US07716746B2
A controller in a hard disk serving as a data storage device stores a license including a content key for decrypting encrypted content data E and others in a secure data storage portion. The license is managed in the secure data storage portion in accordance with a LBA, and the LBA for storing the license, which is being processed for transmission, is stored as a log in a log memory of the secure data storage portion. When a failure occurs during the transmission processing, the license, which was being processed for transmission, is specified based on the LBA stored in the log memory.
US07716742B1
A packet transmitted on a network is read and decoded. A network device and its operating system are identified by analyzing the decoded packet. If more than one operating system is identified from the decoded packet, the operating system is selecting by comparing confidence values assigned to the operating systems identified. A service running on the network device is identified from the decoded packet or subsequent packets that are read, decoded and analyzed. The network topology of a network is determined by reading, decoding, and analyzing a plurality of packets. A flow between two network devices is determined by reading, decoding, and analyzing a plurality of packets. Vulnerabilities are assigned to operating systems and services identified by reading, decoding, and analyzing packets. Network configuration policy is enforced on operating systems and services identified by reading, decoding, and analyzing packets.
US07716740B2
Methods to detect rogue access points (APs) and prevent unauthorized wireless access to services provided by a communication network are provided. A mobile station (MS) reports to a serving AP the received signal strength (RSS) for all APs in the area it travels. The serving AP detect a rogue AP based on inconsistencies perceived in the RSS reports, assessed during the handover phase or whilst the communication is active.
US07716737B2
A system for detecting network intrusions and other conditions in a network is described. The system includes a plurality of collector devices that are disposed to collect data and statistical information on packets that are sent between nodes on a network. An aggregator device is disposed to receive data and statistical information from the plurality of collector devices. The aggregator device produces a connection table that maps each node on the network to a record that stores information about traffic to or from the node. The aggregator runs processes that determine network events from aggregating of anomalies into network events.
US07716736B2
The present invention comprises apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture for computer virus testing in a networked environment. A host is provided that permits uploading of suspected files by a user. The are transferred to a server, where they are scanned for the presence of known virii. The files are then run, in an appropriate operating environment, separate from the operating system of the server, and the results compared to and noted against a reference. Any modified files are logged, as is any output. The user is notified as to the results, and in some embodiments, the lists of modified files are made available to various users.
US07716732B2
Techniques for secure online storage. A user is registered for securely storing documents on a network. User documents are stored on a network server. The user documents include documents for disposing of user property after death or for effecting user medical decisions. A secure network interface is provided for displaying the user documents remotely upon receiving a user security identifier. A secure network interface is provided for displaying the user documents remotely to authorized medical personnel who do not have access to the user security identifier.
US07716731B2
A method, and computer program product for providing dynamically tunneling over an unreliable protocol or a reliable protocol based on network conditions is presented. A connection between a source device and a destination device is established using a reliable protocol. An attempt is then made to utilize an unreliable protocol to communicate between the source device and the destination device. When the attempt to utilize an unreliable protocol is successful, then the unreliable protocol is used to transmit data between the source device and the destination device. When the attempt to utilize the unreliable protocol is unsuccessful, then the reliable protocol connection is used to transmit data between the source device and the destination device.
US07716730B1
A method for offloading a secure protocol connection, involving establishing the secure protocol connection between a host system and a remote peer, offloading the secure protocol connection to a network interface card (NIC) to obtain an offloaded secure protocol connection, determining whether a packet is associated with the offloaded secure protocol connection, and if the packet is associated with the offloaded secure protocol connection, identifying the offloaded secure protocol connection, performing cryptographic operations on the packet using at least one secret key to obtain a processed packet, and returning a status of the processed packet to the host system.
US07716725B2
A firewall configured to be interfaced between an internal and an external networks. The firewall includes a VoIP processor for detecting an outgoing VoIP packet sent from the internal network, for changing data in a header of the VoIP packet and also changing data contents in the VoIP packet corresponding to data changed in the header to enable bi-directional VoIP communication. In one embodiment, the VoIP processor changes a source IP address and a port number in the header of the VoIP packet and also changes the data contents in the VoIP packet corresponding to the source IP address and the port number changed in the header to enable bi-directional VoIP communication. In another embodiment, the firewall further includes an external VoIP interface comprising multiple VoIP ports for receiving multiple incoming VoIP packets each designated with one of the VoIP ports. And, the VoIP processor further includes a VoIP port versus internal address table for identifying an internal address in the internal network for directing each of the incoming VoIP packets to the internal address identified.
US07716721B2
Automatically re-authenticating a computing device seeking access to a network or a resource. A method comprises forwarding a request received from the computing device to an authentication device to enable the authentication device to authenticate the computing device using a full-authentication mechanism. State information related to authenticating the computing device is created from authenticating the computing device. The state information is received and stored. For example, an authenticator device that forwarded the initial authentication request from the computing device to the authentication device receives and stores the state information. The computing device is re-authenticated using the stored state information without again contacting the authentication device.
US07716718B2
A printing system in one implementation of an electronic device network system of the present invention includes a plurality of hosts, a plurality of storages, and a plurality of printers, wherein the hosts, storages, and printers are connected to one another on the Internet. The hosts, storages, and printers each have one of two data protecting functions, and each have three security levels. As a result, there is provided an electronic device network system that enables a user to transmit data through a transmission route according to a user's desired security level, while taking into account protection (security) of transmitted data between electronic devices on the network. In addition, there is also provided a data receiver search method using such an electronic device network system.
US07716716B1
A method for architecting enterprise data security solutions for an enterprise having multiple levels is provided. The method includes analyzing the enterprise levels and a workflow related to the plurality of levels and analyzing a data element having a security requirement. The method includes providing a reference model including the data element. The reference model associates the data element and the security requirement with the workflow. The method includes determining a vertical component of the data element using the reference model. The vertical component identifies the security requirement for the data element based on the workflow for each of the plurality of levels of the enterprise. The method includes identifying a technical component using the reference model and the vertical component. The technical component is operable to provide the security requirement of the data element for the workflow across each of the plurality of levels of the enterprise.
US07716707B2
In-program content telescoping can enable a subscriber to telescope into content that is specially associated with a broadcast program. The selectable content is stored as video-on-demand (VOD) assets that are related to particular portions of broadcast programs. In a described implementation, content providers created association linkages between broadcast programs and the VOD assets. Each association links a VOD asset to a broadcast program and a specific trigger location within the associated broadcast program. The association linkage may be include in VOD asset metadata and in trigger information. In a described operation, a client device detects trigger information in a media transport stream. In response to a request, the client receives asset representation indicators for the VOD assets that are associated with the upcoming trigger location. Upon arrival of the trigger location in the media transport stream, the client displays the asset representation indicators for consideration by the subscriber.
US07716701B2
An apparatus for displaying an EPG guide bar includes: an EPG data extraction part extracting EPG data from a signal through a channel; a first memory storing the EPG data; a second memory storing a broadcast program; a user interface display part producing a guide bar having a fixed indicator displaying a present time with the help of a graphic processor, sliding title areas of broadcast programs corresponding to the EPG data of the first memory in the guide bar on real-time correspondingly to the present time, and updating the title areas with a predetermined time interval centering around the fixed indicator so as to produce information indicating a record proceeding status on at least one of the title areas of the broadcast programs which are being recorded in the second memory; and an on-screen display part converting the information from the user interface display part into an on-screen display form so as to display the converted information on a display.
US07716694B2
An actuating module includes an actuating member, a magnetic plunger engaging the actuating member due to magnetic power and capable of disengaging the actuating member upon receipt of an actuating signal, and a flexible flat cable. The flexible flat cable includes a plurality of laterally connected data wires. The data wires includes at least one branch wire connected electrically to the magnetic plunger for transmitting the actuating signal to the magnetic plunger so as to release the actuating member.
US07716693B2
An optical disc drive includes a chassis assembly formed of metal and grounded, a tray supporting an optical disc and installed capable of sliding in and out of the chassis assembly, a cover-deck formed of metal and attached on a lower surface of the tray, an eject switch provided on a front surface of the tray to unlock the tray which is inserted in the chassis assembly and locked therein, an eject button provided in front of the tray to press the eject switch, a bracket formed of metal, provided between the eject switch and the eject button, and having a lead formed at one end portion thereof and contacting the cover-deck, and a static electricity discharge wire electrically connecting the cover-deck and the chassis assembly, wherein static electricity generated when the eject button is pressed sequentially flows through the bracket, the cover-deck, and the chassis assembly, and flows out to ground.
US07716684B2
Methods and systems for backing up data of a client connected to a server. The methods and systems include operating a graphical user interface for displaying to a user information about the data of a client. At an administrator module and client module, initiating one or more wizard program modules including dynamic link libraries configured to carry a user through the steps to complete a backup function, each wizard program module having one or more application programming interfaces which allow the wizard program modules to communicate with the operating system on which the administrator module or client module is operating. A common presentation layer can also be included to provide one or more common user interface screens which are insertable into each wizard program module.
US07716683B2
A method and apparatus forward a hardware call from a driver to graphics hardware via a virtual connection. Specifically, the method and apparatus process graphical data in a system having the driver, which produces a hardware call for the controlling the operation of the graphics hardware. As noted above, the method and apparatus first establish the virtual connection between the driver and the graphics hardware. Next, the hardware call is forwarded to the graphics hardware via the virtual connection.
US07716665B2
The present invention provides a system and method for developing a Portal Application by creating a Portal Application Archive, and automatically deploying the Portal Application Archive into a Portal Server Application by using a Portal Application Archive specific deployment mechanism. The Portal Application Archive represents an entity which includes an assembly of all required application components forming a coherent Portal Application, and an application component assembly descriptor which specifies how the single application components need to be assembled to provide the complete Portal Application on the Portal Server Application.
US07716656B2
Systems and methods that enhance a programming language by introducing null unification on a type level in addition to a value level, for static types of both reference and value types T. An operator that adds a level of nullability (and removes such nullability) is introduced without a mention of the actual type, to steer overloading in a precise manner.
US07716654B2
Techniques for simulation of multi top-level graphical-containers (e.g., frames) in an object-oriented computing environment are disclosed. A Multi Top-level Graphical-Container Simulator (MTGS) can be provided to simulate multi top-level graphical container support for applications that expect to use a plurality of top-level graphical containers (e.g., frames, windows). A MTGS may be implemented as a layer between a GUI-based application and an operating system and/or hardware/device with limited or virtually no graphical support capability. The Multi Top-level Graphical Simulator (MTGS) can effectively isolate the operating systems and/or hardware/device from the GUI-based application, and yet hide this simulation from the operating system and/or hardware/device. MTGS may be implemented in a platform independent programming language (e.g., Java™ programming language using a set of Java™ classes which have been provided in the Java™ Swing development toolkit.
US07716653B2
The present invention provides a component-based tool for converting a data source from a first format into a second format. Specifically, the present invention includes reusable importer and resource writer components. Each importer component is designed to import all or a portion of a data source of a particular first data type and convert this data source from the first data type into an intermediate data type. A resource writer component may then convert the data source in the intermediate data type into an application artifact in the specific second data format that corresponds to the resource writer. Furthermore, a framework may be included within which the appropriate importer and resource writer may be stored and/or chosen from a plurality of importers and resource writers for performing a required conversion.
US07716652B2
The disclosure is directed to an application server including memory including an instrumented computer executable application. The instrumented computer executable application includes a first routine including a first set of tracing instructions and external resource access instructions and the instrumented computer executable application includes a second routine. The second routine includes a first segment including a second set of tracing instructions and instructions configured to access the first routine and the second routine includes a second segment including the external resource access instructions.
US07716643B2
In one embodiment, a method is provided for use in a system which includes a target application, a profiler application and a debugging application, the profiler application being operative to attach to the target application and, upon attaching to the target application, performing operations to profile the target application, the debugging application being operative to monitor the target application. The method comprises attaching, by the profiler application, to the target application such that operations performed by the profiler application in profiling the target application are susceptible to monitoring by the debugging application. In one embodiment, the method further comprises generating helper code; transferring the helper code to the memory used by the target application; and causing the helper code to be executed from the memory used by the target application, wherein the helper code, when executed, causes the profiler agent library to be loaded to the memory used by the target application.
US07716639B2
A system for facilitating the creation of design specifications includes a computer and a database having stored thereon data indicative of a plurality of storage locations in a processed specification into which data may be entered. Software executing on the computer: displays a requirements document; receives an indication of a selected portion of the requirements document; based at least in part upon the indication of the selected portion of the requirements document, retrieves from the database a list of possible storage locations corresponding to the selected portion of the requirements document; displays the list of possible storage locations corresponding to the selected portion of the requirements document; receives an indication of a selected storage location; receives an indication of data selected in the requirements document to be stored in the selected storage location; and stores the selected data in the selected storage location in the processed specification.
US07716633B1
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for converting, through add-on hardware and code, any of a variety of types and vintages of general purpose personal, laptop, or notebook computers to be an efficient, secure, dedicated system which run independently of the host system's resident operating system.
US07716631B1
A development system for developing enterprise software. The system consists of a data store maintaining information related to enterprise hardware components, including information on servers and applications operating on the servers. The system also includes an architectural component including a display operable for architecture of the enterprise software by selection via the display of one or more of the servers and applications operating on the servers. Also included in the development system is a development engine that can deploy a first integrated development environment for development of a first software component, and deploy a second integrated development environment for development of a second software component. The system also includes an interface component that allows information stored in a data store by the first integrated development environment to be accessible by the second integrated development environment.
US07716623B1
A programmable logic device (“PLD”) architecture includes logic elements (“LEs”) grouped together in clusters called logic array blocks (LABs”). To save area, local feedback resources (for feeding outputs of the LEs in a LAB back to inputs of LEs in the LAB) are reduced or eliminated as compared to in the prior art. Because all (or at least more) of any LE-output-to-LE-input connections of LEs that are working together in a LAB must be routed through the general-purpose input routing resources of the LAB, it is important to conserve those resources. This is accomplished, for example, by giving greater importance to finding logic functions that have common inputs when deciding what logic functions to implement together in a LAB.
US07716622B2
Memory modules implemented on an FPGA device are re-implemented to improve the performance of the device, such as to reduce logic delays. One or more logic blocks of the FPGA device that realize the logic function of a memory module or portion of a memory module are desirably selected. Based on the outcome of a timing analysis, the most critical signal pin of the selected logic blocks may be identified. Methods of deriving the memory module re-implementation for various types of the most critical pins are disclosed. Procedures are described for integrating physical timing analysis, memory transformation, placement, and routing, as well as for the selection of logic blocks for re-implementation.
US07716619B2
A keeper device design structure for dynamic logic used in integrated circuit designs includes a first keeper path statically coupled to a dynamic data path, the first keeper path configured to prevent false discharge of the dynamic data path during an evaluation thereof, and a second keeper path selectively coupled to the dynamic data path. The second keeper path is configured to maintain the dynamic data path at a nominal precharge level prior to an evaluation thereof, wherein the second keeper path is decoupled from the dynamic data path during the evaluation.
US07716617B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, and a circuit pattern group comprising at least N (≧2) circuit pattern on the semiconductor substrate, at least one vicinity of end portion among the at least of N circuit patterns including a connection area to electrically connect to a circuit pattern in another circuit pattern group different from the circuit pattern group, the at least N wirings pattern including a circuit pattern N1 and at least one circuit pattern Ni (i≧2) arranged in one direction different from longitudinal direction of the circuit pattern N1, the at least one circuit patterns Ni having larger i being arranged at further position away from the circuit pattern N1, and in terms of a pattern including the connection area among the at least of Ni circuit patterns, the larger the i, the connection area being arranged at a further position in longitudinal direction.
US07716612B1
A method and system for integrated circuit optimization to improve performance and to reduce leakage power consumption of an integrated circuit (IC). The original IC includes a plurality of nominal cells, and each of the nominal cells includes a plurality of transistors. The method creates an optimized standard-cell library from a standard-cell library. The standard-cell library includes a plurality of nominal cells, and each of the nominal cells includes a plurality of transistors. Further, an optimized IC is generated by using the optimized standard-cell library from the original IC. The optimized IC has an improved performance and reduced leakage power characteristics, as compared to the original IC.
US07716604B2
In a thumbnail screen, categories and category thumbnails are disposed and displayed in the depth (Z-axis) direction and in the horizontal (X axis) direction, respectively. When focus is given by a focus to any of upper and lower category thumbnails, which are displayed on the most front side, and a category name display part, the row (layers) of the thumbnails scrolls in the horizontal direction. When the right and left direction keys of a remote controller are operated while the category name display has focus, the scroll in the depth direction is performed, thus enabling the specification of a desired category. This three-dimensionally displays the thumbnails and facilitates the operation for viewing information.
US07716592B2
An interactive dashboard providing scorecard presentation with subordinate reports is automatically generated and configured based on centrally managed metadata definitions. The dashboard may be customized based on subscriber credentials, past preferences, and the like. The dashboard may be deployed to one or more locations to be consumed and further customized by end users.
US07716591B2
A method for dynamically constructing a web page is disclosed which includes receiving a uniform resource locator identifying a web page. The web page references a plurality of elements. The method also includes receiving a user identifier representing a user and evaluating each of the referenced elements based on the user identifier to identify a subset of at least one element the user is authorized to access. The method further includes determining a data conversion specification associated with the user and determining a data representation specification associated with the user. The subset of elements that the user is authorized to access is converted and presented to the user. Systems and computer-readable storage media for defining and presenting a composite web page are also disclosed.
US07716585B2
A device discovery and presentation system. The architecture facilitates automatically sensing devices, ports, or other wirelessly identifiable entities by detecting such entities, and displaying a 2-D or 3-D representation of the relative location of such entities to a user via a display. The architecture may be controlled to detect such entities in a confined envelope of space for a specified distance.
US07716579B2
A method, system and computer-readable media for supporting text entry on a personal computing device by activating automated searching to search for completion candidates which are based on a partial text entry received from a user. The completion candidates are displayed in a search list. The user may select a completion candidate from among the completion candidates in the search list to correspondingly modify the partial text entry, or the user may decline all of the completion candidates displayed in the search list and terminate the automated searching. The system may further provide a digital keyboard for use in entering text.
US07716576B1
Methods and systems thereof for processing Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents are described. In one embodiment, an XML document comprising content in an XML format is parsed. The content is converted into pcodes according to a conversion key; that is, an XML tag is converted into a pcode can be converted back to XML using the conversion key. A pcode file including the parsed XML document, converted into pcode, is thereby generated. The pcode file is smaller than the original XML document and the content is already parsed, so the time needed to process the pcode file is significantly less than the time needed to process an XML document. Memory usage and the time needed to send and receive information are also improved.
US07716575B2
A system and method of using an example document to create another document with the same style. The style is determined by examining the example file for syntax patterns that are required in a document of this type. Each pattern is used to create a section template (a sub-template for a larger template). After all the required sub-templates have been defined, by examining the example, we have a document template that may be used to format new documents. Along with user-specific content, a document generator uses the captured document template to generate sections of a new document. When a section of a document is generated, the sub-template that corresponds to that section of a document is inserted with user-specific content. The generated file ends up with the same kind of text spacing and positioning, ordering of sections, presence of annotations and other nonfunctional attributes as the example.
US07716574B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing direct style sheet editing. The disclosed systems and methods may include selecting a first target rule for a next formatting operation. The selected first target rule may include a modified property and may be selected from a plurality of target rules. Furthermore, the disclosed systems and methods may include enabling property changes to occur in a most specific target rule in the plurality of target rules. The most specific target rule may contain the modified property. Moreover, the disclosed systems and methods may include providing a highlighting mechanism configured to allow a user to see which regions of a page are to be affected by the selected first target rule.
US07716571B2
An object model and a user interface (UI) enable users of a scorecard application to define an order and categorization of elements including header and row components to break out the scorecard data for effective presentation of multidimensional scorecard views combined with data from non-multidimensional sources. Users are provided options to select individual or sets of members, or to provide queries that select sets of metrics for the scorecard view. Header components are defined at predetermined depth of layers enabling the user to view categorized metrics. Additional columns providing attribute information associated with the metrics can also be inserted in selected places within the scorecard matrix using the editing UI.
US07716566B2
Multiple corruptions and/or erasures in data storage or data communication systems are corrected. An encoder generates M of parity fields from N data channels. Each item of the generated parity fields is the result of simple exclusive-or operations on one item from one or more data fields and possibly one item from one or more of the other parity fields. A decoder can regenerate as many as M missing or corrupted fields of either data or parity using combinations of correct and/or previously corrected items as inputs using M independent parity equations to solve for and correct each missing or corrupted item in turn.
US07716555B2
Disclosed herein is a memory device which comprises a nonvolatile memory having first and second areas and a controller that stores backup data along with checksum data alternately in the first and second areas. In the first and second areas, data storing areas and checksum areas are respectively provided. The highest bit of checksum data stored in each of the checksum areas is used as the bit based on which the latest updated side is recognized.
US07716553B2
A memory address generation method and circuit architecture for time-multiplexed RS-based LDPC code decoder is presented. The method is developed for non quasi-cyclic RS-based LDPC code decoder implementation. A circuit for the memory address generation method achieves low area. High throughput time-multiplexed RS-based LDPC code decoder design models and circuit architectures are presented. The decoder models are specifically developed for 10BASE-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver Over Copper) system. These time-multiplexed architectures enable higher throughput with lower area.
US07716529B2
A system LSI which is capable of precisely acquiring the status of a module which is referred to as a resource for debugging when a high-performance processor debugs a processing program executed by a small-scale processor. A function unit has a bus interface connected to a bus and a data processing unit. The function unit is controlled in accordance with a processing program. The processing program is debugged in accordance with a debug program. Functioning of the data processing unit is halted. The function unit control processor suspends execution of the processing program to assert a debug signal when the processing program satisfies a predetermined condition. The halting unit halts functioning of the data processing unit without halting the bus interface in the function unit when the debug signal becomes asserted. The debugging processor acquires a status of the data processing unit when the debugging processor detecting that the debug signal is asserted.
US07716526B2
An information processing apparatus carrying out hardware diagnosis processing by means of initializing processing of each part of hardware when power supply in the apparatus is started, has a power-off initializing processing part carrying out the hardware diagnosis processing when the power supply in the apparatus is cut off; and a power-off timing control part controlling timing of cutting off the power supply in the apparatus in such a manner that the power supply in the apparatus is carried out after the hardware diagnosis processing and trouble reporting processing carried out by said power-off initializing processing part are finished.
US07716519B2
A method for reconstructing a logical block, wherein the logical block comprises a first set of sectors. The method including obtaining a copy of the logical block comprising a second set of sectors, determining which of the sectors in the first set of sectors are identical to sectors in the second set of sectors to obtain identical sectors, selecting a first combination of non-identical sectors from the first set of sectors and the second set of sectors, combining a copy of each of the identical sectors with the first combination of non-identical sectors to obtain a first reconstructed logical block, calculating a first checksum for the first reconstructed logical block, and determining whether the first calculated checksum is equal to the stored checksum associated with the first logical block.
US07716518B2
A method, storage system, and machine-readable medium for resynchronizing data stored among a first storage element and a second storage element of a remote copy pair of storage elements is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method is provided which includes detecting a reestablishment of a remote copy relationship between the first and second storage elements and performing a resynchronization operation in response to this detection. Performing the resynchronization operation comprises transmitting data of a second change record associated with the second storage element to the first storage element, combining the second change record with a first change record associated with the first storage element, identifying a data segment of the second storage element utilizing the combined change record, and overwriting data of the first storage element with data of the identified data segment.
US07716515B2
The present invention discloses a method for updating the timing of a baseboard management controller (BMC) applied in a computer system. When a basic input output system (BIOS) installed on a motherboard of the computer system is initialized, the current time for the BMC to receive the BIOS is used for the timing of the BMC, and the BMC will send regular synchronous signals to the motherboard at a predetermined interval thereafter. After the motherboard has received the synchronous signal, the current time of the BIOS is sent to the BMC, and the BMC updates the timing of the BMC by the current time of the BIOS, so that the timing of the BMC will be consistent with the current time of the BIOS, and system administrators no longer need to update the time manually.
US07716512B1
Disclosed is a method of validating the contents of a real-time clock in a digital circuit. A plurality of memory elements create a first random signature value when power is newly applied to a circuit. The plurality of memory elements maintain the first random signature value while power to the circuit is maintained. The first random signature value is stored as a reference value such that the reference value is not altered by a power interruption. When power to the circuit is lost and then regained, a second random signature value is created. The second random signature value likely will no longer match the reference value because both the reference value and the second signature are random. When the reference value does not match the signature value, the real-time clock value is considered invalid. User input may be employed to correct the real-time clock value.
US07716506B1
A system has a plurality of different clients. Each client generates a report signal indicative of a current latency tolerance associated with a performance state. A controller dynamically determines a power down level having a minimum power consumption capable of supporting the system latency of the configuration state of the clients.
US07716505B2
A power control method for a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device comprises a power supply unit and a volatile memory for storing data when the power supply unit supplies power thereto. First, the portable electronic device is set to enter a deep sleep mode. Then, data accessed from the volatile memory is transferred to a non-volatile memory. Finally, except for maintaining sufficient power to restore the device, the power supply unit is turned off.
US07716502B2
Flattening total current consumption of system having processing core and power supply input by current sensing within system at power supply input and controlling system current consumption such that system current is reduced if over reference current threshold, and increased if below reference current threshold. Inject additional current through digital injections cells working higher frequencies, by increasing switching activity, by increasing voltage supply to core, and by increasing operating frequency of processor core. Feedback signal indicates current consumption of system. Current consumption similarly decreased. Current sensed by mirroring input current inline with power supply input and compensating for voltage drop introduced by mirroring using opposing field effect transistors and maintaining outputs at same voltage through feedback control loop. Processor core may be general purpose processor core or cryptographic processor core. System may be system-on-chip or system-on-package. System includes processor core and current flattening device based on method. Also, current flattening device and current sensor. On chip current sensor sensing current draw of processor core.
US07716493B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for managing the secure acquisition, storage and disclosure of confidential information using biometric keys to lock data storage devices, a secure data input/output device and authorization procedures to facilitate identity rights management; and/or metadata querying techniques to preserve the anonymity of disclosed personal data.
US07716492B1
A service discovery mechanism may allow clients in a distributed computing environment to search for services. The service discovery mechanism may allow a client to request a capability credential from a service. In one embodiment, the client may present to the service a set of desired capabilities. The service may then respond with a capability credential that may convey to the client the rights to use the requested capabilities. A complete service advertisement may be needed to create a message endpoint for accessing the service. In an embodiment, the capability credential may be used by a client to obtain a complete advertisement for the requested capabilities. The capability credential may provide an additional level of security for the service provider. The capability credential that may be used to receive the complete advertisement may also be used to construct a message gate to communicate with the service where the gate embeds the capability credential in each message to the service.
US07716490B2
An access control apparatus is disclosed that controls access to a predetermined resource. The access control apparatus includes entity relationship definition information defining a predetermined relationship of a first entity attempting to access the predetermined resource with a second entity, indirect access control information defining an access right to the predetermined resource based on the predetermined relationship, and an indirect access right determining unit that detects the second entity with which the first entity has the predetermined relationship based on the entity relationship definition information, and determines an access right of the first entity based on the predetermined relationship with the detected second entity and the indirect access control information.
US07716480B2
In one embodiment, a network comprises a plurality of nodes that communicate with one another. A first node included in the plurality of nodes generates a plan comprising a plurality of marker states. Each marker state comprises a value for a property associated with the first node. When the first node broadcasts information indicative of a given marker state included in the plan, at least one node other than the first node verifies the value of the property included in the given marker state.
US07716474B2
A method and system for protecting software products from unauthorized use and distribution is described. The system comprises a client process executed on a client computer coupled to a producer computer over a network. The method comprises the steps of providing to a user a copy of the distributed software, the distributed software comprising an incomplete executable program requiring a security module to be installed prior to execution on the client computer. The user receives a registration code for use with the distributed software. Upon attempted execution of the distributed software the producer computer requests user registration from the user. Upon receipt of the registration information including the registration code from the user, the producer computer validates the registration code and constructing a security module for transmission to the client computer. The security module is integrated with the distributed software to allow execution of the executable program.
US07716472B2
A network-communication method includes detecting network activity between a local area network and a wide area network, decoding the network activity, responsive to the decoding step, obtaining at least a source network address, and using the source network address to establish a transparent networking bridge between the local area network and the wide area network.
US07716468B2
A method and a system for providing a service in a network, is provided. In one embodiment, a first modem with a first address, which is identical to a second address of a second modem, requests for services in the network. A modem termination system (MTS) checks whether the first modem is a clone of the second modem. If the first modem is identified to be the clone of the second modem, then, the first modem is restricted from obtaining the requested service. However, the second modem is continuously provided services.
US07716467B1
An encryption management system of an enterprise is provided. The system includes an encryption/decryption component operable for enterprise messages to be secured by receiving and encrypting the messages received from enterprise applications. The encryption/decryption component further decrypts messages received from enterprise partners that are encrypted. The system includes an identity management component to manage access to the encryption management system, and a key management component to manage keys used by the encryption/decryption component. The system includes a notification component that initiates sending messages regarding events occurring in the encryption management system through communication with an enterprise messaging system. The system also includes a logging/auditing component to log events occurring in the encryption management system.
US07716461B2
During unexpected application shutdowns, application settings states are captured, and displayed application states are restored upon subsequent application restart. User data displayed prior to shutdown may also be restored to pre-shutdown states. Data representing in-use application settings states and in-use user data are stored on a periodic basis, or upon notification of an impending application shutdown. Upon restart, any application deployed prior to shutdown is re-deployed according to the stored application settings states for each application, and any in-use documents or other data may be re-deployed according to the stored user data.
US07716459B2
A method for performing at least one jump in a program executed by a processor, including determining a result over several bits as an indicator that a desired condition has been complied with, the result corresponding to an operation taking into account at least one predetermined value and at least one current value; and calculating a jump address which is a function of the result.
US07716458B2
An integrated circuit includes a processor. An arithmetic logic circuit group includes a plurality of operation units and a connection channel connecting the operation units in a reconfigurable manner. Parameter-based dedicated hardware can change a process specification thereof by parameter setting. An intermodule interface connects the processor, the arithmetic logic circuit group, and the parameter-based hardware to each other.
US07716454B2
A processor is adapted for performing a QR-decomposition. The processor has a program memory, a program controller, connected to the program memory to receive program instructions, and at least one processing unit. The processing unit includes a CORDIC calculation block, and has a distributed memory structure, with separate memory blocks for storing respective parameter values.
US07716448B2
A method and apparatus for managing memory allocation using memory pages. An arena is designated within one or more memory pages. The arena is divided into one or more memory blocks of the same size. Metadata is generated for the memory blocks at a location other than between the memory blocks, which is used when allocating memory to satisfy an allocation request of approximately the size of the memory blocks.
US07716446B1
Memory assigned to a virtual machine is reclaimed. A resource reservation application running as a guest application on the virtual machine reserves a location in guest virtual memory. The corresponding physical memory can be reclaimed and allocated to another virtual machine. The resource reservation application allows detection of guest virtual memory page-out by the guest operating system. Measuring guest virtual memory page-out is useful for determining memory conditions inside the guest operating system. Given determined memory conditions, memory allocation and reclaiming can be used control memory conditions. Memory conditions in the virtual machine can be controlled with the objective of achieving some target memory conditions.
US07716437B2
A system is disclosed that includes a host system to issue a write command, a primary storage device to write data to a primary volume, and a secondary storage device to mirror the data to a secondary volume. A task timer may be initiated upon sending the data from the primary storage device to the secondary storage device. The secondary storage device may also send an acknowledge signal to the primary storage device in the event it successfully mirrors the data to the secondary volume. In the event the acknowledge signal is not received before the timer expires, the primary storage device may notify the host system that the primary and secondary volumes are in a suspended state. To alter the duration of the timer, the host system may be further configured to dynamically alter the duration of the timer by sending a command to the primary storage device.
US07716432B2
The present invention includes means for processing received data, storage means for storing the data, means for performing an invalidation process on the data stored in the storage means, and means for storing history information about the history of the invalidation process performed.
US07716420B2
A filer converts a traditional volume to a flexible volume by: creating an aggregate on storage devices other than the storage devices of the traditional volume; on the aggregate, creating a flexible volume large enough to store metadata describing files residing on the traditional volume; on the flexible volume, creating metadata structures that describe the files of the traditional volume, except that the metadata indicates that data blocks and indirect blocks are absent and must be fetched from another location. As the filer handles I/O requests directed to the flexible volume, the filer calculates physical volume block number (PVBN) addresses where the requested blocks would be located in the aggregate and replaces the absent pointers with the calculated addresses. After the absent pointers have been replaced, the filer adds the storage devices of the traditional volume.
US07716409B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method includes identifying a transaction from a first processor to a second processor of a system with a transaction identifier. The transaction identifier may have a value that is less than or equal to a maximum number of outstanding transactions between the two processors. In such manner, a transaction field for the transaction identifier may be limited to n bits, where the maximum number of outstanding transactions is less than or equal to 2n. In various embodiments, such a transaction identifier combined with a source identifier and a home node identifier may form a globally unique transaction identifier.
US07716406B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for handling persistent reservations. More particularly, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a routing device that routes commands from multiple initiators to a target device can assert reservations for the initiators using its own reservation key rather than a reservation key provided by an initiator. The routing device can further maintain a registry of keys for multiple initiators that access the target device through the routing device. For a persistent reservation command received using a persistent reservation key in the registry, the routing device can forward the command to the target device server using the routing device's key. Thus, reservations for the multiple initiators will be held using the routing device's key. For persistent reservation commands received from initiators registered with the routing device, the routing device can handle conflict resolution and other persistent reservation processing.
US07716401B2
A memory module and a related memory system are disclosed. The memory module comprises a semiconductor memory having a data output buffer, a data input buffer, a command/address input buffer and a first termination resistor unit connected to a data bus. The memory module further comprises a second termination resistor unit connected to an internal command/address bus. First and second termination resistor units are preferably of different resistive value and/or type.
US07716392B2
A computer system includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a main storage interconnected by a bus to the CPU. The I/O module for transferring received data and data to be transmitted to and from an external unit is directly connected to the main storage, which stores the received data or the transmission data, so that data transfer can be effected every minimum data cycle that allows an access to a memory macro included in the main storage. This accomplishes high-speed data transfer based on DMA (Direct Memory Access) transfer over the bus.
US07716384B2
The present invention provides a highly convenient removable device and a startup method. A hub division unit 31 in a single composite device 2 allocates data exchange with the computer 1 side a plurality of devices, thereby easily realizing a plurality of functions. When connected to a USB, a recognition control unit 32 returns a signal representing a CD-ROM in a simulated manner in response to inquiry about the type of the device from the host side. When a device is mounted, a desired processing such as a program execution described in the script is automatically performed without installing a resident program for detecting a device mounting in advance in the computer side.
US07716382B2
Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate refining a list of candidate driver packages for a detected plug-and-play device. A device can be detected and a hardware ID there for can be determined and compared to hardware IDs in a data store to determine a preliminary list of driver packages that match the hardware device ID. The driver packages can be tagged with additional rich targeting criteria that must be satisfied in order for the driver package to be retained in the candidate list. If additional criteria in the driver packages are not satisfied, then the driver package can be excised from the candidate list to refine driver package compatibility with a computer to which the device is connected.
US07716381B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing continuously updated completion time and an average completion time information for I/O commands on a per-LU, per-target, per-port basis. This measurement is performed by a kernel device driver that handles the I/O for the system at lower layers, so the measurements are more accurate because the delays due to higher level processing are not included. This approach allows the driver to track movements in the average I/O command completion time per LU and limit outstanding I/O counts early enough to potentially prevent overload conditions. By catching the overload early, the invention also has the ability to restore the original outstanding I/O count as the overload condition subsides.
US07716371B2
In one embodiment, at least one first information handling system of a user receives an excerpt of information associated with the user. In response to the excerpt, the first information handling system automatically translates the excerpt into an XML format, so that the translated excerpt is compatible for operation with at least one second information handling system of the user. The first information handling system synchronizes the translated excerpt with the second information handling system.
US07716366B2
An enhanced virtual router redundancy protocol for manipulating master router selection within a network is disclosed. The use of a priority control policy and priority values take into account conditions and events that may distinguish the desirability of one router over another. Explicit priority values may be specified to indicate the explicit priority of a particular router instance. Delta priority values may also be used to decrement or increment a base priority for a particular router instance. By using priority control policies and priority values to select a master, improved control, management, and manipulation of virtual router instances over a particular IP core network interface are enabled.
US07716364B2
Various methods are provided for distributing datagrams over telecommunications networks. According to many of these methods, datagrams are multicast or broadcast to one or more nodes or Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) on the networks. Also provided are systems for distributing datagrams over the networks according to these methods. According to some of these systems, reductions are provided in the amounts of memory used to multicast and/or broadcast datagrams.
US07716363B1
Methods and apparatus for providing request compatibility in a multicast system are disclosed. In one aspect, a layer 2 switch is configured to receive traffic requests from a group of receivers, determine whether the traffic requests contain incompatible request types. If incompatible request types exist, then the switch may separate the traffic requests into groups based on type, and send the requests of different types to a router from distinct addresses.
US07716357B2
A system and methods for service discovery and publication are disclosed. Application programs write requests for service discovery, publication, and subscription to a service discovery application programming interface. The service discovery application programming interface invokes one or more lower-level protocols to satisfy the discovery, publication and/or subscription request. Service information retrieved from lower-layer protocols is formatted into a consistent data model and returned to the client application. In addition, service information may be stored in a persistent data store managed by a discovery persistence service communicatively connected to the service discovery API.
US07716356B2
Methods and systems for dynamically acquiring MAC addresses in a virtualized Network environment. A server may be partitioned into a plurality of logical partition. Each logical partition may be associated with a logical adapter to provide network access to the partition. A MAC address may be dynamically allocated to a logical adapter from a predefined range of MAC addresses. Furthermore, the MAC addresses may be unique within a particular subnet, therefore the same MAC address may be assigned to adapters in different subnets.
US07716354B2
A control system including control devices with each control device including a control unit and a display device connected with the control unit via a dedicated communication line and being capable of display corresponding to a control state of the control unit. The display device includes a communication port connected with a control unit and a communication port connected with a data processing device, and a data processing section. Further, the data transmission method includes a dedicated protocol communication transmitting data with a processing device and a common protocol communication transmitting data with another processing device. In addition, the control-host computer used in the control system includes a control unit controlling a control target and a display device.
US07716353B2
A Web Services availability cache is part of a computer system, such as an enterprise system of a business or organization. The availability cache is populated with information from Web Services communicatively connected to the computer system by a network connection. In one embodiment, the availability cache is populated based on each request handled by a server process associated with the availability cache. A server receives a request from a client having an application dependent upon information from the Web Service. The server sends the request to the Web Service and stores returned information in the availability cache. Also, the server sends the returned information to the client, which initiated to request. Once the cache is populated, the server handles subsequent requests for information from the client by using the Web Service if it is available or by using the availability cache if the Web Service is not available.
US07716340B2
A method for restricting access of a client to a web site hosted at first and second servers is described. A first tally that includes identification information of the client and a first number of access requests sent from the client to the first server is received. A second tally that includes the identification information of the client and a second number of access requests sent from the client to the second server is received. The first and second tallies are collated to determine a total number of access requests made by the client.
US07716330B2
An apparatus for controlling transmission of data packets in an information network comprises a Regional Transaction Processor (RTP) operable to communicate with a Data Enabling Device (DED) and at least one workstation. The DED searches data packets for content match information. The RTP includes instructions to generate information to include in a prompt to be presented at the workstation when the content match information is detected in at least one of the data packets. The prompt is based on information in the data packet. Transmission of the data packets through the information network is suspended by the DED until a response to the prompt is received that authorizes downloading the data packets to the workstation. If transmission of the data packets to the workstation is not authorized, the data packets are discarded by the DED.
US07716323B2
A system and method for reliable peer-to-peer communication is provided. The system and method includes a cluster connection manager that acts as a unified resource for opening, closing and maintaining peer-to-peer communication channels between applications executing on storage systems comprising a storage system cluster. The cluster connection manager communicates with cluster connection manager clients to maintain and manage the communication channels. The cluster connection manager may also be operatively interconnected with a plurality of cluster interconnect devices, thereby enabling failover operation in the event that a cluster interconnect device suffers an error condition.
US07716322B2
A unique tool, i.e., “VeriWeb”, is employed to automatically discover and systematically explore Web-site execution paths that can be followed by a user in a Web application. Unlike traditional spiders (or crawlers) that are limited to the exploration of static links, VeriWeb can navigate automatically through dynamic components of Web sites, including form submissions and execution of client-side scripts. Whenever examining a new Web page, the system determines all possible actions a user might perform—be it a link, via a button with a JavaScript handler, or via form submission—and can execute them in a systematic way. In order to systematically test different paths in a Web site, VeriWeb addresses two critical problems: systematic Web site exploration and automatically filling out forms.
US07716319B2
A computer system for managing log information, enabling correct comprehension of system logs for an identical resource before and after migration among plural nodes. A global ID, being unique in the system, is given to a resource (LU) migrated from one file share server to another. The global ID remains the same in the migration destination file share server after migration and log messages for the resource are obtained based on the global ID.
US07716316B2
Diagnostic methods and systems are described in which a client or consumer electronic device can be remotely controlled and operated for purposes which include performing diagnostics and/or implementing remedial measures designed to remedy identified problems associated with the consumer electronic device.
US07716311B2
Resources associated with a communication system switch are monitored by storing information defining one or more resource groups. Each of the resource groups includes multiple identifiers, with each of the identifiers specifying at least one resource to be monitored. A client external to the switch is permitted to select at least one of the resource groups for monitoring. In response to selection of one of the groups by the client, monitoring of the corresponding resources is established on behalf of the client. The resource monitoring may be established, controlled and maintained by a telephony server coupled between the client and the switch. Such a telephony server can preserve monitoring for a resource group, independent of the requests of clients, in order to reduce the amount of execution time needed to set up and tear down monitors for client applications. This is particularly advantageous in call centers or in other client applications that involve monitoring large numbers of switch resources.
US07716310B2
There is provided a method and an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) content manager server for IPTV service. The server comprises a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) stack adapted to request an establishment of a first RTSP session with an IPTV media server responsive to an IPTV service request from an Internet Protocol Television Terminal (ITF). The RTSP stack stores an identifier of the first RTSP session responsive to the request for the establishment of the RTSP session. Subsequently, the RTSP stack receives an RTSP session initiation message from the ITF requesting an establishment of an RTSP session. Upon receipt of the message, the content manager server authenticates the message, determines the existence of an existing RTSP session for the ITF, and thus acts to discard the session initiation message received from the ITF and to return the identifier of the first, already established, RTSP session.
US07716309B2
Consistency for replicating data storage subsystem configurations in accordance with a “golden” configuration file. A data storage subsystem comprises a blade system with a plurality of slots, the blade system configured to support a plurality of blades and a storage system, each arranged in a predetermined slot of the blade system. The storage system arranges a logical configuration of the server blades in accordance with a “golden” configuration file. The server blade slot versus WWN information is collected and provided to the storage system. The storage system converts the “golden” configuration file slot information to WWNs. The server blades are enabled for access to said storage system as they log on with WWNs in accordance with the “golden” configuration file.
US07716308B2
A server deletes a mask object in a structured text as a part of a shared text. A client issues a mask object constituting each layout object of the structured text, according to the authority of the client, and adds the mask object to the shared text data from which the mask object received from the server is deleted. With this arrangement, information written in the shared text is made unreadable according to the authority of the user of the client, thereby achieving access control to a part of the shared text.
US07716297B1
A system and method are described for performing a correlative statistical analysis on a stream of email messages to identify new spam campaigns. For example, a method according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: extracting a series of patterns from a stream of incoming email messages; performing a correlation between the patterns to identify recurring patterns within the stream of email messages over a specified time period; dynamically updating a spam filtering engine to include a particular recurring pattern if the number of times the particular recurring pattern is detected within the specified time period is above a first specified threshold value.
US07716295B2
Methods and Systems are provided for managing the reply recipients field of a reply e-mail. In response to creating a reply e-mail the recipients are displayed in a format convenient for specifying their recipient classification. Typical recipient classifications include reply recipients (Reply To), carbon copy recipients (CC), blind carbon copy recipients (BCC) and/or file carbon copy recipients (FCC). The recipient classification for each e-mail address may be selected by an input from a user, such as mouse click, without the need to cut and paste e-mail addresses. The recipient classification display is updated in response to detecting a user selection, and an optional control is provided to specify the remaining unassigned recipients to one recipient status.
US07716294B2
The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for providing an instant messaging (IM) interface with dynamically generated message buttons. A method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: retrieving information from a user associated application; dynamically generating a message button based on the retrieved information and a user policy; and rendering the dynamically generated message button on the IM interface.
US07716292B2
An e-mail processing application executable on a computer station having a video display unit (VDU) searches a received e-mail for one or more words, phrases, and addresses for comparison with stored words, phrases and addresses in a stored table, and upon finding a match in the stored table, inserts one or more of words, phrases, or addresses associated in the stored table with the words, phrases or addresses from the received e-mail in any reply to the received e-mail. In a preferred embodiment a “send to” address in a received e-mail triggers automatically one or both of a particular “from” and “reply to” address in any response to the received e-mail. In an alternative embodiment, a “send to” address in a received e-mail, as a result of a table look-up, automatically prepares and sends a new e-mail identical to the received e-mail except for a new “send to” address retrieved from the stored table. In alternative embodiments the application simply provides variable fields in a reply window for a user to enter variable “from” and “reply to” addresses.
US07716288B2
A rights-managed email is provided for sending protected content from a sender to a recipient, whereby the recipient can render the protected content with a corresponding license if the recipient satisfies terms set forth in the license. In the email, a main information portion has a message that the email is rights management protected, and an attachment portion has the protected content. The recipient if enabled can render the protected content in the attachment portion. If not enabled, the recipient can only review the main information portion having the message. The enabled recipient recognizes that the email has the protected content in the attachment portion thereof, discounts the main information portion of the email, and examines the attachment portion of the email and proceeds based thereon to render the protected content in the attachment portion.
US07716287B2
Organizing a participant list includes maintaining a participant list of users of an electronic communications system to be used by a first user of the electronic communications system. Communications strengths between the first user and each of the users included in the participant list are determined. The users included in the participant list are organized based on the corresponding communications strengths. Communications strengths may be determined for users included in a group within the participant list, and the users within the group may be organized within the group based on communications strength. An additional group in the participant list in which some or all of the users included in the participant list are organized based on communications strength may be provided.
US07716285B2
Methods and systems for assisting individuals (101) arrange meetings such as networking meeting with other individuals (101) at a specified time (or within a specified time range) and/or at a specified place (or within a specified geographic region). More specifically, methods and systems for allowing individuals (110) to post an invitation to for a meeting on an on-line network and for allowing one or more other individuals (101) to accept such invitation.
US07716284B2
A method, system, and architecture for providing a web conference system that efficiently provides a breakout room or multiple breakout rooms within a single web conference (also referred to herein interchangeably as a “meeting” or “virtual meeting”) is provided. In some embodiments, the web conference system architecture provides a web conference system that allows for the creation of breakout rooms within a single web conference, where each breakout room provides a named view onto each feature subsystem of the web conference, with or without separate permission levels on each view. Each breakout room may also provide a named view of the contents of the web conference, with or without separate permission levels on each view.
US07716276B1
A network supporting user-initiated management of updatable mobile electronic devices such as, for example, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, personal computers, and the like, permits a user to employ a personal computer (PC) or other device to browse information web portal in order to determine whether an update of firmware, software, and/or configuration information in the mobile electronic device is appropriate. If the user determines that an update is appropriate, or if a content server or a device management (DM) server determines that an update is appropriate, the user may schedule a download of one or more update packages. The update packages may comprise executable instructions for converting a first firmware/software version to a second firmware/software version, and may have associated multipurpose internet mail extension (mime) types. An update may be immediately executed, or an update may be scheduled and performed at a later time according to the user-selected schedule.
US07716273B2
Systems and methods are provided that enable an alternate display device to wirelessly receive content from a computing device, freeing users from the burden of physically connecting the computing device via a cable. The content sent to the display device can also be simultaneously or separately viewed on the computing devices of other nearby computing devices. Generic mechanism(s) and corresponding user interfaces are provided for computing devices to engage in discovery of devices to which content may be delivered, for accepting delivery and for initiating transmission of content.
US07716270B2
A carry-ripple adder has four summing inputs for receiving four input bits having the significance w that are to be summed, three carry inputs for receiving three input carry bits having the significance w, a summation output for outputting an output summation bit having the significance w, and three carry outputs for outputting three output carry bits having the significance 2w.
US07716265B2
The present invention performs a lossless four-point orthogonal transformation with reduced rounding errors using a simple configuration. A data transformation apparatus receives four items of vector data X0, X1, X2, and X3, ( Y 0 Y 1 Y 2 Y 3 ) = 1 1 + a 2 ( 1 a a a 2 a - 1 a 2 - a a a 2 - 1 - a a 2 - a - a 1 ) ( X 0 X 1 X 2 X 3 ) and determines D0 to D3 as: D0=X0+aX1+aX2+a2X3; D1=aX0−X1+a2X2−aX3; D2=aX0+a2X1−X2−aX3; and D3=a2X0−aX1−aX2+X3. Integer data smaller than half a divisor {1+a2} is added to D1 to determine D1′, and a value equal to half the divisor is added to D0, D2, and D3 to determine D0′, D2′, and D3′, respectively. D0′, D1′, D2′, and D3′ are divided by the divisor and the results are rounded such that resulting integers are smaller than the results of division, and outputting the resulting integers.
US07716263B2
A system for providing indications of documents currently opened by members of a group, in which document open and close operations are detected, and conveyed to a server system. The server system receives the document operation messages, and uses them to maintain lists of open documents associated with individual users through records in a user database that also indicate individual users' on-line status. When the server system transmits the on-line status of a user to other users that have an interest in that user (e.g. fellow members of a collaboration team, development project or the like, or user's having entered that user in their buddy list, etc.), an open documents list for that user is included in the message along with his or her on-line status information. The client systems maintain lists of currently accessing users for open documents they have received identifiers of within open documents lists contained in such on-line status messages. As a result, a user can select a user interface view, such as a file directory or other type of interface providing indications of multiple shared documents, and the disclosed system allows the user to quickly determine which documents are currently open by other users in a group.
US07716251B2
A method and system for storing a semantic object includes summarizing the attributes of a semantic object, indexing the summary of attributes, and storing the summary of attributes and the index of the summary of attributes.
US07716249B2
The described implementations relate to efficient scheduling of transactions and tasks. A memory location, address, or variable previously accessed by a blocked entity is observed periodically to determine an appropriate time to wake and retry the blocked entity. If the previous accessed memory location, address or variable changes state, a scheduler wakes the blocked entity and the blocked entity retries processing. A doubly-indexed data structure of blocked entities and memory locations associated with the blocked entities may be used to efficiently determine when a retrying execution would be profitable.
US07716241B1
An effective means for building an interlocking trees datastore from multiple data sources that contained within the datastore the knowledge of the origin of the data was needed, and is thus described herein. Should it be desired or necessary to identify the different sources of data within the Kstore data structure, the present invention teaches how an additional field for the origin of the data is created, how the origin of the data is stored in that newly created field, and how the interlocking trees data store takes that field and creates nodes within the structure, therefore embedding the origin information within the knowledge contained in the Kstore data structure.
US07716236B2
A user is made able to configure a search query to be responsive to temporal factors in order to adjust the search query to more accurately reflect the user's true information need. By adjusting the search query in this way, the user is more likely to receive satisfactory search results.
US07716234B2
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive an input message specifying a query identifier and query parameters. A query definition specified by the query identifier is retrieved. The query parameters are mapped in accordance with the query definition to form a query. The query is passed to a semantic layer with semantically dynamic objects. Query results are received from the semantic layer. The query results are mapped to a specified web service interface to form an output message.
US07716226B2
In one embodiment the present invention provides a novel method for probabilistically quantifying a degree of relevance between two or more citationally or contextually related data objects, such as patent documents, non-patent documents, web pages, personal and corporate contacts information, product information, consumer behavior, technical or scientific information, address information, and the like. In another embodiment the present invention provides a novel method for visualizing and displaying relevance between two or more citationally or contextually related data objects. In another embodiment the present invention provides a novel search input/output interface that utilizes an iterative self-organizing mapping (“SOM”) technique to automatically generate a visual map of relevant patents and/or other related documents desired to be explored, searched or analyzed. In another embodiment the present invention provides a novel search input/output interface that displays and/or communicates search input criteria and corresponding search results in a way that facilitates intuitive understanding and visualization of the logical relationships between two or more related concepts being searched.
US07716220B2
The invention relates to a content recommendation device comprising a selection engine (2) that selects content items from a content item pool (4) and generates a selection list (9) comprising the selected content items, and/or means to receive a selection list The content recommendation device also comprises an arrangement engine (3) that generates a content recommendation list (12) by re-arranging at least a part of content items of the selection list (9) so that preferably a dramaturgic sequence of content items is generated.
US07716215B2
A method, system, and computer program product to make query processing more robust in the face of optimization errors. The invention validates the statistics and assumptions used for compiling a query as the query is executed and, when necessary, progressively re-optimizes the query in mid-execution based on the knowledge learned during its partial execution. The invention selectively places a number of CHECK operators in a query execution plan to validate the optimizer's cardinality estimates against actual cardinalities. Errors beyond a threshold trigger re-optimization, and the optimizer decides whether the old plan is still optimal and whether to re-use previously computed results. The invention addresses arbitrary SQL queries whose plans can contain sub-queries, updates, trigger checking, and view maintenance operations. The invention can handle concurrent update transactions or updates of common sub-expressions in a query execution plan without compromising consistency and isolation as locking information is tied to the record ID.
US07716206B2
A communication network is operated by associating a pseudonym with a user of the communication network at a proxy searcher. A complex search request from the user is received at the proxy searcher, the complex search request being associated with the pseudonym. The complex search request and pseudonym are forwarded from the proxy searcher to a central searcher. The complex search request is divided into a plurality of simple search requests at the central searcher. The plurality of simple search requests are performed on at least one database. The results of the plurality of simple search requests are provided to the proxy searcher, the results being associated with the pseudonym.
US07716200B2
An image management apparatus storing an input primary image and a replay-use reduced image corresponding to the input image comprises a first storage medium; a first database makeup unit for making up first database information for identifying a group to which the reduced image belongs when recording the primary image in the first storage medium; a second recording medium; a duplication unit for duplicating first database information and a reduced image recorded in the second recording medium into the first recording medium when the remainder capacity of, or the number of recorded files in, the second recording medium meets a predetermined condition; and a second database makeup unit for deleting first database information and a reduced image which are duplicated into the first recording medium from the second recording medium and also making up second database information for identifying the duplicated first database information in the second recording medium.
US07716199B2
Search results are generated using aggregated context data from two or more contexts. When two or more programmable search engines relate to a similar topic, context data associated with the programmable search engines are aggregated. The context is then applied to a query in order to present, in an integrated manner, relevant search results that make use of context intelligence from more than one programmable search engine.
US07716188B2
To simplify the creation and handling of an information library which is associated with a number of modules from which a device is put together in accordance with a prescribed configuration structure, a method for checking the completeness and consistency of the information library is provided. Accordingly, the information library comprises a number of information packets, each of which contains an information core and a meta-statement which defines the association between the information packet and at least one module a context library is prescribed which comprises a number of context units, each context unit of which contains a reference to a combination of modules which requires the presence of the information packet, and the information library is checked for completeness and consistency by testing whether each configuration of modules which is valid in accordance with the configuration structure and each affected context unit which refers to a combination contained in the configuration have at least one corresponding information packet available which, in accordance with its meta-statement, is compatible with the configuration and is defined as being associated with the combination.
US07716184B1
Systems and methods for performing sparse backups are disclosed. One method may involve: receiving information indicating unallocated extents from a file system that organizes data on a primary storage device; copying to a backup storage device data from extents of the primary storage device, where the unallocated extents indicated by the information are not copied; and for each of a plurality of copied extents, storing a mapping from an original extent on the primary storage device to a new extent on the backup storage device into which data stored in that original extent is copied. A backup volume that includes the data included in plurality of copied extents may be mounted, and the mapping may be used to translate accesses to the extents on the backup volume to extents on the backup storage device.
US07716181B2
Methods, apparatus and computer programs are provided for data replication, such as for replicating a database or updating a cache. Source database change transactions are captured and batched together for efficient data transfer. On receipt at a target replica system, the batch of transactions within a message is separated and separate apply transactions corresponding to the source transactions are performed in parallel. A ‘transaction processed’ table is updated to reflect apply processing for each apply transaction. This table provides a confirmation of the status of each transaction that can be used during recovery processing to prevent re-apply of an apply transaction. The table can also be used to determine when it is safe to delete an incoming message from persistent storage on the target system, and to facilitate one-phase commit processing.
US07716179B1
Content items in a distributed system are defined by a respective key, and each such content item is copied to R1 computer systems of the distributed system which have unique identifiers closest to a value of the respective key, where R1 is less than R2 which is less than R3, at least R2 number of the computer systems have copies of any respective one of the content items for all of the content items, and none of the computer systems farther than R3 in an address space of the distributed system have a copy of the subject content item. Modifications of individual content items are synchronized across all instances thereof responsive to a put operation and/or at periodic intervals.
US07716175B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for multicast compression and pacing are disclosed. In one method, messages relating to events that affect or require use of a database maintained by multiple processing modules in a distributed processing system are received. The messages are buffered and placed in a third message in a manner that preserves time ordering of the messages. The packed message is then multicast to the processing modules. Each processing module processes messages that are addressed to it. A method for pacing multicast messages destined for the processing modules is also provided.
US07716174B2
Data integration and data analysis using computing equipment, software as well as hardware, includes a system and method for integrating data from various data sources, structured and unstructured, without physically creating a data warehouse and automatically generating queries for analysis of the integrated data from a multitude of different views.
US07716152B2
Use of sequential nearest neighbor clustering for instance selection in machine condition monitoring
A method is provided for selecting a representative set of training data for training a statistical model in a machine condition monitoring system. The method reduces the time required to choose representative samples from a large data set by using a nearest-neighbor sequential clustering technique in combination with a kd-tree. A distance threshold is used to limit the geometric size the clusters. Each node of the kd-tree is assigned a representative sample from the training data, and similar samples are subsequently discarded.
US07716150B2
Systems and methods that analyze aggregated tagging behavior of users, and evaluate such tagging trends to identify criteria for taxonomy applications. Initially, existence of a possible trend of tagging data based on collective user behavior is determined. Subsequently, tagging trends can be examined to identify that a predetermined convergence criteria has in fact been met, and/or establish such criteria for taxonomy applications. Machine learning systems (implicitly as well as explicitly trained) can be supplied to facilitate determining the trends and the convergence criteria.
US07716141B2
A method for providing business information comprises receiving a request, a selected industry, and a selected region, then generating report data, and providing a printable industry report. The industry report has charts and a map and is divided into a national market overview section, a market dynamics section, and a company information section. A system for providing business information has an application server, a web server, and a memory, such as a database. The application server fabricates a data product. The web server processes requests from the application server and provides the data product in an industry report. The web server includes charting and mapping components. For rapid retrieval, the database stores a table of company information.
US07716135B2
A dynamically determined data-driven model for detecting fraudulent behavior is provided. An initial model is developed using historical data, such as demographic, psychographic, transactional, and environmental data, using data-driven discovery techniques, such as data mining, and may be validated using additional statistical techniques. The noise within the data models determine appropriate initial control points needed for the initial model. These initial control points define an ‘electronic fence,’ wherein data points within the fence represent acceptable behavior and data points outside the fence represent unacceptable behavior. Updated data is received. A fraud detection mechanism validates the updated data using data mining and statistical methods. The data model, or ‘electronic fence,’ is refined based on the newly acquired data. The process of refining and updating the data models is iterated until a set of limits is achieved. When the data models reach a steady state, the models are treated as static models.
US07716130B2
Methods and systems consistent with the present invention overcome the shortcomings of existing trading systems by providing an invoiceless trading system that creates incentives for customers to pay suppliers within a predetermined period of time, such as a settlement period. Specifically, the invoiceless trading system enables a customer to obtain a discount on orders placed with suppliers in return for an immediate payment (e.g., within 24 hours) by the customer. The supplier receives payment within the predetermined period of time, and the customer receives additional cash benefits by providing an early payment to the supplier. To communicate with and transfer funds between customers and suppliers, the invoiceless trading system may use an electronic gateway and a settlement bank. In addition to creating an incentive to embrace e-commerce, both customers and suppliers avoid the need to manually process orders and use invoices to complete transactions.
US07716126B2
A method and system are presented for selectively entering lottery entries into a state lottery drawing via an internet web site, the method includes the initial step of entering the home page of the web site. There is querying of users for their sign-in identification to establish whether they are pre-registered user members or non-members. Pre-registered user members are presented with a choice of member functions and content as to account information, and selection of a game to be played. Non-members are presented with a choice of different functions and content including the ability to establish an account. Both members and non-members may access functions and content including information relating to gambling addiction, and descriptions of the games that may be played.
US07716121B2
Presented is a computer-based system for exchange order routing over a communication network which includes a client terminal configured to provide an end-user interface between the client terminal and a first server, the interface providing a template for building an order routing strategy including a stipulation string, and to submit one or more orders and the order routing strategy to the first server. A program executable within the communication network to implement the routing strategy by crossing the order on a first electronic exchange, and placing order liquidity on respective second electronic exchanges. A method implements the order routing strategy by receiving an order and a routing strategy containing a stipulation string having parameters of predetermined criteria, a first phase order processing allocates a first order quantity to a crossing location, a second phase order processing allocates a second order quantity to an idle location.
US07716119B2
A computer readable medium is configured with instructions for causing a first computer system connected to a computer system of stock exchange market via a data communication network to automatically place a series of stock trade orders. The first computer system can include, for instance, a user computer, a brokerage computer, or both. An automated system for systematically and repeatedly placing stock trade orders based on predetermined conditions is also provided. In general, the automated system or computer system running the software operates by receiving and storing an automatic stock trading condition. A stock trading order can be placed immediately following a previously contracted order, or when a stock market status satisfies the preset stock trading condition. The first computer system preferably receives user input including basic information such as an item code of the stock and an account number of a stockholder. Automatic trade condition information can also be input into the first computer system by the user or a broker and preferably provides information for determining a desired selling price and quantity and/or a desired purchasing price and quantity for trading of the stock. Market data, preferably including the stock price is received into the first computer system via the data communication network, such as from the stock exchange market computer system. The first computer system can then determine whether a stock purchase or sale condition generated using the automatic trade condition information has been met and place a stock purchase or sale order via the data communication network when the stock purchase or sale condition is met. This system can systematically repeat the process using the automatic trade condition information as a guide for trading. The process can be repeated continuously or can be stopped when a predetermined condition is satisfied.
US07716110B2
In a multi-unit combinatorial auction, reverse auction, or exchange, a number of bids can be received, with each bid including one or more items and for each item a desired quantity thereof. Each bid also includes a price. A number of unique combinations of bids can be formed from the received bids, and the one combination of bids which represents the best value in terms of an auction setting, a reverse auction setting and/or an exchange setting can be determined. Thereafter, the bids forming this combination can be declared the winning bids of the auction, reverse auction or exchange.
US07716107B1
A system for and method of using a financial instrument to take a view on a price-to-earnings ratio for a set of one or more equities. The system and method may be used to commodify the price-to-earnings ratio for one or more equities, such as a stock or an index. The system and method may include a financial instrument that allows a user to take a view on an earnings, or ratio comprising price and earnings, for underlying equities.
US07716091B2
A method of using a public communications network, such as the Internet, to manage returns of items purchased by a consumer from a remote direct merchandiser. The customer is permitted to return an item to a local returns site or by having a local shipper pick up the item. Either of these local entities is in communications with a returns manager, who provides return information, credits the consumer's account, and handles subsequent disposition of the item.
US07716085B2
Methods and systems are provided for generating vendor declaration requests in a trade preference processing context. In one implementation, an electronic database is utilized that contains at least one of purchase order data sets and goods receipt data sets that include information about vendors and about goods purchased from the vendors. The electronic database may be accessed to assemble a worklist from the information included in the data sets. The worklist may define a plurality of processing packages associated with individual vendors and indicate the goods purchased from the vendors. The processing packages on the worklist may then be processed in a batch process to generate the vendor declaration requests.
US07716084B2
An inventive procurement system includes a requisition system for special item purchases that are not found when searching a catalog database. Using the requisition system the buyer is provided with the desired item while the information associated with the requisition is selectively added to a rule-based knowledge base as well as to an item database. In a preferred embodiment a common language generator has been used to normalize free form data using pre-determined rules to place the data into a class/attribute/value relationship. By having the item requisition follow the same relationship, the pre-determined rules may be updated and the free-form data associated with the item properly coded for inclusion into an item database.
US07716077B1
A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for administrating a network-based supply chain on a network. Operation of entities is monitored. Entities include server processes, disk space, memory availability, CPU utilization, access time to a server, and/or a number of connections in a network-based supply chain. Items including merchandising content, currency exchange rates, tax rates, and/or pricing in the network-based supply chain are updated at predetermined intervals. In addition, external data stored separately from the network-based supply chain is synchronized with internal data stored on the network-based supply chain. Contact information received from users of the network-based supply chain is also managed. Users include service providers and manufacturer utilizing the network-based supply chain. The items are altered based on profiles of the users of the network-based supply chain.
US07716076B1
A method for structuring an insurance transaction. The method includes providing insurance coverage to reimburse an insured entity in the event that the insured entity incurs a loss based on the occurrence of one or more defined events, designating an insurance premium amount to be paid by the insured entity as an insurance premium. The method further includes requiring that the insurance premium amount be paid, at least in part, by a transfer of intellectual property assets, each intellectual property asset including a plurality of intellectual property rights.
US07716074B2
A method for insuring initiation fees includes receiving information pertaining to an entity and a member, receiving information pertaining to the initiation fee, and processing the received information to determine whether to approve an insurance benefit for the initiation fee of the member. A system for implementing an insurance program for club initiation fees includes at least one user device and a server connected to the user device. The server is configured to receive, via the at least one user device, information pertaining to an initiation fee insurance program. The server is also configured to process the received information and transmit information to the user device regarding whether the initiation fee insurance application has been accepted or rejected.
US07716073B1
A pension insurance plan method involves administering claims made against a pension debt coverage policy provided in the plan. The policy protects an outstanding balance of a defined contribution plan loan secured by participant's plan assets, eliminating adverse tax consequences to the plan beneficiary in the event of the death or disability of the participant and ensuring that the full plan account balance passes intact to beneficiary in such event.
US07716071B2
A system, method and apparatus for managing a patient affected with a disease. In one aspect, the invention is directed to an apparatus for managing a patient, the apparatus comprising a system that provides: A) a means for enrolling a patient into a system including storing general information about the patient into the system's database; B) a means for storing a schedule for the patient; C) a means for reminding the patient to execute the patient care activities; D) a means for retrieving patient information comprising responses to side effects questionnaires and laboratory results; E) a means for storing the patient information into the system; F) a means for analyzing the patient information and generating a recommendation; G) a means for submitting the recommendation to a provider for approval; and H) a means for receiving approval or a modified recommendation and sending the recommendation or modified recommendation to the patient.
US07716063B2
This invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for determining carbon emission reduction credits and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating and quantifying standardized carbon emission reduction credits. General data and site-specific data, if available, are input into a carbon sequestration model to determine the approximate change in the level of carbon compounds stored in a media, such as soil, over a specified period of time. An uncertainty analysis is conducted on the results to quantify and normalize carbon emission reduction credits. Standardized carbon emission reduction credits may be compiled for trade and other carbon emission reduction credits are placed in reserve.
US07716061B2
The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for obtaining status information for processes executing in a grid. Responsive to a submission of a job from the data processing system to a remote node on the grid, a job identifier is received from the remote node. The job identifier is saved in a set of job identifiers. Responsive to a request for a status of jobs submitted from the data processing system, a job status request for each job identifier in the set of job identifiers for processes still executing is submitted using the set of job identifiers to form a set of job status requests. Responses to the set of job status requests are received. The responses are then presented.
US07716060B2
The present invention is related to patent-related tools, and methodologies involving those tools, for assisting in all stages of the merger and acquisition process. The IPAM server may be used in conjunction with the tools and methodologies to aid in the merger and acquisition process. These tools or methods include, but are not limited to, a topographic map, a technology classification, a SIC classification, a radar diagram, a patent citation tree, a citation root tree, a citation count report, a citation frequency graph, a citation frequency report, a patent count/year, an application count/year, a patent aging graph, a U.S. primary class/subclass, an international patent class, an assignee patent count report by primary class/subclass, a patent count graph by number of patents, a top assignees primary class/subclass by percent of total, a months to issue patents, a features grouping, a document annotation, an inventor patent count/assignee, an inventor patent count graph, and inventor data.
US07716059B1
A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for providing a network-based child financial support framework. First, a database is maintained including information on a received financial support payment utilizing a network. Further, general information is provided relating to the financial support payment utilizing the network. The calculation of a proper amount of the financial support payment may also be allowed based on a profile a user. Still yet, a history associated with the financial support payment is displayed.
US07716057B2
Conversational dialog with a computer or other processor-based device without requiring push-to-talk functionality. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method first determines that a user desires to engage in a dialog. Based thereon the method turns on a speech recognition functionality for a period of time referred to as a listening horizon. Upon the listening horizon expiring, the method turns off the speech recognition functionality.
US07716050B2
A method for speech recognition. The method uses a single pronunciation estimator to train acoustic phoneme models and recognize utterances from multiple languages. The method includes accepting text spellings of training words in a plurality of sets of training words, each set corresponding to a different one of a plurality of languages. The method also includes, for each of the sets of training words in the plurality, receiving pronunciations for the training words in the set, the pronunciations being characteristic of native speakers of the language of the set, the pronunciations also being in terms of subword units at least some of which are common to two or more of the languages. The method also includes training a single pronunciation estimator using data comprising the text spellings and the pronunciations of the training words.
US07716046B2
An enhancement system improves the perceptual quality of a processed speech. The system includes a delay unit that delays a signal received through a discrete input. A spectral modifier linked to the delay unit is programmed to substantially flatten the spectral character of a background noise. An adaptive filter linked to the spectral modifier adapts filter characteristics to match a response of a non-delayed signal. A programmable filter is linked to the delay unit. The programmable filter has a transfer function functionally related to a transfer function of the adaptive filter.
US07716027B2
A simulation condition input apparatus inputs information required for simulation analysis on a system including plural element members. The apparatus includes a display unit, a specifying unit and an input unit. The display unit displays the plural element members on a screen with geometrical shapes corresponding to the element members. The specifying unit specifies a contact portion between at least one set of the element members, which is an information input target, on the screen of the display unit. The input unit displays a new window screen and inputs information about a contact state of the contact portion specified by the specifying unit.
US07716026B2
A non-destructive method to inverse-calculate a fiber probe aperture size, and a prediction method of the simulation and fabrication profile of near field photolithography are provided. The error between an experimental result of the photolithography and a simulation result of the theoretical model of near field photolithography is set as an objective function to inverse-calculate a fiber probe aperture size that can match with the photolithography experiment and the theoretical model of near field photolithography. Finally, by comparing the fabrication profile of the photolithography experiment and that of the simulation result of the inverse-calculated fiber probe aperture size, it is verified that the inverse-calculated fiber probe aperture size is reasonable and acceptable. By combining with other parameter control of near field photolithography, the present invention also proposes a prediction method of the fabrication profile of near field photolithography by means of inversely calculating the fiber probe aperture size.
US07716020B2
A car seat fabric is simulated with a feeling of reality. A fabric texture information input acceptance portion (101) accepts texture information about the fabric used for the car seat fabric. A thread information input acceptance portion (102) accepts thread information about threads used for the fabric. A 3-D fabric image creation portion (103) creates a steric structure of the car seat fabric as a 3-D fabric image on the basis of the texture information accepted at the fabric texture information input acceptance portion (101) and the thread information accepted at the thread information input acceptance portion (102). An image attachment portion (105) attaches the 3-D fabric image created by the 3-D fabric image creation portion (103) to a car seat model. A car seat image display (402) displays the car seat model to which the 3-D fabric image is attached by the image attachment portion (105).
US07716019B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a computerized method for designing a progressive die used in the manufacturing of a part formed from sheet metal includes receiving, at a computer, information regarding one or more features of the part, and determining, by the computer, a blank layout for the part based on the features of the part and the number of parts desired. The computer further determines one or more details of a strip for the blank layout, information regarding a die base based on the details of the strip, and information regarding one or more inserts for die plates of the die base based on operations of the processes needed to form the features in the part. The computerized method further includes generating, by the computer, one or more outputs associated with the progressive die.
US07716015B2
There is provided herein a system and method for implementing a track-specific CPU load meter or a similar track-specific indication of CPU performance in a multi-track multimedia-editing environment. The instant invention is preferably presented to the user in the form of a real time meter for use in multi-track multimedia editing applications, wherein the CPU usage associated with sounding/playing each track will be separately displayed in near or actual real time as the musical work is performed. The system allows the user to instantly determine the CPU load for each particular track of the multi-track environment of the underlying application and therefore allows the user to more quickly identify potential problems in the multi-track arrangement and playback of the multimedia work.
US07716010B2
A system is provided for measuring a distance within a railroad system. The railroad system includes a rail vehicle having a plurality of pairs of wheels, where the plurality of pairs of wheels are in respective contact with a pair of rails. The system further includes a transducer positioned on an outer surface location of the rail vehicle. The transducer is configured to emit a signal to an object located the distance away from the transducer. The transducer is configured to receive the signal having reflected from the object along the distance to the transducer. The system further includes a controller coupled to the transducer to receive transmission and reception data of the signal to determine the distance. A method is also provided for measuring a distance within a railroad system, as well as a kit for converting a rail vehicle from a first configuration to a second configuration.
US07716003B1
The present application discloses a new technique which reduces the dimensionality of a feature model by re-use of data that has been obtained by a prior measurement. The data re-used from the prior measurement may range from parameters, such as geometrical dimensions, to more complex data that describe the electromagnetic scattering function of an underlying layer (for example, a local solution of the electric field properties).
US07716002B1
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for using black box data to analyze vehicular accidents. The methods include obtaining information from an event data recorder associated with a vehicle and using the data obtained therefrom in determining and analyzing the vehicular accident. Attributes to be analyzed include impact severity, change in velocity, and other desired parameters. Further disclosed are methods to securely communicate the downloaded black box information to a secure location for later analysis and processing.
US07716001B2
A tunable delay line is calibrated to maintain the delay of the delay line at a desired value or within a desired range of values. In some aspects a signal is passed through a delay line multiple times so that the cumulative delay of the signal through the delay line (e.g., as indicated by a count) may be calculated over a period of time. The count is compared with an expected count and, based on this comparison, the delay of the delay line is adjusted as necessary. In some aspects the signal may comprise a digital signal. In some aspects a delay through a delay line may be calculated based on analysis of amplitude changes in a signal caused by a phase shift imparted on the signal by the delay line. In some aspects a delay line is incorporated into a transmitted reference system to generate and/or process transmitted reference signals.
US07715996B1
The present invention is a novel method of performing spectral analysis on a digital signal. The received signal is segmented into a number of data blocks, which may be disjoint or overlapping. For each data block, the signal is differentiated, and the Gram-Schmidt process is used to obtain orthogonality between a signal and its derivative. The complex extension leads to computation of phase using either the inverse tangent function or the complex logarithm. Finally, frequency estimation follows through differentiation of the unwrapped phase.
US07715989B2
Software systems and methods for predicting the melting temperature (Tm) and other characteristics of oligonucleotides, including modified oligonucleotides. Modified oligonucleotides are provided containing bases selected from unsubstituted and 3-substituted pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines and 5-substituted pyrimidines, and optionally have attached minor groove binders and reporter groups.
US07715987B2
A method of processing seismic data that includes including first and second modes of seismic energy where the second mode has been generated by partial mode conversion of the first mode at a boundary face of a layer of the seabed includes the step of cross-correlating a trace acquired at a receiver and including events corresponding to the first mode with a trace acquired at the same receiver and including events corresponding to the second mode. An event in the cross-correlated data that corresponds to partial mode conversion is identified, and the amplitude of this event is normalized, for example relative to the amplitude of the peak in the cross-correlogram at zero time delay. Information about the effects of the static shift produced by the layer and/or about vector infidelity can be arrived from normalized cross-correlograms for receivers in a receiver array.
US07715982B2
A data logger for a monitoring sports which includes an accelerometer, a GPS unit to sense position and velocity, a heart rate monitor, a controller programmed to manipulate the data and provide a display of the heart rate, speed, and other sport parameters. The data can be stored or transmitted to a remote computer for use by the coach. The device is useful in football codes, athletics, snow sports and cycling.
US07715975B2
An engine that re-circulates its exhaust gas suffers decreased accuracy in estimating an EGR rate real-time especially while the operating state of the engine is in a transitional state, which often results in torque fluctuations and deteriorated exhaust gas.A sensor for directly detecting an EGR flow rate is disposed in an EGR path. An EGR rate and in-cylinder oxygen concentration are calculated from the output value of that sensor. In addition, when this EGR rate calculation method is used, the calculation is properly switched between a steady operation state characterized by a low load and small rotational fluctuations and a transitional operating state including the acceleration and deceleration. This makes it possible to correctly estimate the EGR rate and the in-cylinder oxygen concentration under a wide range of engine operation conditions, and thereby to avoid the fluctuation of torque and the deterioration of exhaust gas.
US07715970B2
A speed interlock can prevent a sliding fifth wheel on a vehicle from being unlocked while the vehicle is moving faster than a threshold speed. A processor, such as the vehicle's electronic control unit, advantageously monitors the vehicle speed and a switch that controls the fifth wheel slide, preventing the fifth wheel from being unlocked if the vehicle speed is above a threshold.
US07715961B1
The method and system use onboard data stream mining for extracting data patterns from data continuously generated by different components of a vehicle. The system stores the data patterns in an onboard micro database and discards the data. The system uses a resource-constrained, small, lightweight onboard data stream management processor, with onboard data stream mining, an onboard micro database, and a privacy-preserving communication module, which periodically and upon request communicates stored data patterns to a remote control center. The control center uses the data patterns to characterize the typical and unusual vehicle health, driving and fleet behavior.
US07715959B2
A computer built into an automobile displays the owner's manual for the car. The user requests more information about the automobile through the computer, and the additional information is displayed to the user. Information may include a description of a specific function or device of the car, service history, and/or real time status of a component of the car.
US07715958B2
An energy management system is provided for use with one of a plurality of hybrid energy diesel electric vehicles. The energy management system includes a position identification device to provide position information of one the plurality of vehicles at incremental positions along one of a plurality of routes. More particularly, the energy management system includes a database to store historical data of a traction and/or auxiliary energy demand for each vehicle at incremental positions along each route, and an energy management processor coupled to the position identification device and the database. The energy management system retrieves historical data of each vehicle at incremental positions along each route to estimate an anticipated traction and/or auxiliary energy demand of the one of a plurality of vehicle at each incremental position along one of a plurality of routes.
US07715956B2
A method and apparatus for swapping functionality of a lead unit and an end-of-train remote unit on a distributed power railroad train. The communications system comprises a swap function that executes through a plurality of process steps to swap the functionality of the lead unit and the end-of-train remote unit. The train operating conditions must first be determined to ensure that the swap function can be executed. The communications system is placed in an idle mode and brakes and safety locks applied to ensure against train movement. Each remote locomotive in the train is commanded to a transition stage and reconfigured to receive commands and messages from the new lead unit. Once the train operator has relocated from the old lead unit to the new lead unit, the old lead unit transitions to remote status and the new lead unit commands an end to the transition period. The train brakes are released and the communications system placed in a normal operational mode, at which time motive power can be supplied for train movement.
US07715955B2
An aircraft piloting system may include information sources that provide a position indication relating to the aircraft and information that characterizes a virtual approach axis. An information processing unit processes information emanating from the information sources and includes an assisted approach mode function and a landing aid multimode receiver that implements a precision approach. A user device uses the information provided by the landing aid multimode receiver to support the guidance of the aircraft up to its landing.
US07715954B2
Disclosed is a system and method for diverting from a flight plan without adjusting an autopilot by treating a heading change as the new leg of a flight plan. The present invention allows the pilot of an aircraft to enter a heading to follow into a flight management system, which treats the heading as the current leg of a flight plan otherwise being followed by the flight management system. The present invention graphically displays the heading leg as the predicted track so that the pilot is able to see the airplane's expected path. Such a change allows the autopilot to continue following commands from the flight management system rather than being changed to a mode in which the autopilot follows heading commands directly from the pilot.
US07715950B2
A microsource is provided, which includes a generator, a prime mover, and a controller. The prime mover includes a shaft connected to drive the generator to generate power at a frequency controlled by a rotation rate of the shaft. The controller calculates an operating frequency for the generator based on a comparison between a power set point and a measured power flow. A requested shaft speed for the prime mover is calculated by combining a maximum frequency change, a minimum frequency change, and the calculated operating frequency. A shaft speed adjustment is calculated for the prime mover based on a comparison between the requested shaft speed and a measured shaft speed of the prime mover. A fuel command for the prime mover is calculated based on the shaft speed adjustment. A rotation rate of the shaft of the prime mover is adjusted based on the calculated fuel command to control the frequency.
US07715944B2
The placement of the elements (mass points or rigid bodies having inertia) of a model expressing a robot 1 determined according to a first geometric restrictive condition from an instantaneous desired motion of the robot 1 is defined as a first placement, and provisional corrected instantaneous desired motions corresponding to a second placement and a third placement having predetermined relationships with the first placement are determined. The position/posture of a predetermined part 3 (body) of the robot 1 are determined by weighted averages of the position/posture of the aforesaid provisional corrected instantaneous desired motions. Thus, the motion of an instantaneous desired gait created using a dynamic model is properly corrected thereby achieving both improved dynamic accuracy between the motion and a floor reaction force of the instantaneous desired gait and a minimized change in the posture of a predetermined part, such as the body, of the robot without using a dynamic model.
US07715942B2
In the method for controlling a movable tool, in particular a grinding tool, by means of a feed function that specifies the movement of the tool in time in at least one axis, an initial feed function in the form of at least one initial feed curve (29) is displayed on a monitor. From the initial feed function and from inputs effected by means of a pointing device, a feed function is calculated and displayed as a modified initial feed curve on the monitor. Control commands for moving the tool are produced from the feed function. The input of the feed function is simplified and rendered more flexible.
US07715938B2
A modeling method for predictive modeling of a product, which may be but one example of a family of such modeling methods, includes receiving one of a processing condition of a process used to make a fibrous material into the product or a measurement of a property of the fibrous material or the tampon product, and calculating a virtual outcome from the one of the processing condition or the measurement received. The virtual outcome is one or more of not physically measured or not physically measurable, and has a relationship to the processing condition and a relationship to the measurement. The method also includes providing a measurement if the processing condition is received or a processing condition if the measurement is received, according to the virtual outcome calculated. A computing device may be programmed to carry out the method.
US07715931B2
An alignment mechanism to align a microelectronic device to a socket, the device including an array of contact pads thereon. The mechanism includes a socket system having a socket and a device positioning mechanism disposed adjacent the socket and adapted to position the device in the socket. The mechanism also includes a control system adapted to receive alignment data on a position of the array of contact pads relative to two reference sides of the device, the control system further being adapted to control the device positioning mechanism as a function of alignment data to align the device in the socket.
US07715930B2
The subject invention relates to a system and/or method that facilitates assessing unexpected field conditions based upon the verification of an audit log. A sensing component can monitor field conditions with respect to an industrial environment. An analysis component can analyze the field conditions and determine that an unexpected event has occurred and retrieve audit logs from a data repository to determine cause of the unexpected event.
US07715925B2
A stimulating needle and catheter system is provided for delivery of an anaesthetic drug to a nerve having a fascia sheath. The position of the stimulating needle may be identified after insertion into the body of a patient by electrically stimulating and thus locating a specific nerve. When a specific nerve is located, the catheter is inserted through the needle such that the distal tip of the catheter is located at a point slightly beyond the distal tip of the needle. The distal tip of the catheter may then be manipulated and the optimum position within the nerve determined by applying an electrical impulse through a wire located within the catheter from the proximal end to the distal tip of the catheter. A tunneling device is inserted into the skin of the patient to form a subcutaneous tunnel through which the proximal end of the catheter is inserted.
US07715909B2
A seismocardiograph using multiple accelerometer sensors to identify cardiac valve opening and closing times. A methodology for selecting event times is also disclosed.
US07715904B2
In an optical measurement system and imaging method adapted to measure in vivo information in a living body without harming the living body, light rays of a plurality of wavelengths which are modulated in intensity with a plurality of different frequencies are irradiated on a plurality of irradiation positions on the surface of a living body, and time-variable changes in living body transmitting light intensity levels corresponding to the respective wavelengths and the respective irradiation positions are measured at different positions on the surface of the living body. Light is utilized to image the results of the measurements, in which the measuring time is shortened by estimating fluctuation attributable to the living body, and the presence or absence of a change in measured signal can be decided easily by displaying an estimation signal and a measured signal at a time.
US07715892B2
A compact, solid-state THz source based on the driven Josephson vortex lattice in a highly anisotropic superconductor such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 that allows cw emission at tunable frequency. A second order metallic Bragg grating is used to achieve impedance matching and to induce surface emission of THz-radiation from a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 sample. Steering of the emitted THz beam is accomplished by tuning the Josephson vortex spacing around the grating period using a superimposed magnetic control field.
US07715883B2
An alert signal of a communication device (1), such as the ring signal of a mobile phone, comprises a set of musical samples that are played by the communication device in sequence. The sequence may be randomly generated, either in response to the event causing the alert or in a set up phase. Alternatively, the user of the device can create a tune to be used as the alert signal by creating a sequence of samples. The user selects samples from a list of samples to create the sequence of samples as individual samples may appear more than once in the tune.
US07715880B2
A processing unit transmits, from at least one of a plurality of antennas, data corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas. A control unit generates request signals with which to let a second radio apparatus supply information on rates at the second radio apparatus. When transmitting the request signal, the processing unit also transmits, from a plurality of antennas which includes antennas other than the antennas that transmit the data, known signals corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas.
US07715878B2
A processing unit transmits, from at least one of a plurality of antennas, data corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas. A control unit generates request signals with which to let a second radio apparatus supply information on rates at the second radio apparatus. When transmitting the request signal, the processing unit also transmits, from a plurality of antennas which includes antennas other than the antennas that transmit the data, known signals corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas.
US07715872B2
Disclosed is a video calling method capable of providing video through a separate display over a VoIP network, which can transfer IP information of a specified display device to a mobile communication terminal, and provide video data transfer for a video call through the specified display device. According to the video calling method, a first mobile communication terminal connects a video calling service with a second mobile communication terminal, and receives a request to change a device for transmitting/receiving the video to/from the second mobile communication terminal to a separate display. The first mobile communication terminal transfers information about the display to the second mobile communication terminal, and controls the second mobile communication terminal to transmit/receive the video to/from the display. The first mobile communication terminal then transfers information about the second mobile communication terminal to the display, and controls the display to transmit/receive the video to/from the second mobile communication terminal.
US07715871B2
A method and an apparatus for repeating wireless signals bidirectionally and synchronously are provided in the present invention, specially used for repeating wireless signals emitted from the base station and terminal devices bidirectionally and synchronously in the TDD system. Said apparatus comprises: a receiving and transmitting antenna set, a frequency selection and bidirection RF amplication circuit, and a synchronization extraction and control device. Signals emitted from the base station and terminal devices are received and repeated by the receiving and transmitting antenna set. The synchronization control information is extracted from signals emitted from the base station by the synchronization extraction and control device to control the frequency selection and bidirection RF amplication circuit, thereby synchronously repeating signals received bidirectionally. By using the present invention, synchronously repeating signals received bidirectionally can be realized without delaying the time for receiving and transmitting signals, at the same time, a function of monitoring system malfunction can be also provided, thereby ensuring that the system works reliably.
US07715869B2
The semiconductor integrated circuit (RF IC) for a mobile telephone capable of transmitting/receiving the signals of plural bands reduces the DC offsets of the amplifiers located in the following stages of the mixers that demodulate or down-convert the reception signals. The invention scrambles the signal lines to transmit the outputs of the plural mixers that demodulate or down-convert the reception signals of different bands, so as to avoid the adjacent signal lines from making the same combination from the starting ends to the finishing ends.
US07715867B2
The present invention provides a mobile communication terminal comprising a wireless communication module and a host, wherein the wireless communication module further comprises a first interface connector and a module case; the host reserves positions for the insertion of the wireless communication module, and further comprises a second interface connector corresponding to the first interface connector positioned on the wireless communication module; the wireless communication module is connected to the host via the first interface connector and the second interface connector. The present invention also discloses a wireless communication module which is integrated with a SIM card unit. The present invention can reduce the waste in development and application, and shorten the development period of mobile communication terminals. Thus, the wireless communication module interface is simplified so that the wireless communication module interface is easy to use.
US07715860B2
In a mobile phone of the present invention, de-spread circuits execute de-spread processing for receiving signals, and rake combines compose a plurality of information in the outputs of the de-spread circuits in correspondence to base stations, and calculate receiving levels of power control signals in individual channels in correspondence to the base stations to output the power control signals each having receiving level information to a comparator. The comparator outputs only the power control signal having the receiving level lying within a predetermined range from a maximum receiving level of the receiving levels of the power control signals from among the plurality of base stations to a decision circuit. The decision circuit decides based on the power control signal from the comparator whether a transmission power from the mobile phone should be increased or decreased to control the transmission power of a transmitter circuit, thereby preventing misrecognition of the power control signal.
US07715859B2
A system and a method are disclosed for a presence engine and a method of operating a presence engine for encoding or decoding availability status into a signal representative of an audio signal. The presence engine is configured to manage availability status of a user. The presence engine comprises an input configured to receive a signal representative of an audio signal and an output configured to send a signal representative of an audio signal. The presence engine also comprises a processor configured to encode availability status of a user into a signal representative of an audio signal and/or configured to decode availability status of a user from a signal representative of an audio signal.
US07715854B2
A method for monitoring and controlling operation of wireless personal electronic devices (PEDs) present on a mobile platform (MP). The method may involve defining at least one phase of operation of the MP where the use of wireless PEDs is prohibited. A wireless communications system on the MP may monitor and detect signals being transmitted by wireless PEDs present on the MP. The system may detect a transmission from a wireless PED located on the MP that occurs during the one phase of operation. An identification code associated with a specific one of the wireless PEDs that is detected as operating during the one phase of operation may be recorded in a file. The file may thereafter be checked during a second phase of operation where use of the wireless PEDs is permitted, and access may be denied to any wireless PED whose identification code is stored in the database.
US07715853B1
A craft-mounted repeater system processes signal properties (e.g., signal strength) between terrestrial (ground-based) wireless networks and mobile users that are aboard crafts (e.g., airplanes and/or ships) equipped to allow the user's mobile communications device to communicate at departure and at arrival of the craft. An onboard craft-mounted non-translating in-band only repeater system is a provided that increases the terrestrial mobile network signal levels inside the aircraft or ship to allow passengers to communicate with a terrestrial cellular communications system.
US07715847B2
Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate dynamically assigning system resources in a wireless network environment by detecting a resource conflict between an existing resource assignment to one or more existing user devices and a new resource assignment for a subsequent user device. Upon detection of a conflict, a decremental assignment can be provided to the one ore more existing user devices to decrement the existing resource assignment in order to resolve a detected resource conflict. Decremental assignments can be implicit or explicit, and can facilitate mitigating transmission overhead costs due to their relatively small size when compared to conventional complete deassignment/reassignment messages.
US07715841B2
A radio communication system includes a base station of a radio communication system A, a base station of a radio communication system B operation in non-synchronized way with the base station, and a mobile station capable of communicating with both of the radio communication system A and the radio communication system B. The base station includes a radio unit for transmitting/receiving a radio wave to/from the mobile station and a system information estimation unit for estimating the system information on the radio communication system B and outputting the system estimation information. The radio unit of the base station reports the system estimation information on the base station to the mobile station. The mobile station receives the system estimation information on the base station in advance so as to perform effective switching without using a cabled connection from the radio communication system A to the radio communication system B via a relay device or the like.
US07715835B1
A method of administering a mobile client device is provided. In an example, notice is received of a device being physically present at a location of interest, an executable work flow or script for implementing a corresponding change to the device is prepared in response to the physical presence notice, and the executable work flow or script is transmitted to the device upon an occurrence of the device initiating a communication with a network so as to enable an agent resident on the device to implement the corresponding change. In an example, a device detector remotely receives a response signal from a vicinity of the device, the response signal being generated and transmitted in response to a corresponding interrogation signal. In an example, the interrogation signal is an RFID interrogation signal.
US07715829B2
A method and apparatus are provided that support enhanced international dialing in cellular systems using handset based code dialing. According to one aspect, the handset analyzes the dialed digits before sending the dialed number to the network. If the dialed digits begin with the country code of the area from which the call is placed, the country code will be removed and a national access code will be added in front of the digit strings. For international calls the dialed number may begin with a + indicator, followed by a country coded, an area code, and a customer number. The digit string is automatically translated into a new number based on the numbering plan of the area in which a call is being placed. The new number can then be sent to the network to set up the call.
US07715828B2
A cellular telephone maintains a screening list of calling party numbers, and specifies call handling therefor. A mobile switching center is responsive to selected types of the specified call handling. The call handling can depend on whether the call is local or non-local, which is affected by the location of the cellular telephone. The call handling can also depend on the time at which the call is made. A subscriber updates his or her screening list via personal computer, and transmits via a communication network the updated screening list to a message center which sends the updated screening list to the cellular telephone via wireless communication. A calling party number can be specified as a wildcard.
US07715819B2
An airborne security management system is provided for monitoring security activities in a mobile network platform. This system includes a mobile network that is interconnected via an unreliable communication link to a terrestrial-based network security management system; an intrusion detection system connected to the mobile network and operable to detect a security intrusion event whose origination is associated with the mobile network; and a mobile security manager adapted to receive the security intrusion events from the intrusion detection system. The mobile security manager is operable to transmit a message indicative of the security intrusion event to the network security management system and to perform security response activities in response to security commands received from the network security management system. The mobile security manager is further operable to command security response activities on the mobile network platform, when the mobile network platform is not connected with network security management system.
US07715818B2
A technology is disclosed for providing an additional function control system which permits a carrier to select whether or not an additional function possessed by a communications terminal can be made available. A communications network is connected to a communications terminal when using a communications function of the communications terminal which is subscribed to a communication service. An additional function controller manages the additional function of the communications terminal, and provides the communications terminal with additional function control information for controlling the operation of the additional function. The communications terminal comprises an additional function unit for providing the additional function, and limits the operation of the additional function unit based on the additional function control information from the additional function controller.
US07715814B2
A method and system for dynamically shifting spurious tones away from the desired frequency in a virtual local oscillator receiver, such that any undesired signal residing at such spurious tones are effectively delineated from the desired signal and removed from the RF input signal. The system detects the presence of potential undesired blocker signals in the RF input signal, and initiates an iterative power comparison and mixer signal adjustment loop. As the virtual local oscillator uses two mixer signals, the frequency of one of the mixer signals is adjusted during the loop until the power of the down-converted signal is minimized to a predetermined level. Minimized power in the down-converted signal is indicative of the absence of the blocker signal, since the presence of a relatively high power signal is indicative of a blocker signal overlapping with a desired signal.
US07715811B2
A transceiver comprises an amplifying circuit for amplifying an input signal to produce an output signal. A power supply is operable for varying the level of power supplied to the amplifying circuit in response to variation of an input signal envelope directed to the power supply. A processing circuit is operable for digitally detecting the input signal envelope to provide variation of the power supply level. The processing circuit is further operable for digitally delaying the digital input signal envelope to time align the power supply level with the input signal.
US07715809B2
Circuits and methods for modulators that receive symbols, and provide I (incident, or in-phase) and Q (quadrature) component values from a look-up table for subsequent filtering and digital-to-analog conversion. The I and Q component values depend on frequency correction and time index signals such that operating frequency differences between a handset and base station are compensated for, and the transmitted symbols are continuously phase shifted by 3π/8 radians.
US07715804B2
A keypad display method of a portable device includes initializing by partitioning a keypad display area and storing each partition area corresponding to individual gradients; checking whether the operation mode requires a keypad display; displaying a keypad in a specific area of a screen; detecting the gradient of the portable device; selecting the partition area corresponding to the detected gradient; and expanding and displaying the selected partition area. The apparatus includes a gradient sensing unit; a storage unit of expanded partition area information for each gradient; a control unit selecting expanded partition area information corresponding to the gradient; and a display area management unit reconfiguring information to be displayed according to the expanded partition area information.
US07715803B2
A method and system for constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations. The sounding packet, the sounding bit in HT-SIG field, and the HT-LTF field in the PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) are used to determine the number of transmit antennas and the number of data streams, wherein if the number of transmission streams is the same as the number of data streams, then a first set of power loading level (fixed uneven power loading) is applied, otherwise a second set of power loading level is applied. Alternatively, one additional bit in the HT-SIG filed of PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) signaling field is used to signal the set of power loading level used.
US07715771B2
A tandem type color image forming machine includes a plurality of image forming units, a primary transfer belt, and a paper feed cassette in its image forming machine body. The paper feed cassette is arranged longitudinally in the lateral direction of the belt mechanism or below the belt mechanism. In addition, the machine includes a secondary transfer unit for transferring toner images from the primary transfer belt to a paper fed from the paper feed cassette. The machine also includes a paper feed conveyor passage for guiding paper, a fixing unit downstream of the paper feed conveyor passage, a pair of discharge rollers and a paper discharge passage formed between the fixing unit and the pair of discharge rollers. Further, the machine has a pocket for receiving and storing paper discharged from the pair of discharge rollers.
US07715770B2
An image forming apparatus includes a detection unit configured to cause a light emitting device to emit light, to cause a light receiving device to receive the light reflected by an object, and to produce a detection signal having a varying signal level responsive to an intensity of the received reflected light, a color misalignment correction unit configured to correct color misalignment resulting from positional misalignment between the developer images of respective colors on a transfer body by controlling an exposure unit in response to detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal, and an adjustment unit configured to identify a plurality of peak positions in the detection signal detected with respect to a single developer image and to adjust the detected data indicative of the developer images detected in the detection signal in response to difference in the peak positions.
US07715766B2
In a developing unit including a collecting roller for collecting the developer falling from a developing roller and a developer removing device for removing the developer collected by the collecting roller from the collecting roller, the developer removing device includes a casing for supporting the collecting roller, a scraper for removing the developer adhering to the collecting roller and a scraper supporter for supporting the scraper, and the scraper is supported by pressing it against the casing by the scraper supporter.
US07715762B2
In the developing apparatus of the present invention, a first agitating and carrying screw has in its vicinity a toner supply opening, through which toner is supplied, on an upstream side in a direction to which developer is carried, the first agitating and carrying member being provided farther from the developer holder than the second agitating and carrying member. A partition plate which partitions an inside of the developer containing tank so as to form first and second carrying paths includes one or more cuts provided from a center section in a longitudinal direction to an end section on a side where the toner supply opening is provided. Therefore, the developer can be returned from the second carrying path to the first carrying path through a second communicating path and the one or more cuts. Consequently, it becomes possible to shorten a time for uniformly mixing the developer and to improve (i) a developer agitating performance and (ii) a toner charging performance of the developing apparatus. This allows to supply stable toner excellent in electrostatic property.
US07715758B2
An apparatus and method for cleaning a plurality of drums in an image forming apparatus includes applying a first bias to each of a plurality of disturbing members, each disturbing member associated with a corresponding drum of a plurality of drums. While performing an image forming operation wherein at least one of the plurality of drums is not use, the bias is changed of a disturbing member corresponding to at least one of the plurality of drums not used in performing the image forming operation from the first bias to a second bias different from the first bias.
US07715755B2
A handle for a toner cartridge may include an opening and be constructed of elastically deformable materials. The handle may deform when inside of an image forming device to provide at least some force to press an image carrier against a developer carrier.
US07715742B2
Xerographic photoreceptor life is improved while maintaining output print quality by adjusting the AC charging actuator of a xerographic machine to a point at which photoconductor life is optimized while maintaining output print quality. Where the actuator is voltage, the actuator is set a predetermined amount above the knee voltage of the photoreceptor surface potential versus peak-to-peak voltage curve, which is determined during operation of the machine. Instead of determining the knee voltage, calibration sheets can be generated for various values of the actuator, the best sheet with the least possible actuator value is selected, and the AC charging actuator is set to the value corresponding to the best sheet. The sheets can be evaluated by a user, or an optical array sensor can be used to scan the sheets so that the controller can compare the sheets to stored criteria to automatically select the best sheet and set the actuator. Alternatively, the optical array sensor can scan calibration images directly from the intermediate transfer belt or other image bearing member, thus eliminating the use of paper for calibration.
US07715739B2
An image forming apparatus has an image forming unit and a feeding unit for feeding a recording material at a predetermined speed to the image forming unit. A reflective type sensor reads irradiated light reflected off of the recording material and an image reading unit reads the light so as to obtain a surface image of the recording material so that a feed control unit can control the feeding of the recording medium so that a moving distance is shorter and in the case of feeding it at a predetermined speed while the recording material is read by the image reading unit. In the image forming apparatus a reflective type determination unit determines a predetermined attribute of the recording material using the surface image of the recording material read by the image reading unit so that the image forming apparatus can determine a kind of recording material based on the attribute obtain so as to form the image on the recording material.
US07715738B2
A high power supply to control an abnormal load includes a high voltage power processor to amplify a supplied DC power and to output the amplified DC power, a trans/rectifier to transform the DC power to a high voltage power and to rectify the high voltage power, a load detector to compare a load voltage output from a load with a predetermined reference voltage and to output a comparison voltage to detect the abnormal load of the load, and a high voltage controller to supply a chip enable signal to the high voltage power processor to interrupt the high voltage power processor when the comparison voltage output from the load detector is smaller than a predetermined reference value that is set to correspond to a minimum load of the load.
US07715735B2
An image forming system that has an apparatus that receives recording media from an apparatus upstream from it, executes image formation processing, and conveys the recording media to an apparatus positioned downstream from it. The apparatus controls whether to continue conveyance of recording media, change their discharger, and accept recording media in accordance with condition of its own or the downstream apparatus regardless of the configuration of the entire system.
US07715732B2
A bias-control circuit that provides operating point control for a Mach-Zehnder modulator experiencing optical absorption at their interferometric arms. The bias control circuit generates compensation signals that are used to counter the thermally induced index shifts as a result of absorption. In addition, an operating point with desirable transmitter characteristics can also be arbitrarily chosen by over-compensating or under-compensating thermal effects.
US07715729B2
A single sideband signal is generated from an input optical signal. An optical phase modulator performs optical phase modulation on the input optical signal in accordance with a control signal to produce the single sideband signal. A converter converts the input optical signal into a corresponding electrical signal. A control signal generator generates the control signal in response to an optical signal pulse shape of the input optical signal.
US07715728B2
An optical transmitter includes a light-emitting element, a driving circuit, a temperature detection unit, a storage device and a control circuit. The driving circuit causes, based on an input signal, the light-emitting element to emit an optical signal having a pulse shape. The temperature detection unit detects an ambient temperature of the light-emitting element. The storage device stores temperature characteristics information of the light-emitting element. The control circuit controls the driving circuit based on the ambient temperature detected by the temperature detection unit and the temperature characteristic information stored in the storage device, so that an extinction ratio of the optical signal having the pulse shape becomes substantially constant.
US07715721B2
The path selection and wavelength assignment to a selected path are performed by mapping the wavelength reach to the demand distribution (agile reach) resulting in a 50-60% increase in the network reach. The network reach is further increased (about 2.2 times) when on-line measured performance data are used for path selection and wavelength assignment. The connections may be engineered/upgraded individually, by optimizing the parameters of the entire path or of a regenerator section of the respective path. The upgrades include changing the wavelength, adjusting the parameters of the regenerator section, controlling the launch powers, mapping a certain transmitter and/or receiver to the respective wavelength, selecting the wavelengths on a certain link so as to reduce cross-talk, increasing wavelength spacing, etc.
US07715719B2
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method for transmitting traffic in a plurality of passive optical networks (PONs) is provided. In a particular embodiment, a method for transmitting traffic in a plurality of passive optical networks (PONs) includes transmitting traffic at a first wavelength and at a second wavelength from an optical line terminal (OLT). The method also includes combining the traffic in the first wavelength and the traffic in the second wavelength and splitting the combined traffic into a plurality of copies. The method further includes forwarding a first copy to a first wavelength router at a first distribution node and forwarding a second copy to a second wavelength router at a second distribution node, wherein the first wavelength router is coupled to a first set of optical network units (ONUs) and the second wavelength router is coupled to a second set of ONUs. The method additionally includes routing the first copy such that only a subset of one or more ONUs in the first set of ONUs receives the traffic in the first wavelength and only a subset of one or more ONUs in the first set of ONUs receives the traffic in the second wavelength. The method also includes routing the second copy such that only a subset of one or more ONUs in the second set of ONUs receives the traffic in the first wavelength and only a subset of one or more ONUs in the second set of ONUs receives the traffic in the second wavelength.
US07715711B2
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, wavelength selective switch (WSS) design configurations for mesh light-trails are provided. In a particular embodiment, a node included in an optical network comprises a first light access unit operable to add or drop local traffic and a first WSS assembly communicatively coupled to the first light access unit and comprising at least four WSSs, at least two input ports, and at least four output ports, the four WSSs configured to direct any input traffic in any wavelength received at one of the input ports to the first light access unit and/or to any of the output ports.
US07715704B2
An auto-focusing camera includes a lens mount (10), a lens unit (31) and a motor. The lens unit includes a lens barrel (310) and a lens (312) received in the lens barrel. Tabs (34) and blocks (36) respectively extend outwardly from upper and lower end portions of the lens barrel. Each of the tabs forms an aslant guiding surface (342), which is declined outwardly along a top-to-bottom direction. The motor includes a magnet (32) which is forced to move over the guiding surfaces to be securely sandwiched between the tabs and the blocks. Upper and lower yokes (23a, 23b) are respectively arranged at the upper and lower sides of the magnet. Upper and lower coils (25a, 25b) respectively wind around the two yokes for establishing magnetic fields which interact with the magnetic field of the permanent magnet to drive the lens unit into movement.
US07715703B2
An image sensor includes: image capturing pixels and focus detection pixels disposed together on a single substrate; and adjacent pixels that are not equipped with a photoelectric conversion unit and are disposed adjacent to the focus detection pixels.
US07715698B2
An electronic control circuit controls a brushless DC motor. It includes an input power supply control circuit. A microcontroller integrated circuit has control functions to control a brushless DC motor. Additional control functions are provided by software program instructions, which when executed, cause the microcontroller integrated circuit to perform additional control functions for the brushless DC motor.
US07715696B2
A BD-ROM contains a plurality of titles which can be branched among, and a Java application. The Java application is a program described in a programming language for a virtual machine. A life cycle where execution by the virtual machine is enabled is predetermined. Each of the titles contains an application management table indicates an application that has a life cycle bound to the title.
US07715685B2
The handling of large amounts of data on storing media shall be simplified. Therefore, a method for maintaining a storage media by generating, editing or reading log data related to the content and usage of a data item stored or to be stored on a storage medium is provided. Data items are deleted or recommendations for deletion are provided on the basis of the log data from the storage medium. Thus, the user is relieved from the unpleasant and time-consuming task of deleting data items from recording media.
US07715675B2
The present invention relates to optical fiber coating systems capable of providing a high degree of microbend protection to an optical fiber, and an optical fiber coated therewith. According to one embodiment of the invention, an optical fiber coating system includes a primary coating and a secondary coating, wherein when a ribbon having twelve large effective area optical fibers coated with the coating system is subjected to the ribbon optical performance test at a wavelength of 1550 nm, the average change in attenuation is about 0.020 dB/km or less.
US07715672B2
Various embodiments described include optical fiber designs and fabrication processes for ultra high numerical aperture optical fibers (UHNAF) having a numerical aperture (NA) of about 1. Various embodiments of UHNAF may have an NA greater than about 0.7, greater than about 0.8, greater than about 0.9, or greater than about 0.95. Embodiments of UHNAF may have a small core diameter and may have low transmission loss. Embodiments of UHNAF having a sufficiently small core diameter provide single mode operation. Some embodiments have a low V number, for example, less than 2.4 and large dispersion. Some embodiments of UHNAF have extremely large negative dispersion, for example, less than about −300 ps/nm/km in some embodiments. Systems and apparatus using UHNAF are also disclosed.
US07715663B2
Techniques are disclosed for optical switching and data control, without the interaction of electronic switching speeds. In one example embodiment, a common cavity optical latch is provided that that can hold an optical state for an extended period of time, and the operation of which is controlled optically. Optical phase control allows optical modal switching to be employed between two common optical cavities, using incident optical signals and the way in which the cavities manipulate the phase within them to lock in one or the other configuration, thereby forming an optical latch. The optical latch is implemented in an integrated fashion, such as in a CMOS environment.
US07715660B2
An image acquisition device capable of accomplishing special-effect processing on real-time motion of the image data in a preview mode is disclosed. The device includes a lens, an optical sensor, an image signal processor, a special-effect processor, a storage unit, and an image display unit. The optical sensor receives an optical signal representing an image through the lens and outputs an electric signal corresponding to the image. The image signal processor couples to the optical sensor for processing the electric signal with a first processing mode and then outputting a raw image data. The special-effect processor couples to the image signal processor for processing the raw image data with a second processing mode and then outputting a processed image data. The storage unit saves the processed image data. The image display unit displays the image based on the processed image data.
US07715659B2
An apparatus for and method of performing a most informative feature extraction (MIFE) method in which a facial image is separated into sub-regions, and each sub-region makes individual contribution for performing facial recognition. Specifically, each sub-region is subjected to a sub-region based adaptive gamma (SadaGamma) correction or sub-region based histogram equalization (SHE) in order to account for different illuminations and expressions. A set of reference images is also divided into sub-regions and subjected to the SadaGamma correction or SHE. A comparison is made between the each corrected sub-region and each corresponding sub-region of the reference images. Based upon the comparisons made individually for the sub-regions of the facial image, one of the stored reference images having the greatest correspondence is chosen. While usable individually, using the MIFE and/or SadaGamma correction or SHE together achieves a lower error ratio in face recognition under different expressions, illuminations and occlusions.
US07715654B2
A method for multimodal image registration includes providing a pair of images acquired from differing imaging modalities, defining an intensity correction function that corrects the intensities of a first image in terms of the intensities of the second image, defining a registration transformation function that registers the second image with the first image, wherein said intensity correction function and transformation function are functions of a plurality of parameters, obtaining corrections to the plurality of parameters by minimizing an energy functional of a square difference of the intensity corrected first image and the registration transformed second image, and updating the intensity correction function and the registration transformation function based on the corrected plurality of parameters.
US07715649B2
A luminance conversion function calculating circuit calculates a luminance conversion function in order that a specific image contained in an image represented by image data to be processed will be made to have a desired brightness. Saturation of the specific image in a case where the applied image data has been subjected to a luminance correction based upon the calculated luminance conversion function is calculated and upper-limit saturation is calculated based upon an input value from the user. If the saturation of the specific image after the luminance correction thereof exceeds the upper-limit saturation, then a target dynamic range revising circuit narrows the range width of a target dynamic range that stipulates the luminance conversion function. The luminance conversion function is revised in a luminance conversion function revising circuit so as to have the narrowed range width.
US07715640B2
An image processing device includes a region extraction unit, a region compression unit, and a region synthesis unit for synthesizing the image data of the regions compressed by the region compression unit. The device further includes a compression method selection unit for selecting a compression method for each region, wherein the selection unit selects the compression method in accordance with a type of the region from among the plurality of compression methods, and wherein for each type of region, the selection unit selects a compression method only from compression methods in the plurality of compression methods that are designated for the type of region. And, the region compression unit performs the compression process for the image data of each region using the compression method selected for the region by the compression method selection unit.
US07715637B2
This invention switches the number of bits per pixel between object types when converting code information into image data, thereby rendering one entire page at high speed while minimizing the influence on print quality. For this purpose, an apparatus analyzes received PDL data, and generates a DL (Display List) serving as a rendering unit. The apparatus determines whether the DL is a character/line image or a halftone image including a photograph image. When determining that the DL is a character/line image, the apparatus resizes the DL in accordance with the resolution of a printer engine, and renders each color component at an 8-bit precision (integer). When determining that the DL is a halftone image including a photograph image, the apparatus resizes the DL in accordance with the resolution of the printer engine, and renders each color component at a 10-bit precision (8-bit integral part+2-bit decimal part).
US07715635B1
A system and method for identifying and/or categorizing similarly formed paragraphs in a digital image is set forth. An exemplary system includes a processor and a memory. The memory stores executable components which when direct the system to perform the following: obtain at least one page image of reflowable textual content and identify at least one paragraph of textual content. Thereafter, for each identified paragraph, a plurality of paragraph metrics regarding the identified paragraph is determined. Based on the paragraph metrics, similarly formed paragraphs are clustered.
US07715634B2
The present invention relates to a method for classifying a signal (S). An intermediate signal (IS) is decimated in order to obtain a processed signal (PS) as a new intermediate signal (IS). A processed signal (PS) is compared with respect to the signal (S) to be classified to thereby generate comparison data (CompDAT). Based on the comparison data (CompDAT) said signal (S) to be classified is classified, thereby classification data (ClassDAT) are generated.
US07715631B2
An apparatus for extracting feature information from each of a plurality of electronic documents that constitutes a group of documents, for each of a plurality of viewpoints includes an extracting unit that extracts feature information from each of the electronic documents for each of the viewpoints, a calculating unit that calculates a score for each of the viewpoints with respect to the feature information that is extracted from more than one viewpoint, and a determining unit that determines the viewpoint for the feature information that is extracted from more than one viewpoint, based on the score calculated.
US07715616B2
A PC board inspecting method capable of detecting deviation of an IC component at high speed with small storage capacity utilizes inspection logic particular to a component to be inspected. The inspection logic includes a color condition for specifying a color appearing in the body of the component to be inspected. The component is radiated with a plurality of color rays at different angles of incidence. An image formed by reflection light of the color rays is captured, and an inspection image including at least part of an edge of the body of the component to be inspected is captured. By using the color condition, a component body area satisfying the color condition is extracted from the inspection image by an image process.
US07715612B2
In a discriminating apparatus, a substrate portion of printed matter is irradiated with a light beam emitted from a light source, and the intensity of the light beam reflected from the substrate is detected by a photodetector. The discrimination as to whether the printed matter is the original or a reproduction is performed by a discriminating unit based on the contrast value in the intensity of the reflected light detected by the photodetector. Thus, the discriminating apparatus discriminates whether the printed matter is the original or a reproduction at high speed and also permits lowering the possibility of an erroneous discrimination.
US07715611B2
In order to check the authenticity of a banknote or other such document it is printed with two patches of magnetisable ink, and each patch is magnetised to present a multipole sequence of alternating polarity. If the document is folded to bring the two patches together and then rubbed to and fro in the direction of the pole sequences, they will be subject to alternating forces of attraction and repulsion which can be sensed through the fingertips and gives the impression of a physically rippled texture notwithstanding that the patches actually have a smooth surface. The presence or absence of this effect can therefore be used to distinguish between a genuine document bearing such magnetised patches and a counterfeit which may be visually identical but lacks the correct magnetisation. In a variant only one of the patches is printed on the document itself and the other is on a separate “key” device which is rubbed over it to test for the presence of the correct magnetisation.
US07715609B2
A method is disclosed for automatically determining the position and orientation of the left ventricle and/or adjacent regions in 3D image data records of the heart that have been recorded with the aid of an imaging, tomographic method after injection of contrast agent. In the method, the left ventricle is firstly coarsely segmented, and the long main axis is determined from the segmented image data. Starting from this long main axis, end points of a boundary line of the septum are determined in a plane by using search beams. The segmented image data, the long main axis and the end points fix the position and orientation of the left ventricle in the image data record.
US07715608B2
System and method for 3D visualization of lung perfusion or density and statistical analysis thereof
A system and method for 3D visualization of a pair of lungs are provided. The method comprises: segmenting image data of the pair of lungs and lung parenchyma; generating a 3D map as a function of the segmented image data; and rendering the 3D map as a color-coded semi-transparent 3D volume, wherein an opaque region highlights an area of interest.
US07715605B2
A method for providing automatic detection of curvature of a spine and computation of specific angles in images of the spine includes automatically displaying the curvature of the spine as a line in an image of the spine, and computing at least one of a first angle or a second angle based on the line of the curvature of the spine.
US07715599B2
An image processing apparatus includes a first extraction section extracting first feature quantities from image data of an image of a subject captured in a first period; a first estimation section estimating a first average value of the first feature quantities on the basis of second feature quantities extracted from image data of an image of a registered subject captured in a second period and third feature quantities extracted from image data of an image of the registered subject captured in a third period; a second estimation section estimating a first distribution width indicating the width of dispersion of the first feature quantities with respect to the first average value on the basis of the second and third feature quantities; and a determination section determining whether or not the first feature quantities are within a predetermined range based on the first average value and the first distribution width.
US07715597B2
A method and system for image recognition in a collection of digital images includes training image classifiers and retrieving a sub-set of images from the collection. For each image in the collection, any regions within the image that correspond to a face are identified. For each face region and any associated peripheral region, feature vectors are determined for each of the image classifiers. The feature vectors are stored in association with data relating to the associated face region. At least one reference region including a face to be recognized is/are selected from an image. At least one classifier on which said retrieval is to be based is/are selected from the image classifiers. A respective feature vector for each selected classifier is determined for the reference region. The sub-set of images is retrieved from within the image collection in accordance with the distance between the feature vectors determined for the reference region and the feature vectors for face regions of the image collection.
US07715578B2
A hearing aid has improved immunity to RF electromagnetic interference produced from wireless communications devices. A microphone receives audio signals from the environment. Audio circuitry is connected to the microphone and amplifies the audio signals. A speaker is connected to the audio circuitry and directs the audio signals into an ear canal of the user of the hearing aid. The audio connection lines connect the microphone and audio circuitry and the speaker and audio circuitry. A filter is connected into each of the audio connection lines and operative for reducing the RF coupling from a wireless communications device.
US07715572B2
A kit for preparing a custom-fit ear protection molding is provided having a first container containing a compliant material and a second container containing a hardening agent such that when the compliant material and the hardening agent are combined and kneaded, a resulting compound is formed which may be inserted into the ear of a user and allowed to cure. A method of affecting the hearing of a user is provided. A method of selling a hearing-protection kit is also provided along with a method of manufacturing the disclosed kit.
US07715564B2
Each of at least two terminal apparatuses uses content data in accordance with license information which is generated by a content distribution system to which it subscribes. A conversion apparatus includes a working area for storing license information which is compatible with one of the terminal apparatuses, and a central processing section for converting the license information stored in the working area into license information which is compatible with the other terminal apparatus. Thus, there is provided a conversion apparatus which can convert one's own license information so as to be passable to others.
US07715550B2
A telephone line interface and side-tone attenuation circuit includes two opto-electric converters. The first has an input interconnected to receive a signal proportional to a near-end signal, and an output interconnected to modulate a current proportional to the near-end signal onto the subscriber loop. The second has its input interconnected to provide a signal proportional to a current on the subscriber loop, including the current proportional to the near-end signal, at its output. A summing amplifier receives signals proportional to the output voltage of the second opto-electric converter and a signal proportional to the near-end signal. The output voltage of the second opto-electric amplifier includes a component that is substantially 180° out of phase with the near-end signal, allowing the near-end signal to be cancelled at the summing amplifier.
US07715547B2
A system (10) for controlling telecommunications calls includes a voice XML network gateway (12) including a voice interpreter module (20) and a call center server module (28) association with a telecommunications switch (58). The voice interpreter module (20) receives voice telecommunications signals, and the call center server module (28) receives call center telecommunications data signals. Interpreting circuitry (22, 24) interprets the voice telecommunications signals using the voice interpreter module in association speech recognition application (s) (16). Call center service providing (18) means provides call center service in response to the call center telecommunications data signals in association with call center application program(s). Control circuitry (26) associated with the telecommunications network server (12) controls the interpreting circuitry (20) and the call center providing means (28) in response to the flow of telecommunications calls from the telecommunications switch (58) according to the capabilities of the at least one speech recognition application (16) and the at least one call center application program (18).
US07715544B1
Processes for providing a selective call waiting feature within a communications network entail accepting options for a selective call waiting feature into a database and, then, linking the options to at least one account. The selective call waiting feature can be activated. The processes continue by linking the activated selective call waiting feature to operation of the communication network to implement each network end users' options. The activated selective call waiting feature is then applied to incoming calls.
US07715543B2
According to the inventive method, call back information is transmitted to a telephone network via an internet terminal using a click-to-dial service. In order to verify the information, the telephone network extracts internet terminal specific information from the access server via the internet. After comparing the call number information which is contained in the call back information and in the internet terminal specific information, the return call is initiated or suppressed. Return calls to subscribers who do not want to be called are thus suppressed.
US07715542B2
A user is pre-qualified for a service provided at a particular location. Location data indicative of where the service is to be triggered and a service element are stored. The service instance element is a full customised instance of the service delivery code or other item that provides an association between the user and an instance of the service for which the user is qualified. The user location, as indicated by a mobile entity associated with the user, is periodically checked against the location data. When a location match occurs, the service instance for which the user has been qualified is executed to deliver the required service to the user. An example is an airline traveler buying, from a travel agent, an air ticket having an associated service wherein, the traveler, upon arriving at the relevant airport, is contacted via its mobile device and guided through check-in and boarding.
US07715536B2
A network management system (100) has a communications interface (110), a memory (104), and a controller (102). The controller is programmed to retrieve (202) a plurality of call detail records (CDRs), reconstruct (208) call paths from attributes in the plurality of CDRs, and generate (210) extended CDRs from reconstructed call paths.
US07715525B2
A multi-functional dental extra-oral x-ray imaging system comprises a conventional x-ray source and manipulator to control the movement of the x-ray source by translating and rotating, a real time multiple frame producing x-ray imaging device and at least two different exposure profile programs, whereas one of such profiles produces a standard panoramic image and a second of such profiles produces an angled or transverse slice to a the panoramic image. A third exposure profile program produces a substantially linear projection of the human skull by combining two linear projections, one for the right and one for the left part of the head. The sensor is a linear direct conversion operating preferably in the frame mode and producing more than 100 fps.
US07715520B2
An X-ray computed tomography apparatus includes an X-ray source, a high voltage generating unit, an X-ray detector detecting X-rays transmitted through a subject to generate projection data, a storage unit storing the projection data in association with electrocardiographic data of the subject, a setting unit setting a specific cardiac phase in accordance with an operator's instruction, a reconstruction unit reconstructing a tomogram based on projection data sets acquired in specific periods centered on the specific cardiac phase throughout cardiac cycles, a period extending unit extending the specific period on the basis of a heart rate fluctuation range of the subject, and a control unit controlling the high voltage generating unit to generate a relatively high dose of X-rays in the extended specific period and generate a relatively low dose of X-rays in a period other than the extended specific period.
US07715517B2
A fuel rack for supporting radioactive fuel assemblies in an underwater (or other submerged) environment that reduces the depth required for the pool to effectuate the fuel rack loading procedure. The fuel rack is specially designed to afford lateral loading. In one embodiment, the fuel rack comprises a body structure comprising at least one substantially vertically oriented elongated cell for receiving a nuclear fuel assembly, the body having a top, a bottom and a first lateral side; at least one elongated slot in the first lateral side of the body structure that forms a passageway into the cell through which a vertically oriented fuel assembly can be loaded; and means for supporting a fuel assembly within the cell in a substantially vertical orientation. In another embodiment, the invention is a method of laterally loading a fuel rack that utilizes rotation of the fuel assembly to secure the fuel assembly within its designated cell.
US07715513B2
A data synchronization apparatus is provided. The data synchronization apparatus comprises a first-in first-out buffer (FIFO buffer), a control circuit and a phase-locked loop (PLL). The FIFO buffer receives and stores a plurality of data and provides a FIFO adjustment signal according to the number of the data stored in the FIFO buffer. The data stored in the FIFO buffer are sent out to an external device at a clock rate derived from a master clock signal. The control circuit provides a PLL adjustment signal according to the FIFO adjustment signal. The PLL provides the master clock signal and adjusts the frequency of the master clock signal in response to the PLL adjustment signal.
US07715507B2
A method for canceling interference in multimedia broadcasts and a communication terminal for the same are provided. The method and the communication terminal reduce interference caused by a pilot channel to improve the reception quality of broadcast signals.
US07715499B2
Frequency compensated communications reception includes compensating for frequency offset in a received signal by constructing a reference signal for comparison with a training sequence in a received signal. The reference signal is formed from basis functions and the training sequence. It is obtained by minimising a cost function J constructed from an adaptively weighted combination of basis functions, the training sequence, the received signal and a constraint requiring non-zero signal power. Multi-element antenna signals are weighted with a beamforming weight vector w in J given by formula (I), where X is a matrix of received signal samples, C is a diagonal matrix containing elements of the training sequence, F is a matrix having columns defining basis functions, v is a vector of adaptive weights, index H indicates complex conjugate transpose and λ is a Lagrange multiplier constraining beamformer power. A single element antenna signal x is scaled in J given by formula (II), where α is a scaling factor, * indicates a complex conjugate, and x is a vector of received signal samples.
US07715495B2
A transmitter 131 in a communication system 101 receives data to be transferred, performs STBC coding thereon to acquire two signals, performs an OFDM transmission process on the signals which are radio-transmitted to from antennas 141, 142 having polarization polarities orthogonal to each other. A receiver 151 radio-receives the signals using antennas 161, 162 having polarization polarities orthogonal to each other, and performs STBC decoding on two signals acquired by performing an OFDM reception process on the received signals, respectively, thereby acquiring the transferred data. The inclinations of the antenna 141 and the antenna 161 are equal to the inclinations of the antenna 142 and the antenna 162, and are typically 45 degrees.
US07715479B2
A decoding power aware encoding method for generating a predictively encoded data stream, in which predictions, that result in a reduction in the amount of data transferred from the secondary memory to primary memory during the decoding process, are favored, said method for favoring certain predictions comprising: a model for transfer of data from secondary memory to primary memory in the decoding process; a scheme for weighting the relative merits of favoring a certain prediction and the associated loss in compression gain; and based on said weighting scheme, choosing a particular prediction from the candidates allowed by the compression scheme.
US07715473B2
A channel equalizer, method and computer program for equalizing a channel. The channel equalizer may include a feed forward filter and a switching unit. The switching unit may receive a signal input to the channel equalizer and an output signal from the feed forward filter, and may supply one of the input signal and output signal as an input to the feed forward filter.
US07715459B2
An apparatus/method which may comprise: a very high power line narrowed lithography laser light source which may comprise: a solid state seed laser system which may comprise: a pre-seed laser providing a pre-seed laser output; a fiber amplifier receiving the pre-seed laser output and providing an amplified seed laser pulse which may comprise: a pulse having a nominal wavelength outside of the DUV range; a frequency converter converting to essentially the wavelength of the amplifier gain medium; a first and a second gas discharge laser amplifier gain medium operating at different repetition rates from that of the seed laser output; a beam divider providing the amplifier gain mediums with output pulses from the seed laser; a beam combiner combining the outputs of each respective amplifier gain medium to provide a laser output light pulse beam having the pulse repetition rate of the solid state seed laser system.
US07715447B2
Tone detection includes receiving a series of frames having a signal containing a tone and locating a first frame in the series of frames in which there is at least a partial, tone. The signal energy of the first frame may then be compared to the signal energy of a full tone frame or compared to the signal energy of a frame. A start time of the tone in the signal may then be determined. An end time of the tone in the signal may be determined by locating a last frame in the series of frames. The duration of the tone signal may be determined based on the determined start time and end time of the tone in the signal.
US07715446B2
Wireless devices and methods employ steganography for a variety of purposes. An exemplary application is a battery-powered cell phone, having, e.g., a microphone, a speaker, a modulator, an antenna, and an RF amplifier. In such application, steganographic techniques can be employed to encode, or decode, signals processed by the phone. Some embodiments use an image sensor to capture watermarked image data. The phone can respond to detection of such marked imagery by overlaying distinctive graphics on a cell phone display screen. Such graphics may be positioned within the display, and affine-warped, in registered relationship with the position of the watermarked object, and its affine distortion, as depicted in the image data.
US07715445B1
A system and method for minimizing transmit latency uncertainty in a 100 Mb RMII Ethernet physical layer device is disclosed. A 100 Mb RMII Ethernet transmit physical layer device comprises a divide circuit that selects a phase of a transmit clock signal for transmitting data. The invention comprises a reset circuit that aligns the divide circuit to select an optimal phase of the transmit clock signal for transmitting data. The reset circuit of the invention is capable of reducing the transmit latency uncertainty from approximately twenty nanoseconds to four nanoseconds.
US07715435B2
The present invention is directed to a method for setting a user equipment identifier as user equipment identification information used when data received through a dedicated logical channel is transmitted through a common transport channel. The method includes transmitting data and a message type indicator as user equipment identification information from a RRC layer to an RLC layer; setting a user equipment identifier indicator according to the received message type indicator in the RLC layer and transmitting it with the data to a MAC layer; and selecting a user equipment identifier type and a user equipment identifier according to the set user equipment indication identifier, adding it to a header of a MAC SDU in the MAC layer and transmitting it to a corresponding MAC layer in a receiving device.
US07715432B2
A primary multi-layer protocol stack that allows a secondary multi-layer protocol stack to communicatively couple into one or more of its layers. End point device circuitry implements both the primary and secondary protocol stacks. A communication application running on the end point device initiates interaction, e.g., a session, via a primary radio and primary intermediate protocol stack layers. Based on a change in communication characteristics, for example, an operation is invoked to bridge between one of the intermediate protocol stack layers of the primary stack to one from the secondary stack. Such bridging establishes a secondary pathway via the secondary radio. The primary and secondary radios may support the same or differing protocols. To avoid having to fully reestablish a session, at least one session parameter is carried forward through the bridge. The bridge may have multiple entry points in and out of both protocol stacks and operate as two half-duplex bridges.
US07715429B2
An interconnect system for the supply chain management of network services, preferably virtual private network services, provides a networking architecture and interface usable in delivering substantially measurable virtual private network services involving multiple carriers.
US07715425B2
A method of operating in a network (e.g., a power line communication network) in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium (e.g., an AC power line) having a periodically varying channel. The method includes determining a plurality of channel adaptations (e.g., tone maps) for communication between a pair of stations, and assigning a different one of the plurality of channel adaptations to each of a plurality of phase regions of the periodically varying channel.
US07715414B1
A communication service provider transfers an access request to an access provider to support a service for a customer. The communication service provider receives an authentication code and a corresponding authorized action from the access provider and distributes the authentication code to service provider personnel authorized to initiate the corresponding authorized action. In response to an input by the service provider personnel, a control system transfers an action request to an access interface at the customer premise wherein the access interface performs the corresponding authorized action based on the authentication code and the corresponding authorized action.
US07715412B2
A decomposed H.323 border element is disclosed that is useful for providing an entry point from one or more H.323-based networks into a SIP-based VoIP network. In one embodiment, the signaling element of the BE is separated into a separate functional entity from the media control element to facilitate a single signaling entity controlling multiple media entities. In another embodiment, the security element of the border element is also separated from the media control element so that firewall and network address translation elements may be performed by a separate functional entity. In a further embodiment, the media transcoding element is separated from the media control element. In a final embodiment, the internetworking facility between the SIP and H.323 element is separate from the H.323 gatekeeper elements.
US07715403B2
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer program products for load balanced and symmetric SPF path computations for VoIP traffic engineering. One method includes advertising an output interface cost in a first direction over a first network segment between a source IP device and a destination IP device that is different from an output interface cost in advertised in a second direction over the first network segment. A plurality of available network paths between the source IP device and the destination IP device is identified. A path cost is calculated for each of the available network paths from the source IP device to the destination IP device. Calculating a path cost includes, for paths that include the first network segment, substituting the output interface cost advertised in the first direction with the output interface cost advertised in the second direction. The path costs are ranked based on the calculated costs. A lowest cost path is selected from the ranked paths. Both directions of a media session are assigned to the lowest cost path.
US07715401B2
Even when session control traffic such as SIP traffic to be unitarily subjected to QoS management by a manager of a session control network such as an SIP network, and loopback traffic to be freely subjected to QoS management by users coexist, QoS processing can be appropriately performed. The edge router checks a routing table and the address information of an SIP message to derive an SIP stream direction. The edge router timely selects a table that can be set by only SIP network managers, and a table that can be set by user network managers as well, determines QoS setting information by collating other SIP/SDP message information, and sets it in a QoS function unit.
US07715390B2
An RPF Neighbor having the least traffic flow is estimated and a multicast distribution path via the RPF Neighbor is selected so as to split the load between routers constituting the Equal-cost Multipath and lines.
US07715388B2
A message-type determining unit determines whether an IGMP message received from a user terminal is a join message. A table controlling unit determines that a connection needs to be established when receiving a join message from a user terminal. The table controlling unit determines that a connection needs to be removed when all the user terminals have left a multicast group. A CID obtaining unit obtains the CID of a connection to be established or removed. A C control-message generating unit generates a C control message to request connection establishment or connection removal. A C control-message transmitting unit sends the C control message to an OLT.
US07715374B2
A redundancy gateway system that can avoid short interruption of data communication caused by system switching in gateway units configured in a multiplex manner for a plurality of systems, and that can maintain the communication state prior to the system switching and avoid degradation of communication quality. A duplicate of a received packet is generated, thereby supplying the packet of the same content to a configuration of gateway units. For each packet, a common write pointer corresponding to identification information appended to the packet is generated. Each gateway unit writes the packet to its own jitter buffer in accordance with the common write pointer corresponding to each supplied packet, sequentially reads out the written packet from the jitter buffer, and generates a TDM signal. One of the gateway units is selectively switched and only the TDM signal generated by the one gateway unit is supplied to a TDM network.
US07715368B1
A method and apparatus for dynamically debiting a donation amount from an account in a communications network is described. In one embodiment, an interface associated with a network service bill used to allow a subscriber to designate the donation amount is provided to a customer. The data specifying the donation amount from said subscriber is then received by a dedicated application server. Afterwards, the donation amount is debited from the account associated with the network service bill.
US07715367B2
An IP telephone system includes an IP telephone apparatus, a Web server and an ENUM server. The IP telephone apparatus is connected to an IP network. The Web server registers talk volume information corresponding to a telephone number assigned to the IP telephone apparatus. The ENUM server registers a NAPTR resource record in which a URI specifies link data related to the talk volume information registered in the Web server. In the IP telephone system, the IP telephone apparatus that has received a call transmits, to the ENUM server, a query for a NAPTR record corresponding to a targeted recipient phone number. The IP telephone apparatus then transmits, to the Web server, a request for the talk volume information corresponding to the targeted recipient phone number according to the returned NAPTR resource record, and adjusts the talk volume according to the returned talk volume information.
US07715366B1
A communication system including a call control system, a plurality of network nodes, and a gateway coupled to the call control system and coupled to the plurality of network nodes. The gateway is configured to interwork communications between the plurality of network nodes and, responsive to a first status change associated with a first network node of the plurality of network nodes, transfers a first update message to the call control system wherein the first update message indicates the gateway, the first status change, and the first network node. The call control system, responsive to receiving the first update message, processes the first update message to determine a first user associated with the first network node and to determine a first priority for the first update message based on the first user associated with the first network node.
US07715359B2
A method for realizing metering pulses in Next Generation Network (NGN), which enables an MGC (media gateway controller) to cooperate with an MG (media gateway), so as to realize the metering pulse service. When it is necessary to initiate the charging, the MGC transmits the metering pulse signal to the MG, and then the MG transmits the first metering pulse to the user equipment immediately, and periodically transmits the subsequent pulses according to the Pulse Count and Pulse Interval specified by the signal parameter.
US07715355B2
A base station, in a mobile communication network, includes a receive component to receive, from a higher rank station in the network, a particular data unit that includes multiple data units multiplexed together; a master processor to determine that the first portion of the particular data unit is destined for the base station and that the second portion of the particular data unit is not destined for the base station, and discard the second portion of the particular data unit; and a slave processor to determine that the second portion of the particular data unit is destined for the other base station and that the first portion of the particular data unit is not destined for the other base station, and send the second portion of the particular data unit to the other base station.
US07715347B2
A method of assigning feedback information in a portion of a Medium Access Control (MAC) channel in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes receiving at least two pilot signal from an access network (AN) on at least two forward traffic channel, transmitting at least two channel quality information on a single reverse carrier to the AN reporting at least one of strength and quality of each corresponding forward pilot channel, wherein the channel quality information indicates a desired data rate for receiving data on the corresponding forward traffic channel, and receiving feedback information through a forward control channel of the AN, wherein the feedback information includes combined channel quality information which indicates whether or not the AN is able to receive multiple channel quality information sent by an access terminal (AT) on the single reverse carrier.
US07715345B2
The normalities of access points including antenna facilities thereof are confirmed.An access point includes a terminal function unit which has the transmission/reception functions of a radio terminal. A radio signal is transmitted from the terminal function unit to the signal processing unit of an access point through the antenna of the access point, and a process for the calling connection between the terminal function unit and a test server is executed through the antenna of the access point, and the antenna and signal processing unit of the access point (along a path). The normalities of the antenna of the access point and the access point, or the abnormality of any of them is judged in accordance with the success or failure of the calling connection.
US07715343B2
There is provided with a radio terminal which carries out data transmission using frequency bands licensed to other licensed radio terminals, including: a judging section configured to carry out a modulation analysis on a radio signal for each frequency band to judge whether the radio signal is a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal or not; a selection section configured to select a plurality of frequency bands; a schedule generation section configured to generate a schedule for intermittent data transmission; a data transmission section configured to transmit data according to the schedule; a carrier sensing section configured to carry out carrier sensing on a frequency band in which data is transmitted before data transmission for each the intermittent data transmission; and a control section configured to stop, when a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal is detected in a certain frequency band, data transmission using at least the certain frequency band.
US07715341B2
The present invention supports a scheduling protocol on a wireless communication network to transmit data packets stored in a queue from a user. Two performance metrics are generated and summed to provide a priority. The performance metrics are based on the delay for the data packets stored in the queue and the rate that the data packets can be transmitted on the network. The user with the higher calculated priority for the current time slot has its data packets transmitted.
US07715340B2
An architecture for network layer mobility support, using always on broadband high speed access and a network-based mobility manager, termed as a network server or gateway is disclosed. The present invention obviates the need of MIP for IP mobility.
US07715323B2
A method is disclosed for tuning each channel of a high-speed SerDes cable link interface arranged in a configuration linking a local side physical layer to a remote side physical layer. The method includes initiating an operational state of high-speed SerDes cable link interface, identifying flow-control packet Op codes not cited for use by operational high-speed SerDes cable link interface, transmitting a flow control signal from the local side physical layer to the remote side physical layer to control the remote side physical layer to monitor the bit error rate (BER) of the channels used by the local side physical layer to transfer data to the remote side physical layer, monitoring the BER in the channels used for data transfer, transferring BER data acquired in the monitoring to the local side physical layer and processing the BER data by the local side physical layer to generate equalization setting adjustments.
US07715312B2
A system is provided for maintaining Quality of Service (“QoS”) parameters of data transmissions. A packet-switched network framework is provided. The network framework includes at least one router for routing the data transmissions over the network framework. The network framework also includes multiple links, including a first link and a second link. The first link forms at least part of a first path over the network framework, and the second link forms at least part of an alternate, second path over the network framework. A link utilization monitor is configured to monitor a link utilization rate of the first link and to determine whether the rate has exceeded a predetermined maximum utilization threshold. The router is configured to reroute data transmissions over the second link when the rate is determined to have exceeded the predetermined maximum utilization threshold.
US07715299B2
The objective optical system of the present invention includes a first diffraction structure that applies diffraction to the light fluxes of wavelength λ1, wavelength λ2 and wavelength λ3 so that the diffracted lights of the L-th order (L: odd number), M-th order (M: integer) and N-th order (N: integer) each will have the maximum diffraction efficiency, and a first optical path difference-generating structure that substantially provides a phase difference to or two of the light fluxes of wavelength λ1, wavelength λ2 and wavelength λ3.
US07715298B2
An optical pickup module with enhanced aberration correctability is disclosed. This pickup includes more than two different types of laser light sources, an objective lens for collecting and focusing any one of the laser beams leaving the light sources onto an optical disc, and an aberration correction device of the liquid crystal (LC) type, which is disposed between the light sources and the objective lens. The aberration corrector has a surface on which multiple spaced-apart electrodes are patterned for enabling aberration correction relative to incident beams. The corrector controls the potential of a voltage being applied to each electrode in deference to incident beam properties and variations occurrable thereto, e.g., wavelength, effective beam diameter and relative incidence position offsets, thereby to optimally correct beam aberrations, such as coma aberration or wavefront aberration. An optical information reproduction apparatus using the pickup is also disclosed.
US07715296B2
An optical head device and an optical recording and reproducing apparatus using this optical head device, which can record information and reproduce the recorded information at any of optical recording media, such as a next generation optical recording medium, in which the wavelength of the light source is made to be shorter, the numerical aperture of the objective lens is made to be higher, and the thickness of the recording medium is made to be thinner, and conventional recording media of DVD and CD standards, are provided. A light having wavelength of 405 nm, emitted from one of optics, is inputted to an objective lens as a collimated light, and is focused on a disk having thickness of 0.1 mm. A light having wavelength of 650 nm, emitted from the other of optics, is inputted to the objective lens as a diverged light, and is focused on a disk having thickness of 0.6 mm. A spherical aberration, which remains for the light having wavelength of 650 nm, is decreased by the change of the magnification of the objective lens, further the decreased spherical aberration is decreased by using a wavelength selective filter.
US07715293B2
To provide a method of recording information to an optical recording medium comprising recording a mark of time length nT (n: natural number of 3 or more, T: clock cycle) in an optical recording medium capable of supporting different recording speeds and having constant information line density, and irradiating the optical recording medium, the optical recording medium irradiated with light of alternating m1 heating pulses of power Pw and m1 cooling pulses of power Pc (where m1 is a natural number smaller than n) provided v
US07715291B2
A multi-layered information recording medium including a plurality of recording layers, the multi-layered information recording medium comprising: a user data area for recording user data; and a plurality of spare areas including at least one replacement region, wherein when the user data area includes at least one defect region, the at least one replacement region may be used in place of the at least one defect region, wherein a first spare area of the plurality of spare areas is positioned so as to be contiguous to a first user data area of a first recording layer, a second spare area of the plurality of spare areas is positioned so as to be contiguous to a second user data area of a second recording layer, and the first spare area and the second spare area are positioned approximately at the same radial position on the multi-layered information recording medium.
US07715280B2
The invention provides a rechargeable electronic timepiece that restarts the operation of a clock circuit by inputting a power source, thereby securely confirming the clock operation. The electronic timepiece includes a first power source (2), a clock circuit (8) connected to the first power source, a power source input detecting circuit (86) for detecting an input of a second power source (3), a switch circuit (7, 9) for connecting the first power source and the second power source, and a control circuit (87) for controlling the switch circuit to connect the first power source and the second power source so that the first power source is charged by the second power source thereby operating the clock circuit when the power source input detecting circuit detects an input of the second power source.
US07715275B2
A start assist system for motor vehicles, including a long-range locating system for determining the location of vehicles traveling ahead and a starting regulator for initiating and controlling a starting operation, wherein the locating system is combined with a near-range locating system for determining the location of objects directly ahead of the host vehicle and a decision unit is designed to suppress the starting operation in response to a signal from the near-range locating system.
US07715267B2
A driving circuit includes a first switch, a first driver and a second driver. The first switch has a first terminal coupled to a first voltage. The first driver includes a second switch and a third switch. The second switch has a first terminal coupled to a second terminal of the first switch, and a second terminal coupled to a first capacitor. The third switch has a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the second switch, and a second terminal coupled to a second voltage. The second driver includes a fourth switch and a fifth switch. The fourth switch has a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first switch, and a second terminal coupled to a second capacitor. The fifth switch has a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the fourth switch, and a second terminal coupled to the second voltage.
US07715266B2
A memory detecting circuit includes five switch elements and two indication devices. A first switch element is connected to a standby power, and also connected to memory sockets of a first channel to receive a first memory detecting signal. A second switch element is connected to the first switch element and the standby power. A third switch element is connected to the second switch element and the standby power, and also connected to memory sockets of a second channel to receive a second memory detecting signal. A fourth switch element is connected to the third switch element and the standby power. A fifth switch element is connected to the fourth switch element and the standby power. When there are memories installed into the memory sockets of the first channel and the second channel, the second indication device indicates that the memories run in a dual channel mode.
US07715257B2
A test method and a semiconductor device is disclosed. One embodiment provides sending out a test signal by a semiconductor device. A reflected signal generated in reaction is compared to the test signal with a first threshold value. The reflected signal is compared with a second threshold value differing from the first threshold value.
US07715248B2
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile memory such as, for example a ROM or an EPROM, in which the information density of the memory is increased relative to a conventional nonvolatile memory that includes two logic state devices. Specifically, the nonvolatile memory of the present invention includes a SiN/TaN/SiN thin film resistor embedded within a material having a thermal conductivity of about 1 W/m-K or less; and a non-linear Si-containing device coupled to the resistor. Read and write circuits and operations are also provided in the present application.
US07715247B2
For realizing high speed one time programmable memory, bit line is multi-divided for reducing capacitance, so that the bit line is quickly charged when reading and multi-stage sense amps are used for connecting divided bit line, wherein the multi-stage sense amps are composed of a first dynamic circuit serving as a local sense amp for reading the memory cell, a second dynamic circuit serving as a segment sense amp for reading the local sense amp, and a tri-state inverter serving as an amplify circuit of a global sense amp for reading the segment sense amp. When reading data, a voltage difference in the bit line is converted to a time difference for differentiating high data (programmed) and low data (unprogrammed) by the multi-stage sense amps. And buffered data path is connected to the global sense amp for realizing fast data transfer. Additionally, alternative circuits and memory cell structures are described.
US07715243B2
A semiconductor disk wherein a flash memory into which data is rewritten in block unit is employed as a storage medium, the semiconductor disk including a data memory in which file data are stored, a substitutive memory which substitutes for blocks of errors in the data memory, an error memory in which error information of the data memory are stored, and a memory controller which reads data out of, writes data into and erases data from the data memory, the substitutive memory and the error memory. Since the write errors of the flash memory can be remedied, the service life of the semiconductor disk can be increased.
US07715238B2
An operation of a non-volatile memory device. A method of operating a non-volatile memory device in accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a first program operation is performed by applying a first program voltage to word lines of memory cells, constituting a memory block. As a result of the first program operation, threshold voltages of the memory cells are firstly measured. A second program operation is performed using a second program voltage, which is increased as much as a difference between a first threshold voltage, that is, a lowest voltage level of the firstly measured threshold voltages and a second threshold voltage, that is, an intermediate voltage level of the firstly measured threshold voltages. The second program operation is repeatedly performed by increasing the second program voltage as much as the difference between the first and second threshold voltages until the lowest threshold voltage becomes higher than a program verify voltage. A pass voltage is then set by reflecting a first voltage level, that is, a difference between a program voltage applied in a last program execution step and the first program voltage.
US07715215B1
Control of an AC-to-DC power supply assembly fed by a three-phase AC source is provided by: determining whether the power supply assembly includes greater than three single-phase power regulators feeding a common load, with multiple regulators being connected in parallel across a common phase of the AC source, and if so, summing currents provided by the regulators to the common load; and ascertaining whether the summed current is less than a predefined threshold, and if yes, operating the power supply assembly in a line balance mode to maintain power drawn on the phases of the AC source in balance, and if greater than the predefined threshold, operating the power supply assembly in a maximize power mode wherein power is provided to the common load without maintaining power drawn on the phases of the AC source in balance.
US07715211B2
According to an example embodiment of the invention, a configurable printed circuit board (PCB) includes one or more separable portions for supporting modules for interfacing with the PCB. The separable portions extend from an edge portion of a main body of the PCB, and are disposed between the main body of the PCB and a protective portion. A scored portion is provided at a boundary between the main body of the PCB and the separable portions, the separable portions being separable by being broken off from the main body of the PCB at the scored portion. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method of configuring a PCB having one or more separable portions of the PCB includes securing the PCB and separating the one or more separable portions of the PCB from another portion of the PCB.
US07715205B2
A self-excited inverter circuit, includes: a booster transformer with a secondary coil, a feedback coil, and a primary coil respectively wound thereon, the primary coil including a center tap to which operating power can be supplied; a first N-channel FET having a drain to which is connected one terminal of the primary coil, and having a gate to which is connected one terminal of the feedback coil; and a second N-channel FET having a drain to which is connected the other terminal of the primary coil, and having a gate to which is connected the other terminal of the feedback coil, wherein: using a high voltage drive output generated in the secondary coil when the first and second N-channel FETs are turned on alternately, a discharge tube is driven and turned on; and the first and second N-channel FETs are both formed in a single package.
US07715202B2
A substrate attachment structure includes a chassis, a substrate and an attachment screw. The chassis includes a hook piece with an engagement prong arranged to face the chassis, and a threaded hole. The substrate includes a screw insertion hole, and a latching hole with a continuous periphery that receives the hook piece of the chassis to sandwich a portion of the substrate between the engagement prong and a part of the chassis. The attachment screw is inserted through the screw insertion hole formed in the substrate and threaded into the threaded hole formed in the chassis to fasten the substrate to the chassis.
US07715197B2
A heatsink structure and method for the cooling of closely spaced packaged heat-producing devices, such as dual-in-line memory modules (DIMMs). A folded sheet metal heatsink structure is provided which is constituted of a coined metallic material and which has a large plurality of waffle-shaped ridges extending therefrom constituting additional surface areas which are adapted to enable heat generated by hub chips to pass upwardly and then outwardly through waffle-like ridges and, thus, dissipated to the exterior, thereby imparting an improved degree of cooling to heat-producing components or devices.
US07715194B2
A cooling system is used to cool heat generating devices within a personal computer. The cooling system has a first fluid loop and an expandable array of one or more second fluid loops. For each of the second fluid loops, heat generating devices transfer heat to fluid flowing through corresponding heat exchanging devices in the loop. Heat is transferred from the fluid in each second fluid loop to a thermal bus of the first fluid loop via a thermal interface. The second fluid loop can be a pumped fluid loop or can include a heat pipe. Within the first fluid loop, a fluid is continuously pumped from the thermal bus to a fluid-to-air heat exchanging system and back to the thermal bus. Heat transferred to the thermal bus from the first fluid loop is transferred to the fluid in the second fluid loop passing through the thermal bus. The heated fluid is pumped through the fluid-to-air heat exchanging system where the heat is transferred from the fluid to the ambient. The thermal bus provides a modular, scalable cooling system which allows for the expansion of cooling capacity without breaking the fluid lines.
US07715193B1
An electronic device includes a chassis enclosing a fan and a sliding member. The chassis defines an air intake aligned with an inlet of the fan, and an opening. The sliding member is slidably mounted to the chassis and includes an operation part exposing through the opening. The sliding member is capable of either fully or partially covering and uncovering the air intake of the chassis via manipulating the operation part to slide in the opening.
US07715192B2
A mobile device includes a pair of cabinet half-bodies 10, 6 configuring a cabinet 1; a metal coupling member 2 for coupling the cabinet half-bodies 10, 6; and a synthetic resin cover body 3 opened with at least two pass holes 30, 30 through which a strap 4 is passed, and arranged with a strap receiving piece 31 between the pass holes 30, 30. The strap receiving piece 31 has a lower surface reinforced by contacting at least one part of the coupling member 2, and a space through which the strap 4 from one pass hole to the other pass hole passes is formed below the coupling member 2.
US07715190B2
An exemplary electronic device (30) includes a main body (40) and two support leg (60). The main body has two guiding rails (413). The guiding rails are formed at two adjacent corners of the main body correspondingly. Each support leg is slidably disposed at one corresponding guiding rail so that the main body aslant supported.
US07715187B2
A docking system is disclosed. The docking system includes a portable electronic device capable of operating in multiple orientations including vertical and horizontal. The docking system also includes a docking station configured to mechanically accept and operatively interface with the portable electronic device in any of its multiple orientations including vertical and horizontal.
US07715186B2
A case of an extending base for an electronic device includes a body, a cover, and at least two link elements. The body has a hollow. The cover is disposed aside the hollow. Each link element has a first pivot part, a first block part, a second pivot part, and a first elastic member. The first pivot part has a first end pivoted on the body and a second end connected to the first block part. The second pivot part has a first end pivoted on the cover and a second end connected to the first block part. The first elastic member provides a force to push the first block part from a first position to a second position so as to correspondingly push the cover. Herein, when the first block part is positioned at the first position, the first block part is separated from the body and the cover covers the body. In addition, when the first block part is positioned at the second position, the first block part is in contact with the body and the cover is separated from the body.
US07715185B2
A mounting apparatus for a data storage device that includes a tab includes a bracket, a locking member, and an operating assembly. The bracket includes a bezel defining an opening and a first cutout corresponding to the tab. The locking member, movable on the bezel, defines a second cutout corresponding to the first cutout. The operating assembly is assembled in the bezel and slides the locking member on the bezel to align or misalign the second cutout with the first cutout.
US07715173B2
A capacitor includes a ceramic capacitor body having opposite ends and comprised of a plurality of electrode layers and dielectric layers and first and second external terminals attached to the ceramic capacitor body. The internal active electrodes within the ceramic capacitor body are configured in an alternating manner. Internal electrode shields within the ceramic capacitor body are used to assist in providing resistance to arc-over. The shields can include a top internal electrode shield and an opposite bottom internal electrode shield wherein the top internal electrode shield and the opposite bottom internal electrode shield are on opposite sides of the plurality of internal active electrodes and each internal electrode shield extends inwardly to or beyond a corresponding external terminal to thereby provide shielding. Side shields are used. The capacitor provides improved resistance to arc-over, high voltage breakdown in air, and allows for small case size.
US07715171B2
The “squeal” that occurs when an electric field is applied to a multilayer ceramic capacitor mounted on a substrate is suppressed by providing in an active part contributing to formation of capacitances between internal electrodes facing each other in a capacitor body, low-activity regions positioned near respective end edges of respective external electrodes. A facing area of the internal electrodes in the low-activity regions is less than or equal to one fifth that of the internal electrodes in a normal region having the same volume as that of the low-activity regions. This makes it possible to suppress occurrence of electric-field-induced distortion near the external electrodes bonded to a substrate and reduce the force that causes the substrate to bend.
US07715167B2
Apparatus and method for controlling the frequency of the current in the excitation coil of the handpiece of a dental magnetostrictive ultrasonic scaling unit, or similar transducer. A microprocessor continually samples a predetermined function of the current through the excitation coil, and adjusts the frequency for a function maximum, performing coarse and fine frequency adjustments. The function can be proportional to the current, its time-derivative, or combination thereof. A voltage-controlled oscillator is employed, controlled by pulse-width modulation from the microprocessor. The base frequency scan is performed each time the handpiece is energized by the practitioner, assuring automatic optimal frequency adjustment at all times and under all conditions. Apparatus according to the invention does not require transformers, sensing coils, or complex power- or impedance-sensing circuitry, and covers a wide range of resonant frequencies for different insert types. A configuration with multiple handpieces is supported.
US07715161B2
The invention relates to a device consisting of a storage device for storing electrical energy. This may, for example, be a battery, an accumulator or another electrical storage device, for example a capacitor (double-layer capacitor). In the present application, the object is now pursued of keeping the consumption of electrical energy as low as possible, to economize relative to previous solutions and to bring about a great simplification from the point of view of manufacturing. Device consisting of a storage device for storing electrical energy, a device for monitoring the output current from the storage device and a controllable switch, by means of which the current output can be interrupted, wherein the switch is opened and the current output is therefore interrupted, when the device for monitoring the output current detects that for a predetermined time, for example, 30 seconds to 2 minutes, a predetermined current characteristic is present, for example, the output current does not fluctuate, or only extremely slightly.
US07715156B2
A TMR element includes a lower electrode layer, a TMR multi-layer stacked on the lower electrode layer, and an upper electrode layer stacked on the TMR multi-layer. The TMR multi-layer includes a tunnel barrier layer having a three-layered structure of a first crystalline layer, a crystalline semiconductor layer and a second crystalline insulation layer stacked in this order.
US07715155B2
A thin-film magnetic head includes a lower magnetic shield layer, an MR multi-layered structure formed on the lower magnetic shield layer so that current flows in a direction perpendicular to surfaces of laminated layers, an insulation layer formed to surround the MR multi-layered structure, an additional metal layer laminated on at least the MR multi-layered structure, an upper electrode layer made of a soft magnetic material laminated on the additional metal layer and the insulation layer, and an upper magnetic shield layer laminated on the upper electrode layer. The additional metal layer has a multi-layered structure including a nonmagnetic metal layer and a soft magnetic layer laminated on the nonmagnetic metal layer, and has a length along a track-width direction of the MR multi-layered structure larger than a width of a magnetization-free layer in the MR effect multi-layered structure.
US07715150B2
The head gimbal assembly includes a slider and a micro-actuator assembly sharing power for the micro-actuator assembly to aid in positioning the slider and for an amplifier included in the slider to generate an amplified read signal when the slider read accesses data on a rotating disk surface included in a hard disk drive. The slider includes a read-write head providing a read differential signal pair to an amplifier to generate an amplified read signal reported when read accessing a rotating disk surface near the slider, which includes a read head employing a spin valve or employing a tunneling valve. Hard disk drive including a head stack assembly, which includes at least one of the head gimbal assemblies. Manufacturing the head gimbal assembly, the head stack assembly, and the hard disk drive, as well as these items as products of the invention's manufacturing processes.
US07715147B2
A magnetic write head for perpendicular magnetic recording that has a write pole and a trailing or side shield that has a leading edge that extends to or beyond the leading edge of write pole, thereby ensuring complete side magnetic shielding. The write head can be formed by forming the write pole on a non-magnetic substrate that is constructed of a material that can be readily removed by reactive ion etching (RIE). The write pole can be formed by depositing a layer of magnetic write pole material over the substrate and then forming a mask over the magnetic write pole material. An ion mill can be performed to define the write pole, and then a reactive ion etch can be performed to notch the substrate, so that when a non-magnetic shield gap material is deposited it will be below or at the bottom of the write pole. Then a magnetic shield material can be deposited to form a shield having a leading edge that extends beyond the leading edge of the write pole.
US07715146B2
An apparatus and associated method for clamping an article to a rotatable motor hub. A clamp has a web portion and a plurality of protuberant members extending away from the web portion. Distal ends of the protuberant members are radially disposable within a concentric ring to a clamp axis of rotation, the ring being sized for an interference fit with an outer diameter of the motor hub. The clamp is placed upon the motor so that the protuberant members contactingly engage the motor hub. Advancing a fastener moves the clamp axially to compressingly engage against the article, and resultingly moves the clamp radially to clearingly disengage the protuberant members from the motor hub.
US07715144B2
A method of measuring a track value is shown. The track value is related to track mis-registration, and is compared to a track value limit to assess a condition of the track. In example embodiments, the track value is determined as a function of multiple position error signals from previous wedges in the track. During a self servo writing operation, the track value and the track value limit are used to selectively perform a recovery action. In example embodiments, the track value limit is dynamically adjusted.
US07715135B1
Methods, circuits, and systems for processing a preamble field in a read channel (e.g., in a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk drive). The methods generally include the steps of (a) reading the preamble field, wherein the preamble field comprises a repetitive bit pattern having a logical transition every x bit periods, where x is an integer of at least 3 when d is 0 or 1, or where x is an integer of at least d+2 when d is greater than 1, and (b) processing the repetitive bit pattern. The methods may further relate to processing the preamble for synchronization with the read channel and/or for measuring the fly height of a read/write head. The invention also relates to methods of enabling read channel synchronization and/or fly height measurement. The circuitry for fly height measurement generally includes (a) reading logic configured to read a preamble field from a read channel, wherein the preamble field comprises a repetitive bit pattern, (b) determination logic configured to determine a characteristic of the repetitive bit pattern, and (c) correlation logic configured to correlate the characteristic to the fly height. The systems generally comprise those that include a circuit embodying one or more of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. The present invention advantageously provides improved resolution of signals resulting from the preamble fields and of harmonics of said signals, and enables fly height measurement and improved channel synchronization without consuming dedicated tracks, platters, etc. on a magnetic recording medium.
US07715134B1
A servo compensation processor includes an input that receives samples of a waveform generated from a servo track, the servo track including servo data and synchronization symbols. A peak estimator estimates a first location of a peak amplitude of the waveform. A phase determiner determines a sampling phase based on a first number of the samples between one of the synchronization symbols and a first predetermined one of the samples. A compensator determines a compensation amount based on a compensation curve and the sampling phase. A location estimator determines a second location of the peak amplitude based on the first location and the compensation amount. A location determiner determines a center location of the servo track based on the second location.
US07715131B2
A voice coil motor (VCM) actuator includes a fixed bracket, a lens barrel, two flat spring plates, a support plate, a plurality of positioning pins, a plurality of coils, and a plurality of magnets. The fixed bracket includes a first chamber and a plurality of magnet mounting holes. A lens barrel is positioned in the first chamber. The flat spring plates and the support plate include a plurality of first locating holes and second locating holes. Two resilient heads are formed on two ends of each positioning pin. Each positioning pin interconnects between respective first locating holes of the flat spring plates and respective second locating holes of the support plate. A plurality of coils are wrapped around an outer wall of the lens barrel. A plurality of magnets is received in the magnet mounting holes.
US07715116B2
A telephoto lens system includes a positive first lens group, a positive second lens group, a diaphragm, a negative third lens group constituting a focusing lens group, and a positive fourth lens group. The first lens group includes a positive first lens element, a positive second lens element, and a negative third lens element. The second lens group includes a negative or a positive fourth lens element and a positive or negative fifth lens element which are cemented to each other. The third lens group includes a positive or negative sixth lens element and a negative or positive seventh lens element which are cemented to each other. The fourth lens group includes one positive eighth lens element. Upon focusing on an object at infinity to an object at a closer distance, the third lens group is moved toward the image. The telephoto lens system satisfies the following conditions.
US07715114B2
Disclosed herein is a zoom lens, including: a first lens group having a positive refracting power; a second lens group having a negative refracting power; a third lens group having a positive refracting power; and a fourth lens group having a positive refracting power; the first, second, third and fourth lens groups being disposed in order from the object side; the first lens group including only a cemented lens including a positive lens and a negative lens cemented in order from the object side and having a generally positive refracting power; the first lens group being configured so as to satisfy the conditional expression (25<νd11−νd12<50) where νd11 is the Abbe number of the positive lens of the first lens group and νd12 is the Abbe number of the negative lens of the first lens group.
US07715111B2
The projection zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, a third lens group, a positive fourth lens group, a fifth lens group, and a positive sixth lens group. The lens system is nearly telecentric on a reduction side. During zooming, the second to fifth lens groups are moved while the first and six lens groups remain stationary. The third lens group includes a positive lens LP having a convex surface directed to a magnification side, and a negative lens LN having a concave surface which is directed to the reduction side and has a curvature stronger than a magnification-side surface of the negative lens LN. The conditional expression of 5.0≦|fG3/RLN-2| is satisfied. Here, fG3 denotes a focal length of the third lens group, and RLN-2 denotes a radius of curvature of the reduction-side surface of the negative lens LN.
US07715107B2
An optical element for correcting aberrations in an optical apparatus has a casing. The casing is filled with liquid and has a support layer and a cover layer designed to pass light of a predetermined wavelength range. The casing accommodates several actuators. Each actuator has a first end supporting the cover layer and a second end supporting the support layer. Each actuator is able to locally change a local distance between the support layer and the cover layer to correct for local aberrations in a light beam directed to the optical element by providing local phase shifts. The optical element may be used in a lithographic apparatus.
US07715100B2
A method and an apparatus for generating a polarized light beam to be projected onto an object plane are provided. A converging or diverging light beam (18) is generated. The converging or diverging light beam is projected through a member (22, 52) comprising an uniaxial birefringent material, the uniaxial birefringent material having a symmetry axis essentially parallel to the optical axis (12) of the light beam, and the member being placed at a distance from the object plane. Thereby, it is possible to create, for example a radially polarized beam that can be used for various optical purposes, e.g. for optical data reading/writing or for microscopy.
US07715099B2
Systems and methods for attenuating light from undesired sources in a coronagraph apparatus are provided. The coronagraph includes a first imaging lens that receives light representing a desired image and an undesired central image and a reimaging system that mitigates the undesired central image. The reimaging system includes a composite half-wave plate assembly that includes a plurality of angular half-wave plate sections. Each of the plurality of angular half-wave plate sections have two congruent sides that meet at an apex substantially at a center of the composite half-wave plate. A characteristic c-axis associated with a given angular half-wave plate section is aligned differently from the respective characteristic c-axes of at least two angular half-wave plate sections in substantial contact with the two sides of the given angular half-wave plate section. A fixation element engages the half-wave plate sections to maintain the angular half-wave plate sections in a desired arrangement.
US07715098B1
An apparatus and method for improving the contrast between incident projected light and ambient light reflected from a projection screen are described. The efficiency of the projection screen for reflection of the projected light remains high, while permitting the projection screen to be utilized in a brightly lighted room. Light power requirements from the projection system utilized may be reduced.
US07715095B2
The present invention pertains to organic reflective layers comprising an organic radical cation compound, wherein the layer reflects in the infrared region. Preferably, the organic radical cation compound is a salt of an aminium radical cation. Provided are solar window films comprising such infrared reflective layers.
US07715080B2
A package structure and method of packaging for a MEMS device is described. A transparent substrate having an interferometric modulator array formed thereon is shown. A single or dual-layered backplate is joined to a frame that circumscribes the modulator array. The frame is bonded to the transparent substrate and to the backplate to provide a hermetic package.
US07715079B2
MEMS devices such as interferometric modulators are described having movable layers that are mechanically isolated. The movable layers are electrically attractable such that they can be selectively moved between a top and bottom electrode through application of a voltage. In interferometric modulators, the movable layers are reflective such that an optically resonant cavity is formed between the layer and a partially reflective layer, thereby providing a display pixel that can be turned on or off depending on the distance between the reflective layers in the resonant cavity.
US07715075B2
An optical beam scanning apparatus of the present invention includes a body housing; a light source that emits one or more light fluxes; a pre-deflection optical system; an optical beam deflecting device; a sensor that detects a portion of the light flux deflected by the optical beam deflecting device; a holder base fixed to the body housing by a screw; a rotating holder attached to the holder base and provided with a shaft; a sensor substrate fixed to the rotating holder by a screw, the sensor being fixed to the sensor substrate; a rotation adjusting mechanism that rotationally adjusts the rotating holder around the shaft with respect to the holder base; and a fixing mechanism that fixes the rotating holder to the holder base. With this configuration, it is possible to properly adjust deviation of a recording position while making precise rotational adjustment of a horizontal synchronization sensor.
US07715067B2
A scanner includes a housing, a transparent platen disposed on the housing for positioning a document, and a calibration pattern formed on a side of the transparent platen. The calibration pattern includes an arc having a first point and a second point. The scanner further includes an optical engine installed inside the housing for scanning the document and the calibration pattern with movement in a first direction, and a control module installed inside the housing for controlling the optical engine to move to a scan start position according to the first point and the second point of the calibration pattern scanned by the optical engine and a radius of curvature of the arc.
US07715064B2
An image reading apparatus including a plurality of image sensors aligned in a zigzag shape and a draft carrying unit operated to a draft to carry in a sub scanning direction, the image reading apparatus forming an image data of a total of the draft from image data provided by the respective image sensors. The draft carrying unit is provided to be operated to the draft in a region aligned in a zigzag shape to constitute an inverse phase relative to the image sensor.
US07715060B2
An image reading apparatus accurately determines the positions of image forming mirrors formed with an off-axis reflecting surface, while enabling any thermal expansion caused by a rise in temperature due to a rise in the surrounding temperature to be absorbed. Each image forming mirror formed with an off-axis reflecting surface comprises respective and independent units for determining the positions in the longitudinal direction, in the lateral position, and in the direction orthogonal to the reflecting surface. Holes with which the longitudinal position determining units and the lateral position determining units engage have gaps in the directions orthogonal to the position determining directions to absorb the thermal expansion caused by a rise in the temperature of the image forming mirror when the position determining units engage with the holes. Determination of the position of the reflecting surfaces of the image forming mirrors is carried out by urging faces provided on the reflecting surface side against the housing.
US07715059B2
A method, system and program product for comparing a junk fax image stored in a database to an incoming facsimile image to determine whether the incoming facsimile image is a junk fax. If the facsimile image is a junk fax, the image is either deleted or the communication terminated. The invention also provides a junk fax determinator by which an incoming facsimile image can be designated as a junk fax. In one embodiment, a recipient (user) can make the determination as to whether the incoming facsimile image is a junk fax and generate a personal junk fax database. In another embodiment, the recipient (user) can scan a hard copy document to form an incoming facsimile image, which can be saved as a junk fax in a personal junk fax database.
US07715049B2
Provided is an image processing module for a pen-shaped page-width printer which prints business card-sized media. The module has at least one connector, having a four wire serial bus to connect the module to additional modules of the pen-shaped printer; and an image processor. The processor is configured to dynamically convert an image from an L*a*b* color space to a CMY color space whilst printing said media.
US07715039B2
A printer cable that is configured for coupling to a printer having an enclosure and a printer port. The printer cable includes a first connector for connecting to the printer port and a second connector for coupling to a host device (e.g., a personal computer (PC)). The printer cable includes a printer formatter for providing formatting services to the printer via the first connector. Since the printer formatter is integrated into the printer cable, the printer formatter is external to the printer enclosure and is easily removable and configurable by a user.
US07715031B2
A method and apparatus for generating pixelmap images for output to a raster device. The method and apparatus support scheduling and rendering bands, pages or planes from a job using multiple graphics processors and an array of buffers from an intermediate graphic order storage medium. The graphics orders are generated by a graphics order generator subsystem.
US07715030B2
An upper limit of allowed print count is set for each user requesting print jobs, and a multi function printer includes: (i) a schedule transmission requesting section for acquiring schedule information of the user; (ii) a print count predicting section for predicting, on the basis of the acquired schedule information, allowed print count assigned to the user, and the number of printed sheets, whether changing the upper limit of the allowed print count is required; and (iii) a settings change inquiry section for inquiring a manager terminal of whether the manager terminal authorizes changing the upper limit of the allowed print count. If having obtained from the manager terminal authorization of change of the upper limit of the allowed print count, the multi function printer performs a print job within a range of a new allowed print count.Thus, the multi function printer can reduce print job costs by setting restrictions concerning print jobs and smoothly process print jobs by appropriately changing the restrictions in advance if necessary.
US07715028B2
A card type memory includes a file system for use in an image forming apparatus, outside the file system, an operating system that starts a program installed in the image forming apparatus, an image formation program that executes image formation, and a start program that starts the program are also included in the card type memory outside the file system.
US07715027B2
A communication-associated structure and process utilizing (a) a client device, (b) a communication port, and (c) an imaging device which includes an embedded driver and related configuring information. The process, employing these structural elements, involves communicatively associating the two devices through the communication port, and thereafter, and making use of the embedded driver and related configuring information, equipping the client device with a fully configured installation of that driver. This equipping is accomplished through the specific steps of downloading, from the imaging device to the client device, the embedded driver and related configuring information, and thereafter auto-configuring the downloaded driver with the downloaded configuring information.
US07715026B2
A method, apparatus and system for non-contact measurement of a railway wheel profile are disclosed herein. To measure the wheel profile, a laser having a distance displacement sensor and angular displacement sensor projects a beam of light onto the surface of a railway wheel to measure the wheel profile. In an alternate embodiment, a rail thickness measurement gauge is provided. In another alternate embodiment, a witness groove measurement gauge is provided.
US07715025B2
An optical displacement measuring apparatus includes a light source, a collimate lens, a mirror, and a truncated cone shaped prism, and includes an imaging lens and a pinhole optical device for extracting light parallel to an optical axis of incident light from light returned from an object through the truncated cone shaped prism, and an optical position detector. The truncated cone shaped prism has optical properties of converting only light returned to a truncated conical circumference surface at a fixed angle corresponding to an apex angle into light parallel to an optical axis of incident light. The parallel light is offset from an optical axis of incident light in accordance with a displacement of the object relative to the truncated cone shaped prism. The optical position detector detects an offset amount to measure the displacement of the object.
US07715011B2
Methods are provided for using light reflection patterns to determine various properties of fibrous materials, such as wood. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods for determining a dive angle for grain. Further, the present invention relates to methods for using information in T2 plots, combined with knowledge of the microstructure of a wood sample surface, to find pith location and/or ring curvature.
US07715010B2
A flow-through gas cell and a method for passing a sample gas through a flow-through gas cell for spectroscopy are disclosed. In an embodiment, a flow-through gas cell is disclosed. The gas cell includes a substantially cylindrical interior cavity. The interior cavity comprises an inner surface that is reflective. In addition, the gas cell includes a gas inlet and a gas outlet. In the gas cell, a source is disposed on a side of the gas cell, and a detector is disposed on the same side of the gas cell as the source. The source emits electromagnetic radiation, and the detector detects electromagnetic radiation. The gas cell further includes mirrors disposed on opposing ends of the interior cavity.
US07715009B1
An apparatus for measuring an optical property of a fluid. The apparatus may comprise a light source for projecting a beam of optical energy through the fluid and a reflector positioned opposite the fluid from the light source. The apparatus may also comprise receiver optics defining a receiver aperture. The reflector may be selected to under-fill the receiver aperture by a factor of at least 2.5. According to various embodiments, the apparatus may also comprise a reflector purge nozzle positioned at least partially between the reflector and the fluid. In addition to, or instead of the under-fill factor described above, the reflector may be selected to have a diameter less than a diameter of the reflector purge nozzle by a factor of at least 6.
US07715005B2
An optical sensor comprises at least two planar Bragg gratings defined on a single substrate and arranged to receive light from a light source, each grating having a wavelength filtering response that varies with an effective modal index experienced by light propagating in the Bragg grating and a Bragg wavelength different to those of the other gratings, and at least one sample window overlying one or more of the gratings that can receive a sample of fluid that affects the effective modal index and response of the grating, the gratings filtering the light and outputting the filtered light for spectral analysis, from which the refractive index and related properties of the fluid can be determined. One or more of the gratings can be a reference grating used to compensate for temperature and other disturbances to the sensors. Gratings may have individual sample windows for testing separate fluid samples, or may share a common window so that a single fluid can be tested using several gratings.
US07714988B2
A lithography system is disclosed that provides an array of areas of imaging electromagnetic energy that are directed toward a recording medium. The reversible contrast-enhancement material is disposed between the recording medium and the array of areas of imaging electromagnetic energy.
US07714987B2
An exposure apparatus includes a first optical unit configured to condense light from a light source, a catoptric integrator configured to form plural secondary light sources using light from the first optical unit, the catoptric integrator including plural cylindrical reflection surfaces having the same generatrix direction, an aperture stop arranged perpendicular to the generatrix direction, and a second optical unit configured to superpose light from each secondary light source onto an illumination surface, wherein the catoptric integrator includes plural integrator parts each having plural cylindrical reflection surfaces, and the plural integrator parts are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the generatrix direction and to an arrangement direction of the cylindrical reflection surfaces and located at an incident side of the aperture stop.
US07714986B2
A radiation beam conditioning system comprising at least three optical paths in which the radiation is conditioned.
US07714978B2
A method for cutting a liquid crystal display panel including: forming prearranged cut lines on a pair of attached mother substrates on which a plurality of panel regions have been disposed; and separating the liquid crystal display panel from a dummy glass around the liquid crystal display panel through a transfer unit which includes a body for adsorbing a liquid crystal display panel and transferring it, and a plate attached on an edge of the body, fixing and separating a dummy glass of a mother substrate from the liquid crystal display panel, and moving up and down separately from the body. A dummy removing plate is attached at an edge of a trans hand to remove a dummy glass when a breaking process-finished liquid crystal display panel is extracted, so a damage of the liquid crystal display panel due to the dummy glass can be prevented.
US07714973B2
A liquid crystal display device of the present invention prevents certainly disconnection and electrical short of a wiring pattern of a flexible wiring board, and enhances bond strength between a liquid crystal panel and the flexible wiring board. A liquid crystal panel is provided with substrates, a liquid crystal and external connection terminals formed on one substrate. A flexible wiring board includes a wiring pattern connected with the external connection terminals of the liquid crystal panel. An anisotropic conductive film electrically connects between the external connection terminals of the liquid crystal panel and the wiring pattern of the flexible wiring board. And the anisotropic conductive film is extended from a formation area of the external connection terminals to an outside area along the flexible wiring board.
US07714972B2
An exemplary liquid crystal display (2) includes a liquid crystal panel (20) and a drive integrated circuit (IC) (21). The liquid crystal panel includes a plurality of circuit pads (202), a first positional mark (2031), and a second positional mark (2032). The drive IC includes a plurality of metal bumps (210) respectively electrically connected to the circuit pads of the liquid crystal panel, a first sideline (2131), and a second sideline (2132) oriented at an angle relative to the first sideline. A distance from the first positional mark to a nearest one of the circuit pads is equal to a distance from the first sideline to a nearest one of the metal bumps. A distance from the second positional mark to a nearest one of the circuit pads is equal to a distance from the second sideline to a nearest one of the metal bumps.
US07714970B2
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) device includes a white sub-pixel that has a smaller size than other sub-pixels thereby increasing the brightness and the color purities of the other colors, which improves image quality. An LCD device has the common and pixel electrodes on the same substrate and may be formed of a transparent conductive material to increase the brightness further.
US07714969B2
In a liquid crystal display device having a first planar electrode and a second electrode formed on the first electrode with an insulating film in between, the response time of a liquid crystal is made shorter than that in a related art.A liquid crystal display device includes: a first substrate having a first electrode, an insulating film provided in an upper layer than the first electrode, and a second electrode provided in an upper layer than the insulating film; a second substrate; and a liquid crystal sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate. The liquid crystal display device drives the liquid crystal by generating an electric field by the first electrode and the second electrode. The second electrode has plural slits closed at both ends, the first electrode is a planar electrode superimposed on the plural slits, and, given that the length of the respective slits is Ls, the length Ls of the respective slits satisfies 12 μm≦Ls≦30 μm, more preferably, 12μm≦Ls≦20 μm.
US07714967B2
A multi-domain liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes a first substrate having a plurality of pixel regions each divided into at least first and second domains, a plurality of pixel electrodes each within one of the pixel regions of the first substrate, each of the pixel electrodes having a plurality of protrusions arranged along different directions within the at least first and second domains, a second substrate facing the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer between the first and second substrates.
US07714960B2
Disclosed is liquid crystal display, a substrate for a liquid crystal display and a method for manufacturing the substrate. The substrate comprises a transparent electrode formed on the insulating substrate, and a black matrix formed on the transparent electrode and performing the function also of protrusions. The method comprises the steps of forming a transparent electrode on a substrate, forming a black matrix layer, depositing a photosensitive material on the black matrix layer to form a photosensitive layer, patterning the photosensitive layer, and etching the black matrix layer using the photosensitive layer as a mask. The liquid crystal display comprises, among other things, redundant data lines formed on a same layer as the pixel electrodes; an insulating second substrate provided opposing the first substrate at a predetermined distance; a common electrode formed on the second substrate; and a protrusion pattern formed on the common electrode in at least regions corresponding to the positions of the redundant data lines, the protrusion pattern being made of an insulating material.
US07714959B2
A liquid crystal panel includes a first substrate having pixels defining a pixel region, and pixel electrodes and a common electrode disposed in the pixel region on the first substrate. The pixel electrodes are disposed for the respective pixels. The liquid crystal panel also includes a second substrate opposing the first substrate and a light-shielding film disposed on the second substrate. The light-shielding film includes a frame portion surrounding the pixel region and a middle portion disposed at least in the pixel region. The middle portion is made of a material having a higher specific resistance than the frame portion. The frame portion is made of a material having a higher light-shielding property than the middle portion.
US07714947B2
The present invention relates to the removal of ion (42, 44, 902) contaminations from liquid crystal layers (901) in liquid crystal display devices (900). The ions (42, 44, 902) are removed by means of so called ion pumping, which utilizes the anisotropic viscosity of liquid crystals. The ions (42, 44, 902) are pumped up and down in the liquid crystal layer by means of an alternating electric filed. The alternating electric field simultaneously alters the alignment of directors (41) in the liquid crystal. The viscosity in the liquid crystal is related to the director directions, and the ions (42, 44, 902) are thereby moved in non-closed trajectories (43, 45). The inventive ion pumping can be further improved using an asymmetric or biased alternating electric field.
US07714941B2
A control system includes a controlled apparatus adjusting its operation based on a control signal from an independently cased control apparatus. The controlled apparatus includes an indicator light projector projecting indicator light in an invisible wavelength region so that an exiting direction thereof has a known regularity and change over time, a response signal receiver receiving a response signal in response to light reception from the control apparatus having received the indicator light, a relative position recognizer recognizing a relative position of the control apparatus to its housing based on the response signal, and an adjuster performing predetermined adjustment based on the recognition. The control apparatus includes an indicator light receiver receiving the indicator light, a response signal forming unit forming a response signal for the relative position recognizer, and a response signal transmitter transmitting the response signal toward the response signal receiver of the controlled apparatus.
US07714937B2
Disclosed are a channel equalizer and digital television receiver using the same. The equalizer comprises a channel estimator, a channel distortion compensator and noise canceller. The channel estimator estimates an impulse response of a transmission channel from a received signal. The channel distortion compensator transforms and processes the received signal and the estimated impulse response. The noise canceller predicts and eliminates amplified noise generated during equalization.
US07714931B2
A digital camera module includes an image capture device mounted on a flexible circuit substrate. In one embodiment of the digital camera module, the image capture device is mounted directly (e.g., by an adhesive) on the flexible circuit substrate. A stiffener (e.g., a piece of circuit board material) is mounted to the back of the flexible circuit substrate to support wire bonding of the image capture device onto the flexible circuit substrate and/or to support the mounting of additional components (e.g., a lens housing).
US07714929B2
A method for setting and applying preset white balance data of a digital photographing apparatus and a digital photographing apparatus employing the method are provided. The method for setting the preset white balance of a digital photographing apparatus in order to apply the preset white balance data of the digital photographing apparatus includes setting non-flash white balance data when flash light is not emitted and setting flash white balance data when the flash light is emitted.
US07714927B2
An imaging apparatus includes a focus control unit that sets an image area including eyes, which is included in an input image inputted in the imaging apparatus, as a range finding area for calculation of a subject distance and acquires an evaluation value based on contrast of the range finding area to detect a focus position and a blink detecting unit that detects presence or absence of a blink on the basis of image analysis in the range finding area. The focus control unit inputs blink detection information in the blink detection unit, identifies evaluation value data in a blink period and a non-blink period, and executes processing for detecting a focus position on the basis of only an evaluation value in a period judged as the non-blink period.
US07714926B2
A currently captured image R of an object is displayed nearly at a center portion of a display frame SC on a display screen ST1 that is a shooting mode. When a time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, the currently captured image R is moved rightward. A reproduced image P1 captured before the currently captured image R is displayed on the left thereof. A reproduced image P2 captured before the reproduced image P1 is displayed on the left thereof. The currently captured image R and the reproduced images P1 and P2 are displayed at the same time on a display screen ST2 as a co-existent state of a shooting mode and a reproducing mode. When the time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, only the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed on a display screen ST3 that is a reproducing mode. As a plurality of reproduced images, the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed along a time axis.
US07714924B2
Disclosed herein is a picture display controlling apparatus capable of improving the user's ease of operation upon selecting picture data on a small-size screen of digital cameras or the like. Picture data items held in a data holding unit (310) are sorted into picture groups. The location of the picture data item most recently displayed from any of the picture groups is held as a picture resume pointer in a resume pointer holding unit (320). With an operation input accepted from the user by an operation inputting device (340), a display controlling unit (390) causes a displaying unit (350) to display the picture designated by the operation input while effecting transition from the current display status retained in a status holding unit (330). If the operation input designates transition from a first picture group to a second picture group, the location of the picture data item currently displayed from the first picture group is placed into the resume pointer holding unit (320), and the location of the picture data item to be displayed anew from the second picture group is retrieved from the resume pointer holding unit (320).
US07714921B2
The invention is directed to an operating method for an image-sensing unit and the image-sensing device using the same. The image-sensing unit comprises a photogate, a photodiode assembled with the photogate, and a first switch. One terminal of the first switch is coupled to a reference voltage, and the other terminal thereof is coupled to the photodiode. The operating method comprises: (a)Applying a first voltage to the photogate, (b)Turning on a first switch, (c)Turning off the first switch at a first time, (d)The photodiode being irradiated by a light, (e)Stopping applying a first voltage value to the photogate at a second time, (f)Applying a second voltage to the photogate at a third time, and (g)Maintaining the turn-off state of the first switch until a fourth time. The operating method for an image-sensing unit enables the image-sensing device using the same to enhance the dynamic range thereof.
US07714915B2
A solid-state image device is provided which has a semiconductor substrate, pixels A each containing a photoelectric conversion portion in which at least two PN junction parts are provide in a depth direction of the semiconductor substrate, pixels B each containing a photoelectric conversion portion in which at least one PN junction part is provided, first color filters provided above the pixels A, second color filters provided above the pixels B; and a detection mechanism for detecting a first color signal and a second color signal from the two PN junction parts of each of the pixels A and a third color signal from the PN junction part of each of the pixels B. According to the above solid-state image device, light can be more efficiently used than a color filter separation method, and superior color reproducibility to that of a three-well structure can be realized.
US07714911B2
An image pickup apparatus includes a capturing unit configured to capture a subject; a generating unit configured to generate a request packet to request information of an image stored in an external apparatus, wherein the request packet includes a parameter of the capturing; a request packet transmitting unit configured to transmit the request packet to the external apparatus, a response packet receiving unit configured to receive a response packet corresponding to the request packet, wherein the response packet includes the information of the image stored in the external apparatus; and an image acquiring unit configured to acquire the image from the external apparatus based on the information included in the response packet, wherein the generating unit generates the request packet in response to instructions to allow the capturing unit to perform capturing.
US07714901B2
When converting color input from a color scanner or the like to monochrome output, the measured luminance values are reduced, to help avoid the loss of text or other image portions in the monochrome output. The luminance reduction may be performed based on chrominance values.
US07714886B2
Reference markers are attached to rails and/or other dynamically moving components of railroad tracks, and/or located at fixed and stationary positions adjacent to the track. When images of railway rolling stock are obtained, the reference marker(s) appear in the image. Accordingly, measurements of various aspects and parameters of various components of the railway rolling stock can be obtained at high precision and/or accuracy relative to the railroad track component to which the reference marker is attached and/or relative to the stationary position. The reference markers allow one or more images, obtained at some intervening time interval, to be accurately and precisely aligned relative to the reference marker(s) regardless of the dynamic motion of the railroad track component(s) and/or of the rolling stock that occurred as the images were captured. The reference markers can include optical, thermal or other indicia. The indicia have known dimensions and/or known distances from an image capture device.
US07714882B2
The present invention provides an image forming apparatus including a photoconductor, a charging unit configured to charge the photoconductor, a writing unit configured to form a latent electrostatic image, a toner image forming unit configured to form a toner image by developing the latent electrostatic image, the toner image forming unit having a plurality of developing devices housing a plurality of color developers for each color, a transfer unit configured to transfer the toner image formed on the photoconductor onto a transfer material, and a fixing unit configured to fix the transferred toner image on the transfer material, wherein the time spent by an arbitrary point on the photoconductor in moving from a position in which to face the writing unit to a position in which to face the developing unit is shorter than 50 ms and longer than the transit time of the photoconductor.
US07714879B2
Character/graphic display apparatus, character/graphic display method, program, and recording medium
The size of each of the plurality of characters or graphics is modified while the size of each of the plurality of virtual areas included in the display area is maintained, so that the visual recognizability (ease of reading, or ease of recognition through reading) of characters or graphics is improved without changing the layout thereof. A character/graphic display apparatus of the present invention includes a display device including a display area for displaying a plurality of characters or graphics; and a control section for controlling the display device. The display area includes a plurality of virtual areas. The control section modifies the size of each of the plurality of characters or graphics while maintaining the size of each virtual area included in the display area; and controls the display device to display each of the plurality of characters or graphics having the modified size in the respective virtual area.
US07714867B2
Enables efficient correction of topological consistency of an input three-dimensional shape approximated in a spatial graph. Structured mesh generation systems of the present invention include: a topology determination apparatus for reading shape data from a shape data storage device to determine topological consistency and outputting data for solving a problem about topological consistency; a decomposable shape generation apparatus for reading the data outputted by the topology determination apparatus, changing a constraint condition of an integer programming problem solver to execute a shape correction process and outputting corrected shape data; and a structured mesh generation apparatus for reading the corrected shape data to generate a structured mesh.
US07714864B2
A visual representation of performance data is displayed for a target application. The visual representation includes a visual indicator associated with a visual element of the target application. The visual indicator graphically illustrates a processing cost for the associated visual element with respect to other visual elements in the target application. The processing cost for the visual element includes a relative and/or absolute processing cost. The processing cost may be separated into different categories, such as animation, layout, rendering, and the like.
US07714848B2
A touch sensing apparatus includes: a differential signal source for generating two alternating current signals with same frequency and reverse phase; two conductors connected to a cathode output end and an anode output end of the differential signal source; a sensor for receiving a noise generated by a contact of an object; wherein the sensor and the two conductors form two simulated capacitors that result in offsetting environmental noise; a detector having a first input end and a second input end, the detector upon receiving the noise transferred from the sensor resulting in voltage differences between the first and second input ends thereof, and outputting a signal; and a rectifying circuit for rectifying the alternating current signals generated by the differential signal source and simultaneously generating a noise.
US07714841B2
A wireless mouse includes a rotatable backdoor, a damper and a clasping member. The backdoor has an engaging element. The damper is mounted onto the lower base and includes a rotary member. When the clasping member is engaged with the engaging element, the backdoor is closed. Due to the rotational resistance provided by the damper, the backdoor can be slowly opened.
US07714838B2
An improved handheld electronic device has a case with an elongated cavity formed therein. An audio transducer is in fluid communication with the cavity, and a number of sound openings are formed in the case and are in fluid communication with the cavity and with the atmosphere surrounding the handheld electronic device. The sound openings are generally spaced from a central region of the audio transducer to space the sound openings generally farther from an edge of the case than the audio transducer. The cavity is configured to form a Helmholtz resonator that enables the communication of sound through the cavity between the audio transducer and the sound openings. The spacing of the sound openings from an edge of a case helps a user to form a seal between the case and the user's ear to enable sound from the sound openings to enter the ear and to be perceived by the user. In one embodiment, the sound openings face into a channel formed in the case, which enables the sound openings to be largely hidden from view and enable the sound openings to be spaced an even greater distance from the audio transducer.
US07714836B2
A six degree of freedom force reflecting haptic interface includes three powered axes and three free axes, all of which are tracked so that the position of a user connection element in the work volume can be determined. The interface includes cable drives with polymer composite or metallic cables, automatic cable tensioning devices, and grounded actuator capstans. A nested hub and transfer drive provide a compact, weight balanced interface. User comfort and safety features are also provided.
US07714833B2
A display apparatus which displays an image corresponding to a display signal comprising a plurality of display panels which have, respectively, a plurality of display pixels; and•• a control means which sets at least one display panel among the plurality of display panels in a display state and sets the plurality of display panels other than the at least one display panel in a non-display state, drives the display panel which has been set in the display state based on the display signal for each of a plurality of constant frame periods, and drives the display panel which has been set in the display state based on the display signal and performs a refresh operation of the display panel which has been set in the non-display state only in a specific frame period from the plurality of constant frame periods.
US07714832B2
A display screen is capable of having regions having different switching speeds as well as regions that are not switched. One region having a first switching speed may be for colour mode display and the other region having a second switching speed different from the first may be for monochrome mode display. Other regions may be off and not switched. In alternative versions, three or more switched regions may be established on a display screen. For example, a monochrome region may be nested inside a colour region, in which the colour region may be nested between off regions.
US07714825B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a display device which enables multi-gray scale display without complicating the structure of D/A converter circuit.The measure taken to achieve the object is to use n bit of information among m bit digital video data inputted from external for voltage gray scale method, and (m−n) bit of information for time ratio gray scale.
US07714820B2
A thin film transistor array panel is provided, which includes: a display cell array circuit including a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of thin film transistors, and a plurality of pixel electrodes; a gate driving circuit supplying gate signals to the gate lines; and a signal line connected to the gate driving circuit and including first and second line segments separated from each other and a connection member connected to the first and second line segments through at least a contact hole exposing at least one of the first and the second line segments.
US07714815B2
An organic light emitting display including a demultiplexer on each data line that splits and supplies each data signal to a plurality of data lines, thereby decreasing the number of output lines required and reducing production cost. Further, voltages corresponding to the data signals are sequentially charged in data capacitors, while the charged voltages are supplied to the pixels simultaneously allowing the organic light emitting display to display an image with uniform brightness. Scan periods for supplying the scan signals do not overlap with data periods for supplying the data signals thus yielding a stable image. Also, the capacitance of the data capacitor is set to compensate the voltage drop in the first power source line, thereby displaying an image with uniform brightness.
US07714808B2
A plasma display apparatus comprises a scan electrode and a sustain electrode; a data electrode for intersecting the scan electrode and the sustain electrode; and a pulse controller for controlling to apply a pulse having an opposite phase to the scan electrode and the sustain electrode during a reset period and apply a negative sustain pulse to the scan electrode and the sustain electrode during a sustain period, wherein a distance between the scan electrode and the sustain electrode is longer than that between the sustain electrode and the data electrode. Therefore, a surface discharge mode can be used even when applying negative pulses to the sustain electrode in a reset period, and a size and cost of a plasma display apparatus can be reduced by applying a negative pulse of the same magnitude as a sustain voltage without a separate negative voltage source.
US07714801B2
An electronic device, which comprises: at least two parts foldable in relation to each other, which can be turned into a first position and into a second position around a rotation axis; and a flexible display device, which extends over at least two foldable parts, covering them either entirely or partly. The flexible display device comprises: a folded position, to which the display device settles in the first position, and in which it folds around a first direction, which is parallel in relation to the rotation axis; and a curved position, to which the display device settles in the second position, and in which it curves around a second direction, which is transverse in relation to the rotation axis. A flexible display device can also be used with an electronic device.
US07714790B1
An electrical device configured to install within a wall mounted electrical box includes an antenna bezel frame, an antenna element, and a radio frequency circuitry component. At least a portion of the antenna bezel frame is configured to protrude through an opening in a faceplate. The antenna element is mounted to the antenna bezel frame such that the antenna element is located a distance forward of a plane that contains a front surface of the faceplate when the field configurable electrical device is installed. The radio frequency circuitry component is in electrical communication with the antenna element and is configured to receive a control signal from the antenna element.
US07714788B2
An antenna comprises a ground element, a transmission element, a conductive element and a coupling element. The conductive element connects the ground element and the transmission element. The coupling element extends from the conductive element substantially parallel to the transmission element, wherein the coupling element is located on a first plane, the transmission element is located on a second plane, and the second plane is parallel to the first plane.
US07714783B2
A method and system for analog beamforming for wireless communication is provided. Such analog beamforming involves performing channel sounding to obtain channel sounding information, determining statistical channel information based on the channel sounding information, and determining analog beamforming coefficients based on the statistical channel information, for analog beamforming communication over multiple antennas.
US07714778B2
A system for wirelessly locating mobile station/units (MS) and using resulting location determinations for providing a product or service is disclosed. The system is useful for routing an MS user to a plurality of desired locations, alerting an MS user to a nearby desired product or service based on satisfaction of user criteria, and providing enhanced security and 911 response. In one embodiment, the system responds to MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location processing sites. A plurality of locating technologies including those based on: (1) TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) timing advance; (5) GPS and network assisted GPS, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from low cost base stations can be activated, in various combinations, by system embodiments. MS location difficulties resulting from poor location accuracy/reliability and/or poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.
US07714774B2
A false lock filter circuit for a pulsed altimeter is provided. The circuit includes a low pass filter having a relatively low bandwidth (LBW LPF), a low pass filter having a relatively high bandwidth (HBW LPF) and a false lock controller. The LBW LPF has an input that is coupled to receive a detector output. The HBW LPF has an input that is coupled to receive the detector output. The false lock controller is coupled to receive outputs from the LBW LPF and HBW LPF. Moreover, the false lock controller is configured to sample an output of the HBW LPF and apply a statistical analysis on the samples to determine if a valid target has been detected.
US07714773B2
An RFID tag distance measuring system includes a reader that outputs a predetermined carrier signal to a tag and receives a reflected signal of the carrier signal from the tag. The reader has signal output means for outputting signals at multiple frequencies, which are different from each other, as the carrier signal, a transmitting section that transmits a signal output by the signal output means to the tag, a receiving section that receives reflected signals of the signals at multiple frequencies, which are different from each other, from the tag and estimating means for estimating the distance between the tag and the reader based on the amount of change in phase between the reflected signals received by the receiving section and the carrier signals and the frequencies of the carrier signals. The transmitting section and the receiving section have two pairs of transmit and receive antennas that obtain multiple receive signals in which the strengths of the reflected signals vary differently when the receiving section receives the reflected signals.
US07714770B2
A method and apparatus for dealing with noise spikes in a radar system is provided. The method includes monitoring a noise channel in the radar system. Controlling gain with a control loop based at least in part on the monitored noise channel and ignoring noise spikes detected in the noise channel when controlling gain with the control loop.
US07714766B2
Embodiments of the invention process a radar image arising from a radar antenna, by reading the reflectivity information associated with each pixel forming the radar image, processing the reflectivity information, pixel by pixel, with the aid of a first procedure. The method further includes a second processing of the radar image using a second procedure that includes extracting objects from the radar image, then calculating the extent and the position of each object, with the aid of an angular aperture between two signals. For each part of the radar image processed by the first procedure, corresponding to an extracted object, pixel within the result of the first procedure are replaced by corresponding pixels of the radar image processed by the second procedure, if the reflectivity value associated with the second pixel is greater than the reflectivity value of the first pixel, the parts of the radar image corresponding to zones situated at a distance greater than a given threshold from the radar antenna.
US07714763B2
A circuit including a comparing unit for comparing a target voltage with a stepwise-varying tracking voltage, a counting unit for counting a code according to the comparison result of the comparing unit and a control signal generating unit for generating a signal for controlling a counting operation of the counting unit.
US07714760B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for performing direct quadrature sampling. One method for sampling quadrature baseband components of a bandpass signal includes receiving a bandpass signal, sampling the bandpass signal using a first sampling clock and a second sampling clock, where the first and the second sampling clocks have the same frequency and are offset by a predetermined phase, and aligning the sampled signals temporally to produce in-phase and quadrature samples corresponding to baseband in-phase and quadrature components. An apparatus for directly sampling baseband quadrature components of a bandpass signal is also presented, which includes a first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to receive a bandpass signal, a second ADC configured to receive the bandpass signal, where the second ADC has a clock having a phase offset with respect to clock signal of the first ADC, and an interpolator coupled to the first ADC configured provide coincident samples.
US07714754B2
An entropy decoding module includes a binary arithmetic coding module that generates a bin string by pipeline processing a bit stream, based on a clock signal and based on context model information. A binarization and context modeling module generates a stream of syntax elements and the context model information based on the bin string.
US07714745B2
A dead-reckoning sensory system includes a receiver unit and a transmitter unit in wireless communication with the receiver unit. The transmitter unit is operable to be mounted to a wheel of a vehicle, determine information characterizing the heading and distance traveled by the vehicle, and transmit the information to the receiver unit.
US07714741B2
A method for performing operations and for improving production in a well includes the steps of: providing radio identification devices at known locations in the well, and providing a reader device configured to read the identification devices, and to control the operations responsive to signals from the identification devices. The method also includes the steps of providing a process tool, and transporting the process tool and the reader device through the well. The reader device is programmed to control the process tool upon reception of a response signal from a selected identification device. The method can be used to perform perforating processes, packer setting processes, bridge plug setting processes, logging processes, inspection processes, chemical treating processes, and cleaning processes. In addition, the method can be performed dynamically by controlling the tool as it moves through the well, or statically by stopping the tool at a particular location within the well. A system for performing the method includes the identification devices, the reader device, the process tool, and a computer or controller. In addition the identification devices can be placed in casing collars of the well and can be configured as passive devices or as active devices.
US07714737B1
A warning system for notifying another person when a child is left in a child safety seat. The system recognizes a child in a child safety seat by either a pressure pad or a secured child seat lap belt. The system is activated by the release of the driver's seat belt. Should a child remain in the seat when the driver's seat belt is disengaged, the system alarms notifying the driver of such. The alarm would include a calm audio output such as a lullaby, a song, or a story. The system can be integrated into the OEM features to provide an alert escalation process using a local alert, a vehicle alert, a wireless alert and ultimately a 911 alert.
US07714735B2
A system and method of monitoring a plurality of electrical assets comprise an electricity distribution infrastructure, including a plurality of electrical asset sensors coupled to the electrical assets for monitoring an operating condition of the electrical assets as well as any fault conditions. The sensors may include a current transformer for obtaining a current waveform, a GPS receiver for applying a synchronized time-stamp to the waveform data, and a mesh network radio for transmitting the time-stamped waveform data. Data from the plurality of sensors may be encrypted and transmitted over a mesh network to one or more gateways that are in communication with a central command processor. In response to an abnormal operating condition of any electrical asset, the central command processor may determine a probable fault location, a probable fault type, and a fault response.
US07714734B1
An extended smoke alarm system and related methods are disclosed. In particular, embodiments of an extended smoke alarm system having wireless-signal-send-and-receive functionalities wherein the system includes one or more flashlights having at least wireless-signal-receiving functionality are detailed. Related methods for system use are also disclosed.
US07714732B2
An optical switch having a housing, a light source and a light detector. The light source and light detector are located remote from the housing, The light source is connected to the housing with a first light guide, and the light detector is connected to the housing with a second light guide. The first and second light guide cables have distal ends positioned through the housing and are optically aligned but separated by a gap. The switch includes a device to interrupt a light beam that is usually adapted to removably occupy the gap. The switch may be embodied in a float.
US07714730B2
There is disclosed a flotation device such as a life vest or inflatable raft for keeping a user afloat when in water, the flotation device comprising a light source attached to the flotation device, a water activated switch, wherein the light source is illuminated when the water activated switch is submersed in the water, and a control panel mounted to an outer surface of the flotation device and comprised of at least one user activated switch, wherein the light source is extinguished when the user activated switch is depressed, the control panel having instructions printed thereon.
US07714724B2
A radio frequency identification device support (2) featuring an antenna (12) screen-printed on a support (20) and a chip (10) connected to the connection terminals (17 and 19) of the antenna. According to a main characteristic of the invention, a thermoplastic layer (22) and a top layer of synthetic paper (24) are laminated on the antenna support (20) so that the antenna and the chip are trapped in the thermoplastic and the three layers (20, 22, and 24) cannot be separated and so that the device is resistant to water and humid environments.
US07714722B2
An apparatus, a system and a method secure and/or display a device on a fixture. Additionally, the apparatus, the system and the method attach and/or secure the device and/or a detachable means of the device to the fixture. A housing and/or a cable connects the device and/or the detachable means of the device to an alarm box and/or an alarm board. The housing has an optical sensor and/or a sensor board with a micro-controller and/or a resistor in communication with the micro-controller. The alarm box and/or the alarm board is in communication with an optical sensor and/or the micro-controller via a cable. A power source is in communication with the micro-controller via the cable to control a voltage which delivers from the power source to the device. Furthermore, the cable extends outward with respect to the fixture and/or a retracting means which allows the device and/or the detachable element of the device to be manipulated and/or to be examined by a customer and/or a user.
US07714706B2
The invention relates to the coupling of a sensor element to a transponder, the connection of said sensor element to the transponder being achieved by capacitive or inductive coupling. This enables any separation layer that may lie between the sensor element and the transponder to be retained, allowing the invention to be advantageously used in gas and liquid-tight containers, such as tires. In addition, electrically non-conductive materials of the object to be measured can be used as a dielectric for the capacitive coupling and electrically conductive parts can form part of a conductor loop for the inductive coupling.
US07714703B2
When a radio communication module for electronic license plates is installed on a license plate, the following procedure is taken: an attaching portion and an enclosure integrated with it are fixed on a license plate with a bolt. Further, a protruded portion fixed on the attaching portion is engaged into the license plate, and the rotation of the radio communication module for electronic license plates on the bolt is thereby suppressed.
US07714697B2
Methods, systems and apparatuses for RFID readers forming a reader network are described. In an aspect of the present invention, a plurality of RFID readers are configured to interrogate tags. Furthermore, the readers are configured to communicate with one another by transferring a token, represented by a signal. Possession of the token enables the reader to access a RF communications medium. Readers can be arranged in a ring configuration, and interconnected via wired links. A secondary token may circulate in the ring in addition to the primary token, to ensure redundancy in the system. A reader waits for a predetermined time interval before accessing the RF communications medium.
US07714696B2
An apparatus is arranged for providing drive-off security in a motor vehicle environment through blocking one or more vehicle engine system sub-functions, such blocking is triggered by detecting an unauthorized system activation. A particular such sub-function facility comprises an on-off control circuit is used to control the functionality of a fuel pump arrangement.
US07714694B2
A compound resistor is used to compensate for trimming induced shift in temperature coefficient of resistance of a trimmable resistor. The compound resistor is composed of a first and second portion, at least one of the two portions being thermally trimmable, and the parameters for the first and second portion are selected such that the trimming induced shift can be minimized on an overall resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance of the compound resistors by trimming the trimmable resistor. The invention also allows for exploring trimming range available via true thermal trimming without actually trimming out resistor's value of a resistor. The invention also allows design of thermal isolation to minimize or optimize resistance variation of the overall compound resistance.
US07714683B2
An inductance device comprises a magnetic core, a coil a conductor and a dielectric member. The coil is made of turns of insulated conductive wire. The conductor is distinct from the coil and is insulated from the magnetic core. The dielectric member is disposed between the conductor and the coil. The dielectric member, the conductor and the coil constitute a capacitor. The inductance device is used in, for example, a filter device or a noise filter.
US07714681B2
A phase shifter device having two bandwidth modes arranged for altering the electrical length of a signal path between at least two different values, which device is adapted for guiding a signal through at least one of at least a first signal path having a first phase and amplitude filter characteristics for varying frequency of the signal, and a second signal path, having a second phase and amplitude filter characteristics for varying frequency of the signal. At least one of said first and second phase and amplitude filter characteristics is realized by means of an all-pass filter.
US07714680B2
A ceramic monoblock filter including a direct signal path defined by at least four spaced-apart through-hole resonators in combination with ground bars extending between the through-hole resonators and a separate quadruplet cross-coupling alternate signal path defined by two conductive pads located adjacent the first and fourth ones of the through-hole resonators respectively and a separate external bridge member which interconnects and couples the two pads. The bridge member is preferably made of a material having a lower dielectric constant than the block of the filter. In one embodiment, the filter is a monoblock duplexer filter comprising respective transmit and receive sections each including at least four of the through-hole resonators, the ground bars, the two pads, and the bridge member. In the duplexer embodiment, additional through-hole resonators may define shunt zeros.
US07714675B2
Methods and systems for modulating an input electrical signal are disclosed and may comprise modulating input signals utilizing a digital Class-D modulator and generating a digital output signal that is proportional to the input signals. The digital Class-D modulator may be comprised of four stages. To avoid integrator saturation, the output of at least one integrator stage may be limited by utilizing limiters in integrator feedback loops. The digital Class-D modulator utilizes a pulse width modulation technique. For increased signal to noise ratio (SNR) at a desired output power, the magnitude of a triangular waveform oscillator voltage may be greater than the magnitude of an integrated input signal. The digital output signal may be fed back to an input of at least one of the four stages in the digital Class-D modulator. The triangular waveform oscillator frequency may be adjusted to match desired output frequency.
US07714674B2
The integrated circuit package includes a processing core for operating on a set of instructions to carry out predefined processes. A real time clock circuit provides a system clock for the processing core. The real time clock further comprises an internal oscillator that generates the system clock for the integrated circuit package. The internal oscillator has a factory calibrated bias current. An internal oscillator control register controls the operation of the internal oscillator responsive to control bits of the programmable load capacitor array controlled by the processing core.
US07714670B1
An integrated circuit comprises an oscillator that generates an oscillator signal. A first counter generates a first count based on transitions of the oscillator signal. A first circuit generates a match signal based on the first count and a reference count. A second counter generates a second count that is initialized at a starting count and adjusts the second count based on transitions of a reference clock signal. An output circuit outputs an oscillator speed based on the second count and the match signal. The oscillator speed is defined by a range that is independent of a frequency of the reference clock signal.
US07714669B2
The present disclosure relates to circuits and methods for accelerating a new frequency lock-in process of a digital phase-locked loop.
US07714666B2
A phase locked loop frequency synthesizer including a phase locked loop, a frequency regenerator and a modulation processor, resistant to distortion induced by the frequency regenerator and conforming to transmission specifications. The phase locked loop comprises a detector generating a phase detection signal based on phase difference between a reference signal and a feedback signal, a loop filter, a voltage control oscillator generating a first output modulation signal and a frequency dividing unit varying a division factor based on a processed input modulation signal and dividing the frequency of the first output modulation signal by a division factor to generate the feedback signal. The frequency regenerator generates a second output modulation signal with a frequency range not overlapping an output frequency range of the voltage control oscillator. The modulation processor generates the processed input modulation signal to adjust the division factor of the frequency dividing unit and compensating for distortion induced by the frequency regenerator.
US07714664B2
A cascode circuit for a high-gain or high-output millimeter-wave device that operates with stability. The cascode circuit including two cascode-connected transistors includes: a first high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) including a source that is grounded; a second HEMT including a source connected to a drain of the first HEMT; a reflection gain restricting resistance connected to the gate of the second HEMT, for restricting reflection gain; and an open stub connected to a side of the reflection gain restricting resistance which is opposite the side connected to the second HEMT, for short-circuiting high-frequency signals at a predetermined frequency and nearby frequencies.
US07714660B2
A signal amplifying circuit and associated methods and apparatuses, the circuit comprising: a signal path extending from an input terminal to an output terminal, a gain controller arranged to control the gain applied along the signal path in response to a control signal; an output stage within the signal path for generating the output signal, the output stage having a gain that is substantially independent of its supply voltage, and a variable voltage power supply comprising a charge pump for providing positive and negative output voltages, the charge pump comprising a network of switches that is operable in a number of different states and a controller for operating the switches in a sequence of the states so as to generate positive and negative output voltages together spanning a voltage approximately equal to the input voltage.
US07714658B1
Method for a variable-gain amplifier (VGA). A plurality of attenuator nodes is serially connected via a first set of resistors between adjacent attenuator nodes to form an attenuator ladder and coupled to an AC input of the variable-gain amplifier. Each of the attenuator nodes includes a transistor and an RC circuitry that couples drain, gate, and source terminals of the transistor to a control signal for the attenuator node. The VGA also includes an amplifier that has an output produced based on an input to the amplifier connected to a plurality of coupled terminals, each of which is respectively from one of the plurality of attenuator nodes. The RC circuitry for each attenuator node is configured to pass a control signal to the gate terminal of the transistor of the attenuator node in accordance with a first time scale and permit the gate terminal to float in accordance with a second time scale so as to yield a reduction of distortion contributed by the transistor while the transistor is transitioning between on and off states.
US07714657B2
An amplifier includes an amplifier module coupled to an input node, and an attenuating module. The attenuating module includes an attenuation resistor coupled to the input node, and an impedance compensation module coupled to the input node. The impedance compensation module compensates an input impedance when an input RF signal is attenuated by the attenuating module.
US07714655B2
A differential amplifier with surge protection is described. The differential amplifier includes a first output driver device, a second output driver device, a first replica device, a second replica device, a current comparator, and a clamp circuit. The first replica device is configured to be a replica of the first output driver device. The second replica device is configured to be a replica of the second output driver device. The current comparator is configured to generate a threshold current, and to compare the threshold current to a first current through the first replica device and a second current through the second replica device. The clamp circuit is configured to limit a third current through the first output driver device and a fourth current through the second output driver device if the current comparator determines that the threshold current is greater than the first current or the second current.
US07714653B2
A differential amplifier includes: a constant current source; first and second field effect transistors whose respective gates are imparted with positive-phase and negative-phase input signals and whose sources commonly connected to each other, the constant current source being connected to a common node of the sources; first and second loads serving as current paths for respective drain currents of the first and second field effect transistors; an amplifying unit which outputs positive-phase and negative-phase output signals which are amplified in response to the respective drain voltages of the first and second field effect transistors; and a current path generator which generates first and second current paths parallel to the respective first and second field effect transistors for a predetermined period of time at the time of start-up of the differential amplifier.
US07714643B1
Apparatus and methods tune analog filters that are parts of systems. When an analog filter is inserted into a system, the analog filter can be difficult to tune because of the difficulty in observing the analog filter's characteristics without being interfered by other circuits in the system. In one embodiment, analog filters are bypassed, and a response is determined. To this response, a time-invariant digital filter is applied to generate a reference response, such as an ideal response. The analog filters are then enabled and adjusted so that the difference between the response of the system and the reference response is minimized. This technique can be applied to arbitrary-order analog filters and can be used even when other circuits affect the observed filter response.
US07714633B2
By using a stacked gate transistor including a floating gate in a limiter, a threshold voltage Vth of the stacked gate transistor can be corrected by controlling the amount of charge accumulated in the floating gate of the stacked gate transistor even in the case where there are variations in the threshold voltage Vth of the stacked gate transistor.
US07714628B2
A flip-flop circuit is provided with an improved robustness to radiation induced soft errors. The flip-flop cell comprises the following elements. A transfer unit for receiving at least one data signal and at least one clock signal, a storage unit coupled to the transfer unit and a buffer unit coupled to the storage unit. The transfer unit includes a plurality of input nodes adapted to receive said at least one data signal and said at least one clock signal; a first output node for providing a sampled data signal in response to said at least one clock signal and said at least one data signal; and a second output node for providing a sampled inverse data signal, the sampled inverse data signal provided in response to said at least one clock signal and said at least one data signal. The storage unit comprises a first and a second storage nodes configured to receive and store the sampled data signal and the sampled inverse data signal. The storage unit comprises drive transistors configured to selectively couple one of the first and second storage nodes to ground; load transistors configured to selectively couple the other one of the first and second storage nodes to a power supply; and at least one stabilizer transistor configured to provide a corresponding redundant storage node and limit feedback between the first and second storage nodes, the redundant storage node being capable of restoring the first or second storage nodes in case of a soft error. The buffer unit provides an output sampled data signal as received from the storage unit.
US07714625B2
A system and method for reducing the re-lock time of a phase locked loop (PLL) system, the system including a circuit having a capture control voltage module, a force control voltage module, a loop filter module, and a timer. The capture control voltage module compares the control voltage (voltage input of VCO) with predefined voltage levels during the lock time of the PLL and simultaneously stores the voltage level closest to the control voltage. The stored voltage becomes stable after the PLL has been locked. After power-down is applied and then released, the force control voltage module forces the stored control voltage on the loop filter in a very short time, thereby reducing the re-lock time of the PLL. The loop filter module stabilizes the control voltage. The timer then turns off the force control voltage module by sending a timeout signal after a pre-defined number of clock cycles.
US07714617B2
Processor-based systems, memories, signal driver circuits, and methods of generating an output signal are disclosed. One such signal driver circuit includes a signal driver configured to generate an output signal at an output node in response to an input signal and a transistor coupled to the signal driver that is configured to couple and decouple the output node and the voltage supply according to a control signal. A voltage comparator circuit coupled to the output node and the transistor is configured to generate the control signal to control coupling and decoupling of the output node and the voltage supply through the transistor based on a voltage of the output signal relative to the reference voltage.
US07714609B1
A method for reducing power consumption for a programmable logic device (PLD) is provided. In the method, configuration cells associated with used logic portions of the PLD are powered. A programmable power signal preventing source to drain leakage is provided to an inverter of a configuration random access memory (CRAM) cell associated with an unused logic portion of the PLD. The programmable power signal deactivates at least a portion of a configuration cell associated with the unused logic portion. That is, the programmable power signal eliminates the source to drain leakage as the power provided to the configuration cell is at ground. In one embodiment, the programmable power signal is provided to both inverters of a cross coupled pair of inverters rather than a single one of the cross-coupled pair of inverters. A programmable logic device capable of minimizing standby power consumption is also included.
US07714605B2
A quantum logic gate is formed from multiple qubits coupled to a common resonator, wherein quantum states in the qubits are transferred to the resonator by transitioning a classical control parameter between control points at a selected one of slow and fast transition speeds, relative to the characteristic energy of the coupling, whereby a slow transition speed exchanges energy states of a qubit and the resonator, and a fast transition speed preserves the energy states of a qubit and the resonator.
US07714597B2
Provided is a support member assembly suitable for use in a contact probe head comprising a support member formed with a plurality of holder holes for supporting conductive contact members in a mutually parallel relationship, and a reinforcing member integrally formed with the support member and extending in a part of the support member devoid of any holder holes. The reinforcing member increases the overall mechanical strength of the support member assembly, and prevents the thermal deformation of the support member. Because the holder holes are formed in the support member made of material suitable for forming holes, such as plastic material and ceramic material, the holder holes can be formed at high precision and at low cost.
US07714593B2
A sensor arrangement for a sensor arrangement remotely readable by radio frequencies. The sensor arrangement includes an LC resonator that includes a capacitor and a coil, and a sensor element coupled to the LC resonator whose properties change as a function of a measurable quantity. A sensor element according to the invention does not form a direct galvanic contact with the LC resonator, rather the coupling is implemented capacitively or inductively.
US07714590B2
A method is provided for testing a built-in component including multiple terminals in a multi-layered circuit board. At least one signal pad is provided on a top surface of the multi-layered circuit board for signal transmission. Each of the signal pads are electrically connected to one of the multiple terminals. At least one test pad is provided on the top surface of the multi-layered circuit board and each of the test pads is electrically connected to one of the multiple terminals. Then, detection occurs regarding one of the signal pads and one of the test pads that are electrically connected to a same one of the multiple terminals in order to determine a connection status of an electric path extending from the one signal pad through the same one terminal to the one test pad.
US07714584B2
The present invention provides a gravity gradiometer for measuring components of the gravity gradient tensor. The gravity gradiometer includes at least one sensor mass for movement in response to a gravity gradient and a sensor and actuator unit for generating an electrical signal in response to the movement of the at least one sensor mass and for influencing the movement of the at least one sensor mass. The gravity gradiometer also includes an electronic circuit for simulating an impedance. The electrical circuit is arranged for amplifying the electrical signal received from the sensor and actuator unit and for directing an actuating signal to the sensor and actuator unit. The electronic circuit includes a differential amplifiers having first and second amplifier input terminals and an amplifier output terminal and impedances Z1, Z2, Z3, at least one of the impedances have an imaginary impedance component.
US07714583B2
A power supply having an input, wherein the power supply includes a multi-winding transformer having an input and a plurality of outputs, and a plurality of rectifiers to provide a plurality of DC output voltages, wherein each rectifier is coupled to an output of the multi-winding transformer. The power supply further includes a regulator circuit coupled between the transformer input and one of the transformer outputs, and configured to regulate an input voltage to the multi-winding transformer to minimize a variance of each rectifier DC output voltage.
US07714581B2
An RF coil assembly for an MRI system includes a resonator formed by a cylindrical shield and pairs of opposing conductive legs disposed symmetrically around a central axis and extending the axial length of the shield. Drive circuitry for each pair of opposing conductive legs includes a current balun that maintains substantially equal and opposite currents in the two conductive legs. Terminal susceptance elements are used to maintain maximum currents and minimum voltage at the midpoints of the conductive legs. Multinuclear measurements can be made simultaneously at different Larmor frequencies.
US07714572B2
A method of detecting a characteristic (such as thickness) of first and second films formed on a substrate includes supplying a sensor coil with a first alternating current having a first frequency when detecting the first film, and a second alternating current having a second frequency when detecting the second film. An eddy current is thereby generated in the first film or the second film. An impedance across the sensor coil is measured, and the characteristic of any one of the first film and the second film is detected based on the impedance.
US07714568B2
A power supply is for receiving an AC voltage and outputting a DC voltage and an output current to an electronic device. The power supply includes an input module, an output module, a measuring interface, a measuring interface, and a switch module. The input module is for receiving the AC voltage. The output module is for outputting the DC voltage and the output current to the electronic device. The measuring interface is for electrically contacting with a part of the electronic device. The measuring module is for measuring the DC voltage, the output current, and a voltage and a current of the part of the electronic device. The switch module is for choosing one of the output module and the measuring interface to be electrically connected to the measuring module.
US07714560B2
In a control circuit which turns on/off the switching device elements included in a synchronous rectifier step-down switching regulator, a hysteresis comparator compares the detection voltage that corresponds to the output voltage of the step-down switching regulator with a first threshold voltage and a second threshold voltage. A light-load detection circuit detects whether or not a load is in the light-load state. A driver circuit turns on/off the switching device elements according to the pulse signal output from the hysteresis comparator. Upon the light-load detection circuit detecting the light-load state, the hysteresis comparator shifts the second threshold voltage toward the higher-voltage side by a predetermined voltage difference.
US07714554B2
This invention relates to control techniques and controllers for resonant discontinuous forward power converters (RDFCs).A method of controlling a resonant discontinuous forward converter (RDFC), said converter including a transformer with primary and secondary matched polarity windings and a switch to, in operation, cyclically switch DC power to said primary winding of said transformer, said converter further having a DC output coupled to said secondary winding of said converter, said method comprising: sensing a transformer signal, said transformer signal representing a voltage across a winding of said transformer or a resonant current in a winding of said transformer; calculating a resonance period of said RDFC from said sensed transformer signal; and controlling an off duration of said switch in response to said calculated resonance period such that a sub-harmonic oscillation in said resonant voltage across said primary winding is reduced.
US07714531B2
A power system including an electrochemical device, a load device, a power generator, and a charge/discharge controller of the electrochemical device. The electrochemical device includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a liquid electrolyte or a solid electrolyte. The charge/discharge curve of the electrochemical device has at least one step, and a given step of the at least one step has an inflection point. A voltage corresponding to the inflection point or a point adjacent to the inflection point is set as a threshold value, and the charge/discharge controller is configured to control charge/discharge of the electrochemical device such that the voltage of the electrochemical device approaches the threshold value.
US07714514B1
An active matrix organic LED display having a matrix of multiple light emitting pixels and electronic drive circuitry for selectively addressing the pixels, each pixel containing an organic LED. The electronic drive circuitry includes row scan electrodes and column data electrodes that interconnect the matrix of pixels. The circuitry also includes a MEMS switching device and a memory capacitor for each pixel, the MEMS switching device connecting the memory capacitor to a column data electrode during addressing of a pixel and connecting the memory capacitor to the organic LED of each pixel during light emission.
US07714513B2
We describe an ultra-small structure that produces visible light of varying frequency, from a single metallic layer. In one example, a row of metallic posts are etched or plated on a substrate according to a particular geometry. When a charged particle beam passed close by the row of posts, the posts and cavities between them cooperate to resonate and produce radiation in the visible spectrum (or even higher). A plurality of such rows of different geometries can be etched or plated from a single metal layer such that the charged particle beam will yield different visible light frequencies (i.e., different colors) using different ones of the rows.
US07714488B2
A plasma jet spark plug provides improved ignitability and durability by forming a part of a spark discharge gap outside the electric discharge space which generates plasma. An ignition system for the plasma jet spark plug is also disclosed. The plasma jet spark plug includes a center electrode, an insulator defining an axial bore which partially surrounds the center electrode, a cavity surrounded by an inner circumferential face of the axial bore which extends from an opening portion of a front end of the axial bore of the insulator and wherein a front end face of the center electrode is formed. A ground electrode is bent towards a front end portion of the insulator.
US07714484B2
A piezoelectric resonator includes a piezoelectric resonator element having a base portion and a resonating arm extending from the base portion, a package including a bottom to which the piezoelectric resonator element is fixed and a frame wall that surrounds the bottom and having an opening above the bottom, and a lid for closing the opening of the package. In this piezoelectric resonator, the lid includes a main body having a through-hole formed therein, a flange formed to surround a periphery of the main body and to be thinner than the main body, and an optically transparent member located in the through-hole. The flange has a joining portion with an upper end surface of the frame wall, and the main body projects in a direction from the flange to the bottom in a thickness direction. Also, the through-hole is at a position displaced in a first direction approaching a first end of the main body from a center of the main body. Also, the flange is joined with the frame wall such that a clearance between the first end and the joining portion of the flange nearest to the first end is larger than a clearance between a second end in a second direction opposite to the first direction of the main body and the joining portion of the flange nearest to the second end.
US07714476B2
A core comprises a plurality of core split members having yoke portions and tooth portions and arranged in such a circumferential shape that the yoke portions contact with each other while the tooth portions being directed inward. The core further comprises a ring contacting with the yoke portions, and stoppers mounted on the outer face sides of the yoke portions for fixing the ring on the yoke portions. The yoke portions and the ring are formed in corrugated shape to mesh with each other, and the stoppers are formed with projections that engage with the inner side of the ring. This structure provides both the rotating electrical machine core having the core split members arranged in the circumferential shape and fastened to each other while preventing occurrence of a stress and a positional displacement between the core split members, and a rotating electrical machine.
US07714472B2
A small DC motor includes a motor frame having a cylindrical portion, the cylindrical portion having a constant thickness and having a cross section in a shape that comprises four sides and connecting portions, each of the connecting portions connecting adjacent two of the four sides and being located inward from a corresponding corner in a quadrangle comprising the four sides; and a magnet having a circumferential surface on an inside thereof and having conformable contact with the motor frame on an outside thereof.
US07714445B2
The invention provides a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) with an electrostatic discharge (ESD) region. The upper portion of the ESD plug is metal, and the lower portion of the ESD plug is polysilicon. This structure may improve the mechanical strength of the ESD region and enhance thermal conductivity from electrostatic discharging. In addition, the contact area between the ESD plugs and the substrate can be reduced without increasing aspect ratio of the ESD plugs. The described structure is completed by a low critical dimension controlled patterned photoresist, such that the processes and equipments are substantially maintained without changing by a wide margin.
US07714441B2
A microelectronic topography includes a dielectric layer (DL) with a surface higher than an adjacent bulk metal feature (BMF) and further includes a barrier layer (BL) upon the BMF and extending higher than the DL. Another microelectronic topography includes a BL with a metal-oxide layer having a metal element concentration which is disproportionate relative to concentrations of the element within metal alloy layers on either side of the metal-oxide layer. A method includes forming a BL upon a BMF such that portions of a first DL adjacent to the BMF are exposed, selectively depositing a second DL upon the BL, cleaning the topography thereafter, and blanket depositing a third DL upon the cleaned topography. Another method includes polishing a microelectronic topography such that a metallization layer is coplanar with a DL and further includes spraying a deionized water based fluid upon the polished topography to remove debris from the DL.
US07714440B2
Provided is a metal interconnection structure of a semiconductor device, including a first metal film pattern disposed on an upper part of an insulation film of a semiconductor substrate; an intermetallic dielectric film having a metal contact plug in which a barrier layer, a metal film for contact plug and a second metal film are sequentially disposed, on the first metal film pattern; and a second metal film pattern disposed on the metal contact plug and intermetallic dielectric film and connected to the metal contact plug.
US07714436B2
An electronic device includes a semiconductor device and a wiring substrate having a wiring pattern. The semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor chip having an electrode; a convex-shaped resin protrusion provided on a surface of the semiconductor chip, the surface having the electrode; and wiring having a plurality of electrical coupling sections which are aligned on the resin protrusion and electrically coupled to the electrode. The semiconductor device is mounted to the wiring substrate so that the electrical coupling sections and the wiring pattern are brought into contact and electrically coupled with each other. The plurality of electrical coupling sections brought into contact with the wiring pattern include curved or bent shapes projecting in a longitudinal direction of the resin protrusion.
US07714434B2
A lead frame type of semiconductor apparatus includes a die pad on which a semiconductor chip is mounted; ground terminals which are to be grounded; power supply terminals which are connected to a power supply; inner leads connected to the ground terminals and power supply terminals, in which a pair of adjacent inner leads for power supply terminal and ground terminal are extended inwardly; a chip capacitor mounting pad which is provided at inner ends of the extended inner leads; and a chip capacitor which is mounted on the chip capacitor mounting pad so that a decoupling capacitor is provided.
US07714430B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a semiconductor package with lossy material inserts. The lossy material inserts may reduce electronic noise such as package resonance. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07714427B2
Integrate circuit die terminal arrangements and configurations for mounting an integrate circuit die on a package substrate to reduce package transmission paths. In one embodiment, terminals for signals sensitive to trace length outside a die are arranged at the corners of the die. The die is mounted on a package substrate in an angle with respect to a package substrate to point the corners of the die at the edges of the package substrate to reduce trace length outside the die. The center of the die may or may not coincide with the center of the substrate. In one embodiment, when compare to a centered, non-rotated die mounting position, mounting a die with corners pointing at the edges of the package substrate does not cause significant differences in substrate warpage.
US07714425B2
A semiconductor device includes a second semiconductor package, which includes a substrate and at least one semiconductor package. The substrate includes a terminal group formed on a surface thereof. At least one first semiconductor package is stacked on the substrate, and includes a plurality of flexible substrates, each of which includes a wiring group on a surface thereof and each of which is bending-deformable. At least one first semiconductor package includes a plurality of semiconductor elements mounted on a plurality of flexible substrates. Electric conduction through the second semiconductor package is established by connecting the wiring group on each of a plurality of flexible substrates to the terminal group on the substrate. Further, at least one terminal of the terminal group on the substrate is electrically connected to all of the plurality of semiconductor elements on at least one first semiconductor package, and at least one other terminal of the terminal group is electrically connected only to particular semiconductor elements of the plurality of semiconductor elements.
US07714423B2
A chip package for a computer system includes a substrate having a first region and a second region on a first surface, at least one die coupled to the first region on the first surface of the substrate and a main logic board coupled to the second region on the first surface of the substrate. By coupling the die and the main logic board on the first surface of the substrate, an overall thickness of the chip package is reduced.
US07714422B2
An electronic module includes a component housing and at least one semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip is arranged on a circuit carrier in the component housing. The semiconductor chip is connected to an upper face of the circuit carrier via connection elements. In this case, the semiconductor chip, the connection elements and, partially, the circuit carrier are embedded in a plastic housing compound. A metal plate which is structured into lead interconnects and contact connecting pads is provided on the upper face of the component housing.
US07714413B2
A seal ring is provided between a region where a circuit is formed on a semiconductor substrate and a dicing region. The seal ring has a portion where sealing layers of which the cross sectional form is in T-shape are layered and a portion where sealing layers of which the cross sectional form is rectangular are layered.
US07714412B2
The present invention provides a varactor that has increased tunability and a high quality factor Q as well as a method of fabricating the varactor. The method of the present invention can be integrated into a conventional CMOS processing scheme or into a conventional BiCMOS processing scheme. The method includes providing a structure that includes a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type and optionally a subcollector or isolation well (i.e., doped region) of a second conductivity type located below an upper region of the substrate, the first conductivity type is different from said second conductivity type. Next, a plurality of isolation regions are formed in the upper region of the substrate and then a well region is formed in the upper region of the substrate. In some cases, the doped region is formed at this point of the inventive process. The well region includes outer well regions of the second conductivity type and an inner well region of the first conductivity type. Each well of said well region is separated at an upper surface by an isolation region. A field effect transistor having at least a gate conductor of the first conductivity type is then formed above the inner well region.
US07714408B2
An object is to provide a semiconductor device mounted with memory which can be driven in the ranges of a current value and a voltage value which can be generated from a wireless signal. Another object is to provide write-once read-many memory to which data can be written anytime after manufacture of a semiconductor device. An antenna, antifuse-type ROM, and a driver circuit are formed over an insulating substrate. Of a pair of electrodes included in the antifuse-type ROM, the other of the pair of the electrodes is also formed through the same step and of the same material as a source electrode and a drain electrode of a transistor included in the driver circuit.
US07714405B2
A layered device including a substrate; an adhering layer thereon. An electrical conducting layer such as copper is deposited on the adhering layer and then a barrier layer of an amorphous oxide of TiAl followed by a high dielectric layer are deposited to form one or more of an electrical device such as a capacitor or a transistor or MEMS and/or a magnetic device.
US07714404B2
A solid-state imaging device is provided and includes: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a two-dimensional array in a surface portion of the semiconductor substrate; a conductive light shielding film above the surface portion, the conductive light shielding film having openings at a light-incident side of the respective photoelectric conversion elements; a connection pad formed in the semiconductor substrate and to be applied with a voltage from outside the solid-state imaging device; and a wiring that connects the connection pad and the conductive light shielding film, wherein the wiring has a wiring structure having a time constant smaller than that of one linear wiring.
US07714403B2
An image sensor using a back-illuminated photodiode and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. According to the present invention, since a surface of the back-illuminated photodiode can be stably treated, the back-illuminated photodiode can be formed to have a low dark current, a constant sensitivity of blue light for all photodiodes, and high sensitivity. In addition, it is possible to manufacture an image sensor with high density by employing a three dimensional structure in which a photodiode and a logic circuit are separately formed on different substrates.
US07714398B2
A system for measuring an analyte of interest, particularly carbon dioxide, dissolved in a fluid media of a patient including a nanoelectronic sensor and a measurement instrument in communication with the sensor and configured to receive at least a signal from the sensor indicative of a response of the sensor to at least the analyte of interest.
US07714394B2
A Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) device is provided. The CMOS device includes an isolation layer provided in a semiconductor substrate to define first and second active regions. First and second gate patterns are disposed to cross over the first and second active regions, respectively. A first elevated source region and a first elevated drain region are disposed at both sides of the first gate pattern respectively, and a second elevated source region and a second elevated drain region are disposed at both sides of the second gate pattern respectively. The first elevated source/drain regions are provided on the first active region, and the second elevated source/drain regions are provided on the second active region. A first gate spacer is provided between the first gate pattern and the first elevated source/drain regions. A second gate spacer is provided to cover edges of the second elevated source/drain regions adjacent to the second gate pattern and an upper sidewall of the second gate pattern. Methods of fabricating the CMOS device is also provided.
US07714388B2
This discloser concerns a semiconductor device including an insulation layer; a FIN-type semiconductor layer provided on the insulation layer and including a floating body region in an electrically floating state and including a source region and a drain region at both sides of the floating body region; gate insulation films provided on both side surfaces of the floating body region; gate electrodes provided on both side surfaces of the floating body region via the gate insulation films; and a source electrode and a drain electrode respectively contacting with the upper surface of the source region and the drain region, wherein in the cross section of the FIN-type semiconductor layer in parallel with the surface of the insulation layer, a thickness of the FIN-type semiconductor layer in the floating body region is smaller than a thickness of the FIN-type semiconductor layer in the source and the drain regions.
US07714385B2
A semiconductor device, including a first semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type having a plurality of trenches formed therein. A second semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type composed of an epitaxial layer is buried in the trenches in the first semiconductor layer. The trench has surface orientations including a surface orientation of a sidewall at an upper stage made slower in epitaxial growth speed than a surface orientation of a sidewall at a lower stage.
US07714384B2
A castellated-gate MOSFET I/O device capable of fully depleted operation is disclosed. The device includes a semiconductor substrate region having an upper portion with a top surface and a lower portion with a bottom surface. A source region and a drain region are formed in the semiconductor substrate region, and a channel-forming region is also disposed therein between the source and drain regions. Trench isolation insulator islands, having upper and lower surfaces, surround the source and drain regions as well as the channel-forming region. The channel-forming region includes a plurality of thin, spaced, vertically-orientated conductive channel elements that span longitudinally along the device between the source and drain regions. A gate structure is provided in the form of a plurality of spaced, castellated gate elements interposed between the channel elements, and a top gate member interconnects the gate elements at their upper vertical ends to cover the channel elements. The conductive channel elements are super-self-aligned from the gate structure to the source and drain regions. Finally, a dielectric layer separates the conductive channel elements from the gate structure.
US07714369B2
A semiconductor chip that has a photodiode formed on it, a semiconductor device including the semiconductor chip, and manufacturing methods thereof. A second semiconductor region 11 is formed in light-receiving region R of first semiconductor region 10. First bumps 12 are formed outside light-receiving region R. Second bump 13 is formed in a ring-shape around light-receiving region R between region R and first bumps 12. Semiconductor chip T is assembled on assembly substrate S, and resin layer 30 is formed between chip T and substrate S in the region outside of said light-receiving region R.
US07714358B2
Disclosed are embodiments of an n-FET structure with silicon carbon S/D regions completely contained inside amorphization regions and with a carbon-free gate electrode. Containing carbon within the amorphization regions, ensures that all of the carbon is substitutional following re-crystallization to maximize the tensile stress imparted on channel region. The gate stack is capped during carbon implantation so the risk of carbon entering the gate stack and degrading the conductivity of the gate polysilicon and/or damaging the gate oxide is essentially eliminated. Thus, the carbon implant regions can be formed deeper. Deeper S/D carbon implants which are completely amorphized and then re-crystallized provide greater tensile stress on the n-FET channel region to further optimize electron mobility. Additionally, the gate electrode is uncapped during the n-type dopant process, so the n-type dopant dose in the gate electrode can be at least great as the dose in the S/D regions.
US07714353B2
A trench-type insulated-gate semiconductor device is disclosed that includes unit cells having a trench gate structure that are scattered uniformly throughout the active region of the device. The impurity concentration in the portion of a p-type base region, sandwiched between an n+-type emitter region and an n-type drift layer and in contact with a gate electrode formed in the trench via a gate insulator film, is the lowest in the portion thereof sandwiched between the bottom plane of n+-type emitter regions and the bottom plane of p-type base region and parallel to the major surface of a silicon substrate. The trench-type insulate-gate semiconductor device according to the invention minimizes the variation of the gate threshold voltage.
US07714350B2
A gallium nitride based semiconductor device comprises: a first gallium nitride based semiconductor film doped with magnesium; and a second gallium nitride based semiconductor film provided on the first gallium nitride based semiconductor film and doped with magnesium. The first gallium nitride based semiconductor film has substantially flat distributions of magnesium concentration and hydrogen atom concentration, and the magnesium concentration is higher than the hydrogen atom concentration. The second gallium nitride based semiconductor film has a first region in which the magnesium concentration decreases and the hydrogen atom concentration increases toward the surface, and the magnesium concentration in the first region is higher than the hydrogen atom concentration in the first region and higher than the magnesium concentration in the first gallium nitride based semiconductor film.
US07714344B2
A semiconductor light emitting device includes a silicon substrate, a p-type semiconductor layer provided on the silicon substrate, a n-type semiconductor layer provided on the silicon substrate, the n-type semiconductor layer adjoining the p-type semiconductor layer, and a light emitting section formed at a p-n homojunction between the p-type semiconductor layer and the n-type semiconductor layer. The p-n homojunction is substantially perpendicular to a major surface of the silicon substrate. The p-n homojunction is corrugated with a period matched with an integer multiple of an emission wavelength at the light emitting section.
US07714343B2
An upper electrode is formed on one surface of a semiconductor multilayer structure including a light emitting layer. An interface electrode is formed at a region of another surface of the semiconductor multilayer structure except a region right under the upper electrode. A center of the interface electrode coincides with a center of the upper electrode. At least a part of the interface electrode has a similar shape to a shape of an outer periphery of the upper electrode. A current blocking layer is formed at another region of another surface of the semiconductor multilayer structure except the region where the interface electrode is formed. A reflecting layer for reflecting a part of the light emitted from the light emitting layer is electrically connected to the interface electrode. A conductive supporting substrate is electrically connected to the semiconductor multilayer structure.
US07714339B2
A light emitting diode (LED) includes a substrate, a first type epitaxial layer, a light emitting layer, a second type epitaxial layer and a plurality of nano-particles. The first type epitaxial layer is disposed on the substrate. The light emitting layer is disposed on the first type epitaxial layer. The second type epitaxial layer is disposed on the light emitting layer and has one surface formed with a plurality of recesses and a plurality of protrusions. The nano-particles are disposed on the protrusions of the second type epitaxial layer.
US07714337B2
A light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The light emitting device includes a buffer layer formed on a substrate, a nitride semiconductor layer including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer, which are sequentially stacked on the buffer layer, a portion of the first semiconductor layer being exposed to the outside by performing mesa etching from the second semiconductor layer to the portion of the first semiconductor layer, and at least one nanocone formed on the second semiconductor layer.
US07714336B2
A LED device formed of LED chips bonded to an exoergic member by the LED chips being bonded to an Au—Sn alloy layer formed on an upper surface of the exoergic member with columnar crystals being formed within the Au—Sn alloy layer extending in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the exoergic member. The method of producing the LED device forms an Sn film directly on the upper surface of the exoergic member, an Au film on a lower surface of the LED chips, mounts the LED chips with the Au film thereon onto the Sn film formed on the upper surface of the exoergic member, and the exoergic member with LED chips mounted thereon is heated in an atmosphere in which a forming gas flows, so that the LED chips are bonded to the exoergic member.
US07714330B2
A silicon nanowire substrate having a structure in which a silicon nanowire film having a fine line-width is formed on a substrate, a method of manufacturing the same, and a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor using the same. The method of manufacturing the silicon nanowire substrate includes preparing a substrate, forming an insulating film on the substrate, forming a silicon film on the insulating film, patterning the insulating film and the silicon film into a strip shape, reducing the line-width of the insulating film by undercut etching at least one lateral side of the insulating film, and forming a self-aligned silicon nanowire film on an upper surface of the insulating film by melting and crystallizing the silicon film.
US07714326B2
The present invention provides structures for antifuses that utilize electromigration for programming. By providing a portion of antifuse link with high resistance without conducting material and then by inducing electromigration of the conducting material into the antifuse link, the resistance of the antifuse structure is changed. By providing a terminal on the antifuse link, the change in the electrical properties of the antifuse link is detected and sensed. Also disclosed are an integrated antifuse with a built-in sensing device and a two dimensional array of integrated antifuses that can share programming transistors and sensing circuitry.
US07714308B2
This VSB lithography system includes a first, second and third aperture for forming a single electron beam in each of the rectangular opening portion that are provided, and draws a figure pattern using the single electron beam formed by passing the beam through the first, second and third aperture in sequence. Each of the first, second and third aperture has a mechanism for rotationally driving the aperture around an optical axis up to an arbitrary angle from 0 to 360°. Further, in the third aperture, a mechanism for varying the opening slit width of the rectangular opening portion is provided.
US07714305B2
Apparatus and methods for compensating for the movement of a substrate in a lithographic apparatus during a pulse of radiation include providing a pivotable mirror configured to move a patterned radiation beam incident on the substrate in substantial synchronism with the substrate.
US07714304B2
A computer tomography measuring device includes a radiation source for generating invasive radiation, in particular X-rays, and a rotating device which is embodied and arranged in such a way that it enables a measurement object to be rotatable about an axis of rotation of the rotating device, thereby enabling the invasive radiation to penetrate into the measurement object at different angles. A detecting device detects the radiation penetrating through the measurement object. A positioning device provided with an adjusting element is used for adjusting the position of the measurement object with respect to the rotating device.
US07714301B2
An apparatus including an LED excitation source and module useful for full plate imaging fluorescence instruments as well as methods for calibrating such instruments. The apparatus may include a light source operative to provide simultaneous illumination of a first wavelength selected to a plurality of samples to excite the fluorescent emission of light of a second wavelength by said plurality of samples wherein the light source is an LED array; and an optical sensor, responsive to light at said second wavelength.
US07714297B2
Techniques, apparatus and systems for detecting particles such as muons and neutrons. In one implementation, a particle detection system employs a plurality of drift cells, which can be for example sealed gas-filled drift tubes, arranged on sides of a volume to be scanned to track incoming and outgoing charged particles, such as cosmic ray-produced muons. The drift cells can include a neutron sensitive medium to enable concurrent counting of neutrons. The system can selectively detect devices or materials, such as iron, lead, gold, uranium, plutonium, and/or tungsten, occupying the volume from multiple scattering of the charged particles passing through the volume and can concurrently detect any unshielded neutron sources occupying the volume from neutrons emitted therefrom. If necessary, the drift cells can be used to also detect gamma rays. The system can be employed to inspect occupied vehicles at border crossings for nuclear threat objects.
US07714286B2
A charged particle beam apparatus includes: a correction image acquisition part 52 for making a detector 20 acquire items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; a directional differentiation operation part 53 for obtaining directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data at different focal positions; an aberration parameter calculation part 54 for obtaining aberration parameters according to previously determined methods by using the directional derivative values in a plurality of directions for each of the items of two-dimensional image data; an aberration correction value calculation part 55 for obtaining correction values for aberrations by using the aberration parameters; and a control part 56 for setting the correction values in a correction optical system control means to make an aberration corrector 16 correct the aberrations.
US07714284B2
The invention relates generally to ion mobility based systems, methods and devices for analyzing samples and, more particularly, to sample detection using multiple detection and analytical techniques in combination.
US07714281B2
The present invention is a device to restrict the sampling of analyte ions and neutral molecules from surfaces with mass spectrometry and thereby sample from a defined area or volume. In various embodiments of the present invention, a tube is used to sample ions formed with a defined spatial resolution from desorption ionization at or near atmospheric pressures. In an embodiment of the present invention, electrostatic fields are used to direct ions to either individual tubes or a plurality of tubes positioned in close proximity to the surface of the sample being analyzed. In an embodiment of the present invention, wide diameter sampling tubes can be used in combination with a vacuum inlet to draw ions and neutrals into the spectrometer for analysis. In an embodiment of the present invention, wide diameter sampling tubes in combination with electrostatic fields improve the efficiency of ion collection.
US07714280B2
A time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer comprises an ion source which generates cluster ions each comprised of two or more atoms, a pulsing mechanism which pulses the cluster ions, a selecting mechanism which selects ions having a specific mass number from the pulsed cluster ions and passes the selected ions in an ON state of the selecting mechanism, and, passes the pulsed cluster ions without the selecting in an OFF state of the selecting mechanism, and a time-of-flight mass spectrometric unit which measures a mass spectrum of secondary ions generated from a sample using a difference in time of flight when the sample is irradiated with the ions passed through the selecting mechanism.
US07714273B2
A position-measuring device for generating a reference-pulse signal at at least one reference position includes a scanning unit and also a reflection-measuring graduation displaceable relative thereto in at least one measuring direction. The scanning unit for generating the reference-pulse signal includes a plurality of optical elements, including at least one imaging optics as well as at least two diaphragm structures, which are disposed in a diaphragm plane and have a plurality of diaphragm openings in each case. Furthermore, a light source as well as at least two detector elements are assigned to the scanning unit. The reflection-measuring graduation has a reference marking at the at least one reference position. It includes at least one set of first structure elements, which is arranged in the plane of the reflection-measuring graduation, perpendicular to the measuring direction, periodically at a first transversal periodicity. Furthermore, the reference marking has at least one set of second structure elements, which is arranged in the plane of the reflection-measuring graduation, perpendicular to the measuring direction, periodically at a second, different transversal periodicity. The structure elements are arranged as diffractive structure elements, which, in the measuring direction, optically act like a cylinder lens having a specific focal length and, perpendicular to the measuring direction, act like a deflecting grating having the graduation period.
