US07874239B2
A flexible armor system adaptable to a garment suitable for extremity protection uses planar, polygon-shaped solid elements made of ceramic cores wrapped in high strength fabric and arranged with rotable edge and intersection protection as a flexible mosaic array which is bonded between an elastic strike side spall cover and a high tensile strength flexible backer layer, further supported by a substantial fiber pack. A progressive mode of localized system failure during a ballistic strike includes: a projectile penetrating the spall cover, fracturing the ceramic core of a wrapped SE while being partially deformed; the deformed projectile accelerating the fractured but still wrapped solid element before it so as to free the solid element from the array and drive it through the flexible backer as a combined mass at a reduced velocity into the fiber pack.
US07874230B2
A lockable handle assembly, having an operating handle rotatably mounted on a frame, with a bore therein, having an axis extending laterally, a blocking bolt slideably mounted in the handle, one end of the bolt being slideable into a strike in the frame, a drum rotatably mounted in the bore, with a second end of the bolt in contact with the drum so that rotation of the drum moves the bolt into and out of the strike, a lateral hole through the handle and passing through the bore, the drum having a throughhole therein coaxial with the lateral hole in the handle when the drum is positioned with the bolt in the strike, so that a bar extending through both the throughhole in the drum and the lateral hole in the handle prevents rotation of the drum to maintain the bolt is the strike thereby preventing rotation of the handle.
US07874228B2
A steering column assembly includes a column jacket and a rake bracket for mounting the column jacket to a vehicle. A bearing rotatably supports an output shaft within an interior of the column jacket and is in sliding engagement with the column jacket during telescopic adjustment of the column jacket along a longitudinal axis. The column jacket defines a telescope slot near a lower end of the column jacket. A fastener is coupled to the rake bracket and extends through the telescope slot into engagement with the bearing to define tilt axis for pivotal movement of the column jacket relative to the rake bracket.
US07874220B2
The disclosure relates to a Coriolis mass flowmeter with an oscillatable straight measuring tube consisting of a corrosion-resistant metal, in particular of titanium or a titanium alloy, to which are attached mounted parts connected directly to the measuring tube for the implementation of the Coriolis measurement principle. Furthermore, stabilizing elements running parallel to the measuring tube are coupled to the measuring tube via mounted parts connected directly to the measuring tube, the mounted parts and the stabilizing elements consisting of a metal other than that of the measuring tube. The stabilizing elements are manufactured from a second material which possesses a coefficient of thermal expansion adapted to the metal of the measuring tube. The mounted parts connected directly to the measuring tube are manufactured from a third material which possesses a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the metal of the measuring tube.
US07874218B2
A measuring pipe obtained by applying an insulating resin lining to the inside of a nonmagnetic pipe is employed. A through hole reaching the resin lining is made in the sidewall of the nonmagnetic pipe, and a signal electrode and a guard electrode are arranged in the through hole. The through hole is filled with an insulating vibration absorbing member so as to cover the periphery of the signal electrode and the guard electrode. A gelatinous substance of silicon resin, or the like, is employed as the vibration absorbing member, but liquid such as oil may be employed to liquid seal the signal electrode and the guard electrode in the through hole. Consequently, the electromagnetic flowmeter can be formed compact and its production is facilitated.
US07874217B2
A method for testing the integrity of a weld on a pipe includes the application of an axial stress on the weld during the integrity test. Ali assembly for performing the method is also provided, wherein a pair of circumferential supports are provided on the pipe on opposite sides of the weld, and between which extend axial force applying devices. In one aspect, the invention is used to test a weld securing a flange to a pipe. The invention also provides novel circumferential clamps for securing to the exterior of pipes.
US07874210B2
An ultrasonic point level measurement instrument comprises a measurement circuit and a transducer. The transducer transmits and receives acoustic signals under control of the measurement circuit. An improvement in the transducer comprises a transducer housing including a pair of spaced apart legs to define a gap therebetween. Each leg includes an interior cavity. A pair of crystal assemblies each comprise a crystal mounted to a circuit board. The circuit board includes conduction paths for connection between the crystal and a terminal pad. Each crystal assembly is received in the interior cavity of one of the legs with the circuit board spacing the crystal from walls of the leg. A pair of cables are each connected between the measurement circuit and the terminal pad of one of the crystal assemblies so that the measurement circuit detects presence of a material in the gap.
US07874209B2
The apparatus in one embodiment may have capacitive bulk acoustic wave disk gyro operated in a closed loop mode. A self-calibration system may be operatively coupled to the capacitive bulk acoustic wave disk gyroscope. Self-calibration of gyro bias of the gyro may be implemented by interchanging an anti-nodal axis with a nodal axis of the gyro.
US07874207B2
In order to provide a robust, weather resistant, portable, low-noise, relatively inexpensive, wind direction detection device, disclosed herein is a method and device for detecting fluid flow direction based on sensing a temperature variation transmitted from a temperature variation source to one or more temperature sensors. One or more indicators are utilized to communicate the measured fluid flow direction to a user. An implementation of the fluid flow direction detection device utilizes a resistance heater as the temperature variation source, thermistors as the temperature sensors, and light emitting diodes (LEDs) corresponding to each thermistor as the indicators. The thermistors and LEDs are arranged in a circular fashion around the resistance heater to accurately detect the direction of a thermal plume generated by the resistance heater.
US07874196B2
A pressure calibration pump comprises a manifold having a port for connection to a reference device and a port for connection to a device to be calibrated. A piston is operated by two handles to pressurize air in the manifold. A pressure adjustment knob is provided to adjust the pressure of air in the manifold and a vent valve, operated by a vent knob is provided to vent air from the manifold. The vent knob is positioned within and concentric with the adjustment knob.
US07874186B2
A washing machine has an abnormal vibration sensing apparatus. The abnormal vibration sensing apparatus includes a limiter having at least one opened side and connected to one of a vibrating body and a fixing body, a sensing rod having one end that is received in the limiter and separated from an inner wall of the limiter, and the other end that is connected to another of the vibrating body and the fixing body, and a contact sensing unit sensing whether the limiter and the sensing rod are in contact with each other so as to sense abnormal vibration of the vibrating body. According to this construction, it is possible to easily detect abnormal vibration in a plurality of directions without increasing the number of installing abnormal vibration sensing apparatuses.
US07874173B2
A thermal capacitor cools servers when an active cooling system fails. The thermal capacitor includes cold insulation passages, fans, temperature sensors, and a control unit. The cold insulation passages each have a plurality of air flow channels obtained by dividing the air flow path into a plurality of air flow paths with different air flow path cross-sectional areas. The fan is mounted in each air flow path and the fan controls the air flow of each air flow channel. A temperature sensor is mounted in each outlet of the cold insulation passages. When a detected temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature, the control unit controls air flow so that the ratio of air flow by air flow passage with larger air flow path diameter to overall air flow of all air flow channel increases.
US07874162B2
A supercritical steam combined cycle system including a gas turbine; a supercritical steam turbine system including a supercritical section, a high pressure section, an intermediate pressure section and at least one low pressure section; and a supercritical steam heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for receiving exhaust gas from the gas turbine for heating fluid from the steam turbine system. The HRSG includes a supercritical evaporator arranged to supply steam to a superheater between the supercritical evaporator and the inlet of the HRSG and a reheater receiving cold reheat steam from and returning reheated steam to the steam turbine system. The reheater includes a first section disposed downstream of and a second section disposed upstream of the supercritical evaporator along the exhaust gas flow path. Cool reheat steam from the steam turbine system is received by the first reheater section and steam leaving the first reheater section is supplied to the second reheater section upstream of the supercritical evaporator.
US07874160B2
A mechanism included in a convergent-divergent nozzle connected to an aft portion of a gas turbine engine, which mechanism includes a convergent flap configured to be kinematically connected to the aft portion of the gas turbine engine, a divergent flap pivotally connected to the convergent flap and configured to be kinematically connected to the aft portion of the gas turbine engine, at least one actuator configured to be connected to the aft portion of the gas turbine engine and to mechanically prescribe the position of the convergent flap and the divergent flap by moving through one or more positions, and at least one biasing apparatus. The biasing apparatus is configured to position at least one of the convergent flap and the divergent flap independent of the positions of the actuator by substantially balancing a force on the at least one of the convergent flap and the divergent flap produced by a gas pressure on the nozzle.
US07874157B2
A low emission combustor includes a combustor housing defining a combustion chamber. A secondary nozzle is disposed along a centerline of the combustion chamber and configured to inject air or a first mixture of air and fuel on a downstream side of the combustion chamber. The secondary nozzle includes an air inlet configured to introduce a first fluid including air, a diluent, or combinations thereof into the secondary nozzle. At least one fuel plenum is configured to introduce a second fluid including a fuel, another diluent, or combinations thereof into the secondary nozzle and over a predetermined profile proximate to the fuel plenum. The predetermined profile is configured to facilitate attachment of the second fluid to the profile to form a fluid boundary layer and to entrain incoming first fluid through the fluid boundary layer to promote mixing of the first fluid and the second fluid and fuel to produce the first fluid. A plurality of primary fuel nozzles are disposed proximate on an upstream side of the combustion chamber and located around the secondary nozzle and configured to inject air or a second mixture of air and fuel to an upstream side of the combustion chamber.
US07874155B2
The invention relates to systems and methods for rapidly and isothermally expanding and compressing gas in energy storage and recovery systems that use open-air hydraulic-pneumatic cylinder assemblies, such as an accumulator and an intensifier in communication with a high-pressure gas storage reservoir on a gas-side of the circuits and a combination fluid motor/pump, coupled to a combination electric generator/motor on the fluid side of the circuits. The systems use heat transfer subsystems in communication with at least one of the cylinder assemblies or reservoir to thermally condition the gas being expanded or compressed.
US07874148B2
An internal combustion engine system has an internal combustion engine with an intake for air and an exhaust for products of combustion. The engine has a turbocharger for pressurizing intake air in response to passage of the products of combustion. An exhaust aftertreatment device receives the exhaust from the engine to filter diesel particulates. A device for regenerating the exhaust aftertreatment device has a feed line and nozzle for injecting duel upstream of the exhaust aftertreatment device on a periodic basis. A system and method for purging the fuel line and the nozzle utilizes pressurized air from the engine turbocharger via an air tank when the regenerating device is not injecting fuel.
US07874139B2
A system and method for operating an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) gas turbine system that utilizes the fuel stream as a means of controlling the operation of the IGCC to achieve a target output and efficiency. The methods and systems enable the IGCC to be operated at reduced output, but without a corresponding drop in efficiency as compared to prior art gas turbine systems. Conversely, the IGCC may be operated at higher outputs. The methods and systems achieve the target output and efficiency by adjusting the chemical potential energy, sensible energy, or both of a fuel stream entering the combustion turbine. The chemical potential energy and sensible energy may be manually or automatically controlled.
US07874129B2
Apparatus for molding and filling a device having a body defining an opening in communication with an interior chamber for receiving a substance therein, and a closure including a penetrable and resealable portion for sealing the opening and substance received in the device. A mold includes within the aseptic chamber plural mold cavities shaped to form the closure and body, and substantially sterile surfaces extending about and contiguous to the peripheries of the mold cavities. An assembly device including end-of-arm tooling having an engaging portion engageable with each of the body and closure is movable relative to the mold to engage and de-mold the substantially sterile closures and bodies from the mold cavities. Flexible barriers are coupled to the mold and the tool to substantially prevent the passage of contaminants from the molding machine and tool therethrough.
US07874127B2
A device is provided for interconnecting a support and a connector through a quick release mechanism. The quick release mechanism is normally biased in the locked position and is configured to automatically move from the unlocked position back to the locked position when the connector mates with the support as a user re-connects the unit back to the support. Methods of releasing and re-connecting the unit to the support are also disclosed.
US07874118B2
A laminated panel adapted to form a covering for a wall, floor or ceiling has an outer surface and sides which are connected to an adjacent panel. The panel has a recess in the outer surface at the transition to a side, and a moisture-repellent layer on the wall of the recess. When two panels are connected the moisture-repellent layers come together at the recesses, to form a joint which is protected from moisture.
US07874115B2
A modular floor including a pair of main beams, at least one cross beam and a floor panel. The pair of main beams each has an attachment structure. The attachment structure includes a first support section, a second support section and a channel that extends between the first and second support sections. The first and second support sections have a convex upper surface. The at least one cross beam engages the main beams to retain the main beams in a stationary position with respect to each other. The floor panel has ends that each have a recess that is shaped complementary to the upper surfaces of the first and second sections.
US07874105B2
A roof structure and a method of installing a snow guard on the base of a roof is provided, wherein the roof structure includes a plurality of synthetic shingles of thermoplastic materials, and where a snow guard is provided having an outwardly projecting snow-engaging platform and an oppositely provided hook at an upper end, wherein the hook is adapted to engage over and upper edge of a butt portion of one or more shingles in an underlying course of shingles, and wherein a tab portion of a shingle in a next-overlying course of shingles is disposed over the upper end of the snow guard, substantially covering its base, and wherein the snow-engaging platform is adapted to receive snow and ice that may slide down the roof, to intercept the same or break the snow or ice up into small harmless particles. The synthetic shingles of thermoplastic materials allow for the upward bending of the overlying tab portions of shingles a substantial amount within their elastic limit, to permit insertion of snow guards under tab portions of overlying shingles, where such tab portions of overlying shingles are already-installed on a roof, followed by a relaxation of the upwardly bent tab portions of shingles back to a flattened condition overlying the butt portions of shingles in an underlying course of shingles, and overlying the base of the snow guard between the platform and hook, due to the inherent memory of the original flattened shape of the shingles that have their tab portions flexibly upwardly bent.
US07874097B2
A lobster trap that promotes entry of lobsters into the trap while restricting lobsters from exiting the trap. Accordingly, a lobster trap comprises at least one head including an opening for entry into an interior of the trap, and a shield member mounted to the trap adjacent the opening. The shield member extends into the interior of the trap away from a plane of the opening and shields the opening from egress from the interior of the trap from at least one direction while not restricting entry to the interior of the trap. The lobster trap can further include a guard member extending from the shield so as to further restrict exit from the trap via the head.
US07874096B2
The present invention relates to a releasing device and more particularly a releasing device used to release fish in water. Deep-water fishes such as rockfish often exhibit the effects of rapid water pressure change such as expelled gas bladder, protruded eyes when brought to the surface. The fish releasing device of the present utilizes a jaw assembly, a weight, and other components to clamp onto a fish. The device is dropped into the water which pulls the fish beneath the surface of the water and automatically releases the fish upon the opening of the clamping jaw.
US07874092B2
A Head for a gun support apparatus is provided, which includes a body, a left arm assembly, a right arm assembly, and a blocking member. The left arm assembly is pivotally coupled to the body, and the right arm assembly is pivotally coupled to the body and is engaged to the left arm assembly so that they can be revolved simultaneously. The blocking member is engaged to both the left arm assembly and the right arm assembly to form a ratchet mechanism.
US07874087B2
The present invention relates to the field of luggage identification tags, and in particular, to a removable identification patch in which indicia can be incorporated onto the patch prior to installation of the patch onto the piece of luggage. A fastening plate is positioned on the interior surface of the luggage and is securely coupled to the identification patch, which is positioned on the exterior surface of the luggage. In one embodiment, the identification patch is attached directly to the fastening plate through fasteners that extend through the luggage wall. In another embodiment, the fastening plate includes projecting tabs which extend through the luggage wall to matingly engage a housing member positioned on the exterior surface of the luggage. The housing member includes a cavity for receiving the identification patch. The identification patch can be removed from the luggage and replaced with an alternative or second identification patch.
US07874085B1
The present disclosure provides a plow blade edge device for mounting to a moldboard of a plow comprising at least one adapter blade including a bottom edge having a carbide insert along at least a portion of the bottom edge. The device further includes at least one moldboard shoe selectively reversible to present the adapter blade at a first angle or a second angle. The device further includes at least one impact bar mounted to a front side of the adapter blade. The at least one moldboard shoe can include a bottom edge having a carbide insert along at least a portion of the bottom edge.
US07874084B2
A method of manufacturing and article of footwear from a reclaimed bicycle tire includes the steps of providing an article of footwear having an upper attached to a sole, providing a worn bicycle tire, cutting a strip from the tire, and attaching the strip to at least a portion of a peripheral surface of the sole as foxing tape.
US07874078B2
The present invention relates to a vehicle measuring apparatus for establishing baselines and dimensionally measuring a vehicle's upper and lower structure, without requiring the use of a fix mechanical grid mechanism. A method is presented which includes having a pre calibrated portable gauge (52) placed to a selected point on the vehicle with a squaring device (66) on gauge (52) positioned outwardly of the vehicle and having a light source (20) placed on or in proximity to the vehicle for projecting a plane of light (90 or 92) to align to squaring device (66). This alignment establishes a light beam baseline at a predetermined dimensional value with respect to the vehicle. Once the baseline is established measurements of the vehicle's upper or lower body may be determined by placing a portable gauge (52) relative to a point on the vehicle and using squaring device (66) to square the alignment of gauge (52) to the selected baseline.
US07874077B2
The device (12) comprises a laser (14) which is attached to the tool (2). During operation a laser beam (16) is emitted onto an optical lens (20) which is of cylindrical shape. The lens (20) is suspended to swivel freely, e. g. by means of a swivel arm (24) which is operatively connected to the tool (2). Thus, the main axis (28) of the lens (20) is kept vertically by the gravity force when the tool (2) is moved or tilted. The shape of the laser marker (I1 II, III) generated on a workpiece (8) is an indication for the user of the tool (2) concerning an inclination (x, y) of the tool (2).
US07874076B2
A razor handle having a rigid core and a layer of elastomeric material. The razor handle includes a head portion for connection to a razor head and an body portion. The body portion includes a first neck portion in the vicinity of the head portion, the first neck portion having opposite side gripping areas. Each side gripping area has a series of spaced fins made of elastomeric material, protruding from the rigid core. The rigid core defines a comb-like structure in which the spaced fins are imbricated.
US07874071B2
A method of making an ice dispense agitator of a type as may be used in ice and beverage dispensing machines is characterized by manufacturing the agitator as an integral unit by cutting the agitator from flat metal stock and then bending the agitator into a desired final shape.
US07874052B2
When assembling longitudinal seams, the shells in the region of overlap are moved together over lining-up drill holes, the shells are fastened and subsequently the pilot holes are transferred. Thereafter, these pilot holes are deburred, which involves temporary moving apart of the shells. According to one embodiment of the present invention a rib clamping device is stated that can be used for the longitudinal seam-structure assembly of an aircraft fuselage and that comprises attachment means and fastening means for non-positive and frictionally-engaged fastening of the shells. There is thus no longer any need to temporarily move the components apart.
US07874046B2
Apparatus on a spinning preparation machine for monitoring and/or adjusting clearances at components
An apparatus on a spinning preparation machine for monitoring and/or adjusting clearances at components has a clothed, high-speed roller located facing at least one clothed and/or unclothed component and the clearance between the components facing one another is alterable. The roller and opposed component(s) are electrically isolated with respect to one another and are connected as contact elements to an electrical power supply line in which a measuring device for ascertaining contact is located. In order to avoid an undesirably heavy contact between the components, electric signals are emitted upon contacts with the clothing of the roller and the measuring device is arranged quantitatively to determine the contacts.
US07874045B2
Provided is a hinge device for connecting one member and another member so that the hinge device allows opening and closing, including: a movable shaft; a first bracket non-rotatably fixed to the movable shaft and fixed to the one member; a second bracket rotatably and axially movably installed on the movable shaft and fixed to the other member; and a plate spring member formed in a curved configuration, having at a top of the curved configuration of the plate spring member a projection whose surface in contact with the second bracket is flat, and non-rotatably and axially movably installed on the movable shaft, in which the second bracket and the plate spring member are pressed against and held in contact with each other and make relative rotation.
US07874044B1
A leverage-type hinge is mounted in a portable electronic device with a base, a cover and a driven panel. The cover and the driven panel are connected pivotally to the base. The leverage-type hinge has an actuating sleeve and a leverage bracket. The actuating sleeve is rotated with the cover and has an actuating protrusion. The leverage bracket is mounted pivotally on the base and has a free end abutting the driven panel. When the cover is opened relative to the base, the actuating protrusion presses a receiving end of the leverage bracket to pivot the leverage bracket. Then the free end of the leverage bracket pushes the driven panel to tilt. Therefore, the driven panel is tilted while the cover is opened to facilitate utilization of elements on the driven panel.
US07874042B2
A spring hinge for spectacles is described having a central hinge lobe (4) guided so it is displaceable in a bow-side housing (1) in the bow longitudinal direction and having a U-shaped sliding part (3) projecting from the hinge lobe (4) in the displacement direction and engaging in a housing recess (2), which receives a coiled spring (10) between its two legs (7), which is supported at one end on the web (6) connecting the two legs (7) of the U-shaped sliding part (3) and at the other end on a buttress (11), which is held removably in the housing (1) by a rotational adjustment coaxial to the coiled spring (10), the hinge lobe (4) having a through opening (17) running coaxially to the coiled spring (10). To allow a narrow construction for the spring hinge, it is suggested that the buttress (11) inserted transversely to the displacement direction between the legs (7) of the sliding part (3) have a greater diameter than the through opening (17) provided in the hinge lobe (4) for the insertion of a tool for the rotational adjustment of the buttress (11).
US07874037B2
A wiper system includes a motor bracket to which a wiper motor is fixed, and the motor bracket is fixed to a body with a rubber pad therebetween. A mounting leg made of a hard material extends from a first pivot holder that supports a first pivot shaft, and is directly fixed to the body. Mounting legs made of a hard material extend from a second pivot holder that supports a second pivot shaft, and are directly fixed to the body. According to the wiper system, it is possible to prevent vibration due to a wiper motor from being transferred to the body and a wiper arm from overrunning.
US07874036B2
An energy storage bridge includes a plurality of bridge girders. The bridge girder includes a number of steel pipes and a plurality of web plates. The steel pipes are assembled either in a single row or in multiple rows in the structural depth direction to form the girder together with the web plate welded between the two halves of the pipe; or with two web plates welded to each side of the pipe. The bridge girder forms an energy storage unit between two consecutive movement joints of the bridge, and two consecutive storage units can be joined by high pressure flexible pipe to form a giant energy storage unit.
US07874032B2
A method and device for developing a positional orientation sleep aspect (POSA) to enable an individual to assume at least one preselected side-sleeping orientation on either a left or right side, including the steps of: a) placing first and second cylindrically configured, elongate pillows in parallel orientation on the bed, tethered by an intermediate member having a length approximately equal to a distance from the individual's low back to an extended knee; b) positioning the individual's body in a preselected, side-position on the intermediate member, c) establishing two additional, concurrent points of contact respectively at the individual's low back side with the first pillow and a projecting limb or knee with the second pillow; and d) sustaining the at least three points of contact to establish a sustainable recognition and awareness during sleep of the side-position while allowing the individual freedom of movement to also assume alternate right and left side positions, including free movement of the limbs between the pillows.
US07874031B2
A patient positioning apparatus for a magnetic resonance device is provided. The patient positioning apparatus includes a positioning unit with a fixing side for fixing to the magnetic resonance device, a supporting frame extending horizontally starting from the fixing side and being arranged in a vertically adjustable fashion on the positioning unit, a patient plate mounted in a moveable fashion on the supporting frame, and a vertical adjusting mechanism operable to vertically adjust the supporting frame, the vertical adjusting mechanism has a first drive motor disposed on a side within the supporting frame that is remote from the fixing side.
US07874027B2
A comprehensive means of providing protection to a bed frame by covering various locations about the bed frame with plastic shields. The plastic shields are adapted to enclose the various locations about the bed frame including the ends of side rails, the junction of side rails and cross members, leg assemblies and the side rails themselves. The shields comprise a pair of housings joined together with a living hinge such that the free ends can be affixed together to surround and enclose the various locations where sharp edges are present. The use of the shields provides overall protection to all of the locations where there may be sharp edges that could harm a person striking the location and thus there is a comprehensive approach to full protection of the bed frame.
US07874024B1
The invention as presently conceived discloses a padded neck support for beauty salon washing sinks. The invention is an apparatus to aid in the support of a user's head during the hair washing process at a sink in a beauty salon. The head and neck support pad is configured as a conformable pad to be removably attached to the head receiving portion of a conventional hair salon sink. If necessary, means exist to removably attach multiple support pads thereon each other for vertical adjustment due to the physical characteristics of the individual user. The apparatus is covered with a waterproof cover for ease in washing after use.
US07874021B2
This invention is directed to a glove system for operating an electronic device. The glove system may include an inner liner and an outer shell. The liner may be formed from any suitable material, including a material that is thin, electrically conductive, has low thermal conductivity, and/or has an “anti-sticky” finish. The outer shell may include at least one aperture through which the inner liner may extend to operate the input mechanism of an electronic device (e.g., on at least one finger tip). In some embodiments, the aperture may be at a finger tip of the outer shell. In some embodiments, a closing mechanism may be used to maintain the aperture closed when the user is not operating the electronic device. For example, an elastic ring may surround the aperture such that, in its non-deformed state, the aperture is substantially closed. The user may elastically deform the ring to allow the liner to pass through the outer shell.
US07874019B2
Garments and garment sets are described that include a jacket having a powder skirt and trousers that can be attached to the powder skirt via at least one fastener. One embodiment of the invention includes a water resistant jacket, an elasticized powder skirt having at least two edges, the first of which is attached to the water resistant jacket, at least one fastener connected to the second edge of the powder skirt, water resistant trousers including a waist opening and two leg openings and at least one corresponding mating fastener connected to the trousers. The fastener and the corresponding mating fastener are constructed to detachably fix the powder skirt to the water resistant trousers. In several embodiments, the fastener and corresponding mating fastener are two mating zipper portions of standard length that can be combined to form a zipper irrespective of the garment size.
US07877815B2
Multiple battery authentication security levels and procedures alert a user of counterfeit or unapproved batteries that are installed after manufacture of the wireless communication device. In an exemplary a battery authentication system, a mobile device sends a pre-stored plain text to a battery installed in the mobile device. An approved battery receives the plain text and performs an encryption algorithm on the plain text. Encrypted text is sent back to the mobile device. The mobile device compares the received encrypted text with a pre-stored encrypted text. If the received encrypted text matches the pre-stored encrypted text, then the battery is authenticated. Upon completion of the authentication of the installed battery, the mobile phone conducts normal battery and charging operation. If the received encrypted text does not match the pre-stored encrypted text, then the device enters authentication failure events that limit the use of the battery.
US07877814B2
A content transferring apparatus is disclosed which includes: a source ID list reception unit for receiving a source ID list from a content reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing contents furnished with source IDs included in the source ID list; a first extraction unit for extracting from either one or a plurality of transfer-destined contents a content furnished with a source ID included in the source ID list; and a content transmission unit for transmitting the content extracted by the first extraction unit to the content reproducing apparatus.
US07877808B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide program code auditing systems and methods that detect unsafe code and possible errors, such as bugs or security flaws. In some embodiments, the concept of entropy of information is used to estimate when a section of program code may contain a flaw or bug. One or more histories may be used to calculate these entropy values.
US07877807B2
A system for processing emails incorporates means for dealing with previously unknown viruses. The system monitors email traffic patterns to identify patterns characteristic of a virus outbreak and takes corrective action when an outbreak is detected. Individual emails are analysed and, if any one of the constituent parts contains content in which it is possible to contain a virus, characteristic data derived from the email is logged to a database which is scanned for outbreak-indicating traffic patterns.
US07877798B2
A system and method for connecting remote player devices to regulated host gaming devices in a network to provide remote game play. A host gaming device is configured to provide game information to a plurality of remote player devices to allow remote play of the host game device. Whether each remote player device is permitted to receive gaming data is based upon, at least in part, the geographic location of the remote player device.
US07877795B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products that automatically configure firewalls are provided. An blocked attempt by a software application executing on a user device to communicate through a firewall is detected. Information about the detected communication attempt is collected. A danger level of allowing the software application to communicate through the firewall is assessed based upon the collected information. The blocking rules/policy of the firewall are automatically modified to allow the software application to communicate through the firewall if the assessed danger level is below a threshold level.
US07877786B2
A method for enforcing security policies required to gain access to a network includes determining if a client desiring a connection to the network is in conformance with a current version of the security policies, and if a client is not in conformance with a current version of the security policies, denying the client access to the network and directing the client to an isolated sub-network for accessing a current version of the security policies. In one embodiment of the present invention an address server isolates non-conforming clients from the network and the network resources by directing non-conforming clients to an isolated sub-network. The isolated sub-network further directs the non-conforming clients to, for example, a local server or web-site for accessing a current version of the security policies.
US07877778B2
An information processing system includes a receiving apparatus receiving a broadcast signal; and a data generating unit creating notice information relating to download for update data multiplexed with the broadcast signal for transmission and updating software in the receiving apparatus. The data generating unit includes a device operable to describe a prescribed model ID defined by a predetermined standard in the notice information and to describe an extended model ID used in combination with the prescribed model ID in the notice information; and a device operable to generate the notice information having the IDs described. The receiving apparatus includes a device operable to determine whether the prescribed model ID matches an owned prescribed model ID; a device operable to determine whether the extended model ID matches the owned extended model ID when the prescribed model ID is so determined; and a device operable to acquire update data when the extended model ID is so determined.
US07877763B2
A lens drive apparatus for use in an optical pick-up apparatus, in which a bending mirror reflects an incident light flux from a light source and an objective lens converges the reflected light flux onto an optical disc through an objective lens, the lens drive apparatus includes: a base; a holder which holds the objective lens, being capable of moving with respect to the base; a pair of coils provided to interpose the objective lens held by the holder; and a pair of magnets attached to the base to face the pair of coils, respectively. The holder includes at least one surface which faces the incident light flux from the light source, among surfaces opposing to the pair of magnets, is shifted inwardly with respect to a surface of the holder that is close to the objective lens.
US07877761B2
To prevent an optical disc from being removed from a clamper even when an impact force is applied in an optical disc apparatus. A displacement amount by which a disc motor is sunk on the bottom case side is suppressed. In more detail, a convex portion which protrudes in the bottom cover direction is provided at a region including the whole or a part of an orthographically-projected surface of the disc motor on a surface of a bottom case opposed to a rear surface of the disc motor, and in a state of recording or reproducing, the sum of a distance between a motor fixing plate and a bottom cover and a distance between the bottom cover and the convex portion of the bottom case is smaller in the rotational axis direction of the disc motor than the sum of a distance between an optical disc and a tray and an insertion depth by which a clamper is inserted into a center hole of an optical disc.
US07877759B2
A system for monitoring a large number of simultaneous events implements a hybrid counter array device having a first counter portion comprising counter devices, each counter device for receiving signals representing occurrences of events from an event source and providing a first count value corresponding to a lower order bits of the hybrid counter array. A second counter portion comprises a memory array device having addressable memory locations in correspondence with the counter devices, each addressable memory location for storing a second count value representing higher order bits. A control device monitors each of the counter devices and initiates updating a value of a corresponding second count value stored at the corresponding addressable memory location. The system includes interrupt pre-indication for providing fast interrupt trigger to a processor device when a count value related to an event equals a threshold value.
US07877756B2
A partnership object is created to manage interactions between objects in an object oriented computing environment. A first object requests to interact with a second object. A partnership object is created and each of the first and second objects is provided with a reference to the partnership object. The request from the first object may include identifiers of licenses associated with the first and second object and the partnership object may be created only if both licenses are validated. The first object then is able to interact with the second object by using the reference to the partnership object.
US07877750B2
Scheduled jobs can be managed by monitoring the veracity of the data sets processed by these jobs. A multi-processing environment includes remote processing devices generating the data sets. A central processing device executes scheduled job, also known as batch processes, using the data sets. For each of the scheduled jobs, a scheduled job management device tracks the data set generated by the remote processing devices. Through tracking these data sets, the execution of the scheduled jobs may be managed. If one or more of the data sets are not the proper data for the scheduled job, the management device may thereupon control the execution of the job. Through the utilization of the management device, the execution of improper scheduled jobs may be avoided.
US07877745B2
A look-up function and query capability of aspects associated with aspect objects is enabled in a client device. A web client application, such as a web browser, executes in the client device. The aspects are associated with functions of real world objects such as pumps, motors, mixing units, compressors, conveyors, transformers or switchgears. The client device does not need to be pre-loaded with any specific software relating to a control system other than the web browser.
US07877740B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to exceptions. In a Java embodiment, if the count of a program statement that causes the exception reaches a threshold, then the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) searches for the throw statement corresponding to that program statement. The JVM then identifies the catch clause corresponding to the throw statement, and depending on implementations, the JVM may replace the throw statement with the catch block or replace the throw statement with a jump to the catch block. As a result, in both situations, program execution, when being supposed to execute the throw statement, executes instructions of the catch block, and avoids execution of the throw statement that would invoke the exception handler, which improves system performance.
US07877738B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for use in developing a program. More particularly, a method and apparatus for compiling a source code program during editing of the same is disclosed, where editing can be initial entry or modification subsequent to initial entry. The method comprises compiling at least a portion of a source code program defined by a waypoint during the editing of the source code program. In other aspects, the invention includes a program storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, perform this method and a computer programmed to perform this method. The apparatus includes a computing apparatus, comprising a text editor through which a source code program may be entered; and a compiler that may compile the source code program. The control block is capable of determining at least one waypoint in the source code program and invoking the compiler to compile the source code program up to the waypoint.
US07877737B2
A method is provided for generating a graph data representation having a plurality of nodes corresponding to respective systems engineering requirements. The method includes accessing a first data representation of a collection of systems requirements and relationships therebetween and generating a second data representation of the collection of systems requirements. The generating the second data representation includes accessing respective systems requirements of the collection of systems requirements; creating a node to correspond to each accessed systems requirement if a node corresponding to the accessed systems requirement does not exist; and creating an edge between the created or pre-existing node and each node corresponding to a systems requirement having a relationship with the accessed systems requirement. Each node of the second data representation is a node of said graph data representation and corresponds to a different systems requirement of the collection of systems requirements.
US07877735B2
A system and method are described for performing application cloning. In one embodiment, on a client, an application that is already deployed on a server is accessed and then cloned into another application by assigning a new name to the application. The clone application is then deployed on the server where the application and the clone application are simultaneously run.
US07877734B2
An apparatus, program product and method associate a unique key with routines in an application to enable a profiler to ascertain whether to collect profile information for a routine during its execution. A key may be generated, for example, during deployment or installation of an application in an application server or other runtime environment, and subsequently associated with the routines in the application, e.g., by storing the key in the class and/or library files for the application. By doing so, each application in a runtime environment may be uniquely identified by a profiler during execution, such that profile information will only be collected for those applications for which profiling has been enabled.
US07877733B2
A framework by which arbitrary routines may be executed in reaction to specific events for analysis and testing, while avoiding the need to manipulate the actual code being monitored. A method for performing functional failure testing of a software-based system comprises monitoring execution of target software for occurrence of a specified event, in response to detecting occurrence of the specified event, performing an action to cause or simulate a failure of the target software or of software or hardware that operatively interacts with the target software, and monitoring the target software for a response to the performed action.
US07877731B2
A system, method, and computer readable storage medium for formatting and viewing a source object that allows software developers to select their own preferences for formatting and/or viewing the same source object.
US07877720B2
The invention relates to a design method and tool for designing electronic circuits on a printed circuit board (10), wherein at least one self-contained, pre-composed domain is used, wherein the domain (110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 150, 160) is a module chosen from a pre-composed architecture library, comprising self-contained pre-designed electronic modules represented by logical architecture and corresponding physical architecture.
US07877719B2
Integrated circuit apparatus and methods are described for inserting multi-Vdd buffers within an interconnection tree during routing toward minimization of power under a delay constraint. Insertion of level converters is not necessary within the routing trees of the interconnect tree despite the insertion of the multi-Vdd buffers. Techniques are described for controlling the dramatic complexity increment due to simultaneous delay and power consideration and increased buffer choices. Overhead reduction techniques are taught including: sampling based techniques, prediction based pruning techniques (PSP) and (PMP), and escape grid reduction, each of which are directed to multi-Vdd buffer insertion. The resultant integrated circuits are routed with substantial power reductions over conventional routing.
US07877715B1
A method is provided to evaluate whether one or more test patterns is power safe for use during manufacturing testing of an integrated circuit that includes a nonuniform power grid and that includes a scan chain, the method comprising: assigning respective toggle count thresholds for respective power grid regions of the non-uniform power grid; and determining whether respective numbers of toggles by scan elements of the scan chain within one or more respective power grid regions meet respective toggle count thresholds for the one or more respective regions during at least one scan-shift cycle in the course of scan-in of a test pattern to the scan chain.
US07877711B2
A method of determining the lowest possible number of serial switches in a pull-up plane or a pull-down plane of a network implementing a logic function. The same method may be used in any multi-value function. Also, the method may be used in generating switch networks to be implemented as standard cells implementations of combinational logic cells. The minimum number of switches can also be used as a criterion for technology mapping devoted to automatic cell generation. The method is based on the use of a covering table to derive a sum of products where individual cubes have a minimum literal count.
US07877706B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and program product comprises a behavior processing system for capturing a three-dimensional movement of a user within a particular environment, wherein the three-dimensional movement is determined by using at least one image capture device aimed at the user. The behavior processing system identifies a three-dimensional object properties stream using the captured movement. The behavior processing system identifies a particular defined behavior of the user from the three-dimensional object properties stream by comparing the identified three-dimensional object properties stream with multiple behavior definitions each representing a separate behavioral signal for directing control of the document. A document control system selects at least one document element to represent the at least one particular defined behavior and inserts the selected document element into the document.
US07877705B2
A system and methods for facilitation of user interactions with an electronic device. A number of user interface methods are described and may be used alone or in combination with one another to present an enhanced interface to a user. A method of providing user interaction using a compact status indicator is described. A method for providing a virtual scroll wheel to a user for interaction with content sets is described. A method for allowing a user to dynamically modify a scalable user interface is described. A method for providing gesture based input to a user via a virtual gesture pad is described. A method of providing an interactive graphic search query interface is described. A method for indicating and selecting available content type is described.
US07877702B2
A method and computer program product for automatically populating data in a tree widget on a Web page are provided. The method includes rendering a tree structure of tree nodes populated with data in a viewable area of a Web page, creating placeholder nodes without data in the tree structure, and placing the placeholder nodes in a hidden area of the Web page. The method also includes monitoring for a scrolling request to shift the tree structure in the viewable area of the Web page, and initiating an asynchronous request for data to populate a subset of the placeholder nodes in response to the scrolling request. The method further includes receiving the data to populate the subset of placeholder nodes, populating the subset of placeholder nodes with the received data, and shifting the subset of placeholder nodes with the received data to the viewable area of the Web page.
US07877701B2
A computer-implementable method, system and computer-readable medium for providing in-context total document views for manipulating data are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of: displaying an active context of a software program on a User Interface (UI); receiving a copy command for a copied element from the active context; in response to a control signal, displaying an access view of one or more secondary contexts of the software program; temporarily activating a selected context from the secondary contexts shown in the access view while continuing to display the active context on the UI; and pasting the copied element into the selected context. Preferably, in response to the copied element being pasted into the selected secondary context, the access view is automatically removed from the UI.
US07877690B2
Techniques are provided for presenting time data for audio and video clips. Operations for a data processing apparatus include obtaining video data, including multiple video clips, and presenting the video data in a user interface. The user interface can include a video display element to play video, a clip selection element to receive video clip selections, and a timeline element to present both chronological and durational information about the video clips on a defined time scale. The operations can include receiving a selection of one of the video clips through the clip selection element, and adjusting, in response to the selection, the defined time scale in the timeline element based on the one of the video clips selected. A view of a video clip can be replaced by the selected video clip, and the timeline element can be updated to present corresponding durational information within the defined time scale.
US07877687B2
An apparatus and method for presenting an embedded visual media player included in a web page in a floating mode is disclosed herein. The status of the embedded visual media player and/or the position of the embedded visual media player relative to the current viewable area of a window are monitored to initiate the floating mode. The floating mode keeps the embedded visual media player within the viewable area while the web page is scrolled.
US07877685B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a computer interface that allows for the amount of text selected using a text selection utility to be changed after the selection has been made. A user may make an initial selection, then later change the amount or portion of text that was selected using selection handles displayed on the selection.
US07877678B2
A method of populating a spreadsheet with financial data, includes, in response to a user's request for financial data, sending a request to a web service for the financial data, receiving a response to the request from the web service, processing the response, retrieving a taxonomy associated with the response and populating the spreadsheet in accordance with the response and the retrieved taxonomy.
US07877677B2
A system and method for configuring web content for display on mobile communicators including receiving an operator-selected web page, selection, by an operator, of at least one cell-based element of the web page, arrangement, by an operator, of the at least one cell-based element at a desired position in a page template; and creating at least one mobile communicator adapted page by automatically placing at least one cell-based element, indicated by the template, of at least another web page, having a page structure similar to the operator-selected web page, at a desired position indicated by the template.
US07877674B2
Aspects of a method and system for redundancy-based decoding of voice content in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system are provided. A WLAN receiver may determine whether a decoded portion of a received packet comprises voice content and may select a redundancy-based decoder to decode a remaining portion of the packet when voice content is detected. The redundancy-based decoder may be a Viterbi decoder. The redundancy-based decoder may be selected to decode a determined number of subsequent packets or to decode subsequent packets for a determined amount of time. After decoding the remaining portion of the packet and any subsequent packets, the WLAN receiver may select a standard Viterbi decoder to decode additional received packets. The WLAN receiver may generate at least one signal to select the redundancy-based decoder and the standard Viterbi decoder.
US07877672B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a system for implementing a Reed-Solomon computation of parity bytes of a codeword, including an accumulator and a logic circuit. The accumulator is configured to hold a plurality of bits. In an embodiment, each bit held in the accumulator initially corresponds to a bit associated with a data byte of the codeword. In another embodiment, each bit held in the accumulator initially correspond to a fixed value. The logic circuit is configured to iteratively compute a new bit for each bit held in the accumulator. After a last iteration of the computation, the bits held in the accumulator correspond to the parity bytes, wherein for each bit held in the accumulator each iteration of the computation comprises computing an exclusive-OR of a fixed subset of bits held in the accumulator. In an embodiment, the exclusive-OR is computed for the fixed subset of bits held in the accumulator and an input bit of the codeword.
US07877668B2
When a host system outputs a read command to a memory controller, it measures a load count of a memory area on which a read access load is imposed. Then, when the host system judges that the load count of a memory area reaches a predetermined count, it causes the memory controller to perform an error detection on the memory area. Further, when the host system finds that an error occurs in the memory area, it causes the memory controller to perform an error correction on the memory area. This can avoid or reduce unintended rewriting due to repeated readouts.
US07877661B2
Multiword information is encoded as based on multibit symbols disposed in relative contiguity with respect to a medium. It has wordwise interleaving, wordwise error protection code facilities and error locative clues across words of a multiword group. These originate in synchronizing channel bit groups and target data words.
US07877660B2
Systems and methods for providing forward error correction are disclosed in the present disclosure. In one embodiment, among others, a method comprises transmitting a stream of data packets to a receiver and transmitting a first amount of forward error correction (FEC) to the receiver. The first amount of FEC is designed to restore a first number of dropped data packets. The method also includes a receiving a message from the receiver that the first amount of FEC is not sufficient to restore a detected number of dropped data packets, and then transmitting additional FEC to restore the detected number of dropped data packets.
US07877655B2
A method for performing a test case with at least one LBIST engine on an integrated circuit with a plurality of storage elements and logic circuits interconnected according to a predetermined scheme. The LBIST engine is partially built up by storage elements and/or logic circuits. At least one scan chain is formed as a series of selected storage elements and the other storage elements are used for the LBIST engine or a part of said LBIST engine in a testing mode. The scan chain is driven by a test pattern and the LBIST test case is testing those parts of the logic circuits corresponding to the storage elements of said scan chain.
US07877652B1
Standardized scan cell logic is enabled to test board-level and circuit-level AC interfaces built into integrated CMOS circuits by verification of high-speed AC coupled non-CMOS logic level signals driven onto non-CMOS logic level AC coupled interconnects in those circuits.
US07877646B2
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for monitoring a computing device, that includes receiving, by a data collector, a plurality of system messages from a system controller, wherein the data collector is wired to a serial port component of the system controller, wherein the system controller is factory preconfigured to automatically send the plurality of system messages via the serial port when the data collector is connected to the serial port, wherein the computing device comprises the system controller, and wherein the data collector is independent of the computing device. The method further includes storing data from the plurality of system messages on the data collector, receiving, by the data collector, a data transmit request, and wirelessly transmitting, by the data collector, the data to a field receiver.
US07877631B2
In an example embodiment, a method is provided to identify an error associated with a system battery. This system battery is operably associated with a computing device and is used to power the computing device. A parameter of the system battery is tested and an error associated with the system battery may be detected. In an example, the error may be detected before the operating system is loaded onto the computing device. In another example, the error may be detected when the computing device is waking from a reduced power mode.
US07877629B2
A method for facilitating handling of exceptions in object code transformed from a 1-to-1 threading model to a M-to-N threading model comprises transforming object code having a 1-to-1 threading model to a M-to-N threading model, saving context of a Runnable section of the object code into a context object in response to an exception occurring and rethrowing the exception after performing the saving. The transforming includes creating a Boolean enable value in a method context for an exception handler in the method context, mapping an exception type to the exception handler and wrapping a Runnable section of the object code within a respective synthetic exception handler. The respective synthetic exception handler is configured for saving context of the object code Runnable into a context object in response to an exception occurring and rethrowing the exception after performing the saving.
US07877628B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for mirroring data between a first site and a second site. Updates to segments of storage at the first site are copied to corresponding segments of storage at the second site. Codes are generated from the segments at the second site and a valid flag is provided for at least one code indicating whether the code for the segment of data is valid. One code is generated from each segment of storage at the first site. An operation is initiated to copy segments from the second site to the first site. A determination is made for segments at the second site as to whether the valid flag for the code for the segment at the second site indicates that the code is valid in response to initiating the copy operation. The valid code for at least one segment in the second site is compared with the code for the corresponding segment at the first site to determine whether to copy the data from the segment at the second site to the first site as part of the copy operation.
US07877627B1
A multiple redundant computer system includes three primary processor modules (PPM) and three redundant processor modules (RPM) operating synchronously. Primary and redundant processor modules are dissimilar in hardware and software for decreasing the probability of a common cause system failure. Each primary and redundant processor module receives input data from associated primary and redundant input modules respectively, executes control program and transfers output data to an output module. The output module produces a system output as the result of 2-out-of-3 voting among output data generated by PPMs. In response to PPMs hard failures, the output module still produces the system output as the result of 2-out-of-3 voting among output data generated by any combination of the PPM and the RPM. As such, the system is able to operate properly even though five-out-of six processor modules have failed. The output module also compares output data that it has received from each pair of the associated PPM and RPM for detecting a disparity between said output data due to the occurrence of transient faults. Additionally, the output module produces the system output as the result of 2-out-of-2 and 1-out-of-1 voting upon the occurrence of disparity of output data generated by the associated PPM and RPM in one and two pairs of the associated PPM and RPM respectively.
US07877625B2
A system and method for interfacing redundant devices to a distributed control system, includes a first and second redundant field bus modules communicably coupled to the distributed control system and to one another via Ethernet switches. A pair of redundant field devices are coupled to the Ethernet switches, one FD having a floating IP address. The FBMs adopt respective roles as master FBM and tracker FBM, so that the master FBM is configured to capture data from the one FD using the floating IP address, and to pass any data changes periodically to the tracker FBM, through the Ethernet switches. The master FBM is configured to point to the other field device in the event the other field device has assumed the floating IP address. The FBMs are configured to switch roles in the event communication is disrupted between the master FBM and the FD having the floating IP address.
US07877621B2
Software attacks such as worms and viruses are detected in an electronic device by monitoring power consumption patterns. In a first embodiment, software attacks are detected by an increase in power consumption. The increased power consumption can be caused by increased network traffic, or by increased activity in the microprocessor. Monitoring power consumption is particularly effective for detecting DOS/flooding attacks when the electronic device is in an idle state. In a second embodiment, a power consumption signal is converted to the frequency domain (e.g., by fast Fourier transform). The highest amplitude frequencies are identified. Specific software attacks produce characteristic frequencies in the power consumption signal. Software attacks are therefore detected by matching the highest amplitude frequencies with frequencies associated with specific worms and viruses. Identification of a particular software attack typically requires matching of 3 or more of the highest amplitude frequencies, and, optionally, amplitude information.
US07877620B2
Managing power in a parallel computer, the parallel computer including a power supply and a plurality of compute nodes, the plurality of compute nodes powered by the power supply through a plurality of DC-DC converters, each DC-DC converter supplying current to an assigned group of compute nodes, each DC-DC converter having a current sensor. Embodiments include monitoring, by the current sensor, an amount of current supplied by that DC-DC converter to its assigned group of compute nodes; determining, by at least one DC-DC converter, that the amount of current supplied is greater than a predefined threshold value; sending, by the at least one DC-DC converter to the plurality of compute nodes, a global interrupt, including notifying the plurality of compute nodes to reduce power consumption; and reducing, by the plurality of compute nodes in accordance with power consumption ratios, power consumption of the compute nodes.
US07877612B2
A method and system for authenticating a user to access a computer system. The method comprises communicating security information to the computer system, and providing the computer system with an implicit input. The method further comprises determining whether the security information and implicit input match corresponding information associated with the user. The method further comprises granting the user access to the computer system in the event of a satisfactory match. When authenticating the user, the method and system consider the possibility of the user being legitimate but subject to duress or force by a computer hacker.
US07877604B2
A physical random function (PUF) is a function that is easy to evaluate but hard to characterize. Controlled physical random functions (CPUFs) are PUFs that can only be accessed via a security program controlled by a security algorithm that is physically bound to the PUF in an inseparable way. CPUFs enable certified execution, where a certificate is produced that proves that a specific computation was carried out on a specific processor. The invention provides an additional layer for generating a proof of execution which any third party can verify. This proof of execution is also useful to provide secure memory and secure interruptible program execution.
US07877601B2
A method and system for including security information with a packet is disclosed. A packet is detected as it exits a first network and enters a second network. The first network is configured to support a network security technique, and the second network is not configured to support the network security technique. Network security information associated with the network security technique is included with the packet. A network device is configured to include network security information in overhead of a packet. A method for identifying a first network device in a network is also disclosed. Identification information of the first network is communicated to a second network device.
US07877595B2
A cryptographic device may include a cryptographic module and a communications module removably coupled thereto. The cryptographic module may include a first housing, a user network interface carried by the first housing, a cryptographic processor carried by the first housing and coupled to the user network interface, and a first connector carried by the first housing and coupled to the cryptographic processor. Furthermore, the communications module may include a second housing, a second connector carried by the second housing and being removably mateable with the first connector of the cryptographic module, and a network communications interface carried by the second housing and coupled to the second connector.
US07877591B2
A standardized system for developing hardware platforms and operating systems for computer systems. The system comprises: (1) a first standardized protocol for developing hardware platforms, wherein the first standardized protocol requires each hardware platform to include a bios program having: a first system for setting up a plurality of control features on the hardware platform; and a second system for collecting a standardized set of abstraction information and storing the abstraction information in a standardized format; and (2) a second standardized protocol for developing operating systems, wherein the second standardized protocol: requires each operating system to include an interface call to obtain the abstraction information in the standardized format; and requires each operating system to be operational on a target hardware platform with the abstraction information.
US07877584B2
Embodiments include a device and a method. In an embodiment, a device includes a processor having an associated hardware resource and operable to execute an instruction group. The device also includes a resource manager operable to implement a resource management policy for the hardware resource with respect to an execution of the instruction group, the resource management policy responsive to a prediction of a future performance of the hardware resource based at least in part on a historical performance of the hardware resource.
US07877581B2
A networking application processor is provided. The processor includes an input socket configured to receive data packets. The processor includes a memory for holding instructions and circuitry configured to access data structures associated with the processing stages. The circuitry configured to access data structures enables a single cycle access to an operand from a memory location. An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is provided. Circuitry for aligning operands to be processed by the ALU is included. The circuitry for aligning the operands causes the operand to be aligned by a lowest significant bit, wherein the circuitry for aligning the operand supplies an extension to the operand to allow the ALU to process different size operands.
US07877580B2
A method of handling program instructions in a microprocessor which reduces delays associated with mispredicted branch instructions, by detecting the occurrence of a stall condition during execution of the program instructions, speculatively executing one or more pending instructions which include at least one branch instruction during the stall condition, and determining the validity of data utilized by the speculative execution. Dispatch logic determines the validity of the data by marking one or more registers of an instruction dispatch unit to indicate which results of the pending instructions are invalid. The speculative execution of instructions can occur across multiple pipeline stages of the microprocessor, and the validity of the data is tracked during their execution in the multiple pipeline stages while monitoring a dependency of the speculatively executed instructions relative to one another during their execution in the multiple pipeline stages.
US07877578B2
The present invention provides an information processing apparatus having a predecoder decoding an operation code in an input instruction, generating conditional branch instruction information indicating that the input instruction is a conditional branch instruction and instruction type information indicating a type of the conditional branch instruction when the input instruction is a conditional branch instruction, and writing the input instruction, from which the operation code is deleted, the conditional branch instruction information and the instruction type information to the instruction cache memory, and a history information writing unit writing history information indicating whether or not the conditional branch instruction was branched, as a result of executing the conditional branch instruction stored in the instruction cache memory, to an area in the instruction cache memory, where the operation code of the conditional branch instruction is deleted.
US07877571B2
In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes executing a single instruction to identify a location within a table stored at a memory. The single instruction is executable by a processor to extract bit field data from a first register and insert the bit field data into an index portion of a second register. The second register includes a table address portion and an index portion. The table address portion includes a table address identifying a memory location associated with a table. The table address and the bit field data combine to form an indexed address to an element within the table.
US07877569B2
A nonvolatile storage device can read and write data by receiving a logical address from a host. The nonvolatile storage device includes: a nonvolatile memory writing and reading data based on a physical address; a logical/physical conversion table storing information on correspondence between the logical address and the physical address for each of a plurality of data management units; a duplication table storing information on correspondence between the logical address and the physical address of data arranged over a plurality of areas in a duplicate (redundant) manner in the nonvolatile memory and having a size smaller than a size of a data management unit; and a controller controlling an operation of the nonvolatile storage device. The controller permits duplicate (redundant) writing of data having a same logical address as the data (which has been written in one data management unit in another data management unit), and the controller performs a plurality of write modes for the duplicate (redundant) writing, and selectively switches between the write modes according to situation of a logical address change designated by the host.
US07877568B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods of controlling data transfer between a host system and a plurality of storage devices. One embodiment is directed to a virtualization controller for controlling data transfer between a host system and a plurality of storage devices. The virtualization controller comprises a plurality of first ports for connection with the plurality of storage devices each having a storage area to store data; a second port for connection with the host system; a processor; and a memory configured to store volume mapping information which correlates first identification information used by the host system to access a first storage area in one of the storage devices, with second identification information for identifying the first storage area, the correlation being used by the processor to access the first storage area. When data stored in the first storage area is transferred to a second storage area in one of the storage devices, the processor correlates the first identification information with a third identification information for identifying the second storage area and registers the first identification information and the third identification information in the volume mapping information.
US07877566B2
A read command protocol and a method of accessing a nonvolatile memory device having an internal cache memory. A memory device configured to accept a first and second read command, outputting a first requested data while simultaneously reading a second requested data. In addition, the memory device may be configured to send or receive a confirmation indicator.
US07877564B2
A method and system for storing and retrieving data using flash memory devices. One example system includes an apparatus within a flash memory configuration. The flash memory configuration includes a plurality of memory cells, where each memory cell has a charge storage capacity for use in implementing digital storage. The apparatus includes a processing arrangement configured to access each of the memory cells in a write operation and a read operation. The apparatus also includes an instruction set for instructing the processor to impose target charge levels for defining a plurality of data values for each of the memory cells. The target charge levels are programmably movable with respect to the charge storage capacity.
US07877559B2
A processor includes at least one processing core. The processing core includes a memory cache, a store queue, and a post-retirement store queue. The processing core retires a store in the store queue and conveys the store to the memory cache and the post-retirement store queue, in response to retiring the store. In one embodiment, the store queue and/or the post-retirement store queue is a first-in, first-out queue. In a further embodiment, to convey the store to the memory cache, the processing core obtains exclusive access to a portion of the memory cache targeted by the store. The processing core buffers the store in a coalescing buffer and merges with the store, one or more additional stores and/or loads targeted to the portion of the memory cache targeted by the store prior to writing the store to the memory cache.
US07877558B2
A system includes a processor coupled to a memory through a memory controller. The memory controller includes first and second queues. The memory controller receives memory requests from the processor, assigns a priority to each request, stores each request in the first queue, and schedules processing of the requests based on their priorities. The memory controller changes the priority of a request in the first queue in response to a trigger, sends a next scheduled request from the first queue to the second queue in response to detecting the next scheduled request has the highest priority of any request in the first queue, and sends requests from the second queue to the memory. The memory controller changes the priority of different types of requests in response to different types of triggers. The memory controller maintains a copy of each request sent to the second queue in the first queue.
US07877555B1
Logical memories and other logic functions specified in designs are mapped to power-optimized implementations using physical memories and other device resources. A logical memory may be automatically mapped to numerous potential physical implementations. Power consumption is estimated for each potential physical implementation to select the physical implementation providing the best performance with respect to power consumption and any other design constraints. Potential physical implementations can suppress clock transitions via clock enable inputs when embedded memory is not accessed. Read-enable and write-enable signals can be converted to functionally equivalent clock enable signals. Clock enable signals can be created to deactivate unused memory access ports and to deactivate embedded memory blocks during don't-care conditions. Potential physical implementations can slice logical memory into two or more embedded memory blocks to minimize power consumption.
US07877554B2
A system includes a storage pool including a first disk and a second disk, a data management unit (DMU), and a storage pool allocator (SPA). The SPA is configured to receive a request from the DMU to write a logical block, allocate a first physical block on the first disk, attempt to write the logical block to the first physical block, and allocate a second physical block on the second disk, if the attempt to write the logical block to the first physical block fails.
US07877552B2
A symmetric multiprocessing fault-tolerant computer system controls memory access in a symmetric multiprocessing computer system. To do so, virtual page structures are created, where the virtual page structures reflect physical page access privileges to shared memory for processors in a symmetric multiprocessing computer system. Access to shared memory is controlled based on physical page access privileges reflected in the virtual paging structures to coordinate deterministic shared memory access between processors in the symmetric multiprocessing computer system. A symmetric multiprocessing fault-tolerant computer system may use duplication or continuous replay.
US07877542B2
High integration of a non-volatile memory device (NVMD) is disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a non-volatile memory device comprises an intelligent non-volatile memory (NVM) controller and an intelligent non-volatile memory module. The NVM controller includes a central processing unit (CPU) configured to handle data transfer operations to the NVM module to ensure source synchronous interface, interleaved data operations and block abstracted addressing. The intelligent NVM module includes an interface logic, a block address manager and at least one non-volatile memory array. The interface logic is configured to handle physical block management. The block address manager is configured to ensure a physical address is converted to a transformed address that is accessible to the CPU of the intelligent NVM controller. The transformed address may be an address in blocks, pages, sectors or bytes either logically or physically.
US07877539B2
Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. The file based interface between the host and memory systems allows the memory system controller to utilize the data storage blocks within the memory with increased efficiency.
US07877529B1
Synchronization management is provided for a continuous serial data streaming application wherein the serial data stream includes a plurality of consecutive, identical-length segments of consecutive serial data bits. Synchronization management bits are provided in each segment. The synchronization management bits are programmed such that the synchronization management bits contained in first and second adjacent segments of the serial data stream will bear a predetermined relationship to one another. At the receiving end, the synchronization management bits are examined from segment to segment. In this manner, synchronization can be monitored, synchronization loss can be detected, and synchronization recovery can be achieved.
US07877525B1
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for resuming a media object presented following a data loss event are provided. A physical disconnection that occurs at a point during the presentation of the media object is detected. The physical disconnection interrupts the presentation of the media object. Upon detecting the physical disconnection, a reestablishment of the physical connection is detected. Subsequently, an option to resume the presentation of the media object at the interrupted point is presented to a user.
US07877521B2
A virtual PCI Express device 1600 indicates the presence of a pseudo I/O device in a PCI Express initial configuration cycle to reserve a resource space for a device anticipated to be installed in the future, and when an I/O device 1400 is inserted into an unoccupied slot 1605, a virtual PCI Express device control logic 1602 notifies a downstream PCI-PCI bridge 1504 via a hot-plugging control line 1601, and the downstream PCI-PCI bridge 1504 generates an interrupt to a CPU 1100 to notify it of insertion of the I/O device 1400 in conformance with the procedure for hot plugging defined by the PCI-SIG Standards, and configuration software 1000 invoked configures the inserted I/O device 1400.
US07877518B2
A method and system for the delivery of updated web platform applications to a mobile electronic device upon synchronization of the mobile device with a computer. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention discloses a method and system for dynamically creating personalized and up-to-date applications whenever a mobile electronic device is synchronized with a stand-alone computer system that is coupled to remotely located content servers or computers via a communication network, such as the Internet. Conduits act as gateways for synchronization between the mobile electronic device and the plurality of content servers or computers. These conduits coordinate the loading of the personalized and up-to-date applications onto the mobile electronic device. In one example, a user can then access up-to-date information on the applications at a more convenient time and while disconnected from the content servers or computers that provide the information.
US07877515B2
Devices, systems, methods and software are described which provide identity assignment and redistribution capabilities for software components of a distributed application. Identity value ranges can be fixed or variable. Identity assignment schemes according to exemplary embodiments facilitate the continuation of traffic between the components and clients during redistribution of the identities.
US07877513B2
A server computer stores user favorites information that relates to the favorites of a user. Whether digital information that has newly occurred on a network suits the favorites of the user is judged based on the user favorites information. If it is judged that there exists digital information that suits the favorites of the user, the server computer informs the user of the new establishment of the digital information that suits the favorites of the user by transmitting E-mail to the user. When a browsing request of the digital information is made by the user, the server computer delivers the digital information to the user and stores history information relating to a history of the digital information that has been delivered to the user. Thereafter, the server computer updates the user favorites information based on the history information.
US07877508B1
A routing system utilizes a layer 2 switch interconnecting several routers to intelligently forward multicast packets throughout an internet exchange carrying multicast content. The layer 2 switch performs protocol snooping to extract a lookup key that is based on network layer protocol information. The lookup key is uniquely formulated to support either shared or explicit source distribution trees. The lookup key is used to query a forwarding memory that returns an outgoing port index. The outgoing port index points to one or more outgoing ports that are eligible to receive the multicast packet. The outgoing ports are also connected to the neighboring device(s) that are designated to receive the multicast packet. The routing system also supports real time maintenance and updating of the forwarding memory based on the periodic exchange of control messages. The routing system is configured to support PIM routers operating in PIM SM or PIM SSM modes. However, the routing system can also support other multicast protocols and/or standards.
US07877492B2
A system and method for delegating a user authentication process for a networked application to an authentication proxy. A networked application may request a user to provide authentication information in order to access the application. Upon receiving this authentication information from the user, the client side of the networked application sends the information to the server side of the networked application. The server side of the application may then determine an appropriate authentication agent associated with the user to delegate the authentication process to. For example, for each application user, the server side of the application may maintain information associated with the user, such as the user's employer. The application may then match this employer information to an authentication agent running in the employer's network domain, and the authentication process may then be delegated to this authentication agent.
US07877483B1
In one embodiment, an intermediate network device has a plurality of ports, and at least some of the ports are associated with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) designations. A spanning tree entity executes a spanning tree protocol to transition the ports among a plurality of spanning tree states. A VLAN port logic circuit is disposed at one or more of the ports and processes control packets advertising VLAN memberships. The VLAN port logic circuit, in response to receiving a control packet broadcast by another intermediate network device, asserts bits in a VLAN wanted vector for which the spanning tree state of the selected port is in the forwarding state, signifying that network messages associated with such VLAN designations are to be forwarded from the respective port. The VLAN wanted vectors may later be transmitted in control messages from the intermediate network device.
US07877468B2
Scheduled data is received and distributed in a system, such as a DSDD system. A schedule director receives a schedule representing inventory of data available from a data source and desired times for distributing the data. The schedule director coordinates with one or more resource managers that maintain information regarding resource utilization in the system. The schedule director negotiates with the resource managers to reserve resources in the system for receiving the scheduled data from the data source, storing the received data, and/or preparing the received data for delivery to a user. Resources are reserved based on the schedule and the resources determined to be available. The resources are reserved to perform at least one task, independent of other resources in the system.
US07877458B2
A system, method and computer program product for managing documents. The system includes an image forming apparatus configured to display interactive menus so as to allow an operator of the image forming apparatus to interact with a document manager. The display interactive menus are downloaded from the document manager to the image forming apparatus based on a request by the operator. The document manager is configured to search for application services providers (ASPs) over a network and based on operator inputs. The document manager can search documents within the ASPs, retrieve documents and URLs, store documents and data. The system can provide basic and/or customized interactive menus displayed on the screen of the image forming apparatus.
US07877455B2
A system and a method for providing remote supervisory override of a lockout at a workstation is disclosed. The system includes a first workstation and a second workstation. The first workstation has lockout functionality, wherein at least a portion of the functionality of the workstation is locked when a lockout module in the first workstation detects a violation of a predetermined rule. The first workstation includes an override request module that sends an override request message to the second workstation, which is associated with a supervisor. The second workstation includes an override response module that the supervisor uses to send an override response message back to the first workstation. When the first workstation receives an override response message that authorizes overriding the rule, the first workstation is unlocked.
US07877450B2
Transferring instant messaging sessions includes receiving a selection, from a user within a user interface, of at least one instant messaging session from among multiple instant messaging sessions to transfer from a first instant messaging controller on a first device to at least a second instant messaging controller on a second device, where the user is signed on concurrently to the first instant messaging controller on the first device and the second instant messaging controller on the second device. At least a portion of the selected instant messaging session is transferred from the first instant messaging controller on the first device to the second instant messaging controller on the second device and the transferred portion of the instant messaging session is made perceivable on the second instant messaging controller on the second device.
US07877438B2
A new media identification system is disclosed. In one aspect, a system may comprise at least one analysis module for receiving and analyzing an received work and generating a corresponding representation thereof; at least one identification (ID) server for receiving the representation from the at least one analysis module and generating a list of unidentifiable received works. A method for identifying new media is also disclosed. In one aspect, a method may comprise receiving an unidentified segment; determining whether the unidentified segment is similar to previously received unidentified segments; and sequentially arranging similar unidentified segments in a single super segment.
US07877436B2
A method and a data processing system for completing checkpoint processing of a distributed job with local tasks communicating with other remote tasks via a host fabric interface (HFI) and assigned HFI window. Each HFI window has a send count and a receive count, which tracks GSM messages that are sent from and received at the HFI window. When a checkpoint is initiated by a master task, each local task forwards the send count and the receive count to the master task. The master task sums the respective counts and then compares the totals to each other. When the send count total is equal to the receive count total, the tasks are permitted to continue processing. However, when the send count total is not equal to the receive count total, the master task notifies each task of the job to rollback to a previous checkpoint or kill the job execution.
US07877424B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate enforcing quotas in transactional file systems. In aspects, a filter monitors operations that may affect quota usage/charge of a file system object having a quota allotment. In doing so, the filter determines a quota value outside of any transaction for the object and a quota value associated with at least one transaction affecting the object. The filter receives a request that involves the use of additional quota. The filter then determines whether to allow or fail the request depending on whether enough quota is available to satisfy the request.
US07877407B2
A database server contains pointers to useful information, such as on the World Wide Web. Users of the server may have hypertext links added automatically into documents they submit. Users may additionally contribute to the link database, thereby extending it, and may add additional qualifying information pertaining to the links.
US07877404B2
Methods are provided for the classification of search engine queries and associated documents based on search engine query click logs. One or more seed documents or queries are provided that contain content that is representative of a category. A query click log containing information regarding queries entered by at least one user into the search engine and documents subsequently clicked in search engine results corresponding with the queries is analyzed to determine which one or more queries resulted in clicks on the seed documents. Information is stored associating the one or more queries with the category if they resulted in clicks on the seed documents.
US07877403B2
An apparatus and method for database searching using fuzzy rules is presented. The apparatus and method may accept a word or word phrase such as a persons name and returns fuzzy rules for database searching. Applicable search rules are selected and word or word phrase equivalents are displayed to a user. The user accepts or rejects each of the word or word phrase. The word or word phrase along with the user's acceptance or rejection are stored in a sample database. The fuzzy rules are modified according to the data in the sample database. The database is filtered by training and testing portions of the database for accuracy and purging the least accurate portions.
US07877402B1
A method and system for providing relevant search results using financial data includes a process for providing relevant search results using financial data whereby a user's financial transaction data is obtained from one or more sources. A user then initiates a network search using one or more network search parameters such as one or more keywords and/or phrases. The scope of the one or more network search parameters, and therefore the scope of the network search, are then determined and/or modified based, at least in part, on the user's financial data.
US07877400B1
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for searching for one or more logical elements in a hierarchical tree structure of an extended markup language document conforming to a schema used for XML. The method includes the steps of (1) providing a representation of an extended markup language document instance containing two or more logical elements, one being a parent node and one a child node in a hierarchical tree structure describing the representation; (2) receiving a query for logical elements satisfying an XPath expression; and (3) searching in the hierarchical tree structure only nodes that potentially have child nodes satisfying the XPath expression.
US07877390B2
Systems, methods and services for generating autonomous persistent storage systems that are self-configurable and self-managing, based on user-submitted entity definitions. For example, systems and methods are provided for automatically creating and updating persistent storage structures based on entity definitions, automatically populating persistent storage space with instance data of defined entities, automatically generating and adapting methods for accessing instance data in persistent storage, searching instance data and automatically optimizing search methods for instance data, and automatically creating and managing a cache of frequently accessed instance data.
US07877381B2
A way for progressively refining a query execution plan during query execution in a federated data system is provided. Re-optimization constraints are placed in the query execution plan during query compilation. When a re-optimization constraint is violated during query execution, a model of the query execution plan is refined using a partially executed query to form a new query execution plan. The new query execution plan is compiled. The compiled new query execution plan is executed.
US07877380B2
A system of query scheduling to maximize work sharing. The system schedules queries to account for future queries possessing a sharability component. Included in the system are operations for assigning an incoming query to a query queue based on a sharability characteristic of the incoming query, and evaluating a priority function for each member of a plurality of query queues to identify one highest priority query queue. The priority function accounts for the probability that a future incoming query will contain the sharability characteristic common to a member of the plurality of query queues. The system of query scheduling to maximize work sharing selects a batch of queries from the highest priority query queue, and dispatches the batch to one or more query execution units.
US07877378B2
A method of processing information relating to the execution of instructions by a database management system includes receiving an instruction; receiving execution information relating to the execution of the instruction by the database management system; comparing the instruction to one or more previously received instructions and determining whether, according to a predetermined equivalence criterion, the instruction matches one of the previously received instructions; and, if the instruction matches a previously received instruction, combining the execution information with execution information relating to the matching one of the previously received instructions to produce aggregate execution information. The aggregate information may be used, for example, in analysing and optimizing performance characteristics of the database management system, the databases under its control, and individual instructions.
US07877374B2
A query execution system is provided. The system includes a monitor component that detects data value changes in a database. An adjustment component initiates an intermediate query in view of detected data value changes, the intermediate query employed to adjust statistics related to a query plan optimization.
US07877367B2
A computer method and system provides for graphical specification of inquiries and includes a corresponding progressive summary. The inquiries operate on stream data. Users graphically specify an inquiry in a graphical user interface according to an ontology. The invention system generates a plain-text translation of the graphical description of the inquiry and displays the generated plain-text description in a progressive summary in the graphical user interface. The system continually updates and generates the display of the plain-text description during user construction of the inquiry. This provides feedback to the user for improved construction of the inquiry.
US07877362B2
The invention provides a method and system for automatically aggregating data items and storage media and placing each in a container, based on a storage preferences. The items in the container are generally of a similar type or classification. The container may be tracked by the system instead of individually tracking and monitoring each of the data items and storage media contained in the container. The location of the container is tracked within the storage system and at offsite storage, for administrative, reporting or other uses.
US07877330B2
Access to selected content in different file formats can be managed by conducting, in a single purchase transaction, a user purchase of access rights that allow a user to acquire multiple copies of the same selected content in media files having different file formats. An authorization signal is communicated to a content provider or multiple content providers who did not conduct the purchase transaction. The authorization signal contains information that allows the content provider or the multiple content providers to authorize the user to acquire multiple copies of the same selected content in different file formats without requiring the user to conduct multiple transactions. Each copy of the selected content acquired from a content provider is in a media file having a different file format.
US07877329B2
A method of processing licensing keys includes specifying a program defining a set of executable instructions where different subsets of executable instructions define different products. A set of licensing keys are constructed. Each licensing key has a fixed number of symbols, where each symbol includes multiple bits. At least one symbol is configured to be mapped to at least two fields and at least one field is configured to be mapped to at least two symbols. Each field specifies a feature of a product defined by a subset of executable instructions of the program. The program and a first license key are distributed to a first end user, while the program and a second license key are distributed to a second end user. The first license key is processed to define features of a first product. The second license key is processed to define features of a second product.
US07877328B2
A communication system and so forth are provided by which registration or cancellation of a plurality of apparatus owned by a user can be executed efficiently. In the communication system, a content processing apparatus acquires a second source ID list of a content reproduction apparatus. If it is detected based on the second source ID list that the content reproduction apparatus is not yet registered in a management server and a recorder ID of the content processing apparatus is not yet registered in the second source ID list, the content processing apparatus recommends registration. If a registration instruction of the content reproduction apparatus is accepted, the content processing apparatus requests the management server to register the content reproduction apparatus. The content processing apparatus receives registration completion transmitted from the management server and adds a group ID stored in a first source ID list to the second source ID list of the content reproduction apparatus. If the registration instruction of the content reproduction apparatus into the management server is not accepted, then the content processing apparatus adds the recorder ID of the content processing apparatus to the second source ID list.
US07877325B2
A financial account issuer facilitating transactions between accounts is disclosed. The invention provides sellers with an irrevocable method of receiving funds from a purchaser and for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party. The invention also enables the allocation of a portion or all of a charge or loyalty points to different transaction accounts issued by different issuers, or to sub-accounts.
US07877321B2
A system and method for managing a construction payment process. One method embodying the invention can include evaluating financial risk associated with a construction project by electronically aggregating construction project data associated with participants in a construction project, the data aggregated from a software application that manages payment workflows for the construction project; establishing financial metrics based on the project data; and evaluating at least one of either the metrics or the project data to determine financial risk associated with the project.
US07877318B2
Preferred embodiments of the subject invention comprise: (a) electronically receiving securities order-related data regarding a set of securities market participants; (b) electronically storing the received order-related data regarding the set of securities market participants; (c) electronically receiving a securities order-related query (or order parameters) from a first securities market participant; (d) based on the order-related query (or order parameters) received from the first securities market participant and on the securities order-related data regarding the set of securities market participants, computing a dissemination list of securities market participants based on ranking likely contras by probability of execution; and (e) transmitting that dissemination list to an entity who has been granted the privilege of receiving such lists in exchange for being contractually bound to respect confidentiality of the dissemination list and to use the list only for the purpose of sending securities-related information to members of the list.
US07877313B2
A method of failure recovery is provided that includes providing an automatic failure recovery transaction in an auction application interacting with a network-based auction service. The network-based auction service has a forward-only process that is adapted to prevent roll-back to a process state at a time of a failure. If the failure occurs within the forward-only process, the method includes automatically conducting a roll-back to a beginning of the forward-only process by the auction application. A computer readable medium is provided that includes instructions adapted to execute a method for failure recovery.
US07877312B2
The present invention provides an apparatus and method of determining and displaying trading trends for an investment underlying one or more options wherein an opening value and a closing value for the underlying investment for two or more time intervals is obtained. An opening value trend using a market trend indicator and the opening values for the investment is calculated, and a closing value trend using the market trend indicator and the closing values for the underlying investment is calculated. A visual indicator comparing the opening value trend to the closing value trend for the underlying investment is then displayed. This method may be incorporated into a computer program embodied in a computer readable medium using code segments to accomplish the method described above.
US07877311B1
The present invention can provide a market analysis system which includes a computer processor, a computer readable storage medium, a database stored on the computer readable storage medium including a set of transaction data and a software program stored on the computer readable storage medium. The software program can be executable by the computer processor to receive a transaction from an electronic exchange, store the transaction in the database as an addition to the set of transaction data, define a standard pricing group from the set of transaction data, and apply a statistical analysis to the standard pricing group.
US07877292B2
A receipt issuance facility included in a receipt printer incorporated in a merchandise sales data processing apparatus is utilized in order to print a role assigned to a key together with a frame matched with the size of the key.
US07877288B1
A manufacturer's offer (“coupon”) redemption system used to validate and verify a manufacturer's offer and authenticate and substantiate an offer redemption transaction while minimizing fraud. The system is a closed system in a controlled environment. The system includes a central registry where manufacturers register their offers, a manufacturer's offer redemption terminal in communication with a retailer's point-of-sale (“POS”) system, and a manufacturer's offer clearinghouse. The POS system communicates with the registry to maintain an updated database of valid offers. The POS system communicates with the manufacturer's offer redemption terminal to validate and verify offers presented for redemption. The manufacturer's offer redemption terminal includes a means to generate an encrypted identifier (“token”) which is unique to each manufacturer's offer redemption transaction. The encrypted token is attached to the purchase event transaction log, and the purchase event transaction log (including the token) is transmitted to the manufacturer's offer clearinghouse. The clearinghouse independently recreates the token based on the offer redemption record and the purchase event transaction log and authenticates the transaction as having originated under the controlled conditions imposed by the system, which includes destruction of the redeemed offer.
US07877285B2
Demanufacturing workload is forecast based on anticipated volumes of equipment to be disassembled and/or salvaged, as well as equipment complexity factors determined by disassembly prototyping. Staffing requirements are unique for each customer and are based on the number of pounds needed to be worked during each month and the associated complexity (work content multiplier) for that customer's typical or expected returns.
US07877282B2
A planning system and method is disclosed. The planning system includes at least one business rule remote from at least one client, a meeting editor, and at least one tracker communicately connected to the meeting editor, wherein the at least one tracker tracks at least two data items selected from the group consisting of invitees to at least one of the at least one meetings, respondents to invitations to the meeting, at least one speaker of the meeting, at least one host of the meeting, finances of the meeting, and a venue of the meeting, and wherein the at least one tracker communicates the at least two data items with the meeting editor.
US07877276B2
A networked health-monitoring system configured to collect and process patient health-related data. A plurality of remote patient sites each includes at least one display, a data management unit for collecting patient health-related data, a memory, and stored program instructions for generating health-monitoring related information on the display. A central server connects to the data management unit at each patient site. The system transmits messages for display at the patient sites and at least one of these messages is a message selected by a health care professional.
US07877272B2
A system and method for diagnosis and treatment decisions based on information maximization is disclosed. Utilizing patient information as well as clinical records from other patients can reduce the uncertainty in both diagnosis and treatment options. The information maximization may consider additional data such as risk, cost, and comfort in making a proper medical decision.
US07877270B2
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a clinical information workflow profiling system including a workflow engine adapted to collect profiling data for a healthcare workflow task and a profiling processor adapted to analyze the profiling data to determine an alternative configuration of the healthcare workflow task.
US07877269B2
An Internet on-line insurance policy service system that facilitates real-time automated communication of policy information, adjustment of policy parameters, calculation and communication of resulting policy quotes, and implementation of policy changes, while obviating insurer personnel involvement and supervision of the communication. The system comprises a plurality of software modules relating to on-line real-time communication of existing policy information, testing of a wide range of variations in policy parameters, computing and communicating changes in policy premiums that would result from such variations, communicating desired changes in policy parameters and implementing desired policy changes. Other modules relate to communication of claims information and the providing of on-line forms.
US07877268B2
The invention is an effective solution to the medical non-compliance problem. Reducing patients' non-compliance offers them better health, longer life expectancy, and better quality of life. The solution offers these great benefits at a limited cost and can be applied to many diseases. The invention uses a dispensing scheme to help patients keep track of their medicine usage through a series of light-emitting diode (LED) alarm indicator signals and audio alarm indicator signals. If the patient is not following the treatment that was prescribed to him or her, the system has the ability to send patient compliance information over the telephone to a disease management system.
US07877263B2
In an audio signal processing procedure, auto-regressive (AR) modeling is used to create a residual signal from an input audio signal. The residual signal is further added to the input audio in order to produce a processed output audio signal. The AR modeling can be performed frame-by-frame or sample-by-sample employing frequency warped Burg's method.
US07877256B2
A time-synchronous lattice-constrained search algorithm is developed and used to process a linguistic model of speech that has a long-contextual-span capability. In the algorithm, hypotheses are represented as traces that include an indication of a current frame, previous frames and future frames. Each frame can include an associated linguistic unit such as a phone or units that are derived from a phone. Additionally, pruning strategies can be applied to speed up the search. Further, word-ending recombination methods are developed to speed up the computation. These methods can effectively deal with an exponentially increased search space.
US07877246B2
The invention relates to a method of performing an oilfield operation of an oilfield having at least one wellsite, each wellsite having a wellbore penetrating a subterranean formation for extracting fluid from an underground reservoir therein. The method includes determining a time-step for simulating the reservoir, the reservoir being represented as a plurality of gridded cells and being modeled as a multi-phase system using a plurality of partial differential equations, calculating a plurality of Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) conditions of the reservoir model corresponding to the time-step, the plurality of CFL conditions comprising a temperature CFL condition, a composition CFL condition, and a saturation CFL condition, simulating a first cell of the plurality of gridded cells with an Implicit Pressure, Explicit Saturations (IMPES) system, and simulating a second cell of the plurality of gridded cells with a Fully Implicit Method (FIM) system.
US07877243B2
A computer interface for use with a computer simulation system. The interface includes a first grip portion and a second grip portion pivotably coupled to the first grip portion. An actuator is coupled to at least one of the two grip portions and is configured to provide feedback to a user.
US07877238B2
A data classification supporting method capable of easily discriminating a cell to which unknown data belongs and cells similar to the unknown data from each other is obtained. This classification compares cell vector data of each cell with the unknown data, decides a cell having cell vector data closest to the unknown data and cells having cell vector data secondly to nthly close to the unknown data as a minimum cell and similar cells respectively and displays a minimum cell mark and similar cell marks indicating the minimum cell and the similar cells respectively on a classification map.
US07877234B1
A system and method of monitoring and analyzing a plurality of attributes for an alarm condition is disclosed. The attributes are processed and/or unprocessed values of sensed conditions of a collection of a statistically significant number of statistically similar components subjected to varying environmental conditions. The attribute values are used to compute the normal behaviors of some of the attributes and also used to infer parameters of a set of models. Relative probabilities of some attribute values are then computed and used along with the set of models to determine whether an alarm condition is met. The alarm conditions are used to prevent or reduce the impact of impending failure.
US07877229B2
A method and computer system for executing a program for calculating Load Enhancement Factor that includes the steps of obtaining coupon test data and storing the coupon test data on an information storage device. Analyzing the coupon test data for fit with a Weibull distribution and other analysis criteria and performing either a Modified Joint Weibull analysis or a Weibull Regression analysis or both a Modified Joint Weibull analysis and a Weibull Regression analysis with an accommodation in the analysis for scatter within the coupon testing data.
US07877221B2
A sense signal outputted from a sensor element and a reference voltage having a constant voltage level are selectively inputted to an amplifier, and amplified signals thereof are sequentially outputted as A/D-converted data by an A/D converter. An average of a predetermined number of A/D-converted data corresponding to the reference voltage is calculated, and a correction value is obtained by subtracting the average from one of the A/D-converted data corresponding to the reference voltage. Corrected data is obtained by subtracting the correction value from each A/D-converted data corresponding to the sense signal outputted from the sensor.
US07877210B2
A system, method, and computer program for detecting collisions in a three-dimension environment, comprising the steps of establishing a projection path along a translational path of a first object toward a second object; projecting a first object outline from said first object with a second object outline from said second object to obtain an intersection; calculating a collision along said translational path from said intersection of said first object outline and said second object outline; and checking for a static collision between said first object and said second object at an end of said translational path and appropriate means and computer-readable instructions.
US07877208B1
A system and method for implementing a low-power local-area network for use with a mobile terminal satellite modem. This low-power local-area network enables sensors on an asset to transmit sensor data to a mobile terminal affixed on the asset. The mobile terminal reports the sensor data along with asset position information to a centralized facility via a communications satellite.
US07877207B2
A method of obtaining data for use by a receiver of a satellite positioning system or a GNSS comprises deriving the data remotely from the receiver by a server (200), using meteorological information and a regional or global three dimensional map of grid points from which it computes tropospherical delays by ray tracing through the refractivity field derived from atmospheric measurements of pressure, temperature and water data content, such measurements being available from meteorological bodies. When used to enhance position determined by a user receiver that includes a non-meteorological, climate based model (130) giving zenith delays and means (130′) to map them to particular inclinations, the server also includes a copy of such non-meteorological model (230) and provides its ray traced delay values as zenith delays. The sets of zenith delay values for corresponding grid points are compared in the server (260) and modifications developed (preferably in fractional form) by which the non-meteorological delay values require correcting to be accurate. The correction sets are reduced by image compression techniques (270) and transmitted via the satellites (1101 etc) of the GNSS at low data rate to the user receiver, which receiver simply applies the corrections to the Zenith delays derived by its own model. If a user position is known, the server may derive accurate tropospheric delay values directly for the receiver position directly for transmission.
US07877202B1
A system and method for receiving a geocode request for a location including a textual description of the location, selecting a test for geocoding the location, geocoding the location using the selected test and determining a bounding area around the location indicating at least one maximum distance range from the location.
US07877201B2
A control system (18) and method for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a roll rate sensor (34) for generating a roll rate signal, a lateral acceleration sensor (32) for generating a lateral acceleration signal, a longitudinal acceleration sensor (36) for generating a longitudinal acceleration signal, and a yaw rate sensor (28) for generating a yaw rate signal. A safety device or system (44) and the sensors are coupled to a controller. The controller (26) determines an added mass and the height of the added mass on the vehicle, or a roll gradient, a roll acceleration coefficient, and/or a roll rate parameter that take into account the added mass and height from the roll rate, the lateral acceleration, the longitudinal acceleration, and the yaw rate of the vehicle, and controls the safety system in response thereto.
US07877199B2
A control system (18) and method for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a roll rate sensor (34) for generating a roll rate signal, a lateral acceleration sensor (32) for generating a lateral acceleration signal, a longitudinal acceleration sensor (36) for generating a longitudinal acceleration signal, and a yaw rate sensor (28) for generating a yaw rate signal. A safety device or system (44) and the sensors are coupled to a controller. The controller (26) determines an added mass and the height of the added mass on the vehicle, or a roll gradient, a roll acceleration coefficient, and/or a roll rate parameter that take into account the added mass and height from the roll rate, the lateral acceleration, the longitudinal acceleration, and the yaw rate of the vehicle, and controls the safety system in response thereto.
US07877198B2
A system and method of identify fuel savings opportunity in a fleet of vehicles based on a determination of fuel consumption due to modifiable use conditions is described. Modifiable use conditions, such as unauthorized usage, speeding and excessive idling, which represent opportunities for fuel savings are identified and fuel consumption based on the modifiable use conditions is determined. A user-defined statistical metric for the fleet, or a portion of the fleet, can be determined for each of the modifiable use conditions evaluated. Fuel consumption of an individual vehicle, or a group of vehicles, resulting from modifiable use conditions can be compared with a larger group of vehicle, or the fleet, to determine vehicles which correspond to a metric of the fleet. Fleet managers can use this information to modify the use conditions of individual or group of vehicles to provide fuel savings for the fleet.
US07877193B2
A method for operating a shutoff device for a device, in particular an internal combustion engine and/or an electric machine, in which an operating element for initiating a shutoff operation is provided, and in which a transmission path is provided via which a shutoff signal is transmitted from the operating element to the device in order to deactivate the device. The shutoff device is checked for proper functioning at least in part automatically, by automatically transmitting a shutoff signal, in particular from the operating element via the transmission path to the device.
US07877186B2
To detect a failure of a compressed air consumer circuit in a compressed air system for vehicles, pressure is continuously measured in compressed air consumer circuits and evaluated in an electronic control unit which compares the pressure values and/or determined negative pressure gradients of the compressed air consumer circuits with a respective threshold value and shuts off an air-consumer circuit if the pressure values and/or negative pressure gradients thereof satisfy a circuit-failure criterion. The circuit-failure criterion is satisfied when the pressure values and/or pressure gradients are below the respective threshold value for a time equal to or longer than the time of a dynamic pressure change or of a dynamic pressure collapse.
US07877180B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for the detection of conditions indicative of a wind pressure pulsation within the passenger cabin of a vehicle, and for the reduction of the intensity of the pressure pulsation via automatic window repositioning. The apparatus comprises vehicle sensors for detection of a pressure pulsation condition, controllers to process sensor data and issue commands, and power-operated vehicle windows.
US07877176B2
A system and method for telltale reset from a remote processing center. A method includes receiving a telltale indication 200, establishing communication with the remote processing center through a telematics device 202, and resetting the telltale indication from the remote processing center through the telematics device 204.
US07877174B2
An automatic speed control system that provides desired watercraft velocity over land. The coupled algorithms correct engine speed and torque using inertia based measurements, GPS, and tachometer measurements, and the corrections are augmented and enhanced by velocity/speed and torque/speed relationships that are dynamically and adaptively programmed with real-time data collected during replicated operations of the watercraft in specified conditions.
US07877173B2
A method and apparatus for determining the attitude of a satellite using crosslink information is disclosed. The method and apparatus integrates data from the crosslinks with data available from other sources including, for example, star sensors, inertial sensors, and earth limb sensors to derive an accurate estimate of the satellite attitude, even in harsh nuclear environments.
US07877168B1
An evapotranspiration (ET) unit includes a first communication link, a processor and a second communication link. The first communication link receives actual ET data from a plurality of environmental sensors. The processor calculates changes to a set of watering schedules of a predetermined watering program based on the actual ET data. The changes can increase or decrease the frequency and/or length of ON times for selected stations. The second communication link transmits the changes to a separate irrigation controller.
US07877158B2
The method was tackled with picking line for generating strip steel for the automobile industry. The initial conditions to which the tandem-type mill coupled with picking line executed using the installation is exposed. The installation receives an input in the form of human resources, energy, media, raw materials, semifinished product, etc., which is converted by the installation into output. Since the plant is a hot rolling mill, the output is in the form of hot rolled strips. The different components of the input can be assigned to the factor markets that are relevant to the real installation. The different components of the output can further be assigned to the product markets that are relevant to the real installation.
US07877138B2
An implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (ICD) includes an Anti-Tachycardia Pacing Before Charge (ATP-BC) mode according to which one or more high-voltage capacitors for storing defibrillation energy are charged in preparation of delivering a defibrillation shock only if a ventricular tachycardia (VT) sustains after an ATP delivery. Fast ATP delivery and effect verification methods are applied to avoid significant delay in delivering the defibrillation shock when found necessary to terminate the VT. A switch is provided such that a user decides whether to activate the ATP-BC mode or to deliver the defibrillation shock without delivering the ATP.
US07877129B2
An RF receiving means, which comprise respective at least three RF receiving coils (203, 201 (or 202), 204), (205, 202 (or 201), 206), (207, 201 (or 202), 208) disposed in at least two orthogonal directions (x, y, z), are set to a patient 209, any one direction (x) of the two directions is set as a phase encoding direction, magnetic resonance signals are measured by executing a pulse sequence while thinning phase encoding steps, and the aliasing of an image is eliminated by an arithmetic operation executed using the magnetic resonance signals measured by at least the three RF receiving coils (205, 202 (or 201), 206) disposed in the thus set phase encoding direction and using the sensitivity distributions of the respective RF receiving coils.
US07877128B2
A method for pre-planning and performing a cardiac procedure on a heart includes acquiring an image or map of the heart; displaying the image or map of the heart; marking at least one feature on the image or map; calculating dimensions of the at least one feature; identifying one or more points on or within the heart for treatment; determining paths to the one or more points on or within the heart for treatment; simulating insertion of a sheath into the heart; simulating insertion of a medical device through the sheath and within the heart; verifying that the one or more points on or within the heart can be accessed for treatment; and performing a medical procedure on or within the heart.
US07877124B2
A hands-free mobile phone includes a housing and a hands-free unit. The housing defines two outer slide channels and two inner slide channels inside the corresponding outer slide channels. Each outer slide channel includes an access hole, a pivot hole, and a coupling passage communicating the access hole with the pivot hole. Two pivot portions are formed on the hands-free unit. Each pivot portion includes a pivot shaft and a plugging end formed on the pivot shaft. The plugging ends of the pivot portions are respectively inserted in the inner slide channels through the access holes of the corresponding outer slide channels and the pivot shafts thereof are respectively placed in the corresponding access holes and slid into the pivot holes of the outer slide channels through the corresponding coupling passages. Thus, the hands-free unit is pivotably secured to the housing via pivot of the pivot portions.
US07877123B2
A method and apparatus for internal RF signal transmission between the fixed base portion and the sliding portion of a mobile communication terminal using capacitive coupling are disclosed. The method and apparatus provide internal RF signal transmission when the sliding portion is open (SO) and when the sliding portion is closed (SC). The method for internal RF signal transmission in a mobile communication terminal includes a first capacitor plate for forming a first capacitor when the two parts are at a first position relative to each other and for forming a second capacitor when the two parts are at a second position relative to each other.
US07877122B2
In a folding mobile phone (folding portable electronic device), a cam mechanism (support mechanism) includes a first guide groove, a second guide groove, a first guide pin engaged into the first guide groove, a second guide pin engaged into the second guide groove, and a link member connecting the first and second guide pins. The cam mechanism supports a liquid crystal display part to allow the liquid crystal display part to turn clockwise and counterclockwise as viewed from the front, thereby allowing the liquid crystal display part to be changed between a vertical position and a horizontal position. Furthermore, the cam mechanism includes an urging mechanism urging the second guide pin to allow the liquid crystal display part to reach the vertical or horizontal position in either turning direction.
US07877115B2
A modular wireless headset to support voice communications that includes a wireless microphone, a wireless earpiece, and a tether. Both the wireless microphone and wireless earpiece have receptacles operable to receive the tether and one or both of the wireless microphone and wireless earpiece have portable power supplies operable to power the containing module. The tether allows the wireless earpiece or wireless microphone to provide power to operate and/or recharge the microphone or wireless earpiece when the wireless microphone or wireless earpiece is coupled with the tether.
US07877114B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes: a detection unit which detects whether the display device is attached to the electronic device; a wireless communication unit capable of simultaneously advancing information communication via wireless communication channel with a plurality of parties containing transmission of video information to the display device; a wired communication unit which transmits video information to the display device via a wired communication channel when the detection unit detects that the display device is attached to the electronic device; a acquisition unit acquires the device information assigned to the display device via the wired communication channel from the display device when the detection unit detects that the display device is attached to the electronic device; and a communication control unit which controlling the wireless communication unit to preferentially conduct information communication addressed to the device information acquired by the acquisition unit.
US07877106B2
Systems and methods are provided for delivering both PMP communications, for example standard cellular communications via a base station, and also delivering P2P communications, for example, communications between two mobile stations, using the same spectral resources for both types of communication.
US07877101B1
A wireless network device comprises a first RF transceiver module and a control module. The first RF transceiver module transmits a first data frame to a second RF transceiver module and receives a first acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the second RF transceiver module after a first delay period. The first RF transceiver module transmits a second data frame to the second RF transceiver module and receives the second ACK frame from the second RF transceiver module after a second delay period. The control module communicates with the first RF transceiver module and determines a total delay period based on the first and the second delay times. The control module determines an actual delay period between the first and the second RF transceiver modules based on the total delay period.
US07877096B2
A computer-based program performs calculations to analyze, vary, test, manage, and/or improve the performance of channels and/or frequencies in the communication spectrum. The program varies parameters of a point of communication, such as the location, transmission power, channel frequency, antenna height, and the like, alone or in combination, to measure, test, and/or evaluate which parameter changes increase the market coverage of a target market or area. In some scenarios, changes to one point of communication cause the regulations governing the broadcast relationship between one or more nearby points of communication to be violated. When this occurs, the program determines which of the parameters, such as the location, transmission power, channel and/or frequency, antenna height, and the like, alone or in combination, of the point of communication interfering with the increased market coverage scenario to vary to overcome the conflict with communications and/or regulatory law. In addition, the program can determine simultaneously which of the parameters of multiple points of communication to vary to overcome the conflict with communications and/or regulatory law. The program outputs multiple solutions with varying degrees of difficulty and varying amounts of performance improvement.
US07877095B2
A method of adapting a radio network model to conditions of a real radio network consists of the following steps: defining different measuring positions; carrying out measurements of variables at the different measuring positions, thereby generating measured data; providing position-dependent modelling values, using the measured data for the modelling values from the real radio network obtained at the measuring positions; setting a fine grid in a radio cell, defining small area portions, wherein one or more of the modelling values is attributed to each area portion by the radio network model. Mathematical operations are then established for modifying the modelling values of all area portions of the fine grid by adapting the modelling values to the measured data. In this manner, the mathematical operations are for each area portion and directly dependent on the measured data and the position of the respective area portions.
US07877090B2
In one embodiment, a method of allowing a user to roam from one wireless network and interact with an Internet-based application is disclosed. The method comprises establishing a connection between a wireless mobile device and a first wireless network, wherein the connection allows the wireless mobile device to interact with an Internet-based application; tracking a state of interaction between the wireless mobile device and the Internet-based application; terminating the connection between the wireless mobile device and the first wireless network; establishing a connection between the wireless mobile device and a second wireless network; and sending, to the Internet-based application, data representing a state of interaction of the wireless mobile device with the Internet-based application prior to terminating the connection between the wireless mobile device and the first wireless network.
US07877088B2
System and method for dynamically configuring wireless network geographic coverage or service levels
A system and a method for facilitating communication between a remote station and a service network are disclosed. A remote station is associated with a first communicator configured to communicate over a first communication network and a second communicator configured to communicate over a second communication network. A communication controller associated with the remote station and coupled with the first communicator and the second communicator is operable to transmit a first set of signals using the first communicator a second set of signals using the second communicator. A mobile network access point is directable to within a communication range of the second communicator of the remote station when the remote station is outside of an existing communication range of the second communication network and the first set of signals includes a resource request for the second communication network.
US07877086B2
Gathering location information from a first wireless network to determine whether to anchor a communication session in a second wireless network, a mobile node capable of communicating with both the first wireless network and the second wireless network, includes receiving location information from the first wireless network as the mobile node moves through one or more service areas of the first wireless network. It is determined whether a triggering event occurs. If the triggering event occurs, the location information is stored to determine whether to anchor a session in the second wireless network.
US07877076B2
An error calculation circuit used for compensating a carrier leak at an output signal of a mixer has a sign extraction unit for extracting the sign of a baseband signal which is applied to the mixer, an envelope detecting unit for performing envelope detection on the output signal of the mixer, and a signal processing unit for generating an error compensation signal to compensate the carrier leak based on the result of the sign extraction and envelope detection. The signal processing unit preferably calculates the compensation signal by using multiplication of the sign of the baseband signal by an amplitude of the envelope.
US07877073B2
A multi-channel superheterodyne receiver employs a low intermediate frequency (IF) and both high-side injection and low-side injection of a selected local oscillator (LO) signal into the mixer in order to position image frequencies outside the passband of a single image reject filter. Any channel that falls within a used portion of the image reject filter passband can be downconverted with image rejection if the utilized bandwidth portion is no greater than about 4 times the IF minus the bandwidth of a channel in the filter passband. Low side injection is used for channels falling within the lower half of the passband of the image reject filter, while high-side injection is used for channels falling within the upper half thereof. The image always remains outside the passband and the receiver can accommodate a greatly increased number of channels.
US07877061B2
A method reduces channel interference in a communication system that includes base stations and terminal stations with each base station having a plurality of sectors, each sector having a channel, and with each terminal station associated with a sector of a base station. A first set of terminal stations associated with a first sector that may potentially interfere with a second set of terminal stations associated with a second sector is determined. A first frequency sub-channel for use by the first set of terminal stations is selected and a second frequency sub-channel for use by the second set of terminal stations is selected. Transmissions by the first set of terminal stations are coordinated with transmissions by the second set of terminal stations, thereby reducing channel interference between the terminal stations of the first set and the terminal stations of the second set, as seen by a base station in the first or second sector.
US07877055B2
A paper type determination device of the invention drives plural light emitting points different from one another and having sequentially increasing distances from a reference point to emit light in such a manner that each is identified for irradiating one surface of a sheet of paper subjected to determination. A photodetection device set at a specific detection field of view having the center at the reference point is disposed on the other surface side of the sheet of paper, and it receives light having passed through the sheet of paper from the respective light emitting points at positions on inside and outside of the detection field of view to detect intensity of light for each light emitting point. A diffusing characteristic of the sheet of paper is obtained on the basis of the intensity of light from each light emitting point detected by the photodetection device, and a paper type is determined on the basis of the diffusing characteristic.
US07877053B2
Adjustable gloss control method with different substrates and 3-D image effect with adjustable gloss
By using a high or low viscosity transparent toner, with respect to the other color toners, and different amounts of transparent toner lay-down, the gloss of an image printed by an electrophotographic device may be adjusted. By also applying the transparent toner as a negative mask, the differential gloss of the image may be reduced while still adjusting the gloss of certain portions of the image. Further, because different gloss levels may appear different at different viewing angles, transparent toner may be laid down to encode a transparent image within the image being printed. Such a transparent image may be useful as, for example, an authentication means for a document. Additionally, by varying the gloss levels on particular aspects of a printed image, multiple images of different gloss levels, which are prominent at different viewing angles can be made, thereby, a three-dimensional image effect can be achieved on the printed page.
US07877050B2
An improved flag-actuator (actuator) is provided for use in an electrophotographic marking system. This actuator is reversible providing sides 1 and 2, thereby about doubling the useful life of the actuator. Each side 1 and 2 is mounted at different positions on a shaft and permits a much wider range of actuator adjustment than prior art units. Depending upon a tolerance stack-up within the marking system, the user can determine whether to use either side 1 or side 2. The use of this reversible asymmetrical and eccentric actuator allows for the setting of start actuation for nearly double the tolerance stack-up.
US07877049B2
An image forming apparatus includes a vibration detecting sensor. If the vibration detecting sensor detects a vibration at or above a defined level, a toner image for detection is formed, and image forming conditions are controlled based on detection results of the formed toner image.
US07877048B2
An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a first photoconductive member used during monochrome printing; a plurality of second photoconductive members used together with the first photoconductive member during full-color printing and arranged in parallel to the first photoconductive member; a transfer belt that forms a loop-like moving path; a first transfer roller and a plurality of second transfer rollers provided on an inner peripheral side of the transfer belt; and a link member that shifts, during the full-color printing, the second transfer rollers to positions where the second transfer rollers are brought into press contact with the respective second photoconductive members via the transfer belt and shifts, during the monochrome printing, the second transfer rollers to positions where respective separations between an inner peripheral surface of the transfer belt and the respective second transfer rollers are substantially identical.
US07877041B2
The image forming apparatus including an exposure unit that exposes an image bearing member by a laser beam, a first side plate and a second side plate facing with each other, and a first support member, a second support member, and a third support member connecting the first side plate and the second side plate to each other, wherein the first side plate and the second side plate and the first support member, the second support member, and the third support member form a substantially closed space, with said exposure unit being arranged in the closed space, and wherein a section of the closed space on a plane parallel to the first side plate and the second side plate has a substantially triangular shape. It achieves preventing the displacement of an optical component attributable to an increase in size of the image forming apparatus main body and twisting of side plates.
US07877040B2
A supporting apparatus for supporting a movable member such that the movable member is movable along a predetermined path. The apparatus includes a main frame which defines a reference plane parallel to the predetermined path; at least one base member which is supported by the main frame and which supports the movable member such that the movable member is movable on the at least one base member along the predetermined path; at least one positioning device which positions the at least one base member relative to the main frame in at least one first direction parallel to the reference plane and a second direction perpendicular to the reference plane, such that the at least one base member is permitted to be displaced relative to the main frame in a third direction opposite to the second direction; and at least one biasing device which biases the at least one base member toward the main frame in at least the second direction.
US07877035B2
An electronic device includes: a first electrical component; a second electrical component; a drive control unit that controls a driving of the second electrical component; and a power supply unit that supplies power to the first electrical component, wherein the drive control unit is connected via the first electrical component to the power supply unit to control the driving of the second electrical component by power supplied from the first electrical component.
US07877031B2
An image forming apparatus capable of setting a criterion individually for respective image forming apparatuses, which is used in determining whether or not a developer is properly supplied to a developing unit, thereby stabilizing a developer toner density. With a shutter member closed, reflection light from a reflection sheet is received by a toner density detection sensor, and an output voltage is stored in a memory. After the shutter member is opened, reflection light from a developing sleeve is received by the sensor, and an output voltage is stored in the memory. If an amount of change in voltage per unit toner density calculated based on the output voltages does not fall within a predetermined range, an operation of a main unit of the image forming apparatus is stopped. If the amount of voltage change falls within the predetermined range, the amount of voltage change is stored in the memory.
US07877028B2
In the image forming apparatus according to the invention, a fixer fixes toner on the sheet and presses the sheet, and a media sensor measures a thickness of the sheet before pressurization and a thickness of the sheet after pressurization. Then, by calculating an amount of heat used if the fixer fixes the toner on the sheet on the basis of the measurement result, a control unit is able to control the temperature of the fixer on the basis of the calculated amount of heat. In this manner, it is possible to appropriately calculate an amount of heat per unit area required to fix toner on the sheet.
US07877025B2
I branch is provided with a first interferometer, a first balanced optical detector, and a first data recovery circuit. Q branch is provided with a second interferometer, a second balanced optical detector and a second data recovery circuit. In I branch, a mixer multiples input signal of the first data recovery circuit with output signal of the second recovery circuit. An averaging circuit averages output signal of the mixer. In Q branch, a mixer multiples input signal of the second data recovery circuit with output signal of the first recovery circuit. An averaging circuit averages output signal of the mixer. A first phase control apparatus controls the phase of a phase shifter comprised in the first interferometer based on the output signal of the averaging circuit. A second phase control apparatus, in the same manner, controls the phase of a phase shifter comprised in the second interferometer.
US07877020B1
In one of many possible implementations and embodiments, a method is provided for providing linearized phase modulation and demodulation in an RF-photonic link. This includes phase modulating a photonic carrier signal in a signal arm using the RF input and using the RF output in a negative feedback phase tracking loop to modulate either the RF input modulated carrier signal in the signal arm, or a signal in a local oscillator arm. Optical signals from the signal arm and the local oscillator arm are optically coupled. The optically coupled signals are photodetected and differentally combined. The differentially combined signals are amplified to provide the RF output signal. In some implementations, the photonic carrier signal is suppressed prior to photodetection. Further, in some implementations a small portion of the local oscillator signal may be coupled with the carrier suppressed optical signal.
US07877019B2
A receiver for a differentially phase shift keying formatted optical signal, such as an RZ-DPSK formatted optical signal. Dither control loops are provided for controlling path length in a demodulator and/or for controlling the center wavelength of an optical band pass filter. A feedback loop is provided for controlling the gain of a pre-amplifier, and a method of protecting against optical transients by disabling a pre-amplifier is also provided. A preset delay may be provided to compensate for the differential delay in paths associated with the demodulator arms. When the signal is an RZ-DPSK modulated signal, a clock for retiming data from the optical signal may be derived from a signal on the data path.
US07876997B2
A user photographs an area including a desired portion of a television program schedule (with G-code numbers) in a newspaper, and the like, with a digital camera functional portion (219) of a mobile telephone device (2). A CPU (209) performs, for example, a data transmission/reception by a mobile telephone functional portion (231) (a communication process, an Internet connection process, electronic mail transmission and reception processes), and control of each of functional portions based on received data. Moreover, the CPU (209) performs a character recognition process on an image photographed with the digital camera functional portion (219) and on an image received by electronic mail by the mobile telephone functional portion (231), and executes a video recording reservation process based on the G-code number obtained by the recognition process.
US07876986B2
Planar AWG circuits and systems are disclosed that use air trench bends and shared MMI slabs to increase planar circuit compactness.
US07876981B2
An optical switch comprises a plurality of input ports and a plurality of out port ports; a plurality of displaceable optical elements for directing beams from a selected input to a selected output; wherein the number of displaceable elements substantially corresponds to either the number of input ports or the number of output ports.
US07876979B2
The resolution-converting method comprises steps of applying an edge-directed interpolation to an input image and producing an intermediate image; converting a sampling rate with respect to the intermediate image and producing an output image having a predetermined resolution; and improving sharpness of the produced output image. The present invention prevents image-quality degradation factors that can occur in the conventional resolution-converting method as well as obtains an output image having a resolution of a desired size.
US07876977B2
A method of rotating a digital image includes performing a first pass to process a selected image tile of a source image. The first pass includes copying a set of pixels of the selected image tile from a first memory to a processor memory, where the set of pixels comprises a portion of the selected image tile. The first pass further includes grouping the set of pixels into blocks of pixels and writing each of the blocks of pixels to a memory location. The method further includes repeating the first pass until each of the pixels of the selected image tile is processed, performing a second pass to process the blocks of pixels, and repeating the second pass until each of the blocks of pixels is processed. The second pass includes copying blocks of pixels, regrouping the blocks of pixels, and writing the regrouped pixels to a destination image location.
US07876974B2
The present invention provides an image processing method. In one embodiment, the method provides discontinuity-preserving image smoothing and segmentation, noise reduction, reduction of image variations particularly those variations caused by illumination conditions, exposure compensation, and dynamic range compression. The present invention also provides an electronic image sensor that is able to detect high dynamic range optical images and produce electronic images with reduced dynamic range.
US07876963B2
A symbol recognition method for increasing the symbol recognition speed by the processor includes the steps of obtaining a pixel density value and an aspect ratio of the symbol image. Then, the center-point value and the corresponding radius value are obtained by a partitional clustering algorithm. In sequence, a pixel density value and the aspect ratio of the under recognized image are obtained, and compared with the values of the symbol image to determine whether the under recognized image is a single symbol image or not.
US07876961B2
A character-edge detecting unit detects a character edge area in an image. A character-inside-area detecting unit detects a character inside area in the image. A density-information detecting unit detects density information in the image. An image processing unit executes a predetermined image processing according to results of detecting the character edge area, the character inside area, and the density information. The image processing unit applies different image processings or different image processing parameters to the character inside area based on the density information.
US07876959B2
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for detection of text in an image using an initial text classification result and a verification process. In particular, a support region of a candidate text pixel in a text-candidate map may be expanded to produce a revised text-candidate map. Pictorial regions in the image may be discriminated based on an entropy measure using masking and the revised text-candidate map, and the revised text-candidate map may be refined based on the pictorial regions.
US07876953B2
An apparatus, method, and medium displaying a stereo image compensates for errors between a left image and a right image to reduce eye fatigue experienced by a user. The apparatus includes a feature-point extractor to extract feature points of graphics objects included in a left image and a right image, of a stereo image, a representative-vector determiner to determine a representative vector among vectors between a predetermined point and the feature points, an error-correction unit to correct at least one of a vertical error and a rotation error between the left image and the right image using a difference between the representative vector determined in the left image and the representative vector determined in the right image, and a display unit to display the left image and the right image for which at least one of the vertical error and the rotation error has been corrected.
US07876951B2
A machine for inspecting the finish of a glass container rotating at an inspection station. A pair of light sources, which are repeatedly turned on and off, have horizontal light axes which are orthogonally related and intersect the container axis. The light sources illuminate the container finish to identify checks. The illuminated checks are imaged by a camera which has a camera axis coincident with the container axis and the intersecting light axes. The camera axis makes an angle of 45 degrees with both light axes and the horizontal. The camera is exposed through multiple images.
US07876944B2
The invention provides improvements in reconstructive imaging of the type in which a volume is reconstructed from a series of measured projection images (or other two-dimensional representations) by utilizing the capabilities of graphics processing units (GPUs). In one aspect, the invention configures a GPU to reconstruct a volume by initializing an estimated density distribution of that volume to arbitrary values in a three-dimensional voxel-based matrix and, then, determining the actual density distribution iteratively by, for each of the measured projections, (a) forward-projecting the estimated volume computationally and comparing the forward-projection with the measured projection, (b) generating a correction term for each pixel in the forward-projection based on that comparison, and (c) back-projecting the correction term for each pixel in the forward-projection onto all voxels of the volume that were mapped into that pixel in the forward-projection.
US07876943B2
According to an aspect of the invention, a method for training a classifier for classifying candidate regions in computer aided diagnosis of digital medical images includes providing a training set of annotated images, each image including one or more candidate regions that have been identified as suspicious, deriving a set of descriptive feature vectors, where each candidate region is associated with a feature vector. A subset of the features are conditionally dependent, and the remaining features are conditionally independent. The conditionally independent features are used to train a naïve Bayes classifier that classifies the candidate regions as lesion or non-lesion. A joint probability distribution that models the conditionally dependent features, and a prior-odds probability ratio of a candidate region being associated with a lesion are determined from the training images. A new classifier is formed from the naïve Bayes classifier, the joint probability distribution, and the prior-odds probability ratio.
US07876941B2
A method and system for reconstructing PET image data from a cylindrical PET scanner by incorporation of axial system response. The method includes the steps of: assuming the decomposition of axial components into individual line-of-response (LOR) contributions, approximating each LOR spreading in image space as depth-independent, implementing each LOR response, combining the LORs to produce large span projection data, implementing the back projector as a transposed matrix, and assembling the LOR projections and spans for each azimuthal angle.
US07876940B2
The present invention provides a universal and centralized image (e.g., medical, bio-molecular, etc.) processing system platform. The invention permits sharing both computation and visualization across a single universal platform, thus allowing for sharing of computing resources and visualization of images on a variety of imaging (client) devices without high-performance graphical display cards. In a typical embodiment a (e.g., medical) image 2D linear registration algorithm is implemented on a Cell Broadband Engine processor, which has nine processor cores on a chip and has a 4-way SIMD unit for each core.
US07876939B2
A body part is scanned to produce a first set of imaging data. A target lesion in the imaging data is identified. The body part is rescanned at a subsequent time so as to produce a second set of imaging data. The target lesion is identified in the second set of imaging data and the size of the target lesion is measured in the first and second sets of imaging data to determine two apparent image volumes corresponding to the first and second sets of imaging data. A change in size is estimated by comparing the first and second apparent lesion sizes. A variance on the change in size is estimated so as to determine a bound on the change in size measurement.
US07876937B2
A method for determining a location of an object in a radiographic image by segmentation of a region in the image comprises the steps of: determining a first image intensity that is characteristic of high image intensities in the region; determining a second image intensity that is characteristic of low image intensities outside of the region; and determining if a pixel is added to or removed from the region based on the similarity of the pixel's intensity to the first and second intensity.
US07876931B2
A method of automatically recognizing a human face includes developing a three-dimensional model of a face; and generating a number of two-dimensional images based on the three-dimensional model. The generated two-dimensional images are then enrolled in a database and searched against an input image to identifying the face of the input image.
US07876917B2
The present invention relates to an electromagnetically-countered system including at least one wave source irradiating harmful electromagnetic waves and at least one counter unit emitting counter electromagnetic waves for countering the harmful waves by such counter waves. More particularly, the present invention relates to generic counter units of electromagnetically-countered systems and to various mechanisms for countering the harmful waves by the counter units such as, e.g., by matching configurations of the counter units with those of the wave sources, matching shapes of such counter waves with shapes of the harmful waves, and the like. The present invention also relates to various methods of countering the harmful waves with the counter waves by such source matching or wave matching and various methods of providing the counter units as well as counter waves. The present invention further relates to various processes for providing such systems, such counter units thereof, and the like. The present invention relates to various electric and/or magnetic shields which may be used alone or in conjunction with such counter units to minimize irradiation of the harmful waves from the system.
US07876913B2
Gain characteristics depending on the frequency of a reference signal from speakers to a passenger position in a motor vehicle, i.e., gain characteristics which are an inversion of vehicle cabin sound field characteristics, are set in a first acoustic corrector. At the passenger position, a gain characteristic curve that is flat at various frequencies is achieved to prevent gain peaks and dips from occurring at the passenger position. A sound effect generated at the passenger position is made linear depending on the state of a noise source, or more specifically, a noise source caused by an accelerating action on the motor vehicle.
US07876911B2
A headphone driver includes a driver module for generating a plurality of headphone driver signals including a filtered stereo sum signal.
US07876909B2
A circuit, method, and system for producing artificial ambience effect for an input audio signal, mono, stereo, or surround. The ambience effect enhances artificial reverberation, replaces artificial reverberation, or synthesizes extra audio channels, such as surround channels. The circuit may include a transient reduction module and a reverberation filter. The transient reduction module may be adapted to reduce transients in an input audio signal of one or more channels. The reverberation filter maybe adapted to receive a transient-reduced signal of one or more channels corresponding to the transient-reduced signal.
US07876907B2
Characteristic amounts in each small region of audio signals transmitted in the working system and the standby system are extracted by characteristic amount calculators 6-1, 6-2. A characteristic amount comparator 7 compares the characteristic amounts and judges occurrence of fault of a fault. Characteristic amount difference calculators 9-1, 9-2, ∥D∥ comparator 10, and faulty system judging unit 11 judges the system having a fault. Majority decision processor 12 and significance judging unit 13 enhance the reliability of the judgement. Delay difference of audio signals between systems is roughly detected by sub-sampling audio signals of two systems and comparing them, and then accurately detected without sub-sampling. Delay difference between audio signals is adjusted by the detected delay difference.
US07876902B2
Software updates remedy vulnerabilities in a computer program that has been distributed and installed on a plurality of computers. The software updates are distributed in encrypted form, and then, after the encrypted update has been delivered to a sufficient number of machines, the decryption key for the update is delivered. Since the key is relatively small, it can be distributed to a large number of machines very quickly, thereby reducing the amount of time between when the update is first known to the public, and the time at which all or most machines have installed the update to protect against the vulnerability.
US07876901B2
An alternative design is given for an optimized quantum cryptographic entangling probe for attacking the BB84 protocol of quantum key distribution. The initial state of the probe has a simpler analytical dependence on the set error rate to be induced by the probe than in the earlier design. The new device yields maximum information to the probe for a full range of induced error rates. As in the earlier design, the probe contains a single CNOT gate which produces the optimum entanglement between the BB84 signal states and the correlated probe states.
US07876892B1
There is provided a method for use by an echo canceller to cancel a far echo at a variable delay and a near echo at a fixed delay. The method comprises constructing an echo signal model based on an incoming signal, determining a variable echo delay for a far echo caused by a far echo source, determining a fixed echo delay for a near echo caused by a near echo source, subtracting the echo signal model from an outgoing signal at a window placed around the variable echo delay to cancel far echo, e.g. when the echo canceller determines existence of the far echo, and subtracting the echo signal model from the outgoing signal at a window placed around the fixed echo delay to cancel near echo, e.g. regardless of existence of the near echo, wherein the fixed echo delay is smaller than the variable echo delay.
US07876888B2
Communication systems and methods are described that enable mobile devices to route telephone calls via an enterprise telephone system. The communication system is configured to receive via a data channel a request from the mobile device. The mobile device corresponds to a user making a call. The server receiving the request includes a private branch exchange (PBX) and one or more other servers hosted by or coupled to the enterprise. A first call leg is initiated over a first voice channel in response to the request. The first call leg is coupled to the server and mobile device. A second call leg is initiated over a second voice channel, and the second call leg is coupled to the server and a client device corresponding to an intended call recipient. A voice conference call is formed between the mobile device and client device by joining the first and second call legs.
US07876886B2
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method. The method includes assigning a unique telephone number to an advertiser; providing an advertisement on a media channel on behalf of the advertiser, the advertisement including one of the unique telephone number and a reference to the unique telephone number; monitoring telephone calls to the unique telephone number; and billing the advertiser for telephone calls to the unique telephone number in accordance with a predefined model.
US07876885B2
A method for processing a request from a first terminal to establish a communication session between the first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal and the second terminal being operable to communicate via a telecommunication network, the method comprising: receiving at the telecommunication network a request from the first terminal to establish a communication session with the second terminal; determining whether the second terminal is available to support the communication session; and if the second terminal is determined not to be available to support the communication session, transmitting to the first terminal the address of a data set corresponding to the second terminal.
US07876883B2
A conical anode X-ray source with a spot size approximately one tenth of the size of existing mammography devices. The source produces the same or higher radiance than the prior art. It also produces almost no high-energy Bremstrahlung. The electron beam is directed into a conical anode so that it strikes the reflecting surface at an angle which produces total internal reflection. The X-rays emitted via the reflection would ordinarily exit the small end of the conical anode in a diverging conical pattern—producing an undesirable “ring” configuration at the image plane. A homogenizing optic is therefore preferably added to the small end of the conical anode. The homogenizing optic is sized to reflect the X-rays emerging from the conical anode and thereby create a uniform “spot” source at the far end of the homogenizing optic.
US07876875B2
Computed tomography (CT) systems and related methods involving multi-target inspection are provided are provided. In this regard, a representative method includes: simultaneously directing X-rays toward multiple targets from an X-ray source; during the directing of the X-rays, independently reorienting the targets with respect to the X-ray source; and obtaining information corresponding to attenuation of the X-rays attributable to the multiple targets for producing computed tomography images of the targets.
US07876866B1
A method and apparatus are provided for reducing, and preferably substantially eliminating, data-pattern autocorrelations found in digital communication systems. The method employed is referred to as Data Subset Selection (DSS) and is implemented in the form of DSS engine. Autocorrelations in the data-pattern can cause many digital adaptive systems to converge to an incorrect solution. For example, the LMS method, which is often used in adaptive filtering applications, can converge to an incorrect set of filter coefficients in the presence of data-pattern autocorrelations. Digital timing recovery methods are also susceptible. Other impairments that result from data-pattern autocorrelations include increased convergence time and increased steady-state chatter. DSS reduces, and preferably substantially eliminates, data-pattern autocorrelations by selecting a subset of the data stream that either demonstrates smaller autocorrelations or no autocorrelations, thus improving the performance of the aforementioned digital adaptive systems.
US07876863B2
A method for determining timing positions in a wireless communications system comprises creating a time-domain timing detection window from a preamble of a receiving signal, generating a first vector of correlations between sampling points in the time-domain timing detection window and sampling points of a known preamble, identifying a pivot position from the largest correlation value of the first vector and generating second vectors based on the pivot position, generating a third vector comprising the largest elements of the second vectors; generating a fourth vector comprising sums of elements in the second vectors, generating fifth and sixth vectors comprising a sum of subsets of the third and fourth vectors, respectively, calculating a seventh vector using the fifth and sixth vectors according to a predetermined equation, and selecting an index of one element from the fifth and seventh vectors to be the timing position according to a predetermined rule.
US07876860B1
Systems and methods for enhancing soft decoders and detectors on asymmetric channels are provided. The methods include acquiring log-likelihood ratios (LLRS) for error-correction code (ECC) encoded data symbols, selecting a quality measure function and a quality threshold based on the LLRs, applying the selected quality measure function to the LLRs to obtain quality measures, comparing the quality measures to the selected quality threshold, and updating the LLRs for selected ECC encoded data symbols based on the comparisons. The updating may occur by multiplying the LLRs for the selected ECC encoded data symbols by a selected scaling factor.
US07876858B1
A system comprises a correlation module that receives modulated signals from R antennas, that correlates each of the modulated signals with Y preamble sequences, and that generates Y correlation values for each of the R antennas, where R and Y are integers greater than or equal to 1. A control module generates correlation sums by adding each of the Y correlation values for one of the R antennas to corresponding ones of the Y correlation values for others of the R antennas, that selects a largest correlation sum from the correlation sums, and that detects one of the preamble sequences in the modulated signals when a magnitude of the largest correlation sum is greater than or equal to a first predetermined threshold.
US07876855B2
Phase modulation power spreading used to reduce RF or microwave transmitter output power spur levels
A two stage mixer is configured to reduce the power levels of out of band spurious output signals or spurs, such as the leakage from the second stage mixer by way of phase modulation power spreading. The local oscillator signal applied to first mixer stage is phase modulated while the local oscillator signal applied to the second mixer stage is inverse modulated. As such, a problematic spur, such as leakage from the local oscillator applied to the second mixer stage is spread so that the power levels of the spur are distributed a wider bandwidth instead of concentrating the power levels at single frequencies, thus reducing the power level at any single frequency. By utilizing phase modulation, the need for relatively complex and expensive filters is eliminated.
US07876849B2
A data transmission method and apparatus are disclosed using receivers having spatial diversity, with the receivers communicating with a common client via network communication. Improved systems and methods for data transmission according to the disclosed method and apparatus include at least: a transmission source for transmitting a data signal; a first receiver for receiving the data signal; a second receiver for receiving the data signal, wherein the second receiver is spaced apart from the first receiver thereby providing spatial diversity; and a communication network for facilitating communication between a client and at least the first receiver and the second receiver, as needed, wherein the client is capable of analyzing individual data signals received by the first and second receivers and forming a composite signal of a higher quality than the quality of the individual data signals.
US07876844B2
Techniques for determining positions of pilot sub-carriers in a received OFDM symbol are described. Components of pilot sub-carriers from a theoretical OFDM symbol are extracted to form M theoretical pilot sequences according to M possible distributions in frequency domain of the pilot sub-carriers in the theoretical OFDM symbol. Components of pilot sub-carriers from the received OFDM symbol are also extracted to form K hypothetical pilot sequences according to K possible distributions in frequency domain of pilot sub-carriers in the received OFDM symbol. The correlations of every two adjacent elements of the theoretical pilot sequences are calculated to get M corresponding theoretical correlation sequences, and the correlations of every two adjacent elements of the hypothetical pilot sequence are also calculated to get K corresponding hypothetical correlation sequences. Sequence correlations between the hypothetical correlation sequences and the theoretical correlation sequences are then calculated. The positions of pilot sub-carriers in the received OFDM symbol can be determined from the one that has the maximum modulus value.
US07876843B2
In one embodiment, a method for data transmission is provided comprising determining a set of frequency bands available for data transmission from a plurality of frequency bands; determining whether there is a frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands that lies between two frequency bands of the set of frequency bands and is not in the set of frequency bands; selecting, in case that there is a frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands that lies between two frequency bands of the set of frequency bands and is not in the set of frequency bands, another set of frequency bands from the plurality of frequency bands such that there is no frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands that lies between two frequency bands of the other set and is not in the other set; and transmitting the data using the other set of frequency bands.
US07876818B2
Multiplexing means of an image encoding device multiplexes object display speed information or image display absolute time information, and an image decoding device performs image processing on the basis of the multiplexed object display speed information or image display absolute time information, whereby image decoding process can be performed smoothly and accurately.
US07876813B2
A communication system comprises a first modem part arranged at a first location and a second modem part arranged at a second location that is remote from the first location. The first modem part and the second modem part in combination perform functionalities of a modem.
US07876782B2
The present invention is directed to a method for setting a user equipment identifier as user equipment identification information used when data received through a dedicated logical channel is transmitted through a common transport channel. The method includes transmitting data and a message type indicator as user equipment identification information from a RRC layer to an RLC layer; setting a user equipment identifier indicator according to the received message type indicator in the RLC layer and transmitting it with the data to a MAC layer; and selecting a user equipment identifier type and a user equipment identifier according to the set user equipment indication identifier, adding it to a header of a MAC SDU in the MAC layer and transmitting it to a corresponding MAC layer in a receiving device.
US07876773B2
A method, apparatus, and program for allowing a first transmitting apparatus among a plurality of transmitting apparatuses connected to a network to transmit data packets to the network. The method includes: receiving a control packet transmitted from a second transmitting apparatus among the plurality of transmitting apparatuses, judging whether the received control packet indicates permission for the first transmitting apparatus to transmit data packets, and also, transmitting data packets in response to the judgment that the permission is indicated, or receiving an additional control packet in response to the judgment that the permission is not indicated; and, transmitting a new control packet indicating, as a transmitting apparatus permitted to transmit data packets subsequently, one transmitting apparatus selected by a predetermined rule from the plurality of transmitting apparatuses, on condition that the transmission of the data packet is completed.
US07876766B1
A method and apparatus for providing an exchange server to couple multiple MMSCs, the exchange server including a queue to receive the MMS message if the recipient MMSC does not have bandwidth available.
US07876752B1
Method and system for routing a network packet received at a port within a network is provided. The method includes (a) generating an index value based on a destination identifier for the network packet; (b) generating one or more physical port numbers based on the index value generated in step (a); wherein each port number identifies a port for sending and receiving network packets; and (c) selecting one of the physical port numbers to route the network packet; wherein the port number is selected based on reaction selector signal that is generated from a partition key table based on a partition key value embedded in the network packet.
US07876746B1
An apparatus includes at least one input circuit to receive frames of data, the frames of data comprising first frames each having first data, and a second frame having second data. The apparatus includes at least one output circuit to transmit the first frames; a forwarding engine to transfer the first frames from the at least one input circuit to the at least one output circuit; and a first memory to store switch information. The apparatus operates according to the switch information. The at least one input circuit includes a remote management unit comprising a first memory controller to modify the switch information stored in the first memory according to the second data in the second frame, and a second memory; a second memory controller to write each of the frames of data to the second memory; and a remote management enable circuit to enable the remote management unit when the second frame is a remote management frame. The first memory controller writes the second data from the second memory to the first memory when the remote management unit is enabled by the remote management enable circuit and the remote management frame includes a valid write command.
US07876745B1
A packet-based network carries a stream of voice band data, such as PCM voice data, which can include tandem free operation (TFO) information. Voice data is usually subject to processing, such as compression, at an ingress entity. The ingress entity determines whether the stream of voice data contain tandem free operation (TFO) information and, if TFO information is present, sends the TFO information across the packet network without subjecting it to processing. This preserves the integrity of the TFO information. TFO information can be carried by an unprocessed channel having a bandwidth of less than 64 kbit/s. TFO information is reinserted at an egress entity of the packet network.
US07876743B2
A method of setting up a session between peer user terminals of a communication system, wherein at least one of the user terminals is a dual-mode terminal having access to both an IP-based packet-switched access network and a circuit-switched access network, and the session extends at least in part across the circuit-switched access network. One of the user terminals initiates the session by sending Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling to a SIP server over the IP-based network. The SIP server sends a notification to a gateway server to establish one or more conversational bearers. The gateway server then sends a callback telephone number to the dual-mode terminal. The dual-mode terminal then calls the callback number to establish a circuit-switched session with the gateway server.
US07876740B2
A method and system for synchronization of link layer windows in a wireless communications system is disclosed. At a transmitter in the wireless communications system, the transmitter transmits a plurality of frames in a transmitter's link layer window, wherein each frame comprises segments and sends a request for an acknowledgement of the plurality of frames to a receiver. Then the transmitter determines a last transmitted segment of an eldest frame of the plurality of frames in the transmitter's link layer window, if a response to the request is not received within a specified time period and sets a synchronization indicator in the determined last transmitted segment of the eldest frame. Finally, the transmitter transmits the determined last transmitted segment of the eldest frame with the synchronization indicator set to the receiver.
US07876737B2
Methods and systems are provided for location-based network address translation (NAT). The system allows an administrator to logically partition an environment into a plurality of spatial regions. The method then includes specifying, for each of the spatial regions, whether network address translation (NAT) is allowed or not allowed for that spatial region, then performing a locationing procedure to determine in which spatial region the mobile unit is located. NAT is allowed for wireless data communication from the mobile unit if the mobile unit is within one of the spatial regions for which NAT is allowed, and is not allowed for wireless data communication from the mobile unit if the mobile unit is within one of the spatial regions for which NAT is not allowed. The systems and methods are applicable, for example, to networks operating in accordance with 802.11, RFID, WiMax, WAN, Bluetooth, Zigbee, UWB, and the like.
US07876733B2
A communication method and apparatus of a cognitive radio (CR) environment using a relaying system while not interfering with a communication system having a priority right to use a frequency band, the communication method including: listening to fundamental channel (FCH) information and/or downlink/uplink (DL/UL) map information of a frame transmitted in the relaying system; obtaining a transmission signal of the relaying system using the FCH information and/or the DL/UL map information; orthogonally encoding data to be transmitted in the CR environment based on the obtained transmission signal; and transmitting the orthogonally encoded data via a determined channel that is used in the relaying system. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention can retrieve radio resources unused in the CR environment more easily.
US07876729B1
A mobile wireless telecommunications system includes base stations of a first type operating according to a first air interface, and base stations of a second type operating according to a second air interface. Methods and apparatus are provided for handing over a mobile station in the system from a first base station, which is of the first type, to a second base station, which is of the second type. A communications link is established over the first air interface between the mobile station and the first base station. Data are received from the mobile station responsive to a signal received by the mobile station over the second air interface from the second base station, substantially without breaking the communications link with the first base station. The mobile station is handed over from the first to the second base station responsive to the data received therefrom. In particular, a method of conducting intersystem handover from a multicarrier system to a direct spread system is provided. Timing synchronization is also advantageously made available through the mobile station.
US07876728B1
A method, system, and computer-readable media are provided for maintaining optimized communication after a mobile device transitions to a new foreign agent during a communication session. When a mobile device moves to and registers with a new foreign agent within a communication session, the mobile device's home agent multicasts a message to all foreign agents within an optimization cluster informing them of the updated registration. Accordingly, the foreign agents within the optimization cluster can proceed to transmit data packets directly to the new foreign agent servicing the mobile device within the communication session.
US07876722B2
A system for transferring a signal between a field device and a control system component includes a field linking unit and a system gateway. The field linking unit is electrically coupled to a field device, and a signal is transferred between the two using a first protocol. The system gateway is electrically connected to a control system component, and the signal is transferred between the two using a second protocol. The field linking unit and the system gateway communicate wirelessly. One of the field linking unit and the system gateway may encrypt the signal before sending, and the other may decrypt the signal upon receipt. The system may also include at least one intermediate node, and the field linking unit and the system gateway may communicate wirelessly via the intermediate node(s).
US07876711B2
A Fibre Channel Switch which enables end devices in different Fabrics to communicate with one another while retaining their unique Fibre Channel Domain_IDs. The Switch is coupled to a first fabric having a first set of end devices and a second fabric having a second set of end devices. The Switch is configured to enable communication by the first set of end devices associated with the first fabric with the second set of end devices associated with the second set of end devices using the unique Domain_IDs of each of the first set and the second set of end devices. In one embodiment of the invention, the first and second fabrics are first and second Virtual Storage Array Networks (VSANs) respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the first fabric and the second fabric are separate physical fabrics.
US07876703B2
Provided are a method, system, and program for adding a fourth device to a network including a first, second, and third devices, wherein the first and second devices are directly connected to the third device. The fourth device is directly connected to the third device while the first and second devices remain connected to the third device, and wherein the first and second devices continue to have access to the third device while the fourth device is connected to the third device.
US07876694B2
In an embodiment, a network service provider (NSP) operates a provider network to provide VPN services to its customers. A VPN links various customer sites allowing customers to send data between these sites over the NSP network. Each site network includes a customer edge router (CE) while the provider network includes a plurality of provider edge routers (PEs) to communicate with the CEs. The PEs include virtual routing address (VRFs), and the PEs and CEs include interfaces (IFs). A database stores information related to the relationships between the network components (e.g., VPNs, PEs, CEs, VRFs, IFs, etc.), and a management software package (MSP) has access to the database. When a fault occurs, the MSP, based on collected information and information in the database, determines the impacted network components. Other features include classifying the seriousness of the network's faults and representing different faults by a color scheme.
US07876692B2
A method of transmitting packets over a network includes steps of transmitting a first plurality of test packets during a first plurality of time locations that are coarsely spaced apart in time; determining which of the first plurality of time locations corresponds to favorable network traffic conditions; transmitting a second plurality of test packets over the network during a second plurality of time locations that are finely spaced apart in time, wherein the second plurality of time locations are selected on the basis of favorable network traffic conditions; determining which of the second plurality of time locations corresponds to favorable network traffic conditions; and transmitting data packets over the network using one or more favorable time locations determined by the finely spaced test packets. The method can be used to “zero in” on congested network periods by detecting differences in packet latencies among test packets.
US07876690B1
A monitoring system gathers both site-to-site measurements, and agent-to-agent measurements, wherein one or more agents are distributed in one or more sites in a distributed network environment. Site-to-site measurements between two sites, such as site one and site two, are obtained by testing between any agent at site one and any agent at site two. A measurement rate between sites and between agents is determined that allows for the detection of events, such as user perceivable events, without overwhelming the set of agents that form the distributed measurement system. With, for example, a scheduling mechanism used to schedule measurement tests of finite duration, as opposed to continuous streams of measurement packets, for each pair of agents, the test can be used as an indication as to whether the measurement system is overwhelmed.
US07876688B2
A loop protection mechanism including dynamically determining a link connecting two adjacent nodes of a loop in a communication network in accordance with a predefined criterion, and reconfiguring the loop so that the loop is broken at the determined link which is an optimal link in terms of the predefined criterion. The breaking of the loop enables for example to utilize loop-free technologies (e.g. Ethernet) in a physical loop architecture.
US07876687B2
The present invention provides a method for measuring the available bandwidth of a link and a method for measuring the available bandwidth of a network. By sending quartets in pair and measuring intervals of probe packets at the probe receiving end, the available bandwidth of any link in a network can be measured and the characteristics of load changes in a given link can be tracked and analyzed. Or, the available bandwidths of a network within given sources and destinations can be measured and the input/output bandwidth of the network or the changes in cross traffic can be found out. The present invention can be applied to trouble shooting in links and networks, capacity planning, QoS (Quality of Service) control or QoS service level agreement verification, load balancing, re-route and detection and mitigation of network attacks and in many other fields. It can also be used for measuring the available bandwidth of a path even if there is more than one link of the minimum capacity on the path or when the link of the minimum capacity is not the link of the minimum available bandwidth.
US07876678B2
A transport layer protocol such as the Stream Control Transmission Protocol uses a new traffic control technique instead of the TCP slow start algorithm. The procedure assumes that the network on which it is implemented has a fixed bandwidth assigned for the connection, and that the allotted bandwidth roughly matches the traffic load. Based on this, under message loss conditions it is only necessary to ensure that signaling traffic emitted into the network by the sender is no greater than the fixed bandwidth that has been allocated to the connection. That is, retransmissions take bandwidth away from a fixed allocation that has been made for the connection, but do not cause the connection itself to reduce the overall traffic it generates into the network; rather, it maintains the same traffic level. This technique prevents congestion in the network from increasing when message loss occurs; at the same time it does not reduce bandwidth for the association as rapidly as the slow start procedure.
US07876674B2
A media gateway controller (MGC) is described herein that implements a shared risk group package to control and prevent a media gateway (MG) from establishing redundant links like a primary link and a secondary link that use resources that share the same risk of failure. Essentially, the MGC uses the shared risk group package to control which resources like ephemeral terminations are used by the MG to establish the primary link and the secondary link such that if any of the resources associated with the primary link fail then the secondary link remains operational within the MG and if any of the resources associated with the secondary link fail then the primary link remains operational within the MG.
US07876669B2
An information recording carrier according to one embodiment has minute pattern including plural grooves or lands formed to be substantially in parallel and adjacent each other and comprises a supporting body having the minute pattern, a recording layer formed on the minute pattern formed on the supporting layer and a light transmission layer formed on the recording layer. The minute pattern is formed under a relation of P<λ/NA, where a pitch of each groove or land is P, a wavelength of a laser beam is λ and a numerical aperture of an objective lens is NA. The plural grooves or lands have at least a wobbling region and data is recorded wobblingly in the wobbling region by frequency shift modulation. A phase relation between a high frequency portion and a low frequency portion composing the frequency shift modulation is ±(π/20.5) to ±(π/0.75). The data is also recorded wobblingly in the wobbling region by bi-phase modulation.
US07876667B2
An optical disk medium in which high density recording/reproducing is possible, an information recording method and an information reproducing method using it are provided. A pit composed of a phase change material and a recording film different from it are provided on an optical disk. The phase change pit has a pattern of a single frequency. A mark having a size on the same level as the phase change pit can be formed by melting a single phase change pit while recording and controlling the optical absorbance and the temperature of the recording film at the region. A single phase change pit is molten while reproducing. Since the optical characteristics of the molten region are different from the optical characteristics of other regions, only data at the molten region can be reproduced by a super-resolution effect.
US07876666B2
A write-once information recording medium comprises a transparent resin substrate having a concentrically or spirally shaped groove and a land formed thereon, and a recording firm formed on the groove and the land of the transparent resin substrate, a recording mark being formed on the medium by emission of a short wavelength laser light, the recording medium having an L to H feature in which a light reflectivity of the recording mark portion formed by the emission of the short wavelength laser light is higher than a light reflectivity obtained before the emission of the short wavelength laser light.
US07876652B2
First data representing user data and third data use the same error correction codes. The first data has a first error correction block structure and the third data has a second error correction block structure. That is to say, the first data and the third data have their respective error correction block structures proper for them. In particular, the recording density of the third data is made less dense than the recording density of the first data, and the number of correction codes in the first error-correction block is set at a multiple of m whereas the number of correction codes in the second error-correction block is set at n/m times the number of correction codes in the first error-correction block so that a data-piece count in the second error-correction block is also n/m times a data-piece count in the first error-correction block. As a result, it is possible to provide a good technique of recording shipping-time information onto a high-recording-density disc.
US07876650B2
The apparatus comprises a pickup with a laser, a detector unit and an objective lens for reading data from or writing data to a Super-RENS optical storage medium having a track pitch below the optical resolution limit, the pickup generating a main beam for reading and/or writing of data and generating two satellite beams for providing a tracking error signal, the three beams being focused by the objective lens onto the optical storage medium, and the reflected light from the optical storage medium being guided onto the detector unit. The main beam and the two satellite beams have a light intensity on the optical storage medium being sufficient for providing a super-resolution effect for the main beam as well as for each satellite beam. The light intensity of the two satellite beams is each in the order of 50 to 100% of the intensity of the main beam, if the apparatus is used for reading of data. The detector unit comprises in particular a main detector for detecting reflected light from the main beam, and two satellite detectors for detecting reflected light from the satellite beams reflected from the optical storage medium, and wherein the detector unit provides 3-beam tracking error signal for a tracking regulation.
US07876644B2
At least two light beams with polarization diversity are generated that each carry a representation of the same information. Separate optic fibers carry each of the at least two beams through a region subject to vibration to a remote location where the information is recovered by an optical receiver based on the separate light beams. Using separate fibers to carry polarization diverse information minimizes polarization noise at the optical receiver due to vibration of the fibers.
US07876643B2
A method in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes obtaining seismic trace data for a region of interest; processing the seismic trace data to calculate at least one spectrum for at least one sample from the seismic data; calculating at least one dominant frequency (ωD) for the at least one spectrum; calculating at least one measure of energy loss at frequencies above the at least one dominant frequency (ωD) on the at least one spectrum; and locating a hydrocarbon reservoir in the region of interest using the at least one dominant frequency (ωD) and the at least one measure of energy loss.
US07876640B2
Memories, clock synchronization circuits, clock synchronization controller circuits, and methods for setting a voltage controlled delay of a clock synchronization circuit and tracking and recording the control voltage are disclosed. For example, a clock synchronization controller provides an initial control voltage to the voltage controlled delay during initialization of the synchronization circuit until a phase dependent control voltage stabilizes. The stable phase dependent control voltage is substituted for the initial control voltage. Following stabilization of the phase dependent control voltage, a phase detector of the clock synchronization circuit is activated. A recovery control voltage is provided by the clock synchronization controller to the voltage controlled delay during recovery of the clock synchronization from a power-saving mode until the phase dependent control voltage stabilizes.
US07876629B2
A memory control method for adjusting sampling points utilized by a memory control circuit receiving a data signal and an original data strobe signal of a memory includes: utilizing at least one delay unit to provide a plurality of sampling points according to the original data strobe signal; sampling according to the data signal by utilizing the plurality of sampling points; and analyzing sampling results to dynamically determine a delay amount for delaying the original data strobe signal, whereby a sampling point corresponding to the delayed data strobe signal is kept centered at data carried by the data signal.
US07876624B2
A semiconductor memory device capable of reducing a whole area thereof includes a plurality of data input circuits configured to reflect inversion information on data inputted thereto, a plurality of global lines for transferring data outputted from the plurality of data input circuits, and a plurality of memory banks for storing data transferred from the plurality of global lines.
US07876621B2
Each of a plurality of flash memory cells is programmed to a respective one of L≧2 threshold voltage states within a threshold voltage window. A histogram is constructed by determining how many of some or all of the cells have threshold voltages in each of two or more of m≧2 threshold voltage intervals within the threshold voltage window. Reference voltages for reading the cells are selected based on estimated values of shape parameters of the histogram. Alternatively, the cells are read relative to reference voltages that define m≧2 threshold voltage intervals that span the threshold voltage window, to determine numbers of at least a portion of the cells whose threshold voltages are in each of two or more of the threshold voltage intervals. Respective threshold voltage states are assigned to the cells based on the numbers without re-reading the cells.
US07876619B2
A semiconductor memory device comprises: a write circuit including a latch circuit configured by two inverters having a positive side power supply terminal supplied with a first voltage and a negative side power supply terminal supplied with a second voltage; and a write state machine controlling the first and second voltages. When writing data to a memory cell, the first voltage is changed to a second value that is lower than a first value. When writing data to a memory cell, the second voltage is changed to a third value that is lower than the second value. The write state machine lowers the second voltage to an intermediate value between the second value and the third value and, while maintaining this intermediate value, lowers the first voltage from the first value to the second value.
US07876618B2
Non-volatile memory with reduced leakage current for unselected blocks and method for operating same
A memory device with reduced leakage current during programming and sense operations, and a method for operating such a memory device. In a non-volatile memory device, current leakage at the drain select gates of NAND strings can occur in unselected blocks when a selected block undergoes a program or read operation, and the bit lines are shared by the blocks. In one approach, in which a common transfer gate driver is provided for both blocks, the drain select gates are pre-charged at an optimum level, which minimizes leakage, and subsequently floated while a program or read voltage is applied to a selected word line in the selected block. In another approach, a separate transfer gate driver is provided for the unselected block so that the optimal select gate voltage can be driven in the unselected block, even while the program or read voltage is applied in the selected block.
US07876612B2
A method for reducing leakage current of a memory device includes supplying a first voltage to a main wordline driver, supplying a second voltage greater than the first voltage to a local wordline driver, and employing a transistor in the local wordline driver with a threshold voltage greater than a specific value.
US07876610B2
A plurality of first transistors formed on a substrate share a gate electrode. Isolation regions isolate the plurality of first transistors from one another. In the region where the plurality of first transistors, an impurity region is formed in such a manner that it includes the source and drain regions of the plurality of first transistors and that the depth of the impurity region is greater than the depth of the source and drain regions. The impurity region sets the threshold voltage of the first transistors.
US07876609B2
In a nonvolatile memory device, a program operation is performed on a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells by programming data having a first logic state in a first group among a plurality of selected memory cells selected from the plurality of nonvolatile memory cells during a first program interval of the program operation, and thereafter, programming data having a second logic state different from the first logic state in a second group among the selected memory cells during a second program interval of the program operation after the first program interval.
US07876604B2
Self-reference reading a magnetic tunnel junction data cell methods are disclosed. An illustrative method includes applying a read voltage across a magnetic tunnel junction data cell and forming a read current. The magnetic tunnel junction data cell has a first resistance state. The read voltage is sufficient to switch the magnetic tunnel junction data cell resistance. The method includes detecting the read current and determining if the read current remains constant during the applying step. If the read current remains constant during the applying step, then the first resistance state of the magnetic tunnel junction data cell is the resistance state that the read voltage was sufficient to switch the magnetic tunnel junction data cell to.
US07876602B2
A circuit and method are provided in which a six-transistor (6-T) SRAM memory cell is hardened to single-event upsets by adding isolation-field effect transistors (“iso-fets”) connected between the reference voltage Vdd and the field-effect transistors (“fets”) respectively corresponding to first and second inverters of the memory cell. According to certain embodiments, the control gates of first and second P-iso-fets are respectively tied to the control gates of first and second pull-up P-fets. According to certain embodiments, first and second N-iso-fets are connected between the output nodes of the memory cell and the pull-down N-fets respectively corresponding to the first and second inverters. The control gates of the first and second N-iso-fets are respectively tied to the control gates of the first and second pull-down N-fets. Again according to certain embodiments, one or more of the iso-fets are physically removed from the proximity of other transistors which comprise the memory cell.
US07876601B2
The logic cells (HLEs) of a structured application-specific integrated circuit (structured ASIC) can be used to provide memory blocks of various sizes. Any one or more of several techniques may be employed to facilitate doing this for various user designs that may have different requirements (e.g., in terms of size) for such memory blocks. For example, pre-designed macros of memory blocks may be provided and then combined as needed to provide memory blocks of various sizes. Placement constraints may be observed for certain portions of the memory circuitry (e.g., the memory core), while other portions (e.g., address predecoder circuitry, write and read data registers, etc.) may be located relatively freely.
US07876596B2
A novel nonvolatile memory element, which can be manufactured by a simple and high yield process by using an organic material and has a high on/off ratio, and a method for manufacturing such nonvolatile memory element. A switching layer (14) made of an electrical insulating radical polymer is provided between an anode layer (12) and a cathode layer (16). Further, a hole injection transport layer (13) is provided between the switching layer (14) and the anode layer (12), and an electron injection transport layer (15), between the switching layer (14) and the cathode layer (16). An intermediate layer is provided between the switching layer and the adjacent layer. The radical polymer is preferably nitroxide radical polymer. The switching layer (14), the hole injection transport layer (13) and the electron injection transport layer (15) are formed by being stacked by a wet process.
US07876592B2
A device includes a dynamic random access memory and a voltage regulator. The dynamic random access memory has a first input terminal connected to a first plurality of dual in-line memory module voltage pins, and a second input terminal. The dynamic random access memory is configured to receive a first voltage on the first input terminal. The voltage regulator has an input terminal connected to a second plurality of dual in-line memory module voltage pins, and an output terminal connected to the second input terminal of the dynamic random access memory. The voltage regulator is adapted to receive a second voltage, and configured to provide a third voltage to the second input terminal of the dynamic random access memory.
US07876563B2
A cooling structure of a power semiconductor device includes a cooling water passage and a plurality of fins. The cooling water for cooling the power semiconductor device flows through the cooling water passage. The plurality of fins are provided on a path of the cooling water passage and set up with a spacing therebetween in a direction orthogonal to a flow direction of the cooling water. The plurality of fins promote heat exchange between the power semiconductor device and the cooling water. The plurality of fins have ends facing the upstream side of a cooling water flow. The end of at least one fin among the plurality of fins is arranged so as to be displaced to a more upstream side of the cooling water flow than the ends of the fins adjacent to both sides of the at least one fin. By such a configuration, there is provided a cooling structure of a power semiconductor device and an inverter with excellent cooling efficiency.
US07876558B2
Disclosed is a bag computer comprised of a bag with holder and computer with display panel and body panels hinged together. The computer body installs into the holder so the display panel pivots near the top of the bag front with its display facing outward/upward so the bag wearer can store the display against the bag front or pivot it into his line of sight. To provide access between peripherals, memory or batteries inside the bag and the computer outside the bag, the bag's front wall may have; 1) an opening with coupling matching the computer back side; 2) a pattern of holes matching a computer with inside and outside body parts which join with attachments through the pattern of holes; 3) an electrical connection in the holder which connects the computer to a connection box inside bag.
US07876550B1
A cover for an electronic device made of a transparent material and having a form factor that protects function buttons of the device from inadvertent actuation. The cover has an opening of a size, shape and location to afford access to an interface device for multi-way navigation with the cover in place. Protrusions in tabs at the sides of the cover snap into cutouts located midway along the side of the electronic device and may be used to hold the cover in place. The cover may be stored on the back of the device while the device is in use. The transparent nature of the cover affords viewing of a display screen with the cover in place.
US07876549B2
One aspect of the embodiment provides a solid electrolytic capacitor that comprises: an anode; a dielectric layer formed on the surface of this anode; an electrically-conductive polymer layer formed on the dielectric layer; and a cathode layer formed on this electrically-conductive polymer layer. At least manganese is contained in the dielectric layer, and the manganese distributes in a way that the manganese is present more in a part of the dielectric layer that is closer to the cathode (or in the interface between the dielectric layer and the electrically-conductive polymer layer).
US07876547B2
Vertical parallel plate (VPP) capacitor structures that utilize different spacings between conductive plates in different levels of the capacitor stack. The non-even spacings of the conductive plates in the capacitor stack decrease the susceptibility of the capacitor stack of the VPP capacitor to ESD-promoted failures. The non-even spacings may be material specific in that, for example, the spacings between adjacent conductive plates in different levels of the capacitor stack may be chosen based upon material failure mechanisms for plates containing different materials.
US07876546B2
A connectable component module for a reduced pressure treatment system is provided. The module includes a housing with a rim, a recessed end surface, and an extension. A mounting assembly is fixed to the recessed end surface and includes extendable latches. The latches include a fastener bar that is flush with the rim when the latches are not extended. The module also generally includes a control system contained within the housing. The control system has a communication controller, a communication plug coupled to the communication controller and protruding through an aperture in the mounting assembly and recessed end, and a communication port coupled to the communication controller and exposed to an aperture in the extension.
US07876542B2
An aircraft electrical system comprises a generator to be driven as part of a gas turbine engine. The generator supplies electrical power to a plurality of accessories associated with the gas turbine engine, and to an aircraft DC bus in parallel to the supply to the accessories. A battery supplies voltage to a control circuit for the generator through a selectively opened and closed switch. A control detects a short circuit on the aircraft DC bus. The battery switch allows power from the battery to flow to provide control voltage for the generator when the control detects a short circuit on the aircraft DC bus.
US07876533B2
A balancer installed on an overmold of an head stack assembly to adjust balance of the head stack assembly is formed of stainless steel and demagnetized through a thermal treatment after the stainless steel is processed to have a balancer shape. The balancer has a recess formed at a side surface of the balancer to prevent separation of the balancer from the overmold. The stainless steel is austenite based stainless steel.
US07876532B2
A rotary actuator motor is provided including a stationary coil section and a rotating magnet. The magnet is incorporated with the pivot bearing assembly, and the coil section is aligned with the magnet along an axis of rotation of the actuator. The magnet fully encircles the axis of rotation. The coil comprises one or more closed loops of electrically conductive material. The motor in this arrangement maintains a much smaller profile in comparison to a traditional voice coil motor that is mounted to a yoke extending away from the axis of rotation of the actuator.
US07876516B2
For writing data to multi-track tape, a received data set is received and segmented into unencoded subdata sets, each comprising an array having K2 rows and K1 columns. For each unencoded subdata set, N1-K1 C1-parity bytes are generated for each row and N2-K2 C2-parity bytes are generated for each column. The C1 and C2 parity bytes are appended to the ends of the row and column, respectively, to form encoded C1 and C2 codewords, respectively. All of the C1 codewords per data set are endowed with a specific codeword header to form a plurality of partial codeword objects (PCOs). Each PCO is mapped onto a logical data track according to information within the header. On each logical data track, adjacent PCOs are merged to form COs which are modulation encoded and mapped into synchronized COs. Then T synchronized COs are written simultaneously to the data tape where T is the number of concurrent active tracks on the data tape.
US07876512B2
An apparatus for assembling a lens module is provided. The lens module comprises a lens barrel and at least one optical element received therein. The apparatus includes an element-grasping member, an assembly station and two guiding members. The element-grasping member is configured for grasping the at least one optical element and mounting the at least one optical element into the lens barrel. The assembly station has a support surface. Each of the two guiding members includes a stationary element fixedly positioned on the support surface, a movable element and an elastic element. The movable element includes a positioning surface and a clamping surface. The positioning surface is configured for pressing the element-grasping member. The clamping surface is configured for pressing the lens barrel. The elastic element is positioned between the stationary element and the movable element.
US07876506B2
An exemplary electro-wetting display (EWD) device includes a plurality of sub-pixel units. Each sub-pixel unit defines two opposite long sides and two opposite short sides. Each sub-pixel unit includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing toward the first substrate, a conductive first liquid and a polar second sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate, and an electrode. The first and second liquids are immiscible. The electrode is disposed at a surface of the second substrate facing the first liquid. The electrode defines an opening. A length of the opening as measured parallel to the nearest short side is not less than 0.8 times a length of the nearest short side.
US07876503B2
An asymmetric mirror is composed of a dielectric substrate [500] and a coating [502] on the dielectric substrate. Within an operational wavelength range Δλ, the mirror has a transmission symmetry ΔT=0% and a reflection asymmetry ΔR>10%, where the reflection asymmetry ΔR varies by less than 5% within the operational wavelength range Δλ. In addition, the wavelength range Δλ is substantially broad, i.e., satisfies Δλ/λmax>10%. The coating [502] is a metamaterial having structural features smaller than the smallest operational wavelength, e.g., a nano-structured metamaterial such as a photonic crystal or a disordered nano-composite of a metal and a dielectric. In a preferred embodiment, the coating [502] is semi-continuous with a filling factor p between 70% and 75%. The dielectric may be, for example, air, vacuum, an electro-optic polymer, an optical gain material, an electro-active material, or a semiconductor.
US07876499B1
An objective lens and a method for using same. The objective lens has a first end, a second end, and a plurality of optical elements. The optical elements are positioned between the first end and the second end and are at least substantially symmetric about a plane centered between the first end and the second end.
US07876498B1
In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus and process wherein excess stored optical energy is removed from one or more stages in a fiber-amplifier, in order to stabilize the gain and obtain a constant level of energy per pulse. In some embodiments, a method of the invention includes providing a gain fiber, optically pumping the gain fiber using pump light, amplifying seed-signal pulses having a signal wavelength using the gain fiber to obtain amplified output pulses, and automatically limiting a gain of the gain fiber. In some embodiments, an apparatus of the invention includes a gain fiber, a source of pump light coupled to the gain fiber, a source of seed-signal pulses having a signal wavelength coupled to the gain fiber, wherein the gain fiber outputs amplified signal pulses, and an automatic-gain-control mechanism configured to limit gain of the gain fiber.
US07876495B1
An apparatus and method for compensating for mode-profile distortions caused by bending optical fibers having large mode areas. In various embodiments, the invention micro-structures the index of refraction in the core and surrounding areas of the inner cladding from the inner bend radius to the outer bend radius in a manner that compensates for the index changes that are otherwise induced in the index profile by the geometry and/or stresses to the fiber caused by the bending. Some embodiments of an apparatus and method include a fiber having a plurality of substantially parallel cores, the fiber including a straight section and a curved section; guiding signal light primarily in a second core in the straight section; guiding the signal light from the second core into a first core between the straight section and the curved section; and guiding the signal light primarily in the first core in the curved section.
US07876487B2
A technique is provided which can improve optical characteristics by suppressing the occurrence of an error in attachment of a rotary deflector that deflects a light flux from a light source and scans it in a main scanning direction. There are provided a rotary deflector that deflects the light flux from the light source and scans it in the main scanning direction, an imaging optical system that images the light flux scanned by the rotary deflector onto a specified scanning object, a support part that supports the rotary deflector rotatably, and a positioning part that comes in contact with the support part at plural contact positions and positions the support part, in which a shortest distance between the plural contact positions in an optical axis direction of the imaging optical system is longer than a shortest distance between the plural contact positions in the main scanning direction.
US07876481B2
A security image and method for forming said image is disclosed wherein an image having a layer with a hologram therein has an additional layer of magnetically aligned flakes together forming an image that is difficult to counterfeit and is highly attractive. Preferably windows of an opaque layer provide additional means of encoding or forming the image.
US07876477B2
An image reading method and an image expansion method are provided whereby a low-resolution imaged picture can be expanded to have a high image quality even if an input image sequence is motionless, that is to say, even if a subject is motionless. An image expansion device has an image input unit, which shoots an input image, a reading position determination unit, which determines the reading position of a mixed image and a decimated image, an image reading unit, which reads the mixed image and the decimated image at the reading position from the input image, a positioning unit, which positions a plurality of mixed images to calculate a motion vector indicating the amount of displacement among the images, a displacement compensation unit, which compensates for the motion vector based on the amount of movement of the reading position, and an image expansion unit, which uses a plurality of decimated images to perform super-resolution reconstruction, based on the post-compensation motion vector, and expands the image.
US07876475B2
Provided is a printer controller for controlling a pagewidth printhead. The controller includes an interface for receiving an image having a bi-level black data layer compressed in an Edge Delta and Runlength (EDRL) compression format and a continuous tone (contone) CMYK data layer. Also included is an EDRL expander and a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) decoder unit for expanding the image by simultaneously decompressing the two data layers in parallel, as well as a halftoner and compositor unit for halftoning the contone CMYK data layer into bi-level CMYK data layer and compositing the bi-level black data layer over the bi-level CMYK data layer to form a composited bi-level CMYK image. The controller further includes a processor and memory arrangement configured to control the interface, the expander and decoder unit, and the halftoner and compositor unit, and further configured to transmit the composited bi-level CMYK image to a memory buffer of the pagewidth printer via a printhead interface.
US07876473B2
A dot pattern including a set of plural dots arranged substantially periodically is formed. When positions of the plural dots are shifted dot by dot, a combination of an amount and a direction of shift of dot positions to be shifted is changed. A pattern obtained by repeating, for each predetermined period, a pattern processed in this way is superimposed on an image. Sizes of the respective dots are the same and only dot positions of the dots are shifted. Therefore, plural dot patterns having different amounts and directions of shift of dot positions visually look like uniform patterns and a sense of hindrance is low.
US07876469B2
An image forming apparatus comprises an interface which can communicate with the information processing apparatus that serves as the source of updating firmware. The image forming apparatus further comprises a memory which stores a plurality of firmware programs and a controller which performs firmware updates by sequentially storing the updating firmware transferred from the information processing apparatus. When a plurality of firmware programs are transferred from the information processing apparatus, the controller performs a reboot operation to activate the updated firmware upon completing the storage and the rewriting of the updating firmware in the memory.
US07876467B2
A system for printing and interacting with a document. The system comprises a computer system, a printer connected to the computer system and an optically imaging pen. When the computer receives a request for printing the document, it allocates a document identity and determines coded data for the document. The printer prints the document including visible information and the coded data. The printed document is interactive with respect to the optically imaging pen, which reads the coded data and sends corresponding data to the computer system for interpretation. The sent data may be used to generate an e-mail.
US07876459B2
A print processing system includes a plurality of terminal apparatuses and a printing apparatus capable of communicating with the plurality of terminal apparatuses via a network, wherein, to process a print file having a format unprocessable on the printing apparatus, the printing apparatus appropriately specifies a terminal apparatus capable of processing the file format; instructs the terminal apparatus to print the file; and executes the print process using print job data transmitted from the terminal apparatus according to the print instruction.
US07876458B2
A surface gap detector facilitates determining conformance of a surface of an object by providing a light source integrated into the detector that diffusely illuminates the surface of the object so that a user may observe the light that passes between the detector and the object when the surface of the object is aligned in substantial contact with a gap detecting edge of the surface gap detector.
US07876454B2
A method for measurement of a cutting tool is provided. The method comprises positioning the cutting tool on a moveable stage, performing a first rotary scan of a first section of the cutting tool to generate a first scanning point cloud, segmenting the first scanning point cloud, performing a second rotary scan of the first section based on the segmentation of the first scanning point cloud, and extracting the parameters of the first section based on the second rotary scan of the first section. A system for extracting parameters of a cutting tool is also presented.
US07876448B2
To measure a sum of electrical currents in different conductors, light is led in an optical sensing fiber around all the conductors. The sensing fiber can be wound around the conductors in a single loop or in several individual loops. Interspersed polarization maintaining fibers and retarders can be used to transfer the light between individual loops for preventing undesired signals from stray magnetic fields. The method has high accuracy is particularly suited for measuring large currents that sum up to zero.
US07876443B2
A torus multipass optical device and method are described that provide for trace level determination of gases and gas-phase analytes. The torus device includes an optical cavity defined by at least one ring mirror. The mirror delivers optical power in at least a radial and axial direction and propagates light in a multipass optical path of a predefined path length.
US07876441B2
A control station for a printing press, includes at least one true color monitor for displaying at least one soft proof serving as a color reference for printed copies printed during the printing process, and at least one standard light source for at least partial illuminating the control station to allow visual comparison, independent of room lighting, of a printed copy with the soft proof serving as the color reference. The luminosity produced by the at least one standard light source is variable, so that the luminosity produced by the at least one standard light source can be adjusted to match a brightness achievable on the true color monitor to match a contrast achievable on the true color monitor during the display of the soft proof.
US07876429B2
The evaluating apparatus evaluates a restoration-premised lens which is employed in an image forming system that converts an optical image into an electronic image and then enforces a restoration processing on the electronic image in order to obtain a sharp image, is actually manufactured based on such design as premised on the restoration processing. The evaluating apparatus includes an evaluating corrective optical system, measuring section and evaluating section. The evaluating corrective optical system, when it is combined with a lens manufactured just as designed, forms a sharp optical image. The measuring section measures the optical characteristics of a composite optical system provided by combining together the evaluating corrective optical system and the manufactured lens. The evaluating section evaluates the manufactured lens according to measured results provided by measuring section.
US07876427B1
Headlamp alignment is detected using a collection of intelligent, independent sensor units, each of which incorporates a vertical array of sensing elements capable of detecting headlamp illumination. The sensor units are networked together and can be coupled to a host controller. The host controller can provide a user interface via a touch screen and a Web server, and can further communicate with a plant network for interfacing with manufacturing databases. The network of sensor units can accommodate four or more sensors, which allows multiple vehicles and multiple headlamp types to be audited without physical movement of the sensor units. The sensor units are low in power consumption and can receive power over the same cable providing network communication. Incorporation of non-volatile memory within the sensor units allows factory data to be recorded within each sensor unit and permits convenient replacement of units in the field.
US07876418B2
A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system (PL) which projects an image of a pattern onto a substrate (W) and a unit (5) which supplies a liquid (7) between an optical element (4) at the end of the projection optical system (PL) and the substrate (W). A corrosion-resistant film composed of an oxide is formed on the surface of the optical element (4) to prevent corrosion by the liquid (7). Consequently, a desired performance of the projection optical system can be secured for a long time even where a full field exposure in the step-and-repeat manner or a scanning exposure in the step-and-scan manner is performed in a liquid-immersion state.
US07876413B2
A height difference under a sealant is reduced in a case where lines are present under the sealant.There is provided a substrate having an active matrix display circuit and peripheral driving circuits, a counter substrate having a counter electrode provided on the substrate in a face-to-face relationship therewith, a sealant provided between the substrate and the counter substrate such that it surrounds the active matrix display circuit and peripheral driving circuits, a liquid crystal material provided inside the sealant, a plurality of external connection lines provided on the substrate under the sealant with a resin inter-layer film interposed therebetween for electrically connecting the active matrix display circuit- and peripheral driving circuits to circuits present outside the sealant and an adjustment layer provided in the same layer as the plurality of external connection lines.
US07876412B2
A method for manufacturing a TFT array panel including forming a gate line having a gate electrode on a insulating layer, a gate insulating layer on the gate line, a semiconductor on the gate insulating layer, an ohmic contact on the semiconductor, a data line having a source electrode and a drain electrode apart form the source electrode on the ohmic contact, a passivation layer having a contact hole to expose the drain electrode, and a pixel electrode connected to the drain electrode through the contact hole. The drain electrode and the source electrode are formed by a photolithography using a negative photoresist pattern. The negative photoresist pattern includes a first portion having a first thickness corresponding to a channel area, a second portion having a second thickness corresponding to a data line area, and a third portion having a third thickness corresponding to another area.
US07876409B2
In a liquid crystal display element of the present invention, the aligning capability for imparting pre-tilt angles to a liquid crystal material is imparted only to the surface of the alignment film of one of the substrates, the material layer having dielectric anisotropy includes a chiral material and a liquid crystal material with a nematic liquid crystal phase, 0.25≦d/p≦0.50 is satisfied assuming that the thickness of the material layer having the dielectric anisotropy is d and the chiral pitch length of the liquid crystal material is p, and 1000×d/p≦Δn×d is satisfied assuming that the refractive index anisotropy of the liquid crystal material is Δn.
US07876408B2
A transflective diode substrate for a liquid crystal display device, includes: a reflective zone including a diode having a scan electrode, an insulating pattern on the scan electrode and a pixel electrode over the scan electrode, organic patterns around the diode, and a reflection electrode over the organic patterns; and a transmissive zone adjacent to the reflective zone; wherein the pixel electrode is formed in the reflective zone and the transmissive zone.
US07876392B2
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel and a height adjustable base. The height adjustable base further includes a main base, a fixing frame and an elastic locating device. The main base provides at least a sliding rail, which has a stationary member attached to the main base and a movable member capable of sliding along the stationary member. The fixing frame is connected to the movable member for being mounted with the liquid crystal panel. The elastic locating device provides an acting end, which is disposed against the fixing frame for supplying an elastic ascending force to the fixing frame, and a joining end, which is detachably connected to the main base with an elastic coupling force for restoring the elastic ascending force automatically. Therefore, the liquid crystal display can be simply operated to release or restore the ascending elastic force needed at the time of height adjusting the liquid crystal panel.
US07876390B2
A method of fabricating an LCD includes providing first and second substrates. A gate electrode, a gate line, a connection electrode, a common electrode and a pixel electrode are formed on the first substrate through a first making process. A first insulation film is formed on the first substrate. A first insulation film pattern having multiple contact holes are formed through a second masking process. An active pattern is formed on the first substrate and source and drain electrodes are operationally connected with the active pattern through some of the contact holes. A gate electrode, a common electrode, and a pixel electrode may be formed substantially together through a slit exposure. An active pattern and source and drain electrodes may be formed substantially together. The number of masks needed to fabricate the display may be reduced to simplify a fabrication process and protect a channel region.
US07876387B2
A lateral electric field type LCD device makes it possible to increase the degree of freedom in designing the constituent elements thereof and to improve the aperture ratio easily compared with the related-art LCD structure. The drain bus lines are entirely covered with the at least one first liquid crystal driving electrode (e.g., the common electrode). The gate bus line corresponding to each pixel region is covered with the at least one first liquid crystal driving electrode except for a predetermined non-overlapped area existing in a part that does not overlap with the corresponding TFT. The predetermined non-overlapped area of the gate bus line corresponding to each pixel region is covered with the storage capacitor electrode corresponding to the adjacent pixel region. Preferably, the at least one first liquid crystal driving electrode comprises openings that expose the channel regions of the TFTs, respectively.
US07876379B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for facilitating processing of interlaced video images for progressive video displays. In accordance with certain exemplary implementations, a method includes receiving from a renderer a query for a graphics device driver as to at least one graphics processing capability that can be performed by an associated graphics device in de-interlacing video data, communicating the query to the graphics device driver, receiving from the graphics device driver a response to the query that identifies the graphics processing capability/capabilities to the renderer, and communicating the response to the renderer. The method further includes receiving from the renderer a further query for the graphics device driver as to at least one input requirement associated with the identified graphics processing capability, communicating the further query to the graphics device driver, receiving from the graphics device driver a further response to the further query that identifies the input requirement(s) associated with the graphics processing capability, and communicating the further response to the renderer.
US07876359B2
A method and system for stabilizing images being taken by a video camera using electromechanical stabilization. The stabilization system performs inter-frame stabilization based on the velocity of a vehicle on which the video camera is mounted and the pan rate of a line-of-sight controller of the video camera. The inter-frame stabilization is performed by a software component by moving a display area (or viewport) within a larger image area. The stabilization system converts an inter-frame stabilization adjustment into a pan rate adjustment so that the line-of-sight controller will keep the desired object within the image area of the camera.
US07876352B2
Systems, methods and software are disclosed for capturing and/or importing and processing media items such as digital images or video (202) associated with a sporting event such as a marathon or bicycle race (FIG. 3). The media items are processed, including bib number or facial recognition if necessary (204, 206, 504), to associate them with an individual participant. Other input sources may include spectator uploads (506), external web sites and media sharing (508) or social networking (510) services. The system (500) aggregates, organizes and generates content, and distributes it (580) via various output channels, which may include event web sites (256), personal feeds (250), and other output channels (260, 254, 252, FIG. 4). Preferably, selected content is associated with at least one individual participant in the event, and that content is automatically distributed to channels that are associated with that individual participant.
US07876350B2
A three-dimensional image display device including a display device having odd-numbered sub-pixel columns for displaying a left image and even-numbered sub-pixel columns for displaying a right image; a first set of sub-pixels disposed in a same first horizontal line of adjacent odd-numbered sub-pixel columns have different colors; a second set of sub-pixels disposed in a same second horizontal line of adjacent even-numbered sub-pixels column have different colors; a screen positioned away from the display device for displaying the right and left images; and a slit barrier disposed between the display device and the screen for screening light from the display device.
US07876344B2
A photographic printing method includes the steps of thermally transferring a color material onto a recording medium; further transferring an image protection layer thermally onto the recording medium having the color material; and processing the surface of the image protection layer so as to satisfy following conditions (1) to (6), (1) The 20° specular glossiness of the surface of the image protection layer is 30% or less; (2) When the optical comb width is 2.0 mm, the image clarity value is 30% or less; (3) When the optical comb width is 1.0 mm, the image clarity value is 5.0% or more; (4) When the optical comb width is 0.5 mm, the image clarity value is 4.0% or more; (5) When the optical comb width is 0.25 mm, the image clarity value is 3.0% or more; and (6) When the optical comb width is 0.125 mm, the image clarity value is 3.0% or more.
US07876338B2
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel driving method and apparatus for reducing subfield position variation between display frames by arranging an idle period among the subfields. The subfields included in the frame may be divided into at least two subfield groups with reference to a predetermined weight value at which flicker may occur. An idle period, which is substantially a residual time of the frame excluding the subfields, may be arranged between two divided subfield groups. Accordingly, flicker caused by the variation of the number of subfields between frames can be prevented because of the reduced positional variation of the subfields.
US07876331B2
The present invention is a process of staging a live or pre-recorded performance that follows a schedule, optionally before a mass audience. The performance involves electronic and/or mechanical media that is computer controlled, preferably so as to create a virtual reality of one or more events. In the course of the performance, when an action that is not normal to the schedule occurs, the timing, speed, or sequence of one or more electronic and/or mechanical media activities are adjusted, whereby to compensate for the action so that the action does not adversely affect the continuity and totality of the performance to the audience. The present invention also encompasses an apparatus that comprises a sensory stimuli device(s), a mass audience area substantially within a space for reception of the sensory stimuli device(s), and computer hardware and software. The computer hardware and software comprises a script of a scheduled performance; a control program that steps through the script while allowing for flexibility and adaptation of the performance in response to an action that is not normal to the schedule; and a control interface(s) to the sensory stimuli device(s) whereby sensory stimuli associated with the performance can be commanded by the control program. In addition, the present invention embraces a computer readable medium comprising a script containing a thread(s) of performance activity. A thread typically contains computer implementable instructions to control one or more electronic and/or mechanical media devices involved in a performance.
US07876330B2
A technique that can contribute to improvement of processing efficiency in performing image processing employing an SIMD command is provided.
US07876328B2
Provided is a system for managing multiple contexts in a decentralized graphics processing unit. The system includes multiple control units that can include a context buffer, a context processor, and a context scheduler. Also included is logic to receive multiple contexts, logic to identify at least one of the contexts, and logic to facilitate communication among the control units.
US07876326B2
A system and method enables animators to efficiently pose character models' feet. An initial foot model position is received. The initial foot model position specifies a foot model contact point. One or more foot roll parameters are specified that change the relative angle between at least a portion of the foot model and an initial orientation of an alignment plane. Foot roll parameters specify the rotation of the foot model around foot model contact points. Foot roll parameters can include heel roll, ball roll, and toe roll, which specify the rotation of the foot model around contact points on the heel, ball, and toe, respectively, of a foot model. To maintain the position of the foot model contact point, the foot model position is adjusted based on the foot roll parameter. The repositioned foot model is realigned with alignment plane, which restores contact at the foot model contact point.
US07876322B2
A method and apparatus for the simplification of a mesh surface is disclosed that preserves the original geometry of the shape of the surface and, at the same time, reduces undesirable triangle geometries. In one embodiment, a mesh simplification process first determines whether an edge swap operation should be performed as a function of a threshold criteria. Such a threshold may be a function of the span angles and cross angles associated with an edge or, alternatively, may be a predetermined span angle size threshold. In another embodiment, the decision as to whether to contract an edge is made by comparing the size of at least one span angle with a span angle threshold and by comparing the sizes of incident angles associated with the edge to an incident angle threshold.
US07876318B2
A three-dimensional data processing system performs a collating operation precisely and can reduce the quantity of data necessary for presenting candidate data. A storage device stores the three dimensional data of each reference body in a set of the primary compressed data, which has been prepared by compressing three-dimensional data in an irreversible compression method, and the secondary compressed data for compensating difference between the three-dimensional data restored from the primary compressed data and the original three-dimensional data. A server device collates, when it receives the collation object data, the three-dimensional data decompressed from the primary compressed data and the secondary compressed data of each reference object with the collation object data, and transmits the primary compressed data of the several reference objects of higher similarities to the client device. This client device decompresses and displays the primary compressed data on a display device.
US07876316B2
A reference voltage selection circuit includes a first switch element SW1 that outputs a first selection voltage among first to third selection voltages as a first reference voltage among first and second reference voltages, a second switch element SW2 that outputs the second selection voltage as the first reference voltage, a third switch element SW3 that outputs the second selection voltage as the second reference voltage, and a fourth switch element SW4 that outputs the third selection voltage as the second reference voltage. The first to fourth switch elements SW1 to SW4 are ON/OFF-controlled using gamma correction data that contains at least three bits. When the first selection voltage is a ground power supply voltage, reliability can be improved by protecting the first switch element.
US07876309B2
A slider has a first conductive trace having at least one sub-trace and a second conductive trace having at least one sub-trace. The at least one sub-trace of the first conductive trace is interleaved with at least one sub-trace of the second conductive trace. Each sub-trace of the first and second conductive traces has a variable width from a first end to a second end of the slider.
US07876305B2
An electrophoretic display has at least one pixel (18) which comprises electrophoretic material (8, 9), a first electrode (6) and a second electrode (5). An addressing circuit (16, 10) addresses the at least one pixel (18) by applying between the first electrode (6) and the second electrode (5): (i) a drive pulse (Vdr) with a level in accordance with an optical state to be reached by the at least one pixel (18), and (ii) a series of shaking pulses (SP) which have an energy content depending on an optical state of the at least one pixel (18).
US07876297B2
An organic EL drive circuit and an organic EL display device is capable of preventing sticking of a display screen of the organic EL panel due to reduction of an output current of a relatively high withstand voltage transistor of a D/A converter circuit.In particular, an analog converted current is obtained at a predetermined output terminal of a D/A converter by connecting a plurality of series-connected relatively high withstand voltage transistors between an output side of the D/A converter constructed with a current mirror circuit and an output terminal of the D/A converter and using low withstand voltage transistors as output side transistors of the D/A converter. Therefore, the output side transistors of the D/A converter can be replaced by low withstand voltage transistors similar to the input side transistors, so that the area occupied by the D/A converter can be reduced.
US07876296B2
Disclosed are driving circuit and method which are used in an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED), and more specifically to a driving circuit of an organic light emitting diode and a driving method thereof which use a thin film transistor (TFT) as an active device. The driving circuit and method can uniformly produce luminance of the light emitting element because the driving current is produced by compensating the unevenness of threshold voltage of the active device. Further, the variance of the threshold voltage Vth due to deterioration of the transistor produced according as the driving circuit of the OLED is utilized for a long time is also compensated, thereby increasing life of the display device which applies the driving circuit of the OLED.
US07876285B2
A projection system includes: plural projectors that modulate a light beam on the basis of image data, each of the projectors including: an image-data restoring unit and an individual image correction processing unit; a signal transmitting device that connects an information processing apparatus and the projectors and transmits image data to the projectors; and information processing apparatus that includes: a common image correction processing unit and an image-data transmitting unit.
US07876280B2
A broadband bicone antenna supports frequency selective control of electrical length. Frequency selective control of the electrical length of an antenna can provide an antenna exhibiting two or more different electrical lengths where use of each length depends upon the operating frequencies of the signals. The electrical length of the bicone antenna may be reduced in response to higher operating frequencies. Such reduction in electrical length at higher frequencies can provide improved antenna radiation patterns for the antenna. Further, the electrical length of the bicone antenna may be increased in response to low frequency operation. Such increase in electrical length may improve VSWR performance at lower frequencies. Simultaneous operation of the bicone antenna at varied electrical lengths for varied frequency bands can provide improved broadband performance of the antenna.
US07876269B2
An antenna attached to an object and transmitting electromagnetic waves that are modulated by an RFID tag chip includes a polygonal dielectric material layer that is adjacent to the object, a microstrip patch that determines a resonance frequency of the antenna, a microstrip line that is electromagnetically coupled with the microstrip match, and a shorting pin that disconnects the object and the microstrip line. Accordingly, a small-sized antenna that can be attached to metal can be realized.
US07876268B2
Various aspects of the present invention are shown and described, each of which has stand alone utility in a navigated medical environment. A receiver position calibration system and method facilitates calibration of a reference frame prior to each navigated procedure. A concept and application of confidence weights is introduced.Confidence weights can be applied to distance calculations to mitigate the effects of interference and increase the tolerance of the navigated medical system. Multi-path interference is minimized through the transmission of a signal having a pattern of unique frequencies and filtering of the distance calculations for each frequency to identify the ‘best’ distance in the presence of multi-path interference. A position determination method and system that transmits a signal having multiple frequency components permits positions to be identified with high resolution over a large area.
US07876262B2
Electronically steered radar systems such as frequency scanning radars are particularly suitable for detecting and monitoring slow moving, ground-based targets. So-called crawler radar systems are intended for detection of targets that deliberately attempt to avoid detection by keeping low and by moving slowly. Disclosed is a radar system which includes an electronically steered antenna and a receiver arranged to process signals received from a target located at a distance from the radar system so as to identify a Doppler frequency associated with the target. The antenna stares at, rather than glides past, the target surrounding clutter. This means that the spectral spreading of static ground clutter associated with mechanical radar systems can be eliminated, overcoming one of the shortcomings of mechanical radar systems that would otherwise render a crawler radar system unsuitable for Doppler processing.
US07876260B2
A system for preventing light pollution includes one or more radar units that monitor for vehicles in a volume surrounding or containing one or more obstructions having one or more obstruction lights. A master radar detection processing unit receives sensed radar detection information from the one or more radar units with associated radar signal processing units and determines whether a vehicle is present within the monitored volume. A plurality of obstruction light controller units are interconnected in a network, such as a wireless network. Each obstruction light controller unit turns on an obstruction light when a vehicle enters the monitored volume or a failure condition exists, and turns off the obstruction light when the vehicle has vacated the monitored volume and no failure condition exists. The one or more radar units can transmit sensed radar detection information to a master radar detection processing unit via the network.
US07876256B2
A method of for processing signals in a radar system is shown comprising an antenna system having at least two antenna elements, a beam forming arrangement (ABF_RX, ABF_TX) for selectively steering the directivity of the antenna system in a given selected direction, the directivity of the antenna system having a main lobe in the selected direction and a back lobe (BL) in another direction and of a lower magnitude than the main lobe. By utilizing various scale and subtract processing both noise levels and ghost signals can be considerably reduced. A SAR radar apparatus has moreover been shown.
US07876249B2
In general, a method includes comparing a first input signal with a second input signal to produce an output signal. The first input signal corresponds to an amount of light detected by a sensor, and the second input signal corresponds to an aggregated value of the output signal. The method may also include aggregating the output signal in a digital accumulator and converting a digital signal from an output of the digital accumulator to an analog signal.
US07876248B2
Systems, methods and apparatus for a scalable quantum processor architecture. A quantum processor is locally programmable by providing a memory register with a signal embodying device control parameter(s), converting the signal to an analog signal; and administering the analog signal to one or more programmable devices.
US07876247B1
A new technique on the dithering of one-dimensional signals is presented. The novel technique determines whether dither is needed when reducing the bit depth and evaluates whether the total error of the un-dithered quantization is white noise. If this is the case, then no undesired harmonics are added in the quantization or re-quantization process. The novel technique presents a state of the art signal-dependent dither having a lower quantization noise.
US07876237B2
A road cone includes: a hollow truncated conical body having a top open end defining a top opening; a power supplying unit mounted detachably in the truncated conical body and accessible through the top opening; a cap mounted on the top open end of the truncated conical body and covering the top opening of the truncated conical body; and a light emitting unit mounted in the truncated conical body and connected electrically to the power supplying unit so as to be powered by the power supplying unit to generate light inside the truncated conical body.
US07876235B2
An indicator assembly for a vehicle instrument cluster is provided. The indicator assembly includes a (“floating”) needle configured to rotate with respect to an indicator housing. The needle is selectively illuminable by a light source which may be mounted in various placements with respect the indicator assembly.
US07876231B2
An integrated management system having at least one air conditioner group including a plurality of air conditioners, and a remote integrated management system connected to the at least one air conditioner group and configured to analyze operation state information related to the plurality of air conditioners in the at least one air conditioner group and to generate an alarm signal based on the analyzed operation state information.
US07876223B2
An RFID tag information communicating apparatus includes a feeding roller driving shaft that is provided within a housing constituting a shell of an apparatus main body and feeds a base tape, and an antenna for label production and an antenna for information transmission and reception, which are capable of transmitting and receiving information with an RFID circuit element for label production included in a base tape and an RFID circuit element for information transmission and reception located outside the housing. Each of the RFID circuit elements has an IC circuit part that stores information and an antenna that transmits and receives information. The apparatus is configured capable of performing both of the information reading and information writing with the RFID circuit element for label production and the RFID circuit element for information transmission and reception via the antennas.
US07876219B2
A message leaving system for digital photo frame (DPF) is provided. The message leaving system includes a message recording unit configured to record a message in the DPF, a detecting sensor initiated by information sent from the message recording unit to detect human presence after a predetermined detecting time period from the message being stopped recording, a message reminding unit generating a notification signal to inform users to play the message when the detecting sensor detects human presence, and a message handling unit configured to store or delete the message after the message being played.
US07876213B2
A personal annunciation device (PAD) providing, in an area of interest, compensatory annunciation of the presence of an abnormal condition in a hazardous area and accountability of the user of the PAD. Compensatory annunciation supplements primary annunciation provided by an emergency notification system (ENS). A detection system detects an abnormal condition, and a wireless transmission system transmits a wireless transmission to the PAD. The PAD has a housing enclosing the components of the PAD including a communication module for receiving the wireless transmission, a power supply, processor, memory, annunciation system, and RFID module. The RFID module has an RFID receiver that listens for an RFID transmission from an RFID reader disposed in a portal of an area of interest. The PAD identifies the transmission and changes its operating state based on the transmission. The RFID readers recognize, record, and transmit the state of the PAD to a base station providing accountability of the wearer.
US07876202B2
A device for controlling the height of a load or load carrier behind the cab of a truck includes a sensor supported on a power operated air deflector on the roof of the cab. The sensor is arranged, during vertical movement of the rear end of the air deflector, to sense the maximum height of the load or the load carrier behind the cab and to send signals representing the maximum height to an indicator inside the cab.
US07876196B2
A chip resistor includes an insulating substrate, a pair of electrodes formed on a main surface of the substrate and a resistor element electrically connected to the electrodes. The paired electrodes are spaced from each other in a first direction. The main surface of the substrate is formed with a raised portion in the form of a plateau which is smaller in size than the substrate in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The paired electrodes are formed on the raised portion. The resistor element is equal in size to the raised portion in the second direction.
US07876192B2
A thermal and/or magnetic overload trip device for an electrical switching device having multiple poles includes a housing having a housing member configured to receive a plurality of functional elements and being at least partially closable. The overload trip device further including a conductor strap associated with each of the multiple poles, each conductor strap having an associated housing portion, and a rotatable trip shaft configured to rotate between a rest position and an actuating position so as to trip an associated switching mechanism. The overload trip device further including at least one rotatable adjusting element configured to set the at least one of the presettable thermal threshold and the presettable magnetic threshold. Further, the housing member is configured so that the functional elements is insertable therein and is couplable to the housing member.
US07876189B2
Improved form-less electronic apparatus and methods for manufacturing the same. In one exemplary embodiment, the apparatus comprises a shape-core inductive device having a bonded-wire coil which is formed and maintained within the device without resort to a bobbin or other form(er). The absence of the bobbin simplifies the manufacture of the device, reduces its cost, and allows it to be made more compact (or alternatively additional functionality to be disposed therein). One variant utilizes a termination header for mating to a PCB or other assembly, while another totally avoids the use of the header by directly mating to the PCB. Multi-core variants and methods of manufacturing are also disclosed.
US07876182B2
A miniaturized relay having a first zone facing a second zone, a first condenser plate, a second condenser plate arranged in the second zone, and smaller than or equal to the first plate, an intermediate space between both zones, a conductive element arranged in the intermediate space and which is mechanically independent from the adjacent walls and can move freely across the intermediate space depending on voltages present between both plates, contact points of an electric circuit, in which the conductive element closes the electric circuit by making contact with the contact points. Such relays can be used, for example, as: accelerometers, accelerometers in airbags, tiltmeters, Coriolis force detectors, microphones, in acoustic applications, pressure sensors, flow sensors, temperature sensors, gas sensors and magnetic field sensors.
US07876177B2
A resonator that can alleviate restrictions in usage and design due to the bias voltage dependency and for which usage and design conditions can be easily determined, includes a movable electrode opposite and sandwiching the fixed electrode, and an extension of the fixed electrode or the movable electrode that extends along a plane crossing the opposite surfaces of the fixed electrode and the movable electrode. With being displaced vertically relative to the fixed electrode, the movable electrode is vibrated.
US07876175B2
A diplexer for receiving and transmitting a first bandwidth signal corresponding to a first central frequency and a second bandwidth signal corresponding to a second central frequency includes a first signal end, a second signal end, a third signal end, a first impedance unit, a second impedance unit and a third impedance unit. The first impedance unit forms an impedance match with the third impedance unit when the third signal end receives or transmits the first bandwidth signal, and forms a high impedance unit when the third signal end receives or transmits the second bandwidth signal. The second impedance unit forms an impedance match with the third impedance unit when the third signal end receives or transmits the second bandwidth signal, and forms a high impedance unit when the third signal end receives or transmits the first bandwidth signal.
US07876170B2
A voltage controlled oscillator 1, a variable frequency divider 2, a phase comparator 3, and a loop filter 4 form a Phase Locked Loop (PLL). A sigma-delta modulator 5 sigma-delta modulates data obtained by adding a fractional part M2 of the frequency division factor data with modulation data X by using an output signal of the variable frequency divider 2 as a clock. An output signal of the sigma-delta modulator 5 is added to an integral part M1 of the frequency division factor data, and the resultant data becomes effective frequency division factor data 13 of the variable frequency divider 2. An output signal of the sigma-delta modulator 5 also becomes control data 14 after passing through a D/A converter 6, a low-pass filter 7, and an amplitude adjustment circuit 8. The control data 14 is inputted into a frequency modulation terminal of the voltage controlled oscillator 1. Therefore, it is possible to provide a frequency modulator that can use a reference signal source having no frequency modulation function, and perform modulation over a wide range of frequencies based on a digital modulation signal.
US07876168B2
A piezoelectric oscillator includes: a piezoelectric resonator including a container, the container containing a piezoelectric resonator element: and a semiconductor device including an oscillation circuit for vibrating the piezoelectric resonator. The semiconductor device is bonded to a surface of the container. The container has an external coupling terminal and a cut-off part, the external coupling terminal being coupled to the semiconductor device, the cut-off part being disposed on a side surface of the container. The external coupling terminal is disposed in an area of the container, the area being opposed to the semiconductor device, and in the cut-off part. The semiconductor device has a coupling terminal on a surface thereof, the surface being opposed to the container. The coupling terminal of the semiconductor device and the external coupling terminal of the container are coupled with a conductive material.
US07876156B2
An RF power amplifier has a final-stage amplifier stage which generates an RF transmit output signal, a signal detector which detects an RF transmit output level, a first detector, a second detector and a control circuit. The final-stage amplifier stage includes a transistor and a load element and performs saturation type nonlinear amplification and non-saturation type linear amplification. The first detector and the control circuit maintain the RF transmit output signal approximately constant with respect to a variation in load at an antenna at the saturation type nonlinear amplification. The second detector and the control circuit reduce an increase in the output voltage of the final stage transistor with respect to an overload state of the antenna at the non-saturation type linear amplification.
US07876153B1
A transconductor circuit, particularly according to the multi-tanh principle, having a first input node and a second input node, a first differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a first offset voltage, and a second differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a second offset voltage different from the first offset voltage. A first resistance circuit is coupled between the first differential amplifier and at least one current source, and a second resistance circuit is coupled between the second differential amplifier and the at least one current source. Varying of the current sources enables control of the transconductance without degrading linearity.
US07876150B2
According to one embodiment, an ASK demodulator includes a rectifier, a first low-pass filter, a second low-pass filter, a comparator, and a threshold controller. The rectifier rectifies an ASK signal. The first low-pass filter outputs a signal corresponding to an envelope curve output from the rectifier. The second low-pass filter outputs an integrated signal of the signal output from the first low-pass filter. The comparator detects an output logic in accordance with comparison between the signal output from the first low-pass filter and a threshold obtained by adding a predetermined hysteresis width to the integrated signal output from the second low-pass filter. The threshold controller controls the threshold by setting the predetermined hysteresis width based on a direct current offset voltage caused by element dispersions of the comparator.
US07876144B2
A start-up circuit receives a start-up signal instructing start-up of an equipment mounted with the circuit, and executes a predetermined sequence when start-up is instructed by the start-up signal. An oscillator generates a clock signal. A sequence circuit receives the start-up signal and a clock signal output from the oscillator, measures time by counting the clock signal when the start-up signal transits to a predetermined level, and executes a predetermined event at a predetermined timing. The oscillator operates for a period where the start-up signal is at the predetermined level if the start-up signal is at the predetermined level during the period the power key of the equipment mounted with the circuit is being pushed.
US07876134B2
A signal frequency change circuit is presented. The signal frequency change circuit includes a delay line, a detector, a controller, a multiplexer, and an output unit. The delay line delays a clock signal by a first delay time corresponding to a delay control signal to generate a delay signal and delays the clock signal by a second delay time shorter than a first delay time to generate a pre-frequency change clock signal. The detector generates a phase locked completion signal. The controller sequentially shifts the delay control signal and a multiplexing control signal. The multiplexer selects and outputs one of the pre-frequency change clock signals. The output unit generates a frequency change clock signal.
US07876132B1
A circuit includes a first comparator block configured to output a voltage equal to a higher of a supply voltage and a bias voltage, a second comparator block configured to output a voltage equal to a higher of the bias voltage and an external voltage supplied through an Input/Output (IO) pad, and a third comparator block configured to output a voltage equal to a higher of the output of the first comparator block and the output of the second comparator block. A voltage across one or more constituent active element(s) of each of the first comparator block, the second comparator block, and the third comparator block is within an upper tolerable limit thereof during each of a normal operation, a failsafe operation, and a tolerant operation.
US07876129B2
An I/O circuit includes load sense and active noise reduction features that result in high speed output signal transitions with very low noise. Capacitive feedback control circuitry controls the point and time at which feedback capacitors are applied to the gate drive of the I/O circuit output stage. Active device feedback control controls the output stage gate drive.
US07876118B2
Provided is a test apparatus that tests a device under test, comprising a pattern generating section that generates a test pattern for testing the device under test; a signal supplying section that supplies the device under test with a test signal corresponding to the test pattern; a trigger generating section that supplies a trigger signal to an external instrument connected to the device under test; and a synchronization control section that outputs, to the trigger generating section, a synchronization signal instructing generation of the trigger signal, based on at least a portion of the test pattern generated by the pattern generating section.
US07876116B1
A compliant chuck has a top base assembly, a bottom bracket assembly, a contact plate, a sensor device, a thermoelectric cooling module and a heat-dissipating module. The bottom bracket assembly has a center opening. The contact plate is disposed between the top base assembly and the bottom bracket assembly and has a protrusion corresponding to the center opening and having a mounting hole and an adsorbing hole. The sensor device is mounted in the mounting hole. The thermoelectric cooling module is attached to a top surface of the contact plate. The heat-dissipating module is mounted on the thermoelectric cooling module and cooperates with a chiller to dissipate heat. The compliant chuck uses the sensor device to sense surface temperature of a semiconducting device during testing the semiconducting device so as to compensate the temperature by controlling current into the thermoelectric cooling module.
US07876115B2
A chuck includes a conductive element that contacts a device under test in a location on the chuck. The chuck includes an upper surface for supporting a device under test and a conductive element that extends through the chuck to the upper surface of the chuck. The conductive element is electrically isolated from the upper surface of the chuck, and makes electrical contact with any device under test supported by the chuck.
US07876112B2
An integrated circuit (70) having parallel scan paths (824-842, 924-942) includes a pair or pairs of scan distributor (800,900) and scan collector (844,944) circuits. The scan paths apply stimulus test data to functional circuits (702) on the integrated circuit and receive response test data from the functional circuits. A scan distributor circuit (800) receives serial test data from a peripheral bond pad (802) and distributes it to each parallel scan path. A scan collector circuit (844) collects test data from the parallel scan paths and applies it to a peripheral bond pad (866). This enables more parallel scan paths of shorter length to connect to the functional circuits. The scan distributor and collector circuits can be respectively connected in series to provide parallel connections to more parallel scan paths. Additionally multiplexer circuits (886,890) can selectively connect pairs of scan distributor and collector circuits together. The scan distributor and collector circuits can be formed in core circuits (704). The core circuits then can be connected to other core circuits and functional circuits with simple connections to the parallel scan circuits through the scan distributor and collector circuits.
US07876111B1
A measuring system for testing and measuring a wireless communication apparatus includes a plurality of first probes, a plurality of second probes, and a control module. The first probes are arranged to face toward a first side of the wireless communication apparatus for testing and measuring a plurality of first test points provided on the first side of the wireless communication apparatus. The second probes are arranged to face toward an opposite second side of the wireless communication apparatus for testing and measuring a plurality of second test points provided on the second side of the wireless communication apparatus. The first and second probes detect wireless signals of the wireless communication apparatus via the first and second test points, respectively. The control module is electrically connected to the first probes and the second probes for receiving a plurality of measuring signals transmitted from the first and the second probes.
US07876109B2
The sensor according to the invention for detecting the position of a movable magnetic object includes a resistance track and a contact electrode arranged thereon. Moreover the sensor includes a magnetic position transmitter, which is developed in such a way that it can follow the magnetic object, that it can be moved along the contact electrode and through which the contact electrode can be brought into contact with the resistance track.
US07876108B2
The present invention includes devices, systems, and methods for assaying cells using cell-substrate impedance monitoring. In one aspect, the invention provides cell-substrate impedance monitoring devices that comprise electrode arrays on a nonconducting substrate, in which each of the arrays has an approximately uniform electrode resistance across the entire array. In another aspect, the invention provides cell-substrate monitoring systems comprising one or more cell-substrate monitoring devices comprising multiple wells each having an electrode array, an impedance analyzer, a device station that connects arrays of individual wells to the impedance analyzer, and software for controlling the device station and impedance analyzer. In another aspect, the invention provides cellular assays that use impedance monitoring to detect changes in cell behavior or state. The methods can be used to test the effects of compounds on cells, such as in cytotoxicity assays. Methods of cytotoxicity profiling of compounds are also provided.
US07876106B2
An occupancy detection system includes a signal generator coupled to an electrode, the signal generator configured to output a first signal at a first frequency and a second signal at a second frequency. The system further includes a voltage detection circuit connected to an output terminal of the signal generator and to an input terminal of the electrode, wherein the voltage detection circuit is configured to measure a first voltage responsive to the first signal at the first frequency and a second voltage responsive to the second signal at the second frequency. A control module in communication with the voltage detection circuit is configured to detect a state of occupancy based on the first voltage and the second voltage.
US07876098B2
A volume coil for a magnetic resonance imaging system is composed of a number of coil units. In the coil, there are overlapped parts between two adjacent ones of the coil units for eliminating coupling between these two adjacent coil units. Two next-adjacent ones of the coil units, which are separated from each other by one coil unit, are each provided with an inductor, and these two inductors are coupled with each other for eliminating coupling between these two next-adjacent coil units. All coil units are collected on one axial end face of the coil. Two coil units in the coil that are neither adjacent coil units nor next-adjacent coil units are connected with each other on the end face by a capacitance circuit or a inductance circuit for eliminating the coupling between these two coil units that are neither adjacent coil units nor next-adjacent coil units. The coupling among the various coil units is relatively thoroughly eliminated, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal received by the coil is increased.
US07876094B2
Described are methods for monitoring of stresses and other material properties. These methods use measurements of effective electrical properties, such as magnetic permeability and electrical conductivity, to infer the state of the test material, such as the stress, temperature, or overload condition. The sensors, which can be single element sensors or sensor arrays, can be used to periodically inspect selected locations, mounted to the test material, or scanned over the test material to generate two-dimensional images of the material properties. Magnetic field or eddy current based inductive and giant magnetoresistive sensors may be used on magnetizable and/or conducting materials, while capacitive sensors can be used for dielectric materials. Methods are also described for the use of state-sensitive layers to determine the state of materials of interest. These methods allow the weight of articles, such as aircraft, to be determined.
US07876087B2
Probecard architectures partition the spring compliance required for IC testing between several different components. Such architectures can provide shorter springs, better impedance control, improved power/ground distribution and more direct paths to tester electronics. The probecards can also use thinner interconnector substrates to conform to the planarity of a DUT and may suspend such a substrate by wires attached to a perimeter edge of the substrate to permit the substrate to tilt. Tilting can also be facilitated by positioning tester-side springs away from the perimeter of the substrate. Low compliance MEMS probes for such architectures can be provided on replaceable coupons having attachment points away from electrical connections, and a method for fabricating probe springs can plate spring material on a membrane deformed by contact with a bumped substrate.
US07876078B2
Techniques for near zero light-load supply current in switching power supply are described. In one embodiment, a switching power supply comprises sub-circuits, a capacitor/inverter circuit, and a standby control circuit. The sub-circuits comprise a feedback resistor that supplies a fraction of an output voltage of the power supply, an integrator that provides an integrator output, a comparator that provides a pulse width modulated signal, a switching element that receives the pulse width modulated signal and modulates current such that the power supply provides a regulated voltage, and a monitoring circuit that provides a logic low signal when the pulse width modulated signal is absent over a period of time. The standby control circuit disables the sub-circuits when the logical low signal is detected permitting the switching power supply to operate at a minimum current, an re-enables the sub-circuits when an out of regulation signal from the capacitor/inverter circuit is detected.
US07876073B2
A current-mode controlled switching regulator and control method therefor. The switching regulator includes input and output terminals, a switching device to switch in accordance with a control signal, an inductor to store charge from an input voltage at the input terminal based on the switching device, a rectifying device to discharge the charge stored in the inductor, an error amplifier to amplify a voltage difference between a divided voltage generated by dividing an output voltage at the output terminal and a predetermined reference voltage, a slope voltage generator to generate and output a slope voltage having a slope angle corresponding to the input voltage, and a switching controller to compare a voltage output from the error amplifier with the slope voltage, generate a pulse signal with a duty cycle corresponding to a comparison result, and control the switching of the switching device according to the pulse signal.
US07876071B2
An integrated circuit battery sensor and system thereof are provided. The battery sensor includes a voltage sensor configured to sample a voyage of a battery and a buffer in electrical communication with the voltage sensor and configured for scaling the sampled battery voltage and outputting a voltage signal proportional to the sampled battery voltage; wherein the voltage sensor is further configured for isolating the buffer from the battery. The voltage sensor includes a first capacitor coupled to a positive potential terminal of the battery and a second capacitor coupled to a negative potential terminal of the battery. The battery sensor includes a first die including a first and second input terminal configured for coupling to the positive and negative potential terminals of the battery; and a second die including the voltage sensor, wherein the first and second die are electrically isolated from each other.
US07876067B2
A connector-less charging circuit includes a transformer having a primary side associated with a secondary side. A primary switch is responsive to a control signal for connecting the transformer to ground during a first portion of a duty cycle, and disconnecting the transformer from ground during the second portion of the duty cycle. An active clamp circuit connects to the primary side of the transformer for recycling leakage energy from the transformer back to the source responsive to the control signal during the second portion of the duty cycle. A PWM controller generates the control signal to both the active clamp circuit and the primary switch.
US07876066B2
A charging station is provided for charging portable electronic devices. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the charging station includes a surge protector located within the charging station. The charging station includes a base for housing the surge protector, a removable base cover that can be placed over the base and a removable tray that can be placed over the base or over the base cover if the base cover is in place over the base. If desired, the charging station can be used in a disassembled form by placing the tray on one surface and the base on another. If the charging station is used in this manner, the base cover can be placed over the base.
US07876056B2
A circuit for operating a plurality of electrical devices at a plurality of varying power levels includes a plurality of motion sensor circuits for detecting motion relative thereto and having an a plurality of outputs conditioned upon motion detection. Additionally, a photocell sensor circuit for detecting a low ambient illumination level has an output command conditioned upon the detection of a predetermined illumination level that is electrically coupled to the control circuit having a plurality of inputs.
US07876054B2
A plasma display apparatus is disclosed. The plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel and a driver. The plasma display apparatus includes a scan electrode, a sustain electrode, an address electrode, a lower dielectric layer on the address electrode, and a phosphor layer on the lower dielectric layer. The phosphor layer includes a phosphor material and an additive material. The driver does not supply a sustain signal to at least one of the scan electrode and the sustain electrode during a sustain period of a first subfield of a plurality of subfields of a frame. A sustain period of at least one subfield of the plurality of subfields of the frame is omitted.
US07876051B2
The electrode mount includes a filament coil, paired lead wires supporting the filament coil therebetween in a manner that the filament coil hangs across the lead wires; and bead glass retaining the paired leadwires. The arc tube includes an arc tube main body formed by winding a glass tube, and an electrode fixed to the end portion of the arc tube main body. For this electrode, the electrode mount is used. The fixing of the electrode mount at the end portion of the arc tube main body is made at a region of the lead wires positioned between the filament coil and the bead glass, and the bead glass is disposed outside the arc tube main body.
US07876049B2
An electrode-forming composition and a plasma display panel manufactured using the electrode-forming composition are provided. The electrode-forming composition includes: frit, a metal powder, and a vehicle, wherein the metal powder and the frit are contained in a weight ratio of 52 to 62:5 to 15; the plasma display panel including: first and second substrates that face each other with a predetermined distance between; a first electrode formed on the first substrate and extending in a first direction; a dielectric layer formed on the first substrate to cover the first electrode; a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode, formed on the second substrate, and extending in a second direction crossing the first direction; a barrier rib in a space between the first substrate and the second substrate where the barrier rib defines a plurality of discharge cells; and a phosphor layer formed within each discharge cell, wherein the first electrode includes an insulating glass lager along an edge in the first direction.
US07876044B2
Provided is a plasma display apparatus. The plasma display apparatus includes a scan electrode and a sustain electrode, a boundary barrier rib, and a filter. The scan and sustain electrodes are formed in parallel with each other on a front substrate. The boundary barrier rib is formed on a rear substrate facing the front substrate, and partitions a discharge cell into two up/down neighbor cells. The filter is positioned in front of a panel. The filter includes an external light shield sheet including a first base part and a first pattern part, and an ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI) shield sheet. A thickness of the external light shield sheet is 1.01 to 2.25 times of a height of the first pattern part. The sustain electrode is commonly formed only one for the two up/down neighbor cells.
US07876038B2
An organic light emitting display including: a driving thin film transistor (TFT) including a semiconductor layer on a substrate including a source electrode, a drain electrode, and an N-type oxide semiconductor; at least one insulating layer formed on the driving TFT; a pixel defining layer for defining a pixel region on the insulating layer; a cathode electrode coupled to a drain electrode of the driving TFT and patterned to correspond to the pixel region; an electron injection layer arranged over the entire surfaces of the pixel defining layer and the cathode electrode and formed of a material whose band gaps are 3.0 eV to 5.0 eV selected from the group consisting of an oxide, a nitride, a fluoride, and diamond on; an organic light emitting layer formed on the electron injection layer to correspond to the cathode region; and an anode electrode formed on the organic light emitting layer.
US07876018B2
A synchronous reluctance motor comprises a stator and a rotor, the rotor comprising: a rotation shaft; a first core having a shaft hole for inserting the rotation shaft at a center thereof, and having a plurality of first flux barrier groups arranged along a circumferential direction of the shaft hole and spacing from each other; and a second core having a receiving hole larger than the shaft hole at a center thereof, and stacked at one side of the first core in an axial line direction. A length of the rotor protruding from a supporting portion can be decreased without reducing a stacked thickness thereof, and a vibration occurrence in a horizontal direction with respect to the rotation shaft can be reduced, thereby enhancing a reliability of the synchronous reluctance motor.
US07876006B2
An alternator has a rectifier converting an alternating current to a direct current. The rectifier has a heat sink and rectifying elements. The sink has front and rear surfaces opposite to each other along a depth direction. The sink has holes each extending along the depth direction. Each element has a disk disposed in one hole and a semiconductor pellet attached to the disk. Each disk has upper and bottom surfaces opposite to each other along the depth direction. Each pellet is disposed on the upper surface. A contact surface of each disk is in contact with the sink. A position of the upper surface of each disk is placed between the first and second surfaces of the heat sink. A range of the contact surface of each disk is within a range between the upper and bottom surfaces of the disk.
US07876005B2
In a motor, a retaining claw with a slanted surface is arranged around the upper end of a tubular portion of a housing for mounting a rotor. A cylindrical portion is integrally formed in a peripheral area of a rotational axis of a turntable. A retaining member with retaining portions having a J-shaped cross section is attached to the lower surface of the turntable. Arms of the retaining portions are located in the vicinity of the lower end of the cylindrical portion. In mounting the rotor onto the housing, the retaining portions contact the slanted surface and the arms are elastically deformed. Upon completion of the mounting, the arms return to a state before the elastic deformation, so that the retaining claw prevents the rotor from coming off.
US07875993B2
A system and method for switching power sources for an aircraft electric brake system is disclosed. The method removes battery power from electric brake actuator controls during flight until landing gear extension occurs. The method utilizes a logic circuit to switch between available power sources based on a plurality of control signals. The method minimizes the total power drawn during flight, and saves battery power if the aircraft calls for operating on battery power only.
US07875987B2
A method, structure, system of aligning a substrate to a photomask. The method comprising: directing light through a clear region of the photomask in a photolithography tool, through a lens of the tool and onto a set of at least three diffraction mirror arrays on the substrate, each diffraction mirror array of the set of at least three diffraction mirror arrays comprising a single row of mirrors, all mirrors in any particular diffraction mirror array spaced apart a same distance, mirrors in different diffraction mirror arrays spaced apart different distances; measuring an intensity of light diffracted from the set of at least three diffraction mirror arrays onto an array of photo detectors; and adjusting a temperature of the photomask or photomask and lens based on the measured intensity of light.
US07875984B2
A compliant bonding structure is disposed between a semiconductor light emitting device and a mount. When the semiconductor light emitting device is attached to the mount, for example by providing pressure, heat, and/or ultrasonic energy to the semiconductor light emitting device, the compliant bonding structure collapses to partially fill a space between the semiconductor light emitting device and the mount. In some embodiments, the compliant bonding structure is plurality of metal bumps that undergo plastic deformation during bonding. In some embodiments, the compliant bonding structure is a porous metal layer.
US07875978B2
A metal line having a multi-layered diffusion layer in a resultant semiconductor device is presented along with corresponding methods of forming the same. The metal line includes an insulation layer, a multi-layered diffusion barrier, and a metal layer. The insulation layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate and has a metal line forming region. The multi-layered diffusion barrier is formed on a surface of the metal line forming region defined in the insulation layer. The diffusion barrier includes a VB2 layer, a CrV layer and a Cr layer. The metal layer is formed on the diffusion barrier which substantially fills in the metal line forming region of the insulation layer to eventually form the metal line.
US07875977B2
Barrier layers for conductive features and methods of formation thereof are disclosed. A first barrier material is deposited on top surfaces of an insulating material, and a second barrier material is deposited on sidewalls of the insulating material, wherein the second barrier material is different than the first barrier material. The first barrier material induces grain growth of a subsequently deposited conductive material at a first rate, and the second barrier material induces grain growth of the conductive material at a second rate, wherein the second rate is slower than the first rate.
US07875971B2
The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first semiconductor element, a second semiconductor element, a first heat sink and a second heat sink. The first and the second semiconductor elements are provided on the substrate. The maximum power consumption of the first semiconductor element is lower than that of the second semiconductor element. The first heat sink is fixed to the first semiconductor element. The second heat sink is fixed to the second semiconductor element. The first heat sink is spaced apart from the second heat sink.
US07875970B2
In one aspect, an embodiment of an IC package includes an IC chip electrically connected to a substrate, a heatspreader disposed over the IC chip, wherein the heatspreader does not directly contact the IC chip, and an encapsulant material encapsulating at least a portion of the IC chip and a portion of the heatspreader such that a top portion of the heatspreader is exposed to the surroundings of the IC package. In another embodiment, the heatspreader comprises at least one castellation to improve adhesion to the encapsulation compound. A method of manufacturing such IC package is also disclosed.
US07875932B2
A method and apparatus for producing a relatively thin, relatively uniform semiconductor layer which has improved carrier mobility. In an embodiment, a lattice-matched insulator layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a lattice-matched semiconductor layer is formed on the insulator layer to form a relatively thin, relatively uniform semiconductor on insulator apparatus. In embodiments of the method and apparatus, energy band characteristics may be used to facilitate the extraction of the well-region minority carriers.
US07875928B2
A component arrangement having an evaluation circuit for detecting wear on connections is disclosed. The component arrangement has the following features: a semiconductor body having at least one semiconductor component which is integrated in the semiconductor body and has at least one first connection zone, a first contact zone which is applied to the semiconductor body and contact-connects the at least one first connection zone in an electrically conductive manner, a contact element which is connected to the contact zone in an electrically conductive manner by means of at least one connection, the at least one contact zone having at least two contact zone sections which are arranged at a distance from one another and are each connected to the contact element in an electrically conductive manner by means of at least one connection, and an evaluation circuit being connected to the two contact zone sections.
US07875923B2
A non-volatile memory cell that has a charge source region, a charge storage region, and a crested tunnel barrier layer that has a potential energy profile which peaks between the charge source region and the charge storage region. The tunnel barrier layer has multiple high-K dielectric materials, either as individual layers or as compositionally graded materials.
US07875918B2
An image sensor pixel includes a substrate, a first epitaxial layer, a collector layer, a second epitaxial layer and a light collection region. The substrate is doped to have a first conductivity type. The first epitaxial layer is disposed over the substrate and doped to have the first conductivity type as well. The collector layer is selectively disposed over at least a portion of the first epitaxial layer and doped to have a second conductivity type. The second epitaxial layer is disposed over the collector layer and doped to have the first conductivity type. The light collection region collects photo-generated charge carriers and is disposed within the second epitaxial layer. The light collection region is also doped to have the second conductivity type.
US07875908B2
Bipolar transistors and methods of forming the bipolar transistors. The method including forming a P-type collector in a silicon substrate; forming an intrinsic base on the collector, the intrinsic base including a first N-type dopant species, germanium and carbon; forming an N-type extrinsic base over a first region and a second region of the intrinsic base, the first region over the collector and the second region over a dielectric adjacent to the collector, the N-type extrinsic base containing or not containing carbon; and forming a P-type emitter on the first region of the intrinsic base.
US07875905B2
A semiconductor optical receiver device is provided, which a mesa comprising a plurality of semiconductor crystal layers formed on a semiconductor substrate including a pn junction having a first conductive semiconductor crystal layer and a second conductive semiconductor crystal layer and including a first contact layer on the semiconductor substrate, a plurality of electrodes to apply electric field to the pn junction are coupled on the semiconductor substrate, a second contact layer is formed on a buried layer in which the mesa is buried, and the electric field is applied to the pn junction through the first and second contact layers.
US07875897B2
A light emitting device having: a light-emitting portion having a light emitting element flip-chip mounted, a first power supply portion that supplies power to the light emitting element, and an inorganic sealing material that seals the light emitting element; a second power supply portion that supplies power to the light-emitting portion; and a resin that seals the light-emitting portion. The resin comprises an optical-shaped surface.
US07875893B2
Light-emitting elements have a problem that their light-extraction efficiency is low due to scattered light or reflected light inside the light-emitting elements. The light-extraction efficiency of the light-emitting elements needs to be enhanced by a new method. According to the present invention, a light-emitting element includes a first layer generating holes, a second layer including a light-emitting layer for each emission color and a third layer generating electrons between an anode and a cathode, and the thickness of the first layer is different depending on each layer including the light-emitting layer for each emission color. A layer in which an organic compound and a metal oxide are mixed is used as the first layer, and thus, the driving voltage is not increased even when the thickness is increased, which is preferable.
US07875877B2
An organic thin film transistor that can control the threshold voltage and reduce leakage current includes: a gate electrode; an organic semiconductor layer insulated from the gate electrode; a source electrode and a drain electrode insulated from the gate electrode and electrically connected to the organic semiconductor layer; a gate insulating layer interposed between the gate electrode and the organic semiconductor layer; and a hole control layer that is interposed between the gate insulating layer and the organic semiconductor layer. The hole control layer includes a compound having a hole-donor group or a compound having a hole-acceptor group.
US07875876B1
Described is a scalable quantum computer that includes at least two classical to quantum interface devices, with each being connected to a distinct quantum processing unit (QPU). An Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair generator (EPRPG) is included for generating an entangled Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair that is sent to the QPUs. Each QPU is quantumly connected with the EPRPG and is configured to receive a mobile qubit from the EPRPG and perform a sequence of operations such that the mobile qubit interacts with a source qubit when a teleportation algorithm is initiated, leaving a second mobile qubit in the original quantum state of the source qubit.
US07875862B1
An ultraviolet plant eradication system providing an ultraviolet radiation beam delivered by at least one ultraviolet laser dispersing a selected bandwidth of ultraviolet radiation to an area containing certain specific plants in a pattern, projects the ultraviolet laser radiation beam into the ground area containing plants, the adjustable bandwidth of the ultraviolet radiation determined by the specific bandwidth optimally adapted to disrupt the cellular structure of the selected plant to be exterminated by the ultraviolet radiation, the system being applied by either a ground delivered vehicle or an airborne vehicle.
US07875855B2
In order to detect an image generated by an image source, a mirror arrangement is arranged between the image source and a detector. The mirror arrangement includes two spaced-apart deflection mirrors, which are parallel to each other or form an acute angle of less than 90° between them. In particular when the image source is a scintillator layer, shielding of X-rays from the detector with simultaneous compact dimensioning of the apparatus is achieved in this manner.
US07875854B2
The invention relates to a design structure, and more particularly, to a design structure for an alpha particle sensor in SOI technology and a circuit thereof. The structure is a silicon-on-insulator radiation detector which includes: a charge collection node; a precharge transistor that has a source from the charge collection node, a drain at Vdd, and a gate controlled by a precharge signal; an access transistor that has a source from the charge collection node, a drain connecting to a readout node, and a gate controlled by a read-out signal; and a detector pulldown transistor having a drain from the charge collection node, a source to ground, and a grounded gate.
US07875849B2
The present invention provides a charged-particle beam inspection technology that enables to acquire a shadow contrast enhanced image, and to detect a shallow roughness with sufficient sensitively, which is caused by a micro-scale or nano-scale foreign matter in an inspection of a semiconductor device having a circuit pattern or the like.Immersion objective lens is employed as an objective lens for the high-resolution observation. A converged electron beam is obtained due to the objective lens. An assist electrode, a right detector and a left detector are provided in the objective lens. A velocity component of a secondary electron caused by the irradiation of the sample with an electron beam is discriminated. An azimuth component is further discriminated.
US07875848B2
A compact, low-cost, and simple ion trap capable of operating at a low vacuum level is provided along with technology for utilizing that ion trap to perform mass spectroscopy and analyzing ion mobility without a drop in measurement accuracy. Ions are trapped in a one dimensional potential formed by a potential comprised of a direct current voltage and a potential comprised of an alternating current voltage. The trapped ions are made to collide with an electrode by changing at least the applied direct current voltage or alternating current voltage, and are detected as an electrical current value.
US07875841B2
An organic pixel eel flat detector has increased sensitivity. This is obtained by a preamplification at the pixel level.
US07875838B1
A tubular distributor in a missile having a right-angled hollow tubular first section, the right-angled hollow tubular first section having a first leg and a second leg, a straight hollow tubular second section, an end of the first leg of the right-angled hollow tubular first section perpendicularly connected to a first end of the hollow tubular second section, a straight hollow tubular third section, a first end of the hollow tubular third section perpendicularly connected to the first end of the straight hollow tubular second section, and a close/open valve positioned within the straight hollow tubular third section, the close/open valve positioned between a gas generator and the straight hollow tubular second section.
US07875833B2
Contemplated fully automated coffee roaster have significantly reduced energy demands, use electrical heat as a heat source in a temperature-only driven program mode, and eliminate smoke and smell within the roaster. Most preferably, contemplated fully automated roasters will consume only about 10 percent of the energy as compared to known devices on a per kilogram basis of beans and require no operator experience.
US07875831B2
Laser beam irradiation areas are provided in a load curve portion and an angle adjustment portion of a suspension. The laser beam irradiation areas are oriented in a direction in which the suspension is to be bent. A laser beam having a predetermined length and a predetermined shape is irradiated onto each laser beam irradiation area.
US07875828B2
A laser irradiation apparatus includes a plurality of laser heads from which a laser is irradiated, can adjust arranged intervals of the laser heads, and moves freely to irradiate the laser along a shape of a subject. A laser oscillator oscillates a laser. A plurality of laser heads linearly irradiate the laser oscillated by the laser oscillator. A first driving means adjusts arranged intervals of the laser heads, and moves the laser heads in an X direction. A second driving means moves the laser heads in a Y direction different from the X direction.
US07875815B2
The present invention provides a key sheet in which adjacent key tops are prevented from moving in conjunction with each other even when intervals between the key tops are designed to be narrow, and which facilitates a depressing operation by eliminating interference between the adjacent key tops. Further, the present invention provides a pushbutton switch using the above-mentioned key sheet. When a central key top is depressed, a portion of a soft sheet positioned between the key top and the key tops therearound is deformed to a large degree. On the other hand, a hard sheet is flexed entirely to a portion extending to a portion directly below the key tops. As a result, a clearance portion between the soft sheet and the hard sheet is formed. Therefore, the left and right key tops do not move in conjunction with each other, thereby making it possible to prevent erroneous input. Further, the peripheral key tops are not affected by the depressing operation of the central key top, thereby making it possible to suppress a depressing operation load to be small.
US07875813B2
Food service workers prepare a number of items throughout the day at a food counter, so the workers may need to track process steps for entirely different processes that are running concurrently. For example, the worker may need to remove a pizza from an oven one moment, and remove breadstick dough from a refrigerator one minute later. A programmable weighing scale guides users through process steps of a process, and tracks completion time of process steps for multiple processes, and alerts a food service worker when a next step in one of multiple, concurrently running processes needs to be completed. Because data stored for each process can be selected throughout, for example, an entire working day, the controller of the weighing scale can track timing requirements for each step of each process. The weighing apparatus is independent of other apparatuses used in completing the process steps (e.g., refrigerators, ovens, mixers, etc.), so it can track process steps that involve various apparatuses that may be needed to complete the processes. An alert for one process step associated with one process can be presented within the duration of an entirely different process step for an entirely different process.
US07875812B2
A method and apparatus for protecting a heat sensitive component from high temperature, mechanical shock and moisture are provided. An enclosure includes an outer housing surrounding an inner cavity configured to receive a heat sensitive component therein, a cover configured to matingly engage the outer housing such that the inner cavity is sealed from an environment external to the enclosure, wherein at least one of the outer housing and the cover are formed from a ceramic material.
US07875810B2
An electronic component-inspection wiring board including a first laminate composed of plural first ceramic layers and having pads formed on a front surface to transmit inspection signals to an electronic component, wiring layers formed between the first ceramic layers , and via-conductors connecting pads to the wiring layers exposed on a rear surface of the first laminate; and a second laminate composed of second ceramic layers having plural via-conductors extending between front surface and rear surface of the second laminate, wherein lands connecting a via-conductor exposed on the rear surface of the first laminate and a via-conductor exposed on the front surface of the second laminate are disposed between the first laminate and the second laminate, and the diameter d1 of the land is 2-5 times larger than the diameter d2 of a via-conductor connected to the land.
US07875807B2
An electronic device includes an electronic part including at least one first electrode, a substrate including at least one second electrode, and at least one bump formed on the at least one first electrode and formed from an elastic conductive resin including a resin having rubbery elasticity, and an acicular conductive filler including a surface layer coated with one of gold, silver, nickel, and copper. The at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode are electrically connected to each other by mechanically contacting the at least one bump with the at least one second electrode.
US07875797B2
An economically producible pressure-resistant housing with a display element and/or operating element for use in potentially explosive areas, comprising an inner space which serves to accommodate electronics, and a recess on the outside, inside of which a display and/or operating element is placed whose connecting lines extend into the inner space via a pressure-resistant leadthrough, wherein the display and/or operating element is surrounded on all sides by a pressure-resistant, crystal-clear encapsulation, which fills remaining cavities in the recess and outwardly closes the recess.
US07875782B1
A musical instrument includes a neck, a body, a playing surface covering the body, a plurality of strings, and a connective element. The connective element varies the distance of the plurality of strings from the playing surface of the instrument. The connective element includes a set screw and a receiving unit having an inclined surface. The set screw contacts the inclined surface on the receiving unit and adjustably fastens the receiving unit to the body and the neck. along a radiused neck surface and a radiused body surface. The connective element may be attached to a removable interface between the neck and the body. The musical instrument may be completely disassembled for transport.
US07875780B1
An inbred corn line, designated LLD20BM, the plants and seeds of the inbred corn line LLD20BM, methods for producing a corn plant, either inbred or hybrid, produced by crossing the inbred corn line LLD20BM with itself or with another corn plant, and hybrid corn seeds and plants produced by crossing the inbred line LLD20BM with another corn line or plant and to methods for producing a corn plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic corn plants produced by that method. This invention also relates to inbred corn lines derived from inbred corn line LLD20BM, to methods for producing other inbred corn lines derived from inbred corn line LLD20BM and to the inbred corn lines derived by the use of those methods.
US07875773B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH600622. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH600622, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH600622 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH600622.
US07875755B2
A process for increasing the light olefin production from light paraffins is presented. The process includes separating paraffins from olefin streams and separately processing the paraffins.
US07875753B2
The present invention relates to novel 2-bromo-2,2-dichloroethyl aromatics of the formula (V) in which Ar is as defined above and to processes for preparation thereof.
US07875745B2
The present invention relates to a compound represented by formula (I): (wherein the symbols in formula were described in the description), a salt thereof, a solvate thereof or a prodrug thereof. Since the compound of the present invention binds to and is antagonistic to an LPA receptor (particularly, EDG-2), it is useful for prevention and/or treatment of urinary system disease (prostatic hypertrophy or neurogenic bladder dysfunction disease, spinal cord neoplasm, nucleous hernia, spinal canal stenosis, diseases caused by diabetes, occlusion disease of lower urinary tract, inflammatory disease of lower urinary tract, and polyuria), carcinoma-associated disease, proliferative disease, inflammation system disease, immune system disease, disease by secretory dysfunction, brain-related disease and/or chronic disease.
US07875732B2
A quaternary ammonium salt of the formula (1) wherein R1 is straight-chain or branched alkyl having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, R2 is straight-chain or branched alkyl having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, and X− is CF3CO2−, CF3SO3BF3−, ClBF3−, AlF4—, CF3BF3−, C2F5BF3—, N(SO2F)2−, PF6−, AsF6— or SbF6−.
US07875731B2
Novel salt forms of [R—(R*,R*)]-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-β,δ-dihydroxy-5-(1-methylethyl)-3-phenyl-4-[(phenylamino)carbonyl]-1H-pyrrole-1-heptanoic acid characterized by their X-ray powder diffraction pattern and solid-state NMR spectra are described, as well as methods for the preparation and pharmaceutical composition of the same, which are useful as agents for treating hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and Alzheimer's Disease.
US07875727B2
Vascular damaging agents composed of substituted 5(6)-substituted benzimidazole-2-carbamates are provided. These agents are useful in the preparation of medicaments for the treatment of diseases involving neovascularisation, particularly for the treatment of solid tumors, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and atherosclerosis. Embodiments include a 5(6)-substituted benzimidazole-2-carbamate of formula I wherein A represents a multi-substituted alkyl group or aromatic ring.
US07875721B2
The current invention is in the field of molecular biology/pharmacology and provides compounds which modulate the effects of GPR30 as well as the classical estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERα and ERβ). These compounds may function as agonists and/or antagonists of one or more of the disclosed estrogen receptors. Diseases which are mediated through one or more of these receptors include cancer (particularly breast, reproductive and other hormone-dependent cancers, leukemia, colon cancer, prostate cancer), reproductive (genito-urological) including endometritis, prostatitis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, bladder control, hormone-related disorders, hearing disorders, cardiovascular conditions including hot flashes and profuse sweating, hypertension, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis, hematologic diseases, vascular diseases or conditions such as venous thrombosis, atherosclerosis, among numerous others and disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system, including depression, insomnia, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, as well as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, coeliac (celiac) disease and related disorders of the intestine. A contraceptive indication to prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy after intercourse is a further aspect of the present invention.
US07875715B2
The present invention relates to compounds that demonstrate antibacterial activity, processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions containing them as the active ingredient, to their use as medicaments and to their use in the manufacture of medicaments for use in the treatment of bacterial infections in warm-blooded animals such as humans. In particular this invention relates to compounds useful for the treatment of bacterial infections in warm-blooded animals such as humans, more particularly to the use of these compounds in the manufacture of medicaments for use in the treatment of bacterial infections in warm-blooded animals such as humans.
US07875713B2
Derivatized cucurbiturils and cucurbituril assemblies formed thereby are disclosed. Also disclosed are binding pairs of the disclosed cucurbituril assemblies and polyamine structures, which are highly advantageous over the presently known affinity pairs and therefore can be efficiently utilized in a myriad of applications.
US07875712B2
This invention provides caspase inhibitors of formula I: wherein Z is oxygen or sulfur; R1 is hydrogen, —CHN2, R, CH2OR, CH2SR, or —CH2Y; between R3 and R4 represents a single or double bond; Y is an electronegative leaving group; R2 is CO2H, CH2CO2H, or esters, amides or isosteres thereof; R3 is a group capable of fitting into the S2 subsite of a caspase enzyme; R4 is a hydrogen or C1-6 alkyl or R3 and R4 taken together form a ring; Ring A and Ring B are each heterocyclic rings, and R and R5 are as described in the specification. The compounds are effective inhibitors of apoptosis and IL-1β secretion.
US07875704B2
The present invention provides novel monoclonal antibodies directed to PlGF and fragments and derivatives thereof, more particularly to humanized antibodies and fragments thereof for use in the treatment and/or prevention of pathological angiogenesis.
US07875703B2
A new family of immunoreceptor molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily, (LIR) polypeptides is described. Disclosed are sequences encoding LIR family members and their deduced amino acid sequences, polypeptides encoded by DNA that hybridizes to defined nucleotide sequences, processes for producing polypeptides of the LIR family, and specific antibodies directed against LIR polypeptides. LIR family members can be used to treat autoimmune diseases and disease states associated with suppressed immune function.
US07875702B2
The invention provides novel B7-H3 and B7-H4 polypeptides useful for co-stimulating T cells, isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding them, vectors containing the nucleic acid molecules, and cells containing the vectors. Also included are methods of making and using these co-stimulatory polypeptides.
US07875699B2
A method of controlling oil-absorbing properties of a silicone rubber powder characterized by keeping a silicone rubber powder in hot storage at a temperature in the range of 40° C. to 150° C. or in cold storage at a temperature in the range of 0° C. to 10° C.
US07875693B2
The invention relates to a composition and a method of preparing one such composition and an isocyanatoalkoxysilane; the polyisocyanate composition contains at least two different oligomeric compounds comprising at least three units and at most five units selected from aminoalkylsilane units and diamine units and at least one function selected from isocyanate functions and from those derived therefrom, the aforementioned compounds having at least two aminoalkylsilane units and another compound having at least two diamine units; the invention is suitable for coatings.
US07875687B2
A hydrogel that is the hydrated polymerization product of a monomer mixture that includes a hydrophilic monomer and a polysiloxane-containing monomer. The resulting hydrogel has an oxygen permeability of at least about 120 Barrers, a water content of at least about 20 weight percent, and a modulus from 40 to 57 g/mm2.
US07875681B2
Process for recycling polyolefin blend composition using an ethylene copolymer compatibilizing agent
A process is provided for preparing polymer composites from compositions comprising i) a polyolefin, ii) a polymer selected from the group consisting of polymers having hydroxyl groups and polymers having amino groups and iii) a polar ethylene copolymer having copolymerized units selected from the group consisting of C4-C8 unsaturated anhydrides, monoesters of C4-C8 unsaturated acids having at least two carboxylic acid groups, diesters of C4-C8 unsaturated acids having at least two carboxylic acid groups and mixtures thereof. The process is suitable for use with recycle streams that contain polymeric materials that are laminates or composites of dissimilar polymers.
US07875675B2
A resin precursor composition for use in the production of composite components includes an isocyanate component comprising a material selected from the group consisting of diphenylmethane diisocyanate, a polymeric isomer of diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and combinations thereof. The resin precursor composition also includes at least one polyether polyol having a functionality of three in an amount such that the ratio of the isocyanate component to the at least one polyol is between approximately 80% and 115% of stoichiometric. The resin precursor composition also includes a mold release material and a filler material.
US07875669B2
A production process of a rubber composition superior in low rolling resistance, air permeation resistance and durability performance is provided, the production process comprising the following (X), (Y) and (F): (1) step (X) of kneading a rubber component (A) including a butyl rubber and filler for reinforcement, (2) step (Y) of then adding a rubber component (B) and mica to the kneaded article obtained by step (X) and kneading it, and (3) step (F) of then further adding sulfur, a vulcanization accelerator and a vulcanization accelerating aid to the kneaded article obtained by step (Y) and kneading it, wherein 10 to 50 parts by mass of mica and/or talc is included based on 100 parts by mass of the whole rubber components (C).
US07875668B2
A composition for artificial marble includes (a) about 100 parts by weight of an acrylic resin; (b) about 1 to about 30 parts by weight of an ocher powder having a particle size of about 1 to about 50 μm; (c) about 100 to about 200 parts by weight of an inorganic filler; (d) about 0.1 to about 10 parts by weight of cross-linking agent; and (e) about 0.1 to about 10 parts by weight of a polymerization initiator.
US07875658B2
Foamable compositions which are free of isocyanates, which exhibit low shrinkage, low propensity toward crack formation, and which display good flammability resistance, are prepared from blowing agent-containing compositions of alkoxysilane-terminated prepolymers derived from a polyol component which contains one or more halogenated polyols.
US07875655B2
A composite material produced from carpet waste and a binding agent, in intimate association, which material includes 25% and 99% carpet waste and between 1 and 25% binding agent. A method for manufacturing the composite material is also disclosed.
US07875652B2
The present invention concerns the novel use of compounds of the Formula I: for treating allodynia as major and unique pain symptom independent of the nature of an underlying disease, but that is often related to neuropathic pain or other different types of chronic or phantom pain.
US07875649B2
7, 8 and 9-substituted tetracycline compounds, methods of treating tetracycline responsive states, and pharmaceutical compositions containing the 7, 8 and 9-substituted tetracycline compounds are described.
US07875640B2
The present application relates to thiazolylidene containing compounds of formula (I) wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, L2 and A are as defined in the specification. Compositions comprising such compounds, and methods for treating conditions and disorders using such compounds and compositions are also disclosed.
US07875632B2
Disclosed herein are pharmaceutical compositions comprising an inverse serotonin receptor agonist or a serotonin receptor antagonist and an anti-psychotic agent. Disclosed herein are also methods of treating psychotic disorders using the disclosed pharmaceutical compositions.
US07875628B2
The present invention provides compositions and methods for modulating smoothened-dependent pathway activation. The present invention provides analogs of cyclopamine that can be used to counteract the phenotypic effects of unwanted activation of a hedgehog pathway, such as resulting from hedgehog gain-of-function, Ptc loss-of-function or smoothened gain-of-function mutations. The compounds of the present invention are particularly useful in treating cancers.
US07875625B2
The present invention relates to a medicine, particularly a medicine comprising a novel cyclohepta[b]pyridine-3-carbonylguanidine derivative having an inhibitory effect on an Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE). There is provided a cyclohepta[b]pyridine-3-carbonylguanidine derivative represented by Formula (1): wherein R1 is a group selected from a sulfo group, a sulfoxy group, —OCONH—(CH2CH2O)n—SO3H and the following formulas: R2 represents a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group or a lower alkoxy group; and n represents an integer from 1 to 10, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
US07875623B2
The present invention relates to processes for removal of Michael acceptors from certain compositions wherein the composition is treated with a thiol-containing compound under conditions sufficient to remove Michael acceptors and the resulting thiol-Michael adducts. Certain embodiments of the present invention enable quantification and/or removal of Michael acceptors and/or Michael acceptor precursors.
US07875617B2
The invention relates to 3,4-dihydro-2-naphthamide derivatives of formula (I), pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their therapeutic applications as partial agonists or antagonists of the dopamine D3 receptor for the treatment of neuropsychological disorders.
US07875615B2
The present invention relates to a class of substituted 1,2,4-triazoles of formula (I) with activity as oxytocin antagonists, uses thereof, processes for the preparation thereof and compositions containing said inhibitors. These inhibitors have utility in a variety of therapeutic areas including sexual dysfunction, particularly premature ejaculation (P.E.).
US07875614B2
Compounds of the formula I, in which R, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Y1 have the meanings indicated in claim 1, can be employed, inter alia, for the treatment of tumours
US07875600B2
Compounds of formula (I); wherein R1 is H or NHZ; R2 is optionally substituted aryl or heteroaryl attached via a carbon atom; R3 is H; optionally substituted C1-C6alkyl, C2-C6alkenyl, C2-C6alkynyl, or C3 C7 cycloalkyl, halogen; OH or OR, or R4 is H, optionally substituted C1-C6alkyl, C3 C6alkenyl, C3-C6alkynyl, C3-C7 cycloalkyl, aryl or heteroaryl, R5 is H or optionally substituted C1-C6alkyl, C3-C6alkenyl, C3-C6alkynyl, or C3-C7 cycloalkyl; or R4 and R5 together form a 5 or 6-membered heterocyclic ring; and R10 is optionally substituted C1-C6alkyl; are purine receptor, particularly adenosine receptor antagonists, useful for treatment of, inter alia, movement disorders such as Parkinsons disease.
US07875596B2
Dermatan sulfates and/or O-desulfated heparins useful in treating and preventing heparinoid-induced autoimmune responses, in particular heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and its associated disease states. The dermatan sulfates comprise repeating disulfated and/or trisulfated disaccharide units of L-iduronic acid and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine. The O-desulfated heparins comprise heparin molecules selectively O-desulfated at the 2-O and/or 3-O positions of the uronic acid and glucosamine saccharide residues. Particularly effective dermatan sulfate HIT antagonists have a mean molecular weight of from about 2000 to about 10,000 Daltons.
US07875592B2
The invention relates to compounds which are polysulfated oligosaccharide derivatives having activity as inhibitors of heparan sulfate-binding proteins and inhibitors of the enzyme heparanase; methods for the preparation of the compounds; compositions comprising the compounds, and use of the compounds and compositions thereof for the antiangiogenic, antimetastatic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticoagulant and/or antithrombotic treatment, lowering of blood triglyceride levels and inhibition of cardiovascular disease of a mammalian subject.
US07875586B2
The present invention relates to compositions and methods for treating invasive or metastatic cancer, particularly metastatic colon cancer using the B-submit of shiga toxin. The invention further provides methods of identifying compounds usefully for the treatment of invasive or metastatic cancer, particularly metastatic colon cancer.
US07875585B2
The invention feature methods and compositions for treating hematopoietic disorders, inflammatory conditions, and cancer and providing stem cell therapy in a mammal.
US07875562B2
An improved polyethylene fabric comprises polyethylene fabric or yarn that is manufactured by mixing HDPE (typically in pellet form) with pellets of cyclic-olefin polymers (COCs) in a ratio of up to 40% by weight of the layer. This mixture is then extruded in ways known to those skilled in the art. The resulting HDPE has superior stress and strain characteristics over a wider range of pressures and temperatures than conventional HDPE. The improved polyethylene fabric of the present invention is useful in applications where structural integrity is required and where pressure and temperature are a factor. For example, improved HDPE scrims of the present invention can be used as the reinforcing structure for irrigation hose or building fabric.
US07875561B2
A highly stressed dielectric material, such as a tensile stressed material, may be deposited in a conformal manner so as to respect any deposition constraints caused by pronounced surface topography of highly scaled semiconductor devices, followed by the deposition of a buffer material having enhanced gap-filling capabilities. Thereafter, a further stress-inducing layer is deposited to form a doublet structure, which acts on the transistor elements, thereby enhancing overall performance, without increasing the probability of creating deposition-related irregularities. Hence, production yield as well as performance of highly scaled semiconductor devices may be increased.
US07875559B2
Provided are a method of manufacturing a transparent N-doped p-type ZnO semiconductor layer using a surface chemical reaction between precursors containing elements constituting thin layers, and a thin film transistor (TFT) including the p-type ZnO semiconductor layer. The method includes the steps of: preparing a substrate and loading the substrate into a chamber; injecting a Zn precursor and an oxygen precursor into the chamber, and causing a surface chemical reaction between the Zn precursor and the oxygen precursor using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to form a ZnO thin layer on the substrate; and injecting a Zn precursor and an nitrogen precursor into the chamber, and causing a surface chemical reaction between the Zn precursor and the nitrogen precursor to form a doping layer on the ZnO thin layer.
US07875551B2
Methods of forming integrated circuit devices include upper sidewall spacers in contact holes to provide enhanced electrical isolation to contact plugs therein while maintaining relatively low contact resistance. These methods include forming an interlayer insulating layer on a semiconductor substrate. The interlayer insulating layer includes at least a first electrically insulating layer of a first material on the semiconductor substrate and a second electrically insulating layer of a second material on the first electrically insulating layer. A contact hole is formed that extends through the interlayer insulating layer and exposes a primary surface of the semiconductor substrate. This contact hole may be formed by selectively etching the second electrically insulating layer and the first electrically insulating layer in sequence and at a faster etch rate of the first material relative to the second material. This sequential etching of the first material at a faster rate than the second material may yield a contact hole having a recessed sidewall.
US07875546B1
A system and method are disclosed for preventing metal corrosion on bond pads. During manufacture of an integrated circuit device an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer is applied to a metal stack of a bond pad. A mask and etch process is applied to etch an aperture through the ARC layer down to the metal stack. Then a passivation layer is applied to cover the ARC layer and the aperture through the ARC layer. Then another mask and etch process is applied to etch a bond pad opening through the passivation layer inside the ARC layer aperture down to the metal stack. Interior edge portions of the passivation layer seal the interior edge portions of the ARC layer aperture to prevent corrosion of the ARC layer due to high temperatures, high humidity and corrosive materials encountered in subsequent assembly operations of the integrated circuit device.
US07875541B2
Fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a hard mask on a substrate having a top substrate surface, forming a trench in the substrate through the hard mask, depositing gate material in the trench, where the amount of gate material deposited in the trench extends beyond the top substrate surface, and removing the hard mask to leave a gate having a gate top surface that extends substantially above the top substrate surface at least in center region of the trench opening, the gate having a vertical edge that includes an extended portion, the extended portion extending above the trench opening and being substantially aligned with the trench wall. It further includes implanting a body, implanting a plurality of source regions embedded in the body, forming a plurality of spacers that insulate the source regions from the gate, the plurality of spacers being situated immediately adjacent to the gate and immediately adjacent to respective ones of the plurality of source regions, wherein the plurality of spacers do not substantially extend into the trench and do not substantially extend over the trench, disposing a dielectric layer over the source, the spacers, the gate, and at least a portion of the body, forming a contact opening, and disposing metal to form a contact with the body at the contact opening.
US07875540B2
A method for manufacturing a recess gate in a semiconductor device includes forming a field oxide layer on a substrate to define an active region, forming a hard mask pattern over the substrate to selectively expose at least a portion of the active region, forming a recess pattern in the active region through an etching process using the hard mask pattern as an etch barrier, removing the hard mask pattern, forming a gate insulating layer over the substrate, and forming a gate electrode over the gate insulating layer to cover at least the recess pattern.
US07875535B2
A compound semiconductor device includes: a conductive SiC substrate; an AlN buffer layer formed on said conductive SiC substrate and containing Cl; a compound semiconductor buffer layer formed on said AlN layer which contains Cl, said compound semiconductor buffer layer not containing Cl; and a device constituent layer or layers formed above said compound semiconductor buffer layer not containing Cl.
US07875534B2
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes providing a substrate; forming a buffer/nucleation layer over the substrate; forming a group-III nitride (III-nitride) layer over the buffer/nucleation layer; and subjecting the III-nitride layer to a nitridation. The step of forming the III-nitride layer comprises metal organic chemical vapor deposition.
US07875532B2
A substrate with which a semiconductor device with excellent electric characteristics and high reliability can be manufactured is provided. An aspect of the invention is a method for manufacturing a substrate for manufacturing a semiconductor device: a first silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film, and a second silicon oxide film are stacked in this order over a surface of a semiconductor substrate by a thermal CVD method, and then a weakened layer is formed at a given depth of the semiconductor substrate; the semiconductor substrate and a substrate having an insulating surface are arranged to face each other, and the second silicon oxide film provided for the semiconductor substrate and a supporting substrate are bonded to each other; and the semiconductor substrate is separated at the weakened layer by heat treatment, whereby a semiconductor film separated from the semiconductor substrate is left over the substrate having the insulating surface.
US07875531B2
A method is provided for producing a thin substrate with a thickness below 750 microns, comprising providing a mother substrate, the mother substrate having a first main surface and a toughness; inducing a stress with predetermined stress profile in at least a portion of the mother substrate, said portion comprising the thin substrate, the induced stress being locally larger than the toughness of the mother substrate at a first depth under the main surface; such that the thin substrate is released from the mother substrate, wherein the toughness of the mother substrate at the first depth is not lowered prior to inducing the stress. The method can be used in the production of, for example, solar cells.
US07875522B2
Various methods and devices are implemented using efficient silicon compatible integrated light communicators. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor device is implemented for communicating light, such as by detecting, modulating or emitting light. The device has a silicon-seeding location, an insulator layer and a second layer on the insulator layer. The second layer includes a silicon-on-insulator region and an active region surrounded by the silicon-on-insulator region and connected to the silicon-seeding location. The active region includes a single-crystalline germanium-based material that extends from the silicon-seeding location through a passageway with a cross-sectional area that is sufficiently small to mitigate crystalline growth defects. The single-crystalline germanium-based material is physically coupled to the insulating layer such that the insulating layer introduces a high tensile strain to the germanium-based material, and a more specific aspect is directed to an SOI implementation.
US07875513B2
A plurality of bipolar transistors are formed by forming a common conduction region, a plurality of control regions extending each in an own active areas on the common conduction region, a plurality of silicide protection strips, and at least one control contact region. Silicide regions are formed on the second conduction regions and the control contact region. The second conduction regions may be formed by selectively implanting a first conductivity type dopant areas on a first side of selected silicide protection strips. The control contact region is formed by selectively implanting an opposite conductivity type dopant on a second side of the selected silicide protection strips.
US07875509B2
In a manufacturing method of a SOI type high withstand voltage semiconductor device formed on a support substrate via an insulation film, a small-sized semiconductor device having small dispersion of withstand voltage is manufactured by introducing impurities into the whole surface of a p-type or n-type SOI substrate having an impurity concentration of 2E14 cm−3 or less and serving as an active layer of the semiconductor device with an ion implantation method and thereby forming a drift layer.
