system collects the scenery and environment parameters of scenic spots using an unmanned aerial vehicle, transmits the data to an experience site, and simulates a sight real-time state vis the experience site by using the data received, providing more real user experiences; meanwhile, the user can view in motion via a walking caterpillar and a rotary base, a scenery environment can also be moved or steered due to the motion or steering of the user, so that the user experience is significantly enhanced. The system can be widely applied in various virtual travel systems.
US09959679B2

A method of controlling a widget in a virtual space is disclosed, comprising: moving a field-of-view and a point of gaze in the virtual space; determining if the widget and the point of gaze overlap each other, and providing an input to the widget if the widget and the point of gaze overlap; determining if at least a part of the widget is positioned outside the field of view; and moving the widget so that the part of the widget is positioned inside the field of view if it is determined that at least a part of the widget is positioned outside the field of view.
US09959666B2

The invention is directed to systems and methods for detailing a graphical 3D solid model displayed to a user. An example system includes a graphical user interface device (e.g., joystick, keyboard, stylus, roller ball, touch screen, tablet, etc.) configured to receive input from a user and transmit the input to a computer including a Central Processing Unit (CPU) and/or a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a memory for use with the computer, and a video display configured to graphically display the detailed 3D solid model to the user.
US09959663B2

A system and method for generating textures on an object from physical ink data and physical applicator data, including: receiving, by a module for generating a rendering outside the object (RHO), the physical ink and physical applicator data and transforming this data to provide a rendering outside the object comprising compatible physical data for projection against a target object regardless of the projection mode; receiving, by a module for transforming RHO, the previously obtained RHO data, and adapting this data for a given rendering projection mode; and receiving, by a module for integrating the physical parameters, the data of the object, the data of the set of textures, the transformed RHO data, and generating a new set of textures for said objects.
US09959658B2

Methods and systems are described herein for improved techniques for consuming and interacting with media content. Specifically, the media guidance application may generate holographic animations that move from a holographic structure from which a user has selected a media asset and direct the user to a display device capable of presenting the media asset. For example, in response to a user selecting a baseball movie from a holographic bookcase, the media guidance application may generate for display a holographic baseball that is “thrown” from the bookcase to a television that will present the baseball movie.
US09959657B2

A method of animating a computer generation of a head, the head having a mouth which moves in accordance with speech to be output by the head, said method comprising: providing an input related to the speech which is to be output by the movement of the lips; dividing said input into a sequence of acoustic units; selecting expression characteristics for the inputted text; converting said sequence of acoustic units to a sequence of image vectors using a statistical model, wherein said model has a plurality of model parameters describing probability distributions which relate an acoustic unit to an image vector, said image vector comprising a plurality of parameters which define a face of said head; and outputting said sequence of image vectors as video such that the mouth of said head moves to mime the speech associated with the input text with the selected expression, wherein a parameter of a predetermined type of each probability distribution in said selected expression is expressed as a weighted sum of parameters of the same type, and wherein the weighting used is expression dependent, such that converting said sequence of acoustic units to a sequence of image vectors comprises retrieving the expression dependent weights for said selected expression, wherein the parameters are provided in clusters, and each cluster comprises at least one sub-cluster, wherein said expression dependent weights are retrieved for each cluster such that there is one weight per sub-cluster.
US09959654B2

A set of animation data for an element in an animation is statistically sampled to obtain a common context. The common context is a subset of a plurality of frames of the set of animation data. Further, output of a data-driven model for the animation, which utilizes at least a subset of the common context, is compared with output of a computational model for the animation. The computational model has a first set of logic. The data-driven model has a second set of logic that has less logic than the first set of logic. In addition, an error between the computational model and the data-driven model is computed.
US09959651B2

The present disclosure relates to processing images representing a real scene, the images comprising at least two images obtained from at least two sources of images, a sub-image of each of the at least two images representing an overlapping area of the real scene. A role map comprising a plurality of parts, all the points of each part of the role map being associated with a single identifier of a source of images, is generated during a training phase. To process the images, parts of the role map are selected as a function of an identifier of a considered source of images, and sub-images of an image obtained from the considered source of images are processed, the processed sub-images corresponding to the selected parts of the role map.
US09959648B2

A medical image display apparatus which displays, in a display screen, a display image having undergone gray level transform of changing number of gray levels of a medical image, obtains a representative value of pixel values concerning a region of a block, in the medical image, which corresponds to each partial region in a region designated in the display image. The medical image display apparatus sets a specific region in the display screen so as to include the designated region, and superimposes/displays and arranges obtained representative values on the specific region in correspondence with the arrangement of the partial regions.
US09959646B2

According to one aspect of an embodiment, an information display device includes a display unit that displays first content in a display region. The information display device includes a detection unit configured to detect a physical state of a terminal device. The information display device includes a display control unit configured to direct the display unit to display second new content in the display region while changing a display mode of the first content, on the basis of the detection result of the detection unit.
US09959641B1

Methods and systems are disclosed for providing displays of maps or mapping objects in a mapping application or system, wherein transitions between the maps or mapping objects is provided seamlessly and/or with orientation(s) preserved based a user interface device control actuation.
US09959638B2

In one embodiment, an X-ray CT apparatus includes an X-ray tube that radiates, an X-ray, a detector that outputs a plurality of pieces of pre-compression data on a basis of the X-ray first processing circuitry and second processing circuitry. The first processing circuitry groups the plurality of pieces of pre-compression data to generate grouped data corresponding to the pre-compression data in each group, and generates data for restoration for restoring the pre-compression data, wherein the first processing circuitry transmits the grouped data and the data for restoration to the second processing circuitry. And the second processing circuitry selects any of a first reconstruction mode in which image reconstruction is performed based on the plurality of pieces of pre-compression data; and a second reconstruction mode in which image reconstruction is performed based on the data for restoration, and generates an image, and in a case of performing image reconstruction in the first reconstruction mode, the second processing circuitry restores the pre-compression data based on the grouped data and the data for restoration.
US09959631B2

A tomography apparatus includes a data acquirer acquiring a first image and a second image that are partial images, by using data acquired in a first angular section corresponding to a first time point and a second angular section corresponding to a second time and facing the first angular section, by performing a tomography scan on an object that is moving, and acquiring first information indicating a motion amount of the object by using the first image and the second image, and an image reconstructor reconstructing a target image indicating the object at a target time, based on the first information.
US09959623B2

A method comprising causing display of a map information representation that represents map information, the map information comprising physical object information that characterizes a physical object, the map information representation comprising a physical object representation that represents the physical object, receiving information indicative of an annotation, generating an association between the physical object information and the annotation, identifying a portion of the physical object representation that is a face representation of the physical object based, at least in part, on the association between the physical object information and the annotation, generating an annotation representation that illustrates the annotation as a texture on a polygon, the polygon corresponding with the face representation, and causing display of the annotation representation in relation to the face representation is disclosed.
US09959619B2

Provided are an apparatus for processing a medical image, and a method of processing a medical image by using the apparatus. The apparatus includes: an image obtainer that receives a first image obtained by photographing an object; and an image processor that calculates a scaling factor for adjusting a magnification of the first image based on statistic information corresponding to the object and generates a second image to be displayed by normalizing a size of the object by applying the calculated scaling factor to the first image.
US09959615B2

A system and method for detecting pulmonary embolisms in a subject's vasculature are provided. In some aspects, the method includes acquiring a set of images representing a vasculature of the subject, and analyzing the set of images to identify pulmonary embolism candidates associated with the vasculature. The method also includes generating, for identified pulmonary embolism candidates, image patches based on a vessel-aligned image representation, and applying a set of convolutional neural networks to the generated image patches to identify pulmonary embolisms. The method further includes generating a report indicating identified pulmonary embolisms.
US09959609B2

Image capture systems including a moving platform; an image capture device having a sensor for capturing an image, the image having pixels, mounted on the moving platform; and a detection computer executing an abnormality detection algorithm for detecting an abnormality in the pixels of the image immediately after the image is captured by scanning the image utilizing predetermined parameters indicative of characteristics of the abnormality and then automatically and immediately causing a re-shoot of the image.
US09959597B1

A method of generating super resolution image data includes receiving original image data of a low resolution at an image processing device, performing motion compensation on the original image data using a current frame of image data and at least one previous frame of image data and at least one future frame of image data as reference frames, generating motion vectors, applying noise reduction to the current frame of image data and the reference frames to produce noise reduced, current frame image data, and generating a current frame of super resolution image data using the noise reduced, current frame image data.
US09959595B2

Determining three-dimensional structure in a road environment using a system mountable in a host vehicle including a camera connectable to a processor. Multiple image frames are captured in the field of view of the camera. In the image frames, a line is selected below which the road is imaged. The line separates between upper images essentially excluding images of the road and lower images essentially including images of the road. One or more of the lower images is warped, according to a road homography to produce at least one warped lower image. The three-dimensional structure may be provided from motion of a matching feature within the upper images or from motion of a matching feature within at least one of the lower images and at least one warped lower image.
US09959594B2

A method includes fusing at least three images together into a single fused image, wherein at least one of the three images includes a binary-pattern representation image. A system includes an image processing system (100) that combines an anatomical image, a functional image and a binary-pattern representation image into a single image. A computer readable storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the processor to combine an anatomical image, a functional image, and a binary-pattern representation of a different functional image into a single image such that the anatomical image and the functional image are visible in interspaces between binary points of the binary-pattern representation of the functional image.
US09959591B2

A head mounted display is worn on the body of a user before use and includes an image display unit that transmits an outside scene and displays an image in a visually recognizable manner along with the outside scene and a camera that performs image capturing in directions of sight lines of the user. A control section of the head mounted display includes an image generation section that generates a display image from a captured image from the camera and an image display control section that causes the image display unit to display the display image generated by the image generation section.
US09959583B2

A user selection of one or more of a plurality of content is received. The selected content is encrypted by a first encryption key that is remote and unknown to the distribution server. Payment information associated with the user selection is also received and verified. The selected content from is retrieved from a remote database. The first encryption key corresponding to the selected content to decrypt the encrypted content corresponding to the user selection is obtained. Decryption is performed by a hardware-based engine of the distribution server that is isolated from a host processor of the distribution server. The content corresponding to the user selection is encrypted according to a second encryption key that is known to the distribution server.
US09959582B2

According to aspects of the present invention, methods, systems, and media are provided for creating, storing, and using an interactive hierarchical arrangement of technical elements useful for conducting efficient patent infringement and similar analysis. The hierarchical arrangement of technical elements is adapted to be displayed on a user-engageable computer display in a manner that allows a user to select and de-select particular technical elements. Methods and systems include storing records of technical elements in hierarchical relationships, which elements are correlated to specific patent claims during an annotation process. The hierarchical arrangement of technical elements is displayed so as to indicate genus-species relationships among the technical elements, while the stored correlations are used as a basis to perform highly efficient claims-based patent analysis.
US09959576B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for provisioning and using a multi-purpose device. The device contains information regarding a plurality of memberships. The device contains one or more membership certificate chains, comprising multiple certificates, wherein a membership provider certificate is signed by a private key associated with a membership root certificate authority, and wherein a member certificate is signed by a private key associated with the membership provider certificate. The member certificate includes member attributes regarding the user, such as member benefit information. The device also includes a payment certificate chain, comprising multiple certificates, wherein a payment provider certificate is signed by a private key associated with a payment root certificate authority, and wherein a payment certificate is signed by a private key associated with the payment provider certificate. The payment certificate includes payment attributes regarding the user, such as a payment account.
US09959566B2

Disclosed systems and methods provide media content through an electronic commerce server. In one implementation, a method for providing electronic content is provided. The method includes receiving an order of a user. The order of the user may comprise a request of the user for a physical copy of media content. The commerce server may determine whether to provide to the user an electronic copy of the media content based at least on the order. Further, a request to access the electronic copy of the media content is received from the user. The method further grants the user access to the electronic copy of the media content based at least on the request to access the electronic copy of the media content.
US09959559B2

In various exemplary embodiments, a system and associated method for prioritizing search results in an electronic environment is disclosed. The system comprises a communications module to receive a search query from a searching party located in a geographic region and a search engine to conduct a search and generate search results. A query engine identifies the geographic region of the searching party and identifies a language associated with the identified geographic region of the searching party based on the identified geographic region of the searching party. The search results are prioritized based on the identified language.
US09959556B1

A method and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting notifications to customers. One example method may include identifying a notification event associated with a customer via a customer management module and retrieving a customer preference record. The method may also include determining a notification device preference for a customer Internet protocol (IP) device included in the customer preference record and determining a current presence status of the customer Internet protocol (IP) device. The method may also include transmitting the notification event to the customer's IP device based on the notification device preference.
US09959551B1

Techniques for providing a messaging plan may be provided. A message that conforms to a channel agnostic format may be received. In an example, a messaging plan that includes a channel for delivering the message may be determined based at least in part on a score determined by a machine learning module utilizing metrics of a user. The message may be provided to the user according to the messaging plan. The messaging plan may be updated for subsequent messages based at least in part on updated metrics of the user received in response to the user interacting with the message.
US09959548B2

A social analytic system may identify the social signals associated with a brand, campaign, or any other topic. The social analytic system may generate a vocabulary associated with the brand, campaign, or topic based terms used in the associated social signals. The vocabulary may be used for generating social media analytics and identifying social media events, such as marketing campaigns. In one example, a vocabulary may be compared with vocabularies associated with different constituents to identify the positive and negative terms in the vocabulary.
US09959542B2

Methods and systems for verifying authenticity of a physical object and/or for verifying possession of the object by an individual are described. In one embodiment, the object is registered with a remote processing system. Data representing at least one characteristic of the object is obtained and stored in the remote system and the identity of the individual or entity possessing the object is authenticated. After authenticating the individual, an identifier is collocated (or an existing mechanism is activated or modified to replicate the identifier) with the object, where the identifier uniquely identifies the object and the individual possessing the object. The object and the identity of the individual possessing the object can be authenticated at a future time by sensing the collocated identifier and sending the sensed identifier to the remote system. The remote system can send instructions to an entity wishing to authenticate the object and its association with the individual possessing the object. The instructions can be set up at the time the object is registered in the remote system. The remote system can perform an interactive or automated session with the entity wishing to authenticate the object, thereby saving time and providing a robust method of authentication and means for carrying out additional processing functions.
US09959540B2

There are provided systems and methods for security authentication using payment card display devices at accepted merchant location. A user may be walking near or visiting a merchant location with a wireless smart payment card which may connect to a wireless beacon at the merchant location. The user's payment card may communicate issuer and type of payment card data when connected with the wireless beacon. The beacon may communicate the user's payment card data to a merchant device or server. The merchant device or server may compare user's payment card data to merchant's accepted payment sources. The merchant device or server may alert user's payment card via communication through the wireless beacon, the payment card is accepted at the merchant location. Additionally, security identification and/or advertisements may be communicated to the user's accepted payment card.
US09959539B2

A computing device may determine to execute a secured function. The computing may obtain a biometric of the user of the computing device utilizing one or more biometric sensors associated with the computing device, determine that the biometric matches the biometric of a user authorized to utilize the secured function, and execute the secured function. Whenever during execution of the secured function the computing device determines that the biometric sensor no longer detects the biometric of the user, the computing device may cease execution of the secured function.
US09959538B2

Authentication for payment transaction includes receiving, by a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, an indication that a payment account of a cardholder is associated with a mobile device and receiving a second indication of physical possession of a payment card by a merchant. The authentication includes receiving a purchase request for an authorization of exchange from the payment account of the cardholder to the merchant and assigning a transaction identifier to the request for the authorization of the exchange. The authentication includes transmitting the request for authorization of the exchange from the cardholder payment account to the merchant and the transaction identifier. The authentication includes receiving an indication that an authentication identifier is associated with the transaction identifier. The authentication includes receiving a copy of the authentication identifier, facilitated by the cardholder. The authentication includes receiving validation that the copy of the authentication identifier matches the authentication identifier.
US09959534B2

A check image generator application generates a remote deposit capture RDC compatible check image. The RDC compatible check image is sent from a sender mobile device to a recipient mobile device. The RDC compatible check image may pass through a server and may be encrypted. The recipient mobile device receives the RDC compatible check image and forwards it to a financial institution for deposit.
US09959533B2

A check image generator application generates a remote deposit capture RDC compatible check image. The RDC compatible check image is sent from a sender mobile device to a recipient mobile device. The RDC compatible check image may pass through a server and may be encrypted. The recipient mobile device receives the RDC compatible check image and forwards it to a financial institution for deposit.
US09959528B2

A method of securing a transaction that comprises a trust entity computer in communication with data storage, a first party and a second party over a network, and receiving a request from the first party to undertake a transaction with the second party. In addition, receives a first token, storing the first token in the data storage, receiving a second token from the second party, comparing the stored first token and the received second token, if the stored first token and the received second token are a match, enabling the transaction.
US09959525B2

A job searching and matching system and method is disclosed that gathers job seeker information in the form of job seeker parameters from one or more job seekers, gathers job information in the form of job parameters from prospective employers and/or recruiters, correlates the information with past job seeker behavior, parameters and behavior from other job seekers, and job parameters and, in response to a job seeker's query, provides matching job results based on common parameters between the job seeker and jobs along with suggested alternative jobs based on the co-relationships. In addition, the system correlates employer/recruiter behavior information with past employer/recruiter behavior, parameters and information concerning other job seekers, which are candidates to the employer, and resume parameters, and, in response to a Employer's query, provides matching job seeker results based on common parameters between the job seeker resumes and jobs along with suggested alternative job seeker candidates based on the identified co-relationships.
US09959521B2

A method and system for control of bailment inventory is disclosed. The method includes receiving a customer identifier from a customer, receiving from the customer at least one customer item for bailment, associating the customer identifier with the at least one customer item, storing the at least one customer item, and returning the at least one customer item to the customer.
US09959520B2

Product replenishment systems which identify to vendors need for replenishment product, and effect shipment of such product. Product containers have computer readable labels which identify particular product to those containers. When a container is empty, the container is tossed into a chute. An antenna subassembly, including antenna, antenna tuner, and signal reader, reads the label as the container passes through the chute. The container label can alternatively be read by otherwise moving the label across the field of a suitable antenna, or by reading such label using a bar code reader. The antenna, or bar code reader, communicates label information to a local computer. The local computer communicates, to a separate host computer, certain of the label information. The host computer collects information from one or more local computers and communicates with respective vendor computers which receive the information, and process and instruct shipment orders related to the needed product.
US09959509B2

Changing a business process model involves several aspects: (1) given a set of change operations, dependencies and conflicts are encoded in dependency and conflict matrices; (2) given a change sequence for a process model M, the change sequence is broken up into subsequences such that operations from different subsequences are independent; (3) given a change sequence for a process model V1 and another change sequence for a process model V2, conflicts between operations in the different change sequences are determined; (4) the process structure tree can be used to localize dependency computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining dependencies; and (5) the process structure tree can be used to localize conflict computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining conflicts.
US09959507B2

A device may receive sensor data from a sensor device located on a particular farm. The device may identify an alert, associated with the particular farm, based on the sensor data and using a model. The model may be created based on imagery data and numeric data relating to a group of farms. The device may determine, using the model, a recommended course of action to address the alert, and provide, to a user device associated with the particular farm, the recommended course of action.
US09959504B2

Certain relationships representing material insights are identified from among a set of discovered relationships. Cognitive discovery of relationships in a knowledge base, or corpus, are ranked according to one or more metrics indicative of material insights, including recentness and degree of alignment.
US09959500B1

An integrated circuit processor having a processing unit that includes a logical circuit with multiple transistors and a top metal landing pad, and an embedded STT memory. The STT memory includes a dielectric layer formed on the top metal landing pad, an adhesion and topography planarization (ATP) layer formed on the dielectric layer, and an MTJ film layer disposed on the ATP layer. The memory may also include bit lines formed on the MTJ film layer. The ATP layer may have multiple layers such as a top layer and a bottom layer. The top layer may act as an etch stop for etching the MTJ film layer on the top. The ATP layer may have a total thickness of 500 A to 4000 A. The bit lines can be configured to send data to the logic circuit of the processing unit to perform one or more convolution neural network computations.
US09959489B2

Delaying processing based on received commands is suppressed while preventing executing parallel processes involving operation of hardware. Servers can send printing commands and non-printing commands to a printing device. When a printing command is received from a first server and a printing command is then received from another server different from the first server while a process based on the printing command received from the first server is executing, the printing device does not execute the process based on the printing command received from the other server; but if a non-printing command is received from another server, the printing device executes a process based on the non-printing command received from the other server parallel to the process based on the printing command received from the first server.
US09959484B2

The present disclosure discloses a method and an apparatus for generating an image filter. The method includes receiving a first image that is selected with a specific imaging effect desired for the image filter, generating a group of images corresponding to the first image, wherein the group of images comprises at least a second image of a common structure characteristic with the first image and without the specific imaging effect, calculating a mapping relationship for transforming the group of images to the first image and storing the mapping relationship to be used as the image filter to generate the specific imaging effect on other images.
US09959477B2

Improved thermoacoustic imaging is provided by ensuring directional uniformity of the microwave excitation provided to the target being imaged. This directional uniformity can be quantified in terms of the eccentricity e of the polarization ellipse of the microwave excitation. We have e≤0.87, preferably e≤0.71, and more preferably e≤0.32. Optical excitation can be provided in addition to the microwave excitation. Excitation can be performed at multiple optical wavelengths and/or microwave frequencies to improve depth uniformity. In addition, the employment of excitation cells with optimized spacing and geometry provides the uniformity in another two degrees of freedom. One potential application is to detect blood vessel in user's finger for biometric authentication.
US09959475B2

The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a method that includes identifying edges of a section of a document in a source image that includes at least one row of text. The method includes identifying characters in the document. The method includes identifying word portions. The method includes generating polynomials that approximate points of the characters within the word portions. The method includes generating a second polynomial that approximates the points of the characters of word portions. The method includes identifying a stretching coefficient of the row of text based on a length of the section between the edges relative to a length of the second polynomial. The method includes mapping portions of the source image along the row of text to new positions in a corrected image based on the second polynomial and the stretching coefficient.
US09959470B2

A system and method for contextually interpreting image sequences are provided. The method comprises receiving video from one or more video sources, and generating one or more questions associated with one or more portions of the video based on at least one user-defined objective. The method further comprises sending the one or more portions of the video and the one or more questions to one or more assistants, receiving one or more answers to the one or more questions from the one or more assistants, and determining a contextual interpretation of the video based on the one or more answers and the video.
US09959467B2

An image recognition approach employs both computer generated and manual image reviews to generate image tags characterizing an image. The computer generated and manual image reviews can be performed sequentially or in parallel. The generated image tags may be provided to a requester in real-time, be used to select an advertisement, and/or be used as the basis of an internet search. In some embodiments generated image tags are used as a basis for an upgraded image review. A confidence of a computer generated image review may be used to determine whether or not to perform a manual image review.
US09959466B2

An object tracking apparatus is configured to determine, according to a predetermined object region containing an object in an initial image of an image sequence, an object region estimated to contain the object in each subsequent image of the image sequence. Moreover, the object tracking apparatus is allowed to adapt the size of the object region obtained through tracking to the change in the shape or size of the object, and to avoid a tracking error.
US09959456B2

An image search server constituting an image search system having a client computer and the image search server includes at least one hardware processor configured to calculate, with regard to each image of a multiplicity of images, the values of feature quantities representing characteristics of the image, score the image based upon the calculated values of the feature quantities, and responsive to application of a first move command which moves one image among a plurality of images displayed in a candidate area, which has been formed on a display screen of said client computer, to a search result area, raise the value of feature quantities, which correspond to the feature quantities of the one image for which the first move command has been applied, and score said multiplicity of images based upon the raised values of the feature quantities.
US09959446B2

For appending a user identifier to an image, code records a user identity input from an input device in response to a principle camera recording a principle image. In addition, the code generates a user identifier from the user identity input. The code further appends the user identifier to the principle image.
US09959437B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for making ordinary objects network-enabled interfaces. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag may be fixed or detachably attached to an item capable of being manipulated by a person to obtain information about the item or to cause a performance of a task associated with the item. The RFID tag may include a capacitive touch interface that, when manipulated by a person, causes the RFID tag to emit an identifier associated with a corresponding item. A receiver, having the identifier and an instruction from a person, may communicate with a remote computing device to process the instruction and to generate a response to the instruction.
US09959435B1

Embodiments are directed to restricting access to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag information based on location. Access to RFID tag information may be restricted at the reader level, at the requester level, and at the network level. When reader-level restrictions exist, devices may be prevented from inventorying tags and retrieving information from tags. When requester-level restrictions exist, a requester or device may be prevented from receiving tag information from inventoried tags or a network. When network-level restrictions exist, a network may discard or otherwise restrict tag information received from devices.
US09959434B1

The present invention provides a method of operating a bi-directional communication system between a plurality of communication devices, which comprises at least one communication controller and a plurality of nodes including a first node. The method includes periodically broadcasting a beacon signal from said communication controller at a broadcast interval via a channel of a first host. The beacon signal contains a first address of the communication controller. The method further includes periodically scanning the beacon signal on the first host by the first node. Upon detecting of the beacon signal by the first node, the first node transmits an identification payload to the communication controller. Upon receipt of the identification payload by the communication controller, an acknowledgement signal is transmitted to the first node.
US09959429B2

Methods and systems for masking certain cryptographic operations in a manner designed to defeat side-channel attacks are disclosed herein. Squaring operations can be masked to make squaring operations indistinguishable or less distinguishable from multiplication operations. In general, squaring operations are converted into multiplication operations by masking them asymmetrically. Additional methods and systems are disclosed for defeating DPA, cross-correlation, and high-order DPA attacks against modular exponentiation.
US09959427B2

An information determination apparatus includes a first storage unit configured to store stream data pieces obtained in time sequence; a first determining unit configured to determine whether the number of stream data pieces stored in the first storage unit is at least equal to a predetermined value; and a second determining unit configured to determine, when the number of the stream data pieces stored in the first storage unit is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, whether an individual can be identified based on a dataset composed of a plurality of the stream data pieces stored in the first storage unit, and output the dataset used for the determination and the determination result.
US09959426B2

A method and an apparatus for specifying a time-varying, intelligent service-oriented model are provided. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions, includes defining information of a service which is to be provided to one or more users having access to a system storing the defined information. The method further includes defining policies associated with the defined information to allow and deny access to selected portions of the defined information, and exposing to a user of the one or more users the selected portions of the defined information based on the defined policies allowing access to the selected portions of the defined information.
US09959417B2

A technique for preventing selected sets of data words from unauthorized transmission out of the secure perimeter of a computer system is disclosed. A set of security rules is applied to an outgoing data message and if one of the set of rules is triggered, at least a portion of the message is transmitted to a central server that is within the secure perimeter, for scanning by another set of security rules. The central server then sends a security command back to the remote device, which executes the security command before transmitting the outgoing message out of the secure perimeter of the computer system.
US09959411B2

Identifying security vulnerabilities on computing devices by detecting an inter-process communication on a computing device, determining whether the inter-process communication is consistent with a predefined specification of a security vulnerability, and causing a predefined action to be performed on the computing device responsive to determining that the inter-process communication is consistent with a predefined specification of a security vulnerability.
US09959404B2

Computer-implemented methods and systems for creating or updating approved-file and trusted-domain databases and verifying the legitimacy of files are disclosed. A method for creating or updating an approved-file database may include intercepting a first file, identifying a source domain associated with the first file, identifying a trusted-domain database, determining whether a database record for the source domain associated with the first file exists within the trusted-domain database, creating a hash value for the first file if a database record for the source domain associated with the first file exists within the trusted-domain database, and storing the hash value for the first file in an approved-file database. Methods and systems for verifying the legitimacy of a file and for creating or updating a trusted-domain database are also disclosed.
US09959403B2

The communication device sends an authentication code (N) to a semiconductor memory to instruct the semiconductor memory to authenticate the communication device. The semiconductor memory authenticates the communication device based on the authentication code (N), and if the communication device is determined to be valid, sends an authentication code (N+1) to the communication device to instruct the communication device to authenticate the semiconductor memory in response to the authentication code (N). The communication device authenticates the semiconductor memory based on the authentication code (N+1).
US09959402B2

An MFP sets an access condition for an external device with respect to a cloud box. The access condition is transmitted from the MFP to a relay device, and is registered in a memory of the relay device. When the relay device receives an access request made by the external device with respect to the MFP serving as an internal device, the relay device determines whether to permit or deny access to the MFP by comparing the access request with the access condition. When the access is permitted, the access request is transferred from the relay device to the MFP, whereas when the access is denied, the relay device notifies the external device of it.
US09959396B2

System and methods for obtaining digital multimedia files from a server based on optically scanned digital rights management information tag imprinted on physical media is described. A greeting card or gift card can be provided with indicia containing a code printed thereon. Then the code can be optically scanned by client device. The code can then be provided by the client device to a remote server for retrieval of multimedia files identified by the code if the code authorizes multimedia file retrieval from the remote server by the client device. Then the client device retrieves multimedia files identified by the code from the remote server following authorization of multimedia file retrieval by the remote server based on the code.
US09959390B2

A medical modeling system and method predict a risk of a physiological condition, such as mortality, for a patient. Measurements of a plurality of predictive variables for the patient are received. The plurality of predictive variables are predictive of the risk of the physiological condition. The risk of the physiological condition is calculated by applying the received measurements to at least one model modeling the risk of the physiological condition using the plurality of predictive variables. The at least one model includes at least one of a hidden Markov model and a logistic regression model. An indication of the risk of the physiological condition is output to a clinician.
US09959385B2

Embodiments are provided for securely messaging healthcare entities. In one scenario, a computer system receives an input from a user indicating that a message including text or other characters is to be securely transmitted to a specified healthcare entity. The message is part of a conversation between a user and the specified healthcare entity. The computer system encrypts the characters of the message using at least one encryption algorithm, so that the message is encrypted during the transfer from the user to the specified healthcare entity. The computer system then initiates transmission of the encrypted message such that the encrypted message is sent to the specified healthcare entity. Throughout the process, the encrypted message is transferred in accordance with legal regulations governing healthcare communications.
US09959382B2

A method, system, and computer program product to characterize and adaptively instantiate timing abstracts to perform timing analysis of an integrated circuit include generating an adaptable timing abstract for one or more macro models of a macro, the macro including two or more primitives of a component of the integrated circuit, the adaptable timing abstract being a parameterized timing model with at least one aspect represented by two or more models, and estimating requirements for the timing analysis, the requirements including accuracy, runtime, or memory requirements. Selecting a specific timing abstract, obtained by setting parameters of the adaptable timing abstract, is to perform the timing analysis based on the requirements.
US09959379B2

Aspects of the disclosed technology relate to techniques of design implementation for FPGA prototyping. An initial FPGA-mapped netlist and a generic RTL design associated with the initial FPGA-mapped netlist are generated based on an original RTL (register-transfer level) design for a circuit design and optionally on verification-related features. Based on the initial FPGA-mapped netlist, the circuit design is partitioned into design partitions for implementing the circuit design across a plurality of FPGA chips. Final FPGA-mapped netlists are then generated based on the design partitions represented by the generic RTL design or by a combination of the generic RTL design and the initial FPGA-mapped netlist.
US09959374B2

Disclosed is an atmospheric information network comprised of a group of low earth orbit satellite-based sensors providing global coverage of the earth, together with one or more ground-based sensor networks, together with one or more mobile sensor networks, all operating to collect near-real-time or real-time data, together with data gathering from other governmental and commercial atmospheric data sources, together with software algorithms and processes for data reduction, data analysis, correlation of information, data fusion, modeling, reporting of near-real-time or real-time atmospheric conditions of air pollution and wind, and prediction of future atmospheric conditions of air pollution and wind. Such information is presented in geospatial and infographic formats on computer or mobile device displays, or electronic billboards.
US09959370B2

A method includes receiving a plurality of design files at a computer-based system, wherein each of the design files is indicative of a respective structural design and a structural value associated with the respective structural design, causing a three-dimensional representation of at least a portion of the structural designs to be displayed to a user, causing a cost value to be displayed to the user for each of the displayed structural designs, receiving a user selection of a first structural design of the displayed structural designs, generating an additive manufacturing file indicative of the first structural design in a predefined format, wherein the predefined format enables the processing of the additive manufacturing file into a physical structure through an additive manufacturing process, and transmitting the selected first structural design in the predefined format.
US09959369B2

Modeling is provided in three-dimensional simulation. Proxies are used as virtual rigid bodies to create (22) reusable part files. A custom physics object is defined (22) in the part file using the proxy to allow for control of object behavior, such as control of the rate of spinning of a spindle of a motor. By overriding (28) the part file with the proxy, links to up or owner part files may be made. Changes to physics properties in the different instances of proxies may be made without requiring or resulting in the same change to the other instances. The proxy acts as a virtual rigid body that may or may not move during simulation. The proxy body may be replaced with a rigid body from the assembly when both reference the same geometry object.
US09959366B2

A computer-implemented method for managing data objects stored in a data repository and displaying elements associated with data objects on a graphical user interface is presented. The method includes using reusable logic to provide at least one displayed input element associated with a first data object stored in the data repository. In response to user input associated with the displayed input element, the method includes generating a second data object stored in the data repository, and linking the second data object with one or more related data objects in the data repository automatically based on the data object associated with the displayed element.
US09959349B1

Trending content items from the user's social network(s) are provided in the form of one or more channel(s) or a guide. Various social networks of the user may be analyzed and the trending content may identified and sorted based on one or more of popularity, availability, etc. The trending content items may be updated automatically and/or dynamically to reflect any changes in trends based on spikes in discussions, like/dislike feedback, etc. The trending content items may be personalized based on the user's social networks and may differ for various user profiles within the same household.
US09959342B2

Techniques for online information search and retrieval for a query including a digital audio waveform. In an aspect, an audio waveform is received and digitized by at least one of a plurality of audio input devices. The digitized audio waveforms are transmitted to a central processing unit, which formulates and submits a query to an online engine. The formulated query may include the at least one digital audio waveform. The online engine retrieves one or more online results relevant to the formulated query. The online results may include one or more relevant visual results, and/or one or more relevant audio results. The retrieved results are served in real-time back to a user, via a device having audio output capability, and/or a device having visual data output capability.
US09959334B1

Techniques described herein include a system and method for aggregating multiple data streams related to a drone mission event into a single data stream. In this disclosure, a service provider may receive multiple data streams from various data sources in either real time, post facto, or a combination of the two. The data streams may be synchronized and combined using multiplexing techniques. Additionally, one or more observers are provided with the capability to append log entries to the data streams at particular time markers. In some embodiments, the time markers associated with a log entry may be updated at a later time to more accurately reflect events.
US09959332B2

In one embodiment, a method includes determining a number of initial servers in a massively parallel processing (MPP) database cluster and determining an initial bucket configuration of the MPP database cluster, where the initial bucket configuration has a number of initial buckets. The method also includes adding a number of additional servers to the MPP database cluster to produce a number of updated servers, where the updated servers include the initial servers and the additional servers and creating an updated bucket configuration in accordance with the number of initial servers, the initial bucket configuration, and the number of additional servers, where the updated bucket configuration has a number of updated buckets. Additionally, the method includes redistributing data of the MPP cluster in accordance with the updated bucket configuration.
US09959328B2

Free-form text in a document can be analyzed using natural-language processing to determine actionable items specified by users in the text or to provide recommendations, e.g., by automatically analyzing texts from multiple users. Words or phrases of the text can be mapped to classes of a model. An actionable item can be determined using the mapped words or phrases that match a selected grammar pattern. Items can be ranked, e.g., based on frequency across multiple documents. In some examples, the classes can include a suggestion-indicator class or a modal-indicator class, and the selected grammar pattern can include one of those classes. In some examples, the mapping can use a dictionary. A new term not in the dictionary can be automatically associated with classes based on attributes of the new term and of terms in the dictionary, e.g., the new term's part of speech or neighboring terms.
US09959326B2

Methods and systems for determining schema element types are shown that include pooling potential annotations for an element of an unlabeled schema from a plurality of heterogeneous sources, scoring the pool of potential annotations according to relevancy using information using instance information from the plurality of heterogeneous sources to produce a relevancy score, and annotating the element of the unlabeled schema using the most relevant potential annotations.
US09959324B2

A method to search for at least one relationship pattern in a plurality of runtime artifacts is provided. The method may include detecting at least one data manipulation statement in the plurality of runtime artifacts. The method may also include extracting at least one relationship clause from the detected at least one data manipulation statement. The method may further include parsing the extracted at least one relationship clause. The method may include generating at least one normalized syntax tree based on the parsed at least one relationship clause. The method may also include performing a classification and a snippet discovery on the generated at least one normalized syntax tree.
US09959322B1

A search result is modified to include a predetermined number of channels within a predetermined number of a plurality of entries in the search result. The search result is generated in response to a search query. The search result is modified to comprise a predetermined number of channels within a predetermined number of the plurality of entries. The modified search result is updated based on the plurality of entries and a subset of the updated modified search result is selected to be presented in response to the search query. The subset of the updated modified search result comprises the channel and at least one selection of data content.
US09959321B2

In one embodiment, a search request is received from a first user, the request including the first user's location. A set of search results and their corresponding geographic locations are determined in response to the search request. For each search result, a weighted rating value is determined based on user ratings provided by one or more second users, an affiliation coefficient between the first user and each second user providing a user rating, and a proximity coefficient based on the distance between the first user's location and the geographic location of the search result. The search results are ranked by their respective weighted rating values and sent to the first user.
US09959318B2

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, identifying a nodes corresponding to a page currently accessed by a first user, generating one or more structured queries, where each structured query comprises a reference to the identified node and one or more edges that are connected to the identified node, and transmitting one or more of the structured queries to the first user for display on the page.
US09959317B2

In some examples, a computing device may be configured to simulate the deduction process of human mind by generating new data based on existing data and newly received data that is semantically relevant to the existing data.
US09959306B2

A method for processing a dataset in a partitioned distributed storage system having data stored in a base table and an index stored in an index table, may include receiving base and index table metadata from the partitioned distributed storage system, where the base and index table metadata includes respective table partition information. The method may further include partitioning the dataset into a set of base-delta files according to the base table metadata, and generating a set of index-delta files corresponding with the base-delta files according to the index table metadata. The method may additionally include updating the partitioned distributed storage system with the set of base-delta and the set of index-delta files, where a first update of the base table is synchronous with a second update of the index table.
US09959305B2

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for annotating structured data for search. Aspects of the invention include associating structured data, such as, for example, tables, with additional content to improve indexing of the structured data for search and/or provide improved search results for structured data. Web pages can include tables as well as other content. The other content in a web page, such as, for example, content outside the and
tags of a web table, can be useful in supporting searches for web tables. Content in one web page can also be useful in supporting searches for a table in another web page.
US09959304B2

The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for generating NER dictionaries from structured business data. In one example, a method may include identifying a set of structured data for use in generating a NER dictionary, identifying a particular collection within the identified structured data to use in the dictionary generation, the particular identified collection including a plurality of values, identifying at least one variant of the value for each value in the particular identified collection, each of the at least one variants of the value including at least a portion of the underlying value, determining a set of unique variants from the identified at least one variants across each of the values in the particular identified subset, adding the determined set of unique variants to the generated dictionary, each unique variant added to the generated dictionary being associated with the value from which the unique variant was derived.
US09959294B2

Devices, systems, and methods obtain lists of image identifiers from multiple image repositories; organize the image identifiers in the lists of image identifiers into an image queue, thereby generating an image queue that includes image identifiers from multiple image repositories; and obtain a first image that is identified by a first image identifier in the queue, wherein the first image is obtained from a first image repository of the multiple image repositories. The devices, systems, and methods also add the first image to a display, obtain a first input from a user interface, remove the first image from the display, and change a storage location of the first image based on the first input. And the devices, systems, and methods obtain a second image that is identified by a second image identifier in the queue and add the second image from the image queue to the display.
US09959293B2

A computer-implemented method includes displaying, within a user interface, a view pane having a vertical direction and a horizontal direction, displaying, within the view pane, a plurality of poster frames, each poster frame representing a corresponding media item, a first poster frame being displayed as positioned in a first row extending across the event view pane in the horizontal direction such that the first poster frame is displayed substantially adjacent to a first vertical edge of the event view pane and subsequent poster frames are displayed substantially adjacent to one another in the first row until a poster frame in the first row is displayed substantially adjacent to a second vertical edge of the event view pane, and displaying a next poster frame in a second row vertically displaced from the first row. Photographs in a poster frame can be previewed by moving a cursor across the poster frame.
US09959280B1

Systems and methods are provided herein for garbage collecting data previously tiered to cloud storage. A cloud object index can be generated and used to track objects stored in cloud storage. As objects within cloud storage are added or modified, the transactions can be tracked and the cloud object index can updated based on the activity. Expiration dates associated with cloud objects can be maintained in the cloud object index factoring in user defined retention periods, process defined retention periods for services like backup and snapshots, and regulatory defined retention periods depending on the type of data being tiered. Upon a determination that no active processes are linking to a cloud data object, that an expiration date has been met, and other custom factors, cloud objects can be removed from cloud storage permanently.
US09959278B1

A method for performing block-level incremental backups of file system volumes using a pseudo device layer of a volume manager. A driver associated with a snapshot backup program is configured to back up the full pseudo disk upon receipt of a backup request, and not automatically performed upon startup. Incremental backups are performed thereafter using a driver that has been modified to include a monitor that tracks writes during backups. The standard I/O routine of the kernel is overwritten with an I/O routine that tracks write operations. The volume manager is called back to perform the incremental backup operations upon each write operation. The going down routine of the kernel is also overwritten to track any updates to the volume manager. If the volume manager is updated, the data structure is cleared and future backups are performed from a subsequent full backup.
US09959275B2

The disclosed techniques that can use deduplication information on a source computer platform to improve the process of performing data backups or restoration from/to the computer platform. In one example aspect, a data backup operation can re-use some of the work already done by a source computer's deduplication system. For example, a storage operation could read a deduplication database on the source computer platform to determine the duplicativeness of a given data chunk being transferred to a backup storage system, without having to perform computations such as data chunk hashing and comparison with previously generated hashes. The technique may additionally or alternatively reuse hashes generated by the source computer during deduplication of the data file on the source computer's file system during deduplication at the external backup storage system.
US09959272B1

A translation server computer and related methods are described. The translation server computer is programmed or configured to create computer-implemented techniques for classifying segments in a source language as non-translatable into a target language, nearly-translatable into the target language, or otherwise, and for generating translations in the target language for the segments classified as nearly-translatable. The translation server computer is further programmed or configured to apply the computer-implemented techniques on an input document to generate a classification and a translation when appropriate for each segment in the document, and cause a user computer to display the translations and classifications.
US09959271B1

Technologies are disclosed herein for statistical machine translation. In particular, the disclosed technologies include extensions to conventional machine translation pipelines: the use of multiple domain-specific and non-domain-specific dynamic language translation models and language models; cluster-based language models; and large-scale discriminative training. Incremental update technologies are also disclosed for use in updating a machine translation system in four areas: word alignment; translation modeling; language modeling; and parameter estimation. A mechanism is also disclosed for training and utilizing a runtime machine translation quality classifier for estimating the quality of machine translations without the benefit of reference translations. The runtime machine translation quality classifier is generated in a manner to offset imbalances in the number of training instances in various classes, and to assign a greater penalty to the misclassification of lower-quality translations as higher-quality translations than to misclassification of higher-quality translations as lower-quality translations.
US09959264B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to processing forms submissions in a portal environment and provide a method, system and computer program product for independently refreshing a forms submission in a portal view. In one embodiment, a system for independently submitting forms in a portal view can include a portal server configured to render a portal view and a portlet aggregator coupled to the portal server. The portal aggregator can be configured to provide portlet markup for different portlets in the portal view where at least one of the different portlets includes a visible form includes one or more form elements.
US09959248B1

Methods, systems, and computing system program products for iteratively calculating Simple Linear Regression (SLR) coefficients for Big Data, including iteratively calculating one or more components of SLR coefficients for a modified computation set based on one or more components of SLR coefficients calculated for a pre-modified computation set and then calculating the SLR coefficients for the modified computation set based on the iteratively calculated components. Iteratively calculating SLR coefficients avoids visiting all data elements in the modified computation set and performing redundant computations thereby increasing calculation efficiency, saving computing resources and reducing computing system's power consumption.
US09959241B2

An accessory device architecture is described. In one or more implementations, data is received from an accessory device at an integrated circuit of a computing device, the data usable to enumerate functionality of the accessory device for operation as part of a computing device that includes the integrated circuit. The data is passed by the integrated circuit to an operating system executed on processor of the computing device to enumerate the functionality of the accessory device as part of the integrated circuit.
US09959240B2

A configurable rack server backplane that provides either two-lane or four-lane PCIe bus connections at each the individual drive bays supported by the backplane. The backplane may be configured to provide each drive bay with a two-lane PCIe connection or a four-lane PCIe connection based on the selection of cable connectors that are provided by the backplane. The backplane may be re-configured to distribute the bandwidth of a sixteen-lane PCIe bus connection among four drive bays, each using four-lane PCIe links or among eight drive bays, each using two-lane PCIe links. The backplane may additionally support tiered distribution of the PCIe bus connection bandwidth, such as two-lane PCIe links for certain drive bays and four-lane PCIe links for other drive bays. Each two-lane and four-lane PCIe link provided by the backplane is comprised of consecutively numbered PCIe lanes of the PCIe bus connection.
US09959237B2

A system-on-chip including non-hopping bus interfaces and a hopping bus. The non-hopping bus interfaces include a first non-hopping bus interface and a second non-hopping bus interface. The first non-hopping bus interface is configured to, based on a first protocol, receive information. The hopping bus includes intra-chip adaptors. The intra-chip adaptors are connected in series and respectively to the non-hopping bus interfaces. The intra-chip adaptors are configured to (i) according to a second protocol, convert the information into a first format for transmission over the hopping bus, and (ii) transfer the information in the first format over the hopping bus and between the intra-chip adaptors. The second protocol is different than the first protocol. The second non-hopping bus interface is configured to receive the information from the hopping bus based on the transmission of the information over the hopping bus.
US09959226B2

A communication interface couples a transmission circuit with an interconnection network. The transmission circuit requests transmission of a predetermined amount of data. The communication interface receives data segments from the transmission circuit, stores the data segments in a memory, and verifies whether the memory contains the predetermined amount of data. In the case where the memory contains the predetermined amount of data, the communication interface starts transmission of the data stored in the memory. Alternatively, in the case where the memory contains an amount of data less than the predetermined amount of data, the communication interface determines a parameter that identifies the time that has elapsed since the transmission request or the first datum was received from the aforesaid transmission circuit, and verifies whether the time elapsed exceeds a time threshold. In the case where the time elapsed exceeds the time threshold, the communication interface starts transmission of the data stored in the memory.
US09959223B2

Embodiments of a method and system are disclosed. One embodiment of a method for signaling an interrupt in an I2C system that includes a master I2C device and at least one slave I2C device that are connected by an SDA line and an SCL line is disclosed. The method involves, at the slave I2C device, pulling the SDA line low to signal an interrupt and at the slave I2C device, releasing the SDA line in response to either the SCL line having been pulled low or the expiration of a predetermined time period, whichever occurs first. In an embodiment, the predetermined time period is 1 ms.
US09959222B2

A first state of an interconnect protocol is entered. A particular signal is sent according to the protocol to a device over a link. During the first state, it is detected that a response to the particular signal is received in the first state. It is determined that the device supports a configuration mode outside the protocol based on the received response. The configuration mode is entered based on the response. One or more in-band configuration messages are sent within the configuration mode.
US09959208B2

A multi-processor computer system with shared memory resources includes a first plurality of sensors configured to acquire inertial and positional data related to a mobile platform. The system further includes a first plurality of co-processors having a hardware logic configured to control the acquisition of the inertial and positional data and configured to analyze the acquired data. The system also includes a second plurality of sensors configured to acquire input data related to the mobile platform connected to a second plurality of co-processors having a hardware logic configured to receive a plurality of streams of input data from the second plurality of sensors and configured to segment the input data into a plurality of discrete data segments. The system also includes a plurality of hardware processing units configured to perform calculations related to the input data using the plurality of data segments.
US09959202B2

A computing memory includes an execution unit and an access processor coupled with a memory system, where the execution unit and the access processor are logically separated units. The execution unit is for processing operand data. The access processor is for providing operand data and configuration data to the execution unit. The access processor reads operand data from the memory system and sends the operand data to the execution unit. The execution unit executes the operand data according to the provided configuration data. The access processor includes information about execution times of operations of the execution unit for the provided configuration. The access processor reserves time-slots for writing execution unit results provided by the execution unit into selected locations in the memory system based on the information about the execution times, upon sending at least one of the operand data and the configuration data to the execution unit.
US09959198B1

A definition for the API is received. A request and response model is built for each defined operation of the API resource using the received definition. A simulated response for each defined operation of the API resource is generated in an API development environment according to the request and response model.
US09959197B2

Techniques for automated bug detection. A set of inputs are collected and a snapshotting feature is used to apply each input to a test application. Outputs from the test application are gathered and compared to determine whether the outputs are associated with bugs. Comparison can be done with one or more of many different techniques that quantify difference between outputs associated with test inputs and outputs associated with a “happy path input.” Outputs can be grouped together based on these quantifications and the groups can be used to identify outputs most likely to be associated with bugs. The output groups may also be used to group associated inputs to the set of inputs to be used for testing in the future. When a bug is identified, a report could be automatically generated that includes a scoring value as well as recorded output information and could be presented to a user.
US09959196B2

A computer device may include logic configured to provide a centralized library for descriptive programming and other types of object descriptions to a testing script engine. The descriptive programming library may store test object descriptions for test objects associated with an application under testing. The logic may be further configured to provide a unification layer over all the object description types and to provide inheritance among the objects at the unification layer. The logic may be further configured to store a test object description, associated with a test object, in the descriptive programming library; identify a reference to the test object in a descriptive programming statement associated with the testing script engine; access the stored test object description in the descriptive programming library based on the identified reference to the test object; and identify an application object, associated with the application under testing, based on the stored test object description.
US09959191B2

A dynamic library profiling method and a dynamic library profiling system including writing a first break point instruction at a start address of a dynamic library function, recording a first event count value that is a process performance management unit (PMU) count when a target process executes the first break point instruction, writing a second break point instruction to a return address of the dynamic library function, and calculating a PMU count generated in a processor core while the dynamic library function is executed, by comparing the recorded first event count value with a second event count value that is a process PMU count when the target process executes the second break point instruction, wherein the process PMU count is a cumulative value of PMU counts generated in the processor core while the target process is executed.
US09959189B2

[Problem] To provide a server monitoring device capable of grasping the state of a server more rapidly than conventional ones, and a server monitoring system. [Solution] This server monitoring device has a configuration in which a plurality of optical fibers are optically coupled to a plurality of light-emitting elements each showing the operating state of a server by a lighting mode, and the end surfaces of the plurality of optical fibers on the opposite side to the light-emitting elements are secured in a predetermined arrangement. An image of a light emission pattern of the end surfaces of the optical fibers is captured by a camera, and the image is transmitted to a monitoring person.
US09959187B2

An embodiment provides a method, including: in a system, determining a set of processes which run at system boot; monitoring the processes at system boot for system resource utilization; categorizing processes of the set of processes based on said monitoring; and changing a start time during boot of at least one process based on said categorizing. Other aspects are described and claimed.
US09959184B2

An input/output (I/O) line test device and a method for controlling the same are disclosed, which may relate to a technology for testing a base die having no cell using various patterns. The I/O line test device may include an interface controller configured to perform signal transmission/reception between a pad and an input/output line (IOL), and a signal transceiver configured to perform signal transmission/reception between the IOL and a through silicon via (TSV). The I/O line test device may include a latch unit configured to latch output data of the signal transceiver, and a test controller configured to output a control signal for controlling whether the signal transceiver performs a reception operation in response to a write enable signal and a test signal.
US09959174B2

A method and system are provided for storage checkpointing in a mirrored virtual machine system. The method includes a storage controller receiving a modifying operation to storage from a virtual machine and carrying out the modifying operation in a non-destructive manner by saving the modifying operation data to a checkpointing region of storage and preserving the stored previous data state. The method also includes receiving a checkpoint notification and committing modifying operation data from the checkpointing region and releasing the stored previous data state. If a failover notification is received, the storage controller rolls back the physical storage to match a checkpoint state.
US09959171B2

Apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable a computer system comprising networked computers to self-heal from a boot failure of one of the computers. In some embodiments, upon detecting a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device failing to successfully load a boot image, a second computer defines a virtual boot device in communication with the first computer and the second computer and having a boot image for the first computer. Subsequent to defining the virtual boot device, the second computer can configure the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device.
US09959166B2

Techniques for encoding data for non-volatile memory storage systems are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method including determining whether the memory includes a defective memory cell, receiving a message to be written to the memory, sub-dividing the message into a plurality of sub-messages, generating a first error correction code for the sub-messages, the first error correction code being a first type, generating a plurality of second error correction codes for the sub-messages, the second error correction codes being a second type different from the first type, generating a combined message comprising the sub-messages, the first error correction code, and the plurality of second error correction codes, and writing the combined message to the memory, at least a portion of the combined message being written to the defective memory cell.
US09959159B2

A method, computer program product, and system for dynamic relational integrated intelligent monitoring and problem resolution of systems is provided. An IT environment is monitored for a first symptom. The first symptom is a malfunction of at least one component of a plurality of components. In response to determining a first measurement deviates from a reference value, a first component is determined to be the cause component. In response to determining a monitoring tier of the cause component is activated, a plurality of measurements is determined for the plurality of components. A component with the greatest number of activated monitoring tiers is identified and compared to the cause component. Probe data for the plurality of components is collected. A probe ripple is determined, based on one or more components affected by the malfunction. A root cause of the first symptom is reported.
US09959156B2

One embodiment provides a system that facilitates processing of error-condition information associated with a content-centric network (CCN) message transmitted over a network. During operation, the system receives, by a first node, a packet that corresponds to a CCN message, where a name for the CCN message is a hierarchically structured variable length identifier (HSVLI) which comprises contiguous name components ordered from a most general level to a most specific level. Responsive to determining that the CCN message triggers an error condition, the system generates an interest return message by pre-pending a data structure to the CCN message, where the data structure indicates the error condition. The system transmits the interest return message to a second node.
US09959155B2

Testing a data coherency algorithm of a multi-processor environment. The testing includes implementing a global time incremented every processor cycle and used for timestamping; implementing a transactional execution flag representing a processor core guaranteeing the atomicity and coherency of the currently executed instructions; implementing a transactional footprint, which keeps the address of each cache line that was used by the processor core; implementing a reference model, which operates on every cache line and keeps a set of timestamps for every cache line; implementing a core observed timestamp representing a global timestamp, which is the oldest construction date of data used before; implementing interface events; and reporting an error whenever a transaction end event is detected and any cache line is found in the transactional footprint with an expiration date that is older than or equal to the core observed time.
US09959153B2

A method of assisting failure diagnosis in a system includes obtaining data including a probabilistic Bayesian Network describing a set of failures, a set of symptoms and probabilities of at least some of the symptoms being associated with at least some of the failures in a system. A cost value representing a cost associated with learning of a presence or absence of the symptom is obtained for at least some of the symptoms, as well as a plurality of information values, e.g. values representing measures of information gained by learning of the presence or absence of the symptom in relation to a respective plurality of the failures, associated with the symptom. The method then computes an information-for-cost value for the symptom based on the cost value and the plurality of information values.
US09959151B2

A system and method for providing delegated metric tools within a partially closed communication platform that includes receiving a tag identifier linked to at least a first identified platform interaction in the communication platform; associating the tag identifier with at least one logged event of an account associated with the first identified platform interaction; defining a tracking resource with at least one tag identifier; measuring platform interactions tracked by a tracking resource; and providing access to measured platform interactions through an application.
US09959148B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and a device for estimating optimal resources for server virtualization. The method comprises receiving input data relating to requirements of server virtualization from a user device. The method further comprises filtering the input data by applying filtering rules. The method further comprises generating current landscape information of a plurality of servers using the filtered input data. The method further comprises determining values of virtualization parameters for a plurality of target servers using the current landscape information and predefined rules. The method further comprises determining landscape information of the plurality of target servers using the current landscape information and the values of virtualization parameters for estimating optimal resources for server virtualization.
US09959144B2

Systems and methods for optimizing hardware resource utilization when processing variable-precision data are provided. Application data objects are processed using either a central processing unit (CPU) or the relatively lower precision data processing requirements of a dedicated math processing unit, e.g., a graphics processing unit (GPU), based on a level of precision determined for each application data object. The level of precision is used to calculate at least one bounding value for each application data object. The bounding value is compared to a selected precision threshold in order to determine whether the application data object can be processed by the GPU at a relatively lower level of precision without an undesirable loss of computational precision.
US09959138B1

Embodiments presented herein disclose adaptive techniques for scheduling self-maintenance processes. A load predictor estimates, based on a current state of a distributed storage system, an amount of resources of the system required to perform each of a plurality of self-maintenance processes. A maintenance process scheduler estimates, based on one or more inputs, an amount of resources of the distributed system available to perform one or more of the self-maintenance processes during at least a first time period. The maintenance process scheduler determines a schedule for the one or more of the self-maintenance processes to perform during the first time period, based on the estimated amount of resources required and available.
US09959126B2

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes an integrated circuit such as a system on chip that operates in part from harvested power and that uses information about power harvesting conditions to alter a power-on sequence or boot sequence based on that information. In some embodiments, a method uses information about power harvesting and energy harvesting conditions to alter a power-on sequence or boot sequence.
US09959124B1

In an embodiment, a system includes a functional unit that remains powered when the remainder of the system is powered off. The functional unit may, in response to a transition from a first power state to a second power state, retrieve configuration information from a read-only memory. In some embodiments, may be configured to store at least a portion of the configured information in a secure portion of a memory included in the functional unit and then lock the secure portion of the memory. The functional unit may then complete the transition to the second power state.
US09959123B2

An approach is provided is provided in which a computing system matches a writeback instruction tag (ITAG) to an entry instruction tag (ITAG) included in an issue queue entry. The writeback ITAG is provided by a first of multiple load store units. The issue queue entry includes multiple ready bits, each of which corresponds to one of the multiple load store units. In response to matching the writeback ITAG to the entry ITAG, the computer system sets a first ready bit corresponding to the first load store unit. In turn, the computing system issues an instruction corresponding to the entry ITAG based upon detecting that each of the multiple ready bits is set.
US09959121B2

A register file bypass controller in communication with a set of one or more bypass registers, the register file bypass controller configured to receive a register file bypass request; determine whether to grant the register file bypass request; determine whether data identified by the register file bypass request is present in the set of one or more bypass registers in response to determining to grant the register file bypass request; determine a selected bypass register in the set of one or more bypass registers in response to determining the data identified by the register file bypass request is not present in the set of one or more bypass registers; determine to store the data identified by the register file bypass request in the selected bypass register; and notify an execution unit to cancel instruction execution associated with the data identified by the register file bypass request.
US09959109B2

A physical security system that includes multiple server nodes may be upgraded by receiving an upgrade installation package from a client and propagating the installation package between at least two of the server nodes. One of the server nodes (“source server”) receives the installation package from the client and another of the server nodes (“requesting server”) requests and receives the installation package from the source server. To transfer the installation package from the source to the requesting server, the source server notifies the requesting server that the installation package is present at the source server, the requesting server then sends the source server a request for the installation package, and the source server then sends the installation package to the requesting server in response to the request. The requesting server may then be upgraded by running the installation package.
US09959101B2

External references are resolved in a software compiling and linking environment by identifying a group of related external references and by processing the group of external references until a stopping condition is satisfied. The external references are processed by selecting a next external reference from the group of external references as a current external reference and by resolving the current external reference with a matching definition if a matching definition for the current external reference exists. The stopping condition is designated as being satisfied if either the selected external reference is resolved, or if each external reference in the group of external references has been selected.
US09959089B2

The present invention relates to a mobile audio player, comprising memory means adapted to store music data and non-music data, input means adapted to receive a user input with user preferences, radio program generating means adapted to generate, without a connection to an external entity, an individualized radio program from stored music data and non-music data depending on user preferences input via the input means, and audio output means adapted to output audio signals representing a generated radio program.
Patent Agency Ranking