US07758203B2

A portable illuminator includes a contained power source and an integrally contained light source that is selectively inserted into the handle portion of a vaginal speculum. The portable illuminator includes an electrical interface that permits selective connection to at least two electrical devices for purposes of at least one of supplementing, replacing and recharging the contained power source.
US07758197B2

A backlight assembly includes a container, a plurality of lamps and a lamp-fixing member. The container includes a bottom face and side faces extending therefrom that define a receiving space. The lamps are arranged in parallel with each other in the container. The lamp-fixing member includes a support body installed in the container and arranged in a direction intersecting a lengthwise direction of extension of each of the lamps, a lamp-fixing portion protruding from the support body and covering a respective lamp, and a boss protruding from an inner face of the lamp-fixing portion and extending toward a center of the respective lamp to fix the respective lamp with a corresponding lamp-fixing portion via a point or line contact. Thus, a local decrease in temperature of the lamp covered by the lamp-fixing portion may be prevented to improve image display quality by preventing or eliminating dark spots.
US07758193B2

A projection apparatus comprises a housing and further comprises a light source, an imaging system, an optical engine, a first blower, and an axial fan installed in the housing, and an air outlet is disposed on the housing. The light source is installed adjacent to the air outlet. The optical engine is installed between the imaging system and the light source. The first blower is installed at one end far away from the air outlet, and an exhaust port of the first blower faces one portion of the light source. The axial fan is installed at one side of the light source installed the first blower, and the light source is positioned between the air outlet and the axial fan. An exhaust port of the axial fan faces the light source, and a suction port of the axial fan is adjacent to the suction port of the first blower.
US07758190B2

The invention comprises an apparatus for measuring the relative thickness of the lipid layer component of the precorneal tear film on the surface of an eye after distribution of the lipid layer subsequent to blinking is disclosed. An illuminator directs light to the lipid layer of a patient's eye. The illuminator is a broad spectrum light source covering the visible region and is a lambertion light emitter such that the light source is specularly reflected from the lipid layer and undergoes constructive and destructive interference in the lipid layer. A collector collects and focuses the specularly reflected light such that the interference patterns on the tear film lipid layer are observable. The collector also produces an output signal representative of the specularly reflected light which is suitable for further analysis, such as projection on to a high resolution video monitor or analysis by or storage in a computer. In order to facilitate ease of measurement, the patient's head may be positioned on an observation platform when the illuminator directs light to the lipid layer of the patient's eye.
US07758185B2

Improved eyewear is disclosed. The eyewear comprises a frame member and a lens. The eyewear also includes circuitry within the frame member for enhancing the use of the eyewear. A system and method in accordance with the present invention is directed to a variety of ways to enhance the use of eyeglasses. They are: (1) media focals, that is, utilizing the eyewear for its intended purpose and enhancing that use by using imaging techniques to improve the vision of the user; (2) telecommunications enhancements that allow the eyeglasses to be integrated with telecommunication devices such as cell phones or the like; and (3) entertainment enhancements that allow the eyewear to be integrated with devices such as mp3 players, radios, or the like.
US07758184B2

The present invention is directed to eyewear which obstructs a user's vision to simulate game conditions when training for a sport. The level of obstruction can be random or in a controlled program.
US07758183B2

An automatic image processing apparatus includes a sheet feeding device and an image processing device. The sheet feeding device supports a plurality of sheets and feeds the sheets one by one. The image processing device receives the sheets coming from the sheet feeding device one by one, and feeds and processes the sheets one by one. The sheet feeding device is removably connected to the image processing device, and receives mechanical power from the image processing device and thus feeds the sheets one by one. The sheet feeding device for the automatic image processing apparatus is also disclosed. The mechanical power for feeding the sheets is disconnected from the sheet feeding device when the sheet feeding device is removed from the image processing device.
US07758174B2

An ink supply system for an inkjet printhead is provided. The system comprises: (a) an ink reservoir for storing ink, the ink reservoir being contained in a pressurizable chamber; (b) an ink conduit providing fluid communication between the ink reservoir and the printhead; (c) a pressure device for positively pressurizing the chamber, the pressure device comprising an air compressor in fluid communication with the chamber; and (d) a valve in the ink conduit for controlling a supply of ink to the printhead.
US07758173B2

A printing machine including a material supply module adapted to expel a marking material contained in a collapsible package having an information-bearing tag. The material supply module includes a reader for obtaining information from the information-bearing tag, a package opening actuator configured to cause the collapsible package to open, and at least one hopper for receiving the marking material. The printing machine also includes a marking device module configured to receive the marking material from the at least one hopper. Other aspects are a method of supplying marking material and a method of verifying the contents of a marking material package.
US07758170B2

A printer system is provided which incorporates a printhead having nozzles, bubble forming chambers and heater and non-heater elements disposed in each of the chamber to overlay one another with a space therebetween. The heater and non-heater elements are formed of the same material and the heater elements are connected to electrodes so as to be in thermal contact with a bubble forming liquid in the chambers. Heating the heater elements with the electrodes to a temperature above the boiling point of the bubble forming liquid forms a gas bubble that causes the drop ejection of ejectable liquid through the nozzles. Each heater element has a bubble nucleation section which has a smaller cross section than the remainder of that heater element. Each chamber has a circular cross section and each heater element has arcuate sections that are concentric with the circular cross section.
US07758169B2

An electrical device includes an interconnect and a pair substrates at least one of which includes an integrated circuit, the pair of substrates being bonded together by a bond that includes a structure having multiple widths and a composition that is selected from the group consisting of a graded material and a first material upon a second material.
US07758167B2

A media supply cartridge includes a media case having a molded top half and a molded bottom half, both halves defining arcuate slots; a media roll assembly rotatably provided within the media case, the media roll assembly having a shaft received in the arcuate slots of the media case and a roll of media wound around the shaft; a roller assembly for ejecting blank media from the media roll assembly out of the media case, the roller assembly including a cartridge drive roller and an idler roller; and media roller support moldings provided at each end of the shaft, the media roller support moldings being restrainedly received in locator slots defined in the media case. The shaft is provided with a notch at each end thereof to engage cooperating nibs on each support molding, the engagement of the notches with nibs restraining the shaft from rotating. The media roller support is provided with a pair of resilient extensions extending thereform, the pair of resilient extensions engaging with the roller assembly to bias the cartridge drive roller and the idler roller into close proximity with each other.
US07758166B2

The invention provides for an inkjet nozzle which includes a first wafer, a second wafer and a paddle layer. The first wafer has active drive circuitry together with an ink jet print nozzle formed therein. The second wafer has an ink channel formed therein. The paddle layer is sandwiched between the first and second wafers in a chamber complementarily defined by the wafers. The paddle layer is arranged in signal communication with the active drive circuitry, so that ink supplied via the ink channel is ejected via the print nozzle upon actuation of the paddle layer by the circuitry.
US07758158B2

An ink jet head is formed with a nozzle surface having a liquid repellent characteristic. The nozzle surface comprises a condensation product made from a hydrolyzable silane compound having a fluorine containing group and a hydrolyzable silane compound having a cationic polymerizable group.
US07758143B2

A printhead module comprising at least first and second rows configured to print ink of a similar type or color, at least some nozzles in the first row being aligned with respective corresponding nozzles in the second row in a direction of intended media travel relative to the printhead, the printhead module being configurable such that the nozzles in the first and second rows are fired such that some dots output to print media are printed to by nozzles from the first row and at least some other dots output to print media are printed to by nozzles from the second row.
US07758141B2

A discrimination circuit is provided for discriminating between acceptance and non-acceptance of image data transmitted to a device substrate for every group of recording elements. Thereby, data corresponding to a plurality of recording element groups can be received from a common terminal.
US07758139B2

A liquid ejecting apparatus has a head, a transport mechanism, a memory, and a controller. The head ejects a liquid. The transport mechanism transports a medium in a transport direction with respect to the head in accordance with a target transport amount that is targeted. The memory stores a plurality of correction values, each of the correction values being associated with a relative position between the head and the medium, a range of the relative position to which that correction value is to be applied being associated with that correction value. In the case where a transport using the target transport amount is performed beyond the range of the relative position associated with the correction value that is associated with the relative position before the transport, the controller corrects the target transport amount based on the correction value associated with the relative position before the transport and the correction value associated with the relative position after the transport.
US07758131B1

This invention relates to a vehicle wheel cover retention system for securing a wheel cover to a vehicle wheel. According to one embodiment, the vehicle wheel cover retention system is for a non-full face fabricated vehicle wheel and comprises: a full outer wheel rim formed from a suitable material and including a first rim flange, a first tire bead seat, a well, a second tire bead seat, and a second rim flange, the full outer wheel rim defining a first surface extending between the first an second rim flanges; an inner wheel disc defining a wheel axis and formed from a suitable material and joined to the full outer wheel rim, the inner wheel disc including a centrally located wheel mounting surface and an outer annular portion, the inner wheel disc having a first surface and a second surface; and a wheel cover formed from a suitable material and secured to at least one of the first surface of the inner wheel disc, the second surface of the inner wheel disc, and the first surface of said full outer wheel rim.
US07758121B2

A seat assembly includes an active material in operative communication with a seat surface configured to undergo a change in at least one property upon receipt of an activation signal, wherein the change in at least one property is effective to change at least one feature of the seat surface.
US07758119B1

A auxiliary sofa backrest system includes a sofa with a seat and a backrest that is attached to and extends upwardly from the seat. The seat includes a pair of laterally positioned armrests. A plurality of seat cushions is positioned on the seat. A bottom panel has a rear edge. A vertical panel has a bottom edge, a top edge, a first lateral edge, a second lateral edge, a front side and a back side. The bottom edge is hingedly coupled to the rear edge. The bottom panel is removably positioned under one of the seat cushions and the back side of the vertical panel abuts one of the armrests.
US07758114B2

In a seat back with movable headrest, a pressure receiving element is movably provided, which includes pressure receiving regions for receiving loads applied from lumber and dorsal parts of seat occupant. The pressure receiving element is movably connected with a crank member which is movably provided between two lateral frame members of seat back frame. Further, that pressure receiving element is connected with a support shaft extended between a par of rotating links rotatably arranged on the respective afore-said two lateral frame members. A biasing element is provided to normally bias the headrest to a home position.
US07758110B2

A roof part mounted movably by means of a bearing device on a bearing slide, which is mounted in a manner such that it can be shifted on a guide of the vehicle roof and can be displaced along the guide by means of a drive, wherein, for improved adjustment of the movable roof part, the roof part can be displaced relative to the bearing slide by means of an additional controllable adjusting device.
US07758108B2

A vehicle rear portion structure including: a pair of rear frames that extend substantially in a vehicle longitudinal direction; a rear cross member that extends in a vehicle width direction and that connects both of the two rear frames; a pair of rear wheel houses that are provided with damper supporting portions; a parcel frame that extends along the vehicle width direction above the rear wheel houses; and a pair of reinforcing frames that connect both end portions of the rear cross member and both end portions of the parcel frame, wherein the reinforcing frames are placed along a side wall of respective the rear wheel houses, the side wall being adjacent to respective the damper supporting portions, and a toroidal skeleton frame is formed with the parcel frame, the reinforcing frames, and the rear cross member so as to follow a plurality of rear suspension mounting points.
US07758105B2

A stowable roof for a convertible vehicle is retractable from a closed state to an open state. The roof includes a pillar part which extends upwardly from the window beltline when the roof is in the closed state. The pillar part is movable rearwardly and downwardly when the roof is retracted to the open state. A guide track has at least a portion extending transversely inwardly. The pillar part engages the guide track such that the pillar part is guided transversely inwardly during retraction of the roof.
US07758104B2

A construction vehicle door assembly includes a frame member having an inside surface and an outside surface, a window pane is positioned proximate one of the inside surface and outside surface, and a first resilient member substantially vibrationally isolates the frame member and the window pane. A fastener extends through the frame member, window pane and first resilient member to couple the window pane to the frame member. A second resilient member substantially vibrationally isolates the window pane and the fastener. A pair of hinges are coupled to the frame member, a pair of hinge pins are selectively extended into the respective one of the pair of hinges, and a lever is coupled to the pair of hinge pins for moving the pair of hinge pins relative to the pair on hinges upon movement of the lever, to detach the door assembly from the vehicle.
US07758103B1

A hydraulic lift for mobile living quarters having a liftable top. A fluid pressure source communicates fluid through fluid lines connected to a plurality of lifting members that extend upon receipt of fluid and retract upon discharging fluid. The rate at which fluid is discharged from the lifting members is a function of how much weight each lifting member bears. Each of the fluid lines has a flow control valve between the pressure source and each lifting member. Fluid is communicated through the flow control valve to the lifting member connected to the pressure source the fluid is also communicated through the flow control valve when fluid is discharged from the lifting member. The flow control valve limits the flow rate of the fluid to a constant predetermined rate when the fluid is discharged from the lifting member.
US07758101B2

A roof structure (20) for an openable, rigid motor vehicle roof comprises a forward roof part (22), forward roof frame parts (24) laterally adjoining the forward roof part (22), a rearward roof part (26) and rearward roof frame parts (28) laterally adjoining the rearward roof part (26), wherein the forward and rearward roof frame parts (24, 28) are pivotable relative to each other about an axis extending perpendicular to the vehicle longitudinal plane and are storable in a position, in which their inner sides are oriented towards each other, and the forward roof part (22) is pivotable relative to the forward roof frame parts (24) and the rearward roof part (26) is pivotable relative to the rearward roof frame parts (28) about respective axes that extend perpendicular to the vehicle longitudinal plane.
US07758098B2

The invention relates to a device for making accessible and closing an opening in a vehicle body, especially a filler neck compartment. According to the invention, a closing part is first displaced out of the body plane and then parallel to the vehicle body via two moving devices in order to make accessible a filler neck, for example.
US07758093B2

A convertible vehicle has a vehicle body with a passenger compartment, a convertible roof receiving space, and a baggage space defined therein. A convertible roof has a rear part with a rear window. The convertible roof has a closed position wherein it extends over the passenger compartment and an open position wherein the convertible roof is at least partially received in the roof receiving space. A tailgate at least partially covers the baggage space and has an open position and a closed position. The tailgate is movable to the open position to define a loading opening for baggage. The rear window is automatically pivoted upwardly to provide an additional loading opening for baggage when the roof is in the closed position and the tailgate is moved to the open position to provide the loading opening for baggage.
US07758091B1

A collapsible ladder rack system for use on pickup truck or similar vehicle. The rack system includes housings, main arms, material arms, extension arms, and supporting braces. The housings are secured to the rails. The hinged main arms rise vertically and are locked into place by braces. The hinged material arms rise horizontally and lock into place with braces. The extension arms telescope out of two of the material arms and insert into the empty material arms and lock into place. When the ladder rack is no longer needed, the steps are reversed so that the other rack components collapse into the housings on the bed rails. Accessory components can be mounted on the rack to enhance the capabilities of the system.
US07758089B2

A roll forming apparatus and a method thereof form a composite panel by simultaneously roll forming upper and lower plates with different thicknesses and a zigzag-shaped core panel, and welding them together. A bumper beam is manufactured by using the composite panel.
US07758085B2

A tube coupling for receiving and holding an end of a tube includes a coupling body having a hollow stem adapted to engage in a tube to be secured to the coupling body. A cap is mounted on the coupling body and encircles the stem with a gap between the cap and stem to receive the tube engaged over the stem. A tube locking device is located in the cap for locking the tube against withdrawal from the stem and a locking ring is located on the stem within the cap. The ring has both inwardly and outwardly projecting teeth for engaging respectively the inner and outer surfaces of the cap and stem to lock the cap on the stem.
US07758077B2

A flexible, preferably elastic empanelled book cover (12) that has pocket portions (25) to receive the covers of a book (10) that is inserted therein. The cover (12) consists of a unitary hexagonal sheet of pliable material such as “SPANDEX”, having extended upper and lower edges, with each edge bisected by a slot (32) of predetermined width that extends orthogonally. Fold lines (34, 36 and 38) form a laterally-extended rectangle, with the side fold lines (38) forming the lateral apices of the hexagon two triangular flap portions (20) of the cover pockets. The in-folded upper and lower flap portions of the hexagon are attached to each other and to the triangular side flap portions, to form the pocket portion (25), with lock stitching (27) at the innermost juncture by the spine opening. A central top and bottom fold-over engages the spine of the book in stabilizing relation. The unitary hexagonal blanks can be economically mass produced from roll material (40).
US07758076B1

A tank caddy system that includes a pair of fixed rear wheels, an axle connecting the rear wheels, the axle having a first support for mounting a tank thereon, a single front wheel that swivels, and a generally rectangular plate mounted on the single front wheel wherein the plate has a second support for mounting the tank thereon. The first support includes two upwardly extending pins located adjacent a respective wheel. The plate includes a pair arms extending outwardly from the sides of the plate and the second support includes a pin extending upwardly from each arm. A pair of handles is secured to the legs of the tank. A pair of clamps for providing additional support to the tank is secured to a respective arm of the plate. Each of the pins of the first and second support fits within a respective leg of the tank.
US07758072B2

Disclosed is a pressure control apparatus of an airbag, which can obtain the same performance as in case of using a dual stage inflator even in case of using a single stage inflator deploying an airbag cushion by an explosive force of an explosive charge caused by the ignition of one igniter by having a pressure control apparatus for selectively communicating the interior of an airbag cushion and the exterior of an airbag housing without using the dual stage inflator deploying the airbag cushion by an explosive force of an explosive charge caused by the ignition of two igniters.
US07758064B2

An airbag device where a case and a lid are connected by engaging a hook of the case with a hook hole in the lid and where the hook moves in the hook hole toward the vehicle interior side when the lid recedes. Energy absorption characteristics when the lid recedes are improved by a simple structure. The hook (18) used for connection to the lid (20) and provided at the case (10) is engaged with the hook hole (25) of the lid (20). The hook hole (25) is a long hole elongated in the vertical direction, and in the middle of the long hole is provided a partition-like section (26) for partitioning the inside of the hook hole (25) into the upper half and the lower half. The hook (18) is engaged with that portion of the hook hole (25) which is lower than the partition-like section (26). As the lid (20) recedes, the hook (18) moves upward in the hook hole (25) while cutting the partition-like section (26).
US07758060B2

An integrated tow hook and vehicle bumper mounting bracket assembly including a mounting bracket including a frame mounting surface and a bumper mounting surface. A vehicle bumper assembly may be removably securable to the bumper mounting surface of the mounting bracket, and a tow hook may be removably securable to the frame mounting surface of the mounting bracket by one or more mechanical fasteners. The mechanical fastener used to secure the tow hook to the mounting bracket may further serve to secure the mounting bracket to a vehicle frame.
US07758056B2

A vehicle suspension system includes a pair of suspension assemblies mounted on a pair of spaced vehicle frame members for supporting a vehicle body on the vehicle wheels. A torsion axle extends between the pair of suspension assemblies and terminates in a pair of stub shafts. The axle is mounted on a pair of spaced frame bars attached to the vehicle frame. An air spring extends between the vehicle frame and an outer end of a support arm mounted on the torsion axle. The stub shafts are supported within an outer tube of the torsion axle by a plurality of elastomeric members. One end of each stub shaft is connected to a spindle arm which has a spindle extending from an opposite end of the arm. The outer tube of the torsion axle pivotally supports the air spring support arm and the axis of the torsion axle is coaxial with the pivot axis of the air spring support arm to provide a more compact and sturdy suspension assembly.
US07758054B2

The roller skate according to the invention is equipped with smaller inline rollers (40) arranged below the boot (10) and with outer, larger rollers (30), the upper parts of which protrude above the boot sole (11). This roller skate can be moved on four rollers (30) and (40) in the manner of a four-wheel roller skate, or, in certain phases, just on two inline rollers (40) in a similar manner to an inline skate.
US07758053B2

An ice skate strip-blade holder that provides a means to remove, replace, tension, and maintain tension in a strip-blade fastened and tensioned on the holder. In a preferred embodiment, the strip-blade holder assembly includes a front segment fixed to the skate plastic superstructure; a latched, pivoting rear segment arranged to apply and maintain tension in the strip-blade. In a preferred embodiment, the pivot and latch are positioned such that the pivot carries the majority of the tensile load maintained in the strip-blade and the latch carries a minor component of this tensile load. This arrangement provides for easy latch release. The latch provides release of the rear segment for subsequent pivoting and unhooking of the strip-blade for replacement.
US07758049B2

An amusement apparatus comprising a roulette wheel (102), a hi/lo betting area (112), wherein, in use, the roulette wheel (102) is arranged to be spun and a winning number generated thereby, the hi/lo betting area (112) being arranged to allow a player to place a bet on whether the winning number generated by a spin of the roulette wheel (102) will be higher or lower than the winning number of a preceding spin.
US07758043B2

By means of a feed conveyor (10), planar objects (12) accruing in an overlapping formation (S), in particular printed products, are fed to a deflecting device having at least one deflection member pair (24). This deflection member pair (24) has a deflection member (26) and a further deflection member (26′) disposed below it. These form, synchronously with the cycle of the supplied objects (12) and starting from a passage gap, a transport gap (72), and then, again, the passage gap. Downstream of the passage gap and transport gap (72), viewed in the feed direction (Z), a stop (20) is present, against which the respective object (12) is brought to bear with its leading edge (16) through the passage gap. The transport gap (72) acts in the evacuation direction of an evacuating conveyor, to which the deflection member pair (24) feeds the objects (12) in a timed manner.
US07758042B2

Sheets fed out from a sheet feeding portion, which is brought into pressure contact with the sheets by the upward movement of a sheet stacking portion to feed out the sheets, are separated and conveyed one by one while being upwardly curved. During the sheet feeding operation, the sheet stacking portion is sequentially moved up, and when the sheet feeding operation is completed, the sheet stacking portion is moved down. Further, a remaining amount indicating member moved with the upward movement of the sheet stacking portion to indicate the remaining amount of sheets is held at a position before the sheet stacking portion is moved down, by a holding mechanism, when the sheet feeding operation is completed and the sheet stacking portion is moved down.
US07758034B1

There is disclosed a sheet post-processing device which can staple a corner of a sheet bunch conveyed from an image forming device and makes a transverse width of a housing smaller or compact. By disposing a stapler in one end on a sheet processing tray inside a sheet conveying port, the transverse width of the housing is made smaller. For this purpose, the sheet post-processing stores sheets conveyed from the image forming device, matches the sheet bunch stored staples the matched sheet bunch and transfers the matched sheet bunch toward the other end of the sheet bunch and subsequently transfers the stapled sheet bunch toward one end of the sheet bunch.
US07758029B2

A cutting board assembly has a housing that has a plurality of side walls, a top wall and bottom wall that together define an internal storage space. The top wall has a cutting surface, and the bottom wall has at least one vent opening. A plurality of cutting sheets are stored inside the storage space.
US07758026B2

A humidification apparatus which makes possible individual humidification of the air in a cabin of a passenger or cargo aircraft makes available a conditioning fluid to be ejected into the cabin from an outlet nozzle (10). The conditioning fluid contains as a component water which is sprayed at a spraying point in very close spatial association with the outlet nozzle (10). To avoid undesired local cooling of the cabin air caused by vaporization of the sprayed water, the conditioning fluid contains an air flow conducted to the outlet nozzle, into which the water is sprayed. The air flow is supplied to the spraying point at a temperature which is higher by a defined amount than a desired effective temperature of the air flow after emerging from the outlet nozzle. In another embodiment the conditioning fluid contains water as its only component, the water being sprayed at a temperature above the cabin temperature.
US07758025B2

An apparatus for air treatment includes at least one reservoir which can be filled with a liquid, an air-conveying device and a device which ensures that for the treatment of the air to be treated the air comes into contact with at least a part of the liquid. A circulating device is provided, by which liquid in the reservoir is conveyed in a circuit out of the reservoir and back into the latter. For the purpose of sterilising the liquid, a device for mechanico-physical opening of cell membranes, for instance by electroporation or cavitation, is provided in the circuit. Such an apparatus can also be used for purifying exhaust air in a surface treatment installation.
US07758024B2

A dissolving water making unit and a bubble generating unit are provided. The dissolving water making unit includes a gas dissolving device for dissolving gas in water. The bubble generating unit includes a bubble generating nozzle and a bubble generating cartridge. The dissolving water making unit sucks water from a water source, and sucks gas to make dissolving water from a mixed solution in which the water and the gas are mixed together. The dissolving water is obtained by dissolving the gas in the water. The bubble generating unit generates microbubbles from the dissolving water supplied from the dissolving water making unit. The gas dissolving device includes a closed vessel; an inflow port which is provided in the closed vessel, and which is provided for causing the mixed liquid sucked from the source to flow into the closed vessel; an exhaust valve which is provided in an upper portion of the closed vessel, and which is provided for exhausting excess gas from the mixed liquid; and an outflow port which is provided near a bottom portion of the closed vessel, and which is provided for causing the dissolving water to flow out from the closed vessel to the bubble generating unit. Between the inflow port and the outflow port, the closed vessel has a retention region in which the dissolving water flows slowly, in which air is dissolved in the dissolving water to substantial saturation, and in which the dissolving water hardly contains fine bubbles.
US07758014B2

A miniature needle valve having an improved internal body-to-bonnet metal-to-metal seal. The body seal incorporates a novel dovetail feature that improves the metal-to-metal contact forces as pressures increase. The space requirements of the seal are minimized in order to fit within a miniature valve body. The valve body can use dual outlet passageways to further minimize space requirements and improve the valve's flow characteristics. The body-to-bonnet seal improvements increase the pressure limits of the valve beyond similar-sized miniature needle valves of the prior art.
US07758013B2

A motor-operated valve includes a driving unit including a rotor and a stator, a feed screw mechanism, and a valve main body unit. In order to remove backlash intrinsic in the feed screw mechanism, a coil spring that urges a valve body in a direction away from a valve seat is arranged in a valve chamber. A spring bearing that forms a housing, in which the coil spring is housed, in the valve chamber is provided. Therefore, the large valve chamber is secured in the valve main body unit and passing sound is reduced when a fluid passes the motor-operated valve. Contact surfaces of the valve body and the coil spring can be aligning curved surfaces that absorb a bend of the coil spring.
US07758001B2

A system and method of releasably mounting a device, usually to a ceiling, is disclosed. The system has a ceiling mounted unit (200) and a device mounted unit (250), releasably joined preferably by an magnetic coupling (202) which engages a floating plate (252) allowing for positive coupling even if the units are misaligned. A safety latch (256) with a locking/latching claw (260) and ejection/disengagement prong (266) provide positive locking and a method of separating the units despite strong adhesion forces.
US07757997B2

A clip for fastening an article to a panel having a hole has a base and a self expanding head attached to the base. The self-expanding head has at least one column extending from the base to a platform that is spaced from the base. First and second flexible beams are attached to the platform at one end and to the base at an opposite end. The first flexible beam has a first plurality of retention shoulders and the second flexible beam has a second plurality of retention shoulders. Each plurality of retention shoulders includes at least one retention shoulder that is spaced from every other retention shoulder in a vertical direction.
US07757987B2

A mobile shredder comprises a truck having an enclosure providing a storage volume for storage of shredded material, and a rotary shredder mounted in the enclosure outside the storage volume. A prime mover is disposed in an engine/transmission compartment of the truck. An electric motor is disposed outside the engine/transmission compartment and has an output shaft mechanically coupled to an input shaft of the rotary shredder. The rotary shredder is driven solely by the electric motor. An AC generator disposed outside the engine/transmission compartment is driven by the prime mover to generate the electrical power that powers the electric motor. The AC generator is configured to have a rated power output of about 90 to 180 kVA. The rotary shredder is configured to have a shredding capacity of 3000 to 6000 pounds per hour of typical mixed office waste when continuously operated at a nominal rated speed.
US07757968B2

A trigger dispensing device for the concurrent dispensing of two or more fluids separately kept in a tank is disclosed. The dispensing device comprises a deformable elastic membrane whose pumping elements can be affected by a trigger for dispensing fluids. Membrane is held in position between a frame and a counter frame, whereas trigger is hinged to an arm of the counter frame. The device is provided with a delivery valve and with a check valve integrated in the membrane. The device is adapted for the concurrent dispensing of two or more fluids and is provided with a structure comprising a reduced number of components.
US07757966B2

A device is disclosed that uses a flow-control methodology to control sprays at very high precision and frequency. The device is based on an enhanced Coanda effect. The control flow is selectively applied to the region in which we desire the jet to vector and control the profile (width) of the jet. In one embodiment, the control flow is applied at the desired circumferential location by the action of a rotting disk with a flow passage of a size that spreads the jet the desired amount. The size of this flow passage may be controlled by using two overlapping disks with large holes in each. By rotating one disk relative to the other, the size of the resultant passage can be modified.
US07757964B2

An air cap for keeping a spray nozzle with a flat spray clean is presented. The air cap contain the nozzle and has a slit for the spray from the nozzle, through which opening an air flow is flowing in the same direction as the flat spray from the nozzle. The air cap is divided into a back component comprising an internal thread, and a front component comprising the slit. The components are rotatable relative to one another.
US07757954B2

A remotely-alterable flexible electronic-ink based display device employing a flexible addressable display assembly including a layer of electronic ink including a bi-stable non-volatile imaging material. The device includes a flexible integrated circuit layer having a storage element for storing instructions, programs and data, and a programmed processor in electrical communication with the addressable display assembly and a flexible antenna structure. A flexible signal transmitting layer transmits signals from the flexible antenna structure to a remote activator module. A flexible signal receiving layer receives electromagnetic signals from the remote activator module, using the antenna structure. A flexible on-board battery power layer, operably connected to the flexible integrated circuit layer, supplies electrical power the integrated circuit layer, which is responsive to electromagnetic signals received from the remote activator module by the antenna layer and the signal receiving layer. The addressable display assembly is responsive to output signals generated by the programmed processor, to display the determined graphical indicia. The flexible antenna layer, flexible integrated circuit layer, flexible signal transmitting layer, flexible signal receiving layer, and flexible on-board battery power layer are arranged and stacked together behind and within the spatial extent of the flexible addressable display assembly so as to form the remotely-alterable electronic-ink based display device having a flexible stacked-layer construction.
US07757953B2

Magnetic stripe readers that are configured to extract information from magnetic media and encrypt part of the extracted information are provided. Embodiments of magnetic stripe readers include measures to resist tampering and inputs to receive unencrypted information from input devices. One embodiment includes a housing containing a magnetic reading head connected to a decoder circuit that is connected to an encryption engine. The magnetic reading head generates a signal indicative of a magnetic field. The decoder circuit is configured to extract data from the output of the magnetic reading head and the encryption engine is configured to encrypt a portion of the extracted data and the encryption engine is configured to pass a portion of the extracted data unencrypted.
US07757937B2

A license of an optional feature used in a transmission source apparatus can be properly transferred to a transmission destination apparatus. A first apparatus outputs a first license transmission code based on an identifier of designated application software and an identifier of the first apparatus. On receiving the first license transmission code, a second apparatus outputs a second license transmission code based on the first license transmission code, an identifier of the second apparatus, and a unique identifier. On receiving the second license transmission code, the first apparatus outputs a third license transmission code based on the second license transmission code and designated transfer details, and updates license information in the first apparatus in accordance with the designated transfer details. On receiving the third license transmission code, the second apparatus updates license information in the second apparatus based on the third license transmission code.
US07757930B2

Productivity is to be improved in assembling a semiconductor integrated circuit device. A matrix substrate is provided and semiconductor chips are disposed on a first heating stage, then the matrix substrate is disposed above the semiconductor chips on the first heating stage, subsequently the semiconductor chips and the matrix substrate are bonded to each other temporarily by thermocompression bonding while heating the chips directly by the first heating stage, thereafter the temporarily bonded matrix substrate is disposed on a second heating stage adjacent to the first heating stage, and then on the second heating stage the semiconductor chips are thermocompression-bonded to the matrix substrate while being heated directly by the second heating stage.
US07757914B2

A bicycle fork mount for receiving and securing a front axle hub assembly of a through-axle type front bicycle wheel, but which is also temporarily adaptable for receiving a fork of a skewer type front bicycle wheel includes a fork mount body having a hollow for insertably receiving a front axle hub assembly of a through-axle front bicycle wheel. An adapter is received in the hollow and has a fork receiving skewer associated therewith that is configured for translational movement relative to the adapter. A biasing assembly is disposed between the adapter and the skewer and urges the skewer toward an ends-extended configuration in which a pair of fork receiving ends of the skewer are oppositely disposed beyond the lateral sides of the fork mount body and are configured for receiving and releasably securing the fork of a bicycle having a skewer type front wheel to the bicycle fork mount.
US07757910B2

A shoe-cover dispenser is described, including, for example, features that facilitate the simultaneous loading of multiple shoe covers and/or features that prevent incomplete release of shoe covers. The shoe-cover dispenser can include a shell and a removable shoe-cover cartridge sized to fit within the shell. The removable shoe-cover cartridge can be configured to releasably hold a plurality of shoe covers, such as by releasably holding three or more clips attached to an elastic element of each shoe cover. These clips can be preloaded into the removable shoe-cover cartridge prior to delivery to an end-user. Release of a shoe cover can be initiated by downward movement of a foot pad. To prevent tilting of the foot pad, the shell can include a guide plate substantially abutting a substantially vertical side of the foot pad and/or an alignment rod positioned within a substantially vertical hole in the foot pad.
US07757907B2

The present invention is directed to a spout having an evacuation structure for a flexible container. The evacuation structure ensures that the walls of the flexible container do not block the spout of the container during evacuation of fluid from inside the container. The evacuation structure additionally pivots away from the spout during the filling of the container so that the evacuation structure does not impede the fluid entering the container during filling.
US07757896B2

The present application describes a product dispenser. The product dispenser may include at least one macro-ingredient source, at least one micro-ingredient source positioned about the dispenser, a diluent source, a dispensing valve, a number of pumps or metering devices, and a user interface. The user interface receives a request for a product type and instructs the pumps or metering devices to dispense a predetermined type and ratio of macro-ingredients, micro-ingredients, and diluent to the dispensing valve for a predetermined flow rate.
US07757892B2

A closure device attachable above a location of a closed receptacle, comprising a stopper portion with a cylindrical pour-out spout connected or connectable to the receptacle, and a screw cap screwed onto the lower part, and a cylindrical piercing element that in the axial direction is open at both sides and is displaceably mounted in the lower part, wherein catch portions move the piercing element helically downwards when screwing off the cap for the first time, wherein the piercing element is equipped with at least one cutting element.
US07757887B2

A beverage can cap member (16, 100) is configured so that its exterior surface (28) extending radially inwardly from the rim (18) or rim forming portion (140) is substantially flat or continuous, or has a slight curve from a position adjacent from the rim (18) or rim forming portion (140). The cap member (16, 100) may have a countersink (160) which is filled with a filler material including a curable adhesive, an insert (180) of a natural or synthetic material or the like. The filler material increases the structural strength of the cap member (16, 100) to an extent that it can be made of a relatively thinner material and still complies with the minimum peaking pressure of the industrial standard.
US07757879B2

A lid for a container having a built-in opening feature comprises a flexible laminate comprising an upper layer and a lower layer, a pair of radially spaced concentric lines of weakness being formed in the laminate, an outer one of the lines of weakness being formed in the upper layer and an inner one of the lines of weakness being formed in the lower layer, wherein the upper and lower layers in an annular region between the lines of weakness are readily peeled apart, and wherein the upper and lower layers outside the annular region are laminated together with an adhesive providing a bond with a greater peel strength than that required to separate the layers in the annular region.
US07757854B2

A unitary, reusable, deformable protective normally flat body spatially conformable to an object to define a protective carrier including a hollow case or body member defining a continuous, uninterrupted cavity, the cavity being filled with a preferably unitary preformed open-celled bat extending throughout the cavity, the body defining a central portion and opposed side portions contiguous thereto and a pair of opposed end portions defining cavities coextensive with the other cavities, unitary operative valve means for introducing air into and withdrawing air from all cavities, the central and opposed side portions being deformable to wrap around an article and the respective end portions being deformable to fold over the engaged side portions when enclosing an article, the valve means being accessible when the article is fully wrapped with the body member.
US07757848B2

Packages that include security features to inhibit tampering or theft are provided. Such packages can include locking elements to secure the packages in a closed configuration or can include active alarm elements to prevent tampering or theft. Additionally, such containers can include a novel hinge configuration, which allows an integrally formed hinge to be curved, and a spine of a package to have a generally arcuate cross-sectional contour.
US07757839B2

Slides for use on an endless belt conveyor belt and wear pads for use on slides for endless belt conveyors.
US07757833B2

A currency processing apparatus, which includes a bill processing device for paying dispensing and depositing a bill, a coin processing device for paying dispensing and depositing a coin, and a stacked coin processing device for keeping a stacked coin, comprises inventory management means for administrating cash data of each of the devices, a memory for storing the cash data and remaining data, and controlling means for dispensing currencies deposited into the bill processing device and the coin processing device based on the remaining data stored in the memory and inventory amount in the coin-roll storing device.
US07757831B2

A method, and apparatus in the form of a hydraulic unit, for triggering at least one clutch in a hydraulic circuit for an axle transmission of a vehicle. The method and apparatus make it possible to simply and very quickly make available an adequate amount of working fluid at the required pressure to at least one clutch, according to the driving situation, in order to close the clutch.
US07757828B2

The present invention broadly comprises a torque transfer apparatus for a torque converter including at least one connection element attached to an inner circumferential surface for a cover of the converter; a lock-up clutch, and at least one resilient element connected to the connection element and the piston plate. The clutch includes a piston plate with extruded rivets and the resilient element is connected to the piston plate with the extruded rivets. In some aspects, the clutch includes a friction material having inner and outer radii and the extruded rivets are disposed at a radial distance greater than the inner radius; the extruded rivets are disposed between the inner and outer radii; a radial segment for the connection element extends radially from the inner surface and has an edge at a greater radial distance than the inner radius; or the resilient element is between the inner and outer radii.
US07757814B2

A ladder stabilizer for ladders with tubular rungs, includes a rigid stabilizer bar having a top, a bottom, a first end and a second end. A first leg extends downwardly below the bottom of the stabilizer bar at the first end and a second leg extends downwardly below the bottom of the stabilizer bar at the second end. A rung attachment bar is provided which is adapted to extend through a tubular rung of a ladder. The rung attachment bar has a first end and a second end. Clamps are provided for securing the rung attachment bar in parallel spaced relation to the stabilizer bar.
US07757811B2

Multilayer articles having acoustical absorbance properties are disclosed. Methods of making and using the multilayer articles are also disclosed.
US07757793B2

Thermally stable polycrystalline constructions comprise a body having a polycrystalline ultra-hard phase and a plurality of empty voids. A population of the voids can be filled with a reaction product. The body is substantially free of a catalyst material. The construction comprises a first support member attached to the body by a first braze material. A second support member is attached to the body and the first support member by a second braze material. The construction may include a third support member attached to the body that is integral or separate from one of the other support members. The braze materials used to attached the support members can be the same or different, as can be the materials used to form the different support members.
US07757775B2

A technique distributes localized stress acting on a tubular. The tubular is formed with an inner layer and an outer layer that is compliant relative to the inner layer. A force distribution material is disposed between the inner layer and the outer layer to spread any concentrated loads acting against the tubular. The compliant nature of the outer layer causes it to distort against the force distribution material when acted on by a concentrated external load. The outer compliant layer and the force distribution material cooperate to isolate and protect the inner layer from displacements of the surrounding subterranean material.
US07757774B2

A method for manufacturing the expandable tubular comprises forming a plurality of corrugated portions on the expandable tubular and separating adjacent corrugated portions by an uncorrugated portion. Thereafter, the expandable tubular is reformed to an uniform outer diameter. The expandable tubular may be used to complete a wellbore.
US07757771B2

A wellhead seal unit for sealing a subsea oil and/or gas well at the wellhead. The unit comprises a sleeve, sealingly engaged to the workstring and to which, blow out preventer rams can engage. The unit allows the workstring to be rotated and reciprocated within the wellbore without releasing the seal. Methods of cleaning the sealed well and performing an inflow test are described.
US07757767B2

A lock for a perforating gun system comprising, a housing, a cylinder formed in the housing, a piston assembly disposed within the cylinder, and anchoring arms coupled with the piston assembly. Detonation of the shaped charges of an associated perforating gun produces a pressure surge which is communicated to a surface of the piston assembly. Appropriate movement of the piston assembly outwardly rotates the anchoring arms into anchoring engagement with an associated tubular. Thus the pressure from the detonation event will anchor a perforating system within its associated tubular.
US07757766B2

Of the many compositions and methods provided herein, an example method includes a method of treating a subterranean formation that comprises combining components comprising water and a density-matched suspension to prepare a treatment fluid, wherein the density-matched suspension comprises a suspending liquid and a solid particle suspended in the suspending liquid, and introducing the treatment fluid into a well bore. An example composition includes a suspension that comprises a suspending liquid comprising a hydrophobic liquid, wherein the hydrophobic liquid hydrolyzes when placed in contact with an aqueous fluid to form hydrophilic products, and a solid particle suspended in the suspending liquid, wherein the suspension is a density-matched suspension.
US07757761B2

Production of liquids into a production string is regulated at inlets to the production string. An annular space is defined between a base pipe and a surrounding screen. The base pipe has inlets near one end of the screen and an overlaying shroud that spans over the screen and the inlet to the base pipe so as to define a restricted annular path to the base pipe opening and within the screen. A porous material is placed in the annular space and extends over the base pipe opening. If gas with liquid is produced, the gas having a lower density and viscosity preferentially gets through the porous media while the denser and more viscous water or other liquid is kept out due to greater resistance to flow offered by the porous media.
US07757759B2

A torque sub for use with a top drive is disclosed. A method of connecting threaded tubular members for use in a wellbore includes operating a top drive. The top drive rotates a first threaded tubular member relative to a second threaded tubular member. The method further includes measuring a torque exerted on the first tubular member by the top drive. The torque is measured using a torque shaft rotationally coupled to the top drive and the first tubular. The torque shaft has a strain gage disposed thereon. The method further includes wirelessly transmitting the measured torque from the torque shaft to a stationary interface; measuring rotation of the first tubular member; compensating the rotation measurement by subtracting a deflection of the top drive and/or the first tubular member; determining acceptability of the threaded connection; and stopping rotation of the first threaded member when the threaded connection is complete or if the threaded connection is unacceptable.
US07757757B1

A baffle apparatus and method for use in a well to mitigate convective in-well flow. The baffle apparatus includes a baffle member attached to a rod. The baffle member prevents vertical flow of water in the well after the baffle apparatus is deployed in the well. At least one centralizer is attached to the rod to maintain correct orientation of the baffle member within the well. The baffle member and the at least one centralizer allow well water to pass during deployment and recovery of the baffle apparatus.
US07757748B2

The present invention provides an electron-beam furnace and a melting method that, in producing an ingot by melting a metal with an electron beam, can suppress the contamination of new impurities in the ingot production, are less likely to again result in inclusion of once evaporated impurities from a molten metal pool within a hearth or a mold, and can be improved in utilization rate. The electron-beam furnace for melting a refractory metal includes a feeder unit for raw materials, a melting unit for raw materials, which is connected to the feeder unit for raw materials and, at the same time, is defined by a furnace wall and a ceiling wall, and includes at least a hearth, a water-cooled mold, and an electron gun, and an evacuation unit for exhaust gas connected to the melting unit for raw materials. In this electron beam furnace, at least one of the furnace wall and the ceiling wall is lined with titanium or stainless steel, and in addition, plural fin-shaped members formed of titanium or stainless steel are provided at the ceiling wall. A lining, which can be attached and detached, is provided on the inner face of the electron beam furnace.
US07757746B2

A pouring method and a device in a vacuum sealed process to produce a thin-wall cast by using a mold framing for the a vacuum sealed process, and a as-cast product using the pouring method are provided. The pouring method comprises the steps of: sealingly covering the surface of a pattern plate by a shielding member; placing a mold framing on the shielding member and then putting a fill that does not include any binder in the mold framing; sealingly covering an upper surface of the fill and then evacuating an inside of the mold framing to suck the shielding member to the fill to shape the shielding member; removing the pattern plate from the shielding member, thereby forming a mold half that has a molding surface; forming another mold half in a similar way and mating the mold halves to define a molding cavity; pouring molten metal in the molding cavity; and releasing the negative pressure in the mold framing to take out a as-cast product, and further comprises the step of decompressing the molding cavity before pouring molten metal in the mated mold.
US07757745B2

A method for manufacturing an investment casting core uses a metallic blank having a thickness between parallel first and second faces less than a width and length transverse thereto. The blank is locally thinned from at least one of the first and second faces. The blank is through-cut across the thickness.
US07757741B2

In a peeling tape attaching apparatus for attaching a peeling tape (4) on a surface protective film (11) attached on the surface of a wafer (20), the wafer is supported on a movable table (31) with the surface protective film up and the peeling tape is supplied on the surface protective film of the wafer. The movable table is moved in such a manner that an end (28) of the wafer is located under a peeling tape attaching unit (46), and pressure is exerted by pressing the peeling tape attaching unit against the surface protective film of the wafer via the peeling tape. After that, the movable table is moved toward the other end (29) of the wafer, and upon movement of the movable table, by a predetermined distance, from the peeling tape attaching unit, the pressure is canceled.
US07757732B2

A water dispenser mounted on a door of a refrigerator freezer that is provided with a spigot that is movable between inner and outer dispensing positions. The dispenser includes a dispenser housing having a dispensing cavity and the spigot is movably mounted in the top of the dispensing cavity. When the spigot is in the inner dispensing position water can be dispensed into a container positioned in the dispensing cavity. In the outer dispensing position the spigot can dispense water into a container positioned outside the dispensing cavity. The dispenser housing can be provided with a movable tray in the bottom of the dispensing cavity. The movable tray can be withdrawn to support a container under the spigot in the inner dispensing position and extended to support a container under the spigot in the outer dispensing position.
US07757728B2

A funnel with a shut-off valve terminates the flow of fluid from a reservoir to a spout passageway upon activation of the shut-off valve. The flow of fluid is terminated when a float contacts a seal mounted within the spout passageway. An upper magnet is mounted above the seal and a lower magnet is attached to the float, a portion of which extends over the lower magnet. In the open position, the force provided between the magnets serves to provide lift to the float. When the fluid level in the container rises, additional lift is provided until the lower magnet comes sufficiently within the range of the upper magnet causing the lower magnet to be drawn to the upper magnet. The force between the magnets is sufficient to provide compression of the seal by the float. A ball joint is provided between a control rod and the float to correct misalignment between the float and the seal. A significant portion of the float extends beyond the lower end of the spout passageway to reduce the influence of forces on the float. In addition, flanges are provided at the lower end of the float to direct fluid away from the float preventing premature closing of the valve.
US07757727B2

A heat management system for a high pressure gas tank comprising a loop circulation path for the gas including a path through an internal heat exchanger in the tank and a path through a heat exchanger external to the tank, wherein, in the instance of refueling, the refueling gas circulates multiple times in the loop through the internal heat exchanger and the external heat exchanger and in the course of circulation, a portion of the gas from the refuel line is introduced into the tank. In a reverse circulation during driving, the tank is warmed by heat exchange from the external heat exchanger to the internal heat exchanger.
US07757724B2

An improved medication dispensing device includes an apyrexia receptacle, a transport pipeline, a perfusion device, a filter, and a dispensing needle, which operates in an environment in compliance with Class 100 laminar air ventilation. The perfusion device erected at the middle of the transport pipeline which has two ends linking to the apyrexia receptacle and the filter, respectively. In operation, the perfusion device pumps the prepared medication solution from the apyrexia receptacle to get through the filter to remove particles and bacterium, and a thin tubular dispensing needle which punctures the rubber plug of an aseptic bottle. An axial groove rendered in middle section of the dispensing needle forms a pressurized seal part with the rubber plug resiliently wrapped around at the middle of the dispensing needle to discharge redundant air pressure accumulating in the aseptic bottle while keeps outside air from entering.
US07757719B2

A pipe that is to be integrated into the aircraft piping, is characterized in that it is produced from a composite material that includes a fiber-reinforced geopolymer resin matrix.
US07757717B2

A fluid transport/containment apparatus includes a fluid-bearing module and an actuation module. The fluid-bearing module includes a substrate and fluid transport/containment elements distributed therein, with one or more of the fluid transport/containment elements having microfluidic dimensions. The actuation module is detachably secured to the fluid-bearing module such that the actuation elements are operatively interfaced with the fluid transport/containment elements.
US07757713B2

Hydraulic valve having a valve body and housing, which has a first, second and third cutout. A hydraulic medium is fed via the first cutout. The hydraulic medium is fed to a pressure consumer via the second cutout and to a pressure sink via the third cutout. The valve body moves to and fro between two end positions. From a second end position, the hydraulic medium passes from the first to the second cutout. In a first end position, the hydraulic medium passes from the second to the third cutout. Owing to the valve body, a constant flow cross section for the hydraulic medium, released by the first cutout, arises during a switching operation from the first into the second end position in a fixed time span, resulting in a maximum flow cross section being achieved when the valve body is in the second end position.
US07757709B2

The integrated jet fluid level shutoff sensor vent assembly is designed for use in conjunction with a non-pressurizing tank fast fill system, and to support automatic shutoff fast fill refueling of vehicles. The integrated jet fluid level shutoff sensor vent assembly is mounted to a fuel tank and exposed inside the fuel tank for sensing a predetermined level of fuel within the fuel tank and allowing fully vented refueling.
US07757704B2

A coupling assembly includes a female unit and a male unit which is removably connected with the female unit. A valve unit is located in the female unit and includes a core with two flexible disks on two ends thereof. A flange extends radially outward from a lower end of the core and is rested on a support frame in the female unit. The core extends through a through hole in a lower end of sleeve in the female unit. A plurality of paths are defined through the lower end of the sleeve so that by shifting the core to let either of two flexible disks to seal the paths in one direction, the direction of fluid flow can be controlled. The movement of the core is made by moving the sleeve.
US07757703B2

A pressure regulator is provided. In one embodiment, the pressure regulator includes a body having an internal cavity for receiving a pressurized medium and inlet and outlet ports that enable a pressurized medium to enter the internal cavity at a first pressure and exit at a second pressure. The exemplary pressure regulator also includes a control piston disposed within the internal cavity that is configured to move in response to a change in pressure within the internal cavity. The pressure regulator of this embodiment also includes a damping feature within the internal cavity that is configured to oppose the movement of the control piston. Other embodiments of pressure regulators and systems are also provided.
US07757700B2

A wash cylinder or chamber for an automated cleaning station to clean an object or a person's body part includes nozzles on the interior of the cylinder, the nozzles of one embodiment comprising an increasing roll angle providing a novel spray pattern. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include fluid guidance and conveyance structures, angled nozzles, sealing structures, finger guards, nozzle ribs, wash chamber seating mechanisms and drains, and nozzle inlays having a plurality of nozzles. Also disclosed are methods of washing an object or body part using a wash cylinder or chamber and methods of assembling a wash cylinder or chamber.
US07757698B2

An inhaler device comprises a fibrous cylindrical plug with a paper wrapper around the plug. An aromatic substance is applied along the centerline of the plug. Such substance may include eucalyptus oil or menthol. An airtight foil surrounds the paper wrapper and the ends of the cylindrical plug. The inhaler device may be used to ease nasal congestion and quell cough.
US07757694B2

A method of turning a medical device, having a magnetically responsive element associated with its distal end, at an operating point within an operating region inside a patient's body from an initial direction to a desired final direction, through the movement of at least one external source magnet. The at least one external source magnet is moved in such a way as to change the direction of the distal end of the magnetic medical device from the initial direction to the desired final direction without substantial deviation from the plane containing the initial direction and the desired final direction.
US07757693B2

The invention relates to a two-part mandibular protrusion splint (1) for preventing snoring and/or obstructive sleep apnoea, comprising a lower part (2) and an upper part (3), comprising shaping and flexurally rigid trays (2a, 3a) which are open towards the mandibula and maxilla respectively, where the bottom surfaces of the outsides of the two trays (2a, 3a) are connected to one another in such a way that they are continuously adjustable relative to one another in the longitudinal direction, and a corresponding ready-to-use set for the production or restoration of mandibular protrusion splints consisting of (i) shaping and flexurally rigid trays (2a, 3a) with preformed attachment elements on the outsides of each of the bottom surfaces; (ii) one or more adjustment screws (10) for connecting the attachment elements; and (iii) optionally use instructions.
US07757692B2

An air passageway obstruction device includes a frame structure and a flexible membrane overlying the frame structure. The frame structure is collapsible upon advancement of the device into the air passageway, expandable into a rigid structure upon deploying in the air passageway and recollapsible upon removal from the air passageway. The flexible membrane obstructs inhaled air flow into a lung portion communicating with the air passageway. The device may be removed after deployment in an air passageway by recollapsing the device and pulling the device proximally through a catheter.
US07757690B2

Systems and methods provide for gathering of patient related data during non-sleep periods and modulating a therapy delivered to the patient during sleep using the gathered data. Data associated with a patient is gathered while the patient is awake. A therapy delivered to the patient during patient sleep is adjusted using the acquired data. The therapy delivered to the patient may include one or more of a respiratory therapy, such as a positive airway pressure (xPAP) therapy, a sleep disordered breathing therapy, a cardiac rhythm management therapy, such as a cardiac overdrive pacing therapy, a medication therapy, or a drug delivery therapy. The therapy delivered to the patient may be optimized using the acquired data.
US07757687B2

A solar air conditioning apparatus includes an inlet assembly (20), an outlet assembly (30), a solar collector assembly (10), connecting assemblies (50) and joining members (40). The solar collector assembly includes a plurality of parallel connected solar collectors (11) disposed between inlet units (22) of the inlet assembly and outlet units (32) of the outlet assembly. The solar collector includes a plurality of series connected solar collecting units (12). The solar collecting unit has a bottom plate (12d), a heat-absorbing plate (12f), a brace plate (12g) and a transparent panel (12a). The bottom plate and the heat-absorbing plate respectively have first and second fastening structures (123, 124) and first and second clasping structures (121, 122) for joining the solar collecting units together. The connecting assemblies series connecting the solar collecting units, the inlet and the outlet assemblies. The joining members parallel connecting the inlet units and the outlet units.
US07757680B2

A CCV apparatus that exhausts blow-by gas from a crankcase effectively and thereby prevents pressure in a crankcase from excessively increasing may include: a lower case, a middle case comprising a body, an upper plate and a cup wherein the upper plate is provided with a blow-by gas passageway coupled with a filter in the cup for flowing blow-by gas into the body therethrough and at least a gas hole formed in the upper plate outside the cup for flowing the filtered blow-by gas in the body to the exterior of the cup, and an upper case enclosing an opening at an upper end of the cup. The apparatus further comprises a by-pass passageway selectively detouring the blow-by gas from the inlet pipe according to a pressure of the blow-by gas in the inlet pipe wherein the by-pass passageway is mounted at the exterior of the cases.
US07757675B2

A centrifugal supercharger is provided. One embodiment of the supercharger comprises a two-piece housing wherein a parting area is substantially aligned with a rotational axis of a drive- or impeller shaft. Another embodiment comprises a sleeve, or intermediate member disposed substantially between the housing and a bearing assembly(s) located within the supercharger housing. Another embodiment comprises a disengagement device located between the supercharger impeller and the engine. The disengagement device allows selective disengagement of the impeller from the engine. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained therein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US07757670B2

A fuel supply system for a general purpose internal combustion engine is equipped with a sub-fuel tank that retains gasoline fuel supplied from a main fuel tank and houses the high-pressure pump in its interior. In other words, the pump is immersed in the gasoline fuel retained in the tank, so that if an air pocket should occur in the fuel supply pipe between the main fuel tank and pump, the air will be discharged from the sub-fuel tank to the exterior through a fuel return pipe etc., thereby ensuring that the pump does not suck in air. Since fuel injectors can therefore inject gasoline fuel immediately, starting performance is enhanced.
US07757666B2

An engine control system comprises a torque control module and a fueling control module. The torque control module selectively generates a deactivation signal for a first cylinder of a plurality of cylinders of an engine based on a torque request. The fueling control module halts fuel delivery to the first cylinder based on the deactivation signal. The torque control module increases a spark advance of the engine at a first time after the fueling control module halts fuel injection for the first cylinder. The first time corresponds to an initial time combustion fails to occur in the first cylinder because fuel delivery has been halted.
US07757657B2

A system includes a cylinder selection module and a valve deactivation module. The cylinder selection module selects cylinders of an engine for active fuel management. The valve deactivation module deactivates intake valves of selected cylinders of the engine before deactivating exhaust valves of the selected cylinders when an engine speed of the engine is less than or equal to a predetermined speed.
US07757656B2

An internal combustion engine for a small planing boat for reducing the lateral width of an oil pan in conformity to the configuration of the bottom while securing the filtering surface area of an oil strainer. In addition, a vertical width of the oil pan is maintained to be small to thereby lower the total height of the internal combustion engine. In an internal combustion engine for a small planing boat, an oil pan is provided at the bottom portion of the internal combustion engine with an oil passage for communicating with an oil pump being formed inside the oil pan. A vertical wall of the oil passage is partially cut away to form communication openings each communicating between the inside and outside of the oil passage with the oil strainers being interposed in the communication openings substantially vertically to divide the oil passage into inside and outside.
US07757653B2

A gasket assembly for an internal combustion engine having a cylinder head gasket and an exhaust manifold gasket. The cylinder head gasket and the exhaust manifold gasket have a common layer of gasket material. The gasket assembly is formed by stamping a cylinder head gasket portion for the engine in one region of a common layer of gasket material concurrently with stamping an exhaust gasket portion for the engine in an adjacent region of the common layer of material.
US07757650B2

The gas engine for burning a gaseous fuel-air mixture includes a combustion chamber containing the gaseous fuel-air mixture, at least one ignition device projecting into the combustion chamber to ignite the gaseous fuel-air mixture and having a heating device serving as an ignition source, and a mounting unit separating the heating device from the fuel-air mixture to be ignited. The mounting unit includes a heatable section in contact with the fuel-air mixture to be ignited, and the heating device is designed to heat the heatable section in such a way that the heatable section has a temperature required to ignite the fuel-air mixture.
US07757646B2

A camshaft support structure of an internal combustion engine (10) includes a camshaft (26, 30) that drives an intake valve (18) or an exhaust valve (20); a head cover (34) that houses the camshaft (26, 30); an upper bearing portion (42) which is provided on the head cover (34) and supports the camshaft (26, 30); a lower bearing portion (54) which is attached to the head cover (34) and makes a pair with the upper bearing portion (42) to retain the camshaft (26,30); a rocker arm (22, 24) that transmits driving force from the camshaft (26, 30) to the intake valve (18) or the exhaust valve (20); and a rocker arm support portion (56) that inhibits the rocker arm (22, 24) from falling out of position by being provided near and directly above the rocker arm (22, 24).
US07757642B2

The present invention concerns a boiler tube plug, which is used to plug holes left in drum walls after removal of failed boiler tubes in industrial power boilers, condensers, or heat exchangers. The present invention concerns a new and innovative boiler tube sheet plug for power boilers addressing the needs in the art. The boiler tube plug of the present invention may be used in evaporators, condensers, heat exchangers and other power boilers as appropriate as known in the art.
US07757631B2

Methods and apparatuses for forming components or circuits by ejecting a fluid including materials in a single ligament are disclosed.
US07757630B2

A voltage block device, for preventing the negative electric potential from transferred to the coating material source, has a switching device including a slider which is selectively slidable between first and second positions and has an inlet port fluidly communicated with the coating material source and an outlet port fluidly communicated with the spray, a reservoir including first and second chambers, the inlet and outlet ports are fluidly communicated with the first and second chambers, respectively when the slider is at the first position, and the inlet and outlet ports are fluidly communicated with the second and first chambers, respectively when the slider is at the second position.
US07757629B2

Methods and apparatus for coating optical articles, such as optical lenses, are provided. In one aspect, an optical article is placed in a holder and a sheet of coating material is discharged from a nozzle, such as from a fan coater nozzle, onto the optical article to form a coating on the optical article.
US07757624B2

A bookmark that has a wire-like elongate member which forms a between-page portion, a top portion and a spine-adjacent portion. The between-page portion is a uniplanar bending of the wire-like elongate member which includes different subportions. The subportions extend in different directions and include at least one subportion that extends along a line that is transverse to the spine-adjacent portion. The spine-adjacent portion is oriented with respect to the between-page portion such that the spine-adjacent portion extends along the spine of a book. The top portion connects the between-page portion and spine-adjacent portion and can be positioned over a top edge of a book. The wire-like elongate member is adapted to hold various items.
US07757617B2

A table may include a table top with first and second sections that are connected by a hinge to allow the section to move between a folded position and an unfolded position. The table may also include legs that are movable between a use position and a storage position relative to the table top. The hinge may facilitate folding of the table top when the legs are in the storage position. On the other hand, the hinge may resist folding of the table top when the legs are in the extended position. In addition, the table may include components that expand and/or contract in different fashions in response to changes in temperature. For example, the table top and the frame may be constructed from different materials with different coefficients of expansion in response to temperature changes. The table is preferably sized and configured to accommodate these differences in expansion and contraction.
US07757611B2

A railroad freight car may have a body for carrying lading. The body may be a gondola car body. The car body may include a decking or floor structure, and may include longitudinally extending side beams bordering the floor structure. The connection of the side beams to the floor structure may be may without the use of a dedicated side sill. The car body structure may include cross-bearers and side beam stiffeners that are joined together by structural knees. The car body may also include clean out ports to facilitate cleaning of the lading receptacle.
US07757608B2

A rail non-contact vehicle includes wheels, a vehicle main body supported by the wheels, and a steering control system. The steering control system includes a control section configured to control a steering of the wheels in a non-mechanical manner, and a drive section configured to mechanically drive the steering of the wheels. The control section includes a first detector configured to detect 1-dimensional coordinate data of a target route, a steering angle holding section configured to hold a target steering angle corresponding to the 1-dimensional coordinate data, a second detector configured to detect a current deviation between the target route and a current position of the vehicle main body, and a control steering angle calculating section configured to generate a control steering angle corresponding to the current deviation and the target steering angle.
US07757604B2

The inventions disclosed herein relate to a smoke generating device for use with portable grills. Various embodiments of the smoke generating devices disclosed herein incorporate some combination of a number of features to solve the problem of prior art smoke generating devices. For example, a various embodiments of the present inventions incorporate some combination of means for mounting the device in a lower portion of a barbecue grill to allow the device to benefit from fresh air which enters the grill in the lower portion, an ignition bar for transferring heat from the burner to the smoker particles by conduction, convection, and radiation, a cover which extends in the vicinity of the flame emanating from the burner tube for transferring heat from the burner tube to the smoker particles by conduction, convection and radiation, louvers on air inlets for preventing the smoker particles from blocking the inlet of air, and legs which contact the flames emanating from the burner tube from transferring heat from the burner tube to the smoker particles by conduction.
US07757602B2

The present invention relates to equipment for assembling food products, and more specifically to an apparatus and method for separating or parting stacked food products during a food production process. The invention, a de-topper, facilitates the desired parting or separation of stacked products having at least upper and lower sections defining a separation line. In parting stacked products along the separation line, the de-topper comprises a longitudinal arm and at least one primary conveying path for conveying the at least upper and lower sections of the stacked products towards the arm. A drive reciprocates the arm so that the reciprocating arm sweeps the upper sections of the stacked products from the at least one primary conveying path and onto a secondary conveying path, located outwardly thereof. The lower and upper sections are thereafter conveyed on the respective primary and secondary conveying paths away from the reciprocating longitudinal arm.
US07757598B2

A hydraulic axial piston pump is designed with a secondary swashplate angle for providing improved performance and life. The secondary swashplate angle produces a sideload on the swashplate that is reacted by the pump's housing. A hydrostatically balanced thrust bearing is used to counteract the sideload produced by the secondary swashplate angle. The bearing design includes a tiltable pad or shoe supplied with pressurized fluid from the pump's discharge port. The same fluid that supplies the tiltable pad may also supply the pump's cradle bearings.
US07757597B2

A variable displacement swash plate type compressor with a smooth inclined moving feature which includes a cylinder block having a plurality of cylinder bores, a front housing disposed at a front end of the cylinder block to form a swash plate chamber, a drive shaft rotatably supported in the cylinder block, a lug plate disposed in the swash plate chamber of the front housing and fixedly installed to the drive shaft, a rear housing disposed at a rear end of the cylinder block and having a suction chamber and a discharge chamber in fluid communication with the cylinder bores through a suction valve and a discharge valve, a swash plate rotated by the lug plate and installed to have a variable inclination angle, a spring supported between the lug plate and the swash plate, and pistons slidably engaged with the swash plate to be reciprocated in the cylinder bores.
US07757596B1

A device for restraining a shell in a barrel of a disposable anti-armour weapon being stored in a compartment of a transport box. A stopper member is configured to be placed in the barrel in front of and adjacent to a shell loaded therein. The stopper member has at least three radially expandable legs, which are distributed circumferentially and configured to face and engage a tapered front surface of the shell in the barrel. The legs are provided with gripping elements on radially outermost surfaces thereof and configured to cut into the barrel wall upon a forward movement of the shell in the barrel.
US07757587B2

A bolt or nut tightening device has an outer shaft and an inner shaft rotatable in directions opposite to each other, the outer shaft having a reaction receiver projecting therefrom sideways, the inner shaft being provided with an engaging portion engageable with a bolt or nut to be tightened, the bolt or nut tightening device being provided on the outer shaft with a tightening torque measuring unit, which comprises a strain sensor, a circuit board, an indicator, a battery, and a case for accommodating the circuit board, the indicator and the battery, the case being attached to the outer shaft, projecting toward the same direction as the reaction receiver, and being so sized as to be hidden by a contour of the reaction receiver and so positioned as to be hidden behind the reaction receiver when seen from the forward end side of the engaging portion.
US07757582B2

A bicycle component includes a band and a band tightener. The band is configured to at least partially extend around a bicycle frame portion. The band tightener is coupled to the band to tighten the band on the bicycle frame portion such that a portion of the band tightener contacts the bicycle frame portion with the band tightened on the bicycle frame portion.
US07757575B2

An optical apparatus is disclosed which includes an integrally-formed rack that can be manufactured easily even when a tooth portion of the rack has a drawing angle with respect to a lead screw. The apparatus includes a holding member holding an optical member, a rack attached to the holding member, and an actuator rotating the lead screw. The rack is integrally formed and includes an attachment portion for being attached to the holding member, first and second tooth portions engaging with the lead screw so as to sandwich the lead screw therebetween, and an elastic connecting portion connecting the attachment portion and the second tooth portion. The second tooth portion is formed to have a gap from the first tooth portion such that the gap is narrowed with distance from the attachment portion. The connecting portion is provided with a protrusion protruding toward the first tooth portion.
US07757573B2

A bed water sampling device in which a plurality of horizontally oriented tubular sampling containers are mounted on a member adjustable in its position in response to the direction of water current and in which the tubular sampling containers are provided with valves simultaneously moved from their open to their closed states in response to a signal generated in response to placement of the sampling device on the water bed.
US07757567B2

A dispensing measuring device. The device correlates the relative proximity between a Hall effect sensor and a magnet. One is held stationary, while the other is movable in response to ordinary actuation which occurs during dispensing. Detection of changes in the proximity are correlated to the amount of material dispensed.
US07757566B2

A testing system (100) is used to test a flip-type electronic device (80). The electronic device includes a cover (802) and a main body (801). A hinge (803) connects with the cover and the main body. The testing system includes a base (10), a plummer (20), a flipping device (30) and a control device (40). The plummer is fixed on the base for locking the electronic device. The flipping device is fixed on the base for opening and closing the cover of the electronic device. The control device includes an optical fiber sensor (42) for sensing the movement of the cover of the electronic device. The control device connects with the flipping device so as to control the flipping device.
US07757561B2

Methods and systems for automated compound management and sample preparation using acoustic energy. In some embodiments, acoustic energy may be transmitted through a medium and a solid or semi-solid layer that is disposed adjacent to the vessel. Both the medium and the solid or semi-solid layer may couple acoustic energy from an acoustic energy source to a focal zone in close proximity to the sample in the vessel.
US07757558B2

A method and apparatus are provided to identify unacceptable levels of porosity, microcracking or defects attributable to thermal damage. Ultrasonic signals are introduced into the workpiece, such as by means of an ultrasonic transmitter. The ultrasonic signals propagate along a predefined axis of propagation oriented at an offset angle relative to a predefined reference direction oriented normal to the workpiece. Backscattered signals are received, such as by an ultrasonic receiver, from the workpiece. A measure representative of the cumulative energy of the backscattered signals received over a predefined time interval is then determined, such as integration performed by a processing element. An anomalous response may then be detected based upon the measure representative of the cumulative energy of the backscattered signals. This anomalous response may be representative of at least a predefined amount of porosity, microcracking or thermal damage.
US07757547B2

A cylinder stroke position measurement device for enabling common use of a rotation sensor unit in measurement of a cylinder stroke position by detecting an amount of rotation of a rotary roller by means of a rotation sensor. A cylinder is provided at its head portion with a base member 300 having an opening accommodating at least a rotary roller and a rotation sensor section. A pressing member, the rotary roller, and the rotation sensor section are held on one side of a sensor holding member, while a coupling member for example is provided on the opposite side of the sensor holding member, thus constituting a rotation sensor unit. The sensor holding member is attached to the base member such that the rotary roller and the rotation sensor section are accommodated in the opening of the base member 300. The rotary roller is pressed by the pressing member against the surface of a rod. The rotation sensor section detects an amount of rotation of the rotary roller. The coupling member electrically couples the rotation sensor section with an external signal line.
US07757546B2

A system designed to simulate an internal combustion engine having improper valve timing is provided. The purpose of the simulation system is to calibrate and/or validate a proprietary cam-crank correlation diagnostic algorithm. The simulation system includes a simulator module that communicates with crankshaft and camshaft position sensors and an engine control module. The simulator module includes: a first selector that selects a shift value for shifting a periodic signal; and a modification module that receives a camshaft position signal from the camshaft position sensor and that generates a modified camshaft position signal based on the crankshaft position signal and the shift value.
US07757545B2

A device and a method for determining the trouble of a cylinder pressure sensor without increasing cost calculates the cylinder pressure of an internal combustion engine based on an output from the cylinder sensor installed in the engine and calculates a drift parameter indicating the drift amount of the cylinder pressure based on the cylinder pressure. When the drift parameter is not within a specified range, the device determines that the cylinder pressure sensor is defective. The specified range can be set based on the behavior of the cylinder pressure. A correction factor is obtained according to the operating state of the engine, and the drift parameter is corrected with the correction factor. A specified search signal is superimposed on the output from the cylinder pressure sensor. The cylinder pressure is calculated based on the output from the cylinder pressure sensor on which the search signal was superimposed.
US07757536B2

The present invention provides a plate-shaped workpiece positioning structure for hot press forming that, upon executing a hot press forming of a heated plate-shaped workpiece (16), positions the plate-shaped workpiece relative to a pair of press dies (10, 12, 14). The positioning structure includes (a) a first positioning opening (20b) and (b) a second positioning openings (22a, 22c). The first positioning opening is arranged in a center part of the plate-shaped workpiece, and engages with a first positioning pin (22b) provided on one (12) of the pair of press dies to position the plate-shaped workpiece. The second positioning openings are arranged between the first positioning opening and a predetermined outer peripheral parts (16a, 16b) of the plate-shaped workpiece, and are formed in an elongate shape that extends along a line connecting the first positioning opening and the predetermined outer peripheral part of the plate-shaped workpiece. The second positioning openings engage with a second positioning pins (22a, 22c) provided on one (12) of the pair of press dies. Thus, the plate-shaped workpiece is positioned in a circumferential direction about the first positioning opening of the plate-shaped workpiece. Additionally, the plate-shaped workpiece can contractionally deform toward the first positioning opening upon executing the hot press forming of the heated plate-shaped workpiece.
US07757533B2

A filler cam assembly for use with a forming die generally including a center cam component, end cam components and a base assembly and being designed to transition between unloading and forming positions. The various cam components preferably have axial ends with helical surfaces such that rotation of one of the cam components causes a corresponding axial movement of an adjacent cam component. Some features of the filler cam assembly include removable work steels, standardized cam components, drive and lock out mechanisms, and being able to form negative angles, multiple corners and edges, and an entire formable periphery of a metal work piece in a single forming operation, to name but a few.
US07757529B2

A method of roll forming a flat tube having a substantially θ-shaped section comprising the steps of forming a substantially triangular protrusion 72 having a roundish top, and closely attaching the opposed base end portions of the substantially triangular protrusion 72 having a roundish top while leaving a hollow portion 73a at the forward end of the protrusion 72, thereby forming a protrusion 73 having a closely-attached based end portion and forward-end hollow portion 73a.
US07757528B2

A billet is provided on a pass line between a pusher and a plug, and the billet is advanced and caught between a plurality of inclined rolls. At least between when said caught billet contacts said plug and when the piercing and rolling reaches a steady state, the advancing speed of the billet is not less than the advancing speed of the billet when the piercing and rolling is carried out without pushing the billet forward by the pusher in the steady state. By this manufacturing method, inner surface defects at a tip end of a hollow shell can be restrained.
US07757518B2

A sock may include a first low-elasticity area disposed on a dorsal portion of the foot, the first low-elasticity area being band-shaped and having a lower elasticity than other areas of the sock. The first low-elasticity area may include a curved ankle portion and an end portion, the end portion being disposed below the curved ankle portion and extending to the base of the toes. The end portion may be positioned within a range from the base of the third toe to the base of the small toe. A center line in the course direction with respect to the width of the first low-elasticity area may gradually shift toward the side of the small toe in the course direction. Preferably, the first low-elasticity area applies a force that raises the side of the fifth toe toward the ankle curve portion thereby providing a resistive force against the ankle twisting inwards.
US07757517B2

A knit tubular protective sleeve and method of construction thereof provides a continuous and seamless tubular wall knit from one or more yarns extending between opposite open ends of the sleeve. At least one opening is integrally knit within the tubular wall between the ends. The opening has a circumferentially continuous, knit outer periphery.
US07757510B2

A cabinet for an air handling unit includes a cabinet assembly being formed framelessly of a plurality of panel assemblies, each panel assembly being formed of two spaced apart metallic panels embracing an intermediate core and wherein the plurality of panel assemblies provides the structural strength of the cabinet assembly. A method of forming a cabinet for an air handling unit is further included.
US07757508B2

A heat pump has a refrigerant loop, a compressor in fluid communication with the refrigerant loop, at least one indoor heat exchanger in fluid communication with the refrigerant loop, and at least one outdoor heat exchanger in fluid communication with the refrigerant loop. The at least one outdoor heat exchanger has a phase change material in thermal communication with the refrigerant loop and in fluid communication with an outdoor environment. Other systems, devices, and methods are described.
US07757502B2

An environmental control system includes a RAM air fan system downstream of a respective heat exchanger in the relatively high temperature RAM exhaust. The RAM air fan includes a RAM air fan electric motor such that the RAM air fan is driven at a speed independent of an air cycle machine. A fan rotor is completely supported by hydrodynamic foil journal and thrust bearings. As the RAM air fan is driven by the RAM air fan electric motor the RAM air fan is installed in the environmental control system as a self-contained system.
US07757500B2

An ice making, and delivery apparatus for making and delivering ice to different ones of a plurality of receptacle units is provided, in which ice delivered via a conduit to a diverter valve mechanism, is diverted from alignment with one ice discharge line to another, depending upon sensors in ice receptacles recognizing a level of build-up of ice in any given receptacle, for computer control of a gearmotor for moving the diverter valve from one position to another. Various controls are provided for preventing ice build-up, and for operating the diverter valve during a “dwell” period of ice movement in the conduit, as distinguished from a “push” period of ice movement in the conduit to the diverter valve. A force multiplication technique is employed for moving the diverter valve notwithstanding the presence of ice therein.
US07757498B2

A beverage dispensing system is characterized by a beverage dispenser and a beverage dispensing tower located remote from the beverage dispenser. The beverage dispenser has a cold plate and the tower has a heat exchanger. To deliver chilled beverage components to and for dispensing by the tower, a closed-loop water circulating circuit extends between and includes a fluid chilling circuit of the cold plate and a heat exchange circuit of the heat exchanger. The closed-loop circuit is fluid coupled to a beverage valve of the tower to deliver chilled water to the valve, and a supply of beverage syrup is fluid coupled to the tower valve through a fluid chilling circuit of the heat exchanger for delivery of chilled syrup to the valve for mixing with chilled water in the dispensing of a beverage from the tower valve.
US07757488B2

A master cylinder assembly for a hydraulic actuation system for a handlebar-steered vehicle. The assembly includes a housing mountable to a frame member of the handlebar-steered vehicle and having a chamber including a fluid cavity with first and second regions. The first region is in fluid communication with the hydraulic actuation system. A piston is slidably disposed in the fluid cavity. An actuator is operatively connected to the housing and operatively connected to the piston to slidably displace the piston between an open fluid circuit position and a closed fluid circuit position. A first seal is disposed on either the piston or a wall of the fluid cavity. The first seal is configured to be in sealing engagement between the fluid cavity and the piston with the piston in the closed fluid circuit position to block fluid flow between the first and second fluid cavity regions. The first seal is configured to be in non-sealing disengagement between the fluid cavity wall and the piston with the piston in the open fluid circuit position to permit fluid flow between the first and second fluid cavity regions.
US07757486B2

An engine control device for a work vehicle includes a hydraulic pump driven by an engine, a hydraulic actuator driven with pressure oil supplied from the hydraulic pump, a drive disallower for disallowing drive of the hydraulic actuator with the pressure oil supplied from the hydraulic pump, a disallowed drive detector for detecting whether or not the drive disallower is disallowing the drive; and a rotation rate controller for executing control so as to adjust an engine speed to a low rotation rate, lower than a minimum rotation rate (hereafter referred to as a low idle rotation rate) at which the hydraulic actuator can still be driven, at least when the disallowed drive detector detects that the drive disallower is disallowing the drive.
US07757483B2

A device for reducing particles of an exhaust gas includes at least one carrier structure having a predefinable volume and a plurality of channels which can be traversed by a flow. The channels at least partially have measures for deflecting the exhaust gas within the channels. The at least one carrier structure at least partially has a first coating including a washcoat. A quantity of the washcoat in a range of from 10 to 60 grams is provided per liter of the volume, provided with the first coating, of the carrier structure. An exhaust gas purification system and a vehicle having the device or the system, are also provided.
US07757481B2

An apparatus, system, and method for cooling exhaust gases includes an inlet operatively connected to an exhaust port from a diesel engine or the like, and a housing defining a substantially enclosed volume. At least a portion of the volume is larger in cross-section than the inlet in cross-section, such that the exhaust gases expand upon entering the housing from the inlet. At least one outlet larger in collective cross-section than the inlet in cross-section is disposed on the housing and configured to expel the exhaust gases from the housing into the atmosphere.
US07757479B2

A secondary air supply system in which individual members may be arranged to be disposed on substantially the same straight line in an engine, whereby connection path lengths are reduced and the attachment thereof is facilitated. The secondary air supply system may be provided between an air cleaner and attached to an engine and an exhaust port of the engine. The secondary air supply system has a secondary air control valve, a lead valve and secondary air supply paths which connect the air cleaner, the secondary air control valve and the lead valve together and supply air to the exhaust port from the air cleaner. The air cleaner, the secondary air control valve and the lead valve may be arranged to be disposed on substantially the same straight line when viewed from the side.
US07757472B2

A synthetic fiber cable has the strands of a strand layer mutually spaced apart. With the mutual spacing, the strands of the outer strand layer can move radially in the direction of the cable center and exert a radial pressure on the strands of the first inner strand layer. The radial pressure is passed on from the strands of the first inner strand layer to the strands of the second inner strand layer. The radial pressure is passed on from the strands of the second inner strand layer to the core strand. The radial pressure increases inwardly from strand layer to strand layer. The soft cable sheathing does not act as a support between the strands in circumferential direction.
US07757471B2

An automatically operated agricultural tree harvesting machine having systems for automatically steering, propelling and stopping the harvester machine to shake each tree, eliminating the need for the operator to steer or manually engage the shaker head. The system comprises a series of sensors to determine the location of each tree and a system for controlling the steering of the harvester and to determine the distance moved.
US07757468B2

An improved retainer system allowing reliable strapping of a package while incurring only minimized wear. An additional retainer device (17) is placed in front of the inner side of the strap guide frame (11) and comprises an elastic, longitudinally stretching element (18, 19) and a mating support (30). The elastic element and mating support are made of a low-wear material relative to the strap and are mutually parallel, as well as parallel to the strap outlet aperture (23). The elastic element and the mating support together subtend a gap through which the strap is pulled.
US07757462B2

A system and method for multi-layer loading of food items such as frankfurters in a receptacle includes the steps of displacing groupings of frankfurters along a staging area, allowing the frankfurters to drop downwardly by gravity to an accumulation and storage area until at least two layers of frankfurters are accumulated and allowing the double layer of frankfurters to drop downwardly into a packing receptacle in a packing area. The method of the invention is accomplished by providing a lug chain with lugs spaced to group frankfurters in desired groupings on the staging area, a first set of displaceable supports positioned below the lug chain to allow a layer of frankfurters to fall downwardly by gravity to the accumulation and storage area, a second set of displaceable supports positioned in the accumulation and storage area to allow at least two layers of frankfurters to be accumulated, then actuated to allow the two layers to drop vertically downwardly to a collection receptacle in the packing area, and a pair of tucking flaps that are actuated to an open position to allow two layers of frankfurters to fall downwardly therebetween and to a closed position in which frankfurters are forced by contact therewith into appropriate alignment within the receptacle.
US07757458B2

A machine (30) is described for packaging products in a plastic film, comprising at least one longitudinal cutting and welding bar (31) actuated in its up-and-down movement by at least one first piston (34), supported by a first supporting structure (37) of such packaging machine (30); at least one transverse cutting and welding bar (33) independent from the longitudinal cutting and welding bar (31) and actuated in its up-and-down movement by at least one second piston (35) supported by a second supporting structure (39) of such packaging machine (30); and controlling and managing means adapted to control and program the operation of at least the first and the second piston (34, 35).
US07757455B2

A spacer frame arrangement for insulating glass units, comprising a spacer profile body extending in a first direction and having a predetermined cross section in a plane perpendicular to the first direction, the predetermined cross section defining a hollow inner space of the spacer profile body with predetermined dimensions in the plane perpendicular to the first direction, and a connector comprising a connector section adapted to be inserted in the first direction into the hollow inner space of the spacer profile body by having a cross sectional shape perpendicular to the first direction which corresponds, with predetermined tolerances, to the cross section of the spacer profile body limiting the hollow inner space, at least the outer surface of the connector section facing the inner surface of the hollow inner space of the spacer profile body after insertion of the same being made of a fusable material, preferably a material fusable by melting the same, wherein the connector section is inserted into the hollow inner space of the spacer profile body and the outer surfaces of the connector section and the inner surface of the spacer profile body facing each other are connected by fusing.
US07757454B2

A composite panel and method of fabricating is provided which includes a frame having a plurality of spaced apart frame members, and a concrete slab made of aerated concrete having a density of 400 to 1760 kg/m3 (25 to 110 pcf) pounds per cubic foot. Fastened to the frame members is a reinforcing layer. The concrete slab, having a front face and a rear face, embeds the reinforcing layer and a portion of the frame such that the frame protrudes from the rear face of the slab. At least one tab and one tab opening is disposed on an embedded portion of the frame, and the concrete slab extends through the tab opening.
US07757445B2

A basement wall is provided which includes a precast prestressed hollow core concrete panel. The panel has a plurality of horizontally extending voids and a plurality of horizontally extending tension cables. The panel has a lower portion extending below grade. The panel preferably has a layer of wire mesh positioned between the voids and the inner surface or between the voids and the outer surface. An end cap for the panel is also provided. The panel can have an impressed brick pattern on the above-grade outer surface and the panel can have a window opening, a brick ledge and/or a beam pocket.
US07757444B1

A skylight system comprising a tapered light tube with the taper wider at the top than at the bottom and a permanently sealed skylight system. A diffused top dome and a diffuser bottom are attached to the light tube on site. No typical roof flashing is required during installation.
US07757436B2

A greening device for façades or walls, consisting mainly of a support structure fixed on the façade to be covered and by at least two modules with flat structure and square or rectangular profile, containing a cultivating substrate and including on one of its large surface apparent vegetation elements, the modules being removably mounted on the support structure substantially concealing the latter. The support structure includes at least two spaced apart vertical rails whereon the modules are mounted in vertical rows being located away from the façade or wall and being individually detachable, each module being in the form of a box with globally flat parallelepiped structure of slight thickness compared to its lateral dimensions, the open side of the box opposite the base being closed with an open-work wall. The vertical opposite side walls have catching elements designed to co-operate with reception sites on the mounting rails.
US07757428B2

A mechanical device with automatic reset capabilities that injects compressed air or other gases into the heart and lung cavities of Order Rodentia pest which results in death by delayed air embolism or cardiac arrest. This method allows the target time to vacate the premise saving time on carcass removal and clean up. This new technology can replace the poison bait traps and other environmental pollutants currently in use.
US07757425B2

The present invention provide a fishing lure with big range of possible wobbling actions due certain amount of degrees of freedom of the joint between two lure's members—skeleton and vibrating body. The amount of degrees of freedom could be changed by fishermen, allowing the vibrating body movement relative to the skeleton and generating wobbling movements by the way of planar or three dimensional vibrating around axes perpendicular to a retrieval direction and/or rotating around an axis which is collinear or parallel to a retrieval direction.
US07757423B1

An improved mounting assembly is provided that is configured to be releasably attached to a standard dovetail rail profile, wherein the initial clamping tension of the clamping actuator is adjustable. The mounting assembly generally includes a main body having a lower portion that is configured to engage a standard dovetail and an upper portion accessory receiving formation. The lower portion of the mounting assembly has a first engagement member extending downwardly along one side thereof for engaging one side of the dovetail rail and a clamping assembly to engage the opposing side of the dovetail rail. At least one spring and a retention nut are provided as part of the clamping assembly such that retention nut controls the preset spring tension thereby controlling the clamping force applied by the clamping assembly.
US07757416B2

A portable and stowable quilting wall has generally rectangular body composed of a smooth backing sheet sewn peripherally to a mating front sheet of heavy nap felt. A top hem mounts spaced pieces of hook fasteners interspersed with holes. A bottom hem confines a heavy rod, while the backing sheet mounts strips of loop fasteners that are spaced to engage the hook fasteners when the wall is rolled up on itself to retain the quilting wall in a rolled-up condition for easy movement and storage. The felt nap releasably engages pieces of quilt pieces placed and retains them in both rolled-up and unrolled conditions, without the use of added adhesive or mechanical fasteners. The holes in the top hem receive hooks to hang the unrolled sheet against a wall or door, while the rod maintains the quilting wall flat against a vertical surface.
US07757412B2

An article of footwear including a sole and an upper, the upper including a seat adapted to nest the user's heel, the seat including a first stiffener, and an arrangement for varying the size or volume of the seat provided by the first stiffener, between an expanded position, for which the volume of the seat is relatively large, and a retracted position, for which the volume of the seat is reduced.
US07757411B2

A footwear sole includes a plurality of shock absorbing elements that extend from upper and lower plates. In one embodiment, the shock absorbing elements include a plurality of receptacles extending from the lower plate and a plurality of protrusions extending from the upper plate. Each protrusion is associated with one receptacle, and a portion of each protrusion extends into the receptacle. A resilient sleeve surrounds each associated protrusion and receptacle. In another embodiment, a plurality of shock absorbing elements extend from a bridge on one of the upper and lower plates.
US07757409B2

A cushioning member for an article of footwear is disclosed. The article of footwear comprises a sole; and a cushioning member disposed in the sole, the cushioning member comprising: a substantially u-shaped heel chamber having an anterior wall, a curved posterior wall, and medial and lateral sidewalls disposed between the anterior wall and the posterior wall; a forefoot chamber; and a passage connecting the heel chamber and the forefoot chamber, wherein the sole is formed around the cushioning member such that at least a portion of the medial heel sidewall and the lateral heel sidewall are visible.
US07757402B2

In an assembling method for roller bearing assembly according to the invention, a cage 25 featuring high general-purpose versatility is used whereas a retainer ring 40 for preventing the drop-off of first-row tapered rollers 18a is fitted in a sub-assemble member 20 at place diametrically inwardly with respect to the first-row tapered rollers 18a. Subsequently, a hub body 16 is combined with an outer ring 13 having the first seal ring 15 and the sub-assemble member 20 mounted thereto, as pushing out the retainer ring 40 by means of a step portion defined between a smaller-diameter cylindrical surface portion 30 and a first inner raceway 28 of the hub body 16.
US07757389B2

For providing a flexible printed circuit board in which the distance between each of plural wiring patterns is a desired distance by cutting the flexible printed circuit board having plural wiring patterns, plural wiring patterns are formed so as to extend on the surface of an electrically insulative base film, and each of the plural wiring patterns is formed so as to include a portion where the distance between each of them is narrowed along the extending direction of the base film.
US07757379B1

A suspension assembly for a hard disk drive includes at least two spring extensions that couple to a proximal portion of a load beam. These spring extensions are disposed by a vertical offset and couple to the load beam on opposite sides of a longitudinal axis of the load beam. The method for operating a disk drive apparatus includes following by a suspension assembly from a reference position to a second position a vertical movement of a rotating disk. The suspension assembly is predisposed to move from the reference position to the second position by the vertical offset. A read/write head coupled to the suspension assembly is in closer alignment to a selected track during the vertical movement in the second position than if the first and second spring extensions were disposed to be co-planar.
US07757378B1

The present invention relates to a method of sealing disk drive housing castings and the resulting housings. More specifically, as sealant is transferred between a sealant storage tank and an autoclave, the sealant is filtered to remove debris or other impurities from the sealant. By filtering a sealant, multiple casting treatment cycles can be performed using the same sealant without the quality of the sealant suffering.
US07757376B2

A magnetic circuit is made by magnetically attracting a permanent magnet segment of a partially circular arc in cross section to an outer peripheral surface of a center rod, causing the magnet segment in a magnetically attracted state to face a yoke member, using a nonmagnetic supporter to regulate the magnet segment in position, extracting the center rod from the magnet segment in a position-regulated state, and magnetically attracting and fixing the magnet segment to the yoke member.
US07757374B2

A keyless chuck having both an automatic locking feature and a manual locking feature. The automatic locking feature provides for automatic locking of the chuck in a tightened state when a predetermined tightening torque has been exceeded. The chuck can be utilized with only the automatic locking feature engaged. If desired, a manual locking feature can also be engaged wherein rotation of the outer sleeve relative to the body is prevented. A retaining feature can be employed to inhibit the movement of the manual locking feature between a locked and unlocked position. The retaining feature thereby avoids accidental engaging or disengaging of the manual locking feature.
US07757372B2

A method of processing a sheet metal sheet with a combined punching and forming machine includes spraying a lubricant onto on a lower side of the sheet metal sheet in a first forming position on the sheet, forming the sheet metal sheet at the first forming position with a first forming tool, and forming the sheet metal sheet with the second forming tool at a second forming position on the sheet metal sheet after spraying the lubricant onto the first forming position and before forming the sheet metal sheet at the first forming position.
US07757359B2

A buckle mechanism (1), for releasably and adjustably connecting an attachment member (3) to a tongue member (5), comprises a fixed buckle member (2) connected to or adapted for being connected to the attachment member (3). A movable element (4) that is adapted to be connected to the tongue member (5) is slidably mounted inside the fixed buckle member (2) between a first stable position and a second stable position for varying a distance along a pulling direction between said tongue member (5) and said attachment member (3). This mechanism further comprises a manually-operable lever system (6, 6′) for moving the movable element (4) between its first and second stable position.
US07757351B2

The present disclosure relates to a wipe-dispensing device that can fit around commonly used doorknobs or door handles, and a method for issuing wipes from the device so that they may be used as a protective barrier between the hand and the doorknobs. The device may include a molded circular ring made of plastic or any suitable hardened polymer. The ring fits around a doorknob or door handle so that the inner edge of the ring is proximal to the outer edge of the doorknob base which is fixed to the door. Commonly used adhesive can be applied to the bottom half of the device to allow the apparatus to be attached to a door and to be positioned proximate to a doorknob as mentioned above. The device may also be attached to a door with screws inserted through the device. In an alternative embodiment, a gap can be included in the apparatus so that the ring is not continuous.
US07757339B2

An apparatus including a first reservoir containing a liquid, a second reservoir configured to receive an element, and user-operable dispensing means configured to dispense a user-selected amount of the liquid from the first reservoir to the second reservoir. The element is configured to absorb the user-selected amount of dispensed liquid and transfer it out of the second reservoir for surface treatment. In operation, a user-selected amount of liquid is dispensed from the first reservoir into the second reservoir, and substantially all of the dispensed liquid is absorbed by placing a mop pad or other liquid transferring element in the second reservoir. Substantially all of the dispensed liquid is then transferred to the surface to be treated by removing the liquid transferring element from the second reservoir and placing the liquid transferring element against the surface.
US07757338B2

A shoe shine box has a base defining an inclined opening and a lid closing the opening. A shoe rest is attached to one side of the lid, the shoe rest having an inclined shoe support surface. A shoe clamp is attached to the shoe rest to hold the shoe against the shoe rest for polishing. The lid is movable between a first position closing the lid with the shoe rest in the box and a second position closing the lid with the shoe rest outside the box. The shoe support surface can be in positioned in either an inclined polishing position or a level polishing position when the lid is placed in the second position to provide a multi-function shoe polishing station.
US07757337B2

A pipe member is arranged along a wiper arm. A wiper blade has a lever rotatably coupled to the wiper arm and a blade rubber for wiping a surface to be wiped. A nozzle mechanism has an attachment member attached to the wiper arm, a nozzle member for supplying the washer liquid sent under pressure from the pipe member to the surface to be wiped, and an engaging portion provided in the nozzle member. The attachment member rotatably supports the nozzle member. The engaging portion engages with the wiper blade such that the nozzle member follows rotation of the wiper blade. Therefore, a vehicle wiper device facilitates replacement of the wiper blade, and allows washer liquid to be stably received by the surface to be wiped.
US07757336B2

A water-wiping apparatus for wiping standing water from a curved surface has a flexible panel of a first height, with an upper long edge and a lower long edge, a soft, flexible handle attached along the upper long edge, and a lip formed along the lower edge, extending to one side of the flexible panel and ending in a sharp line at the end away from the flexible panel. The handle has a series of reduced area regions serving as a grip area and also serving to facilitate bending of the water wiper blade to conform to surface curvature.
US07757334B2

A cleaning tool for cleaning a surface is disclosed. The cleaning tool comprises a cleaning frame including a rigid body defining a perimeter surrounding an interior opening and at least one spacer arranged within the interior opening. The cleaning frame secures over a backing.
US07757331B2

An electric toothbrush attachment includes a longitudinal body extending in a first direction substantially away from an attachment location for attaching the longitudinal body to an electric toothbrush drive unit and a brush connected to an end of the longitudinal body, the brush having bristles extending in a second direction substantially inopposite to the first direction. The longitudinal body transitions into a proximal end having a brush mount portion via a transition region between the longitudinal body and the proximal end. The transition region is formed as an angle of approximately 90° between the longitudinal body and the proximal end. The proximal end further includes a brush mount portion that is adapted to hold a brush.
US07757327B2

An electric toothbrush in which the brushing head moves in an elliptical motion such that, on the brushing stroke, the bristles are proximate the teeth, and in the recovery portion of the cycle the bristles are pulled away from the teeth. A position sensitive switch automatically switches from a forward to a reverse operation of the electric motor, depending on the positioning of the toothbrush in a user's hand, allowing the user to brush both the upper and lower teeth using a stroke carrying the bristles from the gum line to the ends of the teeth, as is recommended by dental professionals, without having to move the toothbrush from hand to hand or manually move the switch from the forward to the reverse positions. A bridge pad engages the face of the teeth, maintaining a proper distance between the teeth and bristles during the elliptical rotation of the brush head.
US07757316B2

In a patient bed system, comprising a patient bed, a support column for supporting the bed and a trolley for transporting the bed, the bed having arranged on it first coupling elements (22) which are intended for selective connection to second or third coupling elements (24, 26) on the support column and on the trolley respectively, at least one of the coupling elements (24) located on the support-column side has provided on it at least one sensor (102) for sensing the position of a first coupling element (22) connected to the bed (18) in relation to the column-side coupling element (24), the sensor (102) taking effect when the bed is located on the trolley and the latter assumes in relation to the support column a specific position for transferring the bed onto the latter.
US07757314B2

A collapsible structure is movable between an expanded configuration and a collapsed configuration. The collapsible structure includes a plurality of collapsible scissor assemblies. Each scissor assembly includes a first frame member pivotally coupled to a second frame member at a first pivot point. Frame members of adjacent scissor assemblies are coupled to a first connector assembly or a second connector assembly. A support assembly is coupled to a first scissor assembly and includes a member pivotally coupled at a first end to the first connector assembly or the first frame member and slidably coupled at an opposing second end to the second frame member.
US07757309B2

A protective helmet having a shock-resistant helmet shell having a cut out for establishing a visor opening and a visor panel arranged on the outer side of the helmet shell pivotably around a pivot joint is provided with a vison panel arranged pivotably on the inner side of the helmet shell. The vision panel has at least one lateral end mounted displaceably in a guide which forma a curved section whose virtual pivot point lies outside the lateral end at a distance behind the lateral end of the vision panel so that the path of movement of the vision panel matches to the inner contour of the helmet shell. This makes possible to guide the vision panel inside the helmet shell at a substantially uniform distance from the inner side of the helmet shell, with the result that a minimum space requirement for the vision panel is required on the inner side of the helmet shell. At least one lateral end, preferably both lateral ends, of the vision panel may be connected to a Bowden cable, the other end of which cable is coupled to an actuating element arranged on the outer side of the helmet shell.
US07757308B2

Clothing includes a body part, a waistband part circumferentially provided at an upper end of the body part and having opposite end portions, and a rubber band encapsulated in the waistband part. Locking units are provided on a surface of the end portion and a back face of the end portion, opposite ends of the rubber band which can be exposed from a side end of the end portion and from a hole portion formed in the back face of the end portion are coupled by a coupling unit so that a length of the rubber band can be adjusted, the opening/closing portions integral with the opposite end portions can be separated leftward and rightward, and the units are invisible from the front when the opening/closing portions are closed. Therefore, clothing with a waist size, which can be adjusted by a wearer, and with good appearance can be provided.
US07761927B2

The invention provides a device driver for monitoring and controlling access to data on a computer readable medium. The device driver comprises an interface for access to a device-driver stack for a media drive, a detector for detecting the insertion of a computer readable medium in said media drive, and a monitor for monitoring data transfer from said computer readable medium. The monitor evaluates a behavior characteristic of an application accessing data on said computer readable medium, and indicates when said behavior characteristic fulfills predetermined criteria. A control system is responsive to said monitor for issuing at least one control output when said behavior characteristic fulfills said predetermined criteria. The invention also provides a method of monitoring and controlling access to data on a computer readable medium by means of the device driver.
US07761923B2

The invention provides an improved network and methods of operation thereof for use in or with process control systems, computer-based manufacturing or production control systems, environmental control systems, industrial control system, and the like (collectively, “control systems”). Those networks utilize a unique combination of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, intrusion protection devices and/or other devices for hardening (e.g., security against hacking, intrusion or other mischievous conduct) and/or intrusion detection. The networks and methods have application, by way of example, in plants, sites and other facilities in which networks that support control systems interface with corporate, business or other networks.
US07761922B1

A system produces certified content by receiving original content acquired from a content acquisition device and receiving a device identity associated with the content acquisition device. The system produces a certification value indicating the original content was acquired from the content acquisition device having the device identity. The system associates the certification value to the original content to produce certified content that can be verified to represent the original content that was acquired from a content acquisition device having the associated device identity while preventing modification to the original content by processing not associated with certification processing. This process is performed in an uninterrupted manner to ensure certified content reflects an accurate device identity. The system can be implemented entirely within a content acquisition device itself, or in a computer system coupled to a content acquisition device.
US07761921B2

The present disclosure is associated with a user requesting access to the software option associated with a machine, a remote facility receiving the request, authorizing access to the software option, and sending an enabling signal to enable the software. The enabling signal (e.g., a software key) may then be used to access and use the software option. An intermediary may be used to authenticate the enabling signal.
US07761918B2

Systems and methods to passively scan a network are disclosed herein. The passive scanner sniffs a plurality of packets traveling across the network. The passive scanner analyzes information from the sniffed packets to build a topology of network devices and services that are active on the network. In addition, the passive scanner analyzes the information to detect vulnerabilities in network devices and services. Finally, the passive scanner prepares a report containing the detected vulnerabilities and the topology when it observes a minimum number of sessions. Because the passive scanner operates passively, it may operate continuously without burdening the network. Similarly, it also may obtain information regarding client-side and server side vulnerabilities.
US07761912B2

Reputation based firewall policy techniques are described, in which, a computer-implemented method may be employed to collect data from a plurality of clients regarding an application attempting to access a network via the clients. The collected data may be exposed to a community of users to obtain feedback on the application which is used to produce a reputation for the application. The reputation may then be provided to the plurality of clients to determine whether to permit the attempt by the application.
US07761909B2

A system of the present invention uses an identity provider to provide the authentication services for multiple service providers. An identity provider communicates with one or more service providers. A user that wishes to gain access to a service provider is authenticated though the use of the identity provider. A user desiring to access a service provider is first authenticated by the identity provider. The identity provider determines if the user meets the desired class level and provides various information related to the authentication. When the user attempts to access a second service provider that is associated with the same identity provider, the second service provider accesses the identity provider and determines that the user was recently authenticated. The identity provider then transmits the relevant information regarding the authentication process to the second service provider, which can then allow or deny the user access to the second service provider.
US07761896B2

An apparatus, method and data structure for generating at least one table in a broadcast environment, are provided. The apparatus includes a generator to generate an event information table (EIT) and an extended text table (ETT). The ETT has program guide information for an n-hour span and has a transmission interval. The ETT has a transmission interval and program description information according to the EIT. The transmission interval of the EIT is shorter than the transmission interval of the ETT.
US07761894B2

An apparatus, method and data structure for generating at least one table in a broadcast environment, are provided. The apparatus includes a generator to generate an event information table (EIT) and an extended text table (ETT). The ETT has program guide information for an n-hour span and has a transmission interval. The ETT has a transmission interval and program description information according to the EIT. The transmission interval of the EIT is shorter than the transmission interval of the ETT.
US07761890B1

A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming.
US07761885B2

Task Computing computer system by segmenting the system into a plurality of implementation tiers of a presentation layer, a remote procedure call programming interface (API), a middleware layer to which the presentation layer interfaces via the remote procedure call API to real-time, dynamically generate a computer implemented task interface at the presentation layer to a semantically described source of function as a service on a computer system, and a service layer and a function source realization layer providing the semantically described source of function as the service on the computer system to which the middleware layer interfaces. Real-time and dynamically composing an executable task that comprises one or more services using the generated task interface at the presentation layer to one or more services on the computer based upon the semantically described application-, device- and service-rich computer.
US07761877B2

The invention relates to computer architecture technology in the computer field. More specifically, the invention relates to a novel driving method for driving computer program/instruction execution, and a computer processor architecture and computer processor using the method. As one of the features of the invention, even on condition that no interrupt process is involved, the processor of this type can execute multiple programs in parallel on a single processor of this type exactly at the same time. Herein, the single processor relates to a single processor comprised of an instruction control section, an operation control section, a program memory section, a data memory section, and a communicating section. As another feature of the invention, a program execution driver (PED) is provided for each of the programs, and the multiple PED can manage and control the execution of multiple programs in parallel on the above single processor at the same time, independently or cooperatively with each other. The invention is adapted for design various computer processors, such as single chip micyocos, DSP and computer CPU with various scales.
US07761870B2

Methods and systems are provided for generating a computer program, wherein the computer program is divided into a plurality of packages in a modular manner, the packages representing in their entirety the complete computer program containing basic functions and additional functions, and being individually selectable by a user when installing the computer program on a computer system in order to create a customized computer program.
US07761860B2

A method for and a pre-compiling device capable of easily changing a software structure in compliance with a hardware characteristic. The pre-compiling device includes a source code scanner for scanning for a source code file, retrieving a configuration directive, analyzing a syntax of the directive, and outputting a tree of a lexical unit corresponding to the retrieved configuration directive; a core for outputting the configuration directive in a configuration state; code generation modules for outputting a configuration state output from the core as a programming language that has no correlation with a flow of the lexical unit; and programming language modules for transferring information on a comment syntax of the corresponding language to the source code scanner and the code generation modules, and receiving the programming language that has no correlation with the flow of the lexical unit outputted from the code generation modules and outputting source codes.
US07761857B1

A method for executing a target application on a host processor including the steps of translating each target instruction being to be executed into host instructions, storing the translated host instructions, executing the translated host instructions, responding to an exception during execution of a translated instruction by rolling back to a point in execution at which correct state of a target processor is known, and interpreting each target instruction in order from the point in execution at which correct state of a target processor is known.
US07761854B2

A system/method for profiling a sequence of values from a range to determine a frequency of occurrence of a subrange includes, for a current block, determining whether cells of the current block include a count cell or a pointer cell. If the cell includes a pointer cell, follow an address that the pointer makes reference to and designate a new block as the current block and repeat the determining step for the new block. If the cell includes a count cell, increment the count cell and compare the incremented count cell to a threshold. If the count exceeds the threshold, convert the count cell to a pointer cell, which points to a newly allocated block. The newly allocated block is made the current block, and the steps are repeated until count cells do not exceed the threshold or a limit resolution is achieved.
US07761853B2

A portable terminal device that controls execution, pausing, and termination of programs, including: a program execution section that makes an executing program become suspended, which is pausing if the executing program is an unmanaged program, or is terminating and storing restore information for restoration into a storage section if the executing program is a managed program and a program management section that makes the program execution section terminate the executing program upon receiving a request to terminate the executing program, wherein if there are the executing program and a suspended program that is being suspended by the program execution section and has an unmanaged program when the program execution section terminates the executing program, the program management section terminates the unmanaged program and reads restore information corresponding to a predetermined managed program that has been preset and makes the program execution section execute the predetermined managed program.
US07761850B2

This document discusses, among other things, a system and a method for using a meta-model to manage relationships between software artifacts, the method comprising determining a meta-model; identifying one or more available artifacts in one or more software applications; using the meta-model to define one or more relationships between the one or more available artifacts, wherein each relationship is a specific instance of a possible association defined in the meta-model; and providing the one or more relationships as one or more configurations to the one or more software applications.
US07761845B1

A method for parameterizing a user module. A first design application corresponding to a parameter of a user module is accessed, wherein the user module is a pre-configured electronic design to be implemented on a microcontroller. The parameter is adjusted within the first design application to derive parameterized data. In response to a command, the parameterized data is automatically loaded into a second design application.
US07761842B2

In certain embodiments, a method for generating a graphical user interface (GUI) element comprises storing code for each of one or more types of GUI elements and receiving a request to generate a particular type of GUI element, the request comprising one or more parameters. The method further comprises accessing the code for the requested particular type of GUI element and automatically generating a GUI element package based on the code for the requested particular type of GUI element and the one or more parameters of the request.
US07761840B2

A computer-readable recording medium recording a mask data generation program which causes a computer to generate data of a mask illuminated by illumination light and used to form a latent image on a photoresist via a projection optical system. The program causes the computer to execute a map generation step of Fourier-transforming a function indicating an effective light source to generate a coherence map expressing a coherence distribution on an object plane of the projection optical system, on which the mask is arranged, an arrangement step of arranging a main pattern at an origin of the coherence map and arranging an auxiliary pattern in a region where a coherence with respect to the origin is not less than a set value, and a data generation step of generating mask data including the main pattern and the auxiliary pattern, which are arranged in the arrangement step.
US07761827B1

An integrated circuit design system, method, and computer program product are provided that takes into account observability based clock gating conditions. In use, at least one condition is identified where an output of a first logic element is not a function of a first input of the first logic element, due to a second input of the first logic element. To this end, at least one second logic element may be disabled based on the identified condition for power savings or other purposes.
US07761825B2

An apparatus, computer system, and storage medium that, in an embodiment, receive elements and a goal for each of the elements. In various embodiments, the elements may represent commands or parameter values for a device to be tested. Testcases are generated based on the elements. If the numbers of testcases for the elements are equally distant from their goals, then a new testcase is generated based on an element chosen at random. But, if the numbers of testcases are not equally distant from their goals, then the new testcase is generated based on the element whose number of testcases if furthest from its respective goal. The number of testcases associated with the chosen element is then incremented, and the process is repeated. In this way, the generated testcases are based on the numbers of previously generated testcases, which, in an embodiment, results in more complete coverage of testcases for the device under test.
US07761823B2

According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for adjusting a transistor model for increased circuit simulation accuracy includes determining a first gate CD offset by matching a C-V test structure having a normalized channel current to an I-V test structure having the normalized channel current. The method further includes utilizing the first gate CD offset to adjust the transistor model for increased circuit simulation. The method also includes determining a second gate CD offset by varying I-V and C-V gate length parameters in the transistor model to cause simulated data from a test circuit to be approximately equal to measured data from the test circuit. The method further includes utilizing the second gate CD offset to adjust the transistor model.
US07761820B2

A method for migrating an electronic circuit from a source technology to a target technology includes accepting a source circuit that operates in the source technology. The source circuit includes source components interconnected at nodes in accordance with a source topology. Source voltages at the nodes of the source circuit are determined, and the source voltages are transformed to produce respective target voltages suitable for the target technology. The source circuit is separated into sub-circuits, each sub-circuit including one or more of the source components. In each sub-circuit individually, the one or more of the source components are converted to one or more respective target components in the target technology responsively to the target voltages, so as to produce a respective migrated sub-circuit. The migrated sub-circuits are reconnected to produce a target circuit in the target technology, the target circuit having a target topology identical to the source topology.
US07761816B2

A method includes enabling a user to define his/her buddies from among members of a community and enabling the user to select media content to be played on devices of his/her buddies. Another method includes providing media content chosen by a first user to be played by a media player on a device of a second user in response to an identification of the first user.
US07761814B2

A system and method for determining whether a flick gesture has occurred is described. A flick gesture is a simple gesture that may be easily detected and is characterized by minimal interference with other applications or gestures.
US07761813B2

A three-dimensional motion graphic user interface (MGUI) and a method and apparatus for providing the same. The MGUI includes a three-dimensional interface space which has an active space and an inactive space, and a polyhedron component which is three-dimensionally presented in the active space, wherein at least one of a plurality of faces that are subject to the polyhedron component has predetermined attributes, and information displayed on the faces is displayed differently according to the attributes and a presentation relationship between the active space and the polyhedron component.
US07761803B2

A system for designing light and sound systems for use in stage productions. Virtual reality interfaces facilitate the selection and location of lighting and sound displays by providing a real-time simulation of the devices and the display produced thereby. The system also calculates parameters with respect to structural elements used for mounting the lighting and sound equipment. In addition, the virtual reality interface permits the simulation of the packing of the lighting and sound equipment and the automatic calculation of parameters relating to packing space, package weight, preferred location, and order of packing.
US07761799B2

Mobile communications devices display contextually relevant information based on the presence, status, and identification of a user. Lens templates control how the information is displayed and can be customized and designed for specific usage profiles. The lenses that are used can be updated at any time to accommodate changes in a user's presence. The granularity of the lenses and corresponding information can also vary to accommodate different needs and preferences. Lenses can also be specialized for different events or venues. The lenses allow a user to access contextually relevant information from a mobile communications device having limited display and/or browse capabilities without requiring a user to navigate through undesired information, wasting valuable resources in the process.
US07761798B1

Methods and systems for controlling the screen display appearance for a digital processing system. In one exemplary embodiment, a data value, typically stored in a non-volatile memory, is retrieved; this data value represents an appearance of an enclosure of a digital processing system. An appearance of a display of this digital processing system is then set based upon the appearance of the enclosure. In one example, the appearance is the color of the enclosure which determines various colors and backgrounds of objects in a graphical user interface of the digital processing system. Other methods, apparatuses and computer readable media for causing methods to be performed are also described.
US07761797B2

Methods and systems for providing a user interface to a user may comprise finding a degree of similarity between each of a plurality of potential similar companies and a focal company. From the plurality of potential similar companies, at least one similar company may be selected having a degree of similarity with the focal company that is greater than a first threshold. An identifier of the focal company may be listed in a focal company field. Identifiers for the at least one similar company may be listed in a similar company field. Certain of the identifiers listed in the similar company field may include a hyperlink which, when activated by a user, causes a computer system to list the company corresponding to the activated hyperlink as a new focal company in the focal company field; determine at least one new similar company having a degree of similarity with the new focal company that is greater than the first threshold; and display the at least one new similar company at the similar company field.
US07761791B2

In a layout processing method of dynamically changing the layout of a template having a plurality of data areas in accordance with data presented to each of the plurality of data areas, a set of data areas associated by a link is extracted. For the plurality of data areas contained in the extracted set of data areas, the area size of each data area is determined on the basis of a contents size required by contents data to be presented to each data area and a priority set for each data area. The data are laid out in accordance with the thus determined area sizes of the plurality of data areas and output.
US07761790B2

A computer-based method for creating XML files from an edited document is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: reading an edited document from a file transfer protocol (FTP) server; reading each of equation objects originally existed in the edited file and creating a tag image file (TIF) image according to the equation object being read; creating a joint photographic experts group (JPEG) image according to the TIF image and recording a pixel size of the JPEG image; creating an XML character string according to each paragraph in the edited file; inserting the XML character strings into different XML file templates, thereby obtaining different XML files. A related system is also disclosed.
US07761788B1

A system and method of using an example document to create another document with the same style. The style is determined by examining the example file for syntax patterns that are required in a document of this type. Each pattern is used to create a section template (a sub-template for a larger template). After all the required sub-templates have been defined, by examining the example, we have a document template that may be used to format new documents. Along with user-specific content, a document generator uses the captured document template to generate sections of a new document. When a section of a document is generated, the sub-template that corresponds to that section of a document is inserted with user-specific content. The generated file ends up with the same kind of text spacing and positioning, ordering of sections, presence of annotations and other nonfunctional attributes as the example.
US07761782B1

A user programmable deductive spreadsheet is implemented as an add-in to an existing mathematical spreadsheet program and allows the use of a logic programming language such as Prolog via a familiar spreadsheet interface. A syntax is provided whereby a set of multiple values can be stored in a cell and can be operated on recursively by an expression in another cell. Rows and columns can be given user defined names and cells can be referenced by row and column name. Cells can reference cells in other spreadsheets or can reference an entire spreadsheet in one cell. A cell expression can reference itself. Logical, arithmetic, and lifted operators are provided. Spreadsheets can be defined as a transformation of another spreadsheet. When no negative or aggregate operators are used in the cell expressions, the meaning of the spreadsheet is given in terms of least fixed points. Otherwise, the meaning is given in terms of perfect models.
US07761776B1

A linear feedback shift register (LFSR) based design is applied to cyclic redundancy check (CRC) modules, in which a CRC building block having a minimum width is implemented. The CRC building block accepts a generator polynomial as an input design parameter to build a CRC block module. The modularity of the design then allows a larger CRC block design to be constructed from multiple CRC block modules such that wider data width blocks may be accommodated. The LFSR based designs are extended to communication systems that may require scrambling and descrambling functionality.
US07761775B2

A method and communication system for selecting a mode for encoding data for transmission in a wireless communication channel between a transmit unit and a receive unit. The data is initially transmitted in an initial mode and the selection of the subsequent mode is based on a selection of first-order and second-order statistical parameters of short-term and long-term quality parameters. Suitable short-term quality parameters include signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), power level and suitable long-term quality parameters include error rates such as bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER). The method of the invention can be employed in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Multiple Input Single Output (MISO), Single Input Single Output (SISO) and Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) communication systems to make subsequent mode selection faster and more efficient. Furthermore the method can be used in communication systems employing various transmission protocols including OFDMA, FDMA, CDMA, TDMA.
US07761772B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide Forward Error Correcting Code encoders and decoder structures that use DRAM in their memory designs. DRAM is a very attractive memory options in many electronic systems due to the high memory density provided by DRAM. However, the DRAM is typically not included in ASIC or FPGA implementations of encoders and decoders due to complex refresh requirements of DRAM that are required to maintain data stored in DRAM and may interfere with user access to the memory space during refresh cycles. Embodiments of the present invention provide FECC encoder and decoder structures that are implemented using DRAM that do not require complex refresh operations to be performed on the DRAM to ensure data integrity. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention maximize memory density without the added complexity of introduced by the refresh requirements of DRAM.
US07761762B2

A method implemented in a test system comprises a test debug system and a target system, said target system comprising a test access port that functions according to a plurality of states and also comprising an adapter. The method comprises the adapter transferring data to the test debug system while the test access port remains in a predefined state. The predefined state comprises a state in which no scans occur.
US07761761B2

A pattern correcting device corrects random test patterns generated by pseudo random number pattern generator (PRPG) into test patterns for a test to be input to shift registers. A pattern correcting device corrects the test patterns in unit of specified group, and individually releases correction of the test patterns when the correction in unit of the group is not appropriate. Furthermore, an unknown value mask device masks shift registers that output unknown values based on a control signal, and individually releases a mask of a shift register that outputs a fault value.
US07761759B2

A semiconductor integrated circuit comprises a test mode decision circuit which decides a normal operation mode or a test mode when having input a clock from a reset state and started an operation by using a scan enable signal that is used for a scan test, and retains a decision result until the decision result is reset; a scan enable mask circuit which disables the transmission of a scan enable signal to an internal scan circuit according to a decision result signal; and an access control unit which disables the access to the internal memory unit according to the decision result signal output from the test mode decision circuit. Furthermore, the semiconductor integrated circuit has a configuration of using the scan enable signal and the normal operation input signal in common.
US07761755B1

A circuit may be used for testing for faults in a programmable logic device. The circuit may include a clock generator coupled to receive a reference clock signal and generate a high speed clock signal; a circuit under test coupled to receive selected pulses of the high speed clock signal; and a programmable shift register coupled to receive a pulse width selection signal and generate an enable signal for selecting the pulses the high speed clock signal, wherein the pulse width of the enable signal is selected based upon the value of the pulse width selection signal. A method of testing for faults in a programmable logic device is also disclosed.
US07761754B1

An integrated circuit includes a memory circuit, a read address register coupled to a read address port of the memory circuit, a write address register coupled to a write address port of the memory circuit, and a multiplexer configurable to transmit a read address bit from the write address register to the read address register in response to a read control signal. The read address register loads the read address bit into the memory circuit through the read address port during a test of the memory circuit. The integrated circuit may include a multiplexer configurable to transmit a write address bit from the read address register to the write address register in response to a write control signal. The write address register loads the write address bit into the memory circuit through the write address port during the test of the memory circuit.
US07761753B2

Memory apparatus and methods utilizing multiple bit lanes may redirect one or more signals on the bit lanes. A memory agent may include a redrive circuit having a plurality of bit lanes, a memory device or interface, and a fail-over circuit coupled between the plurality of bit lanes and the memory device or interface.
US07761751B1

A method and system for performing diagnosing in an automatic test environment. The method begins by determining a fail condition during a test of a device under test (DUT). A diagnostic suite is determined for testing the fail condition. The diagnostic suite is generated if the diagnostic suite is not available for access.
US07761750B2

A method of interleaving blocks of indexed data of varying length is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a set of basic Interleavers comprising a family of one or more permutations of the indexed data and having a variable length; selecting one of the basic Interleavers based upon a desired Interleaver length L; and adapting the selected basic Interleaver to produce an Interleaver having the desired Interleaver length L.
US07761747B2

An interrupt control circuit has a condition storage circuit for storing and outputting a reference time and an error detection circuit for outputting a signal indicating error detection when an interrupt request is not generated within a period from a predetermined time till the reference time elapses.
US07761742B2

A system and computer program product for monitoring a data processing system is proposed. The system and computer program product involve the measuring of state parameters of the system. Indicators of the performance of the system are then inferred from the state parameters by applying fuzzy-logic rules. The proposed solution is based on the idea of estimating a trust value, based on the effectiveness of the corrective actions. If the previous corrective actions prove to be effective than the trust value is enhanced and the system is allowed a higher level of autonomy. Otherwise the intervention of an operator might be invoked.
US07761736B2

Provided are a system, and article of manufacture in which data is received at the first storage unit. A first information unit, a second information unit, and a third information unit are generated, wherein the first information unit, the second information unit, and the third information unit each include a portion of the received data and computed parity data. The first information unit is stored in the first storage unit at the first site. The second information unit is distributed to the second storage unit at the second site for storage. The third information unit is distributed to the third storage unit at the third site for storage.
US07761722B1

A system and method adjusts the polarity of power provided over Ethernet cabling according to configuration information received.
US07761717B2

A memory device containing data to be protected is integrated with a microprocessor and includes a first and a second memory portion with different accessibilities. The integration of the memory device on the same integrated circuit (IC) or chip as the microprocessor permits a combination of protective hardware and software measures that are not possible with a memory device that is on a different IC than the microprocessor. The first memory portion holds an initialization program that also serves as a boot program during decryption, and the second memory portion holds a user program, for example, a program for decrypting and/or decoding received data. Such data may be, for example, audio data encoded according to the MP3 standard and encrypted with a secret or public password against unauthorized reception.
US07761716B2

The invention relates to a method and arrangement for securing a man-machine dialogue between a user and at least one application, which may be executed on a terminal, whereby a communication between user and application is achieved by means of input channels and output channels on the terminal. According to the invention, the user can be given the security that he is communicating with only one particular application, whereby the input channels and/or the output channels of the terminal, together or separately, may be optionally switched by means of a switching device such that only the particular application is available.
US07761714B2

An integrated circuit including a digital key provider comprising an output and an enable-input, wherein the digital key provider is configured to provide the digital key at the output only when an enable-signal is provided to the enable-input; and a fuse unit comprising a first fuse and a second fuse, wherein the fuse unit is configured to provide the enable-signal to the enable-input when the first fuse is broken while the second fuse is intact.
US07761711B2

Methods and apparatuses for validating a message with a signature. The method may include receiving the message with the signature and carrying out an integrated validation and storing process. The signature may be validated based on a validation algorithm and a key. The received message may be stored in a database. A method for generating a signature for a message may include carrying out an integrated receiving and generating process. The message to be sent may be received and the signature may be generated based on a signing algorithm and a key. The message may be sent with the signature.
US07761709B2

A power supplying apparatus and a power supplying method with superior stability against over-voltage and over-current are provided. The present invention relates to a media receiving apparatus which processes a copy-protected media signal received from an external media source. An interface is provided to connect with the external media source, an authentication processor which periodically generates connection authentication data and transmits the connection authentication data through the interface in reply to a request of the external media source. A controller which determines whether an authentication with the external media source is erroneous and an authentication error signal is provided to the external media source when an authentication error occurs so that the external media source recommences the authentication.
US07761701B2

A plurality of platforms may be defined in a distributed system. Each of the platforms may include a processor and a chipset from a common source on a single motherboard. Extensible firmware interface drivers are provided for the processors and the chipsets. Each of the platforms may be defined pursuant to a system definition model where the system definition model defines the firmware for each of the platforms. As a result, any of the platforms can be updateable from a common source, such as an Internet web site.
US07761694B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for receiving first and second data operands in a common execution unit and manipulating the operands responsive to an instruction to generate an output according to local control signals of a local controller of the execution unit. Various instruction types such as shuffle and shift operations may be performed in the common execution unit in a single cycle. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07761685B2

An apparatus may include a memory to store a first frame, a buffer to store at least one portion of a second frame previously stored in the memory, and first and second units to, respectfully, store and fetch data. The first unit may copy a datum of the second frame stored at a particular location in the memory to the buffer. The first unit may then store a datum of a first frame at the particular location. The second unit may fetch a datum of a second frame from a selected location. If a write-segment pointer and a read-segment pointer identify the same memory segment, and the read-data pointer is greater than the write-data pointer, the memory may be selected. If the write-segment pointer and the read-segment pointer identify the same memory segment, and the write-data pointer is greater than the read-data pointer, the buffer may be selected. In addition, if the write-segment pointer and the read-segment pointer identify different memory segments, either the memory or the buffer may be selected depending on additional criteria.
US07761684B2

A storage system connected to a computer and a management computer, includes storage devices accessed by the computer, and a control unit for controlling the storage devices. A first-type logical device corresponding to a storage area set in at least one of the storage devices and a second-type logical device that is a virtual storage area are provided. The control unit sets at least two of the first-type logical devices different in a characteristic as storage areas included in a storage pool through mapping. The first-type logical device stores data by allocating a storage area of the second-type logical device to a storage area of the first-type logical device mapped to the storage pool. The characteristic of the second-type logical device can be changed by changing the allocated storage area of the second-type logical device to a storage area of another first-type logical device.
US07761671B2

A data displacement bypass system is disclosed, wherein the data displacement bypass system comprises a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a first memory, a plurality of address lines, a plurality of data lines, an OE (Output Enable) line, a CS (Chip Select) line and a data displacement unit. The CPU could output a plurality of address characters, an OE signal and a CS signal, and receive a plurality of data characters. The first memory and the data displacement unit could output the plurality of data characters according to the plurality of address characters, the OE signal and the CS signal received by the first memory and the data displacement unit, wherein the data displacement unit could govern the plurality of data characters inputting to the CPU by outputting high or low voltage.
US07761664B2

Systems and methods for multi-level exclusive caching using hints. Exemplary embodiments include a method for multi-level exclusive caching, the method including identifying a cache management protocol within a multi-level cache hierarchy having a plurality of caches, defining a hint protocol within the multi-level cache hierarchy, identifying deciding caches and non-deciding caches within the multi-level cache hierarchy and implementing the hint protocol in conjunction with the cache management protocol to decide which pages within the multi-level cache to retain and where to store the pages.
US07761662B2

A cache controller is connected to a processor and a main memory. The cache controller is also connected to a cache memory that can read and write at a speed higher than the main memory. The cache memory is provided with a plurality of cache lines that include a tag area storing an address on the main memory, a capacity area storing a capacity value of a cache block, and a cache block. When a read request is executed from the processor to the main memory, the cache controller checks whether the requested data is present in the cache memory or not. A cache capacity determination unit determines a capacity value for the cache block and supplies to a capacity area.
US07761657B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a means for detecting a logical command error, and a storage system and its control method that can properly perform error handling, and detection and blockage of a malfunctioning section. A storage control system includes controller units 130A and 130B for performing processing for data I/O to/from drives 150 and 160 in response to a data I/O request from a host device 100, switches 140A and 140B connecting the controller units 130A and 130B and the drives 150 and 160, and a port selector 300 inserted between the switches 140A and 140B and the drive 160. The port selector 300, when receiving a command generated based on processing performed by an MPU 131, accesses a target drive 160 if that data that forms a command is valid. Meanwhile, if the port selector 300 detects logical command inconsistency, the port selector 300 forwards that detection result to the MPU 131 via the switch 140A or 140B and requests retry processing from the MPU 131.
US07761654B2

One or more methods and/or systems of utilizing a memory external to an integrated circuit chip are presented. In one embodiment, the system comprises an Integrated circuit containing a logic circuitry, a one time programmable memory, a control processor, and a data interface. In one embodiment, a method of storing data into a memory comprises programming one or more bits of a one time programmable memory, generating an Identifier from the integrated circuit chip, and using the identifier to store data within the memory.
US07761646B2

Methods and systems are provided for helping maintain isochronous communications with peripheral devices (308), such as USB devices, over a network (302). Some methods for facilitating isochronous IN communication include noting (1906) passage of a predetermined interval without communication (310) from the peripheral device driver (402), and then creating (1908) a dummy communication (312) and sending (1910) it over the network toward the peripheral device to maintain isochronous communication toward the peripheral device. Some methods for facilitating isochronous OUT communication include noting (2006) passage of a predetermined interval without receipt, over the network, of a responsive communication (310) from the peripheral device in response to a first communication, and then creating (2008) a dummy communication (312) and sending (2010) it toward the peripheral device driver to maintain isochronous communication transmissions toward the peripheral device driver. The interval between isochronous communication transmissions may be changed (1930) to optimize buffer (314) usage, and delays may be controlled (1922, 2016).
US07761637B2

Consistent with one example embodiment, communications systems, using a serial data transfer bus having a serial data line and a clock line used to implement a communications protocol, incorporate latched service requests. Methods for one or more slave devices to request service from a master device involve detecting a condition that asserts a request for service signal, at a common node independent from the serial data transfer bus, to a master device of the bus. The request for service is latched it, within the slave, such that the request for service remains asserted regardless of a change in the detected condition. The request for service is de-asserted in response to interrogation of the slave, using the serial data transfer bus, by the master device. Devices may be configured as general purpose Input/Output devices, CODEC arrangements, or other slave devices, and may conform to I2C and/or SMBus serial communication specifications.
US07761632B2

Bus communication for components of a system on a chip. In one aspect of the invention, a serializer for interfacing bus communications for a slave in a bus system includes one or more shift registers that serialize information to send over a communication bus and deserialize information received from the communication bus. A mechanism provides parallel bus information from a bus matrix to the shift registers for serialization and communication to the slave, where the mechanism provides deserialized information received from the shift registers to a bus matrix. The mechanism inserts one or more wait cycles in communication with the matrix during the serialization and deserialization.
US07761631B2

A data processing system includes a plurality of communication links and a plurality of processing units including a local master processing unit. The local master processing unit includes interconnect logic that couples the processing unit to one or more of the plurality of communication links and an originating master coupled to the interconnect logic. The originating master originates an operation by issuing a write-type request on at least one of the one or more communication links, receives from a snooper in the data processing system a destination tag identifying a route to the snooper, and, responsive to receipt of the combined response and the destination tag, initiates a data transfer including a data payload and a data tag identifying the route provided within the destination tag.
US07761624B2

A computing system is disclosed that includes a memory controller in a processor socket normally reserved for a processor. A plurality of non-volatile memory modules may be plugged into memory sockets normally reserved for DRAM memory modules. The non-volatile memory modules may be accessed using a data communication protocol to access the non-volatile memory modules. The memory controller controls read and write accesses to the non-volatile memory modules. The memory sockets are coupled to the processor socket by printed circuit board traces. The data communication protocol to access the non-volatile memory modules is communicated over the printed circuit board traces and through the sockets normally used to access DRAM type memory modules.
US07761623B2

An apparatus includes a printed circuit board with a plurality of printed circuit board traces, a memory controller mounted on the printed circuit board coupled to one or more of the plurality of printed circuit board traces, a plurality of non-volatile type of memory integrated circuits coupled to the printed circuit board, and a plurality of support integrated circuits coupled between the memory controller and the plurality of non-volatile type of memory integrated circuits.
US07761622B2

A multi-server computing system includes a plurality of server modules mounted in an enclosure; each server has a universal serial bus (USB) interface. An enclosure onboard administration (OA) module is also mounted in the enclosure and has an addressable communication interface for connection to a remote management system and a USB interface connected to each of the plurality of servers. The USB interface of the enclosure OA operates as a master and the USB interface of each of the plurality of servers acts as a slave to the enclosure OA, such that each of the server modules can be managed by the remote management system using a single communication address.
US07761619B2

Disclosed are methods for handling RDMA connections carried over packet stream connections. In one aspect, I/O completion events are distributed among a number of processors in a multi-processor computing device, eliminating processing bottlenecks. For each processor that will accept I/O completion events, at least one completion queue is created. When an I/O completion event is received on one of the completion queues, the processor associated with that queue processes the event. In a second aspect, semantics of the interactions among a packet stream handler, an RDMA layer, and an RNIC are defined to control RDMA closures and thus to avoid implementation errors. In a third aspect, semantics are defined for transferring an existing packet stream connection into RDMA mode while avoiding possible race conditions. The resulting RNIC architecture is simpler than is traditional because the RNIC never needs to process both streaming messages and RDMA-mode traffic at the same time.
US07761617B2

A direct memory access (DMA) circuit (200) includes a read port (202) and a write port (204). The DMA circuit (200) is a multithreaded initiator with “m” threads on the read port (202) and “n” threads on the write port (204). The DMA circuit (200) includes two decoupled read and write contexts and schedulers (302, 304) that provide for more efficient buffering and pipelining. The schedulers (302, 304) are mainly arbitrating between channels at a thread boundary. One thread is associated to one DMA service where a service can be a single or burst transaction. The multithreaded DMA transfer allows for concurrent channel transfers.
US07761615B2

An information-processing system comprises an information-processing device including a plurality of communication interfaces, a first storing system configured to store first setting values to be configured for each of the plurality of communication interfaces and second setting values configurable in common for the plurality of communication interfaces for each of the plurality of communication interfaces, a second storing system configured to store the second setting values, a setting mode determining system configured to select one of a first setting mode where setting values are configured for each of the plurality of communication interfaces and a second setting mode where setting values configurable in common are configured in common for the plurality of communication interfaces, a reading system configured to read out a setting value from the first storing system and second storing system, and an updating system configured to update the setting value read out by the reading system.
US07761607B2

An application program is disclosed for execution on a computing device capable of supporting network communications via multiple differing communication modes. The application includes a set of user interface elements facilitating easy user selection of one of a set of communication modes supported by the computing device. Thereafter, the selected communication mode is utilized to support communications for the application. The application program also includes an interface to a transport layer component. The interface initiates binding a network interface to an endpoint opened by the application in accordance with the designation of the communication mode. Furthermore, the interface passes transmission requests to the interface identifying the endpoint. Therefore the interface facilitates forcing use of the designated network interface to complete the transmission requests of the application.
US07761605B1

A network adapter system and associated method are provided. The network adapter system includes a processor positioned on a network adapter coupled between a computer and a network. Such processor is configured for scanning network traffic transmitted between the computer and the network.
US07761598B1

Identifiers are assigned to devices communicating via a number of virtual channels. If additional identifiers are needed, one or more new virtual channels are created and the identifiers are reused for the new virtual channel.
US07761588B2

Provided are a system and article of manufacture performed at a local node to communicate with a remote node. A first communication protocol is used to communicate with the remote node to establish a connection for a second communication protocol. Data structures are created to enable communication with the remote node to establish the connection with the remote node for the second communication protocol. An extension layer is invoked for the second communication protocol. The data structures are passed to the extension layer to use to communicate with the remote node using the second communication protocol.
US07761586B2

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for accessing and manipulating data in a data flow graph. A data flow graph includes one more transforms for transforming data from one or more data stores into different formats accessible to clients. Transforms can be configured to join and split data from the same or different data stores. A metadata tree logically represents the data flow graph including locations that provide output from transforms of the data flow graph. The locations can be referenced by clients to access transformed outputs. Clients can register dependencies on data at various locations and can request evaluation of the data in response to data changes at a corresponding data store. Clients can also request data changes be propagated back through the data flow graph to one or more data stores and implemented at the one or more data stores.
US07761585B2

A method in a computer network for automatically detecting a most advantageous protocol for communication by a client computer, said client computer being configured to be coupled to a server computer via a computer network. The method includes initiating a plurality of protocol threads for sending from the client computer to the server computer, a plurality of data requests. Each of the data requests employs a different protocol and a different connection. The data requests are configured to solicit, responsive to the data request, a set of responses from the server computer. Each of the responses employs a protocol associated with a respective one of the data requests. The method further includes receiving at the client computer at least a subset of the responses. The method also includes initiating a control thread at the client computer. The control thread monitors the subset of the responses as each response is received from the server computer to select the most advantageous protocol from protocols associated with the subset of the responses, wherein the most advantageous protocol is determined based on a predefined protocol priority.
US07761584B2

Signals are mapped from one protocol to another protocol. A first protocol is received, and a mapping interface is generated to a second protocol. The first protocol is then mapped to the second protocol in accordance with the mapping interface. The mapping interface may comprise a coordination map. Moreover, a state diagram may be generated that is based on the first protocol, prior to mapping the first protocol to the second protocol. The first protocol may be an abstract protocol or a web services business activity protocol, for example, and the second protocol may be another abstract protocol, a concrete interface, a web services interface, a common language runtime interface, or a business process execution language for web services, for example.
US07761578B2

A computer system and method for communicating in a virtual environment. The computer system may include a first partition and a virtual service client implemented at a first position in the first partition. The computer system may also include a second partition, and a virtual service provider implemented at a second position in the second partition. The first partition and the second partition may be in operative communication via the virtual service client and the virtual service provider. The first position and the second position may enable the virtual service client and the virtual service provider to reduce processing overhead associated with communicating in the virtual environment by eliminating a processing step, a buffer copy, a software interrupt, and/or a context switch.
US07761570B1

The invention disclosure describes an extended DNS data having an extensible attribute as well as systems and methods that utilize this attribute. Typically, the extensible attribute includes both attribute data and metadata configured to indicate a type of the attribute data. By varying the metadata, different instances of the attribute data may include different data types. The attribute data is configured, for example, to characterize other fields in the extended DNS data and/or to enable new applications relating to DNS data.In various embodiments the extensible attribute within the extended DNS is accessed through an application programming interface (API). This API is configured to facilitate input and output of the extended DNS data and to allow an external application to identify and interchange those attribute data that the external application is configured to process.
US07761569B2

The present invention relates to a pseudonode used for deployment on a peer to peer network which pseudonode comprises an IP address and client ID that is changeable upon the occurrence of a preselected event and includes a list containing at least one searchable data object. The pseudonode is programmed for monitoring the network to receive search requests therefrom and to compare each said received search with said list of data objects and to respond to such request. The invention also provides a method for monitoring search requests for selected objects by nodes on a peer to peer network. The method includes interposing the pseudonodes on the network in which it is configured to provide at least one IP address and optionally at least one client ID. The pseudonode has at least one stored object corresponding to a request object stored at said pseudonode; and monitors the network to detect requests matching at least one of the stored objects and acquires a unique ID generated by any network node requesting the object matching that stored object on the pseudonode and responding to substantially each node representing an acquired ID.
US07761562B1

The present invention describes various techniques which may be used for determining multi-path latency in data networks which utilize a multi-homed transport protocols. Using the technique of the present invention, for example, appropriate source and destination addresses may be selected for specific IP datagrams in order to achieve an optimal communication path between endpoints which utilize a multi-homed transport protocol.
US07761555B1

A method and apparatus that uses the Internet protocol, TCP/IP, for a home control network. The apparatus also provides embedded servers, email clients at the electrical boxes. The apparatus integrates the Internet to the electrical outlet, switch or appliance boxes using a low cost embedded web server.
US07761549B2

Social information, including computer communication information, is modeled according to a network approach, and users are provided with representations of patterns within their social spaces and graphical interface tools for navigating through the spaces. This can enhance the user's ability to seek out social information and manage their online social relationships. The social mapping includes automatically collecting computer communication information relating to multiple contacts who are in computer communication with each other, one of the multiple contacts being a selected user. The computer communication information is filtered according to one or more preselected criteria to maintain the number of contacts associated with the selected user at or below a selected threshold. The computer communication information is analyzed to determine extents of similarity between the multiple contacts. A visualization of a social map based upon the extents of similarity between the multiple contacts is rendering on a computer display screen so that a user can access and navigate information represented in the social map visualization.
US07761547B2

A communication application control technology in which the location and status (context) of a user from a sensor net, and the communication application is controlled based on the context information. A sensor net server (or a presence server) manages the location and status of a user as well as group information detected by a sensor, and an application server obtains the user information included in the group from the sensor net server (or a presence server), and establishes a session with that user. This invention is applicable to various applications including the PTT (Push-to-Talk) and 3PCC.
US07761541B1

A network intelligence provides stateless elemental device control to a plurality of network connected components. Selected ones of the network connected components may be associated with one another as an aggregate device and the state of each associated component may be maintained at the network intelligence in a logical model of the aggregate device. Service adapters in the network intelligence may represent this association of components to data network services as a single, multi-function device.
US07761528B2

A method for processing multiple continuous Top-K queries, which is performed between a master server and multiple of slave servers, including steps of: a first step, for arbitrarily selecting the multiple of slave servers and querying and counting up K of accumulated values of which are recorded at most; a second step, for calculating every two adjacent values which have been sent from the same servers to obtain an average value as a threshold; and a third step, for measuring variations of an upper bound and a lower bound for each of the values by using the threshold, and reporting to the master server at a time of the value being in excess of the upper bound or lower than the lower bound for each of the values.
US07761515B2

An ad hoc wireless communications system and method permits a group of wireless portable communications devices to communicate with each other. The ad hoc network has security systems. A server for the ad hoc network is selected from among the portable communications devices associated with the ad hoc network.
US07761514B2

A method, computer readable media, and apparatus of hierarchical-based communication session and data distribution management that indexes client's communication preferences and network attribute information. Indexing is used to generate dynamic group membership lists that map into communication groups. Indexing is replicated at control nodes in the network overlay to allow distributed management of group membership. Send/receive operations are decoupled through data distribution and the indexing structure. Senders and receivers register their group communication interests to a parent node in the hierarchy. The session control structure aggregates client interest and dynamically updates replicas at control nodes which are selected according to the changes in registered client interest. The indexing structure has self-managing properties for automatic clustering based on client session and data interests, and dynamic partitioning of the session/data interest attribute space. Group membership is managed by querying the indexed session/data distribution management structure and mapping output to communication groups.
US07761493B1

A module possessing a class descriptor declares for the module the supported classes. The installation of the module triggers the examination class information model hierarchies possessed by the container on which the module is installed. Finding the established class information model hierarchies to be lacking with respect to the newly installed supported classes, a query is made to ascertain child-parent information for the newly installed supported classes. Using this information, an ancestry of each class is achieved so as to sparsely populate an information model hierarchy for each newly installed supported class.
US07761492B2

Systems and processes may receive and analyze billing information and/or business expenditures to determine costs associated with jobs corresponding to an internal development of software for internal use. The billing information and/or business expenditures may be analyzed according to accounting rules. Capitalizable costs and/or expenses may be determined based on business information and/or business expenses.
US07761485B2

A technique for storing a plurality of data records in a database. Client processes link to the database to access the data records of the database. Each client process has a specified scope. The scope defines to which of the data records within the database each of the client processes has access.
US07761484B2

Converting data to an appropriate format for use with a service. An example method is illustrated where a message including data expressed using dynamic language data expressions is received. The dynamic language data expressions include a tree structure organization for the data. The data expressed using dynamic language data expressions is expressed in an XML data structure. The XML data structure preserves the original tree structure organization for the data.
US07761472B2

Vectors representing objects in n-dimensional space are approximated by local polar coordinates on partitioned cells of the data space in response to a query, e.g., a query data vector entered with a request to find “k” nearest neighbors to the query vector. A set of candidate near neighbors is generated using the approximations, with the local polar coordinates being independent of the dimensionality of the data space. Then, an answer set of near neighbors is returned in response to the query. Thus, the present invention acts as a filter to reduce the number of actual data vectors in the data set that must be considered in responding to the query.
US07761466B1

Provided are, among other things, systems, methods and techniques for identifying target images in the following manner. Keypoints at different locations within a sample image and descriptor vectors for the keypoints are obtained, the descriptor vectors describing local image information around the keypoints. Features are generated based on hashes of data vectors that include at least one of the descriptor vectors, and an image-feature database is searched for the features. Target images are retrieved and provided based on the number of the features for which corresponding features exist in individual database images whose features are represented in the image-feature database. The foregoing hashes are performed using a hash function for which a probability that the hash of an arbitrary first vector corresponds to the hash of an arbitrary second vector is a function of an angle between the first vector and the second vector.
US07761465B1

To provide a data providing system able to protect the interests of interested parties of a data providing apparatus. The content provider 101 distributes a secure container 104 storing content data encrypted using content key data, content key data encrypted using distribution key data, and encrypted usage control policy data showing handling of the content data to a SAM 1051 of a user home network 103. The SAM 1051 etc. decrypts the content key data and usage control policy data stored in the secure container 104 and determines the handling such as the purchase form and usage form of the content data based on the decrypted usage control policy data.
US07761463B2

A medical check-in and data communication kiosk for efficiently checking-in patients at a medical facility and/or exchanging relevant data with the patient. A patient automatically provides initial identification information by swiping, scanning, etc., an I.D. card and the kiosk then accesses various legacy database systems to gather all relevant medical data corresponding to the particular patient. The patient is requested to verify and/or update any third party payer information, such as insurance information, and is also informed of suggested preventive healthcare actions.
US07761462B2

Embodiments include partitioning queries into subsets of queries and at least one database into subdatabases, designating searching tasks by associating each of the subsets of queries with one or more of the subdatabases, and assigning at least one searching task to at least one computer of a group of computers operating in parallel. Embodiments further describe designating two or more subtasks as related tasks on a virtual shared memory bulletin board, executing the at least one searching task using the at least one computer of the group of computers operating in parallel, and generating a search result responsive to the executing.
US07761457B2

A system and method for defining a segment for filtering website visitation data is disclosed. The method allows for creation and editing of a segment using various rules. The rules are defined using events and containers, which act as criteria by which the data is filtered. The system displays the segments and allows the user to apply them to stored data.
US07761451B2

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates paging and/or cursoring over the results of a query associated with a file storage system. An interface component can receive the query targeted to the file storage system including at least one key that relates to data. A query component can enable cursoring over a query operation on a query result utilizing the key in order to provide an extended set of query operators.
US07761450B1

A database system includes a storage to store a table, and a controller to receive a query containing an aggregate function to calculate a percentage. In response to the aggregate function, the percentage is calculated. In one implementation, the controller calculates plural percentage values based on plural groups specified by a group-by clause of the query.
US07761449B2

A self-disentangling data storage technique. Machine-readable data is stored by a data storage media, such as a magnetic tape or floppy drive. A software program for interpreting the data and requests for access to the data is also stored on the data storage media. The program allows the data to be retrieved using multiple different request types and interpreted in accordance with multiple different data formats. The invention overcomes disadvantages of prior storage techniques since the data can be completely or partially reconstructed, as needed. Further, the invention isolates the data storage format from the application used to generate the data so as to minimize problems caused by outdated data storage formats.
US07761446B2

The present invention provides a software facility for identifying the items most relevant to a current query based on items selected in connection with similar queries. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the facility receives a query specifying one or more query terms. In response, the facility generates a query result identifying a plurality of items that satisfy the query. The facility then produces a ranking value for at least a portion of the items identified in the query result by combining the relative frequencies with which users selected that item from the query results generated from queries specifying each of the terms specified by the query. The facility identifies as most relevant those items having the highest ranking values.
US07761440B2

Methods, systems and computer program products for synthesizing diagnoses stored in healthcare databases are provided. A diagnosis query associated with a single patient or a group of patients is received. Query results are provided responsive to the diagnosis query. The query results may include diagnoses from multiple sources that are expressed in multiple standards formats.
US07761434B2

A method and apparatus for providing concurrent access to a cache node of a tree-based data structure. Readers concurrently read access the cache node. A copy of the cache node is created for a write access of a writer. Only one copy of the cache node is allowed at any one time. The writer operates on the copy of the cache node while concurrent read access of the cache node are provided to the readers.
US07761430B2

Cross domain data systems are verified by creating a program in the target domain language which can be used to determine for a result item whether the result item should be part of a query result. The program is then used in order to determine, for a set of target domain data corresponding to source domain data, a set of expected result items. These are compared with the result from the cross domain data system in order to provide verification of cross domain data systems. Multiple queries may be automatically generated and verified according to this technique.
US07761424B2

Provided are techniques for transferring data. It is determined whether an indicators map is to be associated with a source file that is being opened, wherein the indicators map indicates which source blocks of the source file have been updated since last being transferred to a target file. In response to determining that an indicators map is to be associated with the source file, it is determined whether the indicators map exists. In response to determining that the indicators map exists, it is determined whether the indicators map is to be trusted based on a last modified time and a last source file size stored in the indicators map and the source file. In response to determining that the indicators map is to be trusted, the indicators map is initialized. Then, in response to receiving a write for the source file, the indicators map is updated to indicate which portion of the source file has been modified.
US07761415B2

A method for synchronizing data files, the method comprising: within a messaging utility, associating a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) definition with a data file, the association made by a passive reference between the WSDL definition to the data file; creating a reference table identifying WSDL files and referenced data files; determining if the WSDL file has changed, if the WSDL file has changed then: determining if a reference to a data file exists in the changed WSDL file; adding an entry in the reference table associating the WSDL file and the data file; launching a component of a builder application to build the data file; and determining if any additional references to data files exist in the changed WSDL file; determining if the data file has changed, if the data file has changed then: determining if the changed data file is referenced by a WSDL file by examining the reference table; if the changed data file exists in the reference table, then launching a component of the builder application to build the WSDL file referencing the changed data file.
US07761401B2

A method and system for controlling message flow in distributed stream processing. State transition probabilities in a Markov model having one state per staleness value of data are determined for sending or withholding updates of data to subscribers using expected message rates from an information provider. A cost function annotates each state transition in the model with a state transition cost for each decision to “send” or “withhold”. A propagation policy specifying whether to send or withhold the message is determined for each state. The propagation policy is then deployed. If a new message comprising an update of data is received during a lapsed time unit, a staleness value of the data held by subscribers is increased. The propagation policy is used to determine whether to send or withhold the message. If the message should be sent, the message is propagated and the staleness value of the data is reset.
US07761397B2

An improvement in decision automation employing a ZDD rule model indicative of a business or engineering rule to provide decision support to a user. The computer-implemented improvement automatically identifies compliant inputs for the rule processing system according to at least one input initially supplied by a user, and is particularly useful for determining product configuration, engineering designs, various outcome of planning scenarios, etc. Once a user selects an initial value(s), remaining compliant values unique to the user-selected value(s) are automatically identified. The improvement reduces time required to manually select inputs. In one embodiment, the improvement includes an I/O interface to enable the user to choose and observe inputs, an autoselect ZDD constructed from compliant inputs of the rule model, and a ZDD processing module that processes said autoselect ZDD in order to provide for the user a set compliant inputs for the ZDD rule model according to the user input. The automatic input selection routine may be executed at decision automation runtime, or executed and stored a priori for subsequent processing during runtime.
US07761393B2

A system that can identify, create, update and/or process a workflow based upon a current, past or future activity is disclosed. A ‘workflow’ can be defined as an activity flow that includes interaction with, or assignment of work to, people, devices, or services by a single individual or a group of individuals. Once a workflow is determined in accordance with the innovation, the system can inform other users or groups that are performing, or intend to perform, a similar or like activity. In establishing the workflow, the innovation can operate in an ad hoc or authored manner. As well, the system can employ a combination of either ad hoc or authored mechanisms in establishment of the workflow.
US07761389B2

Anomaly prediction of battery parasitic load includes processing input data related to a state of charge for a battery and a durational factor utilizing a machine learning algorithm and generating a predicted start-up state of charge. Warnings are issued if the predicted start-up state of charge drops below a threshold level within an operational time.
US07761368B2

The present invention facilitates efficient negotiations of trade terms and the generation of an electronic trade ticket in the trading of financial instruments. The negotiation process is preferably conducted through a secure online chat program using point-to-point messaging, though the negotiations can take place using the tradition exchanges of phone calls and faxes outside of the confines of an electronic trading system. Once the trade terms have been agreed upon by both parties, then the parties enter an electronic trading system in accordance with the present invention to select the traded financial instrument and generate an electronic trade ticket with can be stored by the trading system and/or the each of the trading parties.
US07761367B1

A method for financially monitoring an order that includes inserting an initial price of a product on an order form, displaying an initial projected profit indicator on the order form, wherein the initial projected profit indicator identifies an initial projected profit, and wherein the initial projected profit is calculated for the product using the initial price, and submitting the order form to initiate the order when the initial projected profit complies with a predefined regulation.
US07761356B2

A method for processing loan applications includes several steps, and may be practiced with a financial institution including an origination entity and a distribution entity. Loan applications are received from a plurality of applicants, at the origination entity. Each of the loan applications is submitted to an underwriting entity for evaluation, along with some information for each loan application. The underwriting entity approves or denies the loan applications. Each of the denied loan applications is reviewed at the distribution entity, to determine whether each denied loan application is acceptable for syndication or securitization. A message is communicated from the distribution entity to the origination entity, and includes an indication of whether one of the denied loan applications is acceptable for syndication or securitization. A system can include components for practicing the method.
US07761348B2

Disclosed is an integrated global shipment system that provides end-to-end visibility of the movement of a package. The integrated global shipment system employs a shipment consolidating application for integrating one or more freight tracking systems with one or more end-delivery systems. As a result, shippers are provided with complete visibility of the movement of their shipments of goods from an origin country to a destination country and till the final consignees. In addition, the integrated shipment system significantly decreases the cost of managing inventories by providing a virtual inventory solution. Under this virtual inventory solution, suppliers are able to bypass distribution centers and delay allocation of goods until after the importation of goods into a destination country.
US07761346B2

A computer-implemented method of generating a package of advertising inventory items in response to a set of buyer requirements while optimizing both buyer preferences and a station's revenue objectives given an expected demand can include: selecting a set of candidate inventory items from an inventory of inventory items available for presenting advertising spots, where the set of candidate inventory items satisfy a set of buyer preferences; and scoring the set of candidate inventory items with an affinity score.
US07761342B2

The embodiments of the present system include a review engine that is connected to support modules and databases that receive, store, and retrieve reviews, based upon the subject and the users' relationship to the authors of the reviews. The review engine comprises a social network engine, a rate and rank engine, a credentials engine and a privacy engine. These engines allow reviews to be sorted, filtered and ordered in terms of relevance when presented to the user. Numerous methods are also provided by the system that receive, store and retrieve reviews.
US07761339B2

A system and method are provided for producing customized merchandise for a user based upon a character within a virtual environment, by retrieving character data representing a player character within a game and converting the character data into merchandise attributes. The merchandise attributes are then used to create instructions for producing an item of customized merchandise.
US07761337B2

A complex order processing system is implemented in an architecture that allows customer service representatives and customers to access the customer's accounts, service profiles, quotes, and orders. Account information can be entered and updated. Quotes can be generated for various configurations of products and services having different types of charges including one time fees, recurring fixed fees, and usage-based fees. The quotes can be saved, and later updated by the customer or by the system to reflect changes in the configuration of a product or service that is included in the quote. The quote can be converted to an order, and pending orders can be modified. Before allowing modification of a quote or order, the requested future state of a product or service is created by applying the prior active and unprocessed orders to the product or service. The portion of the product or service currently selected is also applied to the product or service, and the user can then reconfigure the product or service. Once the change is accepted, the difference between the requested state of the product and service before and after the change is generated and saved as a delta quote or order. The system also allows a user to transfer the configuration of products and services from one address to another by selecting a single option. Third party service providers of a customer can also view the configuration of the customer's products and services in determining service options for the customer.
US07761317B2

A method is provided for determining the best combination of components/supplies/goods matched to a price provided by a supplier of those components/supplies/goods, such that costs are minimizing subject to a given supply function, fixed costs and various considerations that can be factored into a selection criteria. More specifically, a Lagrangian function is minimized subject to the supply function and an ensemble of costing formulations are considered subject to weighting factors as applied to a variety of criteria to arrive at an optimized selection of components/supplies/goods.
US07761309B2

The present invention is a method and system of triage that assesses a severity score for each casualty, and determines a treatment prioritization plan to maximize the number of survivors. The present invention includes a score-based mathematical algorithm for resource-constrained triage, where an optimal number of survivors is determined through a methodology that can be mathematically modeled and solved, a methodology that considers victim survival probabilities, victim deterioration rates, and resource availability. First, each casualty is assessed and an RPM severity score is assigned based upon a sum of coded values for respiratory rate, pulse rate, and best motor response. Next, treatment priorities are determined from analytical or mathematical techniques, such as dynamic or linear programming, in consideration of survival probabilities associated with each RPM score, and deterioration-with-time rates for each RPM score for victims awaiting transport and treatment and the availability and timing of transport and treatment services.
US07761308B2

A medical consultation support system which transfers a structured request for consultation from a primary care physician's client computer to a supervisory host computer. The structured request together with any additional information related to the request, form a machine-readable collection of information. At the supervisory computer, the request is reviewed by a receiving staff physician who designates a specialist and retrieves supporting documentation related to the consultation request from databases of medical information. The supervisory computer then transmits the request for consultation and at least an identification of the selected supporting documentation to the selected specialist for review, and thereafter receives a comment from the selected specialist. The supervisory computer further stores the request for consultation and the comment as a structured case history item in the database of medical information. A consultation may further be a source of continuing legal education credits for the requesting physician.
US07761307B2

A power transmission and power receiving apparatus and method is disclosed. Charging while in a non-contact processing operation for the purpose other than charging is realized. An approach of a portable electronic device with a rapid bulk electricity storing module, which is a chargeable power source, is detected at the side of a power transmitting device, and power transmission for charging the rapid bulk electricity storing module is executed in response to the detection of the approach. A power source can be charged in operation for non-contact authentication which is executed when a device approaches an authentication device.
US07761289B2

The disclosed embodiments include systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable mediums for compensating one or more signals and/or one or more parameters for time delays in one or more signal processing paths.
US07761286B1

The present invention is a method of database searching. First, a language is selected. Next, elements are received. The system is then searched to identify at least one unit number that is associated with a chosen element, the unit number being linked to a data unit containing morphological variants of the element. If no unit number is identified, the element is compared to a prefix list. If no match is found there, the element is broken into a prefix and suffix, and the prefix and suffix are matched to a prefix list, suffix list or a unit number. This process is repeated for all elements. A unit number associated with each element is then chosen, and the elements contained in the data units linked to the unit numbers are compared to a database. The results are displayed and preferably ranked according to user preferences. If an element is associated with multiple unit numbers, this process is repeated until all data units have been compared to the database.
US07761284B2

A data protection and storage system includes an array of disk drives for data storage. Data is received for storage on the disk drive via an interface that is configured to emulate a tape drive interface. A virtual tape data structure is created and stored on the disk drives. The allocated capacity of the virtual tape is dynamically and transparently alterable in response to data storage demand within the virtual tape.
US07761280B2

Simulation of the operation of a data processing apparatus having a number of master logic units and slave logic units coupled via a bus is provided. The data processing apparatus performs data transfers between the master logic units and the slave logic units over the bus. Anticipated timing information for each successive data transfer over the bus is generated by assuming that each successive data transfer can occur with exclusive access to the bus, determining whether the anticipated timing information indicates that two or more concurrent data transfers would occur on the bus, and in the event that the anticipated timing information indicates that two or more concurrent data transfers would occur on the bus, generating revised timing information for those data transfers, the revised timing information being generated using bus status information until those data transfers have been completed.
US07761278B2

A computational methodology that improves the accuracy of model parameters in a compact model uses methods and algorithms to self-consistently match independently developed base and stress models by re-fitting the stress model to the data set that generates the base model. The re-fitting algorithm removes any discrepancy between the base model and the stress model as the stress model is applied to the data set obtained from a dimension-scaling macro. Stress offsets for dimension-scaling macro devices are calculated to fit the measured values of the model parameters for the same devices. The process of fitting the model parameters to the data set from the dimension-scaling macro calculates constant, linear, and quadratic coefficients for the model parameters, which are employed to increase the accuracy of the model parameters and of the compact model used in circuit simulations and optimization.
US07761272B1

Method and apparatus for processing a dataflow description of a digital processing system is described. In one example, a model of the dataflow description is simulated. Computational steps performed during the simulation and actual dependencies among the computational steps resulting from the simulation are identified. Causation trace data is generated in response to the step of recording. The causation trace data may then be analyzed using one or more analyses to produce quantitative data that characterizes the dataflow description.
US07761260B2

A network operation center for a light management system having networked intelligent luminaire managers. A plurality of networked luminaire managers, each collocated with a respective luminaire, monitor the status of their respective luminaires. The luminaire managers include transmitters for transmitting status information about their respective luminaires and third-party devices to a network server. The network server forwards the received status information from the networked luminaire managers to a computer of an owner/operator of the plurality of luminaires and/or a third-party user. The luminaire managers communicate with each other, whereby they form a network.
US07761254B2

A machine having an operator interface for requesting an action from an actuator of the machine includes a movable component of the operator interface. The movable component is movable among at least two positions. One of a magnet and a Hall effect sensor is positioned to move in response to movement of the movable component. The other of the magnet and the Hall effect sensor has a stationary position relative to the movable component. A pulse width modulator is operably coupled to the Hall effect sensor for producing a first pulse width modulated signal. The first pulse width modulated signal is altered in response to movement of one of the Hall effect sensor and the magnet relative to the other. An electronic controller is in communication with the pulse width modulator and the actuator and is configured to actuate the actuator in response to evaluation of the first pulse width modulated signal.
US07761240B2

Systems and methods are provided for automated diagnosis and grading of tissue images based on morphometric data extracted from the images by a computer. The morphometric data may include image-level morphometric data such as fractal dimension data, fractal code data, wavelet data, and/or color channel histogram data. The morphometric data may also include object-level morphometric data such as color, structural, and/or textural properties of segmented image objects (e.g., stroma, nuclei, red blood cells, etc.).
US07761209B2

An obstruction detection device for a motor vehicle having a door assembly movably connected to a vehicle body is provided. The device controls the vehicle door's opening angle to prevent inadvertent contact with an object foreign to the vehicle, while providing the largest opening for vehicle ingress and egress. The obstruction detection device includes a controller that is operatively connected to at least one sensor configured to actively monitor and transmit signals to the controller indicative of the presence and corresponding proximity of the object relative to the door assembly. An actuator is operatively connected to and controlled by the controller. The actuator is configured to apply a selectively variable force that restricts the movement of the vehicle door assembly with respect to the vehicle body when the door is a predetermined distance from the object.
US07761203B2

A power consumption recording apparatus is provided that can perform the following for multiple travels of a section traveled by the vehicle. The apparatus can detect as many power consumption events used by the vehicle as the multiple travels. When the vehicle has traveled a given section, the apparatus detects time attributes and occupant counts for the multiple travels. The apparatus divides the power consumption events detected for the section into groups based on power consumption magnitudes. For each group, the apparatus can record a representative power consumption of power consumption events belonging to the group, a time attribute and an occupant count corresponding to occurrence of the power consumption belonging to the group, and the number of occurrences of respective power consumption events, in association with each other.
US07761198B2

Methods and systems for energy management system for a vehicle are provided. The system includes a first power source configured for cranking an engine wherein the first power source includes a switch configured to electrically couple the first power source to a starter for the engine and wherein the first power source is electrically isolated from auxiliary onboard loads. The system further includes a second power source configured for supplying auxiliary on board loads, a charging subsystem electrically coupled to the first and the second power sources. The charging subsystem is configured to supply charging current to the first and the second power sources. The system further includes a controller configured to maintain the first power source in a substantially fully charged condition and supply the auxiliary loads from the second power source.
US07761194B2

A method and device that assist a pilot of a follower aircraft during a patrol flight, by presenting on a viewing screen an indicator that provides information as to the possibility of engagement of an automatic pilot during a patrol flight.
US07761190B2

An exemplary embodiment includes a wind turbine system. The wind turbine system includes a wind turbine generator operable to supply wind turbine power to a utility system. A converter is coupled to the wind turbine generator and the utility system. The wind turbine system also includes a controller comprising an internal reference frame of the wind turbine generator, coupled to the converter, and configured for modulating flow of power through the converter in response to frequency disturbances or power swings of the utility system relative to the internal reference frame.
US07761187B2

A method controls tub oscillation in a drum type washing machine by utilizing a ball balancer. The method includes maintaining an rpm of a drum in a predetermined rpm level for a predetermine period of time during a dehydration operation, thereby reducing a differential rotation speed between the drum and a ball, and re-increasing the rpm, such that the tub is not subject to the oscillation that is greater than a predetermined level. The drum type washing machine adopts a single race having different ball sizes and viscosities, so that the manufacturing cost of the washing machine is reduced. The tub is prevented from being subject to oscillation greater than a predetermined level through precise calculation.
US07761186B2

An automated lighting and building control system that is operative to control a large number of lights and to provide control to other control systems, such as security systems, powered window coverings, and HVAC systems, within a geographic area based on a large amount of input data, including day light conditions, occupancy data, security information, HVAC data, etc. The savings generated by the control system are measurable and verifiable and enable the operator of the controlled space to analyze exactly how the controlled space is being utilized. To improve the quality of the overall control system, the present invention utilizes a universal occupancy adapter for converting any motion detector for a security system, into a component of the lighting/building controller. Further, the entire system can be controlled remotely over the Internet without the need for special software.
US07761185B2

A robot system that includes a robot and a remote station. The robot and remote station contain monitors, cameras, speakers and microphones that allow for two-way videoconferencing between a physician at the remote station and a patient in the vicinity of the robot. The system also includes a patient monitor that displays patient information such as an x-ray. The patient monitor can be seen by the patient, and by the physician through the robot camera. The system allows for a physician to remotely review the medical information with the patient.
US07761179B2

Methods for consistent updates to APC models with partitioning along multiple components are generally described. In one example, a method includes acquiring measurement data from one or more semiconductor wafers of a processed first lot, the data having a plurality of contexts, applying a model having parameters with partitioning along the contexts to the measurement data; and applying a constraint on a subset of the model parameters such that the subset remains centered around zero to provide consistent updates for automated process control of lots processed after the first lot.
US07761163B2

The invention relates to heart stimulators and implantable atrial pacemakers which utilize a rhythm based atrial capture threshold test wherein in a ventricle based DDI mode a predetermined number of ventricle started atrial and ventricular escape intervals are triggered with an overdrive rate about 20% higher than an intrinsic heart rate. The number of atrial sense events during atrial capture threshold test is counted. Too high of a number of atrial sense events indicates loss of capture due to too small of a pulse strength of the atrial stimulation pulses.
US07761162B2

Approaches to automatically classifying a cardiac response to pacing involve discriminating between a captured response and non-capture with intrinsic activation. A capture detection system senses for morphological characteristics of a cardiac signal associated with the pacing pulse. The cardiac signal may be sensed using a defibrillation electrode during one or more time intervals following delivery of the pacing pulse. If a first characteristic of the cardiac signal achieves a threshold value, the system continues to sense the cardiac signal and detects a second characteristic. The cardiac pacing response is determined based on at least one of the first and the second cardiac signal characteristics.
US07761160B2

Techniques are provided for estimating optimal atrioventricular pacing delay values for use in pacing the ventricles based on features of an intracardiac electrogram (IEGM) signal. Briefly, atrioventricular pacing delay pacing values are set based upon the location of atrial repolarization events within the IEGM. In one example, the end of an atrial repolarization is identified, then the interval from the atrial depolarization to the end of the atrial repolarization is measured. The atrioventricular pacing delay is then set by subtracting an offset value from that interval so as to time delivery of V-pulses prior the end of atrial repolarization. In this manner, atrioventricular pacing delay values are set based only IEGM signals and hence can be set to optimal/preferred values by the device itself without requiring surface electrocardiogram (EKG) signals and Doppler echocardiography or other cardiac performance monitoring techniques.
US07761159B2

Cardiac devices and methods that select pacing rates for automatic threshold tests based on a patient's hemodynamic need. A sensor-indicated pacing rate corresponding to a patient's hemodynamic need is determined. A test pacing rate is selected from either the sensor-indicated rate or another rate. Capture threshold testing is performed using the selected pacing rate.
US07761158B2

Systems, devices and methods provide for evaluation of heart failure symptoms. Sensor data associated with one or more symptoms of heart failure are acquired and trended. Statistical features, such as slope, are extracted from the data trend in a moving window and are used to develop a cumulative sum. The cumulative sum is compared to a threshold value or V-mask to detect a shift in cumulative sum indicating changes in heart failure symptoms. A shift beyond the threshold value may trigger an alert or implementation of therapy.
US07761155B2

A method and device for delivering anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) therapy that includes an electrode to sense cardiac signals and to deliver the therapy, sensing circuitry, electrically coupled to the electrode, to detect the tachycardia event in response to the sensed cardiac signals, and a processor to control delivery of the therapy. The processor determines a cause of the delivered first plurality of pacing pulses failing to terminate the tachycardia event as a result of one of a failure to capture the tachycardia event, a failure to complete peelback, and a failure to entrain a reentrant circuit associated with the tachycardia event, and adjusts delivery of a second plurality of pacing pulses subsequent to the delivery of the first plurality of pacing pulses in response to the determined cause.
US07761144B2

A method, apparatus, and computer program product that provides, among other things, a procedure for the enhanced assessment of attention-related impairments of individuals. Further, the method, apparatus, and computer program product enhances existing assessment instruments by providing a way to reduce diagnostic error through the combining of the results of disparate assessment instruments. Potential users of this product will be any person or organization that diagnoses or treats persons with attentional or cognitive impairments. The method can be used for initial screening and diagnosis of disorders associated with impaired attention, such as ADHD, as well as for treatment and evaluation of the effects of treatments, such as medication or additional therapies.
US07761143B2

A medical telemetry system includes a first detection section for detecting a first vital sign signal using a first sensor, a transmitter 10 which modulates a signal detected by the first detection section and transmits the modulated signal by radio wave transmission, a receiver 30 which receives the detection signal that has been transmitted by radio wave transmission and demodulates the received signal, having a connector 32 for transmitting the demodulated signal to a vital sign signal input section of the vital sign signal monitor 20, wherein the connector 32 of the receiver is connectable with a commonly used vital sign signal input section of each of various types of vital sign signal monitors 20.
US07761142B2

A method of detecting a cardiac event in a medical device that includes sensing cardiac signals from a plurality of electrodes forming a first sensing vector and a second sensing vector, determining inflections of the sensed cardiac signals, generating a pulse amplitude threshold in response to the determined inflections, and determining whether the inflections are indicative of noise in response to the determined inflections and the generated pulse amplitude threshold.
US07761120B2

In a mobile phone having a liquid crystal display unit, the entire liquid crystal display unit is displayed in a simple display mode at lest in a non-operating standby mode. In the simple display mode, the entire liquid crystal display unit is driven by reducing the number of gradation levels or by decreasing a liquid crystal driving voltage. By using such a controlling method, the power consumption of the liquid crystal display unit can be reduced in the non-operating standby mode. On the other hand, necessary information such as time and the amount of remaining battery is displayed such that the information can be read.
US07761112B2

A power controlling device in a mobile communication system, and a method thereof. A base station calculates an average interference of N previous frames, and broadcasts the average interference to subscriber stations. The subscriber stations determine transmission power based on the average interference. Noise and Interference (NI) of frames within a section corresponding to a setting size is calculated (the frames may include a current frame) so an estimated interference is close to the interference generated in the frame in which the subscriber station actually transmits a signal. In addition, to more precisely estimate the NI, the NI of the current frame is compensated according to a value and is broadcast.
US07761101B1

Disclosed is a method and system for adjusting processing time for responding to a request for location of a mobile station. A mobile location server or other position-determining system sends a location query to the mobile station and determines if the mobile station possesses a fresh set of assistance data usable by the mobile station to acquire satellite-based positioning data. If the determination is that the mobile possesses fresh assistance data, then the system waits a first time period for the mobile station to respond to the query, otherwise the system waits a second time period greater than the first time period for the mobile station to respond. If the mobile station responds in time, the system returns in response to the request a specific indication of the mobile station's location; otherwise, the system returns a general location, such as a cell sector location for instance.
US07761098B1

A multi-mode wireless device is provided to communicate with a plurality of networks, at least some of the networks having different modes of communication. The multi-mode wireless device has a network selection component to monitor at least some of networks and switch the multi-mode wireless device to communicate with different networks based on a network selection criterion. The user interface allows a user of the multi-mode wireless device to edit the network selection criterion based on a user preference related to the network used by the multi-mode wireless device. A method for communicating on one or more networks using a multi-mode wireless device is also provided.
US07761094B2

A technique is proposed for supporting a mobile communication session in a combined communications network comprising a mobile network and a non-mobile access network. In the mobile network, the mobile communication session is associated with a mobile number. The technique comprises: a) associating, in the non-mobile access network, the mobile number with a non-mobile device of the non-mobile network, b) providing an access device being in communication with a plurality of non-mobile devices of the non-mobile network and with a controller of a mobile network, operative to represent the non-mobile device of the plurality of non-mobile devices as having the mobile number; c) selectively conducting the mobile communication session either through a mobile device associated with the mobile number in the mobile network, or through the non-mobile device associated with the mobile number in the non-mobile network.
US07761093B2

A open access signal distribution system in which a variety of wireless voice, data and other services and applications are supported. The open access systems makes use of a distributed Radio Frequency (RF) distribution network and associated network entities that enable the system operator to employ a wireless infrastructure network that may be easily shared among multiple wireless service providers in a given community. The open access system provides the ability for such operators and service providers to share the infrastructure regardless of the specific RF air interface or other signal formatting and/or managing messaging formats that such operators choose to deploy.
US07761090B2

A method of printing content on a print medium using a mobile telecommunications device is disclosed. Upon activation by an information link on the mobile telecommunication device, a request for the content is received at a server. The content is then transferred to the mobile telecommunications device. The mobile telecommunications device prints the content on the print medium using a printer of the mobile telecommunications device.
US07761089B2

A method for downloading high-capacity data of multimedia content data (e.g., MP3, music video, and movie, etc.) in a mobile communication terminal, and a system for implementing the same are disclosed. The method for downloading data in a mobile communication terminal includes the steps of: selecting a desired data over a mobile communication network, and downloading the selected data over a broadcast network. Therefore, a user can download multimedia content data over a data channel of a DMB network, instead of the Internet of a mobile communication network, resulting in reduction of internet charges accumulated when downloading the high-capacity data.
US07761088B1

A method of measuring wireless telecommunication market information for wireless devices. The method includes selecting a panel of numbers, generating signaling messages for the selected panel, sending the generated signaling messages, receiving a response from plurality of databases and processing the received response to determine market information. In one embodiment, the response is an electronic serial number (ESN) of a wireless device. Processing the ESN may determine the manufacturer of the wireless device, the model of the wireless device and its corresponding serial number. As such; the market-share of manufacturer of the device, its corresponding market-share for a given model, and the number of unsold wireless devices may be determined. Tracking the selected panel of numbers may determine the lifespan of a device and the relationship between providers and replacing or acquiring devices. It is appreciated that identifiers other than ESN may be used (e.g., IMEI in GSM technology).
US07761086B2

A communication terminal is provided including a plurality of service providing sections (terminal adaptation function, operation section) which terminates a call, accepts operation instruction information, and provides a predetermined information service, a DCF for managing the setup information, which is commonly set for the plurality of service providing sections and outputting control instruction information based on this setup information or operation instruction information, and a control section which controls operation of the plurality of service providing sections based on the control instruction information which is output from the DCF, are disposed, so that operation control of the plurality of service providing sections (e.g. startup of transfer/telephone answering machine) according to the common setup information or operation instruction information is implemented.
US07761076B1

A communication circuit includes a replica circuit that generates first and second single-ended replica transmit signals. When one of the first and second single-ended replica transmit signals is asserted, the other of the first and second single-ended replica transmit signals is not asserted. A converter circuit includes a differential amplifier including first and second inputs that receive the first and second single-ended replica transmit signals, respectively. The converter circuit converts the first and second single-ended replica transmit signals to a differential replica transmit signal. A receive circuit generates a differential receive signal based on a differential composite signal and the differential replica transmit signal.
US07761066B2

A circuit comprises an analog output module that receives a bias signal and a control signal. A delay module receives a first signal and that generates a delayed first signal. A control module receives the delayed first signal and generates the control signal based thereon. An envelope generating module receives a second signal including amplitude information related to the first signal and generates an envelope signal that selectively increases the bias signal to the analog output module when the envelope signal exceeds a predetermined threshold and before a corresponding portion of the first signal is received by the analog output module.
US07761063B2

A distortion compensator, comprising a distortion component generator that generates a distortion component orthogonal baseband signal corresponding to a nonlinear distortion component based upon an analog orthogonal baseband signal, a distortion component synthesizer that synthesizes a composite signal by combining the analog orthogonal baseband signal and the distortion component orthogonal baseband signal and a first switch through which control is executed as to whether or not to input the distortion component orthogonal baseband signal to the distortion component synthesizer, is provided.
US07761058B2

A small office/home office base transceiver station includes an acoustic sensor array. Directions from which acoustic signals are detected are presumed to correspond to the interior of the building within which the base transceiver station is located, and with human activity within that interior, while directions from which few or no acoustic signals are detected are presumed to correspond to proximate outside walls. Transmit power gain for directional antenna array elements used for communications are then set to reduce transmission of power in directions that might result in interference with adjacent base transceiver stations.
US07761045B2

A belt feeding apparatus includes an endless belt; a supporting member for rotatably supporting said belt; and setting means for setting, when said belt is deviated from a widthwisely normal zone, an inclination angle of said supporting member to a returning angle to return said belt toward the normal zone, and for setting, when said belt is in the normal zone, the inclination angle of said supporting member to a balance angle.
US07761041B2

The present invention provides a developing apparatus using a two-component developer, an image forming apparatus, and a method of forming an image capable of forming a high quality image characterized by stable suppression of carrier deterioration and absence of a residual image (memory effect) for a long period of time. The voltage formed by overlapping AD voltage to DC voltage is applied separately to each of the developer carrying member and the toner carrying member. The toner separation field made up of AC field is formed between the developer carrying member and the toner carrying member, and the development electric field made up AC field is formed between the toner carrying member and the image carrying member.
US07761027B2

A charger has a charging wire that extends in the axial direction and that has one end and another end. The charger is configured to charge the image-bearing member. A cleaning member is movable in the axial direction for cleaning the charging wire. The cleaning member is movable between a first position located on the one end and a second position located on the another end. A removal-restricting portion is movable between the first position and the second position. A developer cartridge is detachably mounted on the image-bearing member cartridge. The removal-restricting portion prevents the developer cartridge from being removed from the image-bearing member cartridge when the cleaning member is in the first position, and allows the developer cartridge to be removed from the image-bearing member cartridge when the cleaning member is in the second position.
US07761026B2

An image forming device includes an image carrier, a cleaning device, a charging device and a shielding member. The image carrier carries a toner image thereon. The cleaning device removes a toner on the image carrier. The charging device charges the image carrier. The shielding member is disposed between the cleaning device and the charging device. The shielding member is in contact with the image carrier in an area where the image carrier is charged.
US07761016B2

An image forming apparatus to prevent overheating of a fuser. In the image forming apparatus, a first overheating prevention unit compares the voltage detected by a temperature sensor, which senses temperature of the fuser, with a reference voltage and turns off the fuser when it overheats. A controller receives the detected voltage through an A/D port and performs on/off control of the fuser to keep its temperature at a predetermined level. A second overheating prevention unit compares the detected voltage with the A/D port voltage and turns off the fuser when the detected voltage is different from the A/D port voltage. When the A/D port is damaged, the A/D port voltage increased by the damage activates the second overheating prevention unit to turn off the fuser. This prevents overheating of the fuser caused by malfunction of the A/D port, thereby preventing disconnection of the thermostat or scorch of the fuser.
US07761005B2

A relay finder optical system, of a single-lens reflex camera, includes a condenser lens group, a prism, and a relay lens group, in this order from a primary imaging plane. An image, which is formed on the primary imaging plane, and is upside down and inverted from left to right, is re-formed on a secondary imaging plane for viewing by a photographer. The relay lens group includes a positive front lens group, a negative intermediate lens group, and a positive rear lens group, in this order from the object. The most photographers-eye side lens element of the positive rear lens group comprises a positive lens element having a convex surface facing toward the image, and satisfies the following conditions: 1
US07760990B2

A recording apparatus for recording a data stream including one or more packetized video streams, comprising a detector for detecting a random-access point of the data stream and an apparatus for obtaining and address of the random-access point. A packet including an address is distinguished according to a packet identification information. A data base is created including the address and the packet identification information. The data base is recorded separately form the data stream on a recording medium.
US07760988B2

To provide a content playback device that can use content appropriately by avoiding output of content not permitted to be used according to contract information. A playback control unit 102 extracts a content name from playback control information in a playback path information table 210, and inquires of a rights management unit 108 whether content identified by the extracted content name is playable or not. If the content is judged as being unplayable, the playback control unit 102 extracts an alternative playback number from the playback control information, and extracts a content name from playback control information whose playback number matches the alternative playback number. The playback control unit 102 then instructs a decryption unit 103 and a playback unit 107 to decrypt and play back encrypted content identified by the extracted content name.
US07760987B2

In the data structure, a data area of the recording medium stores a transport stream of at least video data. The transport stream is divided into transport packets. Each of the transport packets is associated with one of the multiple reproduction paths, and the transport packets of each reproduction path are interleaved with one another. In the date structure, a navigation area stores at least one navigation data item. The navigation data item provides navigation information for reproducing more than one of the multiple reproduction paths. The navigation area also stores a separate map associated with each reproduction path, and each map provides position data for the video data of the associated reproduction path.
US07760982B2

A mounting structure is disclosed in a test-bed installation in which vertically aligned first backboards are pivotally secured to a front side of one of the upright posts of a relay rack for movement between a closed position and open positions. Vertically aligned second backboards are secured to a rear side of both upright posts of the relay rack in opposed relationship with the first backboards. A pair of optical network terminals is mounted on an outer side of each of the backboards, and a pair of battery backup units is mounted on an inner side thereof. Thus when one of the first backboards is moved to an open position, access is provided to the pair of battery backup units mounted on the first backboard so moved and to the pair of battery backup units mounted on the opposing second backboard.
US07760979B2

In one embodiment, there is disclosed a waveguide medium using total internal reflection to create a relatively sharp (approximately 90°) bend for optical signals traversing the waveguide. A discontinuity of the medium (such as air) is used to create a turning mirror within the waveguide path. By curving the discontinuity, the entire input optical signal is focused into the output portion of the waveguide, thereby compensating for the diffraction loss of the optical signal at the bend. In one embodiment in order to facilitate proper alignment of the masks certain portions of the waveguide on a first mask are extended (widened) beyond their optimum physical size. This extended portion is then used to position an edge of a second mask, such that optical signal scatter caused by the extended portions of the waveguide are compensated for by adjusting the curvature.
US07760978B2

An optical transmission fiber is formed to include a relatively low-index, relatively thin outer cladding layer disposed underneath the protective polymer outer coating. Stray light propagating along an inner cladding layer(s) within the fiber will be refracted into the thin outer cladding (by proper selection of refractive index values). The thin dimension of the outer cladding layer allows for the stray light to “leak” into the outer coating in a controlled, gradual manner so as to minimize heating of the coating associated with the presence of stray light. The inventive fiber may also be bent to assist in the movement of stray light into the coating.
US07760972B2

The present invention provides a switch assembly for use with a single-port OPM to realize a multi-port OPM having improved reliability. In one embodiment, an N×1 optical switch assembly, wherein N is an integer greater than one, is provided. The optical switch assembly includes N optical input ports, N micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) variable optical attenuators (VOAs), where each MEMS VOA is optically coupled to a respective optical input port and is operable between an on position and an off position, and an N×1 optical combiner optically coupled to the N MEMS VOAs. Each MEMS VOA is configured to transmit an optical signal from a respective one of the optical input ports to the N×1 optical combiner in the on position and to not transmit the optical signal in the off position.
US07760960B2

A localized content adaptive filter system including a tile buffer having an output providing first image information, a frequency analyzer providing a frequency information signal based on frequency content of the first image information, and an adaptive filter which is adjusted based on the frequency information signal. The frequency analyzer may include a wavelet transform filter and a frequency content analyzer. The adaptive filter may include filter select logic which receives the frequency information signal and second image information associated with the first image information, and which provides filtered image information. The filter select logic determines a filter based on the frequency information signal and the determined filter filters the second image information to provide the filtered image information. The filter select logic may include preconfigured filters in which a filter is selected by the frequency information, or a programmable filter which is programmed according to the frequency information.
US07760959B2

An imaging apparatus includes a pixel unit having a plurality of components, each having a plurality of pixels arranged in row and column directions. The plurality of pixels in each component output color signals having a plurality of colors. The apparatus also includes an adding unit configured to perform an addition of color signals of the same color in each component. The color signals are outputted from the plurality of pixels. The adding unit performs the addition without adding a color signal outputted from a part of the plurality of pixels in each component such that spatial centroids of the added color signals having a plurality of colors are located at substantially the same pitch at least in one of the row and column directions.
US07760957B2

A method of enhancing the sharpness of spatial frequencies in a digital image obtained by a digital imaging system. The method comprising modifying digital data defining the pixel content of the image so as to replace the spatial frequency characteristics of the digital image due to the digital imaging system with spatial frequency characteristics of an image produced by a microscope.
US07760956B2

A method and system for automatically producing a page using frames of a video stream. A plurality of video frames from a video stream or clip are read, and multiple frames are extracted from the video stream, based on the content of each frame. Frames which neighbor the extracted frames in the video stream are also extracted, with the number of neighboring frames to be extracted being controlled by parameters provided to the page production system. The resolution of the images in the extracted video frames is enhanced, based on the information in each extracted frame and each respective extracted neighboring frame. The enhanced images are automatically cropped to enhance the important features in each image, and the cropped images are composed into one or more pages that are representative of the content of the video stream.
US07760951B2

A method and system for pipelined processing in an integrated embedded image and video accelerator is described. Aspects of a system for pipelined processing in an integrated embedded image and video accelerator may include circuitry that enables pipeline processing of video data within a single chip, wherein the pipeline processing may further include decoding of a block of video data while simultaneously inverse transforming a previously decoded block of video data. Aspects of the system may also include circuitry that enables transformation, within the single chip, of a block of said video data while simultaneously encoding, within said single chip, a previously transformed block of video data.
US07760948B1

A coefficient labeling circuit arrangement for bitplane coding passes in embedded block coding. In one embodiment, a significance lookahead circuit generates lookahead significance states of coefficients in past, current, and future magnitude stripe slices of a code-block containing a plurality of coefficients. A plurality of context labeling circuits are coupled in parallel to the significance lookahead circuit. Each context labeling circuit is configured with a respective significance propagation pass circuit, a respective magnitude refinement pass circuit, and a respective cleanup pass circuit. Context labels are generated in parallel for all bits of the current magnitude stripe slice.
US07760943B2

An apparatus, and a corresponding method, are usable for speeding up Retinex processing of an input image. The apparatus includes a down sample module having a sub-sampling algorithm, where sub-sampled images of the input image are produced, and a non-linear illumination estimation module that receives the sub-sampled images and produces corresponding interim illumination estimations. Finally, the apparatus includes an up sample module including one or more up-sampling algorithms. The interim illumination estimations are interpolated to produce an illumination estimation, and the illumination estimation is usable to perform a Retinex correction to the input image.
US07760942B2

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an automated, computerized method is provided for classifying pixel values in a motion sequence of images. According to a feature of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of determining spectral information relevant to the sequence of images, and utilizing the spectral information to classify a pixel as one of background, shadow and object.
US07760939B2

A method is disclosed for the generation of a background mask from an intensity-value-coded image with a noisy background area. The method includes generating an intensity value histogram of the image; fitting a model curve to a subarea of the intensity value histogram; calculating a threshold value in the intensity value histogram from the fit parameters of the model curve; and generating the background mask starting from at least one defined image area that belongs to the background noise by adding all the pixels whose intensities are below the threshold value to the background mask when connected to the image area via pixels whose intensities are also below the threshold value.
US07760932B2

A method for reconstructing a three-dimensional structure using silhouette information on a two-dimensional plane is provided. The method includes: obtaining silhouette images; creating a cube on a three-dimensional space using the silhouette images; calculating vertex coordinates on a two-dimensional image plane by projecting eight vertices of the three-dimensional cube on a two-dimensional image plane of a first camera; dividing into multiple inner voxels by dividing sides formed by the eight vertices by a divider; dividing into a predetermined number of regions by dividing sides connecting the coordinates by a predetermined divider; assigning indices by matching cubes of the three-dimensional cube to square regions on the two-dimensional image plane in one to one manner; storing indices of regions where the square regions meets with a first silhouette image; and reconstructing three-dimensional structure by finding common indices through repeatedly performing the steps using other silhouette images.
US07760922B2

A vast buffer memory space capable of storing all of partial fingerprint images read by a sweep type fingerprint sensor is made unnecessary in generating feature information of a fingerprint. A fingerprint reading system includes a sweep type fingerprint sensor, a memory which stores partial fingerprint images read by the sensor, and a processor connected to the sensor. The processor includes an image acquisition unit which successively acquires partial fingerprint images read by the sweep type fingerprint sensor and preserves them in the memory, a position calculation unit which calculates position information of a partial fingerprint image, an image division unit which cuts out a unique unit image corresponding to an image region having a predetermined area from the partial fingerprint image on the basis of the position information, and a feature extraction unit which extracts feature information of the unit image.
US07760916B2

A registration apparatus includes a corresponding pixel detection unit that detects two or more than two pixels in an object of identification shown in a first image obtained by shooting the object of identification at a site of a living body from a first position and corresponding two or more than two pixels, whichever appropriate, in the object of identification shown in a second image obtained by shooting the object of identification from a second position different from the first position and located substantially on a plane including the first position, an inclination detection unit that detects the extent of inclination of the site of the living body relative to a reference plane on the basis of the difference of each corresponding pair of pixels, a correction unit that corrects the distortion of the first image or the second image according to the extent of inclination and a registration unit that registers the object of identification shown in the first image or the second image corrected for the distortion in a recording medium.
US07760915B2

The invention provides a method, system, and program product for encrypting information. In one embodiment, the invention includes prompting a user for a password associated with a digital signature certificate stored in a digital pen, capturing a handwritten password made using the digital pen, displaying to the user the captured password, and encrypting information entered using the digital pen using the captured password. In some embodiments, the password may be captured from a predefined field on a digital page.
US07760912B2

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. According to a feature of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of converting a color band representation of the image to a homogeneous representation of spectral and spatial characteristics of a texture region in the image and utilizing the homogeneous representation of spectral and spatial characteristics of a texture region in the image to identify homogeneous tokens in the image.
US07760905B2

A portable wireless phone device includes a module configured to derive identification data from audio or visual content. The phone device transmits a packet of data to a remote system that includes both context or environment data, and also at least part of this derived identification data. A great number of other features and improvements are also detailed.
US07760903B2

A tamper-resistant text stream watermarking system is provided. Content such as any text-based document including programming code is encoded with a watermarking mechanism. The mechanism modifies the text itself according to a preset repeating pattern without changing the substance. Examples include patterned use of white spaces, contractions, abbreviations, order of local variables in programming code, and the like. The pattern may include a binary fingerprint that can be used to trace the watermarked document to an assigned source or version of the original document. In analyzing a suspect text stream, patterns are generated based on instances of the mechanism and their corresponding bit values. Repeating patterns are combined into a bit stream along with separators between each pattern. The bit stream can then be analyzed to determine a source of the watermarked text stream.
US07760901B2

A speaker device includes a magnetic circuit system and a vibration system. The vibration system has a voice coil bobbin, a voice coil wound therearound, a damper, an annular member, a diaphragm and one additional annular member fixed to the voice coil via an adhesive. In the vibration system, the additional annular member and the annular member are arranged on the lower side of the damper and on the upper side of the damper, respectively. A flat portion in the vicinity of the inner peripheral edge portion of the damper is sandwiched between the additional annular member and the annular member.
US07760885B2

A method of distributing encryption keys among nodes in a mobile ad hoc network, and a network device using the same. In particular, a method of distributing encryption keys, which guarantees the security of a ciphertext in the mobile ad hoc network. The method of distributing the encryption keys among nodes including a first node and a second node in the mobile ad hoc network include creating a private key and a public key based on a first encryption method by the first node; if the first node transmits the created public key to Node B, creating predetermined parameters operable to create a common key according to a second encryption method by the second node.
US07760882B2

Systems and methods for mutual encryption of network nodes are described. One described method includes transmitting a communication from a client to a server, the communication associated with a credential, the credential having a user identifier and a first token and receiving the communication at the server. The method further includes determining a second token associated with the user identifier on the server and on the client and generating an encryption key based at least in part on the second token on the server and on the client. The method further includes generating and encrypting an encrypted authentication request on the client; transmitting the encrypted authentication request to the server; receiving the encrypted authentication request on the server; decrypting the encrypted authentication request using the encryption key on the server; generating and encrypting an encrypted authentication response on the server; and transmitting the encrypted authentication response to the client.
US07760868B2

In an information processing system provided with a camera and a microphone, for transmitting and receiving information of a user to and from another information processing system through a transmission line, image data of the user obtained by a camera is stored in a memory in advance. When one user communicates another user, image data of the one user is obtained by the camera and is synthesized with the image data stored in the memory in advance by image-processing. The clothes, hair, background, make-up etc. of the one user are made different to reality and the image data are transmitted to the another user in the communication.
US07760865B2

Conversations between two parties are seamlessly and transparently escalated into a conversation between multi-parties with minimal user interaction. If the two initial parties are joined to a central focus and a media, a third or more participant is invited to join the conversation. If either of the two initial parties fails to join the focus or media, the original conversation is restored and the attempt to escalate to a conference is abandoned.
US07760862B2

A method and device for preventing fraud in collect calls from a domestic origin point to an international terminating point through a long-distance telecommunications system is described. In the system and method, a Screening for International Calls database is added to the call processing platform. This Screening of International Calls database contains records keyed by country codes, and each record has a blocked collect call field listing destination numbers that are blocked from receiving collect calls. When a domestic-to-international collect call is made, the record corresponding to the country code of the international terminating point of the collect call is retrieved from the Screening for International Calls database. This record is checked to determine if the destination number of the collect call matches any destination numbers listed in the blocked collect call field of the country code database record. If there is a match, the call is blocked.
US07760850B2

An X-ray computed tomographic apparatus includes a rotary frame, a mechanism which rotatably supports the rotary frame, an X-ray tube which is mounted to the rotary frame, an X-ray detector which is mounted to the rotary frame, a plurality of rotor magnets which is arranged in the rotary frame, a plurality of stator coils which is opposed to the rotor magnets, an MR sensor which detects a magnetic-flux variation accompanied by a movement of the rotor magnets, and a position specifying unit which specifies a magnetic-pole position of each rotor magnet with respect to each stator coil on the basis of an output of the MR sensor and a convergence time from a vibration start of the rotary frame caused by a short-time excitation of the stator coil to a vibration stop of the rotary frame.
US07760844B2

A multi-modulus divider and a method for performing frequency dividing by utilizing a multi-modulus divider are disclosed. The multi-modulus divider comprises a multi-modulus dividing circuit, a pulse generating circuit, and a modulus signal generating circuit. The multi-modulus dividing circuit comprises several serially connected divider cells, of which a predetermined one may be bypassed. The multi-modulus dividing circuit generates an output frequency according to an input frequency and a divisor. A range of the divisor comprises a plurality of numerical intervals. The pulse generating circuit generates a pulse signal. The modulus signal generating circuit generates a determination result by determining which numerical interval the divisor belongs to, and inputs, according to the determination result, the pulse signal into the predetermined divider cell to be one of references which the predetermined divider cell refers to when outputting a modulus signal. The predetermined divider cell corresponds to the determination result.
US07760843B2

The present invention provides for a self-correcting state circuit. A first flip flop is configured to receive a clock input and a first data input, and to generate a first output in response to the clock input and the first data input. A second flip flop is coupled to the first flip flop and configured to receive the clock input and to receive the first output as a second data input, and to generate a second output in response to the clock input and the first output. A first correction circuit is coupled to the second flip flop and configured to generate a corrected output. A third flip flop is coupled to the first correction circuit and configured to receive the clock input and to receive the corrected output as a third data input, and to generate a third output in response to the clock input and the third data input.
US07760841B2

An operation method and apparatus in a pressure vessel of a nuclear reactor is provided. The operation apparatus including a body and a guide inserted from the upper side of the nuclear reactor to an interior of the jet pump. The operation apparatus circulate water inside the pressure vessel. The guide is positioned at the end of a body of the operation apparatus, and is inclined with respect to the center axis of the body so as to be inserted into a side opening of the jet pump.
US07760840B2

A clock-signal adjusting method and device is used for adjusting a frequency of a clock signal according to a frequency of an input data. The input data is sampled with a sampling frequency m times of the clock frequency to obtain a data transition waveform indicating data transition timing distribution. A unitary bit time of the input data is divided into m zones. A frequency relationship between the clock signal and the input data is determined according to a shift of the data transition waveform relative to the zones. The frequency of the clock signal is adjusted according to the frequency relationship.
US07760834B2

A method and a device of providing timing information within a wireless communication system is described. The timing information is extracted from a received transmit signal. The inventive method comprises the steps of providing a training signal on the receiver side relating to a known signal portion of the transmit signal, scaling the training signal, quantizing the scaled training signal, correlating one or more parts of the received transmit signal with the scaled training signal to obtain one or more correlation results, and determining the timing information on the basis of the correlation results.
US07760829B2

A signal processing method and device are provided to perform an arbitrary signal processing or filtering function on a continuous time signal. An input continuous time signal is successively delayed by a plurality of delay elements to produce a plurality of delayed signals. A corresponding coefficient is applied to some or all of the plurality of delayed signals to produce a plurality of weighted signals. The plurality of weighted signals are combined to produce a processed output signal. The coefficients applied to some or all of the delayed signals are set to values so as to perform a desired signal filtering or processing function of the input continuous time signal in producing the processed output signal.
US07760828B2

An iterative decoding and equalizing device for high bit rate communication over frequency-selective channels with multiple transmit and receive antennas, said device including a decision feedback equalizer adapted to receive data from different receive antennas and including a forward filter (9) and a recursive backward filter (12) fed with calculated weighted reconstituted data from the output of a decoder (13) fed by decision means (11) and means for subtracting the output of said backward filter (12) from the output data of the forward filter (9) whereby the subtracted data is fed to the input of the decision means (11) with the output of the decoder (13) and the decision means (11) produce a statistic which is forwarded to a channel decoder with weighted inputs and outputs and said decision means (11) take into account the space noise correlation at the output of the subtraction means (10) and the decision means (11) and the decoder (13) are separated by space-time interleaving at bit level, which device is characterized in that the forward filter (9) and the backward filter (12) are iteratively adapted to minimize the mean square error at the output of the subtractor (10).
US07760823B2

In a robust system and method for detecting packets in SISO and MIMO broadband multicarrier transmission, a packet detector computes continuously the sum of the moduli of the power-normalized auto-correlations of a sequence of received signals (204), tuned on the periodicity of the training symbols. When the power-normalized auto-correlation exceeds a first predetermined threshold (206), then the maximum value of the sum of the moduli of all the cross-correlations between the received signals and the M aperiodic sequences is computed in a given time window (208), sliding in time from −c0 to c0. A packet is identified as received (212) when the maximum value of the sum of the moduli of the cross-correlations exceeds a second predetermined threshold (210).
US07760817B2

A communication system for determining a target calibration parameter for calibrating impairments in a transmission signal is disclosed. The communication system includes a carrier signal generator, a transmitting module, a testing signal generator, a power detection unit, and a calibration apparatus. The testing signal generator generates a first testing signal to the first transmitting path of the transmitting module or a second testing signal to the second transmitting path of the transmitting module according to a single tone signal having a specific frequency or according to combinations of a DC value and the single tone signal. The power detection unit detects power of components associated with the specific frequency in the transmission signal to generate a power indicating signal. The calibration apparatus applies a first candidate calibration parameter to reference a first power indicating signal corresponding to the first candidate calibration parameter to determine the target calibration parameter.
US07760813B2

By assigning a plurality of subcarriers 31 to a data channel 33 and assigning fewer subcarriers 32 than the plurality of subcarriers 31 to a control channel 34, and in addition locating the control channel 34 at the center frequency fc of a frequency band used to transmit the data channel 33, on the radio receiving apparatus side, the frequencies of a local signal by which the received signal is multiplied share the same value, thereby speeding up the switching between the control channel and the data channel.
US07760811B2

A radio transmission device capable of improving the reception error rate characteristics of a receiver. In this device, an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) unit (102) subjects a transmission signal to an FFT operation, in which a signal in a time domain is converted into a signal in a frequency domain. A control unit (103) controls the transmission power of the FFT-operated transmission signal in the frequency domain. An IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) unit (104) subjects the transmission signal having its transmission power controlled, to an IFFT operation, in which an inverse conversion is made into a signal in the time domain. A transmission RF unit (106) transmits the IFFT-operated transmission signal on a single carrier.
US07760808B2

This invention relates to a method for applying at least one of contrast adjustment and brightness adjustment to a compressed, motion compensated DCT-based video sequence corresponding to an image processing operation, comprising the steps of providing the compressed, motion compensated DCT-based video sequence, applying the image processing operation on the video sequence in compressed domain resulting in an image processed, compressed video sequence, wherein the applying is executed by adjusting of DCT-components defining the DCT-based video sequence.
US07760799B2

Equalization circuitry may be used to compensate for the attenuation of a data signal caused by a transmission medium. The control circuitry for the equalization circuitry may generate control inputs for equalization stages that control the amount of gain provided to the data signal. A comparator may determine whether the gain from the equalization circuitry is less than or more than the desired amount of gain. A programmable up/down counter may adjust the counter value based on the output of the comparator. The counter value may be converted into one or more analog voltages using one or more digital-to-analog converters. These analog voltages may be provided to the equalization stages as control inputs. The control circuitry may also include hysteresis circuitry that prevents the counter value from being adjusted when the gain produced by the equalization stages is close to the desired amount of gain.
US07760797B2

A method of reducing a number of computations in an equalization process includes performing a pre-equalization operation on selected first frames from a plurality of frames, and estimating pre-equalization values of second frames based on the pre-equalization values of selected first frames, the second frames being frames which are not selected from the plurality of frames.
US07760793B2

A communications network and method thereof include a base station controller configured to provide a repetition period of a primary synchronization channel to be equal to a predetermined integer value times a scrambling code length of the scrambling code of a common pilot channel. A user equipment in the network is configured to search for a known sequence comprising the primary synchronization channel to select a cell and a corresponding sub-frame/symbol timing from the selected cell.
US07760790B2

Spread spectrum technology is used for watermarking digital audio signals. To retrieve a watermark signal information bit from the spread spectrum at the receiver or decoder side, the received or replayed spectrum is convolved with a spreading function that is time-inverse with respect to the original spreading function. The pseudo noise sequences are modulated on carrier frequencies which are inserted at one or more frequency bands into the spectrum of an audio signal. The watermark signal decoder checks the frequency bands occupied by such carriers. The frequency band occupation information is signaled in advance, i.e. is transmitted already together with the frame data for the current frame, such that the watermark signal decoder knows before processing the following audio signal frame which carrier frequencies are occupied and must be used for the corresponding carrier demodulation, and which carrier frequencies need not be checked and demodulated.
US07760789B2

A laser system and method. The inventive laser includes an annular gain medium; a source of pump energy; and an arrangement for concentrating energy from the source on the gain medium. In a more specific implementation, a mechanism is included for rotating the gain medium to effect extraction of pump energy and cooling. In the illustrative embodiment, the pump source is a diode array. Energy from the array is coupled to the medium via an array of optical fibers. The outputs of the fibers are input to a concentrator that directs the pump energy onto a pump region of the medium. In the best mode, plural disks of gain media are arranged in an offset manner to provide a single resonator architecture. First and second mirrors are added to complete the resonator. In accordance with the inventive teachings, a method for pumping and cooling a laser is taught. In the illustrative embodiment, the inventive method includes the steps of providing a gain medium; pumping energy into a region of the gain medium; moving the medium; extracting energy from the region of the medium; and cooling region of the medium.
US07760785B2

A method of forming a partially etched nitride-based compound semiconductor crystal layer includes the following steps. A non-crystal layer of a nitride-based compound semiconductor is formed. At least a part of the non-crystal layer is then etched to form a partially etched non-crystal layer before the partially etched non-crystal layer is crystallized to form a partially etched nitride-based compound semiconductor crystal layer.
US07760780B2

A laser diode driving device capable of obtaining a stable pulse emission state even when variation in the current-light amount characteristic of a laser diode thereof is caused by environmental changes. A photodiode detects the amount of light emitted from the laser diode. A laser controller determines the amount of light to be emitted from the laser diode. Further, the laser controller controls the laser diode to emit light in the determined light amount. A bias current value-determining section determines a bias current value based on results of light emission performed by the laser diode in three or more kinds of light amounts determined by the laser controller.
US07760778B2

A system and method are provided for cooling a crystal rod of a side-pumped laser. A transparent housing receives the crystal rod therethrough so that an annular gap is defined between the housing and the radial surface of the crystal rod. A fluid coolant is injected into the annular gap such the annular gap is partially filled with the fluid coolant while the radial surface of the crystal rod is wetted as a thin film all along the axial length thereof.
US07760770B2

A stream data processing apparatus includes a demultiplexing portion configured to demultiplex multiplexed stream data, to which a PCR is added, into a plurality of pieces of stream data to which a PTS is added, a system time measuring portion configured to measure a system time according to a PCR, a synchronous control portion configured to determine continuity of a reference time according to a PCR and system time information (SYC), to determine continuity of a reproduction time according to a PTS and an STC, and to output synchronous control information according to results of these determinations, a storage portion configured to store stream data, a decoding portion configured to decode stream data stored in the storage portion, an output portion configured to output decoded data, and a decoded data output control portion configured to control a mode of an operation of handling decoded data by the output portion, according to the synchronous control information. The synchronous control information designates output of decoded data, standby to output data, or discarding of data.
US07760768B2

A system and method for allocating sources to channels is provided. Multiple sources provide input signals to be transferred to the channels. Storage units associated with the channels store source identification information for each of the sources that transfer input signals to the channels. Selection circuit selectively pass one of the plurality of input signals from a respective one of the plurality of sources according to a state of a respective control input to the selection circuit, the control input for each selection circuit being determined based on the source identification information of a source associated with the selection circuit. A checking circuit checks outputs of the selection circuits and forwards passed input signals to the channel, such that the input channels are forwarded to the channel according to the priorities associated with the sources. The invention for allocating multiple sources to multiple channels can be applied to a direct memory access (DMA) controller.
US07760763B2

A packet transfer controlling apparatus includes a depth storage unit that stores a pattern and a depth in association with each other. When accepting a setting of the pattern, the apparatus searches the depth storage unit by using the accepted pattern to obtain the depth stored in association with the pattern, thereby deriving the depth of the information to be extracted from the input packet. Upon accepting the input of the packet, information is extracted sequentially from the head of the packet. The apparatus determines whether the extracted information is positioned at a location deeper than the derived depth. When determining that the extracted information is not yet positioned at a location deeper than the derived depth, the apparatus continues extraction of information. When determining that the extracted information is positioned at a location deeper than the depth, the apparatus ends extraction of information.
US07760759B2

The invention provides methods and systems for providing priority processing to critical data as the data is transmitted across a network. A plurality of Internet protocol (IP) packets, each of which contains data and priority information, are received at a first router. The data contained in the IP packets is then encapsulated into frame relay frames containing the priority information. The frame relay frames are transmitted from the first router to a frame relay network in a manner determined by the priority information included in the frame relay frames. The frame relay flames are then transmitted across a frame relay network to a second router in a manner determined by the priority information included in the frame relay frames.
US07760756B1

An arbiter performs arbitration over a plurality of queues and provides data to a plurality of mutually exclusive destinations using combination logic that logically combines a plurality of mutually exclusive vectors into a combination vector. Each of the mutually exclusive vectors corresponds to one of the plurality of mutually exclusive destinations. A number of vector arbiters perform arbitration on each mutually exclusive vector to select a position within the mutually exclusive vector. A combination arbiter performs arbitration on the combination vector to determine a position within the combination vector, which corresponds to the next queue to be serviced. A comparison element compares the position within a mutually exclusive vector and the position within the combination vector to determine the destination of the data within the next queue to be serviced.
US07760747B2

In a network router, a tree structure or a sorting network is used to compare scheduling values and select a packet to be forwarded from an appropriate queue. In the tree structure, each leaf represents the scheduling value of a queue and internal nodes of the structure represent winners in comparisons of scheduling values of sibling nodes of the tree structure. CBR scheduling values may first be compared to select a queue and, if transmission from a CBR queue is not timely, a packet may be selected using WFQ scheduling values. The scheduling values are updated to reflect variable packet lengths and byte stuffing in the prior packet. Scheduling may be performed in multiple stages.
US07760744B1

Methods for optimizing the media path between multimedia endpoints in a network are described. One embodiment allows avoiding having to relay the media traffic through a central device, such as a border controller's media controller element, and lets endpoints communicate directly under various conditions.
US07760736B2

A packet that represents unknown traffic for a virtual host is received. A test is performed to ascertain whether or not a destination connection can be determined for the received packet wherein it is discovered the packet is a broadcast (or multicast) packet. Since such packets have multiple destinations in a virtualized environment, the broadcast (or multicast) packet requires special handling and is passed to a store engine. The store engine obtains a free packet buffer from an elastic FIFO memory, moves the packet into the free packet buffer, and submits the free packet buffer back to the elastic FIFO memory. An assist engine determines and assigns connections to packets submitted to the elastic FIFO without known connections, such as broadcast (or multicast) packets. The assist engine efficiently performs this task through the use of indirect buffers, which are also obtained from and submitted back to the elastic FIFO. A monitoring engine detects both an availability of connection-specific resources and a presence of one or more waiting packets, within the elastic FIFO, with a known destination connection. When both are detected, said monitoring engine removes a packet from the elastic FIFO and passes it to an allocating engine. The allocating engine allocates the one or more connection-specific resources required to send the packet to the virtual host memory corresponding to the connection destination, then passes the packet to a sending engine which writes the packet to the virtual host memory.
US07760719B2

A packet switching node in a pipelined architecture processing packets received via an input port associated with the packet switching node performs a method, which includes: determining a packet frame type; selectively extracting packet header field values specific to a packet frame type, including packet addressing information; ascribing to the packet a preliminary action to be performed; searching packet switching information tracked by the packet switching node based on extracted packet addressing information; formulating a preliminary switch response for the packet; classifying the packet into a packet flow; modifying the preliminary switch response in accordance with one of the preliminary action, the packet flow into which the packet was classified, and a default port action corresponding to the input port; modifying the packet header in accordance with one of the preliminary action, the packet flow, and the default port action; and processing the packet.
US07760715B1

This invention provides a data structure and circuit method to rate limit a scheduler. An admission scheduler is used to identify the times necessary to update the profile information of the flows being scheduled. Rate check and profile check logic transfer flows between the two schedulers. Rate-limited and non-rated limited flows are then scheduled independently.
US07760712B2

In one embodiment, a scheme is disclosed for managing call continuity in a network environment including a circuit-switched (CS) network and an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) network wherein unique identity (ID) information supplied by a user equipment (UE) device is utilized. A pool of dynamically allocable IP multimedia routing numbers (IMRNs) maintained at an IMS network node are used for associating an IMRN with call information received from the UE device, which can include at least one of a GRUU, Instance ID, and the called party number relating to a call. When the dynamically allocated IMRN is returned by the UE device, the network node utilizes the IMRN mapping to effectuate call continuity with respect to the called party.
US07760711B1

A method of billing a variable bit rate communication between a first terminal and a distant terminal to a broadband subscriber permits changing billing parameters during a call in real time in response to user inputs including user requested changes in quality of service, changes in data rate and changes in preferred service provider. A variable bit rate communication to be billed has a variable quality of service related to the degree of utilization of a plurality of different networks. The billing method comprises the steps of i.) receiving user identification data at a first terminal and data representing a required bit rate and a default quality of service selected by the user, ii.) verifying the user identification data to be associated with the broadband service subscriber, iii.) determining least cost alternative network resources available for achieving the communication at the user selected default quality of service and the required bit rate, iv.) determining cost data associated with the network resources, v.) outputting to the user a least cost for the communication according to their selected default quality of service and alternative least cost network resources, vi.) coupling the first terminal and the distant terminal via the least cost determined network resources at the default quality of service and the required bit rate responsive to user authorization and vii.) billing for the communication at the default quality of service and according to the required bit rate after the termination of the communication.
US07760707B1

Applying services to calls involving subscribers to a telephony services provider includes receiving an indication of a call placed to or from a first call participant. The indication is received by a telephony services provider over a first signaling path of the call that is established between the telephony services provider and a first telephony proxy server that is controlled by a telephony infrastructure provider. Control signals configured to affect a voice path of the call that is established between the first telephony proxy server and a second telephony proxy server also controlled by the telephony infrastructure provider but associated with a second call participant are identified. The identified control signals are sent to the first telephony proxy server over the first signaling path and to the second telephony proxy server over a second signaling path that is established between the telephony services provider and the second telephony proxy server.
US07760704B2

A network architecture uses an Application Server Autonomous Access (ASAA) server which allows paging and call routing across different types of wireless and wireline access networks. The ASAA server provides connectivity between an external voice or data network and a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU). The external voice or data network may be a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a public data network (PDN), so that the connectivity between the external network and the WTRU is provided through the access networks using data from the ASAA server.
US07760703B2

A packet-based, hierarchical communication system, arranged in a spanning tree configuration, is described in which wired and wireless communication networks exhibiting substantially different characteristics are employed in an overall scheme to link portable or mobile computing devices. The network accommodates real time voice transmission both through dedicated, scheduled bandwidth and through a packet-based routing within the confines and constraints of a data network. Conversion and call processing circuitry is also disclosed which enables access devices and personal computers to adapt voice information between analog voice stream and digital voice packet formats as proves necessary. Routing pathways include wireless spanning tree networks, wide area networks, telephone switching networks, internet, etc., in a manner virtually transparent to the user. A voice session and associate call setup simulates that of conventional telephone switching network, providing well-understood functionality common to any mobile, remote or stationary terminal, phone, computer, etc.
US07760701B2

A router is configured for sharing routing rules with other routers, the routing rules defining aggregated routes according to a prescribed topology. Each routing rule, used by the router for routing a packet having a corresponding matching destination address prefix, specifies a corresponding address prefix pattern rule for extracting an identified pattern from a portion of the destination address, and a gateway address pattern rule for generating a gateway address, for a gateway providing reachability to the destination address, based on applying the identified pattern to a specified portion of the gateway address. The router generates a routing update message that describes the address prefix pattern rule and the gateway address pattern rule, and outputs the routing update message to a second router according to a prescribed distance vector routing protocol (e.g., Multiprotocol Extension for Border Gateway Protocol).
US07760696B2

An apparatus and method for controlling a wireless terminal, including parameter information to control a camera function of the wireless terminal is set, a camera control message to automatically control the camera function is set to be transmitted through a message transmission unit, the wireless terminal obtains the camera control message periodically transmitted from the message transmission unit, and a camera mode is automatically converted through parameter information of the obtained camera control message, so that it is possible to protect the camera function of the wireless terminal from malicious use.
US07760681B1

A wireless client station includes a received signal strength module that receives a signal from a wireless device and that estimates a signal strength of the signal. The signal includes transmit power data. A transmitter control module estimates a path loss to the wireless device based on the signal strength and the transmit power data and generates a transmit power control signal based on the path loss.
US07760669B2

In a slotted ring network, a node may transmit a non-renewable slot reservation with any unreserved slot. The reservation restricts other nodes from transmitting a new packet in the slot. When the slot returns around the ring to the reserving node, the slot will be available. Preferably, reservation is made responsive to a starvation condition in the reserving node, which may be detected in any of various ways. In an optional enhancement, a reservation identifies the reserving node, and another node on the ring is free to transmit a new packet in the reserved slot if the new packet will reach its destination at or before the reserving node, and thus will not interfere with the reservation.
US07760668B1

A dynamic multiple spanning tree protocol is described. In at least one embodiment, this protocol allows for the dynamic creation and destruction of mappings between traffic attributes and spanning tree instances with the spanning tree region. These mappings are determined based on the observation of events in the spanning tree, such as the appearance of a significant traffic stream, not mapped to any spanning tree instance, at an edge port of the region. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07760664B2

A network provisioning system for establishing a path between two networks is disclosed wherein a common network device between those networks is modeled as a link between a first network element in one network and a second network element in a second network. A network routing graph is created by an inventory subsystem in a routing manager by inventorying the physical network elements and links in the network. The inventory subsystem then models those elements/links as a plurality of nodes and links between the nodes. At least one common network device, such as a digital cross connect connecting the two networks, is modeled as a link instead of a node. A routing engine then uses the network routing graph, including the link modeled from the common network device, to provision a path between the networks.
US07760663B2

Packet tracing in switched packet networks. Tracing of live packet data in a network is performed by discovering the measurement path, setting up dynamic filters along the path to collect traffic information, and collecting data as detected by the dynamic filters. Collected data is sent to a measuring entity. Filter setup may be repeated to capture data as routing changes.
US07760661B2

An apparatus for generating a transmit frame from an information signal, the information signal comprising a first information frame and a second information frame, comprises a provider for providing a first reconstruction distortion value indicating a reconstruction distortion when replacing the first information frame by a replacement frame, and for providing a second reconstruction distortion value indicating a reconstruction distortion when replacing the second information frame by a replacement frame, means for introducing either the first information frame or the second information frame into the transmit frame in dependence on the first reconstruction distortion value or in dependence on the second reconstruction value. In accordance with the present invention, a rate-distortion optimized rate reduction can be achieved.
US07760656B1

A network testing system for a device under test (DUT) uses a test tool to generate test packets provided to the DUT as source traffic and to receive the test packets back from the DUT as destination traffic. Before the test packets are returned from the DUT to the test tool, an external router receives the test packets from the DUT and forwards them back to the DUT. The DUT has a first pair of DUT interfaces coupled to the test tool and a second pair of DUT interfaces coupled to the external router. The DUT has a first virtual router with a first routing table configured to direct test packets received on one of the interfaces in the first pair of DUT interfaces to the external router. The DUT has a second virtual router with a second routing table configured to direct test packets received on one of the interfaces in the second pair of DUT interfaces to the test tool. Thus, test packets output by the test tool traverse the DUT more than once before returning to the test tool.
US07760648B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for handling reordered data packets. A method comprises receiving a data packet and determining if the data packet is received out of order. The method further comprises delaying transmission of an acknowledgement indicating that a data packet is missing in response to determining that the data packet is received out of order.
US07760643B2

A policy change management scheme for network resource management through dynamic policy adaptations especially suitable for DiffServ-enabled MPLS networks is presented. The scheme incorporates automated resource adaptation capabilities to assure QoS for user traffic and to promote resource utilization in DiffServ-enabled MPLS networks. A suite of resource management policies, an ordered set of methods for adjusting policies, and interfaces to a companion policy-based network management system are provided. The policies are periodically adjusted based on predictive bandwidth estimation algorithms ensuring optimal resource allocation to individual service classes and enabling adjustment of resources for handling current traffic and traffic expected for the near future. Resource allocations to individual service classes are adapted through policy changes when bandwidth utilization deviates from normal level or congestion exists in one or more service classes, allowing corrections to abnormal allocation of resources in incipient phases of congestion.
US07760636B1

A system includes a network tunnel, an ingress network device coupled to send packets via the network tunnel, and an egress network device coupled to receive packets sent via the network tunnel. The egress network device is configured to provide information to the ingress network device. The information indicates whether a packet transmitted from the ingress network device to the egress network device was dropped in the network tunnel. The ingress network device can retransmit the packet to the egress network device if the packet is dropped in the network tunnel.
US07760635B2

The present invention provides a method for controlling transmission latency in a communications system, wherein the communications system is subject to a noise signal having at least a first noise phase and a second noise phase. The method includes determining a first bit rate for symbols transmitted during the first noise phase, and a second bit rate for symbols transmitted during the second noise phase, the first bit rate and the second bit rate being constrained such that a transmission latency does not exceed a pre-determined maximum allowed transmission latency; and transmitting symbols at the first bit rate during the first noise phase and at the second bit rate during the second noise phase. In other variants, the invention provides an apparatus, a constrained rate reciever, a transmitter and a signal.
US07760623B2

A computer network processes data packets in the event of a network link failure. The network includes a plurality of routers that deliver data packets to the network via a plurality of links. At least one router includes a protection cycle manager. The protection cycle manager has a protection cycle packet identifier and a protection cycle packet processor. The protection cycle packet identifier identifies, as protection cycle packets, data packets having a specific protection cycle format. The protection cycle packet processor processes protection cycle packets to determine whether the packet destination corresponds to the routing node, and if the packet destination corresponds to the routing node, the protection cycle packet is treated by the routing node as a data packet received from the packet source via the failed link. Otherwise, if the packet destination does not correspond to the routing node, the protection cycle packet is sent to a protection cycle node for the routing node.
US07760621B2

A method for protecting a label switched path is disclosed. The method includes: setting, in a record_route object node list, interface classification identifications in record_route objects corresponding to interfaces of resource reservation protocol nodes respectively, and delivering the list downstream; when a downstream resource reservation protocol node receives the record_route object node list from upstream, finding, by the downstream resource reservation protocol node, a record_route object node corresponding to a last outgoing interface of a nearest outgoing interface in the record_route object node list according to the interface classification identifications, and setting next next hop protection for a corresponding label switched path according to a protection identification of the record-route object node. A system and device for protecting a label switched path are also disclosed. With the invention, an RSVP node may implement NNHOP protection for an upstream LSP correctly.
US07760617B2

A method of configuring a data packet including an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes configuring the data packet to include the OFDM preamble in a first region, a pilot and medium access control (MAC) in a second region, and a data symbol in a third region.
US07760612B2

Providing an objective lens with a large numerical aperture (NA), the present invention records or plays conventional optical disks such as CDs and DVDs using an optical head capable of recording or reproducing high-density optical disks. An optical element (8) is provided between a first and second laser light source and an objective lens (18) for the purpose of converting a wave front of a second optical beam 32. Furthermore, the optical element (8) and the objective lens (18) are fixed to move as a single piece.
US07760611B2

A hologram reproducing apparatus includes a reference-light spatial-light modulating section that displays a reference light pattern for generating reference light, an image sensor that has pixels arrayed two-dimensionally that receive diffractive light generated by irradiating the reference light on a hologram recording medium, and a control unit that processes an electric signal from the image sensor and reproduces recording data. The control unit detects a predetermined area electric signal, detects a hologram electric signal, subtracts the predetermined area electric signal from the hologram electric signal to obtain a reproduced signal after noise reduction, and reproduces the recording data from the reproduced signal after noise reduction.
US07760608B2

A recording/reproducing unit for recording/reproducing information data on/from a recording medium, an initialization unit for initializing the recording medium in one of a first initialization mode in which information data recorded in all recording areas of the recording media is erased and a second initialization mode in which management data for information data recorded on the recording medium is erased from certain areas of the recording medium and erasion is not performed on other recording areas, and a control unit for controlling the initialization unit in accordance with an instruction to shut off a power of the apparatus during initialization, wherein processing by the initialization unit is changed between a case where the power-off instruction is received during initialization in the first initialization mode and a case where the power-off instruction is received during initialization in the second initialization mode.
US07760603B2

An apparatus and method to accurately discriminate an optical disc type in an optical disc system which records and/or reproduces data to and/or from high density optical discs and low density optical discs includes irradiating a laser beam onto a given one of the optical discs, measuring a track error signal generated from light reflected by the given optical disc, comparing a level of the track error signal with a predetermined reference value, and discriminating a type of the given optical disc according to a comparison result.
US07760601B2

Conventional reproducing apparatuses used to perform incorrect detection or consume electricity considerably. According to the present invention, the comparator 61 comparing voltages at both ends of the spindle motor 15 and outputting the result is provided, and the control IC 12 judges whether or not the spindle motor 15 is rotating based on the output from the comparator 61. Based on this judgment, brake pulses are repeatedly supplied to the spindle motor 15 until the spindle motor 15 stops. Based on the number of times the brake pulses are supplied until the spindle motor 15 stops, the presence or absence of an optical disk in the disk drive is determined.
US07760595B2

An optical disc device includes: a spindle motor for rotating a disc; a motor driving circuit for applying a voltage to the spindle motor to drive the spindle motor; an optical pickup for irradiating the disc with an optical beam; and a detector for, after the motor driving circuit starts voltage application to the spindle motor, measuring a pit length based on reflection light, on the disc, of the optical beam irradiated by the optical pickup and then detecting based on a result of the measurement that the spindle motor is in short condition. In the optical disc device, upon detection by the detector that the spindle motor is in short condition, the motor driving circuit stops the voltage application to the spindle motor.
US07760587B2

A method of and system for monitoring the acoustic transmission conditions in underwater areas using an unmanned, mobile, submersible vehicle of the type including a source of acoustic signals. The submersible vehicle is controlled so that the vehicle traverses a desired path through the water of an area of interest. As the submersible vehicle traverses the desired path, a time-synchronized acoustic signal is transmitted from the acoustic source to at least one receiver spaced from the submersible vehicle so as to generate data representing the acoustic properties of the environment in the water between the acoustic source and the at least one receiver as the submersible vehicle traverses the desired path.
US07760583B2

An apparatus for controlling a column selecting signal of semiconductor memory apparatus comprising a column decoder that outputs a first column selecting signal, a signal control unit that outputs a second column selecting signal that is generated by controlling an enable period of the first column selecting signal, and an output control unit that outputs the first column selecting signal or the second column selecting signal in response to the input of a predetermined voltage detecting signal.
US07760580B2

A flash memory device includes a plurality of block selection circuits and a plurality of memory blocks. The plurality of block selection circuits generate a block select signal in response to a plurality of decoded block address signals and a block control signal. The plurality of memory blocks are connected to global lines in response to the block select signal, and include a plurality of memory cell arrays performing an erase operation in response to a well bias. Each of the block selection circuits generates the block select signal in response to the block control signal regardless of the plurality of decoded block address signals, or selects the block select signal to select a corresponding memory block in response to the plurality of decoded block address signals.
US07760578B2

An integrated circuit structure for distributing power to one or more standard cells in an integrated circuit includes a first plurality of standard cells and a power mesh power connection structure coupled to the cells. Each of the standard cells includes first and second power rails adapted for connection to a voltage supply and a voltage return, respectively, of the standard cells. Each standard cell in a subset of the standard cells is arranged in direct abutment with at least two other standard cells, and at least first and second end cells are arranged in direct abutment with at least one other standard cell of the first plurality of standard cells. The power mesh power connection structure includes a plurality of conductive elements formed in a plurality of different conductive layers in the integrated circuit. The power mesh power connection structure is operative to connect the first and second power rails of the first plurality of standard cells to the voltage supply and voltage return, respectively, and is configured so as to reduce a first voltage differential between respective first power rails of the standard cells and to reduce a second voltage differential between respective second power rails of the standard cells.
US07760577B1

An integrated circuit configured to selectively provide power to used portions of a memory array is presented. The integrated circuit includes an array of memory cells for storing digital data and a power bus interconnecting structure. The power bus interconnecting structure includes global power buses in communication with local power buses through programmable vias. The array of memory cells are remapped so that unused column portions of the memory array become unused row portions of the memory array. The programmable vias are selectively located during design of the integrated circuit, providing power to the used portions of the memory array.
US07760576B2

A system for low power, high yield memory is described. The system includes a memory cell configured to receive a memory supply voltage. The system further includes a memory supply voltage control circuit configured to modify the memory supply voltage from a first memory supply voltage level to a second memory supply voltage level for a write to the memory cell.
US07760575B2

In one embodiment, a static random access memory (SRAM) is operable with first voltage and second voltages and includes a plurality of SRAM cells arranged in rows and columns, each SRAM cell being coupled to a respective wordline, respective complementary bitlines, and a source line and a control circuit connected between the source line and the second voltage. The control circuit is selectively operable in a working mode in which data in the plurality of SRAM cells can be accessed, a sleep mode is which data is retained but leakage is reduced and a shutdown mode in which the source line is allowed to float to a level that is substantially equal to the first voltage.
US07760572B2

A semiconductor memory device executes a refresh operation on memory banks, and includes: a command decoder that decodes a command from outside the semiconductor memory device, and outputs a refresh instruction when the command is an auto-refresh command; a refresh command generating unit that outputs a refresh command signal by a predetermined number of times corresponding to the number of word lines to be refreshed in response to the refresh instruction; a refresh address counter that counts up an address designating a memory bank and a word line every time the refresh command signal is output; and a refresh number controller that controls the number of times that refresh command signals are output so that each memory bank is refreshed and, after a count value for designating the word line of the refresh address counter has been changed, at least one of the memory banks is further refreshed.
US07760560B2

A high-voltage switch circuit includes an enable control circuit, a feedback circuit, a boosting circuit, and a high voltage switch. The enable control circuit precharges an output node to a set voltage in response to an enable signal. The feedback circuit supplies a feedback voltage to an input node in response to a switch control voltage generated from the output node when the output node is precharged. The boosting circuit boosts the feedback voltage and outputs a boosting voltage to the output node, in response to clock signals, thereby increasing the switch control voltage. The high voltage switch is turned on or off in response to the switch control voltage, and is turned on to receive a high voltage and output the received high voltage. The boosting circuit includes an amplification circuit of a cross-coupled type.
US07760554B2

Operating NVM memory cell such as an NROM cell by using a combination of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling (FNT), hot hole injection (HHI), and channel hot electron (CHE) injection. In the FNT erase step, only a few cells may be verified, and in the CHE second programming step, the threshold voltage of those cells which were not fully erased in the FNT erase step is increased to a high threshold voltage level (ERS state).
US07760552B2

The present invention provides nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices which operate with low power consumption. In a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, a plurality of nonvolatile memory elements are connected in series. The plurality of nonvolatile memory elements include a semiconductor layer including a channel forming region and a control gate provided to overlap with the channel forming region. Operations of write, erase, a first read, and a second read in a verify operation of data to the nonvolatile memory elements, are conducted by changing voltage to the control gates of the nonvolatile memory elements. The second read in the verify operation after erase operation is conducted by changing only one of a potential of the control gate of a nonvolatile memory element which are selected from the plurality of nonvolatile memory elements, and as the potential, a potential different from a potential of the first read is used.
US07760551B2

A method of programming a nonvolatile memory device may include applying a program voltage to a memory cell. A supplementary pulse may be applied to the memory cell to facilitate thermalization of charges after the application of the program voltage. A recovery voltage may be applied to the memory cell after the application of the supplementary pulse. A program state of the memory cell may be verified using a verification voltage after the application of the recovery voltage.
US07760547B2

A plurality of non-volatile storage elements on a common active layer are offset from neighbor non-volatile storage elements. This offsetting of non-volatile storage elements helps reduce interference from neighbor non-volatile storage elements. A method of manufacture is also described for fabricating the offset non-volatile storage elements.
US07760546B2

An integrated circuit includes a first electrode including an inner portion and an outer portion laterally surrounding the inner portion. The outer portion has a greater resistivity than the inner portion. The integrated circuit includes a second electrode and resistivity changing material contacting the first electrode and coupled to the second electrode.
US07760541B2

A method and system for maintaining Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) functionality while simultaneously screening for leakage paths from bitline to ground during Float Mode operation. The SRAM configuration enables SRAM cell selection for a read or write operation. In response to the SRAM cell selection, a group of pre-charge (PCHG) signals are provided with a high value. When selection is made from a top sub-group of SRAM cells, a corresponding bitline, “BLT_TOP”, takes a value which reflects a state stored in the selected cell. In addition, the bitline corresponding to the bottom sub-group of cells, “BLT_BOT”, takes a high value. If there is a leakage defect, BLT_BOT drops to a low value. With no leakage defect, the data stored in the selected cell is determined based on the result of a logical NAND operation including the respective states indicated by the BLT_TOP and by the BLT_BOT.
US07760537B2

A programmable ROM includes first and second field effect transistors serially connected between first and second power source terminals, a third field effect transistor having a gate connected to a word line and used for data transfer between a first bit line and the drains of the first and second field effect transistors, fourth and fifth field effect transistors serially connected between the first and second power source terminals, and a sixth field effect transistor having a gate connected to the word line and used for data transfer between a second bit line and the drains of the fourth and fifth field effect transistors. The threshold voltages of the first and fourth field effect transistors are different from each other and the magnitude relation thereof is determined according to ROM data.
US07760533B2

Embodiments are described for arbitrating stacked dies in multi-die semiconductor packages. In one embodiment, die identification data for at least two stacked dies are arbitrated to select one of the dies as the primary die and the other as secondary. Each die includes an input/output buffer that drives an output signal to a commonly shared output terminal in response to receiving a die identification data bit as the input signal. Each die also includes an arbitration circuit that generates a control signal in response to the identification bit of one die being mismatched to a corresponding identification bit of the other die. The control signal programs a stack enable fuse in accordance with the arbitration to designate one of the dies as the secondary die.
US07760523B2

Techniques are disclosed to regulate a power supply with a compensation signal generation circuit. One example regulated power supply includes a sense circuit coupled to sense an output voltage of the regulated power supply. The regulated power supply also includes a switching power converter circuit, which includes a switch coupled to be switched in response to a control signal received from the sense circuit to regulate the output voltage of the regulated power supply. The regulated power supply also includes a compensation signal generation circuit coupled to receive a switching signal representative of a switching of the switch in the switching power converter circuit. The compensation signal generation circuit is to generate a compensation signal responsive to the switching signal. The compensation signal is to be received by the sense circuit to modify the control signal.
US07760520B2

A current controlled switching mode power supply is provided. A turn on/off time of a switching device is adjusted by controlling a leading edge blanking (LEB) time and an external drive current of the switching device by means of a switching controller, thus capable of preventing a switching current from being excessive due to a delay of a turn-off time of the switching device, which is caused by a circuit delay during a soft start of the switching mode power supply. Also, it is possible to prevent a switching current from being excessive due to a failure of accurately controlling a turn-off time of the switching device because of a delay caused when an output voltage (a voltage at a secondary winding of a transformer) of the switching mode power supply is designed to have a high voltage.
US07760515B2

An EMI shielding assembly includes a bracket and a resilient shield. The bracket includes a top wall, a bottom wall, and a pair of sidewalls connected between the top wall and the bottom wall. A first and second opening are defined at opposite sides of the bracket and surrounded by the walls. Two face-to-face L-shaped plates extend from the pair of sidewalls respectively at the second opening. The shield is mounted between the L-shaped plates and covering the second opening.
US07760498B2

An electronic apparatus includes an enclosure (30), a circuit board (40), a fan module (20), and an air guiding element (10) mounted in the enclosure. The circuit board includes at least one heat generating component (41) thereon. The fan module has a fan (22) and an output opening (213) corresponding to the fan. The air guiding element comprises a resisting panel (11) and a guiding panel (12) comprises a free end that extends toward the output opening of the fan module. The at least one heat generating component and the output opening are on the same side of the resisting panel. The guiding panel defines a free end (127) and a connecting end (125) connecting the resisting panel. A plane defined by the ends of the guiding panel is aligned at an angle larger than 90 degrees relative to the resisting panel.
US07760496B2

An information processing apparatus including: a main unit; a cooling fan that suctions open air into the main unit to cool inside the main unit with an air flow; and a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device that is provided within the main unit to be used as an external storage device, the device including: a printed circuit board; a nonvolatile semiconductor memory that is mounted on the printed circuit board; a memory controller that is mounted on the printed circuit board and controls the nonvolatile semiconductor memory; and a temperature sensor that is mounted on the printed circuit board and detects temperature within the nonvolatile semiconductor storage device, wherein the memory controller is disposed at an upstream side of the air flow and the temperature sensor is disposed at a downstream side of the air flow.
US07760494B2

The invention concerns to a display device comprising a flat screen, a cabinet and at least one mobile arm capable of taking up first and second positions: in the first position, one end of the mobile arm or mobile arms is space apart from a plane corresponding to the front surface of the screen along a horizontal direction, one part at least of the arm or arms being adapted to maintain the screen in a noticeably vertical position when the device is resting on a horizontal plane, and in the second position, the arm(s) are in the space between the planes parallel to the screen and tangent respectively to the front and to the rear of the cabinet.
US07760485B1

There is disclosed a low loss and high frequency lumped capacitor that is ideally constructed from LTCC dielectric material and deposited conductive layers. The capacitive plates are shaped as identical and overlapping serpentine conductive paths positioned on either side of a thin dielectric layer, with opposite ends of the conductive paths used for signal contact points. The net effect of the shape of the capacitive plates and the resulting approximately equal and opposite current flows is to cancel the majority of parasitic inductance at high frequencies, thus reducing insertion loss. Filters built using this construction of capacitor exhibit improved high frequency performance. This type of capacitor also has a simplicity of construction that allows integration into LTCC fabricated circuitry without requiring extra layers or terminals.
US07760474B1

A method and system for providing a magnetic element are described. The method and system include providing a pinned layer, a barrier layer, and a free layer. The free layer includes a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, and an intermediate layer between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer. The barrier layer resides between the pinned layer and the free layer and includes MgO. The first ferromagnetic layer resides between the barrier layer and the intermediate layer. The first ferromagnetic layer includes at least one of CoFeX and CoNiFeX, with X being selected from the group of B, P, Si, Nb, Zr, Hf, Ta, Ti, and being greater than zero atomic percent and not more than thirty atomic percent. The first ferromagnetic layer is ferromagnetically coupled with the second ferromagnetic layer. The intermediate layer is configured such that the first ferromagnetic layer has a first crystalline orientation and the second ferromagnetic layer has a second crystalline orientation different from the first ferromagnetic layer.
US07760471B2

A positioning device includes a housing and a shaft that is able to be swiveled about a centrical position relative to the housing, at whose one end an element that is to be positioned is attachable. Furthermore, the positioning device has a swivel drive and a position measuring device. A cable, for the electrical connection of swivelable parts in the positioning device to a stationary unit, has a spiral-shaped course leading radially outwardly, starting from the shaft that is located in the centrical position.
US07760468B2

An apparatus allowing for a slider for use in a disk drive is disclosed. An embodiment of the present invention may include a leading side, a trailing side, at least two main rails, a slider surface with an air bearing surface, and at least one trench substantially parallel to the width of the slider. The trench in the air bearing surface results in a lower compression length of the slider and allows for particles to be channeled off of the disk surface.
US07760464B2

An apparatus and associated method for making a base for a data storage device. The base has a plurality of raised pads defining coplanar supporting surfaces. The surfaces are adapted for supportingly engaging intermittent portions of a component supported by the base so that the base clearingly disengages other portions of the component between the pads.
US07760463B2

A disk drive having a single drive motor and multiple platters that incorporates two discrete data paths, actuators and heads to the disk platters. Utilizing the economy of very large capacity disk platters, two or more disk drives can be created within a single physical enclosure. These two disks will be share many common parts such as the drive enclosure and spindle motor, but will have the performance and appearance to the system as two or more independent disks. Instead of having one actuator arm, the virtual disks will have two or more actuator arms and two or more sets of digital electronics. The storage on all the platters is divided up among the actuators so that no storage location is shared, but all the actuators will operate concurrently. Each actuator will have exclusive use of a subset of the data storage. Disks normally only have one actuator connected to multiple heads, at least one per surface, which only allow a single data seek and data transfer at a time. The virtual disks will have two or more actuators, one for each virtual disk, improving performance for the capacity of the platters through concurrent data seeks and transfers to different data areas.
US07760460B2

A head integrated circuit for driving a head. The head includes at least a head unit and a heating element for adjusting the spacing between the head and a storage medium. The head integrated circuit includes at least a read amplifier for amplifying the read signal from the head unit and a heater drive circuit for driving the heating element. The heater drive circuit includes a measuring circuit configured to measure the level of power supplied to the heating element, an error calculating circuit configured to calculate an error between a predetermined power level and the measured power level, a pulse width modulation circuit configured to modulate the error into a pulse width, and a switch configured to operate in response to a pulse from the pulse width modulation circuit and supply power to the heating element.
US07760457B1

A channel senses head-to-disc contact vibrations in a vibrational noise spectrum produced in a mass storage device. The channel includes a suspension system with a suspension modal resonance. The channel includes a vibration sensor that senses head-to-disc contact vibrations through the suspension system. The vibration sensor has a sensor modal resonance that overlaps the suspension modal resonance.
US07760449B2

A method of adjusting an optical system includes placing the optical system in a controlled environment enclosure, and adjusting an optical mount of the optical system while the optical system is in the controlled environment enclosure.
US07760444B2

An imaging optical system includes in order from an object side thereof: a front lens unit having a negative refracting power, an aperture stop, and a rear lens unit having a positive refracting power. The front lens unit includes in order from the object side, a first lens having a negative refracting power. The rear lens unit includes in order from the object side, a second lens which is a positive lens, a third lens which is a negative lens, and a fourth lens which is a positive lens. The imaging optical system satisfies conditional expressions (1) and (2): 1.6<|fG1|/FA<5 . . . (1); 1.2
US07760441B2

The invention relates to a zoom lens and an imaging apparatus incorporating the same. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a zoom lens that is downsized for use with imaging apparatus inclusive of video cameras and digital cameras. The zoom lens comprises a positive first group G1, a negative lens group G2, a positive third group G3, a positive fourth group G4 and an aperture stop S. At least the first group G1 and the second group G2 move for zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end. The first group G1, the third group G3 and the aperture stop S are positioned more on the object side in a state of the telephoto end than in a state of the wide-angle end. The spacing sandwiched between the first group G1 and the second group G2 grows wide, the spacing sandwiched between the second group G2 and the third group G3 becomes narrows, and the spacing sandwiched between the third group G3 and the fourth lens group G4 grows wide. The first group G1 comprises one positive lens and one negative lens, the second group G2 comprises one positive lens and two negative lenses, the third group G3 comprises, in order from the object side, a double-convex positive lens convex on both object- and image-side surfaces and a negative meniscus lens convex on the object-side surface and concave on the image-side surface, and the fourth group G4 comprises on positive lens.
US07760440B2

The zoom lens 100 comprises, sequentially from the object side, a stationary first lens group 110 having positive refractive power; a second lens group 120, having negative refractive power, and that moves on the optical axis when changing the magnification; a stationary third lens group 130 that has positive refractive power; and a fourth lens group 140, having positive refractive power. The first lens group 110 comprises six lenses. The second lens L2 is a meniscus lens that is formed so as to have at least one aspherical surface. The aspherical surface of the second lens L2 is formed at the shape wherein there is no displacement in the thickness from the center portion to the edge portion. Doing so enables the effective correction of distortion and off-axis aberration on the wide-angle side, and the provision of a high-performance zoom lens that is small and has a high variable magnification.
US07760435B2

A method is for forming three-dimensional micro- and nanostructures, based on the structuring of a body of material by a mould having an impression area which reproduces the three-dimensional structure in negative form. This method includes providing a mould having a substrate of a material which can undergo isotropic chemical etching, in which the impression area is to be formed. An etching pattern is defined on (in) the substrate, having etching areas having zero-, uni- or bidimensional extension, which can be reached by an etching agent. A process of isotropic chemical etching of the substrate from the etching areas is carried out for a corresponding predetermined time, so as to produce cavities which in combination make up the impression area. The method is advantageously used in the fabrication of sets of microlenses with a convex three-dimensional structure, of the refractive or hybrid refractive/diffractive type, for forming images on different focal planes.
US07760432B2

An optical device, such as an interference mirror of the type which can be incorporated into ring laser gyros. One embodiment is an interference mirror having at least one layer formed from a matrix of material consisting of ZrO2 and about 2-15 weight percent of Al2O3.
US07760424B2

An infrared reflecting device includes a multi-layer infrared reflecting body composed of a plurality of superimposed infrared reflecting members, and temperature-sensitive members positioned surrounding the side faces of the multi-layer infrared reflecting body. The infrared reflecting member includes colloidal crystal particles arrayed at regular lattice spacing, and a filler interposed between the colloidal crystal particles. Depending on temperature, the temperature-sensitive members supply the filler with moisture, and the lattice spacing of the colloidal crystal particles changes due to swelling of the filler. Since lattice spacing changes the reflected wavelength from the ultraviolet region to the infrared region on the basis of Bragg's law and Snell's law, the amount of transmitted infrared radiation can be adjusted efficiently.
US07760422B2

A semiconductor-based Raman ring amplifier is disclosed. A method according to aspects of the present invention includes directing a pump optical beam having a pump wavelength and an input pump power level from an optical waveguide into a ring resonator. The optical waveguide and ring resonator are comprised in semiconductor material. A signal optical beam having a signal encoded thereon at a signal wavelength is directed from the optical waveguide into the ring resonator. The pump optical beam is resonated within the ring resonator to increase a power level of the pump optical beam to a power level sufficient to amplify the signal optical beam via stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) within the ring resonator. A free carrier concentration in the optical waveguide and the ring resonator is reduced to reduce attenuation of the pump optical beam and the signal beam.
US07760411B2

Generally speaking, the output brightness of an illuminator is varied by chopping an output light beam such that the beam is alternately interrupted and unhindered. An interrupter can be rapidly moved into and out of the transmission path of a light beam. The brightness of the light beam received at a site will be attenuated based on the amount of time per cycle the light beam remains obstructed versus unhindered.
US07760396B2

An image forming apparatus includes an obtaining unit that obtains from outside multilevel image data in color mode for forming a color print, and obtains binary image data in monochrome mode for forming a black-and-white print. The image forming apparatus also includes a volatile memory that stores therein the binary image data.
US07760380B2

Function information related to a plurality of kinds of functions arranged in a first image forming apparatus is acquired. The acquired function information is displayed. A desired function is designated from the displayed functions. A document containing the identification information is read on the basis of the designated function. The read document image is transmitted to the first image forming apparatus through a network. The identification information of original data corresponding to the document image is received from the first image forming apparatus through the network.
US07760378B2

A printer server generates print data in a format dependent on a printer connected to a network, from application data to be printed out by an application. The printer server includes a processor that processes intermediate data based on an additive attribute indicating an attribute relating to the generation and security added to the intermediate data at the time of generating the intermediate data. A print data converter converts the intermediate data processed into print data in a format dependent on a printer.
US07760375B2

A print service supports print by reference operations. Software hosted or accessible by a web site performs the required functions. A print client may be a print device, for example, that has an Internet connection. A print client might also be a portable wireless device, for example, which then might transfer data transcoded by the print service to a print device. The print service accepts a reference to print content, resolves the reference, obtains the print content, transcodes the print content into a print device ready format, and allows the print client access to the transcoded print data. The print service method realized by such a web site provides commercial potential for web services and content provider partnerships, as a preferred use of the print service might commence with a user of a portable wireless device obtaining a reference to print content while web surfing, communicating that content.
US07760371B2

A method of printing an interactive document is provided. The document comprises user information and advertising material. The method comprises the steps of: (a) receiving a print request from a user; (b) formatting the user information in the document so as to include a first user interactive element, thereby allowing the user to effect a response to the information using a sensing device; (c) formatting the advertising material in the document so as to include a second user interactive element, thereby enabling the user to effect a response to the advertising material, using the sensing device; and (d) printing the document with coded data on a substrate, the coded data identifying the document and the first and second interactive elements.
US07760370B2

In one embodiment, an image forming apparatus: forms, on both sides of a reference chart sheet 10, reference positioning images which are determined in advance relative to reference positions on both sides of the reference chart sheet 10; reads reference images through the image readable area from a plurality of parts on both sides of the reference chart sheet 10 or from the folded reference chart sheet 10; and adjusts image forming positions on both sides of a paper according to read-out information obtained from the reference images. The image forming positions are corrected on both sides of the paper which is greater in size than the image readable area of the image reader 11 by reading the images from multiple parts of the reference chart sheet 10 or from the folded reference chart sheet 10.
US07760366B2

A measuring system for the optical measurement of an optical imaging system, which is provided to image a pattern arranged in an object surface of the imaging system in an image surface of the imaging system, comprises an object-side structure carrier having an object-side measuring structure, to be arranged on the object side of the imaging system; an image-side structure carrier having an image-side measuring structure, to be arranged on the image side of the imaging system; the object-side measuring structure and the image-side measuring structure being matched to each other in such a way that, when the object-side measuring structure is imaged onto the image-side measuring structure with the aid of the imaging system, a superposition pattern is produced; and a detector for the locally resolving acquisition of the superposition pattern. The imaging system is designed as an immersion system for imaging with the aid of an immersion liquid. A structure carrier to be arranged in the region of the immersion liquid is assigned a protective system in order to increase the resistance of the measuring structure to degradation caused by the immersion liquid. A measurement of immersion systems under immersion conditions is thereby possible without detrimental influence of the immersion liquid on the measuring accuracy.
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