US07976166B2
An optical system for image projection is disclosed which is capable of improving contrast while suppressing reduction of light amount. The optical system includes a converging optical system, and a polarization beam splitting surface transmitting an incoming light flux having a first polarization direction from the converging optical system, to introduce it to the image-forming element and causing light having a second polarization direction, of an outgoing light flux from the image-forming element, to proceed to a projection optical system. In a first cross-section parallel to a normal to the polarization beam splitting surface, the converging optical system has a configuration causing an incident angle on the splitting surface of a light ray passing through a barycenter of intensity distribution of the outgoing light flux to be larger than an incident angle thereon of a light ray passing through a barycenter of intensity distribution of the incoming light flux.
US07976158B2
An ophthalmic eyeglass (1) is adapted for correcting both the foveal vision and the peripheral vision of a wearer. An image portion formed in the foveal zone of the wearer's retina is thus sharp, at the same time as another image portion is also sharp, which is formed on the retina away from the foveal zone, by light rays that are oblique to the line of sight of the wearer. To this purpose, the eyeglass comprises a central zone (10) and first (21) and second (22) regions that alternate in a peripheral zone (20) of said eyeglass. First parameters of the eyeglass in the central zone and in the first regions are adapted so as to correct the foveal vision of the wearer and second parameters of the eyeglass in the second regions are adapted for correcting the peripheral vision of said wearer.
US07976151B2
The recording sheet/ink sheet integral cassette includes a recording sheet containing portion constituted of a substantially rectangular frame member which has a first aperture for sheet feeding, pressurization and recording sheet loading, and a second aperture for feeding the recording sheet to a surface opposed to the first aperture, an ink sheet containing portion for containing an ink sheet to be fed, and an ink sheet winding portion for winding up the ink sheet fed from the ink sheet containing portion. The ink sheet winding portion is positioned along a side of the substantially rectangular shape, the second aperture is positioned on a side opposed to the side, and the ink sheet containing portion is provided along the second aperture, and a third aperture for feeding and driving the recording sheet is provided in an intermediate portion between the ink sheet containing portion and the ink sheet winding portion.
US07976148B2
To provide an active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition exhibiting excellent curing performance by including a water-soluble polymerizable substance with high reactivity and a water-soluble polymerization initiator having high initiation efficiency; and an inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus all using the active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition. The active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition includes at least water; a polymerizable substance which undergoes radical polymerization by active energy rays; and a polymerization initiator which generates radicals by active energy rays, in which the polymerizable substance is a water-soluble compound having 2 to 6 (meth)acrylic groups; and the polymerization initiator is a water-soluble acylphosphine oxide compound.
US07976146B2
An ink jet recording ink tank includes: an ink retention member, which to hold ink exerts a negative pressure through capillary force; and ink, which is retained in the ink retention member, for which a dynamic surface tension in a lifetime of 50 msec, obtained by a maximum bubble pressure method, is higher than an interfacial tension of the ink retention member, a dynamic surface tension in a lifetime of 5000 msec is lower than the interfacial tension of the ink retention member, and a difference between the dynamic surface tension in the lifetime of 50 msec and the dynamic surface tension in the lifetime of 5000 msec is equal to or greater than 8 mN/m.
US07976131B2
A printhead integrated circuit includes inkjet nozzle assemblies disposed on a substrate. Each nozzle assembly includes a nozzle chamber having a nozzle aperture and an actuator associated with the nozzle chamber. The actuator ejects an ink droplet from the nozzle aperture when a resistive element of the actuator is heated by an electrical current. The resistive element of the actuator is spaced apart from the substrate.
US07976129B2
A nozzle structure for an inkjet printer printhead includes an ink ejection port; a nozzle chamber in fluid communication with the ink ejection port and an ink supply channel of the inkjet printer printhead; and a cantilevered thermal actuator terminating in a free end over the ink supply channel. The thermal actuator includes a serpentine heater layer connected to a CMOS drive circuitry layer of the printhead. The thermal actuator is adapted to reciprocate towards and away from the ink ejection port in response to signals from the drive circuitry layer.
US07976121B2
A waste liquid collector is detachably mounted on a device including a discharge unit discharging a waste liquid and stores the waste liquid discharged from the discharge unit when the waste liquid collector is mounted on the device. The waste liquid collector includes: a waste liquid absorbing member which absorbs the waste liquid; and an opening through which the discharge unit is inserted or extracted mounting or detaching the waste liquid collector on or from the device in a state where the waste liquid absorbing member is received inside an inner space. The waste liquid absorbing member is provided with a contact portion which, when the discharge unit is inserted into the opening, comes in contact with the discharge unit so that the discharge unit is interposed therebetween in a direction perpendicular to insertion and extraction directions of the discharge unit.
US07976120B2
An image forming apparatus including a printing ink tank to contain a printing ink, a nozzle unit having a nozzle part to eject the printing ink and to move between a printing section and a cleaning section, a cleaning ink tank to contain a cleaning ink to clean the nozzle part, and a control part to control supply of the printing ink to the nozzle part when the nozzle unit is positioned in the printing section and to control supply of the cleaning ink to the nozzle part when the nozzle unit is positioned in the cleaning section. The Image forming apparatus may further include a cleaning ink collecting unit which collects the cleaning ink discharged from the nozzle part and returns the collected cleaning ink to the cleaning ink tank.
US07976114B1
A printer operable to print on a multi-layer print media includes a non-impact printhead, an impact printhead, and a controller operable to control the non-impact printhead to produce an image on a first layer of the print media and to control the impact printhead to produce a corresponding image on a second layer of the print media.
US07976101B2
An airplane seating apparatus includes a lifejacket container arranged, at least in open and closed states, exclusively on a side of a front boundary area that faces the seating apparatus. The front boundary area is formed by an area which runs through a seat front side perpendicularly to a seat mounting surface.
US07976097B2
A cowl structure including a cowl box having a partition panel joined to both rear and bottom walls thereof inside the cowl box. The partition panel constitutes, together with the rear and bottom walls, a hollow member portion extending in a vehicle width direction. An outside air introducing port is provided in the cowl box, for introducing outside air into the cowl box outside of the member portion. A communication port is provided in the partition panel, for allowing the inside and outside of the member portion to communicate with each other inside the cowl box. An air supplying port is provided in the rear wall at a location spaced upward from the bottom wall, for allowing the inside of the member portion and a vehicle compartment to communicate with each other. The communication port and the air supplying port overlap each other in the vehicle width direction.
US07976094B2
A locator pin aligns a glass panel during installation on a vehicle. The locator pin includes a base for affixing to the glass panel in a predetermined position prior to transporting it from a site where the glass panel is formed. A pin body has an elongated portion with a proximal end and a distal end defining a longitudinal axis. A hinge pivotally attaches the pin body to the base at the proximal end so that the pin body pivots between a shipping position wherein the longitudinal axis is substantially parallel to a surface of the glass panel and an alignment position wherein the longitudinal axis is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the glass panel. The folding pin allows glass panels to be stacked closer together in shipping racks when they are transported from the glass fabrication facility to a place of installation.
US07976092B2
A vehicle safety seat may comprise, among other things, a vehicle seat having a seat base configured to be mounted to a support surface of a motor vehicle, and a roll sensor mounted to the seat base. The vehicle seat may be a suspension seat. The vehicle seat may have other sensors, event detection systems or the like mounted thereto. The vehicle seat may include a number of vehicle/occupant safety mechanisms integral therewith.
US07976086B2
A safety locking device for a lifting hook comprising a lifting part and a hook part having a first and a second shank arranged in the same plane, the first shank being attached to the lifting part. The safety-locking device is pivotably attached to either of the shanks or the lifting part and comprises a spring means formed integrally with the safety locking device, one end of which is attached to the safety locking device diametrically opposed its fastening point to either shank or the lifting part and the other end is arranged to bear on the opposite shank or the lifting part, to which the safety locking device is pivotably attached to automatically bring the safety locking device to bear on the lifting part or the opposite shank so as to prevent unhooking of a hoisting cable or similar means introduced into the hook part.
US07976084B2
A light weight lifting tool (10) for lowering and retrieving subsea equipment to and from the sea bed is disclosed. The equipment includes an upper coupling part in the form of a connector spool piece (15) having at least one circumferential ring groove (16) for use in making engagement with the lifting tool (10). The lifting tool (10) includes a housing (1) designed to enclose and receive the connector spool piece (15). The lifting tool (10) further includes a number of latch segments (8) having at least one radially inwards directed projection (8′) designed for engagement with the at least one ring groove (16), and an activating device (6) arranged to bring the latch segments (8) in and out of engagement with the at least one ring groove (16) by operation of the activating device (6).
US07976083B2
An animal waste disposal system, comprising a collection bag having an open end and a closed bottom. A waste removal tool is attached to the closed bottom of the collection bag. The waste removal tool including opposing jaws, with each jaw terminating in a blade portion. The opposing jaws are movable from an open position where the opposing jaws are separated from one another to a closed position where the blade portion of one opposing jaw is in close proximity to the blade portion the other opposing jaw.
US07976080B1
A doorstop has a foot coupled to a lower end of a handle. The handle of the doorstop has a length that allows a user to insert the foot under a lower edge of a door and to remove the foot from under the lower edge without requiring the user to bend over. The handle is removable from the foot for easy storage and travel. The doorstop foot may include a button for attachment to a clip thereby enabling a user to carry the doorstop on a belt. The coupling between the foot and handle is releasably securable and may be mechanical or magnetic. The handle may also telescope between a contracted position and an extended position.
US07976071B2
A fluid connector assembly 10 for a fuel pipe of a motor vehicle comprises a plug 12 and a housing 11. The housing 11 has an end opening 23 and the plug 12 has a free end 26 for insertion through the end opening 23. The housing 11 also includes a seal housing portion 16 for receiving the free end 26 of the plug 12 and a coupling portion 17. The plug 12 includes first and second annular ribs 27, 28 spaced apart from each other and offset from the free end 26. The annular ribs 27, 28 are arranged to successively be held by a pair of grips 24 located inside the coupling portion when the plug 12 is inserted into the housing 11 in such a way that when the first annular rib 27 is retained by the grips 24 the plug 12 is sealed by seal means 18 in the seal housing portion 16 and when the second annular rib 28 is retained by the grips 24 the first annular rib 27 is housed between the coupling portion 17 and the seal housing portion 16.
US07976070B2
A moisture proof electrical connector assembly for securing an electrical metal tube or conduit to a connector body having opposed end portions and having a bore extending therethrough wherein an end portion includes a first linear length sized and shaped to receive a metal tube or conduit and a second linear length having a diverging inner surface provided with an intermediate shoulder for delineating the first length form the second linear length, and a complementary sealing gland for rendering the entire assembly moisture proof.
US07976067B2
Hydrogen leaking from a hydrogen cylinder has a lower specific gravity than air, thus rises in a cylinder housing space, and reaches a ventilating opening constituted by a group of slits formed in an upper surface of a roof cover. At this time, the ventilating opening is formed in a position above the hydrogen cylinder, and thus the leaking hydrogen can reach the ventilating opening in a short distance as compared with the case where the ventilating opening is formed in a position apart from the position above the hydrogen cylinder. The ventilating openings are provided in a plurality of locations, and thus the leaking hydrogen reaches the closest ventilating opening. The hydrogen gas reaches the ventilating opening, passes upward therethrough and flows outside.
US07976066B2
A seat belt pretensioner may include a cylinder, a piston slidably disposed in the cylinder, a gas generator installed to rear end portion of the cylinder and configured to supply a propellant gas to the piston for moving the piston in a forward direction, a first direction conversion unit disposed between the gas generator and the piston and connected to the cylinder, and a coupling member for coupling a seat belt and the piston, wherein a portion of the coupling member is engaged with the first direction conversion unit so as to change a movement direction of the coupling member while the piston moves in the forward direction, and a reward movement restriction member configured to restrict a rearward movement of the piston while the piston moves in the forward direction by the propellant gas of the gas generator.
US07976056B2
A fastener clip includes a body having an opening extending therethrough, and a rigid retaining pin inserted through the opening, the rigid retaining pin having a first end secured within the body and a second end disposed outside the body, the retaining pin configured to limit the movement of a vehicle trim piece with respect to the vehicle chassis when an airbag is deployed. The fastener clip also includes a plurality of molding gates formed at an intersection between the body and the rigid retaining pin, the rigid retaining pin being subsequently movable with respect to the body after the molding gates are broken. The fastener clip further includes a pair of flexible retention legs adapted to secure the fastener clip to a vehicle chassis and a pair of flexible retention legs adapted to secure the trim piece to a vehicle chassis.
US07976049B2
An assembly and positioning mechanism for wheelchair and auxiliary operating lever. The assembly and positioning mechanism has a swinging angular adjustment seat and a liftable pivoting seat of operating lever. The angular adjustment seat has an assembly side of locating rack and an assembly side of pivoting seat. The assembly side of locating rack is pivoted onto the locating rack via an adjuster, and the angular adjustment seat can swing rotarily. The pivoting seat of operating lever consists of a connecting side and a mating side of operating lever. The pivoting seat of operating lever can move vertically via a limiting portion. The mating side of operating lever is fitted with a limiting rabbet and a guide opening extended in an outward-dipping state. The mechanism can swing and also shift vertically, making it possible to control the guide opening of the mating side of operating lever for outward-dipping extension.
US07976044B2
A shock absorber is provided having an exterior that looks like a two-piece structure formed with an outer tube and a separate bracket without using the separate bracket. Also provided is a straddle type vehicle having a shock absorber and a manufacturing method for the shock absorber. The shock absorber comprises a cylindrical outer tube, wherein the outer tube includes a first cylindrical part, and a second cylindrical part having an outer surface roughness greater than the outer surface roughness of the first part. The first part and the second part are adjacent each other in a longitudinal direction of the outer tube, and the second part has an equipment attaching section adapted for attaching a piece of equipment.
US07976040B2
A system and process for controlling vehicle loading on a multi-axle vehicle and improving maneuverability is disclosed. The system includes a reservoir of pressurized air and associated leveling valve that uses a relay valve to improve refill times when the vehicle returns from a dump mode operation to normal operation. The process reduces pressure in one or more of the axles when maneuvering the vehicle at predetermined slow speeds and maintaining that first predetermined pressure while the other axle(s) is at a greater pressure than the first axle. By preventing complete exhaustion of pressure from the suspension system, restoring air pressure is attained more quickly. Also, use of a relay valve enables higher flow rates to improve the refill time of the pneumatic suspension system after the dump operation.
US07976038B2
A duplex trailing arm chassis support system has two longitudinal trailing arm members disposed on respective sides of the vehicle chassis and a structurally connecting cross member joining the two trailing arms to couple the movement of the two respective arms. Resilient cushioning members extend between each of the trailing arms and the underside of the vehicle chassis or between the connecting member and the vehicle chassis to provide resilient support to the vehicle chassis. Each trailing arm carries a wheel axle having wheels on both ends of the axle, each of the wheel axles being pivotally mounted to its respective trailing arm for rotational movement about the longitudinal axis of the trailing arm, allowing the axles to rock from side to side.
US07976037B2
Front vehicle body structure (10) includes a front sub frame (16) disposed under and fixedly connected to left and right side frames (11, 12), and a steering gear box (18) is mounted on the front sub frame to extend transversely along the width of the vehicle body. The body structure also has support portions (44, 45, 46) provided in left-right symmetrical arrangement on the front sub frame, and the steering gear box is mounted on the support portions via respective bushes.
US07976036B2
A steering knuckle for adapting a unit bearing front axle of a vehicle using original equipment manufacturer (OEM) spindle and wheel hub assembly parts to replace the unit-bearing wheel assembly, wherein the steering knuckle comprises a first side of the steering knuckle that is configured to receive one or more components of the OEM spindle and wheel hub assembly. The steering knuckle includes a boring for receiving a spindle hub on an OEM spindle, and one or more apertures circumferentially spaced around the boring and for alignment with holes on a spindle flange of the OEM spindle. Studs are inserted through the apertures of the steering knuckle for securing the OEM spindle to the steering knuckle. A second side of the steering knuckle is configured to be affixed in pivoting relationship to an axle housing of the vehicle wherein the axle housing is originally manufactured to be linked to a unit-bearing steering knuckle.
US07976029B2
A trailer having a frame movable between a raised position, suitable for towing of the airplane on a roadway, and a lowered position, allowing the airplane wheels to be in contact with a common surface with the trailer wheels when the trailer is under the airplane. A hitch assembly, suitable for towing the trailer in a closed position with the frame in the raised position, is coupled to the front of the frame. The open position allows the airplane to be loaded/unloaded on land from the front of the frame when the frame is in the lowered position. The airplane may be loaded/unloaded from the rear of the frame when the airplane trailer is placed in water. Also, a method of loading the airplane onto the trailer from the rear in water and unloading the airplane from the front on land.
US07976027B2
Sealing member seals a through-hole formed in a panel that defines first and second compartments of a vehicle, and it has a tubular section and stopper portions. The intercompartment sealing member is fit onto a receiving member provided in the first compartment. Lip section, extending from the tubular section toward the panel in a spread-out form, is bendable (reversible) with respect to the panel. The lip section has operating convexities provided on its panel-facing surface. Manipulation of the operating convexities can invert the lip section, initially bent away from the panel, to contact the panel. The stopper portions function to limit a bent amount through which the lip section can be bent away from the panel (in the reverse direction).
US07976017B2
A sheet-supply apparatus, including a sheet accommodating portion which includes a support portion that supports, on a support surface thereof, a plurality of cut sheets such that the cut sheets are stacked on each other; a sheet-supply roller which is adapted to supply the cut sheets accommodated in the sheet accommodating portion, one by one in a sheet-supply direction; a main side guide which is slidably movable on the support portion in a widthwise direction of the sheet accommodating portion perpendicular to the sheet-supply direction and which guides a side edge of each of the cut sheets accommodated in the sheet accommodating portion, the side edge being parallel to the sheet-supply direction; and a sub-side guide which is located inside of the main side guide in the widthwise direction and which is pivotable about a pivot axis between a standing position and a lying position based on the widthwise sliding movement of the main side guide.
US07976015B2
Provided is a feed device including: a loading unit in which a plurality of sheet members is loaded in a stacked state; a delivery member which performs a feed operation in a state in which a contact surface thereof is in contact with an uppermost sheet member of the sheet members loaded on the loading unit and delivers the sheet member in a feed direction using friction force with the uppermost sheet member as the feeding force; a gate member which is configured to move in a direction to and from the contact surface of the delivery member and has an inclined surface with which a front end of the sheet member delivered by the delivery member collides with; and a gate energizing member which energizes the gate member in a direction approaching to the contact surface of the delivery member.
US07976013B1
In paper feeder apparatus, the combination comprising first means including a support for a paper stack and transfer elements for successively transferring paper sheets from the top of the stack upwardly and laterally to a delivered position, and optical control means to determine the level of an upper paper or papers in the stack to control the vertical positioning of papers on the stack, to enable said upwardly and laterally sheet delivering as the stack height diminishes, and a controller for cyclically controlling said transfer elements to integrate cyclic upward and lateral movement of successive sheets transferring from the stack.
US07975994B2
A displacement element includes a first piston, a second piston, a cylindrical housing filled with a fluid under pressure, a piston rod, and a spring. Each of the pistons is adapted to the respective internal diameter of its section and divides the respective section into two pressure chambers. The first piston is arranged at one end of the piston rod, and both pistons each include means for damping the movement of the piston rod respectively in one direction. The second piston is arranged on the side of the first piston facing away from the piston rod and is capable of displacement by means of the first piston in a direction facing away from the open end. The spring is arranged on the side of the second piston facing away from the first piston, and supported by the second piston and the housing.
US07975992B2
A fuel feeder includes a fuel reserve body reserving a fuel, a fuel feed section feeding the fuel in the fuel reserve body to electric equipment, and a control section controlling the fuel feed section, wherein the control section obtains equipment information from by the electric equipment and operates the fuel feed section to feed the fuel after the control section has performed authentication of the electric equipment.
US07975991B2
Disclosed is a gas-liquid contact system. The system includes a vessel arranged approximately perpendicular to the ground in a longitudinal direction, a static fluid mixer in the vessel having a passage tube and a spiral blade provided in the passage tube, a gas supplier supplying gas having foreign substances to the static fluid mixer from a lower end of the vessel, a gas discharger discharging the gas passed through the static fluid mixer from an upper end of the vessel, a first liquid supplier supplying liquid to the static fluid mixer, and a liquid discharger discharging the liquid supplied from the first liquid supplier outside of the vessel. In the system, the gas supplier includes a gas generator generating gas, a pipe connecting the gas generator with the vessel, a blowing device provided in the pipe, and a second liquid supplier supplying liquid to the pipe between the gas generator and the blowing device.
US07975978B2
A releasable mounting apparatus for securely retaining of a cylindrical tank in an inverted vertical position adjacent to a seat back assembly of an emergency vehicle including a foot plate and a top clamping assembly between which a tank receiving zone is defined for receiving and holding of a cylindrical tank in the inverted position. The top clamping assembly can include a three part positioning apparatus including a rear positioning device and an upper centering guide as well as a top clamping member. Preferably the top clamping member is movable between a lower clamping position and an upper retaining position for facilitating securing and releasing of a cylindrical tank relative to the receiving zone thereof.
US07975975B2
An image display device includes a body for displaying an image, a position adjusting device at a rear of the body for adjusting a height, a left/right angle, and a forward/backward slope of the body, a base, a support having an upper end rotatably coupled to the position adjusting device and a lower end rotatably coupled to the base, and a seating recess in an upper surface of the base for folding and placing the support therein, thereby permitting adjustment of the height, the left/right angle, and the forward/backward slope of the body.
US07975959B2
A method for transferring airplanes and an unmanned airplane transfer system. The airplane transferring system includes: receiving a transfer signal responsive of a movement of an airplane control component; and transferring an airplane, by an unmanned airplane transfer system, in response to the transfer signal.
US07975952B2
A winding station for winding textile yarn onto empty tubes is disclosed. The winding station includes a winding mechanism (1) with two flanges (2) for gripping the ends of the tube (8). Each flange is mounted on a pivoted winding arm (6). These arms position the empty tube (8) in contact with a driving roller (14) so that the longitudinal axis of the empty tube (8) is above the longitudinal axis of the driving roller (14). A stationary, linear magazine (4) with a filling end (5) and a feeding end (7) is included. The filling end (5) and the feeding end (7) of the magazine (4) are inclined at angle, alpha, of less than or equal to 45°, to the driving roller (14). A lifting mechanism (11) includes a pivoted arm (9) terminating in a tube carrier (10). The tube carrier (10) is configured to bring an empty tube from the feeding end (7) of the magazine (4) to a space between the flanges (2) by an arc movement of the arm (9). A winding assembly and method are also disclosed.
US07975949B2
A hammer assembly for attachment to a rotor of a rotary material crusher. The hammer assembly has an adaptor, having a base portion and a hammer mounting portion, with the base portion being attachable to the rotor at the periphery portion and a hammer, having at least one impact portion, for crushing material, and a mounting portion for engagement with the hammer mounting portion of the adaptor. The hammer mounting portion of the adaptor includes bearing surfaces facing a direction of impact when crushing material, and the mounting portion of the hammer includes bearing surfaces for mating with the bearing surfaces of the hammer mounting portion of the adaptor. The hammer assembly further includes a retainer rod, and at least one retainer pin. The hammer is attached to the adaptor and the retainer rod passes through apertures of the adaptor and apertures of each retainer pin in the direction of the longitudinal axes of the hammer and the adaptor. The size of the retainer rod, the size of the apertures of the adaptor and the size of the aperture of each retainer pin are selected such that the hammer is free to move to enable the bearing surfaces of the hammer to bear on the bearing surfaces of the adaptor and transfer impact forces when impact forces from crushing material are applied, with the retainer rod being free from any of the impact forces.
US07975943B1
An apparatus for grinding pills having a chamber with an abrasive floor and a plurality of blades which will grind pills against the floor. The blades can be electrically or mechanically operated. The floor has a portion open to a lower chamber and which allows the powder to fall into the lower chamber for retrieval. In addition, an implement having a brush on one end and a spoon on the other is included to help remove the powder from the chambers.
US07975931B2
System (10) for remotely controlling and monitoring a food refrigerator (1), and its content, of the type intended to be given in rental or in free loan from a manufacturer to a vendor of cold products, comprising a control unit (2) for checking and storing a plurality of functioning parameters of the food refrigerator (1), an RFID reader (3) intended to read data stored in a plurality of RFID tags attached to the cold products, a communication unit (4) for interconnecting an external device, the RFID reader (3) comprising means for retrieving data from said RFID tags when the cold products are still stocked inside the food refrigerator (1) and the communication unit (4) localization means for transmitting information to the external device about a geographical localization of the food refrigerator (1). System (10) according to claim 1 wherein said means produce a radio frequency signal at predetermined time intervals for activating said RFID tags. The data stored in said RFID tag comprises a unique identification number. The communication unit (4) is a GSM/GPRS unit. The external devices might be a second food refrigerator, residing in a same local area network (LAN). The external device is a remote server (5) located outside the local area network (LAN) equipped with a management information system.
US07975919B2
A method of enabling a voter to vote by mail by using a secret vote code (SVC) that includes translating the SVC into a one-time code (OTC) valid only for the election, storing the OTC, and mailing to the voter a ballot, a return envelope, and a mechanism for enabling the SVC to be translated into a translated format. Further, the method includes receiving the return envelope from the voter that includes a completed ballot, the voter's signature, and the translated format, determining whether the signature obtained from the envelope matches a stored signature for the voter, obtaining a second one-time code based on the translated format and determining whether the second one-time code matches the stored one-time code. The ballot is counted only if it is determined that: (i) the signatures match, and (ii) the second one-time code matches the stored one-time code.
US07975917B2
A method includes electronically identifying a first item that a customer intends to purchase while the customer is shopping and electronically providing content to the customer in response to the identifying to entice the customer to purchase a second, different item.
US07975915B2
The invention concerns a USB-key type electronic device (73) comprising an electronic circuit mounted on a support (60), a gripping element showing a graphic print and/or customization (p), a protective case (70) arranged at the element so as to cause the graphic print and/or customization to be visible through the case. The invention is characterized in that the graphic print and/or customization is produced on the support (60) bearing the electronic circuit, and in that the case covers directly said support (60). The invention also concerns a method including the following steps: producing an electronic circuit support in the form of a printed smart card with contacts in conformity with the USB standard, producing a graphic customization on a support surface, protecting said graphic customization with a transparent protective shell.
US07975913B2
This invention is related to a discernment card which is resistant to bending and high heat, and capable of preventing unauthorized copying of recorded identity information leakage of personal information and deletion of identity information, and to a discernment card business system for preventing unauthorized use of identity information. The discernment card (1) comprises a card main body (10) integrally formed by a high strength alloy and at least one identity information recording portion (20) comprising specific identity information inscribed on the card main body, wherein plural cells (30) are inscribed at predetermined positions of identity information recording portion of the card main body and specific identity information of the identity information recording portion is specified by one or more of inscribed depth, inscribed width and inscribed shape of the cells. The discernment card can be used in the discernment card business system to accomplish a transaction such as an Automated-Teller-Machine (ATM) or a social security-related transaction.
US07975907B2
An information processing terminal is disclosed that is allowed to carry out contactless data transmission or reception with a reading or writing device by use of a magnetic field. The information processing terminal includes a data transmitter or receiver, a signal processor, and a load modulator. The data transmitter or receiver is configured to generate an induced voltage from a magnetic field generated from the reading or writing device at the time of data reception, and send a transmission signal to the read/write reading or writing device at the time of data transmission. The signal processor is configured to generate a response signal based on the induced voltage. The load modulator controls a variable resistance based on the induced voltage and carries out load modulation relating to the transmission signal based on the response signal and the variable resistance.
US07975899B2
A work clamp and a wire bonding apparatus that can sufficiently restrain oxidation of a bonding area even while reducing an amount of antioxidant gas that is used are provided. The work clamp includes an interior hollow portion 10 providing an atmosphere of the antioxidant gas, a lower opening portion 11a provided below the interior hollow portion, for containing the bonding area in the interior hollow portion, an upper opening portion 11 provided above the interior hollow portion, for exposing the bonding area, a cavity 13 covering the interior hollow portion and having an area larger than an opening area of the upper opening portion, gas introduction ports 14a, 14b provided at the cavity, for introducing the antioxidant gas into the cavity, and holes 21 connected to below the cavity, for blowing the antioxidant gas introduced from the gas introduction port to a portion other than the bonding area of the work.
US07975894B2
Embodiments include a surgical device and a method. An embodiment of the surgical instrument includes at least one grasping jaw, the at least one grasping jaw being adapted to deliver surgical fasteners by a force generated from a force generator mechanism that is contained within the at least one grasping jaw or is in a proximity to the at least one grasping jaw. Another embodiment includes at least one grasping jaw, at least one actuation mechanism adapted to deliver surgical fasteners, the actuation mechanism being located in a proximity to or contained within the at least one grasping jaw, the surgical fasteners containing at least one shape-transforming material, at least one sensor, at least one chemical tissue sealant and at least one cutter. A method includes: grasping a body tissue with at least one grasping jaw, adjusting a configuration of the grasping in response to a signal or a datum or an image, and releasing a surgical staple or fastener in response to the signal, datum or image.
US07975882B2
A dispenser of a product in powder from, composed of: a case delimiting a housing; a reservoir removably installed in the housing, the reservoir being adapted to contain the product in powder form and having a dispensing orifice; and a device for obturating the dispensing orifice. The device has a blocking member in the form of a shutter mounted to the reservoir for movement between a position for closing the dispensing orifice and a position for opening the dispensing orifice. The housing, the reservoir and the device are constructed to enable the reservoir to be installed in the housing by a vertical linear movement and to cause automatic movement of the shutter from the position for closing to the position for opening in response to the vertical linear movement of the reservoir into the housing.
US07975878B2
A fuel dispensing unit for refueling vehicles includes a first nozzle holder for holding a first fuel dispensing nozzle, and a second nozzle holder for holding a second fuel dispensing nozzle. Both nozzle holders are arranged on a common side of the fuel dispensing unit. The first nozzle holder is configured to project, in a direction away from the side of the fuel dispensing unit, at least a part of the first fuel dispensing nozzle in relation to a corresponding part of the second fuel dispensing nozzle.
US07975874B2
A cooking vessel bracket and handle provides a first handle portion and a second handle portion each having opposing end portions, parallel spaced apart sides and a back defining a channel between the ends. First handle has handle flanges at first end portion and locking seat at second end portion. Second end portion of first handle and first end portion of second handle are pivotally interconnected for first handle to optionally fold into channel of second handle. Spring biased locking pin within channel of first handle protrudes from first handle between the handle flanges for releasable engagement with pot bracket carried by vessel and operatively communicates with a thumb slide for axial movement in channel. Spring biased handle lock in second handle channel releasably engages with locking seat of first handle to secure the first handle and second handle in extended end to end alignment for use.
US07975870B2
A ring seal includes a body portion and a tail portion extending from the body portion. The body portion has, when viewed in cross-section and in an uncompressed state, an axially outboard surface and an axially inboard surface. The outboard surface defines a first sealing lobe, and the inboard surface defines a second sealing lobe that shares an axial centerline with the first sealing lobe.
US07975865B2
Embodiments provide a cargo basket including a frame, the frame including a base, the base including a pair of elongated first and second lower side members, the base including a pair of elongated first and second lower end members, the frame including a floor supported by the base, the frame including four corner posts extending from the base at respective of the four base corners, the frame including an elongated primary side wall supported by the base, the frame including a spaced pair of first and second end walls supported by the base, the frame including a spaced pair of first and second terminal side walls supported by the base, an access portal defined between the pair of terminal side posts, and a pair of gates supported for pivotal movement relative to respective of the terminal side posts.
US07975852B2
Centrifugal device (1) of the rotating bowl type for supplying preforms (2b), which are horizontally-laid and aligned, from preforms (2a) received in bulk, comprising a rotating transport ring (3) delimited by a lateral guide (12) and a central rotary disc (6) in the same direction as the ring and with an axis (8) inclined relative to that of the ring; a mobile member (15) mounted on the lateral guide occupies, as a result of the actuating means (18), an operational position in which the preforms (2c) are forced to leave the ring; detection means (19) upstream of the mobile member detect an undesirable preform (2c) on the ring and control actuating means for bringing the mobile member into its operational position for the ejection of the undesirable preform.
US07975841B2
A flexible carrier for carrying a plurality of containers includes a flexible sheet and a plurality of container receiving apertures formed in the flexible sheet wherein the plurality of container receiving apertures are formed in a staggered array wherein each row within the array includes a different number, offset and/or geometry of container receiving apertures from each adjacent row.
US07975839B1
The present invention is related to interlockers or beadings that are attached to the outer edges of conveyor belts. Interlockers and/or beadings or portions thereof are reinforced with aramid fibers to improve their durability.
US07975836B2
A horizontal conveyor for transporting bulk materials, in particular of containers for food, has at least one conveyor belt encompassing at least one assembly surface for the material to be conveyed. There is at least one sliding part, which is moveably guided parallel to the conveying direction thereof, be arranged below the assembly surface of the conveyor belt. At least one drive is assigned to the sliding part for its positively driven motion. There is at least one height-adjustable actuator for the material to be conveyed, arranged on the sliding part. The actuator is capable of being brought into an entrainment position, that projects into the plane of the assembly surface by means of a lifting device. A discontinuous conveyance of materials is possible in a simple manner with this horizontal conveyor.
US07975826B2
A stacker is composed of a bottom plate, a containing section for storing a plurality of cards by stacking it on the bottom plate and a guiding section for guiding each card entering into the containing section. The guiding section is composed of a sidewall for restricting movement of an entering card when entering into the stacker in a first moving direction and a slanted section for slanting the card against the first moving direction. The slanted card moves in a second moving direction intersecting with the first moving direction at approximately a right angle by the gravitational force.
US07975811B2
A rail clamp comprises a frame and a pair of levers. Each of the levers has a brake pad at a first end thereof, a cam follower at second end thereof, and is mounted to the frame by a pivot disposed between said first and second ends. A cam is disposed between the levers and a spring biases the cam in a first direction. A clamp release actuator is operable to displace the cam in a second direction. The second direction is opposite to the first direction. A pair of variably sloped cam surfaces are disposed on opposite sides of the cam. Each of the variably sloped cam surfaces is in contact with the cam follower of a corresponding one of the levers, and each of the variably sloped cam surfaces has a slope which varies to counteract variations in a spring force of the spring as the cam is displaced, thereby maintaining a constant clamping force.
US07975805B2
A system for lubricating a lubrication target located within a refrigerated atmosphere. The system includes a lubricant source, a pressurized air source, and at least one pneumatically-activated pump in connection with the lubricant and air sources. The pump output is connected to a conduit that terminates at a spray nozzle for delivering the lubricant to the target in a controlled fashion. Pressurized air may be used to better control the lubricant delivery. The temperature of the lubricant and air flowing through the conduits is regulated so that the fluids will flow predictably at very cold temperatures.
US07975787B2
An attachment system to fasten a power system to a frame of a loader is discussed. The frame has a proximal end, a distal end, and first and second opposing sides. The power system has an engine, and an arrangement of one or more hydraulic pumps attached to the engine. The attachment system has first and second connection points positioned in close proximity to a center of gravity of the power system relative to the direction between the proximal and distal ends of the loader. The attachment system also has a third connection point positioned distally from the first and second connection points, wherein the positions of the first, second and third connection points connect the power system to the frame to allow most of the weight of the power system to be loaded onto the first and second connection points.
US07975784B2
A drill bit assembly for fluid-operated percussion drill tools. The assembly comprises a percussion bit (1) having a head portion (3) formed with an axially extending stub shank (32). A drive bush (2) is releasably connectable to the bit head portion (3). Axially extending splines (35) on the drive bush (2) are slideably engageable with complementary splines (36) formed on a drive chuck (4) whereby rotational drive from the chuck (4) may be transmitted to the drive bush (2). The assembly further comprises engagement means on the chuck (4) adapted for connecting the chuck (4) to a drive means (5) of the fluid-operated percussion drill tool.
US07975781B2
A kelly driver has a top ring and a plurality of split bushings. The a top ring has a top surface, a bottom surface, a drive lug extending from the bottom surface, and a central passage extending through the top and bottom surfaces. The drive lug has a notch within an end face thereof. A first one of the split bushings has a drive lug extending outwardly from a side surface thereof. Adjacent pairs of the split bushings have end portions thereof pivotably connected to each other through a respective hinge structure. Each hinge structure includes a respective connection pin about which adjacent pair of the split bushings are pivotably connected. An upper surface of each one of the split bushings is engaged with the bottom surface of the top ring with the drive lug of the first one of the split bushings positioned within the drive lug of the top ring.
US07975780B2
The present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling downhole motors and drilling systems incorporating such systems and methods. One aspect of the invention provides a downhole drilling system including: a downhole motor, a transmission coupled to the downhole motor, and a drill bit coupled to the transmission. Another aspect of the invention provides a method of drilling a borehole in a subsurface formation including the steps of: providing a drill string including a downhole motor, a transmission coupled to the downhole motor, and a drill bit coupled to the transmission; and rotating the drill string while flowing a fluid through the drill string to the downhole motor, thereby powering the downhole motor, thereby rotating the transmission and the drill bit.
US07975772B2
A method of coupling a first control line to a second control line is provided comprising the steps of prepping the first and second control lines to respectively produce a first end and a second end. Prepping may comprise inserting a plug assembly into at least one of the first or second ends prior to facing the end containing the plug assembly. The method may further include butt-welding the first end to the second end to form a splice and providing a protective assembly to cover the splice. The plug assembly may comprise a plug member, a seal, and an end piece to couple the seal to the plug member, in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the plug assembly may comprise a plug member and a seal coupled to the plug member.
US07975769B2
The invention relates to a hydrocarbon exploration system, comprising a first vessel (1) having a turret (3) around which the vessel can weathervane, the turret being moored to the sea bed (4), and a second vessel (7) connected with at least one riser (12) to a subsea well (5), the first vessel (1) being connected to the second vessel via a fluid transfer duct (20) comprising a first end section (23) attached to the turret of the first vessel (1), a substantially horizontal mid section (24), and a second end section (22) attached at or near the second vessel (7), the second vessel (7) weighing between 2,000 and 15,000 ton its base being attached to the sea bed via taut tendons (9), the weight exerted by the fluid transfer duct (20) on the second vessel being below 1,000 ton, a power generator being situated on the first vessel (1), power being transferred from the power generator via an electrical swivel on the first vessel.
US07975767B2
Apparatus for controlling a downhole device such as a choke, the apparatus comprising a housing, a mandrel connected to the downhole device and moveable within the housing to move the device between different positions, and a detent mechanism to selectively lock the mandrel in one of the positions within the housing. The first and second positions are typically defined by physical stops on the apparatus such as shoulders, or dogs and grooves etc, and are typically placed at set positions that define the different configurations of the device. Thus, the movement of the downhole device is governed by the detent mechanism, rather than by variable factors such as pressure changes.
US07975763B2
A process for utilizing microwaves to heat H2O within a subterranean region wherein the heated H2O contacts heavy oil in the subterranean region to lower the viscosity of the heavy oil and improve production of the heavy oil.
US07975759B2
Temperature control method, temperature control apparatus and high/low temperature processing system
A temperature control apparatus that controls a temperature of a target object by a heat exchange between a temperature control liquid and the target object. The apparatus includes a pressurizing unit that pressurizes the temperature control liquid to increase a boiling point thereof; a heating unit that increases a temperature of the temperature control liquid to become higher than or equal to a boiling point of the temperature control liquid observed at a normal pressure; and a heat exchanging unit that exchanges heat between the target object and the temperature control liquid whose temperature has been increased to become higher than or equal to the boiling point of the temperature control liquid observed at the normal pressure.
US07975758B2
The present invention relates to a condenser tubes cleaning system for alleviating the common disadvantage of the prior arts includes a flow diverter, a first branch pipe, a second branch pipe, a three-way valve, a first one-way valve, a bypass pipe, a ball barrel, a liquid supply pipe, a cleaning ball supply pipe, a cleaning ball return pipe, a liquid return pipe, a second one-way valve, a normally open two-way valve, and a ball trap. Thus, the flow diverter is provided with the three-way valve, and the ball trap is provided with the normally open two-way valve, so that the flow diverter and the ball trap have a bypass function that the prior arts do not have, to maintain the constant flow rate in the main supply pipe and the main return pipe without increasing the electrical power load of the main circulating pump.
US07975755B2
A method of producing thin cast strip by continuous casting having a two-piece side dam assembly. The side dam assembly includes a side dam having an upper portion positioned adjacent to a lower portion. The upper and lower side dam portions each have opposite outer surfaces, one surface capable of contacting molten metal and the opposite outer surface having at least one fastening portion capable of attaching the side dam portions to a corresponding side dam holder, in order to hold the side dam portions in place during casting without exposed portions of the side dam holders extending substantially beyond the opposite outer surfaces toward the outer surfaces capable of contacting molten metal, and without the side dam holders preventing the upper side dam portion from being properly positioned adjacent to the lower side dam portion.
US07975753B2
Method for controlling a flow of molten steel in a mould by applying at least one magnetic field to the molten steel in a continuous slab casting machine. Controlling a molten steel flow velocity on a molten steel bath surface to a predetermined molten steel flow velocity by applying a static magnetic field to impart a stabilizing and braking force to a discharge flow from an immersion nozzle when the molten steel flow velocity on the meniscus is higher than a mould powder entrainment critical flow velocity. Controlling the molten steel flow velocity on the meniscus to a range of from an inclusion adherence critical flow velocity or more to a mould powder entrainment critical flow velocity or less by applying a shifting magnetic field to increase the molten steel flow when the molten steel flow velocity on the meniscus is lower than the inclusion-adherence critical flow velocity.
US07975741B2
A sidewall rubber disposed outside of a carcass layer, reinforcing a portion between beads, in a widthwise direction of the tire is configured from a wide rubber ribbon having a width of 20 to 100 mm wound spirally along a circumferential direction of the tire outward of the tire such that the rubber ribbon is deviated radially outward of the tire.
US07975740B2
To reduce road noise in running by disposing a noise damper made of a spongy material in a cavity of a tire, a tire and rim assembly is provided. The tire and rim assembly 1 including a rim 2, a pneumatic tire 3 attached to the rim 2, and a noise damper 4 made of a spongy material which is disposed in a tire cavity “i” surrounded by the rim 2 and the pneumatic tire 3 and extends in the tire circumferential direction, wherein the noise damper 4 has a volume of 0.4 to 20% of the whole volume of the tire cavity “i” and is fixed to an inner surface 2i or 3i of the tire or rim, the noise damper 4 has a height of 30 mm or less from the inner surface, and the spongy material of the noise damper 4 has a hardness of 10 to 250 N, a tensile strength of 70 kPa or more and a specific gravity of 0.014 to 0.052.
US07975734B2
A lighted funnel, particularly a lighted funnel used to fill the fuel reservoir of an automobile, comprises (a) a funnel, (b) a handle, and (c) a means of automatically illuminating the funnel, such as a micro switch that is closed by the gravitational force on a weight. When the funnel is oriented in the upright position, the illumination means automatically lights the funnel and indicates to the user that the funnel is in a substantially level position. When the funnel is oriented in the downward position, the illumination means is automatically switched off.
US07975729B2
An in-structure air delivery system comprises a control panel and a plurality of air delivery lines. The control panel is located at a first location in the structure and has an air supply inlet. Each air delivery line extends from the control panel to a different location in the structure. Valves are configured to selectively control the flow of air through each of the air delivery lines. In a method of use, a high pressure air supply such as a portable compressor is connected to the inlet of the system. Air is selectively delivered to one or more of the delivery lines. A control unit is connected to the outlet of the delivery line. Air is supplied to the control unit. The control unit is used to regulate the flow of air to a component of breathing equipment, such as to a firefighter's breathing equipment air cylinder to be re-filled.
US07975728B2
A composite strip 10 windable to form a helical pipe for transporting fluid is disclosed. The composite strip comprises: an elongate plastic strip 11 having a base portion 12, the base portion 12 having an upper side defining an outer face 15; and at least one lengthwise extending composite rib portion 20 upstanding from the outer face 15 of the base portion 12. The rib portion 20 has a distal end 23 remote from the base portion 12. The composite rib portion comprises: an elongate inboard reinforcing member 30 disposed within or adjacent to the base portion 12; an elongate outboard reinforcing 40 member disposed within the distal end 20 of the rib portion 20 parallel to the inboard reinforcing member 30; and an elongate intermediate plastic web 23 portion extending between the inboard and outboard reinforcing members 30, 40. When wound into a helical pipe, the composite rib portion 20 reinforces the pipe against radial crushing loads.
US07975722B2
A positive pressure one way medical valve contains an inlet (10), outlet (11), an internal flow path between the inlet and the outlet and a plunger (12) movable between a retraced sealing position, where backflow is reduced or prevented and an extended open position, where fluid can flow from the inlet to the outlet. The plunger is moved from the retraced to the extended position by insertion of a tip onto the inlet (10). A variable volume chamber (23) is defined partially by an elastomeric member (14) that is stretched, when plunger is in the extended position and reduced, when the plunger is in the retraced position so to increase or decrease the volume of the chamber respectively. A valve (50), which is movable between open and closed positions by the presence or absence of fluid passing through the inlet, immediately seals the flow pathway before the plunger is retraced.
US07975720B2
A ball valve cartridge is disclosed. It is especially well suited for freezeless hydrant applications and any other application where it is positioned remotely from a handle or other actuating element. The cartridge contains a ball valve element and an internal stem with a key for rotating the ball valve element between open and closed positions. The stem has rotational stop elements that limit rotational movement of the stem and the ball valve element. In a yard hydrant application, a drain valve can be added to regulate the opening and closing of the drain hole. It has an operational range of a quarter turn or ninety degrees.
US07975716B1
A puck retaining recess in a plunger of a solenoid valve is formed with a puck retaining lip that is fixed or unified with the plunger. The puck is then radially compressed to fit through a central opening of the retainer lip, and once the puck is pushed past the retainer lip, it is allowed to radially expand within the recess where the puck is retained between a bottom of the recess and the retainer lip. This eliminates many problems that previously occurred with separable retainer lips pressed into position to hold a puck after its insertion into a plunger recess.
US07975697B2
Systems and methods of visibly marking a reproductive tract, e.g., at least one ostium of the Fallopian tubes accessed transvaginally and transcervically, to indicate delivery of an occlusion device into the corresponding at least one Fallopian tube to effect contraception are disclosed. Marking is effected by delivery of a dye that stains the ostium and/or extension of the marking member from the delivered occlusion device into view in the uterine cavity or ostium. A catheter (or catheters) preferably introduced through a hysteroscope that illuminates and provides visualization of the uterine cavity and the ostia of the Fallopian tubes is employed to insert each contracted, stent-like, occluding device into each Fallopian tube and to mechanically expand or release to self-expand the occluding device.
US07975695B2
An improved Guedel Oral Airway for providing an air passage to a patients trachea. The oral airway includes a tubular member which is generally elliptical in cross section and having a straight section and a curved section with the tubular member having a curved lower wall member extending from the center of the bottom wall portion of the tubular member outwardly and away from the tubular member. The cross-section of the lower wall member is generally an inverted V-shape in cross-section with the side edges thereof being positioned outwardly of the end wall portions of the tubular member.
US07975693B2
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, an adjustable gas delivery system is provided. The system may include a face mask, an arm apparatus, and a gasket. The face mask may be configured to deliver gas to a subject, and may include a flexible cushion portion configured to interface with the subject's face and a rigid base portion configured to support the cushion portion, the rigid base portion including a gas inlet. The arm apparatus may be configured to deliver gas to the face mask. The arm apparatus may include a gas outlet having a cross-sectional area smaller than a cross-sectional area of the gas inlet of the base portion of the face mask. The gasket may couple the gas outlet of the arm apparatus with the gas inlet of the face mask. The gasket may be flexible such that the orientation of the face mask relative to the arm apparatus is adjustable.
US07975688B1
A medical device, such as a respiratory treatment device, includes a passive acoustic noise reduction system in the form of a vibration reducing blower assembly isolation mount. The device includes a housing, a blower assembly mounted therein, a patient circuit coupled to the blower assembly, and a noise reducing blower assembly isolation mount. The mount includes a first vibration damping member adjacent one side of the blower assembly spacing the blower assembly from a mounting surface upon which the blower assembly is supported. A securing member positions and holds the blower assembly onto the mounting surface, and a second vibration damping member adjacent an opposite side of the blower assembly spaces the blower assembly from the securing member. The vibration damping members are injection molded thermoplastic elastomeric members.
US07975684B2
A barbecue stove has a cover, a pan, a connecting bracket and a fastener. The cover is alternatively opened or closed relative to the pan and has an edge. The pan has a sidewall and an edge. The connecting bracket is mounted on the sidewall of the pan. The fastener is mounted pivotally on the connecting bracket and has a clip. By operating the fastener, the edges of the cover and the pan are stably held together in a closed state by the clip of the fastener.
US07975682B2
A duplex control structure of toy gun includes a main body (3), a control portion (1), a transmission portion (2), and a motor (4). The main body (3) further consists of a left and right main bodies (3a), (3b), a barrel (31), two motor's positioning plates (32a) and (32b), a multiplicity of supporting shaft rods (33), (34), a left and right handle portions (35a), (35b), check plates (36a), (36b), and two sliding ways (37a), (37b). The control portion (1) further consists of a trigger (11), a control rod (12), a propping up plate (13), a brake (14), a slider rod (15), a positioning plate (25), a pull knob (17), and a power switch (18). The transmission portion (2) consists of a gun machine socket (21), a piston (22), springs (23), (24), a positioning plate (25), a check piece (26), a clip piece (27), a small transmission gear (28), and a large transmission gear (29). The motor (4) is connected to a DC power supply. By making use of the pull knob (17) to drive the propping up plate to press against or separate from the corresponding control rod (12) in accommodating the action of the positioning plate (25) of the control portion (1), the invention is capable of achieving the objective of duplex driving functions of a manually and electrically shooting toy gun.
US07975672B2
An internal combustion engine includes a controllable throttle and controllable engine valves and is selectively operative in one of a plurality of combustion modes. An engine control method includes monitoring engine operation, determining a desired air flow, estimating a cylinder air charge, and estimating an intake air partial pressure. The throttle control device and engine valves are controlled based upon the intake air partial pressure and the cylinder air charge to achieve the desired air flow.
US07975671B2
An engine speed control device includes an engine speed control lever that generates an engine speed instruction and a device for delivering the indicative information on the actual engine speed. An actuator applies a mechanical force on the lever according to the difference between the instruction and the indicative information on the actual engine speed.
US07975668B2
A control system for an engine comprises an air per cylinder (APC) generating module that generates measured and desired APC values. A combustion transition module selectively transitions the engine from spark ignition (SI) combustion to homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion and from HCCI combustion to SI combustion. A spark control module selectively retards spark during the transitions based on a ratio of the measured APC value and the desired APC value. Alternately, spark retard can be based on measured and desired engine torque representing values (ETRVs).
US07975661B2
A system and method for fuel tuned variable valve timing is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of cylinders, each cylinder being further associated with at least two exhaust valves. A first exhaust valve operates according to a first valve lift curve that is tuned for combustion of gasoline. A second exhaust valve operates according to at least two different valve lift curves that are tuned for E85 fuel. The second lift curve is associated with high engine speeds and the modified second lift curve is associated with low engine speeds.
US07975659B2
A fuel injection system for a two-stroke internal combustion engine (1), elastically housed internally of a chamber, comprises a carburetor (30) to which are associated an induction port (9) for an air/fuel mixture and a fuel supply conduit (10) intercepted by means for metering housed in a recess (16) communicating with a second aperture (15) located above the induction port (9), which is in turn connected by an accumulation conduit (12) to a first aperture (14) located below the induction port (9), the apertures (14, 15) being alternatively opened by the piston skirt (3); the accumulation conduit is entirely afforded in the cylinder body.
US07975657B2
The present invention relates to a portable heat transfer apparatus designed to supply heat to an external heat load, such as a space-heating unit or a heating garment, in a manner to be usable in outdoor and other environments where it is difficult to receive a supply of electricity or fuel gas, and allows a ratio of LPG and air to be controlled so as to perform combustion in desirable conditions.The portable heat transfer apparatus of the present invention is adapted to ignite a mixture supplied from a fuel-gas supply unit and a fuel gas-air air-fuel unit having air-fuel ratio adjustment mechanism, using a piezoelectric ignition unit, so as to induce a flame burning in a combustion chamber of a burner, and drive a heat-drive pump disposed relative to burner while interposing a heat-collecting container therebetween, by heat generated from the flame burning, so as to transfer heat to an external heat load, while controlling the air-fuel ratio adjustment mechanism by using a spring-type timer adapted to be moved by a control lever, or by activating the air-fuel ratio adjusting temperature sensor installed in the heat-collecting container.
US07975652B2
A blower system for livestock may include a housing. An air inlet may be located on the housing. One or more motors may be located in the housing. One or more fans may be coupled to at least one of the motors. The fans may be located in the housing. The fans may draw air in through the air inlet and expel air out through an air outlet located on the housing. A hollow plate may be coupled to the air outlet. The hollow plate may include a plurality of holes to allow air to exit the plate at a variety of angles and at pressures sufficient to create a whirlpool effect in a volume of water. The blower system may be portable.
US07975640B1
A method and apparatus for retaining accessories to a vehicle.
US07975632B2
The invention is directed to an apparatus, method and system for a seed planter. The seed planter has a planting, dispensing and metering assembly operatively attached to a mobile supporting structure. The metering assembly has separated seed pre-staging and/or staging positions for staging pre-specified counts of seed separated from other counts in the batch and maintaining separation of the pre-specified counts of seed from other counts in the batch for planting. Alternatively, the metering assembly has separated seed staging positions for staging a batch of seed in singulated form for planting.
US07975631B2
The invention relates to a combine agricultural machine (1) comprising a planting device (3), in particular a potato planting device, provided with at least one storage container (10), an extraction device associated thereto, a setting plow (7) and an downstream mounted end damming device (4). A loosening tool (2) for preparing a seedbed is arranged upstream of the planting device (3) in a travelling direction and one or several wheels (18) for disintegrating soil and supporting the machine are mounted upstream of said loosening tool (2) in said travelling direction. The invention also relates to a method for mechanically planting seeds comprising a stage for preparing the seedbed, a sowing stage and a final damming stage which are simultaneously carried out by means of tools mounted on the agricultural machine (1). At the beginning, the wheels (18) of the machine pass along the soil to be processed for homogeneously disintegrating and breaking it, afterwards the seedbed is prepared by the loosening tool (2) wherein the seeds or seedstock are distributed and the end damming is carried out.
US07975617B2
A routing device, including a sliding device, a rotating shaft, a pair of route rails, a pair of rams, and a pillow, wherein the route rail is disposed in the front of a railway track, the route rails are disposed on the rams, the rotating shaft is disposed at one end of the ram in the vicinity of the railway track, and connected to the pillow, the sliding device is disposed between the ram and the pillow, and the ram operates to laterally slide on the pillow. The invention features simple structure and low investigation cost, occupies small space, is not only applicable for route of normal road and rail vehicles, but also for that of long multi-axis vehicles composed of tractors and trailers, or vehicle trains, and thus enabling the road and rail vehicles to be widely used and saving power.
US07975612B2
A method of dynamically- and continuously-variable rate asynchronous data transfer, such as for use in an electronic blasting system, may employ a device that transmits data including synchronization bits and bits conveying other information, and a device that ascertains the rate of transmission of the synchronization bits and receives the bits conveying the other information at the ascertained rate of transmission.
US07975609B2
A printing unit is provided including a frame and at least a first printing group having a first plate cylinder and a first blanket cylinder which is intended to co-operate with a pressing cylinder. The printing group further includes a mechanism by means of which the first blanket cylinder can be moved between at least one throw-on position, in which it is pressed against the first plate cylinder and against the pressing cylinder, and a throw-off position, in which it is spaced apart from the first plate cylinder and the pressing cylinder. The support mechanism includes at least one main connection rod which can be moved relative to the frame and which carries the blanket cylinder. The main connection rod can be moved in rotation relative to the frame about the centre axis of the first plate cylinder.
US07975605B2
A food processing device, e.g. a salad spinner, has a housing with a lid, a basket supported in the housing for rotation, and a drive mechanism supported by the lid for rotating the basket to spin water from salad in the housing. The drive mechanism has a crank handle and a drive transmission system coupling the handle to the basket to transmit a rotational driving force from the handle to rotate the basket. The drive transmission system has a first rotary gear arranged to receive the rotational driving force from the handle and a second rotary gear in driving engagement with the first gear for receiving the rotational driving force from the first gear to rotate the basket. The first and second gears have corresponding serial formations, e.g., recesses and protrusions, of respective circular cross-sections that are inter-engageable, one in the other, for transmission of the driving force.
US07975589B2
A scribing wheel for a brittle material includes a circumferential ridgeline in which two truncated cones have connected bottoms so as to share a rotational axis. Alternating notches and protrusions are formed along the circumference ridgeline. The protrusion are portions of the ridgeline remaining after the ridgeline is notched. The length of the notches is less than that of the protrusions so that a catch on the surface is improved while lowering the high penetrability.
US07975583B2
A method and apparatus are provided for automatically trimming a plurality of printed products in a trimming apparatus having at least one trimming station including at least one blade positioned on a moveable yoke. The plurality of printed products are supplied successively through a feeding conveyor to the trimming station. Each of the plurality of printed products is transported within the trimming station via a trimming transport device to a predetermined position for trimming. The phase position of the feeding conveyor is adjusted relative to the moveable yoke for each of the plurality of printed products according to the format width of the printed product extending in a conveying direction.
US07975582B1
A device for cutting flat strips of desired width from relatively elongate material is described. Methods of using the strip cutting device are also described. Embodiments of the strip cutting device are adapted to readily cleave a leg from L-shaped material to produce flat strips. Some embodiments are adapted to precisely and accurately cleave flat strips of material to produce narrower flat strips.
US07975580B2
A method for the operation of a panel placement system for punching presses wherein a feed slide is moved between the punching die of the punching press and a transfer position located in front of the punching press. A first connection mechanism of the feed slide, in the transfer position, seizes a panel in the rear area to advance it stepwise through the punching press in response to the cycle of said punching press, wherein the panel is gripped exclusively from above in a rear edge area which is located between the rear edge and the surfaces to be punched out.
US07975575B2
A rotary wrench includes a handle having a clamping portion with two arms. Each arm includes a holding portion having a hole. At least one of the holding portions includes a positioning section. Two axles are respectively formed on two sides of a head and rotatably engaged in the holes. At least one of the sides of the head includes a positioning portion releasably engagable with the positioning section so that the head is rotatable relative to the handle about an axis and positionable relative to the axis in one of a plurality of angular positions surrounding the axis. An adjusting member is mounted to the arms and operable to adjust the spacing between the arms to move the arms between a clamping position clamping the head and a releasing position not clamping the head.
US07975571B2
An output shaft of a rotating electrical machine and a drive device input shaft are disposed at different shaft center positions. A first gear meshing with a second gear provided on the output shaft of the rotating electrical machine for reducing rotation and transmitting the reduced rotation to a transmission input shaft is provided coaxially with the drive device input shaft, and at least a part of the clutch is disposed at an inner-diameter-side position so as to overlap a gear portion of the first gear in an axial direction.
US07975570B2
An operation lever structure wherein an operation lever is pulled toward a left handle to cause a link to swing-move to thereby operate an operation cable. The operation lever structure is configured so that each of inside and outside rollers are provided to an opposite end of the link. Inside and outside guide holes for movably supporting the inside and outside rollers are formed in each of a pair of inside and outside side walls. A discharge opening is formed in a bottom part of the operation lever for discharging a foreign matter that has entered the operation lever.
US07975569B2
A telescopable steering spindle arrangement is provided that includes, but is not limited to a steering spindle near the steering wheel, an intermediate spindle mounted rotationally fixedly and telescopably therein. The steering spindle near the steering wheel and the intermediate spindle are connected axially frictionally to one another, as well as a steering spindle near the steering gear. The intermediate spindle is mounted rotationally fixedly and telescopably in the steering spindle near the steering gear, and the intermediate spindle and the steering spindle near the steering gear are connected axially positively to one another.
US07975562B2
A belt force measuring device with a measuring spring, the displacement thereof being a measurement for the belt force, and with a transmitter, being assigned to the measuring spring, and with a sensor element, being also assigned to the measuring spring, wherein the displacement of measuring spring, effects a change of position of the sensor element in relation to the transmitter. The change of position is detected by the sensor element as measurement for the belt force and the belt force measuring device further has a first connecting element, connecting the measuring spring with a belt lock or a first belt section and a second connecting element, connecting the measuring spring, with a motor vehicle body or with a component of the motor vehicle body or a second belt section. To provide a belt force measuring device, being produced simply and cost effectively, the measuring spring, the first connecting element and the second connecting element are designated as a single-piece component.
US07975561B1
A torque sensing arrangement has a set of strain sensors, such as strain gauges, mounted to an adapter that can be mounted to a chain ring of the crank set of a bicycle wheel. The adapter may have an annular body that can be used to retrofit the original crank set of a bicycle to have torque sensing components without having to replace the chain rings or the crank arm of the crank set. Together with angular velocity measurements, the measurements of the strain sensors may be used to calculate the amount of work or power exerted by the cyclist to propel the bicycle.
US07975557B2
A multiple testing system has plural testing units which are disposed independently, and a single information processing device. The testing unit has a frame, a loading mechanism supported at the frame and applying a desired load quantity on a test body, and a detector detecting a load quantity applied on the test body. By multitasking control and with respect to the testing units, the information processing device carries out: feedback control processing for, on the basis of a detected load quantity, controlling the loading mechanism such that the detected load quantity becomes a predetermined target value; control processing at an abnormal situation when at least one of an abnormality of the test body, an abnormality of the testing unit, or an abnormality of a power source of the loading mechanism, is detected; and interface processing with an operator.
US07975550B2
There is provided a micromachined sensor for measuring a vibration, based on silicone micromachining technology, in which a conductor having elasticity is connected to masses moving due to a force generated by the vibration and the vibration is measured by using induced electromotive force generated due to the conductor moving in a magnetic field.
US07975539B2
A method and a device for reducing vibrations during the shutdown or startup of an engine, in particular an internal combustion engine, in which the vibration behavior of the engine is determined at least during shutdown and/or startup, a control signal is applied to at least one engine mounting whose damping properties are settable via the control signal, and the control signal is calculated in such a way that a vibration behavior of the engine materializes according to a setpoint vibration behavior in which vibrations are introduced, for example into a passenger compartment, at a level which lies below a predefined threshold value.
US07975535B2
Disclosed is both an apparatus and method for quantifying an injection event of a fuel injector, including both multiple pulse and single pulse injection events. Typically, the fuel injector is a common rail injector. The apparatus includes a pressure chamber for isolating a portion of the injection pressure for reducing pressure waves and reflections which can create “noise” in the detection of an injection pressure. The invention further includes determining the precise start and end times of injection using cavitation created by the injection event by determining the intensity of light within a spray chamber.
US07975515B2
A locking device is adapted for receipt within the main cavity of an underground enclosure. The locking device includes a container having a main body and a container top which define an interior compartment for holding the items of the underground enclosure. The main body is adapted to be assembled in the main cavity of the underground enclosure and is sized to be retained within the underground enclosure. The container top has a selective open position to allow access to the interior compartment of the main body and a selective closed locked position to deter access thereto. An arm assembly coupled to the container top is moveable between an extended engaged position to retain the container top on the container and a collapsed disengaged position to allow release of the container top from the container. A disengaged unlocked shield slidably engages into the container top and may be locked into an engaged locked position to retain the container top in the selective closed locked position and overlie a release mechanism for the arm assembly.
US07975513B2
A turning device for tubular knitted articles, particularly for sewing or looping stations for the automated closing of tubular articles at an axial end thereof comprising a lower portion and an upper portion, which are arranged respectively below and above an intermediate region at which elements are or can be positioned for supporting the tubular article to be turned, which hangs at one of its axial ends and is arranged substantially vertically, a tubular body, which can be inserted from the bottom upwardly, with its upper axial end, through the axial end of the article that hangs from the supporting elements, so as to evert the article onto the outer lateral surface of the tubular body, extracting it progressively from the upper axial end of the tubular body. Auxiliary sliding elements are provided, which can move on command with respect to the tubular body, parallel to the axis of the tubular body, and can engage and disengage cyclically the article everted onto the outer lateral surface of the tubular body in order to produce its sliding toward the lower axial end of the tubular body.
US07975499B2
A cooling system for an aircraft has a refrigerant system to cool a second fluid for a use associated with an aircraft. A valve is operable to route the second fluid to be cooled by the refrigerant under a first set of conditions, and to route the second fluid to be cooled by ambient air from outside of the aircraft under a second set of conditions.
US07975493B2
Systems and methods for controlling a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) in an optical transceiver. A TEC system includes a processor that interacts with a power supply and a TEC controller to prevent inrush current. The power supply is switched by the processor and turned on only at a particular time. The power supply has a relatively large time constant such that it ramps slowly to its full value. In the meantime, the processor and TEC controller cause the temperature to ramp to a target value by repeatedly incrementing or decrementing a target value over time and by controlling when the maximum available voltage can be applied to the TEC.
US07975489B2
According to one aspect, a method of detecting catalyst module overheating in a catalytic combustion system is provided. In one example, the method includes detecting one or more signals from at least one probe adapted to obtain values associated with at least one of the outlet gas temperature of a catalyst module and the outlet face temperature of the catalyst module included in a catalytic combustor. The one or more signals are compared with a preselected value associated with catalyst overheating. The detected temperature may be detected over time to determine a rate of change in the temperature. The temperature may be detected with a UV sensor directed to the catalyst outlet face.
US07975486B2
The invention relates to a burner for premix-type combustion having a cavity which has at least one tangential air inlet slot for the supply of a combustion air flow, a device for the injection of fuel into the cavity which is provided in the region of a burner axis, and a device for the injection of premix fuel into the air inlet slots which is provided centrally in the inflow region of the combustion air flow. The device for the injection of premix fuel into the air inlet slots has at least one fuel supply, the fuel outlet openings of which are arranged in such a way that the premix fuel is introduced into the combustion air flow on both sides of the at least one fuel supply related to a cross-sectional plane at right angles to the burner axis.
US07975482B2
Disclosed are a method and a device for utilizing supercritical subsurface steam as combined supercritical thermal and hydraulic power stations at an efficiency of 50 percent, using molten bath superdeep drilling technology, a hydrofrac process, and the special properties of the supercritical subsurface steam, such as the drastic increase in the thermal capacity, reduced viscosity, and inorganic solubility. The multifunctional use of said technologies and physical properties of supercritical subsurface steam in the inventive method allows a supercritical subsurface boiler to be tapped rapidly and at a low cost at a great depth while making it possible to produce electricity, power, process steam, and heat almost anywhere at one tenth of the cost of conventional fuel technologies and comparable expenses. The supercritical process steam obtained from a closed forced subsurface-nature circuit is used in supercritical power stations featuring state-of-the-art steam turbine technology while the remaining pressure in the subsurface fluid is used for directly generating power and/or electricity after dissipating heat via hydraulic turbines.
US07975474B2
A hydraulic system including a pump for feeding hydraulic fluid from an inlet side to an outlet side. A pressure accumulator is disposed at the outlet side, and between the pump and the pressure accumulator a hydraulic control valve is disposed, which has at least two valve positions. The outlet side of the pump is connected to the pressure accumulator in a second valve position, and is separated from the pressure accumulator in a first valve position. The outlet side of the pump is connected to the inlet side through the control valve in the first valve position.
US07975469B2
A control system that controls regeneration of a particulate filter is provided. The system generally includes a propagation module that estimates a propagation status of combustion of particulate matter in the particulate filter. A regeneration module controls current to the particulate filter to re-initiate regeneration based on the propagation status.
US07975461B2
A harvesting apparatus for row crops that includes a self-propelled carrier unit and a harvesting device. The carrier unit is a motor-driven vehicle. The harvesting device consists of an upper frame in sliding engagement with a pair of vertical members coupled to a cutting platform, lifting means for raising and lowering the cutting platform, and means for positioning the cutting platform along the length of the upper frame. The cutting platform includes a base having opposing ends, each end having a pair of base guides that define a longitudinal passage, a cutter blade assembly having a blade with a cutting edge, which cutting edge is in communication with the longitudinal passage such that when the blade is in use, and when a tobacco plant passes along the longitudinal passage the blade will cut the plant by a slicing operation. The frame further includes front and rear wheel assemblies, and a shield that is attached to each of the vertical members.
US07975457B2
The present invention concerns a machine and a method for converting a web of preformed pouches to dunnage units. In one exemplary embodiment the machine includes a drive, a blower, and a sealing mechanism. The drive is arranged to move the web of preformed pouches along a path of travel through the machine. The blower is positioned with respect to the path of travel, to inflate the preformed pouches. The sealing mechanism includes a heating element support and a heating element. The heating element support includes a sealing side and a belt preheating side. The heating element is disposed around at least a portion of the heating side and at least a portion of the belt preheating side. The drive includes a belt that is disposed around the heating element. The sealing mechanism is positioned with respect to the path of travel, to provide seals to the pouches to form inflated dunnage units. The heating element support is configured to maintain the heating element in contact with the heating element support preheating side.
US07975455B1
A packaging method for gloves that provides nonbinding dispensing of individual gloves. The method includes providing a durable and re-sealable container and a plurality of ambidextrous gloves constructed of rubber, placing a plurality of tightly packed gloves in a fluffing machine, air fluffing and tumbling the plurality of gloves for a period of time, loading a measured amount of gloves in the container, applying a cover to the container, and providing a seal around the juncture of the cover and the container.
US07975449B2
An article, system and method for flattening a three dimensional depression within a substrate floor. A straight edge is applied in a progressive X and Y grid fashion across the depression, with varying levels of shims defining contact locations, thereby establishing a floor template identifying common depths of depression at overlapping perimeter defined boundaries. One or more thermo-polymer sheets is resized to define an outer perimeter matching that of a perimeter boundary. A subset thickness of the sheet is incised around its outer perimeter to establish a feathering effect upon the sheet prior to it overlaying the boundary perimeter and prior to sizing and application of additional overlapping sheets up to an outermost boundary corresponding to a shallowest depression.
US07975441B2
A portable air conditioner support arrangement for supporting a portable air conditioner in a window frame assembly. The support arrangement comprises an elongated flange-engaging rail having a first end and a second end, with a channel engaging tab arranged on the first end and the second end of the rail. Each of the tabs are arranged to mate with a channel on the sides of the window frame assembly. The rail has an elongated face to engage a flange on the upper front edge of the air conditioner and maintain the air conditioner free of support by a window sash of the window frame assembly.
US07975438B2
A joining device (8) for hybrid wind turbine towers (5) intended for the fixation of a metal portion (6) of a wind turbine tower (5) to a concrete portion (7) of said wind turbine (1) which comprises a metal body (9) having a generally tubular configuration that is suitable to be fixed to the metal portion (6) of the tower (5) which in use is adjacent to the concrete portion (7), and suitable for being at least partially embedded into said concrete portion (7), said metal body (9) being provided with a number of anchoring openings (11) adapted such that the material of the concrete portion (7) passes therethrough. A hybrid wind turbine tower (5) comprises such a joining device (8) provided between one metal portion (6) and one concrete portion (7).
US07975437B2
A playground roof system having the capability of being attached to different diameter support members is provided. The frame of the roof structure is roto-molded such that two different sized openings are provided at each corner of the frame, each opening in the same area, such that the roof is interchangeable in different playground systems. The roof system further includes openings formed in the frame such that a fastener can be threaded therein fastening the frame and support members together.
US07975434B2
A window regulator that resists backdrive forces directly at the lift plate and rail, rather than by the drive assembly. A locking shoe mounted within the lift plate and selectively frictionally engages the rail while the drive assembly is at rest. Thus, any backdrive forces are transmitted from the window glass to the lift plate, and then directly to the rail, avoiding the drive assembly. A release fork that is coupled to the drive cable automatically disengages the locking shoe when the drive assembly is activated, and engages the locking shoe when the drive assembly disengages.
US07975431B2
A barrier that is pressurized after being assembled from multiple pieces. The barrier include a first end frame, a second end frame, and a gate engaged between the end frames. The first and second end frames are engaged at their lower members such that the first end frame and second end frame are not integral and not one-piece with each other, and such that the first and second end frames still provide for a pressurized barrier, that is a barrier that is resiliently mounted between two locations so as to be self-supporting between two locations even if spaced from the floor. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the first end frame, second end frame, and gate have generally the same length so as to minimize the storage area needed to store the barrier prior to assembly.
US07975430B2
An expandable hydroponic growing system comprising a multiple of upper bases, lower bases and bars connecting the bases in a fashion that the upper bases (and lower bases) can be conveniently pulled together or pushed farther apart.
US07975425B1
Measures for controlling nuisance-carp populations include a harvest apparatus for harvesting not sub-surface fish but fish that leap out of the water proximate the harvest apparatus. Detectors detect when subsurface fish are within proximity of the effective range of the harvest apparatus and, when such are detected, a stimulus is applied which causes target fish like nuisance carp but not desirable fish to leap out of the water. When that happens, the harvest apparatus takes its toll on the leaping fish, harmlessly to the desirable fish which do not leap, and instead might flee from the stimulus by diving deeper.
US07975421B2
A remote controlled decoy is provided. The remote control decoy operates using two propellers secured to a hull and remotely controlled by a radio frequency transmitter. A shell resembling a particular waterfowl is releasably coupled to a hull which serves as a watertight compartment for the receiver and the electronics associated with the propulsion of the decoy. The decoy may also be provided with strobe lights to draw attention to the decoy from passing waterfowl.
US07975416B2
A marketing sign is constructed of a sheet material. The sheet material includes a free portion, a base portion and a connecting portion that couples the base portion to the free portion. The base portion includes an engaging piece and a support piece. The engaging piece is coupled to the support piece at a base bend line and configured to engage with a portion of a product display structure having a price holder. The connecting portion is defined between a first connecting bend line spaced apart from a second connecting bend line by a first distance. The first connecting bend line is adjacent the support piece of the base portion and the second connecting bend line is adjacent the free portion. The first distance substantially corresponds with a top edge thickness of the price holder.
US07975411B2
A card may include a generally planar panel and a plurality of opposing retaining members disposed on the panel. The plurality of opposing retaining members may be arranged to retain a substantially rectangular transaction card having a first longitudinal axis in a first orientation with respect to the panel and to retain a substantially rectangular paper gift having a second longitudinal axis in a second orientation with respect to the panel, so that the orientation of the first longitudinal axis is substantially transverse to the second orientation of the second longitudinal axis. The paper gift may be, for example, paper monetary currency, a paper bank check, or a paper gift certificate. The transaction card may be, for example, a debit card, a credit card, a gift card, a prepaid phone card, a card containing a merchandise credit usable at a retail establishment.
US07975410B2
A control system for use with an excavation machine is disclosed. The control system may have a boom member, a linear actuator connected to pivot the boom member in a first direction, a rotary actuator connected to swing the boom member in a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction, and an operator input device configured to generate a command signal indicative of a desired movement of the boom member. The control system may also have a tilt sensor configured to detect an inclination of the excavation machine, and a controller in communication with the rotary actuator, the operator input device, and the tilt sensor. The controller may be configured to receive a swing end stop for the boom member, to control the rotary actuator to move the boom member based on the command signal, and to modify the command signal to inhibit movement of the boom member past the swing end stop based on the detected inclination of the excavation machine.
US07975406B2
A shoe for driving a car according to one aspect of the present invention comprises a heel part 5 on a foot sole 4 and an inclined face 5B increasing gradually toward a rear side in a side view. This inclined face 5B comprises a first face part 5a which is formed outside in a width direction and is capable of coming in contact with a car floor when depressing an accelerator pedal and a second face part 5b unlike the face condition of the above-mentioned first face part, which is formed inside in a width direction and is capable of coming in contact with a car floor when depressing a brake pedal.
US07975405B1
A shoe is described having a removeable heel, removeable platform, and in some embodiments one or more removeable straps. The shoes of the present invention provide for flexibility in design with the same sole by allowing for replacement of one type of heel with another and in some shoes replacement of the strap or straps by alternate styles or colors of straps. The replaceability or modularity of the heel and straps allows for compact storage as well, which is desirable during travel. The removeabitlity of the platform enables the shoe to adjust to different heights. Additionally, some embodiments have one or more hinges formed in the sole to allow the shoe to collapse to an even smaller size for storage or travel.
US07975404B2
The present invention relates to a process and composition for stiffening materials for use in the manufacturing of footwear using a combination of stiffeners and adhesives.
US07975403B2
Footwear is provided having a tongue pivotally coupled to the footwear upper. The tongue may be constructed to pivotally move relative to the upper between a first position and a second position. At least one resilient member may be coupled to the tongue for urging the tongue in either the first position or the second position. The tongue may be a spring-loaded tongue such that when the tongue is positioned in an intermediate position between the first and second position, the tongue will spring towards either the first position or the second position.
US07975402B2
The present invention includes a nozzle insert for use in a drying machine of the type used in paper web drying. The nozzle insert of the present invention includes at least one intake having a central portion, wherein a pair of center vanes is disposed for directing airflow. The central portion is bounded by at least one turning vane adapted for directing airflow in a lateral direction. For each turning vane, there is at least one straightening vane adapted for curtailing swirling of the airflow. The vanes are oriented at optimal angles for directing the flow of the nozzle in a lateral direction, while permitting some air to penetrate the central portion through a series of ports. The intakes are bounded by a series of insulated bulkheads, which serve to direct airflow and contain heat-loss through thermal emission.
US07975399B2
A method and apparatus of displaying an Electronic Programming Guide (EPG). In one embodiment, an EPG is constructed of a three dimensional virtual mesh, in which independent objects representing television programs are situated. The virtual mesh is displayed perpendicularly, so that the hardware requirements of the set top box (STB) may be reduced. A user can navigate the mesh to find television programs that they wish to view. A user can designate the types of television programs that they prefer, and these programs will be displayed more prominently. In addition, the mesh is constructed of at least two planes. The first plane is flat, while all other planes are hyperbolic to correct for a viewer's line of sight.
US07975395B2
A hand-held level and plumb tool that includes a homogeneous, L-shaped body, a first level indicating device, and a second level indicating device. The L-shaped body has first and second legs arranged at a 90° angle. The first leg defines an interior side, an exterior side, a central panel extending between the sides, and a length in extension of the first leg from the second leg to a free end. A slot is formed through a thickness of the central panel and extends along at least a majority of the length. The first level indicating device is assembled to the central panel of the first leg at a location spaced from the slot. The second level indicating device is assembled to the second leg. One or both of the legs can include measurement-related indicia selected in accordance with staircase construction standard dimensions.
US07975394B2
The invention is directed to a tilt sensor comprising at least one body movable along a predefined path and an optoelectronic unit for determining the position of said body, said tilt sensor being surface-mountable. The invention is further directed to a tilt sensor assembly.
US07975390B2
A method and apparatus for determining the critical foot and shoe-last dimensions and variables is provided. The apparatus includes a surface for a foot to stand on, a mechanism to determine the axis passing through heel centerline, a mechanism to determine the foot or shoe last width measurement, a mechanism to determine the axis passing through center of the foot (or last) width, a mechanism to determine the mid-foot height and a mechanism to determine heel width. Based on the above mentioned mechanisms, the apparatus can determine the required dimensions and the curvature of a person's foot, called the flare angle, and as well as the curvature of a shoe-last so that footwear fitting can be improved.
US07975389B2
A razor handle made of a rigid core and a layer of compressible elastomeric material. The razor handle includes a head portion, located at the front end of the razor handle, and includes a bearing structure for connection to a razor head. The razor handle also includes a body portion having an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, an upper front gripping area that includes a plurality of spaced projections protruding from the upper surface, and a lower front gripping area located opposite the upper front gripping area. The razor handle also includes a plurality of spaced projections protruding from the lower surface. The upper front gripping area is centered on a point located at a distance of at least 3 cm from a front end of the head portion.
US07975383B2
A hydroforming process forms a hydroformed automotive component as a multiple cell member having an integral internal rib separating the cells and reinforcing the hydroformed component to increase the strength of a hydroformed component with a given size and shape. The tubular blank can be manufactured through a roll-forming process or by welding two structural tubular members, to form a tubular blank that has multiple cells with an internal rib separating the cells. The hydroforming process injects fluid under pressure into each of the cells to expand the tubular blank into the shape defined by the die holding the blank. The internal web separating the cells of the blank becomes an integral internal reinforcement spanning the component to enhance the strength, rigidity and stiffness of the component. Providing differential pressure on the multiple cells can stretch and twist the internal rib for positioning internally as desired.
US07975382B2
A method for filling a muffler with a fibrous material is disclosed. The muffler includes partitions which form a first chamber and second chamber, and a first muffler pipe having an outlet end. A filling aperture at one end of the second muffler pipe is positioned in the first muffler chamber. The second muffler pipe has a filling sleeve therein, the filling sleeve having a filling discharge opening that coordinates with the filling aperture of the second muffler pipe. The first muffler chamber is filled with fibrous material by applying a vacuum source to the first muffler pipe, which draws the fibrous material through the filling aperture. The filling aperture of the second muffler pipe is then positioned into the second muffler chamber, and the second muffler chamber is filled in the same manner as the first muffler chamber. The filling sleeve is then removed from the second muffler pipe.
US07975380B2
Provided is a probe card and method of fabricating the same. This method comprises forming soldering bumpers electrically connected to conductive patterns on a substrate, forming probes connected to the conductive patterns and supported by the soldering bumpers, and then melting the soldering bumpers to fixing the probes to the substrate. Forming the soldering bumpers includes a step of forming the soldering bumpers in the same pattern and size by means of a photolithography process.
US07975375B2
A method for producing a portable electronic object having contact pads arranged on a plane with a thickness which differs from the thickness of a standard smartcard. The object is electrically connected to data transfer station connectors, by delivering a data transfer station having an electric probe connector and submitting the object to the data transfer station in such a way that the contact pads thereof are accessible to the electric probes in a direction perpendicular to the plane. Objects obtainable include UBS keys or PCMCIA cards or readers.
US07975370B2
Stator designs have wide-mouth slots between adjacent poles. Wire coils with high slot fill conductivity are formed around the poles. In some designs, the wire coils are wave wound around the poles. Thick bar conductors can be used for making the wire coils. The wire coils may be inserted using nozzle dispensers or transferred from a pre-form mandrel. In other designs, the wire coils are pre-formed on transferable pockets that are then mounted on the poles. Optional pole extensions or shoes can be attached to the stator poles after the wire coils are formed around the poles.
US07975368B2
A structure of wireless receiver includes a metallic casing, a positioning base, a receiving module, and a housing. The metallic casing has a circumferential wall defining an accommodating space therein, and two opposite ends thereof formed with an insertion hole and a through hole in communication with the accommodating space. The positioning base has a mounting trough, and is disposed in the accommodating space of the metallic casing. The positioning base has two side ends being fixed to the circumferential wall. The mounting trough is in communication with the accommodating space and the through hole. The receiving module is disposed in the mounting trough of the positioning base via the through hole of the metallic casing. The housing is assembled to the through hole of the metallic casing, and the through hole is sealed by the housing to block the receiving module.
US07975364B2
A method for producing a tuning-fork type crystal vibrating piece relates to a crystal tuning fork comprising a basal portion, a first vibrating arm, and a second vibrating arm, wherein both arms extend from the basal portion. The method for producing a crystal tuning fork comprises a step of forming a first metallic film into a shape including the contours of the basal portion, the first vibrating arm and second vibrating arm on a first surface of a quartz wafer; a step of forming a second metallic film on the second surface opposite to the first surface of the quartz wafer into a shape covering at least a root area near the basal portion between the first vibrating arm and the second vibrating arm, and a step of wet-etching the quartz substrate in etching solution after forming the first and second metallic films.
US07975363B2
A probe includes a substrate and a tetragonal structure disposed on the substrate that has four end points. Three of the end points are disposed adjacent to the substrate. A fourth of the end points extends outwardly and substantially normal to the substrate. In a method of making a probe tip, a plurality of tetrapods are grown and at least one of the tetrapods is placed on a substrate at a selected location. The tetrapod is affixed to the substrate at the selected location.
US07975351B2
A door handle for opening a door of a refrigerator or a freezer compartment is fixable to the door in a manner pivotable by a pivot support and movable between an open position and a closed position as well having a restoration device for the automatic restoration of the handle from the open position into the closed position. A movement damper is provided for damping the restoration force of the handle from the open position into closed position and/or opening movement of the handle from the closed position into open position.
US07975346B2
An oral care implement is provided having a handle and a head having a base structure. A pair of fixed pods extend from a first face of the base structure of the head and a movable pod is supported by and between the pair of fixed pods above the first face of the base structure by at least one suspension member. The movable pod comprises cleaning elements, thereby facilitating a greater degree of cleaning action during an oral care session.
US07975336B1
A pillow is provided that includes a center section; a first bolster; and a second bolster. The first bolster is attached to the center section on a first lateral side and the second bolster is attached to the center section on a second lateral side opposite the first lateral side, and at least one of the first and the second bolsters has a first cross sectional area at a bottom of the bolster and a second cross sectional area at a top of the bolster greater than the first cross sectional area.
US07975335B2
A patient-support apparatus includes a mattress assembly supported on a frame, the mattress assembly including a coverlet configured to provide low-airloss therapy to a patient supported on the patient-support apparatus. The patient-support apparatus is articulable to a number of positions and includes a control network which is responsive to movement of portions of the frame to alter operational parameters of the frame and mattress assembly.
US07975330B2
One embodiment of a topper for a bed includes a liner assembly 40 having a top liner 42, a bottom liner 44 and a slip liner 70 underneath the bottom liner. The slip liner is of relatively lower friction than the top liner. An apron 62, with openings 76 therein, extends from the perimeter of the liners. Another embodiment includes a liner assembly having a top liner, a bottom liner and a slip liner underneath the bottom liner. The slip liner is of relatively lower friction than the top liner. Bridge straps 98, or 98′ having a working length of at least the width of a host mattress minus the arm length of a fifth percentile female extend from the liner assembly.
US07975325B2
A portable restroom is designed to provide features which enhance the comfort and appeal to users. These features include a rigid and stable structure, including a rigid floor structure, thus providing a sense of security to the user. Further, flushing and fresh water capabilities are achieved by using a dual tank structure made capable by the base design itself. This dual tank structure is achieved utilizing a unique siphoning pump to provide appropriate functionality.
US07979915B2
A recording device performs recording on a recording medium such as a DVD, and playback compatibility of the recording medium is increased. In circumstances such as when a standard is established after the manufacture of a playback apparatus, there are playback devices that physically cannot read information for decrypting encrypted data from a predetermined area of the recording medium due to the specifications of the playback apparatus, and therefore the playback apparatus cannot use the recording medium. In order for the recording medium to be able to be used in such a playback apparatus, the recording device reads data recorded in the predetermined area of the recording medium, and records the read data in another area that is readable by the playback apparatus.
US07979913B2
A home network system allowing a user to directly control joining or removing of member devices in a domain using a user interface and to effectively control a status change of the member devices of the domain and a management method therefor. The home network system includes: a master device, which forms a domain with more than one controlled device, transmits a predetermined domain key to the controlled devices included in the domain, generates a new domain key whenever a configuration of the domain is changed, and transmits the new domain key to the controlled devices remaining in the domain; and a control point, which provides a user interface allowing a user to directly change the configuration of the domain.
US07979891B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for securing execution of untrusted applications. These mechanisms and methods for securing execution of untrusted applications can enable embodiments to provide a “sandbox” environment in which applications that are less than trusted may execute. The ability of embodiments to provide such a protected environment for executing these untrusted applications can enable systems designers and system programmers to provide additional applications from third parties to users without being overly concerned about system security issues.
US07979888B2
A method of identifying an entry in an entity model as being at least one of potentially private and potentially sensitive is disclosed. The method may include creating an indication related to a specific entry that indicates whether the specific entry is one of potentially personally identifiable and potentially sensitive or both and allowing the indication to be modified to indicate whether the specific entry is one of potentially personally identifiable and potentially sensitive or both.
US07979886B2
In a method for transmitting a multimedia presentation comprising a number of media objects: the media objects are organized in a multimedia container or container format; identifiers referring to the media objects are organized in the same container; and an identifiable file coordinating the media objects is also provided in the container.
US07979880B2
A method for profiling an iTV user. The method comprises gathering user-requested content information from iTV interactions, correlating content-associated profile information from a rating service with the user-requested content information, and developing a profile of the user based on the content-associated profile information correlated with the user-requested content information.
US07979878B2
An inter pap active television program guide system is provided in which a user may direct the program guide to display a browsing display screen. The browsing display screen includes a list of current programs including a movable highlight region, a video window containing a television program to which the system is currently tuned, and a detailed description of the highlighted program listing. The user may position the highlight region using remote control cursor keys. The user may then synchronize the content of the video window with the highlighted program listing by pressing a select key or a channel up or down key. If the user changes channels repeatedly using the channel up and down keys, the contents of the video window and the highlighted program listings remain in synchronization.
US07979873B2
A chucking device for removably holding a disk with a central opening, includes a shaft coaxially arranged with a specified center axis; a turntable fixed to the shaft, the turntable having a disk support surface for supporting the disk; and a resin-made cone arranged axially above the turntable, the cone including a shaft-fixed portion fixed to the shaft, a disk holding portion having an annular disk holding surface inclined radially outwardly and axially downwardly, and an arm portion for radially interconnecting the shaft-fixed portion and the disk holding portion. Herein, the arm portion includes a support portion extending radially outwardly from the shaft-fixed portion and an elastically deformable portion joined to the support portion for being elastically deformed to axially downwardly move the disk holding portion as the disk comes into contact with the disk holding portion.
US07979872B2
A disclosed lens actuator includes: an objective lens condensing a light beam on an optical storage medium; a diffractive element providing compatibility with plural types of optical storage media relative to light sources of plural different wavelengths; and a lens holder including the objective lens and diffractive element in an opposing manner. The objective lens is driven with the lens holder in at least a focusing direction and tracking direction relative to the optical storage medium. At least three protrusions are set on the lens holder in directions orthogonal to an optical axis of the objective lens. Another disclosed lens actuator includes: an objective lens and a drive coil disposed on a lens holder, wherein a diffractive element is disposed on the lens holder via an inertia weight including a metallic material and disposed so as to face the objective lens.
US07979860B2
A process for scheduling operations using a cost function is provided. A number of scheduling options are determined for an operation and a cost is computed for each scheduling option. The process then schedules the operation based on a computed cost.
US07979858B2
Systems and methods are provided for executing a computer program that performs multiple processes in a multi-processor environment. A client computer may be used to execute a process manager software application for generating computer instructions that identify a plurality of the processes that may be run in parallel on separate processors. A metadata server may be used to store metadata that identifies whether the multi-processor environment is available to execute the plurality of processes. The computer program may be stored on a computer-readable medium and may be configured to execute on the client computer, and when executed by the client computer may cause the client computer to query the metadata server to determine if the multi-processor environment is available to execute the plurality of processes. The computer program may be further configured to use the computer instructions to cause the plurality of processes to be executed in the multi-processor environment. The computer instructions may enable the computer program to execute the plurality of processes in parallel.
US07979857B2
A method and an apparatus for dynamic memory resource management are provided. Memory activity information is collected for a virtual machine. Additional memory shares are dynamically allocated to the virtual machine, as needed, based on the memory activity information for the virtual machine and based on a specified priority of the virtual machine in order to properly adjust the total physical memory used by the virtual machine.
US07979855B2
An image processing apparatus, a management system and a computer program product are disclosed that enable firmware that controls operations of the image processing apparatus to be updated appropriately, even when, for example, an initial setting in the image processing apparatus has been changed. Firmware in the image processing apparatus is stored in a rewritable storage device such as a flash ROM, and is updated by transmitting a new firmware to the image processing apparatus and rewriting the contents of the storage device. The new firmware is transmitted together with a control program (including script) that describes processing to be executed in the image processing apparatus before and/or after updating the firmware.
US07979852B2
The inventive system for automatically generating optimizes codes (19) which are operational on a predefined hardware platform (90) comprises at least one processor which is (91) based on code sources (17) provided by users and comprises means (51, 52) for receiving symbolic code sequences or standard sequences (1) representative for the processor (91) behavior in terms of performance for a predetermined application area, means (53), for receiving static parameters (2), means (55) for receiving dynamic parameters (7), an analysing device (10) for defining optimization rules (9) on the basis of performance tests and measures determined on the basis of the standard sequences (1) and the static (2) and dynamic (7) parameters, a device (80) for optimizing and generating the code receiving the standard sequences (1) and the optimization rules (9) for examining the code sources (17) of the users, detecting optimizable loops, decomposing into cores and for assembling and injecting the codes in such a way that the optimized codes (19) are delivered and means (74) for reinjecting information which is received from the code optimizing and generating device (80) and related to the cores into the standard sequences (1).
US07979838B2
The process of laying out a floorplan for a clock control distribution network in an integrated chip design is simplified and the efficiency of a staging network created is improved. Rather than manually create the staging network in HDL or as a network description table while looking at a picture of the chip floorplan in a Cadence Viewer, an automated method which runs in the Cadence environment uses an algorithmic approach to the problem of maximizing the utilization of staging latches, eliminating unnecessary power and area usage. Efficiency is maximized by updating the Physical Layout directly with the staging solution arrived at by the algorithm.
US07979832B2
Methods and systems for designing process variation tolerant memory are disclosed. A memory circuit is divided into functional blocks. A statistical distribution is calculated for each of the functional blocks. Then, the distributions of each block are combined to verify a credibility of the circuit. The credibility is verified if the circuit meets a predetermined yield.
US07979827B1
A method of configuring a device having programmable logic is disclosed. The method comprises generating a netlist associated with a circuit design; coupling the netlist to the device having programmable logic; performing a re-targeting function using a circuit on the device having programmable logic; generating configuration bits for configuring the programmable logic; and configuring the programmable logic to implement the circuit design according to the configuration bits based upon the netlist and results of the re-targeting function.
US07979822B2
An apparatus and method are provided for performing a sequence of verification tests to verify the design of a data processing system. The apparatus comprises a system under verification representing the design of the data processing system, the system under verification including a component model representing at least one hardware component of the data processing system. The component model includes an interface module through which the component model interacts with other portions of the system under verification during performance of the verification tests. An alternative model is provided for representing the hardware component for selected verification tests, and the interface module comprises a verification interface module which is responsive to switch criteria specified by the alternative model to switch in the alternative model in place of the component model. Accordingly, by such an approach, the alternative model can take the place of the component model during performance of the selected verification tests. This maintains system integrity of the system under verification, whilst providing a simple and effective mechanism for enabling the alternative model to take the place of the component model for certain specific verification tests, for example when testing corner cases in the design.
US07979820B1
In one embodiment, a method comprises retaining at least a portion of simulation results corresponding to a first simulateable partition from a previous simulation time; and using the simulation results for a second simulateable partition (or the first simulateable partition) at a current simulation time if the second simulateable partition is equivalent to the first simulateable partition and one or more input stimuli to the second simulateable partition at the current simulation time are approximately the same as the input stimuli to the first simulateable partition at the previous simulation time. Computer accessible media storing instructions that implement the method are also contemplated.
US07979816B1
Method and apparatus for implementing a circuit design for an integrated circuit is described. In one example, a first version of the circuit design is processed (408) with at least one design tool. Statistical data is captured (410) for the at least one design tool and operational attributes thereof are automatically adjusted (420) in response to the statistical data. A second version of the circuit design is processed (422) with the at least one design tool having the adjusted operational attributes. In another example, the circuit design is processed (506) with at least one design tool in a first iteration. Statistical data is captured (508) for the at least one design tool and operational attributes thereof are automatically adjusted (514) for a second iteration in response to the statistical data of the first iteration. The circuit design is re-processed (516) with the at least one design tool having the adjusted operational attributes in the second iteration.
US07979813B2
A method is described for converting an existing die, originally designed for a non-chip-scale package, to a chip-scale package die, where the die's bonding pads are located in positions within a defined grid of candidate positions. In the first step, the die's layout, comprising its outer boundaries and areas needed to be electrically connected to bonding pads, are shifted relative to a grid of candidate positions for the bonding pads until an optimal alignment is identified. Bonding pads positions on the die are then selected corresponding to optimum grid positions within the outer boundaries of the die. The die is then fabricated using the original masks to form at least the semiconductor regions and using a new set of masks for defining the new locations of the bonding pads for the chip-scale package. The chip-scale package is then bonded to a PCB using chip-scale package technology.
US07979800B2
Desired contents information can be easily extracted in a contents information display device. The contents information display device includes: an information receiving part that receives contents information; a recording part that records received contents information; a display part that displays the contents information; an input part that inputs an operation signal; and a control part that totally controls these parts. The control part performs control to display the contents information around a selected time on the display part in a way that it can be selected as contents images arranged in a time sequence at a predetermined time interval.
US07979798B2
In a system and method for providing user help tips, the system may determine a relevance to a user of a plurality of tips, may assign priority categories to the tips based on the relevance and may determine which tip to output based on the priority categories of the tips.
US07979795B2
A practical and natural way of inputting syllables of scripts into a computer. In one example embodiment, This is achieved by selecting a base character from a set of characters using a digitizing tablet [1216]. The selected base character is then modified by drawing one or more natural handwritten modifying gestures to form a current desired syllable. An associated data of the formed current desired syllable is then inputted into a gesture-keypad-engine [1230] via the digitizing tablet [1216] upon completion of the drawing of the one or more natural handwritten modifying gestures. The gesture-keypad-engine [1230] then produces a current candidate syllable as a function of the inputted associated data of the formed current desired syllable. The produced current candidate syllable is then displayed on a display device [540].
US07979792B2
A computer-implemented method and computer-readable medium are provided for providing page and table layout services. According to the method, a layout manager program provides layout services to client application programs. The layout manager receives requests from client application programs to format document content. In response to such requests, the layout manager performs one or more callback operations to the client application to retrieve portions of the document to be laid out. Once the portions of the page to be laid out have been retrieved through the callback operations, the layout manager lays out the portions of the document and notifies the client application that the layout is completed. The client application can then query the layout manager for the formatting result.
US07979790B2
A method and system to manage rendering of multimedia content are provided. A theme specifies a collection of layouts defining multimedia content placement. The multimedia content is processed to extract one or more characteristics. The layouts are selected and populated with multimedia content based on the one or more characteristics associated with the multimedia content. The multimedia content is rendered by transitioning through the selected layouts.
US07979783B2
An error detection device for a command decoder is described, the command decoder reading out an associated sequence of control signal words from a command memory based on an input word, wherein the sequence of control signal words has at least one control signal word, having: a controller designed to provide the input word at a first time and the input word at a second time for reading out the command memory, wherein the second time is delayed with respect to the first time, to effect a readout of the sequence of control signal words at a first time and a readout of the sequence of control signal words at a second time; and a comparator designed to receive and compare the associated sequences of control signal words read out at the first and second times, and to output a signal indicating an error if the associated sequences of control signal words read out at the first and second times are different.
US07979779B1
A symmetric triple parity (TP) technique in an array comprising a number p of storage devices, such as disks, with p being a prime number is provided. The p disks are organized as one row parity disk, two symmetric parity disks and p-3 data disks. Phantom diagonal and anti-diagonal parity disks assumed to be present are further assumed to contain a predetermined value, thereby enabling parity encoding/decoding utilizing the phantom (anti-) diagonal disks. Row parity and symmetric parity values are included within the computation of the diagonal and anti-diagonal parities; accordingly, the two symmetric parity and the row parity values may be computed using the same technique as used for a triple parity erasure, i.e., in a symmetric fashion.
US07979775B2
Disclosed is a method and communication device for suppressing interference. The method comprises performing, with a turbo decoder (314), at least one turbo decoding attempt (1106) on a received signal (1104). The turbo decoding attempt generates at least one whole word code bit therefrom (1108). The whole word code bit (1108) corresponds to a group of bits comprising a transmitted symbol. The method determines if the whole word code bit (1108) has a confidence level exceeding a given threshold (1110). If the whole word code bit (1108) does have a confidence level exceeding the given threshold, the whole code word bit is selected for use in data symbol recovery (1114).
US07979774B1
An error rate sensitive error correction (ERSEC) system that applies a level of error correction that is inversely related to susceptibility to error as indicated by a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) profile of a channel. The SNR profile is estimated, detected or retrieved from an external source. The ERSEC system is used with a channel for which the SNRs vary spatially, temporally or both.
US07979758B2
Semiconductor memory device includes a cell array including a plurality of unit cells; and a test circuit configured to perform a built-in self-stress (BISS) test for detecting a defect by performing a plurality of internal operations including a write operation through an access to the unit cells using a plurality of patterns during a test procedure carried out at a wafer-level.
US07979752B1
Systems and methods for data loss protection are presented. In one embodiment, a data loss protection switch includes a first port, a second port, an error threshold management component and a multiplexer. Components of the data loss protection switch cooperatively operate to efficiently protect data. The first port receives information from a first data stream. The second port receives data from a second data stream. The error threshold management component analyzes errors in the first data stream and the second data stream. The multiplexer is controlled by the error threshold management component and selects among the first and second data streams based on the analysis.
US07979747B2
A system, method, and article of manufacture are disclosed for monitoring and resolving problems detected in the application stack. The application stack may include multiple, interpedently application components which collectively provide a unified service. An interactive problem resolution program may monitor and assist users in troubleshooting an application stack installed on a separate computer system. Generally, when a problem in the application stack is detected, the IPR Program may alert users to the problem and provide information about the problem to guide users in taking steps to correct the problem.
US07979746B2
Processor assemblies and modules are provided. One processor assembly includes first and second processors, and first and second input/output (I/O) interfaces coupled to the first and second processors. The first and/or second I/O interfaces are configured to compare outputs of the first and second processors, and render the first and second processors inactive if the outputs are different. One processor module includes first and second buses coupled to first and second processor assemblies. The first processor assembly includes first and second processors coupled to first and second I/O interfaces, wherein the first I/O interface is coupled to the first bus and the second I/O interface is coupled to the second bus. The second processor assembly includes third and fourth processors coupled to third and fourth I/O interfaces, wherein the third I/O interface is coupled to the first bus and the fourth I/O interface is coupled to the second bus.
US07979745B2
An on-chip debug emulator is capable of connecting to the target device and the host device for remotely debugging the program in the target device. The on-chip debug emulator contains a debug communication control unit. This debug communication control unit contains a plurality of serial communication circuits, the plurality of serial communication circuits are commonly provided with a clock signal. The debug communication control unit controls communications with the target device based on commands output from the host device. Each of The plurality of serial communication circuits contains a data buffer and serially transmits data stored in the data buffer to and from the target device while synchronized with the clock signal. Namely, the plurality of serial communication circuits communicate in parallel while operating synchronized with the same clock. The on-chip debug emulator can in this way be made utilizing a low-cost microcomputer not containing any parallel communication circuits.
US07979742B2
A method and a system of improving recoverability of a dataset associated with a multi-tier storage system are provided. Updates to a dataset are stored in first storage. The dataset and a point-in-time copy of the dataset reside on second storage, and the first storage provides higher reliability than the second storage. The dataset is restored using at least a subset of the stored updates in combination with the point-in-time copy in the event that the dataset is lost.
US07979739B2
Systems and methods for managing a redundant management module are provided. In this regard, a representative system, among others, includes first and second management modules that are configured to manage a computing device; and a programmable logic device that is configured to: instruct the first management module to manage the computing device responsive to detecting that the first management module is ready to manage the computing device, and instruct the second management module to manage the computing device responsive to detecting that the first management module failed to manage the computing device.
US07979735B2
A method for data storage includes creating first and second copies of a logical volume, such that the first and second copies are represented by respective first and second sets of pointers to physical storage locations in which data used by the copies is stored. Responsively to a corruption of at least part of the data that is used by the first copy, the first copy is restored from the second copy by replacing the first set with the pointers in the second set.
US07979732B2
A method, system, and computer program product are provided for achieving timing closure in a clocked logic circuit. For each local clock buffer in a set of local clock buffers, a logic synthesis tool determines a clock control signal input from a set of clock control signal inputs that will drive a clock control signal to the local clock buffer at a target frequency such that a first timing constraint may be met. The operation performed by the logic synthesis tool forms a determined clock control signal input. Responsive to the logic synthesis tool determining the determined clock control signal input, the logic synthesis tool couples the local clock buffer to the determined clock control signal input that drives the clock control signal to the local clock buffer at the target frequency to achieve timing closure in the clocked logic circuit.
US07979730B2
A method, a device, and a bus system for synchronizing at least two TTCAN buses having at least one bus user, there being cycle times of the basic cycles in the TTCAN buses, a global time being determined in each TTCAN bus and the deviations of the global times of the TTCAN buses which are linked together by at least one user being determined from the global times, and the deviations of the individual global times being transmitted to at least one bus user, the cycle times of the TTCAN buses, which are connected by at least one user, being mutually adjusted as a function of the deviations in the global times in such a way that the buses are synchronized with respect to the cycle times.
US07979704B2
An authentication system determines if a counterfeit ineligible unit is installed in a main device. When connected with a battery pack, a notebook PC generates and combines a random number and a function determination signal using a signal combining unit and transmits same to the battery pack. A first function calculation unit calculates the function of the random number. The battery pack has a signal separation unit to separate the combined signal into the random number and function determination signal, and a second function calculation unit to calculate the function of the random number for transmitting back to the notebook PC. A comparison unit compares the calculation results by the first and second function calculation units to determine whether the connected battery pack is an authorized one and denies connection if the pack is an unauthorized one.
US07979698B2
The present invention encrypts authentication information into an image, document or recording. Briefly described, in architecture, one embodiment is a method comprising generating the original work; generating authentication data when the original work is generated, the authentication data comprising at least location information identifying the location where the original work is generated, the location information provided by a received signal from a remote device, date and time information identifying when the original work is generated, the date and time information provided by a received signal from a remote device, and biometric information identifying an originator of the original work; and encrypting the original work with the authentication data using a secret private key when original work is generated.
US07979696B2
A method and system for providing security between a service providing server and a user device, the system including: a user device to request a service and to transmit a packet including a first public key; an authentication server to receive the packet, to authenticate the user device based on the first public key, to generate a secret key if the user device is authenticated, and to transmit the secret key to the user device; and a service providing server to check an integrity of the user device by using information for an integrity attestation having the secret key, and to provide the service to the user device according to the integrity of the user device. When the remote integrity attestation of the user device is implemented by the service providing server, the anonymity of the user device is guaranteed and the integrity of the user device is authenticated.
US07979685B1
A resource-constrained device comprises a processor configured to execute multiple instruction streams comprising multiple instructions having an opcode and zero or more operands. Each of the multiple instruction streams is associated with one of multiple instruction execution modes having an instruction set comprising multiple instruction implementations. At least one of the multiple instruction implementations is configured to change the processor from a first instruction execution mode to a second instruction execution mode. The processor comprises an instruction fetcher configured to fetch an instruction from one of the multiple instruction streams based at least in part upon a current instruction execution mode.
US07979684B2
A method of changing execution contexts is provided that includes receiving a context selection input. In a first clock phase, the method includes shifting data from a first latch element of a normal execution context to a second latch element of the normal execution context and shifting shadow data from a third latch element of a shadow execution context to a fourth latch element of the shadow execution context. In a second clock phase, the method includes shifting the shadow data of the fourth latch element of the shadow execution context into the first latch element of the normal execution context and shifting the data of the second latch element of the normal execution context into the third latch element of the shadow execution context. In a particular embodiment, the method may include receiving a test mode selection and shifting test data, such as scan test or automatic test pattern generated data, to a test output.
US07979679B2
System and method for selectively controlling operations in lanes in an execution unit of a computer
A computer system is disclosed capable of conditionally carrying out an operation defined in a computer instruction. The computer instruction is implemented on so-called packed operands, that is operands containing a plurality of packed objects in respective lanes. An operation defined in the computer instruction is conditionally carried out in dependence on stored condition values which determine for each lane whether or not the operation is to be executed on objects in that lane.An execution unit for a computer system, a computer system and a method of executing instructions are defined.
US07979677B2
A method and device for adaptively allocating reservation station entries to an instruction set with variable operands in a microprocessor. The device includes logic for determining free reservation station queue positions in a reservation station. The device allocates an issue queue to an instruction and writes the instruction into the issue queue as an issue queue entry. The device reads an operand corresponding to the instruction from a general purpose register and writes the operand into a reservation station using one of the free reservations station positions as a write address. The device writes each reservation station queue position corresponding to said instruction into said issue queue entry. When the instruction is ready for issue to an execution unit, the device reads out the instruction from the issue queue entry the reservation station queue positions to the execution unit.
US07979675B2
A microprocessor includes a register that stores a state and a fetch unit that fetches instructions of a program. The program includes a first instruction followed non-immediately by a second instruction. The first instruction instructs the microprocessor to update the state in the register. The second instruction is a conditional branch instruction that specifies a branch condition based on the register state. The fetch unit dispatches the first instruction for execution but refrains from dispatching the second instruction for execution. Execution units receive the first instruction from the fetch unit and responsively update the register state. The fetch unit non-selectively correctly resolves the conditional branch instruction based on the register state when the execution units have updated the register state. The fetch unit also non-selectively refrains from sending the conditional branch instruction to the execution units to be resolved regardless of whether the execution units have updated the register state.
US07979672B2
A method and system for transposing a multi-dimensional array for a multi-processor system having a main memory for storing the multi-dimensional array and a local memory is provided. One implementation involves partitioning the multi-dimensional array into a number of equally sized portions in the local memory, in each processor performing a transpose function including a logical transpose on one of said portions and then a physical transpose of said portion, and combining the transposed portions and storing back in their original place in the main memory.
US07979640B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system that handles way mispredictions in a multi-way cache. The system starts by receiving requests to access cache lines in the multi-way cache. For each request, the system makes a prediction of a way in which the cache line resides based on a corresponding entry in the way prediction table. The system then checks for the presence of the cache line in the predicted way. Upon determining that the cache line is not present in the predicted way, but is present in a different way, and hence the way was mispredicted, the system increments a corresponding record in a conflict detection table. Upon detecting that a record in the conflict detection table indicates that a number of mispredictions equals a predetermined value, the system copies the corresponding cache line from the way where the cache line actually resides into the predicted way.
US07979635B2
A method to allocate resources in a data storage library comprising a plurality of data storage devices configured as a RAID array, by establishing a normal operation resource allocation, a RAID failure resource allocation, and a multiple storage device failure resource allocation. The method receives host I/O requests, and enqueues those host I/O requests. If the system is operating without any storage device failures, then the method processes host I/O requests using the normal operation resource allocation. If the system is operating with a storage device failure, then the method processes host I/O requests using the RAID failure resource allocation. If the system is operating with multiple storage device failures, then the method processes host I/O requests using the multiple storage device failure resource allocation.
US07979633B2
The invention features a method for controlling storage of data in a plurality of storage devices each including storage blocks, for example, in a RAID array. The method includes receiving a plurality of write requests associated with data, and buffering the write requests. A file system defines a group of storage blocks, responsive to disk topology information. The group includes a plurality of storage blocks in each of the plurality of storage devices. Each data block of the data to be written is associated with a respective one of the storage blocks, for transmitting the association to the plurality of storage devices.
US07979632B2
A computer storage system includes a controller, a first storage device and a second storage device including at least one fast storage device. The controller is configured to perform data operations. The first storage device stores data, and the second storage device stores data redundant to the data stored in the first storage device.
US07979624B2
Various embodiments for performing truncate operations in nonvolatile memory are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may include a nonvolatile memory to perform one or more truncate operations on a data file written to the nonvolatile memory and a volatile memory to track a truncate operation performed in the nonvolatile memory. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07979623B2
A system and method for controlling a memory card are provided. The system may include a memory card and a host. The memory card may have a plurality of data transceiving channels, and the host may selectively activate the data transceiving channels in the memory card and transmit a plurality of commands to the activated data transceiving channels.
US07979604B2
A computerized data storage system and a method for portioning performance among data areas on a hard disk drive. The system includes a management computer coupled to one or more host computers and a storage apparatus. The storage apparatus includes hard disk drives and a storage controller for partitioning the hard disk drives among data volumes in the storage apparatus and for assigning the data volumes to the host computer. A performance partitioning module utilizes a queue management table for forming a number of queues on memory of the hard disk drive. The queues receive READ and WRITE requests and convey these requests to data areas assigned on recording media of the hard disk drive. After a request from a queue is executed, a gate between the queue and the data areas may be closed to allow requests from other queues an opportunity to access the data areas.
US07979603B2
A storage system including a queue corresponding to each priority level of command and an activation order control part. A command received from a host is accumulated in the queue corresponding to the specified priority. The activation order control part decides the number of activation object commands to be activated among accumulated commands, based on the priority corresponding to the queue. The activation order control part decides the activation order of the activation object commands, based on a activation object command number decided for each queue, so that the average value of logical response time of the activation object command may be shorter at the higher priority. The activation object command is activated in accordance with the decided activation order.
US07979600B2
A multifunction device has a plurality of functions, including at least a data storage function and a function different from the data storage function, and capable of being connected to a computer via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, the multifunction device including: a device data outputting unit that outputs information forcing an OS (operating system) in the computer to recognize the multifunction device as a USB storage class device according to the USB standard when establishing a connection with the computer; and a controlling unit that, when output data including a command in a SCSI-compliant data format is transferred from the computer, determines which one of the plurality of functions the output data is for controlling, based on a value stored in a logic unit number (LUN) field provided in the command.
US07979599B2
A method for allocation of a buffer memory with three buffers of a module having a processing unit and a bus connection is provided. The module sends or receives data via the bus connection and uses the processing unit to generate data for transmission via the bus connection and process data received via the bus connection. The bus connection and the processing unit function as a producer or consumer in a communication relationship established via the buffer memory. Each buffer assumes one of four statuses—“input area local”, “local”, “input area external” and “external”. Either the bus connection or the processing unit attempt to reserve one of the three buffers by a strategy: when one of the three buffers is already allocated, this buffer is used. Otherwise a buffer with the status “input area external” or “input area local” is used and the status “external” or “local” is assigned.
US07979596B2
A mouse with expandable memory capacity includes a button set with a plurality of buttons, a build-in memory, a card connector, and a controller. Therein, the card connector is for connecting with a memory card. The controller is connected to the button set, the build-in memory, and the card connector, wherein the controller is for controlling the operation of the build-in memory and for controlling the operation of the memory card so as to store a button instruction set. The controller further controls and uses the memory card to form an expansion memory for the build-in memory. The button instruction set records an operation instruction that is represented by combinations formed from one or more of the buttons. Therefore, the goal of expanding memory capacity of the mouse is achieved.
US07979594B2
Serial communications device with dynamic allocation of acceptance masks using serial implementation
A CAN module or a microcontroller comprises a CAN module which receives a serial bit stream. The CAN module comprises a filter register with a bit select input and a single bit output, a bit select unit for selecting a bit of the filter register in accordance with the serial bit stream, a comparator coupled with the single bit output and with the serial bit stream for generating a comparison signal, and a register receiving the comparison signal for accumulating a plurality of comparison results and for generating an acceptance signal.
US07979585B2
The inventive system includes a host, a network including a security gateway, and a public application. Established are an access session between the network and the host and an application session between the public application and the network. An application session record is created for the application session, and includes the user's public user identity used to access the public application, the user's private user identity used to access the network, a host identity, and an application session time. To determine the private user identity for the application session, the security gateway sends a query with the host identity and the application session time. These are compared with the host identity and access session time in an access session record. If they match, then the private user identity in the access session record is returned, and it is stored as the private user identity in the application session record.
US07979579B2
Apparatus and methods for the communication and fault management of data in a multipath data network
An apparatus and methods are provided for the communication of a data stream and management of faults in a multipath data network having a protected ring-in-ring network architecture. The data stream is communicated over redundant paths between various nodes located throughout the network. Each node is capable of dropping and inserting data from the data stream before passing it on to the next node. A single transmitter in communication with an intelligent splitter at each node is utilized to simultaneously transmit the data stream over the redundant paths. In the event of a fault over one of the paths in the network, the intelligent splitter manages the operation of the single transmitter so that the data stream is communicated over an alternate path to circumvent the fault.
US07979570B2
In general, this disclosure describes techniques of determining a backset for client devices attempting to download data of a live transmission. A backset is an amount of temporal delay that the client devices are delayed by when viewing the live transmission. As described herein, a media content provider may determine a recommended backset for each client devices based characteristics of the client device. Each client device may then be backset by the determined value, or may calculate its own backset based on the recommended backset. Establishing a backset for each client device may avoid rebuffering of live transmission data.
US07979565B2
A method of providing a network service includes accepting an incoming transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) connection from a user device at a point of presence (POP) proxy server. The TCP/IP connection corresponds to a particular application that is not stored at the POP proxy server. The method also includes relaying the TCP/IP connection from the POP proxy server to a remote application server that stores the particular application via an accelerated network link. Further, the method includes streaming data between the user device and the remote application server after relaying the TCP/IP connection to the remote application server.
US07979564B2
A method, system, and computer-readable medium are provided for efficiently providing network services to client devices based on the network traffic to be communicated between the device and the network. A system is provided that includes a number of home agents configured to provide network services to mobile nodes. The system is configured in such a way that at least one of the mobile nodes may be served by more than one of the home agents. Thereby, for example, a certain mobile node may be provided voice service via one home agent and email messages via another.
US07979562B2
Method and apparatus for service level agreement formation and management is described. More particularly, a service level agreement (SLA) manager is described. This SLA manager comprises an admission controller, a specification module and a performance measurement module. Such SLA manager is interposed between one or more client computer systems and a service provider computer system.
US07979558B2
A method and system for remote session control of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) sessions, wherein media is established using one or more devices, and multi-media session/session control for multi-media session is provided by a device which may or may not be the same as the device on which the media is established. A method and system is also provided to transfer media from one device to one or more devices retaining multi-media session/session control on a transferring device.
US07979552B1
A system is taught in which a module having processing elements can access network and storage interfaces that are external to the module of the processing elements as though those interfaces were located internal to the module of the processing elements. The system may be operated as one or more provisioned servers, each of the provisioned servers including capabilities as identified by a corresponding set of specifications and attributes, according to various embodiments. Typically the specifications (or constraints) and attributes are specified with a Server Configuration File. An Enterprise Server system may be provisioned into any combination and number of servers according to needed processing and I/O capabilities. Each of these servers may include distinct compute, storage, and networking performance. Provisioned servers may be managed similar to conventional servers, including operations such as boot and shutting down.
US07979551B2
Systems, products, and methods are disclosed for performing a method of allocating services (functionalities of software applications) across several computing devices that make up various domains of a data center so that the functional aspects will continue to be available to remote users even when, from time to time, different sets of computing devices are unavailable.
US07979545B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for managing electronic subscriptions are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes monitoring, at an electronic subscription client, receipt of one or more subscription messages associated with an electronic subscription. Interaction with the electronic subscription client by a client may be monitored to determine a viewing frequency of the one or more received subscription messages. Further, a prompt with a control configured for unsubscribing the user from receiving a future subscription message associated with the electronic subscription may be presented based on the determined viewing frequency.
US07979540B2
A method and system for recovering data from an aborted session via a rule application. A first session having a first document ID is initiated. After an interruption of the first session, a second session having a second document ID is initiated. The first and second document IDs are determined to be identical. The first session is determined to be open in a callee application after the interruption. A rule that associates a recovery action with a data item of the first document is applied by detecting the data item of the first document and selecting the recovery action from multiple predefined recovery actions. The data item of the first document is an identification of a calling application that provides the first and second documents or a value entered by a user of the calling application. The callee application performs the selected recovery action.
US07979539B2
A system, method and computer program product for analyzing data from a message stream, are disclosed. Data in a structured format is captured from a message stream. The captured data is processed to conform to a data model format so that one or more events can be identified from an analysis of the processed data. Once an event has been identified, the message stream is monitored to detect the identified event. When detected, the event is exported via a network.
US07979538B2
One or more downloads of web content from one or more web content servers are monitored. A swarm is defined including one or more previous downloaders of the web content from the one or more web content servers. The one or more previous downloaders of the web content include one or more web content caches including at least a portion of the web content. Stored web content within the one or more web content caches of the swarm is tracked. A new downloader of the one or more web content servers is redirected to the one or more web content caches of the swarm.
US07979532B2
A system and method for testing computing devices is provided. A method for testing computing devices includes providing a suite of test programs on a server for execution by a computing device that is coupled to the server. A test console coupled to the server is used to initiate execution of the tests on the computing device. The server facilitates and coordinates testing between the test console and the computing device. The server provides the test console with results of the tests.
US07979520B2
A prescribed system architecture is recommended to an entity that desires to implement a system supporting distributed applications. A performance scenario is created based on anticipated usage, devices employed by servers running the distributed applications, and topology of locations using the servers. An optimized scenario may be provided by determining device optimization, different use load, and if possible consolidation of distributed applications on servers.
US07979518B2
A network management system communicates with a plurality of intelligent distributed network nodes. The network management system dynamically distributes managed objects across the plurality of intelligent distributed network nodes. Examples of managed objects distributed by the network management system include a service control managed object, a call control managed object, a bearer control managed object, and a resource proxy managed object.
US07979511B2
A network system in which a client device is connected to a server via a LAN. A CPU in the client device obtains date data of respective still picture files from the respective servers and generates representative thumbnail picture. Subsequently, the CPU in the client device generates a directory of a still picture taken on each photographing date, associates the directory with the thumbnail picture of the representative picture of each photographing date, and then displays a list of the representative thumbnail pictures. When a user selects the representative thumbnail picture which is taken on a date identical with a desired still picture from the respective thumbnail pictures, the CPU in the client device obtains all still pictures which are to be stored in the directory associated with the selected representative thumbnail picture from a storage medium in the server, and then generates thumbnail pictures of the still pictures.
US07979499B2
Method for composing, browsing, replying, forwarding e-mail's in an e-mail system and an e-mail client that can reduce e-mail traffic by not sending the original e-mail content in replying or forwarding e-mail's. In accordance with this invention, each e-mail has a Global-ID and each reply e-mail has a Reply-to-ID which corresponds to the Global-ID of the original e-mail, thereby the content of the original e-mail is not contained in the reply e-mail. During browsing e-mail's, the original e-mail is retrieved from repositories which stores sent and received e-mail's, and is incorporated into the browsed e-mail.
US07979490B2
The invention relates to a method for hindering or preventing the illegal distribution of protected data in a peer-to-peer network comprising at least one peer operating an exchange program designed for distribution of data to at least one client according to a selective exchange protocol permitting the peer to operate a selection of clients to which the data is transferred, said selection being carried out as a function of one or more characteristics of the clients. In said method bogus data is sent to the peer such as to influence the selection of clients served by the peer, such that the peer is made to favor the transfer to authorized clients.
US07979484B2
A system and method is provided for performing matrix inverse functions, for example, for use within Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP). The methods use parallelism of a Forward/Backward substitution algorithm in two dimensions to increase a speed of execution of the matrix inverse function. Sampled data is combined with steering vector values, which direct antennas in a desired direction in the absence interference, in order to determine adaptive weights used within filters to remove unwanted energy in the sampled data due to jammers, clutter or other interference. The adaptive weights are recursively computed, using stored values of previously calculated adaptive weights and other factor coefficients derived from the sampled data.
US07979482B2
A random number generator includes a plurality of memory cells arranged in a series, a feedback processor for generating a feedback signal and for feeding the feedback signal into one of the memory cells, and a random number outputter formed to combine states of a group of at least two memory cells to obtain an output sequence. Sequences strongly differing from one another, the number of which is greater than the number of memory cells, can be generated by generating several output sequences AF0, AF1, AF2, . . . , AFk by combining states of different memory cells such that a safe and efficient bus encryption is achievable.
US07979476B2
An information processing apparatus which makes it possible to insert data into any form template that is specified. A data input/output control system 104 as the information processing apparatus processes a form template including at least one field into which database data is inserted. An identifier management section 108 extracts identifiable identifiers from identifiers of fields on a plurality of different form templates.
US07979469B2
A method of facilitating the entry of text into a new message generated by a messaging application of a handheld electronic device is provided that includes receiving a command to reply to or forward a received message that is included within a message thread, scanning the message thread, identifying a plurality of words in the message thread, generating one or more word lists that include the identified words, and displaying the one or more word lists. The method further includes receiving a selection of a selected one of the words from the one or more word lists, and entering the selected one of the words into the new message. Also provided is an improved handheld electronic device that implements the described method.
US07979468B2
Systems and methods are provided for manipulating data sets. In accordance with one implementation, a computerized system is provided for storing, managing, indexing, interrelating, and/or retrieving data sets in a manner independent of the data model. The system includes an element module configured to store and uniquely identify elements and an element relation module configured to store relationships between the elements in the element module. The computerized system may also comprise a class module configured to store attributes of elements in a class and a type definition module configured to define the class and the attributes related to the class. The computerized system may further comprise a state machine module, the state machine module including a state machine transition module and a status module.
US07979463B2
A method for use with a database management system to produce a data structure encoded in computer readable memory that indicates a role associated with a transaction comprising: obtaining page context information that includes userid, subjectid, page name and a transaction identifier; providing a plurality of role views that associate userids and subjectids with role names; using the page name from the page context information to access a page definition relation that provides an association between the page name and at least one subject name; using the at least one subject name from the page definition relation to access a access a role view list that lists one or more of the role views; using the userid and the subjectid from the page context and at least one role view name from the role view list to access at least one role view that includes a matching userid and a matching subjectid; and producing a log roles structure that associates a role name from the at least one accessed role view and a transaction identifier from the page context.
US07979462B2
Providing a comparison of a set of similar items is disclosed. In some embodiments, a selection of a set of similar items to be included in a comparison is received from a first member of an online community, and the comparison is stored so that the comparison can be presented to a second member of the online community when an indication is received that the comparison is of interest to the second member.
US07979461B2
Processing a query involves directing the query to an extended index database, the extended index database comprising a core database and one or more supplemental indexes, wherein the query seeks an item. Directing the query for processing includes determining if the sought item is located within the core database and, if the item is not determined to be located in the core database, then determining if the item is located in one or more of the supplemental indexes, and returns a query result. The returned result may comprise any one of three responses, including a response that indicates the item is located in the core database, or a response that indicates that the item was not located in the core database but was located in one or more of the supplemental indexes, or a response that indicates that the item was not located at all.
US07979446B2
A method of: submitting reference sequences to a taxonomic database to produce taxonomic results; and reporting a taxonomic identification based on the taxonomic results. The reference sequences are the output of genetic database queries that return a score for each reference sequence. A method for processing a biological sequence obtained from an assay by: converting base calls located in a predetermined list of positions within the biological sequence to N; and determining the ratio of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the biological sequence relative to a reference sequence. Each entry in the predetermined list of positions represents the capability of a substance hybridizing to a microarray used to generate the biological sequence. The substance is not the nucleic acid of a target pathogen.
US07979445B2
A computer-implemented system provides a browse tree in which items represented within a database are arranged within a hierarchy of item categories. Each time a user selects an item, an amount of credit is cumulatively assigned to the ancestor nodes (categories) of the selected item. The amount of credit assigned to a particular category of the browse tree over time for a given user represents the user's predicted affinity for that category. The user's relative preferences for some or all of the categories are predicted by calculating differences between the user's predicted affinities for such categories and the predicted affinities of a population of users for such categories. Scores reflective of these relative category preferences are used to provide personalized recommendations or other personalized content to the user.
US07979444B2
Path-based ranking of unvisited Web pages for WWW crawling is provided, via identifying all the paths beginning with a “seed” URL and leading to visited relevant web pages as “good-path set”, and for each unvisited web page, identifying the paths beginning from the “seed” URL leading to it as “partial-path set”; classifying all the visited web pages and labeling each web Page with the labels of a class or classes it belongs to; training a statistic model for generalizing the common patterns among all ones of “good-path set”; and evaluating the “partial-path set” with the statistic model and ranking the unvisited web pages with the evaluation results.
US07979439B1
A computer-implemented data processing method comprises receiving an index specification, storing data in a data repository, and indexing the data to create an index of the date stored in the data repository. The index specification comprises a user-specific index parameter. The data is indexed along a dimension of the data specified by the user-specified index parameter. The is received from data source computers and may be indexed as the data is received from the source computers.
US07979437B2
An index structure of metadata provided for searching for information on contents, a method for providing indices of the metadata, and a method and an apparatus for searching for the metadata using the index structure of the metadata are provided. The index structure of the metadata includes a list of keys corresponding to fields of the metadata, and location information for defining a key, wherein at least a part of the location information is expressed as a predetermined code.
US07979430B2
A method and apparatus includes a portable electronic memory storage device and a plurality of exhibitor computers, each having at least one specifically identified electronic uploadable file and a port adapted to selectively interface with the portable device. When a portable device engages a port, electronic content corresponding to the port is uploaded from the computer to the portable device. In another embodiment, data from the portable device, such as demographic data, is also downloaded to the exhibitor computer.
US07979425B2
Systems and techniques for converting numeric queries into substantially equivalent textual queries are described. In general, the systems and techniques discussed use search query logs to accurately select a most probably mapping for a numeric-to-text conversion. This mapping can occur when a system (e.g., a server-side search system) receives a series of numeric inputs (e.g., from a cell phone keypad) that may correspond to more than one word. For example, a search server may receive input 22737, which corresponds to both the words ACRES and CASES, as part of a query. The server uses current entries in query logs to create mappings for words from the numeric input. If recent queries indicate that the term ACRES is currently more popular than the term CASES, the mapping may match the entry 22737 to the text ACRES.
US07979420B2
A new continuous query to a data stream management system (DSMS) may use a silent relation whose source does not provide any heartbeats. During execution of any given operator, the DSMS processes data from one input (“active input”) using its time stamp as if the same time stamp is received from another input whose relation has fallen silent (“empty input”), if one or more predetermined conditions are met. One predetermined condition is that the empty input's operator has all its own inputs silent. And another predetermined condition is that a maximum time stamp that is currently present among all the inputs of the empty input's operator is equal to a time stamp that was last received from these same inputs. When both conditions are met, previously received data from the empty input is time stamped with the same time stamp as the most recently received data from the active input.
US07979419B2
Systems, devices and methods for supporting live and time-shifted video streaming via distributed search methods for registering and locating cached portions of video streams shared in peer-to-peer systems.
US07979417B1
A method of processing documents is described. The method includes the operation of receiving a document in a search engine crawler. The document includes an embedded first link tag. The first link tag includes one or more information pairs. A respective information pair includes a respective parameter and a corresponding value. The parameters in the one or more information pairs may correspond to content at one or more content locations or one or more document locations. The method also includes selecting a method of processing content associated with the first link tag in accordance with one or more of the information pairs.
US07979404B2
A “forward” delta data management technique uses a “sparse” index associated with a delta file to achieve both delta management efficiency and to eliminate read latency while accessing history data. The invention may be implemented advantageously in a data management system that provides real-time data services to data sources associated with a set of application host servers. To facilitate a given data service, a host driver embedded in an application server connects an application and its data to a cluster. The host driver captures real-time data transactions, preferably in the form of an event journal that is provided to the data management system. In particular, the driver functions to translate traditional file/database/block I/O into a continuous, application-aware, output data stream. In an illustrative embodiment, a given application aware data stream is processed through a multi-stage data reduction process to produce a compact data representation from which an “any point-in-time” reconstruction of the original data can be made.
US07979400B2
A database spread over multiple nodes allows each node to store a journal recording changes made to the database and also allows a journaling component to manage the memory space available for journaling. Two threshold size values may be specified for the journal. The first threshold value specifies a journal size at which to being pruning the journal on a given node. A journal pruning algorithm may be used to identify journal entries that may be removed. For example, once a given transaction completes (i.e., commits) the journal entries related to that transaction may be pruned from the journal. The second threshold value specifies the maximum size of the journal. After reaching this size, journal entries may be written to disk instead of the in-memory journal.
US07979392B2
A method and apparatus for preventing duplicate saving of a resource between universal plug and play (UPnP) devices, which provide content directory service during content synchronization, are provided. The method includes receiving a change log including metadata about a changed resource from a UPnP device of a transmitter, determining whether the changed resource is a duplicate based on the received change log, and receiving and saving the changed resource according to a designated saving path based on a result of the determination.
US07979380B2
Data of at least one of past values and present values of a system is consolidated from a plurality of sources. Virtual data of future values of the system is generated by applying the acquired data to a predictive model. Additional acquired data is received. The virtual data is dynamically updated by applying the additional acquired data to the predictive model.
US07979369B2
Aggregate scoring is used to help classify digital content such as content uploaded to multi-user websites (e.g., social networking websites). In one embodiment, specific categories are used that relate to a social implication of content. For example, text, images, audio or other data formats can provide communication perceived to fall into categories such as violent, abusive, rights management, pornographic or other types of communication. The categories are used to provide a raw score to items in various groupings of a site's content. Where items are related to other items such as by organizational, social, legal, data-driven, design methods, or by other principles or definitions, the related items' raw scores are aggregated to achieve a score for a particular grouping of items that reflects, at least in part, scores from two or more of the related items.
US07979368B2
A flow processing facility, which uses a set of artificial neurons for pattern recognition, such as a self-organizing map, in order to provide security and protection to a computer or computer system supports unified threat management based at least in part on patterns relevant to a variety of types of threats that relate to computer systems, including computer networks. Flow processing for switching, security, and other network applications, including a facility that processes a data flow to address patterns relevant to a variety of conditions are directed at internal network security, virtualization, and web connection security. A flow processing facility for inspecting payloads of network traffic packets detects security threats and intrusions across accessible layers of the IP-stack by applying content matching and behavioral anomaly detection techniques based on regular expression matching and self-organizing maps. Exposing threats and intrusions within packet payload at or near real-time rates enhances network security from both external and internal sources while ensuring security policy is rigorously applied to data and system resources. Intrusion Detection and Protection (IDP) is provided by a flow processing facility that processes a data flow to address patterns relevant to a variety of types of network and data integrity threats that relate to computer systems, including computer networks.
US07979366B2
A technique is provided to coarse-class one or more customer characteristics used in a predictive model. A set of functions are used to represent partition points of the customer characteristic into smaller classes. Each of the final classes of the customer characteristic is represented separately in the predictive model. An initial set of functions may be established to provide an initial set of partitions points of the customer characteristic. The set of functions is then processed using a genetic algorithm to evolve the partition points to new values. Processing the set of partitions using the genetic algorithm may continue until a stopping criterion is reached.
US07979362B2
An interactive data mining system (100, 3000) that is suitable for data mining large high dimensional (e.g., 200 dimension) data sets is provided. The system graphically presents rules in a context allowing users to readily gain an intuitive appreciation of the significance of important attributes (data fields) in the data. The system (100, 3000) uses metrics to quantify the importance of the various data attributes, data values, attribute/value pairs, ranks them according to the metrics and displays histograms and lists of attributes and values in order according to the metric, thereby allowing the user to rapidly find the most interesting aspects of the data. The system explores the impact of user defined constraints and presents histograms and rule cubes including superposed and interleaved rule cubes showing the effect of the constraints.
US07979352B2
Centralized check image storage system. The present invention provides for sharing check images stored in a substantially centralized storage system between and/or among banks in support of the check collection process. In some embodiments, check images are received from the capture bank via a landing zone at the centralized storage facility. These images and information supporting the check collection process can be in the form of load file. A cross-reference file including information supporting the check clearing process such as unique handles identifying the check images is received from a paying bank, possibly also via a landing zone. Check images can be identified based on these unique handles, so that the check images can be made accessible to both the capture bank and the paying bank from the substantially centralized storage system.
US07979349B2
A financial account issuer facilitating transactions between accounts is disclosed. The invention provides sellers with an irrevocable method of receiving funds from a purchaser and for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party. The invention also includes the options of interest payments, the use of different account issuers, different financial accounts, budget transfers, spend compartmentalization, cost-splitting, adjusting credit limits, loans, gifting, intermediary facilitating the transaction, transaction tracking, rapid funds availability, confidential transfer of funds, immediate initiation of shipment by a seller, releasing funds to a seller only after approval of the goods, services, or other value, demonstrating proof of payment, and recourse against a remote seller.
US07979346B2
A system is provided for generating pricing information regarding loans where each loan has loan level data and is associated with a borrower. The system includes a pricing engine for generating a price for each loan including an interest rate component and a credit risk component. The credit risk component is generated based on loan level data for the particular loan.
US07979345B2
Trading software may receive trading information from an exchange. The trading software may use the trading information to compute an estimate of last traded total sweep quantity. The trading software may also display the last traded total sweep quantity on a trading screen.
US07979344B2
Systems, methods, and media for automatically controlling trade executions based on percentage of volume trading rates are provided. In some embodiments, systems for automatically controlling trade executions based on percentage of volume trading rates, are provided, the systems comprising at least one processor that: determines a market impact relationship for each of a plurality of positions included in a portfolio; determines a risk model associated with the portfolio; solves for a percentage of volume trading rate for each of the plurality of positions included in the portfolio based on the market impact relationship and the risk model; and causes trades to be executed in at least one of the plurality of positions included in the portfolio at the percentage of volume trading rate corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of positions.
US07979341B2
A system and method of creating a market for sales leads and financing amongst merchants of like wares that includes a central registry for receiving information about prospective buyers and their finances for compiling and communicating an anonymous sales lead including the prospective buyer's finances to merchants in the same line of business. The leads are auctioned or sold anonymously to interested merchants that receive the contact information for the prospective buyer but not the identity of the initial merchant.
US07979337B2
The present invention provides a system and method for administering an investment option known as a lifetime income share. Lifetime income shares mitigate survival risk, the risk that an individual will outlive his or her assets. More specifically, the purchase of a plurality of lifetime income shares certifies that an individual is entitled to receive a predetermined, periodic income payment for the life of the purchaser. Additionally, the lifetime income shares of the present invention may be purchased and distributed to participants by a third party (e.g. commingled fund). The third party wishing to provide the lifetime income shares of the present invention to participants may purchase a predetermined amount of shares of an annuity from the underwriting organization and distribute it to the participants. This plan has an investment phase, a distribution phase, and a payout phase. Once the payout phase begins, the stream of monthly income commences at a specified age or date.
US07979332B2
A method for valuing a business based on the business generating an acceptable return to an owner during a defined investment period, the method including the steps of assessing the business background for the business to be valued, establishing value optimization factors that determine business value in the light of the business background and the relevant industry of the business to be valued, establishing a business capitalization rate (BCR) appropriate for the business and industry of the business to be valued, calculating a weighted average notional earning before interest and tax (WANEBIT) based on historical financial records of the business to be valued, and calculating the net business value using the WANEBIT and the BCF.
US07979320B2
A computer performs a method of communicating with a referral server to identify configurables available to the computer based on the computer's location and at least one other factor. The computer receives a list of provider servers selected by the referral server for referring to the computer because the provider servers on the list auto-configure configurables in the computer's location and according to the at least one other factor. The method communicates with a provider server selected from the list to purchase a selected configurable and to auto-configure the computer's computing environment to operate the selected configurable. The method communicates with the referral server to provide a metric about the provider server's performance during purchase and auto-configure.
US07979313B1
A parts usage comparison system and methods to directly network buyers and sellers in the mining, construction and agriculture industries in order for buyers to easily and efficiently procure parts and for sellers to easily and efficiently liquidate surplus assets specific to the aforementioned particular industries. The present invention provides methods of searching, buying and selling new, used and reman or rebuilt products. The parts usage and comparison system includes a parts database, a processor coupled to the parts database and a software interface. Third party buyers and third party sellers are connected to the parts database through the software interface. This connection allows searching and maintaining of information on the database.
US07979294B2
A method of providing a healthcare provider the ability to schedule an appointment including receiving a patient's requested appointment from an appointment scheduler; receiving an initial visit type from the appointment scheduler corresponding to the requested appointment; scheduling the requested appointment when it is determined that the requested appointment corresponds to a basic appointment; and providing the appointment scheduler with a set of decision support tools and responding to the requested appointment, when it is determined that the requested appointment corresponds to a complex appointment.
US07979292B2
Methods, including service methods, articles of manufacture, systems, articles and programmable devices are provided for charging a travel fee as a function of an ease of access to a travel option. A plurality of travel options is provided and ranked as a function of different environmental-friendliness values. Each of a plurality of different rates are set for each of the travel options, the rates set progressively lower as a function of a ranking of the travel option environmental-friendliness values. In response to a traveler selecting and using one of the travel options, an ease of access of the traveler to the selected travel option is determined and a travel fee charged as a function of the rate set for the selected travel option and the determined ease of access of the traveler to the selected travel option.
US07979288B2
The present disclosure relates to a device, system and method of automated interpretation of medical prescription text. Prescription text may be entered into a user interface that may be analogous to a paper prescription entry such as manually written text. The system may then provide parsing, prompts and/or hints along with validity feedback as the prescription information is entered by the user.
US07979275B1
The present technology measures distortion introduced by a noise suppression system. The distortion may be measured as the difference between a noise-reduced speech signal and an estimated idealized noise reduced reference (EINRR). The EINRR may be determined from a speech component and noise component that are pre-processed, and the EINRR may be used with masks associated with energies lost and added in the speech component and noise component. The EINRR may be calculated on a time varying basis.
US07979273B2
The invention is based on the idea of providing a method for high-resolution, waveform-preserving digitization of analog signals, wherein conventional scalar logarithmic quantization is transferred to multi-dimensional spherical coordinates, and the advantages resulting from this, e.g., a constant signal/noise ratio over an extremely high dynamic range with very low loss with respect to the rate-distortion theory. In order to make use of the statistical dependencies present in the source signal for an additional gain in the signal/noise ratio, the differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) is combined with spherical logarithmic quantization. The resulting method achieves an effective data reduction with a high long-term and short-term signal/noise ratio with an extremely small signal delay.
US07979263B2
A method, system and program are provided for development of an adaptive computing integrated circuit and corresponding configuration information, in which the configuration information provides an operating mode to the adaptive computing integrated circuit. The exemplary system includes a scheduler, a memory, and a compiler. The scheduler is capable of scheduling a selected algorithm with a plurality of adaptive computing descriptive objects to produce a scheduled algorithm and a selected adaptive computing circuit version. The memory is utilized to store the plurality of adaptive computing descriptive objects and a plurality of adaptive computing circuit versions generated during the scheduling process. The selected adaptive computing circuit version is converted into a hardware description language, for fabrication into the adaptive computing integrated circuit. The compiler generates the configuration information, from the scheduled algorithm and the selected adaptive computing circuit version, for the performance of the algorithm by the adaptive computing integrated circuit. In the exemplary embodiments, multiple versions of configuration information may be generated, for different circuit versions, different feature sets, different operating conditions, and different operating modes.
US07979262B1
Connections between digital blocks and other circuit components, such as power supplies and clocks, are verified using a discrete property or object, such as a discrete discipline. A discrete discipline is defined for each value of an operating parameter, such as voltage or clock speed, that is used in a circuit design. Each discrete discipline is propagated throughout respective nets using bottom-up and/or top-down propagation. As a result, each digital net is associated with a power supply value through its corresponding discrete discipline. A determination is made whether two digital nets are connected to each other within the same digital island. If so, a determination is made whether the digital nets are compatible. If they have conflicting discrete disciplines, then they are not compatible and an error report or signal can be generated to identify the incompatibility and its location. Compatibility checks can disregard grounded digital nets. Verifications can be performed for both digital and mixed signal digital/analog designs without running simulations.
US07979256B2
A method for determining absorbent article effectiveness of a virtual absorbent article. The steps of the method include providing a virtual body model, providing a virtual absorbent article model, providing virtual simulation software, running a virtual simulation of deformation of the virtual absorbent article model in proximity with the virtual body model, running a virtual simulation of the fluid balance of the virtual absorbent article model in proximity with the virtual body model, coupling the virtual simulation of deformation of the virtual absorbent article model and the virtual simulation of the fluid balance of the virtual absorbent article model, and determining absorbent article effectiveness of the virtual absorbent article model in proximity with the virtual body model.
US07979255B2
In an aircraft power system architecture, power requirements stem from functional top-level aircraft requirements and from the interrelationship among many systems. Thus, to balance power in the overall aircraft power system architecture or at least a portion of the power system architecture at the aircraft level, these interrelationships are considered. A method, system and computer program product are provided for the management of power system architectures at the aircraft level during pre-design. The designer can specify top-level aircraft parameters, and power values in all the systems of the aircraft at varying levels of complexity can be displayed.
US07979247B2
A method is provided for developing an architecture model for a system-of-systems (SoS) that includes n system levels L1 . . . Ln, each of which includes at least one component of the SoS. For at least i>1, each system level Li includes at least one component of level Li-1. The method includes developing an architecture model for at least one level of the SoS. For at least i>1, the level Li-1 architecture model can be developed by developing a functional architecture model for level Li-1, and thereafter transforming the level Li-1 functional architecture model into a physical architecture model for level Li-1. The functional architecture model includes a functional and a logical structure for level Li-1. And as such, the functional architecture model is developed based upon a concurrent functional and logical decomposition of a functional architecture model developed for level Li.
US07979245B1
Modeling systems and methods for constructing one or more models of a computing system using collected data. Certain model-based systems build topology models and/or model instances by transforming collected performance data into a collection-location independent form. In certain examples, systems include at least one agent for collecting performance data from monitored resource(s), canonical data transform (CDT) configurations, and a data transformation module for performing data transform operation(s) on the performance data based on at least one CDT configuration. The data transform operation may include generating and/or updating a topology model, assigning metrics to model object(s), updating properties of model object(s), creating associations between existing model objects, or the like. Certain systems and methods also allow for a single piece of data to be processed by multiple models or for pieces of data collected from different locations to be matched and/or associated with the same model object.
US07979241B2
An optical interrogation system is described herein that can interrogate a label-independent-detection (LID) biosensor and monitor a biological event on top of the biosensor without suffering from problematical parasitic reflections and/or problematical pixelation effects. In one embodiment, the optical interrogation system is capable of interrogating a biosensor and using a low pass filter algorithm to digitally remove problematic parasitic reflections contained in the spectrum of an optical resonance which makes it easier to determine whether or not a biological event occurred on the biosensor. In another embodiment, the optical interrogation system is capable of interrogating a biosensor and using an oversampling/smoothing algorithm to reduce oscillations in the estimated location of an optical resonance caused by the problematical pixelation effect which makes it easier to determine whether or not a biological event occurred on the biosensor.
US07979229B2
The present invention includes: a displacement altering unit for generating a displacement control pressure corresponding to a displacement control signal; an input unit for inputting a target displacement; a pressure calculating unit for calculating a displacement control pressure corresponding to the target displacement based upon predetermined reference characteristics of the displacement altering unit; a pressure detecting unit for detecting a pressure corresponding to the displacement control pressure; a signal calculating unit for calculating a displacement control signal corresponding to the input target displacement; and a correcting unit for correcting the displacement control signal calculated by the signal calculating unit based upon the displacement control pressure having been calculated by the pressure calculating unit and the measured pressure detected by the pressure detecting unit.
US07979228B2
Various techniques are described for high resolution time measurement using a programmable device, such as an FPGA. The timing may be triggered by any event, depending on the applications of use. Once triggering has occurred, a START pulse begins propagating through the FPGA. The pulse is able to propagate through the FPGA in a staggered manner traversing multiple FPGA columns to maximize the amount of time delay that may be achieved while minimizing the overall array size, and thus minimizing the resource utilization, of the FPGA. The FPGA timing delay is calibrated by measuring for the linear and non-linear differences in delay time of each unit circuit forming the staggered delay line path for the timing circuit. The FPGA achieves nanosecond and sub-nanosecond time resolutions and is used in applications such as various time of flight systems.
US07979226B2
This invention pertains to a system and methods for the production of color coatings gradients on a surface using a blender and applicator, sensors and to computer memory containing stored color gradient representation information to be used for color composition customization and for visually displaying alphanumeric data/information on 2D and 3D surfaces. This invention integrates gradient specific programmable computer digital processes to function as internal editors, manipulate information and present an operator with multiple options and production overrides. This invention will make data analysis more interactive by utilizing existing external software applications as editors and expanding the process of visual communications for multiple purposes.
US07979217B2
A method of analyzing spectroscopic data, the method comprising collecting spatially resolved measurement spectroscopic data of a sample for a series of measurements spots, assigning the measurement spots into a predefined set of spectral categories, based on characteristics of the spectroscopic data of the respective measurement spots, identifying groupings of the measurement spots based on their respective spectral categories and their spatial relationships, and assigning each grouping of measurement spots to a fundamental sample unit data object.
US07979216B2
At least one type of carbon material susceptible to generate a gas G is selected. Then, a model is built from the carbon isotopic composition of a gas P generated by thermal degradation of this type of carbon material. The model is calibrated by calibrating the kinetic effect independently of the precursor effect. In order to achieve that, pyrolyses are performed on compounds modeling the type of carbon material, said compounds being synthesized and labeled with 13C. Using said model, a carbon isotopic composition of gas P generated is estimated. Finally, it is determined whether gas G has been generated from the selected type of carbon material, by comparing a measured isotopic composition of gas G to the estimated isotopic composition.
US07979193B2
90°V12 reciprocating, EFI/DIS fueled/fired, IC engines having a PCM controller operating the engine in an Even Fire ignition mode, in a novel fueling and firing sequence called Progressive Single/Pair (PS/P) firing, wherein the cylinders of each of a set of four pairs of internal cylinders are simultaneously fueled and fired in parallel to produce a pump-gas fueled power curve greatly improved over V6 and V8 engines. The inherent imbalance-induced transitory vibration in IFR RPM is compensated-for by fuel feed control, namely, leaning one cylinder of each pair-fired cylinder pair. The inventive 90°V12 retro-fits into the engine compartment of conventional vehicles and can use any liquid or gaseous fuel. The inventive 90°V12 has use in the exemplary fields of: automotive engines; heavy military and industrial equipment and vehicle engines; marine engines; aircraft engines; and stationary power sources; in both 2-cycle and 4-cycle modes, and in normally aspirated, super-charged and turbo-charged configurations.
US07979191B2
A method for monitoring a starting process of a motor vehicle, having a drive train including a driving motor, a torque transfer system and a transmission, a controller and an actuator, which is controlled by the controller for actuating the torque transfer system. Upon initiation of the starting process, if it is observed that the motor vehicle does not start, despite a clear starting request, appropriate measures for starting the motor vehicle are initiated.
US07979190B2
There is provided a control unit including a vehicle speed sensor for detecting a vehicle speed, a vehicle stop determination module for determining whether or not a vehicle is stopping based on a detection result of the vehicle sensor and a controller, wherein the controller operates an inclination component of gravity acceleration in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle on a road surface on which the vehicle is running based on an output of the power source detected by a power source output sensor and a brake torque detected by a brake torque sensors when the stop determination unit is determining that the vehicle is in a stopped state and controls either of the output of the power source and the brake force based on the result of the calculation when the vehicle starts.
US07979187B2
A method for coupling a load to a power source by means of a clutch, the method having the steps of initially increasing the pressure of the actuator to bring the pressure plates of the clutch into contact with the clutch plates gradually increasing the pressure of the actuator even further to allow the clutch plates to be engaged with the pressure plates while decreasing at least ones the pressure during a short time to create pressure dips such that the torque generated over the load is at least temporarily decreased, and levelling the pressure of the actuator to maintain the engagement of the pressure plates with the clutch plates to allow the load to be driven by the power source.
US07979186B2
A torque converter clutch slip rate monitoring system includes a slip rate calculation module that receives a raw slip speed of a torque converter clutch and that calculates torque converter clutch slip acceleration based on the raw slip speed. A torque converter clutch slip rate monitoring module detects deviation of the slip acceleration from a predetermined range during a pulldown of the torque converter clutch.
US07979182B2
A swing drive system for a construction machine enhances safety for an operator. A swing control means 55A has a lever input amount-torque table 11 and an actual rotating speed-torque table 13. Based on a lever input amount and an actual rotating speed of an electric motor, the tables are used to derive torque values. A minimum value of the torque values is taken as the acceleration torque. The swing control means 55A further has a lever input amount-meter-out restriction area table 15 and an actual rotating speed-relief torque table 119. Based on the lever input amount and the actual rotating speed of the electric motor, a meter-out restriction area is derived from the lever input amount-meter-out restriction area table and the actual rotating speed to calculate a meter-out torque. A minimum value of the meter-out torque and relief torque is taken as the braking torque.
US07979172B2
Method and system for enabling semi-autonomous or autonomous vehicle travel includes creating dedicated travel lanes for vehicle travel, determining the location of vehicles in the dedicated travel lanes, and providing instructions to the vehicles in the dedicated travel lanes to enable them to travel in a manner which maximizes speed. To determine the location of the vehicles, a vehicle travel management system may be arranged in each vehicle to determine the location of that vehicle, e.g., using a GPS-based positioning system or similar system, and which also optionally receives travel instructions which can be implemented by a vehicle control system to control the direction and speed of the vehicle. The vehicle control system can be designed to assume control of vehicle travel without requiring driving by an occupant of the vehicle and control vehicle travel based on the provided instructions.
US07979170B2
A snow removal system wherein snow removers located in remote locations can be monitored and controlled at a computing device. Data collected by sensors on the snow removal unit or data collected from a secondary source can be used to control the operation of the snow removers. In one embodiment, data regarding whether it is snowing at a particular location can be collected by moister sensors on the snow removal device and verified by on-line contemporaneous weather reports corresponding to the same location.
US07979169B2
Aspects of this invention relate to an adjustable bed that may include one or more articulating portions, and may include one or more components, including an air inflatable mattress associated with the adjustable bed frame, a programmable logic controller, a remote memory storage facility, a remote storage location of user preferences, a cell phone remote control, a modular control device, an air purification facility, a power outlet controller, a Bluetooth remote control, an ultra wide band remote control, a wireless USB remote control, and the like.
US07979159B2
The present invention relates to a method and a system for determining the relation between a local coordinate system located in the working range of an industrial robot (1) and a robot coordinate system. The method includes attaching a first calibration object (10) in a fixed relation to the robot and determining the position of the first calibration object in relation to the robot. Then, locating at least three second calibration objects (14,15,16) in the working range of the robot, a reference position for each of the second calibration objects in the local coordinate system can be determined by moving the robot until the first calibration object is in mechanical contact with each second calibration object. By reading the position of the robot when the calibration objects are in mechanical contact the relation between the local coordinate system and the robot coordinate system can be calculated.
US07979154B2
A management system includes a variable-period setting unit that sets a variable period in which quality-control values vary. Then, a retrieving unit retrieves events sandwiching the variable period. The events can be a maintenance of the semiconductor manufacturing device and/or a change of a correction value. An analysis-period setting unit sets an analysis period for analyzing a cause of variation of the quality-control values between the events retrieved by the retrieving unit.
US07979153B2
An exposure-data generating apparatus comprises a first memory, a second memory, and an exposure data memory. The first memory stores drawing data in bitmap format as first data that is used for an exposure. The second memory stores second data whose data unit in a column direction is converted to a resolution unit of information of each cell based on the first data. The exposure data memory stores exposure data that is raster data obtained by a burst transfer of third data at every column unit. The second data is rearranged and converted to the third data, where an arrangement of data of each cell of the second data in the column direction is changed to a row direction. The cell constitutes a display element of a Digital Micro-mirror Device that performs the exposure based on said exposure data.
US07979152B2
A build chamber for use in a three-dimensional printer and adapted for receiving powder for producing three-dimensional objects. The build chamber includes a build surface for receiving the powder, with the build surface including a first plate defining holes and a second plate defining a plurality of openings spaced apart and offset from the plurality of holes in the first plate. The second plate is disposed below and spaced from the first plate.
US07979126B2
An improved structure for an implantable medical device, such as an implantable pulse generator, is disclosed. The improved device includes a charging coil for wirelessly receiving energy via induction from an external charger. The charging coil in the device is located substantially equidistantly from the two planar sides of the device case. Because the coil is substantially equidistant within the thickness of the case of the device, the device's orientation within the patient is irrelevant, at least from the standpoint of the efficiency of charging the device using the external charger. Accordingly, charging is not adversely affected if the device is implanted in the patient with the wrong orientation, or if the device flips within the patient after implantation. Moreover, because the central portion of the device naturally corresponds to the largest lateral extent within the case due to the case's curved edges, the charging coil can be made larger in area, which improves its gain vis-à-vis the external charger.
US07979123B2
A device and method for delivering electrical stimulation to the heart in a manner which provides a protective effect against subsequent ischemia is disclosed. The protective effect is produced by configuring a cardiac pacing device to intermittently switch from a normal operating mode to a stress augmentation mode in which the spatial pattern of depolarization is varied to thereby subject a particular region or regions of the ventricular myocardium to increased mechanical stress.
US07979116B2
A body composition measuring instrument includes a body composition calculating unit for calculating the body composition of a user by using a plurality of electrodes, a reference value storage region for storing information of a reference value related to the past body composition of the user, a display control unit for performing a control to display a position of the body composition during the time calculated by the body composition calculating unit in reference to a line showing the reference value on a predetermined graph, and a display section for providing a display corresponding to the output from the display control unit.
US07979115B2
This patent document discusses systems, devices, and methods for increasing a sensitivity or specificity of thoracic fluid detection in a subject and differentiating between pleural effusion and pulmonary edema. In one example, a thoracic impedance measurement circuit senses a thoracic impedance signal. In another example, a processor receives the thoracic impedance signal and determines whether such thoracic impedance signal is “significant.” A significant thoracic impedance signal indicates the presence of thoracic fluid and may be recognized by comparing the thoracic impedance signal (or variation thereof) to a thoracic impedance threshold. When a significant thoracic impedance signal is recognized, the processor is adapted to detect one or both of: a pleural effusion indication and a pulmonary edema indication using one or a combination of: physiologic information, patient symptom information, and posture information. In another example, the thoracic impedance threshold is adjusted using such physiologic, patient symptom, or posture information.
US07979097B2
A multimode wireless communication device comprising a Wi-Fi module, a cellular communication module, and an integrated power management module is described. The integrated power management module or power management means is configured to manage power for the Wi-Fi module and the cellular communications module. The integrated power management module comprises a Wi-Fi power save mode, a Wi-Fi sleep mode, a Wi-Fi power down mode, a cellular power save mode, and a cellular low power mode. In the Wi-Fi power save mode a timer switches the Wi-Fi module between a Wi-Fi power save awake state and a Wi-Fi power save sleep state.
US07979088B2
Disclosed are a method, system, and computer program product for a Water Friend or Foe System (WFSS) including a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in a SIM reader on a marine vessel. The WFFS system on the marine vessel transmits secure identity information and location information to a WFFS tracking station. The WFFS system on the marine vessel detects anomalies on the marine vessel and in response transmits an alarm signal to a WFFS tracking station and/or shuts down a propulsion system of the marine vessel. The WFFS system on the marine vessel can also receive a one-time “override” encrypted code to re-enable ship control of the propulsion system. The secure identity information and real-time vessel location are transmitted in one of: an Automatic Identifier System (AIS) message type or a Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) message type.
US07979085B2
The receive power of uplink signals in a CDMA mobile communication system is measured by prohibiting a mobile station from transmitting an uplink signal including a frame over a first channel during a predetermined transmission prohibition period, and measuring a receive power of uplink signals at a base station transmitted from each of the mobile stations located in a cell during the prohibition period. Another method of measuring the receive power includes measuring a first receive power of uplink signals at a base station from each mobile station located in a cell, and measuring each second receive power of uplink signal including a frame only over a first channel transmitted from each mobile station, and then calculating a total receive power of uplink signals excluding frames over the first channel by subtracting respective second receive powers from the first receive power.
US07979080B2
A location of a subscriber can be observed by means of a mobile network in a completely anonymous way, without a subscriber identifier or a temporary subscriber identifier. At first, a method extracts from a first time slot of a radio channel a message which includes information about a second time slot of a radio channel. The first time slot of a radio channel discloses the current cell of the subscriber and the second time slot of a radio channel discloses a new cell of the subscriber. A location of the subscriber is determined on the basis of the current and the new cell. This location is approximately situated in a geographical intersection area of the current and the new cell. Different kinds of statistics can be deduced from the observations concerning activities of subscribers.
US07979073B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for solving congestion in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system. A WCDMA node B broadcasts a congestion occurrence information message over a cell area when congestion is sensed. A mobile communication terminal then checks the type of service to receive in the WCDMA node B and, when the mobile communication terminal receives a circuit service and there is a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)/General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) cell available with which the mobile communication terminal can communicate, it switches its service cell mode from a WCDMA cell into the GSM/GPRS cell.
US07979070B2
The invention provides a method and device which may perform a combined attach and communication connection establishment procedure when attaching an equipment such as a mobile station to a mobile communication network. An attach request sent form the equipment may initiate this combined attach and communication connection establishment process. In the Home Location Register, communication connection parameters are set as default values which may be automatically selected, for instance when receiving a combined attach and communication connection establishment request. The combined attach and communication connection establishment process reduces the signaling load in the network and speeds up communication connection establishment.
US07979069B2
A mobile device communicates with a base station according to a communication protocol, the communication protocol having a first message for signaling a readiness of the base station for a normal login operation of the mobile device with the base station and a second message for signaling a readiness of the base station for an ad-hoc login operation of the mobile device with the base station, so that the ad-hoc login information of the ad-hoc login operation can be distinguished from the normal login information of the normal login operation. To this end, the mobile device has a receiver, an interpreter and a processor, which is formed so as to perform the ad-hoc login operation when the readiness of the base station for an ad-hoc login operation is signaled.
US07979067B2
Methods and systems for generating information about a physical context of a user are provided. These methods and systems provide the capability to render a context avatar associated with the user as a composite image that can be broadcast in virtual environments to provide information about the physical context of the user. The composite image can be automatically updated without user intervention to include, among other things, a virtual person image of the user and a background image defined by encoded image data associated with the current geographic location of the user.
US07979066B2
A system is disclosed that includes a first multiple International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) location register (MILR) module. The first MILR module includes user information associated with a plurality of mobile subscribers. For each of the mobile subscribers, the user information includes a first IMSI number and a first Mobile Directory Number (MDN). The first IMSI number and the first MDN are associated with a first country. The user information includes a second IMSI number and a second MDN. The second IMSI number and the second MDN are associated with a second country. The user information also includes active location information for each of the mobile subscribers.
US07979065B1
A system and method are provided with a computing system, capable of binding SMS, voice and other media transactions into a continuous, stateful messaging process that maintains awareness of the communications event over time delays and media transitions. Communications events between two or more communicators over one communications medium are bridged by the system to a second communications medium, according to the needs of the communicators. Various applications of the system permit selective or automated bridging of the communications event based on predetermined events and timeline formulae.
US07979060B2
A privacy-enabled telephone directory is disclosed that is implemented through a contact facilitator. The contact facilitator receives a contact request from a caller which includes the name of the party to be called and disambiguation information to distinguish the called party. The contact facilitator applies the disambiguation information to entries in a disambiguation database to select the mobile telephone user corresponding to the contact request information. The contact facilitator then accesses a profile database to retrieve the called party's profile which contains directions for processing the request. Possible directions include immediately connecting the caller with the called party, batching the call, or following other specific instructions regarding the contact request. Profile instructions may be changed by the mobile telephone user at any time.
US07979053B2
A security system for a mobile phone is disclosed for securing private information of the mobile phone. The system may set at least two PIN numbers for a super user and a general user, encrypt a phone book system of the mobile phone by setting a security status for each contact in a phone book system of the mobile phone. The system also may start a secure work mode if a user of the mobile phone is a super user and starting a non-secure work mode if the user is a general user of the mobile phone. A security method for a mobile phone is also disclosed.
US07979050B2
A portable electronic apparatus is enabled to notify its position depending on whether user authentication by its authenticating function is unsuccessful or not, when an instruction for controlling the power of the apparatus is given.A controlling unit determines by a condition determining function whether or not the user authentication by the authenticating function when the user gives a long pressing operation on a power key is unsuccessful or not. In a case where the authentication result coincides with a predetermined function, the controlling unit continues power supply to each element that constitutes a position notifying function. Even after the power is switched off, the position notifying function, which is kept operating, sends position information.
US07979042B2
A radio frequency (RF) phase shifter having an RC-CR circuit that includes a first capacitor having a first capacitor node and a second capacitor node and a first resistor coupled between the first capacitor node and a ground. The RC-CR circuit also includes a second resistor having a first resistor node and a second resistor node and a second capacitor coupled between the first resistor node and the ground. The RF phase shifter generates arbitrary phase shift by using a scheme of adding two perpendicular vectors with variable gains (or amplitudes).
US07979041B1
The signal strength of an out-of-channel interferer is estimated by measuring the transition density of the sign of the down-converted signal. RF interferers at a higher or lower frequency than the desired RF signal appear as high frequency content in the down-converted signal, thus increasing the likelihood of zero-crossings.
US07979038B2
Provided are a PLL modulation circuit, a radio transmission device, and a radio communication device capable of maintaining a modulation accuracy for modulation of a wide band. The PLL modulation circuit (100) includes: a PLL unit (110), first modulation signal input means for inputting a first modulation signal to a divider (112) or a phase comparator (113) of the PLL unit (110); second modulation signal input means for DA converting the digital modulation signal in a DA converter (116) to generate an analog second modulation signal and inputting it to a voltage control oscillator (111) of the PLL unit (110); a second divider for dividing the output signal of the voltage control oscillator (111); and control means for generating a center frequency control signal, a gain control signal, and a second division ration control signal according to the channel selection signal and the control voltage inputted to the voltage control oscillator (111) and supplying them to the divider (112), the DA converter (116), and the second divider (114), respectively.
US07979034B2
An RFID transceiver (200) includes a common frequency source (250), a receiving channel (230) and a transmitting channel (240). The common frequency source (250) is configured to provide a predefined intermediate frequency signal fIF, and a predefined carrier frequency signal fc. The RFID receiving channel (230) includes an upconverting mixer (232) having a first input coupled to receive the predefined intermediate frequency signal fIF, a second input coupled to receive the predefined carrier frequency signal fc, and an output, the upconverting mixer (232) operable to produce an upconverted signal at a frequency defined by fc±fIF. The RFID receiving channel (230) further includes an image rejection downconverting mixer (234) having a first input coupled to receive an RFID signal having a carrier frequency substantially at the predefined carrier frequency fc, a second input coupled to receive the upconverted signal, and an output, the image rejection downconverting mixer (234) operable to produce an output a downconverted signal at substantially the predefined intermediate frequency fIF. The RFID transmitting channel (240) includes a modulator (244) operable to modulate modulation data onto the predefined carrier frequency signal fc.
US07979031B2
In a communication network architecture having multiple technology coverage areas that support different network technologies, a service provider monitors its customer's experience as the customer roams between technology coverage areas. An agent, such as software installed on-board the customer's mobile equipment, measures parameters that are related to the network technology, and communicates the measured parameters to the service provider, over the communication network.
US07979019B2
The present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of restricting copying using, as a master copy, a copy of a produced work such as a book. An MFP is provided with a printing permission/prohibition judging section and an output paper sheet selection section. The printing permission/prohibition judging section judges whether or not restriction information for restricting image formation is contained in either (i) an information tag provided in a document, or (ii) image data acquired by an image scanning section. The output paper sheet selection section selects a regulatory-information-containing recording paper sheet (i.e., a recording paper sheet on which a copy restriction code/pattern has been formed in advance, or a recording paper sheet having a wireless tag in which regulatory information has been stored in advance) as a recording paper sheet to be subjected to the image formation, which regulatory-information-containing recording paper sheet contains the regulatory information for prohibiting or restricting an image forming process based on the recording paper sheet on which an image has been formed.
US07979010B2
Provided is an image forming apparatus including at least a latent image bearing member, a latent electrostatic image forming unit, a developing unit which includes at least a developing roller and a supply roller, and a transfer unit, wherein both of a diameter R (mm) of the developing roller and a diameter R′ (mm) of the supply roller are 12 mm or less; the toner contains at least a binder resin, a wax, and a colorant with the wax having a melting point of 75° C. or less; an amount of the wax exposed on a surface of the toner is 10 mg/g to 30 mg/g; and when a diameter (mm) of the developing roller is represented by R the toner has a torque T (mNm) satisfying the inequation, 20/R
US07979009B2
A developer supplying cartridge including a supply developer containing portion, a developer supplying port for supplying a developer in the supply developer containing portion to a developing device via a supplied port of the developing device, and a supplying port shutter unit that opens and closes the developer supplying port and that includes a housing member covering the developer supplying port, a cylindrical member which is rotatably disposed in the housing member, and provided with a through-hole corresponding to the developer supplying port, and which assumes, by its rotation, a developer supply allowing position where the developer supplying port and the through-hole communicate with each other and a developer supply stopping position where the developer supplying port is closed, and a scraping member which is abutted on an outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical member to scrape off developer adhering to the outer circumferential surface.
US07978998B2
There is a charge member which charges secondary transfer remaining toner on an intermediate transfer member to a polarity opposite to a normal charge polarity. The transfer remaining toner charged by the charge member is moved in the direction opposite to that of normal toner by a transfer bias and moved from the intermediate transfer member onto an image bearing member. A BK station is arranged on the downstream of other stations. In a continuous BK monochromatic mode, by applying a reverse bias to transfer portions of the other stations and applying the transfer bias only to the BK station, waste toner can be collected into the BK station (simultaneously with the transfer). In a full-color mode, since each transfer bias is applied to all stations, the waste toner is collected into the station on the uppermost stream. Thus, the image bearing member for collecting the transfer remaining toner on the intermediate transfer member is made different according to the mode, thereby suppressing that the collection of the waste toner is concentrated on one image bearing member.
US07978991B2
An image forming apparatus includes a high voltage generating circuit 91 that applies an oscillating voltage in which a DC voltage and an AC voltage are superimposed on each other, to a charging member 42 disposed in contact with an image carrier 41; a voltage control portion 96 that controls a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage to a target voltage value; and an initial voltage adjusting portion 95 that sets a target voltage value based on a DC current value between the image carrier 41 and the charging member 42 which is detected by a current detecting portion 92. When an environmental condition which is used when the target voltage value is set changes, the initial voltage adjusting portion 95 performs an interrupt operation during an image forming process.
US07978987B2
In an image forming apparatus, an image forming portion forms an image on a rotator. A storage portion stores change characteristics information relevant to correction parameters corresponding to phase points of the rotator. A designating portion sequentially designates the correction parameters based on the change characteristics information. A correcting portion corrects an image forming position on the rotator based on the correction parameter designated by the designating portion. When it is determined, based on a detecting phase point of the rotator detected by a detecting portion, that the current phase of the rotator corresponds to a gradual phase point at which the correction parameter changes at a rate equal to or lower than a predetermined value, the designation by said designating portion is shifted to the correction parameter corresponding to the gradual phase point.
US07978979B2
A system is disclosed. The system has a first receiver, a second receiver, and an input device configured to transmit a command signal in response to user input. The system also has an input waveguide having a first end in communication with the input device and terminating at the first receiver, and a second end in communication with the second receiver. The input waveguide is arranged to receive and route the command signal to the second receiver. The system also has an output waveguide having a first end in communication with the first receiver, and a second end in communication with the second receive. The second receiver is configured to determine whether the command signal is directed to the first receiver and/or the second receiver based a code contained in the command signal. The second receiver is further configured to execute the command signal when it is determined that the command signal is directed to the second receiver, and relay the command signal through the output waveguide to the first receiver for execution when it is determined that the command signal is directed to the first receiver.
US07978976B2
An optical data transmission system having a hub, an optical router, and a plurality of optically pumped sources at a curb location, and a plurality of optical network units (ONUs). The ONUs generate and transmit respective data modulated pumping light to the curb location where it is received by the optically pumped sources, which convert it into the wavelength channels having predefined wavelength ranges assigned to respective ONUs. The optical router routes the wavelength channels for transmission to the hub.
US07978973B2
A wavelength division multiplexing transmission system, the system comprising: a plurality of channels at different wavelengths, each channel comprising a transmitter, a receiver, and one or more amplifiers, the system further comprising an encoder for encoding data with a coding, and; a decoder for decoding transmitted data; prioritizing means for prioritizing the data on each channel; monitoring means for monitoring directly or indirectly, raw (uncorrected) bit errors on each channel; power adjusting means for, varying the power on a channel in response to the bit error rate.
US07978970B2
Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a method comprising: from an angled first end region of a substantially cylindrical beam splitter, reflecting incident light striking from any of a first set of predefined directions and to substantially transparently convey through said beam splitter and to a camera lens incident light traveling in any of a second set of predefined directions, the beam splitter defining a longitudinal central axis.
US07978968B2
Disclosed is an auto focus device that automatically and easily sets an AF frame to a focus range desired by a cameraman in an AF system.An auto focus device includes: a focusing unit that performs focusing on an imaging screen of a camera; a best focus range detecting unit that detects a best focus range from the imaging screen showing the focus result of the focusing unit; and an AF frame automatic setting unit that automatically sets the position of an AF frame indicating the range of an AF area, which is a target range focused by auto focus in the imaging screen, in the detected best focus range.
US07978966B2
An image capturing device includes an imaging element that captures an image of a photographic subject, an optical member that is disposed over an imaging surface of the imaging element, a vibration application member that applies vibration to the optical member, and a support assembly including a non-metallic first support member and a non-metallic second support member for supporting the optical member. The first support member and the second support member are configured to follow the deformation of the vibrating optical member with individual speeds different from each other.
US07978959B2
A memory addressing method is suitable for systems performing data compression and/or expansion such as audio and/or video systems having a variable speed data reproduction capability. According to an exemplary embodiment, a method for processing a signal such as an audio or video signal in a signal reproduction device begins by receiving the signal. The received signal is processed in dependence upon a mode of operation of the signal reproduction device representing a speed at which the received signal is to be reproduced by the signal reproduction device. The received signal is speed converted and then stored in a memory of the signal reproduction device when the signal reproduction device is in a first mode of operation. The received signal is stored in the memory of the signal reproduction device without being speed converted when the signal reproduction device is in a second mode of operation. According to an embodiment, the first mode of operation represents that the received signal will be reproduced by the signal reproduction device at a speed greater than an input speed corresponding to the received signal. The second mode of operation represents that the received signal will be reproduced by the signal reproduction device at a speed less than or equal to an input speed corresponding to the received signal.
US07978956B2
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US07978954B2
A rotation speed control apparatus for a disk recorder is provided, which includes a buffer monitor and a rotation speed decision maker. According to the amount of data in the buffer, the buffer monitor outputs a buffer data. According to the buffer data, the rotation speed decision maker outputs a disk-rotation-speed signal. According to the disk-rotation-speed signal, the disk recording speed of an optical storage system is adjusted by the rotation speed control apparatus to avoid disk recording interruption due to lack of buffer data.
US07978949B2
Optical fibers and optical transmission systems, which are capable of broadband and large capacity single-mode optical transmission, and have low macrobends are provided.The optical fiber made from pure silica comprising a core region, a cladding region at the circumference of the core region a coating layer made from a resin at the circumference of the cladding region, and having a cutoff wavelength of shorter than 1530 nm, and positive dispersion at 1550 nm, bending loss of less than 10 dB/m at a bending diameter of 20 mm, and an effective core area of 120 μm2.
US07978940B2
Broadly speaking, disclosed is a carrier assembly for an optical device, the carrier assembly comprising in combination: a glass substrate with an optical die thereon; and a silicon carrier attached to the glass carrier. During manufacture, a number of optical dies can be attached on the glass substrate using self-alignment of AuSn solder bumps using gaseous flux at about 300 deg C. The glass carrier can be mounted to the silicon carrier to form an optical device carrier assembly comprising micromechanical guide holes to facilitate a optical fiber connection, using self-alignment of SnAg solder bumps using gaseous flux at about 250 deg C. Each individual optical device can be tested at a wafer scale. The resulting optical device assembly can be diced to form individual optical devices having a carrier assembly that exhibits the traits of both a silicon carrier and a glass carrier.
US07978939B2
An optical module comprises: an optical element array comprising plural optical elements that emits or receives light; and an optical waveguide comprising a clad and plural cores respectively with optical path changing portions, the cores being disposed in the clad with an interval. The optical path changing portions are optically connected to the optical elements. The optical path changing portions are arranged in a first direction having an angle with respect to a formation direction of the cores, the first direction being corresponding to an arrangement direction of said plurality of optical elements.
US07978934B2
Down-sampling of an image may be performed in the DCT domain. Transform matrices are obtained for down-sampling a DCT image of size M×N to a down-sampled DCT image of size I×J. The transform matrices may be used to down-sample the DCT image directly in the DCT domain. A spatial domain down-sampling method is selected and applied to the DCT image to produce a down-sampled DCT reference image. The transform matrices are selected by solving an optimization problem, leading to transform matrices which achieve a desired trade-off between the visual quality of images obtained using the transform matrices and the computational complexity associated with using the transform matrices. The visual quality is a measure of the difference between the down-sampled DCT image obtained using the transform matrices and the visual quality of the DCT reference image obtained using a spatial domain down-sampling method.
US07978933B2
A robust video temporal method for registration between test and reference video sequences without a priori knowledge of the respective signal parameters initially produces frame and subimage distillation measurements from the test and reference video sequences. The frame distillation measurements are linearly aligned using a local Pearson's cross-correlation coefficient (LPCCC) image to obtain a best alignment line, each pixel of which represents an LPCCC cross-correlation coefficient between frames of the test and reference video sequences. For each pixel of the best alignment line that is below a threshold, a vertical search is performed in the LPCCC image for a higher cross-correlation coefficient as the best cross-correlation coefficient to achieve temporal mapping between frames of the test and reference video sequences.
US07978932B2
A mosaicing method taking into account motion distortions, irregularly sampled frames and non-rigid deformations of the imaged tissue. The method for mosaicing frames from a video sequence acquired from a scanning device such as a scanning microscope, includes the steps of: a) compensating for motion and motion distortion due to the scanning microscope, b) applying a global optimization of inter-frame registration to align consistently the frames c) applying a construction algorithm on the registered frames to construct a mosaic, and d) applying a fine frame-to-mosaic non rigid registration. The method is based on a hierarchical framework that is able to recover a globally consistent alignment of the input frames, to compensate for the motion distortions and to capture the non-rigid deformations.
US07978928B2
A method and system for compensating for a moving object placed between a projector and a projection scene is shown. The method/system dividing a movement pattern of the moving object into N discrete position states, and for each of said N position states determining a corresponding view projection matrix. While projecting an image within any of the N position states, multiplying a desired projection image by the corresponding view projection matrix.
US07978924B2
In one of many possible embodiments, a system for optimizing bit utilization in data encoding is provided. The exemplary system includes a data processing subsystem configured to identify a total number of unique characters within a set of data, which number represents an original base of representation of the set of data. The data processing subsystem is further configured to convert the set of data to a base of representation that is higher than the original base of representation and then encode the base-converted data with a fixed-length encoding scheme.
US07978921B1
Systems and methods for representing low dynamic range data in compressed formats with a fixed size block allow low dynamic range data to be stored in less memory. The compressed formats use 8 bits per pixel to represent 24 bits of low dynamic range data for each pixel. The compressed format includes four or six endpoint values, a partition index that specifies a mask for each pair of the endpoint values, and an index for each pixel in the block. The indices are compressed to allow more bits for the endpoint values. Mode bits are included to distinguish between the different encodings and various blocks within a single compressed image may be encoded differently. Compressed low dynamic range values may be efficiently decompressed in hardware.
US07978912B2
An image sensing apparatus is configured such that the level of each of first and second output signals obtained by exposing a color image sensor by using mutually differing first and second photoelectric conversion properties is compared with one of threshold values to thereby select output signals to be used as signals for constituting an image from among the first and second output signals for individual color components thereof. The threshold values are set for the individual color components based on the first and second output signals.
US07978903B2
A defect detecting method includes: an image acquiring process for capturing an image of an inspection object having an identical sequence of pattern and acquiring the image; and a defect emphasizing process for emphasizing a defect of the captured image. The defect emphasizing process includes: an inspected-point selecting process for sequentially selecting an inspection point on the captured image; and a defect emphasizing value calculating process for obtaining differences by subtracting from a luminance value of the selected inspection point each luminance value of a plurality of comparison points disposed around the inspection point and selecting one difference of the smallest value of the obtained differences in luminance to determine a defect emphasizing value of the inspection point.
US07978899B2
In one aspect, a method of processing currency in a currency processing machine includes the act of retrieving, from a plurality of input currency bills, characteristic information from each of the bills, the characteristic information itself including at least a first characteristic information relating to fitness. The method also includes the act of assigning to each currency bill one of a plurality of fitness types and fitness levels relating to the first characteristic information of the bill, at least one of the fitness types and the fitness levels being defined by a user. The method also includes the act of outputting each currency bill along one of a plurality of output paths designated by the user to receive currency bills, the output path having a fitness type and/or fitness level assigned to the currency bill.
US07978898B2
In acquisition of a micro image of a sample by a micro image acquiring unit, when a plurality of image acquiring ranges are set for the sample as an object of image acquisition, a plurality of corresponding focus information are set, and furthermore, when a plurality of partial images acquired by scanning the sample by the micro image acquiring unit include a partial image including mixing of a plurality of image acquiring ranges, the focus information is switched in the middle of scanning of the partial image. With such a structure, even when a plurality of objects are contained in the sample, images of the respective objects can be preferably acquired. Thereby, an image acquiring apparatus, an image acquiring method, and an image acquiring program which are capable of preferably acquiring images of a plurality of objects are realized even when the plurality of objects are contained in a sample.
US07978894B2
Apparatus for and method of fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing of an entire microscope sample, or a substantially large portion of a microscope sample, using a linear array detector synchronized with a positioning stage that is part of a computer controlled microscope slide scanner. The invention provides a method for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample into a single contiguous digital image. The invention also provides a method for statically displaying sub-regions of this large digital image at different magnifications, together with a reduced magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The invention further provides a method for dynamically displaying, with or without operator interaction, portions of the contiguous digital image. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, all elements of the scanner are part of a single-enclosure that has a primary connection to the Internet or to a local intranet. In this embodiment, the preferred sample type is a microscope slide and the illumination and imaging optics are consistent with transmission mode optics optimized for diffraction-limited digital imaging.
US07978892B2
A structured light pattern digitizing method is combined with photogrammetry to determine a 3D model of an object. The structured light digitizing operation generates a 3D model of the object being scanned, and this model is then used to compute a higher accuracy model using photogrammetry.
US07978885B2
A method of analysing a plurality of biological entities using an imaging apparatus. The method comprises: providing a marker for said plurality of biological entities, said marker being capable of identifying objects within said plurality of biological entities when detected using the imaging apparatus, the method of provision being arranged such that said marker is capable of identifying said objects during a first time period, and said marker is less capable of identifying said objects during a second time period; during the first time period, recording a marked-up image in which spatial definitions of said objects are identifiable from said marker; during the second time period, recording a first image of said plurality of biological entities; and generating a spatial definition for an object in said first image using data derived from said marked-up image.
US07978876B2
The present invention relates to hiding codes in input data, e.g., such as still imagery and motion pictures. One claim recites: embedding an N-bit code with a source signal, N being at least one. The embedding proceeds, for each bit of the N-bit code, according to the following: mapping the bit to a portion of the source signal; changing values of at least two data values associated with the portion in accordance with the bit. The act of changing embeds the N-bit code in a manner that is generally imperceptible to a human observer of the source signal. A related claim recites that the portion includes a data value, and the above method further includes changing the value of the data value in accordance with said bit of the code, an amount of the changing being adjusted based on the value. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.
US07978870B2
A headset apparatus having a headwear member (9) e.g. an ear shell, possessing a surface formation to which a separate attachment device (1) is reciprocally shaped to attach by a push-fit (e.g. by sliding, slotting or clipping) into engagement with the surface formation. In this way the attachment means may be fitted to the surface formation on the headwear member without requiring the use of through-holes passing through the body of the headwear member.
US07978852B2
A method of partially scrambling a data stream (6) including transport stream packets (7), each transport stream packet (7) having a header (8) and a payload (9), wherein a sequence of transport stream packets (7) has payloads carrying encoded data elements, arranged in units (15), includes: selecting transport stream packets (7) forming a subsequence of the sequence, and scrambling at least part of the payloads (9) of each transport stream packet (7) in the subsequence. The method further includes monitoring the payloads (9) of at least some of the transport stream packets (7) in the sequence for the presence of data (22) indicating a boundary between two subsequent units (15), and, for selected units (15), including at least one of the transport stream packets (7) carrying data forming part of the selected unit (15) in the sub-sequence.
US07978849B2
An image forming apparatus of the invention includes a key generating unit to change an encryption key and to generate an encryption key different from the previous encryption key at each time of change, an encryption unit to encrypt image data using the encryption key generated by the key generating unit, a first storage unit to store the encrypted image data, a second storage unit to store the encryption key and a table to correlate the image data encrypted by the encryption key with the encryption key, and a decryption unit to decrypt the data stored in the first storage unit by using the encryption key correlated in the table. According to the image forming apparatus of the invention, the read data can be stored with high security into a storage apparatus such as an HDD, while an operation burden is not imposed on a user.
US07978841B2
In a telecommunication system having at least two communicants (i.e., a caller and a callee), a system and method are presented for collecting information associated with the geographical location of either of the communicants. In one embodiment, the approach entails receiving a geographical location corresponding to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) telephone number, and collecting geographical location information associated with the received geographical location.
US07978838B2
Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and devices for improved audio, video, and data conferencing. The present invention provides a conferencing system comprising a plurality of endpoints communicating data including audio data and control data according to a communication protocol. A local conference endpoint may control or be controlled by a remote conference endpoint. Data comprising control signals may be exchanged between the local endpoint and remote endpoint via various communication protocols. In other embodiments, the present invention provides for improved bridge architecture for controlling functions of conference endpoints including controlling functions of the bridge.
US07978833B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for caller identification messaging are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a calling party uses a Caller ID Messaging Device that supplants the incoming calling line identification (ICLID) signal with a Caller ID Messaging Signal and transmits the Caller ID Messaging Signal to a destination communications address. An alternate embodiment provides that the calling party may use a conventional telephone to access a communications network, activate Caller ID Messaging Services, compose or retrieve a stored Caller ID Message of the Caller ID Messaging Signal, and transmit the Caller ID Messaging Signal to the destination communications address. The Caller ID Message and Caller ID Messaging Signal may include text, video, voice, and/or digital data.
US07978830B2
A messaging device may include a memory configured to store a first message from a first caller and intended for a called party and to store information identifying a group that includes a number of broadcast parties that include the first caller. The messaging device may include a processor configured to receive a reply message from the called party and to broadcast the reply message to at least a subset of the group.
US07978824B2
An x-ray tube assembly includes an x-ray tube envelope, a cathode assembly and a transmission anode assembly. The transmission anode assembly includes an x-ray generation layer and an anode substrate. The x-ray generation layer may be annular and mounted on a rotating disc-shaped anode substrate or cylindrical and mounted on a rotating and/or oscillating cylindrical anode substrate.
US07978821B1
A device for measuring crystal orientation with an x-ray source using the Laue method and includes an apparatus for mapping a polycrystalline surface having a grain orientation. The apparatus including an x-ray source creating an x-ray beam, the beam having polychromatic photons, the beam collimated to a point on the polycrystalline surface. A two-dimensional x-ray detector with an aperture, the x-ray beam passing through the aperture, the detector detecting and collecting polychromatic photons diffracted from the polycrystalline surface and onto the detector. A means for moving the polycrystalline surface with respect to the x-ray source to collect a plurality of diffracted x-rays which define a Laue pattern. A data processing means to collect Laue patterns of the polycrystalline surface based upon the plurality of diffracted x-rays, the Laue patterns identifying a plurality of crystallographic orientations and a plurality of grain surface areas on the polycrystalline surface.
US07978820B2
An instrument capable of both X-ray diffraction, XRD, and X-ray fluorescence measurements, XRF, arranges an X-ray source 10 creating an incident X-ray beam directed to a sample on a sample stage. An X-ray detection system is mounted at a fixed angle 2θ for high energy energy dispersive XRD For XRF, an X-ray detection system is used.
US07978818B2
A radiosurgery system is described that is configured to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to a target structure in a patient. In some embodiments, inflammatory ocular disorders are treated, specifically macular degeneration. In some embodiments, other disorders or tissues of a body are treated with the dose of radiation. In some embodiments, the target tissues are placed in a global coordinate system based on ocular imaging. In some embodiments, the target tissues inside the global coordinate system lead to direction of an automated positioning system that is directed based on the target tissues within the coordinate system. In some embodiments, a treatment plan is utilised in which beam energy and direction and duration of time for treatment is determined for a specific disease to be treated and/or structures to be avoided. In some embodiments, a fiducial marker is used to identify the location of the target tissues. In some embodiments, radiodynamic therapy is described in which radiosurgery is used in combination with other treatments and can be delivered concomitant with, prior to, or following other treatments.
US07978805B1
A neutron source includes a low atomic number element target that is bombarded by incident energetic particles to provide a neutron flux. The source receives a controlled flow of liquid gallium that cools the target. The energetic particles may be for example protons or deuterons and the target is housed in a moderator/reflector assembly. Advantageously, the liquid gallium provides improved heat transfer, smaller flow rates and reduced stress on the target in comparison to prior art liquid coolants.
US07978788B2
A method and arrangement for estimating a DC offset for a signal received in a radio receiver. The received signal includes a digitally modulated signal component, a DC offset component, and a noise component. When the signal is of a known type, such as a Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)-modulated signal with constant amplitude in a GSM/EDGE cellular radio system, the method exploits the known characteristics of the statistical distribution for the known type of signal to obtain a better estimate of the DC offset. The statistical distribution of the received digitally modulated signal component is first analyzed. That statistical distribution is then compared to the known statistical distribution for the known type of signal to identify differences. The differences are then used to estimate the DC offset. Additional iterations may be performed to further improve the DC estimate.
US07978783B2
A radio frequency (RF) transmitter includes a transmitter processing module that generates a phase signal that is phase modulated based on outbound data and that generates a amplitude signal that is amplitude modulated based on the outbound data, wherein the amplitude signal is generated in accordance with an amplitude transition rule that restricts an amplitude transition between consecutive amplitudes of the amplitude signal. An up-conversion module phase modulates an oscillation based on the phase signal to generate an up-converted signal. A radio transmitter front-end includes a polar amplifier that amplifies and amplitude modulates the up-converted signal based on the amplitude signal to generate a transmit signal.
US07978780B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide for adaptive cyclic delay diversity to be used in wireless transmissions to mobile devices. The cyclic delay diversity may be adapted through cyclic delay parameters determined based at least in part on a determined speed of the mobile device. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07978775B2
A frequency offset detector is provided which is adaptable to a great frequency offset of one or more carrier waves in an OFDM signal. The frequency offset detector comprises a multiplication circuit which multiplies, by a pseudorandom number bit sequence, a reception signal generated by Fourier transformation of an OFDM modulated signal wherein pilot symbols are dispersed and arranged in accordance with four kinds of patterns and periodically transmitted. Four arithmetic circuits extract the pilot symbols corresponding to the respective patterns from a result of the multiplication by the multiplication circuit for each of the four kinds of patterns and calculate the sum of phase differences among the extracted pilot symbols to output an absolute value. A detection circuit detects a frequency offset on the basis of a maximum value of the absolute values calculated by the four arithmetic circuits. A complex sinusoidal wave is generated on the basis of the detected frequency offset, and the frequency of an input signal is converted thereby, such that the offset of the reception signal can be corrected.
US07978764B2
The present invention relates to a method of encoding a sequence of pictures, a picture being divided into blocks of data, said encoding method comprising the steps of:—computing a residual error block from a difference between a current block contained in a current picture and a candidate area using of a prediction function,—computing an entropy of the residual error block,—computing an overall error between said current block and said candidate area,—estimating a power consumption of a video processing device adapted to implement said prediction function,—computing a rate-distortion value on the basis of the entropy, the overall error and the estimated power consumption of the video processing device,—applying the preceding steps to a set of candidate areas using a set of prediction functions in order to select a prediction function according to the rate-distortion value.
US07978756B2
Systems and methods for monitoring impulse noise are described. At least one embodiment is a method, which comprises detecting whether impulse noise is present and in response to detecting the presence of impulse noise, performing time domain analysis to determine whether one or more impulse noise sources are present based on minimum interarrival time and maximum impulse length. The method further includes performing frequency domain analysis to estimate frequencies associated with the one or more impulse noise sources and based on the time domain analysis and frequency domain analysis, providing a total number of impulse noise sources and frequencies associated with the impulse noise sources. In this regard, the embodiments described herein provide dual-speed monitoring of impulse noise in the form of short-term and long-term monitoring. The use of dual-speed monitoring ensures that dynamic changes in the impulse noise environment are quickly addressed and also ensures better characterization of multiple impulse noise sources in order to provide better impulse noise protection.
US07978755B2
Methods and systems for detecting defects in serial link transceivers. Defect detection includes detecting open circuits in one or more of the transmission lines, detecting short circuits between one or more of the transmission lines and a power supply, detecting short circuits between the transmission lines, or detecting short circuits across optional AC-couplings in the transmission lines. The detection can include direct or indirect detection of voltage or current.
US07978751B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for adapting a current path delay estimate for path delay tracking. In order to determine the path delay an operating mode is selected and a set of hypothesized path delays are determined based on said operating mode. A metric for each hypothesized path delay is determined, and a current path delay estimate is adapted based on the computed metrics for the hypothesized path delays.
US07978750B2
A microcontroller is disposed on a receiving part of a wireless system in order to process a demodulation signal generated by a receiver circuit, and includes a memory and a CPU. The memory stores a control program of the microcontroller. The control program thereof includes a dual loop routine for an operation in reception standby mode. The dual loop routine has a first loop and a second loop included in the first loop. The CPU has an instruction set consisting of a plurality of instructions, and executes the instructions according to the program stored in the memory. The CPU executes an instruction irrelevant to an operation when the microcontroller is in reception mode during the second loop a number of times. The number of times is at least such that noise caused by the repetition of the second loop is lowered below a desired level.
US07978748B2
Methods and systems of a receiver selecting a subset of plurality of frequency hopping bands for synchronization of the receiver are disclosed. One method includes the receiver determining a receive signal quality metric for each band of the plurality of frequency hopping bands, and selecting at least one synchronization band as a subset of the plurality of frequency hopping bands for synchronization based on the receive signal quality metric of each of the plurality of frequency hopping bands.
US07978745B2
Two-dimensional photonic crystal surface-emitting laser comprising a two-dimensional photonic crystal, having media different in refractive index arrayed in a two-dimensional cycle, disposed in the vicinity of an active layer that emits light by the injection of carriers, wherein the two-dimensional photonic crystal consists of square lattices having equal lattice constants in perpendicular directions, and a basic lattice consisting of a square with one medium as a vertex has an asymmetric refractive index distribution with respect to either one of the two diagonals of the basic lattice to thereby emit light in a constant polarizing direction.
US07978742B1
Methods for operating diode lasers are provided. According to one method, the diode laser comprises a wavelength selection section, a gain section and a saturable absorber. The method comprises applying a hybrid-control signal comprising a hybrid-control DC bias to the saturable absorber, and applying a hybrid-driving signal comprising a hybrid-driving DC bias and a hybrid-driving AC bias to the gain section. The hybrid signals are selected and the diode laser is configured such that a relatively high hybrid-control DC bias corresponds to a relatively low average of the output power of the diode laser, and a relatively low hybrid-control DC bias corresponds to a relatively high average of the output power of the diode laser. The hybrid-driving DC bias is between a switch-on threshold of the diode laser and a switch-off threshold of the diode laser, and the hybrid-driving AC bias is periodic. The hybrid-driving AC bias has a peak-to-peak amplitude greater than the difference between the switch-on threshold and the switch-off threshold.
US07978738B2
A wavelength converter comprising an arsenic sulfide (As—S) chalcogenide glass fiber coupled to an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) crystal and a laser system using an OPO crystal coupled to an As—S fiber are provided. The OPO receives pump laser radiation from a pump laser and emits laser radiation at a wavelength that is longer than the pump laser radiation. The laser radiation that is emitted from the OPO is input into the As—S fiber, which in turn converts the input wavelength from the OPO to a desired wavelength, for example, a wavelength beyond about 4.4 μm. In an exemplary embodiment, the OPO comprises a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal. The As—S fiber can include any suitable type of optical fiber, such as a conventional core clad fiber, a photonic crystal fiber, or a microstructured fiber.
US07978728B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to re-routing data packets in a communication network according to at least a first version and a second version of a protocol.
US07978718B2
A data structure is stored in a memory of a router, the router located along a path between a source end station and a plurality of destination end stations in a multicast distribution tree. In response to receipt of trace packets containing a listing of network devices in the multicast distribution tree, the data structure is updated. When the source end station desires to send a multicast packet, it transmits a packet to the router. The router then writes the path information stored in the data structure into the packet. Such path information may include a tree list that specifies the arrangement of network devices along the multicast distribution tree and an address list that specifies the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of these network devices along the multicast distribution tree. By storing the complete description of the network devices of the multicast distribution tree in the packet, routing demands on the devices along the multicast path are minimized.
US07978717B2
The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for reducing power consumption in communication networks. In one exemplary embodiment, a system includes a leader node in communication with a plurality of follower nodes. The leader node causes the leader and follower nodes to transition from an awake mode to a sleep mode where they consume less power. An exemplary embodiment of a method includes the steps of configuring nodes in a communication network as follower nodes and configuring a node in the communication network as a leader node. The leader node is configured to cause the leader and follower nodes to alternate between an awake mode and a sleep mode. The leader and follower nodes consume less power when in the sleep mode than when in the awake mode.
US07978716B2
A system, apparatus and a method for implementing a secured communications link at a layer other than that at which packets are filtered are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer system is configured to form a virtual private network (“VPN”) and comprises an address inspection driver to identify initial target packet traffic addressed to a target server. Also, the computer system includes a pseudo server module to receive rerouted initial target packet traffic from the address inspection driver. The pseudo server module is configured to convey packet regeneration instructions to a VPN gateway. The address inspection driver functions to identify additional target packet traffic addressed to the target server and routes the additional target packet traffic to the pseudo server. In one embodiment, the pseudo server is configured to strip header information from the additional target packet traffic to form a payload, and thereafter, to route the payload to the target.
US07978715B2
A network connection device for connecting an asynchronous network having a link aggregation function to a synchronous network comprises: a first mapping/demapping unit which maps asynchronous network frames, flowing from the asynchronous network to the synchronous network on a plurality of links redundantly configured using the link aggregation function, into synchronous network frames, and which demaps asynchronous network frames mapped into synchronous network frames flowing from the synchronous network to the asynchronous network on the plurality of links into synchronous network frames; and a collection/distribution unit which collects the asynchronous network frames, mapped into the synchronous network frames on the plurality of links, into an asynchronous network frame mapped into a synchronous network frame on a single link, and which, in accordance with a prescribed rule, distributes an asynchronous network frame, mapped into a synchronous network frame on the single link and flowing from the synchronous network to the asynchronous network, among the asynchronous network frames mapped into the synchronous network frames on the plurality of links, and supplies the thus mapped asynchronous network frames to the first mapping/demapping unit.
US07978711B2
A system and method are described for broadcasting/multicasting content using surplus network capacity. The systems and methods are directed to solving the problem of how to simultaneously broadcast/multicast large content files to a plurality of users for later retrieval by using existing network capacity as opposed to being forced to add new capacity to handle peak demand. Generally, the methods comprise receiving data to be distributed, determining surplus network capacity, and distributing the data within the surplus network capacity to a plurality of subscriber devices.
US07978693B2
An integrated circuit having a plurality of processing modules (M, S) and an interconnect means (N) for coupling said plurality of processing modules (M, S) and for enabling a packet based communication based on transactions between said plurality of processing modules (M, S) is provided. Each packet comprises a first predetermined number of subsequent words each having a second predetermined number of bits. A first of said plurality of processing modules (M) issues a transaction by sending at least one packet over said interconnect means (N) to a second of said plurality of processing modules (S). The integrated circuit further comprises at least one packet inspecting unit (PIU) for inspecting bits of said at least one packet to determine bits not required for said issued transaction and for matching said not required bits of said at least one inspected packet with other bits of the same packet.
US07978685B1
The present invention provides a system and method for receiving incoming voice telephone calls during a dial up internet session. An incoming telephone call to a telephone line in use for a dial-up internet session may be forwarded to a predetermined telephone number. When the incoming voice telephone call is received at the predetermined telephone number, the internet user may be notified of the incoming telephone call and may be given the option of receiving the incoming call or taking other actions with the incoming call. If the internet user elects to receive the incoming voice telephone call, the incoming voice telephone call is forwarded to the internet user's computer using a protocol for establishing voice telephony over a packet-based network, such as voice over internet protocol.
US07978683B2
The method provides for a first network controller, operating according to a first radio technology, to form and send a relay message to a second network controller, operating according to a different, second radio technology. The relay message includes an embedded message for the second network controller. The embedded message may be a transition message requesting transition of a packet switched call for a mobile station handled by the first network controller to a call for the mobile station handled by the second network controller. The method further provides selection of another wireless element for service at a wireless unit, using a current wireless element. A wireless unit receives a message identifying at least one other wireless element, available to the wireless unit and to which a wireless element currently in communication with the wireless unit is also in communication with and the wireless unit selects another wireless element for possible future service based on the message.
US07978677B2
Methods and apparatus for tunneling packets between remote and serving Access points for delivery to an access terminal (AT) are described. Methods and apparatus for communicating control values and/or information in addition to information to be delivered to an AT over an airlink are also described. An AT uses the received control information to recover communicated packets. Some features support the use of various headers and/or indicators in the headers, e.g., RLP and/or Packet Correlation Protocol (PCP) headers, which may be used to control routing of communicated payloads to an RLP processing module corresponding to an AP which was the source of the communicated payload.
US07978676B2
A radio relay apparatus to periodically transmit a beacon to a radio terminal apparatus, comprises: a control section for generating a beacon including group identification information indicating a group to which a radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs; and a transmission section for transmitting the generated beacon to the radio terminal apparatus.
US07978675B1
A wireless device includes a transmitter that transmits packets including a header field and a data field and a coding module that selectively encodes data of the packets based on one of first and second signal processing modes. The header field of each of the packets comprises a first field that identifies one of the first signal processing mode and the second signal processing mode and a second field that identifies one of a first data length that corresponds to a transmit time period for data corresponding to the first signal processing mode and a second data length that corresponds to the transmit time period plus an extension time period for transmission of dummy data. Data fields of packets that correspond with the first signal processing mode comprise data and data fields of packets that correspond with the second signal processing mode comprise data and the dummy data.
US07978668B2
An apparatus, method, and computer readable medium thereof for simultaneously establishing links with a plurality of nodes in a wireless network are provided. A processing module determines whether a mesh network configuration message of the apparatus has space to packet an information element and determines whether to transmit a Neighbor Link Establishment information element to one of the nodes. If the mesh network configuration message has space to packet an information element and the Neighbor Link Establishment information element needs to be transmitted to one of the nodes, the Neighbor Link Establishment information element will be packeted into the mesh network configuration message. Finally, a transmission module transmits the mesh network configuration message to the nodes in order to solve the problem of increasing time during link establishment and avoid deadlock among the nodes when the apparatus of the prior art establishes links with the nodes simultaneously.
US07978666B2
Network node control is described that includes node wakeup scheduling that reduces the energy consumption of levels of nodes and reduces the delay of information transfer through the network. The node wakeup scheduling includes a crossed ladder pattern that combines two wakeups in one level. The node wakeup scheduling also includes an adaptive version of the crossed ladder pattern that changes the wakeup patterns of the crossed ladder over time to provide uniform energy savings. The network node control also includes the use of multiple trees to transfer information through a network. This multi-parent node assignment assigns multiple parents with different wakeup schedules to each node in the network. This multi-parent assignment reduces the delay in transmission of information through the network and also increases energy efficiency in the nodes.
US07978663B2
The present invention relates to a radio resource control method for controlling a radio resource for transmitting user data via an uplink by a mobile station. A radio base station reports, to a radio network controller, at a predetermined timing, a maximum allowable transmission rate of the user data, which is signaled to the mobile station connected to the radio base station. The radio network controller controls the radio resource based on the reported maximum allowable transmission rate.
US07978643B2
A user terminal of a radio system arranged to operate a frequency band subdivided into one or more carrier bands, each of which carries a cyclic set of consecutive time slot. The user terminal comprises a first receiver part adjustable to a defined carrier band, and a second receiver part adjustable to a defined carrier band; wherein the first and the second receiver parts are separately operable. The user terminal comprises also allocation means for allocating to a radio channel at least a first timeslot and a second timeslot, wherein the first timeslot and the second timeslot may belong to different carrier bands. The first receiver part and the second receiver part are adjusted to the carrier bands of the first timeslot and of the second timeslot according to a predetermined scheme. The invented structure improved data throughput of the transmission by providing improved quality of transmission through diversity and added capacity through the multicarrier operation.
US07978641B2
A method, apparatus for uplinking data is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a plurality of receive antennae, independently directable to a plurality of ground stations, each disposed in one of a plurality of cells; a time domain concentrator, communicatively coupled to the plurality of receive antennae, the time domain concentrator for selectably directing each of the plurality of receive antennae to one or more of the plurality of cells, and for concatenating each of the uplink transmissions in a time domain; and a frequency domain concentrator, communicatively coupled to the time domain concentrator, for concatenating the uplink transmissions in a frequency domain.
US07978621B2
A mobile communication device includes a first wireless transceiver that receives a first inbound RF signal and that transmits a first outbound RF signal based on a first power supply signal. A second wireless transceiver receives a second inbound RF signal and that transmits a second outbound RF signal based on a second power supply signal. A processing module generates at least one power mode signal based on first transmit power control data received via the first inbound RF signal. A power management circuit adjusts a first power consumption parameter of the first power supply signal and a second power consumption parameter of the second power supply signal based on the at least one power mode signal.
US07978620B2
In an example embodiment, a method for dynamically troubleshooting voice quality. The method comprises generating a request to intercept a predetermined data stream on a network, acquiring a replicated copy of the intercepted data stream responsive to the request and analyzing the replicated copy of the intercepted data stream.
US07978618B2
Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems and methods for user interface customization.
US07978615B2
Techniques are provided for operating a network where router devices forward received data packets towards a destination node. Each router maintains a routing table, indicating the next hop to choose in respect of different ultimate destinations m accordance with a routing protocol. Periodic communications between neighboring routers are used as confirmation that they are still able to communicate with one another. Each router compares the time since it last communicated in this way with each of its neighbors with a router dead interval and determines that the respective neighboring router, or the currently designated route thereto, has gone down if the comparison indicates that the router dead interval has elapsed without such a communication having been received. Each router performs an adaptive algorithm to modify the or each corresponding router dead interval dynamically in accordance with one or more properties of the network as measured by the router.
US07978613B2
The degree of degradation imposed on signals transmitted over a communications link from a transmitter to a receiver is tested. A predetermined test signal is transmitted using spare capacity detected by a voice activity detector when no speech is to be transmitted over the communications link. The test signal received by the receiver is compared with the reference signal, and a measure of the degradation of signals caused by the communications link is generated therefrom.
US07978608B2
At least one timer is used to prevent a stall condition. If a timer is not active, the timer is started for a data block that is correctly received. The data block has a sequence number higher than a sequence number of another data block that was first expected to be received. When the timer is stopped or expires, all correctly received data blocks among data blocks up to and including a data block having a sequence number that is immediately before the sequence number of the data block for which the timer was started is delivered to a higher layer. Further, all correctly received data blocks up to a first missing data block, including the data block for which the timer was started, is delivered to the higher layer.
US07978602B2
Techniques are described for dynamically constructing a label switching protocol interface in a network device. For example, the techniques allow dynamic construction of a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) interface. According to some embodiments, upon receiving a network communication from a subscriber, a network device determines whether the subscriber requires support for the label switching protocol. If the subscriber requires such support, the network device creates an interface stack for the subscriber that includes an interface for the label switching protocol. In this way, the network device may route packets from the subscriber across a network of computing devices that use the label switching protocol, and forward packets from such a network to the subscriber. The subscriber and the network device need not communicate according to the label switching protocol and, in example embodiments, instead communicate according to a layer 2 communication protocol.
US07978601B1
The invention comprises a method and apparatus for analyzing a network. Specifically, the method comprises receiving information associated with the network, automatically constructing a network representation using the information, and performing at least one network performance test, wherein the at least one network performance test is performed using at least a portion of the network representation.
US07978579B1
In a circuit, a wobble detector detects a wobble signal from an optical recording medium and a synchronization signal based on the wobble signal and provides a wobble clock signal. A wobble signal phase imperfection detector responds to the wobble signal and detects and corrects a phase transition imperfection in the wobble signal. The imperfection detector integrates a first scaled wobble signal sample over a half period portion of the wobble clock signal; compares the first scaled wobble signal sample integrated over one period of the wobble clock signal to a variable threshold value; and based on the comparison, outputs either the half period integrated and scaled wobble sample or the first scaled wobble sample integrated over one period of the wobble clock signal. The imperfection detector further decodes the output to obtain wobble address period data. In one embodiment, the imperfection detector may include a half period integrator, a comparator, a selector, and a decoder to perform the indicated functions.
US07978576B2
A power adjustment method in which a modulation index is calculated from reproduced signals of patterns recorded by irradiating light onto an optical information recording medium with a recording power varied and an optimum power of irradiation light is set up using the modulation index. The power adjustment method includes calculating an optimum value PcO of a predetermined correction term Pc using a relation of a value obtained by subtracting the predetermined correction term Pc from the recording power and the modulation index, finding a value Pth of the recording power at which the modulation index becomes substantially zero in the relation of the value obtained by subtracting the optimum value PcO from the recording power and the modulation index, and setting up a value obtained by multiplying the value of Pth by a predetermined constant as a recording power of each of the recording patterns.
US07978571B2
A recording apparatus (1) is provided with: a recording device (11) for recording a data pattern onto a recording medium (100); a first controlling device (22) for stopping the recording; a reading device (11) for reading the data pattern which is recorded immediately before the recording is stopped, thereby obtaining a read signal; a measuring device (19) for measuring jitter of the read signal; an adjusting device (21) for adjusting a recording condition such that the jitter satisfies a desired condition, and a second controlling device (22) for restarting the recording of the data pattern by using the adjusted recording condition.
US07978567B2
The present invention provides an optical disc recording and reproducing apparatus having a function of communicating with a noncontact IC. The apparatus includes a chassis, an external antenna arranged for communication with a noncontact IC outside the chassis, an internal antenna arranged for communication with a noncontact IC included in an optical disc loaded in the chassis, a control section performing a search operation of searching for the noncontact IC outside the chassis and the noncontact IC in the optical disc, and a switching section changing conduction state between the external antenna and the control section and that between the internal antenna and the control section under the control of the control section.
US07978559B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of word lines, a plurality of pairs of bit lines and complementary bit lines that cross the word lines, and a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell being disposed at a region where a respective word line and a pair of a bit line and a complementary bit line cross each other. A voltage control unit includes a plurality of elements connected in series between a power voltage source and the memory cells and are switched on/off in response to a control signal that controls an operation of the plurality of memory cells. The voltage control unit controls the voltage of the power voltage source to a predetermined level, thereby obtaining a controlled voltage to be supplied to the memory cells.
US07978554B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of word lines, a plurality of pairs of bit lines and complementary bit lines, and a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell being disposed at a region where a respective word line and a pair of a bit line and a complementary bit line cross each other. A voltage control unit controls a power voltage to obtain a controlled voltage appliable to the memory cells in response to a control signal that controls an operation of the memory cells. At least one dummy cell is disposed between the voltage control unit and the memory cells and is configured to reduce the controlled voltage to a predetermined level.
US07978544B2
Techniques for providing a unified view of a domain model to a user are described herein. In one embodiment, in response to a first search query received from a client via a first search mechanism (e.g., outside of the relational DB) for a list of persistent objects representing data entries of a relational database, it is determined whether the persistent objects have been accessed via a second search query via a second search mechanism based on an object identifier of the persistent object. If the requested persistent object has been accessed via a second search query, an identical instance of the persistent object is returned to the client as a result of the first search query. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US07978541B2
A solid state memory system includes a first memory chip that includes a plurality of storage elements, and a controller. Each of the plurality of storage elements have a measurable parameter that varies between a lower limit and an upper limit. The controller receives write data, converts the write data to N target values, and transmits the N target values to the first memory chip. The first memory chip adjusts corresponding measurable parameters of N storage elements of the plurality of storage elements to the N target values, where N is an integer greater than zero.
US07978539B2
In one embodiment, the semiconductor device includes a non-volatile memory cell array. Memory cells of the non-volatile memory cell array are resistance based, and each memory cell has a resistance that changes over time after data is written into the memory cell. A write address buffer is configured to store write addresses associated with data being written into the non-volatile memory cell array, and a read unit is configured to perform a read operation to read data from the non-volatile memory cell array. The read unit is configured to control a read current applied to the non-volatile memory cell array during the read operation based on whether a read address matches one of the stored write addresses and at least one indication of settling time of the data being written into the non-volatile memory cell array.
US07978538B2
A memory device and memory controller are coupled during driver training to reduce mismatches. The impedances of the system are controlled through a termination at the memory device to yield improvements in timing margins. The coupling of the components on a shared electrical bus through adjustment of the termination values during training removes known offset issues.
US07978530B2
A non-volatile storage system corrects over programmed memory cells by selectively performing one or more erase operations on a subset of non-volatile storage elements that are connected to a common word line (or other type of control line).
US07978524B2
A dummy cell includes a plurality of first memory cells MC for storing “1” or “0”, arranged at points of intersection between a plurality of word lines WR0 to WR7 and a plurality of first data lines D0 to D7, a plurality of first dummy cells MCH for storing “1” or “0”, arranged at points of intersection between the word lines WR0 to WR7 and a first dummy data line, and a plurality of second dummy cells MCL for storing “0”, arranged at points of intersection between the word lines WR0 to WR7 and a second dummy data line DD1.
US07978523B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor memory and a control method therefore, the semiconductor device including a first current-voltage conversion circuit (16) connected to a core cell (12) provided in a nonvolatile memory cell array (10), a second current-voltage conversion circuit (26) connected to a reference cell (22) through a reference cell data line (24), a sense amplifier (18) sensing an output from the first current-voltage conversion circuit and an output from the second current-voltage conversion circuit, a compare circuit (28) comparing a voltage level at the reference cell data line with a predefined voltage level, and a charging circuit (30) charging the reference cell data line, if the voltage level at the reference cell data line is lower than the predefined voltage level during pre-charging the reference cell data line. According to the present invention, the pre-charging period of the reference cell data line can be shortened, and the data read time can be shortened.
US07978522B2
A non-volatile memory device includes a selection transistor coupled to a bit line. The device also includes a plurality of memory cells serially coupled to the selection transistor and at least one dummy cell located between the plurality of memory cells. The dummy cell is turned off during a programming operation of a memory cell located between the dummy cell and the selection transistor.
US07978519B2
A method of reading an NVM cell structure formed on a deep well of N-type semiconductor material, wherein the NVM cell structure includes a PMOS transistor formed in an N-type well, the PMOS transistor including spaced-apart p-type source and drain region defining an n-type cannel region therebetween, an NMOS transistor formed in a P-type well that is adjacent to the N-type well, the NMOS transistor including spaced-apart n-type source and drain regions defining a p-type channel region therebetween, a conductive floating gate that includes a first section that extends over the n-type channel region of the PMOS transistor and is separated therefrom by intervening dielectric material and a second section that extends over the p-type channel region and is separated therefrom by intervening dielectric material, and a conductive control gate formed over at least a portion of the second section of the floating gate and is separated therefrom by intervening dielectric material, the method comprising: biasing the deep N-type well at a preselected read voltage; holding the source region of the PMOS transistor at the read voltage; holding the drain of the PMOS transistor at ground; and holding the control gate at ground for a preselected read time.
US07978514B2
Data storage circuits are connected to the bit lines in a one-to-one correspondence. A write circuit writes the data on a first page into a plurality of first memory cells selected simultaneously by a word line. Thereafter, the write circuit writes the data on a second page into the plurality of first memory cell. Then, the write circuit writes the data on the first and second pages into second memory cells adjoining the first memory cells in the bit line direction.
US07978507B2
A non-volatile storage system includes a substrate, control circuitry on the substrate, a three dimensional memory array (above the substrate) that includes a plurality of memory cells with reversible resistance-switching elements, and circuits to SET and RESET the resistance-switching elements. The circuits that RESET the resistance-switching elements provide a pulse to the memory cells that is large enough in magnitude to SET and RESET the memory cells, and long enough to potentially RESET the memory cell but not long enough to SET the memory cells.
US07978503B2
A dummy memory cell for detection of write completion timing is provided as a replica of a memory cell. When assisting a write operation by power supply control and substrate potential control of the memory cell, the timing of ending the write assist operation is determined by a voltage control circuit based on information about the dummy memory cell. For example, the voltage control circuit performs, in a data write operation in the memory cell, the write assist operation of decreasing the voltage of a source power supply allocated to P-channel MOS load transistors using a pull-down transistor. Thereafter, at the time when completion of the data write operation in the dummy memory cell is detected, the voltage control circuit ends the write assist operation and restores the voltage of the source power supply to the original level using a pull-up transistor.
US07978498B2
A non-volatile storage apparatus includes Y lines, a common X line, multiple storage elements, a dummy element and control circuitry in communication with the common X line and the Y lines. Each element is connected to the common X line and the dummy element is also connected to a particular Y line. The control circuitry provides control signals to the common X line and the Y lines to change a first storage element from a first to a second state by passing a current into the first storage element from the particular Y line through the dummy element. The control circuitry controls the common X line and Y lines to sequentially change additional storage elements from the first to the second state by passing currents into the additional storage elements previously changed to the second state and their associated different Y lines.
US07978494B2
An RFID device sets initial data stored in a memory using an offset voltage and includes an analog block, a digital block, and a memory block. The memory blocks is configured to read/write data in a cell array unit. The memory block includes an offset controller that is configured to set an offset voltage value of a bit line connected to the cell array unit.
US07978492B2
A very high density field programmable memory is disclosed. An array is formed vertically above a substrate using several layers, each layer of which includes vertically fabricated memory cells. The cell in an N level array may be formed with N+1 masking steps plus masking steps needed for contacts. Maximum use of self alignment techniques minimizes photolithographic limitations. In one embodiment the peripheral circuits are formed in a silicon substrate and an N level array is fabricated above the substrate.
US07978486B2
A rectifier circuit includes an input terminal that receives an alternating-current signal, a first rectifier circuit that generates a first direct-current voltage from the alternating-current signal, a bias-voltage generating circuit that generates a bias voltage from the first direct-current voltage, and a second rectifier circuit that generates a second direct-current voltage from the alternating-current signal biased with the bias voltage.
US07978467B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a key sheet and the like which can suppress local elevation of temperature, and effectively diffuse heat loss from electronic circuits. The key sheet includes: a viscoelastic sheet 16b having a viscoelastic property, and having a first surface and a second surface; a button section 16a located on the side of the first surface of the viscoelastic sheet 16b; a thermally-conductive sheet 14 located along the first surface or the second surface of the viscoelastic sheet 16b, the thermally-conductive sheet 14 having a thermal conductivity equal to a specific value; and a contact section 16d projected from the second surface of the viscoelastic sheet 16b, the contact section occupies a position corresponding to the button section 16a.
US07978464B2
Disclosed are improvements to a two panel computer meant to be mounted to a bag front of a matching bag. The computer has a display panel and body panel pivotally attached with the display fixed to the side of the display panel facing away from the body panel. The hinge is adapted to create a gap between the panels to allow the bag's computer holder to fit between the panels. This gap may be formed by; 1) providing a extension between the body and hinge, 2) using a large diameter hinge with a portion of the diameter creating the extension, 3) providing a extension between the hinge and the display panel.
US07978459B2
To provide an electrical junction box that has a simple construction and an improved waterproof capability. An electrical junction box 10 comprises a circuit casing 30 and a circuit board 20 contained in the circuit casing. The circuit casing includes two cover bodies 31 and 51, which are opposite each other and include base plate sections 32 and 52 and peripheral walls 41 and 61 provided on the base plate sections. Portions of the peripheral walls 41 and 61 are cut off to define drainage apertures 45 and 65, which is oriented downwards. Bus bars B to be electrically connected to electrical conductive paths on the circuit board 20 are insert-molded in connectors 110 to 160 and arranged downward. Contacting portion K between the peripheral walls 41 and 61 is sealed through the entire periphery with the exception of the drainage aperture 45.
US07978456B2
The present invention provides several scalable integrated circuit high density capacitors and their layout techniques. The capacitors are scaled, for example, by varying the number of metal layers and/or the area of the metal layers used to from the capacitors. The capacitors use different metallization patterns to form the metal layers, and different via patterns to couple adjacent metal layers. In embodiments, optional shields are included as the top-most and/or bottom-most layers of the capacitors, and/or as side shields, to reduce unwanted parasitic capacitance.
US07978454B1
An electrostatic discharge protection circuit (ESD protection circuit) provides ESD protection to all NMOS/PMOS transistors that are connected to the pins of a CMOS integrated circuit (IC). The ESD protection circuit will protect the CMOS IC against an ESD event, regardless of whether the CMOS IC is powered up, or powered down.
US07978449B2
An integrated electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuitry for a signal electrode. Coupled in shunt between the signal electrode and the positive and negative power supply electrodes are opposing sets of multiple diodes coupled in series. Each set includes a diode across which is applied a nominal reverse bias voltage. These opposing reverse bias voltages are maintained at substantially constant predetermined nominal magnitudes in relation to the voltage at the signal electrode, thereby ensuring minimal leakage current via the signal electrode over the full dynamic range of the signal.
US07978438B2
A thin-film magnetic head provided with at least one MR read head element includes a lower shield layer, an upper shield layer, and an MR layer formed between the lower shield layer and the upper shield layer. A profile of the upper shield layer, appeared at an ABS, has obtuse or rounded upper corners at end edges of the upper shield layer along a track-width direction.
US07978437B2
A tolerance ring configured to improve mass eccentricity of an actuator arm assembly. The tolerance ring has a cylinder with a predetermined length between two ends, with a gap along the predetermined length of the cylinder, the gap having a first and a second edge, the cylinder having an aperture in the surface of the cylinder at the second edge.
US07978422B2
An incident-light controlling apparatus has a first aperture in a substrate, a diaphragm blade which rotates around an axis, and controls light passing through the first aperture, by the diaphragm blade rotating alternately between a first stationary position coinciding with the first aperture, and a second stationary position retracted from the first aperture, a permanent magnet joined directly to the diaphragm blade, at a position of the axis of rotation of the diaphragm blade, and magnetized in a direction of a plane of rotation of the diaphragm blade, and a pair of coils having a winding around cores disposed such that an end portion of each coil faces the magnet. The diaphragm blade rotated alternately between the first and second stationary positions due to an interaction between a generated magnetic field upon passing an electric power, and a magnetic field generated due to the magnet.
US07978421B2
Disclosed is a camera module with a hinge spring which can stably support a lens barrel which is driven in a vertical direction for automatic focusing and which is made of lightweight resin, the camera module including a cylindrical lens barrel with lenses disposed therein for collecting images of external objects, a housing encasing the lens barrel in a manner such that the lens barrel vertically moves in an optical axis direction of the lenses, an automatic focusing actuator installed in the housing to cause linear motion of the lens barrel in the optical axis direction, and a ring-shaped hinge spring extrusion-molded using resin having elasticity to support an upper portion of the lens barrel and guide the linear motion of the lens barrel.
US07978415B2
An observation device includes at least one day vision channel, an information channel with a graphic electronic display for producing a display image and a combination optical system for combining the day vision channel and the information channel, so that a combined overall image forms.
US07978405B2
A microscope system (10, 10′, 10″, 10′″) includes a laser (18) or light emitting diode (18′″) that generates source light having a non-uniform spatial distribution. An optical system includes an objective (40) defining a field of view, and an optical train (22, 22′, 22″, 22′″) configured to convert the source light into an enlarged-diameter collimated light, to spatially homogenize the enlarged-diameter collimated light, and to couple the homogenized enlarged-diameter collimated light into the objective to provide substantially uniform static illumination of the field of view. A camera system (56) is statically optically coupled by the objective with at least most of the field of view.
US07978400B2
An electro-wetting apparatus includes a liquid having conductivity or polarity and a first electrode and a second electrode that apply voltage to the liquid. The electro-wetting apparatus also includes a dielectric layer provided between the liquid and the first electrode. The electro-wetting apparatus further includes a voltage-applying unit that applies a voltage signal between the first electrode and the second electrode, where the voltage signal is periodically changed between a first voltage of zero (0) volt or more and a second voltage of larger than the first voltage.
US07978399B2
A constitution of the display device of the invention is shown in the following. The display device includes a pixel unit including TFTs of which the active layer contains an organic semiconductor material for forming channel portions in the opening portions in an insulating layer arranged to meet the gale electrodes. The pixel unit further includes a contrast media foamed on the electrodes connected to the TFTs for changing the reflectivity upon the application of an electric field, or microcapsules containing electrically charged particles that change the reflectivity upon the application of an electric field. The pixel unit is sandwiched by plastic substrates, and barrier layers including an inorganic insulating material are provided between the plastic substrates and the pixel unit. The purpose of the present invention is to supply display devices which are excellent in productivity, light in weight and flexible.
US07978397B2
In an information display panel, in which display media are sealed between a transparent front substrate and a rear substrate, and, in which the display media, to which an electrostatic field is applied from electrodes arranged respectively to the front substrate and the rear substrate, are made to move so as to display information such as an image, the rear substrate is constituted by a flexible material, and a metal electrode is formed on the rear substrate by a patterning process using a vapor deposition and a sputtering or a metal electrode is formed on the rear substrate by effecting a patterning process to a metal film formed by a vapor deposition or a sputtering. In this manner, it is possible to obtain an information display panel, which can improve a flexibility of the rear substrate with the electrode by an inexpensive cost, achieve an easy handling of the substrate and decrease a panel breakage due to a detachment of two substrates.
US07978391B2
A liquid crystal cell including a first substrate having a first surface; a second substrate having a second surface, wherein the second surface of the second substrate is opposite and spaced apart from the first surface of the first substrate so as to define a region; and within the region defined by the first surface and the second surface, a liquid crystal material adapted to be at least partially ordered and at least one thermally reversible photochromic-dichroic compound adapted to be at least partially aligned and having an average absorption ratio greater than 2.3 in an activated state.
US07978384B2
A construction is achieved at low cost which reduces the loss of gradation in a dark portion of an image that has been subjected to gamma correction in accordance with characteristics of a display. In an image reading apparatus, to make it possible to more finely reproduce the gradation in the dark portion, the number of gradations expressed by an signal obtained by a CCD is reduced by performing non-linear gamma correction using a gamma coefficient below one, and the resulting signal is transferred to a computer serving as a host computer. In the computer, the transferred signal is subjected to gamma correction using a gamma coefficient that is an inverse of the gamma coefficient used in the image reading apparatus, thereby canceling out the influence of the gamma correction performed in the image reading apparatus.
US07978373B2
A neighboring vector, which is a boundary portion between two overlapping objects, is extracted. To calculate luminance levels of the objects on both sides of the neighboring vector, a predetermined number of coordinate points (sample points) in the vicinity of the neighboring vector are extracted at least from the image side. A rendering process is performed on an area including all the extracted sample points to acquire color values at the sample points. The luminance level of the image is calculated based on the acquired color values, and the luminance levels of the objects on both sides of the neighboring vector are compared to each other to determine the position (direction) in which to generate a trap graphic.
US07978365B2
A document type discriminating apparatus is provided in which discrimination as to whether or not a document is a duplicate is made with high degree of accuracy. The document type discriminating apparatus includes means for discriminating whether a type of a screen pattern used in an image captured by reading a document is a line screen, means for detecting whether a value indicating a change in a period of the screen used in the image exceeds a predetermined value, means for detecting whether a value indicating sharpness of an edge seen in the image is lower than a predetermined value, means for detecting whether a value indicating a blur in an edge color seen in the image exceeds a predetermined value, and means for discriminating that the document is a duplicate when at least two out of the four detection results mentioned above are true.
US07978363B2
There is provided a printing apparatus including: an image creating device which creates a plurality of two-dimensional code images; an interval setting device which sets an interval between the plurality of two-dimensional code images; and a printing device which prints the plurality of two-dimensional code images having the interval set therebetween by the interval setting device.
US07978361B2
An automatic archiving system that makes document archiving largely transparent to the user. In one embodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of office equipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an office local area network (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a fax machine, and a document management workstation. Whenever, a document is copied, printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by the document management workstation without further user intervention. A single user command results in the document being copied and archived, printed and archived, Of faxed and archived.
US07978359B2
In an image processing device control system, a function that a predetermined image processing device operated by the user cannot execute is executable by a substitute device, the user can input to the predetermined image processing device setting information regarding the function; and a control device includes: a multifunction device specifying section specifying a multifunction device having the function to the user-operated multifunction device; a UI control section sending to the user-operated multifunction device, data of the setting screen of the function; and a device control section which receives from the user-operated multifunction device the setting information of the function, and sends, to the multifunction device specified by the multifunction device specifying section, the setting information and a control instruction which instructs the execution of the function.
US07978357B2
In accordance with the invention, it has been determined that the bandwidth, guaranteed periodic delivery and error correction characteristics of a USB High-Speed Interrupt OUT pipe of the USB 2.0 standard enable the Interrupt OUT pipe to be used to transfer print data from the host computer to the printer. By using the Interrupt OUT pipe for this purpose, it is no longer necessary to store an entire rasterized page in the formatter memory of the printer before commencing printing of the page. Consequently, the size of the formatter memory device can be relatively small compared to the size of the formatter memory device that is currently used to store an entire rasterized page. Alternatively, the same size memory device as that currently used to store an entire rasterized page may be used to enable higher resolution pages to be printed.
US07978356B2
A remote proofing system (10) on an information network (400) includes a networked controller (20) configured to be a master proofing controller and at least one remote proof printer (30, 90, 300, 310, 320, 330). The master proofing controller monitors at least one monitored information folder (13) maintained on the information network, associating a set of associated printer instructions (15) with the at least one monitored information folder, and instructing the at least one remote proof printer to print according to the set of associated printer instructions the contents of a proof printing file set when the proof printing file set is deposited in the at least one monitored information folder. Further embodiments of the remote proofing system allow for performing print proofing through an information firewall (800) via layered authorization from the operator of the remote proof printer; and multiple and partially overlapping remote proofing systems on the same information network.
US07978352B2
When data is output from an archive-function incompatible driver to an archive-function incompatible device, that data is omitted from those to be archived. To this end, an image outputting apparatus of this invention determines whether or not received data has already been archived. When it is determined that the received data has already been archived, an image is outputted based on that received data. When it is determined that the received data has not been archived yet, image outputting of the received data is inhibited. Furthermore, the image outputting apparatus instructs a PC that transmitted the data to install an archive-function compatible driver.
US07978350B2
A method for use in reproducing pages from at least one document. The method includes, in a document processing device, determining an identity of the at least one document, and scanning at least some of the pages of the at least one document. The document processing device then displays a representation of a number of the scanned pages to allow selection of at least some of the scanned pages for reproduction and controls the selection of pages for reproduction at least in part using a rule indicative of copyright that is determined based on the identity.
US07978342B2
Methods for measuring expansion of a test sample. One method includes establishing a diffraction slit between two blades, with the position of at least one of the blades being dependent upon the length of a test sample of material. As the temperature of the sample changes, the width of the slit changes. Light is projected through the slit onto a target and an diffraction pattern is measured. Changes in the light diffraction pattern correspond to the thermal expansion of the sample. Another method includes establishing a diffraction slit between two blades, with the position of at least one of the blades being dependent upon a length along a test sample of material. As a load is applied to the test sample, the width of the slit changes. Changes in the light diffraction pattern correspond to Young's Modulus for the sample.
US07978341B2
A multi-channel laser interferometric method and apparatus are provided for optically measuring transient motion from a surface (17). A laser beam (11) is generated and then divided into first and second beams having respective intensities representing minor and major fraction of the predetermined laser intensity. The reference beam (18) illuminates the surface (17) at which deformation is expected. The light back-scattered by the surface is collected by a single aperture lens (15) and then made to interfere with the probe beam (67) which has been expanded (32), onto a two-dimensional array of detectors (71). Each signal (83) corresponding to each detector of the array is converted individually to an electrical signal, each electrical signal is amplified and processed (84), and the plurality of processed signals (85) is then averaged in an electrical summing means (45).
US07978335B2
In optical tomography measurement using light, the wavelength of which is periodically swept, interference light between reflection light and reference light is split into first interference light and second interference light by a light splitting means. The optical path length of the first interference light and that of the second interference light are adjusted by an interference-light optical path length adjustment means so that they become the same. Further, balanced detection is performed on the first interference light and the second interference light by an interference light detection means.
US07978333B2
A sensor which comprises a support medium and a hologram disposed therein, wherein an optical characteristic of the medium varies as a result of a change of a property of the medium, and wherein the medium is heterogeneous such that the change of property is heterogeneous.
US07978325B2
A light amount is increased and an analyzing accuracy can be kept in accordance with an enlargement of a load angle, however, a scattered light tends to be loaded in an analysis accompanying the scattered light and a dynamic range of a concentration which can be measured becomes narrow. A light is dispersed by a light dispersing portion, a load angle of the received light is changed per wavelength, the load angle is made larger in the light of a wavelength having a small light amount, and the load angle is made smaller in the light a wavelength having a large light amount and used for an analysis accompanying a scattered light. Accordingly, it is possible to gain a dynamic range of a concentration which can be measured in the analysis accompanying the scattered light, while increasing the light amount and maintaining the analyzing accuracy.
US07978323B2
Pixel intensities indicative of scattered radiation from portions of the inspected surface surrounding a location of a potential anomaly are also stored so that such data is available for quick review of the pixel intensities within a patch on the surface containing the location of the potential anomaly. Where rotational motion is caused between the illumination beam and the inspected surface, signal-to-noise ratio may be improved by comparing the pixel intensities of pixels at corresponding positions on two different surfaces that are inspected, where corresponding pixels at the same relative locations on the two different surfaces are illuminated and scattered radiation therefrom collected and detected under the same optical conditions.
US07978321B2
Methods and devices for angle determination, and retroreflecting foils are presented. A retroreflecting foil (1) is arranged at a surface, an angle of which is going to be determined. The retroreflecting foil has a lens surface with a plurality of spherical microlenses (4) and a reflecting surface with a plurality of spherical mirrors (5) of a second main radius of curvature. The lens surface of the retroreflecting foil is illuminated, and transitions between darkness and light in radiation reflected from the retroreflecting foil, either upon changing a relative angle between the retroreflecting foil and the illuminating light or spatial transitions over the surface of the retroreflecting foil, are observed. An angle measure associated with the transitions is determined. The spherical mirrors present preferably at least one inner point (22) of a spherical mirror surface at which reflection according to the second main radius of curvature is prohibited.
US07978309B2
A clamping apparatus capable of fixing a roll film is disclosed. The clamping apparatus includes: a carrier comprising a slot; a cover positioned in the slot; and a cannelure formed between the cover and the carrier, for guiding the film inserted from the first film door to a predetermined position. The cover includes: an upper ramp, positioned on one side of the cannelure opening, for guiding the film from the first film door to the cannelure opening, wherein a first edge of the upper ramp is near the cannelure opening, and a second edge of the upper ramp is away from the slot opening and inclines to the first edge of the upper ramp.
US07978308B2
A lithographic apparatus arranged to transfer a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate is disclosed, the apparatus including a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate, a first clamping system configured to clamp the substrate table to a substrate table support structure, and a second clamping system configured to clamp a substrate to the substrate table after the substrate table has been clamped to the substrate table support structure.
US07978297B2
An electro-optical device includes: a substrate; a plurality of wiring lines which is formed on the substrate; and an IC which is mounted on the substrate so as to be electrically connected to the plurality of wiring lines. At least a pair of wiring lines among the plurality of wiring lines include a first conductive layer formed on the substrate and a second conductive layer formed on at least the first conductive layer. The first conductive layer and the second conductive layer have different resistance values. The first conductive layer of one of the pair of wiring lines has a plurality of first resistors each extending toward the other wiring line, and the second conductive layer of the other wiring line has a second resistor extending toward the one wiring line. The plurality of first resistors is connected to the second resistor.
US07978288B2
A display device including a substrate, a driving element, a reflective layer and a first auxiliary layer is provided. The substrate has a first area and a second area. The driving element is placed within the first area. The reflective layer is placed above the first area and at least a portion of the second area and coupled to the driving element. The first auxiliary layer is placed on the reflective layer above the first area. The first auxiliary layer improves the electrical characteristic of the reflective layer. A reflectance of the first auxiliary layer is not larger than a reflectance of the reflective layer.
US07978283B2
A shielding structure of thin type monitor device, includes: a monitor body; a first shielding box which is arranged in the monitor body, which is formed by cutting and bending a metal plate, which includes a flat plate portion having rectangular shape, and a terminal supporting portion which is formed by bending one end portion of the flat plate portion, into which a terminal is passed through, and which is fixed on a metal plate in the monitor body that is grounded; a terminal holder which includes a terminal hole which contacts with an opposite side of the terminal supporting portion with respect to the flat plate portion, through which the terminal is passed, and which forms a part of case of the monitor body; and a second shielding box which is formed by cutting and bending a metal plate, which includes a protecting portion that has a rectangular shape, that is arranged such that it contacts with the terminal supporting portion and that is made be parallel with the flat plate portion, and a standing portion which is formed by bending three sides in the protecting portion that do not contact with the terminal supporting portion and which is made contact with the flat plate portion.
US07978274B2
An object of the invention is to provide a circuit technique which enables reduction in power consumption and high definition of a display device. A switch controlled by a start signal is provided to a gate electrode of a transistor, which is connected to a gate electrode of a bootstrap transistor. When the start signal is input, a potential is supplied to the gate electrode of the transistor through the switch, and the transistor is turned off. The transistor is turned off, so that leakage of a charge from the gate electrode of the bootstrap transistor can be prevented. Accordingly, time for storing a charge in the gate electrode of the bootstrap transistor can be shortened, and high-speed operation can be performed.
US07978270B2
A liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, a third electrode, an isolating layer, and a conductor. The first electrode is disposed between the first substrate and the isolating layer, on which the conductor is disposed. Each of the second and third electrodes is disposed on the second substrate and includes a contact surface. The second and third electrodes are not in contact with each other and are separated by a gap. The conductor is disposed in accordance with the location of the gap.
US07978269B2
A portable television-broadcast reception unit is provided which is capable of changing the direction of a directional antenna easily to a direction where an enough quality to watch television can be obtained. In this unit: a television-broadcast reception section 20 receives a broadcast wave using a directional antenna 10; a direction measurement section 60 measures the direction of the directional antenna 10; an electric-field strength measurement section 70 measures the electric-field strength value of the received broadcast wave; a storage section 30 stores an electric-field strength management table which includes the direction measured by the direction measurement section 60 and the electric-field strength value measured by the electric-field strength measurement section 70; a control section 40 controls the measurement of the direction and the measurement of the electric-field strength, updates the electric-field strength management table and selects the direction where the maximum electric-field strength value can be obtained; an image-turn processing section 80 turns the received image so that the upper part of the image is oriented to the direction where the maximum electric-field strength value can be obtained; and a display section 50 displays the turned image.
US07978267B2
A broadcasting receiver, broadcasting transmitter, broadcasting system and a control method are provided. The broadcasting receiver includes a broadcasting reception unit which receives caption data including information on an edge shape of a caption window and caption text to be displayed in the caption window, and a caption processor which processes the received caption data, determines the edge shape of the caption window corresponding to the caption data, and generates the caption window and the caption text according to the edge shape and the caption text. Accordingly, the edge shapes of the caption windows in which the caption text is displayed can be expressed in various forms.
US07978258B2
The invention relates to a system for automatically adjusting an exposure time to improve or otherwise optimize a dynamic range of a digital image. The system includes a camera configured to capture an image of a subject within the field of view at a first exposure time. The captured image is composed of multiple pixels, with each pixel having a respective intensity value. The system further includes a shutter or suitable control configured to control an exposure time of the camera. A controller configured to carryout the following steps including: (a) querying a frequency distribution of pixel intensity values; (b) determining an effective “center of mass” of such a distribution, or histogram, to determine an adjusted exposure time; and (c) capturing a second image of the subject at the adjusted exposure time thereby obtaining an image with an improved or optimal dynamic range.
US07978244B2
An image sensor is disclosed. The image sensor includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix which detects a pixel signal of each pixel based on a voltage difference between a reset voltage which is a reference voltage of each pixel and a signal voltage generated by a photoelectric conversion at each pixel, and includes a plurality of read lines located for each pixel column, wherein the reset voltage and the signal voltage are read from the pixel of the corresponding pixel column; and a reset current supply section provided for each read line, wherein at the same time a first reset current is supplied from a pixel to the read line when reading the reset voltage from the pixel, the section supplies a second reset current to the read line such that a sum of the first reset current and the second reset current is constant.
US07978236B2
An image-capturing device includes: an image-capturing unit that captures a subject image formed via a photographic optical system; a display unit that displays a through image of the subject image captured by the image-capturing unit; an enlargement area setting unit that sets a position of an enlargement area in the through image of the subject image to be displayed in an enlargement at the display unit; and a display control unit that enlarges the subject image corresponding to the enlargement area set by the enlargement area setting unit and brings up the enlarged subject image on display at the display unit, and in response to a change instruction for changing the position of the enlargement area issued by the enlargement area setting unit while the enlarged subject image is on display, the display control unit shifts the enlargement area by sustaining a state of enlarged display of the subject image and displays the subject image corresponding to the shifted enlargement area at the display unit.
US07978232B1
A camera includes a feature that associates meaningful information with a photograph to indicate where the photograph was taken. The camera includes equipment that determines a physical position associated with an image. An application uses geographic data to determine a municipality, or other administrative or governmental area, in which the physical position is located and associates data indicating the municipality, or other administrative or governmental area, with the image.
US07978224B2
Capturing motion including: a clock configured to generate a time reference; a plurality of motion capture cameras substantially synchronized to the time reference; at least one device used in motion capture; a multicast module configured to receive the time reference, and to transmit a multicast signal, wherein the multicast signal includes information derived from the time reference to configure the at least one device to operate synchronously with the plurality of motion capture cameras; and an integration module configured to integrate device data generated by the at least one device with camera data generated by the plurality of motion capture cameras.
US07978223B2
A method for suppression of image blur is applied to an image capturing apparatus in a photography mode whose exposure time is set to be greater than a safe exposure time. The method comprising the following steps: capturing a long exposure image with the present exposure time, and a short exposure image with an exposure time smaller than or equal to the safe exposure time in the same landscape. Besides, obtain a locus signal in the process of long exposure image capture. Afterwards, execute an arithmetic procedure to smooth the short exposure image, and then produce a point scale image using the auxiliary arithmetic of locus signal. Finally, process the long exposure image and the point scale image with multiplication arithmetic to restore the long exposure image, thus forming an output image.
US07978222B2
An image capture device includes a frame buffer, a processor, a shutter, an actuator, a three-axis optical motion sensor and an image sensor. The image sensor defines an optical axis. The three-axis optical motion sensor provides information concerning rotational movement of the camera about each of a roll axis, a yaw axis and a pitch axis. The roll axis is parallel to the optical axis. The yaw axis and the pitch axis are orthogonal to one another and orthogonal to the roll axis. The actuator rotates the image sensor in response to the rotational movement of the device about the optical axis. The processor generates first and second offsets responsive to the rotational motion about the yaw axis and the pitch axis. The processor shifts each line of image information in a frame in accordance with the first and second offsets.
US07978218B2
Video processing arrangement including a host computer having a monitor, a video asset coupled to the computer for generating video signals and an interface for connecting the video asset to the computer to enable the display of video signals on the monitor. The video asset includes various primary elements including a primary composite video module for producing different types of a primary video signal and outputting the primary video signal via output channels, a stroke generator module for generating a stroke XYZ video signal and outputting the stroke video signal via output channels and a real time capture module for capturing video signals in a plurality of different modes. The video asset also includes a common distributed time base module for generating and distributing clock signals to all of the primary elements.
US07978211B2
In a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a plurality of pixels is driven to display a first frame and a second frame in sequence. A gray-scale difference between the first frame and the second frame is detected to determine a driving mode variation between the first frame and the second frame. The number of pixels driven by a dynamic mode and a static mode in the second frame is adjusted according to the driving mode variation. Gray-scale data corresponding to the pixels in the second frame is output.
US07978210B2
In one or more implementations, a cropped image is defined within a boundary on an original image displayed on a display. The original image is distorted to give an appearance of a lens being applied to the original image displayed on the display, the appearance of the lens including a focal region and a base region. A graphical user interface (“GUI”) is displayed on the display for adjusting the appearance of the lens.
US07978201B2
A method for compensating an image produced by image means for implementing image information takes account of ambient illumination. Luminance of external background illumination around the image means is measured. The measured luminance of the background illumination is compared with preset tristimulus values and a reflectance factor of the image means, a comparison result is computed, and a control signal is generated to compensate luminance and chroma of an image. Luminance and chroma of the image means are compensated in response to the control signal.
US07978200B1
Stochastic dithering may be used to reduce the size of the frame buffer and the complexity of the D/A Converters (DACs) in the drive circuitry that are used in a video display system. Hardware for stochastic dithering can be simplified when pixel data is presented in raster order. The hardware adds algebraic noise to the image to be dithered, and thresholds the result.
US07978199B2
A method and apparatus for managing memory usage for three-dimensional computer graphics systems are provided. A scene which is textured and shaded in the system is divided into a plurality of rectangular areas, each including a plurality of picture elements in the scene. For each rectangular area a list of objects which may be visible in the scene is derived. Objects which do not contribute to the final textured and shaded scene are then removed from each list and the rectangular area is then textured and shaded using reduced lists of objects.
US07978197B2
Systems and methods for downloading algorithmic elements to a coprocessor and corresponding processing and communication techniques are provided. For an improved graphics pipeline, the invention provides a class of co-processing device, such as a graphics processor unit (GPU), providing improved capabilities for an abstract or virtual machine for performing graphics calculations and rendering. The invention allows for runtime-predicated flow control of programs downloaded to coprocessors, enables coprocessors to include indexable arrays of on-chip storage elements that are readable and writable during execution of programs, provides native support for textures and texture maps and corresponding operations in a vertex shader, provides frequency division of vertex streams input to a vertex shader with optional support for a stream modulo value, provides a register storage element on a pixel shader and associated interfaces for storage associated with representing the “face” of a pixel, provides vertex shaders and pixel shaders with more on-chip register storage and the ability to receive larger programs than any existing vertex or pixel shaders and provides 32 bit float number support in both vertex and pixel shaders.
US07978195B2
A method is disclosed for displaying a plurality of statistical data usually presented in a histogram, such as sample counts and percentages of a collection of categorized samples, in a compact single table. The method comprises presenting grouped statistical data that exists within a collection of “buckets” and presenting the sample count for the collected data as an integer in a corresponding cell in the table. Additionally, as disclosed by the present invention, the percentage value of the samples located in each bucket data cell is represented in the data cell as a superimposed gray-scale representation. Presenting the percentages in gray-scale provides overall clarity to the table, assists in ensuring that data can be quickly and easily interpreted and not be subject to misinterpretation, and further allows for the compact display of such information in a single table and subsequent manipulation by automated analysis tools.
US07978192B2
A method of sight distance analysis comprising: acquiring a scene-graph representation comprising three dimensional entities; acquiring at least one three dimensional object representation within the scene graph environment; acquiring a target object representation; selecting at least one camera position; positioning the acquired target object representation in the scene graph representation at a distance from the selected at least one camera position; and determining a visibility factor for the positioned target object representation.
US07978188B2
A data driving circuit including n channels, where n is an integer, the data driving circuit including a shift register unit receiving data during a first input period and a second input period, the shift register unit shifting and outputting the received data, a first latch unit receiving the data input during the first input period from the shift register unit, and simultaneously or substantially simultaneously outputting the data corresponding to the first input period, and a second latch unit receiving the data input during the second input period from the shift register unit, and simultaneously or substantially simultaneously outputting the data corresponding to the second input period.
US07978186B2
Mechanisms for a control knob or other interface device providing additional degrees of freedom for the knob. One embodiment provides a rotatable knob moveable also in lateral plane approximately perpendicular to the axis of rotation. A mechanism providing the lateral motion can include agate member and a plunger member that engages grooves in the gate member. A rotational sensor detects a rotational position and a lateral sensor can detect a lateral position of the knob. Another embodiment provides an actuator that includes a shaft that is coaxial with the axis of rotation and which can be moved linearly along the axis of rotation with respect to actuator housing to accommodate linear motion of the knob. In another embodiment, a gear assembly including two interlocked gears is provided to transmit rotational motion from the knob to the sensor, and the interlocked gears translate with respect to each other when the knob is translate along the rotational axis.
US07978185B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for creating virtual replicas of physical objects. A computer system detects that a portion of a physical object has come into the physical vicinity of a portion of a multi-touch input display surface. The computer system accesses object identifying data corresponding to the object. The computer system uses the object identifying data to access image data for the object from a repository of stored image data. The computer system uses the at least the accessed image data to generate a virtual replica of the object. The computer system presents the virtual replica of the object at a location on the multi-touch input display surface where the portion of the object was detected.
US07978183B2
A haptic feedback planar touch control used to provide input to a computer. A touch input device includes a planar touch surface that inputs a position signal to a processor of the computer based on a location of user contact on the touch surface. The computer can position a cursor in a displayed graphical environment based at least in part on the position signal, or perform a different function. At least one actuator is also coupled to the touch input device and outputs a force to provide a haptic sensation to the user contacting the touch surface. The touch input device can be a touchpad separate from the computer's display screen, or can be a touch screen. Output haptic sensations on the touch input device can include pulses, vibrations, and spatial textures. The touch input device can include multiple different regions to control different computer functions.
US07978180B2
An apparatus for and method of providing haptics of an image displayed through an image unit. The apparatus includes: a touch unit checking whether a user has touched a portion of the displayed image, and searching for a position of the portion when the user touches the portion; and a magnetic force changing unit changing magnetic forces in response to haptic information corresponding to the position and expressing the changed magnetic forces through the image unit. The haptics of the portion are provided through the change of the expressed magnetic forces.
