US07677574B1
A game assembly and method of adding additional randomness to a game that uses a deck of cards during play. The deck of cards contains event cards that cause players to perform certain actions if drawn during the play of the game. A random selection device is provided. The random selection device utilizes indicia that correspond to the event cards and/or some new event activity. The random selection device embodies a means to randomly select a single indicia from the plurality of indicia being used. At least one card is added to the deck of cards that indicates that the selection device is to be used. Accordingly, when the card is drawn, the random selection device is utilized. The game is played as if the card indicated by the random selection device had been drawn from the deck of cards.
US07677571B2
A game apparatus is disclosed. The game apparatus comprises a rotatable wheel having a display surface divided into fifty-four concentric areas including indicia of fifty-two standard playing cards and indicia of two joker playing cars with stopping pegs disposed between each of the indicia of fifty-two standard playing cars and the indicia of two joker playing cards. The rotatable wheel is rotatably mountable to a stationary wheel having at least three tangs. the game apparatus also comprises a horizontal playing surface used in conjunction with the rotatable wheel. The horizontal playing surface has a main playing area divided into six columns of nine plots including indicia of fifty-two playing cards and indicia of two joker playing cards and a plurality of vetting areas disposed on at least three borders of the main playing area.
US07677569B2
A card game simulative of automobile track racing comprises a deck of cards having several categories of cards, including lap cards, offensive pit cards, defensive pit cards, sponsor cards, and a draft card, a die for determining a track condition for each round of play, and a method for keeping score to determine the order of finish for each player. The rules of the game closely simulate auto track racing with each player utilizing the cards in a strategic manner based upon certain track conditions and that approximates the strategic decisions an actual auto track racer makes during a race.
US07677562B2
A paper guide up unit pivotally supporting a transport driven roller making contact with a transport driving roller is provided so as to be able to be displaced by the rotation of cams. The angle α made by a straight line passing the rotation axis line position of the transport driving roller and the rotation axis line position of the transport driven roller when viewed from the paper transport pathway side and a straight perpendicular to the paper transport direction is changed by the displacement of the paper guide up unit. Control means for controlling the displacement operation of the paper guide up unit reduces the angle α before the paper back end is passed through the nip point of the transport driving roller and the transport driven roller.
US07677561B2
A transport roller is provided in a transport path in order to transport paper, the transport roller transporting the paper downstream in the transport path by making contact with the paper, and At least one contact portion that makes contact with the paper is provided in the transport roller. The contact portion is deformable in a direction that releases pressing force received from the paper when transporting the paper.
US07677557B2
The sheet discharging apparatus for discharging sheets to a stacking portion by a discharging portion, including an opening/closing member openable and closable with respect to a main body of the apparatus; a lever member rotatably provided on the opening/closing member above the stacking portion and capable of taking a suspended posture by an own weight of the lever member in a position where the opening/closing member is closed; and a delay mechanism which delays a rotation of the lever member toward the suspended posture caused by the own weight of the lever member, when the opening/closing member is shifted from an open position to a closed position. It can be prevented from being caught by the sheet when the upper cover is opened and closed.
US07677556B2
A holding member is rotatably axially supported to the apparatus main body, holds the sheet feeding unit to a rotational edge, and moves the sheet feeding unit to one of a sheet feeding position and a standby position and a gear train. By transferring the rotation of the opening/closing operation of the feed tray to the holding member through the gear train so that the sheet feeding unit is moved along with the opening/closing operation of the feed tray.
US07677554B2
A recording medium transfer apparatus includes a motor control unit for controlling the motor to rotate at higher speed when the recording medium is fed to the liquid ejection area than that when the recording medium is discharged out of the liquid ejection area, and a feed control unit for controlling a next recording medium to be fed simultaneously with discharge of the recording medium, if a position of a rear end of the recording medium when recording or printing has been finished is situated upstream of a predetermined position, which is upstream of the discharge roller as much as a distance between a feed start position of the recording medium and the liquid ejection area, whereas controlling the next recording medium to start to be fed after discharge of the recording medium has been finished, if the position of the rear end of the recording medium when recording or printing has been finished is situated downstream of the predetermined position.
US07677547B2
A holder of an apparatus for individually separating flat items from stacks comprises a first separating structure for individually separating outer flat items from one of the stacks at one end of the holder and a second separating structure for individually separating outer flat items from another stack at the opposite end of the holder. At least one urging member is at least partially positioned between the two separating structures for urging at least one of the stacks in the holder towards one end of the holder. A method for separating flat items from two stacks in a holder is also described.
US07677546B2
A banknote acceptor and dispenser uses a stacked configuration of the validator the banknote accumulator and dispenser and the banknote cassette. The banknote path is relatively short to avoid bill misalignment by providing the banknote accumulator and dispenser in the intermediary position.
US07677544B2
A booklet-loading device includes: a carry-out unit that conveys plural of booklets sequentially; and a transfer unit that transfers the plural of booklets sequentially conveyed from the carry-out unit, and arranges the plural of booklets in a partly overlapped state; a loaded unit that is loaded with the booklets transferred by the transfer unit; and a transfer control unit that controls a transfer amount per booklet in the transfer unit to a transfer amount depending on a quantity of booklets loaded on the loaded unit.
US07677534B2
A decorative fencing system is provided for use as a small fence or decorative accent for a yard. The fencing system comprises several different structural components that may be joined in various combinations so as to create a limitless number of different configurations or arrangements. The components include base units, decorative end units and gate units, each of which may be attached to the other components in any combination thereof. Each of these components are attached to post sections which are inserted through post rings or post hinges on the individual components to thereby allow for each component to be rotated to the desired position relative to the post section. The post sections are secured to the ground by means of stakes that are first driven into the ground and the post section is then inserted into a sleeve in the stake to thereby provide support and stability for the fencing system. A separate and smaller pin is provided on the end units to anchor these components to the ground.
US07677529B2
An electromechanical valve assembly for controlling oxygen flow from a compressed oxygen source in an aircraft includes: a valve housing, an inlet, an outlet, a passageway allowing flow of oxygen from the inlet to the outlet, a spring-biased conical poppet movable within the passageway; a spring-biased pressure regulating piston engagable with the conical poppet to maintain it in an open position, a push rod engagable with the conical poppet to maintain it in a closed position, and a movable seat in the passageway that engages the conical poppet to regulate gas flow through the passageway. Actuation of an electric motor assembly to cause the seat to move upward results in closing of the valve assembly and shutting off of the oxygen flow. Actuation of the motor assembly to cause the seat to move downward results in opening of the valve assembly and regulation of the oxygen flow.
US07677526B2
An apparatus and method for manual operation of an actuator is disclosed. A mechanical override includes a housing coupled to the actuator, a drive ring, and a shaft extending through a bore of the housing. The drive ring rotationally keys to the bore such that the drive ring is capable of axial movement within the bore in response to automatic operation of the actuator. A backstop limits axial movement of the drive ring during manual operation. A thread located on an external portion of the shaft threads to the drive ring. In the manual operation, the shaft rotates through the drive ring imparting axial movement to the shaft capable of moving a valve between a first position and a second position. The override provides visual indication of the valve position during both automatic and manual operation. The backstop may be an insert that selectively permits movement of the shaft to a failsafe position in response to a temperature or pressure change.
US07677525B2
A vegetation attachment device for supporting plant limbs is used in combination with an overhead support member, such as the horizontal support wire of a trellis system used to support grape vines. Embodiments of the device generally comprise an attachment hook configured to engage the overhead support wire, a closing hook, a catch member for engaging the closing hook, a deformable limb containment structure, and biasing means for maintaining the engagement of the closing hook to the catch member. The deformable limb containment structure deforms to accommodate limited lateral deflection or growth in the vine or plant limb. Embodiments of the disclosed apparatus may be used instead of currently known devices, such as wire ties, for supporting vines and branches.
US07677515B2
An extension arm apparatus is provided for mounting devices such as flat panel monitors above a workspace. The apparatus includes upper and lower channels connected to a pair of endcaps. One endcap may connect to the workspace and the other endcap may connect to an extension arm or the to device to be mounted. At least one of the channels includes a reinforcement structure providing additional support to the apparatus. The reinforcement structure is tapered. A forearm extension may also include a reinforcement structure. The endcaps may have interior spacers that provide clearance for the sidewalls of the channels, which may be fabricated without parting lines.
US07677513B1
Coil/helix shaped stands and methods of using and installing the stands that can be wrapped about elongated supports. The stands can have looped holders for supporting objects such as planters and pots, off ground level. The looped holders can be adjustable so as to remain level with different size diameter elongated supports. The stands can be aesthetically pleasing and attractive and be easy to assembly and mount. The stands are easily removable. Additionally, the coil stands can support other objects such as tables, flagpoles and umbrellas.
US07677512B1
A rough-in bracket is provided consisting of a border with a central opening sized to fit one or more receptacles and one or more low voltage units. The bracket has a snap-off alignment bar to properly align the receptacle. Rearward protruding wiring flanges provides support for low voltage wires and cabling. Another embodiment has a removable via plastic nubs alignment tool snapped on and is snapped into the mounted receptacle to allow the border to be screwed into the stud. Then the alignment tool is removed. Screw in bases in the forward flange of the border provide a mount for a low voltage unit, whereby a single plastic cover can esthetically cover both the receptacle and the low voltage unit.
US07677481B2
The inventive device for electrostatically projecting a coating product comprises a spray gun provided with voltage increasing means for producing a high direct voltage for a product electrostatic charge, wherein said spray gun is provided with a controllable valve for controlling an atomizing air flow inside the spray gun in the direction to a spraying head. A pressure sensor integrated into the spray gun is used for detecting the atomizing air pressure (P) representative value downstream of the valve and for delivering a signal (S1) for controlling the power supply of the voltage increasing means. Said invention makes it possible to control the power supply of the voltage increasing means according, in particular, to the signal (S1) received from the sensor.
US07677480B2
For those spray applications that use a fluidic oscillator of the type that generates a spray by having a pressurized liquid flow through the oscillator and exhaust into a surrounding environment, and where such an oscillator has a boundary surface which has fabricated into it a channel in the form of what is referred to herein as fluidic circuit, an improved enclosure for this oscillator includes: a body having an interior and an exterior surface, wherein a portion of this interior surface is configured to attach to the oscillator boundary surface so as to form with the oscillator's channel an enclosed pathway through which the to-be-sprayed liquid may flow, and wherein a segment of this interior surface is configured so as to yield specified properties of the resulting spray.
US07677462B2
A non-conductive carrier having a conductive component comprising a plurality of sections to disrupt the conductive component's conductive path. Each section is isolated from other sections such that a charge accumulated in one section cannot combine with the charge accumulated in another section, thereby minimizing any potential electrostatic discharge from the carrier.
US07677459B2
A dual-sided smart card reader, and method for operating the same, is disclosed. The dual-sided smart card reader permits the simultaneous insertion of at least two different smart cards from opposing sides. The dual-sided smart card reader may additionally include a biometric verification device, such as a fingerprint scanner, for comparing biometric information from an operator of the reader to biometric information stored on a smart card. Also, the dual-sided smart card reader may additionally include a pulse monitor, such as a sensor, to detect a pulse of an operator of the reader.
US07677457B2
Described is a method and system for barcode decoding. The method comprises receiving an input signal corresponding to a reflection of light from a bar code. The input signal is divided into a predetermined number of segments. Each segment includes a plurality of samples. Each of the segments is represented using at least one of the samples therefrom. At least one sample from each segment is analyzed to determine a location the bar code within the input signal.
US07677456B2
An information reader includes an object reading unit for reading an image of an object and obtaining the image as image data, an object data obtaining unit for analyzing the image data and obtaining object data as data contained in the object itself, a state data obtaining unit for obtaining state data indicating a state of the object during object image reading operation to read an image of the object, and an identifying unit for identifying predetermined processing by using as identification data the object data and at least one of the state data. The information which is obtained when an object is shot and which is meaningless in the conventional techniques can be effectively used. Therefore, the quantity of overall information can be increased without adding new hardware to the information reader.
US07677453B2
A system and method for buying tickets for games or lotteries in which a seller receives predicted game or lottery outcome data communicated from a buyer over a communication path. The seller generates a printed ticket based on the received outcome data and the seller transfers the printed ticket to a custodian that holds the printed ticket on behalf of the buyer. The custodian transmits data relating to the printed ticket to the buyer over the communication path and notifies the buyer if the printed ticket corresponds to an actual game or lottery outcome.
US07677452B2
A method for identifying a machine and/or machine component includes storing an algorithm for generating a machine signature value associated with the machine and/or machine component. The method also includes receiving a first set of machine data from the machine and/or machine component. The machine data reflects at least one operational characteristic of the machine and/or machine component. The method also includes generating, using the algorithm, a first machine signature value based on the first set of machine data, storing the first machine signature value, and accessing the stored first machine signature value to verify the identity of the machine and/or machine component.
US07677444B2
A banking system controlled by data bearing records. The system includes an automated banking machine (10) including a card reader (16) operative to read identifying data from user cards. The identifying data is used authorize operation of the automated banking machine. The banking machine includes a user interface (15). The user interface includes a card reader, receipt printer opening (30), cash dispensing opening (38), and deposit accepting opening (40). Multicolor light emitting devices (17, 31, 41, 43) are adjacent to and associated with a respective location where a user interacts with a particular transaction function device of the machine. One or more machine controllers (64) are selective to control the output color and duration of each light emitting device responsive to programming associated with the controller and an operative condition of the associated transaction function device.
US07677437B2
The present invention relates to a method, applied in a mobile device, for determining operational settings of the device. Country information is retrieved on the device. An operational setting of a function, such as an output signal format, is automatically determined based on the country information.
US07677436B2
A presence server stores a presence that is identified by presence IDs “a1” and “a2”, as the presence of a user “A”. User “A” can pass a card that they hold through a card reader at a timing of their choosing. The card reader reads in data from the card and transmits a renewal request to the presence server. The renewal request includes a renewer ID, an object ID, category information and the presence. When the presence server receives the renewal request, it specifies the presence ID “a1” of user “A” to be the presence that is to be renewed, based on the category information, and moreover, rewrites the presence of the presence ID “a1” to a presence “meeting room A” that is included in the renewal request. Thus, the card reader can renew the presence designated by the “category information”. As for the presence that is renewed, it is notified to a watcher of the presence “a1” from the presence server.
US07677430B2
A welded metal product includes a first metal plate having a first surface and a second surface opposed to the first surface; and a second metal plate being cold-pressure welded with the second surface of the first metal plate by directly pressing the first metal plate with the die. The first surface has a recess portion which is deformed by directly pressing with a die. A hardness of the first metal plate is greater than a hardness of the second metal plate.
US07677429B2
An improved wire bonding capillary used in the bonding of wires to the bond pads of a semiconductor device and the leads of a lead frame, the wire bonding capillary having a working tip having a working surface including a flat annular portion surrounding the wire feed aperture in the capillary and a concave surface extending therefrom to the intersection with the radius extending from the external tip diameter of the working tip.
US07677411B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products flowably process dry powders using a non-linear vibratory signal individualized or customized to a target dry powder undergoing processing to facilitate fluidic flow through a flow channel.
US07677401B2
A method is disclosed for controlling a crane which comprises a boom that may be raised or lowered by angular adjustment of the boom about a base portion of the crane. The method prevents operation of the crane in an undesired condition by continuously monitoring operation of the crane, including monitoring at least the position of the boom with respect to the base of the crane. If the crane approaches a limit of its operating range or any operational parameter, its operation will be controlled so as to selectively prohibit or permit a boom raising operation of the crane, depending on the cause of the condition, rather than uniformly prohibit such an operation.
US07677398B2
The invention provides a process for improving the antifouling properties and for increasing the selectivity of commercial composite polyamide nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes comprising circulating a low concentration of water soluble monomers and an initiating redox couple in an aqueous solvent, without transverse pressure over the surface of the membrane thereby effecting a free-radical graft polymerization on the surface of the membrane.
US07677397B2
Discloses a mined ore processing apparatus to process mined ores, such as oil sands ore, into granular material. An ore processor bed receives the ore to be processed. The ore processor bed has a frame supporting several rotating elements each separately driven to provide independent rotation rate and direction from the other. The ore processing bed is operable as a sizing device to decimate mined ore supply into granular material and separating it from rocks and other large lump mineral materials found in situ. The ore processing bed may be oriented to provide an upward inclination, which, when combined with alternating rotating element rotation directions, provides a crushing action to the ore material to crush larger rock. Alternately, a rock crusher is also provided to disintegrate oversized materials.
US07677387B2
A carrier for holding a plurality of containers. The carrier has panels that extend at least partially around an interior of the carrier. The panels comprise at least one bottom panel, a front panel, a back panel, and at least two side panels. A divider flap is foldably attached to the back panel and the front panel. The side panels, the back panel, the divider flap, and the front panel are arranged to at least partially define at least two container-receiving spaces of the interior.
US07677385B2
A cleaning device for a conveyor belt for installation essentially transverse to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt. The cleaning device comprises a supporting structure (3) adapted to hold the cleaning device in place transverse to the conveyor belt (2), the cleaning device covering essentially the whole width of the conveyor belt (2) and consisting of a plurality of individual scraper segments (1′), each of which consists of a body having a scraping face (4), which scraping face (4) rests against the conveyor belt (2). The scraping face (4) on each of the segments (1′) is elastically connected to the supporting structure (3), the number of segments (1′) is relatively great and all the segments are covered by a flexible material.
US07677379B2
An optical sensing device for detecting plural optical features of valuable papers is provided that comprises first and second photocoupers 5 and 6 or 9 and 10 positioned in the vicinity of and on the opposite sides of a passageway 13 for guiding the valuable paper 64. Each of first and second photocouplers 5 and 6 or 9 and 10 has a light emitting element 20, 22, 30, 32 for emitting a light, and a light receiving element 21, 23, 31, 33 for selectively receiving the light from the light emitting element 20 so that each light receiving element 21, 23, 31, 33 can receive lights reflected on and penetrating the valuable paper 64 for detection of multiple optical features from the valuable paper 64. Thus, the optical sensing device can derive plural optical scanning patterns by means of less number of light emitting and receiving elements to improve accuracy in valuable paper validation; can pick out optical patterns for different colors printed on valuable paper by means of plural lights of different wavelength irradiated on a same scan line or area on valuable paper; and can utilize inexpensive light emitting and receiving elements to reduce cost for manufacture.
US07677376B2
An electromagnetic frictionally engaged clutch provided with a rotor part including a friction lining. An electrical coil and a first permanent magnet are arranged on the rotor part. The clutch also includes an armature disk which is connected to a second shaft and can be displaced in a rotationally fixed manner, but axially from a coupled end position to an uncoupled end position. The coil of the clutch is enabled to be current-free both in the coupled state and in the uncoupled state. To this end, a second permanent magnet is provided for exerting an axial force opposing the magnetic force of the first permanent magnet on the armature disk.
US07677368B2
An apparatus for controlling the coning in a brake rotor in which the brake rotor comprises a central rotor portion, a first set of mounting members connected to the central rotor portion and an inboard friction section and a second set of mounting members connected to the central rotor portion and an outboard friction section where the inboard and outboard friction sections are connected by a plurality of air directing structures. A channel comprising the first set of mounting members, the second set of mounting member and the plurality of air directing structures is provided.
US07677367B2
In an electric brake of the present invention, a plunger of an actuator is connected through a pin to a pivot arm to which an engaging pawl engageable with a tooth portion of a ratchet is pivotably attached. A lower surface (a force-receiving portion) of the pin is adapted to receive an upward force which is applied by a tool inserted through a bolt hole threadably engaged with a watertight bolt. When the parking brake is operated (the engaging pawl is engaged with the tooth portion of the ratchet), if supply of current to the coil becomes impossible, the pin is moved upward by means of the tool, to thereby separate the engaging pawl from the tooth portion. Therefore, an emergency action to release the parking brake can be manually conducted.
US07677352B2
A process for steering a motor vehicle having a superimposition steering system, in which a steering angle input by the driver and an additional angle (supplemental angle) are detected, and in which the steering angle input can be superimposed with the supplemental steering angle in accordance with additional values, particularly driving dynamic values, by a superimposition actuator, such as an electrical motor, and can be superimposed by a superimposition gear in order to adjust a resulting steering angle. A value for a gear input angle of the superimposition gear is determined in accordance with the resulting steering angle of the steering system and in accordance with a value that is directly dependent on the supplemental steering angle or describes the supplemental steering angle.
US07677351B2
An electrohydraulic steering system includes a steering unit, triggerable via a user control element, for supplying a steering motor with pressure fluid. As a function of the actuation of the user control element or as a function of an external signal, the steering motor can be supplied with an additional quantity of pressure fluid via a steering valve. A blocking valve is located in the flow path of the additional pressure fluid and can be put in a blocking position in order to block the flow path of the additional pressure fluid to the steering motor.
US07677347B2
A motorcycle shock system has a shock body formed at least partially of aluminum and an air compressor that provides pressurized air to the shock body when necessary. A piston held within the shock body defines a rear air chamber and a forward air chamber on the opposite side of the piston. Four electrically controlled air valves include a first air valve that when actuated opens a passage to allow air to flow into the forward chamber, a second air valve that when actuated opens a passage to allow air to flow out of the forward chamber to the atmosphere, a third air valve that when actuated opens a passage to allow air to flow out of the rear air chamber, and a fourth air valve that when actuated opens a passage to allow air to flow into the rear air chamber.
US07677336B2
A portable drilling device for use in horizontal boring through a substrate beneath an impediment includes a motor mounted on an inclined stabilizer bar. The inclined stabilizer bar includes a handle for use by the operator of the drilling unit which allows the operator to guide the unit during operation. A shaft is operatively mounted on the motor and is rotatably carried by the stabilizer bar. The shaft is in turn attached to an auger which is rotatably carried within a bearing housing assembly that is attached to the inclined stabilizer bar at a predetermined angle. A skid shoe is mounted underneath the shaft-auger attachment point and is attached to both the housing and the inclined stabilizer bar, whereby, when the motor is engaged the shaft and the auger are rotated in order to bore a horizontal opening through the substrate beneath an impediment such as a sidewalk or driveway.
US07677316B2
A method and apparatus useful for fracturing subterranean formations with ultra high fluid pressure. The apparatus is capable of producing isolated pressure in a formation surrounding a primary wellbore, sufficient pressure is included within the formation for creating a fracture at the edge of the perforation. The apparatus is comprised of a motor, pump, and nozzle, where the entire apparatus can be disposed within the borehole. The apparatus can be conveyed within the borehole via wireline, coil tubing, slickline, or other tubing. Alternatively, a drill bit can be included for creating the perforation just prior to the fracturing procedure.
US07677315B2
The present invention provides a method of generating an acid downhole that comprise providing a degradable surfactant; introducing the degradable surfactant into a well bore that penetrates a subterranean formation; and allowing at least a portion of the degradable surfactant to degrade, thereby releasing an acid. Also provided are methods of degrading an acid-soluble component present within a subterranean formation, and methods of reducing the viscosity of a viscosified treatment fluid.
US07677299B2
A nearly isothermal heat pipe heat sink is provided. The heat sink includes a flat heat pipe connected to one or more flat vapor chambers using a conduit and a heat pipe. The connected flat heat pipe and the flat vapor chambers form a common vapor domain. Fins are attached on the outer surfaces of the flat heat pipe and the flat vapor chambers. Various capillary structures are also provided for fabricating flat heat pipes. A panelized welding process is further provided for fabricating flat heat pipes or flat vapor chambers. The panelized welding process uses either friction stir welding (FSW) or plasma beam welding to transversely join the panels that form the flat heat pipes or the flat vapor chambers.
US07677298B2
A jointing structure of a heat dissipating fin, disposed on an upper level edge and a lower level edge of each fin body of the heat dissipating fin, comprises at least one hole or more on each of the level edges, at least one lock tab or more on the fin body of the heat dissipating fin corresponding to the hole, and the lock tab is formed by directly folding the fin body instead of extendingly disposed from the upper and lower level edges. More than one protrusion is disposed on each of the lock tabs. The protrusions on the lock tabs of the upper and lower level edges in a previous fin body are coupled into the corresponding holes of the upper and lower level edges in a next fin body, so as to join multiple heat dissipating fins integrally and stably.
US07677296B2
An endodontic file (200) is provided particularly adapted for the removal of tooth structure, decayed or damaged nerve tissues or dentine material on the interior walls of a root canal or dentine and/or enamel from the external tooth wall. The endodontic instrument includes a shaft (202) having a shank portion (204) and a generally elongated working portion (206). The working portion preferably includes cutting or abrading features (232) adapted upon rotation and/or reciprocation of the instrument to cut, abrade or remove tissue from the interior walls of a root canal or dentine and/or enamel from the external tooth wall. The working portion extends from a proximal end (207) adjacent the shank portion to a distal end (208) terminating at a tip (250). The entire instrument and/or at least the working portion thereof is formed of an amorphous or essentially amorphous material having no or essentially no detectable crystalline structure and/or from a nanocrystalline material having an average crystalline grain size less than about 1 μm. The instrument may be formed by conventional grinding operations or by direct casting, forging or molding, in a manner producing an integral as-molded instrument having one or more sharp cutting edges. The instrument is inexpensive to manufacture and exhibits improved cutting-edge sharpness, wear resistance, lubriciousness and resistance to breakage.
US07677294B2
An end mounting for supporting the roller of a cover for an architectural opening, the end mounting including a main body of substantially constant cross-section extending axially from a proximal end for mounting adjacent an architectural opening to a distal end for insertion into an end opening of a roller. A slider is mounted in the main body at an axial location towards the proximal end of the main body and is movable between a retracted position wholly within the cross-section of the main body and an extended position in which at least part of the slider protrudes outside the cross-section of the main body. With the slider in the retracted position, substantially all of the main body can be inserted into the end opening of the roller and, with the slider in the extended position, the main body is prevented by the slider from being inserted into the end opening of the roller beyond the slider.
US07677292B1
A tool for pulling a first and second tire bead off of a wheel assembly. The tool is inserted between the bead to be removed and the rim edge, and engages the bead to be removed with a grappling structure and pulls the bead over the rim edge by a linear drive assembly disposed inside a tubular structure affixed to the grappling structure. Simultaneously an angled stay is positioned on the rim which is pressed in an opposite direction of the pulling motion. A second embodiment pulls the rim from a second bead of a tire. A hook is inserted between the rim edge and the second tire bead and hooks onto the lower rim edge. A linear drive assembly provides a pulling motion to pull the rim over the second bead, while a push plate simultaneously pushes the tire side wall in an opposite direction from the pulling motion.
US07677290B2
The present invention relates to a cleaning device (5) to be used in a preimpregnated carbon fiber placement machine including at least one guiding roller (47) for guiding a band (21) of tows to an application head (25), comprising two filtering elements (11, 13) arranged such that a band (21) of tows supported by two plates (15, 17) joined with adjustable clamping means (29) for said filtering elements (11, 13) and means of fixing/separating them to/from said machine, circulates between them. The invention also relates to a preimpregnated carbon fiber placement machine with at least one cleaning device (5).
US07677286B2
The present invention provides a tire/wheel assembly and a run-flat core, which enable reduction of a cavity resonance generated in a case where the run-flat core is inserted into a cavity formed between the pneumatic tire and a rim of a wheel. In the tire/wheel assembly of the present invention, the run-flat core is inserted into a cavity formed between the pneumatic tire and the rim of the wheel, the run-flat core includes a pair of elastic rings which are disposed on the rim respectively along bead portions of the pneumatic tire, and a circular shell which stretches between the elastic rings and extends in the tire circumferential direction. A sound absorbing member is provided to the circular shell.
US07677283B2
An apparatus that offers a simple method for using tools on a workbench without permanently mounting or positioning all of them at one time. The apparatus consists of a two individual interlocking components. There is a rectangular shaped metal base plate milled on the top, which allows for easy mounting of most bench tools to the base plate. A tool mounting plate is attached, one per tool, to the bottom of the tool in a predetermined manner enabling the user to change tools when needed without losing time changing the mounting plate. The tool mounting plate is designed with overhanging side edges that interlock with the base plate onto which it slides. The base plate is designed so that the protruding outer edges permit the tool mount to slide onto and into the base plate for secure positioning of the two plates together. The base plate is bolted to the worktable. A cam lock arrangement is used to hold the mounting plates securely in place until ready for removal.
US07677279B2
A tree harvester head comprises a drive wheel, a delimb knife, a pin, a wheel-mounting inner sleeve to which the drive wheel is mounted, and a knife-mounting outer sleeve to which the delimb knife is mounted. The wheel-mounting inner sleeve surrounds the pin for rotation of the wheel-mounting inner sleeve and the drive wheel mounted thereto about the pin. The knife-mounting outer sleeve surrounds the wheel-mounting inner sleeve for relative rotation therebetween for rotation of the delimb knife about the pin.
US07677276B2
A funnel includes a funnel body, and a narrow stem portion connected to a lower portion of the funnel body, with a half-closed damper having an elastic engaging opening being formed on a top of the funnel body. Alternatively, the funnel includes a funnel body and a narrow stem portion connected to a lower portion of the funnel body, with an elastic engaging opening and a half-opened baffle being formed at an upper portion of the funnel body at two opposite positions. In the latter case, the elastic engaging opening includes two inward curved clamping arms, and a vertical slit is formed between the two clamping arms to downward extend to the funnel body. With the elastic engaging opening, the funnel can be used with liquid containers having differently sized spouts. And, with the half-closed damper or the half-opened baffle, liquid being poured into the funnel is prevented from spilling.
US07677272B2
An insulating apparatus for use with vacuum insulated tubing sting to reduce heat loss through the joints, where the apparatus includes an insulator adapted to surround the joint and a latching joint protector adapted to surround the insulator and hold the insulator against the joint, where the protector also includes a channel for receiving injection and/or control tubing. The insulator is capable of reducing heat loss through the joints of a vacuum insulated tubing string by as much as 95%.
US07677268B2
A fluid distribution system for controlling the operation of a swimming pool cleaning device includes a housing having an inlet for receiving a supply of pressurized fluid, a plurality of outlet openings and a valve chamber between the inlet and outlet openings. The housing has at least one compound cylinder having two portions with different bore diameters for slideably accommodating therein a mating stepped piston. Each portion of the compound cylinder fluidly communicates with pressurized water in the valve chamber via associated fluid pathways. The larger cylinder is vented by a relief valve actuated by a fluid driven cam that periodically opens and closes the relief valve. When the relief valve is closed, the pressure within the large cylinder pushes the piston to a first position which effects the opened/closed status of a port, e.g., allowing one of the outlets to communicate with the pressurized water in the valve chamber. When the relief valve is opened, the pressure within the larger cylinder is reduced, allowing the pressure in the smaller cylinder to push the piston to a second position which effects the opened/closed status of the port and/or opens another port to allow the pressurized fluid to be discharged through another outlet.
US07677250B2
The present application is directed to an adjustable seat having a hard, firm surface designed to treat hemorrhoids. The hard, firm surface of the seat is designed to place positive pressure on the area surrounding a hemorrhoid so as to develop a negative pressure within the body which causes the body to draw the hemorrhoids back up into the body. Many seats on the market today for hemorrhoids are designed simply to alleviate the symptoms that are associated with hemorrhoids and not treat the condition. In contrast to the seat of the present invention, these seats are usually soft cushioned seats designed to support hemorrhoids that protrudes from the anus or the surrounding area so as to reduce discomfort.
US07677247B2
A breathable air safety system and method having at least one fill site is disclosed. In one aspect, a method of safety of a mine structure is disclosed. A prescribed pressure of an emergency support system is ensured to be within a threshold range of the prescribed pressure by including a valve of the emergency support system to prevent leakage of breathable air from the emergency support system. The prescribed pressure of the emergency support system is designated based on an authority agency that specifies a pressure rating of the breathable air apparatus. An air extraction process is expedited from the emergency support system by including a RIC (rapid interventions company/crew)/UAC (universal air connection) fitting to a fill panel to fill a breathable air apparatus.
US07677245B2
A helmet for artificial respiration without the aid of tracheal tubes comprises a container body (12), having at least a transparent portion (14) and in which a patient's head can be housed, and a collar for air-tight application to the patient's neck, which consists of at least a rigid ring (15, 15′), equipped with a series of gas administration connection and accessory-holder fittings (17), said rigid ring (15, 15′) being the only part of the helmet (10) connected to the outside when operating, wherein an opening (31) is present on the container body (12) for rapid access to the patient, which is substantially hermetically closed by rapid coupling elements (32).
US07677243B2
A solar heating system for a building and other architectural structures including a solar heating system. The solar heating system comprises a solar heating module with an enclosure of panels bounding a plenum. An interior panel is disposed inside the enclosure. A collector panel, which is separated from the interior panel to define a heating chamber, is exposed to, and heated by, solar radiation. Outside air enters the heating chamber though passages in the collector panel, where the air is heated by heat transferred from the collector panel. An air-moving device is coupled with an air outlet from the plenum. The air-moving device applies a negative pressure in the heating chamber effective for drawing the outside air through the passages into the heating chamber and for withdrawing the heated air from the heating chamber through a delivery opening to the plenum for subsequent removal through the air outlet.
US07677238B2
A combustion furnace includes a blower housing with a centrifugal blower impeller disposed therein and plural heat exchanger tubes disposed substantially around a major portion of the periphery of the impeller. The heat exchanger tubes receive combustion gasses from plural burner nozzles and discharge combustion gasses to a plenum in communication with a motor driven inducer gas pump. The integrated blower housing and heat exchanger may be disposed in a cabinet including support structure for a fuel delivery manifold, associated burner nozzles and forming air inlet and outlet openings for air being circulated by the blower.
US07677237B2
A combustion furnace includes a blower housing with a centrifugal blower impeller disposed therein and plural heat exchanger tubes disposed substantially around a major portion of the periphery of the impeller. The heat exchanger tubes receive combustion gasses from plural burner nozzles and discharge combustion gasses to a plenum in communication with a motor driven inducer gas pump. The integrated blower housing and heat exchanger may be disposed in a cabinet including support structure for a fuel delivery manifold, associated burner nozzles and forming air inlet and outlet openings for air being circulated by the blower.
US07677236B2
Certain embodiments of a nozzle are configured to dispense a first gas, liquid, or combination thereof at a first pressure in a first mode of operation and dispense a second gas, liquid, or combination thereof at a second pressure in a second mode of operation. In some embodiments, the nozzle is integrated in a heat-producing device, such as, for example, a heater, a fireplace, or a stove. In some embodiments, the heat-producing device including the nozzle can operate with a first combustible fuel at a first pressure, or alternatively, can operate with a second combustible fuel at a second pressure. In some embodiments, the nozzle is used in applications other than heat-producing devices.
US07677218B2
A seal for an engine is disclosed. The seal may include a cylinder head gasket. The seal may also include a cylinder head having a top surface and a bottom surface, the bottom surface of the cylinder head attached to the cylinder head gasket. The seal may also include a plurality of adjacent openings extending through the cylinder head, from the top to the bottom surface. The seal may further include one or more elongated slots in the bottom surface of the cylinder head, the one or more slots being located between at least two of the adjacent openings and extending between the openings. The seal may also include filler material filling each of the elongated slots.
US07677212B2
A hydraulic circuit comprises a temperature sensor, an added motion valve system, and a valve. The temperature sensor detects operating temperature of fluid in the hydraulic circuit. The added motion valve system includes a valve body having an actuator fluid volume. The valve adjusts flow rate quantity of fluid to the actuator fluid volume as a function of the operating temperature of the fluid. A method for controlling the hydraulic circuit is also disclosed.
US07677208B2
The present invention is directed to a rotary engine power transmission system for use in vehicular as well as other applications. The power system includes a rotary engine or pump, which may be pneumatic or hydraulic in configuration. The power system includes components whose purpose is to convert rotational force into pneumatic or hydraulic pressure where that same fluid pressure can be reconverted back into rotational force. This conversion can be from a source to a driven component, or from the driven component back to the same source for use, for example, in vehicular applications for use. One purpose in a vehicular specific application is to convert rotational source energy into rotational power at the vehicles wheels, for acceleration, and to reverse this process to recapture deceleration losses.
US07677205B2
An alley for processing animals such as cattle or buffaloes is described which includes a pair of spaced-apart alleys at the entrance end of the alley and a single alley at the exit end of the pair of alleys at the entrance end of the alley. The outer side walls of the alleys are easily adjusted to vary the width thereof thereby enabling the alley to accommodate animals of different sizes. Rear-up prevention device mechanisms are also provided in each of the alleys to prevent the animals from raring up and falling over backwards. The alley may be either portable or stationary.
US07677198B2
A method and apparatus are provided for growing a composite metal sulphide photcatalyst thin film, wherein photochemical deposition and chemical bath deposition are both performed for growing the composite metal sulphide thin film, such as (AgInS2)x/(ZnS)2(1-x), wherein x is 0-1.
US07677193B2
A cover for a hatch lid or similar structure of a boat provides a secure, custom fit but is easily replaceable and maintainable. The cover includes a sheet of material having a periphery sized approximately to fit over a hatch lid of a boat and a securing feature including an elastic band extending along a portion of the periphery of the sheet, configured to securely couple the sheet of material to the hatch lid. The cover also includes a first corner strap and a second corner strap located on an underside of the sheet of material configured to fit over respective corners of the hatch lid.
US07677186B2
An apparatus for manufacturing multilayer articles, comprising a first feeder for feeding a band made of textile material, a punching device arranged downstream of the first feeder to form slots in the band, a second feeder for feeding a strip of textile material arranged downstream of the punching device to arrange the strip so as to cover the slots, a sewing apparatus arranged downstream of the second feeder to fix the strip onto the band so as to cover the slots and provide a multilayer article, and a traction assembly arranged downstream of the sewing apparatus to actuate the advancement of the article through the sewing apparatus toward a collection unit.
US07677181B2
An interlocking precision flexible rail system for carrying a positionable machine tool employs a first rail element having a first step on a lower surface extending from a first end to a termination at a predetermined length and a second rail element having a mating step on an upper surface extending from a second end to receive the first step. A pair of first clips is removably affixed to a top surface of the first rail element adjacent the first end with a first pin and to the second rail element with a second pin in each clip. A pair of second clips is removably affixed to a bottom surface of the second rail element adjacent the second end with a third pin and to the first rail element with a forth pin in each clip. Alignment holes to receive the pins have tolerances defined in conjunction with the predetermined length of the step, the length of the step allowing a reduced tolerance. The first and second pairs of clips and associated pins laterally secure the rail elements in mated engagement.
US07677174B2
In a method for cleaning an anilox inking unit, a doctor bears against a roller and an intermediate roller bears against the roller and on an engraved roller. During cleaning, the intermediate roller has been or is displaced axially. Because the intermediate roller can be displaced axially, edge regions of the engraved roller can also be cleaned during a cleaning operation.
US07677173B2
In the case of a blanket holding rail for the releasable attachment of a blanket (12) on a printing mechanism roll comprising two holding limbs (13a and 13b) having an elongated configuration, and joined together by way of a back portion (14) and between which the blanket (12) may be clamped and be so fixed by means of additional securing means that the blanket (12) is secured to avoid its being pulled out athwart the longitudinal direction of the rail, the additional securing means are constituted by a claw means (16), which digs into the material of the blanket on clamping the blanket (12) in position.
US07677172B2
An ink pad container for a self-inking stamp that is filled with ink by the top thereof at a pressure. The stamp has a housing and a stamping unit which is connected to an actuating element, movably arranged in the housing and provided with stamping characters. The ink pad container has a bottom and side walls projecting away therefrom. In use, horizontally arranged recesses are provided along a length of two lateral opposite side walls of the ink pad container and cooperate with continuous guiding and centering projections in an insertion compartment of the self-inking stamp to define precise guiding and centering of the ink pad container during its insertion.
US07677171B2
The machine comprises at least a printing cylinder (4), an inking cylinder (5) and a chain gripper transporting system (2,3) with grippers (17). The printing cylinder (4) comprises at least one transversal pit (7) for receiving said chain gripper system (3) such that the inking cylinder (5) inks the planar object (1) while said object (1) is held by said chain gripper system (3).
US07677170B2
The present invention relates to a device for placing and removing a doctor blade in a printing screen cylinder mounted on a printing machine having a support mounted on the frame of the machine in the continuation of the cylinder, and a track mounted on the support and designed to allow a slider to move parallel only to the axis of the cylinder between a first limit position situated outside of the cylinder and a second limit position situated inside the cylinder facing the working position of the doctor blade.
US07677162B2
A deep fat fryer able to quickly cook food items, in about one-third to one-half of a typical cook time in the art for corresponding food items, includes a high powered, preferably high efficiency heating unit utilized to establish a cooking oil temperature in the order of about forty or more degrees Fahrenheit above a typical cook time, while preferably remaining lower than or equal to 410° F. A controller regulates the heat input from the heating unit so as to keep the temperature of the oil from dropping drastically after a product to be fried is placed in the oil for cooking. The amount of cooking oil employed is minimized. A sensing arrangement is utilized to input sensed operating conditions to the controller in order to maintain a desired operating temperature and oil level.
US07677158B2
A beverage maker is provided that allows a user to make a brewed beverage or dispense hot water. Various sealing and latching mechanisms are further provided for effectively sealing the brewing chamber under pressure. A mechanism is provided for reducing splashing when relatively short vessels are positioned beneath the brewing chamber.
US07677148B2
The present invention relates to methods and devices for cutting produce, such as onions and other vegetables. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and devices for minimizing exposure to noxious and irritating gasses that are emitted from certain freshly cut produce, such as the syn-propanethial-S-oxide gas that is emitted by freshly cut onions. In certain preferred embodiments of the invention, a device is provided for cutting onions, which comprises (i) an open-ended container that is adapted to hold a liquid and (ii) a slicer that is capable of cutting onions when submerged in the liquid that is housed within the container.
US07677146B2
Cutting tool using one or more machined tool tips in a continuous or interrupted cut fast tool servo
A cutting tool assembly having a tool post capable of lateral movement along a work piece to be cut and an actuator with at least one machined tool tip and possibly other tool tips. The actuator provides for control of the movement of the tool tip in an x-direction into and out of the work piece in order to make continuous or discontinuous microstructures in it. The machined tool tip provides for microstructures within microstructures. The machined work piece can be used to make microstructured articles such as films having non-adjacent lenslets.
US07677144B2
An improved brake drum and method for machining and balancing a brake drum are provided. The inner facing surface and the outer facing surface of the brake drum are machined. The inner and outer faces of the hub end of the brake drum are also machined. The machining is accomplished in a single operation that results in a radially balanced brake drum.
US07677143B1
An impact tool will fit around a fastener such as a nut or bolt head. The tool has an annular section with an outside and an inside surface encircling the central axis of the fastener. The outside surface has at least one recess with a striking surface and guide surface. The striking surface lies in a plane intersecting the central axis. With the annular section placed around the fastener, the striking surface intersects a predetermined radial projection from the central axis. The striking surface is struck at a right angle to the predetermined radial projection to turn the nut or bolt head.
US07677141B1
A padded spring clamping device for making hand-crafted jewelry and similar activities comprising removable padded jaws and adjustable clamping force, is herein disclosed. The padding is of a closed-cell and chemical-resistant foam applied thereto the removable jaws in order to provide a soft covering that will protect fine jewelry, wood, or other items held within the jaws. The padding further provides increased frictional gripping ensuring that an item of varying size and shape is held with little or no movement.
US07677138B2
A ratchet screwdriver includes a handle, a ratchet, a shaft, a finger ring and a tool. The handle has a body having a receiving chamber and a front through hole. The receiving chamber is formed in the body and communicates with the front through hole. The ratchet is mounted securely in the receiving chamber and has a driving protrusion and a drive selector. The shaft is mounted rotatably in the body and has a proximal end mounted securely on the keyed driving protrusion. The finger ring is mounted securely around the shaft outside the body and is smaller than the handle to allow quick and easy rotation of the shaft. The tool is selectively mounted securely in the shaft.
US07677134B2
A forged product is made of a magnesium alloy and includes a through hole making portion to make a through hole that runs in a predetermined direction, and a bottom portion that lies on a plane intersecting with the predetermined direction. The through hole includes a first portion that has been formed by a forging process and a second portion that has been formed after the forging process. The second portion of the through hole has shifted toward the bottom portion with respect to the middle of the through hole in the predetermined direction.
US07677129B2
A spatial linkage including an inboard gimbal plate that provides a ground for the spatial linkage, an outboard gimbal plate, and three links that couple the outboard gimbal plate to the inboard gimbal plate. Each link has a longitudinal axis and two pivotal couplings disposed at opposite ends of the longitudinal axis. Each link is pivotally coupled to the outboard gimbal plate at a first end of the longitudinal axis and pivotally coupled to the inboard gimbal plate at a second end of the longitudinal axis opposite the first end. The pivotal couplings allow the outboard gimbal plate to move relative to the inboard gimbal plate and preventing relative rotation between the outboard gimbal plate and the inboard gimbal plate.
US07677122B2
In a steering angle sensor assembly for a vehicle, dependent gears are provided to mesh with an inner periphery of a rotary member rotated together with a steering wheel and to be rotated, and a circuit board that detects the rotation of the dependent gears and generates electric signals is also provided on the side of the dependent gears provided on the inner periphery of the rotary member. Accordingly, the entire size of the steering angle sensor assembly can be reduced to be substantially the same as the size of the rotary member rotated together with the steering wheel. As a result, it is possible to further reduce the entire size of the steering angle sensor assembly.
US07677121B2
In an apparatus for measuring shapes of both sides of a plate, a measuring apparatus body includes a reference plane of a longitudinal surface plate disposed in an almost vertical state at one end on a metallic bed, a holding mechanism for holding a plate to be measured in almost parallel therewith, and a displacement gauge scanning column. The displacement gauge scanning column includes a first air slide for mounting a first (second) displacement gauge and a second air slide for mounting a third displacement gauge, and is moved in a horizontal axis direction along a pair of V grooves. Moreover, the first (second) air slide is moved in a vertical axis direction. A shape of one of plate surfaces of the plate to be measured is measured by the scan of the first (second) displacement gauge, and at the same time, a shape of the other surface of the plate surface is measured by the scan of the third displacement gauge.
US07677112B2
Coriolis mass flowmeter with a Coriolis tube and with an optical detection device, which optical detection device includes at least one optical sensor for generating a signal that is representative of the movement of the Coriolis tube, the optical sensor comprising a light source and a photosensitive sensor, wherein the optical detection device includes elements for applying a constant voltage across the photosensitive sensor during operation independently of the current generated by the photosensitive sensor in response to incident light, as well as elements for determining the value of the current generated by the photosensitive sensor and converting it into an output signal.
US07677101B2
Techniques are described for estimating the propagation velocity through a surface acoustic wave sensor. In particular, techniques which measure and exploit a proper segment of phase frequency response of the surface acoustic wave sensor are described for use as a basis of bacterial detection by the sensor. As described, use of velocity estimation based on a proper segment of phase frequency response has advantages over conventional techniques that use phase shift as the basis for detection.
US07677100B2
In an acceleration sensor, a first vibrator is arranged on a surface of a substrate such that the vibrator can vibrate in an X-axis direction. An angular-velocity-detecting vibrator is arranged inside the first vibrator such that the vibrator can be displaced in a Y-axis direction. A vibration generating unit and a vibration monitor unit are provided between the substrate and the first vibrator. An angular-velocity-detecting displacement detecting unit is provided between the substrate and the angular-velocity-detecting vibrator. A second vibrator is provided outside the first vibrator such that the vibrator can be displaced in the Y-axis direction. An acceleration-detecting displacement detecting unit is provided between the first and second vibrators. An angular velocity detecting circuit detects angular velocity by performing synchronous detection on a displacement detection signal from the displacement detecting unit using a monitor signal from the vibration monitor unit. On the other hand, an acceleration detecting circuit detects acceleration by performing synchronous detection on a displacement detection signal from the displacement detecting unit using a monitor signal from the vibration monitor unit.
US07677099B2
A sensor that measures angular velocity about an axis that is normal to a sensing plane of the sensor. The sensor comprises a sensing subassembly that includes a planar frame parallel to the sensing plane, a first proof mass disposed in the sensing plane, a second proof mass disposed in the sensing plane laterally to the first proof mass, and a linkage within the frame and connected to the frame. The linkage is connected to the first proof mass and to the second proof mass. The sensor further includes actuator for driving the first proof mass and the second proof mass into oscillation along a drive axis in the sensing plane. The sensor further includes a first transducer to sense motion of the frame in response to a Coriolis force acting on the oscillating first proof mass and the oscillating second proof mass.
US07677095B1
In a motor vehicle equipped with pneumatic tires and a hydraulically actuated wheel brake system, a method for enhancing stability of the vehicle by determining whether any tire on the vehicle is deflated, determining the current magnitude of brake pressure at the wheel of the deflated tire when the brakes are applied, and reducing the current magnitude of brake pressure at the wheel of the deflated tire.
US07677094B1
A method for testing road load durability of a truck rear bed includes calculating road pseudo fatigue damage on the rear bed based on road load data indicative of loads imparted on the rear bed while the truck is traveling on a proving road, determining a cyclic input applied to a rear bed assembly mounted on a bench test stand with the rear bed assembly being separated from at least a cab of the truck so that bench test pseudo fatigue damage on the rear bed that is substantially equivalent to the road pseudo fatigue damage is achieved by the cyclic input, and performing a durability bench test of the rear bed by applying the cyclic input to the rear bed assembly mounted on the bench test stand with the rear bed assembly being separated from at least the cab.
US07677093B2
A method for continuous measurement of the dynamic fluid consumption of a consumer by use of a two-way flow sensor, particularly the measurement of gaseous or liquid fuel, and possibly a conditioning device, whereby the pressure is reduced to a constant exit pressure downstream from the flow sensor. A minimum quantity of fluid is fed through the pressure regulator at any desired time whereby fluid is continuously returned in variable quantities from the region of constant exit pressure to the region between the flow sensor and the pressure regulator to make possible a continuous, accurate and timely highly defined consumption measurement with controlled exit pressure for the fluids using an open system which is able to maintain pressures in the entire line system even at highly dynamic consumption changes and which does not allow the formation of a multiphase flow. The device for to carrying out the method is provided with a pressure control device downstream from the flow sensor and a connecting line with a pump leading from the region behind the pressure control device to the region between the flow sensor and the pressure control device.
US07677088B2
A method of fabricating a nanoscale cantilever probe. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of forming a cantilever having a tip vertically extending from an end portion of the cantilever, where the tip has an apex portion having a size in a range of about 1-1000 nm, and selectively doping the cantilever with a dopant to define a first doping region in the tip and a second doping region in the rest of the cantilever, where the dopant concentration of the first doping region is substantially lower than that of the second doping region.
US07677079B2
A sensor for detecting erosion of a wear surface of a component, particularly a liner attached to the mill shell of a rotating grinding mill. The sensor comprises a conductive element embedded in the component, the conductive element comprising a first end positioned at a first distance from the wear surface, at least one conductive loop comprising a wear portion positioned at a second distance from the wear surface proximate to the first end and a circuit coupled to the at least one element for determining a continuity of the conductive loop.
US07677078B2
Apparatus for calibrating an ultrasound transducer providing B-scans for two-dimensional (2D) images, includes: an ultrasound probe for providing B-scans; a position sensing device, the position sensing device being attached to the ultrasound probe and operating as part of a position sensing system in cooperation with a fixed sensing control unit, for labeling the B-scans with their respective relative positions and orientations (pose); a phantom marker for being imaged by the ultrasound probe for providing measurements which together with known physical properties of the phantom marker are used to derive calibration information for relating measurement data from the position sensing device to the poses of the B-scans to construct a 3D image; and the phantom marker comprising an encoded line object with distinctive calibration characteristics indicative of position along the line object, wherein the line object is disposed in a generally circumferential manner about a common axis with the probe.
US07677069B2
A threaded joint for an oil well pipe in which a conventional threaded joint for an oil well pipe is improved so that sufficient fatigue fracture strength is secured, and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. An axial-direction residual stress of a threaded bottom part is set to −400 MPa or less as a value of X-ray stress analysis between a surface and a part with a depth of 40 μm.
US07677068B2
The invention is an easy-to-use one-piece air brake securing device designed for use in recreational vehicles, trucks, and other automotive vehicles employing air-operated parking brakes. The device is designed to fit around the shaft of the air brake plunger and to prevent the plunger from being moved unintentionally or inadvertently in a manner that may disengage the air brake.
US07677060B2
A method for manufacturing an optical fiber by drawing an optical fiber preform softened by heating, includes cooling the optical fiber at a cooling rate of not more than 4000° C. per second at a temperature of 1200 to 1400° C. of the optical fiber; and cooling the optical fiber at a cooling rate of not more than 8000° C. per second at a temperature of 850 to 1200° C. of the optical fiber. A drawing rate of the optical fiber is not less than 1000 meters per minute.
US07677058B2
An apparatus and process for making glass soot sheet and sintered glass sheet. Glass soot particles are deposited on a curved deposition surface of a rotating drum to form a soot sheet. The soot sheet is then released from the deposition surface. The soot sheet can be sintered into a consolidated glass. The soot sheet and the sintered glass can be sufficiently long and flexible to be reeled into a roll.
US07677057B2
Heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems and heat exchangers are provided which include dissimilar tube spacing configurations. The heat exchangers include multiple sets of multichannel tubes in fluid communication with each other. One set of multichannel tubes contains a plurality of tubes spaced apart at one spacing while the another set of multichannel tubes contains a plurality of tubes spaced apart at a different spacing. The different spacing between the multichannel tubes allows each set of tubes to be configured to the properties of the refrigerant flowing within the tubes.
US07677056B2
A portable cooling system for maintaining a beverage container at an internal temperature dissimilar to that of the temperature of its external surroundings comprising of a substantially circular shaped storage compartments with a hingly attached lid. The portable cooling system further includes a flexible temperature sleeve positioned in the interior volume of the storage compartment during use. The temperature sleeve contains a plurality of ribs being configure to have an internal chamber filled with temperature controlling substance.
US07677052B2
According to some embodiments, systems for improved passive liquid cooling may be provided. In some embodiments, a system may comprise an evaporator and a condenser. According to some embodiments, the evaporator may comprise a first side to receive heat, a second side, and one or more fins protruding from the second side. In some embodiments, the condenser may comprise an inner surface defining a cavity and one or more grooves, a first end coupled to the evaporator such that the one or more fins of the evaporator are disposed within the cavity, and a second end, wherein the one or more grooves extend at least partially between the first and second ends of the condenser.
US07677051B2
A system has a compressor having a compression path between a suction port located to receive a working fluid and a discharge port located to discharge the working fluid. The system has means for controlling a flow of at least one of additional working fluid and lubricant responsive to changes in at least one pressure parameter.
US07677044B2
A heat shield according to the invention on a support structure comprises a number of heat shield elements, which are configured and arranged on the support structure such that they abut each other leaving gaps. The support structure of the heat shield according to the invention has a peripheral direction and an axial direction, the heat shield elements abutting each other in the peripheral direction of the support structure leaving a gap, hereafter referred to as a peripheral gap, and in the axial direction of the support structure leaving a gap, hereafter referred to as an axial gap. Both the peripheral gaps and the axial gaps are also sealed by sealing elements, the sealing elements sealing the axial gaps being at a different distance from the support structure from the sealing elements sealing the peripheral gaps.
US07677037B2
A hydraulic drive system for storing and releasing hydraulic fluid includes a high pressure storage device, a low pressure storage device and a pump-motor operating at a range of pump-motor speeds for converting between hydraulic energy and mechanical energy. The pump-motor is disposed between the high pressure device and the low pressure device. In normal operation, the hydraulic drive system enters a motoring mode where hydraulic energy is released from the high pressure storage device and converted to mechanical energy using the pump-motor. It also enters a pumping mode where mechanical energy is converted into hydraulic energy. A neutral state exists where hydraulic energy is neither stored nor released from the high pressure storage device. An approach for facilitating the precharging of the high pressure storage device to a minimum threshold pressure promotes efficiency within the hydraulic drive system.
US07677033B2
The present invention broadly includes a hub assembly for a torque converter having a hub arranged to rotationally connect to a transmission input shaft and includes first and second radial surfaces, a first plate rotationally connected to a turbine, rotationally connected to the hub, and fixed in a first axial direction by the first surface and a second plate rotationally connected to the first plate and fixed in a second axial direction, opposite the first direction, by the second surface. The hub assembly may include a hub having at least one radially disposed protrusion, the protrusion includes the second radial surface, and the first plate is rotationally connected to the protrusion. The hub may further include a body with a first diameter and the protrusion with a second diameter greater than the first diameter. The first and second radial surfaces may be arranged to axially fix a turbine with respect to the hub, or the first and second radial surfaces may be coplanar. The first plate may be in contact with the first radial surface, or the second plate may be in contact with the second radial surface.
US07677030B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for determining a regeneration availability profile for an exhaust gas aftertreatment system. The apparatus, in one embodiment, is configured to determine whether required regeneration conditions could be met within the system if attempted. The apparatus may include a data module for storing and retrieving a regeneration availability profile and for receiving regeneration requirements data. The apparatus may further include an input module for receiving input relative to current operating conditions of the exhaust gas aftertreatment system. The apparatus may further include a controller which uses the required regeneration conditions, the retrieved regeneration availability profile, and the input relative to current operating conditions to produce and store a new regeneration availability profile.
US07677020B2
A spring system for a feeder device of an agricultural harvester having a first roller movably mounted in a casing and biased by the spring system towards a second roller in order the compress crop passing between the two rollers. The spring system comprises at least one spring surrounding a guide rod that extends in use between a movable support of the first roller and the casing of the feeder device. The guide rod is formed of two telescopically collapsible parts, one connected to the roller support and the other to the casing.
US07677018B2
A tensioning system for a drive belt of a blower of a forage harvester includes a tensioning roller, a rod for moving the tensioning roller towards and away from the belt, a spring surrounding the rod and acting between a first abutment mounted on the rod and a second abutment connected to the chassis of the harvester to urge the roller towards the belt. The chassis connected abutment is carried by an arm that is movable relative to the chassis and anchored by a tie bar.
US07677012B2
A unit for applying opening devices to packages of pourable food products having a rupturable portion includes a conveyor for feeding the packages successively along a given path; and a gripping device for receiving the opening devices at a pickup station, and which move cyclically between the pickup station and an application station interfacing with the path and where the opening devices are applied to respective packages; the trajectory of the gripping device from the application station to the pickup station is distinct from the path of the packages; and the unit also includes a pressure device generating a contact pressure between the packages and the opening devices as of the application station and along at least a portion of the path of the packages.
US07677007B2
A structural configuration for rapidly assembling walls and linings of insulating firebricks and prefabricated insulating modules that aligns the bricks or modules during assembly with grooves and inserts, minimizes the amount of through joints in the completed structure, and allows the full height of each brick or module to be utilized in the completed structure is provided.
US07676988B2
A capillary hydration system and method for facilitating the growth of plants are provided. An exemplary system comprises a base having a reservoir for holding nutrient solution, and an insert portion. The insert portion comprises at least one downwardly extending plant receiving depression that is capable of holding a growth substrate. The plant receiving depression has at least one capillary opening such that when the capillary opening is in liquid communication with the nutrient solution in the reservoir, nutrient solution is wicked from the reservoir to the growth substrate by capillary action. In accordance with various exemplary embodiments, the capillary hydration system may further comprise cover, including a cover with a supply component for refilling the nutrient solution without removing the insert portion or the cover, and a nutrient supply level indicator.
US07676981B2
Methods and systems are described herein for an article of manufacture for use in a weapon sight wherein the article of manufacture comprises a passively charged photoluminescent material. When installed in a weapon sight, the passively charged photoluminescent material provides light to a fiber optic of the weapon sight during low light conditions to illuminate a reticle pattern of the weapon sight.
US07676976B2
Apparatus and methods for easily, quickly and reliably longitudinally securing and rotationally locking a noise suppressor or other auxiliary device to the muzzle end of a firearm barrel, and to a fixture such as a flash suppressor affixed to the muzzle end of the firearm, and for easily, quickly and reliably removing the noise suppressor or other auxiliary device therefrom.
US07676975B2
A tactical foregrip assembly for use with a firearm, the assembly having an independently rotatable grip mount assembly and an independently rotatable light mount assembly. The invention comprises a stationary mount assembly attachable to the receiver of a firearm, a grip mount assembly radially rotatable about and electrically coupled to the stationary mount assembly, and a light mount assembly radially rotatable about and electrically coupled to the stationary mount and engagable with said grip assembly. The present invention allows the operator to provide light to illuminate an area while simultaneously positioning himself in a manner so as to maximally use available cover.
US07676968B2
In one aspect of the invention, a roller assembly has an axle that supports opposing faces of a cylindrical body that has a plurality of pointed inserts disposed along an outer diameter of the cylindrical body. At least one of the inserts has a tip with a polycrystalline diamond bonded to a cemented metal carbide segment. The diamond has a substantially conical geometry with a 0.50 to 0.200 inch radius apex and comprises a thickness greater than 0.100 inches at the apex. The roller assembly has an internal lubrication mechanism adapted to apply lubrication between the axle and the cylindrical body.
US07676966B2
A sediment removal system and method provides a versatile and controllable device for removing sediment from water in a focused manner that avoids generating unwanted turbidity. A suction pump draws water and sediment through a suction conduit and the injection of air into the suction conduit by air nozzles enables sediment to be removed from greater depths. The inclusion of water nozzles on an inlet opening enables hardened sediment to be dislodged such that it may be drawn into the suction conduit. A GPS receiver mounted to the suction conduit enables the location of the removal process to be tracked and a knife valve prevents backflow out of the suction conduit. The capturing of solid sediment by retention containers and the capturing of water containing suspended sediment by a tank enables the sediment and water to be transported to an appropriate location for treatment or disposal.
US07676957B2
An automated tightening shoe with crisscrossed laces or closure panel and a tightening mechanism which operates in one direction to cause automatic tightening of the crisscrossed laces or closure panel to tighten the shoe about a wearer's foot, and which can be released easily so that the shoe can be removed from the wearer's foot. An actuating wheel partially projecting from the rear sole of the shoe provides a convenient and reliable actuating means for movement of the automated tightening mechanism in the tightening direction.
US07676956B2
A sole component and a method of manufacturing the sole component are disclosed. In general, the sole component includes a fluid-filled bladder and a reinforcing structure extending around the bladder. The reinforcing structure is bonded to the exterior of the bladder, and may be recessed into the bladder. In some embodiments, the reinforcing structure extends along the side surfaces of the bladder and between upper and lower surfaces of bladder. In manufacturing the sole component, the reinforcing structure may be located within a mold, and the polymer material forming the bladder may be bonded to the reinforcing structure during the molding process.
US07676954B2
A drying method for a household appliance such as a dishwasher comprises a Peltier-element in addition to a heat-emitting part and also a heat-absorbing part for drying the washed items in the treatment area of the dishwasher. The heater-absorbing part cools a lateral wall of the washing container, which guides condensation of humidity into the air of the treatment area. Also, the air of the treatment area is circulated about an air channel by a blower and the air in the air channel is simultaneously heated with the aid of the heat-emitting part of the Peltier-element. The relative humidity of the air is reduced and the capacity of the air of the absorbing humidity is increased.
US07676945B2
A measurement probe, such as a touch trigger probe, is described that comprises a stylus module attachable to a base module. The stylus module comprising a housing and a stylus holder moveably attached to the housing. The base module comprises a measurement portion for generating measurement data indicative of movement of the stylus holder relative to the housing. The stylus module has an inbuilt failure mode and thereby a substantially predetermined operational lifetime. In one embodiment, the inbuilt failure mode is provided by integrating a battery into the stylus module. Providing a mechanical failure mode in which a component of the stylus module catastrophically fails after a certain amount of usage is also described.
US07676937B2
A scribing head according to the present invention includes: a scribing line forming means (29) structured so as to form a scribing line on a substrate; and a moving means (502, 503) for moving the scribing line forming means such that the scribing line forming means presses the substrate with a constant magnitude, wherein the moving means includes: a rotation means (502) rotating about a rotation axis, the axial center of the rotation axis being provided so as to align with a predetermined direction in which the scribing line forming means moves, and a motive power transmission means (503) for transmitting a motive power between the motive power transmission means and the scribing line forming means such that the scribing line forming means moves on a straight line along the axial center of the rotation axis in response to the rotation of the rotation means, the motive power transmission means being provided along the predetermined direction.
US07676936B2
A foot measurement apparatus for measuring the dimensions of a foot. The foot measurement apparatus includes an integrally-formed unitary base having first and second sections each with proximal ends and distal ends and top and bottom surfaces. The first and second sections are connected by a living-hinge interconnection portion at their proximal ends. The foot measurement apparatus also includes a measuring scale attached to the top surfaces of the first and second sections. The foot measurement apparatus additionally includes an erectable heel-tab structure which is attached to the unitary base near the distal end of the first section. The heel-tab structure has a heel-contact portion which is pivotable between a collapsed position overlying the top surface of the first section and an erected position substantially normal to the first section. The foot measurement apparatus also includes an erectable toe-tab structure.
US07676935B2
In an angle-measurement system and a method for producing an angle-measurement system, the angle-measurement system includes a bearing assembly and a scanning head, the bearing assembly including a graduated ring, an outer ring and rolling bodies. Rolling surfaces are formed both on the graduated ring and the outer ring, the rolling surface of the graduated ring having a smaller path radius than that of the outer ring. Furthermore, the rolling surface of the outer ring is arranged opposite the rolling surface of the graduated ring, and the rolling bodies are disposed between the two rolling surfaces such that the bearing assembly is free of radial play. In addition, an angle scaling is applied directly onto the graduated ring such that a geometrical pattern of the angle scaling in a first region deviates from a geometrical pattern in a second region as a function of rotational eccentricities of the bearing assembly. The angle scaling is able to be scanned by the scanning head.
US07676927B2
A skylight fall protection safety panel formed from a single sheet of metal having a predetermined surface area A1 and a plurality of apertures are punched out of at least one central perforated portion of the sheet having a surface area A2 surrounded by strip portions having a perimeter surface area A3. A2 is as great as or greater than 0.60A1. The shape of the apertures can take many different forms but they would have a greatest width D1 that is less than 2.0 inches. The central perforated portion has a sufficient number of apertures of a sufficient size that 50 percent of A2 is open to pass light therethrough. The sheet metal safety panel would be secured under an existing fiberglass skylight panel. The sheet panel can also be corrugated to match translucent skylight panels that are corrugated. The sheet metal panel can also be inserted into a mold or cast with a top layer of resin material and a bottom layer of resin material and also having the central perforated portion apertures filled with resin. This assembled structure functions both as a skylight panel and also as a fall protection safety panel that will prevent workers stepping on the top of the assembled structure from falling therethrough and injuring themselves.
US07676920B2
A test coupon on a printed circuit board used for verifying that vias in the printed circuit board are back drilled to a proper predetermined depth. Use of the coupon involves correlating a via on the board to a via of a test coupon drilling the board via and the test coupon via to substantially the same depth, where the depth is predetermined based on the board via. Then measuring the impedance of the test coupon to reveal the actual depth of the back drilling of the coupon via. Knowing the actual back drill depth of the coupon via is used to verify the back drill depth of the board via.
US07676918B2
A method for forming a molded circuit board is provided. The method includes the steps of forming a circuit having a first section and a second section on a conductive substrate, the first section and the second section being coplanar; then deforming the conductive substrate by mold-pressing, so that the first section and the second section become non-coplanar; providing a plastic material to cover the circuit and the conductive substrate; curing the plastic material by injection-molding; and removing the conductive substrate to expose the circuit. The molded circuit board made by this method is also provided.
US07676913B2
A method of manufacturing a wiring board includes steps of: providing a substrate; forming a first wiring layer on the substrate by photolithography; forming a first insulating layer by ink jetting so as to cover a part of the first wiring layer and expose an exposed section of the first wiring layer; and forming a second wiring layer by ink jetting partly over the first wiring layer, with the first insulating layer being between the part of the first wiring layer and a part of the second wiring layer. A wider variety of conductive material and insulating material can be used for forming the wiring layers and the insulating layers on the substrate by ink jetting, while the wiring board has a first wiring layer having high density.
US07676902B2
In order to realize a method of forming a rotor core that improves the productivity and enhances the product accuracy, a forming method of a rotor that is equipped with both permanent-magnet fastener on the inner perimetric end of the magnetic pole claw of the rotor core and tapered surface on the outer perimetric end on one end of the magnetic pole claw in the circumferential direction. By constraining the inner perimetric surface of the magnetic pole claw by a die and applying a forming pressure in the radial direction, the tapered surface on the outer perimetric end of the magnetic pole claw and permanent-magnet fastener on the inner perimetric end can be formed at the same time and a rotor core with high product accuracy and mass-productivity is realized.
US07676898B2
Magnetic recording media are smoothed with a tape. Each magnetic recording medium has a magnetic film and a lubricant film thereon. Next, the smoothed magnetic recording media are taken out from a process case and put in a shipping case. The magnetic recording media are then taken out from the shipping case and tested. Non-defective ones of the magnetic recording media are put in the shipping case.
US07676896B1
A tool for assisting a worker in removing and reattaching brake springs includes an elongated shaft having an upper end and a lower end. Axially extending from the upper end is a tapered neck with a flattened stem extending therefrom. At a distal end of the stem is a C-shaped gripping member for grasping a brake spring. By holding the shaft, a worker can secure the C-shaped gripping member about the spring. The S-cam can be used as a fulcrum for the shaft, allowing the spring to be expanded as necessary for removal or attachment. The shaft may also include a light for illuminating dimly lit work areas.
US07676895B2
An end piece for the end of a lace, string, filament or the like flexible article. The end piece includes a tube into which the end of the lace or the like is installed. A pin passes through and across the tube and pierces or traps the end of the flexible article in the tube. A decoration may be applied on the pin. A decoration support may be supported on the pin. The decoration support may have the form of a pivotable bridle attached on the ends of the pin. The bridle is supported to the tube by pintles. The pin passes through one pintle and into the other arm of the bridle.
US07676890B2
A vibration dampening handle for a powered apparatus includes an elongate gripping member including a first end, a second end opposite the first end, a longitudinal axis extending through the first end and the second end, and a wall defining an inner bore and having an inner surface. The inner bore extends along the longitudinal axis at least partially through the gripping member, and opens on at least the first end of the gripping member. A weighted mass is disposed at the second end of the gripping member. An elongate elastic beam member is one of attached to and integral with the gripping member. The beam member extends along a region of the longitudinal axis and a portion of the beam member is disposed within the inner bore and is spaced apart from the inner surface. The beam member further includes a first end that extends beyond the first end of the gripping member and includes a fastening member adapted to connect the handle to the powered apparatus.
US07676886B2
A carpet cleaner with a base, a handle, and a plurality of wheels is provided. The carpet cleaner includes a suction opening provided at a front portion of the base of the carpet cleaner and a detachable pressing bar extended from the front portion of the base above the suction opening, wherein the suction opening is pressed down to the carpet floor by pushing down the detachable pressing bar, wherein the suction opening contacts the carpet floor tight for facilitating suction of the carpet cleaner. The detachable pressing bar includes a built-in spring for regulating the amount of pressure to the detachable pressing bar. The pressing bar includes a handle adapted to grab and push.
US07676883B2
A changeover valve, for an upright vacuum cleaner, comprises a movable valve member (31) connected via a flexible duct to a dirt separator of the cleaner, and a valve body (30) having inlet ports (32, 33) connected, respectively, to an air inlet in the underside of a floor-engaging unit of the cleaner and, via a flexible hose, a suction nozzle of the cleaner. The valve member (31) is movable relative to the valve body (30) for selective alignment with either of the inlet ports (32, 33).
US07676881B2
The invention relates to an adapter for adapting a main bracket of a wiper blade to the coupling section of a wiper arm of a wiper mechanism. Said adapter comprises an insertion pin, which is held at one end and which is provided for being laterally inserted into a locating opening on the main bracket, whereby said locating opening extends transversal to the wiper blade longitudinal axis. The adapter also comprises a cylindrical cavity which is provided on the insertion pin, has an insertion opening and which serves to accommodate a pivot pin of the coupling section of the wiper arm. A first bearing section is provided in the area of the insertion opening and is provided for resting against the area of the coupling section that holds the pivot pin. The adapter has a second bearing section located on the side opposite the insertion opening and is provided for resting against the stop of a projection of the coupling section, whereby said projection overlaps, at least in sections, the adapter when mounted.
US07676878B2
Improvements are provided to an apparatus for cleaning a tubular. One set of improvements is provided by a nose shaft extending from the motor, a cone positioned on the shaft, and a brush positioned on the shaft between the nose cone and the vibratory motor. Another set of improvements is provided by a new passage and port arrangement on the piston and sleeve for the vibratory motor. Another improvement is provided by a set of passages and ports to provide oil flow to the area being cleaned. Another improvement is provided by capturing exhaust gas from the motor and exhaust of same at a location away from the operator of the unit.
US07676869B2
A patient positioning apparatus to support a patient in a prone position on a patient table during a diagnostic imaging scan comprises a head support and an arm support. The head support is configured to extend beyond an end of a patient table and to support a patient's head relative to a table top of the patient table while the patient lies on the patient table in a prone position. The arm support is joined to the head support and is configured to extend below the patient table to support a patient's forearms below the patient table.
US07676868B2
A limb support coupled to a patient-support apparatus comprises a frame having a pair of locks to block vertical and horizontal pivoting of the limb support in relation to the patient-support apparatus. The lock release actuator is configured to be coupled to the frame to simultaneously unlock both the vertical and horizontal rotation locks. The limb support includes a stowable leg support configured to provide support to the leg of a patient during obstetric delivery.
US07676867B2
A restriction-free face support for health practitioner's tables designed for work on a prone person, comprising a plurality of optionally interconnected, adjustable support straps padded with memory foam designed to cradle the person's face over a headrest or cutout during a spa treatment, massage, chiropractic, or acupuncture sessions, or any other treatment involving a person lying face-down on a table. The face support allows for the person to rest and breathe comfortably and without the restrictive facial pulling/squeezing found in the prior art. The invention is simple, inexpensive, and can be built into massage tables or retrofitted onto existing tables, and the support straps are adjustable through use of buckles, hook-and-loop, or other means. Optionally, the support straps can have removable beads and other devices attached that allow for the device to put pressure on particular pressure points during the massage.
US07676864B2
A comforter is provided having a length and width dimension larger than commercially available comforters. A flexible slidable fastener is provided along the length of the comforter substantially in the middle of the width dimension of the comforter. The flexible slidable fastener may be covered to prevent irritation to the occupants of the bed on which the comforter of the present invention is placed.
US07676863B2
A bed skirt adapted to be removably attached to an associated bed sheet is disclosed. The bed skirt includes a first decorative side and a second decorative side. The bed sheet includes a top and an edge portion adapted to fit over one of a mattress and a box spring. A plurality of fasteners is provided to removably attach the bed skirt to the edge portion of the bed sheet, wherein one of the first decorative side and the second decorative side is outwardly facing.
US07676857B1
A toilet seat and lid lifter assembly which is constructed of a first frame member of generally U-shape and a second frame member of generally S-shape for gripping both a toilet seat and a toilet lid together such that the seat and lid can be simultaneously lifted or lowered without having to touch by hand.
US07676856B1
A device for controlling odor from a toilet bowl has a housing primarily formed by a top member, a bottom member and a canister holding section for attaching to the bottom member. The canister holding section holds a canister having a nozzle for providing an odor treating spray from the canister. The housing also has two plates depending downwardly from the bottom member and which form an inverted U-shape for mounting the device on a rim of the toilet bowl. Between the top member and bottom member is a biasing device such as springs for biasing a seat of the toilet bowl in an upward direction when the seat is empty, and for allowing the seat to move in a downward direction in response to someone sitting on the seat. The downward motion of the seat moves the top member down, thereby actuating a nozzle on the canister, spraying a metered amount a substantially fixed predetermined amount, of spray into the toilet bowl. A method of deodorizing the bowl in response to sitting includes mounting a device on the rim, biasing the seat into a first position which is not fully down, responding to someone sitting on the seat by moving a top member down in response to the seat moving down, and causing a metered amount of spray from the nozzle of the canister to be sprayed into the bowl.
US07676853B1
An article of clothing including a pair of underwear for a male adult comprises a waistband, an underwear section comprising buttocks, hips, and male package covering portions, defining a pair of leg holes therebetween, and a pouch, secured to the rear of the front portion of the waistband and suspended above the bottom of the underwear, the pouch having side edges which inwardly overly the leg holes with the bottom of the pouch tacked to the center of the underwear section. The pouch is preferably provided with a rear edge made from slightly elastic material. The pouch is preferably breathable material, even more preferably made from cotton. The pouch can be integrated into a pair of boxers, briefs, pajamas, etc.
US07681246B1
To ensure data integrity, data are signed using a server-side key before being stored with a signature in a persistent storage on a client. Before the data that were stored are subsequently used, the data signature is verified to confirm that the data have not been modified. A signer identification (ID) uniquely identifying the client is sealed into the signature so that the identity of the signer cannot be changed without invalidating the data signature. If the data or the signer ID is altered, a temporary signature computed for the stored data and signer ID will differ from the signature that was stored. The server preferably signs a digest of the data to be stored and verifies a digest of the stored data. An intermediate key can be provided by the server to enable plural sets of data on the client to be signed before storage.
US07681242B2
Techniques are provided for allocating resources over a network. A resource consumer requests access to a resource over a network. As part of that request, the resource consumer acquires information that permits it to securely communicate with a resource provider. The resource provider controls the resource and once satisfied with the security of a request from a resource consumer allocates the resource for access by the resource consumer.
US07681241B2
A method is disclosed for controlling access to a digital content. The method allows receipt of a notice regarding suspension of a sender's rights to use the content. A trusted third party arbiter transmits a key to restore the sender's access to the content. Information regarding at least the sender and the key is then documented. The sender can also be required to supply proof of ownership or authority to access the content. This can be in the form of original licensing information supplied by the content provider. The key can also be generated such that it expires after a predetermined length of time.
US07681236B2
An unauthorized access prevention system that includes a search unit searching the flowing-in path of the unauthorized access to the services by a Web system disclosed by a user's ISP, a determination unit determining the place to implement a countermeasure for protecting the services from the unauthorized access based on the result of the search, and a notification unit notifying, according to a determination that that the countermeasure is implemented in the flow source that makes the unauthorized access flow into the user's communication network, the determination to the flow source.
US07681228B2
Financial institution back office computerized transaction-processing system with embedded privacy and security layer (EPSL) enables strong transaction authentication prior to a merchant or vendor contact, based on a user account number, transaction conditions like anticipated transaction time and money, user two-factor authentication with a static transaction PIN and a transaction session-specific random partial password or PIN recognition algorithm. User enters the user name and then, challenged by server with a random session-specific subset of a password or PIN character's consecutive position numbers, enters based on cognitive association a one time authentication response. The authentication session is interactive, transaction session-specific, and followed by either a transaction denial or an alphanumeric transaction signature generated by EPSL for this specific transaction. Then, the user submits her request to a transaction counterpart along with the transaction signature. The merchant or vendor requests an authorization session with EPSL.
US07681225B2
A content distribution method where a user PC reserves a distribution channel at the live casting server in order to distribute content to the client PCs and requests the live casting server to post program presentation information on the content to be distributed on the distribution channel on the program presentation display screen of the top page screen, and the live casting server executes billing processing in response to the request, sends the top page screen having the program presentation display screen including the program presentation information, to the client PCs, which thereby allows the client users to see the program presentation information on the program presentation display screen of the top page screen first and increases the chances of selecting the program, resulting in distributing the content to much more client users.
US07681221B2
Value-added information is created based on favorite information of a content user. The content is processed according to the generated value-added information. Favorite data indicating operations, such as fast-forward, pause, and rewind operations, performed while the content is being played back, and personal user information, such as the age group, the gender, and the life-style, of the content user are transferred to a server via a network. The server performs statistical processing on the user favorite data to generate value-added information according to the attributes of the user, such as the age group, the gender, and the life-style. Accordingly, the user is able to search for popular titles, play back only popular scenes, and skip uninteresting scenes by using a content playback apparatus.
US07681215B2
A digital television receiver includes a tuner receiving a digital television signal including a DCCT, a demodulator demodulating the digital television signal, and a demultiplexer demultiplexing the DCCT from the demodulated signal. The receiver further includes a decoder parsing channel ID information and a priority code from the DCCT, where the channel ID information specifies an emergency alert channel associated with an emergency alert event and the priority code specifies an alert priority of the emergency alert event. The receiver further includes a controller that controls operation of the tuner to automatically tune to the emergency alert channel based upon the alert priority.
US07681209B2
An optical disk player comprises a rack which holds an optical pickup unit and moves with rotation of a pinion. The rack includes a fixed rack plate, which is fixed to the optical pickup unit, and a movable rack plate, which can slide in a moving direction of the fixed rack plate, and projecting members on the fixed rack plate are inserted into guide slots in the movable rack plate. A projecting portion which includes a resin spring is provided on the movable rack plate. When the projecting portion presses a supporter on the fixed rack plate, inner surfaces of the guide slots are pressed against the projecting members by a repulsive force of the projecting portion, and a shaky movement between the movable rack plate and the fixed rack plate is avoided, thus a clatter can be reduced when the rack moves with rotation of the pinion.
US07681201B2
A method and system for integrating and controlling a hardware device having one or more embedded systems including one or more hardware components configurable for use with the hardware device and one or more operating systems for use with the one or more hardware components. A control module configurable for use with the one or more hardware components and one or more operating systems accesses and controls the one or more hardware components with the hardware device. The control module generates and displays access and control commands on the hardware device to allow user to operate and manage the embedded system.
US07681196B2
In an environment in which applications perform multi-tasking by using threads, the optimum number of threads to be provided to an application is determined based on historical data. Due to the use of the historical data, optimum number of threads can be accurately determined, leading to better response times for service requests, without creating unneeded overhead on system processing the service requests. In one embodiment, various status information (of potentially several prior weeks) such as number of tasks received and pending, system resources status (e.g. idle processor time and aggregate memory usage in the system), is maintained. In addition, a table may be maintained to indicate the optimum number of threads for a given combination of status information values. Thus, based on the expected status scenario, the optimum number of threads can be determined and provided at various points of time.
US07681186B2
A system for developing natural language enabled software applications is described. Resolvable types define abstract representations of linguistic elements and interrelationships between linguistic elements of a natural language input. Resolution semantics define procedural rules for resolving validity of the resolvable types in a natural language enabled software application.
US07681184B1
A system and methodology for cross language type system compatibility is described. In one embodiment, for example, a system for translation of data types between a first application in a first language and a second application in a second language is described that comprises: a formal mapping between data types of the first language and data types of the second language; translators for translating data types between the first language and the second language based on the formal mapping; a translation mapping to the translators based on actual data types of the first application and formal data types of the second application; and a module for selecting an appropriate translator for translating between a particular data type in the first language and a data type in the second language based on the translation mapping in response to invocation of a method of the first application with the particular data type.
US07681182B1
A trace file providing details of an execution of a software application experiencing unexpected behavior can be identified. The trace file can be converted into a graph structure (e.g., Function Call Graph), which details functions called during the execution, a calling relationship, and errors encountered during the execution. The converted graph structure can be programmatically matched against a set of stored graph structures to determine matched results. Each stored graph structure can correspond to unique record of a symptom database. Each unique record can be associated with a determined problem. The matched results can be provided as possible problems causing the unexpected behavior of the software application.
US07681180B2
In one embodiment a computer system automatically generates unit tests. The computer system accesses a parameterized unit test that provides a base outline from which one or more unit tests are automatically generated, generates input parameter values for a unit of software code, automatically generates a unit test configured to assess the functionality of the unit of software code, and receives test results from a software testing program and provides feedback to a user. In other embodiments, a computer system automatically maintains a unit test database. The computer system receives a unit test at a unit test database, assigns a test identity to the received unit test, determines that the test identity assigned to the received unit test is unique when compared to other unit tests, determines that the received unit test has different functionality coverage characteristics, and adds the received unit test to the unit test database.
US07681178B1
A method, system, and computer program product for providing an application include representing a plurality of hierarchical rules as a plurality of objects in a prototype pointer chain, and providing a function to search the rules for a desired style by traversing the prototype pointer chain. An exemplary method provides a user interface or application with one or more visual objects. The visual appearances of the visual objects is affected by style information retrieved by traversing a prototype pointer chain to search for style-related rules. A compiled file can include code that describes rules as objects and creates class inheritance relationships between those objects and code that describes a style-finding function. A displaying program instantiates the objects arranged in a prototype pointer chain and uses its own inheritance logic to traverse the chain according to the style-finding function.
US07681172B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that accurately predicts an apodization effect in an optical lithography system for manufacturing an integrated circuit. During operation, the system starts by collecting an apodization-effect-induced spatial transmission profile from the optical lithography system. The system then constructs an apodization model based on the spatial transmission profile. Next, the system enhances a lithography model for the optical lithography system by incorporating the apodization model into the lithography model, wherein the enhanced lithography model accurately predicts the effects of apodization on the optical lithography system.
US07681169B2
A method for pre-wiring through multiple levels of metal using flues includes steps of: receiving information comprising flue geometries and flue properties; producing multiple routing patterns of a design for the flues; identifying macro instance terminals to be pre-wired in the design; selecting at least one of the routing patterns for the macro instance terminals in the design to avoid blockage; and instantiating the design such that the flues can be manipulated as vias.
US07681168B2
A semiconductor integrated device has a wire layout structure such that SL1≦SL2
US07681165B2
A method of performing placement of resources in a computer-aided design (CAD) tool includes performing a first congestion analysis, proposing a placement move, and evaluating the placement move. The method further includes incrementally updating information used for performing another congestion analysis.
US07681163B2
A new capacitor architecture includes a front plate of the capacitor formed from a first polysilicon layer. The front plate is surrounded by a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer. The back plate of the capacitor is formed from one layer of a first two-layer conductive structure which surrounds the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer. The two-layer conductive structure is an equal potential structure and includes a conductive coupling between the two layers.
US07681162B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a standard cell, including a cell frame having a rectangular region, a power supply interconnection, a center line of the power supply interconnection overlapping with a side line along a first direction of the cell frame, a via contact, the center of the via contact overlapping with the center line of the power supply interconnection and a grid having a minimum interval in a layout of the via contacts, wherein a width of the cell along the first direction is an integral multiplication of the grid and the center of the via contact is at a distance of at least 1.5 multiplication of the grid from the nearest apex in the cell frame.
US07681156B2
A circuit simulator includes: a DC analysis section which analyses a static stable potential on a transmission circuit if a capacitor which blocks a DC current while allowing an AC current to pass therethrough is connected in series in the line of the transmission circuit; and an initial potential application section which applies, as an initial potential in the simulation, the stable potential obtained by the DC analysis section to an application position on the upstream side of the capacitor in the flow of the signal through the transmission circuit. The simulator also includes a circuit simulation section which performs the simulation of the transmission circuit under the initial potential applied by the initial potential application section.
US07681155B2
A semiconductor device designing method includes calculating capacitance. The semiconductor device has a semiconductor substrate, an insulator formed on the semiconductor substrate, and an electrode formed on the insulator. The capacitance is calculated under an approximation assuming a portion of the semiconductor substrate, the insulator and a portion of the electrode to be one of a conductor and a dielectric depending on electric characteristics thereof, respectively.
US07681148B2
A page exception icon is provided for programming a page exception during a document processing job. The page exception icon is pre-programmed by selecting at least one document job processing parameter from a plurality of document job processing parameters and storing the document job processing parameter in association with a name provided for the page exception icon. The page exception icon can be dragged and dropped onto objects representing pages of a document processing job to perform a page exception in accordance with the document job processing parameters pre-programmed for the page exception icon.
US07681142B2
Aspects of the present invention provide a system and method for scrolling or dragging information on a display. A panning tool is provided that may scroll information, such as a web page, on a display in tandem with movement of a cursor. If interactive elements are present on the page or document, an interactive element may be activated as desired. Scrolling may be accomplished with the panning tool either on non-interactive elements or interactive elements that are not required to be activated. Furthermore, inertia of movement of the information on a display is optimized and autoscrolling is provided in which a page or document may be scrolled without dragging.
US07681133B2
In one embodiment, a method for building wizard-style user interfaces (UIs) for a business task includes identifying a collection of metadata associated with the business task, and processing the collection of metadata to provide a set of wizard-style UIs pertaining to the business task.
US07681129B2
A method and apparatus for reading a web page according to a set of user-configurable settings. In one embodiment, a set of user-configurable settings configured for reading the web page is determined. An initial reading position on the web page is determined as specified by the user-configurable settings. The web page is then read from the initial reading position according to the set of user-configurable settings.
US07681127B2
A method, for dynamic document localization, includes issuing a request for locale-neutral content, the request having a locale-neutral identifier. The locale-neutral content is received responsive to the request. Localized language content is built by applying a language setting for a current language selection to the locale-neutral content. The language setting includes a language-specific string in a strings data structure corresponding to the current language selection.
US07681126B2
The present invention uses spatial dictionaries (termed locationaries), for meaningfully checking and correcting the spelling of text on Geographic Information System (GIS) maps or other computer documents containing spatially, or coordinate-, bound text. Locationaries keep track of correctly spelled words and the geographic areas within which they are considered correctly spelled. In a preferred embodiment, locationaries are feature classes, ‘map layers’ of properly-spelled words or attributed features (objects). The invention selects such features from locationaries based on spatial criteria relative to the textual objects to spell-check. It then exports the attribute values to dictionaries that can be used by conventional spell checking engines. Once all errors and suggestions are found with such an engine and within user-specified criteria, a dialog is shown that contains a row per potentially-misspelled word found. From that dialog, the user can edit the word in the original textual object of the map.
US07681119B2
A method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing a graphical user interface for creating and editing a mapping of structured information to different structured information, which allows a user to interactively define the mapping. The present invention operates as a user tool by accepting interactive input from a user of a source input, processing the input to display the source input in a format for accepting user commands to create or edit a transformation map of source components to target components. Interactive user input is accepted for selection of an input file to be transformed and selection of a transformation map for the requested transformation. Interactive user input is accepted for processing for selection of individual components of the first structured information format for mapping, and for selection of options for the target components. Exemplary options for the target components are a null value, the source component itself, a single selected target component, or plural selected target components. Interactive user input is accepted for processing to assign attribute values to components of the second structured information format. Exemplary options for the sources of attribute values are attribute values obtained from the source components, system attribute values, no value, attribute values input interactively by the user through the user interface, and content of element. Interactive user input is then accepted and processed to initiate processing of a transformation of the source input file in the first structured information format to a target output file in the second structured information format.
US07681118B1
A method for generating markup language documents, e.g., XML documents, uses a code generator that creates programs configured to create dynamic XML documents at run time, avoiding many of the complexities arising from the use of conventional “XML GENERATE” statements. In one embodiment, this process involves (1) creating a template document using a markup language, wherein the template document includes a set of tags associated with the markup language documents; (2) parsing the template document to determine a working storage structure corresponding to the tags in the template document; and (3) generating an application program in the programming language (e.g., COBOL), wherein the application program includes a definition of the working storage structure, and is configured to generate, during run-time, a markup language document corresponding to the original template document.
US07681117B2
A computer-readable medium has computer-executable instructions for generating a user interface on a display device, the user interface includes a grid having a plurality of cells. The user interface also includes a visual affordance presented on the grid and visually connected to one of the plurality of cells, the visual affordance exposing properties of the one of the plurality of cells to which it is visually connected.
US07681110B2
The present decoding technique provides an efficient technique for decoding linear block codes from multiple encoders. When an error in a code sequence is detected, the decoding technique estimates a confidence for each bit within the code sequence. Based on the confidence, a subset of bits within the code sequence is obtained. The subset of bits is then incrementally flipped to determine a set of modified code sequences. A syndrome is computed for each of the modified code sequences based on a preceding computed syndrome and an update vector.
US07681106B2
A method of error correction includes retrieving raw data from a memory device during a first operational phase of the error correction device. The raw data is retrieved by a bus interface device that interfaces with a variety of memory devices. During a second operational phase, the raw data is outputted from the bus interface device to the bus master. In addition, error correction data is calculated, and error correction is performed on the raw data during the second operational phase. By retrieving the raw data before performing error correction, and by outputting the raw data during the same operational phase, data may be retrieved from the memory more rapidly.
US07681103B2
A device-specific value is reliably generated in a device. In a first component of the device, a first digital value is generated that is substantially dependent fabrication variation among like device. Redundancy information is computed based on the first digital value. A subsequent digital value is later generated in the first component of the device. The first digital value is then determined in a second component of the device from the subsequent digital value and the redundancy information.
US07681102B2
Method and system for protecting data in a PCI-Express device is provided. The method includes adding error correction code (ECC) to every byte of data that enters a PCI-Express Transaction Handler (“PTH”) Module and is destined for a host system memory or destined to another device, before the data is aligned within the PTH module; verifying the ECC code for every byte of the data before the data leaves the PTH module; and generating the ECC code for a data block size, wherein the data block size depends on the destination of the data.
US07681096B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a memory, a BIST main circuit and a BIST sub circuit. The BIST sub circuit is to generate a row address pattern or a column address pattern of the memory and includes a boundary address generation circuit for alternately generating a top address and a bottom address of the memory for at least one of the row address pattern and the column address pattern. The BIST main circuit is provided in common with a plurality of memories and the BIST sub circuit is individually provided corresponding to the memories. The boundary address generation circuit includes a top address memory unit for storing the top address and a top/bottom address generation unit for reading out the top address and alternately outputting the top address and the bottom address.
US07681093B2
Redundant acknowledgment between agents performing a loopback test over bidirectional communications bus is described. In one example the acknowledgment is performed by initiating loopback communications from a first agent to a second agent, sending a packet including a redundant acknowledgment sequence from the first agent to the second agent, receiving the packet including the redundant acknowledgement sequence looped back from the second agent at the first agent, sending a test sequence from the first agent to the second agent, and receiving the test sequence looped back from the first agent.
US07681090B2
A method for controlling a variable of a switching electrical circuit detects values for each of a first waveform and of a second waveform in the switching circuit at a beginning of and at a predetermined instant during a switching interval of a switching operation of the electrical circuit, both of the first and second waveforms are perturbed by the switching operation, and evaluates the variable based on the corresponding values of both the first waveform and the second waveform detected at the beginning and at the predetermined instant during the switching interval. The method further adjusts an operating point of the circuit based on a change in the variable between the two evaluations so as to maximize the variable.
US07681089B2
A redundant storage controller system that robustly provides failure analysis information (FAI) to an operator of the system is disclosed. The system includes first and second storage controllers in communication with one another, such as via a PCI-Express link. When one of the controllers fails, the FAI is transferred from the failed controller to the surviving controller over the link. The operator issues a command to the surviving storage controller, which responsively provides the FAI. In one embodiment, the failed storage controller writes the FAI to the second storage controller. In one embodiment, each storage controller periodically writes the FAI before there is a failure. In one embodiment, the second storage controller reads the FAI from the failed storage controller. The FAI may include boot logs, crash logs, debug logs, and event logs. The FAI may also be written to a disk drive connected to the controllers.
US07681083B2
Method, apparatus and system for isolating input/output adapter error domains in a data processing system. Errors occurring in one input/output adapter are isolated from other input/output adapters of the data processing system by functionality in a host bridge that connects the input/output adapters to a system bus of the data processing system, thus permitting the use of low cost, industry standard switches and bridges external to the host bridge.
US07681082B2
A logic arrangement, method and computer program for reducing incidence of errors in a redundant path system during a process of attachment of a device to a running subsystem, comprises a control component for encapsulating the process of attachment of a device to a running subsystem; a disabling component for disabling a path interface; a testing component for testing for the presence of a usable data path across at least one further path interface; and an enabling component for enabling the at least one further path interface to accept communication with the device responsive to a positive outcome from the testing component; wherein the control component is adapted to permit operation after attachment of the device only if full redundancy is retained. A re-enabling component may re-enable any path interface or further path interface.
US07681079B2
Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with metadata driven diagnostic test execution are described. One exemplary system embodiment includes a diagnostic test set repository where pre-defined and/or user-defined XML files that store the metadata for driving the diagnostic test execution can be stored. The example system may also include a first logic to prepare the XML file to control a diagnostic session and a second logic to control the diagnostic session based on the prepared XML file.
US07681075B2
Method, system, apparatus and/or computer program for achieving transparent integration of high-availability services for distributed application programs. Loss-less migration of sub-programs from their respective primary nodes to backup nodes is performed transparently to a client which is connected to the primary node. Migration is performed by high-availability services which are configured for injecting registration codes, registering distributed applications, detecting execution failures, executing from backup nodes in response to failure, and other services. High-availability application services can be utilized by distributed applications having any desired number of sub-programs without the need of modifying or recompiling the application program and without the need of a custom loader. In one example embodiment, a transport driver is responsible for receiving messages, halting and flushing of messages, and for issuing messages directing sub-programs to continue after checkpointing.
US07681066B2
A system may comprise a first processor core, a second processor core and a processor core assignor. The first processor core may include a first circuit to generate a first data and a second processor core may include a second circuit to generate a second data. The processor core assignor may assign a first thread to the first processor core or to the second processor core based on the first data, the second data, and an application reliability requirement.
US07681064B2
A system, method and computer program product for steering a time-of-day (TOD) clock for a computer system having a physical clock providing a time base for executing operations that is stepped to a common oscillator. The method includes computing a TOD-clock offset value (d) to be added to a physical-clock value (Tr) value to obtain a logical TOD-clock value (Tb), where the logical TOD-clock value is adjustable without adjusting a stepping rate of the oscillator.
US07681062B2
Disclosed is a synchronous semiconductor device including clock generation circuit that frequency divides a clock signal (PCLK) input from an input buffer and generates first and second internal clock signals having a predetermined phase difference from first and second frequency-divided clock signals of different phases, respectively, a first input circuit control unit that receives a chip select signal and samples the chip select signal in synchronization with the clock signal, second and third input circuit control units that sample an output of the first input circuit control unit in synchronization with the first and second internal clock signals, respectively, and first and second input circuits that receive a result of a logic operation between the output of the first input control unit and an output of the second input circuit control unit and a result of a logic operation between the output of the first input circuit control unit and an output of the third input circuit control unit as input enable signals, respectively, and sample an externally input signal in synchronization with the first and second internal clock signals, respectively based on enabling instructed by the input enable signals.
US07681057B2
Methods and apparatus for placing a non-volatile memory systems in one of a number of power-down modes in response to events being monitored are useful in reducing power consumption of the non-volatile memory system. The power-down modes provide for successively less functionality, thus providing for successively less power consumption. A non-volatile memory system thus can respond to the events to place the system in a mode that permits the desired operation or a desired response time for subsequent operations while seeking to minimize power consumption.
US07681048B2
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for a data storage library comprising a plurality of drives and a combination bridge controller device adapted to direct and make compatible communication traffic between a client and the plurality of drives. The combination bridge controller device is further adapted to encrypt a first data package received from the client. The combination bridge controller device is further adapted to transmit the encrypted first data package, a first moniker and a first message authentication code to one of the plurality of drives for storage to a cooperating mobile storage medium. The combination bridge controller device is further adapted to decrypt the first data package when used in combination with a first key associated with the first moniker and guarantee the decryption of the first data package was successfully accomplished with authentication of the first message authentication code.
US07681047B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture, wherein a controller receives encrypted data from a first storage unit coupled to the controller. The received encrypted data is stored in a second storage unit coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is capable of accessing the second storage unit faster in comparison to the first storage unit. The encrypted data is maintained in the second storage unit, until at least one condition is satisfied.
US07681045B2
A system and method for determining export requirements for a content file may include examining a content file to identify content used by or included in the content file that is subject to export control, determining, in response to the identified content, export requirements that are applicable to the content file, and providing an indication of the determined export requirements.
US07681041B2
In an image formation apparatus which receives data transmitted from plural external apparatuses connected through a network and processes the received data, transmission source lists associated with users of the image formation apparatus are stored in a memory, the transmission source list corresponding to the user authenticated with respect to the image formation apparatus is selected, it is judged, when the data is received from the external apparatus, whether or not transmission source information of the external apparatus has been registered on the transmission source list, and it is controlled based on the judged result whether or not to process the received data.
US07681039B2
An implementation of a technology is described herein that facilitates rights enforcement of digital goods using watermarks. More particularly, it is a fingerprinting technology for protecting digital goods by detecting collusion as a malicious attack and identifying the participating colluders. If a digital pirate breaks one client and enables this client to avoid watermark detection, all content (both marked/protected an unmarked/free) can be played as unmarked only on that particular client. However, to enable other clients to play content as unmarked, the digital pirate needs to collude the extracted detection keys from many clients in order to create content that can evade watermark detection on all clients. The described implementation significantly improves collusion resistance through a fingerprinting mechanism that can identify the members of a malicious coalition even when their numbers are several orders of magnitude greater than what conventional collusion-protection schemes can accomplish. However, in this scenario each member of the malicious coalition leaves a fingerprint in every digital good from which the estimated watermark is subtracted. Thus, like a burglar without gloves, the digital pirate leaves her fingerprints only when she commits a crime. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.
US07681037B2
A network connection system includes a client apparatus, an authentication server, and a connection server. The authentication server authenticates a user of the client apparatus and transmits a network address of the client apparatus to the connection server. When information indicating the transition to a connection wait state is received from the connection server, the network address of the connection server is transmitted to the client. The client apparatus transmits an encrypted user name and password to the network address. The connection server 11 conducts authentication using the encrypted user name and password.
US07681033B2
A device authentication module and an encryption module can be connected via a dynamic link in a CE device.A random number is generated in an authentication server (5). The device authentication module (7) combines a pass-phrase and this random number to generate a digest, and transmits this and a device ID to the encryption module (8). The encryption module encrypts a communication pathway and transmits these items of information to the authentication server (5). The authentication server (5) searches for the pass-phrase based on the device ID and combines this and the generated random number to generate a digest. This digest is compared with the digest received from the encryption module (8) for device authentication. The encryption module (8) receives from the device authentication module (7) not the pass-phrase but a digest, and therefore can be connected via a dynamic link instead of a static link.
US07681023B2
A method according to the invention ensures optimal memory configuration in a computer: A determination is made whether performance can be improved by rearranging the DIMMs that are installed in the computer. If so, then a user of the computer is notified that the DIMMs can be rearranged to improve performance.
US07681021B2
A processor has a fetch unit and a branch execution unit. The fetch unit has a branch predictor. The branch predictor has a branch target buffer and a branch direction predictor. A wake value is a number of instruction fetches that is predicted to be performed after a fetch of a branch. Thus, for a first branch, for example, a first wake number is predicted. A low power mode of the branch predictor is enabled for a duration of the first wake value in response to hit in the branch target buffer in which the hit is in response to the first branch.
US07681012B2
A method or device handles memory management faults in a device having a digital signal processor (“DSP”) and a microprocessor. The DSP includes a memory management unit (“DSP MMU”) to manage memory access by the DSP, and the DSP and the microprocessor access shared physical memory. Upon the DSP executing an instruction attempting to access a virtual address wherein the virtual address is invalid, a page fault interrupt is generated by the DSP MMU. A microprocessor interrupt handler in the microprocessor is activated in direct response to the page fault interrupt. Thereafter in the microprocessor, a translation lookaside buffer (“TLB”) entry is created in the DSP MMU, which includes a valid mapping between the virtual address and a page of physical memory. After creating the TLB entry, the microprocessor indicates to the DSP that the access by the DSP of the virtual address is completed.
US07681004B2
Memory modules address the growing gap between main memory performance and disk drive performance in computational apparatus such as personal computers. Memory modules disclosed herein fill the need for substantially higher storage capacity in end-user add-in memory modules. Such memory modules accelerate the availability of applications, and data for those applications. An exemplary application of such memory modules is as a high capacity consumer memory product that can be used in Hi-Definition video recorders. In various embodiments, memory modules include a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and a command interpreter that includes interfaces to the memories and to various busses. The first memory acts as an accelerating buffer for the second memory, and the second memory provides non-volatile backup for the first memory. In some embodiments data transfer from the first memory to the second memory may be interrupted to provide read access to the second memory.
US07681001B2
In a storage system having a function of acquiring update history information in correspondence with a write operation from a host, update data according to the amount of data written will become enormous. Thus, there is a problem in that long-term backup and data management using update history information is not possible. A management computer defines a service level according to time progress of data, and stores and manages update history information according to the service level in the respective stages. The management computer manages the update history information, and partially migrates update data from a certain storage system to another storage system according to the service level required in the data. The management computer also restores data in the storage system to which the update data was migrated.
US07680995B1
In a clustered processing system, replication logic controls replication of object data to one of more replica instances. Correction logic generates correction data based on the object data and generates code words by combining the object data and the correction data. The code words are transmitted to the one or more replica instances such that correctable errors in the object data can be corrected without re-transmission of the object data.
US07680984B2
An object of the present invention is to improve the usage efficiency of a storage extent in a storage system using the Allocation on Use (AOU) technique. A controller in the storage system allocates a storage extent in an actual volume to an extent in a virtual volume accessed by a host computer, detects any decrease in necessity for maintaining that allocation, and cancels the allocation of the storage extent in the actual volume to the extent in the virtual volume based on the detection result.
US07680976B2
An integrated circuit having an embedded multiple time programmable memory includes a processing core for executing stored instructions with a data memory and a non volatile memory. The non-volatile memory block provides for storage of program instructions and includes a plurality of blocks of non-volatile memory, each of which can be written to once and read from many times and each having a size that is equal to or less than a program memory address space addressable by the processing core for output of data there from. It also includes a reserve storage location for storing a status word defining the one of the plurality of blocks addressable by the processing core, the status word operable to be changed in response to external signals when another of the plurality of blocks is to be selected, such that once another of the plurality of blocks is selected, the status word cannot indicate as addressable by the processing core a prior one of the plurality of blocks that was defined by the status word as being previously addressable by the processing core.
US07680974B2
Very small non-volatile memory cards are modified to include a connector to which a connector on a separate data input-output card electrically and mechanically mates when pushed together. The input-output card transfers data directly between an external device and the non-volatile memory, without having to go through the host to which the memory card is connected. The input-output card communicates with the external device through a wired or a wireless communication channel.
US07680967B2
A configurable application specific product with a configurable input/output interface is described. The illustrative embodiment of the invention includes a single microcontroller and a microprocessor having a configurable I/O interface that can be programmed to handle any one of a plurality of interfaces that embedded applications might have, including communication protocols and bus interfaces, data acquisition from multiple sensors and actuators, and controls of various motors.
US07680965B2
A channel adaptor is provided which can be shared by a plurality of operating systems (OS's) running in a data processing system, by generating an address translation table without changing input/output process control data. A plurality of OS's execute an input/output process for the channel adaptor by using input/output process control data having different identifiers, without sharing the input/output process control data for the channel adaptor by different OS's. The data processing system generates one virtual address translation table from a plurality of address translation tables generated by OS's, and the channel adaptor processes the input/output control data of OS's by using the virtual address translation table.
US07680961B2
A device recognition system comprises an identification module of a computer device configured to generate an impedance signature for an external device using an impedance of the external device measured at least two different stimuli, the impedance signature used to identify the external device.
US07680957B1
System and method for generating modifiable representations of system hardware and software configurations and for transferring a system to another system using the configuration representations. A configuration representation may include a backup of a system's files. A configuration representation may be modified, and may be used to restore the system to hardware that may be different than the original system's hardware. In one embodiment, a configuration transfer mechanism is provided to perform the transfer of a configuration representation from a source system to a target system. One embodiment of a configuration transfer mechanism may use one or more servers coupled to the source and target systems via a network. Another embodiment of a configuration transfer mechanism may be used to restore a source system's configuration and files from a source system directly to a target system coupled to the source system without using servers.
US07680949B2
In a source address selection system containing a router device connected to a plurality of Internet service providers, and a communication node connected to the router device, it becomes possible to utilize the multi-home environment effectively, by enabling the selection of the source address according to the egress router with respect to the Internet, by accounting for the state of connection with the Internet service provider.
US07680939B2
A pipe specification editor is provided to configure a plurality of modules for processing a syndication data feed. The editor is operable to provide a graphical user interface to receive a user specification of a plurality of modules and to receive a user specification of wires. Each module is characterized by at least one of a group consisting of an input node and an output node, wherein the input node, if present, is configured to input a syndication data feed and the output node, if present, is configured to output a syndication data feed. At least one of the modules is a module configured to retrieve a source syndication data feed. The wires are configured to provide a syndication data feed provided from an output node of a module to an input node of another module.
US07680935B2
Strategies are described for organizing the runtime components of an application into an entity domain framework. The entity domain framework includes one or more entity domains arranged in a hierarchical fashion. Each entity domain further groups one or more components together in a hierarchical fashion. Each entity domain can include one or more services that provide a policy to the components within the entity domain. Composite functionality couples the framework together, and further provides a bus-like mechanism whereby an entity can forward service requests up through the hierarchy until a domain is found that satisfies the requests. Exemplary services provided by the entity domain framework include lifetime management services, error handling services, and so forth. The hierarchical structure provides an efficient way of exposing functionality to groups of components that will share this functionality in a common context, without requiring costly and complex atomistic coupling of services to components or duplication of service instances.
US07680934B2
Network resources are assigned as dedicated, shared, or public network resources. The resources are then allocated to L1-VPN subscribers on demand. Splitting assignment of the resources from allocation of the resources enables resources to be assigned to more than one subscriber on the network. Temporary physical dedication of the resources to one of the subscribers may be accomplished by allocating the assigned resources on demand, so that particular subscribers are provided with dedicated resources on an as-needed basis. Dedication of the network resources allows the network resources to be configured, managed, and controlled by the customers. The network resources may be optical resources and the links may be time slots on particular fibers. Optionally, by enabling prioritization to cause displacement of link allocations, additional flexibility may be obtained in allocating links to L1-VPNs such as by allowing the use of private and shared resources by other subscribers.
US07680933B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for on-demand control of a grid system resource on a grid computing system. An on-demand management apparatus includes a user input module, a parameter module, and a reservation module. The user input module is configured to allow a user to input a parameter control request. The parameter control request corresponds to a performance parameter of the grid computing system. The global parameter module is configured to dynamically change the performance parameter, which corresponds to a performance resource, according to the parameter control request. The global reservation module is configured to reserve the performance resource for a grid computing operation. The on-demand management apparatus is also configured to terminate a performance resource reservation when a client reclaims the performance resources from the grid computing system.
US07680925B2
A method, system, and apparatus are provided for testing a service in a network. A simulated interface is created on a network device by a Network Management Station (NMS). Thereafter, an instruction is received at the simulated interface from the NMS. The instruction comprises a source address, a destination address and other information to test a service. The service is tested on the network device based on the received instruction. A response is generated from the test. The response indicates whether the service is working as intended between the source address and the destination address. The response is sent from the simulated interface to the NMS.
US07680920B2
A path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node is determined. The path includes at least one connecting node. A first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection is obtained. Ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules is automatically evaluated based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.
US07680914B2
An apparatus for autonomously controlling an information processing system made up of a plurality of information processing apparatuses connected via a network includes a policy storing unit that stores a policy required for managing the information processing system, and a control performing unit that performs an autonomous control based on the policy stored.
US07680911B1
A method for distributed management of a catalogue of objects in a communication network comprising devices. The method comprises the step of registering local objects present in a device in a local registry managed at the level of the device, wherein a local object may formulate a request for a list of objects, and receive a collected response. The request is transmitted to the single local registry of the device hosting the local object and propagated through the local registry to distant registries. The responses are collected by the local registry and the collected response is transmitted to the local object that formulated the initial request. The invention applies in particular within the context of home communication networks.
US07680902B2
Entertainment content complementary to a musical recording is delivered to a user's computer by a computer network link. The user employs a browser to access the computer network. A plug-in for the browser is able to control an audio CD or other device for playing the musical recording. A script stored on the remote computer accessed over the network is downloaded. The script synchronizes the delivery of the complementary entertainment content with the play of the musical recording.
US07680899B1
Systems and methods for seamless retrieval of coupons and other non-standard items to a mobile device. Some method embodiments comprise: receiving a communication that specifies a user id and a coupon id, and storing the user id and a location of the coupon in a table in response to said receiving. A response to the communication is sent to the mobile device to invoke an application that accesses the table to determine the coupon location and uses the coupon location to download the content. The communication may be a web page request from a browser on the mobile device, and the application may be a coupon organizer external to the web browser. The communication may further include origination information, so that once the retrieval is complete, the mobile device once again displays the original web page and the user is given the perception that the download was accomplished within the browser.
US07680898B2
Systems for processing multi-media editing projects are described. In one embodiment, a computing system comprises input means for generating a request for one or more multi-media files for use in a multi-media editing project, one or more processors, one or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform a method comprising: intercepting the request; ascertaining whether a requested multi-media file is located on the user computer by checking one or more user-designated directories for the multi-media file; retrieving the multi-media file if the file is located on the user computer; and seeking the requested file from the network-accessible location if the multi-media file is not located on the user computer.
US07680897B1
Methods and systems for network traffic management are provided. A content distribution network application manages data in a cache. A network rate shaper application controls and manages requests for access to an external network connection. The content distribution network application determines priorities associated with requests and communicates these priorities to the rate shaper application. The rate shaper application adjusts access levels or data transfer rates for the requests based on the received priorities.
US07680895B2
Email and chat messages may be displayed as part of the same conversation, in an integrated conversation view. The conversation view would include items corresponding to email messages that are part of the conversation and chat messages that are part of the conversation. A user may reply to an email message in the conversation by chat.
US07680883B2
A method for displaying information includes identifying computer-readable service code at a service site, which code, when read by a client computer via a network, causes the computer to display at least one service page containing service information. At least a portion of the service code is selected for inclusion in a service component containing at least a portion of the service information that corresponds to the selected code. A pointer is generated, indicating a location at which the service component is accessible, for inclusion of the pointer in host code accessible to the client computer from a host site, which is separate from the service site and is accessible via the network, the host code, when read by the client computer, causing the computer to display a host page containing host information. An invocation of the pointer by the client computer is received at the location when the client computer accesses the host page. The selected service code is then conveyed to the client computer, such that responsive to the selected service code, the client computer displays the service component on the host page.
US07680882B2
Multimedia content is featured on user pages of an online social network using embed codes that are generated using a configuration file associated with the source ID for the multimedia content and a content ID for the multimedia content. The configuration file, the source ID and the content ID are stored locally by the online social network so that any changes to the embed codes can be made by changing the configuration file associated with the source and regenerating the embed codes. By managing multimedia content in this manner, greater control can be exercised by the online social network over the multimedia content that are featured on its user pages.
US07680877B2
Techniques are provided for efficiently processing SOAP requests at a Web service application (WSA) of a multi-functional device (MFP). In one technique, a WSA includes at least three threads. An external request processing thread processes SOAP requests from different client applications. A request processing thread processes a SOAP request according to the business logic of the WSA. A internal communications thread communicates with other components of the MFP that are distinct from the WSA. In another technique, a WSA processes different SOAP request differently, depending on the size of the SOAP and the resources required to process the SOAP request so that fast requests may be processed immediately while slow requests are pending. In another technique, a WS-Eventing specification is implemented within a WSA to simplify the event subscription and notification process.
US07680876B1
A technique is performed by a high availability main primary DNS name server. The technique involves receiving a DNS update sent from a DNS client to the main primary DNS name server and directly modifying a main DNS record based on the DNS update. The technique further involves directing a backup primary DNS name server to modify a backup DNS record based on the DNS update while both the main primary DNS name server and the backup primary DNS name server (i) are configured to distribute DNS information to secondary DNS name servers and DNS clients and (ii) are in ongoing communication with each other, the backup primary DNS name server being configured to receive DNS updates sent from the DNS clients to the backup primary DNS name server and modify backup DNS records based on the DNS updates in response to a loss of communication between the main primary DNS name server and the backup primary DNS name server.
US07680872B2
An apparatus comprising an address generation circuit, a lookup table, a multiplexer and an output circuit. The address generation circuit may be configured to generate a series of addresses. The lookup table may be configured to generate one or more coefficients in response to the addresses. The multiplexer circuit may be configured to generate one or more shifted values in response to (i) the coefficients and (ii) the one or more operands. The output circuit may be configured to generate an output signal by combining one or more component values in response to said shifted values. The coefficients are grouped as one over power of 2 components into mutually exclusive groups.
US07680856B2
A method for saving search query information on a server coupled to the Internet as a search folder. The method may include the steps of: identifying a user communicating with the server; storing the search query associated with the user in a data store on the server responsive to a user instruction to store the search query; and submitting the query to an Internet search engine for execution based on a triggering event. A data structure for storing the search folder is also described.
US07680853B2
Search results are provided in a format that allows users to efficiently determine whether audio or video documents identified from a search query actually contain the words in the query. This is achieved by returning snippets of text around query term matches and allowing the user to play a segment of the audio signal by selecting a word in the snippet. In other embodiments, markers are placed on a timeline that represents the duration of the audio signal. Each marker represents a query term match and when selected causes the audio signal to begin to play near the temporal location represented by the marker.
US07680849B2
Improved techniques for transferring media assets between a host computer and a media device are disclosed. The transfer of media assets between a host computer and a media device can be referred to as synchronization. According to one aspect of the invention, media assets being transferred can be formatted (e.g., rendered) in advance at the host computer and then delivered to the media device. According to another aspect of the invention, media assets can be grouped into collections and transferred on a collection basis. According to still another aspect of the invention, media assets to be transferred can be limited based on an amount of storage capacity available at the media device. According to yet another aspect of the invention, media assets of different media types can be transferred in accordance with different priorities.
US07680847B2
A method for moving files between network storages in a virtualized network storage system having multiple network storages and rebalancing the free disk spaces. It periodically judges whether to start rebalancing. Two different conditions are adopted for the determination of start: (a) an imbalance of free disk spaces and the minimum value of the free disk spaces is less than a threshold and (b) an imbalance of free disk spaces and the frequency of accesses to the system is less than a threshold. Rebalancing is performed until the difference in free disk spaces falls below the threshold without exceeding the maximum execution time of rebalancing. If a request to write into a file which is being moved from a client takes place during a file moving step, the movement of the file is aborted and the file is deleted from the destination.
US07680844B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for preserving a virtual file system. Data for a virtual file system is received. The data include file handle information, vnode information, and gnode information. The data is saved to a storage device. The saved data can be used to reconstruct the virtual file system upon changeover between a primary data processing system and a backup data processing system.
US07680833B1
Systems and methods for comparing one database structure to another to identify differences between the two. In one embodiment, tree structures corresponding to each database are generated. The tree structures have nodes corresponding to objects in the databases. Each node has an individual check value based on the node attributes and a cumulative check value based on the attributes of the node and its sub-nodes. Beginning with the uppermost nodes of each tree, the check values are compared to identify differences in the check values, hence the node/tree attributes. If the cumulative check values match, the sub-nodes match and do not need to be compared directly. Only the portions of the tree structures that do not have matching check values are traversed. If individual check values do not match, the attributes of the corresponding nodes are compared to determine the exact differences.
US07680830B1
System and method for policy-based lifecycle management of data in file systems. In embodiments, an expiration policy for the files may be stored as part of the file system metadata. The expiration policy may be as simple as an expiration date for the file, or a more complex policy that specifies one or more metrics to be evaluated to determine if a file is expired. The expiration policy may also specify one or more actions to be taken if the file has expired. The expiration policy may be evaluated on attempts to access the files in the file system, on other file systems, and on backup/archive images to determine if the files are expired and thus whether access to the files is to be allowed. In one embodiment, a scan mechanism may periodically or aperiodically delete files in the file system for which the expiration date has passed.
US07680827B2
A method of automatically selecting at least one of stored multimedia files for transfer between a first storage medium and a second storage medium. In the method, each stored file is assigned a popularity weighting based on popularity information and files are selected that have a popularity weighting within a preferred range.
US07680826B2
A security management program coping with a security hole found in a library. When a request for executing jobs, including a job program, is input, a service library-determining section analyzes the job program and determines link libraries called by the job program. Then, a job submission section transmits the job program to submission destination nodes, and instructs the submission destination nodes to execute the jobs according to the request. After that, when identification information for identifying a vulnerable library having a security defect is input, a submission destination-determining section obtains identification information for identifying the job program corresponding to the vulnerable library, and identification information for identifying the submission destination nodes corresponding to the job program. Subsequently, a forcible job stop section instructs the submission destination nodes to stop processes for executing the job program.
US07680824B2
A method for generating a list of media items selected from a library of media items in response to only a single action being performed. The method displays information identifying a portion of the library of media items and selects a group of media items from the portion of the library in response to only a single action. By utilizing only a portion of the media items in the library, the generated list of media items is desirable to a user by excluding less desirable media items.
US07680814B2
Grouping media files via playlists on a computer-readable medium. One or more media files are selected according to a grouping criterion to define one or more playlists from the media files. A folder is associated with the playlists and stores values identifying each of the playlists associated with the folder along with references to each of the playlists.
US07680813B2
An information management system for modifying action of system in accordance with previously set policy with reference to metadata and/or log data accompanying data to be managed makes efficient information lifecycle management by reducing the grading of the data to be managed and increasing the expressive power of the definable policy while suppressing increase of the amount of necessary metadata and/or log data. The ontology for defining the relation between terms referred in business level is introduced and analyzed together with the policy, so that the range necessary for acquisition of information can be clearly decided to thereby reduce time and labor required for modification of setting and the operation management cost and optimize necessary resources.
US07680801B2
Systems and methods for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment are described. Meta-data for the digital assets is stored separately from the digital assets. Meta-data for some of the digital assets is copied and stored at a central location. Meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system.
US07680798B2
A method, device and system for characterizing an image sharing objects within a network. The method steps include initiating a query for a query object on a first device connected to a network of devices. Finding a similar object similar to the query object on a second device connected to the network of devices, wherein the similarity is automatically judged by any device on the network. Transferring the similar object from the second device to the first device.
US07680789B2
Index entries representing ranges of values are queried with a query value to determine if the query value is in one of the ranges. Numeric ranges are represented in an index and queries are constructed to match index entries. Search terms are constructed from the query value, such that a search term matches an index entry if and only if the queried for valued is in the range represented by the index entry. To facilitate querying the indexes, queries are constructed to contain search terms having a data structure format similar to that of the index entries.
US07680776B2
The present invention leverages MOLAP performance for ROLAP objects (dimensions, partitions and aggregations) by building, in a background process, a MOLAP equivalent of that object. When the background processing completes, queries are switched from ROLAP queries to MOLAP queries. When changes occur to relevant relational objects (such as tables that define content of OLAP objects), an OLAP object is switched back to a ROLAP mode, and all relevant caches are dropped while, as a background process, a new MOLAP equivalent is created.
US07680770B1
Systems and methods for automatic generation and recommendation of communities in a social network or set forth. According to one embodiment a method comprising accessing a group of profiles in a social network, identifying a match between entries in at least two profiles within the group of profiles, and determining a community based at least in part on the match is set forth.
US07680769B2
A searchable information database is provided. At least one network processor having one or more packet processors is provided which are programmed to independently search for a match of any one of the keys in a key set which is delivered to the network processor(s). Each key set is independently identifiable and searchable. If a match is found, then either a function associated therewith or a pointer to the location of the information in the database is returned. Several searching techniques can be used. For example, multiple network processors can be used, with each storing the keys of a different set of keys, and each set of keys can be searched concomitantly in the network processors. Alternatively, a large lookup table may distribute multiple network processors. If a single network processor is used, the key sets can be pipeline searched, or pico processors or packet processors can independently search each key set.
US07680766B2
A data repository system and method are provided. A method in accordance with an embodiment includes an operation that can be used to port data from one or more existing database partitions to new database partitions according to a minimally progressive hash. The method can be used to increase the overall size of databases while a system runs hot, with little or no downtime.
US07680761B2
The present invention is directed to a method and mechanism for partitioning using information not directly located in the object being partitioned. According to an embodiment of the invention, foreign key-primary key relationships are utilized to create join conditions between multiple database tables to implement partitioning of a database object. Also, disclosed are methods and mechanisms to perform partition pruning.
US07680757B2
A method for discovering association rules in a distributed database that includes a plurality of partitions associated with respective computing nodes includes generating a candidate association rule defining an association relationship between itemsets in the distributed database. At each node among at least a subset of the nodes, an asynchronous fully-distributed majority voting process is applied to assess a correctness of the candidate association rule.
US07680754B2
A method for evaluating the differences between computer systems is provided. The systems are evaluated using one or more differential rule definitions and one or more differential rule sets. The rules evaluate the differences between specific parameters in the computer systems and are used to generate a score that indicates how different the systems are based on these parameters and preferably what the cost to remedy the difference would be. The rules can be used for consolidation analysis, compliance analysis etc. The rules each include a weight that quantifies the importance of the rule to compatibility and the score is affected accordingly. Systems can be evaluated against each other or against themselves at different instances in time.
US07680751B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for determining refrigerant charge in a vapor compressor system (VCS) of an aircraft. The methods and apparatus comprise the following steps of, and/or means for, generating a data set from historical data representative of a plurality of VCS operating conditions over time, identifying one or more steady-state data points in the generated data set, forming a revised data set that includes at least the steady-state data points, using principal components analysis (PCA) to derive values for a plurality of minimally correlated input variables, supplying the derived values for the plurality of minimally correlated input variables and the corresponding values for the VCS refrigerant charge in the revised data set to a nonlinear neural network model, and deriving a simulator model characterizing a relationship between the plurality of minimally correlated input variables and the VCS refrigerant charge.
US07680746B2
Methods for predicting the click-through rates of Internet advertisements placed into web pages are disclosed. Specifically, a click-through rate prediction is generating using a hybrid system with two terms. The first term is constructed using a machine learning model that incorporates a limited number of important factors. The second term is constructed using a look-up table that is built using a complex statistical analysis of various web page and advertisement combinations. To construct the second term, the field of multi-level hierarchical modeling is used. Specifically, a tree-structured Markov model is used to process the training data and construct the adjustment factor look-up table. To reduce the complexity of the statistical analysis, Kalman-filters are used to estimate parameters in the traditional multi-level hierarchical models for scalability.
US07680745B2
Particular embodiments generally relate to automatically controlling an item. For example, items may include electronic devices, such as televisions, lights, etc, and/or virtual devices, such as applications, etc. In one embodiment, items may be configured using metatags. When a device is connected for operation, one or more metatags for the device are received. A metatag be used to classify the device. For example, the metatag may indicate uses, locations, connections, etc. The use of device (e.g., pathway, reading, etc.) classifies the item in way it can be used. For example, a user may use a pathway light in different ways, such as the user may turn on all lights with the pathway metatag at night. The location indicates the location of the item, such as in the living room, bedroom, etc. The connections indications a type of item, such as a bedroom light, lamp, TV, etc.
US07680741B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for using retail authorization to reduce the initial value of a software product. During operation, the system receives an initial bill for an un-activated version of the software product. Because this un-activated version is not fully functional, it has a lower value than a functional version of the software product, and hence the initial bill charges for a lower initial cost. During the sale of an un-activated version of the software product, the system activates the un-activated version from a point of sale system. After the sale, the system receives an additional bill for activating the software product.
US07680740B2
The present invention provides according to an embodiment a method of reproducing digital content, comprising the steps of: (a) reading a position information where a sample data is present, the sample data being same as a portion of digital content and not encrypted; and (b) reproducing the sample data based on the read position information without a key information, the key information required for decrypting an encrypted digital content.
US07680730B2
Systems and methods that enable real-time (or almost real-time) foreign exchange (FX) pricing via retail branch networks, wire room operations and cash management platforms are provided. Essentially, the systems and methods decouple the FX-infrastructure and enable downstream banks to effectively and efficiently access FX transaction services and infrastructure without the need to locally manage such an FX platform. In doing so, an FX generation component is employed in connection with standard downstream mechanisms to provide necessary information to a partner FX processing component. The partner FX processing component conveys information to the downstream environment while shielding the downstream entity from risks and costs involved in FX operations.
US07680728B2
A method for a borrower to obtain and/or evaluate desired financial services is disclosed. Personal information from the borrower is obtained and recorded. The personal information includes reasons that the borrower wants to obtain the financing. Financing evaluation information based on pre-established and objective criteria used by at least one established financial institution that provides financing of the type sought by the borrower is obtained and recorded. A credit grading for the borrower is determined based on the personal information, and the financing evaluation information. The credit grading is determined by an independent entity that will not provide the financing to the borrower. The financing may be a loan, such as a mortgage loan or an auto loan or the financing may be the issuance of a credit card or a line of credit.
US07680712B2
A system for use in processing cash transactions comprising an electronic processor and a database, the processor comprising an interface for receiving requests for generating coded numbers representing cash and receiving requests that numbers previously allocated may be redeemed, the interface including a message format storage area storing a plurality of prescribed message formats and determining by reference to the stored message formats the format of a received message, a holding memory for holding requests of specified message formats so that single requests for generating a plurality of numbers in a batch can be processed.
US07680711B2
A method and software tool are provided for evaluating portfolio management. During an interview with an industry expert, weightings of evaluation categories and responses to evaluation questions are collected from the industry expert. The weightings and responses are then input into the software tool during the same meeting with the industry expert. The software tool analyzes the inputs and generates a report that is reviewable by the industry expert during the same meeting in which the weightings and responses are collected.
US07680709B1
A Value Analyzer system is a data-driven computer-facilitated financial model that provides accurate and consistent profitability calculations using account and event data stored in a relational database managed by a relational database management system (RDBMS), wherein the account data comprises attributes of the accounts being measured and the event data comprises attributes of account-related transactions. A selector function uses selection criteria to select accounts and events from the relational database in order to generate a number of inputs for profitability calculations.
US07680706B2
A system and method for facilitating acquisition of automotive core parts from automotive recyclers for remanufacture includes identifying automotive cores and determining the value of the cores with a core fulfillment system. The core fulfillment system includes an interchange database with automotive core descriptions and corresponding interchange identification indicators. The system includes a core supplier database that includes automotive core descriptions with corresponding core supplier identification indicators and an interchange number matching module that equates database entries in the interchange database with database entries in the core supplier database. An interface module provides access to the core fulfillment system, accepts vehicle information, and provides demand and pricing information regarding automotive cores. Vehicle information is received and compared to automotive core descriptions, automotive interchange numbers, and core supplier identification indicators that correspond to the vehicle identification information. Automotive cores are identified based upon the comparison, and a core value is determined.
US07680691B2
An inventory management system is provided that includes an RFID interrogator and corresponding RFID tags that are placed on items to be monitored. The tags can be used to monitor the storage time of food items stored in a refrigerator or pantry, the time in use of replaceable items such as toilet bowl cleaners, or the nature of laundry items being washed. The interrogator can be coupled to a display providing various reports on the status of such items. Also disclosed are devices for dispensing such RFID tags.
US07680687B2
A system and method for operating a reward points accumulation and redemption program wherein a user earns rewards from a plurality of reward issuing entities, with each tracking the user's earned rewards. A trading server accumulates some or all of the user's earned rewards from of the reward servers and credits the accumulated rewards into a single reward exchange account associated with the user. The user may then select an item for purchase with the accumulated rewards. The item is provided to the user in exchange for a subset or all of the rewards. Reward points may also be redeemed in exchange for services, such as the playing of a video game or Internet access.
US07680682B2
A product development project assessment approach is provided which includes identifying multiple possible root causes of trouble for a product development project, identifying question sets related to the multiple possible root causes of trouble, and providing a computer-implemented tool to evaluate answers to the question sets and provide guidance regarding existence of one or more root causes of trouble for the product development project. The assessment approach further includes evaluating project management processes employed for the product development project by comparison thereof to identified, standard project management processes, and provide guidance regarding effectiveness of implementation of the project management processes employed. Product management work product is also evaluated as further evidence of the existence of one or more root causes of trouble or the effectiveness of implementation of the project management processes. The product development project can comprise a software or hardware development project.
US07680681B2
Apparatus and methods for implementing a new insurance industry business processing system, called a “Shared Industry Platform”, are described. A network-based computing platform is defined which includes a communications portal and industry shared databases which are controlled by enabling application and security software and which may be accessed through a global computer network by insurance company computers, managing general agency computers, selling agent computers, and consumer computers. This shared industry platform allows communication among the various components of the insurance industry in a flexible manner as specified by each insurance company, no matter what the company's customary internal processing system might be. The present invention provides an evolutionary, non-disruptive means for interconnecting insurance company computers, managing general agency computers, agent computers, and consumer computers to allow interactive communication and secured business processing and data exchange over the Internet.
US07680673B2
In a method for promoting the sale of real estate, a first dealer, such as an independent seller, may offer a commission to a second dealer, such as a professional real estate agent or broker, for the sale of a real estate property. The commission offer may be transmitted from the first to the second dealer through a computer server. The second dealer may also have previously determined a minimum acceptable commission, which may be posted on an administration environment or page maintained by the second dealer. If the commission offered by the first dealer is at or above the second dealer's selected minimum, and the real estate property is in the same general geographic location as the second dealer, then the listing for the real estate property may appear as a listing on the second dealer's administration page.
US07680672B2
The present invention relates to an event tracking server that determines event tracking information related to a user's interaction with a server device on a computer network, such as a server device for a Web site. The event tracking server determines the event tracking information by first receiving an event signal from a client device associated with the user, wherein the user used the client device to interact with the server device. The event signal includes an event ID and data that describes the user's interaction with the server device. The event tracking server then retrieves a set of instructions that correspond to the event ID included in the event signal and extracts the descriptive data from the event signal in accordance with the retrieved instructions. The retrieved data is then stored in a database. The user interaction with the server device can include various actions, such as downloading a file, placing or removing an item into or from an electronic shopping cart, purchasing an item, or using a search capability of a search engine.
US07680671B2
AC-3 is a high quality audio compression format widely used in feature films and, more recently, on Digital Versatile Disks (DVD). For consumer applications the algorithm is usually coded into the firmware of a DSP Processor, which due to cost considerations may be capable of only fixed point arithmetic. It is generally assumed that 16-bit processing is incapable of delivering the high fidelity audio, expected from the AC-3 technology. Double precision computation can be utilized on such processors to provide the high quality; but the computational burden of such implementation will be beyond the capacity of the processor to enable real-time operation. Through extensive simulation study of a high quality AC-3 encoder implementation, a multi-precision technique for each processing block is presented whereby the quality of the encoder on a 16-bit processor matches the single precision 24-bit implementation very closely without excessive additional computational complexity.
US07680669B2
A plurality of sets of position code books indicating the pulse position are provided in a multi-set position code book storing circuit (450). In accordance with a pitch prediction signal obtained in an adaptive code book circuit (500), one type of position code book is selected from the plurality of position code books in a position code book selecting circuit (510). From the selected position code book, a position is selected by a sound source quantization circuit (350) so as to minimize distortion of a sound signal. An output of the adaptive code book circuit (500) and an output of the sound source quantization circuit (350) are transferred.Thus, a sound signal can be encoded while suppressing deterioration of the sound quality with a small amount of calculations even when the encoding bit rate is low.
US07680665B2
A frequency interpolating device for restoring a signal similar to the original signal by creating a suppressed frequency component of a specific frequency band of the original signal, approximately from the input signal having the suppressed frequency component. In the frequency interpolating device, when the suppressed frequency component is artificially created from the input signal and added to the input signal, the additional level is set dynamically and adaptively on the basis of the spectrum pattern of the remaining frequency component of the input signal. This setting of the addition level is done by searching a look-up table which stores data that causes a plurality of reference frequency spectrum patterns to be associated with predetermined addition levels. Moreover, the data stored in the table is created on the basis of the results of either an aural test on a plurality of signal sample sounds or a physical frequency analysis on the massive signal data.
US07680663B2
A hidden dynamics value in speech is represented by a higher order, discretized dynamic model, which predicts the discretized dynamic variable that changes over time. Parameters are trained for the model. A decoder algorithm is developed for estimating the underlying phonological speech units in sequence that correspond to the observed speech signal using the higher order, discretized dynamic model.
US07680659B2
A method of training language model parameters trains discriminative model parameters in the language model based on a performance measure having discrete values.
US07680658B2
A method and apparatus for enhancing the performance of speech recognition by adaptively changing a process of determining the final, recognized word depending on a user's selection in a list of alternative words represented by a result of speech recognition. A speech recognition method comprising: inputting speech uttered by a user; recognizing the input speech and creating a predetermined number of alternative words to be recognized in the order of similarity; and displaying a list of alternative words arranged in a predetermined order and determining an alternative word that a cursor currently indicates as the final, recognized word if a user's selection from the list of alternative words has not been changed within a predetermined standby time.
US07680656B2
A method and apparatus determine a likelihood of a speech state based on an alternative sensor signal and an air conduction microphone signal. The likelihood of the speech state is used, together with the alternative sensor signal and the air conduction microphone signal, to estimate a clean speech value for a clean speech signal.
US07680637B1
A method and apparatus automatically determines equilibrium operating conditions of a system model. The automated method enables users of block diagram models of dynamic systems to utilize simulation to define operating conditions for linearization. The automated method further allows users to generate operating conditions during simulation instead of explicitly specifying them by hand or using trim analysis. In accordance with one example, the method of generating a linear time invariant model includes providing a system model. A user specifies at least one event at which a linearization analysis should be performed. A simulation of the system model is executed. The electronic device automatically performs the linearization analysis upon occurrence of the at least one event as the simulation is running. Output results are generated of the linearization analysis to form the linear time invariant model.
US07680636B2
A mechanism for providing equation-level diagnostic error messages for system models undergoing circuit simulations is discussed. The components in a model of a system being simulated are converted into multiple numerical equations where each equation corresponds to a component in the system being simulated or a topology equation for the system model. Each numerical equation is numerically analyzed in order to identify illegal configurations in the system. Upon detection of an error, an error message listing the components associated with the illegal configuration is generated for the user.
US07680623B2
A region-in object measuring system comprises a reference object (1) having two frames, i.e., an object surface frame (2) brought into contact with the surface of an object and a film frame (3) with which an X-ray film (7) is brought into contact, spaced from each other and a computing device. The computing device sets a three-dimensional X-ray coordinate system using the reference object (1) according to a two-dimensional X-ray image acquired by imaging a region in an object in a state that the object surface frame (2) of the reference object (1) is in close contact with the surface of the object by means of an X-ray imaging apparatus, determining the position of an X-ray source from the projection magnification and size of the image of the object surface frame (2), determining the position vector of a specific region in a body according to the position of the X-ray source, and accurately determines the direction and three-dimensional position of the region in the object with respect to the position of the image of the region in the object shown on the X-ray image.
US07680622B2
An integrated circuit comprises a power device located on a die. The power device is operably coupled to a processing function, wherein the signal processing function is operably coupled to two or more temperature sensors. A first temperature sensor is operably coupled to the power device to measure a temperature of the power device and the second temperature sensor is located, such that it measures a substantially ambient temperature related to the die. The signal processing function determines the temperature gradient therebetween.
US07680618B2
A calibration method for an oversampling acquisition system uses a digital calibration signal that has a period between edges that is unrelated to the period of a sample clock. The calibration signal in input in parallel to a plurality of samplers, each of which is clocked at a different time by a delayed version of the sample clock, to produce a plurality of sequential samples per sample clock period. Edge transitions of the calibration signal are counted that occur between adjacent ones of the samplers, and are accrued over an acquisition period to produce a plurality of edge counts. The edge counts are then processed to produce control signals to adjust the sample clock delay for each sampler so that the time intervals between the sequential samples are essentially uniform.
US07680616B2
A method for correcting an error of the imaging system of a coordinate measuring machine is disclosed. The position of at least two different edges of at least one structure on a substrate is measured. The substrate may be automatically rotated into another orientation. Then the position of the at least two different edges of the at least one structure is measured on the rotated substrate. Based on the measurement data, a systematic error of the imaging system is eliminated.
US07680614B2
The invention relates to a method for determining the humidity and/or density of a dielectric material in a resonator that is filled with said material and that contains a transmitter and a receiver. According to said method: the transmitter emits a signal; a resonance curve of the filled resonator is scanned in stages, whereby respective signal intensity values (Ui) are measured at different frequencies (fi); the resonant frequency (frm) and the bandwidth (BWm) are determined for the filled resonator from measured points (fi/Ui); and the humidity (ψ) and/or density (ρ) of the material are calculated by solving a second system of equations (G2), containing the resonant frequencies (fr0, frm) and bandwidths (BW0, BWm) of the empty and filled resonators and known calibration coefficients (ar1, ar2, br1, br2, cr1, cr2, abw1, abe2, bbw1, bbw2, cbw1, cbw2) of said resonator. The aim of the invention is to provide a method for determining the humidity independently of the density in a rapid, precise manner.
US07680613B2
A Battery Management System (BMS) includes a sensing unit and a Micro Control Unit (MCU). The sensing unit measures a battery current, a battery voltage, and a battery temperature. The MCU determines a State of Charge (SOC) reset point based on the measured battery current and voltage. The BMS determines a battery overcharge state using a current integration result after the SOC reset point is reached. The MCU includes an SOC calculator and a full charge determining unit. The SOC calculator transmits a present current integration value upon detecting the SOC reset point. The full charge determining unit receives the present current integration value, integrates the current using the measured battery current, and determines that the battery is being overcharged when the current integration value reaches a predetermined battery rating capacity.
US07680609B2
The invention aims to provide a highly accurate automatic biopolymer determination technique utilizing mass spectrometry whereby calibration prior to measurement or the addition of an internal standard to a sample can be eliminated. The biopolymer automatic identifying method of the invention comprises: retrieving a candidate molecule by matching an observed mass value X obtained by mass spectrometry with a predetermined database; selecting an arbitrary number of candidate molecules with high similarity scores; calibrating the observed mass value X using the candidate molecule as an internal standard; calculating relative error Ec between a calibrated mass value Xc and a theoretical mass value M of the candidate molecule; determining the standard deviation SEc of the relative error; determining a tolerance Tc of database search from the standard deviation SEc; and repeating a database search based on the tolerance Tc.
US07680605B2
A system and methods for integrating laboratory instrumentation and applications to provide a unified control and coordination architecture under a common interface. The system provides mechanisms for detection of various hardware and software components wherein the individual functionalities and input/output data types for each component are automatically recognized and incorporated into a centralized control system that provides live monitoring of the operational status of available components.
US07680604B2
Systems and methods for determining the elbow or Ct value in a real-time, or kinetic, PCR amplification curve data set. A PCR data set may be visualized in a two-dimensional plot of fluorescence intensity vs. cycle number. The data set may be adjusted to have a zero slope. In one aspect, a data set is fit to a double sigmoid curve function with the function parameters determined using a Levenberg-Marquardt regression process. The determined parameters are used to subtract off the linear growth portion from the data set to provide a modified data set. For multiple data sets, all the data curves can be aligned in this manner to have a common baseline slope, e.g., a slope of zero. A rotation transform is applied to a modified data set to rotate the data about a defined coordinate such as the origin so that the data point representing the Ct value becomes a minimum or a maximum along the intensity axis. The data point representing the elbow or Ct value of the curve is identified, and this data point is then rotated back and the cycle number of the data point is returned or displayed.
US07680589B2
An in-vehicle navigation apparatus includes the following: a master road regulation data table which stores a master road regulation data to be associated with road segments as applied targets; a temporary road regulation data table, which is prepared apart from the master road regulation table and stores temporary road regulation data to be associated with road segments and applied in preference to the master road regulation data; and a data determination unit which determines with respect to each road segment an application of either the master road regulation data or temporary road regulation data based on reference information for determining road regulation data validity. The determined road regulation data is outputted.
US07680573B2
A suspension control system and a suspension control method for a vehicle control the suspension based on the condition of the road surface traveled by the vehicle in addition to information pertaining to a corner obtained from a navigation device when the vehicle approaches the corner. A microprocessor controls damping forces of suspension devices on the basis of a degree of irregularity of the road surface detected immediately preceding entry of the automobile into a turn around the corner, and corner information from the navigation device.
US07680570B2
Parking assist devices, methods, and programs determine a current position of a vehicle and acquire image data from a camera provided on the vehicle. The devices, methods, and programs extract a predetermined region of the acquired image data, the predetermined region being a portion of the image that will be in a blind spot of the camera if the vehicle travels a first predetermined distance from the current position. The devices, methods, and programs correlate the extracted image data with the current position of the vehicle and cause the correlated extracted image data to be stored in a memory. The devices, methods, and programs read out past correlated extracted image data, the past correlated extracted image data having been acquired when the vehicle was in a previous position, the previous position being a second predetermined distance from the current position. The devices, methods, and programs output a parking assist image to a display, the parking assist image displaying both the past correlated extracted image data, and the image data acquired at the current position of the vehicle.
US07680567B2
A method is disclosed for managing torque distribution in a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain. An engine power estimation is determined for use in obtaining an optimum wheel torque command to attenuate sustained powertrain dynamic oscillations during operation of the vehicle with varying wheel torque and speed.
US07680564B2
A leisure vehicle including a plurality of communication devices built into a vehicle body of the leisure vehicle; and a multiplex communication line through which the plurality of communication devices are coupled to each other. The communication devices are configured to perform multiplexed data communication through the multiplex communication line. The multiplex communication line is positioned a distance apart from a noise source mounted in the vehicle body so as not to be subjected to a noise.
US07680554B2
A method for associating objects in a manufacturing process. In response to an occurrence of an event for an object, a time is recorded of the event for the object. Entries for parts and assemblies associated with the object are located within a database. An entry of the event for the object is created within the database. The entry includes the event for the object, the time of the event for the object, and the entries for the parts and the assemblies associated with the object.
US07680547B2
The present invention provides a generic synchronized motion control system for multiple dynamic systems. Free choices of synchronization strategies are allowed with no implementation modification. Furthermore, synchronization selections are converted into a numerically searchable parameter space that enables systematic development, automated process, and performance optimization. In addition, the present invention enables a uniform computer program of control synchronization algorithm due to its innovation of separating synchronization strategy from control implementation.
US07680543B2
The present invention provides devices and systems, as well as methods, of electric field delivery and ablation (e.g., non-thermal ablation) of target tissues, including cancerous cells and solid tumors. A method of the present invention can include applying an alternating current to a target tissue and removing ablated or liquefied tissue from the target tissue region.
US07680533B2
There is provided an energy delivery device comprising a storage device, a discharge circuit and a disarm circuit. The discharge circuit comprises a switch electrically connected to the storage device, and is selectively operable to deliver energy from the storage device to a load, e.g., a patient needing defibrillation, preferably in a multiphasic waveform. The disarm circuit comprises the switch. Preferably, the discharge circuit comprises an H-bridge circuit. There are also provided delivery devices: which comprise a shoot-through elimination circuit; which include housing elements which, when assembled, cause electrical connection between respective components; which include a housing having a small volume and an energy storage device having a large capacitance; which comprise a shunt circuit which, when activated, prevents switching of a switch. There are also provided methods of assembly and disassembly of an energy delivery unit and methods of delivering energy to a load.
US07680529B2
T-wave amplitude and QT interval are derived from patient cardiac signals. Then blood glucose levels are determined based on a combination of the T-wave amplitude and the QT interval. By using a combination of both T-wave-based and QT interval-based signals, blood glucose levels can be reliably detected throughout a wide range of blood glucose levels. Once the blood glucose level has been detected, the implanted device compares the blood glucose level against upper and lower acceptable bounds and appropriate warning signals are generated if the level falls outside the bounds. In one example, wherein an implantable insulin pump is additionally provided, the pump is controlled based on the detected blood glucose level to maintain glucose levels within an acceptable range. A calibration technique is also provided for determining patient-specific parameters for use in the detection of blood glucose levels.
US07680525B1
The method includes positioning a patient within a receiving space of a stand-up MRI apparatus and imaging the region of interest of the patient while the patient moves the region of interest. Further in accordance with the method the patient may be positioned such that the patient faces a pole face of a magnet of the MRI apparatus. The apparatus comprises a patient support which allows imaging of a patient's spine with a gravitational load on the spinal system.
US07680524B2
The apparatus of the present invention comprises: an excitation device which excites the measurement site with a local direct-current or alternating-current magnetic field, and a plurality of magnetic field detection devices which are disposed in proximity to each other to measure the magnetic field component that is perpendicular to the exciting magnetic field. A magnetic fluid that possesses paramagnetism is injected from the outside into a substance in which a fluid can flow, and the local magnetic field gradient is then measured while the injected magnetic fluid is excited by the application of a direct-current or alternating-current magnetic field from the outside, thus measuring the presence or absence of distortion of the local magnetic field distribution arising from the fact that the specific magnetic permeability of the magnetic fluid injected into the substance is higher than that of the surrounding substance, so that sites where large amount of the magnetic fluid has accumulated are identified in a non-invasive manner without being affected by external magnetic noise.
US07680519B2
In a vehicular navigation system, “AT command +CIEV” is received from a cellular phone by a BLUETOOTH communications. The received “+CIEV” is determined to identify a phoning state (or call state) of the cellular phone. A sound corresponding to the identified phoning state is outputted via a speaker in a corresponding sound volume level stored in an external memory device. A sound volume level, which was finally set for a certain phoning state, is not continuously used as an initial sound volume level for a subsequent phoning state different from the certain phoning state. An incoming sound, dialing sound, calling sound, and communicating sound are individually outputted in appropriately set sound volume levels, which enhances usability of the navigation system for users.
US07680517B2
A communication system including a first station having at least two first narrow beam antennas and a second station having at least two second narrow beam antennas. The first and second stations establish a first communication path for wireless communication via a pair of first and second narrow beam antennas. When communication via the first communication path is disturbed by obstacles, the first and second stations automatically establish at least one alternative communication path, which is spatially different from the first communication path, for wireless communication using the at least two first narrow beam antennas and the at least two second narrow beam antennas.
US07680513B2
Embodiments described herein provide a system, method and technique for operating a communication device. According to an embodiment, information contained in a contact record is displayed, where the information includes a plurality of entries. Each entry is associated with one of a plurality of communication types and includes an identifier for use with an application of the associated communication type. An input is detected corresponding to a user's selection of one of the plurality of entries. In response to the user's selection, the application of the communication type associated with the selected entry is automatically executed by initiating a communication using the identifier included in the selected entry.
US07680509B2
There is provided a highly reliable transmission/reception integrated radio-frequency apparatus which can achieve a high communication quality in a cable modem. A reception RF signal is input to a reception system block via an input/output terminal, converted to an intermediate-frequency signal, and output from a terminal. An output terminal of a transmission processing section of a transmission system block is connected to the input/output terminal via an overvoltage protection circuit, a high-pass filter functioning as a countermeasure to overvoltage, and a low-pass filter for suppressing harmonics produced from the high-pass filter.
US07680507B2
The downlink shared channel includes dedicated physical channel control information for more than one mobile. In HSDPA, providing the downlink shared channel replaces the downlink dedicated physical channels for at least two mobiles.
US07680500B2
An apparatus, system, and method efficiently manage reverse link communication in a communication system having geographically distributed base stations. A base station functioning to at least one mobile station as a non-serving active base station estimates an expected coupled load due to the at least one mobile based on a previous total coupled load. The base station determines a total available capacity based on the difference between the total capacity of the base station and the estimated expected coupled load. The base station allocates reverse link resources to other mobile stations served by the base station so as not to exceed the total available capacity. Since the allocation of reverse link channels resources are controlled directly by the base station, delays due to communications with a central controller are eliminated. As a result, adverse effects of load scheduling based on obsolete reverse channel information are minimized.
US07680499B2
A method for managing incoming calls for a dual mode phone, comprising steps of: receiving an incoming call from a terminal; processing the incoming call and generating a prompt message to notify a user of the dual mode phone of the incoming call; determining whether the user accepts the incoming call; determining whether the dual mode phone is idle, if the user accepts the incoming call; determining whether a type of the incoming call matches with a current call mode of the dual mode phone if the dual mode phone is idle; switching from the current call mode to another call mode matching with the call mode of the incoming call if the type of the incoming call does not match with the current call mode of the dual mode phone; and establishing communication between the terminal and the dual mode phone.
US07680497B2
A system and method for updating a current set of parameters in a communications system is provided. The system and method determines the current position of a mobile unit in a first coverage area, determines a set of optimum parameters based on the current position of the mobile unit, and updates the current set of parameters in the mobile unit with the set of optimum parameters. The system and method may be used for optimizing position-dependent system-access and soft-handoff parameters.
US07680488B2
A notification apparatus 201 for a cellular communication system 100 comprises a call detector 209 which detects a communication initialization involving a first subscriber 101. A notification processor 211 determines if a communication notification requirement is stored for the first subscriber. If so, the notification processor proceeds to determine a second subscriber 115 associated with the first subscriber and the communication notification requirement. A notification message generator 215 then generates a notification message and transmits this to the second subscriber. The notification message comprises an indication of the communication initialization and may specifically be a text message indicating the nature of the communication and the involved parties.
US07680485B2
A clocking unit (27) that clocks a time; a display unit (3) that displays a time based on clock information from the clocking unit (27); a receiving unit (20) that receives standard radio waves from transmitting stations in at least two countries or regions; a second-synchronization detecting unit (23) that detects second-synchronization information (P3) from a demodulated signal (P2) obtained by the receiving unit (20); a transmitting station determining unit (25) that analyzes the demodulated signal (P2) based on the second-synchronization information (P3) to determine a transmitting station in a country or a region; and a decoding unit (26) decodes information included in the standard radio wave from the transmitting station determined by the transmitting station determining unit (25) to obtain time information are included, and the clock information of the clocking unit (27) is corrected based on the time information obtained by the decoding unit (26).
US07680476B2
A receiving device having an input receiving an input signal which includes a useful signal and an interference signal, a demodulator coupled to the input and generating a demodulated output signal from the input signal, which has an adjustable operating point, and a detector coupled to the demodulator and determining from the output signal a characteristic value representing a power level of the interference signal and setting the operating point of the demodulator as a function of the characteristic value.
US07680471B2
Digital upgrade system and method for translating analog commands and digital commands in wireless customer services premises equipment (CPE). The digital upgrade system receives a command from a CPE Host and translates the command from analog to digital in order to broadcast it over a wireless digital network to be received by a client. Alternatively, the digital upgrade system receives a digital command from a digital network and translates it to an analog command to be received by a functionality module of a wireless CPE Host.
US07680467B2
In a distortion compensating amplifier that compensates for distortion occurring in main amplifiers, a first amplifying unit amplifies, with a first main amplifier, a first signal consisting of a main signal to be amplified and detects distortion occurring in the first main amplifier, a distortion adjusting unit subjects the distortion detected by the first amplifying unit to vector adjustment, a second amplifying unit combines a second signal consisting of the main signal to be amplified and the distortion supplied from the distortion adjusting unit and amplifies a combined signal with a second main amplifier, and a combining unit combines an amplified signal supplied from the first amplifying unit and an amplified signal supplied from the second amplifying unit.
US07680466B2
To eliminate the necessity of providing a special heat insulating structure or heat resisting properties and to simplify wiring. A modulation/demodulation unit, transmission/reception units of active and standby transmission systems, branching units of active and standby transmission systems, and a line switching and monitor control unit are accommodated in one casing. The modulation/demodulation unit and the line switching and monitor control unit, commonly used in the active and standby transmission systems, are incorporated in the lower part of the casing, and the transmission/reception units and the branching units of the active and standby transmission systems are incorporated in the upper part of the casing. The transmission/reception units and the branching units of the active and standby transmission systems are arranged in parallel such that the branching units are positioned at the center thereof.
US07680461B2
In an SVD-MIMO transmission using a singular value decomposition, the amount of information fed back to a transmitter from a receiver is reduced. Instead of feeding back to the transmitter, a transmission weighting vector V obtained by performing a singular value decomposition of a channel information matrix obtained by the receiver, the receiver sends reference symbols to the transmitter, which obtains the channel information matrix and performs the singular value decomposition to yield the vector V necessary when transmitting data. In the procedure of obtaining the vector V, a noncoincidence between channel matrices in the opposite directions is compensated for, by performing a calibration for compensating an error between transmitting and receiving analog devices on the part of both the transmitter and the receiver.
US07680456B2
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture are disclosed for removing an undesired component from a low intermediate frequency signal having an intermediate center frequency and an undesired component at a first frequency. One example method may include determining an amplitude of the undesired component; frequency shifting the low intermediate frequency signal from the intermediate center frequency to produce a zero intermediate frequency signal; filtering the zero intermediate frequency signal; generating a tone based on the amplitude of the undesired component; and subtracting the tone from the filtered zero intermediate frequency signal to remove the undesired component.
US07680449B2
A guide body for guiding the back surface of toner-image-bearing paper is formed from an insulating material and is disposed so as to face a paper transport path. A paper-transport-path-facing portion of the guide body, which faces the paper transport path, has guide ribs projecting upward toward the paper. A covering metal sheet is configured such that a covering portion thereof partially covers a guide surface of the paper-transport-path-facing portion which faces the paper transport path. The covering metal sheet has slits formed therein and corresponding to the guide ribs. The slits allow the guide surface to be partially exposed therethrough.
US07680448B2
This disclosure relates to a printing integration system. Specifically, this disclosure provides a means to integrate one or more pairs of substantially vertically aligned marking engines using an intersection transport. The intersection transport includes a media sheet input intersection transport, a single horizontal transport, and a media sheet output intersection transport.
US07680442B2
A developing device includes a developing container that accommodates toner particles, a developing roller that supplies the toner particles to an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, and a stirring and transporting member that transports the toner particles inside the developing container toward the developing roller with stirring by rotating around a shaft axis. The stirring and transporting member includes a shaft portion serving as a rotation center and sheet-shaped first stirring blade and second stirring blade fixed to the shaft portion so as to extend outward in a radius direction from the shaft portion. The first stirring blade transports the toner particles in a first transportation direction. The second stirring blade transports the toner particles in a second transportation direction different from the first transportation direction.
US07680441B2
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a plurality of developing units. A cam shaft includes a plurality of cams having different rotation phases respectively corresponding to the plurality of developing units. A regulation means controls a rotational force of a driving force source that is transferred to the cam shaft. The regulation means includes a spring clutch having a plurality of latch portions of which phases correspond to the plurality of cams, and an actuator that is selectively connected to the plurality of latch portions and corresponds the plurality of cams to the plurality of developing units. A control means is disposed at the spring clutch and substantially prevents the cam shaft from excessive rotation to prevent the cams from being separated from a corresponding position with respect to the selected developing unit.
US07680440B2
A rotary developing device 30 is provided in an image forming device that is rotated by an input gear 46. The rotary developing device 30 has a plurality of developing units 13, a frame 28, and a rotation stop mechanism 50. Each of the plurality of developing units 13 house toner of one of the colors, and develops at a predetermined developing position. The frame 28 includes a support portion 36 that supports the plurality of developing units 13 and has a rotation shaft, and a ring shaped gear 29 that is rotated by the input gear 46. The rotation stop mechanism 50 stops the rotation of the frame 28 at the developing position. Also, the number of gear teeth in the ring shaped gear 29 is the number of gear teeth in the input gear 46 multiplied by the number of developers.
US07680438B2
A sealing member which is compressed by a contactless temperature sensor and a cover member of a fixing unit is provided between the sensor and the cover member. An opening portion for temperature detection is shut off from a space around the fixing unit by the sealing member, thereby preventing the air from flowing from the opening portion into the fixing unit.
US07680431B2
An image forming apparatus has a main body for performing image forming operations. A document reader is above the main body and can displace between closing and opening postures. A coupling has a first end rotatably coupled to the main body and a second end coupled to the document reader for movement between a first posture to support the document reader in the opening posture and a second posture when the document reader is closed. A guiding surface at the document reader guides movement of the second end of the coupling. A stopper is supported for rotation between an interfering posture to interfere with the second end of the coupling and a freeing posture to free the second end. The second end is pushed into an escaping recess of the guiding surface by the stopper when the stopper is displaced from the interfering posture to the freeing posture.
US07680428B2
A grid wire cleaning mechanism is provided to prevent a reduction in image quality due to the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier not being uniformly charged as a result of corona products adhering unevenly to the surface of the grid wires to extend the life of the grid wires and grid wire contact member. A first abrading member 71 abrades grid wires 224. A movement device 73 moves the first abrading member 71 in the same direction as the direction of extension of the grid wires 224. A humidity measurement unit 741 measures the humidity near the grid wires 224. The operation control unit 743 operates the movement device 73 when cleaning the grid wires 224, but does not operate the movement device 73 when the humidity measured by the humidity measurement unit 741 exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
US07680426B2
In a configuration with a plurality of developing units, an influx of air into one developing unit from another developing unit can be blocked with a simple configuration. An operation section for a developing unit that is not in operation rotates a developer roll in the reverse direction to move developer accumulated on a pickoff pole, and fills a clearance formed between a housing and the developer roll with the developer so that the air flow of the developing unit that is not in operation is blocked. Accordingly, even if a difference in pressure between a developing unit that is in operation and a developing unit that is not in operation occurs, an air flow from the developing unit in operation to the developing unit not in operation is not apt to be formed, and an influx of air into the developing unit that is not in operation is blocked.
US07680420B1
A method of synthesizing a modulated optical signal using a laser cascaded with an amplitude modulator. A phase drive signal VF(t) is derived for driving the laser to generate an optical carrier signal with a desired phase φ(t). An amplitude drive signal VS(t) is then derived for driving the amplitude modulator to impose a desired amplitude S(t) onto the optical carrier signal generated by the laser. The amplitude drive signal VS(t) is compensated for amplitude modulation of the optical carrier signal generated by the laser.
US07680408B2
A lens module includes a lens barrel, a first lens, a second lens, a plurality of electrostrictive members and a controlling unit. The first lens has a first optical axis thereof, the second lens has a second optical axis thereof, the first and second lenses being received in the lens barrel. The electrostrictive members are arranged in the lens barrel and connected with the second lens. The controlling unit is configured for controlling the electrostrictive members so as to adjust the second optical axis of the second lens to be in alignment with the first optical axis of the first lens. A camera module using the lens module is also provided.
US07680402B2
An image shooting device with a camera shake correction function is provided. The image shooting device is capable of avoiding the deterioration of image quality due to performing camera shake correction. An image shooting control unit of the image shooting device can be configured to select to take in either one piece of image data for ordinary image shooting or a plurality of pieces of image data for camera shake correction, on the basis of the determination result of a determination unit. It also can be configured to take in both one piece of image data for ordinary image shooting and a plurality of pieces of image data for camera shake correction.
US07680401B1
A portable photography studio includes a carrier for transporting the components of the photography studio. The carrier is made up of a number of panels, several of which are detachable from the other panels. The main components of the photography studio include a pair of reflectors and three light diffusing screens, each of which has an edge attached to one of the panels of the carrier. When in use, the carrier panels may be detached and moved away from one another, allowing for the reflectors and screens to be pivoted about their attached edges and assembled in their proper positions for photographing objects. A background may also be attached to one of the panels and contained within the carrier. When the photographing is completed, the background, screens and reflectors may be pivoted back to their original positions and the carrier panels reassembled to form an enclosure holding all of the components. An accessories pouch for holding lighting devices may be included and positioned within the carrier during transport.
US07680394B2
Recording medium, recording method, reproduction apparatus and method, and computer-readable program
An AV Clip generated by multiplexing video and graphics streams is recorded on a BD-ROM. The graphics stream is a sequence of PES packets. The PES packets include ODSs (Object Definition Segments) carrying graphics data and PCSs (Presentation Control Segments) carrying control information. A PCS indicates that graphics data in a preceding ODS in the arrangement is to be displayed at a predetermined time in a state of being overlaid on the video stream. The PCS and the preceding ODS belong to different DSs, and the graphics data in the preceding ODS may be non-referenced graphics data that is not referenced by a PCS which belongs to the same DS as the preceding ODS.
US07680391B2
A control device remotely controls a controlled device. The control device includes a display unit, a communication unit and a control unit. The display unit displays a control panel of the controlled device. The control unit produces operation information. The communication unit sends the operation information to the controlled device. The operation information includes a shifting history of a cursor displayed on the control panel. The shifting history includes identification information of buttons depressed by the cursor in a single operation.
US07680381B1
An optical fiber includes a core, an inner cladding and a low index ring of silica-based glass. The core comprises silica-based glass, an index of refraction n1, and a relative refractive index percent Δ1% relative to pure silica glass. The inner cladding surrounds the core and comprises an index of refraction n2 and a relative refractive index percent Δ2% relative to pure silica glass, wherein Δ1%>Δ2% and the difference between Δ1% and Δ2% is greater than about 0.1%. The low index ring surrounds the inner cladding and comprises silica glass co-doped with boron and fluorine, a radial thickness of less than about 20 μm, an index of refraction n3 and a third relative refractive index percent change Δ3% relative to pure silica glass, wherein Δ2%>Δ3% and Δ3% is less than about −1.0%.
US07680368B2
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chip comprising an array of modulated sources, each providing a modulated signal output at a channel wavelength different from the channel wavelength of other modulated sources and a wavelength selective combiner having an input optically coupled to received all the signal outputs from the modulated sources and provide a combined output signal on an output waveguide from the chip. The modulated sources, combiner and output waveguide are all integrated on the same chip.
US07680364B2
A transmissive active channel element is provided in each signal channel of a monolithic multi-channel TxPIC where each channel also includes a modulated source. The active channel element functions both as a power control element for both monitoring and regulating the output channel signal level of each signal channel and as a modulator for channel wavelength tagging or labeling to provide for wavelength locking the modulated sources. The power regulating function is also employed to control the channel signal power outputs of each channel to be uniform across the channel signal array. All of these functions are carried out by a feedback loop utilizing digital signal processing.
US07680359B2
A method of processing digital source images, each represented by pixel matrices, to obtain from two or more source images, representing one and the same real scene and acquired by utilizing different exposure levels, a final digital image capable of reproducing the real scene with an exposure latitude greater than that of each of the source images. The method, which can be advantageously used in digital still cameras, produces the final image by combining the source images with the help of a weighted average constructed pixel by pixel. Thanks to a special filtering to which the weighting coefficients are subjected before the weighted mean operation, the method obtains a final image in which the source images are harmoniously combined with each other.
US07680357B2
Voting of coordinates of each pixel in a photographic image onto a Hough space corresponding to annuluses is performed, the Hough space being defined by a coordinate system having an X coordinate axis for a circle center point, a Y coordinate axis for a circle center point, and an r coordinate axis for a radial direction. A vote value of each voting position having coordinates (X, Y, r) on the Hough space is acquired as a first integrated vote value from a calculation of a number of votes given to each voting position. A position represented by (X, Y) coordinate values of a voting position associated with the largest first integrated vote value is detected as the position of the center point of the circular pattern.
US07680353B2
A simplified general model and an associated estimation algorithm is provided for modeling visual data such as a video sequence. Specifically, images or frames in a video sequence are represented as collections of flat moving objects that change their appearance and shape over time, and can occlude each other over time. A statistical generative model is defined for generating such visual data where parameters such as appearance bit maps and noise, shape bit-maps and variability in shape, etc., are known. Further, when unknown, these parameters are estimated from visual data without prior pre-processing by using a maximization algorithm. By parameter estimation and inference in the model, visual data is segmented into components which facilitates sophisticated applications in video or image editing, such as, for example, object removal or insertion, tracking and visual surveillance, video browsing, photo organization, video compositing, etc.
US07680344B2
It is possible to control the number of generated codes while retraining deterioration of an image quality by an encoding circuit constituted so as to select any of a first image signal not decreasing information quantity and a second image signal decreasing information quantity in accordance with the accumulated value of the number of codes.
US07680338B2
An image processing apparatus for receiving image data composed of a plurality of pixels, extracting an area from an image based on the received data and detecting a type of an image included in the extracted area, includes means for calculating the ratio of pixels having a predetermined pixel value to pixels constituting the area, and detects the type of the image included in the area, based on the calculated ratio of pixels.
US07680337B2
The invention provides a method for identifying one or more materials in a scene by determining a set of spectral vectors, called endmembers, from a data set comprised of spectra from the image data, and matching the set of endmembers to predefined library materials. The image data of the scene is captured with a sensor, and comprises a plurality of spectra. The method applies an iterative mathematical criterion, termed residual minimization, to find the endmembers. The first endmember may be selected based on the largest mean square value or the largest mean magnitude value. Subsequent endmembers are determined by calculating weighting factors, such that the weighting factors are non-negative and the calculated vector differences, or residuals, generate the smallest error metric. The error metric is dependent upon the vector difference between two spectra in the image data set, and may be the mean squared vector difference between two spectra.
US07680332B2
Techniques for efficiently and accurately organizing freeform handwriting into lines. A global cost function is employed to find the simplest partitioning of electronic ink strokes into line groups that also maximize the “goodness” of the resulting lines and the consistency of their configuration. The “goodness” of a line may be based upon its linear regression error and the horizontal and vertical compactness of the strokes making up the line. The line consistency configuration for a grouping of strokes is measured by the angle difference between neighboring groups. The global cost function also takes into account the complexity of the stroke partitioning, measured by the number of lines into which the strokes are grouped. An initial grouping of strokes is made, and the cost for this initial grouping is determined. Alternate groupings of the initial stroke grouping are then generated. The global cost of each of these alternate stroke groupings is then calculated, and the stroke grouping that produces the largest global cost decrease from the global cost of the original grouping is selected. The alternate grouping creation, cost determination and evaluation, and grouping selection process then is repeated until the global cost for new grouping alternates no longer decreases.
US07680328B2
A histogram generating device is disclosed. An embodiment has a brightness signal generating module generating a brightness signal by use of RGB component data of an input frame, an image component data selecting module outputting a single component frame consisting of image component data, which is one of the RGB component data and the brightness signal, an interval histogram generating module generating a level value by calculating the number of image component data belonging to each level grouped by a histogram resolution as a detection interval of the plurality of successive single component frames is changed, and a memory storing a plurality of level values generated for each of the single component frames.
US07680325B2
An image processing method has a detection step of detecting a correspondence between one color of a first plurality of colors in a first image and one color of a second plurality of colors in a second image, and a correction step of correcting the first plurality of colors or the second plurality of colors in accordance with the correspondence.
US07680324B2
Search terms are derived automatically from images captured by a camera equipped cell phone, PDA, or other image capturing device, submitted to a search engine to obtain information of interest, and at least a portion of the resulting information is transmitted back locally to, or nearby, the device that captured the image.
US07680323B1
A three-dimensional (3-D) machine-vision involving a method and apparatus for performing segmentation of 3-D objects. Multiple stereo-related sets (left/right, top/left, top/right) of two-dimensional video pixel data are separately processed into sets of edges. Each stereo-related set is then pair-wise processed to convert pairs of sets of edge data into 3-D point data. Multiple sets of pair-wise 3-D data are then merged and used for obtaining 3-D features which are then clustered into discrete 3-D objects that can lie on any arbitrary plane.
US07680320B2
A color image as a combination of color data corresponding to a plural n-number of different hues is processed by extracting a target object from the image and carrying out a specified image processing. A reference image is obtained in the absence of the target object. Color data corresponding to specified less than n of the different hues are considered and difference in the degree of intensity of the considered color data relative to the combination of color data corresponding to n different hues between each pixel of the target image containing the target object and a corresponding pixel on the reference image are extracted. Pixels for which the extracted difference is greater than a specified threshold value and is in a specified direction are extracted. An image area formed by the extracted pixels are recognized as the target object.
US07680315B2
The present invention is methods for processing medical images so as to remove certain effects of the physical characteristics of the object being imaged and/or of the apparatus used to form the images. The invention further provides for the formation of a standardized image from the processed image and for the use of the standardized image or the processed image in the training of computer-aided detection/diagnosis algorithms. These algorithms may then be used to detect abnormalities in other standardized or processed images derived from any of a variety of image acquisition systems.
US07680312B2
A method for segmenting an object of interest from an image of a patient having such object. Each one of a plurality of training shapes is distorted to overlay a reference shape with a parameter Θi being a measure of the amount of distortion required to effect the overlay. A vector of the parameters Θi is obtained for every one of the training shapes through the minimization of a cost function along with an estimate of uncertainty for every one of the obtained vectors of parameters Θi, such uncertainty being quantified as a covariance matrix Σi. A statistical model represented as {circumflex over (f)}H (Θ,Σ) is generated with the sum of kernels having a mean Θi and covariance Σi. The desired object of interest in the image of the patient is identified by positioning of the reference shape on the image and distorting the reference shape to overlay the obtained image with a parameter Θ being a measure of the amount of distortion required to effect the overlay. An uncertainty is quantified as a covariance matrix Σ and an energy function E=Eshape+Eimage is computed to obtain the probability of the current shape in the statistical shape model Eshape(Θ,Σ)=−log({circumflex over (f)}H) and the fit in the image Eimage.
US07680295B2
An interface is provided that corresponds to an individual person without being restricted to a particular place within a room, by performing gesture recognition while identifying an individual person. A stereo camera (1) picks up an image of a user (4), and based on the image pickup output, an image processor 2 transmits a color image within a visual field and a distance image to an information integrated recognition device (3). The information integrated recognition device (3) identifies an individual by the face of the user (4), senses the position, and recognizes a significant gesture based on a hand sign of the user (4). The information integrated recognition device (3) executes a command corresponding the identified user (4) and performs operations of all devices (6) to be operated in the room (such as a TV set, an air conditioner, an electric fan, illumination, acoustic condition, and window opening/closing).
US07680287B2
A directional setting apparatus according to the present invention, comprising: a voice recognition unit which detects a certain voice included in a sound signal outputted from a microphone array having a plurality of microphones and a directional determination period indicating a detection period of said certain voice; a voice direction detector which detects occurrence direction of said certain voice in said directional determination period; and a directional controller which controls directivity of a prescribed apparatus based on the sound signals outputted from said plurality of microphones in said directional determination period.
US07680280B2
An electronic device, a control method thereof and a security program are provided which are capable of preventing or suppressing the theft of the electronic device.The electronic device comprises mounting means for loading a portable recording medium and encrypted information write means for encrypting predetermined information using an encryption key unique to the electronic device and writing the encrypted information in the recording medium. The electronic device further comprises encrypted information read means for reading the encrypted information recorded in the recording medium in the case where the recording medium is loaded in the mounting means, decryption execution means for executing the decryption of the encrypted information using the encryption key, and control means for setting the electronic device in usable mode in the case where the encrypted information is decrypted by the decryption execution means.
US07680272B2
In an inverse calculation circuit, an inverse calculation method, and a storage medium encoded with a computer readable computer program code, a random number generator generates a first random number and a second random number; and an inverter receives a plurality of first bits expressing a first element of a finite field(s) as first inputs, receives a plurality of second bits expressing a second element of a finite field(s) as second inputs. In response to the first and second random numbers, the inverter outputs a plurality of third bits expressing the inverse elements of the first element. The first random number prevents a different power analysis (DPA) decryption attack, and the second random number prevents a timing decryption attack.
US07680271B2
A cryptography method involving a keyholder having a number m≧1 of private keys Q1, Q2, . . . , Qm and respective public keys G1, G2, . . . , Gm, each pair of keys (Qi, Gi) (where i=1, . . . , m) satisfying either the relationship G1=Qiv mod n or the relationship Gi×Qiv=1 mod n, where n is a public integer equal to the product of f (where f>1) private prime factors p1, . . . , pf, at least two of which are separate, and the exponent v is a public integer equal to a power of 2. Disclosed is what mathematical structure may be imparted to the public keys for it to be impossible to calculate said private keys from said public parameters in a reasonable time unless said prime factors are known. Devices adapted to implement the method are also disclosed.
US07680262B2
A method and apparatus for reducing the cost of long distance phone calls is disclosed. Accordingly, an originating phone network is operatively connected to a first intermediate point, and a receiving phone network is operatively connected to a second intermediate point. Each intermediate point is operatively connected to communicate via a data network. Users on the originating and destination phone networks may communicate based on virtual numbers. The virtual number is preferably within the local calling area of the originating phone network. The first and second intermediate points route calls to any geographic location, regardless of distance, over the data network based on the virtual number. This provides the advantage of allowing a user on the originating phone network to access a user at a distant location for a price that is substantially similar to the price of a local call.
US07680256B2
A contact number encapsulation system is disclosed that is operable to consolidate a plurality of contact numbers associated with a given user into a single contact number. The system includes a call processing application that uses information contained in a SIP message header to determine a list of contact numbers to call. The SIP message header contains a call destination indication that is used by the call processing application to retrieve the list of contact numbers. The list of contact numbers is user defined and may be updated or modified by an account holder at any given time. Once the list of contact numbers is obtained, a simultaneous call module is used to simultaneously call each number contained in the list. As such, the account holder only needs to provide the primary contact number to individuals desiring to reach him/her instead of various numbers that are associated with various locations the account holder may be located.
US07680252B2
A switch proxy comprising a controller, a translations database and a switching fabric are connected to a trunk group between a remote terminal and its controlling local switching system. The switch proxy monitors control signals to and from the switching system on the trunk. In the event of loss of control signals from the host switching system, the switch proxy intercepts requests for service, etc. from a calling telephone connected to the remote terminal and performs a look up in the translation database. If the call can be completed without the controlling switching system the call is looped back to the remote terminal. The translation database is maintained by a switch proxy management system that receives change orders from the local exchange carrier. The switch proxy management system forwards relevant changes to the switch proxy's translation database in the field.
US07680251B2
A method and apparatus for preventing false alarm activation is provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, a determination (410) is made as to whether an instruction from a controller is a commanded reset, and control of a Subscriber Line Interface Circuit is taken (416) from a voice processor circuit when the instruction is a commanded reset.
US07680249B2
A small-sized filter unit of a simple structure, as well as an X-ray tube unit and an X-ray imaging system both having the filter unit, are implemented. A filter unit in a first aspect of the present invention comprises a filter plate, the filter plate having a first filter, a second filter disposed in a first direction with respect to the first filter and a third filter disposed in a second direction having a predetermined angle from the first direction with respect to the first filter, a guide plate having a guide frame for movement of the filter plate in the first and second directions, and a drive device for moving the filter plate.
US07680248B2
To be able to achieve further small-sized formation and light-weighted formation and to promote a sensitivity by further efficiently detecting a fluorescent X-ray or the like in an X-ray tube and an X-ray analyzing apparatus, there are provided a vacuum cabinet 2 inside of which is brought into a vacuum state and which includes a window portion 1 formed by an X-ray transmitting film through which an X-ray can be transmitted, an electron beam source 3 installed at inside of the vacuum cabinet 2 for emitting an electron beam e, a target T generating a primary X-ray X1 by being irradiated with the electron beam e and installed at inside of the vacuum cabinet 2 to be able to emit the primary X-ray X1 to an outside sample S by way of the window portion 1, and an X-ray detecting element 4 arranged at inside of the vacuum cabinet 2 to be able to detect a fluorescent X-ray and a scattered X-ray X2 emitted from the sample S and incident from the window portion 1 for outputting a signal including energy information of the fluorescent X-ray and the scattered X-ray X2.
US07680240B2
Methods for performing image reconstruction that include deriving background projection data for an area outside a targeted field of view of a tomographic image, and reconstructing the tomographic image of the targeted field of view, wherein the background projection data is used in the reconstruction. Methods for selecting a reconstruction methodology that include determining a number of pixels in a reconstructed image for a first reconstruction methodology, determining a number of pixels in a reconstructed image for a second reconstruction methodology, comparing the number of pixels for the first reconstruction methodology and the number of pixels for the second reconstruction methodology, and selecting the reconstruction methodology for image reconstruction based on the comparison of the number of pixels. Imaging systems implementing these methods are also provided.
US07680238B2
A frequency divider circuit comprises a plurality of T flip-flops, a first transmission gate, a second transmission gate and an inverter. The plurality of T flip-flops is connected in series. The output of the inverter is connected to a clock input of a first T flip-flop. The first transmission gate connects a clock signal and the other clock input of the first T flip-flop and the input of the inverter. The second transmission gate connects the inverted signal of the clock signal and the output of the first transmission gate.
US07680235B2
A PLL circuit includes a phase comparing section, a low pass filter, a digital VCO circuit, and a frequency divider. The phase comparing section compares an inputted clock signal and a frequency-divided clock signal in phase to detect a phase difference. The low pass filter averages the phase difference outputted from the phase comparing section to output the averaged result as a frequency control input. The digital VCO circuit operates in synchronism with a reference clock signal, and generates a sync clock signal based on the frequency control input while a phase of the sync clock signal is controlled in units of predetermined resolution values. The predetermined resolution value is a 1/K (K is a natural number more than 1) of a period of the reference clock signal. The frequency divider frequency-divides the synch clock signal to generate the frequency-divided clock signal.
US07680234B2
A phase locked loop (PLL) circuit provides ac devices, such as power inverters and power measurement devices, with a reliable means for synchronizing to ac electrical systems. In an exemplary embodiment, the PLL circuit is configured for operation with single-phase electrical systems and offers substantial noise immunity by basing its locking operations on measured fundamental components, i.e., measured x-y phasors, of the electrical system voltage. Further, with its phasor-based locking operations and with its timer/counter-based operation, the PLL circuit can be implemented partly or wholly in digital processing logic.
US07680232B2
The disclosed invention is a technology for producing a recovered clock signal using a multi-mode clock data recovery (CDR) circuit that accommodates a flexible range operating frequencies F and consecutive identical digit requirements CID. In a first mode of operation, a controlled oscillator produces the recovered clock signal, and in a second mode of operation, a phase interpolator produces the recovered clock signal. The multi-mode CDR circuit operates in the first mode if (CID/F) is less than a threshold time value and in the second mode if (CID/F) is greater than the threshold time value.
US07680231B2
An adaptive variable length pulse synchronizer including a state keeper circuit, an asynchronous pulse edge detection circuit, a data synchronization circuit, and a pulse edge synchronization circuit. The state keeper circuit detects a leading edge of the asynchronous pulse. The asynchronous pulse edge detection circuit detects a trailing edge of the asynchronous pulse after the state keeper circuit has detected the leading edge. The asynchronous pulse edge detection circuit further provides a pulse synchronized with a clock signal after the asynchronous pulse has been detected. The data synchronization circuit latches the asynchronous data and provides the synchronous data in response to the synchronous pulse. The pulse edge synchronization provides the synchronous ready signal after synchronous data has been provided. In one embodiment, the synchronous pulse occurs between successive rising edges of the clock whereas the synchronous ready signal is provided in response to the intermediate falling edge of the clock.
US07680228B2
In addition to fast on-off timing, instructive information on an output wave such as an amplitude or a slope is transmitted through a small number of signal lines. Output wave modifier information such as the amplitude or slope is transferred through serial communication 1, and an on-off timing signal is transmitted as an individual signal 20.
US07680226B2
A digital signal waveform receiving circuit may be processed by a non-linear adaptive canonical correlation analysis circuit that may quantify and minimize crosstalk-induced jitter timing skew for improving set-up and hold timing margins of data streams on the receiving circuit. A non-linear adaptive canonical correlation analysis circuit may be placed between an incoming digital signal from a serial link and a PHY receiving layer of an information handling system 100. The PHY receiving layer of the information handling system may be coupled to the non-linear adaptive canonical correlation analysis circuit or may be coupled to the digital signal. This coupling selection may be automatically programmed depending on received signal cross-talk-induced jitter timing skew or may be programmed by a user of the information handling system.
US07680222B2
A receiver includes a channel estimator for estimating a channel impulse response of a radio channel; an equalizer for generating linear minimum mean-square error equalizer coefficients and providing an equalized signal to a correlator; an estimating unit for forming an initial estimate of received data elements on the basis of an equalized signal; and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to calculate a scaling factor by taking an inverse value, subtracted from a value of one, of a conjugate transpose of a linear minimum mean-square error equalizer coefficient vector multiplied by a channel impulse response vector, and to use the scaling factor for determining reliability of the initial estimate of the received data elements.
US07680220B2
A phase measurement circuit is described that receives a signal with irregularly spaced edges and assigns a numerical value to the phase of each edge. An interpolator provides linear interpolation between successive values to provide continuous phase values at smaller, regular intervals. The interpolated values are resampled at a lower, regular rate to simplify subsequent processing by filters or other data-reduction means. The interpolation is performed without dividers or two-variable multipliers.
US07680216B2
A technique is provided for implementing adaptive thresholds associated with HS-SCCH detection schemes; and when applied to any HS-SCCH detection scheme, the resulting false alarm probability curves are more robust to amplitude variations of the different shared control channels. The technique has low computational complexity and low storage requirements for the estimator. Such lower complexity detection schemes have been found to outperform more complex schemes when adaptive thresholds are applied.
US07680214B2
A device (20) for computing a threshold Sthi used in demodulating a quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) signal to generate a plurality of soft bits per received symbol for input to a turbo decoder, the device including: means (30) for computing the mean amplitude A of the received symbols and multiplying the mean amplitude A by of the received symbols and multiplying the mean amplitude A by a constant Ci for a square QAM constellation with 4m points, such that Sthi=A×Ci where m is a positive integer and i is a positive integer from 1 to (√4m-1)−1.
US07680207B2
The object of the present invention is provide a mobile communication system which can improve a communication quality of the mobile communication system as a whole by changing a transmission method for transmitting common information. Each of the mobile stations 200a to 200l comprises a communication quality measurer 230 configured to measure a communication quality of a signal transmitted from the radio station 100a. The radio station 100a comprises a communication quality acquirer 130 configured to acquire the communication quality from the plurality of mobile stations 200a to 200l; a transmission method changer 140 configured to change a transmission method for at least one of an error encoding rate, the number of repeated bits, an interleave length, the number of multiple codes and the number of transmission signal repetitions, in accordance with the acquired communication quality; and a transmitter 110 configured to transmit the signal to the plurality of mobile stations 200a to 200l using the changed transmission method.
US07680201B2
A method of broadcasting an AM compatible digital audio broadcasting signal includes: producing an analog modulated carrier signal centrally positioned in a radio channel, wherein the analog modulated carrier signal is modulated by an analog signal, producing a plurality of digitally modulated subcarrier signals in the radio channel, wherein the digitally modulated subcarrier signals are modulated using complementary pattern-mapped trellis code modulation (CPTCM) including a code mapped to overlapping partitions including an upper main partition, a lower main partition, an upper backup partition and a lower backup partition, and a non-overlapping tertiary partition, and transmitting the analog modulated carrier signal and the plurality of digitally modulated subcarrier signals. Transmitters that broadcast the signal and receivers that receive the signal, and the reception method are also included.
US07680199B2
In a multi user communication system, subcarriers are allocated to subchannels using a quality measurement for each subchannel. An initial sub carrier is allocated to each subchannel, and a quality metric measured. Subsequent subcarriers are allocated in dependence upon the quality measurement for each subchannel. The subchannel with the lowest quality measurement receives the first allocation, and the subchannel with the highest quality measurement receives the last allocation. The subsequent allocation is repeated, following a re-sort of the subchannel quality measurements, until all of the subcarriers are allocated.
US07680198B2
A bit/power loading method in an adaptive modulation-based multicarrier communication system computes ratios of modulation mode values to transmission power values sub-channel-by-sub-channel, selects a combination of sub-channels in which a sum of the ratios is maximized for a total number of bits to be simultaneously transmitted, and transmits signals in modulation modes corresponding to ratios of modulation mode values to transmission power values associated with the selected sub-channels. Because the bit/power loading method selects a combination of sub-channel modulation modes with the minimum total transmission power for a given number of bits on the basis of transmission power in each sub-channel modulation mode, the bits can be transmitted at the minimum transmission power in a given environment.
US07680197B2
The present invention provides an apparatus and an associated method for sampling timing compensation, which can estimate sampling frequency offset between the receiver and transmitter of a multi-carrier system according to estimated frequency responses of two consecutive received symbols within each pilot subchannel, and compensate an accumulated sampling timing offset resulted from the sampling frequency offset. When the accumulated timing offset is not large, the apparatus uses a phase rotator to compensate with a corresponding accumulated phase rotation in frequency domain. When the accumulated timing offset is large, the apparatus first compensates with a specific timing offset in time domain, and then uses the phase rotator to compensate with a phase rotation corresponding to the remaining timing offset in frequency domain. A timing controller is used to compensate with the specific timing offset by adjusting a clock generator or a cyclic prefix remover of the receiver.
US07680192B2
A multi-sensor network camera providing up to 360 degrees angle of view. The includes multiple image sensors with individual optics, one or more image processors, compression units and network interfaces mounted in the single housing. The image sensors are positioned in non-parallel planes, cumulatively providing panoramic field of view and image streams originating from all sensors share the same image compression and network interface hardware, providing for low cost implementation. The images from all sensors are transmitted over the network simultaneously via packet interleaving, with appropriate bandwidth reduction achieved by image decimation. Simultaneously with transmission of decimated images from all sensors, full resolution window or entire image of one or more sensors may also transmitted, where the selection of contents is based on motion detection or user setting.
US07680191B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed for efficiently encoding data representing a video image, thereby reducing the amount of data that must be transferred to a decoder. The method includes transforming data sets utilizing a tensor product wavelet transform which is capable of transmitting remainders from one subband to another. Collections of subbands, in macro-block form, are weighted, detected, and ranked enabling prioritization of the transformed data. A motion compensation technique is performed on the subband data producing motion vectors and prediction errors which are positionally encoded into bit stream packets for transmittal to the decoder. Subband macro-blocks and subband blocks which are equal to zero are identified as such in the bit stream packets to further reduce the amount of data that must be transferred to the decoder.
US07680186B2
A motion estimation apparatus and a method considers a correlation between blocks. The motion apparatus includes a full search unit which divides a current frame/field into blocks of predetermined size and estimates an arbitrary motion vector of each block by a full search algorithm; a candidate motion vector estimating unit which computes a plurality of motion prediction error values by applying a block matching algorithm (BMA) to a current block and estimates candidate motion vectors from motion prediction error values below a predetermined threshold; a motion compensating unit which computes a correlation between respective candidate motion vectors and the motion vectors of adjacent blocks and compensates one among the candidate motion vectors to a final motion vector of the current block based on the computed correlation. By estimating motion vector of the current block in consideration of the correlation between the blocks, images free of block artifact can be provided.
US07680185B2
An encoder/decoder uses “self-referencing” frames. For example, a second B-field in a current frame references the first B-field from the current frame in motion compensated prediction. Allowing the first B-field in a frame to act as a reference for the second B-field in the frame allows more accurate prediction of the second B-field, while also preserving the temporal scalability benefits of having B-fields in the current frame.
US07680183B2
A video encoding method comprises selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations each including a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture, generating a prediction picture signal in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination, generating a predictive error signal representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal, and encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination.
US07680180B2
A decision feedback equalizer is configured to equalize an input signal to generate a recovered output signal. Linear feed-forward filter circuitry is configured to provide a linearly filtered output signal based on the input signal. Composite trellis decoder circuitry configured to process a combined signal that is based on a combination of at least the linearly feed-forward filtered output signal and on output of linear or non-linear feedback filter circuitry, in accordance with state metrics generated by processing a composite trellis diagram relative to the combined signal, to provide a trellis-decoded output signal as input to the linear or non-linear feedback filter circuitry. The composite trellis decoder circuitry is further configured to provide a particular phase output of the combined signal, based on the state metrics, as the decoded output signal.
US07680178B2
A communication device with cross-correlation detection based upon statistical tests to determine whether the off-peak signal energy is consistent with auto-correlation energy levels.
US07680176B2
According to a method and apparatus taught herein, a Rake receiver circuit selectively operates with or without colored interference compensation, in dependence on current operating conditions. For example, in one embodiment the Rake receiver circuit comprises one or more processing circuits that are configured to generate Rake combining weights in a first mode of operation as first combining weights calculated from channel estimates corresponding to a set of Rake signal fingers. In a second mode, the processing circuit(s) generate the Rake combining weights as compensated combining weights obtained by compensating the first combining weights with second combining weights calculated from colored interference estimates corresponding to a set of Rake probing fingers.
US07680175B2
An apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving a signal in a communication system with a plurality of antennas are provided. Received modulation symbols of channel coded transmission information data are generated using a space-time mapping scheme and processed to RF symbols. The RF symbols are transmitted through antennas among the plurality of antennas.
US07680172B2
A laser diode device capable of detecting laser light with a simple structure is provided. A laser diode device, includes a semiconductor layer formed through laminating a first conductive type layer, an active layer and a second conductive type layer in this order, the second conductive type layer including a striped current confinement structure in a top portion thereof, and a plurality of electrodes being formed on the second conductive type layer side of the semiconductor layer and being electrically connected to the second conductive type layer at predetermined intervals, wherein the semiconductor layer has a photoreceptor region in a region corresponding to an electrode (a first electrode) of the plurality of electrodes except for at least one, the photoreceptor region absorbing a part of the light emitted in the semiconductor layer to convert the part of the light into a current signal.
US07680162B2
Provided is a vertical cavity surface emitting device. The surface emitting device includes a lower mirror layer emitting light having a long wavelength, an active layer providing an optical gain, a tunnel junction layer for confining a current, and an upper mirror layer, which are sequentially stacked on a compound semiconductor substrate, wherein a heat release layer is formed on side surfaces of at least one of the active layer, the tunnel junction layer and the upper mirror layer by using etching process, and the heat release layer has greater thermal conductivity than at least one of the active layer, the tunnel junction layer and the upper mirror layer.
US07680161B2
A laser source assembly comprises a laser diode for generating a laser beam and a focusing lens for focusing the light beam. A spacer is provided for keeping the diode and the lens at a predetermined distance, and is made of a material of low expansion coefficient. Preferably, the subassembly constituted of the diode, the spacer and the lens is housed in a case made of another material that may have a higher expansion coefficient. A resilient element is provided to continuously keep the diode and the lens abutting on the opposite ends of the spacer.
US07680160B2
A microprocessor is used to control the temperature of a laser emitter and thereby regulate the wavelength of optical signals from the laser. A serial interface in the microprocessor provides input and output lines to a host device, and temperature lookup tables are stored in nonvolatile memory. Control logic processes information stored in the memory as well as information on operating conditions of the laser emitter to precisely control the temperature of the laser emitter. A thermo-electric cooler adjusts the temperature of the laser emitter.
US07680156B2
Disclosed is a random access data transmission system and method using OFDMA. The system includes a scheduling ID into an access grant on a preamble for a random access, and transmits it together with an acknowledgment or a non-acknowledgment of the preamble, a base station uses the scheduling ID to notify the mobile station of a random access data transmittable time and a data transmission channel through a control channel, and the mobile station transmits a preamble in advance. After receiving a transmission assignment instruction corresponding to a scheduling ID through the control channel, the mobile station transmits random access data through an assigned channel.
US07680153B2
A method for stream synchronization of real-time multimedia transport over a packet network, in which the multimedia includes a first stream and a second stream which are buffered and played through buffers. The method includes: measuring average transport delays of the first and second streams; measuring transport delay jitters of the first and second streams; and calculating a delay difference between the first and second streams which corresponds to the average transport delays and the transport delay jitters of the first and second streams, and setting buffer durations. A device for stream synchronization of real-time multimedia transport over a packet network is also provided.
US07680152B2
A method is described for establishing one user from multiple users of a data network as a pilot master for emitting a pilot signal, to which the other users of the data network may synchronize themselves. In the related art, a pilot signal is typically generated by a separate pilot signal generator or a permanently predefined selected user. However, this has the disadvantage that if the pilot signal generator or the selected user malfunctions, synchronization and therefore also communication of the users with one another via the data network is no longer possible. In order to avoid this disadvantage, it is suggested that at least two of the users of the data network be implemented to be pilot-master-capable and one of them assume the pilot mastership according to a described method.
US07680143B2
A method of establishing a session between a first device and a second device. The session is established over a telecommunications network using an accelerated session setup technique. The method includes providing a first accelerated session setup technique and providing a second accelerated session setup technique. The method also includes establishing the session using either the first accelerated session setup technique or the second accelerated session setup technique based on a predetermined process.
US07680138B2
The inter-module communication apparatus includes a first module and a second module which operate individually on a processor; a common memory interposed between the first module and the second module for functioning as a communication medium; a plurality of communication paths provided to the common memory for connecting the first module and the second module to be communicable; a transmission unit for transmitting communication data from the first module to the second module; a reception unit for receiving the communication data transmitted from the first module by the second module; a processing order relating device for registering a processing order of communication processing, which is set between each communication path constituting a plurality of the communication paths; and a processing order relevance register which, for transmission, registers the processing order to the processing order relating device when the processing order is set for the communication data to be transmitted.
US07680134B2
A machine readable medium for tunneling Ethernet is described. A machine readable medium comprises receiving an Ethernet frame and transmitting the Ethernet frame over a non-homogenous tunnel, the tunnel distinguishing subscriber traffic.
US07680128B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatuses for interfacing high-layer applications to Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) on Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) edge nodes. These applications include high-level control protocols, such as Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) and Optical Switching and Routing Protocol (OSRP), and user-initiated cross-connect creation and termination. The present invention provides a mechanism that is capable of mapping SONET/SDH connections to Virtual Concatenated Groups (VCGs), thus enabling an efficient interface for operators to control and manage the connections via LCAS. As part of the mechanism, the existing LCAS protocol state machine is enhanced such that the operators can shut down bi-directional SONET/SDH flows from a single edge node, as opposed to from both source and sink nodes, as provided for by existing specifications.
US07680126B2
A scheduler and method for scheduling packet forwarding operations is provided. Packet forwarding request information associated with a first set of input port/output port combinations is received. Packet forwarding request information associated with a second set of input port/output port combinations different from the first set of input port/output port combinations is received, where the first set of input port/output port combinations and the second set of input port/output port combinations are selected to not conflict with each other. Packet forwarding for both the first set of input port/output port combinations at a first future time slot and the second set of input port/output port combinations at a second future time slot are simultaneously scheduling at a first scheduler and a second scheduler, respectively, based on the received packet forwarding request information. Reservation information for the first set of input port/output port combinations and the second set of input port/output port combinations is transferred to adjacent schedulers based on a module pattern, where the adjacent schedulers are responsible for scheduling additional sets of input port/output port combinations for the first and second future time slots, respectively.
US07680125B2
A method of scheduling wireless packet data traffic on a downlink packet data channel takes advantage of early decoding opportunities to decode the channel feedback reports before receipt of the mandated Lth repetition. The early-decoded channel feedback reports are promptly used in making scheduling decisions. Mobile stations are required to repeat transmissions of channel quality reports at least L times. The base station receives channel quality information report CFN from a first mobile station one or more times, but less than L times; and, prior to reception of the Lth repetition of CFN, successfully decodes CFN to form a first decoded report. Packet data transmissions on the downlink packet data traffic channel are scheduled based on CFN. A corresponding apparatus is also described.
US07680123B2
When the binding of a mobile station (MS) in a home agent (HA) expires, the HA generates an identifier from the MS's IMSI. The HA maintains a binding between the home address (HoA) and a special care of address (MAP-CoA), where the host ID of MAP-CoA is the identifier, and where the network ID of MAP-CoA is a special code. When a packet destined for the HoA is received at the HA, the HA responds by communicating the MAP-CoA to the PDSN that serves the special code. The PDSN recovers the IMSI from the host ID of the MAP-CoA, and uses the IMSI to page the MS. The MS responds by setting up a call, obtaining a new care of address, and then binding the new care of address with its HoA in the HA. Advantageously, packets can be sent to a dormant MS at its HoA without out-of-band signaling.
US07680122B2
A communication method in a third communication apparatus of a first node located between a first communication apparatus of the first node and a second communication apparatus of a second node, the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus performing data communication based on PPP.
US07680119B2
A network station for a data network for receiving external data and for transmitting device-internally prepared data has a repeater for transmitting an external data packet received at a data input to a data output, a first data preparation unit for transmitting an internal data packet generated from the prepared data via the data output, having a switching device for interrupting the data path between the data input and the data output, a control unit that is connected to the switching device in order, in a first operating mode, to block the transmission of the received external data packet via the data output if the internal data packet is currently being transmitted via the data output by the data preparation unit, and to permit the transmission of the received data packet by the repeater via the data output if no internal data packet is currently being transmitted via the first data preparation unit.
US07680115B2
A system (706, 714) is provided for a network signaling protocol bypass around a cryptographic device (1006, 1106). The system is comprised of a bypass means for receiving a packet (900) having a transport layer protocol header (908), for parsing a GIST signaling transport protocol identifier (950) from the transport layer protocol header, and for determining whether the GIST signaling transport protocol identifier is a NTLP or a NSIS signaling transport protocol identifier. If the GIST signaling transport protocol identifier is a NTLP or a NSIS signaling transport protocol identifier, the packet is bypassed around the cryptographic device. However, if the GIST signaling transport protocol identifier is not a NTLP or NSIS signaling transport protocol identifier, the packet is forwarded to the cryptographic device. A method is also provided for a network signaling protocol bypass around the cryptographic device.
US07680103B2
In one aspect, a method for billing for a connection routed via a packet network is provided. According to the method, billing is started the when the connection is established between a plurality of subscriber terminals. Information packets are transmitting according to a quality standard by at least one of the terminals. The information packets are routed in the network via a central device controlling a quality. The billing is stopping if the quality standard is not met.
US07680096B2
A network is set forth that comprises a plurality of multiple port switches, a plurality of endpoint devices connected to the ports of the plurality of switches, and an enumerating endpoint device that is connected to at least one of the multiple port switches. The enumerating endpoint device configures the routing through the multiple port switches based on whether the multiple port switch is on path with respect to a newly discovered processing element or off path with respect to the newly discovered processing element. Each off path switch may be configured so that communication packets destined for the new processing element are routed through the port of the off path switch that the off path switch uses for communications with the enumerating endpoint device. Each on path switch may be configured so that communication packets destined for the newly discovered processing element are routed through the port of the on path switch at which the enumerating endpoint device discovered the new processing element. In one example, the network is implemented as a RapidIO network.
US07680091B2
Systems and methods for routing packets by nodes in an ad hoc network in accordance with a link quality source routing protocol are disclosed. Route discovery, route maintenance, and metric maintenance are designed to propagate and keep current link quality measurements. Metric maintenance includes a reactive approach for links that a node is currently using to route packets, and a proactive mechanism for all links. Nodes are configured to include a send buffer, a maintenance buffer, a request table, link quality metric modules, and preferably a neighbor cache and a link cache. The invention allows for asymmetric links in the network. The invention may be implemented within a virtual protocol interlayer between the link and network layers. The invention may employ any particular link quality metrics, including metrics based on probing techniques as well as metrics based on knowledge gained in other ways.
US07680085B2
In a wireless data communications system a method is provided for conducting out-of-band for management and other communications with access points. The system operates under a first protocol, such as IEEE 802.11 protocol to provide wireless data communications. The access points are provided with a second radio module for conducting wireless data communications using a second protocol, such as Bluetooth. A wireless terminal, operating as a Bluetooth master can access the processor in the access point to conduct management and other communications relating to the operation of the access point.
US07680072B2
A radio communications system of this invention is configured to control transmission power of a shared control channel for transmitting control signals to a plurality of mobile stations. The radio communications system has a transmission power controller configured to control the transmission power of the shared control channel, in accordance with transmission power of a dedicated channel accompanying the shared control channel, and communication quality of the shared control channel.
US07680071B2
A method and apparatus for managing power during discontinuous reception (DRX) mode are disclosed. A DRX mode is defined for a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for reducing power consumption of the WTRU. During the DRX mode, the WTRU enters into a sleep state and periodically wakes up for processing paging blocks for detecting a paging indication for the WTRU and a corresponding paging message. If the WTRU is paged the WTRU terminates the DRX mode. If the WTRU is not paged, the WTRU reenters the sleep state. For power management during the DRX mode, a synchronization update period is defined. The synchronization update period is a period for performing automatic frequency correction and/or frame time correction.
US07680062B2
An apparatus and method for controlling abnormal traffic are provided. The apparatus includes: a list management unit which stores a list of Internet Protocols (IPs) transmitting normal packets and, conditionally, announces that the current packet traffic is packet traffic generated by a registered IP; a channel allocation unit which allocates channels to the input packets in such a manner that a packet determined as being normal is given priority over a packet determined as being abnormal, transmits the input packets to a network node, and transmits IP information regarding the input packets that are determined as being normal; a success rate determination unit which determines a service success rate for packets received from a registered IP; and a channel number adjustment unit which transmits the predetermined command to the channel allocation unit so that the channel allocation unit can adjust the number of channels reserved for allocation to normal packets.
US07680061B2
A system and method for identifying which signals provided by a head-end are accessible to CPE of a subscriber in an HFC network. The method includes obtaining a partial list of signals accessible to the CPE, and then applying heuristic rules on the partial list to generate a complete accessible signal list. Obtaining the partial list includes discovering signal information regarding a subset of the signals which are accessible to the CPE; using the discovered signal information to obtain a signal identification of a signal accessible to the CPE; and generating the partial list based on the obtained signal identification. Applying a heuristic rule includes using a bit mask within the obtained signal identification or a naming convention of the obtained signal identification to identify other associated signals. The partial list is then generated based on the obtained signal identification and the signal identifications of the other associated signals.
US07680060B2
A system for storing information in a network. The system includes one or more network elements and a message adapted for transfer between the one or more network elements. A mechanism selectively augments the message with information pertaining to a state associated with the one or more network elements. In one embodiment, the system includes space within the message for accommodating one or more state vias containing the state information. One or more computers associated with the one or more network elements are adapted to update the message with state information pertaining to each of the one or more network elements that receives the message via the network.
US07680053B1
A network switching device comprises first and second ports. A queue communicates with the second port, stores frames for later output by the second port, and generates a congestion signal when filled above a threshold. A control module selectively sends an outgoing flow control message to the first port when the congestion signal is present, and selectively instructs the second port to assert flow control when a flow control message is received from the first port if the received flow control message designates the second port as a target.
US07680046B2
A wide area load sharing control system includes a statistic information gathering module obtaining from respective nodes, as statistic information, a traffic state of links connected to the respective nodes in a network, a route determining module determining, based on the obtained statistic information, at least one route for extending a plurality of paths between ingress edge nodes and egress edge nodes that correspond to within a traffic engineering section in the network, and a load sharing determining module determining, based on the obtained statistic information, a ratio at which a traffic should be distributed to respective paths on the determined route. Active modules among the statistic information gathering module, the route determining module and the load sharing determining module are switched over to between the ingress edge nodes and the network control device concentratedly controlling the respective nodes, mutually.
US07680042B2
Details of media encoding and decoding devices which support generic homing sequences, and methods for operating such devices are disclosed. The use of generic homing sequences may permit an embodiment of the disclosed invention to support real-time, bit-exact testing of existing and future media encoding and decoding devices. An embodiment of the present invention may permit the initialization of encoding and decoding algorithms to a known state, enabling bit-exact testing of a large group of devices using these algorithms, including those whose specifications do not support such functionality. This capability may permit the full-speed, bit-exact, testing, of both locally and remotely situated media encoders and decoders.
US07680037B2
The present invention provides a resource-sensitive parser for use with a session initiation protocol (SIP) network. In one embodiment, the resource-sensitive parser includes a resource condition indicator configured to provide an overload indication for a network element in the SIP network. Additionally, the resource-sensitive parser also includes a parsing engine coupled to the resource condition indicator and configured to parse a SIP request employing an overload protection mode corresponding to the overload indication for the network element.
US07680034B2
A redundant control system for controlling an electromechanical system is provided. The control system includes a first processor, a second processor, an input-output node, a first communication channel, a second communication channel, and a signal selector. The first and second processors have a control algorithm and state variables resident thereon. The first and second processors each generate an output signal based on the control algorithm, the state variables, and an input signal from the electromechanical system. The first communication channel communicates the input signal and the output signal between the first processor and the input-output node, while the second communication channel communicates the input signal and the output signal between the second processor and the input-output node. The signal selector communicates either the output signal from the first processor or the output signal from the second processor to the electromechanical system.
US07680033B1
The present invention provides a way to discover/rediscover or repair a path in a SONET network using a “bottom-up” approach. In particular, information from nodes in the network is retrieved. The information indicates whether a node in the network cross-connects or adds/drops information in each of the timeslot of a SONET frame. A timeslot that is configured as an add/drop is considered a boundary of the path. Accordingly, based on the timeslots that are configured as boundaries, a path may be discovered/rediscovered or repaired.
US07680028B1
An RSVP node that has crashed and restarted sends a non-zero Recovery Time value in a Restart_Cap object of a Hello message. Other nodes receiving such messages can detect, based on the non-zero Recovery Time value, that the sending node is restarting. In particular, a first RSVP node can detect whether a second, neighbor node has restarted regardless of the order of restart with respect to the first and second nodes. As a result, the first node can determine whether to forward PATH messages with Recovery Label or Suggested Label, as appropriate or necessary to rebuild label-switched paths with crashed and restarted nodes. Therefore, when multiple RSVP nodes crash relatively concurrently, the multiple nodes can restart gracefully and automatically detect what kind of communication to use in order to rebuild label-switched paths among themselves.
US07680027B2
Methods and systems for estimating channel of one or more MSs in a collaborative MIMO communication system are provided. The method includes receiving a signal transmitted from a transmit antenna of a first MS and a transmit antenna of a second MS at a BTS using one or more receiver antennas. The method further includes computing one or more conjugate products for each of the first MS and the second MS using the signal. Thereafter, an average is determined over the plurality of receiver antennas and the plurality of tiles of the plurality of conjugate products for each of the first MS and the second MS. A phase determined based on the average of the plurality of conjugate products for the first MS and the second MS is divided into a first phase and a second phase for each of the first MS and the second MS. Additionally, the method includes determining a channel estimate for each tile of the first MS and the second MS at each receiver antennas. The method further includes performing predefined computations on the channel estimate of each tile of the first MS and the second MS at each receiver antenna of the BTS using the corresponding first phase and the corresponding second phase.
US07680025B2
Super-resolution technology was proposed for generating marks smaller than the optical resolution in order to record data at high density on the optical disk. However, the achievable high density of the super-resolution technology was limited due to fluctuation of the region exhibiting the super-resolution effect due to the grain size or the molecular size comprising the super-resolution film. However fluctuation in the region exhibiting the super-resolution effect is reduced by utilizing recording marks possessing their own super-resolution effect and also by separating the recording marks from each other.
US07680012B2
A method of recording control information in a recording medium, such as an optical disc, including at least one recording layer is provided Velocity information and per recording velocity write strategy (write strategy parameters) is included in control information, such that standardized control information can be uniformly applied to cope with the playback of a recorded optical disc. The method includes steps of recording, per applicable recording velocity, the control information within a management area of the at least one recording layer of the optical disc; and recording at least one write strategy information per the applicable recording velocity within the control information.
US07680011B2
A user data area of the recording medium is at least partially divided into separate recording areas such that data recorded in a separate recording area is of a same type. For example, at least one of the separate recording areas may be storing managing information for managing the recording medium. Additionally, at least two separate recording areas may be for recording different types of data. For example, at least one of the separate recording areas may be storing managing information for managing the recording medium, and at least another one of the separate recording areas is for storing a copy of the data in the at least one of the separate recording areas for storing management information.
US07680007B2
A disc device (100) implements information processing with respect to, for example, a zeroth recording layer of an optical disk by an information processing section (510), and outputs a double-layer main voltage value and a double-layer sub voltage value corresponding to the intensities of a zeroth-order light beam and ±first-order light beams which are received by a photodetecting element (350) to an offset calculating section (522) by a voltage value acquiring section (521). The voltage value acquiring section (521) stores voltage values corresponding to the intensities of the zeroth-order light beam and ±first-order light beams which are received by the photodetecting element (350) as a single-layer main voltage value and a single-layer sub voltage value in a memory (400) in a state where a single-layer disc is loaded. The offset calculating section (522) calculates a voltage value corresponding to the intensity of a stray light beam that is reflected by a first recording layer not intended for information processing as an offset voltage value on the basis of the respective voltage values.
US07680003B2
The optical disk drive of the present invention can read data from multiple types of optical disks and includes: a motor for spinning a given optical disk; at least one light source for radiating light beams with multiple different wavelengths; at least one lens for converging each light beam onto the disk; a spherical aberration correcting section that can change the spherical aberration states of the beam; and a control section for controlling the operations of the motor, light source, lens and spherical aberration correcting section. The control section includes a disk type recognizing section that irradiates the disk with a light beam using the light source and the lens, thereby recognizing the type of the disk. The recognizing section performs the recognition by reference to first and second signal waveforms that have been generated based on the light beams reflected from the optical disk when the spherical aberration correcting section sets the spherical aberration states of the light beam to first and second states, respectively.
US07680001B1
A cap assembly for a container that holds a perishable product. The cap assembly defines an opening through which the perishable product inside the container can be accessed. At least one obstruction plate is present within the cap assembly. Each obstruction plate is positionable between an open position, where the obstruction plate is clear of the opening, and a closed position where the obstruction plate obstructs the opening. A mechanism is provided within the cap assembly that automatically moves each obstruction plate from its open position to its closed position when the shelf life of the perishable product has expired. Optionally, the cap assembly may also include at least one condition sensor for detecting a condition harmful to the perishable product in the container. The mechanism also closes each obstruction plate if such a harmful condition is detected by the condition sensor.
US07679999B2
A marine acoustic sensor assembly includes an acoustic panel having a forward surface and an after surface, a laser scanner oriented so as to project a laser beam onto the acoustic panel after surface, and a sensor oriented so as to receive reflections of the laser beam off the acoustic panel and to transmit data from which a position of a sound generating source can be determined, wherein the acoustic panel is provided with an absorber layer extending over the after surface thereof, and the absorber layer is provided with holes extending therethrough, the holes being of a size sufficient to permit passage of the laser beams to the acoustic panel after surface and the reflections to pass to the sensor, whereby to minimize reflections and noise originating from aft of the after surface, while permitting sound incoming from forward of the acoustic panel to be measured.
US07679996B2
A system and method for sensing proximity of an object includes a signal generator, which generates a plurality of signals. A transducer is in communication with the signal generator to receive the plurality of signals from the signal generator. The transducer is capable of transforming a plurality of signals from the signal generator into a plurality of ultrasonic waves. The plurality of ultrasonic waves includes a first ultrasonic wave and a second ultrasonic wave, wherein the first ultrasonic wave and the second ultrasonic wave are formed out of phase. The plurality of ultrasonic waves are directed toward and reflected by the object. The transducer receives the plurality of ultrasonic waves reflected by the object, which become a plurality of received ultrasonic waves. An analog to digital converter is in communication with the transducer. The received plurality of ultrasonic waves reflected by the object is communicated to the analog to digital converter by the transducer.
US07679986B2
Disclosed is a data input circuit of a synchronous memory device for detecting and amplifying data, and transferring the amplified data for storage, which including: a write strobe signal converter for receiving a write strobe signal, dividing the received write strobe signal, and outputting control signals of predetermined bits, the control signals being synchronized with rising and falling edges of the divided signal; and a latch unit for latching data corresponding to the bits by means of the control signals, and outputting the data for the detection and amplification of the data. The data input circuit may include a first delay unit for delaying the data in order to match setup-hold time, a second delay unit for performing delay for adjusting the data outputted from the latch unit, and a third delay unit for performing delay for adjusting the write strobe signal outputted from the latch unit.
US07679985B2
A semiconductor memory device and an arrangement method thereof are disclosed. The semiconductor memory device comprises column selecting signal lines and global data IO signal lines arranged on the same layer in the same direction above a memory cell array; word lines and first local data IO signal lines arranged on a different layer from the column selecting signal lines above the memory cell array, in a perpendicular direction to the column selecting signal lines; and second local data IO signal lines arranged on a different layer from the column selecting signal lines and the word lines above the memory cell array, in the same direction as the first local data IO signal lines.
US07679984B2
A data path in a memory device is configured by selecting a data path configuration configured to at least partially maintain data bit order between the memory device and a chip carrier. The memory data path is arranged based on the data path configuration for memory operations where maintaining data bit order between the memory device and the chip carrier is required.
US07679978B1
A novel scheme for screening weak memory cell includes a cell coupled to a leakage stress delivery circuitry (LSDC), which, in turn, is coupled to an induced leakage adjustment control (ILAC). The LSDC includes a combination of PMOS transistors, NMOS transistors or both PMOS and NMOS transistors that are controlled by a plurality of stress inducing signals. The PMOS and/or NMOS transistors of the LSDC are coupled to a pair of complementary data lines. The complementary data lines are inputs to a sense amplifier and are outputs of a write driver. The ILAC controls the quantity of the leakage stress applied through the LSDC to the pair of complementary data lines. The ILAC further includes a leakage varying circuitry that is configured to adjust the leakage stress applied to the complementary data lines through the LSDC. The applied leakage stress is adjusted to establish a desired pass/fail threshold and to detect other process variations or defects so that the sense amplifier can be applied to detect the voltage differential during a read operation. The applied leakage stress can also be applied to write driver circuitry such that a write driver along with the applied stress provide enough voltage level to screen difficult-to-write cell from a easy-to-write cell during a write operation. The plurality of stress inducing signals are controlled such that the appropriate leakage stress may be applied to force a leakage to Vdd or Vss associated with the cell through the complementary data lines.
US07679974B2
In response to determining a bit cell of a bit cell array of a memory device is a defective bit cell, a portion of the bit cell array including the defective bit cell is decoupled from a power source of the memory device. The portion can be decoupled via a fuse, a transistor, and the like.
US07679971B1
A method for a read-before-write functionality for a memory within a programmable logic device (PLD) is provided. The method begins when a read operation and a write operation are initiated through two different ports of a memory simultaneously to access the same address in the memory. In order to prevent the write operation from proceeding prior to the read operation, a read-before-write control logic is provided to the control block of the port that supports the write operation. Thus, the write operation is paused until the control block of the port that supports the write operation receives a signal from a read sense amplifier indicating that the read operation is complete. The read sense amplifier is capable of detecting the completion of a read operation by monitoring the voltage difference of the read bitline. When this voltage difference reaches a threshold value, the read sense amplifier triggers a write wordline signal. The enabling of the write wordline signal causes, the data to be written to the memory.
US07679970B2
Disclosed herein is a semiconductor memory device which can simultaneously perform a read access and a write access independently. The semiconductor memory device according to the present invention can access a plurality of data through the global sense amplifying unit and the global bit line, and enables the read controller and the write controller to independently control the global bit line and the bit line sense amplifying unit to be connected to each other to thereby perform the read access and the write access simultaneously.
US07679965B2
A memory includes a plurality of flash cells and circuitry for programming a first cell to store first data and one or more second cells to store second data. Either the circuitry itself, or a controller of the memory, or a host of the memory by executing driver code, causes the programming of the first cell to be in accordance with the second data, with at least a portion of the programming of the first cell being effected before any of the programming of the second cell(s).
US07679957B2
Two floating gate devices are arranged in a redundant configuration in a non-volatile memory (NVM) such that stress induced leakage current (SILC) or other failures do not result in a complete loss of memory storage. The redundant NVM may be arranged as a series configuration, a parallel configuration, a single-ended device, a differential device, a simple logic circuit function, a complex logic circuit function, and/or as part of an RFID tag system.
US07679954B2
A phase change memory apparatus includes a phase change memory array in which a plurality of phase change memory devices are arranged, and a pulse generator that supplies a writing current pulse, an erasure current pulse, and a reverse repair current pulse to the phase change memory devices in the phase change memory array. The reverse repair current pulse has opposite direction to the writing current pulse and the erasure current pulse of the phase change memory devices, and is of such a size that resultant Joule heat and electromigration move the elements of the reverse repair current pulse. The reverse repair current pulse has a width equal to or more than a smaller one of duration of a normal writing operation and duration of a normal erasure operation.
US07679947B2
A semiconductor transistor array is disclosed having a plurality of identical transistors, with sources of the transistors commonly coupled to a first voltage supply, and bulks of the transistors commonly coupled to a second voltage supply which is different from the first voltage supply, wherein different voltages can be supplied to the sources and bulks.
US07679945B2
A persistent volatile memory cell memorizes a binary datum during a retention time independent from a supply voltage of the memory cell. The memory cell comprises a capacitive memory point supplying a persistent voltage and having a determined discharge time, a switch for triggering the discharge of the memory point when an erase signal has an active value, a switch for triggering the charge of the memory point when a write signal has an active value, and a sense-amplifier circuit having an input receiving the persistent voltage, and an output supplying the binary datum. The memory cell can be applied to the management of an inventory flag in a contactless integrated circuit.
US07679943B2
The present invention is an apparatus for providing an uninterruptible power supply for an electronic device. The apparatus includes an AC-to-DC power supply that receives an external AC voltage supply and outputs a DC voltage to the electronic device. The power supply includes a bridge rectifier that rectifies the AC voltage from the external AC voltage supply, a boost power factor correction (PFC) converter that boosts the rectified voltage, and a line isolated DC-to-DC converter that changes the boosted voltage to the operating voltage range of the electronic device. The apparatus also includes an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) subsystem that contains, a controller that monitors the external AC voltage supply for interruptions, and a high voltage isolated DC-to-DC (HVDC) converter that supplies high voltage DC power directly to the PFC converter if the controller detects an interruption in the external AC voltage supply.
US07679935B2
An electromagnetic-shielding device disposed in an electronic device prevents that an electric component in the electronic device is interfered by electromagnetic wave. The electromagnetic-shielding device has at least one positioning and leaning wall, which is mounted on a laminate member as a part of a housing of the electronic device or a central plate within the electronic device. By means of the positioning and leaning wall, an electromagnetic-shielding mask is conveniently mounted within the electronic device so as to cover the electronic component.
US07679934B2
A mounting apparatus includes a securing mechanism, a drive bracket (20), and a fastener (50). The securing mechanism has a securing hole (15) defined in a circuit board (10). The drive bracket includes first and second side plates (23, 24). The first side plate defines a mounting hole (237) therein, corresponding to the securing hole of the circuit board. The second side plate forms two lines of tabs (243) for sandwiching the circuit board therebetween. The fastener engages into the securing hole of the securing mechanism and the mounting hole of the drive bracket, for preventing the circuit board releasing from the tabs.
US07679923B2
A method for easily applying a coating agent to an electronic circuit board accommodated in a housing without leaving uncoated portions. The method includes mounting the electronic circuit board to the housing, performing an electrical connection process in the electronic circuit board, and filling the housing with the coating agent (anti-moisture agent) to immerse the electronic circuit board in the coating agent.
US07679922B2
A display device is arranged such that a voice device is laminated on a liquid crystal panel so as to be confined in a planar area of the liquid crystal panel, and a voice-system circuit block which drives the voice device is formed on the thin film substrate of the liquid crystal panel. A signal is inputted into the voice-system circuit block through an FPC which is connected to the thin film substrate and which inputs a video signal, and the signal processed at the voice-system circuit block is conducted through the FPC. A connecting terminal part is provided in a middle portion of the FPC and adhered to an FPC. One end of the FPC is connected to the voice device. In this way, a multifunctional display device can be achieved at low cost by efficiently using a limited space around the display element without sacrificing the advantages of a lightweight and thin-shaped flat display device.
US07679920B2
A cooling distribution configuration is provided for chassis-mounted electronics boards. In one embodiment, the chassis comprises a housing and at least one electronics board. The electronics board may comprise a communication board having a plurality of ports. Cooling air spaces are defined above and below the board, permitting cooling air to be drawn over both sides of the board. Notches extend inwardly from an edge of the board, the notches serving as air flow paths between the cooling air spaces and serving to distribute cooling air flowing into the housing from one or more intakes to the cooling air spaces.
US07679912B1
A heat sink assembly includes a first heat dissipating plate, a second heat dissipating plate, at least one flat heat pipe horizontally positioned between the first heat dissipating plate and the second heat dissipating plate. The at least one flat heat pipe surrounds or defines an enclosed-space. The enclosed-space is closed by the first heat dissipating plate and the second heat dissipating plate. At least one through hole communicates with the enclosed-space and is defined in the second heat dissipating plate.
US07679911B2
An electronic component or assembly that is assembled within a case that is designed to operate as a liquid phase to gas phase heat pipe where the electronic component or assembly is introduced into a liquid or partially liquid partially gaseous environment; whereby said liquid evaporates into a gas absorbing heat energy and transferring it to and through the component's or assembly's case. The case will be engineered out of materials that do not contaminate the liquid and electronics with ions and will be engineered to include a plurality of chambers/towers that extend in various directions providing enhanced heat pipe functionality in any physical orientation.
US07679907B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing, a heat-generating element mounted in the housing, a cooling fan mounted in the housing, a fin unit which is mounted in the housing and opposed to the cooling fan, and a heat transfer member which thermally connects the fin unit to the heat-generating element. The cooling fan includes a fan case which is provided with an opening portion. The fin unit includes an insertion portion which is inserted into the fan case through the opening portion. The insertion portion is provided to extend from one longitudinal end area to the other longitudinal end area of the opening portion.
US07679902B2
A docking station, serving as a digital hub and cable management platform, support a laptop computer (42) in an upright position with the laptop screen (43) in a comfortable viewing position relative to the working position of the user. The laptop (42) is positioned in an upright slot (4) in the docking station, with the connection ports easily seen and accessed. The surface of the laptop slot (4) is lined with non-slip surface (3) to ease insertion and control of the laptop (42) as it is lowered into the slot (4). An adjustable front cover (15) defining the front boundary of the slot (4) covers the keyboard of the mobile computer (42) so that the user does not need to view two keyboards, and the appearance of the docked laptop (42) is clean and aesthetic. Wireless data and power transmission into the laptop (42) is provided while the laptop (42) is in the slot (4) so that the laptop (42) can be used in the docking station without a need for cable connections (45, 46) at all.
US07679898B2
An air flap mechanism is installed in a server chassis with an opening. A functional module is capable of being inserted into the server chassis from the opening. The air flap mechanism includes an air flap pivotably installed in the server chassis for shielding the opening of the server chassis and a pair of first torsion springs attached to the air flap. A connecting bar connects between the first torsion springs for being driven by an end of the functional module to pivot the air flap inside the server chassis when the functional module is pushed into the server chassis.
US07679887B2
A switching system includes switchgear that can be contacted via pin contacts. In at least one embodiment, the switching system is provided with pin contacts and mating pin contacts and at least one device(s) for the transmission of force onto the switchgear, thereby allowing to establish and interrupt contact to the switchgear even when only little space is available.
US07679885B2
Tantalum powder capable of providing a small-sized tantalum electrolytic capacitor while maintaining capacity is described. Tantalum powder in the present invention can be characterized in that the CV value is from 200,000 to 800,000 μFV/g, when measured by the following measuring method. Pellets are produced by forming tantalum powder such that the density is 4.5 g/cm3, then the pellets are chemically converted in a phosphoric acid aqueous solution of concentration 0.1 vol. % at a voltage of 6V and a current of 90 mA/g, and the chemically converted pellets are used as measuring samples to measure the CV value in a sulfuric acid aqueous solution of concentration 30.5 vol. % at a temperature of 25° C. under a frequency of 120 Hz and a voltage of 1.5V.
US07679875B2
An electronic circuit for protecting a photomultiplier against overloads is provided. The photomultiplier has a cathode, an anode, a plurality of dynodes and a voltage divider. The circuit includes a high-voltage source, which applies a high voltage to the photomultiplier. A protective switch is set up for preventing a current flow through the anode. A comparison device is configured for comparing a load signal characterizing the loading of the anode with a maximum load signal and for driving the protective switch in accordance with this comparison.
US07679872B2
Embodiments of an interface circuit are described. This interface circuit includes an input pad, a control node and a transistor, which has three terminals. A first terminal is electrically coupled to the input pad and a second terminal is electrically coupled to the control node. Moreover, the interface circuit includes a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch, which is electrically coupled to the input pad and the control node, where the MEMS switch is in parallel with the transistor. In the absence of a voltage applied to a control terminal of the MEMS switch, the MEMS switch is closed, thereby electrically coupling the input pad and the control node. Furthermore, when the voltage is applied to the control terminal of the MEMS switch, the MEMS switch is open, thereby electrically decoupling the input pad and the control node.
US07679869B2
An input/output device comprises a bonding pad, a signal transport circuit, and a blocking unit. The signal transport circuit has a first terminal connected to the bonding pad and a second terminal connected to a core circuit of an IC product. The signal transport circuit is capable of transporting a signal either from the bonding pad to the core circuit or from the core circuit to the bonding pad. The blocking unit has a control terminal and is coupled between the bonding pad and the signal transport circuit. The control terminal is coupled to receive an enable signal. The blocking unit ties the bonding pad to a predetermined voltage level when the enable signal is de-asserted, thereby blocking the signal transport provided by the signal transport circuit. The blocking unit unties the bonding pad from the predetermined voltage level when the enable signal is asserted.
US07679864B2
A servo-controlled, head actuator design that has low profile characteristics in both the height and width dimensions. The low height allows the actuator to fit into a half-high tape drive form factor. Additionally, in some implementations, the actuator comprises a smaller, concentrated moving mass coupled with a flexure construction having a narrowed width with added ribs for torsional stiffness. These aspects of the actuator provide a higher second mode of vibration compared to the flexure designs of the prior art. The actuator includes a coarse actuator assembly for larger movements of the head, and a fine actuator, including a Voice coil motor, responsive to analysis of servo signals. In some embodiments, the voice coil motor of the fine actuator and the coarse actuator shafts are in line. Since the centerlines of the shafts are in-line with the voice coil motor, the resonance response of the shaft spring-mass system is reduced.
US07679854B1
A disk drive for implementing a head switch operation is disclosed. The disk drive comprises: an actuator; a first head and a second head attached to the actuator; a disk having a plurality of tracks; and a processor. The processor controls operations in the disk drive including: executing a head switch command from the first head to the second head; determining that a sync-up operation is not successful for the second head at a first track; applying a torque to the actuator to move the second head to a second track; and determining that the sync-up operation is successful.
US07679850B2
A shift code that consists of N-symbol code words is provided as an L-symbol “master sequence” in which no sub-sequence of N symbols repeats, where L≦SN and S is the number of code symbols. A decoder determines a location in the code from N decoded symbols. The code locations may, for example, correspond to radial positions, or other position, times, and so forth. In one embodiment, the master sequence is continuously written to a data storage disk during a spiral write operation and a reader on a given circular track reads at least N symbols from the portion of the spiral that crosses the track and determines a code word. The radial position of the reader is then determined based on the location of the code word in the code.
US07679849B2
A lens unit includes a lens barrel for receiving at least one lens and a motor arranged to displace the lens barrel between various positions. Displacement of the lens barrel is proportional to an electrical signal applied to the motor. A first conductor is fixed to the lens barrel and is arranged to make electrical contact with a second conductor when the lens barrel is at an initial position. A processor is arranged to detect a change in the electrical contact, to determine an electrical signal at the time of the change and to generate an electrical signal corresponding to the desired displacement.
US07679840B2
An optical apparatus includes an image taking optical system that includes a first lens unit arranged on a most object side and a second lens unit movable in an optical axis direction further on an image surface side than the first lens unit, a first lens barrel that holds the first lens unit, a second lens barrel that is combined with the first lens barrel and houses the second lens unit so that the unit is movable, and a control unit that is arranged around an outer periphery of the second lens barrel and includes an operation member, which is operated in order to instruct driving of the second lens unit, and an electric component for controlling the driving of the second lens unit according to the operation of the operation member, in which a maximum outer diameter of the first lens unit is larger than a minimum inner diameter of the control unit.
US07679834B2
An zoom optical system comprises a prism component which comprises in order from an object side, an entrance surface having negative refracting power, and a reflecting surface, and movable groups which are movable when either of zooming or focusing is carried out. An image pickup apparatus is provided with the zoom optical system. Thereby, thinning of the image pickup apparatus can be attained sufficiently, and it is possible to shorten the full length of the optical system furthermore, while keeping a moderate zooming ratio.
US07679828B2
A collimating sheet, for use with a backlit display and the like, that includes a substrate, a plurality of microlenses on the output side of the substrate, a specularly reflective layer on the side of the substrate opposite the microlenses, and a plurality of apertures in the reflective layer in direct correspondence to the microlenses of the lens array. The specularly reflective layer can be relatively thinner than a diffuse reflective layer, which allows light to pass through the more readily. One or more layers of dielectric can be placed on top of one or more reflective material layers to further improves overall reflectivity. Apertures are preferably made in the light-absorptive and reflective layers with a laser ablation process wherein laser light illuminates the output side of the film. The laser light is brought to a focus by the lenslets of the lens array onto the light-absorptive layer, which then ablates a hole or aperture into the light-absorptive and reflective layer. In this way, the apertures are self-aligned with the lenslets.
US07679827B2
An integral optical plate includes a convex lens plate, a microlens sheet and an adhesion element. The convex lens plate includes a first light incident surface into which light is incident and a first light-exiting surface disposed opposite the first light incident surface and on which a convex tens pattern is formed. The microlens sheet is disposed on the first light-exiting surface, and includes a microlens pattern. The adhesion element is disposed between the convex lens plate and the microlens sheet to combine the convex lens plate with the microlens sheet. The convex tens pattern includes a plurality of convex in lenses having a stripe shape extending lengthwise along the convex lens plate.
US07679826B2
An optical device includes an encoding surface having a micro-relief pattern (22) over at least part thereof designed to produce a predetermined diffracted first image when illuminated in use, and an optically anisotropic layer (26) such as a polymerized liquid crystal provided whereby at least part of the micro-relief pattern (22) induces local orientation of the optically anisotropic layer (26) thereby to impose a predetermined polarization modulation, thereby to produce a predetermined polarization dependent second image when illuminated in use.
US07679813B2
The present invention relates to an improved EPD which comprises both the traditional up/down switching and the in-plane switching modes. In other words, the improved EPD has dual switching modes. The monochrome EPDs of the present invention are capable of displaying highlight color of choice which is different from the text. For example, white background, blue text, and red highlight can be shown in any selected areas of the display. Furthermore, the full color EPDs of the present invention are capable of displaying high contrast images of high color saturation. Both high quality black and white states are possible in the full color displays of the present invention. The EPDs of the present invention do not need complex circuitry design, and are compatible with low cost and high yield roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. The EPD cells of the present invention may have opaque partition walls, or a black matrix top surface of the partition walls or a combination thereof.
US07679812B2
A microelectromechanical systems device having support structures formed of sacrificial material surrounded by a protective material. The microelectromechanical systems device includes a substrate having an electrode formed thereon. Another electrode is separated from the first electrode by a cavity and forms a movable layer, which is supported by support structures formed of a sacrificial material.
US07679809B2
Various structures for variable reflectance rearview mirrors and variable transmittance windows are disclosed. One embodiment pertains to the provision of a polarized reflector in a rearview mirror. Another embodiment pertains to the provision of a switchable cholesteric liquid crystal element in a window. Yet another embodiment pertains to the provision of a plurality of apertures in a reflector layer of a rearview mirror where the apertures are sized and positioned in alignment with light emitting areas of a display positioned behind the reflector layer. In another embodiment, a moveable display or mirror element is attached to a rearview mirror housing.
US07679807B2
A display medium includes: a first substrate having transparency and provided with a transparent electrode on one face thereof, a member having a plurality of penetration holes, the member being placed on a surface of the transparent electrode, the penetration holes penetrating the member from the transparent electrode surface side, the ratio of the length of each of the penetration holes to the largest hole diameter being two or more; a second substrate placed so as to face the transparent electrode side of the first substrate; an electrolytic solution containing a metal ion and placed so as to fill a space between the first and second substrates; and a counter electrode placed in a position so as to be insulated from the transparent electrode and in contact with the electrolytic solution.
US07679798B2
The present invention relates to an optical scanning device in which a light beam is incident twice on a deflective reflecting facet and its object is to reduce curvature in scanning line trail or make the curvature substantially zero, or correct scanning line displacement due to the curvature in scanning line trail. Two stationary plane mirrors (13, 14) are disposed to face a deflective reflecting facet (11) which can be rotated about its rotational axis (12) such that a light beam (a1) being incident on and reflected from the deflective reflecting facet (11) is reflected by the two stationary plane mirrors (13, 14) sequentially. The reflected light beam (a3) is incident on and reflected by the deflective reflecting facet (11) again. Assuming that a plane being parallel to the rotational axis (12) and including the light beam (a0) which is first incident on the deflective reflecting facet is an incident plane, the central ray of an emergent light beam (a4) when the emergent light beam (a4) after the second reflection by the deflective reflecting facet (11) is on the incident plane and a straight line as the central ray of a light beam being projected on the incident plane when the deflective reflecting facet (11) is revolved by the maximum rotational angle are set substantially parallel to each other.
US07679797B2
The invention relates to a hologram that enables two or more different images to be simultaneously reconstructed even in a state where the hologram is fixed in terms of relative position with respect to an eye, and a holographic viewing device that incorporates it. The hologram 14 is fabricated by applying Fourier transform to a plurality of input image to obtain a plurality of corresponding Fourier transform images 13-1, 13-2 and arraying the Fourier transform images 13-1, 13-2 on the same plane according to a given two-dimensional array principle into a computer-generated hologram. When a plurality of point light sources 231 to 239 located behind the hologram 14 are viewed through the hologram 14, a plurality of images are simultaneously and parallel reconstructed (28) in correspondence to the array positions of the plurality of Fourier transform images.
US07679792B2
A narrow scanning aperture, lens, and mirror are added to a digital camera to enable image or text scanning. A motion sensor on the same face as the scanner aperture provides approximate scan speed data as the scanner aperture is pressed against and manually moved across the document being scanned. Many documents are too large to scan in one strip, in which case multiple strips are scanned. As each strip is scanned, a bit-mapped image of the strip is created in a data buffer. Data from each strip is passed to a final image RAM which, on completion of scanning, holds a bit-mapped image of the entire scanned page, in B/W, gray scale, or color. Multi pass strip align then processes the image data to remove redundant data (from strip overlap) and position skew (from errors in position during the scan), resulting in a more accurate bit-mapped image in final image RAM of the entire scanned page or item. Image compression compresses the bit-mapped image to standard JPEG format for storage on the camera memory card. An alternative embodiment stores each scanned strip as a separate image. After strip images are downloaded to the PC, software on the PC “stitches” these strips back into the full page by eliminating redundant pixels and strip-to-strip misalignment.
US07679791B2
A method applied in a scanner for selecting and adjusting scanner illuminants including procedures herein below is provided. Start the scanner; determine what type of power supply the scanner is connected to; select suitable illuminant which fits the adopted power supply; and start to scan. Of which, the power supply adopted is either self power or bus power, while the suitable illuminant is either a high power illuminant or a low power illuminant. Another method including procedures herein below is also provided. Start the scanner; determine what type of power supply is adopted in the scanner; adjust the drive setting for the illuminant which fits the adopted power supply; drive the illuminant; and start to scan. Of which, the power supply adopted is either self power or bus power, while the drive setting for the illuminant is either a high power setting or a low power setting.
US07679782B2
In accordance with the present invention, a system and method are described for producing pure gray tones on a multi-color document output device that includes a system for operating on device independent color data having multiple color components, which color data corresponds to one or more associated electronic documents. The system and method function to extract gray data by the use of tristimulus values in a range specified by a functional relationship of a selected tristimulus value.
US07679780B2
A method for producing a color conversion table by which a color image signal to be handled in an image input system is converted to a N bit color image signal to be handled in an image output system, comprising the step of producing a color conversion table from which a N+α bit color output value, exceeding a color gamut of the color image signal to be handled in the image output system can be read out corresponding to a color input value of the color image signal to be handled in the input system.
US07679779B2
A method of digitally processing data for use in representing an image, comprising scaling edge data relating to edges in at least one colour-adjusted component of the image using unadjusted data relating to a colour-unadjusted component of the image, and a device operable in accordance with the method.
US07679777B2
A system and method for printing is provided including actuating a job supplement process on a user interface to enable a job supplement print job to be built up from opposing sides of an object. The system initiates manual document handling mode. The user places a first side of an object to be scanned on a platen of a printing system. The system scans a first side image of the object, the scanning includes a scanner for scanning the platen and converting objects on the platen to image signals. The system stores the first side image of the object. The user turns the object onto a second side and places the second side on the platen. The system scans a second side image of the object. The system further prints the first side image adjacent to the second side image in a single pass on a media sheet.
US07679758B2
A method of optically inspecting a fastener to determine whether it meets two or more dimensional parameters is provided. The method includes using centrifugal force to place the fastener in a predetermined location. Two or more sets of image data of the fastener are generated from two or more corresponding different angles. Fastener pass/fail data is generated using a dimensional requirement associated with each set of image data.
US07679749B2
An optical waveguide SPR sensor is adapted for differential measurement. The optical waveguide SPR sensor includes a base, a bottom layer, and at least one set of optical waveguide layers. The set of the optical waveguide layers includes a measuring optical waveguide channel and a reference optical waveguide channel. The measuring optical waveguide channel includes an SPR sensing film layer. The measuring optical waveguide channel and the reference optical waveguide channel are independently configured and substantially parallel one to another. The bottom layer has a refractive index higher than a refractive index of the optical waveguide layer.
US07679745B2
A time-resolved, fluorescence spectrometer makes use of a RadiaLight® optical switch and no dispersive optical elements (DOE) like gratings. The structure is unique in its compactness and simplicity of operation. In one embodiment, the spectrometer makes use of only one photo-detector and an efficient linear regression algorithm. The structure offers a time resolution, for multiple species measurements, of less than 1 s. The structure can also be used to perform fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy.
US07679743B1
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the size of nanoparticles present in an aqueous solution as an infinitesimal quantity, and, more particularly, to a scheme that remotely measures the laser-induced breakdown of a fine nanoparticle using a probe beam in a non-contact manner, performs curve fitting on the symmetrical frequency distribution curve of the measured magnitude of a probe beam signal to form the shape of a Gaussian function, obtains calibration curves for the size of the nanoparticle from the peak and full-width at half-maximum thereof, and determines the size of an unknown nanoparticle from the calibration curves.
US07679739B2
There is provided a film measuring device capable of accurately and easily measuring the thickness of a microporous film formed on a battery electrode plate over the entire area of the film. A color CCD sensor 8 shoots the microporous film. A video board 11 converts a color tone of a color image signal obtained by the image pickup into gradation data of respective color components of RGB. After the data conversion, an image processing board 12 extracts line images of the respective color components. A calculator 14 obtains the thickness of the microporous film by referring to pre-measured film thickness reference values corresponding to the gradation data of the green or blue color component, which are stored in a table storage 13 as reference thickness table data, using the gradation data of the line image of the green color component or the blue color component as lookup data.
US07679735B2
A surface inspection of the system applies a first oblique illumination beam and may also apply a second illumination beam to illuminate a surface either sequentially or simultaneously. Radiation reflected or scattered is collected by preferably three collection channels and detected by three corresponding detector arrays, although a different number of channels and detector arrays may be used. One or both illumination beams are focused to a line on the surface to be inspected and each line is imaged onto one or more detector arrays in the up to three or more detection and collection channels. Relative motion is caused between the lines and the surface inspected in a direction perpendicular to the lines, thereby increasing throughput while retaining high resolution and sensitivity. The same detection channels may be employed by detecting scattered or reflected radiation from both illumination beams. Fourier filters may be employed to filter out diffraction at one or more different spatial frequencies.
US07679728B2
The distance detector 12b returns part of the light received from the distance detector 12a located at the starting point side by reflection, or reflection and refraction, sends the remaining part of the light to the distance detectors 12b, 12c, 12d and 12e located at the forefront end side by transmission, refraction, reflection or a combination thereof, and returns the returned light from the distance detectors 12b-12e to the distance detector 11a located at the starting point by transmission, refraction, reflection or a combination thereof. By using laser light sources, it is possible to measure the distance from the laser light sources to multiple points or the distance between two points with a high degree of accuracy.
US07679726B2
A radar system for use in a vehicle includes a transmission function for transmitting a transmission wave at a predetermined interval, a redirection function having a plurality of redirection planes for redirecting the transmission wave at least twice in a successive manner in a same direction, a reception function for outputting a reception signal based on a reception of a reflected wave that corresponds to the transmission wave, and an integration function for outputting an integration signal upon integrating a plurality of the reception signals that correspond to the transmission waves redirected in the same direction.
US07679725B2
A laser scanner apparatus is disclosed herein for measuring the geometry and physical dimensions of one or more objects in a specified location or platform. The specified location or platform is within a range less than a predetermined maximum object distance. The laser scanner includes a waveform generator that generates a predetermined reference waveform to an analog laser that provides an modulated laser beam responsive to the reference waveform, an optical scanning system which 1) transmits and scans the object with the modulated laser light beam and 2) includes a means for receiving reflected the modulated laser light from the surface of an object on the platform or specified location, an avalanche photo-detector positioned to receive the processed modulated light from the optical processing system, and convert energy in the incident light into an amplitude-modulated range signal, a mixer is provided to down-convert the frequency of the range signal into a lower (LF) frequency. In practice, a first electrical circuit receives the down-converted range signal and converts it into a converted waveform that has a sinusoidal wave falling and rising that correspond to the zero crossings. The reference waveform is also applied to a mixer that down-converts it to the LF frequency. A second electrical circuit receives the down-converted reference waveform and converts it a second converted waveform that has a sinusoidal wave falling and rising that correspond to the zero crossings. A computer receives the first and second converted waveforms and outputs a highly accurate signal indicative of the time delay there between. The time delay is used by the computer system to determine the physical dimension of the particular scanning.
US07679723B2
A scanning system for confocal scanning of an object, comprising a light source (1), imaging optics (4) for focusing the light (5) radiated from the light source (1) onto the object (6) to be scanned, and further comprising an image detector (10) for detecting the light (7) from an object point (6′) backscattered from the object (6) and passing through the same imaging optics (4). Means (11) for varying the length of the optical path are disposed in the optical path between the aperture array (3) and the object (6), by which means the optical distance of the image plane can be modified in a specific manner, and means are provided to influence the light (5) radiated by the light source onto the object (6) and/or the light (7) reflected from the object (6) and impinging on the sensor (10), in at least one of its characteristics, during an exposure period (tB1) for acquiring an image, and, during said exposure period (tB1), a profile holds which states a specific relationship between the characteristic of the light (5, 7) and the optical distance of the image plane from the imaging optics (4), and means (10) are provided which provide a measured value dependent on the characteristics of the light of the trajectory of observation (7) over the exposure period (tB1), a height coordinate (Zs) of the object (6) being reconstructable from the measured value achieved during said exposure period (tB1) and a reference value.
US07679721B2
A projection objective of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus has a first lens, which is the penul-timate curved optical element on the image side. The first lens has a concave surface on the image side and contains a first intrinsically birefringent crystal, which has a first orientation of the crystal axes. The projection objective furthermore has a second lens, which is the last curved optical element on the image side and has a convex surface on the object side. The second lens contains a second intrinsically birefringent crystal, which has a second orientation of the crystal axes. The latter can be described by rotating the first orientation of the crystal axes about a symmetry axis of the first lens. The first and second orientations of the crystal axes are selected so that an intrinsic birefringence due to the first crystal, together with an intrinsic bire-fringence due to the second crystal, leads in total to at least approximately axisymmetric distribution of the overall birefringence.
US07679717B2
An exposure apparatus for exposing a pattern of a reticle onto a substrate includes a projection optical system for projecting the pattern onto a substrate, the exposure apparatus exposing the substrate through a flammable liquid that is filled in a space between the substrate and a final lens of the projection optical system closest to the substrate, and an explosion-proof unit for shielding an ignition source that can ignite the liquid or vapor of the liquid, from the liquid and the vapor.
US07679711B2
A liquid crystal display device according to an exemplary embodiment includes: a first panel comprising a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion has a height lower than of the second portion; a second panel facing the first panel; a spacer disposed between the first panel and the second panel and contacting the first portion of the first panel; and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first panel and the second panel.
US07679707B2
A wide viewing angle is achieved with a liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of this invention, in which alignment directions of liquid crystal molecules are controlled by electric field between electrodes on a substrate. A pixel electrode and an insulating film covering the pixel electrode are formed on a TFT substrate. A plurality of concave portions and convex portions extending in parallel to each other are formed in the insulating film alternately. A common electrode is formed on each of the concave portions. And a CF substrate is disposed facing to the common electrodes. A liquid crystal layer is disposed between the insulating film and the common electrodes and the liquid crystal layer. When a predetermined voltage is applied to the pixel electrode to induce an electric field between the pixel electrode and the common electrodes, liquid crystal molecules are rotated along lines of electric force of the electric field in a plane parallel to the TFT substrate. Also, the liquid crystal molecules tilt vertically between the common electrodes symmetrically with respect to a center line between a neighboring pair of the common electrodes.
US07679700B2
To provide a transflective liquid crystal display apparatus that employs in-plane switching mode (in-plane switching system), which exhibits a reflection property of wide view angles. Provided is a transflective liquid crystal display apparatus which comprises: a reflective area and a transmissive area; an uneven reflective plate provided in the reflective area; a flattening film laminated on the uneven reflective plate; and common electrodes and pixel electrodes arranged on the flattening film, wherein, the uneven reflective plate comprises a diffusive reflecting function that is capable of diffusely reflecting light making incident at an incident angle of 30 degrees towards directions at exit angles of 0-10 degrees, and a surface of the flattening film is set to be substantially flat.
US07679690B2
A geometry correction module for a fixed pixel raster projector to project an image onto a projection surface is provided. The geometry correction module includes a receiver and a geometry corrector. The receiver collects an input pixels grid that represents an input image. The geometry corrector generates an output pixels grid representing an output image that compensates for the geometry of the projection surface by repositioning image data interpolated from at least two input pixels. The output image represents an altered input image that when projected onto the projection surface will display a correctly proportioned input image. A method of correcting geometry distortion when projecting an image is also provided.
