US07975316B2
A frequency shift Δf obtained by an FM-AFM can be expressed by a simple linear coupling of a ΔfLR derived from a long-range interaction force and a ΔfSR derived from a short-range interaction force. Given this factor, a Δf curve on an atomic defect and a Δf curve on a target atom on the sample surface are each measured for only a relatively short range scale (S1 and S2), and a difference Δf curve of those two curves is obtained (S3). Since the difference Δf curve is derived only from a short-range interaction force, a known conversion operation is applied to this curve obtain an F curve which illustrates the relationship between the force and the distance Z, and then the short-range interaction force on the target atom is obtained from the F curve (S4). Since the range scale in measuring the Δf curve can be narrowed, the measurement time can be shortened, and since the conversion from the Δf curve into F curve is required only once, the computational time can also be shortened. Consequently, in obtaining the short-range interaction force which acts between the atom on the sample surface and the probe, the time required for the Δf curve's measurement and the computational time are shortened, which leads to accuracy improvement and throughput enhancement.
US07975311B2
Invention embodiments are concerned with the problem of controlling access to a media storage device in response to, e.g., employees leaving or changing jobs. More specifically, embodiments provide a method of controlling access to a media storage device storing a plurality of media objects. Thus embodiments of the invention solve the afore-mentioned problem by providing a mechanism for updating the list of recipients based on data received from a user identification system after the media storage device has been dispatched.
US07975296B2
A method of security testing a web application is presented. The method identifies a web application to be tested, determines potential security vulnerabilities of the web application, generates one or more security tests for testing the potential vulnerabilities, and executes the security test on the web application. The results of the security testing are then used to make the web application less vulnerable to security attacks.
US07975295B2
A hash key is generated based on an information object and a lookup operation is performed in a hash table based on the hash key. A determination is made whether an entry in the hash table at an index corresponding to the hash key identifies a labelset for the information object. A labelset, identifying a sensitivity of the information object, is stored in the entry at the index corresponding to the hash key for the information object if a labelset for the information object is not identified in the entry in the hash table. Information flows involving the information object are authorized based on a lookup of the labelset associated with the information object in the hash table. The hash table may be a multidimensional hash table.
US07975288B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for executing a command on a computer system. During operation, the system receives a signed command from a first quorum member at a security manager, wherein one or more quorum members must accept the command before the command is executed. Along with the command is data indicating which additional quorum members will be participating in a session, and which quorum persona they wish to invoke for the session. After verifying the signature, the system sends the command to a second quorum member, wherein the command is verified, or authenticated as originating from the first quorum member. Next, the system receives a signed response from the second quorum member, wherein the response indicates whether the second quorum member accepts or rejects the command. If the second quorum member accepts the command, the system sends the command to a native client which executes the command.
US07975282B2
Systems, devices and methods for supporting live and time-shifted video streaming via distributed caching of portions of video streams shared in peer-to-peer portions of systems.
US07975279B1
In a pay television system, the choice and the confirmation of an impulse purchase are performed by the user on presentation, by means of a screen, of a grid of programmes. The selection by this user of a particular programme of his choice from the grid is subsequently confirmed in the system by an entitlement management message, this message being specific to an impulse purchase. In order to authorize the immediate screening of the selected transmission, the entitlement management message specific to an impulse purchase is contained in the data tied to the presentation of the grid.
US07975277B1
The present invention provides a system for providing alternative services in a television system. In one implementation, a subscriber is provided an alternative service upon attempting to access an unauthorized service, thereby providing a framework for efficient control of conditional access and enhanced services. In addition, in one implementation, user device limitations or variations are handled conveniently through the same multi-purpose system for providing alternative services.
US07975276B2
The invention relates to a content providing system and method, a content providing apparatus and method, a content receiver and method, a recording medium, and a program that make it possible to provide viewers with transaction contents at low cost. Plural broadcasting apparatuses include trigger contents in program contents and broadcast the program contents to digital television receivers. The broadcasting apparatus broadcasts transaction contents that are displayed when the trigger contents of the plural broadcasting apparatus are turned on by the plural digital television receivers. It is possible to apply the invention to a digital television broadcasting system.
US07975264B2
In an embodiment of the present invention, a patch tool receives multiple patches, with each patch designed to fix a corresponding subset of a set of errors in a system. The patch tool determines a subset of patches, which together fix all of the set of errors, and deploys only the subset of patches in the system. The patches may be received over a period of time and the subset of patches are determined and deployed in a batch mode.
US07975263B2
A method for managing a profile includes generating an initial profile of code using an initial sampling frequency. An information entropy value of the profile is computed. A representative profile of the code is determined from additional profiles using a sampling frequency determined from the information entropy value. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US07975254B2
According to some embodiments, a visual design tool associated with a generic modeling framework may be selected, and a set of design-time functions used in the visual design tool may be identified. A set of design-time rules may be created (e.g., by a rule creator), each rule corresponding to an identified design-time function. In addition, parameters may be defined for each rule in terms of entities of a language of the generic modeling framework. A set of basic rule cases may then be defined for each rule to specify rule logic, and an extension mechanism may be provided to enable the defined set of basic rule cases to be extended outside the generic modeling framework. According to some embodiments, the set of rules and associated basic rule cases may be interpreted at run-time by the modeling framework.
US07975245B2
Various computer-implemented methods for determining if actual defects are potentially systematic defects or potentially random defects are provided. One computer-implemented method for determining if actual defects are potentially systematic defects or potentially random defects includes comparing a number of actual defects in a group to a number of randomly generated defects in a group. The actual defects are detected on a wafer. A portion of a design on the wafer proximate a location of each of the actual defects in the group and each of the randomly generated defects in the group is substantially the same. The method also includes determining if the actual defects in the group are potentially systematic defects or potentially random defects based on results of the comparing step.
US07975241B2
A system for modifying a cursor image, as displayed on a video monitor of a remote terminal, to a specific image having a desired shape and appearance. The system stores cursor image data corresponding to the specific image, and a cursor display code. The cursor display code contains information in response to which the cursor image is modified to the specific image. A server computer transmits specified information to the remote terminal. The information includes at least one cursor display instruction. The cursor display instruction is operable to modify, in conjunction with the cursor information and the cursor image data, a cursor image displayed by a display of the remote terminal in the shape and appearance of the specific image.
US07975240B2
The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate automatic display and management of data items associated with a hierarchical tree arrangement of folders and subfolders. A computerized interface for data presentation is provided having a sorting component to determine categories relating to one or more items for display. A cluster component groups the categories according to discretized states in order to control visible output to the display. Such states can include packed and unpacked states, wherein packed states can cluster a plurality of items together and across several nodes, whereas unpacked items are controlled and displayed under a grouped heading in one context and as individual data items or entities in another context.
US07975235B2
A system and method that includes line connection navigation in a block diagram by highlighting connections through navigable blocks in the diagram, edit-time label propagation along connections and through navigable blocks that can propagate labels through their ports, API to define navigability between block ports, and displaying implied connections between blocks.
US07975231B2
A drawing object image and an image processing program are provided in an HTTP server 12. The drawing object image is downloaded by accessing the HTTP server 12 from a terminal unit 10. When the operator initiates a drawing operation on a WEB browser screen of terminal unit 10, an XMLHTTP request with coordinate position information of the cursor and the drawing radius information are transmitted to the HTTP server 12 to execute an image manipulation process. The WEB browser virtually divides the drawing operation object image into cells, identifies the cells in which the image contents are modified in the image manipulation process, and issues HTTP requests for the cell images. The HTTP server 12 cuts out the manipulated image in the requested areas and transmits them to the WEB browser and arranges them.
US07975229B2
Context-aware systems and methods, location-aware systems and methods, context-aware vehicles and methods of operating the same, and location-aware vehicles and methods of operating the same are described. In various embodiments, a context or location service module, implemented in software, determines a vehicle context or a vehicle location based upon information that it receives from various context providers or location providers respectively. Software executing on a vehicle's computer can then cause one or more applications that are associated with a vehicle computer to be modified in a manner that changes their behavior. The behavior modification is based on the current context or location of the vehicle and thus provides a context-specific or location-specific user experience. The context or location can be ascertained through the use of one or more hierarchical tree structures that comprises individual nodes. Each node is associated with a context or location. The nodes are traversable by the vehicle's software to ascertain a more complete context or location.
US07975227B2
A system for selecting, managing, sharing and displaying content data files in a manner that takes into the account the contextual significance of said content data files to a narrative, an author(s) and an audience. A system that is able to place an absolute and relative value upon the significance of a media object is able to assist in stimulating the recollection of the author and audience, thus making every aspect more memorable and enhancing by improving the ease of use and the quality of the final result of the use of the system of this invention.
US07975221B2
A client-side handheld device requests a server to convert server-side documents into a compression format prior to transmission of said documents to the client. The server retrieves and converts the requested documents to a raster image that is then compressed according to attributes based on information received from the client device in the initial document request. Instead of having to manipulate multiple formats which the original documents are in and supported by the server, the client-side device is preferably optimized in hardware and/or software to support and otherwise take advantage of the requested compression format. The compressed document is then delivered to the client device, in whole or in part, selectively or progressively over time per individual requests prior to displaying the received data to the end-user. Depending on the requested delivery mode, server-side documents are preferably compressed using wavelet compression methods, such as the JPEG 2000 standard, known in the arts. Through such a compression format, documents of sizes (in total bytes) exceeding one or more Megabytes can be compressed down to as small as 30 kilobytes or less.
US07975220B2
The structured document management apparatus includes a document data accepting unit that accepts input of structured document data having a hierarchical logic structure; a structure guide data storage unit that stores structure guide data which is a summary of hierarchical structure information of the structured document data; a structure stream converting unit that syntax-analyzes the accepted structured document data, and converts the structure information in the structured document data into structure stream data as one-dimensional sequence data using the structure guide data; and a structure stream data storage unit that stores the converted structure stream data.
US07975214B2
A method, medium and implementing processing system are provided for book marking a combination of frame URLs within a frameset and allowing the sharing on multiple PCs the saved form data that may have been filled in. The system uses an image as a hotspot, containing a complex target destination in the form of an XML structure with multiple URLs for multiple frames as well as captured form data. This system combines file types such as XML and JPG, e.g. as in sample file name ‘MyCapturedFramesAndFormData.XML.JPG’ or ‘MyCapturedFramesAndFormData.XML.GIF’. This combination provides a surprising effect compared to the prior systems, namely, launching the image in an enhanced web browser or in a web browser containing a new plug-in displays the frame just as it was when saved.
US07975205B2
A method is provided for implementing at least one of a number of error correction algorithms operable on a memory. In the method, each of the error correction algorithms is provided. At least one of the error correction algorithms is then selected based on the organization of the memory. At least one error in the memory is corrected using the selected error correction algorithm.
US07975204B2
Normally ordered robust VSB data are reordered in accordance with a first interleave to produce reordered robust VSB data. The reordered robust VSB data and ATSC data are reordered in accordance with a second interleave to produce normally ordered robust VSB data and reordered ATSC data. The normally ordered robust VSB data and reordered ATSC data are time multiplexed for transmission to a receiver. The receiver discards the reordered ATSC data or the normally ordered robust VSB data depending upon receiver type or user selection. A robust VSB receiver is able to process the normally ordered robust VSB data upstream of an outer decoder without an interleave thereby avoiding the delay associated with an interleave.
US07975202B2
Variable modulation with LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) coding provides for generation of LDPC coded symbols having different respective code rates and/or modulations. In addition, appropriate LDPC encoding, that generates an LDPC variable code rate signal, may also be performed as well. The encoding can generate an LDPC variable code rate and/or modulation signal whose code rate and/or modulation may vary as frequently as on a symbol by symbol basis. Some embodiments employ a common constellation shape for all of the symbols of the signal sequence, yet individual symbols may be mapped according different mappings of the commonly shaped constellation; such an embodiment may be viewed as generating a LDPC variable mapped signal. In general, any one or more of the code rate, constellation shape, and/or mapping of the individual symbols of a signal sequence may vary as frequently as on a symbol by symbol basis.
US07975200B2
Error correction code (ECC) decoding architecture design using synthesis-time design parameters. An approach is presented herein by which an ECC decoding architecture can be designed using synthesis-time design parameters. The manner presented herein allows for a designer to arrive at an ECC decoding architecture in a more direct, straightforward manner that using prior art means. A number of considerations (e.g., architecture parameters, semi-soft design constraints, parallel implementation, etc.) are initially provided; certain or all of these considerations can be predetermined, determined adaptively, and/or modified during the design process. A designer is provided a means by which a most desirable ECC decoding architecture can be arrived at relatively quickly.
US07975199B2
A method for transmitting data from a source to a destination. The method includes: transmitting the data from the source to both the destination and a relay station within a first transmission; decoding the data in the first transmitting at both the relay station and the destination wherein the destination acknowledges success of the decoding by generating a ACK message or lack of success by generating either a NACK message or by failing to generate the ACK signal; retransmitting from the source information related to the first transmission in response to either the NACK message or the failure of the destination to generate the ACK message; and wherein when the relay station decodes the data sent by the source within the first transmission correctly, the relay station transmits a second transmission; or, on the other hand, if the relay station is unable to decode the data correctly from the first transmission sent by the source, the relay station remains silent. The destination may be another relay station.
US07975194B2
A system comprises a decompressor that receives an input test vector and generates an output vector in response to the input test vector. A decoder couples to the decompressor and comprises a reset pattern detector (RPD), a lookup table, and control logic. RPD scans the output vector to identify a predetermined reset pattern. The control logic couples to the RPD and the lookup table and directs operation of the lookup table in a first or second mode based on whether the output vector comprises the predetermined reset pattern, as identified by the RPD. The lookup table receives the output vector, to operate in the first mode, storing one of a plurality of codeword sets, each codeword set comprising a plurality of pairs of codewords and associated data; and to operate in the second mode, generating test data blocks in response to identified codewords in the output vector.
US07975186B2
An operations management apparatus which acquires performance information for each of a plurality of performance items from a plurality of controlled units and manages operation of the controlled units includes a correlation model generation unit which derives a correlation function between a first series of performance information that indicates time series variation about a first element and a second series of performance information that indicates time series variation about a second element, generates a correlation model between the first element and the second element based on the correlation function, and obtains the correlation model for each element pair of the performance information, and a correlation change analysis unit which analyzes a change in the correlation model based on the performance information acquired newly which has not been used for generation of the correlation model.
US07975177B2
A system can test network performance of an electronic device via transmitting a testing file with a first designated name to a number of computers connected to the electronic device, obtaining comparison files from the number of computers after running the testing file, and replacing the names of the comparison files with standard names. The network performance of the electronic device can be confirmed via contents of the comparison files.
US07975174B2
One aspect of the present invention provides a system for failover comprising at least one client selectively connectable to one of at least two interconnected servers via a network connection. In a normal state, one of the servers is designated a primary server when connected to the client and a remainder of the servers are designated as backup servers when not connected to the client. The at least one client is configured to send messages to the primary server. The servers are configured to process the messages using at least one service that is identical in each of the servers. The services are unaware of whether a server respective to the service is operating as the primary server or the backup server. The servers are further configured to maintain a library, or the like, that indicates whether a server is the primary server or a server is the backup server. The services within each server are to make external calls via its respective library. The library in the primary server is configured to complete the external calls and return results of the external calls to the service in the primary server and to forward results of the external calls to the service in the backup server. The library in the secondary server does not make external calls but simply forwards the results of the external calls, as received from the primary server, to the service in the secondary server when requested to do so by the service in the secondary server.
US07975168B2
If a failure occurs in any of a plurality of data disks, and if a controller receives a read request from a host computer for the RAID group including the failed data disk, the controller performs data recovery using data stored in the other data disks in the RAID group, and transmits the recovered data to the host computer and also writes the recovered data to a spare disk.
US07975167B2
An information system includes a housing with a plurality of units mounted thereon, a communication path built in the housing to take charge of information communication between a plurality of the units mounted on the housing, an information unit mounted on the housing to provide and process the information, a plurality of communication units each mounted on the housing to independently relay the information communication between the information unit and a device external to the housing, and a management unit for accessing the whole or a part of the plurality of the units mounted on the housing and acquiring internal information of the units accessed, wherein in the case where all the plurality of the communication units accessed are incommunicable, the internal information acquired from the plurality of the communication units is reported to the device external to the housing without passing through the plurality of the communication units.
US07975133B1
A system and method are provided for updating a speculative global history prediction record in a microprocessor system using pipelined instruction processing. The method accepts microprocessor instructions with consecutive operations, including a conditional branch operation with an associated first branch address. A speculative global history record (SGHR) of conditional branch resolutions and predictions is accessed and hashed with the first branch address, creating a first hash result. The first hash result is used to index a branch history table (BHT) of previous first branch resolutions. As a result, a first branch prediction is made, and the SGHR is updated with the first branch prediction. A non-speculative global history record (NSGHR) of branch resolutions is updated with the resolution of the first branch operation, and if the first branch prediction is incorrect, the SGHR is corrected using the NSGHR.
US07975132B2
A microprocessor having a plurality of call/return stacks (CRS) correctly resolves a call or return instruction rather than issuing the instruction to execution units of the microprocessor to be resolved. The microprocessor fetches a call or return instruction and determines whether the instruction is the first call or return instruction fetched after fetching a conditional branch instruction that has yet to be resolved. The microprocessor copies the contents of a current CRS to another CRS and designates the other CRS as the current CRS, if the state exists. The microprocessor pushes the address of the next sequential instruction following the call instruction onto the current CRS and fetches an instruction at the call instruction target address if the instruction is a call instruction. The microprocessor pops a second return address from the current CRS and fetches an instruction at the second return address, if the instruction is a return instruction.
US07975131B2
A processor having multiple distinct instruction sets is disclosed where one set, a default set, is always available for execution while a second set is only available once a valid control code is externally supplied to the processor to effectively “unlock” and enable the second set. Once the second set is so unlocked, then the instructions in both sets are available for subsequent execution by the processor to provide enhanced functionality only available through use of the second set, such as accessing on-line services and content information. Multiple unlockable instruction sets can also be similarly provided, each being separately unlocked and enabled through entry of an corresponding externally supplied control code.
US07975128B2
The processor according to the present invention is a processor having a forwarding function and includes an attribute information holding unit (141) that holds attribute information regarding inhibition of writing to a register and a register write inhibition circuit (126) that holds, when forwarding is performed, the writing of the data forwarded according to attribute information. The attribute information holding unit (141) holds the attribute information by relating the attribute information to at least one register. Alternatively, the attribute information holding unit is a part of plural pipeline buffers and passes the attribute information along with the data to be forwarded, to a pipeline buffer in a subsequent stage.
US07975126B2
Described is microprocessor architecture that includes at least one reconfigurable execution path (e.g., implemented via FPGAs or CPLDs). When an instruction is fetched, a mechanism determines whether the reconfigurable execution path (and/or which path) will handle that instruction. A content addressable memory may be used to determine the execution path when fed the instruction's operational code, or an arbiter and multiplexer may resolve conflicts if multiple instruction decode blocks recognize the same instruction. The execution path may be dynamically reconfigured, activated or deactivated as needed, such as to extend an instruction set, to optimize instructions for a particular application program, to implement a peripheral device, to provide parallel computing, and/or based on power consumption and/or processing power needs. Security may be provided by having the reconfigurable execution path loaded from an extension file that is associated with metadata, including security information.
US07975119B2
A storage device having prioritized-erasure capabilities including: a memory for storing data, the memory having at least one flash unit, wherein each flash unit has a plurality of blocks; and a controller configured: to write the data into the plurality of blocks; to assign an erasure-priority to each block, wherein the erasure-priority correlates with an erasure-priority of the data; and to erase the data in each block according to the erasure-priority of each block upon receiving an emergency-erase command. Preferably, the controller is configured to perform the writing of the data into the plurality of blocks in an arbitrary order in a first flash unit, and the writing into subsequent flash units is performed in correlation with the order in the first flash unit. Preferably, the erasing includes aborting erasure, before completing the erasure, for at least some of the plurality of blocks.
US07975118B2
The first storage apparatus includes a transmission unit for sending to a host computer, if data rearrangement in a volume is executed, a data transmission switching request for switching the transmission destination of write data, and a rearrangement unit for rearranging data in the volume. The host computer includes a data transmission switching unit for switching, after receiving the data transmission switching request from the transmission unit, the transmission destination of the write data from a first virtual volume in the first storage apparatus to a second virtual volume in a second storage apparatus. The rearrangement unit rearranges data in the first volume after the data transmission switching unit switches the transmission destination of the write data from the first virtual volume in the first storage apparatus to the second virtual volume in the second storage apparatus.
US07975114B2
Managing memory comprises execute a mutator comprising a plurality of mutator threads, and concurrently execute a garbage collector. Each of the plurality of mutator threads is separately stopped and notified, and is interrupted at a respective safepoint. In some cases executing the garbage collector includes remapping one or more references to one or more objects in an existing from-space, releasing the existing from-space, relocating one or more live objects that currently reside in a new from-space to one or more corresponding new locations, and identifying a set of one or more candidate pages suitable for forming next from-space during next garbage collection iteration.
US07975113B2
The present invention provides a storage control device which enables the time between failures to prolong as much as possible, though it uses HDD's whose mean time between failures is relatively short. The storage control device controls spindle motors in a manner that a spindle motor is rotated regarding the HDD of data which can access from a host computer and a spindle motor is stopped regarding the HDD of data which are clearly judged that a host computer does not access the data. Whether the host computers can access the HDD or not is judged by the fact that whether the memory region (internal logical volume) provided by the HDD is in mapped to the host logical volume or not which is recognized by the host computer and is able to access thereby.
US07975111B2
A memory and a method applied in one program command for the memory are provided. The memory includes a buffer and at least one program unit. The method includes the following steps. First, enter the program command to the memory. Next, enter user data to the buffer. Read the data of the program unit. Determine whether the user data fill the buffer. Fill the part of the buffer unoccupied by the user data with the data of the program unit if the user data do not fill the buffer. Erase the program unit if the program unit is not empty. Finally, program the data of the buffer into the program unit.
US07975108B1
A request tracking data prefetch apparatus for a computer system is described. The apparatus includes a prefetcher coupled to a memory of the computer system. A tracker is coupled to the prefetcher, and is configured to recognize an access to a plurality of cache lines of the memory by a processor of the computer system. A cache memory is coupled to the prefetcher. The prefetcher predictively loads a target cache line of the memory into the cache memory. The target cache line for the predictive load is indicated by the tracker.
US07975107B2
Software assists a processor subsystem in making cache replacement decisions by providing an intermediary with information regarding how instructions and/or data of a working set are expected to be used and accessed by the software. The intermediary uses this information along with its knowledge of system requirements, policy and the cache configuration to determine cache usage and management hints for the working sets. The cache usage and management hints are passed by the intermediary to the processor subsystem.
US07975105B1
A reconfigurable type of flash memory-based storage device is disclosed. According to one aspect, a flash SSD comprises a data bridge and a plurality of flash memory cards. The data bridge includes necessary interfaces, a data buffer and a data management module to facilitate data exchange between a host and these flash memory cards. Each of the flash memory cards, such as an SD flash memory card, functions perfectly by itself. To facilitate the need of upgrading in terms of storage capacity, the SSD provides a plurality of slots to receive these flash memory cards As the storage capacity of the flash memory cards is increased over the time, so does the SSD by replacing only the flash memory cards.
US07975102B1
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a technique that stripes data containers across volumes of a striped volume set (SVS) using one of a plurality of different data placement patterns to thereby reduce the possibility of hotspots arising due to each data container using the same data placement pattern within the SVS. The technique is illustratively implemented by calculating a first index value, an intermediate index value and calculating a hash value of an mode associated with a data container to be accessed within the SVS. A final index value is calculated by multiplying the intermediate index value by the hash value, modulo the number of volumes of the SVS. Further, a Locate( ) function may be used to compute the location of data container content in the SVS to which a data access request is directed to ensure consistency of such content.
US07975099B2
A data storage system includes a non-volatile memory, a disc recording medium, a non-volatile memory buffer, operatively disposed between a host interface and the non-volatile memory, which stores a portion of data stored in the non-volatile memory, and a disc buffer, operatively disposed between the host interface and the disc recording medium, which stores a portion of data stored in the disc recording medium. The data storage system may be configured to receive an access address from a host operatively connected to the host interface, and sequentially determine whether the access address exists in one of the non-volatile memory buffer, the non-volatile memory, the disc buffer, and the disc recording medium, in that order.
US07975098B2
A recording medium, such as a high-density and/or optical recording medium and apparatus and methods for recording to and reproducing from the recording medium, in order to initialize, reinitialize, format, and/or re-format the high-density and/or optical recording medium.
US07975096B2
A non-volatile memory storage system including a transmission interface, a memory module, and a controller is provided. The memory module includes first and second non-volatile memory chips. The first and the second non-volatile memory chips can be simultaneously enabled by receiving a chip enable signal from the controller via a chip enable pin. When the controller performs a multichannel access, the controller provides an access instruction to the first and second non-volatile memory chip, after enabling the first non-volatile memory chip and the second non-volatile memory chip with the chip enable signal. When the controller performs a single channel access, the controller provides the access signal to one of the first and second non-volatile memory chips, and provides a non-access instruction to the other one, after enabling the first non-volatile memory chip and the second non-volatile memory chip with the chip enable signal.
US07975093B2
A cache memory system and method for supporting multiple simultaneous store operations using a plurality of tag memories is provided. The cache data system further provides a plurality of multiple simultaneous cache store functions along with a single cache load function that is simultaneous with the store functions. Embodiments create a cache memory wherein the cache write buffer does not operate as a bottle neck for data store operations into a cache memory system or device.
US07975088B2
An information processing apparatus configured to connect an external device in conformity with a predetermined interface specification, includes: a control LSI configured to control signal output to an external device effectively connected; and a CPU configured to control the operation within the apparatus including the control LSI as a whole; wherein the CPU includes an interface circuit connected to a detecting unit configured to detect the validity of connection to an external device, a control LSI control unit configured to control reset of the control LSI, and release of the reset state of the control LSI according to the detection result of the detecting unit, and the control LSI.
US07975084B1
Technologies are provided herein for configuring aspects of the operation of a server computer using a service processor. The service processor includes a processor, a NAND flash memory organized using a file system, and a hardware data communications interface coupled to the host computer. The file system is utilized to store a monolithic image file containing software components for configuring the operation of the host computer and the service processor. A firmware is also provided that executes on the processor to expose the NAND flash memory to the host processor as a storage device on the hardware interface, to receive storage requests from the host computer, and to generate offsets into the monolithic image file for performing the storage requests. The image file may be utilized to store an operating system, hardware drivers, and a host configuration tool executable by the host computer.
US07975071B2
Described is transparently compressing content for network transmission, including end-to-end compression. An end host or middlebox device sender sends compressed packets to an end host or middlebox device receiver, which decompresses the packets to recover the original packet. The sender constructs compressed packets including references to information maintained at the receiver, which the receiver uses to access the information to recreate actual original packet content. The receiver may include a dictionary corresponding to the sender, e.g., synchronized with the sender's dictionary. Alternatively, in speculative compression, the sender does not maintain a dictionary, and instead sends a fingerprint (hash value) by which the receiver looks up corresponding content in its dictionary; if not found, the receiver requests actual content. Scheduling to maintain fairness and smoothing bursts to coexist with TCP congestion control are also described, as are techniques for routing compressed data over networked end hosts and/or compression-enabled middlebox devices.
US07975069B2
A routing method in consideration of the power and transmission delay in a wireless ad hoc network and a terminal device adopting the same are provided, which can reduce the power consumption and packet delay by considering both the power consumption and packet delay. The terminal device includes a judgment unit that determines whether a first accumulative hop count included in a first route request (RREQ) packet exceeds a predetermined route decision value for limiting a hop count from a source node to a destination node, and a control unit that determines a route to the source node, based on information included in the first RREQ packet, if the judgment unit determines that the first accumulative hop count does not exceed the route decision value.
US07975067B2
A method and apparatus for implementing alerts on a browser running on a portable handheld device is disclosed. The method generates an asynchronous notification action from the server and in response transmits an alert containing a message indicating availability of HTML pages that describe the nature of the alert. The alert is received at a node on a network and translated into the original message. An alert receipt acknowledgment is transmitted to the server. Access to the alert HTML page is provided through a URL containing the appropriate query strings necessary to present the appropriate HTML page. The invention also discloses a wireless local area network (WLAN) adapter associated with a wireless network that receives paging signals from a server on the network and returns an acknowledgment signal back to the server. The invention also discloses a client/server based method of delivering messages initiated by a client. After a connection is established between a client and server, the client requests a message from the server. In response, the server retrieves and returns the message back to the client.
US07975061B1
Systems and methods for performing storage operations over multi-stream data paths are provided. Prior to performing a storage operation, it may be determined whether multi-streaming resources are available to perform a multi-stream storage operation. Availability of multi-streaming resources may be related to network pathways capable of supporting multi-stream storage operations, existing network load related to other storage operations being or to be performed, availability of components capable of supporting multi-stream storage operation, and other factors. If system resources to support multi-stream storage operations are not available, the system may optionally perform a traditional storage operation that does not incorporate multiple data streams.
US07975049B2
A computer terminal connected to a manufacturing apparatus as an object of the maintenance management is connected to a server machine providing a maintenance management service by a network, enabling bi-directional communication. The computer terminal transmits maintenance information including a kind of a maintenance method executed at the customer side to the server machine. The server machine acquires the kind of the maintenance method from the maintenance information received from the computer terminal, retrieves points corresponding to the kind of the maintenance method, and stores the retrieved points in a maintenance point storage unit. More points are set for more time consuming maintenance. This can encourage the customer to perform more time consuming maintenance on the manufacturing apparatus in order to obtain more points.
US07975047B2
A monitoring tool provided according to an aspect of the present invention causes an HTTP request to be resubmitted to another server system if a server system, to which the same HTTP request has been earlier submitted, is detected to have failed without completing processing of the request. In one embodiment, the server system is deemed to have failed upon absence of completion of requests for a pre-specified duration. As an alternative or in addition, the operational status of the server system is checked periodically and the server system is deemed to have failed if it is non-operational.
US07975037B2
A system includes a policy engine in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The policy engine may be configured to store a group of policies associated with the IMS, and forward the group of policies to a group of policy components in the IMS.
US07975033B2
A system and method for sharing network resources; the system comprising: (1) at least one network switch; (2) a plurality of computing devices, where the computing device comprises (i) at least one network connection; (ii) a plurality of processing nodes; and (iii) at least one storage device containing software for (a) initializing and maintaining a plurality of top-layer virtual local area networks (VLANs), (b) initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs; and (c) using an empty VLAN as a virtual wire between the client VLAN and a shared network resource.
US07975028B2
Techniques and mechanisms that allow configuration information, applications and/or data to be transferred between computer systems in an automated, or partially automated, manner, which may allow for more efficient transfer as compared to manual transfer. A source computer system may be coupled with a destination computer system directly via a wired or wireless communications channel. Data including, for example, user identification information, network settings, system settings, permissions and/or other data may be transferred from the source computer system to the destination computer system.
US07975021B2
A client server arrangement for downloading media content filters from a server device to a client device. The media content filters define portions of a separate audio visual presentation containing potentially objectionable subject matter. Depending on user selections, identified portions of the audio/visual presentation may be skipped and/or muted during play. In one particular implementation, the client device, e.g., a DVD player, is configured to initiate a connection with a server device. Upon successful connection, the server device transmits one or more media content filters to the client device. The client device may be configured to determine whether a particular media content filter is available, to facilitate deletion of some existing media content filters in order to secure adequate memory space, and to ensure that the media player has an active account, before initiating a connection with the server device. The server device may be configured to determine whether the media player is associated with an active user account, whether a requested filter is available, and whether adequate memory space is available at the media player, before transmitting media content filters to the client device.
US07975013B2
Disclosed are methods and systems of retaining instant message content related to usage of one or more instant message applications subject to obligations of retention. A user request to access the one or more instant message applications results in requesting a instant message master log on credential from the user and mapping the IM master log on credential of the user with instant message application specific log on credentials of the user associated with at least one of the IM applications to give a centralized and controlled access to the user who may be subject to obligations for retention of IM communications. An IM session of at least one of the one or more instant message applications may also be opened according to IM application settings rules associated with the IM master log on of the user. The IM communication generated during the session is stored based on the instant message retention rule associated with the IM master log on of the user.
US07975010B1
Computer implemented methods, apparati, and computer readable media for determining whether an electronic message (30) is likely to contain spam. A method embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of comparing (11) addresses associated with the electronic message (30) with addresses in an address book (21) of a recipient (20) of the electronic message (30); counting (12) instances for which an address associated with the electronic message (30) matches an address in the address book (21); and determining (13) whether spam is likely present in the electronic message (30) by calculating whether a pre-selected condition (70) is satisfied, said pre-selected condition (70) being based upon a count of said matches and at least one predetermined threshold (80).
US07974997B2
In one embodiment, a receiver including one or more signal-processing blocks and a hardware-based matrix co-processor. The one or more signal-processing blocks are adapted to generate a processed signal from a received signal. The hardware-based matrix co-processor includes two or more different matrix-computation engines, each adapted to perform a different matrix computation, and one or more shared hardware-computation units, each adapted to perform a mathematical operation. At least one signal-processing block is adapted to offload matrix-based signal processing to the hardware-based matrix co-processor. Each of the two or more different matrix-computation engines is adapted to offload the same type of mathematical processing to at least one of the one or more shared hardware-computation units.
US07974995B2
System, apparatus, method, and article for techniques to associate media data with related information. A mobile computing device includes a media manager module. The media manager module processes a media file including metadata. The media manager module retrieves a first content from a metadata field in the metadata. The media manager module retrieves a second content from a field in an application file associated with an application client. The media manager module compares the first and second contents and determines whether the first and second contents are associated. If the first and second contents are associated, the media manager module retrieves the second content and inserts the second content in a second metadata field of the media file.
US07974994B2
Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for sensitive webpage content detection are described. In embodiments, a multi-class classifier is developed and one or more webpages with webpage content are received. In various embodiments, the one or more webpages are analyzed with the multi-class classifier and, in various embodiments, a sensitivity level is predicted that is associated with the webpage content of the one or more webpages. In various other embodiments, the multi-class classifier includes one or more sensitivity categories.
US07974990B2
Techniques for managing program applications include an application being managed having an object-oriented interface with objects having data and methods to change the data. Changing these objects and/or the data of the objects changes the outcome of the application. A hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) server, a server-side script engine, and a scheduling mechanism are embedded in the application, i.e., they are made part of, and therefore run on, the same programming process as the application. Tasks to be performed by the application, the HTTP server, and the script engine are scheduled. The HTTP server processes requests of HTTP clients, typically supplied via a Web browser, and forwards them to the script engine. The script engine, which has direct access to the application objects, interacts with the application being controlled. The HTTP server runs the script engine for the requested script and formats the resulting information being returned to the client.
US07974982B2
A system for device profiling using cascaded databases includes a client configured to deliver data to a device, and a plurality of databases accessible by the client, each of the plurality databases containing information relevant to the device, such that the plurality of databases are queried in a prioritized order to obtain information relevant to the device.
US07974979B2
User input from a reduced keypad is disambiguated and compared with a first dynamic lexicon, and predicted matches (e.g. either a single word or phrase) are offered. If a user continues to type beyond a boundary condition, then input is no longer predicted from the first lexicon, but instead is interpreted as a request for matches from a second, quasi-static lexicon allowing words or phrases to be entered. When the entry is accepted, data is transmitted to a remote receiver and may be parsed as an inquiry for subsequent operation. Following acceptance, the apparatus invokes a program suitable for interacting with the response generated to the inquiry.
US07974971B2
A computer-implemented method for processing user entered query data to improve results of a search of pages using a local search database, when searching the internet, is disclosed. The method includes receiving the user entered query data and parsing each word of the query data and segmenting words using a probabilistic dictionary to determine a likelihood that the word is for a particular name. And, associating the particular names with a name tag to create one or more tagged name terms. Then, normalizing each of the tagged name terms and the normalizing including boosting information if found in the local search database and determining proximity between selected ones of the tagged name terms. The method then generates an optimized search query that incorporates normalized terms and operators. The optimized search query being applied to the internet to enable search results to be produced and displayed to the user in response to the entered query data.
US07974970B2
A system for detecting artificial promotion of a resource, including a search engine operative to index a set incoming links (“inlinks”) which reference the resource, a log module coupled with the search engine and configured to store log data associated with the set of inlinks, a partitioning module coupled with log module and operative to partition the set of inlinks into a plurality of groups of inlinks based on at least one partitioning scheme, a statistics module coupled with the partitioning module and operative to compute a statistic associated with the inlinks within each of the plurality of groups of inlinks, and a computation module coupled with the statistics module and operative to process the computed statistic associated with the inlinks of each of the plurality of groups of inlinks and compute a metric associated with set of inlinks where the metric indicates a level of uniformity of a distribution of values of the respective computed statistics among the plurality of groups of inlinks, and where the search engine places a list of search results, generated in response to a search query, in a pattern based on the metric.
US07974967B2
A system may include a routines repository that is configured to store and maintain hardware libraries, software libraries and metadata, a hybrid query engine that may be configured to receive a query, parse the query, compute a query execution plan and output the query execution plan using metadata and operators from the hardware libraries and/or the software libraries, and a routines management module that may be configured to provide the metadata and the operators from the routines repository to the hybrid query engine. The system may include an execution engine module that may be configured to receive the query execution plan, the execution engine module including a reconfigurable hardware execution engine having a reconfigurable fabric, where the reconfigurable hardware execution engine may be configured to process the query execution plan.
US07974965B2
A method of processing a plurality of instances in a federated deployment of SOA applications can include the steps of receiving a transaction request to retrieve data, the request specifying retrieving the data stored according to range of indices of the federated deployment, processing each of the instances in a predetermined order to retrieve the data; and calculating a total number of records in the federated deployment.
US07974959B2
Map updating systems, methods, and programs that extract update requiring sections with respect to an update requesting section that is one of the sections being a target of an update request requesting that the target map data should be updated, obtain the information related to the guaranty versions respectively corresponding to the extracted update requiring sections by referring to the version table, the update requiring sections each being one of the sections that needs to be updated in order to guarantee integrity between the sections that are positioned adjacent to each other after the update requesting section has been updated, and generate, based on the update-purpose map database, one of the update data files regarding the update requesting section as well as other ones of the update data files regarding the update requiring sections and having the update versions indicated as the guaranty versions.
US07974956B2
Techniques are provided through which a user is verified as authorized to modify a website. A web crawler generates a filename and content for the user, who purports to be authorized to modify a particular website. The web crawler sends the filename and content toward the user. The user stores a file with the filename on a server that hosts the website. The user places the content within the file. The web crawler determines whether the file is stored on the server and whether the content is in the file. If so, then the web crawler stores information that indicates that the user is authorized to receive information pertaining to the website, which may be confidential information. If the file is not stored on the server or if the file does not contain the content, then the web crawler does not provide any information to the user pertaining to the website.
US07974955B2
A database system has a contention monitor which determines when the level of contention for accessing or inserting records in the database rises above a threshold, and inhibits non-critical access to the database to reduce the level of contention. In a preferred embodiment, the level of contention is determined by periodically measuring the time for an INSERT operation on the database, and comparing the time to a threshold derived from a baseline time measurement for the operation during a time of normal database activity. Thus the contention level is inferred from the time to do the operation, in this case the INSERT query. In one embodiment, the contention monitor notifies a system administrator to take action to reduce the contention. In another embodiment, the contention monitor informs the system to take action automatically according to predetermined selections by the system administrator.
US07974948B2
Tools and techniques are described for automatically capturing and maintaining versions of documents. These tools may provide methods that include receiving documents from a server, and receiving indications of revisions to the documents at client systems. The methods may also automatically determine whether to capture representations of states of the documents before entry of the revisions, in the absence of explicit user commands to capture these representations.
US07974927B2
The mailing machine and a method of initializing it are based on an unremovable program memory, which contains an initialization program. A removable authorization device is operationally connected to the mailing machine and is designed such that it can be interrogated. The interrogation is performed before and during the initialization of the mailing machine with predetermined INIT data. A security module connected to the program memory serves for checking the authorization and can prevent initialization without authorization. The initialization of the mailing machine takes place at the goods receiving location in the destination country by switching into an initialization mode, authorization of the initialization by means of the authorization device, input of initialization data and ending of the initialization and cancellation of the authorization.
US07974922B1
A computer-implemented system to track, process, and report exceptions arising from processing of electronic representations of checks and other financial documents.
US07974912B2
A method and apparatus (information processing system) for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in the current paid search engine keyword bidding market, by providing keyword bidders with information they need to better optimize their use of paid search engines. The system accumulates bid amounts for a plurality of target keywords at one or more paid Internet search engines, and presents the bid amounts to a user, enabling the user to evaluate and optimize bids on those keywords. The system also presents bid amounts for a keyword at one or more paid Internet search engines, in a manner highlighting one or more selected bid amounts of interest to a potential bidder. This permits a bidder to identify the bidder's own bid, and/or to identify a differential in bid amounts that indicates an opportunity for bid optimization. The system further monitors keyword bids at one or more paid Internet search engines to identify bid changes of interest to a potential bidder.
US07974905B1
Tools are provided for identifying outliers or variations in trade data derived from securities transactions, such as securities lending transactions. Such outliers may provide an indication that a given trade is suspicious or potentially inappropriate from a customer relationship point of view, a regulatory perspective, or a legal standpoint. Trades identified as outliers can be utilized in regression analyses to analyze specific trades, trader-broker relationships, or other trading activity.
US07974904B2
A method of computing a real estate derivative index value includes: selecting asking rent data; selecting lease rent data; and combining the selected asking rent data and the selected lease rent data to form the index value. The method may further include further combining the combined data with a value representative of general market conditions; forming a composite index of data from plural markets; or computing the index at the end of a time period as: Δ FKI or as Δ RP+Δ CPI+Δ FKI. The method may further include trading based on the index by deriving a trade value from the index value, and executing a trade based on the derived trade value. The method may be carried as instructions on a machine-readable medium and may be carried out using a computer for part or all of the method.
US07974903B2
A method and system receives one or more target distribution amounts corresponding to currency totals for one or more foreign entities to distribute to one or more domestic entities in one or more years, the foreign entities being direct or indirect subsidiaries of the one or more domestic entities, then it receives entity data pertaining to tax relevant attributes for the one or more domestic and foreign entities over the one or more years, and receives distribution constraints for each foreign entity, the distribution constraints including a minimum distribution amount and a maximum distribution amount for each entity in each year. The method and system creates one or more distribution scenarios including corresponding tax costs based on the entity data and the distribution constraints and identifies a distribution scenario from the one or more distribution scenarios having the lowest tax and meeting the one or more target distribution amounts.
US07974902B2
According to embodiments of the invention, processes and products permit relationships to be formed between player characters of a video game. In addition, death and reincarnation of player characters can be employed as features of the video game.
US07974890B2
A computer system and method of facilitating a sale which permits inventory information to be used in connection with a technology enabled selling (TES) system to facilitate a sale. The inventory information may be used during configuration of an item to be sold to a customer in a manner which allows the sales representative to more easily sell items from inventory if desired.
US07974888B2
A service is disclosed for enabling web sites and other entities to provide item recommendations and other behavior-based content to end users. The service can be implemented as a web service that is remotely accessible over the Internet. Web sites use the web service's interface to report events descriptive of item-related actions performed by end users (e.g., item views, item purchases, searches for items, etc.). The web service analyzes the reported event data on an aggregated basis to detect various types of associations between particular items, and stores resulting datasets that map items to associated items. The web service's interface also provides various API calls for enabling the web sites to request item recommendations and other behavior-based content, including but not limited to personalized recommendations that are based on the event history of the target user. Advantageously, the web sites need not host the infrastructure for providing such content.
US07974883B2
A system and method for providing kits of absorbent articles to consumers includes a selection tool that collects information about the consumer's cycle characteristics and use preferences and selects for the consumer a cycle kit of absorbent articles. An interactive ordering tool allows online purchase of a kit. An auto-send option provides monthly delivery of a cycle kit timed to coincide with onset of the consumer's menses. An information component provides use instructions and health and lifestyle information in different media, including from a web site. Different kit types include assortments of different types of feminine hygiene articles specific to particular profiles of cycle characteristics and use preferences, arranged in a package in a use sequence keyed to cycle progression. Other distribution channels in the system include both traditional and non-traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and institutional channels, such as dispensing machines. Refills, sample kits, custom kits and compacts are provided.
US07974878B1
A system and method for distributing information (collectively the “system”) is disclosed. The system can, but need not, include category-based and geography-based attributes to better “focus” the information distributed by the system. In the processing of listing-based attributes (e.g. attributes limited to a particular listing), the system can also be influenced by relationship-based attributes (e.g. attributes between the administrator of the system and the advertisers, and even potentially users). If desired, the system can accommodate the ability of advertisers to modify or enhance the display characteristics relating to information records in order to further differential listings and advertisers. The ability to organize listings into tiers can also be incorporated into the system. By organizing listings into tiers, the system may be more effective in maximizing competition at all ends of the listing continuum, and not just the competition for the top position or two.
US07974868B2
A method and apparatus for enhancing a virally marketed facility is described and illustrated. In one embodiment, the invention is a method of operating a virally marketed facility. The method includes measuring virality of the facility based on a conversion rate and a propagation rate. The method also includes determining potential options for increasing virality. The method further includes executing potential options for increasing virality. In an alternate embodiment, the invention is a method of operating a virally marketed facility. The method includes measuring virality of the facility. Also, the method includes determining potential options for increasing virality. Further, the method includes concurrently executing potential options for increasing virality.
US07974865B2
Disclosed are systems and methods of making assignments, particularly of sales leads. The assignments are considered either committed or uncommitted responsive to an effective date associated with one or more assignment rule used to make the assignments. Uncommitted assignments may be used to review the effects of changes in assignment rules. Examples are provided including the use of uncommitted assignments to review the effects of changes in a hierarchical territory structure.
US07974862B2
In order to provide an intelligent building having specific rooms in which relatively less wealthy persons may use, and meeting the demands for specific rooms and privacy for the general public at the same time, by optimizing the space efficiency. The intelligent building comprises: permanent exclusive rooms resided by a resident, which cannot be used except by permission of said resident; time-share exclusive rooms, which is usable by residents residing in a plurality of permanent exclusive rooms but cannot be used by others except by permission of said resident during a period of time used by said resident; at least one of a means for time-share exclusive passage, which connects one permanent exclusive room to one time-share exclusive room according to movement, wherein said means is usable by residents residing in a plurality of permanent exclusive rooms but cannot be used by others except by permission of said resident during a period of time used by said resident; and a server, which communicates with permanent exclusive rooms, time-share exclusive rooms, and means for time-share exclusive passage, and thereby capable of collecting information therefrom, and which controls permanent exclusive rooms, time-share exclusive rooms, and means for time-share exclusive passage according to predetermined rules.
US07974854B1
Systems and methods are provided for providing, based on a model, an indication that an appraisal value for a property is likely to be faulty. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving information representative of at least one of a borrower, a property, or one or more demographics, such that the received information corresponds to a date. The method determines a score based on the received information and the model, such that the score provides the indication of the likelihood that the appraisal value was faulty on the date.
US07974852B2
A system and method for bulk mail oriented transaction printing of variable documents by evaluating particular data such as zip code data in a VI PDL. A queue can be configured with information regarding a particular rendering job, which includes the VI data fields including required postal information, a particular postal information format, and a thickness adjustment with respect to each item of mail associated with a bulk mail. The rendering job can be received for production and a number of records associated with the job automatically parsed into one or more postal bundles, based on predefined information and postal regulations. Such an approach can also be utilized to automatically generate and render the required bundle labels.
US07974849B1
A method is described with which to detect and model a person's temporal activity patterns from a record of the persons computer activity or online presence. The method is both predictive and descriptive of temporal features and is constructed with a minimal amount of beforehand knowledge. Activity related data is accumulated from a mechanism that is involved in the activity of a person. Significant inactivity features are identified within the activity data. These inactivity features are characterized so as to project the temporal activity of the person. Real-time activity of the person is then detected and inactivity periods are checked for likelihood of belonging to a previously characterized significant feature. The resulting information is formatted and made available to individuals having a need for the information.
US07974838B1
A system and method to assist a singer or other user. An audio source is processed to extract the lead vocals from the audio signal. This vocal signal is fed to a pitch detection processor which estimates the pitch at each moment in time. A user singing into a microphone provides a user vocal signal that is also pitch detected. The pitch of the lead vocal signal and the user vocal signal are compared and any difference is provided to a pitch shifting module, which then can correct the pitch of the user vocal signal. The corrected user vocal signal may be combined with a background signal comprising a signal from the audio source without the lead vocal signal, and then provided to headphones or loudspeakers to the user and/or an audience. This system and method may be used for Karaoke performances.
US07974835B2
In a natural language, mixed-initiative system, a method of processing user dialogue can include receiving a user input and determining whether the user input specifies an action to be performed or a token of an action. The user input can be selectively routed to an action interpreter or a token interpreter according to the determining step.
US07974832B2
A web translation server discovers a document address for a document. The document is accessed and parsed for text data in a first language. The parsed text data is translated into text data in a second language and stored in a database. A client accesses the document and sends a request including the document address to the web translation server. The translated text data in the second language is retrieved from the database based on the document address and sent to the client. The client renders the translated text data in the second language.
US07974831B2
A communication supporting apparatus includes a supplemental example storing unit that stores a source language interpretation which is an interpretation of a semantic content of a source language sentence to be translated, and a supplemental example sentence which is an example of a sentence for supporting the semantic content, in association with each other; an input accepting unit that accepts the source language sentence input by a user; an analyzing unit that analyzes the semantic content of the source language sentence and outputs the source language interpretation; a search unit that searches for the supplemental example sentence associated with the source language interpretation from the supplemental example storing unit; and a translation unit that translates the source language sentence and the supplemental example sentence into a target language.
US07974829B2
A system for simulating mobile phone and method thereof is provided. The system has separately designed man-machine-interface (MMI) kernel module, simulator module and plug-in module. If a designer wants to replace the MMI kernel module in a developing project, the present invention allows not only the transplantation and extension of code but also the integration with the existing simulator module. Besides, the plug-in module uses the inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism and the dynamic linking library (DLL) mechanism of the operating system of a host to exchange data with the simulator module and display a mobile phone operation interface so that the simulator module is able to support future plug-in module.
US07974822B2
In a method for determining the life expectancy of machine components (2) during operation, characteristic data are established in order to determine the life expectancy for the relevant machine component (2), loads acting on the machine part (2) during operation are determined by means of a sensor device (10), characteristic values that are characteristic for the loads acting on the machine component (2) are determined, and the life expectancy is determined based on the characteristic values and on the characteristic data for the machine component (2).
US07974817B2
A computer acquires maximum lengths of a structure as measured along X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions, and acquires numbers of divisions of line segments which extend along the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions, respectively, and have the maximum lengths, respectively. The computer then calculates a basic shape, which is the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped divided into a three-dimensional grid, on the basis of the maximum lengths and the numbers of divisions. The computer creates a basic frame of the structure from the basic shape by deleting a selected line, and adding a line between two selected grid points. The computer calculates structure data, which are three-dimensional data representing the structure, by arranging frame members, which are represented by three-dimensional frame member data, along lines between the grid points of the basic frame. The computer then outputs a drawing of the structure from the structure data.
US07974815B2
An apparatus providing a means for assessment of the integrity of insulated conduits, harnesses, cables, pipelines and other interconnection systems constructed with integral sensitized media, discrete sensors, and electronics providing a means for transforming sensed data into information and a means for communicating information for the purpose of understanding the location, degree and risk of damage and deterioration, and the probable causes thereof.
US07974791B2
In a method for the optimization of stress distribution on an object to be tested for flaws by ultrasound excitation and evaluation based on resulting surface temperature distribution,—a simulation is performed under test conditions on a CAD model of the object prior to a testing an object,—vibrational spectra and modal vibrational forms are calculated,—local mechanical stresses are determined from the vibrational modes, whereby—modes to be excited for the real test are selected from the entirety of the occurring modes such that,—the mechanical stress lies in a selected region above a predetermined minimum stress to enable a reliable proof of defect,—the mechanical stress in all other regions of the inspection part, in particular on easily damaged component structures, is smaller than a predetermined maximum stress by a predetermined factor, in order not to damage the component at weak points.
US07974779B2
A system and method for financial transactions in a rideshare system is provided. A rideshare environment with multiple rideshare transactions is maintained. Each rideshare transaction includes one or more participants. Bids are received from potential participants for a position in at least one of the rideshare transactions. At least one potential participant is assigned to one of the rideshare transactions based on one of the bids.
US07974767B2
In a method for detecting an operating parameter of a power tool having an internal combustion engine with a cylinder, a piston delimiting a combustion chamber in the cylinder and driving a crankshaft supported rotatably in a crankcase, an intake supplying combustion air to the combustion chamber, an exhaust removing combustion gases from the combustion chamber, and a signal generator driven in rotation by the crankshaft emitting sequential alternating voltage signals, a period duration of the voltage signal is selected to correspond to the n-th portion of a crankshaft revolution with n greater than 2. The n-th portion of the crankshaft revolution provides a crankshaft angle interval. For each crankshaft angle interval at least one information is detected that represents a course plotted against the crankshaft angle. The course is scanned with regard to characteristic features that are correlated with an operating parameter of the power tool.
US07974764B2
In order to achieve at least a short-term reduction of the torque of an internal combustion engine, which comprises a range as widely adjustable as possible, causes a slight as possible thermal stress on the components of the attached exhaust gas system and allows for a reduction of the fuel consumption, it is proposed that in addition to the cut off of the fuel-delivery control phase of a cylinder, an intake valve associated with the cylinder is cut off.
US07974763B2
The invention relates to a method for reducing the energy consumption of a motor vehicle having an internal-combustion engine and having at least one electric onboard power supply to which at least a first electric consuming device is connected. In a first operating condition, the internal-combustion engine is operated with a first injection quantity and a first ignition point. In a second operating condition, the internal-combustion engine is operated with a second injection quantity higher than the first injection quantity and a second ignition point. The second ignition point in time is less favorable than the first ignition point in the case of the second injection quantity with respect to the capacity of the internal-combustion engine. Upon detecting a substantially imminent special driving situation, a driving situation detection device causes the internal-combustion engine to change from the first operating condition into the second operating condition.
US07974758B2
A method and apparatus for setting the torque transmitted by a friction clutch via an actuator chain having an electric motor, a reduction gear and a mechanism for converting the rotary movement of the electric motor. In the method, a desired angle of rotation of the electric motor or a link of the actuator chain is determined from the torque to be transmitted by the friction clutch and is set in a setting procedure based on a given torque/angle dependence. To compensate for wear inside the friction clutch, a calibration process takes place in which a first correction angle is determined for the torque/angle dependence. Variations in a torque/power consumption dependence caused by wear within the actuator chain are also taken into account. Specifically, the number of setting procedures of the electric motor within a predetermined time interval is determined and is used to correct the torque/power consumption dependence.
US07974755B2
A motor vehicle acoustic noise reduction system is provided. The acoustic noise reduction system particularly reduces or eliminates wind throb in a moving vehicle. The system includes a window sensor operable to sense when a first window of the motor vehicle is open. An air inlet is also included which is actuatable to let air into the motor vehicle when the air inlet is in an open position. An actuator associated with and operable to open or close the air inlet is provided and in communication with a controller. The controller is associated with tie sensor and can energize the actuator to place the air inlet in the open position and let air into the motor vehicle when the window sensor senses the first window is in the open position and communicates this information to the controller.
US07974753B2
A direction and speed control device for an electronic wheelchair includes: a base member mounted on the electronic wheelchair; a manually operable pointing unit mounted on the base member and including a control stick pivotable relative to the base member; first and second three-axis g acceleration sensors, each generating a voltage output indicative of tilt of a respective one of the control stick and the base member in three orthogonal axes; and a control unit operable so as to process the voltage outputs of the first and second three-axis g acceleration sensors to generate corresponding control signals for controlling rotation direction and speed of a wheel unit of the electronic wheelchair.
US07974752B2
A steering assist apparatus for a vehicle includes an electric motor for steering assist. Rotation output of the electric motor is reduced in speed by a ball-screw mechanism and converted to rectilinear motion, which is transmitted to a rack bar. An electronic control unit determines a target current value in accordance with a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor and a vehicle speed detected by a vehicle speed sensor. While using an actual current value of the electric motor detected by a current sensor as a feedback, the electronic control unit controls the current flowing through the electric motor to be equal to the target current value. The electronic control unit changes the feedback gain of the feedback control in accordance with a steering angle detected by a steering angle sensor, to thereby suppress abnormal noise generated at a steering mechanism, without deteriorating steering feel.
US07974747B2
When a system stop instruction is issued in the middle of the operation of an engine to stop the engine, the engagement of the gears in a gear mechanism is pressed toward one side. After the engine has stopped, a torque command for a motor connected to a drive shaft is gradually reduced. When the torque command decreases below a threshold value, the system is stopped. In this way, it is possible to prevent generation of vibration of the drive shaft when the system is stopped.
US07974740B2
An integrated management system for controlling multi-type air conditioners can use a remote integrated management system to securely and automatically back up setting information for a local controller provided in at least one air conditioner system, which is disposed in a room or office and is being operated, thereby allowing an improvement of stability of the integrated management system.
US07974739B2
In one embodiment, a system is provided with a rotatable arm having a movable joint, an infrared lamp coupled to the rotatable arm, and an electrical cable extending through the rotatable arm and the movable joint. In another embodiment, a system is provided with a base and an arm coupled to the base via a first rotatable joint, wherein the arm has an arcuate shape. The system also may include a head coupled to the arm via a second rotatable joint, an infrared lamp coupled to the head, and a temperature sensor disposed adjacent the infrared lamp. Furthermore, the system may include an air flow passage extending through the first rotatable joint, the arm, and the second rotatable joint. A fan also may be pneumatically coupled to the air flow passage. In addition, an electrical cable may be disposed in the air flow passage, wherein the electrical cable extends to the infrared lamp and the temperature sensor.
US07974738B2
A virtual track or rail system and method is described for execution by a robot. A user, through a user interface, generates a desired path comprised of at least one segment representative of the virtual track for the robot. Start and end points are assigned to the desired path and velocities are also associated with each of the at least one segment of the desired path. A waypoint file is generated including positions along the virtual track representing the desired path with the positions beginning from the start point to the end point including the velocities of each of the at least one segment. The waypoint file is sent to the robot for traversing along the virtual track.
US07974737B2
An apparatus and method of optimizing collision free path planning comprising: initializing a plurality of feasible configuration points, sample points located in a free space, and sample points not located in the free space; determining a goodness rating of the various pluralities of points; generating new candidate points; determining if each new candidate point is a feasible configuration point and adding each to the plurality of feasible configuration points if it is; if not, determining if each new candidate point is located in the free space and adding it to the plurality of sample points located in the free space if it is; if not, adding to the plurality of sample points not located in the free space; determining an updated goodness rating of the various pluralities of points; determining if a termination criteria has been met and reporting a best solution or no solution if it has been met.
US07974728B2
A system, method, and computer readable medium for extracting a key process parameter correlative to a selected device parameter are provided. In an embodiment, the key process parameter is determined using a gene map analysis. The gene map analysis includes grouping highly correlative process parameter and determining the correlation of a group to the selected device parameter. In an embodiment, the groups having greatest correlation to the selected device parameter are displayed in a correlation matrix and/or a gene map.
US07974726B2
By providing an under-specified specification for designating a destination carrier in a respective control job or control message, a high degree of flexibility in determining the destination of processed substrates may be obtained, thereby also allowing the removal of a source carrier for enhancing load port availability in complex semiconductor facilities.
US07974724B2
A method, apparatus, and a system for performing a product feedback for process control are provided. Metrology data relating to a first workpiece is received. An end of line parameter relating to the first workpiece is received. The end of line parameter is correlated with the metrology data. A process control associated with a plurality of processes to be performed on a second workpiece is adjusted based upon the correlating.
US07974710B2
Guide catheters for facilitating implantation of cardiac leads for applying electrical stimulation to and/or sensing electrical activity of the heart through one or more electrodes positioned at an implantation site within a heart chamber or cardiac vessel adjacent a heart chamber. Such a cardiac lead has low torqueability and pushability through a pathway to enable attachment of the cardiac lead at the implantation site. The catheter body comprises a delivery lumen to introduce a small diameter cardiac lead and a guide lumen to receive a guide tool to locate the catheter body distal end at the implantation site. The small diameter lumen within a small diameter guide tube extends distally from the delivery exit port of the delivery lumen. The catheter body is shaped to bias the delivery lumen exit port toward the heart.
US07974701B2
A method for limiting patient-initiated electrical signal therapy to a cranial nerve of a patient is provided. An electrical signal therapy limit is selected from the group consisting of; a maximum number of patient-initiated signals, a maximum dose of electrical signals, a maximum duration of electrical signal, a maximum rate of change of the number of patient-initiated signals, a maximum rate of change of the dose of electrical signals, and a maximum rate of change of the duration of the electrical signals all per unit of time. If the electrical signal therapy limit is exceeded a therapy is delivered to the cranial nerve selected from the group consisting of; providing therapy, providing reduced therapy, providing enhanced therapy, inhibiting therapy, providing background therapy, and inhibiting background therapy.
US07974694B2
A phase analysis technique provides for quantification of regional wall motion asynchrony from endocardial border contours generated from two-dimensional echocardiographic ventricular images. The technique produces results including a degree of radial ventricular asynchrony in heart failure patients with ventricular conduction delay to predict a magnitude of contractile function improvement with pacing therapy. Quantification of change in ventricular regional wall motion asynchrony in response to a therapy provides for a means to identify candidates to receive the therapy and quantitatively predict the benefit of the therapy. Quantification of changes in ventricular regional wall motion asynchrony in response to a sequence of therapies provides for a means to determine an approximately optimal therapy for an intended patient response.
US07974691B2
This document discusses, among other things, systems, devices, and methods for measuring cardiac impedances and producing one or more resynchronization index parameters each indicative of a cardiac synchrony or asynchrony using the measured cardiac impedances. In one example, the one or more resynchronization index parameters are used to adjust one or more pacing parameters of a cardiac resynchronization therapy.
US07974690B2
Techniques for performing a lead integrity test during a suspected tachyarrhythmia are described. An implantable medical device (IMD) may perform the test prior to delivering a therapeutic shock to treat the suspected tachyarrhythmia and, in some cases, may withhold the shock based on the test. In some examples, the IMD measures an impedance of a lead a plurality of times during the suspected tachyarrhythmia. In some examples, the IMD measures the impedance a plurality of times between two sensed events of the suspected tachyarrhythmia. The IMD or another device may determine a variability of, or otherwise compare, the measured impedances to evaluate the integrity of the lead. Instead of or in addition to withholding a shock, the IMD or another device may change a sensing or stimulation vector of the IMD, or provide an alert to a user, if the integrity test indicates a possible lead integrity issue.
US07974685B2
Systems, devices, and methods detect or classify tachyarrhythmias or make a therapy decision. A tachyarrhythmia can be classified using a rhythm discrimination parameter having a value. In certain examples, the value of the rhythm discrimination parameter can be adjusted using a relationship between a detected atrial rate and a detected ventricular rate, or the value can be adjusted using information about at least one of the atrial rate or the ventricular rate in addition to using the relationship between the atrial rate and the ventricular rate. These techniques can improve the specificity of arrhythmia detection or classification, allow anti-tachyarrhythmia therapy to be better tailored to the particular tachyarrhythmia, or provide more automatic operation making it easier for a physician to use an implantable device.
US07974683B2
A method and an apparatus for the in vivo, non-invasive, early detection of alterations and mapping of the grade of these alterations, causing in the biochemical and/or in the functional characteristics of the epithelial tissues during the development of tissue atypias, dysplasias, neoplasias and cancers is presented. The method is based, at least in part, on the simultaneous measurement of the spatial, temporal and spectral alterations in the characteristics of the light that is re-emitted from the tissue under examination, as a result of a combined tissue excitation with light and special chemical agents. The topical or systematic administration of these agents result in an evanescent contrast enhancement between normal and abnormal areas of tissue. The apparatus enables the capturing of temporally successive imaging in one or more spectral bands simultaneously.
US07974681B2
A robotic catheter system includes a controller with a master input device, and an instrument driver in communication with the controller, the instrument driver configured for independently controlling each of number of desired motions of a flexible, elongate guide instrument in a body of a patient in response to control signals generated by the controller, the desired motions selected from the group comprising axial advancement, axial retraction, axial rotation, and radial bending. Integrated haptics capability may be provided, in which one or more motors provide tactile feedback to an operator through the master input device.
US07974678B2
A catheter for magnetic navigation in the human body, has a magnet arranged in the catheter tip in order to move a catheter to the desired position in the body by interaction with an external magnetic field, and has a number of separated electromagnets, that can be controlled independently of one another, distributed along the length of the catheter body.
US07974670B2
A method of processing skin surface observation measuring data which is able to address various sicknesses and reduce an error in sickness detection, and a measuring apparatus requiring no filter. The measuring apparatus an irradiator applying a white light to a biological surface as a sample, a detector detecting the spectra of the white light reflected off a plurality of positions on the biological surface, a plotter plotting the absorbances of the above spectra to a light spectrum multi-dimensional space, an analyzer subjecting data in the spectrum multi-dimension space obtained from the plurality of positions to multivariate analysis to determine the eigenvectors of at least first, second and third principal components, and a display projecting data at respective positions in respective eigenvector directions to display their magnitudes on a two-dimension display screen on a gray scale or in colors corresponding to the magnitudes; and a measuring method by the apparatus.
US07974661B1
Aspects provide a computer-readable medium for accessing computer applications and application data on a computer operating in a low-power state utilizing a wireless device and providing the requested information in a usable format over a short-range communications link. According to one aspect, a computer-readable medium causes a computer to receive a request for data over a short-range wireless link. If the computer is in a standby state, a low-power state is initiated, a software component is executed to receive the request, retrieve the data, format the data for display on the wireless device, and send the data to the wireless device. If the computer is in a hibernation mode, a pre-boot application is executed to retrieve, format, and send the stored data to the wireless device or to initiate a low-power or power-on state and forward the request to a software component for retrieving the requested data.
US07974660B2
A housing assembly (100), used, e.g., in a mobile electronic device (300), includes a housing body (10) and a display unit (20). The housing body defines a display opening (110). The display unit contains electronic ink. The display unit is received in the display opening and is configured for providing information and/or graphics. The housing body moldingly receives the display lens therein, via an injection molding process.
US07974651B2
A method and system for dynamically triggering re-connection of a TDMA-capable radio to a TDMA-based talk group via a TDMA site. The dynamic re-connection is triggered by the group call controller when an initial request for connection to the TDMA-based talk group is made through an FDMA site by the TDMA-capable radio.
US07974648B2
A transmitter (1) applies current from a power supply node to a ground node in synchronization with only a rise of an input signal and transmits a transmission signal including an RF pulse signal to a receiver (2). The receiver (2) applies current from a node (231) on which precharge is performed to a ground node only at the reception of the RF pulse signal, decreases the potential of the node (231) from a precharge potential Va to 0 V, and outputs an H-level output signal by detecting the decreased potential 0 V. After receiving the RF pulse signal, the receiver (2) performs precharge to change the potential of the node (231) to the potential Va.
US07974646B2
The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that facilitate sending a network initiated USSD message via a mixed network to user equipment. An application server component can communicate to user equipment. A location component can aggregate location data associated with the user equipment, wherein the location component can utilize the last known location data to send a network initiated USSD message to the user equipment via a mixed network.
US07974644B2
For use in a wireless network, a base station that reduces the call set-up time for a time-sensitive application. The base station comprises a message controller for receiving an incoming control message that initiates the time-sensitive application in a mobile station. In lieu of a conventional page message, the message controller transmits a short data burst message to the mobile station to initiate the time-sensitive application. The short data burst message is transmitted in a forward control channel. The mobile station completes the set-up by transmitting back an L2 Acknowledgment message in lieu of a conventional page response message.
US07974640B2
Several techniques for locating wireless devices involve the Mobile Stations (MS) making measurements of the signals transmitted by geographically distributed base stations within a wireless network. If some key site information is known about these transmitters, such as the transmitter location, transmit signal power, signal propagation, and transmit signal timing, measurements of these transmit signals by a MS can be used to determine the position of the MS. An automatic method to detect transmitters, identify key transmitter information, and utilize the base station transmit signals to perform location is presented. In addition, this method facilitates the use of cell site transmit signals that are part of multiple wireless networks.
US07974639B2
For a call flow to perform position determination, a network sends to a user equipment (UE) an indication (e.g., a request for permission) to perform a position fix for the UE. The UE responds by sending to the network an acknowledgment (e.g., a grant of permission) to perform the position fix. The UE selectively sends a position estimate for itself to the network, typically along with the acknowledgment. The network may initiate location processing if (1) a location estimate is not received from the UE or (2) a location estimate is received from the UE but the network decides not to use this location estimate. In this case, the network and the UE perform location processing to obtain a position fix for the UE. However, if a location estimate is received from the UE and the network decides to use the location estimate, then the location processing is bypassed or short circuited.
US07974633B2
A system and method for determining a position of a wireless mobile device. The method comprising the steps of providing one base station in communication with the mobile device, providing a sensor spaced apart a known distance from the base station, and determining the range between the mobile device and the base station. The time of arrival of a signal transmitted from the mobile device is measured at the sensor and a set of coordinates is calculated for the mobile device relative to the sensor as a function of the known distance from the sensor to the base station, the range between the mobile device and the base station, an estimate of base station transmission timing relative to a time source, and the time of arrival. One of the set of coordinates may then be chosen to thereby determine a position of the mobile device relative to the sensor.
US07974618B2
A system configured to originate telecommunications services is provided. The system includes a cellular gateway server (GS-C) communicating with a network gateway server (GS-E) located in an enterprise network via a signaling connection. The GS-C is configured to prepare the GS-E for an upcoming communication. The GS-E is configured to receive originator and destination data from the GS-C and is further configured to initiate a route based on the destination data prior to completion of a route from the originator through the GS-C.
US07974614B1
A system and method for merchandizing content to wireless subscribers that have upgraded their mobile station or service is disclosed. The wireless carrier maintains a database of identifying data for content downloaded to subscribers' mobile stations. When a subscriber upgrades his or her mobile station the wireless carrier searches the database for previously downloaded content, identifies the equivalent content that is compatible with the new mobile station and provides the information of available equivalent downloads to the mobile station.
US07974612B2
A method for transmitting a phone number stored in a first mobile communication terminal to a second mobile communication terminal is provided. The method comprises selecting a phone number stored in a database in the first mobile communication terminal, by way of interacting with a user interface of the first mobile communication terminal; creating a short text message to be transmitted to the second mobile communication terminal; inputting the selected phone number in the short text message, as a single entry, by way of interacting with the user interface of the first mobile communication terminal; and transmitting the short text message to the second mobile communication terminal, wherein a user of the second mobile communication terminal upon receipt of the short text message interacts with the second mobile communication terminal to select the phone number in the short text message, as a single entry.
US07974611B2
A method, apparatus and software is disclosed for managing a call in a telecommunications network, in which an instruction from a calling device to establish a call to a destination is received; a first command to connect a first call leg to the calling device is issued; the first call leg to the calling device is connected; a second command to connect a second call leg to the calling device is issued; the second call leg is connected to the destination instead of the calling device; and the first and second call legs are connected to provide the call between the calling device and the destination.
US07974608B2
Wireless networks and methods are disclosed that provide for anonymous call blocking in wireless networks. A wireless network of the invention includes an MSC system and an HLR system. When a calling party initiates a call to a called party, the MSC system receives the call and generates a call setup message for the call. The call is anonymous, so the call setup message does not include caller ID information for the calling party. The MSC system receiving the call transmits the call setup message to the HLR system. The HLR system determines if the call setup message includes caller ID information, and determines if the called party subscribes to anonymous call blocking. Responsive to determining that there is no caller ID information in the call setup message and that the called party subscribes to anonymous call blocking, the HLR system instructs the MSC system to block the call.
US07974606B2
A system and method for configuring devices for wireless communication are disclosed. A method may include transmitting an activation key from an activation broker to a wireless agent. The method may also include transmitting the activation key from the activation broker to a wireless registrar. At least one of the transmission of the activation key to the wireless agent and the transmission of the activation key to the wireless registrar may include transmitting the activation key via a short-range wireless communication technology. In addition, the activation key may include information for authenticating wireless communication between the wireless agent and a wireless access point.
US07974605B2
Systems and methods for processing personal communications wherein one embodiment comprises a communication processing system which has a data processing system that receives communications from a user. The data processing system authenticates the received communications, selects one of a plurality of actions for processing the communication item, and processes the communication item according to the selected action. The communication includes one or more communication items which may be voice data, text data, or some other form of information. The data processing system may receive communications from devices such as cellular phones and may also transmit generated results to users' phones. The processing performed by the system may, for example, include storing, forwarding or distributing communication items to multiple recipients, converting them to text, using them to generate reminders, and so on. Generated results may be transmitted to the original caller, transmitted to other recipients, stored for later access, etc.
US07974597B2
A power amplifier system includes a first power amplifier, a second harmonic generator, a phase shifter, and first and second adders. The first power amplifier amplifies a primary input signal. The second harmonic generator outputs a second harmonic by using a split part (signal) of the primary input signal as an input. The phase shifter adjusts a phase of the second harmonic. The first adder sums together a split signal of the primary input signal and an output of the phase shifter, thereby to produce an output. The second power amplifier uses the output of the first adder as an input. The second adder sums together an output of the first amplifier and an output of the second power amplifier, thereby to produce an output.
US07974595B2
One embodiment relates to an on-chip power amplifier (PA) test circuit. In one embodiment, a PA test circuit comprises a controllable oscillator (CO) configured to generate a radio frequency (RF) signal, a parallel resonant circuit tuned to the radio frequency, a pre-power amplifier (PPA) coupled to the CO and the parallel resonant circuit, the PPA configured to amplify and drive the RF signal from an output of the PPA into a load. The test circuit may further comprise a first transmission gate configured to couple the RF signal from the CO to an input of the PPA. One testing methodology for a PA test circuit comprises stressing the PPA with an RF signal, measuring a characteristic of the PPA, determining stress degradation from the characteristic measurements, and repeating the stressing and characteristic measurements until a maximum stress degradation is achieved or a maximum stress has been applied.
US07974585B2
A method of performing a frequency correction of a radio module. Multiple samples of frequency data during a quiescent portion of the base station transmission is taken to estimate the amount of frequency correction needed. An embodiment applies the frequency data to a median filter to eliminate invalid data. Next, a new reference frequency is applied to a radio transceiver in the radio module to provide the frequency correction. If the frequency was corrected by greater than a pre-determined amount, the process performs a large shift frequency correction, including verifying that the first frequency correction was satisfactory and verifying that the radio transceiver is able to receive data after the frequency correction has been performed. If the frequency was corrected by smaller than a pre-determined amount, the process performs a small shift frequency correction, including updating a total of all frequency corrections made since a stored reference frequency was updated.
US07974580B2
An apparatus for wireless communications is disclosed including a signal generator adapted to generate a substantially periodic signal including a plurality of cycles, and a modulator adapted to modulate an amplitude, a phase or both the amplitude and the phase of the periodic signal on a per cycle basis. In one aspect, the modulator is adapted to modulate the amplitude, the phase, or both the amplitude and phase of the periodic signal with a defined modulation signal. In another aspect, the defined modulation signal includes a substantially root raised cosine signal. In yet another aspect, the defined modulation signal is configured to achieve a defined frequency spectrum for the modulated periodic signal.
US07974577B2
A communication device for supporting wireless communication between a host system and a target system and methods for manufacturing and using same. In one preferred embodiment, the communication device can include a host adapter and a wireless transceiver. When coupled with a communication port of the host system, the host adapter exchanges data signals over a virtual communication port of the host system and supports conversion between the data signals and serial data signals. The wireless transceiver converts the serial data signals received from the host adapter into outgoing wireless signals for broadcast to the target system and incoming wireless signals received from the target system into the serial data signals for transmission to the host adapter. Thereby, the host adapter, when coupled with the host system, operates as a hardware firewall, rendering the wireless transceiver invisible to the host system's operating system.
US07974574B2
The normal roles of wireless stations and wireless access points in initiating the establishment of wireless connections may be reversed without the need for changes in the network interfaces for either the station or access point device. This capability may be used to allow wireless devices acting as access points, but on which service clients operate, to initiate the establishment of a connection with a station, on which a wireless service provider operates. Discovery of services between wireless devices can be provided prior to establishing a connection between the devices. A service client device providing access point functionality may broadcast an invitation for service advertisements and then receive service advertisements from relevant service providers acting as wireless stations. An information element may be included as part of periodically broadcast administrative messages to wirelessly convey an invitation for service advertisements. In response to a service advertisement, the access point may send to the wireless station an invitation to connect, prompting the wireless station to begin to establish a connection according to a wireless communication protocol.
US07974563B2
A pressure member contacts a heating member to form a nip part where a recording material is heated and pinched-conveyed, and includes a first elastic layer and a second elastic layer 24b having a higher thermal conductivity than that of the first elastic layer. An elastic layer is formed of a combination of the first elastic layer and the second elastic layer so that the thickness of the second elastic layer at the end portion is thicker than the thickness of the second elastic layer at the center portion in a longitudinal direction perpendicular to a recording material conveyance direction. Accordingly, when using the pressure member to contact the heating member to form the nip part, it is possible to reduce the difference between a center nip width and an end-portion nip width of the nip part.
US07974556B2
A development device includes a screw conveyer to convey powder contained in a development casing in a direction along a shaft of the screw conveyer, a bearing in which the screw conveyer is inserted, a cylindrical member provided around the screw conveyer and disposed between the screw conveyer and the bearing, the cylindrical member including a flange portion that projects from the cylindrical member toward an outside diameter of the shaft of the screw conveyer, and a powder pressure disperser to reduce pressure of the powder transported by the screw conveyer provided upstream from the flange portion in a direction in which the screw conveyer conveys the toner, the powder pressure disperser provided around and extending outward in directions perpendicular to the shaft of the screw conveyer and having an outer diameter larger than an outer diameter of the flange portion.
US07974548B2
A developing device of the present invention has a toner supply opening in a first carrying path and in the upstream of the developer carrying direction of a first carrying screw which is further from a developing roller; and a moquette member having feathers on its surface, and being provided, along the developer carrying direction, on the first carrying path. With this arrangement, it is possible to realize a compact developing device having a simple arrangement in which the supplied toner is speedily mixed with the preexisted developer, and the stable toner which is uniformly dispersed and charged can be speedily supplied for development.
US07974547B2
A simple and cost effective method of simplifying and speeding heat exhaust plenum attachment and detachment from a machine that uses metal for exterior covers and air output grills includes placing magnetic sheeting around that portion of the plenum that mates with the back of the machine and allowing the magnetic force of the sheeting to attach the plenum to the machine. The plenum can easily be detached from the machine by overcoming the magnetic force of the sheeting.
US07974531B2
Systems for, and methods of, generating a visual representation of a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical network and nodes thereof. In one embodiment, a system for generating a visual representation of multiple nodes of a WDM optical network includes: (1) a connectivity, pass-through and error identifier configured to identify connectivity and any pass-throughs and termination errors with respect to at least some nodes of the WDM optical network and (2) a connectivity, pass-through and error displayer coupled to the connectivity, pass-through and error identifier and configured to generate the visual representation that indicates the connectivity and the any pass-throughs and termination errors.
US07974526B2
An electric radiant heater has a proximity sensor capable of detecting the presence of an object proximate the top surface of the heater's housing. The heater also has a temperature sensor capable of sensing ambient temperature proximate the top surface of the heater's housing. A microcontroller is coupled to the proximity and temperature sensors. Upon the detection of an object atop the heater's housing, the microcontroller determines if the temperature sensor's output is indicative of the presence of ice or snow. If so, a heating element of the heater is allowed to remain in operation. Otherwise, the detected object is considered to be potentially combustible material, and the heating element is switched off by the microcontroller.
US07974505B2
A method for fabricating selectively coupled optical waveguides on a substrate is disclosed. Initially, a first layer of waveguide material is deposited on a substrate. The first layer of waveguide material is then etched to form multiple level one waveguides and fill shapes. A dielectric layer is deposited on top of the level one waveguides and fill shapes. The surface profile of the dielectric layer deposition tracks the pattern density of the fill shapes. After the surface of the dielectric layer has been polished, a second layer of waveguide material is deposited on the substrate. At least one optically coupled waveguide structure, which is formed by a first level one waveguide and a first level two waveguide, is located adjacent to at least one non-optically coupled waveguide structure, which is formed by a second level one waveguide and a second level two waveguide.
US07974495B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatus that are helpful for identifying or protecting video. One claim recites a method including: receiving data representing picture elements of video; transforming the data into a frequency domain; comparing characteristics associated with the transformed data to predetermined characteristics that are associated with a first video type, and if the characteristics coincide, determining that the video is of the first video type; and if the characteristics do not coincide, comparing the characteristics of the transformed data to predetermined characteristics that are associated with a second video type, and if the characteristics coincide, determining that the video is of the second video type. Another claim recites a method including: obtaining information associated with a video; selecting a set of information from the obtained information; deriving identifying information from the selected set of information; and providing a security feature in or over data representing picture elements of the video according to the identifying information. Of course, other implementations are provided as well.
US07974487B2
The subject application is directed to a system and method for image enhancement. Image data, encoded as a plurality of pixels in YCbCr space, is first received, with Y representing a luma component, Cb representing a blue chroma component, and Cr representing a red chroma component. A maximum Y value is selected from the received image data. HSV image data is received corresponding to the YCbCr image data, with H representing a hue component, S representing a saturation component, and V representing a brightness component. A pixel is then selected from the HSV image data having a minimum S value. The S (saturation) value and the V (brightness) value of the selected pixel are then tested against a first and a second threshold level. Thereafter, a Max-RGB algorithm is selectively applied to the RGB image data in accordance with the output of the testing.
US07974485B1
Split-frame post-processing techniques are used in a programmable video post processing engine. A frame of video data is divided into a processing region and a control region that contain either different portions of the frame or copies of a portion of the frame. Post-processing operations are performed for the processing region but not for the control region. The processing and control regions are then displayed simultaneously on the same display device (e.g., side by side), facilitating visual comparisons of images with and without post-processing.
US07974483B2
The method for block coding data, such as video data, via a compression operation includes applying to input-data blocks a discrete-cosine-transform (DCT) operation and a quantization operation to produce compressed-data blocks. The compressed-data blocks are subjected to a coding operation to obtain compressed output flows; and an inverse-quantization operation and an inverse-discrete-cosine-transform (IDCT) operation are applied on the compressed-data blocks to obtain reconstructed blocks. The method includes controlling generation of mismatch errors from the input-data blocks by detecting data blocks from the input-data blocks and compressed-data blocks that are liable to cause mismatch errors, and modifying the blocks that are liable to cause mismatch errors prior to the coding operation.
US07974467B2
An image-taking system includes an image-taking device which takes an image of a subject; a flashing device which emits a flash to the subject; an illumination device which has a surface positioned opposite the image-taking device and which illuminates the subject interposed between the image-taking device and the surface with light emitted from the surface. The system further includes a background replacement device which acquires a plurality of images of the subject taken by the image-taking device under a respective plurality of image-taking-light conditions created by the flashing device and the illumination device, discriminates between the subject and a background in a taken image based on the acquired images, and replaces the background with another background.
US07974461B2
A method, computer program product, and apparatus for displaying a calculated geometric entity within at least one 3D range data set obtained using a 3D rangefinder device. At least a first 3D range data set is provided. Each 3D range data set is displayed as at least one displayed image. A calculated geometric entity selected from the group consisting of a vector, a surface, and a volume, is specified. The calculated geometric entity may be displayed merged within at least one displayed image.
US07974459B2
A system for the characterization of webs that permits the identification of anomalous regions on the web to be performed at a first time and place, and permits the localization and marking of actual defects to be performed at a second time and place.
US07974437B2
Disclosed are embodiments of systems and methods for embedding and/or extracting data from images. In embodiments, an image may be segmented into regions, and characters or other image groups within a segmented region may be determined to be embedding sites. A data vector may be embedded into a set of corresponding ordered embedding sites by representing each data element as different intensity values assigned to the pixels within one portion of an embedding site relative to the pixels in another portion of the embedding site. In embodiments, embedded data may be extracted from an image by extracting and decoding a set of bit values from a set of identified and ordered embedding sites.
US07974431B2
A speaker system of the present invention comprises a cabinet, at least one speaker unit attached to the cabinet, and a plurality of passive radiators attached to the cabinet and each including a diaphragm and a supporting system supporting the diaphragm. The speaker system of the present invention is configured so that distortion components of sound pressures radiated from the supporting systems of the plurality of passive radiators are canceled with each other, and sounds radiated by the plurality of passive radiators are radiated in substantially the same direction from the cabinet.
US07974430B2
In order to automate a microphone assembly process including a dust-proof treatment, an object of the present invention is to provide a dust-proof microphone having a configuration suitable for automated assembly.According to the present invention, a microphone has a plate-like or film-like dust-proof section that is disposed in a conductive housing (capsule) having a sound aperture and covers the sound aperture. The dust-proof section has a plurality of pores at least in a region corresponding to the sound aperture, and the dust-proof section further has a nonporous region. In the case of an electret condenser microphone, from the viewpoint of performance of the microphone, the dust-proof section is conductive. In addition, taking into account a soldering in a reflow furnace, the dust-proof section is heat-resistant. Each pore is desirably designed taking into account the environment for the usage of the microphone. However, if it is supposed that the microphone is used near one's mouth, each pore has an area of 0.01 mm2 or less. In addition, to enhance the dust-proof effect, the pores may be subjected to a water-repellent treatment.
US07974424B2
A speaker array system for outputting, with a simplified construction, sounds audible with a nearly uniform sound volume within an arbitrarily set area. The speaker array system includes a speaker array having speaker units, a delay unit for supplying the speaker units with delayed audio signals generated by adding delays to an input audio signal, an input unit for inputting area information representing a target area to which an acoustic service is provided using an acoustic beam emitted from the speaker array and which has a normal line extending in a direction different from a normal direction of a speaker surface of the speaker array, and a control unit for calculating delays to be applied to the delay unit. Based on the delays, acoustic waves output from adjacent ones of the speaker units toward the target area are made coincident with each other and an envelope is more distorted from a spherical surface so as to face the target area as the envelope propagates closer to the target area.
US07974418B1
Audio loudspeaker and headphone virtualizers and cross-talk cancellers and methods use separate virtual speaker locations for different Bark frequency bands and a single reverberation filter for multi-channel virtualizer inputs.
US07974412B2
A communication system includes a transmission device that transmits an information signal having information defined as a binary state value, the transmission device including a signal generation unit that generates an information decryption signal to transmit the information decryption signal together with the information signal, wherein the state value of the information decryption signal is unchanged when the state value of the information signal is changed, whereas the state value of the information decryption signal is changed when the state value of the information signal is unchanged; and a reception device that receives the information signal and the information decryption signal, the reception device including an information acquisition unit that acquires the state value of the information signal based on a changing timing of the state value of each of the information signal and the information decryption signal received.
US07974394B1
A method of filtering telecommunication service includes receiving a call that includes a call identifier. The method also includes determining a filter status of the call and transmitting a notification message to a remote node. The notification message identifies the call identifier and the filter status of the call.
US07974393B2
A method and apparatus for providing a telecommunication service is disclosed wherein a call associated with a first prepaid services account identifier is received from a user. An offer is provided to the user to initiate a replacement service for the first prepaid services account identifier and, upon receiving an indication of an acceptance of the offer from the user, a replacement codeword associated with the first prepaid services account identifier is established. The call associated with the first prepaid services account may be any type of communication, including a telephone call, a message delivered via the internet, or any other voice or data message. Upon receipt of the codeword from the user, a second prepaid services account identifier is established and, in one implementation, the first prepaid services account identifier is deactivated.
US07974389B2
A method of providing 911 service to a private branch exchange, includes grouping a plurality of private telephone numbers into a set. An outgoing telephone line for a 911 call is assigned to the set. A location information for the outgoing telephone line is input into a location database.
US07974385B2
An apparatus integrates disparate systems. The apparatus includes a platform that supports a control interface. The platform also supports a different user interface for each of the disparate systems. The platform enables the formatting and transfer of data from the apparatus to each of the disparate systems.
US07974384B2
An x-ray tube includes a vacuum enclosure, a shaft having a first end and a second end, a flange attached to the first end of the shaft, the flange having an outer perimeter, and a ferrofluid seal assembly having an inner bore, the inner bore having an outer perimeter smaller than the outer perimeter of the flange. The shaft is inserted through the bore of the ferrofluid seal assembly such that the ferrofluid seal assembly is positioned between the first end of the shaft and the second end of the shaft and such that the first end extends into the vacuum enclosure, and the ferrofluid seal is configured to fluidically seal the vacuum enclosure from an environment into which the second end of the shaft extends.
US07974377B2
A method includes inserting a first x-ray detector between a second x-ray detector and an object.
US07974375B2
A linear phase detector includes an up/down pulse generator operating in response to received data signals and a recovered clock signal. The phase detector generates up and down pulses that have pulse widths proportional to the phase differences between transitions of the received data signals and edges of the recovered clock signal. By generating up and down pulses using a linear phase detector in proportion to a phase error, data signals are effectively recovered, even data signals with significant jitter.
US07974370B2
A system and method is disclosed for providing single antenna interference cancellation processing with minimum latency. Incoming data frames are processed to generate a plurality of parallel data streams which are then further processed using a parallel single antenna interference cancellation algorithm to reject the signals and to generate a data stream containing only the desired symbols. In various embodiments of the invention, the parallel data streams are processed using a parallel arithmetic logic unit that is capable of operating in single-cycle mode in response to a first control stream and a multi-cycle mode in response to a second control stream. Embodiments of the invention comprise a three port memory interface operable to receive the parallel data streams and to generate a virtual three-dimensional data structure therefrom. In some embodiments of the invention, the virtual three-dimensional data representation comprises a plurality of segmented matrices, with the segmented matrices comprising data corresponding to portions of the incoming data frames. Data elements within the individual segments of the virtual three dimensional data structure can be calculated using data elements contained in a predetermined row and predetermined column of a segment.
US07974367B1
The present invention provides for receiving a radio frequency signal which encodes transmitted data, and for outputting data corresponding to the transmitted data. The radio frequency signal is received and converted to inphase and quadrature data. Phase information is extracted from the inphase and quadrature data. A symbol timing for the radio signal is determined based on the extracted phase information. The transmitted data encoded within the radio frequency signal is detected and processed based on the determined symbol timing. Data is output based on the detected and processed transmitted data. Since symbol timing is determined based on phase information, in the phase domain, a radio frequency receiver can be constructed with a lower complexity and a simpler structure.
US07974358B2
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system provided for communication includes an OFDM transmitter and an OFDM receiver. The OFDM transmitter may be configured to transmit OFDM signals through a communication channel and may include a channel encoder configured to encode a plurality of information bits and an interleaver configured to interleave the channel-encoded information bits. The OFDM transmitter may also include a mapper configured to map the interleaved channel-encoded information bits into mapped multi-level symbols. The OFDM transmitter may also include a dispersive encoder that is configured to dispersively encode the mapped symbols. The OFDM receiver may be configured to receive the transmitted OFDM signals and to decode the received OFDM signals iteratively based on soft decision methods.
US07974355B2
A method and apparatus for generating a permutation for forward link hopping is provided, comprising initializing permutation constants, determining a value for p such that i is less than 2p wherein i is a first counter, initializing a second counter j to ‘0’, setting x to i+1 wherein x is index of elements of an array A, clocking a Pseudo-noise (PN) register n times to generate a pseudorandom number, setting x to p Least Significant Bits (LSB) of the pseudorandom number, incrementing j by 1, determining if x is greater than i, setting x equal to x−i, if x is greater than i, swapping the ith and xth element in the array A, decrementing counter i by 1, and mapping a set of hop-ports to a set of sub-carriers based upon the generated hop-permutation.
US07974350B2
In estimating propagation path in an OFDM receiver in an OFDM communication system, a CIR estimation unit estimates a group of impulse responses of a propagation path, a valid-impulse discriminator selects impulse responses (CIR), which are greater than a predetermined threshold value, from the impulse-response group, and a propagation path estimation unit generates a matrix expression using a CIR estimation vector that includes the selected CIRs as elements, a matrix S, which is decided based upon number N of points of an IFFT used in OFDM modulation and number Nc of subcarriers used in actual transmission, and a propagation-path response vector, obtains the propagation-path response vector by solving this matrix expression and estimating the propagation path.
US07974346B2
A predictive video coder performs gradient prediction based on previous blocks of image data. For a new block of image data, the prediction determines a horizontal gradient and a vertical gradient from a block diagonally above the new block (vertically above a previous horizontally adjacent block). Based on these gradients, the encoder predicts image information based on image information of either the horizontally adjacent block or a block vertically adjacent to the new block. The encoder determines a residual that is transmitted in an output bitstream. The decoder performs the identical gradient prediction and predicts image information without need for overhead information. The decoder computes the actual information based on the predicted information and the residual from the bitstream.
US07974340B2
The present application is directed to techniques and tools for adapting the quantizer as well as the quantization step size used during video encoding. For example, a video encoder uses a non-uniform quantizer (having a relatively large dead zone ratio) for B-picture types, but uses a uniform quantizer for other types of pictures. In many encoding scenarios, this helps the encoder control bit rate for the B-picture types instead of resorting to higher quantization step sizes, which improves overall quality for the B-picture types.
US07974334B2
Embodiments provide systems and methods for a novel multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) equalization technique that produces a channel matrix that contains partly real coefficients and partly complex coefficients, referred to herein as a hybrid-MIMO equalization. MIMO detectors can exploit the hybrid-MIMO equalization to reduce complexity. Some embodiments provide systems and methods for equalizing a communication channel comprising receiving as an input a channel output vector, dividing the input into two vectors, a first vector that remains a complex number and a second vector that contains only real numbers, separating the second vector into its real and imaginary components, and regrouping the first and second vectors into a hybrid channel output vector that contains both real and complex coefficients.
US07974333B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes a signal source 7 that outputs a signal of predetermined frequency, a frequency divider 15 that receives the output signal of the signal source and is capable of switching the output signal to two or more frequency division ratios, a delta-sigma modulator 16 that controls the frequency division ratio of the frequency divider, and a bandpass filter 17 that receives an output of the frequency divider. The frequency of the input signal of the frequency divider is divided by the frequency division ratio controlled by the delta-sigma modulator, and quantization noise appearing in the output of the frequency divider generated by the delta-sigma modulator is attenuated with the bandpass filter. The semiconductor apparatus easily can convert a signal output by a single signal source to a signal of predetermined frequency and supply a plurality of signals of predetermined frequency using a simple configuration with reduced chip size.
US07974327B2
A surface emitting laser element array comprises a plurality of surface emitting laser elements (15) on a same substrate (1) each comprising a mesa post formed of a laminated structure including an active layer (4) for reducing a crosstalk between the surface emitting laser elements constituting the surface emitting laser element array, and for improving a high speed response, wherein each of the surface emitting laser elements (15) comprises a first electrode (9), a second electrode (10) and a third electrode (11) that have a polarity different from that of the first electrode (9); the first electrode (9) is arranged on the mesa post; the second electrode (10) is arranged on one surface of the substrate (1) same as that of the first electrode (9); the third electrode (11) is arranged on the other surface of the substrate (1) opposite to that of the first electrode and the second electrode (9, 10) and is provided as a common electrode of the surface emitting laser elements (15); and an electric current is applied to the active layer (4) using the first electrode (9) and the second electrode (10).
US07974325B2
Apparatus and methods for generating radiation via difference frequency generation (DFG). In one exemplary implementation, a quantum cascade laser (QCL) has a significant second-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(2)) integrated in an active region of the QCL. The QCL is configured to generate first radiation at a first frequency ω1, second radiation at a second frequency ω2, and third radiation at a third frequency ω3=ω1−ω2 based on difference frequency generation (DFG) arising from the non-linear susceptibility. In one aspect, the QCL may be configured to generate appreciable THz radiation at room temperature.
US07974322B2
A nitride semiconductor laser device includes: a substrate made of silicon in which a plane orientation of a principal surface is a {100} plane; and a semiconductor laminate that includes a plurality of semiconductor layers formed on the substrate and includes a multiple quantum well active layer, each of the plurality of semiconductor layers being made of group III-V nitride. The semiconductor laminate has a plane parallel to a {011} plane which is a plane orientation of silicon as a cleavage face and the cleavage face constructs a facet mirror.
US07974321B2
The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for stabilizing the average emitted radiation output of a pulsed radiation source. It is the object of the invention to find a novel possibility for stabilizing the average emitted radiation output of a pulsed radiation source which enables a reliable regulation even when there is no sufficiently reliable manipulated variable for influencing the emitted pulse energy (Ei). According to the invention, this object is met in that the individual pulse energy (Ei) of the current radiation pulse is measured, the deviation of the current individual pulse energy (Ei) from a previously determined target value (E0) is determined, and the pulse interval (Δti+1) preceding the triggering of the next radiation pulse is controlled depending on the magnitude of the deviation between the current individual pulse energy (Ei) and the target value (E0) of the pulse energy.
US07974317B2
A method for controlling the voltage of signals used to control power amplifiers is described. A first multiplexer and a second multiplexer are set to an enabling signal. The first multiplexer is on a first integrated circuit and the second multiplexer is on a second integrated circuit. A command is written to the first multiplexer to set the first multiplexer to one of a plurality of control signals used to control a power amplifier. A command is written to the second multiplexer to select one of the plurality of control signals that maps to the first multiplexer. The second integrated circuit is connected to a power supply.
US07974316B2
In a digital broadcasting signal receiving/recording/reproducing apparatus, a recorded program can be immediately reproduced without performing complicated operations. Only a desired program and information related to the desired program are separated to be extracted from the digital broadcasting signal. Then, the separated/extracted broadcasting signal is supplied to a recording/reproducing apparatus. In the recording/reproducing apparatus, the supplied broadcasting signal is recorded, and the recorded program can be immediately reproduced without complicated manipulating operations during the signal reproducing operation.
US07974315B2
A router is provided including a line card (LC), an active master board (AMB), a standby master board (SMB) and a LC for implementing a simple synchronization of a link state database (LSDB).
US07974312B2
A packet data structure comprising a compressed medium access control (MAC) header structure capable of significantly reducing MAC header overhead for small payload applications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and interactive gaming and to increase the capacity of such applications. In various implementations, the packet data structure may be used in mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems designed to operate in accordance with the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) standards such as the 802.16e-2005 standard and/or the evolving IEEE 802.16m standard. Various embodiments are described and claimed.
US07974301B2
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a network element that is configured to be associated with a network having a number of nodes. The master node is configured to communicate with a number of nodes and allocate bandwith therebetween by sending outgoing signals and receiving incoming signals over a transmission medium. The master node is further configured to adaptively account for hidden nodes with which the master node cannot bi-directionally directly communicate by communicating at least one signal with at least one proxy node. Other methods and network elements are disclosed.
US07974297B2
An embodiment is a technique to perform queue management. A packet is received from an upper layer or a classifier in a multi-hop mesh network. The packet has a packet type classified by the classifier. The received packet is enqueued into one of a plurality of buffers organized according to the packet type.
US07974293B2
A system 10 for distributing content includes a content provider 12 that provides content through various devices including a satellite 26 or a terrestrial-based system 38. The content provider 12 provides content to a content distribution system 70 within a vehicle 60. The method associated with the system includes generating a request for a list of content from a terminal, providing a list of content to a terminal, selecting a selection from the list of content, transcrypting or transcoding the content, streaming the content corresponding to the selection to the terminal and displaying the content on the terminal.
US07974290B2
Provided is a TDMA (time division multiple access) PON (passive optical network) OLT (optical line terminal) system for a broadcast service, including packet processor determining information according to types of frames (unicast, multicast, and broadcast frames) and a switch output port using header information (an IP address of a packet header, MAC (medium access control) addresses of Ethernet frames, and the like) of data received from an external node or the ONT (optical network terminal) and attaching the information to header parts of the frames to generate second data, a switch copying the second data by a predetermined number of times according to a transmission method and transmitting the second data to a corresponding destination output port according to the identification codes, M TDMA PON MAC processors removing the identification codes added to the second data and converting the second data into TDMA PON frames, and M optical transceivers converting the TDMA PON frames into optical signals and transmitting the optical signals to an ONT.
US07974289B2
To satisfy a quality required for each traffic and perform switching for a packet segmented into cells without packet reassembly, there is provided a node apparatus including a header processing section (2) for determining an output destination of an incoming packet and a quality class from the header information of the packet, a route table (3), and a quality description table (4), and storing the packet in an output queue (6) determined by the determined output destination and quality class, an output control section (7) for reading out a packet from the output queue in accordance with the quality set for each output queue (6) and sending out the read packet through a VC determined by the determined output destination and quality class, and a quality description table (4) which has at least a virtual dedicated network number field, a destination address/mask length field, a source address/mask length field, a fourth-layer protocol/destination port number field, and a destination port number field and in which each field is made blank when any value can be set. In the node apparatus, a packet segmented into cells and arriving from each input VC is temporarily stored in a packet queue (26) corresponding to each input VC. When the final cell of the packet arrives, 1-packet cells are moved altogether to an output queue (27) corresponding to the destination IP address contained in the start cell and output to a corresponding output VC by an output section (28).
US07974286B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for screening data packets. A determination is made as to whether a signature of a trusted security element is present in a header of the data packet in response to receiving a data packet. The signature indicates that a previous security action has been performed on the data packet. A security action is performed on the data packet based on the previous security action performed on the data packet in response to the signature of the trusted security element being present.
US07974285B2
A method of identifying an egress point to a network location in a data communications network comprising a plurality of nodes and links there between comprises the step, performed at the identifying node, of receiving a notification through the network advertising an adjacency to a network location. The method further comprises the steps, performed at the identifying node, of deriving from the notification adjacency information and identifying, from the adjacency information, the egress point.
US07974284B2
A method of handling datagrams in a network device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of receiving an incoming datagram at a port of the network device, determining a type for the incoming datagram based on fields in the incoming datagram and a destination address, adding a tag to the datagram to assist in routing the datagram, obtaining a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) label when the datagram is a MPLS datagram, processing the datagram based on the MPLS label and the destination address and discarding or forwarding the datagram based upon the processing step. The tag is stripped from the datagram before it is sent from an egress port of the network switch.
US07974283B2
A method and apparatus of processing a multicast service flow for a headend cable modem is provided.The method of processing the multicast service flow includes: classifying an inputted multicast packet by a session; composing an internal header including multicast service flow information allocated to the classified session; and outputting an internal multicast packet including the internal header.
US07974280B2
A process for secure distribution of digital audiovisual streams according to a standard, normalized or proprietary format, on which streams a separation of the stream into two parts is made prior to transmission to equipment of an addressee to generate a modified main stream having a format of the original stream and complementary information of any format including digital information suitable to permit reconstruction of the original stream, wherein a transmission is made, by separate paths during distribution of the modified main stream from a distribution server and of the complementary information to the equipment of the addressee from a secure central server passing via at least one local server connecting the equipment of the addressee to the local server via at least one access point.
US07974279B2
A multipath data communication network structure in which probing middle-boxes send periodical probe messages through their different interfaces and subsequent routers map the probe messages through their randomly selected interfaces until each probe message arrives at a destination, engages to a loop or meets a time-to-live limit. The probing middle boxes select a random interface for each probe message and furnish their routable identification and a temporary random number correlated to the selected interface to each probe messages. Subsequent multipath routers select a random outgoing interface and random forwarding state descriptor (FSD) and temporarily correlate the selected random outgoing interface with the FSD and add the FSD to the probe message. The probe messages provide different destinations with various hidden paths. Each hidden path enables forwarding of packets from probing middle-boxes to the destination without identifying any routable address en-route to the destination. The destination then provides a data source with the hidden path. Each multipath network element only store their mappings related to the paths for limited term so that each path expires and vanishes after the term. Attackers are not issued a new path and thus denial of service attacks are shortly stopped.
US07974278B1
A communication system includes a packet switch that routes data packets between endpoint devices in the communication system through virtual channels. The packet switch includes output ports each having a link bandwidth for outputting data packets. Each virtual channel is associated with an output port and is allocated a portion of the link bandwidth of the output port. The packet switch receives a data packet identifying a virtual channel at an input port, selects another virtual channel associated with the input port, routes the data packet through the packet switch, and outputs the data packet from the packet switch by using the selected virtual channel. Additionally, the packet switch may select a reliable transmission protocol, a continuous transmission protocol, or a pseudo-continuous transmission protocol for outputting the data packet from the packet switch. In some embodiments, the packet switch modifies the data packet to indicate the selected virtual channel.
US07974277B2
Routing calls includes receiving a call request at a call manager from a first endpoint. The call request includes a uniform resource identifier that associates with a second endpoint. A determination is made whether the call request associates with the call manager that received the call request. To route the call request, the call manager searches a call search space for a match to the call request. The call manager communicates the call request to the routing target.
US07974274B2
A telecommunication system (1) provides bi-directional communication between TDM signals on one side and ATM signals on the other. An ATM aggregate (10) receives and transmits ATM signals, and a TDM interface (2) receives and transmits TDM signals. A format converter has an ATM bus (9) and a TDM bus (4) connected to their respective interfaces. Service-specific adapters (5-8) are connected between the buses.
US07974266B2
A method and methodology are provided for classifying Internet Protocol (IP) data in a packet switch network. Data may be received at a first node and classified based on source routing information of said data. The source routing information may be provided within LSRR/SSRR of IPv4 data or may be provided within a routing header of Ipv6 data.
US07974261B2
A wireless terminal using OFDM signaling supporting both terrestrial and satellite base station connectivity operates using conventional access probe signaling in a first mode of operation to establish a timing synchronized wireless link with a terrestrial base station. In a second mode of operation, used to establish a timing synchronized wireless link with a satellite base station, a slightly modified access protocol is employed. The round trip signaling time and timing ambiguity between a wireless terminal and a satellite base station is substantially greater than with a terrestrial base station. The modified access protocol uses coding of access probe signals to uniquely identify a superslot index within a beaconslot. The modified protocol uses multiple access probes with different timing offsets to further resolve timing ambiguity and allows the satellite base station access monitoring interval to remain small in duration. Terrestrial base station location/connection information is used to estimate initial timing.
US07974260B2
Timing control information, especially scheduling information, is transmitted between single network devices in a wireless network. Timing control information is usually time-critical information since communication parameters may be changing rapidly in wireless networks. The invention provides a method to transmit the time-critical and up-to-date timing control information to a recipient just-in-time.
US07974253B2
A base station selects and assigns uplink segments to specific wireless terminals. The base station estimates potential system interference levels, selects, assigns, and transmits a maximum uplink rate indicator value to a wireless terminal indicating the maximum uplink data rate that the wireless terminal is permitted to use. The wireless terminal receives the maximum data rate indicator and selects an uplink data rate to use which is less than or equal to the maximum data rate indicator level. The selection includes consideration of data amounts, data importance, communications channel quality, changes affecting the channel and/or power information. The wireless terminal encodes information indicative of the selected used rate with the user data/information to be transmitted by placing additional energy on a subset of the uplink signals. The base station receives the uplink signals including user data/information and data rate. The base station extracts the data rate used and utilizes the data rate to demodulate and decode the uplink user data/information.
US07974249B2
A technique is disclosed for setting up and configuring a LAN. More particularly, secure communications may be configured between an access point (AP) and a client device. Virtual AP technology is utilized to assist the configuration of the network. In particular, at least two wireless networks are provided in a single A, a configuration LAN and an operational LAN, by utilizing virtual AP technology. The configuration LAN is utilized to provide communication between the AP and the client devices that is related to network setup, configuration, modification, etc. and the operational LAN provides normal LAN data communication. The configuration LAN may be provided in a relatively insecure manner that eases setup of that communication channel and the operational LAN may be provided in a more fully secure communication channel. Different types of service set identifiers (SSIDs) may be provided for configuration LANs and operational LANs so as to more easily identify the type of LAN through its SSID.
US07974240B2
A cellular network that is based on relay station and a space division duplex communication method are disclosed. The cellular network based on RS includes a base station, a RS and a UE, wherein the base station has at least one antenna and the RS has at least two antennas. The base station allocates resources for the UE, transmits a downlink signal in a current slot and receives an uplink signal from the UE through the RS in a next slot; the RS receives the downlink signal from the base station and the uplink signal from the UE in the current slot and transmits the received downlink signal to the UE and the uplink signal to the base station in the next slot; the UE transmits the uplink signal in the current slot and receives the downlink signal through the RS in the next slot, wherein the uplink signal and the downlink signal transmitted in the same slot are orthogonal. With the cellular network and the communication method of embodiments of the present invention, the use efficiency of each channel can be improved effectively and the system complexity can be reduced.
US07974236B2
According to an approach for configuring Wi-Fi devices, a wireless access point changes its mode of operation from a normal operating mode to a configuration operating mode to configure one or more Wi-Fi devices. When operating in the configuration operating mode, it is more difficult for an eavesdropper to intercept messages between the wireless access point and the Wi-Fi devices being configured. Upon completion of the configuration process, the wireless access point changes its mode of operation from the configuration operating mode back to the normal operating mode. This approach reduces the likelihood of an eavesdropper intercepting configuration messages exchanged between a wireless access point and one or more Wi-Fi devices during the configuration process. The approach also allows automated configuration of Wi-Fi devices and reduces the amount of user interaction required to configure Wi-Fi devices.
US07974235B2
A Secure Location Session Manager (SLSM) is an intelligent router for open mobile alliance (OMA) Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Version 1.0 (and later) messages best implemented when multiple, geo-diverse SUPL servers are deployed in a distributed environment, such as an active-active redundant configuration within a wireless carrier's network. In a standalone option, the SLSM acts as a “middleman” for all SUPL positioning messages between a mobile device and a responsible SUPL server. In an embedded option, the SLSM resides within an existing server. The SLSM manages and stores session information for all pending and ongoing SUPL positioning sessions in internal tables for routing and load balancing purposes. The external interfaces of the SLSM consist of OMA ULP messages.
US07974231B2
A communication control apparatus (30, 10) used in a mobile communication system includes: means (32, 12) that derives a second target communication quality Q2 for TFs other than a reference format from a first target communication quality for the reference format in a plurality of TFs provide for communicating with an upper layer of a physical channel; means (33, 13) that derives a third target communication quality different from the first target communication quality from the first and the second target communication qualities; and means that sets the third target communication quality to be a target value of transmission power control.
US07974225B2
An extended range preamble is disclosed, for transmission between extended range 802.11n devices. The extended range preamble consists of a high-throughput signal field, in which a modulation coding scheme rate and payload length are specified by the transmitting device. The extended range preamble also includes an expanded preamble, which is adjacent to the high-throughput signal field, and is not understood by non-extended range devices. The modulation coding scheme rate is specified as either one of the rates supported in non-extended range 802.11 devices or as a reserved modulation coding scheme not understood by the non-extended range devices. In either circumstance, the non-extended range device respects the preamble, and thus does not itself attempt a transmission during processing of the preamble.
US07974220B2
A system and method are disclosed for overlaying a hierarchical network on a full mesh network. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a network element of a full mesh network (402) having a controller programmed to overlay (200, 400, 400) in part a hierarchical network on the full mesh network with an isolation protocol.
US07974205B1
A method for operating a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving an arrival rate of a plurality of real-time packets, and receiving a real-time packet including a first plurality of identifiers, for transmission on a first link or a second link, where the first link has a first bandwidth. The method also includes processing the real-time packet to select a first selected link from the first link and the second link based on the first plurality of identifiers, the arrival rate of the plurality of real-time packets, and the first bandwidth, and transmitting the real-time packet on the first selected link.
US07974204B2
A method of managing information system resources to provide a message flow having a consistent level of quality of service (QoS) within and across a plurality of interconnected middleware domains is described. The method includes receiving a QoS message from a first QoS manager expressing at least one QoS requirement, translating the at least one QoS requirement to at least one parameter specific to a messaging service that communicatively couples multiple middleware domains, creating a client connection between a first middleware domain and the messaging service for receiving the message flow, transmitting the QoS message to a second middleware domain, and creating a client connection between the messaging service and the second middleware domain for transmitting the message flow.
US07974202B2
A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.
US07974194B2
Data traffic, latency, and power consumption in a mobile unified communication environment are reduced by optimizing communication between a mobile client application and a mobile data server through determining optimum delay between exchanged messages and/or filtering portions of data not relevant to the mobile client application at the server. Additional optimizations include providing mobile client application relevant updates in an intelligent fashion based on user activity, screen resolution or displayed information, relevant contacts and relevance of information, and similar characteristics.
US07974193B2
In general, this disclosure describes techniques for exchanging information between a plurality of encoder modules and a multiplex module to combine segments of data from the encoder modules with an improved overall quality. In particular, the encoder modules associate their respective segments of data with quality and rate information and send at least the quality and rate information associated with the segments of data to the multiplex module. The multiplex module analyzes the quality and rate information to determine whether the segments of data that encoder modules desire to include in the current superframe fit within the available bandwidth of a transmission channel. If the multiplex module determines the plurality of segments of data do not fit within the available bandwidth, the multiplex module selects one or more of the segments to be resized based on the quality and rate information received from the encoder modules.
US07974185B2
A 3 fiber line switched ring (3FLSR) provides protection for (optical) transmission networking wherein N nodes are connected via 3 lines (or optical fibers) in a ring topology. Two of the three fibers form a main transmission line and may transmit in one direction in the ring whereas the third might transmit in the opposite direction. This architecture of the 3FLSR provides a dual protection scheme, including a bi-directional line switching coupled with a unidirectional line switching. Traffic is categorized based on the level of protection available for the particular traffic type. The first two transmitting fibers form a bi-directional ring, carrying primary and secondary traffic which can survive 2 and 1 failures on the ring respectively. The third fiber may form a unidirectional ring, carrying additional traffic that can be pre-empted in case of multiple failures in the bi-directional ring. The 3FLSR enables reconfiguration of existing 2/4 fiber rings and conforms to applicable standards.
US07974183B2
The present invention is directed to methods for signaling that enable bandwidth reservation, path restoration, path normalization, and path removal in a mesh network that supports shared mesh restoration.
US07974182B2
The position of a disturbance on an optical link is evaluated, in particular where the disturbance is a time-varying disturbance. An optical time domain reflectometry technique is used in which a series of low coherence test pulses is launched by means of an optical pulse source into an the optical link, and the backscattered return signal is monitored. The test pulses pass through an unbalanced Mach Zhender interferometer with the result that for each test pulse, a pair of time-displaced pulse copies is launched onto the link. The backscattered return signal is passed through the same interferometer, which causes the pulse copies of each pair to become realigned and to interfere with one another. A time-varying disturbance is likely to affect each pulse copy of a pair differently. As a result, an abnormality such as a step is likely to occur in the backscattered signal. From the time position of an abnormality, the distance of the disturbance responsible is evaluated.
US07974179B2
A transmitting apparatus which transmits a transmit symbol in orthogonal-frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is disclosed. The transmitting apparatus includes a unit which provides a unicast channel; a unit which provides a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) channel; a unit which provides a specific pilot channel which is specific to a specified cell; a unit which provides one or more common pilot channels common to a plurality of cells; and a multiplexing unit which multiplexes the unicast channel, the MBMS channel, the specific pilot channel, and the one or more common pilot channels, and creates the transmit symbol, wherein the multiplexing unit time-division multiplexes, in the same frequency band, a unicast frame which includes the unicast channel, and an MBMS frame which includes the MBMS channel, and wherein an insertion density of the common pilot channel included in the MBMS frame is larger than an insertion density of the specific pilot channel included in the unicast frame.
US07974177B2
User equipment that is capable of transmitting at least an uplink control channel to a base station apparatus using a single carrier method and to which persistent scheduling is applied, the user equipment includes a unit providing data arrival acknowledgement information, a unit providing channel quality information, a control channel generation unit generating an uplink control channel including at least one of the data arrival acknowledgement information or the channel quality information, and a transmission unit transmitting the uplink control channel using a predetermined dedicated bandwidth, in which the uplink control channel includes at least one unit block including a sequence in which a same factor reported using an upper-layer signaling is multiplied to each chip of an orthogonal code sequence for the user equipment.
US07974176B2
Methods of transmitting a plurality of communications signals over a plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments in a frequency band include defining a plurality (NFFT) of orthogonal subcarriers across the frequency band, defining a plurality (N) of available physical subcarriers from among the orthogonal subcarriers. The available physical subcarriers are distributed among the plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments. The methods further include multiplexing the plurality of communications signals onto the plurality of available physical subcarriers. Multiplexing the plurality of communications signals onto the plurality of available physical subcarriers may include assigning the communications signals to respective ones of a plurality (N) of logical subcarriers, and mapping the plurality of logical subcarriers to corresponding ones of the plurality of available physical subcarriers. Related transmitters, receivers and communications systems are also disclosed.
US07974171B2
The present invention provides an optical recording method including: recording information on a recording layer for holographically recording information in an optical recording medium by irradiating the optical recording medium with an information beam and a reference beam, and repetitively recording information on the recording layer while moving at least any one of the information beam and reference beam and the recording layer along the surface of the recording layer, thereby being capable of shift-multiplex recording operations, wherein the optical recording medium is irradiated on a recording pulse basis, the peak intensity of light of the recording pulse is 0.1 mW to 100 mW, the irradiation time is 0.05 nsec to 1×105 nsec, and the irradiation of recording pulse is performed 5 times to 1×107 times per 1 msec; and also provides an optical recording apparatus and an optical recording medium.
US07974169B1
Devices, systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with wobble channel clocking are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus implemented with a clock generator, a clock scaling logic, radio frequency channel logic, and wobble channel log. The clock generator generates a clocking signal. The clock scaling logic scales the clocking signal to produce a scaled clocking signal. The radio frequency channel logic at least partially decodes a digital radio frequency signal from an optical disk. The wobble channel logic at least partially decodes a digital wobble signal from the optical disk. Either the clocking signal or the scaled clocking signal is used to clock the radio frequency channel logic, and the other clocking signal or the scaled clocking signal is used to clock the wobble channel.
US07974163B2
This optical disk device includes a read means which reads data from an optical disk upon which data is recorded at a variable bit rate for each sector. Moreover, this optical disk device includes a buffer memory which sequentially stores data which has been read by the read means, and a replay means which sequentially reads out and decodes data stored in the buffer memory, and replays that data. Furthermore, this optical disk device includes a control means which, when a command for special replay is issued, calculates the address of the sector currently being decoded by the replay means based upon the address of the sector currently being read by the read means, and upon the amount of data stored in the buffer memory. And the control means commands the read means to read out, from the optical disk, a sector to be jumped to.
US07974153B2
A receiver point arrangement is deployed having one or more receiver lines, each receiver line having receivers with substantially uniform inline spacing. A seismic source is triggered at each source point in an arrangement of source points along one or more source lines, each source line having source points with substantially uniform crossline spacing. Seismic data traces are collected, each trace having an associated midpoint. A perturbation pattern is applied to at least one of the receiver point arrangement and the source point arrangement to distribute the midpoints evenly within a bin having dimensions of half the receiver inline spacing and half the source crossline spacing across multiple locations within that bin. The fractionation in the crossline and inline directions is determined by the interaction between the number of offset positions in the receiver point arrangement and number of offset positions in the source point arrangement, respectively; phase shifts of the perturbation pattern between adjacent receiver lines and between adjacent source lines, respectively; and crossline and inline fold, respectively, of a recording patch employed.
US07974149B2
An electronic system includes at least one reduced-complexity integrated circuit memory coupled to a memory controller. By reducing the complexity of each integrated circuit memory and concentrating the complexity within the memory controller, overall system costs may be greatly reduced and reliability improved.
US07974148B2
A semiconductor memory device has a memory cell array, a first transistor of a first conductivity type, a second transistor of a second conductivity type and a third transistor of the first conductivity type. A source or drain of the first transistor is connected to each of word lines. A drain of the second transistor is connected to a gate of the first transistor. A source of the third transistor is connected to the gate of the first transistor. The gates of the second transistor and the third transistor are not connected, a source of the second transistor is not connected to a drain of the third transistor, and the gate of the second transistor and the drain of the third transistor have different voltage levels corresponding to opposite logic levels each other.
US07974139B2
In one aspect, a non-volatile memory is provided which includes a plurality of m-bit non-volatile memory cells and a plurality of n-bit non-volatile memory cells, where 1≦m
US07974135B2
A non-volatile semiconductor memory device including a NAND cell unit with a plurality of electrically rewritable and non-volatile memory cells connected in series, one end thereof being coupled to a bit line via a first select gate transistor while the other end is coupled to a source line via a second select gate transistor, wherein the memory device has an erase-verify mode for verifying an erase state of the memory cells in the NAND cell unit, the erase-verify mode including two verify-read operations adapted according to cell ranges to be erase-verified in the NAND cell unit.
US07974133B2
A sense amplifier is disclosed. One embodiment is a sensing circuit that includes a sensing device and a sense transistor coupled to the sensing device. A first switch that is coupled to the sense transistor and to the sensing device causes the sensing device to be charged to a first voltage that is a function of the threshold voltage of the sense transistor. One or more second switches that are coupled to the sensing device and to a target element. The second switches couple the sensing device to the target element to modify the first voltage on the sensing device and decouple the target element from the sensing device during a sense phase in which the modified first voltage is applied to the sense transistor. A condition of the target element is determined based on whether or not the sense transistor turns on in response to applying the modified first voltage to the sense transistor.
US07974132B2
A system and method, including software implemented techniques, can be used to adjust for sag in stored data values. Charge is applied to multiple memory cells, and each memory cell is charged to a target voltage corresponding to a data value. The memory cells include a reference cell that is charged to a predetermined voltage. A voltage level in the reference cell is detected, and voltage levels from a group of memory cells are also detected. An adjustment is performed based upon the difference between the detected voltage level in the reference cell and the predetermined voltage.
US07974122B2
A verification circuit for a phase change memory array is provided. A sensing unit senses a sensing voltage from a memory cell of the phase change memory array according to an enable signal. A comparator generates a comparing signal according to the sensing voltage and a reference voltage, so as to indicate whether the memory cell is in a reset state. A control unit generates a control signal according to the enable signal. An operating unit generates a first signal according to the control signal, so as to indicate whether the comparator is active. An adjustment unit provides a writing current to the cell, and increases the writing current according to the control signal until the comparing signal indicates that the memory cell is in a reset state.
US07974110B2
A switching power supply unit is provided which provides improved response for frequency switching with a smooth rise in voltage. The switching power supply unit includes: a rectifier circuit for rectifying an alternating current from an AC power source into a direct current; a switching circuit for switching the current rectified by this rectifier circuit using a switching device; a pulse oscillator circuit for outputting a switching signal to the switching device; and a transformer circuit for stepping a voltage up or down depending on the current switched by this switching circuit. A frequency switching unit is also used to detect a pulse output from the switching circuit. Based on the state of this pulse output, the frequency switching unit changes a resistance using resistors, thereby switching the frequency of the switching signal in the pulse oscillator circuit.
US07974102B2
Provided is a carrier assembly for an integrated circuit. The assembly includes a printed circuit board (PCB), and a carrier fast with the PCB. The carrier has a matrix of island contacts interconnected by respective serpentine members to allow resilient deflection of such contacts relative to each other, the matrix surrounding a passage defined through the carrier. Also included is a retainer for operatively locating the integrated circuit within said passage so that the integrated circuit is electrically connected to the carrier.
US07974090B2
A cooling system cools an electrically rechargeable portable device accommodated in a docking station. The cooling system includes a docking station having a non-forced air active cooling unit and a housing. The cooling unit maintains a first heatsink surface at a temperature below an ambient temperature and a second heatsink surface at a temperature exceeding said first heatsink surface temperature. The housing accommodates an electrically re-chargeable portable device. The housing re-charges said portable device and seats said portable device in a position providing thermal contact between said docking station first heatsink surface and a heat spreader of said portable device while re-charging of said portable device.
US07974085B2
A foldable electronic device includes a main body, a hollow cylindrical shaft, a cover and a flexible circuit element. The shaft defines a first shaft slot and a second shaft slot, the first and second shaft slots aligned apart and extending from a part of the shaft to one end of the shaft along a direction substantially parallel to an axis of the shaft. The cover is pivoted to the main body via the shaft. The flexible circuit element includes a driving portion fixed to the main body, a controlling portion fixed to the cover, and a connecting portion interconnecting the driving portion and the controlling portion. The connecting portion of the flexible circuit element enters the shaft via the first shaft slot, and passes through the second shaft slot to be out of the shaft.
US07974071B2
A multilayer capacitor includes a dielectric body 12 formed by stacking a plurality of dielectric layers 12a; a first internal conductor layer 21 led out straddling three side faces 12A, 12C and 12D of said dielectric body 12; a second internal conductor layer 22, stacked in the dielectric body 12 via dielectric layers 12a to the first internal conductor layer 21, led out straddling three side faces 12B, 12C and 12D; a first and a second terminal electrodes 31 and 32 formed on an outer face of said dielectric body 12, straddling the three side faces 12A, 12C and 12D, and 12B, and 12C and 12D, respectively. A first space pattern 41 is formed on the first lead portion at a position along with the first side face 12A, not connected with the first terminal electrode 31.
US07974067B2
In a plasma processing apparatus having an electrostatic chuck for holding a semiconductor wafer by an electrostatic adsorption force and a DC power supply for applying an electrostatic adsorption voltage to the electrostatic chuck, abnormal discharge in plasma is suppressed by providing the apparatus with a signal detector that detects a foresee signal that foresees occurrence of abnormal discharge in plasma, and a controller that controls ESC leakage current based upon the foresee signal. If the foresee signal is outside a prescribed range, control is exercised so as to reduce the absolute value of the electrostatic adsorption voltage, thereby suppressing the occurrence of an abnormal discharge.
US07974062B2
The application discloses novel internal structures of energy conditioners, assemblies of external structures of energy conditioners and mounting structure, and novel circuits including energy conditioners having A, B, and G master electrodes.
US07974057B2
The present invention relates to an inrush current limiter device (4) for limiting inrushing current to a connectable load (3) comprising: at least one switchable IGBT-based limiter unit (5) for selectively limiting the inrushing current, having at least one current limiting conductor element for a limited leading of current and at least an IGBT-based switch (Q2), whereby the IGBT-based switch (Q2) is used as well as a controlled current limiter and as a by-pass element, and at least one control device (7) for controlling the IGBT-based switch (Q2), whereby the control device (7) comprises at least one IGBT-based switch supply (6) and means for realizing (8) a smooth flank of an output signal at the selected conductor element.
US07974054B2
An integrated circuit with an electrostatic discharge protection circuit includes a first power pad, a second power pad, at least a circuit module, and a power clamp circuit. The circuit module includes a signal pad, an internal circuit and a first bipolar transistor. A first parasitical resistance is coupled between a collector of the first bipolar transistor and the second power pad. There is at least a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor and at least a first parasitical bipolar transistor included within the power clamp circuit.
US07974053B2
An ESD protection circuit for a differential I/O pair is provided. The circuit includes an ESD detection circuit, a discharge device, and four diodes. The first diode is coupled between the first I/O pin and the discharge device in a forward direction toward the discharge device. The second diode is coupled between the second I/O pin and the discharge device in a forward direction toward the second I/O pin. The third diode is coupled between the discharge device and the positive power line in a forward direction toward the positive power line. The fourth diode is coupled between the discharge device and the negative power line in a forward direction toward the discharge device. Via an output end, the ESD detection circuit triggers the discharge device during ESD events.
US07974052B2
One embodiment includes an integrated circuit including an input circuit, a first diode including a first anode and a first cathode, with the first cathode coupled to a first voltage, the first anode coupled to the input circuit at a node via a first mechanical switch, a second diode including a second anode and a second cathode, with the second cathode coupled to the node via a second mechanical switch, the second anode coupled to a ground and a resistor coupled to the input circuit between the integrated circuit and the node, wherein in a first mode of operating, the first mechanical switch and the second mechanical switch are conducting, and in a second mode of operating, the first and second mechanical switches are nonconducting.
US07974048B2
The invention provides a magneto-resistive effect device of the CPP (current perpendicular to plane) structure, having a magneto-resistive effect unit, and a first shield layer and a second shield layer located and formed such that the magneto-resistive effect unit is sandwiched between them, with a sense current applied in a stacking direction.
US07974036B2
Systems and methods are provided for correcting write synchronization of a magnetic storage device with respect to magnetic storage media and its corresponding writable magnetic bits, or dots. In particular, these systems and methods involve using time-shifting principles to calibrate the magnetic storage devices to correct slow drifts of reader-writer timing. It is to be appreciated that time-shifting techniques can be applied in a variety of manners. For example, the very dots on the media can be positioned in time-shifted fashion. In another example, the writing to the dots can be time-shifted.
US07974031B2
A method of performing data/information recording and retrieval utilizing a multilevel patterned magnetic medium, comprises providing a magnetic recording system including a read/write head and a multilevel patterned magnetic recording medium including a plurality of spaced apart data/information storage elements each comprising a stacked plurality n of magnetic recording cells with different magnetic properties and magnetically decoupled from overlying and/or underlying cells; providing relative movement between the write head and magnetic recording medium; and writing to the medium by supplying the write head with a modulated write current comprising a plurality n of pulses of different magnitudes while the head passes over each element, thereby applying n different magnetic field strengths to each element, such that the writing occurs in a single pass of the write head over each element.
US07974030B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for providing a corrected dibit signal. As an example, various embodiments of the present invention provide dibit correction circuits. Such dibit correction circuits include a dibit sample buffer, a maximum sample detector circuit, a side sample detector circuit, and a dibit correction circuit. The dibit sample buffer includes a plurality of samples of an uncorrected dibit signal. The maximum sample detector circuit identifies a maximum sample of the plurality of samples of the uncorrected dibit signal, and the side sample detector circuit identifies a first side sample prior to the maximum sample on the uncorrected dibit signal and a second side sample following the maximum sample on the uncorrected dibit signal. The dibit correction circuit applies a correction factor calculated based at least in part on the maximum sample, the first side sample and the second side sample to at least a subset of the plurality of samples of the uncorrected dibit signals to yield a plurality of corrected dibit signals.
US07974023B1
A wafer level optical lens substrate including a substrate and at least one lens is provided. The substrate has at least one through hole and at least one flange, wherein each flange is located on a side wall in each through hole. Each lens located in each through hole is embedded with each flange. A method of fabricating a wafer level optical lens substrate and a wafer level optical lens module are also provided respectively.
US07974018B2
An optical element (14) is specified which is suitable for an optoelectronic component and has a carrier part (1) and a beam shaping part (12), wherein the beam shaping part is molded onto the carrier part, or vice versa. A corresponding production method and a composite device comprising the optical element are furthermore specified.
US07974017B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from its object side, a first lens unit having a negative refracting power, a second lens unit having a positive refracting power, a third lens unit having a negative refracting power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refracting power. The zoom lens further includes an aperture stop disposed between the first lens unit and the third lens unit. During zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, distances between the lens units change, the first lens unit moves first toward the image side and thereafter toward the object side, the second lens unit moves in such a way as to be located closer to the object side at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end, the distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit is larger at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end, and the aperture stop moves in such a way as to be located closer to the object side at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end. The second lens unit and the third lens unit satisfy certain conditions.
US07974009B2
An image fluctuation correcting apparatus rotates a first rotary apex angle prism held in a first prism holding member around a first shaft in a direction for canceling an amount of horizontal fluctuation by electromagnetic force generated between a first drive coil and a first magnet by flowing electric current in the first drive coil. Also, the image fluctuation correcting apparatus rotates a second rotary apex angle prism held in a second prism holding member around a second shaft, which is located 180-degree angle away from the first shaft, in a direction for canceling an amount of vertical fluctuation by electromagnetic force generated between a second drive coil and a second magnet by flowing electric current in the second drive coil.
US07974001B2
There are provided a display element and electronic paper. The display element includes a structure having a cylindrical shape and including a void inside, and at least two display regions formed on a side face of the structure and colored with different colors. The use of the display element for electronic paper can improve a response rate while lowering driving voltage, and can improve a contrast ratio by increasing a packing fraction.
US07973997B2
Transparent structures, electrochromic devices, and methods for making such structures/devices are provided. A transparent structure may include a transparent substrate having a plurality of micro- or nano-scale structures, at least one substance configured to block near-infrared or infrared radiation and partially cover at least substantial portions of the substrate and the plurality of micro- or nano-scale structures, and at least one photocatalyst configured to at least partially cover an outermost surface of the transparent structure.
US07973993B2
A flat panel display includes a first substrate, a thin film transistor formed on the first substrate, a second substrate facing the first substrate, and a light controller formed on the second substrate, wherein the light controller is electrically connected to the thin film transistor, wherein the light controller includes an opening plate having a plurality of first openings and a light blocker moving horizontally with respect to the opening plate to selectively pass light through the first openings.
US07973990B2
An optical scanning device includes a first optical system for guiding light beams emitted from a plurality of light emitting units to an optical deflector, and a second optical system for focusing the light beams to optically scan a surface to be scanned. At least one of the first optical system and the second optical system includes a resin lens having a diffractive surface. The diffractive surface includes a diffractive portion and a refractive portion. A power of the diffractive portion and a power of the refractive portion cancel each other.
US07973986B2
An image reading apparatus includes: three line sensors mutually spaced in a sub scanning direction; a platen arranged between the original and the three line sensors; a mover moving the platen relative to the three line sensors at a rate relative to the three line sensors, the rate being different from that of the original relative to the three line sensors; a lightness difference detector extracting a feature pixel having a predetermined feature from each of three data output from the three line sensors; and NOR and AND devices comparing the three data corresponding to a single location on the original to detect the feature pixel extracted from one of the three data, as a noise pixel if the feature pixel is not a feature pixel for the other data.
US07973985B2
A scanning device scans both sides of a document. The document is fed between a first image sensor module and a second image sensor module. The second image sensor module is moved with respect to the first image sensor module so that a separation distance between the second image sensor module and the first image sensor module is based on a thickness of the document. A first side of the document is scanned using a first scan line located in the first image sensor module. A second side of the document is scanned using a second scan line located in the second image sensor module. When the document is fed between the first image sensor module and the second image sensor module, the document does not reach the first scan line and the second scan line simultaneously.
US07973983B2
An illumination module is provided in the invention. The illumination module includes a light source having a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a linear array and a light guide device. The light guide device receives light from the light source and generates uniform light which is transmitted onto an article to be scanned, has a longitudinal direction, and includes a diffraction structure and a reflection portion. The diffraction structure has a shape inducing light to be scattered and deflects the scattered light toward the longitudinal direction. The reflection portion reflects the light scattered and deflected by the diffraction structure, and is inclined to have an inclined angle with the light propagating direction. In addition, the reflection portion is formed on the diffraction structure or apart from it.
US07973977B2
A method and system for retouching digital images for a motion picture removes semi-transparent artifacts or ‘blotches’ caused by contaminates in the optical path of the camera. This approach provides the benefit of only having to retouch a single average image that is than automatically applied via a correction power map to the entire sequence of images for the affected scene. The formation of an average image tends to reinforce the artifacts making them easier to identify and reduce background detail making it easier to retouch the artifact.
US07973975B2
An image processing apparatus includes an image input device to convert image data into uncompressed data of CMYK, a gradation processing device to perform a gradation process on the uncompressed data to generate a halftone image, a rearrangement determination device to determine necessity of rearrangement of pixels of the halftone image, a selector to select an output destination based on a rearrangement necessity determination result, a rearrangement device to rearrange the pixels by using a threshold table used at a time of execution of the gradation process of the halftone image, and a coding device to output data obtained by coding data of the halftone image. According to the image processing device, coding efficiency can be improved more than in the related art while a harmful effect (reduction in code amount) due to the rearrangement process is suppressed.
US07973967B2
A method is provided for allowing a single threaded filter in a print driver to execute feature commands in a parallel mode, thereby creating a pseudo-multithreaded infrastructure which decreases overall processing latency for a print job. The method includes getting and parsing a document sequence print ticket for a document sequence for the print job; creating a feature command list of document sequence scoped feature commands based on the document sequence print ticket; getting a document part and parsing a document print ticket for the document part; inserting document scoped feature commands, based on the document print ticket, in the front of the feature command list; getting a page part and parsing a page print ticket for the page part; inserting page scoped feature commands, based on the page print ticket, in the front of the feature command list; and sequentially executing the feature commands in the feature command list.
US07973948B2
In operating a multifunction office apparatus, the apparatus including a user interface, an input scanner, and at least one of a printer, finisher, disc recorder, facsimile transmitter, network transmitter, or electronic mail transmitter, images from a document are recorded as image data in a memory. Simultaneous with the recording, instructions are accepted through the user interface for applying the image data to the multifunction office apparatus.
US07973941B2
A reference mark configuration for an interferometric miniature grating encoder readhead using fiber optic receiver channels is provided. The readhead may include primary fibers that provide reference mark primary signals processed to generate a reference signal with accuracy of approximately 0.2 microns. In some embodiments, a zone grating type reference mark may be embedded in a periodic scale grating, and configured such that it provides strong reference mark primary signals without disrupting periodic incremental measurement signals associated with the periodic scale grating. In one embodiment, the readhead may include secondary fibers used to generate reference mark secondary signals processed to generate a reference signal with accuracy of approximately 20 nanometers.
US07973939B2
A differential-phase polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system includes a polarized heterodyne interferometer for generating a reference beam to be reflected by a movable mirror unit, and a signal beam to be reflected by an imaging plane in a specimen. The interferometer further generates a first electrical signal output corresponding to first linear polarized waves of the reference and signal beams, and a second electrical signal output corresponding to second linear polarized waves of the reference and signal beams. A differential amplifier receives the first and second electrical signal outputs, and generates a differential signal output therefrom. A data acquisition unit is used to measure amplitudes of the first and second electrical signal outputs and the differential signal output. A computing unit computes the amplitudes measured by the data acquisition unit to determine a reflectivity, a phase retardation, and a fast axis angle of the imaging plane in the specimen.
US07973935B2
A reflection characteristic measuring apparatus capable of scanning a specimen surface of a sheet specimen at a high speed is provided. The reflection characteristic measuring apparatus includes a group of illuminating and light-receiving systems for directing illuminating light onto the specimen surface of the sheet specimen held by a specimen holding roller pair and for receiving reflected light from the specimen surface. The illuminating and light-receiving systems measure a spectral characteristic of the received reflected light. The illuminating and light-receiving systems are disposed over one-dimensional arrays of color samples which extend in the longitudinal direction of the sheet specimen, and scan the one-dimensional arrays in a direction opposite to a direction in which the sheet specimen is transported.
US07973933B2
A method and system for spectroscopy of surface plasmons is presented. An electromagnetic wave is made incident on a diffraction grating. Surface plasmons are excited on a medium coincident to the diffraction grating and dispersion of a wavelength spectrum of the electromagnetic wave are simultaneously performed through diffraction. Changes in spatial distribution of intensity in the wavelength spectrum of the diffracted electromagnetic wave due to the excitation of the surface plasmons are measured.
US07973929B2
Described herein is a portable, low power consuming optical particle counter calibration verification system and reliable and sensitive methods for verifying the calibration status of a gas or liquid particle counter. The calibration verification systems described herein are useful for quickly determining the calibration status of an optical particle counter at its point of use, as well as for allowing the end user to determine if an optical particle counter is in need of a recalibration before the recommended calibration schedule suggests.
US07973927B2
A microscope for generating an image of a sample, the microscope includes a light source for generating a pulsed light; a scanning mirror receiving the pulsed light and transmitting the pulsed light to the sample to be imaged causing the sample to emit energy; a dispersive element that receives the emitted energy from the sample, disperses the energy into its spectral elements and transmits the spectrally dispersed energy; and a camera that generates a spectrally resolved image of the sample based on the spectrally dispersed energy from the dispersive element. Also described is a method of generating spectrally resolved images of the sample.
US07973917B2
The present invention relates to the technical field of measuring light source, specifically, to the method for measuring the luminous flux of LED. In the present invention, a reflecting cup is used as a collector of the luminous flux of LED. The collector has two sectional openings in the direction perpendicular to the symmetric axis thereof, which are positioned in the front and in the rear respectively, one of them positioned at the bottom end of the collector and having a smaller radius is used to input the light emitted by LED to be measured, the other positioned in the front end of the collector and having a larger radius is used to output the light to the detector placed in this position. Specifically, LED is fixed at the bottom end of the collector with a fixture, the light emitted by LED is directed toward the large opening of the collector, and the photometer is fixed closely at the large opening of the collector to receive light signals. LED is driven with a constant current power supply, and the total luminous flux emitted by LED is concentrated by the collector, collected and measured by the detector, then corrected by using a calibrating coefficient, in order to achieve the numerical readings of the value of the total luminous flux. The method of the present invention is simple and has a high measuring accuracy.
US07973916B2
Apparatus and methods for detecting inclination employ a point source of light from which light is emitted through a lens toward a reflective surface of a liquid contained in a vessel. Light reflected from the surface passes through the lens to form a defocused image of the point source on a two-dimensional array of detector elements. Data acquired from the array represents intensity of the light incident on each of the detector elements. A center of gravity representing inclination of the vessel is determined from the data.
US07973915B2
A method for providing a flexible molding, in particular an ophthalmic lens such as a contact lens, in a predetermined orientation, comprises the steps of determining the actual orientation of the molding, and in case the molding has been determined as not having the predetermined orientation, inverting the flexible molding to the predetermined orientation.
US07973899B2
A thin film transistor array panel according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: first, second, and third pixel electrodes arranged sequentially, the second pixel electrode including first and second sub-pixel electrodes, the second pixel electrode occupying an area comprising a first area and a second area that is disposed closer to the third pixel electrode than the first area; first, second, and third thin film transistors connected to the first, the second, and the third pixel electrodes, respectively; first, second, and third gate lines connected to the first, the second, and the third thin film transistors, respectively; and a data line connected to the first, the second, and the third thin film transistors, wherein the second sub-pixel electrode is capacitively coupled to the third pixel electrode, and the second sub-pixel electrode is present in both the first and the second areas.
US07973893B2
The present invention is a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, wherein light having an exposure energy is irradiated on the surface of a photo-sensitive resin layer having a predetermined film thickness, and a distribution of thermal deformation characteristics in the thickness direction (or the plane direction) of the photo-sensitive resin layer is formed, then heat treatment is performed to form random undulation (micro-grooves or micro-wrinkles) on the surface of the photo-sensitive resin layer.
US07973888B2
The LCD device comprises a display region defined by a plurality of gate and data lines, and having a plurality of thin film transistors (TFTs), for displaying an image; a frame region disposed outside the display region, and composed of a first region having a reflection layer for displaying a color having a set brightness by reflecting incident light in a reflective mode, and a second region having a driving circuit pattern and a driving circuit for shielding incident light; and an outer region formed outside the frame region and having the driving circuit.
US07973886B2
Thin film transistors are formed on a lower substrate, and red, green, blue and transparent color filters are formed thereon. An organic insulating layer is formed on the color filters, and pixel electrodes are formed thereon. A black matrix and a common electrode are formed on an upper substrate facing the lower substrate.
US07973881B2
The present invention provides a plane light source apparatus includes a light guide plate having a flat face portion and an end face portion. A plurality of point light sources are disposed in an opposing relationship to the end face portion of the light guide plate. The light guide plate mixes light from the point light sources incoming from the end face portion thereof and emit the mixed light as illumination light from the flat face portion thereof. The point light sources are a combination of point light sources having chromaticities different from each other within a predetermined standard chromaticity range, and mix light from the point light sources so that the chromaticity of the resulting illumination light fits into a target chromaticity range which is narrower than the standard chromaticity range.
US07973880B2
A transparent substrate 2, into which light from a light source 9 is introduced through at least one side, includes a transparent first glass substrate (substrate body) 5a and a low refractive index layer 6 that is disposed on the first glass substrate 5a and has a lower refractive index than the first glass substrate 5a. Moreover, a high refractive index layer 7 having a higher refractive index than the low refractive index layer 6 is disposed on the low refractive index layer 6, thereby preventing the generation of light that leaks from the first glass substrate 5a to the outside through the low refractive index layer 6.
US07973877B2
An object of the invention is to provide an illumination device that can make it easy to detect a disorder of a light emitting element, and a liquid crystal display apparatus including the illumination device. Each light emitting element array (S) is constituted by light emitting elements (T) which are connected in series. To the light emitting elements (T) are individually connected in parallel current bypass elements (U) that are changed from a disconnected state where no current flows to a connected state where current flows when a predetermined voltage higher than that applied to the light emitting elements in an lighting state is applied thereto. Each power source unit (P) is connected to each light emitting element array (S) in series, and supplies constant current to each light emitting element (T). Terminal units for voltage detection (11) are connected to an anode (A) of each light emitting element (T).
US07973876B2
An exemplary backlight module (2) includes a light guide plate (23), a light source (25), a light source driver (27), and a frame (21). The light source is provided adjacent to the light guide plate. The light source driver is directly connected with the light source. The frame includes an upper frame (211) and a lower frame (212). The upper frame and the lower frame cooperatively form a space to accommodate the light guide plate, the light source, and the light source driver.
US07973874B2
A flat panel display and backlight module thereof. The backlight module comprises a frame, a flexible printed circuit board, and at least one electrical connection port. The flexible printed circuit board is encircled by the frame. The electrical connection port is disposed on the flexible printed circuit board, connecting the flexible printed circuit board and an external printed circuit board.
US07973859B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose an apparatus for transmitting video/audio data, including a receiving decoding module, configured to receive remote video/audio data and a stream media transmitted from an IP network, respectively decode the received remote video/audio data and the stream media, input the decoded video data to the video synchronization module, and input the decoded audio data to the mixer; a video synchronization module, configured to combine and a synchronize the received video data; a mixer, configured to mix the received audio data. Embodiments of the present invention also disclose a network device and a method for transmitting video/audio data. Through the technical scheme disclosed in the embodiments of the invention, a user terminal may make an audio/video call while watching a stream media program via the same display screen and speaker.
US07973857B2
Teleconferencing and, in particular, distributed teleconferencing may use methods and systems for location grouping to reduce feedback and other audio anomalies. Terminals and users connected to the same teleconference and in the same location might not need to receive audio signals from the other terminals and users in the same location. As such, by detecting and analyzing the location of each participating terminal, the terminals (and thus, the users thereof) may be organized into location groups to provide proper audio mixing. In one example, first and second terminals in the same location might not receive each other's audio in a downstream teleconference signal. The location and grouping of terminals may be processed using context fingerprint information derived from sensor readings of each terminal. Sensors may include GPS sensors, cameras, BLUETOOTH sensors and the like. Context fingerprint information may further be synchronized to enhance location determination and grouping.
US07973843B2
An image sensor includes pixels each of which is designed to transfer charge, accumulated in a photoactive region of the pixel during a first period, through a second active region of the pixel to a power supply node, and to transfer charge, accumulated in the photoactive region during a second period, through the second active region to a sense node in the pixel. Passing charge through the second active region prior to transferring it either to the power supply node or the sense node can help reduce fixed pattern noise. The image sensor can be operated in snap-shot mode.
US07973836B2
A method for lowering dark current in an image sensor pixel, the method includes the steps of providing a photosensitive area for receiving incident light which is converted into a charge; providing a gate for transferring charge from the photosensitive area; wherein the gate is held at a voltage which will accumulate majority carriers at a semiconductor-dielectric interface during integration for the photosensitive area. Alternatively, a potential profile can be provided under the gate to drain the dark current away from the photogeneration diffusion.
US07973831B2
An objective is to provide a solid-state image sensor which can reduce the pixel rate while restraining the reduction in the angle of view and the deterioration in image quality when image data is output from the image sensor, and an imaging apparatus using the image sensor. A solid-state image sensor includes: plural photoelectric conversion elements which respectively have color filters being divided into plural groups each including color filters of plural colors, the groups being cyclically provided; and an signal output unit which mixes up digital signals, which are output via the A/D converter, at predetermined sampling positions and at predetermined different rates, and outputs signals which are smaller in number than the photoelectric conversion elements, and sampling gravity centers of the signals output from the signal output unit are at equal intervals.
US07973829B2
An object of the invention is to provide an image sensing apparatus capable of sensing an image in consideration of the influence of inserting/removing an optical filter, an image sensing method, a recording medium, and a program. To achieve this object, a brightness value calculation unit calculates the first brightness value representing the brightness of part or all of an object which is imaged on a CCD image sensing element. A brightness value correction unit calculates the second brightness value by correcting the first brightness value calculated by the brightness value calculation unit on the basis of the light reduction amount generated by inserting an ND filter. A system controller controls an optical system and signal processing in a DSP circuit by using the second brightness value calculated by the brightness value correction unit.
US07973827B2
The shooting, recording and playback system 100 of the present invention receives incoming light 101, stores an image shot, and then subjects the image shot to be reproduced to resolution raising processing, thereby outputting RGB images with high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution (ROUT GOUT BOUT) 102. The system 100 includes a shooting section 103, a color separating section 104, an R imaging sensor section 105, a G imaging sensor section 106, a B imaging sensor section 107, an image shot storage section 108, an image shot writing section 109, a memory section 110, an image shot reading section 111, a spatial resolution upconverter section 112, a temporal resolution upconverter section 113, an output section 114, and a line recognition signal generating section 185. The system can get image data with high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution without getting the camera configuration complicated and without decreasing the optical efficiency.
US07973824B2
A digital camera includes an object detecting unit which analyzes an analysis target image including a through image data taken in from an image pickup device to compose a shot of an object, a shot image, or a reduced image, based on a feature appearing in an image representing a subject of shooting, and detects at least one main object captured in the analysis target image, a subject information extracting unit which extracts, for each image of object detected by the object detecting unit, subject information including a position in a screen corresponding to the analysis target image and its expansion, and a tag data writing unit which writes the subject information, as a part of tag data corresponding to the shot image, to a storage medium, thereby enabling use of the information acquired by object detection at the time of shooting, also after the acquisition of the image.
US07973823B2
An imaging architecture has a memory module to store raw images for the pre-processing stage. The raw image from the output of the pre-processing block may be compressed by a compressor before the image is stored in the memory module. Furthermore, the raw image in the memory is subject to pre-processing as many times as needed or desired. Thus, a decompressor may be operatively connected to the memory module to retrieve the stored image and to decompress the retrieved image before providing the image to the pre-processing block. In the imaging architecture, a loop formed by the memory module, the decompressor, the pre-processing block and the compressor allows the image to be pre-processed multiple times. The imaging architecture can be coupled to the main processor and post-processor in an imaging device for further processing the image data for display or for transmission.
US07973813B2
A thermal transfer printer according to the present invention includes; a head mounting base with a thermal head attached thereto, and disposed so as to oppose a platen roller, a locomotion board including a supporting system for supporting the head mounting base so as to be spaced apart from and approaching to the platen roller, and being movable in an extending direction of the thermal head, a slider provided in connection with the supporting system, and being movable in the extending direction of the thermal head, wherein the head mounting base is spaced apart from and approaching to the platen roller by the supporting system as the slider moves.
US07973807B2
An analytical tool for measuring spacing between elements in a web page is provided. In one implementation, the analytical tool identifies locations indicated on a web page and automatically determines one or more elements in proximity to those indicated locations. The analytical tool automatically identifies points on the determined elements associated with the indicated locations and calculates the distance between those points. The calculated distance is displayed on the web page. The automatically identified points and a graphical representation of a measuring ruler between the points may also be displayed to enhance usability.
US07973806B2
A reproducing apparatus includes a graphics processing unit that outputs graphics data of an RGB color space, a video decoder that outputs video data of a YUV color space, a conversion unit that converts a color space of the graphics data from the RGB color space to the YUV color space, a blending process unit that executes a blending process in which the graphics data that is converted to the YUV color space and the video data of the YUV color space are blended on the YUV color space, and a picture data output unit that outputs picture data, which is obtained by the blending process, to a display apparatus.
US07973804B2
A circuit arrangement and method support a multithreaded rendering architecture capable of dynamically routing pixel fragments from a pixel fragment generator to any pixel shader from among a pool of pixel shaders. The pixel fragment generator is therefore not tied to a specific pixel shader, but is instead able to utilize multiple pixel shaders in a pool of pixel shaders to minimize bottlenecks and improve overall hardware utilization and performance during image processing.
US07973796B1
In one embodiment, a method of displaying a representation of a frame includes identifying a molding type capable of being used in a frame. A set of digital images is obtained, wherein each one of the set of digital images represents molding of the molding type in a different one of a plurality of orientations. A representation of the frame is then displayed using the set of digital images.
US07973789B2
A method for a computer system includes opening a model of an object, wherein the model comprises a plurality of geometric elements, determining a subset of geometric elements from the plurality of geometric elements of the model, modifying properties of one or more of the geometric elements in the subset of geometric elements to form a modified subset of geometric elements, and using the modified subset of geometric elements to represent the model of the object in the computer system.
US07973787B2
A method of point picking on a fused volume rendered view of multiple registered volumes having the following steps: selecting a rendered pixel, finding the projection ray through the rendered pixel, finding the intersection segment of the projection ray with the fused volume, traversing the intersection segment according to a traversing intersection point, calculating the intermediate fused volume rendered value at each traversing intersection point, evaluating a stop condition at each traversing intersection point leading to a final fused volume rendered value, outputting the coordinates of the traversing intersection point where the stop condition was reached as the picked point.
US07973770B2
The invention relates to a method for entering characters in a user interface of an electronic device. The method according to the invention comprises: detecting the direction of movement indicated by the input device when the start of the character entering function has been detected; showing the character of the character area on the display, towards which character area the direction of movement indicated by the input device is proceeding; detecting the termination of the character entering function; interpreting the character towards whose character area the direction of movement was last detected to proceed as the character to be entered next, when the termination of the character entering function is detected.
US07973769B2
A surface for generating an isolated haptic feedback includes an isolated region having a perimeter and a gap surrounding the perimeter, with the gap separating the isolated region from the rest of the surface. The surface further includes a deformable sealing material that is filled within the gap.
US07973767B2
A manual pointing device for a computer system, the device having at least one key that can be actuated manually by a user, and a click-event detection module coupled to the key for detecting actuation thereof. The click-event detection module is provided with an inertial sensor for detecting mechanical stresses generated by actuation of the key.
US07973763B2
An electronic device includes a faceplate having a faceplate surface and a display at or near the faceplate surface for providing content to a user. The electronic devices can also include an input device proximate to the display for accepting input from the user. The electronic devices can further include a sensible orientation structure carried by the faceplate and at a fixed relative position relative to the input device. The sensible orientation structure is configured to provide the user with positional feedback relative to the input device via touching.
US07973761B2
In a method of driving an information display panel of a passive matrix driving type, in which display media are sealed in a space between two substrates, at least one substrate being transparent, and, in which an electrostatic field, which is generated from an electrode at scan side and an electrode at data side arranged respectively to the opposed substrates in an intersected manner, is applied to the display media so as to display information such as an image, at least two or more voltage values or an open state (including a connection state under a high-impedance state) are applied to at least one electrode. According to the invention, it is possible to obtain a method of driving an information display panel, which can reduce a cross-talk occurring voltage generated between the electrode at scan side and the electrode at data side and thus improve a display quality.
US07973757B2
A liquid crystal display replaces the common electrodes of a conventional LCD with a plurality of switch electrodes. The plurality of switch electrodes is grouped into several switch electrode sets. Each of the switch electrode sets' potential is modulated by a different driving circuit. The driving circuits can also separately modulate the potentials of the switch electrode sets according to the scanning sequence of the LCD.
US07973754B2
A display substrate includes a base substrate, a gate line, a data line, a pixel electrode and a shielding electrode. The base substrate includes a plurality of unit pixel areas arranged in a matrix shape. The gate line extends between the unit pixel areas. The data line crosses the gate line. The data line extends between the unit pixel areas. The pixel electrode is disposed in the unit pixel area. The pixel electrode is electrically connected to an output electrode of a switching element electrically connected to the gate and data lines. The shielding electrode is disposed the gate and data lines. The shielding electrode has an opening an opening formed therein, the opening disposed above and extending along a direction of the gate line.
US07973748B2
A data driver for an OLED display has a resistor string, digital-to-analog converters and converting transistors. The resistor string provides a set of gamma voltages. Each of the digital-to-analog converters converts an input word into an output voltage selected from the gamma voltages. Each of the converting transistors conducts a driving current and having a gate-to-source voltage determined by the output voltage from one of the digital-to-analog converters. A method of data driving for an OLED display is also disclosed.
US07973746B2
A pixel includes a light emitting diode, and a switching circuit that is coupled to a data line and a compensation power source line, and includes a transistor including a control terminal, a first main terminal coupled to a power source line, and a second main terminal coupled to the light emitting diode. The switching circuit generates a control signal based on at least a voltage of a data signal transmitted through the data.
US07973744B2
A display device uses an organic actuator as a pixel, and an under-layer substrate is formed underneath the actuator. A surface of the actuator is set to a black and a surface of the substrate is set to a white. Seeing the actuator from an outside, the surface of actuator is visible in a black when the actuator is a planar state and visible in a white when the actuator is inflected, which realizes a display. In addition, the actuator has a memory effect by utilizing a shape memory effect and Coulomb force of the organic material.
US07973740B2
A method of driving an information display device including displaying information of one frame by performing a scanning operation with respect to line electrodes on one substrate and column electrodes on another substrate, such that a voltage is applied to the line electrodes from one end to the other end. Then, a voltage for generating a cross-talk in the first color and a voltage for generating a cross-talk in the second color is applied to all cells one or more times respectively after the one frame is displayed. The information of the one frame is an image, and two or more lines of line electrodes are added at the end of the scanning operation, and a drive, in which a display of the first color and a display of the second color are performed one or more times respectively, is performed after the scanning operation is finished.
US07973737B2
Different peripheral devices of the present invention include: a display panel interface to which is reversibly operationally attachable a display panel and a power interface for receiving power from a host; a display panel to which are individually reversibly operationally attachable display panels for displaying respective aspects of the device's operation; a display panel for providing a semantic display of the device's mode of operation and a power interface for receiving power from a host; or a display panel, a controller for operating the display panel in accordance with ambient conditions, and a power interface for receiving power from a host. A system includes an appliance, an ornament dock and a peripheral device, reversibly operationally attachable to either the appliance or the ornament dock, that operates a display panel in accordance with data received from the appliance.
US07973736B2
The present invention is a varying angle antenna design to be used with an electromagnetic radiation dissipation device that reduces exposure to undesirable electromagnetic radiation. The dissipation device uses a varying angle antenna to capture radiation from an active emission source, such as a cellular telephone when it is transmitting. The device converts the captured radiation into an electric current and dissipates the collected current by spending it to operate a thermal, mechanical, or electrical device. The varying angle antenna is a printed circuit board trace antenna comprising a microstrip having several serially connected meandering segments. One or more meandering segments include 90-degree bends in the microstrip, and one or more meandering segments include bends of more and less than 90 degrees. Portions of the microstrip that are horizontally oriented are all parallel, while portions of the microstrip that are vertically oriented can be parallel or angled, depending on the bend angle. Additionally, near the center of the varying angle antenna, the microstrip segments are narrower than the microstrip segments near the ends of the antenna. In general, the meandering segments include varying angles, which maximizes the operation of the antenna for absorbing undesirable electromagnetic radiation from cellular telephones.
US07973735B2
Disclosed is an extendable swivel antenna, specifically a swivel antenna with enhanced durability, which can prevent deformation of a hinge unit and an outermost antenna covering the hinge unit. The swivel antenna includes: a power feeding unit 110 electrically connected to a terminal 200; an antenna unit 120 for transmitting a radio wave received from an external to the power feeding unit 110, which is folded in multiple stages and can extend; and a hinge unit 130 for connecting between the power feeding unit 110 and the antenna unit 120 and for swiveling the antenna unit 120, wherein the hinge unit 130 includes an insertion portion 131 connected to the antenna unit 120, a recess portion 132 connected to the power feeding unit 110 and having a step portion 132s whose diameters of one side and the other side are different from each other, and a hinge pin 133 for fixing the an insertion portion 131 and the recess portion 132, wherein the antenna unit 120 includes a whip antenna 121 fixed to the insertion portion 131, one or more road antennas 122, 123, and 124 to be folded about the whip antenna 121, and wherein one side 132c of the recess portion 132 whose internal diameter is smaller than that of the other side 132d of the recess portion 132 is housed in the outermost road antenna 124 of the folding one or more road antennas 122, 123, and 124.
US07973728B2
The present invention relates generally to computer devices utilizing removably radio frequency communication devices used for transmitting and receiving information and more particularly to an improved apparatus for connecting an appropriate antenna to the radio frequency communication device using an antenna cap, and to an improved method and apparatus for connecting a communication card device such as a radio or modem to an appropriate antenna or telephone line.
US07973727B2
There is provided a mobile communication terminal including: a housing of the mobile communication terminal; a film type antenna provided on the surface of the housing; a printed circuit board disposed inside the housing; and a connector electrically connecting the film type antenna and the printed circuit board.
US07973725B2
Mobile wireless communications device with selective load switching for antennas and related methods
A mobile wireless communications device may include a plurality of antennas, a plurality of wireless transceivers, and signal processing circuitry. The device may further include a controller for selectively switching the signal processing circuitry to a desired one of the wireless transceivers, and for selectively switching a desired one of the antennas to the desired one of the wireless transceivers. Moreover, the controller may also be for selectively connecting and disconnecting the at least one other one of the antennas to an unused one of the wireless transceivers.
US07973724B2
The present invention discloses a wireless chip comprising a circuit layer above which a microstrip antenna is provided, and a wave-absorbing body is provided between the circuit layer and the microstrip antenna. Since the microstrip antenna is disposed above the circuit layer, the wave-absorbing body capable of absorbing energy is utilized to isolate the circuit from the antenna, and the metal film in the microstrip antenna functions not only as the RF ground of the antenna but also as a shield against any interference, it is possible to effectively address the problem of the antenna interfering with the circuit; by selecting the medium with suitable dielectric constant, the height of the chip can be prevented from being unduly increased, thereby ensuring that the chip and the wireless device using the same are both small in size. The present invention also discloses the wireless device containing the wireless chip.
US07973706B2
To maintain the safety by avoiding deterioration in the positioning accuracy through making SBAS satellite navigation data used in a ground system and in an airborne system consistent by employing GBAS. The system includes: a ground system which estimates errors contained in ranging signals received from the navigation satellites, and formats and transmits correction information for correcting the estimated errors; and an airborne system which calculates differential GPS positioning based on the ranging signals received from the navigation satellites and the formatted correction information, and displays a displacement from a regulated route. The ground system notifies update, when SBAS satellite navigation data used for generating the correction information is updated, by adding information regarding update of navigation data to the correction information. The airborne system detects the transmitted update notification of the SBAS satellite navigation data, and calculates the differential GPS positioning by switching to the updated navigation data.
US07973705B2
A plotting system and method for plotting radar and/or sonar signals on a bump map, with a simulated height of each data point representing a corresponding signal strength. The plotting system may comprise a processing device for associating particular signal strengths with normal vectors. The normal vectors may be used to determine the simulated heights to be illustrated on the bump map. The plotting system may also comprise a display for graphically displaying the bump map. Furthermore, the processing device may also associate particular signal strengths with particular colors, such that both color and simulated height may illustrate the strength of the plotted signals.
US07973701B2
A blockage detection system and method for use in a sensor such as a side object detection (SOD) sensor in an automotive radar system is described. The sensor emits signals and receives return signals (i.e. reflected signals) from a passing object. If the passing object is within a virtual detection zone, the sensor uses the information from the passing object to determine if a blockage condition exists in the sensor. The technique utilizes statistics related to the passing object to determine whether a blockage condition exists within the sensor. In one embodiment, a SOD sensor mounted in a first vehicle uses information from a second passing vehicle (e.g. radar return information) to determine whether a blockage condition exists within the SOD sensor itself.
US07973698B1
An aircraft weather radar system includes an input for receiving data associated with weather radar returns received by an antenna. The aircraft weather radar system further includes processing electronics for performing a routine to analyze radar returns associated with terrain. The processing electronics are configured to determine atmospheric refraction characteristics based on a range and/or an angle to terrain. The routine is based on the determination of atmospheric refraction characteristics.
US07973694B2
An analog-digital converter according to the present invention includes an input polarity switching unit, an integrator that integrates an input signal, an integrator output adjusting circuit that adjusts an output voltage of the integrator, a window comparator, and a controller that controls the input polarity switching unit, the integrator output adjusting circuit, and the window comparator, and generates a digital signal. When the output voltage of the integrator reaches a first reference voltage, the controller resets reference voltage of a high-voltage side comparator to a second reference voltage. Further, when the output voltage of the integrator reaches a third reference voltage, the controller resets reference voltage of a low-voltage side comparator to a fourth reference voltage. According to the analog-digital converter of the present invention, it is possible to prevent device breakdown and occurrence of through current due to fluctuation of the output voltage of the integrator.
US07973683B2
A lossless coding and/or decoding apparatus and method. The lossless coding apparatus may read a probability model corresponding to each of a plurality of context groups. Here, the probability model stored in a memory may be generated by grouping a context. The lossless coding apparatus may code a symbol using the probability model and generate a bitstream. The lossless coding apparatus may enhance coding efficiency and reduce an amount of space utilized by the memory.
US07973682B2
A data converter includes N analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) to sample multiple analog signals in response to an input clock to produce N signal samples per sample period. For each sample period, the bits of the N signal samples are multiplexed to M sets of multiplexed bits where 1
US07973679B2
The invention relates to the encoding/decoding of digital signals, especially using permutation codes involving a calculation of combinatorial expressions. According to the invention, the combinatorial expressions are represented by prime factor power decompositions, and determined by a preliminary reading of pre-recorded representations of decompositions of selected integers.
US07973673B2
An automated meter reader module can be operably connected to an existing utility meter to provide an endpoint for use in an automated meter reader system. The automated meter reader module can utilize an index attachment drive mechanism to electronically and mechanically monitor consumption of a utility such as water, gas, or electricity. The index attachment of the existing utility meter is attached so that it does not physically impede reception or transmission of radio frequency communications by a patch antenna integrated into a printed circuit board located inside the automated meter reader module. A gasket around the edge of the housing sealingly interfaces with the existing utility meter and a multi-faced cover that allows the registered dials located on the index attached to be viewed from a plurality of vantage points.
US07973666B2
A lack of patient movement monitor and method. The monitor and method patient support includes a plurality of sensors located beneath a patient support to determine movement of a patient. An alarm is activated when patient movement over time is determined to be lacking.
US07973658B2
An illumination and detection architecture that illuminates a target for detecting a material of interest. The architecture includes an illumination component that illuminates the target using a predetermined light wavelength known to energize and thereby cause a detectable change in the desired chemical and/or compounds associated with the target in a particular way. The change is then captured by an image capture system and processed to determine the presence or absence detected of the desired material of interest at the target.
US07973653B2
An apparatus, a method and a system of vehicle abnormality notification in which predetermined information is transmitted to a predetermined subject when an abnormality in the vehicle state is detected in a vehicle are constructed so that even when an abnormality in the vehicle state has been detected in the vehicle, the aforementioned predetermined information is not transmitted to the predetermined subject if the vehicle is in a predetermined area.
US07973651B2
An electronic system is described for controlling vehicle message lighting including turn and stop indicator signal lights, which system does not require any pre-existing wiring harness in either a towing vehicle 101 or any towed vehicle 104 to be in serviceable condition. In one embodiment the system implements a reliable wireless detection method based on feedback to confirm the state of operation of any such pre-existing “vehicle indication signal drive line” and includes a control apparatus that wirelessly transmits 230 instructions to at least one local receiver 150 controlling a number of message devices, including, but not limited to, vehicle indication signal lights. Another embodiment of the system bypasses any pre-existing wiring harness and permits the operator to manually over ride its detector. Advantageously, the portable control transmitter apparatus and each receiver apparatus 150 of the invented system are easily installed by a nontechnical person requiring minimal tooling and then operated by an unskilled user.
US07973649B2
An improved motion sensing and alarm technique and apparatus for monitoring unauthorized movement of vehicles or the like and notifying the owner thereof, wherein the motion sensors in the vehicle are microprocessor controlled to be automatically armed when the owner is not in the vicinity of the vehicle, but disarmed or de-activated in the presence of the owner and the owner's radio-coded identification transmitter associated with the owner's key fob, and with energy saving features as well.
US07973633B2
Lower surface terminals are disposed at the lower surface of a magnetic substrate. An upper surface electrode is disposed at the upper surface of the magnetic substrate. A control circuit, an input capacitor, and an output capacitor are mounted on the upper surface electrode. The control circuit contains a switching element. A smoothing choke is disposed inside the magnetic substrate. The connection wiring of connecting the upper surface electrode and at least one of the input terminal, the output terminal, and the ground terminal is constructed using an inner conductor passing through the inside of the magnetic substrate, and the connection wiring forms an inductor.
US07973626B2
The invention relates to an apparatus for position detection having a magnet and a sensing element which has switched states or parameter values depending on the magnetic field generated by the magnet, with the apparatus furthermore having a means for influencing the magnetic field, with the means being made and arranged such that different switched states or parameter values of the sensing element can be generated in dependence on the position of the magnet, the sensing element and the means for influencing the magnetic field with respect to one another.
US07973625B2
The present invention relates to an auxiliary contact block. The auxiliary contact block comprises a housing and a tool free latching mechanism. The tool free latching mechanism further comprising a stationary member integral to the housing and a latching bar. The latching bar comprising a button in communication with a moveable member by a central body.
US07973624B2
An electromagnetic switch is described as including a starter relay, in particular, for an electrical starter motor for controlling a starter pinion when starting an internal combustion engine, having a housing, an armature electromagnetically controllable therein, for controlling a control lever, and having a flexible protective cap which seals a transition from the housing to the armature, the protective cap being developed to be pot-shaped and having a pot floor and a pot opening, the pot floor having a circular opening having a thickened ring for the form-locking connection to the armature, and the pot opening being developed reinforced at its circumferential edge for the form-locking connection to the housing, the pot floor having a setpoint bending region, as seen in cross section. In order to create a small installation space, the protective cap has an arrangement or structure, on its inner wall, for connecting to the housing, which are able to be connected to the housing in a form-locking manner.
US07973618B2
A phase shifter fabricated by a simple process and having a simple structure, a method of fabricating the same, and a duplexer having the same are disclosed. The duplexer includes a transmitting-end filter capable of passing only a signal in the range of a transmission frequency, a receiving-end filter capable of passing only a signal in the range of a reception frequency, and a phase shifter interposed between the transmitting-end filter and the receiving-end filter to isolate a transmitted signal of the transmitting-end filter and a received signal of the receiving-end filter from each other. The phase shifter includes a substrate provided with an input port and an output port, an inductor formed on the substrate and connected to the input and output ports, and a capacitor provided on the substrate, wherein the capacitor and inductor share a region of the substrate.
US07973616B2
A short slot directional coupler includes a dielectric substrate having both surfaces each covered by a metal film, a first via-hole string and a second via-hole string, each of which has via-holes penetrating through the substrate, and formed so that a distance between the first via-hole string and the second via-hole string is narrow at a center of a length direction of the string and wider along directions of both ends of the string, and a pair of third via-hole strings each having via-holes penetrating through the substrate, and formed between parts adjacent to both ends of the first via-hole string and parts adjacent to both ends of the second via-hole string to form a first post-wall waveguide along with the first via-hole string and a second post-wall waveguide along with the second via-hole string.
US07973609B2
A frequency synthesizer includes a digitally-controlled oscillator and an oscillation frequency control unit. The digitally-controlled oscillator includes a loop-shaped transmission line path having an odd number of parallel portions in each of which two conductors are arranged in parallel to each other with a space therebetween, and an odd number of intersection portions in each of which two conductors intersect spatially, an active circuit coupled between the two conductors, and a first variable capacitance unit and a second variable capacitance unit. The oscillation frequency control unit includes a ΣΔ modulation circuit for subjecting to ΣΔ modulation a first control signal for switching a high capacitance state and a low capacitance state of a first variable capacitance element included in the first variable capacitance unit.
US07973595B2
A power switch circuit includes a first switch transistor connected to a main power supply, which supplies a first voltage, a second switch transistor connected in series to the first switch transistor and to a backup power supply, which supplies a second voltage. A switch control unit controls activation and deactivation of the first and second switch transistors so that either one of a voltage corresponding to the first voltage and a voltage corresponding to the second voltage is selectively output to a connection node between the first and second transistors. The first switch transistor includes a first diode, which is formed so that a direction from the main power supply toward the connection node defines a forward direction, and a second diode, which is formed so that a direction from the connection node toward the backup power supply defines a forward direction.
US07973589B2
This system is a no touch single pole single throw (spst) two wire electronic light switch that uses an Infrared Proximity Detector to create a working system designed to replace existing mechanical switches common in households. The use of a Micro Controller enables the system to adapt to different loads and load types while requiring a minimum number of parts to perform the necessary tasks.
US07973583B2
An A/B-phase signal generator wherein an up/down count unit 52C counts up by an up-count command or counts down by a down-count command at fixed intervals, an angle comparison unit 51 compares the count result ACNT of up/down count unit 52C with an input rotation angle θ and generates a count request, which is an up-count request or a down-count request, a count request comparison unit 52B compares a previous count request with a next count request and generates an up-count command or a down-count command only when the previous count request and the next count request are both up-count requests or down-count requests, respectively, and an A/B-phase pulse generator 53 receives a least significant bit and a second least significant bit of up/down count unit 52C and generates and outputs an A-phase pulse signal and a B-phase pulse signal.
US07973581B2
A flip-flop circuit includes: a first latch circuit that receives input of a data signal and a rise delay clock signal, raises a signal of a first node according to the fall of the rise delay clock signal, and lowers the signal of the first node according to the rise of the rise delay clock signal; a second latch circuit that receives input of the signal of the first node and the clock signal and lowers a signal of a second node at timing when the clock signal falls; a third latch circuit that receives input of the signal of the second node and the clock signal and generates an output signal for maintaining the data signal; and a pull-down circuit that pulls down the signal of the first node with the rise delay clock signal.
US07973578B2
A time-to-digital converter (TDC) includes a converter which receives a first signal and a second signal, delays the second signal in phases using a plurality of delay elements which are coupled in series, compares the delayed second signal with the first signal, and outputs a phase error of the second signal with respect to the first signal, a phase frequency detector which receives the first signal, and a third signal from one of the nodes in the plurality of delay elements, and outputs a phase difference between the first signal and the third signal, and a frequency detector which outputs a frequency error of the second signal with respect to the first signal as a digital code using an output signal of the phase frequency detector and the second signal.
US07973577B2
Disclosed herein is a VDL/DLL architecture in which the power supply to the VDL, VccVDL, is regulated at least as a function of the entry point of the input signal (ClkIn) into the VDL. Specifically, VccVDL is regulated to be higher when the delay through the VDL is relatively small (when the entry point is toward the right (or minimum delay) edge of the VDL) and is reduced when the delay is relatively high (when the entry point is toward the left (or maximum delay) edge of the VDL). This provides for graduated delays across the stages of the VDL, but without the need to design each stage separately. Other benefits include a VDL/DLL design operable over a wider range of frequencies, and a reduced number of stages, including a reduced number of buffer stages. Moreover, when the disclosed technique is used, buffer stages may be dispensed with altogether. Additionally, the disclosed VDL architecture can be used in any situation where it might be advantageous to delay a signal through a variable delay as a function of VDL entry point.
US07973571B2
The invention provides a multichannel drive circuit by which, even when there occurs a variation between channels in circuit characteristics of each channel including current source due to the semiconductor manufacturing process and the like, loads of each channel constituting a load array can be driven under conditions uniform between all the channels. The invention includes; an interchannel common connection line (5) for making conduction between respective current paths of each channel for connecting the respective current sources of each channel constituting a current source array (11) with respective input switches of each channel constituting an input switch array (13); and current blocking means (12) for blocking output current of the current source of that channel of the plurality of channels in which the input switch is in an OFF state from flowing into the interchannel common connection line.
US07973570B2
A sample-and-hold circuit (100) is provided that that includes a sample-and-hold switch (125), an integrator circuit (180) designed to generate an output voltage (VOUT) signal, and a bias voltage (VBIAS) source (185). The sample-and-hold switch (125) incldues a first switch (130), a second switch (140), and a third switch (150). The first switch (130) has a first gate (132), a first source (134) and a first drain (134), the second switch (140) has a second gate (142), a second source (144) electrically coupled to a bulk region (147), and a second drain (146), and the third switch (150) has a third gate (152), a third drain (154), and a third source (156) coupled to the first source (136). The integrator circuit (180) includes an output operational amplifier (170) having an inverting input (V−) (172) coupled to the second drain (146) and a non-inverting input (V+). The bias voltage (VBIAS) source (185) applies a bias voltage (VBIAS) to the third drain and the non-inverting input (V+) to drive a gate-to-source voltage (VGS) of the second switch (140) to an optimum negative value that reduces a sub-threshold leakage current (IDS) and a Gate Induced Drain Lowering (GIDL) leakage current in the second switch (140), and to drive a drain-to-source voltage (VDS) of the second switch (140) is biased at a low value equal to an offset voltage (VOFFSET) of the output operational amplifier (170) to minimize a drain-to-bulk current (IDB) in the second switch (140).
US07973569B1
A rail-rail comparator having an input stage with independent positive and negative differential voltage offset compensation tracks changes in Gm (transconductance) of the input stage. By tracking the changes in Gm (transconductance) of the input stage, hysteresis of the rail-rail comparator becomes insensitive to the input common mode voltage. A two-stage rail-rail comparator may be used for adding hysteresis to a second stage. The first stage of the two-stage rail-rail comparator operates at substantially unity gain. The second stage of the two-stage rail-rail comparator operates as a regular high gain amplifier with hysteresis. Additional circuitry tracks the Gm (transconductance) change of the first stage to make the second stage hysteresis insensitive to the input common mode voltage at the first stage. This also makes it easier to create a programmable hysteresis that is accurate over all input voltage values.
US07973561B2
A receiver particularly suited for an M-BUS is described. During transmission, the receiver is disabled. After each transmission, nodes and states in the receiver are set to prepare the receiver to receive a signal. Once data is sensed, a feedback loop clips the input signal to the receiver to limit the swing of the input signal. The line of the power supply at the lower potential is modulated, rather than modulating the line at the higher potential, for the transmission of data.
US07973558B2
Some embodiments provide an integrated circuit (IC) with a delay select input selection circuit. The delay select input selection circuit comprises a first input selection circuit, a first storage element, a second storage element, and a first input line branching into multiple input lines. The multiple input lines include at least a second, third, and fourth input line. The second input line is communicably connected to a first input of the first input selection circuit. The third input line enters the first storage element. The fourth input line enters the second storage element. An output from the first storage element is communicably connected to a second input of the first input selection circuit. An output from the second storage element is communicably connected to a third input of the first input selection circuit.
US07973557B2
An integrated circuit (IC) includes at least one programmable digital logic cell that includes first dedicated digital logic cell having a plurality of transistors including at least one PMOS transistor and at least one NMOS transistor configured to perform at least one digital logical function. The first dedicated digital logic cell includes a plurality of nodes including at least one input node and at least one output node that reflects performance of a digital logical function. Programmable tuning circuitry includes at least one tuning input and at least one tuning circuit output. Circuitry for coupling or decoupling the tuning input or tuning circuit output to at least one of the plurality of nodes of the first dedicated digital logical cell is provided, wherein the coupling or decoupling is operable to change the processing speed for the first reprogrammable digital logic cell.
US07973550B2
A semiconductor device test apparatus is provided. The semiconductor device test apparatus includes a test unit on which a semiconductor device under test is disposed, and an automatic test equipment (ATE) unit that inputs a test signal to the test unit and reads a test result signal output by the test unit. The semiconductor device test apparatus includes an interface unit that is interposed between the test unit and the ATE unit, and that compares the test signal with the test result signal and outputs to the ATE unit comparison signals indicating whether the semiconductor device is a failure or not or whether a specific bit failure has occurred or not.
US07973549B2
A method and circuit for measuring internal pulses includes an enable circuit configured to receive a control signal from an on-chip built-in tester to enable measurement of internal circuits. A delay chain is configured to receive a pulse signal from an on-chip circuit component. Sampling latches each include a data input coupled between adjacent delay elements of the delay chain and synchronized with the clock signal such that a transition in the pulse signal is indicated by comparing adjacent digital values in an output sequence.
US07973543B2
Provided is a measurement apparatus that measures a current flowing through a load, including a power supply section that outputs a current supplied to the load; a current measuring section that measures a load current flowing between the load and the power supply section; a switch that is connected in parallel with the current measuring section between the load and the power supply section; and a control section that disconnects the switch during measurement of the load current and connects the switch when the load current falls outside of a predetermined reference range.
US07973542B2
Methods, systems and devices are described for determining a measurable capacitance for proximity detection in a sensor having a plurality of sensing electrodes and at least one guarding electrode. A charge transfer process is executed for at least two executions. The charge transfer process includes applying a pre-determined voltage to at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes using a first switch, applying a first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode using a second switch, sharing charge between the at least one of the plurality of sensing electrodes and a filter capacitance, and applying a second guard voltage different from the first guard voltage to the at least one guarding electrode. A voltage is measured on the filter capacitance for a number of measurements equal to at least one to produce at least one result to determine the measurable capacitance for proximity detection.
US07973532B2
A plurality of transmitters on a logging tool are activated simultaneously at substantially the same frequency. When the transmitter outputs are phase-modulated using a mutually orthogonal set of modulating functions, it is possible to recover, from the signal at each receiver, a response corresponding to each of the transmitters.
US07973531B2
For detuning of radio-frequency coils (in magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, for example), a conducting element (102) of a transmission cable is configured to form a primary resonant circuit tunable to at least one first resonance frequency. A second conducting element (104) of the transmission cable is configured to form a switching circuit that is electrically insulated from and reactively coupled via inductive coupling and/or capacitive coupling to the primary resonant circuit, and is adapted to tune the primary resonant circuit to at least one second resonance frequency, thereby detuning the primary resonant circuit.
US07973525B2
Provided is a constant current circuit capable of supplying a stable constant current. Even when K values of NMOS transistors vary due to manufacturing fluctuations in semiconductor devices, a voltage generated across a resistor is always a threshold voltage difference between the NMOS transistors, and thus hardly varies. Even when the K values of the NMOS transistors vary due to a change in temperature, the voltage generated across the resistor is always the threshold voltage difference between the NMOS transistors, and thus hardly varies.
US07973523B2
A reverse current sensing (RCS) regulator system and method is provided. One embodiment of the invention includes a RCS regulator system. The system comprises a RCS comparator that monitors a drain voltage of a LS FET and is configured to switch states at a zero crossing point to provide an indication of the start of a reverse current condition. The system further comprises a RCS evaluator that measures a drain voltage of the LS FET upon receiving an indication that the LS FET has been turned off by the driver logic circuit and adjusts an offset to the RCS comparator to adjust the trip point of the RCS comparator relative to the drain voltage if the measured drain voltage falls outside a predetermined threshold.
US07973521B2
Voltage regulators are provided. In one embodiment of the voltage regulators, a differential amplifier receives a reference voltage and a feedback voltage, to generate a control signal according to a voltage difference between the feedback voltage and the reference voltage. An output transistor has a first terminal coupled to a power voltage, a control terminal coupled to the differential amplifier for receiving the control signal, and a second terminal coupled to an output terminal. A voltage feedback circuit is coupled between the output terminal and a ground voltage to generate the feedback voltage. A discharge transistor has a first terminal coupled to the ground voltage, a control terminal coupled to a first control signal, and a second terminal coupled to the output terminal through a first resistor in the voltage feedback circuit.
US07973520B2
A piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus to control an output voltage from a piezoelectric transformer to a load, and an image forming apparatus including the same, the piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus including: an output voltage detection unit to compare the output voltage with an output control voltage, and to output a digital value according to the comparison; and a driving control unit to control a driving frequency and a duty rate of the piezoelectric transformer according to the digital value. Accordingly, the piezoelectric transformer type high-voltage power source apparatus can stably perform frequency and duty rate control without experiencing an abnormal oscillation or uncontrollable state due to a manufacturing irregularity of particular components and/or a change in temperature, and a high voltage can be output within a short rise time.
US07973519B2
A device for transforming an AC voltage to a lower AC voltage includes a generator of a PWM control signal and a first bidirectional switch to couple a load to the AC voltage during a conduction-phase. A second bidirectional switch discharges energy from the load during an off-phase of the first bidirectional switch. A first driving circuit of the first bidirectional switch is input with the PWM control signal and generates a first PWM signal, applied between control and conduction terminals of the first bidirectional switch. A second driving circuit for the second bidirectional switch is input with the PWM control signal and generates a second PWM signal, in phase opposition to the first PWM signal, applied between control and conduction terminals of the second bidirectional switch. An electric decoupling circuit is between the generator and second driving circuit. A transformer is between respective conduction terminals of the bidirectional switches.
US07973516B2
Methods and devices for connecting a current source to a target storage device via a transmission cable extendable and/or retractable via a conduit that may be repositioned.
US07973510B2
The apparatus for controlling an inverter is disclosed which detects a rotation angle of a load using a current supplied to the load when the inverter utilizes a voltage/frequency control to control the driving of the load, and accurately drives the load using the detected rotation angle, where the current supplied to the load by the inverter is detected by a current sensor, and a rotation speed of the load is estimated by the detected current to be used for the driving of the load.
US07973507B2
A raindrop detecting device includes a raindrop sensor, and a controller. The raindrop sensor is disposed in a wiping area of a wiper blade on a front windshield, and outputs a detection signal regarding a raindrop amount. The controller activates the wiper blade based on the detection signal, and sets a prohibition period for which the raindrop sensor is prohibited from determining the raindrop amount. The raindrop sensor outputs signals when raindrop collected by the wiper blade passes above the raindrop sensor in a reciprocating wiping operation. The controller calculates the prohibition period of a second reciprocating wiping operation based on the signals of a first reciprocating wiping operation.
US07973502B2
A drive unit includes a rotating electrical machine; a rotation sensor that detects a rotational position of a rotor of the rotating electrical machine, and a storage medium. In an inspecting step of measuring a counter electromotive force by mechanically driving the rotating electrical machine after the rotating electrical machine and the rotation sensor are assembled together, positional error information of the rotation sensor obtained based on information of the counter electromotive force and output information from the rotation sensor is stored in the storage medium. The storage medium is integrally provided to the drive unit in such a state that the storage medium is readable upon assembling a control device that controls the rotating electrical machine.
US07973497B2
A discharge tube lighting apparatus includes a converter that converts a voltage received from an alternating-current or direct-current power supply into a predetermined direct-current voltage and an inverter that converts an output voltage of the converter into an alternating-current voltage having a predetermined frequency. The inverter performs burst control based on an externally input dimming signal. The converter operates regardless of the active or inactive period of the burst control of the inverter and performs negative feedback control in response to a detection signal of a tube current in the active period of the inverter.
US07973495B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for adaptive control of a solid-state lighting system consisting of one or more groups of one or more light-emitting elements The invention comprises a voltage control device to provide each group with an independently controllable voltage A feedback system to detect and generate a signal representative of drive currents through the one or more groups A computing device then adaptively evaluates, based on the signal, a required voltage that achieves a desired respective drive current in each of the one or more groups.
US07973493B2
In order to enhance stability of a discharge lamp at the time of dimming lighting even in the case where a light output is lowered, a direct current superimposing circuit superimposes a direct current voltage on an alternating current voltage applied to a fluorescent lamp, and a dimming signal correction circuit receives a detection value of a direct current voltage detection circuit and a dimming signal that is from an outside, outputs a dimming signal higher in level than the dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit exceeds a first threshold value, and decreases the level of the outputted dimming signal to the level of the inputted dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit falls down below a second threshold value that is equal to or less than the first threshold value. Then, an amount of alternating current power supplied to the fluorescent lamp by an inverter circuit is increased and decreased in response to fluctuations of the level of the dimming signal outputted by the dimming signal correction circuit, whereby the fluorescent lamp is dimmed.
US07973489B2
A lighting system for illuminating a chamber in a building includes a lighting fixture suitable for being mounted onto a surface of the chamber, so that light emitted by at least one CCFL device mechanically supported by the fixture illuminates the chamber. The one CCFL device includes at least one transformer. A driver adapted to be connected to a surface of the chamber is capable of converting input power from a power source to an AC power having a voltage in the range of about 5-400 volts and a current at a frequency in the range of about 1kc-100 kc. The at least one transformer is suitable for converting the AC power to an output power suitable for operating the at least one CCFL, causing the at least one CCFL to emit light.
US07973485B1
A particle controller is disclosed. In some embodiments, a particle controller includes an input port configured to receive a particle stream and a set of cells configured to form a tube through which at least a portion of the particles comprising the particle stream are directed. In some such cases, each cell in the set of cells comprises at least a portion of a semiconductor die.
US07973481B2
An insulating material high both in thermal conductivity and light reflectance, and a submount high in heat radiatability for mounting an LED element thereon, capable of raising a light utilization factor and quickly radiating heat generated from the element. For example, used as a substrate material of a submount is a nitride sintered body having a reflectance of light in the wavelength region of from 350 nm to 800 nm of 50% or more and a reflectance of light with a wavelength of 700 nm of 60% or more, obtained by sintering a preform consisting of a composition containing 100 parts by mass of aluminum nitride powder and 0.5 to 10 parts by mass of a compound containing an alkaline earth metal such as 3CaO×Al2O3 in an inert atmosphere containing a specific quantity of carbon vapor, or by burning a coat of a nitride paste applied on a base substrate having a heat resistance at a predetermined temperature.
US07973480B2
A high-pressure discharge lamp has an outer envelope (1) in which a discharge vessel (11) is arranged. The discharge vessel encloses a discharge space (13) with an ionizable filling. The discharge vessel has two mutually opposed neck-shaped portions (2,3) through which current supply conductors (4,5) extend to a pair of electrodes (6,7) in the discharge space. A lamp base (8) of electrically insulating material supports the discharge vessel. The lamp base also supports the outer envelope (1). The outer envelope encloses the current supply conductors and is connected to the lamp base in a gas-tight manner. By controlling the atmosphere in the outer envelope, a simplified and compact high-pressure discharge lamp is provided with an accurate positioning of the discharge vessel with respect to the optical axis of the lighting system. The high-pressure discharge lamp can be suitably applied in an assembly with a reflector.
US07973478B2
The invention relates to an improved electrode rod (1) holder with the aid of a metal tube piece 5 and a metal plate 6 connected in a fixed manner to the metal tube piece for a mercury ultra-high pressure discharge lamp.
US07973475B2
An OLED device and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed, capable of improving yield and preventing decomposition of organic layers by moisture. An organic passivation layer having excellent morphology is applied to prevent a short circuit between an anode electrode and a cathode electrode. A Ca layer is applied to remove moisture from the inside of the device, thereby increasing the lifespan of the device. Accordingly, generation of dark sports by the short circuit caused by protrusions on a poor-morphology layer can be prevented. In addition, moisture absorbent layers are formed between the passivation layers and the partitions to remove outside moisture and the moisture outgassed from the inside, that is, partitions and organic layers, thereby elongating the lifespan of the OLED device.
US07973474B2
An electroluminescent (EL) display includes a substrate, an EL pixel array with a light emitting diode (LED) on the substrate, a connector electrically coupled to the EL pixel array, an encapsulant on the substrate and surrounding the EL pixel array, an encapsulation substrate attached to the substrate, the EL pixel array enclosed between the encapsulation substrate and the substrate, and a conductive film electrically coupled to the connector, the conductive film being in communication either with the substrate or the encapsulation substrate.
US07973466B2
An organic electroluminescent display device includes: a substrate having a pixel region and a non-pixel region surrounding the pixel region; a first electrode on the substrate in the pixel region; an organic luminescent layer on the first electrode; a second electrode on the organic luminescent layer; and a light-shielding means corresponding to the non-pixel region.
US07973464B2
A given field emission element includes a carbon nanotube field emission wire and at least one supporting protective layer coating an outer surface of the carbon nanotube field emission wire. The carbon nanotube field emission wire is selected from a group consisting of a carbon nanotube yarn, a wire-shaped CNT-polymer composite, and a wire-shaped CNT-glass composite. A method for manufacturing the described field emission element includes the steps of: (a) providing one carbon nanotube field emission wire; (b) forming one supporting protective layer on an outer surface of the carbon nanotube field emission wire; and (c) cutting the carbon nanotube field emission wire to a predetermined length and treating the carbon nanotube emission wire to form the field emission element.
US07973463B2
There are provided a stable electron-emitting device with less fluctuation in electron-emitting properties and a method of fabricating the electron-emitting device. The electron-emitting device has a substrate; a plurality of columnar first regions respectively orientated substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substrate; a second region provided between the respective first regions higher than the first regions in resistance; and an electron emission layer covering the columnar first regions and the second region.
US07973458B2
An exemplary piezoelectric vibrating piece comprises a base formed of a piezoelectric material; and a pair of vibrating arms extending from one end of the base in a designated direction; wherein the vibrating arm comprises an arm portion in which only the inner side slopes as it becomes narrower to the distal end and a hammer-head portion that is formed wider than the arm portion at the distal end of the vibrating arms.
US07973456B2
The piezoelectric element 20 of the invention comprises a pair of electrodes 2,3 and a piezoelectric ceramic 1 comprising as the major component a solid solution of the two components KNbO3 and BaTiO3. In the solid solution, the molar ratio of KNbO3 is 0.5-0.9 with respect to the total of the two components.
US07973455B2
A case member of an ultrasonic sensor includes an outer case member having a substantially cylindrical shape with a bottom surface and an inner case member. Cutout portions having a predetermined size are arranged so as to face each other in a lower portion of a sidewall of the inner case member. The inner case member is made of a metal material having a density that is greater than that of the outer case member. Consequently, an elliptical vibrating-surface amplitude profile can be formed in a vibrating surface of the ultrasonic sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor having stable anisotropy in directional properties can be provided. Further, the ultrasonic sensor has a small amount of displacement of side vibration.
US07973452B2
A vibrator (3) is sandwiched between a base block (1) and a stator (2), and a substantially lower half of a substantially spherical rotor (6) is received in a recess (5) of the stator (2). A support member (7) is placed on an upper portion of the stator (2). A preload portion (10) is supported at an end of an angle portion (9) of the support member (7). A spherical member (11) rotatable about multiple axes of the preload portion (10) abuts against a top portion of the rotor (6) to apply a preload to the rotor (6). Driving the vibrator (3) rotates the rotor (6), whereby an output shaft (12) is moved between the preload portion (10) and an annular portion (8) of the support member (7) as a movable range.
US07973449B2
A transducer for surface acoustic waves, and a resonator and a filter for surface acoustic waves having the transducer are provided. The transducer for surface acoustic waves has cells containing two electrode fingers per cell, wherein the transducer exhibits unidirectional behavior for propagation directions of the surface acoustic waves parallel to highly symmetrical directions of the crystal substrate. Each of two electrodes have a plurality of electrode fingers, the electrode fingers having center axes extending parallel to their longitudinal axes and being spaced apart from center axes of adjacent electrode fingers of the same electrode by a distance which equals the ratio of the velocity of the surface acoustic wave and the cut-off frequency of the transducer. The electrode fingers of both electrodes define a plurality of cells each consisting of two fingers.
US07973443B2
A magnetic field element includes magnetic field portions and a coupling portion and is rotatable on a rotation axis along a given direction. Each magnetic field portion includes a magnet and magnetic plates. The magnet includes first and second pole faces having different polarities from each other in the given direction. The magnetic-material plates are provided on the first and second pole faces. The magnetic field portions are annularly arranged along a circumferential direction around the rotation axis and spaced in the circumferential direction from one another. The coupling portion is made of a non-magnetic material and couples the magnetic field portions to one another.
US07973435B2
An electrical linear drive device comprises an outer housing consisting of a housing tube and two housing covers disposed at the ends thereof The outer housing defines in the interior thereof a receiving space, into which the drive part of a drive unit in the form of an electrodynamic linear direct drive like a cartridge is placed, and an output drive rod extends outward through the front housing cover. From a drive coil arrangement of the drive unit an electrical operation cable extends to an central electrical interface means. The electrical interface means is disposed laterally on the housing tube and the operation cable and the signal cable extend in a cable channel formed in the wall of the housing tube.
US07973429B2
An apparatus includes two DC/DC converters including two conversion circuits for converting a power supply voltage to first and second output voltages, respectively, two driving circuits for driving the respective conversion circuit based on first and second pulse wave modulated signals, and two pulse width modulation circuits for performing pulse width modulation on a thinned wave signal formed from a first wave signal and on a second wave signal to generate the pulse wave modulated signals, respectively. One DC/DC converter includes a thinning circuit for removing portions of a first wave signal to form the thinned wave signal. The apparatus includes a speaker for generating sound by inputting a signal based on the voltages.
US07973423B2
In an on-vehicle electric power source system, a power source control device is configured to supply an electric power from an electric power supply source to an actuator by means of a dual-circuit power supply line. The dual-circuit power supply line includes a bypass line and a charge-up line arranged in parallel with the bypass line. A first shut-off circuit is disposed in the bypass line. A booster circuit, an electricity storage device, and a second shut-off circuit are disposed in the charge-up line. The storage device is provided for storing an electric power boosted up by the booster circuit. Also provided is a control unit, which is configured to perform switching between an electric power supply through the bypass line and an electric power supply through the charge-up line by a changeover of a shutoff-circuit established/blocked state between the first and second shut-off circuits.
US07973422B2
A device for producing electrical power in a multi-spool gas turbine engine is disclosed. The device includes at least one first rotary spool and a second rotary spool which drives an electrical machine. The electrical machine is of the twin-rotor type with a first rotor and a second rotor. The first rotor is mechanically connected to the first rotary spool and the second rotor is mechanically connected to the second rotary spool.
US07973412B2
In a semiconductor device bonded to a motherboard with a bonding material having a melting point of 200° C. to 230° C., a bonding material 15 which is a die bonding material for bonding a semiconductor element 13 to a semiconductor substrate 11 is a Bi alloy containing 0.8 wt % to 10 wt % of Cu and 0.02 wt % to 0.2 wt % of Ge, so that the bonding material 15 for bonding the semiconductor element 13 to the semiconductor substrate 11 is not melted when the semiconductor device is bonded to the motherboard by reflowing. It is therefore possible to suppress poor connection on the semiconductor element 13, thereby securing the mountability and electrical reliability of the semiconductor device.
US07973403B2
[Problem] To provide an adhesive sheet which is used for a light-emitting diode device, and which is free from cracks and peeling off of the adhered portions.[Means for Solving the Problem] An adhesive sheet for a light-emitting diode device, which comprises a thermoplastic polymer containing epoxy groups and a compound containing functional groups which are addition reactive with the epoxy groups or a polymerization catalyst which can effect a ring opening polymerization of the epoxy groups, and in which said thermoplastic polymer is cross-linked so that its flowability is restrained.
US07973399B2
An embedded chip package includes a substrate, a semiconductor structure, an encapsulating material layer and a plurality of conductive vias. Herein the substrate includes at least a dielectric layer and at least a patterned circuit layer disposed on the dielectric layer. The semiconductor structure is disposed on the substrate and has a plurality of electrical bonding pads, and the electrical bonding pads contact the dielectric layer. The encapsulating material layer is disposed on the substrate and around the semiconductor structure. In addition, a plurality of conductive vias is disposed in the substrate to electrically connect the patterned circuit layer to the electrical bonding pads.
US07973396B2
The present invention provides a solution to the following problem: when using an electronic price tag device attached to a POP panel, an advertising content of the POP panel may be inconsistent with a price displayed on the electronic price tag device, and such inconsistency is left as is until a person in charge of a store site notices that. An electronic price tag device 1 includes detecting elements SW1 to SW3. A POP panel 30 is provided with a projected and recessed part 33 at a position, with the electronic price tag device 1 attached thereto, facing a detecting unit 16. The projected and recessed part 33 is formed to have different shapes corresponding to the types of the POP panel. Type information of the POP panel based on a signal output from the detecting elements SW1 to SW3 engaged with the projected and recessed part 33 is output to a display 4.
US07973393B2
Disclosed are packages for optocouplers and methods of making the same. An exemplary optocoupler comprises a substrate having a first surface and a second surface, a plurality of optoelectronic dice for one or more optocouplers disposed on the substrate's first surface, and a plurality of optoelectronic dice for one or more optocouplers disposed on the substrate's second surface. The substrate may comprise a pre-molded leadframe, and electrical connections between optoelectronic dice on opposite surfaces of the substrate may be made via one or more leads of the leadframe.
US07973387B2
An insulated gate bipolar transistor includes bump pad connectors to provide thermal contact with a heat spreader for dissipating heat away form the insulated gate bipolar transistor.
US07973385B2
A semiconductor device including a doped substrate of a first doping polarity and a doped semiconductor material of a second doping polarity. The semiconductor material is on, or in, the substrate, and the second doping polarity is opposite the first doping polarity such that the semiconductor material and the substrate form a diode. The semiconductor device further includes an inductor on or above the semiconductor material, and a pattern in the semiconductor material for reducing eddy currents. The pattern includes a doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity and a least one trench within the doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity, wherein, at least at a depth at which the trench is closest to the inductor, the doped semiconductor material of the first doping polarity fully surrounds the trench so that, at least at the depth, the trench does not touch the doped semiconductor material of the second doping polarity.
US07973379B2
A photovoltaic ultraviolet sensor comprises a zinc oxide single crystal substrate. On the +c face of the zinc oxide single crystal substrate, an ultraviolet receiver is formed. The exemplary ultraviolet receiver includes a Schottky electrode which, when receiving ultraviolet rays, produces a voltage in cooperation with the zinc oxide single crystal substrate. The ultraviolet sensor does not have any sensitivity to the visible rays. The ultraviolet sensor has a relatively fast response of several microseconds.
US07973377B2
In accordance with the invention, an improved image sensor comprises an array of germanium photosensitive elements integrated with a silicon substrate and integrated with silicon readout circuits. The silicon transistors are formed first on a silicon substrate, using well known silicon wafer fabrication techniques. The germanium elements are subsequently formed overlying the silicon by epitaxial growth. The germanium elements are advantageously grown within surface openings of a dielectric cladding. Wafer fabrication techniques are applied to the elements to form isolated germanium photodiodes. Since temperatures needed for germanium processing are lower than those for silicon processing, the formation of the germanium devices need not affect the previously formed silicon devices. Insulating and metallic layers are then deposited and patterned to interconnect the silicon devices and to connect the germanium devices to the silicon circuits. The germanium elements are thus integrated to the silicon by epitaxial growth and integrated to the silicon circuitry by common metal layers.
US07973371B2
A static random access memory (SRAM) cell includes a first well region of a first conductivity type, a second well region of the first conductivity type, formed in a location different from a location where the first well region is formed, and a third well region of a second conductivity type, which is located between the first well region and the second well region. The memory cell further includes a first tap diffused layer of the first conductivity type for supplying a potential to the first well region, a second tap diffused layer of the first conductivity type for supplying the potential to the second well region, the first and second tap diffused layers being arranged substantially on a diagonal line in the layout of the SRAM cell, and a metal interconnection connected to the first and second tap diffused layers, the metal interconnection passing on the third well region in the SRAM cell.
US07973366B2
Memory cells which include a semiconductor substrate having a source region and a drain region separated by a channel region; a charge-trapping structure disposed above the channel region of the semiconductor substrate; a first gate disposed above the charge-trapping structure and proximate to the source region; and a second gate disposed above the charge-trapping structure and proximate to the drain region; where the first gate and the second gate are separated by a first nanospace are provided, along with arrays including a plurality of such cells, methods of manufacturing such cells and methods of operating such cells.
US07973363B2
To provide a semiconductor device in which dielectric breakdown strength in a peripheral region is increased without increasing on-resistance. An IGBT comprises a body region, guard ring, and collector layer. The body region is formed within an active region in a surface layer of a drift layer. The guard ring is formed within a peripheral region in the surface layer of the drift layer, and surrounds the body region. The collector layer is formed at a back surface side of the drift layer, and is formed across the active region and the peripheral region. A distance F between a back surface of the guard ring and the back surface of the drift layer is greater than a distance between a back surface of the body region and the back surface of the drift layer. A thickness H of the collector layer in the peripheral region is smaller than a thickness D of the collector layer in the active region.
US07973344B2
Double gate JFET with reduced area consumption and fabrication method therefore. Double-gate semiconductor device including a substrate having a shallow trench isolator region comprising a first STI and a second STI, a channel region having a first and second channel edges, the channel region formed in the substrate and disposed between and in contact with the first STI and the second STI at the first and second channel edge. The first STI has a first cavity at the first channel edge, and the second STI has a second cavity at the second channel edge. The device further includes a gate electrode region comprising conductive material filling at least one of the first and second cavities. At least one of the first and second cavities is physically configured to provide electrical coupling of the gate electrode region to a back-gate P-N junction.
US07973336B2
Growth of multilayer films is carried out in a manner which allows close control of the strain in the grown layers and complete release of the grown films to allow mounting of the released multilayer structures on selected substrates. A layer of material, such as silicon-germanium, is grown onto a template layer, such as silicon, of a substrate having a sacrificial layer on which the template layer is formed. The grown layer has a lattice mismatch with the template layer so that it is strained as deposited. A top layer of crystalline material, such as silicon, is grown on the alloy layer to form a multilayer structure with the grown layer and the template layer. The sacrificial layer is preferentially etched away to release the multilayer structure from the sacrificial layer, relaxing the grown layer and straining the crystalline layers interfaced with it.
US07973333B2
A lateral DMOS-transistor is provided that includes a MOS-diode made of a semi-conductor material of a first type of conductivity, a source-area of a second type of conductivity and a drain-area of a second type of conductivity which is separated from the MOS-diode by a drift region made of a semi-conductor material of a second type of conductivity which is at least partially covered by a dielectric gate layer which also covers the semi-conductor material of the MOS-diode. The dielectric gate-layer comprises a first region of a first thickness and a second region of a second thickness. The first region covers the semi-conductor material of the MOS-diode and the second region is arranged on the drift region. A transition takes place from the first thickness to the second thickness such that an edge area of the drift region which is oriented towards the MOS-diode is arranged below the second area of the gate layer. The invention also relates to a method for the production of these types of DMOS-transistors.
US07973332B2
An LED lamp includes a board, a metal wiring provided on the board, an LED mounted on the metal wiring, and a metal heat dissipation film mainly made of a metal different from a metal for forming the metal wiring. The metal heat dissipation film partially overlaps the metal wiring. The metal heat dissipation film has an irregular surface. The metal heat dissipation film is mainly made of a metal that is softer than the metal wiring. The metal heat dissipation film intervenes between the board and the metal wiring, and part of the metal heat dissipation film that is in contact with the metal wiring has an irregular surface.
US07973327B2
A light source and method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The light source includes a die, a light conversion component, and a scattering ring. The die emits light of a first wavelength through a top surface of the die and one or more side surfaces of the die, and is bonded to a mounting substrate. The light conversion component converts light of the first wavelength to light of a second wavelength, the light conversion component having a bottom surface bonded to the top surface of the die. The light conversion component has lateral dimensions such that a space exists around the die, the space being bounded by the substrate and the light conversion component. The scattering ring is positioned in the space such that a portion of the light emitted from the side surfaces of the die is scattered into the light conversion component.
US07973325B2
Provided are a reflective electrode and a compound semiconductor light emitting device having the reflective electrode, such as LED or LD is provided. The reflective electrode formed on a p-type compound semiconductor layer of a compound semiconductor light emitting device, comprising a first electrode layer formed one of a Ag and Ag-alloy and forms an ohmic contact with the p-type compound semiconductor layer, a third electrode layer formed of a material selected from the group consisting of Ni, Ni-alloy, Zn, Zn-alloy, Cu, Cu-alloy, Ru, Ir, and Rh on the first electrode layer, and a fourth electrode layer formed of a light reflective material on the third electrode layer.
US07973319B2
A display unit capable of being simply designed and manufactured by using more simplified light emitting device structure while capable of high definition display and display with superior color reproducibility and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The display unit is a display unit (1), wherein a plurality of organic EL devices (3B), (3G), and (3R), in which a function layer (6) including a light emitting layer (11) is sandwiched between a lower electrode (4) made of a light reflective material and a semi-transmissive upper electrode (7), and which has a resonator structure in which light h emitted in the light emitting layer (11) is resonated using a space between the lower electrode (4) and the upper electrode (7) as a resonant section (15) and is extracted from the upper electrode (7) side are arranged on a substrate (2). In the respective organic EL devices (3B), (3G), and (3R), the function layer (6) is made of an identical layer, and an optical distance L of the resonant section (15) is set to a value different from each other so that blue, green, or red wavelength region is resonated.
US07973313B2
The present invention provides an ultrathin thin film integrated circuit and a thin film integrated circuit device including the thin film integrated circuit device. Accordingly, the design of a product is not spoilt while an integrated circuit formed from a silicon wafer, which is thick and produces irregularities on the surface of the product container. The thin film integrated circuit according to the present invention includes a semiconductor film as an active region (for example a channel region in a thin film transistor), unlike an integrated circuit formed from a conventional silicon wafer. The thin film integrated circuit according to the present invention is thin enough that the design is not spoilt even when a product such as a card or a container is equipped with the thin film integrated circuit.
US07973301B2
A memory cell includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and phase-change material including a first portion contacting the first electrode, a second portion contacting the second electrode, and a third portion between the first portion and the second portion. A width of the third portion is less than a width of the first portion and a width of the second portion.
US07973295B2
The present method relates to a method for making a transparent carbon nanotube film. The method includes the following steps: (a) making a carbon nanotube film, and (b) irradiating the carbon nanotube film by a laser device with a power density thereof being greater than 0.1×104 W/m2, thus acquiring the transparent carbon nanotube film.
US07973294B2
The invention provides methods and devices for detecting, identifying, classifying and characterizing particles in a fluid sample. Optical analyzers are provided having a rotating and/or translating sample container for measuring the concentrations of fluorescent particles present in very low concentrations and for characterizing fluorescent particles on the basis of size, shape, diffusion constant and/or composition. Scanning optical analyzers are provided using pattern recognitions data analysis techniques and multichannel detection.
US07973291B2
An electronic apparatus of the present invention includes an ion generator which generates ions in an atmosphere to remove chemical emission such as VOC and odor. The ion generator is arranged inside the duct which leads the chemical emission generated from the fixing unit to the discharge opening, and also generates positive ions and negative ions in the atmosphere, thereby can efficiently remove the chemical emission. With this arrangement, an electronic apparatus is realized which sufficiently suppresses the chemical emission such as VOC and odor, and is less likely to dirty the surroundings of the electronic apparatus such as the outer surface thereof and the walls surrounding the electronic apparatus.
US07973285B2
An apparatus and a method for detecting a leakage of heavy water in a nuclear reactor system includes: a diode laser that injects a generated laser beam to a test sample placed in a light absorption cell; a vacuum pump adjusts a degree of vacuum in the light absorption cell; a test sample introduction unit gathers an air test sample from a location with a high possibility of a leakage of heavy water or a light water test sample from a secondary side of a steam generator and transfers the sample to the light absorption cell; an optical detector detects the laser beam which has passed through the light absorption cell; and a microprocessor controls the operation of the diode laser, the vacuum pump, the test sample introduction unit, and the optical detector, receives a detect signal from the optical detector, and analyzes an absorption spectrum signal.
US07973272B2
Techniques are disclosed that can be used to interface a microchannel plate (MCP) with readout circuitry. The techniques can be employed, for instance, with MCP based devices used in a numerous sensing/detection applications, and are particularly suitable for applications where it is desirable to interface an MCP having a relatively large active area to a readout circuit having a relatively smaller active area. The interface effectively decouples anode geometry from ROIC geometry and may also be configured with flexible anode pad geometry, which allows for compensation of optical blur variations as well as a very high fill factor. The interface can be made using standard semiconductor materials and photolithography techniques, and can be configured with thermal expansion qualities that closely track or otherwise match that of the readout circuitry.
US07973269B1
A ring portion including: a ring body; and one or more actuators formed therein for providing thrust to a projectile and configured for fastening to a shell of an airborne device to form a portion of the shell. The airborne device can be a projectile.
US07973264B2
A toaster oven appliance including low-profile heating elements having a predetermined single-sided surface area calculated to provide uniform heating within the cooking chamber, facilitate cleaning and to increase its usable capacity is disclosed. Various alternative configurations of top, bottom, and side-mounted heating elements in combination with both fixed and vertically movable heating element embodiments are provided for use with standard and digital controls. The heating elements are positioned both internally and externally of the cooking chamber and are provided in unsheathed, plain-sheathed, and metallic-sheathed types for a given application of the present oven. In one embodiment the heating elements are constructed as removable plug-in modules for convenient cleaning and replacement. The present toaster oven further includes an optional forced convection fan to reduce cooking temperature and shorten cooking cycles. An optional rotisserie mechanism is also provided in conjunction with the aforementioned combinations of heating elements and heating controls.
US07973261B2
Disclosed is a cooling structure for a plasma lighting system comprising a fan housing having at least two discharge ports having different flow rates for introducing external air into a case and cooling heat generating components in the case. The structure intensively cools heat generating components of high temperature such as a magnetron, thereby prolonging a life span of the components and enhancing a performance of a system.
US07973260B2
A wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM) including a motion platform, a sink, a workbench, a connecting element, a jib, a first head and a second head is provided. The sink is disposed separately above the motion platform, and the workbench is disposed in the sink. The workbench is connected to the motion platform via the connecting element such that the motion platform drives the workbench moving along a first direction and a second direction. Besides, the jib is fixedly connected with the sink, and the first head is disposed inside the sink and connected with the jib. The second head is disposed above the first head. Thus, the jib does not cause relative motion to the sink in order to avoid leaking.
US07973256B2
A spring member is provided in a switch having a lever to receive a pushing force from outside, by bringing an arch-part formed at the left end of the spring member into resilient contact with the bottom surface of the lever, in addition to the movable contact, the spring member also can return the lever. In the case of developing a compact and low-profile switch, the returning force of the lever can be increased to perform electrical connection or disconnection reliably.
US07973253B2
An interlock assembly for a bypass isolation open or closed transition ATS assembly is disclosed. The interlock assembly ensures that a switch assembly being worked upon and/or being inserted is in a neutral configuration, i.e. the switch assembly is not engaging a power source. The interlock assembly is, preferably, an electrical interlock having a control system structured to configure the switch assemblies and to monitor the configuration of the switch assemblies. That is, the switch assemblies each include a power operated, conductive, movable contact arm. The position of each contact arm is controlled, and monitored by, the control system which controls the single actuator for each contact arm.
US07973250B2
A cable harness for passing one or more cables through an opening the wall includes a cable conduit including a generally S-shaped channel defined by an inner surface of a first shell portion and an inner surface of a second shell portion attached to the first shell portion and a least one cable disposed in the cable conduit. A method of mounting a cable relative to an opening in a wall is also disclosed.
US07973247B2
In a circuit board-connecting portion 10, a first connecting portion 15 and a second connecting portion 20 are disposed in facing relation such that first conductors 14 contact second conductors 19, and also a first substrate 12 and a second substrate 17 are fixed to each other by an adhesive 22. The first connecting portion 15 has rigid members 24 provided at a reverse surface 12B of the first substrate 12 which is a soft substrate, and the rigid members 24 are disposed along a direction of a thickness of the first substrate 14, and are provided at positions corresponding to at least parts 14A of the first conductors 14.
US07973243B2
A coil insulator of an electrical rotating machine used as a main insulator for insulating a bundle of conductors formed of a plurality of insulated wires to form an armature coil provided in a slot of a rotor core or a stator core of an electrical rotating machine, wherein the coil insulator includes a mica layer including at least one of a peeled-off mica and a composite mica, a woven- or unwoven cloth including at least one of inorganic and organic materials, hexagonal crystal boron nitride particles having a graphitization index of 1.8 or more, and thermosetting polymer organic resin which integrally connects the mica layer and the hexagonal crystal boron nitride particles to each other, and the hexagonal crystal boron nitride particles is oriented in a longitudinal direction of the coil.
US07973231B2
The invention generally pertains to a hand-held computing device. More particularly, the invention pertains to a computing device that is capable of controlling the speed of the music so as to affect the mood and behavior of the user during an activity such as exercise. By way of example, the speed of the music can be controlled to match the pace of the activity (synching the speed of the music to the activity of the user) or alternatively it can be controlled to drive the pace of the activity (increasing or decreasing the speed of the music to encourage a greater or lower pace). One aspect of the invention relates to adjusting the tempo (or some other attribute) of the music being outputted from the computing device. By way of example, a songs tempo may be increased or decreased before or during playing. Another aspect of the invention relates to selecting music for outputting based on tempo (or some other attribute). For example, the computing device may only play songs having a particular tempo. Yet another aspect of the invention relates to both selecting music based on tempo and adjusting the tempo of the music.
US07973229B2
Comb (1) for a wind instrument, in particular a harmonica, comprising a plurality of cavities (2) forming channels, the comb (1) being constructed from a plurality of thin strips (3) glued together, which extend with a longitudinal dimension (4) along a width (5) of the comb (1) and are cut from bamboo and joined together so that the longitudinal dimension (4) of the thin strips (3) in each case follows the alignment of the grain orientation (6).
US07973217B2
The invention is directed to isolated promoters from stem-regulated, defense-inducible genes, such as OMT promoters. The promoters are useful in expression cassettes and expression vectors for the transformation of plants. Particularly, the invention provides transgenic plants of rice and sugarcane that have been modified such that expression of a heterologous coding sequence is directed by an OMT promoter and is limited to stem tissues or may be upregulated by the presence of a defense-inducing agent. The invention also discloses methods for producing the expression vectors and transgenic plants.
US07973212B2
This invention provides compositions including favorable alleles of marker loci associated with genetic elements contributing to superior agronomic performance. Also provided are markers for identifying favorable alleles of marker loci associated with genetic elements involved in superior agronomic performance, as well as methods employing the markers.
US07973204B2
We provide a process for making a base oil, comprising: a) selecting an olefin feed produced by thermal cracking of a waxy feed; b) oligomerizing the olefin feed in an ionic liquid oligomerization zone at a set of oligomerization conditions to form an oligomer; and c) alkylating the oligomer in the presence of an isoparaffin, in an ionic liquid alkylation zone, at a set of alkylation conditions to form an alkylated oligomeric product having a kinematic viscosity at 100° C. of 6.9 mm2/s or greater, a VI of at least 134, and a Bromine Number of less than 4. We provide a process to make base oil from an olefin feed produced in a FCC unit. We also provide a process to make two or more viscosity grades of base oil from an olefin feed produced by thermal cracking of a waxy feed.
US07973200B2
The invention relates to the use as perfuming ingredients of 8a-alkyl-perhydro-naphthalenol derivatives, to impart odor notes of the woody-earthy type.
US07973199B2
The present invention provides a technique for producing acetone in a high yield from hydrated ethanol derived from biomass, without requiring a large amount of energy. Hydrated ethanol derived from biomass is heated to a reaction temperature of 400° C. or higher in the presence of a Zr—Fe catalyst, thereby producing acetone. The reaction temperature is preferably from 450 to 550° C., and the Zr—Fe catalyst preferably contains 5 to 10% by mass of Zr. The present invention allows purification of hydrated acetone without requiring purification of the hydrated ethanol.
US07973186B1
Disclosed is a compound of the formula or a mixture thereof; wherein R and R′ are the same or different, and wherein R and R′ are independently selected from an alkyl group, an arylalkyl group, or an alkylaryl group, wherein the alkyl group, the arylalkyl group, or the alkylaryl group has from about 18 to about 60 carbon atoms; and wherein m is an integer of from about 1 to about 30.
US07973185B2
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a phenolic hydroxy-substituted compound of the general formula (I) by desalkylation of an alkyl aryl ether of the general formula (II) by treatment with a thiourea/aluminum chloride reagent pair, in said general formulae R1 stands for straight chain or branched C1-6 alkyl group; R2, R3 , R4 , R5, and R6 have the same or different meanings and stand for hydrogen or halogen atom, hydroxy, carboxy, nitro, oxo, C1-6 alkylcarbonyl, straight chain or branched alkyl or -alkoxy, or aryl group, or R2 and R3 together stand for a 5-7 membered ring or fused ring system; said 5-7 membered ring may be a partially saturated ring optionally substituted with an oxo group or can be an unsaturated ring; or said fused ring system may constitute with the first ring a steroid, preferably an estratriene derivative optionally substituted with an oxo or C1-6 alkylcarbonyloxy group in the 17 position.
US07973178B2
A process for making a compound of formula (I), which is useful as an intermediate to compounds which activate glucokinase, is described, (wherein P1, R1 and R2 are as defined in the description).
US07973177B2
The invention includes methods of processing an initial di-carbonyl compound by conversion to a cyclic compound. The cyclic compound is reacted with an alkylating agent to form a derivative having an alkylated ring nitrogen. The invention encompasses a method of producing an N-alkyl product. Ammonia content of a solution is adjusted to produce a ratio of ammonia to di-carboxylate compound of from about 1:1 to about 1.5:1. An alkylating agent is added and the initial compound is alkylated and cyclized. The invention includes methods of making N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP). Aqueous ammonia and succinate is introduced into a vessel and ammonia is adjusted to provide a ratio of ammonia to succinate of less than 2:1. A methylating agent is reacted with succinate at a temperature of from greater than 100° C. to about 400° C. to produce N-methyl succinimide which is purified and hydrogenated to form NMP.
US07973176B2
The present invention provides a process for producing a 3-aralkyloxypyrrolidine derivative which is important for production of pharmaceutical products and the like. In the present invention, a N-protected-3-hydroxypyrrolidine is converted into a N-protected-3-aralkyloxypyrrolidine by allowing an aralkyl halide to act in the presence of a base and at least one of a metal halide and a phase-transfer catalyst followed by deprotecting a N-protecting group to convert it to a 3-aralkyloxypyrrolidine derivative and subsequently treating the derivative in a solvent containing a polar solvent, thereby obtaining the 3-aralkyloxypyrrolidine derivative as a crystal. According to the present invention, a 3-aralkyloxypyrrolidine derivative of high purity can be produced conveniently and efficiently on an industrial scale.
US07973174B2
A process for making 3-aminopentanenitrile from a crude 2-pentenenitrile (“crude 2PN”) comprising 2-pentenenitrile, 2-methyl-2-butenenitrile, and 2-methyl-3-butenenitrile includes contacting the crude 2PN with an ammonia-containing fluid and water. The ammonia-containing fluid can include at least one reactant selected from the group consisting of ammonia, aqueous ammonia, and ammonium hydroxide.
US07973171B2
The invention relates to a process for the synthesis of dialkoxyorganoboranes, in particular to a process for the synthesis of dialkoxyorganoboranes by an ester exchange reaction. Moreover, the invention relates to a process for the synthesis of organo-oxazaborolidine catalysts (organo-CBS) and of trialkylboroxins. Furthermore, the invention relates to methods of using dialkoxyorganoboranes for the preparation of organo-CBS catalysts and in Suzuki-type coupling reactions.
US07973169B2
The present invention relates to modulators of ATP-Binding Cassette (“ABC”) transporters or fragments thereof, including CF Transmembrane Regulator (“CFTR”), compositions thereof, and methods therewith. The present invention also relates to methods of treating ABC transporter mediated diseases using such modulators.
US07973165B2
The present invention relates to process for the preparation of an imidazole derivative of formula I, wherein R1, R2, R3 and R4 are described hereinabove. These compounds can be used in the treatment or prevention of mGluR5 receptor mediated disorders. These compounds are useful, inter alia, in the treatment or prevention of acute and/or chronic neurological disorders such as psychosis, epilepsy, schizophrenia, Alzheimer' disease, cognitive disorders and memory deficits, as well as chronic and acute pain.
US07973155B2
The invention relates to a siRNA expression vector that can inhibit or eliminate the expression of a target gene in a mammalian cell, said vector comprising: a bacterial cassette containing a bacterial origin of replication and a bacterial selection marker M1; a eucaryotic cell selection cassette comprising a marker M2 for selecting eucaryotic cells under the control of an appropriate promoter; a cassette EBV comprising at least one fragment of the antigen EBNA-1, at least one fragment FR, and at least one fragment of the region DYAD; and a siRNA transcription cassette comprising at least one region coding for a siRNA corresponding to the target gene to be inhibited or eliminated, under the control of elements for regulating transcription in mammalian cells, said regulating elements including at least one promoter capable of transcribing a siRNA in mammalian cells, and a transcription terminator. The invention also relates to the applications of one such expression vector.
US07973143B2
Compositions, methods and kits for diagnosing and treating cancer are provided. Therapeutic compositions may comprise agents that modulate the expression or activity of a sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase (SPL). Such compositions may be administered to a mammal afflicted with cancer. Diagnostic methods and kits may employ an agent suitable for detecting alterations in endogenous SPL. Such methods and kits may be used to detect the presence of a cancer or to evaluate the prognosis of a known disease. SPL polypeptides, polynucleotides and antibodies are also provided.
US07973135B2
The invention provides molecules that target cancer-specific transcription complexes (CSTC), compositions and kits comprising CSTC-targeting molecules, and methods of using CSTC-targeting molecules for the treatment) detection and monitoring of cancer.
US07973132B2
This invention relates to methods and compositions for designing novel fluorescent proteins, preferably to a green fluorescent proteins (GFP). The engineered GFPs are modified by substituting negatively charged amino acids with positively charged amino acids on the exterior of the protein making the protein cell permeable. The ability of the engineered fluorescent proteins to permeate cells obviates the need for transfections, allowing these novel proteins to be used in numerous biological applications.
US07973118B2
Ink receiving particles is provided. The ink receiving particles includes polymer particles, the polymer particles including a resin including an acidic group and a polyoxyethylene chain, the acidic group at least partially having a salt structure.
US07973095B2
The invention relates to a process for the production of water-soluble or water-swellable polymers having a low content of residual monomers, particularly on the basis of acrylic acid and/or acrylamide and at least one additional water-soluble comonomer, in which process a monomer solution in a polymerizing state is treated with electromagnetic radiation at the earliest after reaching the maximum temperature of polymerization, and the gel obtained is subsequently crushed and dried, and it also relates to the water-soluble or water-swellable polymers as such, which can be obtained according to said process, to their use in the hygiene industry, packaging industry, in the agrarian technology or in agriculture and horticulture, in the cable industry and information technology, in the food industry, papermaking industry, and to their use as flocculation aids and as drilling fluid in petroleum production.
US07973089B2
The invention relates to a process for the extrusion of thermoplastic polymers having alkaline ionic groups.The process consists in preparing a mixture composed of a thermoplastic polymer having alkaline ionic groups and a plasticizer, in extruding the mixture obtained to form a film; then in washing the film obtained in aqueous medium to remove said plasticizer(s). The plasticizer is chosen from non-volatile compounds which are stable with respect to the ionic groups of the polymer, which are soluble in water or in solvents that are miscible with water, said plasticizers being chosen from the compounds that react with the ionic group of the polymer via formation of a weak bond of the hydrogen bond-type, and the compounds that react with the ionic group of the polymer via formation of a strong bond, of the ionic bond-type.
US07973088B2
The present invention provides a polymer electrolyte membrane with excellent proton conductivity in its thickness direction. Preferably, the polymer electrolyte membrane containing a polymer compound comprising an ionic segment having an ionic functional group and a nonionic segment having substantially no ionic functional group, and the phase containing ionic segments as a main component and the phase containing nonionic segments as a main component are phase-separated, and in the surface region thereof, the change in the amount of the ionic segment from the surface toward the interior substantially decreases monotonically.
US07973069B2
The present invention provides compounds, pharmaceutical compositions, and methods of using such compounds or compositions for treating infection by a virus, or for affecting viral IRES activity.
US07973067B2
Disclosed are compounds of the formula I or a stereoisomer, tautomer, or pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, wherein W is a bond, —C(═S)—, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(═O)—, —O—, —C(R6)(R7)—, —N(R5)— or —C(═N(R5))—; X is —O—, —N(R5)— or —C(R6)(R7)—; provided that when X is —O—, U is not —O—, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(═O)— or —C(═NR5)—; U is a bond, —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —C(O)—, —O—, —P(O)(OR15)—, —C(═NR5)—, —(C(R6)(R7))b— or —N(R5)—; wherein b is 1 or 2; provided that when W is —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—, U is not —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—; provided that when X is —N(R5)— and W is —S(O)—, —S(O)2—, —O—, or —N(R5)—, then U is not a bond; and R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and R7 are as defined in the specification; and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of formula I. Also disclosed is the method of inhibiting aspartyl protease, and in particular, the methods of treating cardiovascular diseases, cognitive and neurodegenerative diseases, and the methods of inhibiting of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, plasmepins, cathepsin D and protozoal enzymes.Also disclosed are methods of treating cognitive or neurodegenerative diseases using the compounds of formula I in combination with a cholinesterase inhibitor or a muscarinic m1 agonist or m2 antagonist.
US07973060B2
A compound which is effective for inhibiting Fab I, and a method for treating a bacterial infection.
US07973059B2
The present invention relates to compounds having the structure useful as potassium channel inhibitors to treat cardiac arrhythmias, and the like.
US07973051B2
Compounds of formula (I) as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof, wherein R1 to R3 have the significance given in claim 1 and which can be used in the form of pharmaceutical compositions.
US07973049B2
This disclosure relates to novel morphinan compounds and their derivatives, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates, and hydrates thereof. This disclosure also provides compositions comprising a compound of this disclosure and the use of such compositions in methods of treating diseases and conditions that are beneficially treated by administering a σ1 receptor agonist that also has NMDA antagonist activity.
US07973046B2
Allopurinol or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof can be used for the treatment or prevention of palmar plantar erythrodysesthesia induced by chemotherapy. The allopurinol or its salt may be administered topically to the affected areas, palms and soles, preferably in the form of a cream.
US07973028B2
The present invention relates to a pyrimidine compound of the formula (I): wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, halogen atom or C1-C4 alkyl; R2 represents C3-C7 alkynyloxy; R3 represents a hydrogen atom, halogen atom or C1-C3 alkyl; X represents C7 polymethylene, in which a CH2—CH2 may be replaced with a CH═CH, optionally substituted with at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of halogen atoms, trifluoromethyl and C1-C4 alkyls. This pyrimidine compound has an excellent activity of controlling pests.
US07973026B2
The present invention relates to tetracyclic thienopyrrole compounds of formula (I), wherein Ar, A, D1, D2, W, X, Y and Z are defined herein, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, pharmaceutical compositions comprising them, and their use for the treatment or prevention of infection by hepatitis C virus.
US07973024B2
The present invention provides novel sulfoximine compounds, compositions comprising these compounds and methods of using these compounds as inhibitors of CYP24. In particular, the compounds of the invention are useful for treating diseases which benefit from a modulation of the levels of 1α,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3, for example, cell-proliferative disorders.
US07973023B2
Novel synthetic oxidized lipids and methods utilizing oxidized lipids for treating and preventing an inflammation associated with an endogenous oxidized lipid are provided.
US07973019B1
The invention provides interfering RNA molecule-ligand conjugates useful as a delivery system for delivering interfering RNA molecules to a cell in vitro or in vivo. The conjugates comprise a ligand that can bind to a transferrin receptor (TfR). Therapeutic uses for the conjugates are also provided.
US07973011B2
Methods are provided for enhancing myelination. Myelination is enhanced by administration of agents that are inhibitors of γ-secretase. Methods of screening for pharmaceutically active compounds that enhance myelination, and for genes involved in myelination are also provided.
US07973006B2
The present invention relates to an antibacterial composition based on a combination of fatty acid ester of fatty acid and hydroxy carboxylic acid with an antibacterial agent selected from polylysine, protamine, their salts and mixtures hereof. The hydroxy carboxylic acid may be present as acid in its free form, in its salt form and/or in its ester form.The present invention further is directed to the use of said composition as antibacterial agent against gram-negative bacteria in various products, applications and methods. Furthermore, the present invention is related to products comprising said antibacterial agent.
US07973004B2
The present invention relates to aqueous formulations useful in useful in personal care, oral care, household and institutional applications which contain polymers comprised of water soluble synthetic backbone with covalently connected hydrophobic ends can deliver ‘salt-like’ rheology to surfactant formulations containing surfactant concentrations at which thickening by salt is not effective.
US07972998B2
A method and composition for crosslinking a polymer based fluid includes providing a dry blend of crosslinker and delay agent. The crosslinker and delay agent are mixed and granulated in a dry form prior to addition to the polymer fluid.
US07972993B2
The invention relates to the field of molecular recognition or detection of discontinuous or conformational binding sites or epitopes corresponding to a binding molecule, in particular, in relation to protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, nucleic acid-nucleic acid or biomolecule-ligand interactions. The invention provides a synthetic molecular library allowing testing for, identification, characterization or detection of a discontinuous binding site capable of interacting with a binding molecule, the library having been provided with a plurality of test entities, each test entity comprising at least one first segment spotted next to a second segment, each segment having the capacity of being a potential single part of a discontinuous binding site.
US07972988B2
Noble metal catalysts and methods for producing the catalysts are provided. The catalysts are useful in applications such as fuel cells. The catalysts exhibit reduced agglomeration of catalyst particles as compared to conventional noble metal catalysts.
US07972986B2
Fibrous structures that exhibit a pore volume distribution such that greater than about 40% of the total pore volume present in the fibrous structure exists in pores of radii of from about 121 μm to about 200 μm, and methods for making such fibrous structures are provided.
US07972981B2
A moisture vapor permeable, water impermeable composite sheet material is provided which is suitable for use as a housewrap material, and is also useful for other applications such as tarpaulins, or as covers for automobile, boats, patio furniture or the like. The composite sheet material includes a nonwoven substrate and an extrusion-coated polyolefin film layer overlying one surface of the substrate. The nonwoven substrate is comprised of polymeric fibers randomly disposed and bonded to one another to form a high tenacity nonwoven web. The nonwoven substrate has a grab tensile strength of at least 178 Newtons (40 pounds) in at least one of the machine direction (MD) or the cross-machine direction (CD). The extrusion coated polyolefin film layer is intimately bonded to the nonwoven substrate. The film layer has micropores formed therein to impart to the composite sheet material a moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR) of at least 35 g/m2/24 hr. at 50% relative humidity and 23° C. and a hydrostatic head of at least 55 cm. In one embodiment, the nonwoven substrate comprises a spunbonded nonwoven fabric formed of randomly disposed substantially continuous polypropylene filaments. The spunbonded nonwoven fabric is an area bonded fabric in which the filaments are bonded to one another throughout the fabric at locations where the randomly disposed filaments overlie or cross one another.
US07972980B2
A method of forming a conformal dielectric film having Si—N bonds on a semiconductor substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) includes: introducing a nitrogen- and hydrogen-containing reactive gas and a rare gas into a reaction space inside which a semiconductor substrate is placed; applying RF power to the reaction space; and introducing a hydrogen-containing silicon precursor as a first precursor and a hydrocarbon gas as a second precursor in pulses into the reaction space wherein a plasma is excited, thereby forming a conformal dielectric film doped with carbon and having Si—N bonds on the substrate.
US07972979B2
Provided is a substrate processing method comprising: loading a substrate, on which polysilazane is applied, into a substrate process chamber; maintaining an inside of the substrate process chamber, into which the substrate is loaded, in water vapor atmosphere and depressurization atmosphere at a temperature of 400° C.; performing a first heat treatment process on the substrate in a state where the inside of the substrate process chamber is maintained in the water vapor atmosphere and the depressurization atmosphere at the temperature of 400° C.; next, increasing an inner temperature of the substrate process chamber from the temperature of 400° C. in the first heat treatment process to a temperature ranging from 900° C. to 1000° C.; and performing a second heat treatment process on the substrate in a state where the inside of the substrate process chamber is maintained in water vapor atmosphere and depressurization atmosphere at the temperature ranging from 900° C. to 1000° C.
US07972973B2
The present invention provides a method for forming a silicon oxide film, with a substantially uniform film thickness and without being so influenced by dense sites and scattered sites in a pattern provided on an object to be processed, while keeping advantageous points of a plasma oxidation process performed under a lower-pressure and lower-oxygen-concentration condition. In this method, plasma of a processing gas is applied to a surface of the object having a concavo-convex pattern, in a processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus, so as to oxidize silicon on the surface of the object, thereby forming the silicon oxide film. The plasma is generated under the condition that a ratio of oxygen in the processing gas is within a range of 0.1% to 10% and pressure is within a range of 0.133 Pa to 133.3 Pa. This plasma oxidation process is performed, with a plate, having a plurality of through-holes formed therein, being provided between a region for generating the plasma in the processing chamber and the object to be processed.
US07972969B2
A method is provided for controlling substrate thickness. At least one etchant is dispensed from at least one dispenser to a plurality of different locations on a surface of a spinning substrate to perform etching. A thickness of the spinning substrate is monitored at the plurality of locations, so that the thickness of the substrate is monitored at each individual location while dispensing the etchant at that location. A respective amount of etching performed at each individual location is controlled, based on the respective monitored thickness at that location.
US07972968B2
A high density plasma dep/etch/dep method of depositing a dielectric film into a gap between adjacent raised structures on a substrate disposed in a substrate processing chamber. The method deposits a first portion of the dielectric film within the gap by forming a high density plasma from a first gaseous mixture flown into the process chamber, etches the deposited first portion of the dielectric film by flowing an etchant gas comprising CxFy, where a ratio of x to y is greater than or equal to 1:2 and then deposits a second portion of the dielectric film over the first portion by forming a high density plasma from a second gaseous mixture flown into the process chamber.
US07972958B2
Provided is a method of fabricating a semiconductor device including a dual silicide process. The method may include sequentially siliciding and stressing a first MOS region, and sequentially siliciding and stressing a second MOS region after siliciding and stressing the first MOS region, the second MOS region being a different type than the first MOS region.
US07972956B2
A wire structure of a semiconductor device capable of ensuring a process margin for bit line patterning in a 6F2 cell layout of a semiconductor device, and a method for manufacturing the same.
US07972954B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a semiconductor device having dielectric material and its method of manufacture. A manufacturing method comprises forming a layer of silicon over a substrate, forming an opening through the layer of silicon, filling the opening with a conductor; and anodically etching the layer of silicon so as to form porous silicon. Embodiments may further include passivating the porous silicon such as by treating its surface with an organometallic compound. Other embodiments of the invention provide a semiconductor device comprising a layer comprising functional devices; and an interconnect structure over the layer, wherein the interconnect structure comprises a porous silicon dielectric. In an embodiment of the invention, the interconnect structure comprises a dual damascene interconnect structure. Other embodiments may include a passivation step after the step of oxidizing the porous silicon.
US07972952B2
A compound semiconductor light-emitting device which includes an n-type semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer and a p-type semiconductor layer, that are made of a compound semiconductor, formed on a substrate, the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer are stacked so as to interpose the light-emitting layer therebetween, a first conductive transparent electrode and a second conductive electrode. The first conductive transparent electrode is made of an IZO film containing an In2O3 crystal having a bixbyite structure. Also discussed is a method of manufacturing the device.
US07972946B2
Provided are a plasma treatment method and a plasma treatment device capable of forming a silicon nitride film having high compressive stress. In the plasma treatment method for depositing the silicon nitride film on a process target substrate by use of plasma of raw material gas containing silicon and hydrogen and of nitrogen gas, ion energy for disconnecting nitrogen-hydrogen bonding representing a state of bonding between the hydrogen in the raw material gas and the nitrogen gas is applied to the process target substrate so as to reduce an amount of nitrogen-hydrogen bonding contained in the silicon nitride film.
US07972944B2
A process simulation method includes: converting condition data of plasma doping for introducing an impurity into a semiconductor in a plasma atmosphere to corresponding condition data of ion implantation for implanting impurities as an ion beam into the semiconductor; and calculating device structure data on the basis of the ion implantation condition data converted from the plasma doping condition data.
US07972940B2
Methods, devices, and systems for wafer processing are described herein. One method of wafer processing includes modifying a peripheral edge of a wafer to create a number of edge surfaces substantially perpendicular to a number of dicing paths and dicing the wafer along the number of dicing paths. In one or more embodiments, the method includes modifying the peripheral edge of the wafer with a first tool and dicing the wafer with a second tool different from the first tool.
US07972937B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a method by which bonding at a low temperature is possible and an amount of metal contaminants in an SOI film is decreased. An embodiment of the present invention is realized in the following manner. A single crystal silicon substrate 10 surface-activated by a plasma-treatment and a quartz substrate 20 are bonded together at a low temperature, to which an external impact is given to mechanically delaminate silicon film from a single crystal silicon bulk thereby obtaining a semiconductor substrate (SOI substrate) having a silicon film (SOI film) 12. Next, the SOI substrate is subjected to a heat-treatment at a temperature of 600° C. to 1250° C. so that metal impurities accidentally mixed into an interface of the SOI film and the quartz substrate and into the SOI film in such a step as a plasma-treatment are gettered to a surface region of the silicon film 12. Then, in the end, a surface layer (gettering layer) of the silicon film 12 of the SOI substrate after the heat-treatment is removed to finally prepare an SOI film 13 and a semiconductor substrate (SOI substrate) is obtained.
US07972936B1
A heterogeneous integrated circuit and method of making the same. An integrated circuit includes a surrogate substrate including a material selected from the group consisting of Group II, Group III, Group IV, Group V, and Group VI materials and their combinations; at least one active semiconductor device including a material combination selected from the group consisting of Group IV-IV, Group III-V and Group II-VI materials; and at least one transferred semiconductor device including a material combination selected from the group consisting of Group IV-IV, Group III-V and Group II-VI materials. The at least one active semiconductor device and the at least one transferred device are interconnected.
US07972926B2
Some embodiments include methods of forming memory. A series of photoresist features may be formed over a gate stack, and a placeholder may be formed at an end of said series. The placeholder may be spaced from the end of said series by a gap. A layer may be formed over and between the photoresist features, over the placeholder, and within said gap. The layer may be anisotropically etched into a plurality of first vertical structures along edges of the photoresist features, and into a second vertical structure along an edge of the placeholder. A mask may be formed over the second vertical structure. Subsequently, the first vertical structures may be used to pattern string gates while the mask is used to pattern a select gate. Some embodiments include methods of forming conductive runners, and some embodiments may include semiconductor constructions.
US07972923B2
A semiconductor device may include a tunnel insulating layer disposed on an active region of a substrate, field insulating patterns disposed in surface portions of the substrate to define the active region, each of the field insulating patterns having an upper recess formed at an upper surface portion thereof, a stacked structure disposed on the tunnel insulating layer, and impurity diffusion regions disposed at surface portions of the active region adjacent to the stacked structure.
US07972921B2
A method of manufacturing a self-aligned inverted T-shaped isolation structure. An integrated circuit isolation system including providing a substrate, forming a base insulator region in the substrate, growing the substrate to surround the base insulator region, and depositing an insulator column having a narrower width than the base insulator region on the base insulator region.
US07972917B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes: forming a LDMOS region, an offset drain MOS region, and a CMOS region; simultaneously forming a first well in the LDMOS region and the offset drain MOS region; simultaneously forming a second well in the first well of the LDMOS region and the CMOS region; and forming a second well in the CMOS region, wherein a depth of the first well is larger than a depth of the second well and the second well is a retrograde well formed by a high energy ion implantation method.
US07972904B2
A wafer level packaging method is revealed. Firstly, a wafer with a plurality of bumps disposed on a surface is provided. Placing a dielectric tape on a mold plate is followed. Then, the wafer is laminated with the mold plate to make the dielectric tape be compliantly bonded to the surface of the wafer and to make the bumps be embedded in the dielectric tape. After removing the mold plate, flattening the dielectric tape to form a plurality of exposed surfaces of the bumps wherein the exposed surfaces and the flattened surface of the dielectric tape are coplanar. Therefore, the exposed surfaces of the bumps can be regarded as effective alignment points for easy pattern recognition of the wafer level packaged wafers during singulation process.
US07972897B2
Resistive switching memory elements are provided that may contain electroless metal electrodes and metal oxides formed from electroless metal. The resistive switching memory elements may exhibit bistability and may be used in high-density multi-layer memory integrated circuits. Electroless conductive materials such as nickel-based materials may be selectively deposited on a conductor on a silicon wafer or other suitable substrate. The electroless conductive materials can be oxidized to form a metal oxide for a resistive switching memory element. Multiple layers of conductive materials can be deposited each of which has a different oxidation rate. The differential oxidization rates of the conductive layers can be exploited to ensure that metal oxide layers of desired thicknesses are formed during fabrication.
US07972893B2
A method for making a memory device includes providing a dielectric material, having first and second upwardly and inwardly tapering surfaces and a surface segment connecting the first and second surfaces. First and second electrodes are formed over the first and second surfaces. A memory element is formed over the surface segment to electrically connect the first and second electrodes.
US07972890B2
Example embodiments may provide methods of manufacturing an image sensor. Example methods of manufacturing an image sensor may include forming a photoelectric converter in a semiconductor substrate, forming an interlayer insulating film covering a surface of the semiconductor substrate, forming metal wires and an inter-metal insulating film filling between the metal wires on the interlayer insulating film, forming openings above the photoelectric converter by removing a part of the inter-metal insulating film and the interlayer insulating film, curing the surface above the photoelectric converter by irradiating light into the openings, and/or forming a light transmitter filling the openings.
US07972887B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a MEMS package, the method including: forming a MEMS device on a substrate; forming a sacrificing member on the MEMS device; forming a cavity formation film on the sacrificing member; forming a through hole in the cavity formation film at a portion other than above the MEMS device; removing the sacrificing member through the through hole, thereby forming a cavity around the MEMS device; and forming a seal layer on the cavity formation film to block the through hole and to seal the cavity, by performing a film forming process in which a seal layer material is straightly applied in a direction of perpendicular to a surface of the substrate.
US07972879B2
A laser and electroabsorption modulator (EAM) are monolithically integrated through an etched facet process. Epitaxial layers on a wafer include a first layer for a laser structure and a second layer for an EAM structure. Strong optical coupling between the laser and the EAM is realized by using two 45-degree turning mirrors to route light vertically from the laser waveguide to the EAM waveguide. A directional angled etch process is used to form the two angled facets.
