US07752569B2

In an embodiment, a software keyboard includes a software key with a first label and a second label, where both the first and the second label are visible. The first label may be displayed on the software key so as to indicate that the first label is active. In an embodiment, the user may provide an input so as to make the second label active and the change may be indicated on the software key. In an embodiment, the arrangement of the first and second labels may be adjusted in response to a resizing of the software keyboard.
US07752559B1

A software tool in a graphical modeling environment guides a user through the process of preparing a graphical model for embedded code generation. The software tool prompts the user to specify code generation goals for the embedded code and provides feedback to the user regarding the compliance of the graphical model with the specified goals. The software tool can perform selected checks and analysis on the graphical model prior to code generation to ensure compliance with specified conditions. The software tool update parameters of the graphical model to comply with the specified goals, to produce optimized target software based on the model.
US07752547B2

An information processing device comprises a device controller which controls a plurality of visual-audio reproducing units from the server via the device communication interfaces; content information unification recording section which controls content information corresponding to the contents of the contents storage from the server; and the GUI by which any content information from the server is selected and desired contents are reproduced without recognizing the unit.
US07752538B2

To determine a table structure, a spatially ordered sequence of rectangular cells (42) disposed in a two dimensional region is derived. The ordered sequence of rectangular cells is parsed in accordance with a two-dimensional structural grammar (54) having terminal elements corresponding to cells and non-terminal elements corresponding to structural relationship operators. The parsing produces a grammatical expression (52) with the cells represented by terminal elements and structural relationships represented by non-terminal elements.
US07752537B2

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for dynamic generation of forms on devices such as mobile telephones. A device user enters a form descriptor code comprising a set of alphanumeric characters. A form generator applies stored mappings between the input characters and a set of electronic form components. This identifies required form components. The form generator dynamically generates an electronic form having the identified components, and displays the form on a display screen of the device. The device user completes the form and sends the completed form to a target data processing system. The dynamic generation of a form in response to a simple input code can be used to control the format of user-entered data, such that the data is validly formatted when received at the target.
US07752535B2

A system for categorizing transactions includes a collection function gathering information concerning transactions, including at least date, description and amount of the transactions, for a particular person or enterprise, and a processing function categorizing individual ones of the collected transactions according to at least part of the transaction description. In preferred embodiments of the system a variety of categorization methods for collected information may be utilized including at least categorizing by providing individual categories according to category definition entered by a specific user or on behalf of an enterprise. Categorization may also be done for a first plurality of persons or enterprises according to category definition entered by a second plurality of persons or enterprises, or categories are developed from information taken from communication between users and the system. Probability algorithms may also be used in developing categories.
US07752534B2

A Tag Cloud Customizer (TCC) provides an interactive legend and a tag cloud generator that allows a user to customize a tag cloud. The interactive legend allows users to map custom display characteristics to a plurality of tag attributes. The tag cloud generator creates a custom tag cloud using the custom display characteristics. The user can also sort the order of tags in the tag cloud by any of the plurality of tag attributes. In one embodiment of TCC, the user can define a custom tag attribute.
US07752524B2

The method is for decoding an LDPC encoded codeword, the LDPC code being represented by a bipartite graph between check nodes and variable nodes including first variable nodes and second variable nodes connected to the check nodes by a zigzag connectivity. The method includes updating messages exchanged iteratively between variable nodes and check nodes including a first variable processing phase during which all the messages from the first variable nodes to the check nodes are updated and a check nodes processing phase during which all the messages from the check nodes to the first variable nodes are updated. The check nodes processing phase further includes updating all the messages from the second variable nodes to the check nodes, and directly passing an updated message processed by a check node to the next check node through the zigzag connectivity.
US07752523B1

The disclosed technology provides a less resource intensive way to decode a parity check code using a modified min-sum algorithm. For a particular parity check constraint that includes n variable nodes, an LDPC decoder can compute soft information for one of the variable nodes based on combinations of soft information from other variable nodes, wherein each combination includes soft information from at most a number d of other variable nodes. In one embodiment, soft information from one of the other variable nodes is used in a combination only if it corresponds to a non-most-likely value for the other variable node.
US07752520B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a transceiver capable of a unified quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check structure for variable code rates and sizes using a unified base matrix definition. This base matrix definition may be a concatenation of multiple square matrices Sm×Rm=(Sm×mR|Sm×mR−1| . . . |Sm×m3|Sm×m2|Sm×m1) and the base matrix for rate (r−1)/r may be Sm×rm=(Sm×mr|Sm×mr−1| . . . |Sm×m3|Sm×m2|Sm×m1) for r=2, 3, . . . , R.
US07752519B2

Provided is a method for generating a feedback message for ARQ including recording an ACK type in a first field; estimating the last block sequence number of successively ACKed blocks and recording the estimated last block sequence number in a second field; recording the number of groups of successively ACKed blocks after the estimated last block sequence number as the number of ACK MAPs in a third field; recording the startblock sequence number of the respective ACK MAPs in a fourth field; recording the lengths of the respective ACK MAPs in a fifth field corresponding to the recorded start block sequence number; and sending a feedback message including information on the first to the fifth fields.
US07752498B2

An interface controller initializing method for an information processing device equipped with multiple interfaces of the same type comprises the steps of: detecting control of an interface executed by a first control unit; detecting an end of the control of the interface by the first control unit executed according to instructions regarding the control of the interfaces issued by a second control unit; detecting abnormality regarding the control of an interface by the first control unit; allowing a user to input an initialization instruction for initialization of the first control unit; and executing the initialization of the first control unit on condition that the abnormality regarding the control of an interface by the first control unit has been detected, the initialization instruction has been inputted, and the end of the control of at least one of the other interfaces by the first control unit has been detected.
US07752492B1

Aspects of the invention relate to creating a snapshot of a file system on an OAS system. A snapshot of a file system is an image of a file system at a particular point in time. A snapshot of a file system may be used to restore the file system to its state at the time of creation of the snapshot in, for example, situations where the file system has become corrupted.
US07752482B2

A hybrid serial/parallel bus interface has a data block demultiplexing device. The data block demultiplexing device has an input configured to receive a data block and demultiplexes the data block into a plurality of nibbles. For each nibble, a parallel to serial converter converts the nibble into serial data. A line transfers each nibble's serial data. A serial to parallel converter converts each nibble's serial data to recover that nibble. A data block reconstruction device combines the recovered nibbles into the data block. The data block is employed by a gain controller. Each nibble has at least two start bits whose states collectively represent both a function and/or destination.
US07752481B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided an information processing apparatus, including a first clock portion to output a first signal when a measurement value coincides with first set time, a second clock portion to output a second signal when a measurement value coincides with second set time, and a controller to perform control to execute resume processing for a first purpose when the first clock portion outputs the first signal, and execute resume processing for a second purpose when the second clock portion outputs the second signal.
US07752478B2

An apparatus for tracking a real time clock comprising a delay element for receiving a first clock signal and providing a second delayed clock signal, a quadrature interface including a first input and a second input for respectively receiving the first and second clock signals, control logic adapted to provide a state machine including four states, the four states respectively corresponding to a 2-bit gray code such that a current state is selected by determining a correspondence of the first and second inputs to the 2-bit gray code and a counter is incremented upon a transition between a first state and a second state of the state machine.
US07752476B2

Embodiments directed to a memory device and a memory controller that continue to operate in a low-power mode during the period required for analog timing circuitry to initialize and become usable, are described. During a low-speed to high-speed transition mode of operation for a high-speed interface, timing circuitry of the interface between the memory device and memory controller locks to a forward clock signal concurrent with the continued operation of the interface in low-speed mode. A reference clock signal configured to operate at a rate that provides both a high-speed mode and a low-speed mode and which is used as a single rate clock allows phase detection and correction circuitry to be disabled, thus allowing the idle period caused by a transition from low-speed mode to high-speed mode to be significantly reduced.
US07752474B2

In one embodiment, a processor comprises a data cache configured to store a plurality of cache blocks and a control unit coupled to the data cache. The control unit is configured to flush the plurality of cache blocks from the data cache responsive to an indication that the processor is to transition to a low power state in which one or more clocks for the processor are inhibited.
US07752465B2

A platform configuration measurement device including: a configuration register; means for executing extension processing in which a predetermined operation is performed on a content of the configuration register by using a given additional value, a hash value is obtained by applying a predetermined hash function to a value obtained by the predetermined operation, and the hash value is set for a new content of the configuration register; and measurement extension means for obtaining measured values, corresponding to predetermined components constituting a platform, by sequentially making predetermined measurement on the predetermined components, and for allowing the means for executing extension processing to execute the extension processing using the measured values as the additional values, random extension means is provided for allowing the means for executing extension processing to execute the extension processing using a random value as the additional value.
US07752463B2

Provided are techniques for filling a drive table. A key request including at least one of a drive serial number and a world wide node name is received from a data storage drive. It is determined whether the drive serial number or a world wide node name are in an entry in a drive table. In response to determining that the drive serial number or a world wide node name are not in an entry in a drive table, a new entry is automatically added in the drive table that includes the at least one of a drive serial number and a world wide node name.
US07752458B2

An architecture for a distributed data processing system comprises a system-level service processor along with one or more node-level service processors; each are uniquely associated with a node, and each is extended to comprise any components that are necessary for operating the nodes as trusted platforms, such as a TPM and a CRTM in accordance with the security model of the Trusted Computing Group. These node-level service processors then inter-operate with the system-level service processor, which also contains any components that are necessary for operating the system as a whole as a trusted platform. A TPM within the system-level service processor aggregates integrity metrics that are gathered by the node-level service processors, thereafter reporting integrity metrics as requested, e.g., to a hypervisor, thereby allowing a large distributed data processing system to be validated as a trusted computing environment while allowing its highly parallelized initialization process to proceed.
US07752452B2

A system and method for tracking user security credentials in a distributed computing environment. The security credentials of an authenticated user includes not just his unique user identifier, but also a set of security attributes such as the time of authentication, the location where the user is authenticated (i.e., intranet user v. internet user), the authentication strength, and so on. The security attributes are used in access control decisions. The same user can be given different authorization if he has a different security attribute value. Security credentials may be generated either by WebSphere security code or by third party security provider code. This invention stores the user credentials in a distributed cache and provides a system and method to compute the unique key based on the dynamic security credentials for cache lookup.
US07752433B2

A content management system formed from a playback apparatus that requests and plays content, and a content management apparatus that manages duplication and deletion of content. The playback apparatus notifies group information of the playback apparatus to the content management apparatus, acquires information from the content management apparatus showing whether requests are permitted, and duplicates/deletes content. By judging whether the playback apparatus belongs to a group, and notifying whether a duplication request is permitted or rejected, based on in-group and out-group remaining numbers that show the remaining number of duplications permitted of apparatuses in-group and out-group, respectively, the content management apparatus relaxes restrictions on in-group content duplication as compared with out-group content duplication, and thus improves convenience for users in a home network, while protecting the rights of copyright holders, with respect to content duplication and usage.
US07752418B2

A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable program code are provided for storing data items in a computer. A plurality of hash functions of data values in a data item are computed. A corresponding memory location is determined for one of the plurality of hash functions. The data item and a key portion and a payload portion of all data items are stored contiguously within the memory location.Also provided for are retrieving data items in a computer. A plurality of hash functions of data values in a probe key are computed. A corresponding memory location is determined for each of the plurality of hash functions. Data items in each memory location are examined to determine a match with the probe key. Responsive to a match, a payload of the matching stored data item is returned. All of the steps are performed free of conditional branch instructions.
US07752402B2

In one embodiment, systems and methods are provided for incremental journaling. In one embodiment, order-independent operations are journaled incrementally for the same storage location. In one embodiment, partially ordered operations are journaled incrementally for the same storage location. In one embodiment, order-independent operations and partially ordered operations are journaled incrementally for the same storage location. In one embodiment, incremental journaling is used to update data that represents accounting, ctime, and parity.
US07752398B2

An N-port memory architecture is disclosed that stores multi-dimensional arrays so that: (1) N contiguous elements in a row can be accessed without blocking, (2) N contiguous elements in a column can be accessed without blocking, (3) some N-element two-dimensional sub-arrays can be accessed without blocking, and (4) all N/2-element two-dimensional sub-arrays can be accessed without blocking. Second, the architecture has been modified so that the above can happen and that any element can be accessed on any data port. The architecture is particularly advantageous for loading and unloading data into the vector registers of a single-instruction, multiple-data processor, such as that used for video decoding.
US07752396B2

Embodiments include a cache controller adapted to determine whether a memory line for which the processor is to issue an address-only kill request resides in a fill buffer for the cache line in a shared state. If so, the cache controller may mark the fill buffer as not having completed bus transactions and issue the address-only kill request for that fill buffer. The address-only kill request may transmit to other processors on the bus and the other processors may respond by invalidating the cache entries for the memory line. Upon confirmation from the other processors, a bus arbiter may confirm the kill request, promoting the memory line already in that fill buffer to exclusive state. Once promoted, the fill buffer may be marked as having completed the bus transactions and may be written into the cache.
US07752390B2

Resources of a storage apparatus are utilized effectively by increasing and reducing a capacity of a differential LU used in a snapshot. In a disk array apparatus including a control processor which controls reading and writing of data with respect to a first logical volume which is generated using storage areas of a plural disk drives, performs control such that data in the past stored in the first logical volume is written in a second logical volume as differential data for each generation, and manages the differential data, the control processor manages a pool management table, in which a logical volume usable as the second logical volume is registered, and a pool addition object management table, in which a logical volume which can be added to the second logical volume is registered, and moves the logical volume from the pool addition object management table to the pool management table to thereby increase a capacity of the second logical volume.
US07752389B1

Described are techniques for determining where to store data and parity information in a RAID group for a data track having a track number. A stripe number is provided. A first member identifier is determined which identifies a RAID group member at which data information of said data track is stored. A second member identifier of a second member of said RAID group is determined to store a first set of parity information for said data track. A third member identifier of a third member of said RAID group is determined to store a last set of parity information for said data track. It is determined whether the third member identifier is less than the second member identifier. If the third member identifier is less than said second member identifier, the first member identifier is updated. Also described are techniques for determining a track identifier of a data track stored at a location in a RAID group.
US07752388B2

A method is disclosed to store information in multiple holographic data storage media. The method supplies a first holographic data storage medium, defines an inner storage portion of that first holographic data storage medium, and defines an outer storage portion of that first holographic data storage medium. The method further supplies a second holographic data storage medium, defines an inner storage portion of that second holographic data storage medium and defines an outer storage portion of that second holographic data storage medium. The method provides information, encodes a hologram comprising that information into the outer storage portion of the first holographic data storage medium, and encodes the information in the inner storage portion of the second holographic data storage medium.
US07752384B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a media library controller that can communicate with multiple physical libraries that are physically separate from each other. The media library controller can maintain a virtualized aggregate media library representing the physical media libraries with which it is in communication. From the physical media libraries, the media library controller can establish a virtual media library and associate a host with the virtual media library. The virtual media library can represent the portions of a physical media library to which the host is allowed access.
US07752380B2

A memory device includes two dies. A first memory is fabricated on one die. A controller of the first memory is fabricated on the other die. Also fabricated on the other die is another component, such as a second memory, that communicates with a host system using a plurality of signals different from the signals used by the first memory. The device includes a single interface for communicating with the host system using only the respective signals of the second component. In a most preferred embodiment, the first memory is a NAND flash memory and the second memory is a SDRAM.
US07752371B2

A system and method that abstracts an interrupt from a group of interrupts, which may occur in a module, to call another module. Abstracting one interrupt from a group of interrupts allows the called module to deal with only one interrupt. The choice of the interrupt may be based on the configuration of the module from which the interrupts are originated. In an embodiment of the present invention, the abstracted interrupt triggers an event. When the triggered event is completed, an interrupt may be fired off to the target module. An interrupt handler in the target module or an external interrupt handler may handle the interrupt that calls the target module.
US07752370B2

A method and apparatus are provided for reducing latency associated with processing events of a hardware interrupt. Send and receive events share the same hardware interrupt. A receive handler and a separate send handler are provided to simultaneously process completion of a send event and a receive event. In addition, separate queues are provided to communicate receipt of an event to the respective interrupt handler.
US07752366B2

In one embodiment, a switch is configured to be coupled to an interconnect. The switch comprises a plurality of storage locations and an arbiter control circuit coupled to the plurality of storage locations. The plurality of storage locations are configured to store a plurality of requests transmitted by a plurality of agents. The arbiter control circuit is configured to arbitrate among the plurality of requests stored in the plurality of storage locations. A selected request is the winner of the arbitration, and the switch is configured to transmit the selected request from one of the plurality of storage locations onto the interconnect. In another embodiment, a system comprises a plurality of agents, an interconnect, and the switch coupled to the plurality of agents and the interconnect. In another embodiment, a method is contemplated.
US07752365B2

A bi-directional single conductor interrupt line is used in conjunction with a master only initiated data communication bus, to allow a slave device to submit a slave service request to a master device and to acknowledge master service requests from the master device. When not submitting a master service request, the master device maintains an interrupt line voltage at an idle state voltage by setting the interrupt line voltage through a pull resistor. The slave and master devices submit service requests by respectively driving or pulling the interrupt line voltage from the idle voltage to the service request voltage. The slave responds to a master service request or initiates the master servicing of a slave service request by subsequently driving the interrupt line back to the idle state voltage giving a slower slave ample time to prepare for a pending master initiated data transaction. The master detects the change in the interrupt line voltage from the request to the idle state and communicates to the now readied slave device through the data communication bus.
US07752364B2

A system controller communicates with devices in a serial interconnection. The system controller sends a read command, a device address identifying a target device in the serial interconnection and a memory location. The target device responds to the read command to read data in the location identified by the memory location. Read data is provided as an output signal that is transmitted from a last device in the serial interconnection to a data receiver of the controller. The data receiver establishes acquisition instants relating to clocks in consideration of a total flow-through latency in the serial interconnection. Where each device has a clock synchronizer, a propagated clock signal through the serial interconnection is used for establishing the acquisition instants. The read data is latched in response to the established acquisition instants in consideration of the flow-through latency, valid data is latched in the data receiver.
US07752357B2

A buffer chip is used to isolate the internal connection between an HDMI receiver chip and a remotely-located HDMI port in a consumer electronic device. In one embodiment, an HDMI receiver/transmitter circuit is coupled to a main processor via an internal bus. The HDMI receiver/transmitter circuit, which includes one or more local HDMI inputs/outputs, is further electrically coupled to an HDMI buffer chip, which is in turn connected to one or more HDMI ports located remotely from the HDMI receiver/transmitter circuit. In one embodiment, the detection and control of the HDMI buffer chip is provided directly by the HDMI receiver/transmitter circuit. In another embodiment, the HDMI buffer chip may be electrically isolated from the device's main processor.
US07752353B2

A system and a method for asynchronously signaling interrupts from a plurality of devices in a computing system, while optimizing the latencies in handling the interrupts. In a particular embodiment, an interrupt is signaled via a plurality of daisy chained devices by handing over the interrupt request from one device to another while retaining information regarding any interrupts handed over (also referred to as passed). In this way, the interrupt source can be readily identified (using a binary search, for example) thereby reducing interrupt latency and memory resources required to retain interrupt history.
US07752350B2

A system and method for an efficient implementation of a software-managed cache is presented. When an application thread executes on a simple processor, the application thread uses a conditional data select instruction for eliminating a conditional branch instruction when accessing a software-managed cache. An application thread issues a conditional data select instruction (DMA transfer) after a cache directory lookup, wherein the size of the requested data is dependent upon the outcome of the cache directory lookup. When the cache directory lookup results in a cache hit, the application thread requests a transfer of zero bits of data, which results in a DMA controller (DMAC) performing a no-op instruction. When the cache directory lookup results in a cache miss, the application thread requests a data block transfer the size of a corresponding cache line.
US07752343B2

Auto-discrimination between FC and SATA devices upon insertion of a device into a port of a FAST-compatible switch is disclosed. Without user intervention, the port is able to determine the type of device attached, set the appropriate data rate in the Phy or SERDES and, in the case of FC or SATA drives, start the disk insertion process into the active switch zones. The SERDES is first initialized to FC speeds, and the receive path is searched for a receive signal. Upon detecting a receive signal, the detection circuitry then checks to see if a valid SATA Out Of Band (OOB) sequence is received. If a valid SATA OOB sequence is received, the SERDES is configured for SATA speeds and analog settings. If a valid SATA OOB sequence is not received, and instead a FC auto-negotiation process runs to completion, the SERDES remains at FC speeds.
US07752339B2

A matrix architecture for KVM extenders connecting a plurality of console terminals and a plurality of computers. The matrix architecture for KVM extenders includes a plurality of first extenders and a plurality of second extenders. The first extenders transform keyboard, mouse analog signals into keyboard, mouse data packets and transform video data packets into video signals for console terminals. The second extenders transform video signals into video data packets and transform keyboard, mouse data packets into keyboard, mouse analog signals. The broadcasters broadcast keyboard, video, mouse data packets, each having a source address and a target address to couple computers to console terminals by broadcasting video data packets from second extenders to first extenders and to couple console terminals to computers by broadcasting keyboard, mouse data packets from first extenders to second extenders.
US07752337B1

The present invention utilizes a “small-world” network architecture, in which a relatively small number of random cross-links of nodes or vertices in a network can result in small characteristic path lengths, for the transfer of messages between modes or vertices in a telecommunications/computer network regardless of their location. The “small world” principle is usually considered to apply to many biological and social networks, as these systems generally exhibit properties that are not completely regular or completely random but somewhere in between. The present invention applies this small world principle to telecommunications/computer networks.
US07752327B2

A “PeerStreamer” provides receiver-driven peer-to-peer (P2P) media streaming for loosely coupled P2P networks. Peers in the network perform only simple operations, may cache all or part of the streaming media, do not collaborate with other peers, may be unreliable, and may drop offline or come online during any given streaming session. Clients in the network operate in real-time to coordinate peers, stream media from multiple peers, perform load balancing, handle online/offline states of peers, and perform decoding and rendering the streaming media. In one embodiment, the PeerStreamer uses high rate erasure resilient coding to allow multiple serving peers to hold partial media without conflict, such that clients simply retrieve fixed numbers of erasure coded blocks regardless of where and what specific blocks are retrieved. In another embodiment, the PeerStreamer uses embedded coded media to vary streaming bitrates according to available serving bandwidths and client queue status.
US07752324B2

To facilitate effective and efficient tracing of packet flows back to a trusted point as near as possible to the source of the flow in question, devices on the border of the trusted region are configured to mark packets with partial address information. Typically, the markings comprise fragments of IP addresses of the border devices in combination with fragment identifiers. By combining a small number of marked packets, victims or other interested parties are able to reconstruct the IP address of each border device that forwarded a particular packet flow into the trusted region, and thereby approximately locate the source(s) of traffic without requiring the assistance of outside network operators. Moreover, traceback can be done in real-time, e.g. while a DDoS attack is on-going, so that the attack can be stopped before the victim suffers serious damage.
US07752323B2

A method and apparatus of arbitrating network resource allocation request to reallocate Packet-Switched (PC) dedicated territory as circuit-switched (CS) territory usable for CS connections within a telecommunications network. The extent of any guaranteed bit-rate (GBR) connections within the requested reallocation region of the packet-switched (PS) dedicated territory is determined. Where possible, GBR connections are reallocated within the PS dedicated territory to outside the requested reallocation region. In the event some or all of the requested reallocation region adjacent CS territory is free, it is reallocated as CS territory.
US07752321B1

A home gateway accesses a host system that differentially routes messages over a communication network to a destination system. The selection of a communication pathway from multiple possible communication pathways through a communication network is based on a user experience type (e.g., gaming user experience, streaming user experience, or browsing user experience) that generally reflects network resource consumption preferences of the user of the access account for the home gateway. Examples of user experience types include a gaming user experience, a streaming user experience and a browsing user experience. The user experience type generally reflects the online experience desired by the user.
US07752314B2

One aspect is a method of providing information relevant to a query. Syndication data feeds are processed, the syndication data feeds regarding the contents of publisher web pages. The processing of the syndication data feeds includes, for each syndication data feed, causing determination from that syndication data feed of at least one tag to associate with that syndication data feed and causing the at least one tag to be stored in association with an indication of syndication data feed information corresponding to that syndication data feed. The query is received, and the query is processed in view of the stored tags. Based thereon, an indication is provided of syndication data feed information corresponding to at least one syndication data feed.
US07752311B2

In one embodiment, a method includes determining to change a number of objects controlled by a particular node in a network. Each object is a resource provided by the network and has a unique object position in a coordinate space of N dimensions. Each node has a unique node position in the coordinate space of N dimensions. Each node controls operation of objects in a control set of zero or more objects which are closest to the node using an agreed definition of scalar distance between two positions. A different N+1 dimension from the N dimensions is added. The N+1 dimension has a zero value for the plurality of objects. A particular value is determined for the N+1 dimension for the particular node such that a change in a number of objects in a particular control set of the particular node is not greater than a threshold change.
US07752310B2

A computer program, method, and apparatus that manage reservation of IT resources for efficient use thereof. Upon receipt of a reservation request, an IT resource finder identifies IT resources that are available for reservation in a period specified in the request. Subsequently a vacant period finder identifies vacant periods containing the specified reservation period, based on the reservation records of each IT resource. Out of the found vacant periods, an idlest period selector then selects an idlest period that offers a largest number of available IT resources. From among a set of IT resources whose vacant periods agree with the idlest period, an IT resource selector selects an appropriate resource to serve the given reservation request. A reservation registration processor then registers the reserved IT resource with the reservation data repository as determined by the IT resource selector.
US07752305B2

The subject application is directed to a network document processing device discovery system and method. Multicast address data and local identification data are first stored in an associated storage. A probe message is then received from an associated processing device via an associated network. The probe message corresponds to stored multicast address data. Probe identification data associated with the probe message is then tested with the local identification data. Device data, representing a capability of a document processing device, is then selectively communicated to the processing device according to an output of the testing.
US07752301B1

An application service provider (ASP)-based interface and system for analyzing performance and costs of respective enterprise information technology assets from the correlation of metrics data of enterprise SNMP-enabled devices.
US07752292B1

The present disclosure provides a system that comprises a proxy server configured to receive a first service request message, to keep a message count based on an Internet protocol (IP) address, to drop the first service request message if the message count reaches a threshold, to build one or more executable, complex objects using more than one data items from the first service request message and an object definition schema, and to produce a second service request message by executing the one or more executable, complex objects. The system also provides a mobile device that includes an application manager, wherein the proxy server is configured to send the second service request message to a designated port on the mobile device, wherein the application manager is configured to listen on the designated port and in response to receiving the second service request message on the designated port, to wake up a provisioning application associated with the designated port, and wherein the provisioning application is configured to initiate provisioning one or more personalized data items into the mobile device.
US07752266B2

A system and method to facilitate translation of communications between entities over a network are described. Multiple predetermined language constructs are communicated to a first entity as a first transmission over the network. Responsive to selection by the first entity of a language construct from the predetermined language constructs, a translated language construct corresponding to the selected language construct is identified. Finally, the translated language construct is communicated to a second entity as a second transmission over the network.
US07752256B2

A server is disclosed that presents content to a client. The server receives a request for particular content. In response to the request, the server accesses data and/or code that describes the particular content. The server compiles that code and/or data to create executable code, and transmits the executable code to the client for execution on the client. In one embodiment, the code describing the particular content is a mark-up language description. In various implementations, the executable code includes a user interface that provides access to the requested content.
US07752250B2

A method for determining the correct result and the correct guard and sticky bits to obtain a more accurate result in floating point divide operations is presented. An intermediate divide result or quotient is obtained from a multiply-add hardware pipeline of a floating point processor. Remainders are calculated using the floating point numbers divided, the unit of least precision, and the unit of least precision plus one to determine where the infinitely precise result is with respect to the digital representation of the estimated quotient. Evaluating these remainders and the initial floating point numbers and comparing their signs and magnitudes leads to a selection of one of three choices as the most accurate representation of the infinitely precise result as calculated in the inventive rounding method: the intermediate result minus the unit of least precision; the intermediate divide result; or the intermediate divide result plus the unit of least precision. Based on a rounding mode determined by the floating point operation, the correct guard and sticky bits are also determined and, which along with the most accurate intermediate divide result, are forwarded for accurate rounding in accordance with the IEEE standard for single and double precision floating point numbers.
US07752248B2

Method and apparatus for decimating or sub-sampling image data which uses fixed delay intervals to accumulate a weighted sum of input samples. The accumulated sum is output at selected intervals, the interval determining the degree of decimation. The apparatus can take the form of a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) decimation filter. Decimation can be horizontal, vertical or temporal, and the decimation factor can be made non-integral.
US07752247B2

An RNG circuit is connected to the parallel port of a computer. The circuit includes a flat source of white noise and a CMOS amplifier circuit compensated in the high frequency range. A low-frequency cut-off is selected to maintain high band-width yet eliminate the 1/f amplifier noise tail. A CMOS comparator with a 10 nanosecond rise time converts the analog signal to a binary one. A shift register converts the serial signal to a 4-bit parallel one at a sample rate selected at the knee of the serial dependence curve. Two levels of XOR defect correction produce a BRS at 20 kHZ, which is converted to a 4-bit parallel word, latched and buffered. The entire circuit is powered from the data pins of the parallel port. A device driver interface in the computer operates the RNG. The randomness defects with various levels of correction and sample rates are calculated and the RNG is optimized before manufacture.
US07752245B2

A binary tree structure for detecting inventory problems. A first embodiment detects on-hand inventory problems. A second embodiment detects inventory requirements problems. Both embodiments use a binary tree whose nodes store time values and delta values. The delta values represent inventory consumers or producers. The time values of trees used for inventory requirements problems are shifted in accordance with build-ahead times.
US07752243B2

A data structure, apparatuses and methods for expanding a search query to be used by a web search engine is provided. The search query is expanded by accessing a concept knowledge base data structure having concept data objects and term data objects with each term data object defining a term and associated with at least one of the concept data objects. Search terms making up the search query are matched to term data objects and a concept set is generated containing concept data objects associated with the term data objects. A second set of term data objects are generated by using the concept data objects to locate term data objects associated with the concept data objects. A user can then select one of the term data objects in the second set to expand the user's search query.
US07752240B2

A system, method, and program product for accessing or retrieving on a computer network the required software to process a file is disclosed. According to the invention, it is determined, when accessing a file, whether or not software required to process this file is already installed on the user's computing device, depending upon the type of the file. If the required software is not installed on the user's device, the address of a server from which this software can be downloaded or accessed through the network is extracted and decoded from the filename of the accessed file. A browser or file transfer program is launched on the user's computing device and a request for the required software package is sent from the user's computing device to the server corresponding to the decoded address from which it is downloaded or accessed. The software is then unpacked, if necessary, and installed so as to process the accessed file.
US07752237B2

A user interface having a search preview is described. In an implementation, one or more characters are received that are input via a search portion of a user interface. When a cursor is positioned proximally to one of a plurality of services in the user interface after the one or more characters are received, a preview is displayed of a search performed using the received one or more characters with the selected said service.
US07752235B2

Modular content framework and document format methods and systems are described. The described framework and format define a set of building blocks for composing, packaging, distributing, and rendering document-centered content. These building blocks define a platform-independent framework for document formats that enable software and hardware systems to generate, exchange, and display documents reliably and consistently. The framework and format have been designed in a flexible and extensible fashion. In addition to this general framework and format, a particular format, known as the reach package format, is defined using the general framework. The reach package format is a format for storing paginated documents. The contents of a reach package can be displayed or printed with full fidelity among devices and applications in a wide range of environments and across a wide range of scenarios.
US07752232B2

The present invention related to data processing apparatus, data processing systems, and data processing methods used for trial-and-error calculation, simulation calculation during data write, and the like, and recording media storing processing steps for executing such calculation so as to allow a computer to read them out.
US07752231B2

In a method of encapsulating information in a database, a message may be partitioned into a plurality of object class entries within the database. Each of the object class entries may constitute a portion of an object class from a plurality of object classes having a given hierarchy within the database. One or more pointers may be generated; the pointers point to at least one of the plurality of object class entries. The object class entries may be stored in non-adjacent storage locations within the database, with at least one of the plurality of object class entries stored in association with the generated at least one pointer such that the at least one pointer points to a higher-level object class entry, as determined by the object class hierarchy, than the at least one object class entry stored in association with the pointer.
US07752229B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing an ancestry tree. An order to build a product is received. The ancestry tree is created. The ancestry tree comprises a set of nodes, where each node represents a part of the product. A request to determine a higher level sub-assembly containing a specific part is received. The node of the specific part is located in the ancestry tree. An ancestor pointer in the node of the specific part is returned. The ancestor pointer indicates a higher level sub-assembly containing the part.
US07752223B2

A program specializer employs input specialized data structures by generating an input specialized definition of a set of data elements, and parsing an application program to identify data element references to data elements in the generated input specialized definitions of data elements. The program specializer replaces or rewrites the identified data element references with the corresponding input specialized definition. The input specialized data elements from the input specialized program are employed in a particular view by generating a mapping of source data types to preferred data types, such that the preferred data types have access advantages over the source data types, and receiving a markup application program having source data types operable to be modified in the input specialized program. A view mapper maps, using the generated mapping, a source data type to a preferred data type, and applies the mapped preferred data type to occurrences of the corresponding source data type.
US07752222B1

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for searching for a string of characters on a web page. A user input is received containing a text search string to be identified on a web page loaded in a web browser on a computer. A common substring between the text search string and a hypertext markup language representation of the web page is determined. A document object model tree node that includes the common substring is identified. It is verified a remainder of the text search string is included in one or more surrounding nodes of the document object model tree.
US07752219B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing dynamically generated events in a database. An activation module receives a custom event query comprising a pool quantity from a user. An event query module executes the custom event query on a database. An event retrieve module receives a result set with a quantity of database events in response to the custom event query. An event object builder module creates an event object for each of the database events to be processed by a JDBC adapter. An event processing module executes an object function defined within each event object. An event update module modifies one or more records in the database such that the database events in the result set are not present in a subsequent result set for the custom event query.
US07752215B2

A method, system and article of manufacture for protecting sensitive data in databases and, more particularly, for managing access to sensitive data in a database. One embodiment comprises receiving a query against the data in the database comprising at least (i) a result field specification, and (ii) a sorting instruction. The method further comprises retrieving a result set from the database, and filtering the retrieved result set on the basis of predefined filtering rules to remove selected data from a selected result field of at least one data record included with the retrieved result set. The filtered result set is sorted according to the sorting instruction to produce the sorted result set, whereby the sorting is done independently of the removed selected data so that the sorted result set places the at least one data record at a position which is non-indicative of a value of the removed selected data.
US07752199B2

The present invention provides system, methods, and apparatus for organizing objects obtained from data retrieval. It provides a method to assemble the objects into a set based upon their relevance ranking, associated metadata including categories, and the proximity of these categories in a graph. The method provides for selecting objects according to estimated difficulty, resource type, media format, or other criteria. It also provides for connecting objects into a best path in the graph. It also provides for selecting objects to fit a desired total duration and coverage of relevant categories in the graph. It also provides for organizing the objects into a particular sequence according to the particular metadata. The system, methods, and apparatus are suitable for use in information systems, learning management systems, and other systems employing data retrieval.
US07752189B2

A signal processing apparatus performs a signal processing using a plurality of signal processing modules associated with a corresponding plurality of signal processing functions. The plurality of signal processing modules are graphically displayed. One or more of a plurality of available commands are received from a user. A virtual connection state of the plurality of signal processing modules is set that defines connections among the inputs and outputs of the plurality of signal processing modules. The virtual connection state is stored and managed. A sequence of corresponding signal processing functions is determined based on the virtual connection state. Signal processing is performed in accordance with the determined sequence of signal processing functions.
US07752188B2

A system receives location information from a user, retrieves weather information based on the received location information, retrieves calendar information associated with the user, and associates the weather information with the calendar information in a calendar application.
US07752187B2

A scanned-document management system includes a first user identification information reading unit that acquires identification information of a user who operates a document reading unit. An attribute information generating unit acquires information of a user identified by the user identification information and generates attribute information based on the acquired information of the user. A document registration unit registers the document data and the attribute data in a document management unit. A second user identification information reading unit acquires identification information of the user. A request information generating unit acquires information of a user identified by the user identification information acquired by the second user identification information reading unit and generates document acquisition request information. A corresponding document selection unit selects document data related to the user based on document acquisition request information and the attribute information. A display control unit displays the selected document data.
US07752177B2

A vulnerability analysis tool is provided for identifying SQL injection threats. The tool is able to take advantage of the fact that the code for many database applications is located in modules stored within a database. The tool constructs a data flow graph based on all, or a specified subset, of the application code within the database. The tool identifies, within the data flow graph, the nodes that represent values used to construct SQL commands. Paths to those nodes are analyzed to determine whether any SQL injection threats exist.
US07752173B1

Data with a short useful lifetime are received and cached by a system. The system waits for the first to occur of two events. If the first event is a local cache flush trigger, the data is written to a longer-term storage subsystem. If the first event is a remote cache flush trigger, the data is discarded. Systems and methods to benefit from this procedure are described and claimed.
US07752168B2

Techniques are presented for peer-to-peer (P2P) replicated backup and versioning. Peer clients register and share storage with one another for purposes of P2P data replication, data versioning, and/or data restoration via a P2P server. The P2P server also provides security and management between the peer clients. Moreover, the P2P sever can audit behaviors of the peer clients and take punitive actions against any of the peer clients that violate policy.
US07752163B2

An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit configured to capture an image of an object; a storing unit configured to store file path information of the image; a specifying unit configured to specify a file path for the image based on the file path information; a determination unit configured to determine whether a second image having a second file path that is the same as the file path exists on an external recording medium; a file path changing unit configured to, if it is determined by the determination unit that the second image having the second file path that is the same as the file path exists on the external recording medium, change the second file path recorded on the external recording medium; and a recording control unit configured to record the image on the external recording medium.
US07752159B2

A system and method for classifying text includes a pre-processor, a knowledge base, and a statistical engine. The pre-processor identifies concepts in the text and creates a structured text object that contains the concepts. The structured text object is then passed to a statistical engine, which applies statistical information provided in nodes of a knowledge base to the structured text object in order to calculate a set of match scores, each match score representing the relevance of the text to an associated one of a plurality of predefined categories. The pre-processor may be implemented in the form of an interpreter which selects and executes a script that includes language- and scenario-specific instructions for performing linguistic and semantic analysis of the text.
US07752156B2

The invention relates to a system and to a method for automatically creating, installing and configuring extensions of functionalities in the system nodes of a distributed network, in particular in a distributed automatic system, provided with at least one system diagnosis tool which analyses the current state of the system of the distributed network and combines in system status data which is guided to at least one knowledge-based planning tool. The knowledge-based planning tool creates installation data for the novel system extensions which are based on control and data from the system status data and a planning data base and guides said installation data, respectively, to at least one installation and configuration tool, which is provided in the system nodes. The installation and configuration tool, of the respective system node automatically selects, from the installation data, the extension of the functionalities, which are to be installed, in the system nodes of the distributed network, installs and configures the latter, and enables, after the configuration of the installed software packets, the functionalities of the distributed network to be re-established.
US07752148B2

A problem checker architecture that monitors user progress during a problem-solving process and assists the user through the process (e.g., when requested) using common human methods of solving the problem. Assistance can be in the form of detecting errors during the process, and providing context-sensitive help information when the user gets stuck or makes a mistake. The problem checker can walk the user through the process of solving a math problem one step at a time allowing the user to learn to solve math problems according to a number of different methods. Rather than simply calculating and displaying the answer, the problem checker allows the user to attempt to solve math problems, providing direction only when asked and correction only when required. The problem checker can recognize multiple solution methods for many common math problems and guide the user to the solution via any of the methods.
US07752147B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for packing products according to a packaging specification, whereby a packaging specification is defined by a plurality of packaging parameters. In one implementation, a method is provided that includes a first step of selecting, based on a plurality of access sequences, at least one packaging specification out of a plurality of packaging specifications, and a second step of determining a resulting packaging specification out of the selected packaging specifications.
US07752144B1

A system and method for determining a total ownership cost associated with a complex system (or a component thereof) includes a multi-disciplinary environment including at least one tool, a product data manager, and a total ownership costs assessment tools. The tools in the multi-disciplinary environment are used to gather information regarding the complex system. The product data manager receives the information from the tools and organizes the information as an information model representing the complex system. The total ownership cost assessment tool extracts various system and related scheduling aspects from the information model and determines the total ownership cost associated with the complex system (or the component thereof).
US07752136B2

A self-authenticating check authorization system and method includes a check that has standard bank and account information printed on the MICR line, as well as a one-way hash value that is computed based on the standard bank and account information as well as a personal identification code of a customer and a key. The scanned MICR line data is provided to a check verifier, which also receives the personal identification code from the customer. The check verifier performs a hashing algorithm on the received data, and compares the computed hash value to a hash value obtained from the scanned MICR line data. If there is a match, the check is verified; if not, the check is not verified.
US07752135B2

A system and method for preventing credit card fraud by comparing the location of a given transaction with the location of a predetermined communication device is provided.
US07752133B2

A computerized payment system and method is disclosed which provides subscribers with funds based on their income at regular, pre-defined intervals other than those on which they are normally paid. In so doing, it interfaces with the subscriber or with the subscriber and his source of income, and utilizes a computer network to electronically transfer funds and record transactions. Payments may be made with either net pay, or net pay less deductions; may be of advances or distributions; and may be of either fixed or variable amounts.
US07752127B2

Apparatus and methods for providing a single location where an entity may conduct electronic services over a national portal. The entity includes an employer, a state, an employee, or any other entity. The electronic services include employee obligations, employee garnishments, new hire reporting, communications, call center, exception handling, regulation database, other databases, human resources, search engine, payments, disbursements, and future uses. Future uses includes additional users (e.g., additional entities) or additional uses (e.g., additional services).
US07752101B2

A method for increasing an amount of a security available to an investor for borrow is disclosed. The method includes purchasing a first quantity of a security, and entering into a pre-paid forward purchase contract to subsequently deliver a second quantity of the security to a first entity. The method also includes lending a third quantity of the security to an investor.
US07752096B2

A system for managing account receivables is provided. The system comprises a rules module or engine for receiving at least one encounter from a first party and for assessing the at least one encounter based on rules associated with a payer; and a transactions module or engine for outputting at least one claim to the payer based on the rule module's assessment of the at least one encounter.
US07752093B2

In a computer-implemented method for processing a sales transaction, an un-audited sales transaction is received from a sale generator, and temporarily stored in a memory location and forwarded to a transaction auditor to audit the sales transaction and to a plurality of backend processors to begin processing the sales transaction. An audited sales transaction is received from the transaction auditor, where the audited sales transaction is an audited version of the un-audited sales transaction. The audited sales transaction is correlated with the un-audited sales transaction using the temporarily stored un-audited sales transaction, and a resultant sales transaction that includes information from the audited sales transaction is generated. The resultant sales transaction is transmitted to the plurality of backend processors to continue processing the sales transaction.
US07752090B2

A method for reversing accounting distortions of financial information, comprising the steps of obtaining a set of financial information regarding an entity, the financial information including accounting distortions and notes detailing said accounting distortions; analyzing the financial information and notes to determine an accurate economic model; and using said accurate economic model to automatically determine the true profitability of an entity and comparatively value a plurality of expectations with respect to the financial information.
US07752089B2

An adaptive inventory management system and method eliminates or minimizes frequency interference issues within a facility that employs a plurality of RFID readers for purposes of tracking and managing inventory. A middleware server activates and deactivates adjacent RFID readers within the facility based on the location of an item having an RFID tag. The middleware server also queries an inventory database based on the information collected from the RFID tag of the item and generates a command signal based on information retrieved from the database to control the travel route of the vehicle transporting items of inventory within the facility.
US07752088B1

Providing an on site server with a data base and an on site handheld computer/scanner. Comparing and updating location input in the server database through the handheld computer/scanner at the site of physical assets being inventoried. Adding racks and rows of racks and inputting the location of the racks into the handheld computer/scanner. Specifying the location of power supplies and the type of power supplies. Designating rack unit positions and selecting manufacturer/model numbers for rack mounted devices. Entering specifications of rack mounted devices, and inputting floor mounted devices into the handheld computer/scanner. Defining floor mounted devices power connections and updating the handheld computer/scanner.
US07752079B2

An electronic commerce system provides various features for assisting customers in locating items and generating orders from a merchant's electronic catalog, and for assisting customers and merchants in communicating about such orders. A user-definable categories feature allows customers and/or merchants to define search queries for searching the electronic catalog, and to store these search queries under user-defined category names for subsequent use. An “active quote” feature allows the customer to view and modify quantities of items selected for prospective purchase throughout various catalog browsing or viewing modes. A message audit trail feature allows a customer and a merchant to send messages to one another that are linked to a particular order, and to view an order-specific log of such messages.
US07752076B2

A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, receive vendor resource data and vendor logic from vendors, receive customer resource data from a customer, build a page based on the customer resource data and the vendor resource data, send the page to the customer, and invoke the vendor logic in response to a request from the customer via the page. The page may describe both the current inventory of resources at the customer (based on the customer resource data) and resources that are available for purchase from the vendors (based on the vendor resource data). In various embodiments, the vendor logic purchases the resource from the vendor, requests information from the vendor, or registers the customer with the vendor. If a determination is made that a new resource is needed, either by the customer or by analysis of the customer resource data and rules for purchasing new resources, then a purchase request is sent to the vendor for the new resource.
US07752070B2

A system and method are provided which analyze information management within enterprises and organizations from a perspective of evolutionary levels, or phases. Once an organization has been determined where it lies within the evolutionary levels, action items are used to transition proactively along the evolutionary path. The action items are selected so as to ease transition from one level or phase to the next.
US07752067B2

A method, system and computer-readable media are provided for performing assortment definition and planning to match the right articles, with the right stores, at the right times. The method, system and computer-readable media include receiving sales information for a plurality of stores, calculating a capacity index, assigning the calculated capacity index to each of the plurality of stores, defining a criteria level for each of the plurality of stores, categorizing the plurality of stores according to both the capacity index value and the criteria level and assigning one or more stores to the assortment based on the categorizing result.
US07752053B2

An apparatus for processing a signal and method thereof are disclosed. Data coding and entropy coding are performed with interconnection, and grouping is used to enhance coding efficiency. The present invention includes the steps of obtaining a group reference value corresponding to a plurality of data included in one group through data grouping and internal grouping for the data grouping and a difference value corresponding to the group reference value and obtaining the data using the group reference value and the difference value.
US07752040B2

An “Interference Canceller” provides a computationally efficient real-time technique for removing stationary-tone interference from signals. Typical sources of stationary tone contamination of signals include noise from power wiring (i.e., 50/60 Hz or 400 Hz and their harmonics), frame or line frequencies from electronic devices, and noise from computer fans, hard disk drives, etc. In general, the Interference Canceller adaptively builds and updates a model of stationary tone interference in consecutive frames of an input signal. This adaptively updated model is then used to extrapolate and subtract noise from subsequent frames of the input signal to generate a “clean” output signal. This output signal exhibits significant attenuation of stationary tone interference without eliminating important portions of the underlying signal or distorting the underlying signal with artifacts such as musical noise or nonlinear distortions. The Interference Canceller is applicable for use either alone, or as pre-processor to conventional noise suppression.
US07752028B2

Architecture for efficient translation and processing of PowerPC guest instructions on an x86 host machine. In an x86-based architecture, signed integer values are projected into the unsigned integer value space for processing by the host using the negation of the left-most (sign) bit. Compare operations are performed in the unsigned space and the compare results are written into the host flags register. Once the compare results are written into the host flags register, the flag values can be read out and used in a table lookup to retrieve the corresponding values for the guest register. The guest flag values are then passed into the guest flags register for processing by the guest application.
US07752026B2

A system and computer program product for providing centralized access to count event information from testing of a hardware simulation model within a batch simulation farm which includes simulation clients and an instrumentation server. Count event data for said hardware simulation model is received by the instrumentation server from one or more simulation clients. A first and a second counter report are generated for the hardware simulation model, in which the first and second counter reports are derived from the count event data received by the instrumentation server. The first counter report is compared to the second counter report, and responsive to this comparison, a counter difference report is generated within the instrumentation server that conveys count event trends associated with the simulation model under different simulation testcases.
US07752020B2

A method for modeling construction risk is provided. The method includes providing a statistical model for each of a plurality of location-based tasks of a construction project model. A model parameter is randomly selected for each of the plurality of statistical models to generate a statistically-based duration for each of the location-based tasks. A schedule duration is then calculated using the statistically-based durations of the location-based tasks, and the steps of providing, randomly selecting, and calculating are repeated until a statistical distribution for the construction project model is generated, such as using a Monte Carlo analysis procedure.
US07752018B2

A geospatial modeling system may include a geospatial model database and a processor. The processor may cooperate with the geospatial database for identifying a building roof type defined by building roof data points as being from among a plurality of possible building roof types. This may be done based upon applying multi-directional gradient calculations to the building roof data points.
US07752002B2

An economical, repeatable, and non-invasive method and apparatus for the calibration of implantable pressure sensors that can minimize patient discomfort and risk of infection. In one embodiment, a calibration system for calibrating a first pressure sensor coupled to a management device and implanted into a human patient is provided. The calibration system includes a mouthpiece, a pump, a second pressure sensor, and a computer. The pump provides a positive pressure into an airway of the human patient via the mouthpiece. The second pressure sensor measures the airway pressure of the human patient, and the computer is coupled to the pump and monitors pressures measured by the first and second pressure sensors. Here, the computer also calculates one or more calibration constants based on the pressures measured by the first and second pressure sensors and provides the calibration constants to the management device to calibrate the first pressure sensor.
US07752000B2

A method and system for determining the contact potential difference of a wafer surface using a non-vibrating contact potential difference probe and a vibrating contact potential difference probe. The method and system involves scanning the wafer surface with a non-vibrating contact potential difference sensor, integrating and scaling the resulting data, and applying offsets to individual tracks of data to match the integrated scaled data to measurements made using a vibrating contact potential difference sensor.
US07751999B1

The present invention can be generally described as a vapor detection instrument testing system and testing process. This testing system integrates a computing system loaded with testing software, and a test-substance generating device. The present device is portable and provides a user with the ability to perform vapor detection instrument testing at the field side of the vapor detection instrument. The portability of the vapor detection instrument testing system results in more frequent instrument testing and less detection instrument down time.
US07751991B2

The invention relates to a system for determining the wear state of a machine tool. It has a machine tool with a controller, a production control computer and the tool database via a respective data connection. A simulation computer, by way of a simulation process, while taking into account actual machine, production and tool data of the machine tool, is provided for determining data describing the wear state of the machine tool and for feeding said data to a display unit or a further process via a data connection.
US07751975B2

A system and method for accurate express tolling of highway vehicles. A multilane tolling system comprises a tolling (MVIC) unit that collects information from tolling subsystems arranged to take various vehicle measurements. Preferably, an intelligent vehicle identification subsystem sends vehicle information to the MVIC unit many times per second. Preferably, a vision tracking system (VTS) communicates with the MVIC unit and sends the latter information about the vehicle position using vision tracking sensors. Preferably, an RF subsystem conducts multiple reads of a transponder on a passing vehicle and forwards the read information to the MVIC unit. Preferably, a vehicle image capture unit (VICU) captures images of the passing vehicle when a camera in the VICU receives a trigger from the MVIC unit. Preferably, a driver alert module is used alert a driver passing through a tolling point as to account balance associated with a silent toll tag or pay by plate system.
US07751971B2

A “Proxi-Mapper” combines location based services (LBS), local searching capabilities, and relative mapping in a way that minimizes bandwidth requirements and maximizes user experience. The Proxi-Mapper automatically determines approximate locations of one or more local user devices (cell phones, PDA's, media players, portable computing devices, etc.) and returns a lightweight model of local entities (“key-points”) representing businesses, services or people to those devices. Key-points are maintained in one or more remote databases in which key-points are assigned to predetermined grid sections based on the locations of the corresponding entities. Metadata associated with the key-points provides the user with additional information relating to the corresponding entities. In various embodiments, user query options allow the Proxi-Mapper to pull or push relevant local key-point based information to user devices via one or more wired or wireless networks.
US07751969B2

A method for displaying map information for a navigation system provides map information which includes areas representing a top view of a map detail, and lines representing a grid of traffic routes. The display of the area information includes additional background information, i.e., the display of the areas in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional view is at least partially generated on the basis of aerial and/or satellite photographs.
US07751968B2

A system for generating map data acquires, from a map database, map data to include a route from a departure place to a destination specified by a user. The system acquires, from a POI database, information to suit a purpose or taste of the user. The system generates specified map data, in which the information to suit the purpose or taste of the user is added over a map including the route specified by the user.
US07751959B2

A suspension system includes four electronically controlled actuators, one at each of the four wheels. The actuators are each controlled by an electronic control unit. The left front and right front actuators are mechanically connected with each other. The left rear and the right rear actuators are also mechanically connected with each other. The only connection between the front two actuators and the rear two actuators is an electronic communication through the electronic control unit.
US07751958B2

A vehicular display apparatus enables a driver to easily grasp a recognizing state of a white line and can prevent one from misjudging the recognizing state. The vehicular display apparatus has a white-line recognizing unit for recognizing a white line on a road surface on which a vehicle runs, and a display unit for displaying the white line on a screen based on a recognition result of the white-line recognizing unit. When the white-line recognizing unit recognizes the white line, the display unit displays the white line as a solid filled figure, and when the white-line recognizing unit does not recognize the white line, the display unit displays the white line as an outline figure.
US07751956B2

A diagnostic system with a single diagnostic protocol server and multiple data source modules for an electronically controlled internal combustion engine.
US07751948B2

Methods and apparatuses for displaying and receiving tactical and strategic flight guidance information are disclosed. A method in accordance with one aspect of the invention includes displaying at least one first indicator to an operator of the aircraft, with a first indicator corresponding to a first instruction input by the operator for directing a first aircraft behavior and implemented upon receiving an activation instruction from the operator. At least one second indicator corresponding to a second instruction for directing a second aircraft behavior at least proximately the same as the first aircraft behavior is displayed, with the at least one second instruction to be automatically implemented at a future time. The at least one second indicator is at least approximately the same as the at least one first indicator. Indicators can be hierarchically organized to simplify presentation and reduce pilot training time.
US07751947B2

Methods and systems for displaying assistance messages to aircraft operators are disclosed. A method in accordance with one embodiment includes receiving an input from an aircraft operator at an aircraft flight deck, comparing a characteristic of the input to at least one target value for the characteristic, and, if the characteristic of the input differs from the at least one target value for the characteristic by at least a threshold amount, displaying an assistance message to the aircraft operator. The assistance message can include a complying input and/or an instruction for creating a complying input. The input and the assistance message can be displayed simultaneously.
US07751942B2

A system for monitoring, managing, and/or operating a plurality of farm houses on a plurality of farms. The system includes a controller and/or a monitor box in the farm house and a computer in communication with the controller for controlling and adjusting various parameters of the farm house or with the monitor box for monitoring the farm house. The system also includes a computer at an integrator's office that is operable to monitor and/or control various parameters from the farm house remotely. These parameters enable the integrator to coordinate operations with processing plants, feed mills, field service and hatcheries. It also enables the integrator to prepare various data reports for use by the integrator or others.
US07751933B2

The invention relates to a medicament dispensing tray or container for dispensing medicaments contained therein and further including electronic circuitry for performing various functions such as, for example, determining an operating mode of the container, determining if the data stored in the memory device is up to date, determining if a new container needs to be ordered, determining if the medicament units have been recalled, determining if the container is to be returned for credit, determining if the medicament units may cause adverse side effects to a specified patient, and determining if the container is to be discarded.
US07751931B2

A design support apparatus that can easily verify the conveyance design for a flexible medium based on input design information. A transit time is calculated when a flexible medium passes a characteristic point on a conveying path based a conveying conditions that are set.
US07751925B2

A system to manufacture orthodontic appliances, program product, and associated methods are provided. An embodiment of a system can include a virtual orthodontic appliance design computer having orthodontic appliance design program product provided to design a virtual dimensional representation of an orthodontic appliance including bracket bodies and bracket pads, and a mold apparatus positioned to form each bracket body and bracket pad. The system also includes a data processing computer including computer-aided manufacturing program product provided to derive electrical discharge device control instructions including a virtual dimensional representation of a bracket slot in the bracket, and an electrical discharge machining apparatus. The electrical discharge machining apparatus can include a controller including control program product to derive a control signal carrying the electrical discharge device control instructions and an electrical discharge device.
US07751916B2

A system, apparatus, device, and method for recording sounds and music with the character and sonic benefits of a genuine analog tape recording is disclosed. More specifically, an electro-mechanical-software controlled closed loop analog signal processor (“CLASP”) system, which is comprised of a digital audio workstation (“DAW”) resident on a host computer and is in operable communication with a CLASP unit or device is disclosed. The CLASP unit, which contains firmware, is also in operable communication with a tape recorder transport which is comprised of a tape mechanism transport and a control unit. In one embodiment, an analog audio signal is recorded on an analog tape and then immediately played back and routed to the DAW via an analog to digital converter, thus providing for digitally recorded analog audio. Typically, after the analog recorded signal is played back, it is erased from the tape which generally continues to cycle.
US07751912B2

There is provided a replay apparatus including a skip function, which is initiated if a skip button is pressed, for stopping a replay operation to restart at the next content after skipping during the replay operation of one of a plurality of stored contents. The replay apparatus includes measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from a replay start time of a content and a time when the content is skipped, evaluating means for giving an evaluation value reflecting a preference of a user to the replayed content that is skipping based on the elapsed time, and creating means for creating preference information by registering the given evaluation value in association with the replayed content.
US07751889B1

An implantable therapy system including implantable stimulation and control components. The implantable components operate under a set of variable parameters that can be adjusted for improved performance for an individual patient. The implantable components are adapted to self-evaluate the patients physiologic performance and autonomously adjust an existing set of parameters to improve performance throughout an implantation period without requiring intervention of a clinician, for example with a physicians programmer. The implantable components can compare a patient's exhibited activity to a desired template of that activity to determine when adjustments are indicated. The template can be based on observations of one or more third parties exhibiting normal activity. The implantable components can adjust the operating parameters to improve synchrony of multiple heart chambers and/or to increase a peak contractility.
US07751887B1

An implantable system applies tiered antitachycardia pacing (ATP) that may be combined with pre-pulsing therapy in order to reduce pain. In one implementation, an exemplary system applies a progression of increasingly potent pacing vectors, progressing in an initial tier from small electrodes inside the heart to later tiers that increasingly use a large electrode surface outside the heart. In the latter tiers, a pre-pulse may be added prior to each ATP pulse to reduce the sensation of pain.
US07751884B2

An implantable medical device comprising stimulation circuitry adapted to provide neural stimulation energy to a neural stimulation electrode, one or more timers, including at least one neural event timer, a device behavior memory including a neural table, and a comparison circuit. The neural table maps a particular device state defined at least in part by a neural event timer to one or more associated device actions that include at least one of a neural stimulation energy delivery, a change in state of at least one neural event timer, and both a neural stimulation energy delivery and a change in state of one or more timers. The comparison circuit is adapted to compare a current state of one or more timers to a device state in the neural table and, if found to match, causing performance of one or more associated device actions.
US07751878B1

A method of and apparatus for monitoring and intervening in, in real time, a collaboration between a plurality of subjects comprising measuring indicia of physiological and cognitive states of each of the plurality of subjects, communicating the indicia to a monitoring computer system, with the monitoring computer system, comparing the indicia with one or more models of previous collaborative performance of one or more of the plurality of subjects, and with the monitoring computer system, employing the results of the comparison to communicate commands or suggestions to one or more of the plurality of subjects.
US07751863B2

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an optical sensor capable of measuring two analytes simultaneously with a single indicator system. In preferred embodiments, the sensor comprises a fluorescent dye having acid and base forms that facilitate ratiometric pH sensing, wherein the dye is further associated with a glucose binding moiety and configured to generate a signal that varies in intensity with the concentration of glucose.
US07751862B2

A non-invasive imaging and analysis system suitable for non-invasive imaging and analysis of defects or malignant aspects of targets such as cancer in skin or human tissue and suitable for measuring concentrations of specific components, such as blood glucose concentration includes an optical processing system which generates a probe and composite reference beam. The system also includes a means for applying the probe beam to the target to be analyzed and modulates at least some of the components of the composite reference beam such that signals with different frequency content are generated. The system combines a scattered portion of the probe beam and the composite beam interferometrically to simultaneously acquire information from multiple depths within a target. It further includes electronic control and processing systems.
US07751856B2

An accessory device for a mobile telecommunications terminal is disclosed, wherein the mobile telecommunications terminal comprises means for media processing and means for connecting to the accessory device. The accessory device comprises circuitry adapted to provide media transferring capabilities, a memory comprising at least one pre-stored parameter value related to the media processing capabilities of the mobile telecommunications terminal and for use by the mobile telecommunications terminal, and transfer means for transferring the at least one parameter value from the memory in the accessory device to the mobile telecommunications terminal via the connecting means.
US07751851B2

A method for managing a schedule as a supplementary function of a mobile communication terminal. The method is capable of efficiently managing schedule information such as anniversaries to be repeated every year. Further, the method is capable of conveniently making contact with another party by providing telephone numbers of the other party at the same time when the schedule information is provided to a user.
US07751848B2

A system is provided that enables the delivery of multiple concurrent mobile applications to a mobile communication device. A concurrency application server interfaces to a mobile switching center to obtain call parameters in order to determine a context of a mobile device call. The concurrency application server also interfaces with equipment in a data network. A concurrency application plug-in resides on the mobile communication device to enable the device to switch between two or more active mobile applications on the device, either under user control or automatically. The concurrency application server determines a context of a call or other activity engaged by the mobile device user to determine what additional content to deliver for display on the mobile device, or what other mobile applications to invoke for the mobile device.
US07751835B2

In a radio access network, techniques for defining a non-circular paging area in which an access terminal is to be paged based on distance-based location updating information for a sector of the network.
US07751834B2

An intuitive real spatial aiming-based system and identification and communication methods are presented. The intuitive real spatial aiming-based system includes aiming device, target devices and an indoor location-based service server. The aiming device includes a mobile computer or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which is provided with a first wireless communication tool, a first location tracking sensor, and an electronic compass having a magneto resistive sensor for detecting a directions. The target devices each includes a fixed computer, a home appliance, a PDA, or a mobile communication terminal, which is selectively provided with second wireless communication tool and a second location tracking sensor. The indoor location-based service server tracks the indoor locations and coordinates the aiming device and the target devices in real time. To tolerate sensor's error, an angle-based target region, a width-based target region, and a combination of the two regions presented.
US07751830B2

Techniques for allowing a home agent to provide location/presence-based services are provided. In one embodiment, a point of attachment of an access network receives a discovery request from a mobile node. A mobile node is associated with a home agent in a home network different from the access network. Location/presence-based information is determined at the point of attachment. The location/presence-based information is added to a registration request at the layer 3 protocol layer. The registration request is then sent from the point of attachment to the home agent. When the registration request is received at the home agent, the home agent parses the registration request to determine the location/presence information from the request. The home agent then performs a location/presence service using the location/presence information.
US07751829B2

A system and method uses wireless communication devices as beacons to determine the relative location of another target wireless communication device. The beacons transmit identifying information that the target device can use to determine the identity of the beacon. The target device can measure the received intensity of the beacon transmissions and determine an associated beacon that best satisfies a specified criteria (e.g., largest signal strength) using a procedure of the present invention that discriminates between multiple beacons.
US07751828B2

The present invention relates to a communication device that automatically searches for wireless local area network (WLAN) access points, and to a method thereof. The communication device includes a GPS receiving module (12) for receiving position information of the connection device from a GPS satellite; a WLAN module (11) for connecting with the WLAN access point; a storage unit (13) for storing position information of the WLAN access point; and a controller (14) for selectively operating the WLAN module based on the position information of the communication device output from the GPS receiving module (12) and the position information of the WLAN access point stored in the storage unit (13). According to the present invention, a user terminal receiving data services through WLAN efficiently utilizes power. Also, the searching of the WLAN access points is performed automatically without the need for user manipulation.
US07751826B2

The invention relates to a system that enables power to be selectively applied to GPS circuitry in a cellular telephone or other mobile device only when a specific user input is detected. In one embodiment, power to the GPS circuitry may be enabled only when the user strikes the keys “9-1-l.” In other embodiments, other types of GPS enablement or disablement may be employed, such as selectively decoupling the GPS antenna. In another embodiment, the user may depress a privacy bypass button, which alternately enables and disables power to the GPS circuitry. Cellular telephones or other communication devices may therefore activate GPS location service during an emergency call, or when a user wishes to allow their location to be determined, but protect the privacy of that user's location and movement at other times.
US07751818B2

A method and apparatus for controlling handover between a first technology network and a second technology network by detecting information about regions of an area of the first technology network, and deciding whether to initiate a handover procedure between the first and second technology networks based on the detected region information.
US07751816B2

A method of registering a mobile node on a home agent in a mobile IP environment and a mobile IP network system using the same are provided. The method of registering a mobile node on a home agent in a mobile IP environment includes: collecting care-of-addresses of foreign agents of subnets adjacent to a first subnet in which the mobile node currently resides; broadcasting messages containing the collected care-of-addresses when the mobile node moves from the first subnet to a second subnet adjacent to the first subnet; in the foreign agent of the second subnet, receiving the broadcast messages and extracting the care-of-addresses; and in the foreign agent of the second subnet, transmitting the extracted care-of-address to a home agent of the mobile node to register the mobile node on the home agent if one of the extracted care-of-addresses is identical to the care-of-address allocated by the foreign agent of the second subnet.
US07751809B2

A method for automatically configuring an access control point based upon the network resource requirements of an application. The installation of a new application on a mobile device or other user device is accompanied, before, during, or after installation, with the distribution of access control information. An access control point blocks communications based upon access rules. An access update module modifies or sets the access rules based upon the access control information. The access control point and the access update module may be located within the mobile device, within an associated wireless connector system, or in other locations within the mobile communication system. The setting or resetting of the access rules based upon the access control information may be triggered during installation, modification, or removal of the application.
US07751808B2

A base station control portion 200 selects one or plural signals from signals received by plural settable communication paths in accordance with the state of the wave. A wireless communication apparatus 110 communicates with a wireless terminal 300 and a wired communication network. When the wireless communication apparatus 110 receives a request for upgrading software from a network management device 250, the wireless communication apparatus 110 controls the state of the transmission wave of a wireless interface so as to switch a communication path in which communication services are being provided to another wireless communication apparatus 110 without blackouts, rewrites the set software to software having been received through a wired interface in advance, returns the state of the transmission wave of the wireless interface and upgrades software without blackouts of the supply of communication services to the wireless terminal 300.
US07751805B2

An image-based information retrieval system, including a mobile telephone, a remote recognition server, and a remote media server, the mobile telephone having a built-in camera and a communication link for transmitting an image from the built-in camera to the remote recognition server and for receiving mobile media content from the remote media server, the remote recognition server for matching an image from the mobile telephone with an object representation in a database and forwarding an associated text identifier to the remote server, and the remote media server for forwarding mobile media content to the mobile telephone based on the associated text identifier.
US07751797B1

Systems and methods for providing presence information to dispatch stations are provided. Presence information regarding a dispatch station in a first network can be provided to a dispatch station located in a second network using a private call alert with a “Do Not Alert” flag set. A dispatch processor in the first network can include a presence notification list, which identifies the dispatch station in the second network that should be notified of changes in the presence information for the dispatch station in the first network.
US07751794B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a wireless device capable of integrating a cellular phone stack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer, wherein the cellular phone stack within the EFI layer may include TDMA or CDMA-based technology. An embodiment of the present invention may further provide at least one agent running under an OS/EFI continuously monitoring said wireless device status, OS availability and remaining power and wherein anytime events occur where said OS is unavailable, missing, infected, corrupted or when the remaining power is less than threshold, the wireless device may switch itself to the low power secure EFI mode where it may continue to use basic cell phone services and applications seamlessly.
US07751790B2

A hybrid on-chip-off-chip transformer includes an off-chip winding section and an on-chip winding section. The off-chip winding section is coupled to produce a first electromagnetic signal from a reference source. The on-chip winding section is coupled to derive a second electromagnetic signal from the first electromagnetic signal when the on-chip winding section is with in a proximal coupling distance of the off-chip winding section.
US07751788B2

A wireless communication device includes a wireless communication device housing member, and a modular keypad removably attachable to the wireless communication device housing member without use of a separate tool.
US07751774B2

A sports spectating method is composed of input means (score maker system) such as a mobile terminal capable of electronically inputting states of a sports event successively, the step of successively inputting motions of players and the other information using the input terminal and transmitting their real-time data, filming means for filming the states of the sports event, the step of encoding and transmitting the states of the sports event, means for digitizing the input data and recorded image and sound data, a recording medium such as a data server for storing the digitized real-time data therein, a recording medium such as an image server for storing the digitized image therein, a recording medium such as a sound server for storing the digitized sounds therein, a mobile network system such as PDC or/and PHS and gateway and internet for converting protocol, and a mobile terminal such as a cellular phone with high function and high performance.
US07751765B2

There is described an image forming apparatus, which prevent toner from contaminating inside of the apparatus and the recording medium. The apparatus includes: an image bearing member; and a transferring member that press-contacts the image bearing member for transferring the toner image onto the recording medium. When the transferring member transfers the toner image onto the recording medium in such a state that the toner image is extended from an edge of the recording medium, the following relationship is fulfilled, 0
US07751764B2

An image forming apparatus including a movable belt member; rotatable first and second image bearings; first and second transfer members for electrostatically transferring the toner image from the first and second image bearing members, respectively, onto the belt member in contact with the belt member. The first and the second transfer members are disposed so that a position of a first end portion of a first contact portion between the first transfer member and the belt member on at least one side of the first contact portion with respect to a rotational axis direction of the first image bearing member and a position of a second end portion of a second contact portion between the second transfer member and the belt member on the same side as the at least one side of the first contact portion are substantially different from each other with respect to the rotational axis direction.
US07751758B2

A developer supply cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus, includes a developer accommodating portion of accommodating a developer; a discharging opening for discharging the developer accommodated in the developer accommodating portion to a developer receiving opening of a developer receiving cartridge provided with developing means for developing an electrostatic image formed on an image bearing member with the developer, the developer receiving cartridge being detachably mountable to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus; a shutter member movable between an opening position for opening the discharging opening and a closing position for closing the discharging opening; an engaging portion for engagement with the developer receiving cartridge so as to receive, from the developer receiving cartridge, a force for moving the shutter member from the closing position to the opening position, in interrelation with a relative movement between the developer supply cartridge and the developer receiving cartridge toward each other in a mounting-and-demounting direction of the developer supply cartridge relative to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus.
US07751756B2

There is provided a color image forming apparatus which is capable of preventing fogging, and decrease of a transfer efficiency of a toner image onto a recording medium when forming a color image, and stably forming a high-definition color image excellent in a color reproducibility. In a color image forming apparatus including a toner image forming section, a transfer section, a fixing section, a recording medium feeding section, and a discharging section, respective color toners which are used in the toner image forming sections are adapted to have different time constants τ from each other.
US07751746B2

A rotary-body driving-force transmitting mechanism transmits a driving force from a driving-force source to a rotary body. A rotary-inertial-body driving-force transmitting mechanism transmits the driving force to a rotary inertial body that suppresses a velocity fluctuation in the rotary body. A rotational velocity shift mechanism shifts the rotational velocity. The rotary inertial body, the rotary-body driving-force transmitting mechanism, and the rotary-inertial-body driving-force transmitting mechanism are provided coaxially with a rotary shaft of the rotary body. A satellite frictional gear mechanism is used as the rotational velocity shift mechanism.
US07751740B2

A fixing apparatus includes an endless heating member having a metallic conductive layer, and a pressure member pressed to the heating member to form a nip to hold and convey a medium to be fixed. The apparatus also includes an induction heating coil arranged on an outer periphery of the heating member to generate an induced current, and a position sensor to detect a front end of the medium conveyed. The apparatus further includes a controller for controlling so as to increase an output value of the induction heating coil.
US07751739B2

A level determination circuit 60 determines whether a voltage level Vref of an output variable signal is a previously set reference level Vref−m or higher. According to this determination result, a constant voltage output circuit 70 and a constant current output circuit 80 selectively operate. The constant voltage output circuit 70 outputs a transfer voltage Vout of a level corresponding to the voltage level Vref of the output variable signal. The constant current output circuit 80 outputs a constant current Iout of a level corresponding to the voltage level Vref of the output variable signal.
US07751738B2

An image forming apparatus has an image former to form a toner image on an image bearer. A primary transferer transfers the toner image from the image bearer to the outer surface of an intermediate transferer as primary transfer by applying a primary transfer bias. A secondary transferer transfers the toner image from the outer surface of the intermediate transferer to a sheet as secondary transfer by applying a secondary transfer bias. A cleaner cleans the toner residual on the surface of the intermediate transferer after the secondary transfer by applying a cleaning bias having a polarity opposite to electric charges of the toner. A controller causes the intermediate transferer to rotate continuously and causes the primary transferer to apply the primary transfer bias until a toner image forming area on the outer surface of the intermediate transferer passes the primary transferer after the secondary transfer.
US07751733B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a toner image carrier which carries a toner image thereon; a recording medium selection information input section to which recording medium selection information is inputted to select a recording medium to which the toner image carried on the toner image carrier is transferred; a fog controller which sets a fog control parameter value to control a fogging level of the toner image carrier; and an image forming section which forms the toner image to be carried on the toner image carrier based on the fog control parameter set by the fog controller. The fog controller sets the fog control parameter value so that the fogging level of the toner image carrier when the recording medium selection information inputted corresponds to a coated sheet, is lower than that when the recording medium selection information inputted corresponds to a normal sheet.
US07751731B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a rotary developing device having N developer carriers, where N defines a total number of developer carriers, the N developer carriers carrying developers to develop the electrostatic latent image, and the rotary developing device moves the N developer carriers to a development position opposite to the image carrier, and a toner concentration sensor that measures toner concentrations of the developers carried in the developer carriers. A measurement position of the toner concentration sensor is set on a second virtual straight line with the second virtual straight line having a first angle or an angle that is double the first angle toward a first virtual straight line on a rotation orbit of the rotary device, and the first virtual straight line connects a rotation center of the rotary developing device and the development position. The N developer carriers are placed in turn in an order starting from a first developer carrier to an N-th developer carrier at the same angular interval as the first angle on the rotation orbit of the rotary developing device, and an angular interval between the N-th developer carrier and the first developer carrier is set to a second angle greater than the first angle.
US07751728B2

A light emitting device and light receiving device are positioned to face each other to sandwich the developer cartridge. A pair of light transmitting tubes is installed in the casing of a developer cartridge. Light emitted from the light emitting device travels inside the casing via the light transmitting tubes and is received by the light receiving device. The direction of light traveling through light transmitting tubes changes along the light path to the light receiving device. When a developer cartridge is attached to the housing, toner blocks light from traveling through the toner chamber to the light receiving device. When the toner is consumed and the developer cartridge is ready to be replaced, light passes through the toner chamber and is received by the light receiving device, prompting exchange of the developer cartridge.
US07751721B2

A first interferometer comprises a first delay element and a first phase shift element, and a second interferometer comprises a second delay element and a second phase shift element. The amounts of phase shift in the first and second phase shift element are zero and π/2, respectively. A first photo detector comprises first and second photodiodes connected in parallel, and a second photo detector comprises third and fourth photodiodes connected in series. The first photodiode is provided with a first optical output of the first interferometer, the second photodiode is provided with a first optical output of the second interferometer, the third photodiode is provided with a second optical output of the first interferometer, and the fourth photodiode is provided with a second optical output of the second interferometer. A signal process circuit recovers transmitted data based on output signals of the first and second photo detectors.
US07751709B2

Methods and systems for using a wavelength as an address in an optical network are disclosed. In particular, methods for selecting a wavelength for a particular node in an optical network, resolving a wavelength for a destination node in an optical network from a network address, and receiving and transmitting data packets at particular wavelengths are disclosed. A resulting system implementing such methods may significantly reduce space, weight and power measurements while transferring data at high rates for a data network.
US07751706B2

In order to compensate for chromatic dispersion ad dispersion slope over an entire wavelength band of the optical signal, the wavelength band is split into a plurality of bands, and chromatic dispersion compensation is made to make chromatic dispersion in a central wavelength of each of the bands zero.
US07751705B2

An optical ring network has one or more working wavelengths and multiple protection wavelengths adapted to support the working wavelength(s). Routing tables may be used in network nodes to assign traffic of a failed working wavelength to a protection wavelength. The protection technique may be applied to networks employing, for example, Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM).
US07751703B2

An electronic device has a casing with an article housing formed therein openable/closable by means of a lid. A locking mechanism locking the lid to a closing position comprises a locking member movably supported with respect to the casing and an engagement reception piece formed on the lid and engaging with the locking member. The locking member moves among a locking position where the locking member engages with the engagement reception piece to lock the lid to the closing position, a first unlocking position where the locking member retreats from the locking position and is removed from the engagement reception piece while the part of the locking member projects to the opening of the article housing, and a second unlocking position where the locking member retreats from the first unlocking position and the part of the locking member does not project to the opening of the article housing.
US07751692B2

The present invention relates to an interactive disk reproducing method using a network. The present method downloads various content-related information associated with A/V data pre-recorded on a placed interactive disk from a remote content-providing server connected through a network, and makes presentation of video or audio reproduced from the interactive disk along with contents received from the server while synchronizing presentation time of the A/V data and the contents with reference to the downloaded content-related information.
US07751690B2

A recording and reproducing apparatus for reproducing information recorded on a recording medium concurrently while recording the information, includes a compression section, a temporary storage section, a reproducing process section, and a storage section. The compression section reads the information recorded on the recording medium and compresses read information. The temporary storage section stores compressed information provided by the compression process. The reproducing process section decompresses the compressed information output thereto from the temporary storage section and reproduces decompressed information. The storage section stores the compressed information output thereto from the temporary storage section.
US07751689B2

Conversion of audio data is performed such that a bit stream conforming to the DVD-VR standard is converted into a bit stream conforming to the DVD-video standard.A stream converter includes: a first converter for receiving a bit stream conforming to a DVD-VR standard, converting data except for audio data in the bit stream into data conforming to a DVD-video standard, and outputting a resultant bit stream; and a second converter for converting, when the audio data in the bit stream output from the first converter does not conform to the DVD-video standard, the audio data into data conforming to the DVD-video standard, and outputting a resultant bit stream.
US07751688B2

The recording medium for reproduction of images includes text subtitle streams. At least one of the text subtitle streams includes text data for a text subtitle and a set of style information corresponding to a set of user-selectable styles, respectively. Each style information includes a unique set of display properties required for displaying the text subtitle within a display screen. When one of the set of user-selectable styles is selected by a user, display properties of the text subtitle within the display screen are automatically changed to the selected style.
US07751682B2

A digital television in accordance with the present invention includes: a state sensing section and a state information update section. The state sensing section senses the process execution state of a process target content in a process executed in accordance with user manipulation. The state information update section updates, in accordance with a sensed process execution state, content state information based on which processing of at least one of the process target content and related content relevant to the process target content is controlled. Therefore, the television does not require the user to perform complex manipulation, but is still capable of controlling content processing.
US07751679B1

The present invention relates to a brightness enhancement film and a backlight module having the brightness enhancement film. The brightness enhancement film includes first micro-reflectors and second micro-reflectors. The cross-section of each of the first and second micro-reflectors is a triangle having two same or different base angles and a wavy crest line. The widths of the first and second micro-reflectors vary along with the valleys and peaks to broaden or to narrow with respect to two sides thereof such that the neighboring lines between the first and second micro-reflectors are wavy. The backlight module is coupled with the brightness enhancement film. This enhances brightness, illuminates evenly, and avoids a moire effect.
US07751678B2

Disclosed is a resin composition for an optical material which contains a base polymer (A), a photopolymerizable compound (B), and a photopolymerization initiator (C). Also disclosed is a resin film for an optical material which is made of such a resin composition for an optical material. Specifically disclosed is a resin composition for an optical material which has high transparency and high heat resistance, while enabling formation of a thick film with high precision. This resin composition is particularly useful for a resin film which is used for forming optical waveguides. Also specifically disclosed are a resin film for an optical material using such a resin composition and an optical waveguide using such a resin film.
US07751675B2

The present disclosure relates to a wall box adapted to be mounted at a mid-span access location of a fiber optic telecommunications cable. The wall box includes an enclosure having a main body with an open front side. The enclosure also includes a front cover for opening and closing the open front side of the main body. The wall box defining first and second cable entrance/exit openings positioned at opposite sides of the enclosure. The main body defines an open region through an exterior wall of the main body. The open region extends from the first cable entrance/exit opening to the second cable entrance/exit opening. The enclosure also includes a cable cover that is mounted to the main body to cover the open region. The cable cover is a separate component from the front cover.
US07751672B2

Certain embodiments of a fiber distribution hub include a swing frame pivotally mounted within an enclosure having a low profile. For example, the enclosure can have a depth of less than about nine inches. Termination modules can be mounted to the swing frame and oriented to slide at least partially in a front-to-rear direction to facilitate access to connectors plugged into the termination modules. Splitter modules and connector storage regions can be provided within the enclosure.
US07751667B2

A microfabricated light collimating screen is provided. A microfabricated screen, in one form, is made from a photopolymer such as SU-8 material. It is able to collimate light in two dimensions and for improved degrees of collimation. It may also be directly patterned onto image sensors or light sources in order to achieve direct collimation. The fabrication method is large-area compatible and inexpensive. The proposed screens may be useful for position detection of objects, such as in the paper mover, in printers and copy machines.
US07751665B2

In positioning or aligning ends of optical fibers in relation to each other an offset distance between the fiber ends, the offset distance e.g. being the distance between predetermined reference positions in the fiber ends, is stepwise adjusted using a cascade technique. The method can be executed accurately and fast and be used e.g. in a procedure for core alignment, the predetermined reference positions then being the positions of the cores of the fiber ends such as the positions of the center lines or axes of the cores. Also, the method can be used in a procedure in which the self-focusing effect of optical fibers is used for finding the reference positions, which in this case are the positions of the center lines or axes of the total fiber ends, i.e. center lines or axes of the surfaces of the claddings of the optical fiber ends. Finally, the method can be used for the longitudinal positioning of the fiber ends in which the gap between end surfaces of the fiber ends is set to a desired value.
US07751655B2

A micro-ring configured to selectively detect or modulate optical energy includes at least one annular optical cavity; at least two electrodes disposed about the optical cavity configured to generate an electrical field in the at least one optical cavity; and an optically active layer optically coupled to the at least one optical cavity. A method of manipulating optical energy within a waveguide includes optically coupling at least one annular optical cavity with the waveguide; and selectively controlling an electrical field in the at least one annular optical cavity to modulate optical energy from the waveguide.
US07751654B2

A silicon electro-optic waveguide modulator is formed using a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) configuration. Various embodiments are described using different modes of operation of the MOS diode and gate oxide thicknesses. In one example, a high-speed submicron waveguide active device is formed using silicon-on-insulator. A micro-ring resonator intensity-modulator exhibits switching times on the order of tens of pS with modulation depth of 73% with a bias voltage of 5 volts.
US07751653B2

A method for providing an intensity or brightness measurement using a digital image-capturing device comprising: selecting a target area within a field of view of the image-capturing device, the target area containing pixels; determining the brightness of pixels in the target area; accumulating the brightness values of the pixels in the target area; and determining a pixel value representative of the pixels in the target area. A device for making color measurements comprising an image-capture device, a processor or logic device, and a memory location for accumulating color data, and the processor or logic device is programmed to perform color measurements by accumulating the data for pixels located in the target area in memory, and determining a representative color value.
US07751650B2

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing program, and an image processing method for making various operations be performed more comfortably. A rotation input section 14 is provided substantially at the center of a mobile phone 1. When the rotation input section 14 is rotated in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, an image displayed on a display section 13 is rotated to be displayed. In addition, when the rotation input section 14 is pressed at an upper, lower, left or right portion thereof toward inside of the mobile phone 1, a display range of the image displayed on the display section 13 is switched. For example, in a case where a map is displayed, the map is rotated when the rotation input section 14 is rotated, and the map is scaled up/down when a predetermined position of the rotation input section 14 is pressed. The present invention may be applied to mobile phones.
US07751648B2

An image processing apparatus generates binary image data by performing binarization processing on input image data and generates edge image data by performing edge extraction processing to the input image data. The image processing apparatus acquires a first area identification result by performing area identification processing on the generated binary image data and acquires a second area identification result by performing area identification processing on the generated edge image data. In addition, the image processing apparatus generates a merged area identification result by merging the first area identification result and the second area identification result and generates an output binary image by performing partial binarization processing on the input image data according to each character area included in the generated merged area identification result.
US07751635B2

The method compresses image data into a fixed sized memory. The image is encoded in scans, where the scans are ordered from a perceptually most significant scan to a perceptually least significant scan. The scans also have an attribute 210 determining whether a scan is active or inactive. The method comprises an encoding, transferring and setting step. The encoding step 326, 348 encodes active scans of image data into scan bit-stream data. The transferring step 330, 352 transfers the encoded scan bit-stream data to the fixed size memory. The setting step 452 sets, if the fixed size memory becomes full, the attribute of a perceptually least significant scan to inactive.
US07751630B2

The invention is applied to image processing schemes by providing at least one auxiliary block processing mode in addition to the standard default block processing mode of the scheme. An image to be decoded is divided into a number of image blocks (800) having multiple image elements (810). These blocks (800) are individually compressed by means of a default compressing mode or an auxiliary compressing mode, depending on which mode that results in a smallest error metric. A portion (980) of the resulting compressed block (900) is used to discriminate between the two modes. In the auxiliary mode, the remaining payload portion (990) of the compressed block (900) can be used for encoding purposes, whereas the default mode can in addition utilize the discriminating portion (980).
US07751625B2

The present invention provides a system and methods for automatic parameter determination in machine vision in general, and in object recognition in particular. Many machine vision systems use algorithms that demand the user to specify one or more parameters in order to adapt the behavior of the algorithm in dependence of the current application. This is not desirable because the complexity of the algorithm should be hidden from the user and a manual parameter determination is contrary to a desirable high degree of automation. The present invention provides a method to automatically determine the most frequently used parameters in machine vision solely based on the input image itself. The method is explained in detail using an object recognition system as an example. In particular, the model generation process based on a model image of the object is explained. However, also other systems that use edge extraction algorithms, for example, can benefit from the present invention.
US07751621B1

Techniques for managing multi-dimensional spatial data are disclosed. The multi-dimensional spatial data include, but are not limited to, two- and three-dimensional imagery data, video clips, motion picture files and movies. In particular, the present invention enables the user to match sub-regions of query data with stored spatial data in a database using foveal indices. According to one aspect of the present invention, the multi-dimensional spatial data is encoded with the following technique, which segments the spatial data into overlapping samples (“foveal samples”), represents foveal samples as polar-domain foveals in a polar coordinate system, processes the foveals into a scale- and rotation-invariant canonical form (“canonical foveal”), extracts features from foveals using a mathematical transform (e.g., wavelet, beamlet), and generates and stores a set of foveal indices for each canonical foveal matching application criteria. It is emphasized that the present invention applies to multi-dimensional spatial data.
US07751619B2

For each pixel read from an imaging device, a horizontal counter value and a vertical counter value corresponding to the pixel are supplied from a signal generator to a distance computation section via an optical-axis-center coordinate setting section and an up-and-down and right-and-left weighting section. In the distance computation section, the distance to the optical-axis center is computed, and correction coefficients for the zoom wide end and for the zoom tele end, which correspond to the distance, are obtained by look-up tables. The two obtained correction coefficients are blended at a mixture ratio determined by a blend ratio setting section. The blended shading correction coefficients are gain adjusted by a gain adjustment section, after which they are supplied to a correction section. As a result, a correction corresponding to the distance to the optical-axis-center position is performed on the signal of each pixel supplied from an imaging section.
US07751615B2

An image processing apparatus includes a detector for detecting a first color of eyes of a subject included in a first image, based on the first image that is generated by photography, and a changer for changing the first color of eyes into a second color different from the first color, wherein the changer changes to the second color based on characteristic information indicative of a characteristic of the subject, the characteristic information being generated from the first image.
US07751612B2

An occlusionless scanner for sequentially scanning a series of workpieces translating in a downstream flow direction wherein the workpieces flow sequentially to the scanner on an infeed conveyor and sequentially from the scanner on an outfeed conveyor and across an interface between the infeed conveyors and the outfeed conveyors wherein scanner cameras are mounted so as to not interfere with one another nor to interfere with the conveyors to provide for the gathering of individual partial images of the workpiece by the individual scanner cameras so as to allow a processor to assemble a collective image of the partial images.
US07751611B2

An appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting a board is provided with multiple imaging units for capturing respective images of the board. Multiple slave personal computers respectively provided for the multiple imaging units inspect the board by referring to data of images of the board captured by the respective imaging units. Each of the multiple slave personal computers transmits, to other slave personal computers, shared data that are necessary for inspection by other slave personal computers. The shared data is acquired by each of the slave personal computers from data of an image of the inspection piece captured by an associated imaging unit. Each of the slave personal computers inspects an appearance of the board by referring to the shared data received from another slave personal computer.
US07751603B2

A medical image output system includes: a medical image transferring apparatus and plural medical image forming apparatus. Each medical image forming apparatus includes a storage unit for storing image formable region information. The transferring apparatus includes: an obtaining unit for obtaining the stored image formable region information; a determination unit for determining an image formation size based on the obtained image formable region information; a unit for expanding or contracting the received medical image data according to the determined image formation size; and a transfer unit for transferring the expanded or contracted image data to the medical image forming apparatus.
US07751590B2

The present invention is directed to various methods and systems for analysis and processing of video and audio signals from a plurality of sources in real-time or off-line. According to some embodiments of the present invention, analysis and processing applications are dynamically installed in the processing units.
US07751578B2

The operation of appliances in a home network is to be made more user-friendly, for which purpose provision is made for the hearing device remote control unit to be integrated as a component in a network. This would, for example, enable warning signals triggered by the network to be provided in the hearing devices.
US07751571B2

A sound signal processor and a method for processing a sound signal using the same enables the elimination of a plop noise generated in the course of a sound mode checking operation. The sound signal processor receives a sound intermediate frequency (SIF) signal and includes a channel mode discriminator for determining a current sound mode of the received SIF signal; a mode transition checker for performing a checking operation to determine whether the current sound mode has resulted from a transition from a first sound mode to a second sound mode; an amplitude measurement circuit for measuring an amplitude of the received SIF signal; and a controller for controlling a drive of the mode transition checker according to the measured amplitude. If the sound channel mode of a currently input sound signal is a mono channel mode, the amplitude of the input sound signal is measured, and the measured amplitude is compared to a reference level. A process for checking whether the sound mode makes a transition from the mono channel mode to a stereo/dual channel mode is performed according to the comparison, whereby the process is either repeatedly executed or is discontinued. The checking process is prevented from being unnecessarily executed and thereby prevents the generation of a plop noise.
US07751569B2

The present invention uses a group key management scheme for admission control while enabling various conventional approaches toward establishing peer-to-peer security. Various embodiments of the invention can provide peer-to-peer confidentiality and authenticity, such that other parties, such as group members, can not understand communications not intended for them. A group key may be used in combination with known unicast security protocols to establish, implicitly or explicitly, proof of group membership together with bi-lateral secure communication.
US07751568B2

A method and system for ensuring security-compliant creation and certificate generation for endorsement keys of manufactured TPMs. The endorsement keys are generated by the TPM manufacturer and stored within the TPM. The TPM manufacturer also creates a signing key pair and associated signing key certificate. The signing key pair is also stored within the TPM, while the certificate is provided to the OEM's credential server. During the endorsement key (EK) credential process, the TPM generates a signed endorsement key, which comprises the public endorsement key signed with the public signing key. The credential server matches the public signing key of the endorsement key with a public signing key within the received certificate. The EK certificate is generated and inserted into the TPM only when a match is confirmed.
US07751554B2

A sound information providing system, which can eliminate inappropriate sound information, is provided. The sound information providing system includes a receiving unit that receives a phone number for identifying a cellular phone of the destination side and a phone number for identifying a cellular phone of the source side. Both information is transmitted from the cellular phone of the source side, a sound information requesting unit for requesting sound information based on the received phone number. A sound information monitoring unit monitors the sound information are output in response to the request. It eliminates inappropriate sound information, and selects the sound information conforming to a predefined condition. A transmitting unit transmits the selected sound information to the cellular phone.
US07751541B2

A method for setting up a connection between a first communication device and a second communication device, which are connectable by means of a communication network. In one embodiment, the method includes: (1) providing party-defined data, (2) generating a setup message containing the party-defined data, (3) transmitting the setup message from the first communication device to the second communication device, (4) extracting the party-defined data from the received setup message in the second communication device, (5) retrieving output data stored in the second communication device depending on the extracted party-defined data and (6) providing the output data via an output of the second communication device. Communication devices and a communication system are introduced and configured carry out the method.
US07751537B2

A network device has a voice mail module adapted to provide voice mail functionality for calls of a first type directed to the network device. The calls of the first type are originally intended for the network device. The voice mail module also provides voice mail functionality for calls of a second type directed to the network device. The calls of the second type are originally intended for one or more other network devices in respect of which the network device has been designated as a backup. In a system having such network devices, voice mail functionality may be provided locally at the network devices. The network devices may be implemented as telephones. In the event that a network device is no longer available on the network, another network device designated as a backup network device takes voice mail messages for the network device that is unavailable. This significantly improves overall system reliability and availability.
US07751536B1

In one embodiment, a communication device includes an outgoing call alerting agent 196 that (i) detects that a communication device has entered an off-hook state and that a first line appearance has been selected by a user for an outgoing call, (ii) forwards a first call setup message to a third party call controller, the call setup message including a request to reserve the first line appearance for the outgoing call, and (iii) thereafter collects a set of digits dialed by the user for the outgoing call and provides the collected set of digits to the third party call controller.
US07751531B2

The present invention discloses a standing wave linear accelerator, comprising: a microwave device configured to generate microwave; an electron beam emitting device configured to emit electron beam; an accelerating device configured to receive the microwave generated by the microwave device and form a microwave electric field, to accelerate electron beams generated from the electron beam emitting device and undertake the accelerated electron beam targeting to emit X ray beam; a synchronous device generating synchronous pulse signal; and a quick beam emitting device receiving the synchronous pulse signal generated by the synchronous device, wherein the microwave device runs and generates microwave in advance before the operation of the electron beam emitting device based on the synchronous pulse signal, and the quick beam emitting device drives the electron beam emitting device to emit electron beam after power of the microwave generated by the microwave device reaches stable state, so that the accelerating device emits X ray beam. In the accelerator, the microwave system and the electron beam emitting device do not work at the same time, and the accelerator electron beam emitting system is started only when the AFC is put into operation and runs stably.
US07751530B2

An X-ray tube anode assembly, an X-ray tube assembly and a method for heat management to an X-ray assembly having a movable X-ray target having a target surface. The anode assembly includes a drive member arranged and disposed to provide oscillatory motion to the target assembly and a target surface that is configured to remain at a substantially fixed distance from a cathode assembly during oscillatory motion.
US07751526B2

In a computed tomography scanner provided with an emitter for emitting a beam of radiation through an object to be analyzed and a detector for acquiring radiographies of the object, the detector generates a synchronization signal corresponding to its state of activation for acquiring the radiographies, and the emitter is controlled via the synchronization signal in such a way that the beam of radiation will be emitted when the detector is already activated.
US07751523B2

An X-ray diagnostic apparatus comprises an X-ray image generating unit which generates a series of a plurality of X-ray images associated with a subject to be examined, a storage unit which stores data of a three-dimensional image associated with the subject, an image processing unit which generates data of a two-dimensional blood vessel image from the stored data of the three-dimensional image, a difference processing unit which generates a plurality of difference images by subtracting the X-ray images from each other, and a display unit which superimposes and displays each of the plurality of difference images and the two-dimensional blood vessel image.
US07751522B2

A covering element for a reactor core of a nuclear installation provides a secure and tight closure of the reactor core in an operating state and at the same time being simple and cost effective to produce. The covering element is easily disassemblable during maintenance or loading processes and provides good possibilities for intervention in the reactor core. For this purpose, the covering element has a closure head and a separate support ring. The support ring is joined form-lockingly and/or force-lockingly to the closure head.
US07751519B2

An apparatus comprising a first multiplexer circuit (MUX) to receive a plurality of clock phase signals at a corresponding plurality of MUX inputs and to output a first clock signal and a second clock signal that are out of phase with each other, a phase delay circuit to receive the output of the first MUX and to generate adjusted first and second clock signals that have reduced phase error with respect to detected edges of incoming data, an output MUX to receive the adjusted first and second clock signals and to output a recovered clock signal, and a control circuit coupled to output MUX select inputs. The control circuit includes logic circuitry to select the first adjusted clock signal as the recovered clock signal and to select the second adjusted clock signal as the recovered clock signal when the first adjusted clock signal nears a phase limit due to drift of the detected data edges. Other devices and methods are disclosed.
US07751505B1

A decoder for decoding low-density parity-check codes includes a first calculator that calculates ιιrRml, for each parity check equation, at iteration i−1. A second calculator calculates ιιrQιm, for each parity check equation, at iteration i. ιιrQιm represents information from bit node I to equation node m, one for each connection. ιιrRml represents information from equation node m to bit node I, one for each connection. The first calculator is responsive to the second calculator.
US07751502B2

An apparatus to detect a sync signal, a VSB receiver using the same, and a method thereof. The apparatus includes a plurality of partial correlators to calculate a first partial correlation value between a sub sequence of a training sequence and an “I” signal of a received signal and a second partial correlation value between the sub sequence of the training sequence and a “Q” signal of the received signal, a plurality of squarers to square the first and second partial correlation values for each sub sequence, respectively, a plurality of adders to add the partial correlation values and to provide a correlation signal, a maximum value detection unit to detect a maximum one of the added partial correlation values, and a position detection unit to detect a position of the detected maximum value as the sync signal of the received signal.
US07751491B2

A method for selecting a signal to noise ratio for a communications code includes obtaining extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) information for a repeat-zigzag Hadamard (RZH) code responsive to a Hadamard order and a signal to noise ratio, determining code parameters for an irregular repeat zigzag Hadamard (IRZH) code for a corresponding code rate in response to the obtained EXIT values, and repeating the step of obtaining the EXIT information for a different signal to noise ratio if the corresponding code rate is other than a selected rate. The corresponding code rate is related to a bit error rate. In a preferred embodiment, the step of obtaining EXIT information includes one of obtaining an EXIT curve for repeat-zigzag Hadamard code by Monte Carlo simulation using serial decoding or obtaining an EXIT function for parallel decoding of the repeat-zigzag Hadamard code by using equations.
US07751490B2

A method of establishing a synchronization signal in a communication system is disclosed. A set of discrete Fourier frequency coefficients is defined and transformed into a discrete time representation, the discrete time representation being particularly useful as a synchronization signal. According to example embodiments of the invention, signal symmetry is exploited. Preferably, the center frequency, also referred to as DC subcarrier, is not used for transmission. The invention also concerns a transmitter and receiver of a communication system.
US07751482B1

Motion vectors for encoding a predicted frame relative to a reference frame are determined from a phase correlation of corresponding regions of the predicted frame and reference frame. Peaks in the phase correlation are identified, and the location of the peaks are used as candidate motion vectors. From this limited set of candidate motion vectors, the best motion vectors for predicting blocks within each region can be readily identified.
US07751474B2

An encoding controller (106) generates and outputs a current skip signal (SKi) to a switch circuit (108), and outputs a quantization parameter (Qp) for controlling a code amount after the encoding processing of a current VOP by an encoder (103) using a current scene change signal (SCi), to an encoder (106). The current scene change signal (SCi) is set on the basis of the current VOP, a previous scene change signal (SCi-1), and a previous skip signal (SKi-1).
US07751469B2

The present invention is directed toward an apparatus and method for receiving signals, demodulating the signals and shaping the correlation of the output of a correlation demodulator. The present invention can be used irrespective of whether the received signals have noise components that are Gaussian or non-Gaussian. Moreover, the present invention can be utilized when a predetermined set of received signals is linearly independent or linearly dependent.
US07751468B2

A method of estimating an SINR ratio of an OFDM-CDMA transmission signal spread with spread codes, the transmission signal being transmitted between a transmission apparatus and a receiver apparatus, the method including: receiving the signal spread with spread codes at the receiver apparatus; and calculating, with a processor at the receiver apparatus, an estimate of the SINR ratio for the signal spread with the spread codes independently of a value of the spread codes.
US07751463B2

Processing in a baseband processor is improved by estimating channelization code powers when processing received signals and reducing at least one of interference and noise power from the code power estimates. According to one embodiment of a wireless communication device such as a mobile phone or Local Area Network (LAN) adapter, the device comprises circuitry configured to receive a composite signal having contributions from a signal of interest and one or more interfering signals and a baseband processor. The baseband processor is configured to estimate channelization code powers for a channelization code associated with the signal of interest and one or more channelization codes associated with the one or more interfering signals. The baseband processor is also configured to reduce at least one of interference and noise power from the channelization code power estimates.
US07751460B2

A solid state laser system having at least one gas injector is disclosed. The gas injector may be configured to so as cause gas flow in a path of the laser beam in order to mitigate distortion of the laser beam due to optical path difference. Each gas injector may be configured so as to cause gas flow proximate at least one optical surface of a solid state gain element of the laser beam system. In this manner gain uniformity may be enhanced so as to facilitate use of the laser system in a variety of military and commercial applications.
US07751452B2

The present invention provides a system, which comprises a fiber laser (1) for generation of laser radiation, and an applicator (8) coupled with the fiber laser (1), the applicator (8) being adapted for delivery of laser radiation from the fiber laser (1) to an area of interest (22) and comprising an endoscopic fiber (7) or bare fiber (7).
US07751440B2

A method and apparatus to perform frame parsing are described wherein a configuration module stores configuration information and a parsing module, connected to the configuration module, receives a frame of information and determines a frame format associated with the frame. Configuration information corresponding to the protocol is retrieved, and a set of hardware elements are reconfigured to parse the frame. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07751429B2

A method for wireless communication begins by determining whether legacy devices are within a proximal region of the wireless communication. The method continues, when at least one legacy device is within the proximal region, formatting a frame to include: a legacy preamble; a signal field; an extended preamble; at least one additional signal field; at least one service field; an inter frame gap; and a data field.
US07751426B2

Token passing data transfer mechanism for reservation based protocols is provided. In some embodiments, a token passing data transfer mechanism for reservation based protocols includes sharing a reservation between a first device and a second device including transmitting a zone activity frame from the first device to the second device to modify the default allocation of the reservation blocks between the first device and the second device, in which the zone activity frame includes a first bit mask indicating which zone reservation blocks the first device requests for transmitting data to the second device during a plurality of zones of the superframe, in which a zone reservation block includes a plurality of contiguous reserved slots within a zone, and the second reservation includes a plurality of zones.
US07751416B2

Method and devices are provided to form virtual switches for data networks. As noted above, the term “switch” as used herein will apply to switches, routers and similar network devices. Each virtual switch acts as a single logical unit, while encompassing at least two physical chassis. Accordingly, each virtual switch may be treated as a single point of management. Each virtual switch includes a master chassis and at least one slave chassis. The master chassis is configured to control the slave chassis. The master chassis includes at least one master supervisor card and the slave chassis includes at least one slave supervisor card. The master chassis and the slave chassis communicate via a virtual switch link according to a virtual switch link protocol.
US07751414B2

A bridge for heterogeneous QoS networks is provided. The bridge comprises an UPnP QoS processing unit, a bridge function unit and at least two of network drive drivers. The UPnP QoS processing unit collects connection information connected through the networks and QoS requirement information thereof through an UPnP QoS structure. The bridge function unit establishes and releases connection by allocating resources based on the collected connection information and QoS requirement information, and performs a bridging operation according to connection information of a received frame. At least two of network device drivers are physically connected to the networks.
US07751410B2

An apparatus and method for managing traffic using a VID in EPON are provided. The apparatus includes a MAC lookup table, a service classification policy table, a service control policy table, a MAC lookup unit, a first and second classification module, a VID learning unit and a first and second service control module. The apparatus classifies all packets of up/downlink transmission flow using a VID into a VID unit, through the first and second classification modules and manages traffic thereof according to the parameters thereof through the first and second service control modules. Accordingly, a large amount of traffic for numerous subscribers and services thereof, which was cannot be processed by the limitation on embodying a typical switch or router, can be processed according to the present invention.
US07751409B1

A method, and corresponding system, for managing a service delivery network. The method includes steps to add a service to the network including receiving a request for a new service, such as a service provided by a service application. The request is processed to identify resources within the service delivery network for providing the new service including a host for running the service application. A container is provided on the host and is configured to encapsulate the service application. The method continues with establishing membership of the container in a virtual local access network, which includes configuring the container for data packet communications utilizing VLAN tagging.
US07751399B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a data link layer packet, such as an Ethernet packet, at a local provider edge node in a provider network from a first customer edge node of multiple customer edge nodes connected directly to the local provider edge node. A tunnel data packet for a particular tunneling protocol is generated. The tunnel data packet includes tunnel data that indicates tunnel termination at a different provider edge in the provider network. The tunnel data packet also includes customer identifier data and the data link layer packet. The customer identifier data uniquely indicates a customer associated with the first customer edge node. The tunnel data packet is sent over the provider network.
US07751394B2

An object of the present invention is to solve a problem that when multicast is utilized in a network configured with virtual routers, traffic in the relay network is increased. According to the present invention, the number of multicast packets via the relay network is reduced by performing a multicast packet transfer across the virtual routers within the same router. Specifically, it is allowed to register in a multicast routing table held by each virtual router, a line interface identifier of another virtual router as outgoing line interface information, whereby multicast packet transfer from a virtual router to another virtual router is made possible. In order to specify a virtual router to share the multicast packet, each virtual router holds information to specify a virtual router having a line interface to receive the multicast traffic indicated by the multicast group address.
US07751391B2

Local gateway support for multiple overlapping remote networks. The local gateway includes a pool of unique, internally routable system-wide addresses, an address bind table, a filter rules table, and a collection of security association databases. A plurality of overlapping connections are received at the local gateway from remote networks, each including an inbound packet having a source IP address. For each connection, the source IP address is bound with an address from the address pool in a bind table. Outbound packets are processed through the bind table to determine the destination IP address corresponding to a correct one of the plurality of overlapping connections.
US07751382B2

The specification and drawings present a new method, system, apparatus and software product for defining/setting a power of a dual acknowledgement signal provided in an uplink by a user equipment to a network element (e.g., Node B) for acknowledging two transport blocks, e.g., comprised in one TTI, transmitted in a downlink by the network element, according to a predetermined criterion, wherein the user equipment and the network element can be configured to support a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) mode and/or a high speed downlink packet access.
US07751379B2

An arrangement for providing IP mobility for a mobile station (MS) provides a care-of-address (COA) for routing data packets when the MS is away from home. In one embodiment, the arrangement includes support nodes, called gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSN) or serving GPRS gateway support nodes (SGSN), and a foreign agent (FA) having an IP address. In order to save IP addresses and radio resources, the FA is integrated into one of the support nodes (e.g., the SGSN), and the IP address of, or an IP address provided by the FA is also used as the MS COA.
US07751370B2

In a communication system capable of variable rate transmission, scheduling of high speed data transmission improves utilization of the forward link and decreases the transmission delay in data communication. Each remote station is assigned one primary code channel for the duration of the communication with a cell. Secondary code channels of various types and transmission capabilities can be assigned by a channel scheduler for scheduled transmission of data traffic at high rates. Secondary code channels are assigned in accordance with a set of system goals, a list of parameters, and collected information on the status of the communication network. Secondary code channels can be grouped into sets of secondary code channels. Data is partitioned in data frames and transmitted over the primary and secondary code channels which have been assigned to the scheduled user.
US07751369B2

A radio communication apparatus capable of alleviating a burden in setting a transmission format and suppressing increases in the scale of the apparatus. In this apparatus, space multiplexing adaptability detection section (108) detects space multiplexing transmission adaptability for divided bands (DB-1 to DB-Nd) obtained by dividing a communication band to which Ns subcarrier signals belong in multicarrier transmission and to which a plurality of subcarrier signals belong, and outputs the detection results (#1 to #Nd). Transmission format setting section (110) sets a transmission format when carrying out radio transmission based on the detection results (#1 to #Nd) from space multiplexing adaptability detection section (108).
US07751366B2

A mobile communication terminal and method of tuning a broadcast frequency in a mobile communication terminal are provided that reduces a time for performing frequency tuning when handover occurs during broadcast reception in a communication terminal. The present invention includes receiving a broadcast signal including location information, frequency link information, and transmission signal identification information, obtaining current cell information of the mobile communication terminal and neighbor cell information using the location information, obtaining frequency information of a neighbor cell to the mobile communication terminal using the frequency link information, and searching for the frequency matched to a currently received broadcast signal using the obtained frequency information for the neighbor cell and the transmission signal identification information.
US07751361B2

A method for gracefully extending the range and/or capacity of voice communication systems is disclosed. The method involves the persistent storage of voice media on a communication device. When the usable bit rate on the network is poor and below that necessary for conducting a live conversation, voice media is transmitted and received by the communication device at the available usable bit rate on the network. Although latency may be introduced, the persistent storage of both transmitted and received media of a conversation provides the ability to extend the useful range of wireless networks beyond what is required for live conversations. In addition, the capacity and robustness in not being affected by external interferences for both wired and wireless communications is improved.
US07751353B2

Some demonstrative embodiments of the invention include methods, devices and/or systems to secure a wireless transmission. The method may include, for example, transmitting a noise transmission to be received by one or more destinations other than an intended destination of a packet during a time period corresponding to a duration of the packet. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07751351B2

A disturbing signal detecting device that detects a disturbing signal and improves error correcting capability for a signal including an interference, and an OFDM receiver that improves reception power for a signal including an interference are disclosed. The disturbing signal detecting device and OFDM receiver perform an IFFT computation for a transmission line characteristic calculated from pilot signals by an IFFT computing unit. A threshold processing part substitutes “0” for a value of a time-base signal obtained as an IFFT computation result, if the value exceeds a threshold. An FFT computing unit performs an FFT computation for a signal processed by the threshold processing part, to convert the signal to a frequency-base signal. An interference detector interpolates timewise and frequencywise the frequency-base signal obtained from the FFT computing unit, to calculate a disturbing signal added to the OFDM signal band.
US07751348B2

A method for providing a push-to-talk communication session includes facilitating a push-to-talk communication session among a full duplex endpoint supporting simultaneous two-way communication and a plurality of half duplex endpoints. Communications are received from and transmitted to the full duplex endpoint along a two-way communications path. The method includes blocking communications received from the full duplex endpoint while one of the plurality of half duplex endpoints has floor control in the communication session and receiving from the full duplex endpoint in the two-way communications path a floor control signal comprising a request to transmit communications in the communication session. The method includes, in response to receiving the floor control signal, providing floor control to the full duplex endpoint and transmitting to the plurality of half duplex endpoints communications received from the full duplex endpoint.
US07751345B2

If exists a client signal of a bandwidth larger than “optical signal bandwidth BW” divided by “the number of utilizable ports P”, extracted is a combination(s) of signals including one or more of a signal of a maximum bandwidth, of signals of which a total bandwidth is within the BW and of signals of which the number of total ports required in correspondence with a protection type of each client signal is equal to P, and selected is a combination of which the total bandwidth is a maximum from among the extracted combinations.
US07751344B2

Computer system and method using a Kautz-like digraph to interconnect computer nodes and having control back channel between nodes. A multinode computing system includes a large plurality of computing nodes interconnected via a Kautz topology having order O, diameter n, and degree k. The order equals (k+1)kn−1; The data interconnections from a node x to a node y in the topology satisfy the relationship y=(−x*k−j) mod O, where 1≦j≦k; and each x,y pair includes a unidirectional control link from node y to node x to convey flow control and error information from a receiving node y to a transmitting node x.
US07751333B2

Embodiments are generally directed to a method and apparatus to couple a module to a management controller on an interconnect. In one embodiment, a method includes detecting that a module has coupled to an interconnect, the interconnect coupled to a modular platform backplane. The method further includes logically coupling the module to one of a plurality of management controllers resident on the interconnect, each management controller logically appears as a management controller for different interconnects coupled to the modular platform backplane.
US07751322B1

Fractional or fuzzy time stamp values are used during processing network traffic. Handling fractional time stamp values permits scaling down of time stamp values, so that fewer bits, and memory, are needed to store each fractional time stamp value. According to a specific technique, departure times are set based on a quantity X plus Y/Z, where X is an integer, Y is a numerator, and Z is a denominator. The departure times are synchronized with the ideal departure times after (Z*X+Y) time units. A technique is provided to reduce cell delay variation.
US07751317B2

Disclosed herein are scheduling techniques for transmitting time-critical data in a cost-aware manner over a network comprising a plurality of heterogeneous transmission interfaces. The scheduling problem is formulated as a linear programming problem with the deliver-by deadlines of the various data blocks as hard constraints and minimizing cost set as an objective (soft) constraint. The problem is simplified by assuming data blocks with the earliest deadlines should be scheduled first and the most aggressive interfaces should be used first. To formulate the linear programming problem, the time domain is divided into bins and various bin-level schedules are enumerated for switching the transmission of the data over various transmission interfaces. The linear programming techniques are applied to the various bin configurations and the least costly of the resulting transmission schedule is selected for submission to a switching layer.
US07751315B1

Shared network path contention can be reduced by limiting the number of contending client devices to which pending requests may be outstanding. Contention may also be reduced by managing available downstream bandwidth based on request size and managing available upstream bandwidth based on estimated response size. Portions of available downstream and/or upstream bandwidth may also be allocated to groups of one or more applications from which requests may be received, and the allocated portions may be configured to vary over time.
US07751314B2

The present invention discloses a node selection procedure. A load is obtained, having a priority level. The first step selects a node from a first subset of available nodes. If the node is capable of accepting the load, i.e. if the congestion level is low enough to allow a load of the present priority level, the node is selected as a destination node. If the congestion level of the node is too high to allow the node to accept the load, the second step is performed. The second step creates a second subset of nodes, all capable of accepting the load. One of the nodes is then selected as destination node. This second selected node is guaranteed to be able to accept the load. The load is then directed to the selected destination node. If the second subset is empty, the load has to be discarded.
US07751307B2

An Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) transmitter (100) comprises a symbol generator (103) for generating a first OFDM symbol comprising user data and pilot data where the pilot data comprises a set of predetermined non-orthogonal pilot symbols. A weight generator (109) uses an amplitude estimator (107) for selecting a set of weights for the pilot data of the first OFDM symbol in response to a time domain amplitude variation characteristic of the first OFDM symbol. In particular, the peak to average power ratio may be determined. The set of weights are selected from a discrete alphabet of weights. A weight processor (113) determines a second OFDM symbol by weighting the pilot symbols by the set of weights. The second OFDM symbol is transmitted to a receiver without transmitting identification of the selected set of weights. The receiver may perform a blind detection of the applied weights and may compensate the received pilot symbols for the estimated weight.
US07751296B2

A recording medium (100) is provided with: an element layer including a semiconductor element (110) and an emission element (130), which emits light on the basis of an instruction from the semiconductor element; and a recording layer (120) in which readable predetermined data is recorded by irradiating a light beam.
US07751295B2

Quantization noise due to analog-to-digital conversion may be larger than a noise component of an input signal, and therefore sufficient performance may not be obtained. An optical disk device includes an optical head for reading a signal recorded in an optical disk, an analog equalization circuit having an equalization characteristic that amplifies a predetermined frequency band of a signal read by the optical head, a converter for converting a signal equalized by the analog equalization circuit into a digital signal, a digital equalization circuit for adjusting a frequency characteristic of a signal digitized by the converter, a detector for detecting a level of a signal having minimum length in the signal digitized by the converter, and a decoding circuit that decodes a signal equalized by the digital equalization circuit using a maximum likelihood decoding method, wherein the analog equalization circuit has an equalization characteristic of amplifying a frequency corresponding to the signal having the minimum length in the signal recorded in the optical disk.
US07751294B2

An information recording method includes the steps of recording test data with changing a top pulse width Ton and monitoring reflected light intensity; determining an optimum top pulse width from the monitoring result; determining respective optimum off pulse widths according to multilevel data from a monitoring result of the determined optimum top pulse width; recording test data with changing recording power in sequence with the use of the optimum top pulse width and the optimum off pulse width determined, monitoring reflected light intensity, and thus determining optimum recording power.
US07751290B2

The invention relates to a method for determining write strategy parameter values for writing data on an optical disk from a group of optical disks of different types using an optical disk drive, in particular to different types of BD disks. The method includes identifying the type of optical disk, the type of optical disk being associated with a standard write strategy with standard write strategy parameters; determining a cluster write strategy with cluster write strategy parameters, the number of cluster write strategy parameters being smaller than the number of standard write strategy parameters; initializing the cluster write strategy parameters with initial cluster write strategy parameter values; and optimizing cluster write strategy parameter values for at least a subset of the cluster write strategy parameters. The optimizing is preferably performed on optimization sets of cluster write strategy parameters in a pre-determined optimization order.
US07751285B1

The presently disclosed and claimed invention relates to a user personalized, wearable device that displays time along with other content in a highly customizable manner. Device personalization by the user may include 1) The ability of the user to set the device to display content, including the time, based on user-defined inputs such as time-of-day, day-of-the-year, (individual) location, special events, the seasons, and holidays; 2) The ability to display in full color various media including audio, video, animation, text, and still photographs and images; 3) The ability of the user to create and utilize his own content for displaying time; 4) Using new and unique symbolic and other representations of time; 5) Software that allows the user to select, design and change the content displayed on the device, including how the time is interlaced with the content; 6) The ability to display content not directly related to time when the user selects this option; 7) The ability to connect to a database where a supply of new content is stored; and 8) the ability to adjust all of the administrative and system settings of the device.
US07751277B2

An estimated frequency-wavenumber spectrum is generated by applying a first Anti-leakage Fourier transform method to unaliased frequency components in temporal-transformed seismic data and applying a second Anti-leakage Fourier transform method to aliased frequency components in the temporal-transformed seismic data. The second Anti-leakage Fourier transform method applies an absolute frequency-wavenumber spectrum extrapolated from unaliased frequencies to aliased frequencies to weight frequency-wavenumber components of the aliased frequencies. An inverse temporal and spatial Fourier transform is applied to the estimated frequency-wavenumber spectrum, generating trace interpolation of the seismic data.
US07751272B2

A system includes a plurality of memory devices connected in-series that communicate with a memory controller. When a memory device receives a command strobe signal indicating the start of a command having an ID number, the memory device is placed in a de-selected state and the ID number is compared to the memory device's device address. Delayed versions of the command strobe signal and the command are forwarded while the memory device is in the de-selected state. If the ID number matches the device address with reference to the ID number, the memory device is placed in a selected state. In the selected state, the memory device may refrain from forwarding the delayed versions of the command strobe signal and the command, such that if there is a match, a truncated part of the command is forwarded before the memory device is placed in the selected state.
US07751265B2

In a semiconductor device including a plurality of memory units and a method of testing the same, the semiconductor device includes a plurality of memory units each comprising a plurality of input lines; and an input unit configured to provide a plurality of test signals to the input lines, respectively, included in each of the memory units in response to a test enable signal. A data input/output unit can be configured to receive Z-bit data from test equipment and to distribute the Z-bit data to the plurality of memory units in response to the test enable signal, where Z is a natural number. The data input/output unit outputs K-bit data, which are output from each of the plurality of memory units, through data input/output lines included in the plurality of memory units in response to the test enable signal, where K≦Z and K is a natural number.
US07751262B2

A Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) performs read, write, and refresh operations. The DRAM includes a plurality of sub-arrays, each having a plurality of memory cells, each of which is coupled with a complementary bit line pair and a word line. The DRAM further includes a word line enable device for asserting a selected one of the word lines and a column select device for asserting a selected one of the bit line pairs. A timing circuit is provided for controlling the word line enable device, the column select device, and the read, write, and refresh operations in response to a word line timing pulse. The read, write, and refresh operation are performed in the same amount of time.
US07751261B2

Provided are a method and apparatus for controlling a read latency of a high-speed DRAM. A memory device may include a delay measurement unit, a delay locked loop, a latency counter and a data output buffer. The delay measurement unit measures a delay time between when an external clock signal is input and when read data is output to generate measurement signals and generates a first internal clock signal delayed from the external clock signal. The delay locked loop (DLL) receives the first internal clock signal and generates a second internal clock signal synchronized with the external clock signal. The latency counter generates a latency signal from an external read command signal in response to the measurement signals, and the data output buffer outputs the read data in response to the latency signal and the second internal clock signal.
US07751255B2

An operation scheme for operating stably a semiconductor nonvolatile memory device is provided.When hot-hole injection is conducted in the semiconductor nonvolatile memory device of a split gate structure, the hot-hole injection is verified using a crossing point that does not change with time. Thus, an erased state can be verified without being aware of any time-varying changes.Also, programming or programming/erasure is conducted by repeating pulse voltage or multi-step voltage application to a gate section multiple times.
US07751253B2

Memory devices, methods, and sample and hold circuits are disclosed, including a memory device that includes a sample and hold circuit coupled to a bit line. One such sample and hold circuit includes a read circuit, a verify circuit, and a reference circuit. The read circuit stores a read threshold voltage that was read from a selected memory cell. The verify circuit stores a target threshold voltage that is compared to the read threshold voltage to generate an inhibit signal when the target and read threshold voltages are substantially equal. The reference circuit stores a reference threshold voltage that can be used to translate the read threshold voltage to compensate for a transistor voltage drop and/or temperature variations.
US07751251B2

A current sensing scheme for non-volatile memory is disclosed comprising an apparatus for determining one or more memory cell states in a non-volatile memory device. The apparatus having a first memory cell coupled to a first bitline and a first sensing element coupled to the first bitline, the first sensing element operable to sense a voltage corresponding to a state of the memory cell wherein the sensed voltage is independent of a bitline voltage discharge over time of the first memory cell.
US07751247B2

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for trimming a reference voltage. The method may include at least one steep of performing an erase operation of a flash memory resistor; performing a program operation of the flash memory resistor; performing a current read operation of the flash memory resistor; confirming the threshold voltage of the flash memory resistor by measuring the current flowing into a drain of the flash memory resistor; determining whether the threshold voltage of the flash memory resistor satisfies a reference voltage; and then completing the trimming operation if the threshold voltage of the flash memory resistor satisfies the reference voltage.
US07751243B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell group, a selection transistor, a page buffer, and a row decoder. The memory cell group includes memory cell transistors connected in series. The selection transistor is connected to the memory cell transistor. The page buffer is adopted to apply first and second voltages to the bit lines connected to the memory cell transistors in which the “0” data and “1” data is to be programmed respectively, when the selection transistor is turned on, in a write operation. The page buffer is adopted to put the bit line into electrically floating after the first voltage and the second voltage are applied. The row decoder is adopted to apply a third voltage to a semiconductor layer on which the memory cell transistors are formed, and apply a program voltage to the selected word line when the bit line is in the electrically floating.
US07751239B2

Provided are a device for reading memory data and a method using the same. The device for reading memory data comprises a memory cell which stores multi-bit information, an information detection unit which detects as much bit information as a predetermined number of bits from among multi-bit information, a source-line voltage control unit which controls a source-line voltage of the memory cell based on the detected bit information from the information detection unit, and a remaining bit information read unit which reads remaining bit information stored in the memory cell by using the controlled source-line voltage.
US07751237B2

A method of storing and reading data, using a memory that includes a plurality of cells (e.g. flash cells), such that data are stored in the cells by setting respective values of a physical parameter of the cells (e.g. threshold voltage) to be indicative of the data, and such that data are read from the cells by measuring those values. One of the cells and its neighbors are read. The data stored in the cell are estimated, based on the measurements and on respective extents to which the neighbors disturb the reading. Preferably, the method also includes determining those respective extents to which the neighbors disturb the reading, for example based on the measurements themselves.
US07751232B2

A method of testing PRAM devices is disclosed. The method simultaneously writes input data to a plurality of memory banks by writing set data to a first group of memory banks and writing reset data to a second group of memory banks, performs a write operation test by comparing data read from the plurality of memory banks with corresponding input data, and determines a fail cell in relation to the test results.
US07751230B2

The negative voltage generating device includes a current interrupting controller, a voltage generating controller, and a negative voltage generator. The current interrupting controller outputs a current interrupting control signal in response to a control signal, which is enabled during the application of a power-up signal. The voltage generating controller compares a first reference voltage to a feedback voltage in response to the current interrupting control signal and outputs a voltage generating control signal. The negative voltage generator generates the feedback voltage and a second negative voltage by receiving the first negative voltage in response to the voltage generating control signal.
US07751229B2

A device, and a corresponding method of implementation, for SRAM memory information storage are provided. The device is powered by a supply voltage and includes an array of base cells organized in base columns, and at least one mirror column of at least one mirror cell liable to simulate the behavior of the cells in a base column. The device further includes Emulation means, in a mirror column, of the most restricting cell in a base column, Means for varying a mirror power supply voltage (VDDMMOCK) for the mirror column, and Means for copying the mirror power supply voltage in the emulated base column.
US07751228B2

A capacitor structure having a dielectric layer disposed between two conductive electrodes, wherein the dielectric layer contains at least one charge trap site corresponding to a specific energy state. The energy states may be used to distinguish memory states for the capacitor structure, allowing the invention to be used as a memory device. A method of forming the trap cites involves an atomic layer deposition of a material at pre-determined areas in the dielectric layer.
US07751225B2

In one embodiment, a read-only memory (ROM) is provided that includes: a plurality of word lines; a plurality of bit lines; a plurality of memory cell transistors arranged in rows corresponding to the word lines such that if a word line is asserted the corresponding memory cell transistors are conducting, the memory cell transistors also being arranged in columns corresponding to the bit lines; wherein each column of memory cell transistors is arranged into column groups, each column group including an access transistor coupled to the corresponding bit line, the remaining transistors in the column group being coupled in series from the access transistor to a last transistor in the column group, the last transistor in the column group being coupled to a voltage node.
US07751215B2

The present invention provides a semiconductor device and an electric apparatus each of which can realize both high-speed switching operation and energy loss reduction and excels in resistance to current concentration based on a counter electromotive voltage generated by, for example, an inductance load of the electric apparatus. A semiconductor device (100) of the present invention includes: a semiconductor layer (3) made of a first conductivity type wide band-gap semiconductor; a transistor cell (101T) in which a vertical field effect transistor (102) is formed, the vertical field effect transistor (102) causing a charge carrier to move in a thickness direction of the semiconductor layer (3); and a diode cell (101S) in which a Schottky diode (103) is formed, the Schottky diode (103) being formed such that a Schottky electrode (9) forms a Schottky junction with the semiconductor layer (3), wherein the semiconductor layer 3 is divided into a plurality of square subregions (101T and 101S) based on virtual border lines (30) in plan view, and includes the subregion (101T) as the transistor cell and the subregion (101S) as the diode cell.
US07751209B2

A switching power supply equipment has a function to protect a power supply from abnormalities such as an output short-circuit. An output signal from an error amplification circuit to amplify a difference voltage between an output voltage and a predetermined voltage is input into a feedback terminal of an integrated circuit power supply control circuit, and a power transistor is controlled by a pulse-width control circuit base on the output signal. n addition, a comparator having a reference voltage and a series circuit of a capacitor and a resistor making operation of an overload protection circuit delay are connected to a connecting point of the error amplification circuit and the pulse-width control circuit. The overload protection circuit starts operation by an output of the comparator. The number of required terminals of the integrated circuit is decreased and also a package size of the integrated circuit is decreased in comparison to convention switching power supply equipment incorporating similar protection circuitry.
US07751207B2

Proposed is a power semiconductor module with a housing and one or a plurality of half-bridge circuitries arranged therein. Each half-bridge circuitry has a first (TOP) and a second (BOT) power switch and each switch is comprised of one power transistor and a corresponding power diode (recovery diode). The power semiconductor module furthermore has a positive polarity direct current lead and a negative polarity direct current lead. Per each half-bridge circuitry it furthermore has two alternate current leads that are not directly connected electrically. Each TOP transistor is connected to the power diode of the BOT switch and a first alternate current lead and each BOT transistor is connected to the power diode of the TOP switch and a second alternate current lead.
US07751193B2

An electronic control apparatus can be reduced in size and cost by eliminating certain component parts such as a power board, etc. The apparatus includes a housing, a heat sink, semiconductor switching elements having terminals and mounted on the heat sink, a circuit board arranged in opposition to the heat sink, conductive plates connecting between the circuit board and the semiconductor switching elements, and a cover receiving the semiconductor switching elements and the circuit board in cooperation with the heat sink. The conductive plates have the press-fit terminal portions press-fitted into the through holes in the circuit board, and the individual conductive plates are arranged along a lead-out direction in which the individual terminals of the semiconductor switching elements lead out, and are bonded to the individual terminals.
US07751191B2

A cooling system that promotes cooling of a device including a heat source therein is provided, the cooling system includes: a cooling unit that absorbs, upstream from the heat source, heat from intake air that the device takes in from an outside to cool the heat source and dissipates the heat to an outside of a flow path of the intake air; and a fluid control unit that lets fluid flow toward the cooling unit so as to discharge the heat absorbed by the cooling unit from the intake air to an outside of the cooling unit.
US07751189B2

A circuit board including a blower thereon to cool a heat generating arrangement. The circuit board includes a board substrate; a blower disposed on the board substrate, the blower having an inlet adapted to take in coolant in a inlet direction, and an outlet adapted to blow out coolant in a first outlet direction extending at an angle with respect to the inlet direction; and a heat-generating arrangement disposed on the board substrate such that the blower is adapted to blow out coolant in the first outlet direction to cool the heat generating arrangement.
US07751188B1

A cooling method and system is disclosed which utilizes vortex tubes to generate and direct cold air over heat-generating components of an electronic system.
US07751187B2

An exemplary foldable electronic device includes a first cover, a second cover coupled to the first cover and a latch mechanism. The latch mechanism includes a hooking portion disposed on the first cover and a latching portion disposed in the second cover and arranged corresponding to the hooking portion. The latching portion includes a button, a latch fixed relative to the button, and an elastic member disposed between the second cover and the button. The button partially protrudes out of the second cover and is slidable relative to the second cover. The button and the elastic member are capable of moving the latch latching with, or unlatching from, the hooking portion.
US07751184B2

An adapter for removably coupling an electronic device to a host and a modular system of the host, adapter and electronic device. The adapter comprises a main body, a first interface capable of coupling with the appliance, a cavity in the main body receiving the electronic device, a second interface within the cavity coupling with the electronic device; and an access panel removably mounted to the main body to selectively close the opening of the cavity.
US07751181B2

A battery cover assembly for a portable electronic device (100), the battery cover assembly includes a cover (10), a housing (30) and a button mechanism (20). The cover defines a button hole (12). The housing defines a first stopper groove (345) and a second stopper groove (365). The button mechanism includes a slidable element (22), a latching element (24) and a swinging element (26). The slidable element includes an operation portion (2224) and a fixed portion (226). The operation portion is slidably received in the button hole, and the fixed portion is releasably locked in the first stopper groove. The latching element includes an extending portion (244) releasably locked in the second stopper groove. The swinging element connects the slidable element to the latching element.
US07751180B2

A power distribution panel having circuit elements such as KTK and GMT fuses removably mounted to a unit housing by means of module members, thereby allowing for ease of customization of the circuit elements of the power distribution panel.
US07751175B2

A multilayer ceramic capacitor having external electrodes. Each of the external electrodes has a lower layer resistance electrode and an upper layer conductive electrode. A glass contained in the upper layer conductive electrode has a softening point higher than that of a glass contained in the lower layer resistance electrode by 20° C. or more.
US07751166B2

A method and apparatus for restoring power to loads connected to a feeder powered by a power source. The feeder is provided with a plurality of switching devices and a master electronic device which is in operative communication with the switching devices and has a plurality of power restoration plans stored therein. Upon occurrence of a fault in a zone of the feeder, the identity of the switching device which is closest to and upstream from the faulted zone relative to the power source is used in order to select a power restoration plan and restore power to some or all the loads connected to non-faulted zones of the feeder from one or more additional feeders.
US07751164B1

A method for reducing a parasitic capacitance of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit for an integrated circuit (IC) includes providing an ESD protection circuit including a plurality of transistors; coupling one end of a resistor to a shared drain of the plurality of transistors; and coupling an opposite end of the resistor to at least one of an input pad of the IC, a blocking capacitor of the IC and a transistor in the IC.
US07751161B2

A circuit is disclosed for disconnecting a power source upon the detection of a leakage. The circuit comprises a disconnect switch for disconnecting the power source. A primary circuit controls the disconnect switch. A secondary circuit senses a leakage current. An optical switch interconnects the primary circuit and the secondary circuit for opening the disconnect switch upon the secondary circuit sensing a leakage current. The circuit is suitable for use as a leakage current detection and interruption circuit for completely electrically disconnecting and isolating the power source and the primary circuit from the secondary circuit.
US07751158B2

An exemplary voltage regulator module (VRM) control circuit includes a VRM providing a plurality of phases, each of the phases connected to a control terminal of a corresponding electric switch; a comparator comprising a non-inverting terminal connected to a first power source and grounded via the electric switches respectively, an inverting terminal connected to a reference voltage, and an output terminal; and a control switch connected between an enable terminal of the VRM and ground, the control switch comprising a control terminal connected to the output terminal of the comparator, wherein, if one of the phases of the VRM is lost, the corresponding electric switch is turned off, and a voltage of the non-inverting terminal of the comparator is higher than the reference voltage, the comparator outputs a control signal to the control switch for turning on the control switch, thus turning off the VRM.
US07751157B2

In one embodiment, a protection circuit includes a linear regulator remains enabled during a portion of a time while limiting an output voltage of the linear regulator to a first value.
US07751148B1

In at least one embodiment, a magnetic recording head comprising first and second linear levels of magnetic recording devices is provided. Each device in the first linear level is aligned adjacently in a row and is spaced apart from another device in the first linear level. The first linear level is perpendicular to a comparative direction of a recording media travel. The second linear level of magnetic recording devices being connected to the first linear level of magnetic recording devices. Each device in the second linear level is aligned adjacently in a row and is spaced apart from another device in the second linear level. Each device in the second linear level is aligned with an insulating gap between the each device in the first linear level.
US07751141B2

In an automated library, data cartridges, such as magnetic tape cartridges, are stored in storage cells and accessed by data storage drives. An accessor with a gripper transports cartridges between storage cells and storage drives. Cartridges are prioritized according to their relative importance. A processor manages the placement of the cartridges in cells by having higher priority cartridges stored closer to the front of multi-cartridge cells than cartridges with a lower priority. Cartridges with a higher priority may also be stored closer to a storage drive than cartridges with a lower priority. A pusher may be used to push cartridges towards the front of multi-cartridge cells with an empty position to enable the gripper to reach the front cartridge.
US07751140B1

A system includes an amplifier and a feedback network that includes a first resistance having one end that communicates with an input of the amplifier and an opposite end that communicates with an output of the amplifier. A first replica circuit provides a replica of a DC characteristic at the output of the amplifier. A second replica circuit provides a replica of a DC characteristic at the input of the amplifier. An input of a first buffer communicates with the first replica circuit, and an input of a second buffer communicates with the second replica circuit. A second resistance communicates with an output of the first buffer and an output of the second buffer. A first current source provides a first current at the input of the amplifier that is proportional to a second current flowing through the second resistance.
US07751136B2

In the lens assembly, ventilation channels 15b1, 15c1, 15d1, and 15e1 passing between an object-side opening 15—1 and an image-side opening 15—2 of a barrel 15 are formed by processing inner surfaces 15b, 15c, and 15d of the barrel 15 and a surface 15e of the barrel 15. Thereby, when a taking lens 11 of a first group having an O-ring 16 fitted thereto is mounted into the barrel 15, air in the barrel 15 is pushed out from the image-side opening 15—2 of the barrel 15 through the ventilation channels 15b1, 15c1, 15d1, and 15e1.
US07751135B2

The invention relates to an apparatus, comprising a lens and a piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric element is configured to bend in response to a voltage applied thereto. The lens and the piezoelectric element are arranged so that the bending causes at least a portion of the lens to move in at least one movement direction. The invention further relates to an according method and computer-readable medium.
US07751134B2

A lens actuator is provided for moving a movable part including a lens, with respect to a fixed part in the optical axis direction of the lens. The lens actuator includes (a) a magnet disposed on the surface of the movable part facing the fixed part and magnetized in the optical axis direction, (b) a coil disposed on the surface of the fixed part facing the magnet, and (c) a pair of magnetic materials disposed on both sides of the magnet in the optical axis direction, to direct magnetic flux from the magnet toward the coil.
US07751133B2

There is provided an optical pickup actuator for actuating a lens holder having an object lens according to an interaction between coils and magnets. The optical pickup actuator includes a lens-seating portion formed on the lens holder to support the object lens and a lens guide portion protruding from the lens-seating portion to securely support the object lens. The lens guide portion has an adhesive confining groove in which adhesive can be injected to securely fix the object lens.
US07751125B2

A zoom lens has a field view of 60° to 70° at a wide-angle end, a magnification change ratio of about five to six times, and a small number of component lenses, enables retraction to a compact size when not in use, provides high resolution, and is compatible with a compensation function for zoom lens vibrations. Comprised are, in order from an object side, a first lens unit (G1) of positive optical power, a second lens unit (G2) of negative optical power, a third lens unit (G3) of positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit (G4) of positive optical power. When zooming from the wide-angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens unit (G1) and the second lens unit (G2) move so as to trace a convex path toward an image side, and the third lens unit and the fourth lens unit (G4) move monotonously toward an object side.
US07751117B2

The invention relates to the field of optical parametric oscillators (OPO), especially to an essentially vertical monolithic system (S) for parametric conversion from a pump wave with a pump wavelength, said system comprising at least two resonant cavities (6, 7). Said cavities are coupled by at least one coupling mirror (3), at least one of the cavities comprising an active non-linear medium, and the at least one coupling mirror being arranged in such a way that the parametric frequencies associated with the pump wavelength are located in the stop line of the at least one mirror for an injection direction of the pump wave essentially according to the axis of the system.
US07751113B2

Disclosed herein is a micromirror device having a reflective mirror plate with reduced dimensions. The micromirror device can be a member of an array of micromirror devices for use in optical signal modulations, such as display applications and optical signal switching applications.
US07751110B2

There is provided a versatile display device comprising: a first electrode layer formed on a transparent substrate; an electrochromic layer formed on the first electrode layer; a second electrode layer consisting of a plurality of first conductive line groups arranged in the first direction on the electrochromic layer; a light-emitting device layer formed on the second electrode layer and emitting light; and a third electrode layer formed on the light-emitting device layer and consisting of a plurality of second conductive line groups arranged in the second direction that is different from the first conductive line group.
US07751104B2

A hologram recording medium includes a stack of at least a lower transparent substrate, a recording layer made of a photocurable organic material, and an upper transparent substrate, wherein a spacer for keeping a thickness of the recording layer is dispersed and disposed in the inside of the recording layer in a direction of a principal plane of the hologram recording medium.
US07751102B2

An apparatus for forming an image is disclosed which includes: an input device inputting image data; an image processor processing the inputted image data; an image forming device forming the image on a recording medium, based on the processed image data; a lightness setting device setting a lightness value of the image to be formed on the recording medium by the image forming device; a first corrector correcting the inputted image data according to a first correction characteristic; a first characteristic modifier modifying the first correction characteristic, in response to setting of increasing the lightness value by the lightness setting device; a second corrector correcting the processed image data according to a second correction characteristic; and a second characteristic modifier modifying the second correction characteristic, in response to setting of decreasing the lightness value by the lightness setting device.
US07751098B2

A scanning module includes a body casing having a light passage slit thereon, a plurality of reflecting mirrors located inside the body casing, a light-channeling apparatus, and a light guiding body. The light-channeling apparatus includes a first light-guiding tube positioned between a light source and a document, and a second light-guiding tube positioned between the document and the light passage slit. The light-guiding body is positioned inside the first light-guiding tube or the second light-guiding tube.
US07751095B2

An image scanning apparatus moves a copyboard provided between an original document and three line sensors and the three line sensors relatively to each other at a speed different from the speed of conveying an original document. An in-line correction portion allows three data output by three line sensors to be synchronized so that a foreign object on the copyboard appears at different positions of the original document in chromatic color. A foreign object position detection portion detects a position on the copyboard of a foreign object before an original document is conveyed, and a color determination portion decides a determination pixel for use in determination from a plurality of pixels included in each of scanned data obtained while the original document is conveyed, based on the position of the foreign object, and determines whether the original document is color or black-and-white based on the determination pixel.
US07751083B2

A method for automatically compensating for scanner metamerism errors associated with scanning input images using a digital color image scanner, wherein the input images can be on a variety of different input media having colorants with different spectral characteristics, comprising scanning an input image on a digital color image scanner to produce a scanned image; determining one or more estimated color balance error values in a color balance parameter space by analyzing the scanned image using a color balance analysis algorithm; assigning an input medium from a set of possible input media for the scanned input image in response to the estimated color balance error values; selecting a scanner metamerism correction color transform associated with the assigned input medium; and applying the selected scanner metamerism correction color transform to the scanned image to produce a corrected image compensated for scanner metamerism errors.
US07751072B2

A method of printing includes processing a print job stream to identify one or more images to be printed on a first substrate. The first substrate has a substrate attribute, such as paper weight or surface roughness, which is different from that of a second substrate. A marking engine is selected to print the identified images on the selected first substrate. An operating parameter of the marking engine is modified from a set point for the second substrate to a modified set point for the first substrate, to accommodate the substrate attribute of the selected first substrate. The identified images are sent to the selected marking engine to be printed.
US07751063B2

Described is a multiple channel interferometric surface contour measurement system. The measurement system includes a multiple channel interferometer projector, a digital camera and a processor. The projector includes two or more interferometer channels. Each channel has an optical axis spatially separate from the optical axes of the other channels. Each channel projects a fringe pattern onto the surface of an object to be measured. Image data for the fringe patterns projected on the object surface are acquired by the digital camera. The processor controls the projection of the fringe patterns of different spatial frequencies, adjusts the phase of each fringe pattern and generates surface contour data in response to the camera image data. The multiple channel interferometric surface contour measurement system provides numerous advantages over conventional single channel interferometric systems, including reduced sensitivity to optical noise, improved stability and increased measurement accuracy.
US07751062B2

A method for optical flying height measurement, and a flying height tester. The method the method comprises the steps of aligning a first slider and a second slider adjacent a transparent disk; varying a rotational speed of the disk relative to the first slider whereby a spacing between the first slider and the disk changes; measuring changes in a first reflected light intensity caused by interference of a light signal portion reflected from the first slider and a light signal portion reflected from a surface of the disk, wherein the rotational speed is varied over a range such that one maximum and minimum intensities pair is measured in the reflected light intensity; measuring a second reflected light intensity caused by interference of a light signal portion reflected from the second slider and a light signal portion reflected from a surface of the disk at a fixed rotational speed between the disk and the second slider; and calculate a flying height of the second slider using the measured maximum and minimum intensities pair and the measured second reflected light intensity.
US07751058B2

Optical rotation counter associated with a rotary disc of an angle sensor provided with means for coding the angular position of the disc, including at least one fixed source of coherent light emitting a light beam, a diaphragm and a support moved by the rotation of the coding disc. On its face facing the incident beam, the support includes at least one cell for coding its displacement orientated in the direction of the said displacement and generates an optical code by interference with the incident light beam, the said optical code being readable after interference on at least one photodetector.
US07751055B2

Apparatus is provided for a fiber optic gyro. The fiber optic gyro includes a ring resonator having first and second counter-propagating directions. The ring resonator includes a coil having an axis and an optical fiber having a hollow core. The ring resonator is configured to produce a first resonance frequency when a first light beam circulates through the hollow core in the first counter-propagating direction and produce a second resonance frequency when a second light beam circulates through the hollow core in the second counter-propagating direction. A difference between the resonance frequencies indicates a rotation rate of the fiber optic gyro about the axis.
US07751054B2

An optical sensor device (10) is able to be coupled to a window (14), in particular to a windscreen of a motor vehicle. The optical sensor device (10) comprises a sensor unit (12), which includes a emitter (26), a receiver (28) and a light conductor unit (30). By the light conductor unit (30), a light beam (34) emitted by the emitter (26) is coupled into the window (14), coupled out of the window (14) and directed onto the receiver (28). The light conductor unit (30) includes Fresnel lens regions and associated reflecting regions.
US07751051B2

Correlation spectroscopy measure is improved by correcting for cross interference. This is achieved through applying different gains to the output signals whereby the effect of background interferent species can be calculated and an automatic correction factor applied.
US07751043B2

Methods and apparatus for concentration determination using polarized light. The apparatus includes a first polarized light source having a first light source polarization axis and a second polarized light source having a second light source polarization axis generally perpendicular to the first light source polarization axis. Also, a first polarized light receiver having a first polarized light receiver polarization axis and configured to measure an intensity of light transmitted from the first light receiver polarizer and a second polarized light receiver having a second polarized light receiver polarization axis substantially perpendicular to the first light receiver polarization axis and configured to measure an intensity of light transmitted from the second light receiver polarizer, wherein the first and second light receiver polarization axes are generally +/−45 degrees relative to the first and second light source polarization axes.
US07751041B2

A fluorescent detection apparatus relates to an analysis technique for qualitatively detecting or quantifying biomolecules by producing an evanescent field on a surface of a substrate, exciting fluorescently labelled biomolecules on the substrate surface in the evanescent field, and detecting the resultant fluorescent light emitted from the biomolecules. The fluorescent detection apparatus has a configuration in which a well is provided in a surface opposing to a sample substrate of a prism, the well is filled with a matching liquid, and the matching liquid is filled between the sample substrate and the prism, thereby improving operability and providing a stable evanescent field.
US07751034B2

Systems and methods for evaluating an optical property of a gemstone operate to trace selected and ordered model light rays through a model of the gemstone. The rays may be selected such that, when ordered into a sequence, the points of contact of successive rays with the gemstone surface generate a pattern defined by a path created by the linking of successive contact points with line segments. Further, the rays may be propagated through the gemstone in a manner that utilizes an ordered set of facet identifiers corresponding to facets impinged upon by a ray previously propagated through the gemstone. Moreover, these strategies can be combined by propagating an ordered sequence of rays corresponding to an ordered set of contact points generating a pattern defined by a path, and using for such propagation an ordered set of facet identifiers corresponding to facets impinged upon by a ray previously propagated through the gemstone.
US07751029B2

A load-lock apparatus includes a housing having a movable member, a first opening to allow a load-lock chamber to communicate with a processing chamber and a second opening, different from the first opening. The housing defines a volume of the load-lock chamber. A driving mechanism drives the movable member. A first gate valve is provided at the first opening, a second gate valve is provided at the second opening, and a pump reduces a pressure in the load-lock chamber. The driving mechanism drives the movable member, after loading an object into the load-lock chamber and before unloading the object from the load-lock chamber, to change the volume of the load-lock chamber. The driving mechanism decreases the volume of the load-lock chamber after the object is loaded into the load-lock chamber through the second gate valve and before the second gate valve is closed, and the pump reduces the pressure in the load-lock chamber after the volume of the load-lock chamber is decreased and the second gate valve is closed.
US07751027B2

Methods and apparatus for maintaining the thermal equilibrium of a substrate and an immersion lithographic apparatus are disclosed using or having a timetable comprising information regarding the position, speed and/or acceleration of the substrate; and an evaporation controller and/or condensation controller acting to decrease localized evaporation and/or increase localized condensation in response to the information in the timetable. Evaporation of liquid from the surface of the substrate cools it down, while condensing liquid on its bottom surface heats the substrate locally.
US07751022B2

A liquid crystal display device including a first substrate, a second substrate facing and spaced away from the first substrate, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first and second substrates, a switching device formed on the first substrate, a first electrically insulating film randomly patterned on the first substrate, a second electrically insulating film covering the first electrically insulating film therewith, and having a wavy surface, and a reflection electrode formed on the second electrically insulating film, and electrically connected to an electrode of the switching device, wherein a light passing through the second substrate and the liquid crystal layer is reflected at the reflection electrode, and the second electrically insulating film extends outwardly from the first electrically insulating film by a certain length at an end of a display region in which images are to be displayed, such that a step formed by the first and second electrically insulating films in the vicinity of the end of the display region is smoothed.
US07751011B2

A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device according to the present invention includes a first mask process of forming a first mask pattern group including a gate line, a gate electrode, a common line and a common electrode on a substrate, a second mask process of forming a gate insulating film on the first mask pattern group and a semiconductor pattern and an opaque conductive pattern on the gate insulating film, and a third mask process of forming a transparent conductive pattern on the opaque conductive pattern and forming a protective film, wherein one end of the protective film is contacted with one end of the transparent conductive pattern.
US07751010B2

A liquid crystal display includes a gate line formed on a lower substrate, a storage line formed on the lower substrate, and a data line formed on the lower substrate crossing and insulated from the gate line and the storage line. The liquid crystal display also includes a pixel electrode formed on the lower substrate crossing and insulated from the storage line. The pixel electrode has a first aperture pattern. The liquid crystal display further includes a common electrode formed on an upper substrate and having a second aperture pattern, and a storage electrode connected to the storage line. The storage electrode overlaps the second aperture pattern. The storage line, first aperture pattern, and second aperture pattern each includes a straight portion slanting to the gate line. A long axis of a liquid crystal molecule is arranged perpendicular to a substrate when an electric field is not applied.
US07751006B2

The invention provides: an optical element that includes a birefringence functional layer constituted of a polymerizable liquid crystal material, in which the birefringence functional layer is formed directly or indirectly on a substrate, and in a post-process carried out thereafter, alignment and characteristics of the birefringence functional layer are not disturbed, with the result that a high quality birefringence control function can be exerted; a liquid crystal display device provided with the optical element; a method of evaluating a birefringence functional layer that is not disturbed in the alignment and physical properties by the post-process; and a method of producing the optical element. The optical element includes at least a light-transmitting substrate; and a birefringence functional layer made of a polymerizable liquid crystal material, wherein the birefringence functional layer is formed by aligning a polymerizable liquid crystal monomer having a polymerizable group at least at one terminal thereof directly or indirectly on a substrate followed by fixation, and a degree of reduction of residual double bonds in the birefringence functional layer before and after heat treatment at 250° C. for 1 hr is less than 0.25.
US07751005B2

An IPS (In Plane Switching) mode type liquid crystal display apparatus having polarizing plates on both sides of a liquid crystal cell, wherein the polarizing plate protective film used between a liquid crystal cell and polarizer on a backlight light-source side is a cellulose ester film having a thickness of 20-50 μm and a retardation value of 0 nm≦Ro≦2 nm and −5 nm≦Rt≦5 nm, and this cellulose ester film is characterized by temperature variation ΔRt(t) lying in the range 0 nm≦ΔRt(t)≦7 nm and humidity variation ΔRt(h) lying in the range 0 nm≦ΔRt(h)≦20 nm.
US07751004B2

In a transflective type liquid crystal display device of an FFS system, a plurality of pixels has a transmissive display area for emitting transmissive display light and a reflective display area for emitting reflective display light, and the reflective display area is equipped with a retardation layer. Polarization axes of polarizers are perpendicular to each other and an alignment direction of the liquid crystal layer is parallel to or perpendicular to the polarization axis of the first polarizer. The angle of a slow axis of the retardation layer is not less than 20° and not more than 25° or not less than 60° and not more than 75° with respect to the polarization axis of the first polarizer. A retardation value of the liquid crystal layer in the reflective area exceeds a quarter wavelength, and a retardation value of the retardation layer exceeds a half wavelength.
US07751002B2

A pixel structure of a transflective LCD panel includes a substrate, a data line and a scan, a thin film transistor containing an extending electrode, a first common electrode and a second common electrode, a transmissive pixel electrode, and a reflective pixel electrode forming a first coupling capacitor with the extending electrode and a second coupling capacitor with the second common electrode. The first and second common electrodes and the data line overlap with each other in an overlapping area, wherein the first common electrode is disposed between the second common electrode and the data line.
US07750999B2

A liquid crystal display device includes opposing substrates. One of the substrates has a thin film transistor and a color filter formed thereon. A spacer formed between the substrates maintains a cell gap. A light shielding layer is formed at a lower portion of the spacer and overlaps the thin film transistor. The light shielding layer has a pattern substantially identical to the spacer. The light shielding layer and the spacer are simultaneously formed using the same photolithographic process steps.
US07750998B2

A liquid crystal display panel is provided with a light-shielding film, and a plurality of subpixels arranged in a matrix. The subpixels each include a first electrode formed on a first substrate, a second electrode formed to be located upper than the first electrode, and a color filter formed on a second substrate. The second electrode has a plurality of linear portions. The subpixels are disposed adjacently along the direction of display lines, and any two of the adjacent subpixels have the same color of color filter. The light-shielding film is formed on the second substrate not to cover the pixel boundary between the two adjacent subpixels but to cover pixel boundaries of the remaining subpixels. The second electrodes of the two adjacent subpixels are formed separately, and assuming that the two adjacent subpixels are first and second subpixels, at least the second electrode of the first subpixel is disposed also to an area of the second subpixel beyond the pixel boundary between the first and second subpixels. Such a configuration favorably increases an aperture ratio of a liquid crystal display device including a color filter.
US07750988B2

A liquid crystal display includes a substrate, a gate line over the substrate, a gate dielectric over the gate line, a first semiconductor feature over the gate dielectric, a first drain electrode and a first data line overlapping with the first semiconductor feature, a pixel electrode connected to the first drain electrode and overlapping with the first data line, and a light blocking film overlapping with the first semiconductor feature and the first data line.
US07750986B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes an upper substrate having an upper director, a lower substrate having a lower director, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. The upper director and the lower director aligning liquid crystals included in a liquid crystal layer to widen a viewing angle of the LCD apparatus. A storage electrode having a shape corresponding to the upper director and the lower director is arranged on the lower substrate so that the liquid crystals are rapidly aligned in a predetermined angle to increase an operating speed of the LCD apparatus.
US07750984B2

Provided is a photoluminescence liquid crystal display (LCD) using a light source emitting polarized light. The photoluminescence LCD may include a light source emitting polarized light, a light control unit including a liquid crystal layer having a plurality of pixel regions and modulating a polarization direction of the polarized light individually with respect to each of the pixel regions, a polarizer transmitting the modulated light only when the polarized light has a polarization direction, and a photoluminescence layer excited by the light transmitted through the polarizer and emitting excitation light by photoluminescence. Accordingly, an additional polarizer may not be on a rear surface of the light control unit, so that photoluminescence LCD may have a simpler structure and increased light use efficiency.
US07750982B2

An autostereoscopic display is described. The autostereoscopic display apparatus includes a backlight having opposing first and second light input surfaces and a light transmission surface extending between the opposing first and second light input surfaces and a right eye light source located to provide light into the first light input side and a left eye light source located to provide light into the second light input side, wherein the left eye light source and the right eye light source are configured to be modulated between the left eye light source and the right eye light source at a rate of at least 90 hertz. A double sided prism film is adjacent to the light transmission surface. The double sided prism film has a plurality of linear prism features on a first major surface and a plurality of lenticular features on a second major surface. The first major surface opposes the second major surface. The double sided prism film is disposed between the light transmission surface and a Fresnel lens element. A liquid crystal display panel is positioned to receive light transmitted through the double sided prism film.
US07750972B2

A digital camera has a signal processor, a high-frequency detector, a sampling processor, and a compression processor. The signal processor generates luminance and color difference data on the basis of image-pixel signals read from an image sensor. The high-frequency detector detects high-frequency components in the color difference data. The sampling processor carries out a sampling process to the luminance and color difference data in accordance with a given ratio of sampling frequencies. Then, the compression processor compresses the sampled luminance and color difference data. When there is a relatively low number of high-frequency components in the color difference data, the sampling processor samples the color difference data with a low sampling frequency.
US07750971B2

A camera sensing device is provided for capturing and manipulating images. The device includes an image sensor configured to capture an image. A card reader includes a first roller assembly and is configured to read a card fed into the first roller assembly. The card has encoded thereon instructions for the manipulation of the captured image. A printed circuit board (PCB) bears a processor configured to manipulate the captured image in accordance with the encoded instructions. A print head unit includes a second roller assembly and includes an ink ejection printhead configured to print the manipulated image on print media fed by the second roller assembly. A media and ink supply is configured to supply ink and print media to the printhead unit.
US07750970B2

The present invention provides a distance-measuring device has an AF area sensor that includes an image pick up element formed on a semiconductor substrate for receiving two images having a parallax therebetween, and a photo reception signal processing circuit formed on the semiconductor substrate for processing signals corresponding to light received by the image pick up element. On the basis of sensor data (outline data) obtained by integration executed in the AF area sensor in an outline detection mode, the distance-measuring device detects a main subject in a photography screen, sets a distance-measuring area including the main subject, and measures a distance to the main subject.
US07750959B2

A method for manufacturing a color image pickup device including a pixel group in which a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric conversion element and a color filter are arranged includes the steps of generating a random array pattern in which color filters of at least one color component are randomly arranged for an arbitrary pixel position, so that the occurrence frequency of color filters of a color component in a region having a predetermined size including the arbitrary pixel position is within a desired error range, generating a regular array pattern in which color filters of at least one color component are regularly arranged, and generating a color filter pattern by compositing in a regular manner the random array pattern generated in the random array generating step and the regular array pattern generated in the regular array generating step.
US07750957B2

A solid-state image sensing apparatus including a solid-state image sensing device and a signal processing circuit. The solid-state image sensing device includes: a vertical transfer unit, composed of transfer columns corresponding to columns of the light-to-electric conversion elements, operable to transfer, in a vertical direction, signal charges read out from the light-to-electric conversion elements; a horizontal transfer unit operable to receive the signal charges from the vertical transfer unit and transfer them in a horizontal direction. The signal processing circuit converts the signal charges from the horizontal transfer unit into pixel data, and rearranges it into a two-dimensional array. In the rearrangement, the signal processing circuit, per transfer of one piece of pixel data, cyclically selects a line memory out of three line memories, writes a piece of pixel data into the selected line memory, or reads a row of pixel data from the selected line memory.
US07750956B2

Described is a device (e.g., a cell phone incorporating a digital camera) that incorporates a graphics processing unit (GPU) to process image data in order to increase the quality of a rendered image. The processing power provided by a GPU means that, for example, an unacceptable pixel value (e.g., a pixel value associated with a malfunctioning or dead detector element) can be identified and replaced with a new value that is determined by averaging other pixel values. Also, for example, the device can be calibrated against benchmark data to generate correction factors for each detector element. The correction factors can be applied to the image data on a per-pixel basis. If the device is also adapted to record and/or play digital audio files, the audio performance of the device can be calibrated to determine correction factors for a range of audio frequencies.
US07750951B2

An image sensor repeatedly receives a light from an object through a lens and generates images of the object. A differential image generating unit generates a differential image from at least two images. A detector detects a change cycle or an intensity of an external light. An evaluation unit evaluates an influence of the external light and derives an optimal timing in which a minimum influence of the external light is attained. A controller controls a timing of receiving the light of the image sensor, depending upon the optimal timing derived by the evaluation unit, and repeatedly synchronizes a term of two timings with the change cycle of the external light by shifting the term into the change cycle by a unit of predetermined phase difference.
US07750949B2

An image device, such as a digital camera, detects specific repeating patterns of signal variations by processing columnar information from the device's two-dimensional sensor array used to generate images. In one embodiment, the columnar information is derived from calculating row averages for two image frames, with each row average being a computed average of the multiple signal intensities generated from some or all of the sensors within a particular row. After the columnar information is determined for each of the two frames, a difference signal is generated as a sequence of the differences between the row averages for the first frame and the row averages for the second frame. This row averaging and frame differencing removes a large percentage of the signal energy that is not a result of the artifact of interest, such as the flicker generated by illumination having intensity fluctuations at 100 Hz or at 120 Hz. In some embodiments of the invention, the row averaging and/or the frame-to-frame comparison are deleted.
US07750948B2

R, G and B signals are output from individual pixels provided at an image-capturing element. Pixel output averages corresponding to the R, G and B signals are calculated for each of partition areas into which the light-receiving surface of the image-capturing element is divided. Ratios of the R and B pixel output averages to the G pixel output average are calculated for each partition area. Then, any area with the ratios of the pixel output averages within a predetermined range is extracted from the plurality of partition areas. R and B white balance gains are calculated based upon the total sums of the pixel output averages corresponding to the individual colors in the extracted area. A white balance adjustment is then executed by multiplying the values of R and B pixel outputs by the corresponding white balance gains.
US07750947B2

Provided is an image sensor that can solve the limitation in expanding an output dynamic range, which is caused when a uniform gain contrast scheme is applied, and prevent the reduction of an input dynamic range, thereby stably adjusting the distribution of image brightness. The image sensor includes a contrast gain adjuster for adjusting a brightness distribution of an image detected from a pixel array by controlling a contrast gain of an inputted pixel data. The contrast gain adjuster calculates a minimum brightness value of a dark region and a maximum brightness value of a bright region from the image brightness distribution, the dark region and the bright region being divided according to a set reference value.
US07750940B2

An update file for updating a program in a camera head is read out of a memory card by using a body central processing unit, and names of a manufacturer, a product type, and a version are extracted. The names acquired from the memory card are compared with names of the manufacturer, the product type, and the version acquired from the camera head. Update data included in the update file are transmitted to a non-volatile memory in the camera head to update the program in the camera head only when the names of the manufacturer and the product type coincide with one another and when the version of the update file is newer than the version of the program in the camera head.
US07750936B2

A surveillance system interface includes a displayed wide-angle image and a contemporaneously displayed narrower-angle image. The interface permits a user to select a view within the wide-angle image to indicate a region of interest. The narrower-angle image may then be made to correspond to the indicated region of interest.
US07750925B2

A signal processing device, signal processing method, and program and recording medium, whereby images and the like closer approximating real world signals can be obtained. The signal processing device includes a movement vector setting unit and a real world estimating unit.
US07750907B2

A method and a system are provided for generating an on-screen display using 3D graphics in devices without a high quality 3D graphics accelerator. 3D graphic images obtained from a 3D graphic image generator are mapped to 2D graphic images, and the mapped 2D graphic images are moved according to 2D motion vectors estimated from 3D motion of a 3D geometric object on a viewport. Accordingly, it is possible to generate and display a 3D graphic on-screen display.
US07750905B2

A method for constructing a triangular mesh surface of a point cloud is disclosed. The method includes: (a) inputting point cloud data; (b) determining a cubical figure that confines the point cloud, mapping a grid on the cubical figure to obtain a plurality of grid squares; (c) acquiring a point that has not constructed any triangle with other points as a first point of a triangle; (d) acquiring the point nearest to the first point in the grid squares surrounding the first point as a second point of the triangle; (e) obtaining a midpoint of the first point and the second point, and constructing a triangle by utilizing the first point, the second point and a point in the grid squares surrounding the midpoint; and (f) repeating from (c) to (e) for each point to construct a triangle, and outputting a triangular mesh surface of the point cloud.
US07750898B2

Apparatus (40) comprising a plurality of output buffers (41.1-41.N) for driving the columns of an LCD panel (46). A bias generator (42) is employed for providing a common biasing current (Ibias) to all output buffers (41.1-41.N). Means (43) provide information regarding the physical position of a dot to be driven on the LCD panel (46) by counting the number of incoming load signals (LD). A switchable current source (42) changes the level of the biasing current (Ibias) according to the physical position.
US07750894B2

A first arithmetic section is provided that calculates a first time, which is a time period from a transmission timing of a ultrasonic wave to a reception recognized timing at which a wave height value of the ultrasonic wave received by an ultrasonic wave receiving section crosses a predetermined threshold for a first predetermined number of times. A second arithmetic section is provided that calculates a second time as the propagation time of the ultrasonic wave, the second time being a time period from the transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave to a reception confirmed timing, which is a timing after the wave height value has crossed the predetermined threshold for a second predetermined number of times and before the wave height value crosses the predetermined threshold again, wherein the second arithmetic means varies the second predetermined number according to the first time. In this way, coordinates of a pointing device employing ultrasonic wave can be obtained with less error variation.
US07750893B2

An input position processing program detects a series of pieces of position data based on input positions outputted from a pointing device, and defines a reference position. When the last piece of position data indicates a point within a defined area other than a reference area, an operation is to be performed determined based on a direction that extends from the reference position to the defined area indicated by the last piece of position data. When an intermediate piece of position data indicates a point within a defined area other than the reference area and the last piece of position data indicates a point within the reference area, the operation to be performed is determined based on the combination of directions representing a reciprocal movement between the reference position and the defined area indicated by the intermediate piece of position data.
US07750887B2

The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software product for increasing a grey dynamic range of a display for displaying video data by providing a grey level, calculated for a reduced number of primary colors using a predetermined criterion, for each field of a frame set by the display by varying an amplitude or a subfield composition of a display driving signal and by varying a fluence of simultaneously lit backlight sources (e.g., LEDs) corresponding to selected two or more primary colors of the display. Thus, grey level resolution of the display can be increased to match the higher grey level resolution of the video data provided to the display.
US07750886B2

Various devices and methods of lighting a display are disclosed. In one embodiment, for example, a display device includes a transmissive display configured to be illuminated through a back surface and a reflective display configured to be illuminated through a front surface. A light source is disposed with respect to the back of the transmissive display to illuminate the transmissive display through the back surface. A light pipe is disposed with respect to the light source to receive light from the light source and is configured to propagate the light such that this light provides front illumination of the reflective display.
US07750883B2

A liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal panel, a gate driver configured to supply gate signals to gate lines on the liquid crystal panel, a data driver configured to supply data voltages to data lines on the liquid crystal panel, and a partial controller configured to control the gate driver to intercept a part of the gate signals to be supplied to the gate lines.
US07750877B2

A display system includes a display apparatus having a liquid crystal display screen of displaying images with memory-type liquid crystal and an image data storing portion of storing image data used for image forming; and an image data supplying apparatus including a transfer section of attaining or preparing image data and transferring the image data to said display apparatus, wherein said transfer section is used for forming images displayed in said liquid crystal display screen and transfers at least one of display image data to be destroyed after the image forming and storage image data to be stored in said image data storing portion as data separate from the other.
US07750875B2

An organic light-emitting diode display device includes a first switch element turned-on in response to a first scanning signal during a first period to supply a data to a first node, and then maintaining an off-state during a second period, a driving device adjusting a current through an organic light-emitting diode element in accordance with a voltage of the first node; a reference voltage source providing a reference voltage that is capable of turning-off the driving device, a second switch element maintaining an off-state during the first period, and turned-on during the second period to supply the reference voltage to the first node, and a storage capacitor maintaining the voltage at the first node.
US07750874B2

An organic electro-luminescence display apparatus including a substrate, data lines and scan lines, a plurality of first, second and third organic electro-luminescence units, at least one first source driver, second source driver and third source driver and a gate driver is provided. Data lines and scan lines are disposed on the substrate to define a plurality of pixel areas. Each first, second, and third organic electro-luminescence unit is disposed in corresponding pixel area. Each first, second, and third organic electro-luminescence unit is electrically connected with one of the data lines and scan lines correspondingly. Each source driver is disposed at one side of the substrate. The data lines electrically connected with the first, second and third organic electro-luminescence units are electrically connected with corresponding source drivers. The gate driver is disposed at another side of the substrate and electrically connected with the scan lines. The luminous efficiency can be enhanced.
US07750872B2

A method for driving a flat-type display device which includes a cathode panel having first electrodes and second electrodes and an anode panel, the cathode panel and the anode panel having spacers is provided. The method includes the steps of: in the non-display operation period of the flat-type display device, determining a normalized first current from a first current by non-display-driving the electron emitter areas near the spacers, and determining a normalized second current from a second current by non-display-driving the electron emitter areas which are not near the spacers; and in the actual display operation period of the flat-type display device, setting the driving conditions for the electron emitter areas on the basis of the normalized first current and normalized second current so that the electron emission conditions in the electron emitter areas near the spacers and not near the spacers are substantially the same.
US07750871B2

An image display method for allowing an image display device having a large number of pixels arrayed in a planar form to perform an image display by forming one field period from plural sub-fields for which luminance weights to be displayed are determined, and choosing plural luminances among displayable luminances as luminances for display by combining the luminance weights of the sub-fields, so that the respective pixels are controlled not to emit light or to emit light in each sub-field correspondingly to the luminances for display to be displayed. At least one threshold value is set, and when a pixel is allowed to emit light at a luminance for display at or higher than a first threshold value, which is the smallest threshold value, the pixel is controlled not to emit light constantly or to emit light constantly in a sub-field having the smallest luminance weight.
US07750867B2

A holding part 50 fixedly holds a shaft 17 included in a smart antenna 10 on a television receiver 20. The smart antenna 10 is held fixedly by the holding part 50. The shaft 17 of the smart antenna 10 is provided with an opening 17a in a part thereof distant from a part thereof held by the holding part 50. A wiring 15a is extended outside from the shaft 17 through the opening 17a and is connected to the television receiver 20.
US07750865B2

In an antenna configuration (4) with two antenna arms (5, 6) arranged in a V-shape, two coupling zones (13, 14) for electrically coupling to respective terminals of an integrated component (15) are provided in the region of the ends (7, 8) of the antenna arms (5, 6) lying close together, wherein each of the two antenna arms (5, 6) in addition comprises a coupling region (20, 21) at a distance from its coupling zone (13, 14), and each coupling region (20, 21) is designed for electrically coupling to a terminal of a further electronic component (22).
US07750862B2

A broadband antenna structure (10) for a transponder of a radio frequency identification system comprises—a loop resonator (12) with a feedpoint (14) for connecting with an electronic circuit (16), and—a dipole resonator (18) electrically connected to the loop resonator (12) and comprising two electrically isolated legs (20, 22).
US07750861B2

The hybrid antenna includes a spiral antenna, e.g. a log spiral antenna, and a patch array layer adjacent to the spiral antenna and including a passive periodic patch array of conductive patch elements. A conductive ground plane may be adjacent to the patch array layer, and a dielectric layer may be between the conductive ground plane and the patch array. The spiral antenna may include an upper antenna arm, a lower antenna arm and a dielectric sheet therebetween. Each of the upper and lower antenna arms may be a printed planar conductive trace that is wider at a distal end thereof with respect to a center of the log spiral antenna. The patch or periodic array layer operates in conjunction with the ground plane to couple energy into the spiral antenna and thereby improve low frequency antenna efficiency while maintaining electrically small dimensions.
US07750859B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus are disclosed for high power thermal vacuum testing of satellite payloads using pick-up horns. Such pick-up horns can include at least one outer metal wall forming a metal body and at least one interior surface disposed in the metal body, forming at least one chamber in the metal body. The pick-up horn further includes a front metal surface disposed at a front end of the metal body, having at least one opening corresponding to the at least one chamber, and at least one high-power absorbing load disposed within the at least one chamber and in contact with the at least one interior surface. A pick-up horn may further include a serpentine coolant path disposed within the metal body between an outer surface of the at least one outer metal wall and the at least one high-power absorbing load. Related systems and methods are described.
US07750857B2

A mobile terminal includes: a terminal casing including a first casing and a second casing combined with the first casing; an external antenna mounted on an external surface of the terminal casing; an internal antenna mounted within the terminal casing; and at least one fastening screw that fastens the first and second casings and electrically connects the external and internal antennas. The size and thickness of the terminal can be reduced.
US07750847B2

A vehicle position detection system is provided to detect a vehicle position with higher accuracy. The vehicle position detection system includes a GPS receiving device mounted on the vehicle to receive GPS signals from a GPS satellite, a light beacon communication device mounted on the vehicle to receive light beacon information from a light beacon arranged in front of an intersection of a road, and a central processing unit mounted on the vehicle to correct a position of the vehicle based on the light beacon information upon reception of the light beacon information by the light beacon communication device.
US07750844B2

The present invention relates to a method of updating the clock bias between the common clock of the satellites of a radio navigation satellite system and the clock of a radio station of an asynchronous cellular radiotelephone system including a mobile device including a radio navigation satellite system receiver for receiving satellite data supplied by at least four satellites and an assistance server for improving the acquisition of satellite data by the mobile device. The method includes the steps of the mobile device receiving the satellite data, the mobile device calculating pseudodistances between itself and the satellites, encapsulating the pseudodistances with the time at which the pseudodistances are calculated, transmitting the pseudodistances and the time at which the pseudodistances are calculated in the form of a radio signal from the mobile device to the assistance server via the radio station, and the assistance server determining the position of the mobile device and estimating the clock bias between the common clock of the satellites and the clock of the radio station using the pseudodistances and the time at which the pseudodistances are calculated.
US07750841B2

Apparatus for determining positional information relating to an object, comprising: means for receiving, comprising a plurality of receiving elements; detection means for detecting signals received at the receiving elements and for generating output signals representative of the received signals; and processing means operable to apply, for each receiving element, a process to the output signal generated from the signal received at that receiving element separately from any output signal generated from a signal received at any other receiving element, so as to obtain a respective value of a parameter representative of the signal received at that receiving element, the processing means being further operable to compare the values of the parameter thus obtained so as to, obtain positional information relating to the object.
US07750833B2

A D/A conversion circuit in accordance with the present invention, which is provided with a switch swD, allows a writing operation of a voltage (a true gradation voltage) to be performed at a higher speed by first applying a first voltage (a voltage close to the true gradation voltage), which is supplied without passing through a resistor element, to an output line and then applying a second voltage (the true gradation voltage), which is supplied via the resistor element, to the output line. Thus, the present invention can provide a D/A conversion circuit capable of writing display data to liquid crystal cells with higher precision at higher speed, and a semiconductor device utilizing such a D/A conversion circuit.
US07750832B2

A cascaded integrator comb filter includes a first integrator that receives an input signal x[n] and provides an integrated signal, and a fractional integrator that also receives the input signal x[n] and provides a fractional integrated signal. A summer sums the integrated signal and the fractional integrated signal and provides a summed signal indicative thereof to a second integrator, which receives and integrates the summed signal to provide a second integrator output signal. A decimator unit receives the second integrator output signal and provides a decimated signal to a differentiator that receives the decimated signal and provides a differentiated signal.
US07750830B2

A calibration device includes a comparison unit, a counting unit, a memory, and a compensation circuit. A residue of a sub analog-to-digital converter is compared with a first and a second voltage by the comparison unit for generating a comparison result. A number of times of the residue voltage, out of bounds defined by the first and the second voltage, is counted by the counting unit in an ith period according to the comparison result. The number of times of the residue voltage out of the bounds in an (i−1)th period is stored in the memory. A clock of the sub ADC is adjusted by the compensation circuit into a direction based on the number of times of the residue voltage out of the bounds in the ith period and the number of times of the residue voltage out of the bounds in the (i−1)th period.
US07750828B2

Systems and methods for encoding and decoding data utilize selective substitution of a conversion table for converting data having a basic data length of m bits into a variable length code (d, k; m, n) having a minimum run of d (d>0), a maximum run length of k and a basic codeword length of n bits, wherein the systems and methods use a basic conversion table and a substitute conversion table for converting the data. The selective substitution of the conversion table in a preferred exemplary embodiment is based on control information of a data string and/or a variable length code string.
US07750827B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide coding techniques which allow for higher efficiency and easier synchronization with coded data. In order to attain the object, a coding device according to the present invention converts 2-bit informational data into 4-bit coded data according to a predetermined coding rule. According to the coding rule employed in the coding device, one of four possible kinds of bit strings of informational data is converted into alternately a bit string of four bits in which each of values of two successive bits is “1” and a bit string of four bits in which each of values of all bits is “0”. Then, the other kinds of bit strings are converted into bit strings of four bits which differ from one another, in each of which a value of only one bit is “1”.
US07750824B2

An optical system for detecting ice and water on the surface of an aircraft includes an elongated transparent optical element having first and second end portions. A light source and light detector are disposed in one end of the optical element and a reflective surface is disposed in the opposite end portion. The reflective surface defines a critical angle and reflects light from the light source to the light detector when the critical angle is in contact with air and refracts the light toward the external environment when the reflective surface is in contact with ice or water. The system may also incorporate an optical element wherein the reflective surface includes a continuous array of convex elements extending outwardly from and across one end of the optical element and wherein each of the convex elements defines a critical angle.
US07750821B1

A message center that can comprise a liquid crystal display (LCD) is provided. The LCD can be divided into one or more zones, with each zone being designated for a specific message. The message center can also include a light guide system positioned behind the liquid crystal display. The light guide system can have one or more light guides, with each of the light guides having a first end, and each of the light guides can be aligned with a zone of the liquid crystal display. The message center can further include a multi-color light emitting diode (LED) that can be mounted at the first end of each of the light guides, and a control system that can set the intensity of each of the multi-colors on each of the LEDs such that a backlighting of each zone is individually controlled.
US07750818B2

A system and method for introducing a substrate into a process chamber is provided. A presence or absence of a substrate on a stage in an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor or a flat panel display may be determined by lift pins used for loading and unloading a substrate, the introduction of another substrate may be prevented and a broken state or the erroneously loaded state of the substrate may be detected. An opening or closing of a gate valve may also be determined, and the introduction of a substrate into the process chamber may be prevented while the gate valve is closed.
US07750810B2

A method system, and device for identification by an identification tag in which a request to a control module of the identification tag is transmitted from an interrogation device via a contactless interface of the identification tag, so that the control module accesses identification data stored in a memory module assigned to the identification tag. The identification data are transmitted via the contactless interface. Body-specific identification data of the wearer are captured and transmitted to a verification module by a measuring device assigned to the identification tag, or a sensor, and/or an analysis device. The transmitted body-specific identification data is compared with the identification data stored in the memory module by the verification module, to confirm the identity of the wearer. The identification tag is injected and/or implanted under the skin of the wearer. The identification tag can be in particular an RFID and/or NFC tag.
US07750809B2

An RF tag includes a sensor for detecting a change in an environment near the RF tag, a storage section for storing identifier information uniquely assigned to each RF tag to identify the RF tag, and a controller for controlling the sensor and the storage section. A reader-writer includes a sensor value requesting section for requesting, with respect to the identifier information, a sensor value detected by the sensor. When the environmental information changes, the reader-writer identifies an object according to the sensor value sent from the RF tag including the identifier information as a response to the reader-writer. It is therefore possible, using an information management system, an information management method, a program, and a recording medium, to recognize an object including a particular tag.
US07750800B2

A patrol system comprises: a computer, a receiving and sending communication device, and a plurality of signal elements. The computer and the receiving and sending communication device are wirelessly connected to each other. The receiving and sending communication device serves to sense the signal elements. The signal elements are disposed at designated patrol locations. When a patrolman with a receiving and sending communication device arrives at a designated patrol location and gives feedback to the computer, the computer will determine next patrol location to be patrolled and inform the patrolman. And thus the patrol route of each patrolman is determined randomly by the computer, so that the thief doesn't know the patrol route. Further, even the patrolman doesn't know the next patrol location to be patrolled, thus preventing the patrolman from colluding with the thief and betraying the patrol route.
US07750799B2

A means for a person in distress to use a mobile device to communicate covertly with an Emergency Response Center is provided. The means contains a response designed not to alert an abductor of the communication as well as to indicate whether the person is indeed in distress. The means also allows the Emergency Response Center to locate both the distressed person and a mobile device using GPS or triangulation. The device may be in regular operation mode or in distress mode. When the device is in the distress mode, it will appear to be in normal operating mode if in operation or it will appear to be off if off. In addition, the device may be used for forensic purposes since it may provide voice and video data of the situation at an emergency location to the Emergency Response Center.
US07750798B2

A wheel position detecting device and a tire air pressure detecting device including the wheel position detecting device are provided. The wheel position detecting device judges whether reception strength data is correct or incorrect based on whether reception strength indicated by the reception strength data (the reception strength data expresses the reception strength of a trigger signal transmitted from a receiver, provided in a vehicle body, to a receiver of a transceiver on each wheel) transmitted back to the vehicle-mounted receiver from each wheel-mounted transceiver is within a range set in advance. A transceiver is provided on each wheel. The wheel position detecting device judges whether to decide the wheel position using the reception data.
US07750797B2

A method of detecting the separation of an electronic module (1) from a vehicle on which the module is mounted. According to this method, the module (1) has associated with it an inductance (17) inseparable from the module, the inductance (17) and the associated module (1) are connected to an element of the vehicle, in the immediate vicinity of an element (18) made of ferromagnetic material, the current passing through the inductance (17) is measured (monitored), so as to detect any variation of current and, when a current variation greater than a predetermined variation threshold is detected, representative of a relative distance between the inductance (17) and the element made of ferromagnetic material (18), there is ordered the emission of a signal indicating the separation of the module (1) associated with the inductance from the vehicle.
US07750796B2

A variably illuminable display is provided for use with a vehicle having a regenerative braking capability with a detectable recharging rate. The display has a variable width, variable color, and variable intensity that are proportionately and continuously variable in response to the detected charging rate. The display is adapted to at least partially circumscribe a circular instrument gauge to thereby form an illuminable halo. A method is also provided for displaying the rate of energy transfer of a regenerative braking system aboard a vehicle, including detecting the recharging rate or rate of energy transfer of the regenerative braking process, communicating the detected recharging rate to a controllable display, and continuously varying at least one of the variable width, variable color, and variable intensity of the controllable display in proportion to the detected rate of energy transfer.
US07750793B2

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for use in an RFID system comprising a plurality of RFID devices and at least one reader which communicates with one or more of the devices. In one aspect of the invention, an identifier transmitted by a given one of the RFID devices is received by a reader or by an associated verifier via the reader. At least first and second codes are determined, by the reader or verifier, with the first code being a valid code for the identifier, and the second code being an invalid code for the identifier. The reader, or verifier via the reader, communicates with the given device to determine if the device is able to confirm that the first code is a valid code and the second code is an invalid code.
US07750778B2

An improved field emission system and method is provided that involves field emission structures having electric or magnetic field sources. The magnitudes, polarities, and positions of the magnetic or electric field sources are configured to have desirable correlation properties, which may be in accordance with a code. The correlation properties correspond to a desired spatial force function where spatial forces between field emission structures correspond to relative alignment, separation distance, and the spatial force function.
US07750776B2

A hollow cylindrically shaped anisotropic bonded magnet for use in a 4-pole motor, is formed by molding anisotropic rare-earth magnet powder with resin. The alignment distribution of the anisotropic rare-earth magnet powder in a cross section perpendicular to the axis of the anisotropic bonded magnet is in the normalized direction of the cylindrical side of the hollow cylindrical shape in the main region of a polar period, and in a transition region in which the direction of the magnetic pole changes, steadily points towards a direction tangential to the periphery of the cylindrical side at points closer to the neutral point of the magnetic pole, and becomes a direction tangential to the periphery of the cylindrical side at that neutral point, and steadily points toward the normalized direction of the cylindrical side at points farther away from the neutral point.
US07750775B2

A control unit includes a plurality of electronic components; and at least two metal busbars disposed along each other. Each of the at least two metal busbars establishes an electrical connection between the electronic components and includes a magnetic-material portion. The at least two metal busbars are arranged to cause the magnetic-material portion of one of the at least two metal busbars to have magnetic poles generating a magnetic force substantially in the same direction as that of the magnetic-material portion of another of the at least two metal busbars which is adjacent to the magnetic-material portion of the one of the at least two metal busbars.
US07750767B2

A micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) device is provided. The MEMS device includes: a stage which operates in a vibration mode; an axle which supports the stage and allows rotation of the stage; and a capacitive sensor which detects rotation of the stage. The capacitive sensor includes: a sensing arm which extends from the stage; driving combs which extend from the sensing arm and rotated together with the stage; fixed combs which are fixedly supported for engagement with the driving combs, the fixed combs including surfaces overlapping opposite surfaces of the driving combs in accordance with the rotation of the driving combs; and a capacitance sensing portion which detects a capacitance change of the driving combs and the fixed combs. Therefore, the MEMS device performs precise scanning by structurally preventing deformation of the stage having a light reflecting surface.
US07750763B2

An improved 90° waveguide bend has the following features: the waveguide bend has two waveguide connectors located perpendicularly to each other, the waveguide connectors have a square internal cross section having an edge length (a), between the two waveguide connectors there is provided an angular portion producing the 90° change in direction, the angular portion has externally to the 90° change in direction a chamfer as a delimiting wall for the waveguide bend, the waveguide channel being outwardly delimited by the chamfer, and the chamfer has in the plane of curvature a length corresponding to the edge length (a) of the waveguide connectors which are square in cross section, ±less than 0.5%.
US07750756B2

The present invention has for its object to provide a matching circuit with multiband capability which can be reduced in size, even if the number of handled frequency bands rises. The matching circuit of the present invention comprises a load having frequency-dependent characteristics, a first matching block connected with one end to the load with frequency-dependent characteristics, and a second matching block formed by lumped elements connected in series to the first matching block. And then, when a certain frequency band is used, matching is obtained with the series impedance of the first matching block and the second matching block. When a separate frequency band is used, a π-type circuit is constituted by connecting auxiliary matching blocks to both sides of the second matching block. Next, at the same frequency, by taking the combined impedance of this π-type circuit and a load whose characteristics do not depend on the frequency to be Z0, the influence of the second matching block is removed.
US07750755B2

A transmission line transition for coupling electromagnetic energy between different transmission lines includes first and second dielectric substrates laminated to each other and a waveguide tube attached to the first dielectric substrate. The laminated dielectric substrate provides a dielectric waveguide having a first end short-circuited and a second end communicating with a hollow interior of the waveguide tube. An antenna connected to a planar line is disposed in the dielectric waveguide and spaced from the short-circuited end of the dielectric waveguide by a predetermined distance in a longitudinal direction of the waveguide tube to excite and to be excited by the waveguide tube. The dielectric waveguide has a cross-sectional area smaller than that of the interior of the waveguide tube and coincides with the interior of the waveguide tube in the longitudinal direction.
US07750743B2

A compensating quantity-providing circuit includes a frequency signal generator having an output for a frequency signal the frequency of which depends on mechanical stress in a circuit, and a compensating quantity provider having an input for the frequency signal and an output for a compensating quantity which is based on the frequency signal.
US07750740B2

There are included a Wilkinson divider/combiner dividing an input signal, amplifying elements amplifying outputs of the Wilkinson divider/combiner, and a Wilkinson divider/combiner combining outputs of respective amplifying elements. A variable capacitor element is connected to a branch point of a signal transmission path in the Wilkinson divider/combiner. A capacitance value of the variable capacitor element is controlled in correspondence with a frequency of an input signal, whereby a matching frequency is corrected to increase an operating frequency band.
US07750738B2

An integrated circuit includes a first, diode-connected MOSFET and a second, linearly operated MOSFET serving as resistor. A current source may provide a current such that the second MOSFET shows a transconductance constant over temperature and process variations. In one embodiment the MOSFET devices are included in a variable gain amplifier for adjusting the gain.
US07750724B2

A temperature and process-stable magnetic field sensor bias current source provides improved performance in Hall effect sensor circuits. A switched-capacitor sensing element is used to sense either a reference current or the bias current directly. A current mirror may be used to generate the bias current from the reference current, and may include multiple current source transistors coupled through corresponding control transistors that are switched using a barrel shifter to reduce variations in the bias current due to process variation. The current mirror control may be provided via a chopper amplifier to reduce flicker noise and the current mirror control voltage may be held using a track/hold circuit during transitions of the chopper amplifier to further reduce noise due to the chopping action.
US07750721B2

A reference current circuit has an input configured to receive an input current, a first transistor, a second transistor, and an output configured to provide a reference current. The input is directly connected to a control input of the second transistor and a first terminal of the first transistor, and is connected via a first resistor to a control input of the first transistor. The output is connected to a first terminal of the second transistor. A reference node is connected via a second resistor to the control input of the first transistor, directly to a second terminal of the first transistor and via a third resistor to a second terminal of the second transistor.
US07750718B2

A level shifter removes delay, which is generated at the time of transition of an input signal level, by adjusting a size of NMOS transistors to perform pull-down and pull-up operations. The level shifter includes a coupling unit for setting up a voltage level of a first node according to a voltage level of an input signal, a first buffer for transferring an output signal by buffering a signal from the first node, and a driving unit configured to receive the input signal and the output signal and drive the first node.
US07750716B2

A variable resistor formed on a silicon substrate, and changing a resistance value between an input terminal and an output terminal, includes a plurality of first resistors each having one end connected in common to the input terminal, and each having other end, a plurality of second resistors each having a resistance value smaller than the first resistors, and each having one end connected to the other end of any one of the first resistors, and a switch group interposed between the input terminal and the output terminal, and selecting one from the first resistors, and further, selecting at least one from the second resistors connected to the other end of the selected first resistor.
US07750713B2

A spread spectrum clock generator for sequentially modulating a source clock of a fixed frequency with a predetermined frequency range, including: a plurality of first loading units configured to delay clock edges of the source clock by a delay time corresponding to the number of unit delay steps determined by delay step control signals, wherein each of the first loading units comprises a plurality of second loading units each of which is configured to vary a delay value of each unit delay step by changing an inner interconnection configuration thereof in response to unit delay step control signals.
US07750712B2

A timing control circuit DLY1 receives clock signal CKa with period T1 and activation signal ACT and outputs fine timing signal FT with delay of m*T1+tda measured from the clock signal where m denotes a non-negative integer and tda denotes delay in the analog delay element. The timing control circuit DLY1 comprises a coarse delay circuit CD and a fine delay circuit FD. The coarse delay circuit CD comprises a counter for counting a rising edge of the clock signal CKa after receiving activation signal ACT and outputs coarse timing signal CT with delay of m*T1 measured from a rising edge of the clock signal CKa. The fine delay circuit FD comprises a plurality of analog delay elements and outputs fine delay timing signal FT with delay of tda measured from the coarse timing signal CT. Variation in delay of timing signal is reduced.
US07750710B2

A delay circuit has a second delay element 8 supplied with a delay time control signal Vcntl from a frequency variable oscillator 2 including a first delay element 8 of which delay time as a concomitant of signal propagation is controlled by a delay time control signal and a phase inverting element 9 inverting a phase of the signal, and an adjusting element 10, connected in series to the second delay element 8, to which the signal is propagated, wherein a total of the delay time of the second delay element 8 and the delay time of the adjusting element 10 is adjusted.
US07750701B2

Circuits and methods are provided in which fine tuning control of a DCO (digitally controlled oscillator) circuit in a digital PLL circuit is realized by dither controlling a multiplexer circuit under digital control to selectively output one of a plurality of analog control voltages with varied voltage levels that are input to a fractional frequency control port of the DCO to drive tuning elements of the DCO at fractional frequency resolution and achieve continuous fine tuning of the DCO under analog control.
US07750694B1

Circuits and methods for controlling a Power On Reset (POR) circuit in an Integrated Circuit (IC) are presented. In one embodiment, a circuit includes a fuse, test POR override circuitry, and latch enable circuitry. The test POR override circuitry is in electrical communication with the fuse and includes a latch. The output of the test POR override circuitry is selectable between a test POR signal and a first logic value based on the output of the latch. The latch enable circuitry, in communication with the test POR override circuitry, is configured to enable the loading of the latch with the first logic value when the fuse has been programmed and with a second logic value otherwise. In addition, the output of the test POR override circuitry and the output of the POR circuit are gated to generate a POR signal. Where the test POR override circuitry is enabled before the fuse is programmed to allow the testing of the IC during manufacturing. Once the fuse is programmed, the test POR override circuitry is disabled to protect the IC from outside access to the SRAM configuration using the test POR override circuitry.
US07750690B2

An output stage may include an input terminal receiving an input signal, an output terminal coupled to an external load, and a pre-buffer coupled to the input terminal and including an enable terminal receiving a general enable signal and a first output terminal for supplying a first control signal. The output stage may also include an output buffer including a first final transistor inserted between the supply terminal and the output terminal, and a control terminal coupled to the first output terminal of the pre-buffer for receiving the first control signal, and a first tracking circuit between the supply terminal and the first output terminal of the pre-buffer. The first tracking circuit may include a first capacitor between the supply terminal and a first intermediate node coupled to the first output terminal of the pre-buffer by a switch activated by a first activation signal during a transient of the first final transistor thereby reconstructing a noise of the first reference voltage.
US07750689B1

The present invention discloses a high voltage switching module having reduced stress at its driver output stage which in turn controls the gate of a transistor requiring a high current drive. The switching module includes a negative elevating circuit, a delay module, a pull-up circuit, and a pull down circuit. The negative elevating circuit senses a transition of a logic input signal to generate a control signal. The first pull-up circuit is operatively coupled to this control signal for switching the driver output from a negative voltage to a ground voltage. There is an additional delay module which is configured to provide a delay in the logic input signal. This delayed logic input signal is operatively coupled to the second pull-up stage which takes the output of the driver from GND to VDD. The pull-down circuit is operatively coupled to the negative elevator for controlling a voltage at the driver output to the negative level. The module further comprises a switching circuit that is operatively coupled to the driver output for controlling the passing of a high voltage with high current requirements.
US07750678B2

A nonvolatile programmable logic circuit using a ferroelectric memory performs a nonvolatile memory function and an operation function without additional memory devices, thereby reducing power consumption. Also, a nonvolatile ferroelectric memory is applied to a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), thereby preventing leakage of internal data and reducing the area of a chip.
US07750676B2

An embedded system having a programmable logic circuit, a plurality of storage devices each storing configuration data defining circuit information of the logic circuit, a setting information storage storing setting information including information of a storage device storing the configuration data and a controller selecting one of the plurality of storage devices based on the setting information and incorporating circuit information defined by configuration data stored in the selected storage device into the logic circuit.
US07750666B2

A reduced power differential type termination circuit for use in SSTL, HSTL and other transmission line systems reduces power consumption. A differential type termination circuit may comprise first and second nodes for coupling, respectively, to first and second transmission lines; a first impedance coupled between the first transmission line and a third node; a second impedance coupled between the second transmission line and the third node; and a low direct current reference voltage generator for generating a reference voltage applied to the third node. The first and second transmission lines may transmit complimentary signals. The first and second impedances may be symmetric or asymmetric. The first impedance may match the second impedance. The first and second impedances may, respectively, match the impedances of the first and second transmission lines. The first and/or second impedances may include a bidirectional switch, such as a transmission gate, to enable and disable the termination circuit.
US07750661B2

A method of testing a liquid crystal display includes the steps of forming a plurality of chip positioning areas with a plurality of data connecting ends on a glass substrate, forming a plurality of data wires between two adjacent chip positioning areas which are linked to the plurality of data connecting ends of the two adjacent chip positioning areas, forming a testing circuit on each chip positioning area, which is linked to a predetermined amount of data connecting ends, and probing two testing circuits of two chip positioning areas to obtain an electrical parameter.
US07750657B2

A polishing head is tested in a test station having a pedestal for supporting a test wafer and a controllable pedestal actuator to move a pedestal central wafer support surface and a test wafer toward the polishing head. In another aspect of the present description, the test wafer may be positioned using a positioner having a first plurality of test wafer engagement members positioned around the pedestal central wafer support surface. In another aspect, the wafer position may have a second plurality of test wafer engagement members positioned around an outer wafer support surface disposed around the pedestal central wafer support surface and adapted to support a test wafer. The second plurality of test wafer engagement members may be distributed about a second circumference of the ring member, the second circumference having a wider diameter than the first circumference. Additional embodiments and aspects are described and claimed.
US07750651B2

A probe card for wafer level testing of a plurality of semiconductor devices simultaneously. The probe card may include a circuit board including wafer level testing circuitry, a partially flexible silicon substrate, a plurality of test probes disposed at least partially in the substrate for engaging a plurality of corresponding electrical contacts in a wafer under test, and a compressible underfill coupling the substrate to the circuit board. The probe card may be used for wafer level burn-in testing. In some embodiments, the probe card may include active test control circuitry embedded in the silicon substrate for conducting wafer level high frequency testing.
US07750648B2

A method of estimating an inductance delay includes determining a resistance-capacitance (RC) delay with resistances and capacitances of a network and estimating an inductance delay of the network by determining a propagation delay of an electromagnetic (EM) field across wires of the network. Additionally, the method includes determining if the RC delay is below a specified threshold and adding the estimated inductance delay to the RC delay to determine a total time to propagate voltage swings through the network if the RC delay is below the specified threshold.
US07750642B2

A magnetic flowmeter is provided including a magnetic flowtube arranged to receive a flow of process fluid. The magnetic flowtube includes a drive coil and at least one sense electrode. Measurement circuitry is coupled to the flowtube and is configured to provide a drive signal to the drive coil and measure flow of process fluid through the flow tube based upon an output from the sense electrode. A memory contains a stored value related to a nominal parameter of the flowtube. Verification circuitry is arranged to measure a parameter of the magnetic flowtube and responsively provide a verification output related to operation of the magnetic flowmeter based upon a comparison of the measured parameter and the stored value.
US07750640B2

Error in an electromotive force Ve of a secondary battery calculated on the basis of a polarized voltage Vp is reduced. A polarized voltage computing section acquires multiple data pairs of a current I flowing to the secondary battery and a terminal voltage V of the secondary battery with respect to the current I, calculates an integrated capacity Q by integrating the acquired current I over a predetermined period, computes the polarized voltage Vp of the secondary battery on the basis of the integrated capacity Q, a no-load voltage computing section computes a no-load voltage V0 on the basis of multiple data pairs, a subtracter computes the electromotive force Ve of the secondary battery by subtracting the polarized voltage Vp from the no-load voltage V0, an electromotive force correcting section performs correction with respect to a presently computed electromotive force Ve so that a change amount between a previously computed electromotive force Veb and the presently computed electromotive force Ve does not exceed a predetermined limiting value Vt, and an SOC estimating section estimates the state of charge of the secondary battery on the basis of the post-correction electromotive force Ve′.
US07750636B2

In NMR system, for preventing a temperature gradient which causes a decrease in S/N ratio from being created in a sample area while suppressing deterioration in homogeneity of a magnetic field, a thermal conductor having high thermal conductivity is disposed in a room-temperature shim coil. The thermal conductor is provided as a coil bobbin, the temperature of the thermal conductor being controlled by a temperature controller using a heat exchanger. Temperature control gas, which is adjusted to a temperature equal to that of the room-temperature shim coil, is fed from the downside of a sample tube, and it is possible to suppress a temperature gradient from being created in a sample area. According to the present invention, since the temperature distribution can be made to be uniform so as to avoid creating a temperature gradient in the sample area while suppressing deterioration of homogeneity in the magnetic field, the NMR spectrum is sharpened so as to improve the S/N ratio.
US07750633B2

A method and system of magnetic resonance imaging does not need a large homogenous field to truncate a gradient field. Spatial information is encoded into the spin magnetization by allowing the magnetization to evolve in a non-truncated gradient field and inducing a set of 180 degree rotations prior to signal acquisition.
US07750631B2

A passenger inspection system includes a metal detection sensor integrated with a quadrupole resonance sensor and configured to detect weapons and/or explosives that may be present proximate the feet and/or lower legs of a person. Additionally, a weapons detection sensor may include one or more pairs of transmit coils and receive coils that are vertically mounted to the interior sidewalls of the passenger inspection system and configured to detect symmetrical and nonsymmetrical threats present on a portion of a person's legs. Methods for operating embodiments of the passenger inspection system are also disclosed.
US07750627B2

A magnetic film sensor comprises a magnetic film for generating a magnetostriction, and a magnetostrictive structure for generating a magnetostriction in the magnetic film. The magnetostrictive structure is constructed so as to generate a magnetostriction by curving the magnetic film, for example. The magnetostrictive structure is obtained, for example, by providing a depressed insulating layer having a surface formed with a depression and forming the magnetic film across the depression.
US07750618B1

A test circuit determines whether a frequency of an output clock signal of a clock circuit is above an output threshold frequency. An input clock signal of the clock circuit is set to an elevated frequency that is higher than a specified frequency. A first counter counts the number of clock cycles of the input clock signal in a test interval to within a tolerance of the elevated frequency. The tolerance of the elevated frequency is higher than a tolerance of the specified frequency. A second counter counts the number of clock cycles of a feedback clock signal in the test interval. A comparator determines whether the frequency of the output clock signal is above the output threshold frequency based on the number of clock cycles of the input clock signal and the number of clock cycles of the feedback clock signal.
US07750617B2

A switching regulator (20) includes a sense resistor (Rs), a sense current generating circuit (213) for generating a sense current (Isense) commensurate with a sense voltage (Vsense), a slope current generating circuit (214) for generating a slope current (Islope) with a ramped or triangular waveform, a slope voltage generating circuit (215) for generating a slope voltage (Vslope) commensurate with a summed current (Isense plus Islope), an error amplifier (ERR) for generating an error voltage (Verr) commensurate with an error of an output, a comparator (CMP) for comparing the error voltage (Verr) with the slope voltage (Vslope) to generate a PWM signal and a switching control section (CTRL) for turning on and off an output transistor (N1) based on the PWM signal.
US07750615B2

The present invention relates to a converter and a driving method thereof. The converter uses an input voltage to generate an output voltage by a main switch's switching and applies power to a load, senses the current flowing to the main switch to generate a sense voltage, uses a first voltage corresponding to the current applied to the load and a sawtooth waveform signal having a first frequency to control a group frequency of the burst mode, controls the main switch's turn-on timing, and uses the first voltage and the sense voltage to determine whether to turn off the main switch, thereby controlling the main switch's switching. The converter determines the start and end of the period for switching according to the result of comparing the first voltage and the sawtooth waveform signal. Therefore, a converter for having a constant group frequency, preventing audible noise, and preventing output voltage ripple, and a driving method thereof, are provided.
US07750603B2

A regenerative agent for lead battery cells includes, for each liter of aqueous solution 40% of hydrogen peroxide, 1 ml to 70 ml of sulfuric acid with a density of 1 to 1.32 g·cm−3, 0.1 g to 10 g of saccharides in solids and/or aldehydes or their derivatives, 0.1 g to 10 g of sodium and/or potassium bicarbonate and/or at least one hydroxide from the group of alkali metal hydroxides in solids and 0.1 g to 20 g, with an advantage 0.5 g to 2 g, of bisodium dinaphthylmethane disulfonic acid salt. The regenerative agent can also contain 0.1 g to 10 g of peroxoborate an/or tetraborate and/or sodium pyrophosphate in solids.
US07750594B2

An electrical machine, such as a switched reluctance motor, has a rotor and at least one electrically energizable phase winding. A control map is derived during production that includes a predetermined advance angle profile representing the energization of the phase winding with respect to the angular position of the rotor over a range of rotor speeds. This is stored in memory in a controller together with an angle correction factor to be applied to a predetermined portion of the advance angle profile. The angle correction factor compensates for the difference between a desired input power and the measured input power. The correction factor may be transmitted to the controller by means of radio frequency signals.
US07750580B2

A ballast for operating a compact fluorescent lamp includes a power factor correction circuit and an energy storage capacitor coupled to the output thereof. The power factor correction circuit is configured to draw current from an AC power source during substantially more than half of the cycle of the input AC voltage waveform; i.e., when operated such that full power is supplied to the lamp. Energy transfer elements in the power factor correction circuit extract energy from the AC power source via an input rectifier, even when the peak voltage of the AC voltage waveform is substantially lower than the voltage of the energy storage capacitor, and transfer the energy to the energy storage capacitor a sufficient number of times during for each cycle of the input AC voltage waveform (e.g., at least 500 times for each full cycle of a 60 Hz input AC voltage waveform for a lamp operated at a frequency of 30 kHz), such that the energy storage capacitor remains substantially fully charged during steady-state ballast operation. The power factor circuit additionally provides for improved dimming capability, specifically, dimming the discharge to low levels, while maintaining steady, non-flickering operation.
US07750579B2

In a device for driving LEDs with variable light intensity, a supply stage has a first operating mode, in which a controlled supply current is generated, and a second operating mode, in which a controlled supply voltage is generated. A LED is connected to the supply stage, receives the controlled supply current or voltage, and has a turning-on threshold voltage higher than the controlled supply voltage. A current sensor generates a current-feedback signal that is correlated to the current flowing in the LED and is supplied to the supply stage in the first operating mode. An intensity-control stage generates a mode-control signal that is sent to the supply stage and controls sequential switching between the first and the second operating modes of the supply stage.
US07750573B2

The invention consists, generally, of a method for automatically reducing power to an electron emitting cathode by sensing an operating condition of the electron emitting cathode, calculating a condition number based upon the operating condition, comparing the condition number to a threshold value, and reducing the power to the electron emitting cathode when the condition number is greater than the threshold. The apparatus and method may be implemented upon a system having a high voltage power source, an RF tube, a control processor, and a signal processor.
US07750552B2

The present invention provides a lightweight, thin light-emitting device having a new structure which has a plurality of display screens. Further, the invention provides a dual emission type display device which can perform a pure black display and can achieve high contrast. According to the invention, at least, both electrodes of a light-emitting element (an anode and a cathode of a light-emitting element) are highly light-transmitting at the same level, and a polarizing plate or a circularly polarizing plate is provided, thereby conducting a pure black display that is a state of no light-emission and enhancing the contrast. Moreover, unevenness of color tones in displays of the both sides, which is a problem of a full-color dual emission type display device structure, can be solved according to the invention.
US07750549B2

A field emission lamp (30) includes a tube (31) having a closed end and an open end, an encapsulation board (38) mated with the open end, an anode layer (32) formed on an inner surface, a fluorescence layer (33) formed on the anode layer, a cathode down-lead pole (342) located at the encapsulation board, a cathode fixing pole (341) located at the closed end, a cathode filament (34) having a carbon nanotube layer formed on a surface thereof fixed between the cathode down-lead pole and the cathode fixing pole, an anode down-lead ring (321) located at the anode layer near the open end, and an anode down-lead pole (322) located at the encapsulation board and electrically connected with the anode down-lead ring. The field emission lamp has a simple structure, thereby having an enhanced production rate and a reduced cost.
US07750541B2

A piezoelectric ceramic whose resonance frequency temperature characteristic can be easily adjusted is provided. It contains first and second parts (11 and 12) which can be alternately stacked layers. The first and second parts (11 and 12) are each composed of a compound having a bismuth layer structure, such as a complex oxide containing at least Sr, Bi, and Nb, and have degrees of c-axis orientation different from each other. Since the resonance frequency temperature characteristics change according to the degree of orientation, the first and second parts (11 and 12) having different degrees of orientation are appropriately combined so that the resonance frequency temperature characteristics of the piezoelectric ceramic (2) as a whole is easily adjusted.
US07750538B2

A piezoelectric actuator for use in a fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine, the actuator comprising a stack of ferroelectric layers; an encapsulation for protecting the stack from the ingress of liquid; and oxygenation means for providing oxygen to the ferroelectric layers, the means positioned between the encapsulation and stack. The oxygenation means is preferably impregnated in a fabric which forms a layer between the encapsulation and the stack.
US07750529B2

A pump is driven by a compact electric motor in which a coil is disposed in a ring form around and along a stator core which has a plurality of claw magnetic poles that extend alternately from both ends of one member of the stator core toward the end of the other member thereof. A stator core can be made from a compressed powder core by molding with resin, with the molded portion able to serve as a partition separating pump and motor units.
US07750528B2

An actuator includes: a coil for excitation; a rotor rotatably supported; a stator effecting a magnetic force on the rotor for rotation, the stator having first and second leg portions arranged side by side; and first and second coil frames each having a body portion and a pair of flange portions provided at an end of the body portion. The first coil frame is assembled onto the first leg portion. The second coil frame is assembled onto the second leg portion. The first and second coil frames are connected via a connecting portion bendable. The body portions are arranged not to be sandwiched between the first and second leg portions. Each of the body portions covers a halfway or less of each of peripheral surfaces of the first and second leg portions of the stator.
US07750519B2

A hydrodynamic bearing device is provided for a spindle motor used in a hard disk drive or the like with a good state of fastening and good fastening strength between a shaft and a fixed member. The hydrodynamic bearing device includes a shaft that has a cylindrical main shaft portion and a fixing portion provided at one end of the main shaft portion, a sleeve that has a bearing hole in which the main shaft portion is inserted in a rotatable state, and a fixed member that is fixed to the fixing portion of the shaft. A nitride layer is formed on the main shaft portion, and a nitride layer non-forming film is formed on the fixing portion.
US07750515B1

A non-ventilated motor-generator includes a rotor supported for rotation on bearings inside a closed metal housing. The rotor is constructed of two spaced apart rotor sections having permanent magnets that drive magnetic flux across an air gap between the rotor sections. An air core armature in the air gap has windings in a non-magnetic structure that is structurally coupled to the housing. The armature is thinner than the armature air gap and is positioned such that there is a physical air gap on each side of the armature. The rotor has air flow passages through which air is induced to flow, in operation, in a polloidal loop that includes a portion that passes through the armature air gap, picking up heat from the armature, and a portion that is in contact with the inside of the motor-generator housing where the heat is transferred to the housing and dissipated to the atmosphere.
US07750513B2

The invention relates to a linear motor and in particular a primary part of the linear motor for the movement of a secondary part, with a plurality of coils for inducing a magnetic field transmitting force along an axis between the primary part and the secondary part and with teeth, which are made from a magnetizable material, are arranged between adjacent coils and have a base section remote from the axis and an end section facing the axis, the teeth on the end section being wider than on the base section. In order to provide a primary part or a linear motor which also allow for high force densities given a compact design, the coils also extend in the interspace between the end sections of adjacent teeth so as to increase the magnetic flux density.
US07750510B2

An electronic device includes a substantially planar face, a switch and a switch actuation mechanism. The switch is configured such that successive actuations of the switch actuates the device between a first state and a second state. The switch actuation mechanism is configured to actuate the switch a first time in response to a first input along the face and a second time in response to a second input along the face. The second input has at least one characteristic, other than time at which it is performed, distinct from the first input.
US07750509B2

Disclosed is an apparatus for selectively permitting electricity to flow to a power tool having a power cord. The apparatus comprises a body having an exterior surface and having a passage therethrough. The passage contains an electrical relay having an electrical input side and an electrical output side. A switch on the exterior surface of the body selectively closes the electrical relay upon activation by a user. A mounting portion on the body is adapted for securing the body to the power tool and a power receiving portion in the body receives the power cord of the power tool. The mounting portion has transfer wires associated therewith in electrical connection between the output side of the relay and a power switch of the power tool. The power cord is in electrical connection with the electrical input side of the relay.
US07750508B2

A contactless power transferring apparatus includes a terminal loading portion, a primary coil, an up-down-direction pressing portion, a width direction pressing portion and a thickness direction pressing portion. The terminal loading portion has an opening through which a mobile terminal is inserted and loaded. The primary coil transfers power using electromagnetic induction to a secondary coil incorporated in the mobile terminal. When the mobile terminal is inserted inside the terminal loading portion, the pressing portions operate in an up-down direction, in a left-right direction and in a width direction, to press and support the mobile terminal respectively from below to position the coils in the up-down direction, from the width direction to position the coils in the left-right direction and from the thickness direction to dispose the coils a predetermined distance apart.
US07750505B2

A maximum value selection unit (50) receives battery voltage values (Vb1, Vb2) and outputs the maximum value thereof to a lower limit value limiting unit (54). A maximum value selection unit (52) receives required voltage values (Vm1*, Vm2*) and outputs the maximum value thereof to the lower limit value limiting unit (54). The lower limit value limiting unit (54) outputs a voltage reference value (Vh*) by limiting the value so as not to fall below an output value of the maximum value selection unit (50). Switching commands (PWC1, PWC2) are generated based on a control computation using a combination of a voltage feedback control element and a voltage feedforward element, and a control computation using a combination of a current feedback control element and a voltage feedforward element, respectively.
US07750504B2

A power supplying apparatus supplying power to a predetermined system unit is provided with a power selecting unit which is directly connected to the system part, to select one of a plurality of inputs of power and output a selected power to the system unit; and a controller which is provided outside a power supplying path between the power selecting unit and the system unit, to control the power selecting unit to selectively output the power selected by the power selecting unit to the system unit according to a power switching signal.
US07750502B1

A portable, weather resistant flow control system with a flow controller contained within an enclosure that includes a rigid body preventing deformation of the enclosure during transport and a door with a seal providing proving protection from harsh weather and environmental conditions, where the system includes a power charger for powering a remote terminal, a wireless communication unit, and back up batteries.
US07750498B2

An adaptive power management system includes a number of load devices, including a burst load device operable with a time-varying load having a controllable duty cycle. A shared power source supplies power to the load devices. The system adaptively determines a power allocation for the burst load device based on operational requirements of the load devices, and the maximum power supplied to the burst load device is limited to a selected power level based on the determined power allocation. A power storage module stores power supplied by the shared power source and supplies sufficient power to permit the burst load device to operate during burst periods with a peak power that exceeds the average power supplied to the power storage module. The duty cycle of the burst periods of the burst load device is controlled to maintain the power stored by the power storage module above a desired level.
US07750494B1

Systems and methods for producing hydrocarbons from wind energy, water, and air comprising a power system, wind turbine, and electrical generator; the system further comprises a water purifier comprising a conduit and vacuum device for flash distillation; the system further includes a hydrocarbon processor, which comprises a carbon dioxide interface, and electrolyzer, a reverse water gas shift reactor, and an ethanation reactor; alternatively the hydrocarbon processor may include a cyanobacteria cultivator a solution optimizer and a catalyzer; also included is a method for producing purified water using vegetation in a floatable craft; also disclosed is a synthetic fuel process consisting of a translucent closed tank for producing algae and a protein separator for dewatering algae; methods relating to production and drawing of algae to produce methane and other hydrocarbon promoters; also disclosed is a energy producing rainkine-cycle engine device for storing concentrated solar energy.
US07750493B2

Slip ring assemblies for controlling pitch of a wind driven blade such as those utilized in wind turbines can include a series of grooves disposed about an outer perimeter of a rotating portion, each one of the grooves comprising a first planar surface intersecting with a second planar surface at an angle of 75 to 105 degrees, and a concavely rounded bottom portion at the intersection of the first and planar surfaces. The rotating portion of the slip ring can be formed of a bronze material and may include a graphite coating. Also disclosed herein are wind turbine assemblies employing the slip ring assemblies.
US07750484B2

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device in which a semiconductor element 10 is mounted on a substrate 20 through a flip-chip connection, includes the steps of cladding gallium as a bonding material 30 to a connecting pad 22 formed on a surface of the substrate 20, diffusing copper from the connecting pad 22 formed of the copper into the bonding material 30 through heating under vacuum, thereby bringing a state of a solid solution of the gallium and the copper, and aligning a connecting bump 12 formed on the semiconductor element 10 with the connecting pad 22 and bonding the connecting bump 12 to the connecting pad 22 through the bonding material 30 in a state of a solid solution under heating.
US07750480B2

The semiconductor device according to the present invention includes: a first wire made of a material mainly composed of Cu; a second wire made of a material mainly composed of Cu; an interlayer dielectric film formed between the first wire and the second wire; a via, made of a material mainly composed of Cu, penetrating through the intermediate dielectric film to be connected to the first wire and the second wire; and a dummy via, made of a material mainly composed of Cu, smaller in via diameter than the via and connected to the first wire while not contributing to electrical connection between the first wire and the second wire.
US07750477B2

Devices with conductive through-wafer vias. In one embodiment, the device is formed by a method comprising providing a layer of semiconducting material, forming a layer of metal on a first side of the layer of semiconducting material, forming an opening in the layer of semiconducting material to thereby expose a portion of the layer of metal, the opening extending from at least a second side of the layer of semiconducting material to the layer of metal, and performing a deposition process to form a conductive contact in the opening using the exposed portion of the metal layer as a seed layer.
US07750474B1

Some of the embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated circuit device including a first metal interconnect, an end of which is coupled to a core of the integrated circuit device, a second metal interconnect, an end of which is coupled to a first input/output (I/O) pin, and a third metal interconnect configured to be coupled to the first metal interconnect and to the second metal interconnect. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07750457B2

A semiconductor apparatus of the present invention includes: (i) a wire substrate having an insulating substrate in which a plurality of wire patterns are provided, (ii) a semiconductor element installed on the wire substrate with the insulating resin interposed therebetween, and a plurality of connecting terminals provided in the semiconductor element are electrically connected to connecting terminals of the wire patterns, respectively. In the semiconductor apparatus, the insulating substrate has mark patterns for alignment of the connecting terminals of the semiconductor element and the connecting terminals of the wire patterns, and an entire upper face of each of the mark patterns is covered with the insulating resin.
US07750454B2

A stacked integrated circuit package system includes: providing a base integrated circuit package having a base encapsulation with a cavity therein and a base interposer exposed by the cavity; mounting an intermediate integrated circuit package over the base interposer, and mounting a top integrated circuit package over the intermediate integrated circuit package.
US07750453B2

A semiconductor device package includes a semiconductor chip having bonding pads; a printed circuit board (PCB) including an insulation pattern with a groove and bonding electrodes corresponding to the bonding pads, the groove corresponding to the edge of the semiconductor chip and being formed to partially expose a lower portion of the edge of the semiconductor chip; an adhesive material provided for adhering the bottom of the semiconductor chip to the insulation pattern to mount the semiconductor chip on the PCB; bonding wires provided for electrically connecting the bonding electrodes to the corresponding bonding pads; and a molding material provided for sealing the PCB, the semiconductor chip, the adhesive material, and the bonding wires.
US07750452B2

A semiconductor package includes a substrate or leadframe structure. A plurality of interconnected dies, each incorporating a plurality of through-hole vias (THVs) disposed along peripheral surfaces of the plurality of dies, are disposed over the substrate or leadframe structure. The plurality of THVs are coupled to a plurality of bond pads through a plurality of a metal traces. A top surface of a first THV is coupled to a bottom surface of a second THV. An encapsulant is formed over a portion of the substrate or leadframe structure and the plurality of dies.
US07750447B2

A high voltage and high power boost converter is disclosed. The boost converter includes a boost converter IC and a discrete Schottky diode, both of which are co-packaged on a standard single common die pad.
US07750439B2

An ESD protection device includes: a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type having a first major surface and a second major surface; a signal input electrode formed on the first major surface of the semiconductor substrate; a base region of a second conductivity type formed on a surface region of the second major surface of the semiconductor substrate; a diffusion region of the first conductivity type; a resistor layer formed on the second major surface of the semiconductor substrate of the first conductivity type; a signal output electrode electrically connected to the diffusion region of the first conductivity type; and a ground electrode electrically connected to the resistor layer. The diffusion region is selectively formed on a surface region of the base region of the second conductivity type in the semiconductor substrate of the first conductivity type. The resistor layer is electrically connected to the diffusion region of the first conductivity type.
US07750427B2

A technology is provided where a high performance Schottky-barrier diode and other semiconductor elements can be formed in the same chip controlling the increase in the number of steps. After a silicon oxide film is deposited over a substrate where an n-channel type MISFET is formed and the silicon oxide film over a gate electrode and n+ type semiconductor region is selectively removed, a Co film is deposited over the substrate and a CoSi2 layer is formed over the n+ type semiconductor region and the gate electrode by applying a heat treatment to the substrate. After a silicon nitride film is deposited over the substrate and an aperture reaching the substrate is formed by removing the silicon nitride film and the silicon oxide film at the anode formation part of the Schottky barrier diode, a Ti film is deposited over the substrate including the inside of the aperture, and a TiSi2 layer which becomes an anode electrode of the Schottky-barrier diode is formed at the bottom of the aperture by applying a heat treatment to the substrate.
US07750408B2

Disclosed are embodiments of a circuit (e.g., an electrostatic discharge (ESD) circuit), a design methodology and a design system. In the circuit, an ESD device is wired to a first metal level (e.g., M1). An inductor is formed in a second metal level (e.g., M5) above the first metal level and is aligned over and electrically connected in parallel to the ESD device by a single vertical via stack. The inductor is configured to nullify, for a given application frequency, the capacitance value of the ESD device. The quality factor of the inductor is optimized by providing, on a third metal level (e.g., M3) between the second metal level and the first metal level, a shield to minimize inductive coupling. An opening in the shield allows the via stack to pass through, trading off Q factor reduction for size-scaling and ESD robustness improvements.
US07750407B2

A semiconductor device includes a substrate and a memory cell formed on the substrate. The memory cell includes a word line. The semiconductor device also includes a protection area formed in the substrate, a conductive structure configured to extend the word line to the protection area, and a contact configured to short the word line and the protection area.
US07750405B2

A method of fabricating a high-performance planar back-gate CMOS structure having superior short-channel characteristics and reduced capacitance using processing steps that are not too lengthy or costly is provided. Also provided is a high-performance planar back-gate CMOS structure that is formed utilizing the method of the present invention. The method includes forming an opening in an upper surface of a substrate. Thereafter, a dopant region is formed in the substrate through the opening. In accordance with the inventive method, the dopant region defines a back-gate conductor of the inventive structure. Next, a front gate conductor having at least a portion thereof is formed within the opening.
US07750403B2

An individual identifier is easily provided in a semiconductor device capable of wireless communication. The semiconductor device includes a thin film transistor including a channel forming region, an island-like semiconductor film including a source region and a drain region, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode; an interlayer insulating film; a plurality of contact holes formed in the interlayer insulating film which reach one of the source region and the drain region; and a single contact hole which reaches the other of the source region and the drain region, wherein a diameter of the single contact hole is larger than a diameter of each of the plurality of contact holes, and a sum of areas of bases of the plurality of contact holes is equal to an area of a base of the single contact hole.
US07750401B2

The invention includes a laterally double-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) having a reduced size, a high breakdown voltage, and a low on-state resistance. This is achieved by providing a thick gate oxide on the drain side of the device, which reduces electric field crowding in the off-state to reduce the breakdown voltage and forms an accumulation layer in the drift region to reduce the device resistance in the on-state. A version of the device includes a low voltage version with a thin gate oxide on the source side of the device and a high voltage version of the device includes a thick gate oxide on the source side. The LDMOS may be configured in an LNDMOS having an N type source or an LPDMOS having a P type source. The source of the device is fully aligned under the oxide spacer adjacent the gate to provide a large SOA and to reduce the device leakage.
US07750398B2

A trench MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) with a trench termination, including a substrate including a drain region which is strongly doped and a doping epi layer region, which is weekly doped the same type as the drain region, on the drain region; a plurality of source and body regions formed in the epi layer; a metal layer including a plurality of metal layer regions which are connected to respective source and body, and gate regions forming metal connections of the MOSFET; a plurality of metal contact plugs connected to respective metal layer regions; a plurality of gate trenches filled with polysilicon to form a plurality of trenched gates on top of epi layer; an insulating layer deposited on the epi layer formed underneath the metal layer with a plurality of metal contact holes therein for contacting respective source and body regions; a margin terminating gate trench which is around the gate trenches; and a margin terminating active region which is formed underneath the margin terminating gate trench.
US07750391B2

A semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate, a tunnel insulation film provided on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, charge trap states at which an electron potential energy is higher than a Fermi level of the semiconductor substrate being provided at part of the tunnel insulation film at least in the vicinity of an interface with the semiconductor substrate, and at least one charge storage layer being provided on the tunnel insulation film, charges supplied from the semiconductor substrate via the tunnel insulation film being accumulated in the charge storage layer.
US07750382B2

A deep implanted region of a first conductivity type located below a transistor array of a pixel sensor cell and adjacent a doped region of a second conductivity type of a photodiode of the pixel sensor cell is disclosed. The deep implanted region reduces surface leakage and dark current and increases the capacitance of the photodiode by acting as a reflective barrier to photo-generated charge in the doped region of the second conductivity type of the photodiode. The deep implanted region also provides improved charge transfer from the charge collection region of the photodiode to a floating diffusion region adjacent the gate of the transfer transistor.
US07750377B2

A vertical JFET 1a according to the present invention has an n+ type drain semiconductor portion 2, an n-type drift semiconductor portion 3, a p+ type gate semiconductor portion 4, an n-type channel semiconductor portion 5, an n+ type source semiconductor portion 7, and a p+ type gate semiconductor portion 8. The n-type drift semiconductor portion 3 is placed on a principal surface of the n+ type drain semiconductor portion 2 and has first to fourth regions 3a to 3d extending in a direction intersecting with the principal surface. The p+ type gate semiconductor portion 4 is placed on the first to third regions 3a to 3c of the n-type drift semiconductor portion 3. The n-type channel semiconductor portion 5 is placed along the p+ type gate semiconductor portion 4 and is electrically connected to the fourth region 3d of the n-type drift semiconductor portion 3.
US07750375B2

This invention discloses a integrated circuit (IC) chip having a plurality of modular cells, the chip comprises a first modular cell having a first metal layer, which contains at least two power lines independent of each other; and a second modular cell, juxtaposed to the first modular cell, also having the first metal layer, which contains at least two power lines independent of each other, wherein all the power lines on the first metal layer serving the first modular cell do not extend into the second modular cell, and all the power lines on the first metal layer serving the second modular cell do not extend into the first modular cell.
US07750371B2

Disclosed is an improved semiconductor structure (e.g., a silicon germanium (SiGe) hetero-junction bipolar transistor) having a narrow essentially interstitial-free SIC pedestal with minimal overlap of the extrinsic base. Also, disclosed is a method of forming the transistor which uses laser annealing, as opposed to rapid thermal annealing, of the SIC pedestal to produce both a narrow SIC pedestal and an essentially interstitial-free collector. Thus, the resulting SiGe HBT transistor can be produced with narrower base and collector space-charge regions than can be achieved with conventional technology.
US07750367B2

An SiGe layer is grown on a silicon substrate. The SiGe layer or the silicon substrate and SiGe layer are porosified by anodizing the SiGe layer to form a strain inducing porous layer or a porous silicon layer and strain inducing porous layer. An SiGe layer and strained silicon layer are formed on the resultant structure. The SiGe layer in the stacking growth step only needs to be on the uppermost surface of the porous layer. For this reason, an SiGe layer with a low defect density and high concentration can be formed. Since the SiGe layer on the strain inducing porous layer can achieve a low defect density without lattice mismatching. Hence, a high-quality semiconductor substrate having a high strained silicon layer can be obtained.
US07750363B2

In a nitride semiconductor laser bar including a group III-V nitride semiconductor layer, on the front-side cavity end face, a separation layer of aluminum nitride is laid, and further on the separation layer, an end face coating film of aluminum oxide is laid. Likewise, on the rear-side cavity end face, a separation layer of aluminum nitride is laid, and further on the separation layer, an end face coating film of an aluminum oxide/TiO2 multilayer film is laid.
US07750360B2

Provided is a solid-state image pickup device capable of suppressing deterioration of characteristic caused due to an antireflection film itself absorbing a light. In the solid-state image pickup device of the present invention, a plurality of color filters 8a, 8b, and 8c having spectral characteristics, respectively, different from each other are provided so as to correspond to a plurality of light reception sections 2, respectively, aligned on a semiconductor substrate 1. Further, a plurality of microlenses 10 are provided above the plurality of color filters 8a, 8b, and 8c, respectively. A plurality of antireflection films 11a are selectively formed on surfaces of the microlenses 10 provided above color filters 8b each having a predetermined spectral characteristic.
US07750357B2

An LED includes a substrate layer with a first surface and a second surface opposing the first surface and having a refractive index of n1. A light emitter is provided on the first surface and an array of particles is arranged on the second surface. The index matching layer between the particles on the second surface has a refractive index of n2being n2≧n1−0.5 and n2≦n1+3. Further, the filling height of the index matching layer is lower than the maximum height of the array of particles.
US07750356B2

An optical package includes a sub-mount, an edge-emitting laser mounted on the sub-mount, a collimating ball lens mounted on the sub-mount adjacent to the edge-emitting laser, a mirror mounted on the sub-mount adjacent to the collimating ball lens. The sub-mount is made of a bottom wafer. A lid is bonded to the sub-mount to form the laser package. The lid is made of a middle wafer bonded to a top wafer. The middle wafer defines an opening that accommodates the edge-emitting laser, the collimating ball lens, and the mirror. The opening is defined by vertical sidewalls. The top wafer further includes a lens above the mirror.
US07750352B2

Light strips for emergency lighting, path lighting, accent lighting and device lighting are provided. Devices incorporating and lighted by the light strips are also provided. The light strips include a light emitting layer made from a plurality of semiconductor nanoparticles disposed between and in electrical communication with an anode and a cathode. The semiconductor nanoparticles may be made from Group IV semiconductors, such as silicon. Devices that may be lit with the light strips include displays and keypad, such as those found in cellular phones and personal digital assistants.
US07750346B2

A semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. Compared to conventional structures of thin film transistors, the structure of the present invention uses a patterned first metal layer as a data line, and a patterned second metal layer as a gate line. In a thin film transistor, a gate is also located in the patterned first metal layer, and is electrically connected to the gate line located in the patterned second metal layer through a contact hole. A source and a drain of the thin film transistor are electrically connected to the data line through a contact hole. The structure of the present invention increases a storage capacitance and an aperture ratio.
US07750339B2

Provided is a filed-effect transistor with an organic semiconductor material showing ambipolar behaviour. Thereto, the organic semiconductor material enabling the ambipolar behaviour is a material with a small band gap.
US07750336B2

Methods of forming a resistive memory device include forming an insulation layer on a semiconductor substrate including a conductive pattern, forming a contact hole in the insulation layer to expose the conductive pattern, forming a lower electrode in the contact hole, forming a variable resistive oxide layer in the contact hole on the lower electrode, forming a middle electrode in the contact hole on the variable resistive oxide layer, forming a buffer oxide layer on the middle electrode and the insulation layer, and forming an upper electrode on the buffer oxide layer. Related resistive memory devices are also disclosed.
US07750334B2

A memory device has a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of cell arrays stacked above the substrate, each cell array having memory cells, bit lines each commonly connecting one ends of plural cells arranged along a first direction and word lines each commonly connecting the other ends of plural cells arranged along a second direction; a read/write circuit formed on the substrate as underlying the cell arrays; first and second vertical wirings disposed on both sides of each cell array in the first direction to connect the bit lines to the read/write circuit; and third vertical wirings disposed on both sides of each cell array in the second direction to connect the word lines to the read/write circuit.
US07750331B2

The invention relates to a method and device (1) for imaging an interior of a turbid medium (55). A turbid medium (55) inside a measurement volume (15) is irradiated from a plurality of source positions (25a) with light from a light source (5), and light emanating from the measurement volume (15) is detected from a plurality of detection positions (25b). An image of the interior of the turbid medium (55) is reconstructed from the detected light. In both the method and the device (1), detector signals can be amplified for each source position-detection position pair by a multi-gain amplification unit comprising an amplifier circuit (60). The amplification factor is selected from a number of possible amplification factors based on detected signal strength in the prior art. According to the invention, however, the method and device are adapted such that the amplification factor is selected for at least one source position-detection position pair on the basis of an estimate of expected electrical signal strength.
US07750326B2

A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a source for supplying hydrogen radicals, a guide for use in conjunction with the source, for directing hydrogen radicals to an application surface to be targeted by the hydrogen radicals. The guide is provided with a coating having a hydrogen radical recombination constant of less than 0.2. In this way, the radicals can be transported with reduced losses and are able to better interact with remaining contaminants on application surfaces, such as mirror surfaces.
US07750323B1

An ion implanter and a method for implanting a wafer are provided, wherein the method includes the following steps. First, a wafer has at least a first portion requiring a first doping density and a second portion requiring a second doping density is provided. The first doping density is larger than the second doping density. Thereafter, the first portion is scanned by an ion beam with a first scanning parameter value, and the second portion is scanned by the ion beam with a second scanning parameter value. The first scanning parameter value can be a first scan velocity, and the second scanning parameter value can be a second scan velocity different than the first scan velocity. Alternatively, the first scanning parameter value can be a first beam current, and the second scanning parameter value can be a second beam current different than the first beam current.
US07750317B2

A method of determining the radiation doses to which specific locations are subjected is provided. The method comprises providing an assembly comprising a plurality of layers, each of which includes a number of regularly spaced individual compartments that contain a liquid that changes in color when exposed to radiation, radiating the assembly, determining the changes in optical density of the liquid in the individual compartments and calculating the doses of radiation to which the compartments have been subjected from the changes in optical density.
US07750310B2

The present invention provides a semiconductor radioactive ray detector having the excellent energy resolution or time precision, a radioactive detection module, and a nuclear medicine diagnosis apparatus. The semiconductor radioactive ray detector has a structure in which plate-like elements made of cadmium telluride and conductive members are alternately laminated and the plate-like element made of cadmium telluride and the conductive member are adhered to each other with a conductive adhesive agent, and the Young's modulus of the conductive adhesive agent is in the range from 350 MPa to 1000 MPa, while the conductive members are made from a material with the linear expansion coefficient of the conductive members in the range from 5×10−6/° C. to 7×10−6/° C.
US07750307B2

A radiation image capturing apparatus includes a conductive gel member disposed between a radiation detector and an integrated circuit provided in vicinity of the radiation detector and electrically connected thereto. The conductive gel member blocks the electromagnetic noise generated by the integrated circuit and thereby prevents the electromagnetic noise from propagating to the radiation detector. As a result, the electrical signals generated by the radiation detector are prevented from being affected by the electromagnetic noise and high-quality radiation images can be acquired.
US07750304B2

In an imaging system (10), a short axial length 4D sinograms are loaded one at a time from a data memory (40). A portion of an image memory (44) that corresponds to a currently reconstructed sinogram subset (1112), is initialized. If a part of the object is already reconstructed, an iterative reconstruction is performed in which the previously reconstructed image (m1) is iteratively improved by using the data from the currently reconstructed overlapping image (m2) to converge on the final image.
US07750299B2

Embodiments of methods, apparatuses, systems and/or devices for active biometric spectroscopy are disclosed.
US07750296B2

In method and apparatus for obtaining a scanning electron microscope image devoid of distortion by measuring a scanning distortion and calibrating the scanning distortion, there occurs a problem that an error takes place in dimension control owing to a scanning distortion of an electron beam. To cope with this problem, an image is obtained by scanning a predetermined region with the electron beam, a plurality of regions are selected from the image, the pattern pitch is measured in each of the regions and a scanning distortion amount is calculated from the result of measurement and then corrected.
US07750278B2

A solid-state imaging device including an array of a plurality of first pixels and a plurality of second pixels with higher sensitivity than the first pixels, a first control signal line that controls the first pixels, and a second control signal line that controls the second pixels, wherein the first control signal line and the second control signal line are driven independent of each other.
US07750273B2

A device for maintaining temperature in food and drink by means of the induction principle. The device comprises a heating mat (10), on which induction containers and other types of containers for food and drink can be placed, and an energy converter (11) for connection to a power supply (46). The energy converter (11) converts the energy from the power supply to induction energy. The heating mat (10) comprises a hotplate (20) of a heat-resistant, non-metallic material, and at least one heating element (22) for generating a varying magnetic field by means of the induction energy from the energy converter (11).
US07750272B2

Method for cooking food, to be performed in an oven with a cooking cavity, a core-temperature proble capable of being introduced in a food item placed in the cooking cavity and provided with a temperature sensor for the food temperature and a sensor for detecting the temperature within the oven cavity, wherein these sensors are adapted to generate and output respective signals, control means being provided, which are adapted to receive and process such signals issued by said temperature sensors and to supply corresponding operating commands to heating means associated to the oven; there are provided setting means adapted to define a selectively modifiable value of a final reference temperature. After an initial heating period and a subsequent cooling-down step, during which the temperature inside the oven cavity anyhow remains at a higher value than said final reference temperature, said control means, on the basis of the signals received from said sensors, start and run an operating phase in such manner as to enable a temperature to be obtained and persistingly ensured within the oven cavity, whose difference as compared with said final reference temperature is a function of the difference between said final reference temperature and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor at the core of the food.
US07750270B2

A nanoparticle generator includes a heating unit directly heating material for generating nanoparticles. Due to the structure of the heating unit directly heating the material, a space between the heating unit and the material is eliminated such that a volume of the nanoparticle generator is remarkably reduced and the nanoparticle generator is easily minimized.
US07750266B2

A laser peening method and system allows the work piece to be fixed, while moving and directing the laser beam. A laser energy delivery system includes a relay imaging system. Input optics arranged to receive the laser energy, a transmitting mirror having adjustable angle of incidence relative to the input optics, and a robot mounted processing head including an optical assembly are configured to direct laser energy toward the movable target image plane. The laser energy follows an optical path including an essentially straight segment from the transmitting mirror to the receiving mirror, having a variable length and a variable angle relative to the input optics. Diagnostics on the processing head facilitate operation.
US07750262B2

A rocker switch, particularly a window lift switch in a motor vehicle, has a switch housing in which a rocker lever can be adjusted from an initial position, against a restoring force, into a switch-on position. The rocker lever is disposed in the switch housing on one side. In the initial position, its surface forming the free end of the rocker lever is approximately flush with the surrounding areas of the switch housing, and, in the switch-on position, this surface protrudes out from the surrounding areas.
US07750258B2

A pedal device for adjusting pedal effort includes a housing fixed to a car body, a pedal arm that is hinged about the housing, an elastic member that is disposed between the housing and the pivot end of the pedal arm and provides a return force to the pedal arm, a pedal effort adjusting unit that is movably disposed in the housing and has a sloped portion for adjusting a pre-compression force to the elastic member, and a pre-compression force setting unit that sets a fixed position of the pedal effort adjusting unit with respect to the housing and keeps a pre-compression force applied to the elastic member at a predetermined level. With this configuration, the pedal device can adjust the reaction force applied to the driver pressing the pedal corresponding to the driver's driving propensity, thereby improving the operability and reducing the fatigue of the driver's ankle.
US07750255B2

The present invention relates to a system and a method for weighing a section of a structure (1). The system comprises at least one hydraulic weight sensor device (3), adapted to be placed in at least one slot (2) under the section, a pressure sensor (7) for measuring the pressure in the at least one weight sensor device (3), and a hydraulic system comprising at least one pump unit (5) and at least one valve unit (6) for pumping hydraulic fluid to and from the at least one hydraulic weight sensor device (3) through a hydraulic line (4). The system further comprises a distance sensor (10) for measuring the height of the slot (2), a control circuit device (20) for calculating the weight of the section based on measured data received from the pressure sensor (7), and for balancing the section on the basis of the measured data received from the pressure sensor (7) and the distance sensor (10) by controlling the pump unit (5) and the valve unit (6).
US07750254B2

According to some embodiments a system and an apparatus comprise a registration wall, a weighing device located adjacent to the registration wall, a belt drive mechanism, a plurality of inboard skis, and a plurality of outboard skis. The belt drive mechanism extends across the weighing device for advancing a mail piece relative to the weighing device and the belt drive mechanism is located at a first distance from the registration wall. The plurality of inboard skis are located substantially at the first distance from the registration wall and are located beneath the belt drive mechanism for urging the mail piece upwardly toward the drive belt mechanism. The plurality of outboard skis is coplanar with the plurality of inboard skis for supporting an end of the mail piece. The plurality of outboard skis is located at a second distance from the registration wall. The second distance is greater than the first distance. The plurality of outboard skis adjust to the thickness of a mail piece that is transported between a plurality of inboard skis and the top registration drive belt mechanism.
US07750252B2

An apparatus and method are provided for limiting failure noise and smoke emissions produced as a result of electrical failure conditions and/or failed electronic devices or assemblies of electronic equipment, such as IT and telecommunications equipment. In one aspect, the apparatus includes a conformable pad, a gasket and a clip that are disposed along one or more surfaces or planes of one or more electronic devices or assemblies such that the apparatus helps to form a substantially air tight seal around the one or more devices or assemblies. The air tight seal the apparatus defines minimizes or eliminates failure noise and smoke emissions generated as a result of failure conditions or catastrophic failure of the one or more devices or assemblies. The apparatus thereby provides a non-electronic solution to limiting failure noise and smoke that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and implement, and enables in-field servicing of its components and the devices or assemblies to which it is applied.
US07750251B2

An electromagnetic interference shielded panel and method of manufacture. The panel includes one or more frame members having a rib adapted to provide sacrificial material when a first skin member is welded to the frame member. The first skin member is welded to the frame members of a frame assembly prior to bonding of a core member and a second skin member to the first skin member and frame assembly.
US07750250B1

A capture pad structure includes a lower dielectric layer, a capture pad embedded within the lower dielectric layer, the capture pad comprising a plurality of linear segments. To form the capture pad, a focused laser beam is moved linearly to form linear channels in the dielectric layer. These channels are filled with an electrically conductive material to form the capture pad.
US07750249B2

A printed circuit board is provided which is capable of shortening intervals among core layer vias and suppressing high impedance. After the core layer vias each having a cylindrical conducting layer are formed so that conducting portions come into contact with one another, a punching process is performed along a symmetric axis of each of four core layer vias so that a through-hole of a specified diameter passes through a core board to form the core layer vias separated from one another and the through-hole is filled with an insulator and a punching process is performed along a central axis of the through-hole filled with the insulator so as to pass through the core board to form the through-hole having a diameter being shorter than that of the through-hole and the conducting layer is formed on an inside wall of the through-hole to form the core layer via.
US07750248B2

A dielectric structure including a metal foil, a dielectric layer and a conductor layer provided in this order, wherein the metal foil has a thickness of from 10 to 40 μm, the dielectric layer has a thickness of from 0.3 to 5 μm, and the conductor layer has a thickness of from 0.3 to 10 μm. The dielectric structure has plural vias which are separated from each other, and which penetrate through both of the dielectric layer and the conductor layer. The vias of the dielectric layer have different diameters which are in a range of from 100 to 300 μm, a diameter of each of the vias of the conductor layer is larger than a diameter of a corresponding via of the dielectric layer by 5 to 50 μm, and a minimum via pitch is from 100 to 350 μm.
US07750247B2

A multilayer substrate having a built-in chip-type electronic component includes a ceramic laminate having a plurality of ceramic layers, a chip-type electronic component disposed in the ceramic laminate and having an external terminal electrode, and a via conductor disposed in the ceramic layers in the lamination direction. The external terminal electrode of the chip-type electronic component is connected to the via conductor, and a connection step is provided in at least one of the upper and lower end surfaces of the via conductor.
US07750244B1

An electrical cable for shipboard use that can block water is disclosed. The electrical cable includes conductors, water swellable tapes, water swellable yarns, solid fillers, and a jacket. Each conductor is substantially wrapped with water swellable tape. The conductors are disposed adjacent to each other thereby forming interstitial voids between each of the conductors. Solid fillers and water swellable yarns are alternatively disposed in each interstitial void. Additional water swellable tape substantially envelopes the conductors, water swellable yarns, and solid fillers. The jacket is disposed on the outermost peripheral surface of the electrical cable.
US07750243B1

A water blocked communication cable has an outer jacket defining an interior space, a plurality of conductors, such as a plurality of twisted conductor pairs, disposed within the interior space, and a thixotropic, cold pumpable filling compound disposed within the interior space between the plurality of conductors and the outer jacket. The filling compound consists, for example, of a refined mineral oil base and an organic polymeric gelling agent with a dispersion of micro spheres and has a dielectric constant not greater than 1.8.
US07750242B2

A metallic conductor and an insulator provided at an outer periphery of the metallic conductor for coating the metallic conductor constitutes an insulated wire or cable. The insulator has a reactor blended type polyolefin-based thermoplastic resin containing 51-85 mol % per monomer unit of the crystalline polypropylene. In the insulator used in a non-halogen flame retardant wire or cable, 40 to 300 pbw of a metallic hydroxide is added to 100 pbw of a blended composition. In the blended composition, the reactor blended type polyolefin-based thermoplastic resin containing 51-85 mol % per monomer unit of the crystalline polypropylene is greater than 50 pbw and less than 100 pbw, and a polyolefin is greater than 0 pbw and not greater than 50 pbw.
US07750240B2

A coaxial cable includes a core, an insulating layer, a shielding layer, a sheathing layer. The core includes an amount of carbon nanotubes having at least one conductive coating disposed about the carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotubes are orderly arranged. The insulating layer is about the core. The shielding layer is about the insulating layer. The sheathing layer is about the shielding layer.
US07750230B2

Once performance event information is supplied in real time in accordance with a progression of a performance, a time indicative of temporal relationship between at least two notes to be generated in succession is measured on the basis of the performance event information supplied in real time. Comparison is made between a preset rendition style determination condition including time information and the measured time, and a rendition style that is to be applied to a current tone to be performed in real time is determined on the basis of the comparison result. With the arrangement that a rendition style to be applied to the current tone is determined on the basis of the comparison result, it is possible to execute a real-time performance while automatically expressing a tonguing rendition style.
US07750222B2

Keys 1, 2 are supported by a frame 3 in a freely swingable manner. Massive bodies 8, a lower limit stopper 10 and an upper limit stopper 11 are situated below keys 1, 2. Massive bodies 8 are supported by a frame 3 in a freely swingable manner and pivot in synchronization with key-depression. A lower limit stopper 10 restricts a lower limit of pivoting range of the massive bodies 8. An upper limit stopper 10 restricts an upper limit of pivoting range of the massive bodies 8. Fixing portions (erected potions) 3g1 for fixing the upper limit stopper 11 are provided on the frame 3 in one-to-one corresponding with keys 1, 2. The upper limit stopper 11 is fixed to the undersurface of the fixing portions 3g. An upper part of each fixing portion 3g is situated inside right and left side walls of each key 1, 2.
US07750204B2

This invention provides methods for producing antibodies, wherein the methods comprise the step of administering an immunogen comprising both a target antigen and a background antigen to transgenic animals, into which a gene coding for the background antigen has been introduced. Since immunotolerance to the background antigens have thus been induced in the transgenic animals, the animals efficiently produce antibodies to target antigens.
US07750202B2

A disposable absorbent article having improved interactive graphics is disclosed. The disposable absorbent article defines a front waist end, a back waist end, and a length which extends between the front and back waist ends. In particular embodiments, the article includes an active graphic disposed on the bodyside liner and/or outer cover, and the active graphic is positioned within one of a frontmost 30% and a backmost 30% of the article's length. In particular embodiments, the article includes an active graphic disposed on the article's bodyside liner and/or outer cover, and the active graphic consists essentially of insoluble ink. In particular embodiments, the article includes an active graphic disposed on the article's bodyside liner and/or outer cover, and the article is adapted to provide for an at least partial disappearance of the active graphic without requiring that the active graphic directly contact liquid to effect the at least partial disappearance.
US07750196B2

The present invention relates to new crystalline molecular sieve SSZ-75 having STI framework topology prepared using a tetramethylene-1,4-bis-(N-methylpyrrolidinium) dication as a structure-directing agent and its use in catalysts for converting oxygenates, e.g., methanol, to olefins.
US07750193B2

The present invention relates to a process for preparing 2-alkylpolyisobutenylphenols and their Mannich adducts, to compositions obtainable by this process and to their use.
US07750192B2

Crude sevoflurane product comprising unacceptably high levels of HFIP can be purified by combining the crude sevoflurane product with sufficient water to produce a multiphase mixture, fractionally distilling the multiphase mixture, removing sevoflurane from the distilling multiphase mixture as an azeotrope with water, and separating substantially pure sevoflurane from the azeotrope.
US07750162B2

A process for the preparation of a nonnatural amino acid represented by the following formula (C): which is characterized by reacting a compound represented by the following formula (A1), a compound represented by the following formula (A2) and a compound represented by the following formula (A3) (step 1): to form a compound represented by the following formula (B): and then subjecting the compound (B) to deprotection of protective groups of carboxyl groups and to decarboxylation (wherein X1 and X2 are a leaving group, R1 is an aromatic group, an unsaturated heterocyclic group, or R6CO group, R2 and R3 are a protected carboxyl group, R4 is a protected amino group, R5 is hydrogen atom, an aliphatic hydrocarbon group, an aromatic group, or a heterocyclic group, R6 is an aromatic group or an unsaturated heterocyclic group, etc., and p, q and r are an integer of 0 to 10).