US07721344B2
The method for securing data in a server-client computer system for security sensitive content includes extracting sensitive content and separating the security sensitive content from remainder data. The security sensitive content is grouped into security levels, each with a security clearance. The extracted data, for each security level, is remotely stored in extract stores. A map of storage sites may be generated. The filter and/or map may be destroyed or stored. The data input, extracted data and remainder data may be deleted from the originating computer. Encryption may be utilized to enhance security (including transfers of data, filter and map). Full or partial reconstruction of the data is permitted only in the presence of predetermined security clearances. The extraction and storage can be done on the input client computer or the web-based server. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions and an information processing system is encompassed.
US07721339B2
A system and method for controlling access to digital content, including streaming media. The system includes a web server, media server and end user processor, such as a personal computer, coupled to a network. The web server cryptographically generates a ticket in response to an end user's request for access to a file. The ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the ticket is generated. The media server generates an authorization ticket, preferably using the same cryptographic algorithm as the web server. The media server authorization ticket is based, at least in part, on a time at or near when the media server receives the request for access to the file. The media server determines whether to grant access to the file by comparing the ticket, as generated by the web server, to the ticket, as generated by the media server.
US07721330B1
A firewall dynamically adapts to changes in a utility computing system. The utility computing system has multiple nodes that are dynamically provisioned in different roles. The different roles are best served by different security and/or Quality-of-Service (QoS) policies. The firewall selects and applies security and/or QoS policies to a node or group of nodes based on the roles provisioned to the node or group. The firewall detects when the provisioning of a node changes, and dynamically applies a new security and/or QoS policy to the node based on the new provisioning. The firewall thus provides adaptive network-level security and QoS functionality to a utility computing system.
US07721329B2
A method and apparatus for fine-grained, trust-based rate limiting of network requests distinguishes trusted network traffic from untrusted network traffic at the granularity of an individual user/machine combination, so that network traffic policing measures are readily implemented against untrusted and potentially hostile traffic without compromising service to trusted users. A server establishes a user/client pair as trusted by issuing a trust token to the client when successfully authenticating to the server for the first time. Subsequently, the client provides the trust token at login. At the server, rate policies apportion bandwidth according to type of traffic: network requests that include a valid trust token are granted highest priority. Rate policies further specify bandwidth restrictions imposed for untrusted network traffic. This scheme enables the server to throttle untrusted password-guessing requests from crackers without penalizing most friendly logins and only slightly penalizing the relatively few untrusted friendly logins.
US07721321B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for reducing communication system downtime when enabling cryptographic operation of a cryptographic system of the communication system where the cryptographic system includes a first cryptographic device operatively coupled to a plurality of second cryptographic devices via a communication network of the communication system. The method includes causing a pass-through mode of the second cryptographic devices to be suspended, sequentially determining a state of each of the second cryptographic devices, causing the second cryptographic devices and the first cryptographic device to substantially simultaneously operate in a secure mode if each of the second cryptographic devices is determined to have a first state, and causing the second cryptographic devices and the first cryptographic device to operate in the pass-through mode if at least one of the plurality of second cryptographic devices is determined to have a second state.
US07721318B2
Uplink signaling for controlling a plurality of decoders at a remote site. An uplink has a control server for controlling a storage system of the decoders at the remote site. The control server of the uplink controls the storage system by injecting at least one global control stream multiplexed with a transport stream. The transport multiplexed with the global control stream is formed at the uplink for controlling the decoders simultaneously.
US07721317B2
An apparatus, system, and method for affordably distributing cable communication signals at greatly reduced power consumption levels with high signal quality with an active tap having gain stage characterized by low power (less than 1 Watt), low noise figure (less than 3 dB), high bandwidth (typically DC-2 GHz), and high gain (at least 15 dBmV).
US07721304B2
Programmable network intelligence approaches as disclosed herein provide apparatus, methods and tools to achieve programmable interfaces to a device, or group of devices or a network where native programmable interfaces are not available.
US07721303B2
There is disclosed a system for management of interactions between users and software applications in a web environment, related to an operating environment which functional devices are in charge of providing methods allowing maximum interactivity between the end user and the application. The operating environment also includes a set of applications available to end users, administrators and developers. The applications for end users are intended to provide interactivity, storage, data organization, publication and search. For the administrators, the applications allow full configuration of the behavior of the system and of the agents included within its scope. And for the developers, the system provides configuration kits that enable interfacing between the objects included in its operating context.
US07721300B2
A system and method for managing a plurality of devices is provided. The system includes a user interface for controlling a plurality of devices configured as a network. The plurality of devices have corresponding device drivers to configure each of the plurality of devices to allow queuing operations to be performed in connection with the plurality of devices. The user interface is configured to communicate with the plurality of devices to identify and control jobs in a queue relating to each of the devices. The system also includes a monitoring system for monitoring the plurality of devices. The monitoring system is configured to provide notification to the user interface when a predetermined queue limit for at least one of the plurality of devices is exceeded.
US07721298B2
Techniques for improving operating system performance are provided. A subsystem of an operating system operates as a kernel mode component, such as a kernel mode driver, instead of operating as a user mode component.
US07721293B2
A method is described that involves comprising, during runtime in an object-oriented environment, invoking, from an object, a first Web services endpoint method to process a first message by: invoking the first Web services endpoint method through a first interface according to an endpoint method invocation format, where, the first Web services endpoint method is implemented with a first component that is provided one or more services by a first container. The method also involves invoking, from the object, a second Web services endpoint method to process a second message by: invoking the second Web services endpoint method through a second interface according to the endpoint method invocation format. The second Web services endpoint method is implemented with a second component that is provided one or more services by a second container. The first and second containers have respective interfaces that are different.
US07721291B2
An apparatus, system, and method are provided for automatically minimizing Real-Time (RT) task latency and maximizing Non-Real Time (NRT) task throughput. The apparatus may include a task manager, a determination module, and optionally a tracking module. The task manager may execute a NRT task configured to obtain exclusive access to a resource within a multi-processor environment. The determination module identifies a RT task within the multi-processor environment that shares exclusive access to the resource with the NRT task. Optionally, the tracking module selectively executes or bypasses a preemption point associated with the NRT task in response to the RT task becoming runnable. Alternatively, the NRT task selectively executes or bypasses a predefined preemption point in response to the RT task becoming runnable. In this manner, RT tasks on any processor of the multi-processor environment meet minimum latency thresholds and NRT tasks automatically provide maximum throughput in the multi-processor environment.
US07721282B1
An embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system for distributing an application environment to a compute node. The system includes a first storage unit for storing blocks of a root image of the compute node and a second storage unit for storing a leaf image comprising new data blocks and changes to the blocks of the root image. The system further includes a union block device for interfacing between the compute node and the first and second storage units to distribute the application environment to the compute node. The union block device creates the application environment by merging the blocks of the root image stored on the first storage unit with the leaf image stored on the second storage unit.
US07721277B1
System and method for the hot deployment of shared modules, for example standalone resource adaptor modules (RARs), in systems. A class loader mechanism may utilize, in a hierarchy of class loaders, a shared “delegator” class loader which delegates received load class requests to a chain of class loaders, each representing a hot-deployable module. Hot deployment of a module results in the redeployment of the associated class loader in the chain rather than in a single, shared class loader. In one embodiment, when a load class request is received, the delegator class loader traverses the chain to find the class loader to load the class indicated by the request, the request is delegated to the class loader, and the class loader loads the class. If the module and class loader are subsequently redeployed, the redeployed version of the class loader loads the new version of the class.
US07721276B2
Under the present invention, source input corresponding to a first release of Java byte code and target input corresponding to a second release of the Java byte code is received. The input is transformed into a first list containing class names associated with the first release and a second list containing class names associated with the second release. Thereafter, any classes corresponding to class names that appear on both lists (e.g., matching class names) are loaded. The methods within the matching classes are then compared to determine if any of the APIs have been modified between the two releases. After the comparison, the matching class names are removed from the lists. Any class names remaining on the first list represent APIs that have been removed from the second release, while any class names remaining on the second list represent APIs that have been added for the second release.
US07721271B2
A system for providing translations of applications for operation in a non-native language. The translation makes use of associated tables either existing within the operating system or at locations outside of the operating system. The translation system makes use of application based translations tables that may also interrelate with core translation tables and community translation tables, prior to sending the data to a graphical interface.
US07721264B2
An authoring or other software tool is provided which allows users of the tool to review the creation and evolution of all or part of a content such as a multimedia title created using a tool incorporating the invention. According to the invention, an authoring tool comprises a recording mechanism for recording actions performed during the development or modification of software content in a manner that preserves, directly or indirectly, the relative chronological order of the actions and a playback mechanism for performing or otherwise simulating recorded actions. Preferably, the playback of an action includes annotation using text, recorded or computer-generated voice, video and/or graphic animation. Preferably, an authoring tool embodying the invention allows an author to specify criteria for which actions are to be played back, thereby providing an author with a mechanism for focusing on a particular subset of the recorded actions.
US07721263B2
Last stall information is transmitted if the last stall standing function is enabled, one of the stall elements was active during the last clock cycle, no stall condition exists during the current cycle and the stall threshold has been met. Last stall standing operation provides a label associated with each stall period that exceeds a specified threshold. This provides the means to filter out some stall bursts to reduce trace bandwidth.
US07721242B2
Carbon nanotube template arrays may be edited to form connections between proximate nanotubes and/or to delete undesired nanotubes or nanotube junctions.
US07721238B2
A method and apparatus for inputting a plurality of different circuit schematics designed with printed circuit board (PCB) mountable components; extracting circuit topologies for said plurality of different circuit schematics; transforming said extracted circuit topologies to a fixed number of connection points; and generating a configurable circuit PCB physical layout pattern having said fixed number of connection points such that said PCB mountable components when positioned on one or more of said fixed number of connection points can implement any circuit represented by said plurality of different circuit schematics.
US07721233B2
Significant improvement is achieved in the analysis of IC layout by utilizing the fact that IC designs exhibit a large amount of regularity. By employing a unique mesh generation approach that takes advantage of the regularity, combined with the use of a limited number of different shapes for the majority of the IC geometry greatly increases the speed of processing. Additionally, by employing a unique approach for specifying the different mesh elements—based on the parameters that define the relative difference between one shape and another—provides significant additional reductions in the necessary calculations, and a corresponding increase in speed of IC simulations. Yet another improvement is realized by simplifying the inductive influence calculations by employing averages that permit using dot products of vectors rather than integrations of non-constant vectors.
US07721214B2
A architecture is provided to enable a client web browser to conduct and manage a multilevel search. The browser includes an application layer interface. The application layer interface is for coupling to network via a protocol stack. The browser also includes a markup language parser. The parser receives information from the application layer interface. The browser also includes a graphical user interface for interacting with a user. The graphical user interface allows a user to specify a set of multilevel search parameters. The browser also includes a markup language processor that receives input from the markup language parser and multilevel search parameters from the graphical user interface. The markup language processor conducts and manages a multilevel search to find specified information on a current web page or a web page referenced by the current web page in accordance with a parameterized search tree. The present invention also enables an automatic processes to print sets of linked web pages and to generate sitemaps, filtered sitemaps, filtered results pages in accordance with user specifications.
US07721211B1
A system filters network management information in a graphical user interface by receiving a managed object selection that represents a resource in a storage area network. The system then identifies a view selection associated with the managed object selection, and produces a filter region containing filter components. At least one of the filter components is contingent upon the managed object selection in conjunction with the view selection. The system then displays the filter region containing the filter components.
US07721210B2
A wireless system having a central family calendar. Individual family members may access the family calendar from their wireless devices. The system also includes telephone and address information for non-family members. Important dates such as birthdays, associated with the non-family members may automatically appear in the calendar. The system may be incorporated into other family accessible devices such as a family bulletin board.
US07721208B2
Various “media-components” are provided in a “multi-media center.” In modular architecture, a module-controller communicates with media-modules provided for various media-components. A media-module can include or obtain data pertaining to a particular media-component, identify media-player(s), and access information related to their media. However, the media-modules are isolated from each other, and the module-controller effectively controls output generated in response to user input. A user interface library is provided for the media-modules. Media-modules can obtain a template or other tools from the library and construct their user interface (e.g., menus). Media-modules can also identify a media-player that can be initiated in response to user input. Subsequently, the media-controller forwards user input to the media-player.
US07721204B2
Methods and systems that dynamically control and/or direct document image processing based on one or more of client device display capabilites, image formats supported by the client device, network bandwidth, document file format, document content and user hints.
US07721201B2
The invention relates to a system and method for automatically producing documents that incorporate one or more data elements. A guided/structured software environment is provided that assists users in creating manuals by defining the appropriate content for each manual in a document definition section, content rules and relationships, and tasks to be performed for each type of manual entry. Manual content is stored as data and data elements, rather than pages of sentences, to more efficiently generate, revise, and store the content of a manual. A storage database is provided for retrieving and storing predefined templates, documents, data elements and data to produce a final manual. Manuals are created by combining various data elements. A preview interface permits a user to quickly view what revisions will look like in a final document prior to actually publishing the manual. A published manual is compiled by assembling the stored data into document.
US07721191B2
A computer-implemented process for replacing old files having old names on a permanent storage medium with new files in volatile memory. Some of these files may be opaque files, which are old files that have become new files without undergoing any changes, other than possibly name changes. The primary steps of this replacement can comprise first saving the non-opaque new files onto the permanent storage medium and assigning them temporary filenames. An opaque recovery file listing the old name and a temporary name for each opaque file is created. A primary recovery file listing the temporary name and a final name for each new file is created. After the names of the opaque files are changed to their temporary names, the names of the non-opaque old files are changed from their old names to backup names. Then, the names of the new files are changed from their temporary names to their final names. The recovery files and the old files can be deleted. If an event leaves the program performing the primary steps in control but unable to complete the replacement, then the old files can be restored to the permanent storage medium. If an event prevents completion of either a replacement attempt or a restoration of the old files, completion of the replacement can again be attempted at a later time using the recovery files. The described processes can be applied to saving HTML documents, each of which typically comprises multiple files.
US07721190B2
Various embodiments can efficiently utilize form server resources by, in at least some embodiments, acting only on one tree during the form editing process. Various embodiments can act on a form's data and not necessarily a representation of the form's view. The described embodiments can support various different presentation formats.
US07721175B2
Apparatuses, systems, and methods are disclosed for performing Built-In Self Tests (BIST) on memories. One such BIST includes loading microcode instructions into a main microcode sequencer and loading subroutine instructions into a subroutine microcode sequencer on the memory. The microcode instructions generate subroutine calls to the subroutine microcode sequencer. The subroutine instructions generate memory operation codes, address codes, and data codes for testing the memory device. BIST addresses are generated in response to the memory operation codes and the address codes. BIST data are generated in response to the memory operation codes and the data codes. Conventional memory commands are created by generating command signals, address signals, and data signals for the memory in response to the memory operation codes, the BIST data, and the BIST addresses. Test results output data may be stored in a data checker in the form of information stored in data registers or checksum registers.
US07721174B2
A test circuit is disclosed for testing embedded synchronous memories. A BIST controller is used to address the memory and provide reference data that is compared to the memory output. Pipeline registers are used to allow the BIST controller to perform reads and/or writes during every clock cycle. In one aspect, the BIST controller includes a reference data circuit that stores or generates data for comparison to the memory output. A pipeline register is positioned before the reference data circuit or between the reference data circuit and compare circuitry. Additional pipeline registers may be positioned between a compare capture circuit and the compare circuitry. The pipeline registers free the BIST controller from having to wait for a read to complete before starting the next read or write. To reduce the number of pipeline registers needed, a negative-edge BIST controller can be used with a positive-edge memory or vice versa.
US07721170B2
An apparatus for selectively implementing launch-off-scan capability in at-speed testing of integrated circuit devices includes a control device configured to selectively disable a master clock signal of a latch structure under test such that a pulse sequence of a system clock signal results in a slave-master-slave clock pulse sequence in the latch structure under test; wherein the control device utilizes the system clock signal as an input thereto and operates in a self-resetting fashion that is timing independent with respect to a scan chain.
US07721169B2
A scanning circuit has path switches connected between a plurality of data flip-flop circuits of the scanning circuit for sequentially reading an output signal in synchronism with a clock. A plurality of control signal lines select the path switches to arbitrarily skip reading of the flip-flop circuits that do not require the scanning circuit and always fix a potential of the skipped data flip-flop circuit. Only the arbitrary data is read, and in the case where unnecessary data exists, reading is skipped, to thereby increase the read rate.
US07721166B2
A method for managing defect blocks in a non-volatile memory essentially comprises the steps of detecting defect blocks in the non-volatile memory, storing addresses of the defect blocks in a table block of the non-volatile memory, and setting the non-volatile memory to be read-only if the quantity of defect blocks in the non-volatile memory exceeds a threshold and no free blocks remain in the non-volatile memory. In a preferred embodiment, the free pages in the defect block continue to be programmed before setting the non-volatile memory to be read-only.
US07721165B2
A storage device, including: a non-volatile semiconductor memory which is electrically erasable; a system interface coupled with an external host system; and a controller reading data from the non-volatile semiconductor memory and transmitting data to the host system via the system interface in response to a read command received by the system interface from the host system; and wherein the controller starts reading (N+n)th sector data from the non-volatile semiconductor memory, while the controller transmits Nth sector data that has been read from the non-volatile semiconductor memory to the host system via the system interface, in response to the read command for successive sector data.
US07721162B2
A system for testing a portion of a cable network provides a pattern generator, Addresser, forward error corrector, and comparator. The system is particularly adapted to testing the upstream channel in a cable network. The pattern generator generates a test signal. The addresser addresses the signal to a known server and also instructs the known server to return the test signal to the test system. The forward error corrector corrects errors introduced in the test signal in transmission from the known server to the test system. The comparator then compares the returned test signal to the originally transmitted test signal to determine the performance of the back channel. Preferably, the comparator uses a bit error rate test to determine the performance of the back channel.
US07721157B2
A highly available multi-node computer system is operated by monitoring the aging and usage of a plurality of hardware components that are part of the system's networked nodes. While monitoring the components, a determination is made that one of the components has aged, worn, or both, to a level that is selected as being close enough to the component's predicted end of life in the system so as to prevent failure of the component in the system. A notification is sent to replace the component, in response to the determination. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07721148B2
Disclosed is a communication mechanism among hardware, firmware and system software in order to redirect interrupts or other hardware events to only one thread execution context of an error domain for a multi-threaded processing system. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07721145B2
A system, apparatus, computer program product and method of performing functional validation testing in a system are provided. Generally, functional validation testing includes data acquisition and data validation testing. During the functional validation testing two devices may be exchanging data. The exchange of data by the two devices may be referred to as data acquisition. The data from one device and the data from the other device may be compared to each other. This may be referred to as data validation. When data is exchanged during data acquisition, it is also stored in appropriate locations in a pool of buffers in memory. During the data acquisition, checks are made to determine if the system is entering an idle cycle. If so, the data validation test is performed by using the data in the pool of buffers in memory.
US07721144B2
Multiple Array Management Functions (AMFs) are connected to multiple redundancy groups over a storage area network (SAN), such as a fiber-channel based SAN. The multiple AMFs share management responsibility of the redundancy groups, each of which typically includes multiple resources spread over multiple disks. The AMFs provide concurrent access to the redundancy groups for associated host systems. When a host requests an AMF to perform an operation on a resource, the AMF synchronizes with the other AMFs sharing control of the redundancy group that includes the resource to be operated on, so as to obtain access to the resource. While performing the operation, the AMF send replication data and state information associated with the resource such that if the AMF fails, any of the other AMFs are able to complete the operation and maintain data reliability and coherency.
US07721138B1
A system, method and computer program product for migrating a server include creating an image of a storage device of a first server; during execution of a boot loader on a second server, starting an initialization application that at least partially restores, to a storage device of the second server, operating system data from the image; analyzing a hardware configuration of the second server; modifying at least one driver of an operating system based on the analyzed hardware to enable the operating system of the second server to interface to the storage device of the second server; rebooting the second server using the at least partially restored operating system data; and restoring unaltered portions of remaining data from the image. The second server identification and/or authentication data stored on the image is updated before the rebooting. Identification data of the second server is at least partially replaced with corresponding data stored on the image. The image is unchanged until completion of the restoring step. The restoring is performed over a network. The image is created on the computing system connected to the server over a network. More than one storage device is restored from the image. The restoration step uses an incremental image of the storage device. A boot loader is started in case of failure of the first server.
US07721137B2
A bus receiver receives at least one first signal and a second signal both generated from a chip connected to a parallel bus. The bus receiver includes a receiving module and a deskewing module. The receiving module is electrically connected to the parallel bus and receives the first signal and the second signal transmitted through the parallel bus. The deskewing module is electrically connected to the receiving module and deskews the phase of the first signal and the phase of the second signal. The first signal and the second signal are in the same phase.
US07721135B2
An improved technique and associated apparatus for timing calibration of a logic device is provided. A calibration test pattern is transferred to a logic device first at a data rate slower than normal operating speed to ensure correct capture of the pattern at the device to be calibrated. Once the pattern is correctly captured and stored, the test pattern is transmitted to the logic device at the normal operating data rate to perform timing calibration. The improved technique and apparatus permits the use of any pattern of bits as a calibration test pattern, programmable by the user or using easily-interchangeable hardware.
US07721128B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and processor are provided for implementation of thermal throttling logic. A sensed temperature value is received from a digital thermal sensor representing a current temperature of a unit associated with the digital thermal sensor in the integrated circuit. The sensed temperature is reported as the current temperature in a status register. The unit in the integrated circuit is throttled in response to the current temperature exceeding a first predetermined value.
US07721119B2
A system and method to optimize multi-core microprocessor performance using voltage offsets is presented. A multi-core device tests each of its processor cores in order to identify each processor core's optimum supply voltage. In turn, the device configures voltage offset networks for each processor core based upon each processor core's identified optimum supply voltage. As a result, the offset voltages produced by the voltage offset networks are subtracted from the multi-core device's main voltage, which results in the voltage offset networks supplying optimum supply voltages to each processor core. The voltage offset networks may include fuses to generate a fixed voltage offset, or the voltage offset networks may include a control circuit to dynamically adjust voltage offsets during the multi-core device's operation.
US07721109B1
A validation scheme for use with a transaction card such as a calling card, et cetera, using personalized biometric profile data that is inherently coupled to the card owner/user. A configuration process is used for populating a profile database with sample voice or other biometric responses elicited from the owner/user in response to a plurality of questions relating to information uniquely linked to the user such as, e.g., name, age, hobbies, et cetera, or biometric responses such as fingerprints, retinal scans, and palm prints, or implanted ID chips. When a transaction is attempted using the transaction card, a determination is made if a voice profile validation is required for authentication. If so, a question from the plurality of questions used in the configuration process is randomly selected and directed to the user for a response. Access is provided only if a match between the response and corresponding sample is found. In a passive mode, the validation scheme may be utilized as an auxiliary fraud prevention scheme in addition to existing authentication systems.
US07721108B2
To check a digital signature, using a microcircuit card, the microcircuit being designed to receive and to process requests to check digital signatures, the process comprises storing in a memory in the microcircuit a certificates table containing digest forms of authorized public keys, and a phase of checking a digital signature consisting of: receiving by the microcircuit the digital signature to be checked and a public key corresponding to a private key that was used to generate the digital signature to be checked; calculating a digest form of the received public key, searching for the calculated digest form of the public key in the certificates table, and decrypting the digital signature using the received public key if the calculated digest form of the public key is located in the certificates table.
US07721106B2
A method and a system for allowing a user device that has already been authenticated by a first communications network to gain access to a second communications network without undergoing authentication by the second communications network. The first communications network and the second communications network have a pre-established trust relationship there between. A packet is received from the user device that includes a user device public key, by the second network via the first network. A session key is sent from the second network to the user device, via the first network, when a source Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the packet falls into a range allocated to the first network. The session key is encrypted with the user device public key. The user device decrypts the session key using a private key and uses the session key thereafter to access the second network. Further a mapping is generated to correlate the identity of the user device with the session key such that usage data relate to user device is generated by the second communications network and transmitted to the first communications network, which generates accounting information indicative of user device access of the second communications network.
US07721105B1
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implement techniques for repurposing digital information. One or more repurposing constraints are associated with information in an electronic document. A digital signature is associated with the repurposable information and the repurposing constraints. The repurposable information can be repurposed and represented as signed information subject to the repurposing constraints.
US07721102B2
A system and method for detecting exposure of an OCSP responder's session private key in a D-OCSP-KIS to verify the status of a user's certificate online are provided. The system includes: a client for requesting certificate status information from the OCSP responder; the OCSP responder for receiving the certificate status information request from the client, sending a response, producing a hash value, and delivering the hash value to a certificate authority (CA) to get a certificate issued; and the CA for receiving the hash value from the OCSP responder and issuing the certificate to the OCSP responder in response to a certificate issue request; wherein the client verifies a digital signature using a hash value contained in the OCSP responder's certificate and the hash value contained in the response, and each client stores a counter value for a hash operation in each verification and recognizes the response as valid when a current counter value is greater than a previous counter value.
US07721091B2
According to an embodiment of the invention, a method for processing a plurality of service requests in a client-server system includes server steps of receiving at least one request for service from a client and providing a level of service based on a trust level provided in the at least one request. According to another embodiment, a method of authenticating messages includes steps of: embedding authentication information into a message at the application level; downloading a script from a computer for sending the message; running said script to send said message to a server; and checking said message by said server at the network level.
US07721079B2
A system for automatically configuring I/O devices is provided in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a plurality of I/O devices operatively coupled to each other and a sub-system for determining physical locations of the I/O devices with respect to one another. The sub-system assigns node addresses to each I/O device—each assigned node address corresponds to the physical location of the respective I/O devices.
US07721074B2
A RISC processor having a data mover engine and instructions that associate register addresses with memory addresses. In an embodiment, the instructions include a read-tie instruction, a single write-tie instruction, a dual write-tie instruction, and an untie instruction. The read-tie, single write-tie, and dual write-tie instructions are used to associate software accessible register addresses with memory addresses. These associations effect the operation of the data mover engine such that, for the duration of the associations, the data mover engine routes data to and from associated memory addresses and the execution unit of the processor in response to instructions that specify moving data to and from the associated register addresses. The invention reduces the number of instructions and hardware overhead associated with implementing program loops in a RISC processor.
US07721072B2
An information processing method includes generating a state transition diagram based on state transition information; displaying the state transition diagram; manipulating the displayed state transition diagram; updating the state transition information in accordance with how the state transition diagram has been manipulated; and storing a position of a state designated as a transition starting state by the manipulating step. When the position of the transition starting state has been specified by the manipulating step, the displaying step displays as a pointer an icon indicating that the position of the transition starting state has been specified. When a position of a transition destination state has been specified by the manipulating step, the displaying step displays a transition directed from the stored transition starting state toward the transition destination state, and the updating step updates the state transition information by adding information of the transition to the state transition information.
US07721068B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a technique is provided for facilitating the relocation of data from a source page to a destination page in a computing system in which I/O devices may conduct DVMA transactions via an IOMMU. Before the relocation, it is determined whether any devices potentially are accessing the source page. If it is determined that a device potentially is accessing the source page, then the IOMMU's device driver (“bus nexus”) “suspends” the bus. The bus nexus allows any pending memory transactions to finish. While the bus is suspended, the kernel moves the contents of the source page to the destination page. After the kernel has moved the contents, the IOMMU's TLB is updated so that the virtual address that was mapped to the source page's physical address is mapped to the destination page's physical address. The bus nexus “unsuspends” the bus.
US07721066B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a queue comprising a plurality of entries and a control unit coupled to the queue. The control unit is configured to allocate a first queue entry to a store memory operation, and is configured to write a first even offset, a first even mask, a first odd offset, and a first odd mask corresponding to the store memory operation to the first entry. A group of contiguous memory locations are logically divided into alternately-addressed even and odd byte ranges. A given store memory operation writes at most one even byte range and one adjacent odd byte range. The first even offset identifies a first even byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation, and the first odd offset identifies a first odd byte range that is potentially written by the store memory operation. The first even mask identifies bytes within the first even byte range that are written by the store memory operation, and wherein the first odd mask identifies bytes within the first odd byte range that are written by the store memory operation.
US07721065B2
A memory management unit including: a first memory portion in which a memory area is allocated; a memory allocation processor for allocating and releasing a memory area in the first memory portion; a second memory portion for storing reserve area information regarding a memory area which should be reserved in an upper or lower address area of the first memory portion; and a learning reservation processor for monitoring the memory area allocation and release executed in the memory portion, allowing the information regarding the memory area which fragments the first memory portion to be stored in the second memory portion as the reserve area information. The learning reservation processor gives an instruction to the memory allocation processor to reserve a memory area according to the reserve area information, and the memory allocation processor reserves the memory area according to the reserve area information.
US07721064B1
Apparatus, methods and computer program products are disclosed to improve allocation of physical memory in a memory limited device when the amount of unallocated memory approaches a threshold. In this situation the disclosed technology will identify memory pages that have substantially the same content, identify the process-contexts that map to the identified memory pages, remap these process-contexts to one of the identical memory pages, recycle all of the other identical memory pages to increase the amount of unallocated memory, and conditions the process-contexts to appropriately trap accesses to the mapped page.
US07721062B1
A system and method for detecting buffer leaks in a files system utilizing consistency points is provided. Upon receipt of a write operation, a buffer check control structure is written to a raw data buffer. The buffer check control structure comprises a set of magic numbers and a consistency point counter identifying the current CP. At write allocation time, the buffer check control structure is examined to determine that the buffer is being committed to disk during the correct CP.
US07721061B1
An embodiment of a method of predicting response time for a storage request begins with a first step of a computing entity storing a training data set. The training data set comprises past performance observations for past storage requests of a storage array. Each past performance observation comprises an observed response time and a feature vector for a particular past storage request. The feature vector includes characteristics that are available external to the storage array. In a second step, the computing entity forms a response time forecaster from the training data set. In the third step, the computing entity applies the response time forecaster to a pending feature vector for a pending storage request to obtain a predicted response time for the pending storage request.
US07721051B2
Method and apparatus to improve cache performance using interarrival times between demand requests are described.
US07721046B2
A system for authenticating a memory card including a capacity switching-type memory card host device including a capacity switch notification module which notifies a memory card targeted for exchanging information that the capacity switching-type memory card host device handles a capacity switching-type memory card, and a capacity switch authentication module which authenticates whether the targeted memory card is the capacity switching-type memory card, a capacity switching-type memory card including a capacity switching-type controller which flags the large-capacity expression register use flag on receipt of notification of being the capacity switching-type memory card host device, and a bus which transmits and receives data between the capacity switching-type memory card host device and the capacity switching-type memory card.
US07721040B2
Systems and computer readable codes for maintaining data structures in accordance with the events of a nonvolatile memory system. At least part of one or more management tables and a future information data structure are stored in a nonvolatile memory. The future information data structure contains records of events expected to occur subsequent to the storing of the future information data structure. When flash memory events occur, those events are handled in accordance with the future information data structure. When the memory system wakes up, the management table(s) is/are retrieved and the records of the future information data structure are compared with the table(s) state. The table(s) is/are updated in accordance with the future information data structure.
US07721031B2
A PCI Express link state management system and method thereof is disclosed. The PCI Express link state management system includes an upstream device, a downstream device and a link. The upstream device outputs a configuration request to the downstream device to change a device power state of the downstream device. At the time, the link is in a first link state. The downstream device outputs a power entering signal to the upstream device and counts a time period. The link enters to a recovery state and further then return to the first link state if the downstream device does not receive a power request acknowledging signal before the time period is expired.
US07721022B2
The invention classifies volumes (e.g., file systems or LUNs) of a data storage system according to application requirements and allocates space for the volumes on storage devices (e.g., hard disk drives) accordingly. A person such as an IT administrator configures the volumes specifying size, type (e.g., file system or SAN LUN), and priority (e.g., high, medium, low, or archive). The host schedules I/O requests to the storage devices in priority queues using the volume definition to match the application requirements and reduce storage seek time between volumes of different priorities. The host also allocates high performance bands of the storage devices to high performance applications and lower performance bands to lower performance applications. In this manner, the data storage system places data on the band of the storage device that best supports its performance needs.
US07721017B2
Apparatus and methods provide for configuring a peripheral device in response to applying defined sets of signals to input/output terminals of the peripheral device, sensing the signals at those input/output terminals after applying the defined sets of signals, and comparing the sensed signals with the defined sets of signals.
US07721013B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for providing a command from a keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) system of a first system to a graphics card of the first system via an existing system interface, sampling data from a frame buffer of the graphics card and providing the sampled data to a sample buffer of the KVM system, and processing the sampled data in the KVM system. Also, data to be displayed at a graphics card may be sent as out-of-band (OOB) data from the KVM system. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07721007B2
The present invention provides a method for transmitting a non-SCSI command via a SCSI command. A CDB for the SCSI command is provided. The CDB includes bytes byte—0, byte—1, byte—2, . . . , byte_n, in which byte—0 includes an opcode for the SCSI command. An opcode for the non-SCSI command is loaded into byte—1. When the non-SCSI command is not greater than a fixed number of bytes, the non-SCSI command is loaded into at least one byte of the CDB, which includes byte—2. Data associated with the non-SCSI command is transmitted via a data phase associated with the SCSI command.
US07721003B2
A system and method to synchronize OSGi bundle inventories between an OSGi bundle server and a client are presented. When a server detects that a client requires a bundle update, the server and client proceed through a data synchronization process prior to invoking in a device management session to provide bundles from the server to the client. During the data synchronization process, the client provides manifest information to the server that allows the server to store an up-to-date client manifest. The server uses the locally stored client manifest to select bundles, along with dependent bundles, to provide to the client. After synchronization, the client enters into a device management session with the server, at which time the server provides the selected bundles to the client based upon the locally stored client manifest.
US07720995B2
In a host within a group, a method for ensuring secure communications is provided. The method involves (a) determining if a group security policy is in place for secure communication between hosts within the group, (b) if the group security policy is in place, advertising routing information to another host within the group, and (c) if the group security policy is not in place, refraining from advertising routing information to the other host. Corresponding apparatus and computer program product embodiments are also provided.
US07720994B2
A method of suppressing the number of PIM messages from extranet receivers is disclosed. Each receiver, before sending a PIM message, first searches for any other receivers other than itself. If there are no other receivers, then the PIM message is sent; otherwise, the receiver suppresses sending the PIM message. PIM Join, triggered Join, and Prune messages may be suppressed. If there are multiple receivers, the PIM messages are sent by a source Extranet receiver located in a provider edge router, for example. The receiver sends the PIM messages for the rest of the Extranet receivers in the provider edge router, and also maintains a counter, ensuring that only one PIM message is sent within a specified time period. As a result, the number of PIM messages traversing core elements of a service provider network may be greatly reduced.
US07720981B2
A controlled device executes processing for device authentication and processing for device registration, receives a response of registration completion from a direct-access management server, and sets an automatic connection flag indicating the registration is completed. When the automatic connection flag is not set, the controlled device establishes an always-on connection session with the direct-access management server after executing the processing for the device authentication and the processing for the device registration. When the automatic connection flag is set, the controlled device skips the processing for the device authentication and the processing for the device registration to enter processing for establishing an always-on connection session. Thus, a controlled device whose registration has been completed can automatically enter the state of an always-on connection with the direct-access management server without performing the processing for the device authentication and the processing for the device registration.
US07720978B2
The present invention discloses a system and method for data communication. In the system and method for data communication, a part of communication peers in the communication system are assigned as super peers, and each super peer forwards message according to its route table. When a communication peer logs in the system, network information of the logged communication peer is saved in a super peer which is logically closest to the logged communication peer through messages forwarded among every super peer. And when an origination communication peer searches for a destination communication peer, the network information of the destination communication peer is saved in a super peer which is logically closest to the destination communication peer through the message forwarded among every super peer in super peer layer. The origination communication peer establishes connection with the destination communication peer based on the network information of the destination communication peer, and implements the data communication through the connection established.
US07720971B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for arbitrating an appropriate back-end server to receive channels of a client connection. Each front-end server in a server farm specifies a back-end server in the server farm that it deems appropriate for receiving channels of a client connection. Each specified back-end server is represented by an arbitration order, for example, a universally unique identifier. A relevant set of potential back-end servers that can receive channels of a client connection is selected according to function configured to minimize performance impact. A load balancing service compares arbitration orders for different back-end servers in the set of potential back-end servers to determine an appropriate back-end server for receiving channels of the client connection.
US07720962B2
A security infrastructure and methods are presented that inhibit the ability of a malicious node from disrupting the normal operations of a peer-to-peer network. The methods of the invention allow both secure and insecure identities to be used by nodes by making them self-verifying. When necessary or opportunistic, ID ownership is validated by piggybacking the validation on existing messages. The probability of connecting initially to a malicious node is reduced by randomly selecting to which node to connect. Further, information from malicious nodes is identified and can be disregarded by maintaining information about prior communications that will require a future response. Denial of service attacks are inhibited by allowing the node to disregard requests when its resource utilization exceeds a predetermined limit. The ability for a malicious node to remove a valid node is reduced by requiring that revocation certificates be signed by the node to be removed.
US07720957B2
Apparatus and storage media for auto-configuration of an internal network interface are disclosed. Embodiments may install an internal VLAN manager in a logically partitioned computer system along with network agents in each of the partitions in the logically partitioned system to facilitate configuring an internal communications network and the corresponding internal network interfaces in each participating partition. In particular, an administrator accesses internal VLAN manager, selects an internal VLAN ID, selects each of the participating partitions, and configures the communications network with global parameters and ranges. The internal VLAN manager then generates partition parameters and incorporates them into messages for each of the partitions selected to participate in the internal network. Each of the participating partitions receives one of the messages and, in response, invokes the corresponding network agent that extracts partition parameters from the message and creates or re-configures an internal network interface based upon the parameters.
US07720955B1
A method for determining performance of an application in a system is described herein. The method includes receiving performance data of the application, the performance data includes a plurality of types of transactions performed by the application, a counted number of transactions for each of the plurality of transaction types as performed by the application, and a total service time by the system of the counted number of transactions of each of the plurality of transaction types; calibrating a performance model of the application in accordance with the received performance data; and calculating an expected performance of the application by the system based on the performance model calibration and the received performance data.
US07720951B2
A method, system, and product are described for alleviating router congestion when the router is processing packets transmitted by computer systems having a congestion notification capability. The router marks packets transmitted between a first computer system and a second computer system when the first and second computer systems have the congestion notification capability. The marking indicates that the router is moderately congested. A marked packet is then received by the first computer system. The router then drops packets transmitted by the first computer system when the packets were transmitted subsequent to the receipt of the marked packet.
US07720943B2
A DSL customer premises equipment modem (DCPE) avoids the requirement of a flash or other static memory for storing an application image or configuration on the modem. The modem instead stores microcode used to boot its chipset and obtain the application image and/or configuration from a remote site, such as the central office (CO). In one possible startup procedure, this microcode initializes the modem's chipset, starts the DSL driver, establishes a data link with the service provider's CO equipment, and downloads the application image and/or the configuration from the CO. Other types of communications devices, such as cellular phones or other portable devices, can perform a similar procedure to obtain an application image from remote source, such as a base station.
US07720937B2
An apparatus for playing media and method of setting resources thereof are disclosed, by which system resources can be precisely controlled in a manner of enabling an application to set a player using specific resources to play a service or component. The present invention includes creating a player controlling media signals, setting at least one specific resource to be used by the created player, selecting a specific player that uses the set specific resource, a executing the set player.
US07720935B2
A storage aggregator is described. In an implementation, a method includes executing a module to determine whether sufficient storage is available to the module to store a particular content item and access a content storage provider over a network to open a client account to obtain additional storage when sufficient storage is not available.
US07720926B2
An information processing system in which a warning is generated in advance when a macro including unsupported functions is executed, realizing improved usability for users. A multi-function apparatus and a server holding at least one macro indicative of a procedure for executing at least one function are connected to each other via a network. A macro referring section provided in the multi-function apparatus acquires a macro held by the second information apparatus. An unsupported function checking section provided in the server detects functions that cannot be realized by the first information apparatus from among functions included in the macro. A warning information providing section provided in the second information apparatus creates warning information relating to the detected unsupported functions and transmits the warning information to the multi-function apparatus. A warning section provided in the multi-function apparatus notifies a user of the transmitted warning information.
US07720925B1
A method for receiving a plurality of messages that includes obtaining the plurality of messages, grouping the plurality of messages into a data structure, generating a system call from a user-level application to a kernel, wherein the system call includes a request for the plurality of message, and returning a reference to the data structure to the user-level application in response to the request, and for each message in the plurality of messages in the data structure: extracting a selected message from the plurality of messages in the data structure using the reference to the data structure by the user-level application, and consuming the selected message by the user-level application.
US07720919B2
In one embodiment, a method includes detecting, by an automated program, an attempt by a recipient of an email addressed to a plurality of addressees that includes the recipient to send a reply-all email. The automated program rejecting the reply-all email based on a pre-set policy rule that limits a number of reply-all email in a thread. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.
US07720910B2
Electronic messages are published through a pub/sub service to subscribing clients. Client applications filter incoming messages according to user predefined criteria, only presenting messages to the user that pass filtering criteria. Messages are preferably Instant Messages transmitted in a SOAP protocol.
US07720907B2
A system for supervisor partitioning of client resources in a subnet communications environment includes a plurality of client nodes, each receiving an allocated set of resources determined by a central authority, which assigns resources to a supervisor key associated with each supervisor of the plurality of client nodes. At each of the client nodes, the allocated set of resources are partitioned using a local supervisor associated therewith, with each supervisor associating one or more resource keys with one or more resources allocated to the corresponding client node, and assigning the one or more resource keys to the one or more applications. The supervisor keys are configured so as to prevent a given supervisor from partitioning resources not allocated to the client node associated therewith. Following the partitioning, communication packets are issued from the one or more applications to a resource provider node without inspection by the corresponding supervisor.
US07720900B2
An apparatus and method for performing floating-point operations, particularly a fused multiply add operation. The apparatus includes a arithmetic logic unit adapted to produce both a high-order part (H) and a low-order part (L) of an intermediate extended result according to H, L=A*B+C, where A, B are input operands and C an addend. Each H, L part is formatted the same as the format of the input operands, and alignment of the resulting fractions is not affected by alignment of the inputs. The apparatus includes an architecture for suppressing left-alignment of the intermediate extended result, such that input operands for a subsequent A*B+C operation remain right-aligned.
US07720898B2
A floating point unit, a central processing unit, and a method are provided for adjusting the exponent of a floating point number. During an addition or subtraction of two floating point numbers, the significand of the floating point result is rounded, and the exponent of the result may be adjusted due to normalization or renormalization. The exponent adjustment due to renormalization or the exponent adjustment due to normalization and renormalization is combined with the significand rounding operation.
US07720881B2
A method and apparatus for managing group based roles in a directory server is described. In one embodiment, a group of entries is defined in the directory server. One or more of the entries possess a group based role. The group based role points to one or more groups. Entries that belong to a group pointed by the group based role also possess the group based role.
US07720872B1
Disclosed herein is an automated software interface mapping tool for determining and documenting caller/provider relationships, data structures, and data transformations as a system logical data model of a single system or across multiple systems in an enterprise. The system logical data model may be stored as a set of structures and data elements in a metadata repository. The metadata repository enables improved impact analysis, documents dependencies, serves as a tool for implementing application rationalization, and aids in the creation of future code for the generation of new applications or systems.
US07720871B2
A media management system for managing a user's media files and information related to such media files and a method of the same. In one aspect, the system and method are operable on a user's computing device. In one aspect, the system comprises a storage management component, a server communication component, a media player component, an instant messaging component, and a media engine component. In one aspect, the method allows a user to browse and/or exchange media files with other users via a network using an instant messaging component.
US07720868B2
Methods and computer-readable media are provided for assisting with the creation of an extensible markup language (“XML”) path language (“XPath”) expression. According to one aspect, an application program for editing XSLT stylesheets provides a user interface that assists with the creation and editing of XPath expressions. When an XPath expression is being created, a user interface is displayed that includes the valid XPath tokens for the expression being created. As characters are entered into the expression, the valid XPath tokens are continually identified for the expression and the contents of the user interface control are updated. If one of the items displayed in the user interface control is selected, the XPath token corresponding to the selected item is inserted into the XPath expression.
US07720860B2
Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A pulse in an inverted index refers to a group of items that do not occur in any other pulse in the index. When processing a query against an inverted index in which pulses are present, the query is processed against a single pulse. The end of the pulse is determined based on the characteristics of the pulse and the linked list nodes that comprise the postings lists from which the index was generated. In some embodiments, index updates are applied to the query result obtained from a single pulse to provide an efficient and up to date query result.
US07720851B2
A context-based concept fusion method detects a first concept in an image record. The method includes automatically determining at least one other concept in the image record which has a contextual relationship with the first concept and which is to be labeled by a user of the method; and labeling the at least one other concept by the user with a ground truth label to be used in the context-based concept fusion method to improve detection of the first concept in the image record.
US07720847B2
An apparatus, a computer program and a computerized method for determining constituent words of a compound word are provided. Constituent words constitute a compound word. When the constituent words comply to split decision criteria then the constituent words can be used in a separate form. The separate form of the constituent words is used in the search to retrieve the related documents from the document collection.
US07720838B1
Methods and apparatus for joining two or more tables are disclosed. A query including a join query is received, where the join query requests that a new table be generated from data obtained from two or more tables, where the two or more tables are stored at two or more different data sources. Data from the tables is retrieved corresponding to the query. A new table is then generated from the retrieved data.
US07720834B2
Application launching on a computer via indexed data. Based on a search term entered by a user, the computer searches an index containing metadata representative of one or more applications installed on the computer. A user interface on the computer's display has a window for displaying the results of searching the index. In addition, the user interface receives user input to select an application from the search results to be initiated. The computer is responsive to the user input via the user interface for initiating the selected application installed on the computer. A computer-readable medium including a persistent component, an index component, a query component, and an execution component embodies further aspects of the invention.
US07720831B2
Embodiments are provided to use metadata to provide readable and/or writeable regions of a multi-dimensional space. In an embodiment, metadata can be used to define readable and/or writeable regions of a multi-dimensional data store. The various embodiments also use relational and/or multi-dimensional representations to resolve and validate readable and/or writeable regions of a multi-dimensional space. Metadata can also be used to in conjunction with writeback operations.
US07720824B2
A dynamic range constraint is defined that has one or more limits that are computed from data residing in the database. In a first embodiment, a dynamic range constraint is defined for a database column that includes at least one limit that is computed from data within that column. In a second embodiment, a dynamic range constraint is defined for a database column that includes at least one limit that is computed from data in a different database column. The limits may be computed using any suitable heuristic or criteria, including statistical analysis of the data in the database. In this manner a range constraint for a column may evolve automatically as the data in the database changes.
US07720823B1
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing a technique for repairing links in a file. The file can contain one or more links, each link referring to a target file. For one or more of the links, a file identifier is stored that uniquely identifies the target. Alternatively, for one or more of the links, information is stored that identifies an old target and a new target for the link. The links can be repaired based on the stored information. The stored information can be used to identify changes to the links that occurred while the file containing the link was in a non-modifiable state, for example, in a deactivated state.
US07720816B2
A system and a method for managing log information. The system includes an input module that receives log information on a data renewal and a control module that stores a renewed data image based on the received log information when a page area where the renewed data exists is a hotspot, wherein the control module manages a hotspot control list (HSCL) including hotspot managing information and address information on a storage area in which the renewed data image is stored.
US07720815B1
Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for implementing circular replication among nodes. In a representative example, a plurality of nodes are arranged in a circular replication configuration. Each of the nodes has a logfile indicating storage of a plurality of entries, where each of the nodes receives the entries from a plurality of external devices. The entries received by a respective one of the nodes are replicated in the remaining ones of the nodes via circular replication.
US07720794B2
Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business whereby managed resources and/or data are identified using a model based on object-oriented techniques. A resource hierarchy is defined for a set of resources/data to be managed, and naming rules are associated with classes in this hierarchy. The naming rules for a particular class describe how to uniquely identify resources of that class among more than one management system and in a way that is independent of the management system. The identities are structured strings created using the naming rules of the class to which the resource/data belongs. Structural restrictions placed on the structured strings allow any two identities to be compared for equality (using, for example, a simple string comparison).
US07720793B2
In an embodiment, there is disclosed a system for selectively processing test data using subscriptions in a multi-formatter architecture. The system includes a set of designators specifying types of data; a set of formatters for writing data to files; and a monitor for polling the formatters for designators and for reviewing the data. In an embodiment, a method of selectively processing test data using subscriptions in a multi-formatter architecture is disclosed. The method includes specifying types of data with a set of designators; polling each one of a set of data formatters to identify specified types of data needed for writing data to files; and reviewing data to identify data corresponding to the designators identified in the polling of the formatters; and storing data corresponding to the designators identified in the polling of the formatters. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US07720790B2
Techniques are provided for (1) extending SQL to support direct invocation of frequent itemset operations, (2) improving the performance of frequent itemset operations by clustering itemset combinations to more efficiently use previously produced results, and (3) making on-the-fly selection of the occurrence counting technique to use during each phase of a multiple phase frequent itemset operation. When directly invoked in an SQL statement, a frequent itemset operation may receive input from results of operations specified in the SQL statement, and provide its results directly to other operations specified in the SQL statement. By clustering itemset combinations, resources may be used more efficiently by retaining intermediate information as long as it is useful, and then discarding it to free up volatile memory. Dynamically selecting an occurrence counting technique allows a single frequent itemset operation to change the occurrence counting technique that it is using midstream, based on cost considerations and/or environmental conditions.
US07720771B1
An embodiment of a method of dividing past computing instances into predictable and unpredictable sets begins with a first step of a computing entity storing a training data set comprising past computing instances. Each past computing instance comprises attributes and a past computing value. In a second step, the computing entity separates the training data set into a predictable set of past computing instances and an unpredictable set of past computing instances. According to an embodiment, a method of predicting a computing value begins with the first and second steps. The method of predicting the computing value continues with a third step of the computing entity forming a predictor from the predictable set of past computing instances. In a fourth step, the computing entity applies the predictor to a pending computing instance that meets a predictability test to determine a predicted value for the pending computing instance.
US07720760B1
A method for authenticating a user, the method including: receiving a first value associated with an account from the user, receiving a second value associated with the account from an automated system, comparing the first value with the second value to generate a comparison, and authenticating the user based on the comparison.
US07720748B2
A method of multi-enterprise optimization at a buyer computer includes accessing a forecasted demand for at least one item and generating one or more proposed flexible trade contracts using the forecasted demand for the item. The proposed flexible trade contract is communicated to a seller computer and subsequently executed after acceptance of the proposed flexible trade contract at the seller computer to create a flexible trade contract. Each proposed flexible trade contract may be a forward contract, an option contract, or a flexible forward contract.
US07720745B2
An auction method for specifying catalog contents for packaging and pushing to an electronic auction. The auction method is implemented in an electronic commerce exchange. The auction method includes the steps of specifying catalog contents for packaging for an auction operation hosted on the electronic exchange. Initial terms for the sale of the contents are then specified. The auction is then automatically initiated using the previously specified contents and the previously specified terms. The auction proceeds with the receiving of bids for the contents from remote bidders. The bids are received via a distributed computing network into which the electronic commerce exchange is communicatively coupled. A winning bid is selected by determining a most competitive bid out of the bids received for the contents. A sale of the contents is then completed based upon the terms of the most competitive bid.
US07720742B1
The system and method of the preferred embodiment supports trading of securities over the Internet both on national exchanges and outside the national exchanges. The preferred embodiment supports an improved human interface and a continuous display of real-time stock quotes on the user's computer screen. The ergonomic graphical user interface (GUI) of the preferred embodiment includes several functional benefits in comparison with existing on-line consumer trading systems. In the preferred embodiment, the users are subscribers to a securities trading service offered over the Internet. Preferably, each subscriber to this service is simultaneously connected from his own computer to a first system which provides user-to-user trading capabilities and to a second system which is a broker/dealer system of his/her choice. The system providing the user-to-user trading services preferably includes a root server and a hierarchical network of replicated servers supporting replicated databases. The user-to-user system provides real-time continuously updated stock information and facilitates user-to-user trades that have been approved by the broker/dealer systems with which it interacts. Users of the preferred system can trade securities with other users of the system. As part of this user-to-user trading, a user can accept a buy or sell offer at the terms offered or he can initiate a counteroffer and negotiate a trade.
US07720734B2
A method for managing an investment vehicle. The investment vehicle issues multiple debt instruments to a plurality of investors. The debt instruments have different liability characteristics. The proceeds of the debt instruments are invested in assets. From time to time, liabilities on the debt instruments and the credit quality of the assets is reevaluated, to ensure that the cash flows generated by the portfolio, disregarding fair market value of the assets, will be sufficient to pay timely principal and interest on the liabilities. In response to the reevaluating, the capital structure of the investment vehicle is adjusted to maintain a desired agency rating for the debt instruments.
US07720730B2
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for capturing consumer loan application data are disclosed herein. Embodiments of the invention provide mechanisms for capturing consumer loan application data corresponding to a plurality of consumer loan application types within a single software application, and for the navigation of a user through a series of linked user interface displays to facilitate the capture of relevant information. In addition, the network environment of methodologies in accordance with the teachings of the present invention provides for the storage of data in a relational database management system that enables previously entered data to pre-populate data fields of subsequent user interface displays and/or subsequent consumer loan applications without the necessity to re-enter the data.
US07720729B2
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate generation and/or negotiation of an agreement document via an agreement modeling system. According to one embodiment, agreement information associated with an agreement between a party and a counter-party is determined. An agreement document is generated in accordance with the agreement information, and it is automatically arranged for the agreement document to be received by the party and/or the counter-party. For example, an agreement modeling system controller may transmit the agreement document to the counter-party via an electronic mail address.
US07720723B2
An improved user interface and method are provided for presenting recommendations to a user when the user adds an item to a shopping cart. In response to the shopping cart add event, a page generation process generates and returns a page that includes a recommendations portion and a condensed view of the shopping cart. The recommendations portion preferably includes multiple recommendation sections, each of which displays a different respective set of recommended items selected according to a different respective recommendation or selection algorithm (e.g., recommendations based on shopping cart contents, recommendations based on purchase history, etc.). The condensed shopping cart view preferably lacks controls for editing the shopping cart, and lacks certain types of product information, making more screen real estate available for the display of the recommendations content. A link to a full shopping cart page allows the user to edit the shopping cart and view expanded product descriptions.
US07720708B1
An exemplary system and method are provided to sell a plurality of limited perishable products. The method may include offering to sell the first perishable product at first defined conditions that include an initial price and a minimum refund schedule; or an initial price, an incentive relative to another offer to sell the product, and a purchaser agreement to receive a directed offer. The method may include receiving an acceptance from a first purchaser; and making the first perishable product again available for sale if a first refund opportunity is exercised by purchaser. The method may include determining and offering a directed offer related to the first perishable product that may include a hold incentive or a release incentive option. The method may continue for additional products of the limited perishable products that are of the same (or similar) type and each having the same (or similar) expiration date.
US07720704B2
A computer-implemented method of managing route transactions in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is provided. The method includes calling a route form from an ERP server. The route form graphically illustrates at least one of a plurality of related tables corresponding to route processes, as well as an approval control input element to approve of a route transaction corresponding to the route processes. Upon receiving a user input at the approval control input element of the route form, the route transaction can be approved. Then, the method includes automatically implementing route transaction executing steps to each of the plurality of related route tables.
US07720700B2
A system and method processes unpaid healthcare claims related to reimbursement of a provision of healthcare to a patient in response to a rejection, a denial, or a lack of response to a submitted claim. An activity code is selected from a predetermined activity code set including codes identifying processing to be performed concerning rejected claim data in response to a received notification of a claim denial or rejection. The selected activity code is assigned to rejected claim data associated with the received notification. A task is scheduled, including performing processing concerning the rejected claim data, to derive corrected claim data including claim data supplemental to the rejected claim data and/or amended rejected claim data, in response to the assigned selected activity code. The corrected claim data is prepared for submission to a payer organization for payment.
US07720695B2
An integrated health care delivery network with enabling software and network technology to maximize bed resources, manage varying census levels, and avoid patient diversions through real-time monitoring, automation and communication, is disclosed. Preferably, the present invention is embodied in a bed management system that interfaces with and complements existing Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) systems. The bed management system is an easy-to-use business intelligence application that is designed to allow administrators, clinicians and managers to easily access, analyze and display real-time patient and bed availability information from ancillary information systems, databases and spreadsheets. It enables users to see trends and relationships in hospital (bed) management data directly from their desktop personal computers.
US07720694B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for communicating pharmaceutical verification information between a server and a node using a network. A node includes a pharmaceutical identification and verification system. The verification information includes a known spectral signature of a known pharmaceutical and a corresponding known pharmaceutical name and dosage strength of the known pharmaceutical. The server stores the verification information in a server database. The node receives the verification information from the server, stores the verification information in the client database, reads a pharmaceutical name and dosage strength from a container enclosing a pharmaceutical, obtains a detected spectral signature for the pharmaceutical, and compares the detected spectral signature to the at least one known spectral signature. The pharmaceutical identification and verification system includes a static multimodal multiplex spectrometer. The verification information can also include a spectral signature of a known container.
US07720693B2
A diagnosis support method capable of promoting upload of a large amount of case image data. This method includes the steps of: transmitting case image data and case region information from a provider to a server in order to register case images; recording the case image data and so on; transmitting the case region information from a requester to the server in order to refer to a case image; retrieving the case image data; transmitting list information of the case images; displaying the list of the case images; identifying a selected case image; retrieving the case image data and incrementing a number of times of use; transmitting the retrieved case image data; displaying the case image; and transferring the amount of money in accordance with the number of times of use of the respective case image data to the account of the provider.
US07720685B2
To automate the work of recognizing a guest, check the appointment, notify a host of the arrival of the guest and conduct the guest to a designated place, a robot having a function to autonomously travel is equipped with camera/microphone for recognizing a guest at least according to image information. The system comprises management database adapted to communicate with the robot and equipped with an information database for identifying the recognized guest, and identifies the guest according to the information obtained from the camera/microphone and management database. The robot recognizes the guest from the image thereof, and the recognized guest is identified and verified by comparing the image of the visitor with the information contained in the database so that the robot can automatically conduct the guest to the designated meeting room according to the information of the appointment stored in the database.
US07720684B2
A one-step correction mechanism for voice interaction is provided. Correction of a previous state is enabled simultaneously with recognition in a current or subsequent state. An application is decomposed into a set of tasks. Each task is associated with the collection of one piece of information. Each task may be in a different state. At any point during the interaction, while a task/state pair is active, the dialog manager may enable multiple other task/state pairs to be active in latent fashion. The application developer may then use those facilities or resources to the active task/state and the latent task/state pairs depending on contextual condition of the interaction state of the application.
US07720683B1
A speech recognition technique is described that has the dual benefits of not requiring collection of recordings for training while using computational resources that are cost-compatible with consumer electronic products. Methods are described for improving the recognition accuracy of a recognizer by developer interaction with a design tool that iterates the recognition data during development of a recognition set of utterances and that allows controlling and minimizing the computational resources required to implement the recognizer in hardware.
US07720679B2
Provided is a method for canceling background noise of a sound source other than a target direction sound source in order to realize highly accurate speech recognition, and a system using the same. In terms of directional characteristics of a microphone array, due to a capability of approximating a power distribution of each angle of each of possible various sound source directions by use of a sum of coefficient multiples of a base form angle power distribution of a target sound source measured beforehand by base form angle by using a base form sound, and power distribution of a non-directional background sound by base form, only a component of the target sound source direction is extracted at a noise suppression part. In addition, when the target sound source direction is unknown, at a sound source localization part, a distribution for minimizing the approximate residual is selected from base form angle power distributions of various sound source directions to assume a target sound source direction. Further, maximum likelihood estimation is executed by using voice data of the component of the sound source direction passed through these processes, and a voice model obtained by predetermined modeling of the voice data, and speech recognition is carried out based on an obtained assumption value.
US07720678B2
Systems and methods are described for a speech system that manages multiple grammars from one or more speech-enabled applications. The speech system includes a speech server that supports different grammars and different types of grammars by exposing several methods to the speech-enabled applications. The speech server supports static grammars that do not change and dynamic grammars that may change after a commit. The speech server provides persistence by supporting persistent grammars that enable a user to issue a command to an application even when the application is not loaded. In such a circumstance, the application is automatically launched and the command is processed. The speech server may enable or disable a grammar in order to limit confusion between grammars. Global and yielding grammars are also supported by the speech server. Global grammars are always active (e.g., “call 9-1-1”) while yielding grammars may be deactivated when an interaction whose grammar requires priority is active.
US07720668B2
A business process simulation system for scheduling token arrival in a business process simulation is provided. The system includes a frequency module for receiving user input defining a frequency of token arrival; a duration module for receiving user input defining at least one repeatable valid duration of availability to receive tokens; an exemption module for receiving user input defining an exemption duration within the availability duration; and a timer module for receiving user input defining a recurring timer calendar for the business process simulation. The system also includes a token scheduling controller, wherein the token scheduling controller is adapted to process instructions corresponding to the user inputs and sending token scheduling instructions corresponding to the user-defined parameters to the business process simulation.
US07720657B1
Methods and systems for the design and execution of an aerospace or aeronautic system are provided. The aerospace or aeronautic system may incorporate planetary environment models and models of equations of motion. The planetary environment models mathematically represent planetary environment specifications, such as atmosphere and wind. Atmosphere models include standard day atmosphere models and non-standard day atmosphere models, and wind models include continuous wind turbulence models and discrete wind turbulence models. The models of equations of motion include models of three-degree-of-freedom equations of motion with variable mass and models for six-degree-of-freedom equations of motion with variable mass. As a result, the present invention can design and execute a target system more accurately than the conventional system that provides only standard day planetary environment models, continuous wind turbulence models, or fixed mass equations of motion models.
US07720647B2
An exemplary method for filtering a point cloud is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: acquiring a point cloud from a point cloud obtaining device; identifying an outmost point on each of surface edges of the point cloud in a coordinate system; determining a cubical figure that confines the point cloud and intersects at surface points of the point cloud; deriving the length, the width and the height of the cubical figure; mapping a grid on the cubical figure of the point cloud and obtaining a plurality of grid squares; and processing points in each of the grid squares to retain a selected point having a smallest distance from a center of the grid square and delete redundant points in the grid square, thereby yielding a filtered point cloud. A related system is also disclosed.
US07720638B2
A method for diagnosis of functional faults in a functional architecture, including a unit of functions connected to electronic components, producing and using data, at least one datum of which can adopt a fixed pre-determined value, following occurrence of an erroneous functioning of at least one of the components of the unit. The method, while having a unit of functions and carrying out a function for which the input and output data can be assigned to sensors or actuators, determines particular values during which the particular values corresponding to functional faults for the sensors and actuators are listed and generates the functional diagnostic for the function as a function of the lists determined during the determining.
US07720633B2
A method and apparatus for creating a bivariate histogram with a plurality of variables using impulse noise data is disclosed. The bivariate histogram describes the joint statistics between at least two of the variables. Also disclosed is an impulse noise monitor (INM) in communication with an impulse noise sensor (INS). The INM receives error data from the INS and creates a bivariate histogram with a plurality of variables using the error data. Included is a method for providing a bivariate histogram with an impulse noise length (IL) and an impulse noise inter-arrival time (IAT) for a plurality of impulse noise events. The IL and the IAT are each measured in integer multiples of discrete multi-tone symbols, and the bivariate histogram is used to determine a minimum impulse noise protection.
US07720627B1
A semiconductor device that may include temperature sensing circuits is disclosed. The temperature sensing circuits may be used to control various parameters, such as internal regulated supply voltages, internal refresh frequency, a word line low voltage, or the like. In this way, operating specifications of a semiconductor device at worst case temperatures may be met without compromising performance at normal operating temperatures. Each temperature sensing circuit may include a selectable temperature threshold value as well as a selectable temperature hysteresis value. In this way, temperature performance characteristics may be finely tuned. Furthermore, a method of testing the temperature sensing circuits is disclosed in which a current value may be monitored and temperature threshold values and temperature hysteresis values may be thereby determined.
US07720621B2
A method and system for applying multiple voltage droop detection and instruction throttling instances with customized thresholds across semiconductor chips. Environmental parameters are detected for various locations on a chip, and timing margins are determined for each location on the chip. An acceptable voltage droop for each location is determined based on the environmental parameters and the timing margins for the corresponding location. A droop threshold is then determined for each location based on the corresponding acceptable voltage droop determined for the corresponding location.
US07720617B2
A method of obtaining at least one representation of a characteristic function of a sensor from a test fluid during calibration of the sensor according to a sensor model having a transfer function operating on flow rate, at least one sensor property and at least one fluid property and employing the at least one representation of the characteristic function to determine flow rates through the sensor during operation with an arbitrary fluid.
US07720606B2
Natural-phenomenological information is personalized to the unique requirements of a subscriber and distributed to the subscriber. Natural-phenomenological data is gathered from a variety of sources, such as current ground observations, forecast conditions, satellite images, and radar data. Personal preferences of the subscribers are also gathered and stored, such as activities of the subscriber, geographic locations of the activities, sensitivities of the subscriber to natural-phenomenological conditions, calendar information of the subscriber, and modes of delivery. The personal preferences of the subscriber are used as a filter to identify the natural-phenomenological data that is particularly useful to the subscriber, and the resulting information is delivered to the subscriber. The subscriber identifies the destination device that the information is delivered to. The invention is extensible to support new sources of natural-phenomenological information and new output devices. Electronic delivery of the personalized natural-phenomenological information can be through any number of a variety of output mediums, including pagers, text to voice synthesizers to create an audio stream for playback either via a telephone or a personal digital assistant (PDA), a multimedia-enabled computer, email, computer display monitors, PDA, and a PCS phone.
US07720595B2
An abnormality diagnostic device for an air-fuel ratio sensor that detects the air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine is provided. The abnormality diagnostic device includes: a device that an device that models a system extending from a fuel injection valve to the air-fuel ratio sensor by using a first order response delay element and a waste time element, and that identifies at least a waste time of the waste time element based on an input given to the air-fuel ratio sensor and an output obtained from the air-fuel ratio sensor; and another device that performs determination about an abnormality of the waste time based on the identified waste time.
US07720593B2
A system and method for controlling operation of a multiple cylinder direct injection internal combustion engine include injecting fuel directly into the combustion chamber during the exhaust stroke at high engine speeds and loads to reduce the effect of intake airflow on the injection spray and improve fuel-air mixture homogeneity.
US07720584B2
In a steering apparatus for a vehicle, a target sub steering angle θSREF is set by a target-sub-steering-angle setting unit on the basis of an output θH of a steering-wheel-angle detection unit and a transmission characteristic f(θH) of a transmission-characteristic setting unit, and a target current IREF is set by a target-current setting unit on the basis of the target sub steering angle θSREF and an output θS of the sub-steering-angle detection unit. Current control unit controls a current which flows through an electric motor of a sub-steering-angle superposition mechanism, so that the target current IREF and a current IS of current detection unit may agree.
US07720579B2
In exemplary embodiments, braking of an airplane is controlled during a rejected takeoff. A rejected takeoff of an airplane from a runway is initiated. Position of the airplane is determined, such as by inputting aircraft position from a global positioning system. Distance remaining on the runway is determined. Deceleration to stop the aircraft in the determined distance remaining on the runway is calculated, and the calculated deceleration is provided to an autobraking system of the airplane. When the aircraft can not be stopped in the determined distance remaining on the runway, a predetermined deceleration that correlates to maximum braking may be provided to the aircraft's autobraking system. The calculated deceleration may be provided to the autobraking system until a pilot takes command of the aircraft's brakes or the aircraft has stopped.
US07720570B2
Systems, methods and devices for the remote control of a robot which incorporates interchangeable tool heads. Although applicable to many different industries, the core structure of the system includes a robot with a tool head interface for mechanically, electrically and operatively interconnecting a plurality of interchangeable tool heads to perform various work functions. The robot and tool head may include several levels of digital feedback (local, remote and wide area) depending on the application. The systems include a single umbilical cord to send power, air, and communications signals between the robot and a remote computer. Additionally, all communication (including video) is preferably sent in a digital format. Finally, a GUI running on the remote computer automatically queries and identifies all of the various devices on the network and automatically configures its user options to parallel the installed devices. Systems according to the preferred embodiments find particular application in the pipeline arts. For example, interchangeable tool heads may be designed to facilitate inspection, debris clearing, cleaning, relining, lateral cutting after relining, mapping, and various other common pipeline-related tasks.
US07720569B2
An adaptive interface is provided that is capable of brokering requests from a diverse set of customer host systems to a diverse set of backend servers (or backend device or backend automation system) controlling product dispensing devices and/or systems. The interface may be fully configurable and extensible (i.e., there is a lot of control over the behavior, and the interface can support future features without requiring code changes). Two areas of extensibility of the interface may be adapting to new message formats from the same or new host systems, and supporting new backend services.
US07720564B2
A transport system. The transport system comprises a first interbay component, a second interbay component, a plurality of intrabay components, and a route controller. The first and second interbay components transport the vehicles between the tool bays. Each of the intrabay components, linked with the second interbay component, transports the vehicles within one of the tool bays. Additionally, the intrabay component does not link with the first interbay component directly. The route controller estimates a transport cost for transporting the vehicle via the second interbay device, and determines whether the vehicle is to be transported via the first or second interbay component according to the estimated transport cost.
US07720562B2
A polishing method enables to initiation a second polishing step of a workpiece with an optimal thickness of an uppermost-layer film to be polished. The polishing method comprises: measuring a thickness of an uppermost-layer film, and then carrying out a first polishing step to polish the uppermost-layer film partway and a second polishing step to polish the remaining uppermost-layer film and a next-layer film; determining the polishing rates of the uppermost-layer film in the first and second polishing steps; and measuring a thickness of an uppermost-layer film of a predetermined nth workpiece and setting a processing time for the first polishing step of the nth workpiece or a next predetermined nth workpiece.
US07720550B2
Electrical medical leads having active fixation electrodes, particularly helix electrodes intended to be screwed into body tissue, e.g., the heart, are disclosed having selectively applied insulation to optimize exposed electrode surface area and dispose the exposed electrode surface area toward tissue that is less traumatized by injury caused by screwing in the fixation helix. In a preferred fabrication method, an outer helical surface is masked by contact with a masking tube while a dielectric coating is applied to the inner helical surface of the coil turns of the helix, and the masking tube is removed when the dielectric coating has set. In one variation, at least one aperture is formed through the masking tube sidewall exposing an area of the outer helical surface thereby interrupting the uninsulated outer helical electrode.
US07720539B2
A method and a multichannel implantable device are described for partial or complete restoration of impaired gastrointestinal motility, or for disturbing and/or partially or completely blocking normal gastrointestinal motility using one or multiple microsystem-controlled channels of circumferentially arranged sets of two or more electrodes which provide externally-invoked synchronized electrical signals to the smooth muscles via the neural pathways.
US07720526B1
Light from a tissue sample undergoes self-interference on a detector. A low coherence light source may illuminate the sample, and an interferometer receives light from the sample, divides and directs the received light along two paths, phase-delaying one and recombining the beams on a detector to form a signal. A processor coordinated with the phase delay and optionally with spatial scanning or detector array addresses, converts the signal to a tomographic image. Using self-interfering radiation from the sample, rather than interference of a reference source and a return signal, permits imaging with light naturally emitted by the sample, or with wavelength-shifted, delayed or induced light signals, allowing new diagnostic imaging modalities. The processor may create images in registry from different (for example, close but separable) wavelengths. Systems may also operate without an illumination source or may apply other stimuli to evoke emission from the sample.
US07720516B2
A non-invasive optical sensor which uses the motion signal to calculate the physiological characteristic being measured. For pulse oximetry, a least squares or a ratio-of-ratios technique can be applied to the motion signal itself. This is made possible by selecting a site on the patient where variations in motion produce signals of two wavelengths which are sufficiently correlated. In particular, it has been determined that a sensor placed on a nail, in particular a thumbnail, exhibits the characteristics of having the red and infrared signals correlated when used for pulse oximetry, and the resulting signals correlate to arterial oxygen saturation.
US07720510B2
An apparatus and method are provided for communicating data between a first and a second terminal unit, wherein at least one of the terminal units is a mobile terminal unit. The apparatus includes a base station and a number of antenna units each linked to the base station. The base station has a transmitter that transmits modulated data signals to each of the antenna units, a receiver that receives modulated data signals forwarded by at least one of the antenna units, demodulator that demodulates received modulated data signals that have been modulated according to a predetermined modulation scheme. In the predetermined modulation scheme, successive blocks of modulated data are arranged such that a predetermined minimum time period elapses between the arrival, at the receiver, of a first and the arrival of a second of the successive modulated data blocks and wherein, in operation, the predetermined minimum time period being adjusted based on the maximum delay at the receiver between the arrival of a modulated data block a first antenna unit to a time of arrival of the same modulated data block of a different antenna unit.
US07720505B2
A personal lifestyle device (PLD) includes a communication module, a memory device, and a control module. The communication module communicates with a wireless network. The memory device stores authentication information that authorizes communication between the PLD and at least one of the wireless network and a lifestyle service provider, and a profile comprising a lifestyle service ordered from the lifestyle service provider using the PLD. The control module communicates with the communication module and the memory device, automatically establishes communication between the PLD and at least one of the wireless network and the lifestyle service provider using the authentication information, automatically receives a unicast for the lifestyle service from the lifestyle service provider, wherein the unicast is selectively based on the profile, and selectively transmits an order for the lifestyle service to the lifestyle service provider.
US07720494B2
A method of applying for a communication service and a communication terminal thereof are discussed. According to an embodiment, the method includes generating, by a terminal, at least one message including information necessary for the opening; transmitting the generated message to a server that supports the opening of the communication service; connecting a call for the opening between the server and the terminal based on the message received by the server; and performing an opening process of the communication service through the connected call.
US07720484B2
A proxy translator for use in a wireless network. The proxy translator re-transmits forward and reverse channel signals between a base station and mobile stations. The proxy translator comprises a first proxy mobile station that communicate with a base station and a proxy base transceiver subsystem (BTS) that communicates with a first mobile station. The first proxy mobile station receives forward channel signals intended for the first mobile station and transfers them to the proxy BTS for re-transmission to the first mobile station. The proxy BTS receives reverse channel signals from the first mobile station and transfers them to the first proxy mobile station for re-transmission to the base station.
US07720470B2
Dedicated pilot signals are transmitted from a transmitting device to a receiving device through a multicarrier MIMO channel in addition to data signals and common pilot signals. The dedicated pilot signals may be used by the receiving device to validate whether a predetermined beamforming matrix (i.e., a beamforming matrix identified by the receiving device) was used by the transmitting device to precode the transmitted data. If a different beamforming matrix was used for the preceding, the receiving device may use this matrix to demodulate the received data.
US07720469B2
A wireless telecommunication device, a method of frequency calibrating a wireless telecommunication device, and a computer program are provided. The method comprises: receiving a reference radio signal of the wireless telecommunications system; frequency synchronizing the wireless telecommunication device with the reference radio signal by adjusting a control parameter controlling a reference frequency generated by a reference frequency generator; measuring a temperature parameter characterizing the temperature of the reference frequency generator; and generating calibration information for calibrating the wireless telecommunication device on the basis of the control parameter and the temperature parameter.
US07720464B2
Described is a system and method for providing differentiated service levels to wireless devices in a wireless network. The method comprises receiving, on a first network arrangement connected to a network, an authentication request from a wireless device. The network uses a first access protocol having a plurality of access categories and the wireless device uses a second access protocol. The authentication request including one of the plurality of access categories. The wireless device is verified to ensure that it is authorized to communicate at the one of the plurality of access categories. When the wireless device is verified as authorized, a response is communicated to a second network arrangement that indicates the one of the plurality of access categories is used for communications with the wireless device.
US07720463B2
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer program products for providing third party control of access to media content available via broadcast and multicast service (BCMCS). According to one method, control of access to streaming media content to a subscriber terminal via a BCMCS may be implemented at a network element, such as an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server or a BCMCS controller. The method may include receiving a message associated with a request for access to streaming media content by a requesting mobile subscriber. Mobile subscriber identification and requested content identification information are determined from the message. The mobile subscriber identification is used to identify a content viewing rule for the requesting mobile subscriber. The content identification is used to determine whether allowing the subscriber to view the content would violate the content viewing rule.
US07720442B2
A system and method for enhanced use of voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) tests of an avionic radio and antenna is disclosed. A signal processor/generator conducts a VSWR test of an antenna and archives the result within a database. Multiple tests are conducted spanning periods of operation of the radio. Tests may also be conducted at multiple frequencies, such as commonly used channels of communication. Results are uploaded to an external diagnostic device and analyzed to evaluate deterioration of the antenna. Analysis may including comparing test results to threshold values and analyzing test results for frequency and time dependent trends.
US07720428B2
To provide a toner recovery apparatus including: a toner transporting duct; and an endless toner transporting belt; wherein the toner transporting belt is rotated in a loop form in such a way that it descends in a region where the outer circumferential surface faces a ceiling surface of the toner transporting duct and that it rises in a region where the outer circumferential surface of the toner transporting belt faces a bottom surface of the toner transporting duct, the toner recovery apparatus transports the residual toner to the outlet by holding the toner by the convex parts, spaces formed between convex parts and the bottom surface of the toner transporting duct, and the toner comprises a binding resin, releasing agent, coloring material and external additive, and torque T (mNm) measured by torque measurement method using a conical rotor in a space ratio of 50% to 60% is 1.0 to 2.5.
US07720420B2
A fixing device thermally fixes an image developed on a recording sheet. The fixing device includes: a heating roller heated by a heat source and having a first end side and a second end side with respect to an axial direction; a power supply member for supplying the heat source with power for use in heating the heating roller; a first bearing formed of a conductive material, attached to the first end side of the heating roller and connected to a ground; and an second bearing formed of an insulating material and attached to the second end side of the heating roller. The power supply member is disposed at the second end side of the heating roller.
US07720419B2
A glossy image forming system for forming a glossy image on a recording material having a surface resin material layer, the glossy image forming system includes a fixing device for fixing an unfixed toner image formed on a surface of the recording material; a heaterless pressing device for pressing the recording material having the toner image fixed by the fixing device; a smoothing device for smoothing the surface of the recording material pressed by the heaterless pressing device with a pressure smaller than a pressure applied by the heaterless pressing device.
US07720415B2
An image forming apparatus and methods of supporting and adjusting a position of a fixing unit thereof. The apparatus includes a frame having a first side plate and a second side plate opposing the first side plate, a first unit holding member engaged with the first side plate by a combination of a guide groove and a guide protrusion, a second unit holding member attached to the second side plate, a detachable unit located between the first and second side plates and held by the first and second unit holding members, and a position adjustment member to move the first unit holding member in a longitudinal direction of the guide groove to adjust a position of the detachable unit. The position adjustment member engages the first unit holding member at a position vertically aligned with a center of gravity G of the detachable unit.
US07720414B2
In one embodiment, the fixing apparatus of the present invention is a fixing apparatus in which while recording paper is transported sandwiched between a heating roller and a pressure roller that are pressed against each other, the recording paper is guided by a guide member, and heat and pressure are applied to the recording paper to fix toner on the recording paper, the fixing apparatus configured with the guide member rotatably provided such that the guide member can be removed from the transport path of the recording paper, and the center of rotational movement of the guide member matched with a shaft of the heating roller or a shaft of the pressure roller.
US07720410B2
A device for manufacturing a printer cartridge, the printer cartridge having a doctor blade and a developer roller, the doctor blade being configured to regulate the amount of toner delivered to the developer roller, the device comprising: (a) first surface, the first surface lying on a first plane; and (b) a second surface positioned opposite the first surface, the second surface lying on a second plane, the first and the second plane being parallel to each other, the second surface comprising a flat portion, the flat portion being configured to contact a portion of the doctor blade, wherein when the flat portion contacts the doctor blade portion, the device applies pressure to the doctor blade portion.
US07720403B2
If a designation detector detects one of icons representing peripheral equipment (image forming apparatuses) displayed on a monitor screen by a display controller in response to operator's manipulation, an operation information acquirer acquires, from the respective peripheral equipment, operation information indicating a job status of the respective peripheral equipment represented by all the icons displayed on the monitor screen. If it is judged that the peripheral equipment represented by the icon whose designation has been detected by the designation detector is in a state of processing a job, the display controller changes the display format of the icon representing a peripheral equipment in an idling state.
US07720389B2
Optical waveguides and optical transmission/reception units are placed on one principal plane of a semiconductor substrate. A light source is placed on one end surface of the semiconductor substrate and guides generated light to the optical waveguides. In the optical transmission/reception units, each of optical resonant members optically resonates with partial light of one of light beams propagating in the optical waveguides and emits the partial light into an optical transmission member if voltage is applied thereto. In the optical transmission/reception units, each of another optical resonant members optically resonates with light propagating in the optical transmission member and emits the resonated light into a photodetector unit if voltage is applied thereto.
US07720387B2
An optical transceiver (or transmitter or receiver) that uses microcode that represents a formulaic relation between temperature and an appropriate value for an operational parameter given the temperature. The microcode is further structured such that when loaded into system memory and executed by the optical transceiver, the optical transceiver accesses the temperature as measured by a temperature sensor, calculates an appropriate value for the operational parameter given the accessed temperature using the formulaic relation, and adjusts the operational parameter according to the calculation. This allows the optical transceiver to adjust temperature-dependent operational parameters using less memory than required to perform a table-based representation of temperature versus the operational parameter.
US07720385B2
Device and method for fiberoptic transmission for a plurality of different communication protocols. A single electronic card is adaptable to any of a plurality of communication protocol configurations designed by the user.
US07720384B2
A transponder in a wavelength division multiplexing apparatus detects a wavelength of a leak light (received light) having one of plural wavelengths multiplexed or divided by a WDM unit, the leak light having been received from the WDM unit when the transponder is connected to the WDM unit; determines a transmission wavelength which is a wavelength of a light to be transmitted to the WDM unit on the basis of the wavelength of the received light; and sets to convert the wavelength of the light to be transmitted to the WDM unit into the transmission wavelength, and transmit the converted light.
US07720378B2
In the optical module, the number of optical components is decreased, so that the costs of the device are reduced, and so that optical loss is reduced. The present device comprises: an optical gate array in which a plurality of optical gate switches each employing a semiconductor optical amplifier element are arranged in parallel; a dividing/combining unit including: a plurality of first ports connected one to each of the plurality of optical gate switches forming the optical gate array; and a second port which performs dividing/combining of light with the first port; and an optical amplifier connected to the second port of the dividing/combining unit, wherein the optical gate array, the dividing/combing unit, and the optical amplifier are formed in an integrated manner.
US07720373B2
At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an image pickup apparatus which includes an image pickup unit, a first optical member, a film, a second optical member, and a luminosity correcting filter. The image pickup unit includes an image sensor. The first optical member is operatively attached to the image pickup unit and formed of a birefringent crystal material. The film is disposed between the first optical member and an image pickup optical system and formed of an organic material. The second optical member is operatively attached to a first side of the film. The luminosity correcting filter is operatively attached to a second side of the film.
US07720364B2
Methods and apparatus for triggering directional data capture based on pointing direction are described. In an embodiment, the data captured is an image and a camera is described which includes a sensor for detecting the direction in which the image sensor of the camera is pointing. When the sensed pointing direction is one in which a worthwhile image is likely to be taken, the camera is triggered to capture a new image. The determination of when to capture a new image uses a metric based on the sensed direction and one or more specified trigger conditions.
US07720351B2
A system for protecting commercials included in a digitally distributed and recorded video that minimizes user's inconveniences resulting from restrictions imposed on playback of the video. The video is encrypted at the distributor side and playback of the encrypted video at the user side is limited in such a way that fast forward and reverse playing is not performed, and a lower limit is imposed on skip forward and backward so that only parts of video whose playing time is greater than the time of typical commercial break can be skipped. This arrangement prevents a user from selectively skipping commercials without missing pieces of program itself and thus discourages skipping when the user wants to watch an entire program, but still enables quick browsing before watching the entire program as well as moving fast to any part of the program for watching that part again.
US07720349B2
An image processing apparatus, method, and program and program storage medium that enable easy search for a desired part. A plurality of video data are created from video data and are displayed, each as a motion picture, at time intervals in a display order on a plurality of display areas on a display screen.
US07720347B2
Provided is an all-in-one type light guide plate including a plurality of prism-shaped structures that are integrally formed on the all-in-one light guide plate and which totally internally reflect light incident from a light source and emit the totally internally reflected light.
US07720345B2
An assembling jig for assembling an optical connector is provided. The optical connector has a pair of beam portions having elasticity and adapted to hold a ferrule holding an optical fiber. The assembling jig includes a body portion, an optical connector receiving portion movably held by the body portion and adapted to receive the optical connector, a ferrule receiving portion movably held by the body portion and adapted to receive the ferrule, and an abutting portion adapted to abut the pair of beam portions to open the pair of beam portions outward.
US07720344B2
A fiber distribution system includes one or more fiber distribution hubs (FDHs) that provide interface at a splice panel and/or a termination panel between incoming fibers routed from a central office and outgoing fibers routed to network subscribers. Splice trays, termination modules, splitter modules, and storage modules can be incrementally added to the FDH. The termination modules, optical splitters, and storage modules can be provided on a swing frame chassis within the FDH cabinet.
US07720343B2
A fiber distribution system includes one or more fiber distribution hubs (FDHs) that provide an interface at a termination panel between incoming fibers routed from a central office and outgoing fibers routed to network subscribers. Termination modules can be incrementally added to the termination panel. The FDH can include one or more optical splitter modules that split an optical signal into two or more signals. The optical splitter modules can be incrementally added along with one or more storage modules. The subscriber termination panel, optical splitters, and storage modules can be provided on a swing frame.
US07720341B2
A waveguide and resonator are formed on a lower cladding of a thermo optic device, each having a formation height that is substantially equal. Thereafter, the formation height of the waveguide is attenuated. In this manner, the aspect ratio as between the waveguide and resonator in an area where the waveguide and resonator front or face one another decreases (in comparison to the prior art) thereby restoring the synchronicity between the waveguide and the grating and allowing higher bandwidth configurations to be used. The waveguide attenuation is achieved by photomasking and etching the waveguide after the resonator and waveguide are formed. In one embodiment the photomasking and etching is performed after deposition of the upper cladding. In another, it is performed before the deposition. Thermo optic devices, thermo optic packages and fiber optic systems having these waveguides are also taught.
US07720333B2
An optical module includes a fiber array, a laser diode array, a photodiode array and a micro-lens array. The fiber array includes optical fibers which are divided to a transmitter group and a receiver group. The laser diode array includes laser diodes which are grouped in a transmitter group. The photodiode array includes photodiodes which are divided to a monitor group and a receiver group. The laser diode array is provided between the fiber array and the photodiode array. The optical fibers of the transmitter group are optically aligned with the laser diodes of the transmitter group, respectively. The micro-lens array is provided between the laser diode array and the photodiode array, and optically aligns the laser diodes of the transmitter group and the optical fibers of the receiver group with the photodiodes of the monitor group and the photodiodes of the receiver group, respectively.
US07720328B2
A linearized thermal and optical model of an optical integrated circuit can be used to temperature-stabilize one or more optical elements of the circuit using active temperature regulation. To stabilize a single optical element, a temperature sensor and a heater can be provided proximate to the grating. Thermal and optical coefficients can be then used to select an appropriate temperature set-point for the temperature controller that receives readings from the sensor and determines the power dissipated in the heater. Multiple optical elements can be stabilized individually, using the same process and lumping cross-heating factors together with other environmental factors. Alternatively, multiple AWG's can be stabilized using fewer sensors than optical elements, by stabilizing one of the optical elements in the same manner as in the case of a single optical elements, and determining power dissipated in the heaters of the remaining optical elements based on the linearized model.
US07720327B2
A lower cladding layer is formed on a surface of an electrical circuit substrate. A UV curable resin layer is stacked on the lower cladding layer. The resin layer is partly cured, and the other uncured resin layer is removed, thereby forming resin projections. The resin projections are processed so as to have an inclined face. Metal reflecting layers are formed on the inclined faces. A core layer is stacked on the lower cladding layer and the metal reflecting layers, and an upper cladding layer is stacked on the core layer.
US07720312B2
An image processor includes a memory that stores image layers, α-layers associated with the image layers, and pointers linking image areas of the image layers with the α-layer. A method for blending multiple image layers includes obtaining a transparency value for an image area by reading a pointer associated with the image area and blending the image layers using the obtained transparency value.
US07720301B2
A method and system for characterizing structures in an image are presented. The method and system generates a structure checksum value based on a plurality of pixels in the image. The structure checksum is used as an index of a look-up table containing structure characteristics corresponding to the structure checksum values.
US07720291B2
An exemplary method includes receiving an image data set that comprises a multidimensional property space and data classifiable into data classes, determining a projection vector for data of the data set wherein the projection vector maximizes a ratio of between-class scatter to within-class scatter, selecting a reference for the vector, projecting at least some of the data onto the vector, measuring distances from the reference to at least some of the data, classifying at least some of the data into data classes based on a nesting analysis of the distances, eliminating the classified data from the image data set to produce a modified image data set and deciding whether to determine another projection vector for the modified image data set. Various other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US07720290B2
An image processing apparatus which includes a specific information extracting processor that extracts specific information that is represented by an image and included in image data, based on a specific information extracting program loaded into the specific information extracting processor, a variable factor recognizing mechanism that recognizes a variable factor of the image data from which the specific information is extracted by the specific information extracting processor, and a program loading mechanism that selects one of a plurality of specific information extracting programs stored in a storage area. The selected specific information extracting program corresponds to the recognized variable factor of the image data and is suitable for extracting specific information included in varied image data. The program loading mechanism further loads the selected specific information extracting program into the specific information extracting processor.
US07720281B2
A method to detect anchorperson segment in news reporting by using visual characteristics to provide the basis to divide news into various categories includes steps of providing news image for skin color detection on the image with color space; applying morphology depending on whether the object in the image subject to skin color detection is moving to eliminate noise surrounding the image of the face to solve the region of the face of the anchorperson; and performing anchorperson detection once again by detecting the probable anchorperson segment.
US07720277B2
Apparatus includes unit configured to compute parallax search range in (x-y-d) three-dimensional space formed of three variables (x and y providing first point (x, y) on first image and parallax candidate d), similarity unit configured to compute degree-of-similarity C (x, y, d) between point (x, y) and second point (x′, y′) corresponding to point (x, y), using sum of products of brightness levels of corresponding pixel pairs between first window on first image and second window on second image, first window including first point (x, y) second window including second point (x′, y′) and unit configured to compute parallax D between first point (x, y) and second point (x′, y′), based on C (x, y, d), where similarity unit includes unit configured to store sum, which is used for computing C (x, y, d) between new first point on first image and new second point on second image.
US07720274B2
In generating inspection logic of a new component, the image of a new component is obtained, the trend data for selected characteristics of the focused region of the new component is computed; a previously inspected component having characteristics similar to that of the new component is selected by comparing the trend data of the new component with trend data of the previously inspected component, the image of the selected (previously inspected) component is read from the storage device, and inspection logic for the new component is generated using the images of the new component and images of the previously inspected component as teaching data.
US07720261B2
An image processing apparatus includes a detecting unit for detecting a position of a facial feature in a face image, a principal component analysis performing unit for performing principal component analysis on the position of the facial feature in a registered image that is a pre-registered face image, a first evaluation value calculating unit for calculating a first evaluation value that is used to evaluate the position of the facial feature in a target image relative to the principal component obtained in the principal component analysis operation, and a first determining unit for determining whether or not the face in the target image matches the face in the registered image by comparing the calculated first evaluation value with a first threshold set based on the position of the facial feature in the registered image relative to the principal component.
US07720260B2
The embodiments described herein include an object detection system and method for identifying objects within an area. In one embodiment, the objection detection system may formulate an outline of a detected object and generate a three-dimensional shape or image of the object. Object information may be used to determine and communicate the position, range, and bearing of the object.
US07720254B2
An automatic reader system, apparatus, and method for the identification and authentication of articles enabling automatic collection and processing of code data associated with microparticle marks, automatic determination of the code from the code data associated with microparticle marks, and automatic retrieval of reference information associated with the code.
US07720253B2
Exemplary systems and methods implement an exemplary visual perception model. This model can be implemented in such applications as imaging, compression, denoising, annotation of hi-fidelity images, etc. In one implementation a perceptual filter estimates an entropy statistic and a standard deviation statistic associated with each pixel of an image, then mixes the entropy statistic and the standard deviation statistic to map an estimation of human perceptual tolerance to noise or alteration in parts of the image. In one application, metadata may be added to an image via a system of synergistic watermarks, in which the watermarks strengthen each other and are placed according to the noise tolerance of the pixels in order to maintain hi-fidelity of the image.
US07720245B2
An exemplary hearing aid system includes a receiver unit configured and positioned within the user's ear canal so as to minimize insertion loss and/or occlusion effect.
US07720242B2
Various embodiments provide a flexible joint for extended wear hearing devices. One embodiment provides a flexible joint for a hearing device comprising a compliant tube having a lateral and a medial end, a pivotal portion and a lumen. The hearing device can include a CIC hearing aid positioned in the bony portion of the ear canal. The tube ends are configured to be coupled to lateral and medial device assemblies. The tube allows the lateral assembly to advance the medial assembly into the bony portion of the ear canal and have the lateral and medial assemblies conform to the shape of the ear canal via pivotal movement. The tube also acoustically decouples the two assemblies. The pivotal portion can comprise a necked portion or otherwise have decreased stiffness relative to other tube portions. The tube can be shaped to fit over and retain one or both assemblies.
US07720230B2
At an audio encoder, cue codes are generated for one or more audio channels, wherein an envelope cue code is generated by characterizing a temporal envelope in an audio channel. At an audio decoder, E transmitted audio channel(s) are decoded to generate C playback audio channels, where C>E≧1. Received cue codes include an envelope cue code corresponding to a characterized temporal envelope of an audio channel corresponding to the transmitted channel(s). One or more transmitted channel(s) are upmixed to generate one or more upmixed channels. One or more playback channels are synthesized by applying the cue codes to the one or more upmixed channels, wherein the envelope cue code is applied to an upmixed channel or a synthesized signal to adjust a temporal envelope of the synthesized signal based on the characterized temporal envelope such that the adjusted temporal envelope substantially matches the characterized temporal envelope.
US07720228B2
Methods for calibrating the modulators in a QKD system (100) are disclosed. The methods include setting the voltage (VB) of Bob's modulator (MB) to a positive value and then adjusting the voltage (VA) of Alice's modulator (MA) in both the positive and negative direction to obtain overall relative phase modulations that result in maximum and minimum photon counts (N) in the two single-photon detectors (32a, 32b). Bob's modulator voltage is then set to a negative value and the process repeated. When the basis voltages (VB(1), VB(2), VA(1), VA(2), VA(3) and VA(4)) are established, the QKD system is operated with intentionally selected incorrect bases at Bob and Alice to assess orthogonality of the basis voltages by assessing whether or not the probability of photon detection at the detectors is 50:50. If not, the modulator voltages are adjusted to be orthogonal. This involves changing Bob's basis voltage (VB(1) and/or VB(2)) and repeating the process until a 50:50 detector count distribution is obtained. The calibration method can be carried out periodically during QKD system operation to ensure optimum or near-optimum operation of the modulators.
US07720216B1
An acoustic pass through is provided in telephone handsets for sounds transmitted from a hands free operation speaker laid out underneath the handset. One or more cutouts in a middle portion of the handset in various shapes such as rectangular, round, elliptical, and similar allows enhanced sound quality when the speakerphone feature is used and flexibility in handset design.
US07720208B1
A call authorization system moves state maintenance for authorization based phone calls from a central authorization server to different gateways in a packet switched network. A simple authorization session protocol is used between the authorization server and the gateways to minimize network traffic. The authorization session protocol releases the authorization server from having to maintain states for open authorization based phone calls.
US07720196B2
A method and apparatus for tracking a pathological anatomy within a patient's body is described. A data model of a skin surface of the patient's body may be acquired using light reflected from the skin surface. The data model can be matched with skin surfaces reconstructed and/or interpolated from four-dimensional (4D) diagnostic imaging data, such as 4D CT data, to determine a temporal phase of the patient's respiratory motion. The identified temporal phase may then be used in conjunction with the diagnostic imaging data to identify a location of the pathological anatomy within the patient's body.
US07720193B2
An object of the present invention is to shorten the time required by processing, and to simplify the work and increase the number of samples processed, in the X-ray analysis of a specific substance contained in a sample. To achieve the object, a method for assaying the content of a specific substance in a sample 106, comprises a measurement step (S3) of irradiating the sample 106 with X-rays, and measuring the spectrum of the sample 106, and an assay step (S4) of comparing the components of the specific substance in the spectrum of the sample 106 and in a reference spectrum that has been pre-stored for the sample 106, and determining whether the specific substance is contained in the sample 106 in an amount equal to or greater than a specific value.
US07720190B2
A working apparatus has: a working equipment for doing works on a structure; a folding/unfolding mechanism for conveying the working equipment to the working position in a folded state; a conveyance mechanism (such as a horizontal thruster) for conveying the working equipment and the folding/unfolding mechanism to the working position; a pressing mechanism (such as a ballast tank) for pressing the working equipment against the lower surface of the structure; and a traveling mechanism including a wheel for traveling along the lower surface of the structure and positioning the apparatus.
US07720189B2
A system and method are provided for automatically acquiring a serial data stream clock. The method receives a serial data stream with an unknown clock frequency and coarsely determines the clock frequency. The frequency is coarsely determined by (initially) selecting a high frequency first reference clock (Fref1), and counting the number of data transitions in a first time segment of the serial data stream at a plurality of sample frequencies equal to Fref1/n, where n is an integer≧1. The count for each sampling frequency is compared to the count for Fref1 (n=1). Next, the highest sampling frequency (n=x) is determined, which has a lower count than Fref1, and the coarse clock frequency is set to Fc1 =Fref1/(x−1).
US07720188B2
The present invention relates to a detector arrangement and a charge pump circuit for a recovery circuit recovering timing information for random data. The detector arrangement comprises a first latch circuit for sampling a quadrature component of a reference signal based on an input signal, to generate a first binary signal, a second latch circuit for sampling an in-phase component of the reference signal based on the input signal, to generate a second binary signal, and a third latch circuit for sampling the first binary signal based on the second binary signal, to generate a frequency error signal. Furthermore, the charge pump circuit comprises a differential input circuit and a control circuit for controlling a tail current of the differential input circuit in response to a frequency-locked state of frequency detector arrangement.
US07720181B2
An Iterative Detection and Decoding (IDD) receiving apparatus and method in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system. The IDD receiving apparatus includes an MIMO detector which generates soft decision values of coded bits by MIMO-decoding a receive vector, feedback priori information, and a list of candidate coded symbol vectors; a decoder which Soft-Input/Soft-Output (SISO)-decodes the soft decision values generated at the MIMO detector and feeds back soft decision values of the coded bits to the MIMO detector; a hard decision part which generates a coded symbol vector by performing a hard decision on the soft decision values generated at the decoder; and a list updater which generates a list of candidate coded symbol vectors using the receive vector and provides the list to the MIMO detector at a first iteration, updates the list using the coded symbol vector fed from the hard decision part, and provides the updated list to the MIMO detector at subsequent iterations.
US07720172B2
A radio communication method for transmitting data to radio stations, wherein propagation parameters to be estimated in a receiving station are controlled, based on the data transmitting, by an array antenna comprising a plurality of antenna elements to perform data transmitting in a transmitting station. This allows channels characterized by the propagation parameters to be shared only by particular radio stations, and signals are superimposed on the propagation parameters, thereby realizing radio access in which a high security is retained.
US07720169B2
A novel and useful apparatus for and method of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) detection for use in MIMO based communication systems. The mechanism of the invention performs a simplified tree search utilizing a single stage expansion of the most likely first symbol candidates, in the case of a 2×2 MIMO system. The invention also provides a refinement mechanism operative to significantly improve the soft information (i.e. log likelihood ratio) of the list of candidates. To improve the soft information, the mechanism applies one or more refinement rounds to generate additional candidates for both first and second detected symbols.
US07720168B2
Maximum diversity in multiple antenna distributed frequency broadband systems such as MIMO-OFDM is achievable through space-frequency (SF) and space-time-frequency (STF) coding. Full-rate full-diversity coding is achieved through a combination of maximal minimum product distance symbol set design and formation of codeword blocks. Full-diversity codes are also achieved which have reduced symbol transmission rates, such as through mapping of space-time (ST) codes to SF codes. The reduction in symbol rate may be offset by the fact that any ST code may be mapped to a full-diversity SF code.
US07720167B2
Methods and systems provide an efficient power save mode for multi carrier modems, such as DMT based ADSL and VDSL modems. Fast transitions from power save mode to full operational mode occur, without the overhead of transmitting large quantities of configuration information between the transmitter and receiver. Signal constellation size changes occurring while operating in power save mode to continue to apply once full operational mode is resumed. Multiple power save modes are enabled, each having a different level of power dissipation and crosstalk, both far end crosstalk and near end crosstalk. Power dissipation and crosstalk can thus be graduated on a line, according to a user-requested bit rate.
US07720163B2
The transmission band of an analog signal to be transmitted is notched, including sub-carriers to be modulated from digital modulation coefficients respectively associated with the sub-carriers. The method includes providing an initial digital signal from successive frequency-domain groups each containing the digital modulation coefficients respectively associated to the sub-carriers. The initial signal is filtered with a frequency resolution greater than the frequency resolution of the frequency-domain groups to remove frequencies corresponding to the sub-carriers to be removed. The filtered signal is windowed using a windowing mask having a representation in the frequency-domain including a main lobe and secondary lobes. The power spectrum of the lobes decrease faster than the inverse of the frequency squared.
US07720160B1
A method and apparatus for converting a high precision digital word into a high precision analog signal is disclosed. A sigma delta modulator applies a digital input signal to a dither signal to generate a combined signal for sampling. A digital-to-analog converter quantizes the combined signal. An analog filter provides a cutoff at a bandwidth of interest to remove out of band quantization noise and signals. An I transfer function and a Q transfer function can be coupled between the sigma delta modulator and the digital-to-analog converter for mapping of the combined signal. The apparatus can also include a phase interpolator for receiving the output signal and outputting a clock recovery phase.
US07720154B2
Methods and systems for fast variable block-size motion estimation based on merging and splitting procedures for AVC video encoding are disclosed. The methods take advantage of the correlation of the Motion Vectors (MVs) of the different block-size modes to achieve a good computation reduction. Considering that the smaller the block-size difference between two block-sizes is, the more correlations between their MVs can be expected, the methods use a 8*8 block as an initial processing block to calculate prediction MVs. The prediction MVs are then used in predicting MVs for other block-sizes.
US07720141B2
An AC coupled receiver incorporates a decision feedback restore technique that is readily implemented on a monolithic integrated circuit to reduce or eliminate effects of baseline wander in a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data receiver. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a method includes at least substantially attenuating at least a DC portion of a received signal to generate a first signal. The method includes generating a low frequency signal based at least in part on a reference signal selected from a plurality of reference signals. The method includes generating a restored signal based at least in part on the first signal and the low frequency signal.
US07720132B2
Energy—bandwidth tradeoff and transmit waveform design using interference and noise whitening method
A new method for transmitter-receiver design that enhances the desired signal output from the receiver by whitening the total interference and noise input to the receiver and maximizing the output Signal to Interference plus Noise power Ratio (SINR) is presented. As a result of the whitening process, the receiver “sees” a desired signal in white noise, and the receiver structure is then optimized to maximize the receiver output at the desired decision making instant. Furthermore the new design scheme proposed here can be used for transmit signal energy and bandwidth tradeoff. As a result, transmit signal energy can be used to tradeoff for “premium” signal bandwidth without sacrificing the system performance level in terms of the output Signal to Interference plus Noise power Ratio (SINR).
US07720125B2
A surface-emission laser device comprises an active layer, cavity spacer layers provided at both sides of the active layer, reflection layers provided at respective sides of the cavity spacer layers, the reflection layers reflecting an oscillation light oscillated in the active layer and a selective oxidation layer. The selective oxidation layer is provided between a location in the reflection layer corresponding to a fourth period node of the standing wave distribution of the electric field of the oscillating light and a location in the reflection layer adjacent to the foregoing fourth period node in the direction away from the active layer and corresponding to an anti-node of the standing wave distribution of the electric field of the oscillation light.
US07720121B2
High-power, diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) pulsed lasers are preferred for applications such as micromachining, via drilling of integrated circuits, and ultraviolet (UV) conversion. Nd:YVO4 (vanadate) lasers are good candidates for high power applications because they feature a high energy absorption coefficient over a wide bandwidth of pumping wavelengths. However, vanadate has poor thermo-mechanical properties, in that the material is stiff and fractures easily when thermally stressed. By optimizing laser parameters and selecting pumping wavelengths and doping a concentration of the gain medium to control the absorption coefficient less than 2 cm−1 such as the pumping wavelength between about 910 nm and about 920 nm, a doped vanadate laser may be enhanced to produce as much as 100 W of output power without fracturing the crystal material, while delivering a 40% reduction in thermal lensing.
US07720117B2
A method for generating a laser projection by employing a laser gain medium for receiving an optical input projection from a laser pump. The method further includes a step of employing a mode selection filter comprising an electro-optical (EO) tunable layer disposed between two parallel reflection plates for generating a laser of a resonant peak.
US07720114B2
A fiber laser cavity that includes a laser gain medium for receiving an optical input projection from a laser pump. The fiber laser cavity further includes a positive dispersion fiber segment and a negative dispersion fiber segment for generating a net negative dispersion for balancing a self-phase modulation (SPM) and a dispersion induced pulse broadening/compression in the fiber laser cavity for generating an output laser with a transform-limited pulse shape.
US07720106B2
A circuit for synchronizing symbols of a received OFDM signal includes a unit configured to detect cross-correlation of a received signal to generate a value of the cross-correlation, a unit configured to obtain synchronous summation of the value of the cross-correlation performed at predetermined intervals, a unit configured to obtain received electric power of the received signal, an autocorrelation electric power obtaining unit configured to obtain autocorrelation electric power of the received signal, a threshold obtaining unit configured to obtain a synchronous summation threshold responsive to the received electric power, and a symbol timing detecting unit configured to identify timing of a peak of the synchronous summation as symbol timing in response to detecting, at the timing of the peak, that the autocorrelation electric power is smaller than the received electric power multiplied by a predetermined factor and that the synchronous summation is larger than the synchronous summation threshold.
US07720094B2
Wireless network demands continually increase as wireless service providers pursue additional service capabilities. In a cellular communication system, leased lines between remote cell sites and the corresponding Mobile Switching Offices (MSOs) remain a major operating cost. Bandwidth reduction by identification and elimination of payload data and control information which need not be fully replicated because it can be deduced from information accessible or previously transmitted allows fewer lines to support the same bandwidth. A wireless access gateway is operable to aggregate such redundant and regenerable data on a backhaul link between a wireless cell site and the corresponding mobile switching office (MSO) to provide low-latency, type specific lossless bandwidth reduction. The wireless access gateway identifies regenerable information and eliminates portions of the data which the device need not transmit because the data is redundant, or accessible or recreatable, at the receiving side. In this manner, the access device allows fewer lines to carry the reduced message traffic by transmitting only the non-recreatable data and eliminating message traffic for regenerable information.
US07720093B2
Systems and techniques are disclosed relating to communications. The systems and techniques involve communicating over a physical channel having a plurality of modulation channels each having a channel capacity by allocating a plurality of data streams among the modulation channels as a function of the channel capacity for each of the modulation channels, and modulating the data streams to support transmission over the physical channel as a function of the data stream allocation among the modulation channels. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US07720084B2
A method for performing alternate and therefore least cost routing in distributed H.323 Voice over IP (VoIP) networks is provided. With this method, the VoIP network consists of a hierarchy of gatekeeper (GK) functions to provide alternate routing, network element redundancy, and scalability. The alternate routing function is performed by a directory gatekeeper with route selection advancing from a first route to a second route by either of two conditions: (1) there are no resources available to terminate the call in the first zone; and (2) a lack of response to the directory GK request for such resources.
US07720066B2
A distributed router composed of individual units connected by links in a routing fabric which appears to be a single network entity routes multicast packets by bridging to the final unit in the fabric. At the final unit the packet is replicated as necessary and routed. The scheme avoids multiple transmission of the same packet across the fabric.
US07720058B2
Cameras, radios, televisions, set top boxes, telephones, kitchen appliances, and other electrical devices have their own IP address, and communicate using an internetworking protocol. Of particular interest are those devices that utilize some form of mass storage. Communication of the packets between or among elements can occur using any suitable package switched network (or combination of networks), including the Internet. The preferred protocol for communicating packets is IP, and communication of the packets between elements can advantageously occur by virtualizing a native bus using IP. It is especially contemplated that the inventive elements can be disaggregated outside the housing of a device, at distances of several meters or more. Communication can be hard wired, or can include wireless aspects. Adapters are also contemplated that permit traditional elements to be addressed by their own IP addresses.
US07720044B1
Systems and methods for providing network configuration information and/or additional information to terminals. A central administration server may, for example, determine the network configuration and/or additional information to be provided to a terminal. In some cases, the information provided depends on one or more factors. The data provided may, for instance, include terminal IP address, netmask, gateway address, WAP (wireless application protocol) gateway address, landing page, advertisement information, and service group identifiers. A terminal wishing to receive network connectivity from an access point may, for example, request such from the access point.
US07720042B2
Provided is a method for transmitting a data signal in a multiple-input multiple-output mobile communication system for transmitting and receiving the data signal by using a plurality of transmitting antennas and a plurality of receiving antennas, wherein when each data transmitted through the plurality of transmitting antennas is transmitted with respectively different control signals, the control signals are transmitted respectively through downlink control signal transport channels as many as the number of control signals. According to this, when information with respect to modulation methods and OVSF codes for each transmitting antenna in the MIMO system is different, it is possible to achieve efficient transmission and reception by using a method for transmitting the different information to a terminal. Furthermore, a backward compatibility between the MIMO system and the related art HSDPA system can be satisfied by using control channels similar to the control channels used in the related art HSDPA system, and the method can be unlimitedly applied to any case data is composed of one packet or of several packets.
US07720038B2
A wireless access point and multiple wireless terminals exchange utilization, status, mobility and reception characteristics. Each wireless terminal generates reception characteristics based on transmissions received from the wireless access point and from other devices in the network. In one operating mode, the characteristics gathered by the wireless devices are forwarded to the wireless access point, and, based on all received characteristics, the wireless access point selects a client device for the relay of communications between itself and another client device. In another mode of operation, the access point selects a relay proxy on a transmission by transmission basis. In response to a request, a servicing client device repeats intercepted transmissions sent by a client device and intended for the access point.
US07720036B2
Communication using a first and a second frequency band in a wireless network is described herein. The first frequency band may be associated with a first beamwidth while the second frequency band may be associated with a second beamwidth, the first beamwidth being wider than the second beamwidth.
US07720031B1
The present invention relates to methods and devices that support mobility of a client across a campus, particularly mobility across VLANs and subnets, while preserving the client's assigned IP address. Both layer 2 and layer 3 packets are supported. Mobility support most clearly applies to wireless clients, but could apply to other kinds of mobile connections, even to wired connections. A smart server is adapted to support multiple VLANs and to modify and redirect packets in sessions with a client that moves from one VLAN to another, preserving the client's assigned IP address. Two or more smart servers, in cooperation with a smart manger, modify packets and tunnel them between smart servers when a client that moves from one VLAN to another and from one smart server to another, again preserving the client's assigned IP address. A similar approach applies to support mobility of a client that moves between subnets that are supervised by two smart servers, with the second smart server acting on behalf of the first smart server and tunneling packets back and forth to the first smart server. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US07720026B2
A method for organizing and maintaining an ad-hoc network for communication between a plurality of moving devices is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of grouping the plurality of moving devices into at least one local peer group (LPG), ordering the plurality of devices within each LPG based upon a relative position of each of the plurality of devices within each LPG and assigning a unique identifier for each of the plurality of moving devices, where the unique identifier is based, in part on the LPG that the corresponding moving device is located.
US07720020B2
The present invention relates to relay supported wireless communication to enhance communication performance. In the wireless communication system according to the invention neighboring relay stations are arranged with substantially overlapping coverage. In the method according to the invention mobile stations makes soft association to relay stations. The mobile stations feed back the selection of relay stations and channel quality measures to the base station. The base station adapts the transmission to the relay stations based on each mobile stations reported soft associations and channel quality measures. In this way the control signaling to and from the relay stations can be very limited.
US07720015B2
A device and method for a full-duplex transceiver is disclosed. The transceiver includes a transmitter DAC coupled to a transmission channel. The transmit DAC converting a digital transmission signal into an analog transmission signal. The transceiver further includes a receiver connected to the transmission channel. The receiver receives a desired signal and an echo signal, in which the echo signal includes at least a portion of the analog transmission signal. The receiver includes a receiver ADC, a programmable delay line for adjustably delaying a clock signal of the ADC, and a receiver processing circuit for adjusting the delay of the clock signal based at least in part upon the echo signal.
US07720011B1
In an embodiment, a method for supporting dynamic configuration changes, includes: receiving a message from a current root bridge; comparing the bridge media access control (MAC) address of a receiving port to the bridge MAC address of the received message; if the bridge MAC addresses are not the same, then comparing a current priority value to a previous priority value of the current root bridge; if the current priority value is inferior, then determining if the port receiving the message is a qualified root port; and if the port is a qualified root port, then returning a superior designated message to permit each bridge to execute a rapid spanning tree calculation for use in a dynamic configuration change.
US07720010B2
A system for providing a tree topology for a network having an interior gateway protocol. A first router receives a hello message from all connected routers in the network. The hello messages include tree topology information. The first router then uses the tree topology information to determine a parent of the router. The first router then establishes connections with directly connected routers at the same level in the tree topology. The first router also generates link messages that include all of the prefixes for children of the first router and broadcasts the link messages.
US07720007B2
In a transmission timing control apparatus, a state variable signal affected by a phase representing the data transmission timing of a neighboring node is used to determine the data transmission timing of the own node. A node information transmitter/receiver transmits source identification information particular to the own node and source node information of a data signal received by the own node, and receives node information transmitted from the neighboring node. A neighboring node information collecting circuit collects neighboring node information of all neighboring nodes having received data signals, based upon the source identification information received by the node transmitter/receiver and the source node information. A collision determination circuit compares in number neighboring nodes to which the transmission timing determining circuit is related as to the control of the data transmission timing with nodes based on the all neighboring node information to determine the probability of a collision between data transmissions.
US07719998B2
A method for re-transmitting data or control information in a radio link control layer relates to determining whether re-transmission will be ended by comparing a number of transmission with a critical value when the transmission of data or control information has successively failed. The retransmission cycle is comprised of the steps in the order of transmitting information, checking the transmission failure with exit, and counting the transmission number with exit. Therefore, the present invention makes any transmission be checked and prevents wasting radio resource which can occur in re-transmitting data or control information in UMTS mobile communication system.
US07719997B2
The present invention provides a system and method for providing global traffic optimization for a mix of applications running at multiple locations connected by a WAN. Various techniques are provided via WAN accelerator, edge shapers, and WAN bandwidth, route, QoS, and packet control to maximize application performance while minimizing cost, in accordance with customer policy.
US07719991B2
Method and apparatus for Reverse Rate Indicator (RRI) detection. The receiver receives data rate and subpacket index information and applies the information to decoding the RRI. Processing traverses a path based on the last several entries.
US07719988B1
Data overhead of mesh-based multicast ad hoc routing protocols are controlled by adaptively adding redundancy to the minimal data overhead multicast mesh as required by the network conditions. The computation of the minimal data overhead multicast mesh is NP-complete, and therefore an heuristic approximation algorithm inspired on epidemic algorithms is employed to increase tractability of a solution. A mobility-aware and adaptive mesh construction algorithm based on a probabilistic path selection is provided, which is able to adapt the reliability of the multicast mesh to the mobility of the network. Simulation results show that the proposed approach, when implemented into On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (ODMRP), is able to offer similar performance results and a lower average latency, while reducing data overhead between 25 to 50% compared to the original ODMRP.
US07719985B2
A system and method are disclosed for multicasting information to a set of clients that includes transmitting the information to a primary client from a server and instructing the primary client to forward the information to a secondary client.
US07719980B2
A method of handling data packets in a network device and an apparatus for handling data packets in a network device are disclosed. The method includes receiving an incoming data packet and the incoming data packet is parsed to obtain a portion of the incoming data packet. That portion is compared with rules stored in a rule table, where each rule specifies a set of actions. A match between the portion and a particular rule of the rules is selected and a particular set of actions, specified by that particular rule is executed. Each rule includes a mask, a selection flag and a validity check that are used in the comparison of the portion with each rule. The rules may be compared with the packet portion serially or in a parallel fashion and if more than one rule matches the portion, the highest priority is selected as the matching rule.
US07719975B2
A real-time communication device with an asymmetric mode is disclosed. During a real-time communication session, a communication application executing on the communication device detects an upstream communication channel having insufficient bandwidth to support real-time communications in an upstream direction. Consequently, the communication application enters into an asymmetric mode. In asymmetric mode, as the communication application continues to receive data over a downstream communication channel, the communication application allows a user to record a media clip, and communicate the media clip to a remote communication device over the upstream communication channel at a transfer rate supported by the available bandwidth of the upstream communication channel. Once the media clip is received at the remote communication device, the local communication application facilitates sending a signal to the remote communication device instructing the remote communication device to play the media clip at the remote communication device.
US07719968B2
A metering device has a first token bucket with a profile, a rate, and a maximum number of tokens. The device has another token bucket with its own profile, two associated rates, and a maximum number of tokens. In operation, the device adds tokens in the first token bucket at its rate if the bucket has less than the maximum number of tokens for that bucket, and adds a number of tokens in the other token bucket at the same rate if the first token bucket is full and the other token bucket is not. Additionally, the device adds tokens in the second token bucket according to the second rate associated with the token bucket if it is not full. When receiving a packet, if the packet has a first marking, and the first token bucket has a sufficient number of tokens, the packet's marking is maintained and the number of tokens in the first bucket is decremented, else, if the packet has one of two markings, and the second token bucket has a sufficient number of tokens, the packet's second marking is selected and the second token bucket is decremented, else, if the packet has a marking other than one of the two markings, the packet's marking is maintained as other than one of the two markings.
US07719967B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, providing cumulative TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) congestion control. One method includes establishing multiple TCP connections between a transmitting host and a receiving host for sending data from the transmitting host to the receiving host; and using one congestion window on the transmitting host to perform congestion control for the multiple TCP connections as a whole.
US07719966B2
A method and apparatus for an application aware traffic shaping service node architecture is described. One embodiment of the invention, the service node architecture includes a set of one or more line cards, a set of one or more processor cards and a full mesh communication infrastructure coupling the sets of line and processor cards. Each link coupling the sets of line and processor cards is of equal capacity. A line card includes a physical interface and a set of one or policy network processors, with the network processors performing deep packet inspection on incoming traffic and shaping outgoing traffic. Processors cards include a set of one or more policy generating processors. According to another embodiment of the invention, the service node generates a set of statistics based on the incoming traffic and continually updates, in real-time, traffic shaping policies based on the set of statistics.
US07719964B2
A system includes a first device and a second device interconnected with a point-to-point link and operable to transmit data to each other via the point-to-point link. The first device is operable to provide data credits to the second device which facilitate transmission of the data to the first device via the point-to-point link in a plurality of virtual channels. First ones of the data credits are derived from a plurality of shared data credits each of which is operable to facilitate transmission of the data in any of the virtual channels. Second ones of the data credits include a plurality of dedicated data credits each of which is operable to facilitate transmission of the data in a corresponding one of the virtual channels.
US07719945B2
A method of recording information in an information recording medium having a user data area and a management information area is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: (a) obtaining division information in at least a specified portion of the user data area; and (b) recording, in the management information area, information on the correspondence between multiple partial areas into which the specified portion of the user data area is divided based on the division information and multiple information parts in a management table, the information parts each storing information on the presence or absence of data.
US07719940B2
A tilt correcting apparatus makes a tilt correction in an information recording apparatus or the like capable of recording record information onto an information recording medium, on an information recording surface of which a track having a wobble is formed, by emitting laser light thereonto. The tilt correcting apparatus is provided with: a correcting device for changing an irradiation angle of the laser light; a controlling device for controlling the correcting device such that the irradiation angle is set to be each of a plurality of predetermined angles before the record information is recorded; a wobble detecting device for detecting a wobble signal corresponding to the wobble from a photo-detection signal of light from the track caused by the laser light; and a tilt determining device for determining an amount of tilt of the information recording surface, on the basis of the detected wobble signal. The controlling device controls the correcting device to correct the irradiation angle in accordance with the determined amount of tilt when the record information is recorded.
US07719939B2
On an optical disk medium, a spare area is allocated separately from a recording area. If the recording area includes a defective sector, alternate recording for the defective sector is performed in the spare area. An optical disk drive comprises: a medium information acquisition part which acquires, from the optical disk medium, medium information specific to the medium; and an area size determination part which determines the spare-area size suitable for the medium on the basis of the acquired medium information. The medium information is information about, for example, a media manufacturer, and a media type number. Further, there is provided a table which stores the relationship between the medium information and the optimum size of the spare area.
US07719938B2
An optical disk recording/reproducing apparatus for accurately determining optimum recording power of a laser beam even if medium deviations occurs, stabilizing recording quality, and realizing recording which hardly causes read inability error. In test recording, a laser drive (5) irradiates a laser beam to an optical disk (1) to record information while varying the recording power stepwise and reproduce the information stepwise recorded on the optical disk. A recorded state index value calculating unit (9) determines the value representing the index of the recorded state from the signal level of the reproduced information at each step. A smoothing calculating unit (11) performs smoothing calculation of the recorded state index value at each step. An optimum recording power determining unit (12) determines the optimum power by acquiring the optimum value from the recorded state index values at the steps after smoothing calculation to record information on the optical disk with the optimum power determined in recording.
US07719936B2
A physical structure suitable for a recording medium such as a BD, and a method and apparatus for recording data in the recording medium using the physical structure are disclosed. The recording medium includes an inner area, a data area, and an outer area. The recording medium includes a test area contained in at least one of the inner area and the outer area, and a management area for storing a position information indicating a position available for testing in the test area, wherein the position information includes a start position of first data unit available for testing and a position of second data unit available for testing, wherein one or more second data units comprise first data unit. Therefore, the recording medium can be applied to a method for manufacturing a BD, and a disc test process and data recording/reproducing operations can be effectively performed.
US07719933B2
On an information record medium (10, 11), record information can be recorded one time or a plurality of times by a predetermined record format. An apparatus for manufacturing the information record medium by using a stamper (27, 28) is provided with an embossed pit array forming device (20 to 26, 50) for forming on the stamper as an embossed pit array, pre-record data (SFi) which is a predetermined data row to disable overwriting on the record information in a pre-record area, which is set in advance in a range including an area (13c) assigned to information required to control a reproduction of the record information, which is recorded by the predetermined record format.
US07719932B2
A write-once disc, an apparatus for recording information thereon, and a method of reducing access time thereto the write-once disc including at least one record layer. The write-once disc also includes at least one update area in which updated predetermined information is recorded; and an access information area in which location information regarding the updated predetermined information, is recorded for a predetermined period. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce an access time for reading information updated in the write-once disc on which predetermined information is updated and recorded on a new position.
US07719917B2
A method of managing power consumption by a memory in a memory device includes determining whether the device is powered by a depletable power supply, and if it is determined that the device is powered by a depletable power supply, changing a behavior of the memory to regulate power consumed by the memory.
US07719916B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a command decoder, a refresh address counter, an address delivery unit, and an address output selector. The command decoder decodes a command signal to generate a refresh signal. The refresh address counter generates a refresh address in response to the refresh signal. The address delivery unit delivers one of the refresh address and an address from outside of the semiconductor memory device to a memory core area. The address output selector outputs the refresh address to the outside of the semiconductor memory device.
US07719915B2
A multipurpose terminal receives an address signal and a data signal. An address valid terminal receives an address valid signal indicating that a signal supplied to the multipurpose terminal is the address signal. An arbiter determines which of an external access request and an internal refresh request is given priority. The arbiter disables reception of the internal fresh request in response to a fact that both a chip enable signal and the address valid signal reach a valid level (an external access request). The arbiter enables the reception of the internal refresh request in response to completion of read or write operation. As a result, in a semiconductor memory device including the multipurpose terminal which receives the address signal and the data signal, contention between the read operation and the write operation, and a refresh operation which responds to the internal refresh request is prevented, which prevents a malfunction.
US07719909B2
This invention discloses a write-sensing circuit for a semiconductor memory having at least one memory block with a continuous word-line being coupled to all the memory cells in a column of the memory block and a continuous bit-line being coupled to all the memory cells in a row of the memory block, the write-sensing circuit comprising a first and a second sense amplifier belonging to the same memory block, a first switching device coupled between the first sense amplifier and a first power supply, the first switching device being controlled by a first signal, and a second switching device coupled between the second sense amplifier and the first power supply, the second switching device being controlled by a second signal different from the first signal, wherein when the first sense amplifier is activated, the second sense amplifier can remain de-activated.
US07719908B1
Embodiments of the invention relate to the testing and reduction of read disturb failures in a memory, e.g., an array of SRAM cells. A read disturb test mode may be added during wafer sort to identify any marginal memory cells that may fail read disturb, thus minimizing yield loss. The read disturb test mode may include first writing data to the memory. After a predetermined time period, the read disturb test mode reads data from the same memory, and compares the read data with the data previously written to the memory. A repair signal may be generated, when the read data is different from the data previously written to the memory. Additionally, a system may be implemented to reduce read disturb failures in the memory. The system may include a match logic circuit and a data selecting circuit. When a match condition is satisfied, data is read from a register that stores the previous written data, instead of from the memory. The match logic circuit may be selectively enabled or disabled.
US07719859B2
A switching power supply device has a drive circuit that can minimize a loss while being compact. The drive circuit turns on and off a high-side switching element (MOSFET) according to a positive or negative voltage developed at a tertiary winding of a transformer. The drive circuit includes a control unit that detects the development time, during which the negative voltage is developed at the tertiary winding, as the on time of a low-side switching element, and makes the on time of the high-side switching element nearly or substantially equal to the development time.
US07719845B1
A memory card comprising a circuit board having opposed upper and lower circuit board surfaces, multiple side edges, a chamfer extending between a pair of the side edges, a plurality of pads disposed on the lower circuit board surface, and a conductive pattern which is disposed on the upper circuit board surface and electrically connected to the pads. At least one electronic circuit device is attached to the upper circuit board surface and electrically connected to the conductive pattern of the circuit board. A body at least partially encapsulates the circuit board and the electronic circuit element such that sections of the upper circuit board surface, including one which extends along the entirety of the chamfer, is not covered by the body.
US07719844B2
A reconfigurable high performance computer includes a stack of self-aligning, injection-molded plastic, insulative guide trays. Each insulative guide tray retains at least one semiconductor substrate assembly (SSA) in a lateral dimension with respect to a set of elastomeric connectors. The trays hold the SSAs and the elastomeric connectors such that the elastomeric connectors are sandwiched between, and interconnect, adjacent semiconductor substrates proceeding down the stack. The trays also hold comb-shaped power bus bar assemblies such that power bus bars contact and supply power to circuitry of the SSAs of the stack.
US07719827B2
An electronic device includes a first unit and a second unit connected via a hinge member. The second unit has, at a lower end, a rod section having a cylindrical shape and extending laterally. The rod section has a notch portion formed by making a cut in the cylindrical shape at a position corresponding to a fixed section of the hinge member. The first unit includes: a first cover that includes a plate portion forming a part of a top surface of the first unit, and a rising portion having an arc shape fitted to a cylindrical contour of the rod section and covering a first space of the notch portion; and a second cover that has an arc shape fitted to the cylindrical contour of the rod section and covers a second space of the notch portion while covering the notch portion in combination with the rising portion.
US07719819B2
A method for manufacturing a laminated electronic component is performed such that a water-repellent agent is applied to end surfaces at which ends of internal electrodes are exposed so as to be filled in spaces along interfaces between insulating layers and the internal electrodes. Subsequently, an abrading step is performed such that the internal electrodes are sufficiently exposed at the end surfaces and an excess water-repellent agent is removed therefrom to enable plating films to be directly formed on the end surfaces.
US07719818B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a material for forming a capacitor layer comprising a dielectric layer formed by any one of a sol-gel method, an MOCVD method, and a sputtering deposition method. The material can reduce a leakage current of a capacitor circuit. In order to achieve the object, a material for forming a capacitor layer comprising a dielectric layer between a first conductive layer to be used for forming a top electrode and a second conductive layer to be used for forming a bottom electrode, characterized in that the dielectric layer is a dielectric oxide film formed by any one of a sol-gel method, an MOCVD method, and a sputtering deposition method; and particles constituting the dielectric oxide film are impregnated with a resin component is employed. In addition, a manufacturing method characterized in that the dielectric oxide film is formed on the surface of a material to be the bottom electrode by any one of a sol-gel method, an MOCVD method, and a sputtering deposition method; a resin varnish is impregnated into a surface of the dielectric oxide film; the resin is dried and cured to form the dielectric layer; and then a top electrode constituting layer is provided on the dielectric layer is employed.
US07719815B2
In a surge absorber, a pair of protrusion electrodes is fixed to a pair of terminal electrode members at positions shifted from the center of the terminal electrode members to be point-symmetrical with the center of a ceramic insulator tube and a distance between the protrusion electrodes is adjusted so as to obtain a desired discharge starting voltage. As a result, it is possible to easily change the distance between the discharge electrodes without changing the length of the discharge electrodes.
US07719814B2
A semiconductor device includes a memory cell to and from which data is written and read in accordance with voltage supplied, a power supply circuit generating the voltage supplied to the memory cell, a microcomputer, an external terminal, a surge protection circuit clamping at a predetermined voltage value a voltage supplied to the external terminal, and a first switch circuit switching to output to one of the power supply circuit and the microcomputer a voltage having passed through the surge protection circuit. The power supply circuit includes a voltage conversion circuit changing the magnitude of a voltage received from the first switch circuit, and a second switch circuit switching to supply the memory cell with one of the voltage received from the first switch circuit and the voltage changed in magnitude.
US07719813B2
An ESD protection design using a gate-coupled substrate-triggered technique is provided. A required RC time constant maintained in the gate-coupled substrate-triggered ESD circuit is based on a parasitic MOS capacitor and larger resistor, in which a layout area for the substrate-triggered ESD protection design is significantly reduced.
US07719810B2
A disclosed overvoltage protection circuit includes a power source input terminal of an electronic device, the power source input terminal being configured to receive a power source voltage; an internal power source terminal configured to supply power to internal circuits of the electronic device; a voltage blocking circuit connected between the power source input terminal and the internal power source terminal, the voltage blocking circuit being configured to prevent the power source voltage received at the power source input terminal from being provided; and a constant voltage output unit connected in parallel with the voltage blocking circuit, the constant voltage output unit being configured to output a constant voltage. In the event that the power source voltage received at the power source input terminal is higher than or equal to a predetermined voltage, the voltage blocking circuit blocks the power source voltage received at the power source input terminal.
US07719808B2
A power converter includes a controller and at least one output terminal for providing an output voltage and an output current to a load. The controller is configured for monitoring the output voltage and the output current and calculating an efficiency of the power converter based on the monitored output voltage and output current. The controller is also configured to generate a fault signal after detecting a degradation in the power converter efficiency.
US07719806B1
A negative electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection network or circuit is described. The circuit can provide protection against a negative-going ESD transient. One embodiment, along with standard positive ESD protection networks, can discharge ESD currents in both polarities and is able to tolerate a positive/negative voltage that is higher than the maximum voltage allowed for the given fabrication process. It can be used to protect an I/O pin that can be exposed to a relatively wide signal swing range.
US07719800B2
An example magnetoresistive effect element includes a magnetoresistive effect film including a magnetization pinned layer, a magnetization free layer, and an intermediate layer interposed therebetween and having a magnetic region and a nonmagnetic region whose electrical resistance is higher than the magnetic region. A sense current is passed to the magnetoresistive effect film in a direction substantially perpendicular to the film plane thereof. The magnetic region of the intermediate layer penetrates the nonmagnetic region locally and extends in the direction substantially perpendicular to the film plane. The nonmagnetic region contains a nonmagnetic metallic element having a larger surface energy than a magnetic metallic element contained in the magnetic region.
US07719798B2
A micro-actuator for a head gimbal assembly includes a metal frame including a bottom support integrated with a suspension flexure of the head gimbal assembly, a top support adapted to support a slider of the head gimbal assembly, and a pair of side arms that interconnect the top support and the bottom support. The top support includes a rotatable plate, connection arms that couple the rotatable plate to respective side arms, and an electrical pad support plate that supports bonding pads. A PZT element is mounted to each of the side arms. Each PZT element is excitable to cause selective movement of the side arms.
US07719793B2
A magnetic medium for use in data recording that has a series of concentric magnetic track portions separated from one another by non-magnetic portions or gap portions. The magnetic portions define data tracks and prevent signals from one track from bleeding into another track. Because the data tracks are distinctly separated, adjacent track interference is completely avoided. The disk may be manufactured by depositing first and second materials sequentially onto a rotating tube, the first and second materials having different etch rates. The tube may then be slided into disks and the disks subjected to a reactive ion etch (RIE) to form a disk surface having concentric raised portions separated by concentric recessed portions. A magnetic material can then be deposited. An optional chemical mechanical polishing process can then be performed to planarize the surface, resulting in a planar surface having rings of magnetic material separated by rings of non-magnetic material.
US07719792B2
Hard disk drive (HDD) including humidity sensor measuring interior and second humidity sensor measuring exterior with door actuator controlling door for mass transfer between interior and exterior based upon determination of whether or not to transfer. HDD may further include and use temperature sensors for interior and/or exterior to further control door. An embedded circuit and processor at least partly implementing these operations. External cover including door and door actuator, possibly second sensors. Manufacturing methods and these items as their products.
US07719790B2
An operator alterable space is described, for use with a data storage library. The library has a frame substantially defines an interior environment and is exposed to an exterior environment. The operator alterable space is adapted to accommodate either a drive module that is capable of storing data to a magazine storage element or a shelf module capable of accommodating at least the magazine storage element whereby the magazine storage element can be disposed in the shelf module. The operator alterable space is accessible from the exterior environment for installing either the shelf module or the drive module via an opening in the frame. The operator alterable space is also accessible to a magazine transport from the interior environment, wherein the magazine transport is capable of moving the magazine storage element to the operator alterable space.
US07719788B2
A operation of storing a post code, which is read from each servo frame on a target track of a disk recording medium, in a memory if an on-track condition for determining that a head is controlled to be positioned on the target track is satisfied is executed. Next, a operation of using the post code, which is stored in the memory, for a correction of a demodulation position if the post code corresponding to each servo frame is stored in the memory and the on-track condition is satisfied in the correction of the demodulation position in each servo frame is executed.
US07719786B1
In a method of actively controlling slider fly height, a modulated radio frequency (RF) carrier signal is received from a slider. The modulated RF carrier signal comprises an amplitude modulated component which is modulated onto the modulated RF carrier signal by vibration of the slider. The amplitude associated with the amplitude modulated component is measured. Thermal fly height control (TFC) voltage generation is controlled by feeding back on the amplitude. A TFC voltage to apply to the slider is generated such that a selected amplitude of the amplitude modulated component is achieved and maintained. The selected amplitude is associated with a particular preselected fly height of the slider above a surface of a disk. The TFC voltage is provided to the slider.
US07719784B2
According to an aspect of an embodiment, an apparatus, includes: a medium having inner and outer edges and including first and second servo regions extending radially, and containing first and second servo information written thereon, respectively, the first servo region extending outwardly from the inner edge to cover tracks, the first and second servo region having positioned adjacently across a circular boundary; a head for reading out said first servo information and said second servo information; and a processor for executing a process comprising: reading out the first or second servo information; and when controlling the track position across the boundary, adjusting the relation of the first and second servo information across the boundary in control the track position.
US07719782B1
Handling a magnetic tape cartridge comprises the steps of reading cartridge mount information from the cartridge memory; determining from the cartridge mount information whether the present mount is the first mount of the magnetic tape cartridge; and if so, fast forward and rewind the magnetic tape of the magnetic tape cartridge, e.g., the fast forward is to end of tape (EOT) and the rewind is to beginning of tape (BOT). Alternatively, if the cartridge mount information indicates the present mount is the first mount of the magnetic tape cartridge; monitoring input/output with respect to the magnetic tape cartridge for write errors during the mount; determining whether the number of monitored write errors meets a predetermined threshold; and if so, fast forward and rewind the magnetic tape of the magnetic tape cartridge.
US07719769B2
It is an object of the invention to provide a head mount type image display system that, albeit having a see-around and a see-through function, is small size and low weight, makes sure a large field of outside view and low power consumption with high-luminance electronic images, and is easy to use.A head mount type image display system 1 at least comprises a display device, an eyepiece optical system, an eyepiece window, an eyepiece window holder 2, a casing and a supporter 10 for fixing all these components onto a user's head. The casing covers the display device, the eyepiece window holder 2 holds the eyepiece window within a user's field of view, the eyepiece optical system forms a virtual image of an image displayed on the display device, the eyepiece window allows a light beam for forming the virtual image to be directed to a user's eye and leave it, and a member that forms the eyepiece window holder is such that, in a range of 10 mm or greater from the eyepiece window toward a base, a width of projection section in a user's visual axis direction is 4 mm or less except some projection, and has a see-around mechanism.
US07719755B2
A method for making an electrophoretic solution includes: including two kinds of particles having different charging polarities into the electrophoretic solution; calculating a mixing ratio so that charge amounts of the two kinds of particles become approximately equal to each other on a basis of a unit volume of a dispersion medium; and mixing the two kinds of particles in each mixed quantity that satisfies the calculated mixing ratio.
US07719747B2
An interferometric modulator includes a post structure comprising an optical element. In a preferred embodiment, the optical element in the post structure is a reflective element, e.g., a mirror. In another embodiment, the optical element in the post structure is an etalon, e.g., a dark etalon. The optical element in the post structure may decrease the amount of light that would otherwise be retroreflected from the post structure. In various embodiments, the optical element in the post structure increases the brightness of the interferometric modulator by redirecting light into the interferometric cavity. For example, in certain embodiments, the optical element in the post structure increases the backlighting of the interferometric modulator.
US07719743B2
A reflective light modulator is provided. The reflective light modulator includes: a transparent electrode passing through light from a light source; a driving substrate configured to reflect the light from the transparent electrode; a light-modulating material sandwiched between the transparent electrode and the driving substrate; and a transparent glass substrate. The transparent glass substrate is arranged in contact with the surface of the transparent electrode substrate on the light source side. Furthermore, the transparent glass substrate has a thermal conductivity of 0.003 cal/(cm·sec·K) or more at 20° C.
US07719742B2
A MEMS device package and a method of manufacturing the same. The MEMS device package includes a device substrate having a surface on which a MEMS active device is formed, and multiple sealing pads arranged around the MEMS active device so that the sealing pads provide electric paths for the MEMS active device. In addition, the MEMS device package may include a cap substrate bonded to the device substrate through the multiple sealing pads, the cap substrate including a trench, within which the MEMS active device is positioned, and via holes. One or more outer electrode pads may be formed on one surface of the cap substrate to be electrically connected with the multiple sealing pads through the via holes. Because there are several bonding and sealing areas between the device substrate and the cap substrate, the sealing intensity is strengthened.
US07719738B2
An apparatus and method for reducing speckle of a laser beam is disclosed. The apparatus includes a light guide, a highly reflective mirror at the input face of the light guide and a partially-transmissive display after the exit face of the light guide. A coherent laser beam is introduced into the light guide through a clear aperture in the highly reflective mirror. Within the light guide, the laser beam gets separated into plural, successive beamlets having different phase shifts, different polarization states and/or path length differences equal to or greater than the coherence length of the laser beam. The beamlets exit through the partially-transmissive display to provide output laser light with reduced speckle. The light guide can be either a solid light pipe of transmissive material or a hollow tunnel with reflective interior sidewalls.
US07719726B2
There is provided an image reading apparatus for acquiring a read signal of an image by receiving and photoelectrically converting a light reflected from a document. The location of an alien substance on an original plate is detected based on a reflected light received by a light receiving unit adapted to receive a light reflected from a document. When an alien substance is detected, an illumination unit selectively illuminates the location in which the alien substance has been detected. Also, a message which prompts cleaning of the alien substance is displayed. A method of displaying the alien substance location are also provided. Thereby, the image reading apparatus of the present invention can assists a user in cleaning the alien substance such as a dust or dirt on the original plate.
US07719725B2
A print control apparatus includes a print request receiving unit and a print control unit. The print request receiving unit receives a print request, including print target information, to a print apparatus. If a condition is satisfied under which print target information should have information regarding security added thereto for printing, the print control unit adds the information regarding security to the print target information and causes the print apparatus to print the print target information to which the information regarding security is added. If the condition is not satisfied, the print control apparatus stores the print target information included in the print request in a storage unit, and when an operation receiving unit provided in the print apparatus is operated to instruct to print the stored print target information, the print control apparatus causes the print apparatus to print the stored print target information.
US07719716B2
Colors similar to those which would be used in calibrating a target printer are printed on a printer of the same model and with the same materials set as anticipated for the printer calibration. These all lie within a substantially reduced portion of the gamuts of both the printer and scanner. A scanner characterization is derived only for those portions of color space corresponding to the printed colors. This may be done using spline fitting in one or more dimensions. While generic scanner calibrations generally have errors in excess of ΔE=7, with these techniques values generally less than 1.7 were obtained. This is sufficient for printer calibration.
US07719715B2
A tone-conversion-characteristic determining apparatus determines tone-conversion characteristics for use in converting tone characteristics of original data so that targeted tone characteristics are obtained when display is performed by a display device. The apparatus includes a tristimulus value determining unit that, on the basis of tristimulus values corresponding to a tone value of each of a plurality of colors capable of being displayed by the display device, determines a tristimulus value which is greater than the other tristimulus values, and a tone-conversion-characteristic determining unit that, on the basis of the tristimulus value determined by the tristimulus value determining unit, determines the tone-conversion characteristics so that the targeted tone characteristics are obtained.
US07719713B2
An image processing apparatus, has: a conversion unit that converts input image information including a first color component and a second color component into output image information in which, with regard to each of the color components, the number of gray levels per pixel is smaller than the number of gray levels per pixel in the input image information and a gray level of the input image information is expressed by a gray level value of each pixel and a dot density and in which the size of a dot is different between the first color component and the second color component; and an output unit that outputs the output image information obtained by the conversion unit.
US07719706B2
This invention completes an authentication procedure early when it is ready to directly communicate with a printer, and serves as a user interface device of a direct print system. To this end, when a digital camera DSC is ready to directly communicate with a printer, and receives from the printer an inquiry about objects stored and held by the camera, it assigns an object which contains a word serving as authentication information of those stored and held in the DSC to a first handler (S52), assigns other objects (image data and the like) to subsequent handlers (S53), and sends that assignment result to the printer (S54).
US07719694B1
A system and a method are provided for detecting a surface characteristic of a surface. A plurality of transponders are located on the surface for transmitting electromagnetic surface waves and for receiving the electromagnetic surface waves upon being reflected, diffracted, refracted, scattered, or otherwise altered by ice on the surface. A controller is coupled to the plurality of transponders. The controller is adapted to coordinate the plurality of transponders for imaging the surface characteristic of the surface.
US07719691B2
A wavefront measuring apparatus for optical pickup includes: a beam splitting section; a wavefront shaping section; a beam combining section that generate interference light; an interference fringe image-acquiring section that acquires an interference fringe image including wavefront information of the light beam; and an analyzing section that analyzes a wavefront of the light beam on the basis of the interference fringe image. The analyzing section includes: an image processing section that performs a filtering process on the interference fringe image to eliminate a frequency component corresponding to the sub beam, so as to acquire the filtering-processed interference fringe image, and a wavefront analyzing section that analyzes a wavefront of the main beam on the basis of the filtering-processed interference fringe image.
US07719689B2
There is provided a system always capable of detecting AE/ultrasound received by an FBG, even when the FBG receives a change in temperature or strain and the Bragg wavelength is fluctuated. In the AE/ultrasound detection system, the reflected light from the FBG is caused to enter a Fabry-Perot filter having an FSR equal to or greater than the reflection wavelength band of the FBG. A change in the intensity of the transmitted light corresponds to the AE/ultrasound received by the FBG. Alternatively, the reflected light from FBG is caused to enter two Fabry-Perot filters having an FSR equal to or greater than the reflection wavelength band of the FBG and having the filter-transmittance peak wavelengths different from each other by FSR/4. The intensity of the transmitted light from each of the two Fabry-Perot filters is converted into a voltage signal, and the individual signals are subjected to addition and subtraction processes. Thus, a signal having a large amplitude corresponding to the AE/ultrasound received by the FBG can be obtained.
US07719688B2
An optical device includes a primary nanowire having a predetermined characteristic that affects an optical property of the primary nanowire. At least one secondary nanowire abuts the primary nanowire at a non-zero angle. The secondary nanowire(s) have another predetermined characteristic that affects an optical property of the secondary nanowire(s). A junction is formed between the primary and secondary nanowires. The device is configured to cause a portion of a light beam of a predetermined wavelength or range of wavelengths traveling through one of the primary nanowire or the secondary nanowire(s) to enter another of the secondary nanowire(s) or the primary nanowire.
US07719683B2
A condensation particle counter is capable of efficiently measuring the number and size of fine particles. The condensation particle counter includes a saturator, a plurality of condensers and a plurality of optical particle counters. The saturator is designed to generate a saturated gas by saturating a gas in which fine particles are suspended with working fluid. The condensers are connected to a downstream side of the saturator to condense the saturated gas so that liquid droplets can grow around the fine particles. The optical particle counters are connected to downstream sides of the condensers to optically detect the liquid droplets supplied from the condensers. Each of the condensers has a condenser tube for interconnecting the saturator and each of the optical particle counters. The condenser tube is provided with a hydrophilic inner surface layer.
US07719679B2
The inventive method for optically measuring a sample consists in temporarily repeatedly transmitting an electromagnetic signal (2) to the sample in such a way that a substance contained in the sample is transferred from a first electronic state (1) into a second electronic state (3), wherein at least one part of said substance in the second state (3) emits photons which are used for carrying out the optical measurement of the sample, the signal (2) is transmitted to the same sample area at a certain repetition interval and said repetition interval of the signal (2) is adjusted with a lifetime of the second state (3) of the substance having an order of magnitude of 1 ns on a value of at least 0.1 μs which is optimized with respect to photon yield from the substance.
US07719674B2
In an optical inspection tool, an image of an object under inspection, such as a semiconductor wafer, may be obtained using imaging optics defining a focal plane. Light comprising the image can be detected using multiple detectors which each register a portion of the image. The image of the object at the focal plane can be split into two, three, or more parts by mirrors or other suitable reflecting elements positioned tangent to the focal plane and/or with at least some portion at the focal plane with additional portions past the focal plane so that the focal plane lies between the imaging optics and the splitting apparatus. In some embodiments, reflective planes may be arranged to direct different portions to different detectors. Some reflective planes may be separated by a gap so that some portions of the light are directed while some portions pass through the gap. Other splitting elements may comprise a group of transmissive and reflective areas interspersed in an element positioned at or in the focal plane, with some portions of the light are reflected to detectors while other portions pass through the element(s) to other detectors. Splitting apparatuses and elements may be cascaded.
US07719666B2
A distributed optical fiber sensor uses a Brillouin scattering phenomenon to avoid manual adjustment and to measure strain and/or temperature with high accuracy and high spatial resolution. A stepwise optical light source generates an optical pulse having a stepwise distribution of intensity to increase toward the center, and a continuous light source generates continuous light on. The optical pulse is incident on a sensing optical fiber as probe light and the continuous light is incident as pump light to cause a Brillouin scattering phenomenon between the probe light and the pump light. A Brillouin time domain detector determines a Brillouin loss or gain spectrum from the light emerging from the sensing optical fiber and attributed to the Brillouin scattering phenomenon, and measures strain in and/or temperature of the sensing optical fiber in the longitudinal direction thereof based on the determined Brillouin loss or gain spectrum.
US07719661B2
An illumination optical apparatus which illuminates an illumination objective surface with an exposure light includes: an illumination optical system having a curved mirror and a concave mirror and defining a position substantially conjugate with the illumination objective surface between the curved and concave mirrors; and a second aperture plate separating a space in which the curved mirror is arranged and a space in which the concave mirror is arranged into mutually different vacuum environments or pressure-reduced environments, and having an aperture through which the exposure light passes, the aperture being arranged at a position at which a cross-sectional area of the exposure light is smallest, or in the vicinity of the position. It is possible to decrease the amount of passage of minute particles such as debris in relation to any downstream-side optical system.
US07719660B2
An exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system for projecting a pattern of a mask onto an object using a light with wavelength of 20 nm or less from a light source, and first and second accommodating parts for accommodating the projection optical system and the mask or the object, said first and second accommodating part has different pressures, wherein said a Ps/Po≧100 and Ps≦10−3 Pa are met, where Po is the pressure of the first accommodating part, and Ps is the pressure of the second accommodating part.
US07719650B2
The proceeding of peeling of a conductive layer in the vicinity of terminals is prevented. A display panel includes a conductive layer extending to the outside of terminals, and the conductive layer has slits extending in directions from one end face to the other end face alternately at two end faces along the extending direction of the conductive layer.
US07719647B2
An IPS-mode liquid-crystal display apparatus for controlling transmission and cutoff of light by applying a cross-directional electric field to liquid-crystal molecules horizontally oriented reduces diagonal luminance rise and coloring at the time of black display by a simple configuration. A configuration is used in which an optical phase compensation member for canceling the double refraction property of a polarization-plate support base material is provided between the liquid-crystal-layer-side support base material of a lower polarizer and a liquid-crystal layer. Or, a configuration is used in which the optical phase compensation for canceling double refraction property of the polarization-plate support base material is provided between the liquid-crystal-layer-side support base material and the liquid-crystal layer.
US07719645B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display that prevents false colors and has a wide viewing angle, display screen contrast that does not decline, and excellent productivity. The liquid crystal display, comprising a liquid crystal cell, a sheet-shaped optically anisotropic body positioned on only one side of the liquid crystal cell, and a pair of light polarizers located on both sides of the liquid crystal cell, wherein the optically anisotropic body satisfies the relationship of nx>ny>nz at wavelength of 550 nm, where nx is in-plane refraction index of lag axis direction, ny is refraction index of the direction perpendicular to the lag axis in the plane, and nz is refraction index of the thickness direction; and has a local minimal value in wavelength range of 380 to 490 nm and monotonous increase in both the short wavelength and long wavelength directions from the wavelength that shows the local minimal value, in wavelength characteristics of frontal direction retardation for light in wavelength range of 380 to 780 nm.
US07719638B2
A semi-transmissive liquid crystal display device 10 having a first substrate which is partitioned by signal lines 13 and scanning lines 12 provided in a matrix pattern in which a reflective part 15 and a transmissive part 16 are formed on respective positions, a second substrate which is formed with a color filter and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer which is provided in between said two substrates, whereina pixel electrode 19 which is provided on said reflective part 15 and said transmissive part 16 is formed so as to overlap with said signal lines 13 and said scanning lines 12 via an insulating layer when viewed from the upper side,a width L1 of the signal line 13 corresponding to said transmissive part 16 is greater than a width L3 of said signal line 13 corresponding to said reflective part 15, andan overlapping width L2 of said pixel electrode 19 and said signal line 13 corresponding to said transmissive part 16 is greater than an overlapping width L4 of the pixel electrode 19 and said signal line 13 corresponding to said reflective part 15. As a result, it will be possible to provide a semi-transmissive liquid crystal display device having good contrast without any negative effects on display quality such as cross-talk or the like can be provided.
US07719633B2
A light source apparatus capable of being reduced in size and thickness and superior in light combining performance includes a prism sheet unit having two mutually parallel prism surfaces each having a plurality of mutually parallel fine prism rows. The prism rows on the two prism surfaces intersect each other at a predetermined angle in plan view. A plurality of light sources are disposed at the light entrance surface side of the prism sheet unit to emit light so that the light is incident on the light entrance surface of the prism sheet unit at a predetermined angle thereto. The lights from the light sources are combined or color-mixed together by passing through the two prism surfaces, and the resulting combined or color-mixed light is emitted as exiting light.
US07719630B2
In a backlight apparatus, laminated optical sheets are housed in a tray such that a wall portion thereof surrounds their circumferences so that the optical sheets receive light from fluorescent lights. Tips of one corner portion A of optical sheets preferably have a shape in which the tips are trimmed by line segments extending between two edges defining the corner portions. At the wall portion of the tray, an opposing surface is formed along the line segments of the corner portions so as to correspond to the shape of the corner portions having tips trimmed off. The opposing surface restrains the line segments.
US07719617B2
Method and apparatus for use with televisions having an internal Java engine are included among the embodiments. In exemplary systems, a PCMCIA port allows the Java engine to load and execute Java applets selected by the viewer. Provision is made for system-aware applets to run concurrently with platform-independent applets on different Java display planes that are merged for display. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07719614B2
In an apparatus and method for converting the frame rate of an image signal in a display system without an external memory, the display system and method are capable of down converting the frame rate of an image signal using a frame rate conversion unit without an external memory. The system and method can be used even in the case where the frequencies of input and output synchronization signals are locked to the same frame rate. The frame rate conversion unit disable-masks portions of the frames of a data enable signal or a vertical synchronization signal, thus canceling the portions of the frames, and outputs the masked data enable signal or the masked vertical synchronization signal to an LCD driving circuit unit, thereby down converting the frame rate of the image signal.
US07719613B2
Free setting of the angle or direction of a camera is available while the camera is being inserted into a cradle. A cradle for a digital camera is provided, which is capable of confirming a display screen of the camera, changing the recording medium or battery, or mounting or demounting a communication cable or the like while the camera is being mounted on the cradle without deteriorating the camera holding. The cradle has a structure such that a tripod screw hole is formed on the bottom surface of the cradle, thereby capable of fixing the cradle to a tripod while the digital camera is being inserted into the cradle. By making the height of rubber pads equal or higher than that of a tripod base, the cradle can be stably placed on a desk or the like. The cradle also has a structure that, among the walls holding the camera, a part of the walls that cover a liquid-crystal monitor of the camera, a media slot for a memory card, a terminal part including a power supply terminal or USB terminal is constituted by movable walls. The movable walls can be used as a simple tripod by employing a free stop structure or click stop structure.
US07719606B2
A system and method for effectively performing a white balance procedure for electronic cameras includes a neutral density diffusion light filter assembly adapted to be attached over the lens of a camera-type device equipped with an electronic device that captures image data using an image sensor device. Alternatively, the diffusion filter could be inserted internally in association with the lens assembly or built into the camera body as an external window associated with an independent image sensor device. The diffusion filter acts as an illuminance integrator of broad light acceptance angle to document light conditions (incident or reflective) that exist at the time an image is captured, thereby enabling a white balance operation at point of capture and production of a computer-generated image with little or no colorcast and requiring minimal (if any) subsequent manual color adjustment.
US07719598B2
A system and method for high numeric aperture imaging systems includes a splitter, a defocusing system, and a combiner. The splitter reflects a portion of collected light and transmits another portion of the collected light. The defocusing system is configured to modify optical power of either the transmitted portion or reflected portion of the collected light. The combiner is oriented with respect to a mechanical angle. The combiner recombines portions of the transmitted portion and the reflected portion such that the transmitted portion and reflected portion are subsequently transmitted being separated by an optical separation angle based upon the mechanical angle of orientation of the combiner. Various other implementations are used to maintain focus with regards to the imaging systems involved.
US07719597B2
Distortion data discretely stored in a distortion data memory 8 are read out by a selector 9 and fed to a signal processor 5. For each coordinate position, the signal processor 5 calculates an approximation formula representing an image height-distortion curve based on the distortion data fed thereto, and performs distortion correction based on the approximation formula.
US07719589B2
An imaging device comprising an array of pixels fabricated using a microelectronic technology such as CMOS is disclosed. The imaging device provides information regarding rapid increases in incident radiation. The sensor is sensitive to a variable quantity to be imaged, such as visible or non-visible radiation, and a signal representative of the quantity is output. The quantity is measured over a monitoring period, and the timing of the incidence may also be output.
US07719582B2
When pixel signals are separately read from a plurality of horizontal signal lines to achieve high-speed processing, color difference in image signals and stripes are eliminated.In the operation of reading the pixel signals from the (2n)th row, the pixel signals from R pixels on odd columns are output to an output system A through a horizontal signal line (60A). On the other hand, the pixel signals from Gr pixels on even columns are output to an output system B through a horizontal signal line (60B). In the operation of reading the pixel signals from the (2n+1)th row, the pixel signals from Gb pixels on the odd columns are output to the output system B through the horizontal signal line (60B) by the switching operation in a switching circuit (50). Similarly, the pixel signals from B pixels on the even columns are output to the output system A through the horizontal signal line (60A) by the switching operation in the switching circuit (50).
US07719580B2
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for configuring an imaging system to compensate for fixed pattern noise, variations in pixel values captured from an image sensor that vary according to a fixed pattern. In a method for configuring an imaging system for compensating an additive term component of fixed pattern noise, a pixel array is exposed to a scene of known radiance and an average white value is determined for each pixel of an array. Each average white value is compared to a predetermined reference value to determine a correction value for each pixel. In a method for configuring an imaging system for compensating both an additive and multiplicative component of fixed pattern noise, a pixel array is exposed to a first scene having a first known radiance, and frames of the scene are captured, and then the array is exposed to a second scene having a second known radiance and frames of the second scene are captured. After first and second average white values are determined for each pixel additive and multiplicative term correction values for each pixel are then determined by solving for a system of equations relating the first and second average white values and first and second scene radiances. Correction values can be utilized to correct pixel values of a frame of image data, and a decoding algorithm for attempting to decode a frame of image data including corrected pixel values can be activated.
US07719578B2
The present invention relates illustratively to a video camera for recording image pickup results constituting moving pictures, an electronic still camera, and a monitoring apparatus. The invention envisages varying the charge storage time TE or the frame period of image pickup means 3 or the processing time TC of data compressing means 8 in accordance with the processing time TC of the data compressing means 8.
US07719576B2
A method and apparatus for tagging digital photographs with geographic location data is described. In one example, a digital camera includes an imaging unit, a radio frequency/intermediate frequency (RF/IF) front end, and a memory. The imaging unit is configured to generate digital photographs. The RF/IF front end is configured to receive satellite positioning system signals and generate digital samples therefrom. The memory is configured to store a set of digital samples generated by the RF/IF front end with each digital photograph generated by the imaging unit. The digital samples produced by the RF/IF front end may be intermediate frequency samples and may include both in-phase samples and quandrature samples. Notably, the memory stores digital samples of GPS signals, rather than location data. The digital GPS samples may be processed by an off-line processing unit, such as a computer, to produce location data.
US07719565B2
A system and method are disclosed for a central server to manage remote monitoring tasks performed by users of a data network. An exemplary method comprises: receiving a request from a user of a user device to monitor a remote location; determining a remote location to be monitored; enabling communication between a sensor at the remote location and the user device; and crediting value to the user in accordance with an amount of time the user device has been in communication with the remote sensor for remote monitoring purposes. An alternate exemplary method includes measuring user attentiveness while the user device is in communication with the remote sensor. Thus, the disclosed system and method provide a way for users of a data network such as the Internet to log on at any time and perform remote monitoring tasks for value. Idle time can now be turned into value using the disclosed system and method. Moreover, little or no skill is required of the user to earn value using the disclosed system and method; the user need only be attentive while performing a remote monitoring task. Location owners also benefit from the convenience by which they can now have their properties monitored and by the ability of the disclosed system and method to ensure the attentiveness of the user performing the remote monitoring task.
US07719564B2
The present invention provides a video camera plugged into kiln to monitor and an image processing system using the camera. The video camera is composed of a camera body, a video recorder, a monitor, and a digital thermometer; the image processing system is composed of the camera body mentioned above, a computer and a color monitor. Especially, the present invention is used to monitor material surface during the smelting in a blast furnace; process the image by a computer, describing quantificationally the airflow and temperature distribution of the material surface; monitor the operation state of charging chute or bell, the material stream, and the abnormality in the furnace such as pipeline and material collapse. The advantages of the present invention: Micro camera used to obtain IR image in the furnace, pint-sized, low cost, easy installation, simple maintenance, long service life, and the maintenance performed without stopping production.
US07719563B2
An electronic system that produces an enhanced spatial television-like audio-visual experience is disclosed. Unlike normal television, the system enables the viewer to control both the viewing direction and relative position of the viewpoint with respect to the movie action. In addition to a specific hardware configuration, this patent also relates to a new video format which makes possible this virtual reality like experience including a system by which multi-channel audio can be recorded in addition to visual information onto a single data channel which is compatible with existing television and audio-visual standards and an optical tracking system to provide both angular and spatial position information to control the display of said imagery and spatial audio.
US07719561B2
An optical scanning apparatus includes a light source to generate a beam, a lens to transmit the beam generated from the light source, and a base member to which the lens is fixed, wherein the lens is fixed to the base member via a mount member having a same coefficient of thermal expansion as the lens. According to the present general inventive concept, an optical member, such as the lens, is not directly joined to the base member but is joined to the mount member having the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the optical member and is then coupled to the base member. Consequently, the optical member is stably coupled to the base member even when the temperature changes.
US07719559B2
An image forming apparatus includes light source having multiple light-emitting portions, rotating polygonal mirror which deflects a beam that is emitted from light source, and photosensitive member which is exposed by beams in an image period that is included in one scanning cycle of the beam. One scanning cycle of the beam includes an image period and a non-image period. This apparatus includes selection unit which selects one or more light-emitting portions to be used in image period from among multiple light-emitting portions, and driving unit which drives selected light-emitting portions to emit a beam in a non-image period that is immediately before image period. This apparatus further includes control unit which executes auto light power control for one or more light-emitting portions to be used in image period according to light power of beams detected by beam detection unit.
US07719553B2
An exposure apparatus comprises: a plurality of light sources; a first condensing unit, arranged to contact a light emitting surface of each of the light sources, that condenses the lights emitted from the plurality of light sources; and a second condensing unit that condenses the lights from each of the light sources, which are emitted from the first condensing unit, wherein the first condensing unit is configured so that a center of curvature of an output surface, to emit the light from the light source, of the first condensing unit is positioned near the side of the second condensing unit rather than an arrangement position of the light source.
US07719547B2
A video and graphics system provides square graphics pixels to blend images having 640×480 pixels, such as graphics images provided by some set top boxes and intended to be displayed at a 12.27 MHz display sample rate, with images having 704×480 pixels, such as ITU-R 601 compliant images such as NTSC SDTV images, having oblong pixels and displayed at a 13.5 MHz display sample rate. A sample rate converter including a multi-phase-multi-tap filter is used to generate square pixels. The multi-phase-multi-tap filter provides a good balance of sharpness, smoothness, anti-aliasing and reduced ringing. The multi-phase-multi-tap filter can also be used to convert images having 320×480 pixels to images having 704×480 pixels. The multi-tap filter can be used for scan rate conversion of graphics or video images for HDTV or SDTV applications.
US07719544B2
Systems and methods are provided for controlling texture sampling in connection with computer graphics in a computer system. In various embodiments, improved mechanisms for controlling texture sampling are provided that enable 3-D accelerator hardware to greatly increase the level of realism in rendering, including improved mechanisms for (1) motion blur; (2) generating anisotropic surface reflections (3) generating surface self-shadowing (4) ray-cast volumetric sampling (4) self-shadowed volumetric rendering and (5) self-shadowed volumetric ray-casting. In supplementing existing texture sampling techniques, parameters for texture sampling may be replaced and/or modified.
US07719539B2
A 3-dimensional computer generated image is generated by subdividing the image into a plurality of rectangular areas. Object data for each rectangular area is loaded into a display list memory until that memory is substantially full. Image data and shading data for each picture element of each rectangular area are derived by an image synthesis processor from the object data. The image data is then stored in a local memory. Additional object data is loaded into the display list memory and replaces existing contents. Then, the stored image data and the shading data are retrieved, and additional image data and shading data are derived for each picture element by the image synthesis processor using the additional object data and the previously derived image and shading data. When there is no further object data to load to the display list memory, the shading data is provided for display for the rectangular areas by a frame buffer.
US07719530B2
An image is moved and displayed through an image movement orbit composed of one or more annular orbits. The annular orbit is set such that a central point of the image to be displayed on a display screen is defined as a reference position, and the reference position is used as a start point, and this reference position is returned to when a movement corresponding to one round is completed. Thus, the image movement orbit is established so as to always pass through a reference point, for each cycle of an annular orbit. As a result of such image movement, the image movement as a pixel shift is unrecognizable so as to reduce ghost effects.
US07719524B2
A pointing device is placed in a through hole provided on an outer case of the portable information terminal. The terminal includes a fingerplate attached to a through hole via a hinge; an image pick-up element placed on a circuit board; a condensing lens that forms an image on an outer surface of the fingerplate on an image pick-up plane of the image pick-up element; and a light emitting device that irradiates the outer surface of the fingerplate with illumination light, and takes the image of a pattern such as a fingerprint that touches the outer surface of the fingerplate by using the image pick-up element. When the fingertip moves, the image taken by the image pick-up element changes and the pointer displayed on a display screen is moved in a direction according to the movement of the fingertip.
US07719520B2
A method for processing data entered using an electronic device and an electronic device capable of implementing the method is described. In one embodiment, the electronic device includes at least one multi-value key associated with at least two input data values. Each multi-value key includes a plurality of units and each input data value corresponds to at least one unit. The electronic device also includes an eye-tracking system that determines an area where a user is gazing by monitoring eye movements of the user, and an input value selection module coupled to the plurality of units and to the eye-tracking system. The input value selection module determines probabilistically which input data value was entered based on a value received from at least one unit and on the area where the user is gazing.
US07719519B2
Embodiments of an input device are disclosed.
US07719518B2
A computer peripheral device includes a first housing, a second housing, a connecting member and a judging circuit. The connecting member is made of a conducting material and includes a rotating shaft. The second housing is rotatable relative to the first housing with rotation of the rotating shaft, so that the computer peripheral device is switched between a first configuration and a second configuration. The judging circuit includes a first conducting contact and a second conducting contact. The judging circuit activates a first function when the computer peripheral device is adjusted to the first configuration such that the first conducting contact is electrically connected to the second conducting contact through the connecting member. The judging circuit activates a second function when the computer peripheral device is adjusted to the second configuration such that the electrical connection between the first conducting contact and the second conducting contact is interrupted.
US07719517B2
A peripheral input device having a body configured to be stored within a housing of a computer device is disclosed. In at least one embodiment, a wireless input device is configured to be recharged within the housing. Further aspects of the invention relate to an input device configured to operatively connect to underutilized ports of a computer system. In one embodiment, the input device operatively connects to a PCMCIA port of a computer. Yet further aspects of the invention relate to an input device having an expandable body, wherein the body may be configured to have an increased surface area upon expansion of the body.
US07719513B2
An LCD driving inverter to drive a plurality of lamps mounted in an LCD module, includes: a main substrate having an input part connected to an external power source, a conversion circuit converting a direct current provided from the input part into an alternating current, a first transformer connected to the conversion circuit to convert voltage from the conversion circuit and a first output part providing the voltage from the first transformer to at least one of a plurality of lamps; a subsidiary substrate including a second transformer connected to the conversion circuit to convert the voltage from the conversion circuit and a second output part providing the voltage from the second transformer to at least another one of the plurality of lamps; and at least one spacing member disposed between the main substrate and the subsidiary substrate so that the subsidiary substrate is mounted to be spaced from a surface of the main substrate. Thus, the LCD driving inverter and a portable computer including the inverter having a plurality of output parts is minimized in the width dimension.
US07719509B2
In a liquid crystal display driving circuit, upon time-sharing output of gray scale voltages from an amplifier of an output circuit for each unit pixel composed of three sub-pixels of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in the output sequence of R, G and B, a data matching detector compares gray scale data corresponding to R, G and B sub-pixels for each unit pixel and, it they match in all pixels of each scan line, a driving time of the amplifier is set such that G output interval and B output interval are shorter than R output interval at the top by an output control signal AS output from a control signal generator.
US07719498B2
The present invention is to provide a light emitting device capable of obtaining a certain luminance without influence by the temperature change, and a driving method thereof. A current mirror circuit formed by using a transistor is provided for each pixel. The first transistor and the second transistor of the current mirror circuit are connected such that the drain currents thereof are maintained at proportional values regardless of the load resistance value. Thereby, a light emitting device capable of controlling the OLED driving current and the luminance of the OLED by controlling the drain current of the first transistor at a value corresponding to a video signal in a driving circuit, and supplying the drain current of the second transistor to the OLED, is provided.
US07719496B2
An organic thin film transistor that has good adhesiveness and good contact resistance as well as allows ohmic contact between an organic semiconductor layer and a source electrode and a drain electrode, and its manufacturing method. There is also provided a flat panel display device using the organic thin film transistor. The organic thin film transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, an organic semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer, and a gate electrode formed on a substrate, and a carrier relay layer including conductive polymer material formed at least between the organic semiconductor layer and the source electrode or the organic semiconductor layer and the drain electrode.
US07719486B2
A voice circuit is arranged on a chassis member. The voice circuit comprises a voice output amplifier and a high-frequency bypass unit. An output terminal of the voice output amplifier is connected to one end of a voice coil in a speaker through an interconnection, and is grounded through a high-frequency bypass unit. The voice output amplifier supplies a voice current to the voice coil through an interconnection. The resonance frequency of the high-frequency bypass unit is set to the same frequency as that of a discharge current flowing in the chassis member. A high-frequency induced current generated in the voice circuit due to the discharge current flowing in the chassis member flows to a ground terminal through the high-frequency bypass unit.
US07719485B2
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus and driving method thereof, and more particularly, to a plasma display apparatus implementing gray levels and driving method thereof. The plasma display apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plasma display panel in which a plurality of scan electrodes and a plurality of sustain electrodes are formed on a substrate, drivers for driving the plurality of the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes, and a sustain pulse controller for controlling the drivers to set a total number of sustain pulses applied to the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes to be at least one or more of a plurality of sub-fields in which a sub-field having an odd number constitutes one frame. The present invention can implement a finer gray level. Accordingly, half-tone noise when implementing a low gray level can be reduced and the picture quality can be improved.
US07719483B2
A method of removing synthetic vision terrain and objects from a graphical display when unsafe to rely on the synthetic vision terrain and objects is provided. The method comprises receiving current position data from at least one sensor, determining when to fade out synthetic vision terrain and objects based on the position data received, and fading out synthetic vision terrain and objects gradually when determined.
US07719482B2
Multimedia from a source can be wirelessly transmitted in a 60 GHz system to a display. To support rapid reads of encryption, EDID, and other data written into a slave at the display by a master at the source in accordance with I2C protocol, a master simulator on the display side continually polls the slave for changes, and maintains a shadow memory in a slave simulator at the source side current, so that reads from the master may be immediately executed from the shadow memory in the slave simulator without transitting the wireless link.
US07719481B2
A method of generating an output image having a lower resolution than that of a source image is provided. A thinned image is generated by discarding outer pixels of the source image. In parallel with generation of the thinned image, an averaged image is generated, such that each pixel of the averaged image represents an average of a subset of pixels in the source image. A first output image is then generated by subsampling the pixels of the thinned image. A final output image is generated as a function of both the first output image and the averaged image.
US07719471B1
A gas plasma antenna with a rigid, flexible or semi-flexible substrate and an improved method of generating a uniform electron density. The antenna comprises a plasma display panel (PDP) containing a multiplicity of Plasma-tubes, each Plasma-tube containing a gas, which is ionized to produce electron density. A selected portion of each Plasma-tube acts alone or in concert with a selected portion of other Plasma-tubes to form a dipole or pattern of dipoles.
US07719465B2
A system and method for acquiring an initial Global Positioning System (GPS) signal in a communication system including a terminal. The system includes an Assisted GPS (AGPS) server for generating Acquisition Assistance (AA) data distinguished according to an area based on a pre-set position of each service area, a transmitting station for broadcasting the generated AA data to terminals, and the terminals for acquiring an initial GPS signal by receiving the broadcasted AA data. In addition, the method includes the steps of generating AA data distinguished according to an area based on a pre-set position of each service area, broadcasting the generated AA data to terminals, and acquiring, by each of the terminals, a GPS signal by receiving the broadcasted AA data.
US07719460B1
In a radar device including a transmitting unit for transmitting a transmission signal having plural modulation sections, a receiving unit for receiving a reflection signal obtained through reflection of the transmission signal from a target by an array antenna having plural channels, a mixing unit for mixing the transmission signal with reception signals of the plural channels to obtain beat signals of the plural channels, a frequency analyzing unit for frequency-analyzing the beat signals of the plural channels, and a direction calculating unit for calculating the direction to the target on the basis of frequency analysis results of the plural channels, the direction calculating unit adds correlation matrixes generated from peak frequency spectra of the plural modulation sections to obtain an summed correlation matrix, and calculating the direction to the target on the basis of the summed correlation matrix.
US07719459B2
A method and apparatus for determining a value of each bit in a secondary radar response pulse train sampled at a bit rate greater than one sample per bit is provided. The received signal is sampled repeatedly over a bit period. A scale factor for a weighting function is defined based on the amplitude levels detected from the response preamble. The weighting function has a maximum positive value at the expected bit amplitude for the first half of the bit period and decays to zero at higher amplitudes so that the effect of very large samples will be negligible. For lower amplitudes, the weighting decays to zero at the threshold level and becomes increasingly negative until zero amplitude. In the second half of the bit period the sign of the weighting function is swapped compared to the first half. The amplitude samples taken during the bit period are then each applied to the weighting function and the sum of the weighting function for the samples taken over the bit period is calculated. If the sum is positive, the bit is declared a “1”; if the sum is negative, the bit is declared a “0”. The magnitude of the sum may be used as an indication of the quality of the bit decision.
US07719457B1
A digitally tuned digital radio frequency memory that captures a portion of a first radio frequency signal and retransmits the portion as a coherent radio frequency signal. The digitally tuned radio frequency memory may include a track and hold configured to track and hold the first radio frequency signal and to output a shaped signal; a digitizer configured to convert the shaped signal to a digital word; a memory configured to store the digital word; and a direct digital frequency synthesizer configured to provide a sampling clock signal, wherein the sampling clock signal is provided to the track and hold.
US07719453B2
The present invention relates to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and an analog-to-digital conversion method employing a Josephson digital-to-analog converter (DAC) into an extremely accurate ADC of a physical metrology grade. The ADC includes: a front end ADC for converting an analog input signal into digital data; the Josephson DAC for receiving the digital data from the front end ADC and converting the received digital data into reference analog voltage; a differential ADC for extracting a difference voltage between a reference analog voltage of the Josephson DAC and an unknown input signal; and a data processor for summing output data of the differential ADC and output data of the front end ADC and outputting the summed result. The present invention enables to realize a highly stable Josephson ADC with little time and low cost, which is more accurate in a long-term as compared to any existing semiconductor measurement unit and has a performance that is rarely changed during a lifespan, by combining a programmable array and an existing semiconductor ADC.
US07719449B2
A system including a serializer/deserializer (SERDES) block including a first SERDES lane, a second SERDES lane, a third SERDES lane, and a fourth SERDES lane; a physical coding sublayer (PCS) block including a layout select tag, a first PCS lane connected to the fourth SERDES lane, a second PCS lane connected to the third SERDES lane, a third PCS lane connected to the second SERDES lane, and a fourth PCS lane connected to the first SERDES lane; and a media access control (MAC) layer block including a first plurality of pins connected to the first PCS lane, a second plurality of pins connected to the second PCS lane, a third plurality of pins connected to the third PCS lane, and a fourth plurality of pins connected to the fourth PCS lane, wherein the PCS block is configured to map the first SERDES lane to the first plurality of pins, the second SERDES lane to the second plurality of pins, the third SERDES lane to the third plurality of pins, and the fourth SERDES lane to the fourth plurality of pins based on a value of the layout select tag.
US07719435B2
Method and apparatus for simulating an operating television for the purpose of deterring potential intruders by providing the appearance that one or more occupants are at home. Realistic simulation of a television is accomplished via perceived random combinations, amplitudes, colors, and durations of television program scene modes, these scene modes comprised of fades, swells, flicks, static periods, and low frequency noise. Color shifts, both subtle and dramatic, effectively emulate true television output. Efficient, reliable, and inexpensive super-bright LEDs serve as light sources.
US07719434B2
The method for identifying critical features as a function of process provides a way to identify critical features associated with a particular part, and to relate the effect of performing repair processes on the identified critical features. The method includes identifying critical features associated with the part, and determining the effect repair processes will have on the identified critical features. This information is included in a an output that is made available to repair centers. Based on the identification of critical features and the associated effect of repair processes on the identified critical features, repair centers are able to focus process and quality control resources on the identified critical features affected by a particular repair process.
US07719427B2
A wireless pH measurement system is disclosed, the wireless pH measurement system includes a portable module and a receiver end. The portable module comprises a signal detecting and processing portion and a wireless transmission portion. The signal detecting and processing portion comprises a sensor unit for detecting a pH signal, amplifying, filtering noise, analog/digital conversion and numerical processing to generate a pH measurement signal. The wireless transmission portion receives the pH measurement signal via a transmission interface and transmits by a Bluetooth module. The receiver end includes a Bluetooth receiver for receiving the pH measurement signal. The receiver end processes the pH measurement signal by programs, displays, analyzes and stores the pH measurement signal and transmits warning signal when an abnormal pH measurement signal is received.
US07719421B2
A security system and security device for securing a piece of luggage having a locking means, the security system and security device having a housing with two or more passageways and defined therethrough and a pawl, wherein said a pawl projects into said two or more passageways, and a security strap that is adapted to be inserted into the locking means and the two or more passageways, wherein the security strap is adapted to engage with the pawl to securely link the housing to the piece of luggage.
US07719420B2
A lock status notification method, apparatus and corresponding medication storage device (e.g., mobile medication dispensing cart, medication cabinet, nurse server, etc.) are provided. In order to generate the notification, a computing device operating on the medication storage device may monitor the status of a manual lock associated with one or more drawers of the medication storage device (e.g., through the use of a sensor associated with the lock). A notification may be generated if it is determined that the medication storage device is unlocked at a certain point in time (e.g., when a user is attempting to log off of an application executing on the computing device). At least one of the drawers of the medication storage device may include a next case medication pocket having an automatic lock and in which medications prepared for the next case or procedure in which the user is participating can be securely stored.
US07719417B2
A portable terminal comprising a transmission part that transmits to information provision equipment or a server, a signal indicating presence at a prescribed location, presence of a communications counterparty at a prescribed location, a reception part that receives from the information provision equipment or the server, a signal indicating the position of a moving body, a moving body is approaching or is present at the prescribed location, an alarm part that issues an alarm using the moving body in position signal received at the reception part, indicating the moving body is approaching or is present at the prescribed location, a light detection part detecting the degree of brightness, a part deciding whether or not to transmit a present in prescribed location signal that decides, using the brightness as detected by the light detection part, whether or not to send a present in prescribed location signal from the transmission part.
US07719408B2
An accessory system for a vehicle includes a windshield that has a mounting element adhesively attached to its inner surface, an interior rearview mirror assembly, and an accessory support adapted for mounting to and demounting from the mounting element. The accessory support includes an accessory receiving portion configured to receive an accessory. The accessory support may comprise part of the interior rearview mirror assembly or may include a mirror mounting element with the interior rearview mirror assembly adapted for mounting to the mirror mounting element of the accessory support. The accessory comprises an imaging sensor and the accessory receiving portion is configured to receive the imaging sensor in a manner that compensates for the windshield angle of the windshield so that the imaging sensor has a more generally horizontal forward field of view through the windshield when the accessory support is mounted to the mounting element.
US07719393B1
An actuating apparatus for operating a drive or retardation means of a motor vehicle, comprising a signal converter (26; 60) which produces a control signal dependent on the actuating travel, wherein the signal converter (26; 60) comprises an elastic and conductive shaped body having a first and second outside surface which are arranged at a spacing relative to each other, which is provided with a first electrical contact region (29; 62) which extends over the first outside surface of the shaped body and which is galvanically conductively connected on the one hand to the shaped body and on the other hand to a first feed line (30; 64) and a second electrical contact region (29′; 63) which extends along the second surface of the shaped body and is galvanically conductively connected on the one hand to the shaped body and on the other hand to a second feed line (30′; 65), and wherein the electrical resistance of the shaped body between the two contact regions (29, 29′; 62, 63) is dependent on the spacing of the two contact regions (29, 29′; 62, 63) and that connected downstream of the signal converter (26; 60) is a measurement transducer (32) whose outputs are connected by way of the feed lines (30, 30′; 64, 65) to the first and second contact regions (29, 29′; 62, 63) and at whose output a control signal (44) can be taken off, which is dependent on the electrical resistance of the shaped body.
US07719390B2
A dual mode piezoelectric filter includes a piezoelectric material layer composed of a piezoelectric thin film of the high-cut type formed on a substrate, a first electrode and a second electrode formed on one of the major surfaces of the piezoelectric material layer with a gap provided therebetween, a third electrode formed on the other major surface of the piezoelectric material layer opposite to the first electrode, the second electrode, and the gap, and an interelectrode mass load element formed in the gap or at a position opposite to the gap on a surface of the piezoelectric material layer. The relationships (ρ1×h1)≦(ρa×ha) and (ρ2×h2)≦(ρa×ha) are satisfied, where h1 is the thickness and ρ1 is the density of the first electrode, h2 is the thickness and ρ2 is the density of the second electrode, and ha is the thickness and ρa is the density of the interelectrode mass load element. A filter characteristic with a smooth passband and low losses is obtained.
US07719388B2
Disclosed is a resonator that is mounted on a substrate, operates with acoustic bulk waves, and is disposed above an acoustic mirror. According to the invention, the basic mode of the acoustic bulk wave that can be generated in the resonator is suppressed while a higher mode can be excited in parallel and be utilized for the resonator by adjusting the acoustic mirror.
US07719382B2
A tunable radio frequency (RF) filter is provided. The RF filter comprises a signal transmission path having an input and an output, a plurality of resonant elements disposed along the signal transmission path between the input and the output, and a plurality of non-resonant elements coupling the resonant elements together. The resonant elements are coupled together to form a stop band having a plurality of transmission zeroes corresponding to respective frequencies of the resonant elements, and at least one sub-band between the transmission zeroes. The non-resonant elements comprise at least one variable non-resonant element for selectively introducing at least one reflection zero within the stop band to create a pass band in one of the sub-bands(s). The variable non-resonant element(s) may be configured for displacing the reflection zero(es) along the stop band to selectively move the pass band within the one sub-band or within selected ones of the sub-bands.
US07719379B2
Fundamental interconnect systems for connecting high-speed electronics elements are provided. The interconnect systems consists of signal line, dielectric system with open trench or slot filled up with air or lower dielectric loss material, and the ground plane. The signal line could be for example, microstripline, strip line, coplanar line, single line or differential pairs. The interconnect system can be used for on-chip interconnects or can also be used for off-chip interconnects. The fundamental techniques provided in this invention can also be used for high-speed connectors and high-speed cables.
US07719376B2
Modulator system (1) comprising modulators (2, 3, 4) for modulating input signals (A) according to different modulation schemes (8PSK, GMSK) cause discontinuities in the output signals (F) when switching between the schemes. By providing the modulator systems (1) with compensators (13, 22-26) for compensating amplitudes/phases of the output signals (F) of the modulator system (1) for discontinuities, these discontinuities resulting from modulation scheme changes are reduced to a large extent. This may be done before/after the pulse shapers (11, 21). The compensators (13, 22-26) comprise multipliers for multiplying pulse shaped modulated signals with complex valued waveforms (E), or for multiplying modulated signals with waveforms (S, T), or for multiplying complex valued signals (B, C, D) with complex valued phase offsets (X, Y, Z), which complex valued signals (B, C, D) are to be multiplied with mapped input signals. As a result, the output signals (F) and/or power amplifiers (33) situated after the modulator system (1) no longer need to be ramped down.
US07719375B2
A PLL includes an open-loop automatic frequency calibration circuit. The open-loop automatic frequency calibration circuit includes a frequency detector, first and second sinks, a comparator and a bank selector. The frequency detector generates an up-signal and a down-signal responding to a frequency difference between a first phase difference signal having a phase difference from a reference oscillation signal and the second phase difference signal having a phase difference from a frequency division oscillation signal. The first and second sinks discharge the first and second capacitors respectively responding to the up-signal and the down-signal. The comparator compares voltages of the first and second capacitors. The bank selector selects a bank according to binary search, selects an optimum bank among two banks lastly searched, and outputs a bank selection signal. The voltage-controlled oscillation changes frequency features thereof in response to the bank selection signal.
US07719371B2
Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a system, method and apparatus for spread spectrum functionality for a free-running, reference harmonic oscillator. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus comprises a reference oscillator adapted to provide a reference signal having a reference frequency; and a spread spectrum controller adapted to control the reference oscillator to generate a spread-spectrum reference signal at a plurality of different reference frequencies during a predetermined or selected time period. An exemplary apparatus may also include a coefficient register adapted to store a plurality of coefficients and a plurality of controlled reactance modules responsive to a corresponding coefficient of the plurality of coefficients to modify an amount of reactance effectively coupled to the reference oscillator. An exemplary spread spectrum controller is further adapted to sequentially modify the plurality of coefficients during the predetermined time period to provide the spread spectrum reference signal.
US07719370B2
A voltage controlled oscillator that is a differential ring oscillator type voltage controlled oscillator that, by connecting in cascade differential delay elements to which differential clock signals of a mutually reverse phase are input and controlling the current that flows to the differential delay elements by a bias voltage, controls a delay amount of this differential clock signal, having a phase detection portion that outputs a detection signal by comparing an output voltage of the differential output of any differential delay element and a reference voltage that is set to a voltage that detects an abnormal operation, and a cross-coupled circuit that is provided at each of the differential delay elements and, when the detection signal is input, amplifies the potential difference between the pair of differential output terminals.
US07719369B2
A sigma delta DAC using a single DAC to generate a first analog quantity portion and a second analog quantity portion, having a strength respectively proportionate to the most significant bits (MSBs) and least significant bits (LSBs) of a received digital value. The two portions are added to generate an analog output representing the strength of the digital value. In an embodiment, the single DAC contains a set of current sources, with some of the current sources (determined by the value of the MSBs) being connected to provide the corresponding output currents on a first path. Some of the other current sources, determined by a value of the LSBs, are controlled to be connected to provide the corresponding output currents on a second path. The time durations the currents are connected to the second path, are determined by the output of a sigma delta modulator.
US07719367B2
Disclosed is a system and method for providing an oscillating signal of relatively precise frequency without using a signal provided by a crystal as a reference. Disclosed is a feedback oscillator circuit configured to output an oscillating signal having a frequency defined by a reference signal. The oscillating signal can be sent to one or more circuits including at least one frequency sensitive element. The frequency sensitive element produces an output signal which depends on the frequency of the oscillating signal. A controller controls the reference signal in order to cause an attribute of the output signal to have a value within a desired range.
US07719362B2
Programmable-gain amplifier systems are provided that are particularly suited for reducing degrading audio effects such as zipper noise. In one embodiment, these systems switchably couple an electronic potentiometer between an amplifier's inverting input terminal and interleaved tap points along a resistor that is coupled to the amplifier's output terminal. This arrangement introduces a number of fine gain steps between the gain steps that are realized with adjacent ones of the interleaved tap points to substantially reduce or eliminate zipper noise in a audio system that processes the system's output signal. The interleaved tap points facilitate efficient operation of the potentiometer during gain changes. They also permit the potentiometer to be effectively bypassed between gain changes so that distortion effects are substantially eliminated.
US07719355B2
One provides (401, 402) both an in-phase signal component (501) and a quadrature signal component (601) wherein the latter has a non-zero portion. These two signal components are then combined (403) to provide a Cartesian training waveform that can be used when training a linear amplifier that uses Cartesian feedback linearization. By one approach, the non-zero portion of the quadrature signal component can be coincident with a zero-crossing portion of the in-phase signal. In many application settings this non-zero portion of the quadrature signal component can be less (and sometimes considerably less) than a peak amplitude of the in-phase signal component. One may also shape the in-phase signal component to have a smoothed envelope. This may include, for example, using a smoothed sine wave such as a raised-sine function.
US07719350B1
A sample-and-hold circuit includes a transconductance cell and an inductive-capacitive (L-C) resonator circuit acting as a bandpass filter.
US07719338B2
A pulse generating circuit includes a starting circuit which generates m (two or larger integer) starting signals at predetermined time intervals based on a generation starting signal, and m pulse wave generating sub circuits which have the same characteristics and generate pulse waves having pulse width Pw for n cycles (n: 1 or larger integer) based on the respective m starting signals.
US07719331B2
Disclosed is a PLL circuit including a phase frequency detector (PFD) for comparing phase and frequency between an input signal and an output signal, a charge pump circuit for charging a capacitor when an up-signal from the PFD is activated, discharging the capacitor when a down-signal is activated, and for outputting the terminal voltage of the capacitor as a control voltage, and a VCO for outputting an output signal of a frequency in accordance with the control voltage. An output of the VCO is fed back as an output signal to the PFD as input. The PFD includes a delay adjustment circuit for exercising control for resetting the up-signal and the down-signal with a preset delay as from a time point both up-signal and the down-signal have been activated. There is also provided a comparator amplifier circuit for comparing a reference voltage, corresponding to a control voltage when both up-signal and down-signal are activated, to supply first and second control signals to the delay adjustment circuit. The pulse widths of up and down-signals are adjusted depending on current offset characteristics of the charge pump circuit.
US07719323B2
A signal receiver circuit includes a first level detector for offset-controlling a first output node in response to a pair of first reference signals. A second level detector offset-controls a second output node in response to a pair of second reference signals.
US07719320B2
A circuit for filtering glitches that corrupt a digital input signal includes an enable path input with the digital signal and a reset signal. The enable path generates a corresponding active output signal when the reset signal is null and the digital signal assumes a logic active value, or a null output signal when the reset signal is asserted. The circuit also includes a delay line producing an internal signal as delayed replica of the output signal. The circuit further includes a disable path enabled or disabled by the internal signal, which receives the digital signal and, when enabled, asserts the reset signal when the digital signal becomes null.
US07719318B1
A nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switch is formed on a substrate with a source electrode containing a suspended electrically-conductive beam which is anchored to the substrate at each end. This beam, which can be formed of ruthenium, bows laterally in response to a voltage applied between a pair of gate electrodes and the source electrode to form an electrical connection between the source electrode and a drain electrode located near a midpoint of the beam. Another pair of gate electrodes and another drain electrode can be located on an opposite side of the beam to allow for switching in an opposite direction. The NEM switch can be used to form digital logic circuits including NAND gates, NOR gates, programmable logic gates, and SRAM and DRAM memory cells which can be used in place of conventional CMOS circuits, or in combination therewith.
US07719313B2
Differential signal output nodes of a novel CML buffer are DC-coupled by contiguous conductors to the differential signal input nodes of a load (for example, a CML logic element). The CML buffer includes a pulldown load latch that increases buffer transconductance and that provides a DC bias voltage across the conductors and onto the input nodes of the load, thereby obviating the need for the load to have DC biasing circuitry. Capacitors of a conventional AC coupling between buffer and load are not needed, thereby reducing the amount of die area needed to realize the circuit and thereby reducing the capacitance of the buffer-to-load connections. Switching power consumption is low due to the low capacitance buffer-to-load connections. Differential signals can be communicated from buffer to load over a wide frequency range of from less than five kilohertz to more than one gigahertz with less than fifty percent signal attenuation.
US07719302B2
A method is provided for monitoring interconnect resistance within a semiconductor chip assembly, A semiconductor chip assembly can include a semiconductor chip having contacts exposed at a surface of the semiconductor chip and a substrate having exposed terminals in conductive communication with the contacts. A plurality of monitored elements of the semiconductor chip can include conductive interconnects, each interconnecting a respective pair of nodes of the semiconductor chip through wiring within the semiconductor chip. In an example of such method, a voltage drop across each monitored element is compared with a reference voltage drop across a respective reference element on the semiconductor chip at a plurality of different times during a lifetime of the semiconductor chip assembly. In that way, it can be detected when a resistance of such monitored element is over threshold. Based on a result of such comparison, a decision can be made whether to indicate an action condition.
US07719298B2
Assemblies include a substrate, such as a printed circuit board, with a first array of contact pads disposed thereon; a guide ring structure disposed on the substrate and at least partially surrounding the first array of contact pads; a translator socket disposed on the first array of contact pads, the translator socket adapted to receive the tester side of a translated wafer; a thermally conductive, conformal, heat spreading cushion adapted to be disposed over the backside of a wafer; a cover plate adapted to fit over the first array of contact pads, align with the guide ring structure, contain within it the various components disposed over the first array of contact pads, and removably attach to the substrate; and a bolster plate adapted to removably attach to a second side of the substrate. In a further aspect a translated wafer is disposed over the translator socket such that the tester side of the translator is in contact with the translator socket; and the heat spreading cushion is disposed over the backside of the translated wafer. In a still further aspect, the substrate includes signal communication means, such as but not limited to, an edge connector adapted to couple to various controller circuits, which are typically disposed on a printed circuit board.
US07719294B1
Systems configured to perform a non-contact method for determining a property of a specimen are provided. One system configured to perform a non-contact method for determining a property of a specimen includes a focused biasing device configured to provide a stimulus to a focused spot on the specimen. The system also includes a sensor configured to measure a parameter of a measurement spot on the specimen. The measurement spot overlaps the focused spot. The system further includes a processor configured to determine the property of the specimen from the parameter.
US07719293B2
Load current of a circuit is determined across a component of the circuit by calibrating the resistance of the component with a reference current having a distinguishable characteristic. For example, a reference current with swept frequency modulation is applied to the component so that the resistance of the component is determined from voltage drop associated with the reference current across the component. The component resistance is applied to a voltage drop associated with the load current to determine the load current. For example, a filter matched to the reference current frequency modulation isolates the reference current voltage drop so that a ratio of the reference current voltage drop and the load current voltage drop provides a ratio of the reference current and load current.
US07719289B2
A measuring device is used to measure the state of oils of fats. Said measuring device comprises a housing, a hollow connecting element which is secured therein and a carrier which is applied to the opposite end of the connecting element, said carrier being used to receive a sensor which can be used to measure an electric property of the product which is to be measured. The sensor is in contact with an evaluation unit by means of at least one electric line which is arranged on a non-conductive carrier, which is arranged in the region of the housing and/or the end of the connecting element which is oriented towards the housing. The measuring device comprises a plurality of carriers which are arranged in a row and which are thermally insulated from each other.
US07719286B2
A first voltage, which is dropped out onto a pull-down resistor that is coupled to a first power circuit breaker, is compared to an adjustable first reference voltage in order to determine a first comparative value. A second voltage, which is dropped out onto the pull-up resistor that is coupled to the second power circuit breaker, is compared to an adjustable second reference voltage in order to determine a second comparative value. Determination then occurs according to the first comparative value and second comparative value as to whether the first output pin of the first power circuit breaker and the second output switch of the second power circuit breaker are contacted to each other. The first output pin and second output pin are connected to one another by way of a node outside the power circuit breaker.
US07719281B2
In a method for controlling a magnetic resonance system having a radio-frequency antenna structure and a number of individually controllable transmission channels, respective parallel radio-frequency signals are emitted via the transmission channels for generation of a desired radio-frequency field distribution in at least one specific volume region within an examination volume of the magnetic resonance system. A digital signal is generated for each of the transmission channels and is modulated on a carrier frequency. The radio-frequency signal so generated is transmitted via a radio-frequency signal path to the radio-frequency antenna structure and is amplified therein in a radio-frequency power amplifier. The digital signal is manipulated in a characteristic curve correction device on the basis of a correction characteristic curve predetermined for the respective radio-frequency signal path such that a distortion of the radio-frequency signal caused in the appertaining radio-frequency signal path is at least partially compensated. Respective individual correction characteristic curves for a specific measurement are predetermined for the various transmission channels dependent on a field distribution parameter that defines the desired radio-frequency field distribution. A magnetic resonance system implements such a method.
US07719277B2
Detection unit is disclosed for arrangement inside a cylindrical patient receptacle of a magnetic resonance apparatus. In at least one embodiment, the detection unit includes an annular PET detector arrangement with PET detector blocks, and a radiofrequency coil arrangement, arranged coaxially inside the PET detector arrangement and including longitudinal conductors, the longitudinal conductors being guided at least in sections along interspaces between mutually spaced apart detector blocks.
US07719275B2
The invention discloses a method for calculating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in parallel acquisition image reconstruction, comprising: determining a reconstruction expression for a linear operation of the image reconstruction; determining a weighted coefficient according to the reconstruction expression; calculating the SNR according to the weighted coefficient and the raw data. The SNR not only is relevant to the geometric shape and position of the coils, but also is influenced by the reconstruction method and the sampling mode. The SNR is calculated based on contribution of the raw data at positions in the reading direction from all the phase-coding lines in all acquisition channels. It reflects more precisely the loss of the SNR in the parallel acquisition image reconstruction, especially the changes in the SNR caused by the number of the reference lines combined during the reconstruction.
US07719267B2
A inventive flow-meter uses a measuring method which is based on the passage time of fluid molecules in a single sensor, without using any magnetic field gradient for the measurement of said fluid mean velocity. This method consists of the ultrafast irradiation of hydrogen nuclei from fluid molecules through pulses which are repeated every short time intervals, following a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) type sequence.
US07719249B2
In one embodiment, a soft-start circuit is configured to form drive pulses that increase in width independently of the current through the power switch during a first portion of the soft-start operation period.
US07719242B2
A voltage regulator is disclosed that includes an output transistor outputting a current according to an input control signal to an output terminal; a control circuit part controlling the operation of the output transistor; a switching circuit part connecting the substrate gate and the gate of the output transistor to one of the input terminal and the output terminal and one of the output of the control circuit part and the output terminal, respectively, in accordance with the relationship in magnitude between a voltage at an input terminal and a voltage at the output terminal; a first rectifier element connected between the input terminal and a power supply end; and a second rectifier element connected between the output terminal and the power supply end.
US07719237B2
A wireless communication terminal and a battery pack for the same are disclosed. The wireless communication terminal includes a battery pack having one or more battery cells supplying power to the terminal, wherein the battery pack includes a protective circuit senses an high temperature or pressure condition of the one or more battery cells and disconnects battery power from the terminal circuitry.
US07719236B2
A portable electrical device may include a DC to DC converter coupled to a common node, a load coupled to the common node, and a controller configured to control the DC to DC converter. The DC to DC converter may be configured to provide a charging current to a rechargeable battery from an adapter when the controller operates said DC to DC converter in a first adapter supply mode. The DC to DC converter may be configured to provide a battery supply current to the load via the common node when the controller operates the DC to DC converter in a second adapter supply mode. The adapter supply current and the battery supply current may add together at the common node to simultaneously provide a load supply current to the load in the second adapter supply mode.
US07719232B2
One embodiment of the present subject matter includes a system that includes a battery, an electric vehicle, the battery coupled to the electric vehicle to propel the electric vehicle, and a charging circuit to charge the battery. The embodiment includes a charging cost circuit to estimate a charging cost rate and to turn on the charging circuit. The embodiment also includes a timer circuit to provide a time signal to the charging cost circuit. The embodiment is configured such that the charging cost circuit is to turn on the charging circuit during a first time period in which the charging cost rate is below a first threshold until the battery reaches a first energy stored level, and to turn on the charging circuit during a second time period in which the charging cost rate is above the first threshold.
US07719228B2
A system and method for recharging secondary batteries. One embodiment of the present invention comprises a supervisory circuit, a voltage converter, a portable power source, and one or more of a holder and a socket. The holder is adapted to receive a specific type of secondary battery of a portable device. The socket is adapted to mate with a plug of a device-specific charging cord connected to the portable device. Each of the holder and the plug can be associated with a programming resistor that provides a voltage requirement of the secondary battery. When the secondary battery is either placed in the holder or is connected to the socket, the supervisory circuit communicates with the voltage converter to supply the appropriate voltage required to recharge the secondary battery. The voltage converter receives power from the portable power source. The voltage converter can convert the voltage of the portable power source up (i.e., increasing the voltage) or down (i.e., decreasing the voltage) as appropriate to recharge the secondary battery as instructed by the supervisory circuit. The portable power source of the portable battery recharge station can be one of several types of power sources. For example, the portable power source can be replaceable, rechargeable, or renewable.
US07719226B2
Current command values are used instead of detected current values to estimate axis error by calculation. An axis error command value is generated according to a speed command value, and a difference between the generated axis error command value and the estimated axis error value is used to control an estimated frequency value.
US07719217B2
A drive device for a brushless motor executes an abnormality diagnosis (disconnection/short-circuit) of a motor side circuit. In detecting abnormality of the motor side circuit, the drive device includes a terminal voltage monitor circuit that monitors a terminal voltage of an output terminal that is connected to a motor terminal of respective phases. A microcomputer starts abnormality diagnosis under a condition where the motor is stopped, and an object to be driven has normally operated at the time of driving the motor. For executing the abnormality diagnosis, the microcomputer turns on/off only a transistor of the drive circuit of one phase in a state where all of transistors are turned off, and acquires monitor signals to execute the abnormality diagnosis based on signal levels of the monitor signals.
US07719212B2
When there is a temperature difference along the length of a cold cathode tube used as a light source for a display device, a cataphoresis phenomenon occurs due to movement of mercury enclosed contained within the tube, thereby shortening the tube life. In order to solve this problem, temperature sensors are provided to detect a temperature difference between both the ends of the tube. A duty cycle of a voltage waveform to be applied from a DC/AC inverter to the tube is changed so as to cancel movement of the mercury due to the temperature difference.
US07719211B2
A method according to one embodiment may include generating AC voltage and current and a striking voltage. The method of this embodiment may also include generating striking voltage and steady-state voltage for at least two lamp loads. The method of this embodiment may also include coupling at least two lamp loads in parallel. The method of this embodiment may also include coupling current balancing circuitry to the at least two lamp loads and providing, by the current balancing circuitry simultaneous striking voltage to the at least two lamps loads. The method of this embodiment may also include balancing, by the current balancing circuitry, AC current through the at least two lamp loads. Of course, many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
US07719208B2
When temperature variation occurs to the LED dice of an LED lighting system, a feedback control mechanism is applied to compensate temperature-related wavelength shift for precisely controlling the light generated by the LED dice based on the voltage drop variation or current variation of the LED dice. The color control method for the LED lighting system includes a preliminary detection phase and a feedback control phase. In the preliminary detection phase, voltage drop signals or current signals together with corresponding color and hue signals of each LED module of the LED lighting system are detected. In the feedback control phase, signal compensating processes are performed to precisely control the light generated by the LED lighting system based on the voltage drop variation or the current variation in conjunction with the corresponding color and hue signals generated in the preliminary detection phase.
US07719207B2
The present invention is related to the apparatus for driving the light emitting devices with different colors. The input powers of the light emitting devices are measured and controlled by a feedback control system to maintain constant, and by setting different power inputs to the different light emitting devices different stable colors are produced.
US07719205B2
An inverter for driving light source is disclosed. The inverter includes a pulse control unit for producing a conduction period signal, a power switch unit driven by the conduction period signal and a power conversion unit for outputting a driving power, wherein a waveform modulation unit is further connected between the power switch unit and the power conversion unit, and the waveform modulation unit obtains the input power from the power switch unit and converts thereof into a modulation power, wherein the modulation power includes a positive edge modulation period with gradually rising voltage peak and a negative edge modulation period with gradually falling voltage peak, with the positive edge modulation period has a duration longer than that of the negative edge modulation period, and the modulation power is transmitted to the power conversion unit for being further converted into the driving power.
US07719202B2
A LED driving circuit mainly includes a commutation unit to transform an AC input cycle signal to a DC cycle signal, a switch unit which divides a driving power signal output to a LED and has a duty voltage value, a valley filled power factor correction circuit to receive the AC input cycle signal and stop conduction of the commutation unit when the voltage value of the AC input cycle signal is lower than a cutoff voltage value, and a piezoelectric inverter to receive the driving power signal of the switch unit and regulate the signal to an AC modulated power signal within a duty range of the LED to drive the LED to emit light.
US07719201B2
A microdevice has an electron emitter including a memory for accumulating electric charges corresponding to an input voltage, for emitting electrons corresponding to the electric charges accumulated in said memory; and an amplifier connected to a power supply and including a collector electrode for capturing the electrons emitted from the electron emitter. The atmosphere between at least the electron emitter and the collector electrode is a vacuum. When the electrons emitted from the electron emitter are captured by the collector electrode of the amplifier, a collector current flows between the collector electrode and the electron emitter to amplify the input voltage.
US07719190B2
There is provided a PDP that can both prevent cross-talk between discharge cells and improve contrast, comprising a first substrate and a second substrate bonded to face each other; a plurality of discharge cells formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; a plurality of X electrodes formed between the first substrate and the second substrate and crossing the discharge cells; and a plurality of Y electrodes formed between the first substrate and the second substrate and crossing the discharge cells, wherein the discharge cells in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the X electrodes and the Y electrodes extend share the X electrodes with the adjacent discharge cells.
US07719177B2
A low-pressure mercury vapor discharge lamp has a light-transmitting discharge vessel (10) enclosing, in a gastight manner, a discharge space (11) provided with a filling of mercury and a rare gas. The discharge vessel (10) comprises discharge means for maintaining a discharge in the discharge space (13). At least a part of an inner wall (12) of the discharge vessel (10) is provided with a protective layer (16). The discharge vessel (10) is provided with a luminescent layer (17) comprising a luminescent material. The luminescent layer (17) further comprises inorganic softening particles (27) with a softening point above 450° C. The size of the softening particles (27) is in the range from 0.01 to 10 gm. Preferably, the softening particles (27) are selected from the group formed by strontium borate, barium borate, yttrium borate, yttrium-strontium borate and calcium pyrophosphate.
US07719170B1
Techniques, apparatus and systems that use an acoustic transducer with a Fresnel lens to focus an acoustic wave for various applications, including acoustic droplet ejectors.
US07719164B2
A patterned dielectric elastomer actuator is disclosed which includes a series of thin parallel elastomer filaments, separated by certain distances sandwiched between a pair of rigid electrodes. The elastomer filaments and air acts as a patterned dielectric layer. The elastomer filaments can compress laterally from a circular cross-section to an elliptical shape when a voltage is applied between the rigid electrodes. The elastomer filaments can touch laterally, which implies no further squeezing in order to provide a minimal secure distance between the rigid electrodes. The dielectric elastomer actuator can be fabricated utilizing a reel-to-reel fabrication process with the thin elastomer filaments fabricated ahead of time, by extrusion techniques and cured completely before storing on reels.
US07719161B2
Provided are a method of designing a rotary thermal actuator and a rotary thermal actuator. The method includes setting the shape of an entire design domain; dividing the entire design domain into a predetermined number of domains which are symmetrical to one another in a rotational direction from the center of the entire design domain; designing the domains using a topology optimization method which uses a driving stage disposed at the center of the entire design domain, an initial shape of thermal expansion members which connect electrodes disposed at outer boundaries of the entire design domain, material properties of the thermal expansion members, and boundary conditions of the domains; and designing the entire design domain such that the designed domains are symmetrical to one another in the rotational direction.
US07719160B2
A coreless and brushless direct-current motor includes an armature coil wound without core and formed in the shape of a saddle; an outside rotor magnet formed by a permanent magnet, the outside rotor magnet being provided at an outside of the armature coil in the shape of a cylinder so as to face the armature coil, the outside rotor magnet being rotated by the magnetic field; an inside rotor magnet formed by a permanent magnet, the inside rotor magnet being provided in the shape of a cylinder at an inside of the armature coil so that the inside rotor magnet has a pole opposite to the outside rotor magnet and a rotational shaft is independently provided; an output shaft connected to the inside rotor magnet; and a sealing part of a barrier structure which sealing part partitions the armature coil and the outside rotor magnet to an outside of the inside rotor magnet and seals the armature coil and the outside rotor magnet.
US07719157B2
A motor includes a rotor having a permanent magnet fitted thereon, and a stator having an inner peripheral surface spaced a predetermined distance from an outer peripheral surface of the rotor in opposed relation thereto, and the stator is press-fitted in a motor case to be fixed thereto with its outer peripheral surface. A plurality of projecting portions are formed on an inner peripheral surface of the motor case. Recess portions for engagement with the respective projecting portions are formed in the outer peripheral surface of the stator. When the stator is press-fitted into the motor case, the stator is fixed to the motor case with inner bottom surfaces of the recess portions serving as press-fitting surfaces. The projecting portions of the motor case are engaged respectively in the recess portions of the stator, thereby preventing the rotation of the stator relative to the motor case.
US07719151B2
An active magnetic bearing (100) with autodetection of position, the bearing comprising at least first and second opposing electromagnets (120, 130) forming stators disposed on either side of a ferromagnetic body (110) forming a rotor and held without contact between said electromagnets. The first and second electromagnets (120, 130) each comprising a magnetic circuit (121; 131) essentially constituted by a first ferromagnetic material and co-operating with said ferromagnetic body to define an airgap, together with an excitation coil (122; 132) powered from a power amplifier whose input current is servo-controlled as a function of the position of the ferromagnetic body relative to the magnetic circuits of the first and second electromagnets. The position of the ferromagnetic body (110) being measured from the inductance detected between the two electromagnets (120, 130) in response to simultaneous injection into both opposing electromagnets of a sinusoidal current at a frequency that is greater than the closed loop passband of the system. The magnetic circuit (121; 131) of each electromagnet further includes a portion (124; 134) in the vicinity of the excitation coil (122; 132) that uses a second ferromagnetic material having magnetic permeability that is lower than that of the first material and electrical resistivity that is higher than that of the first material so as to encourage the passage of the high frequency magnetic fields that are generated in the bearing.
US07719141B2
Systems and methods for switching electronic signals are disclosed. The switching may be performed with a low loss and low peak voltages. The switching scheme is suitable for switching RF signals, for example, and may be used in devices such as wireless systems, terminals, and handsets. One exemplary embodiment is directed to a CMOS-implemented transmit/receive switching system. The system comprises one or more transmit ports, each coupled via a respective transmit path to an input/output port and one or more receive ports, each coupled via a respective receive path to the input/output port. Each receive path comprises a switching circuit comprising a transistor and an inductor in parallel with the transistor. The switching circuit is adapted to at least substantially isolate the respective receive port from the input/output port when the transistor is in an on state and operatively couple the respective receive port to the input/output port when the transistor is an off state.
US07719132B2
A ruggedized mobile computing system for a motor vehicle includes a ruggedized mobile computing device, which can be mounted in the trunk or other convenient location, and a suitable user interface system, such as a display screen, keyboard, etc., mounted in the vehicle cabin. The computing device can accommodate user-removable, plug-in electronic modules that perform specialized processing, communications, control or other specialized tasks relating in some way to the vehicle mission or purpose. The device has a ruggedized enclosure made of a durable material such as sheet metal or high-impact plastic. The enclosure can include a guard that protects cables extending from the front panel from being damaged or inadvertently removed. Cooling and warming systems can be included that maintain the enclosure environment within suitable operating temperatures in hot or cold weather. Some or all of the electronic or electromechanical elements, such as a disk drive, can be mounted with isolation mounts that protect them against harmful effects of mechanical shock and vibration.
US07719125B2
The detachment of a semiconductor chip (1) from a foil (4) and picking the semiconductor chip (1) from the foil (4) takes place with the support of a chip ejector (6), that has a ramp (16), the surface (17) of which is formed concave and ends at a stripping edge (18) projecting from the surface (9) of the chip ejector (6), and a support area (13) with grooves (12) arranged next to the stripping edge (18). Vacuum can be applied to the grooves (12). The detachment and picking of the semiconductor chip (1) from the foil (4) takes place in that the wafer table (5) is shifted relative to the chip ejector (6) in order to pull the foil (4) over the stripping edge (18) protruding from the surface (9) of the chip ejector (6), whereby the semiconductor chip (1) temporarily detaches itself at least partially from the foil (4) and lands on the foil (4) above the support area (13), and in that the chip gripper (7) picks the semiconductor chip (1) presented on the support area (13).
US07719119B2
A semiconductor device has upper electrodes and external terminals which are protruding above the both surfaces of a substrate for semiconductor device and connected to each other by penetrating electrodes, a first insulating film covering at least a metal pattern except for the portions of the first insulating film corresponding to the upper electrodes, a second insulating film covering at least another metal pattern except for the portions of the second insulating film corresponding to the external terminals, and a semiconductor element connected to the upper electrodes and placed on the substrate for semiconductor device. The solder-connected surface of the external terminal is positioned to have a height larger than that of a surface of the second insulating film. The semiconductor element is placed on the first insulating film and covered, together with the upper electrodes, with a mold resin.
US07719117B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a lower wiring layer formed on the semiconductor substrate, a first interlayer insulating film formed on the lower wiring layer and including a first upper surface and a second upper surface, the first upper surface being higher than the second upper surface relative to a surface of the semiconductor substrate, a contact plug formed in the interlayer insulating film and including a first bottom surface contacting to the lower wiring layer, a third upper surface flush with the second upper surface and a fourth upper surface flush with the first upper surface, an upper wiring layer formed on the first and third upper surfaces and including a first side surface and a second side surface opposite to the first side surface, and a second interlayer insulating film formed on the second and fourth upper surfaces.
US07719116B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having an integrated circuit, a first insulating film formed on the semiconductor substrate, at least one power source internal wiring line formed on the first insulating film, and a second insulating film formed on the first insulating film and on the internal wiring line and having a plurality of openings exposing parts of the internal wiring line. At least one wiring line is formed on an upper side of the second insulating film to correspond to the internal wiring line and electrically connected to the internal wiring line via the plurality of openings of the second insulating film. The wiring line has at least one external electrode pad portion whose number is smaller than the number of openings in the second insulating film.
US07719100B2
To prevent any uneven solder wetting in a main surface of electrodes of a semiconductor connected with a main surface of a planar lead and any displacement of the lead vis-a-vis the electrodes due to the reflow of the solder in a semiconductor module having the semiconductor element mounted on a substrate and the planar lead electrically connected therewith, the present invention provides an improved semiconductor module characterized in that the width of at least a part of the region of the main surface of the lead facing the semiconductor element is expanded wider than or equal to the width of the electrodes formed on the semiconductor element, and preferably the other part of the main surface of the lead soldered to an electrode formed on the substrate is split in the extending direction thereof.
US07719091B2
A diode having a first semiconductor region of a first polarity and a second semiconductor region of an opposite polarity at least partially surrounding the first semiconductor region. A metal contact coupled to the second semiconductor region at least partially surrounding the first semiconductor region. The diode offers improvements in switching speed.
US07719090B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate having a p-MOS region; an element isolation region formed in a surface portion of the semiconductor substrate and defining p-MOS active regions in the p-MOS region; a p-MOS gate electrode structure formed above the semiconductor substrate, traversing the p-MOS active region and defining a p-MOS channel region under the p-MOS gate electrode structure; a compressive stress film selectively formed above the p-MOS active region and covering the p-MOS gate electrode structure; and a stress released region selectively formed above the element isolation region in the p-MOS region and releasing stress in the compressive stress film, wherein a compressive stress along the gate length direction and a tensile stress along the gate width direction are exerted on the p-MOS channel region. The performance of the semiconductor device can be improved by controlling the stress separately for the active region and element isolation region.
US07719089B2
A semiconductor device is provided that includes a semiconductor substrate, an n-channel MOSFET formed on the substrate and a p-channel MOSFET formed on the substrate. A first layer is formed to cover the n-channel MOSFET, wherein the first layer has a first flexure-induced stress. A second layer is formed to cover the p-channel MOSFET, wherein the second layer has a second flexure-induced stress.
US07719079B2
A chip carrier substrate includes a capacitor aperture and a laterally separated via aperture, each located within a substrate. The capacitor aperture is formed with a narrower linewidth and shallower depth than the via aperture incident to a microloading effect within a plasma etch method that is used for simultaneously etching the capacitor aperture and the via aperture within the substrate. Subsequently a capacitor is formed and located within the capacitor aperture and a via is formed and located within the via apertures. Various combinations of a first capacitor plate layer, a capacitor dielectric layer and a second capacitor plate layer may be contiguous with respect to the capacitor aperture and the via aperture.
US07719078B2
In a semiconductor device having element isolation made of a trench-type isolating oxide film 13, large and small dummy patterns 11 of two types, being an active region of a dummy, are located in an isolating region 10, the large dummy patterns 11b are arranged at a position apart from actual patterns 9, and the small dummy patterns 11a are regularly arranged in a gap at around a periphery of the actual patterns 9, whereby uniformity of an abrading rate is improved at a time of abrading an isolating oxide film 13a is improved, and surface flatness of the semiconductor device becomes preferable.
US07719066B2
An electrostatic micro switch includes a fixed electrode disposed on a fixed substrate; a movable substrate elastically supported by the fixed substrate, the movable substrate including a movable electrode facing the fixed electrode. The movable substrate includes a semiconductor including a plurality of regions having different values of resistivity and a region of high resistivity is disposed near the movable electrode.
US07719065B2
A ruthenium layer for a dielectric layer containing a lanthanide layer and a method of fabricating such a combination of ruthenium layer and dielectric layer produce a reliable structure for use in a variety of electronic devices. A ruthenium or a conductive ruthenium oxide layer may be formed on the lanthanide oxide dielectric layer.
US07719064B2
A transistor suitable for high-voltage applications is provided. The transistor is formed on a substrate having a deep well of a first conductivity type. A first well of the first conductivity type and a second well of a second conductivity type are formed such that they are not immediately adjacent each other. The well of the first conductivity type and the second conductivity type may be formed simultaneously as respective wells for low-voltage devices. In this manner, the high-voltage devices may be formed on the same wafer as low-voltage devices with fewer process steps, thereby reducing costs and process time. A doped isolation well may be formed adjacent the first well on an opposing side from the second well to provide further device isolation.
US07719061B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a cell region and a peripheral region. A cell array is defined within the cell region, the cell array having first, second, third, and fourth sides. A first decoder is defined within the peripheral region and provided adjacent to the first side of the cell array. A first isolation structure is formed at a first boundary region provided between the first side of the cell array and the peripheral region. A first dummy active region is formed at a second boundary region that is provided between the second side of the cell array and the peripheral region. The first isolation structure has a first portion that has a first depth and a second portion that has a second depth.
US07719050B1
A memory cell comprises a body of a semiconductor material having a first conductivity type. A conductor-filter system includes a first conductor having thermal charge carriers, and a filter contacting the first conductor and including dielectrics for providing a filtering function on the charge carriers of one polarity. The filter includes a first set of electrically alterable potential barriers. A conductor-insulator system includes a second conductor and a first insulator contacting the second conductor at an interface and having a second set of electrically alterable potential barriers. A first region is spaced-apart from the second conductor. A channel of the body is defined therebetween. A second insulator is adjacent to the first region. A charge storage region is disposed in between the first and the second insulators. A word-line has a first portion and a second portion comprising the first conductor disposed over and insulated from the body.
US07719048B1
A heating element is utilized to improve the bias conditions of an E2PROM cell during program and erase operations. The heating element can also be used to anneal or condition the cell for improved charge storage. During a program or an erase operation, the cell's control gate and read transistor are set to ground. The heating element then has a voltage potential applied across its terminals, causing current to flow in this resistor. As the current density increases, the resistor begins to generate heat. This heat is thermally coupled into the cell's floating gate, causing its temperature to rise.
US07719047B2
A non-volatile memory device is capable of reducing an excessive leakage current due to a rough surface of a polysilicon and of realizing improved blocking function by forming the first oxide film including a silicon oxy-nitride (SiOxNy) layer using nitrous oxide (N2O) plasma, and by forming silicon-rich silicon nitride film, and a fabricating method thereof and a memory apparatus including the non-volatile memory device. Further, the non-volatile memory device can be fabricated on the glass substrate without using a high temperature process.
US07719042B2
A lower electrode projects outward from a common end face of an upper electrode and a capacitor film. A protective film, which is made of a different material from the capacitor film, is deposited on top of a part of the lower electrode outside the end face. The protective film also extends to the position at a certain distance inward from the end face, so that it is placed between the capacitor film and the lower electrode. The capacitor film thereby has a stepped surface near the end face due to the presence of the protective film, which suppresses the progress of damage during etching of the upper electrode and the capacitor film. Further, the protective film prevents the occurrence of damage in the lower electrode.
US07719032B2
A microelectronic device and a method for producing the device can overcome the disadvantages of known electronic devices composed of carbon molecules, and can deliver performance superior to the known devices. An insulated-gate field-effect transistor includes a multi-walled carbon nanotube (10) having an outer semiconductive carbon nanotube layer (1) and an inner metallic carbon nanotube layer (2) that is partially covered by the outer semiconductive carbon nanotube layer (1). A metal source electrode (3) and a metal drain electrode (5) are brought into contact with both ends of the semiconductive carbon nanotube layer (1) while a metal gate electrode (4) is brought into contact with the metallic carbon nanotube layer (2). The space between the semiconductive carbon nanotube layer (1) and the metallic carbon nanotube layer (2) is used as a gate insulating layer. Two layers including the outer semiconductive carbon nanotube layer (1) and the inner metallic carbon nanotube layer (2) are selected from carbon nanotube layers of a multi-walled carbon nanotube. These layers are processed into a form suitable for use as the multi-walled carbon nanotube (10).
US07719028B2
A semiconductor light-receiving device and its manufacturing method are provided which are capable of suppressing dark current and deterioration. Semiconductor crystals were sequentially grown over an n-type InP substrate, including an n-type InP buffer layer, an undoped GaInAs light absorption layer, an undoped InP diffusion buffer layer, and a p-type InP window layer. Next, a first mesa was formed by removing a part from the p-type InP window layer to the n-type InP buffer layer with a Br-based etchant having low etching selectivity, so as to form a sloped “normal” mesa structure. Next, a second mesa having a smaller diameter than the first mesa was formed by dry etching, by precisely removing a part from the p-type InP window layer to a certain mid position of the undoped InP diffusion buffer layer.
US07719025B2
A protective device in a semiconductor may comprise a substrate of a first conductivity type, an epitaxial layer formed on top of the substrate, a body area formed within the epitaxial layer of a second conductivity type extending from a top surface into the epitaxial layer, a first area of the first conductivity type extending from the top surface into the body area, an isolation area surrounding the first area, a ring area of the first conductivity type surrounding the isolation area, and a coupling structure for connecting the ring area with the substrate.
US07719022B2
Devices and methods for collecting and distributing light from a light emitting diode (LED) emitter onto a phosphor layer to produce substantially white light are provided. The devices may include a reflective cavity with a reflective material, surrounding the reflective cavity, with a reflective side of the reflective material facing towards the inside of the reflective cavity. Further, the devices may incorporate an LED on one end of the reflective cavity and a phosphor layer on another end. Additionally, the devices may use a gradient index (GRIN) rod lens to refract light produced from the LED onto a phosphor surface with an LED on one end of the GRIN rod lens and the phosphor layer on the other end.
US07719020B2
An (Al, Ga, In)N and ZnO direct wafer bonded light emitting diode (LED), wherein light passes through electrically conductive ZnO. Flat and clean surfaces are prepared for both the (Al, Ga, In)N and ZnO wafers. A wafer bonding process is then performed between the (Al, Ga, In)N and ZnO wafers, wherein the (Al, Ga, In)N and ZnO wafers are joined together and then wafer bonded in a nitrogen ambient under uniaxial pressure at a set temperature for a set duration. After the wafer bonding process, ZnO is shaped for increasing light extraction from inside of LED.
US07719008B2
A thin film transistor substrate, wherein the moving area of electrons between source and drain electrodes of a thin film transistor (TFT) is minimized, the moving distance of electrons is increased, and the sizes of capacitors defined by a gate electrode together with the respective source and drain electrodes are identical to each other so that an off current generated when the TFT is off can be minimized; a method of manufacturing the thin film transistor substrate; and a mask for manufacturing the thin film transistor substrate. Accordingly, it is possible to minimize an off current induced due to a phenomenon of electron trapping by light.
US07719007B2
The flexible electroluminescent capacitive sensor system contains an electroluminescent capacitive sensor, a capacitance meter, and an electroluminescence electronic drive. The capacitive sensor contains in order a first barrier layer, a first transparent electrode layer, a phosphor layer, a second electrode layer, a flexible, resilient dielectric layer, and an electrically conductive reference layer. The capacitance meter is electrically connected to the electrically conductive reference layer and either the second electrode layer or the first electrode layer. The electroluminescence electronic drive is electrically connected to the first transparent electrode layer and the second electrode layer. The first electrode layer has a first voltage, the second electrode layer has a second voltage, and the conductive reference layer has a third voltage. The first or second electrodes may be patterned to allow for multiple sensor regions integrated into a single sensor structure.
US07719000B2
Disclosed are organic semiconductor materials, including mixtures of relatively low molecular weight aromatic ring compounds, in which at least one nitrogen atom or oxygen atom is present as a heteroatom in the aromatic ring compounds for forming hydrogen bonds between the heteroatom(s) and adjacent molecules and thereby increase intermolecular stacking. Organic semiconductor layers formed using such organic semiconductor materials will, accordingly, exhibit increased intermolecular stacking and associated improvements in one or more electrical properties of the semiconductor layer. Organic thin film transistors incorporating such organic semiconductor layers will tend to exhibit improved transistor properties including, for example, increased carrier mobility and reduced off-state leakage current. Further, the organic semiconductor layers may be manufactured using conventional room temperature processes, for example, spin coating or printing, thereby simplifying the fabrication process.
US07718993B2
A method for producing predetermined shapes in a crystalline Si-containing material that have substantially uniform straight sides or edges and well-defined inside and outside corners is provided together with the structure that is formed utilizing the method of the present invention. The inventive method utilizes conventional photolithography and etching to transfer a pattern, i.e., shape, to a crystalline Si-containing material. Since conventional processing is used, the patterns have the inherent limitations of rounded corners. A selective etching process utilizing a solution of diluted ammonium hydroxide is used to eliminate the rounded corners providing a final shape that has substantially straight sides or edges and substantially rounded corners.
US07718981B2
There is provided a method of arranging, as a composite charged-particle beam system, a gas ion beam apparatus, an FIB and an SEM in order to efficiently prepare a TEM sample. The composite charged-particle beam system includes an FIB lens-barrel 1, an SEM lens-barrel 2, a gas ion beam lens-barrel 3, and a rotary sample stage 9 having an eucentric tilt mechanism and a rotating shaft 10 orthogonal to an eucentric tilt axis 8. In the composite charged-particle beam system, an arrangement is made such that a focused ion beam 4, an electron beam 5 and a gas ion beam 6 intersect at a single point, an axis of the FIB lens-barrel 1 and an axis of the SEM lens barrel 2 are orthogonal to the eucentric tilt axis 8, respectively, and the axis of the FIB lens-barrel 1, an axis of the gas ion beam lens-barrel 3 and the eucentric tilt axis 8 are in one plane.
US07718977B2
In order to reduce the exposure of a detector surface 180 of a photo-multiplier 160 to stray charged particles, an off-axis structure is interposed between the resonant structure and the detector surface of the photo-multiplier. By providing the off-axis structure with at least one reflective surface, photons are reflected toward the detector surface of the photo-multiplier while at the same time absorbing stray charged particles. Stray particles may be absorbed by the reflective surface or by any other part of the off-axis structure. The off-axis structure may additionally be provided with an electrical bias and/or an absorbing coating for absorbing stray charged particles.
US07718970B2
An infrared detection unit includes a base carrying an infrared sensor element, and a cap configured to be fitted on the base to surround the infrared sensor element. The cap has a top wall with a window in which a semiconductor lens is fitted to collect an infrared radiation onto the infrared sensor element. The semiconductor optical lens is formed from a semiconductor substrate to have a convex lens and a flange which surround said convex lens. An infrared barrier is formed on the semiconductor lens to block the infrared radiation from passing through the boundary between the circumference of the convex lens and the window. Accordingly, the infrared sensor element can receive only the infrared radiation originating from a detection area intended by the convex lens.
US07718967B2
The invention provides a sensor array having a plurality of sensor elements formed in a first substrate and having a plurality of die temperature sensors located thereabout. Each of the die temperature sensors are configured to provide an output related to the temperature of the die on which they are located, the sensor elements providing an output indicative of the intensity of radiation incident thereon.
US07718960B2
A low-cost and high-ion-transmission-ratio ion-mobility spectrometry filter, including an ion source, a first drift region in which a gas flow direction and a DC electric-field direction are opposite to each other, a second drift region in which a gas flow direction is provided, the gas flow direction being different from the gas flow direction in the first drift region, and being opposite to a DC electric-field application direction in the second drift region, an intermediate region having an electric field for causing ions to travel between the first drift region and the second drift region, and a detector for detecting ions which have passed through the first drift region and the second drift region.
US07718952B2
The invention relates to an information carrier (10), having a metal layer (40) with at least one track (14) in which marks (20) are disposed, which can be detected by means of light of a central wavelength (λ) which is emitted by a light source (30) and which is incident upon the information carrier (10) at an angle (θi), and from which the position of the information carrier (10) can be derived, wherein the marks (20) are formed by areas (25) which are structured at least by first structures (22) of a lattice period (Λ) which are disposed on the back side (40b) of the metal layer (40) and/or on the front side (40a) of the metal layer (40), and wherein the lattice period (Λ) of the first structures (22) satisfies the equation Λ=λ/(np*−sin(⊖i)) or Λ=λ/(np*+sin(⊖i)), wherein λ is the central wavelength of the used light, ⊖i is the angle at which the light of the light source (30) is incident upon the information carrier (10) and np* is the effective index of a plasmon mode along the metal layer (40).
US07718948B2
To monitor light pulses from a light source, such as a laser, sense signals are provided to a photosensing component or array, causing photosensing during a series of one or more sense periods for the light pulse. Each light pulse can be provided through a transmission structure, such as a layered structure, that provides output light with an energy-dependent position on the photosensing component. A pulse's sensing results can be used to obtain a set of one or more differential quantities; for example, with a photosensing array, two cells of the array can be read out and compared. For a narrow band light pulse, a transmission structure can provide a spot on the photosensing component, and the light spot position can be sensed.
US07718932B2
An electrostatic chuck (“chuck”) is provided for controlling a radial temperature profile across a substrate when exposed to a plasma. The chuck includes a number of independently controllable gas volumes that are each defined in a radial configuration relative to a top surface of the chuck upon which the substrate is to be supported. The chuck includes a support member and a base plate. The base plate positioned beneath and in a spaced apart relationship from the support member. The gas volumes are defined between the base plate and the support member, with separation provided by annularly-shaped thermally insulating dividers. Each gas volume can include a heat generation source. A gas pressure and heat generation within each gas volume can be controlled to influence thermal conduction through the chuck such that a prescribed radial temperature profile is achieved across the substrate.
US07718924B2
The present disclosure provides a multiple-compartment insulated food tray and lid for storage and service. The insulated food trays allow for two or more stacked strays to be mechanically unified using the weight of the top tray on the bottom tray in any orientation where the weight of the second tray remains on the first tray. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, a polymer with foam and blowing agents are used during the molding process to create in a first phase a hard shell in contact with the mold. In a second phase, insulation is created in the hard shell by thermal treatment and expansion of the residual polymer inserted in the mold. In a third embodiment of the present disclosure, the insulated food trays, when stacked, can be placed in a nondiscriminatory arrangement.
US07718907B2
A combination switch includes a pressure switch moveable between open and closed positions in response to a working pressure of a fluid; an unloader valve moveable between open and closed positions; and a mechanical interconnection between the pressure switch and the unloader valve operable to move the unloader valve in unison with movement of the pressure switch.
US07718906B2
A hand-held battery powered device senses when it is picked up, and then automatically turns on. When the device is released or set back down, it automatically turns off. Touch or contact sensors sense the touch of a human hand, causing a circuit in the device to switch on a light source, such as an LED, or a motor, or other load. The device is advantageously designed so that when grasped or picked up, the fingers of the user's hand lay over touch sensors. Various types of touch sensors may be used. The touch sensors operate electrically, and without any movement, or moving parts.
US07718897B2
A low AC loss electrical conductor includes an electrically conductive core surrounded by a first layer of superconductor filaments. A resistive shell surrounds the first layer and an insulation coating radially encloses the resistive shell.
US07718887B2
Apparatus and method for harnessing heat energy uses at least one thermally conductive material in communication with a heat collecting material in order to conduct heat from a first region of the heat collecting material to a second region of the heat collecting material. The thermally conductive material can be interspersed within the heat collecting material and/or applied externally to the heat collecting material. Heat drawn from the second portion can be stored and/or converted into another form of energy for providing power to a structure or vehicle. Conversion can use the differential between the temperature of the second region and the temperature of a cold sink. Additional heat can be added to the heat collecting material.
US07718886B1
A sensor assembly for a stringed musical instrument having a plurality of movable strings includes a primary winding adapted to be disposed at one end of either one of a fingerboard and a neck of the stringed musical instrument. The sensor assembly includes at least one magnet disposed adjacent the primary winding and the movable strings to generate a magnetic field. The primary winding creates a primary current from a disruption in the magnetic field by the movable strings and the primary current creates a primary electromagnetic flux. The sensor assembly further includes at least one secondary being coupled to the primary winding. The at least one secondary winding transforms the primary electromagnetic flux into a secondary current adapted to pass out the stringed musical instrument.
US07718885B2
The present synthesizer includes functionality for changing over from a current note to the following notes that results in natural and expressive combinations and transitions. The method of the present invention incorporates an delay (actual, functional, or look ahead) between receiving control data inputs and generating an output sound. This period of delay is used to modify how notes will be played according to control data inputs for later notes. The input to the synthesizer is typically a time-varying MIDI stream, which may be provided by a musician or a MIDI sequencer from stored data. An actual delay occurs when the synthesizer receives a MIDI stream and buffers it while looking ahead for changeovers between notes. A functional delay occurs in a system in which the synthesizer has knowledge of note changeovers ahead of time. A look ahead delay occurs when the synthesizer queries the sequencer for information about the stored sequence ahead of when the synthesizer needs to generate the output for the sequence.
US07718880B1
One embodiment of an improved piano tuning hammer which eliminates the tilting force which, when a tuner operates a conventional “L”-shaped tuning hammer, invariably accompanies the application of a turning force to a tuning pin mounted in a pin block. The improved hammer has an overall shape like the letter “C,” so that its handle lies substantially in the plane of the pin block, allowing the tuner to turn the pin without tilting it. The embodiment presented is lightweight and rigid, and clears the case structures of most pianos.
US07718879B2
There is provided a hammer shank for a piano which is capable of suppressing a change in the dimension between two arms due to dryness and wetness to thereby ensure smooth and stable operation of a hammer. A hammer shank is supported by a flange and pivotally moves in accordance with key depression. A shank body formed of wood has two bifurcated arms formed on one end thereof. These arms extend in facing and parallel relation to each other along respective opposite sides of the flange, and are pivotally supported by the flange. Phenol backers are attached on outer side surfaces of the respective two arms so as to prevent the two arms from being displaced in a direction in which they face each other.
US07718861B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH220157. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH220157, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH220157 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH220157.
US07718849B2
A method of using a tospoviral nucleic acid molecule of the sequence of nt (nucleotide) 3975-4928 in accordance with GenBank Accession No. AF133128 or a full complement thereof comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining at least one fragment made from the tospoviral nucleic acid molecule; (b) obtaining a transgene from the at least one fragment; (c) introducing the transgene into a plant to generate a transgenic plant; (d) culturing the transgenic plant; (e) selecting a transgenic plant with broad-spectrum resistance; and (f) obtaining the transgenic plant with broad-spectrum resistance.
US07718843B2
An iron powder for decomposition of organic chlorinated compounds, comprising from 0.03 to 0.5% by weight of Ni and from 0.005 to 5% by weight of carbon, wherein particles having a particle size of less than 53 μm occupies less than 40% by weight, is used. It is particularly preferable that Ni, carbon and iron are partially alloyed. When the iron powder for decomposition is used by mixing with, for example, an Ni-free iron powder, the total Ni content can be reduced without deterioration of decomposition performance to organic chlorinated compounds. The iron powder has high decomposition performance in the treatment of a solid such as soil.
US07718841B2
A method for reducing corrosion in a diolefin extractive distillation process comprising preventing the formation of ammonium carbonate by promoting the formation of a carbonate salt that does not dissociate in the ammonium carbonate dissociation temperature range of that extractive distillation process.
US07718830B2
The present invention provides a method of treating glaucoma or ocular hypertension which comprises applying to the eye of a person in need thereof an amount sufficient to treat glaucoma or ocular hypertension of a compound of formula I wherein Y, Q, Z, R, R1 and R2 are as defined in the specification. The present invention further comprises pharmaceutical compositions, e.g. ophthalmic compositions, including said compound of formula I.
US07718828B2
A method for the production of campholytic aldehyde starting from campholenic aldehyde in the presence of a copper catalyst and a solvent.
US07718826B2
This invention relates to a novel ionic compound being low in a risk of combustion, and more particularly to an ionic compound represented by the following formula (I): (NPR12)n (I) [wherein R1s are each independently a halogen element or a monovalent substituent, provided that at least one of R1s is an ionic substituent represented by the following general formula (II): —N+R23X− (II) (wherein R2s are independently a monovalent substituent or hydrogen, provided that at least one of R2s is not hydrogen and R2s may be bonded with each other to form a ring; and X− is a monovalent anion); and n is 3 to 15].
US07718819B2
A process is provided for preparing organofunctional silanes, inclusive of dimers and oligomers, in which individual silanes possess both free and blocked mercaptan functionality or particular mixtures of the organofunctional silanes possess both free and blocked mercaptan functionality. The organofunctional silanes and silane mixtures are useful, inter alia, as coupling agents for elastomeric compositions, e.g., rubber formulations employed in the manufacture of tires, where they exhibit a desirable balance of low scorch and good performance properties.
US07718817B2
A safe additive that increases the feeling effects from a hair cosmetic is provided at low costs. The additive that increases the feeling effects has less stickiness, can be easily and uniformly mixed with hair cosmetics, and can provide feelings, effects and advantages that are similar to those of sterol wax and lanolins including lanolin itself, liquid lanolin, and hard lanolin. The additive that increases the feeling effects contains a composition (I) prepared by distillation, fatty acid esterification, decoloring, and deodorization of a by-product obtained when tocopherol is extracted, separated and purified from a vegetable oil deodorized distillate.
US07718806B2
The invention provides an improved process for preparing a carbostyril compound (1) or a salt thereof that is useful as a medicament, which makes it possible to prepare it more safely and efficiently.In more detail, the invention provides an improved process for preparing the carbostyril compound (1) by heating the compound (4) with a high boiling solvent in hydrochloric acid under reflux to give the compound (5) safely; and then acylating the compound (5).
US07718804B2
Quaternary nitrogen heterocyclic boronic acid-containing compounds are described, which are sensitive to glucose and fructose, as well as a variety of other physiologically important analytes, such as aqueous chloride and iodide, and a method of using the compounds. Also disclosed is a contact lens doped with the quaternary nitrogen heterocyclic boronic acid-containing compound, and a method of using the doped contact lens to measure the concentration of analyte in tears under physiological conditions.
US07718800B2
The present invention relates to a novel crystalline form of linezolid, to processes for its preparation and to a pharmaceutical composition containing it.
US07718785B2
The present invention relates to mutations in the SLC40A1 gene coding for the ferroportin 1, associated to impaired iron homeostasis or to non-HFE hereditary hemochromatosis and to methods for the diagnosis of these hereditary diseases based on the identification of said mutations.
US07718783B2
ELF3 gene compositions associated with cancer are provided, including ELF3 mRNA intron retention, a novel ELF3 5′ untranslated region, and a novel Alu, Alukwd. Methods and kits using primers or probes to detect the presence of these ELF3 gene compositions are also provided. Methods for determining whether a cell comprises a virus are also provided.
US07718778B2
Toll Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) modulators, such as antibodies, polynucleotides encoding TLR3 antibodies or fragments thereof, and methods of making and using the foregoing are disclosed.
US07718777B2
Disclosed are protein ligands comprising an immunoglobulin heavy chain variable (VH) domain and an immunoglobulin light chain variable (VL) domain, wherein the proteins bind a complex comprising an MHC and a peptide, do not substantially bind the MHC in the absence of the bound peptide, and do not substantially bind the peptide in the absence of the MHC, and the peptide is a peptide fragment of gp100, MUC1, TAX, or hTERT. Also disclosed are methods of using and identifying such ligands.
US07718775B2
The present invention provides a monoclonal antibody capable of neutralizing EV71 infection.
US07718768B2
Thirty substantially pure and biologically active peptides are disclosed. Nucleic acids that have sequences coding for the biologically active peptides and pharmaceutical formulations produced therefrom are also disclosed.
US07718766B2
The present invention provides clostridial toxin substrates useful in assaying for the protease activity of any clostridial toxin, including botulinum toxins of all serotypes as well as tetanus toxins. A clostridial toxin substrate of the invention contains a donor fluorophore; an acceptor having an absorbance spectrum overlapping the emission spectrum of the donor fluorophore; and a clostridial toxin recognition sequence that includes a cleavage site, where the cleavage site intervenes between the donor fluorophore and the acceptor and where, under the appropriate conditions, resonance energy transfer is exhibited between the donor fluorophore and the acceptor.
US07718757B2
An aromatic polymer, containing a repeating unit represented by Formula (I), and having properties (A1) and (B1): (A1) the number average degree of polymerization of an acetylated product obtained by acetylation of the hydroxyl groups of the polymer is 3 or more, and (B1) at a wavelength where an absolute value of molar ellipticity (degree·cm−2·dmol−1) per mole of the repeating unit of the acetylated product in a circular dichroism spectrum of the acetylated product reaches maximum in a wavelength range of from 200 to 350 nm, the absolute value is 50,000 or more: wherein R represents a hydrocarbon, hydrocarbon-oxy, hydrocarbon-mercapto or hydrocarbon-amino group that may be substituted; the two R's may bind to each other to form a ring; and the repeating unit represented by Formula (I) has no symmetrical plane that has two binding sites and that is perpendicular for the benzene ring.
US07718755B2
The above-described and other deficiencies of the art are met by a method of making a polycarbonate polymer comprising isosorbide carbonate units, comprising melt reacting a dihydroxy compound comprising an isosorbide of the general formula (2a): and an activated carbonate, in the presence of a catalyst consisting essentially of a sodium salt capable of providing a hydroxide ion, wherein the polycarbonate polymer comprises greater than or equal to 50 mol % isosorbide carbonate units, and wherein the polycarbonate polymer has a Mw of greater than or equal to about 40,000 g/mol as determined by gel-permeation chromatography relative to polystyrene standards. Polycarbonates comprising the isosorbide carbonate unit, including isosorbide homopolycarbonate and an isosorbide-based polyester-polycarbonate, are also disclosed, as are a thermoplastic composition and an article including the isosorbide-based polycarbonate polymer.
US07718753B2
One embodiment of the invention contemplates a proton exchange membrane for use in a variety of fuel cells. The proton exchange membrane may comprise a solid phase organic based copolymer material in which a first structural unit is derived from a polymerizable organic super acid. The organic super acid may comprise an acid group such as a sulfonic acid group or a carboxylic acid group.
US07718739B2
Methods and compositions for cementing applications. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of cementing comprising the steps of: providing a cement composition that comprises: a polyelectrolyte and/or an alkenoic acid first monomer; a filler; and a crosslinking agent; placing the cement composition in a desired location; and allowing the cement composition to set therein.
US07718735B2
Disclosed is a polypropylene resin composition including from 50 to 94% by weight of polypropylene resin, from 1 to 25% by weight of ethylene-α-olefin copolymer rubber including ethylene units and units of C4-12 α-olefin, the copolymer having a density of 0.850-0.870 g/cm3 and an MFR of 0.05-1 g/10 min, and from 5 to 25% by weight of inorganic filler, wherein the polypropylene resin is a propylene-ethylene block copolymer satisfying given requirements or a polymer mixture of the propylene-ethylene block copolymer and a propylene homopolymer. Molded articles made from the composition have good balance between rigidity and impact resistance and have good appearance.
US07718734B2
A composition for use as an organic semiconducting (OSC) material, the composition comprising: (i) at least one higher molecular weight organic semiconducting compound having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of at least 5000, and (ii) at least one lower molecular weight organic semiconducting compound having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 1000 or less. Use of the composition in an electronic device, e.g. FET or OLED.
US07718715B2
A stabilized latex with improved antimicrobial features is disclosed. In preferred embodiments, this latex comprises a mixture of 2-bromo-2-nitro-1,3-propanediol and 4,4-dimethyl-oxazolidine or 2-bromo-2-nitro-1,3-propanediol and 1-(3-chloroallyl)-3,5,7-triaza-1-azoniaadamantane chloride.
US07718701B2
A method of treating atopy-evoked pruritic symptoms by administering a prostaglandin derivative.
US07718700B2
Growth factor binding compounds having a plurality of acyclic isophthalic acid groups attached to a non-peptide organic scaffold and pharmaceutical compositions of the same are disclosed. Methods of administering and using the growth factor binding compounds or the growth factor binding compositions are also taught. These novel growth factor binding compounds are useful for treating angiogenesis, excessive cellular proliferation, tumor growth, and a combination thereof as well as inhibiting growth factor binding to cells and phosphorylation.
US07718680B2
The present invention provides compounds that efficiently and specifically inhibit lethal factor (LF) protease activity of anthrax toxin.
US07718677B2
The invention provides compositions and methods utilizing a nicotinic receptor modulator, e.g., to reduce or eliminate a side effect associated with dopaminergic agent treatment. In some embodiments, the invention provides compositions and methods utilizing a combination of a dopaminergic agent and a nicotinic receptor modulator that reduces or eliminates a side effect associated with dopaminergic agent treatment.
US07718673B2
The invention is directed to novel isonipecotamide derivatives of Formula (I): which are useful in treating integrin-mediated disorders.
US07718672B2
Disclosed are novel substituted tetrahydroisoquinoline compounds, pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, methods of making the compounds, and methods of using the compounds to destroy a target cell, such as a cancer cell, and to treat or prevent a cancerous condition.
US07718662B1
Described herein are kinase inhibitor compounds, methods for synthesizing such inhibitors, and methods for using such inhibitors in the treatment of diseases. Further described herein are methods, assays and systems for determining an appropriate inhibitor of a protein, including a kinase.
US07718643B2
The instant invention provides a pharmaceutical composition comprised of a cholesterol absorption inhibitor and an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, one or more anti-oxidants, microcrystalline cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, magnesium stearate and lactose. The composition need not contain ascorbic acid in order to obtain desirable stability.
US07718625B2
The present invention is based in part on the discovery that the upstream open reading frame (uORF) in the extended 5′-untranslated region (5′-UTR) argininosuccinate synthase (AS) mRNA species is functional, and when functional, limits overall AS expression as well as nitric oxide (NO) production. Thus, the extended 5′-UTR AS mRNA species is a mechanism for regulating AS expression and NO production, and provides a target for the treatment of pathophysiological conditions associated with vascular endothelial dysfunction and characterized by impairment of NO production, such as heart failure, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, and diabetes.
US07718620B2
The invention provides a method of treating or preventing ischemia-reperfusion injury of the kidney in a mammal. The method comprises administering an effective amount of an aromatic-cationic peptide having at least one net positive charge; a minimum of four amino acids; a maximum of about twenty amino acids; a relationship between the minimum number of net positive charges (pm) and the total number of amino acid residues (r) wherein 3pm is the largest number that is less than or equal to r+1; and a relationship between the minimum number of aromatic groups (a) and the total number of net positive charges (pt) wherein 2 a is the largest number that is less than or equal to pt+1, except that when a is 1, pt may also be 1.
US07718618B2
Provided are peptide and peptide consensus sequences, which inhibit bacterial growth and/or viral growth and mimic the activity of LL-37, CRAMP, and/or FALL-39. The peptides are useful as antimicrobials, anti-inflammatories and anti-viral agents.
US07718617B2
The invention relates to a method for preserving an organ or tissue comprising contacting the organ or tissue with an effective amount of a kallikrein inhibitor and solutions useful for such a method. Also provided is a method for reducing reperfusion injury of an organ during surgery and/or following removal of the organ from a subject comprising placing the organ in an organ storage and preservative solution, wherein the solution comprises a kallikrein inhibitor.
US07718602B2
The utility of soybeans having a composition of greater than 40% of the protein as beta-conglycinin and less than 10% of the protein as glycinin for making highly functional high beta-conglycinin compositions was discovered. The discovered ingredients are useful for mimicking the texturizing properties of casein while also maintaining or improving physiological benefits of soy protein ingredients (e.g., cholesterol and triglyceride lowering properties). The high stability of the high beta-conglycinin compositions against protein-protein aggregation reactions is valuable for creating good tasting beverages and beverage mixes. Cheese with good spreadability, gloss and smoothness was made using an enzyme-modified version of the new ingredient composition. Cheese with good firmness and meltability was also created using a different enzyme-treatment High beta-conglycinin compositions were found to demonstrate excellent emulsifying and gelling properties in the pH region (5.5-6.2) relevant to meet applications. High beta-conglycinin compositions also have possible use for improving the composition of essential amino acids for infant humans and animals.
US07718601B2
The invention relates to new compounds for cancer therapy or diagnosis and to the use of a non-toxic B subunit of Shiga toxin mutant as a vector for diagnostic products or drugs in over-expressing Gb3 receptor cells, such compounds having the following formula: STxB-Z(n)-Cys-Y(m)-T wherein-STxB is the Shiga Toxin B subunit or a functional equivalent thereof, -Z(n) wherein n is 0 or 1, Z is an amino-acid residue devoid of sulfydryl groups, or is a polypeptide, -T is a molecule linked by a covalent bound to the S part of Cys, selected from: agents for in vivo diagnosis, cytotoxic agents, prodrugs, or enzymes for the conversion of a prodrug to a drug, - Y(m) wherein m is 0 or 1, Y is a linker between T and Cys, which is either cleavable or not cleavable for the release of T after the internalization of the hybrid compound into cells.
US07718598B1
This invention relates to methods for preparing cyclic peptides and peptidomimetic compounds in solution and bound to solid supports, and to cyclic peptide or peptidomimetic libraries for use in drug screening programmes. In particular, the invention relates to a generic strategy for synthesis of cyclic peptides or peptidomimetics that enables the efficient synthesis under mild conditions of a wide variety of desired compounds. Two approaches were evaluated for their improvements in solution and solid phase synthesis of small cyclic peptides: positioning reversible N-amide substituents in the sequence; and applying native ligation chemistry in an intramolecular sense. Systematic investigation of the effects of preorganizing peptides prior to cyclisation by using peptide cyclisation auxiliaries, and developing new linkers and peptide cyclisation auxiliaries to aid cyclic peptide synthesis gives surprising improvements in both yields and purity of products compared to the prior art methods. The combination of these technologies provides a powerful generic approach for the solution and solid phase synthesis of small cyclic peptides. The ring contraction and N-amide substitution technology of the invention provide improved methods for the synthesis of cyclic peptides and peptidomimetics. When used in conjunction with linker strategies, this combination provides solid-phase avenues to cyclic peptides and peptidomimetics.
US07718584B2
Among many things, in some embodiments, dual-function additives that enhance fluid loss control and the stability of viscoelastic surfactant fluids, and their associated methods of use in subterranean formations, are provided. In one embodiment, the methods comprise: providing a viscoelastic surfactant fluid that comprises an aqueous base fluid, a viscoelastic surfactant, and a dual-function additive that comprises a soap component; and introducing the viscoelastic surfactant fluid into at least a portion of a subterranean formation.
US07718583B2
Particulate material used for proppant flowback control from the fracture, where the material is a polymer which increases its hardness under downhole conditions.
US07718582B2
A method for treating a subterranean formation by introducing into a gas or oil well a stable foam well treatment fluid which exhibits high viscosity. The well treatment fluid is prepared by first forming a mixture of crosslinking agent and foaming agent and then introducing the mixture to an aqueous fluid containing a crosslinkable polymer followed by the addition of a gas or gaseous liquid.
US07718577B2
A compound represented by formula (4), a substrate coated with the compound, a method of producing a microarray using the compound, and a microarray produced by the method are provided.
US07718575B2
A method of selecting a test molecule that binds to HLA-DP4 by (i) incubating HLA-DP4 with the test molecule and a labeled peptide of formula (I) Z1X1X2X3X4X5X6X7X8X9Z2 thereby forming respective complexes, wherein Z1 and Z2, which may be identical or different, are each either zero or from 1 to 100 amino acids; X1 is an aromatic or hydrophobic amino acid, or S; X6 is an aromatic or hydrophobic amino acid, or C; X9 is an aromatic or hydrophobic amino acid, or C, D, Q, S, T, or E; and X2, X3, X4, X5, X7and X8 are each an amino acid; (ii) separating the respective complexes formed; (iii) detecting the HLA-DP4/labeled peptide complexes; and (iv) selecting the test molecule that exhibits a binding activity of IC50<1000 nM, which corresponds to the concentration of the test molecule that inhibits 50% of the competitive HLA-DP4 binding of the labeled peptide.
US07718566B2
A catalyst composition and method for olefin polymerization are provided. In one aspect, the catalyst composition is represented by the formula αaβbγgMXn wherein M is a metal; X is a halogenated aryloxy group; β and γ are groups that each comprise at least one Group 15 atom; α is a linking moiety that forms a chemical bond to each of β and γ; and a, b, g, and n are each integers from 1 to 4.
